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At the Lincoln Public Library
Thursday, July 16, Jurassic Josh of Silly Safaris brought several
special animals to show everyone.
Silly Safaris is an animal conservation animal show. Most summers,
someone from Silly Safaris does the last program and it is very
popular.
Jurassic Josh had ten animal friends with him. Some had fur, others
had scales and one had feathers. As he showed everyone an animal, he
gave details about them such as their names, where they came from,
what they eat and what their personalities were like.
Before showing the other animals, Jurassic Josh brought out what he
said was a ferocious animal that ended up being a little corgi. He
placed the corgi in a wagon during the show.
First up was a bunny named T-Rex
who steals people’s hearts. In the wild, Jurassic Josh said bunnies
have to worry about wolves, foxes and other predators. Bunnies use
their big feet to run to their burrows where they listen for
predators. The “kitchen” in a bunny’s burrow has carrots and clover.
Jurassic Josh invited two volunteers up to pet the bunny and get a
bunny kiss.
Next up was a scaly animal named
Godzilla, a blue tongued skink. Jurassic Josh said their tongues are
blue due to deimatic display which tricks predators. Blue tongued
skinks pretend their tongue is poisonous when they see predators.
These animals live in the grasslands of Australia and move very
slowly. Their favorite food is snails, which also move slowly.
Jello is a white tree frog who
likes to climb trees. Jurassic Josh had two volunteers pretend to be
trees for Jello to climb. He moved Jello back and forth between the
two kids and described how Jello would climb them if they were
trees. White tree frogs live in rain forests and drink water from
leaves in trees, so they don’t have to climb down to the ground
where there are lots of predators. Jello can change from green to a
deep dark brown in order to camouflage himself and hide in the bark
of a tree. When it is too cold and there are no bugs and grubs to
eat, the white tree frog freezes and their heart slows down, beating
once per minute. Jurassic Josh joked that if our hearts would only
beat once per minute, we would “croak.”
Susan the curly haired tarantula
was covered in hair and had tiny paws. Jurassic Josh promised not to
take the lid off her enclosure or let her crawl on his hand. He then
took off the lid and Susan climbed onto his hand.
Tarantulas use spider silk to
decorate burrows with nets, then catch their prey and drink them
like they are a juice box. Though Susan is venomous, Jurassic Josh
said, she is only as venomous as a bee. Instead of biting predators,
tarantulas flip hairs into a predator’s face which causes itchiness.
Two brave volunteers got to give Susan a high five.
A baby Alligator named Ginger was
brought out next. Jurassic Josh said when fully grown, she may weigh
up to 1000 pounds and be over 15 feet long. Ginger has over 50 razor
sharp teeth. During her lifetime, she will have more than 50 sets of
teeth, numbering over 1000 total.
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Two volunteers got to pet her
and said her back felt hard. Their hard back helps when other
alligators try to bite them and shoo them away from their
territory. The kids said her belly felt soft. A soft belly helps
her slide along the riverbed. Ginger uses her tail to paddle
through the river.
Edgar Allen Crow was an African
pied crow. The black and white coloring gives him the name pied crow
and makes him look a lot different than the crows we see in
Illinois. Jurassic Josh said he is smart and can say several words
plus do puzzles and solve escape rooms. In the wild, crows use a
stick to get bugs or grubs that are in holes too small to get their
beaks into. Edgar Allen Crow eats bugs, grubs, worms, mice and
veggies.
Jurassic Josh said the next animal
was a vicious predator with big claws and sharp teeth. She was a
ferret named Mabel who had a flexible body. Ferrets protect cows by
climbing down holes dug by prairie dogs cows can trip in. The ferret
gobbles up the prairie dog. Mabel also likes to give people
makeovers. Two volunteers got “makeovers” with Mabel being held up
by their faces and heads to “create” sunglasses, a beard, a mohawk,
a bun, a scarf and a mustache. Mabel’s dance moves include the worm,
the hula and the tail shake.
Quesadilla was a three banded
armadillo. These bands let her roll into a little ball. Jurassic
Josh said she uses her pink nose to smell the ground searching for
bugs. She uses her claws to dig for bugs and the hairs on her belly
to pinpoint where the bugs are. Her shell is made of keratin which
is what our fingernails are made of. Just like we can feel things
with our fingernails, Quesadilla can feel everything that touches
her shell. The texture of three banded armadillo’s shell makes it
difficult for predators to get a good grip on it.
Twinkie, the last animal was curled up fast asleep. Jurassic Josh
asked kids to raise their hands if they thought he was in one of the
various corners he pointed to. It turns out Twinkie was curled up in
every corner of his enclosure. Jurassic Josh said Twinkie was a 13
foot long, 50 pound Burmese python. Burmese pythons can get up to 25
feet long and 200 pounds. They can slither across the ground, swim
and even climb trees. Though Pythons have sharp teeth, they do not
bite their prey. Pythons are constrictors, so they squeeze their
prey super tight. It took nine courageous volunteers to hold
Twinkie.
Once Jurassic Josh had shown
everyone all the animals, he got the skink, alligator and bunny back
out and had the corgi in the wagon, so kids could pet them. His
ground rules were that everyone had to use two fingers to pet the
animals and only one person at a time could pet them. A long line of
kids anxiously waited their turn.
Children’s librarian Donna Cunningham reminded the kids to turn in
their final book logs. They will get their summer reading program
t-shirts soon.
Silly Safaris visits the Lincoln Public Library photo slideshow
Jurassic Josh from Silly
Safaris introduces Twinkie to the kids at the Lincoln Public Library
video
[Angela Reiners]
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