Jane: This is But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont
Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions
from curious kids all over the world, and we find answers. You
guys ask the best questions, and they take us in some really
interesting directions. So, I feel lucky to get to talk with
you and help you get answers to your questions, because I get so
many answers. I actually had a question of my own the other
day. I was walking my dog, Wilson, in the woods when we
came upon another dog named Dexter, who lives in our
neighborhood. Wilson and Dexter started running back and forth
as fast as they could. Wilson would run in between trees like
weaving in and out of trees that are really close together and
then around the back of another tree to see if Dexter could keep
up with him. And when Dexter started to lose interest, Wilson
would bark at him to do it again. Then Dexter decided he
wanted to do something different so he led Wilson over to a river
and they splashed around for a while before deciding to wrestle
over a big stick, and then peeing in the same place
multiple times. It sure looked to me like they were playing,
but is that what they were doing? Do animals play, and is
it just for fun, like humans do? Wilson is three years old, so
he's kind of moving from teenager status to young adult
in the dog world, but he still acts very much like a puppy, so
that made me wonder, too, is play just for young animals,
including humans, or do animals, including humans, play for their
whole lives? Turns out I'm not the only one wondering about
this, so we took your questions and mine to someone who spends a
lot of time observing the behavior of many different
animals.
Marco Wendt: My name is Marco Wendt. I'm the Wildlife
Jane: A wildlife ambassador, what is that?
Ambassador for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Marco Wendt: Wildlife ambassador is the coolest job. I get to
talk about conservation projects all over the world, animals like
an axolotl to an elephant to a cassowary, but I also get to
interact with a lot of fun wildlife and people who work in
a zoo environment. So I could maybe communicate fun animal
facts on a podcast, like you and I are doing today. It could be
social media. You can even find me at the Safari Park or San
Diego Zoo, which I'm always running around having a fun
adventure.
Jane: How often do you get to actually interact with or see
the animals at the zoo?
Marco Wendt: Every single day, minus my weekends, even though I
have animals at home. So, technically, I got animals all
around me every single day. But one of my favorite things about
working for a zoo organization is I get to go into the safari
park or the San Diego Zoo before it even opens, so I get to hear
the lion roaring in the morning, or the smell of a gorilla, or
maybe a capybara maybe farting in the water. You never know
what you might hear.
Jane: What does a gorilla smell like?
Marco Wendt: A gorilla smells like if I were to go camping for
maybe a month without showering, that's kind of what a gorilla
smells like. I mean, I maybe get a little more specific. I'm
really talking about the male gorillas, are called the silver
back, or before that become a dominant gorilla, it's
blackback. So, blackback, silverback, the technical smell
that I'm smelling is testosterone, which is it's a
hormone that helps with maybe growing muscle, and for this
particular case, it helps gorilla boys start turning their
fur silver in the back and getting these physical
attributes. That's kind of a sign that I'm ready to start my
own gorilla family. So, that is gorilla smell!
Jane: Sounds kind of unpleasant, but I'm not gonna lie, I still
kind of want to smell a gorilla. Marco says when he was a kid, he
spent a lot of time in nature with his family. Marco also grew
up watching cartoons like Captain Planet, where the little
kids had special powers to protect Earth. Those experiences
helped inspire him to grow up to be someone who works to protect
wildlife.
Marco Wendt: Being a wildlife ambassador, I do feel, and it's
my own way of giving myself the energy that I am a, I like to
say, a little superhero, yeah, for wildlife and helping connect
people with this amazing blue planet.
Jane: Well, we're excited to talk to you, and what we wanted
to focus on today is how and why and if animals play, and we have
a lot of playful questions for you.
Caden: My name is Caden, and I'm born from Netherlands, and I'm
from Korea. And my question is, why do baby animals play? I am
eight years old.
Marco Wendt: Caden, I love that question, why do baby animals
play? My first answer to that is a question, you know, depends on
what kind of animal. Animals will play for all sorts of
reasons. The number one is for fun, right? There's evidence all
over the world that animals play for fun. It could be maybe a
dolphin blowing rings of air pockets in the water and going
through them for fun. It could be maybe a crow that's been seen
sliding down a rooftop of snow, no particular reason other than
fun. But there's other, will be called like very
species-specific reasons, and by that I mean there's a very
specific reason why maybe a lion plays the way it does, maybe
versus a bird of prey, like a hawk, or maybe versus a
goldfish. So, for instance, I could say a cheetah cub will
play with its brothers and sisters by doing chase behavior,
so it's almost like playing tag, right? So a brother will chase,
maybe a sister, chase it, and maybe with its little paws hit
the back legs, maybe trip its brother and sister, and it's a
lot of fun, but that also is teaching that baby cheetah how
to one day be an adult cheetah, because it's a predator and
predators have to eat meat, so they have to take down another
animal, and the best way to do that for a cheetah is tripping
them, right? So it kind of depends, so all different
animals have different reasons for play.
Jane: So some animals do play for fun, but a lot of them, when
they're babies, they're learning behaviors that they're going to
need or use as adults. Do adult animals play?
Marco Wendt: I would say all animal babies can play for fun.
It's just sometimes there's other reasons also, right? Why
they play for fun. Adults also play for fun. In fact, a female
cassowary, so this is a big bird that can't fly.
Jane: Cassowaries are these huge, majestic birds native to
northeast Australia and the surrounding islands in the
Pacific Ocean.
Marco Wendt: Looks like a dinosaur,
Jane: Marco says at the San Diego Zoo, there was one
particular cassowary who was really fun to watch.
Marco Wendt: Yara is her name, and Yara had a favorite kicking
tree, so by that I mean cassowaries have to defend
themselves, they have really strong legs and they can give a
really strong kick, so Yara, as a baby, started practicing how
to do that, but then it became kind of fun for us, or anytime I
don't know if you ever get the zoomies, or you just kind of
want to like run around with their hands up in the air,
right, so castaways have their own version of that, and Yara
would run around the habitat, jump up in the air, and run to
this palm tree, and bam, bam, and they kick the palm tree, and
that was kind of her fun way. So, yes, I would say, and I can
give you many examples, but there's lots of evidence of
adult animals also playing for fun.
Jane: I'm picturing a cassowary doing parkour right now, like
running around, you're like parkour, parkour.
Marco Wendt: I would love to see it, totally. And it's such a
cool bird that you can actually see in one of the areas that I
work, called the Safari Park. So, I highly recommend seeing
what a real-life dinosaur looks like. I would check out a
cassowary.
Jane: I mean, if we're talking about what a real-life dinosaur
looks like, all we really have to do is go look at some
chickens. We hear at But Why actually just made a whole
episode about how all birds are the direct descendants of
dinosaurs, and we'll link to that episode in our show notes.
Marco Wendt: There is a small bird in South America called the
tinamou, looks very much like a chicken or maybe a quail-like
bird, but there is evidence from their dentition and DNA that
that is one of the closest living descendants of
Jane: teeth, so even if you think there's no way that looks
Tyrannosaurus Rex, and think about while big Tyrannosaurus X
was, and now it's a little tiny bird, but it shows you how cool
Mother Nature is, right? How things change all the time. It's
what it's one of the reasons why I love wildlife so much. You can
never know everything, and you can always be a student for
life, so that I think that's amazing. Yes, chickens, 100%
like a T-Rex through things like your teeth or fossil records,
you can see how things change, so even when your eyes deceive
you, scientists are trying to find ways to think, okay, well,
it doesn't seem logical, but science is telling us this is a
connection that's so cool.
Marco Wendt: right? No, and there's so many bird-like
animals at the time, when we think of dinosaurs, some through
evolution, or you know, adapting your body as the time progresses
on the planet, so there was evidence of birds with beaks and
teeth at one point, you know, which is crazy to think about,
or maybe even dinosaurs with a little bit of feathers on them
too, but it just shows how, how connected I think birds are to
what we think of dinosaurs, right? So that's why I'm a, I'm
a huge fan of birds, I love all wildlife, but birds are number
one in my book.
Jane: All right. Well, we don't know if dinosaurs played, but
maybe that's a topic for another podcast.
Tzvi: My name is Tzvi. I live in New York City. I'm four years
old, and I want to know why do pigs play in the mud?
Isaiah: I am Isaiah from Nicholasville, Kentucky. I am
five years old. My question is, why do pigs like to roll around
in mud, and why do they like mud so much and why do they never
take baths.
Casper: Hello, I'm Casper. I live in South Carolina. I'm four
years old. Why do pigs play in the mud a lot?
Marco Wendt: Ooh, that's an awesome question. So, I
mentioned earlier that pigs or animals play for a lot of
different reasons, and fun is definitely one of them, and I've
seen not only domesticated pigs, and, by domesticated, I mean,
maybe you live in a farm, and maybe your family has pigs,
those are domesticated pigs, right, and I've seen them wallow
or play in the mud. I've also seen wild hog or pig-like
species, like, for instance, I've seen a warthog, red river
hog, which is from Africa, babirusa, where they're from
Asia. I've seen all these wild pig species play in the mud,
also. And it's a very unique reason why they also play in the
mud. Now, if we kids are listening right now, touch your
forearm, touch your skin, know how sensitive your skin is,
right? I put on sunblock, and I also put on lotion, because my
Jane: who knew that pigs could get sunburned just like humans?
skin gets really dry sometimes, and itchy, and also I don't want
to get a sunburn. Sunburns are no good. So, a pig has very
Marco Wendt: Exactly right.
May: My name is May. I live in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. My
similar skin, especially those domesticated pigs, like a farm
favorite animal is an elephant, and my other favorite animal is
pig. And so, what they do is they play in the mud, because it
a monkey. And how does elephant like to play in mud? Because
gives them a natural sunblock. Also, it helps them to soften
it's because they get hot in the sun, so they play in mud instead
their skin a little bit, and it also can protect them, because
I've seen elephants. I know it's not a pig, but also elephants
I've seen wallow in mud for this very same reason. Mosquitoes,
nobody likes a mosquito bite. So, a lot of times, rolling in
the mud can also protect you from mosquito bites.
of water.
Jane: Why are they playing in the mud instead of the water if
they're hot in the sun?
Marco Wendt: Oh, that's a very awesome question, May. And I
love elephants for all that play behavior in the mud and the
water. The Safari Park here in San Diego, we have a brand new
elephant habitat called Elephant Valley, and you can get close to
elephants like never before. May, I could smell the
elephants, I can see the eyelashes, and guess that day
when I was there one day it was a rainy day, and there was a
big, there's a big giant pool, a watering hole for them to dive
into, but there's also a mud wallow, and I talked to the
elephant staff, and by that I mean the humans that work
alongside the elephants, we call them wildlife care specialists,
or for around the world they're known as zookeepers. So, I'm
going to say zookeeper for right now. So, the elephant zookeepers
are telling me that a lot of times the elephants prefer the
mud over the water, because of all the reasons I gave for the
pigs, the elephants love that too. I mean, yes, going in the
water is a lot of fun. It can cool you off in a hot, sunny
day. Mud can also cool you off on a hot, sunny day, but it also
provides sun block. It also provides protection from insect
bites, and it's also an exfoliant, which I never knew.
But the elephant herd at our safari park, one of their
favorite things every day - sunny day, cold day, doesn't
matter. They like to wallow, and they like to play in the mud,
and they get very special mud that's very similar to the kind
of soil from Africa, as an example. And this mud will dry,
and once it dries, you know what, May, they actually scratch
on the branches, and they scratch. I've seen an elephant
butt being scratched on a rock and exfoliate, so by that I mean
it helps break up the dead skin, you know. Maybe I may buy a
facial for my mom and she gets a mud mask and it costs a lot of
money, but elephants can do it for free. And so that's one of
the main reasons.
Jane: Avery in Lakeville, Minnesota, has a question about
an animal that I'm wondering if maybe Avery has this animal at
home and has been able to observe the behavior.
Avery: I live in Lakeville, Minnesota. I'm five years old.
My question is, why do hamsters like to play?
Marco Wendt: Oh, Avery, I love this question. You know, I had a
pair of hamsters when I was a kid, and it's for the same
reasons that I mentioned before, we're always going to assume
play is fun, right? So, hamsters, of course, have fun
play behavior also, but there's something very unique about
hamsters, if they're part of a family, like other rodents, the
rodent family, right? So, I'm thinking about maybe a guinea
pig, I'm thinking. Thinking of a hamster, I'm thinking of a rat,
or even a porcupine, or a beaver, I'm thinking of a
capybara.
Jane: Capybara, boy, imagine having one of those in your
house, much bigger.
Marco Wendt: Right? Way bigger. I know that's a very big rodent
in your house, but with your hamsters, you know, the number
one thing that I can say personally, in my experience,
knowing different types of rodents is they also have social
structures as well, so sometimes a hamster, to adult hamsters,
I'm not talking about baby hamsters, sometimes adult
hamsters might show some play behavior, and it could be fun,
but part of it could also be part of dominance, showing that
one's maybe more of a leader than the other, because those
animals, they're social, and by social I mean they spend a lot
of time with other individuals of the same species. In this
case, we're talking about hamsters, right? So, maybe a
cassowary that's solitary, by that I mean they spend their
time by themselves, doesn't necessarily have to do play
behavior to set dominance, but a hamster, there's a lot more
social dynamics, right? So they have a lot more individuals in
their family group that they have to navigate, so that would
be my, my number one guess. Why adult hamsters would do some
play behavior.
Jane: When animals are doing different behaviors. Do you have
a way to tell if they are playing or if they're doing
something for another reason? I mean, is it just observation, or
can you tell if an animal is having fun?
Marco Wendt: Yeah, it's... I think it is observation, number
one. But what I always tell people is that every single
animal on the planet communicates. We just have to
learn how to listen, and not every animal communicates in the
same way, just like human beings, maybe some people
communicate with their hands and some people communicate with
their voice, and that's okay. It's just how you communicate.
So, I would say, I'm giving you a zookeeper tip. If you want to
do observations like a zookeeper. For me, because I
work with so many different kinds of animals, and sometimes
I don't know anything about maybe a rhinoceros hornbill, so
then I have to study about the rhinoceros hornbill, because
that's very specific behaviors for that bird, versus maybe a
domestic pig versus an elephant, right. So I would say number
one, let's say you're brand new to a hamster, learn about the
hamster's history, where they're from, how do they interact with
each other, how they eat, their social dynamics, if they have
them, and then you can apply your observation skills,
watching them, and try to determine what those behaviors
are, and what play can be. It can look differently for one
animal versus another. As an example, one other example I can
give you is, I've seen young peregrine falcons, which are a
bird that can fly and hunt other birds, are the fastest animal on
the planet, and I've seen one chase another one and grab its
tail, and a buddy of mine, a friend, told me, "Oh no, that
falcon's being mean to the other falcon," and I told them, "No,
falcons hunt other birds, and they have to practice chasing.
So these young falcons are practicing hunting by chasing
its sister and grabbing the tail of the sister. " Maybe if I
didn't know the behavior or the background of the peregrine
falcon, I would not think of it as play. I think of it as maybe
being mean or aggressive, but that's what my point means, so
that you have to learn about the animal first, right? And then
apply your observation.
Jane: Yeah, I mean, you can do that even if you have, like, a
dog or a cat at home too, right? Like, sometimes my dog plays
with other dogs, and they're barking, and they have their
teeth out, and one of the dogs is drooling, and it can look
very aggressive, but I know they're friends, and as soon as
we say, "Come on, guys," then they keep coming along and
walking and having fun, and you can start to tell the difference
between when your dog is having fun with another dog, or what
its behavior is when it's maybe not having fun, like the way its
ears might be up and just alert if it's having fun and back if
it's not having fun. So you can start to see those observations
over time can give you a lot of insight into the animals,
whether they're wild animals or the animals that you live with.
Marco, do animals have friends?
Marco Wendt: Animals do have friends, and you know, I want to
begin by saying, is there's many instances where we want to put
human behavior and relationships onto animal behaviors and
relationships, so by that I mean kids, that maybe the way you
look at your best friend is not maybe the same way an orangutan
may look at their best friend. It just depends on the scenario.
I'm not saying that they don't have friendships, but we know a
lot about wildlife, but I can tell you that I don't know
specifically if maybe, for instance, I'm going to go back
to the elephant herd. We have the elephant herd, and different
individuals have different relationships with each other.
Sometimes one elephant that is maybe the lowest of the the the
ladder of power, so by that I mean there's the dominant
female, the matriarch, the abuelita, the the leader of the
herd, and then there's different leaders that go down in order,
and sometimes the one who's at the very bottom who has a very
important role too might become the best friend of the daughter
of the leader, because if I do that, then maybe I get some
better yummies or some extra snacks. So, so by that scenario,
I mean that there could be different reasons why animals
also have friendships, but I do believe in my heart of hearts
that they probably have friendships just like we do, but
maybe we don't see them in the same way as maybe an elephant or
a crocodile would, right? It just depends on the animal.
Jane: Are there any other examples of animal play or
animals playing that you think would be cool for us to know
about?
Marco Wendt: There's one that I saw recently that wasn't even at
the zoo or the safari park, and it was bumblebees. I actually
never knew that there's studies and research that shows that
bumblebees also like to play, but what I love about is we also
have what's called the entomology team, or the insect
team, at the San Diego Zoo, and I talked to them about this
before, and they told me that, yes, they've also seen play
behavior in bumblebees as well, and that just blew my mind, and
that just shows you how special our planet is, that we have
animals like elephants and bumblebees and reptiles and
birds that can also show play behavior, and I think that's
really, really cool. So that one, for me, blew my mind, and I
just recently learned that one too. So I thought that was epic.
Jane: You know, I actually spend a lot of time looking at
bumblebees in my own yard, so now I'm gonna have to go out and
see if I can observe them doing anything that looks like play.
Maybe you'll do that too. Coming up, we ask Marco why some
animals live in a zoo, and also what happens in the zoo at
night.
This is, But Why. I'm Jane Lindholm. Today, I'm with Marco
Wendt, Wildlife Ambassador for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife
Alliance. Since we have him, we wanted to pose a few other
questions you've sent us that he is really well positioned to
answer: questions about zoos.
Celeste: My name is Celeste, and I'm seven years old. I live in
Massachusetts. Is it good for an animal to live in a zoo?
Marco Wendt: I love that question. You know what I always
tell people is, if I could say that all wildlife, all animals,
all plants could be safe and protected and happy on our
planet, I would quit my job right now. But you know, the
reality of the world is that we need special spaces. Sometimes I
call them sanctuaries or homes, right, where wildlife can be
protected. Because it's sad to say, but there's places on our
planet where there's habitat being destroyed, where animals
are being taken from their families through wildlife
trafficking, which is super sad. There's other reasons that
disease, that little things that are affecting wildlife in so
many different ways, and we as human beings, you know, we're
very unique animal, right? And we have grown, our population is
getting really big on this planet. So, what makes me so
happy to represent a zoo or an aquarium is the conservation
work that we do. So, there's a lot of work that we do in our
zoo that can help out also wild animals. So I mentioned
elephants, so I want to keep with elephants, just to give you
an example. So elephants are thriving at Safari Park, because
it's a little sad story, but I'm going to share with all of you
this story. So I mentioned, remember the word matriarch
means like the leader of the herd, now our matriarch, her
name is Swazi. Now Swazi and her friends, because they weren't
sisters, Ndlula and Umngani, those three adult elephants
lived in a place in South Africa that was protected land, and it
was limited space, and unfortunately the space got so
crowded with other endangered animals that the people working
in that area had to make a really tough choice that we
can't save and protect all these elephants in our space, we don't
know what to do, so they gave us a call and we had space and we
were able to give Swazi at home, because unfortunately, without
getting too sad about it, she wasn't going to survive living
in that place in South Africa, and her friends too, Umngani and
Ndlula , so we were able, because being an accredited zoo,
and by that I mean that we work with other zoos and aquariums in
the world to make sure we have this right standards, the right
rules, right?, to take care of wildlife, and so Swazi, Indula,
and Umgani have been living now at our safari park close to 30
years. They've had daughters, and they're growing as a herd,
and all that is going to help out the population of endangered
elephants. And we're also learning things from our
elephants here at the safari park, which is going to help out
our partners and our friends out back in Africa, so that's just
one small example of why animals do so well in zoo settings, and
I also want to preface that we all want wildlife to thrive in
the wild, and that's why we have zoos and aquariums right now.
Jane: Well, what you were saying about these elephants coming
from South Africa all the way to San Diego leads us to Wilbur's
question. Wilbur lives in Berlin, Germany, and is
wondering:
Wilbur: How do people transport zoo animals from one place to
Marco Wendt: There are specialists all over the world,
another?
you know. I've never worked in the Olympics before, but imagine
all those humans that have to navigate other humans and move
them all the way around the world to different countries,
and I'm sure there's all these rules and guidelines to do that,
and it's kind of the same way with wildlife. But you know, we
are specialists in our own right, working with all sorts of
animals, it could be a big elephant, it could be a giant
panda, it could be a tarantula, or a king cobra, you never
really know, but we have our specialists that have these
rules and protocols. So these, let's give them like guidelines
on how to safely move an animal from one place to the other, and
maybe kids are thinking, well, why do I want to move an animal
from one zoo to another? It kind of depends on the scenario. If
you remember earlier I talked about gorilla boys needing to
leave their family troop, so at the safari park, as an example,
we've had a situation where we have our family of troop of
gorillas, one dominant male with females and their baby boys. The
baby boys got big, and eventually they got too big that
they needed to move away from the troop, and that's what they
do in the wild. So we had to move those animals to a
different part of the safari park, and we call it the
Bachelor Troop, and the Bachelor Troop is a mix of boys, not only
of our park, but also the Bronx Zoo in New York. They moved
three young male gorillas, called blackbacks, to the safari
park, and now we have five bachelor or young gorilla males
learning to be gorilla males, because that's really important
for gorilla males to learn how to be a male, for a gorilla to
be around other males, and so we need to do that. So that's just
one example of maybe a scenario where we might move one animal
to the other, so it could be a physical move with maybe a
vehicle, maybe for traveling across seas. We did a, we used a
plane for a giant panda move from China to San Diego Zoo, as
an example. So, it really depends, but there's a lot of
people, a lot of professionals, a lot of guidelines that we
follow to make sure everything is safe and secure.
Jane: Are you using the same kind of planes that humans fly
in? I'm trying to picture a plane full of zoo animals, the
giraffes up tall, being able to see down the aisle, and you
know, maybe the hippopotamus being like, I can't fit down
this aisle to get to my seat!
Marco Wendt: I know, right, maybe he wants more peanuts, I
would, I would love to be on that plane, but no, it's not
usually like that, I can give you my personal examples where
we have moved African vultures to a facility in the other parts
of the United States using a non-human plane, more like for
cargo, like a FedEx, but we have animal standards, so it's not
being moved like a package, but we have our own rules and
regulations, so sometimes it could be a plane like that with
no human beings, but there are some times where we have used a
plane and maybe moved the animal using that space, maybe a
smaller animal. Once I had to move two California condors from
our facility at Safari Park to be reintroduced in the wild in
Mexico, and what we did then was myself and another colleague
with two giant condor transport carriers in a teeny tiny little
plane, and we flew from San Diego over Tijuana out to the
outskirts of Ensenada to a national park reserve, and then
in a vehicle up a mountain to get to the very top where those
condors get to live and learn how to be wild condors, you
know. So it kind of depends.
Jane: That's so cool. Okay, one more question for you. And this
one is from Nora, and I'm curious too, because when my
kids were little, one of the favorite books we read at night
was called Good Night Gorilla, and it was all about a zookeeper
going around and saying good night to all of the animals, but
the gorilla was a little bit sneaky and took the zookeeper's
keys and let out all of the other animals, and then they all
went home and got in bed with the zookeeper, who then realized
when he said good night to his partner that all of the other
animals said goodnight too, and he was like, what, and he had to
go put them back where they were supposed to be living, but
anyway, to Nora's question,
Nora: What happens at the zoo at night?
Jane: what happens at the zoo at night?
Jane: cool, diurnal and you're nocturnal, so
Marco Wendt: Oh, Nora, I love the zoo at night and the safari
park. It completely transforms, but you know one thing I do want
to say: not all animals sleep at night, you know. So we have
staff, we have zookeepers, we call them wildlife care
specialists, who are at the safari park or the zoo every
day, every night. Now, some animals are what we call.. I'm
going to teach you some words, kids. So, ready, these are fun
words. So, my two favorite words right now to learn is diurnal.
So, diurnal means I like to be up during the day, like my
husband. He loves to be up during the day, and the second
the sun goes down. He gets sleepy, and I want to go to bed,
so some animals are diurnal, right? Like a, like a gorilla,
as an example, is diurnal, but there's some animals that are
nocturnal. I'm a little more nocturnal myself, and that for
I'll tell you what I am, and this is a word we learned in a
nocturnal animals, you're up mostly at night, right, and
you're sleeping during the day. So we have animals that are
recent episode about rabbits, but I am a crepuscular person,
nocturnal. So, for instance, everyone loves a sand cat at
Safari Park called Newman. Newman, if you look up, have
so I like dawn and dusk, that's when I feel most awake and
your parents look up sand cat, they're the cutest wild cat.
They hunt snakes and scorpions in the deserts of the Middle
active, so that's one of my favorite vocabulary words.
East area. Now, Newman is really popular because every time the
guests see him, he's sleeping, and he has a nice, cute little
sleepy face. But I, I have been at the safari park at night, and
I have seen Newman at nighttime, because he's nocturnal, and he
is stocking his habitat, he is pouncing, he's running. We've
also learned that, for instance, rhinos and elephants feed not
only through the day but also at nighttime, so we have staff that
specifically will feed certain animals at nighttime hours, like
the rhino, as an example, or like our mountain lions, also
are nocturnal, so they get fed at night time to match their,
their sleeping patterns, right? So it kind of depends. I would say.
Marco Wendt: I love that word, and one of my favorite
crepuscular animals is a great horned owl, I mean, they're
really, really great, too. Sometimes people call them
nocturnal, but I say they're crepuscular, because that's
generally where animals are either leaving for the night or
coming in for the day, depending on the time, and those owls are
kind of waiting for a little snacky snack.
Jane: Wow, I learned so many cool animal facts today. Before
we let Marco go, he wanted to leave you with some
encouragement.
Marco Wendt: As a little kid, I was watching cartoons like
Captain Planet, and I wanted to be a superhero to protect the
world. And you can do that right now. Don't leave it for the
adults, and you know all you need to do is learn about
wildlife. If you can visit your local zoo and aquarium and help
support the good work that they do, but just get inspired about
Mother Nature, go outside and maybe, maybe feel the grass
underneath your feet, maybe feel the sun on your face, and you
too can be a superhero for wildlife. So, you have the
power. So, I want to make sure that you know that, because
you're super special.
Jane: Thanks to Marco Wendt for sharing so many cool animal
facts with us today. Marco actually co-hosts his own
podcast. It's a great show called Amazing Wildlife, a San
Diego Zoo Podcast, and he shares his work on social media using
the handle or name ZoologyMarco. That's it for today. As always,
if you have a question about anything, have an adult record
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old you are, along with your question. But Why is produced by
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