Field Trips
Come visit our Animal Area and receive a guided tour as well as one-on-one interactions with some of our animals! Our Animal Team will tour your group through our diverse animal area to teach you about our animals, how to handle them (and maybe even feed a few). You’ll visit such areas as:
- Pentagon & Aviary: Get hands on with some of our most social animals! Pet wallabies & cavies while learning about where they come from in the wild. After, learn about our wide variety of birds that call our camp home.
- Jungle Building: See species you’ve likely never seen before. This is our most diverse area to learn about species all around the world.
- Reptiles: Explore our collection of unique lizards, turtles, geckos, and maybe even face some fears by holding a snake!
- Small Animal Room: Not all of our animals are wild, this room features common (and some less common) household pets.
- Lemur Island: Come face to face with one of our lemur colonies and hand feed them some of their daily diet.
- Nature Center: Explore our Nature Center and learn about some Missouri and U.S. native animals that are not seen in the rest of our collection.
- Other smaller areas that include farm animals, small mammals, and many more!
Groups also have the opportunity to eat lunch right alongside one of our lemur colonies in our Dining Hall!
Field Trip Schedule
| 10:00 a.m. | Arrive at Ranch | Students will gather in our meeting hall. Restrooms are available. Payment should be made in the office during this time. Arriving earlier than 10 AM does not push the tour up. |
| 10:15 a.m. | Introductions & Rules Lemur Presentation | Welcome to the Ranch! Learn about what the day is going to look like and the rules that must be followed. After, learn about our large lemur colony that lives in our Dining Hall. |
| 10:30 a.m. | Lunch | Fuel up before heading down to our Animal Area. Lunch is not provided, you must bring your own sack lunch. |
| 11:00 a.m. | Clean Up & Seperate into Groups | Put lunch away and divide into the tour groups. |
| 11:20 a.m. | Head to Animal Area for Tour | Rotate through the different sections of our Animal Area to explore and learn about animals! |
| 1:20 p.m. | Conclude Tour in Dining Hall | All groups will come back to the Dining Hall to finish the tour together. |
| 2:15 p.m. | Wash Hands & Head Out | Everyone should wash hands and use the restrooms before heading off. |
Field trips are scheduled on a first come, first serve basis. If you are interested in booking us in the Spring we encourage you to submit your dates early, as we book up fast.
School Field Trip Policies
Reservations- Field Trips are scheduled prior to a groups' arrival at the Ranch. Confirmation of your Field Trip is done through our main office. Walk-ins are not available.
Payment Policy- Payment is due prior or at the time of arrival. All payments are made in our office or through a Cub Creek/Bear River Ranch employee.
Dress Code- Please make sure that students, teachers, and chaperones are dressed and ready for the weather. We are able to hold Field Trips in all kinds of weather! We require all guests of the Ranch to have closed-toe shoes! Guests wearing sandals, flip-flops, etc. will be asked to not travel to the animal area.
Chaperon Requirements- All Chaperones MUST stay with the group. Parents may not tour the animal area or facility on their own without an employee of the Ranch. Failure to comply with this may result in asking guests to leave the Ranch.
Participant Eligibility- All participants of the Field Trip, excluding teachers with their class, are expected to pay $5. Parent chaperones and children not in the school group above the age of 3 are considered participants and should pay in the office before the event. A minimum of 25 students must participate for a school/organization to be eligible for a field trip. If your group has less than 25 people, you can combine with another group to meet requirements. Give us a call, we're happy to help work something out. There is also a maximum of 120 participants. If your group is 100+ we ask no additional chaperones are invited. It is always best to ask if additional participants can be added.
Accessibility- Our facility is wheelchair, walker, stroller and scooter accessible!
Rules- All participants must follow our Animal Area Rules. These will be told at the start of the tour, but to prepare participants ahead of time, they are also listed below:
- No food or drink besides water is allowed in our Animal Area. Items may be stored in our Dining Hall while the group is touring.
- Please keep hands to yourself. For participant and animal safety, please do not lean on fencing or put fingers into enclosures. Specific animals are available to touch and tour guides will let you know when an animal can be interacted with.
- Pet animals with two fingers. Our animals love having visitors, but to make each tour a pleasant experience for them, we ask everyone uses only two fingers to pet our animals and to never grab at one.
- Stay with the group at all times. All participants should be in eyesight of the tour guide unless given specific permission otherwise. Wandering guests may be asked to leave.
- Please treat our animals with respect. Chasing animals or touching them without permission will not be tolerated. Voices should stay to an excited whisper, especially while the tour guide is talking or inside buildings.