Year 3 Go Ape!
Nursery and Prep School
On Thursday 19th May Year 3 went to Monkey World in Dorset. The purpose of this trip was to find out about primates and about animal rescue and conservation. To prepare for the trip we made sure we had our back packs with waterproof coats and a packed lunch. Ms Appleby and Mrs Hanks came with us on the trip and we travelled by a small bus. At Monkey World we saw gibbons, chimpanzees, marmosets, capuchins and baby orang-utans. We say the baby orang-utans in a special nursery. The chimpanzees had an amazing enclosure which was like a playground. It looked like the teenage chimpanzees had their own enclosure which had a long, fun slide in it. As well as seeing all the different monkey enclosures we also took part in a workshop run by a lady called Annie. She talked about all the problems that man has caused for monkeys around the world. We learned that monkeys living in enclosures can get bored and Annie helped us to make special toys for the monkeys. We took some plastic bottles and poured in some sunflower oil, put the lid on the bottle and then shook it. Next we put in rice crispies, sunflower seeds and wood shavings into the bottle and shook it again, making everything stick together. The monkeys enjoyed picking out the seeds and eating them. We learned that in Spain, in the past, baby chimpanzees were dressed up and their little feet squashed into shoes that really hurt them and caused permanent damage. As the chimpanzees grew up and stronger than their owners they were then thrown into the sea to drown. Monkey World has rescued some of these monkeys. We learned that orang-utans are endangered. Man is chopping down their homes and they are dying because they have nowhere to live. There are only about 500-600 left in the world. Some of the gibbons had been rescued from laboratories where humans had done experiments on them. Some of the monkeys at Monkey World have strange behaviour because they have been badly treated and it has damaged their brains. I would really like to go back to Monkey World some day with my family. It was very interesting.
