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Outdoor Zoo-Ventures

OUTDOOR ZOO-VENTURES

It’s more important than ever to get outside and get active! Try out some of our fun ideas for exploring the natural world around us! Check back as we continue adding more outdoor activities to this page.

Join us for some virtual fun!


View our Aardvark keeper chat and then try your hand at making some of these mud kitchen recipes!


View our Camel keeper chat and then make some homemade bubbles. Bubbles are one of Boog’s favorite enrichment items!


View our Earth Day Capybara keeper chat and then go outside and create sidewalk art!


View our Grizzly Bear keeper chat and then go on an outdoor scavenger hunt!


View our Tawny Frogmouth keeper chat and then gather nesting materials for birds!


View our Curassow keeper chat and then take your adult outside for a bug hunt!

So many animals hunt for bugs, like our amazing aardvark, or the birds in the aviary, even the monkeys at the primate house. Bugs are an important part of their diet, and an important part of our ecosystem. See what you can find in your own outdoor spaces!

What you need: 

  • An outdoor space to go and explore!

Directions: Go outdside and look for spaces you might find bugs! Try looking for dark damp spaces. A good place to start is underneath rotting logs. Flip the log over and see what critters might come crawling out. When looking at the bugs, do your best to respect them. You can always look and not touch, but if you do be sure that you are handling the bugs very gently, and always putting them back where you found them. 

Concepts: 

  • Sense – feel/touch of mud and dirt, and bugs
  • Fine Motor – gentle exploration, try using a stick to move dirt around
  • Connection – invertebrates are important parts of the food chain and the ecosystem.
  • Empathy – be gentle with the bugs and show genuine care for them. 

What to say for caregivers:

  • Where should we look first?
  • What bugs do you think you will see?
  • What color is that bug?
    • Why do you think it’s that color?
  • What other bugs are here? 
  • What animal do you think would eat this bug? 
  • What is it doing?
  • How is it moving?