Show Notes
There's a rooster almost everywhere you look in Portugal. Ceramic roosters on front doors, posters of roosters in shops, toys, tea towels and table cloths. But why?
More from Animal Sound Safari
Have you ever seen a statue of a cat waving at you from a shop window? Sometimes they're white or gold and their paw goes up and down as if to say 'come here and check out my cool store!' The Maneki-neko is a lucky symbol in Japan, right across Asia and the world; all because of the tale of a cat, a big storm and a Japanese warrior.
Meet Buttercup, the most famous sloth in the world. This Costa Rican superstar has been on TV shows and has become the face of slick sloth merchandise. But did you know sloths were once thought of as horrible, dirty and lazy?
Buzzing bees equal friendship in the tiny European nation of Lithuania. In fact, when you call someone your best friend in Lithuanian you say my 'bee friend'. And it's all because of honey — yummy yummy get in my tummy honey!
Vultures have a bad reputation as scavengers because they don't hunt or kill their own food, they just wait for some other animal to do it for them. But vultures are actually really important. They eat all the food that no one else wants, particularly tasty maggot-filled treats. Ewww. In fact, long ago in Mongolia, vultures even helped people get to their next life and be less afraid of death.
In East Timor crocodiles aren't seen as big scary animals that will try and take a bite out of your butt, they're thought of as family. It's all because of a really, really, old crocodile called Lafaek who changed the island of Timor forever.