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R.Blaize Tuesday, 1 November 2011 10:19:48 United Kingdom Time

• Hello and welcome to the Preserving Primates newsletter, we are a small group of friends that are currently in 6th Form. We have been asked by Twycross Zoo to create a few items for their website and the Visitors, these include a web based browser game, a downloadable worksheet to do around the Zoo and a newsletter containing facts, puzzles, facilities, animals and pull out activities.

• The web based browser game that we are doing is about Ape Conservation. The game has to be both fun and educational for children ages 11 and under. It has to be specifically about their conservation and how they and why they are in conservation. Also contain information about what dangers they face in the wild: such as poaching and destruction of habitat. The downloadable worksheet will be a thing that you can download or print off the Twycross Website and you can take it to the Zoo on their visit do when they are going round Zoo. This can either be a quiz, puzzles about the animals, a questionnaire or find the animal with an attached map. In the Newsletter we will be looking at the animals and their conservation; Benn will be concentrating on Primates (Apes and Monkeys), Luke will be doing a page on the Mammals and the Reptiles and Amphibians page, Amber will be working on Birds and Fish and William will be working with the Invertebrates (Insects). We will put all of this information into one newsletter and that will be our published newsletter. When we go round the Zoo each of us will be looking at our specified animals and gathering information about them to help us with our pages.

• Our group consists of Benn Taylor, the group leader and Photographer; William Dyke who will be doing the graphics in our group, Luke Bryant is general knowledge and game designer and Amber Hunt the puzzle maker and also the other game designer accompanying Luke. We all will have participation in the making of the newsletters.

• Some history of Twycross zoo, the zoo was set up over 47 years ago by two competitors in the pet shop business, Miss Molly Badham and Miss Nathalie Evans, moved to Hints Zoological Society near Tamworth in 1949. They got an acre of land and a bungalow, but this became too small and moved to their current place of work near Twycross. Then in 2004 they handed their zoo over to the new manager, Mrs. Suzanne Boardman. This vision is to raise awareness about the plight of the animals in the wild through both education and conservation and help conserve endangered species.

Introduction

History


Food & Drink We offer great value for money food for both children and adults with a fantastic selection of delicious food including; jacket potatoes, sandwiches and cakes all from local producers. We also offer special facilities for pre-‐booked groups. Car Parking Parking is free and is normally within the zoo, so your vehicle is accessible at all times. Disabled facilities Cafés, toilets and most animal houses are accessible by wheelchair. Guide dogs are permitted at the zoo, although there is no access to the apes and elephants. There is no disabled access to the inside of the lemur house. Mobility Scooters Mobility scooters are available for hire at £10.00 (to be booked in advance) from Guest Services. Identification should be produced on arrival. Toilets There are several toilet blocks within the zoo including disabled toilets and baby changing facilities. Do visit the Himalaya bathrooms to see the amazing leaf cutter ants! Picnic Areas There are several open grassy areas and picnic benches within the zoo which you are very welcome to picnic on. Conferences We have a wide range of conferencing facilities across the Zoo site, including Windows on the Wild, a stunning New England themed room overlooking a wading birds aviary. Retail Therapy For all your shopping needs visit the shop in the Himalaya where we have an array of toys, gifts and souvenirs, plus near enough every species of animal in cuddly toy form. We also stock a range of "day out essentials", so if the weather suddenly changes we have umbrellas and sun cream to purchase. Gallery Twycross Gallery is an exciting new space for contemporary art, providing an extensive selection of fabulous paintings, limited edition prints, plus unique sculptures, ceramics and glass.

Facilities


Map


Snow leopards live in high rugged mountains in central Asia. This rare and secretive species inhabits a harsh, remote environment with cold, dry climate and sparse vegetation. They are shy elusive cats and are mostly active and dusk and dawn. They are rarely seen in the wild. It is a very powerful predator and hunt wild sheep and goats.

We have four cows (female) here at the Zoo, replicating natural behavior in the wild, where the cows and offspring live in herds. Each herd has a matriarch-‐a mature female. Bull’s (male) usually wander solitarily, only meeting with females to mates. In the group at Twycross the matriarch is Minbu. Each elephant is different from the others.

Tapirs are found in the forest habitats and never stray far from water. They have a trunk-‐like nose and very good sense of smell which they use to find food and sense danger. They can use their nose like a snorkel when swimming! Baby tapirs are born with stripes which provide them with camouflage. The stripes are thought to mimic the dapples light on the forest floor.

Orangutans are the only apes from Asia. Their name means ‘old man of the forest’. There are two species; Bornean and Sumatran. The spend most of their lives in trees, searching for food to eat and building nest from branches every night. Habitat destruction and capture for the pet trade have led to rapidly decreasing number of them.

Gibbons are known as lesser apes, dues to their smaller size. We have several species at the Zoo. Unlike most other Apes they live in small family groups, consisting of monogamous pairs with their offspring. It takes between six and eight years for a gibbon to reach maturity. Adult females give birth to one baby every two or three years.

Spider monkeys have prehensile tails, which they use as a fifth limb. The top of their tail has a bare, touch sensitive pas, which helps them to hold on to branches. Spider monkeys from large family’s groups and mark their territory by rubbing saliva on their scent glands and then on branches.

Our Chilean flamingos occupy a shallow pool, ideal to wade in. They get their distinctive colour from their diet. In the wild they eat algae and shrimp-‐like animals. Here they have food supplements containing all the nutrients, energy and vitamins they need to give them their pink colour.

The pink faced loved bird has a distinctive pink face, which is where it gets its name from. They are found in southern Africa. They inhabit dry regions where they is permanent water. They feed primarily on seeds and will flock in hundreds to feed and gather around water to drink.

Twycross Animals


Tortoises are easy to spot, as they have a hard shell made of large scales called ‘scutes’. Unlike other reptiles, tortoises don’t shed skin. These reptiles live a long time with the oldest recorded tortoise at 200 years. We have several of tortoise, including Aladabra, pancake and spur-‐thighed.

Mexican red-‐kneed tarantulas are venomous but also are very docile. They hunt at night and jump out at prey to catch them. They inject poison into the prey. The majority of them diet is made up of insects but will hunt small mammals and frogs. The bottoms of their legs are sensitive to vibrations, taste and smell along with their 8 eight eyes to find prey

The markings and colours on the poison-‐dart frog act as a warning to would be predators as its skin contains neurotoxins (which cause paralysis). The frogs do not produce poisons themselves; rather they absorb the neurotoxins from their prey (insects) and deposit them into their skin.

These get their names from the way they cut leaves and this is their only food. They live underground in colonies of two or three millions. They consist of four different castes; minims care for the young, minors are the foragers, mediae are the foragers and the majors are the soldiers and defend the nest from intruders and do the heavy lifting.

The green winged macaw is mostly red, but its wings are blue and green. They are one of the largest of the macaws. They live in the forests and swamps in central and South America. They eat a variety of plants, nuts, fruit seeds, berries and vegetables. They are often seen in pairs or in family groups

The leopard gecko has a yellow skin coloured background with black spots on the tops. It measures at 17-‐23cm long and its toes are thin. They are very few geckos to have eyelids which the leopard geckos have. They are found in Iran, Afghanistan, western India and Pakistan. They eat insects, spiders, snails, small mammals and eggs.

These fresh water turtles live in and around slow-‐flowing water. Its shell is brown with a hint of green, spotted yellow. They can be found throughout Europe, western Asia and North Africa. They can breed at 3 or 4 years of age. They are often kept as pets and can adapt well to changing environment.

The red eared slider is a species of freshwater turtle. They have webbed feet and have a red stripe down each side of their head. They are found in the Southern of United States and in Mexico. They eat fish, insects and water plants. They lay between 2-‐22 eggs. They can live up to a massive age of 75 depending on their environmental factors.
