All About Animals 🐾
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The Ten News Season 3: Episode 17
🐭 A marsupial's on the move in the Ten News studio 📖 Learn "How to Speak Animal" and get ready for World Wildlife Conservation Day with Dr. Gabby Wild 🦩 Ten'er, Lila, shares a fun fact about flamingos 🕷️ Everything we need to know about Necrospiders with Nature Nerds' Miss Laine 🐢 Trivia with Tessa: what reptile is found on every continent except Antarctica, can be kept as a pet, and has a shell?
Links
World Wildlife Conservation Day | WWF
Are Turtles Reptiles? Everything You Should Know - ReptileProfy
TURTLE ADOPTION DAY - November 27, 2022 - National Today
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TRANSCRIPT:
Ryan Willard 0:01
Hey, little, buddy. Who's my cutie-patootie possum-ootie.
Pamela Kirkland 0:06
Hey, Ryan. I think we need one more guest for today's animal special. What do you... what's that?
Ryan Willard 0:15
What's what, Pamela?
Pamela Kirkland 0:16
That big creature-shaped lump under your hoodie?
Ryan Willard 0:21
Well, I'll tell you what it's not. It is not a possum I found in the parking lot.
Pamela Kirkland 0:25
Ryan Ezekiel Juniper Willard, tell me you did not bring North America's only marsupial into this office.
Ryan Willard 0:33
I did not-not bring a marsupial into the office and who told you about my middle names?
Pamela Kirkland 0:41
Ryan, what have you done?
Ryan Willard 0:43
I lost my new best friend.
Pamela Kirkland 0:45
We need to catch that possum and we have to start the show. I'm Pamela Kirkland.
Ryan Willard 0:51
And I'm Ryan Willard. It's Wednesday, November 30th.
Pamela Kirkland 0:54
This is The Ten News.
Sound Bit 0:59
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Pamela Kirkland 1:06
Ryan, let's split up and try to find this possum with as little disturbance as possible.
Ryan Willard 1:13
Good plan, Pamela.
Pete Musto 1:19
Hey, Ryan, what are you doing?
Ryan Willard 1:21
Hey, Pete. I'm absolutely not looking for a wild possum that I accidentally unleashed into the unsuspecting Ten News studio.
Pete Musto 1:28
That sounds weird, but okay. Hey, did you know World Wildlife Conservation Day is December 4th?
Ryan Willard 1:35
Oh cool. A day to protect wildlife, right? And not trap them in a news studio.
Pete Musto 1:41
Yeah, exactly. Anyway, see you later Ryan.
Ryan Willard 1:47
Oh, no. The Possum is literally climbing Pete like a tree. I need expert assistance. Kap, Kap, Kap, Kap, Kap... pick up.
Tracy Leeds Kaplan 1:55
What's up, Ryan?
Ryan Willard 1:56
Kap, there's a possum loose in the studio.
Tracy Kaplan 1:58
What, there is a possum loose in the studio? And I am now using my mom voice at work.
Ryan Willard 2:05
We need an expert. I don't know what to do. I thought it was my friend.
Tracy Kaplan 2:09
Wow. I'm so glad I took today off. I'm about to catch up with wildlife veterinarian Dr. Gabby Wild. She travels the world treating wildlife big and small. From tigers to tarantulas. She's even given acupuncture to an elephant and is the author of Wild Vet Adventures and How to Speak Animal. She's really cool.
Ryan Willard 2:28
Okay, cool. Can you ask her how to talk a possum out of the new studio?
Tracy Kaplan 2:31
Yep, we're on it. Dr. Wild, I'm so happy we're hanging out today. It's wonderful to see you again, for our new Ten'ers who may not have heard when you joined us last time. Can you introduce yourself?
Dr. Gabby Wild 2:46
Absolutely. So hello, I am Dr. Gabby Wild. I'm a Wildlife Veterinarian and Conservationist. And I travel the world to save all different types of animals, mainly wild ones, and mainly endangered ones.
Tracy Kaplan 3:01
So cool. And there's a little problem going on in the Ten News Studio that I'm going to need your help with. But I have some other questions that I wanted to ask first. So, how did we discover that animals can communicate with each other?
Dr. Gabby Wild 3:16
A lot of animals actually have been communicating with us and evolved to communicate from dogs to domestic other domestic species. So when we talk about communication from animals, we can even relate it to ourselves. When I wrote my latest book on how to speak animal for National Geographic, we divided it for kids into four main categories, one being auditory. So you're listening and you hear me one being visual. So if you could see me right now you'd see I'm using my hands and doing a countdown on my fingers. And you know, when you see a person you see them smiling, you assume they're pretty happy dogs, for example. And horses actually, for an hour matter of fact, in cats have evolved to actually be able to tell if a person is happy or not. So that's them being able to communicate with us. And then we can pick up on their cues if they like that we're happy or not. So there's there's those forms, then there's what we call chemicals. So yeah, it's things like smell, that's a chemical. Other chemicals are things called pheromones, which are like hormones. So if you've ever felt really happy, that's a type of hormone in your body, that signals to your brain to say I'm happy, there are all different types of hormones and pheromones, specifically that we're referring to, that, you know, allow animals to communicate with each other. Some species use them a lot more than we do, but we do believe humans actually use pheromones as well but just not as much as others. And the last one would be no, where's my other one would be, oh, tactile, tactile. So touch for example. So a mummy whether it be a Mummy Elephant or a mummy human I might want to take her trunk we, we would take our hand, and we hold each other's hands or hug each other. Whereas a money elephant will do that with her trunk, for example for her baby. So those are the four main things. So tactile, auditory, chemical, and auditory.
Tracy Kaplan 5:17
And you may be able to hear some purring going on on this side. Because Midnight, The Ten News cat is so happy to see you today. She's purring up, she's purring up a storm over here.
Dr. Gabby Wild 5:30
Absolutely, I do hear a little bit of it. And that's a sign of her being really relaxed, she's really happy. And as a human, we started to want to know how they're communicating with us. Because we either want them to be our friend, or we actually want to domesticate them and use them, if you will, I hate to use that word, but use them. But at the end of the day, they also get our protection or shelter. So it can be a mutually beneficial situation.
Tracy Kaplan 5:56
It's great to know that they communicate, but can they understand us? So when you talk to your dog, you talk to your cat? Can they understand what we're saying?
Dr. Gabby Wild 6:05
Absolutely. They understand your tone. They understand your facial expressions, your emotions. Now, do they have a full comprehension of, if you set a whole sentence, like we just discussed what pheromones are? No, they don't. But you can train them to know that this object means ball, right? You say fetch, they learn. And they actually learn the language that you're speaking. So that's why if you adopted a dog from let's say, Germany, and that dog had learned how to take commands in German, you have to learn how to say it in German so that they understand will they learn it in English? Absolutely. They can learn it English, but in your first few weeks, you might want to accommodate their understanding of German. So same with horses, and other animals, they've come to learn some of our signs, and even wild animals, seem to understand the patterns of human behavior. So they start to avoid people because most wild animals want nothing to do with people. So yes, they can understand us to a degree.
Tracy Kaplan 7:09
That's so interesting to think about. A bilingual dog. That's, that's pretty cool. So you brought up wild animals, and that just makes me think, you know, we're, we're looking ahead to World Wildlife Conservation Day. So, why is it important, for us to understand how animals communicate? And does it help us be, you know, better stewards, of the environment around us?
Dr. Gabby Wild 7:39
Absolutely, it does. So it's important to know how they communicate because it's a form of their behavior, if we can understand what they're saying they might be giving us clues not only to what they're going through, but what the environment is going through, and therefore, what we should expect for our own lives. Because as people, we sadly, only think about ourselves, but I think kids are smarter than most people. And kids also care about how the animals are feeling as well. That's why kids are the best. And they might say no, it's not fair that lions, our own are going through a rough patch. It's not fair, that we are seeing more animals going on to the endangered species list. I don't want that I want to grow up one day, and I want to see giraffes. I don't want them to be a myth. I don't want rhinos to be extinct when I grow up.
Tracy Kaplan 8:33
So, what can our Ten'ers do for World Wildlife Conservation Day?
Dr. Gabby Wild 8:37
What I would do is go read and open up some really great books online, and learn about at least one species of animal that really is inspiring to you. And then go find organizations that are protecting that animal so you can become more informed. And maybe you can find out if they have activities for you to learn more about the animals, and ways for you to be involved. The big way is also social media. So if you have access or your parents have access to it, spreading the word about what's going on, whether it's for that specific animal or for all different animals, is really the biggest, most powerful thing you can do is sharing knowledge.
Tracy Kaplan 9:19
How can our listeners, if they want to learn more about that or learn more about your work with animals? How can they stay up to date?
Dr. Gabby Wild 9:26
Absolutely. So my foundation, my charity for endangered animals, hosts a lot of fun events for adults and for kids especially. And some of these fun campaigns for fashion are always included and they're always ethical and sustainably crafted fashion that we support. So if you want to learn more about animals and more about the Eco fashion that we do, you can of course go on our website, Gabby wild.org at G A B BYWILD. And of course, we have our YouTube channel under Dr. Gary wild for fun videos. And we have our Instagram Facebook, also Dr. Gabby wild.
Tracy Kaplan 10:03
That's great. And I love both of your books. So, we're gonna put links to both in the show notes for anybody who's listening and wants to check them out. So, I kind of has a problem that I want to ask you about. So, Ryan gets a little carried away, and gets excited about things, and doesn't always make the best choices. So he kind of let a wild possum loose in The Ten News studio, and we don't know what to do. Any ideas? Any advice?
Dr. Gabby Wild 10:34
Yeah, so possum's like to play dead. So when they get really scared, he might roll over and literally play dead. They sometimes when they're really upset, they're defensive. They're going to show their teeth. They don't usually bite, but they certainly can. So what I would do is do a little Hansel and Gretel action, leave some food and trail them out. And hopefully, he'll get out that way if you leave a few yummy trails of food. Now they love a variety of foods. They're omnivores, so they like meat. They love, so you want to leave some mice? I don't know it's kind of gross. But you can at least leave eggs, you can leave some fruit, vegetables, a little trailer that and any he'll walk out on his own. So you don't even have to call any animal hotlines to help you get him out to do it in a peaceful manner.
Tracy Kaplan 11:22
Okay, we're going to try that. I think we still have some leftovers from our Thanksgiving feast. Okay, we can at least put out.it. Well, this has been wonderful. Always great catching up and love to have you back anytime.
Dr. Gabby Wild 11:37
Likewise, thank you so much for having me and I hope everyone stays wild.
Ryan Willard 11:42
Oh, thank you, Dr. Wild. Isn't it cool that Dr. Wild's name is Wild and she helps wild animals? It's like it was her destiny. Uh oh, feels like it's my destiny to catch that possum.
Pamela Kirkland 11:59
We had a pretty amazing animal fact sent in by a Ten'er. Lila from Utah emailed us that flamingos get their pink color from eating shrimp! Thanks, Lila for this fact, flamingos get their color from the beta carotene that's in the brine shrimp, algae, and fly larva that they eat. Yum. Ten'ers, if you want to submit a fun factor joke visit thetennews.com/contact.
Laine Farber 12:32
Hey, Pamela, do you know where... Wait a second. Why are you under your desk?
Pamela Kirkland 12:36
Hey, Miss Laine. Ryan, let a possum loose in the studio and I'm a little scared.
Laine Farber 12:43
Oh, that's fun. I love possums, they are such cute little marsupials.
Pamela Kirkland 12:48
Yeah, that's what I would expect the host of the Nature Nerds Podcast to say I'm still scared, Miss Laine...
Laine Farber 12:55
Well, I can tell you something else to take your mind off of it. Have you heard about necro spiders? For many people, the only good spider is a dead spider. But that's not the case for a team of engineers who are working to bring spiders back from beyond the grave. Sounds crazy but it's true. Mechanical engineers at Rice University have successfully reanimated dead spiders. Why? In the labs at Rice University scientists have cooked up creepy crawly robots made of dead Wolf Spiders. These spooky spider bots are designed to serve as horrifically hairy claw machine grabbers with the push of a button. They open and close their spindly legs to pick up delicate objects. Now, at this point, you're probably wondering, how does anyone come up with this stuff? Well, it all started when engineering student Fei Yap saw a spider curled up in the hallway of her school, the spider got her thinking and after a little research, the engineer learned that arachnids are a lot like hydraulic machines. What does that mean? hydraulic machines are powered by the movement of a liquid. Shifting liquids around in a hydraulic machine causes pressure to form which powers the machine. A spider is a natural hydraulic machine. Strange, but true. They don't have muscles that move their arms and legs the way that we do. Instead, they have a small amount of liquid trapped inside their body, which one moved around creates enough pressure to power their spooky skittering. They realized that the spiders curled up after death because they dried out. She theorized that she could get them moving once more with a little bit of engineering. Now what I'm about to tell you might sound gross, but it's really cool. So stay with me. The theater team inserted a needle into the back of a dead wolf spot. lighter and held it in place with a tiny.of superglue. Then they used a syringe to push small puffs of air into the spider's body, recreating the hydraulic pressure system of a living spider. This gave them the ability to open and close the spider bots’ legs on command. Wow, pretty amazing, right? But why is it even useful? Well, creating robots from once-living materials is all part of a new field called neck robotics. Scientists believe neck robotics could be the next big thing in engineering because of its environmentally friendly nature. You see, organic materials like dead spiders are a natural resource that breaks down quickly without making waste. There are small complicated machines created by nature. We don't need to waste metal to make complex grasping machines when nature has already provided them. For us in abundance. Actually, abundance might be an understatement. The combined weight of all spiders on Earth is 25 million tonnes. That's as heavy as 478 Titanic's you don't have to be an eight Ida rocketed to see that those numbers don't lie.
Pamela Kirkland 16:17
Woah, those necrospiders give me the creeps. But, they did give me an idea about where that possum might be hiding.
Tessa Flannery 16:30
Welcome to the trivia room.
Ryan Willard 16:34
Have you seen a possum?
Tessa Flannery 16:36
Who this little guy?
Pamela Kirkland 16:40
The possum is on the Trivia Throne?
Laine Farber 16:44
Oh, I love trivia. Hey there, little guy. Why don't we share here? Come sit on my lap.
Ryan Willard 16:50
She's like an animal whisperer.
Tessa Flannery 16:52
Welcome Miss Laine. It's an honor to have you. Hop on up on the trivia throne for today's trivia question. You ready?
Sound Bit 16:59
What is going on here?
Tessa Flannery 17:13
I know you are a nature expert. So, this question should be right up your street. What reptile is found on every continent except Antarctica, can be kept as a pet, and has a shell? Is it a) shrimp, b) tree frogs, or c) turtles? Ten'ers, did you guess it? Miss Laine? What's your answer?
Laine Farber 17:34
A reptile with a hard shell. Hmm. Well, that's got to be turtles.
Tessa Flannery 17:39
The answer is c) turtles. These trusty to student ease can live on land or in water and evolved hundreds of millions of years ago. No way. November 27th is National Adopt a Turtle Day, a day to celebrate and protect these amazing creatures.
Laine Farber 18:02
That's awesome. I'm a big fan of these cold blooded cuties myself.
Tessa Flannery 18:05
Ten'ers, do you want to sit on the trivia throne and share your trivia knowledge? Visit thetennews.com/contact to get in touch and we might have you on the show.
Ryan Willard 18:18
Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Ten Things You Need to Know drops every Tuesday on our in depth reports drop every Wednesday. But if you want some bonus content, you can join the Ten'ers Club on our website or on Apple podcasts.
Pamela Kirkland 18:30
The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts.
Ryan Willard 18:35
The Ten News creative team is feeding flamingos and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, and Tessa Flannery. Miss Laine Farber contributed to this episode.
Pamela Kirkland 18:44
Our production directors Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy lead Kaplan.
Ryan Willard 18:52
I'm Ryan Willard.
Pamela Kirkland 18:53
And I'm Pamela Kirkland. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. And remember, wild animals belong in the wild!
