The public library yesterday played host to its own version of Animal Planet with visitors that hopped, crawled and slithered.
Michelle LaValle, New Hampshire's answer to Jeff Corwin, rode herd on eight critters, including a rabbit, tarantula and a boa constrictor, before delighted kids and their parents.
"Living in my house with me, I have lots and lots of animals," said LaValle, who runs Michelle's Menagerie out of her Londonderry home.
"These are American animals, but I want you to know they're not just from the United States."
For 18 years, LaValle, a member of the Association of Professional Wildlife Educators, has put on live animal shows at parties, special events, and school assemblies. Yesterday, she showed off her animals and explained their habits.
The first was a white rabbit, which is nocturnal.
"If this were a rabbit out in the wild, right now, he'd be sound asleep," LaValle said.
And like the rabbit, LaValle's second animal, a chinchilla, is also nocturnal, she explained to the kids, most of them ages 3 to 5. Chinchillas, she said, take baths in pits of sand to cool off in the night heat, instead of in a river or pond.
Also making appearances were the tarantula, boa constrictor, a box turtle, a silkie bantam (a bird with fur-like feathers), a ferret and a tegu, a kind of lizard. LaValle said that while most animals eat frequently, the boa eats seldom throughout the year.
"This snake goes a whole year and only eats 10 times," LaValle said, as the animal coiled around her waist like a belt.
The parents and the children gazed with their eyes open wide.
"I thought it was awesome," said Patricia Curtin, who saw the show with her son, Andrew, and niece, Samantha Andrews. "She really educated the kids."
Andrew said the chinchilla caught his eye.
"Everyone loved when the chinchilla took a bath," he said. "I never knew that chinchillas, if they get hot and sweaty, they roll in sand."
Samantha nodded and said her favorite animal is the turtle.
But LaValle stressed that as fascinating as the animals are, it's best to leave them alone when they area spotted in the wild.
"If you love animals, you never touch the wild ones, because when you get too close, you scare them," she said.
Matt Perkins can be reached at 781-398-8009 or at mperkins@cnc.com.
