Nice to meet you, Jr. Detective; I'm Detective Danny! You're here just in time to help me get to the bottom of...

CASE #3: THE CONGO CONUNDRUM

Let's head into the Congo Gorilla Forest Exhibit and I'll explain.

We were called to the Congo kitchen, where the meals for the animals are prepared by the zookeepers. Apparently, some food has mysteriously gone missing! Our mission is to find the animal culprit using the clues that were left behind at the scene of the crime.

I put together a suspect list with animals from the Congo forest who might have eaten the food. Will you take a look?

Now let's review the clues that were left behind!

First, the missing food! Leafy veggies were eaten from a bucket sitting on a very high shelf.

The next clue is a tuft of brown fur left by the animal at the scene of the crime!

Lastly, our third clue is a trail of hoof prints left by the animal culprit!

Those images in the files were pretty blurry. Any ideas who do the culprit might be? Let's use our imagination and make a sketch. Download the sheets below or follow along on a blank sheet of paper.

Z.O.O's Clues - Sketch Sheet1.pdf

Z.O.O's Clues - Sketch Sheet2.pdf

Does your sketch match any of our key suspects?

Click these videos for some more crafts with our suspects with brown fur! (We recommend opening the links and saving for later, after we solve the case.)

Red river hog craft

Okapi craft

Mandrill craft

Let's follow up on another clue. In our case file, we also noted a trail of hoof prints. Let's see if we can identify which hoof prints belong to each animal so we can figure out which exhibit they come from!

Can you help narrow down which animal is the culprit in this game? Click play to begin.

Great job! Now that you've figured out which tracks belong to which animal, we can see which exhibit they all come from.

Since we discovered tracks in the Congo Rainforest exhibit, which animals do you think could be the culprit?

That’s right! Only the Red River Hog and the Okapi live in the Congo Rainforest.

We almost have this mystery solved! Now let's get to the conclusion of this case.

Let's review the facts!

The greens vanished from a top shelf....

The 4 culprits were the Red river hog, Okapi, Black & white colobus monkey, and Mandrill.

We found brown fur...

...and hoof prints that helped us narrow it down to the Red river hog and Okapi!

If we consider that the greens vanished from a top shelf...

...and we consider the anatomy of both species...

Then that must mean...

The Okapi is the culprit behind this conundrum in the Congo! Great work, Jr. Detective!

Zoo Mystery.pdf

You did such a great job helping me today Jr. Detective! My fellow agent, Detective Taylor, just told me that they need help down by the African Plains Exhibit. Help them solve this one last mystery and complete your Z.O.O. Detective Academy training!

Continue your Quest!

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