The MeatEater Podcast - MeatEater Kids VIII

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

Subscribe Now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to get the rest of Season Two! We are back for Season 2 of 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, and play along during "Kids Trivia" with host Spencer Neuharth. Connect with Steve, Spencer, MeatEater, and The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Check out our new Kids T-ShirtSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes when it comes to your personal fitness goals, you just need a plan. Peloton can give you the plan. Absolutely. And Steve, you've got a Peloton. I sure do. And Steve benefits from things like a variety of challenging classes. There are four-week strength-building classes, running, cycling, everything in between. Peloton can adapt to any goal in this season of your life.

And by the way, the holidays are around the corner. Now is when you need to be on the Peloton. Find your push, find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Hey everyone, Phil the engineer here. If you're listening to this, that means you've probably already realized that we are not dropping a MeatEater Radio Live this week.

And in lieu of that, we will be dropping two episodes of the MeatEater Kids podcast on the MeatEater feed right here. Why are we doing this? Even though we mentioned it a couple of times on social media and in some MeatEater podcast episodes, we're still getting some questions from parents asking, "'I saw you put up MeatEater Kids episode six,

"'are we getting any more?' "'The answer is hey, yeah, we've got some more. "'They're over on a brand new MeatEater Kids podcast feed, "'and we'd love if you could go over and subscribe to that brand new feed that's just our kids' content. Hop on over to the search bar in whatever program you're using, type in MeatEater Kids, hit that follow or subscribe or join or whatever button it is, and that way you'll be in the loop when we drop new kids' episodes or whatever new kids' content we've got cooking up. So enjoy this episode of MeatEater Kids and be

sure to head over to the brand new feed, hit that follow button, hit that subscribe button. It helps us out and you stay in the loop. Thanks. No melting mess, no ice runs. The new Dometic CFX5 keeps your food chilled and your ice frozen so you can stay focused on the hunt. Just load it up, plug it in, and let it do the rest. I love using mine on hot pronghorn hunts and at early season elk camp. It really is a game changer. Head to

domedic.com to learn more about Dometic electric coolers. It's time for Why It's the Way It Is. Today on Why It's the Way It Is we're going to talk about eyeballs, which seems kind of funny, but we're not going to talk about how eyeballs work necessarily. We're going to talk about where eyeballs sit on an animal's head. Meaning, why are a rabbit's eyes kind of buggy and they stick out and they're positioned way out on the sides of his head? All right? Compared to why are your eyeballs in the front of your head and real close together? The

answer to that question is where your eyeballs sit on your head or where an animal's eyeballs sit on its head has to do with whether the animal is a predator, meaning it hunts for other animals to eat, or it's a prey animal or a vegetarian or herbivore, meaning it eats vegetation and gets hunted by predators. Let's start for a minute with your own head. Let's think about your own head for a second. Your eyes are a predator's eyes. You have a couple predator things on you.

You have eye teeth or like canine teeth, pointy teeth. Okay, that's a predator adaptation. And you have eyes that sit close together on the front of your head. So as a predator, what you're pretty good at is you're good at focusing on something and telling how far away it is. Okay, that's your specialty.

Now let's jump to a rabbit. A rabbit has eyes, buggy eyes way out on the side of its head. Here's the crazy thing about a rabbit. A rabbit can pretty much see straight behind it. If you imagine a circle, we describe a circle as a 360 degree loop, okay? A rabbit can see most of that 360 degree circle around itself.

It can't see directly right behind its skull, but it can see behind itself, okay? Because those eyes that are stuck out to the sides of its head are looking all around. The right eye is seeing its own world off to the right and the left eye is seeing its own world way off to the left. The eyes don't do a lot of what we call binocular vision, meaning the eyes don't work together to aim and concentrate on a specific item. A rabbit's eyes or a deer's eyes or a cow's eyes

are just surveying all around them. They need to detect a threat, movement, right? So if it's a rabbit, he is looking in an almost complete circle around him while he eats, while he does whatever he does, he just sits there and rests. He's looking at almost a complete circle around him and his eyes are really good at picking up on a movement, which signifies the approach of a predator. The rabbit doesn't need to stare at the predator. The rabbit doesn't need to tell exactly

how far away the predator is. He just needs to know what's there and what direction it is so he can run the other way. He's a prey animal and he's watching out for predators. Let's jump to a predator's eyes for a minute, how they sit really close together. So let's jump to a predator's eyes for a minute, how they sit really close together. So let's jump to say the fox. And if you kind of want to understand the eye placement on a fox, if you have a pet dog, very, very similar.

They're both canines. Your dog's eyes are really close together on his head. Now your dog has okay peripheral vision. Like he can see off to the side, pretty good, right? But his specialty is, is that he can use both of his closely placed eyes to focus on something. And you'll notice if you watch a dog or watch a cat and they're watching something moving around, both of their eyes are moving to track its motion. They're using binocular vision, meaning their eyes are moving to track its motion. They're using binocular vision, meaning their eyes are working together. What that does is that gives you something called depth perception. Okay, so let's jump to a cat, for instance. A

cat is watching a mouse go across the floor. He's watching it with both of those eyes. He's using his binocular vision which is giving the cat depth perception, meaning that cat by using both of its eyes knows that when it jumps it knows exactly how far away that mouse is because it's using both of his eyes to look at it. It knows exactly how far that mouse is and he's gonna jump on it and grab it. So that explains a little bit about why your eyes are positioned where they are or why an animal's eyes are positioned where they are on its head. But let's talk for one quick second about their pupils. Now if you look in the mirror at your own eye,

your pupil is the dark spot in the center of your eye. Your pupil could be brown, it could be blue, maybe you have green eyes, whatever it is, that's the pupil, that circle thing. It's a circle on you, on a human. But on a lot of predators and prey, the pupils have a different shape. They're like a long slit. They're kind of like a bar, okay? Now on a lot of prey animals, like if you go look at a, let's say a horse or a goat, you go look at its pupil. Its pupil is horizontal.

So it's like a flat bar that runs horizontally. If you look at a cat, its pupil is a vertical bar that runs up and down. This is another way that the structure of the eye helps you do what your main job is. That horizontal pupil is meant for looking way around in a circle all around you. It's meant to have really good peripheral vision.

And what's crazy is, if you watch, like let's say you're watching a horse and he's got that slit pupil, that horizontal bar pupil. When a horse drops his head down to eat grass, his eyes are not staring at the ground. His eyes roll, almost like roll back into the back of his head so that that horizontal bar stays horizontal. So he's always scanning. So

even when his head's down eating grass, he's scanning all around him for predators. These other animals with the vertical slit are animals sometimes that hunt at night so that vertical slit is good for gathering light and it also seems to be really good for determining distance and depth perception. Again, because he's focusing on something he wants to jump on and kill and that eye, that shape of that pupil and where his eyes sit on his head allows him to focus on it and know how far away it is so that when it makes its attack, when it makes its leap, it's very

accurate. So here's the thing you can do as you drive around with your parents or you walk around or whatever you look at different pets you might have or you go and you're at a farm and you look at different farm animals, take a look at their eyes and think about where those eyes are placed on their head and take a look at their pupils And see how their pupils are shaped and see if what I'm telling you makes sense. There are exceptions to these rules I'm giving you so you might catch me where you think I was wrong because there are some exceptions What I'm telling you is generally true Predators have eyes in the front of their head that are close together.

Prey animals have eyes off the side of their head that are spread way out and they look kind of buggy. They're kind of sticking out so they can see all around them real good. So pay attention out there when you're looking at animals and you tell me if I seem like I'm kind of right or if I seem like I'm kind of wrong. I think I'm kind of right.

I seem like I'm kind of right or if I seem like I'm kind of wrong. I think I'm kind of right. What's a shark's favorite sandwich? Peanut butter and jellyfish. Now it's time for how to make a critter call. Clay here is going to teach you how to make the sound of a barred owl. There are some animals that the human voice box is really good at mimicking. And today I want to teach you something that I love to do and that is to call barred owls. B-A-R-R-E-D. Barred owls. The barred owl lives in North America and it typically lived in the eastern deciduous

forests like the east half of America, but in the last period of time they've migrated and moved and spread into the Pacific Northwest all the way up into Alaska. I heard a barred owl in Alaska the other day. The barred owl is an incredible animal and it's a raptor, it's a predator, it catches mice and small mammals. And to me, the most unique thing about it is that they are almost completely nocturnal, which means they only come out and hunt at night. That's primarily when they're out and when they hunt. And they have incredible vision, but here it is.

When they fly, they don't make a sound. The tips of their feathers are built in such a way that when it flows across the air, it doesn't make a sound. The tips of their feathers are built in such a way that when it flows across the air, it doesn't make a noise. I think that's really cool. But the barred owl is very vocal. They make noises all the time. And my dad taught me how to barred owl hoot.

And there's a phrase that we can use that'll help us remember the sequence and cadence of the noise. And it's this, that we can use that'll help us remember the sequence and cadence of the noise. And it's this, who cooks for you, who cooks for you all. Say that with me. Say, who cooks for you, who cooks for you all. And so we're going to replace each of those words with a hoot. And you make a hoot by making your lips into kind of an O shape and from deep down in your chest go, oh. So you make the barred alcohol by connecting hoots into that specific sequence and cadence

of who cooks for you, who cooks for you all. And it sounds something like this. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all. I want you to try it now. Try that. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And the reason that I like the barred owl hoot

is that if you're a turkey hunter, we use the barred owl hoot to locate turkeys, which is kind of wild, but a male turkey will gobble at the sound of a barred owl hooting and we call it a shock gobble. It's almost like they're shocked that they heard an owl and so they gobble. So that's the reason a barred owl hoot is really important to a turkey hunter and it's important to a lot of people that like to hunt. Let's try it again, one last time, the barred owl hoot. Who cooks for you?

Who cooks for you all? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, It's time for everyone's favorite game show, Trivia. Let's all join in. I'm joined by Mabel, Matthew, Rosie, Hayden, Conley, Sage, Hattie, 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 $240. This week that donation is going to the National Wild Turkey Federation which publishes the kids magazine about wildlife conservation called Jake's Country. Let's see how much money our players can raise. Question 1. What object in the night sky is known as Ursa Major? Is it the North Star,

the Big Dipper, or Full Moon? What object in the night sky is known as Ursa Major? Is it North Star, Big Dipper, or Full Moon? Last week our players were very confident they declared the questions were too easy, but this one may have stumped them. What's the other one? What's the other one? Your three choices are North Star, Big Dipper, or Full Moon. One of those things is called Ursa Major.

Not so cocky now, are we kids? No. I got it. I'm scared. Is we kids? No. I got it. I'm scared. That was hard. Is everybody ready? Yes. Go ahead and reveal your answers. Bae.

North Star. Rosie. North Star. Mabel. North Star. Hattie. Big Dipper. Hayden.

Big Dipper. Sage. North Star. Conley. North Star. Matthew. The Big Dipper. The correct answer... is the Big Dipper. Yes. Let's go. About half The Big Dipper. The correct answer is the Big Dipper.

Yes! Let's go! About half of you got that right. Ursa Major is Latin for Great Bear or Big Bear and although most look at the constellation and see a ladle for scooping water, the Greeks and Native Americans saw a large bear while the Egyptians saw an ox pulling a plow. So if Ursa Major is the Big Dipper, then what do you guys think the name

for the Little Dipper is? Ursa Minor. There you go, you got it Hayden. Ursa Minor is the Little Dipper. Ursa Bigger, Ursa Minor. Question two. What's it called when an animal regrows a body part? Photosynthesis, regeneration, or fermentation?

What's it called when an animal regrows a body part? Photosynthesis, regeneration, or fermentation? You got this one right, Matthew? No. No. I think I do. Okay, Rosie. That would be embarrassing if I actually didn't have it.

Why would it be so embarrassing? Well, because we talk about things like regrowing stuff a lot. Mabel, how do you feel about your answer? I'm pretty happy with it just because, I don't know. Okay, Sage, you're not real confident. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't get it right I know what's it called when an animal regrows a body part photosynthesis regeneration or fermentation what do you got Connelly I know it's not okay you've narrowed it down to two of

the three 50% is everybody ready yes Yes. Yeah. Go ahead and reveal your answers. Bay. Regeneration. Rosie. Fermentation. Mabel. Regeneration. Hattie. Regeneration. Hayden. Regeneration. Sage. Regeneration. Conley. Matthew. The correct answer is regeneration. Let's go! is regeneration. Let's go! Your room did pretty well. Patty, you haven't gotten one wrong. Photosynthesis is when plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. Fermentation is the chemical breakdown of a substance,

and regeneration is the process of replacing damaged cells, tissues, or organs. Some animals with regeneration are salamanders who can regrow their tail, starfish who can regrow their arms, and axolotls who can regrow their tail, starfish who can regrow their arms, and axolotls who can regrow their legs. I love axolotls. You love them? Now if you could grow an extra leg or an extra arm, which would you pick? Leg.

You want the extra leg? Leg. Wow. What are you going to do with the extra leg, Matthew? Well, if I regrow my leg, I think it would be more helpful more help cuz I could just I could just get a You're gonna need some extra shoes. I think you might Tell an extra so yeah now this side of the room wanted an extra arm No, I want an extra brain. Yeah, because you could grab more stuff at the same time

Yeah, that is true scare people but like extra tell you just cool like because like you could be like you have my nose I actually have 11 toes mm-hmm like everybody else has 10. I have 11 I can't debate that that's the same as like an arm you two arms. I have three yeah Question three which of these states does not touch the Mississippi River? Is it Missouri? Mississippi or New York? Which of these states does not touch the Mississippi River? Missouri? This one's easy. Mississippi or New York? Yeah, I agree.

It's not. You guys realize that it could actually be what you guys are thinking it's I agree It's not You guys realize that it could actually be what you guys are thinking it's not Wow New York is all the way at the top of the USA I'm not saying that the Missouri River is in New York What I'm saying is that That's why it's on this

Because it's a trick You think I tried to trick you Rosie? Yeah Okay Is everybody ready? Which of these states does not touch the Mississippi? Is it Missouri, Mississippi, or New York? Go ahead and reveal your answers. Bay. New York. Rosie. New York. Mabel. New York. Hattie. New York. Hayden. New York. Sage. New York. Conley. New York. Matthew. New York. Everybody got it right. The correct answer was New York. New York is about 600 miles away from the Mississippi River. Besides Missouri and Mississippi, the river flows through eight other states. So here's what

we're going to do. For every state you guys can name that touches the Mississippi River, we're going to add an extra $10 to the donation but it's three strikes and you're out so everybody talk it over about what states you think could be and then Mabel will deliver the final answer so you know Mississippi and Missouri there are eight other states Maybe what do you think it is? I think I'm gonna go with North Dakota. It's North Dakota is not one of the states that is Do better, okay, Mabel, give us give us a second state Kentucky a second state. Oh gosh, okay. Um Matthew is pretty confident in talking Minnesota. Um

Do you trust him? Yes Don't trust I don't really trust No, no, trust me I I swear I it's right it's right the good news is if Matthew is wrong you can hear about it for the rest of his life so but if he's right you guys add $10 yeah that's also on her for trusting you don't have to do it, but I'm just saying you could cuz I think nobody else giving me any help And I have no idea like why do I don't know I can't talky, but okay, okay? Minnesota what is correct that is one of them That means there are seven more states to go or two strikes Mabel do you want to give us another state? I don't really want to but I don't know do you want to give the responsibility to

Someone else sure. Yeah, okay Hattie. Okay. Hattie has a responsibility. Give me a state Hattie You have one strike and seven states to go This is kind of scary Uh, I'll just I'll trust sage Kentucky Kentucky is correct you guys have two states and one strike who else wants to give us an answer Hayden do you want to be in charge of the next state? No, can I be in charge? Rosie would like to be in charge.

I'm in charge now. Do you guys have any input for Rosie on what the next stage should be? Oh wait maybe like, do the Virginia's? I think maybe the Virginia's. Is Alabama touching Kentucky? Yes I think Alabama. I agree with Mabel. Alabama? Alabama.

Alabama is incorrect! You guys have two strikes. Why you laugh? You wanna win. Is incorrect! You guys have two strikes. Two strikes and six states to go. Sage, you're gonna be in charge of the next one. Do you guys have any input for Sage? Ohio! No, don't do Ohio, please don't.

Sage, do Ohio. Wait, wait, wait, maybe like Georgia. Montana? No, Montana does not have it. Okay, Sage, give us a state. Oops. Virginia. Virginia. Please.

Is incorrect, that is your third strike. Idaho is incorrect. Oh, my bad. The other six states are Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. But the good news is you guys added an extra $20 to the end. So Phil the engineer, how much money did we raise? With that additional $20, they raised a total of $180. $180 going to the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Well done kids. Join us next week for more MeatEater Kids trivia. The only other game show where conservation always wins. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next week on MeatEater Kids. Hey guys, earlier this year we launched Meat Eater Kids podcast and we made a deal where if you guys liked it and loved it and listened to it, we were going to make more and you did and we did and we're dropping a bunch new, five new Meat Eater Kids podcast episode

starting November 25th. Again, it's a kids show. You listen to it with your kids. It occurs in three acts. There's a little history lesson or a wildlife ecology lesson. There's a animal call game that you play by listening to animal calls and trying to guess what animals you're hearing based on some clues. And then real live kids come in the studio and play kids trivia and work together to build up a little pot of money to donate to kids focused conservation organizations. So Meat Eater Kids podcast coming back round two.

Meat Eater Kids! Find Meat Eater Kids wherever you get your podcasts.