P6A had a great day at the zoo yesterday.

We watched the tapir and her baby walking round their enclosure.  It was interesting to see that the baby looked totally different to his mum with his watermelon stripes.

This koala was sleeping in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.  We noticed he had 3 fingers and 2 thumbs on each front paw and decided we would find out how he used them.

We were able to stand really close to the wallabies as we walked through their open enclosure.

The tiger spent the whole time walking from one side of his enclosure to the other.  We wondered why he walked backwards and forward along the same path – was he thinking about something?   We also saw how the stripes on his fur helped to camoflage his body in the long grass.

We didn’t see the giant pandas but learned from their keeper about how giant pandas have adapted from omnivores to eating bamboo with the development of a thumb-like digit on their front paws.

We visited the penguins and learned about their life cycles and breeding habits. Josie told us you can only find out whether penguins are male or female by a blood test.  We also learned that the King penguins one of three species at the zoo are the second biggest of all penguins.

We visited many of the monkeys but learned most about the gibbons.  Did you know all buff cheeked gibbon babies are born beige and the males turn black at puberty? The family have a ‘song’ they sing every morning to tell other gibbons this is their territory.  Gibbons also sing to find a mate – if they like the song they hear they will pair up for life. This photograph shows the close link between monkeys and humans:

Finally we learned that Edinburgh Zoo usually have two male rhinos.  When they hit puberty they have to be separated because they fight trying to decide who is boss and so they go to other zoos to find a mate.  Our most amazing fact of the day: a baby rhino can drink up to FIFTY pints of milk a day.

We all gave our trip to the zoo a very high score out of ten – our only complaints were that we wanted to stay longer and that some animals were not outside for viewing (lions and pandas).

We will be learning more about animal adaptations in the next few weeks and we wonder where our next trip will be.

P6A and Mrs Marshall