Learn more about sea stars (aka starfish) while playing along with the Cool Facts About Animals and At Your Level podcasts. During this activity-filled video, you'll learn how to draw the crown of thorns sea star, make an origami sea star, and hear a story about a sea star going to the library. You'll also get to see Jaguar interviewed as a sea star - aka Ulysses S. Grant. Plus, dad jokes and some holiday trombone music.

Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUZ_HnSlUZI 

Grady, Clara, Teddy and mom Ali sit down to talk about the starfish (or is it a sea star?).  You'll learn that this festive-shaped star can come with many, many more arms than you'd imagine, what important things it's lacking, the strange place its eyes are located, and about its amazing superpower.

Here’s a picture of that heron and eel: https://www.livescience.com/snake-eel-bursts-out-of-heron.html

Here’s a picture of a crown of thorns sea star: https://oceana.org/marine-life/corals-and-other-invertebrates/crown-thorns-starfish

Here's some pictures of a sea star growing its body from an arm - https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/starfish-regenerating.html 

Here’s a link to our YouTube channel – stay tuned for our activity video in collaboration with At Your Level! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt89IP0pdPUfvETol8qHKjg

If you can answer our Creature Quiz, Riddle or want to take our Kid Power challenge, send us a message at [email protected] or tweet us at @coolanimalspod

Thanks again to Miles and Anna for being our Patreon sponsors. You can sponsor us here: https://www.patreon.com/coolfactsaboutanimals 

In this episode, the crew shares a whole bunch of really, really gross animal facts. If you do not like being grossed out, DO NOT listen to this episode! Animals include a toad that gives birth by baby toads breaking through the skin on its back, a lizard that shoots blood from its eyes, an animal that feasts on human skin, and a sea cucumber that shoots out its internal organs.

We have a lot of show notes today. Here are the promised links, plus a picture of the Surinam toad (beware this picture is gross!).

Jaguar’s Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/TheRealJaguar2

Corduroy’s Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/Corduro96602363

Tongue-eating isopod post:  https://twitter.com/JimmyBernot/status/1337129154484056066

Birds decorating their nest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1zmfTr2d4c

Picture of the Surinam toad: https://www.naturepl.com/stock-photo-surinam-toad-pipa-pipa-young-emerging-from-under-skin-of-mother-image01563459.html

Frogs with hair: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2300424/The-frog-breaks-bones-produce-claws-burst-skin-like-X-Men-s-Wolverine.html

If you have a gross animal fact to share, or think you know the answer to our riddle, send it to us by email at [email protected] or tweet us at @coolanimalspod.

In this episode, we get pretty confused talking about opossums v. possums - because they sound the same! We sort it out with the help of Jaguar's helpful poem. We also learn about why they play dead and why it's so confusing, other gross defense mechanisms, and lots of other cool facts. 

Our friends at Nature Nerds are going to be putting out an episode on opossums too! Be sure to check it out. 

Thanks to Cristian for being our Patreon sponsor! If you'd like to financially support us, check out our page here: https://www.patreon.com/coolfactsaboutanimals

You can find a picture of the adorable cross-eyed opossum here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heidi-the-cross-eyed-opossum-becomes-a-star-in-germany/

Don't forget to answer our creature quiz or do our kid challenge! Send us a message at @coolanimalspod on Twitter or email us at [email protected]

Hi Listeners! We are trying out something new this episode, and swapping an episode with our friend Laine at Nature Nerds, a podcast in the Kids Listen family. We’ve never done this before, but we thought we would try it this time because we really think if you like our show, you’ll also like Nature Nerds. (Our family listened to the whole first season in one day.)

In each episode, Laine and her nature assistant learn about a new animal through a mix of exploration and speaking with experts.  There’s a lot of humor and even a little magic at play too!

In this episode, you’ll learn more about bats. We think you’ll enjoy it. If you do, head over to wherever you listen to podcasts and look for “Nature Nerds” for more episodes on animals like nutria and honeybees. 

And we’ll be back soon with our mystery animal. We can’t wait to share it with you. Thanks for listening!

Do you think crows are scary? In this episode, we learn that crows are scary – scary smart! Did you know that crows can solve 8-step puzzles, make and use tools, recognize faces, hold a grudge and even obey traffic lights? In this episode, we learn all about these spooky smart creatures.

This episode is part of the Kids Listen Halloween collaboration. I’ll be updating the show notes with a link to all the episodes once it’s published, or head to the Kids Listen app and search for the Halloween Playlist. https://app.kidslisten.org

We mentioned a bunch of videos today:

Video of the 8-step tool puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gui3IswQ0DI

Hook-building: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDg0AKfM8EY

Crows having fun in the snow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ta33bMB70

Jaguar’s music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikzSylqEkRQ&feature=youtu.be

If you think you know the Creature Quiz or riddle, or if you do the Kid Challenge, send us an email ([email protected]) or tweet us (@coolanimalspod) and we will send you a bookmark!

Finally, thank you to our latest Patreon sponsor, Cecelia! If you’d like to be our Patreon sponsor, head to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/coolfactsaboutanimals

On this episode, we talk all about peafowl! New fact for me, only the male peafowl is called a peacock. Who knew! We also give lots of info on the peacock's beautiful tail (or train), its flying ability, and some cool facts about their eggs. 

For our kid challenge, we are challenging you to make a bird feeder out of apples, nut or seed butter, and birdseed. Find an example of how to do this here: https://busylittleizzy.com/2019/09/25/homemade-apple-bird-feeder/

We also mention the Kids Listen Activity Podcast - find more about that here. https://www.kidslisten.org/season-2

If you know the answer to our creature quiz or riddle, or if you did the kid challenge, send us an email at [email protected] or tweet us at @coolanimalspod.

In this episode, we talk to dragonfly and damselfly expert Dr. Jessica Ware about what makes these insects so cool. And there's a lot! Like their eyes, the way they can do math even with their tiny insect brains, how big they used to be (and sometimes still are), how long they've been around for, and even how you can try to find your own new species of dragonflies. 

Thanks so much to Dr. Ware for taking the time to speak with us and share her knowledge with everyone!

We love hearing from you! You can tweet us at @coolanimalspod or email us at [email protected]

Big news, listeners! Jaguar and Corduroy have made their first music video. Now, I'm not sure about the message, but you know Jaguar. Check it out on YouTube, https://youtu.be/ikzSylqEkRQ, and listen to the preview here. 

We're back! With an episode about the pink river dolphin/aka Amazon River Dolphin/ aka Boto. In this episode we learn about why they might be their unusual color, how they look different from marine dolphins, interesting myths surrounding them, and lots more. 

If you think you know the answer to our creature quiz or our riddle, or if you took part in our Kid Power challenge, send us an email at [email protected] or tweet us at @coolanimalspod and we will send you a bookmark!

If you're interested in being a Patreon sponsor, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/coolfactsaboutanimals 

And don't forget to visit www.amazoninnhubandgrub.com for all your Amazon eating needs. 

And be sure to check out the Curious Kid podcast! We think you'll really like it.