Day 27

Learned about wings and feathers today. After the lesson we went through the Discovery Center, so we split into smaller groups again, which has worked pretty well for touring this part of the zoo. My group today included Agasi, Jack, Eva, Jackson, and Miller. Here's my group crossing the rope bridge in the rainforest area:

Here's a picture of the waterfall, that is the backdrop of this rope bridge:

My kids were pretty good about stopping and taking time to look at some of the different animals. I remember watching them all just gander at the turtles here for a while.

We have some poison dart frogs down in the water lab. It's crazy how brightly colored they are, but that is there defense mechanism. It warns predators that they are poisonous, so you better not mess with them. I remember seeing a few of these in bromeliads while in the Amazon Rainforest during May Term 2009 in Ecuador.

The last animal we see in the Discovery Center is the scarlet macaws. Miller stopped and said, "Oh my gosh. I love the scarlet macaws! They are so beautiful." So, I told him I wanted to take his picture by the macaws.

Next, was animal presentation time after snack. The blue tongue skink, Marley, was shown first. Then, we actually saw a new animal today (and I mean even new for us counselors). We had not seen one of the tortoises yet from the education department, so I was excited. This is Bert, and he is a 14 year old gopher tortoise. They are known for burrowing in the ground, hence the name gopher. Bert is one of two of these tortoises that the zoo has. Can you guess what the other one's name is? haha

After the animal presentation, we split into two groups having half work on the butterfly clothespin craft project for the day while the others fed the parakeets. Next, was lunch time. I remember telling Gavin on Monday that I loved his lunchbox, and I asked to take a picture of it today. Scooby-Doo! Where are you?!

 Today was the 5th birthday of Reed, one of our campers, so we had a little celebration for him after lunch. I picked up some cupcakes at Hy-Vee this morning, and as you can see they were red, white, and blue. I think the kids had fun.

At one point this afternoon, I was grabbing some supplies from the storage closet in the bottom floor of the Discovery Center, and a few ladies stopped me asking if I worked here. Yes, I do. They then asked if the alligators are dead. I replied that we get asked that all of the time at the zoo. They are actually caimans, and the reason people ask that all the time is because they really don't move much. They really conserve their energy and are what we call opportunistic hunters.; they sit and wait for the food to come by them and snatch it, rather than actively searching and hunting for prey. I have seen them swim around some as I've walked by, but most of the time you'll just find them sitting perfectly still. I enjoy these moments where I get to share some things I've learned about the different animals with people. I'm practicing for the day my zoology professor comes to visit the zoo in case I'm giving him a tour. haha

I had gotten a message from a college friend yesterday saying "Hey jungle girl!" and that she was going to be in Des Moines asking if we could get together and catch up. So, I ended up meeting with Megan and her boyfriend Jeremiah at Dairy Queen. Megan and I will actually be living together in an apartment on campus our senior year along with our friends Cassie and Karena (which I'm looking forward to, by the way). It was fun to catch up for a while in person. I'm really glad she thought of me when she was in town. I'd take an in-person conversation any day over a phone or internet chat when possible.