Wednesday, February 21, 2024

The Animal Show- Red Panda and Chinchilla Part 2

Jake: And now, let’s see what’s cooking in the kitchen with Yves St. La Roche.

(cuts to Yves in his kitchen)

Yves: Bonjour, bonjour little animals out there! Today, in honor of our endangered guests, we will make Endangered Salad. You will need a bowl and the following ingredients: Alfalfa, carrots, cabbage, raisins, and bamboo! That’s for the pandas. Then, you put the ingredients in the bowl, and voila! We have Endangered Salad. (goes underneath to pull out bug nuggets and fruit slices) With bug nuggets and fruit slices on the side. Give this to an herbivore, and they’ll go crazy for it! (a zebra runs by and eats the salad)

Zebra: That was delicious, though you could do without the bamboo next time.

(cuts back to Stinky and Jake)

Jake: And now, all the way from the Andes Mountains…

Stinky: Mountains.

Jake: Give it up for Linda the Chinchilla!

Linda: Hi, Jake. Why is Stinky dressed up as a human?

Stinky: Who is Stinky? I am Super Skunk, dedicated to helping endangered species!

Linda: I’m glad you want to save my kind, Stinky. Chinchillas are endangered.

Jake: How come?

Linda: Humans kill chinchillas because our fur is so soft. If that wasn’t bad enough, they destroyed a lot of our homes, and now, we only live in mountains in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru.

Stinky: Once again, this sounds like a job for Super Skunk!

Linda: However, there are at least a million of us in captivity, since we’re very popular as pets among humans.

Stinky: That’s where I’ll go next- The pet store to free captive chinchillas! (runs off to the pet store to rescue chinchillas)

Jake: Do you suppose you could tell me more about chinchillas?

Linda: Well, we like to take dust baths.

Jake: How come?

Linda: It’s how we clean our coats. It also helps eliminate unwanted dirt and oil. We don’t like to get wet.

Jake: Interesting. Would you like to sing for us now?

Linda: I’d love to.

Jake: And no, here’s Linda singing ‘Chinchilla Blues’.

Linda: I once a had a home

Located in Chile

But they got destroyed

By humans willy-nilly

They also dig up the mountains

For some precious rocks

But you might as well knit a llama's wool

Into a pair of socks

I was once so widespread

But now I just live in the Andes

But at least I get to keep myself

All nice and sandy

And that's why I have the chinchilla blues!

Bunnie: And now it’s time for the Animal Awards! Today, the animal with the smallest habitat! Could it be… the tuatara?

Armstrong: The quokka?

Bunnie: The Javan rhino?

Armstrong: Or the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle?

Bunnie: And the winner is… the Javan rhino, which only lives on the Southeast Asian Island of Java!

Armstrong: Congratulations, rhino!

Bunnie: Back to you, Stinky and Jake!

Jake: I wonder where Stinky, er, Super Skunk is. He’s gonna miss story time! (Stinky, without his superhero outfit, runs towards Jake to make sure that he didn’t miss the story)

Stinky: Sorry I’m late, Jake. Super Skunk tried rescuing chinchillas from pet stores, but the humans chased me out.

Jake: Why didn’t he use his super stench?

Stinky: She had a gas mask.

Jake: Do you still want to hear the story?

Stinky: Sure. What’s it about?

Jake: It’s about an Egyptian tortoise, which is also endangered. “Once upon a time in the African country of Libya, there was an Egyptian tortoise named Eddie. Eddie was sick of living in Libya, so he decided to move to Egypt, since Egypt was in his name. He packed his shell with the essentials and walked and walked and walked until he reached his destination. And if you’re wondering, yes. He did take rests in between. After two months of traveling, Eddie was starting to lose hope. ‘I’ll never make it to Egypt.’ He said. One day, an ibis saw him baking in the sun. He rolled him into an oasis to wake him up. ‘What are you doing in Egypt?’ ‘Egypt?’ Asked Eddie. ‘I made it to Egypt!’ ‘You sure have!’ Said the ibis. ‘I’ll get my friends to help carry you to the nearest wildlife reserve. You’ll be safe from humans there.’ And so, Eddie was carried over to the nearest wildlife reserve, and to this day, Eddie is still living there. The end.”

Stinky: That was a good story, Jake. Are there wildlife reserves for skunks?

Jake: Yep, and polar bears, too!

(cut to Armstrong and Bunnie in front of the habitat door)

Bunnie: Okay, Armstrong. It’s Habitat Time! Today, we’re going to the Andes Mountains!

Armstrong: The mountains? Well, we’ve been everywhere else in the world.

Bunnie: (opens the door) Let’s go!

This is the Andes Mountains, which spans across seven countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

This is a guanaco, a close relative of the llama.

Armstrong: Llama?

Bunnie: A wooly relative of the camel that’s been domesticated throughout South America. We'll have a llama guest star in a later episode.

Armstrong: Talk about a bird bath.

Bunnie: These parakeets use the waterfalls to wash themselves with.

Armstrong: I must be dreaming: More birds!

Bunnie: There are a lot of birds in the Andes Mountains, including these flamingos.

Armstrong: But aren’t flamingos normally pink?

Bunnie: Only if they eat lots of red shrimp.

Armstrong: I know what that is: That’s a fox!

Bunnie: Not just a fox, Armstrong. That’s an Andean fox, though it’s also called a culpeo. Even though it’s called a fox, culpeos are actually closer related to wolves and jackals.

Armstrong: I didn’t know bugs could be so colorful.

Bunnie: These are Darwin’s beetles, Armstrong, but be careful. They can be rather territorial.

Armstrong: I didn’t know bugs could put up such a fight. Let’s get out of here.

(Bunnie and Armstrong leave the Andes and head back to the Animal Show studio)

Bunnie: For Habitat Time, it’s Bunnie Bear-

Armstrong: And Armstrong the chickenhawk.

Bunnie: Just back from the Andes Mountains.

(Tizzy flies around Stinky and Jake again)

Tizzy: Tizzy here! Time for a quiz! (cuts to the screen below)

Do gorillas eat bugs? Give it a think. Back in a buzz!

(cut back to Stinky and Jake, who are having a hard time finding the answer)

Stinky: Do you think gorillas eat bugs?

Jake: I don’t think so, Stinky. We had two gorillas on the show before, and neither of them had an interest in eating bugs.

Tizzy: Well, here’s the answer. (flies back to the previous scene)

This gorilla is beating on the termite mound to tap out the termites for it to eat. Bee-lieve it, because it’s true!

Jake: Thanks for the quiz, Tizzy. That's all the time we have today, and until next time, keep seeing the world through the eyes of animals. Bye! Author's notes: Jake is right- There have been two gorilla guest stars on The Animal Show before: Lenny the Gorilla and Gilda the Gorilla.
The reason they look identical is because they are, in fact, the same character: The puppet for Gilda was recycled from Lenny.
The red panda cubs showcased in Baby Talk are, in fact, real animals on exhibit at the Australia Zoo. Here's a link to a video featuring Scarlet and Teddy below.
Next week, you'll learn about how some animals are invasive when the guest stars are a dung beetle and a Burmese python!

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