A full day of conference and animals!

Today was a jam packed day!

This morning started off with institution highlights in which organizations shared their ups and downs and were able to ask for support on any issues they are encountering.  The small updates were a short way to figure out who to seek out and ask more questions of later.  The TAZE participants have all been supportive and open to everyone.  Learning about other organizations and their journeys have been extremely valuable to all attending.

Next up two speakers:

Kelly Drinnen is from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and spoke about their sanctuary that is located about a six hour boat ride from the shore!  They obviously only have a limited number of visitors to their sanctuary but offer many teacher workshops and opportunities online to bring the scientific data to the classroom.  Check out their website for the many opportunities and lots of information on coral bleaching, oil spill cleanup and ocean scientific information! http://flowergarden.noaa.gov/ I am most excited about joining their email list to stay more connected to what is happening to our ocean.  During our programs at the El Paso Zoo, we often talk about the Rio Grande and where it flows into, so it would be great to know and understand real time conservation in the Gulf of Mexico.

The second speaker was Carole Allen from the Sea Turtle Restoration Project.   It was very interesting to see and learn first hand that the seven species of sea turtles are either critically endangered or threatened.  CRAZY!  Check out their website to take action. http://www.seaturtles.org/

The rest of the day was mixed with behind the scenes tours of the education animal facility, and then a choice of one other behind the scenes area.  I chose elephants and Heather chose carnivores.  The behind the scenes elephants was great to view their young Asian elephants.   Last year the Houston Zoo had two Asian elephant babies and they are growing up fast!  The experience is very similar to our onsite super deluxe behind the scenes elephant tour at the El Paso Zoo in which participants can assist bathing the elephants.  Learn more at elpasozoo.org/adventure.  Oh and the Houston Zoo also have a very cute and friendly resident dog in the elephant building!

Asian elephant youngsters being trouble makers. 

We also had a chance to participate in the giraffe feeding.  The experience was important to us since the El Paso Zoo will start giraffe feeding in the Spring!  So it was great to see the logistics of how they carry out a successful giraffe feeding.  Most of the giraffe herd at the Houston Zoo are Masai giraffes, the largest and tallest subspecies of giraffes.

Romaine lettuce anyone?

In the early afternoon we broke into breakout sessions on topics including outreach programs, animal handling, formal education and social media.  The sessions were very valuable to interact and collaborate with other organizations around Texas on the topics given but also just to branch out and chat with fellow educators who share the same passions.  Texas is huge ranging from the humid marshlands to the dry desert making the variety between us all amazing!  The educators at TAZE are all very passionate in their respective areas.  

We wrapped up the day at the Landry's Downtown Aquarium.  Does Landry's sound familiar?  There is a Landry's seafood restaurant in El Paso, and it is all connected.  The founder of Landry's has created several aquariums around the country.  The Landry's Downtown Aquarium in Houston is home to many fish species but also has many birds and mammals.  They present educational programs both on site and off site and we were lucky enough to meet their two toed sloth.

Two toed sloth.

Starfish everywhere in this tank. 

Polka dot ray. 

I am fascinated by the mystical seahorses.  They had a tank that was full of these amazing creatures and I could have stayed there all night!  But they had a train to ride, behind the scenes tours, squid to dissect and snacks to munch on!

Mystical! 

Caribbean seahorses. 

Ok I will wrap up with another video but this one is hilarious!  They had a touch tank with several marine species to touch.  They also have a little bubble for kids to climb in to get an even more up close look.  I climbed in and Heather is above.  Watch the madness:

Goodnight all and wish us safe travels back to the desert!  Conference till about noon and then heading out.

Naima and Heather