Tuesday, the 18th of September, the year 7s who did not go to the Koru games went on a little trip to Orana Wildlife Park. In where we saw some amazing, fantastic animals, with some being native and some that are found in other countries. Some of the native animals that we saw were the kiwis, Pukekos, Keas and Emus; and the other animals that we saw, that were not native were, spider monkeys, lions, Tasmanian devils, tigers, zebras, buffalos, cheetahs, rhinos, silverback gorillas, sumatran tigers and orangutans.
Facts were learnt about these animals, let’s start with the Kiwis. Kiwis have adapted to have bone marrows instead of the normal hollow the reason being is that kiwis cannot fly and have run away or fight of predators that are in its habitat, to that one has to have strong and durable legs for kicking and running away. Another fact is, Kiwis are nocturnal and hunts at night, they use their whiskers to sense movement and then uses their long beaks to dig up the insect or worm. Bonus fact Kiwis will carry their eggs for 28 days, and at the last few days, the Kiwi mother will not eat for there is no room in her belly left. After 6 weeks the baby Kiwi will have to leave its parents and have its own life.
Here’s another fact, but now about tigers. Let us focus on Sumatran tigers, they have adapted to get webbed feet, just like ducks! Mostly because it’s to help them catch their prey more efficiently.
Since we were talking about big cats, cheetahs the fastest land animal today with a speed of 80 to 120 km/h, they are the only big cats who can purr! Now, let’s not leave out the king of the jungle, lions have the loudest roar of any wild animal alive today, which could be as loud as 114 decibels and could be heard from 5 miles away.
Still staying on the jungles, Zebras are in fact not white with black stripes but more like black with white stripes; also their stripes are like that of our fingerprints, the pattern of their stripes are different for each one. How about rhinos you say, well I have facts for that too; a rhino's horn is made out of keratin the same material that our hairs and nails are made out of, to put it simply, a rhino's horn is just an overgrown toenail. Bonus fact about the (white rhinos), you may think that the (white) in the white rhinos name is connected to them, but in fact, it is not. The Danish named the rhino, “wide” rhino and was just misheard by people as white, it was then spread and now we called it the “White Rhino”.
Now let’s travel to Australia with our last animal fact. Tasmanian devils, from the island of Tasmania, are marsupials; meaning that just like the kangaroo, females have pouches to carry their babies. They will give birth to 20 babies, unluckily the mother will only have four nipples meaning only four will survive. Just like Charles Darwin theorized and once said: “It’s the survival of the fittest.” Also, bonus fact, Tasmanian devils got their name because of their devilish scream!
