Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show, it's interspecific animal friendships. These
Speaker 1: are special friends you don't care about their species. Can lyons,
Speaker 1: tigers and bears bee buds? Can? We find interspecific relationships
Speaker 1: throughout the animal kingdom. Joining me today to talk about
Speaker 1: these funny little animal friends is stand up comedian writer.
Speaker 1: She runs the Facial Recognition comedy show at the Comedy Store.
Speaker 1: My good friend, Paula Viganolin. Welcome.
Speaker 2: Hello, I'm so excited to be here. I love animal friends.
Speaker 1: You suggested this topic to me. I did, I did.
Speaker 2: I love it so much because I'm like, they have
Speaker 2: their own worlds. They love each I love when they
Speaker 2: cuddle each other. Sometimes they'll catch my dog's cuddling. It's rare.
Speaker 2: They play fight more. But whenever I see them like
Speaker 2: cuddle next to each other, I'm like, I'm gonna take
Speaker 2: a million.
Speaker 1: Pictures of you. I'm babysitting three cats and sometimes they
Speaker 1: really like they'll they'll be cuddling and one of them
Speaker 1: just like is spelunking. In the other one's like ear.
Speaker 1: They love ears. They'll like go like rooting around in
Speaker 1: those ears for something, looking for gold, looking for brain
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm not really sure what's happening.
Speaker 2: It's very cute trying to find the brain cells.
Speaker 1: Two of them are orange, so like maybe they're like
Speaker 1: trying to like borrow each other's single brain cel to
Speaker 1: use that that day. But yeah, it is very cute.
Speaker 1: But today we are talking about animal friendships that form
Speaker 1: not just between two individual animals, but animals who are
Speaker 1: different species. These are interspecific animal friendships, which I think
Speaker 1: is really it's one of those areas where we are
Speaker 1: really fascinated by it, We really love to see it.
Speaker 1: And it gets into this issue of like, can animals
Speaker 1: like have friendships, right? Are they just sort of acting
Speaker 1: on some kind of instinct. Is this all like strategy
Speaker 1: or can they actually feel like friendship and companionship with
Speaker 1: other species? I mean, obviously kind of the big one
Speaker 1: is like our relationships we have with our pets, which feels.
Speaker 2: Exactly That's what I was gonna say. I feel like
Speaker 2: we get excited when other animals do it because we're like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, wow, we're so different. We're like choosing
Speaker 2: our relationship, but you guys are so cute. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: feel like we try to separate ourselves, but really we're
Speaker 2: just like we just need friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's it is an interesting thing. So,
Speaker 1: like I looked into sort of research about the similarities
Speaker 1: between humans and animals in terms of friendship, and like,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of neuroimaging studies. It's the neuroimaging studies
Speaker 1: that are done are animals don't really go that deep
Speaker 1: into friendships. A lot of them focus on different relationships
Speaker 1: like parental relationships, sexuality, long term like I guess you
Speaker 1: could call it romantic relationships, right, like animals that form
Speaker 1: long term pair bonds. But in terms of neuroimaging about
Speaker 1: animals that have like friendships, particularly friendships with other species
Speaker 1: is not super well researched.
Speaker 2: That's so funny. So they're doing MRIs being like this
Speaker 2: is a pan sexual bi romantic line.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they know about all the animal pollicules, but
Speaker 1: not the you know, not the friendships. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: There is a review of neuroimaging studies called Neuroimaging of
Speaker 1: Human and non Human Animal Emotion and Affect in the
Speaker 1: context of social relationships.
Speaker 2: That's a good like article headline, voice that was good.
Speaker 1: Thank you, good, thank you. I've been practicing by talking
Speaker 1: to myself all the time while I read stuff. So
Speaker 1: they found that hormones such as oxytocin and vasopressin and
Speaker 1: neurotransmitters such as dopamine can modulate behavior in animals in
Speaker 1: terms of their sort of relationships with other animals, which
Speaker 1: is the same thing that happens in humans, right, So
Speaker 1: like these sorts of hormones neurotransmitters are very similar. Also,
Speaker 1: they've found that hormones cattle hormones. Man, I wish I
Speaker 1: could just like I wish those you know how, like
Speaker 1: we have all sorts of cool hormones that can do
Speaker 1: cool stuff for us. Now, Like I want a cuddle
Speaker 1: hormone that I can inject into my body.
Speaker 2: No, no, because then we would just we would just
Speaker 2: inject it and never make eye contact again.
Speaker 1: I would probably I'd probably die because I wouldn't eat
Speaker 1: because I'd just be so cuddly all the time. But
Speaker 1: I have I'd die, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so abuse it immediately.
Speaker 1: Cuddles are my crack. In human and macaque studies of friendship,
Speaker 1: does seem to activate similar reward pathways, which is interesting.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it is not so heavily studied, but
Speaker 1: there are certainly a lot of examples of animal friendships
Speaker 1: and animal friendships outside their own species. I think one
Speaker 1: of the reasons we're so fascinated by it or we
Speaker 1: love it so much is that it kind of goes
Speaker 1: beyond that idea that like there's an immediate purpose to it, right,
Speaker 1: Like if a goose is always hanging out with the tortoise,
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, that doesn't seem like that's a particular
Speaker 1: evolutionary strategy, right, There's no immediate benefit that we can
Speaker 1: see to that relationship, and yet they're doing it. So
Speaker 1: it does kind of make you question whether, like, okay,
Speaker 1: they is everything that animals do really just this like
Speaker 1: efficient sort of evolutionary strategy is survival instinct or in
Speaker 1: the same way that human beings have like taken our
Speaker 1: sort of evolutionary background and been able to do things
Speaker 1: like love and art and dance parties or whatever we do.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it seems like with animals there might
Speaker 1: be that same room for flexibility in terms of taking Yeah,
Speaker 1: it started out as evolutionary instinct, but now like it
Speaker 1: turns into a goose and a tortoise hanging out for fun.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's true with like any like humans
Speaker 2: with regards to like tribes and tribalism or whatever you
Speaker 2: want to call it, where we like band off into
Speaker 2: these units, whether it's for protection or love or whatever
Speaker 2: you want to call friendship, it is like mutually beneficial
Speaker 2: in some way. So I feel like friendship is this
Speaker 2: like vague term we use for protecting, Like it's it's symbiotic,
Speaker 2: it's protection, it's it's all sorts of things, and at
Speaker 2: any given point that dynamic can change. What I'm saying
Speaker 2: is Homeward Bound was my favorite movie as a child,
Speaker 2: so I know a lot about this.
Speaker 1: It's such a mood. I love Sassy so much. I
Speaker 1: think I modeled my personality after Sassy as an adult
Speaker 1: or like I'm gonna be a little bit deadpans sometimes
Speaker 1: give a little bit of attitude but really actually love
Speaker 1: everyone and worry about them constantly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great role model. Honestly, she's.
Speaker 1: Models.
Speaker 2: Go.
Speaker 1: We used to have sastfern to sase, yes, but uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I And it is interesting because yeah, we will. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about sort of the ways in which like this
Speaker 1: boast seems to be like kind of just like just
Speaker 1: for fun, just to have that connection, but also how
Speaker 1: that actually impacts the health and well being of animals.
Speaker 1: So uh now onto the fun part. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: get into some examples of these, like just these are
Speaker 1: not to be clear, these are not like known symbiotic
Speaker 1: mutualistic relationships. These are just random animals who like form
Speaker 1: a friendship with another animal that is not their species,
Speaker 1: and so like these examples are from the PBS show
Speaker 1: Animal Odd Couples, which is adorable, and there's another show
Speaker 1: called Animal Odd Couples from the Real Wild Channel, also
Speaker 1: really super adorable. I'm probably not gonna name this episode
Speaker 1: Animal Odd Couples because it seems like everyone calls this
Speaker 1: stuff that, so I don't know.
Speaker 2: Also, what an insult, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 2: when we call people odd couples, we're like, you don't
Speaker 2: look like you belong together. Yeah, okay, you come from
Speaker 2: you're different classes, you're different maybe body types, and like
Speaker 2: I hate that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like Fraser and the other guy in Fraser
Speaker 1: Niles Niles. Okay, I don't know it's Fraser one and
Speaker 1: Fray brothers, so yeah, one of them. Let's just get
Speaker 1: into these examples. It's really really cute. I will say, though,
Speaker 1: the common denominator that you will notice is that these
Speaker 1: animals were raised in wildlife sanctuaries that host a very
Speaker 1: diverse variety of animals, saved from usually the pet trade,
Speaker 1: or from situations that where they can't be returned to
Speaker 1: the wild.
Speaker 2: Like maybe they were like comedy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: We can't be returned to normal to the wild, and
Speaker 2: we don't know how to fend for ourselves in a
Speaker 2: real way. We definitely need someone else to provide for us.
Speaker 2: And then also we would never have met because without comedy,
Speaker 2: we would have been so segregated in our in our
Speaker 2: classes or whatever exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like, look, you know, one of us might be
Speaker 1: a nerd, another one might be a jock. But if
Speaker 1: we can both bond over butt jokes, then hey.
Speaker 2: We're Breakfast Club Club for Animals. This is that's the title.
Speaker 1: That's the title. You did it. Thank you, Breakfast Club
Speaker 1: for animal We did it. We did it. So uh okay,
Speaker 1: here's this story. Anthony the Lion was being auctioned off
Speaker 1: as a cub because people are weird freaks and think
Speaker 1: that having a lion as a pet would be cool. Spoiler,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not cool at all. And so a
Speaker 1: lot of these lions are abandoned because people were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I thought this was just a big, cool kitten instead
Speaker 1: of like an actual lion that does not belong in
Speaker 1: my Uh you know, one story home or two story
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter how many stories do you.
Speaker 2: These animals will suck you up. Yes, yes, absolutely, leave
Speaker 2: them alone, even like I don't know, I feel bad.
Speaker 2: They're like coyotes and stuff on my street, Like, and
Speaker 2: I feel so bad. I would never go near them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would be like, hey, a professional, deal with it.
Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned coyotes. So so. Anthony the Lion
Speaker 1: was rescued by Keepers of the Wild and Animal Sanctuary
Speaker 1: in Arizona for exotic animals who are sold as pets
Speaker 1: and then either neglected or abandoned because most exotic pets
Speaker 1: are exotic because they don't make good pets. And then
Speaker 1: Riley the coyote was rescued as a puppy in Arizona,
Speaker 1: also sent to Keepers of the Wild and they were
Speaker 1: both about a month old when they met. So about this,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like the same size, right, Anthony
Speaker 1: was a little kitten. Riley met when he was like
Speaker 1: a puppy and so like, yeah, Anthony was like a
Speaker 1: little bigger, but they were a kitten a puppy. So
Speaker 1: they played together, they had fun.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at pictures of them online. They look so cute.
Speaker 1: They are adorable, and they despite the fact that Anthony
Speaker 1: grew to become a fully grown male lion and Riley
Speaker 1: is a coyote, which you know you've seen coyotes are.
Speaker 1: They're like they can be smaller than a dog, right,
Speaker 1: like they're they're.
Speaker 2: Not that big, tiny and they're just like they're so
Speaker 2: the name Riley coyote.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's got the wiley coyote, but it's
Speaker 1: a little test on it. I don't know why the
Speaker 1: lion's name is Anthony, but it's fine. That's okay.
Speaker 2: I feel like lions deserve a grown ass man.
Speaker 1: There, you know, Gerald the lion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, er.
Speaker 1: So they have remained friends over the years, and the
Speaker 1: line who's never hurt Riley even though like like it's
Speaker 1: just it's just so interesting to me when these like
Speaker 1: huge animals are so gentle with their tiny friends. And
Speaker 1: in a similar vein another case was a bullet. The
Speaker 1: Jack Russell terrier and a jaguar named jag are best friends.
Speaker 1: They also met when they were a little and to
Speaker 1: be careful, jaguar could crush a Jack Russell terrier's school
Speaker 1: like a Ferrero rochare candy, you know, just like.
Speaker 2: I don't want to imagine that.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but it is true. Jaguars have incredible jaw
Speaker 1: strength and so like the puppy and the kitten made
Speaker 1: friends when they're little at an animal rescue. The rescuers
Speaker 1: tried to separate them when they were getting bigger because
Speaker 1: they were worried for the Jack Russell terriers safety. But
Speaker 1: the one when they were like separated, they would cry
Speaker 1: and scream and they they put up like such a
Speaker 1: huge tantrum that they're just like, okay, fine, fine, you
Speaker 1: guys can live together. And they grew to full size
Speaker 1: and they just get along great.
Speaker 2: Like their their so cute. They are so so cute
Speaker 2: and you know, like the little one is always in charge.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean it's a Jack Russell terrier. Those
Speaker 1: are terrifying little guys. They're the boss always. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: do have quite a an air of authority. And then
Speaker 1: the jaguars just like, okay, what are you saying, man?
Speaker 2: Are their lifespans like similar?
Speaker 1: You know, that's a good question. I would say probably, yes, uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think in captivity so sweet, they're gonna like
Speaker 2: live their lives out together.
Speaker 1: In captivity, I think it's similar. In the wild they
Speaker 1: might be different. I would say probably in the wild,
Speaker 1: jaguars might have a shorter lifespan because stuff's tougher. But
Speaker 1: like in captivity, let's see jaguar twenty three years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, twelve to fifteen years in the wild and
Speaker 1: then that's like double longer. Yeah, I'm crazy. I mean,
Speaker 1: for a jack Russell is a smaller dog, so that's
Speaker 1: it's going to be able to live that long too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they could. They could be old men together have long beards.
Speaker 2: That's so cute.
Speaker 1: Play cribbage and that what is it a ball ball? Wait?
Speaker 2: Isn't that Italian boche ball? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But I'm not I'm not old. I'm young and spries,
Speaker 1: so I haven't. I don't play box sheeball yet. So
Speaker 1: another cute one is at an animal say Juary in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: There is literally a friendship between a tiger, a lion,
Speaker 1: and a.
Speaker 2: Bear who that I saw.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they all met when they were like a couple
Speaker 1: months old and they just bonded and they grew up
Speaker 1: together and they're always pelling around and it just it
Speaker 1: sounds like something where it's like, Okay, this feels like
Speaker 1: a setup, like someone's trying to make some viral video.
Speaker 1: But I looked into it. It looks legit, and it's
Speaker 1: at an animal sanctuary, not like a zoo kind of
Speaker 1: attraction thing where they're trying to They're not like put
Speaker 1: on display or anything. Also, an animal behavioral psychologist, a
Speaker 1: Clive Wing like looked into it. From what I can tell,
Speaker 1: he just like hung around them a while and looked
Speaker 1: at what they were doing. He's like, yeah, it seems
Speaker 1: like they treat each other like brothers because they because
Speaker 1: they like argue and they fight, but then at the
Speaker 1: end of the day they're like licking each other's butts,
Speaker 1: so you know, brother stuff.
Speaker 2: I have a couple things to say about this. I
Speaker 2: love their names. It's Leo the lion, Bleuw the bear,
Speaker 2: and share Colm the tiger. Very cute, love it so much,
Speaker 2: great job sanctuary. And then they were also like they
Speaker 2: trauma bonded because they were found in a drug dealer's
Speaker 2: house as like babies, and they were like malnourished and
Speaker 2: they were like parasites and stuff. Yeah, and so that's
Speaker 2: why they like they came through it together and they're
Speaker 2: like living their best life and it makes me happy.
Speaker 1: It's it's really interesting because we kind of think of
Speaker 1: wild animals, especially big scary ones like lions, tigers, and bears,
Speaker 1: you know, literally oh my, as being not like that
Speaker 1: they couldn't be traumatized, right, but they absolutely can be.
Speaker 1: And the kind of same response that humans need when
Speaker 1: faced with trauma, which is friendship, you know, found family,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, like these animals also will seek out.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really interesting. It really speaks to
Speaker 1: that common need that most animals who reach a certain
Speaker 1: level of social and intelligence like they need companionship to
Speaker 1: get through that kind of experience.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think like all animals do, because
Speaker 2: I don't know, it definitely feels like.
Speaker 1: Does an ant need it?
Speaker 2: How much they need each other? They definitely need each other.
Speaker 1: Do they need like I mean do they need cuddles.
Speaker 2: But I think like we interpret cuddles as like a
Speaker 2: very specific thing. But I feel like ants probably have
Speaker 2: another way of like communing with each other, chemical or whatever. Yes,
Speaker 2: I feel like just because we don't understand doesn't mean
Speaker 2: it's not as comforting to them. You know, I do.
Speaker 1: Love ants, and I know they know I also love bees,
Speaker 1: so I don't.
Speaker 2: I feel bad. I keep seeing like bees that look dehydrated,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, stand up, are you okay?
Speaker 1: I like a spoon feed a bee before it was difficult.
Speaker 2: I have Oh my god, I tried to save a
Speaker 2: bee on a leaf and I tried to like pick
Speaker 2: it up and like whatever, and I was so delicate
Speaker 2: and I saved it twice from falling and then my
Speaker 2: dog knocked it out of my hand. That's like I
Speaker 2: can't do any animal care when I have the dogs, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: like a cat or something. I try to leave food
Speaker 2: for the neighbor for the neighbor cats, and I'm trying
Speaker 2: to get them rescued and stuff, and then my dogs
Speaker 2: just ruin it. They just like stare off everything.
Speaker 1: I love it when I'm trying to, like, I like
Speaker 1: find a cool spider and I'm just like observing it
Speaker 1: and my dog comes up. It's like, oh, what's this slurp?
Speaker 1: Eats it? I'm like no, yeah, come on, I was
Speaker 1: making friends with this spider. And my dog's like, cool,
Speaker 1: snack you got there, slurp just mine now, I know.
Speaker 1: Eat it. Another animal behavioralist talks about sort of the
Speaker 1: role of play because you in these like sort of
Speaker 1: animal friendships with these different species, you see a lot
Speaker 1: of play. And animal behavioralist doctor Linda Sharp says that
Speaker 1: the act of play, like rolling on their backs, making
Speaker 1: themselves vulnerable, helps build the trust between animals. So it's
Speaker 1: really really important. A super drum. I always go for it.
Speaker 2: I always think about like I always say that every
Speaker 2: animal is like a puppy, but they're different types of puppies. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Cows play. Like when you see them playing with like
Speaker 2: a big bouncy ball, I'm like, that's just a milk puppy.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's like they're all just different types of puppies
Speaker 2: because they all play and they all need like that
Speaker 2: companionship and stuff, and like once you view them outside
Speaker 2: of the circumstances that we put them in, then you'll
Speaker 2: have a lot more empathy to realize that they are
Speaker 2: like the line separating them from like our house pets,
Speaker 2: it's very thin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what about anema toade?
Speaker 2: I'm sure they have really being weird things that they do.
Speaker 2: What's their version of a belly? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm being a contrarian here, I'm being I'm doing like
Speaker 1: a jubilee thing, like who thinks that numa toads are puppies?
Speaker 1: And who thinks them.
Speaker 2: The twenty people stand up? Yeah, I don't know. I
Speaker 2: just think I really love seeing different animals play because
Speaker 2: they often are in survival mode. And I think when
Speaker 2: people or animals get a chance to relax and like write,
Speaker 2: bond and play with each other, that means that they're
Speaker 2: safe and that makes me happy.
Speaker 1: And I mean that's I think that's exactly right. And
Speaker 1: like an example of this is a very dramatic example
Speaker 1: is that sometimes play is observed between huskies and polar
Speaker 1: bears in Canada, which is wild, right, because a lot
Speaker 1: of times polar bears are so desperate right that they
Speaker 1: they really need every opportunity they can get to have food.
Speaker 1: But in this like in these specific cases, it usually
Speaker 1: seems to be like polar bears that are doing pretty
Speaker 1: well for themselves in these areas where they run into
Speaker 1: these huskies and like, so they are well fed enough
Speaker 1: that they don't need to like eat the dogs or
Speaker 1: attack the dogs out of desperation because like I don't
Speaker 1: think they would normally want to do that anyways, because
Speaker 1: they know that dogs are going to defend themselves and
Speaker 1: they don't want to have to deal with that, so
Speaker 1: instead they like play with each other. So it's like
Speaker 1: you see these like terear, Like, I'm legit afraid of
Speaker 1: polar bears. They scare me in the sense that, like
Speaker 1: I think they're cute. I love them. They're uh, they're fascinating.
Speaker 1: If I saw a polar bear in real life outside
Speaker 1: of an enclosure, I would poop, pee, and vomit like
Speaker 1: all at once.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're you don't freak with bears. Did you see
Speaker 2: that video recently of like this bear that was like
Speaker 2: it's got it had its head through like a little
Speaker 2: hole in a bridge that a car was driving over,
Speaker 2: and like it was I'm sorry, but it was clearly
Speaker 2: white people in the car because like the person taping
Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, I think it's stuck. I
Speaker 2: think we need to help, but it's stuck. And then
Speaker 2: like the guy was like, I don't think it's stuck.
Speaker 2: And then like the girl was like, no, maybe we
Speaker 2: should slow down. And as soon as they stopped the car,
Speaker 2: the bear pulled itself out of the fucking hole and started.
Speaker 2: They got I think they got they were far enough
Speaker 2: away and they were still in the car, but like
Speaker 2: that point had gotten ow. She went in debt, do
Speaker 2: not do that, do not do that. But I'm I'm not,
Speaker 2: like I don't have like this phobia of bears because
Speaker 2: I'm like I'm not going to be near a farm,
Speaker 2: like that's just I can't let that happen. I can't
Speaker 2: let that happen.
Speaker 1: I've seen like a mother bear in her cub from
Speaker 1: like a distance of about like I don't know, I
Speaker 1: want to say, fifty ish feet, and that's good for me,
Speaker 1: Like I'm happy with.
Speaker 2: That's like that feels close, honestly. Yeah, I mean my yeah,
Speaker 2: my niece's grandfather got attacked by a bear. So he
Speaker 2: lives in this like house that's in this beautiful place
Speaker 2: in India that like it's like elephants come through their
Speaker 2: front yard and like monkeys and wild boar and INCREDI
Speaker 2: all sorts of things, and also like sometimes like large
Speaker 2: cats and bears, and like he was he kind of
Speaker 2: used it as like a bed and breakfast sometimes. So
Speaker 2: I think there was like a couple staying with him
Speaker 2: and they went on he guided them on this hike
Speaker 2: and a bear, like I think it was like a
Speaker 2: mama bear popped up and he like tried to scare
Speaker 2: it off, and it took one swipe at him. The
Speaker 2: lady's gotta like you know, got away, but he got
Speaker 2: swiped at on his thigh and it was just sliced, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then he had to hike back and then he
Speaker 2: couldn't go to like the town doctor because it's not
Speaker 2: like a surgery trauma, and he had they had to
Speaker 2: drive like up and downhills in India for an hour
Speaker 2: with his the upper part of his leg just fully
Speaker 2: sliced open. It's like I was like, and that was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's awful. I was like that is like the bear
Speaker 2: just like waving like a high five from the because
Speaker 2: like that that was if the bear decided to really
Speaker 2: freak him up, like you wouldn't find.
Speaker 1: Him, like no, it'd be like it'd be like the
Speaker 1: slap chop, you know, it's just oh man, it's so horrifying, which.
Speaker 2: I mean, he has like a giant scar from it,
Speaker 2: and he's fin like he he really does like respect
Speaker 2: nature and like yeah, yeah it in like a way,
Speaker 2: but like you can't. They're wild animal, dude, Like I'm saying,
Speaker 2: oh way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's that's absolutely terrifying. I'm glad he made
Speaker 1: it out of that. Yeah, and yeah. But I would
Speaker 1: say that the raw power of the bear really speaks
Speaker 1: to how much these polar bears love these huskies, because
Speaker 1: they will play with these huskies and they're very gentle,
Speaker 1: like they'll roll over for them, they'll like kind of
Speaker 1: do these playful sort of baps and stuff. We're talking
Speaker 1: about polar bears the largest bear in the world, Like
Speaker 1: these are the largest bear on the planet.
Speaker 2: I saw a picture of our polar bear like hugging
Speaker 2: a husky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, gonna cry. I cannot emphasise enough. Under no circumstances,
Speaker 1: should you ever try to hug a polar bear.
Speaker 2: Or really just let your dog, yeah, or have your.
Speaker 1: Dog go up to a polar bear, the most likely
Speaker 1: thing that will happen is you will add to that
Speaker 1: polar bear's daily caloric intake, which is how helpful for
Speaker 1: the bear, but not really because then it's probably gonna
Speaker 1: get put down, so don't do that. But this is
Speaker 1: also really really cute because this happens naturally, right. These
Speaker 1: are huskies that kind of are used for I would
Speaker 1: I think these are like sled huskies, so they're like out,
Speaker 1: they're in their element, and they happen to sort of
Speaker 1: be in the same area where these polar bears will come.
Speaker 1: And these specific group, this group of polar bears are
Speaker 1: pretty well fed, like they are doing quite well for themselves.
Speaker 1: So in this very specific circumstance, the polar bears are
Speaker 1: doing well, the huskies are doing well, and they just
Speaker 1: like play together and cuddle. And so that same animal
Speaker 1: behaviorist I mentioned earlier, doctor Linda sharp So, is that
Speaker 1: she thinks that there's even an added component of the
Speaker 1: excitement of it. Being another species may add to a
Speaker 1: bit of like an element of like stress or danger
Speaker 1: or novelty that makes them even more excited about it.
Speaker 1: And so there may actually be it's not just that
Speaker 1: they're ignoring that there are different species, but they're actually
Speaker 1: it enhances the experience because it's like this is fun,
Speaker 1: because this is really new. This is a different animal.
Speaker 1: The way that I think about it is my dog
Speaker 1: kind of doesn't care about like she gets irritated by
Speaker 1: other dogs. She doesn't really like them, and she doesn't
Speaker 1: really want to play with them. She was traumatized by
Speaker 1: a dog though, so that's that's understandable. But like, I'm
Speaker 1: babysitting these cats and she's like so fascinated by them.
Speaker 1: She does like to chase them a little bit, not
Speaker 1: in an aggressive way, she but she's like she really
Speaker 1: wants to play with them. One of them gets it
Speaker 1: and like just stands still while she like runs towards him,
Speaker 1: and then she like goes up to him and like
Speaker 1: circles them, and she's super happy about it. But the
Speaker 1: other two are like freak out, which she also loves
Speaker 1: because she's like, great, we're playing tag now, and the
Speaker 1: cats are like, oh god, oh god, so god, so cute.
Speaker 2: It's I feel like dogs do that. They just like
Speaker 2: run up and then they stop really quickly. My dogs
Speaker 2: do that all the time. And my big boy does
Speaker 2: scare other dogs, but he's when he like is excited
Speaker 2: in that way, he's like not meaning any harm. He's
Speaker 2: just too too hype. Yeah, I was gonna talk about
Speaker 2: did you see that bear and the dog that were
Speaker 2: like I think there was like a dog that was
Speaker 2: like missing and like Wyoming or Colorado or something, and
Speaker 2: then they found it like this hanging out with a
Speaker 2: bear and they were just like kind of hunting together.
Speaker 1: But now, oh that's great, Ella.
Speaker 2: I think it was I think it was a husky.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if it was a husky, if it
Speaker 2: was like actually like a missing wolf or something, but
Speaker 2: it was something like that. It's like mostly where they
Speaker 2: were like.
Speaker 1: A dog raised by humans rather than a human raised
Speaker 1: by dogs.
Speaker 2: Owners found their missing husky hanging out with bears during
Speaker 2: a drone search here also.
Speaker 1: So I love that so much. I mean, I'm glad that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like a bunch of bears and it
Speaker 2: was running through. It was like running through like playing
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 1: That's so cute. It's just it is really interesting to
Speaker 1: me because like this the way that sometimes like animal
Speaker 1: sort of like especially carnivores. Right when carnivores get along
Speaker 1: with each other, it's like they've somehow. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just not gonna try to eat you like we're buds,
Speaker 1: like like they have some sense of like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not worth it to try to eat you game, recognize game.
Speaker 2: This is so cute.
Speaker 1: It's literally the three bears and a doggie. I love
Speaker 1: them so much. I love them so much. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: obviously not the ideal situation because this dog does not
Speaker 1: belong out in the wild.
Speaker 2: But I'm also like if this if the owners got
Speaker 2: their dog back and I was like a bear, I'd
Speaker 2: be like, where the fuck did you take my dog?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Looking for my dog?
Speaker 1: Right? Also, the dog is like I was friends with bears.
Speaker 1: We were like showing down on like live rabbits. Now
Speaker 1: I gotta eat kibble again. Seriously, No, okay, So one
Speaker 1: more before we move on is that, uh so rhina
Speaker 1: Those are often really sadly they are are orphaned because
Speaker 1: of the poaching trade. And even though, like I feel
Speaker 1: like people don't think about the emotional state of rhinos
Speaker 1: because they seem so stoic and like they don't have
Speaker 1: any feelings because they have such a sort of like
Speaker 1: tank like like kind of a tank like appearance, but
Speaker 1: they're actually very sensitive animals, and baby rhinos do not
Speaker 1: do well with social isolation. They can actually die if
Speaker 1: they're orphaned, not because they don't get enough food or anything,
Speaker 1: but they just don't really know how to eat, and
Speaker 1: they just get sick and they don't they really don't
Speaker 1: do well because they're socially isolated. This is this is
Speaker 1: actually not so different from like human the adverse health
Speaker 1: outcomes that isolation has on human beings, like especially for
Speaker 1: more vulnerable people like older people, like like social connection
Speaker 1: in animals who are social uh can have a direct
Speaker 1: impact on health. So at rhino sanctuaries, they have recognized this,
Speaker 1: and so they pair orphaned baby rhinos with like sheep,
Speaker 1: with grazing animals. It doesn't have to be sheep, but
Speaker 1: that seems to be a good one because like they've
Speaker 1: I think they tried doing it with dogs and then
Speaker 1: they found that the baby rhinos learned from the dogs
Speaker 1: to eat, so all they wanted to do was eat
Speaker 1: dog food, which isn't really good for a rhino, Like
Speaker 1: they need to learn how to graze. So then they
Speaker 1: started to introduce like grazing animals, so like a sheep,
Speaker 1: and then the rhino learns how to graze. But then
Speaker 1: they also just like so cuddle with the sheep. It's
Speaker 1: so adorable, so fluffy.
Speaker 2: I follow this wildlife trust that's very like famous. It's
Speaker 2: called Sheldric Trust on Instagram and it's located in I believe, Kenya,
Speaker 2: and they get or like elephants and rhinos and stuff
Speaker 2: and they have keepers who like live with them twenty
Speaker 2: four to seven. Yeah, and just like take care of them.
Speaker 2: And I always know they like bottlefeed the babies and
Speaker 2: they like they'd show like the rescue videos of like
Speaker 2: how they found them, and it's just really beautiful. And
Speaker 2: they have like little rhinos and they put like little
Speaker 2: like coats on them. I think it helps their skin
Speaker 2: or something like that, like the little blankets or whatever.
Speaker 2: And it's just so cute to see them, like I
Speaker 2: don't know, taken in and taken care of and have
Speaker 2: that interaction. And the keepers are so dedicated, like they're
Speaker 2: that that animals like keeper for life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's really nice. I mean I think
Speaker 1: it is encouraging to watch those things because when we
Speaker 1: think about poaching, or we think about the pet trade
Speaker 1: or animal cruelty, we think like it really gives you
Speaker 1: a cynical view of people. But then on the flip
Speaker 1: side is the people that do these rescue efforts, who
Speaker 1: spend so much time and love and dedication to making
Speaker 1: care of these animals. So I really think it is
Speaker 1: important to not get too cynical about it and to
Speaker 1: see like, yeah, actually humanity pulls through in a lot
Speaker 1: of situations, even if we also caused the problem, but
Speaker 1: different people, different people cause the problem, and then good people.
Speaker 2: Other people, yeah, try to help.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I watched also this documentary I forget what it's called,
Speaker 2: but it's about this like bird rescue in India that
Speaker 2: is really like, I don't know, it shows how much
Speaker 2: hard work. It's called All That Breeds, All That Breeds,
Speaker 2: and it's a twenty twenty two documentary Filching Out, and
Speaker 2: it's it's really it shows like all of the hard
Speaker 2: work and difficulty and like this graping together of coins
Speaker 2: just to like help save these birds that are like
Speaker 2: constantly being like hurt by the pollution in India and
Speaker 2: different other man made factors and like their place like flood.
Speaker 2: It's like they're constantly like in like awful conditions trying
Speaker 2: to figure this out. But it does end hopeful, and
Speaker 2: it also I don't know, it's just a very realistic,
Speaker 2: I feel like view of what it means to actually
Speaker 2: do the work on the ground and like help your
Speaker 2: community and stuff and whether that be animals or people.
Speaker 2: And it's just really sweet.
Speaker 1: I love that. I really love that. I think it's
Speaker 1: so sweet and I think, I mean, that's like another
Speaker 1: reason we love these stories so much, of like animals
Speaker 1: being friends with each other, because I think we feel
Speaker 1: that empathy towards animals, and it's gratifying to see that
Speaker 1: animals feel empathy towards each other as well, Like, especially
Speaker 1: when it doesn't necessarily make sense, right, like where what
Speaker 1: I say makes sense. It's not like, you know, a sheep,
Speaker 1: Like being nice to a rhino doesn't directly benefit the sheep.
Speaker 1: It benefits the baby rhino. But like the sheep is
Speaker 1: just happy to be like, hey, man, like you're cool,
Speaker 1: let's graze together. And that's I think that's really lovely.
Speaker 2: I know, it's just like all of the caretakers all
Speaker 2: over the world, including all the other animals that participate
Speaker 2: in that, it's so sweet.
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to take a quick break, and when
Speaker 1: we get back, we're actually going to talk about symbiotic
Speaker 1: relationships that are more I guess, sort of scientifically documented
Speaker 1: and are more of a pattern and kind of it's
Speaker 1: interesting to me because I think that it is. I
Speaker 1: want to explore that line between like just pure evolutionary
Speaker 1: benefit and that emotional fulfillment that.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about.
Speaker 1: So we'll be right back, all right. So I know
Speaker 1: I said earlier that we're fascinated by like all these
Speaker 1: like animal friendships that just kind of pop up, right,
Speaker 1: like a goat and a horse and a deer and
Speaker 1: a dog, because it shows us how animals can form
Speaker 1: bonds beyond like their mere evolutionary purpose. But I do
Speaker 1: want to talk about regular symbiosis as well, documented symbiosis
Speaker 1: that happens again and again and again between two species
Speaker 1: like they co evolve, because I want to show like
Speaker 1: how blurry those lines are right between like what like
Speaker 1: something that's like an evolutionary imperative and then the emotional
Speaker 1: connection that these animals could potentially have. And also it's
Speaker 1: super cute. That's actually the main reason everything I just
Speaker 1: said is basically bs, I only want to tell you
Speaker 1: about this because it's really cute. So Randal's pistol shrimp
Speaker 1: belonged to my friend Randal But yeah, that's what they're
Speaker 1: called Randal's pistol shrimp. It's a species of shrimp native
Speaker 1: to tropical and subtropical shallow waters in the Pacific and
Speaker 1: Indian Ocean. They are beautiful little shrimp that look like
Speaker 1: candy canes. They kind of like have red and white stripes.
Speaker 1: They grow a little over an inch and they have
Speaker 1: one teeny tiny claw and one giant claw. The big
Speaker 1: claw is like the big guns. It actually that is
Speaker 1: why it's called a pistol shrimp. It can snap it's
Speaker 1: enlarged claw, forming a cavitation bubble in the water. The
Speaker 1: velocity of their snap is so high that it creates
Speaker 1: this very hot cavitation bubble that collapses, moves along a
Speaker 1: jet of water, and produces a high pressure pulse that
Speaker 1: not only creates this really like a powerful force full
Speaker 1: jet of water, but it also produces this really loud
Speaker 1: sound and pressure snap exactly so like Thanos could only
Speaker 1: hope that movie is like eight years old by this point.
Speaker 1: I gotta I never actually watched it, but you know,
Speaker 1: the snap with the glove and these purple but hey whatever, so.
Speaker 2: Gay by the way, I love LGBTQ representation in the
Speaker 2: film thanoses. Yeah, he wanted a bunch of gems and
Speaker 2: he was such a drama queen. Yes, seize one of us.
Speaker 1: I remember he had like a chin that has like
Speaker 1: ridged for someone's pleasure. So I, oh, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: what's that hin doing with all those ridges?
Speaker 2: What that chin do?
Speaker 1: What that chin do? Mister purple? Uh So the claw
Speaker 1: of this pistol shrimp is shaped with a plunger and
Speaker 1: socket designed so basically the plunger like you know, drives
Speaker 1: down into the socket displaces the water, but it's such
Speaker 1: a high velocity that it creates this incredible force. The
Speaker 1: sound is louder than a gun being fired. And over
Speaker 1: a very very tiny area, the cavitation bubble heats up
Speaker 1: to four eight hundred degrees celsius. That doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: it can like actually burn you, right, because it is
Speaker 1: a very tiny area for a very brief moment that
Speaker 1: it gets up to this heat. But that is just
Speaker 1: an idea of like how powerful this is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one claw is doing all that work. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because like I could make a joke about like hey,
Speaker 1: look at that tiny claw, but then that big claw.
Speaker 1: Wonder what that's doing. But yeah, it is actually just
Speaker 1: a stun pray so.
Speaker 2: Uh, Randall's pistol shrimp stuns with new claw.
Speaker 1: Actually, speaking of new claws, it can regrow its little claw,
Speaker 1: but if it loses its big claw, the bummer is
Speaker 1: that it just grows a little claw there, so then
Speaker 1: it loses.
Speaker 2: That's like such a Twilight moment. Yeah, like the Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone moment. Uh, like were you vampire one? No, not
Speaker 2: the not the vampire one. I always mix those up
Speaker 2: and it's very funny. Yeah, but it's a Twilight Zone
Speaker 2: moment where it's like he has all the books in
Speaker 2: the world, but he dropped his reading glasses.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like, if he loses his big gun claw, then
Speaker 1: he's not really a pistol shrimp anymore. He's just Randall shrimp,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a much more lame name. Uh,
Speaker 1: no offense to Randall. I also have a friend named Randal,
Speaker 1: so come get your shrimp Randal. So it has formed
Speaker 1: a symbiotic mutualistic relationship with the Randal shrimp or pron gobi.
Speaker 1: So these are small tube like fish with orange stripes.
Speaker 1: They're just called like I think there are also other
Speaker 1: species of this gobi that have different names. But the
Speaker 1: gobi has good eyesight on like the shrimp. The shrimp
Speaker 1: has really poor eye sight. The shrimp is really good
Speaker 1: at burrowing in the sand, which the gobi is not
Speaker 1: really that good at. So the shrimp burrows and allows
Speaker 1: the goby to live with it, and the gobi eats
Speaker 1: the animals that the shrimp digs up while it's burrowing,
Speaker 1: and then like shares the scraps with the shrimp, and
Speaker 1: the shrimp can like close off the entrance to the
Speaker 1: burrow really quickly if there's like danger or at night
Speaker 1: to rest. And also the gobi will be like a watchdog.
Speaker 1: It rests its tail thin on the shrimps antenna, and
Speaker 1: if it sees like a threat some kind of danger,
Speaker 1: it flicks its tail, alerting the shrimp, and so they
Speaker 1: both flee into the burrow. And researchers have found it
Speaker 1: only does this behavior with the shrimp, so it's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is sort of a thing that it does anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like exactly, but it's also like it's not something
Speaker 1: it would just do on its own. And then the
Speaker 1: shrimp has learned how to read that cue. It is
Speaker 1: specifically signaling to his little shrimp buddy, like, uh oh,
Speaker 1: there's there's danger out there, alerting the shrimp. The shrimp
Speaker 1: like communicates with the gobie by like touching him with
Speaker 1: its tentacles. We're not sure what he's saying, probably like
Speaker 1: what's up, dude, did you leave your socks? Like in
Speaker 1: the borough. It's it's cool, it's like all right, like
Speaker 1: I don't know what you do with socks because you're fish.
Speaker 2: But so in your mind, these guys are roommates.
Speaker 1: They are literally roommates, so they are literally cohabitating roommates,
Speaker 1: and so uh yeah, but yeah, it's like and it happens.
Speaker 1: There's a few different species in which this happens, uh,
Speaker 1: who also have this, like like of gob and pistol shrimp.
Speaker 1: So it's clearly a format that really works for these guys.
Speaker 1: And it's it's just kind of amazing because it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, clearly they're both benefiting from this, right they have.
Speaker 1: This is a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship. They have co evolved.
Speaker 1: They've created a communication system. And if you look at
Speaker 1: like pictures of these little guys, they look so cool
Speaker 1: and chill, just hanging out and they're burrows together. But
Speaker 1: then you know, you wonder, like, all right, how much
Speaker 1: of that is just like instinct. They're not really thinking
Speaker 1: about it. They're just like you know, basically hanging out.
Speaker 1: And how much of it, like do they enjoy each
Speaker 1: other's presence and maybe get distressed if something happens to
Speaker 1: the other one.
Speaker 2: I wonder if they're like partnered for life or if
Speaker 2: they just jump from shrimp to shrimp.
Speaker 1: I think they tend to stick with uh with one
Speaker 1: like they form a pair. Yeah, And I think unless
Speaker 1: something like interferes because like it's a burrow right like that,
Speaker 1: they tend to stay in and hang out in. So
Speaker 1: I think like unless something disrupts it, right like if
Speaker 1: one of them like gets lost or gets killed, like
Speaker 1: then they might like switch off or find something else.
Speaker 1: But I think they kind of like it's a pretty stable,
Speaker 1: roomy situation.
Speaker 2: If I was one of them, I would be like,
Speaker 2: you're not allowed to find a new partner if I die.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to move on and I don't
Speaker 1: want you to be happy.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to do that.
Speaker 1: I will haunt you if you try, petty shrimp, if
Speaker 1: you try to find you peace Randall's petty shrimp. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Well we're gonna take a quick break and
Speaker 1: then when we come back, we're gonna dive into a
Speaker 1: movie icon, a relationship, maybe one of the most famous
Speaker 1: animal friendships in movies, and how it's got so close
Speaker 1: to being accurate but it's not, so we hate it.
Speaker 1: We'll beer back. Remember Timan and Pumba.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, is it the lion?
Speaker 1: It's the lion King? You gussed it. It's that irascable,
Speaker 1: those those irascable little guys, Niles and Frasier, Timone and Pumba,
Speaker 1: uh doing their doing their little friendship thing. Right. It's
Speaker 1: a mere cat and a warthog and their buddies, their friends,
Speaker 1: their pals. Uh there, I think, you know, like they're
Speaker 1: definitely like gay, coupled coated, but Disney's not brave enough
Speaker 1: to sort of, you know, commit to that because they
Speaker 1: do adopt a child together. But you know, but yeah,
Speaker 1: they're roommates, right, They're just roommates who live together forever
Speaker 1: and adopt a child together. But right, but as roommates
Speaker 1: platonically riding on each other. So the thing is that
Speaker 1: this is not accurate to real life like meerkats, and
Speaker 1: wart hogs don't generally form friendships out in the wild
Speaker 1: and then adopt abandoned lion cubs. Right, so you suck Disney,
Speaker 1: sue me, but you got it wrong. The thing is
Speaker 1: they were so close to getting it right. And that
Speaker 1: is because in real life, mongooses and wart hogs actually
Speaker 1: have a really cute relationship. Have you Have you seen
Speaker 1: this pull of.
Speaker 2: Be I just was looking it up and that popped up.
Speaker 1: It is cute, It is super super cute. So wart hogs,
Speaker 1: despite their reputation, actually prefer cleanliness and mongooses love to
Speaker 1: eat insects. So I think you probably see where I'm
Speaker 1: going with this. They're gonna sing a song and eat
Speaker 1: bugs under a rock and then take a shower together
Speaker 1: as roommates. Now, so in the Queen Elizabeth National Park
Speaker 1: in Uganda, common warthogs have formed a special bond with
Speaker 1: banded mongooses. So banded mongooses are highly social. They're they're
Speaker 1: similar to meerkats in a lot of ways in terms
Speaker 1: of like they have this like social network, but like
Speaker 1: the warthogs have also formed a relationship with these mongooses.
Speaker 1: The warthogs will lie down and patiently wait for a
Speaker 1: pack of mongooses to swarm them. The mongoose is just
Speaker 1: like dog pile this warhog. And for a minute you're like,
Speaker 1: oh God, what's happening. Are they about to like attack
Speaker 1: this warhog? But no, it's like puppies. It's like puppies,
Speaker 1: but they are on a mission to eat all of
Speaker 1: the ticks and parasites they find on the warthog. And
Speaker 1: the warthog seems to like deeply enjoy this. He rolls over,
Speaker 1: he like splays his legs out for them, lifts his arms,
Speaker 1: let them get like in all the nooks and crannies,
Speaker 1: and like it just like it seems like he's having
Speaker 1: a really good time. And the mongy's the mongooses are
Speaker 1: also like having a great time getting all those like
Speaker 1: it must be really satisfying. It's like it's like sort
Speaker 1: of you know, like when you like pick a part
Speaker 1: of pomegranate or like pick sesame, so it's off of
Speaker 1: a bun.
Speaker 2: It's like for me, every I've seen I've seen like
Speaker 2: like turtles and other things get like barnacles taken off
Speaker 2: of them, like I seen a lot of those videos. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it also is like weirdly addicting, like the Pimple popper videos.
Speaker 2: I can't baracles.
Speaker 1: I can't deal with those. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 2: I usually can't. And like, honestly, the couple of barnacle
Speaker 2: videos that I've seen, I'm like, they're stuck in my
Speaker 2: head and I don't want to see them again.
Speaker 1: Them bar but you mean barnacles off of like turtles.
Speaker 1: That seems I feel like I could deal with barnacles
Speaker 1: and stuff, but for some reason, pimples are too juicy
Speaker 1: for me to deal with. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't know the barnacles are pretty bad too, It's
Speaker 2: pretty hard.
Speaker 1: Out of morbid curiosity, I did like watch like one
Speaker 1: of those pimple videos. It was like, this is way
Speaker 1: too juicy. I can't. I can't deal with that.
Speaker 2: I feel physically okay, Yeah, but that's but this also
Speaker 2: reminds me of pedicures. Yeah, this also reminds me of
Speaker 2: those pedicures where the fish eat off of your yeah
Speaker 2: sid skin or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've read something about how that doesn't
Speaker 1: actually do anything and the fish aren't necessarily having a
Speaker 1: good time. So I don't know if I would I
Speaker 1: don't know if i'd personally recommend it, but it probably
Speaker 1: feels wild as heck like i'd be I would be
Speaker 1: very curious to know what that feels like. I also
Speaker 1: would be curious to know what it feels like to
Speaker 1: have a pack of mongooses, like try to pick like
Speaker 1: ticks all off of me. That seems either really it
Speaker 1: might either be really tickling and uncomfortable or just like
Speaker 1: very much like spot ay and stuff. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know a lot of like spa day stuff. I
Speaker 1: feel kind of uncomfortable with people like fussing over me.
Speaker 1: But I feel like if it was a spa and
Speaker 1: by mongoose's I'd be into that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I uh think it's cute that this warthog is
Speaker 2: named Miss Piggy and the mongoose is just named mongo
Speaker 2: Like they really gave up wait they named there's like
Speaker 2: there's a conservation where they have like a warthog mongoose pair.
Speaker 2: Cute mongo The mongoose looks like Timone honestly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they're striped. They were so close. Disney
Speaker 1: was so close to greatness. If they had like had
Speaker 1: if they had the courage right to just make them
Speaker 1: a gay couple, be accurate mongoose, and then they adopt uh,
Speaker 1: what's his name, Matthew Broderick, Simba, Simba, you know.
Speaker 2: But then Simba goes back to his family and like
Speaker 2: leaves them, and it's like, don't forget your gay uncles.
Speaker 1: Come on. I mean I think they were. I think
Speaker 1: they were like invited to come and they did and
Speaker 1: they were but right, and they had to.
Speaker 2: Go hang out with lions.
Speaker 1: They had a whole dance routine worked out to like
Speaker 1: distract the hyenas where like that they didn't even really
Speaker 1: have to communicate about. So clearly they practiced on it.
Speaker 1: And you want us to believe that they're just roommates,
Speaker 1: this is.
Speaker 2: That has to be based on like what is it
Speaker 2: the which one was the Robin Williams Nathan Lane? Was
Speaker 2: that bird cage or yes? A couple?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, they were bird cage codes. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're completely right. You're completely right about that. I never
Speaker 1: made that connection. But yes, I wonder if they I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know if they tried to get
Speaker 1: Robin Williams for that. He already did the genie stuff,
Speaker 1: so maybe they thought that was too. I don't remember.
Speaker 2: I thought a lot of the whole thing where like
Speaker 2: Disney screwed over it was, which is why there's like
Speaker 2: a whole thing about voiceover and how it's changed to
Speaker 2: celebrities rather than like voice actors. There's a documentary on
Speaker 2: YouTube that's really interesting about it.
Speaker 1: Everything is Chris Pratt. Now like everyone, Yeah, Chris, I'm
Speaker 1: being voiced by christ.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Wait, he's a lot more talented than
Speaker 2: I thought. But it's But they also screwed Robin Williams
Speaker 2: over because he said he would do it if they
Speaker 2: didn't like sell like things of his character, and they
Speaker 2: like just were like fuck that, like they they and
Speaker 2: immediately yeah, it's fine, and then immediately turn around and
Speaker 2: monetized everything because he was also doing Ferngully at the
Speaker 2: same time. I think. But yeah, so that that is.
Speaker 2: I don't think he wanted to work with Disney in
Speaker 2: the same way after that.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's solid. Robin Williams seems like he was
Speaker 1: a real real one, a gem, truly a gem, and
Speaker 1: the gauntlet of comedy gloves that Thanos Where's I don't know.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have done that. I regret it's so bad.
Speaker 1: So before we go, we got a play a little
Speaker 1: game called Guess who squawk and the Mystery Animal Sound Game.
Speaker 1: Every week I play a mystery animal sound and you
Speaker 1: the listener, and you the guests, try to guess who
Speaker 1: is making that sound. It can be any animal and
Speaker 1: the world on the world, slightly above the world, you know,
Speaker 1: basically anything. If we find alien life, it could be
Speaker 1: that too, so keep that in mind. The hint for
Speaker 1: last time, mister animal sound was this. Uh. It was
Speaker 1: also whips. Oh god, oh no, I'm playing it too soon.
Speaker 1: Oh god, hang on, ignore that. It's fun. It's it's
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't have any more of that, but
Speaker 1: let me retake that. So I learned. I learned about
Speaker 1: this from my guest U Karajaimo.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's a great sound. The hint is this Holy
Speaker 1: Raythans batman. And here is this man? All right? Do
Speaker 1: you hear the sort of croaking sound, not the not
Speaker 1: the myriad seagulls in the background croaking?
Speaker 2: Interesting clue? Yeah, am I supposed to guess? Or yes,
Speaker 2: I forget it? Oh I guess. Okay, So there's seagulls.
Speaker 2: So it is by the ocean. And you said croaking.
Speaker 2: It did kind of like a little croaking honk. So
Speaker 2: it's some sort of what do frogs live by the ocean?
Speaker 2: M I don't m some sort of amp broaking hmmm.
Speaker 2: I want to say it's some sort of I feel
Speaker 2: like it's something in the ocean because I don't think
Speaker 2: it's like the birds.
Speaker 1: It's me, Chris Pratt. I'm playing.
Speaker 2: It's Chris Pratt.
Speaker 1: It's Chris Pratt.
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess. My guess is it's some sort of
Speaker 2: amphibious being by the ocean.
Speaker 1: Interesting and amphibious being, you mean, Chris Pratt. So this
Speaker 1: is this is actually the sea robin. It is a
Speaker 1: family of fish found in tropical waters all over the world.
Speaker 1: It is about, you know, the size of an adult
Speaker 1: human's hand. It's got a face like.
Speaker 2: God, you okay, the face. This thing looks weird as
Speaker 2: it looks like it has feet.
Speaker 1: It feet, Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 2: A fish with feet. This was like the evolution.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's got these wing like fins that often
Speaker 1: have orange coloration. Thus it's named sea robin. When they're distressed,
Speaker 1: such as uh, being in a bucket or you know,
Speaker 1: I think in this video like it's sort of flopping
Speaker 1: around on the ground, which makes me sad for it.
Speaker 1: But they make this very angry little sound. It's like
Speaker 1: a little and yeah, they have feats. They have these
Speaker 1: three walking rays, like these fins on each of their
Speaker 1: side that they used to walk along the seafloor. They
Speaker 1: actually have chema receptors on these fins that allow them
Speaker 1: to quote unquote taste things on the floor. Uh, to
Speaker 1: detect prey.
Speaker 2: I do have a tongue on my feet. I'd give up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing that. That's now see you.
Speaker 1: But I'm ahead of that because like I'm anticipating that's
Speaker 1: gonna happen next for us in evolution. So I just
Speaker 1: like the floor. I'm really sorry to do this to you,
Speaker 1: but I am sending you a link of this sea
Speaker 1: robin walking on the sea floor and it's why well,
Speaker 1: oh it's coming towards me. It's very funny. It's like dumb,
Speaker 1: dumb and scary. I don't like do you remember.
Speaker 2: The toy story, like the Barbie thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, there's like the baby doll head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the baby the baby doll head was just like
Speaker 2: a dumb fish. Jar jar beats jar Jarbanks face. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like jar Jerbinks's first stage of evolution when he's
Speaker 2: a little less annoying. I was kind of right about
Speaker 2: it being an amphibian. I know you said it's a fish,
Speaker 2: but it's so I'm counting that.
Speaker 1: I'll give you that, and your prize is this video
Speaker 1: of it walking around the seafloor, which will never leave
Speaker 1: your brain. You'll think about it in the dead of night.
Speaker 2: Barnacles video in my head. Those memories are changing, they're shifting.
Speaker 1: They're shifting now. Now now it's just Barnacles walking with
Speaker 1: a bunch of little week Oh god, oh god.
Speaker 2: Okay, So end of podcast.
Speaker 1: On this makes mister Anna's animals sound. The hint is this.
Speaker 1: It's creepy, it's crawley, it hails from Madagascar, and it
Speaker 1: does not like to be poked. All right, did you
Speaker 1: hear that?
Speaker 2: I feel like some sort of like tarantula or bug
Speaker 2: like freaks me out.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Well, you'll find out next time on a Creature
Speaker 1: feature where I will reveal who was squawking. If you
Speaker 1: think you know, write to me at Creature featurepot at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Do it eat Cowards. Sorry, I didn't
Speaker 1: mean that I love you guys working cowards. I didn't
Speaker 1: mean it. I love you. But you can also write
Speaker 1: to me your animal questions. Occasionally I will do a
Speaker 1: Listener Questions episode where I answer your animal questions. You
Speaker 1: can send me pat photos. Hey, if you made your
Speaker 1: animal participate in Halloween, send big photos of that too,
Speaker 1: That's probably funny. And hey, Blavie, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us today. You are so talented. Where can
Speaker 1: people find you?
Speaker 2: Thank you so much? Your talented?
Speaker 1: Please Pratt stop? Yeah, I'm Chris Pratt. I'm in this one.
Speaker 2: Too, Mama Mia.
Speaker 3: Okay, you can find me at Paula Viganalan p A
Speaker 3: L l A v I G and A L A
Speaker 3: N everywhere. I do run a show with my friends
Speaker 3: called Facial Recognition Comedy at the Comedy Store the third
Speaker 3: Friday of every month. You can also follow Facial Recognition Comedy.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the more you follow me and share my content,
Speaker 3: the more likely I am to be able to tour
Speaker 3: and sell tickets and eventually maybe buy a house with
Speaker 3: a yard for my dogs.
Speaker 1: Do it, do it?
Speaker 2: Do it?
Speaker 1: Do it. We We're We're We're just We're just a
Speaker 1: couple of content creators looking at you the audience wishing
Speaker 1: that we had yards.
Speaker 2: So we're we're content creators. We're not content creators.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful, bus that's oh poetic. I'm gonna cry. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys for listening. If you're enjoying the show, if
Speaker 1: you leave a writing or review, it tangibly helps me.
Speaker 1: It tells the algorithm that people care. Even if you're like,
Speaker 1: if you leave a like five star review and then
Speaker 1: the comment you're like, eat my butt, that's fine too.
Speaker 1: Honestly I respect that because that still helps me. Also,
Speaker 1: you know, like I read all of them, and I
Speaker 1: really appreciate your feedback in kind comments. You need some
Speaker 1: constructive feedback. I appreciate that too. And thanks to the
Speaker 1: Space Classics for their super awesome song x so Lumina.
Speaker 1: Creature features a production of iHeartRadio for more podcasts like
Speaker 1: the one you just heard or I don't know him,
Speaker 1: I lost it lost that lost that symptomce that slipped
Speaker 1: right out of my mouth. If you're enjoying yep, Creature
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Speaker 1: or Hey Guess what why of you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. I'm not your mother. I can't tell you
Speaker 1: what to do other than don't hug a polar bear.
Speaker 1: You're a snack to that polar bear. But maybe do
Speaker 1: watch a video of a c robin skittering around on
Speaker 1: the ocean floor, just so you never sleep again. See
Speaker 1: you next one.
Speaker 2: Adopt a husky.
Speaker 1: Adopt bear. Yeah, I mean it's like a second degree, right,
Speaker 1: like the husky. Yeah, that's basically and then you hug
Speaker 1: the husky. So there you go, seven degrees of Kevin Bacon,
Speaker 1: but with polar bears and husky. See you next Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Bye Ny.