Teaching Creatures

On Friday, the Explorers met some of the live animals at the Hitchcock Center. Micky, one of the Hitchcock educators, introduced us to the bess beetles, millipede and walking sticks.

The Explorers taught the Young Naturalists the "Elephant Song."

 

We had an awesome day of all-camp fun yesterday. It all started with a presentation by Rae Griffiths of Teaching Creatures. She brought some live animals and talked to us about special adaptations animals have that we can learn from. She brought in a gecko that could walk all over the container it was in, up the wall and even on the ceiling! Its feet had special microscopic hairs that let it adhere to surfaces without glue. Rae told us that scientists at UMASS are studying gecko feet in order to design a special material called “Geckskin.” An index card-sized piece of this material can support 700 pounds – and then you can simply take it off the wall without leaving any sticky stuff behind! Rae old us that if her gecko escaped and went on the ceiling, it would take the strength of three grown men to pull him off! Rae also brought an ornate wood turtle from Costa Rica, a ball python and sugar gliders from Madagascar. All had adaptations we can learn from.

Those toes are super stickers!

The ornate wood turtle liked her bath, and her treat of mealworms!

The sugar gliders actually like to be curled up in this tiny pouch - it mimics their tree cavity homes!

The Australian sugar gliders are like our flying squirrels because they are noctural and can glide through the air. But unlike flying squirrels, they are marsupials: they develop in mom's pouch after they are born!

The ball python is a master camouflager.

Later, campers had a blast in the afternoon playing an all-camp game of predator/prey! We ventured into the “Back 40” of the Hitchcock woods to hunt “food” and hide from “predators.” There were five groups: two mice groups, two snake groups and a hawk group. Everyone had to get enough food and water to survive, and protect themselves from danger at the same time! It is so fun to see what life is like in the wild!