Plumed Guineafowl | 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 (00:01):
Hello Critter Protectors.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Mister Jim here and welcome to Kids Animal Stories, a
place where there's always a mystery and adventure around every
single corner. If you love critters of all shapes and sizes,
I need you on our Critter Protector team. Join our
adventure as we learn about critters from around the world.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
And in our back yards. Well, my friends, are you
ready for today's adventure? Me too. Let's go in the
heart of South Cameroon, past the biggest trees and far
from any civilization. You'll find Pierre. Pierre is a plumed

(00:50):
guinea fowl. Here was a pretty big bird with shiny
blue black feathers. If you've never seen a guinea fowl, imagine, Well,
first we got to close our eyes to imagine. All right,
imagine a peacock shaped bird, all right, but erase the tail. Yeah,

(01:12):
no tail and a featherless head of blue and what
blue and red coloring? This looks hilarious? Are you imagining
the same thing that I'm imagining? Well, he lived with
his flock in the grassy savannahs where you love to

(01:33):
follow herds of large mammals like antelopes and zebras. Pier
was always on the lookout for his favorite snacks. You
know what, those are delicious bugs, and that's naughty. Oh dear,
I don't know if I don't know if you can
handle the next part. Do you know what kind of

(01:53):
bugs they like to eat? Bugs that they find in
the dung of large creatures. Yeah, poop bugs, yes, Plumed
guinea fowl follow behind herds of large animals. Why do

(02:14):
you think they follow behind them and not in front
of them, oh dear, And then they pick out all
the bugs from there. You know what, ill, that's disgusting.
I definitely don't want to go grocery shopping there. Well.
Pierre was a friendly bird who had many friends in

(02:35):
his flock. He loved spending time with them, roosting in
the trees and grooming each other's feathers.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Hey, Joseph has the pickets.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Today, Pierre called ahead to Joseph as he followed behind
the flock picking up bugs. A lot of options to Diape, Pierre,
we have muggots go or One way that guinea fowl
helped the environment is that they keep the annoying insect
populations under control. Is he they eat ticks, maggots and

(03:13):
other invertebrates. As gross as it may be, eating up
those guys keeps flies from filling the skies. As the
herd moved from pile to pile, Oh, we're talking more
about piles. How much of the story is about poop,
Pierre tried to work his way up to the front

(03:34):
of the group. He wanted to be like the leaders,
you know, finding the first of the food. It sounded
exciting to be the closest to the herd of antelope
that they were following. Pierre inched a little further, a
little further, a little further, until he was ahead of
his entire flock. He passed his friend Joseph and the

(03:58):
three other birds who usually led the flock. Pea, you
better be careful, you're getting offly close, Joseph was trying
to warn Pierre.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh, Joe, I'm I'm totally fine, totally safe, totally.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Pierre couldn't get his last word out before he literally
found himself underfoot a huge antelope. Ah. While he confidently
moved forward, he didn't realize the herd of antelope had
actually stopped to graze. Pierre stood as still as he

(04:41):
could as his friends looked on in fear he was
in between antelope's legs. Pierre, move as carefully as you
possibly can, Joseph shouted. Pierre moved slowly. He didn't want

(05:02):
to get trampled by those giant legs. He moved slowly,
one foot in front of the other, and he almost
made it out. And then the tippy top, oh dear
of his back feather tickled the under part of the
antelope's leg. Then every animal in the herd started running

(05:28):
as fast as they could. Oh dear, his little feather
had spooked all of them into a full blown stampede.
Pierre and his flock had to run as fast as
they could to avoid getting trampled.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Everybody run, run his father again.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yo, who run as first as you go? Oh we
hun't we birds g a way? He just, oh, yeah,
let's fly. Finally they remember that they could fly away
from getting trampled. That was a lot easier than birds
trying to run.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
I'm sorry, everybody, I really didn't mean to put us
in danger.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Oh pere, you need to think through your decisions next time.
We don't need anybody hurt or worse. That night, his
flock set up camp in a nice flat area. They
worked on new ground nests, gathered leaves and dug down

(06:35):
to create some cozy sleeping spots. Everyone finally had a
chance to breathe and relaxed after such a wild afternoon.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
I guess I'm completely used well as a flag.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
I have no purpose. I'm don Pierre was very sad
and was crying to his mother. He hadn't seen her
much all day, but she definitely knew enough about what
was going on, Pierre. Part of growing up is learning
where you fit in best with the flock. Mistakes are

(07:14):
part of it, and I know you'll find your place.
She was always very encouraging, even when things seemed very hopeless.
Pierre closed his eyes and promised for a better day tomorrow.
But a few hours later, around midnight, according to the moon,

(07:37):
Pierre woke up. He sniffed around and his eyes widened.
Oh no, he whispered to himself, then started frantically looking around.
Wait a second, what in the world woke up Pierre
from sleeping in the middle of the night. Is it
another herd of antelope again? Or could be something even

(08:01):
more worser, more dangerous, more awful. I don't know what
is gonna happen. Next, but we are gonna have to
wait and see what happens on the next episode of
Kids Animal Stories. It's time for some critter protector shout outs.

(08:23):
I want to say hey to Hannah from Ontario, Jerry
from Ohio, Logan from Illinois, Connor from California, Phillip from
North Carolina, and Lily from Florida. I'm so glad that
you're old critter protectors. We could not protect all the
critters in the world and in our backyards without you,

(08:45):
my friends. Well, you have a super duper day and
I will see you on our next adventure.