Well last week we ended the week with a trip and hike at the Nature Center and I really did not think anything could top that.

But On Monday we went to learn about Corn Snakes. We got to meet Wilbur. He is a very friendly corn snake. We learned that they do look similar to copperheads, but they are not poisonous. They eat mice, bugs, small birds, and small bunnies. They are called corn snakes because they look like Indian Corn on their bellies. It was really fun, imformative and neat to get to see this!

Then Today-Tueday we went to a program in the Smokey Mountain National Park called Slimy Salamanders. The local park rangers do this as part of the Jr. Ranger program. It you attend 3 classes you can earn a Jr. Ranger badge. (This was really really fun and we learned so much.) This had to be the best field trip of the summer. We plan to do some more of the Jr. Ranger programs over the next couple of weeks and I know I am more excited about it than my children are!

First we learned that The Smokey Mountains are the #1 place in North America to find Salamanders. (It is even known as the Salamander Capital of the world.) There are over 30 different types of salamanders in the smoky mountains alone. The one we caught was called a Dusky. (Must be pretty common as alot of people caught that same kind.)

Salamanders are amphibians and breathe through their skin. One of their defense mechanisms is that they can lose their tail when being pursued by racoons and other predators. (So if you ever pick up a salamander-don't pick it up by it's tail, because it will lose it's tail, and then when a racoon finds it, it will grab the salamander by the body-since it won't have a tail to grab.)

We also learned that they can be found in small streams under rocks. But you have to be careful turning over rocks because other critters like to hide there too.

Zip lock baggies are great for catching them, just don't use too much water , because you can drown the salamander. Also you want to put the salamander back as near to where you found it as possible.

The SugarLand's visitor center also has a museum with alot of Tennessee Wildlife information in it.

The video above shows some of the pictures of our adventure with Wilbur and the Salamanders.