Species Spooktacular at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center

Anderslitz Autobahn Nature Center is introducing us to some of nature's strangest animals. It's the species spectacular, blending the center's love of nature with the fun and mysteriousness of Halloween. Environmental educator Aubrey Fulces is live there with us to tell us what we can expect from this event. Good morning. I love your costume. Good morning. How are you doing? Thank you. I know it's a little, I was up all night as a bat, but I'm still excited to be here today. Okay, so you've been up all night, so that means that you have a 411 on today's event. What can you tell us? So, our Species Spooktacular is our annual Halloween event. It's all about learning about different animals, especially some misunderstood animals, maybe some a little creepier, some a little spooky, but then also just a lot of Halloween fun, both in our building and out on our trails. And who is this event for? I know this is for the families, right? Yep, this is for all ages. So we have a lot of different crafts, activities, games that both the kids and adults can take part in, including our taxidermy costume contest. So every year we dress up a few of our taxidermy animals and they get to take part in the Halloween fun and everyone gets to vote on their favorite costume this year. Okay, so I see you holding two things. That means that they're important. So tell us what's in your hand. Yes. So when you come, so we still have tickets available walk-in, so you can purchase tickets at our welcome booth or our front desk, and every participant will get an orange wristband, and that'll basically give you the all-access pass to all of our stations, which you can see here on our passport. So this is the map. Yep, we have a lot of activities. This is the map that shows you where they are. And after you complete a station, you can get a nice little stamp to help you keep track, and make sure you're not missing any of the fun. Okay, how much are the tickets? And let folks know how long they have to come out to today's event. Yes, so tickets are $12 for members, $18 for non-members. Kids two and under are free. And the event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. But we recommend you arrive probably before 1.30 or 1 to make sure you have time to take part in all the fun. And we've got to get into your costume, though. I mean, tell us what went into your creative process. How long did it take you to put this together? Took me longer than I might like to admit. I'm not the best at sewing. You made it? But I always like to dress up as a, I did make it. I like to always dress up as a misunderstood animal. So I went with our, I'd say a little brown bat, but let's be real, I'm a big brown bat, which is one of our Wisconsin native mammals that, you know, sometimes people get into bats during spooky seasons. So I figured I'd be one. All right, I just learned something new, fun and educational. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to see you guys around 7.45 or so. Lisa, I love her costume. I do, too. I'm getting some inspo. If you're looking for something fun to do, this next event is just for you. From spiders to raptors, the Slits Audubon Nature Center has you covered for the species spooktacular, giving you an up-close-and-personal look at some of nature's spookiest and most misunderstood animals. Environmental educator Cassie Renka joins us live now to tell us about the events you could take part in today. Good morning. good morning so species spooktacular it's that annual halloween event we do and the particular station that i'm at right now is about our nocturnal animals so we're looking at raccoons opossums bats and just seeing how phenomenal they are i love that okay so there are some challenges so i feel like we're about to play a game you have a wheel behind you uh that lets me know that there's some fun to be had oh yeah so we have the raccoon mystery box so raccoons they like to touch stuff with their hands so we're going to have you guys stick your hands in there and try and identify what's in there for the bats of wisconsin we have a little sound device back here at the hundred and uh we're going to test your echolocation skills and blindfold you and see can you put the little ball at the center clearly i did not so the third activity which is just one of many of course we have what's the smell with our opossums because they have really great sense of smell so we'll have you sniff the bottle and see if you can identify the smell that is in there so these are just some of the things that will be taking place at this station and what else is in store that's your station but i know we saw earlier there's there's whole map uh there are a whole bunch of stations, oh yeah, what else can people expect? Well, we have our tower climb so there's a little bit of eye spy on there you can figure out what's for dinner so identify some skulls, what do they eat, playing some games we're going to have a mimicry station so you get to do a little bit of crafting, see if you can identify a mimic and of course one of our most popular ones the creature cave which you guys will get to meet in just a little bit oh i'm looking forward to that and for those who are just not tuning in remind folks how long they have today to come and check it out and are the tickets still available i know we heard that they were yeah so the event goes from 10 o'clock to three o'clock and tickets are still available even if they're not online we are accepting walk-ins but all the information uh pricing information that is all on our website so we ask people to check that out all right thank you so much for joining us live this morning looking forward to what's to come in our eight o'clock hour all right thanks you back out to this spectacular time at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center where later today people of all ages will be able to come out and have some fun and learn about some of nature's most mysterious animals environmental educator Cassie Rincon is joining us once again to show some of the fun activities you can take part in good morning what are you brewing up morning I am currently stuck actually i'm stuck in our spider web one of the many many activities that kids can do here and adults uh we do have some places where people can migrate through as well uh but just to have a little fun and learn about some of these uh misunderstood invertebrates okay how are we going to get out of there i feel like i just want to spend the next two minutes watching you or or Liam, our photojournalist, going through this. Let's just say I had to do a lot of crawling to get in here. And if I attempted, that's a hazard. Oh, my gosh. And, you know, this is a little bit harder to do in a dress. So we're just going to kind of, oh, my gosh, bob, bob and weave, bob and weave. I love this. We're not going to be. Okay, you can stop there. I'm not going to torture you. I'm not going to torture you on live television. Okay, so this is one of the activities. And this looks, I wish I was there right now. There's so much for the children and adults to enjoy. Yes, we have so many activities. It is fun, truly, for all ages. From 10 o'clock to 3 o'clock today, people can still purchase tickets. We're accepting walk-ins. All that information is on our website. We just want to have a really fun time with these misunderstood animals and just, you know, have a great Saturday. No, Sunday. It feels like a Saturday because it's so much fun. You're giving Saturday energy, so it's okay. Okay, when we talk about misunderstood animals, what will kids be able to kind of learn and to see firsthand? Yeah, they'll be able to learn adaptations. They'll be able to do activities that'll help them see what it's like or feel what it's like. In this particular station, we have little information blobs on the walls where kids can learn about different species of spiders and what those cool little things are about them because not every spider is the same there's many many unique species out in this world so we just want to teach people about them i love that okay now there is the guide people are going to get a guide they're going to get i believe what an orange wristband as well how many stations are there because we've seen so much already and honestly there were so many dots on that guide yes and oh my gosh i'm blanking on how many stations but there's just so much we're we're filling up all of our little local area around the nature center with so many things so even if you go to one station we have multiple activities at that station so it it seems more than it actually is or it is more than it actually is all right thank you so much we appreciate you for joining us live this morning Cassie the energy absolutely immaculate we're gonna see you guys one more time at 8:45 we'll see you there morning all we have been taking you out to Slits, Audubon Nature Center for the Species Spectacular, giving everyone the chance to learn more about some spooky and misunderstood animals. Environmental educator Aubrey Fulces joins us live once again with one of these misunderstood animals. Who are we with now? Yes, so this is Elizabeth and Elizabeth is a corn snake. So these are a fairly common snake in the southeastern United States. They're a species of rat snake, not native here to Wisconsin, but they are a non-venomous constrictor, so totally harmless to people and just very curious, as you can see here. She's very curious about my costume. I know. She's like, I want to be friends with the bat. I am curious, though. Okay, so the kids, how interactive is this? Because are they going to get the hands-on experience that you're literally getting right now? Yeah so in our Creature Cave which is one of our stations we will have a lot of our animal ambassadors on display and there'll be a few of them that kids and adults will get to pet and interact with like our friend Elizabeth here. What are some of the other animals that you feel that you know kids may misunderstand that you guys are hoping to to help them build a relationship with so to speak? Yeah definitely so we'll have some of our turtles out on display um some of our snakes and then of course some of our creepy crawly critters like tarantulas millipedes cockroaches which the kids if they're they're feeling up to it they get to do a little a little pet of a cockroach and then we have our other animals out and between 11 and 1 we will have some of our raptors of Schlitz Audubon available for viewing okay and the tickets they are still available the event starts today at 10 o'clock we want you to bring our costumes. Is there anything else that you recommend that families bring when they're coming out this morning? Just dress for the weather. We have indoor and outdoor stations. It should be a nice kind of breezy, cool autumn day. But yeah, definitely dress in that costume. It's always fun to see those on the trails. And I am also curious here too, because I know you guys, you guys have a big job at hand because there are going to be some criers in the room with that snake. Yeah, I mean, she's a sweetheart and she's a really great ambassador to teach people that snakes aren't that scary. Perfect. Thank you so much. We appreciate you guys for keeping us. We're having fun and we're being educated as well. I've learned so much from you guys just this morning and I know the kids and their parents will as well. Thank you so much for joining us live this morning. We appreciate it. Have fun.