Create Your Own Species

Pick the environment first

Step 1 of the brief — the environment sets the rules for every choice below.

Everything after this has to survive here. Choose once, then keep coming back to it.

TropicalHot, wet, dense cover, food all yearDesertHot days, cold nights, almost no free waterMountainThin air, steep ground, big temperature swingsArcticFreezing, open, food scarce for months

Choose the animal group

Think about the physical features each group already comes with, and whether they work where you have put your animal.

MammalFur, warm-blooded, milkReptileScales, cold-blooded, eggsAmphibianMoist skin, water for breedingBirdFeathers, beak, warm-bloodedInvertebrateNo backbone, often an exoskeleton

Name your species

The worked example in the original was the Chamelobra, a chameleon and cobra hybrid.

Why that name?

Give it features — and label what each one is for

Step 3 of the brief — every feature and what it is for.

Tick everything your animal has. Each one has to earn its place: you will be asked to justify it.

Anything else you have invented

Describe its diet

Its physical features must suit that diet.

What exactly does it eat, and how does it get it?

How does it defend itself?

HideCamouflage, burrows, staying stillFleeSpeed, flight, climbing awayFightWeapons, venom, armour, size

Talk it through

Design its enclosure

If this animal were kept in captivity, what would it need? Work from the environment you chose, not from what looks nice.

Temperature and humidity

Substrate and furniture

Space and height

Enrichment and feeding

Check yourself: an enclosure that would be fine for a mountain species is often lethal for a tropical one. Read your Step 1 answer again before you finish this box.

Your design sheet

This is the sheet to print. There is a blank panel for the drawing and labels — step 2 and step 3 of the brief.

Draw your species here and label every feature

Print the page and draw on it. Label lines should point at the feature and say what it is for, like the Chamelobra example.