Orcas

0:00Miss Miau Miau and I want to give a super duper shout out to our newest Patreon members, Yasinia from Utah, and Sadie Jane from West Virginia. Did you know Kozy Critter's Yodo cards are now available worldwide? With 18 Yodo exclusive episodes, you can't hear anywhere else. We hope to see you there. Oh, what's this Miss Miau Miau? We have incoming messages. Let's see who it could be. Hi WP goes on from Miniapolis, and my name is Marley, and can we do a story about Orcas? Thank you. Hi, my name is Juniper, and I live in Vancouver, Canada.

1:01I'm doing a diorama and my school about Orcas. Can you please do a podcast about Orcas? I'm Carter from Buffalo, New York. Can you please do an episode about Orcas? Thank you. Hi, Dougy Pickples, Pickles, and Miss Miau. I am Peter, coming from St. Louis. I would like you to do a story of Carol Whales. Hi, Miss Miau Miau, and Daddy Pickles. My name is Wongman. I want to offer first Orcas, thank you, Peas. Hello, Daddy Pickles and Miss Miau Miau. I'm Savia from Sydney, Australia, and I like to host Orcas. Thank you. You're right, Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, are a while's horrific request. Thanks so much to Savia from Sydney, Australia, Peter from St. Louis, Connor from Buffalo, New

2:08York, Juniper from Vancouver, Canada, Roman from Williamsburg, Virginia, and Marley from Minneapolis, for suggesting this episode's cozy critter. And a special thank you to these amazing listeners for sending in written requests. Eliana from Italy is a Bella from Denmark, Nolan from Virginia, Linus from Northern Ireland, Dallas Stair from Minneapolis, Freddie from Utah, Will from Texas, and Marley Jade from Minneapolis. If you'd like to request an animal, visit cozy critterspodcast.com. Now on with the show. Hey, howdy, and hippopotamus, hi, fives, my sleepy friend, it's your old pal, Dougie

3:18Pickles. And I'm here with my sidekick, the sleepiest cat in all the land, Miss Miau Miau. Good night, we're headed somewhere wild and splashy, a place where the ocean glitters like a giant mirror, and mighty black and white critters glide beneath the waves. I'd love to hear a joke, Miss Miau Miau. I was the orcus smiling so much. She was overwhelmed with joy. Let's get our magical traveling balloon ready. I need your help blowing it up, so take in a deep breath through your nose and exhale through

4:22your mouth. Great job, just one more time, my sleepy friend. Take in a deep breath through your nose and then exhale through your mouth. You did it. Now our magic balloon is all blown up. Tonight our balloon is ink black and snow white, just like the beautiful skin of orcus. My sleepy friend, are you ready to meet an orca? Let's get in the magical hot air balloon basket. And here we go. First, you rise above your bedroom, then higher and even higher until your city becomes

5:30a sprinkle of lights like tiny stars falling to the ground. A seagull with silver tipped wings drives past our balloon, circling us once before guiding us toward a watery coastline. Oh look, we're here. Can you guess where we are? Let's use our noses and see what we can smell. Take in a deep breath through your nose and exhale through your mouth. It smells like cool salt air, pine trees along the cliffs and far away ocean spray.

6:34The kind of smell that means giants of the sea are gliding somewhere below. We're floating over the shimmering waters of Washington State in the US where orcus rise and fall through the waves. Oh wow, look what Ms. Meow Meow just spotted. A tall, triangular fin slices up through the surface of the water, smooth, shiny and powerful. That's an adult male orca. The fin on his back called a dorsal fin is six feet tall. That says tall as a grown up.

7:37Orcas are the largest members of the dolphin family. When males can be as long as a pickup truck and females are usually a little smaller but still enormous compared to us and baby orcas, oh they're adorable. A newborn calf is about the length of a long couch with a rounder head and a softer peachy orange tint on its white patches which fades over time to pure white. And below the surface of the water, a mother orcas swims with her calf tucked close to her side. Caves stay with their moms from the moment they're born, swimming, breathing and surfacing together

8:48like two crests of the same wave. Baby orcas drink rich, warm milk from their mothers who tuck the calf gently along their side while nursing. The milk is so thick, it almost feels like cream, perfect for keeping a growing calf strong in chilly water. Caves nurse for more than a year, drifting close like a floating hug. In their first month of life, calves drink up to two and a half gallons of milk every day. That's as much liquid as 27 cans of soda. They really are super duper thirsty Miss Miao Miao, orcas live in groups called pods

9:59which are like big families. Everyone in the pod helps raise the babies, teach them how to swim fast, how to find food and how to stay safe. Arca pods aren't just groups, they're families with histories, stories and memories carried through the waves. Some pods even have wise grandmothers who lead the way. These older females remember where the best hunting spots are. Each channel stay warm in winter and when it's safest to travel along the coastline. A grandmothers voice can guide her whole pod and the calves swim closest to her, listening

11:07like she's telling an underwater bedtime story. It's you know, orcas use wonderful teamwork to find food. When they chase fish, the pod might swirl together in a big circle, creating a shimmery fish ball with their movements, then they take turns diving in for a bite and the calves copy everything they see, wiggling into the circle, blowing tiny streams of bubbles and learning how to move as one with the pod. Sometimes the whole pod rests together, drifting in a long, peaceful line.

12:11They rise to breathe at the same moment, like sharing one soft, steady sigh. A calf drifts between the adults during these quiet glides, safe in the rhythm of the family around it. Through the waves comes a chorus of whistles, clicks and calls. These are the voices of the pod. Those sounds do even more, then help them communicate information. They help them see, orcas use a superpower called echolocation, sending out tiny clicks

13:14that bounce off rocks, fish, or even boats, when the echoes return, the orcas can build a picture in their minds, like drawing the ocean with sound, calves practice with soft little clicks that sound like underwater orca giggles. It's below us a calf surfaces and lets out a tiny squeak. Its mom answers with a gentle call that sounds like a soft, underwater whistle. It's a mother's lullaby. But you know, orcas are wows of rithic swimmers. They can dive deep and rock it through the water, at speeds faster than most boats.

14:21They have powerful tails, called flukes that push them forward and long fins that help them steer like underwater kites. Sometimes they leap into the air, which is called breaching, sending out sparkling sprays of water. Orcas learn by watching, calves copy how their mother's breath dive and communicate. They follow, practice, wobble and try again, always encouraged by the gentle presence of the pod. Watching them makes me think, everyone learns at their own rhythm.

15:23Some skills take time, like diving deep, or finding your voice, orcas stay close together helping one another grow, and you can do that too, my sleepy friend, with your brothers and sisters, cousins or friends at school. Because when we help each other, we all grow together. It looks like the pod of orcas is slowing down for a nap. I'm pretty tired too, and Miss Miao Miao is stretching out on her blanket, her eyes blinking slowly, oh so slowly, how about you, my sleepy friend, are you ready to head home

16:25and dream of our new ocean friends, orcas? Well then, let's head home, here we go. First, we rise above the glimmering waves, past the misty cliffs and evergreen forests, the goldibs beside us one last time, before gliding back toward the sea, where the pod swims below, like shadows wrapped in silvery frosting. While we head home, I thought of a lullaby I want to share with you, it goes like this. In giants in the night, gliding soft and fading light, bubbles shimmer, stars in view,

17:35dream of super yummy food, tail flukes drifting, calm and slow, moonlit waters, eb and flow, as beneath the ocean blue, sleep to your friend, as we do, oh two, oh look, you're back home. Miss Miao Miao and I had such a wonderful time with you, we hope to see you soon when we visit our next animal friend, red-tailed hawks, until next time my sleepy friend, to blue and cozy critter dreams too.

18:38Miss Miao Miao and I want to give an extra special thank you to our Patreon supporters, including those in the wows orific tier, Noel from Nebraska, Zenia from Washington DC, Abram and Lea from Virginia, Joey from Washington Township, New Jersey, Gloria, Claudia and Veronica from Long Valley, New Jersey, Kaya in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kennedy from Edmunds Washington, Caroline and Nora from North Carolina, Otis and Lily from Montana, Charlotte from Green Bay, Wisconsin, Caroline from Madison, Wisconsin, and Esme in Rory from Massachusetts, cozy critters is produced by me, Doug Frazier, and distributed

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