BROOKFIELD -- Mark Smith couldn't stop grinning as he petted a Zimbabwe hedgehog, a first for the Huckleberry Hill Elementary second-grader. He found the mammal's belly soft and top a little prickly.

Classmate Kalyn Rutkis seemed a bit more nervous as she held a giant African bullfrog, one of the largest bullfrog species in the world.

It was a South American native horny toad, though, that elicited the most squeals as it leaped just out of grasp of its handler in the Huckleberry gymnasium Wednesday morning.

Animal Embassy in Stamford, an exotic animal-rescue and environmental and conservation education program, treated Huckleberry students to a closeup look at rare amphibians, reptiles and exotic mammals as a science lesson.

"This is phenomenal,'' exclaimed Schools Superintendent Anthony Bivona of the PTO-sponsored program. "I'm so glad I came."

Founder Chris Evers, though, did far more than just a meet-and-greet between the animals and children.

He explained how each of these creatures plays a role in the natural world, but because they have been taken out of their habitat -- some bought as pets and then abandoned when they got too big or too difficult -- they will never again live free.

The Flemish bunny he showed the children, for instance can grow to about 50 pounds -- not the average house pet.

Then there was the striped, young alligator taken from the Okefenokee Swamp in Florida that a college student bought as a tiny animal in a pet store. It will eventually grow to be between 13 and 16 feet long -- not exactly a pet for a dorm room, he said.

Another animal that fits in Evers' hands, but one day will be big enough for a grown man to ride, was a Saharan tortoise. He displayed a toad that belongs in a pond in Guatemala rather than in a makeshift pond in captivity.

Student Rowan Blanar was fascinated to learn that even creatures many fear, such as snakes and alligators, have "jobs'' they must do.

An acorn dropped by a squirrel will one day grow into an oak tree, Evers said.

Hard to imagine, but the little hedgehog no bigger than the palm of a hand can take down a lion with one poke of his spine in the nose, Evers said. Why? Because hedgehogs eat scorpions and their poison is absorbed into the hedgehog's spike so it can ward off the fiercest predator.

Brown bats can eat 3,000 mosquitoes at a time; the Diamondback rattlesnake protects the occupants of a gopher turtle's burrow by its very presence, he said.

"That's why I love nature; everything is connected,'' he said.

As for the bad reputation given to some reptiles, or not-so-cuddly and majestic mammals like hippopotamus, Evers encouraged students to remember all wild animals are a special creation; snakes don't bite to be mean but out of fear or protection. All deserve to live their destiny in the wild.