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, animals who like to play doctor.
Speaker 1: These critters have degrees in pharmacology they earned at Pile
Speaker 1: of Twigs and Leaves University. Paging doctor Yogi Bear, We've
Speaker 1: got a serious case of the itchies and bities. From
Speaker 1: insect repellents to treating dangerous bites. We'll find out that
Speaker 1: animals can look at a tree and see a pharmacy.
Speaker 1: Discover this and more as we answer the angel question
Speaker 1: would you call an elephant midwife more of a mega wife?
Speaker 1: Joining me today is friend of the podcast and producer
Speaker 1: of many lovely iHeartRadio shows, including the podcast Fake Doctors,
Speaker 1: Real Friends. Joel Monique. Welcome, Hey Katie, Thanks for having
Speaker 1: me back on such a dope topic. I'm assuming no
Speaker 1: birds are into doctoring. Well, there's like a few a
Speaker 1: few birds. Okay, Once again, I will face my fears
Speaker 1: with you. Joel does not like birds. It is something
Speaker 1: that somehow we're still friends even though Joel doesn't like birds.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how we've respect birds I just
Speaker 1: fear them right as well. Yeah, I want to hunt
Speaker 1: them down. I don't, you know, have a vendetta against
Speaker 1: the birds. I just would prefer they stay on their
Speaker 1: side of the street. Okay, they get the sky, I'll
Speaker 1: stay on the ground. It's no problem. What about penguins.
Speaker 1: Penguins are more like plushies, and therefore they can stay
Speaker 1: I see they don't. They don't kind of need to
Speaker 1: learn to fly qualify as birds to you. Yes, So
Speaker 1: if a bird is I guess, if a bird is
Speaker 1: round enough and on the ground enough, that's okay with you.
Speaker 1: If it's cheeks can apple, it can hang around, okay, adorable, adorable.
Speaker 1: Love a penguin, all of them, the little ones, the
Speaker 1: tall ones, that tuxedoed ones. All penguins are welcome here,
Speaker 1: the business, casual ones, all of them, all of them.
Speaker 1: Turkeys need to learn to fly, though, I need them
Speaker 1: to get the hell out of here. Terrified turkeys are
Speaker 1: a little more dinosaur like. I get that. They are
Speaker 1: sort of you know, the head. The head is a
Speaker 1: little bit you know, gnarled. Yeah, yeah, Well, we aren't
Speaker 1: focusing on birds today. We're just talking about all the
Speaker 1: animals who use natural medicine. I feel like we think
Speaker 1: as humans that we've kind of quartered the market on medicine,
Speaker 1: that we're the only ones who use it. But in fact,
Speaker 1: animals have been using medicine probably far longer than humans
Speaker 1: ever have, and they find everything out there in nature.
Speaker 1: So Joe, well, have you ever seen a bear scratching
Speaker 1: its back against a tree? Sure? Have I have too.
Speaker 1: I actually saw one in person. Ones from far away,
Speaker 1: Otherwise I would have peepeed and poo pooed my pants.
Speaker 1: It was close up. I have a healthy fear of bears, yeah,
Speaker 1: very reasonable, but this one was quite far away. It
Speaker 1: was from I think I was staying at a lodge
Speaker 1: or something in the Sequoias and there was a window
Speaker 1: you could look out, and I saw in the distance
Speaker 1: a bear scratching its back against a tree, and it
Speaker 1: was so cute. It's adorable. They look like they're dancing,
Speaker 1: just shaking their groove thing. I know, they look so
Speaker 1: into it. It It looks so like they are just having
Speaker 1: the time of their life. They look adorable. I know
Speaker 1: they could rip my face off and eat it like
Speaker 1: a big lasagna, But I still think they're really cute,
Speaker 1: especially when they do the whole back scratchies against the tree.
Speaker 1: They just they seem like they are an utter bliss
Speaker 1: when they do that topier moment for bears. So what
Speaker 1: do you think that they are trying to do when
Speaker 1: they are scratching their back against a tree, Katie? Are
Speaker 1: they not trying to scratch an itch? They probably are.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing is that it's probably a number of things.
Speaker 1: Like it's probably itchy for the itchies. They may also
Speaker 1: be marking territory. It's probably like a multi functional thing, right,
Speaker 1: Like they get the itchies out, and then also other
Speaker 1: bears know that Gerald was here and he had an
Speaker 1: itchy butt. But there maybe yet another reason. Recently, as
Speaker 1: reported by The New York Times, researchers have found that
Speaker 1: brown and black bears seem particularly attracted to using specific
Speaker 1: species of conifer trees, and furthermore, they are attracted to
Speaker 1: the scent of beach tar in experimental settings, and the
Speaker 1: researchers suspect that they may be selecting specific trees for
Speaker 1: a reason. Zoo pharmacognosy, which is a big word which
Speaker 1: basically means animals that select specific plants or substances and
Speaker 1: either eat them or apply them topically to treat themselves
Speaker 1: for a variety of conditions, such as parasite infestation or
Speaker 1: the itchies. Oh my gosh, trees are so helpful. The
Speaker 1: trees are good in general. Hot take. I like trees.
Speaker 1: They're good for Yes, they keep the birds away from me. Yes,
Speaker 1: there you go up off the floor and away from
Speaker 1: where I walk. And that's beautiful of them. Pretty Yeah,
Speaker 1: keeps them birds arboreal. So you may have observed zoo
Speaker 1: farm a cognosy yourself. Every time your cat or your
Speaker 1: dog eats grass and throws up, maybe a case of
Speaker 1: your cat or dog medicating itself. So often, but not always,
Speaker 1: grass eating is a way for your cat or your
Speaker 1: dog to help with a tommy egg or infection of
Speaker 1: an intestinal parasite, And as you may know, it causes
Speaker 1: them to throw up or sometimes have diarrhea, which can
Speaker 1: help them get rid of the parasite or stomach bug
Speaker 1: whatever it is causing them distress. Although sometimes they just
Speaker 1: eat grass because they like how it tastes. So my
Speaker 1: dog is definitely the latter, because we will just like
Speaker 1: mow along on. I'm like, what are you doing, kid, Like,
Speaker 1: get out of here? Yeah, you know, it's gonna make
Speaker 1: you sick, and she's like, well, what if I said
Speaker 1: a little bit more of this grass? Yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it'll be fine. Yeah. Like my dog, I think, sometimes
Speaker 1: likes to nibble grass. It's very specific grass. She likes
Speaker 1: to eat though, that like this thicker. I don't really
Speaker 1: know the species of grass much, but it's like the
Speaker 1: thicker grass and she maybe it's called crabgrass. I'm not
Speaker 1: really sure, but she likes that. And she's also a
Speaker 1: dog who likes a good vegetable, so she'll eat bell
Speaker 1: peppers um with a gusto. So I think in her case,
Speaker 1: sometimes grass eating is more of a culinary exploration than
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of a tummy ache. But for
Speaker 1: other cats and dogs, sometimes they will eat it because
Speaker 1: they've got a tummy ache. That's good to know. And
Speaker 1: then you can kind of keep an eye like, oh
Speaker 1: he's not feeling good. Yeah, you track of it a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's a good thing. Yeah, it's not something
Speaker 1: to panic over, like you said, Like if your cat
Speaker 1: or dog regularly eats grass and they've otherwise got a
Speaker 1: clean bill of health from the vet, like they probably
Speaker 1: just like the flavor. It's sort of like I love
Speaker 1: ginger and ginger beer, and I also love it for
Speaker 1: tummy aches. It's great, It's perfect for tummy aches and
Speaker 1: delicious just for no reason. Yeah exactly, I'll drink it
Speaker 1: just because it's good, but I'll also drink it when
Speaker 1: I've got a tummy ache. Fortunately, it doesn't make me
Speaker 1: yack up a bunch of grass onto the carpet. Awful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's me big farm us. So they can get pills
Speaker 1: that don't make them sick. So yeah, So it is
Speaker 1: a relatively common thing found in animals that they will
Speaker 1: eat stuff or apply stuff to make themselves feel better.
Speaker 1: And so back to the bears. Researchers found that bears
Speaker 1: seem to select specific trees, specific conifers, and they also
Speaker 1: found that beech tar and turpentines. Turpentine is distilled tree resin.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't really find it much in nature, but it
Speaker 1: like the the tree resin in this distilled form. But
Speaker 1: still it is a strong smell that would be similar
Speaker 1: to the kinds of like tree resin that you would
Speaker 1: find in the trees. And so in experimental settings, both
Speaker 1: of these compounds seem to attract bears, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: they seem to repel ticks. So ticks are a menace
Speaker 1: to furry society. And it's hard when you're a big bear,
Speaker 1: even though you got those big arms with big old claws,
Speaker 1: still to get get all those ticks off you, especially
Speaker 1: ones that are like right right on your back. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard. No, oh, right in the middle where if
Speaker 1: you get a bad itch you would need a tree
Speaker 1: to scratch. Yeah, got pull ticks out, plus takes care
Speaker 1: of you so much disease. So that's exactly exactly. Parasites
Speaker 1: are not just a nuisance. They can be quite dangerous,
Speaker 1: and so far, while the evidence is circumstantial, it seems
Speaker 1: plausible that the bears are in addition to getting that
Speaker 1: nice scratch on which gosh it just if you, I mean,
Speaker 1: like I imagine being a bear and getting that nice
Speaker 1: itchy tree would just be the best feeling. But then
Speaker 1: also they are getting potentially some tree sap as insect
Speaker 1: repellent when they are scratching themselves on the bark, and
Speaker 1: so they are getting this like it's like a backscratcher
Speaker 1: plus zeet combination. Well might start selling that immediately, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, yeah, I'd buy it in the summer. It's high.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to move around too much. Love a two
Speaker 1: and one appliance brilliant, just pocket sized conifer. Give me
Speaker 1: a little pocket tree to scratch my back on. Amazing. Also,
Speaker 1: bears have been observed mixing Osha roots and their own
Speaker 1: saliva into a kind of sticky paste that they rub
Speaker 1: all over their bodies, which may double as an insect
Speaker 1: repellent and bite soothing substance. Bears are foraging for moisturizers.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. They belong on TikTok. They really get
Speaker 1: bears on TikTok right now. Yeah, I know. I'm so
Speaker 1: intimidated by like skincare routines online where it's just there's
Speaker 1: like a five thousand serums that you put on in
Speaker 1: a specific order, you know, masks you're you're supposed to.
Speaker 1: I mean like it's like your face is an old
Speaker 1: timey photograph that you're trying to treat in dark room,
Speaker 1: and it's intimidating. Once I got to the droppery, so
Speaker 1: I was like, this is so much. I was so
Speaker 1: I got one that has like retina and collagen in it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, it's like firm and like
Speaker 1: refine perfect. But then I was scared of it, like
Speaker 1: it was a chemical only use like pipe pets and
Speaker 1: chemistry labs. Do I touch it? Is it safe? It's
Speaker 1: very weird. It's so weird. It is very strange. I
Speaker 1: have to admit I do use like do like have
Speaker 1: my own very small in comparison skincare routine, but it is.
Speaker 1: I try to keep it simple. Otherwise it's just it's madness.
Speaker 1: It's timax out at five steps, five skincare routine steps,
Speaker 1: and that's that's yeah. Yeah, It's like I wash my
Speaker 1: face maybe some kind of exfoliation, and then moisturize, and
Speaker 1: then that's it. I can't. I can't think about it anymore.
Speaker 1: Otherwise it's all I'm gonna be doing all day. But
Speaker 1: that seems like what you need on a very day
Speaker 1: to day basis. And then I'll have like mass and
Speaker 1: like overnight moisturizers because I don't know. That's what older
Speaker 1: ladies did before me, when they hit their thirties, they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, now a night cream, that's it. That's
Speaker 1: that's what we're doing. Pet. Maybe just like I could
Speaker 1: fill an immersion tank up with some sort of viscous
Speaker 1: goo that gets me youthful, and I sleep in that
Speaker 1: like a Disney villain, right right, Don't ask what the
Speaker 1: goo is made out of. Certainly not the blood of virgins.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about no yeah nood extract. But yeah, So,
Speaker 1: bears have a very skimple, very simple skincare routine definitely
Speaker 1: belongs on TikTok, though, I'd watch the heck out of
Speaker 1: a bear beauty influencer just chewing on rocks and slathering
Speaker 1: its own saliva all over its face. Just adorable. Can
Speaker 1: you how to put on lashes? A little bear? I'm ready?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine a Paddington Uh influencer just like Paddington
Speaker 1: on TikTok? That that's that would get me in. That
Speaker 1: would finally get me into TikTok like I've resisted so far.
Speaker 1: But if Paddington was on TikTok talking about his little
Speaker 1: his little beauty routines, that'd be it. I'd be done.
Speaker 1: His overall collection alone would be enough to draw me in.
Speaker 1: Let's go team off of the century. So this habit
Speaker 1: of bears potentially to be using these substances as bug
Speaker 1: repellent is not unprecedented at all in the Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 1: There are lots of other examples, For instance, Capuccian monkeys.
Speaker 1: These are New World monkeys found in Central and South America,
Speaker 1: and they have a habit of rubbing smelly, acidic plants
Speaker 1: all over their bodies as insect repellent. They've been found
Speaker 1: to rub citrus, clematis, flower, and pepper plants over their
Speaker 1: fur to deter parasites, which makes them smell lovely. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say so now we're also making perfumes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very lovely again foraged in the forests with their bare hands.
Speaker 1: Talk about work uh hashtag Amish life. I would absolutely,
Speaker 1: I absolutely watch these berries get down on the TikTok.
Speaker 1: I also feel like I have enough of those ingredients
Speaker 1: that I could be making my own at home, which
Speaker 1: is nice. Yeah yeah, around and pepper root. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: these these uh capuchin monkeys also in captivity, they will
Speaker 1: use plants that are not available to them in the
Speaker 1: wild but still effective at the Dudley Zoo in England.
Speaker 1: Captive capuchin monkeys use spring onions given to them by
Speaker 1: caretakers and rub them all over themselves. They just go
Speaker 1: they love these these spring onions. They'll grab them and
Speaker 1: apparently immediately start rubbing themselves down, rubbing under their little armpits, uh,
Speaker 1: rubbing Like, no, this is what you think. It's like
Speaker 1: l or some sense that they have that's heightened that
Speaker 1: we don't where they're like, oh this is yeah for me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's a strong smell and it may even
Speaker 1: be sort of a like they may be able to
Speaker 1: smell that it's kind of acidic, and it's that acidic
Speaker 1: smell that's like, oh this this goes right on my body.
Speaker 1: And parents will rub their young with it as well,
Speaker 1: so it just kind of like rub down the babies
Speaker 1: that are too young to kind of know how to
Speaker 1: do it themselves. And so it's my my suspicion is
Speaker 1: that it is a combination of instinct and learning because
Speaker 1: they are social animals and so they probably instinctively know
Speaker 1: like which smells kind of right to them, but there
Speaker 1: may be some aspect of social learning in them because
Speaker 1: their their parents will rub them down as well. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love that onions is protection, yeah, which is do
Speaker 1: it too human? Which is monkeys? I keep I always
Speaker 1: get garlic and onions mixed up, so I feel like
Speaker 1: I would probably try to ward off a vampire with onions,
Speaker 1: and then it's like, oh wow, it's great. Now my
Speaker 1: human meal comes with some onions. Mixing garlics and onion
Speaker 1: is the best way to start any dish. I mean honestly,
Speaker 1: it really. This is the magic to make your kitchen
Speaker 1: smell divine garlic. So yeah, yeah, that's like goesn't anything.
Speaker 1: Chocolate cake? Yeah yeah, Lessen, you can highlight your chocolate
Speaker 1: cake with it. Just roast a little garlic, sprinkle it
Speaker 1: on top. I promise you was a surprise. You'd be like, bam,
Speaker 1: that's really flavorful. So another animal who likes to rub
Speaker 1: stuff on themselves are the white nose coates, who are
Speaker 1: adorable mammals who live in Mexico, Central and South America
Speaker 1: and cowates sort of they look like a long game
Speaker 1: a raccoon, Like he took a raccoon and just kind
Speaker 1: of stretched it out a little bit. Oh. They've got
Speaker 1: longer snouts, longer tails, and they they're very cute. They
Speaker 1: like to scratch the bark of certain plants and then
Speaker 1: rub themselves or others in the sap. So they might
Speaker 1: even take some of the sap and rub like a
Speaker 1: comrade up with this sap, and the SAP has been
Speaker 1: found to have insect repellent properties. Nice. I like that
Speaker 1: they're like, listen, mosquitoes. I know we're out here in
Speaker 1: the jungle all animals, but what we won't be doing
Speaker 1: is devouring me as somebody who was allergic to mosquitoes
Speaker 1: as a child. I get it, man. I wish that
Speaker 1: there was this team up between you and the cowads
Speaker 1: and they were just like rub and sap on little
Speaker 1: child Joel and mean like it's all right, we're your
Speaker 1: magical animal friends and we're here to help you. I
Speaker 1: used to rub popsicles on them because they hurt, so
Speaker 1: they'd be like icy. But then now I'm covered in
Speaker 1: like sticky sugar. So the mosquitoes game and ate me somewhere.
Speaker 1: What are you doing for baby Joel? It was like seven,
Speaker 1: It was really a problem. You really did. You really
Speaker 1: did need the Disney princess treatment of having some magical
Speaker 1: kawatee and bear friends. I have been so great. I
Speaker 1: would have been less lonely and less bitten off, unfortunately
Speaker 1: for you. The last animal we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: is birds in relation to animals who rub anti insect
Speaker 1: or pellent on them. The ironic twist here is that
Speaker 1: the birds use insects to get rid of insects sons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so tons of bird species do something called anting, where
Speaker 1: they rub ants all over their feathers, which causes the
Speaker 1: ants to release formic acid, which is a defense mechanism.
Speaker 1: And then this formic acid is not strong enough to
Speaker 1: hurt the birds, but it cuts their feathers and acts
Speaker 1: as a lice killer. This is horrific and ingenious. So
Speaker 1: for these poor ants who are like, no, I know
Speaker 1: what I'll do. Let me just ooze out this thing
Speaker 1: that usually stops things from killing me. And they're like,
Speaker 1: it's not working, it's just making them stronger, and then
Speaker 1: they're crushed to death. There they don't exist anymore. For
Speaker 1: the birds, like what A find it just if I
Speaker 1: roll around as some ants Now I don't have lice.
Speaker 1: I mean for human me, that's a really that's a
Speaker 1: difficult trade off. Yeah, I hate swarms of things and
Speaker 1: both of these creatures. No, I can't. I can't do it.
Speaker 1: I want either, Please can't do it? WHOA No, See
Speaker 1: this is the difference between you and me. When you
Speaker 1: were seven, you're getting attacked by mosquitos and trendys popsicles.
Speaker 1: When I was seven, I was eating ants and trying
Speaker 1: to attack birds. Well, not attack you, lie, A thorn bear.
Speaker 1: What was it. I don't know. I mean maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit. I tried to catch birds. I would say,
Speaker 1: like I think I saw some wily coyote cartoons and
Speaker 1: I set up like a box with a stick and
Speaker 1: put some bird seed under it, and I thought this
Speaker 1: will work. It didn't. It didn't work at all, But
Speaker 1: ants were easier to just maybe. Okay. When I was seven,
Speaker 1: I probably wasn't eating ants at that point. I think
Speaker 1: that was more of a five year old me activity
Speaker 1: because I was curious, and they taste, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of peppery. They're not bad. That's your scientist adventurer spirit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And they've become quite idelic to see across the culinary world.
Speaker 1: So clearly there's something right. It's just going on exactly.
Speaker 1: I haven't discovered it yet. So before we start asking
Speaker 1: animals to be our doctors handing out m d's, I
Speaker 1: think it is important to point out that while some animals,
Speaker 1: like primates, may learn how to use medicine by observing
Speaker 1: their elders or through cause and effect. For many animals,
Speaker 1: it is most likely instinctive. Just as animals instinctively seek
Speaker 1: out food and find food appetizing that fulfills their nutritive needs,
Speaker 1: medical substances may simply taste good or be attractive to them,
Speaker 1: and it may be instinctive, but still what's really interesting
Speaker 1: is that animals seem to not just passively eat beneficial
Speaker 1: plants all the time, like as part of their diet,
Speaker 1: but seem to respond dynamically to having certain symptoms or
Speaker 1: injuries and will use the substance to treat themselves, which
Speaker 1: I think that is what's so interesting to me is
Speaker 1: like it kind of makes sense like to you know,
Speaker 1: if you eat a certain plants like oh, this plant
Speaker 1: also has anti inflammatory properties and it's like great. But
Speaker 1: if you eat something like you have something happen to you,
Speaker 1: like when a dog or cat has a tummy ache
Speaker 1: and then they eat grass. That's so interesting to me
Speaker 1: that there is there is this instinctive ability to treat
Speaker 1: a current ailment. Yes, it definitely comes across as like thinking,
Speaker 1: like reaching for something very specific as opposed to like
Speaker 1: this is my natural instincts, like oh, tell me hurts
Speaker 1: eat grass which I'm sure is what bare thought processes
Speaker 1: as opposed to be like oh my, this grass will
Speaker 1: cure me, help that parasite pass. It's just very I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of cool to think about, like what
Speaker 1: instinctually humans know to do well, thirsty drink water. We're
Speaker 1: not like, well, this will help my cell homeostasis of
Speaker 1: my cells work good when I drink this water. We're
Speaker 1: just like king this water now, exactly exactly. Although I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe some people think in terms of their
Speaker 1: cellular homeostasis. I don't know. It's not me, it's not
Speaker 1: I can tell you I have never considered that as
Speaker 1: recent for a gospel of homeostasis. I just had myself
Speaker 1: a big gulp of homeostasis. So before I continue, I
Speaker 1: want to do a shout out to Eraldo Medeiros Costaneto,
Speaker 1: who is a professor at the University Estete Fierra de
Speaker 1: Santana of Resilt, who wrote an excellent and comprehensive article
Speaker 1: called zoo farm a cognosi the self medication behavior of
Speaker 1: Animals from which I got a ton of info. So
Speaker 1: that is a great article if you want to learn more.
Speaker 1: So some zoo farm a cognozi behaviors may be hard
Speaker 1: to catch in lab environments, but have been observed by
Speaker 1: people living near these animals for centuries. So a lot
Speaker 1: of times like things will be written in folklore or
Speaker 1: passed down kind of in oral histories. And it's really
Speaker 1: important to pay attention to these things because while it's
Speaker 1: true that like it is good to have scientific method
Speaker 1: and try to establish things in these experimental settings, these
Speaker 1: observations by a lot of cultures are really really significant
Speaker 1: when it comes to understanding animal behavior, because it is
Speaker 1: it can be really hard to be able to witness
Speaker 1: animal behavior being in the right place at the right
Speaker 1: time for a wild animal. And also when you take
Speaker 1: a wild animal and say, put it in a laboratory setting,
Speaker 1: they won't have the same behaviors. So I think it
Speaker 1: is so important to take seriously these accounts of cultures
Speaker 1: over many centuries of the animals that they have observed.
Speaker 1: I don't watch animals that closely, like like I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe my dog, but like you like my
Speaker 1: roommate almost, I'm like, hey, good, you know ed f water, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's just a little authargic today. But I'm trying to
Speaker 1: imagine like being out in the wild and being like,
Speaker 1: oh that animals medicating itself. Really, people are so smart
Speaker 1: people are That is an incredible skill. I think the
Speaker 1: people who are like I can sit patiently and wait
Speaker 1: for animals to respond and react and teach me something
Speaker 1: about the environment. Yeah, seriously. And also, like throughout history,
Speaker 1: I think there's been a lot of evidence of humans
Speaker 1: like observing animal behavior, especially when it comes to what
Speaker 1: they eat and medicate with, and then copying that and
Speaker 1: discovering things that are helpful in human medicine. So there
Speaker 1: is this example of species of tegu. So these are
Speaker 1: large lizards found in central South America and Panama. So
Speaker 1: Tagus are black, brown, and white lizards. They typically grow
Speaker 1: a little over three feet long about a meter. The
Speaker 1: largest species, the black and white tigu, grows a little
Speaker 1: over four feet long or one point three meters. So
Speaker 1: they're hefty, you know that. Big lizards. That's a big lizard. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They are burrowing lizards and they live and rainforests, deciduous forests,
Speaker 1: and grasslands. So they are omnivores and will eat anything
Speaker 1: that they can from small rodents, birds, eggs, insects, fruits,
Speaker 1: amphibians and carrion to human food that they steal from
Speaker 1: mini marts. Wow, they're not picky, no, no, there. They
Speaker 1: have a wide palette and they are not too snooty
Speaker 1: to say no to some fast food that for them.
Speaker 1: So some tagus are actually kept as pets, and they
Speaker 1: can apparently be quite chill in captivity, but in the
Speaker 1: wild they are not that chill. They will whip you
Speaker 1: with their tail if they think that you're trying to
Speaker 1: attack it. But apparently pet tagus can be, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty relaxed. Oh cute, I want one. They're adorable. For
Speaker 1: some reason, pet lizards always crack me up. I just
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it's so funny to me because
Speaker 1: I definitely respect lizards, and I think they are conscious,
Speaker 1: but I suspect that they're sort of entire philosophy on
Speaker 1: life is so different from anything even remotely human that
Speaker 1: they are probably completely bewildered by being a pet. Like okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm in this thing's lap. Now, that's interesting. I
Speaker 1: just you know, because like I can, like with a
Speaker 1: with a cat or a dog or a pig or
Speaker 1: a bird, I kind of see certain social behaviors they
Speaker 1: have that like they kind of like, Okay, yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess some buddies with this human then, But like with
Speaker 1: tagus and other lizards, like, it's not that I think
Speaker 1: they can't have affection for their owners, but it's something
Speaker 1: lizardy and I'm not sure what it is harder to
Speaker 1: show for a lizard even really any reptile. Like people
Speaker 1: love snakes and you know, power to you, but I
Speaker 1: don't even know if that pet really sees you as
Speaker 1: like owner and pet as your relationship. I don't know,
Speaker 1: ye like thing that cleans my environment every once in
Speaker 1: a while, right, The problem is, I mean the thing
Speaker 1: is like a lot a lot of reptiles are not
Speaker 1: particularly social. That doesn't necessarily mean an animal can't have
Speaker 1: the cognition to like be friendly to a human. That
Speaker 1: that's not because you know, cats aren't like super social
Speaker 1: either in a wild ct like certainly the types of
Speaker 1: cats that are domesticated cats came from, but they can be.
Speaker 1: I think it's just like reptiles are so their brains
Speaker 1: are just so different, and so I just I feel
Speaker 1: like maybe they're like, wow, this is a cool tree.
Speaker 1: It like moves around and yeah, it's warm, and I
Speaker 1: like that. So in Brazilian folklore, there are various anecdotal
Speaker 1: accounts over the centuries that hold that tagus will eat
Speaker 1: a certain type of root after being bitten by a
Speaker 1: venomous snake. So the root is called batata detau, which
Speaker 1: I think means tagu root, and it's also known as
Speaker 1: the Jatropha elliptica Jatropha elliptica, and this plant has also
Speaker 1: been used in human folk medicine for snake bites. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so research on the plant has revealed that the plant
Speaker 1: does contain compounds that can have a neutralizing effect on
Speaker 1: pit viper venom. So I find it highly credible, highly
Speaker 1: likely that people saw these take goose chewing on these
Speaker 1: roots after being bitten by snakes and then copied that
Speaker 1: and found that the roots had this neutralizing effect for
Speaker 1: snake bites. That is incredible that because literally, in Allow,
Speaker 1: that's such a miracle. Like when I think about all
Speaker 1: the things we do nowadays to like create an anti venom,
Speaker 1: they have to collect the poison and the only do
Speaker 1: your science thing and change it, and here's this root
Speaker 1: that grows naturally. I mean, I will say, don't give
Speaker 1: up on the anti venoms, because I think probably a
Speaker 1: good deal more effective holistic medicine only Katie, Oh my god, no, no,
Speaker 1: trust the anti venom, yes, how I want it if
Speaker 1: I'm bitten, right, but how but if you are in
Speaker 1: dire straits, right, you don't have access to anti venom
Speaker 1: or in times before we were able to develop anti venom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this stuff seems to have had an effect, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, we this is sort of the course of
Speaker 1: human history. There we discovered plants and substances that have
Speaker 1: these properties. Now we can refine those too much greater extent.
Speaker 1: We can like isolate the compounds that actually have the
Speaker 1: effect that we want. But a lot of these compounds
Speaker 1: are things that originated from nature. So we learn from nature.
Speaker 1: We can. You know, back before we were able to
Speaker 1: develop medicine in the same way that we do today
Speaker 1: with pharmaceuticals, we were able to find stuff. You know. Again,
Speaker 1: that's not saying like go and eat a bunch of
Speaker 1: roots and see what happens. It's nice that a lot
Speaker 1: of people did that before our time, and trial tested
Speaker 1: various roots and berries and stuff, so we don't have
Speaker 1: to do that as much. Thank you for your sacrificing ancestors,
Speaker 1: because I don't want to right, not to torment you
Speaker 1: too much, Joel, but I do want to talk about
Speaker 1: birds real briefly. Again, Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: So sometimes birds will build their entire homes out of medicine.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's just like man. If I could have
Speaker 1: walls made out of thailannel and just lick the wall
Speaker 1: whenever I had a headache, I'd so do that. It's
Speaker 1: very helpful. It's like the Charlie the Willie Wonka is
Speaker 1: chocolate factory, but it's like Willie Walker's funky house of pharmaceuticals,
Speaker 1: and the walls are made of thailannel and the chairs
Speaker 1: are made out of I don't know, xanax, all good stuff.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So European starlings will line their nests
Speaker 1: with wild carrot plants, which contain be sidosterol, which deters
Speaker 1: mites and stops mites from laying eggs. Well that's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah again, diseases so many, Yes, it's like kind of
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's like putting mothballs in your closet,
Speaker 1: except you live on the mothballs. I'm not sure it's
Speaker 1: healthy to live on mothballs, it would now, no, but cedar.
Speaker 1: I mean people have used cedar, like cedar chests and
Speaker 1: cedar furniture, which helps deter things like moths and insects.
Speaker 1: So you know. Also, house sparrows are sophisticated enough in
Speaker 1: their behavior that they may switch their building nest materials
Speaker 1: based on environmental factors. During malaria outbreaks, It's been observed
Speaker 1: that house sparrows use more paradise flower leaves in their nests.
Speaker 1: These leaves are rich in quinine, which can help with
Speaker 1: symptoms of malaria. So researchers suspect that the birds may
Speaker 1: be instinctively selecting leaves that help ease their malarial symptoms,
Speaker 1: which I think is really interesting. I mean, that's great. Again,
Speaker 1: what do I know about malaria? It's painful and not fun. No,
Speaker 1: the fact that they can switch it up just by
Speaker 1: using different building materials. You have you ever gotten malaria? No?
Speaker 1: Thank god? I was like, because you're when you're saying
Speaker 1: like what I know about malaria is like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: just from that my text book learning. Yeah, it's good, good,
Speaker 1: good man, because I've had like I've had I have
Speaker 1: not had malaria, but I have had um, you know,
Speaker 1: tummy troubles that have caused lots of bathroom time, let's say,
Speaker 1: and to the point where sometime like, wait is this
Speaker 1: am I dying? Am I just gonna potty myself to death? Here?
Speaker 1: Nobody liked that moment. And malaria is like that, but
Speaker 1: on steroids from what I can tell, and that's it's horrifying.
Speaker 1: And it sweeps through a community very quickly, yes, easily transferable,
Speaker 1: like malaria is not anything to mess around with. No, no, exactly,
Speaker 1: would build a house to protect me from malaria if
Speaker 1: I could? Yeah, it's it's it's not great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is amazing how many interventions that humans have come
Speaker 1: up with for malaria, from mosquito nets to a sort
Speaker 1: of like decreasing mosquito populations through like gene editing and stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's we do have ways to combat it. I'm
Speaker 1: just it's so interesting to me that animals as well
Speaker 1: of like, you know, like, screw this malaria thing. This
Speaker 1: is horrible. I don't know how they do it, but
Speaker 1: it's I'm glad they did. And ess looks really dope.
Speaker 1: So so you did it. If a style function, it's
Speaker 1: all there there you go. Yeah, so I think it's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting that a lot of complaints about medicine
Speaker 1: is that it's unnatural. Have you heard that kind of
Speaker 1: thing where it's like, oh, oh, sure, you're putting random
Speaker 1: things in your body blah blah blah. Yeah, which is funny.
Speaker 1: Some people who say that are like anti medicine, are like, oh,
Speaker 1: why would I put these toxins in my body? And
Speaker 1: then they like turns out like they smoke and drink alcohol,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, or like don't bother reading anything that's
Speaker 1: in their food. Right, But I also think people get
Speaker 1: like weirded out. They're like, oh, it's genetically modified grow.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's really good. That helps us not start Yeah,
Speaker 1: it helps make our plants more resistant to things like acidarine.
Speaker 1: You want some genetically modified materials in the food you
Speaker 1: eat that it's not all bad, Like you have to
Speaker 1: be discerning. Yeah, genetic modification doesn't worry me in terms
Speaker 1: of like my health. So like when if you genetically modify,
Speaker 1: say a tomato, it's not gonna poison you. They would
Speaker 1: notice if they accidentally modified a tomato to be poisonous.
Speaker 1: The all the big thing scientists, Oops, this tomato has teeth.
Speaker 1: Now we didn't mean to do that, So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: not really a concern. The only like, the only concern
Speaker 1: with like genetic modification is you don't want to make
Speaker 1: a plant that's like so tough it outcompetes natural plants.
Speaker 1: But we do that anyways, just through selective breeding of
Speaker 1: plants and farming practices. We already do that. So it's
Speaker 1: not like genetic modification is unique in that respect. It's
Speaker 1: just you know, the same problems we have with say
Speaker 1: agriculture and say like introducing a species somewhere or monocultures.
Speaker 1: It's the same, it's the same stuff. Like genetic modification
Speaker 1: has the same potential perils as that, but it is
Speaker 1: not inherently a dangerous thing. It's just like any other
Speaker 1: technology that could have negative outcomes. But certainly it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not just oh it sounds sciency and therefore it's dangerous.
Speaker 1: It's like no, I mean, like certain like the dust bowl,
Speaker 1: that kind of ecological disaster was just from farming practices.
Speaker 1: It had nothing to do with like you know, modern
Speaker 1: science of genetic modification. That that was just classic farming
Speaker 1: problems and weather issues. I think it's always funny that
Speaker 1: people think natural things are inherently better, which I feel
Speaker 1: like listeners to this podcast, No, can't be true, given
Speaker 1: that nature is full of terrifying parasites, animals who eat
Speaker 1: their own offspring, and general mayhem. So it's not like
Speaker 1: nature is this soft, gentle place. It's just it is
Speaker 1: what it is. It's nature. It's full of all sorts
Speaker 1: of things. It's literally chaos. It is literally chaos. So
Speaker 1: many things have some things that are like highly organized
Speaker 1: and function in the same way for millennia, something just
Speaker 1: new and pop it off every day. And nature is
Speaker 1: wild and complete, unpredictable, and if so, glad science was
Speaker 1: like what if we try to put some order to
Speaker 1: some of this right exactly, And so when it comes
Speaker 1: to medicine, it's like, well, medicine, you know, being a
Speaker 1: like upset that medicine isn't natural. I mean, animals, you know,
Speaker 1: use medicine, so they they kind of seek out their
Speaker 1: own medical treatments in ways, and so it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it is not it is not unnatural to use medicine.
Speaker 1: It's just that we have often refined medicine to a
Speaker 1: much greater extent than animals are capable of doing one
Speaker 1: thing in particular. I think that people have hang ups
Speaker 1: about are like a reproductive health use of hormone treatments.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, but that's like it's unnatural to do
Speaker 1: those things. Like there's this it's this specific thing, like
Speaker 1: once you start like controlling your own reproductive health, there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of like pearl clutching over it, being like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's not natural, but act Actually, there's some evidence that
Speaker 1: animals may have figured out how to have some control
Speaker 1: over their reproductive health for a long time. That is
Speaker 1: mind blowing, Katie, what how so? The Southern miriqui, also
Speaker 1: known as the wooly spider monkey, is a New World
Speaker 1: monkey found in Brazil. They are the largest primates found
Speaker 1: in the Americas, although they really cannot compete with Old
Speaker 1: World monkeys or Old World primates in terms of size.
Speaker 1: So these way around thirty pounds or fifteen kilograms. They
Speaker 1: are brown, they are fluffy, They are absolutely adorable. They
Speaker 1: eat fruit and they help disperse fruit seeds. They are
Speaker 1: sometimes called the hippie monkey because aggression within groups of
Speaker 1: monkeys is rare and they are super peaceful. Oh I
Speaker 1: love them already. I know, so female and males are
Speaker 1: similar in size, so there's not really any aggression based
Speaker 1: on sex, and there's not really much hierarchy in these groups.
Speaker 1: The only aggression they really have is sometimes they will
Speaker 1: attack like outsiders, monkeys that aren't in the group, and
Speaker 1: it's unknown exactly why or when they do that. So
Speaker 1: it's not like they are one hundred percent pacifists, but
Speaker 1: they are a very, very surprisingly peaceful species of monkey.
Speaker 1: I am upset that they have a bad rap when
Speaker 1: they're actually out here just being kind, generous souls. Okay,
Speaker 1: what do these This is possibly racist? I don't like it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I get yeah, Like I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of funny to me calling them hippie monkeys. It's
Speaker 1: like kind of insulting. I don't know. But they are, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're very sweet species of monkeys. And really interestingly,
Speaker 1: during mating periods, female mariquis have been observed to eat
Speaker 1: plants that contain isoflavonoids, which can raise the female's estrogen
Speaker 1: and decreases her fertility. Ah yeah, but these same monkeys
Speaker 1: have also been observed eating plants that contain stig masterol,
Speaker 1: which may increase her fertility. So these two plants they
Speaker 1: will eat, you know, alternatingly throughout mating periods that can
Speaker 1: either increase or decrease their fertility. So this, while this
Speaker 1: hasn't been proven, it is possible that these monkeys are
Speaker 1: able to control the chance of reproductive success based on
Speaker 1: eating these plants. So I think it is something that
Speaker 1: would be really really fascinating to see more research on
Speaker 1: because it appears like they have the tools to be
Speaker 1: able to exert some amount of reproductive control, which, to
Speaker 1: be fair, like a lot of animals do. It's just
Speaker 1: usually has something to do with biology, like being able
Speaker 1: to reject sperm packets or you know, like um, but
Speaker 1: with these they might actually be using plants to control
Speaker 1: their fertility. That is so smart. Oh my gosh, Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. I had no clue any animal could do this,
Speaker 1: but to know that they can do it, you know,
Speaker 1: in both directions they get to choose, Uh, that's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so you know it's like I one of my
Speaker 1: pet peeves. Now I don't have any children, but I
Speaker 1: have seen these things about like people talking about how
Speaker 1: like if you have any medical assistance with like pregnancy
Speaker 1: or fertility, or like say you have a C section
Speaker 1: rather than giving you know, a quote unquote natural birth,
Speaker 1: Like that's how it doesn't count. And that is so
Speaker 1: silly to me. It's like, sure, okay, just don't wear glasses, then,
Speaker 1: I guess because that's not natural, don't you know? Like
Speaker 1: so many like you're wearing clothes, Like what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? That? It's not it doesn't count if someone
Speaker 1: has medical interventions for pregnancy. Right. People are stingy with
Speaker 1: their acknowledgements sometimes, and I'm sure they just want to
Speaker 1: chalk it up to like, oh, they're just dumb animals,
Speaker 1: they're just eating food, like it doesn't make a difference
Speaker 1: when I feel like even animals, even when they're moving
Speaker 1: on instinctly, like nothing is happening for just no reason.
Speaker 1: It is chaos. But you know, again, people are out
Speaker 1: here making choices, and even animals get to make choices,
Speaker 1: right Like your dog prefers the crab grass some of
Speaker 1: the others. That's what she likes. So you know, I
Speaker 1: think it's it's strange and especially given the way we've
Speaker 1: seen you know, animals that mimic our way of thinking,
Speaker 1: or maybe not mimic, but have similar patterns for example,
Speaker 1: like elephants more and they're dead and like raise their
Speaker 1: kids and they have like whole protective stances. Like we
Speaker 1: know animals have feelings and cognitive thoughts about how they
Speaker 1: want to move through the world. And so I think
Speaker 1: to deny you know, these animals, they're reproductive rights. Shame
Speaker 1: on you world, boo, Yeah, shame on us. We're also
Speaker 1: denying ourselves reproductive rights. Hey, there it is. Yeah. And actually,
Speaker 1: speaking of elephants, Joel, African elephants have been observed to
Speaker 1: possibly exhibit reproductive zoo pharmacognosi, as they will seek out
Speaker 1: leaves from the boragin us say no, wait, boragins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I got it. Bagginess say trees to induce labor.
Speaker 1: So these, these same trees, these same leaves is something
Speaker 1: that humans have been using for centuries to induce labor
Speaker 1: in folk medicine in many parts of the world where
Speaker 1: these breagness say trees exist, And it seems like through
Speaker 1: observational evidence that elephants may do the same thing. How
Speaker 1: very midwife of them. Yes, I knew elephants are like
Speaker 1: a top three animal for me love an elephant, and
Speaker 1: so this does not surprise me at all that they
Speaker 1: found ways to be there, like that baby is in breach.
Speaker 1: We got to induce labor immediately, get them out here.
Speaker 1: Please make a great anatomy show. But with elephants, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'll be here. I would watch that so much.
Speaker 1: I mean, Grandma elephant really holding down the foe like
Speaker 1: you got your bulls on the outside. They're definitely the
Speaker 1: surgeons where they're just all cocky for the reason I
Speaker 1: see it. Yeah, no, I mean it is I would
Speaker 1: look like Elephant society is so fascinating. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's like pretty much a matriarchy, so it is the
Speaker 1: female elder female elephants sharing all their knowledge, passing it down.
Speaker 1: The males are typically will be the ones that disperse,
Speaker 1: so they will leave the group when they are adults
Speaker 1: and go off and find a new group of elephants
Speaker 1: to like, mate with and such. So the females are
Speaker 1: kind of the constant core of a group of elephants,
Speaker 1: a pack of elephants, so they will kind of pass
Speaker 1: on a lot of parenting skills as well. So you'll
Speaker 1: have like these grand grandmas and mom and aunts and stuff,
Speaker 1: and they all they often show a lot of interest too.
Speaker 1: When an elephant is giving birth, like there will be
Speaker 1: a crowd of elephants, including juvenile elephants who have not
Speaker 1: had experience with this yet, and it's like they're just
Speaker 1: passing all this information along. Often, like the elder elephants
Speaker 1: will teach younger mothers, like how they're supposed to take
Speaker 1: care of the young elephants and stuff, and kind of
Speaker 1: like correct them on how to you know, say the
Speaker 1: elephant trips over. It's like, look, this is what you do.
Speaker 1: So it is. It is really amazing. I think also
Speaker 1: that they seem to have I mean, it's not surprising
Speaker 1: to me, given that they seem to have very sophisticated
Speaker 1: abilities to understand, like remembering information that is important, like
Speaker 1: remembering certain routes that they need to take, or like
Speaker 1: if the weather is a certain way, they know to
Speaker 1: take a different route in this case, being able to
Speaker 1: identify a plant that is potentially helpful to induce labor
Speaker 1: when you know they are having perhaps some issues or something.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's I think it's very very plausible
Speaker 1: that this is totally intentional. And I also think it's
Speaker 1: plausible that this is something that they've learned and that
Speaker 1: this is something that's passed out as information. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course, this is something that would need more observational
Speaker 1: studies to kind of confirm. But yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: elephants are sophisticated enough that I would I would suspect
Speaker 1: that they would be able to pass on information about
Speaker 1: like these medicinal plants too. Too. Younger elephants, oh for sure.
Speaker 1: And they're so being a lab cooking. Yes, the young
Speaker 1: just I don't know, they're so uh they're they. I
Speaker 1: also just they's so the wrinkliness of elephants. It's like
Speaker 1: they're always wearing pants. I like their little eyes. There's
Speaker 1: also they are have boobs like people, like they're one
Speaker 1: of the only they do. They're one of the only
Speaker 1: animals out there where the females have boobs like human
Speaker 1: women do. Most most animals, like their teats are smaller,
Speaker 1: less boobuler. But yeah, elephants got big old honkers and
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about their trunks. It was shocking the
Speaker 1: FaceTime my STI I was like, wait, what, oh my gosh, okay,
Speaker 1: and then I wanted to get her bra but I
Speaker 1: was like, I bet support from down there is easier
Speaker 1: than us trying to balance these things on our chest
Speaker 1: for walking around all day. They're like, no, that just
Speaker 1: hangs low down there. It's fine, Yeah, nothing, do not
Speaker 1: need support. I would like to see someone trying to
Speaker 1: fit an elephant for our bra though, that would be yes, please, Yeah,
Speaker 1: volunteers should be adorable. I feel like you would need
Speaker 1: some structural engineers to figure out how like the tensile
Speaker 1: strength for you, an assistance you'll need. There'll be trial
Speaker 1: and r you know, trial tests and when we put
Speaker 1: on the sides and oh yes, but no bows because
Speaker 1: we're over that. Well job. Well, before we go, we've
Speaker 1: got to play a little game, and that game is
Speaker 1: called the Mystery Animal Sound Game. Every week I play
Speaker 1: a mystery animal sound and you the listener, and you
Speaker 1: the guests, trying to guess who is squawking and it
Speaker 1: can be any animal in the world. So last week's
Speaker 1: Mystery Animals sound hint was is there a frog in
Speaker 1: your mouth? Or are you just happy to see me?
Speaker 1: So here is the sound. No, that's a ad. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about that. I was like, what animal was that?
Speaker 1: It's an ad for Fanta, which I get now. So Joel,
Speaker 1: can you guess who is making that sound. It sounded
Speaker 1: like a ghost frog. Wow. I don't know what that is,
Speaker 1: but that's what it sounded. I mean. This is sometimes
Speaker 1: called a ghost bird of this Yes, this is the
Speaker 1: common poe two. It is a bird related to frog
Speaker 1: mouth birds and night jars. Congratulation to Auntie B, Grant
Speaker 1: W and Joey P. Who all gives correctly. So like
Speaker 1: frog mouth birds, they have wide frog like mouths. They
Speaker 1: are found in tropical regions of Central and South America.
Speaker 1: They hunt insects at night and during the day. They
Speaker 1: like to pretend to be a part of a tree,
Speaker 1: with their coloring and stiff posture resembling a jagged end
Speaker 1: of a tree stump. So they'll kind of like like
Speaker 1: sort of put their head in the air and flatten
Speaker 1: their bodies out to make themselves look more convincingly like
Speaker 1: part of a tree. It's it's very funny, all right,
Speaker 1: But yes, unfortunately it is a bird, and it is
Speaker 1: one that I think. It's on the creepier side of
Speaker 1: birds to me. It's really cute though, like the huge
Speaker 1: mouth is funny to me, But I could I could
Speaker 1: also see an argument for it being horrifying. I'm not
Speaker 1: here for the muppet birds, the giant mouths that could
Speaker 1: swallow me whole. All right again, Once these things remember
Speaker 1: that they're actually dinosaurs, it's over for us. I yeah,
Speaker 1: but see, this is why I'm trying to be on
Speaker 1: the side of the birds, so that when that time comes,
Speaker 1: they'll use me as like their millet butler. Oh I
Speaker 1: like that. I like that. That's a good plan. My
Speaker 1: long game is just they know that I respect them,
Speaker 1: and so when they become our overlords, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: do what they say. I'm like, okay, mister bird, you
Speaker 1: already know I'm afraid. Just tell me what to do
Speaker 1: and I'll do it. I don't like it here, It's fine.
Speaker 1: You want me to use this toothbrush to give you
Speaker 1: little head scratches. I will do that anything you say,
Speaker 1: hopefully not my toothbrush. This bird punishment using your toothbrush
Speaker 1: to give them scratcheese. All right, now, onto you this
Speaker 1: week's mystery animals. Sound the hint This is one peeved, pissed,
Speaker 1: particularly provoked pond paddler. Oh did you hear that? I did?
Speaker 1: He's an angry fella. So Joel, who do you think
Speaker 1: is making that sound. I am going to suggest that
Speaker 1: is a vampire pig. Again. Not sure what that is,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like a big between like an angry
Speaker 1: Jacula and a struggling pig. Interesting vampire pig. That's my vote.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Um. Well, maybe next
Speaker 1: week we will find out if this is indeed a
Speaker 1: poor sign Dracula or something else. If you just think
Speaker 1: you know who is making this sound, you can write
Speaker 1: to me at Creature feature Pod at gmail dot com. Joel,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show and
Speaker 1: tolerating a few birds here and there. Where can people
Speaker 1: find you maybe? Thank you so much for having me back.
Speaker 1: And every time I come I faced my fear of
Speaker 1: birds and I can less afraid. So I'm grateful for you.
Speaker 1: You guys can follow me all over the internet at
Speaker 1: Joel Meek. That's Joe L E m O and I
Speaker 1: que please do that. Joel is fantastic, And yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on. And thank you the
Speaker 1: listener for you know, using your ears to listen to it.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, and I also appreciate whatever you leave
Speaker 1: a rating or review. I read all the reviews and
Speaker 1: they mean so much to me and I really really
Speaker 1: do appreciate it when you take a little bit time
Speaker 1: out of your date. Tell me what you think of
Speaker 1: the podcasts. This is really wonderful and thank you to
Speaker 1: the Space Cossacks for their super awesome song. Exo loom
Speaker 1: Enough Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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