Kid Territory: Need Help With Homework?

Okay, so you’re looking for information about animals to answer your homework questions or to write a report. That means you need to do some research. You can start here by going to our Animal Bytes section: click on the categories and options to look for the animal you want. We have animal facts, photos, video clips, and profiles available in this section and through links to other parts of our Web site.

But there are lots of animals, and we may not have the one you’re looking for, or we may not have the specific facts you want. So where do you go from there? The library!

Getting started

A good place to look first is in a general encyclopedia. Start with the name of the animal you want to research, such as tortoise or monkey. See what you find, and what other references the encyclopedia may point you to. You may then need to narrow your search and be more specific, like spurred tortoise or spider monkey, and see what you find there. As you read the descriptions, make a list of key words that come up about your topic: for spurred tortoise, you might have “turtles and tortoises,” “reptiles,” “African reptiles,” “African savanna habitat.” You may also find the scientific name: “Geochelone sulcata.” All these will lead you to other resources.

Look for books

Using your key words, look in the library catalog. When you find an interesting book, write down the author, title, and call number so you can find it. Check for reference books as well. The librarian can help you with your search—be sure to explain specifically what you are looking for and what your project is. You might also be able to get books from other libraries through an inter-library loan. Here are some books you might try:

Children’s Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom by Dr. Graham Bateman
Children’s Guide to Birds by Jinny Johnson
The Encyclopedia of Mammals by Dr. David MacDonald
Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians by Harold C. Cogger
Encyclopedia of Birds by Joseph Forshaw
The New Funk and Wagnalls' Illustrated Wildlife Encyclopedia
Snakes: A Natural History by Roland Bauchot
Walker’s Mammals of the World by Ronald M. Nowak.

Magazines, too

Magazines are called periodicals in libraries, and if you search for your subject in a periodical index, you may find some good resources. Again, the librarian can help you with this. When you find a magazine article that looks useful, write down the magazine title, date, and volume; and the article title, author, and page number. (For both books and magazines, be sure to always credit the sources of your information in your paper or project.)

Some magazines with animal information are:

Natural History
National Geographic
Audubon
Zoobooks
Discover
International Wildlife
Reptiles
Wildbird
Wildlife Conservation
and our own San Diego Zoo’s ZOONOOZ.

Browse the Net

There's a lot of information right here on the San Diego Zoo Web site. The links below can lead you in the right direction. The pages in Animal Bytes have answers to many questions we have been asked over the years, and can answer many of your questions, too. If you don't find all you need there, try typing the name of your animal into the search function of your Web browser to see what Web sites come up. It helps to be specific here—the scientific name Geochelone sulcata is going to give you better results than just “tortoise.” If you find a good site, bookmark it so you can go back to it and so you can credit the source of the information.

Be an information detective!

As you proceed in your research, you’ll find that one source will lead you to many other resources as well, especially if you look in the bibliography of a book, the references of a magazine article, or links in a Web site. Consider yourself a detective out to solve a mystery, piecing together one clue after another until you’ve solved the case. Just one source probably won’t have all the answers, and the staffs of zoos and aquariums don’t have time to do your research for you or to answer lots of questions personally on the phone or by e-mail. But if you do some creative thinking and follow those clues, you can find the answers for yourself!