- [Child] This episode is part of the series, "Wild Critters USA," a collaboration between Orbit, PBS Nature, and the National Wildlife Federation.

(dirt road crunching) - [Rob] All right, Hank, on our Wild Critters USA road trip, we've visited wetlands, deserts, prairies, rivers.

You know, I really appreciate you being our chief navigator and map reader.

Where are we today, Hank?

(Hank barks) Waco, Texas?

That can't be right.

(door opens) Because we're looking for Ice Age mammoths.

And last time I checked, mammoths don't exactly enjoy Texas summer.

(insects chirping) Nope, definitely not mammoth weather.

Too hot.

But Hank, look at that sign.

We're at Waco Mammoth National Monument.

It says scientists discovered clues left behind by mammoths that lived here thousands of years ago.

(insect chirps) Now, if I were looking for clues about a mammoth, I'd probably search for giant tusks, or maybe a mammoth skeleton, or even some shaggy mammoth hair.

But Hank, get this.

Do you know what some scientists get really excited about?

(Hank barks) No, not mammoth boogers.

All of that would be cool.

(dog barks) Not mammoth toenails either.

They get really excited about ancient, mummified mammoth poop.

(dramatic orchestral music) I know, sounds gross, but also kind of cool.

Scientists say it might be one of the best ways to understand what life was like during the Ice Age.

I can't wait to learn more.

And you, Orbiters, sent in some fantastic questions.

- [Child 2] What made the Ice Age go away?

- [Child 3] What is a mummified poo?

- [Rob] And to help us out, we have the perfect expert.

His name is Mr.

Justin, and he's a paleontologist with the U.S.

National Park Service.

But first, let's go check in with our friend, Kenji.

And we are back in action here with Kenji.

(audience applauding) Kenji, welcome to Orbit.

- Hello, hello, Rob, and hello to all Orbiters that are listening with us today.

I'm so happy to be back.

- [Rob] We're so pumped to have you back with us.

Mr.

Kenji, I hear that you are an international, very cultured person.

You're studying a bunch of different languages.

- Yeah.

- Tell me about them.

- [Kenji] I know Spanish and Japanese.

- [Speaker] Whoa!

- [Rob] And Japanese.

Tell me about Japanese.

What is that like?

- [Kenji] It's like words.

Well, it's like drawings, but if it's one, it's a very big word.

So it's kind of interesting.

- [Rob] So it's different from the English alphabet.

And what do you call the Japanese alphabet that you're learning?

- [Kenji] Hiragana and katakana.

- [Rob] Wow.

That is very impressive.

- [Kenji] But I only know 10 kanjis.

- [Rob] Well, that's 10 more than I know.

Can you teach us a word, Mr.

Kenji?

- [Kenji] Which word do you want to hear?

- [Rob] What's your favorite word in Japanese?

- [Kenji] Ramen.

- [Rob] Ramen.

What does ramen mean?

- [Kenji] It's a type of special soup.

- [Rob] Ooh.

Okay.

(soup slurping) So like the restaurants, you can order ramen.

- [Kenji] Yeah, that ramen.

(bell dings) - [Rob] Do you know any animal words?

- [Kenji] Nezumi.

- [Rob] Okay.

Help me out with that, nazamine.

- [Kenji] It's nezumi.

- [Rob] Nezumi.

Okay.

What does that mean?

- [Kenji] Mouse.

- [Rob] Mouse.

Okay, perfect.

All right.

Well, all Orbiters, we now know how to say mouse and ramen.

Hopefully we're not saying those at the same time.

We can order ramen sometime and talk about mice in a different time.

- [Kenji] Yeah.

- [Rob] All right.

Mr.

Kenji, before we talk to today's expert, I have some very, very exciting news.

The National Park Service is hiring a brand new junior paleontologist, and I think you might be the perfect candidate.

(bell dinging) So today, I'm gonna interview you for the job.

Do you feel like you're ready for this, Mr.

Kenji?

- [Kenji] Yes.

- [Rob] Okay.

This is a very serious interview.

Thank you for submitting your application.

It's a very impressive resume.

I see you've completed kindergarten.

Why are you interested in this position of junior paleontologist?

- [Kenji] Hello, good sir, thank you so much for the opportunity.

As you already know, I'm a very curious kid.

I would love to land this position to learn more about how life came to be on planet Earth.

- [Rob] That's exactly what we are looking for, that kind of attitude.

All right, question number two.

On a scale of one to 10, how interested are you in dirt and why?

- [Kenji] I would say a 10.

I love dirt so much that I always save some under my nails.

(Rob laughs) - [Rob] Okay, so you are collecting samples of dirt and storing them under your nails.

- [Kenji] Yeah.

(Rob laughing) - [Kenji] It's weird.

- [Rob] For further studying later on.

When I was a boy, I also had dirt under my nails all the time.

All right, question number three.

Let's say that you find something in a cave.

Which discovery would make you most excited?

A mammoth tusk, giant sloth claws, ancient human tools like a spear, or a giant pile of mammoth poop?

- [Kenji] A giant pile of mammoth poop.

- [Speaker] Ew!

- [Rob] I was afraid you were gonna say that.

Okay.

Why that one?

- [Kenji] I don't know, I just want to see poo.

- [Rob] Yeah, it's super interesting.

We're gonna learn so much about it.

All right, next question.

If you found these four items in a cave, which one would you investigate first?

The footprints, the bones, the hair, or the poop?

I'm afraid you're gonna say poop.

Are you gonna say poop?

- [Kenji] Footprints.

- [Rob] Oh, the footprints.

Okay, you went with a different one, okay.

What kind of clues are you gonna look for with the footprints?

- [Kenji] Footprints can give you an idea of who lives there.

I would know if footprints belong to a human or an animal.

- [Rob] Oh, interesting.

- [Kenji] Yeah.

- [Rob] All right.

You ready for the final question?

- [Kenji] Yes.

- [Rob] Okay.

You are exploring a cave and find something that nobody has ever discovered before.

What do you hope it would be?

- [Kenji] A fossilized insect that no one has ever seen before.

Maybe a new kind of beetle.

And since I discovered it, I would name it Kenjitochongitis.

(Rob laughing) - [Rob] Are you a big fan of beetles?

- [Kenji] Well, I'm not a fan of beetles, but I like seeing buggies.

- [Rob] Okay, what color would the beetle be?

- [Kenji] So it's not a color, but it reflects in the sun.

- [Rob] Oh, cool.

That would be really neat.

Mr.

Kenji, thank you for your application.

I have reviewed with my colleagues, and we are so happy to offer you the position of junior paleontologist.

Do you want to accept this position?

- [Kenji] Yes.

- [Rob] Okay, perfect.

We'll get to work soon studying all of the giant piles of mammoth poop and footprints and beetles that we can.

- [Kenji] Yes.

- [Rob] All right.

Mr.

Kenji, will you help me introduce our guest?

- [Kenji] Yes.

- [Rob] Okay.

Today's guest is Justin from the National Park Service.

- [Kenji] Hi, Mr.

Justin.

Welcome to Orbit.

What do you do for work?

- [Justin] Hi, everybody.

My name is Justin Tweet, and I'm a paleontologist with the National Park Service.

I work in St.

Paul, Minnesota.

Right now, there are nearly 300 parks with some kind of fossils, and I help manage the fossils at all of them.

- [Rob] Hey, Kenji, are you ready to learn about mummified mammoth poo with Mr.

Justin?

- [Kenji] Let's do this!

- [Rob] Woo, here we go.

(bright music) Hey, parents, would you mind taking a moment to rate Orbit on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen?

It would be a huge help for me and for Hank.

(Hank barks) And on Apple Podcasts, you can leave us a message in your review.

We might read it in an upcoming episode like this one from the user DogsAreCool, who wrote, "I love listening to Orbit, especially when Rob gives Hank more treats."

Wait a second.

Hank, did you write that?

(Hank barking) Anyways, thanks for your help, parents.

Okay, how about we get started with a question from this week's co-host?

Get us rolling, Kenji.

- [Kenji] My question is, what was the Ice Age in North America?

- [Rob] To understand this question, we need to introduce a new vocabulary word.

Have you ever heard of a glacier?

A glacier is a giant, slow-moving river of ice.

(glacier booms) Even though glaciers move, they move really slowly, and you can't even see them moving with your eyes.

Some glaciers can be hundreds of feet thick and stretch for miles and miles.

Okay, Mr.

Justin, now that we're experts in what are glaciers, can you tell me and Kenji about the Ice Age?

- [Justin] Hi, Kenji.

The Ice Age was a time when the climate was cold enough that big glaciers would form and grow on land.

Sometimes they would spread, and sometimes they would retreat back to where they formed.

The most recent time they spread ended about 20,000 years ago, and they pretty much retreated by about 10,000 years ago.

If you have a map handy, they got about as far south as the Ohio River and Missouri River.

- [Rob] So, Orbiters, if you looked at a map of North America during the Ice Age, giant glaciers covered most of Canada and a big chunk of the United States.

Places that are warm today would've been covered by enormous sheets of ice.

There were huge glaciers on top of places with modern cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, and New York City.

It's hard to imagine, but some of those glaciers were even taller than skyscrapers.

- [Alias] Hello, my name is Alias, and I live in Dubai, and I'm six-years-old.

My question is, what made the Ice Age go away?

- [Rob] Yeah, I don't see a bunch of huge rivers of ice everywhere anymore.

- [Justin] Good question, Alias.

When the climate got warm enough that more ice melted than formed, the glaciers retreated.

Why the climate got warmer has to do with how much sunlight we get based on things like the tilt of the Earth.

- [Rob] Hey, Orbiters, do you remember the difference between weather and climate?

Shout out your answer to this.

Which one is talking about short periods of time, like days or weeks?

And which one is talking about long periods of time?

Like years or even hundreds or thousands of years?

I bet you got it.

The word climate refers to weather, but over long periods of time.

So Mr.

Justin is saying the Earth slowly got warmer over thousands of years, and as it got warmer, the glaciers started to melt.

And as they melted, they retreated, which means that they got smaller.

Okay.

Liam, Marcos, and I are ready to start learning about mammoths.

- [Liam] My name is Liam, and my question is, what was a mammoth and where did they live?

- [Marcos] Hi, my name is Marcos, and I'm seven-years-old.

And I was born in Medellin, Columbia.

And my question is, are elephants and mammoths the same species of animals?

- [Justin] Oh, Liam and Marcos, this is a good question.

A mammoth was a big herbivore related to modern elephants, especially Asian elephants.

(elephant roars) Mammoths lived in North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The first mammoths lived about six million years ago in Africa, and the last mammoths went extinct about 4,000 years ago on a Russian island in the Arctic Ocean called Wrangel Island.

They like grassy foods, so imagine like grasslands and savannas if you're trying to get a picture of them.

- [Rob] Kind of like the grasslands where bison live in North America today.

- [Justin] We know of about 10 species of mammoths.

One of them is the wooly mammoth, which was specially adapted for the cold, so it had long fur.

It had kind of a short body and limbs.

It had small ears and other features to help it keep warm.

Other mammoth species were not adapted like that.

It would've looked a lot like today's elephants.

(elephant roars) Some of them lived on islands and became very small, less than six feet tall at the shoulder when they grew up.

(record scratches) - [Rob] Hold up.

That might be the cutest thing of all time.

Sounds like an elephant that has been put in a shrinking machine until it was about as tall as your mom or dad, or my cousin Louie, or my mailman, Jaon, or- (Hank barks) Oh, right, thanks for helping me focus, Hank.

- [Santiago] Hi, I'm Santago.

I'm five.

I in the closet and my question is how a mammoth keep the feet warm in the Ice Age?

- [Rob] Mr.

Justin told me species like the wooly mammoth had special adaptations, like long hair that went all the way down to their toes.

Can you imagine giving a haircut to a wooly mammoth?

(trimmer buzzing) But that made me wonder, if wooly mammoths went extinct, which means there aren't any alive in the world anymore, how do we know how long their hair was?

- [Justin] These are from specimens that they find in Siberia.

Frozen mammoths where they have the skin and other parts of the body that would usually not fossilize still with them.

They have several of these where they have much of the skin and the fur still attached.

- [Rob] Wow.

That's so cool.

Axel has a super interesting question too.

- [Axel] Hi, my name is Axel, four-years-old.

What are predators mammoths have?

- [Justin] Well, Axel, when a mammoth was young, there were many animals that could have hunted it.

In North America, there were big cats like American lions and saber-toothed cats.

(lion roars) There were dire wolves, giant short-faced bears.

In fact, we have mammoth fossils with bear tooth marks.

A grown-up mammoth was too big for almost anything to attack it, except for humans who could hunt in groups and use weapons like spears.

- [Christopher] Hi, my name is Christopher.

I live in Panama City, I am six-years-old.

And my question is, what happened to the mammoths?

- [Rob] Yeah, I want to know that too.

What happened to mammoths?

- [Justin] There were two big things happening to them at the end of the Ice Age.

First, the changing climate shrunk the areas mammoths were best adapted for.

We know about that from studying the kinds of plants that lived in places over time.

Second, people had spread worldwide, and we know people were hunting mammoths.

Mammoths reproduced slowly, and there weren't a lot of them compared to small animals, so they had trouble adapting in time.

So it's thought that both changing conditions and hunting by people made them extinct.

(bright music) - [Rob] Hey, speaking of extinct, that reminds me of this question that we received from our friend, Sam.

- [Sam] Hi, Orbiters, my name's Sam.

I'm seven-years-old.

I'm from (indistinct), New Jersey.

My question is, are there other big animals that went extinct like the mammoth?

Thank you.

Bye.

- [Rob] We brought this question to our friend, David Mizejewski.

Mr.

David is a science advisor for "Ranger Rick" Magazine from the National Wildlife Federation, and is helping us out with this Wild Critter series.

Hey, Mr.

David, can you help us out?

- [David] Great question, Sam.

North American mammoths were cousins of modern elephants that today live in Africa and Asia, but there were a lot of other large wildlife species that once roamed America that might surprise you.

There used to be a kind of lion here called the American lion, as well as the American cheetah that used to hunt the plains.

There were also camel species and giant sloths that lived on the ground instead of up in the trees like modern day sloths.

There were beavers and armadillos that were as big as a grizzly bear, and there were short-faced bears that were twice that size.

There were also huge bison and other wildcattle species too.

And all of these giant animals went extinct thousands of years ago.

- [Rob] Hey, parents.

"Ranger Rick" Magazine has some really cool Ice Age resources for families.

I'll leave a link in the show notes.

Hey, Mr.

Justin.

You told me that you often study fossils in caves.

Alina and I want to learn more about this.

- [Alina] Hi, my name is Alina, I live in California, and my question is, what are cave ecosystems?

Bye, Orbiters.

- [Justin] Good question, Alina.

Cave ecosystems include all the life in a cave.

There are some good things about living in a cave.

- [Rob] Really?

Like what?

- [Justin] It's protected from the outside, and the conditions don't change much.

On the other hand, there's little or no light.

That's a big deal because so much of life, including you, depends on light energy.

So cave ecosystems are specialized.

Some animals live in a cave all the time, like some bugs and fishes.

They might be blind because there's no light to see.

- [Rob] I guess if I lived in a cave where it was pitch black all the time and I didn't even have a flashlight, I would probably need really good ears and smell and touch, but probably not really good eyes.

- [Justin] Some animals live part of the time in a cave and part of the time outside, like some bats, birds, and rodents.

(rodent squeaking) They're mostly using the cave as a safe place to rest.

Then there are a lot of animals that go into a cave from time to time, maybe because it's really hot outside or it's raining really hard.

(thunder crashing) Cave ecosystems are especially interesting because each cave is unique and special, and large caves often hold animals and other organisms that are found nowhere else.

- [Luna] Hi, my name is Luna.

I'm six-years-old and I live in New York.

And my question is, what animals live in the Ice Age cave?

- [Rob] Yeah.

So if Luna and I went into a time machine back 20,000 years, what would we have seen in these caves?

- [Justin] Thank you for asking, Luna.

In some ways, a cave in the Ice Age would've been a lot like a cave today.

Animals would've been using the caves for the same reasons they do today, like finding food and sheltering.

A big difference would've been the animals that are now extinct.

Instead of a den of gray wolves or a cougar layer, there would've been dens of dire wolves and lion lairs.

(wolf howling) Instead of black bears hibernating, you might have found a giant short-faced bear hibernating.

(bear snoring) And then there were the animals like giant ground sloths and mammoths visiting caves.

- [Rob] Wow.

These caves sound pretty cool.

Natalia and I want to learn more.

- [Natalia] Hello.

My name is Natalia.

I live in Mexico.

I want to know what scientists have found in caves from mammoths.

- [Justin] Good question, Natalia.

Mammoths and other animals left many signs of their presence in caves.

Caves are great places to preserve things because the conditions don't change much, and dry caves are even better.

- [Rob] Wanna know why dry caves are better than wet caves, Orbiters?

Because little itsy-bitsy organisms like bacteria and fungi need moisture to grow and do their jobs.

In wet places, they can break down dead plants and animals much more quickly.

So if an animal dies in a wet place, those little organisms think, "Woo-hoo, it's dinnertime."

But in a dry cave, like in a desert, bacteria and fungi can't work as easily.

That means things like hair, skin, and even poop can be preserved for a very long time.

Hey, Mr.

Justin, what kinds of things do you find?

- [Justin] So some places, we find mammoth hair.

We have chunks of sloth skin.

We have bones, especially if the cave was used by a big predator, and there's something an animal might do if it's just standing around in a cave to beat the heat or the weather.

It might poop.

(blowing raspberry) So we also have mummified poo from mammoths and many other animals.

- [Rob] That's gross or kind of cool.

I think I'll call it grool, a combination of gross and cool.

(Hank barks) Hey, I know we all want to keep learning about mammoth poo, but let's take a pause for our mystery sound.

(bright playful music) You can move around and wiggle while you listen and think about what the sound is.

(unknown rumbling) Think you got it?

Here's a hint in the form of a riddle.

The more I eat, the sharper you get.

What am I?

(unknown rumbling) Stick around to the end for the answer.

Okay, Mr.

Justin said a special word that Miles, Misa, and I want to learn more about.

- [Miles] My name is Miles and I'm four-years-old.

My question is, what is a mummified poo?

- [Misa] My name is Misa, calling from Pasadena, California.

And I'm four-years-old.

And my question is, what is a mummified poo?

- [Rob] I think we all know the answer to this.

You see, back in ancient Egypt, if a mummy in a pyramid wanted to go poo, it had to go to a special mummy bathroom.

And- (toilet flushes) (Hank barks) Okay, fine, Hank, I don't actually know.

Can you help us out, Mr.

Justin?

- [Justin] Hi, Miles and Misa.

The first thing to know is when we call this stuff mummified, we don't mean like ancient Egypt.

It's not covered with preservatives and wrapped up and put in a carved box.

Mummified fossils are naturally dried out from being in conditions like a dry cave or dry sand.

Drying out is a great way to preserve things from decay.

- [Rob] Okay, let's say that a mammoth goes poo.

We'll call this mammoth the poopetrator.

- [Justin] Mummified poo starts out as regular poo.

The poopetrator, in this case, the mammoth, sets out grazing in the morning, maybe, eating a lot of grasses.

Then the day gets hot and it goes up to the mouth of the cave to cool off.

While it's up there, it leaves behind a big mammoth pie.

(Hank barks) - [Rob] No, Hank, not like a delicious blueberry and cherry pie that mom makes.

You wouldn't want to eat one of these stinky poo pies.

- [Justin] Because the poo is in a sheltered site with little interaction from bugs to disturb it, it dries out over time.

Sand and silt may blow in and cover it, or other animals may cover it in additional layers of droppings.

- [Rob] Okay.

So we have a bunch of dried out mammoth poo pies.

What can you learn from a bunch of poo?

- [Justin] Because mammoths ate a lot of tough plants, we can tell a lot about what they were eating from their poo.

There are stems, seeds, pollen.

There are also maybe fossils of parasites, like their eggs, which are super rare fossils.

- [Rob] I asked Mr.

Justin what it's like to touch mummified poo.

He told me that it looks kind of like a furry ball, like the size of a softball or maybe a small soccer ball, and that mummified poo doesn't smell as bad as fresh poo.

(blowing raspberry) I also asked Mr.

Justin what scientists can learn from studying poo.

Orbiters, this can be a good moment to pause the episode and talk as a family.

What do you think scientists can learn by studying poo?

Hit pause here and then play whenever you're ready.

Okay, help us out, Mr.

Justin.

- [Justin] So poo is a great way to find out what an animal was eating and how it digested its food.

We can see if it liked food near the ground or high up, if it liked one particular thing, or a lot of different things, if it took big bites or nibbled, if it chewed on bones, things like that.

We can also sometimes see what kind of gut parasites it had like worms.

And we can also learn about animals and other organisms that lived off of poo, like dung beetles.

(bell dings) - [Rob] Wow.

Who knew that you could learn all those things just by studying a bunch of smelly poo?

- [Igrid] Hi, Orbit.

My name is Igrid Mostajo, I'm 10-years-old.

I live in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

And my question is, how does scientists study mammoths?

- [Damica] Hello, Orbit.

My name is Damica.

I am nine-years-old, I live in Venezuela, and I want to know how scientists study mammoth.

- [Justin] Thank you for the question, Igrid and Damica.

There are a lot of ways to study mammoths, and it depends on what you want to know.

- [Rob] We Orbiters want to know lots of things.

Right, Hank?

(Hank barks) - [Justin] So you start with a question.

For example, you want to know about how it walked, what it could do with its body, how it grew?

Well, you look at the bones.

You want to know about what it ate?

Well, then you look at the poo or gut contents in frozen mammoths.

Want to know about how it was related to other elephants?

We have tiny bits of DNA.

We can look at the bone minerals to figure out where a mammoth was living, but there's one super important thing to remember.

Where you find something is just as important as what you find.

Things like recording what it's found in and collecting samples to look for tiny fossils of things like plants and rodents and snails can tell you about its environment.

- [Rob] That's so interesting.

So paleontologists don't just study one clue all by itself.

They look all around, almost like they're solving a mystery.

It reminds me of that time that a piece of birthday cake disappeared from our kitchen counter.

I didn't just look at the empty plate and say, "Mystery solved."

I had to look for more clues.

When I looked around the plate, I found a few crumbs on the floor, some short hairs, some doggy prints made of icing on the ground, and Hank was looking very pleased with himself nearby.

The clues around the missing cake helped me figure out what happened.

Scientists do something similar when they look for clues around the fossils.

Hey, let's go check in with our buddy, Kenji.

Hey, Mr.

Kenji, are you ready to take a short break and stretch and move around a little bit?

- [Kenji] Yes, let's get moving.

- [Rob] All right.

What movements should Orbiters make while they're moving around?

- [Kenji] Your nose.

- [Rob] Okay, so they're gonna move their nose.

What are they gonna do with their nose?

- [Kenji] And make it triangle with your nose.

- [Rob] You're gonna make a triangle shape with it.

Kenji is acting it out, kind of moving his head to the left and then up, and then down and to the right, and then redoing it.

And while we're making triangle shapes, let's recap what we've learned.

The Ice Age was a long period when Earth's climate was cold enough for giant glaciers to cover huge parts of North America.

Mammoths were giant relatives of modern elephants.

We learned that mummified fossils are not wrapped up like Egyptian mummies.

Instead, they're naturally dried out and preserved in places like caves where even mammoth poop can survive for thousands of years.

By studying clues like bones, hair, footprints, and mummified poop, special scientists called paleontologists can learn what mammoths ate, where they lived, how they behaved, and what life was like a long time ago.

(air whooshing) Hey, Mr.

Justin, how can families continue to learn about mammoths, the Ice Age, and paleontology?

- [Justin] Many natural history museums have fossils and information about the Ice Age in their areas.

The National Park Service has parks that were set aside for Ice Age fossils like Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument Monument in Nevada and Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas.

I've mentioned some other parks with important Ice Age fossils like Grand Canyon National Park and White Sands National Park.

Many others also have their own Ice Age stories.

For example, did you know that there are stumps from an old Ice Age cypress swamp under some of the parkland in Washington D.C., or that a dog-size extinct giant beaver was found in a park in Minnesota?

- [Rob] Giant beavers?

There's so many cool things in national parks.

Hey, Mr.

Justin, thanks so much for answering our questions today.

- [Justin] Well, thank you very much for having me.

This was a lot of fun.

Remember, everyone, keep your eyes open for fossils in your national parks.

And if you see any, leave them where they are and tell a ranger about them.

That way you can help preserve and protect them, and we might learn something that no one knew before.

- [Rob] Hey, parents, our guest today was Justin Tweet, a paleontologist with the U.S.

National Park Service.

You can find information about the National Park Service Geologic Resources Division in the show notes.

Hey, before we wrap up, I bet a few of you are curious about the mystery sound.

Do you remember it?

(unknown rumbling) The hint was the more I eat, the sharper you get.

What am I?

(unknown rumbling) If you said it's an electric pencil sharpener, you are right, way to go!

(audience applauding) All right, let's go check in with our friend Kenji one more time.

Hey, Mr.

Kenji, we are about to wrap up this episode.

Was there something that you thought was interesting?

- [Kenji] The mummified poop pie?

- [Rob] (laughs) Yeah, you know what?

You are so consistent with your interests throughout this entire episode.

What did you find interesting about the mummified poo?

- [Kenji] That the caves and poop played a very important role in describing which animal lived during the Ice Age and what their lives were, like what foods they ate.

- [Rob] Yeah, that was super interesting.

All right, Mr.

Kenji.

And before we say goodbye, why don't we give families a conversation starter?

What is something that families can talk about or do together?

- [Kenji] Visit their natural local museum either virtually or in person to learn more about mammoths and the Ice Age.

My family and I are going to La Brea Tar Pits this weekend, which is a famous Ice Age fossil site and research area.

We will get to see real life mammoth fossils.

- Uh!

- I'm so excited.

I can't wait.

We will be sharing some pictures with you later, Rob.

- [Rob] Woo!

I can't wait to see the photos from your trip to La Brea Tar Pits.

Hey, Mr.

Kenji, as we finish this episode, do you have a joke or riddle for Orbiters today?

- [Kenji] What do mammoths wear to the swimming pool?

(water rushing) - [Rob] I'm gonna try to get this one.

What do mammoths wear to the swimming pool?

Golly, I have no idea.

I've never seen a mammoth at a swimming pool.

But if a mammoth went to a swimming pool, what would it wear?

- [Kenji] Their trunks.

(child laughing) - [Rob] Oh their trunks.

(laughing) Oh, man, I probably should have gotten that one.

Great joke, Mr.

Kenji.

Any special messages for our audiences?

- [Kenji] Stay cool.

Bye-bye.

- [Rob] Stay cool, everybody.

Take care.

This episode is part of the "Wild Critters" Series, a collaboration with our friends at PBS Nature and the National Wildlife Federation.

Orbit is produced by Cumbre Kids.

This episode was written by me, Robert Carpenter, the producer is Hedwin Rietta.

Artwork for the episode by Moises Monsalve and Jorge Awake.

We'll see you in the next episode, ciao.

- [Child 4] "The important thing is not to stop questioning," Albert Einstein.

- [Child 5] The end.