Cool Facts About Animals

This episode was originally part of the Kids Listen sampler, which you can also find on our feed. But to celebrate the 4th, we are bringing you 5 minutes packed with facts about the United States' national bird. Enjoy! 

Happy Summer! On this episode, we are talking about a sunny-colored frog, which happens to be one of the most toxic animals in the world – the golden poison dart frog.  We discuss the difference between venomous and toxic, how many humans one of these tiny frogs can kill with one touch, and their surprisingly social nature.  Plus: can you guess which sound comes from a poison dart frog? (Jaguar do...

It's our first ever listener episode! We learn from you listeners lots of cool facts about animals, including king cobras, goats, sand cats, and more—plus answer some questions about frogs and how we decide which animal we choose to talk about. Thanks to our listeners who submitted their audio clips: Nadia, Demaris, Quinn, Grace, Lexi, Ginny, Oliver, Cece, Trace, Aryn, Lilli and Xia. We loved gett...

Cool Facts About Animals has teamed up with a bunch of other kids' podcasts to bring you an hour of high-quality kids audio programming – just in time for the long weekend, or to listen to throughout the summer. All of the shows involved are part of the grassroots kids' audio advocacy group Kids Listen, and all the shows are available on the Kids Listen App .  You'll hear 5 minutes from 10 differe...

The bomber worm was only discovered about 10 years ago, but it's not rare. This deep, deep underwater creature has one of the coolest defense mechanisms we've seen yet: releasing bioluminescent bombs to deter predators. We also talk about two other newly-discovered underwater creature: the ruby sea dragon and hoodwinker sunfish. If you're interested in becoming a Patreon sponsor, and help to fund...

  Happy Earth Day, listeners! On this special episode we talk about four cool animals that have been impacted by humans and climate change: the dodo bird, Tasmanian tiger, white lemuroid possum, and Fernandina giant tortoise.  Through hunting, climate change, introduction of non-native species, and more, these animals have been brought to the brink of extinction, and sometimes even have gone extin...

It's Teddy's favorite animal, the Thorny Devil! Join us as we learn all about this six-inch mountain dragon. It's got more defense mechanisms than any other animal we've studied (including a fake head – cool!) and has a very interesting way of drinking (foot water anyone?). You can also check out our first ever Cool Facts About Animals video, explaining how capillary action works.  And yes it has...

We looked high and low for the information we needed to research our episode on unicorns. But try as we might, we could not find even basic facts like what unicorns eat, what the horn is for, and what their favorite jokes are.  Luckily, Professor Abacus P. Grumbler, resident What If World unicorn expert, was able to answer all our questions.  Special thanks to Prof. Abacus and Mr. Eric for this ep...

Clara's class has spoken! This week's episode is all about the Little Blue Penguin (aka Fairy Penguin). This adorable little dude weighs in at just about two pounds, and stands only about a foot, but it packs a lot of cool stuff into that small size. In this episode, we talk about molting, fledging, diving, vocalization, and lots more. To hear the backstory on how we chose this episode, check out...

Last week, CFAA went on the road to Clara's 1st grade classroom. Her class has been studying penguins for the past month -- and wow, did they know a lot about them! We asked the students to break into groups for each of the five penguins they studied: rockhopper, little blue, king, chinstrap, and gentoo, and tell us the coolest things about each kind of penguin they could find. Then we all voted o...

Ever wonder what makes Jaguar... well Jaguar? We dive deep into the mind behind the feline in this interview. We cover favorite foods, vacation spots, Thanksgiving carols (what?) and more in this bonus episode.  This is a bonus episode put out for our Patreon subscribers. We are sharing it on our regular feed with all our listeners so you can get a taste of some of the bonus footage you can get at...

In this episode, we speak to squirrel expert Amanda Robin, a PhD student at UCLA. She taught us about the fascinating world of squirrels, including how they decide to store or eat their nuts, what chunking is, and other cool facts about squirrels. THEN we have a "who would win" battle: squirrel v. rattlesnake. Think it's hands-down rattlesnake? Think again.   Thanks as always to Ear Snacks for our...

It's our most requested episode ever AND our most-answered riddle ever!  You guessed it - it's the platypus.  This is one seriously cool animals you guys. I mean, how many venomous, egg-laying mammals do you know? Not many, right?  We dive into what makes platypuses so usual, discuss their super strange chromosomes, and talk about a recent discovery of a stegosaurs-platypus. Yup, no typos. Special...

On this episode we are exploring the deadly but adorable blue-ringed octopus. This little guy is only the size of a golf ball, but has enough venom to kill 26 grown men in its saliva. We talk about symbiotic relationships, what its venom does, and, oh, zombie powder.  So many thanks to David, our newest Patreon sponsor! He's using his own pocket money to help support our show. You can support our...

It's our one-year anniversary! We are celebrating with an episode about... porcupines! Okay, it has nothing to do with our anniversary, but still... porcupines!  For this episode, we had a chance to go to the Oregon Zoo and meet with Bree Winchell, program animal staff and overall porcupine expert.  Check out our pics of the animal encounter on our Twitter page ( www.twitter.com/coolanimalspod ) I...

Ahoy, CFA listeners! We took a road trip to the Oregon Coast to meet with Luke Parsons, an interpretive ranger with Oregon State Parks and see the great gray whale migration.  Over 20,000 of these school-bus sized whales pass by the Oregon coast around this time of year. We even got to see one! And we learned lots of cool stuff about them. Want to hear more cool interviews? Support us on Patreon!...

How cool would it be to get a chance to bring a species back from the brink of extinction? Travis Koons of the Oregon Zoo tells us all about it in this bonus interview episode.  We were honored to have been asked to join the crew of the upcoming Oregon Wild podcast for this episode. We will let you know when their first episode launches. We cannot wait.  Thanks again to Oregon Wild, the Oregon Zoo...

This bird isn't cool just because its wingspan rivals the length of a grizzly bar on its hind paws. Nope, this bird battled its way back from the brink of extinction - just 22 in the wild to now close to 500 in the wild and in captivity. We talk about what makes this bird so awesome, and the rescue efforts behind it, in this episode. Be sure to also check out our episode right next to this in your...

We were so honored to get a chance to Skype with Dr. Bruce Mate of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute. He is  the  expert on marine mammals, including blue whales. We learned so much from him, and had such a good time talking about all things whales - from his ground-breaking research to touching whale poop. (Yes, we go there.) Be sure to listen to this episode along with our stand-...

This episode is part of a double episode. Be sure to check out our interview with Dr. Bruce Mate of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute too!  In this episode, we dive into the big world of blue whales. Not only are they the biggest animal to have ever lived - like EVER - there are so many other cool things about them. We discuss their migration, sounds, diet, and even ear wax. We als...

Want to impress the adults at the Thanksgiving table with lots of cool facts and jokes about turkeys? You're in luck! We cover 12-ish terrific facts about turkeys in this episode (we lose count somewhere in the middle), including interesting info about their super eyesight, strange sleeping habits, and weird poop.  Do you have a cool turkey fact? A joke? A picture? An idea for a future episode? Em...

We're doing a bonus episode as we wait for an exciting special guest to return from Russia to talk to us about blue whales. Jaguar and Grady deliver a spooky mystery about underwater giants that kept washing up on shore with one important thing missing - their livers. Who was the culprit and who was the victim? We discuss in an orca versus great white shark showdown! Who do you think will win?  Al...

It's our first Halloween episode! To celebrate this spooky holiday, we are bringing you a rather creepy animal - the vampire bat. Because the mom on this show does not much like vampire bats, the kids on this show try to convince her (i.e., me) that vampire bats are more cool than creepy. Do they succeed? Listen to find out!  This episode is part of the Kids Listen Halloween Sweeps. Make sure you...

We tackle two listener requests in this episode - the ring tailed lemur and the aye aye, another type of lemur. Some of the coolest things we talk about in this episode are stink fights (yes, they're a thing), evil omens, and lemur balls.  We also get to interview one of our listeners, and our first kid to be a guest on the show. Thanks to Lochlan for chatting with us! Don't forget to answer our c...

Happy International Podcasting Day! We're celebrating with this bonus episode, where we share 20 super cool facts about animals. You'll learn what big animal is born only the size of a jellybean; in which species males give birth; which animal has 9 brains, and lots more!  Tell us your favorite animal fact and we'll send you a sticker! coolfactsaboutanimals@gmail.com  or @coolanimalspod on Twitter...