Hello, my clever math detectives. I'm here at the Peculiar
Zoo, home of the strangest animals to roam the Earth!
Earlier today someone took off with a few of the zoo's
most precious animals.
"Oh, dear!" cried Hank McGoo, the head zoo
keeper. "I came in this morning to feed the animals,
but my favorite animals have vanished from their cages!
The colorful 3-feathered peacocks . . . the kangaroos
with two pouches . . . those prized 5-spotted leopards
. . . the giraffes with 4-inch long necks...the dear
elephants with two trunks . . ."
"Now, now," I said, trying to calm him. "How
many animals are missing in all?"
"I don't know," he whimpered. "I never
thought of counting them!"
We searched the zoo for clues and found a crumpled note
in the elephant stall:
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Dear Mr. McGoo, have I got you
I've taken your animals to start my own zoo!
My zoo will be the grandest around,
With the strangest animals ever found.
Kids will travel from near and far,
Those 8 elephant trunks will make me a star.
Folks will come to see the kangaroos
With 14 pouches, how could I lose?
The giraffes will go in a special little place.
(16 inches of neck doesn't need a lot of space.)
The leopards will be the biggest hit of all
With 25 spots, they're off-the-wall!
9 precious peacock feathers will make me rich.
As long as my plan goes off without a hitch!
Signed,
The Zoo Bandit
"What a monster!" cried Mr. McGoo. "Math
Maven, can we stop him?"
"No problem," I told him, "but first we have to figure out how many of each animal he's stolen from the Peculiar Zoo. This is a job for my math detectives."
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Solve the Mystery
Okay, super sleuths. Can you use your multiplication
and division skills to figure out how many animals
were stolen by the Zoo Bandit? Use the clues in the
poem, then type the number of missing animals next
to each animal's name: