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It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. What
a great idea. On iHeartRadio, Welcome

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to Maria's MutS and Stuff and with
me is Jennifer Semanski, who is a

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freelance science writer and editor, to
talk about Deadliest Animals on the Planet from

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not Geo Kids. Hi Jennifer,
thanks for chatting with me today about the

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book. Hi, thanks so much
for having me on. Absolutely so,

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I am fascinated by so many of
the nat GIO books, but especially this

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one, Deadliest Animals on the Planet. So, first of all, how

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long did it take to put this
whole book together? Well, this book

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book, most of these types of
books take around eight months, okay from

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start to finish this one. The
publication was delayed just a little bit,

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okay, But it's such a team
effort and so many people have their work

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put into books like this, I
mean, like the photo editors and you

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know, the text editors. That
it does take the better part of a

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year, right, which is not
which is a long time. But obviously

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it's good that it takes a long
time because the product is well worth it.

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So I think. So, yeah, So, how do you decide

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on like which insects and which animals
make the deadliest animals in this edition.

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So what we've got to do with
this book, which I was really really

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happy about, is we were able
to expand the definition of deadliest. So

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we made sure that there were a
lot of high interest animals that kids would

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really like, like tigers and bears
and great white sharks, but we also

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included a lot of animals that are
a little more common. But all animals,

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you know, need to protect themselves
or protect their offspring, So we

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were hoping to get kids interested in
some other animals as well that maybe they

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wouldn't think about as being deadly,
like a house cat. Like a house

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cat, Yes, I was actually
kind of surprised, So tell me about

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that. Why is a house cat
a deadly animal? Well, they are

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cats and they are predators, and
they are good at both. So they

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actually have a very high success rate
when they are going to hunt. Among

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all of the cats, lions,
and tigers, they might have a ten

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to fifteen percent success rate, and
house cats come in at thirty or above

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depending on where they are right,
So they're not as high as like the

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blackfoot cat, the one that's that's
been making the internet rounds because it's you

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know, the one that's in the
desert, which has about a fifty percent

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rate. But they are really really
effective predators. And I mean, I

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mean I know that from friends who
have cats and say, oh, my

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cat brought home a rabbit, Like
wait what? So you know they bring

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home all different types of animals that
they leave on the back stoop or something.

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So but that's very interesting, and
I guess it's good because kids wouldn't

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think of that, as I guess, because you know the cat. They

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might have a cat and it's just, oh, it's my pet. But

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there's that old joke that if a
cat was bigger, it would eat you.

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And I know it's a bad joke. I'm sorry to tell you that,

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right, but I'm not sure that's
not true. You know exactly exactly

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which And now I'm going to hear
from all the cat people who are like,

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I knew it, you're a dog
person. Okay, that's great,

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because I saw that. I was. I was surprised, But now I

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understand about a house cat. And
I also saw like a koala bear and

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they're so cute and so cuddly,
and well, what tell us, why

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would a koala be considered a deadly
animal. They so I I had got

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to work with a wildlife veterinarian for
one of the books that I wrote,

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and she said that they have some
of the nastiest tempers really that you yes,

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and they just don't look like it
because they're cute, it's buy and

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have the big nose and the cookie
ears. But they have some really strong

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claws that you know, usually they
used to hold themselves up in the eucalyptus

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trees carry their joeys. But they
do not like to be disturbed, and

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they will make that their displeasure known
by using those claus right. So yeah,

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and you know, regardless, it
is a wild animal. And that's

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and that's what's so educational and so
perfect because even though an animal is very

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cute and cuddly, it's still a
wild animal that we need to respect and

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you know, which is perfect for
children. This is why this book is

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so great. Absolutely, you know, so tell me. I was just

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you know, because I was slipping
through and reading was like, oh,

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you know, of course the page
with the tarantula. That completely freaks me

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out, so I have to go
fast past that. But then I came

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across an assassin bug, which I
had never ever heard of, right,

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I actually had not heard of that
prior to doing research for this book.

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And that is that is quite the
critter. Oh my god, so weird

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looking. Yes. So they have
a habit of taking some of the for

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lack of a better word, the
corpses of the other insects that they eat

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and wear them sort of as backpacks, and that keeps some sort of camouflage

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from birds and other predators that want
to eat them because they recognized them as

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you know, being empty shells basically, or if they hold still, they

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just figure, oh it's, you
know, a piece of debris. Right,

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Wow, that's fascinating. Nature to
me is just so fascinating, you

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know, because who would have thunk
of that? But this, right bug

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did? Yeah, I mean,
and I mean the photography and this book

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is just exquisite. I mean it's
close up and like that assassin bug and

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you can see all the different things
on top of it, and it's like

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wow. So, you know,
kudos to the photographer on that. Absolutely.

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Do you have a favorite deadly animal? I have. I tend to

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like the ones that we think are
cute that turn out to be pretty pretty

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vicious. I always liked penguins.
It's just one of my favorite birds as

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a kid. And then to read
that they have like backward facing hooks inside

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their bills so that when they grab
a fish, there is a minimal chance

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of that fish being able to you
know, back out the mouth. Wow,

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So definitely a one way system.
I thought that that was pretty pretty

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interesting. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Actually I didn't know that either.

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That's that's kind of cool. Yeah, do you have another besides penguins?

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So many of them? I know, I'm sorry. I don't need to

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put you on the spot. No, no, no, that's okay,

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that's what I mean. I could
go on. I know I want you

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to. Well, it's always fascinating
to me for the person who is it's

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their project and they put this together. But I'm always curious, you know,

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well, who are your favorites or
who who is? What's something that

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you had no idea? Uh,
that's a great question, one of So

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I sort of grew up in with
a family that did some bird watching,

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okay, and I'm in I'm in
Pennsylvania, so I mean, we don't

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have anything particularly exotic. So I
was reading about the shrike which is a

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fairly small, handsome bird, and
it is I actually think I had the

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patron that it's on one hundred and
one. Okay, I'm gonna look at

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it always. Yeah, it's always
hunting. And if it's not hungry and

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it is successful at it's hunt,
it will take those it's caught prey and

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pail that on a born or a
branch. Wow, and just yeah and

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save it for later, which sounds
like a horror movie. Right, that's

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that's to me. Does you know
it's like a cute little bird. It's

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really cute. Yeah, it's very
cute. It's a little gray head and

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it has like a black stripe where
its eye is. It's really very it

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is very pretty. But yeah,
well that's kind of vicious. You're right,

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it is. It's almost like a
silence of the lambs of bird.

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Right. That's really funny. That's
great. So what age is this book

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is deadliest animals on the planet aimed
at I mean, I'm fascinated by it

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and I'm old, but I know
it's obviously because it's not geo kids,

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it's probably aimed at children. So
what would be like the ideal age?

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I would say seven to you know
thirteen. Okay, maybe maybe you know

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a little leeway on each end.
Right again, mentioned the photos. The

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photos are so brilliant. Oh,
they're just beautiful, I think. I

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mean, I know when I was
a kid and wasn't a great reader,

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yet I just love to look at
the pictures. Right, No, me

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too, me too. I wish
we had books like this so we know

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when we were kids, because this
is really I mean, it's just it's

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so perfect because it's fascinating and the
way it's presented with the facts, it's

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not difficult for a child to read, which which ultimately makes the child learn,

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you know what I mean. Like, it's not too complicated, which

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is what's so perfect about it.
And I love the size. I love

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the fact that it's a little square
book that's really that's a not geo kids

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thing, And I love that about
these books because you don't see that that

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often. I agree, I agree. So, did you have a lot

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of extra of deadly animals that didn't
make this edition that might make another one?

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Or like, how was the process
that made you decide on the ones

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that are specifically in this book?
So this is sort of a middle book

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in a series of sort of related
books. So we did one called The

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World's Cutest Animals, where we focused
on sort of, you know, the

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physically cute aspects, and this is
the Deadliest, and then there will be

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another one eventually called The Weirdest The
Weirdest. Yes, and you're going to

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find some of the same animals in
all three of those books, different photos,

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different photos, because we're going to
focus on different aspects of what makes

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them fit that category. Right,
So is that that was a lot of

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fun for me? Oh, I'm
sure. And is that your next project

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of the Weirdest or so after Deadliest, we have the Weirdest has been written.

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I haven't gotten anything back yet,
so I'm not quite sure where that

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is in the process, but but
it's out there. So all right,

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well that's great. Now, this
is terrific. And for the listeners who

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are in intrigued by what we're talking
about, and rightfully so, where can

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they pick up this book? It
should be available everywhere if you you know,

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have a local bookstore that you like, or any online retailer, and

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of course you can get it at
the National National Geographic Kids website. All

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right, well, perfect, perfect, So Jennifer Semanski thank you, thank

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you for your time, thank you
for all your effort putting into this amazing

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little book. And I look forward
to well you're next on and we'll talk

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then, I hope. So keep
doing what you do. I love it.

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Okay, thank you so much