'Zoo Awareness Day' 🦒

Simon O'Donovan
1 day ago
2 min read

Zoo Awareness Day – CST Activities Introduction

Today we’re celebrating Zoo Awareness Day with a fascinating journey into the animal kingdom — combining reminiscence, conversation, quizzes, music, creativity and plenty of opportunities to share our opinions.

We’ll begin with some Facts About Zoo Awareness Day and a Let’s Talk about our memories of visiting zoos and wildlife parks. Which animals did we most enjoy seeing? Did we have a favourite zoo? And have zoos changed since the visits we remember from childhood?

Then it’s time to put our memories to work. We’ll travel Around the World, matching familiar animals with the countries they are synonymous with, before seeing how many zoo animals we can recognise. We’ll also venture into the world of TV and movies, remembering famous animal stars including Flipper, Skippy, Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion, Cheeta, Black Beauty and many more.

There’s some wonderful television nostalgia too. We’ll revisit Lulu the elephant’s famously chaotic appearance on Blue Peter and those unforgettable PG Tips chimpanzee adverts, including the classic “Coo-ee, Mr Shifter!”commercial. Along the way, we’ll consider how our attitudes towards using wild animals for entertainment have changed.

That leads us to our Heated Debate — Should Zoos Still Exist? Modern zoos can contribute to conservation, breeding programmes, research and education, but important questions remain about captivity, freedom and animal welfare. There may be no simple answer, so everyone gets the chance to have their say.

Our Practical Activity is Making Zoo Animal Bunting. With coloured card, scissors, glue and a little imagination, we can create elephants, lions, giraffes, monkeys, zebras and other favourite animals to make a colourful display.

And naturally, there’s plenty of music. Our animal-themed CST Songs of the Day include “Born Free” by Matt Monro, “Talk to the Animals” from Doctor Dolittle, Julie Felix’s “Going to the Zoo”, and Simon & Garfunkel’s playful “At the Zoo.”

So, whether you love zoos, question whether we still need them, or simply enjoy the extraordinary animals with whom we share our planet, there should be something here to remember, discuss, recognise, create and sing along with.

Welcome to my Zoo Awareness Day CST Activities!