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Elephant snails, sea stars, and poo! These are just a few of the things we discovered during the two activities we attended as part of the Junior Rangers Program over the recent school holidays. The program is put on by Parks Victoria for kids but adults seem to get just as much enjoyment from the activities as the kids.
Junior Rangers Program
Junior Rangers Program activities are free and take place at several parks around Victoria during school holidays. The activities are led by a park ranger and encourage kids to explore the parks as well as learn about the native flora and fauna. The website also provides activity sheets with puzzles, games, and activities for exploring the parks on your own.
Wildlife Detective
The first Junior Rangers activity we attended was Wildlife Detective. The purpose of this activity was to learn to identify signs found outdoors in order to determine what animals have been around.
Upon arrival at the Education Centre, a small building near the 1000 Steps in Dandenong Ranges National Park, we were greeted by Ranger Julia. Before getting started, we were invited to look through a room that displayed a range of taxidermied animals, all of which could be found in the park.
After viewing the animal display, we were led into a room where Julia gave a short interactive presentation to the group where we learned about homes, tracks, poo, and other clues animals leave behind.
The kids were then split up into small groups of two or three and each group received an animal skull. They were to study it and try to figure out what animal it was using clues like size of the skull and type of teeth (which determine whether it’s a carnivore or herbivore).
Now it was time to put into practice what we learned and look for clues as we took a short walk. We didn’t need to go far to find evidence of several animals that had been around the area. There was poo from four different animals – possum, rabbit, kangaroo, and fox which had rabbit fur in it. We saw burrows and an old drey (possum nest). We learned that small bats often sleep between the loose bark on trees and sugar gliders scratch trees to get to the sap that they eat. Someone found a feather and Julia explained that we are not allowed to take anything from the park because even things like feathers are useful to wildlife as they often take them to line their nests to add warmth during winter.
After the walk, we returned to the building where the kids received a small Junior Ranger badge and sticker.
Rockpool Ramble
The second Junior Ranger activity we attended was Rockpool Ramble. This event took us to Mushroom Reef Marine Sanctuary in Flinders on Mornington Peninsula. Here we would discover what life lurks in the rockpools and on rocky shores.
On the platform overlooking Mushroom Reef, we met Ranger Thierry and another ranger assisting him (abashedly, I can’t recall her name). Only one other family had registered for our session, however they were a no-show so we ended up with a private tour.
Low tide exposed the rocky mushroom-shaped reef (hence the name) and created some small pools. Thierry gave Alexis a lanyard that held several identification cards of things we were likely to see and then led us down the steps to the beach. As we walked over the rocks, he pointed out different types of seaweed and shells, and Alexis found a couple cuttle fish bones.
Lifting rocks revealed all kinds of interesting creatures. There were heaps of crabs and we learned how to tell the difference between males and females. We saw various types of sea stars and anemones attached to rocks, their stinging tentacles pulled in their bodies to conserve water until the tide returns so they just looked like orange jelly. There were all kinds of shells – mussels, limpets, and cone snails among others. We learned how these animals can close the opening in their shells when the tide is out to retain the water so they, like the anemones, don’t dry out. We also learned how to tell which ones are herbivores and which are carnivores, as well as how and what they eat. In a small pool we spied some little fish swimming around and small shrimp shooting backwards, as is their way of moving through the water.
There were also so many things we had never seen before, like chiton, ancient looking things with an oval shell made up of eight plates. We discovered small eels that are about the length of your finger, elephant snails, and worms! Alexis had a ball seeing all these creatures and checking if they were on any of the cards she was carrying.
When our time was up, we walked back up the steps to the platform where Alexis received her Junior Ranger badge and sticker. We had originally planned to do a walk afterwards but we were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to go back down and keep exploring. We had fun looking at all the critters we had just learned about and even found a couple new ones such as brittle sea stars and an odd looking crab that looked like a rock when it tucked its legs in close to its body.
We thoroughly enjoyed both Junior Rangers activities we attended. They were a lot of fun and we learned so much about our native wildlife. It’s an excellent program and a great way to get kids (and adults) interested in and spending more time outside exploring parks. We definitely plan on taking part in the Junior Rangers Program again over future school holidays.