Guinea pigs feel right at home as TikTok stars

What started as a way to help a Tasmanian grandfather cut his lawns has blown up into a TikTok sensation.

Steven Ransley has built a tiny village for his 37 pet guinea pigs, complete with houses, picnic tables and chairs, a water tank, well and wood chopping station.

“We needed something to keep the grass down in here because it takes me eight hours to whipper snip all this,” Mr Ransley said.

“I thought, ‘oh well, some guinea pigs’. After that, every birthday, every Christmas, every Father’s Day, what did I get? Guinea pigs!”

Recently retired Mr Ransley carted in about 500 wheelbarrows of both rock and dirt over four months and spent another five months making everything in his special guinea pig village, which he calls GuineaVale.

GuineaVale is a large fenced enclosure in a fruit orchard where the animals freely roam*.

Mr Ransley started making TikTok videos of his guinea pigs about a year ago, after being encouraged by his grandkids.

“The views are starting to get in the tens and hundreds of thousands or millions … it’s just got bigger and bigger,” he said.

Mr Ransley, who lives in Collinsvale, 19km northwest of Hobart, spends plenty of time answering questions people leave on his videos.

“They just love the idea that they’ve got all this space to roam around in and that even though they’re not wild, they are kind of wild,” he said.

“A lot of people are impressed with the village, and they ask me if I’m going to keep making more, which I am.”

In his free time, Mr Ransley loves to sit and watch his guinea pigs.

“Everyone that comes down here just sits, it’s very calming,” he said. “A lot of people will say they’re serotonin* because they are that peaceful, it’s a good feeling.”

Mr Ransley said he hoped GuineaVale would be something his grandchildren, Otto, Matilda, Rory and Maddison, would one day remember him by.

GLOSSARY

• roam: move about of travel
• serotonin: a chemical in the body that boosts mood and wellbeing

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QUICK QUIZ

1. Why did Steven Ransley originally get guinea pigs?
2. How many guinea pigs does he now have?
3. What has he named the village he built for the guinea pigs?
4. How many months did it take Steven to build the village?
5. Who encouraged Steven to make TikTok videos of his guinea pigs?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Rewrite the story
Rewrite the story from the point of view of one of the guinea pigs who lives in GuineaVale

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

2. Extension
What’s your favourite animal? If you could keep as many of these animals as you could, what would you have to build or create to look after them? Create a design for the perfect home for your animals!

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Design and Technologies

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine Mr Ransley’s guinea pigs could talk. Create a conversation between two of the guinea pigs as they go about their day in GuineaVale.

Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.