Grand Junction has its own personal animal center. Children’s Nature Center has been around since 2010. The center is located at the Mesa Mall and houses more than the basic creatures. The center is also kid-friendly and well-maintained.
They have anything from 13-foot pythons to one-inch long dart frogs. The total population of animals at the center is over 120. This nonprofit organization contains mostly volunteers but is designed to educate people on wildlife, animals and the environment.
A good portion of the animals that the center has rescued have been in need of physical therapy. They offer therapy to continue housing animals. It took three years to raise 250,000 dollars, which only covered a portion of the habitats.
The center employs two CMU biologists, and three CMU biology students. Usually, the students that begin to work for them start there and then move on to work at bigger places, with the help of the owner, Janet Gardener. She then assists people to bigger facilities because she knows advisors from all over the world. They also offer internships for CMU students.
CNC encourages field trips ranging from elementary students to CMU students. In the past three years, they have had over 400 field trips come through. The programs that they provide are written by licensed, master degree educators, that align with the Colorado State life science standard. Some of the creatures that they have at the Children’s Nature Center are small river fish, stingrays, turtles, baby horseshoe crabs, pencil sea urchins, bamboo sharks, lionfish, a Russian tortoise, cleaner shrimp, sea stars, small sea urchins, native endangered species fish that can only be found in the Colorado River, a fly river turtle, rare lizards, a 25 year old python, legless lizards and a female parrot. They do allow people to touch some of the animals as well.
Their busiest hours are on Saturday from 10-4pm and Sunday from 12-4pm. They are open from 10-4 p.m. because most of their animals are diurnal, so they are up during the daytime.
Their previous location was in Fruita, Colorado, which opened on January 4, 2014. When this location closed, they opened the location at the Mesa Mall in November of 2016. They have managed to grow three times the size in just three years. They are sustainable with their gift shop and their admissions, covering half of their budget. The other half of their budget comes from private donors. The equipment used for these animals is expensive to get, but they did manage to raise the money to open The Nature Center with the help of donors.
There is a lot of work that has to be done at the beginning of the days and throughout the hours. It takes six people to open up the place in the morning and this takes around two hours to do. Cleaning tanks, feeding the animals and more, all have to be taken care of before opening.
The center hopes to one day open an indoor rainforest. With all of the creatures that the center holds, this could be a possibility.
