Playing Tricks Andy's Baby Animals

# Andy's baby animals

# If you're a polar bear and you're going somewhere

# Andy's baby animals

# Or an elephant calf then you better take care

# Andy's baby animals

# If you're a capuchin learning to eat

# An ostrich chick trying to beat a retreat

# Andy's baby animals

# Andy's baby animals

# If you're a black bear looking for a tree to climb

# Andy's baby animals

# Or a penguin chasing Mum at breakfast time

# Andy's baby animals

# An orang-utan trying to make your bed

# Or a meerkat struggling with a sleepy head

# Andy's baby animals

# Andy's baby animals

# We're growing stronger every day

# Watch and try and laugh and play

# Andy's baby animals

# Andy's baby animals! #

Hello, I'm Andy and this is Kai.

Kai is a chameleon

and chameleons have very clever tricks.

Look at Kai's eyes.

They can look in two separate directions.

They swivel around.

Look at them.

Lots of baby animals have clever tricks in the wild.

First stop - California.

This family of ground squirrels live in the wide open prairies.

For the little baby squirrels, called kits,

life is just one long playtime.

Uh, hide-and-seek, anyone?

Ground squirrels eat grass and seeds,

so there's always plenty to munch on here.

But not all the animals who live here eat plants.

Oh.

They've seen something.

It's a rattlesnake!

And they like to munch on baby squirrels.

To stay safe, these kits need to learn a few tricks from Mum.

First, shake your fluffy tail.

She's not entering a dance competition.

Shaking her tail is actually a good way of putting off

unwanted visitors.

It's a way of telling the snake that she's on her guard.

Show us your moves, little one.

Ha-ha! That's it!

Clear off, Mr Rattlesnake.

And if tail-shaking doesn't work,

Mum has another trick to see off this scary snake.

She's found a piece of old snake skin.

And she's chewing it into a paste and rubbing it all over herself.

It may be terrible table manners,

but it's actually a very clever trick.

With chewed up snake skin in her fur,

she doesn't smell like a squirrel anymore.

She smells - you guessed it - like a rattlesnake.

It's a bit like spraying yourself with perfume or deodorant.

Right, it's time to try out her tricks.

By wafting her new snaky smell at the rattler,

she's trying to fool it

into thinking there's a rival snake around.

SNAKE RATTLES

But will this and her wagging tail be enough to rattle this snake?

Yes, it will.

It's worked.

He's slithering off.

Phew!

Now, thanks to Mum's clever tricks,

the kits can get back to their fun and games.

# Andy's baby animals

# Andy's baby animals. #

Now to Indonesia.

There are not one, but two tricky customers living here.

This odd looking animal is a young coconut octopus.

It needs to keep an eye out at all times

as there are lots of animals around that would love to eat it.

Looks like the coast is clear.

Or is it?

This flounder fish's trick is camouflage.

And it's using it to sneak up on our young octopus.

But the coconut octopus has a trick too.

And its name is a bit of a clue.

It's found a coconut shell on the seabed.

And using its eight tentacles, it's carrying it away.

Watch out, there's that sneaky flounder fish again.

With half a shell, the octopus is only half safe.

It needs to find another shell before the flounder fish catches up.

Oh, there's one, behind you.

Ha-ha! He's got it!

But the flounder fish is closing in.

It's time to play your trick, little octopus.

Drumroll, please.

Girls and boys, I present to you the incredible disappearing octopus!

By hiding inside the shell,

it's turned itself into a ball

and now it can simply roll away from danger.

What a brilliant trick!

Ha-ha, it might be a bit dizzy though.

# Andy's baby animals

# Andy's baby animals. #

Next we're off to Malaysia.

Even the smallest animals have a few tricks up their sleeve.

This delicate white shape lives in the Malaysian rainforest.

It looks like a flower, but it's actually an insect in disguise.

It's an orchid mantis.

And these are orchid mantis babies.

They look like little shrimps, don't they?

There are lots of creepy-crawlies in the rainforest.

Like this jumping spider.

And many of them would love to gobble up a baby mantis.

But these little insects have lots of tricks to keep them safe.

They can hang upside down under a leaf

to stay hidden from hungry eyes and they've got a suit of armour, too.

You and I have a tough skeleton on the inside.

But mantes have it on the outside to help protect them.

How clever is that?

And very striking it is, too.

Even with armour, this tiny mantis is still very vulnerable.

And a jumping spider has spotted it.

Mantes have two giant eyes so it can easily see the spider coming.

But the jumping spider has eight eyes

and they're all watching to make sure it doesn't escape.

It's hard to run away when you're only as big as a thumbnail.

The jumping spider can easily hop from leaf to leaf.

But for the tiny mantis, it's like leaping between two skyscrapers.

Don't worry though, the baby mantis has one last trick to play,

because it knows kung fu.

Hi-ya!

This martial arts pose makes it look much bigger than it really is.

Big enough to scare off a spider.

Hoo-ee-ya!

Ya!

Hoo...

Bye-bye, spider.

You don't mess with a kung fu master!

He-ya...

And with tricks like this to keep it safe,

one day it'll grow up to be blooming beautiful,

just like this grown-up.

For a ground squirrel kit, a baby mantis,

a young octopus or a baby chameleon like Kai,

the animal world has all kinds of tricks to learn.

See you next time.