A zoo is a park with animals. The animals are usually from other parts of the world, or are animals that are endangered. People who work at zoos carry out research on the animals, and other people go along to the zoos to look at the animals - and learn about them. Most zoos are public places in big cities - but here is a story about a very private zoo. It's a garden. What animals do you think that you might see in a garden?

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There was once a boy called Sam. He lived with his mum and dad in a large, low bungalow with a red roof. It was very, very hot in this country and all the adults used to spend long afternoons asleep.

But Sam never slept. He spent every afternoon in his amazing magical garden with all his animals. Sam was really crazy about animals – he had all the usual pets such as a dog and a cat and a bird, but Sam also had an amazing collection of unusual pets as well.

The garden at the back of the bungalow was a very exciting place. It was surrounded by huge trees at the back and had lush, tropical plants with big leaves on every side. This was perfect for hiding his pets.

When you came out of the back door there was a low wall at the bottom of the steps, which divided the terrace and the garden. Now inside this wall there lived a whole family. Sam came down the steps and pulled out a brick at the bottom of the wall. And there before his eyes was the whole family…. of scorpions.

Sam was terribly interested in scorpions. He thought their red colour was wonderful. And he also liked the way that the baby scorpions climbed onto their mother’s back. Sam didn’t seem to care that scorpions have a sting in their tail – they didn’t seem to notice when he looked at them unless he brought them a few nice juicy insects to eat.