1 May 2009
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11 teams consisting of school-children came on that day to support carnivorous animals by their taking part in the relay-race. And the obstacles were very serious ones, the test “Catch up with the bear” was one of the most complicated. The schoolchildren were jumping on two feet on the footprints of our “bear”. The next part – “wolf’s steps” – made the children to demonstrate their skills of sporting walking, and the “Lynx’s races gave the children a possibility to feel themselves as real rapidly and gracefully running carnivores. On the lap “Troubles of an Arctic fox” the children had to take a mother’s care of the “cubs of carnivores” and to take them from an old “discovered by the hunters burrow” into a new one “hidden from human eyes”. The culmination of the relay-race was the lap “Jumps of Marbled polecat”, having reached the finish on all their fours the school-children were giving the “bone” to the hungry “bear”. The last lap of the relay-race was “Experts of carnivores”. The children were answering different questions about the biology of European carnivores and the EAZA Campaign. As a result the strict judges chose the winners – the most clever, the most brave, the most adroit and skilful! All the participants of the race received presents and gifts from Exotarium and communication with a ferret, a close relative of the Marbled polecat – an animals protected by the campaign! 
The children had to go through 4 laps. Lap 1 – “Carnivorous task” – the schoolchildren had to present their team. The children made this task in a creative way, bright, colourful posters for protection of carnivores, interesting mottos – all these made a great impression on the members of the judges. The second lap “Mink’s jumps” – determined the turn of participating in the “Relay-race of carnivores” – the next lap of the race. Here the children had to go through 6 parts, in each of which a separate task was fulfilled. To demonstrate their good attitude towards European carnivores the children were offered to “feed” them. On the first lat “Save a carnivore” the children were obtaining “a tasty bone” – a relay-race stick in the “sawmill”, that demonstrated such factor of influence on nature as cutting down of forests. The children had to keep this “bone” during the whole of the relay-race, and to bring it to the main hero of the festival – “a brown bear” having overcome all obstacles.
