Ohio wild-animal camp offers teenagers an up-close look

CUMBERLAND, Ohio (AP) — Like the young people at other summer camps, those enrolled in the Working Wild Camp swim, hike and play. They also stand just feet from a zebra (albeit a sedated one).

“You think you’re coming to camp to see these animals,” said Patrick Hughes, 16, of Chicago, watching staff members of the Wilds, a wildlife-conservation center, remove a shoe from the hoof of 5-year-old Elvis. “You don’t expect to get this close.”

More than 200 students, age 8 to 19, attended camps this summer at the 10,000-acre center in Muskingum County.

The final offering of the season: Working Wild, which ended earlier this month.

The overnight camp offers those 14 to 19 five days of hands-on experience, typically in preparation for a career with animals.

Throughout the week, the 24 participants helped feed giraffes, identify animals, exercise cheetahs on a track and more.

One day, a farmer had a calf with a broken leg that needed to be euthanized.

The teachers scrapped their plans for the rest of the morning, and the campers helped set the leg and perform a necropsy.

“This isn’t a demonstration,” said Christa Kugler, director of conservation education. “This is it; this is real. “This is the best kind of learning experience you can have with the best people.”

Most of the campers this year — all but a few of them Ohioans — had attended previous camps at the Wilds.

Angie Metzger of North Canton participated in the Working Wild Camp two years ago, returning this summer because of her passion for animals.

“I’ve always loved them — all of them,” Metzger, 18, said before excusing herself to monitor the zebra’s heartbeat.

“I want to do stuff like this, to keep them around.”

The camp is one of a kind in Ohio; leaders of the center are unsure how many similar sessions are conducted nationwide.

Duncan Brown, 16, calls the series of summer offerings at the Wilds a rare treasure.

He has traveled 10 times from his home in Stonington, Conn., to go to the camps.

“This is what I come to Ohio every summer for,” he said. “There’s nothing like this anywhere.”