But swimming with dolphins is just one of the adventures this 12-year-old from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, will enjoy as trainer for the day at Discovery Cove in Orlando, Florida. And Clubhouse gets to go along with her.

Day at Discovery

You’ve probably visited animal parks and seen the sign: "Do Not Touch the Animals."

Well, at Discovery Cove those signs don’t exist. Touching the birds, dolphins, fish, rays and small mammals is the whole idea.

"People at SeaWorld always wanted to be the ones chosen out of the audience to meet the killer whale or dolphins," Discovery Cove senior publicist Glenn Haddad says. "They want that up close experience. That’s how the idea for this place started."

Ashley’s close encounters with the animals begin early in the morning with more than 100 birds in the aviary.

"I had a Tawny Frogmouth on my arm, and I fed it worms and fruit," Ashley says.

Aviculturist Jose Martinez says Discovery Cove has 44 species of birds and plans to add 44 additional kinds in 2002. He prepares the food for the birds, but doesn’t feed them.

"We let the guests have the fun," Jose says.

From the birds, Ashley walks across white sandy beaches to watch the dolphin video. Then she and her dad, Mark, splash into the water to meet C.J. (see "Working-Class Dolphin").

Ashley and her dad rub C.J. in the shallow water; then it’s off to the deep side of the pool to give him some commands and get a fast ride. As a trainer for the day, Ashley gets to spend extra time with her flippered friend.

"C.J. is really smart," Ashley says. "He knew what I was saying, and he knows a lot of signs."

Scientists agree with Ashley on dolphins’ intelligence. Dolphins communicate by using complex sound signals: clicks and whistles. Each dolphin has its own unique click-and-whistle pattern, like a name. When a dolphin is alone or separated from its group, it will call out its "name" 60 to 90 percent of the time. If another dolphin hears the pattern, it will copy it and mimic it back. Once contact has been made and the dolphin has rejoined the group, the clicking "conversation" continues, but the dolphin only says its name 1 or 2 percent of the time.

Dolphins are such good mimics and so good with sound that they’ve been taught to count in English and speak simple phrases, such as "stop it," "more" and "bye-bye."

A Day to Remember

Next, it’s out of the water for a behind-the-scenes look at the small mammals: a lesser anteater and a sloth. Ashley holds and feeds these animals—something most guests don’t get to do.

"The sloth was weird," Ashley says. "And its nails were so long that when I first held it, I was scared. But then I thought it was really cute when I was feeding it."

Ashley ends her day by snorkeling with her dad in a lagoon teeming with thousands of tropical fish and stingrays (with their stingers removed).

"I dove down about 10 feet and touched one of the giant rays," Ashley says. "It felt like wet rubber. Plus, I saw a clown fish, and I always want to see one of those.

"This day was great."

A Dolphin’s Day

Move over, Flipper—here comes C.J.

This 9-year-old bottlenose dolphin is one of 30 who live at Discovery Cove. And many days you can find him performing and giving rides to people.

"Most of the jumps and flips they already do in the wild," senior animal trainer Jeff Stanley explains. "We just train the dolphins to do them to hand signals."

C.J.’s day starts with breakfast at about 6 a.m. From that time until around 7 at night, C.J. hangs out with a trainer, guests or other dolphins in his pod in one of the three gigantic, salt-water, sand-bottom lagoons.

Each trainer works with nine dolphins.

"We’re responsible to build relationships with them so they recognize us," Jeff says. "We also plan the day for the dolphins and try to change their schedules everyday for variation."

Some days C.J. isn’t around guests at all. And even on days when he is "working," he might give some people rides in the morning and then be with the trainers and have some play time in the afternoon.

All of the dolphins at Discovery Cove were born and hand-raised at one of the three SeaWorld parks. C.J. was born in San Diego. His half-sister Coral was the first dolphin born at Discovery Cove. She turns 2 in October.