CROWD-PLEASING CRITTERS\Show boosts nature bond in T.O.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

There were no lions or tigers or bears, but there were enough exotic creatures in sight to keep the audience fascinated during Saturday's wild animal show at the Chumash Interpretive Center.

One by one, owls, snakes, a young alligator and other critters from the Raptor Rehabilitation and Release Program's Wildlife Park were displayed to the oohs and ahs of 100 or so people gathered for the show under a canopy of oaks behind the interpretive center at Oakbrook Regional Park.

"We need to coexist with animals and so many times we force them out," said raptor program director Jerry Thompson, who wants people to have a bond with wild animals. "If you don't see a live animal, you really don't make that bond."

The show, sponsored by the environmental issues committee of the American Association of University Women's Thousand Oaks branch, focused on wild animals' habits and their importance in nature as a way of emphasizing people's responsibility to help protect wildlife.

Chumash Interpretive Center director Paul Varela said people have lost their respect for nature.

The program included a tour of the nearly year-old Interpretive Center museum and a one-mile hike through the park to view Chumash rock art.

Thompson said the show ties in with the Chumash center because of American Indians' close ties to nature. "These are the people who had a close-knit way of living with animals," he said.

The show included two owls, two snakes, an opossum, a timber wolf, an eagle, a turkey vulture and a baby alligator.

The crowd expressed its curiosity about the animals with a host of questions.

When one youngster asked if he could make the baby alligator open its mouth, Thompson replied: "We don't like to do that. It took us long enough to teach him to keep his mouth shut."

And he played a trick on a number of youngsters who volunteered to hold a 3-foot-long king snake. First lining them up side-by-side, he told them to close their eyes - then put in their hands a 15-foot-long, 100-pound Burmese python, which had to be carried out by two helpers.

Anna Ghirardelli, 7, wasn't about to volunteer to touch that king snake. Yet when the python was brought out, the Meadows Elementary School first-grader readily jumped into the crowd handling the monster and gently touched it.

The python felt "bumpy" and had nothing of the slimy texture she had expected.

She said she's learned to respect wildlife - and not to be afraid of it.

"I've learned that you shouldn't kill animals," Anna said. "They're kind of sweet if you just look at them and stay away."

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo (1--CONEJO and SAC--color in CONEJO) After opening her eyes, 8-year-old Alondra Schuster is surprised to be holding a Burmese python. A puny king snake had been expected. (2--CONEJO and SAC) Snowflake, a barn owl, stretches out on the gloved hand of Mandi Monsue, a volunteer wildlife handler. (3--SAC only) Jerry Thompson introduces what used to be an illegal house pet. (4--SAC only) A 1-year-old opossum behaves timidly in front of the curious crowd. Jeremy Greene / Special to the Daily News