Last week the Year 4 classes spent a night at the Perth Zoo as part of an overnight Safari Experience. It was a fantastic experience and will be placed on the Year 4 calendar for 2023! I want to acknowledge the excellent coordination from Mrs Harney, the staff who attended overnight and the parent helpers. I would also like to thank the Year 4 staff, Mrs Spencer and Mrs Horan, for their willingness to participate in the zoo camp and provide the Year 4 students with an invaluable experience outside the regular school setting.
Below are images from the Year 4 classes and written extracts from Room 19 students to show their views of what happened at the Zoo Camp.
“Scott and Lauren took us to a small room that led to other small rooms, and we separated into Scott or Lauren’s group (zookeepers). They were teaching us about Enrichment. Enrichment is the thing that they use to mimic the animals’ habitat. For example, monkeys like to climb, so they gave the gibbons and monkeys ropes to act as vines to swing on or trees to climb.
Scott told us that some animals get hurt in the wild, and the Perth Zoo takes the animals, helps them, and when they are healthy again, they are released into the wild.
The Perth Zoo get their animals sometimes from when people smuggle the animals overseas, and they catch the smugglers.” Man Yu
“The animals in the small room were bobtailed lizards, pythons, and stick insects from people who had them at the airport. In another room, there was a mat in the middle of the room. Scott showed us what was underneath the mat. There was a piece of elephant poo, a lead, a bamboo stick, a paintbrush, a stretchy thing, a nail file, and a scrub brush.” Georgia
“Before our night walk, we went to the discovery room, and we had a game about doing a puzzle; then you read about the animal and figured out the secret object. After that, we played a memory game. We then went to do the night walk.” Gil
“We went on a night walk. We went through the African Savannah, which had painted dogs, hyenas, rhinos, porcupines, zebras, lions, baboons and much more. It was amazing, and we also went on the staff-only path with some special animals.” Zoe
“I barely had any sleep as all the animals were making noises. The gibbons were going mad in the morning. I wanted to shove a banana in their mouth to keep them quiet. I came into the zoo excited, and I came out very tired.” Jackson
“On Wednesday morning, we walked with Lauren and Scott to the zebra and giraffe enclosure. We found out that we were there for the cleaning up. I got lucky as I had to clean the leaves and sticks instead of poop scooping.” Gil
“After working in the enclosures, we took a photo of the zoo map and decided what to do first. We ended up doing the Primate Trail, and my favourite was the ring-tailed lemur. Next, we went up to the Asian Rainforest. I liked the white-cheeked gibbon. After that, we did the Australian Bushwalk. I thought the kangaroo and the emu were cool. Next, we walked past the main lawn and into the African Savanah. The meerkats were pretty active, and the painted dogs were chillaxing.” Mya
Zoo Camp Gallery
(Click on the image to enlarge)
