This painting, ‘The Garden of Eden’, shows us what we knew about animals more than 400 years ago. Since then we have discovered a lot!
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Mauritshuis, The Hague

We discovered that humans and other apes are very alike. Chimpanzees, for example, live together in groups with rules and relationships. They use tools, communicate, and care for each other.

Fish swim, water moves, and seaweed sways. Under the sea, nothing stays still. The ocean is always moving and this brings changes. Some animals change too.
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Starfish can choose to detach an arm, out of which a whole new starfish grows! This way they can reproduce on their own.

No one is exactly the same in the animal kingdom. Animals may look like each other from afar, but when you look and listen closely, you discover differences. Just like humans, other animals recognize each other by these special differences

All zebras have a different pattern of stripes, just like all our fingerprints are different! Zebras use this pattern to recognize each other.

Families come in different shapes and sizes. Some children grow up with two fathers, two mothers, a father and a mother, one parent or other people that care for them. Let's discover the many different kinds of families in the animal kingdom!

This is Storkie, a young stork. Storkie wonders if they will have a stork family when they grow up, with a daddy, mommy and a baby, just like their parents. In search of the answer, Storkie discovers that there are many different kinds of families.

Grizzly bear mothers have strong bonds, travel together and raise their young together.

Flamingos form a pair without caring about their partner's gender, as long as they are pink. They eat and travel together, raise their young together and sleep side-by-side.

Some grey kangaroos are intersex: this means they have characteristics that are not typically male or female.

There are so many things you can like about someone. Maybe they are funny, calm, tough, gentle, colourful or just very different from you. In the animal kingdom, love may take many different shapes. If you look closely, you will discover that there is not one right way to belong together.

At one zoo, two male griffon vultures had been a pair for many years. Their keepers gave them an egg from another vulture pair that could not care for it. Thanks to their care, the chick grew into a healthy young vulture.

The animal kingdom knows many different forms of families. Sometimes the father leads the group. Sometimes the mother or grandmother. And sometimes they all care for each other.

Lionesses live together, hunt together and care for their young together.

Females often lead the group of ring-tailed lemurs.

Many animals show the world who they are. They express themselves without words, with colours, sounds, dances, movements and special shapes.

Oliver and Elio Ostrich are a beautiful pair. You can see it when they dance: for each other they care. For ostriches, some males are only interested in other males. They even dance a special male-to-male breeding dance.

An octopus can quickly change its colour and pattern. Sometimes to hide, sometimes to communicate.

A caterpillar changes completely into a butterfly. Sometimes you can discover new things about yourself.

The male peacock raises his tail feathers in a dance show. Some animals make an impression with colour or movement.