If you’re tired of giving the same old chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day, Scovill Zoo has the perfect gift to impress your special someone.
Do you ever find yourself relating to “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas” or wishing you could adopt every sad looking puppy in the “donate now” commercials? Well, a hippopotamus might be too big and no one person can save all the sad puppies, but I might just know the next best thing. How about a cockroach, naked mole rat, or turkey vulture for Valentine’s Day?
For a limited time, Scovill Zoo is offering an opportunity to “adopt” either a cockroach, naked mole rat, or turkey vulture. Unfortunately, adopting doesn’t mean you can take it home and snuggle, but it is a great way to support Scovill Zoo’s various needs. The funds collected from adoptions go towards animal care, exhibits, renovations, and enrichment. With every adoption, they provide a Valentine’s Day postcard of your selected animal, one free admission zoo ticket, an adoption certificate with your name, and an artistic creation made by your animal.
“We came up with this as a way to interact with the public, to get them to help contribute to the care of the animals that they love here at the zoo, but then it’s just silly,” Lizzie Van Ert, Scovill Zoo’s Education and Volunteer Coordinator, said. “People try to find different ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day and it might be something more romantic or galentines with your friends. This is just kind of another fun alternative or a unique gift that you could give to somebody.”
This is Scovill Zoo’s fourth year of offering Valentine’s Day adoptions. The idea stemmed from seeing other zoos do similar outreach strategies where they allow people to name cockroaches after exes and then feed them to the meerkats or other bug-loving animals. However, Scovill wanted to differentiate themselves and instead use it as an opportunity to showcase a more loving side of some animals that don’t always elicit the warmest feelings. They first started with the cockroach and have since expanded their adoptable selection.
“Some of the more misunderstood, creepy, crawly animals are adorable in their own way. They’re kind of funny to give something like this to a friend or family member,” Van Ert said. “I think our most popular is probably the naked mole rat. I don’t know if it’s Rufus in Kim Possible or if they’re just so ugly cute, or what it is about them, but people really like them.”
Every year Scovill does the Valentine’s Day adoptions, it is not only fun for those who choose to adopt, but the animals also get valuable enrichment time from it. When the animals create the art pieces, they set up large clear tubs with poster boards and non toxic paint for the cockroaches and naked mole rats to walk around in. They try to keep a calm environment and allow them to roam at their own pace. Afterwards, some of them receive nice warm baths before returning to their enclosures. The turkey vulture poses more of a challenge since it is much larger and is known to projectile vomit during stressful situations. The zoo would like to assure everyone that there will be no vomit on any art pieces though.
“We did the turkey vulture and hers is a little more of an undertaking because she’s a larger animal and she’s got a sharp beak and a bit of an attitude,” Van Ert said.
In addition to all the fun surprises included with every adoption, you will also receive an invitation to Scovill’s annual picnic held every June. It is an exclusive event strictly for animal adopters, donors, and sponsors. It is a fun evening filled with food, silent auctions, carousel rides, and interesting animal presentations. It is the zoo’s way to give back to the community that supports them.
Since Valentine’s Day falls in Scovill’s off season, it serves as a fundraising opportunity to offset some of the costs during a time when they are not admitting visitors. This has not only engaged them with the Decatur community, but their outreach efforts have expanded clear to Washington state where they had someone call and adopt a turkey vulture. If you are interested in adopting during the Valentine’s Day promotion, cockroaches are $20 and naked mole rats/turkey vultures are $25 to adopt. Call the zoo at 217-412-7435 if you wish to adopt, they will even mail the adoption goodies out to all your long distance friends and family members who you think can’t live without one of these quirky creatures.
There are many other ways to support the zoo besides adoption, you can volunteer your time by working the train or carousel, giving guided tours, and helping out with larger events. Buying a membership, visiting the zoo, signing up for classes and camps are awesome ways to financially support them as well.
Now, the time has come to officially introduce the Decaturian’s newest honorary member… meet James Mole-likin. We hope you love him as much as we do. I mean who could say no to that face?
