Los cuentos de Tinga Tinga

You see there was a time when Elephant had no nose. He couldn't swat away the flies, or scrub his belly - he couldn't even blow his nose. Then one day snappy Crocodile snapped! Crocodile pulled and he pulled and he pulled - until ker-doing! Crocodile let go and Elephant's nose was all long and wiggly! And that's why Elephant has a trunk. Tales from Africa.

You see there was a time when Snake did have legs - hundreds and hundreds of them. But poor old Snake had no eyes, not a single one. Then on the day of the great Tinga Tinga Festival of Colours, Snake quite literally bumped into Millipede, who was stuck in a hole. They decided to swap eyes and legs just for one day, so that Snake could see all the wonderful colours and Millipede could run all over Tinga Tinga. But when Snake came back to return Millipede's eyes, Millipede couldn't be found anywhere! So to this day, Snake has no legs.

You see there was a time when Hippo did have hair - lots of hair! She was always harrumphingly hot. Then one hot night while Hippo was sleeping, a spark from the fire caught the end of her hairy tail. Hippo was on fire! She ran through the bush until she jumped in the waterhole. From that day on Hippo stayed in the cool waters without a single hair on her hide. Tales from Africa.

There was a time when Ostrich was all covered in feathers and unlike all the other birds, Ostrich wasn't very good at flying at all. One night in Tinga Tinga Spider decided to make Jackal a pair of wings so that he could fly up to the moon and stop howling! Jackal and Spider stole the feathers from Ostrich's neck and legs until she looked like a very big plucked chicken! The next day Ostrich was mortified and stuck her head in the ground so that Lion couldn't see her. And it was perfect - because Ostrich looked just like a bush!

You see there was time when Camel didn't have a hump. He lived very far away in the hot desert. But one day the desert got too hot - even for Camel. So he started walking. When Camel arrived at the Waterhole he asked the animals if he could have a drink. All the animals weren't pleased at all because the rains hadn't come and they were very thirsty. Lion allowed Camel to have one drink - but one drink, and one drink only! Camel slurped, and he slurped, and he slurped! Until: pop! A big, wobbly hump appeared on his back full of all the animals' water!

You see there was a time when Wildebeest didn't stampede. They used to stand on the plains and munch grass all day. But there were so many of them and they were eating so much grass that all the animals had to do something about it. Tortoise realized that the Wildebeest weren't the brightest animals in Tinga Tinga and they always did whatever the last beast said. So the animals decided to tell the Wildebeest that they were welcome to stay in Tinga Tinga, and they must never run! So what did the Wildebeest do? They ran and they ran and they ran! So that's why Wildebeest stampede!