Cub Creek Science Camp
offers the only overnight summer camp in the country with its own zoo.
Campers are encouraged
to interact with, care for and learn about all of the animal at camp.
Cub Creek Science Camp is unique among camps for many reasons, including our animals. We
have our own "zoo", and are home to
than 250 animals of 100+ different kinds.
- Unlike your typical zoo, our visitors are able to do so
much more than just see animals. We
offer hands-on animal encounters, with more opportunities to get up close, feed,
touch and even hold animals than any place else. Imagine feeding a grape to
a lemur or a banana to a sloth, petting a porcupine or taking a llama for a
walk. You may also
want to experience what it would be like to hold a 7 foot snake or a prickly
hedgehog or hold a baby wallaby in a pouch, just like it's mom!.
- All of our resident animals are friendly and are accustomed to frequent
visitors and handling. Many of these animals have even been raised by our
campers during past summers.
"Adopt an Animal" program is the most
requested activity at camp. Every
camper is given the opportunity to "adopt" their favorite animal at camp.
As the adoptive parent campers learn about their animal and become responsible for it's care, enrichment and general well being.
(This is done under the supervision of an Animal Specialist)
- Campers at Cub Creek Science Camp can sign up for one of several animal
related courses including; Jr. vet, adopt an animal, animal 101 or animal
enrichment. We are one of the only camps in the country where kids can
learn what it is like to be a veterinarian. They learn how to give
injections, how to suture a wound, how to trim nails and flight feathers and
Campers also learn how to identify and treat both internal and external
parasites, as well as how to handle, feed and care for all the animals at
Bear River Ranch.
Our resident animals
Our resident animals include over 30 different species of mammals, 20 types
of birds and 25 species of reptiles, 10 different kinds of amphibians as
well as a variety of invertebrates. Campers will have the opportunity to
see, touch and learn about more than 100 different species of animals.
Below is a list of the animals that live at Bear River Ranch.
Mammals are one class of animals that have
backbones, are warm-blooded, breath air and whose females
have milk-secreting glands for their young. In the class
Mammalia there are 19 orders and over 5,000 species.
Mammals range in size from the 2-inch shrew to the 120-foot
The following mammals reside at Bear River
Campers help with the bottle feeding of the
baby goats and other baby animals in our nursery. They
walk the llamas, miniature horses and donkeys, hand feed
many of the other animals including our wallabies and cavy.
Our new monkey enclosures allow campers to hand feed the
monkeys. Campers can also make treats and toys for the
animals which they can add to the animals enclosure.
We work with the local shelter to bring in
puppies and kittens that need homes. We provide them
with socialization, good nutrition and veterinary care.
Campers who are looking for a new family pet may find the
perfect addition right here at camp. The adoption fee
is $65 which includes an examination by our vet, worming,
it's first set of shots and spay or neuter (if the animal is
Birds are made up a group of animals that
are warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered vertebrates.
They have forelimbs modified to form wings. Camp has many
different species of birds. We collect guinea and
chicken eggs daily and put them in the incubator.
Chicks hatch every week during the summer. Campers
have the opportunity to help hand feed baby birds, hold
cockatiels and love birds and talk to our Blue Fronted
Amazon, Bonita (who loves talking back). In our newly
renovated Bird Barn, we have six flight rooms. These
rooms allow our smaller birds plenty of room for free
flight, as well as providing campers the opportunity to add
perches, swing and hanging treats.
Reptiles are vertebrates that regulate body
temperature externally, have dry, glandless skin covered
with scales, breathe through lungs and lay large eggs that
develop on land. Reptiles include turtles, snakes, and
Camp has a fantastic variety of
reptiles. Our spurred tortoises can live 200 years and when fully
grown you could ride on their backs. We have snakes ranging in size from
tiny hatchlings to ones bigger than you can hold. Campers have watched a snake
shed its skin and even lay eggs. Ophelia (our 4 foot iguana) loves eating
grapes and romaine lettuce from your hand. Did you know that a Tokay Gecko
can climb straight up a wall, or that there are lizards that have no legs?
Amphibians are cold-blooded, smooth-skinned
animals from the Chordate Phylum. This class of animals
includes frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts. Some live on
land and some in the water, but most species return to the
water to mate and lay eggs. Most of our amphibians are found
in the wild, right here at camp. We allow campers to
collect a few of each type to learn about and then they are
released back to where they were originally found.
|African Bull Frog
Fire Bellied Newt
|Grey Tree Frog
Whites Tree Frog
Arthropods make up the largest phylum of
animals and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and
others. Arthropods have a segmented body with appendages on
each segment. All arthropods are covered by a hard
exoskeleton made of chitin. More than 80% of described
living animal species are arthropods, with over a million
modern species. Like our amphibians local
arthropods are collected, identified, studied and then
returned to the wild.
Giant Hissing Cockroaches