“Sydney,” Journey of a Joey Wallaby, Part 1
Life is tough when you’re this little. Life is even tougher outside the security of Mommy’s pouch. Life is really tough when formula replaces Mommy’s milk and you’re surrounded by tall, strange-looking animals without fur or tails or pouches. Meet baby “Sydney,” an orphaned Bennett’s wallaby joey, who came to Zooniversity for foster care. This is Part 1 of her story.
Sydney was born about 7 months ago. Like all wallaby [more...]
THAT Kid from the Country Club
When you are a wildlife educator, you can do hundreds of shows each year. You can meet thousands of adults and tens-of-thousands of children each year. Year, after year, after year. The numbers can be staggering. But, there is always one show, one kid, that you vividly remember…and not for good reasons. My nightmare: THAT show at the Country Club and THAT kid.
Now, I do wildlife shows in Dallas-Fort Worth [more...]
Blind “Faith,” the Fennec Fox
No, this is not a chihuahua. Meet "Faith," named for the phrase "blind faith." Yes, she’s blind. Faith is a fennec fox, usually found in the Sahara desert of North Africa and up into the Middle Eastern deserts of Saudi Arabia. Faith used to be one of Zooniversity’s most traveled and popular educational animals. She starred in thousands of stage programs, met hundreds-of-thousands of children and adults, had her [more...]
So you want to be a Wildlife Educator? The Good, the Bad, the Ugly…and the Miraculous
I hear it almost everyday, "You have the most fun job ever. I’d love to do what you do!" Most folks think that being a wildlife educator is living the life of Jack Hanna: fame, your picture in the newspaper, spending days romping and playing with nature’s most exotic species. Sometimes, it is. Most of the time, it isn’t.
Standing in front of hundreds of people, holding a rare animal, explaining [more...]
