Joel Almquist

Joel Almquist is co-founder of Snakeworx Avoidance along with Anthony Harper and considered an animal expert. He grew up around animals as a result of his grandparents owning pet stores that sold exotic animals such monkeys, wolves and alligators. Joel bred and sold a variety of snakes (specifically boas and pythons) and parrots, but always wanted to work with larger exotic animals. He started to work with different zoological companies that trained animals for both films and television in his twenties. One particular company was Randy Miller's Predators in Action where Joel worked with Grizzly bears, black bears, tigers, lions, leopard and cougars. In addition to big cats and bears, he enjoyed reptiles (particularly mambas, cobras, inland taipans, rattlesnakes, alligators and Nile crocodiles) as well as handling them for lectures about them around the world.