WESTFIELD — On the morning of April 24 during the spring school break, young visitors to the Westfield Athenaeum were invited to learn about and interact with Pagoo and his hermit crab friends on a habitat set up in the Lang Auditorium by Lindsay Sprague of Winterberry Homestead, Ithaca, New York.
Sprague oversees a traveling science project with 40 programs from optogenetics and neuroscience to sustainable agriculture for libraries, schools, nursing homes and hospitals. She said in some of the communities she visits, the children have never been to the ocean and are not familiar with growing things.
Talking about the habitat, Sprague said hermit crabs have antennae and pedipalps, a secondary pair of forward legs, with which they sense their environment. “This is what it’s like to go hunting for seashells,” she told the children in the Athenaeum, who ranged in age from 2 to 11 and were accompanied by their grandparents, about the hermit crab activity as they traveled over the habitat.
Sprague said if they observed closely and were lucky, they might see a hermit crab move into a new shell for a home.
William Burkott, 11, of Westfield and his brother Alexander, 6, were looking for the active crabs, which Sprague said they could pick up. “We’re interested in hermit crabs. We love the ocean,” William Burkott said.
Hannah Kowalski, 2 ½, was scared at first to touch them, but her mother Jen Kowalski, helped her to gently get acquainted with one
Declan Farrell, 6, with his grandmother Karen Giampetruzzi, was not shy at all about picking up a crab.
Annika Wallace, 11, of Westfield said she had a hermit crab at home and was hoping to learn more about them at the library. Her grandmother Karen Gladwin said Annika bought the hermit crab at Petco.
Westfield Athenaeum Adult Services Director Becky Blackburn picked up hermit crab in a shell painted like a baseball cap, which she found amusing.
More information about Winterberry Homestead may be found at winterberryhomestead.org.
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