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| Zebra On Zebra Day, we drove through the preserve and observed the zebras very carefully. We recorded the stripe pattern for the one zebra in section 7 that should be in section 6 to try to identify which it is by comparing our drawing with the official wildlife zebra book. We also made a paper-mache zebra and lion, which the hoofstock keepers put out Friday morning as enrichment for the zebra, wildebeest, and rhino. All of these animals steered clear of the new additions to the preserve; they seemed to have a natural fear of getting too close. Even the 3 brave rhino that came close enough to eat the alfalfa near the paper-mache animals would not turn their backs on them! |
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On Spoonbill day, we met one of the education staff at the spoonbill aviary and learned how this bird uses its spoon-shaped bill and other interesting bits of information
about this native Florida species, and we looked for the wild spoonbill flock out on our preserve. We also made a spoonbill craft and played Spoonbill relay. We also candled eggs and held baby chicks!
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For Tortoise day, we helped prepare the diets for our Aldabra tortoises, and we were the special guests at the 2:00 p.m. Tortoise Talk. Of course, we also made tortoise crafts and played a tortoise game. And Group 3 painted a special tortoise on Redman's house!
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Hoofstock Keeper day taught us what duties that keepers have who work with hooved animals. Jen, Ashleigh, and Brian told us the kind of education that is required (college degree) and the best and worst parts of the job. The best part for us was when we went up to the giraffe night feeder and fed Mort, a hand-raised giraffe who seems to enjoy kids! And we played a giraffe game and made a giraffe at craft, too. We were surprised on the first day of camp when Channel 5 visited and featured our giraffe feeding on the 6:00 news!
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South America is home to a wide variety of animals from various habitats; this is one of the things we learned on this day. We toured the preserve, looking for animals from South America, then we went on a scavenger hunt
through Safari World to answer clues about more of these animals. We created special crafts from this continent, and we attended a show at the Animal Theatre that featured animals from South America.