Six friends visited the zoo on a summer day and saw many animals including turtles, snakes, monkeys, bears, elephants, and birds. While watching the animals, some of the children got scared by snakes or when a bear growled. Later, the lions escaped from their cage and chased the children and visitors. The children fled into a dark cave to escape, but were startled by bats. Zookeepers quickly caught the lions and rescued the children. The children then suggested to the zookeepers that the animals be kept in more natural habitats.

1. The STory of
„AN ADVENTURE IN THE ZOO”

2. Story by
students from
Greece
Illustrations by
students from
Poland

3. One summer day, in July, six friends: Kostis, Thanasis, Ourania,
Bill, Love and Barbara went to the zoo. At the beginning all was
pleasant as the children ran and laughed because there were
for the first time in a beautiful big zoo, full of greenery with
various kinds of animals and a lot of them were rare animals

4. Children were walking in the walk paths of the
zoo and they saw turtles in a fenced place. Some of
them were in small pool while others were in the
grass.

5. After that they saw different species of snakes with
unusual colours in a huge cage of glass. Some of them
were slithering on the earth while others were up on
plants.

6. Kostis, Bill and Barbara were impressed when they
saw the snakes but the other three children: Love,
Thanasis and Ourania were afraid that the snakes
might go out of their cage. So they began to tremble
and asked the others to leave and see the rest of the
animals in the zoo.

7. Next to the reptiles, was a huge cage with monkeys.
They were climbing on trees, swinging from the
branches, jumping from branch to branch to find
baskets filled with bananas. Some even hung by their
tails.

8. After that the children strolled past a huge place in
which lived a bear’s family. They were eating fish and
honey.

9. Suddenly one of the bears growled loudly and the
children got scared.

10. Further down they saw two elephants. The elephants
were taking in water with their trunks from the
nearby lake and they sprayed it and all the children
got wet.

11. Strolling further along, the children saw enormous
cages with birds. In one of them were a lot of budgies
with colorful feathers. Kostis was impressed. As he
carelessly put his finger in the cage, the smaller
bandgies bit it because it thought that it was food.
Immediately he pulled out his finger regretting his
action.

12. Ambling further along, the cages they saw vultures,
eagles, falcons which had enormous claws and beaks,
looking at the children widely. The children looked at
them and were both with admiration and fear.

13. Walking along the zoo’s paths they saw wolves and a
giraffe, stretching its long neck eating leaves.

14. There were also crocodiles and alligators in a small
lake.

15. Moreover a hippo, a rhinoceros, some beautiful
flamingos, a panda and squirrels were also seen.

16. They also saw lions and tigers. A tiger was circling
anxiously in its cage. That meant it was hungry. The
lions were stretching up the bars of their cage. The
children froze with fear and they hurriedly left.

17. At the end of the zoo they attended a
performance of dolphins and seals in a pool.

18. Suddenly they heard a big noise and roars behind
them. The lions had escaped from their cage and
started to chase the children and all other people
there. Children trying to escape, ran into a dark, scary
cave at the end of the zoo.

19. Bill was holding a flashlight and as they were running
it went off and suddenly in front of them scary, black
bats flew.

20. Luckily, when the lions escaped from their cage the
alarm was heard and the zookeepers reacted
immediately mobilized them and finally managed to
catch them easily and pulled the children out of the
cave.

21. When the children were rescued, they suggested to
the zookeepers to place the animals in huge natural
parks, so they won’t feel imprisoned. The zookeepers
listened to the children’s suggestion and they
promised that they will try to do what they can.