Who We Are
Casai Daley / Owner
Casai has always loved everything about nature, and started learning about it at an early age from her older brother, who was a marine biologist. He gave her Purple Knight Land Crabs, which started a succession of numerous pets. Since childhood, she has rescued animals in need of homes or rehabilitation.
At the University of Connecticut, Casai studied animal behavior, worked in a neuroscience lab, and researched insects, culminating in a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After an internship at the American Museum of Natural History and working in bird conservation for New York State Parks, she realized that office work wasn’t for her, but found an interest in Environmental Education.
She worked as an Educator at The Maritime Aquarium, teaching a huge variety of science programs, developing curricula, designing experiments to do with kids, and teaching touch tank programs with intertidal animals! She loved it, but wanted to do educational programs with a larger variety of live animals, especially ones which were trainable. After working for a small traveling zoo as a keeper for a while, she realized gaining more experience first would help her be more successful.
To maximize her learning, she did a series of internships at various zoos in California, caring for animals, training animals, and teaching. This led to working for the San Francisco Zoo teaching traveling educational programs with a large variety of exotic animals, and loving it! From those vast and varied experiences, she knew that creating her own traveling zoo in order to teach kids about the environment was her calling. After years of learning about business, regulations, and other preparatory work, she started Curious Critters by Casai!
Gregory Wyche / Technology Officer
Greg is a longtime colleague and friend of Casai’s who also graduated from the University of Connecticut. He is a scientific jack of all trades, including Analytics, Technical Writing, and Programming. In his spare time he enjoys training for half marathons, studying calculus, writing fiction, and spending time with his cat. He is a published novelist as well!
Our History and Mission
Curious Critters by Casai was started in 2016 as a sole proprietorship. We are transitioning to a non-profit organization to better serve the needs of our community. Through interactive, hands-on educational programs with live animals, we inspire the public to learn, develop passion, and act as environmental stewards.
We envision a world in which the public are familiar with the natural world around them and are good stewards, engaging in sustainable practices. We inspire and encourage the next generations of wildlife stewards to learn about nature and the simple actions they can take to help preserve it.
Our Code of Ethics/Values
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In every program, we teach the public about their impact on the environment and how they can conserve it. We inspire passion for wildlife and foster a sense of stewardship. As a long term goal, we will support and participate in conservation programs as well as international field conservation.
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We reduce, reuse and recycle, and have a permaculture farm to supply food to the animals and to process their waste. We make every effort to respect the environment in our operations.The majority of our animals arerescuedor adopted, and we avoid purchasing animals from breeders.
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We provide hands-on experiences with fauna and nature to local inhabitants, expanding their knowledge of the world around them. We help them explore their needs and emotions, create relationships with living things, and connect with their larger community.
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We give our animals the respect and care they deserve, and teach respect for all animals in our programs. We have the highest standards of care for our collection of animals, giving them excellent nutrition,veterinary care, enrichment, clean spacious enclosures, exercise, and positive reinforcement training. We follow the policies put out by AZA, wherever possible.
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The comfort and safety of our animals and participants is our utmost concern. We design our programs, interaction styles, sanitization practices, travel distances, and travel carriers to maximize safety and reduce stress for all involved.
