How a $100,000 Tortoise Keeps This Family Business a $4 Million Operation.

At a cost of more than $100,000, Joe Maierhauser's next capital investment is substantial. But sometimes you've got to refresh the tortoises. Giant tortoises have long been the most popular attraction at Reptile Gardens, the world's largest reptile zoo by number of species. In the 1950s and '60s, visitors rode the plodding beasts. Now they take selfies with them. The original stock, imported in the 1940s, has passed on after long, eventful lives that included both fire and flood. Their younger counterparts still laze around Methuselah's Playground, named for the largest of the dear departed. The two new tortoises will cost between $50,000 and $100,000 each, depending on size. "There is no guarantee that you get it here and it will not die tomorrow," says Maierhauser, Reptile Gardens' CEO and president. "That is the heartbreak of working with animals." Mostly though, the animals are a joy. They are the main reason Maierhauser returned to the family business 40 years ago, eventually succeeding his uncle Earl Brockelsby, who founded the attraction in 1937. Opportunity The business resides six miles south of Rapid City, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is a starkly beautiful land of mountains and meadows, creeks and canyons. Amid the abundant native wildlife, Reptile Gardens' international cast of critters stands out like a scaly Noah's Ark. "Not much of it is from South Dakota because there are not that many varieties of reptile around here," says Maierhauser.