Year 7 had a fantastic day out at Woburn recently. Despite the weather, the boys were able to go on a ‘foot safari’ seeing a variety of animals including penguins, wallabies and red pandas.
They also had an educational talk from an expert at Woburn about the impact humans are having on our planet and the ways that they can make a difference.
Year 7 pupil Maanav has written an account of the trip to Woburn, which can be found below.
"Woburn. Safari. Park. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard those three words. A smile appeared on my face. It brought back fond, joyful memories of my visits to various safari parks, in particular the magnificent Masai Mara and the sensational Sweetwaters. It was a brilliant idea as we would have a chance to connect with nature and get away from the hustle and bustle of school life and the fast life of London. I knew what I had to pack – a good camera.
We were all so fortunate to be able to go on this trip and it was going to be a thrilling day out. My thanks the teachers for not letting Covid-19 getting in the way.
Upon arrival at Woburn Safari Park in Woburn, Bedfordshire, we split into groups. However, there could only be a maximum of six people in a group because of Covid-19. The day was gloomy and the weather foul, but I couldn’t be more jovial. I was at Woburn! The first thing we did was go on a foot safari. It was really intriguing to see how the different animals acted and what habitats they lived in. I took some breath-taking photos of the capybara, the lion, the red panda, the tiger, and the tortoise. This was just the beginning. I know what I was waiting for. The Southern White Rhino!
After the foot safari, we had an educational talk about endangered species, and it was really alarming to discover that out of the 8 million species of living things on earth, 1 million species are endangered. This was mostly caused by humans. We all must do something about these dreadful statistics. We also learnt about the rate at which things decompose. It was startling to realise that some things take centuries (like plastic bottles and aluminium cans), millennium and even, a million years to decompose (for example, a glass jar). It was shocking. We also heard about how habitats are being lost and it was ghastly to find out that the main reason for this loss was agriculture, along with the demand for wood and paper. Are E-readers and kindles the answer?
After a short lunch break, we headed back to the coach to go on a guided coach tour. We learnt all about the different animals at Woburn and about their numbers in the wild. It was upsetting to discover how fast many animals in the wild are declining and how there are barely any of those animals left in the world (e.g. there are only 17,000 rhinos left in the world and humans have caused their numbers to decrease by about 85%; and there are so few tigers left in the wild that there are more tigers kept as pets in the US than there are left in the wild). Shocking isn’t it?
I also took some hair-raising photos of the North American black bear and the Canadian timber wolf. At one point of the trip, everyone in our coach could barely breathe for laughing at the sight of monkeys clambering up the wing mirrors of another coach and starting to chase each other on the roof. However, when a monkey jumped onto the wing mirror of our coach, the noise of laugher escalated into a deafening din. It was a hilarious sight.
After the boisterous coach tour, we all went back to Habs after a delightful and proactive day. The trip was awesome and amazing, but it was eye-opening at the same time to realise so many species are endangered and their numbers are declining rapidly."
