Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Feature Production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and edit
Speaker 1: a little. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, and today
Speaker 1: on the show we are doing a listener questions episode.
Speaker 1: You can write to me your questions and hey, I
Speaker 1: try to answer them as best I can. If you've
Speaker 1: got any questions that you would like me to answer,
Speaker 1: you can write to me a Creature Feature Pod at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com anything related to animals, and I will
Speaker 1: give it my best shot to answer. So let's get
Speaker 1: right into it with the first question. Dear Katie Golden.
Speaker 1: A few weeks ago, I was in church when an
Speaker 1: infant was being baptized, and our excellent priest said, casually
Speaker 1: as people do, that the baby was just quote soaking
Speaker 1: up everything like a sponge, and I thought, I think
Speaker 1: sponges are pretty heavily involved and filtering. However, I'm very
Speaker 1: ignorant about sponges, so when I got home, I took
Speaker 1: a cursory look and found that I wasn't wrong, but
Speaker 1: more importantly, that sponge physiology is remarkable and romantic. So
Speaker 1: I naturally and immediately hoped you might do sponges. Thanks
Speaker 1: for thinking about it. From Marianne. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for this episode idea, mary Anne, I agree that sponges
Speaker 1: are fascinating. They have no brains, no organs, no true tissues.
Speaker 1: They only have the ability to move around when they're larvae.
Speaker 1: They can regenerate into a new sponge if you break
Speaker 1: off a peach. They are pretty magical. Their cells can
Speaker 1: migrate through their bodies and some cells can even change function.
Speaker 1: There are even carnivorous sponges which can trap and eat
Speaker 1: small prey. They don't even have just one mouth, they
Speaker 1: have many, many, many tiny mouths called ostia. Despite the
Speaker 1: fact that they have no noses, they can also do
Speaker 1: this thing called a sneeze, where they eject waste filled
Speaker 1: mucus out of their tiny mouths, so they sneeze through
Speaker 1: their mouths, which is rude for a person to do,
Speaker 1: but normal for a sponge to do. And you can
Speaker 1: only see this sneeze if you speed up footage of
Speaker 1: a sea sponge. But there is some footage online if
Speaker 1: you look for a sea sponge sneeze, I think you
Speaker 1: should find it should be safe to look for that,
Speaker 1: I think, but yeah, it is a great idea to
Speaker 1: do a whole episode on sea sponges. I would love
Speaker 1: to do that and I probably will soon, so thank
Speaker 1: you for that suggestion. Onto the next question. Hey, Katie,
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you were tasked with writing a
Speaker 1: Black Mirror episode in which the bad actors running the
Speaker 1: military of a nation wanted to utilize the animal kingdom
Speaker 1: for espionage in some way, like Valdimir the Blugo, which
Speaker 1: creature would you force to become our surprisingly skilled collaborator.
Speaker 1: This is from PK. Thank you for the surprisingly specific question.
Speaker 1: So some background on what listener PK is referring to.
Speaker 1: Vladimir is a beluga that well, actually it's called Vladimir
Speaker 1: with kind of an H. It's like an H in
Speaker 1: front of the name Vladimir. So Vlaldemir is a beluga
Speaker 1: that was found by Norwegian fishermen in twenty nineteen with
Speaker 1: a camera strap to it. The theory is that it's
Speaker 1: a spy beluga from Russia, given that the camera says
Speaker 1: quote equipment Saint Petersburg, which if it's an actual spy beluga,
Speaker 1: seems kind of sloppy to label your beluga essentially as
Speaker 1: coming from Saint Petersburg, So it seems a little too
Speaker 1: obvious to be an actual spy beluga, but both the
Speaker 1: US and Russia have indeed used wales in military program Still,
Speaker 1: it's also probable that the whale is part of some
Speaker 1: kind of zoological research or other purpose, given how the
Speaker 1: camera was so clearly labeled, which again seems weird if
Speaker 1: it's a spible luga. Onto the question of what animal
Speaker 1: would I use as a spy. I think I would
Speaker 1: use an animal that's pretty cosmopolitan. So when I say cosmopolitan,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean a cultured animal. It means an animal
Speaker 1: that lives all over the world, so that you could
Speaker 1: train it and deploy it and it would not raise
Speaker 1: too many suspicions. So one also that could be equipped
Speaker 1: with a tiny spy camera and would be guaranteed to
Speaker 1: come back to a certain location. My first thought is bees.
Speaker 1: I'd probably recruit some bees, affix tiny or quarters or
Speaker 1: cameras to them. As long as my target was near
Speaker 1: some flower, I would have an army of faithful little
Speaker 1: spies who would return to the hive at whenever you
Speaker 1: know they're done doing their little patrol of all the flowers.
Speaker 1: So I think they would be quite useful. I guess
Speaker 1: the downsize of the downside of them is the fact
Speaker 1: that they are so small. But honestly, pigeons are also
Speaker 1: good candidates for spies because you can train a pigeon
Speaker 1: to return to a specific location a lah homing pigeons,
Speaker 1: and in fact, in World War One, pigeons were given
Speaker 1: spy cameras and they were actually used for espionage. The
Speaker 1: CIA also used pigeons as spies during the Cold War
Speaker 1: and actually use them on American soil purportedly for quote
Speaker 1: unquote testing. The pigeons were outfitted with cameras that were
Speaker 1: very readvanced at the time, and we're able to take
Speaker 1: high definition photographs of their targets with like a lot
Speaker 1: of detail. It was pretty exciting. I guess for the CIA,
Speaker 1: little suspicious that they were using them on US soil.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying we're currently surrounded by spy pigeons, but
Speaker 1: I guess maybe think before you share state secrets while
Speaker 1: giving bread to pigeons in the park. That's just my suggestion.
Speaker 1: All right, on to the next listener question. Hey, Katie
Speaker 1: love the show. I have a couple questions for your
Speaker 1: trove of knowledge. One is it true that killing a
Speaker 1: wasp or hornet will attract others to that location? And two?
Speaker 1: Why are some dogs particularly interested in their pemails while
Speaker 1: others aren't. I have a Betty whippett who absolutely has
Speaker 1: to smell everything he walks past, but isn't very interested
Speaker 1: in socializing with other dogs. All other dogs I know
Speaker 1: enjoy a sniff, but aren't as adamant or throw as
Speaker 1: he is. Maybe he's just strange and he attached pictures
Speaker 1: of the little doggie, So this is from Iona. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the questions and for the lovely photo of
Speaker 1: the dog. I know his name's not mister Grumpers, but
Speaker 1: he looks like a mister Grumper's because he's got a
Speaker 1: mister Grumper's face. So let's answer the first question. First,
Speaker 1: is it true that killing a wasp or hornet will
Speaker 1: attract others to that location? So first, let's talk about bees.
Speaker 1: Actually not my spy bees that I talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: but species of honeybees who will release alarm pheromones when
Speaker 1: they are attacked, and they will also release an alarm
Speaker 1: pheromone when they use their stinger, which detaches and higher
Speaker 1: concentrations of alarm pheromones will induce other honey bees to
Speaker 1: want to sting, although this plateause ONTs a certain maximum
Speaker 1: concentration of alarm pheromone is detected, which is pretty clever
Speaker 1: when you think about it, because once you get enough
Speaker 1: bee stings that the threat has probably been dealt with,
Speaker 1: and if you get more things coming to sting, that's
Speaker 1: just superfluous attacks. And it's costly because it kills the bee.
Speaker 1: So killing a bee does other than like the bee
Speaker 1: killing itself by stinging you, doesn't really cause it to
Speaker 1: release alarm pheromones. Unless it releases the alarm pheromones before
Speaker 1: you kill it, it's unlikely to attract other bees. Or
Speaker 1: if by killing it you kind of smooth it and
Speaker 1: like I guess, pop open the alarm pheromone gland. When
Speaker 1: a bee dies, it does release olaic acid, which induces
Speaker 1: hygienic cleaning behavior and other bees basically undertaking behaviors, so
Speaker 1: they will clear out the dead bee because they smell
Speaker 1: the olaic acid, and this is probably you know, to
Speaker 1: keep the hive clean and hygienic. You know, you gotta
Speaker 1: bring out you're dead. When you live in a hive
Speaker 1: and you gotta keep things clear so disease doesn't spread
Speaker 1: onto wasps and hornets. So social wasps and hornets both
Speaker 1: have alarm pheromones like bees, that allow them to coordinate
Speaker 1: with their sisters when there is a threat or a
Speaker 1: target to attack. So, like a bee, if you manage
Speaker 1: to kill a wasp or hornet, if before you kill it,
Speaker 1: you trigger its alarm pheromone that will potentially alert other
Speaker 1: wasps or hornets to your location, or if you smush
Speaker 1: it such that the alarm pheromone gland releases that chemical,
Speaker 1: you may also attract other wasps or hornets to your location.
Speaker 1: But is the act of killing the wasp or hornet
Speaker 1: the trigger to releasing pheromones? So, like say you expertly
Speaker 1: assassinate a wasp before it even knows what hits it,
Speaker 1: is that going to release pheromones? Because I see a
Speaker 1: lot of advice online not to kill a wasp because
Speaker 1: it will attract other wasps by releasing an alarm of pheromone,
Speaker 1: like the killing of the wasp is what releases the pheromone.
Speaker 1: But I was not able to find any research that
Speaker 1: would back up that claim. It seems more likely that
Speaker 1: when you kill a wasp, or you kill a hornet,
Speaker 1: you don't immediately kill it so it has a chance
Speaker 1: to release that alarm pheromone before dying. Or if you
Speaker 1: smash the wasp and you release the contents of its
Speaker 1: venom glands which contains the alarm pheromones, that could also
Speaker 1: draw more wasps or more hornets to your location. But
Speaker 1: like if you had an instant wasp kill death ray
Speaker 1: that can just turn a wasp from being alive to dead,
Speaker 1: the dead wasp itself does not really release an alarm
Speaker 1: pheromone just because it died. Otherwise, wasps would freak out
Speaker 1: all the time every time a wasp dies of natural
Speaker 1: causes inside the nest, and that would not be safe
Speaker 1: or practical for the wasps. In fact, studies of wasp
Speaker 1: alarm pheromone, they actually capture the wasps by freezing them.
Speaker 1: So they capture the wasp, they freeze them and this
Speaker 1: kills them and that way they can safely extract the
Speaker 1: alarm pheromone from their venom sacks, so you know, because
Speaker 1: they don't they don't want to like kill them by
Speaker 1: smashing them or having them be scared before they die,
Speaker 1: so that you know, they release the alarm pheromone, so
Speaker 1: they can extract it this way, and wasps and hornets,
Speaker 1: just like bees, also engage in this sort of undertaker
Speaker 1: behavior where they remove dead coy members. So it's very
Speaker 1: likely that just like in bees, there's some kind of
Speaker 1: chemical release upon death that the other members of the
Speaker 1: colony are sensing that lets them know that it is
Speaker 1: time for body disposal. I don't know if the exact
Speaker 1: chemical has been identified in wasps and hornets, but you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's like a like acid like in bees, or
Speaker 1: some other fatty acid or something else entirely, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I suspect that they are, you know, pretty
Speaker 1: well equipped with a chemical that lets other their sisters
Speaker 1: basically know that there's a dead body here cleared out.
Speaker 1: But it's not the same as an alarm pheromone. It doesn't,
Speaker 1: you know, have them all convene to go to war.
Speaker 1: It's just basically like, hey, there's a dead body over here,
Speaker 1: you got to clean it out. So that would be
Speaker 1: my answer is like killing them might indeed cause other
Speaker 1: wasps to convene at the location if they're so so wasps,
Speaker 1: but it's not because it's a dead wasp releasing the pheromone.
Speaker 1: It would be the wasp is aware of the danger,
Speaker 1: like that instinct to release the pheromone happens before it dies,
Speaker 1: or you've smushed it such that it releases the pheromone
Speaker 1: anyways by just kind of popping open the venom glands.
Speaker 1: So yeah, real fun stuff with wasps. So we are
Speaker 1: going to take a quick break. But when we get back,
Speaker 1: we've got more listener questions. I am going to now
Speaker 1: answer the second half of the question why some dogs
Speaker 1: are particularly interested in peepe smells while others aren't. The
Speaker 1: prison who rode in has a dog who is very
Speaker 1: interested in smelling everything he walks past, but he is
Speaker 1: not interested in socializing with other dogs. It's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I have noticed this too. I have a dog, my
Speaker 1: dog Cookie, who loves smelling everything. She also is not
Speaker 1: necessarily that interested in socializing with other dogs. She's a
Speaker 1: little scared of other dogs. I think with I mean
Speaker 1: with sense. It is a very enriching activity for dogs.
Speaker 1: So I would highly recommend people lit their dogs smell
Speaker 1: things on walks. It is like for dogs, their sense
Speaker 1: of smell is so incredibly powerful and detailed that it's
Speaker 1: almost like our vision is to us where they can
Speaker 1: find so much information just from smelling smells. They know,
Speaker 1: like when something came by, what it was, they can
Speaker 1: usually tell, like, you know, like was this dog you
Speaker 1: know in estress? Was this dog you know stressed? So
Speaker 1: all sorts of things from these piece smells, and then
Speaker 1: all sorts of other things from so many other different smells,
Speaker 1: and so to them, like when they sniff around in
Speaker 1: a part or wherever, they are getting all this information.
Speaker 1: So it's like reading a newspaper or looking at an
Speaker 1: art gallery. They're getting a lot of stimulation from it.
Speaker 1: So it's really enriching for them. It's a nice idea
Speaker 1: to let your dog sniff around, get some good sniffs in,
Speaker 1: because they're essentially just like keeping up with doggy news.
Speaker 1: Why some dogs are more interested in it than others,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a really interesting question. I think it
Speaker 1: just comes down to dogs having different personalities. You know,
Speaker 1: my dog is kind of an introvert like your dog.
Speaker 1: She enjoys smelling things a whole lot, but she gets
Speaker 1: a little bit scared from other dogs. So maybe for her,
Speaker 1: you know, the smells are a much more safe way
Speaker 1: for her to keep up with the dog news know,
Speaker 1: like who her neighbors are, what other dogs are doing,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't come with the same sort of intimidation
Speaker 1: that she experiences when she's actually face to face with
Speaker 1: another dog. So she really enjoys the smells. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: really stimulating for her too, because if she's really high strung,
Speaker 1: she gets you know, a lot of stimulation just from
Speaker 1: the smells alone, whereas maybe for another dog, they're more
Speaker 1: easily bored by just the smells and they want more
Speaker 1: stimulation by actually playing with other dogs. I would like
Speaker 1: in it, maybe too humans, you know, like some people
Speaker 1: like you know, more thrilling things like horror movies or
Speaker 1: roller coasters, whereas others are maybe more satisfied with, you know,
Speaker 1: more calm things, and just taking in like a painting
Speaker 1: or a book really you know, slowly and methodically is
Speaker 1: plenty satisfying. So I think dogs are the same way.
Speaker 1: Some dogs are thrill seekers, they need more stimulation than
Speaker 1: just smelling, and some dogs really just enjoy focusing on
Speaker 1: smelling and taking in their environment that way. All dogs
Speaker 1: typically have such a refined sense of smell, though, I
Speaker 1: think it's a good idea to let them smell and
Speaker 1: it's There's actually been some studies that allowing dogs to
Speaker 1: smell their environment and search for things with smells like
Speaker 1: gives them a more optimistic outlook, like they are more
Speaker 1: likely to continue to try to attempt puzzles and things
Speaker 1: like when they are given the chance to just smell
Speaker 1: around their environments. So I highly encourage allowing your sweet
Speaker 1: little dog who love smelling things to keep on sniffing.
Speaker 1: Onto the next listener question. Do cannibal morphs of axe
Speaker 1: lottles look different from the regular morphs? Also? Are they
Speaker 1: physiologically different from their non cannibal brethren. I've also heard
Speaker 1: that cannibalizing others can cause an axe a lottle to
Speaker 1: quote grow up and become a salamander looking little beast.
Speaker 1: Are there cannibal morphs of animals other than axe lottles?
Speaker 1: I know there are other animals that are just generally cannibals,
Speaker 1: but are there any that just have the occasional weird
Speaker 1: guy who starts munching on his friends or enemies? I guess,
Speaker 1: why do you think people are so driven to keep
Speaker 1: exotic animals as pets when they should not be pets
Speaker 1: like chimpanzees? Is it a desire to feel special or different.
Speaker 1: Do they think they have a special connection with that
Speaker 1: animal or is it something I'm not thinking of. My
Speaker 1: first pet was a rabbit named Cookie, which is also
Speaker 1: my dog's name, by the way. And after hearing that
Speaker 1: pet birds aren't really domesticated and are apparently the same
Speaker 1: as their wild counterparts, I've been wondering if the same
Speaker 1: is true for rabbits, or if bunnies are more like
Speaker 1: dogs and have been selectively bred over a period of
Speaker 1: time to be domesticated for other common animals that are
Speaker 1: kept as pets like rats, mice, fares, hamsters, etc. And
Speaker 1: then I got a bunch of beautiful photos of Cookie
Speaker 1: the rabbit rest in peace, little Cookie the rabbit, and
Speaker 1: a pet dog named Bear who's adorable. And this is
Speaker 1: from Sky. Thank you for all of the really good
Speaker 1: questions and adorable animal pictures. Cookie was a very cute
Speaker 1: little look like a little oreo and Bear is an
Speaker 1: adorable little grimlin of a dog. I love all these questions,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna answer all of them. Let's first start
Speaker 1: with the first question, which is do cannibal morphs of
Speaker 1: axe lottles look different from the regular morphs also are
Speaker 1: they physiologically different from their non cannibal brethren. I've also
Speaker 1: heard that cannibalizing others can cause an axe lottle to
Speaker 1: grow up and become a salamander looking little beast. So interestingly,
Speaker 1: there are many species of amphibians whose larva can become
Speaker 1: cannibal morphs, such as tadpole and salamander larva. Now remember
Speaker 1: that axe lottles are permanent juvenile forms of salamanders, which
Speaker 1: is called neotony. So cannibal morphs of toads occur when
Speaker 1: they eat large prey such as shrimp. They will then
Speaker 1: become and remember, cannibal more, the larval forms of toads
Speaker 1: are tadpoles. These cannibal tadpoles, when they eat a larger
Speaker 1: prey like shrimp, will then become carnivorous and cannibalistic and
Speaker 1: will only eat meat or other tadpoles, and will be
Speaker 1: larger than their brethren who are not cannibalistic. They usually
Speaker 1: have like bigger mouths. They're larger, they are kind of
Speaker 1: freaky looking when you compare them to their smaller siblings.
Speaker 1: Cannibal morphs of salamander larva also happen, so salamanders and
Speaker 1: axe lottls are very closely related. Ax lottles just happen
Speaker 1: to be Basically, they are salamanders, but they retain all
Speaker 1: of their juvenile characteristics throughout their entire life. Where salamanders
Speaker 1: go through a metamorphosis process similar to like toads go
Speaker 1: from tadpole to toads, Salamanders go from being aquatic to
Speaker 1: being terrestrial. So salamander larva can also turn into cannibal morphs.
Speaker 1: Usually this is due to low nutrition stress. They will
Speaker 1: develop larger heads and jaws, and they will be able
Speaker 1: to eat their fellow salamander larva. So yes, for salamanders,
Speaker 1: their cannibal morphs have a different size from the others,
Speaker 1: and it is you know, it's there. They're larger, they
Speaker 1: got bigger mouths, similar to the toads onto ax lottels.
Speaker 1: Now axe lottels are interesting. So young axe lottles, like salamanders,
Speaker 1: can become cannibals if there's not available food. Typically they
Speaker 1: specialize in eating the arms or legs of their fellow
Speaker 1: axe lottles. But cannibalism is so common amongst axe lottels,
Speaker 1: it's not so much that there is a cann morph
Speaker 1: of axe lottles. It's kind of an opportunistic thing where
Speaker 1: they will if they can, they will eat the arms
Speaker 1: of their fellow young axe lottles and try not to
Speaker 1: get their limbs eaten. And in fact, it's so common
Speaker 1: that it's thought that the axe lottle's amazing ability to
Speaker 1: regenerate their arms and legs could be a response to
Speaker 1: this selective pressure of just so many arm and leg
Speaker 1: nibbling that happens when food is scarce. Yeah, so axe lottles,
Speaker 1: unlike the previous examples, seem to be typically all potential cannibals,
Speaker 1: and they may be like the cannibells who are successful,
Speaker 1: may actually be bigger because they're more successful at feeding
Speaker 1: and didn't have their limbs eaten off. I don't think
Speaker 1: that there is a specific cannibal morph of axe lottles. Now,
Speaker 1: it's true that axe lottles, which normally of their entire
Speaker 1: lives in their aquatic juvenile forms with gills, can mature
Speaker 1: into a full salamander if they are able to ingest
Speaker 1: enough iodine. So in the lab this is done with injections.
Speaker 1: I've seen some sources say that they can get enough
Speaker 1: iodine through cannibalism, but I've not really seen exactly what
Speaker 1: studies these sources are referring to. I don't really see
Speaker 1: any research to back this up. I think it's theoretically
Speaker 1: possible if they're able to get enough iodine in their diet,
Speaker 1: but I don't think it would just be through cannibalism
Speaker 1: that they could mature into a full salamander. But they
Speaker 1: would have to get quite a bit of iodine in
Speaker 1: their diet. And usually like these sort of adult morphs
Speaker 1: happen like in laboratory settings. Onto the next ques question
Speaker 1: in this batch of questions. So this question was why
Speaker 1: do you think people are so driven to keep exotic
Speaker 1: animals as pets when they should not be pets. Well so,
Speaker 1: in the case of and this is sort of just
Speaker 1: all my theorizing. In the case of dangerous exotic pets
Speaker 1: such as tigers and lions, I personally think it's a
Speaker 1: power fantasy. I think that it being a creature that
Speaker 1: in the wild would not hesitate to kill you, but
Speaker 1: if you have it under your control, or you know
Speaker 1: so you think you have it under your control in captivity,
Speaker 1: it might make you feel powerful. I mean, for some
Speaker 1: it could be about domination, or for others, it could
Speaker 1: be feeling special in the way that like, I think
Speaker 1: it's a similar phenomenon to like serial killer groupies, people
Speaker 1: who write into serial killers and think that they're in
Speaker 1: love with serial killers. Like the idea is like I'm
Speaker 1: so unique. This killer animal or this killer person will
Speaker 1: see something in me and respect me and not kill me,
Speaker 1: and is like my friend or whatever, and so like
Speaker 1: you know, for people who own dangerous exotic animals, I
Speaker 1: think it's similar, like this killer animal is my pet
Speaker 1: and friend rather than my predator, and that makes me special.
Speaker 1: Of course, this does not always work out in the humans' favor,
Speaker 1: and it almost never works out in the animals favor,
Speaker 1: so I don't necessarily think it's a healthy way of
Speaker 1: viewing relationships between humans and animals. So in terms of
Speaker 1: less dangerous exotic pets, so not like your chimpanzees, lions,
Speaker 1: or tigers, but you know, like smaller exotic pets, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of it is novelty, like you want
Speaker 1: something more exciting than a cat or a dog. I
Speaker 1: personally find cats and dogs plenty exciting, very fascinating. Behaviorally,
Speaker 1: I think the fact that they've co evolved with us
Speaker 1: to some extent. Their behavior really really interesting, So to me,
Speaker 1: there's nothing cooler than that. But you know, I do
Speaker 1: understand that exotic pets are They're unusual, and so we
Speaker 1: are often drawn to novelty, to interesting things that we
Speaker 1: haven't seen before. And certainly a lot of exotic pets
Speaker 1: are really cute and cool. I've seen my share of
Speaker 1: exotic animals that I wish I could keep as a pet,
Speaker 1: because they're really cute or beautiful, and I'd love to
Speaker 1: hold them and pet them. The reason I generally don't
Speaker 1: go for these types of pets is that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of difficulty in figuring out whether they are ethically
Speaker 1: sourced or if I can really provide them with a
Speaker 1: good quality of life, if I can even keep them alive.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I really wanted all sorts
Speaker 1: of exotic animals. Though like I wished I could keep them,
Speaker 1: I didn't get them because I don't think my parents
Speaker 1: wanted to turn our house into a zoo. But I do.
Speaker 1: I think that, like when I was a kid, it
Speaker 1: was born out of this and fascination with nature, and
Speaker 1: so I don't really blame people who see like a
Speaker 1: cool animal and wish they could have it as a pet.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a bad human quality that we
Speaker 1: see things and we want to be friends with these animals.
Speaker 1: It's just that when when we're adults, you know, we
Speaker 1: have a responsibility to do research and make sure that
Speaker 1: we know what we're doing before we buy a pet
Speaker 1: we've never heard of. And if you don't know much
Speaker 1: about this animal and you're drawn to its novelty, I
Speaker 1: think the responsible thing to do is to realize, well,
Speaker 1: if I don't know much about this animal, how can
Speaker 1: I provide a good life for it? You know. That's
Speaker 1: not to say that all non domesticated animals make bad
Speaker 1: pets or they're an ethical it's just a really tricky
Speaker 1: territory and you really really have to know what you're doing,
Speaker 1: you know, And the ethics of like the animal trade
Speaker 1: is not very transparent. It's not like you can go
Speaker 1: to pet store and be like, hey, did you is
Speaker 1: this frog like ethically traded? So that's that's going to
Speaker 1: be really difficult to figure out. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: think that in order to own an animal that is,
Speaker 1: you know, more unusual, you have to do a lot
Speaker 1: of research. You have to really know what you know,
Speaker 1: what the situation is with those animals, and how to
Speaker 1: keep them happy and healthy. So onto the last question.
Speaker 1: This question was about animals and domestication because the listener
Speaker 1: referenced an episode where I talked about how birds aren't
Speaker 1: really domesticated and are very similar to their wild counterparts,
Speaker 1: and so the listener was wondering if the same is
Speaker 1: true for rabbits or for pets like rats, mice, ferrets, hamsters,
Speaker 1: and et cetera. So, bunnies are definitely domesticated. They are
Speaker 1: far more docile around humans than their wild counterparts. You
Speaker 1: can actually see the classic signs of domestication in bunnies.
Speaker 1: Their ears flop down. You see their coat coloration kind
Speaker 1: of change, much like with dogs. With dogs, the ears
Speaker 1: flop down, they have the color blocking on their coats,
Speaker 1: which is something that is kind of a side effect
Speaker 1: of domestication. While it's true we will look for those
Speaker 1: traits and then try to exaggerate them in our dog
Speaker 1: breeds and bunny breeds, the ear cartilage weakening and the
Speaker 1: coat colors sort of turning spotty and blotchy. That is
Speaker 1: a side effect of essentially during the development of the
Speaker 1: animal as a fetus, Like there are these neural crust
Speaker 1: cells that when we select for animals with a better temperament,
Speaker 1: we're essentially selecting for certain types of like you know,
Speaker 1: this neural crust development that also impacts things like cartilageduction,
Speaker 1: coat color. So it's like this interesting thing that just
Speaker 1: sort of by this like accident. They are connected in
Speaker 1: terms of the animal's development, both the you know, the
Speaker 1: temperament and coat and cartilage development. And so you see
Speaker 1: that in domesticated bunnies, you see the floppy ears. I
Speaker 1: would actually compare bunnies more to cats and dogs than
Speaker 1: I would to like pet birds, pet exotic birds. Obviously,
Speaker 1: chickens are domesticated and are much more docile than jungle foul.
Speaker 1: So chickens are a bird that's been domesticated. So domesticated
Speaker 1: rabbits cannot be released into the wild. I don't care
Speaker 1: what you read with watership down, that situation would generally
Speaker 1: not be good for domesticated bunnies. They do not have
Speaker 1: the same kind of survival abilities as wild rabbits. Wild rabbits, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: do not make particularly good pets, and even when raised
Speaker 1: as young, they will not be as docile as a
Speaker 1: domesticated bunny. Bunnies can make great pets, they just take
Speaker 1: a lot of care and research because some concepts around
Speaker 1: keeping them, such as like leaving them in a hutch
Speaker 1: all the time or feeding them carrots all the time,
Speaker 1: are not good care practices are. They're a big responsibility,
Speaker 1: just like a dog, just like a cat. In fact,
Speaker 1: in some ways they may be more difficult than a
Speaker 1: dog or a cat because they have all sorts of
Speaker 1: behaviors that you have to you know, like nibbling behaviors.
Speaker 1: They're always trying to chew on things, so you have
Speaker 1: to be careful about electrical cords. But you know, you
Speaker 1: and I think there's like, you know, they need a
Speaker 1: lot of freedom. They need a lot of like hopping
Speaker 1: around space. So that might be difficult sometimes for people
Speaker 1: to provide, especially when the ideas that like, oh, you
Speaker 1: just keep them in a cage all the time, which
Speaker 1: is not really good for them. But yes, I mean
Speaker 1: if you once you know like what you have to
Speaker 1: do with bunnies, and if you are able to provide
Speaker 1: them with all the stimulation and food and care that
Speaker 1: they need, they can be great pets. In fact, I've
Speaker 1: heard bunnies will follow their owners around the house. They
Speaker 1: can be very loving. They are fully a domesticated pet,
Speaker 1: so they are not like a wild exotic animal. Pet rats, hamsters, mice,
Speaker 1: guinea pigs, and ferrets are also all domesticated. Their behaviors
Speaker 1: are significantly different from their wild counterparts, mainly in that
Speaker 1: they are more docile, much more easily handled, much calmer
Speaker 1: around humans. So pet ferrets, which seem sort of like
Speaker 1: some little wild, wild little grimlin that you get from
Speaker 1: the forest, are actually fully domesticated. They are not simply
Speaker 1: captured and tamed blackfooted ferrets from the wild. Pet ferrets
Speaker 1: are domesticated, much like bunnies versus wild rabbits. In fact,
Speaker 1: the first pet ferrets were probably domesticated over two thousand
Speaker 1: years ago. So all of the animals that I listed
Speaker 1: can make good pets, given that you research them beforehand,
Speaker 1: ferrets being perhaps the most high intensity in terms of
Speaker 1: activity and destructiveness, and rats being very needy in terms
Speaker 1: of socialization. Sometimes also depending on where you live, you
Speaker 1: can't keep them as pets, especially in islands like Australia,
Speaker 1: because escaped pets can kill or out compete with the
Speaker 1: native species, so you always want to check that to
Speaker 1: make sure that they're actually safe to keep in your
Speaker 1: local area. But yeah, I mean, you know, these are
Speaker 1: all animals that I think can make very good pets.
Speaker 1: It's just something that I think, I mean, especially with
Speaker 1: like hamsters, like it's seen as like a starter pet,
Speaker 1: and it often results in the hamster dying because like
Speaker 1: a child who's too young to understand is given the
Speaker 1: hamster and doesn't know how to take care of it.
Speaker 1: And hamsters are actually very delicate. They can be quite
Speaker 1: difficult pets to keep healthy. And it's you know, I
Speaker 1: think that you know, despite the challenges, it's very worthwhile
Speaker 1: as long as you put in a lot of effort
Speaker 1: into taking care of the animals and doing what you
Speaker 1: need to do to keep them healthy and safe. And
Speaker 1: you know, I am definitely not against responsible pet ownership,
Speaker 1: and I think all of them can make good pets. So,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you guys so much for listening. That'll
Speaker 1: do it for this listener Question episode. If you have
Speaker 1: a question that you would like me to answer, you
Speaker 1: can write to me at Creature Featurepod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: As you can tell by this episode, I am happy
Speaker 1: to answer any question relating to animals, to people, to
Speaker 1: people and animals, and you know it's I really enjoy
Speaker 1: these because it will send me on fun little research
Speaker 1: paths and make me think about things sometimes I haven't
Speaker 1: even thought about before. So please do suit me those
Speaker 1: questions and next next time I will do the Animals
Speaker 1: Sound of the Week answer that for you, So stay
Speaker 1: tuned for that, and thank you so much to the
Speaker 1: Space Classics where there's super awesome song so Lumina Creature
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