- Hi, my name is Grace Griffiths, I'm an educator here at the Museum of Discovery in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas.

And today I want to introduce you to some of our Arkansas animals that actually live here at the museum in our newly remodeled animal care facility.

Now, some of these Arkansas animals have a little bit of a bad reputation.

They're just a little misunderstood.

So I want to introduce you to them and tell you why they're actually really cool and deserve our respect.

So come on, follow me.

First, I want to tell you about Hairy, our brown tarantula.

Now, brown tarantulas can be found throughout the Southern United States and are all throughout Arkansas.

They're very common.

Now, a lot of people don't like tarantulas, mostly 'cause they don't like spiders in general, but also because they think that tarantulas are dangerous to humans.

They do have venom but their venom is not dangerous to humans.

They use their venom to hunt their prey, which is great for us because they eat a lot of insects and bugs that kind of annoy us.

But if they were to bite us, which is not actually likely, it wouldn't hurt us at all.

The only thing a tarantula could do that might actually bother you is throw their hairs at you.

If you were to upset, scare, or stress out a tarantula, they might pluck some of the hairs off of their little butts and throw it at you, and it would just itch.

You could wash it with soap and water.

It's unlikely that you would be so close to a tarantula in the wild and upset them so much that they would throw those little hairs at you.

In fact, an awesome thing about tarantulas is that they make great pets because they are very docile, gentle, very calm, and they're low maintenance.

So if a cat or dog is just too much work for you, you should get a tarantula.

Our next misunderstood Arkansas animal is Spotty the speckled kingsnake.

Now, a lot of people don't like snakes because, well, they might think they're dangerous or some people even think snakes are evil but I'm here to tell you that snakes are actually pretty cool, especially kingsnakes.

Now, some snakes are dangerous.

They're venomous and that venom is dangerous to humans but kingsnakes here, like Spotty, are not venomous.

In fact, they eat dangerous venomous snakes.

That's why they're called kingsnakes.

They are not venomous but they can still bite.

But even if he were to bite me, his mouth and his teeth are so small that it wouldn't hurt at all.

And I actually think that all snakes are pretty cool but I know that some of them are dangerous.

So I like to give them their space in the wild.

If a kingsnake is in your backyard, they're kind of like your own little guardian protecting you from those dangerous snakes like cottonmouths and copperheads.

So it is a great and wonderful thing to have a kingsnake as your friend.

Our last misunderstood Arkansas animal is Maple, a Virginia opossum.

Now, a lot of people don't like possums because they look kind of weird and they think they're scary.

Well, first of all, I think opossums look kind of cute but second of all, they actually aren't very scary.

In fact, they are scaredy cats.

If you see a possum in the wild, they might snarl at you and show you all their teeth, which can look kind of scary but really, they're just trying to scare you off because they are very afraid.

Now, the coolest thing I think about possums is their diet.

They are opportunistic omnivores.

That means they are not picky eaters.

They eat just about anything including like roadkill.

They'll go through our trash and eat food that we don't want.

So you might wonder how can they eat all that gross, icky, yucky stuff, and not get sick like we would.

Well, they have really strong immune systems.

In fact, they can't carry the rabies virus 'cause their body temperature is actually too low for the rabies virus to survive.

Another cool thing about possums is that they have opposable thumbs on all of their feet.

They can use their thumbs just like we do.

They have basically hands for all their feet.

So imagine if instead of feet, you had another pair of hands.

So that means they're really good at grabbing and climbing.

Thank you so much for joining me today downtown at the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock and for seeing our newly remodeled animal care facility and meeting some of our Arkansas animals.

I hope that you liked them as much as I like them.

And I hope that you are a little less afraid of them and understand them a little better.

Now, if you see any of these animals outside in the wild, you do want to leave them alone and give them their space.

They are still wild animals and we want to treat them with respect.

Thank you so much for coming.

I had a lot of fun.