Day Camp 2009 - Week 8

Giraffe For our Mammal Day, we met a wildlife keeper and assisted in preparing the giraffe enclosure. We also were able to hand feed these tallest African animals at the exhibit. Some of us had our photo taken with them. Later, we played a game and then we made a special giraffe craft to take home.

Flamingo This week's bird is the flamingo. We met the education staff at the Flamingo talk, where we learned about the Caribbean flamingoes which were all hatched at Lion Country Safari. We also learned that flamingoes have beaks that sift through sandy water to find their food, and we were able to use scoopers to sift through a sandbox to find wooden fish. Some of us even got to dress like a flamingo! We played a fun flamingo game and made a flamingo craft, too. We also candled eggs with an education staff member and held baby chicks.

Snake This week's reptile is the snake. We met the wildlife director who told us all about these often misunderstood reptiles, and brought out Elizabeth, the Burmese python. Some of us had our photo taken with the ball python. We also played a game and made a snake craft.

Bird Keeper For our Zookeeper Day, we first met an education staff member who helped us to make enrichments for the birds. Then we took our enrichments to the bird keeper, who told us all about the job of caring for the birds at Lion Country Safari. We were even able to help out by cleaning a parrot exhibit. Then, the keeper gave our enrichments to the parrots and we watched what they did with them. We made a special craft and played a special game, too.

Tracks We met a wildlife staff member in an area of the preserve that had many animal tracks. The keeper pointed out which animal made each type of print and explained how one could read the clues to know this information. Then we poured some material into a track to make our own track to take home. Later, we made another craft about tracks to take home, too.