By Mark Bialczak
LPL Communications Specialist
Last year’s Zoo to You visitors included a lizard and a guinea pig. But the big star of the show pulled out of then-education coordinator Gareth Perkins’ collection of mobile animals was the very pretty corn snake.
A Carman Community Room full of wide-eyed children and caregivers took in the demonstration with a big ahhhhhhhh and plenty of ohhhhhhhhs.
The event that brings the atmosphere and education of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo to the Liverpool Public Library returns to the CCR from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, July 28.
Zoo representatives promise to bring live animals such as birds, reptiles and invertebrates. Some of the animals may be touchable. The presentation will also include animal-related artifacts that definitely will be hands-on. The zoo educator is sure to explain facts in an interesting and entertaining way.
Last year, for instance, Perkins had everybody in the room moving their hands in unison to prove a point about the snake’s jaw movement, for instance.
The animals for the visits to community libraries change from year-to-year and can depend upon how a certain he or she is feeling when they wake up the morning of the event.
Zoo to You educator Lindsay Feraco plans to bring Nueve the Golden Conure and Dolly the Virginia Opossum to the LPL next Friday.
Our Golden Conure got her name because she was hatched on Sept. 9, 1999. Nueve is the Spanish word for nine. She’s part of the Species Survival Plan. The Golden Conure was endangered from 1994 to 2012, then moved to vulnerable in 2013 on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.Nueve was raised by the Gifford Zoo keepers after her two brothers hatched before her kicked her out of the nest. At the Syracuse zoo, she’s learned to hiss like a snake, purr like a cat, crow like a chicken and – wait for it – say her name, according to Zoo spokesperson J. Gramza.
Dolly came to the Gifford Zoo from a native rehab facility. The 3-year-old was named after the country music singer Dolly Parton. Dolly Possum is her full name!
Sounds like it’s going to be a big day in the CCR, indeed.
