Zoo-Do Teaching Pack For Key Stage 2
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Zoo-Do Teaching Pack For Key Stage 2
Contents
Page
Introduction 3
Preparation activities and ideas 5
20 facts about the park for you and your helpers 6
Glossary/Vocabulary 7
Looking at animals 8
What do animals need? 9
Park rules 11
Other preparation activities 12
In the park activities and practical information 13
In the park – what you might need 14
Park activity sheets - Introduction 15
Amur tiger 16
White rhinoceros 19
Scimitar-horned Oryx 22
Giraffe 24
Snow leopard 26
Flamingo 28
Grevy’s zebra 30
Siamang gibbon 33
Follow-up activities and ideas 35
Page 2 of 39
Introduction
The aim of this pack is to increase the value of your visit by making it more fun, focused
and educational. It contains ideas and materials to help you use the park to support the
national curriculum at key stage 2. Many of the activities could also be used at key stage 1
and 3. Following requests from teachers we have concentrated on supporting the national
curriculum for science, but many of the activities and ideas are also relevant to the national
curriculum for geography, English, maths and technology.
The pack provides:
suggested topics/context for your visit
suggestions for preparatory work
practical information
sheets for use in the park
suggestions for follow-up work
reference and support material for use back in school
The pack is based around 8 of the park’s favourite animals. For each animal there is a
sheet of questions, information and activities. These aim to encourage observation,
consideration and discussion and are intended for use at each animal’s enclosure by a
teacher or parent with a small group of children. The activities explore different topics,
some of which are listed below:
breeding
grouping
colour/pattern
feeding/predator/prey
senses
territory/home
threats to survival
conservation
movement/form
The pack is intended to be flexible in order to cater for the needs of different groups with
different approaches. The pack does not have to be done in its entirety or to the letter; the
class teacher can select the appropriate parts of the pack that he/she requires. Experience
shows that on a park visit the children benefit from an approach that stresses quality rather
than quantity.
The pack offers two ways of achieving this:
1. Each group of children could select 4-6 of the animals featured in the pack as the focal
point for their day. Each group could choose different animals, aiming to look at all the
animals between the class as a whole.
2. You could choose a particular topic as your focus and choose parts of the activity
sheets appropriate to your chosen topic, ignoring the rest of the sheet. For instance,
‘animal senses’ is a topic covered on several of the activity sheets.
Page 3 of 39
The following chart indicates some of the topics that could be covered and by which
animals.
Snow
Rhino Tiger Oryx Flamingo Zebra Gibbon Giraffe
leopard
Breeding √ √ √
Grouping √ √ √ √
Colour/
√ √ √ √ √ √
pattern
Feeding/
√ √ √ √ √ √
prey/predator
Senses √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Territory √ √ √
Threats to
√ √ √ √ √ √
survival
Conservation √ √
Movement/
√ √ √ √ √ √
form
COPYRIGHT
Any of the pages in this pack can be printed and photocopied for use by the school.
Page 4 of 39
Zoo-Do
Teaching Pack
Preparation Activities and Ideas
Page 5 of 39
20 Facts about Marwell
These facts are intended to help you and your helpers know a little more about Marwell
and its aims, prior to your visit. They may be useful in answering the children’s questions
and also in preparatory research and discussion. Older children could perhaps use them to
construct some kind of quiz or game about the park.
1. Marwell is a modern zoological park dedicated to conservation.
2. There are about 180 species of animals in the park.
3. Virtually all the animals at Marwell were born in captivity; we do not remove animals
from the wild unless it is part of a special rescue programme.
4. Many of the species to be seen at Marwell are threatened with extinction.
5. At Marwell you can see big cats, hoofed animals like zebras and antelopes, small
monkeys called tamarins, birds and many other animals.
6. Lots of space is needed for the hoofed animals. Marwell covers about 100 acres.
7. Many animals are born at Marwell. Barely a week goes by without a birth.
8. Marwell often exchanges animals with other zoological collections to prevent
inbreeding.
9. Marwell has about 160 permanent staff: keepers, curators, park managers, gate
keepers, shop assistants, catering staff, accountants, ground staff, education officers
etc.
10. There are other visitor attractions such as playgrounds in addition to the animals, but
Marwell aims to remain a wildlife park rather than an adventure park.
11. Marwell is a registered charity so that any profit made belongs to the park rather than
any individual.
12. Marwell was founded by John Knowles and the current chief executive is James
Cretney.
13. Marwell has an adoption scheme so that interested people can help the park by paying
an animal’s food bill for the year.
14. Marwell was first opened to visitors in 1972.
15. The first animals to come to the park in 1969 were a pair of Amur tigers.
16. Marwell helps financially in the support of conservation projects in other countries eg.
Zimbabwe and Kenya.
17. Marwell has one of the largest education departments in this country with 3
classrooms, a lecture theatre and 8 education staff.
18. Marwell has a dedicated band of supporters, fundraisers and volunteers.
19. Marwell co-ordinates the European captive breeding programmes for several species,
including the Grevy’s zebra.
20. Marwell is involved with the reintroduction of several species, including the Scimitar-
horned Oryx and Golden lion tamarins.
Glossary/Vocabulary
Page 6 of 39
The following vocabulary will be useful to the children in understanding and talking about
animals and conservation.
That which fits an animal to exploit a given environment e.g. the thick
Adaptation fur coat of the snow leopard is an adaptation to its cold mountain
environment.
The maintenance of environmental quality and resources. The
Conservation resources may be: physical (e.g. fossil fuels), biological (e.g. tropical
rainforests and its inhabitants), or cultural (e.g. ancient monuments).
Distribution Area over which a species occurs.
Threatened
A type of animal or plant which is threatened with extinction.
Species
The complete range of external conditions, physical and biological in
Environment which an organism lives. This includes social considerations, as well as
features such as soil, climate and food supply.
Extinct Term used when a species or group of species no longer exists.
Living place of an animal as determined by climate, vegetation and
Habitat
terrain.
Predator An animal which obtains food by eating another, the prey.
The protection of species or landscapes without reference to change in
Preservation
living species.
Prey An animal which is used as food by another, the predator.
Reintroduction Returning a species to its former range in the wild.
An interbreeding group of biological organisms that is isolated
Species
reproductively from all other organisms.
Area occupied by an animal, or a pair or group, which is defended
Territory
against intruders.
Vegetation Another term for plant life.
Page 7 of 39
Looking at Animals - What do you see?
A visit to Marwell is of far greater value if, when you look at the animals, you have
practised looking at animals beforehand and know what sort of things to look for.
To many people this is just an antelope (or even a goat) and that is all they see. They then
move on to the next enclosure.
If you stop and really look, there is much more to see!
Here are some of the things that you might notice if you took a good look at this animal.
The children could practise looking at animals using pets, pictures, videos etc.
Keen eyesight Horns can be used as weapons if the Desert
along with all- antelope cannot run away from predators. camouflage
round vision from Horns are often different shapes or may is the first
sideways facing be broken. line of
eyes help the defence
antelope to against
detect predators. enemies.
Swivel ears help
to detect sounds Tail may be
from approaching used to
predators. swish flies
away or to
signal a
message to
A good sense of other
smell helps the members of
antelope to detect the herd.
predators.
Hooves offer protection when running on Long legs help the animal to run fast.
hard or stony ground. Each hoof has two Running is its main defence. The knee
parts to it. If the antelope is caught then and ankle joints bend the same way as
kicking with hooves may help. yours, but are they in the same place?
Page 8 of 39
What Do Animals Need?
Animals need certain conditions to keep them healthy. Maintaining all Marwell’s animals in
tip-top condition is a huge task.
What is it that keeps animals healthy? Here are a few of the important things.
The correct kind of food
Some animals only eat meat, some only eat plants. Some animals eat both plants and
animals. Can you think of two animals in each of these groups?
Clean water
Water is important to every living thing since both plants and animals are made largely of
water. How many different sources of water can you think of? Rivers, dew etc.
Water is easily polluted. Can you think of examples?
Oxygen
All animals need oxygen for their bodies to work.
We use our lungs to get oxygen from the air. Where do animals like fish get their oxygen
from and how?
Choices
We usually enjoy having choices.
Can you think of some of the choices that wild animals have to make every day?
How about animals in captivity? Are they different?
Special care when they cannot look after themselves
At what stage in their lives do almost all animals need special care?
Do animals at Marwell benefit from any extra care, over and above their normal
requirements?
Opportunities to move around naturally
Many animals like to walk or run. But do all animals move this way?
Look at the ways that the enclosures at Marwell are designed to allow the animals to move
naturally.
Somewhere to feel safe, secure and protected
Many animals have colours and patterns to help protect them. How does this work?
Animals also use dens, burrows etc for protection. What sort of protection are the animals
offered at Marwell?
Page 9 of 39
What Do Animals Need?
If you are intending to look in greater detail at the needs of living animals here are some
pointers and questions that you could use to encourage the children to think about this
topic.
1. Considering the care of animals is obviously very important in relation to the animals at
Marwell. Ask the children to consider the care of other animals, such as pets. A few
pets could be brought into school (check your governing authority’s guidelines) so that
the children can explore different aspects of their care.
2. Different animals obviously have different needs. Here are some problems that the
children could consider.
a) Snakes, like all reptiles, need to be warm, but they cannot make heat inside their
bodies to keep themselves warm like you do. How do snakes get warm so that their
bodies can digest their food?
b) The giraffe, along with many other hoofed animals cannot dig burrows for
protection from weather and enemies.
Why can’t the giraffe dig?
What are the giraffe’s enemies?
What sort of protection do they get from the weather in the park?
c) Frogs, like all animals, need oxygen. Adult frogs have lungs and can breathe and
get oxygen from the air. As tadpoles they do not have lungs. How do you think they get
their oxygen?
d) All baby mammals need milk. Sometimes a mother animal does not give milk to her
baby (some cannot, some will not). What do you think happens to these babies in the
wild and in captivity?
e) Do zebras and monkeys move in the same way? How do they move? Would their
enclosures need to be different in the park?
f) The addax antelope lives in the desert where there are no rivers, lakes, or rain.
Where might they find some water?
g) At Marwell we give meat to the carnivores and fruit and vegetables to the
herbivores. How and where do these animals get their food in the wild?
Page 10 of 39Park Rules
When people come into close proximity with wild animals it is obviously important to have
a set of standards, or rules, governing people’s behaviour towards those animals,
especially when those animals are within someone’s care and unable to ensure their own
well-being.
To many people, rules seem an infringement of their liberties so perhaps it is important for
the children to consider Marwell’s rules in greater depth and what purpose they serve.
The activities described below may help the children to consider the needs of animals in
zoos and the ways in which visitors can help to care for them.
But first, here are Marwell’s rules for visitors:
Do not cross safety barriers. The barriers are there for your protection. Although
our animals are captive bred, they are not tame!
Do not feed or tease the animals. Our animals are fed a carefully balanced diet
and additional feeding may cause illness or even death. Litter, pencils, coins etc.
thrown into animal enclosures can also kill.
Do not use whistles. We use whistles as part of our emergency alarm system.
Do not run or shout in the animal houses. It may scare the animals.
Do not play on the railway lines. Our train may not be big but a collision may
cause serious injury.
Supervision: All children up to and including year 9 (0 – 14 yrs) must be closely
supervised (i.e. every child must be within sight of an adult leader). We offer a ratio
of 1 adult free with every 6 children to enable this to be possible.
“In loco parentis” remains with the accompanying adult leaders/teachers throughout the
visit.
Marwell Wildlife reserves the right to remove groups from the park where the park
rules have not been followed.
1. Ask the children to arrange the rules in order of importance from their point of view,
and to explain the reasoning.
2. Ask them to design a poster to illustrate one of the rules for people who perhaps
cannot read.
3. Are there any other rules that the children feel might be important? And why?
When you feel that the park rules are well understood, you could issue the children with a
certificate of competence in ‘understanding the park rules’, stating that they are fit to visit
the park, to go into their project folders.
Page 11 of 39Other Preparation Activities
Activity 1
When first introducing the idea of zoological parks, find out what the children already think
about them and about Marwell in particular. They could do a survey or questionnaires to
find how often members of their class have visited zoos, and what they liked and disliked
about them.
Activity 2
Once the idea of a trip to Marwell is established ask the children what they would like to
find out at the park.
Activity 3
Ask each group to choose an animal for which to record the habitat whilst they are in the
park. This information can be found on all the animal identification signs at Marwell (see
sample sign in additional resources section). Try and ensure that each group chooses an
animal from a different habitat. After your trip each group could then create a frieze
illustrating the animal in its natural habitat.
Scimitar-horned Oryx
Siamang Gibbon
Snow Leopard
Giraffe
Flamingo
Amur Tiger
Activity 4
Ask the children which 10 locations/animals they would like to visit and to plan an
appropriate route using a map of Marwell (download the latest version of the park map
from the Marwell Wildlife website – from the home page, follow the route “Marwell”, “park
guide” “interactive map”, then “download map” on link on RHS). Apart from a list of animals
you could offer them locations such as:
the shop
the toilets
the Science & Learning centre
the playgrounds
a suggested lunch site etc.
If you or the children add a grid to the map of Marwell, they could then describe their route
using co-ordinates.
Page 12 of 39Zoo-Do
Teaching Pack
In the Park:
Activities and practical information
Page 13 of 39In the Park – What you might need
There are many things to remember if you are trying to ensure that your day at Marwell is
as successful as possible.
Here is a checklist of some items that may be useful.
1. Small rucksacks for the children in order to leave both hands free.
2. Clipboards, pencils and paper for every child.
3. Clothing appropriate to a pessimistic view of the weather. Excess clothing can always
be put in a rucksack.
4. Packed lunch.
5. Portable tape recorder (and spare batteries) for recording animal sounds or children’s
observations or comments that you do not wish them to write down.
6. A small camera.
7. A sketch pad.
.
8. A map of the world, either one per child or group of children, to help them identify
areas of the world on distribution maps on the animal identification signs.
9. Set of photos of habitats from around the world in case the children wish to visualise
the natural habitat of an animal whilst looking at the animals in the park.
Page 14 of 39KS2 Park Activity Sheets – Introduction
The following sheets are designed to be used by teachers and/or helpers with small
groups of children.
No previous knowledge of the animals is necessary.
They tell you exactly what to say and do, so that you don’t have to spend time thinking of
the right question or reading lots of information.
Using these sheets, even the most inexperienced helper can approach their task with
confidence.
The topics, activities and questions used are based on our own experience of taking
children around the park and on the requirements of the national curriculum.
Suggestions for follow up work based on the data and observations collected are included
in this pack.
The animal pictures on the sheets can be copied and/or enlarged for use back at school.
NB Each helper will need a pen or pencil for ‘ticking’ where required, noting
questions to be researched later etc.
Page 15 of 39Amur Tiger
Habitat - cool, mountainous, pine forests.
Have a good look at the tigers.
Look for:
Eyes which look Thick fur for
forwards warmth
Big strong paws Sharp
with sharp claws teeth
Look at the tiger ‘end
Which part of
on’. Tick the shape it is
the tiger has
most like:
stripes like this?
Draw an arrow
to show where
on the tiger.
Talk About:
Why does it have sharp teeth and claws? (Catching and killing its prey)
How do its stripes help? (Camouflage to creep up on prey)
How do its eyes help? (Seeing its prey, judging distance for pouncing)
Go to the tiger indoor viewing window. You will be using the information boards.
Ask: What does endangered mean? (Almost extinct)
What does extinct mean? (None left at all)
Tell the children: there are 5 different sorts of tiger.
Show them (on the map) where the 5 sorts live. Count to show there are 5 sorts.
Page 16 of 39They are all endangered. Tell the children that because tigers are endangered, zoos want
to help them.
Ask: What problems are making the tigers endangered? (there are four listed on the board)
Find the parts of the tiger, on the wall model, which are used in traditional oriental
medicine.
The head silhouettes to the left of the window are of animals which the wild Amur tigers
might eat. What animals are they? (Cow, wild pig, deer, goat)
Things to do:
Tell the children that although the tigers were born in captivity, they still like doing the
same things as wild tigers.
Wild tigers like to cool off in water. Where can Marwell’s tigers do this? (Look for the pond
and ask a child to mark it on the plan below)
Wild tigers have a den where they can sleep, shelter and have their cubs. Where is the
den for Marwell’s tigers? (Ask another child to mark dens on the tiger house)
Wild tigers like to sleep in the shade. Where can Marwell’s tigers do this? (Look for
bushes, logs etc and mark them on)
Wild tigers like to look out over their territory. Where can Marwell’s tigers do this? (Look for
and mark in the platforms)
Tiger House
Tiger indoor
viewing window
Outer safety
fence
Inner wire fence
Page 17 of 39If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
In the case of the tigers, the graphics by the indoor viewing window can be used to answer
most questions.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 18 of 39White Rhinoceros
Habitat – open grassland, hot climate.
The rhinos may be in their house, or on their hard standing, or out in the big grassy
paddock. Find a place where you can see as many as possible.
Horns: how
Look for: many? Are
they both the
same?
Huge nostrils
Big ears
which twist
Small eyes which around
look sideways
Big feet with 3
hoof -like toes
Talk about:
Look at the rhino ‘end
Do you think rhinos can smell well? on’. Tick the shape it is
(Yes, huge nostrils very good for smelling) most like:
Do you think rhinos can see well?
(No, small eyes compared to other senses)
Do you think rhinos can hear well?
(Yes, big ears are good for hearing)
Things to do:
Show the children how to enlarge their own
ear flaps using a cupped hand to push their
small flaps forward.
Ask: can they hear better? (They should be
able to, check there are no gaps between
fingers).
Page 19 of 39Show the children the rhino identikit below.
Ask the children to look closely at the rhinos’ horns.
Ask: do all the rhinos have the same shaped horn? (No)
Sula Kiri
Female born at Edinburgh Female born at Whipsnade
zoo 12.9.86 . Zoo 15.8.86
Talk about:
Ask: Do you know what rhino horn is made of? (The same material as our hair and
fingernails – it’s called keratin.)
Children often think that the horn is ivory. If ivory was mentioned…
Ask: Which part of your body is made of ivory? (Teeth)
Touch (or tap with a pencil) teeth and fingernails. Both are hard.
Which one grows again if you break it? (Fingernail)
Do you think a rhinos’ horn could grow back if it was broken? (Yes)
Tell the children that because they are hunted and killed by humans, almost all types of
rhinos are endangered.
Ask: Do you remember what endangered means? (Almost extinct)
Do you know why people kill rhinos? (For their horns)
Do you know what people make the horn into? (Medicines in the Far East, carved dagger
handles in the Yemen)
Page 20 of 39If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
What do they eat? In the wild, grass. In the park, grass when they’re in the big field but
also lots of hay and pony nuts.
How heavy are they? Up to 2,300kg.
Why are they smelly? They use their smelly dung to mark their territory.
Are they dangerous? If threatened yes, but a rhino would not normally attack you. Their
keepers have to be very careful not to be trodden on or lent on by mistake.
How many babies do they have? One at a time.
How long do they live? 45 years.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 21 of 39Scimitar-horned Oryx
Habitat – dry, semi-desert.
Finding them: the Scimitar-horned Oryx have four parts to their enclosure – stables, inner
and outer hard standing (gravelly areas), and the large paddock. These are marked on the
map. In general they spend winter on the hard standing and summer in the paddock.
Look for:
Horns: curved or Fur: is it long
straight? or short?
Look at the oryx
‘end on’. Tick the
shape it is most like:
Eyes: do they
look forwards or
sideways?
Hooves: can you
see whether they
are two toed or
one toed?
Talk about:
Ask: Many animals use their colour to help them to hide. What do we call colours or
patterns that help animals to hide? (Camouflage)
Would the oryx’s colour help them to hide in the forest? (No) In a sandy desert? (Yes)
Tell the story:
Once upon a time there were thousands of wild Scimitar-horned Oryx. They lived around
the edge of the Sahara Desert, in Africa. Then humans invented guns, and jeeps, and
people went hunting the oryx. They didn’t hunt them for food or horns, they just hunted
them for fun until they couldn’t find anymore. Nobody has seen a wild Scimitar-horned
Oryx for many years now.
Luckily zoos like Marwell had been breeding oryx. In 1985 Marwell sent some of its oryx to
live in the desert where the oryx used to live. They were sent to a reserve where it was
safe and they have settled in well and had babies. There are now over a hundred living in
the wild in reserves.
Page 22 of 39Things to do:
Ask the children if they know what a reserve is? (A big area of wild land where the animals
and plants are protected)
Tell the children Scimitar-horned Oryx are a type of antelope. Antelope have horns, like
some cows, goats and sheep. Sometimes just the males have horns but with Scimitar-
horned Oryx the male and females have horns. Horns are different to antlers.
Ask: What animals have antlers? (Deer)
What happens to deer antlers once a year? (They fall off; deer grow a new pair each year)
An antelope only ever grows one pair of horns. Sometimes they grow crooked. Sometimes
one or both are broken off. This happens in the wild as well as in captivity.
Ask the children how many oryx they can see with:
1 horn no horns a crooked or broken horn
Record the numbers in the boxes. If there are baby oryx, look for the tiny horns, just
beginning to grow.
If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
Why are there so many? Hoofed animals like the oryx like to live in a herd. In the wild they
would take it in turns to look out for danger.
Are they dangerous? They usually run away from humans, but if a mother oryx thought
you were going to hurt her baby, she could hurt you badly with her horns.
Why aren’t they allowed in the field? (if they are not) Hooves are like fingernails, they keep
growing. The gravelly surface wears them down like a giant nail file. The oryx are kept on it
in winter to keep their feet healthy because the field gets very muddy if they are allowed
out in wet weather.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 23 of 39Giraffe
Habitat – open woodland and wooded grassland.
The giraffes may be in their house, on their hard standing, out in the paddock or in the
African Valley. You will be using props on or near the giraffe house so view them from
there if possible.
Look for:
Long tongue Horns
Large eyes Look at the giraffe
‘end on’. Tick the
shape it is most like:
Slightly different
patterns and colours
on each giraffe
Large ears – can
the giraffe move
one without the
other?
Long strong Long neck
legs Tail with tuft Hooves
Talk about:
Tell the children: healthy adult giraffes have no enemies except man, but lions will hunt
and kill giraffe calves, so giraffes still need camouflage.
Ask: Where do you think the camouflage works best - in open grassland or amongst trees?
(Amongst trees, because of the shadows)
What could a mother do to a lion if it tried to attack her calf? (Kick)
A giraffe has a tuft on the end of its tail. What could it use this for? (Fly swat, signalling to
other giraffes)
Page 24 of 39Tell the children: in the wild giraffes eat acacia and other trees. They don’t have to worry
about other animals eating their food.
Ask: Why not? (Because the giraffes eat the parts other animals cannot reach)
Things to do:
Even adult giraffes can be attacked by lions when they are bending down to drink.
Be a giraffe drinking! Do not bend your knees.
Run away quickly, as a giraffe must do if it is in
danger. Do you find this easy to do?
The giraffe’s long neck and big eyes give it a very
good view.
Compare your height to that of the giraffe using
the life-sized cut-out by the door of the ‘Into Africa’
house. How tall is the giraffe? How tall are you?
If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
Are the giraffes the tallest animals? Yes.
Do they ever make a noise? Very rarely. They can grunt and snort, but you are more likely
to hear their stomachs rumbling!
Are they friendly? Sort of. Giraffes are gentle animals. Some of ours were hand reared
because their mothers could not or would not feed them, so they are not afraid of humans.
What do we feed them? Hay, oats, bran, and maize. In the summer they may graze in the
field and also get leafy branches.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 25 of 39Snow Leopard
Habitat – high, cold mountains.
Look for:
Look at the snow
leopard ‘end on’.
Tick the shape it is
most like:
Long, furry tail
Eyes facing
forwards
Big, soft paws and Thick fur for
sharp claws warmth
Talk about:
Ask: Why does the snow leopard have its grey blotchy pattern? (Camouflage)
Why does it need camouflage? (To help it creep up on its prey. NB it also helps it to hide
from hunters but that is a recent problem. The only enemy of the snow leopard is man)
We have seen that the snow leopard has long thick fur to keep it warm. Where is the
shortest fur? (On its face)
Faces are important and must not get too cold. How could the snow leopard keep its face
warm? (It uses its tail like a scarf when it has to rest or sleep somewhere really cold)
How could the snow leopard’s tail be useful when it is moving? (Balance, especially when
creeping along rocky ledges)
Page 26 of 39Things to do:
Leaping: Snow leopards are very good at jumping. They can leap a long way from one
rocky ledge to the next. Choose a leaf or mark on the ground to be your next ‘rocky ledge’.
Can you jump onto it without wobbling?
Creeping: Snow leopards are also very good at creeping quietly on their big soft paws.
Have a quick game to see how quietly you can creep. Perhaps your adult could be the
listener. He or she must shut their eyes or turn their back to you. The rest of you must
creep as quietly as possible and see who is first to reach the listener. If they hear you
coming you’re out!
Snow leopards walk on tiptoe. Do you walk more quietly on tiptoe?
Looking: Look at these two patterns. One is a leopard’s pattern and the other is a snow
leopard pattern. Which is the snow leopard?
If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
Why are snow leopards endangered? Hunting for their fur, and habitat destruction. People
are moving further into the Himalayas to live, farm and take holidays.
Do they hate hot weather? No they don’t mind. In the Himalayas it can be hot in summer
and anyway our snow leopards were born in zoos with climates very like ours.
Do they breed at Marwell? Yes, Marwell has bred snow leopards for many years. The cubs
born here go to other zoos to have families of their own.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 27 of 39Flamingo
Habitat – wetlands.
Look for:
Pink colour – are
all the flamingos
the same shade? Long neck to
reach down
into the
water
Strange beak
shape
Long legs for
wading – knees
Webbed feet to seem to bend
help them walk the wrong way
in the mud
without sinking
Talk about:
There are 6 different species of Flamingo. Marwell has the sort you would see in southern
Europe or Africa.
Ask: Which sort does Marwell have? (The greater flamingo)
Ask: Does the pink colour help it to hide? (No)
Tell the children that flamingos live in big groups (flocks) in the wild. Ask them to imagine
that they are a flamingo separated from their flock.
Ask: How might the pink colour help? (The ‘lost’ flamingo can easily see the flock and tell
from a distance that they are flamingos)
Tell the children that flamingos get their pink colour from their food. We have to give them
special food in the park, otherwise their feathers would be white.
Page 28 of 39Things to do:
Tell the children that flamingos feed by holding their special beaks upside down and using
them as sieves to filter out tiny animals and plants from the water.
Do the actions of a flamingo feeding. Trample with the feet to stir up the mud at the bottom
of the pool. Use one arm and hand like a flamingo’s neck and beak. Swish the hand from
side to side like a beak sieving out tiny plants and animals from the water.
Tell the children that flamingos actually have the same bones in their legs as we do, and
their joints bend the same way.
Stand on tiptoe and see if you can work out which joint is half way up the flamingo’s leg?
(It’s their ankle!)
If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
Can they fly? / Why don’t they fly away?
Flamingos can fly, so to prevent our flamingos from escaping, they have been ‘pinioned’.
This means that part of their wings is removed. They can still spread and stretch their
wings but can not take off. If we did not do this then we would have to put a roof on the
enclosure. This would stop the wild geese from sharing the pond and would also mean the
enclosure would have to be smaller.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 29 of 39Grevy’s Zebra
Habitat – dry grassland and semi-desert.
The Grevy’s zebra have stables, hard-standing and access to a large grassy paddock,
which they share with the ostriches and Oryx. In summer they will probably be in the
paddock.
Look for:
Tail with tassel
Look at the zebra
Big ears ‘end on’. Tick the
shape it is most like:
Pattern – wide or
narrow stripes?
Which direction?
Eyes on the
side of the
head Long legs with hooves
Talk about:
Tell the children that animals with eyes at the sides of their heads get a good view all
around.
Ask: Why do you think this might be useful to the zebra? (They can keep a good look-out
for predators – usually lions)
How do the zebra’s long legs help it to escape the lions? (It can run fast)
What does it have on the end of its feet? (Hooves)
How do these help? (It can run a long way without getting sore feet)
Tell the children that hooves are really giant toe-nails.
Ask: What do you have to do to your toe-nails to stop you getting sore toes? (Cut them/file
them)
Page 30 of 39Tell the children that in the wild, zebras’ hooves wear down naturally as they travel across
the hard soil. Marwell’s fields are too soft to do this, even when the zebras gallop around.
That’s why they have a gravelly ‘patio’ next to their stables. It’s like a giant nail file, and
helps to keep their feet healthy. We call it the 'hard standing'.
Ask the children to look for the zebras’ hard standing.
Tell the children that Grevy’s zebra live in herds, on open grasslands with very few trees.
Their stripes are a special sort of camouflage.
Ask them to imagine that they are a zebra separated from the rest of the herd. The zebra
on look-out duty gives a warning that lions are hunting.
Ask: Can you think of a place to go where your stripes will make you hard for the lions to
see? (To the rest of the herd. When the herd gallop in a bunch it’s hard for the lion to see
where one zebra begins and another ends)
Something to do:
There are 3 main types of zebra: Common, Mountain and Grevy’s. They all have stripes,
but you can tell them apart by the patterns the stripes make.
Which of these back views belongs to a Grevy’s Zebra?
If they ask:
Page 31 of 39Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
Why are Grevy’s zebra endangered? Because of humans needing more space. Their
sheep and goats need water so the wildlife is driven away from water-holes. Grevy’s
zebra are good at living in semi-desert, but cannot manage without some drinking water.
How long do they live? About 25 years in captivity, less in the wild.
Can you ride them? Not these. Although most of them were born here, we do not try and
tame them. We want them to stay as wild as possible so that they have a better chance of
surviving if we are ever able to re-introduce them.
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Siamang Gibbon
Page 32 of 39Habitat – tropical rainforest.
Look for:
Eyes facing forwards
The throat pouch,
which blows up like
Long, a balloon when they
strong arms are calling
Hands a bit Feet that can grip
like ours
Talk about:
Ask: Which do YOU use most for getting around, arms or legs? (Legs)
Which are the longest and strongest, your arms or your legs? (Legs)
Which are longest and strongest, the gibbons’ arms or legs? (Arms)
Which do you think the gibbons use most for moving around? (Arms)
Which part of the forest do you think gibbons live in – on the ground or high in the trees?
(High in the trees)
Tell the children that forward facing eyes (like ours) are good for judging distances.
Predators like cats have them so that they can see how far away their prey is when they
pounce.
Ask: Gibbons are not hunting animals so why do they need to judge distances well? (They
need to know exactly where the next branch is when swinging through the trees)
Tell the children that gibbons live in family groups in the rainforest. They eat leaves, fruit
and insects. Each family has a territory.
Ask: Do you know what this means? (An area which contains all they need – food, water
and shelter. They defend this against intruders)
Things to do:
Page 33 of 39Every gibbon family has its own special song to say ’’This is our bit of forest – KEEP
OUT!’’. Siamang gibbons make two noises at once when they sing – a low ‘WHOOP,
WHOOP’ and a high ‘OH, OH’!
Try this yourselves. You will find it hard because you don’t have throat pouches, but if half
of you go ‘whoop, whoop!’ (deep) and the others go ‘oh,oh!’ (high), you’ll sound more like
gibbons!
If the gibbons don’t sing for you while you are there, listen out for them as you go round
the rest of the park. They are very loud!
Gibbons use their strong arms and hands to swing from branch to branch in the trees. See
how good you are at this on the monkey bars near the trees.
If they ask:
Remember to ask what the other children think before looking up the answer or answering
yourself.
Are they a sort of monkey? No, they are apes (so are we). Monkeys have tails.
Are they rare? They are not yet listed as rare, but the speed at which rainforests are
disappearing means that few rainforest animals are safe. The rainforests where Siamang
gibbons live is threatened mainly by logging. They are listed as near threatened.
Are they cuddly? No, they cuddle and groom each other, but they would be upset and
angry if humans came too close. Their enclosure in the park is their territory and they
would not want to share it with a human!
If you are not sure of an answer, DON’T GUESS!
Write the question here and promise to help the children find out the answer later.
Page 34 of 39Zoo-Do
Teaching Pack
Follow-up Activities
and Ideas
Page 35 of 39Follow-up activities
If you have been concentrating on all the aspects of how the animals are adapted to their
various lifestyles and habitats, then you will have collected a wealth of data which now can
be used and analysed.
Activity 1 - Information table
Ask the children to record on the table below some of the data which they collected in the
park on their activity sheets. Some of the information required, such as feeding habit, will
have to be researched from the Animal Encyclopaedia on the Marwell Wildlife website.
Completing the table may help them begin to see any trends in the data.
Flamingo
Leopard
Gibbon
Giraffe
Zebra
Rhino
Snow
Tiger
Oryx
paws/claws
hooves
fingers
Type of foot
(or hand) talons
webbed feet
side of head
Eyes front of head
roundish
Body shape
thinnish
black
white
Colour brown
orange/brown
walk
run
fly
Movement swim
swing
Feeding carnivore
habit herbivore
Page 36 of 39Activity 2 – Database
On a computer, create a small data file of the information in the table. A suitable database
would be an application such as Excel in the Microsoft packages. Your IT co-ordinator may
be able to help you with this, and the children should be able to enter the data themselves.
You would have one record for each animal, and each adaptation would be a separate
field.
Activity 3 – Trends
Using either the table or the database that you have compiled, look for trends in the data.
For instance the children might notice, once they start looking carefully, that the herbivores
tend to have a roundish shape. Ask the children to draw an archetypal herbivore and label
it with some of the trends that they have observed, e.g. the roundish shape when seen
from end-on. They could then compare it to the antelope in the preparation activity
"Looking at Animals".
They could do the same for carnivores and then look for similarities and differences
between the two groups.
Below is a list of some of the characteristics where they might begin to see trends:
colour - feeding habit
feeding habit - body shape
feeding habit - type of foot or hand
movement - type of foot or hand
eyes - feeding habit
movement - body shape
eyes - type of foot or hand
movement - eyes
Animals with similar ways of life will tend to have similar adaptations if those adaptations
are important for the animals to survive.
Activity 4 - Animal friezes
Ask each group to make a frieze of their chosen species illustrating its social structure,
habitat and adaptations, especially colours and patterns.
Activity 5 - Model enclosures
Using the information that was collected at the tigers, the children could build a scale
model of the tiger enclosure. In building the model, the children should be encouraged to
consider the needs of the tigers, the keepers and the public. Safety for all three groups is
of paramount importance.
Page 37 of 39Activity 6 – Movement
Trying to move like the animals is an excellent method of demonstrating how well the
animals are adapted for moving in their particular ways. Good ones to try are the giraffe,
the gibbon, the snow leopard and tiger, and the flamingo.
Activity 7 - Flick book
Make a 'flick-book' of an animal moving and compare it to a slowed down video, if you
have one, of the animal moving.
Activity 8 – Animal adaptations
Choose an animal and then describe it to a small group. Tell them about its adaptations,
colour, size, diet, etc. Ask the group to guess what the animal is, either by telling you,
choosing the picture, or by drawing it.
Ask them if they can think of any other animals which have similar adaptations.
Activity 9 - Expedition preparation
Consider what you might need if you were going on an expedition to some of the habitats
which the animals come from. What would you need if you were going to the desert? And
the rainforest? Which items would be the same? And which different?
Activity 10 - Build a rainforest
Use junk materials to build a model rainforest, concentrating especially on scale. Making
models of the rainforest animals and putting them in the model forest will help the children
to appreciate the vastness of the forests.
Activity 11 - Shape poems
Make poems about the animals, using some of your descriptions, photos, sketches, etc.
Consider:
shape
colour
pattern
movement
limbs
behaviour
ears etc.
Write the poems on animal shaped paper.
Alternatively, write a rap about the animal and perform it for the rest of the class.
Page 38 of 39Activity 12 - Sounds
Investigate different ways of making sounds.
What noises do animals make? How? Consider feet (antelopes), breathing (rhinos),
gibbons (throat sacs), cats (purring and roaring, claws scratching on wood), etc.
Activity 13 - Rainforest play
Act out the process of deforestation, considering what it means to all those involved.
Pretend to be trees, animals, foresters, native people, conservationists, media, etc.
Discuss how the 'play' should be scripted, performed, ended, etc.
Activity 14 - Soil erosion
Use two seed trays
Put an equal shallow layer of soil in each tray
Sow cress or mustard seeds in one tray
Keep both trays in identical conditions
Water both trays equally
Observe: What happens to the cress/mustard seeds?
What happens to the soil in the first tray?
What happens to the soil in the second tray?
Repeat the experiment, putting both trays on an identical and slight slope
Compare the results with the previous investigation.
What does this tell us about rainforests and soil erosion?
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