Children will have a chance to see and touch animals that live or hunt underground from different continents and climates Wednesday.

John Ham, a naturalist with Animal Tales, at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library, will present the program, Animal Underground.

Beth Lugar, the youth program coordinator at the library, said the library hosts intensive programming for children so they stay engaged in the summer.

“It’s not just a place to read,” she said.

Jared Baker, the director of Animal Tales, said the Animal Underground program is an educational and entertaining program for children of all ages.

“What we do is we follow along the summer reading program theme for the library system in the U.S.,” he said. “Our theme is Animal Underground because the natural summer reading program is called Dig Into Reading.”

Baker said the program features five animals that either hide out underground or they are animals that hunt underground.

“For example, we have a Harris Hawk in the program,” he said. “We talk about why animals might want to go underground because if you get eaten, then game over.”

The Paraguayan Screaming Hairy Armadillo, African Spurred Tortoise, Egyptian Fruit Bat and Woma Python are also featured in the program.

“In this program we talk about why the animals go underground,” Baker said. “Some go underground for hiding, some go underground because they live in the desert and it’s a whole lot cooler underground.”

Baker said they try to have a variation of animals in the program every year.

“Last year, we had a nocturnal animal program that had a 40-pound porcupine, a owl and a coatimundi, which is like a raccoon,” he said. “The year before we did this world travel program where we had a wallaby and a mongoose and a toucan.”

Baker said they try to have animals people will not normally see at a zoo.

“Zoos are awesome, but they typically have the same display of animals,” he said. “What we try to do is get some animals that kids don’t often get to see especially in an up close and personal environment.”

The animal programs are designed to help children understand that each animal has a niche where they belong in, Baker said.

He said they also try to foster conservation with that knowledge.

“What we try to do is try to hit those ‘wow factor’ type facts,” Baker said. “Those things the kids are going to remember.”

He said although, he tries to get a variety of animals for the programs, there is always one animal they must have in the presentation.

“With all of our shows, we have to have a snake in the show,” Baker said. “If we don’t have a snake, the kids get mad.”

Amanda Wilkinson can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].