Turtles and Alligators and Snakes- Oh my!

Today’s Drop-in-Day had all kinds of animals from the furry to the slimy! Dean from “Curious Creatures” stopped by with his huge collection of these curious creatures! He introduced us to one animal we all know, or have at least smelled- a skunk! But luckily for us this skunk was very nice and we didn’t have to worry about that smell!

After that Dean brought out a cute, furry little chinchilla named Charlie! Dean told us that this kind of chinchilla is found in Peru, South America. Turns out that Charlie is a cousin to the squirrel, but unlike squirrels he is nocturnal. This means that he sleeps during the day and is awake at night! But one of the most interesting (and funny!) things about Charlie and chinchillas is how they take bathes! They don’t use water like us, but dust!

Then we got to meet a turtle and it was big enough for kids to ride (and they got a chance to after the show!)! A cool thing about the turtles is how it’s shell feels. Do you want to know? Touch your fingernails, yes right now! Yup that’s how the turtle’s shell felt! Weird huh?

And then came the snakes, big and small. First we met a Mexican Milk Snake, it was about a foot long and had red, white and black stripes. Dean told us that even though it looked poisonous it really wasn’t, it’s more like a typical garden snake- just very brightly colored!

After the little snake Dean brought out the big one! It was a big yellow snake, called an Albino Burmese Python!! It was long enough so that a whole row could hold it up! It is found in Asia and he told us that there they are as common as garden snakes!! Yikes, I don’t know what I would do if a four foot snake lived in my garden! What about you?

Other cool animals that we got to meet included a hedgehog that was a little shy and stayed all wrapped up like a ball. There was also a tarantula, a big furry spider! Did you know that it’s head and body are all one- so it had legs that come out of it’s head, crazy! In addition to these cool creatures we also got to meet other lizards and some Australian frogs!

Next we met an American alligator but it was only baby so it was about 1 ½ foot long and it was actually loosing its baby teeth! But don’t go near it when it grows up, its teeth are SUPER strong! A cool trick Dean taught us was that if you turn that alligator on it’s back it will go right to sleep. He tried it and it did! Other fun facts about this type of alligator is that it likes to lay in the sun since it’s a reptile and when swimming it uses its tail like a paddle.

All in all it was a great day! And a big thanks goes out to Honest Tea who came and gave out free drinks, perfect for a hot and humid day like today!

Also be sure to check out our last Drop-In-Days of the summer next week when the Children’s Museum meets the Wild West Thursday August 27th and gets a visit from FETCH! on Friday August 28th! Hope to see you all there! Have a great weekend!