Friday, June 30, 2023
The bumper whale pods cruising up our coast; A huntsman spider on holiday; A beatboxing orangutan and Swifties break records.
LINKS
Kayaker and whale at Bondi Beach
Squiz Shortcut to the whale migration: https://www.thesquiz.com.au/shortcuts/whale-migration/
African huntsman in Scotland
https://news.sky.com/story/stowaway-african-huntsman-spider-found-in-edinburgh-suitcase-12911116
Orangutans beatbox
Squiz Kids Book Club: https://www.squizkids.com.au/book_club/
Newshounds
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THE LOWDOWN
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Phew, can you believe another school term has come to an end. Are you excited about the winter school holidays? Depending on what state you’re in, some of you will already be on school holidays – but for some it’s you’re last day of school (CHEER) Some of you will be spending your break at home, enjoying not rushing to get up in the morning to get to class, some of you might be going away to the snow, or to find some sunshine. Even the whales are heading north to warmer waters.
Do you know we’re in the middle of our annual Whale migration along the East Coast of Australia, and this year in particular has been a bumper season with more than 5,000 humpback whales already spotted off our shores.
I’ll post an amazing photo in your episode notes of a very curious whale who was following a kayaker at Bondi Beach.
Each year between June and September the mammals swim from Antartica, all the way in the south – up to Queensland, covering around 10,000 kilometres in distance.
They travel in pods, which is the collective noun for a group of whales.
And if you want to find out more about the travels of these magnificent and mysterious creatures the Adults’ Squiz have produced a Shortcut to The Annual Whale Migration. I’ve stuck a link in your episode notes so you can take a listen!
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops .. and today we’ve landed in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, where even an African Spider has gone on holiday.
What? So, big spiders are not common in Scotland. Small house spiders, yes, Huge, hairy spiders, no.
A family, who just returned to their home in Edinburgh after travelling to Africa found the spider hidden in their suitcase when they were unpacking. Yes, I’ll post a picture of it in your episode notes…. But only look at it, if you dare.
It was an African huntsman and was 10 centimetres in size. While that might not frighten the average Australian, as we all know spiders can get quite big over here – it sure frightened the pants off the Scottish family.
These African huntsmen are known for their speed – and their ability to jump. The spider was captured with a tupperware container and sent to an animal rescue shelter in England. The shelter said that while most people would want the spider squashed, they saw it as another animal who needs our help.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Orangutans; the great apes who live in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They have long arms, short legs, spend most of their time in trees, they love eating fruit, bark, honey and insects.
But did you know they can also beat box.
Ok, just so we are clear, that wasn’t a recording of the orangutans, that was just a sound effect, so you know what beatboxing is.
Researchers have found these animals can actually make two sounds at once, similar to how talented musicians can beat box.
They do it as a warning sound, or to communicate a message with other orangutans.
And they do this by making a vowel and a consonant sound at the same time, which is pretty hard even for humans to do.
For example female orangutans in Sumatra make a consonant sound like kissing and a vowel sound like hoo; hooing and this warns the rest of their group that a predator is around.
The researchers spent thousands of hours studying these animals from their habitat in South East Asia, and they believe it shines a light on the evolution of human communication.
And just for fun, here’s some more beatboxing.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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And from one musical talent to another. Taylor Swift seems to be all everyone is talking about, after she broke an Australian record yesterday with the most amount of people attempting to buy her concert tickets.
It’s estimated around 4 million people were trying to log on to the website selling seats, when the ticket sales opened.
4 million. And with 450 thousand seats available across her shows, the maths unfortunately is quite simple.
It equals a lot of people missing out.
I mean we all know she is one popular musician, but no one really anticipated the avalanche of fans wanting to see her live.
To try and combat demand, yesterday she announced another two shows, but they will also be in Melbourne and Sydney.
And today all the remaining tickets are on sale.
There were of course a handful of ecstatic Swifties who were successful in nabbing seats, one fan predicts the concerts will be the cultural event of the Century. That’s just wild.
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This is our last daily news podcast for the term as we move into school holiday mode (CHEER), but don’t worry – we’re not abandoning you completely. We’ll have a series of Bumper School Holiday Kids vs Adult quizzes – the second of which ’will be out tomorrow where you can test to see who knows more about sport … and then the weekend after, a quiz about food. Yum. , There will also be a new Shortcut each week plus a Squiz The World – where you get to join us on audio excursion to a different country each week. You’ll find heaps of those in our back catalogue too – either by scrolling through the Squiz Kids feed on your favourite podcasting app or by visiting our website: squizkids.com.au. And if you want to know about some cool books to read these holidays – check out the Squiz Kids Book Club. Join Catch the Reading Bug and her crew of kid reviewers as they discuss the best kids books around., You can find Squiz Kids Book Club on any podcast app or at our website, squizkids.com.au.
While you’re there, why not sign up to join Catch’s crew and we might hear you on next month’s podcast!
We’ll be back to regular Squiz Quiz daily news podcasts from Monday 10th July – when Queensland and Victoria return to school. (CHEER)
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What type of whales are the ones we see migrating north, off the East Coast of Australia?
- What is the capital city of Scotland?
- Can you name any of the foods that orangutans like to eat?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s June 30 – Bon Voyage to Mission Team 10 Australia; the 4 school students who have been selected as part of the Endeavour Scholarship, flying all the way to the United States Space and Rocket Camp for a week of astronaut training. How cool is that.
It’s also a Friday – and you know what that means? Heaps of birthday shout outs for today and the coming weekend – for which, I reckon we need to dust off the ol’ birthday reggae tune … hit it ..
And it’s a happy birthday today to … Lydia from Yass, Eli from Flagstaff Hill, Stella from Adelaide, Grace from Tennyson Point, Ivy and Vyka from Holsworthy, Chloe from West Hobart and Angelina from Carlingford.
Belated shout out go to… Lynn from Rowville, Ahyaan from Plumpton and Eason listening all the way over in Tanah Merah in Malaysia.
Not forgetting all the Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday over the weekend … Seamus from Sydney, Jonathan from Bolwarra, Caelan from Mudgeeraba, Tiahna from Ellenbrook, Olive from Wynnum, Flynn from Warrnambool, Josh from Manly Vale, Sylvie from Bethanga, Gab from Westleigh, Mia from Kyogle, Quinn from Pitt Town, Cassidy from Myrtle Mountain, Justin from Canberra, Emily from Yass, Noah from Abbotsford, Fred from Tasmania, Ella G from Sorrento, Cailen from Burpengary, Willow from St Leonards, John from St Marys, Charlie from Echuca , Eli from Montmorency, Emma from Gundagai, Oscar from Exeter, Taylor from Cannon Hill and Aiden G from Western Australia.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Humpback whales
- Edinburgh
- fruit, bark, honey or insects.
- Can you name any of the foods that orangutans like to eat?
Don’t forget .. if you’ve got a birthday coming up and you want a shout out – or if you want a classroom shout out – drop us a line at [email protected] or fill out the form on our website.
That’s all we have time for. Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids Today – we’ll be back again from Monday July 10.
In the meantime, get out there and have the most excellent school holidays. Over and out.