Hello friends, it's Ruby here and you're listening to an episode of Newstime.
Today's episode is a real creature feature.
You're going to hear five stories about curious creatures from Australia and right around the world.
We're going to meet a cheeky bear that broke into a zoo, and then we'll hop to an island where millions of scuttling crabs are making an escape.
In our wow of the week, we're going to hit the catwalk to meet some very fashionable dolphins.
What do you say?
Ready to get wild?
Story number five.
Ugh.
I know that sound.
It's getting close to summer when the flies start buzzing, especially if you're enjoying dinner outside.
I wonder, what sort of bugs have you seen around your place lately?
Sometimes I see grasshoppers.
Yeah, I've seen bugs on my street, like ants.
I see Christmas beetles in my backyard.
Aha, tis the season.
Keep those eyes peeled because right now the Australian Bug Hunt is on.
This is a project run by Invertebrates Australia and the Invasive Species Council.
They want you to become a bug detective.
That means getting outside, sleuthing out some insects or bugs and snapping photos of any that you find.
They'd be interested so that they could study the bugs and see what they could do.
Yes, they'll gather all the snapshots together and build a picture of Australian garden life.
That will help them understand where native insects are thriving and where invasive pests like fire ants and yellow crazy ants and large earth bumblebees are causing trouble.
Native means that they're from Australia.
They're important because they help the land to stay healthy.
Other bugs might mean they've been taken here from different countries.
Invertebrates, Australia says about 70 of Australia's native insects, as well as worms and snails, are yet to be formally described by scientists.
That means most insects don't even have names and there are lots that haven't been discovered.
Quite crazy because you would think it would be like 30% haven't been described yet.
It's weird.
Because if you think about it, there are lots of bugs and there aren't really a lot of names.
You can play your part by taking some photos and getting a grown-up to help you upload the images to the Bug Hunt website.
Of course, though, the first step is to find some bugs.
Always on rainy days I'm like ooh spiders, because they always head into the dry places.
This is what my mom does.
So whenever we see like spiders, she gets like a little flat bowl and a piece of paper and puts it on the bug and she slides the paper on, she walks to the balcony and she just yeets it.
Well, no need to yeet a bug for this hunt.
A photograph will be plenty.
Story number four over in the us state of wyoming, scientists have dug up a curious prehistoric creature.
It kind of looks like the shape of an owl.
What's that bit there?
It looks like it's made out of stone.
This, my friends, is not one, but two duck-billed dinosaur mummies.
I thought it was a dragon.
These dinosaur remains aren't the same as the rapt mummies you might know from Egypt.
Mummified dinosaurs are so old that their skin and soft tissues become fossils.
In the case of this newly discovered dinosaur pair.
They left impressions of their skin and scales on a thin layer of clay.
And that has allowed scientists to get a clearer picture of what duck-billed dinosaurs were like when they were alive.
Maybe that dinosaurs are actually really kind.
Maybe that dinosaurs could talk, they would say.
Six, seven.
Dinosaurs did not talk, and they certainly weren't aware of the lingo of 2025.
But these mummies have taught us something.
Duck-billed dinosaurs had spikes on their tails and hooves on their feet.
If I was a scientist, I would take their flesh and squeeze it out and then put it in a test tube and you could see their DNA and create Jurassic Park.
Hmm.
If you've seen that movie, you might know that's not the wisest thing to do.
While paleontologists their people who study dinosaurs have worked hard over the years to dig up dinosaur bones, they're now on the lookout for dinosaur mummies.
That's because those skin and soft tissue impressions are a treasure trove of information about how the prehistoric creatures grew and lived.
With information like this, you could say those mummy scientists will be wrapped.
On the Australian territory called Christmas Island.
There's been a lot of movement on the beach, and all of it has been sideways.
The sand has been described as looking like a moving red carpet.
It's the migration of the red crabs.
Yes, you've got it.
About 100 million red crabs have been scuttling around Christmas Island, leaving their forest burrows and moving towards the ocean to release their eggs.
This is an annual migration.
And while it might be a bit frightening to see millions of red crabs covering the ground, the locals love it.
Well, it'd be quite annoying but also quite cool because like it's not every day that you see just like a hundred million red crabs just scuttling along the road.
Yep.
It might only be on Christmas Island where you can say millions of crabs were the reason you were late to school.
Locals have a few different ways of dealing with the crabs while still protecting them.
Putting stuff on their car wheels so it can push them away.
Yep.
Some people put shields on the front of their cars, which gently shove the crabs out of the way.
Putting like leaf blowers and rakes in their boat so that, like they can like get out of the car and get the leaf blowers and
Residents do use leaf blowers and rakes to help the crabs on their merry way without causing them harm.
Lots of locals choose to work from home to protect the growing population of crabs, which has doubled on Christmas Island in the last 20 years.
Red crabs are truly clever creatures.
When these eggs hatch, the tiny crabs scuttle back to shore and find their way back to their parents' burrows in the jungle.
Never know where they might turn up.
In like shopping centres, because I've seen birds in shopping centres.
In your apartment building, your house, your fridge or your toilet.
In a school.
Hmm, that might make your teacher a little crabby.
Story number two.
Let's head to California now in the United States, where a bear has made quite the entrance.
The bear, maybe it got into someone's home.
This is an American black bear at the Sequoia Park Zoo.
But there's something a bit strange about this creature.
This bear doesn't call the zoo home.
It's a wild bear.
It broke into the zoo and made its way to the outside of the black bear enclosure, much to the surprise of the three bears who do live there.
That's kind.
Maybe he's trying to visit his brothers and give them some crab.
Maybe he just went to dig into the enclosure and get food from them.
Yeah, maybe he was just trying to look for food.
Zookeepers spotted this wild bear and said it didn't seem aggressive.
It was found happily leaning on a gate and interacting with the zoo's bears through the fencing.
It does make you wonder what they might have been discussing.
Run.
Hello.
Let me in.
FBI, open up.
It's very smelly here.
Why is it so smelly?
Oh, nice and kosher.
Like what you've done with the place.
The zoo staff safely coaxed the wild bear out of the zoo.
They said even though he was an unexpected visitor, he was very polite.
I wonder how the bear got into the zoo.
My friends, that is one mystery yet to be solved.
Well, maybe he has telekinesis powers and he just lifted the fences and went and yeeted them.
Nope.
The fence was completely intact.
I guess we can say he's smarter than the average bear.
Okay friends, we've still got one curious creature to meet, and this one is in our Wow of the Week.
This story made me go wow because it made me go wow.
This story made me go wow because they were doing a fashion show.
Off the coast of Western Australia, male humpback dolphins have been spotted swimming with something rather strange on their heads.
It looks like a dolphin with leaves on its head.
Or maybe it's seaweed or some sort of pollution and the dolphin ran into it and maybe it's now stuck in it.
These humpback dolphins have chosen to pop sea sponges on their heads, and they're wearing them like wigs.
Being all different shapes, sizes and colours, they do look Quite spectacular.
Can you guess why they're doing this?
To look like a baddie.
Because he was about to go to a party.
The male dolphins are doing their best to look nice so they can attract the female dolphins.
That's really smart.
Who knew dolphins could be so stylish?
It makes you wonder what an underwater fashion show might sound like.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fashion with a Porpoise.
Tonight, we're throwing out the catwalk for a dolphin swim.
And here comes the wig, Michael Dolphin.
Walks down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down.
Love your wig.
So beautiful.
10 out of 10.
Here's your seaweed.
And the crowd is positively flipping out over this look.
Incredible stuff.
And with that costumed comedy, we have climbed to the crest of our Curious Creatures special.
Thanks, Ruby.
Thank you.
You are so welcome.
And hey, I'll catch you next week for more Newstime.
Bye, Ruby.
Catch you next time.
See you later.
Or as they say in France...
Au revoir.
