Day Camp 2008 - Week 10

Lion This week's mammal day was the lion. Each group made a paper mache animal for lion enrichment: Everyone watched on Tuesday morning as the lions were released and enjoyed tearing up the paper mache. There were some giant soft drink containers that the lions really found interesting! On our lion day, we went up to the lions' night quarters, where the keepers told us all about these powerful felines. We also played a game and made a lion craft.

Cockatoo For our bird day, an education staff member taught us how to make parrot enrichments which we gave to the cockatoo during our educational talk. Some of us had our photo taken with CiCi the sulfur-crested cockatoo. Then we met another education staff member to candle eggs and to hold the baby chickens. We made a cockatoo craft and played a game, too.

Alligator We met an education staff member who introduced us to one of the baby alligators on Reptile Day. Some of us had our photo taken with Whompers the baby gator. We learned all about these amazing reptiles. Later, we fed the big alligators at the 3:00 alligator chit-chat. We also played a game and made a special alligator craft to take home.

Primate Keeper An education staff member taught us how to make enrichments for our primates (monkeys and apes) in Safari World. Then we met the primate keeper, who taught us all about these cool mammals. We learned that siamangs make a special sound by using their throat sac, and some of us even heard their calls. We were able to see the primates interacting with the enrichments that we made and played a game to see how difficult it would be without thumbs. We also made a primate craft to take home.

Horticulture For our Nature Day, we met staff member Will, who is a master gardener and has traveled all over the world. He taught us many things about plants and how important they are to our environment. We went on a nature walk in Safari World to learn about the many plants that we discovered there, and we even planted our own sprout to take home to watch it grow. We also made a craft and played a game to remember this day.