Thanks to visits by Dylan McDaniel who works for Wild Thing Zoofari, large audiences at both libraries got to see and even pet these six animals, none of whom can be found on the North American continent. They also learned specific facts about them, that the lemur makes 15 different sounds, that the kangaroo does not box and the South American armadillo can roll itself into a perfect sphere.
McDaniel, who does as many as three shows a day, said the educators from Wild Thing Zoofari stage programs all around Texas and into Arkansas. "It's basically our life. I educate about animals and clean poop at the end of the day," he said.
He also explained for anyone considering going into the animal education profession how he got there himself; "The best education you can get with something like this--I went to the zoo, and I started working there, and I got to the point where I basically helped raise all the animals, put diapers on, fed milk, some of them I put in bed."
His shows at the libraries today ran for about an hour and children and grownups of all ages learned lessons about the need to be quiet when approaching wild animals, to realize people who harmed animal habitats were not necessarily bad people but people seeking to feed their families, that hand-washing is important after handling animals and that lemurs, whose favorite food is watermelon, seeds and all, often leave a gift when going from one tree limb to another.
"Every time he jumps from tree branch to tree branch, it's like a miniature rocket going off," McDaniel said. But this is also how so many new plants start out life, using the fertilizer the lemurs provide. "Scientists actually call the lemurs that live on Madagascar, the farmers of Madagascar. The only place in the wild that they live is Madagascar, and their most important job is to farm. I don't know about y'all, but running around and pooping everywhere sounds like the easiest farming job on the planet."
After meeting these unique creatures, the children lined up to pet the baby kangaroo which McDaniel held in a large canvas bag forming an imitation mother kangaroo's pouch. The children received goody bags after the show.
