Episode 1 Curious Creatures

Hello, I'm Kate Humble and this is Curious Creatures,

a brand-new quiz all about the fascinating fauna of planet Earth.

Sharing their animal passions with us today are two teams.

Joining creature polymath Chris Packham

is wildlife presenter and all-around action girl Lizzy Daily.

APPLAUSE

While teaming up with zoologist and writer Lucy Cook

is Welsh wildlife wiz Iolo Williams.

APPLAUSE

Now, the game is very simple.

Every correct answer wins our teams one part of a Curious Creature -

a strange mystical beast made up of the parts

of various different animals,

like this little fellow, who you might recognise from our titles.

He has the head of a Komodo dragon, the ears of a fennec fox,

the body of a puffin, the flippers of a sea turtle,

and the claws of a Christmas Island red crab.

So, he's a komo-foxy-puff-turtle-crab

or, as we call him, Dave.

Each team will be building up their own Curious Creature

during the game and the more parts they win,

the more points they can score at the end of the show.

Today's carnival of the animals begins with a round called

Yay Or Neigh.

I will read each of the teams a statement about the animal kingdom.

Their job is simply to decide whether it's true -

that's a yay... ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

..or false, that's a neigh.

NEIGHING

-Chris, we'll start with you.

-OK.

The heart of a shrimp is in its tail.

My heart's in my mouth at the moment.

The crustaceal cardiovascular system is not something I've looked at

since my A-level dissection of the shrimp, to be quite honest with you.

Quite a long time ago.

Yeah, but the tail of the shrimp is called the telson.

Are you into shrimps, Lizzy?

Hmm. I know a little bit about the old mantis shrimp,

just because they're pretty.

-The mantis shrimp?

-Yeah, I like a bit of a mantis shrimp, yeah.

The mantis shrimp are an extraordinary animal, aren't they?

-They are, yeah.

-They can generate light with their claw, can't they?

Yeah, but why would they have a heart in their tail?

To generate light with their claw.

-Right.

-There would be no point in that at all.

They don't have a heart in the way that we do, anyway.

They basically have a tube which has various sections and constrictions

in it for pumping haemolymph, their blood, around the body,

so their cardiovascular system is very different than a mammal anyway.

So, I don't know what you think.

-Am I right or am I...

-I think you're right.

..barking up the wrong crustacean?

My instinct would say no, simply because I wouldn't...

I don't really see the reason to be a heart in the tail, to be honest.

No, no.

-So, should we go for a big neigh?

-I'm going to say neigh.

-We're going to neigh this one.

-NEIGHING

You're absolutely right.

This gives me a chance to say my favourite word of the day.

Go on.

The head and the thorax of a shrimp are actually fused together

in one external part, which is called the cephalothorax.

-Cephalothorax.

-Cephalothorax!

I've got a little bit of film that will show you just that.

So, if you look closely... There you are.

There's all its organs in its cephalothorax.

Oh, wow!

But, well done. As you were correct in your neigh,

you get your very first part of your Curious Creature, and here it is.

Oh!

Beady-eyed little beastie.

Now then, Lucy, a tiger's roar can be heard as far as two miles away.

Ooh!

Now, what do you think about this?

Well, tigers have large territories, so if they're going to roar,

they're going to roar for a variety of reasons,

and you would expect that roar to carry a long, long distance,

and I would say two miles, on a still morning, is not very far.

So my inkling would say yes.

I think so.

It's your question, so if you get it right or wrong, it's your fault,

but, erm...

Are you just setting some ground rules here, Iolo?

Yeah, er... I'm just washing my hands of this question,

cos it's far too difficult.

Do you know what? I roared so hard I stole a lion's girlfriend once,

which I know is not the same big cat,

but I did this programme about animal communication

and we played a lion's roar,

and I actually ended up attracting a male lion, who...

Oh, no, sorry, a female lion, who ran away from her current beau,

and she came from miles away, actually.

So, I know that the roars can travel a long distance,

because they're quite bassy, and I know that the bassy noises,

-I think, travel further.

-They do, they do.

So, I'm pretty sure that a lion's roar can travel that far,

so I'd hazard a guess that a tiger would be similarly well-equipped.

So, are you going yay?

-We're going yay.

-You're going yay?

-Yeah.

And you would be right to.

And Iolo, you were right.

If it's a clear night on an open plain,

actually a tiger's roar can be heard as far as five miles away.

Now, well done.

So, you were correct and you get your first part

of your Curious Creature.

-Good.

-Good start, strong start.

-Ooh!

-And there it is.

Lizzy, it is now your turn.

Is this animal fact or beastly fiction?

Hippopotamus produce their own natural sunscreen.

Okey-coke.

Well, initial thoughts would be probably yes,

simply because of where they live and it's extremely hot,

so they're going to need some kind of protection for the skin.

-Mm-hm.

-I once had the privilege of stroking the back of a pygmy hippo.

-Oh, my gosh. What a dream.

-Yeah.

And they have very fragile skin.

-Do they?

-Yeah.

And it splits when it dries in the sun,

and this fluid oozes from it and froths.

-Can I add to that?

-Yeah.

-Isn't it red?

-Which?

-The sunscreen that they produce.

-I remember it being sort of a creamy white.

-Creamy white colour?

Yeah, yeah. It sounds like a painful ordeal, it's not.

It's just the very surface of the skin that splits,

and then this fluid comes out, so it's not like it becomes raw

and wounded in any way.

I mean, this is an evolved strategy.

But, Lizzy, it's your question.

What are you going to go for?

I'm going to have to say yay, simply because absolutely necessary

for a species that lives in such harsh, sunny climates, yeah.

ELEPHANT TRUMPET

You are absolutely right.

I've actually tried it.

-Hippo sunscreen?

-Yeah.

-On yourself?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-IOLO:

-Did it work?

-Or it came out in a rash?

No, it's an amazing stuff, actually.

Shall we have a look at it?

There we are.

It comes out clear and then it changes as it reflects the sun.

Pygmy hippos do produce white sunscreen,

and larger hippos produce orange or red sunscreen. So, there you are.

Wow! Everybody's right.

Everybody's right!

So, very well done, Lizzy.

You win your second part of the Curious Creature.

-Oh!

-Oh?

-There we go.

-Crikey.

-Difficult.

Yeah, hang on.

How easy is that?

Just wait your turn, Iolo Williams.

Let's see how you get on with this one.

This is a perfect question for you.

The longest recorded snake was over 30 feet long.

Over 30 foot long? That would make it about nine metres.

Nine and a bit metres, and everyone thinks that the longest snake

is an Anaconda in the South American jungles,

but I don't think it is.

I think I'm right in saying the longest recorded snake

is a reticulated python, isn't it?

Yeah, I think it's a...

I think we could be quite confident that it's longer than 30 feet.

Yeah, I think it is longer than 30 feet.

I think something like 33 feet was the record, and I'm pretty sure it

was a reticulated python, so I would say yay.

ELEPHANT TRUMPET

-I'm afraid you're wrong.

-Oh, is it's wrong? Oh, no.

It is a neigh.

It is a neigh!

There have been plenty of claims of snakes being spotted

that are over 30 foot, but none of them have been verified.

So, as our Curious Creatures begin to take shape...

Well, Chris's and Lizzy's take shape,

yours is a little bit pathetic at the moment.

..we move on to round two, which today is called 'Who's The Daddy?'.

Each team will see an adorable baby animal.

All they have to do is figure out what it is.

In other words, who the daddy and the mummy are.

So, Chris and Lizzy, here's your bonny baby.

-Absolutely adorable.

-Yes.

Well, I don't know about that.

It looks like it needs a blow-dry at this point.

Just showered.

-It's just hatched, hasn't it? Yeah.

-Yes.

You know this one?

I like to think so, but, er...

Probably a swan.

Yeah. This to me looks very much like a freshly-hatched mute swan.

And we used to have mute swans nesting in the recreation ground

near the park where I went to school,

and all the kids in the class used to say you could never go near them

because they would break your arm.

Yes. That was a classic bit of swan myth-ery.

So, yeah, mute swan.

He's right.

APPLAUSE

Let's have a look.

There we go. Mute swan.

Are they mute?

Not when they're flying, no.

They make a characteristic whirring sound, like a sort of

mechanical squeaky door, as they power their way through the air.

Well, Lizzy and Chris, you were absolutely right,

which means you get another part of your Curious Creature.

Let's have a look at it.

-Oh, yeah.

-Hmm?

Nice.

It's turning out quite nicely.

It is, isn't it? Yeah.

Iolo and Lucy, here is your gorgeous little scrap.

Any idea who's the daddy here?

-Well, it's obviously some kind of mammal.

-Yeah.

-I would say.

-Yeah.

The mammals that come out very underdeveloped

are generally bears and marsupials.

The tail's wrong for a bear, so it's not a bear,

so it must be a marsupial.

They don't develop inside, they develop outside in a pouch.

Could it be a little kangaroo?

-The legs don't look long enough, do they?

-No, I don't think...

What about some sort of opossum?

Yeah, opossum is what I was thinking.

Is that a nipple or a maggot or a carrot right by it?

-I'm not quite sure. I can't quite make it out.

-I know.

I think it's... And actually, don't opossums have their nipples

in a weird place as well, I think. Under their armpits.

So, the clues we've got -

undercooked, four evenly-lengthed legs and the shape of the head.

-And a long tail.

-And a long tail, yeah.

And the mother's skin looks vaguely opossum-like.

Shall we be bold? Shall we go...?

-I think, yeah, I think opossum would be a good guess.

-Yeah.

I think it's much more difficult than the swan question...

Yes, exactly!

..which was very, very easy, but I would go for, yeah, I think opossum.

You're settling with opossum?

-Yes, we are.

-You are?

-And you're wrong.

-Oh, dear.

-It is in fact a kangaroo, a red kangaroo.

-Oh, it was a kangaroo.

It was. After a gestation of just 34 days, the jellybean-sized joey

makes the journey from birth canal to pouch.

When it's born, it's only two centimetres long

and weighs less than a lump of sugar.

And it doesn't have properly formed back legs yet,

but pulls itself up using its fore legs.

So there we go.

So, I'm very sorry. Gosh, your Curious Creature remains...

-It remains a ugly thing with big ears.

-Yeah.

-That's all we have.

So this is the point in the show where we ask the question

that's on everybody's lips -

is it bigger than a chicken?

Yes, we're about to take an in-depth look

at one particularly fascinating animal.

The team's first job is to work out what it is.

They take turns to ask me questions about it,

to which I must be able to answer yes or no.

Each time they get a yes, a small part of the animal is revealed on

the screens, and whoever guesses the animal correctly

wins another part for their team's Curious Creature.

But, be warned, if you get it wrong, you will be out of the round.

And there is one other rule, and that is that the very first question

that is asked needs to be... Audience?

-AUDIENCE:

-Is it bigger than a chicken?

-Thank you very much.

So, Lizzy, we are going to start with you.

What would you like to ask me?

Hmmm.

OK. I'm going to go with...is it bigger than a chicken?

Well, that's a very interesting question, and in this case,

there's sort of parity between this and a chicken.

-But you get your first clue, and here it is.

-OK.

Wow.

-There you are.

-OK.

Any thoughts, any initial thoughts?

-I think we need a bit more, don't we?

-Definitely.

-We need a bit more than that.

-Oh, dear.

Oh, goodness me. That's a tiny part of it as well.

It is a tiny, tiny part of it.

It could have been...

Yeah, do you know what?

I think I've got a little idea of what that might be.

Not the species, but what that was a picture of.

-OK. OK.

-Yeah.

All right. We'll let you hold that thought and go over to Iolo.

What would you like to ask?

Erm, is it a mammal?

No, it's not a mammal, and I'm afraid you can't have a guess.

You have to have a yes first.

So, Chris, on to you.

Is this animal a bird?

Yes.

It is. So, you get another clue, and here it is.

Right.

-Hmm.

-OK.

That is quite characteristic plumage,

and the initial photograph appeared to be what we call

the cere of the animal,

ie the bird's piece of skin between its nostrils,

and I think those were two very small nostrils,

and I think, Lizzy, I know what this is.

-Do you really?

-Yeah, I think so.

Are you going to hazard a guess?

I'm going to throw myself on the altar of failure.

I think it's a kiwi.

If I'm wrong, you're still in and you must win,

but I think it's worth a gamble.

I'm going kiwi. A species of kiwi.

Is it a kiwi?

QUACK

He's wrong.

-So...

-OK.

-So...

-Lizzy.

-OK.

-Your turn for a question.

So it's not a kiwi,

but it is a bird. So what's a good question

that we can get a yes answer to so we can get another clue?

Um, does it have a beak?

I'd love to say no.

Yes, it does.

-Brilliant.

-And here is your next clue.

OK.

-Ooh, OK.

-Oh.

There's no point in making "oh" noises at the back there now.

-No, I know.

-So, what is it?

Because... You thought it was a kiwi, I thought it was a kiwi.

What other birds are there that look like kiwis?

-Is it worth having a guess?

-It might be... And he's...

He's silent! The Packham is silent.

Although he's... No he's not, he's writing. He's writing.

I know what I would go with if I had to go...

What? What would you go with?

I'm not saying I'm going with it,

but if I was pushed, I'd go with a cassowary.

-Cassowary.

-Would you?

-Cassowary, though...

Can we see that in relation to...?

You can, we shall show you in relation...

-Can we see that clue in relation to...?

-That's a foot,

-so it's going to be at the bottom.

-Yeah, so... No, I know,

but it's all to do with how big the bird is, though.

No, I know that, Iolo,

but a cassowary's an enormous bird, you know?

Yeah. How big's the picture?

I don't know about cassowary.

I wonder whether it's a kakapo,

cos a kakapo is a ground-dwelling parrot...

Flightless parrot, yeah.

Flightless parrot, lives in New Zealand also...

So the birds that we are plumping for

are all residents of New Zealand,

where there's a lot of extraordinary flightless birds,

because there are no predators,

so the birds evolved...

They stopped the need for flight

and they now wander around on their feet

and don't need to escape from anything much,

except for the fact that now

there are invasive rats that they need to escape from.

And that weird-looking beak with its ears,

that would fit in with a kakapo as well...

Yeah. Cos it's got quite a chunky, open beak, hasn't it?

-Should we take a guess? The feathers look maybe like a kakapo.

-Yeah.

Yeah, it's brown. I think that we will have to make a guess.

I, like Chris,

I'm prepared to throw myself on the altar of failure.

I think we'll go for another flightless New Zealand bird,

not the kiwi, but the kakapo.

Well, you end up on the plinth of triumph.

-You're absolutely right.

-Yay!

-Let's have a look at it.

-Ah, they're fantastic creatures.

-They are fantastic creatures.

Anyone seen a kakapo running at full speed?

No? No, but I bet it's... I bet it's rather amusing.

It's lovely. Have a look.

LAUGHTER

That's fantastic, isn't it?

-So, congratulations...

-Thank you.

-..to both of you.

You finally add another part to your Curious Creature.

Ooh.

-Yep.

-It's all right.

But you two do have a chance to claw back a semblance of dignity

with a bonus question, which is...

How does a male kakapo try to attract a mate?

So, I've got an idea that they go up to the top of a mountain,

because they live in these sort of cloud forest woods,

and they produce an extraordinary call which echoes over the mountains

-to attract their mates.

-I feel like that's very much like the...

Welsh boys, they go to the...

I don't... Iolo, I mean, is that...? Do you climb...?

I go up a mountain and sing every morning.

-Do you?

-Every morning.

But can you imagine being a female, though,

thinking, "Oh, I've got to go all the way up there?

"You are joking.

-"Come down here. Come and sing down the bottom, here."

-Yeah.

And what sort of sound do you think a kakapo makes?

Again, rather like the tiger, they're covering a large distance.

These animals occur at low densities.

They've got to pump some sound out that's going to carry a long way.

So it's not going to be a fruity little warble,

it's going to be a, you know, a deep-throated groan.

And you're absolutely right. That is exactly how...

..a kakapo attracts its mate -

puffs out its chest and emits a big sonic boom.

So there we are, and you get another part of your Curious Creature.

Well, well done, both teams.

We're now thoroughly conversant in kakapo.

APPLAUSE

Round four today is called Pecking Order.

COCK CROWS

As the name suggests, the task for our teams

is to rank three animals in order, according to a certain attribute.

Chris and Lizzy, we're going to start with you,

and I give you the Arctic tern,

the monarch butterfly, and the grey whale,

and I want you to rank them in order of the distance of migration

they cover in a year, starting with the shortest.

People are often surprised by the fact that butterflies migrate,

and those monarchs will go from as far north as southern Canada

all the way down to Mexico in the winter.

I went down there one January,

it was one of the most extraordinary spectacles.

The trees are clotted with hundreds of thousands of these butterflies.

And they're not torpid. If the sun comes out and there's dew,

to stop from dehydrating, they come down to the ground.

But as soon as the sun goes in,

they fear the fact that they might chill,

so they all fly back to the trees.

And there were so many in the air

that you have to shout above the rustle of their wings.

Where does it put it, do you think, in comparison with our others?

Nowhere near. I mean, they're doing about 4,000 miles,

so I think they're the least travelled.

-Really? OK.

-Yeah, least travelled.

What about our other two,

the grey whale and the Arctic tern?

Cetaceans migrate in... They migrate over vast distances,

and so, my first instinct would be to put that at the longest.

Um, but I know the Arctic terns have a pretty good run for their money.

Yeah. Arctic terns are extraordinary.

They will fly from the Arctic all the way down to the Antarctic,

and circumnavigate that continent,

and then come back again in the same year.

And there was one Arctic tern that was ringed in...

I can't remember, it was the north of England or Norway.

It was on the Farne islands.

-Was it the Farnes?

-It was tagged.

-And it was tagged,

and it went to Australia, didn't it,

in the space of about a month and a half?

They are one of the greatest,

if not THE greatest long-distance travellers.

I think we go butterflies the least...

-Yeah.

-..grey whale second,

Arctic tern the most travelled.

-Happy with that, Lizzy?

-Yes. Yeah, let's go for that.

Good decision. You're absolutely right.

APPLAUSE

The monarch butterflies in North America,

they migrate roughly 2,500 miles,

so a little less than you said, Chris.

Grey whales, they cover about 12,000 miles on their migration,

but an Arctic tern can indeed travel a staggering 44,000 miles a year.

So, very well done. You get another part of your Curious Creature.

There we go.

Now, Lucy and Iolo,

your little gang of three are

a pig,

a sea horse,

and a goat,

and I would like you to rank them in order of the maximum number

of offspring they can have in a single litter,

starting with the fewest.

I made a series about animals giving birth, and I saw a pig giving birth

and it was the most astonishing thing.

They shoot out like peas out of a peashooter, don't they?

It's just... It's amazing.

And that one shot out about 13 piglets, that I saw.

Goats, on the other hand, will give birth to relatively few young.

I mean, I've seen goats, wild goats, I think the most I've seen...

The most I've seen actually is two, I think.

-Two young with one goat in Slovenia.

-Yeah.

-That...

I mean, that's not the same goat, I know.

I think you're right. Goats only really have about two,

because they can't really manage more than that.

They're living in Alpine conditions,

they couldn't... They just simply couldn't.

A mother goat couldn't look after anything more than two young.

-No.

-The pig, we know, has about 13.

And now, I... The sea horse,

it's the only animal in which the male gives birth

and I've seen male sea horses giving birth,

and there's just plumes of little ones coming out,

so I'm pretty confident the goat's the least then.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Then the pig...

-Yeah.

-..and then the sea horse.

Then the sea horse. Yeah.

Confident with that?

Very confident, actually.

And you'd be right to be. Yes.

It is indeed the male sea horse that gives birth

to up to 2,000 live young at any one time.

Have a look at this.

-That's incredible.

-Isn't it just amazing?

-And they're so tiny!

Look... But so perfect, tiny, perfectly-formed

miniature little sea horses. Yeah.

Absolutely glorious.

This footage came in from The Deep aquarium in Hull,

so thank you very much to our friends there.

Isn't that just miraculous?

-Yeah.

-And on that note,

you have won another part of your Curious Creature.

Congratulations.

And there it is.

We're very nearly at the end of the show,

which means it's time to see how many bits

of their Curious Creatures our teams can identify.

Chris and Lizzy have all five parts of their Curious Creature.

Lucy and Iolo, you just have three.

So, Lucy and Iolo, we're going to start with you.

I think you know what it is already.

The head is one of my favourite animals, actually.

I think it's very beautiful. I'd say...

It's an Aardvark, I think.

-Yeah. It is an Aardvark...

-Yeah.

..and you get two points for a correct answer.

What about, um, its rather fetching adornment?

Now, you were feeling confident,

you were muttering about this, weren't you?

It's part of a...of a lizard, that it uses to threaten, to display.

It'll open it out like this.

It's got various names, actually, this one.

-Frilled lizard.

-Yeah, frilled lizard is what I usually call them.

And you will get two points for that. Absolutely right.

Um, your rather magnificent torso...

-Yes.

-..what does that belong to?

-This is a difficult one.

-I think this is difficult.

A black and white bird.

-With frilled edges, as part of a display.

-Yeah, exactly.

Which points me in the direction of...

One of the... One of the bustards,

is it one of the bustards looks like this?

-A bustard?

-Actually, it's going to stump me.

-Should we say bustard?

-I would go for one of the bustards, yeah.

-OK, you're saying bustard.

-Yeah.

You should have stayed closer to home. It's a magpie.

Oh, you're joking! Is it?

LAUGHTER

That leaves you with four points. But, we can offer up the two parts

that you are missing, and if you can correctly identify them,

you can get one point per part, so have a look at this one.

-OK.

-It's either a yeti or a polar bear,

and I'm going for a polar bear.

You would be right, so one point there.

Five points, can you make it to six?

Let's have a look at the final bit.

Very good. Well, it's obviously another reptile.

-I would go with iguana.

-Yeah.

-OK. One point.

-Thank you.

APPLAUSE

So, you have six points.

Chris and Lizzy, can you do any better?

Let's have a look at your beady-eyed little head first.

This is one of the Loris species,

and they are in trouble at the moment

because they're being collected for the pet trade in the Far East.

It is indeed a Loris.

Let's move on to the breast.

-I mean...

-Come on, Lizzy.

The one and only robin.

It is, exactly right. Two points for that.

How about these lovely appendages?

-Stunning set of wings.

-Any thoughts?

-Yeah, beautiful.

So the size makes me want to say fruit bat.

-Yeah, absolutely beautiful.

-You're going fruit bat?

And you get two points for that.

Well done. It's a Madagascan flying fruit bat.

You now have six points, so you're level pegging with Lucy and Iolo.

Can you beat them?

No!

SHE LAUGHS

So this animal is a what, do you think?

We're going to go gorilla on this, I think.

-Yes.

-We're going gorilla.

You are absolutely right.

It is indeed a western lowland gorilla.

And, your final Curious Creature part...

-Yeah.

-Let's have a look at this.

-Very bushy.

-Yeah, it is bushy, isn't it?

That's... That's the trickiest of them all, really, because

there are only a number of animals with a piebald tail like that.

There are skunks, I don't think it's quite stripy enough for a skunk.

Oh, I would've said skunk.

What slightly perturbs me are these two white stripes on the top there,

you see? They seem to suggest it isn't a badger.

-That's what made me think it was a skunk.

-Skunky.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, OK.

-Shall we go with skunk? Lizzy, you seem pretty convinced.

Yeah, go on, then, Lizzy. You go with skunk.

Oh gosh, I'm taking this one. Yeah, skunk.

Skunk, good girl. Two points.

And that means that, Chris and Lizzy, you have the full quota

of ten points.

APPLAUSE

Commiserations to Lucy and Iolo,

but thanks to all four of you for being our Curious Creatures today,

and thank you for playing along, you precious primates at home.

And we'll see you next time. Goodbye.