Zootastic Day at Chessington

1. My favourite animal is a giraffe so it was so wonderful to get so close up to them. Did you know that the front half of a giraffes tongue is a dark black, purple, blue colour? It is thought it is this dark colour to protect it from the sun while it spends most of its day eating.

2. A group of giraffes are called a tower. The keepers at Chessington can tell the difference between the tower of giraffes by the slightly different patterns or colourings they have. The giraffe I fed was called Moja and he was lovely!

3. At Chessington they have Southern White Rhinos, you can tell what species of rhino they are from the shape of their mouths. A Southern White Rhino has a very wide flat mouth that helps them graze the grass they like to eat.

4. Chessington has a troop of gorillas, led by a huge silverback gorilla called Damisi. A silverback gorilla can be ten times stronger than a human but will only use this massive strength if they feel in danger or threatened.

5. The tigers at Chessington are Amur Tigers, the largest species of tiger in the world. Each tiger has a unique pattern of stripes and this is excellent camouflage for them when they are hunting their prey as the stripes break up their body shape amongst the tall grass and plants they hunt in. 

6. When you see Meerkats you’ll always see at least one keeping guard watching out for predators. If you look closely you’ll probably also see ‘bolt holes’, holes the Meerkats dig to hide in if they do spot a predator.

7. Not all lions are from Africa, the lions at Chessington are Asiatic Lions, a species of lions from a small area of Asia. These lions only live in a forest in India so are very much in danger of extinction in the wild.

8. Chessington has one male ostrich, called Oscar and one female, you can tell the difference as the male has black feathers with a white tail while the female is mostly brown. Ostriches are the fastest birds in the world…on land. Ostriches can’t fly but can run extremely fast when they need to, reaching speeds of about 40 miles an hour.

9. One species of monkey at Chessington is the Spider Monkey. They are very active, swinging on the ropes and trees around them. They have long tails which they use almost like another arm. They can use their tail to help hang on to a rope or tree just like they would their arms.

10. At Chessington they have Humboldt Penguins from South America. You can see them there on land and swimming in the water. Depending on where they are a group of penguins is called different things, on land a group of penguins is called a waddle and in the water they are called a raft.