Zooper Kids - Autumn 2023

DID YOU KNOW?

The Spotted-Tail Quoll is one of the closest surviving relatives to the Tasmanian Tiger.

BRING ALONG THIS ACTIVITY WITH YOU WHEN YOU NEXT VISIT KYABRAM FAUNA PARK AND HAVE FUN COMPLETING ALL THE QUESTIONS.

HOP TO IT!

I’m a Tassie Devil. Learn all about the animals at Kyabram Fauna Park with me!

DID YOU KNOW? This species of dingo has a thick coat that sheds in the summer.

DID YOU KNOW? This flying fox is sometimes also called a ‘fruit bat’

DID YOU KNOW?

The Giant Burrowing Cockroach is the heaviest cockroach species in the world.

3. STARTING WITH ‘Y’ WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF THE LAND THAT KYABRAM FAUNA PARK IS ON?

FAUNA PARK

4. WHAT TYPE OF CREATURE IS LANCE?

DID YOU KNOW? A group of finches is called a charm.

5. KYABRAM’S FEMALE SOUTHERN CASSOWARY HAS THE SAME NAME AS AN AUSTRALIAN STATE CAPITAL CITY. WHAT IS HER NAME?

DID YOU KNOW? You can climb the viewing tower to see wetland birds from above.

6. WHAT COLOURS CAN YOU SEE ON THE PINK COCKATOO’S CREST (HEAD FEATHERS)?

7. WHICH TWO FREE-ROAMING ANIMALS AT KYABRAM FAUNA PARK FEATURE ON THE AUSTRALIAN COAT OF ARMS?

Answers on page 17

A.

A.

1. HOW MANY TASMANIAN DEVILS LIVE AT KYABRAM FAUNA PARK? A.

A.

2. HOW MANY SOUTHERN KOALAS LIVE AT KYABRAM FAUNA PARK?

A.

A.

A.

TRIPLE TREAT

CURIOUS, PLAYFUL AND SUPER CUTE, HAVE YOU SEEN OUR NEW ASIAN ELEPHANT CALVES AT MELBOURNE ZOO YET?

How do you say her name?

eye-are-a

What does her name mean?

Aiyara means ‘elephant’ in Thai

Who are her parents?

Her mother is Dokkoon and her father is Luk Chai

Birthday

16 November

Birth Weight

Around 120kg

Aiyara is the first born of the calves and plays the role of big sister very well. She is adventurous, loves to play in the water and tries to encourage her little sister and brother to explore their environment and play together.

Roi-Yim was born second, so he is the middle child. He is the smallest of the elephant calves. You can easily spot him because he has a very long tail! He likes to stay close to his mum, Mali, but is starting to enjoy playing gently with his sisters.

How do you say his name?

roy-yim

What does his name mean?

Roi-Yim means ‘smile’ in Thai

KATI

How do you say her name?

car-tee

What does her name mean?

Kati means ‘coconut

milk’ in Thai

Who are her parents?

Her mother is Num Oi and her father is Luk Chai

Birthday

1 January

Birth Weight

Around 130kg

Kati was born last, so is the littlest sister. She is very tall and has long legs. Even though she is the youngest, she is learning and growing really fast and has impressed the

Who are his parents?

His mother is Mali and his father is

25 November

Birth Weight

Around 110kg

DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know in Thailand, Asian Elephants are a symbol of loyalty, good luck and happiness?

AIYARA

ROI-YIM

MAKE YOUR OWN

ORIGAMI hopping frog

Impress your friends with your origami skills by making a hopping frog!

WHAT YOU’LL

NEED

Pieces of square green paper (one per frog)

Coloured markers

Origami is the ancient art of paper folding that began in Japan many centuries ago.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Critically Endangered Spotted Tree Frog can live for up to a decadequite old for a frog!

Three very special frog species live at Melbourne Zoo’s new Amphibian Bushfire Recovery Centre. The Watson’s Tree Frog and local Fighting Extinction species the Spotted Tree Frog and Giant Burrowing Frog are being helped by Zoo staff to breed, which will improve their chances of survival in the wild.

LET’S COOK!

BARN OWL

PIKELETS

A creative snack that’s tasty too!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1 cup self-raising flour

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

¼ cup caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

30 grams melted butter

¾ cup milk

1 banana

Punnet of blueberries

Punnet of strawberries

1 small tub of smooth ricotta cheese

DID YOU KNOW?

METHOD

TIP

Save time and use pre-madeinsteadpikelets

1

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together into a big bowl. Then stir in the sugar.

2

Make a well by pushing the ingredients to the sides to form a well in the centre. Using a wooden spoon, slowly stir to add the egg and milk until the batter is smooth and can be easily poured.

Barn Owls can be found all over Australia but can be hard to spot in the wild. Visit Healesville Sanctuary’s Woodland Track to see a Barn Owl in real life.

DID YOU KNOW?

Barn Owls can be found all over Australia but can be hard to spot in the wild. Visit Healesville Sanctuary’s Woodland Track to see a

4

Cook for 1—2 minutes. When small bubbles begin to form on the surface, you’ll know it’s time to turn the pikelet over using a flipper. Once you’ve flipped the pikelet, cook for another minute, until golden.

5

Brush the pan with butter to start a new batch, until all your batter is used. Once cooked, transfer all the pikelets to a wire rack to cool down.

Chop the banana into circles and the strawberries into small triangles.

3

Heat a large, non-stick frying pan on medium. Brush the pan with butter, then drop two separate tablespoons of batter into pan. The batter will spread out, so leave enough room between each portion of batter.

6

Once the pikelets are cool, spread the ricotta on the pikelets and arrange the fruit on top. The bananas and blueberries make the owl’s eyes, the strawberries are the wings and nose.

1 Wash the celery. Remove the leaves and carefully cut off the tops and bottoms.

2 Fill the celery with your favourite spreads.

3 Gently place your toppings on the spread, so that it looks like insects walking in a row on a log.

DID YOU KNOW?

Many Australian native animals eat insects. Check out the echidnas, cassowaries, owls, emus, lace monitors and other insect-eating species at Healesville Sanctuary and Kyabram Fauna Park.

BECOMING AN ANIMAL EXPERT

Education helps us to understand animal behaviour. Amy-Rose studied Zoology at university and also volunteered at Zoos Victoria before becoming an Animal Welfare Research Officer.

WHAT IS ANIMAL WELFARE?

Animal welfare is making sure animals (whether they’re in a zoo, in the wild or at home) have healthy, happy bodies and minds. Diet, habitat, exercise, access to shelter, fresh water and opportunities to play and interact with others helps to improve the wellbeing of animals.

DID YOU KNOW?

‘Ethology’ is the study of animal behaviour.

WORKING TOGETHER

Amy-Rose is a part of the Animal Welfare Life Sciences Team. She works closely with Zoo Keepers to make sure the animals are healthy and happy. Each morning, they meet up to talk about how the animals are and how they can help the animals to stay well.

KEEPING WATCH

From butterflies to Sumatran Tigers, Amy-Rose watches lots of different animals to try to understand how they behave. This helps us to know what animals like and don’t like so that Keepers can give them their favourite foods, activities and exercise.

SHARING IS CARING

The more we all know about animals, the better. This is why Amy-Rose shares her knowledge with Keepers and other zoos around the world by writing reports and sending updates.

ZOOPER KIDS

GARDENING CLUB

Build a BUG HOTEL

Have fun creating this insect hotel to bring the buzz back to your backyard! Insects are an important part of the ecosystem.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

A few large cardboard boxes

Recycled toilet paper or paper towel rolls

Large pair of scissors

String & glue (optional)

Coloured crayons, pencils or markers to decorate your hotel

A collection of foraged leaves, sticks, pinecones and garden offcuts

DID YOU KNOW?

Attracting insects like native bees, ladybugs, spiders, lacewings and native earwigs to your yard will keep your garden healthy and help to boost local biodiversity.

STEPS

1

You may want to glue piecescardboardthe to keep them in place

Take a large cardboard box and create ‘rooms’ within it by wedging in cut up pieces of another cardboard box. Add the cardboard rolls to a few of the rooms too.

2

Fill each room by tightly packing in bits and pieces collected from your yard. Grass clippings, sticks, prunings from bushes, tree branch offcuts, leaf litter, seed pods and pinecones are all good additions.

3

Give your insect hotel a creative name (perhaps the Grand Bug-A-Rest Hotel) and decorate it with a colourful sign made from a piece of cardboard.

4

Finally, place the insect hotel in your garden, courtyard, front yard or balcony, somewhere undercover and raised off the ground to help it stay dry. Weigh down the hotel with a brick or rocks on the bottom layer so it doesn’t fly away on windy days.

GO GREEN

Have fun completing as many of these activities as you can over a week.

Award yourself 10 points for each activity you complete at least once. How many can you tick off?

Ride your bike or walk to school

REUSABLE BOTTLE

COMPOST BIN

Switch the lights off when you’re not in the room

Make your lunchbox free from single-use plastic

Turn your devices off at the power point

Plant a tree, shrub or flowering plant in your yard or on your balcony

Take the sustainability challenge to reduce your impact on the planet.

TURN TAPS OFF

Pick up litter and put it in the bin

Leave out water for local wildlife on hot days

Take a refillable water bottle to school or sport

Save water by turning off the tap while brushing your teeth

Put your food scraps in a compost bin

MY SUSTAINABILITY SCORE 100

Once you’ve finished, challenge your friends and family to try and beat your score!

GUESS WHO?Kyabram

Have you been to Kyabram Fauna Park?

From birds to marsupials, reptiles and beyond, lots of different Australia native species live at the Park. Get to know the residents of Kyabram Fauna Park with this guessing game.

Whose footprints are these?

Whose eyes are these?

I like to eat ants. Who am I?

2 3 4 5 6 7

Whose feathers are these?

Who does this tail belong to? SHORT-BEAKED

I can’t fly and my wild habitat is the tropical rainforest?

Whose ears are these?

Fighting Extinction F I D

Can you find these 15 words to solve the puzzle? Once you’ve found all the words, write down the leftover letters from left to right, in the top two lines to spell out a three word phase.

RULES

There are none. Words can run in any direction, including back-to-front.

SOLUTION

WORDS TO FIND

SMOKY MOUSE

GUTHEGA SKINK

BAW BAW FROG

HELMETED HONEYEATER POOKILA

SWIFT PARROT

MALLEE EMU WREN

PLAINS WANDERER SPOTTED TREE FROG WILDLIFE

7 Dingo

6 Southern Cassowary

5 Pink Cockatoo

4 Grey Kangaroo

3 Short-beaked echidna

2 Koala

1 Emu

KYABRAM GUESS WHO g(p 14)

7 Kangaroo and emu

6 Red, white and yellow

5 Adelaide

4 A lizard (or reptile)

3 Yorta Yorta

2 Four

1 Two

KYABRAM MAP GAME sg(p 2–3)

MAKE YOUR OWN

COCKATOO

Never lose a pencil again with this cockatoo pencil holder!

cleaned with labels removed coloured paper

Decorative feathers

Googly eyes (or black felt or cardboard)

1 2

Cut a piece of felt (or coloured paper) to wrap around the tin can (most tin cans are 10.5cm tall).

Use double sided sticky tape to fix the felt to the can, making sure it’s wrapped around the whole can and is smooth with no creases or folds.

3

Cut another piece of felt into the shape of a beak, crest and feet. Then use the craft glue to stick the beak, crest and feet onto the can to give the cockatoo a face and body.

4

Use the craft glue to stick decorative feathers onto the side of the tin to add some wings.

5

Finally, stick some googly eyes onto the tin to complete the cockatoo’s face.

6

Once the glue is dry, pop some pencils in your tin and you’ve got a fun, feathery pencil holder!

Don’t have googly eyes? Make some out of black felt or cardboard instead.

DID YOU KNOW?

You can see Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos and Endangered Pink Cockatoos while walking through Healesville Sanctuary’s Land of Parrots aviary.