We watched the PBS Nature show- Is That Skunk? to the delight of my kids who enjoyed it enough to watch a second time, as well as read from our Burgess Animal Book, watched youtube videos about badgers, and made our notebook pages.
We also had the wonderful opportunity to go to Utah's Hogle Zoo for the free home school day. While seeing incredible animals like elephants, rhinos, and giraffes is always amazing, I was excited to check out the animals we have been studying. Some of these animals were off-exhibit for winter (Marmots); Others were hiding in their homes (spotted skunk, prairie dogs); And others I wasn't able to get a good picture of because of my camera. I don't know what my toddler did with it, but in addition to not focusing up close, it also isn't focusing if the flash is off which made getting pictures of the bats a horrible experince, as you will see, and sometimes just has a hard time focusing at all (cottontail rabbits). I haven't decided what to do about it (fix it or work out getting a new one) so everyone will have to endure slightly out of focus pictures for a time.
Striped Skunk-- he had a lot of brown on his tail where the white stripe should have been, which is why Nyah used brown in her notebook page. He did have the white stripe on his head and back. When he saw us, he quickly turned around and stuck his tail in the air, alarming the kids. I would guess he's been descented, but I don't know for sure.
This little creature is a wild weasel, as in NOT part of the zoo's animals, but a weasel living on zoo property. I watched him running around the playground with the kids before asking a zookeeper what he was. I was surprised at his size as I've always imagined weasels to be bigger. He was smaller than a ferret you might see at a pet store.
Harris' Antelope Squirrel
The rest of the pictures were of the short-tailed leaf-nosed bats. Their enclosure was in a cave-like exhibit which meant my flash kept going off and reflecting on the glass, but as I mentioned, when I turned off the flash the camera wouldn't focus. We arrived at the bats just as breakfast was being put out and the light inside the enclosure was on, which hasn't been the case in our pst visits. We spent lots of time watching them flying around, perching on the walls, ceiling, and branches. We watched them devour the bananas before all the other fruits, we saw one walking around on the ground, and lots more. It was fascinating. Too bad the pictures don't show it!!
Without flash- no glare, no focus.
No flash again
With flash
This was a great field trip to tie into your nature study! I love the way our nature study makes our other experiences mean so much more because we know a little more about the animals we are viewing. I felt that way last week when we had an opportunity to see some of our subjects up close at the Living Desert Museum.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have seen the bats! Thanks for sharing your photos even if you don't think they were that great. I love the one with the kids and the squirrel.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom