Corwin expressed concern for critters

Famed conservationist Jeff Corwin’s “Tale’s From the Field” presentation Tuesday packed the auditorium. The fourth event of the 2010-2011 Galaxy series was the second this series to be sold out.

The presentation started with an introductory video that showed some funny experiences he had in the field. Then the video explained how his program is about preventing animal extinction.

After a roar of applause from the audience, Corwin came onstage to explain what his program was. “We’re gonna look at some really cool critters. What they all have in common is that they are all in danger.”

Corwin pulled many volunteers from the audience to help with the animals he brought. His first volunteer was a young girl, and after telling her about frogs and toads, he explained that one of the most endangered toads was the Wyoming toad, then pulled out a huge toad. He explained that the Wyoming toad is two feet long.

Corwin told the audience that it is a species in danger of going extinct, then explained that people should be aware of this fact because the Wyoming toad releases toxins that are useful in making medicines.

Corwin next brought out an alligator snapping turtle, although he did not ask any volunteers from the audience for the turtle. In fact, he instructed the camera man not to get too close if he liked his pinky finger. Corwin said that very little was known about this species of turtle, like how long they can live.

“Certainly longer than we can,” he said.

The next animal he took out was a monitor lizard. Corwin showed the audience a circular burn mark on the lizard’s side, explaining that it had lived in captivity, and was released into the streets of New Jersey in winter, proving that people probably shouldn’t keep such creatures in captivity.

Next, Corwin pulled four volunteers onstage, arranging them from tallest to shortest, then pulling out an alligator to place in their arms. He told the audience that once, this species of American Alligator had almost gone extinct, but had been saved. Jokingly, Corwin asked why we would want to save something that could possibly eat us.

He then described that the American Alligator is very valuable to the ecosystems in which it lives; it creates water flow, and also creates small ponds where fish and other animals can live.

The final animal that Corwin brought onstage was a Burmese python. His first volunteer took one look at the 14-foot snake, and hurried offstage. He brought up another young volunteer and demonstrated how the Burmese python was a constrictor, having the other two volunteers pretend to wrap the snake around the younger volunteer. Then Corwin explained that the python’s mouth can stretch open up to seven times wider than when at rest, and because of this would have been able to swallow the young volunteer whole. This, he explained, was a good reason not to have a python as a pet.

After Corwin had shown all his animals, he opened up the floor for a question and answer session.

One person asked what his favorite kind of animal was. Corwin then thought for a long moment, finally replying that he’s always liked snakes, ever since he was young and found a gardener snake.

He also described that he liked bats, because he’d done his graduate work on bats. He ended with “I like all animals.”

Another audience member asked how we can avoid species being lost. Corwin said “a species of life is lost once every 20 minutes.” He told us that to prevent the loss of species we have to start in our own community and especially with children.

“Children have no connection to nature,” he said. “You can’t save what you don’t appreciate, and you can’t appreciate what you don’t know.”