Peta the Weta| Part 1

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Hi! I'm Jim Jacob, a South Carolina based creator. I started as a podcaster by accident. Our first real episodes on the internet were me trying to find a solution to help tell my sons stories as I was traveling for work. I recorded some stories and hoped that by uploading them to a podcast app, my wife and kids could have easy access to listen. What started as a fix for our family’s bedtime routine interruption has grown into a worldwide audience with hundreds of thousands of listeners. My wife Jocelyn and I have 3 kids and love inspiring others towards greater imagination and curiosity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello friends, it's mister Jim and welcome back to Kids
Animal Stories. Right now, I need to make sure that
you have either left a review on Apple Podcast or
left that five star rating on Spotify. That means so
much to me when you do that, and I read
all of your reviews along the way. Well, today's story

(00:24):
is about pet the Weeda. What in the world is
a weeda? Well, are you ready to find out? With me?
All aboard for a trip to New Zealand, let's go.
It was a dreary day in New Zealand. The rain

(00:45):
was slowly falling onto the ground and the clouds were
very thick in the sky. It was a little bit
foggy and no breeze. There was no wind and so
the air felt very still, ill but very wet. Oh,
I could really use a break, said Peter. Why are

(01:07):
we always working, Papa? This work, It never ends. You see,
Peter was a giant weeda, Peta the Weta. I know
it sounds kind of silly, but Peter the Weeda, he's
imagine like a ginormous cricket. Imagine if you were holding
a cricket on your hand, except it wasn't very small.

(01:30):
It was this almost as big as your entire hand. Wow.
Peter the giant weeda, he is a pretty amazing creature,
and he has a very important job. Well, son. You see,
when I was your age, there were thousands of us,
but now now it's just me and you, and we

(01:54):
must work very hard or else the jungle in the
forest will be a very messy and stinky place. We
have a lot to unpack right there. You see the
job that Peta the Wieda is talking about. They are
garbage men. That's a really important job. I think we've

(02:16):
talked about that before. If if you just left your
trash like in the front yard or in your kitchen,
it would get pretty stinky, right, Yeah, it's somebody's really
important job to make sure that the trash in our
garbage is either recycled or it goes to the right
place so that that's not filling up our houses and
our neighborhoods with very stinky, stinky air. But Peta the

(02:38):
Wieda was not only a garbage man with his dad,
but they were also gardeners, so they would break down
all the old stinky stuff in the forest and also
prepare the soil for new plants to grow now. I
don't know of many more important jobs than those two

(02:59):
in the forest, because if it wasn't for them, the
plants would have nowhere to grow and the forest would
not last very much longer. Uugh, Papa, do you have
any tricks to stop getting dirt in your ears? Because
every time I bend down to pick up all this
stuff and to dig through the dirt, I keep getting

(03:20):
my ears full of dirt. It's really frustrating. Wait what,
Hold on a second, did he say he keeps getting
dirt in his ears. I don't know about you, but
like if I play in the sandbox or like bend
down to pick up something off the ground, I don't
get dirt in my ears. Let me check that out

(03:40):
for a second. Uh, I'm reading here that giant weedas
their ears are located on their knees. Wait what Yeah,
it says right here that they have their ears on
their knees. How silly would it be if our ears
were on our knees. I would totally get dirt in

(04:02):
them if I was crawling around on the ground. I'm
glad our ears are on our heads. That's exactly where
they're supposed to be. Well Son, that's just a part
of the job. We get a little dirty, and at
the end of the day, it's just important to make
sure that you clean out your ears so that dart
doesn't stay in there overnight while we're sleeping. Okay, I

(04:22):
just I wish there was a better trick for that.
Speaking of ears, I'm pretty sure I hear something old. Still,
don't move, Peta, the weeda froze completely still. You see.
The reason they have their ears on their knees is
to bring it closer to the ground so that they

(04:43):
can hear when their predator is approaching. And you know
what kind of creature loves to eat giant weedas the
most they're called lesser short tailed bats. And I don't
know about you, I think of a bat as a
flying creature, right. Well, the lesser short tailed bat actually

(05:03):
likes to walk on the ground, which is why they
need those ears very close to the ground so that
they can hear it walking before it's too late and
they get invited over for dinner with that short tailed
bat home. Pete's papa was right, all right, well, I
think he's getting closer. Let's head on back to our

(05:25):
home just in case. Peter the Weeda and his papa
headed back towards their home. That would be a safer
place to avoid getting eaten by that short tailed bat.
But it was just then as they were crawling into
their home, they heard a strange sound, a very loud
sound from up above. As they were looking up in

(05:48):
the sky, they'd never heard that sound before, but they
saw this big, big creature with wings that looked like
they were made of rock or metal or something. Do
you know what it is that's in the sky that
they're looking at that would make a big sound like that,
And it's big, has wings and it looks like it's
made of metal. I think they're looking at an airplane. Papa,

(06:12):
look at that. There's something falling out of that giant
metal bird in the sky. Pea the Weieda watched as
the airplane dropped a box, a large box, out of it,
and it had a parachute that helped it land on
the ground nice and safe. Pea the Wieda and his

(06:33):
papa had both never seen this before. Oh, donor even
think about touching that thing. If it's new, it's gotta
be bad. And you see everything new that comes to
this island. It only hurts us. That's why it's just
me and you left. I've seen all kinds of new

(06:54):
creatures come to this place and cause nothing but a
giant miss that we can even clean up. Yeah. He's
talking about when people bring creatures and animals that aren't
supposed to live in a place and they introduce them
and it causes a big disaster. Like I imagine if

(07:17):
in your backyard there was a creature, let's say a lion.
And I'm assuming lions don't live in your backyard, but
let's say we released a lion in your backyard. Do
you think that would scare away all the birds and
the squirrels that were there. Yes, and it would scare
me away too. Lions are not meant to live in

(07:37):
our backyard. Well, that happens in all kinds of places
around the world where people might either accidentally or intentionally
release things that aren't supposed to be there. Peta the
Weta a giant weeda. There's a really important word that
I want you to remember, and I'm going to ask
you about it at the end of the episode. It's
called endemic. Can you say endemic with me? Yeah. Endemic

(08:01):
means that a giant Weeda. They're naturally occurring in that
certain spot and you can only find them there. They
don't live in my backyard. They only live in New
Zealand and that's the only place where you can find them.
So that is what endemic means. If a creature lives
only in one place, that is endemic. As Peter the

(08:25):
Weeda stood inside their home with his papa, he couldn't
help but just imagine what in the world was inside
that box. He just had to figure it out for himself.
And I think his curiosity is going to get the
best of him. What do you think is there something
good or something not good inside of that box? Well,

(08:48):
we'll have to wait and see what happens on the
next episode of Kids Animal Stories. Great job, you listened
all the way to the end. And who remembers that word?
All right, I'm gonna quiz you. What does it mean

(09:11):
if a creature is naturally occurring in a certain place
and you can only find them there is that word hippopotamus,
scoop a nuba or endemic. It's not scoop and nuba. Yes,
it's endemic. Great job, that is our word of the day.

(09:32):
My friends. Well, I hope you have a super duper
day and I will see you on our next adventure. Bye.