My name is Mike Heinrich. I grew up, and currently live, in Chicago's far south suburbs. I've been a lover of nature, wildlife, & pets as long as I can remember. As a child, I remember going out "snake hunting" in all the undeveloped properties every Saturday morning with my friends. All through my childhood years, the focus of all of my school artwork and reading/writing has always been animals. Swamps & Jungles were always my favorite things to read about, so it's only natural that I'd develop such an interest in snakes. As a child, little did I know I would totally saturate my life with reptiles in my adult years! I also carried my reading & writing, and artistic interests into adulthood too. here's a sampling of my artwork

   The "The Boa Kingdom" website is really just a hobby of mine. It all started back in the early 90's when my friends Brian & Jeff, owners of The Chicago Reptile House started calling me "The Amazon King" because of my affinity for Amazon Tree Boas. Well, as time went on and I also started working with Emerald Tree Boas & Rainbow Boas, the nick-name evolved into "The Boa King". Later on when I decided to create a website, The Boa Kingdom was just a half-hearted spin-off of that nick name. 

   We are an entire family of animal lovers! We all LOVE animals of all kinds.  I love to get up in the morning and start my day with a dog walk in the woods. What a wonderful way to relieve stress before going to work, check out our dog photos. Speaking of work...I've been in the steel industry since 1985 and am currently working as a production supervisor in a forging company, Jernberg Industries.  I have no desire to work in the herpetology or zoology field...I'm just a hobbyist and want to keep it that way.