By Jaime North
DANVILLE -- It was an opportunity Braylen Krainak thought she would never have, especially in school.
Smooth, yet rough, was the way the 5-year-old kindergarten pupil described how it felt Tuesday to touch a live five-foot-long boa constrictor, which visited Danville Elementary School for a lesson on the rainforest.
"It was bigger than me," Braylen said of her first impression of seeing the snake. "That's the first time I ever saw a real snake. I can't believe I got to touch it."
The large snake, which can generally grow up to 12 feet in length as an adult, was among the collection of animals native to the rain forest brought to the school from Clyde Peeling's Reptiland in Allenwood. Other animals included a hissing cockroach, giant millipede and a poisonous Cane "Marine" Toad.
But the crowd favorites, aside from the boa constrictor, were a baby kinkajou and fruit bat.
"The kinkajou had a cute face," said Lewis Ernest, 5, a kindergarten pupil. "The bat was cool too. I liked how he just hung there on the guy's arm with his feet."
Ryan Dunmeyer, of Clyde Peeling's Reptiland, described how each of the animals lived in their natural habit, how they obtained food and survived the wild by living nocturnally.
The message though, according to Mr. Dunmeyer, was to give the pupils a glimpse of what it's like in the rainforest.
"Almost all of the talk about rainforest involves what people can do to save the habitat and what groups they should support," Mr. Dunmeyer said. "Our goal is just to get the kids to talk about the rainforest and enjoy what all there is to learn about what goes on in the rainforest."
Mr. Dunmeyer said the presentation is an extension of Clyde Peeling's many trips to the Amazon.
"Our hope is that the kids come away with something they've never seen before," Mr. Dunmeyer said. "It would be great for them to go home and teach their parents about what they learned today."
Lewis said he planned to do just that.
"I didn't know (fruit bats) have to always hang upside down," Lewis said. "I bet my Mom and Dad don't know that."
n E-mail comments to jnorth@dailyitem.com.
