Two Tails Ranch

[taken in part from a friend's blog]

15 miles south of Gainesville in Williston is a large animal rescue/sanctuary, the Two Tails Ranch. We went there this week with our home school group to see elephants, zebras, giant tortoises, tigers, ostriches and more.

It turns out that the reason she was “dancing” is because elephants are so heavy, they have to stay in constant movement or their organs will become crushed under their own weight. This is also why they sleep standing up; lying down for more than 20-30 minutes causes fluid to build up in their lungs. Amazing.

The elephants at Two Tails are all Asian elephants, distinguished from their African cousins by smaller ears, lighter skin, no tusks for the females, two domes on the head instead of one, and a difference in toe count. The lighter skin pigment includes freckles, as see on this female’s face:


The information given was rather sobering. Unless current bans on importing elephants to the US are lifted and intensive breeding programs are implemented, these endangered animals will likely be extinct in the next 75-100 years. They require enormous amounts of land in order to thrive, as they are destructive of their habitats and must migrate often. Unfortunately, current preserves are insufficient, and elephants in Asia are being culled as nuisance animals in areas heavily populated by humans. Their shrinking habitat has also caused insufficient genetic diversity among potential mates for healthy offspring. Add to this the fact that elephants are actually choosy about their mates, and the birth rate is drastically insufficient to keep up with the death rate.

Luke, a beautiful male, did a log-manipulation demonstration for us. He also lay down for the trainer, which she said requires absolute trust, as that is the elephant’s most vulnerable position, since they can’t get up quickly.


This emu is about 4 months old, half the size of an adult. A handler picked it up and let the kids pet the feathers on his back.


The sanctuary also had several zebras. We learned that predators see mostly in black and white, so the zebras’ stripes make it hard for the predators to distinguish individual animals in a herd, which discourages attack. The zebras were fearless and came right up to our group to check us out:

Legume/Grain Art

Using green split peas, brown lentils, kidney beans and short grain rice, (and the late addition of whole wheat pasta spirals) we all explored creating our own art.


Glue and paper were used as well, and the process was very methodical for P -- he created a medieval village.


Brown lentils in the middle of the page formed the town center, kidney beans symbolized guard towers, small scraps of blue papers represented the town militia, and yellow lentils were villagers. A small patch of rice was the armory/stable, and green lentils were soldiers and archers preparing for battle.


For K, the glue was applied in wide patterns, and various lentils/grains applied and shaken off, allowing what would stick to stay, and the rest being discarded.

During the making of the art, we briefly discussed how the lentils, rice, beans and pasta were different from each other and how they were part of our diets. The growing of the first three and the creation of the fourth from semolina were compared, and the differences in cooking time were also discussed.

Surprise Attack at Sunrise

A wooden guard tower, riddled with arrows and undergoing a continuous seige by both a seige tower (on right, with archers on several levels) and an approaching catapult (on left, with soldiers inside); the sun at midlevel.

[P wrote the "Oh No!" but had me write the "yeah!" of the attacking catapult.]

Battle Art

Seige tower against a guard tower, with soldiers with maces and swords "having a battle" with each other. Note the seige tower's levels with ladders between each one.

Preparing for Battles

P and K gear up with helmets (bucket and clear toy container), shields (two toy container lids), and weapons (Tyrannosaurus Rex and whiffle ball paddle) to battle their "foes".

Chess Practice

Early Morning Chess

Archers

Water Distortion

Placing a toy dinosaur in a sippy cup of water, P showed K how the combination of water and the curvature of the cup showed the dinosaur's shape to change due to water distortion.

Creating a Village

The general dynamics of a village were illustrated in the development of the "town village". Starting with a village square and creating pathways out, P made sure to include strategic buildings including a stable and blacksmith, marketplace, and armory. Defending the town was quite important, too.

Building Castles

P created a representational castle using large building blocks.

Homemade Catapults

Jeff helped P & K create catapults out of measuring spoons and string, and used river rocks from out front to knock down Lego towers. This followed a discussion of historic battles involving castle raids and the use of cobbled together catapults to break through town walls. Several attempts to get the correct trajectory with the homemade catapult were used to finally knock it down.