NATCHEZ — Four-year-old Addison Beach had little trouble recognizing one of the several animal pelts on display at the Wild Things Environmental Education Festival at the Natchez Shrine Club Saturday morning.

“That’s Swiper,” Beach said as she pointed to the red fox pelt. “That looks like Swiper (from the TV show Dora the Explorer). He lives in Dora land.”

Beach quickly learned about the other pelts on the table and showed off her knowledge of those animals as well.

“They spray,” she said when she got to the skunk pelt. “They are stinky.”

But when asked which was her favorite animal fur, she kept coming back to the fox.

“I like this one because it looks like Swiper,” she said. “He takes stuff.”

Beach attended the event, which was hosted by the Friends of St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge, with her parents, Ryan and Emilee Beach, and her little sister, Olivia. And the Beach family was just one of many families that came out to attend the event that featured a variety of educational activities for children.

“(The event) is going real well,” Friends of St. Catherine Creek Refuge president Pete Smith said. “We’re trying to have a lot of fun with the kids and get the adults to spend a little money for the Friends group.”

One of the main attractions at the festival was the appearance of two young alligators that the children were allowed to hold.

“I held a snake and an alligator,” 10-year-old Andrew Dickinson said. “The snake had a rubbery feel. The alligator was actually a lot better than what I expected. I thought it would be rough but it’s not. It’s smooth.”

Dickinson also fared well participating in the casting competition where children attempted to cast a lure into a bucket to win prizes.

“I did good,” he said. “I made one bucket and got a back pack. (I’m going to use it) to hold everything else I get.”

Dickinson said he hoped to be able to make it to the archery station before he and his family left the festival.

“I want to do the bow and arrow if they have one,” he said. “I’ve never shot a bow and arrow before.”

Dickinson said he also learned a lot about bears during the bear obstacle course.

“I learned that they always eat and during February they hibernate,” Dickinson said. “I thought they ended in January.”

The festival also featured an educational activity on the dangers of damaging wetlands, which turned into a heated competition between friends Abby Fielder, Harley White and Taelor Magee.

The three girls flapped their wings and raced from north to south in order to land on one of two wetland territories left (marked by a rope on the ground) after pollution destroyed the third.

The competition for a landing area was fierce between the three girls with Fielder ending up the winner and White finishing second.

“I lost,” Magee said.

Despite the fun, the three girls said they learned something about ducks and preserving the environment.

“I learned that ducks microwave,” White said. “I mean migrate.”

Fielder’s grandmother, Jean Smith, said the three girls wanted to come to the event to do nature activities.

“They wanted to come see outdoorsy stuff like bears and snakes,” she said. “We just wanted to do something outdoors. They are actually interested in things like that. They really enjoyed playing the games and learning.”

Twelve-year-old Brittany LeMaster said she was volunteering at the festival, but she had time to take a quick break and head down to the archery station to shoot at some balloon targets.

“This is kind of a tradition for me and my family,” she said. “We always come. I like to come out here and enjoying wild life, having fun and spending time with other people.”

A feature new to this year’s event was a biology station where children were able to look at different objects through microscopes.

The Copiah-Lincoln Community College Biology Club sponsored the station, and club-member Candy McGehee said the children really enjoyed looking at the microscopic organisms that can be found in pond water.

“They are learning there are little things inside the water that they can’t see,” McGehee said. “They really like seeing the water flea.”

Festival organizer Charman Cupit said the event went well Saturday, and she was pleased with the turnout and the interest from the guests.

“It’s going great,” she said. “The kids are having a blast and learning a lot. All the proceeds go to our education program at the refuge that we are trying to develop.”

Smith said the Friends of St. Catherine Creek is an educational organization that promotes natural history education. The group is currently in the process of trying to start a program to work with local schools in educating youth about nature.

“In the next two months we hope to start bringing kids on the refuge from the schools,” Smith said.

Smith said the program would have students from local schools come take classes on the refuge that would count toward school credit.