Camouflage and Nests and Burrows Our Planet

CHILDREN: It's our planet!

It's our planet!

In the jungle it's sometimes hard to see animals

because they can be so good at hiding.

The trees can be very tall, so animals like monkeys

can hide right up in the treetops along way above the ground.

You'd only see monkeys if you were up in the treetops with them.

In this jungle

there are some very big animals that must find it very hard to hide.

Like elephants.

But even big animals like elephants can hide, if they want to.

This is a rhinoceros.

And it has a very clever way of hiding.

It covers itself in mud!

The mud is also great for its skin.

So mud baths are a must.

Now the rhino looks like a big lump of mud,

it's quite hard to spot, even though it is big.

When an animal looks like everything around it, it's camouflaged.

If you look closely at this plant,

it looks as if it's got three big leaves.

But the leaf in the middle is actually a leaf bug.

There's its head.

This animal also looks like a leaf.

But it's a butterfly.

You can see it now more clearly because it's opening its wings.

And look at the leaves on the ground - can you see anything yet?

Look really close.

There! It's a toad!

These animals are camouflaged to look like leaves.

There's another animal that lives in jungles

that's fantastic at camouflaging itself because it can change colour.

The chameleon can actually change the colour of its skin

to any colour of the rainbow.

They don't blend into the background too well, do they?

In fact, when they're this colourful,

they're quite easy to spot.

But if a chameleon needs to hide...

it can change colour very quickly

to look just like the trees and bushes.

Chameleons are great at camouflaging themselves.

These are lemurs.

And they might hurt this chameleon,

so it's decided to change colour and hide.

Its camouflage has worked, and the lemurs can't see it any more.

Camouflage can be very useful

if you don't want to be seen and need to hide away.

In the jungle, even when it looks like you're alone,

there are probably lots of camouflaged animals around you.

It's our planet!

Boing, boing, boing! I'm a bouncy rabbit!

Boing, boing, boing!

Boing, boing, boing! I'm a hopping frog. Boing, boing, boing!

Can you be an animal too?

Boing, boing, boing! Boing, boing, boing!

Boing, boing, boing!

Boing, boing, boing!

What animal is this?

It's a butterfly.

Roarrr! Roarrr!

What can you hear?

Roar! A lion is here. Roar! Roar!

And what creature is Alex?

He's a bee.

It's our planet!

There are more creatures for you to see.

You probably know that lots of birds lay their eggs in nests.

But some birds build their nests in very odd places indeed.

These birds are called swifts.

And they live near a waterfall.

So where are their nests?

Watch where this swift flies.

It's flown through the waterfall!

And there's its nest,

with an egg in it.

This bird builds its nest inside another nest.

It's a woodpecker.

And it's pecked a hole in an ants' nest.

So now the ants and the woodpecker are neighbours!

These are weaver birds. They have lots of neighbours

because all their nests are built next to each other.

These amazing towers belong to a tiny animal a bit like an ant.

These are termite nests.

Termites are great builders.

And they make great big castle-like mounds to live in.

All the termites live right in the middle of the mound

where they're nice and safe.

Most animals don't bother building big mounds like termites do,

they just make a hole in the ground to live in. It's called a burrow.

These animals are called prairie dogs.

They're not dogs, though. They're actually more like squirrels.

But they live underground in burrows.

Foxes live underground in burrows called dens.

And badgers live underground in burrows called setts.

Moles burrow right underneath the grass,

and sometimes leave molehills to let you know they're there.

Some animals like to live in nests...

..and some animals like to live in burrows.

It's our planet!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd