Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, we're talking
Speaker 1: about the cuts most adorable animals who love to murder.
Speaker 1: I think so many animals are cute, so I've had
Speaker 1: to really imagine, like, what is objectively speaking, the cutest
Speaker 1: animals out there who also just love to kill. We're
Speaker 1: talking about murderers with big old puppy eyes, murderers who
Speaker 1: look like cute little bunny rabbits mixed, which Huah was,
Speaker 1: and murderers who look completely inconspicuous, like something that snow
Speaker 1: white would have land on her hand and then impale
Speaker 1: her on a steak. Joining me today to talk about
Speaker 1: this is producer, director, podcast host of Shooting Threes, and
Speaker 1: my friend Jack Greenberg. Welcome, Hey, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me talking about some cutie. Yes, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about some cuties. The inspiration for this is that you
Speaker 1: mentioned to me that you love the blackfooted cat. I
Speaker 1: love that little murderer. Yeah, we have talked about him
Speaker 1: recently on the show, so I didn't want to do
Speaker 1: a whole episode, uh with a minute, but I do
Speaker 1: want to briefly go over, like, what do you find
Speaker 1: so appealing about the black footed cat? As if I
Speaker 1: need to ask? I mean, come on, I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean it's obvious look at the little thing. But I've
Speaker 1: been I've been spreading the gospel about this cat before
Speaker 1: for for years now. I came out, I came across it,
Speaker 1: and I've been telling people and and and he's blown
Speaker 1: up recently, and I'm proud of him. I too, have
Speaker 1: been talking about this little guy for years. So I
Speaker 1: also feel like I like the blackfooted cat before he
Speaker 1: was cool, but no gate keeping here. I loved that
Speaker 1: now a big thing. No, no, I I think for
Speaker 1: me it was Uh. There is a picture of him
Speaker 1: looking real angry with just mutilated bird. Oh, I love,
Speaker 1: that's my favorite one. I know exactly which photo you're
Speaker 1: talking about. He's got like a birdie stuffed right in
Speaker 1: his mouth and just in the body of a little
Speaker 1: tiny cat who's like it's a wildcat, but it's like
Speaker 1: half the size of a house cat. It's teeny tiny.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's truly like kidens yes and looking and
Speaker 1: it's it's the cutest thing. And I think I just
Speaker 1: uh yeah, as a as a as someone on the
Speaker 1: smaller scale of humans, I just I really appreciate that, like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, don't count these guys, right, they're athletes. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're incredibly uh savvy, and they're dangerous. But also I
Speaker 1: want one. Bridget is saying that she is dangerous and
Speaker 1: loves murder. Dangerous. Yeah, I am not to be reckoned
Speaker 1: with small people can be killers too. Don't judge a
Speaker 1: book by Yeah, I'm really sick of people discounting me
Speaker 1: and what I'm capable of. Uh. And it's and it's
Speaker 1: extreme violence. Well, if it makes you feel better, I've
Speaker 1: always kept one eye open with you around, Bridget, like
Speaker 1: I've always thought maybe you know, yeah, like as as
Speaker 1: someone who has no business uh and yells a lot
Speaker 1: that I will fight people. Yeah, you've got a glint,
Speaker 1: You've got you've got the glint in your eye, you know,
Speaker 1: the one that the blackfooted cat has in that photo
Speaker 1: with the bird stuffed in its mouth, that sort of murderous.
Speaker 1: But you have that. Now, I don't think you would
Speaker 1: ever murder anyone simply because I fail to see how
Speaker 1: that would benefit you know, And uh, I've truly have
Speaker 1: run away from fights that have happened for being honest,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to think I'm tough, and these these
Speaker 1: tiny cubs make me believe that I could be tough.
Speaker 1: I'm proudly a whimp. I'll just say it right there.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just I'm absolutely The fancy way to say
Speaker 1: it is like, oh, I'm pore violence, but really I'm
Speaker 1: a huge whimp. But it's great. Yeah, yeah, it's just when, yeah,
Speaker 1: at some point you realize there's no way that it's
Speaker 1: a good outcome for you right exactly to start it.
Speaker 1: There's no yeah, to start it, to be a part
Speaker 1: of it, to even be within like ten ft. But
Speaker 1: I'll finish it. But I'll finish it, you know, finish
Speaker 1: it by running away. I'm the kind of person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm the kind of person where people are fighting near me.
Speaker 1: Like if I'm at a concert, I will get sucked
Speaker 1: into a mosh pit by like accident, like gravity just
Speaker 1: like pulls the smallest person near it. I just have
Speaker 1: to like, I just have to like excuse myself because
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm going to get I'm going to get
Speaker 1: punched in the face, even though away my face, my
Speaker 1: face is a magnet for stray balls. Okay, that sounds bad,
Speaker 1: but I mean like like like people footballs, ping pong balls, baseballs, yeah,
Speaker 1: get hit. Yeah, you know there are people by every
Speaker 1: single type of sports related ball. It will happen. Yeah
Speaker 1: they're there are people that are just like magnets. Uh
Speaker 1: and yeah, they're generally like unassuming five ft four women
Speaker 1: who are just like magnets for like just straight shit
Speaker 1: falling on that right right. It's like it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: like send me your errand projectiles. Yeah, and it will, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it will land on me somehow. So I got to
Speaker 1: excuse myself. But I like that these guys, they're they're brave,
Speaker 1: they're yes, I love They're an inspiration really yeah really
Speaker 1: on my dream board. I wish to be this murder someday.
Speaker 1: So we are we are not talking about the blackfooted
Speaker 1: cat as my which as I love them. We have
Speaker 1: talked about the recently. I think I had I think
Speaker 1: the pot. The title is like when the it's about
Speaker 1: cat play. It's like when the cats play, when the
Speaker 1: mouse is away, the cats will play, and it's got
Speaker 1: I've got a cat expert on. We talked about cats.
Speaker 1: I bring up the blackfooted cat. We talk about cat evolution.
Speaker 1: It's good stuff. Check that out if you want to
Speaker 1: hear more about the blackfooted cat. But we are talking
Speaker 1: about some equally adorable animals who also just are absolutely
Speaker 1: bloodthirsty and love killing. The first one is one of
Speaker 1: my I say this so much, but it's always true.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite animals. This is the car sire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they look like aliens. They yes, they have you know,
Speaker 1: the it's it's the eyes. I do got to say.
Speaker 1: It's the eyes. It's the eyes. It's the eyes, it's
Speaker 1: their little weird e t hands. Yes. Yeah, they're adorable aliens.
Speaker 1: I think cuter than they Yeah, especially the etz doesn't
Speaker 1: have fur, He's just got the skin. So yeah, and
Speaker 1: that was really where Steven Mr. Spielberg went wrong. But
Speaker 1: these guys they got it right. They covered themselves and
Speaker 1: fur like all animals I believe should right, I mean
Speaker 1: we should also, I think that that was an oversight
Speaker 1: for humanity. You know, we should just be um, which
Speaker 1: makes makes it sound like I'm a furry, which no
Speaker 1: offense to furies. I am not. However, I'm not even
Speaker 1: talking about like an animal like human just Harry all over.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, doesn't it essentially? Yeah, if
Speaker 1: only it just makes everybody more approachable. Yeah, there we go,
Speaker 1: So yes, depending on your perspective, Tarsiers are one of
Speaker 1: the cutest or freakiest looking little animals out there. They
Speaker 1: are a family, so multiple species of little itty bitty
Speaker 1: primates owned in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. And yes,
Speaker 1: they got gigantic eyeballs. They have mouth like ears. Different
Speaker 1: species have different sized ears. Sometimes they're kind of little,
Speaker 1: sometimes they're actually a little bigger, but they're always sort
Speaker 1: of like these little mouse like ears. They've got long
Speaker 1: fingers and toes those sort of their hands and their
Speaker 1: feet are sort of like not quite how we you
Speaker 1: know how primates have the sort of like hand feet
Speaker 1: thing where it's like they kind of look like human hands,
Speaker 1: kind of look almost like human feet. These are quite different,
Speaker 1: so they're they're much more primitive. But their hands, just
Speaker 1: like you said, they're et hands. They have really long,
Speaker 1: spindly fingers, and yeah, like their knuckles are kind of bulbous,
Speaker 1: and their toes are also really long and spindly, so
Speaker 1: they kind of they actually look like frog feet. To me,
Speaker 1: they they're like a hybrid of a mouse, a frog,
Speaker 1: and a monkey with eyes the size of ping pong balls. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that did a bunch of molly. They're raging right now.
Speaker 1: And for our younger listeners, Molly is just a nice
Speaker 1: person who likes to party. It's a nice lady. It's
Speaker 1: a nice lady, you like. So they tend to be
Speaker 1: very small. The largest species tend to grow around six
Speaker 1: inches long or fifteen centimeters, with tails that are longer
Speaker 1: than their bodies and spin leaf fingers. So that's not
Speaker 1: that big. And those are the large those are the
Speaker 1: big ones. Those are the big boys. Yeah, you got
Speaker 1: like the little there's a little furby looking one that
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's a smaller guy. Yeah, you want to
Speaker 1: hear about the yeah. Yeah. The smallest species of tarsier
Speaker 1: is the pigmy tars here found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, who
Speaker 1: is about four three of four inches big, which is
Speaker 1: like millimeters and weighs less than two grams. So that
Speaker 1: is like literally just a palmful. Yeah, it's like six
Speaker 1: paper clips. It's a little Yeah. I've got this picture
Speaker 1: and it's just some dude holding one of these little guys.
Speaker 1: He doesn't look particularly happy to be held. They don't
Speaker 1: love me. Um, but yeah there's rage behind those eyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: behind those big glassy eyes. Yeah. We'll talk more about
Speaker 1: that rage later. But like, yes, they don't like to
Speaker 1: be handled. Um, buddy is just kind of like peek
Speaker 1: it out from behind this guy's hand, go like what
Speaker 1: the hell? Man, Yeah, put me, put me down. But
Speaker 1: he's he's tiny and full of rage. Yeah, in which
Speaker 1: those are my favorite companies. I mean again telling on
Speaker 1: yourself here. So yeah, yeah, so about those huge eyeballs.
Speaker 1: Their eyes are so large they are often bigger than
Speaker 1: their brains. Their eyeballs are bigger than their whole entire brain,
Speaker 1: like a Pixar character. I feel like that's a weird
Speaker 1: disc to Pixar, Like your character's eyes are bigger than
Speaker 1: their brains. It's like, I mean, I just think of
Speaker 1: like Baby Dory where I like saw that they got
Speaker 1: a ratio wrong here. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you look at there's you know those like things where
Speaker 1: they people take popular cartoon characters and do a fake
Speaker 1: like skeleton of them, Like here's a skeleton or Pikachu
Speaker 1: or Garfield or whoever, And it always looks like really
Speaker 1: funky because the actual internal anatomy of a cartoon would
Speaker 1: look weird. Yeah, yeah, it's head would like topple it.
Speaker 1: The uh the skull of a tar sere looks made up.
Speaker 1: It does not look it looks like one of these
Speaker 1: like look skulls. Yeah, it looks like a pokemon. It does.
Speaker 1: It's it's eye socket. It's like, so why are their
Speaker 1: eyes so disconcerting? Lee huge? So while they seem like
Speaker 1: the cutest, most harmless of the primates, they are the
Speaker 1: only living species of primate that is entirely carnivorous. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: those are carnivorous, little tiny teeth. So other primates tend
Speaker 1: to be omnivorous, herbivorous, or frugivorous, frugivorous for frugivorous either
Speaker 1: anyway you want to say, you know, however, I'm feelings.
Speaker 1: But the tar Seer family are nocturnal predators, killers who
Speaker 1: lurk in the night. So there are nocturnal predators like
Speaker 1: wildcats who do not have these are tunishly huge googly eyes.
Speaker 1: So what the heck is going on? I imagine you asking, yes,
Speaker 1: what the heck is going on? Thank you for asking,
Speaker 1: Thank you for asking. So tar sears don't have a
Speaker 1: tipetum lucidum. So the tupeedum lucidum is a reflective layer
Speaker 1: behind the retina that you see in a lot of
Speaker 1: nocturnal or crepuscular animals. So nocturnal means you're active at night.
Speaker 1: Crepuscular means you're active at donn and dusk, so twilight.
Speaker 1: So these are animals like cats, raccoons, deer, dogs, and
Speaker 1: many more. And that's why when you look at your
Speaker 1: kitty cat at night it's got those glowing demonic eyes.
Speaker 1: Has nothing to do with their deal with Satan. It's
Speaker 1: all that tapedum lucidum that is behind the retina that
Speaker 1: is reflected. It's like a mirror, a biological mirror that
Speaker 1: reflects light back outwards. I was just assuming that was
Speaker 1: them trying to be cuter for right, But alright, alright,
Speaker 1: try hard cats, Yeah yeah yeah. But by reflecting light,
Speaker 1: the tapetum lucinum essentially doubles the amount of light hitting
Speaker 1: the photosensitive cells on the retina, so that light hits
Speaker 1: the photosensitive cells like your rods and cones, mostly rods
Speaker 1: for night vision. Um it hits the rods going in,
Speaker 1: and then it gets reflected back out and hits them again.
Speaker 1: So you're you're actually doubling like the amount of light
Speaker 1: you're getting in your eye just by having this reflective layer.
Speaker 1: It's really clever. Yeah, no, they just got I'm just
Speaker 1: like staring at this thing. It's the strangest looking skull
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Right, and so for these guys, right, uh,
Speaker 1: this is how. This is how a cat is able
Speaker 1: to have eyeballs, have night vision, that reflective layer without
Speaker 1: having huge, ping pong eyeballs. Like imagining a cat with
Speaker 1: the size of these eyeballs is kind of funny and
Speaker 1: a little scared. But but humans and primates do not
Speaker 1: have the tupedum lucidum. They don't have this. We don't
Speaker 1: have this reflective layer. So but wouldn't it be cool.
Speaker 1: It would be very cool. We could have shiny eyes
Speaker 1: in the night and like. But this is including the
Speaker 1: tarsier family. So tarsiers don't have that reflective layer so
Speaker 1: to be able to see well enough at night to
Speaker 1: precisely locate and catch prey. Instead of this clever mirror trick,
Speaker 1: they just big old eyeballs big old eyeballs. That was
Speaker 1: just make them big, just make them, just make them big. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of have a camera lens work, so they
Speaker 1: just got like a full Yeah. Yeah, that is funny
Speaker 1: where it's like how do you get like with a
Speaker 1: telescope or camera lens, it's like how do you get
Speaker 1: get it to see better at night or distances? Is
Speaker 1: like make it bigger, make it longer, make it bigger. Yea, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that is interesting. Like your your experience as a filmmaker,
Speaker 1: how do you have you ever shot stuff at nighttime? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're there are cameras that are that they make that
Speaker 1: are specifically good at shooting in low light, and it
Speaker 1: kind of the sensor on the lens kind of works
Speaker 1: in a similar way where they just they technology has
Speaker 1: figured out how to make these sensors as big as possible. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And so I mean it makes it makes the camera
Speaker 1: super sensitive when you move it, you have to adjust
Speaker 1: a lot. But yeah, yeah, it's it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: If you look at the center of the camera, it's
Speaker 1: just like a massive little mirror inside. Yeah. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean I got two of them. Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: interesting because like, yeah, so, because their eyes are so
Speaker 1: sensitive and there's just so much eyeball, a huge portion
Speaker 1: of their brain, which again is outsized by their actual eyeballs,
Speaker 1: is developed to visual processing. So they've got these brains
Speaker 1: and a lot of it is for visual processing. You
Speaker 1: got your hardware, which is your your eyeballs, and then
Speaker 1: the software has to process all that data. Uh and actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: they got such tiny little skull brains. I know where
Speaker 1: does that brain fit in there? I don't I don't
Speaker 1: even know where. It's a little brain, big guys, little brain. God,
Speaker 1: that's the life, isn't it? Just big old eyes but
Speaker 1: tiny little brains heavenly taking everything. Don't think about any
Speaker 1: of it? Right? That sounds exactly horrifying, But yeah, so,
Speaker 1: So in their eyeballs, like I mentioned earlier, rods, We
Speaker 1: have rods and cones. So those are the generally the
Speaker 1: two types of photosensitive cells in our retina's um. Rods
Speaker 1: do not do much in terms of seeing color. They
Speaker 1: are really good though, in low light conditions at picking
Speaker 1: up on very dim light. So the tar sears don't
Speaker 1: see much in terms of color. Their vision is optimized
Speaker 1: for nighttime seeing, and so they can pick up on
Speaker 1: their prey. Also fun fact they can move their heads
Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty degrees in either direction, allowing them
Speaker 1: three sixty degree vision. Whoa okay, twist and they're like
Speaker 1: they have owl next. Yeah, yeah, so's they got bend necks.
Speaker 1: They got bendy necks. They're creepy, little bloodthirsty goblins. I
Speaker 1: love them. Oh my god, that would be so to
Speaker 1: just watch one of these things with these big just
Speaker 1: slowly one eight at you. Yeah, show those those crazy
Speaker 1: predator teeth. That would make The Exorcist like way cuter,
Speaker 1: just like I wanna. Yeah, I'm going to remake it
Speaker 1: with these guys. You, your mother, your other sex butts
Speaker 1: in hell. Yeah, I'd be okay if they If one
Speaker 1: of these guys told me that, Yeah, if one of
Speaker 1: these guys was like a little demon, I'm I'm you
Speaker 1: know what, alright, it sign me up for demons. If
Speaker 1: these are what demons are, So that's what they are.
Speaker 1: The Tar series hunting strategy is to stay as still
Speaker 1: as possible, staring into the night, watching for the movement
Speaker 1: of prey, listening with their big ears there independently moving ears,
Speaker 1: trying to pinpoint where their little prey is rustling, staring
Speaker 1: with their huge eyes, standing still as a statue until
Speaker 1: they pounce on their victim from over six feet away
Speaker 1: or two meters. They are incredible leapers as well. There's legs,
Speaker 1: very springy. So just like this, I mean, we think
Speaker 1: they're cute, but if you're like a little a little
Speaker 1: guy sharing their territory, someone who would be their prey,
Speaker 1: it's just this huge eyed goblin that's like this gargoyle
Speaker 1: doesn't move and swivel its head like basically three sixty
Speaker 1: degrees and then as soon as it spots you literally
Speaker 1: like flings itself at you. That's truly gargoyles. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: just like perched in a tree waiting. Still. I love gargoyles.
Speaker 1: I've gotten the opportunity to see some like gargoyles at
Speaker 1: like old churches, and they're they're such they're they're not
Speaker 1: really actually scary. Usually they're usually super goofy, they're goose,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I for some reason I was thinking about gargoyles,
Speaker 1: and I was like, what a strange thing we've done
Speaker 1: to protect our buildings. Not a strange made up but
Speaker 1: I guess we didn't these guys are truly tiny gargoyles.
Speaker 1: Look at even their ears are grimlin stuff. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: they mostly eat insects or arthropods, so like spiders, insects, anything,
Speaker 1: but they will also make a snack out of bats, birds, snakes,
Speaker 1: and lizards. Whoa So I mean, because I was wondering,
Speaker 1: I was like, they you know, they're the size of
Speaker 1: a small rat. It's not like they can like, oh
Speaker 1: so they'll they'll take something down their own size big Yeah, anything,
Speaker 1: anything just slightly smaller than them, they will. If they
Speaker 1: can pounce on it and fit it in their mouth,
Speaker 1: then it's it's food. Then good for them, Yes, good
Speaker 1: for them. These are real you know, like boss boss
Speaker 1: bays taking control of the situation. You know, you're little,
Speaker 1: but you can still you know, massacre even smaller animals. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's just like a stealth attack. They just like
Speaker 1: jump off these things and start shredding, crunching, big crunch, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is inspirational, right, no matter
Speaker 1: how small you are, there's always someone smaller you can
Speaker 1: fit in your mouth and just crunch down on It's
Speaker 1: it's it's good to know it's good. So it's good
Speaker 1: today or even your own sash pick on people their
Speaker 1: own side. You know, if you can do it, if
Speaker 1: you can get if you can get a biden, you
Speaker 1: can get a biden. You know what I mean. Anything
Speaker 1: is food. They can't be much bigger than the birds
Speaker 1: that they're taking down, some of them. I mean, like
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think generally speaking, they would take
Speaker 1: down smaller birds. Um like you know they're they're I mean,
Speaker 1: because they are out there are small birds, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think like in a lot of bird masks
Speaker 1: sometimes it's just feathers, so like you get sort of
Speaker 1: you know, you can get right. So the tarsiers themselves
Speaker 1: are quite small, and they are prey two larger predators. However,
Speaker 1: they will not go down without a fight. Some species
Speaker 1: of tarsiers formed these small family groups. But then when
Speaker 1: they're threatened, they will join with other family groups to
Speaker 1: ward off the predators. So they will join forces and
Speaker 1: all shriek and scream and like try to drive away predators.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic, that's incredible. I was hoping they would become
Speaker 1: like a little tarsier transformer kind of like create a
Speaker 1: big yeah, just like pile off top become a big one.
Speaker 1: To fight. But that's cool too. No shrieking is all
Speaker 1: tarsier shape of bigger tarsier. Just fight together. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: like little falling off as they get punched by like
Speaker 1: the other animal. But I love the teamwork. Yeah, teeth
Speaker 1: made out of ever smaller tar series. Yeah no, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Teamwork makes the dream work. Ye so earlier, Like I
Speaker 1: mentioned that they do not like to be handled. These
Speaker 1: are I feel like for anyone who's like an introvert,
Speaker 1: these guys are truly like you know, kindred spirits, So
Speaker 1: they are so specifically adapted for their environment. They absolutely
Speaker 1: cannot survive or be bred in captivity. Uh. Their eyes
Speaker 1: and ears are so sensitive, they don't tolerate light, loud sounds,
Speaker 1: and they hate being handled. Uh. In captivity, they will
Speaker 1: sometimes throw themselves against the walls of their enclosure and distress,
Speaker 1: which can be fatal. So, like, you know, leave them alone,
Speaker 1: leave them alone. They're good on their own. They can
Speaker 1: handle themselves. I do. It's hard not to pick them up.
Speaker 1: I know they are adorable, but just know when you
Speaker 1: pick them up, they are they want to murder you
Speaker 1: if they if they could murder you in that moment,
Speaker 1: they would do it without hesitation. Like we joke about
Speaker 1: that with cats, but it's not really true. Like our
Speaker 1: house cats. It's like, ah, you want to murder me,
Speaker 1: but not really. They like you. They want to have
Speaker 1: the food you give them. They like the cuddles. These
Speaker 1: little guys. I'm a hundred percent confident if we could
Speaker 1: get in their brains and they see you coming at
Speaker 1: them trying to cuddle them, making a kissy face, they're
Speaker 1: like thinking, like, murder, murder, murder, murder, murder, murder, attack
Speaker 1: your face. They don't Yeah, they don't need you to
Speaker 1: give them food. They love the hunt, they love the Yes,
Speaker 1: they thrive on it. They just they just love killing.
Speaker 1: It's fun. Yeah, and that's all they need. Leave them
Speaker 1: alone in the jungle to kill right exactly and their
Speaker 1: best life murdering snakes hashtag blessed, hashtag murder life, hashtag
Speaker 1: tiny gremlins. Onto another murderous cutie bridget. The world is
Speaker 1: full of the cutest animals who love to kill stuff.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about one of the cutest
Speaker 1: foxes in the world, the Finnic fox. Now, these guys,
Speaker 1: these guys are I think these are relatively well known.
Speaker 1: Probably if you're a listener, you've seen one of these guys.
Speaker 1: So these are the little foxes, kind of like sandy
Speaker 1: colored with the big old ears. So they are found
Speaker 1: in the deserts of northern Africa. They are the smallest
Speaker 1: of the Canads, Canaids being a family that includes dogs, wolves, jackals,
Speaker 1: and foxes, so smallest fox, smallest Canad. They're little, teeny
Speaker 1: tiny guys. So they grow to be around fifteen inches
Speaker 1: long or forty centimeters not including their tail, and way
Speaker 1: around two to four pounds, so one or two kims,
Speaker 1: little little babies. It's all ears. Yeah. Yeah, their ears
Speaker 1: are actually bigger than their heads. Sometimes they're like half
Speaker 1: the size of their bodies. They look like fluffy Chiwalla bunnies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good way of putting it. I don't know
Speaker 1: how they hold these guys out, but it's cute. They
Speaker 1: have the largest ear to body ratio of any canad,
Speaker 1: so uh they are. It just makes what is it
Speaker 1: about big old ears that is so cute? I you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. You you wouldn't think it, but like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, these guys are really working it in particular,
Speaker 1: really do with their cute little foxy face. Uh, it works,
Speaker 1: it just works, it off. It's a good fit. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so like they have um these also little fuzzy tufted footsies, tootsies,
Speaker 1: little people that protect their blue paws from the hot
Speaker 1: desert sand. Just like just absolute cuteness. Yeah, I they are.
Speaker 1: It's like you don't remember the Avatar animal this series,
Speaker 1: Not the Blue Blue People Avatar, but the yeah you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Airbender Avatar. They had that little that little thing
Speaker 1: Momo with a huge ears kind of like I don't know,
Speaker 1: kind of similar vibes, not quite. I guess Momo was
Speaker 1: more of a lemur thing. But these got just the
Speaker 1: big the big ears are so big ears and on
Speaker 1: and on any pet. The ears are one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things to play. Yes, yes, uh, and I think
Speaker 1: that's what it is. I bet they're real soft. You
Speaker 1: should probably shouldn't touch them, but I bet they have
Speaker 1: the softest ear I would imagine, yes, yeah, my dog,
Speaker 1: like I really yeah, get getting the scratches on my
Speaker 1: dog ear my dog's ears. It's like these ears are
Speaker 1: just like little cuddle zones. I love them. I love them.
Speaker 1: I wonder what these guys look like wet well, I
Speaker 1: can tell you bridget they should not get what they
Speaker 1: would hate it because yeah, they live in a desert.
Speaker 1: They do not love water. They don't swim really, they
Speaker 1: do not want to really be around bodies of water.
Speaker 1: In fact, they don't even really need to drink that
Speaker 1: much water. Most of the hydration they get is from
Speaker 1: the juices of their victims, so they love killing. They
Speaker 1: will eat small mammals, lizards, birds, get gos. But they'll
Speaker 1: also eat eggs. They'll even eat root vegetables, so they're
Speaker 1: quasi omnivorous. But they but they absolutely love to kill stuff.
Speaker 1: Um but yeah, because water is so scarce in their
Speaker 1: desert environment, they all most of their hydration comes from
Speaker 1: the blood and the guts of the things they kill. Yeh,
Speaker 1: good for them, Just straight lizard gatorade, right, yeah, cool
Speaker 1: and refreshing. Can you imagine like a little coach one
Speaker 1: of these fedix foxes as a coach and then like
Speaker 1: wins the game and they just put dump a big,
Speaker 1: like frothy thing of like lizard guts on lizards. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: let's take a break. Everyone gets some lizard guts, So
Speaker 1: let's let's go back to those ears for a minute, though,
Speaker 1: those what are those massive ears doing? Are they flying
Speaker 1: around like planes? I wish so ears actually served two functions.
Speaker 1: One is to actually keep them cool in the desert heat,
Speaker 1: and the other is to stock and locate victims no
Speaker 1: matter where they try to hide. So the obvious use
Speaker 1: of these ears is being sensitive to hearing prey. So
Speaker 1: they can hear arthropods or rodents moving under the sand,
Speaker 1: like buried under the sand, and once they've pinpointed their prey,
Speaker 1: they will find exactly where they are under that stand
Speaker 1: rapid you dig them up and then before they've known it,
Speaker 1: it's it's a murder. I would love to watch it
Speaker 1: dig I bet it's really cute watching them just digging
Speaker 1: the sand, uh, for murdering purposes. But it was a
Speaker 1: little pause, just like here I go, I'm gonna murder.
Speaker 1: That would drive me crazy. Like imagine hearing everything moving
Speaker 1: underneath the ground. It's good for them, but like if
Speaker 1: it's I think even if it's all food, like imagine
Speaker 1: being like full and being like still here, I mean
Speaker 1: my food moving. That's the thing though, when you're in this,
Speaker 1: when you're a little guy, you gotta wrapid metabolism and
Speaker 1: you live in this desert environment, like you, you were
Speaker 1: always hungry, always hungry for murder. So yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: they be paranoid. So yeah, but yeah, imagine if you
Speaker 1: could hear, like just to hear a burger scuttle around
Speaker 1: and you're like, I'm gonna get that burger. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: large ears also means a large surface area where blood
Speaker 1: vessels can spread out and meet the air, which cools
Speaker 1: down the blood as it circulates into the body, so
Speaker 1: it's actually a built in blood conditioner. This is a
Speaker 1: common technique that animals will use to cool down in
Speaker 1: hot environments. So like Gerboa's, which are adorable little like mice.
Speaker 1: They look like little mice that have like kangaroo legs
Speaker 1: and giant ears. They're so cute. African hairs also have
Speaker 1: just gigantic ears. And even when you think about it,
Speaker 1: elephants like those big ears. In addition to being able
Speaker 1: to kind of fan them around, like, that surface area
Speaker 1: allows the blood to cool and get recirculated back into
Speaker 1: the elephants, so it helps keep them cool. That is
Speaker 1: so yeah. I mean, it never fails to like amaze
Speaker 1: me how smart evolution is and the body is and
Speaker 1: like these little tricks. Um, it's like all improv babies play,
Speaker 1: like what if we made Yeah, what if we just
Speaker 1: like really stretched out the ears so they can feel
Speaker 1: the breeze. Yeah, it's it's not even that though. You
Speaker 1: just get a you get a dumbo born one generation
Speaker 1: and then like dumbos like huh, I feel actually really good,
Speaker 1: really cool, and he makes more dumbos and the ladies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it makes Yeah, I mean it makes sense
Speaker 1: because like I guess, like when you're hot and you're
Speaker 1: just like starfish in bed spread out. Yes, these guys
Speaker 1: are smart. Ears. Squirrels do that sometimes too, to like
Speaker 1: dissipate heat, like where they kind of spread out, and
Speaker 1: it's yeah, I've seen. It's got an actual name. You
Speaker 1: want to know what it is? What is it called spouting?
Speaker 1: No way? Yeah, I remember the Yeah. The first time
Speaker 1: I was amazed. I I saw a squirrel just like
Speaker 1: fully lying on the top of a park bench in
Speaker 1: the middle of the summer, and it was the first
Speaker 1: time I had ever seen anything like that, and I
Speaker 1: was like, are you okay, little buddy. He's like, just
Speaker 1: own business. Just sluten leave melt, leave me alone. Splutin off.
Speaker 1: I can't believe that that really feels like something the
Speaker 1: Internet came up with it, so wild gluten ears so
Speaker 1: Fannick foxes are also pretty cute in their social lives.
Speaker 1: They live in family groups in the den uh and
Speaker 1: that is adorable. They do actually hunt alone though, like
Speaker 1: when when they're out murdering, they do it on their own. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't want their family to see it, right, you're
Speaker 1: too young to see this, junior and then just ripping
Speaker 1: the head off of something. But you know, they actually
Speaker 1: will take on prey larger than themselves. They are that
Speaker 1: for the dedicated to the cause of murdering things. So
Speaker 1: they will sometimes like pick out a rabbit and rabbits
Speaker 1: can actually be larger than them. These like hairs will
Speaker 1: be bigger than the Finnic fox and they're like, I
Speaker 1: could eat it. I could do that. That's that's a
Speaker 1: family dinner. That's that's smart. They know a rabbit probably
Speaker 1: doesn't have like can't hurt them. It's bigger than them,
Speaker 1: but it probably can't hurt them. Well, it's not necessarily true, though,
Speaker 1: rabbits and hairs will viciously fight back if they can,
Speaker 1: like they have massive hind legs that can really like
Speaker 1: actually shred and tear. Um. So like they are just
Speaker 1: they will defend themselves. I just had an image, yeah, fair,
Speaker 1: I just had an image of like a rabbit trying
Speaker 1: to like back kick one of these things, just like
Speaker 1: flying through the air. Yeah, so truly, Like it sounds
Speaker 1: like fighting a rabbit. That's like that's punching down. But
Speaker 1: I could fight a rabbit a rabbit. I can fight
Speaker 1: a rabbit two rabbits. Yeah, But you know I love
Speaker 1: the toughness, Yes, I love I Yeah, I love that
Speaker 1: size doesn't matter that there. Yeah, these are tough little guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've got like they've got like big big guy energy,
Speaker 1: but in a little guy. And that's what we love
Speaker 1: to say, that's what we love. So unfortunately, because they
Speaker 1: are so cute, people do try to keep them as pets. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I get it. I definitely sympathize with wanting one
Speaker 1: of these as a pet because, like I mean, cute,
Speaker 1: so cute. Look at it, look at it. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: I want to want I don't know, I want to
Speaker 1: scratch its little ears. I want to carry it around
Speaker 1: the house making airplane noises, going you're like, but I
Speaker 1: don't do that with why the animals. Let me present
Speaker 1: to you just a case against keeping them as pets.
Speaker 1: Here's a few reasons. First one is they smell like
Speaker 1: Satan's butthole. They're peace highly highly potent. They have very
Speaker 1: stinky concentrated urine because they use that in the wild
Speaker 1: to mark their territory. And in addition, and also they're
Speaker 1: not drinking a lot of water, right, it's very concentrated,
Speaker 1: very stinky. Good point. Also, they like to roll around
Speaker 1: in their own piss, so you also we mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: they don't like water, so they roll around in their
Speaker 1: own piss. And it's really not recommended that you give
Speaker 1: them baths because they get very stressed out. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna have like this piss covered reeking animal who if
Speaker 1: you try to bathe can give them like a panic
Speaker 1: attack and can be dangerous. So like, ah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not a great situation. It's like a newborn baby, I imagine,
Speaker 1: slightly less hard than a newborn baby. Yes, so they
Speaker 1: are not demn yes yeah um, and hopefully your newborn
Speaker 1: baby is not rolling around in its own piss for
Speaker 1: very long h Yeah, it seems unavoidable at a certain age.
Speaker 1: But right right on this show, we're strongly anti child neglect.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the Finnic foxes are not domesticated. They love hunting.
Speaker 1: They have an omnivorous diet that is very difficult to
Speaker 1: replicate um dogs and cats. Like you may be thinking, like, well,
Speaker 1: they're carnivores. Well, they have lived with us for thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of years to the point where their metabolism
Speaker 1: has evolved to be able to eat much more of
Speaker 1: our human food such that we can make these like
Speaker 1: kibble formulations, like we've figured out the diet for well
Speaker 1: maybe not a percent figured out, but like, uh, you know, dogs,
Speaker 1: for instance, have gained the ability to digest grain, which
Speaker 1: their ancestors lacked, so and they can have a little
Speaker 1: piece as a treat. They can have a little piece
Speaker 1: of salami, but only as a treat, and they can
Speaker 1: you know, they can eat some grain. They are still
Speaker 1: they still require meat and proteins. Same with cats, like
Speaker 1: cats need meat and protein, but dogs especially have developed
Speaker 1: the ability to digest more grain than their ancestors. Cats
Speaker 1: are a little less. Cats didn't really change that much
Speaker 1: in terms of their dietary needs compared to the untapable,
Speaker 1: but dogs definitely have. Uh. Finnic foxes have not been
Speaker 1: domesticated at all, so they're metabolism has not adapted to
Speaker 1: any aspect of a human diet. So you need to
Speaker 1: feed it live insects, live rodents. Uh. You also need
Speaker 1: to do like vegetables. I've like looked at like some
Speaker 1: of these things where like people recommend you feed them
Speaker 1: live baby birds. First of all, I don't know how
Speaker 1: you source that. I don't know where you get them. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta trapper and also blood everywhere, but everywhere. Again
Speaker 1: they love murdering. Um, so yeah, you wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: be cool with like having your pet like do a
Speaker 1: murder spree every day and like with a side of salad.
Speaker 1: Like that's like that's what your diet is, with a
Speaker 1: nice little yeah, with a nice little house salad. Right,
Speaker 1: I'll have the grotesque murder rip a baby bird's head
Speaker 1: clean off its shoulders. Um, and like could I could
Speaker 1: I get some rugula just on the side, right? I
Speaker 1: I just imagine like these people like they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta leave my house for two hours a day,
Speaker 1: said a little bird free in my house? Leave for
Speaker 1: two hours come back to crime scene, right right. I
Speaker 1: don't ask questions. I just let it happen. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just let a bird loosen my house and see what happens. Also,
Speaker 1: if you have one of these guys, you should really
Speaker 1: fill your house with sand. Uh. They love burrowing, I
Speaker 1: love scrap digging up sand. So really, to give it
Speaker 1: its best life, you would want to fill room with sand,
Speaker 1: put some live insects in there, maybe some scorpions, baby birds, tubers, lamps. Yes,
Speaker 1: and deal with an animal that smells like super piss
Speaker 1: poops in the house and who screams constantly like this
Speaker 1: is what they sound like. Oh wow, so imagine that, don't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: leave these guys alone. The potent odor of the pungent
Speaker 1: and potent odor of piss, rewear, dead animals, poop um.
Speaker 1: Not a pet, I'm gonna that's my verdict. Not no,
Speaker 1: not a pet. Looks like a pet. Not a pet.
Speaker 1: Not a pet, which is which is the hardest thing
Speaker 1: for people to wrap their head around. Hard. I get it.
Speaker 1: I want to. I get it too. I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to, I really want to cuddle it. Yet
Speaker 1: I want to give one of these guys a nice poop,
Speaker 1: right like I want to dress in little sweaters and
Speaker 1: called Benjamin and be like, come on, come, Benjamin, we
Speaker 1: we must go to the market for your fresh baby birds.
Speaker 1: They definitely are the kind of like pet where they
Speaker 1: don't you know, if it's names Chris, it goes by Christopher.
Speaker 1: They go by the full Yeah, they go by the
Speaker 1: full name. They're distinguished. Imagine it in a bow type
Speaker 1: but don't. Yeah, well you can imagine. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: you can imagine it, just just yeah, imagine it. Don't
Speaker 1: put it in a bow tie. I'm not the tyrant
Speaker 1: of your imagination. I encourage you to imagine it in
Speaker 1: a time, but if you try to make that a reality,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be you know, kind of imagine you'll lose
Speaker 1: a finger. Yeah, and apparently their teeth are super super sharp.
Speaker 1: They're like little razors, so like you know how like
Speaker 1: puppy teeth are actually weirdly sharper than Yeah, it's like that,
Speaker 1: but even worse. So like they there bots are apparently
Speaker 1: very bloody and painful. So you know, let's just let's
Speaker 1: seems like a bad pete. Yeah, let's have like an
Speaker 1: imaginary one as our pet, like and imagine it and
Speaker 1: put a little bit of stuffed animal. Yeah, look at
Speaker 1: some pictures and get a stuff. Imagine the smell of concentrated,
Speaker 1: dehydrated piss like in your in your mind. Oh, you
Speaker 1: can tell. These guys look like stinky, little stinkers. They're
Speaker 1: a little stink guys and they love it. You can
Speaker 1: tell they love it, the little around in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you just gotta let them be them. We gotta see them.
Speaker 1: They're so I'm assuming their ears like moved back and
Speaker 1: forth and they don't really like down. Yeah, they don't
Speaker 1: get Yeah. Yeah, it's the full it's it's it's the
Speaker 1: full range of cute and horrible grimlin goblin mode. Like yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely definition of goblin mode. It would kill me to
Speaker 1: see them have like sad, floppy ears, you know. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw I saw a video of one getting bathed
Speaker 1: and it had like its ears were like pinned back
Speaker 1: and it looked miserable, and it's like, don't bathem little
Speaker 1: be stinky. He doesn't bathe them wild if you like,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. If you're going to get one of
Speaker 1: these as a pet, you've got to commit to the
Speaker 1: stinky lifestyle. The goblin mode you got to commit to
Speaker 1: stink life. Yeah, and you're also gonna stinky. You're gonna
Speaker 1: smell like your house is gonna smell. Yeah. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think I I don't you know, these guys can
Speaker 1: commit distinct life. I don't think humans should, right, right,
Speaker 1: But if like again, like you, you will smell like
Speaker 1: piss and you should accept that. Yeah, what a good message. Yeah,
Speaker 1: leave these guys alone, m smell like yeah, yeah, let
Speaker 1: him smell like piss. Let them let them fight bigger animals.
Speaker 1: Uh and and and stay in their families and screen
Speaker 1: and like juice box a lizard, suck a lizard up
Speaker 1: like yeah, yeah, exactly, just full caprice, crush it like
Speaker 1: a gatorade bottle and wease all those guts in there.
Speaker 1: I love them, I love I love its little tail,
Speaker 1: and it's big ears and it's cute little nose. Bridget.
Speaker 1: We are onto perhaps the most Stevia say animal in
Speaker 1: the world. It is. Yeah, what a little ball. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I may have talked about these dudes on
Speaker 1: the show before, but let's talk about them again because
Speaker 1: it's been quite a while, and holy moly, they're the
Speaker 1: most insidious, demented Jigsaw killer level murderers out there, and
Speaker 1: they are adorable. So the sweet little birdie bird, can
Speaker 1: you describe it, Bridget, Yeah, I mean I can kind
Speaker 1: of tell there's some evil behind those eyes. Um and
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, it's it's like a pigeon. But if
Speaker 1: a pigeon was like a cute little ball, tiny little
Speaker 1: ball pigeon with a very erroow dynamic looking tail, which
Speaker 1: I imagine helps them. But the thing, they're very cute,
Speaker 1: They're tiny. It's like a little bird ball, a little
Speaker 1: bird ball. But I immediately do not trust it because
Speaker 1: and I have a I have a feeling this is
Speaker 1: going to come up. It does have a beak that
Speaker 1: comes around, uh into like a very sharp point. Uh
Speaker 1: and that Yeah, it has like this weird little curved beak,
Speaker 1: the tiniest all curved beak you've ever seen. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: just for like, maybe that's just for punching a hole
Speaker 1: in your compute son, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just yeah, it's just for snacks, just for snacks,
Speaker 1: just just for tearing open like a cutie orange, which
Speaker 1: is about the same size and shape of this guy.
Speaker 1: So these are shrikes. So shrikes are a family of
Speaker 1: medium to small birds who are mainly found in Africa
Speaker 1: and Eurasia, although there are also a couple of species
Speaker 1: found in North America, including the loggerhead and northern shrike.
Speaker 1: And I think most of these pictures I've shown you
Speaker 1: are the longer head shrike, so they are to look
Speaker 1: familiar to me. But also yeah, also yeah, birds can
Speaker 1: be hard to identify for me that not a birder
Speaker 1: and wild, but I mean I've done birding and it's hard,
Speaker 1: even like some experience, it's difficult. So they are typically
Speaker 1: gray brown and white in coloration with a black beak,
Speaker 1: and they've got a little bandit mask over their eyes.
Speaker 1: They've got the racing, so you know, that's kind of
Speaker 1: what makes yeah, you know they're up to something, these
Speaker 1: little zoros Like it's uh, you know it is. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's a weird kind of stereotyping with the
Speaker 1: bandit mask, but it's like almost always like in nature
Speaker 1: when you got someone with a bandit masks, like you're
Speaker 1: up to something, because raccoons are all that stuff. Yeah
Speaker 1: you're yeah, your eyes are dark. I don't I can't
Speaker 1: fully trust you, but it is it's a cool look.
Speaker 1: It's very cute. I mean it's sleek. It's these guys
Speaker 1: are sleek as hell. I like their tails. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: look like they're fast, they look like they can dive.
Speaker 1: They look like a little crime and I do like that,
Speaker 1: they really do. Yeah. Yeah that that first picture you have,
Speaker 1: it looks like a little tony soprano bird, which which
Speaker 1: you think you think you you come to come to
Speaker 1: my Egg's wedding and you you don't even don't you
Speaker 1: don't bring a Google Google Gobba. We'll work on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you know that um is actually from Capacola and
Speaker 1: it got bastardized into Gobba goo? Yeah, yeah it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the same meat. It's Capacola. It's just like yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like slang or it was like Italian slang
Speaker 1: for Capacola. Well, it's like which is one of our
Speaker 1: best words, right because in southern Italy um capitul, like
Speaker 1: people sometimes drop the last vowel in words. So Capacola
Speaker 1: turned into capacol somehow like got like from the transatlantic
Speaker 1: trip from Italy to the US, like it turned into
Speaker 1: like Gabba Google or something, and it's like became like
Speaker 1: Gabba goole which is one of our best words. So
Speaker 1: it really is in this great melting pots definitely look
Speaker 1: like they're complaining about gabba gool um. Yeah and do
Speaker 1: uh yeah, there's there's a line and I in a
Speaker 1: toy story three, I want to say where Miss potato
Speaker 1: Head is packing up Mr potato Head for a trip,
Speaker 1: and she says, I'm packing your angry eyes just in case.
Speaker 1: And these guys definitely have their angry eyes. That's right. Yes,
Speaker 1: despite looking just like this little bird that is also
Speaker 1: perhaps as mischievous, they are known as the butcher bird
Speaker 1: for good reason. So shrikes are carnivores. They love meat.
Speaker 1: They not only love to eat meat, they love collecting
Speaker 1: meat and saving it for later. So how do you
Speaker 1: do that when you don't have a fridge or a pantry.
Speaker 1: Well ya, shish kebab your victims on spikes? So what?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, their little psychopaths. Yes, so they will catch insects, reptiles,
Speaker 1: small mammals, and even other birds and impale them on
Speaker 1: spikes wherever they can find spikes, so that could be thorn,
Speaker 1: branches or even man made structures like barbed wire. Wow,
Speaker 1: they have like little meat lockers. They're like their leather
Speaker 1: face essentially, yeah, killers. Yes, so some species do make
Speaker 1: sure to kill their ms before impaling them, such as
Speaker 1: the loggerhead strike, and they will grab their victim by
Speaker 1: the neck inflict a precise bite to the neck, paralyzing them.
Speaker 1: And once they're victim has gone limped with the praise
Speaker 1: neck still in their beaks, they will shake them violently
Speaker 1: until their next snaps. And these strikes these little birds
Speaker 1: subject them to a g force similar to a roller coaster. Wow. Horrified, Yeah,
Speaker 1: also methodical, but also violent. Yeah, I guess I respected.
Speaker 1: I'm terrified. Yeah, this tiny bird, Yes, that's cute, tiny
Speaker 1: bird that I want to hold in my hand right now.
Speaker 1: I really don't. I feel like I would be very
Speaker 1: like I would if they were like a crime boss,
Speaker 1: despite them being this little and small, I'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: whatever you say, boss, Like I would respect them. Oh yeah, no,
Speaker 1: even more now. The Tony Soprano of birds right exactly,
Speaker 1: you know, like you gotta make a quick you got yeah,
Speaker 1: you can got a bow right in the neck. And
Speaker 1: and much like Tony Soprano, there's something lovable about it,
Speaker 1: but also you know there's an inherent evil they Yeah,
Speaker 1: they will kill you if you present them with a complication. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in a pretty violent way. Complication is such as being
Speaker 1: around when they are hungry. Right, So, uh, then once
Speaker 1: they have killed their prey dead in this horribly violent way,
Speaker 1: they will impale them on a spike. So the use
Speaker 1: of this like meat locker um helps them eat larger
Speaker 1: prey by like methodically stripping bits of flesh off them,
Speaker 1: and also to save the food for later if they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, not so hungry anymore, just like you know, leftovers.
Speaker 1: And it's like a half eaten freaking lizard on a
Speaker 1: spike with its face just in. It's locked in to
Speaker 1: what it looked like when it was violently assaulted. It's
Speaker 1: good stuff. Uh. And the doc I sent you I said,
Speaker 1: don't scroll down, but now you can absolutely scroll down
Speaker 1: now because you know, yeah, I've got pictures of this business.
Speaker 1: And it's it's oh yeah, uh oh my god. Oh
Speaker 1: this is horrifying. This is gruesome. This is a crime scene.
Speaker 1: These are crime scene photos. It's like from Hannibal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks premeditated, I mean it is yeah, yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: oh this is uh yeah, this is these are these
Speaker 1: are some violent pictures of the small rodents and other birds,
Speaker 1: which is just like yeah, just through the head. Yeah
Speaker 1: like that. I think it's like a I think it's
Speaker 1: some kind of mouth or rat and the spike is
Speaker 1: going just right through the right through this. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: really uh, I especially this one, the first one. I
Speaker 1: how they angled it to impale it and like they're
Speaker 1: doing art now. They're like they're it's like an arrangement,
Speaker 1: you know, like edible bouquets arranged food. But it's like that,
Speaker 1: but like, hey, check out how I've art now, so
Speaker 1: I'm going to skelet tonight. Is It's also like I
Speaker 1: understand they're the branches can be the sharp, but it
Speaker 1: feels like they had to sharpen some of these. I
Speaker 1: mean this is like they usually pick out really thorny
Speaker 1: trees like these are that one that's like a thorn?
Speaker 1: So that that is sharp? Yeah? That that's yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know, definitely, I don't know of them actually
Speaker 1: like sharpening branches. They tend to just like to use
Speaker 1: the available spiky things. That's why they they will absolutely
Speaker 1: use barbed wire and just like yeah, the barbed that one. Uh.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's just this type of that looks barbecued. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a horned lizard, so it already looks
Speaker 1: kind of dried out. Um, but yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: could have been there for a few days and for
Speaker 1: a while to become a file a little bit. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, they will do food preparation, so like they
Speaker 1: they will take something that is normally toxic, like a
Speaker 1: toxic insects such as the lubber grasshopper, that if they
Speaker 1: ate it immediately it would make them sick. So they
Speaker 1: will impale these grasshoppers, leave them dead and impaled for
Speaker 1: around three days while the toxin degrades, and then eat
Speaker 1: them once they're ripe, essentially once the toxin has degraded
Speaker 1: enough during the decomposition, and then like eat them and
Speaker 1: they're safe then. So yeah, it's like kind of a yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, you know, like letting your wine age,
Speaker 1: except it's a dead grasshopper. Yeah, dead poisonous grasshopper. Do
Speaker 1: they like I have to feel like their food gets
Speaker 1: poached a lot, or do they like hang out they
Speaker 1: protect it. I mean, yeah, it's an interesting question, I
Speaker 1: think because they're like high up in like usually these
Speaker 1: thorny things are sort of like high up so like
Speaker 1: a typical predator isn't gonna be up there. Um it
Speaker 1: maybe get poached by other like predatory birds or other
Speaker 1: strikes potentially, Um, but yeah, I mean I think they
Speaker 1: will eat it's they will like once they've killed it,
Speaker 1: they will eat it like uh immediately. They will eat
Speaker 1: as much as they want until they're full, and then
Speaker 1: like they'll stop eating, go go off do their business
Speaker 1: and then come back. And I'm sure sometimes it gets poached,
Speaker 1: but you know, yeah, but I but you don't want
Speaker 1: to mess with these You don't want to coach one
Speaker 1: of these guys. Yeah, like you don't want to go
Speaker 1: have your head on a spice. Literally, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: truly a crime scene. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: they will impale anything they catch, so like from a
Speaker 1: little bee, which there's something cute and sad about that,
Speaker 1: just like this bee that they've been paled um or
Speaker 1: to like a large rodent or even a bird nearly
Speaker 1: their own sides. Like they will take on birds that
Speaker 1: are almost like the same size as them and like
Speaker 1: thrash the um and then it's just it's just it's
Speaker 1: it's incredible, like just they are they are the hannibal
Speaker 1: Hannibals of of the bird world. Yeah, these guys are
Speaker 1: maybe the scariest. They they're I saved them most terrifying
Speaker 1: for last, because yeah, they they're. I mean it is
Speaker 1: like it's like hell. It's like things and paled on spikes.
Speaker 1: These are hell birds and they just look so proud
Speaker 1: of their killing too, just like yeah, I did it.
Speaker 1: They're not. They're not even like trying to shirk responsibility,
Speaker 1: like yeah, I did it, I did this, I did this.
Speaker 1: Mess with me. It's like if O. J. Simpson had
Speaker 1: written a book that said I did it instead of
Speaker 1: if I did Yeah, and with him on the cover
Speaker 1: next to his right, like next to the order scene. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is yeah. These are yeah, truly crime scene photos.
Speaker 1: It really is. I've got them in the show notes,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like check them out, check them out
Speaker 1: if you want. Like, they're not I don't find I
Speaker 1: don't find their gory, but I think just emotionally there
Speaker 1: it's the punch is not the gore. It's not really good.
Speaker 1: It's just shocking. It's the emotional gut punch of seeing
Speaker 1: this bird proudly standing next to like one of them
Speaker 1: is European robin, which is one of my favorite birds.
Speaker 1: I think they're the cutest birds in the world. It's
Speaker 1: just this poor little European robin impaled on a spike
Speaker 1: with this like innocent looking bird just being like, yeah
Speaker 1: I did that. That was me. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: eat it. I'm gonna eat half of it now and
Speaker 1: save half of it for later later. Yeah. No, there's yeah,
Speaker 1: they're smart, uh they ration you know. Yeah, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a it's not a gor thing. It's just
Speaker 1: it's shocking to see in the animal king to Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's something that seems so premeditated. Yeah, yeah, Like
Speaker 1: you know, I feel maybe because you know, I feel
Speaker 1: like our culture has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with true
Speaker 1: crime these days, like the whole Thomber obsession, and it's
Speaker 1: a little bit it's a little ghosh, it's a little unhealthy.
Speaker 1: So maybe we could just educate ourselves about nature and
Speaker 1: then get our sick kicks that way, because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of serial killers. Yeah, it seems like it, and
Speaker 1: like in like in real life, the last people you
Speaker 1: would expect, Yes, exactly. You know, I couldn't have said
Speaker 1: it better myself, bridget um, which is why again I'm
Speaker 1: always keeping one open around you, because like you look
Speaker 1: very innocent, sweet, right, but there's something, you know, there's
Speaker 1: something behind the eyes of all. Yeah, exactly, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: group myself in with them adorable little sweeties. I have
Speaker 1: seen you like at because we used to work together
Speaker 1: and there was like a shoot and I remember like
Speaker 1: you would put up signs like be quiet in this
Speaker 1: hallway and people would walk on, walk on by, having
Speaker 1: loud conversations. And here comes Bridget again, like she's like
Speaker 1: the tarsier of the human world, you know, like it
Speaker 1: looks very sweet, very innocent, and then just like destroys
Speaker 1: these people literally drift their head off, you know, and
Speaker 1: pale them onto bikes. Yeah, if you're talking on one
Speaker 1: of my sets, uh, you know, it goes quiet pretty
Speaker 1: quickly out of the room and then everything is silent, right,
Speaker 1: you know, head and pale. It happened, hey, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: send a p a to clean it up, right, save
Speaker 1: it for later, yeah, shave it for for for for
Speaker 1: the for the craft table. Yeah, just just a bunch
Speaker 1: of little birds. Well, Bridget, Before we go, we have
Speaker 1: to switch gears and play a little game I like
Speaker 1: to call guess who's squawking? The mry animal sound game.
Speaker 1: Every week I play a mry animal sound and you
Speaker 1: the listener, and you the guests. So are you ready
Speaker 1: to do it? Are you ready? So? Last week's mr
Speaker 1: Animal sound hint was this? This alarm call is no
Speaker 1: laughing matter. Wow, that sounds like a Is it a
Speaker 1: rubber duck? That's that's right, it's a it's a literal
Speaker 1: rubber duck. It's a it's a rubber ducky gig, give me,
Speaker 1: give me the hint one more time. This alarm call
Speaker 1: is no laughing matter. Laughing matter makes me want to
Speaker 1: say hyena. But that definitely sounds like some sort of
Speaker 1: bird that noise comes out of a beak I want
Speaker 1: to imagine. Um uh oh man, this is another another
Speaker 1: just like wrong guess, but I'm gonna go with some
Speaker 1: sort of loon. Interesting it is a wrong guess. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Nonethe last, but this is the alarm call
Speaker 1: of a lama. It's a lama. You got lama. You
Speaker 1: got lama, fredge you got the I mean, I have
Speaker 1: never trusted lamas. Uh, They're tricky. That truly sounds like
Speaker 1: it comes out of a beak, it does it does?
Speaker 1: Or a horn. It's it's an odd Yeah, it's an
Speaker 1: odd yeah sound but yeah, I guess lamas squeak or
Speaker 1: squawk orrel Yeah. So. Lamas are social animals, and they
Speaker 1: live with a herd in the wild and in captivity.
Speaker 1: They will consider those who live with them as part
Speaker 1: of their herd, regardless of species, So similar to donkeys,
Speaker 1: they can be used as livestock guards who will issue
Speaker 1: alarm calls and attack predators who try to attack it's herd,
Speaker 1: which could be a group of sheep or other livestock
Speaker 1: that the lama has now adopted and believes it must
Speaker 1: protect with the incredible alarm call and with a righteous aggression.
Speaker 1: I love llamas as like old timey centuries bodyguard century guards.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, they're lovely. I love them. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: They're a strange animal and that seems like a good
Speaker 1: job for them. Yes, onto this week's Mr Animals. Sound
Speaker 1: here is the hint. As a fellow introverted redhead, I
Speaker 1: sympathize with sometimes wanting personal space. He alright, Bridget, can
Speaker 1: you guess who's squawking? And if you gives correctly. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to bleep you out so everyone else can
Speaker 1: have a chance, but people will know if you got
Speaker 1: it right. I feel like that's right. You are absolutely correct. Yes,
Speaker 1: Ah that feels good, but it does. I'll quack you out,
Speaker 1: but everyone for the record, Bridget has givest it correctly,
Speaker 1: and don't you forget it. Don't you forget it, or
Speaker 1: she's gonna impale you on a spike on a spike.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's yeah, that's also the way of Bridgets. Not
Speaker 1: not in this podcast, but yes, so very good gifts. Bridget.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the show today.
Speaker 1: Where can people find you? Ah, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: having me. It's so fun to talk about animals. I
Speaker 1: love them. Uh, you guys can find me on the
Speaker 1: Small Beans network. I have a couple of different podcasts there,
Speaker 1: as Katie mentioned, shooting threes right now where me and
Speaker 1: Sarah Griffith are going over movie trilogies. Rough stuff will
Speaker 1: be back soon. Uh, and you know, whenever Fast and
Speaker 1: Furious comes out, we're gonna be talking about that. And uh,
Speaker 1: you can you can keep up to date with all
Speaker 1: the the movie stuff, producing, writing, directing stuff. I've been
Speaker 1: doing over on Twitter at bridget tweets for you know. However,
Speaker 1: long still kicking. I'm curious about the New Past and
Speaker 1: Furious because like I think they were filming it here
Speaker 1: actually in turn and like parts of it. Probably they're
Speaker 1: gonna say it's Rome or something, which sucks because like,
Speaker 1: come on, um, but yeah, there was like a helicopter
Speaker 1: going around, like making it impossible to podcast where. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you're in the vicinity of a fast and furious
Speaker 1: movie shooting, you know it, and it disrupted disturb everything.
Speaker 1: It's very disruptive, but for for good costs. So I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to that. Yeah, you'll see Katie like poking
Speaker 1: out a window, like shaking her fist on what's the
Speaker 1: matter with you? Yeah? Uh yeah, Well, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining me today, and hey, thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast. You're ears are doing great work there.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Uh. If you're enjoying the show and
Speaker 1: you leave a rating or review, I deeply appreciated it.
Speaker 1: I literally read every single review and they mean a
Speaker 1: lot to me. I really appreciate getting that feedback. And again,
Speaker 1: like if you think you know who's squawking or you
Speaker 1: got a question you can heal me. Email me at
Speaker 1: Creature feature pod at gmail dot com, and make so
Speaker 1: much to the Space Classics for their super awesome song
Speaker 1: Exo Lumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey guess what?
Speaker 1: Where have you listen to your favorite shows? I don't
Speaker 1: judge you. Come on, come on, It's fine wherever. See
Speaker 1: you next Wednesday.