Episode 3: What Are Those Giant Beaks on Toucans About?
Hosts Mike Bennett and Chanel Hason answer Izzy's question and share some other cool toucan facts!
Watch the Episode
Discover why toucans have those giant beaks, what’s on their rainforest menu, and more surprising facts!
Watch the Episode
Discover why toucans have those giant beaks, what’s on their rainforest menu, and more surprising facts!
Educational Activities & Gifts
Toucans Made by You
Download our Zooquarium Toucan Coloring Sheets and share your toucan creations! Your photos will appear on the Zooquarium wall!
Bonus Video!
This BONUS video features more of Mike and Chanel’s conversation with Aimee Owen, Aviculture Senior Keeper (bird keeper) at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.
In this extended chat, you’ll hear even more fascinating toucan facts straight from someone who works with these colorful rainforest birds every day.
This BONUS video features more of Mike and Chanel’s conversation with Aimee Owen, Aviculture Senior Keeper (bird keeper) at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.
In this extended chat, you’ll hear even more fascinating toucan facts straight from someone who works with these colorful rainforest birds every day.
Our Featured Guest
Aimee Owen has been a bird keeper at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden since 2011. Rhinoceros hornbills are her favorite animal because she sees them as the ultimate team players. While they may seem like big bullies at first, she knows them to be some of the most caring and attentive partners and parents in the animal world.
She also loves working in the Zoo’s Bird Nursery, where she helps raise and care for a variety of chicks. Aimee’s greatest passion is connecting with people of all ages and showing them just how incredible the living things on our planet truly are. From egg development and bird feathers to rainforest and ocean ecology, she believes these wonders are right at our fingertips. With patience and curiosity, there is so much to learn. She is always excited to share what she discovers and keep that energy going to help create a better planet for all of us.
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MEET OUR HOSTS
MIKE BENNETT
He/Him
An artist, educator, and immersive space designer, Mike turns old buildings, house-paint and plywood into cartoon worlds with animal education and creativity at the helm. Mike brings his colorful characters to life to help curious kids (and kids at heart!) learn, laugh, and explore the world around them. Whether its cryptids, dinosaurs, ocean-life or lawn alphabets, Mike is always ready to tackle his next creative endeavor!
CHANEL HASON
She/Her
Chanel is a marine biologist, environmental educator, and lifelong animal lover who yearns to understand, and teach about, the natural world around us. She has led hands-on marine science programs in Puerto Rico for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment, represented the United States at the Miss Scuba International pageant in Malaysia, and now serves as Director of Outreach & Community Relations for the Elakha Alliance, where she’s helping restore Oregon’s sea otter population. Chanel shares her passion for wildlife and conservation through fun, curious, and inspiring conversations.
Izzy asks: What Are Those Giant Beaks on Toucans About?
Yeah, what ARE they about?! Luckily, Mike and Chanel are friends with Aimee Owen, the Cincinnati Zoo's Aviculture Senior Keeper (bird keeper), to tell us ALL ABOUT toucans and their giant beaks. And since The Zooquarium Podcast smushes science and art, Mike makes sure to ask about some fictional toucans in movies, tv shows, and breakfast cereal commercials.
Explore this page to download quizzes, activity sheets, and bonus materials, upload YOUR art, and submit YOUR animal questions!
WATCH this episode on YouTube and Spotify!
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- Learn about The Elakha Alliance: elakhaalliance.org
The Zooquarium Podcast releases every other Tuesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you’re informed when new episodes come out! Video versions are available on YouTube and Spotify. Bonus videos for episodes are released one week after the relevant episode drops exclusively on YouTube or by visiting the show page at thezooquarium.com/podcast
Credits
- Hosted by: Mike Bennett & Chanel Hason
- Guest: Aimee Owen
- Produced & Edited by: Jon Richardson
- Music by: Gretchen Lohse & Thomas Hughes of Carol Cleveland Sings
- Intro Animation by: Silas Bell & Kyle Bell of Castle Animation
- Artwork by: Fuzzzbrain
Special thanks to:
Izzy & Izzy's family
Our friends at the Cincinnati Zoo
Michele Kraus Bennett
Cayley Pater
The Elakha Alliance
Teddy Albertson
Toucans in general