🐢 Repatriating Ohio's Box Turtles

Investing in Our Educators Through Real Conservation

At Dino Buddies, we want our educators to do more than memorize a presentation. We want them to have opportunities to learn, participate, ask questions, build practical skills, and gain firsthand experience with the subjects they teach.

Our work with Gorman Heritage Farm and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) through the ROBOTS Initiative — Repatriating Ohio's Box Turtles gives our team the opportunity to participate directly in native wildlife conservation.

And everything they learn comes back to Dino Buddies.

🐢 Hands-On Animal Care

Our team is currently responsible for the care of six adult Eastern Box Turtles housed at Gorman Heritage Farm.

Caring for these turtles gives our educators experience that goes far beyond what can be learned from a book. Team members participate in husbandry, feeding, hydration, sanitation, weight monitoring, behavioral observation, recordkeeping, and biosecurity.

They learn to recognize individual animals, observe subtle changes in behavior, understand seasonal needs, and see firsthand the responsibility that comes with caring for native wildlife.

That experience makes them better animal care professionals and better educators.

When our team talks to a classroom about box turtle adaptations, responsible wildlife stewardship, animal care, or conservation, they're able to speak from experiences they've actually had.

🔬 Learning in the Field

Our team's education doesn't stop with the six turtles in our care.

Through the project, we're also building experience with the wild Eastern Box Turtles already living at Gorman Heritage Farm.

Team members have opportunities to participate in conservation activities such as:

• 🐢 Wildlife surveys

• 🔬 Disease screening and biosecurity

• 📍 Tracking and monitoring

• 🌱 Habitat and conservation work

• 📊 Wildlife data collection

• 🎓 Conservation education

These experiences expose our educators to another side of working with animals—the science and fieldwork required to understand and protect them.

🌳 Bringing That Knowledge Back to Dino Buddies

This is why professional development matters so much to us.

An educator who has participated in a turtle survey can explain field research differently.

An educator who has provided weeks of hands-on husbandry understands animal care differently.

An educator who has participated in disease screening can have a deeper conversation about wildlife health and responsible stewardship.

That knowledge comes back into our programs.

It influences the questions our educators can answer, the stories they can share, the way they care for our ambassador animals, and the quality of the educational experiences we provide to schools, libraries, families, and communities.

💚 Your Booking Helps Us Invest in Our Team

When you book Dino Buddies, you're helping make opportunities like this possible.

Revenue from our programs allows us to continue investing in professional development, hands-on training, field experiences, animal care, and conservation opportunities for our educators.

We believe the more opportunities we give our team to learn, the more they have to give back to every audience they meet.

We invest in our educators. Our educators bring that knowledge back to Dino Buddies. And our community gets better programs because of it.

Investing in Our Team

At Dino Buddies, we believe exceptional educational experiences begin with exceptional educators. That’s why we invest in opportunities for our team to continue learning, build new skills, and gain experience with animals far beyond those featured in our own programs.

Through our relationship with Midwest Friends of Wildlife (https://www.midwestfowl.org/), our educators travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to participate in venomous snake handling training. As a board member of the organization, Dino Buddies founder Tiffany Johnson is proud to connect our team with specialized training that strengthens their understanding of reptile behavior, safety, and conservation.

Our partnership with Midwest Falconry (https://midwestfalconry.org/) has introduced our team to the world of birds of prey. Staff members have had the opportunity to fly falcons alongside experienced falconers, expand their knowledge of raptors, and prepare for future collaborative educational programs.

Through our connections at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (https://cincinnatizoo.org/), our educators also received an exclusive behind-the-scenes learning experience that broadened their understanding of animal care, wildlife conservation, and careers involving animals.

Our team has continued developing its dinosaur knowledge through educational experiences at the Cincinnati Museum Center (https://www.cincymuseum.org/), including a private tour designed to help us learn as much as possible about dinosaurs and paleontology. In 2026, Dino Buddies also had the opportunity to participate in an Earth Day program at the Museum Center.

We provide these experiences because our educators should never stop learning. Every training session, tour, and hands-on opportunity helps us send knowledgeable, confident, and well-rounded educators into the community.

Our goal is not only to teach children about dinosaurs and reptiles. We want them to discover the entire animal world while meeting passionate educators they can learn from, connect with, and look up to.

Animal Enrichment in Action

When we invest in our team's ideas, our animals benefit too.

Investing in our educators doesn't only mean sending them somewhere else to learn. It also means recognizing the knowledge already within our team and giving our educators the opportunity to put that knowledge into action.

Our Director of Animal Science, Stephanie Heidorn, has helped us rethink how our snakes experience educational programs. By studying their natural behaviors and paying attention to how individual animals respond during outreach, Stephanie began developing portable enrichment structures that allow our snakes to make more choices and behave more naturally while still serving as incredible animal ambassadors.

One of those ideas became our Boa Tree.

We've cared for boa constrictors since Dino Buddies was founded in 2020, and experience taught us that while they're wonderful educational ambassadors, prolonged handling isn't always how they're most comfortable participating. Stephanie used her knowledge of their natural history to help us create another option.

Standing six feet tall, the Boa Tree gives our boas opportunities to climb, perch, rest, and observe their surroundings during programs. Instead of needing to remain in someone's hands, they can choose where they're most comfortable while audiences get to observe behaviors they might otherwise never see.

Stephanie also developed our Table Climber for younger, more active, and arboreal snakes. These animals can climb, explore, and investigate throughout a program, creating enrichment for them and new teaching opportunities for our educators.

That's exactly what we want Dino Buddies to be.

We want our team members to bring their own knowledge, interests, observations, and ideas to the table—and we want to give them the resources and freedom to turn those ideas into something real.

In this case, investing in one educator's expertise created new tools for our entire team, improved the experience of our animals, and gave thousands of people a better way to learn about snake behavior.

When our educators grow, Dino Buddies grows with them.

🐢 Habitat Upgrades for Our Animal Ambassadors

Crested Gecko Habitat Upgrades
Our crested geckos are living their best lives thanks to a major habitat upgrade led by our Director of Animal Excellence, Stephanie Heidorn.

All 10 geckos now enjoy beautifully redesigned enclosures featuring automated misting systems, UVB lighting, basking zones, and a naturalistic layout with live plants for enrichment and humidity control. These upgrades provide not only more space but a slice of the geckos’ native environment—encouraging natural behaviors like climbing, hiding, and hunting.

Big thanks to Stephanie for seeing this project through from start to finish!

The latest update for 2025 is that Cersei our Burmese Python got a massive upgrade! Watch the video below.

🌿 LEARNING IN THE FIELD

Giving our educators opportunities to lead, research, and teach.

At Dino Buddies, investing in our team also means giving our educators opportunities to take what they know and build something of their own.

Our ongoing herpetological survey at Gorman Heritage Farm, led by our Director of Outdoor Education and Research, Kassandra Whittington, does exactly that.

Through field surveys, our team documents the reptiles and amphibians that call Gorman home—from snakes and turtles to frogs and salamanders. The project gives our educators hands-on experience with wildlife surveying, species identification, data collection, and the realities of conducting research in the field.

But we're also using those opportunities to pay it forward.

In partnership with Gorman, we've created an internship opportunity for summer camp counselors and emerging educators to work alongside our team and gain real-world experience in wildlife research and fieldwork.

For our team, it's an opportunity to grow as researchers, mentors, and leaders. For interns, it's a chance to build skills and experiences that can help open doors to future careers in wildlife, conservation, animal care, and environmental education.

That's the cycle we want to create at Dino Buddies: give people opportunities to learn, give them room to lead, and then empower them to create opportunities for the people coming behind them.

Learning from the people doing the work.

At Dino Buddies, we want our educators to learn about wildlife conservation by actually experiencing it.

Our partnership with Midwest Friends of Wildlife helps us create those opportunities by connecting our team with wildlife professionals, field training, and conservation experiences outside of our everyday work at Dino Buddies.

Our founder, Tiffany Johnson, has participated in professional field training with Midwest Friends of Wildlife and now serves on the organization's Board of Directors. The experience reinforced something that has become an important part of how we develop our team: there is no substitute for getting into the field and learning alongside people doing the work.

Now, we want our educators to have those same opportunities.

Our goal is to send members of the Dino Buddies team to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where they can participate in hands-on field training, develop wildlife survey skills, learn from experienced conservation professionals, and gain exposure to native species they don't typically work with—including venomous snakes.

And that experience doesn't stay in Michigan.

It comes back to Dino Buddies.

The techniques they learn, species they encounter, questions they ask, and experiences they gain become knowledge they can share with the rest of our team and ultimately with the thousands of children and adults who attend our programs.

Midwest Friends of Wildlife also shares another value that's important to us: creating more pathways into conservation. Through accessible training, workshops, and hands-on experiences, they give people from different backgrounds opportunities to develop real wildlife skills and discover where they might fit within the field.

That's exactly the kind of opportunity we want our educators to have.

We invest in sending our team into the field so they can come back as stronger, more experienced educators—and then pass that knowledge on to the next person.

We’re Honored to Be Recognized 💚

Dino Buddies is proud to share that we have been named Cincinnati Family Magazine’s Face of Wildlife Outreach & Education 🦎📚 in their January and July edition.

This recognition reflects the heart of what we do every day: providing hands-on wildlife education that is rooted in respect for animals, grounded in science, and designed to help children feel curious, confident, and connected to the natural world 🌱✨. It also honors the trust families, schools, libraries, and community partners place in us to deliver programs where animal care always comes first.

From live wildlife encounters 🐍 to creative dinosaur puppet programs 🦖, Dino Buddies exists to make learning approachable, engaging, and meaningful. Being recognized by Cincinnati Family Magazine affirms the importance of education that is both fun and responsible—and the power of community-based conservation work.

We are deeply grateful to our partners, supporters, and the thousands of children and families who learn alongside us 🤍. This recognition belongs to all of you.