Super Awesome Pets | Super Animals Full Episode | Nat Geo Kids

Planet Earth is full of some incredible creatures and you have no idea what they're capable of. Because the truth is, there are lots of animals with superpowers. Our pets. While we may love them and hug them and find them so incredibly cute, we don't usually think of them as having extraordinary abilities. Well, get ready to be surprised because we're about to reveal their secret super powers. Holly, are you aggravated? I absolutely adore dogs. They give you so much unconditional love. They're so much fun to play with. Are you upset that Rosie's not home? Dogs are the most popular pet in the world. Nearly a third of all households worldwide have a dog. Dogs come in all sorts of different breeds. In fact, there are about 350 separate breeds recognized worldwide. You have everything from a tiny little chihuahua to a Great Dane that's literally a size of a baby horse. That's a nice pug. But what's most amazing is that all the different breeds are the same species. Most people don't realize how closely related every dog breed is to each other. Their genetic material is all very, very similar, nearly identical. They may look or sound or act very differently, but there are only very, very minor differences genetically. Dogs were first domesticated or tamed by humans more than 20,000 years ago. They're all evolved from a now extinct species of wolf. So they aren't direct descendants of the typical wolves we see and think of now. Today's domestic dogs have many of the same super abilities as their wild ancestors. But their most impressive power is truly sensational. Dogs have an absolutely incredible superhuman or super dog sense of smell. A dog's superpower is their sense of smell. They have a really well-developed olfactory system, so the technical term for your ability to smell. This all starts with, you guessed it, their nose. Which, as anyone who's been around a dog knows, is always wet. Believe it or not, that wet nose is essential for them to be able to absorb odor chemicals. That helps scent material stick to their nose and get into their nasal passage. The inside of a dog's nasal cavity is packed with up to 300 million scent receptors. If you compare that to a human, we only have about six million. The part of their brain that processes scent information is also about 40 times larger than ours. This helps them easily identify all sorts of different smells. So dog brains are literally built to be amazing at smelling. It's actually one of the reasons why they love car rides. Wait, no. Yeah, that's what I meant. You could say dogs are much smarter at smelling than we are. This pet is one of the most popular on the planet, and it has some of the craziest moves. Cats. They're sort of famous for their attitude. Cats definitely are known to have a little bit of attitude. The one minute they're really happy and loving, the next minute they're getting into things they shouldn't be getting into. Besides their temperament, cats are known for pulling off some pretty amazing moves. Cats are really acrobatic. You might see a cat that's launching itself off the couch or across large surfaces in your house or running down the stairs or jumping up really high places in your house that your dog would never dream of climbing up onto. The average house cat can jump about five feet in the air from a standstill position. But I feel like the cats that I've had are able to clear me, and I'm a six foot tall person. That's multiple times their own body length, which is certainly something we can't do. Cats' athleticism has a lot to do with the fact that their bodies are amazingly flexible. They have all kinds of adaptations, such as very elastic tendons and ligaments and also really flexible spines. Cats can actually twist their bodies up to 180 degrees. Crazy, right? One of my favorite things is actually to watch cats sleep. How are you laying like corkscrewed? How does this even work? And that's comfortable for you. Of course, a cat's most well-known feat is, well, landing on its feet. Cats can change the way their body is contorted in the air very, very quickly. They have a righting reflex, which is a neurologic reflex that allows the body and the brain to sense when it is turned upside down, essentially. So if you hold a cat upside down and then release that cat without thinking about it, the muscles will just respond immediately to right the animal, which is why it's called the righting reflex. I've seen cats be held from about an inch off the ground, upside down, and let go, and they will flip and land on their feet. It's insane. Now that we've covered their incredible athletic mastery, there's two more superpowers we need to mention. First, cats have fantastic night vision. Amazingly, they need just 15% of the light that we need in order to see. They have specialized pupils to bring in light. During the day, they have these really big round eyes with a tiny little slit in the middle, and that's because they're taking in less light. At nighttime, you'll see those little slits will expand into big round circles so they can absorb more light that our eyes can't pick up. Their other superpower is their whiskers. These long, thick hairs are technically called vibrissae, and they connect to bundles of nerves that make them super sensitive to touch. They're actually more sensitive than a human's fingertips. Cat whiskers are so sensitive, they can detect even the slightest change in air currents, meaning they can literally feel when something is moving nearby. And they're able to detect exactly where that air current came from. So they are really, really amazing animals. Our next pet may be teeny tiny, but it packs an oversized superpower. Hamsters. When you see them, you tend to have one reaction. Oh gosh, hamsters. They're so cute. They are small little rodents with little hands and cute little feet. There are actually more than 20 species of hamsters found around the world, but we only keep about five types as pets. The most popular is the Syrian. Hamster babies are called pups. Mothers usually give birth to about eight in a litter, and they usually have between two to five litters per year, meaning they have a lot of babies really fast, which is a big part of why they became pets in the first place. In the 1930s, there was a researcher who saw one on an expedition and was like, oh, this is cute. I want to take this and study it. So the researcher brought home a Syrian hamster, and they quickly reproduced. And some people said, you know what? I'll take one home. And there you go. They became pets. When it comes to superpowers, you might think that the hamsters is speed or endurance. And to be fair, they can run really fast for their size, up to about four miles per hour in a short burst. But what's even more impressive is their ability to cram massive amounts of food into their faces. I've watched a hamster stuff their face. New character you're going to have today. And I'm thinking to myself, that's got to be it. They can't do any more. But wait a minute. Another one. Girl, no, no, no, no more. How are they still going? Hamsters jaw dropping trick is possible because they have enormous stretchy pouches on the insides of their cheeks. They can fit about a fifth of their body weight in those little cheek pouches. OK, so why do hamsters need to pack food into their mouths? Well, it goes back to surviving in the wild. When hamsters are on a mission to find food, they will go pretty far. And then they'll use their cheek pouches to actually carry all their food back to their homes. Think of them kind of like built in shopping bags. Just, you know, in your mouth. Insane. Our next pet is quite the communicator, which is one of the reasons we love to connect with them. Macaws are the largest birds in the parrot family. They are native to South and Central America and primarily found in rainforests. There are about 20 different species of macaw. They are a very bright and beautiful bird. It's like they've got every color in a rainbow jammed onto their body somewhere. But as bright and beautiful as they are, it's the macaw's intelligence that really makes them stand out. The macaw has been compared to a human toddler in terms of how smart it is. In the wild, they're actually known to name each other. Yeah, you heard that right. Macaws have unique identifying calls that work like names. It seems like something only humans can do. But I think we're just figuring out how incredibly smart the animals are around us. In captivity, macaws put their brilliant chatter to use by being excellent mimics. Pet birds have been known to mimic not only the words that a human may say, but some even have the ability to mimic the tone of voice. Their superpower is their ability to communicate, not just with each other, but with us. That's pork. You can't eat pork. They're learning our language. Thank God. But we don't know theirs. You can have this bit here, look. Macaws are beautiful. These are lovely. And brilliant. Our next animal is usually thought of as being, well, sort of stupid. Let's find out why they're smarter than you think. A goldfish is kind of like your classic fish. They're cute. They're pretty small. You can keep them in a relatively small tank in your home. It's like a classic fish. There are more than 200 different types of goldfish. Some have fancy tails. Others have giant eyes. Or funny looking heads. Or big bubbly cheeks. Some aren't even gold. What they all have in common is that they are all members of the carp family. While we may not usually give goldfish much thought, the truth is they have some amazing abilities. First of all, they see more colors than we do. Goldfish have incredible vision. They have full spectrum vision, meaning that they're able to see ultraviolet light and infrared light. This helps them locate food in murky or low light water. Basically, goldfish are seeing colors that we cannot see. They also have an incredible sense of hearing. In fact, goldfish hear way better than many other types of fish. All fish have an ear bone. But goldfish have an extra series of bones. That connect to its swim bladder. That will send vibrations back to the ear bone. So that goldfish can detect sound in its environment. They're basically hearing through feeling. And speaking of feelings, there's that main thing we need to address. I feel like we usually think of goldfish as being kind of like derpy. Maybe a little dopey. Just sort of basic. Goldfish have to deal with the stigma of being stupid or not very smart. But goldfish are a lot smarter than they seem. We've seen goldfish in captivity figure out where food comes from. What color the person's shirt is that's normally feeding them. If they're given puzzles, how to solve them. So some pretty interesting, intelligent things. Probably the biggest misconception about goldfish is that they have terrible memories. Some people think that it only lasts a few seconds, but that's not true. Scientists have found that their memory can last months on end. For example, a scientist did a study with a goldfish catching it with a hole in the net. And not only was the goldfish able to find the hole in the net, but the scientist took a break, came back 11 months later, and the goldfish remembered where the hole in the net was. I think goldfish have the superpower of an incognito intelligence. It's surprising to see that these little fish with a tiny little brain are able to remember things like this. If you think about that little quiet kid in the back of the class getting straight A's, that is the goldfish. You don't expect it to, but it's really crushing it, which is amazing. Our final pet is native to Australia. And it really lives up to its name. Bearded dragons have the perfect name because of these cool little spikes underneath their chin that almost looks like they have a beard. Their beards are actually scales, and they help them communicate with one another. Their signature beard behaves almost like a mood ring. It'll turn black when the animal feels threatened or stressed. They may also puff out their beard in order to appear larger and more intimidating. When it comes to interacting with humans, bearded dragons are generally calm and docile. It's one of the reasons why they're such popular pets. Enjoy your dinner, Mr. Beardy. They thrive in warm, dry climates because they're cold-blooded, meaning they can't regulate their own body temperature. Instead, they need to bask in the sun or under a heat lamp to warm themselves up. One fascinating fact about bearded dragons is that they can change color. So if they're a little cold, they will darken up because they're trying to use that to absorb the heat. And they'll turn a little lighter if they're a little warm. So it helps regulate their body temperature. Here's a weird question for you. How many eyes do you think a bearded dragon has? To answer this question, two, right? No, they have three. They have the two main ones you see. They also have a third eye at the top of their head. This secret third eye is called the parietal eye. It's found in most types of lizards, and it serves a fascinating function. The parietal eye can't transmit an image, but it is sensitive to changes in light, which helps them to perceive things that are moving behind them. This third eye is incredibly important because it allows them to sense when a predatory bird or other predator is nearby because it sees, hey, the light's gone. There's a bird above me, isn't there? I'm gone. The bearded dragon's superpower is its sly eye. At first, it sounds a little sci-fi-ish, but it really is more fascinating than freaky. That's it for this episode of Super Animals. Join us again to find out more about Mother Nature's most remarkable and amazing creatures.