Animal Planet Expo helps develop people's awareness

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, August 28, 2004

BY BRYAN ROURKE
Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK -- The ambassador from Madagascar is restless. He moves his feet. He combs his hair. Generally, he monkeys around.

His name is Mogley. That's how Jackie Navarro introduces the grey-haired guy to the crowd of kids gathered at the Masonic Youth Center. But later, when asked how the Madagascar male spells his name, Navarro says, Larry.

What's surprising is the diplomat doesn't know the difference.

Larry's a lemur.

But more important than that, Larry and all his friends -- Mordechai the Eurasian hawk, Cajun the alligator and Kaa the African pygmy hedgehog -- are here on business. All day today and tomorrow at Goddard Memorial State Park, they're promoting "animal awareness."

"Their job is being animal ambassadors," Navarro says. "Being here helps their wild cousins back home."

Navarro is an animal handler and presenter with Animal Planet Expo. This weekend is the 15th and final stop of the Expo's 12-state, cross-country summer tour, which is presented by the Animal Planet cable network and Cox Communications.

The event, which is free to people and their pets, features a climbing wall, a theater, interactive exhibits and, as you might expect, animals: a python, an alligator, a wallaby and a kinkajou, among others.

"This brings the animal world alive to kids," says Dr. Holly Knor, a veterinarian on the Animal Planet show Emergency Vets.

Each day, four times a day, there will be Frisbee dog shows. There will also be demonstrations and discussions. The goal is animal entertainment and education.

"A lot of these animals are endangered," Knor says. "These are our educational mascots."

Becoming aware of the existence of animals, Navarro says, is the first step in protecting them.

"Recycling aluminum cans and newspapers can help them," she says.

When resources are reused, Navarro says, animal habitats are preserved.

But sometimes animals, such as alligators, are killed for other reasons.

"We have loved them to death, for their meat and their skin," Navarro says. "But their skin looks better on them."

With members of the Boys and Girls Clubs as their audience, Navarro and Knor share lots of animal information.

Wild animals should remain so, they say. People shouldn't try to make them pets.

All the wild animals in the Expo were raised by humans, or saved from sure death in the wild. For instance, the Expo has a 12-foot, 90-pound python. In the wild it could grow to 25 feet and 400 pounds, but not this one. It's yellow. Basically it's an albino, without the green coloring that can conceal it in a jungle.

"It would never survive in the wild," Navarro says. "It's hard to sneak up on something when you're bright yellow."

Nonvenomous snakes are much bigger than venomous ones, according to Navarro. They need large muscles to constrict and kill their prey, which in the case of a python can include animals as large as water buffalo.

Animal's teeth can tell you its diet, Knor says. Sharp teeth are for eating meat, flat teeth for plants.

The animal world is filled with fascinating facts.

Alligators can clench their jaws with 2,500 pounds of pressure per inch. Snakes are deaf; but can smell through their tongues. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs. Half of all boys are bitten by a dog by age 11.

When asked to choose the fastest animal on earth, given a choice between the cheetah, the hawk and the praying mantis, most choose incorrectly, according to Knor. It's not the cheetah, which can run 80 mph, or the hawk, which can dive 100 mph. It's the praying mantis, which when leaping after prey, travels a short distance at 800 mph.

Then there are the animals that must defend themselves against attack. Take the softball-sized African pygmy hedgehog. It sneezes. That raises the 3,000 quills on its back, poking whatever's sniffing it. And if that doesn't work, the hedgehog will wallow in elephant dung.

"That doesn't make it as enticing to eat," Knor says.

The little lemur from Madagascar has a similar strategy. But it's self-reliant, tucking its tail between its legs, urinating on it and then flicking it at a predator.

"That is called self-anointing," Navarro says.

The Animal Planet Expo is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and tomorrow at Goddard State Memorial Park, 1095 Ives Rd., Warwick. Admission is free. People's pets are invited.