About Us:
Education
Our primary goal is to provide more effective education through the animals in our program. We have developed over 40 educational programs in nine different languages to present to the community. The programs start with those targeted at pre-schoolers, teaching them basic facts about local and exotic wildlife, local habitats and how they can make a difference. The goal is to spark an interest in animals and conservation.
Our elementary school programs mesh with the curricula in biology and geography that these students are receiving in California public schools. We specifically relate our programs to what they are learning and work to enhance their education by providing programs that schools cannot provide due to cost restrictions and other factors. This theme continues at the junior high and high school levels, with the material becoming appropriately more advanced and science taking a more prominent role. Topics such as biodiversity, the predator-prey relationship and it’s importance to the ecosystem, and physiology are covered.
As a recognized leader in the fields of animal nutrition, care, handling and safety, the Foundation’s operations have an impact on local and global levels.
On the local level, we provide educational programs to thousands of public school children every year. They receive these programs through field trips to the Foundation and through our educational outreach programs. Every school district in Butte County, and the majority in the adjoining counties, takes advantage of the educational programs we offer.
At the university level we have partnered with several colleges and universities in order to provide accredited education in zoology and the animal sciences. The majority of these schools are in California and include CSU Chico, Butte College, UC Davis, Pierce College and Pepperdine University, to name a few. We have also partnered with schools overseas to provide their students with similar educational opportunities. At this level students are taught specifics about animal diet, handling and medical care, safety for both the animals and their trainers, and are allowed to interact with some of the animals once suitably trained.
We also provide educational programs and seminars for professionals in animal related fields, such as game wardens, veterinarians and zoo workers. These programs teach a variety of subjects such as safe animal handling procedures, reading animal behavior, and understanding animal related codes and regulations.
While every program is tailored to its intended recipients, they all teach the importance of conservation in a modernizing and growing (in terms of human population) world. We believe that accessible education is the key to conservation, and it is only through this education that current and future generations of humanity can learn to conserve precious habitats and resources on a global level.
