Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

WEST POINT – Local children taking part in this week’s summer camp at Hawkes Library learned something many older people who have lived in the Troup County area all their lives didn’t know – there’s a zoo in Troup County.

The Georgia Untamed Zoo, located in Hogansville, is unlike any natural setting most local people have ever visited before.

Melanie “Mee Maw” Beaty of the zoo was at the library to display some exotic animals and to talk to the children about how they lived in the wild.

The children were amazed at the size of some of the eggs she showed them. All were much larger than the chicken eggs that are dyed for Easter egg hunts. The largest of them was an ostrich egg. As many as a dozen omelets can come from one of these eggs. She also had an emu egg.

An egg from a cassowary could produce one of the world’s largest flightless birds. Native to New Guinea and northeast Australia, the cassowary is known for its powerful legs and sharp claws. Its DNA is similar to that of the velociraptor.

The kids especially liked it when Mee Maw brought out some small animals to show them and talk about. One of them was a coatimundi, a raccoon-like mammal that lives from the Southwestern U.S., through Mexico and Central America to South America. The animal has a long snout with a flexible nose which is used for foraging.

The children loved being close to the coatimundi but weren’t so receptive to Bruno the ball python. Bruno can grow up to five feet in length and would still be considered on the smaller side. Beaty had him wrapped around her arm and told the children no one should ever allow a constrictor snake to wrap around their neck.

In the wild, a ball python like Bruno can live on one mouse for up to two weeks before it has to hunt again. These snakes are naturally camouflaged and hard to see on the jungle floors where they reside.

Beaty encouraged the children to read about animals on their trips to the library, and if they can, visit the Georgia Untamed Zoo in Hogansville.

This week, under the leadership of Camp Director Erin Anderson, the children have been taking part in nature-themed read-abouts at Hawkes Library. They’ve been reading books on protecting our natural resources and valuing our land. They played outdoor games that raised awareness about nature and friendship, from meet-a-tree to race-the-bunny. In the arts and crafts sessions, they made rain-makers, visors, sock puppets, wind spinners and more. Guest speakers spoke to them about water safety and the history of the land that surrounds us. On Friday’s fun day, the kids will play in the city’s riverside splash pad while enjoying some delicious ice cream.