WILD

BYBY KITKIT BERNARDIBERNARDI

034-037 Wild Encounters.indd 34 11/23/16 11:47 AM you’ve ever wanted to pet a beluga coral and rays also live. Penguin and Quad Cities hosts Big Cat and Gira e whale, paint with a rhino or make Beluga Encounters let guests touch Encounters. Trainers show and tell dinner for a meerkat, check out these animals and learn training techniques. guests how they care for the ’s IllinoisIllinois ,zoos, wherewhere caregiverscaregivers As Trainer for the Day, visitors assist endangered and bobcats, IFconduct behind-the-scenes animal trainers in their routine, caring for and prepare their yards, and conduct encounters in protected and feeding belugas, dolphins, sea otters, medical checkups and enrichment controlled settings. sea and penguins. All Shedd playtime sessions. Visitors also Home to 18 Backstage Adventures programs address global conservation stand eye-to-eye with African gira es enrichment programs, the Brookfi eld and sustainable seafood initiatives. and watch them use their long Zoo (14 miles west of Chicago) gives More than 300 animals from around tongues to eat honey from a mu n animal-lovers plenty of chances for the world call Coal Valley’s tin while trainers explain the gentle interaction. At the Flippers and home. The 40-acre facility near the beasts’ behavior.

UNLEASH YOUR WILD SIDE LEARNING ABOUT LAND AND SEA CREATURES (AND EFFORTS TO ENSURE THEIR SURVIVAL) WITH A VISIT TO ZOOS AND AQUARIUMS.

Fins experience, participants help keepers do health checkups and training exercises for seals and dolphins. During the Rhino Rembrandt program, guests assist a black rhino with painting a picture (he holds a brush with his lower lip). On the Great Ape Escape tour of Tropic World, visitors talk with trainers, while sta members prepare food for the primates. Children delight in the Fragile Kingdom Desert’s Mole Rats, Meerkats and More program, creating meals and serving them to the curious creatures. At Chicago’s lakefront Museum Campus, the ’s interpretive tours explore habitats, water quality and microbiology labs, kitchens and hospital facilities for 32,000 animals. Extraordinary

COURTESY OF SHEDD AQUARIUM, BELUGA JEFF HAYNES/AFP/GETTY, DOLPHIN, WALRUS COURTESY OF IOT, Experiences programs include the Shark Feeding Tour, led by aquarists BROOKFIELD in the Wild Reef exhibit, where exotic ZOO PHOTOGRAPHS: PENGUIN JULIA FULLER/COURTESY OF , GATOR COURTESY OF DECATUR PARK DISTRICT

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034-037 Wild Encounters.indd 35 11/23/16 11:48 AM wild

spotlight on... LINCOLN PARK ZOO

Opened in 1868, Chicago’s free neighborhood zoo is one of the #ENJOYILLINOIS nation’s oldest, but it’s always evolving. Share your pics Endangered African penguins are of the zoo's among the newest residents, thanks newest arrivals to the addition of the Robert and on Twitter and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove. The Instagram with exhibit, which can house a colony of @lincolnparkzoo. up to 30 penguins, simulates their natural habitat on South Africa’s Cape. Visitors love watching the creatures frigid homeland by touching an ice waddle on the beach and play wall and entering a chilly cave. underwater tag, torpedoing around The recently renovated Kovler Seal crustacean-covered rocks. Pool—home to a blended family of The new 11,000-square-foot gray and harbor seals—marks an Walter Family Arctic Tundra exhibit additional expansion as part of the is home to a polar bear. The outdoor zoo’s $125 million improvement plan. playground refl ects the bear's natural Future plans include renovating the environment with a waterfall, dig pits Kovler House and building a new and pools with underwater viewing visitors center. areas. Guests get a feel for the bear's

7 MORE SPOTS TO GET WILD

PEORIA ZOO HENSON ROBINSON Peoria ZOO Bloomington Springfi eld Wheaton The new Africa! Trot around the world More than 90 species This compact zoo exhibit nearly with themed exhibits, native to the Americas, houses Illinois wildlife doubled the size such as Animals of Asia, Africa and and Midwest farm of this classic Asia, Tropical America Australia live here, next animals. Red foxes, zoo. Visitors can Rainforest and the to Lake Springfi eld. turkey vultures, stand inches from new fl amingo habitat. Docent-led animal raccoons and owls a lion playfully Kids love the hands-on encounters teach are among those pawing the glass, ZooLab, carousel and guests about creatures’ living in 20 natural and look for the daily seal, , behaviors and the zoo’s habitat areas. rhinos and zebras bear and tiger feedings. conservation e orts. wandering across the area.

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034-037 Wild Encounters.indd 36 11/18/16 3:36 PM PHOTOGRAPHS: BIKES ADAM ALEXANDER/COURTESY OF CHOOSE CHICAGO, PENGUINS JULIA FULLER/LINCOLN PARK ZOO, POLAR BEAR COURTESY OF LINCOLN PARK ZOO, GIRAFFE COURTESY OF PEORIA PARK DISTRICT, TRAIN COURTESY OF DECATUR PARK DISTRICT, CAT COURTESY OF WILDLIFE PRAIRIE PARK

SCOVILL ZOO Decatur WILDLIFE WILDLIFE More than 400 animals, including PRAIRIE PARK Aurora PRAIRIE PARK big cats, camels, alligators, scorpions Hanna City/Peoria North American and tarantulas, reside at this lakeside An easy 1.5-mile hiking birds of prey, reptiles, zoo, which is especially committed trail through woodlands a cougar and farmyard to cheetah conservation. Visitors passes enclosures housing animals live in this free take tours aboard a replica 1863 rescued wildlife native zoo in a lakeside park. steam train and ride a hand-carved to the Midwest. Cougars, At the Stover Visitors wooden carousel. black bears and bison live Center, view mastodon in this recreation park, bones found on the which also o ers fi shing, park’s grounds. wildlife talks, and 20 miles of hiking, mountain biking and running trails.

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