Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Philadelphia Zoo Visit


Baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Recently, the Philadelphia Zoo came to our school. This visit was to teach us about reptiles. There are four different types of reptiles; alligators and crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tortoises and turtles. It was really exciting because the lady from the school who came to our school brought four reptiles! She brought a tortoise, a tortoise shell, an iguana, a constrictor, and a legless lizard. Since she obviously couldn't bring a crocodile or an alligator, she brought crocodile skin.We learned that the characteristics of a reptile are that they have scales, they're cold-blooded, they lay their amniotic eggs on land, and they breathe air. This event was really convenient because it was cheap, educational and didn't consume much time; the presentation was only an hour and fifteen minutes long! We all got to feel the crocodile skin and the tortoise shell. Did you know that the scales are made of the same material our nail are made up of? However, we couldn't touch the live reptiles because their skin contains salmonella which doesn't really get along with us humans. I hope that we get to experience more presentations like this in the future!