--- title: The real animals of the Just So Stories: the whale, camel, rhino, leopard, elephant, kangaroo, armadillo and crab — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The real animals of the Just So Stories: the whale, camel, rhino, leopard, elephant, kangaroo, armadillo and crab», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Rudyard Kipling's «Just So Stories» (1902) tell how anim --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / The real animals of the Just So Storie… # The real animals of the Just So Stories: the whale, camel, rhino, leopard, elephant, kangaroo, armadillo and crab Lesson 404 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/0/) — Rudyard Kipling's «Just So Stories» (1902) tell how animals «got» their shapes: the Whale his small throat, the Camel his hump, the Rhinoceros his folds, the Leopard his spots, the Elephant his trunk and the Kangaroo his long legs. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/1/) — They are funny made-up tales, and every reason they give is wrong. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/2/) — In real life no animal got its shape in one afternoon. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/3/) — Living things change very slowly over a great many generations: the young that are born a little better suited to their life survive more often and pass that on to their own young. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/4/) — And a body part that is stretched or hurt during a life is never passed on. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/5/) — A kangaroo chased all day would not have longer-legged babies, just as a footballer's baby is not born with strong legs. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/6/) — Scientists even borrowed Kipling's title: they call a neat explanation that nobody has tested «a just-so story». - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/7/) — So when you read the book, ask two questions: what is true about this animal, and what is only the joke? - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/8/) — Blue whales and humpbacks have no teeth: rows of baleen plates hang from the top jaw and sieve tiny krill and small fish out of huge mouthfuls of water, a bit like the sailor's grating. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/9/) — A baleen whale's throat is narrow for such a giant, and it could not swallow a person; the toothed sperm whale is different and swallows big squid whole. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/10/) — A camel's hump is a store of fat, not water; a thirsty camel can drink about a hundred litres in around ten minutes. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/11/) — Rhino skin is very thick, up to about five centimetres in places; the Indian rhino's deep folds make it look as if it wears plates of armour, and they let it bend and move. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/12/) — Rhinos wallow in mud, which cools them and protects their skin from sunburn and biting flies; no rhino ever took its skin off, and cake crumbs do not cause folds. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/13/) — A leopard is born with its rosettes (rings of dark spots) because the pattern is passed down from its parents, the way your eye colour is; every leopard's pattern is different, and the spotty coat hides it in the dappled shade of trees and long grass. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/14/) — An elephant's trunk is its nose and upper lip joined together, with no bones and tens of thousands of small muscle bundles; elephant ancestors tens of millions of years ago had only a short nose, and trunks grew longer slowly over millions of years. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/15/) — A red kangaroo can cover about eight metres in one bound; springy tendons in its back legs store energy like a pogo stick, so hopping fast costs it little effort. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/16/) — Kangaroos were hopping for millions of years before dingoes reached Australia, probably with seafaring people at least 3,500 years ago, so the Dingo cannot have given the Kangaroo its legs. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/18/) — A crab's skeleton is on the outside; to grow it climbs out of its old shell, which is called moulting, and it hides for a few days while the new shell hardens. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/19/) — The rock hyrax from the Leopard's story looks like a big guinea pig, yet its closest living relatives are elephants and manatees; the quagga, a zebra striped only at the front, died out in 1883. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/20/) — Wild cats moved into the first farming villages about 10,000 years ago to hunt the mice in the grain stores, and they stayed more independent than dogs: that is the true heart of «the Cat that walked by himself». - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/21/) — Dogs were tamed first, from wolves, at least 15,000 years ago; cows came about 10,000 years ago and horses only about 5,500 years ago, so Kipling's order Dog, Horse, Cow is not the real one. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/22/) — A cabbage white butterfly weighs much less than a gram, so its stamp could never shake a palace; butterflies taste with their feet. - ← previous: [The real animals of the river bank: the water vole, the mole, the otter, the toad and the river birds](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/) - next →: [The real animals of the Wild Wood: the badger, the stoat, the weasel, the ferret, field-mice and hedgehogs in winter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/405-the-real-animals-of-the-wild-wood-badger-stoat-weasel-ferret-field-mice-and-winter-hedgehogs/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)