Thuja has always known that she wanted to work with children and wildlife. As a child her friends often called her house the "zoo", sharing her home with rabbits, fish, newts, turtles, dogs and cats, just to name a few! From a young age she recognized that animals were sentient beings and that their lives were just as important as our own. Thuja's love of wildlife created a sense of curiosity and a desire to obtain knowledge about the environment. She attended many camps as a child, which allowed her the opportunity to appreciate and interact with nature. Being a "city kid" she was painfully aware of the lack of green space, and looked forward to the rural camps every summer.

After high school, Thuja decided to pursue a career in healthcare. She developed a passion for working with children as a 2nd year nursing student, spending her breaks in the children's wards teaching them whatever they wanted to learn. Years later she became a Dental Hygienist and has been working in the field of pediatric dentistry since 2003. Thuja has worked in rural communities in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, working extensively with indigenous children. She has also been involved with the Street Youth Clinic in Toronto providing dental hygiene treatment and education to homeless youth.

Thuja has also been working at Jungle Cat World as a Wildlife Educator, allowing her to share her knowledge and passion for environmental issues with the public, striving to inspire a love for nature and a desire to protect it. Recently she has teamed up with COTERC (Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation) to educate school age children about various environmental issues and to promote rainforest conservation.

LC is currently going into his 4th year at the University of Guelph studying Environmental Biology. He is currently our longest standing staff member and first came to Safari Zoo Camp as camper nearly a decade ago! For several years now, he has been acting as the Safari Zoo Camp animal enrichment specialist.

LC has also spent a portion of his previous summers working in a laboratory and researching human hormones as they correlate to reproduction. LC has always had an upbeat and cheery attitude and has always been the life of Zoo Camp!

Shakespeare once wrote, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em." All of these scenarios apply to Squid. Ever since Squid was a child he always had an equal passion for wildlife and the arts.

As a teenager, Squid was enrolled as a drama major at Claude Watson School for the Arts. At that time, Squid explored his love for theatre, music, and dance. He also became the president of his high school's Arts Council. In addition he auditioned for television roles and appeared in a few commercials and music videos.

Squid was a camper at Safari Zoo Camp for the first time in 2004. Ever since then Squid has never left. His favourite activities at camp include zoo-keeping, caving, rock-climbing, and rappelling. Zoo Camp acted as a catalyst to Squid’s passion for the environment, wildlife, and sustainability.

Since then, Squid was accepted into the University of Guelph for zoology. He also has travelled to England, Greece, Italy, and the Rocky Mountains. As well, Squid has branched out by becoming a street canvasser for Greenpeace. Squid always believed that awareness and knowledge is the key to change. He is looking forward to being able to build on his knowledge from the bright campers this summer.

Zazu is a laid back, nature-loving student at the University of Waterloo who has always had an affinity towards all animals. She's the kid who couldn't turn her back on a baby bird who had fallen out of a nest or on the feral kitten that took swipes at everyone. With patience and an eager willingness to help any creature that came across her path, she discovered her passion for rehabilitation.

Her enthusiasm to try anything from sky-diving to white-water rafting knows no limits. Her time at the Jungle Cat World ten years ago as a camper really fuelled her, and her past experience as a counsellor was completely inspirational. She is really looking forward to another fantastic summer!

Mac attended his first Safari Zoo Camp session when he was six years old. He returned enthusiastically for the next eleven years for two to three weeks each summer. Camp was the inspiration behind his love of animals, his awareness and concern for endangered wildlife and habitats and the place where life long friendships were built. Through camp he has participated in the most amazing adventures including caving, hiking, tree climbing and even sky diving! Mac is looking forward to sharing his knowledge and planning adventures with the campers as a counsellor in 2011.

When Mac wasn't at Safari Zoo Camp he spent summers traveling to far away places including Australia where he dove the Great Barrier Reef, journeyed across Europe visiting Brussels, Amsterdam, France, Italy and Greece. In 2010 he earned his Open Water Diver certification while participating in the summer Marine and Environmental Science Program based at the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia.

Mac is a graduate of Kincardine District Secondary School and is enrolled in the Eco-System Management Technologist program at Fleming College. He recently participated in the first Jungle Cat World international trip to volunteer at the Caño Palma Biological Station in Costa Rica. That too was a life changing adventure!

Marina has always been fascinated by all the wildlife this world has to offer. She knew that hard work and determination would pay off and she would be doing what she loves!

Currently, she is a student at Wilfrid Laurier University. During the summer she likes to make the most out of the amazing weather and enjoy the outdoors. Growing up in a big family conditioned her to pass on her knowledge to others, something she looks forward to do at Zoo Camp with the many campers that share the same passion for the planet!

Growing up, Frodo's favourite time of the year was always going to camp. He went to an overnight called RKY for seven years where he discovered how much he likes hanging out in Nature with his friends and running around the forest with various objectives. Frodo eventually left RKY in 2007 to spend his summer on a soil sampling expedition in the North West Territories. Living in a forest in the middle nowhere for 8 weeks, Fro's love of nature was tested by his hatred of the mosquitoes. However, after a long, bloody war, a great truce was made between Frodo and the mosquitoes. They no longer bother each other and Frodo has since then been free to explore his interests in nature.

Since then Frodo has been studying science at the University of Guelph, but a great deal of his time has been spent mastering various other crafts such as ping pong, foosball, darts, cards, pogo sticking, hackey sacking, frizbee throwing, Wii Sports, some real sports too, and most importantly, RISK... The Game of Global Domination.

In 2009 Frodo had the best summer ever as an Activity Counselor at Safari Zoo Camp, and upon his return he immediately acquired some new pets. He took great care to ensure his new fish, lizards, frog and turtle were all living in harmony, but eventually the turtle grew too large and was banished to a separate tank on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Despite all this drama, city life is getting old and Frodo cannot wait to be back sitting around a fire with everyone at Zoo Camp.

Taylor is Biology student entering her final year at Trent University. This is her first year at Safari Zoo Camp (and she can't wait to get started!), but that doesn't mean she is a stranger to zoo's, having worked at a reptile zoo in her home town of Ottawa for the past four years.

Growing up she has had a wide variety of pets, here place becoming a foster home for many reptiles. She has been a competitive swimmer for six years and is always looking for something exciting to do, whether it's bungee jumping, skydiving or adventuring through the outdoors taking pictures. With an extreme passion to help protect wildlife, those animals she loves so very much, she recognizes the value of educating today's youth about habitat conservation and preservation.

Ever since he was a little kid, Ocho has always wanted to work with animals, and has pursued that dream fervently. He's hung out with the Kratt brothers, spent 6 years at the Toronto Zoo's Summer Camp, followed by 5 years at Safari Zoo Camp, and has recently been accepted into Zoology at the University of Guelph.

Since his childhood, Ocho has always been fond of the outdoors. Growing up in Toronto, however, it was hard for him to find a suitable forest to hike in. Instead, Ocho had to make do with the world contained in his backyard, which, with only one tree to climb, was sadly inadequate. As the years passed however, Ocho venture out and dicovered the forest at High Park, which had significantly more trees! He now enjoys rock climbing, spelunking and backpacking. During his last trek he explored the rainforests of Central America.

He's excited to spend an amazing summer with his Zoo Camp family!