Clara Pennington

The only cat that lives as a family, sleeps twenty hours a day, and sends the females out to do the hunting. Lions, once you look past the crown we gave them.

The biggest cat on Earth, striped like a fingerprint, fond of a swim, and quieter than you would ever expect. Tigers, once you look past the poster.

I have watched a lot of animals over the school holidays, but nothing quite prepares you for the sheer engineering of an elephant.

The tallest animal on land runs on some genuinely odd engineering. Seven neck bones, a purple tongue, and a heart built for the climb. Here is the good stuff.

They are not white with black stripes, whatever your first instinct says. Zebras are black underneath, tricky to tame, and each one wears a pattern nobody else has.

Monkeys are not apes, whatever the cartoons told you. Here is what actually separates them, plus the one that famously borrowed a camera and took its own portrait.

Gorillas share nearly 98 percent of our DNA, make a new bed every night, and each one has a unique nose. Here is the gentle giant, up close.

They fish for termites, crack nuts with stone hammers, and build a new bed every single night. Chimpanzees are cleverer than my Year 4 class, and that is saying something.

Eight species, one very good nose, and cubs that arrive smaller than a kitten. Bears are odder than my Year 4 class guesses, and they guess quite boldly.

Wolves are not the snarling loners of fairy tales. They are family animals that hunt together, babysit together, and talk across whole valleys.

They are members of the dog family who never read the memo and behave like cats. My Year 4 class find this deeply suspicious, and honestly so do I.

Deer are not just woodland wallpaper. They regrow their antlers from scratch each year, raise fawns that barely smell of anything, and can clear a fence from a standing start.