Imagination + Play = Lifelong Learning

After the Hartleys, including Quinn, 3, and Jack, 5, won the Museum's baby porcupine naming contest in July (with the name Q’will), they've returned a half-dozen times to the daily show featuring the prickly porcupette and other animals. Since then, the boys have been re-enacting the show at home.

"They do it about once a week," said Jill Hartley, the boys' mother. "They say, 'I’m going to put on a Desert Dwellers show,' and they go upstairs and practice it. It was completely their idea. I had nothing to with it."

Quinn holds his plush owl toy on dad's leather gardening glove just as the Museum's wildlife specialists use a leather falconry glove to hold raptors during the show.

Jack improvised a glove with one of mom's towels.

During the show, the wildlife staff also demonstrates how they train certain animals to follow a target (a ball on the end of a stick), so that they learn to follow them to places such as to veterinary visits.

"When Quinn did this and put a bagel on the end of a stick, I just about lost it. It was so funny," says Jill.

Jack has been a bird lover since he was age three and collects toy birds of prey. He has a Peregrine falcon, bald eagles and owls. "I’ve learned a lot just by them going to the library and wanting new books about raptors," Jill says. "Every time we're at the Museum store, he writes down which ones he wants for his birthday. And he asked for the family membership for his birthday last year."

What better proof of how the Museum inspires lifelong learning, even among its youngest visitors? Tell us how the Museum inspires you and your family!

Live animals at the Museum’s 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. daily Desert Dwellers shows typically include badgers that demonstrate their amazing digging abilities, a hawk that flies right over your head, porcupines, owls, and reptiles.