Archive for June 2009

Jun
25

Did you bring Toby?

Posted by in Zoomobile

While summer camp is happening at the zoo, it’s happening all over the city of Houston, too! And we are visiting some of those summer camps with our ZooMobile.

Today at one of those camps I had a second-grade student ask if I had brought Toby the Red Panda with me.  Of course, if Toby had gone with me to Sugar Land, then none of our zoo visitors would have been able to see him.

While Toby may have stayed at the zoo, three of our handling animals did travel with me.  These are part of a special collection of animals that live behind-the-scenes in our Children’s Zoo.  Most of these handling animals are relatively small (we do have to carry them in their travel containers, after all), but we do have a few oversized animals like our Flemish giant rabbits.  Exactly how big does a rabbit have to be to be considered a “giant”?  Trixie, our female Flemish giant, weighs about 18 pounds.  Now that is a big rabbit!

Trixie

Trixie our Giant Flemish rabbit

For today’s ZooMobile, I took a chinchilla, a fat-tailed gecko, and a baby alligator.  Maybe they aren’t as cute as Toby (he is the cutest animal in the world, you know), but the kids seemed to like them just the same.  It’s not every day you get to touch an alligator!

Leigh

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Jun
19

Keeper Camp

Posted by in Animal Fun Facts,Camp,Fun on grounds

Our 10-12 year old camp, Keeper Camp, put together their very own Keeper Talk.  This is something that our own keepers do.

Jun
18

Power Outage

Posted by in Camp

What do you do when it’s 7:30am and the power is out in the camp building?  Get ready for camp anyway!  That’s what happened this morning.  We all came into work to find that only a few lights were on and we were running on a generator, which sadly started slowly going out on us.  We found all the flashlights that were in the building so the camp teachers could start gathering their class supplies.

It was rather entertaining to walk by one of the supply closets and see a teacher holding a flashlight between their chin and shoulder while they collected stuffed animals out of the bins.

The three classes that are set up in our auditorium had to find alternate space since that room has no windows.  Tables were set up right outside their classroom door, and the little spare space in the exhibit hall.

Lucky for us, the power returned just as camp kids were arriving, so they didn’t have to stay in the dim light for long.

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Jun
17

Attack of the Lunchables!

Posted by in Camp

When I was in elementary school, you had a few choices when it came to Lunchables, and it all came down to which kind of meat you wanted.  Yup, it was old school: meat, cheese, crackers, and a packet of sauce.

The Lunchables that are appearing at camp lunch this summer show a much wider variety of options.  I’ve seen chicken strips, pizza, nachoes, hot dogs, and yes, a few of the old school cracker kinds.

While these pre-packed lunches are definitely easier on mom and very popular with the kids, they are also a problem for the environment.  The hot dogs, for example, are in a box, in a plastic tray with plastic film covering it; the buns are wrapped in their own separate plastic bag; and the candy desert is wrapped separately.  The amount of trash that ends up in the landfill from one of these lunches is amazing.

Now imagine that repeated 200 times, every day, if every camper brought a Lunchable.  There are some green alternatives that continue the spirit of the Lunchable.  This mom created her own homemade version to deal with a child’s food allergy, but the same idea can be used as a green alternative (notice the reusable container).  The basic idea of the Lunchable is based on an old Japanese tradition of the bento box; check out lunchinabox.net for new, American style bentos with sources for the boxes, ideas for what to pack, and more information.

Not only are these options better for the planet, they are healthier for the kids, too.

by Leigh, Education Specialist

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Jun
08

Zoo Crew in da hizouse

Posted by in Uncategorized

Free Lion Tours with Zoo Crew

Free Lion Tours with Zoo Crew

 

Education Zoo Crew are out in force offering fun and unique educational experiences. Last Friday they led free walking tours to various exhibits and even had Leo the Lion out signing autographs. Next time you’re at the Zoo look for them out on grounds. Their animal and Zoo knowledge knows no bounds and they use it to design thier own classes, so you never know quite what to expect from this creative bunch.

Jun
08

Hello, Handsome!

Posted by in Animal Fun Facts,Featured,Fun on grounds

Hansel and Lemurbot

Hansel and Lemurbot

Hansel, our resident fossa (pronounced foo-sa), has to be one of the neatest animals you’ll encounter at the zoo.  He is quite beautiful and has some amazing adaptations, which is why I refer to him as Handsome. 

As a fossa, his habitat in the wild would be the island of Madagascar.  (You may also recall the dreaded fossa from the movie of the same name.)  Fossa tend to live in dry forests on the island, and they are the largest mammalian (animal with fur) carnivore to inhabit Madagascar. 

What do they eat, you ask?  Researchers estimate that up to 50% of their diet consists of lemurs.  Lemurs!! And in order to catch those lemurs, the fossa have to be extremely skilled at climing, jumping, running, and catching their prey.  Their sharp claws allow them to grasp onto tree branches and hang upside down, or walk down a tree trunk head first.  They also have sharp teeth that are perfect for tearing and cutting meat.     

At the zoo, we give our animals enrichment to keep them mentally and physically stimulated.  Sometimes it’s a real treat and we create a lifelike animal for them to tear apart.  Awhile back Hansel was presented with an oversized lemur dubbed Lemurbot by staff.  Check out the picture of Hansel with his larger-than-life lemur decorated with meat chunks. 

For more information on lemurs, take a look at the Duke University Lemur Center, or to get interesting fossa facts, visit the San Diego Zoo’s Animal Bytes.

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Jun
04

Capture the Flag!

Posted by in Camp,Fun on grounds

The Rainbow of Camp Flags

The Rainbow of Camp Flags

In an attempt to reduce some of the inevitable camp chaos, each summer camp topic is assigned a color on the first day of camp. White = Bringing up Baby, Green = Adventures in the Rainforest, Orange = Garden Safari, Purple = All Sorts of Animals, and so on.  The campers wear a colored wristband, to keep track of who belongs where, and the classrooms are labelled with their colors.  By the end of the first day, the campers know their colors and can find their classroom with ease.  Think air traffic controllers or naval officers, but with small children. 

To make check in and check out easier, we’re using large fabric flags of each of the colors.  Find the color to check in; find the color to check out!  The kids may remember their colors right away, but sometimes the grown-ups have trouble remembering their colors, so we keep a list at the check-out gate, just in case.

The youngest campers check in and out in their room, so the flags can also serve a different purpose – to make it easy to sort them at lunch!  It is simple to ask them to follow their flag, especially when we hold it up high.

With all this use, here’s keeping our fingers crossed the flags survive the summer!

Leigh, Education Specialist and Camp Assistant Principal

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Jun
02

Can I call you Tamz?

Posted by in Animal Fun Facts,Featured,Zoomobile

One of my Thank You drawings

One of my Thank You drawings

As an education specialist at the Zoo, I teach classes on and offsite.  With the Zoomobile, we bring programs to schools, churches, community centers, festivals, camps, you name it.  I have taught just about every age group you can imagine too.

Yesterday I did an all day Zoomobile program at Regina-Howell Elementary in Beaumont.  I had about 120 second graders throughout the day, and they were just about the best group of kids I’ve ever had.  Great questions, silly stories, and to top it off, they wrote me thank you letters complete with illustrations! 

One of them began her letter with, “So, can I call you Tamz?” Sure, why not?  Other letters described in detail how much they enjoyed seeing the American alligator I brought, or meeting the kingsnake, or sniffing the ‘smelly’ ferret.  Whenever I tell kids that you’ve brought live animals, their eyes light up with excitement.  They write in their thank you’s that they can’t wait for you to come back next year.  And they will remember you the next time.  It’s great to know that you’ve not only made an impact on their life, but you made learning fun too.  So much fun that they feel comfortable enough to call you Tamz.

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