Animals from Africa, Austrialia, and South America bring world to the fair
The Enterprise — Anne Hayden
Awe in Altamont: This child’s face sums of the experience of all the children feeding the animals under the Giraffe Menagerie tent at The Altamont Fair. Children can purchase a grain mix and carrots to feed to the giraffe, zebra, kangaroo, and other animals.
The Enterprise — Anne Hayden Harwood
Clamoring for food: The goats at The Altamont Fair vie for the grain awaiting them in the palms of eager children, who bought the food just to feed the animals in the Giraffe Menagerie tent.
The Enterprise — Anne Hayden Harwood
A helping hand: A timid little girl lets her mother feed Jack the kangaroo, at The Altamont Fair, before she gets up the courage to do it herself. A sign on a nearby fence reads, “Animals don’t know the difference between fingers and food.”
The Enterprise — Anne Hayden Harwood
“It’s scratchy!” squeals a young girl on Tuesday morning at The Altamont Fair, as Twiggs the giraffe takes a carrot from her hand. She said Twiggs’s tongue felt like sandpaper.
ALTAMONT — The Giraffe Menagerie is a big draw for kids at The Altamont Fair because they get to feed a variety of animals, including Twiggs.
Twiggs is the Coronas family’s 16-year-old giraffe. They have owned him, as part of their Coronas of Hollywood show, since he was 3.
The Coronas family travels with its circus, menagerie, and its Hollywood Racing Pigs, up and down the east coast from July through November. The family calls Florida its home.
Along with Twiggs, the menagerie includes a kangaroo, a zebra, miniature donkeys, alpacas, llamas, and many goats.
Under the giant red and blue tent, children can feed a grain mixture to all of the animals, except Twiggs. Twiggs gets carrots.
Crystal Coronas, a seventh-generation member of the traveling family, explained that Twiggs can, in fact, have grain, but it has to be strictly monitored. He’s on a specified diet, she said.
Children under the tent squealed as Twiggs craned his long neck down to swipe carrots off of their palms with his dexterous purple-gray tongue. A giraffe’s tongue is typically 18 to 20 inches in length.
The dark tongue — the color keeps it from getting sunburned — was “rough like sandpaper” one little girl declared.
One Tuesday morning, the most enthusiastic consumers of the food were the goats; they clambered over one another to reach the children’s outstretched hands.
Three baby goats were often at the bottom of the goat pile, but several children made sure to feed them specifically, shooing the larger goats away.
“I think it is important for kids to be able to interact with animals one-on-one,” said Coronas. “It’s educational.”
She said she has encountered people who haven’t known the difference between a zebra and a giraffe. Both are African mammals. The horse-like zebra has stripes while the spotted giraffe stands 16 to 20 feet tall and is the world’s largest ruminant.
“How many other chances are people going to get to be this close to a giraffe?” she asked. “We bring it right to them.”