When Kathy Beer’s Kritter Karavan rolled into Falcon and stopped at High Prairie Library, the hedgehogs stole the show. Running around in their enclosure with toilet paper tubes on their heads – an activity they do on their own, they delighted kids and grownups.This is Beer’s third summer bringing her menagerie of exotic animals to libraries in the Pikes Peak Library District.She always has a theme associated with her tour; last year it was “opposites.” Kids were exposed to the soft fur of chinchillas, along with the hard spines of hedgehogs.This year, Beers decided on a theme of “animals around the world,” which provided an opportunity to introduce a few more animals to the library audiences.Beers, a former school teacher, is spending her retirement years sharing her passion for exotic animals with her other passion – kids.”I’m trying to educate kids about animals,” she said. “Little kids just want to see and maybe touch. That’s a great start for them to have an interest and learn to respect living things at a young age.”My message for older kids and their parents is to research before getting an animal. Don’t just make an emotional buy, and then you find out it has requirements you can’t handle.”Among the animals making the trip was one of her favorites, Penny, a blue-tongued skink – a member of the lizard family.”We have skinks in North America, but they are quite small. Blue-tongued skinks are native to Australia and Indonesia,” Beers said. “They’re omnivores, so Penny eats diced fruits and vegetables with some super worms on top.”While Beers addressed the audience, DantÈ, a short-tailed tree opossum from South America, scurried around her shoulders.Short-tailed tree opossums are marsupials that don’t have a pouch. “The babies are born, attach to a teat and just hold on for dear life,” she said. “They also have a prehensile tail. I’ve seen DantÈ use his tail to carry strips of tissue to his nest.”Like Penny, DantÈ is an omnivore who enjoys fruits, vegetables and worms; plus some good quality cat kibble, but his favorite food is the crickets he likes to catch.Cornelias, the corn snake, also made an appearance in Falcon.Corn snakes are native to North America and got their name from eating the rats and mice that ate the corn harvested by 17th century farmers.Cornelias the corn snake kills her prey by constriction, a trait she shares with Alice, a ball python Beers took in when the snake was surrendered to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region.Alice’s owner said the python was sick and had not eaten in a month. “We watched for signs of illness and saw none,” Beers said. “After six weeks, she finally accepted a live mouse, to my great relief.”Ball pythons are from Africa and the reason for their name: They curl up in a ball when they’re stressed or frightened.Beers has two other ball pythons she named “Thelma and Louise;” she adopted them after they were dropped off at the Humane Society in the middle of the night.Another Humane Society alumni, Pipsqueak (aka “Pips”), a red-eared slider turtle, was part of the library visit as well. Because he is the size of a 50-cent coin, Pips was too small to be adopted by the general public.Beers has a United States Department of Agriculture Class C exhibitors’ license, so she was able to adopt the turtle. When she rescued Pips, he was covered in slime, and Beers promptly cleaned him with a soft toothbrush, she said. He now lives in a turtle bowl with a rock for sunning and a cave down below for hiding.Beers also entertained the library audience with some fun facts about other creatures.
- Millipedes don’t have 1,000 legs.
- Tarantulas flick hair at predators as a defense mechanism; they can also walk up glass.
- Western toads use their eyeballs to swallow food, and they don’t cause warts.
- Emperor scorpions glow in the dark when exposed to ultra-violet light.
