What are the rules?

The complete rules for 2012 are attached to this post in pdf format. Please review them carefully, though you need not study rules which are specific to categories you are not entering.

Who can enter?

Anyone, from anywhere in the world. You need not be a member. However, the farther away you are, the more difficult it may be to award any prizes. It may help to be present on the afternoon of Sunday April 22, as you will then be able to act on prize options more directly.

Chances of winning are good, as entry numbers are often limited. As entry numbers grow, it can be expected that the numbers of subsidiary prizes will be increased. Enter soon: delayed entry means that prizes may be scaled back and thus unavailable.

What can I enter?

Essentially, anything related to reptiles, crocodilians, turtles, amphibians, and terrestrial 'bugs' may be entered. Other than live animals, entries must be your personal work and efforts. The seven entry categories are:

Commercial - tables booked for the purpose of selling wares or advertising a business are automatically treated as commercial entries at no charge. This category may or may not be in use, depending on ability to fairly judge and award.
Live animals - any single live animal which is a terrestrial 'bug', reptile, amphibian, turtle, or crocodilian, and which is legal and safe to display.
Youth (terraria, education, photography, and creative; entrant is under 15)
Student (terraria, education, photography, and creative; entrant is 15 to 25 and is attending school)
Terraria - caging which is decorated, landscaped, and planted in a naturalistic manner.
Education - any entry which is designed to inform or teach, including such things as writings, videos, multi-media displays, posters, oral presentations, etc.
Photography - any single photo of a terrestrial 'bug', reptile, amphibian, turtle, crocodilian, or their respective habitats. Photos may be cropped or color-corrected, but should otherwise be unaltered.

Photos may be presented by digital display, but entrant must provide a display dedicated to the photo entered!

Printed photos should NOT be framed, but should be mounted on cardboard, coroplast, or other lightweight and firm backing. We do not have the means to hang heavy or framed images, and there is nowhere to display easels safely! Do not send me digital images to print, as I cannot fairly offer this to everyone, and I cannot afford it!

Creative Herpetology - any entry which does not qualify for another category, and which is the creative work of the entrant. This typically includes sculpture, drawing, painting, photo collages, etc. It also includes caging not intended to replicate a natural environment.

What are the subcategories?

There are a great many, which are impractical to list here. Most do not come into play until three entries are made within the given grouping. These subcategories exist in order to allow all possible entries anywhere these competitons may be held, even if there are thousands of entries or the competition is limited to only certain groups. If you want further details, please contact me directly at .

What's the difference for 'youth' or 'student'?

Entries in these categories are age-restricted and do not include commercial or live animal entries. Fees are also lower or free than for similar 'open' entries. Students must be enrolled in a program of schooling.

If you are under 15, you may enter any category except “student”. If you wish to enter creative, photo, terraria, or education, you may either do so in those categories with their fees, or you may do so via “youth”. All youth entries compete for a single prize among persons of similar ages. In youth, art competes against photos, educational, creative, and terraria. Open categories compete only within the entry type, but against all ages.

If you are 15-25, AND you are a student, you may enter any category except 'youth'. As for youth, “student” competition is for a single prize among persons of a similar age but different entry types.

Anyone may enter open categories. Open categories compete against similar entry types, regardless of the entrant's age or student status.

So you have to pick - do you wish to compete only against people your age, or against people with similar skills?

What does it cost?

Fees are per-entry. For the 2012 TARAS competitions, they are:

Commercial - no charge. Entry is made by booking Expo tables for commercial purposes.
Live animals - $2.00 each.
Youth - no charge.
Student - $2.00 each for terraria; no charge for education, photography, or creative.
Terraria - $5.00 each.
Education - No charge for booked display-only tables or for submissions for TARAS publication. $2.00 each for all other entries.
Photography - $2.00 each.
Creative Herpetology - $2.00 each.

Why are there different costs?

Commercial entries already pay for their space. We try to offer awards for these bookings in order to encourage vendors to provide the best displays they can, not to compete against other categories.

Live animals are the root of these events, and usually require little space. We wish to encourage as many such entries as we can, but we do need some form of commitment to ensure we actually have these animals present for display and judging.

Students and youth are the future of herpetology and herpetoculture. We need their involvement and development and wish to reward them for their efforts. Both students and youths are likely to have limited financial resources, youth moreso. Thus we only charge a token fee for students, and only for terraria, which require the greatest commitment of limited space.

Terraria may take up space which is already limited, and may also require power sources. While we wish to encourage terraria by means of low entry costs, we can only provide so much space for their inclusion.

As much as possible, we wish to encourage education, which is a TARAS mandate. Most educational entries are not demanding for space or energy, and both TARAS and the community at large benefit by presentation of educational entries. Fees are thus kept low, but again with a token to ensure commitment to be present. As full displays and submissions for publication are much in demand by TARAS and are inherintly educational, these are entered automatically and for no fee.

By and large, photos and creative works are not demanding for space or energy and can easily add a large and interesting component to shows. Fees are required to ensure participation, but are kept low to encourage as many as we can.

What are the rewards?

Grand prize packages are offered for all major categories. In each category, one entry with the highest score will be awarded a grand prize.

All categories have equal scores possible. Grand prizes are awarded after all judging is complete. Winners are offered a selection of prize, in order of highest to lowest score.

All grand prize winners, except for live animals, receive a plaque. Among live animals, each class with at least three entries receives a plaque. Live animal classes are turtles, snakes, lizards, amphisbaenians, crocodilians, frogs, salamanders, caecilians, and invertebrates.

Additional awards may be offered, depending upon donations and number of entries.

Current prize sponsors include SnakeSnax, TARAS, J&J Reptiles, Riverfront Aquariums, and Hagen-Exo Terra. Actual prizes are still being worked out and additional donors are being sought.