Episode: Epic Earth Day Animals to Project Onto the Moon

What animal would you like to see projected onto the face of the moon? You’ll hear Laura and Robert pick epic Earth Day animals, a sparkly pop song about pandas, awesome animal clues from 9 year old Quinn, plus very special guest Rosh Patel, a wildlife filmmaker who works at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. Lately, Rosh has been filming the pandas at the zoo. What’s it like to get so close to the pandas? And what animal is making Rosh happy today? Here are some clues: It’s small, it’s slimy, and it has a red back. Find out the answer in this Earth Day episode for kids and grownups

(The episode animals include a sea otter, elephant, giant panda bear)

Here is a full transcript of the episode (partially transribed by AI, so please forgive any typos):

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;25;12

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And now for an animal joke. What does a panda bear say on Halloween? What does a panda bear say on Halloween? The answer is. Going to be revealed at the end of the episode. But first, get your ears ready because it's the Happiest Animal Showon Planet Earth, the Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth. Do you want to be sad? No. Do you want to be glad?

No. Wait! Yes. Well, it's the happiest animal show on Planet Earth. Hello and welcome to the Happiest Animal show on Planet Earth, the podcast that asks the very important question. What animal is making you happy today? Not last month, not last week, but today. I'm Rob and I'm Laura, and we are a sister brother pair of zoologists, filmmakers and songwriters.

We are here to explore the wonderful world of wildlife and discover why animals make us happy. Today we have a song about pandas and we'll also be speaking with Roche Patel, a filmmaker and photographer who works at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.. Here we go. What animal is making you happy today? I want to know. The theme we have given ourselves for this episode is Epic Animals in Honor of Earth Day.

And what do we mean by epic? We mean it's an animal that you would want to project onto the moon for Earth Day. So everybody could look at that animal like an icon. Every human on earth looking up into the sky would see that animal staring back at them. Every alien zooming by in a spaceship would look over and see that and think, Holy Z, barf, that planet looks fine.

Okay, Rob, what epic animal is making you happy today? Okay, this is an animal that can weigh up to 100 pounds. Is it an ocean animal? Yeah, it is an ocean animal. Is it a fish? It is not a fish. No. It's also an animal that you have seen. In the wild. Really? Yeah. Did I almost sit on it?

No. Okay. It's not a manatee. I almost sat on a manatee once. Accidentally. It was right behind me, and I didn't know it. This is an animal that uses tools. Ooh, there aren't many animals you can say about that. Does it have really dense fur? Yes. Does it have the most dense fur of any mammal? Yes. Is it, sea otter?

It is sea otter. I imagined looking up at the moon and seeing an adorable sea otter face staring back at all of humanity. Yeah, yeah. I wanted on Earth Day for people to look up into the sky at the moon and have something that just makes them happy. I can definitely see everyone in the world holding hands, looking up at the face of a sea otter on the moon and just looking.

Yeah, we're all neighbors. Yeah. And everyone's singing the exact same otter song together. Yeah, we otter be kind to each other every day. Earth day is every day. Not just one day a year. It's the new Earth Day song. I think the official Earth Day song. Yeah. When you are an I, we're up in Alaska when we were in our early 20s.

That was the first time I ever saw a sea otter, and we were out on a small boat going through kind of a glacial flow. There's like icebergs floating around, and there were rafts of sea otters, just like, I don't know, 40, 50 sea otters all just huddle together floating in a big group. How? It was just a raft of adorableness.

Yeah. I mean, and when we say raft, we don't mean that the otters are sitting on top of some sort of raft that somebody made. What we mean is there's a bunch of sea otters gathered together, holding on to each other, floating together, and they call that a raft. So what tools do a sea otter use? They'll use like a rock to actually crack open the shells of the food that they eat.

Most of the food that sea otters eat are like shelled animals, and so they have to crack that open until actually lay on their back. And I've watched this. It's really neat. They're there. I'll take a rock like a hammer and they'll just whack, whack, whack, whack. They'll crack open the shell of, you know, it could be an urchin or a crab or a clam.

Wow. One of my most exciting moments ever when I've been scuba diving was when I was in a kelp forest in Monterey Bay and a sea otter dove down. No way. Right? Right near me to go catch, like a crab off the bottom. I didn't know that. Whoa. Yeah, I just caught it out of the corner of my eye as it was heading back to the surface, and it it just went back up and laid on its back and floated on the surface

So? So Rob has picked sea otters. Find out what I picked right after this. And now we are taking you to outer space, where space aliens are seeing a picture of a sea otter projected onto the moon. The following is translated from their native alien language Skarpaxian. We are approaching planet Earth. Wait, and what is that picture on the side of planet Earth's moon?

What? Oh, it looks just like a Snorblax. Yes, it looks like a Snorblax from Gramulus Prime. It's terrifying. Yeah, I'm accessing this planet's information now. They call this creature a sea otter. Look at its little plorb. And it's two beady little beebles, It makes the flern rise on the back of my splingle, and the computer says, look, baby, sea otters make this sound.

Terrifying. If there are sea otters, do you think there are space otters? Let's get out of here. Back to planet Scarpaxian before we find out. Oh. All right. And we're back. Laura, what epic animal is making you happy today? What would you want to see projected on to the moon? I'm going to give you some hints. This animal is big.

Yeah, it is the world's largest land animal. Okay. This animal likes to throw mud and sand on itself to use, like, sunscreen. I knew what it was on the fur. I know you did. I gave such a good hint at the beginning, but. But I'm just gonna make sure people listening. It lives in Africa and it lives in Asia, and it communicates through vibrations.

Sometimes we can't even hear as people, but they can hear them. What is it, Rob? It's an elephant. Elephant. Great choice. Tell me why you chose the elephants to be your Earth Day animal projected onto the moon. Elephants are awesome. The shape of them is so distinct with a trunk. Elephant like animals have been around for a while.

There were mastodons. There were mammoths. I just think elephants are just this animal that if you had never seen it before, makes your brain like explode in this sort of what is this thing kind of a way? It's almost like the excitement you'd get seeing a dinosaur. Because in our minds we think of dinosaurs as being huge and and just bonkers.

To look at an elephant is that it's huge and it's bonkers to look at. I get the idea that, something evolved into that shape. Yeah, it is amazing. Yeah. It's teeth grow and become tusks. Yeah. The trunk it can snorkel with, they can snorkel with their trunks while they're swimming. And they're like crazy strong. They can, like, knock down a tree.

Yeah. No, but they're also pick things up with their trunks very delicately. When I was living in Africa, when I was in college and I was studying hyenas, I lived in this little tent with a group of researchers. I had my own tent, and at night, once it got dark, I went in my tent, went to bed, because that's when a lot of the animals came out like lions.

Right. So I would time to go to bed. Yes. Good reason to go to bed. Well, one night I was laying in my tent on my little bed and I heard this growling sound right outside the wall of my canvas tent. I mean, the was right there and I woke up from a deep sleep hearing this growl, and I froze because I did not recognize the sound, but it sounded like a predator.

And I thought, is this a leopard? Is there a leopard standing three inches from me? If I could take down the wall of my tent. Yeah. It's terrifying. Scary. So I just laid there and the sound slowly kept going, and I got farther and farther away. And then the morning I got up and I kind of hustled my way down this little path to the kitchen tent where we all gathered.

And when I got there, one of my researcher friends was like, did you hear it? And I was like, hear what? Just like elephants. They came through our camp last night and I was like, that was an elephant. And apparently I was hearing the sound of an elephant stomach growling, processing its food. They apparently have four chambers in their stomachs.

They're eating a lot, a lot of material every day, like grass and brush and things. And I was hearing the sound of an elephant's stomach processing its food. Yeah. That's hilarious. You know, hearing an elephant stomach grumble and you thought you were in mortal danger from a hungry leopard or lion outside your tent. Gives an elephant. An elephant is my pick for today.

It's a great pick. Now, a popular animal, you often see on Earth Day is, of course, a panda, a giant panda bear. And I was thinking about how pandas are so cute that they're like a cute explosion in your brain. So I wrote a song about it. I know I need to make my bed, but I'm watching panda videos on the web.

I know I need to brush my hair, but I'm watching a panda sitting in a chair. I know I need to brush my teeth, but I just gotta watch these pandas eat because pandas make me feel like so cute. I can't take it! Panda panda panda panda, rainbows, glitter stars, Panda panda panda panda, fireworsks, sparkle hearts, panda, panda, panda, panda giant panda bear

You are a cute explosion. Panda panda panda panda, gumdrops, cookie jars, Panda panda panda panda, life is good, never hard, panda panda panda panda giant panda bear you are a cute explosion in my brain. I need to go mow the lawn, but pandas are so cute when they yawn. I need to pay my taxes but I want to watch pandas relaxing.

I need to wash my dirty clothes. But I love watching panda videos cause pandas make me feel like are you kidding me? Panda panda panda panda, rainbows, glitter stars, Panda panda panda panda, fireworks, sparkle hearts, panda, panda, panda, panda giant panda bear

You are a cute explosion. Panda panda panda panda, gumdrops, cookie jars, Panda panda panda panda, life is good, never hard, panda panda panda panda giant panda bear you are a cute explosion in my brain. I'm gonna take a break and do my chores. But there's a baby panda, show me more! Panda panda panda panda rainbows, glitter stars, panda panda panda panda, fireworks, sparkle hearts, panda panda panda panda giant panda bear, you are a cute explosion in my brain.

Before we get on with the show, here's a quick message for the grownups and we are back. It's that time in the show for the Happiest Fanimal, where a fan like you gives us clues for what? Animals making them happy. Today's submission is from nine year old Quinn from Boca Raton, Florida, and here are Quinn's clues. Clue number one.

This animal is a mammal. Clue number two. This animal swims in water. Clue number three. This animal lays eggs. Ooh, that's a good clue. Clue number four. This animal is rare. And the answer is the platypus. The platypus makes Quinn happy because it's such a cool creature. And you're right, Quinn. I mean, where else do you get a duck and a beaver squashed into one animal?

Thank you for your submission, Quinn and Grown-Ups, if you or your family would like to submit a happiest animal, visit our website at HappiestAnimalShow. com. Our guest today is Rosh Patel, who is the media producer at the National Zoo, where he gets to film and photograph all kinds of animals at the zoo. Rosh, thank you so much for joining us on our podcast.

We are so excited you're here with us. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to be here. So what new animals are at the National Zoo? Yeah, we just, got two new pandas at the zoo, Bao L i and Qing Bao. They're rock stars and super fun. And so I spent a lot of time filming them. You know, keepers getting to know the bears that care, getting to know the bears.

So it was really fun just because they have such strong personalities. I don't often find myself saying I'm a panda person by any means. There are diehard fanatics that come and see them every single day, and wonderful time. And they have like, yeah, these, these deep relationships with these bears that I just have never connected to them on that level.

I like them as bears, but as like pandas. I don't know that I have something beyond them being bears that I like. And then these two come along and they're just really incredible. And so they've just been a lot of fun to work with. And as I've gotten to spend more time, I was like, oh, I think I like pandas more than I wanted to admit.

They just are for now. It's like a teenage bear. Yeah, exactly. So they have a lot of, like, energy at various times. One of them is very much he's he's very vocal. So, like, if he wants something, he just starts, they start bleating like sheeps. They kind of like make this like, weird. It's almost the only sound like a goat.

And so but basically they like he just communicates with his keepers. So when he wants something, he's just like super pumped about it. He'll go over for like back scratches and he's just like, oh, so he's he's very like touch oriented, which I've just never seen in a bear. And then the other one, Qingi Bao, she's also for she, it's just like much more reserved.

So she will, like, look at a tree and think about how to climb it as opposed to Bao Li, just like climb it and maybe fall off. Right. So she's just very aware of her surroundings. So you just see two very different bears. And getting to cover this, I got to go to China to see some of like the panda habitat and where like wild pandas, it was hard to sort of process that they're a real animal that is in the woods.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's that's great. Because yeah, people think of pandas and you think of the zoo panda. Yeah. You think of the captive panda. Yeah. And it's totally different to have that experience, to go see them in the wild and see what it's really like for a panda. That's that's. You're so lucky that you got to do that.

That's true. Yeah. Well, beyond pandas, but animals making you happy today. You know, this is a shockingly difficult question, but I will go with the red backed salamander. Whoa. Yeah, the red backed salamander. What a pick. Yeah, I did not see that coming. Yeah, out of left field. Yeah. All right, I have found red back salamanders in the forest flipping over logs.

Yeah. And I. Yeah, it's like finding a jewel in the forest. But why is this one making you happy? So I feel like. So there's a couple answers to that question. The first is that I've been working on portraits with them as part of my, like, day job hat, and so that's been really fun because they're, you know, maybe a few inches long and they kind of just look like, oh, there's a little slimy thing that's sitting around.

And when you really like take a second and look at them, they have these derpy smiles. They're like, have all this personality and they're just like, they seem so chill. And it's just really nice to see them. But then the other part of it is that they are all over the place. And so I've always been attracted to animals that are like accessible for people to find, build relationships to.

Yeah. And these, these guys are like, there's billions like literally billions of them. And they are if you have a healthy ecosystem, the amount of biomass that they have in wherever their territory of that region is, is usually more than every other animal combined. So like bears, insects, deer, add all of that biomass up there. So more actual quantity and weight of salamanders than all those other animals combined.

We're just so many of them is bonkers. Yeah. It's wild. We're gonna we're going to take all of the the giant animals of the forest and we're going to weigh them. Yeah. And then we're going to compare that to the salamanders. And the salamanders win. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. And just and just one of the species of salamanders.

So it's not even all salamanders. That's just the red back salamander. Yeah. And. Oh, that's so cool. What a fun fact that is. It's pretty amazing. I feel like, if you like scavenger hunts, you should like salamanders because it's like one of nature's scavenger hunt finds. And something I had to learn early on is like when you when you flip over a log and you find critter like that, you want to take it out and then flip the log back over and then just put, put the salamander back next to the log.

Don't ever set. Don't ever set the log back on top of the salamander because you could squash it. So yeah. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. You want it to crawl back in under the under the log on its own. That's important. Yeah. I would say most people on the East Coast, the United States, if they wanted to see a red backed salamander, they can.

Yeah. A very achievable goal. Yeah, yeah. I actually recently became the, they're the official amphibian of DC. So they're a bunch of kids, got excited about them and they, like, put together a proposal. And the mayor signed it in October. And so it's like really again, to that point, it's like they are everywhere. And so you could be in the middle of a city and still be able to find them in a park.

That's awesome. Well, Rosh, thank you for joining us. The Red Backed Salamander was an incredible pick. I loved it. Yeah I love it too. Thanks, Rosh. Yeah no problem. It's that time we've all been waiting for to find out the answer to our animal joke of the day. What does a panda bear say on Halloween? Do you have a guess?

The answer is.

Bamboo.

And before we go, remember, we live on a beautiful planet. So go out and find what makes you happy today. Oh, hey, grown ups, we know you're busy, but if you'd like our show, we'd love for you to tell your friends and family about it. It's the best way for our podcast to grow and grown ups. You can also follow us on social media at The Happiest Animal Show, or check out other fun things on our website, like how to submit an animal and how to get merch.

Visit Happiest Animal show.com. The Happiest Animal Show is created by Laura Sams, Robert Sams, and Dave Cain, produced by Cicero Studios, hosted and directed by Laura Sams and Robert Sams, and written by Laura Sams. Robert Sams with story editor Dave Cain, and With Only a Little Help from Our Cat walking across the keyboard. Now let's talk music. Original music is written and performed by zero time Grammy Award winning songwriters Laura Sams and Robert Sams, except for the end credits music, which was written by Laura and Robert's Grandma Max and the joke answer suspense music written by David Schultz.

The theme song was written and performed by Laura and Rob and mixed by Jason Wells of Audio Wells. Thanks for listening. You're the best.