Animal friends Erica Drzewiecki | Staff Education Coordinator Adam Marzi from the New Britain Youth Museum at Hungerford Park lets Dave Egerman of Southington touch a boa constrictor during “Mammals, Reptiles and Birds..Oh My!” held at the Plainville Senior Center. Seniors get to learn about mammals, reptiles and birds By ERICA DRZEWIECKI @DRZEWIECKINBH Did you know that Connecticut is home to both venomous and non-venomous snakes? Or that porcupines live up in the northern counties, close to the Mass. border? Dozens of people listened keenly to these and other facts shared by Adam Marzi, education coordinator with the New Britain Youth Museum’s Hungerford Nature Center during a recent presentation he gave at the Plainville Senior Center. Entitled, “Mammals, Reptiles and Birds...Oh My!” - the program featured live animals who call Hungerford home, representing all of the aforementioned classes of vertebrates. “This one would grab a bird or a mouse, wrap around it and give it one last hug,” Marzi said as a boa constrictor slithered down his arm B6 Connecticut PRIME TIME • November 2021 and around his hand, seeking only warmth, not food. “This snake is 15 years old and she is not afraid of humans,” he explained. “She has been to many programs with me.” Seniors had a chance to pet the snake before making acquaintance with an Eastern Box Turtle. “He likes nothing more than a big old strawberry,” Marzi told them of the turtle’s diet. The non-aquatic species is native to Connecticut and defends itself against predators like coyotes and foxes by slinking underneath its rock-hard shell. The turtle also made its rounds before Marzi introduced his next guest: a hen. “Chickens were bred not to fly,” he said as the bird walked around the room, pecking at bits of corn thrown on the floor for it to eat. “To get this body off the ground its wings would have to be out to
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