4th of July week lead to many different animal adventures; check out how we spent our week!

Rhino--We met with Terry Wolf at the Rhino's night house. In the large pen was Pop, one of the dominant White Rhino bulls. We learned all about the rhino and how they were quickly becoming even more endangered. There are 5 different types of rhino, all of which are in a dire situation. At Lion Country we have white rhino of all ages including a "baby" who was born last fall named Bloom. All rhinos are the same color; however just because they are called white rhino doesn't mean they are white. Their name comes from the Afrikaans words for "wide mouth". When the English heard the words they modified it to white.

Cockatoo--Rhonda, Camp Director, met with us in the Animal Theater with CiCi, a sulfur crested cockatoo. It was really neat to see the bird outside of the cage and we got to ask lots of questions. One cool thing learned about cockatoos was: by looking at their eyes you can tell their sex! Then we got to have our photo taken with Cici. :)

Alligator-- Everyone was looking forward to today because we got to feed the alligators. Our day started off by meeting up with Andrew in Wildlife. He talked to us about alligators and showed us the baby in residence. One cool thing about baby alligators is they have yellow striped on their tails! Later in the day we all gathered around for Alligator Chit-Chat, a daily show at LCS where you learn about the gators and get to feed them. We were brought down and given fish to feed the alligators. It is amazing to see their lightening fast reaction to the food! It was very cool.

Petting Zoo Keeper-- On this keeper day, we met up with Melissa who taught us all it takes to be a Petting Zoo Keeper. The campers started by cleaning out the feeding bowls and disinfecting them. Then they learned what each animal need to eat. They filled the buckets with the right combination of grain and pellets. Then they had the opportunity to rake up pens and refill them with hay. Everyone had a lot of fun. To top the day off everyone went in and played with the baby chicks that were about a week old. They sure do grow fast!

Spiders-- Some people were looking forward to this day and other dreading it. Having a phobia about spiders is pretty common, but today we tried to set the facts straight because a lot of times they get a bad wrap. We started the day off by going on a nature walk looking for spiders. We found a lot of spiders and tons of other creepy crawlies located in our own back yard at the KOA. We also found a lot of webs, which we read about later. Who knew there are so many different types!