RZSS is a leading conservation charity that connects people to nature and safeguards wildlife across the globe. At Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park, teams care for almost 3,000 animals and carry out science, conservation and research.
The Discovery and Learning Team works with teachers, students, families and communities across the world to help connect and empower everyone to care for the planet. We run virtual sessions, on-site visits and have many free online courses on ZooDLE too!
RZSS is a leading conservation charity that connects people to nature and safeguards wildlife across the globe. At Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park, teams care for almost 3,000 animals and carry out science, conservation and research.
The Discovery and Learning Team works with teachers, students, families and communities across the world to help connect and empower everyone to care for the planet. We run virtual sessions, on-site visits and have many free online courses on ZooDLE too!
Can you complete one wild activity a day for 30 days? We’ve included a black and white version and a colour version.
There’s an interactive version of our Wild Challenge printable checklist that has suggestions and ideas too. It will work on tables, phones and computers.
This selection of resources have been designed to link drawing and decorating to learning about animals and they tie into free online courses that you can use with your class on our free learning platform.
Amphibians and Reptiles
We have a few different amphibians and reptiles at RZSS, including blue poison arrow frogs. These frogs make a poison that will paralyse or even kill a predator if they eat the frog! The bright blue colour of the frog acts as a warning to any animal that might be tempted to give them a nibble. Can you create your own frog defences? Download our frog template and add your designs for defence!
Hooves ‘n’ All
Get creative with our next challenge. Watch Jasper’s story all about the mishmi takin, a mysterious hoofed animal. Then, can you design and make your own hoofed creature? Could you take different body parts from hoofed animals and put them together? What type of habitat will your animal live in? Download our template if you want more help.
Clever Creatures
Head over to our Clever Creatures page to learn more about animal enrichment. Then, try designing and building your own enrichment! Create your enrichment for your pet or for native birds on your windowsill. Make sure you follow our top tips to keep all the animals safe and you can find more examples there too.
Oh Deer Oh Deer!
Looking for something native or festive? Head to your nearest outdoor space and find some twigs to create this easy deer craft!
We made these resources to provide real-world purposes to writing tasks and creative, fun activities that help children connect to nature in different ways.
Each printout links to a free topic that has a matching set of online games and quizzes that you can use on tablets, on an interactive screen or on computers. You can find these by following the links below or on our learning website.
Panda Arrival Story links to our Panda-tastic! course
Penguin Parade Poetry links to our Waddle This Way course on penguins
Who lives here? species sign links to our Feathery Friends course on birds
An interactive game that highlights the relationships between various species in a food web. Cards show producers, primary and secondary consumers. There is also an additional set of threat cards that will illustrate what happens when any individual species in the web declines and how many threats would affect all the species in the ecosystem. This game can be used in a school classroom, outside in the school grounds or at a zoo.
This resource is a real life example of a penguin conservation project that is being run with RZSS and multiple other international conservation organisations.
The resource has students think about species conservation in relation to working with local people and having sympathy for cultural traditions.
The activity is interactive in the sense that students get to choose which eggs will get harvested and which will not. They will have a chance to look at the maths behind this exercise to achieve a greater understanding on why and how this could be a possible solution that would be acceptable for the conservation of the species as well as benefit the local human population of less than 300 people.
Who its for: Secondary and Tertiary students in a classroom or zoo setting.
Further information is included in the synopsis document.
Developed by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, owners of Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park.
Activities and information about rainforests, their layers and the animals that you find in them.
Developed by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, owners of Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park.
Activities for nursery level children including colouring-in and mask making.