COMPLETE - A Day at the Zoo Patch

Day at the Zoo Patch – Troop #346

Scout Name: ____Paul________________
Date: _____10/1/2017_______________
Costs: ___Zoo Admission - $16 + $5 Parking (unless you’re a member)     Patch - $1.69___

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. After each one get Miss Anarcadia, ASongforLya, or Beta-Pup to mark them off. At the end, turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered). If you’re doing this on your own, try to take pictures to show you completed each step. Be sure to grab a map of the zoo as you enter (hint hint).


1. Think of your favorite cartoon or movie. It probably had some sort of critter in it. What kind of animal was it? See if you can find that animal in the zoo.

- My current favorite is the Lego: Batman movie. So... bats! I found short-tailed leaf-nosed bats in the Unseen New World building.

2. Find your favorite animal who lives at this zoo. Go to its exhibit and learn something new about it. Report your new factoid to one of the trip leaders.

- Red Pandas are a favorite because they are so poofy and look like walking stuffed animals. That's why I suggested them for our Troop Mascot! My new Red Panda fact: They will often spend up to 13 hours a day searching for food.










3. Animals come in all colors. Some are brightly colored to attract friends. Others are dull colored to hide better. Fine one brightly colored animal and one dull colored animal.

- I found some bright animals in a tank together - the rainbow boa and the poison arrow frogs. 

- One of the dull-colored animals I found was the desert tortoise. He's very sand-colored; just boring safe gray.

4. What is your favorite color? Can you find an animal who is that color?

- My favorite color is army olive green. The best green animal I found was the rhinocerous iguana.

5. Animals come in all different shapes and sizes. Pick out two animals. How are they alike? How are they different?


- We contrasted the red-ruffed lemur and the red panda. Both are red, black, and white with stripey tails and live in trees. But the lemur is really active and bouncy and lives in family groups, while the red panda lives mostly solitary and likes to lounge a lot. Red pandas eat mostly bamboo, but lemurs mostly eat fruit.



6. How do you feel about creepy crawlies? How about snakes? Is there an animal you are nervous about? Get as close to its exhibit as you are comfortable with to show how brave you are.

- I like snakes, but not scorpions or spiders. I touched the glass on a scorpion tank.

7. Did you remember to grab a zoo map at the entrance? Maps are helpful to keep from getting lost. Can you find where you are currently? What about where you entered the zoo at? Can you find your favorite exhibit?

- I always grab a map; I don't feel comfortable without one, and consult it frequently. We came in the Entry Village and dungeoned left, going around the gibbons and meerkats to see Unseen New World, then the petting zoo and flamingos. We took the look that went past the tapir and cougars and lemurs and clouded leopards. Then we too the loop that took us through the Kangaroo Kickabout and to see the antelope, zebras, and other plains animals. Then we were tired, so we went home without seeing the rest of the zoo. 


Here's the funniest picture of the day. The alpacas at the petting zoo were all laid out in the sun resting.

8. Is snack time one of your favorite times of day? The animals love it too! Which animal has the most interesting or weird diet that you can find?

- I love to eat. I had a pretzel and an Icee and Dippin' Dots at the zoo. The most varied diet we found was the Double-Wattled Cassowary. In the wild it eats plants, fruits, snails, frogs, small birds, invertebrates, and fungi (that seems like just about everything).

9. Like people, many animals form groups and families. They protect and take care of each other just like we do. See if you can find an animal that forms a family unit.

- I originally put down the meerkats for this, because I saw a pair of meerkat adults and three babies hanging out there. 

But when we got to the red-ruffed lemur exhibit, there were about seven of them out there. When I started taking pictures of a group of them off to one side, a single one that was elsewhere ran up to the front of the exhibit, like he wanted his picture taken - so we did. And then another lemur came over to join him, and they groomed each other with their hands and kept licking each other's face and cuddling.

10. What animal did you see that came from the farthest away? Which animal(s) are native to here in Tennessee?

- The red-ruffed lemur seemed to be from the furthest away. They (and the ring-tailed lemur) are from Madagascar, which is pretty far the other side of the world.

Some animals we saw that are native to Tennessee were the copperhead snake, the water snake, the spiny softshell turtle, and the cougar. Two cougars were out today, both hanging around at the top of their enclosure.















________Paul____________ has completed all 10 steps and given payment to receive this patch.