Education: Curriculum, Activities, and Materials

Bornean Nightlife: Journal reading and wildlife search

Teacher overview

Objectives: The following lessons provide elementary school students with:

• A simple story to learn about animals of the Bornean rain forest
• A coloring and search activity for students to identify rain forest animals

Summary: The Bornean rain forest is the second largest in the world. It is full of fantastic creatures like moths the size of birds and wild cats that hunt in trees. The San Diego Zoo’s newest exhibit, Monkey Trails and Forest Tales, displays a number of animals from the Bornean rain forest. Whether students go to see the animals at the San Diego Zoo or not, this activity introduces students to some new animals in these amazing rain forests.

Grade level: 4th–6th grade students

Subjects: Reading and art

Skills: Students will read journal entries from a fictitious scientist in the Bornean rain forest to learn more about its animal inhabitants. Next they will be given a drawing of a Bornean rain forest scene and will use clues to find the wildlife and color it in.*

Learning objectives: Students should be able to discuss the biology of at least three rain forest animals.

Teacher background

The island of Borneo is located south of the Philippines in the Malay Peninsula. The island is unique because it is claimed by three different countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Borneo is the third largest island in the world. The island is mostly mountainous but also contains large regions of rain forest.

Borneo is home to an amazing number of plants and animals. As part of the larger Southeast Asian rain forest, Borneo is home to over 2,000 species of trees including the amazing diptocarps, which rise over 100 feet (30 meters) to form the forest canopy. The island is one of the last refuges of orangutans. These solitary great apes once ranged into Vietnam, Laos, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Now they survive only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Borneo is also home to other endangered animals such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Malayan tapir, and the Asian elephant.

Like all rain forests, the root systems of the trees are shallow, as nutrients from rotting plant materials are washed away quickly by the rains. The forests in Borneo receive about 80 inches (203 centimeters) of rain a year. The large amount of rainfall and warm tropical climate make for an environment teeming with a diversity of life. From gigantic flowers to tiny wasps, with thousands of orchid species and the last of the orangutans, the Bornean rain forest is a biologist’s dream.

Bornean Nightlife Journal
Bornean Coloring and Search Activity (PDF format) *In bilingual format