Today we visited Special Equestrians. It is a nonprofit organization that specializes in therapeutic horse riding, in Fort Myers, FL.There we met Melissa and Meredith and the horses that they care for. While we were there we learned how to take care of the saddles and other riding gear. We helped clean up some of the equipment and then we got to go pet the horses.

Today we went to the Naples Zoo to continue working on our Animal Helpers badge. We got to meet some animals and trainers and learned about the prehensile-tailed skink.

The prehensile-tailed skink is from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It lives in the tropical forests and eats fruit, flowers, and leaves. They are the only fully herbivore of the skink family. They have great eyesight and can use their tail to grip on to branches to help them climb.

We also got to feed a giraffe. Their tongues are really rough which helps them grip leaves when they are eating them.

It was a great day to visit the Naples Zoo and we can’t wait to go back again.

As part of earning our Animal Helpers badge, we got to meet Jordan, who trains assistance animals, like Quincy. Assistance animals help people with disabilities or health conditions like visual or hearing impairment, epilepsy, or paralysis. Some animals are trained to help calm people who have anxiety or suffer from PTSD.

These assistance animals can learn how to detect when a diabetic is having an issue with their sugar levels, or when someone is about to have a seizure. Others learn how to guide around blind people, or help you move around physically.

We have been working on our Night Owl badge. Part of that was learning how people adapt to living and working during the night time. We went to the Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium where we got to see a presentation about how people adapt to living and working at night time. We also hiked around the Nature Center and saw the animals on display.

We also got to meet Officer Klausner of the Cape Coral Police Dept. She explained how she had to adjust to working different shifts and how that impacted their daily routine. She took a lot of time to answer all the questions the scouts had.