Elmwood Park Zoo critters chilling with the children

The deep freeze that gripped much of the nation last week and snarled travel, shut schools, filled homeless shelters, and led some zoos to bring penguins inside was just perfect for Holly the German giant bunny, who lives at the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown.

"When it's like this, she really likes to go outside," Sam Navarino, the zoo's education manager, said Sunday at the first Breakfast With the Animals program this year. The theme, not surprisingly, was "Creature Comforts," with Navarino explaining why some zoo animals love the bone-freezing weather.

Humans, however, seem to be more cold-averse. Only eight children and seven adults showed up for the program; last January there were 100 people.

"It's been brutal," said Navarino, who did not let the low temperatures chill her enthusiasm for the animals that she brought along - a box turtle, a chinchilla, and Holly the bunny.

The program is offered monthly from January to April and costs $10.95 to $22.95, depending on membership status and whether the visitor is an adult or a child. Each month had a theme.In February there's a Valentine hook while March is St. Patrick's Day and April is spring. Navarino brings different animals to each program, from snakes to bald eagles.

Attendees started with a continental breakfast before getting to meet the critters. Afterward, they made hanging bird treats out of peanut butter and birdseed and got a tour of the snow-covered zoo.

But the animals were the highlight. Not all the creatures that Navarino exhibited liked the cold. Children learned that box turtles downright hate it - lack of fur and good stuff to eat dampen their enthusiasm - so they hibernate during winter.

On the other hand, Machu the chinchilla, with 60 hairs per follicle compared with one per follicle for humans, is made to live in chilly climates. Chinchillas come from the mountains of South America - thus the names for the zoo's two chinchillas are Machu and Picchu, after the famed 15th-century Inca site in the mountains of Peru.

Everyone who petted the gray fur ball was amazed at its luxuriously soft fur, which may be enviable but also why the animals are nearly extinct in the wild - they were hunted for their fur.

"And it takes 200 to make one jacket," Navarino said.

Some fun chinchilla facts - they can jump five feet straight up and cannot get wet because their fur is so dense and can't dry. Instead, they take dust baths.

But the giant rabbit was by far the biggest hit of the morning. The kids surrounded it and extended 16 little hands to pet the docile hopper.

And that, said Navarino, is one advantage to having a small group. When you have 100 people trying to pet a rabbit "someone is going to get bit," she said.

Noah Nettingham, 10, of Coatesville, who came with his parents and younger brother, said his favorite animal was the chinchilla, but surprisingly it was not the softest thing he had ever touched. His stuffed panda and hat were softer, he said.

Faye DelGuidice, 10 of Upper Dublin, who came with her friend's family, said she loves animals but can't have the pet she wants most in the world, a cat, because her mother is allergic to fur. "All I've ever had is a hermit crab and fish," she said.

But her mother's allergies may have steered her toward her career goal as a marine biologist. "Sharks are my favorite animals in the world. I study them a lot," she said.

Her friend Sabrina Chao, 11, also of Upper Dublin, said she learned a lot at the program. Such as? "Bunnies are cute," she said.

Also, although Holly was on a harness and leash, you can't really walk a rabbit.

"You follow the rabbit," Navarino said.

The kids asked lots of questions to which Navarino invariably knew the answer. Except for one. She was stumped when someone asked how big is a bunny's heart.

"Hmmm, I don't know," she said, then wowed the crowd with another animal fun fact. "A giraffe's heart is two feet wide and weighs 25 pounds."

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