Animal Magic: A Report by Third Class

On the 19/6/19 Orla kindly organised a present for the school.  She asked Animal Magic if they could bring in some animals to show the whole school and to teach us about the animals.

Firstly we met Trevor the Tenrec.  The tenrec is native to Madagascar.  He is related to a shrew.  Trevor loves to eat insects, in fact he is an insectivore.  For protection he goes into burrow, blocks the entrance, and spikes up his bum to protect himlsef from predators. By Mildred. 

Next we met Borys (my name!!).  Borys is a Blue Tongued Skink.  He is native to Australia.  He can close his ears when he is underwater.  For protection he can lose his tail and it continues to move.  He does this to escape from predators and tricks the predator into thinking his tail is alive, and while the predator chases the tail,  Borys can escape.  He also has a blue tongue to trick his predators into thinking he is poisonous even though he isn’t.  By Borys and Anastazja. 

After that we met Oreo, the Chinchilla.  He is native to the Andes Mountains.  Now they only live in Chile.  Oreo is an endangered species.  They are hunted for their fur and have the thickest fur of all land animals.  Oreo cannot bathe in water as his fur is so thick.  Chinchillas have eighty hairs growing in each hair follicle, we have only one. Chincilaas are born with fur. If he goes into water his fur won’t dry quickly enough and he will get hypothermia and die.  Instead the Chinchilla bathes in volcanic ash the same way we use water.  If Oreo falls she will use her tail as a propeller to make her fall safer.  By Zia, Eleanor and Alex 

Then we met the Tawney Owl.  He has 14 bones in his neck, we only have 7.  He can rotate his neck 270 degrees and his eyes can only look forward.  He can’t move his eyes so if he wants to look left he has to turn his head left.  We also learned that the Barn Owl and the Long Eared Owl are native to Ireland.  The Tawney Owl is native to England.  By Eleanor and Zia


Finally we met a Boa Constrictor.  It has no venom.  They use their bite and muscles to kill.  It has no ears so it uses vibrations and heat sensors to know where to go.  I had a great day thanks to Orla.  My favourite was the Chinchilla. by Louise