Capybara
Marabou stork
Representing Paraguay
Representing Ethiopia
Serval
Representing Zimbabwe
Marwell Olympics!
The contenders:
Giraffe
Representing Kenya
Seba’s bat
Representing Venezuela
Siamang gibbon
Representing Malaysia
Cheetah
Representing Botswana
Greater flamingo
Representing South Africa
Giant anteater
Grey kangaroo
Representing Australia
Representing Brazil
Welcome to the Marwell Wildlife Olympics 2012!
You can take part too:
As you go round the park, look out for each of the locations shown in the map on
the back page. For each event, see how you compare to the animal that won
gold! You can record your best attempts in the boxes for each event.
Please note: the animal rankings in this resource are for fun only and not based on actual
records! This could be a starting point for class discussion – which animals do you think
would be best?
Event 1: Holding breath
Gold: Capybara
Silver: Flamingo
Bronze: Gibbon
Did you know? Capybaras can hold their breath underwater for up to 5
minutes (300 seconds)!
My time:
You try: Take a deep breath in and see how long you can hold it for.
Event 2: Standing on one leg
Gold: Flamingo
Silver: Marabou stork
Bronze: Gibbon
Did you know? Flamingos often stand on one leg for several hours while they
are resting, possibly to help them keep one foot warm and dry at a time.
My
time:
You try: See how long you can stand still on one leg for. Don’t fall over!
Event 3: Fastest runner
Gold: Cheetah
Silver: Serval
Bronze: Giraffe
My
speed:
Did you know? Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals and can have
bursts of speed up to an amazing 70mph – that’s as fast as cars drive on
the motorway!
You try: After you leave the cheetah walkway, have a go at the running
track to see how fast you can run in mph.
Event 4: Tallest animal
Gold: Giraffe
Silver: Kangaroo
Bronze: Flamingo
Did you know? A male giraffe can be up to a spectacular 6 metres tall
(600cm)! This helps them reach the highest leaves to eat.
You try: Stand by the height chart outside ‘Into Africa’ and measure how tall
you are.
My
height:
Event 5: Longest wingspan
Gold: Marabou stork
Silver: Flamingo
Bronze: Seba’s bat
Did you know? When a marabou stork stretches its wings out fully, they
can measure almost 3m across – that’s about the height of the bird
house in the aviary!
My armspan:
You try: Stretch out your arms to the side and use the ruler at the
bottom of this page to measure the length from fingertip to fingertip.
Event 6: Fastest flap
Gold: Seba’s bat
Silver: Flamingo
Bronze: Marabou stork
Did you know? Some bats can flap their wings up to 130 times in 10
seconds!
My flap
count:
You try: Count how many times you can flap your arms up and down in
10 seconds.
Event 7: High jump
Gold: Serval
Silver: Kangaroo
Bronze: Cheetah
Did you know? In the wild, servals have been known to jump and catch birds
right out of the air, flying up to 2.5m above them!
My
highest
jump:
You try: Stand near the measuring post by the serval enclosure. (Not too close!) Do
a standing jump and reach up with both hands, as if you are catching a bird! Use
the scale on the post to estimate how high your hands reach.
Event 8: Balance beam
Gold: Siamang gibbon
Silver: Serval
Bronze: Marabou stork
Did you know? Siamang gibbons have an amazing sense of
balance, so they can walk along branches high up in the trees!
You try: Find the logs on the ground bordering the play area by the
gibbons. See if you can walk all the way on top of them without
letting your feet touch the ground.
Use this ruler to help you measure, if you need to:
Number of times
my feet touched
the ground:
Event 9: Long jump
Gold: Grey kangaroo
Silver: Cheetah
Bronze: Serval
Did you know? Western grey kangaroos have such powerful hind legs,
they have been known to jump as far as12m in one go!
My number
of jumps:
You try: Go to the gravel path opposite the kangaroos to find the start
and finish signs showing 12m. Put your feet together and see how many
jumps it takes you to go 12m!
Event 10: Fastest tongue
Gold: Giant anteater
Silver: Serval
Bronze: Giraffe
Did you know? Giant anteaters use their long sticky tongues to slurp up ants
and termites. They can stick their tongues out 65cm at a rate of 25 times in
10 seconds!
My total:
You try: How many times can you stick your tongue out in 10 seconds?
8
7
6
5
3
2
4
9
1
10
Event number:
Flamingos
1
Capybara
2
6
Bats
7 Servals
3 Cheetah
8
Gibbons
4
Giraffes
9 Kangaroos
5
Marabou storks
10 Anteaters