Highland Wildlife Park Education Dept. Kincraig, , Inverness-Shire, PH21 1NL. www.highlandwildlifepark.org Produced by Jasper Hughes. HWP Education For further activities www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm . Wildlife Park. Pre or Post Learning & Activity Pack.

Contents. Animal Clues (How to find animals when they are not there). Track them down (current animals of the UK). Whose dinner was that? Dead heads at the . The ancient forest creatures of Britain. Dead heads of . Polar animal tracks . Who lives where? Word search. Mums and dads. Kidding about. Let’s get together. Cryptic creature. Short animal poem. Tongue twisters. The Mishmi takin maze. Mythical creatures. breakfast? Complete the Scottish wildcat picture. Where’s the British (European) beaver? quiz. Ideas for cross-curricular activities.

Answers to the games and quizzes.

HWP Education For further activities www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm Animal Clues. (How to find animals when they are not there). It may never be possible to see the animals all the time, but it may be possible to see the evidence that they leave. (The pictures are not to scale)

Can you match the animals to the signs that they have left. Track them down (current animals of the UK).

Think about the animals’ physical features and the clues that they could leave. Can you identify whose prints belong to whom from this list of animals?

A) Pine marten B) Badger C) Red squirrel D) Otter E) Scottish wildcat

Animal 1: Animal 2: Animal 3: Animal 4: Animal 5: ______you don’t know what the animal looks like, check them out on HWP http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/uk Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Whose dinner was that?

All animals leave signs of feeding activity. These signs can tell you much about the way of life and behaviour of many different species.

Can you identify whose dinner remains are whose? Choose from;

A) Red squirrel B) C) Beaver D) E) Elk

Gnawed tree branch Gnawed nut / pine cone Animal 1: Animal 2:

A casting Removal of bark from trees Animal 3: Animal 4:

Gnawed bones Animal 5:

If you don’t know what the animal likes to eat, check them out on HWP www.arkive.org Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Dead heads at the zoo.

All animals have evolved for each particular environment, using the physical features.

Can you identify which skull belongs to which animal from? (The pictures are not to scale).

A) Beaver B) Musk ox C) Wolf D) Lynx E) F) Polar bear

Skull 1: Skull 2:

Skull 3: Skull 4:

Skull 5: Skull 6: If you don’t know what the animal looks like, check them out on www.highlandwildlifepark.org HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

The ancient forest creatures of Britain. The Scottish wildcat has surviving human persecution for 500 more years than the British wolf and British lynx, over a 1000 more years than the British bear. They have inspired and terrified the Highland clans that defied the Roman and English Empires. Once found across the British mainland they are now confined to the Scottish Highlands. All of these animals used to live with the ancestors of the Scottish wildcat before they all died out. Would you like to see them reintroduced back to Scotland and Great Britain? You would probably never see them if they were introduced because they are quite shy and secretive, but they may leave evidence that they where there. Can you identify whose prints belong to whom? Think about the animal’s physical features and the clues that they could leave. A) Bear B) Wild boar C) Wolf D)Lynx E) Beaver

Animal 1: Animal 2: Animal 3: Animal 4: Animal 5:

If you don’t know what these animal looks, check them out on. www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/index.html HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Dead heads of Scotland. All these animals have evolved for each Highland environment in Scotland.

Can you identify which skull belongs to which animal from this list?

A) Wildcat B) C) Badger D) Red squirrel E) Wild goat F) Roe deer

Skull 1: Skull 2:

Skull 3: Skull 4:

Skull 5: Skull 6:

If you don’t know what the animal looks like, check them out on http://wildlife.visitscotland.com/species/ HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Polar animal tracks . These are some of the foot prints of the animals that currently share the tundra with the Polar bear, but if the tundra disappears, so will all of these animals. We have to conserve the environment as well as the animals otherwise where will they live in the future?

Choose from these animals and match to the correct prints.

(The prints are not to scale) A) Harp Seal B) Arctic Wolf C) Musk ox D) E) F)

Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6

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If you don’t know what the animal looks like, check them out on

www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/arcticanimals.shtml HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Who lives where? Can you match each animal to its home?

Red squirrel Badger Otter Bee Chough Arctic fox Beaver Eagle Rabbit Amur tiger a) A lives in a warren / burrow. b) A lives in an eyrie.

c) A lives in a hive.

d) An lives in a holt.

e) A lives in a lodge.

f) A lives in a drey.

g) A lives in a sett.

h) An lives in a earth / den.

i) A lives in a nest.

j) An lives in a cave. Word search.

Can you find and circle 10 animal homes from the list.

Warren / Burrow Eyrie Hive Holt Lodge Earth / Den Sett Drey Nest Cave

R M E G D O L B K T S H P W F R W O P L E C A P H X E A F O T A U I D L Z Y V H T V V W T S E N O H F E Z S Y M W L T A P X E Y R I E R K X L N E D V F A H N F U I C T N E R R A W M D W O R R U B O I HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Mums and Dads.

Can you complete the table from the list of animals and match them to the males and females of these creatures.

Przewalski Horse Bison Goose Red Deer

Bharal (Blue sheep) Wild Boar Roe Deer

Peregrine Falcon (Goat) Capercaillie

Animals Male Female a) Ram Ewe b) Stag Hind c) Cock Hen d) Stallion Mare e) Boar Sow f) Buck Doe g) Billie Nanny h) Tiercel Falcon i) Gander Goose j) Bull Cow Kidding about.

Can you connect the young animal with its correct parent?

For example: A Pup belongs to a dog.

A Cygnet belongs to a frog. A Foal belongs to a capercaillie. A Fawn belongs to a pine marten. A Cub belongs to a reindeer / red deer. A Kid belongs to a roe deer. A Gosling belongs to a beaver. A Tadpole belongs to a wolf. A Chick belongs to a swan. A Calf belongs to a bharal. A Kitten belongs to a goose. A Lamb belongs to a przewalski horse.

A Kit belongs to a markhor. HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Let’s get together. Can you match the groups of animals together? For example: A herd of deer. Pack Troop / Barrel Colony Sounder Caravan Streak Richness Parliament Pace Chattering a) A of camels. b) A of choughs. c) A of monkeys. d) A of martens. e) A of kiang. f) A of wild boar. g) A of owls. h) A of beavers. i) A of . j) A of tigers. Cryptic creature.

My first is in eagle but never in hawk. My second is in speaking but never in talk. My third is in dove but never in pigeon. My forth is in teal and also in wigeon. My fifth is in throne and also in crown. My whole is a bird that can get you down. What am I??? Short animal poem My house is full of animals. I don’t know what to do. I think I’m going crazy. I’m living in a zoo! Tongue twisters. Say the following rapidly and amaze all your friends.

A flea and a fly in a flue Were imprisoned so what could they do? Said the flea “let us fly” Said the fly “let us flee” So they flew through a flaw in the flue!

Thirty three sly shy thrushes Said that the sixth sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.

Ann Anteater ate Andy Alligator’s apples So angry Andy Alligator ate Ann’s Anteater’s ants. HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

The Mishmi takin maze. Can you help Daniela the Mishmi takin (red square)

find her mummy? (green circle)

The Mishmi takin. The Mishmi Takin is quite an unusual looking animal, with the nose of an cow, a bottom like a bear and the body shape of a small bison x goat. Bhutan selected the takin as the national animal based on both its uniqueness and its strong association with the country's religious history and mythology. According to legend, when Lama Drukpa Kunley (the "the divine madman") visited Bhutan in the 15th century, a large congregation of devotees gathered around the country to witness his magical powers. The people urged the lama to perform a miracle. However, the saint, in his usual unorthodox and outrageous way, demanded that he first be served a whole cow and a goat for lunch. He devoured these with relish and left only bones. After letting out a large and satisfied burp, he took the goat's head and stuck it onto the bones of the cow and then with a snap of his fingers, he commanded the strange beast to rise up and graze on the mountainside. To the astonishment of the people the animal arose and ran up to the meadows to graze. This animal came to be known as the dong gyem tsey (takin) and to this day, these animals can be seen grazing in alpine meadows of the high eastern Himalaya.

If you want to learn more about the Mishmi takin, check them out on www.ultimateungulate.com HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Mythical creatures. Make up your own animals from other animals. Examples of mythical creatures Leucrocuta. Description. The size of a donkey, and features that are between a stag and a lion, with cloven hoofs. It has a rigid backbone, and cannot look behind itself. Has a wide mouth, and one tooth bone that extends all the way around its mouth, with no gums Features. Can produce the voices of humans. It is the offspring of a male Hyena, and a lioness.

Opinicus. Description. It has a body and four legs like a lion, the head neck and wings of an eagle, and the short tail of a camel. Features. They are related to griffins. Sometimes an opinicus is born without wings.

Can you make up your own mythical creature? Use some of the animals that you have seen in the Park. Think about which animals you want to use and then you could draw them or make a collage.. For example split the animal into a number of parts.

Body Body Body part Head Legs Tail Features (front part) (back part) Animals

And then decide which animals will be what parts. Its features are what it can do or where it comes from. You could also decide which environment it could live in.

Use the internet like www.arkive.org for ideas of some different species.www.mythcreatures.co.uk will give you descriptions of mythical creatures from different cultures worldwide. HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Scottish wildcat breakfast? Can you find out what breakfast the wildcats have caught?

Blue Wildcat: Red Wildcat: Green Wildcat:

If you want to learn more about the animal, check them out on www.highlandtiger.com HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Complete the Scottish wildcat picture? Can you fix the picture? Write the number in the position where you think the pieces should fit.

If you want to learn more about the animal, check them out on www.highlandtiger.com HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Where’s the British (European) beaver? Why did they go extinct?

Based on archaeological remains and historical evidence, scientists have concluded that the beaver was widely distributed throughout mainland Scotland, with bones having been discovered from Dumfriesshire in the south to Caithness and Sutherland in the north, as well as in Perthshire and Moray. The exact date of the beaver's disappearance from Scotland is unknown, but it was certainly still present in the 12th century, when excise duty was collected on the export of its pelt. Written records indicate that it may have survived in small numbers at a few locations until the 16th century. Giraldus Cambrensis reported in 1188 that it was to be found only in the Teifi in Wales and in one river in Scotland. The main cause of this dramatic reduction in beaver numbers was hunting for their pelts (these were used to make clothing), meat and castoreum (a secretion from their scent glands believed to have medicinal properties), although habitat loss was also a major factor.

If you want to learn more about Scottish beavers, look at www.scottishbeavers.org.uk

The beaver maze. Can you help the beaver (red square).

Find its way home to its lodge? (green circle)

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Polar Bear Quiz

Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) are large, meat-eating bears who are well-adapted for life in their frozen Arctic environment. They are powerful swimmers who hunt seals in the water. Polar bears can run in bursts up to 25 mph (40 kph). Anatomy: Polar Bears are up to 10 feet (3 m) long and weigh about 1,700 pounds (770 kg); males are bigger than females. Polar bears have a small head, powerful jaws, and a black nose and tongue. They have a strong sense of smell. They have 42 teeth; the tail is small and flat. They have wide front paws with slightly webbed toes that help them swim. These bears paddle with their front feet and steer with the hind feet. Fur and Skin: Polar Bears have two types of fur. They have thick, woolly fur close to the skin that keeps them warm. They also have hollow guard hairs that stick up and protect the bears from getting wet. These guard hairs are like drinking straws and are clear-coloured (not white). The white-looking coat camouflages them well in the snow and ice. Under the fur, Polar Bears have black skin. They also have a thick layer of fat (up to 4 inches thick) under the skin that helps keep them warm.

Habitat and Range: Polar Bears live in icy Arctic areas of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. They spend much of their time swimming in polar seas.

Diet: Polar Bears are carnivores (meat-eaters) who frequently hunt and catch their prey in the water, often many miles from land. They are fierce predators who eat mostly seals (and some walruses and other marine mammals). A polar bear's stomach can hold up to 150 pounds. Polar bears don't drink sea water. HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Reproduction: When pregnant, females (called sows) build snow dens in which they spend the winter; they usually give birth to twin cubs. Male polar bears (called boars) are active all year.

Classification: Kingdom: Animalia (animals), Phylum: Chordata, Class: Mammalia (mammals), Order: Carnivora, Family: Ursidae (bears), Genus: Ursus, Species: U. maritimus (meaning "sea bear"). Polar Bear Quiz Circle the right answer:

1. Polar bears are ______. 2. Polar bear skin is ______. a) carnivores a) white b) herbivores b) brown c) omnivores c) black

3. Polar bears live in the ______. 4. Polar bears are ______swimmers. a) Antarctic a) good b) Arctic b) bad c) Subtropics c) not

8. A thick layer of ______under the 5. Polar bear fur is ______. skin keeps the polar bear warm. a) pale yellow a) fur b) white b) fat c) clear c) blood vessels

7. ______are one of the polar bear's 8. Polar bears don't ______. favourite foods. a) eat meat a) Penguins b) swim b) Lichens c) drink sea water c) Seals

9. Polar bears can run at speeds up 10. Polar bears are up to ______feet to ______. long. a) 5 mph a) 5 b) 25 mph b) 10 c) 45 mph c) 25

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Ideas for Cross-Curricular Activities.

Here are some ideas that can be used as cross-curricular activites for a variety of subjects. •Draw a picture or make a model of your favourite animals that you saw at the Highland Wildlife Park. •Design some animal enrichment for your favourite animals at the Highland Wildlife Park this could incorporate •How they receive their food, getting them to work for their food rather than a bowl dropped in front of them. •Curiosity, get the animals to investigate smells, new activities •To develop normal and natural behaviours within captivity i.e. foraging, climbing, simulated hunting, stimulation (physical and mental) and animal puzzles. •Be aware of the animal’s natural behaviour; don’t get the doing something they would never naturally do and their limitations. •Write a story, poem or produce a book about a /some of the animals that you saw at the Highland Wildlife Park. •Make a mask of one/some of the animals that you saw at the Highland Wildlife Park. •Show by mime or dance how some animals at the Park move/eat /sleep/hunt etc. For example otters/the body language of wolves/a cock capercaillie mating dance (lek)/red deer in rut: rolling in the peat/parallel walking/locking of antlers etc. look at the way that they walk, behave, interact with each other, how they communicate. Become an animal of the park and see if your friends can guess what you are. •Research at least 3 of your favourite animals that you saw at the Park from the library/internet, and write it in your own words. •Research the history of explorer’s into mountain and tundra regions i.e. RF Scott, Hilary and Tenzing, Shackleton, Sir James Clark Ross, Fridjfot Nansen, John Muir and William Speirs Bruce. •Look at the different religions within mountain and tundra regions, Mongolian, Tibetan, Sami and Inuit. For example look at their differences on creation and compare them to your faith. •Identify the mountain and tundra regions in the world by dividing up the world into continents and identify: 1) Tundra areas. 2) Mountain areas. 3) What are the highest mountains in these areas? 4) What era the similarities and differences between mountain and tundra regions. 5) What are the effects of man on theses different environments? HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

More Ideas for Cross-Curricular Activities.

•Look at the animals within the mountain and tundra regions and see how have they evolved and adapted to live within this environment. Are there any similar species in different environments such as the arctic fox and the red fox what are there differences. •Look at the different ethic groups within Scandinavia, Himalayans and the high Arctic and see how there cultures differ or how they cope living in such a harsh climate. •Look at and listen to the different types of music from the various native cultures within mountain and tundra regions, such as Inuit, Sami, and Tibetan and you recreate a similar type of music of your own. •What would you do? (Points for discussion and debate) •Conservation or preservation. If there is very little habitat left is it worth conserving the animals that lived there. Is it the natural order of life extinction? •What can we do to prevent environmental / global disaster? What are the problems? Who cause them? Can one person make a difference? It’s somebody else’s problem. It won’t affect me when I’m dead. What can I do? Who should sort it out? What do you think of theses statements? Do they have a point? •Is it right to change traditional views and beliefs about people and their links with animals such as Chinese traditional medicine, bush meat, pet trade, beliefs in that some animal skins bring good luck (rabbits foot, red panda) •Should we introduce some extinct animals back to their previous strong holds i.e. wolves, bear, lynx and elk into Scotland. What would be the problems and interactions •Why do we have such fears of certain animals, wolves, tigers, lynx, eagles, why do we hunt them •Should international laws be passed to prevent hunting specific animals, even though certain cultures have traditional reliance upon these animals i.e. Inuit hunting whales, seals and polar bears? •Once rarer animal populations numbers are increased should we allow hunting again of these animals. For example wolves in America. Should we use blood money to help other vulnerable species? Do we shoot or relocate.

These can be added to or re-worked to suit specific topics within the curriculum.

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Answers Section.

The ancient forest creatures of Track them down. Britain? Animal 1 B Badger Track 1 C Wolf Animal 2 E Scottish wildcat Track 2 A Bear Animal 3 A Pine marten Track 3 E Beaver Animal 4 D Otter Track 4 D Lynx Animal 5 C Red squirrel Track 5 B Wild boar

Whose dinner was that? Dead heads of Scotland. Animal 1 C Beaver Skull 1 A Wildcat Animal 2 A Red squirrel Skull 2 B Red fox Animal 3 B Snowy owl Skull 3 F Roe deer Animal 4 D Wolf Skull 4 E Wild goat Animal 5 E Elk Skull 5 D Red squirrel Skull 6 C Badger

Dead heads at the zoo. Polar tracks? Skull 1 B Musk ox Track 1 F Wolverine Skull 2 F Polar bear Track 2 B Arctic Wolf Skull 3 C Wolf Track 3 D Arctic fox Skull 4 A Beaver Track 4 E Reindeer Skull 5 D Lynx Track 6 C Musk ox European Track 5 A Harp seal Skull 5 E bison

Who lives where? a) A rabbit lives in a warren / burrow. b) A eagle lives in an eyrie. c) A bee lives in a hive. d) An otter lives in a holt. e) A beaver lives in a lodge. f) A red squirrel lives in a drey. g) A badger lives in a sett. h) An arctic fox lives in a earth / den. i) A buzzard lives in a nest. j) An Amur tiger lives in a cave.

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

3 Answers Section.

Mums and Dads. Male Female a) Bharal (Blue sheep) Ram Ewe b) Red Deer Stag Hind c) Capercaillie Cock Hen d) Przewalski Horse Stallion Mare e) Wild boar Boar Sow f) Roe Deer Buck Doe g) Markhor (goat) Billie Nanny h) Peregrine Falcon Tiercel Falcon i) Goose Gander Goose j) Bison Bull Cow

Kidding about. a) A tadpole belongs to a frog. b) A chick belongs to a capercaillie. c) A kitten belongs to a pine marten. d) A calf belongs to a reindeer / red deer. e) A fawn belongs to a roe deer. f) A kit belongs to a beaver. g) A cub belongs to a wolf. h) A cygnet belongs to a swan. i) A lamb belongs to a bharal. j) A gosling belongs to a goose. k) A foal belongs to a Przewalski horse. l) A kid belongs to a markhor.

Let’s get together. a) A caravan of camels. b) A chattering of choughs. c) A troop / Barrel of monkeys. d) A richness of martens. e) A pace of kiang. f) A sounder of wild boar. e) A parliament of owls. g) A colony of beavers. h) A pack of wolves. i) A streak of tigers.

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Answers Section.

Cryptic creature. Eider

The Scottish wildcats breakfast

Blue Wildcat: Rabbit Red Wildcat: Mouse Green Wildcat: Pheasant

Complete the Scottish wildcat picture?

7 6 2

4 5

1

3

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.

Answers Section.

Polar Bear Quiz Answers.

1. Polar bears are ______. 2. Polar bear skin is ______. a) carnivores c) black

3. Polar bears live in the 4. Polar bears are ______. swimmers. b) Arctic a) good

8. A thick layer of ______5. Polar bear fur is ______. under the skin keeps the c) clear polar bear warm. b) Fat

7. ______are one of the polar 8. Polar bears don't ______. bear's favourite foods. c) drink sea water c) Seals

9. Polar bears can run at 10. Polar bears are up to speeds up to ______. ______feet long. b) 25 mph b) 10

HWP Education For further activities Complete this activity sheet and your www.highlandwildlifepark.org/schools.htm teacher will discuss the answers.