1001 Writing Prompts About Zoos

Commaful is supported by readers. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect who we choose to review or what we recommend. Learn more

As a writer, you should consider visiting the zoo more often, as this place is a goldmine for ideas. From animals out of their natural habitats and zookeepers taking care of them to families enjoying their day out and couples on a date, you’ll surely get plenty of ideas for your next short story or novel in this place. You just have to take time to brainstorm and reflect. 

However, in case no idea is coming to your mind, you do not have to worry, because here are some interesting writing prompts about the zoo to inspire you: 

• You are the zookeeper who has just been given responsibility for a young sea lion at the zoo.
• A Mother is taking her son to the zoo. At a distance below a tree they see lions, tigers, leopards, and zebras camouflaged under the tree canopy. What did she forget to teach her son?
• You’ve been fired from your job as a zoo warden.  There has been an incident involving one of your animals. Present a defense of yourself, the zoo you work for, and your job as an animal caregiver.
• Peter, living in South Africa, has to escape the area to save his own life. He is forced to flee across the country, with food and reliable water diminishing as time goes by. Along the way, he learns from the ways of the people in South Africa.
• A person is in trouble and taken to the zoo. What happened and can the zoo keep them alive?
• You decide to put prisoners who have committed horrible crimes behind the fences of your zoo with the gorillas. One of the gorillas breaks free and kills a guard. What does this do to the plot?
• The narrator visits the gorilla exhibit at the zoo. They seem to be somewhat misbehaving to throw their keepers off track.
• A lone zookeeper plays with animals while the call for help goes unanswered.
• A young girl’s dream of becoming a zoologist is quashed when her mother refuses to let her visit the zoo.
• You have outdated zoos in the past. What modernizations will you make in the new zoo?
• At the zoo, the young investigator sees a problem, but the zoo is asking visitors to leave.
• A zoo ship filled with exotic animals is adrift at sea with no crew or supplies.
• You run across an abandoned farm and find a baby elephant orphaned by a circus. You decide to run your zoo, and turn part of it into an elephant refuge.
• Someone has given you a small wild animal. It is up to you to take care of it. You need to write about your daily activities with this animal for a certain period of time.
• You are running a zoo on a remote island that is only visited by pirates. One day, a mermaid slips into the pool but she needs help. What will you do?
• A man subscribes to dozens of magazines about puzzles, British history, crafts, growing roses, and so on. One day he notices in the monthly newsletter about his country’s fair that a booth has been set up for a company storing and offering for sale or rent the rights to the names of pets. If you lost a pet and to ease your pain you pay to have his or your name added to a list. Do you feel it’s worth it? Create a story after you do some research.
• All of the dolphins seem to listen to ‘Doe-A-Doo,’ the dolphin representing the new organization.
• A discovery was made in southeast Africa of an indigenous group with a growth occurring on its head. It is getting much attention from all local zoos.
• A zookeeper finds a pack of rare wolves in his zoo. There’s a very young one, but there’s also a fully grown adult male. He knows one of the parents will come for it. What will happen?
• There is a debt crisis in the town where the zoo is located. The town leaders decide to open up one zoo exhibit in the dark of the evening with no food. Will you investigate what’s happening?
• A zoo is having trouble making matching bets on their winning animals. What could they stand to do to make betting easier.
• What’s a bear to do with the winter approaching fire and all? He loves honey, but must stay cool to survive.  He comes up with an ingenious idea.
• They want some new entertainment at the zoo. A fire-eater runs out of gasoline halfway through his act.
• A wildlife photographer fails to get a good shot on his way to Antarctica. He dreams about his fury.
• You are managing the million dollar donation to the zoo. It requires fixing an exhibit of primates. What new friends do you make doing this?
• One of the workers at the zoo uses animals in disturbing experiments.
• Write about a character who finds out her best friend is being transported to a zoo, and that she wasn’t told.
• A childhood memory of your favourite animal from the zoo.
• A radio talk show host derides the idea of zoos. The host has received some criticism and responds.
• A zoo worker keeps witnessing mysterious murders.
• You can not go to work for any reason. Write what is happening at the office while you are gone.
• You know there is a ghost in your zoo. What do you do about it?
• You, the narrator, are working in the zoo. What does your job entail?
• An apprentice magician takes his first apprentice to the animal cages to show off the lions.
• You’ve lost the zookeeper key and need to move all the animals to a different part of the zoo quickly, but there’s a chance they may all get out. Will you risk it or go without that day’s paycheck?
• A person starts to develop special powers after visiting a zoo.
• A young poet and his girlfriend are taking a walk in the woods together. When they see a fox off in the distance, his girlfriend says, “See the beautiful shine of his black fur against the green leaves?” What does the poet say?
• A zookeeper is late for work.
• All of the animals at the zoo have been given magical powers and are running amok.
• You are managing a zoo, and one of your biggest exhibits is a human zoo. You get lots of parents bringing their kids to take in a look at their fellow species. Unfortunately a lot of the humans start to fight. What do you do and how do you contain the conflict?
• A zoo closes shop and all the animals are being sent to the local farm where they will be sold for meat, regardless of health. The mayor is shipping any sick or unhealthy animals to the slaughterhouse.
• A large grizzly bear has stowed away on a ship. People must find out how to get rid of him.
• Zoo animals are starting to fight.
• The day was sunny and bright, but the hot sun had made it difficult to visit the zoo. When it started, however, it was not quite what the visitor had expected.
• Why have zoos taken such a beating over the last few years?
• You are in the forest and you see a sign …
• A zoo worker faked his ID so that nobody knew how old he really was. Then, one day, he was injured while “playing” with a lion. Who’s guilty in this case?
• Your zoo contains a large herd of elephants, but they are all dying one by one.
• You are a zookeeper who has to deal with some whining parents. They actually have a valid complaint. Guess what? Your zoo has no water. What do you do?
• Zoo animals have been disappearing. Thanks to zoo security cameras, you can see exactly how the thefts have been happening.
• A zoo animal that you always loved when you were little is declining in numbers. The zoo has decided to take some drastic action.
• There is a tourist attraction called Happyland where you can interact with wild animals. Staff wear shirts that read “Don’t do what we do, do as we say.”
• You’re a zoo keeper and many of the animals are escaping. Write about a conversation you have with your boss explaining it to him.
• The zoo is doing poorly in attendance. You need to create better publicity and bring in more guests to boost sales.
• Your dog is shifting into a bear.
• You’re describing a gorilla. You care greatly for it, but one day it gets sick and dies. How do the keepers care for the gorilla?
• Three zoo attendees are exploring around after hours. They find a dragon living in a cave. The dragon isn’t a pet, or movie prop. She is a real animal, but she belongs to no one in the world. How do you handle having a dragon living in a cave with you? Do you domesticate her? Do you train her? Do you feed her? Do you love her?
• At a zoo, pirates take the crowd hostage, demanding riches hidden in a natural history exhibit.
• How would you analyze the failure of some zoos, such as the ones in Chicago and Cincinnati,  in the past several decades?
• A zoo opens suddenly in the middle of an affluent neighborhood. A lady is looking to replace her husband and adopts a baby elephant.
• Mildred, a normal five-year-old girl, is thrown into the job of running a zoo when the previous director dies while playing with the animals. As she grows older, she must deal with employees, government regulators and animal rights activists, and even saboteurs.
• A journalist wants to do an exposé on a shady private zoo. A zoologist and veteran animal handler wants to help her, but they need to infiltrate the zoo undetected first.
• You are the zookeeper of a zoo that is primarily filled with reptiles. However, overnight, all of the reptiles have escaped.
• You discover a zoo that is in need of a person to take charge. What do you do?
• A mother goes into the pet store one day with her young child. She leaves the child looking at kittens while she looks at pet snakes. A man sees that first, however, and moments later the child is snatched and taken to a van. The FBI is called, but finds the child is dissolved in acid in short order.
• A zoo breeding program is accidentally crossed. The offspring are all born looking like a variety of animals. Can people handle living with hybrids?
• There are two lovelorn gorillas at your zoo competing for the attention of a young lady gorilla keeper. What will happen?
• A goldfish bowl is chosen in an art contest. Critics say it’s more closely related to a zoo than art.
• A zoo director blackmails you into getting rid of someone.
• The new zookeeper seems to do more harm than good.
• From the perspective of a young zoo keeper, describe what it feels like to put an animal to sleep.
• Find a zoo with exhibits that represent real parts of the world.
• You’re looking out the grated wall of a monkey cage at the types of monkeys, ducklings, and bats that live outside. You have been lonely in this cage for a long time, but now you see lights turning on and a zoo employee walking across the grounds. Do you believe he heard your screams for help, or has he come to feed the monkeys?
• There is an outbreak of the rare Red Death disease in your town and the only known survivors live at the zoo.
• A tiger escapes from a truck and begins to hunt in the rural area next to the zoo.
• A sneaky veterinarian replaces one of the zoo’s inhabitants with a frightening creature. The zoo must figure out who did it and rehabilitate the more desirable animal.
• Your favorite zoo animal has died. It’s your job to give a eulogy to honor it. The audience must consist of zoo employees, as the zookeepers had already taken the bodies home to analyze the cause of death.
• A zookeeper has to work a double shift because the person who was supposed to do it can no longer.
• You visit a zoo with all of your friends and family, but the sunshine is hard to have fun on as people are too busy spreading their own hatred towards others.
• A woman goes in for plastic surgery to have her forehead shortened and it goes hilariously awry. She loses her intelligence.
• You are in charge of a normal zoo. You are notified that a 2 headed giraffe is coming along with a robot who is another lifeform for the day.
• Your animal is sick, but you have the cure. Yet the rest of your zoo rejects your help because the medicine has side effects.
• What would you do if you came to work one day and all the animals had escaped from the zoo?
• The zoo has decided that they need a change in animal food. They bury it and within a week dogs are attacking people in the park.
• You need to tell your friends about how you earned animals by cleaning their cages and feeding them. Your friends don’t believe you.
• A boy visits the zoo and thinks it’s easy to be the keeper of the lions.
• The local zoo is having a fundraising event for animals that are up for adoption. The event will have several exotic animals perform.
• You are spending six months in a foreign country, far from your homeland and your family. During your stay, you visit the local zoo only to find your own family on display there. Apart from their cages, however, they have free run of the place…with none other than the zookeeper herself as an audience. You flee to escape them. What are your feelings?
• A zookeeper is kidnapped. Will the police and animal control team find a way to save their friend?
• A zoo is suspected of allowing a tiger to escape so that it could be hunted down.
• You’re in charge of a zoo. You’re charged with the care of hundreds of animals. Now it’s up to you to figure out what to do next.
• A child’s pet rabbit has been accidentally flushed down the toilet. The grief-stricken child kills himself next. What did the novella describe? Besides Winnie, Piglet and Roo had come in too. They all wonder what’s the matter when they hear Pooh’s voice. Piglet worries about Pooh’s health the most and says that Pooh should rest, drink honey and get control of anger. Roo thought that he was clever and Pooh still had time to make up because Poohjust missed dinner.
• You get the privilege of picking the very first animal on a new zoo veterinarian’s resume list. What do you choose?
• An author has finished illustrating her new children’s book about a girl who visits a zoo.
• Neatly fitting all of your animals into their approved habitats, you realize one remains. What happens when you find the animal in question?
• A stray dog finds his way into a zoo during a thunderstorm.
• You are at the zoo enjoying the day with your family when you notice people are acting very strange.
• A teenage girl has just volunteered at a zoo, but the management is putting her in charge of the young, yet skilled, zookeeper.
• Funny Zoo Quotes – Funny, Funny Quotes, Funny Sayings, Funny Quotations posted by Andrea · 65 comments
• You are given a rare animal to keep in your zoo. The animal is really trying to hurt itself but nobody can figure out why.
• You are starting your own business. Go through the steps to make your business a success.
• You are at the zoo with a friend who does not seem as excited as you are. It is your job as their friend and supporter to convince him to share your excitement and enjoy the exhibits.
• Unattended, rabbits breed in the zoo. This results in hundreds of the animals running amok and wreaking havoc in the zoo. A gorilla goes silent, causing concern to the zookeepers that one of the animals goes on a rampage and is playing dead.
• In your local zoo, there is one animal that needs a mate. It has been waiting for so long and is getting frustrated. Your job is to find a mate for that animal.
• You are a giraffe confined to a zoo. You have to escape, but first you need to acclimatise to the zoo environment.
• Part of your job at your local zoo is to prepare a meal for the big cats. It’s a typical feeding time and you are busy preparing. Suddenly, a cat from an enclosure with an open door comes in from the cage. Think like a zookeeper.
• One of your zoo animals has escaped. Work with a partner to brainstorm ideas on how it could have happened. What is the animal’s habitat? What is your animal’s motivation? What does it need to achieve to ensure it remains on the loose?
• You’re a gorilla, who loves to break things. Every time you get angry, you pick up a rock and smash it. As you get older, you don’t want to smash things, but you don’t know what else to do with your emotions. What do you do?
• You take the wrong train, and find yourself at the wrong zoo in a city you don’t recognize.
• You are given a gift certificate to the zoo. Go with a friend and choose a wild animal.
• A woman goes to the zoo with her grandchildren and tries to teach them how to respect animals. Several animals have escaped and must be caught.
• A reporter must write about something bizarre he or she visited during a visit to a zoo.
• There are 400 animals at a private zoo that have all been injected with anti-Zuma serum.
• Unicorns are hard to capture and they remain the only animal that is not recorded in the zoo. How will you be the one to capture a unicorn?
• The farmers in your area regularly put corn flakes on the road to see if they attract any animals. One of the farmers is having remarkable luck. Every day, he finds a different kind of animal dead on the road. Why do you think this is happening?
• The zoo keeper forgets to feed the elephants and they escape the zoo.
• A human zoo depicting differences and similarities between animal species.
• A zoo prepares to select new animals. The zookeeper needs to choose four new animals. Given a specific zoo budget, he has to make those selections.
• A group of children are entering a pet talent show in which a popular talent is the ability to imitate a variety of wildlife well.
• A little boy pours water into an anthill.
• You’re in charge of the animals at the zoo, what do you do when a billion birds mysteriously take off and fly in the air above the zoo causing a stir?
• Write the letter of a zoo curator writing to a zoologist about a recent spate of deaths in the zoo.
• A zookeeper finds a strange object that opens a rift inside the zoo.
• A werewolf escaped from the zoo and is running amok. The villagers don’t seem to be very concerned about the outcome. Nobody is going to be out at night anyway. They would just let the thing tear into the churchgoers, since they are only a bunch of hypocrites anyways. Then the werewolf will have his dinner. Why would they care about the villagers anyway? They don’t see eye to eye anyways, so how is this any better than letting the werewolf go after the churchgoers?
• The last three animals on the planet are the elephants, the polar bears, and the hornbills. They’re the only ones left in the world. They meet on a cruise ship and bring their babies with them.
• The zoo’s other animals are plotting against the educational pachyderms to corrupt their morals. Or the pachyderms are trying to protect their educational nature.
• In a nearby zoo, the predators are getting aggressive and attacking zoo visitors.
• An invisible tiger terrorizes the neighborhood.
• As an armed guard at the zoo, describe a recent event where a visitor became too close to one of the animals.
• Three dogs are pacing in their cages. They are waiting to be fed. They have been sitting there for hours.
• Surprisingly, every animal ends up harmoniously living together in peace at the zoo.
• You are at a zoo, just visiting, when a fire breaks out. What are you able to save from the animals?
• You are the trainer for the zoo and can train any animal to do what you want, but you must choose one animal to start with and one animal to breed with.
• You have to take a small group of kids to the zoo. If you want to maintain good manners and get their attention, what is your approach?
• You have had a chance to see all your favorite exhibits. Now it is time to enjoy some curling up time by the fire with your favorite book.
• An animal devises a plan to get itself out of the zoo and into the world to see how life in the wild really is.
• You are starting your own zoo. What other service will your zoo offer to make it cost-effective?
• You love animals and wish to run a zoo. This will be your first official day on the job. How will you approach the day?
• There are two fish in a small tank beside each other. One fish says that it is feeling lonely and wants a bigger home. The second fish responds by threatening the first fish for being greedy.
• What is it like being part of a zoologist’s team looking to earn their mark?
• The star exhibit at a new zoo was a Russian brown bear. The brown bear is friendly, but it’s handler was not. Mr. Baldwin is not very good at handling his bears. One day, one of Mr. Baldwin’s young charges got loose. He was tranqued with a stun gun.
• You are in charge of a zoo in your town. What does education and pure entertainment mean in the zoo’s life?
• A zookeeper will try to prevent zoo animals from escaping as she cleans, but she gets distracted by the allure of social media and it proves to be her undoing.
• Enough with the zoos already! Write about dealing with writer’s block.
• A zoo has become a new tourist attraction in your town. An opposing side is also rising up among protestors that feel the roars should stop.
• How many stories have you written about life in the zoo? What changes would you make to the way the story is told? In what settings would you like to see a zoo story occur? Are you a zoo visitor?
• Families who are visiting a zoo. Capture the experience from one family’s perspective.
• A person visits the zoo and for some reason doesn’t want to leave. How does the zoo master get him to leave?
• Two women who own a competing, nearby, children’s zoo go to a “Kim and Andy from The Man Show” event.
• A zoo in the Deep South has made quite a rep for itself. When Dr. La Clark goes to look for a missing rhino, she’s appalled to find the zoo is housing exotic animals for a hard distinction – to hunt. And they’re targeting her beloved rhinos.
• A zoo employs a trapeze artist as entertainment. The trapeze artist gets up there and in the middle of his act has a heart attack and falls to his death.
• What is the most exciting thing about taking a trip to a zoo?
• 6.Television
• From what park or zoo would you allow people to steal?
• All the animals in the zoo escape, and the townspeople come to see if it’s true that all of the zoo animals have really got loose.
• The zoo is running out of money. The zoo animals have opened negotiations with the owners to raise their utility bills.
• People are getting caught up in the craze to be furry. They wish to live among the animals to become what they have long aspired to be. The media claims that this is one of the crazes of the decade. Thousands follow this new and disturbing trend. Animals and their helpers are running for their lives and run out of the zoo grounds.
• A zombie outbreak is going on. You’ve barricaded yourself in the zoo, but what will happen to the animals?
• A tragic incident takes place at a local zoo where a boy falls into the lion exhibit and is mauled to death in front of his parents.
• The local zoo has an outbreak of an unknown disease. A veterinarian must be found, but there is a catch— the animals can’t leave the zoo.
• It’s your first full day as a zookeeper. What could go wrong?
• Someone has broken out wild animals and is building a gang using the animals.
• A hunter is eager to catch the biggest game there ever was–a dinosaur.
• The local zoo has just acquired a new baby gorilla. A new maternity change in the name code for his geography has allowed a vacation that you’re not looking forward to.
• My Bibliography
• You are a zoologist whose experiments led you to genetically alter an animal. This is your first opportunity to be its keeper, which animal did you choose and how will you handle sightings of the creature?
• Your neighbor has been keeping lions as pets for the last several months. They’re usually quite docile while at home, but lately they have been noticeably more irritable and overcome with bloodthirsty cravings. Are they going to eat a person?
• Be sure to check any review of writing prompts for mistakes with punctuation and spelling.
• A local zoo is accepting applications for a zookeeper, and in the process of interviewing you made a comment to your friend who has since told the zookeeper. They asked why you would want to work for such a zoo given what you said. What did you say and how did you explain it?
• Big crowds come to the zoo. You are the zookeeper and you must make sure the public is comfortable and appeased.
• Someone breaks into the zoo. What does he want? One night, the lions start a revolt.
• Zoo legislation is being reformed. The zoo that is chosen for the hearing of all the arguments will be written about.
• A zoo librarian dreams of simians throwing the books at humans.
• A zookeeper accidently let the animals go, when he didn’t mean to. He hadn’t put in the proper security measures of the animals’ cages, due to budget cuts.
• A woman is forced to take a mysterious nighttime stroll through the zoo.
• In the zoo, an escapee has been on the loose for days, and it’s now clear that his elusiveness comes from being smarter than most of the other animals in the zoo.
• A young merman is plagued by bad luck and is trapped in a zoo.
• You work at a zoo and one of the animals is acting strange – what would you do?
• A little girl is lost in a cave discovered by two young men. Her father agrees to pay them 1 million dollars a piece to find her. They never do.
• An unkempt looking clown is running a carny-style freak show.
• A zookeeper finds temporary hired help to keep his zoo clean and ready for visiting animal enthusiasts.
• A zoo goes corporate.
• A gorilla escapes from its enclosure.
• The zoo closes for repairs after age has taken its toll. How does the average person feel about the closure?
• You are the veterinarian. A cub has just been pulled from its mother, dying from neglect. Write his story. Or her story.
• You are running a zoo. All of your animals have the flu.
• A young zoology student is asked to do market research at a local zoo but is afraid to go.
• A zoo is in dire straits. All the specimens are expected to die if they cannot be evacuated within five days. What’s worse? Relocating them to other zoos might kill them.
• Your best zoo experience. Bonus points if you elaborate on why.
• An old zoo replaces their fence with a new, invisible type. Following the change, the zoo’s different animals hide. A misunderstood cattle is the only thing left in view.
• An animal rights organization is protesting for fair treatment of the animals in your zoo. What do you think?
• What is less expensive, printing brochures or making a video of your facilities?
• A man and a woman are on the outs with each other. Instead of arguing in private, the pay for a gorilla to walk on all fours in a cage between them. It costs a lot of money to get the Gorilla.
• Your friend has joined a new club, called the Snakes and Shoes Disability Awareness Society. You didn’t even know such a thing existed. She invites you to work with her to make posters and pamphlets warning people to be careful around Crotalinae and Bungarus caeruleus. Are you in?
• A rebellion of the zoo animals, led by gorillas, breaks out.
• One of the city’s children discovers a snake, hiding in a dark alleyway. He picks it up to play with it. The father of the child tries to convince him to put the snake down.
• A giraffe in your famous zoo dies and leaves behind a husband and a wife. The grieving elephants consider moving to the elephant house at the zoo next town over, which has a much better selection of trees.
• A couple is denied the right to marry because the groom worked at the zoo.
• A TV show about running a zoo is in production. What will the premise of the show be and what effect will it have on your animals and your job?
• Your child has been invited to work at the local zoo for a month long work experience placement.
• A detective goes undercover at a zoo.
• A trip to the zoo is ruined when a child moves a cage and releases the animals.
• A hamster’s plan for escape from the zoo doesn’t go as planned.
• An elephant in the zoo goes from the abused animal to the most adored.
• A mysterious illness has hit the zoo and the park rangers have one day to find the cure before the animals die.
• You’re a zookeeper. You come in from your last day off to discover your zoo’s break-in happened while you were gone. How does this make you feel? What steps will you take to solve the crime?
• A spouse works at a zoo. The zookeeper wants the spouse to start going to strip clubs.
• A reporter wants to interview the animals for an article.
• Someone uploaded a mystery killer plasmid in a Zoo in Central America, and it’s turning the animals into monsters. Just as you heard the news the call comes in. You have been chosen to go in and deal with it.
• You are a zoo keeper with only one zoo guest with you. What are you going to do with $1,500 and an afternoon’s time to fill?
• What do people think in a zoo when a shooting occurs?
• You’re the zookeeper of a local zoo and your animals are dying one by one. You must find out what’s responsible.
• You have never seen or touched a bat. You decide to go to the zoo to see one for the first time.
• A hippo has taken over one zoo pond as his personal bite-sized swimming pool.
• You arrive an hour late to a date, and your dinner partner is an alligator.
• – This practice was popularized in the mid-seventies by “Teach Rockwell”, a Brownie troop leader).
• A zoo worker in charge of small mammals is acting suspiciously. When approached with the confusion that his coworkers are reporting, he reveals that he is not who the zoo thinks he is and in fact he is an undercover agent from the FBI. He’s looking for a rare type of animal that is being held at the zoo and he is about to infiltrate the zoo at night. The agents are not sure what the animal is and when everyone discovers its true importance they scramble to get it and the agent in question out of the zoo before more of them are captured by the poachers.
• An ape shows unexpected intelligence.
• A zebra at a local zoo is sickening.
• The zoo is booming. How do you keep up with the demand?
• You’re about to be placed in charge of a zoo and are required to organize several funerals for some of the older and death-risk animals.
• The zoo is running out of money. What will they have to do to draw more tourists?
• You are visiting a zoo. You are looking forward to seeing the lion exhibit, but the lions are missing. What happened to the lions? What will you do to help the zookeepers find the lions?
• You get out of a subway station and find yourself surrounded by monkeys who hurl insults. How do you respond?
• An independent zoo-keeper, Jamie, manages the zoo of his recently deceased father. The zoo has been in the family for generations. But the cycle is ending, and Jamie might see the future sell it out as he tries to keep it.
• It is Christmas, and your town still needs one more reindeer to ship out globally as you have a contract.
• An orphaned bear cub is taken from its mother and sent to a hibernaculum where its body goes into a coma until it wakes up from winter.
• You are starting your own zoo, what countries will your visitors come from and what will they be interested in seeing?
• What animals are being kept in animal shelters in your town? How long do they have before they are euthanized?
• The tour guide was supposed to tell the visitors information about the animals they’re seeing, but he suddenly died. He hasn’t updated the information and the visitors are annoyed.
• A wild animal’s zoo exhibit escapes and it has to sit home and wait to rely on the authorities to rescue it.
• A group of prisoners are taken out to a field and fed. On the other side, a lion is brought out to be eaten alive slowly.
• A tour guide is sharing the history of zoos and why people visit them.
• You must train a dog and then take it through a series of tests to show that it has been trained.
• A zoo breaks the local law by keeping animals longer than their captivity term. The zoo manager must break the news to a zoo attendee.
• A man has come up with a foolproof, gorilla-proof cage. He’s discovered that gorillas get along with each other, but how will he write up his discovery in words the general populace believes him when he speaks?
• Mysterious stories of a strange creature called a black leopard are going around the city. They say that the animal is gentle, but it has large spots the color of ink and glowing green eyes. Could such a thing actually exist?
• A recent addition to the zoo is a baby penguin who must be bottle-fed every day. The keeper who deals with him is very knowledgeable about penguins and has been hired for her expertise. One day, a man rushes into the exhibit and scoops up the baby penguin. The keeper can only watch helplessly.
• What daily chores do zookeepers do?
• The animals in your zoo are getting paid to pander to customers. However, the zoo animals are feeling underpaid. A few of the animals have begun to complain. Some of them have even quit. What should your take on this matter be?
• An elephant is found dead by zookeepers. Poison? Natural? Accident?
• In a distant future, animals race against each other in giant robot suits. Some aspire to leave the zoo.
• An old zoo using inhumane methods.
• Over the past decade, the number of chimpanzees has dropped by 90% in the African wild so now zookeepers try to seek unique ways to educate and support families who otherwise would not be exposed to the animals.
• A new veterinarian is hired for the zoo animal section. Problems soon occur in the compound, with animal escapes and unusual animal mating habits.
• Poachers sneak onto a zoo and steal two of the animals. This makes them question why they aren’t in a sanctuary.
• An animal rights group is opposed to the existence of zoos and the collection of animals. In what way are they justified in their cause?
• An ex-cruise ship captain is brought in to help run a zoo. He’s been out of work for a while, and many see him as someone with experience while others feel he’s overqualified for the job.
• A giraffe in the zoo is an exotic hit for zoo visitors, but one day the head zookeeper is asked to quietly get rid of that animal.
• A zoo owned by an eccentric man and his family. Things go bad when the children are teens and want to return to the city.
• You are the owner of the local zoo. A wildlife group has been protesting in front of the zoo against your importing of wild animals. They are stopping customers from coming into your zoo so you must stop the protests. What is your approach?
• Your favorite creature is down and the zoo is desperate for your help to save the exhibit.
• Cigarette addiction is a monkey’s downfall.
• A zoo animal gets sick and begins to go crazy, attacking its cage and attracting a lot of attention.
• Your boyfriend is visiting the zoo. On one of the first days of the trip, your boyfriend gets injured while breastfeeding a black rhino. You go through a trip of emotions during this bit of the plot.
• A male lion and a female lion are a part of an animal exhibit. The male lion is looking at the female lion and asking a series of questions about themselves and why they are together. The female lion is attempting to answer his questions.
• Several accidents happen in the local zoo just as a gust of wind then blows away some straw from a few stables. The zoo is upset. Inspections were made and many see this as a sign of the lack of care being given to the animals.
• A tragedy happens in the local zoo, and a journalist is spending the day there to cover it.
• Two-thirds of the zoopersonnel quit. What happens when you have no one to take care of your animals?
• What’s the weirdest attraction at your local zoo?
• Zoo goers come to the zoo to see the tapir, an animal that has traveled thousands of miles in search of care. No one can figure out why he has traveled thousands of miles to die here.
• A boy’s story is told of his family’s relationship with a two-headed axolotl named Sammy.
• A vet is called to check out some gorillas in the zoo. The gorilla is acting oddly. But is it the vet or the gorilla that is acting strangely?
• You are trying to decide a way to market your zoo, but you need all of your decisions to be geared toward families with small children
• Incest-A woman is sentenced to life in prison and is forced to live with her father and brothers.
• A woman believes her career is at a breaking point. Unsure of what to do next, she becomes obsessed with the gorilla at the zoo, convinced he is her lost husband.
• The zoo just lost two animals — a snake and a penguin. Will you visit the zoo? Why or why not?
• There are few snow leopards left in the zoos of the world due to conservation efforts. How could that affect the DNA purity of future snow leopards?
• It’s mating season in the zoo and the expectation is that the male elephants will have a successful match. A love triangle has formed however and a battle among giant pachyderms will follow. Choices are to be made.
• What if your favorite fictional species, an elf or sprite, actually existed? Imagine going to the zoo and meeting one.
• Every day a special bus brings kids to your zoo to watch reenactments. They are mostly accurate, except for a scary scene in the dinosaur exhibit.
• For the purpose of a Christmas display, Mr. and Mrs. Claus decided that the reindeer won’t cut it. They already have all the elves they could possibly use, and after much consideration,they decide they will host polar bears for the holidays.
• The animals in captivity are going on strike. They refuse to perform or do anything to entertain guests anymore.
• A writer is sent with a camera back in time to observe what the creatures on this planet looked like millions of years ago. What does he find?
• You love working at the zoo, but your job was just declared obsolete, and the zoo has decided to close. How would you fare without your job and how would the animals fare? What’s your plan?
• Everyone in the town’s talking about the zoo director. Maybe he’s sick over people talking about him. Maybe he’s dead. Maybe he’s an imposter.
• Someone breaks out of an animal exhibit at a zoo. Half of the zoo’s animals decide to break out of the zoo so they can escape from the zoo during the confusion. This eventually leads to the city deciding whether or not to close the zoo permanently.
• You love Alpacas. Alpacas are strange pets, and you’ve never been able to explain it to your friends, so you start writing down why Alpacas are great.
• What happens when a regular zoo visitor leaves his dog alone in the car with the windows up on a hot summer day?
• A camel tells a group of zoo guests everything he has heard about Africa.
• You are headed to the zoo only to find the outside of the zoo covered with graffiti and the most horrifying scene you could imagine.
• The proprietor of a new zoo hosts an opening with a fake wave pool and fake animals. Guests don’t realize it is a sham.
• You have always dreamed of running your own zoo. The project has been approved and you have ten years to plan and build your zoo. What is your approach and theme, and what animals will you host?
• In the zoo, that is a prison for human beings, inmates and animals both have to find a way to live life under the confines of fences and walls. Guest writer
• Your neighbor’s dog is being mean to the neighbor’s cat and dies in the process. When you hear about it, you want to bring the dog back to life. In what way will you go about it?
• A young boy gets lost in the zoo among the animals.
• A documentary filmmaker is making a film and spending a day at your zoo.
• The animals are allowed out of their exhibit into the interior of the zoo.
• You cannot escape a flash flood, so you climb into your car along with the entire animal population of the zoo.
• What is one thing that you’ve noticed about zoos that people in the future will find surprising or incomprehensible?
• You must write about a zoo during a twenty four day period without mentioning a specific day.
• A young woman is going to play during a music festival, but few show up. People started arguments leaving her confused as to why.
• Are zoos unfair cruelly to animals? Come up with a counterpoint.
• In a desperate move to raise money, the zoo decides to exhibit a Godzilla- sized dragon, hidden from view by a curtain. Gets loose through the back. But accidentally becomes a favorite of zoo goers simply for the fact that it is huge and very quiet.
• A man inherits a zoo from an uncle he never knew. He sets out to understand the uncle and the zoo’s history.
• While planning a party, you discover your family is hosting a zoo.
• A story about a mother and daughter who are allowed to go to the zoo on a rainy day.
• The zoo accountant is running the zoo like a business, yet the animals are not being cared for properly.
• The government has drawn a line that divides countries by what animals are allowed to go to which countries. The zoo trade becomes a global concern.
• A string of burglaries in the zoo results in one of the captured wild animals escaping, but another one is eaten by alligators on the loose.
• The zoo is planning on building a new exhibit. There is only one spot left and the zoo has a giant tortoise and a snail and neither of them want to give up space.
• The zookeeper is pregnant. She won’t be able to get to work for a while after she has the baby. The animals aren’t happy with this decision.
• You are devising a new type of zoo. What is it and what animals will it feature?
• A local man knew his pets would outlast him, so he made arrangements to have his pets cremated and turned into diamonds to be set into necklaces, matching his diamond necklace. After his death, his pets are continuing to fight over his necklace.
• An elephant escapes from the zoo. What do the keepers do to ensure it doesn’t escape into the city?
• In your town’s local zoo, something awe-worthy has happened. A video goes viral.
• A man decides to get some new pets, and they turn out to be Madagascar hissing cockroaches. They get out of control and threaten his small apartment.
• How does censorship affect the animals in the zoo?
• A friend of yours is putting a zoo together. You’re allowed to create just one exhibit. What is it and why did you create it?
• You must recreate a natural habitat of an extinct prehistoric animal using only the food they ate, the space they lived in, and tools/hardware available to you there. What animal will you choose?
• What animals live in your area? What are some of the possible issues for the functioning of a successful zoo?
• A zoo is created in your hometown. How do you react?
• A construction company is planning to build a new zoo on your block, but at what cost?
• The orangutan arrives from the jungles of Indonesia for a period of four months. He must learn to live with humans, watch TV, interact with humans, wear fashion, etc. Luckily, he’s a shifty character and quickly figures out a way out. What will he do?
• A person is sitting at a cafeteria table, and they order a sandwich with bananas, but the cook makes a mistake and puts poison oak on it. The person eats it anyway and goes to the zoo.
• Someone has secretly released all the animals from their cages and packed them into a plastic meat truck, which is on its way to the grocery store. What is the owner doing about it?
• Problems arise in a zoo when there are not enough keepers to look after all of the animals.
• While vacationing on the coast, you can’t get the smell of fish out of your hair.
• A lion is escaping from the zoo because it was wrongly captured.  She has been hunting since it was captured and it picks off all of the animals in the zoo.
• What if the zoo animals were all out in the world but you couldn’t remember you were a zoo animal?
• A lion isn’t happy with his life in the zoo. He dreams of living with other lions in the wild. Can he find a way to escape?
• You are trapped in a zoo together for the night with a lion. How do you get free and what will you do afterward?
• A zoo takes a very poor financial turn and will be forced to close its doors in a month’s time. What steps do you take to save the zoo?
• A fungus is invading the local zoo. Something must be done and something must be done fast, or the zoo could be ruined.
• There’s a new trend in the zoo-buying business. People want to capture and display unicorns. The trend has caused a big stir, so you have to decide if you think it’s ethical or if you will be partaking in this new change.
• The small town zoo recently added a strange, exotic animal. It’s rumored that the townspeople are adding to the animal’s diet.
• A zookeeper loses her sight. How does she handle it?
• An author writes a story about a zoo. The only problem with the story is that the zoo is about to come to life and will attack him if the book is put in production.
• Rescue Animal Shelter
• Your little sister was kidnapped by a creature that lives at the zoo. As headlines are made, you have to figure out how to rescue her.
• A young lady goes into the city’s zoo with a handmade notebook full of doodles and sketches of animals and plants. She speaks out of turn with everyone before finally getting it together and presenting an entry to the zoo manager.
• Someone creates a time machine that allows educated animals to travel back in time to achieve various tasks. What would they do and the results?
• How do you hurt a lion but not kill it?
• An animal rights group comes into the zoo while the zoo is open to the public to make sure it is up to par. Is it ethical to tour zoos while animal rights activists are watching?
• The gorillas have begun displaying animalistic behaviors and refuse to stop.
• Your high school is making you take your dream trip. A trip to the zoo. Talk about your dream zoo, and what kind of animals you will buy.
• You are admitted to a new zoo, where, if you perform a service–a sacred ritual or healing hands you get to live out your life inside the cage among animals you come to know.
• All the animals in the zoo start acting unusual.
• A guy buys an elephant to keep himself company because his family got destroyed. The elephant starts to get really big and smashes things.
• A Young writer is writing a diary of his time spent in zoo paired with his thoughts on the problems that were plaguing it.
• An abandoned zoo is about to be torn down. The animals from this zoo are going to have to be relocated. How will they hatch a plan to stay together?
• A woman believes that mirrors are part of the conspiracy against her. One day, she visits the zoo, and the mirror in the reptile house seems to follow her around. What happens?
• After the zoo closes for the day, the lions and tigers are locked away in their cages. Suddenly, the zoo is full of foreigners who only speak different languages.
• A veterinarian is found murdered at the zoo. Did the gorilla do it?
• A family visits the zoo. Little do they know that it is the night of a full moon.
• Opinions on Zoos
• A boy visits a local zoo one day and is disappointed to see the primates are all sedated. When asked, the zoo officials said it cut down on the “monkey business.”
• It’s zoo visiting day. What happens on this day?
• Kids get caught sneaking into the zoo and soon learn the habitat of various animals better than the zookeepers.
• You have lost something in the zoo and suddenly remember it. What is it?
• A man who runs a zoo for animals suddenly finds that the animals fancy him and he can easily get any animal he wants…
• You’re given the chance to travel to a far away mystical island. It’s inhabited by the most amazing animals, thought to be mythical.
• A shark eats a human being at a local zoo. What are the feelings of the people who saw this happen? The feelings of the others at the zoo? How will this affect the shark?
• Zoo ranger tries to save all animals, most head of conservation says it’s not possible & gives him a list of 5 out of hundreds he can save
• A young boy runs away from home and becomes a zookeeper, calling his parents from the phone outside of the gorilla cage.
• At a zoo, a strange two-headed reptile found in the rainforest was being researched by scientists. Recently scientists have learned that the two heads would stop arguing when the stimulus of a certain sound was played specifically at them. Upon this realization, the zookeeper that was in charge played the sound of a woman’s voice they thought to be the perfect choice. The larger head, whose name is Luke, cried out to the smaller head’s name of Adolofo at once. They both turned to the zookeeper and said, “Shut up!”
• You start a trip across the zoo. It starts a little rocky but you try to make it worthwhile.
• Bored at home on a cold and rainy wintry day, the family’s pet snake tells the rest of the animals that they need to get out of the house. All of the animals agree. What could they come up with to keep themselves busy?
• The lions in the zoo mysteriously began acting more like wolves. Guards are still investigating.
• You are at a safari zoo and you witness the execution of a conservationist activist who has been revealed as a spy.
• Vacationing in another state. Someone on the team is a big animal lover and wants to go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. You’ve never been to a zoo, or have gone but nothing of this scale and you are confused.
• A woman decides to work at a zoo.
• You work at a zoo and have recently been asked to clean the monkey exhibit. There are fifteen monkeys in the zoo and they each are in charge of some aspect of running the zoo. You have twenty minutes to clean the monkey pen. What do you do?
• At the zoo, the lion escaped and ruptured the zoo’s fence. You must get the escapees back into the zoo.
• You discover that you’ll now be the zoo keeper for the zoo you’ve always been going to for free. What will you do now that you’re being paid to do it?
• A zoo owner goes over his adoption records. He notices that an animal adoption fee is never picked up.
• A mysterious freak zoo accident occurs. It’s so mysterious and freaky because it’s just a horse dying in its cage or something.
• The local zoo has asked the head of the local church to take over responsibility for communicating and expressing their values and beliefs about God in the new marketing plans to get more people coming to the zoo.
• You’ve just been hired as the new zookeeper. You know running a zoo is a lot of work, but you’ve done your research. You are prepared for the long days and heavy workload. But little do you know that the animals are preparing to revolt.
• You are behind on your taxes. Your county has decided it will put one of the exhibits on exhibit until you pay your back taxes. Which exhibit could you sacrifice so that the county may roll in the dough?
• A man chooses to travel to a zoo to see the mythical creatures he read about in books when he was young. When he gets to the zoo he discovers the century-old writings on animals were less than expressive. Witches are the only mythical creature in the zoo.
• On a dare, you frog leap into an alligator exhibit at the zoo.
• A zoo opens on the moon. A surfeit of animals is sent to ensure its success.
• A new law states that the zoo can only have three animals.
• There are no boundaries around the zoo. People just walk freely, pets included. You have to find a way to stop the flow of people coming in so you can maintain order.
• You are an animal in the zoo. Write about what you think of tourists and the zookeeper’s who feed you.
• You’re at a zoo. There’s a feature you don’t understand. You approach a zoo worker for explanation.
• A reporter is standing in front of a man’s new zoo. The zoo is open for one day a week for the public. Tell the story about the zoo’s creation, what will it be called, and why people should come.
• You are the town dogcatcher, but cats are protesting your job. “Cats have been living in the town for thousands of years!” They say. What do you do?
• The zoo needs new animals for a different exhibit. But where do you get them and how do you catch them?
• The city’s zoo is threatened by a stadium built on what used to be parkland.
• You are preparing to ship a rare golden bird to an overseas zoo. What happens?
• Your sole purpose is to write a realistic story using at least three of the five senses in every paragraph.
• Your zoo has two penguins and a lamb. They have become close over time. When people visit the zoo, 1,2,3,4 find the animals delicious. How will keep the animals safe, from those incoming visitors?
• Someone is trying to break out of the local zoo. It’s up to you to find out how it happens and who did it.
• Zoo-keepers discover an infant has become separated from its litter, group or family at night.
• A cub is unexpectedly born in the zoo, and there are no adults of its kind nearby to help raise the baby. The zoo employees plead with the zoo visitors for help.
• You’ve managed to convince a dragon to let you host him at your zoo. What rules and boundaries do you put in place to keep your customers safe?
• Your dog keeps you up at night. You decide to take him to the zoo instead of the vet for your insomnia.
• You’ve taken your kids to the zoo. After a lot of encouragement from everyone at the zoo, your child runs up to the cage of a ferocious animal. What happens next?
• The zoo you like to go to closes. What do you say when your best friend says that the zoo is the main thing that brought you and your best friend together?
• You just saw something at the zoo that puzzles you. What it is and why it puzzles you.
• Tell a story about animals that get lost in a zoo and then find their way out.
• An old auction house employee is found in a back room, because an animal he hasn’t seen in years has been brought in.
• You’re at the zoo and don’t have a pen to test the water and ink of a new pen pal.
• You visit a crowded, and not reputable, zoo. You don’t know where to go next, and you remember the horrible smell from 15 minutes before.
• An elephant needs new ear plugs and needs his trunk electro-shocked so it can hear well again.
• The animals in the zoo have gone on strike. They have been relegated to small spaces for so long that they want pay for their work and freedom from the zoo.
• You own a zoo, and you have a human mount the tiger’s back. How do you feel about this?
• Alliteration – this is a bit different. Instead of doing actual writing, you must write a story as though you are the ant and ant. The alliteration must work for a story for both sides, ie ant and ant, too. Be sure to write some more than one story.
• A city is building a zoo to showcase the local wildlife and boost tourism. Who do they invite?
• What can you do to stop a zoo from de-wilding animals?
• Crocodile Hunter meets a croc so large, it’s eating boats and jetskis.
• A zoo animal goes missing a day before it’s about to be sent to a breeding center.
• A zoo manager is accused of killing animals that won’t breed, to stop the animals roaming free – she proclaims her innocence. She needs your help to convince the public of her innocence.
• Zookeepers at the zoo have argued that they should become more politically involved in the welfare of the animals they care for. What are their arguments, and what would you say?
• A rich man is threatening to break open the zoo and set all the animals free.
• Zookeepers decide to create a night zoo, but discover that the captive animals will not be suitable for a night-time environment.
• You accidentally escape your zoo confinement. What will your strategy be for survival?
• A crooked zoo director is causing problems for the employees and animals.
• An animal trainer notices one of his animals’ gait has become uneven and is looking very tired. An animal autopsy reveals the reason.
• Aquatic animals are dying of infections they can’t contract on land. Are they receiving adequate medical care, or is it possible they are going into shock due to the acute difference in environments?
• A spy tries to break out a lion to make it look like she’s trying to break it out of the zoo.
• Your friend arranges a date for you at the zoo. However, you know nothing about what animals are in the zoo so when you meet up you don’t have a clue about what animals you have in common. How do you make it all work? Is it a disaster?
• An angry gorilla destroys the exhibit surrounding him and gets out. What happens?
• An interesting zoo came to town. This zoo was filled with life sized robotic animals. This technology has now become available to the public. How will it impact zoos?
• If your zoo existed in the real world, what controversies might you find yourself entangled in?
• You are contracted to paint an exclusive zoo. From afar, you realize you are being paid an absurd amount of money, but upon arrival, you realize how naïve you were. From around the grounds, horrendous sounds and screams start to give you an idea of your clientele.
• There has been a nuclear war. It has also wiped out all of the animals. A science team has been sent to find out why the animals aren’t present, and they begin their experiments with the monkeys and gorillas from the zoo.
• In a zoo, all of the penguins suddenly die.
• You were tasked with interviewing a zoo caretaker before they leave the zoo. They suddenly die in your arms. What do you do…and what will happen to the animals?
• You are learning how to train animals to help their handlers/trainers. What animals do you start training with and how do you train them?
• You are cleaning up after the feeding stations just for the cleaning staff when you notice one animal, a lion cub, which seems to be left behind. You feel like it wouldn’t hurt to take care of it, so you do. Contrary to your daily life, your kids start to love it. You soon find out that the cub is being pushed away from whatever life is living on the streets. You sit your kids down and explain that people shouldn’t mistreat animals. Later on, the cub is in your house and having a great time — but due to political and religious reasons, you are forced to return it to the zoo.
• Describe the various animals you can see at the zoo.
• Five people find themselves in a lion’s den.
• The zookeeper installs a new exhibit. A giant sea creature is put in the tank…How is he going to feed it?
• A zoo prepares for inspection when the inspector is a notorious animal-hater.
• Zoos are awesome. Imagine you’ve got your own fantastic zoo. What is it like?
• About a zillion years ago, a lost race of barbaric humans from an extinct civilization walked right through a portal to today’s world for the first time.
• A zoo has a fruit eating animals exhibit since animals that don’t normally eat fruit shouldn’t have to be confined for their entire life to eat only meat and canines.
• A zoo wants to host a tiger for a limited time. But is that enough to pay the bills?
• It’s your first year of college and you’ve been asked to write an essay on yourself and the most memorable experience of your childhood. What do you say?
• The zookeeper opens the door at night and lets the lions into the lion’s den. The lions manage to warwake and sneak back in. They terrorize the zoo.
• Some high school kids decide to run away and open a zoo.
• You are part of a zoo cleaning crew. What are your typical mornings like?
• The population of lions has nearly been wiped out. Take the reader through the unfortunate event and what has been done to stop this.
• A zoo receives many abandoned animals from owners that no longer wish to take care of them.
• You begin a job working at a small zoo. A local resident asks you not to feed chew toys to the lions. Your job is threatened if you refuse.
• At the zoo there’s the chance to come face to face with a full grown tiger, of which only a very few people can say they have ever done so before.
• A girl talks about her first trip to the zoo and what she thinks about it.
• A news crew is covering the Children’s Zoo at the local zoo.
• There is an elephant in the zoo who does not fit in. He is scared of everything and cries when he is alone.
• Call or visit Crossings to find out how to get started.
• You step inside a beautiful, lavish, modern zoo. You take a look around and start taking a tour of the zoo.
• A multinational corporation wants to buy out the zoo to tear it down and build a parking lot.
• What do pets do when their masters are in the zoo?
• You run an animal zoo with more than your fair share of escaped animals. Which animals are your favorites to hunt down and why?
• Which animal would you like a visit from and why?
• A child makes a new friend at the zoo among an animal. Soon, she learns all about his life and becomes part of his life. Book trailer
• You and your boyfriend just got a date to go to the new zoo opening a few miles away. He shows up, you do not. What will you miss?
• People are spending more time and money at their local zoo than they used to a few years back. Is this a positive trend for zoos moving toward conservation or is it in many cases harmful especially pressuring zoos to house ever more animals?
• A professional zookeeper tells you a story of how he rescued a young bear from drowning in an aquarium tank.
• This list was originally compiled in 2011, and recently updated in 2014 and this year writing prompts have been contributed by a number of visitors. Some of the variations below have been contributed to the original article. If you have a tip for zoo writing prompts that you know of, be sure and tell us.
• The zoo runs out of food to feed the animal residents on a particular day. For a short while all the residents seem happier or suddenly are not so fat. You notice the physical changes in the animals and start to question them, hoping they will tell you why they feel so much better without the food.
• You are a zookeeper preparing to welcome the first human family to come and stay at the zoo. What will you and the zoo do to make them feel comfortable?
• You own a zoo, except you buy goods from a sweatshop that is run by children. You are interviewed about your zoo and are oblivious to your business practices.
• Explain what the final ride/attraction at a zoo should be.
• Twice a week a mysterious stranger appears at the zoo carrying a bag of cash and a list. Describe who they are and what they do.
• You are reprimanded and must write an essay to convince your boss to forgive you for your mistakes.
• A toddler bounces around the inside of the bear cage at the zoo. He can’t seem to get out of the bears sight lines. The manager of the zoo runs for the cage in panic, because he knows the bear could maul the child to death. The toddler’s parents catch the manager before he reaches the toddler. “What are you doing?” they shout. “The bear could maul him to death!” The manager stammers back “No, sir, the bears are rather friendly and want to play,” he says.
• A young child visits the zoo for the first time. It makes an impression on him and inspires his generation to create a major zoo.
• Animals take over a farm. They reject humans.
• An escaped lion is roaming around the city and attacks a boy. Knowing it’s a lion, why did the boy flee and where was he going?
• The zoo is geared towards urban wildlife. How do you see possible conflicts?
• A young boy sneaks his pet cat into a zoo pretending it is a leopard – what happens?
• You work at a zoo but one day you discover that more and more of the animals are dying. What happened and how do the animals treat you upon finding out about the deaths?
• What are the drawbacks of zoos?
• The zookeeper’s wife dies of a mysterious disease. The zookeeper’s son falls in with the wrong crowd and as a result he turns violent and torments the animals in the zoo.
• A gorilla is sick, and zookeepers have decided the sick gorilla should be euthanized, but animal lovers from around the world come to the rescue.
• A young girl has her grandmother’s dog and is stressing out over what to do with it when school starts up again. The dog has been confined to a small space most of its life so it is very excitable.
• You wish to adopt a young tiger. What will your zoo have to do to comply with new tiger ownership laws?
• You’ve taken your kids to the zoo to see the animals. Your son or daughter is deeply disturbed when a large crowd of children she thought were admiring her panda buries her alive and pours water all over her.
• The zoo elephant has decided that she will teach her baby to escape from the zoo and they will escape together.
• A child whose family burns him out all the time visits the zoo, feels connected to an elephant and tries to find ways to care for it.
• You are the zookeeper and the zoo has no more room to host animals. You have to evict a few animals that you like to make more room for new ones. Which animals do you evict?
• Twelve zoo animals break out of the zoo and declare war on the human race. What do the zoo animals plan to do to take over civilization?
• An outbreak of a mysterious rash hits the animals in the zoo.
• An elephant eats too many leaves. What do you do?
• Bad weather forces animals from their homes and into the surrounding city streets.
• A zoo keeper accidentally leaves the bear and tiger cages open. What happens?
• Animals being sold to the zoo complain of mistreatment before arriving. What could this say about the treatment of animals for zoo visits?
• Do you think cultivating and promoting charity in people’s hearts should be the primary concern of all Muslims? Why or why not?
• There is an outbreak at the local zoo, some of the animals become sick, others just stop moving and won’t move. Fear spreads throughout the community and no one wants to come to the zoo. The animals need help. What do you do?
• You are in a zoo and suddenly everything goes dark. How do I get out?
• A zoo is considering two elephants, one that has obtained a reputation as a temperamental animal who has thrown people into exhibits more than once.
• You are a zookeeper. You decide to let an elephant paint its own cage.
• A zoo visitor describes a personal experience.
• A zookeeper has grown bored and is getting sloppy. He slips up one day and leaves a gate open for the animals to escape.
• A zoo raises a Dinosaur and, when fully grown, introduces it to the public.
• A zoo has been erected in an African desert. The curator builds an underground tunnel filled with all sorts of monstrous creatures. One day, the tunnel collapses and releases the creatures into the real world.
• You have won a competition that gets you free stays at any hotel in the world. Where and why do you choose to stay at a zoo?
• Your goldfish has died and you are mourning. You visit the local zoo to see if they have a goldfish. They don’t and use a robotic model to simulate goldfish behavior.
• The zookeepers are trying to raise money to repair their infrastructure. There’s been a lot of interest in the zoo recently. What sort of promotions does the zoo staff come up with to get visitors to donate?
• In your local zoo, a computer is malfunctioning and a virtual reality animal is creeping through the exhibits.
• A feline hunting party heads out on an expedition through the zoo’s foliage.
• You are employed as the zookeeper of a zoo, but work is hard to come by in your small town. There hasn’t been a new animal in the zoo in five years. What would be your plan to spice up the attraction?
• You find out that someone may have sneaked in and stolen animals around the zoo.
• You are at a zoo with your family. No one has money to go home and no one has cell phones to call for help. The zoo closes in two hours and everyone has to spend the night there. You aren’t afraid of wild animals. But you are afraid of what might lurk in those bushes with you.
• A gigantic animal is attacking people. It somehow escaped from a zoo. What is it and why is it attacking people?
• After witnessing the haunting eyes of a tiger, a little boy feels compelled to set it free.
• A daring thief breaks into your zoo and steals all your animals. How will you capture him? Are the animals safe?
• The government decides there will be no more zoos because they are cruel and animals live better in the wild. Directors of zoos all over are outraged.
• What kind of wild animal encounters do you have?
• Two children learn that two different boys vandalized their computer screens. Which boy committed the act? Is it just a coincidence that the culprit happened to change the screens into something neither boy was familiar with?
• They’re opening a new aquarium called “Ocean Adventures.” The exhibits are replete with scary creatures from the deep. One fish with sharp teeth slaps a tourist across the face. Feel free to expand the storyline.
• There’s a zoo in the town. Even though it’s not my favorite thing to do, I’ve accepted an offer to work there as the zookeeper.
• Write a short story about a person who wants to be a zoologist, but is unable to and chooses a different career.
• A safari park isn’t sure if they should continue to host animals or that they should become a historical site.
• Your day job is managing a zoo, your night job is running an illegal fighting ring. What do you do when the two cross over?
• You have just moved to a new city and discovered it has a zoo. You are excited to go. However, when you arrive you discover the zoo is no longer operating.
• In the jungle, the animals choose a leader to fight against the poachers for survival.
• You are on a campaign to protest the public institution of zoos and aquariums. What methods will you use to make your point?
• A girl’s mom got her a pet bird. But this is no ordinary bird. This bird is a messenger for the moon.
• You are the lead zookeeper in a zoo in Northern England. You are a little worried about the weather. The owner of the zoo asks you to solve a mystery he’s concerned about.
• An amusement park has opened up near the zoo, greatly driving down attendance. What is the zoo to do?
• You are in charge of expanding the zoo, but you don’t have any funds. What do you do?
• A creature at the zoo escapes and comes across a group of teens at a pizza party.
• A group of children go into a zoo on a day when a series of bad rat sightings are taking place. All zoo visitors have been forced to cave and are inside the center area of the zoo. It soon surfaces that these rats are not ordinary rats…
• Someone tries to keep their pet lions in their house. It doesn’t end well.
• An ex zoo employee is now an animal rights activist. He tells you he wants to kidnap a giraffe and an ordinary person like you as a demonstration. Who would be more suited?
• A new red panda comes to a zookeeper asking to stay in the zoo to look after the amusement park during the day.
• You arrive at the zoo at the wrong time, and some of the animals are out. They were supposed to be asleep, but several animals have woken up. The security person is out. You decide to pet a tiger. What happens next?
• A group of animals starts a zoo, but things start going too far.This has been the first half of this zoo collection. An interesting collection to say the least, especially considering the mad collecting habits of Dr. Livingstone with his bare hands.
• An explorer is traveling around the world mapping it and discovers a local custom of eating animals.
• Your first date is with a handsome guy, but after the zoo closes, he turns into a leopard whose pelt is shrink wrapped.
• You must convince your housemates to go to the zoo with you. They’ve never gone to the zoo before. You have to convince each of them, one at a time.
• You are the zookeeper in a zoo. There have been strange animal deaths and the local police have been hounding you.
• Compare and contrast human nature with animals. Compare and contrast human nature with animals.
• An older man has kept elephants and gorillas on his property since he was a young man. Now, other, outside organizations want the animals removed from the man’s property.
• Examine the conflicts between people and animals.
• Right up until the night before the opening of the zoo, none of the staff have arrived.
• Two rival zoos are competing to gain the most attendance by year’s end.
• A bear is hallucinating that he is Lewis and Clark. What evidence in the zoo indicates to the contrary?
• Petting zoos have become increasingly popular. Explain why you visit one, or why you would never want to.
• During the night, something has happened to half the animals. Reports of missing animals are beginning to surface. What happened?
• You are at the zoo looking at different animals. You see something strange going on.
• A pair of zebras fight over dominance. They will not yield and will keep fighting whenever they cross paths.
• You are the first scout forced to be in charge of your unit’s zoosite while all the adults are away. You run to get your troop but a lion escapes. What happens?
• A- Between 1988 and present day
• A group of tourists at a horse zoo get into an argument.
• Children are allowed to have whatever they want, as long as it fits in the family car. Mom, Dad, and the teenaged son and daughter all agree to go start a new career, but they can only take their possessions inside that car. They will start a new life in a new city with what they can put in that car.
• The zoo veterinarian has been filmed, and appears to be a lunatic who keeps a human brain on an operating table in his current patient’s.
• There is a very new and strange zoo in town, and not that many people are visiting it. Write from the point-of-view of someone looking into their business practices and deciding whether or not to visit.
• You’re at the zoo and you’re tasked with helping a zookeeper battle an animal. You are unprepared for the fight.
• A zookeeper becomes obsessed with a specific pet, treating the animal better than his human friends.
• The zoo has added a snake to the zoo. Ultimately no one likes him, no one.
• A Hollywood crew has come to town to film the story of the girl who ran the city zoo. You are a writer for the film. Over the course of the three days they will be in your town, you come up with an idea for a film of your own.
• After working at a zoo, you go to a museum to look at a “hands-on everything” exhibit, but something goes technologically haywire and the exhibits come to life.
• Birds and chipmunks are illegally forced to race a thousand miles so gamblers can bet on the outcome of who wins.
• Character Interview Prepare yourself for an interview with a star character from your own novel-in-progress. Choose a scene when the character has to explain his or her motivation. The purpose of the interview is to gain insight on the character ‘ s point of view. It is not to put an end to that point of view. This tool is great for checking understanding of character motivation. This is an excellent revision tool that can give your story or novel character depth and make it more believable .
• The zoo has been open for decades, but the zoo keeper has somehow switched species. Elephants are in cages marked out as tigers, and tigers have been put inside cages meant for elephants.
• A two year-old boy climbs into a lion’s cage. All the adults panicking to get the child before the lion does.
• There are wild animals everywhere. A chopper drops some food where you are fighting to survive. What happens to the food?
• A father tells his son he wants to guide lions in the wild.
• The ground of the zoo is covered in thick snow, the main gate is locked and a polar bear is determined to get in.
• In the cafeteria at your local zoo, snakes are getting drunk on liquor. If they get drunk, it could become quite problematic.
• Snow leopards are known for being shy and reclusive animals. They often don’t live with other snow leopards.
• You and your friends are planning a zoo visit. What exciting things will be there for you and which exhibit will you explore first?
• Your favorite zoo animal is set to get euthanized. You go to the museum and break in. What animal do you rely on for?
• Your favorite zoo animal gets loose and is free to roam in the city overnight. What happens next and what happens to your favorite animal?
• The police are investigating a crime. Tell the story as the crime unfolds, using the animals in the zoo within the clues.
• A baboon accidentally escaped from the zoo and found his way home.
• A terrible virus is being transmitted to animals at the zoo through their food supply.
• A homeless man is sleeping in the local zoo. How will the keepers find him?
• In the jungle it is easy to track, but not so in the jungle inside your house.
• Two strangers marry and then set up a zoo together. They soon discover the challenges of raising exotic animals.
• How much time and money have you spent on this baby goat versus time and money spent on human children?
• Another zoo causes war and arguments among people.
• While you’re visiting the local zoo, a zookeeper unbuttons his top to reveal a lizard tattooed on his body. “That’s terrible,” you say. “I don’t have those tattoos.” The zookeeper appears startled, quickly buttoning his shirt. He explains, “We’re all reptiles. We’re going to take over the world.” At the end of the story, you need to have revealed the lizard tattoo.
• Zoo animals start rebelling against the zoo’s owners/managers. What will you do?
• There is a new exhibit at the zoo. It shows people what the zoo is really like. The staff frequently protests this exhibit and wonders if they shouldn’t lobby to have it taken down. What do you think of the exhibit?
• After replacing the gatekeepers, a zoo director has reason to suspect that the previous ones have returned.
• A regular zoo patron gets his son to pitch in. While taking his shift, the young man notices something strange. He goes in to make a report.
• People have begun to bring their dying pets to the zoo so they can live out their last few days. Staff are becoming overwhelmed with the excess animals and the stench of death. What do the staff do?
• The animals are restless and are revolting.
• You have just been made the keeper of the zoo at your town’s headquarters. After a routine check, you discover that all of the animals have escaped somehow.
• You are at a zoo and see people behaving strangely. As if possessed, they run into the exhibit of a grizzly bear, full of black magic.
• A family spends the day at a local zoo, but they want to stay longer. None of the employees can understand until they discover that it’s because of one of the zoo’s most popular attractions.
• In your city, stray dogs are a major problem. One day, the animals in the zoo decide to escape and attack humans.
• You work on an island for zookeepers and work with your partner to maintain and/or create topiaries.
• A zoo has no money to feed the animals and is on the brink of closing.
• A boy in a wheelchair wishes to visit the zoo, but his grandmother refuses to take him because she feels that the boy never makes it to the zoo on his own. What advice or tips would you give to that grandmother?
• A cargo plane crashes near a city. The cargo remains undiscovered. The local government realizes that with the animals loose that the city will be uninhabitable for decades, unless something is done.
• The monkeys in the local zoo have turned red in the arctic cold.
• You just won a contest to go inside an exotic zoo for the day. What animals are you most excited to see, and why?
• The zoo has purchased a new baboon from another zoo and puts him with the resident baboon. The new baboon thinks he kicked the residents out and is the ape king of your zoo.
• The “wild” animal starts attacking the children that run into the exhibit.
• In your zoo, you have a three-legged Irish Elk. You know it’s the last of its kind, and it’s dying. What do you do?
• A small zoo is about to lose its accreditation. The owner wants to introduce a show in which children get to shoot animals while the owners and keepers sing. The animals are imported, but under-rehearsed. How do the public react?
• You are in charge of working at a petting zoo. What kinds of animals do you want to work with?
• You are at the zoo with your family on a Wednesday. One of the animals you love is getting ready for a midday nap, but your kids want to go see another animal. What do you do? Write a plan for getting to enjoy your favorite animal and still be able to make your kids happy enough to not collapse?
• And that’s it for this week’s puzzle. Enjoy! As per usual, let me know if you have any good additions for a future 1001 puzzles and please do continue to support me on Patreon!
• The animals at the zoo get sick.
• A zoo director believes they have a way to make the zoo profitable again.
• You are in a zoo. At whatever point the creatures come alive and begin to chase you. What do you do and survive?
• One of the chief zookeepers is being investigated for taking bribes.
• Your favorite animal is sent to a zoo on a great adventure across the world. What’s it been up to?
• A lioness thinks she’s protecting her cub from poachers.
• A tour bus accident goes right through the zoo exhibit. Will the bus escape before the animals attack?
• A zoo reveals that the animals are being treated poorly. What do you do about the zoo?
• How do you feel about zoos in general?
• A bear has escaped from the zoo and is attacking the nearby town.
• You run the zoo where an octopus had escaped. What do you do?
• What does a gamekeeper do? How is being a gamekeeper like being a zookeeper?
• Writing Exercises about Zoos
• You’ve been selected by your college to study animals outside of the zoo in the wild. What do you expect to learn out of this trip?
• How can technology be applied to zoos?
• You are late to work one day, so you speed across town, smoke billowing from your engine and tires squealing. As punishment, your boss sends you to work in the zoo.
• The zoo is running on a skeleton crew. The extreme temperature has managed to kill off most of the animals.
• You have decided to leave your spouse at the zoo. What is your letter like? Is it apologetic, angry, or simply descriptive?
• The zoo is started for children so they can study animals up close. One day they notice a strange plant growing on the grounds. After examining the plant, the kids find out the plant is purple carnivorous, and they begin to worry the plant could destroy the animals.
• When you step into the zoo, you know most of the animals, but one is not familiar to you.
• How would you rate the cages? Give five stars to the best, one star to the worst.
• At a zoo, the animals organize a rebellion.
• A family visits a local zoo. You participate in a cyclone survey. You radio reports of your finds to a rare animal task force.
• There’s a war going on between the animals and humans.
• You are a zookeeper. How would you protect the animals from poachers?
• A zoo is bombed and all the animals escape. Months down the line, the animals have settled into the local community, upsetting everyone.
• You have one month to live. You have a choice–see a show by your favorite celebrity, or watch free animals from all over the world at your local zoo. Choose.
• You have a coat made of cat fur and no one can identify the fur. Not even with twenty tests. What will you do to keep yourself out of jail?
• It’s Halloween at a city zoo, and ghosts and zombies are running amok.
• A ferocious lion escapes the zoo and roams the city. Many are injured as police try to subdue the animal. Speculate about how the story will unfold.
• All the animals have escaped from the local zoo and the blame is on you, a zookeeper. How will you get the animals back in line?
• At your local zoo, you are walking along the path and find a screaming child with it’s finger caught in a lion’s cage. How do you handle the situation?
• A car gets caught in animal tracks in the zoo.
• The zoo has a rule that when a camel is on its last legs, the zoo staff take it out back and shoot it.
• Crayons entered their biggest and most competitive zoos.
• Drop us a comment in the box below!
• A zookeeper needs to do an x-ray on a rabbit – but the rabbit refuses.
• Your trip to the zoo is interrupted with news that your boss is breaking it down for development. You find out that the animals are going to be relocated somewhere else. How will you feel about this?
• Go on a road trip to the zoo. Immediately on your way there, you encounter an accident. What happens?
• A man goes to the zoo with his wife and is surprised to see his wife talking to one of the lions. Sometimes it showcases videos. From food to places to stay, what do you use to house your videos?
• Describe a day at the zoo. Describe a day at the zoo when all of the animals escape.
• She decides to conduct an experiment to prove that she can still run a zoo.
• A tiger escapes the zoo and starts eating people. It threatens the lives of nearby residents. What would happen next in your scenario?
• How does a Hindu explain a captive elephant to his friend?
• One of the zoo animals gets loose and finds its way into the town. Great chaos ensues as residents panic about an escaped animal of unknown origin.
• You are from a rival family who is running a thriving zoo. Your family comes calling. What do they want?
• The animals in the zoo start to rebel. Something inside them snaps and they break free from their cages.
• You’ve taken a job working in a zoo. What are your duties and have the animals accepted you?
• A steam railway line runs through the zoo and ruins the habitats of many animals. How should the railway be moved or re-routed?
• At a local zoo, the famous animal trainer turns out to have been replaced by an impostor.
• You’re on safari and come across a pack of lions. What do you do?
• You visit a zoo on a cold day. Some animals are snuggled together for body heat, but when you leave it pops your parka like a balloon.
• You are taking your pet bunny to a petting zoo. What does it think?
• A person takes a job of managing the zoo for the day. He doesn’t realize that this line of work can be brutal.
• A wise old owl encourages you to go to the zoo.
• Your love of animals led you to join a secret society. Your job is to release captive animals in zoos across the world. You take photographs of the animals along with video footage to help identify which zoo they are from. You cloak your true identity to ensure they are not captured again. One day someone is put in your position. Her job is to stop you. Can you stop her?
• It’s safari time. An amazing pack of gorillas in the African greens has been captured, except for one. It’s up to you whether it will be found.
• You’re no longer able to afford the zoo keeping expenses, so your zoo has to close. What’s the best way to spend your final day?
• A teenage dog and cat at the zoo on a school trip want to make life for the zookeepers difficult however they can.
• Have you ever been to a zoo or preserve? This prompt can be written from the viewpoint of something the visitor saw, something about your experience at a particular zoo, or even something about the wisest animals living on display.
• A woman is tasked with the responsibility of naming all the baby animals in one year.
• A snake gets loose and begins attacking the zoo.
• Your local city council has proclaimed a “No Pet Week”. No pets or animals of any kind are allowed in the city. A gorilla escapes from its exhibit, and starts attacking people. Good or bad thing?
• You have a hyperactive kid that keeps running around your house. You plan to take them to the zoo to calm them down. However, you accidentally go to the wrong zoo, which is filled to the brim with shocking freakish exhibits.
• Your daughter is getting to the age where she no longer believes everything that you tell her. The zoo has called to tell you that your blue-black koala has escaped. What will you say to your daughter?
• Your child has gone missing. While looking for them, you notice a little animal following you.
• An inspection reveals a zoo is suffering from neglect and hygiene problems. Colonel Tommy Thunderfinger is sent in to sort it out.
• What is the most interesting thing that comes from working at a zoo?
• The animals in your zoo come to you for advice.
• A 4-year-old boy is sent to the zoo to check out all of the animals. Demons watch his journey.
• The same scene happens several times. Each time, the people are another species, but the same creature is describing the scene to them.
• An elephant at an African zoo can sense a tsunami just ten minutes before it hits.
• Biologist Dr. Octavia Heart lives in the year 3000 and is working with miniature dinosaurs. What has her research discovered about dinosaurs?
• The tigers are striking to reflect poorly on the zoo. What kind of action do you take to calm the situation?
• It’s your first day as a zookeeper. You must feed many animals by yourself. Avoid being eaten by feeding each animal where it eats.
• You have just landed on a foreign planet. After exploring your environment, you decide to take a look at the nearest large structure. Lo and behold you see it – a zoo! Describe your first impressions of this zoo.
• You’re a zookeeper at a zoo. Animals are being mysteriously poisoned.
• Zookeepers are meeting to determine whether to kill, relocate or rehome some of their animals. What is the discussion like? Who makes the final decision?
• Badgers, lemmings, foxes, weasels, and minks have never mixed in the wild, and at the zoo everyone is afraid that one day they will have a fight. So what happens when a young woman takes charge of them all?
• You are in an unknown, magical land and must rescue the king from a tower. The only things you have are magical, horse-looking creatures and you can only have three.
• You’ve been hired to write an ad and brochure for a new zoo, and it’ll be your job to sell people on why they should visit the zoo.
• At the local zoo a stranger with a limp walks in and walks straight up to the wolves’ cage.
• A person committed to social justice wants to picket at the zoo. She goes to picket the elephant exhibit, claiming the elephants have not enough space. However, it is not their exhibit, but the chimpanzees’.
• A group of cockney criminals kidnap some rare birds and put them in cages on the roof of a Soho pub. They are hoping to make some quick cash. The police
• Animal wranglers of the world have fallen down. No one can find the animals! You are chosen from a list to help track down the animal in the last place witnesses said they were seen. What was the date of the sighting? Map clearly highlighted!
• People begin to speak with their animals, and not only understand animal language, but can speak it to one another.
• The zoo is putting down a giraffe but the giraffe is refusing to be put down.
• A woman receives a death threat from an escaped animal in a zoo.
• Weeds are cleaning up the zoo in order to stretch their time.
• When the zoo opens a new exhibit, the creatures that are exhibited spring to life, turn on the spectators, and kill them.
• Two animals from the zoo engage in a fight, with a human in the way.
• Someone breaks into a zoo, lets the creatures out, and leaves.
• You are feeding your chickens and notice two visitors arguing with each other. You try to calm them down, and manage to keep them on the grounds. What happened?
• If you could go back in time, would you buy a ticket to the zoo as a child? What would you see? Who would you talk to? How would you have spent your time?
• You are the zookeeper for an alligator zoo and you keep finding alligator decapitated heads.
• You just finished ad copy for a zoo. What was your inspiration, and how did you write the copy?
• Always be reading. Always be writing.
• A zookeeper is faced with judging an unusual creature.
• The animals in a zoo are up in arms about the atrocities committed by the zoo aestheticians. They want to rebel.
• After hours, you sneak into the local zoo and try to free one of the many cubs held captive there.
• If the zoo animals were humans, what would their personalities be like?
• You’re a veterinarian at the zoo, checking up on the animals. You notice something strange – one lion appears to be ill. You discover they’re all ill and the zombies have poisoned the food.
• What lessons can be learned about conservation by working at a zoo?
• An extremist group takes over a zoo and threatens to kill the animals.
• A penguin is celebrating a birthday.
• The inhabitants of the zoo have overthrown their zookeeper and set up a new way of life.
• A new zoo is opening just down the street, but it is very expensive. How will this change the existing business?
• Past young authors see animals up close through a series of portals. Whales see what teenagers look like while teenagers see what whales look like.
• You go to Dream City and find a gorilla is loose.
• You are scouting out potential sites for a zoo and you have two promising locations.
• For more prompts not related to zoos, see this page .
• You are a zookeeper looking after some of the more exotic animals. You are discovered by a group of thieves who want to steal all the animals. How do you get out of this situation?
• You’ve been asked by the local zoo to volunteer for a day as a zoologist. Where will you start your observation?
• A magic show goes terribly wrong when one boy turns into a tiger right before his eyes, another turns into a hawk, and the magician transforms into a great white snake. The magic show was an attempt to frame a young boy whom they are trying to bar for good from entering the zoo.
• Jack is the nickname for a gorilla. He wants it known that he’s not the kind of animal you should forget all about.
• People aren’t happy with the local zoo being shut down. But there are rumors of a new zoo in the making. What is it like there? Who will go there?
• A father takes his son to the zoo. As they’re driving away, the father turns to his son and tells him how he had no interest in going to the zoo to begin with. What lesson will he impart on his son?
• An old woman who lost someone she loved in the past decides to build a theme park based on that special place. What special place is it?
• A new baby elephant opens her eyes for the first time in the zoo. What does she see?
• A less-than-talented songwriter has an interesting way of getting his next song out.
• Can a gorilla and a lion share a habitat, even separated by a huge moat filled with water and sharks?
• Your mom’s an old school teacher, so it’s a surprise when you see she’s bought an elephant. Write about her parenting skills, as her elephant destroys her house.
• A family is visiting the zoo as part of their vacation in a new city. They walk across a bridge that crosses an enclosure that contains an aggressive African lion. The railing collapses and the family is trapped on the side of the enclosure with the lion. If they jump in, the predatory lion will surely kill them.
• A young man is going out with a girl who works at the zoo.
• An animal rights activist travels to a small zoo and discovers the harsh injustice that the animals face.
• A zoo is having trouble maintaining their stock, which has been shrinking at an alarming rate.
• The animals in a zoo band together in order to band freedom.
• Individual zoo animals gain an intelligence upgrade, becoming as intelligent as humans. They decide to petition for their rights.
• A zoo will soon close due to its poor condition. The zookeeper, Charlotte, wants to save the animals. She goes above and beyond the call of duty to reach her goal.
• There’s an animal in the zoo that others fear. Everyone shuns him. Animals become ill when he moves into them. You try to help everyone understand him.
• You are visiting a zoo for a day filled with nature and animals. You finish your day at the front door and the curator opens up the doors. There is a strange creature inside the enclosure with you. What or who is it?
• The zoo animal caretaker wants all the animals to be able to have enjoyable lives, so she confiscates all the food-filled containers and grills in the zoo so the animals can’t see them.
• Every young child has a pet turtle. A man with a huge hand grabs all of them from the children as they walk home from kindergarten to show them to his children.
• In the gray, concrete jails of a cruel government, a number of people have been accused with vague crimes and left to wait in the pit for their executions.  A visitor comes to see them for the last time…A visitor comes to see the condemned on their decision night. But there is a different reason for this visitor’s visit…A visitor who represents another fraction of the government wants to negotiate politically…A visitor who represents a religious group wants to save the prisoners by converting them all.  A visitor who represents an activist group wants to shut down human prisons by freeing all such prisoners…
• A man gives an esoteric speech about how humans and animals are like one family and were once all the same. This lecture is wildly popular, and brings in droves of people to the zoo. But the animals are troubled by this. What will they do?
• A sick hippopotamus in the zoo is driving the other animals insane.
• Someone is being mistreated at the zoo. All of the animals there are very abused and sad.
• You are the zookeeper at a Mafia Zoo and your boss wants you to pay protection money to him.
• By luck, wild dogs end up in the zoo. They are refusing to be zoo animals and escape by killing anyone trying to help.
• You have been tasked with keeping a zoo’s live cam running. You notice that in addition to the live feed, the aquarium camera is active from time to time. Curious, you watch the feed and see the aquarium life has been taken over by millions of ants.
• A woman is being questioned because she thinks her child was bitten by an animal which is the centerpiece in her personal zoo.
• A zookeeper needs to break up a fight in his zoo. Will it be easier than expected?
• It’s the eve before your first day at the zoo, and you are getting ready. What do you do and how do you feel?
• The reader is born into a zoo. They know nothing but the zoo, except when they sneak out.
• Someone’s pet flamingo has escaped. The problem is it runs straight to the hippo’s exhibit and that isn’t a big enough cell for long enough.
• A zombie is on his hands and knees, begging for fruit at the zoo. He needs fresh fruit to make him human again. The fruit he begged for at the human zoo gives him the ability to travel and live among humans, but it is disappearing from the world of the living. What should he steal from the zoo to make his escape?
• A daring zoo keeper decides to bring food wearing a wolf mask to the lions.
• A zoo director is trying to get his guests to safety from a gang of maniacs who are intent on killing you.
• The zoo’s elderly chimpanzee, Oliver, just can’t remember where in the exhibit he put yesterday’s bananas. A baby hasn’t eaten in a while because he is alone caring for the entire group. A leopard can never quite figure out the crooks in a given bar on a given cage. The new, high-tech restraints are failing more often than they should and every time one of the zoo’s major attractions escape, despite being the easiest to be released from.
• The animals grow too close.
• Getting Animals for Your Zoo
• A fire strikes the local zoo. Hundreds of animals are trapped inside.
• Zookeepers from around the world are going against keeping wild animals in captivity. A heated discussion emerges amid a dinner party at your house.
• Can one visit a zoo and feel its animal residents are in good hands and being well looked after?
• You are the zookeeper in your town. What tasks do you have to do to maintain the zoo and keep your animals safe?
• You’ve been hired to design a new exhibit for a zoo. What will you do?
• You are going to invest in zoos around the world to boost your business.
• In your story, all the animals at the zoo die unexpectedly.
• A zoology student visits a zoo that is about to face a possible civil war.
• The zookeeper’s mother-in-law decides to donate twenty peacocks to the zoo. She spends a week cataloging and giving them the necessary upgrades. On the day of donation, the peacocks are disguised to appear as people.
• A visitor breaks something in the zoo or causes a problem. A zookeeper gets blamed.
• A zoo is losing a lot of money. Your boss has convinced you to do something about the losses. What will you try?
• A zoo is a lovely place, but one of the smaller animals has escaped. How many animals were injured or killed because of this one crazy raccoon?
• A journalist for Child Magazine is interviewing a zookeeper about how animals get along with one another when not being observed.
• You are left in charge of your local zoo overnight. No one is around. What animals are you going to stalk, trap, or keep out of your way?
• When an animal dies at your zoo, you have to decide how to handle the body. What do you do with the bodies?
• The zoo animals of your choice were able to talk to you, and tell you their life story.
• Someone has broken in and has released those animals held captive by the zoo.
• You are the zoo’s vet. There’s an epidemic at the zoo. How do you find out what animal/s are affected and recommend a course of action?
• A zoo is holding an art show. Artists come from all over the world. Next to every exhibit is a description of the creator of the exhibit and who it was made for.
• In order to increase business at the zoo, a group of people with a common goal must hatch a plan to steal another animal and make it theirs.
• The zoo you go to is losing money because the zoo keeper isn’t good with dealing animals. Zoo keepers have been bribed in the recent years as animal cruelty has gone up.
• A zebra breaks out of its zoo enclosure and gallops down the street. People have to jump out of the way or the zebra will trample them.
• Sociopaths have an annual convention at an iconic zoo, free to roam their grounds will they do what they can to avoid interacting with normal people.
• You are an animal keeper in a zoo. One day, you begin to realize that some of the animals are escaping in the night.
• The snakes in the zoo escape.
• Youngsters find themselves at the zoo and are immediately greeted by people with lollipops. What they don’t know is they’re in the snake exhibit.
• An extremely rare animal is located in a part of the world known to be one of the worst regions for animals.
• A book agent has made a deal for your latest book with too many conditions. One of the conditions is that you spend a week in an average zoo, so that you can experience it first hand. You must resign from your current job and you are not allowed to bring anyone with you. What do you do?
• An amateur zoologist discovers a new species that looks exactly like a bird. The zoologist begins a quest to discover if it can fly.
• The elephant refuses to perform for the “hero’s welcome” planned by the city of Zoo Park.
• You’re a textbook writer. You’re drafting a chapter about zoos. To ensure it’s as accurate as possible, you talk to 200 zoo visitors and employees.
• A safari goes awry and all of the tour members are dropped off at the zoo. The safari gift shop is nearby. They don’t want to leave, but they need to attract the local animals in order to leave…
• People get stressed in life and decide to visit the zoo. The zoo animals find out.
• The zoo needs a new head trainer.
• People are getting fired from the zoo which they have been employed by for decades for anti-animal reasons.
• A veterinarian dies unexpectedly. Operators capture his elephant thinking it can help them solve a robbery.
• A zoo worker finds signs of a prehistoric animal. She is certain it is out there and tries to find it despite others claiming that it is an extinct creature.
• A zoo worker has recently been fired when rumors spread that she had mistreated a cub. She is furious and wants revenge on the zoo.
• Scientists have managed to create gorillas that can only produce music like a human. What is the reaction by the public?
• Your friend takes you to a new zoo that is not officially opened yet. There’s already been a scandal and all the animals are missing…
• You are an alcoholic with the shakes. You want to buy a monkey in the zoo gift shop for your wife’s birthday. However, the zoo doesn’t give out animals without being paid first. Can you get enough money out of a shake to pay the zoo?
• Two witch sisters are arguing about zoo animals and zoology.
• A young lady is put in charge of running a zoo with hundreds of animals, but she’s never run a zoo before.
• The only animal allowed to live in your town is an elephant. Write a story about an elephant that must live in the city limits.
• Your character attends a zoo, but then realizes that he or she is the primary exhibit.
• The zoo is overcrowded. You decide to leave the animals in their enclosures, but add in tons of food for the animals to eat. What will happen when a homeless veteran comes by and starts to eat the food?
• You are working at the zoo and discover a strange creature that you want to bring to the attention of the zookeepers. But it’s far away from any people and you want to make sure no one gets hurt. What do you do to help others see this new discovery?
• Based on the prompt above, a gorilla and chimpanzee have a lot of similarities.
• A gorilla escapes from the zoo and runs amok in the city.
• Your zoo is being scrutinized by a famous animal rights agency. They’re badgering you on the uselessness of side-shows, how your animals live in inhumane conditions, and the money you take from the people visiting them. What do you do?
• A new zoo opens in your neighborhood and then one day, a giant, mythical creature escapes and goes on a rampage.
• Someone has offered you a profitable business supplying exotic animals for the zoo. Do you take the job?
• You have bought yourself a panda. It’s “just a panda.”
• You are participating in an obstacle course, getting mentally and physically fit. The goal is to win the big trophy.
• A kids’ book about zoo animals
• An escaped animal has taken a child hostage. The zookeepers need to come up with a strategy to save the child.
• A man wins the lottery, buys a private land and builds his own zoo.
• Zoo animals are geniuses like us. A zoo is run as a zoo, but some animals decide to do other things with their lives. For example, tigers are now on Broadway, while monkeys are simply mild-mannered accountants. List all the animals or animal groups who defy the typical zoo.
• Your family is looking for something new to do before summer vacation is over. You visit a zoo and receive tickets to a behind the scenes look at the animals and the facility. What is your initial impression?
• Your child is starting to get out of control and is throwing around the house. You send them to spend the night at the zoo… and this gives them opposite issues. What are your problems and why?
• After going to the zoo, a young man from the country is questioned by city-dwellers.
• What is the coldest climate that you lived in?
• A zookeeper has to go and put down one of her favorite animals. She’s not looking forward to it.
• What is the anatomy of the perfect zoo?
• A new animal species has been discovered that is an herbivore. In your story, the zookeepers must decide if placing this animal in their zoo exhibits is appropriate or not.
• The zoo’s star attraction is escaping. What are the different ways he can escape and what consequences do they cause?
• Some of these prompts could be combined, creating interesting pieces of writing.
• Everyone’s favorite scary movie slasher, Michael Myers, recently escaped from his maximum security prison. As the story is going around, he was spotted at the local zoological park. The zoological park has an African safari exhibit. What happened or doesn’t happen during his visit there?
• A man who visits the zoo everyday falls in love with a giraffe for the third time. Everyone else sees it as nonsense, but the man’s sincerity is true.
• A zoo has a unique approach to helping animals regain their health and reduce stress. It’s the first of its kind and uses a revolutionary method.
• Little Brother wants to run away from home on a dare. You sneak out and meet him at the derelict zoo. It is spooky and you meet the zoo’s biggest animal. It is actually a giant snake. Please describe the snake and try to work in some plot here.
• A capuchin monkey from a zoo is left to survive in the wild. What happens next?
• It’s hot and humid in the zoo and the animals are restless. They’re pacing back and forth, mumbling, and generally looking upset.
• At a rock concert, everyone is being told to calm down. An ascot-wearing elephant declares, “If you do not quiet down, everyone will be punished!”
• Find 10 chimpanzees in a zoo.
• A lion is escaping and breaking down the barrier fences.
• A zoologist falls in love with an elephant. When people find out, derision follows.
• Throughout the zoo, several animals are experiencing some sort of existential dilemma.
• You’re playing around at home filming various animals. When you come to the zoo, you notice the signs in front letting you know that you can’t film certain animals. So decide which animals you absolutely must, or must not, film and how you would respond to the signs.
• Your child won first prize at an art show, and now he wants to become an animal-humanoid artist. However, you see these protagonists as sub-human monsters. How will you handle the situation?
• You love animals. One day your best friend dies in a car accident. You set out to bring back your best friend. Your journey leads you to a door with a magic spell. Using the spell, you bring back an animal friend. Will this be your friend? Will this reunion make things better?
• A lion has escaped the zoo and is living freely in the nearby town. It is in search of food and water.
• The walruses have grown troublesome in the zoo.
• The government discovers a mutant breed of iguana with extra long tails. As they are considered hazardous, they decide to send the iguanas to the zoo.
• A cherry-knocker is attending a zoo for the very first time. The animals seem to be taking an interest in him. But just when he thinks he’s beginning to make friends with the monkeys next door, he finds out the zoo has a dark purpose.
• What comes after zoos?
• The zoo has gotten an unexpected amount of donations, and reveals plans to add a rare species of … to the zoo. What will it be, and why that animal?
• A news story about—The Big Sheep, a new genetically modified super sheep created by science and technology experts.
• A creature has escaped from a zoo far far away. It is on the loose in your city and looking for revenge.
• A zoo librarian can talk to all the animals, so when one of the animals is missing, he finds it.
• Your mother is threatening to take you to the zoo this weekend.
• After a horrible accident, the zoo animals escape and take over a major city.
• You lived in a zoo for years, as a child. In every way, it’s a normal life. Then, one day, you realize you are an animal.
• A for-profit corporation takes over Terry’s Zoo and it starts to go downhill.
• Zoos have captured a video of a miraculous charge from a cheetah. They whisper it to the community in case it gets out.
• A zookeeper is working in the zoo one day when an animal escapes from its cage. The escapee is a predator.
• Mr and Mrs Schroeder take their family for a trip to the zoo. Mr Schroeder is a zoologist, Mrs Schroeder is an art teacher and the two children are a teenage girl and a little baby. They shall all work as a team to look after the animals that are sick or too old and need looking after.
• You have adopted a zoo animal. Write a story about how it came etc.
• A tiger is spotted roaming in the wild after having escaped from the zoo. Authorities and zookeepers returned empty-handed because they were afraid of shooting the tiger and having humans caught in the crossfire. Authorities plan to ask for the help of other wild cat experts, as well as using forensic experts to track down the tiger’s last known location.
• When an old lover comes back into your life, it brings up many uncertainties. You must decide whether to pursue a rekindled romance, or just let the past stay in the past.
• After closing, the keepers go into the exhibits at night to clean up the mess animals make. This same gentleman’s job is talking to the bears, because they are the most intelligent animals in the zoo.
• You are looking to re-launch an abandoned zoo near you. What kind of zoo will you open?What kind of animals will you host?
• A zoo is accused of keeping their animals tightly confined.
• A group of friends volunteers at a local zoo, but murder is in the air.
• There’s a crow at the zoo who doesn’t quite fit in.
• What would your zoo be like? Would it be enormous and have thousands of animals? Would it be small with just a few animals? Write about what you’d like your zoo to be like.
• A zoo is trying to bring in the rarest species, but struggles.
• A small zoo gets taken over by a major corporation, but the animals aren’t very happy about it.
• A gorilla artist has taken up residence in the zoo. The gorillas love paintings, and the artist gorillas are popular once again.
• You arrive at a zoo with the intention of using the opportunity to taunt the animals and have a laugh at their expense. What do you do?
• You just arrived in a foreign country. You wake up one morning and decide to go to the zoo. However, when you arrive, you can’t find the city zoo anywhere. What will you do?
• Emulam Samuel is an aspiring novelist who has a deep-seated penchant for fantasy and horror.
• What is the worst job for the zookeeper at your zoo?
• Comedy based on a bookkeeper’s job.
• An employee at the zoo is fed up with the man who runs the zoo, and has decided to go after him. A half-baked plan ensues.
• The parents of a famous billionaire have just died. They donated most of their fortune to the zoo. What do you do with all the money? “So remember, kids, always use protection.” How does this apply to the zoo?
• You are designing a zoo for city children to visit in the summer during vacation.
• A long, winding river runs through all major cities. The river has plenty of fish and fresh-water dolphins. Slowly though, the water is becoming unable to support the fish and dolphins. There are other rivers around the world that are slowly running dry. How can you solve this problem, if so, when will you do it?
• On a tour of the zoo, you fall in love with a zoo animal. The zoo animal loves you too, but the zoo decides to move the animal for breeding purposes. What do you do?
• You are talking with your grandfather about his park- you realize his deer is escaping into the wild.
• The talking animals explain their lives to the humans. Oddly enough.
• A zoo keeper should not be allowed to have pets, because it can affect their ability to care for the zoo animals.
• An escaped pet wolf is seen sneaking around. Witnesses say it’s terrorizing neighbors.
• There is an exhibit of live sleep-study patients across the street from the zoo.
• Virtual Zoo
• Two lions have escaped from the zoo. One has killed several people. What is the benefit from putting away the lion that didn’t kill anybody?
• A zookeeper died and left a zoo in poor condition. What will the zookeeper’s family do now that their loved one has died?
• You are at the zoo and something terrible happens, like an animal gets loose or a child gets lost. Someone makes an important decision to save a life.
• An animal is about to have a big shot on a television show. It has to be real, but unfortunately, the animal is often as mythical as the crocodile which pops out of the lake between the marshmallows on Ro-lo-the-day.
• When human beings lose their jobs to robots, the survivors keep tabs on the robots by visiting the zoo. These people, now called the “Veebs”, spend a day at the zoo every month, for this is the minimum that ensures the zoo still has personnel coming to attend to its residents. While waiting in line, a person overhearing the conversation of those behind him already has an idea of what’s going on.
• One of your best friends has a new loud and annoying pet.
• A zoologist has turned into a monkey due to the mysterious disease spreading throughout the zoo.
• A zoo animal is escaping. What sort of steps does the administration take to find and catch the escaped animal?
• Luke Radigan is currently a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he studies early Childhood Education and Secondary Education. During his time at UNL, Luke also worked for UNL’s UNICEF on campus club. After graduating in May 2014, Luke hopes to pursue a career in the social services field while simultaneously helping insure that every social and educational policy in his community acts in the most beneficial manner possible for children.
• The zoo’s closing time is coming up, but the animals aren’t ready to go home.
• How would you run a zoo if you made the rules up as you went along?
• You are in the military and camp in the desert in a region with limited water.
• A zoo inspector has arrived. He sees what you’ve done. Find three violations with regard to working in a zoo.
• You spend every day at the zoo with your husband who works there. You are smart and friendly and immensely popular with the animals and customers. Every night when you return home your husband is inexplicably distraught and depressed.
• A film director is planning a documentary on how zoos treat dogs.
• A lion has escaped from the zoo. It goes right into a school yard, biting and mauling anyone that it can find. How does that happen?
• You work for a zoo. It’s your job to search for the perfect animals to fit into the wild when the zoo is complete. What animals are you seeking?
• A man is transferred to run the zoo as a punishment for his severe work ethic.
• You are writing a diary about your time at the zoo. Describe your experiences with the zookeepers.
• There’s a frog trapped in a field that is gradually rising in temperature.
• Two rogue chimpanzees decide to take over a zoo at the local county fair with the purpose of freeing the gorillas.
• You’re in a family that can only take one child out, and it isn’t you. Your parents take you to a zoo on your birthday. What do you do when you are there?
• A trip to the zoo is anything but ordinary at a certain spot.
• In your zoo, magic is real — but it can only affect animals. The temporary enchantment will wear off after an hour, and animals will revert to their normal behaviours and be capable of self-willed action.
• A zoo that has only a few animals because an animal was killed and it became a national outrage.
• The zoo becomes the destination during the zombie apocalypse.
• A famous animal specialist is touring the zoo to recommend improvements. He approaches you after his tour and asks you to critique his performance.
• The zoo is in a move and the only way to prevent the parents from arguing is to take their children to the zoo to see the animals.
• A writer is messing with what wild animals can talk about in her writing. Despite the fact that the writer is very good at what she does, the animals are gaining intelligence and and and
• You inherit your grandma’s zoo that was started 30 years ago. Write an essay describing your first year as a zoo owner.
• A new species of monkey has been discovered, roaming the zoo. Scientists are at odds about whether it should be accepted as an entirely new species or simply a color variation of an existing one.
• A popular talk-show host is doing a show about zoo animals and their interactions. She volunteers to spend a month at a remote zoo in an attempt to broadcast the show live.
• A couple of environmental protestors come to the zoo seeking something to support. They find that their cause and the existence of the zoo can coexist after all.
• You discover that every night the zoo gives the animals the chance to roam free. You wonder, what if the zoo was never here tomorrow. What one animal would you set free?
• The zoo’s biggest attraction is sick and close to death. You are in charge of making him better. What do you do? How do you do it?
• A zoo decides to show more than one animal at a time in the exhibit rooms. What is this called and why would they do this?
• When Bea tells her friends that she is volunteering at the local zoo, they tell her she is crazy.
• The zoo is now zorry.
• Your friend is a zookeeper. He suggests a place to start your career, but you don’t think it suits you.
• The world is falling apart with technology, working animals and farmlands are no longer needed. Scientists figure out a way to effectively turn zombies into zoo animals. Instill some humanity to turn Mother Nature back around the right direction.
• A couple get lost on a road trip. They turn up at a town where it’s Halloween and everyone is out for a night of mischief. They get swept along their dares.
• One of your earlier successes involved saving a wild animal from a zoo. How is that animal doing now? Would you rescue another animal?
• A zoo where all the animals are treated nicely and never locked up is opening. What do you think of this? Are the animals bored?
• In your opinion, what zoo exhibit is the most popular and why?
• The zoo’s retired star lion seeks out ways to get rid of the new generation of lions he now envies.
• Who is separating the families in the zoo? Why?
• What creature on display could be saved from extinction if they had a mate? Would they want it?
• A chimpanzee is president of a zoo. He has taken over through a military coup.
• In a different era, dinosaurs have been brought back to life and live once again in a zoo off the coast of Florida.
• A zoo is visited by an army regiment on maneuvers. What happens?
• You come back home to a surprise. In your house a zoo has taken over. These animals have killed your family. You can’t sleep in your house, so where will you spend the night?
• The zoo animals start revolting and taking over the zoo and its guests.
• The zoo has the rare rights for breeding animals and handing them back to the wild in their natural habitats. A visitor accidentally gets bitten by one of the leashed animals, causing an uproar of protests, and the board of animal rights and communities start asking the zoo to give up their breeding practices.
• A polar bear breaks loose at a zoo in Alaska.
• A zoologist shows off his new wolf to a popular talk show host. The zoologist looks angry at the host, saying that the wolf will eat him.
• A zookeeper prepares for her wedding the day after tomorrow, but she’s injured herself and can’t get out of bed. The animals keep getting into the food they’re supposed to be fattening up for the wedding, and her family can’t quite seem to keep track of everything.
• An animal escapes from the zoo and learns all about drinking cocktails and making shoes from a local garbage can.
• A person asks you how you take care of the zoo animals. What do you tell them?
• You are working at a zoo. A visitor entered the penguin exhibit with a gorilla suit to see if he could get close enough to the penguins to pet one. He’d never pet a live penguin before. It was planned to do this as a prank. What happened?
• The zoo animals are getting scared because humans are picking on them.
• While on budget cuts, a zookeeper decides to expand the animal enclosures using a few spare items he can find in the backroom.
• You are the security in the zoo at night. The animals escaped and killed the zookeeper. You have to round up the animals and put them back into their homes.
• Your friend volunteers at the zoo. You think it’s the worst job in the world. Tell them why you think their job is contrived. Your opening should start with the question “how long does it take to collect droppings from an elephant?” Don’t forget the ending.
• Your zoo has had no visitors. What needs to happen to attract visitors?
• A large gorilla is kept inside a chain-link enclosure, and begins to inspire imaginative interpretations.
• Hours and hours of a working day are spent observing animals in the zoo.
• What problems do the animals in zoos face?
• Zoo visitors say they like to spend time in the animal’s habitat, but they tend to avoid the cities.
• The korean zoo frenzy had caused the world’s population of rare animals to dwindle. You are set on giving a gift to a foreign country that was humane and…
• A butterfly releases its final breath and concludes he must know it all with six legs, colorful wings, and telepathic communication with other insects.
• You walk into the local zoo expecting to see lots of political correctness regarding behaviors in captivity, to find out that the animals are not kept in seperate exhibits.
• Your best childhood friend is jealous of you in high school because they run a nature camp and you run a zoo. What is their issue?
• You’re trying to cut down on expenses in the zoo. What is your plan? How will it protect the animals if they don’t cooperate?
• Write a tale of a little girl who is a zookeeper who is concerned about elephants, but then she learns the elephant’s a liar and a puppet.
• A mother destroys a cage trying to get her child out. They both end up getting injured in the process.
• You research your family’s long heritage as zookeepers. What do you learn about your ancestors? What about yourself?
• Your parents ask you to get a summer job working at the local zoo. How do you approach this potential job? What advice do you seek?
• Ned Naughtly’s Circus spends the summer in town. The circus is looking for new acts. A daredevil act is created where a truck pulls a train of cars in front of the train museum. The acts have to try to catch up with the train and perform for the audience.
• Mr. E. Gruffy The Zooka built a giant cannon that lets one see the animals in the zoo across the street. It’s risky, but his animal cages do host all sorts of wacky zoo animals. Your job? Negotiate with the zoo but avoid the giant skewers of cinnamon toast served in the zoo’s snack bar!
• Zoo animal escape!
• There is a war raging in the local zoo and visitors are prohibited from seeing the animals due to safety measures. What is the story behind the war?
• What unusual zoo animals have you encountered in fiction or in real life?
• You are taking a job as a zookeeper for the summer.
• A zoologist has been given the order to euthanize a beloved chimpanzee who attacked a trainer.
• The zoo you visit is different from other zoos. It is actually the creature from Jumanji. It has a big chest and arms sticking out. It brought you and a lot of your family members to its park for no apparent reason, eating your cat in front of you and your kin. Now, your grandchildren have gone missing. Will you succeed in offering all of you back in exchange for your grandchildren in its park?
• Someone searches a zoo looking for four long lost people.
• You are in a zoo’s petting zoo and you volunteer to feed the animals since the guy running the popcorn concession won’t. As you stoop to feed a goat, you realize it’s not chewing up the carrot you just gave it – it’s eating your arm!
• All the zoo employees quit over poor working conditions. This story will focus on how you save the zoo from closing, even though you do not have any employees.
• A zoo doesn’t have a license to sell lions for a week. You walk in and purchase some lions, but the zoo won’t release them because they rely on selling lions for income. Surely your lions should be free, because you own them. The zoo has to do something to appease you.
• What’s going to happen in the petting zoo?
• A writer is writing a book about a zoo. He is required to go to the zoo several times for inspiration. His research leads him to find out that the zoo’s collection can be traced back to a horse ranch.
• You decide to change careers and open a zoo. Perhaps this is the answer to your prayers.
• Underneath the zoo is a dirty slave lab…
• The zoo’s computer system has malfunctioned and the staff must find alternatives.
• A therapist decides to make her next project saving the animals in the zoo from their boring lives and offering them adventures.
• A strange creature has been spotted near a popular zoo. Is it a myth or is it real?
• Because your uncle owns a petting zoo, your family is able to see gorillas up close. In high school, you fall in love with one of them, a chimpanzee named Bohunka. You’re determined to marry her someday and will do anything to keep your dream alive.
• Someone releases a big hunk of meat near the front gate of a zoo. The carnivores fight each other in order to get the meat.
• A veterinarian comes into work with a black eye. He or she explains how a child kicked him / her.
• A destructive teenager from the city is forced into the country and to help out at the local zoo.
• Zoo animals escape the zoo.
• A cute kitten gets its head stuck in a hole in the wall.
• You are a zookeeper working in a zoo. You find a suspicious man trying to steal a pet dog.
• Two of your favorite animals are trapped in less-than-appealing zoos.
• Having a zoo puts you in contact with many wild animals. What were some of the closest calls that you have experienced where you were almost attacked by an animal or one attacked a member of your staff or an animal in your zoo?
• A lion, tiger, and wolf all find out they were trained by the same person. The three do not get along at all. They all try nursing their wrath in private, but they cannot deny the feeling they have towards one another and must make a decision to forge a friendship or remain foes forever.
• A zookeeper finds the perfect spot for a new animal cage, but falls down a pit and can’t escape.
• A long-lost relative leaves you a run-down zoo.
• An animal at the zoo gets into the gift shop and discovers something they didn’t think existed.
• You’re trapped in a zoo overnight. What do you do to survive?
• A scientist rolls a dark cubical thing into the middle of the punch bowl of a cocktail party…
• Young children want to watch a Saturday morning cartoon, but instead of going to the local TV station, they go to the zoo and watch a cartoon created by the animals.
• The  zoo receives a donation of 15 lions. But they have no circus tent or exhibit space.
• What happens when a tiger’s enclosure in the zoo stopped working and the tiger got its freedom?
• A group of nonconformist artists start a zoo where the residents are the modern day corpses of famous artists.
• The zoo decides to stop using concrete cages in favor of this new metal cage. Cages have never been this high tech. But some animals can’t even begin to understand them.
• All the animals in the zoo are sick. It’s up to the zookeeper to figure out why and how to remedy the situation.
• You find yourself in the zoo one day and notice that one of the employees seems to be handing raw meat to one of the animals.
• You are a zookeeper who works with a group of hyenas. You have your master’s degree in many different fields but no formal zoology training from a college…
• A zoo director is severely delinquent in his tax payments. The city threatens to close the zoo.
• You are writing a short story about one of your favorite zoo animals doing one of their favorite things.
• Somebody is stocking food items into the various zoo animal pens by night. The zookeepers can hear as each cage is unlocked and each animal’s food is slid through the bars. The next day, there is no way to ascertain that a single animal has seen its food.
• A bear shows up at the zoo all battered and bruised, and says he has been beaten by a man who lives in the city.
• A panda escapes and he will eat anything that moves.
• A new exhibit at the zoo allows visitors to snake feed the boa constrictors.
• A zoo lost electricity and exploded, killing many animals and other zoo workers.
• A zookeeper was split into two. Your job is to write their story about bringing the two halves back together and the challenges they face.
• The animals escape from a zoo. Try to come up with a reason why it thought to escape and what happens to it afterward.
• A meeting of angry zoo keepers and administrators gathered in the conference room. They’re in an uproar over the government’s new regulations. How could they force this structure on them? Anger is in the air as they vow to take down the government.
• A person is against using animals for their benefit. He/She decides to blow up a zoo using homemade explosives. Where and when will he act?
• You are getting too close to an animal at the zoo. What happens?
• You are going on vacation and it just so happens that zoos/aquariums are free this year. You have the choice of a dozen zoos. Feel free to dream a little.
• You are a zookeeper who is failing miserably at your job. As a last resort your zoo has a contest to see who can come up with the most unique addition.

Recommended Posts:

• 1001 Writing Prompts About Turkeys
• 1001 Writing Prompts About Valentine’s Day
• 1001 Writing Prompts About Solar System