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BUTLER TWP. — When Pete Mackevich brought Rex out of his cage, the rough-skinned, 10-year-old rhinoceros iguana from Haiti tried to climb up the animal handler’s shirt.

“Don’t you know you’re a big boy now?” Mackevich gently chided the reptile. “Do I have to pull you off?”

Rex wanted to perch on Mackevich’s shoulder, the handler explained to his audience at The Gardens at Butler skilled nursing facility, because that’s what he used to do years ago, when Mackevich began to “raise him up from a hatchling.”

Residents smiled and nodded. They understood what pets can be like.

“My daughter has two cats,” 90-year-old Lois Wood said, “and my granddaughter has two dogs.”

“I can’t wait to go home and see my dog,” said Peggy Hirkl, 73. “He’s a cocker spaniel, as spoiled as can be.”

While the residents were familiar with America’s favorite kinds of pets, Mackevich, who is affiliated with the Pocono Snake & Animal Farm in Monroe County, gave them an hour-long program on animals most people don’t see everyday.

“I’m curious about what’s in that big box,” Hirkl said as the program got under way.

“It’s like a birthday,” Mackevich responded, indicating he wouldn’t reveal the contents. “What fun is it if I tell you what’s in the box?”

Much later, the handler would bring an alligator out of that box and explain how it was well-equipped for hunting in water, with nostrils that close shut and a third eyelid that protects its eyes from dirt. Alligators even “use tools,” Mackevich said, explaining they will push a bunch of broken twigs together to form a floating mat and hide underneath it so they can try to catch a bird that might want to steal a twig for a nest.

Some of the animals he brought have a bad reputation among humans, Mackevich said, admitting he knows people might shudder at a tarantula or a skunk or a toad.

But without those animals in the food chain, he said, the world would be over-run with insects.

Besides, he said, as a female tarantula climbed over his hand, her bite would be no more dangerous to him than a bee sting. “She can live to be 35 years old,” he said. “Males don’t live that long,” he said, suggesting that by age 10 or so, the male might mate with a female.

“Then she turns around and eats him” to provide nourishment for her eggs.

The tarantula doesn’t spin a web but catches prey with strands of “silk,” Mackevich said as he showed the audience a strand.

During other parts of his program, the animal handler coaxed a colorful chameleon to shoot its extremely long tongue out of its mouth to scoop up a cricket and then a small roach. He allowed a snapping turtle to severe an entire bunch of celery with one snap of its powerful jaw, and he explained that the skunk he brought had its scent glands removed.

A skunk with its natural defense, the scent glands, intact can be very dangerous to other animals, he said. If a skunk sprays a fox, for example, the fox might not be able to get close to the mice it hunts because they would detect the odor and run. The fox could starve before the scent wears away.

After the show, some residents said they most enjoyed seeing the alligator, and at least one spectator was impressed by the way the iguana seemed to have bonded with its owner.

But yet another image from the program will be hard to forget. Mackevich was holding a large toad when it urinated onto the floor, shooting out what seemed like a copious amount.

Several residents laughed and some even clapped. “This is what you’re going to remember,” Mackevich said. “You’re going to tell people, ‘I saw a toad pee on the floor.’”

To the toad, he said, “You’ve got no class.”

Pete Mackevich introduces Rex, his rhinoceros iguana, during a program he presented on Tuesday at The Gardens at Butler skilled nursing home in the Drums section of Butler Township.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_TTL072017exoticanimals1.jpg.optimal.jpgPete Mackevich introduces Rex, his rhinoceros iguana, during a program he presented on Tuesday at The Gardens at Butler skilled nursing home in the Drums section of Butler Township. Sean McKeag | Times Leader

Jill, a resident at The Gardens of Butler, reacts after a toad urinated on the floor.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_TTL072017exoticanimals2.jpg.optimal.jpgJill, a resident at The Gardens of Butler, reacts after a toad urinated on the floor. Sean McKeag | Times Leader

Residents of The Gardens at Butler watch as Pete Mackevich brings out another exotic animal. He used the bunch of celery, at left, to demonstrate the power of a snapping turtle’s jaw. The animal cut through the whole bunch with one snap.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_TTL072017exoticanimals3.jpg.optimal.jpgResidents of The Gardens at Butler watch as Pete Mackevich brings out another exotic animal. He used the bunch of celery, at left, to demonstrate the power of a snapping turtle’s jaw. The animal cut through the whole bunch with one snap. Sean McKeag | Times Leader

Pete Mackevich shows off a chameleon and explains the animal’s colors, which attract female chameleons and discourage other male chameleons from challenging him.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_TTL072017exoticanimals4.jpg.optimal.jpgPete Mackevich shows off a chameleon and explains the animal’s colors, which attract female chameleons and discourage other male chameleons from challenging him. Sean McKeag | Times Leader
Gardens at Butler residents enjoy animal show

By Mary Therese Biebel

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Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.