La de da de da, sang the Arum As she rustled her giant leaves It was her seventh birthday today And she was oh so very pleased!
She was feeling especially grand today As she nestled her very first bud She was going to flower any day A thing of beauty rising from the mud.
That night when the moon was high in the sky In the lush rainforest of Sumatra The Titan Arum sat in prideful state As her bud blossomed into flower
She giggled and shook her big big leaves Sending out waves of her special pong Her smell reminds some of smelly cheese Others of socks that have been worn too long!
The rotting smell is a sweet bouquet For dung beetles and flesh flies They settle onto the new bloom Inhaling her smells with happy sighs
The magnificent flower stays facing the sun A splash of burgundy red colour Its frilly edges rippling in the wind - An upturned bell on the forest floor.
Three days and nights the Arum flower blooms And then collapses onto the ground Its short life was one big adventure Of funky smells and insect sounds!
Seven years on, there will be a new bud For forty years this cycle will repeat But in between the hulking plant returns To its quiet life on its hillside steep.
In the tropical rain forests of Nicaragua There’s the cutest little animal Always smiling, forever lounging He keeps his movements to a minimal
Despite the fact that he’s quite blind And lives his life in slow motion He’s got a keen nose and can recall where he goes He’s also the undisputed pull-up world champion!
He’s three times as strong as you and me And yet he digests only a leaf a month Hugging and smiling, napping and grazing, He does only super slow things for fun
One day Slow Mo fell off his tree Remember, his reflexes are very slow He plummeted down a hundred feet Crashing into the vegetation below
But lo and behold! He was whole Unhurt he crawled out of the brush It took him four days and twenty one hours To ever so slowly climb back up
He decided he didn’t like such adventures Because poor Slow Mo also had vertigo And as he was climbing he had this odd feeling That his ears had changed places with his toes!
But he made it back home, a smile on his face As he settled himself at the top of his tree He took three hours to pick a delicious flower And once again began his multi day feast
In the great Himalayan and Karakoram ranges There lives a brave herbivore He scales the sheer wooded cliffs The beautiful, agile Markhor
His name is a hybrid of two words Mar: the snake, and Khor: the eater Despite the fierce legend he wields He’s quite the gentle barnyard bleater
He’s known for his dexterous climbing skills And is also a fabulous forager He’ll search for grasses and for leaves He’ll roam like an adventuring voyager
He looks like an interesting mix Of both a boy and a girl I’ve heard Sporting a lovely russet coat And also a spiffy little beard
He also has tremendous horns Like five feet long corkscrews Weapons to keep bullies at bay And to dig up clumps of grass too
The Markhor is the national animal Of the south Asian country of Pakistan She’s quite iconic, a logo classic Even featuring in puppet shows in Afghanistan
And there we leave this regal Capra* As he walks with grace, his head held high Master of all that he surveys Majestic horns spiralling into the sky.
* The markhor was one of the 72 animals featured on the World Wide Fund for Nature Conservation Coin Collection in 1976.
* Markhor marionettes are used in the Afghan puppet shows known as buz-baz.
* The markhor has also been mentioned in a Pakistani computer-animated film known as Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor.
* The Markhor is present on the logo of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the intelligence agency of Pakistan.
* CAPRA: a genus of mammals consisting of goats, the markhor and ibexes.
A soulful fluting sound is heard From the rainforests of Queensland Also the whirr of an electric saw And the toots and da-dums of a brass 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 vast vocal talents.
He can be found in the theatres he builds In the dense brush of his forest abode In which he dances like a prima donna For all the girls in his neighbourhood
He fans out his beautiful lyre-like tail; The girls all watch with interested eyes He’ll also sing a little melody His courtship rituals are quite sublime
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 score of them He’ll sing for up to four hours a day Until every last one is in love with him
With each passing year he performs ever more Incredible acts of song and dance Better and better are his displays As he entertains his special audience
If you ever chance to come across A particularly friendly lyre bird Say something to him a few times And he may just mimic your magic word.
Kaboom! Boom! Biff! Biff! Thud! That’s the sound one hears from this stomatopod As she pummels her prey like a wrecking ball Breaking them up shells, pincers and all
She’s a warrior of an ancient line Fierce and savage is this lass She can punch the living daylights out Of anyone who dares to show her sass
She has independently roaming eyes Nothing escapes her fearsome glare Your friend and you can run and hide Ms. Mantis will follow you each with her stare
She’s not all bad; she has friends They even have a secret code. Their bodies iridescent in the sun As they dance in their shallow pool abodes
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 chance to come very near her home In the balmy swells of the Indian ocean She’ll growl at you in scary tones And get her boxer mode full on
And there we leave Miss Mantis Ali Of the Mantis Shrimp family Boxing champion of the deep blue Fearless daredevil of the sea.
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 an exceptional 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 performed his wonderful jigs
Then the ladies would all cheer and clap As he finally shook open his belly flap Performing his grand finale for them He’d mix salsa with some moon-walking
His show done, he’d climb up on the fence And bow and curtsy for his audience You’ll never see a more absurd 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 elephantine 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.
The Roaming Desi 