FWC teaches Lynn Haven Elementary students about Florida wildlife

LYNN HAVEN, FL. (WMBB) — Lynn Haven Elementary students had the chance to learn about area wildlife Tuesday morning.

In recognition of the students raising $23,000 for the school in a recent Boosterthon, Principal Stacie Anderson awarded the students with a visit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. As part of this award, Mrs. Anderson, who is a Florida State fan, had to kiss a baby alligator.

The FWC showed off some animal skins, bones, deer antlers, and even the mouth of a shark.

FWC Official Travis Basford says they want to inform kids about their job and local animals.

“So we like to come out and do outreach and education with our local schools to kind of educate the kids on what we do as fish and wildlife officers, protecting people, protecting animals. And we also share some fun facts about some of the animals that we get to protect. And today we brought some deer antlers. We’ve got a turtle shell, some wild turkey stuff, and then we brought a live alligator,” Basford said.

Some interesting facts about alligators and other creatures were presented to the students.

“So an alligator in his lifetime, they live long enough, they can go through 2000 to 3000 teeth and they usually live 30 to 50 years. Yeah, we went over some different things, like the difference between antlers and horns we went over some stuff and we have some sheds from some deer that we’ve collected in the woods. We’ve got a coyote pelt, we have some shark teeth, we’ve got a bear skull, different things like that,” Basford said.

One kindergarten student, Noah Parsons, had the opportunity to see the skin of his favorite creature.

“Because they have a mouth to eat rats. Snakes are really cool because they shed their skin,” Parsons said.

Principal Stacie Anderson says she plans on doing this again in the future.

“We always love inviting in our community partners and outside agencies just to make sure that, you know, we’re all kind of in this together. And we love the kids being engaged and learning that’s happening in our community, and FWC is certainly a big part of that,” Anderson said.