Creepy Creatures Thrill During Harry Potter Night

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Arnone School student Shania Tarver couldn’t wait to get a chance to feel the smooth brown and beige diamond skin of a 10-foot, 150-pound Burmese python that was one of the many creepy creatures, modified Quidditch matches, snacks and pencil-wand making during the school’s “Harry Potter Family Night.”
Traver, 10, was mesmerized by the assortment of insects, rats, giant cockroaches, lizards, birds, cockroaches and spiders presented by Curious Creatures’ handler Lenny Smart, whose collection included a spiky African pygmy hedgehog, a California king snake, green iguana, rose-haired tarantula, and the gargantuan python.
“My favorite is the big ole snake,” Tarver said as she joined the hordes--including Arnone Principal Colleen Proudler (Pictured above in wizard wardrobe), who crowded around the python to touch the massive creature that would be twice the size when fully grown.
Hundreds of students and their parents roamed the halls of the school going from one activity to another Wednesday night, March 16.
In the cafeteria a video of Harry Potter movies played on a large screen while youngsters ate cookies as they made pencils into magic wands with bright and sparkly decorations.
Jessira Semedo, 9, (Pictured at right with Harry Potter book) attended the event with her mom Victoria Pagan and friend Krissena England. The pair of girls waved their pencil-wands and talked about their favorite book and favorite character: the precocious and daring girl, Hermione Granger.
“I love, love, love, Harry Potter. It’s my favorite book,” Semedo said.
Some students had their faces painted and others signed up for the numerous modified Quidditch games—no flying children--that were held in shifts in the gym.
Although all the activities were fun, parents and kids said the creepy creatures were “awesome.”
It was hard to tell if the shrieks that filled the auditorium during the display were loudest for the giant cockroaches, the huge tarantula, or the California king snake.
It was perfectly clear the Burmese python was the reptile with the biggest wow factor when parents and children shrieked, squelled and stood up to get a better glimpse or pictures of the sleek snake.
Audience members were allowed to touch the snake and others had the monster placed around their necks.
Handler Lenny Smart said pythons don’t normally eat humans because people are usually too big and swallowing them takes too much effort and could cause the snake to choke to death.
“If they can’t swallow it they’re not going to waste the energy trying,” Smart said.
However, if anyone runs into a Burmese python in the wild, Smart said they can see only about 3 or 4 feet in front of them and recent research shows when the python flits its tongue it is actually helping it to see.
Ten-year-old DeMario Thompson whose little sister, 18-month old Malia was a handful for her father Mark, (Pictured above), said he liked the African pygmy hedgehog (Pictured above) the best.
"It's cool how it can curl up and not hurt itself with its quills," Thompson said.

Smart dispelled many common myths about the creatures, including that tarantulas, like the rose-haired tarantula visiting the Arnone, are not dangerous to humankind.
“Let me start off my saying the only people who have been killed by tarantulas were in the movies,” Smart said.
In fact, Smart said, it is quite the opposite.
“A lot of people eat them,” Smart said. “I’ve never had it, but they say it tastes like crab,” he said.