11am-1pm Pictures with Pythons!
Pose with a python for the perfect picture!
11:30 Powerful Pythons
All about Pythons!
12:00 BINGO!
Play for prizes!
12:30 Venom: Not Your Average Spit
Learn all about venom and its uses
12:30 Snake Walk Game
A serpent style twist to your average cake walk
1:00 BINGO!
Play for prizes!
1:30 Snakes: Big & Small
Snakes of all sizes, up close and personal!
2:00 Snake Encounter
Have you ever touched a snake?
2:30 Carnivore Feeding
Take a break from snakes to learn about hyenas, caracals and servals
3:00 BINGO!
Play for prizes!
3:00 Snake Walk
A serpent style twist to your average cake walk
3:30 Lonestar Snakes
Check out the cool snakes found in Texas!
4:00 Snake Encounter

Animal Artists
5/26/2010

What do Lemurs, crocodiles and Picasso all have in common?

They're all abstract painters!

It all started with a fund raiser. The Animal World and Snake Farm staff put their thinking caps on and came up with an idea of donating paintings created by some very unusual artists to raise money for a local conservation based event. We had never attempted this before, so we brainstormed, looked at what other zoos had done, changed it up a little bit and "Voila!" - Animal Art. With the exception of a few pretty humorous hiccups, all went according to plan and the results were perfect for the silent auction.

Lizzie, the red-ruffed lemur, loves 'people' attention and loves raisins; but would she like attention and raisins enough to paint a picture? You bet! We set a tray of non-toxic finger paint on the ground and let her play and get used to the smells and feel of it. After a little bit, Jarrod, her favorite person at the park, volunteered to be the easel for Lizzie's canvas. With the canvas in his lap, Lizzie's job was to get paint on her feet and walk across the canvas to the raisin reward. It took a little time for her to get the hang of it, but raisins are a pretty strong motivator for a lemur, and soon enough she was all over the canvas, spreading paint everywhere. Not just on the canvas either- Jarrod was covered in all sorts of designs by the time Lizzie was through painting. It took quite a bit of mild, soapy water to get the colors off of both of them. The humorous hiccup? Shhh, don't tell Jarrod I told you, but at one point Lizzie was so excited by the process, she had an 'accident' that nearly ended up on Jarrod's head!

Have you seen the enormous crocs and gators in the pond outside? Our plan was to get a painted foot print from the big crocodile out there. Raisins weren't going to cut it this time. Jarrod offered to feed the crocs and gators their favorite meal, chicken, in hopes that the big guy out there would walk through the paint on the way to dinner and step on a paper, leaving his foot print. Let me tell you, it is not easy to feed ONE particular animal in a pond full of large, and hungry, crocs and gators. So they all were fed. And a lot of them walked through the paint. And a lot of them ended up on the paper. And it was a huge mess! We weren't able to get the footprint we were hoping for, but one of the gators did leave a pretty clear imprint of his belly scutes on the paper. Luckily, after their meal, crocs and gators alike headed back into the water to wash off on their own- I don't think we would have been able to give those guys a bath! Humorous hiccup? One of the smaller gators was a little nervous about his debut in the art world; as Jarrod was picking up a finished painting, he bit it! No worries though, the paper was quickly traded for a piece of chicken and the painting was saved for the silent auction.

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5/26/2010

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