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December 16, 2024 • 16 mins

We are back for Season 2 of MeatEater Kids! It's a fun, educational, and engaging podcast for all of you outdoor kids. Learn about science and history from Steve's "Why It's the Way It Is" segment and impress your friends with your newfound knowledge, develop your ear for animal vocalizations with our "Guess that Critter" segment, and play along during "Kids Trivia" with host Spencer Neuharth.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's time for Why It's the Way it Is. Today.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
On Why It's the Way it is, we're going to
talk about the difference between rabbits and hares. Okay, which
is mega confusing, super confusing because everybody uses the names wrong,
and I use the names wrong. And part of the
reason the names are wrong is because hear me out
because the name are wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Let me give you, for.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Instance, a jack rabbit is not a rabbit. A jack
rabbit is a hair. Okay, So now that I got
you totally confused, let's back up a minute. The difference
between rabbits and hairs. I'm gonna give you a whole
bunch of them. Rabbits when they stand or when they sit.
Like picture, if you see a rabbit in your yard,
a cottontail rabbit in your yard, or a domestic rabbit
in your yard, they kind of stay a little bit

(01:24):
hunched over. They kind of sit like in a little
bit of a ball shape. Right now, picture a jack rabbit,
which is a hair or a snowshoe hair standing. They
stand kind of straight upright, They stand up very tall
and vertical. Also, picture the ears on a jack rabbit

(01:45):
or on a snowshoe hair. Remember, jack rabbits are hairs.
Snowshoe hairs are hairs. They have big long ears. Okay,
they stand up pretty straight. They got big long ears,
and they got big long legs. Now, think of a
cottontail rabbit or a domestic rabbit like someone might have
on a farm. Their ears are shorter and they stay kind.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Of baled up.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Here's another thing.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Rabbits like to use underground burrows. Hairs don't use underground burrows.
They'll hide up on the surface. They might go into
a little thicket, they might lay under a sagebrush, or
they might get under some fur bows or spruce boughs
and get nestled into the snow. Maybe, but they don't
like to use underground burrows. When a rabbit has a baby,

(02:39):
those babies are born kind of naked. They don't have
any hair on them. Their eyes aren't open yet, and
they need to live down in the burrow with their mom,
and they can't barely take care of themselves for quite
a long time. When a hair has a baby, that
baby already has fur on it, its eyes are open,

(03:00):
it's pretty quick to be able to take care of itself.
The mom can leave it during the day and go
about its business. So that's another difference between rabbits and
hairs is how they take care of their babies. As
for those babies, baby rabbits and baby hairs, a baby
rabbit is called a bunny. A baby hair is called

(03:24):
a leverett, which is a word you'd never hear. But
a baby rabbit has a bunny, a baby hair has
a LeVert. Hairs are generally faster runners than rabbits. When
hairs run, they will run out in a straight line.
Rabbits tend to bounce and ze zigzag patterns quite often

(03:49):
here in the United States. Here in America, we got
quite a few different rabbits, and we got quite a
few different hairs. However, our wild rabbits are very close
through related. We have a lot of different kinds of
cottontail rabbits. There's a pygmy cottontail rabbit. There's a desert

(04:10):
cottontail rabbit. There's an eastern cottontail rabbit. There's a huge
type of cottontail rabbit called a swamp rabbit. These are
rabbits that get five to six pounds and they live
along the Mississippi River. But these are all more or
less like subspecies of the cottontail rabbit that's our main
rabbit in America, though they come from little teeny ones

(04:30):
to five six pounders. Those are our rabbits. Our hairs,
we got a handful, but it gets pretty confusing again
because we have snowshoe hairs which turn pure white in
the winter, and those are common in Appalachia, and they're
common in the north, like around the Great Lakes and
all of our different states that border up against Canada,

(04:51):
those will have snowshoe hares. We also have a lot
of different jack rabbit species which look pretty similar, but
they're different species that live around the American West, and
again those jack rabbits are hares. So really, when we're
talking about wild rabbits in America, we're talking about the
different types of cottontail rabbits, and we talk about wild

(05:15):
hares in America, we're talking about the various jack rabbit
species and also the snowshoe hair. Now that you know this,
here's the trick. Now that you know this, you need
to figure out how you can correct people that say
the words wrong without annoying them.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
That's the real challenge here.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
So when someone sees a jack rabbit and they say, hey,
there's a rabbit, you need to find a way to say, wow, actually,
jack rabbits are hares. But you can't do it.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
In a way that annoys everybody.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
If you figure this out, how to do it without
seeming like a big know at all, write in and
let us know.

Speaker 5 (05:58):
What's the difference between a guitar and a fish. You
can tune a guitar, but you can't tune a fish.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's time for Guess that critter. Where we play animal
sounds and critter calls, and you've got to guess what
creatures making those sounds.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Don't worry, it ain't too hard.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
We're gonna throw in some clues. Now open up years.

Speaker 6 (06:24):
These critters live around mountainous forests of the western United States,
Western Canada, and Alaska. It's a rare animal that often
migrates upward into dense cornifer forests at higher elevations during
the snowy winter months, meaning they go up the mountains
to where it would seem like worse weather to us.

(06:45):
Then during the spring they move downward in search of
fresh green leaves, grasses, insects, and berries. That's the sound
they make that you're most likely to hear. It's how

(07:06):
males mark their territories and attract mates. In the rocky mountains,
the males tend to do their calling on the ground,
yet closer to the Pacific Ocean, and in Alaska they
do their calling from high up in trees. Though quiet,
the sound can carry for a mile or more when
called from a tree top. Males are bluish gray in color,

(07:37):
with reddish purple or yellowish air sacks in the neck
that puff up sort of like a frog's throat. They
also have bright orange or yellow eye combs, which look
like bushy, rubbery eyebrows. Males are a little bigger than females,
but they weigh only two or three pounds. The females
are less flashy without air sacks and big eye combs,

(07:58):
perhaps so that they're better camouflaged and can better hide
from predators when taking care of babies. What you just
heard is a female making sounds to stay in touch
with her babies, and the females make other sounds as well.
This cackling sound reflects her interest in a male who's

(08:20):
displaying and trying to court her. Other than when mating
or when a female is raising her young. These critters
mostly live alone and spend their days feeding and resting.

(08:41):
Hunters pursue them in the fall because they're delicious. Okay,
it's time for the reveal, so make your best guess.
It's a blue grouse. While most folks know the bird
by that name blue grouse, the name is actually a
little bit complicated. In two thousand and six, the American
Ornithologists Union moved to divide blue grouse into two different

(09:04):
kinds of birds. They believe that blue grouse living in
the Pacific Coast should be called city grouse and blue
grouse living in the Rockies should be called dusky grouse
because there are some subtle differences between the birds. If
you'd like, you could use those names dusky and city
grouse depending on where you live. But if you stick

(09:25):
to blue grouse, that's just fine.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Too, wirefish so smart because they live in schools.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's time for everyone's favorite game show, Trivia. Let's all
join you.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
I'm joined by Bay, Rosie, Hayden, Conley, Aina, and Mabel.
Each player will earn ten dollars for conservation with every
question they get today. There's a potential for this room
to earn up to one hundred and eighty dollars this week.
That donation is going to tro Out Unlimited, who connects
kids to the outdoors through their Headwaters Youth Program. Let's

(10:11):
see how much money our players can raise. Question one,
Which of these is not a real animal? Is it
a whale, shark, leopard, frog, or eagle beaver? Which one
of these is not a real animal? Whale, shark, leopard, frog,

(10:32):
or eagle beaver. Some of our players are snickering. Is
one of these answers funny?

Speaker 5 (10:39):
It's kind of obvious.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
It's kind of obvious.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
Wait, you realize that the obvious one could actually be like, right,
like the leopard frog?

Speaker 7 (10:47):
What is that?

Speaker 5 (10:48):
I'd be kind of concerned if like eagle beaver was real.

Speaker 6 (10:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
Maybe, like Rosie said, maybe it's not the obvious one.
Maybe is everybody a you?

Speaker 7 (11:00):
Maybe eg beaver is supposed to go ahead and reveal
your answers. Bee eagle beaver, Rosie, mabelgle beaver, Hayden, eagle beaver,
Conley eagle beaver, eg beaver.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
The correct answer is eagle beaver. There is no beaver.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well, actually be if you didn't know, it's not a thing.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Whale sharks are the biggest sharks in the world. Leopard
frogs are frogs that got their name because of their
catlike spots. And the eagle beaver is an animal. Limo.
Now what do you guys think would be cooler an
eagle beaver or a beaver?

Speaker 7 (11:36):
Eagle beaver, eagle beaver.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Why do you think be like a beaver with wings? Yes, okay,
there you go. We already came up with a name,
beaver beaver. Goal question two, Which of these is not
a real animal? Is it a camel rabbit, an elephant seal,

(12:01):
or a kangaroo rat?

Speaker 7 (12:03):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (12:06):
Is not a real animal? Camel rabbit, elephant seal, kangaroo rat.
Our players are confident again, but maybe not as much
as last time. Don't help anyone out. Rosy, No, she's.

Speaker 6 (12:22):
Looking at mine?

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Why not not?

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Hayden?

Speaker 4 (12:25):
You think you got this one right. Do you know
which one of these animals is not real?

Speaker 7 (12:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Okay, you do. How about you, Conley? Do you know
which one's not real? Yeah? Okay, it's either a camel rabbit,
an elephant seal, or a kangaroo rat. Is everybody ready?
Go ahead and reveal your answers.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Bae camel rabbit, Rosie camel rabbit, Mabel camel.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Rabbit, Hayden camel rabbit, Conley camel rabbit, camel rabbit. You guys,
got it again, camel rabbit. It was correct. Elephant seals
are seals that have low, large, inflatable noses that look
like an elephant's trunk. Kangaroo rats are rats that hop
like a kangaroo. And the camel rabbit is an animal.
I may know. Now, what do you think would be cooler?

(13:10):
A camel rabbit or a rabbit?

Speaker 7 (13:12):
Camel camel rabbit, Camera, hy a camel rabbit.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
It just sounds yeah, it sounds like a rabbit camel like.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
I don't know, So it's either a rabbit that looks
like a camel or a camel that looks like a rabbit.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
Envision a camel like jumping like a rabbit.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Like, yeah, boys, do you agree? Conley Hayden, would you
rather there be a camel rabbit or a rabbit? Camel?
Camel rabbit, camel rabbit? You want a little rabbit that
looks like a camel.

Speaker 5 (13:44):
It sounds betty, just like a mini camel, pretty much?

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Questioned three? Which of these is not a real animal?
Is it a fox, squirrel, a tiger trout or a
grizzly snake?

Speaker 7 (13:59):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (13:59):
What?

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Which of these is not a real animal? Fox squirrel,
tiger trout, or grizzly snake?

Speaker 5 (14:08):
They all sound fake?

Speaker 4 (14:10):
They all sound fake. You think I would do that
to you?

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (14:14):
Yeah, wait, so sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Two of these animals are real, one of them is not.
You need to tell me which one is not the
real animal? Fox, squirrel, tiger trout, or grizzly snake. Is
everybody ready?

Speaker 5 (14:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (14:33):
I know? How do you feel about your answer? Extremely confident?
Extremely confident? Okay, everybody good.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
I'm kind of stuck between two, but I think I've
got it.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
You got your answer picked out, Go ahead and reveal
your answers. Baez, Rosie Mabel, grizzly snake, Hayden, grizzly snake
Conley grizzly snake. The correct answer is grizzly. You guys
know your animals real well. Fox squirrels are squirrels with

(15:05):
a gray and red coat that look like a fox,
Tiger trout or hybrid fish that have tiger like stripes.
And the grizzly snake is an animal I made off. Now,
what do you think would be cooler? A grizzly snake
or a snake?

Speaker 7 (15:17):
Grizzly snake, grizzly snake?

Speaker 4 (15:21):
Do you want to it looks kind of like a grizzly.
You want a snake that looks like he's like fur?

Speaker 7 (15:26):
I feel like a grizzly Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Okay, does anyone? Does anyone want the grizzly though? That
looks like a snake?

Speaker 5 (15:33):
I do, honestly, just a really weird big snake.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Okay. Between a grizzly snake and a snake grizzly.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
I don't see enough big snakes.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
That's it for today's round of trivia, fill the engineer.
How much money did we raise?

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, unlike and Maple's dad in last week's Meat Eater Trivia,
they did not blow the perfect game.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
They raised one hundred eighty dollars one hundred eighty dollars
going to Trout Unlimited. They got every single question correct.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well done, kids.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Join us next time for more Meat Eater Kids Trivia,
the only game show where eagle beaver's and grizzly snakes
make conservations some money.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Thanks for listening to everyone, See you next week on
Meat Eater Kids
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