Almost 100 people, most of them (but not all!) children, got to learn about exotic animals up close Tuesday morning as representatives of the Abilene Zoo appeared in the “Zoo to You” program at the Dickens County-Spur Library. This event is a part of the library’s 2025 Summer Reading program.
Zookeepers Crystal and Ruthie showed excited and enthusiastic youngsters, a smooth toad, a large Sudanese lizard, a South American Armadillo and a Chihuahuan Raven.
The animal handlers were expert at such presentations. After showing each animal, they limited questions to three—if they hadn’t, there would have been dozens of questions about each. Some children were so excited that they kept their hands raised continuously throughout every presentation.
Youngsters actually heard from one of the animals exhibited. Sam, the female raven, could answer “Hello” with a muffled version of the word. The zookeepers told the attendees that ravens can mimic human speech, meaning they can learn to vocalize words and sounds they hear, including human language.
Sam the raven was a rescue animal. She had been adopted, kept, and then abandoned by an individual in a house in Muleshoe. She was rescued by the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lubbock and then moved to the Abilene Zoo, where there is more room, more staff, and more rehabilitation resources for her.
The zookeepers showed four animals up close to the children.
The library is encouraging youngsters to take advantage of the library as a source of entertainment for youth in the summer and offering special prize giveaways based on age for the numbers of books read, and at the zoo event, encouraged children and their parents to get library cards and check out books.
Next up in the library’s summer reading program will be representatives from the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation
Lubbock, and they will bring a variety of animals and gave a talk on them Wednesday, June 10 at 10 a.m.
