Editor’s note: The original March 2023 version of this article was lost. The Lee Daily Register rebuilt it in October 2026 from the reporting cited below, and added what happened afterward.
Brian Barczyk, the reptile expert known to millions of YouTube viewers, has told his audience he has pancreatic cancer. He shared the diagnosis in a YouTube video in March 2023, NBC News later reported.
Barczyk was diagnosed on Feb. 27, 2023, and the cancer was first staged at Stage 2, he later told WXYZ in Detroit.
Who Brian Barczyk is
Barczyk began posting videos in 2008 on his SnakeBytesTV channel, and his main YouTube channel has more than 5 million subscribers, according to Tubefilter. He also has a large following on TikTok and was featured on the Discovery series “Venom Hunters,” NBC News noted.
In 2018 he and his wife, Lori, opened The Reptarium, an interactive reptile zoo in Utica, Michigan, in Macomb County. Work on an expansion across the street, the LegaSea Aquarium, began around the time of his diagnosis, according to Tubefilter and WXYZ.
What happened next
Barczyk kept documenting his illness on his channel. The cancer progressed to Stage 4 and was described as inoperable. On Jan. 5, 2024, he posted a final video saying he was entering hospice care, and he died on Jan. 14, 2024, at 54, according to NBC News and Tubefilter. The Reptarium confirmed his death and called him “an exceptional individual.”
He is survived by Lori and their children, Noah and Jade, NBC News reported. His family has said it plans to open the LegaSea Aquarium, according to WXYZ.
