What It REALLY Takes To Be a Wildlife Educator
It’s like standing there naked, when the entire audience is fully clothed. That’s the best way to describe how it feels to be standing there holding an animal in front of an audience of anywhere of 20 to 300 sets of eyes. People don’t want to be judgmental, but let’s be honest, it’s human nature [...]
The Science of Crowd Control
If you’re planning to host a special speaker for your school, library or community event, and you’d like a large audience turn-out, then simply invite an animal show (or the Ringling Brothers’ clowns!). These popular performers will bring in the BIG audience head count you need to impress your superiors and city officials, but they also bring [...]
From the Mouth of Babes – Favorites 2008
W.C. Fields warned, "Never work with animals or children." Well, I guess I deserve what I get, since I work with animals AND children. It is always a jaw-dropping moment when some wide-eyed child responds to our presenter with a totally innocent, yet always humorous, quip. This year, we decided to write them down before [...]
Problem Party People
Zooniversity teaches about 600 wildlife shows each year and a big hunk of them are at children’s birthday parties. Ninety-nine percent of the party parents and guests are wonderful people. They follow our safety rules, they respect our expertise as wildlife professionals, they are polite and interested audience members. But, there is that remaining one [...]
Zooniversity’s “Top” 10 Ridiculous Requests
When you deal with the general public (and mothers planning birthday parties), you just never know what you’ll hear when you answer the phone. Some of the requests have been so ridiculous, that I started writing them down a few years ago. For your enjoyment, and to borrow from David Letterman, here is Zooniversity’s "Top [...]
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 [...]
