Friday night Cub Scout Pack 66 descended upon the Pittsburgh Zoo. We were met by Scott and Oscar, Jamie, Erin, and other members of the Pittsburgh Zoo staff and prepared to camp out among the wild animals!
Scott and Oscar are a father and son team that entertain through the use of living visual aids. Friday night they introduced us to an opossum, leopard gecko, and a small relative of the hedgehog, a Neotetracus perhaps?
Saturday morning they introduced us to a rosy boa, a young 18″ long American alligator, a ferret, and a Chinese mantis. Contrary to what you might expect, the Chinese mantis contained no lead.
Friday night we visited Seahawk the 600+ lbs sea lion and his wives and children. The scouts also visited the grey kangaroos. Alex the kangaroo was willing to be petted, and in fact took an intense in one of our leaders! Sheila and Jane were curious about the scouts, but wouldn’t come out to visit us.
We also participated in a scavenger hunt, learning about bats, owls, kangaroos, dromedaries, tree geckos, naked mole rats and sea lions. The reward for finishing the scavanger hunt, besides increased knowledge of the animals in the zoo, was access to the slide in the Boabab tree!
Mario and Luigi the Sicilian Donkies.
Scott and Oscar give us a crash course
Scott brings on the opossum!
Scott shows how tame an opossum can be
Cubmaster Miller surveys the landscape during the pizza party!
The lady in blue in the back corner is Jamie, one of the educators of the PGH Zoo.
Llamas must never sleep. This one placidly watched the entire scout scavenger hunt.
Tropical fruit bats, 2400 of them live in this room!
Scott and Oscar introduced the ferret, one of the most popular of the teaching animals.
The ferret definitely is furrier and cuddlier than the gator.
Scott and Oscar share the small version of PGH Zoo's 14 foot, 400 lbs American alligator!
I know he's cute and cuddly now....
I think this baby sea lion likes us even more than we like her!
Hey, there she goes up for air again.
I'm just going to sneak around the backside of these humans.
Wow, humans must have keen senses, they saw me!
I wonder how they can hold their breath so long?!?
The snow leopard blends right in with its rock.
The zoo lost their big komodo dragon, but the little ones are adorable!
Dwarf African Crocodiles don't know they are miniature.
And so you shouldn't swim with them.
The flamingos proved popular with our bird lovers.
Black rhino, not your little sister's pony.
The lions are born to rule, zoo or savannah.
The Amur Leopard is both beautiful and exceedingly rare.
Be careful, those critters look dangerous!
Is that King Julian there on the left?
Not, that's not a scout. It is a howler monkey.
The African Painted Dogs are one of my favorites. They just look so cuddly.
Where does a 400 lbs bear sleep? Anywhere it wants.
The sea turtle rescue tank.
Mrs. Puff, the puffer fish.
Our scouts learn about bait casting.
It's trickier than it looks.
Our instructor was John Hayes.
The aquarium was popular, as were these seahorses.
Chilling in front of the shark tank. Did I mention kids love sharks?
I always thought polar bears were a little larger.
On the bright side, you fit more of them in a cage.
Check out our cool new visors!
Kids love sharks. Behind glass of course.
Calm, quite, arm's reach away. No hunting allowed though!
Beavers enjoying a little corn on the cob.