Jane: This is But Why, A Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont
Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, kids around the world
send us questions, and we find interesting people to offer
answers. Today we have a little bonus episode inspired by a
curious adult who sent us a question about doing something
together.
Dougie Pickles: Hey, Howdy, I'm Dougie Pickles, your curious
animal-loving guide from the Cozy Critters podcast. I'm a
grownup who never stopped finding amazement in the small,
wonderful things, like the sound a caterpillar makes when it
chews, or the determined little shuffle of a penguin on a
mission. On Cozy Critters, I help kids wind down at night by
visiting incredible animals all over the world.
Jane: As he mentioned, Doug hosts a podcast called Cozy
Critters.
Dougie Pickles: Cozy Critters is a sleepy adventure podcast for
kids who love animals and want a little magic at bedtime. Each
episode, my sidekick Miss Meow Meow and I climb into our
magical hot air balloon and float off to visit real animals
somewhere on Earth. We learn about their lives, the sounds
they make, and dive into tons of amazing animal facts that you'll
want to share with your friends.
Jane: The reason it's called Cozy Critters is not necessarily
because all the animals they talk about are cozy, but because
the podcast itself is designed to be cozy. It's supposed to
help you wind down and get ready to drift off to sleep. If you
already listen to Cozy Critters, you might notice that Doug's
voice sounds pretty different right now than what you're used
to.
Dougie Pickles: You're right. On Cozy Critters, my voice is extra
soft and cozy because I'm trying to help kids drift off to sleep.
But here on But Why, I get to bring out my daytime Dougie
Pickles voice, the one that's curious, excited and ready to
talk about weird animal facts without putting everyone
immediately to bed.
Jane: Doug thought it would be really fun to have But Why and
Cozy Critters collaborate do something together. So I got to
be a guest on a really fun episode of that podcast, and
Doug is going to be a guest on this episode. And he came to us
with something he specifically wanted to tell you about.
Dougie Pickles: I wanted to talk about a wild fact that surprises
a lot of people. Some animals can sound just like humans. They
growl, they giggle, scream or shout in ways that our ears can
recognize. Their voices can be loud, dramatic, and honestly,
pretty spooky sometimes, but behind the sound is a whole lot
of biology, evolution, problem solving, things like that. It's
like nature is running on its own orchestra, and every
creature has an instrument it learned to play long before
humans ever even existed.
Jane: So other animals sometimes make sounds that are really
similar to human sounds, but that doesn't mean they're making
those sounds for the same reasons we do take, for example,
a scream. Why do you scream? Sometimes we humans scream on
the playground or when we're being tickled because we're
having fun, but often humans scream if we're scared or
surprised or alarmed. Doug says, sometimes animals that make
screaming sounds are experiencing the same
thing--well, maybe not usually being tickled--but not always.
Dougie Pickles: Foxes make screams that can sound exactly
like humans, maybe shouting across a playground, but they're
usually saying, "This is my space." Or "Hello, I'm over
here." Mountain lions produce screams that sound kind of like
a person yelling for help, but they're actually calling to find
a mate. Goats and sheep can bleat in ways that sound
superhuman, because their vocal cords are shaped a lot like
ours. And there's even koalas, which make a deep bellowing
growl that sounds like someone is trying to start a broken
motorcycle, and they're basically saying "I'm big and
tough," even though, you know, they're not that big. So
sometimes nature actually has a pretty funny sense of humor.
Jane: So why do other animals often sound so human like well,
a lot of it comes down to how the parts of our bodies that
make sounds are built
Dougie Pickles: Humans and many animals both have vocal cords, a
throat, lungs and a mouth, or maybe a beak that helps shape
the sound. So when air pushes through those parts, the noises
end up sounding kind of similar, but again, the purpose is very
different. Animals use sound the way we use long distance phone
calls or text messages or alarms: they allow us to
communicate emotions, identity, danger, even location, and they
do this with whatever sounds their bodies make. Sometimes
that ends up sounding like a human scream, even if the animal
isn't scared at all. So let's talk about vocal cords for just
a second. In humans and many mammals, there are folds of soft
tissue in the throat called vocal cords, or you may hear
them called vocal folds. When we breathe out from our lungs, the
air passes through a small gap between the vocal cords. If the
cords are close together, the air flow makes them vibrate,
kind of like two ribbons trembling in the breeze. Those
vibrations produce sound waves, which is our voice. And the
pitch, that's how high or how low the sound is, depends on how
long and tight those folds are. So if the folds are long and
loose, you get a deeper, lower voice. If they're short and
tight, you get a higher voice. And some animals may have a
slightly different vocal system. For example, some marine mammals
don't have typical vocal cords. For example, dolphins have
phonic lips in their nasal passage instead of vocal cords
in their throat.
So basically, lungs push air into the vocal cords, which
vibrate and sound is produced. The animal then shapes that
sound with their cheeks, their throat, their mouth, their
tongue, maybe even a trunk or a beak, and all that helps make
their final noise.
Jane: That's pretty cool, and it's neat that Doug could help
us think about this interesting feature of the natural world and
how we fit into it, alongside all the other animals that call
Earth home. Thanks to Doug Fraser-- Dougie Pickles, as he
calls himself--for bringing all these neat animal facts to us.
You can check out the podcast he makes, Cozy Critters, wherever
you listen to this podcast. The episode I got to make with Cozy
Critters is out now, and you can find all the other calming
get-ready-for-relaxing episodes too. Now, if this sparked any
questions for you, you know you can always send questions on any
subject to us. Have an adult help you record yourself asking
your question. Tell us your first name, where you live, and
how old you are, and then have your adult send the audio file
to questions@butwhykids.org. We wish we could answer all the
questions you send us, but we listen to them all, and we love
hearing your voices. But Why is produced at Vermont Public and
distributed by PRX. The show is made by Melody Bodette, Sarah
Baik and me, Jane Lindholm. Joey Palumbo is our video editor, and
Luke Reynolds wrote our theme music. We'll be back in one week
with an all new episode until then, stay curious.