So why not jump in head first? Let’s meet our plethora of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa). This species of invertebrate hails from the island of Madagascar, off the coast of east Africa. They usually feed on fruit and plant material which they find on the forest floor.

Our Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches chowing down on some lettuce

Here at the Houston Zoo we have so many that we can’t even name them all! We have every size…from “Teeny tiny are you a piece of shrunken carrot?” to “My oh my you could be the national bird of Madagascar!”

These cockroaches may range in size from itty bitty to a small bird, however they cannot fly like other species of cockroaches. Their main way to ward off predators is to hiss! They make this noise by exhaling air through several breathing holes. Although both males and females can hiss, only males display unique horns on the tops of their heads which make them look more impressive to other males.

A male cockroach enjoying a fruit snack

These cockroaches can also use their hissing noise to attract mates.  Can anyone say triple threat?

Here in the Education Department we love to use these inverts to bring to Adventure Classes, Critter Encounters, or on ZooMobiles. There’s nothing like engaging a group of students while simultaneously scaring the heebee jeebies out of teachers and parents!

Don't be scared, put your hand in there!

What do you think…would you touch our cockroaches?

Organization at its best!

Who says spring cleaning is just for the spring time? Over the past week the Education Department has been in a frenzy of “spring” cleaning. It has been about a week since our Summer Camp Zoofari program ended, and that means there is a massive cleanup occurring in the Brown Education Center!

In order to get ready for a fall full of programming we’ve taken on some big projects-painting, organizing, cleaning, redecorating, hauling…you name it, we’re probably in the process of doing it!

There’s no better way to prepare yourself for something new than by cleaning out the old…and the Education Department is taking that literally. We’ve taken down our temporary classrooms, reopened the exhibit hall, taken everything off of our walls in order to paint, spackled the walls, organized and put away all camp materials, cleaned our classrooms and reorganized our biofact rooms…phew! Who knew you could do all of that in just one week?

Bare walls ready for a makeover!

This process is very important, but we’re also in the midst of another important task post-camp…planning! We’ve been planning our fall programs all summer but it’s time now to start implementing those programs, writing curriculum and gathering supplies. The work sounds never-ending, doesn’t it? Well, we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it, and we certainly think it is a very important (and fun!) job to do.

 *Post makeover pictures to come in a later blog!

One of this summer's Camp Zoofari highlights was a visit to Dinosaurs!

We have been having a blast this summer.  It’s hard to believe, but we only have two exciting weeks of Summer Camp Zoofari left!  Our teachers are already starting to finish up their summer commitment, going back to their own classrooms and schools.  What has been a trickle of last days will soon become a river, and before we know it the summer-sized Education team will contract down to our usual year-round crew.  The end of camp is always bittersweet; we’re glad to have survived another busy season, but it’s sad to say goodbye to all our campers, staff, interns, and Zoo Crew.  (At least we know we’ll get to do it again next summer!)

Wild Wheels, our toddler program, returns in the fall!

We may get a brief moment to breathe when camp ends, but the Education Department never comes to a full stop.  The end of camp means the beginning of fall programs!  The planning is already underway for our school-year classes.  During the summer we focus on the 4-12-year-olds, along with our 13-17-year-old Zoo Crew.  During the year that range expands dramatically, with something for every age.  Adults, seniors, school groups and scout groups, teachers, home schoolers and preschoolers, we even have Wild Wheels for kids up to the age of 3.  I enjoy the planning aspect of this time of year; creating themes for the semester, arranging for special adventures within the Zoo, and selecting handling animals.  It can be challenging to find the time during camp, but we make it happen - you can check the program websites soon for fall information!

So as we say goodbye to Summer Camp Zoofari, we say hello to a full array of fall programming.  We’ll have a short pause to breathe - most programs start again in September – but the transition has already begun.

So today, for your entertainment, here is a PG-rated list of a dozen fecal terms:

A selection of poop samples from our Collection of Recovered Animal Poop (or C.R.A.P.) box.

Poop

Dung

Feces

Scat

Droppings

Guano

Frass

Crap

Excrement

Doodoo

Turds

#2

Do you have another word for poop? (Let’s keep it PG!)

A Physical Challenge is always a great way to start a Friday!

Summer camp is a fun experience for campers, and we want every week to be exciting.  Our part-time teachers are the primay people responsible for the atmosphere in camp, and we want them to be enthusiastic every day.  This year, Victoria (our camp principal) devised a great way to get everyone’s energy up in the morning: teacher games! 

We have a morning camp meeting every day, and Tuesday through Friday our meeting now starts with a game.  The goal is to do something different every day.  So far, the teachers have done animal and zoo trivia, played pictionary and animal charades, identified movie quotes, and re-assembled the art carts.   On “Physical Challenge Fridays” they’ve tossed water balloons, thrown frizbees, and raced in jumping sacks.  The team with the most points at the end of the week gets a little prize. 

This week we came up with a diabolical plan.  (Insert scary laughter here.)  Throughout the summer we’ve quizzed the teachers on their knowledge of the principals and the full-time staff.  This week every challenge has been this type, which makes it more difficult.  Instead of competing for points, they’ve been accumulating items: hula hoops, balls, and frizbees.  Today their physical challenge relied on the use of these items to complete the challenge, giving the teams different advantages based on their earlier results.  The orange team, which had more hoops but fewer of the other items, succeeded in “crossing the ocean” first.  

It will be hard to top this week’s games for the remaining weeks of camp, but we will definitely try.  The teachers have been enjoying the competition, and the staff have had fun creating the games.  And the ultimate goal, getting everyone excited for the day, has definitely been accomplished.

A night tour is fun, unless it is raining or the animals are off exhibit!

One of the key characteristics of everyone in the Education Department is flexibility.  Of course, I don’t mean that we are all gymnasts.  (Although we do have two former cheerleaders and several former dancers on our team.)  I mean that the education staff are each creative enough to make it work when things don’t go quite as planned.  For every program we offer, there is at least one element of unpredicability.  

We have several on grounds programs that involve a tour of animal exhibits.  For Wild Wheels and Senior Safari, this may mean that one of the featured animals for the week is off exhibit or impossible to see.  Our Wild Winks overnights sometimes have a bigger challenge: the morning tour is before the zoo opens, and this means that every exhibit may display a cleaning keeper instead of an animal. 

Another element of programs that can turn into an element of surprise is booking.  Programs like Camp Zoofari and Safari School are individual registrations, making them a bit more predictable, but for groups that reserve programs we may end up with something different than what we expect.  For field trip programs, especially Adventure Classes, the biggest obstacle is usually number of students.  Our two classrooms are limited by fire code to a small group size, and if a school books one program for more than one class, we may end up having to change either the schedule or the location at the last minute.  Size is not the only piece that can be unpredictable; age can be as well.  We tailor our programs and curricula to the age group we expect, and if a Scout group or Wild Winks turns out to be younger or older than requested we may have to get really flexible.  

The variability of weather in Houston can also present its own challenges.  Our field research program at Texas City Prairie Preserve, Camp Zoofari, and Wild Winks are the three programs that require the most flexibility when the weather changes.  I’m not just talking about rain, either; rain we can handle.  Getting a little wet never hurt anybody.  Lightning and thunder, however, can cause some serious damage and force us to restrict our classes to the Education Building. 

ZooMobiles are a special brand of the unknown; unless we have been to a location before, we can’t predict much about the site, the setup, or even the class.  Sometimes what the group requested and what they are expecting are even different.  We’ve had programs where we were expecting to do 4 half-hour presentations and they wanted 2 hour-long programs, trips when we’ve packed to present Habitats and then have to change to Texas at the last minute, and even events where we planned for a festival table and what we ended up doing were back-to-back assembly programs! 

What a festival table should look like, as long as there's actually a table.

While there are big things that we know are unpredictable, sometimes it’s the little things that can be the biggest challenge.  I arrived once at a festival ZooMobile, which is basically a table of biofacts and a few handling animals, to discover that the event had run out of tables!  The Docent volunteer who was with me and I got out a few large biofacts to hold, and took turns handling one animal at a time.  A younger group on a Wild Wink overnight had gotten settled into the classrooms to sleep only to realize that the mounted animal biofacts that are kept in the rooms were too scary, and the whole group had to move into another room. 

The little surprises can’t be predicted, but we can prepare for some of the more common challenges.  We always include multiple animals in our planning for the “touring” programs, so even if one animal is not visible, hopefully others are.  There is spare food available for overnight programs, in case someone with a dietary restriction attends without warning.  And our biggest preparation is simply knowing that things may not go as planned, and a flexibility to make quick changes that is a key part of who we are as educators, and as the Education Department.

A great fireworks display!

Everyone loves a great fireworks display to celebrate Independence Day!  (Well, almost everyone.)  Houston has many fantastic pyrotechnic shows, including a big one here in Hermann Park.  This year a great patriotic weekend in the park included a visit to the Zoo for several thousand people – thanks for coming!

Fireworks are exciting for humans, but the “rockets’ red glare” and ”bombs bursting in air” are lost on most animals.  If your dog is anything like mine, fireworks are not just another weird human behavior, but possibly the beginning of the end of the world.  (I spent Sunday night re-confirming to my dog that it was not.  In fact, the whole weekend proved to be a test of his bladder, as he flatly refused to go outside once the neighbors started their festivities.)

Most of the animals at the Zoo are just fine on the Fourth.  Like the helicopters that fly nearby and the ambulances on their way to the Medical Center, the fireworks are one more human noise to ignore.   There are a few animals that are a bit more nervous, though, and those get special attention on the Fourth of July.  Our cassowary is one of those animals.  He gets his own personal keeper during the fireworks, someone to keep an eye on him and respond in case things get a little hairy.  Fortunately this year he was quite mellow and I’ve been told it was an uneventful watch. 

Fireworks aren’t the only thing that can spook our animals, but the keepers know what bothers their charges and adjustments are made to avoid these situations when possible.  For example, there are certain areas of the Zoo the street sweeper skips in the mornings.  But animals figure it out pretty quickly.  Even if something is scary at first, if it continues and nothing happens to the animal then whatever was frightening loses its threat.  (This is called desensitization in animal training lingo.)  A great example is the African Forest construction – it’s been ongoing for a while, so the neighboring animals have tuned it out completely.  Unfortunately it needs to be something that the animal experiences frequently or continuously, meaning that the handful of animals who fear the Fourth will continue to need special attention on the night the fire flowers fly.

How about your own animals?  Did they survive the Fourth of July, or maybe even enjoy it?

Our newest camp innovation - an Art Cart!

Every year we try to find ways to make our Summer Camp Zoofari run smoother while making things easier on the teachers.  This year, one of our innovations is the Art Cart – rather, the Art Carts, as we have three of them.

At a program at one of the local hospitals, Victoria (our camp principal) saw their art cart. With wheels on the bottom and a plethora of art supplies, this was a way to bring all of the art supplies to the participants.  When the kids may not be able to come to the art, the art cart can come to them.

Doesn't it just make you want to create some art?

We’ve took this idea for camp and ran with it.  Last year, every classroom had their own set of scissors and glue, and teachers had to collect their own paints, brushes, and construction paper every day.  The art carts relieve the need for all of that.  Now, the teachers just sign up for a time for the art cart and pick it up when it is their turn.  They only have to collect the more specialized items for their crafts, which saves them time in the mornings.  It also means we only have to stock enough scissors and glue for one classroom worth of kids per cart! 

Each of our art carts has enough glue and scissors for our biggest group of kids, bottles of paint in 11 colors, paint trays and brushes, googly eyes, clear tape, a stapler, and a rainbow of construction paper.  Our camp interns have taken on the task of keeping everything neat and refilled.  And the teachers enjoy having a few extra minutes and a mobile supply closet that comes to them.

I would say our art carts are a success!!

Toad Trackers measuring a Gulf Coast toad!

Have you ever wondered what the Zoo would be like at night? Do you have an interest in conservation and amphibians? Maybe you’ve always wanted to become an expert field researcher during the summer? Well this summer you can! During Toad Trackers, a week-long summer camp offered July 19th and July 26th children ages 10-12 can become field researchers while spending the night at the Zoo.

In this brand new conservation education program, students become familiar with local amphibians and field research tools such as kestrels, GPS units, calipers, microchips and scales.  Students practice using this equipment in order to perform tests and measurements when they search for Gulf Coast toads on Zoo grounds during their overnight.

In May of this year we had a home school group join us to pilot the program. We had two very successful evenings of tracking toads on grounds, where we found about four gulf coast toads each night. Each student that participated had a specific job during the field research portion of the evening ranging from catching the toad and placing it in the bucket to sexing and weighing the toad. After the students performed their tests they handed the toad to an employee of the Conservation Department that specializes in amphibians, who placed a microchip in the toad. The microchip allows the conservation department to track the toads for several years. Both the home school group and our summer camp groups play an important role in gathering information for this research project. Not only do these students have the opportunity to become a field researcher for the week, they also contribute to one of the Zoo’s conservation projects.

 So, if your kids are like me and spend lots of time outside getting dirty and collecting snakes, frogs, toads, salamanders or any other wildlife to bring back home-this camp could be for them! Spaces are filling fast, so visit our website to register now: http://www.houstonzoo.org/camp/.

Written by Martha, Education Programs Specialist