Echoes of Nature Education Programs

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Anna with our male Rat Anna Turner is EON’s Animal Care Specialist (ACS).  This Sweet Summer Child (her birthday is in July) has been with us just over a year, though she has had her eye on working here since her freshman year of college.  She is currently 6 credits shy of graduating with a B.A. in Ecology and Evolution from UMCP. As the main ACS she does so much more than just feed and clean up…

This Spring has brought many changes to Echoes of Nature.  We have new members of the team, both human and animal ambassadors, and we have wished a team member the very best in their future endeavors, though they will still be making guest appearances from time to time.  

Our newest animal ambassadors are many!  They include; a fire skink, american toads, crayfish, tadpoles, an albino axolotl, two other frogs donated this week (species coming in another post) and within the last 12 hours, a whole hatching of Praying Mantis babies!  Photos coming soon!  

The red skink has already successfully completed its first diplomatic mission; Skink Day for Sligo Creek Elementary’s Nature Club.  Although it was out on assignment, it’s newbie status requires another month before we can start handling it during program.

The hunt for new instructors has been very successful!  Sarah and Lisa are our new Program Instructors.  Sarah is in the later half of her training, has started running programs solo and is currently accruing training hours in handling the Red Tailed Hawk and Opossum, in preparation for handling the very curmudgeonly Screech Owl.  Sarah comes from a Teacher background, so she is also spending time writing the EoN blogs (Hi everyone!) and helping with curriculum and programming alignment.   Lisa has been training for about two weeks and is currently practicing handling and caring for the animals, and presenting during programs.  Lisa comes from a DNR/Parks and Rec background, so she is used to handling raptors and is now getting used to handling our reptilian, invertebrate and amphibian ambassadors.  

Echo (the super awesome Boss Lady) is looking forward to actually crossing things off her never-ending “To Do” list, now that she has more instructors starting to take over programming.