Ways to use this list
- Zoo trip groups: with Remove the winner on, each group gets its own animal and comes back with three facts from that enclosure's sign.
- Zoo charades: spin, then act the animal out in silence; the elephant's trunk and the meerkat standing on lookout are quick to guess.
- Animal noises for toddlers: spin and make the sound together, then have a giggle at the giraffe, which hardly ever makes a sound.
- Map work: press a continent button, spin, and mark where the animal lives in the wild on a big world map.
- Design an enclosure: spin an animal and draw what it needs to feel at home, such as a cold pool for the polar bear or high ropes for the orangutan.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (56 entries)
- Lion
- African elephant
- Giraffe
- Zebra
- Hippo
- White rhino
- Gorilla
- Chimpanzee
- Meerkat
- Okapi
- Cheetah
- Spotted hyena
- Warthog
- Ring-tailed lemur
- Ostrich
- Fennec fox
- Nile crocodile
- Flamingo
- Tiger
- Giant panda
- Red panda
- Orangutan
- Snow leopard
- Komodo dragon
- Asian elephant
- Gibbon
- Malayan tapir
- Small-clawed otter
- Bactrian camel
- Sun bear
- Kangaroo
- Koala
- Emu
- Wombat
- Tasmanian devil
- Echidna
- Kookaburra
- Cassowary
- Jaguar
- Capybara
- Two-toed sloth
- Giant anteater
- Armadillo
- Toucan
- Scarlet macaw
- Bald eagle
- American bison
- Llama
- Alligator
- Golden lion tamarin
- Polar bear
- Penguin
- Arctic fox
- Reindeer
- Sea lion
- Snowy owl
Questions people ask
Which zoo animal is the tallest?
The giraffe: an adult male can reach about 5.5 metres (18 feet), taller than a double-decker bus. Its neck has seven bones, the same number as a human neck, but each one can be longer than 25 cm (10 inches).
Is a red panda a real panda?
It was called a panda first, decades before the giant panda, but the two are not close relatives. The giant panda is a bear, while the red panda has a family of its own, closer to raccoons and weasels. Both eat bamboo and grip it with an extra wrist bone that works like a thumb.
Why are the zoo animals grouped by continent?
Many zoos lay out their paths by region, with an African savannah, an Asian forest and so on, so the buttons match a typical zoo map. Use them to plan a route, or to spin only animals from the part of the world you are studying.
How can I make the zoo wheel easier for toddlers?
Keep eight to ten animals they know and start each line with an emoji, like 🦁 Lion, 🐘 African elephant or 🦒 Giraffe, so children who cannot read yet still know who won.