On Lion Day, we had an awesome treat! Our day started off early; we headed out to the lion section where an empty park awaited us. Moments later, they lions were released! They ran past our van, giving us a great view of them in action. Then we joined Brian, a keeper, in the night house for an upclose look at these amazing creatures. We got a close look at a mom and her 3 baby cubs. They were soo adorable, covered in spots. Then we headed to check out the big guys, the males. They roared a lot, and showed up some of their claws and big teeth. It was amazing how much they act like house cats! Then we got to go up on the cat walks and get an overhead view of the lions. They were jumping all the way up to us, just to get a better look..or maybe to scare us! It was great! On Thursday we got to get another look at the lions, when we relased a paper-mache Giraffe we made during the week.


We met with Stephanie, a keeper, at Pelican Island. She brought with her some pelican food....fish of course! We learned a little about these creatures. All the pelicans we have here at LCS were given to us because they were injured and here they have a safe place to live. Often they have broken wings, which makes them unable to return to the wild. We also have a few babies, which we hope will fly away when they are ready. We were all given gloves and we thew out a few fish each out the birds. It was awesome how they just snatched them right up! We learned that LCS has to put sodium into the fish to give them all the minerals and nutrients they would find in the wild. While we were out there, we got a closer look at the Rhea and the Brazilian Tapir.


We met with Jenn, a keeper, in the Animal Theater. She told us a lot about the alligators. They have special eyes that prevent their eyes from being scratched. The eyes just pop right into these sockets behind their eyes. We all thought that was awesome. And their nose is pretty nifty also-- it can close its nostrils nice and tight so as not let any water in. The one we are holding in the picture below is obviously a baby. We can tell that not only by its size, but also by the yellow bands around its body. As it gets old the yellow stripes fade.


On Produce Keeper Day, we assisted the Commissary Keeper in making diets for out Siamangs and White Handed Gibbons. We put all kinds of veggies and fruits in pans for them to eat. After the food is made we set them aside for the keepers to pick up and feed to the animals. Then got started on the next days meal. We took lots and lots of lettuce and broke it up into bite size pieces to be used the next day in making the diets. We learned one thing..you always have to stay ahead of the game!

Tracks day was neat for several reasons. First we had a contest..and we love contests in Group 8! Albert was our winner. What we did was we all had worksheets with animal tracks on it. The campers all tried to guess who the tracks belonged to, and the one with the most correct answers won. Then we all sat around and studied the different type of tracks and how their special features helped them. Also we learned that just by looking at the tracks you can tell alot about an animal and its habitat.