LIZARDS, AND SPIDERS AND SPIDERS, OH MY

Demonstrations informs, entertains Anthem youth
MARC BUCKHOUT ~ MANAGING EDITOR ~ 6/23/2010

Part teacher, part entertainer, and a boy that never grew up.
That’s how Phillip Rakoci describes himself.
On July 16 the Casa Grande resident was in Anthem for a show and tell session unlike most in attendance
had ever seen.
In front of nearly 300 children and their parents Rakoci, who calls his shows Wildman Phil Productions taught the local youth about a variety of desert dwellers found here in Arizona.
From scorpions to king snakes and a variety of lizards in between Rakoci talked about what the animals eat in their natural habitat, how they protect themselves and debunked some of the
myths about them.
On this day Rakoci, who performs at schools, at birthday parties and other events around the state was the guest at North Valley
Regional Library.
“I always had an interest in wildlife,” he said. “When I started trying to learn about them as a kid I found out there wasn’t a lot of info on some of the animals available, especially some of the
creepy crawlers.”
Once he started to quench his curiosity he decided he would pursue the opportunity to share his passion for animals.
“I got the idea that not everybody had that level of interest, but would be interested if I could show them some of the animals,” he said. “I quickly came to understand that kids learn more when they are also being entertained.”
Along with explaining how horny toads are able to shoot blood from their eyes to keep from being attacked by canines, or how chuckwallas dive into a hole and then expand themselves when they’re threatened Rakoci wasn’t above pretending he had dropped a tarantula amongst his crowd by using a plastic spider, to get a scare and a laugh.
Rakoci also encouraged his audience’s curiosity about animals, suggesting several youth-friendly books that they
could check out from the library.
While the presentation’s biggest reactions came for the emperor scorpion and a python the kids were also drawn to Stumpy the Tortoise. The tortoise, with only 2.5 legs was left on Rakoci’s
doorstep years ago.
Drawn to the animals willingness to try and get around despite its handicap Rakoci glued a tire to his shell to help the now 10 year-old tortoise be
much more mobile.
Rakoci pointed to Stumpy’s determination as an example of how to overcome obstacles.
For information on Rakoci go to desertwildlife.net.