: PBS LearningMedia
This is the first of two episodes featuring animals from my home country, Canada! On this one, Chris and Martin are in the Great North checking out our wildlife. It starts out in the Creature Club with Allison confused about the whereabouts of the brothers because they had first planned to visit Central America, but she couldn't find them there. So she tries the African savannah, the ocean, and the Australian outback, but to no avail. Chris then informs her of the change of travel plans and Allison eventually realizes its Canada when Martin shows up on horseback dressed in typical Mountie gear. This, to me was not right for PBS to do. C'mon, we don't need stereotypes. Anyways, we get into Canadian history flashback style and the brothers hear a strange, cow-like noise. Even Allison is stumped because her software can't help her. This becomes the basic storyline of the episode. Along the way, we learn cool facts about beavers (which the brothers find out about following a loud splashing noise), black bears, loons (following another bizarre noise heard by the brothers), elk, cougars (following a failed attempt by it to get a loon for dinner), otters, and finally the creature who was making the cow-like noise: moose! About moose, we learn about its size, its predators such as wolves, and its swimming and diving skills to get at salty underwater plants. When it comes to beavers, we learn about its lodge-building survival technique and watch as Chris and Martin build one of their own. After all that, Chris and Martin race each other to the lodge, but end up in different lodges: Martin at their beaver lodge shivering in the cold while Chris gets hot coffee at a human one! Allison gives us a musical and video montage of Canadian sounds and creatures, and the brothers fail at singing our national anthem with Martin back in the Mountie gear. Pretty good episode, although I could've done without the stereotypes and the evolutionary tale about "giant beavers" living 2 million years ago all over North America. Take care.
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