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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It's time for Why It's the Way it Is.
Today.
On Why It's the Way it Is, we're going to talk about gizzards, which is kind of a funny sounding word, gizzards, And I'm gonna start off by saying, you don't have a gizzard.
Birds have gizzards.
All birds have gizzards, but not all birds gizzards are the same. Now, if you've ever been out with your folks or family friends or whatever hunting, and you've seen them clean a bird like a duck or a goose or a turkey, or a grouse or a pheasant or any of the birds we call game birds, you.
Might have noticed that they have an organ like a.
Big kind of egg shaped, purple, real strong muscular organ in their bodies, kind of like the biggest organ they have inside their body cavity. That thing is called a gizzard. You'll know when you're looking at it, because, like I said, it's kind of like a clam almost, or like an egg, and it's real strong and rubbery, like it looks like a thing you could play racquetball with.
That's a gizzard.
Now, the reason you might see large gizzards in those birds that people hunt for, like ducks and geese and game birds like quail and turkeys and doves, is because those birds, those birds we hunt for, tend to eat a lot of seeds and nuts. Now, if you think of birds we don't eat, like hawks and owls and eagles, they don't eat a lot of seeds and nuts. They eat a lot of meat, and meat is digested differently. But game birds, the ones we like to eat, eat a lot of hard seeds and nuts, and the gizzard is what helps the bird digest those hard materials.
Here's how a gizzard works. First, let's take a turkey.
When a turkey goes out in the woods and he finds something to eat, Let's say he eats a grasshopper. Then he might eat an acorn. Then he might wander around a little more and go into someone's yard and eat some bird seed that got left out, like a piece of corn. Okay, that food will initially go into his crop, which is like a little storage bag right in his throat.
It just holds the food.
If you open up a bird's crop and take the food out, it's gonna look just like it was.
Before he ate it, because they don't chew their food.
I opened a crop up one time on a bird called the Hungarian partridge, people call them huns, and it had been eating grasshoppers, and the grasshoppers in his crop were still alive.
So a crop just holds it.
Once it leaves its crop, it goes down into a first stomach, which is kind of like your stomach, with some enzymes in it to help break it down. But then it passes into the gizzard. And here's what's crazy about the gizzard. The gizzard is full of gravel.
Okay.
A bird that has a big gizzard, a game bird or a dock or goose or whatever that has a big gizzard, goes out and eats little rocks, little pieces of gravel, little pieces of shells from like seashells.
Okay, whatever you can get that's hard.
You'll eat that, and that stuff goes down to live in the gizzard, and the gizzard takes that.
It's like a little meat grinder.
That muscle full of those rocks can take and contract and just smash up any kind of food to eat, and the rocks just live in that gizzard and it's like a little grinder and it grinds that food down and that's part of its digestion. What's weird about gizzards, besides what they look like, is how good they are to eat. When you buy a Thanksgiving turkey, for instance, it'll sometimes come with a bag of what they call giblets.
The heart might be.
In there, the liver might be in there, the neck might be in there, and what will be in there too is the gizzard.
Because meat is.
Muscle, right, muscle, meat is muscled a gizzard while part of the digestive tract is a big hunk of muscle, so it's edible. And since they're so tough, they're kind of hard to cook. You have to cook them a long time or simmer them in water a long time to break them down because you're trying to like break down that muscle in a way that you can digest it.
So that is what is up with a gizzard.
And the next time you're cleaning birds with someone, make sure they get you out the gizzard. Make sure you cut it open and get all the gravel out, and then make sure you simmer it in some salty water for an hour or two, and then try it. And you will see just how good gizzards are. And you'll learn while you're cleaning it how they work because you'll see all that gravel inside there. And if you want to do something pretty cool, clean that gravel up and save it in the jar, and over the course of your lifetime you'll have a big jar full.
Of real cool rocks.
Why do fish live in salt water because pepper makes them sneeze.
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.
Don't worry, it ain't too hard. We're gonna throw in some clues. Now open up you years.
These critters live across the western US, with another large population in southern Florida. They can live high up in the mountains, in deserts, and even in coastal swamps. They have huge home ranges or territories. Males range across more than one hundred square miles. A female's home range might span up to eighty square miles. While that might sound like a bird chirping, it's definitely not a bird. These high pitched chirps carry over short and long distances and are a form of communication between these mainly solitary critters. These animals are known to make a spooky sound as well, which has scared many people in the woods at night. That's a scream call, which is a noise of female makes when she's ready to breed and wants to be found by a male. Here's an example of another sound used during courtship or breeding. It's known as catterwauling. These critters can long jump up to forty feet and sprint up to fifty miles per hour. They mostly hunt at night and love deer and elk meat. They'll also eat big horn sheep and smaller animals such as rabbit, turkey, raccoon, and porcupine. Adult males can reach over eight feet in length and weigh one hundred and thirty to two hundred pounds, while adult Females are slightly smaller, at up to seven feet long and between sixty five and ninety pounds. They can appear reddish, brown, beige, tan, and grayish in color. Do you think you know it? Time for the reveal. It's a mountain lion, also known as a cougar, catamount, panther, and puma. So if you guessed any one of those, you're right. Mountain lions are big cats that can't roar because they don't have the hyoid bone required to make the deep roar that other big cats like leopards, lions, and jaguars use. Mountain lions are managed as a game species in most of the states where they live, which means you can hunt them. Their meat is light in color and delicious. It tastes kind of like pork, and you can make a darn tasty mountain lion honey ham. While mountain lions are cautious and tend to avoid humans in the wild, if you ever encounter one of these big cats outside, raise your arms and yell at it. Don't run away, just try to look big and scary.
Why do French people eat snails.
Because they hate fast food.
It's time for everyone's favorite game show, Trivia. Let's all join in.
I'm joined by Mabel, Matthew, Rosie, Hayden, Conley, Sage, Hattie, and Bay. Each player will earn ten dollars for conservation with every question they get right today. There's a potential for this room to earn up to two hundred and forty dollars this week. That donation is going to the National Wildlife Federation, who publishes the kids magazine Ranger Rick. Let's see how much money our players can raise. Question one, What state is Mount Rushmore in? Is it South Dakota, Arizona or Washington? What state is Mount Rushmore in? South Dakota, Arizona or Washington? A lot of quick answers. Is everybody ready.
Concerned about some people's answers?
Rosie is entertained?
What is that?
Is everybody ready?
Yeah?
Go ahead and reveal your answers?
Baye South Dakota, Rosie Washington.
Explain, let me explain, Go ahead and explain. Okay.
So I was like, I had my answer right, but I was looking at their boards and I meant to say.
Washington, Washington, bass As Washington, Rosie, I say Washington.
Mabel, South Dakota, Pattie, South Dakota, Hayden, South Dakota, Say Dakota, Conley, South Dakota.
Matthew, what if it's Arizona?
The correct answer is South Dakota.
I messed up because I said that I was concerned with people's answers, and.
Oh and you told that you were concerned with your own answer.
You people was most.
Concerned when they looked at other people's born.
Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The four presidents on Mount Rushmore or George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abe Lincoln. Has anyone been to Mount Rushmore?
My dad has?
Your dad has?
Because I've been there, You've been there. What's your review of it? Was worth the drive?
Well?
I was kind of five years old or like I was not.
I don't really remember, but I have like small memories.
Mountain.
What do you think his review of Mount Rushmore is Mount Rushmore?
Did you even go? I think he thought of you think he thought.
It was cool? Okay?
There is uh Steve's endorsement via Matthew It's cool. Question two, what's the name for a baby moose?
Is it colt, foal or calf.
What's the name or a baby moose, colt, foal or calf? Hayden declared, this is an easy one.
I feel like if you think about the names that you would call like the other animals, like if you like think about some of the answers, you can think about what the baby think about.
Like, I hope I didn't get this wrong.
I hope want to get it wrong because thinking about a different thing that's kind of like answers.
Yeah, fold, go.
Ahead and your answers.
We have Bay calf, Rosie Calf, Mabel calf, Hattie calf, Hayden calf, Sage, Conley, Matthew calf. You guys got it. The correct answer is colts and fowls are names for baby horses. A male moose is a bowl, a female hoose moose is a cow, and a baby moose is a calf. What are some other baby animals that are called calves?
Cows?
That's right, cows, that's right? Anything else you can think and then I don't think I don't know about a bit.
I can't prove you wrong.
I'll say that, and yeah, camels, elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinolds, rhinos, and whales.
Question You guys got me good on that one.
Question three?
What kind of animal is blue from the Jungle Book? Is it black panther, sloth bear, or Indian elephant? What kind of animal is blue?
I've never reached jungle.
Well, you're gonna have to think of which animal?
Which animal sounds like it'd be named blue, stage, sloth bear or indian elephant?
Conley, do you know this one? No, sage, do you know this one? I think so? Okay?
What kind of animal is blue from the Jungle Book? Black panther, sloth bear, or Indian elephant?
Wouldn't it make sense if it was like an elephant?
Yeah, that's.
Indian elephant.
What's the Jungle Book?
It's a movie, it's a play?
Or not? Does he think about how it's an Indian elephant?
Not?
Is that helping if you think about how it's an Indian elephant? I mean, I don't really elephants.
Have you seen an Indian elephant?
Okay?
Everybody, everybody read?
Well, is Matt Rushmore in Arizona?
Go ahead and reveal your answers.
Bear flo Bear, Rosie floft Bear.
Mabel sloftbear, Hattie flopp Bear, Hayden sloth bear, Sage flot bear, Conley Matthew sloth bear. The correct answer is sloth bear.
You guys got it. I was always competent.
Slock bears are real animals that are native to India. Their diet primarily consists of termites, ants, honey, and fruit, which Blue says are part of the bear necessities.
What do you guys think are some things that are part of the bear necessities for you bears? You think bears?
Now?
The bare necessity is something you can't live without. You can't live without be.
Blueberries.
Blueberries, that's a good one. Food, of course, yeah.
Food.
The other bear necessities water, Okay, that's a good one. Blueberries, food and water and fur. Those are the bare necessities for our eight trivia players today. That's it for this round of trivia. Philly Engineer, how much money did we raise? They raised two hundred ten dollars, two hundred and ten dollars going to the National Wildlife Federation. Well done, kids, Join us next time for more meat Eater kids Trivia the only other game show when conservation always wins.
Thanks for listening to everyone, See you next week on Meat Eater Kids