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| Toad-in-the-hole anyone? |
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| Incy wincy spider... |
On Tuesday 25 October, Zoo lab came to our school with many different fascinating creatures. He came to show us many different animals and to teach us about each of these animals and even hold some of them. They brought us a giant African snail, several large cockroaches, a cute, blue tree frog, a monitor lizard, two large tarantulas, a scorpion and a corn snake. He came into our Biology classroom in the morning with a bag and inside the bag were all of these amazing animals.
Firstly, he brought out the giant African snail and he told us that their shells were the same colour as tree roots so that they can be hidden and not seen to the untrained eye. These snails are the largest land snails in the world with their shells fully growing to a whopping 18cm long and 9cm in width. We were then able to hold the snail and he was pretty slimy! After he put the snail away he brought out about 6 or 7 large cockroaches and he told us that for every one person in the world there are a million cockroaches! He also told us how they can eat practically anything which is why they never really become extinct. He then passed them round so that we could all hold them and I have to say, they were very tickly to hold!
Next he brought out a tiny blue tree frog that was very cute but he liked to jump and he could jump very far! We were then allowed to hold it as he told us how because his tongue is on his front lip, he has to use his eyeballs to swallow his food which is pretty disgusting but quite interesting at the same time. He also brought out two tarantulas called Chilean Rose tarantulas who were quite itchy so he just held them both as he went around to show us them. The females live until they are 25 years old but the males only live until they are 5 years old but often the males die before then because they are eaten by the females after breeding.
Afterwards he brought out the red desert scorpion but again, we were unable to touch it for obvious reasons but he took it around the classroom in his hands to show us. He then proceeded to tell us that the scorpion had absolutely no bones to enable it to sting in front of itself! Next, he brought out the monitor lizard which was only a year old but was already quite big. The lizard had extremely sharp claws so we could stroke it but not hold it. The monitor lizard is quite vicious as it can crush all the bones in your finger if it bit you! Last of all he brought out a corn snake which we were allowed to hold and I have to say the corn snake was very cold and very slippery.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Zoo lab and I definitely recommend it to any other Biology class to take part in it! It was great fun, really interesting and you really learn a lot from it about animal you didn’t know about.
Written by Lucy Miller 3L1
