Have you ever fed a Toucan?

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And now, back to 2010 and our trip to Costa Rica!  We just left off with our hike through the Waterfalls at The Peace Lodge.  Our next stop would be the Aviary! I thought this would be a favorite for my mom since she is a bird lover!  I had remembered the aviary as having so many birds, but when we walked in, they must have all been hiding- we didn't see any!  Hmmm...but almost immediately, one of the employees stopped my daughter, Megan, and asked her if she'd like to feed a Paca.  She was thrilled!  A paca looks sort of like a large guinea pig.  So both her and my son Alex got to feed the little guy some pellets through the cage while the guide told us about the pacas.

Then the guide asked them if they wanted to feed the marmosets!  Well, of course!  So, he took us over to them and they were just adorable.  They would grab a piece of food with their hands and run off to eat it.  Sometimes they'd actually eat out of the kid's hands directly!  


Next, the guide asked my mom if she'd ever held a toucan....really?  Ok - off we went to the toucans!  He reminded us that these are all rescued animals and in the wild you would never want to try to touch a Toucan - they are very aggressive birds!  After our little lesson in proper handling techniques - he immediately gave a signal and the toucans started coming over and he put them on our arms and shoulders!  He let us feed these amazing birds and showed us how to gently pet them!





These are really amazing birds and so beautiful up close!  Their beaks are so delicate, but you can tell how strong they are!  We were so impressed that we sort of forgot to continue to walk through the rest of the aviary!  We moved straight to the Butterfly House....at this point, we'd had what was so far a perfect day!  It wasn't even lunch time yet!  Amazing!

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