Kangaroos, Koalas, and Wombats! Why Don’t They Live In Cities?
But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids
Vermont Public
4.3 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2018
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We'll learn about the kinds of animals that live in urban environments and the challenges they face! One young Australian listener wants to know why wombats, kangaroos and koalas hang out in the countryside rather than the city. Dr. Mark Eldridge from the Australian Museum Research Institute tackles that one. And we turn our focus to one particular urban dweller, the raccoon, with York University raccoon expert Suzanne MacDonald. She lives in Toronto, which has one of the most dense populations of raccoons in the world. She helps answer why raccoons eat garbage, how long they live and why they look like they're wearing masks.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | But why? A podcast for curious kids is known for serious answers to silly questions sent |
| 0:07.0 | in by kids just like you. But did you know that but why is now a book series? |
| 0:12.9 | Our first book, Our Lama's Ticklish, answers questions from real kids about farm animals. |
| 0:18.8 | This colorfully illustrated book is perfect for kids ages 8 to 10. And our second book, |
| 0:24.4 | To Fish Breathe Underwater, explores the underwater world of the ocean. Learn more at |
| 0:29.4 | at thebykids.org slash books. |
| 0:54.7 | This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public Radio. I'm Jane Lindholm. |
| 1:01.4 | On this show, we take questions from curious kids all over the world. And it's our job |
| 1:06.5 | to find people to help answer them. On today's episode, we're going to talk about animals, |
| 1:12.3 | specifically animals that live in cities. |
| 1:15.7 | Hi, my name is Elsie. I am 5 years old. I live in Sydney, Australia. My question is, why |
| 1:23.9 | do cities not have many animals like combats and kangaroos and like koalas? And why do |
| 1:30.9 | you like country sides have like like have so many like kangaroos and like koalas? |
| 1:40.4 | If I had a nickel for every time I've had a wombat in my garden, I would have zero |
| 1:45.9 | nickels. Wombats only live in Australia. But I do sometimes get black bearers coming |
| 1:51.4 | through my yard. They like to try to get our bees. We keep bees for making honey in my |
| 1:56.6 | family. But you see, I live in a very rural part of a rural state, which means I share |
| 2:02.3 | the landscape with a lot of big wild animals. But in the city where lots of humans live, |
| 2:08.2 | there are often fewer big animals and animals that are shy or require a lot of territory. |
| 2:14.7 | In a little while, we're going to answer Elsie's question about why some places have more |
| 2:18.9 | animals like wombatts than others. But first, let's focus in on one particular city dwelling |
| 2:25.9 | animal. You might not recognize that sound because we don't get to hear it very often. |
... |
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