Auckland Zoo

On Tuesday my impact group called the zoologist went to the Auckland zoo to learn about how animals have to adapt to different environments.Our group got a tour guide and she taught us some facts about elephants (Asian) ,cheetahs and hippopotamus's.Fist up was elephants, she told us that the elephants at the Auckland zoo are Asian elephants.The difference's between an Asian elephant, and a African elephant is that Asian ones are smaller don't have tusks and are less wrinkly.Asian elephants are actually lucky because they don't get killed as much as the African,because they don't have tusks.People kill elephant for their tusks because it is where ivory comes form,ivory  is pretty popular and people will pay a lot of money for it.But it is illegal to kill elephants.The reason that the African elephants have more wrinkles is because it is hotter in Africa.So when they spray water on them selves the water get stuck in the wrinkles and keeps them cool and hydrated.
Next up was the cheetahs.She told us that pray have eyes on the side of their head and predators have them in .Also the spots in their fur are higher up than the rest,witch makes them more aerodynamic.
Cheetahs can't retract their claws they are always out and when they are running, it helps them grip the ground.Cheetahs have marks on their face called tear marks they come down each side of the nose,tear marks make their face look bigger witch can scar away other animals.But of coarse that doesn't stop things like lions and tigers stealing their kill.Cats have tear marks as well.And last was hippos.I don't remember much about the hippos all I remember is that they spend over half their day in the water trying to keep them selves hydrated,I also remember that they pop and pee everywhere to mark their territory.They also can hold their breathe for five minutes, hippos kill more people a year than sharks do.After the tour we went to see the other animals around the zoo.Here is what we saw,penguins,sea-lions,meercats,red pandas,spiders,otters,giraffes,zebras,serval,Rhinos,red necked wallaby,Sumatran tigers,Tasmanian devil,lions,flamingos,tuatara,giant kokupo and American alligators.Over all it was a fun day other than the end where it rained.My friends and I went into the gift shop,my friend and I both got a elephant stuffed toy,She named her bermer and I named mine Ellie.