Episode 6 Curious Creatures

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

a brand-new quiz all about the boundless wonders of the animal kingdom.

Sharing their enthusiasm and expertise today are four people with

a love of all things furry and feathery - possibly scaly, too.

Please welcome on my left, scholar of every species Chris Packham,

who is joined by marine and wildlife expert Miranda Krestovnikoff.

APPLAUSE

And on my right, genius of every genus, Lucy Cooke,

who's joined by writer, broadcaster, and film-maker Simon King.

APPLAUSE

So we start with some testing teasers from the animal kingdom

in our very first round of the day, and it is Yay or Neigh?

So I will read each team member a statement about an animal which may

be true.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

That's a Yay.

Or false.

HORSE WHINNIES

A Neigh.

All they have to do is decide whether it's fact or fabrication, and Chris,

we are going to start with you.

The statement is, "Some fish can communicate by breaking wind."

Some fish can in fact, well, produce sounds by breaking wind,

which they'll do, I think, in response to a predator.

And I've got it in mind it's mackerel that are

the principal culprits of this beneath the surface...

-..bubbling.

-Communication?

-Bubbling.

Bubbling. And do you know what?

There's an interesting thing, because for a long time,

the Swedish Navy had listening devices out because they were worried about

Russian submarines in the Baltic.

And they had this particular sound that they could hear.

And they thought that this was covert activity from the Russian

submarines. And then eventually, one day,

a piscatorial expert was wandering through, I don't know,

the Swedish version of MI5 or something,

and happened to hear this sound that they'd recorded and said,

"That's not a submarine,

"it's actually fish breaking wind beneath the surface."

-No way.

-Flatulent mackerel, nothing to do with the Russians at all.

Nothing to do with the Russians at all! So at the end of all that,

are you saying that fish can communicate by breaking wind?

And so can the Russians.

So we're going Yay?

-Yay.

-You are going Yay?

Well, I'm going a big Yay.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

And you're right.

Now you said mackerel were the particular culprits - actually herring.

-Herring.

-And you have won the first part of your Curious Creature.

Let's have a look.

There it is. Happy little chap.

Now then, let's go to you, Lucy, what do you make of this statement?

"The giant huntsman spider is the only natural predator of the golden

"poison dart frog."

Do you know what? I really do know the answer to this cos I love frogs.

I know everybody probably knows that I love sloths,

but I really love frogs, as well.

And it's only found in a very small area, in the Choco,

which is the Pacific coast of Columbia.

It is the most toxic creature on the planet.

So we all had to wear protective gloves when we went to go and find

it because the toxin that it produces is defensive,

so it sweats out this poison.

Anyway, when it's stressed, and of course,

me picking it up made it quite stressed...

So I'm there holding it, this frog, and it's sweating out the poison,

and I just, you know, I love frogs,

and sometimes I get a little bit overwhelmed by the majesty of nature,

-and I...

-Don't tell me you tried to turn it into a handsome prince.

No, I didn't. No, no, no, no,

I burst into tears because it was so beautiful and so strange,

and so perfect and so wonderful and so endangered

that I burst into tears, and I went to wipe the tears away from my eyes,

and as I did so, everybody screamed, "Stop!"

And if I'd have touched my eye, I would've been dead in three minutes, and there's no antidote.

So I know quite a lot about this frog,

and I know that his number one predator is not the huntsman spider,

because the huntsman spider, as far as I know,

they actually live in Australia or Asia,

so he's a very long way away from Columbia.

And the only animal on this planet that can deal with the toxins of the

golden poison dart frog is a particular snake,

I don't know the name of the snake.

And the reason why this frog is so incredibly poisonous is because it's

been in an evolutionary arms race with this snake over many, many,

many years. The frog got more poisonous, and this snake learnt how

to, you know... Evolved how to digest the poison and survive,

and the frog got more poisonous and so we now have this outrageously poisonous frog,

which advertises its extremely toxic nature by being the colour of a banana.

So your answer to the statement, "The giant huntsman spider is the

"only natural predator of the golden poison dart frog," is...

Neigh.

HORSE WHINNIES

And you, Lucy Cooke, would be absolutely correct.

Yay.

So you have earned your team the very first part of your Curious Creature.

Let's have a look.

Very well done. Now, Miranda, your turn.

I put it to you that a crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

I don't think I've ever seen a crocodile sticking its tongue out.

Their tongue seems to be very short and, sort of,

almost glued to the bottom of their mouth.

I'm just thinking... No.

-They can't chew, can they?

-No.

And the tongue is principally an organ which allows an animal to move food around in its mouth,

so that it can get it in the right place to chew it.

Because, of course, they bite, they hold on, and then they spin,

and that's how they break off chunks of prey.

And they flick it up and swallow it.

-And then swallow it.

-Yeah.

-So it's a Yay to your statement.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS Yes, you're right.

APPLAUSE

And you're also right by saying that a crocodile can't move its tongue

very freely because it is connected to the bottom or floor of the mouth

by a membrane.

So you have won a second part of your Curious Creature.

Let's have a look and see what it is.

Oh, look at that.

Now, Simon King.

Welcome to the madhouse.

Thank you. It's a great pleasure to be here.

It's lovely to have you here.

So I'm going to ask you, Yay or Neigh to this statement.

"A narwhal's tusk is made of keratin,

"the same stuff our hair and nails are made out of?"

Now, I've held a narwhal's tusk.

Have you? Was it attached to a narwhal still?

No.

No, no, no, I was with...

I imagine you were sort of like...

I was working in the high Arctic with some Inuit,

and they brandished a narwhal tusk and said, "Feel that."

It felt like bone.

-Right.

-That's not to say...

A lot of things feel like bone,

and indeed the stuff that rhino horn is made out of

feels bone-like.

Having said that, it's going to be wearing heavily with use.

-What do you think?

-I don't think it's keratin because why would it be

keratin because why would a whale...?

I think it's an aberrant... It comes from one side or the other of

the head, as well - they have a right-hand side or left-hand side.

-I'm going to say it's the same as dentition.

-Yep.

-I'm going to have to go for this.

I'm a Neigh.

HORSE WHINNIES

You're right. It is not made out of keratin.

It is indeed made out of dentin,

so the same as the ivory on an elephant's tusk.

-Or a hippo, or a hippo's...

-Or a hippo.

-Yep.

-Or a hippo.

Shall we have a look at these extraordinary creatures in action?

-Oh, yes, please.

-This is a rather beautiful bit of film.

Let's have a look at it. Little migration through the cracks in the ice.

It's uncanny, isn't it, that they're able to negotiate that kind of

fissure when you think how mobile ice flows are in the Arctic,

and that it can close at any time with the movement of the ocean?

And, of course, being cetaceans, air-breathing mammals,

they've got to get access to the air.

-Yeah.

-That would give me the willies. Imagine that.

-Absolutely.

Your next breath depends on that staying open.

So well done, you have added another part to your Curious Creature.

OK.

-Good.

-So, well done to our teams.

Their Curious Creatures are beginning to shape up nicely,

and we'll find out at the end of the show which animals they think those

bits belong to.

But, for now, we move on to round two, which today is What on Earth?

Today, this round is all about identifying animal tracks,

so Chris and Miranda, What on Earth made these tracks here?

I'll give you a little bit of a clue -

we're looking for a British native species.

OK. So what are you thinking?

Well, we're definitely not going...

We're not going domestic. It's not a dog, for sure.

-No.

-And therefore, it's not fox.

Fox and dog prints are pretty similar -

just the size of the middle two fore-pads separate those.

So we're ruling out fox or domestic dog from that straightaway there.

And they've done the typical thing of treading on their own pad.

When you say typical thing, typical of this particular animal?

-Because of the gait.

-OK.

-So what happens very often is that

when an animal puts its forefoot down, its hind foot then treads

on the forefoot's print.

Which, you know, isn't helpful.

-Confuses things.

-Especially if you're ever tracking an animal,

go for a three-legged one with a limp.

LAUGHTER

Look in the top left-hand corner, there's a bit of water there.

So this is an animal that's moving alongside a river or stream, isn't it?

We're going mustelid of some description?

Well, let's think what might be alongside the stream, it could be otter.

Nowadays, of course, if it's in Scotland or other parts of the UK,

-it could be beaver.

-Yep.

-But beavers have a very large tail which they

drag behind them, which basically rubs their prints out most of the time.

So I'm not thinking...

I'm not thinking beaver.

I'm thinking that we're probably going to go down the lutrine route for this one.

-OK.

-What do you think?

-I think we'll go with that.

You're going to go down the otter route?

And you would be right.

Let's have a look.

So you get another part of your Curious Creature.

Oh.

That's right, it's got a little bit...

Lucy and Simon. What on Earth left these telltale tracks?

And your clue is that it is an Asian mammal.

OK, I think there's quite a good clue in that thumb on that track,

which is unusual, isn't it?

-Very pronounced.

-So if it's an Asian mammal, and it's snowy,

there are two Asian mammals that have thumbs, aren't there?

You've got the snow monkey, you've got the macaque, which it could be.

It could be a macaque. A macaque foot...

-..has a thumb.

-It does on the hind, and indeed the fore-foot.

But you've got very stunted little fore-feet there.

What about a panda?

-Ah.

-Cos the red panda is actually more closely related to the raccoon

family, and the giant panda is, of course, a bear.

What is a bear's footprint like?

It hasn't got a sticky-out thumb like that, anything like it,

not at all. Not even remotely - I know bear feet.

You know bear feet. Otherwise, the other ones look like bear feet,

-the ones without the sticky-out thumb.

-Yeah, it's got a dinky thumb,

though, look at the top one. It's got a dinky thumb.

-Go red panda. Go on.

-All right, let's go, why not?

-Should we do it?

-Yeah.

-Red panda.

Red panda? Well, let's reveal whether you are right or not.

Oh, I was right the first time!

Oh, no!

There you are, they are indeed the Japanese macaque.

-Oh, well.

-Shall we see a little bit of film of them...

-Yes, please.

-..doing what we love seeing them do?

Walking in the snow or bathing, enjoying the heat of a hot pool.

-There you go.

-There we go.

That does look heavenly, doesn't it?

His hands didn't look like...

They didn't look like monkey hands, did they?

-Do you know what I mean?

-Yeah.

-The feet look like they could've been,

but the hands didn't look like they were.

-It's the hind feet.

-There we are, so I'm sorry,

but you don't win a new part for your Curious Creature.

And on that note, it is now time to play our regular mystery animal round,

which is Is It Bigger Than a Chicken?

This round is all about one particularly fascinating animal,

but first of all, our teams have to work out what it is.

They take turns to ask me questions to which I must be able to answer

only yes or no.

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

And teams, if you wish, you can make a guess at what that animal might be.

But remember, if you're wrong, you will be out of the round.

Oh, and there is just one other rule -

the first question must always be, audience...

-AUDIENCE:

-Is it bigger than a chicken?

Thank you very much. Simon.

Is it bigger than a chicken?

Just blurt it out there.

And I can tell you that the answer is a resounding yes.

So you get your first visual clue.

Let's have a look.

Anything you'd like to say about that?

-Oh, I could have a stab. No, I'm going to hold back.

-You're going to hold back? OK. All right.

OK, Miranda.

Is it a herbivore?

Yes, it is.

Good.

So you get another little bit of the clue.

Let's have a look. Which bit is that then?

I dread to think.

That rich red colour, when you think about it...

-The colour is...

-Yeah, but there are any number of mammals which have

that rich red colour, actually.

So not prepared to take a punt at this time?

You can go from fox to bandicoot to orang-utan.

I mean you could go on and on, so we can't be tempted by just the colour.

-OK.

-And the fact that it's, you know...

-Furry.

-Furry, right.

OK, well, in that case, I shall move over to Lucy.

Is it a creature with hooves?

Is it an ungulate?

No.

It's not. Chris?

Is the animal principally arboreal?

No.

No, it's not. So Simon, back to you.

-So it's a ground dwelling...

-Non-ungulate...

Glorious chestnut fur.

That's completely thrown me. I'm really glad I didn't guess on the first try.

It's a new species!

There aren't really any primates that are not arboreal...

So we are down to rodent, stroke agouti, stroke...

Oh, I know! It's a capybara!

Yeah, but anyway...

Can we say rodent?

-Yes.

-Shall we go for that?

-Is it a rodent?

-Is it a rodent?

Yes, it is a rodent.

OK. Here we are.

Here is the third piece of your mystery animal jigsaw.

So I'm going to put my neck on it.

-Go on.

-Yeah? Cos I get kicked out.

I'm going to say it's a capybara.

And you won't get kicked out.

Yay!

APPLAUSE

-It is wonderful.

-There it is.

It was indeed a capybara.

Can you tell us a little bit about a capybara?

Capybaras are the world's biggest rodents.

They are pretty big, kind of about...

-Bigger than that. Keep going.

-Like this.

-Oh, they're not that big.

-They are!

-Really?

-That big!

-They are huge.

-Capybaras that I have seen are kind of, you know,

they are big. And they...

I still think a capybara that I have seen...

-Anyway.

-That's a guinea pig, for goodness' sake.

It's basically...

A capybara is a souped-up guinea pig.

It's the world's largest rodent and they live in Central and South America

and they live near water and the males have harems of females

and they've just got these wonderful, imperious looking faces.

And they are rather glorious.

-And they bark.

-Actually,

I have heard them when they are a little bit shocked,

they sound a bit like affronted Victorian ladies.

They sort of go, "Oh!"

when you surprise them. Anyway...

-That was really good.

-Thank you.

On that note, you have won another part of your curious creature.

There we are. Now, Chris and Miranda,

you have a chance to win a bonus part of your Curious Creature

if you can answer this question.

As Lucy said, the capybara is the largest living rodent in the world.

But do you know what the second-largest is?

I'm going to go porcupine, one of the porcupine species.

They get pretty big, and people forget they are rodents.

Miranda? Do you agree?

I'm with Chris, I didn't even think about porcupines.

Well, I'm afraid you are wrong.

The second biggest species of rodent is...

-the beaver.

-Oh.

-Fat beaver.

-The fat beaver.

The Eurasian beaver, being ever so slightly bigger than the American one.

OK. But not as exciting as a porcupine.

-No.

-Perhaps not as exciting.

However, I can give you something exciting.

Would anyone like to see a capybara doing capybara-type things?

-Would you like to see it?

-I think we all do.

Let's have a look at these lovely creatures.

Oh, look at that face.

-What was that just jumped on his face? A leaping frog.

-Yeah.

Sit all day and eat.

They're looking out for jaguars,

-that's what THEY'RE looking out for.

-Aww.

So sadly, Chris and Miranda,

you don't add another part to your Curious Creature.

Well done Lucy and Simon, well done everybody.

We are now all connoisseurs of the capybara.

Now, in today's round four, our teams become dung detectives,

because it's time for Whose Poo?

Yes, this is where our teams become Poirots of poo and Miss Marples

of muck. They will each have a sample to examine,

all they have to do is figure out which animal is responsible.

And today's delightful droppings are kindly provided by our friends

at the National Poo Museum.

Now we do have a small health and safety message -

please do not try this at home.

All animal poo is potentially harmful, and our expert teams -

that's this lot, apparently -

are examining their samples under strictly controlled conditions.

So, Chris and Miranda.

Ta-da!

-Chocolate raisins.

-Now then...

Ah, well, chocolate raisins, Miranda...

-After you.

-Tell me what you are thinking then, Miranda.

Well, we ought to cut one open and have a little look.

-You do the dissection.

-Oh, they are really hard.

So, OK. Well, obviously it's a herbivore

because you can see it's been eating grass.

They are like little pellets,

but they are slightly pointed at one end.

Does that give you a clue, if they are slightly pointed at one end?

The thing is, this is quite a tricky one, because any number of animals

produce pelleted poo like that.

And when you think about it, rabbits do it, squirrels do it.

Rabbits produce nice little round spheres of course, in two forms.

But when it comes to things like goats and sheep and deer,

all of these animals produce this pelleted poo.

Sometimes when they produce it, it comes out in what I call a crot.

-Do you call them crots?

-I call it a clump, but you can call it a crot if you want to.

Crot, yeah. So imagine all of that moulded together,

looks like a pineapple grenade, and then sometimes they fragment.

Or sometimes they will just come out like this in single bits and it might

depend on what the animal is eating and whether it had a curry recently.

Quite a lot of ruminating going on here.

Do we think it might be a species we would find in this country,

or do we think it's foreign?

UK deer species, probably.

-Mm-hm.

-So, there are six species in the UK.

It's too big for muntjac and Chinese water deer...

If anyone can get their hands on Chinese water deer poo,

I'd like to shake those hands,

because that would be hard to come by.

So that leaves us with roe, fallow, red and sika.

You said fallow first of all.

-Gut feeling?

-Gut feeling!

Look what I did there, yeah.

Miranda, I'm going to ask you to nail your flag to the mast.

We're going to go fallow deer.

Fallow deer. Let's see if you're right.

You're absolutely right.

So you get a new part of your Curious Creature.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Oh!

-There we are.

Now then, to Lucy and Simon.

-Are you good on poo?

-If it's in this country, not bad.

If it's from other parts of the world - not bad on African poo.

Get to Asia and it gets a bit shaky.

Let's see what we've got.

Urgh!

-Oh, my goodness me!

-Nice.

It looks like some revolting giant insect.

Delightful.

So, first impressions?

-Smelly!

-Didn't come from this country.

-It's really smelly.

Didn't come from this country, you say, Simon?

-Mm-hm.

-It's really smelly,

-which makes me think it's a carnivore or an omnivore.

-Looks very carnivorous.

Whoa! For viewers at home, that is one smelly poo.

-Can I dig in?

-You can absolutely dig in.

Look at this. Hang on.

Smelly does imply that it's...

-It looks carnivorous.

-Carnivore or omnivore.

Hang on. It's a bit fibrous, though.

I'm not seeing any animal hair in here.

It's a sizeable poo, which implies it's come from a sizeable bottom,

which implies a sizeable creature.

Look, a lot of vegetable matter there.

Smells of castoreum, which is the scent that comes from a beaver's...

-Beaver's anal gland.

-And that looks like a beaver poo.

The reason I don't think it's beaver is because beavers eat lots of wood.

I think the smelliness...

What's this? What's going on here?

Do you think the keeper has red hair?

Oh! It's an orang-utan!

-Boom.

-That's an orang-utan hair, isn't it?

That's a long, orange orang-utan hair.

Primate. Go orang-utan.

Look at that. That is...

The clue is this...

I'm with you, go orang-utan.

The big clue is this

red hair that's suspending that fine piece of faecal matter.

-Yes.

-We believe it's an orang-utan poo.

Shall we see if you're right?

Yay!

Lisa and Simon, very well done.

You get another part of your Curious Creature.

Hmm.

There we go. We are 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 Miranda have four parts of their Curious Creature,

and Lucy and Simon also have four.

Well done, both teams.

Chris and Miranda, we are going to start with you, and remember,

any that you correctly identify will win you two points.

Let's start with that furry little head.

-Any thoughts?

-Well, it's a bear and it's got spectacles.

-Yes.

-Very obviously, it's a spectacled bear.

Absolutely right. Two points. What about its protuberance?

-Love that word.

-Wow!

We've all seen these in the park, stealing sandwiches.

This is the beak of a male Mallard in its breeding plumage.

It absolutely is.

Four points so far.

How about its rather splendid body?

It's a tree frog of some description, but we're just not quite...

I can give you two points for tree frog,

but if you want to tell me more about it.

It's got a couple of white lines and then a dark line going through its eye, looking on the head there,

which might mean it's the European green tree frog hyla arborea,

but that would be really chucking it out there.

It's actually a Japanese tree frog.

-Of course it is.

-What about these rather splendid arms?

-The arms!

-It's surfing arms, isn't it?

We think the arms of a gibbon.

I can give you two points for that.

Do you want to elaborate just a little?

I'm not big on gibbons.

I can give you a clue.

It sort of does what it says on the tin.

Is it a creosote gibbon?

-Miranda?

-Dark-armed, white-handed gibbon?

Pretty much. Yes. It is a white-handed gibbon, yes.

Very well done. You have scored eight points.

We can give you an extra point if you can identify the part

you didn't win, which is this rather splendid...

-Oh! Hmm.

-Look at that.

-Oh!

-Let's see what it looks like attached.

That really helps. Much easier to identify.

Splendid and fluffy?

Erm...

-Is that a red squirrel?

-It is a red squirrel.

And so you have a total of nine points.

So, Lucy and Simon, you've got it all to play for.

You too have four parts and you will get two points for each one

you correctly identify.

Let's start with the head.

-Pretty straightforward. With that nose.

-Tapir face.

Exactly, that's a tapir.

It is a tapir. Two points for that.

What about its fancy dress headgear?

-What do you reckon? Stag beetle.

-Looks like a stag beetle.

-Stag beetle?

-Mm-hm.

Two points, which makes four points so far.

How about these rather beautiful wings?

There are a lot of birds with orange undercovers, like a kingfisher.

-You sure a kingfisher is going to have...?

-You can't see blue from the underwing of a kingfisher.

-Really?

-You can't.

From above you can, from underneath...

-Obviously on the breast you do.

-Yeah. They look white underneath?

A little bit just through here.

-Really?

-But it's doing a heck of an arc with its wing.

You're sounding pretty confident, Simon, that you know what it is.

-Can I just go for it?

-Yeah, go for it.

-Kingfisher.

-Nope.

-Oh!

It's actually a Siberian jay.

-Tricky!

-So no points.

Ouch!

God, Simon, how did you not know the Siberian jay?

I do actually know what the Siberian jay looks like,

-but it didn't come to mind.

-Sadly, you are not going to be able to win,

but let's make sure you are in close running for second,

and see if you can identify this beautiful body.

That's easier. That's a sloth bear.

Absolutely right. Yes. Two points for that.

And I can give you one point for the bit that you didn't manage to win

throughout the show, and it is this.

Snow leopard.

It is a snow leopard. Cos you can tell from the snow. Yeah.

And the tail. And even from the tail!

You are right.

It is a snow leopard, which brings your total to seven points.

-Siberian jay!

-Siberian jay.

But valiant though that effort was,

it means that Chris and Miranda are today's winners.

Thank you to all four of you Curious Creatures for playing today,

and thank you too, to you hopefully happy hominids at home for watching.

We'll see you next time, goodbye.