Wildlife Conservation through Education

I love when things work out exactly how they are supposed to when you least expect it.  For me, that always happens when I stop trying to plan my own agenda; and just let learning happen naturally.  I was torn between animal habitats or classification while trying to plan for our next unit study, knowing that we would be taking a break for Laken's birthday and Easter; but I still wanted to have an idea of where we were going.  Where we ended up was even better: learning about wildlife conservation.

It all started with a Behind the Scenes Tour at Seaworld on Laken's birthday...

 First we got to see young green sea turtles.  Seaworld does not intend on breeding sea turtles, but sometimes accidents happen.  These guys were having some quiet time to themselves.  In other words, they were all in solitary for not getting along with their siblings!

Seaworld rescued nearly 200 green sea turtles from a canal in Brevard back in 2009 because they were going into cold shock.  The following year, they took in close to 100 more sea turtles for rehabilitation from the oil spill.  This means they had close to 300 sea turtles!  They had make-shift tanks like the ones you see here EVERYWHERE to accomodate them.  130 out of the 190 sea turtles from Brevard were released back into the ocean!  The others did not survive.

The rescue vehicle.  Sorry about the glare, & blurry picture.

The rescue boat.  No engine on the back so that they are able to load the animals onto the back of the boat.

Dolphin transport!

I believe this was a pilot whale.  She has scoliosis and needs special care, but she has been with Seaworld for several years and she is doing very well.

Seaworld behind the scenes.

Touching a leopard shark.  I think proper education about sharks is important, especially living near the ocean.  They have been given a bad reputation.  They should be understood, and respected.  

Leopard shark

The best part, by far, was meeting Fred the Magellanic penguin.  Magellanic penguins were named after the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who first discovered them.  They are a near threatened species.

Fred coming out of his cooler.

Meet Fred.  Fred is a four year old bachelor, and likes to think that he runs the show.  Fred is also a television star.  He was in a commercial promoting tourism in Orlando.

*Interesting fact: Similar to chickens, they do not know the sex of a penguin chick for several months.  They actually have to send off blood work to find out.  The penguins' training, however, starts very early on; and they do respond to names so those must be given before the gender is determined.  This means that Fred could have been a girl, which happens often at Seaworld, but he got lucky. 

Fred just molted his feathers so he was super soft!

A real polar bear skin!  A polar bear's fur yellows over time due to oxidation.

Viewing polar bear fur under the microscope.

The Seaworld Behind the Scenes Tour is fairly inexpensive for one adult and one child, and we already had our fun passes for the year so it was a really reasonable day at the park.  We were actually waiting for my mom, grandma, and cousin to get here at the end of the week for spring break before we went on her big birthday trip.  Laken really wanted to see Winter the dolphin at Clearwater Marine Aquarium (well, she really wanted to swim with dolphins but she is not quite old enough so going to see Winter was her second choice).  We decided to do the Behind the Scenes Tour there as well.  You can't beat the price of admission at the aquarium, and the addition of the tour is not outrageous.  At SeaWorld, we saw manatees and sea turtles side by side.  It was the first time we have walked over since they added the sea turtles, and Turtle Trek with underwater viewing is on the to-do list for next time.  The Antarctic opens next month so I am sure we will be back soon!  In the meantime, I was inspired to do an endangered animals lapbook on sea turtles and manatees for our trip to Clearwater and Tampa.

Endangered Animals lapbook: sea turtles and manatees

I get most of our lapbooks from Homeschool Share.  I love that site!  I go through all the components for a lapbook, and just pick a few that best suit our interests.  Here's what I chose from their sea turtle and manatee lapbooks for Laken and my cousin, K-1 students.  For them, I try to find components that are short-answer or, even better, cut-and-paste.

These are all cut-and-paste except for KWL.  The seven species of sea turtles go in order from smallest on the shortest piece of paper to largest on the longest piece.

These are all short-answer except for "How Does a Manatee Munch His Lunch?"

The science experiment.  We got to see how a manatee siphons rainwater from saltwater to get a drink.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium Behind the Scenes Tour

Here's my honest opinion on the aquarium and the behind the scenes tour:

It is tight quarters, and packed during the spring.  It is probably better to go in the winter.  We have to fight the spring break crowds every year for Laken's birthday.  There is little interaction with the animals unless you pay for a pricey animal encounter, and it was hard to get a good look at anything with the crowds of people around the pools and tanks.  Be prepared for lots of stair climbing, and an outdated facility.  They are raising funds for a gorgeous expanded facility.  Taking a behind the scenes tour does contribute to helping them reach their goal!  After such a unique experience at Seaworld, I did find myself a little disappointed with the Behind the Scenes Tour.  We got to touch a shark and pet a penguin at Seaworld, but again, there was no special encounters for us at the aquarium.  All that being said, I would splurge on a dolphin encounter for Laken if we ever went back.  She has to be AT LEAST seven, and truthfully, I wish we could have waited.  Did you know that the average lifespan of a dolphin is 25-30 years?  I hope we can revisit when Laken is old enough AND they have finished updating the facility, a work in progress.  I would not go again just to visit the aquarium, but I do think that they offer some unique experiences that will bring us back in the future.  Then there is Winter herself, of course.  Overall, I am  happy that we went to see her and I was satisfied with our experience, especially when I quickly realized how neat the tour really was and how it could not have worked out more perfectly.

The scenario

A green sea turtle is brought in with monofilament wrapped around its front left flipper, and then leads down the esophagus.  The flipper has a cut from the line.

Measuring, and charting the turtle.  X-rays ordered to determine if it swallowed a hook.

The monofilament was removed from the flipper, and then taped to the turtle's back.  Pulling it out without knowing if it swallowed a hook could kill the sea turtle.  The flipper was medicated.  

X-rays are in, and there is a hook!  

Surgery is scheduled immediately.

Performing the surgery.

Looking inside the turtle's esophagus during surgery.

The turtle in surgery.

Additional photos

Surgery on a sea turtle at CMA.

When you visit CMA, you get a look inside their surgical suite; but the one they actually use is behind the scenes!

Sea turtle rehabilitation tanks.  We could not get any closer than this, and could just barely see some of the turtles when they swam to the top of their tank.  Even their keepers have very little interaction with them.  They stand behind those large pieces of ply wood when they feed them so that the turtles do not learn to associate people with food.  The first thing they are expanding, already in progress, is their sea turtle rehab tanks.

 A couple of ways they get baby animals to eat.  They do not have gag reflexes like we do.

One of their food prep areas.  We also got to peek inside the other where the scene with Hazel and the blender was filmed.

Winter and friends

This was a special treat.  Performing an ultrasound on Winter.

Nicholas!  He and his mother were found beached with severe burns on Christmas Eve in 2002.  His mother did not survive, and unfortunately, she was the only one who could teach him to be a dolphin so he has grown up a CMA resident, just like Winter!

A resident loggerhead at CMA.

We stayed in the Clearwater area for the night, and went to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo before heading home the next day.  There we got to see a manatee hospital, and we got up close and personal with manatees in the underwater viewing area.  I spent most of the day out from behind the camera so I did not get any pictures.  We had a lot of zoo to cover!  A couple days after we got back home, our local Sea Turtle Preservation Society announced that it was partnering with our zoo to develop a sea turtle hospital right here in Brevard!  That's very exciting news, and what perfect timing for us.  I also discovered a SeaWorld program that airs Saturday mornings called Sea Rescue where you can see some of their successful rescue and releases.  We've had many opportunities to learn about sea turtles and manatees at our local environmental learning centers, and I know we will continue to have those opportunities in our community. 

My hope is that Laken is developing a passion for wildlife and a desire to protect the environment.

Catchy slogans

CMA: "Rescue, Rehab, Release"
Brevard Zoo: "Conservation through Education"