Having fun during a pre-school program!Having fun during a pre-school program!Ah, Saturday.A day for relaxing and running errands and unwinding from the week.Unless you are me.Saturdays are my Friday and also one of my busiest days of the week.Almost every Saturday I teach two 1 ½ hour pre-school classes and one 1 hour Zoo Explorer or Eco-Club class.I have less than an hour between each class for prep and snack and recovery.You would think Saturday would be one of my least favorite days.But I love it.Let me explain.
The programs run like this: every month we learn about a new animal in ZooSchool (pre-school and Zoo Explorers) and Eco-Club spends three months studying a particular habitat.You see the same kids pretty much every month.When they outgrow pre-school at age 5 many of them go into Zoo Explorers.And this is why I love it.This is a chance to have a lasting impression on a group of little ones.I may run around like a crazy person on Saturday but this is one of the rare chances in this line of work to see the long-term effects.Going into the schools or teaching visitors on grounds is like dropping little knowledge seeds – you know you dropped them but you don’t know which ones grew.With the ZooSchool classes you get to watch the seed grow.
A concrete example of this would be “Hank”.Hank started pre-school when he had just turned 3.When he first started his dad told me he had an avid interest in animals.Most kids at this age do.Hank’s dad had no idea of the understatement he had made.Hank was like a little sponge.Every month he would come bounding into the room full of energy and excitement – looking forward to learning more about that month’s animal.Cut to Hank’s second year of ZooSchool.The topic for that month was the wildebeest and one of the activities was a horn matching game.Each child had the picture of a horn and I had the pictures of the different animals to which the horns belonged.The children would match their horn to the appropriate picture.When I held up a picture of a kudu (a type of African antelope.For the record I didn’t know what one was before this class either) Hank’s eyes lit up.“Hey!That’s a kudu!They’re in my zoo-owogy book!”Yep.That’s right.Little four-year-old Hank had a zoology book.His dad also tells me he “wants to teach about animals like Miss Tena does” when he grows up.That makes me feel gratified and humbled all at the same time.
There are so many other students that come in with the usual child-like interest in animals and leave with a love of animals and the places the animals live.Little “Lexie” saves frogs in her back yard now, according to her mother.She “has become very green” her mom jokes.I could give example after example. And this is the reason that although I leave work on Saturday exhausted it is probably my favorite day of the week.It is the one day I get a chance to see the seed turning into the plant.
So, Willie (the greatest donkey ever!) and I were out for a stroll this past week.I was leading the way to go around behind the Education Center and he stopped, refusing to go any further.I automatically assumed he was being the Uber-Brat he can sometimes be.I thought he wanted to go between the farmyard and the kangaroos to graze in the little grassy patch in front of the Sophie Danforth building – which had been our route for a few days.Willie can sometimes get a little stuck in a routine so I was going a different route on this particular day to make certain that didn’t happen.So when he stopped I thought he was just trying to do things the way we had been doing them.Basically – I wasn’t paying attention.It took a little coaxing and targeting to get him to go around the building.This should have made me stop and look around since his other grazing spot is behind the Ed Center and I have never had a problem getting him to go back there before.We went around and he picked up his pace once we got in sight of the grazing patch.The walk continued and I forgot all about his ‘stubborn donkey moment’.To end the walk I decided to go around the Ed Center again.Once again, he seemed a little hesitant but followed me on the path.This is where Willie showed me what I had been overlooking: there on the path, a little off to the right, was a nice big fox scat! The reason Willie had not wanted to go back there was because he smelled a predator!
Once again I was reminded that other animals experience the world in a way that is completely different from the human animal.I would never have been able to smell that fox scat.And even if I had been able to smell it I would not have been able to identify it as predator scat.Animals experience the world in ways we could not even imagine but if you pay attention to their behavior they usually let you know what is going on.Willie told me there was something there that he wasn’t sure about – I just didn’t listen.He told me by stopping.Donkeys do the ‘stubborn donkey’ thing when they are unsure about where they are about to enter.This behavior keeps them from wandering into dangerous situations without checking out the scene first.Since getting Willie to go anywhere towards the grassy sections is never a problem, I should have known there was something there he was unsure of.I made the human mistake of assumption.I assumed I knew what was going on in Willie’s world.But there’s no way I could ever know what is going on in Willie’s world because my senses don’t work like Willie’s.Willie trusts me, so he followed me around the building the first time, even though he could smell fox in the air.The second time past the scat he put his nose to the ground and sniffed it out, then spent a minute or so sniffing and investigating the area around the scat.Then he went on his merry way.
One thing is certain, I will never assume to know what is going on in Willie’s world again.I may not be able to smell/hear/see/taste like he does, but I don’t have to.He’ll let me know all I need to know – as long as I trust him.
It’s a brand new year and apparently 2008 is trying to skip the rest of winter altogether and go right into spring.All the warm weather of the past few days has been great for the Zoo.There are crowds of people – even in the middle of the week.The gibbons are cavorting and somersaulting for the delight of all.The elephants and giraffes are back in their yards since the ice has melted away.Willie and I are back on a regular walking schedule.So are Loki and I.All is right with the world
The warm weather has also led to some weirdness though.It turns out that eating lunch outside in January leads to silliness in some of the staff here.There are insects hatching, like flies, that aren’t supposed to be around at this time of year.And Loki (the red-tailed hawk) has started making the same calls he does during courtship season – about 6 weeks too early!In a few days it will snow again.It may actually have snowed by the time this is posted. Then we’ll be forced to hunker down and endure the long, hard winter.But these few days respite have been greatly appreciated.Check out the link to watch one of our education ferrets, aka domestic polecats, out for a stroll on his harness.Ferrets are part of the weasel family and as such are ferocious rodent hunters.Our ferrets spend their time outside hot on the trail of the field mice that live in the grassy areas around the education center.
Hope you enjoyed some outdoor time during the warm days.See you next week!
Having fun during a pre-school program!Having fun during a pre-school program!Ah, Saturday. A day for relaxing and running errands and unwinding from the week. Unless you are me. Saturdays are my Friday and also one of my busiest days of the week. Almost every Saturday I teach two 1 ½ hour pre-school classes and one 1 hour Zoo Explorer or Eco-Club class. I have less than an hour between each class for prep and snack and recovery. You would think Saturday would be one of my least favorite days. But I love it. Let me explain.
