The Four-Legged Zoo Songtext
von Bob Dorough

We went to the four-legged zoo
To visit our four-footed friends
Lions and tigers, cats and dogs
A goat, and a cow, and a couple of hogs
A rhinoceros, and of course, a hippopotamus
And oh yes, a horse
An elk and a bison, a gnu or two
Giraffes and elephants, quite a few
A llama, alpaca, vicuna too
Zebras, ibexes, and one big kudu


It was swell
I liked the gazelle
Now Ms. Simpson said
She teaches school, you know
Yeah, she took us there
Well, Ms. Simpson said
"If you counted every head on these quadrupeds
Then multiplied that number by four
We′d know how many feet went through the door if we turn 'em all loose"
Well, don′t do that!
It's really a groovy zoo

But anyway, what Ms. Simpson said
It was a good chance to work on fours in our head
One, two, three, four!

I'll take a lion (one times four)
He′s got four legs and maybe a roar
Gimme two camels, that′s two times four
Eight legs walking across the desert floor
A tiger and a llama and a fat kudu
Would be three times four, equals twelve legs, too
But we might have to subtract when that tiger was through

Four four-footed friends, no matter who
Would have sixteen legs, and it's always true
That four times four equals sixteen
And five times four is twenty


Now, a coach and six, if you were Cinderella
Would have you home by midnight
If those 24 legs ran fast as light
Six times four equals 24
And seven times four equals 28
Anyone knows that, who cares about seven
And eight antelope have 32 legs
′Cause eight times four is 32

Here come a small herd of buffalo
They say they're gettin′ extinct, you know
I can count nine, that's 36 legs
Nine times four equals 36
Here comes a baby buffalo
That′s good, that's ten
And ten times four, you know, is 40
Eleven coyotes (eleven times four)
Went sneakin' over the prairie floor
On all of their legs (equals 44)

Now twelve times four is as high as we go
Twelve times four equals 48
But there were so very very, many many more
Animals standing there by the gate
That you′d have to use a pencil if you counted them all
And we really had fun and saw everyone
A bear! A cougar! A jackal! A yak!
A fox! Some deer, a sweet giraffe
And I can′t remember how many, many more
But we multiplied them all by four
And some of them thanked us with a roar