Girl Scouts - March 4

This week’s program was one of the best ones we've ever had. The girls were Brownies, which are pretty young, but they were very well behaved and very much in to the zoo. And there were only 13 of them, which is considerably easier to handle than our normal 25. We had plenty of help, as well, with 6 adults and 3 zoo personnel. It's so refreshing to have a group of girls who are so excited about being there, and yet will actually listen to what you have to tell them, ask intelligent questions, and then actually listen to the answers.

By way of introducing each other, we had everybody tell us his or her names and give us a favorite nature item. A lot of the girls said things like Mountains or Trees or Animals. There were a few specifics, like the one girl who liked Giraffes, and myself who likes water.

The focus of our program this time was "Earth is Our Home" so we talked for a while about things that are Endangered –vs.- things that are Extinct. We asked them to come up with a list of things people do that harm the Earth, like "cutting down all the trees" or "leaving garbage on the ground" or even "hunting".

After our discussion, we divided the girls into 3 groups and gave each group a subject from off the list they just made. We gave them a list of questions to fuel their discussion ranging from "Does it harm the Earth? And How?" to "Is it appropriate? Is it beneficial?" Then let them talk it out amongst themselves for a few minutes.

We passed out the paper and crayons next, and asked them to draw a picture of an alternative to the subject they had just discussed, then had them tell the whole class about their picture. The group that talked about cutting down trees drew a picture of an artificial Christmas tree and told us that we didn’t have to cut down a tree each year, we could just buy a fake one and reuse it over and over again. The group that talked about the garbage problem drew a picture of a group of girls picking up trash from the roadside, and told us that organizing a group clean-up day was a good way to have fun and clean up the place all at the same time. The girls who talked about hunting drew pictures of people with cameras and notepads, and told us that taking pictures and writing stories about the animals you see is a much nicer way to show off the animals than killing them for their skins or horns.

Keep in mind, these girls were only about 7 years old. I thought they did such a good job with the whole concept, and really came up with all these ideas on their own. There were a few issues with sharing the crayons that didn’t go over very well (one little girl ended up in tears because the other girl was using the black crayon), but all in all, they really did a good job.

By the time we finished up with everybody’s picture it was time to gear up to head outside. The temperatures are so much warmer now-a-days, we really don’t have to "gear up" quite as much as we used to, but it still takes time getting 13 little girls into their boots, hats, gloves, coats, and scarves, not to mention going potty in advance! But, eventually we got everybody out the door and headed on our way.

We stopped to visit with Ahpun, the polar bear, but she wasn’t really interested in company so we headed on to the wolverine, then to the ravens, the goshawk, the musk ox, and the eagle.

Once we got to the eagle, Amber Mount (the education director’s assistant) decided we were to play a game. We divided the girls into pairs and assigned an animal to each pair. Then we split the pairs up, with one girl on one side of the trial and the other girl on the other side of the trail. Then, Amber called out the name of a position (6 or 7 of which she and I demonstrated earlier) to the girls, and they would run to each other and get into position. The last pair to assume the required position was "extinct" and had to give a reason why their animal might have gone extinct, like loss of habitat or over-hunting. The positions were all funny names, like Lover’s Leap, or Monkey on your Back, or Reading on the Toilet, and the girls had to remember the proper position to assume while in the middle of a giggling mass of 7-year olds.

The game was a lot of fun, but it really wound the girls up. We kind of had a bit of trouble getting them calmed back down once we resumed our nocturnal tour. I’m glad we played that game outside, however. I can’t imagine trying to do it inside, particularly in our tiny little temporary education building.

Snacks and hot tea were waiting for us back in the Ed. building, so we trudged back inside. One of the troupe leaders had sailor bread and almond butter as a snack, and I couldn’t resist trying it out when she offered it to me, especially since I hadn’t had dinner yet! It was quite tasty and went very well with my usual cup of tea, which Amber was kind enough to get for me.

The next item on the agenda for the night was a craft project, so we passed out more paper and crayons and had the girls draw pictures of something they could do to make the world a better place. I, unfortunately, didn’t really pay attention to the pictures, but I do recall that all the girls were quite happy, chatting with their neighbors and coloring away. Since they didn’t have to share this time, there were no tears involved.

After about 15 minutes of drawing masterpieces, it was time for my Creature Feature portion of the program. I do love doing these, and this time I chose what I thought was a very interesting creature: the Daddy Long-legs! I get a lot of people asking me if it’s true that the daddy long leg spider is the most poisonous spider on the planet, but its fangs are too weak to bite human flesh – and I found out in my research that this statement is actually false, on many different levels.

First of all, they aren’t actually spiders at all! It’s like saying a wolf is not a dog, or a tiger is not a lion. They’re both canines and felines, but different classes of canines and felines. It’s the same with the daddy long-legs: they are arachnids, but a different class. By the way, crabs, scorpions, and ticks are arachnids, too – and most definitely NOT spiders.

The daddy long-legs is actually in a class all their own, called Huntsmen. They differ from spiders in a few very obvious ways, such as the fact that they only have two eyes and spiders have eight, and they have only one body part as opposed to the three parts that spiders have. They also have no fangs at all, and therefore can’t bite. Even if they could bite, they have no venom what so ever, and therefore are not poisonous. And last but not least, they have no silk, and cannot create the webs that spiders are so famous for.

There are about 1900 species of huntsmen world wide, but only about 60 or so can be found in North America. Most types winter over as eggs buried underground. They eat decomposing vegetation as well as the occasional aphid, caterpillar, leafhopper, beetle larvae, mites and/or small slug.

The most interesting thing I learned about them is this: if a humans legs were in the same proportion to our bodies as the daddy long-legs is, our legs would be 40’ long! Wow. Imagine trying to find a pair of jeans that fit!

We had just a few minutes left before the parents came to pick up their kids, so we got Mercy, one of our in-house box turtles, out to eat some bugs (she’s always up for eating bugs, no problem there!) for the girls while Liz (one of our zookeepers on duty that night) brought Trini, the silver fox, over for a visit. Trini loves to visit with the kids, but she doesn’t take the heat very well (she worked hard on her winter coat, and can’t take it off just yet) so we had the girls put their own coats on and go outside to see her. By the time everybody had a chance to pet her and talk to her handler, it was time to send them all home.