Squiz Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Combermeri people.
Squiz Kids!
It's your daily news fix.
Fun, free, fresh.
Hello and welcome to Squiz Kids Today, your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Bryce Corbett.
It's Thursday, November 6th.
In Squiz Kids Today, new home for Huge Croc.
Mexico's liver-munching orcas, Paddington Bear's big musical, and spider robots in Antarctica?
That's what's making news, kid style.
And we start today's podcast with the tale of Old Faithful, one of the most famous crocodiles in Australia.
And when I say tale, I mean T-A-L-E, not T-A-I-L, because I would never start a podcast with a crocodile's tail.
Its head, maybe, but not its tail.
So anyway, Old Faithful is a four and a half metre croc, which is huge, and he's lived most of his life in a big old waterhole in a national park in far north Queensland.
But after park rangers decided recently that he'd been displaying some concerning behaviour and maybe becoming a little too familiar with humans who were fishing or otherwise visiting the waterhole, they decided that he should probably be removed from the wild and rehomed in a zoo.
Which is where Bindi and Robert Irwin's Australia Zoo comes into this story.
They put up their hand to provide Old Faithful with a new home where he can spend his retirement being looked after by zookeepers.
But traditional owners of the National Park want Old Faithful to stay in his waterhole, arguing that he's always lived in the wild, never hurt anyone and he deserves to spend his final years doing what crocs do, which is munching on wild barramundi and being an alpha male to all the other crocs in the waterhole.
It's a dilemma, because rangers have to balance animal welfare with human safety.
And like sharks at the beach or dingoes on Kigari, it's another example of humans having to find ways to live peacefully alongside native animals in their natural habitat.
Spin the globe.
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a new story from wherever it stops.
And today we've landed in Mexico, or in the sea off the coast of Mexico, to be precise, where scientists have observed orcas munching on the livers of great white sharks.
Ew.
Orcas, or killer whales as they're also known, are renowned for their intelligence.
And now there's evidence that they've learned how to hunt great white sharks by forcing them to the surface, flipping them onto their backs to disorient them, then dragging them underwater to rip out their livers.
Which, apparently, if you're an orca, is a really tasty treat.
And apologies if you're eating breakfast right now.
It's further evidence of the advanced intelligence of the killer whale and how they pass down hunting techniques from one generation to another.
Liver-munching shark killers.
Now I've heard everything.
Let's see now.
We've done crocs.
We've done killer whales.
Must be time for a bear story.
And will you look at that?
Paddington Bear has made his stage musical debut in London and the crowds are loving it.
He's already conquered the book world.
He's been a hit in the cinemas.
So it was only a matter of time before the world's favourite marmalade-munching bear from deepest darkest Peru had his own musical on London's famous West End Theatre District.
Paddington the Musical opened to rave reviews there this week, not least because its producers have managed to create a living breathing, blinking bear that takes to the stage and dances and sings.
Not a real bear, of course, because that would be something else entirely, but a bear costume that an actor wears with a fully animatronic face that makes it look like Paddington is singing and speaking.
I've stuck a link to a video of it in today's episode notes.
You're welcome.
Speaking of remarkable animals, it's time to check in on Squizzy the newshound to see what fishy things he's sniffed out on the internet this week.
And today Squizzy is rolling around on the floor laughing, scarcely able to believe that people have fallen for the latest piece of frankly crazy fake news on social media.
A Facebook page that regularly publishes all sorts of crazy stuff pretending that it's news, posted a pretend news story last month, claiming that an army of robot spiders had landed in Antarctica after hitching a ride to Earth on a passing comet.
I am not making this up.
Most people laughed and commented that it was clearly fake news.
But some people actually believed that alien robot spiders had invaded Earth.
Which might be a fun idea for a creative writing assignment or even for a Hollywood horror film, but otherwise it's really just a bit silly.
And while social media and YouTube and the internet in general is full of fake content that most normal people realise is plain silly, there are still plenty of people out there who believe everything they read online.
But not you.
No, no.
Because you do as Squeezie the News Hound always tells you to do, and that is to stop, think and check before believing everything you see online.
And teachers.
If you want your students to be among the 5000 classrooms around Australia who have signed up to do News Hounds, our very free, very excellent media literacy program for primary school kids, head on over to our website and get involved.
Speaking of News Hounds.
I'm totally excited to be going to Forest Lake State School here in Queensland on Monday with House Speaker Milton Dick to see Squizzy in action in the classroom.
And then straight after that, Milton and I will be recording the next Squizz Kids QA, where he will choose the best entries sent in by Squizz Kids on what he should say in federal parliament to keep our rowdy politicians in line.
We've had some terrific suggestions, stuff that maybe your parents say to you when you're mucking up, or techniques your teachers use to bring a noisy class to order.
If you're keen to send in a suggestion and possibly hear your or your class's name read out in an upcoming sitting of parliament, then send your suggestions before the close of business tomorrow to squizkids at thesquizcomau.
For the quiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
What's the name of the big old croc that's moved to Australia Zoo?
Yeah, that's right.
He's called Old Faithful.
Question number two.
Which frozen continent has apparently got an army of robot spiders crawling all over it?
Not me.
Yep, that would be Antarctica.
Question number three.
What's the other name that killer whales are known by?
They're also known as orcas.
Shout out.
It's Thursday, November 6th.
Today is National Nacho Day in the United States.
Yummy!
I could definitely smash some nachos tonight.
Today is also a special day for these squiz kids celebrating a birthday today.
Josie from Indrapilly, Anika from Wagga Wagga, Cooper from Gainman, Elliot from Tingalpa, Noah from Duncraig, Ines from Castledine and Lola, who's listening, all the way over there in Marc-en-Barol in France.
Joyeux anniversaire, Lola.
And classroom shout-outs today go to.
Don't forget, if you've got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out, or if you're after a classroom shout-out, drop us a line at, or fill out the form on, our website.
Well, that's all we have time for.
Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids today.
We'll be back again tomorrow with the Kids vs Adults weekly news quiz.
Your chance to prove who's been paying the most attention to the week that just was.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
