The National Wildlife Visitor Center hosted the Annual Patuxent Wildlife Festival on October 18^th, 2008 from 10AM - 3PM. This is an annual partnership event between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Patuxent Research Refuge and the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. These two agencies come together each year to celebrate Earth Science Week and National Wildlife Refuge Week.

Visitors viewed live animals which included various species of birds of prey and turtles, and scientific displays highlighting topics such as pollinators and waterfowl harvest surveys. Visitors also climbed aboard a bus for a behind-the-scenes tour of the normally-closed research areas of the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, where they saw endangered Whooping Cranes being raised at Patuxent for release to the wild.

There were many activities for children to enjoy including face painting, a fish print craft, origami and view the sun with NASA's solar telescope. Families also explored wildlife habitats on discovery hikes and conservation tram tours led by refuge naturalists. The event was a huge success and there were over a 1000 happy visitors!