Last weekend I took my nephews to the NEW Zoo in Green Bay. My work had the opportunity to do a behind the scenes tour of the Zoo compliments of one of our reps. It was a beautiful, sunny day out and a great day for the zoo! The boys and I got there early to go zip lining. Trae went down no problem, but Austin got scared and wouldn’t get close to the edge. The girl who was helping us was amazing and we were trying to encourage him to take the baby step more to go for it. Thankfully, no one else came up for a while because it took him about 30 mins to finally do it. At the bottom the first words out of his mouth were “Can we go again?” but by that time it was noon an we were due at lunch. They had a Mexican taco bar set up and it was delicious. We then had a little time to walk about the zoo before we met at the educational center. The education coordinator, Angela, brought out an African Penguin named Tweedle to walk by us and together, they educated us on African Penguins and Seafood watch. Tweedle was so cute and funny to watch. She had just finished molting and had shiny feathers.

We then split up and we walked to the tortoise enclosure. They have two Alberta Tortoises; Al and Trudy. Al was not as social, but let us pet his shell and pose with him, while Trudy admired herself in her mirror and liked neck pats. It was so cool to be in by them and able to touch them! They were about 40 years old and been at the zoo since the 90s. We then went to the nutrition center where an employee was making up all the food for the animals for the next day. We go to see all the different diets, food storage, and learn where they get their food from.

The NEW Zoo is an accredited zoo, meaning they follow guidelines as far as animal handling, interaction, environment, breeding, and populations. Only one other zoo in the state is accredited; the Milwaukee County Zoo. We then switched groups and the intern Griffin took us to a few animal exhibits and gave us more information about wolves, Red Foxes, Badgers, Prairie Dogs, Alligators, and Giraffes. The male giraffe was excited to be fed and we got to pet him as he reached over for leaves. Our special tour was then over so we all went our separate ways; the boys and I headed to the Japanese Macaques and then petting zoo to play with the goats. They were as food motivated as ever; pushing each other to get all the pellets. It was nearly closing time, so we headed to the gift shop for magnetic rocks and pucker powder and then to my parents for a fish supper. Brandon, Stephani, David, and Mike met us there. An amazing day with family and coworkers and an awesome experience.