BINGHAMTON – The Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton houses animals that can fly, leap, stalk and swim.
When visitors don’t see the animals in motion in their enclosures, some of them are hitching a ride to area libraries, schools and events in the ZooMobile.
Education coordinator Melissa Grippin said summer marks the busiest season for the traveling menagerie, particularly with festivals, summer library reading programs and private events in public spaces. Smaller, more “handle-able” animals, such as snakes, armadillos and birds of prey, are often stars of these on-the-move shows.
Docents, or animal handlers, let visitors touch, pet or shrink away from the animals to their own comfort while educating them on each species.
Danielle Britton’s favorite moments from her five-year docent experience usually surround encouraging people to see the animals they’re most afraid of. Many times, she said, those are snakes, an animal she herself hadn’t touched before she started working at the zoo.
“I enjoy the set-up of the informal (visits); you get to talk to a lot of people,” said the 29-year-old Binghamton resident. “They can interact with (the animals) in a controlled setting.”
Informal presentations are more in-demand in the summer, Grippin said. Usually backdropped by a festival or fair, up to two docents set up shop for two to three hours and answer questions from curious wandering visitors. The more formal affairs, broken up into 45-minute intervals, usually happen in a school setting, when students hear a structured lecture.
The zoo will also get to utilize its newest addition to the ZooMobile fleet this summer. A grant allowed the zoo to buy a third vehicle in February after one of the vans went “on the fritz,” Grippen said.
Another zoo-on-wheels, she added, helps a usually congested calendar: Some times there are four or five ZooMobile appointments in a day, spanning several counties in New York and Pennsylvania. About 45 reservations have already been made for the month of July, she said.
The zoo hosts several other summer-exclusive programs, such as:
• The Summer Zoo School is the zoo’s version of a summer camp. Younger kids can physically interact with some of the animals as they do with the ZooMobile, and tour the facilities.
• Young adults at least 14 years old can also become junior biologists, spending half their day with zoo educators and the other half assisting keepers.
“(Education is) definitely part of our mission statement,” Grippen said. “We love being in this community and providing these options for the community.”
For more information on any of these programs, visit rossparkzoo.com.