LAGUNA NIGUEL : Nature Fans Get Look at Critters

Surrounded by a diamondback rattlesnake, a boa constrictor and chirping toads, a group of adults and children crowded into a storefront-turned-museum this week to learn more about Orange County wildlife.

Pete Bloom, the natural historian credited for capturing the last California condor (before zoo-bred birds were released to the wild) and the director of the Orange County Natural History Museum, answered questions and dazzled his audience for more than an hour with facts and slides of local reptiles and amphibians.

Both Cheryl Thomas and her 8-year-old son Ryan, from Mission Viejo, were particularly interested in the rattlesnakes.

“Why do they eat the mouse’s head first?” asked Ryan.

“Because they are easier to swallow that way,” answered Bloom.

There are more than 50 different animals on display at the La Paz Road museum, formed to preserve the county’s wildlife and to educate the public about the various animals that live in the area, volunteer Sylvia Steinhardt said.

“We’re here to educate mainly,” Steinhardt said. “To preserve what little is left.”

The museum is home to one diamondback rattlesnake and a rosy boa constrictor, named “Rosey.”

Another of the museum’s jewels is a Southwest arroyo toad.

Recently designated an endangered species, the toads live exclusively in Southern California. The toad displayed is one of only a few hundred that remain.

The Natural History Museum Assn., 27261 La Paz Road, offers free, monthly lectures to its members and the public. For more information, call (714) 831-6625.