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Posted on March 20th 2014
Animal Encounters
On Thursday 13th March, Year 7 gathered to see many animals and learn about them. When we arrived in the sixth form study block, we sat on the floor and waited for the show to start.
First we saw a bird of prey, a Harris Hawk. It had very sharp claws and we had to handle it with a special glove; it had a string tied to one claw so it wouldn’t fly away or harm any small students!
The next animal we saw was a baby Northern Saw-whet Owl. It was small and cute and Sadia got to touch it. When she stroked the bottom of its stomach its legs extended as, in the wild, they live on the floor and they have to run away from predators or towards prey.
The 3rd animal we looked at was a chinchilla. Students who answered the questions correctly, were chosen to hold the animals. The instructors from Impeyan (“The zoo that comes to you!”) asked some students to put the chinchilla to their faces to feel how warm and fluffy it was. One of the instructors said “If you were to pull a chinchilla hair out of its body, instead of one hair coming out, 30 would come out instead!”
We then looked at a tortoise. It was very small and Shyanne was given the opportunity to hold it. Then we got to meet his brother, who looked nearly 8 times bigger. It was larger than our heads combined! Martin tried to lift him but he was too heavy!
After this we looked at a meerkat. Ryan and Jacob linked arms and the instructor put the Meerkat on their shoulder. Other animals included a scorpion, stick insect, caiman, snake and walaby. It was a really fun afternoon!
Written by Riya Rajendran and Bethany Kauder - 7CK
