: PBS LearningMedia
Posting about Africa's biggest creatures tonight. Back in Africa, Chris and Martin are looking for rhinos, but keep going in circles because they are lost. In the Creature Club, Allison attempts to help them, but experiences temporary loss of connection. When its restored, she sees rhinos and alerts the brothers who in turn hurry to them. However, they are stopped by the Nile River. Being that the river is full of both crocodiles and hippos, crossing it will prove dangerous. So, the brothers do an experiment with their hippo test dummy (Ken) by putting him in an inflatable rubber life raft. Needless to say, it doesn't go well for Ken as the hippos attack the boat, tear it to shreds and even take Ken's head off! So we learn about crocodiles and hippos, especially about how territorial hippos are. Hippos are so tough that some of them can ever chomp a croc in two! We also see how crocodiles attack a zebra herd that is attempting to cross the river, resulting in the stallion getting a bad wound on his beehind. Eventually, the Kratts cross the river successfully by finding a bridge. After that, they see elephants and get to observe them for awhile. Finally, after all of that, Chris and Martin see the rhinos. Once again, Ken is the victim of an experiment gone wrong as a rhino charges at him and badly wounds him. The need for defense is clearly seen in the experiment. One cool fact about rhinos is that their horns aren't made of bone. Instead, keratin makes up those horns. That's the EXACT same material for our fingernails, toenails, and hair! Lastly, we get a silly evolutionary story in the episode: rhinos started out just like their supposed relatives the tapir: small. Afterwards they grew tremendously bigger and became taller than the trees and were called "indricotheriums". Finally, the woolly rhino replaced them and remained until a few thousand years ago when the current species developed. Hope you enjoy!
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