It was a warm, early summer day and my mom looked out the 2 nd floor window into the back yard. She saw something dark moving across the yard and called to me. I ran to the window with her and we thought that we saw a turtle in the back yard. We ran down the stairs and out into the yard. We quickly spotted the turtle walking. We were worried that it was lost or might get hurt so we scooped it up carefully and placed it in my sister's baby sized swimming pool with a log, some dirt and grass and of course, lots of water.

I wanted to keep the turtle for a pet but mom said it's not good to keep wild animals. She said we could research it and observe it but would have to let it go.

Mom and I went in to the house and brought up the internet on the computer. We searched for turtles with little yellow spots. We found out this was a Spotted Turtle indigenous to our area and that the number of spots told us how old it might be. We also found out that it was a "protected species" in our state. Mom talked to me about what that meant. She said that it's not good to remove animals from their environment and keep them because there weren't that many left any more. By leaving them alone we help them to breed and increase their population. We also found out that the turtle was probably a female looking to lay her eggs. Because we have a dog we thought it was safer to bring the turtle to the nearby pond and let her go. We hope she found a safer place to lay her eggs.

I'm glad I didn't keep the turtle. I hope she had lots of little baby turtles that I can see next year!

~ Courtney, Age 10, USA ~

"I have visited the zoo about 5 times this year. My favourite time was a few weeks ago when we spent three days totally immersed in all parts of zoo life. There is also a children's' part of the zoo and it was here that I saw the wonderful animal poems.

My mum told me that there was a school project where students in primary school were asked to write poems about protecting the animals. The poems and pictures of animals were made into mosaic tiled pictures and are now in the children's zoo.

I loved reading all of the poems and here are some of my favourites.

Tapir, tamarind, ocelot, zebra, giraffe, panda, tiger, elephant."

Anaconda Poem Mosaic

Animals are Big Mosaic

Animals don't wish extinction Mosaic

Cassowary Poem Mosaic

Condor Poem Mosaic

Ghost Bat Poem Mosaic

Giraffe Poem Mosaic

Golden Lion Tamarin Poem Mosaic

Indian Lion Poem Mosaic

Numbat Poem Mosaic

~ George, Age 12, Australia ~