Zoo Camp

Most everybody has been to the zoo before. But this week I have been going to zoo camp with my cousin from Georgia & my new friend that just moved to Jacksonville. My teacher Miss Alana has freckles all over her. We got to go behind the scenes where no guests can go. We even got to go in their barns and night houses where they are kept at night. On Monday we got to see the giraffes and feed them. When I fed the giraffe it felt like he was shaking my hand. His head went up and down and so did my hand when he was eating the branches from my hand. The giraffe stuck out his tongue when he was trying to eat. It was long and blackish purple. We also got to see a new baby giraffe that does not have a name yet. The baby giraffe was 5 foot 7 which was taller than me and my teacher. We also saw the new baby jaguar. It was funny watching him play in the waterfall. I did not think cats liked water. Did you know jaguars (and Florida panthers) are on the endangered species list? We learned about my mom's favorite animal cockroaches. Not really!!! They don't have backbones. My teacher told us we shouldn't kill cockroaches because they help us by cleaning up our leftover crumbs and wood. I think my mom would want the crumbs more then she would want the cockroaches. I learned about reptiles & amphibians like snakes, tortoise, lizards, toads, komodo dragons, and a bearded dragon. Did you know that warm blooded is endothermic and cold blooded is ectothermic? Reptiles are
endothermic and they also lay eggs. Yesterday I touched 50 stingrays. It was amazing! Their skin was sorta smooth, gooey and mushy. We went in River Valley to the bat cave. Vampire bats don't suck peoples blood but they do suck the blood of animals like cows. Fruit bats eat fruit like the character Stelluna. We saw parrots too. All parrots don't talk, some whistle. The parrot by teacher showed us has nut cracker which is his beak. When she gave a nut he cracked it and ate it out of the inside. Another bird we saw was an owl. This owl can not fly because it got run over by a car and broke a wing. The vet fixed his wing but he still can't fly. Owls can turn their head a circle but this owl can not. For kids that are 8 they can sleepover tonight at the zoo but I am not that old yet. I hope I can next year. I love the Jacksonville Zoo ! ! !