Wildlife education programs for classroom.

[Unregistered]

Hello,
I would like to ask the opinions of the teachers on this board. I’m thinking of starting my own business, which has to do with doing wildlife shows/programs for school classrooms and children’s birthday parties. I have a host of animals I can supply; fennec fox, armadillo, serval , various birds and reptiles. I could also offer dozens of various life-like anatomically correct skull and egg replicas and a 45min. to one hour presentation on topics such as; Animal defenses, food chains, carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
I would just like to here some of your opinions as to weather or not you teachers would have any use for such a service for your class rooms, or from parents as to weather or not you’d be interested in something like this for a child’s birthday party.
Thanks!

[Unregistered]

Please be cautious about using animals around children. Animals can get scared and bite easily. Children often do not know how to act around animals and scare them easily. For the sake of the animals and the children, I would not use a service like this in my classroom nor for my own children.

[annettemcd]

I would think that you would be competing against agencies like your state Fish & Game Department, US Fish & Wildlife Service, local parks, National Parks, zoos, and museums. Many of these agencies and places will provide presentations for groups, especially school groups, for little or no cost. In most cases, they are government agencies or non-profit foundations.

I do not think that you could develop a viable business plan for providing such services.

As the previous post mentioned, you would have to be careful about the mix of animals and children. Once you were publicly displaying such animals, you would probably need licenses, vet checks, shot records, etc. for the animals, and insurance on the animals and in case of an accidental injury of a child. In most states, it takes special permits to own wild animals, both local ones and exotic ones. Foxes can carry rabies. Other animals can carry other diseases. I would be surprised if you were legally able to do what you want to do with the live animals.

I have personally done presentations in schools on some of the topics which you mention and I have never charged for the service nor do I think that I would have been invited to do the presentation if I had stated a price.