Herodotus, the animals of ancient Egypt.

Hello, this is Bertie, and in a moment I'm going to be telling you all about the fascinating animals of ancient Egypt,

as reported on by Herodotus two and a half thousand years ago.

But first, I'd like to say a very special thank you to Abigail in New Zealand,

whose family supporters generously on Patreon. Abigail's five years old, and her favourite stories are

Astropup and Lapis, and she calls them the ancient stories, with her favourite voice actor being Natasha.

She loves learning about new things, reading and has an active imagination, so I very

much hope Abigail that you will enjoy hearing about the animals of ancient Egypt.

In ancient times, crocodiles were common in Egypt.

These days Egypt does not have many crocodiles, as they can't swim past the great concrete

Aswan Dam that now blocks the River Nile.

But Herodotus saw these fierce reptiles snoozing with their mouths open on the banks of the Nile.

And he noted that small birds sometimes hopped inside the crock's mouths and picked up bits of food from between their teeth.

This type of bird is called the Egyptian plover,

and it still cleans crocodile's teeth for them.

Herodotus describes how the crocodile grows

into an enormous animal after hatching out of a tiny egg.

He says it has eyes like a pig, and its huge teeth stick out of its mouth.

Well, he gets some of his facts almost, but not quite correct. For instance, he says the

crocodile does not eat anything during four months of winter. Actually, it does eat, but not very much during that time.

He also says that the crocodile does not have a tongue. In fact, it does have one, but it's rather

small. He tells us that some Egyptians held crocodiles to be sacred, which means they

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