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  • This looks good. I would rock a hair accessory like this. Hey guys it's Em and today

  • It's another

  • creature feature

  • The series where I tell you more about an animal that you don't often see on YouTube

  • And that you might not know things about.

  • Today's creature is called Malay.

  • Say hello to Malay.

  • My little friend

  • my litt- does that work?

  • Say hello to ma-lay-tle friend!

  • Get it, 'cos her name's Malay

  • I don't know if they're going to get it, Malay

  • Ha Malay over here is a Jungle Nymph. Yes. I know that name is amazing.

  • I wish that I could run around claiming to be a Jungle Nymph, but alas I am a homosapien

  • In simpler terms,

  • she is a giant stick insect. She is one of the largest insects in the world

  • I believe the Jungle Nymphs actually lay the largest eggs in the insect world

  • At least, by mass any way

  • The eggs are really huge and the eggs are so cool. It looks like dinosaur eggs

  • They really look like something out of Jurassic park

  • When the eggs hatch and the nymphs are born they're very, very small

  • they almost look kind of like a- like a large ant

  • And straightaway they start eating, eating, eating

  • Just foraging, trying to get as much size as possible.

  • The males, you can always tell the males are very dark, black color.

  • The females are kind of like a beige color

  • That's how you know that they're going to grow up into being females

  • But their life span is very short

  • Their life span is only two years which is amazing when you think it can take a year to a year and a half for the eggs to hatch.

  • That's pretty extraordinary really

  • Jungle Nymphs come from the Malay Archipelago

  • Malay is an adult female Jungle Nymph

  • the male Jungle nymphs look completely different

  • Looking at the male as compared to the female

  • the males are much, much smaller the females are

  • Vastly bigger than the males also the males have wings which they can use for flight

  • They can actually fly whereas the female over here, Malay

  • She does have wings let me show you

  • now malay does have these beautiful wings at the back here that actually pink underneath

  • However

  • She can't use them for flight

  • the only reason that she would ever really use her wings which are not strong enough to actually lift

  • her body, um

  • If their threatened they can actually move them together and make a kind of like a trembling hissing sound and that's supposed to keep predators away

  • She does look very f- That was in my nose.

  • That was legit in my nostril

  • Look in the eyeball. (This is far more hazardous than I had expected) they will infect your eyeball juice with their wandering groping Antennae

  • Not again in the nose. Oh my God malay over here is a herbivore

  • She's only interested really in bramble leaves privet leaves and a couple of other leaves such as raspberry

  • Although Jungle Nymphs are this beautiful lime green color. They're actually nocturnal meaning

  • They wake up at nighttime

  • They might come out in the daytime for a little bit just to have a little bit of a browse and some food

  • But typically they're mostly active at night which is why she's starting to wake up because we're coming up to 8:00 p.m. here in the U.K.

  • Malay is Full-Grown.

  • This is the size of an adult female all she has to do now is deposit eggs

  • So can you see down here on her abdomen? She's got this sort of hatch over here.

  • This thick part well inside there. She's forming an egg

  • Can you see that browness inside her that's a large egg which she's going to get ready to deposit after she deposits her egg

  • Sadly that is the end of their lifespan

  • And they will pass away shortly afterwards

  • She will actually take the time to climb down and find some moss or some nice moist soil

  • And she will actually bury down into soil and gently deposit that egg

  • It actually takes between 11 and 18 months for the egg to hatch. Now when it comes to protecting herself

  • she doesn't have any Venom or any poison and

  • Usually you would think that they might have a venom or a poison because of this bright Vivid color. In the animal Kingdom

  • Bright Vivid colors are usually a warning sign. It's saying stay away from me

  • I taste disgusting please don't eat me but from Malay over here

  • She has other ways to protect herself

  • Number one what she does is she stays very still a lot of the time she would usually be near the tops of trees

  • So these green colors make her look a bit like a leaf the other things she can do is if she's being attacked

  • Do you see these amazing spiky legs of hers? These spiky legs I can tell you from experience

  • Are no joke they feel akin to those of a rosebush if you imagine gripping hard onto a rosebush thorn

  • That's what their legs feel like she does like an amazing thigh grip on you

  • And it hurts so much so that you just want to shake her off and let her go

  • Something else that Malay can do if she can pretend to be a scorpion

  • I don't think she's going to do it for us today because she's very used to being handled

  • And I really don't want to scare her

  • but this abdomen over here if she were really

  • Scared she could bring it right over to where her head is to make it look like the scorpion sting and that's supposed to

  • Threaten you. Malay is also a little bit of a drama queen something else

  • She can do if she senses danger if she can let go of the branches that she's holding herself on and fall to the floor

  • That way she can make a very quick escape from danger if she senses any.

  • But also to appear dead because plenty of animals don't want to eat something that's already dead so she basically just goes like oh

  • I can't take it anymore and just like throws herself onto the floor so um

  • She's a little bit of a drama queen we share that in common. Don't we yes we do

  • Oh, spiky on the nose. Now let's talk about Jungle Nymphs as pets because yes

  • you can keep them as a pet and I think that they make fascinating pets for the right family or

  • Individual. The way that Malay is kept is she is in a large Flexarium. A flexarium that we got from Exo Terra.

  • The Flexarium's are great because they enable her to climb. Because the flexarium is made of a sort of very durable waterproof fabric

  • Um it enables them to be able to climb all over whereas if they were in a glass tank for example

  • They wouldn't enjoy it quite as much. We spray them twice a day with water because they like a high humidity and they do have

  • Special heating so the heating the way that we keep them is we keep them at about Thirty degrees Celsius

  • I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit

  • I'll have to insert that somewhere

  • So we keep them during the heat of the day at 30 degrees Celsius and that drops down to about

  • 22 at night. As I said before they do eat bramble leaves and privet leaves you might already have it in your garden

  • Or you can grow it yourself. It's super easy

  • It's not then you can just collect it because there's loads around, but if you are going to collect

  • Bramble leaves or privet leaves, just make sure that you're collecting from an area which doesn't use pesticides because pesticides

  • Will kill your stick insect, and we don't want to do that do we no, we'd never do that to you because you're beautiful kisses

  • Yass, you know it is a bit of a commitment the last thing you want to do sometimes is to go out in the rain

  • Or in the winter and go with your gardening gloves and your cutters and go and cut bramble leaves

  • But it's got to be done

  • so just make sure that if you are going to get them as a pet that you are going to put in the time and

  • effort because if you don't feed them or you feed them poorly then you're not going to get the best out of your Jungle Nymph.

  • To actually buy the Jungle Nymph you could probably look online there are a couple of different stores

  • You can look at they're not the most common stick insect to find so you won't find them just there at your local PetSmart or Petco.

  • Reptile Expo sometimes sell these guys or an

  • Invertebrate shows of course or find a breeder that would be the best thing to do find a breeder who can really give you that

  • Ongoing support if you have any questions, allthough

  • They are nocturnal all of the animals that we look after whether they are nocturnal

  • Or otherwise have access to Uv light so although it's not compulsory being nocturnal that they have

  • Special UV lights we use it anyway, and I would recommend it

  • You know it would just be good to give them the opportunity to bask in the Sun.

  • And to soak up that goodness if they wanted to remember they do come from a naturally hot and sunny climate so in my opinion

  • Why wouldn't they utilize some of that sun sometimes so I just think it's nice to give it to them

  • Just in case you know they might not come out and bask that much during the day

  • They might stay where it's a little bit more shady,

  • but at the same time. It's nice just to give them that option just in case.

  • Overall I think they could make a fascinating pet for the right person. I'm certainly a huge fan of them

  • They might be a little bit too full on for children though

  • you know if you are going to handle these guys it's a really strange feeling it is literally like a Living thorn bush.

  • deciding to climb on you and as feminine and as delicate as my hands look they are actually quite tough because of all the manual

  • Work that I do so just be aware that if you do have any small children in the house

  • And you do plan on letting them handle these guys

  • please do it under supervision or even give them something like some sort of glove to hold these guys with do your research and if

  • Possible go and see them and try handling them

  • in the flesh before actually committing to buy them because you might decide that it's just not the right creature for you

  • That said they do make fascinating pets just to observe so you don't have to um

  • Handle them you really don't. So yeah, you can keep them as a pet and you don't have to handle them

  • You can get a nice thick glove like gardening gloves and gently scoop them on top allow them to walk on there

  • Just be aware that their feet are very

  • Hook-like, and when they are on you. They are on you, and if they don't want to come off

  • They're not coming off very easily

  • They like to constantly be in contact with some surface so she will often

  • Grip down hard from moving from one space to another

  • Just realize that it can be a bit prickly and it might not be the right pet for everyone

  • But if you were thinking of an animal that is going to be semi low-maintenance,

  • Doesn't need to be taken for a walk every day, is odorless, is

  • Relatively clean then I think that they could be a really great choice

  • Don't go up on my sleeve though because I don't want you to get your feet caught

  • Thank you guys so much for tuning into today's creature feature

  • I hope that you enjoyed learning about the Jungle Nymph over here malay and of course thank you, too.

  • Malay over here

  • Without whom I would not be able to have done this creature feature if you haven't already please do hit that subscribe button to stay

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  • involving a couple of rather amazing people who you may or may not have heard of but

  • You're gonna have to wait and see I'm working on something which I hope will help you guys, so

  • we'll see it's suddenly exciting you have to wait get to subscribe ah

  • it's under my fingernail get outta my fingernail oh

  • It was like when you cut your nail too short

  • Too much. Thank you guys again so much for watching and I will see you in another video shortly take care guys

  • Bye, Malay we have to give everybody a wave. Are you ready? Wave

  • There we go. Bye

  • Psst, don't forget to subscribe!

This looks good. I would rock a hair accessory like this. Hey guys it's Em and today