By DAVE SMALLEY

THE FREE LANCE-STAR

As I sipped my hot chocolate and watched children eagerly figuring out which tracks were made by a wolf, and which by a panda, the air crisp and Christmasy around us, it hit me: The zoo is a great place to prowl after dark.

At least for the month of December.

That particular scene--where kids look at pictures of different animal tracks, then scour around a display and try to figure out which tracks go with which animal--is only one of many delights that await visitors to the National Zoo between now and Dec. 30, during the innovative and fun "Zoo Lights" event.

The mane--er, main--players here, of course, are animals; in this case, animals in lights. A total of 47 clever (and in some cases, enormous) sculptures of different zoo animals are scattered throughout the grounds at the lower end of the park.

It all has a decidedly holiday feel. The original displays are made from thousands of tiny, multicolored light bulbs (they call them "light emitting diodes," or LEDs, but for the majority of us, saying "tiny light bulbs" probably captures the image best).

"Many zoos across the country, including large zoos like the Bronx Zoo or San Diego Zoo, have light shows," said zoo spokesman Jen Skala. Officials at the National Zoo had discussed the possibility of hosting an event like this in prior years--but when the idea came up again in 2007, it was given the green light.

Like the zoo animals themselves, there's a wide variety of sculptures to see--from a python to a soaring eagle that lights up in sequence, from giant pandas (of course) to lions and elephants.

"We wanted to only have animals that are here at the zoo," said Skala. "We also wanted to highlight some of our success stories." So there are light sculptures of Golden Lion Tamarins--a thriving species at the zoo--and even a Kori Bustard, a bird from North Africa that's one of the unique species at the zoo.

One of the interesting aspects to this event is the actual light itself. While there are different colors in the sculptures, there's also a lot of green consciousness going on: The LED lights that compose the works of art use far less power than regular bulbs.