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During session 1 of The Reptile Store Summer Camp, 10 Leaders In Training (LIT) and 9 staff members set out on a 800+ mile journey to collectively explore our natural world and some amazing creatures that exist in it! This is a summary of our amazing experiences we encountered during our LIT week this summer!
|  | | We started off on Monday with a base day, which included interacting with lots of different species of reptiles, and some guest speakers. The first speaker was a non-profit organization called “Green Venture” who came in with some interactive games and activities to educate us on how we use our natural resources and how to become a little greener in our household! Corey Woods also came into the camp on Monday to talk about how his hobby turned into a profession, and some of his experiences as a professional breeder. Corey brought in some different Ball Python morphs that we had a chance to pass around! |  | | Tuesday was our first trip, and we headed off to Zooz Niagara! At Zooz we watched a Birds of Prey Flight demonstration, walked around the zoo observing the animals, played in the splash pad, and of course entered the Tiger’s enclosure! We all had a chance to play and work in the Siberian Tiger’s cage. We learned a lot from this experience such as how shift cages work, what’s involved in maintenance of a large cat enclosure, general information about Siberian Tigers, and of course their amazing sense of smell. We used Jordan’s deodorant to rub on scratching posts and fence posts inside the enclosure. This, we learned, was one example of environmental enrichment! The Tigers were allowed back into the enclosure when we were safely outside, and were stimulated by the cleaned habitat and the new scent! We also hand fed the 2 Giraffes at Zooz! Its not too often you have a chance to interact with a 16 ft tall animal, and she was the shorter of the two! |  | | Wednesday we spent at the store. Each LIT did a reptile presentation at East Avenue Park for the Hamilton Soupie Program and the general public. The show was well received with around 50 guests eager to see the animals and learn all about them! We had some guest speakers on Wednesday as well. Dave Desoer, the scorpion expert, and Jon Kendrick from Niagara Reptiles came into the camp! We learned a lot of information from Dave about arachnids, and of course, interacted with a few species! Jon brought in some venomous reptiles and did a talk on them. He taught us how venom is made, what venom is, what anti-venom is, some information about the animals he brought with him, tools you would need to work with these creatures and some safety aspects to working with venomous animals. On Wednesday, we also went in “Mojo” the American Alligator’s enclosure to get some pictures, and clean his water area! |  | | Thursday we all had a very long day! We had to arrive at the camp no later than 7 am! It was media day at the Reptile Store Summer Camp! CHCH TV morning host Lesley Stewart came into the store to meet some of the creatures, meet all the LIT’s, and of course, learn about our amazing summer camp program! We were on live TV for a total of 34 minutes, split up into small segments from 6 am-9 am! We were talking to over 400 thousand viewers across Ontario! All of the LIT’s were on TV introducing themselves one at a time, holding their reptile, and sharing some information with the public! The LIT’s were very impressive, especially with it being their first television appearance! |  | | When we wrapped things up with the morning news show, we headed off for our field trips! First trip location was Brantford Twin Valley Zoo! At the zoo we checked out their enclosures and animals, watched an animal education show, and then met some of the animals up close and personal. Due to our relationship with local zoos and animal groups, we are able to provide our summer camp kids with some amazing opportunities and experiences that most summer camps can’t match! We had an opportunity to hold and get some photos with a 21-day-old Siberian Tiger, a 6-week-old African Lion and a 6-week-old Grey Wolf! The LIT’s all held the animals for some quick photo opportunities! From Twin Valley Zoo we were off to Valens Conservation Area! We went swimming, played a bunch of games and did some of our LIT work. As we left Valen’s to return to the store, we stopped by Aunt Dee’s for some amazing butter tarts! |  | | Friday morning we loaded up our 3 vans, full of all the supplies we would ever need, for a 2-night road trip! Our first destination was Jungle Cat World Wildlife Park in Orono, Ontario. We had some time to look around the zoo, do our animal presentations and grab lunch. Then it was time to do some work! We embarked on a 30-minute hike to do some interactive games, and of course to climb the oldest and tallest hemlock tree in one of Ontario’s last old-growth Boreal forests! The tree was 65 ft tall…or slightly taller, but we did use ropes! One the ground below the tree we honed in on our knife throwing skills and we walked through the forest blindfolded to the sound of a beating drum! This is one of the trips that let our mind, body and spirit return to nature! |  | During the evening we were treated to a couple of different videos of zookeeper mistakes, and learned about zoo protocol for the safety of the animals as well as the keepers. The videos were graphic at times, but very educational in informing us that these creatures are in fact still wild animals and whenever working with them safety should be the highest priority. Dinner included pizza, veggies, snacks, and drinks! We were treated to a Night Safari Animal Presentation and seen some awesome animals including a Skunk, Ring-Tailed Lemur, Wolf, Fox, Tiger, and a Lynx! After the in-class session, we headed out into the dark and into the zoo. We had an amazing chance to observe the animals and their nocturnal habits! The tour guide fed some of the big cats a small snack and talked about each animal. We learned how rare the Amur Leopard is, how agile the Cougar is and how powerful the Jaguars are! When the nocturnal hike was complete, we watched a movie titled “Human Kind”. This is a documentary that shows how we use animals, and abuse animals, as humans. It talked about pets, the pet trade, farming, skin trade, circuses and entertainment and zoos. This documentary was very graphic and disturbing, however it was also very educational. Most people don’t think of these things even though it happens every day. As our children grow up they will have more and more opportunity to make their own choices as consumers, and will now hopefully support only companies and products that abide by industry standards, and tread softly on our planet. The video was inspiring…. and tiring…after a short campfire…we were off to bed! |  | Saturday morning…off to Ottawa! We stopped at Wendy’s for lunch and to break up the drive a bit. Our destination was Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo! This is one of the largest Reptile Zoo, and the largest Reptile Rescue in Canada! We looked around the zoo and watched a couple of educational shows and feedings! We took the wooded trail and helped Little Ray finish building, and set up, a couple of the outdoor enclosures for Caimans and Turtles. When the zoo closed for the day…. we got a chance to play! We went swimming with Alligators…. Well, because why wouldn’t you at a Reptile Store Summer Camp! Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo has 2 American Alligators! “Stewart”, a 16ft, 550lb male, and “Chase”, a 12ft, 300lb female! Little Ray and myself brought each LIT into the 4ft deep water one at a time and let them try to pick up a American Alligator in the water…a tougher task than you might think! The LIT’s done a great job and followed instructions to the point where we all got out alive! Just kidding…we were never in any sort of harm! When we were finished swimming with the alligators, we went to our campground, set up our tents and went swimming, without alligators! We had a campfire, did some LIT training and then called it a night. |  | Sunday morning we got up, packed, and went to the Canadian Wildlife Museum in Ottawa! The museum is constantly being renovated and was only partially opened. We did get a chance to check out some massive dinosaur bones, and full models that were put together! From the museum we went out to lunch to Quiznos or Harveys (kids choice!) and made a quick stop back at Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo! We picked up some animals for our store, and picked up “Casper”, our new European Barn Owl! The LIT’s and our staff are very excited to bring our Barn Owl back to our summer camp! We hope “Casper” will do a great job educating and inspiring school groups and summer camp kids in the future at our store! On the way home we stopped in Markham for our annual sit down dinner at Fire and Ice! The food and atmosphere was awesome as usual! We even had the opportunity to celebrate a birthday! |  | This year’s group of LIT’s should be amazing! We had a great week to prepare and we had tones of fun and experiences in the process. Working with these young leaders inspires me to keep pushing to create a summer camp packed full of wildlife experiences that will hopefully inspire the younger generation to put nature first, live green, tread softly, and to learn and understand our natural world! Without programs like ours and people like our staff and LIT’s, some of these children would never have the chance to pet a Tiger…. or swim with an Alligator! Chief Seattle once said, “What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man.”
Congratulations should go out to our 10 LIT’s for the 2008 Summer Camp Sessions! They are going to make every child’s experience at our summer camp just a little more WILD! |  | Allysha |  | Bailey |  | Collin |  | David |  | Fabian |  | Kathryn |  | Kendra |  | Nicole |  | Taylor |  | Vanessa |  |
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