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Marla Isaac is talking to a young red-shouldered hawk that seems more interested in whether her heavy glove might contain a stash of food than focusing on her.

Isaac rescued the hawk from a garage in West Bridgewater when it became trapped behind a soda machine. She suspects it was the runt in its nest and might have fallen out or been abandoned after an attack by a Great Horned Owl - a normal occurrence, Isaac said. However, this young bird's primary feathers were damaged, it was small and weak, and its feet were still together when Isaac was called in.

Like many of the other animals she has, it's considered a "non-releasable" because it could not survive on its own in nature.

Instead, the hawk will become yet another wild thing that Isaac looks after and uses to teach children and adults about the environment and the connections between humans, raptors and reptiles.

Isaac operates New England Reptile and Raptor Exhibits out of her Taunton home and takes the animals she has rescued or has receivership of to community groups, camps and libraries, among other stops. The red-shouldered hawk was one of the birds of prey she introduced to campers during a recent presentation at North Attleboro's World War I Memorial Park Zoo.

She is one of a few people in the state licensed to receive, handle and house these animals, which are otherwise against the law to own.

And Isaac is always teaching, even visitors to her home. Last week, with a reporter and videographer as her guests, she brought out an alligator she recently received from law enforcement officials on the Cape, where the approximately 4-year-old, 4-foot-long, 40-pound reptile was found beneath an automobile in Hyannis.

"Imagine finding this in the morning under your car," Isaac said, chuckling.

She has another male alligator about the same age. The newest addition has gained some weight since she was asked to take it last month. Isaac used to care for an alligator named "Al" that was three times the size of the two she now has. He lived a long life, Isaac commented.

The alligator hissed, apparently not pleased to be taken from its pool-side deck where it was basking in a cage Isaac keeps both gators in.

"His wounds from the pavement are healing up," Isaac said while inspecting the gator.

She opens the gator's mouth and displays its teeth. "It's like a trap," she says, adding, "Isn't that cool?"

The gator will become yet another "tool" she uses in her education program. Before he's fully grown, he will likely be sent to a facility that can accommodate and care for him, Isaac said.

"He's not a bad gator," she said as she returned him to his domain. Isaac said she will frequently tell people in her educational forums, "don't do what I do." She points to scars where she was bitten by a python.

It's a message she repeats during the zoo camp presentation. Not only are her animals illegal to own, they're dangerous. And that was just the birds of prey she showed the children, rapt with attention as she brought out the birds so her audience could see them up close.

There's a Barred owl named Romeo who at one time had a broken clavicle and a Great Horned Owl, Matt, who is her falconry bird. Isaac rubbed her face alongside Matt's, something the children would not be able to do because she is the only person he's known since birth.

"He's imprinted on me. If you did this, he'd rip your face off," she tells the children.

She explains how Matt is able to turn his head completely around, and what a Great Horned Owl's favorite food is. (Skunk.)

Largely, Isaac works with raptors. "You don't train reptiles," she says, though she has learned how to handle them. Among her brood is a prehistoric-looking alligator snapping turtle with a curved tooth that could inflict serious damage. Alligator snapping turtles are carnivores, eating only other animals.

Back at home, Isaac stresses, "You have to be insured to do this." She sets the turtle onto the grass in her backyard. Alligator turtles are the largest freshwater turtle in the world, reaching up to 200 pounds when fully grown. "They are beautiful," Isaac declares.

"I tell people don't mess with these things, they can get seriously hurt. There's a reason there is a law," Isaac said, adding, "Why would you want an alligator that can grow to at least 6 to 7 feet unless you could fully care for it? What's the sense?"

"I know their physiology," she said. "I know what their weapons are. I know how far they can stretch their necks.

"And you don't play games with these animals. You respect them for what they are."

Isaac also takes care of an 8-foot-long Burmese python she inherited when its owner gave it up because it got too big. She sometimes uses it in her program but only if her business partner, also her boyfriend, is along to help. It's 8 feet of dead weight "and it's not even 6 years old yet," Isaac said. "They get to be twice this size and can live 40 years."

Animals have been a lifetime interest for Isaac, who has been a naturalist in the field for more than two decades. As a child she would poke around in the ponds, farmland and woods that surrounded the home built by her father and where she still resides.

"I read every book (on animals) in the library," she said. "I was curious about what they were, how they lived."

She focuses mainly on on herpetology, falconry, birds of prey and animal rehabilitation.

Isaac estimates that she has about 80 animals. There's Uncle Fester, the turkey vulture she uses in her education programs. She often asks the kids why he looks like he should have a nose ring. The nostrils actually help them breathe - they can fly to 38,000 feet.

Isaac stressed you "can't get rich" doing what she does.

"It's a passion," she said. "What I get out of it is bringing this to children - how each species is connected to each other. They're less afraid."

She said the animals appreciate it too. "They're just as curious about you as you are about them."

"It's all tied into these animals - how they are perceived in nature and how we keep them here" in the world, Isaac said.

At the North Attleboro zoo camp, she brought out the Great Horned Owl and discussed the different diets of birds of prey. An owl, she noted, has a round or heart-shaped head that acts like a satellite dish picking up sound and helps them home in for the kill.

"They can hear the heartbeat of a mouse," she told the children.

She pulled out a piece of cardboard that contained all of the little bones of a mouse, bringing it up close for each child to see.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" she said.