Zoolab visit to Years One, Two and Three
Chris from Zoolab came in on Monday 14th January 2008 and bought some unexpected animals.
Brian the Snail
Brian the snail was an African snail. He was four and a half years old and the biggest snail I had ever seen. He has laid one hundred eggs and has a very good sense of smell.
Jimmy the Hissing Cockroach
Jimmy is not fussy about what he eats. He will eat toast, grapes and pizza. Cockroaches live all over the world, some even live in Antarctica. Some cockroaches even live in caves with bats, eating the bat droppings!
Twiggy the Stick Insect
Stick insects are prickly insects. They live in spiky trees and have sharp claws for grabbing onto trees and other things. They are clever, very good at climbing and use their spikes to protect them. Stick insects can change the shape of their body to look like a scorpion.
Rosie the Tarantula
Rosie was a Chilean Rose Tarantula from the Amazon. Tarantulas have a nasty bite. The venom can be dangerous, but no one has ever been killed by a tarantula. The hairs are used to sense their surroundings and are very itchy to touch. Tarantula’s skin is shed every year when they become adults.
Colombothe Salamander
A Salamander is an amphibian and so they need to keep their skin damp all the time. When food is in their mouths they close their eyes and push their eyeballs to the back of their head and the eyes push the food down!
Jake the Snake
Jake was from North America and is a constrictor. He was very friendly and will not grow very big. He isn’t a poisonous snake and he was very colourful. Constrictors squeeze their prey to death. Jake eats a mouse a week! He is a cold blooded animal and sheds his skin every eight to ten weeks.
Bobby the Rat
Rats are good pets. They have long tails which help them to balance. Their teeth are big and they grown five centimetres every year.
I really enjoyed the Zoolab visit and thought it was really fun that we could touch some animals that some of us had never had the chance to touch before. Afterwards, I couldn’t believe that I had touched a snake. I had lots of fun and it was a great visit!
Written by Eleanor Abbott 3T
