Zooper Kids - spring 2021

SPRING ISSUE 2021 HEY KIDS! Check out our competition on the back page

Plainswanderer page 2

BIRDS OF A FEATHER Make your own

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INSIDE »

• Colouring in

• Zooper kitchen

• Life cycle of a frog

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BIRDS

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a FEATHER Learn all about some of our favourite winged creatures.

WORD SEARCH

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WORDS TO FIND Nest Beak Bird Plains

Wanderer Claw Flight Wings Habitat Grassland Egg Answers on Page 17

Zooper Kids is published for Zoos Victoria

by Hardie Grant Media MANAGING DIRECTOR Nick Hardie-Grant ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Scott Elmslie ACCOUNT MANAGER Hannah Louey EDITOR Georgia Lejeune

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Zoos Victoria PO Box 74, Parkville Vic 3052 P 03 9340 2780 / F 03 9285 9390 E members@zoo.org.au W zoo.org.au

DESIGN Dallas Budde, Natalie Lachina

Connect with us!

Share your visit with us and be sure to use the hashtag: #zoosvictoriamember

FLIGHT OF FANCY DID YOU KNOW? Some birds can’t fly.

Through evolution, certain species of birds have lost the ability to fly and have adapted to being groundbased. Below are some birds you won’t see in the sky:

OSTRICH

FACT FILE

PLAINS-WANDERER Name: Plains-wanderer.

Conservation status: Critically Endangered.

PENGUIN PLAINS-WANDERER

EMU WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE BIRD SPECIES?

Plains-wanderers can fly a little, but mainly stay low to the ground, preferring to run along the ground when frightened.

Class: Aves.

Description: Small,

ground-dwelling birds (15–19cm in height).

Males are light brown on top with a fawn-white underpart. Females are larger than males and have a white-spotted black collar.

Habitat: They prefer

short, sparse grasslands that provide cover.

Diet: Seeds, leaves and insects.

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HI FRIENDS!

Printed on FSC® certified paper with vegetable-based inks. Zoos Victoria is a carbon-neutral organisation.

I’m the Regent Honeyeater – one of Zoos Victoria’s Fighting Extinction species.

You’ll find me flying about on the pages of this issue of Zooper Kids and in eucalypt forests and woodlands in Victoria and New South Wales.

I feed on nectar from flowers.

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MAKE YOUR OWN

TIGER toilet rolls Use the rolls from your recycled toilet paper to make a curly-tailed tiger.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED Toilet rolls Orange paper Googly eyes Black felt-tip pen Scissors Glue (or sticky dots)

Ask an adult to help you cut out the strip and ears

DID YOU KNOW?

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Unlike most other cats, tigers love the water and are excellent swimmers. When it gets especially hot, they like to cool down in water holes.

WIPE FOR WILDLIFE

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Cut out a rectangle of coloured paper (for a standard roll it should be 10cm x 15cm).

Put glue on the outside of your toilet roll and stick the coloured paper around (making sure you glue the overlapping paper at the end).

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Cut one long strip of coloured paper (1cm x 20cm) for the tail. Wrap the strip around the felt-tip pen to create a curl in the paper.

Use glue (or sticky dots) to attach the curled tail to one end of the inside of the toilet roll.

Use your toilet paper for good by getting behind the Zoos Victoria Wipe for Wildlife campaign.

Using recycled toilet paper (made from things like old textbooks and office paper) will help save trees for wildlife.

If you can, choose toilet paper that’s 100 per cent recycled and uses no harsh chemicals.

More information: zoo.org.au/wipe

FAMILY TIES These cats are distantly related to the tiger:

Domestic house cat

Lion

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Glue on the googly eyes and draw a mouth and side stripes for your tiger.

Cut two small triangles (ears) from the paper and attach them to the inside of the top of your toilet roll.

Snow leopard

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CAMO

COLOURING IN Colour in the animals and nature so that they camouflage with the surroundings. Can you make the animals seem almost invisible?

Koala Cairns Birdwing Butterfly Cassowary Tawny Frogmouth

Kangaroo Southern Corroboree Frog

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ILLUSTRATION GREGORY ROBERTS

Rainbow Lorikeet

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LET’S COOK!

ZOOPER KITCHEN

KIWI TORTOISES An afternoon snack that looks like an Aldabra Giant Tortoise.

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Remove skin from the kiwi fruit using a small knife.

Cut the kiwi fruit into slices (around 1cm in thickness).

Cut a grape in half (long-ways) for the head. Place on the top end of the kiwi fruit slice.

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Cut another grape in half (across the middle) then slice each half lengthways to create four legs.

Place the four legs on the corners of the kiwi fruit.

Now eat!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED Kiwi fruit Green grapes Knife/Peeler

HINT Ask an adult to help you with the chopping.

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Make your morning toast look like an African Wild Dog.

ANIMAL TOAST WHAT YOU’LL NEED Bread for toasting 1 tsp chocolate spread 1 tsp ricotta Banana Blueberries Strawberry

METHOD 1

Toast your bread until it’s at your preferred level of crispiness.

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Smear the chocolate spread in a triangle at the top of your toast square.

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Fill in the rest of your toast square with the ricotta – be careful not to mix the spreads.

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Cut your banana into slices and place halfway down the square as eyes.

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Cut off the top of the strawberry and then slice it in half. Place at the top of the toast as ears. Now, place one blueberry on each of the banana eyes and a third between them as a nose.

DID YOU KNOW? Although they may look similar, the African Wild Dogs (like the ones at Melbourne Zoo) aren’t closely related to the domestic dog. They live in highly organised packs – being some of the most social mammals on earth.

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FROG FACTS FIND OUT HOW THESE JOLLY JUMPERS GO FROM SLIMY EGGS TO ADULT FROGS.

DID YOU KNOW? Frogs don’t drink water. They soak it into their body through their skin.

LIFE CYCLE of a FROG

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EGGS

EMBRYO

To become fully-grown frogs, the freshly-laid eggs must go through something called metamorphosis. They begin as a clump of tiny (slimy) eggs called frogspawn.

Inside the frogspawn, tiny black dots appear and begin turning into tadpoles. When they’re ready to emerge, the babies eat their way through the egg.

TADPOLE When they emerge from the eggs, they are tadpoles. In the first week, tadpoles don’t move around much – they’re absorbing the nutrients from the yolk of their egg.

LET’S WRITE

RITING BY PRACTISE YOUR W ERS. TT LE E ES TRACING TH

DID YOU KNOW?

FAST FACTS

. They’re Frogs are amphibians their body g anin me d, ode cold-blo with the temperature changes roundings. temperature of their sur

3 cm

Scientists call frogs an ‘indicator species’ because they help tell them whether the environment is healthy.

Lots of frogs means a healthy habitat.

The Northern and Southern Corroboree Frogs are tiny (only 3cm) poisonous frogs that are native to Australia.

DID YOU KNOW? Corroboree Frogs hibernate during winter – they find safe places to sleep in trees or under bits of bark and fallen leaves.

A frog’s diet consists of insects – such as flies and moths – as well as snails, slugs and worms.

TADPOLE WITH LEGS

JUVENILE

ADULT FROG

Over the next 14 weeks, the tadpoles swim around and feed on the plants in their watery home. They begin to grow back and front legs and their bodies change shape.

Looking more like a frog (and less like a tadpole), these juvenile frogs have grown lungs and eardrums, which means they are almost ready for life on land.

Once the tail disappears, the adult frog is ready for its new life on land. Adult frogs regularly return to water for a splash and to lay more eggs.

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ECOFRIENDLY

celebration NEXT TIME YOU CELEBRATE A BIRTHDAY, TRY TO DO IT PLASTIC-FREE. HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED.

PAPER CHAINS Decorate your birthday party with DIY paper chains. You can use recycled paper (decorated with paints or pens) or coloured paper. If you take care of your paper chains you’ll be able to use them for many birthday celebrations.

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PART Y BAGS Use plain paper bags as your birthday party-bags. You can decorate the outside of the bags with drawings, stamps or stickers to make them unique and beautiful.

PAPER STRAWS Use paper straws for the drinks at your birthday party instead of plastic ones. They are much better for the environment, which means they’re good for the animals too.

PIN THE LEAF ON THE TREE

Cut out the leaf template (to the right) and trace around it to make one for each of your guests.

Then, use your Zooper Kids poster to play pin the leaf on the tree. All you need is a piece of material to cover your guests’ eyes and some Blu Tack to stick the leaf to the poster.

Spin them around three times before they begin.

Cut out and trace along the eucalyptus leaf.

BLOW BUBBLES NOT BALLOONS

PASS THE PARCEL Use recycled wrapping paper or newspaper to create the layers of the parcel. Try to find plastic-free gifts to hide in the layers – such as chalk, a ticket to visit the zoo or a colouring book.

Although balloons may look great as party decorations, they often end up in our oceans. This can be terrible for our sea animals, which think the deflated plastic balloons are food and try to eat them. Help make a difference by swapping balloons with bubbles at your next celebration.

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TO SHARE

ER-VIP-ZONE AND SHARE THE FUN! DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE SEARCH FROM ZOO.ORG.AU/MEMB

MELBOURNE ZOO

ZOO SEARCH JOIN THE MELBOURNE ZOO SEARCH AND SEE HOW MANY YOU CAN ANSWER

1. WELCOME TO MELBOURNE ZOO When you walk through the gates (and also at Keeper Kids), you’ll see another word for welcome that the Wurundjeri people use. Can you find what it is?

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Take this activity into Melbourne Zoo with you and complete the challenges as you visit the animals.

SPREAD YOUR WINGS

Can you help me learn about the animals at Melbourne Zoo by completing these activities?

8. WHAT’S MISSING FROM THE MAP OF THE GORILLA RAINFOREST? Tree-top Apes & Monkeys Cassowary

GORILLA RAINFOREST

Gorillas Pygmy Hippopotamus

7. GIDDY UP There are lots of horses on the carousel (in Carousel Park), but can you count how many elephants are there?

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DID YOU KNOW?

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The reticulated python is the world’s longest snake, reaching up to 10 metres long.

LET’S WRITE!

WRITING PRACTISE YOUR ESE

BY TRACING TH LETTERS

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2. NAME THE SOUTHERN CORROBOREE FROG Fill in the missing name for the Southern Corroboree Frog. You’ll spot these four frogs in a display inside the Keeper Kids play area. Why not pretend to be a Zoo Keeper or Veterinarian while you’re there.

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LION

ANIMAL TR

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CKS CAN YOU MATCH TH E ANIMAL W ITH ITS FOOTPRIN TS?

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THE FOUR FROGS ARE: ROB, GILBERT, ADZ AND ...

EVIE AGED 6

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GIRAFFE

9. COLOUR ME IN

GORILLA

Visit the Amazon Aviary (near the Zoo Bakery) and spot the big Macaws high in the trees. Which three colours can you see on the Green-winged Macaw?

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4. TAKE A PICTURE Get a photo in front of the #jointhepack tiger wall and do your best ROAR! If you upload the image to Instagram, don’t forget to hashtag #zoosvictoriamember.

6. VISIT THE AUSTRALIAN BUSHLAND TRAIL Find out what coloured ‘helmet’ the Helmeted Honeyeater has. While you’re there, check out the Nature Play space for some outdoor fun.

5. LOOK FOR THE LARGE RETICULATED PYTHON LOUNGING IN ONE OF THE TREES WHAT DOES THE RETICULATED PYTHON EAT? Clue: you’ll find the answer when you go inside to get a better look at the python.

A. Answers on Page 17

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CONGRATULATIONS WOW! THANKS FOR YOUR ENTRIES To enter our next competition, send your picture to: zooperkids@zoo.org.au

OR

RUBY AGED 8

ELEPHANT PACK WINNER

Zooper Kids Magazine PO Box 74, Parkville VIC 3052

See back page for all the competition details

DIHAIN AGED 6

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LION PACK WINNER

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Puzzle

JUNGLE PACK WINNER

ANSWERS

AGED 6

HARRY

BIRD OF A FEATHER WORD SEARCH (PG 2)

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ZOO SEARCH (PG 14-15)

ZEBRA PACK WINNER

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AGED 9

ALANAH

2 Damo 3 Lion k 2 Giraffe k 3 Gorilla k 1 5 Birds and mammals 6 Yellow 7 Two 8 Lemurs 9 Blue, green and red

We love getting your pictures and letters.

to our winners!

ZOOPER KIDS

GARDENING CLUB

STEPS

1 Cut off the foot of one of the stockings (with 20cm of length from the foot to the top).

4 Tie off the end of the stocking with a knot. Trim the excess stocking material.

Make yourown

GRASSHEAD FRIEND

An easy gardening activity that only takes a few weeks to grow.

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WHAT YOU’LL NEED Beige stocking (not footless) Scissors Gardening gloves Potting mix Grass seeds Elastic bands Googly eyes Glue dots

PLANTING TIPS

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Open the stocking and fill the foot with two handfuls of potting mix (or three small handfuls).

Sprinkle grass seeds on top of the potting mix. Make sure they’re spread evenly.

CHERRY TOMATOES Plant seedlings at the beginning of spring.

Tomatoes love to be in full sunlight so find a well-drained spot where they will get at least eight hours of sun each day. Water every two or three days.

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Pinch a small amount of soil at the front of the head and wrap an elastic band around to hold it (this is the nose).

Using glue dots or PVA glue, stick on the googly eyes above the nose.

STRAWBERRIES Plant your strawberry seedlings in full sunlight.

Keep covered with netting so that the birds and possums don’t pick your fruit before you get to them. Plant at the end of spring when the weather is getting warmer.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Place your grass-head in a sunny position and spray with water once per day.

Your grass-head should begin to grow within a week of planting and be fully grown in 3–4 weeks.

Plants make their food through photosynthesis. To do this, they take the light from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air.

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COMPETITION TIME! REPTILE PRIZE PACK

BIRD PRIZE PACK

$78 VALUE

$89 VALUE

GIVEAWAY!

JUNGLE PRIZE PACK

$84 VALUE

WE HAVE FOUR FANTASTIC PRIZE PACKS TO GIVE AWAY THIS ISSUE…

DINO PRIZE PACK $70 VALUE

If you’d like a chance to win, send a letter or drawing to enter.

Send yours to: zooperkids@zoo.org.au

OR Zooper Kids Magazine PO Box 74, Parkville VIC 3052

Good LUCK!

ENtries close Tuesday 26 October 2021 This competition is open to Zoos Victoria Members under the age of 18 with consent of a parent/guardian.

Entries will be judged on individual merit and winners notified by phone or email. All entries become the property of Zoos Victoria and will not be returned to the entrants. Prizes are subject to change and cannot be transferred or redeemed for cash. Winners will be announced in the next edition of Zooper Kids.