The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 571: MeatEater Kids II

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Welcome to our brand new podcast, MeatEater Kids! It's a fun, educational, and engaging podcast for all of you outdoor kids. Learn about science and history from Steve's "Why It's the Way It Is" segment and impress your friends with your newfound knowledge, develop your ear for animal vocalizations with our "Guess that Critter" segment brought to you by Katie Rinella, and play long during "Kids Trivia" with host Spencer Neuharth. Connect with Steve, Spencer, MeatEater, and The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 1 Why It's the Way It Is Today on Why It's the Way It Is, we're going to dig into a weird word that you probably haven't heard before. That word is crepuscular. Now, this is one of my favorite words. I like saying it because it kind of solves a little bit of a riddle, as I'll explain. But to get into what crepuscular means, well, first you should practice saying it once. So work with me here. Crepuscular. Okay, now that you got it, we're going to dig into what it means. But to dig into what it once, so work with me here. Crepuscular. Okay, now that you got it, we're going to dig into what it means. But to dig into what it means, to dig into why

it's the way it is, we're going to talk about another word that I bet you you've heard before, and that word is called nocturnal. Now, nocturnal means this. Nocturnal means something that's active at night, okay? So if you're the kind of

person, or maybe your parents this way, maybe you're this way, that you like to be up late at night doing stuff, people might say like, oh, they're nocturnal. I mean, they're this like most active at night. They kind of feel awake at night, right? They want to do stuff at night. So you'll hear people mention how they sometimes feel nocturnal or if they have a lot of work they need to get done, they'll go nocturnal, right? They'll start working at night in the dark. But in the animal world, nocturnal refers to this whole group of animals from all different types of animals, right? I mean, there's nocturnal birds, as we'll get into. There are nocturnal reptiles.

There are nocturnal fish. There are nocturnal mammals. Within that, you got nocturnal rodents. You got nocturnal birds as we'll get into there are nocturnal reptiles there are nocturnal fish there are nocturnal mammals within that you got nocturnal rodents you got nocturnal bats on and on and on okay it means they're active at night now i'm gonna talk about a couple nocturnal animals just to kind of give you a sense one of my favorite nocturnal animals is the opossum now you will occasionally run into an opossum in the daytime, but for the most part, they hide out in the daytime. They go into little dens and burrows. They'll go into rock piles. They'll go under old buildings that are falling down. They'll go into hollow logs. One time, I was out with my brother, Danny, and we were out hunting rabbits and we found a dead deer carcass.

OK, it was a lot of snow, but something had kind of dug down to this dead deer carcass. And there was a hole that had been kind of gnawed into its rib cage. And I was curious about this. And I looked down into that hole. And guess what? There was a possum dned up inside of the deer's ribcage. All the internal organs had been eaten away. And this frozen deer ribcage, this frozen deer carcass with the hide still on it, was his den. And I'm not saying you should do this but I actually just out of curiosity pulled him out by his tail

now a possum can hang from a tree by his tail you're not going to hurt a possum picking him up by his tail but I pulled him out by his tail and we took a picture of him and then put him back down in that deer rib cage and the reason I'm not recommending you do this is you could get bit and it's probably not a good

idea to bother stuff like that but i was little and you know like he was curious about stuff and that's what i did i pulled him out had a look at him stuffed him back in his little den where he hid out during the day and that night probably got active and wandered around and ate on his dead deer that he found there's another word that we're going to get to now before we get to crepuscular we're going to get to diurnal now you hear diurnal less than nocturnal like you hear diurnal way less than nocturnal but you still hear it more than you hear crepuscular diurnal means an animal that's active in the daytime. Okay?

Let me name some things that are diurnal. Seagulls. Now, there's a lot of kind of seagulls, but seagulls, that's a diurnal creature. Right? You don't see seagulls flying around in the dark too much. You go down to the beach on a sunny day in the middle of the day and seagulls are running around really active. They're diurnal. I would also venture to say that us humans, we're mammals. For the most part, we're diurnal animals. We're most active in the daytime. There are diurnal creatures living in the water. Okay, I would say that the

very common widespread fish called the bluegill, a bluegill's diurnal. Now, if you've ever gone out snorkeling at night, and I used to like to do this a you've ever gone out snorkeling at night i used to like to do this a great deal go out snorkeling at night with an underwater flashlight you'll see bluegills sitting there just kind of zoned out in shallow water you can even this is gonna sound crazy you can even with a little stick when you find a bluegill sleeping you can even poke it with a stick before it moves off they're just zoned out're sort of, they're like a fish version of sleeping, but they love the daytime. In the spring when the water starts to warm up and they're getting active, bluegills will even come up and stick their back out of the water just to sun, just to feel the warmth and the warm water that's warmed by the

sun at the surface. They like the daytime. They feed in the daytime. They're active at the daytime. If you've ever been out fishing bluegills and you notice that the bite turns off, meaning the fishing gets bad at night, they quiet down. They quit eating. They quit being so active. Bluegills are diurnal. Now that we've covered nocturnal and diurnal, nocturnal being active at night, diurnal being active in the daytime,

we're going to talk about a critter that's crepuscular. Now, crepuscular means kind of in the middle. It's in the middle between diurnal and nocturnal, meaning it likes the low light conditions. It likes dawn and it likes dusk. And if you're a deer hunter or you have deer hunters in your family, go ask those deer hunters, when's the best time to go out deer hunting? I guarantee the answer you're going to get. You're going to get an answer that the best time to hunt deer is at dawn and at dusk.

That is because deer are crepuscular. They like low light conditions. Not totally dark, not totally daytime. They like the low light conditions. If there's a time of day that deer are going to move, they're going to move at dawn and at dusk when it's kind of gray out and low light. That's when they like to do their traveling. They can see good.

They can see way better than you can in low light. And that's when they feel most comfortable to do their traveling. Here's another animal that's crepuscular that you might be familiar with. The red fox. The red fox likes to get out and hunt during low light conditions. He likes to get out and hunt in the early morning or the late evening. Now why could be, there could be a lot of reasons why. An animal could be crepuscular because it has predators that are diurnal or nocturnal. Meaning if a red fox is worried about getting killed by a mountain lion

who's nocturnal, he might find that it's best not to do his hunting out at night. And if a red fox is worried about getting killed by an animal that's diurnal, say a big golden eagle, he might know it's best not to get out and do his hunting in the daytime. But he finds a little sweet spot. He finds this zone when his nighttime enemy and his daytime enemy are inactive and he can get out and do his hunting. Another reason might be this. Maybe the animal doesn't have great night vision. They don't see really good in the dark, dark of night. And let's say that same animal doesn't like to be overly hot. It has a hard time staying cool when it's out doing its hunting. So here's a red fox. He's covered in a thick coat of fur.

It's summertime. Maybe in the summertime, it's 80 degrees, it's 90 degrees, it's just way too hot for him to be out hunting. But he doesn't see as good as he'd like in the absolute dark. He sees really good in low light. So the day cools off. It gets to be where it's not so uncomfortable to be out hunting. There's still enough light to be able to see to hunt. So that's the time they find to do their work when they're out in motion.

Those are crepuscular animals. Now we've only talked about, really in detail, we've only talked about two crepuscular animals. We talked about deer, we talked about red foxes. But there are a lot of crepuscular animals. My daddy, when I was a kid, would call the morning and the evening, he would call it the magic hour. And that's when he liked to be out in the woods. And I picked up on that. I picked up on that because whether I'm in the mountains or the woods or the swamps, if I could be out there for any period of time, I would say I want to be out there the hour after it gets light,

just light enough to see. And I want to be out there the hour just before it gets dark. And the reason I want to be there for those hours is because they're the magic hour. Those are the hours when you see the most animals. Let's talk about the evening. Why the evening is cool. In the evening, you're catching the diurnal animals at the end of their day. They're wrapping up their day and getting ready to go to bed. You're catching the crepuscular animals right at the peak of their activity. This is the time of the day they live for is that low light condition. And in the evening, you're catching the nocturnal animals in their morning. They're just waking up and getting ready to go. So you have this big rush of wildlife ending their day, just in the middle of their day, starting their day. And then let's

think about in the morning. In the morning, those nocturnal animals are wrapping up their day, starting their day, and then let's think about in the morning. In the morning, those nocturnal animals are wrapping up their day, getting ready to go to bed. The crepuscular animals are out. It's their peak time of movement. And those diurnal animals are just getting up and getting ready to start their day. So through that little hour-long period, maybe that 90-minute period, you get this full rush of wildlife shifting and changing and interacting. And that's what makes the magic hour. And the magic hour is during that crepuscular period. So if you get into wildlife watching and you realize what I have learned,

that this is the best time to be out, you will be able to describe yourself as a crepuscular wildlife viewer. You like to get out and view wildlife in the low light conditions of dawn and evening. Part 2. Guess That Critter. It's time for Guess That Critter, where we play animal sounds and you've got to guess what animal is making those sounds. You'll learn some neat facts about these animals and develop your ear to better identify their sounds in the wild. Or in this case, maybe in your attic, too. And don't worry, we'll throw in some clues along the way.

Now, listen closely. These are social mammals that often live in family groups. In the spring and summer, it's common to see the mothers with as many as five or six babies trailing behind as they head out in the evening to search for food. You may hear them chittering like this. Or purring to express contentment. And here's what the babies, or kits, sound like. Is it a chipmunk? Ooh, not quite. While these animals do make fun and interesting pets when captured in the wild and tamed,

it's never a good idea to approach them or attempt to pick them up without an adult who's an expert in handling this type of critter. For one thing, doing so might be illegal in your state. For another thing, they are vicious fighters and will readily attack a person who they feel is threatening them. They'll growl when they feel threatened. And the males of this species are prone to violent clashes with each other during the midwinter breeding season

when they come out on warm nights in search of female mating partners and fend off their rival males. These fights can be heard from far away as they screech and snarl while scratching and biting each other. Is it a grinner? What's a grinner? A possum. Oh, that's close. They're crafty and curious, with an amazing ability to find food and shelter in almost any situation. They'll make dens or sleep away the day in abandoned badger or groundhog holes, or hollow logs and tree cavities, or brush piles, junked cars, old barns, or even the attics of new houses. They seem to enjoy eating even more than us humans. They like everything

from corn to crayfish. If you're close enough to them while they eat, you might hear munching noises like this. These powerful critters have short legs, beady eyes, and a pointed muzzle. Their front feet have five finger-like toes that are extremely dexterous, meaning they can use them to grab things and also climb trees, rock walls, and fences. They range in color from silver gray to dirty brown. Adults can reach 20 pounds, with big males getting up to 30 pounds. Their tails have black rings, and they have black markings on their face that resemble a mask. Folks will refer to them as mask bandits, and even trash pandas.

Okay, it's time for the reveal. It's a raccoon! The raccoon is found across most of North America and continues to expand its range. While human development such as farms and subdivisions might drive away more secretive wild animals, raccoons are able to make themselves feel right at home as they feed on our garbage, our farm crops, and the food we leave out for birds, chickens, or pet dogs and cats. Raccoons, especially the babies, are preyed upon by coyotes,

bobcats, foxes, and large owls. Humans hunt and trap raccoons. The meat is edible and pretty good, and sometimes the pelts can be valuable, especially the larger ones with a silverish color. Ten years ago, raccoon pelts were worth up to $30 or $40. Right now, they're worth only a few dollars, but the prices will almost certainly rise again. Raccoons are super cool for sure, but sometimes they are downright pesky. Maybe in the future you can make some good money trapping them while also helping out farmers who are trying to protect their orchards and crop fields from these hungry critters. Part 3. Trivia! And now it's time for Meat Eater Kids Trivia, the other only game show where conservation always wins.

This is a quiz show for kids who love the outdoors. Take it away, Spencer! Today I'm joined by Jimmy, Rosie, Matthew, Ina, Mabel, Hayden, Conley, Reed, and Bay. Each player will earn $10 for conservation with every question they get right. Today, there's a potential for this room to earn up to $270. This week, that donation is going to TakeMeFishing.org, who provides resources to kids and parents that will help them have a great day on the water. Let's see how much money our players can raise. Question one. Which of these animals does not have an exoskeleton? Is it a lobster, a grasshopper, or an armadillo?

The room is not very confident. Bae is the first one to come up with an answer. Here's the question again. Which of these animals does not have an exoskeleton? Lobster, grasshopper, or armadillo. I think I know it. You do? I'm very confident in my answer.

Okay. I know two. Two of them have an exoskeleton. One of them does not. You need to tell me who the oddball is that does not have an exoskeleton from that group. Conley, how do you know this one? Did you learn it in school? You just know what an exoskeleton is? Yes. And you know what animals have them? Yes. Okay, that's a good formula for

getting this one right. Does everybody have an answer? Yes. Lobster, grasshopper, armadillo. Yep. Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Ina saying grasshopper. Rosie saying armadillo. Bay saying armadillo. Mabel saying armadillo. Jimmy saying armadillo. Reed saying armadillo. Matthew saying grasshopper. Conley saying grasshopper. Hayden saying grasshopper. Nobody said lobster. The correct answer is not a lobster. It's an armadillo. The room did pretty well. An exoskeleton is a skeleton that's on the exterior of an animal. Who'd have thought, huh? Now, although armadillos have that protective shell,

they still have a skeleton in their body just like humans. Can you guys name some other animals that have an exoskeleton? Spiders. Spider, that'd be one. What else? Crab. There's a lot more. Shrimp. That's a good one. Shrimp is a good one. You know any others?

Bees, scorpions, snails. All arthropods and insects have exoskeletons. Question two. What state is home to the Rocky Mountain National Park? Is it Colorado, Wisconsin, or Florida?

Which state is home to Rocky Mountain National Park? Colorado, Wisconsin, or Florida? Ina, you know this one? Yeah. She's nodding her head, giving an okay symbol. I definitely know the spell. I don't. You think so?

I don't know this. Okay. Some confident players, some not. What state is home to Rocky Mountain National Park? Colorado, Wisconsin, or Florida? Everyone was quick to answer, though. I haven't even answered yet. I think we're waiting on you, Rosemary.

Colorado, Wisconsin, or Florida. Which one of those states has the Rocky Mountain National Park? Are we ready? Mm-hmm. You guys look nervous. Yeah. Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Ina saying Colorado.

Rosie saying Colorado. Bae saying Wisconsin. Mabel saying Colorado. Jimmy saying Colorado. Reed saying Colorado. Matthew saying Colorado. Conley saying Colorado. Mabel saying Colorado. Jimmy saying Colorado. Reed saying Colorado. Matthew saying Colorado. Conley saying Colorado.

Hayden saying Colorado. You all got it. Almost all of you. The answer is Colorado. Rocky Mountain National Park gets about 4.5 million visitors each year. Some animals that call it home are bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk, mountain goats, moose, and black bears. How'd you guys figure that answer out? How'd you all know that one?

I used to live there. The Rocky Mountains are in Colorado. Yeah, me and Haley used to live in Colorado. Okay. What were the options? Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida. Okay, so I knew it definitely wasn't in Florida. The Rocky Mountains there. And I know that Colorado has the Rocky Mountains.

Wisconsin's home to cheese. And cows. What? Cheese and cows, that's right. That's all Wisconsin has. Rocky Mountains. Wisconsin's home to cheese. And cows. What? Cheese and cows, that's right. That's all Wisconsin has. Chocolate milk. They do have good cheese curds, though. I learned about Colorado in school.

Okay, you kids got it figured out. Cheese and cows, all you'll get in Wisconsin. Question three. Which of these things is not a piece of camping gear? Is it a carabiner, a vestibule, or a colander? I don't know what any of those are. Okay. Two of them are things that you use while you're camping.

One of them is not. Which of these things is not a piece of camping gear? Carabiner, vestibule, or colander? Our players were very confident on question two, but they are leaking confidence on question three. There are going to be some creative spellings in the room. I'm quite sure of that. Which of these things is not a piece of camping gear? Carabiner, vestibule, colander. Does everybody have an answer? Yes.

I am not confident in my answer. You're not confident? Do you know what any of these things are, Conley? No. Okay, just a guess. Does anybody know? I know what two of them are. How many of you know what one of them is? Me.

I do. Okay, how many of you know what two of them are? Me. I do. And do any of you know what all three of them are? No idea. Okay. Nope. Nope. There's a mystery piece of gear in the batch. I do. And do any of you know what all three of them are? No idea. Okay. Nope.

There's a mystery piece of gear in the batch. Does everybody have an answer? Yes. Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Ina saying colander. Rosemary saying vestibule. Bay saying colander. Mabel saying colander. Jimmy saying colander. Reed saying vestibule. Matthew

saying vestibule. Conley saying vestibule. Hayden saying colander. Nobody said carabiner, huh? Carabiner is a piece of camping gear, so good on you for not saying that one. The correct answer is colander. About half of you got it right. A carabiner is a D-shaped metal ring with one spring-hinged side. A vestibule is a covered area next to your tent door,

and a colander is a bowl with holes in it that's used to strain liquid from food. You probably see it used with pasta. Have any of you ever been in a tent with a vestibule? Can you picture what that looks like? No. Yes, I can. I've seen them before.

I've seen them before. Keep you dry. Keep your gear dry. A colander would not keep you very dry, though. That's it for today's round of trivia. Phil the Engineer, how much money did we raise? $180. $180.

And that's going to TakeMeFishing.org. Well done, kids. Join us next time for more Meat Eater Kids trivia, the only other game show where conservation always wins. Thank you so much for listening. We really hope you enjoyed the episode. Now get outside and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Meat Eater Kids!