Hi, I'm Olivia and I'm Serika and we're super excited to learn about ecosystems at the zoo.

Let's g see all the different animals.

What kind of animals do you think will be here?

I want to look for the otters and eagles.

Ooh.

Hi.

I'm Marie.

I'm the learning program coordinator here at Potter Park Zoo.

Can you tell us about the sale?

Yeah.

Of course.

So, the zoo is over 100 years old, which is really cool.

And, we have over 300 animals, and then we have around 89 species.

So the zoo is pretty big.

What's the most popular animal at the zoo?

So some of the most popula animals at the zoo, I would say, are probably the otters.

Everybody loves them.

We have Myles and Nakiki, and then we also have the Black Rhinos which everybody loves too.

Phineas and Dobsy.

Cool.

So my favorite animal is the Okapi.

His name is Elambe and we're actually about to go see him right now.

Yay.

Some of my favorite things about him.

Some fun fact that I like to share with people he has a super long tongue, which you can see right now.

Oh.

Oh my gosh.

So he's reaching up for that food that, those leaves in the trees and his tongue, can get up to 18in long.

Wow!

So it's super, super long, and it's all to help him reach that food and also to clean his eyes and his ears, too.

So it's really, really cool.

Wow.

His ears are so big.

Oh my gosh it's so cute.

I know I want one.

I've never seen one before.

Me neither.

I did not know that an animal like this existed.

Me neither.

You think if we call to it, it'll come to us?

Yeah maybe.

Uh.

Okapi.

Okapi.

Maybe not.

Oh, I see both of them.

Oh, yeah.

They're curled up sleeping right now, so that is one of their favorite sleep spots.

Is up there in the corner?

Yep.

The one in the very back is Deegan-Reed the boy.

And then the other one is our femal who's a little bit closer to us.

Looks like a donut.

Red pandas used to b my favorite when I was younger.

Really?

Yeah.

Its the one I used to always go see.

Okay, so here's our bald eagles.

We have two, both males, Hal and Luca.

Oh, cute.

How can you tell the difference?

Hal, high.

Luka, low.

Okay.

Yeah.

And Luka is also more vocal than Hal.

So you can hear him, like, calling every once in a while, and it's really cool.

Okay.

(bird call) (bird call) How come the rive ecosystem affects bald eagles?

So rivers are super super important for bald eagles.

They primarily eat fish.

And they need an abundant food source in order to stay healthy.

Okay.

Okay.

(bird call) (bird call) So here's our river otters.

Hey, look, there's swimming.

Thats so cute.

Oh, they're so cute.

Swimming around.

My favorite thing about otters is how playful they are.

It's really fun to watch them swimming in the water and running around and playing with each other.

Yeah What are those shells in there?

So those are probably enrichment items because otters are so playful and soical.

We put some things in their habitat for them to interact with, to play with, so that we can encourage them to do those natural behaviors that they have as otters.

Yeah, My dad really likes otters.

My dad also really likes otters.

Thank yo so much for showing us around.

Yeah.

Of course I hope you all enjoyed the zoo.

Oh, definitely.

We had a great time.

Awesome.

We had a great time seeing the animals.

My favorite part were the otters.

And my favorite part was seeing the Okapi.

See you next time.

Bye.