This was the day that many of the campers were looking most forward to, and boy did it prove to be an exciting day! We started the day by making enrichments, which is something that is given to the chimps every day. Basically an enrichment is something out of the ordinary from the regular stuff they get. Some examples of enrichments are hammocks, toys, and different types of foods. (The Chimps love candy!) We took paper mache eggs (the shape taken from balloons) and filled them with some of the goodies. Each egg got a banana, and then the kids chose from crackers, oreos, nutra-grain bars, cereal, and peanuts to put in theirs. We closed up the eggs and decorated them. Then we drove out to the chimp islands where we met up with the chimp keepers and Terry Wolf. Terry took the boat out to the island and gave them our enrichment. It was really neat watching the chimps crack open the eggs and find all the goodies! Terry talked to us about chimps, the habitat they have in the wild and how it compares to that at LCS. It was a lot of fun!


After everyone arrived we got to work making treats, or enrichments, for the parrots at LCS. Ours consisted of peanut butter, pinecones, and birdseed. Everyone took two pinecones and lightly spread peanut butter inside. Then we sprinkled the seed all over it. After making 24 of the cones, we met up with Heather, a keeper at LCS. She brought along a Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot named Twizzler. We learned all sorts of things about Twizzler and her relatives. Like did you know she has special feet (zygodactyl) with two toes in front and two in the back, which allows her to grip on to branches! We took a tour of Parrot Circle where we gave our treats to the birds. Boy were they excited! During the tour we learned about the different types of parrots and their favorite types of food.


Jenn, a keeper at LCS, met Group 8 at the Iguana moat for a fun adventure in iguanas. We started by learning about the types of food iguanas like to eat, such as leafy greens. They have long tails and stumpy bodies. They are excellent climbers and go up about 6 stories (60 ft) and can jump from that height without getting hurt! They are excellent swimmers and use their tails to help them move around more swiftly. While at the moat, we also were able to check out some skinks, turtles, and a baby alligator.


Nursery Keeper Day isn't always what people expect it to be. Yes we do see some baby animals, but for the most part the babies are kept with their mothers to give them as natural of a setting as possible. It was our job that morning to put together the food bowls for the birds. We had a relay race where we each added different items for the bowls. It ended up being a close match. Then we followed the keeper gave the food to the animals. We also walked around the petting zoo to look at and feed the animals.


On Butterfly Day we checked out some really cool books on butterflies. We learned all about their life cycles, differences between moths, and different types of butterflies. We then went out on a nature walk to check out these beautiful creatures in real life. Armed with a butterfly identification book, we looked up all the butterflies we saw.