A lovely musical sound is heard From the rainforests of Queensland Also the whirr of an electric saw And the toots and da-dums of a marching band
They’re not the sounds of a jungle party Nor a trumpeter tuning his instrument It’s just the superb lyre bird Showing off his many vocal talents
He can be found in the theatres he builds In the shrubs of his forest abode In which he dances like a prima donna For all the girls in his neighbourhood
He fans out his beautiful tail The girls all watch with interested eyes He’ll then take two steps forward One step back, three to the side
He then goes up to the nearest bird And asks her if she likes his dance If she says “Oh yes I do good sir!” Well, then its the start of a little romance
The superb lyrebird sets out to impress Not one girl but a whole lot of them He’ll sing for up to four hours a day Until every last one is in love with him
Every year he puts up ever more Beautiful acts of song and dance Better and better are his displays As he entertains his special audience
If you ever chance to come across An especially friendly lyre bird Say something to him a few times And he may just say your magic word
Kaboom! Boom! Biff! Biff! Thud! That’s the sound you hear from this stomatopod As she attacks her enemies big and small Breaking them up shells, claws and all
She’s a warrior of an ancient line Fierce and strong is this lass She can punch the living daylights out Of anyone who shows her sass
She has independently roaming eyes Nothing escapes her frightening glare Your friend and you can run and hide Ms. Mantis will follow you each with her stare
Miss Mantis Ali has many friends They even have a secret code Their bodies sparkle in the sun As they dance in their shallow pool homes
She has a cousin whom she loves Who lives in the warm Pacific waters They meet up once in a while And get up to all sorts of fun and laughter
If you ever come very near her home In the warm waters of the Indian ocean She’ll puff out her chest and growl at you And get her boxer mode full on
And there we leave Miss Mantis Ali Of the Mantis Shrimp family Boxing champion of all the oceans Fearless fighter of all the seas.
The Aye Aye is a primate That lives in Madagascar She lives in trees and won’t come down No matter how nicely you ask her
She has big round yellow eyes That are her torches in the night They help her look for juicy bugs That are hiding out of sight
Tap tapping with her fingers long She knocks on the trunks of trees She’s quite polite and lady-like And will enter with an “If you please”
But once she finds some insects She quickly rips away the bark Then she sits on a cozy branch Enjoying her bug-feast in the dark / To dine finely in the dark?
For fun she scampers all along The branches of the trees Her squirelly tail like a balancing rail Helps her jump very easily
And that’s the tale of this creature odd That looks like a little bear The Aye Aye with her shining eyes That lives in Madagascar
There was once a spider small He was only a quarter inch tall But what he lacked in height and strength He made up for with his confidence
He was quite a gifted dancer A funny leg shaker, a cheerful prancer He had bright blue and red stripes on him This happy little spider called Sparklemuffin
Sparklemuffin was always showing off His marvellous dance skills to his lady loves And when he was being especially cute He’d wave his dancing legs all about
He’d wiggle and waggle his body around Sending love signals through the ground The girls would twitter upon their twigs As Sparkly danced his wonderful jigs
Then the ladies would all cheer and clap As he finally shook open his belly flap He’d shimmy and shake, wave his legs all eight He’d get all the ladies into quite a state!
His show done, he’d climb up on the fence And bow and smile for his audience You’ll never see a funnier drama king Than the rocking and rolling little sparklemuffin.
Dumbo was an octopus Who lived on the ocean floor He was the cutest little thing And had big floppy ears
But they were not really ears you see Just fins that flopped about He looked like Dumbo the elephant So that’s also the name he got
Dumbo the little cephalopod Was as lonely as can be He didnt mind the zero sunshine But how he wished for some company!
One day while nibbling on some snails Wondering what colour to wear that day He spied a stranger floating above Had another octopus come down to play?
He umbrella-drifted towards his new friend Blowing bubbles along the way He gaily waved his eight tentacles But the stranger kept floating away
Dumbo blinked and saw that he had Mistaken a bunch of old seaweed For a buddy who’d play fun games with him Diving, swimming and hide ‘n’ seek
He decided to wear [put your favorite color here] that day Changing the colour of his skin Dumbo knew that some day soon He would drift into his best friend.
Roller was a pangolin who lived in a Kapok tree He’d sleep all day snoring away and wake up at three Then he’d look up at the sky and see the sun still bright He’d roll back into a ball, and sleep until the night
When the moon was overhead and the stars were twinkling too Roller would roll out of bed, thinking of his food He had no teeth to brush, so he’d just wash his little face Then he’d smile toothlessly and shine his beautiful scales
In the night he would go out, insects on his mind His all time favourite foods were crunchy ants and termites He’d use his long, long tongue to catch all his insect prey And since he had no teeth, he’d swallow them straightaway
Roller would have loved to sing but he could only hiss So once he’d eaten all he could, he’d hiss in total bliss He’d roam around the forest floor, sticking his tongue out Hissing at a Kapok tree and sometimes even a rock
This quirky looking animal puzzled many folks Some wondered if he was in fact a moving artichoke Others thought he looked like a pinecone with feet There were many theories about this funny beast
Then one day some poachers came to steal Roller away They wanted his lovely scales to sell on market day But Roller’s secret hollow tree wasn’t easily found So there he still lives today, happy as a clown.
Better-Boy* was a tomato His head still had its stem He was always blushing red When someone spoke to him
His grandma held a record For having the most children She was in the Guinness Book And also on television
He wished he was more confident Like the olive oil and the rice But every time he tried to speak He’d get very tongue-tied
He sat among the onions And the garlic on the counter They’d peel their layers in his face He’d cry at each encounter
How he wished he had some friends That smelled all nice and fruity Who wouldn’t tease him quite so much Making his soft insides all woozy
One day a man brought out a bowl Into which he placed some fruit Bananas, oranges and grapes And yippee! Better-Boy too
He smiled at his new friends Blushing even redder Better-Boy was finally home With his fruity brothers and sisters
* Better Boy: A type of a tomato, the Better Boy has been in existence for more than 50 years and is a Guinness record holder for amount of fruit produced from a single plant.
Mahvash Mohtadullah 