Animal life has always excited me more than plant life – zoology over botany. Why would anyone want to study dull, boring vegetation? However, my attitude toward plants began to change when we headed to the Sonoran Desert the first year we volunteered for U.S. Fish & Wildlife. Into the Desert After setting up camp …
“We saw a bear running up the butte on our way home tonight!” some other volunteers told us recently. The butte rises next to our camp area on the National Elk Refuge, but we rarely see animals on it during summer. Two days after the bear sighting, we climbed the mile up to the top …
Last month we featured an article about a 14-year-old boy who cut corners and presented sloppy work rushed through with little attention to correctness merely to acquire a badge. Now we are surprised to learn that deceit seems to be prevalent with parents anxious for their child to sport as many badges as possible regardless …
When two young girls entered the Visitor Center recently sporting vests laden with Junior Ranger badges from National Parks, I assumed they had worked hard to earn those badges. But after an earlier encounter with a 14-year-old boy trying to earn a Junior Blue Goose Ranger patch from the National Elk Refuge, I didn’t know …
“My father brought the head of a rattlesnake to our classroom one time,” a student once told us. Not knowing why this father presented a venomous snake head to an elementary classroom, we cringed at the thought because a dead rattlesnake can still envenomate a victim. Dead Snakes “If you find a dead snake,” says …
“That was really cool!” a student announced after our recent reptile program where we showed his class our DVD of different snakes eating. The DVD consists of four different snake species recorded at the Denver Zoo as they were offered a mouse, a rat, or a rabbit during their weekly or monthly feeding. While some …
“Don’t touch that! It’s like poison ivy!” the person behind me on the hiking trail cautioned as I plucked a stem of scorpion weed from the plant. I’d handled scorpion weed before, so I wasn’t concerned. As I squished it in my fingers and held it to my nose, I recalled the hike several years …