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• Tino, whose favorite animals right now are the rhino and zebra, has learned heaps of facts about animals from his trips to the zoo and bedtime stories with Mom and Dad.
• "He'll remember facts like which continent they live on and what they eat," John Pepe said. "He knows the difference between an herbivore and a carnivore."
• San Diego Zoo Kids' four-hour loop running now at Rady Children's Hospital features footage of the zoo's panda exhibit and lots of information from Rick Schwartz, the zoo's national ambassador and show host.
• "It is a perfect match, an opportunity for us to bring the zoo to children who can't come to the zoo because they are in the hospital," he said.
• Schwartz is working on new content, including incorporating archive footage. For years, the zoo has broadcast live Internet streams from cameras trained on the zoo's panda, elephant, polar bear, ape, condor and koala bear exhibits.
• It will take some work to get that footage ready for prime time. "A koala sleeps 20 hours a day," Schwartz said. "That would be pretty boring to watch."
• The TV network will be offered to every children's hospital in the country, Dr. Donald B. Kearns, acting president of Rady's, said during a kickoff news conference in December. The hospital already has two commitments: Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D.
• Businessman and philanthropist Denny Sanford donated the money to launch the network.
• Another program in California has been underway for a year. The Aquarium of the Pacific and Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach have teamed up, and aquarium education director Dave Bader said there are two big benefits. Distraction, interaction and fun comes in first, but the second is selfish, he said.
• "We get to feel good by providing something for the patients," Bader said. "We benefit from this interaction, too."
• The aquarium show airs in each hospital room every other Tuesday afternoon.
• Children can watch as veterinarians at Molina Animal Health Center weigh animals or give them vitamins or antibiotics, Bader said.
• He says the questions he gets at show-and-tells prove the animals are helping the kids forget their sicknesses for a bit.
• After seeing that sea otters get their teeth brushed at the aquarium, one child asked Bader about the penguins. No teeth, no problem, he said.
• Schwartz also sees quizzical kids momentarily engrossed in the animal world. He was showing a boa constrictor to a group of young patients when a little girl asked, "Do snakes yawn?"

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