[Solution] Mixed-Up Zoo – 12 July 2021

This metapuzzle consists of drawings of eight animals. To aid in identification, the lengths of the animals names are given, and they are in alphabetical order from the top of the page. As solvers begin to identify the animals, they may notice that they are nearly anagrams of the puzzle answers for the last two months. In fact, there is exactly one letter which must be changed in each animal-answer pair.

Animal	Answer	Extra Letter (Animal)	Extra Letter (Answer)
BADGER	GARBLE	D	L
BEAR	CARB	E	C
FINCH	CHINA	F	A
HAMSTER	MASTERS	H	S
KOALA	CLOAK	A	C
LOBSTER	RETOOLS	B	O
PELICAN	OPALINE	C	O
PENGUIN	PINE NUT	G	T

Solvers will then realize that the extra letters in the animal names are just the letters A-H. Sorting the extra letters from the puzzle answers by their counterparts in the animal names gives the following table:

Animal	Answer	Extra Letter (Animal)	Extra Letter (Answer)
KOALA	CLOAK	A	C
LOBSTER	RETOOLS	B	O
PELICAN	OPALINE	C	O
BADGER	GARBLE	D	L
BEAR	CARB	E	C
FINCH	CHINA	F	A
PENGUIN	PINE NUT	G	T
HAMSTER	MASTERS	H	S

The answer (seen here reading down in the final column) is COOL CATS.