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huh and then you take a turn
this sounds like fun oh hey everyone squeaks was just telling me about this fun game he played with
jesse it's called guess that animal here's how it works squeaks and i each picked a few animals
but we kept them secret from each other and now we're gonna take turns giving each other clues to
see if we can guess what they are then we watch a video to learn more about them ready squeaks
you think i should go first okay let's see my first animal is pretty tall it has long legs
and a long neck it has tan fur and two big humps on its back can you guess that animal
the firm means it must be a mammal huh you're right
and you can only think of one type of mammal with big humps on its back
that's right squeaks my animal was a camel let's watch this to learn more about camels
and the amazing ways they survive in the desert squeaks and i are getting ready to go on a hike
i've got my big backpack with all sorts of stuff for both of us let's see what we got
we have a big bag of trail mix a water bottle and two cheese sandwiches one for you and one for me
you're right i think we are ready for our hike now squeaks i just had an interesting thought
you know what wearing this backpack makes me think of a camel my backpack is kind of like a
camel hump and not just because it sort of looks like a hump we're kind of like camels today
because camels are some of the best hikers out there and what's in my backpack gives us a clue
about why take the sandwiches for example they're just like what camels keep inside their humps
fat and a lot of it this backpack makes me look like a camel with one hump but there are also
camels that have two humps the humps are still the same made of fat but each type of camel has
a special name a camel with one hump is called a dromedary or sometimes an arabian camel and a
camel with two humps is called a bacterium camel a camel's hump can weigh as much as
35 kilograms which is pretty heavy it's like two of those gigantic bottles of water we use for the
water cooler at the fork all that fat gives camels lots of energy which they really need camels live
in the desert where they have to go without food for a long time and by using up the extra fat
when they need energy they can survive for three weeks without food right we can't live off our
cheese sandwiches for three weeks but along with the trail mix they'll give us energy for the day
and cheese is mostly fat just like a camel's hump you'd need almost 200 sandwiches to get to 35
kilograms now that's a lot of cheese sandwiches as a camel uses up the fat in their hump for energy
the hump actually shrinks down and when they eat more it gets big again another way we're like
camels is because of our water bottle a camel's hump isn't filled with water like this bottle
it's just fat but camels can go a really long time without water depending on the time of year
if it's summer they can go almost a week without water and if it's winter they can go six or seven
months without it we definitely can't do that so how do camels go all that time without water
well when camels drink water they can drink tons of water at one time around a hundred
liters that's about as much as a big trash can if a camel comes to say a lake in the desert
they'll drink and drink and drink because it might be a very long time until they find another lake
and they can drink it pretty fast too it usually takes camels less than 15 minutes
to drink all that water camels also hold on to water differently than we do they don't sweat
very much so they don't lose much water that way although they do still lose more water when it's
hot out which is why they need to drink more water in the summer camels don't pee that much either
so they drink a lot and then they hold on to it now there's one more thing that makes us awesome
hikers like camels our hiking boots which help us keep our feet firmly planted on the ground camels
live in the desert where the sand can be kind of hard to walk on think about how difficult it can
be to walk through a big mound of sand especially if it's windy out and the sand is moving around
and the desert can be rocky too so camels have their own version of hiking boots their feet are
wide padded and pretty tough so they can walk on the sand without any problems and what about
when it gets super windy in the desert and the sand starts blowing around all over the place
yep camels are totally ready for that too they have big eyebrows three sets of eyelids and
two rows of eyelashes so that sand won't blow in their eyes plus they can actually close their
nostrils when it gets super windy so sand won't blow up their nose either we don't have three
sets of eyelids and the only way we can close our nostrils is by pinching them shut but then again
we're not planning to walk through any sandstorms today with our food our water and hiking boots
we're prepared to hike like expert camels well squeaks i think it's time to start our hike and i
can't wait to eat my cheese sandwich okay squeaks it's your turn your animal has eight limbs huh
some are really big and some are really small hmm i think i might have an idea
and it lives under water i thought it might be a spider but those don't live underwater oh
i know is your animal an octopus [Laughter] yes i got it right octopuses are so cool and they're
really weird too let's take a trip under the ocean to learn more hey squeaks i have a joke for you
what did one ocean say to the other ocean nothing it just waved squeaks and i have so much in common
we both laugh at the same jokes there's also a lot about us that looks the same we both have noses to
smell ears to hear and eyes to see and a mouth for eating cheese yum but take a look at an octopus
whoa you're right squeaks it looks like an alien from another planet and it's no wonder
you think that a lot of movies and tv shows about aliens and monsters are inspired by the octopus
a mysterious animal from the bottom of the sea an octopus isn't an alien or a monster but it is
very different from the kinds of animals we're used to seeing its body is built for the ocean
and it's very different from ours for one thing octopuses have eight arms think of all the fish
you could catch with eight arms for another their blood is blue and they have three hearts they also
have ink that can be poisonous some octopuses are very small but some are humongous the biggest ones
have an arm span as big as a two-story house and because octopuses hardly have any hard
parts to their body they can change their shape to squish themselves through very narrow spaces
that's why so many octopuses have escaped being captured by humans they can fit through
an opening the size of a quarter then there are all those arms which are really more like
arms and legs and fingers and tongues all roll into one octopus arms are covered in suckers
little muscles that act like suction cups to help the octopus walk around hold on to food and feel
and taste everything around it and octopuses are very talented with their arms scientists have seen
octopuses using their arms to open jars throw shells at other octopuses build walls out of
rocks to protect their den and even drag around two halves of a coconut that way when the octopus
notices someone coming it can close the coconut around itself and hide instead of getting eaten
but what makes octopus arms really special is that they can think on their own animals like you and
me have brains made out of little pieces called neurons and an octopus has neurons too about
500 million of them but more than half of those neurons aren't in the octopuses brain they're in
its arms with all those neurons each arm can take in lots of information and think about what to do
next without needing to send any messages back to the brain so if you were an octopus you could
catch a fish with one arm walk around and explore the ocean floor with a few more use your brain to
help another arm do your homework and still have an arm or two left over for video games since
octopuses are so different from us with their mind spread out all throughout their bodies they don't
think the way you'd expect them to scientists will sometimes take an animal into a laboratory
to learn more about how it behaves most animals cooperate with the scientists but octopuses
oh boy we've already talked about how octopuses are great escape artists but they're troublemakers
in lots of other ways too some have learned to shoot jets of water out of their tanks sometimes
at the lights which can shut down the electricity but sometimes they'll squirt it at people
octopuses have also plugged up the water valves in their tanks and flooded the whole lab and they
can't be trusted in aquariums either sometimes octopuses will slither out of their tanks eat
the fish out of the tank next door and sink back into their tank when the humans aren't looking
octopuses sure are complicated creatures they can also be very curious and they like to explore and
learn new things just like us so even though octopuses look very different from humans maybe
you're a little bit like an octopus squeaks do you think that we can act a little bit like an octopus
okay squeaks ready for my next animal my next animal is small
and it can fly no not a bat i've got one more clue my animal also grabs onto trees
and hits its head against them really hard so hard it can make a hole in the tree
strange right do you know what it is
great job squeaks a woodpecker do you remember why they peck holes in trees that's okay let's
watch this to find out squeaks and i are playing a guessing game we're pretending to be different
animals and guessing what animal the other person is acting like okay squeaks take a guess
that's right i'm pretending to be a squirrel okay let's do another ready
ah maybe i'll give you some hints i have wings
i hold on to a tree and i hit my beak on the tree like this
you're right a woodpecker woodpeckers are a type of bird and there are different kinds all over
the world they get their name because they all like to peck at things like trees just like i
was pretending to do most woodpeckers are black and white with some patches of red and yellow but
if there's a woodpecker nearby you can usually hear them before you see them woodpeckers make
loud calling noises that sound almost like a monkey and they tap on trees with their beaks
to help them chip away at the tough wood in a tree their beaks are long and hard
and when they peck they move their heads back and forth really fast so fast that it can sound
almost like someone playing drums oh no they aren't eating the wood but they are
pecking away at it to get a tasty meal they're looking for something else inside the tree to eat
when a woodpecker begins to peck at a tree they move little chips of wood out of the way digging
a hole until they find what they're looking for like a tasty grub a grub is a baby beetle
and some of these little insects like to live inside of trees as they grow up some of these
grubs dig little tunnels through trees as they get bigger so if a woodpecker wants to eat those grubs
first they have to use their beak to peck away at the tree making a hole that reaches a grub
tunnel then the bird uses their tongue to reach into the tunnel and pull out any grubs inside
woodpeckers have super long tongues so even if the grub is on the other end of the tunnel
the woodpecker can still reach it it's a lot of work to peck through the tree
but they get a tasty snack in the end what do you think squeaks can you pretend to be a woodpecker
you're a pretty good woodpecker but you're a great rat do you have one more for me squeaks
hmm your animal has four long legs sort of like a camel and it has
hooves and a short bristly mane is it a horse
no but i'm close okay give me your last clue
oh it has black and white stripes huh i think i got it is it a zebra
all right i got it great clues squeaks let's check out this video about zebras and then we
can see who won hi everybody you're just in time squeaks tonight we're just looking into an animal
mystery we were looking through our big book of animals and the last animal in the book caught
our eye it's a zebra you've probably heard of them before they look a lot like horses but they have
black and white stripes have you ever wondered why zebras have these special stripes to find out
let's look a little closer at the life of a zebra zebras are closely related to horses and they're
a lot like them in many ways they look a lot like horses of course and they run like them too
and they also eat grass like horses do but zebras are also different from horses in some important
ways for one thing horses can be found in many parts of the world but wild zebras only live in
africa zebras also have hair on the back of their neck called a mane that's shorter and spikier than
it is on horses and of course horses come in many different colors and patterns but all zebras wear
a coat of black and white stripes but still not all zebras are exactly the same there are actually
three different species or special types of zebra two of these species are named after the kind of
place they live in the plain zebra lives on the plains where it's mostly flat and there's lots
of grass and other plants to eat then there's the mountain zebra which lives you guessed it
in the mountains the last species is called the gravi zebra and it only lives in a few special
grasslands in africa but all types of zebras have their famous stripes and scientists have
always wondered what these stripes were for and this is what we're curious about today let's look
at a few ideas about how these stripes might help zebras to survive in the wild some scientists used
to think that zebras could use their stripes to recognize each other it turns out that each zebra
has a unique pattern of stripes just like how every person including you has a unique set
of fingerprints on their fingertips maybe by looking at each other's stripes zebras could
recognize each other and their families but you don't recognize your friends by looking at their
fingerprints so we're not sure that zebras use their stripes that way either after all
zebras have many other ways to recognize each other like by their smell or by the sounds they
make so scientists have also thought that zebras might use their stripes to hide from predators
lions and hyenas are two predators that often hunt zebras so some have thought that the zebra's long
stripes might help them stay hidden in the tall grass but after looking closer scientists noticed
that the zebra stripes didn't stop lions and hyenas from finding them instead the predators
used their noses to find the zebras by smell they weren't fooled by the zebra stripes at all so
maybe the stripes do something else and there's one other animal that zebras need to keep away
horse flies horseflies are big pesky biting flies and they often bite animals like zebras
kind of like how mosquitoes bite people but scientists have noticed that horseflies
don't seem to like zebra stripes something about the pattern of the black and white
stripes makes horseflies confused so they stay away from them so maybe that's it today
some scientists think that the stripes help zebras avoid getting bitten by horse flies
the stripes might work kind of like a built-in bug repellent in fact it turns out that zebras
have the most stripes in places they really don't want horseflies to bite them like on their faces
and many people have started using the answer to this animal mystery to help protect horses too
some farmers have started putting zebra striped coats on their horses to keep the horse flies away
what an amazing way to use what we've learned to help our animal friends it's important to remember
that there could be more than one right answer to a question especially when you're dealing
with nature and science so scientists are still looking at all the other things that stripes
might help a zebra to do wow what a fun game are you ready to see who won drum roll please
hmm looks like we tied i've got an idea let's go think up some more clues and play another round
we're going to come up with some more animals you can come up with your own clues at home too
thanks for joining us today if you want to keep learning and having fun with me squeaks and all
of our friends hit the subscribe button and we'll see you next time here at the fort [Music] you