Albany area kids experience animals up close during Spring Break Camp at Chehaw

Alan Mauldin, The Albany Herald, Ga.
·2 min read

Apr. 5—ALBANY — On a perfect spring morning, a group of 45 day campers at Chehaw Park and Zoo got a look at some of the wild inhabitants, paying visits to ring-tailed lemurs, kangaroos, prairie dogs and getting up close and personal with an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, separated only by a glass cage as they huddled close to the enclosure.

The Wednesday outing was the second spent outside during the five-day Spring Break Camp after a rainy Monday kept the campers indoors.

The week includes daily zoo visits, encounters with animal ambassadors, arts and crafts, and play time.

"This week's theme is 'Birds, Bugs and Bloom,'" said Jackie Entz, director of education for the Artesian Alliance, which oversees Chehaw, the Flint RiverQuarium and Thronateeska Heritage Center. "We are really focusing on a lot of the springtime activities and Mother Nature waking planet earth from winter.

"This week we are learning a lot about springtime, and we're learning a lot about animals."

Each day also has a mini-theme for the children, ages 5 through 12, who are separated into three groups.

The campers are learning how birds and insects help spread seeds by their activities in nature. Other animals visited on Wednesday also help maintain plant diversity.

"Lemurs are big seed disseminators, too," Entz said. "They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, and when they poop they help spread seeds. The zoo trip, the animal encounters and play park visits are usually the highlights of the day."

Among the animal ambassadors — animals that Chehaw personnel take out for public appearances at events — was a box turtle on Tuesday and on Wednesday it was an invertebrate from the bug kingdom.

"The fun part about camp is coming into the zoo, seeing the animals, teaching about them," said Chehaw Lead Educator Reed Coulter, who was leading one of the groups that had stopped to see kangaroos and emus in an enclosure. "Camp is actually a fun way to get out in the zoo."

Chehaw will host an 11-week summer camp and also has four-week camps set for the RiverQuarium and Thronateeska.