Children throughout the county will have the opportunity to see and experience night “critters” next week.

Beginning at 5 p.m., Fri., April 9, as many as 25 students will have the opportunity to meet at Open Pond Recreation Facility to participate in the first-ever Stalking Night Critters event.

The Covington County Extension Office and the Conecuh National Forest organized the event.

“We will meet at the Open Pond Rec area at 5 p.m,” said. Tanya Bales, assistant agent.

“We’ll have a series of guest speakers talk about nocturnal animals. This time of year the frogs are coming out, so we hope to see a lot of them and hopefully some other nocturnal animals.”

In addition to the speakers, Bales said they hope to throw in some survival skills.

Students will get a belly full as they will be provided a hot dog dinner and s’mores cooked over the campfire.

The deadline for registration is April 7; yesterday, there were still 13 openings for the event.

“We are taking youth from throughout the county, but we target 4-Hers. If they aren’t involved in 4-H we try to get them to join. After all, it is free.”

Just how did they come up with the idea for a nocturnal animal event?

“Charles Simon and I talked about it and came up with it,” she said. “It has progressed into a nocturnal animal clinic.”

Bales said that parents are required to stay with the children, but the event is completely free.

“Anytime we use weapons or it is an evening event, we ask parents to stay,” she said.

“This is good because we get to see the dads involved.”

For more information, call 222-1125.