WEBVTT - From the Vault: You’ve Got Pee-Mail, Part 1 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.400 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.959 name is Robert Lamb. We are on vacation this week, 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.360 so it's a great time to go ahead. And Rea 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.560 air all three parts of our You've Got Femail series. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.080 This is part one of three and originally published five 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:24.040 point fifteen twenty five. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.160 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.640 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.040 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.199 And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Stuff to 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.960 Blow Your Mind, we are going to begin a series 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.479 of episodes on a weird and interesting medium of communication 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:54.800 between animals, specifically communication by means of urine. I've said 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.279 this before on the show, but I think humans are 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:02.240 really a species defined by the power and complexity of 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.440 our communication skills. There is a lot that makes humankind unique, 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.360 but communication, I think is the thing that makes us 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.959 most unique among the animals. When we want to share 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:18.440 information about the world or about our intentions with another person, 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.639 we've got so many options. We can talk out loud, 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.600 we can use body language or sign language. We can 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.600 draw represent ideas visually. We can use written language, which 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.759 of course that you know has as a million different 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.160 instantiations and different types of technology today. So you've got 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.399 everything from you know, the handwritten note, to mass media 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.600 like books and magazines, email, text messages, social media posts. 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.600 I guess some people are probably still facts and. 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.320 Yeah, but mostly we've got it reduced down to texting. 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:50.680 I think in general, we can throw all these things 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.600 out the window and we're just going to focus on 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.560 texting from here on out for the duration. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.680 I only want to read books in SMS format now. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.120 But I think gets easy because we have such mastery 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:10.600 over communication and communication technology to kind of not notice 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.720 media of communication that are not available to us, or 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.400 at least not usually. I love thinking about other media 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.560 of information sharing which do exist in nature, but which 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.560 are not used by humans, at least not consciously. And 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:33.360 it turns out a huge, pretty much unignorable example used 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:37.919 throughout the animal kingdom is urine communication through. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.880 P That's right, And as we get into this topic, 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.680 I'd encourage everyone out there to set aside their narrow 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.919 human understanding of urine as much as possible and open 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:50.840 your mind to the extent that we can to the 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:56.240 richer world of informational micturition. Giggling is still permitted, but 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.600 rethink you're in a bed. As we proceed here. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.960 To get us started, I wanted to mention a recent 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.160 zoology story that first got me thinking about doing this 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.080 topic on the show. It was a paper published this 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:14.560 year in the journal Behavioral Processes by three researchers named 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:21.120 Clariana Arujo Wang, Mauricio Kanter, and John Y. Wang, and 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:26.280 the paper was called aerial Urination suggests an undescribed sensory 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:31.840 modality and social function in river dolphins. So a bit 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:33.959 on the authors here. At least one of the authors 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.760 is affiliated with a river dolphin research project in Brazil 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.840 called Botos do Serrado, another with the Marine Mammal Institute 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.120 of Oregon State University in the United States, and the 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.160 third with Trent University in Ontario, Canada. 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:50.680 I believe they were all. 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:55.120 Associated to some extent with a research group called Cetasia 0:03:55.280 --> 0:04:02.600 Cetasia based in Canada, but this stot he concerns individuals 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.440 of the species any Jeffrentsis, also known as the boto 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.680 or the pink river dolphin or the Amazon river dolphin. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.360 Rob Have we ever done a long look at river 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.280 dolphins on the show? I don't think, so, I. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.120 Don't believe we have. I imagine a lot of you 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:22.960 have seen images of them as we'll describe here. Do 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.880 not just picture any other sort of dolphin and just 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.440 color it pink in your mind, because the reality here 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:31.720 is a bit different. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.440 Yeah, these aren't just your bottle noes. This has a 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.840 distinctly alt dolphin feel. 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:39.240 So. 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.720 The Amazon River dolphin is the world's largest species of 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.440 freshwater dolphin, with males growing up to two point five 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.480 meters in length and one hundred and eighty five kilograms. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.960 Adult females are somewhat smaller than that. They look fairly 0:04:55.160 --> 0:05:01.400 distinct from marine dolphins, with long, skinny snouts without a 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.920 pronounced dorsal fin like you would see on bottlenose dolphins. 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.520 You kind of don't appreciate how much the dorsal fin 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.200 really contributes to the animal's profile until you see a 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.359 dolphin without one. It's not that it doesn't have a 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.240 dorsal fin, but it's more of a hump. Bodos have 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.040 kind of a if you're looking at them from the side, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.159 imagine a kind of plateau silhouette along the back with 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.599 a mid length corner gently sloping down to the tail. 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.799 Yeah, and I just find they do just look bizarre. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.720 They To me, they kind of look like if the 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.920 cenobytes made a dolphin, you know, like out of a person. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.279 That's the kind of vibe I get off of a 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:42.880 pink river dolphin. Yeah. 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.120 I hope this doesn't come off as hostile to them, 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.680 because they're wonderful creatures, but there is a there is 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:52.039 a suggestion of gore in their appearance. There's something a 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.960 little bit, a little bit squicky kind of but also 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.320 they've got a little smile sometimes. Have you seen this 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.360 in different pictures where if you look at the head 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.640 just right, it looks like they're they're giving you a 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:04.640 grin that's I don't know, it's a little creepy. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.120 Yeah, I mean it's a little easier to take that 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.640 grin from a bottle nose dolphin. And part of it, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:12.359 I'm just not used to seeing these guys. I guess, 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.839 you know, they're beautiful in their own right, but they're 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:15.960 also they're a little bit weird. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.080 So bodos are found not just in the Amazon River, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.040 but in rivers throughout northern and central South America. I 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.240 believe they're in the Orinoco Basin as well, and at 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.280 least one other major river system. Bodos tend to be 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.120 more gray in color when they're young, but then adults, 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:38.560 especially the males, take on this blotchy pink color as 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.480 they mature. I've read in some sources that the pinkness 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.640 might be associated with places on the skin where there 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.440 have been sort of bumps or abrasions or wounds on 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.120 the skin over the years, but I think that's not 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.520 for certain. There seem to be interesting questions about all 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.840 of the environmental factors that determine the Amazon River dolphins pinkness. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:00.719 It might also have to do with the opacity of 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:02.880 the water they live in, or with water temperature, or 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:04.880 maybe a few other things. This is not fully settled, 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:07.560 but anyway, I was just reading a few other things 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.400 about this species, generally in a twenty sixteen feature put 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.200 out by the American Association for the Advancement of Science 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.880 written by someone named Kirsten Fernlely, and this article mentions 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.480 that many other dolphin species have a fused spine, but 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:29.320 bodos do not, and a bodo's unfused spine allows it 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.560 to actually turn its head from side to side, which 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.120 might not sound remarkable to you until you see a 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.640 picture of a dolphin turning its head to look at you. Yep, 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.000 pretty weird, rob, I've got a picture in the outline 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.840 for you to look at this. Dolphins it's like saying. 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.120 Hi, Yeah, it's a little bit creepy. 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.640 Like other dolphins, bodos also use echolocation to navigate their 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.720 environment and to hunt, so that means emitting low frequency 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.960 clicks or slaps from a fatty organ on the head 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.320 called the melon, and then listening for the bounce back 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.080 to get information about their surroundings, which they sense with 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.640 sensory organs in their lower jaw. Especially, bodos apparently eat 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:17.080 lots of different kinds of prey fish, crustaceans, reptiles which 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.200 they catch in their long jaws. They apparently have different 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:21.960 kinds of teeth in the front and the back of 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:23.800 the jaws. So if you see one of them with 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.880 the mouth open toward the front of the jaws or 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.960 this elongated snout, they'll have kind of pointy teeth which 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.560 are the grabber teeth that's for catching you and not 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.440 letting you go, And then they've got grinding teeth farther 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.559 back in the mouth so that's your destiny if you're 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.480 a crab and one of these things digs you up 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:46.520 from the river bottom. Level of socialization among botos seems variable. 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.920 Sometimes they will gather in groups, especially if feeding there's 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.319 a lot of feeding resources nearby. Sometimes you will see 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.959 them in mother calf pairs, but it seems most often 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.679 adults live alone, the solitary species. 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.439 Now, I was curious about the mythology and the legends 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.840 concerning the Boto, so I looked into this a little bit. 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.720 The name Boto is of Portuguese origin, but the indigenous 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.840 peoples of the Amazon and beyond knew of them long 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.160 before the arrival of Europeans. Naturally, unfortunately, not much seems 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.880 to have survived concerning exactly how those people in pre 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.920 Columbian times interpreted them in their folklore and myths. But 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.880 we might reasonably infer that there could be some connection 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.480 between what was believed in those days and more modern 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:41.160 folkloric beliefs about these river dolphins. But the modern stories 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:45.120 are pretty alarming, as pointed out in Amazon River Dolphin 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.280 Love Fetishes from Folklore to molecular Forensics by Gravina at All. 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.880 This is published in Marine Mammal Science, two thousand and eight. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.400 The common folk belief one encounters is that the Boto 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.960 is a shape shifting seducer, or worse, the Boto can 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.200 transform itself into a handsome Caucasian male to dance boldly 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.640 and seduce women. They are also said to enter homes 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.800 at night and paralyze the occupants with their gaze before 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:13.960 having their way with them. And then it dawned, the 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.880 Boto must return to the water into its natural form. 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.000 The authors here point out that in some regions the 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.800 Boto legend is used to explain certain teenage pregnancies that occur, 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.000 and more generally, I've seen the legend explain as something 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.719 that was originally a warning against the dangers posed by 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:35.840 male colonists in potential sexual violence. The nib dot com 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.559 has a really good webcomic about this, if anyone wants 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.520 to explore that. But associated with these traditions are also 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.400 sometimes practices of using body parts of the Boto as 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.520 fetish items. The eye can be held. Some of these 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.160 traditions hold while conversing with a romantic interest, because the 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.800 power of their gaze is irresistible, and so you can 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.000 get some of that power to rub off on ether. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.800 And then there are other traditions where one might take 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:08.280 the dried, pulverized genitalia of one of these river dolphins 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.480 and then mix it with talcum powder or perfume and 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.439 then apply that to your own genitals as a magic 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:20.079 pleasure or fertility boosting powder. The authors in that paper 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.160 I sided, they point out there are regional variations, as 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.840 we've touched on, like there's ultimately a lot of territory 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:31.800 covered by the range of the Boto, and that range 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.040 is going to cover a lot of variety. There's a 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.439 lot of variety and active, active cultural influences to be 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.160 found in these regions. And so when some areas there 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.040 are indigenous beliefs that the photo is too sacred to kill, 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.120 while in other areas there has traditionally been more of 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.200 a practice of killing them for their body parts and 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.280 so forth. But the bottom line is the Boto possibly 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.880 a terrifying shape shifting seducer, and maybe this has something 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.560 to do with its coloration and it's kind of fleshy 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:05.000 aspect of its body. Maybe that's what leads to some 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:09.120 of these some variations of these beliefs that it can 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.400 take on the form of a human being. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.040 Yeah, the idea that there is something of blood about it, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:17.960 or maybe something about it being able to kind of 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.079 turn and look at you, I wonder possibly. 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:20.840 Yeah. Yeah. 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.599 But anyway, coming to the scientific paper we're going to 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.240 talk about, this will give you another very different. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:37.839 Way to think about the bodo. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:43.040 So in this paper from Behavioral Processes in twenty twenty five, 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.920 again that's a ruho wang at all, the authors describe 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.800 recent observations, or actually not that recent, it's from a 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:51.680 few years back. I'll talk about that in a second. 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:57.120 Describe their observations of this behavior among bodos, which they 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:01.280 call aerial urination. Another way to put it would be 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.960 pea fountains. So the pea fountain behaviors documented in this 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.960 research took place among wild botos in a river in 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:15.960 central Brazil called the Tokentines between September twenty fourteen and 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.040 March twenty eighteen, and the observations were recorded from fifteen 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:24.480 meters high observation platforms at the water's edge. So the 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.880 pea fountain behavior, here's how it goes down. You got 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.840 one male boto. Originally it turns upside down at the 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.280 surface of the river, with its underside facing the sky 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.600 and its penis sticking up above the water line. Then 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.160 it starts to pee, projecting an arc of urine into 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.000 the air, generally about three feet long, which splashes down 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.360 into the water nearby. Usually while creating this pea fountain, 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.880 the boto will continue swimming, sometimes in a straight line, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.880 sometimes zigzagging back and forth, sometimes looping around in a circle. 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.160 And this by itself could be seen as a strange 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.800 and interesting behavior, like why take the trouble to flip 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.360 upside down and pee into the sky? Like why would 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.360 you try to make your urine cross the barrier of 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.280 worlds into the unswimmable air? Why not just do it 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.520 straight into the water and go about your business? 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.160 I know humans would never, right, so why would the dolphins? 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.080 I was exactly trying to think about when humans would 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:31.680 make a point to like submertin just barely submerge their 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.000 bodies under the water in order to pee. I guess 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.160 the main reason I could think humans would do that 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.840 would be for like various forms of modesty, like in 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.560 order to not be seen peeing or not be heard 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:43.240 or something. 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.080 Yeah, yeah, I think that's that's a fine point. I 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.800 would also argue, and again we're comparing dolphins with humans, 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.880 which is closer comparison to be made than humans do 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:58.440 various other animals, but humans. When humans have the ability 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.560 to aim and control their your ow nation streams, they 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:07.560 are liable to do novel things with their control within 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:12.560 the acceptable environment that they are urinating. I would bring 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.200 to mind occasionally one might see a target in a 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:18.960 urinal that sort of thing, sure, and that would encourage 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.960 one to aim for the target and so forth. Or 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.720 maybe one is urinating in the wild and there is 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.600 like one rock that calls out more than other rocks. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.560 Sure, that's yeah, uh huh, I see what you're saying. 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:32.880 So it can be a form of play or self. 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:33.640 Amusement in a way. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.520 And dolphins, you know, dolphins are intelligent animals. You think 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.680 that they might just maybe sometimes they do things just 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.200 to play, just kind of for a novelty of the behavior. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:46.280 So there would be. 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.840 Interesting questions even if it was just the aerial urine stream. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.200 But here's where it gets even more interesting. The authors 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.320 of this paper observed that two thirds of the time, 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.840 sixty seven percent of the time one male river dolphin 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.640 did this. It happened to be when there was another 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.120 male right there, right nearby, which the authors called the 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:14.280 receiver of the aerial urination. And what's more, the receiver 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:19.200 dolphin would often appear not to avoid the stream. Sometimes 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.160 it would just stay where it was in the water, 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.680 basically right under where the stream was hitting. But often 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:30.280 it would appear to deliberately chase the stream of urine 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.760 and try to get under it. So really the dolphins 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.280 would be going out of their way to get peed on, 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.320 it appears to be, yes, and not just to get 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.760 peed on, to get peed on in the face. So 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.320 the other male dolphin here will approach the place where 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.760 the airborne stream is splashing down, and it will stick 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.320 its head up out of the water to let the 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.240 urine splash down and run over its rostrum, which is 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.920 what the dolphin's protruding beak like jaw is called. 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.560 Again, humans would never so what's going on with these 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:04.480 river dolphins. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.320 We don't have to make too many analogies to humans 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.640 and the positive or negative. No judgment here, but yes, 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.680 not a common behavior among humans at least we would think. 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.800 Right, And as we've been trying to relate here, urine 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:23.600 is not just urine to animals outside of the human domain. 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.160 Urine can be informational, that's right. 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:28.760 So that brings us to the question. 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.080 Of why do they do this? Why would the dolphin 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.359 pee this way? And why would the other dolphin seek 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.200 the urine stream and try to get its face position 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.720 its own face into the urine stream. To be clear, 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:43.679 we don't know the answer to this question. 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:44.040 It is. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.040 This is not settled, but the authors do try to 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.919 make an informed guess. They say, the most likely explanation 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.960 is its communication. The dolphin that peas in the air 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.639 is in a sense talking, and the dolphin it seeks 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.480 out the stream of urine is listening. Now, what would 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.359 they be talking about. Possibly it would be the dolphins 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:12.159 quote social position and physical condition, which in fact is 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.800 very important information that male dolphins seek about each other 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.000 in order to navigate competition between one another, such as 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.520 competition for food or competition for mates. And this would 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.160 line up with the observation that aerial urination only ever 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.600 took place between males. The urinators were only males and 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:38.280 the receivers were only males. Now, another question you might 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.320 wonder about is why if this is in fact some 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:43.639 kind of exchange of information, and we'll get into a 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.399 bit more detail about that in a minute. What's the 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.160 need for the aerial stream why up in the air 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.399 instead of the dolphin just peeing underwater and letting the 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.760 other dolphin, you know, detect it in the water and 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.200 get whatever kind of information they need from it there. Again, 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.720 the answer is unknown, but one idea I read here 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:08.159 is that since dolphins are acoustically sensitive, the splashing of 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:13.760 the arc could alert nearby males that someone is pee talking. Now, 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:16.520 it's kind of like the ringing of the telephone. It 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.760 is alerting you to come get the message, which you 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.000 would receive by getting the p on your face. Again, 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.240 not known, but that's an interesting guess. Because the dolphins, 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:28.960 they live in a world of sound. They are constantly 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.919 sensing sounds that they themselves amid and bounce back, and 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.000 other types of sounds in the water. So the splashing 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:37.760 could be that that's a ring tone. 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:39.320 Ah, Now that is fascinating. 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.600 Another interesting fact I came across. This is actually unconnected 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.560 to the research about aerial urination, but I just wanted 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.119 to connect it because I read them both separately in 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:52.640 that general article about botos that I was reading from 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:57.160 the Triple As twenty sixteen. It mentions that bodos are 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:01.760 sometimes seen swimming upside down, but the author in this 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.040 case connects it to the fact that bodos tend to 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.680 have kind of chubby cheeks, like small eyes and chubby cheeks, 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.520 which some researchers think might give them trouble looking down 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.240 below them in the water, like I can't see down there. 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:20.720 My cute chubby cheeks are in the way. Thus, maybe 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.800 swimming upside down helps them see what's below them. 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:25.159 M Okay. 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.360 Again, that may be totally unconnected to the aerial urination behavior, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.960 but that's another observation of them sometimes just inverting for 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.880 some reason, and this is another possible reason for it. Now, 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.919 coming back to the aerial urination paper, there's the question 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.800 of how the receiver dolphin would be getting information from 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.200 the urine stream, if that is in fact what's happening. Well, 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:53.320 the authors point out that bodos have special sensitive bristles 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.040 in the rostrum that have already been documented to help 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:01.800 them search for prey in murky opaque water near river bottoms. 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:04.800 Rob I tried to find a picture where you could 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.000 see these bristles I did attach one here in the outline. 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.080 They're very small, and most pictures of the Amazon River 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:15.159 dolphin's mouth are not from real close, but here's one 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:16.679 where you might kind of be able to see them. 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.880 You see these little tiny white bristles along the edge 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:20.320 of the mouth. 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:22.480 Yeah, a little bit of stubble, A little bit of stubble. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.880 I will reiterate that in this picture too. It looks 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.400 kind of like some sort of a twisted cinebite. Yes. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:33.160 And this is fascinating as well, because in talking about 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.280 one animal weeding the urine of another, we're often talking 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:39.680 about the sense of smell being involved. And we'll get 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.160 more into that later, but one of the things about 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:45.760 dolphins is that dolphins have a somewhat reduced sense of smell. 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.359 We've talked about that before on the show, talking about 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.520 the evolution of various aquatic mammals, and so it makes 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.040 sense that they would have to have some other capabilities in. 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.720 Play, that's right, And so that's what the authors hypothesize here. 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.000 They say that maybeuning and foraging and river mud is 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:03.320 not the only thing these. 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:04.199 Bristles are used for. 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:05.639 Quote. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:10.040 We hypothesize that the bristles on bodo's rostrums can serve 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:15.000 a chemical sensory role in detecting urine streams, and that 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.440 aerial urination, often occurring in the presence of other males, 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:23.720 serves social or communicative functions beyond the physiological need for 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:28.119 waste elimination. So again, we don't know for sure about this. 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.080 It's just sort of in the early stages of documenting 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.879 this behavior in an organized way and then trying to 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:36.280 see what we can figure out about it. I think 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:39.280 you need to do more controlled experiments to try to 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.720 isolate the variables and figure out what it's really doing. 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:43.680 But if this. 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:48.400 Communication interpretation is correct, it could be an important exchange 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:53.200 of information that helps male bodos make decisions about, say, 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:57.040 whether it's worth it or probably more often not worth 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:59.919 it to fight with this other mail for access to 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:03.760 food resources and mating with nearby females. Like it's kind 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.399 of like, here is my medical chart through the taste 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.320 of my urine. This confirms that I am healthy, i 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.280 am free of parasites, I've got plenty of muscle mass, 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:14.560 and I could put up a good fight. So you 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.720 know you don't want to fight me. You probably get hurt. 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:20.040 That's a great way of explaining it, because I think 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.000 it's no surprise to any of us that urine contains 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:25.040 a great deal of information. There's a lot of that 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:31.440