No need to fear, those critters are here to entertain and educate

From Central America, to Madagascar and even as far away as Australia, many crawly critters and slithering snakes made an appearance in an unexpected place.

On Wednesday, July 2, Joy Marzoff brought out 10 animals from around the world for over 100 people to see, touch, hold and learn more about at the Wareham Free Library.

“We had a great group of volunteer kids,” Marzoff said. “There were some younger volunteers who got a chance to hold some of the smaller animals like the snakes and I had some very patient bigger kids who were really good when we had our finale.”

Marzoff owns the Joys of Nature organization and she puts on live animal and nature programs for kids and adults. Her program on Wednesday featured animals typically found in deserts and rainforests.

There was a variety of critters for kids to learn about ranging from several kinds of snakes to lots of lizards and even a colorful chameleon.

“All of the animals are really used to kids so if the kids are calm and quiet, the animals will respond that way too,” she said.

Nine-year-old Nova Lomp of Wareham was one of the lucky volunteers who got to hold an animal. Wrapped around her wrist was the tail of a Panther Chameleon, native to Madagascar.

“The chameleon clinged onto my hand and it was really colorful,” Nova said.

Aside from the chameleon, Nova said her favorite animal in the show was the last one, a large red tail boa.

“We got to pet the giant snake,” she said.

Seven-year-old Jocelyn Sherman, of Wareham, was also a fan of the red tail boa and described the show as “very amazing.”

“I liked how long [the snake] was,” Jocelyn said.

With Jocelyn was her mom Nicole who said it felt good to get the kids out for some educational fun during summer vacation.

“It’s so nice to come to the library, we love it here,” Nicole said.

Marzoff, who has spent time working in Belize with crocodiles and spent many years on America’s west coast putting on live animal programs, said the show is not just for entertainment, but education too.

“I always want people to come out of a program to say ‘wow those animals are really cool,’” she said. “It’s important that we learn [animals] are important, they’re to be helped, protected and saved.”

She added she aims to inspire kids to want to learn more about animals and maybe make the next big discovery.

“Even the scientists I worked with in the field, they’re learning new things every day,” she said. “There’s always more to learn and maybe one of these kids will be the next scientist to learn that new thing.”