Kids help Micke Grove Zoo celebrate 60 years
Micke Grove Zoo’s education building was abuzz with activity on Wednesday morning. About two dozen kids gathered around the table, creating gifts for the zoo’s animals.
“We have to be very careful what we present to the animals as enrichment,” education coordinator Kristy Benner explained, before showing a bag full of toilet paper tubes.
They use the tubes because they can be folded into cups without using staples or tape — both items that could injure animals if they were to be eaten.
The kids got to coloring with washable markers, then dropping almonds, cranberries and other animal-safe treats into each cup. Then, they were folded again to create “shakers” that the zoo animals could play with to get to the treats inside.
“This is something that goes out to the zoo animals regularly,” Benner told the kids and their parents.
But this wasn’t any regular occasion. Wednesday was the official date of Micke Grove Zoo’s 60th anniversary. The zoo will celebrate with a big event open to the public on Saturday, but a few lucky kids — zoo camp alumni and students from a Lodi-based homeschooling group — and their parents got to make gifts for the animals and get a sneak preview of the party on Wednesday morning.
“When Kristy sent us the invite, we skipped work, we skipped school,” said Zoey Merrill. “We’re big fans. We’re here all the time.”
Her daughter Tenley, 6, is a regular at zoo camp, and wants to be a zookeeper when she grows up. She doesn’t have just one favorite animal.
“I like a lot of them,” she said.
Jenny, 7, showed off a shaker with a rainbow of color on it.
“They said the animals really like colors,” she said.
When the kids finished up, they piled their shakers on orange trays — “All of the animals know our orange trays, so they get really excited,” education specialist Kate Cooley told the kids — before heading out to make some deliveries.
But first, they had a couple of stops to make.
At the outdoor theater, Benner introduced the children to Lightning, an African leopard tortoise. Lightning is 16 years old, she said, then asked the kids how long they thought a tortoise would live. “Brian?” she asked. “At least over 80 years,” he said.
He was right. African leopard tortoises live from about 80 to 100 years, so Lightning should be at the zoo for years to come.
They also got a quick lesson on the difference between tortoise feet and turtle feet. Tortoises’ clawed feet are made for walking and digging, while turtles have webbed feet for swimming.
After the quick lesson, the kids had a chance to play some games and check out one of several craft stations that will be set up throughout the zoo on Saturday.
Each kid got a chance to play Recycling Ring Toss with hula hoops, and a toss game with turtle bean bags and a frog target. A few made animal masks at the craft table.
“I love the ring toss! It’s so fun!” one girl crowed. “You nailed it,” Cooley said. Then, it was finally time to bring the animals their shakers, along with paper chains that had been sprayed with scent.
The fossa — a mongoose relative from Madagascar — made short work of his paper chain. The golden lion tamarins and the bobcat were a little more entertaining, showing off for the kids and enjoying their gifts while the zookeepers told the kids about each animal.
But the highlight of the sneak preview was a special ribbon-cutting. Thanks to a generous donation from Henry Hansen, the founder of Richmaid and a friend of William and Julia Harrison Micke, the zoo was able to build a new children’s playground near the snow leopard enclosure.
The Mickes donated the land that makes up Micke Grove Park to San Joaquin County in 1938, and the zoo was built on a five-acre site inside the park in 1957.
When the barriers around the playground were removed Tuesday night, it was an immediate hit, said Kevin Hertell, zoo and interpretive services manager.
“Within three minutes, we had kids playing on it,” he said.
The children visiting the zoo on Wednesday morning were no exception. They swarmed the new playground, monkeying around on the monkey bars and crawling through tubes.
A shade awning above the structure and squishy surfacing below kept the kids safe from sunburn and bruises.
Facts about gibbons and photos of the primates are spotlighted on the new playground, which is next to the site of a future gibbons exhibit.
The playground is one of several upgrades Hertell and zoo staff are hoping for in the near future. They’re also looking to upgrade an enclosure that houses the spider monkeys and a second enclosure that is home to radiated tortoises and black parrots.
Larger projects include a new enclosure for the snow leopard on the east end — her current enclosure is nice, but they’d like to give her more space — and the gibbon exhibit.
The zoo still needs to raise funds for these projects. The spider monkey enclosure can be updated for about $7,000, and Hertell hopes local businesses might be willing to sponsor the project.
Right now, though, the wild bash on Saturday is the next milestone the zoo is looking forward to. In addition to the games and crafts, visitors will get to hear zookeeper talks, enjoy live music by the Jimmy Ashley band, learn about local education and wildlife groups, and buy food from popular local food trucks.
Local residents are invited to come out and have a roaring good time.