Reindeer in Training

Every reindeer would like to be chosen to join Santa at the North Pole. Older reindeer tell wonderful stories about the places they visited when they flew around the world as part of Santa’s Sleigh Team.

Reindeer, you see, only fly with Santa for two or three Christmases before they return to their herds. The Christmas Eve journey is utterly exhausting, so Santa sends them home with his love and thanks for a job well done. The elves throw a huge party before a reindeer leaves, and another to welcome the new team member. The new reindeer is officially given his or her team name: Dasher, Vixen, Prancer, Dancer, Donnner, Blitzen, Comet, or Cupid. The names are like titles that are passed on from one reindeer to another. The new team member will be similar in size, strength, and temperament to the one he or she is replacing so the sleigh will be perfectly balanced.

For most new arrivals at the North Pole, however, the honor of actually joining the Sleigh Team is still a long way off. When they first arrive, they have a long period of training to look forward to. But first, Santa offers them a warm welcome, showing them to the cozy stables for the new arrivals.

- Adapted from Santa’s Reindeer by Rod Green

Meet two very special “Reindeer in Training” at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this holiday season. Santa's "Reindeer in Training" will be at the Zoo until January 3, 2010.

All of us at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo would like to wish you a safe and happy holiday season filled with all the magic that is Christmas!

Go Green for the Holidays

‘Tis the season for decking the halls, giving gifts, and getting together with family and friends. Celebrate an eco-friendly holiday season with these tips:

1. Traveling out of town to visit family? Share the ride with others going your way to reduce CO2 emissions and save money. Connect with people at www.erideshare.com

2. Put those cereal boxes to use! If you package your gifts, reuse empty boxes instead of buying new boxes. This saves trees and money!

3. Forget the boxes and bows and give experiences, such as tickets to a ball game or the Zoo! For example, ADOPT an animal at the Zoo in your child’s name!

4. Use energy-saving LED holiday lights instead of traditional light bulbs, as well as a time that automatically turns them off at night in case you forget to do it before going to bed.

5. Trim a tree for wildlife instead of cutting down a tree. Decorate a live tree in your yard with strings of popcorn and cranberries for wildlife to eat.

6. Consider getting a live tree from an organic tree farm. When it’s time to take out the tree, have it mulched to use in your spring garden instead of adding to the 10 million Christmas trees that end up in landfills every year.

7. Cut down on paper waste by emailing your holiday wishes or making your own cards out of recycled materials.

8. Recycle old maps, newspapers, and paper bags as gift wrap. If every family did this instead of using wrapping paper for just three presents, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

9. Light your candles with beeswax or soy candles which burn cleaner than traditional candles.

10. Go organic for holiday dinners that are healthy for you and the environment

Breakfast with Santa

Thank you to all those who attended Saturday’s Santa Breakfast! The food was fantastic and all our guests enjoyed spreading holiday cheer!

After Saturday morning’s breakfast, Santa told a poignant story: Something remarkable took place when a little girl, not more than six years old, presented Santa with the gift of a tiny snow globe…This wasn’t just any snow globe, however. This snow globe had been given to the girl by her parents the day she was born. Rather than the usual “asking”, this little girl had her heart set on giving as she joyfully presented her treasure to Santa.

Obviously moved by this sincere expression of love and joy, Santa told this story to all of us who were working on Saturday. This story will stay with me this holiday season- A story that truly represents love, unselfishness and everything Christmas.

We hope you will join us for our next Breakfast with Santa event Saturday, December 19 at 9:30 am.

Panama Travel Journal II - Day 1

Glass Frog with eggs

December 8, 2009
-By Bob Chastain

Tuesday - It’s funny how life can turn on a dime. One second the world is piling up around you and the next second your Dad is having open heart surgery and nothing else matters. The call you MUST make matters little as you rear end the car in front of you. Panama is the same.

We left my house at 4:04 this morning to make an 8:30 a.m. flight. The snow and subzero weather made us worry. Turns out we made it to the airport with two hours to spare. Loading went well, and it seemed we would be on our way, except for that darned engine #1. Engine #2 worked just fine, but engine #1 did not want to start. Switch this, bang on that and still nothing. Then some brilliant person thought it must be cold. Two hours later and an external heater, we are off. We are scheduled to land at 2:15 p.m. and the flight to Panama and the three life lines that we are sending to the frogs there are nowhere to be found.

When we land in Houston the captain comes on and says, “The flight to Panama has already left. Please go to customer service.” Then a lady comes on and says, "They are holding the Panama flight. You will have to run if you want to catch your flight." Run we did. Houston is a big city airport with multiple terminals. The run had us sweaty and tired when we reached the gate and they say, “We were never told to hold the flight and it left seven minutes ago.” The airport turns “Matrix” and time stops. What was a huge rush 30 seconds ago has now turned into timelessness. Everything is slow motion now. We are told there are no more flights to Panama and given a hotel in Houston. The world returns to normal.

It’s funny how people react to things like this. Some are angry. Very angry. Some frustrated. Some crushed. Me? I am calculated. I think to myself, “Does getting angry at the lady behind the desk help, or does niceness help?” I try to use the best strategy to get the result I need. In this case, we have frogs to save, but they will have to wait one day. They will have to fight Chytrid in the wild for one more day. They will wait, as we wait.

For a solution to the problem at hand, we get booked into a hotel; make about a half of a billion phone calls to cancel horses at the Panamanian trail head. They were to meet us tomorrow after a 5:00 a.m. departure. The project director will now have a day to make final preparations in-country and the other expedition members will have to put hope on hold. We make the second half of a billion phone calls to check in at work, deal with the latest problems, rebook hotels in Panama that are now full, and look for something to eat.

Modern airports are like small cities with plastic knives. Since we are in Houston, near the coast, we decide on a seafood place and a three hour lunch. We miss the 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. buffet by 20 minutes. Just our luck, since now the expensive dinner menu starts our 3:20 p.m. lunch. But I have to admit, the service was nice and the food was good. We talked to the lady at the restaurant about why all their nice meals come with plastic knifes. You guessed it. National Security. We discussed why people don’t care about forks. They seem dangerous. We talked about how the whole world takes off their shoes in airport security because of one man. Strange place we live in…..

I have stopped taking Malarone, my malaria medicine, because my Achilles tendon is hurting. The one known side effect with Malarone is that your Achilles tendon can just rip and detach for no reason. I am more than a little worried about the walk tomorrow. I have iced it and taken ibuprofen, so we will see what happens. I am sure, right now, you and I are in the same boat. Too many things to think about and not enough time to control all the variables. Who knows how life would turn out if there were no variables? If left to our own designs, I am afraid we would sit wrapped in our version of our “perfect world” with little left to live for. Nobody hates discomfort and “unconvinced” more than me. Without it though, the desire to learn and grow would be lost. Relationships would have no passion. That to me would be the tragedy I would never want to face.

Winter WildLand

Meet Jack Frost!

Winter WildLand begins Friday December 11th, when everything at the Zoo is transformed into a winter vision of light and celebration!

Make it a tradition for your whole family and ring in the season with thousands of lights, holiday characters, and the opportunity to make gifts and accompany Santa as he delivers presents to the animals. You can even see two special “reindeer in training”!

Winter WildLand opens the weekend of Friday, 12/11, 12/12 and 12/13 then runs nightly from December 18 – January 3 from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Ticket prices and detailed information.

It will be a "Wildly Festive Experience"!