Silly Safaris’ Rhino Ryan offers great grand finale for library summer reading program

 

[July 18, 2024] 

At the Lincoln Public Library Thursday, July 18, Rhino Ryan of Silly Safaris brought several unusual animals to show the children.

Silly Safaris is an animal conservation animal show. Someone from Silly Safaris has been doing the last show of the summer for several years and it has been very popular with everyone.

Rhino Ryan, who is from Indianapolis, said all the animals he had with them were real and not stuffed.

One question Rhino Ryan often gets is do they bite. He said, “yes, they do bite, but you have a better chance of being bit by a person sitting next to you” than his animals.

The first animal Rhino Ryan brought out was Hoosier, an owl from Eurasia. He warned everyone Hoosier would probably do something calling “bating” which is a fancy word for flying away. However, Rhino Ryan had a leash attached to her long talons, so she could not actually fly away.

The kids first said Hoosier was scary, but Rhino Ryan said she was not scary at all. They were excited when Hoosier flapped her wings.

Hoosier is nocturnal, so she sleeps during the day and will say “who” to other owls during the night. Hoosier’s eyes do not move, so she has to turn her head about 355 degrees to see anything not in front of her. If Hoosier turned her head 360 degrees in a full circle, Rhino Ryan said it would fall off.

An owl’s sharp talons are used to pick up other animals to eat. Rhino Ryan has heard stories of owls picking up very large animals.


When Rhino Ryan was done showing Hoosier to everyone, he covered her cage, which kept her calm.

Next up was a baby possum named Forest. Rhino Ryan said Forest is just two months old and has been at Silly Safaris for a month. Forest loves being on Rhino Ryan’s shoulder.

Possums look somewhat cute when they are younger, but possums bare their teeth when they get older to scare people away.

Another way Rhino Ryan says possums keep people away is by “playing possum.” Rhino Ryan said when a possum does that, they are playing dead. Other animals do not want to eat a dead animal, so will they walk away and leave the possum alone. When the danger is gone, the possum will get back up and run for safety.

A possum uses its hands and tail to help climb. Possums hang upside down by their tails, too. Just like kangaroos, possum babies stay in their mom’s pouch when they are young. Rhino Ryan said when possums come out of the pouch, they ride around on their mom’s back. Like owls, possums are nocturnal, sleeping during the day.

Before bringing out Crunch and Munch, Rhino Ryan chose someone brave. Crunch and Munch are Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Rhino Ryan said these cockroaches often scare more people than any of the other animals he brings. When Rhino Ryan brought them out, the volunteer decided to move away from them.

When Madagascar hissing cockroaches are scared, they hiss and bite. Rhino Ryan said the cockroaches will eat about anything, including their neighbor. The cockroaches clean themselves eight times a day. Without bugs like cockroaches, Rhino Ryan said people would be walking on trash, dead animals and plants when we walk into the library.

At the Indy 500, Rhino Ryan said they had some cockroach races.

As Rhino Ryan demonstrated, these cockroaches can even be used as bedazzled roach broaches. He joked if you take one into an expensive restaurant, put it on your plate and scream, you will probably get your meal free and get your jewelry back.

Fairy tales are something Rhino Ryan enjoys, so he did a little Silly Safari theater presentation. Rhino Ryan chose a volunteer named Ada to play a princess. When Rhino Ryan read the story, he told everyone to say “aw” when he said beautiful princess and “yay” when they heard Prince Bubba.

The story was about a beautiful princess a long time ago in a land far, far away. Everybody loved the princess and when she came out of the castle, people would run to her and sit at her feet. They would want to hear stories and want to hear her sing [which Princess Ada chose not to do]. Rhino Ryan said the princess was like the Taylor Swift of the country.

On the other side of the country, Rhino Ryan said there was a prince named Bubba. Everyone loved him. He was strong, handsome and charming.

One little old lady did not like him. Rhino Ryan said the old lady happened to be a witch. The witch turned Bubba from a handsome strong prince into a charming, adorable frog.

Bubba did not want to be a frog anymore. Rhino Ryan said Bubba needed a kiss from a beautiful princess to turn back into a prince. Since frogs are a bit wet from sitting in water, Princess Ada did not want to kiss him. Instead, she gave the frog a high five.

Because frogs like mealworms, Rhino Ryan fed Bubba several mealworms. Frogs stick out their tongues to catch their food and then close their eyes to eat. Rhino Ryan said closing their eyes helps frogs push food into their bellies. Frogs eat bugs, lizards, birds and even other frogs close to their own size.

When Rhino Ryan brought out the next animal, it was asleep. BB8 was a three banded armadillo. He said the ones found in the United States are nine banded armadillos. BB8 had fallen asleep earlier in the morning. Rhino Ryan said BB8 might sleep until 6 p.m. and then be awake all night.

BB8 loves to play and have his forehead petted. Rhino Ryan said the keratin on the skin gives them a hard shell. Because the shell is hard, predators often break their teeth trying to bite armadillos. Armadillos roll up into a ball to keep themselves from danger. They love to play fetch and their long fingernails are used for digging.

When BB8 peered out at everyone briefly, there were shouts of excitement from the kids.

Fairy tales need dragons, so Rhino Ryan brought Mushu the bearded dragon. To scare people and other animals away, bearded dragons puff out their chins. They also stick out their tongues and repeatedly do push-ups to intimidate others.

The bearded dragon is a type of lizard. Mushu is from Australia. Rhino Ryan said Mushu likes to sit on a high rock to see predators and bugs.

When another bearded dragon wants to sit on the same rock, Mushu will stick his tongue out. The bearded dragons will do “push up contests” to claim their spot on the rock. The one who stops first loses. However, they cannot climb well.

Bearded dragons have eyes on the side of their head, so they have to turn their head to see. Rhino Ryan had the kids put their hands up in front of their eyes like goggles. The kids could see when they did that, but when they rotated their hands so their hands were by their ears, the kids could not see people next to them.

The spikes of bearded dragons are “super-duper soft” like hair. Rhino Ryan said when a predator comes along to eat them, the bearded dragon blows up like a balloon and its spikes go straight out. The predator will decide it cannot swallow the bearded dragon, so it leaves the bearded dragon alone.

Bearded dragons make good pets because they are easy to take care of. Rhino Ryan said they eat vegetables, fruit and insects. Mushu ate corn on the cob the other day.

The last two animals were ones Rhino Ryan said would be the dangerous part of the show. If these animals got loose, he told everyone to look for the nearest exit. Rhino Ryan said they may need to run to safety. If an adult was slowing the kids down, Rhino Ryan joked they could trip the adult to get past.

Before Rhino Ryan brought out the next animal, he told everyone it had big red eyes. When people say what big claws the animal has, Rhino Ryan said the better the claws are to run with. The claws are like cleats athlete wear.

People will say what big ears the animal has. Rhino Ryan said these [ears] are the better to hear you with.

The animal Rhino Ryan brought out was a bunny. In Indiana, Rhino Ryan said people hear stories about evil bunnies. For example, Little Bunny Foo Foo hops through the forest, picks up field mice and bops them on the head. Rhino Ryan said that is bullying. Peter Rabbit steals vegetables out of Mr. McGregor’s garden. Rhino Ryan even considers the Easter Bunny evil since he hides candy from kids. The lawnmower and neighborhood dog end up finding the candy.

The bunny Rhino Ryan brought was named Bunnicula. His name comes from a book in the library about a weird rabbit with red eyes, who looks like a vampire. Things keep happening to the family’s vegetables. Rhino Ryan warned children Bunnicula’s red eyes may be scary.

For the final animal, Rhino Ryan asked for a volunteer. A boy named Damien volunteered and Rhino Ryan renamed Damien “dinner.” Rhino Ryan said the animal he was going to bring out was a hugger not a biter. It just wanted to love, hug and squeeze him to death.

The animal turned out to be a snake named Wilson. The volunteer ran and sat down when he saw Wilson.

Snakes squeeze their prey until they appear to be dead. The snakes then eat their food headfirst. Rhino Ryan said snakes open their mouths wide and their mouths split in half at the bottom. Snakes have sixty teeth, and slowly drag their prey into their mouths. It can take snakes several hours to eat.

Fortunately, everyone was safe, because as Rhino Ryan said, kids’ heads and shoulders make them too big for Wilson to eat.

Rhino Ryan had Wilson around his neck like a scarf and Wilson appeared very calm. Wilson likes Rhino Ryan’s warm neck and vest and sometimes licks Ryan’s ear. Snakes smell with their tongues.

Once Rhino Ryan had shown everyone all his animals, he said people could come pet the snake and the bunny.

There were three things Rhino Ryan asked the kids to do:

1. Pet the snake and bunny’s backs.
2. Wash their hands with soap after petting the snake and bunny.
3. Find a book about one of the animals he brought.

A book Rhino Ryan said those who liked snakes might like was “The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Laundry.” For those who like frogs, there is a great series called “Frog and Toad.”

One of Rhino Ryan’s favorite books is “Oh Yuck: the Encyclopedia of Everything Disgusting.” The book talks about snakes, blood, poo and other great stuff.

If you get peed on by animals, Rhino Ryan said you have five years good luck. He joked that he has one thousand years of good luck stored up.

Once the program was done, the kids and some adults lined up to pet the snake and bunny. Both animals stayed calm as people touched them.

Thursday was the final big program for the summer.

Those who are completing summer reading logs need to turn them in by next Monday, July 22.

[Angela Reiners]