--- title: Behind the scenes: the zoo vet and the animal hospital — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Behind the scenes: the zoo vet and the animal hospital», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A big zoo has its own animal hospital with X-ray machines, scanners, a lab and an operating room, and the zoo vet m --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Behind the scenes: the zoo vet and the… # Behind the scenes: the zoo vet and the animal hospital Lesson 110 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/0/) — A big zoo has its own animal hospital with X-ray machines, scanners, a lab and an operating room, and the zoo vet might treat a frog in the morning and a rhino in the afternoon. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/1/) — The hardest part is that a patient cannot say where it hurts and may be big or dangerous, so vets rely on keepers' notes, weight, dung samples and training, and use sleep medicine only when an animal cannot be handled safely. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/2/) — Picture a gorilla putting its arm through a special sleeve for a blood test, calmly, for a treat: months of training with rewards mean no sleep medicine is needed, which is much safer for the gorilla. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/3/) — Doctor Dolittle asks the animals what is wrong and cartoon animals bounce back from any bump; a real zoo vet cannot talk to her patients, so she watches, weighs, scans and tests, and real injuries take real treatment and time. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/4/) — Big zoos have hospitals with X-ray machines, scanners, labs and operating rooms, because moving a big or wild animal to an outside hospital is hard. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/5/) — Vets use darts with sleep medicine for animals that cannot be handled safely, because a big wild animal held down awake could hurt itself or people, and every dose must suit the animal's kind and weight. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/6/) — Some apes are trained to put an arm into a special sleeve for blood tests while awake; gorillas often get heart disease, like people, so zoos check their hearts with scans. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/7/) — Big cats can break teeth on bones, and a broken tooth can get infected and hurt, so zoo vets do fillings and root canals like dentists, and some have fitted big cats with metal crowns. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/8/) — Ultrasound uses sound waves to show a baby inside its mother, as for people, and elephants and big cats have been trained to stay still for scans in return for treats. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/10/) — Zoos have scales of every size, from tiny bird scales to platforms for elephants, because weight shows health and is needed to get medicine doses right, and elephants are trained to step on for a treat. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/11/) — Keepers hide medicine in favourite foods, like a pill in a grape, because animals spit out bitter pills, and some animals get clever at eating around them. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/12/) — Some zoos run hospitals for hurt wild animals like hedgehogs, owls and foxes, hurt by cars, cats, nets and garden strimmers; in Britain hedgehogs have become much rarer, so every one saved counts. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/13/) — Many zoo animals live longer than wild ones thanks to food, medicine and safety from predators, but some, like elephants and orcas, have often lived shorter lives in captivity than in the wild. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/110-behind-the-scenes-the-zoo-vet-and-the-animal-hospital/15/) — Vets look at dung under a microscope for worm eggs and germs, and they can measure hormones in dung to tell whether an animal is stressed or pregnant without touching it. - ← previous: [Behind the scenes: a day with the keepers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/109-behind-the-scenes-a-day-with-the-keepers/) - next →: [Feeding times and the zoo kitchen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/111-feeding-times-and-the-zoo-kitchen/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)