"Junior Zookeeper Encounter" at the library

     About 90 children, moms and dads were at the library, last Tuesday,  face-to-face with feathers, fur, scales and lots of little legs. The place was jumping with critters that hitched a ride in a duffle bag from the seacoast. That sounds ominous, but all of it was on purpose, and according to plan. Derek Small, Director and Head Educator of Wildlife Encounters Traveling Zoo, brought to the Newbury Library a sampling of birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and invertebrates. The library had to guarantee the temperature would be at least 68 degrees… for the reptiles!

      Derek has been working with non-native wildlife since 1993, and offering live animal and natural science programs since 2003. According to their Web site, “Derek and/or our animals have appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, WMUR Channel 9's ‘NH Chronicle,’ and MCAM TV-23 in Manchester, NH as well as several ‘local access’ TV programs, radio show interviews and media publications.”

     New Hampshire- based Wildlife Encounters is "the only New England live animal company that contributes a portion of its proceeds to the preservation and protection of New Hampshire and Maine's endangered species."