Nearby is a neat little exotic animal rescue/wildlife museum organization called Star Eco-Station. I took the boys on a day when we were feeling a little bit of school burnout. It was a nice, yet informative, break in the day. ‘A’ is looking forward to when he turns 14, because this is when he can be a volunteer.
The guide talked to us about the difference between a tortoise (land animal) and a turtle (mostly water animal), and the difference between male (concave underbelly), and female (flat underbelly). Guess why…
She brought a small tortoise out for us to look at closely, as well as feed mealworms. ‘R’ was fascinated with the mealworms and spent more time playing with them than the tortoise…
The reptile room was full of iguana, lizards, and snakes. This organization is always taking in abandoned exotic pets. They recently brought in six exotic pets that were abandoned at the local Thunder Valley casino parking lot. They had all spent the night on the lot before being rescued. These animals need heat and it was a rough night, but they all made it.
This snake is called “Sugar”. She is very old and has arthritis. They will be taking her off display pretty soon so she can live her remaining days in quiet. She used to belong to the rapper/music producer, Suge Knight. All of his animals were sent to different rescue agencies when he was arrested (don’t know when or why).
This snake is taking a bath to help it shed its skin. There is some sort of soap-lotion that assists in the process….
The boys liked this little guy because he looked like Jabba the Hutt. He also loved the mealworms they fed him!
There are two large bird rooms. Since many of the animal have been neglected to varying degrees, many of these birds are nervous, feather-pluckers. But, there are some that are very social and want your attention. They are also very smart. At Christmas time, one bird sings “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. Another brilliant bird has to have a padlock on his cage because he figured out how to open up the three-digit combination lock. The staff kept finding him out of his cage and one day they witnessed him manipulating the lock with his claws. I think the whitish cockatoo is the one.
This room was made to represent the sewer system. Our guide talked about the items that we should not pour down the drain and other environmental impacts.
Final room was all about fresh and salt water fish…
