We are lucky to have a resident snake as an animal ambassador at all three branches of the Urban Ecology Center: Neile the black rat snake at Riverside Park, Andre the bull snake at Washington Park, and Sara the bull snake at Menomonee Valley. These snakes have the job of giving our visitors and students an up close look at a greatly misunderstood animal.

One of the most common questions people ask when they are meeting our snakes is: “are they poisonous?” The answer is no, they are not. But also, that question is not necessarily asking what you think it is asking. Because very few snakes in the world are actually, by definition, poisonous.

At the Urban Ecology Center, education is a cornerstone of our work, our mission, and our impact on the city of Milwaukee. We strive to use education as a tool to form deeper connections with the natural world around us. So as you might imagine, it was a little jarring for me when I realized that I had inadvertently been sharing misinformation when educating the public about one of our resident turtles, Marty. This is a story of a case of mistaken identity.

A few weeks ago, I posted a video introducing the world to Marty.

Have you met Daisy? Daisy is one of the Urban Ecology Center’s ambassador box turtles. Specifically, Daisy is an ornate box turtle. She lives at Menomonee Valley and helps support our mission of introducing children and families to one of the amazing species of creatures with whom we share our natural habitats. While inside her tank, Daisy often buries herself into the substrate and can be hard to find. However, whenever our educators bring her out to share with students in their classes, Daisy is engaging and active, walking around the group and investigating each of the people that have come to learn about her.

If you’ve been to one of our Urban Ecology Center branches, you have probably visited one of our Native Wisconsin Animal Rooms and seen the many cold-blooded critters that call the UEC our home. Our education animals are an important part of our mission to provide kids and families with life-changing encounters with the natural world. A lot goes on behind the scenes to make this happen: the animals need to be fed, their homes need to be cleaned, and we need to make sure they remain healthy. That last item is made much easier thanks to the generosity of Lakeside Animal Hospital.

My most memorable “nature moments” as a kid involved close encounters with animals: meeting live snakes at Riverbend Nature Center in my hometown of Racine, encountering bighorn sheep on a family trip to Badlands National Park, going fishing in lakes in Northern Wisconsin. At the Urban Ecology Center, our mission is to connect people to nature, and providing interactions with animals is one of the most visceral ways we do that.