In Week 4 our Year 7 and 8 students were lucky to visit Orana Park.

This visit was part of their Science Programme where they study "Animal Survival". Students were able to see which adaptations animals have to survive and to study the impacts that humans are having on their survival. This information was then used to complete a poster back at school.

First, we walked to the learning area and ate morning tea. Then we saw 5 lions - lion around! get it? Ok, I'll stop. We learnt that the lions have big claws, this helps them hook into their prey and kill them. Apparently, It’s not their muscles that help them run, It’s their heart even though It’s small for its size. Did you know that if a lion pounces on you, it kills you before it sinks its teeth into you because of the force and weight? 

After that, we went into a learning space and looked at some skulls. The skulls we saw were a cheetah, an African wild dog and a lion. They were the carnivore skulls, the other two were antelope skulls. Nyssa was able to identify the African wild dog skull. Even the year 8 and 9’s couldn’t do it so go the year 7’s. 

We passed the gorillas and they were just lying there, it was really sad because their brother died :( We walked towards this wooden structure. It was the cheetah exhibit. They were also lying around and only when we got in the wooden structure did the cheetah started moving. There were 2 on display and 6 unseen. The two on display were adorable.

To finish off, we visited the giraffes and tried to feed them, unfortunately, they were not interested in us one bit!

All in all, it was an interesting and exciting day. Thank you to Orana Park for having us and imparting your wisdom on us.

By Nyssa and JoJo - Year 7 Students