Speaker 1: Part one, Why it's the way it.
Speaker 2: Is today and why it's the way it is, We're
Speaker 2: gonna dig into a weird word that you probably haven't
Speaker 2: heard before. That word is crepuscular. Now, this is one
Speaker 2: of my favorite words. I like saying it because it
Speaker 2: kind of solves a little bit of a riddle, as
Speaker 2: i'll explain. But to get into what crepuscular means, well,
Speaker 2: first you should practice saying it one So work with
Speaker 2: me here, crepuscular. Okay, Now, now that you got it,
Speaker 2: we're gonna dig into what it means. But to dig
Speaker 2: into what it means, to dig into like why it's
Speaker 2: the way it is, we're gonna talk about another word
Speaker 2: that I bet you you've heard before, and that word.
Speaker 1: Is called nocturnal.
Speaker 2: Now, nocturnal means this nocturnals means something that's active at night.
Speaker 1: Okay. So if you're the kind of.
Speaker 2: Person or maybe your parents this way, maybe you're this
Speaker 2: way that you like to be up late at night
Speaker 2: doing stuff, people might say like, oh, they're nocturnal. Mean
Speaker 2: they're like most active at night. They kind of feel
Speaker 2: the wake at night, right, they want to do stuff
Speaker 2: at night. So you'll hear people mention how they sometimes
Speaker 2: feel nocturnal, or if they have a lot of work
Speaker 2: they need to get done, they'll go nocturnal, right, they'll
Speaker 2: start working at night in the dark. But in the
Speaker 2: animal world, nocturnal refers to this whole group of animals
Speaker 2: from all different types of animals, right, I mean, there's
Speaker 2: nocturnal birds, as we'll get into, there are nocturnal reptiles,
Speaker 2: there are nocturnal fish. They are nocturnal mammals. Within that,
Speaker 2: you got nocturnal rodents, you got nocturnal bats. No, no, no, no, okay,
Speaker 2: it means they're active at night. And I'm gonna talk
Speaker 2: about a couple nocturnal animals just to kind of give
Speaker 2: you a sense. One of my favorite nocturnal animals is
Speaker 2: the apossum. Now, you will occasionally run into an apossum
Speaker 2: in the daytime, but for the most part, they hide
Speaker 2: out in the daytime. They go into little dens and burrows.
Speaker 2: They'll go into rock piles, They'll go under old buildings
Speaker 2: that are falling down. They'll go into hollow logs. One
Speaker 2: time I was out with my brother Danny, and we
Speaker 2: were out hunting rabbits and we found a dead deer carcass, okay,
Speaker 2: And there was a lot of snow, but something had
Speaker 2: kind of dug down to this dead deer carcass and
Speaker 2: there was a hole that had been kind of gnawed
Speaker 2: into its rib cage. And I was curious about this,
Speaker 2: and I looked down into that hole and guess what.
Speaker 2: There was a possum dend up inside of the deer's ribcage.
Speaker 2: All the internal organs had been eaten away, and this
Speaker 2: frozen deer rib cage, this frozen deer carcass with the
Speaker 2: hide still on it was his den. And I'm not
Speaker 2: saying you should do this, but I actually, just out
Speaker 2: of curiosity, pulled him out by his tail. Now, possibly
Speaker 2: can hang from a tree by his tail. You're not
Speaker 2: gonna heard a possum picking him up by his tail.
Speaker 2: But I pulled him out by his tail and we
Speaker 2: took a picture of him and then put him back
Speaker 2: down in that deer ribcage. And the reason I'm not
Speaker 2: recommending you do this is you could get bit and
Speaker 2: it's probably not a good idea to bother stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I was little, and you know, like.
Speaker 2: He was curious about stuff, and that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I pulled him out, had to look at him, stuffed
Speaker 2: him back in his little den where you hit out
Speaker 2: during the day, and that night probably got active and
Speaker 2: wandered around and ate on his dead deer that he found.
Speaker 2: There's another word that we're gonna get to now, before
Speaker 2: we get to crepuscular, We're going to get to diurnal. Now,
Speaker 2: you hear diurnal less than nocturnal, like you hear diurnal
Speaker 2: way less than nocturnal, but you still hear it more
Speaker 2: than you hear crepuscular. Diurnal means an animal that's active
Speaker 2: in the daytime. Okay, let me name some things that
Speaker 2: are diurnal. Seagulls. Now that there's a lot of kinds
Speaker 2: of seagulls, but seagulls, that's a diurnal creature.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: You don't see seagulls flying around in the dark too much.
Speaker 2: You go down to the beach on a sunny day
Speaker 2: in the middle of the day, and seagulls are.
Speaker 1: Running around, really active. They're diurnal.
Speaker 2: I would also venture to say that us humans were mammals,
Speaker 2: for the most part, were diurnal animals. We're most active
Speaker 2: in the daytime. There are diurnal creatures living in the water. Okay,
Speaker 2: I would say that the very common widespread fish called
Speaker 2: a bluegill, a bluegills diurnal.
Speaker 1: Now, if you ever going.
Speaker 2: Out snorkeling at night, I used to like to do
Speaker 2: this a great deal. Go out snorkeling at night with
Speaker 2: an underwater flashlight. You'll see bluegills sitting there just kind
Speaker 2: of zoned out in shallow water. You can even this
Speaker 2: is gonna sound crazy, you can even with a little stick.
Speaker 2: When you find a bluegill sleeping, you can even poke
Speaker 2: it with a stick before it moves off.
Speaker 1: They're just zoned out.
Speaker 2: They're sort of they're like a fish version of sleeping.
Speaker 1: But they love the daytime.
Speaker 2: In the spring, when the water starts to warm up
Speaker 2: and they're getting active, bluegills will even come up and
Speaker 2: stick their back out of the water just the sun,
Speaker 2: just to feel the warmth and to warm water and
Speaker 2: it's warmed by the sun at the surface. They like
Speaker 2: the daytime. They feed in the daytime. They're active at
Speaker 2: the daytime. If you've ever been out fishing bluegills and
Speaker 2: you notice that the bite turns off, meaning the fishing
Speaker 2: gets bad at night, they quiet down, they quit eating,
Speaker 2: they quit being so active. Bluegills are diurnal. Now that
Speaker 2: we've covered nocturnal and diurnal, nocturnal being active at night,
Speaker 2: diurnal being active in the daytime, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 2: a critter that's crepuscular. Now, crepuscular means kind of in
Speaker 2: the middle. It's in the middle between diurnal and nocturnal,
Speaker 2: meaning it likes the low light conditions like dawn, and
Speaker 2: it likes dusk. And if you're a deer hunter, or
Speaker 2: you have deer hunters in your family, go ask those
Speaker 2: deer hunters when's the best time to go out deer hunting.
Speaker 2: I guarantee the answer you're gonna get. You're gonna get
Speaker 2: an answer that the best time to hunt deer is
Speaker 2: at dawn and at dusk. That is because deer are crepuscular.
Speaker 2: They like low light conditions, not totally dark, not totally daytime.
Speaker 2: If they like the low light conditions, if there's a
Speaker 2: time of day that deer gonna move, they're gonna move
Speaker 2: at dawn and at dusk, when it's kind of gray
Speaker 2: out and low light. That's when they like to do
Speaker 2: their traveling. They can see good, they can see way
Speaker 2: better than you can in low light, and that's when
Speaker 2: they feel most comfortable to do their traveling. Here's another
Speaker 2: animal that's crepuscular that you might be familiar with, the
Speaker 2: red fox. The red fox likes to get out and
Speaker 2: hunt during low light conditions. He likes to get out
Speaker 2: and hunt in the early morning or.
Speaker 1: The late evening.
Speaker 2: Now why could be There could be a lot of
Speaker 2: reasons why an animal could be crepuscular because it has
Speaker 2: predators that are diurnal or nocturnal. Meaning, if a red
Speaker 2: fox is worried about getting killed by a mountain lion
Speaker 2: who's nocturnal, he might find that his best not to
Speaker 2: do his hunting out at night. And if a red
Speaker 2: fox is worrying about getting killed by an animal that
Speaker 2: is diurnal, say a big golden eagle, he might know
Speaker 2: it's best not to get out and do his hunting
Speaker 2: in the daytime. But he finds a little sweet spot.
Speaker 2: He finds his zone when his nighttime enemy and his
Speaker 2: daytime enemy are inactive and he can get out and
Speaker 2: do his hunting. Another reason might be this, maybe the
Speaker 2: animal doesn't have great night vision. They don't see really
Speaker 2: good in the dark dark of night. And let's say
Speaker 2: that same animal doesn't like to be overly hot. It
Speaker 2: has a hard time staying cool when it's out doing
Speaker 2: its honting. So here's a red fox. He's covered in
Speaker 2: a thick coat of fur. It's summertime. Maybe in the
Speaker 2: summertime it's eighty degrees, it's ninety degrees. It's just way
Speaker 2: too hot for him to be out hunting. But he
Speaker 2: doesn't see as good as he'd like in the absolute dark.
Speaker 2: He sees really good in low light. So the day
Speaker 2: cools off, it gets to be where it's not so
Speaker 2: uncomfortable to be out hunting. There's still enough light to
Speaker 2: be able to see to hunt. So that's the time
Speaker 2: they find to do their work when they're out in motion.
Speaker 2: Those are crepuscular animals. Now we've only talked about really
Speaker 2: in detail. We've only talked about two crepuscular animals. We
Speaker 2: talked about deer, we talked about red foxes. But there
Speaker 2: are a lot of crepuscular animals. My daddy, when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, would call the morning in the evening,
Speaker 2: he would call it the magic hour, and that's when
Speaker 2: he liked to be out in the woods.
Speaker 1: And I picked up on that.
Speaker 2: I picked up on that because whether I'm in the
Speaker 2: mountains or the woods or the swamps. If I could
Speaker 2: be out there for any period of time, I would say,
Speaker 2: I want to be out there the hour after it
Speaker 2: gets light, just light enough to see, and I want
Speaker 2: to be out there the hour just before it gets dark.
Speaker 2: And the reason I want to be there for those
Speaker 2: hours is because they're the magic hour. Those are the
Speaker 2: hours when you see the most animals. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: the evening. Why the evening's cool. In the evening, you're
Speaker 2: catching the diurnal animals at the end of their day.
Speaker 2: They're wrapping up their day and getting ready to go
Speaker 2: to bed. The crepuscular animals right at the peak of
Speaker 2: their activity. This is the time of the day they
Speaker 2: live for is that low light condition. And in the evening,
Speaker 2: you're catching the nocturnal animals in their morning. They're just
Speaker 2: waking up and getting ready to go. So you have
Speaker 2: this big rush of wildlife ending their day, just in
Speaker 2: the middle of their day, starting their day. And then
Speaker 2: let's think about in the morning. In the morning, those
Speaker 2: nocturnal animals are wrapping up their day, getting ready to
Speaker 2: go to bed. Their crepuscular animals are out it's their
Speaker 2: peak time of movement. And those diurnal animals are just
Speaker 2: getting up and getting ready to start their day.
Speaker 1: So through that.
Speaker 2: Little hour long period, maybe that ninety minute period, you
Speaker 2: get this full rush of wildlife shifting and changing and interacting.
Speaker 2: And that's what makes the magic hour. And the magic
Speaker 2: hour is during that crepuscular period. So if you get
Speaker 2: into wildlife watching and you realize what I have learned,
Speaker 2: this is the best time to be out, you will
Speaker 2: be able to describe yourself as a crepuscular wildlife viewer.
Speaker 1: You like to get out and view.
Speaker 2: Wildlife in the low light conditions dawn and evening.
Speaker 1: Part two, Guess that Critter.
Speaker 3: It's time for Guess that critter. Where we play animal
Speaker 3: sounds and you've got to guess what animal is making
Speaker 3: those sounds. You'll learn some neat facts about these animals
Speaker 3: and develop your ear to better identify their sounds in
Speaker 3: the wild or in this case, maybe in your attic too.
Speaker 3: And don't worry, we'll throw in some clues along the way.
Speaker 3: Now listen closely. These are social mammals that often live
Speaker 3: in family groups. In the spring and summer. It's common
Speaker 3: to see the mothers with as many as five or
Speaker 3: six babies trailing behind as they head out in the
Speaker 3: evening to search for food. You may hear them chittering
Speaker 3: like this or purring to express contentment. And here's what
Speaker 3: the babies or kits sound like.
Speaker 2: Is it a chipmunk?
Speaker 1: Ooh?
Speaker 3: Not quite. While these animals do make fun and interesting
Speaker 3: pets when captured in the wild and tamed, it's never
Speaker 3: a good idea to approach them or attempt to pick
Speaker 3: them up without an adult who's an expert in handling
Speaker 3: this type of critter. For one thing, doing so might
Speaker 3: be illegal in your state. For another thing, they are
Speaker 3: vicious fighters and will readily attack a person who they
Speaker 3: feel is threatening them. They'll growl when they feel threatened,
Speaker 3: and the males of this species are prone to violent
Speaker 3: clashes with each other during the midwinter breeding season, when
Speaker 3: they come out on warm nights in search of female
Speaker 3: mating partners and fend off their rival males. These fights
Speaker 3: can be heard from far away as they screech and
Speaker 3: snarl while scratching and biting each other.
Speaker 4: Is it a grinner?
Speaker 3: What's a grinner? Awesome? Ooh, that's close. They're crafty and curious,
Speaker 3: with an amazing ability to find food and shelter in
Speaker 3: almost any situation. They'll make dens or sleep away the
Speaker 3: day and abandoned badger or groundhog holes or hollow logs
Speaker 3: and tree cavities or brush piles, junked cars, old barns,
Speaker 3: or even the attics of new houses. They seem to
Speaker 3: enjoy eating even more than us humans. They like everything
Speaker 3: from corn to crayfish. If you're close enough to them
Speaker 3: while they eat, you might hear munching noises like this.
Speaker 3: These powerful critters have short legs, beady eyes, and a
Speaker 3: pointed muzzle. Their front feet have five finger like toes
Speaker 3: that are extremely dexterous, meaning they can use them to
Speaker 3: grab things and also climb trees, rock walls, and fences.
Speaker 3: They range in color from silver gray to dirty brown.
Speaker 3: Adults can reach twenty pounds, with big males getting up
Speaker 3: to thirty pounds. Their tails have black rings, and they
Speaker 3: have black markings on their face that resemble a mask.
Speaker 3: Folks will refer to them as mask bandits and even
Speaker 3: trash pandas Okay, it's time for the reveal. It's a raccoon.
Speaker 3: The raccoon is found across most of North America and
Speaker 3: continues to expand its range. While human developments such as
Speaker 3: farms and subdivisions might drive away more secretive wild animals.
Speaker 3: Raccoons are able to make themselves feel right at home
Speaker 3: as they feed on our garbage, our farm crops, and
Speaker 3: the food we leave out for birds, chickens, or pet
Speaker 3: dogs and cats. Raccoons, especially the babies, are preyed upon
Speaker 3: by cootes, bobcats, boxes, and large owls. Humans hunt and
Speaker 3: trap raccoons. The meat is edible and pretty good, and
Speaker 3: sometimes the pelts can be valuable, especially the larger ones
Speaker 3: with a silverish color. Ten years ago, raccoon pelts were
Speaker 3: worth up to thirty or forty dollars. Right now they're
Speaker 3: worth only a few dollars, but the prices will almost
Speaker 3: certainly rise again. Raccoons are super cool, for sure, but
Speaker 3: sometimes they are downright pesky. Maybe in the future you
Speaker 3: can make some good money trapping them, while also helping
Speaker 3: out farmers for trying to protect their orchards and crop
Speaker 3: fields from these hungry critters.
Speaker 4: Part three.
Speaker 5: Trivia and now It's time for meat Eater Kids Trivia
Speaker 5: the other only game show where conservation always wins.
Speaker 4: This is a quiz show for kids who love the outdoors.
Speaker 5: Take it away, Spencer.
Speaker 4: Today, I'm joined by Jimmy, Rosie, Matthew, Aina, Mabel, Hayden, Conley, Read,
Speaker 4: and Bay. Each player will earn ten dollars for Conservation
Speaker 4: with every question they get right today. There's a potential
Speaker 4: for this room to earn up to two hundred and
Speaker 4: seventy dollars this week. That donation is going to take
Speaker 4: me fishing dot org, who provides resources to kids and
Speaker 4: parents that will help them have a great day on
Speaker 4: the water. Let's see how much money our players can raise.
Speaker 4: Question one, which of these animals does not have an exoskeleton?
Speaker 4: Is it a lobster, a grasshopper or an armadillo? The
Speaker 4: room is not very confident. Bey is the first one
Speaker 4: to come up with an answer. Here's the question again,
Speaker 4: Which of these animals does not have an exoskeleton? Lobster,
Speaker 4: grasshopper or armadillo? I think I know.
Speaker 1: It, you do.
Speaker 3: I'm very confident in my answers.
Speaker 4: Two of them have an exoskeleton, one of them does not.
Speaker 4: You need to tell me who the odd ball is
Speaker 4: that does not have an exoskeleton from that group? Conley,
Speaker 4: how do you know this one? Did you learn it
Speaker 4: in school. You just know what an exoskeleton is, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and you know what animals have them. Yeah, Okay, that's
Speaker 4: a good formula for getting this one right. Does everybody
Speaker 4: have an answer? Yeah, lobster, grasshopper, armadillo. Yep, go ahead
Speaker 4: and reveal your answers. We have Aina saying grasshopper, Rosie
Speaker 4: saying armadillo, Bay saying armadillo, Mabel saying armadillo, Jimmy saying armadillo.
Speaker 4: Read saying armadillo, Matthew saying grasshopper, Conley saying grasshopper, Hayden
Speaker 4: saying grasshopper. Nobody said lobster. The correct answer is not
Speaker 4: a lobster, it's an armadillo. The room did pretty well.
Speaker 4: An exoskeleton is a skeleton that's on the exterior of
Speaker 4: an animal. Who'd have thought, huh Now, although armadillos have
Speaker 4: that protective shell, they still have a skeleton in their body,
Speaker 4: just like humans. Can you guys name some other animals
Speaker 4: that have it exoskeletons? Spiders, spider that'd be one. What else?
Speaker 4: There's a lot more. Shrab that's a good one. Shrimp
Speaker 4: is a good one. You know any others, bees, scorpions, snails.
Speaker 4: All arthropods and insects have exoskeletons. Question two, What state
Speaker 4: is home to the Rocky Mountain National Park? Is it Colorado,
Speaker 4: Wisconsin or Florida? Which state is home to Rocky Mountain
Speaker 4: National Park? Colorado, Wisconsin or Florida. I know you know
Speaker 4: this one. Yeah, she's not in her head, giving an
Speaker 4: okay symbol. Define you think so? Some confident players, some not.
Speaker 4: What state is home to Rocky Mountain National Park? Colorado,
Speaker 4: Wisconsin or Florida. Everyone was quick to answer.
Speaker 3: Though I haven't even answered yet.
Speaker 4: I think we're waiting on you. Rosemary, Colorado, Wisconsin or Florida.
Speaker 4: Which one of those states has the Rocky Mountain National Park?
Speaker 4: Are you ready? Guys look nervous, Yeah, go ahead and
Speaker 4: reveal your answers. We have Anas saying Colorado, Rosie saying Colorado,
Speaker 4: Bay saying Wisconsin, Mabel saying Colorado, Jimmy saying Colorado, Read
Speaker 4: saying Colorado, Matthew saying Colorado, Conley saying Colorado, Hayden saying Colorado.
Speaker 4: You all got it, Almost all of you, he answers Colorado.
Speaker 4: Rocky Mountain National Park gets about four point five million
Speaker 4: visitors each year, some animals that call at home or
Speaker 4: big horn, sheep, mule, deer, elk, mountain goats, moose, and
Speaker 4: black bears. How'd you guys figure that answer out? How'd
Speaker 4: y'all know that one?
Speaker 2: I used to Colorado, Colorado?
Speaker 1: Okay? I heard what were the options?
Speaker 4: Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida. Okay, so I knew it definitely wasn't
Speaker 4: in Florida. The Rocky Mountains there, and I'm not a
Speaker 4: colorad the Rocky Mountains.
Speaker 1: Cheese and cows.
Speaker 4: Cheese, cheese and cows. That's right, that's all. Wisconsin has
Speaker 4: chocolate milk. They do have good cheese curtains. I learned
Speaker 4: about Colorado and school. Okay, you kids got to figure
Speaker 4: it out. Cheese and cows all you'll get in Wisconsin.
Speaker 4: Question three, Which of these things is not a piece
Speaker 4: of camping gear? Is it a carabiner, a vestibule, or
Speaker 4: a calender? I don't know what any of those are. Okay,
Speaker 4: two of them are things that you use while you're camping.
Speaker 4: One of them is not. Which of these things is
Speaker 4: not a piece of camping gear? Carabineer, vestibule, or calender.
Speaker 4: Our players were very confident on question two, but they
Speaker 4: are leaking confidence. On question three, there are going to
Speaker 4: be some creative spellings in the room. I'm quite sure
Speaker 4: of that. Which of these things is not a piece
Speaker 4: of camping gear? Carabiner, vestibule, calender. Does everybody have an answer?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: I am not you're not confident. Do you know what
Speaker 4: any of these things are?
Speaker 1: Conley?
Speaker 4: No? Okay, just suggest does anybody know how many of
Speaker 4: you know, like what one of them is?
Speaker 3: Me?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: How many of you know what two of them are? Me?
Speaker 4: And do any of you know what all three of
Speaker 4: them are?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Idea?
Speaker 4: Okay, there's a mystery piece of gear in the batch.
Speaker 4: Does everybody have an answer?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: Yeah, go ahead and reveal your answers. We have an
Speaker 4: are saying calender, Rosemary saying vestibule, By saying calendar, Mabel
Speaker 4: saying calender, Jimmy saying calender, Read saying vestibule, Matthew saying vestibule,
Speaker 4: Conley saying vestibule, Hayden saying calender. Nobody said carabiner. Huh,
Speaker 4: carabiner is a piece of camping gear. So good on
Speaker 4: you for not saying that one. The correct answer is collander.
Speaker 4: About half of you got it right. A carabiner is
Speaker 4: a D shaped metal ring with one spring hinged side.
Speaker 4: A vestibule is a covered area next to your tent door,
Speaker 4: and a calendar is a bowl with holes in it
Speaker 4: that's used to strain liquid from food. Probably see it
Speaker 4: used with pasta. Have any of you ever been in
Speaker 4: a tent with a vestibule? Can you picture what that
Speaker 4: looks like? Yeah, yes I can, I've seen it. Keep
Speaker 4: you dry, keep your gear dry. A calender would not
Speaker 4: keep you very dry though. That's it for today's round
Speaker 4: of trivia. Fill the engineer. How much money did we raise?
Speaker 5: One hundred eighty dollars?
Speaker 4: One hundred eighty dollars and that's going to take me
Speaker 4: fishing dot org. Well done, kids, Join us next time
Speaker 4: for more meat Eater Kids Trivia, the only other game
Speaker 4: show where conservation always wins.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for listening. We really hope you
Speaker 5: enjoyed the episode. Now get outside. Be sure to tune
Speaker 5: in next week for another episode Me Your Kids