- Good morning, everyone!

And welcome to Go Wild with PBS 39.

My name is Miss Amber, and I'll be your guide for this morning's adventure, learning about nine different animals from right here in Pennsylvania to distant places all over the world.

South Africa, Costa Rica, Malaysia, and more.

I am so excited to see the animals from our three partners, the Lehigh Valley Zoo, the Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion, and Wildlands Conservancy.

Before we get started, I have a note for the parents in the room.

Make sure your child's name is the Zoom display name, so that if they have a question at the end of the call, we can call on them by name.

And, don't forget, please keep yourself muted until the end, so that we can hear all the presentations.

If you feel comfortable with it, you can turn your camera on.

We'd love to see you!

Kiddos, if you notice something about an animal you'd like to share or a question you'd like to ask, type it in the chat at any time throughout the presentations.

At the end of our program, you'll have a chance to raise your hand, and the experts will answer any questions you have.

Are you ready to Go Wild with us?

Let's get started with our first animal guest from Wildlands Conservancy.

Oh, my!

Can you smell him from here!

Can you guess what animal is up first?

Let's take a look.

- Hello, everyone!

My name is Arianna, and I am an environmental educator at the Wildlands Conservancy.

We are located in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and we are the Lehigh Valley's premiere nonprofit Lands Trust.

Today, I am with you guys to present a couple of our awesome animal ambassadors.

Are you ready?

So, my first friend here is Thistle, and he is a striped skunk.

I'm sure all of you are pinching your noses and saying, "Ew, a skunk, stay away!

You're going to get sprayed!"

I am safe because Thistle here had his scent glands removed as a baby, so he won't spray me.

You can tell that he's a skunk probably because of these two stripes going down his back.

So, skunks are known for spraying, and these two stripes of white on his black body kind of work as a warning for all wild animals, saying "There's something different about that one.

"He can't camouflage, he can't blend in with "everything around him.

I should stay away ."

Every single skunk that you'll see has a different stripe pattern.

So, if we look at the back of the his head, he has a really thin white line, white stripe down his back.

Other skunks have a really thick stripe, or maybe only one stripe going down their back.

Skunks are nocturnal, and that means that they are awake at night.

So, you'll probably see them in your backyards or along the side of the road, wandering around after the sun goes down.

They use their sight, their smell, and their hearing to tell what's going on.

They have very tiny ears.

Can you all see them?

His ears are very well-hidden right here.

He has these little beady eyes.

He can see, but not very well.

Skunks depend on their sense of smell to find things, to find food, to keep an eye out for predators, other animals that might want to eat them.

So, he depends a lot on his sense of smell.

So, I'm going to put him in this playpen over here.

You guys can watch him use that nose.

So, in here, I have a peanut.

We're going to see if he will find this peanut for us.

Here you go, bud.

So, again, you can probably see his stripe pattern a little bit better, and you see his tail.

He's eating that peanut.

His tail is sticking straight up!

So, what that means is he is warning anyone around, "If you sneak up on me, I am going to spray you."

When they feel threatened, they do not want to spray right away.

What they do instead is they'll stomp their feet.

If that doesn't work, they'll add screaming.

So, they'll stomp their feet and scream.

Then, if that doesn't work, the tail goes up in the air, they'll look over their shoulder, and they will spray this really foul-smelling musk.

It's kind of like pepper spray, so it makes your eyes water, makes your nose run, your mouth feel funny.

Skunk populations are doing so well in Pennsylvania, and that's because their habitat is doing very well too.

Let's think, hmm, skunks like forests because there's lots of tall trees to hide in, they like meadows because it's a great spot to hide, as well.

And they also like your backyards, especially hiding underneath your deck.

They are hunting for worms.

He uses his long claws to dig up worms.

He'll eat your fruits and vegetables in your backyard.

He'll even eat eggs and small mammals.

See if I can pick him up again to show you him one last time before I show you... Let's not do that.

That right there is how a skunk behaves in the wild.

You see how his tail's straight up?

He's stomping, he's grunting?

I'm going to leave him in here, and I am going to get us our next animal.

- Oh, my goodness!

Wasn't it so cute to see that little skunk's ears and his little eyes?

Ah!

So cute.

Let's meet our second animal today.

His name is Monty, and he slithered his way here with his friends from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

Can you guess what scaly friend is our next animal guest?

Let's take a look.

- Hi, my name is Natalie Hildenbrand, and I'm from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

And now we have Monty, our Angolan Python.

So, Monty is actually native to Africa, more importantly, in Namibia, and also in South Africa and Angola.

So, these guys are really cool species of python, they're actually very small in size.

As you can see, this is actually how big Monty can get, so Monty can get up to about four feet in length and only weigh about maybe a couple pounds.

These guys are very small and, with that, they like to hide in very rocky outcrops, as well as also grasslands to kind of stay camouflaged.

If you guys get a good look at Monty's coloration, you'll see that she has this brown and light brown coloration that actually helps her blend in.

So, it is a version of camouflage that they can use to be able to hide from predators and stay in those shady outcrops, to be able to hide from predators, as well as also to stay nice and cool.

So, these guys are actually one of the few species of pythons that are actually diurnal.

So, they will be up during the day and kind of sleeping a little bit at night.

Sometimes at dusk is when they also will feed on small prey items.

So, some prey items that you might be looking at that she would be able to actually be able to capture would be small mammals, maybe some small birds, and sometimes, they might even eat other insects or even other small species of reptiles.

So, some other things about her is you'll see this scaling that she has on her.

This scaling actually helps her stay moist in the hot environments of Africa, since it can get very, very hot for these guys, which is perfect for a reptile because they are cold-blooded.

So, they do use their outside surroundings in order to stay warm and to help their bodies stay warm.

That warm temperature also helps with digestion.

So, when they are capturing these small prey items, it does help for their digestion in order to kind of move through their bodies.

So, other things that you might notice, especially on her face, is that they actually are going to have five small heat pits that are going to be on each side of their mouth.

Now, these heat pits are almost like infrared cameras for them.

So, it's how they're actually able to sense warm-blooded animals that might be in the area if they're predators, or if they're prey.

So, they kind of use those heat pits as like basically cameras in order to find them out in the wild.

Some other things you might notice that she's doing is that she's extending that forked tongue of hers.

That is another way that she can be able to sense what is prey and what's possibly a predator.

So, when she extends that forked tongue, she's going to extend it out, bring all the chemical receptors back into her mouth, on top of her mouth, and it's going to be able to tell her which direction possibly a prey item might be, or even a predator.

So, that organ on top of their mouth is actually called the Jacobson's organ.

And it's a fun way that they're able to find their prey out in the wild in order to sense where they might be.

So they kind of use two of those really important factors in order to find their animals out in the wild.

So, these guys are considered least concerned.

So, more importantly, they are used most oftenly throughout the pet trade, unfortunately, for the illegal pet trade.

But it is something that these guys are obviously being considered and obviously being protected in order to keep their numbers out in the wild, especially in Africa.

So, another fun thing about pythons in general is that they will wrap around their prey items.

So, they are constrictors.

So, that is honestly how they would be able to take down their prey in order to possibly consume later.

And another fun thing that they do with this is actually how when they lay their eggs, they will actually coil over their eggs, and they'll almost shiver over them in order to keep them warm.

So, they do use a lot of their constrictor abilities for many different purposes.

And also, if they ever feel threatened or scared around another predator, they'll also wrap really tightly in a ball, they'll hide their head and they'll remain in that tight ball until the threat is gone.

So, some fun things about these small little guys.

HUMS "THE ITSY-BITSY SPIDER" - Can you guess what animal is next by the tune of that song?

Let's meet our next animal, Poppy, a Honduran curly-haired tarantula with Dr. John from the Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion.

- Hey there, my name is Dr. John Cambridge, and I'm here from the Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion, and we're going to talk about a couple of really cool arthropods today.

So, first up, I have the Honduran curly-haired tarantula.

Let me just pick her up.

Notice I said "her" because this is a lady.

Now, what's really interesting about these tarantulas and what they're named for is this long hair that covers their body.

And so, I want to kind of hold our friend out like this, so that you can see just how furry this creature is.

Now, a lot of tarantulas use that hair to actually defend themselves.

So, instead of trying to bite or some other scary thing, these creatures are actually going to use specialized hair on the abdomen that they kick off using their back legs.

It looks like they're playing the violin a little bit, and that hair gets into the air, gets in your mouth, your eyes, you just stay away from it.

And that's brilliant, because this is a fragile creature that needs to compel you to stay away from it.

But it doesn't want to have you get so close that it might get hurt.

And so, this spider employs that type of defense, and she's going pretty far on me.

Now I actually want to call a friend to help me out really quick.

So, the director of marketing here at PBS, Victoria, is going to come on over here.

- Hi.

- And can you help me before my friend gets too... - Oh, no.

- ...too far up?

Now, if you put your hand right here, I'm going to help our friend walk onto it... Oh!

And then, he just had a spider run all around his neck and hair All right.

Huh?

Huh?

- Here she comes.

- See, Victoria is not very afraid of this thing because she knows it's not going to bite.

And this is a very friendly species, very different than some of the tarantulas that we might find over in Europe or Asia, or parts of Africa.

Those are very different tarantulas.

And I wouldn't be holding them like this, or I'd be a lot more scared if it was running around on my back.

- She's really friendly.

She's kind of just tickling my hand.

And I'm really quite surprised.

I think we all don't expect this from tarantulas.

- Nope, nope.

Not so much.

Oh, wow!

Look at this.

- She might like me.

- She does.

And, in fact, as she's walking over you, did you feel those little hooks at the end of each of her legs?

- I did, yes.

- So, those are called tarsal claws, and that's actually something that all spiders, all arthropods actually have.

Arthropods, meaning anything that has a shell on the outside of its body, insects, spiders, crustaceans.

And so, those are used to hold on because the outside of a spider or any other arthropod kind of feels like the outside of your fingernail.

And so, it's slippery.

They need something that's going to help them actually get some grip.

Well, thank you so much.

- Thanks for having me.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And let's say goodbye to Poppy, the curly-haired tarantula.

- Let's guess "who-who" is next.

What bird makes that sound?

Let me Tido, a native barn owl from Wildlands Conservancy.

- OK, so my next animal is Tido, and he is a barn owl.

All owls are nocturnal, which means they are awake at night and they sleep during the day.

Foreign owls are local to our area.

You probably don't see them much, one, because it's really late at night when they are flying around hunting for food, but also because they love to hide in barns.

Like his name says, a barn owl.

He'll be in old abandoned buildings in the city, or he'll find a hollow tree.

So, a really old, really big tree out in the forest with a big hollow hole in the center.

That is where they make their nests.

That's where they live.

People say that they saw ghosts in an old scary building, but it's just an owl flying overhead.

He does not make the standard owl call that you think of, his is more like a scream.

It's very spooky.

He's the perfect Halloween animal.

All owls are raptors, and they have these really sharp talons on their feet.

They have a hook's beak.

It's kind of hidden right underneath his eyes.

It kind of makes a hook shape, as opposed to a little triangle beak of a lot of the birds we see in the daytime.

Together, he uses those to hunt.

So, what he will do is he will find a nice place to sit high up on a tree branch, high up on a telephone pole, and he'll watch and listen.

He will watch with his eyes.

These really big eyes in the center of his face.

They don't move inside his head like our eyes do.

Our eyes can wiggle and look left and right.

His are staying still, and that helps him focus on something really far away.

If he was on one side of a football field, he'd be able to see a mouse on the other side.

So, he uses those eyes to watch, and he uses his ears to listen.

We can't see his ears because he doesn't have an outside part of his ear like people do, or like other animals.

Instead, they are just little holes in the side of his head.

There's something different about those holes, as well.

Our ears are parallel.

They're on the same line.

His one ear is higher up than the other.

So, he uses one ear higher than the other to listen, and he can pinpoint by turning his head back and forth, up and down, where a sound is coming from.

When the sound is equal in both ears, the direction he is looking is where that noise came from.

The noises he's listening for is the rustling of feet on leaves, maybe a small mouse under the snow.

He can hear them moving underneath snow.

So, add his excellent hearing, along with his super-good eyesight, he is the perfect hunter.

When he sees what he wants, he uses these big, strong wings that don't make any noise when he flies to swoop down and grab whatever he is hunting.

It can be a small mammal, it can be a small bird, could even be a small snake.

He grabs it in his talons, brings it up someplace safe, and uses his talons and beak like a fork and knife.

He swallows everything!

He'll eat all the meat, eat all the feathers, the fur.

He even swallows the bones!

So, he swallows all of that.

But his belly can't digest it, and he will spit up this little thing called a pellet.

So, owl pellets, if you take them apart, I know it sounds a little gross, but if you take it apart, you can tell what they ate for dinner.

His wings are tipped like fingers at the end for silent flight.

So, he is probably one of the coolest hunters out there.

I'm going to put Tido away now and get another animal for you.

- Wow, I bet you guys can practice some talon-eating today, but make sure you chew, you don't want to swallow it whole like those owls.

So, now it's time to meet our next animal, Baridi, an African black-footed penguin from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

- Hi, I'm Cher, and this is Natalie, and we are from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

Today we have Baridi with us.

She is one of our African black-footed penguins, and she comes from South Africa.

Believe it or not, these guys actually come from a warm climate.

I know most people think of penguins, they think of cold, but they're actually used to this really hot weather.

They do have special adaptations that allow them to live in those warmer climates.

So, they have actually two coats of feathers, one on the outside that's going to keep them nice and waterproof when they're in the water.

And then, they have an undercoat that actually keeps them warm while they're in the cold water.

And those outside feathers have a nice coating of oil on them.

That's going to help keep them nice and waterproof.

Now, at the zoo, we have 11 African penguins, and they get fed at the zoo twice a day.

These guys love to eat fish, and they can eat a whole variety of fish like herring, mackerel, smelt, sardines, the big herring are the some of their favorites.

Now, out in the wild, these guys are actually critically endangered.

So, that means that we are quickly losing the populations.

So, at the zoo, we actually participate in what we call the Species Survival Plan.

So, that is actually where we breed the penguins in order to hopefully be able to increase their wild populations.

Now, that program is kind of like a matchmaker for these birds.

There's actually scientists that have all of the genetics that they follow, and they actually pair these penguins up to make sure they have a good match.

Baridi here is one of the chicks that we had born at the zoo through those programs.

Now, as you see Natalie, walking around, Baridi is very inquisitive.

She's checking out the studio.

She wants to see everything that's going on.

These guys have excellent eyesight, and that allows them to be able to find their food while they are swimming in the ocean.

Now, you may wonder, how do they keep their eyes open when they're underwater?

And they have a nictitating membrane, and that is a clear eyelid that they can close.

So, it allows them to protect the eye while still being able to see.

Now, while she's looking around, she's also probably looking at really shiny things.

And that is another way that they find their food, because, as the sun reflects off of those fish and their scales, they're going to be shiny.

So, that's how they actually look to help find the fish.

Now while they're in the ocean, that's when they have a lot of their predators.

Their predators might include something like sea lions or great white sharks.

And so, they have other ways to protect themselves.

One of them is the coloring of their feathers.

And you might notice their black backs and their white bellies.

We call that counter-shading, so that when a predator swimming above a penguin and they're looking down, their black backs will blend in with the dark ocean floor.

If the predators swimming underneath them and they look up, that white belly is going to blend in with the sun shining down.

They will also swim in groups because there's safety in numbers, that also helps these penguins avoid any of those predators while they are in the ocean.

Now, penguins cannot fly.

They're one of the few birds that cannot do that.

However, they still have what we call wings.

They're just designed for swimming.

So, these guys are excellent swimmers, and they can actually reach speeds of up to around 13 miles an hour.

The fastest human swimmer, Michael Phelps, swims about 4-5 miles an hour.

So, these guys are much better swimmers than we are.

Another way that they are able to do that is with those webbed feet, those will act as nice little paddles to help them swim nice and fast.

Now, Baridi here, she's going to stay at the zoo.

Maybe eventually she will find a mate and be able to breed, as well.

And maybe we'll have some more penguin chicks in the future.

- Can you move like a penguin?

Waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle!

Let's take a look at how our next animal guest moves and grooves.

A lubber grasshopper from the Philadelphia insectarium.

- Hi again.

All right, so next up, we were going to be talking about the Orchid Mantis, which is a beautiful species of camouflaging mantis.

What's neat about them is, instead of trying to look like a leaf or part of the bark, or anything like that, these are actually mantises which camouflaged with flowers, specifically orchid flowers, hence the name Orchid Mantis.

But at the Insectarium, we love our Orchid Mantises, we have lots of them, but they have gone into a particular type of life-state which I'm excited to show you, the egg stage.

And so, this is called an ootheca, which is what a praying mantis egg case looks like.

It's kind of a Styrofoam, spongy material.

And so, we're very excited for these two to hatch out, and we'll have a whole nother generation in a few weeks.

But in place of that, because I know that while I find these to be fascinating, you're looking at it like, "Oh, it's a little tiny egg case.

"Nobody cares about that."

Well, instead, I want to also share another insect, because, while we loved Poppy, the curly-haired tarantula, we did not get an opportunity to see an insect yet.

Coming from the insectarium, I kind of have to show you an insect.

So, I'm going to reach in here, and I'm going to bring out some nymphal - I used a word that I want to describe in a minute - nymphal lubber grasshoppers.

OK, so this is a very large species that we find commonly throughout the southeastern part of the United States.

These guys are actually collected down by the Outer Banks.

We have we have dozens of them at the museum.

Large, large things.

They get to be a bit bigger.

Let me grab another... look at this one.

A little bit bigger.

And what would be really neat is if we can show how the different wing pads are different as the creature gets bigger.

So, when an insect becomes an adult, it gets an opportunity to have its wings for the first time.

And so, the individuals that are gradually becoming an adult - for anything that goes through incomplete metamorphosis, like a grasshopper, they have larger and larger wing pads.

And so, you can actually see that the difference between this molt and this molt, this one is starting to have a little bit of that neat red coloration right underneath.

Grasshoppers in general are not magnificent flyers.

They kind of flutter at best.

But these wings down here will develop.

And, by the next molt, this one is almost an adult, it'll actually have full wings.

Now, different than the tarantula, grasshoppers are herbivores.

They primarily feed on different types of leafy materials.

And so, at the museum, we feed these guys different types of cane berries.

So, any raspberries that we find outside, blackberries, things like that, and then, also rose.

So, wild rose is a pretty common thing for us to feed a lot of the herbivores.

Now, one last little neat thing about the grasshopper.

You don't need to be afraid of them, because they're neither venomous nor poisonous.

This is a creature that either relies on its coloration to blend into its environment, or its ability to sort of escape prey, evade anything like that by having those strong jumping legs in back.

So, we can see them right there.

If I was to make this grasshopper uncomfortable, it might bring its legs in, and then, bounce itself out.

And I'd be like, "Ah, where'd it go?"

And I couldn't eat it.

So, the lubber grasshopper is our insect friend for right now.

And let's say goodbye to the lubbers.

- Now, we have something a little different for you.

A sensory adventure with one of our WLVR hosts, Brad Klein.

As you listen, try to imagine what senses Brad is using to take you on his adventure.

What do you see with your eyes?

What do you hear with your ears?

- This is WLVR News, I'm Brad Klein.

Take a nature walk with me.

I live and work along the Lehigh River in Bethlehem.

Each morning, I step outside around sunrise, and I see a long line of crows flying east just after dawn.

And in the evening, I see them flying west just before sunset.

And it's not just a few crows, or a few hundred.

Recently, I counted crows as they passed overhead.

They fly by, mostly silently, about five birds per second.

On average, that's 300 per minute.

I watched more than 15,000 pass overhead in the hour before sunset.

It took a few days of trying, but I followed them west over several evenings to Canal Park in east Allentown, and from there across the river to Allentown's first ward.

They cover the bare trees there like a thick fruit, and carpet the ground where construction crews have left bare earth.

Even in this group of more than 10,000 spread out over a few acres, they're pretty quiet as they settle down for the night.

Not like geese, which can be deafening in large numbers.

It's a spectacular sight, and it raises a number of questions.

There are two species of crow.

Do they roost separately?

Do they gather in family units?

And, most of all, why is it worth the energy to fly miles every day to roost among thousands of other crows?

- Hmm, Brad, asked some really interesting questions.

We talked with one of our experts who told us that there are two crow species.

The American crow, and the fish crow.

The American crows all roost together and take care of one another in a big flock.

And the fish crows stay with small families.

Did you figure out what senses you were using with Brad?

Maybe you saw the sunset when the birds were flying, maybe you heard the crows call in the trees.

We can use many of our senses to notice the animals around us, even our sense of smell, if an animal has a special odor like our skunk friend, or touch, like his furry fur!

Can you imagine what the crow's feathers would feel like?

Thanks so much, Brad, for taking us on our nature walk.

You can find lots of other nature walks with Brad Klein at WLVR.org/NatureWalk.

Now, let's meet our final three animals.

First up is Verne, a tiger salamander from Wildlands.

- So, who I have here is Verne, and he is a Tiger Salamander.

A very excited Tiger Salamander.

So, he's going to be quick.

Tiger Salamanders are a type of amphibian.

So, like your frogs and toads, they are hatched out of little gooey eggs in the water, and they are little tadpoles.

So, think of your frog tadpoles or toad tadpoles.

He would look just like them.

As a tadpole, he will slowly develop arms and legs while he's eating lots of little bugs.

Eventually he would have fully-developed arms, fully-developed legs, and, while a frog and toad would absorb that tail, as they grow, salamanders keep their tail.

Salamanders can live alongside the water as an adult.

They don't live in the water, but their body has to stay wet.

If he would dry out, he wouldn't be able to breathe.

If he was in dirty, polluted water, he would get really sick.

So their skin is permeable, meaning everything he touches can get absorbed into his body.

So, if I had hand sanitizer or soap on my hands, he can get that hand sanitizer and soap into his body, and he would feel very sick.

So, I know people like catching frogs and toads, but if you hold them, make sure your hands are clean and don't hold them for very long.

You don't want them to dry out, and you don't want them to get sick.

Verne here has the name Verne because salamanders are usually hatched in vernal pools.

Verne, vernal.

So, a vernal pool is a body of water that only exists in the spring and summertime.

It's not connected to a creek or a stream, and there's no water coming in and out.

It only depends on rainfall.

So, that's a really safe place for amphibians to lay their eggs, because fish can't survive in a pond that disappears in the wintertime when the water dries up.

By the time the water dries up, these guys are ready to live on land.

So, vernal pools are great.

You usually find them in the mountains, in wetland areas, as well.

So, if we look closely, Verne has a very round body, little round head and tiny eyes.

So, he's able to see, but not very well.

When you live underground, you don't need to depend on sight that much.

So, he hunts, he has a little mouth.

He'll just grab on to a worm, grab onto a cricket, other little insects that he finds.

He's excellent at camouflage.

So, he will blend in with the green plants around a pond, or the green grass in a meadow.

You can also blend in and camouflage with dying leaves.

So, leaf litter on the ground.

You guys, he is done.

So, thank you for joining me today!

And I look forward to answering some of your questions very soon.

Thank you!

- I love how Verne the salamander can camouflage and match his background.

I think that's pretty cool.

Our next animal is another feathered friend named Nook, an Eastern Screech Owl from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

- Hi, I'm Cher, and I'm from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

And now, we have Nook, our Eastern Screech Owl.

And, believe it or not, Nook is full-grown.

He will not get any larger than what he is right now.

He is one of the smallest species of owl that you can find in Pennsylvania.

So, that is right, you can find him in Pennsylvania.

They are very common throughout our entire state, but you probably would hear them before you would see them.

So, they get their name, the Eastern Screech Owl, because they don't make the typical hoot sounds that you think of when you think of an owl, and they actually make more of a screeching sound.

So, you can always try to find out what that sounds like, and listen for that in your backyard.

And that might be how you know you have a screech owl in your area.

Now, he has these special collars because he will live in a tree, and that's going to help him blend in so that he doesn't get preyed upon from other larger birds, like even the Great Horned Owl.

These guys have excellent eyesight, as you might see, Nook has really large eyes.

But what's really cool about those eyes is it allows them to see their very small prey, like very small mice, while they are up high in the trees.

Now, one of the downsides of having those big eyes is that they actually cannot move their eyes around in their head like you and I can.

So, that is why owls are able to turn their heads so far around.

Now, a lot of people think that owls can turn their heads completely around in a circle, but they can't do that because unfortunately, that means their heads wouldn't be attached to their body.

So, we like to compare that to a clock.

If you were looking at a clock, they could go from about 12:00 to 9:00, then they'd have to stop and turn it back around.

Another way that they can find their food and keep from moving around is, let's see if I can demonstrate, they are able to hold their heads completely still while the rest of their body is moving.

And that allows them to still be able to lock in on that prey, even if they are sitting on a branch and it is windy, and that branch is moving around, they won't lose sight of that prey item that they are looking at.

Now, how they catch their prey is with their talons and their very sharp beaks.

So, we like to say an owl's talons act like their fork, it allows them to grab onto their food, and then, that really sharp beak allows them to cut up their food just like we would use a fork and a knife to eat our food.

Now, you see those tusks on top of Nook's head?

A lot of people think that those are the owl's ears.

Those are actually just feather tufts, and they can lay them back down.

And that, again, is just another way to help them blend in or camouflage with those trees.

Now, Nook here came to us from a rehab facility.

So, what that means is Nook actually got injured out in the wild, and then, was deemed non-releasable because of the wing injury that Nook has.

As you can see, that wing is a little bit drooped.

They believe Nook might have gotten hit by a car.

And these guys have hollow bones that are really fragile.

So unfortunately, they're not able to put a cast on that wing like they would to you or I.

So, it wasn't able to completely heal.

And Nook is not able to fly, which means he wouldn't be able to hunt on his own.

So, all of the birds that we have, or birds of prey that we have at the Lehigh Valley Zoo are unreleasable birds.

So, we are being able to keep them nice and healthy, and give them a happy home for the rest of their lives.

So, thank you so much for joining us and learning about these very special animals that we have with us today.

We look forward to joining you live to answer all of your questions.

- Wow, it looks like Katie was trying to move her head like an owl, can everybody try to do that?

Oh, my gosh, they go all the way around... Nope, I can't see you guys if I do that.

Can you guys try to be like an owl with your heads?

Oh, my gosh!

All right, it is time for our last animal of the day who packs quite a sting.

Let's check out Patrick, a Flatrock Scorpion from the Insectarium.

- All right, and our last creature today is the Flatrock Scorpion.

This is a species that we find in southern Africa, and it's a really neat one.

I want to show you why.

Here we go, meet Patrick.

So, I really wanted to show you about how the scorpions can use different ways to defend themselves.

So, a lot of people are scared of the scorpion's tail.

It's kind of like the traditional, like, "Oh, my gosh, watch out for the sticky thing."

However, you guys are now going to know to keep your eyes on the claws.

So, a scorpion will either have strong venom or strong claws.

And so, whenever I see a scorpion that has these large crab-like pinchers in front, I know that that's a species that doesn't have very toxic venom.

So, if Patrick here were to be a little bit annoyed with me because, for instance, I was maybe showing him to too many people or holding him, or he got scared of heights, who knows?

He'd give me a little pinch.

He would not sting me with his stinger.

Now, that's very different than some other common scorpions that we have throughout the United States, things like the Bark Scorpion or the Desert Hairy Scorpion.

Those are common species that we see in the American Midwest.

But they're nothing, you know, they're nothing to be overly afraid of.

Like anything in nature, they're only going to defend themselves if they feel like they're in trouble.

So, here we also want to take one neat look at whether or not Patrick has more legs than we would expect.

So, like spiders, ticks, and other arachnids, Patrick has eight legs.

And so, if we can zoom in here close and see how Patrick has one, two, three, four legs on each side, in addition to these pinchers in front.

That means that these pinchers in front are not true legs.

They're actually modified mouthparts.

And so, it's OK, the arachnids all have eight legs, and Patrick is no different.

So, whenever you see an arachnid that seems like it has an extra leg out front, just keep an eye on it.

That's probably a modified mouthpart.

So, let's say goodbye to our friend Patrick.

Thanks for hanging out.

- So many animals we have met today!

Did you have a favorite?

Now, if you have questions, we're going to make everyone visible, and you can raise your hand and we'll call on you to unmute and ask.

If you would prefer to keep your screen off, you can raise your emoticon hand and ask with audio only.

So, let's sit down with our experts, Ariana, Cher, and Dr. John, and learn more about what you want to know from your questions.

All right, so, let's get started.

Thank you so much for joining me here.

So, the first question that I'd like to ask is, what made you want to do your job?

Anybody can answer first.

- I can go ahead... - I'll jump on it.

- I have loved animals since as long as I can remember, and I went actually to SeaWorld when I was about five years old.

And then, from that moment on, I knew I wanted to do something with animals.

- Nice.

Inspired by SeaWorld.

I love that.

Yeah, so if anybody's taking an adventure to the zoo or the aquarium, let that inspire you.

Absolutely.

Dr. John, I think you had a response, too?

- Yeah.

I really couldn't decide what I wanted to study, and so, when I started studying insects, I had to learn about animal interactions, plant interactions, water.

And so, insects were something that I could look at and not have to decide what I want to specialize in.

- Oh, very cool!

So, when you guys were planning to go to a zoo or conservancy, or insectarium, you weren't looking at just the specific animals you showed us, right?

You were looking at lots of different things, like Dr. John mentioned.

Very cool.

Very cool.

How about you?

- I kind of have a similar story to both of them.

I grew up going to zoos, watching shows about animals.

And I always knew, like, I want to work with animals.

I want to be outside in nature.

And that's how I ended up at the Conservancy.

- Very nice.

So, all of you nature lovers out there that like being out with the greenery and the flowers, maybe the Conservancy is the place for you.

Love it.

- Awesome!

Mackenzie, it looks like you have a question.

Go ahead when you're ready.

- Why do skunks have the two white stripes?

- Oh, good question!

Do we have an answer for that?

- I do have an answer for that.

So, there are different types of skunks.

We had the striped skunk, Thistle, with us today.

There are also spotted skunks which are a little bit smaller, and they are black with white spots.

They're really cute, as well.

So, it's just the black-and-white coloration that kind of is that warning sign.

So, not sure why it's a striped pattern, but it's a bright color that even colorblind animals can see.

- Perfect.

Thank you for that great question!

All right, next we have Dahlia, would you like to unmute and ask your question?

- Like, where do blue herons live?

- Do we have an answer for where blue herons live?

- I mean, you can find them in Pennsylvania along streams, creeks, ponds, we even get some wild ones that stop by the ponds at the zoo.

- Very nice.

And I think if you post in the chat, she was saying that she saw one at Union Terrace Lake.

So, yeah, that sounds like the perfect spot to find one, near some water.

Perfect.

All right, so another question for you guys.

Do you have a favorite animal to work with?

And why are they your favorite?

Dr. John, would you like to start?

- Sure.

Well, when we're trying to explain about metamorphosis, we almost always use two examples, complete metamorphosis and incomplete metamorphosis.

And so, we always like to work with beetles, because some of the large dynastic beetles that we have have grub stages that are literally about the size of your hand.

And so, that always gets people very excited because it's like looking under a microscope without the microscope, almost no one has ever seen a grub that's that big, they're really cool.

And they look nothing like the adults.

So, that's sort of like the characteristic thing to teach, like, complete metamorphosis, the immature stage looks nothing like the adult.

And then, we contrast that with our friends that I did bring, the lubber grasshoppers.

Those guys look like miniature adults, and they just get wings as they get bigger, so... We like to bring out the big things, so that everyone can go "ew" all the way from the back of the room.

- Nice!

And it sounds like the ones that are a little different from us, like we start as little humans, and we grow up and become bigger humans.

And it sounds like the bugs that are really interesting are the ones that completely change from when they're little to when they're big.

So, that's really cool.

Cher, would like to...?

- Sure.

My favorite to actually work with at the zoo is, we have our sloth named Bean.

Sloths are one of my favorite animals in general.

But he's also really fun to work with, kind of for that same reason.

He's got a lot of great conservation messaging that we get to talk about.

He's got a really interesting story, and people just kind of go nuts when they get to see a sloth.

So, it's always a lot of fun.

- Yes, I am also sloth-lover.

I feel that.

I feel that.

- I think my favorite probably has to be our snapping turtle.

So, a lot of people are amazed at how big he is, and how gentle our snapping turtle is compared to all of them out in the wild.

So, he just fun to show off and talk about reptiles a lot larger than a small box turtle we might have.

- Beautiful.

Thank you.

All right, so our friends that brought owls, we have a question that was asked.

How would you suggest successfully encouraging owls to use owl boxes?

Or what type would you tend to prefer to habitat in?

- Excellent question.

So, there's actually a lot of resources online that you can look up because some owls have very special or specific measurements, or sizes of hole or house that they will live in.

I don't know those off the top my head.

But you are able to build them based on what owls you were looking to draw to your yard.

And, if you put them high up enough in a tree in somewhere that they might feel safe, that might be a great way to get them to draw in, especially if you live near woods or in woods, that'd be a great way to bring an owl close to your yard.

- Perfect.

Awesome.

I know we have another question that was asked in the chat earlier, and it is, what is the difference between poison and venom?

Dr. John, I feel like you might have the answer for that.

- Yeah!

Let me have this one.

So, poison is ingested, venom is injected.

And so, a Monarch butterfly is distasteful and can cause something to have a stomach ache if it eats it.

So, that's poisonous.

But it's not venomous, because a butterfly can't sting you.

A wasp, on the other hand, can actually inject a toxin into you.

That's venomous.

I suppose if you wanted to, you could eat a wasp and it would not give you a stomach ache.

- Nice.

Wonderful!

Well, just in case I'm ever that hungry, I'll know.

A question for Wildlands.

How can they help protect animals in their area, and protect their habitat?

- That's a great question.

So, if you're talking about your backyard, of course, keep it as wild as you can, of course, you're probably going to mow your yard so you have a spot to walk around in, but leave places that might have taller grass or plant lots of native flowers and plants, because whether it's a bird, a mammal, they want someplace to hide.

And a lot of the animals that need a place to hide live on the ground.

So, keep your area as wild as possible.

Don't use pesticides.

Yeah, so keep the bugs there, invite bugs and mammals, and eventually you'll have a little wild ecosystem in your backyard.

- Awesome, thank you.

So, we had a comment from Lauren, Bryan and Jonathan, who loved the salamander, and one of our viewers' kitties is very interested in Verne, too.

So, I'm wondering, are there any really cool, like, animal interactions that you've seen between very different kinds of animals that were interested in each other?

Like a kitty and a salamander?

That seems like a unique pairing.

- That is a very unique pairing!

-Well, I'd point out that the salamander hotspot of diversity in the world is actually the Delaware Valley, so we have more salamanders and more salamander species than anywhere else.

And so, there's a lot of different species that will feed on them.

A lot of insects feed on them when they're dead.

- Are you saying that the kitty was looking at it like a snack?

No!

- Yeah.

- Maybe.

Maybe, yeah.

All right.

Well, we also had a comment about possums.

So, if possums have low body fat, are they at greater risk in the winter months while foraging?

- So, yes, most animals hibernate in the winter.

So, if you think of your skunks, your rabbits, they disappear in the wintertime.

Opossums do not hibernate.

So, they need to build up all their body fat, all that extra bulk when finding food is hard and it's really cold.

So, they're out in the snow, They're out on a sunny day looking for food.

Usually wild possums have little pieces missing of their ears from frostbite.

So, the bulkier an opossum is in the winter, the easier it is for them to survive.

- Great, thank you.

All right, so we also had a comment from Megan and McKenzie, who were big fans of Poppy and her hair-throwing defense.

So, I thought I'd ask another question about Poppy.

Why is a tarantulas' venom highly poisonous?

- Well, again, different tarantulas in different parts of the world are going to have more-toxic or less-toxic venom.

And so, the tarantulas in the Afro Eurasian area have a very different way of defending themselves.

And so, they will preemptively go after whatever they think is a threat.

I mean, they just, bop!

Get at you.

They have a much more painful bite and, as soon as they do bite, they run away.

It's very, very different than any of the new world tarantulas that use the urticating hairs.

And so, it's a strategy that actually keeps whatever the target is physically separated from it at all times.

Those are just two different evolutionary strategies.

And so, you know, as those two groups stayed separated for so long, it was beneficial in the Afro-Eurasian tarantulas to have more and more toxic venom, because if you're going to bite the thing, bite the heck out of it!

Don't, you know, no half-measures.

- Very nice.

Thank you.

It is...

It is very nice to hear that there are different evolutions of different animals, that they really have evolved based on what they needed.

So, that's very cool to hear.

So, we have Emily and Chad who have a question to ask.

Go ahead when you're ready.

Emily and Chad, go ahead when you're ready to ask your question.

OK, so we're going to wait for Emily and Chad, I'll get their question in just a minute.

But while we're waiting, I also wanted to encourage, if anybody has last-minute questions, make sure that you post them in the chat or raise your hand so we know that you have them.

And, while we're waiting for Emily and Chad's question, I'm also going to let each one of our guests tell us what things they would recommend you do, if you would like to go down their career path.

So, if you would like to do their job one day, what would they recommend that you get started with now?

And we'll send it to Cher first.

- Sure.

So, we always recommend as much hands-on animal experience that you can get, starting at a young age, volunteering, even if it's at like an animal shelter or a wildlife facility.

And then, once you're in college doing internships, so, you know, you do still have to go to school and get a degree.

But working at, like, in a zoo and aquarium requires a lot of hands-on with animals.

So, you're only really going to get that by doing those internships and those volunteer opportunities.

- Perfect, hands-on opportunities with animals.

I love that.

That's a great way to get started.

So, pet those animals!

- I'll say that, as well, but also, keep learning.

So, at Wildlands, I do a lot of teaching, I'm talking about the animals and talking about nature.

So, in order to teach, you have to learn yourself.

So, just keep learning, keep reading books about animals, about nature, whatever inspires you, and collect all of those fun facts inside your brain to share with other people.

- Perfect.

So, go to that library, find some books about your favorite animals or insects.

That is a great way to learn and share with others.

Awesome, thank you!

Dr. John?

- I would really encourage people to get involved with research as quickly as possible.

You don't have to wait until grad school.

You don't have to wait until you're an undergrad.

There's a lot of citizen science initiatives that people can help with.

Pollinator counts, monarch watches.

And it's just a different way to start to see academia before, you know, you have to choose a career path.

So, get involved in research, start collecting data.

- Awesome, collecting data, I love that.

So, writing down notes on what you see and when you see it.

Very nice.

Awesome.

Katie, it looks like you have a question.

Would you like to unmute and let us know?

- Why do owls live in trees?

- All right, from one of our owl representatives, why do they live in trees?

- OK, so owls mainly live in trees because it's a great way to keep themselves safe from predators.

Usually a lot of animals, if you're on the ground, that's when you're most at risk.

It's also a great way to give them a high-up view, so they can see and look for their prey that do live on the ground.

- Perfect.

Yes, yes, and we have another question from the chat, too.

"What is it about the Delaware Valley area that is "so welcoming for the salamander species?"

So, Dr. John, I know that you mentioned that, but also, if anybody else knows?

- Trying to figure out why things happen in nature sometimes is very difficult, and so, we can simply say that it is because there are conditions which are favorable to many different types of salamanders staying apart from one another.

So, species only divide when they're separated geographically for some period of time.

And so, this is a guess, but we have a lot of areas that are separated by rivers and mountains.

I mean, up into Appalachia and... Those types of features lead to speciation over time because they divide populations.

But that theory is flawed because there's a lot of places in the world that also have those features, and they're not the salamander hotspots.

So, sure, it's a contributor, but someone else hop on this because that's a really, really tricky question.

- I'd just say that we have the right environment for them.

So, we have those river areas, we have the creeks and streams, the right forest, the meadows, all the different habitats that they want to live in.

We're fortunate enough to have all of those in our area.

Other places might not have forests or meadows the same way we do.

- Awesome.

We actually have one other question for you, as well, that was on my list.

Do barn owls live all over the world?

- They do.

I believe it is two continents they do not live on, and it is Antarctica, because it's too cold, nothing really lives down there.

And I want to say it's Canada.

I don't think they live in Canada.

I could be wrong, but there are two places around the world that they do not live in, but they live everywhere else.

- Interesting, possibly no owls in Canada.

OK!

Very nice.

And for you, as well, Cher, do you have any white tigers at the Lehigh Valley Zoo?

- We do not.

So, we are a pretty small zoo.

So, we actually don't have any of those big, big cats at the zoo.

We do have some bobcats and some lynx.

So, those are the biggest cats that we have at the zoo.

- All right, perfect!

Well, that's all the time we have for questions today.

Thank you to our amazing group of experts, our Dr. John from the Philadelphia Insectarium, Cher from the Lehigh Valley Zoo, and Arianna from Wildlands Conservancy for showing us so much about these animals and sharing their knowledge with us.

Thank you to all of our families, you, for joining us today to learn about so many animals!

If you want to learn more about any of the animals you saw today, why not make a visit to one of these amazing organizations?

Look in your chat for links to each of their websites.

And, if you would like another opportunity to meet animals like this again, let us know in the survey we send to your parents in an email.

Go out, and remember to use your ears, your eyes, and even your nose to notice animals all around you!

Let us know what animals you can find in your own neighborhoods.

Thank you so much for joining us here at PBS 39, and have a great day!