A NEW TV documentary is set to lift the lid on the rapidly growing trend for keeping exotic pets.

Essex Jungle will be filming at pet shops across Essex, including Leigh’s Scales and Fangs and Westcliff’s Smooth and Scaly, to get an insight into the world of tarantulas, lizards and snakes.

The Channel 5 series will show how popular exotic animals are in the county – with more than 30,000 creatures imported each year.

Rob Yeldham, who runs Scales and Fangs with wife Trish and son Michael, hopes it will educate people.

He said: “We want people to understand they are specialist pets for a reason. They do need special living areas set up just right, and you do need to do your research.”

The shop stocks everything from spiderlings, smaller than a little fingernail, to colour-changing chameleons. It has a resident iguana, Rexi, who Rob took in after she was discovered living in unsuitable conditions, which left her with several broken toes.

Mr Yeldham, 32, said: “Rexi is a stunning creature. It’s rewarding to have an animal that’s been treated badly, then bringing her back to something to be proud of.”

He added that the success of TV programmes has seen the popularity of exotic pets rise.

He said: “After David Attenborough’s Life in Cold Blood, we got a lot of people asking about animals they had seen. They often don’t even know what they are after sometimes.”

Mr Yeldham even turns people away if he feels they have not prepared enough for looking after the creatures.

Jon Baylis, owner of Smooth and Scaly, in Bridgwater Drive, Westcliff, is a keen reptile enthusiast and breeds his stock himself.

Mr Baylis, 33, said: “We did a pilot for the show a few months ago. Now it’s got the go-ahead we will be filming over the next few months. “I hope the programme will educate people about these animals.”

The programme will be shown towards the summer.