Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to Creature feature, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host of Many Parasites Katie Golden. I studied
Speaker 1: psychology and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, hail Flatan.
Speaker 1: All right, so we're not actually hailing Satan, but we
Speaker 1: are admiring some particularly satanic looking animals who may appear
Speaker 1: rather devilish but are mostly misunderstood. Join us as we
Speaker 1: explore these creatures of Zennite and day, like zidracula parrot,
Speaker 1: a very gothic gastropod, bleeding plants, exploiting trees, and a
Speaker 1: beetle with a reputation of biblical proportions. Discover this more
Speaker 1: as we answer the angel question can humans and birds unite?
Speaker 1: Over our love of fashion, often our love of animals
Speaker 1: is a beauty contest. We are concerned about the fates
Speaker 1: of pandas Koala's tigers and eagles, which is a wonderful
Speaker 1: thing is these are wonderful animals, but sometimes it's harder
Speaker 1: to appreciate the more scary, dastardly looking animals. However, you
Speaker 1: can't judge an animal by its cover, and you can't
Speaker 1: judge a bird by how much it looks like an
Speaker 1: evil which is familiar. Joining me today to panic about
Speaker 1: satan is fellow podcaster and horror ficionado Megan Selena's say, everybody,
Speaker 1: how are you? Thank you so much for joining me, Megan,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited too. I wanted to do this episode for
Speaker 1: a while. I have been collecting examples of animals and
Speaker 1: also plants, exemplary examples of goth style. I know that
Speaker 1: like goth style, there are many different styles of like goth.
Speaker 1: I know that goth isn't the same as like Satanists.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, death metal is its own whole thing,
Speaker 1: so there's a bunch of print styles. But I think
Speaker 1: there's a case to be made for all of these creatures.
Speaker 1: They really fit into that general vibe of of goth
Speaker 1: or death metal or you know, Satanism but the fun
Speaker 1: but the fun friendly kind, you know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: these are these are hardcore but like also kind of adorable,
Speaker 1: right exactly, which I think a lot of quote unquote
Speaker 1: Satanists are. I know that a lot of people like
Speaker 1: are what is it like the Satanic Church where they're
Speaker 1: not like they're not really oh, we gotta sacrifice virgins
Speaker 1: level Satanists, it's more of sort of this almost activism
Speaker 1: of religious freedom. They're not actually sacrificing virgins, is what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. No from And granted I was I was
Speaker 1: raised Catholic Um and so like everything in my upbringing
Speaker 1: about like Satanism and everything like that was very like,
Speaker 1: don't do that, it's demonic, dat it at it up.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, don't don't, don't prevale Satan. I would
Speaker 1: say that's a major tenant of I'm not religious personally,
Speaker 1: but I do know that in Catholicism, don't hail Satan
Speaker 1: is a big is a big thing. It seems to
Speaker 1: be Catholicism one oh one or just really Christianity one
Speaker 1: oh one, don't hail Satan. But like, as an adult,
Speaker 1: everything I've heard about Satanists, yeah, seems to be more
Speaker 1: like it seems to be actually pretty inclusive and progressive,
Speaker 1: and it's not like it's almost kind of like people
Speaker 1: are doing it ironically, Like it's not actually think they
Speaker 1: worship the devil. It's chipster hipster Satanists. Yeah, it's and
Speaker 1: I imagine I imagine some like hardcore Satanists who are
Speaker 1: actually into like virgin sacrifice, like, oh, these hipster Satanists,
Speaker 1: Like I was into Satanism back in eighteen twelve, back
Speaker 1: before it was cool, um exactly. But yeah, No, I
Speaker 1: think it's more like actually being progressive about like very
Speaker 1: much standing for just in terms of like what I've
Speaker 1: heard lately is that it's it's more about like, as
Speaker 1: you said, freedom and pushing like women's rights and just
Speaker 1: generally speaking kind of being anti religious fundamentalism that wants
Speaker 1: to take us back several steps. Similarly, I think goth
Speaker 1: style is not it's not necessarily about being cynical or
Speaker 1: really down like I think it's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: sort of goth style where and I'm personally I'm not
Speaker 1: a goth. I I like bright colors and way too much,
Speaker 1: but I mean there are pastel goths, so you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's more about embracing a sort of counterculture aesthetic.
Speaker 1: And so you know, on that note, I want to
Speaker 1: take a look at some animals that are super duper
Speaker 1: golf looking, and I think I want to flip the
Speaker 1: perspective on these of like they're not scary looking to me,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe to some people they are, but I
Speaker 1: really want people to appreciate how awesome they are. And
Speaker 1: like a lot of these things that look really scary
Speaker 1: and satanic are really cool and really fun and sometimes
Speaker 1: like really nice and sweet. Like there's some really cute
Speaker 1: things going on here that just they look a little demonic,
Speaker 1: but they're really cute. There's a comic book artist that
Speaker 1: used to follow way back in the day named test Stone,
Speaker 1: who very much described his style as candy coated horror,
Speaker 1: sort of scary imagery but also bright colors. And if
Speaker 1: these animals are an example of sort of cute but
Speaker 1: also kind of scary, I'm I'm excited to see what's
Speaker 1: in store. Oh absolutely, Yeah, it's like skeletons, but they're
Speaker 1: having a tea party. That's my kind of party for sure.
Speaker 1: So meg In, do you want to learn about the
Speaker 1: Dracula parrot? Yes? Does he have an adorable cape and
Speaker 1: maybe maybe scarf of some sort, Yes, he does, absolutely So.
Speaker 1: This is pesquits carrot or also known as the vulture
Speaker 1: in parrot. But I've seen sort of being called the
Speaker 1: Dracula parrot. I'm not sure if it's officially named the
Speaker 1: Dracula parrot. If that's just kind of a nickname that
Speaker 1: people have been giving it, but it's a it's a
Speaker 1: good name for this guy. So they look like the
Speaker 1: Broms Stoker Dracula version of a parrot. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: definitely see the Bella Legosi esque resemblance. Yeah. Um yeah.
Speaker 1: He's got a black head and it's like the black
Speaker 1: feathers extend to his breast, but his wings and like
Speaker 1: sort of most of his body are red and then
Speaker 1: he's got like black tail feathers as well. That's so cool,
Speaker 1: very dramatic bird, I think. So these are found in
Speaker 1: the rainforests of New Guinea. They are fairly large, so
Speaker 1: about eighteen inches from head to tail, which is forty
Speaker 1: six cimeters, So that's that's a good sized parrot. That's
Speaker 1: a good amount of bird. They have a black vulture
Speaker 1: like face with leathery skin instead of feathers, and a long,
Speaker 1: hooked beak. So that's why they're also called the vulture
Speaker 1: in parrot because they have a sort of vulture look
Speaker 1: going on. But they do have some feathers on top
Speaker 1: of their heads, so it looks kind of like the
Speaker 1: front of their face looks like a bit like a
Speaker 1: black vulture. But then they have a mohawk on top
Speaker 1: of their head. It really looks like a cyberpunk version
Speaker 1: of Dracula, if that makes sense. He looks like he's
Speaker 1: here to make a statement. Yes, yes, yeah, and he
Speaker 1: does have that kind of regal bellogosie look or Gary
Speaker 1: Oldman old and that's terrible. Yeah, and the terrible nineties
Speaker 1: film where where Kiana Reeves seemed more dead than the
Speaker 1: dead guys. I have a soft spot for that movie.
Speaker 1: But yes, it's not I mean same, It's not Francis
Speaker 1: Ford Coppola's best work. So while this parrot looks like
Speaker 1: it would suck blood from virgins, they're actually frugivores, meaning
Speaker 1: that it eats primarily fruit, so it loves figs, that's
Speaker 1: its favorite fruit. And it will sometimes just delicately sip
Speaker 1: nectar from flowers. So these are little sweetheart birds. I'm
Speaker 1: picturing like an anthropomorphic version of this having a tea party,
Speaker 1: like extending the spinky as it sits very regally, and
Speaker 1: and maybe it has the Gary Oldman top hat. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have you seen what we do in the Shadows, the
Speaker 1: movie mockumentary? I sadly have not. It's been on my
Speaker 1: list of movies to watch for ages. And I know
Speaker 1: I'm going to get so much flak for admitting that
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it as it yet, but no, I
Speaker 1: have not. It makes me think of that the whole
Speaker 1: five of that movie, of like, oh, they look like
Speaker 1: fierce vampires, but then they're kind of like they're kind
Speaker 1: of cute. I mean, they do kill and eat people,
Speaker 1: and but you know, still, they do acute in a
Speaker 1: lovable way. So that bare leathery face that looks kind
Speaker 1: of scary, like a skexus or like a vulture, it
Speaker 1: actually does serve a similar purpose to a vultures bare face.
Speaker 1: So vultures have a nude face and neck because they
Speaker 1: dunk their heads in carcasses and if they had feathers,
Speaker 1: blood and guts and all sorts of goop, goopy goop
Speaker 1: would get on their feathers, and that's bad. And vultures,
Speaker 1: despite their bad reputation, are actually very hygienic. They serve
Speaker 1: a wonderful purpose. They are the undertakers of the natural world.
Speaker 1: They dispose of carcasses. They're actually the terminus for a
Speaker 1: lot of diseases. And again they're very clean. They're very fastidious,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll clean their face. They I mean, they do
Speaker 1: poop on themselves to keep cool. But who hasn't done
Speaker 1: that once in a while. But like the vulture, the
Speaker 1: dracula parrots, their faces are bare, so they can kind
Speaker 1: of go right into a fruit and get all this
Speaker 1: sticky fruit juice on their face and it doesn't it
Speaker 1: doesn't like stick to their feathers. And because can you
Speaker 1: imagine like putting a feathery face in like a fig
Speaker 1: and pulling it out, and then your feathers are dressed
Speaker 1: all clumped together with fig juice. I have a hard
Speaker 1: enough time just keeping myself clean as I eat fruit,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I can only imagine what that would be
Speaker 1: like if I didn't have thumbs. Yeah, like if you
Speaker 1: were covered in feathers and you didn't have thumbs, nightmarescenary.
Speaker 1: I think that's like a that's like an ancient human punishment, right,
Speaker 1: tar and feathering. But I like what you said about
Speaker 1: the vultures sort of getting a bad rap, because that
Speaker 1: is very much I I feel like probably something you
Speaker 1: guys unpack quite a bit in this show is that,
Speaker 1: like there are a lot of animals that get a
Speaker 1: bad reputation because of how they look, when in fact
Speaker 1: they serve a very important, very important purpose in their
Speaker 1: particular ecosystems. So yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. I mean I'm
Speaker 1: a big fan of all the creepy Crawley's. I love spiders,
Speaker 1: I love vultures, I love snakes. I think and even
Speaker 1: honestly some of them are genuinely dangerous, but I still
Speaker 1: like them. So oh yeah, you can admire from Afar
Speaker 1: exactly exactly the Dracula parrots. They look a little spooky,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, in a really cool way. I think.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I think that even people who are
Speaker 1: scared by some animals, like they're going to look at
Speaker 1: this bird and be like, yeah, that's a cool kind
Speaker 1: of spooky. Yeah, that's like a radical kind of spook.
Speaker 1: I like that you brought up skets, because yeah, now
Speaker 1: that you've said it, I'm like that, Yep, it looks
Speaker 1: he looks like he could be in the Dark Crystal
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, like a Skexas, but with a really
Speaker 1: nice fancy robe and maybe an ascot. I would actually
Speaker 1: love if, like whatever, the next big fantasy film to
Speaker 1: come out, I want the Evil Wizard to have one
Speaker 1: of these guys. As a pet. Yeah, I want this
Speaker 1: to be the evil wizard. Yes, into a giant a
Speaker 1: giant bird exactly. Did you ever see that m e
Speaker 1: Walk movie way way back in the day. I don't
Speaker 1: remember which one of the two Ewalk movies it was,
Speaker 1: but like one of the was it the Christmas Special?
Speaker 1: I saw part of the Chewbacca Christmas Special. Goodness, No,
Speaker 1: but one of the one of the standalone e Walk movies.
Speaker 1: There was an evil witch in it who could turn
Speaker 1: back and forth into a bird, and I thought that
Speaker 1: was really cool, like interesting, This bird definitely looks like
Speaker 1: it could be an evil witch or an evil wizard
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, or what we think is an evil
Speaker 1: witch or wizard, but it's just misunderstood. Yeah, it's actually
Speaker 1: just a really cool, laid back, chill dude. So these
Speaker 1: are very social birds actually, I mean this is again
Speaker 1: like goths are seen as being very antisocial, like human goths.
Speaker 1: I don't know that they are. I think that they're
Speaker 1: just really they can be really into a counterculture but
Speaker 1: also be very pro social. And the same thing for
Speaker 1: these guys. So they are often seen together in pairs
Speaker 1: or in large groups. And I know that. So when
Speaker 1: you guys, see a photo of these beautiful birds, You're
Speaker 1: gonna want one as a pet. You're gonna be want
Speaker 1: to You're gonna want to be the person on the
Speaker 1: block that has this awesome Dracula parent. Unfortunately, I think
Speaker 1: that the pet trade is having a really bad impact
Speaker 1: on their population. So there species is vulnerable due to
Speaker 1: the pet trade. And in my opinion, admittedly not a Goth,
Speaker 1: but I think that commercialization is like super not Goth.
Speaker 1: I think like the commercialization of animals and stuff is
Speaker 1: like that, that's that's not Goth, right, Goth isn't about that? Now,
Speaker 1: that's such a sellout thing to do, right exactly, That's
Speaker 1: that's poser sell out things to do. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: would not I would not recommend getting these as a pet.
Speaker 1: I would recommend admiring them from afar And they are beautiful.
Speaker 1: They're so dramatic. I love just the absolute theatrical melodrama
Speaker 1: that these birds bring because they have a call that
Speaker 1: sounds like a squeaky old door flapping in the wind
Speaker 1: on a stormy night. Oh my god, I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: this for you. Oh my goodness, that absolutely sounds like
Speaker 1: it would it would be a sound effect in a
Speaker 1: haunted house in a terrifying ghost movie. Yeah, or an
Speaker 1: episode of Scoop. It's really nice, fully worked by these birds.
Speaker 1: They're so wonderful. They are so wonderful. So now I
Speaker 1: want to basically look at the gastropod version of this bird.
Speaker 1: That's a good segue, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: So there is a giant red and black goth snail
Speaker 1: that is I mean, it is beautiful, maybe horrifying, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I like it. So this is Platyma tweetier,
Speaker 1: which is a rare large land snail found in Malaysia
Speaker 1: in a very limited area in the Montane Cloud forest
Speaker 1: on the peninsula. So it's about as big as a
Speaker 1: human hand. So you you could hold this guy. And
Speaker 1: they have a jet black shell with a bright red trim.
Speaker 1: Their heads are black and then that kind of like
Speaker 1: turns into a gradient and then it's like full on
Speaker 1: bright red near their tails and on their bellies. Oh yeah, no,
Speaker 1: this thing is like the red in it is so
Speaker 1: bright and vibrant. I have trouble believing that this is
Speaker 1: a real photo and not like something photoshopped. Like, um,
Speaker 1: did you ever have an easy bake oven when you
Speaker 1: were a kid. I did. Yeah. Um, there was a
Speaker 1: boy version of easy Bake Oven. Um that was two kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Creepy Crawley, the Creepy Crawley's. Yeah, yeah, I remember those ads.
Speaker 1: Crawlers in the ad they would always like show the
Speaker 1: boys like scaring the sister with these things. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why is she scared? And those are cool? Wait? Were
Speaker 1: they were they edible? I don't remember. Were they edible
Speaker 1: or were they just like goopy? I don't believe they
Speaker 1: were edible. I believe it was literally like I think
Speaker 1: if you had made them edible, like somehow like they
Speaker 1: felt like that wouldn't be good for boys because it's
Speaker 1: too close to cooking, too close to cooking. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I do remember an edible version. So like with the
Speaker 1: but with the Creepy Crawlers, you would pour some kind
Speaker 1: of polymer substance rubbery and into a mold, bake it
Speaker 1: and it'd be these like bright colored bugs. Yeah. This
Speaker 1: looks like like something a kid would make from those
Speaker 1: old Creepy Crawley's ads. And I mean that. I mean
Speaker 1: that in the best way. It looks mean, in a
Speaker 1: flattering way. Yeah. No, yeah, it looks fake, it looks photoshopped,
Speaker 1: but it is not. They are. They are extremely rare,
Speaker 1: and there's very little research about them, and which is
Speaker 1: too bad because there also becoming victims of the exotic
Speaker 1: pet raid, which is a little disconcerting because there's not
Speaker 1: much information about how large their population is. They're extremely
Speaker 1: limited to like this very specific altitude in these montane
Speaker 1: cloud forests. So not only is the illegal pet trade
Speaker 1: potentially harmful to a very small population, also it's hard
Speaker 1: to raise them and breed them in captivity, and people
Speaker 1: find that they have very little success because they are
Speaker 1: so highly specialized for their natural habitat. They and a
Speaker 1: very specific altitude, which is something you can't recreate. You
Speaker 1: can't like, I don't know, like put your pet snail
Speaker 1: in a little terrarium and put them on a weather
Speaker 1: balloon so he's at the right alplitude. No, that's that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: Like I understand the motivation because I see these guys.
Speaker 1: It's like I want this as a pet, you know.
Speaker 1: I want them to hang around on my shoulder and
Speaker 1: I feed them little leaves and stuff and we just
Speaker 1: like hang out, me and my mass cools and we're
Speaker 1: best friends. I mean, my cool goth snail friend. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. I think people don't necessarily because there are
Speaker 1: some animals that we can keep as pets, but then
Speaker 1: these ones, unfortunately, the pet trade is potentially very bad
Speaker 1: for their population. And it's also I don't think you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to successfully keep and breede these. They
Speaker 1: will probably die off, which is gonna be sad habitat
Speaker 1: loss also threatens these really incredible snails. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a conservationist researcher looking for a new subject,
Speaker 1: these seem really cool. And I'm not just saying that
Speaker 1: because they're cool and goth and have a nice well okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I am, so what, but they're cool and also
Speaker 1: in need of help exactly exactly. Don't you want to
Speaker 1: be the person who saves the goth snail? Absolutely? Like
Speaker 1: I like you said, I totally understand the the motivation
Speaker 1: for wanting these because even just looking at these pictures,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I want that, but right, but you can't, like,
Speaker 1: just because something looks cool doesn't give you the right
Speaker 1: to it. And yeah, and I mean, like you know,
Speaker 1: I think that humans are we are kind of like
Speaker 1: collectors by nature. You know, we like collecting things, which
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. But I think that an
Speaker 1: attitude of just appreciating that this guy is out there
Speaker 1: in the world living is also really fun and cool.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, there's a cool black and bright red
Speaker 1: goth snail with a black shell being a total emo
Speaker 1: drama queen somewhere, and that's great. I love to live
Speaker 1: in a world where that is true. He's beautiful, but
Speaker 1: he's not a Pokemon. You can't he's not you can't
Speaker 1: keep him. He's not young. He does come in a
Speaker 1: poke bawl though. Yeah, I mean, yeah, like if, but
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that if there's not already a Pokemon
Speaker 1: that kind of looks like this, I'm sure that in
Speaker 1: the next game, there's got to get on it. Get
Speaker 1: on it, Nintendo. So the next goth animal. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about our umbrella birds again. We're back to
Speaker 1: the birds. Birds are just really good at being dramatic.
Speaker 1: It's just the bird is the word, and the word
Speaker 1: the word is goth chic. So umbrella birds are a
Speaker 1: genus of birds who are all ridiculously flouncy looking, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. So umbrella birds are found in the
Speaker 1: rainforests of Central and South America. There in the Kotina
Speaker 1: family of tropical forest birds. The umbrella birds are a
Speaker 1: really fancy, goth dramatic just I don't know, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of like Artitia except Mail. Yeah, very Adam's family, except
Speaker 1: it's the males, of course that are the most dramatic.
Speaker 1: So I guess more more of a Gomez situation going
Speaker 1: on here. It's funny that you say that, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: like just kind of looking at um, the way that
Speaker 1: the feathers on their heads are shaped, it kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of like old Victorian ladies with big hats
Speaker 1: and feathers sticking out of them. Did you ever see
Speaker 1: that Guillermo del Toro movie Crimson Peak? No, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I do like Guillermo del Toro, though his version of
Speaker 1: Victorian fashion is very much what I'm reminded of while
Speaker 1: looking at these birds. For sure, I can. I can
Speaker 1: visualize that somehow, even though I haven't seen it. I
Speaker 1: can like, yeah, perfect, yeah, perfect, Yeah. So there are
Speaker 1: three species of umbrella birds. There's the Amazonian umbrella bird,
Speaker 1: the bare necked umbrella bird, and the long wattled umbrella bird.
Speaker 1: So the general description of all of these birds is
Speaker 1: that they're all blackbirds about crow size. They could even
Speaker 1: be confused with crows, except that they have this huge
Speaker 1: flamboyant pompadour hairstyle and huge wobbling neck wattles. So actually
Speaker 1: not that much like a crow. Actually, the best description
Speaker 1: I can think of is rockabilly goth. Uh, Like if
Speaker 1: a rockadoodle decided that black was his color. Exactly, Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: like if Rockadoodle went totally goth. Yeah. So, the they
Speaker 1: have this crest of feathers that, like you were talking
Speaker 1: about before, it like forms this like pompadour like and
Speaker 1: and for the young folks out there that don't know
Speaker 1: what a pompadour is, it's like this basically like Elvis
Speaker 1: hairstyle that shoots way out of your head. It's like
Speaker 1: a cone of hair that just shoots out of your
Speaker 1: head like Greaser's used to do. I think, exactly Greaser's,
Speaker 1: but pumped up to the max. Have you ever heard
Speaker 1: of the Tokyo Rockabilly Club phenomenon? What So, there is
Speaker 1: a group of performers and rockabilly enthusiasts who have for
Speaker 1: years met up at the Yoyogi Park in Tokyo to
Speaker 1: dance and to perform and to celebrate rockabilly culture. And
Speaker 1: they have some of the best hairstyles I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: They have the best pompadours who that like defy gravity
Speaker 1: almost it's just InCred it's incredible, and they're incredible performers
Speaker 1: as well. They will do these really cool rockabilly dance
Speaker 1: routines and it's it is extremely awesome. I highly recommend
Speaker 1: checking out one of their performances. Ain't the world a
Speaker 1: magnificent place? Just like I know, I know things are
Speaker 1: tough right now, but like it's seeing, it's hearing and
Speaker 1: seeing things like that that makes me go, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what, the World's pretty awesome. Sometimes when I think about,
Speaker 1: like why I want to fight for our world, it's
Speaker 1: things like both birds and humans are fighting to preserve
Speaker 1: rockability culture. It's wonderful. What other planet, What other planet
Speaker 1: do we have both birds and humans rocking this excellent hairstyle,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And this, and it's it's
Speaker 1: things like that that can bring us all together. It's
Speaker 1: exactly exactly so these birds are much more than just
Speaker 1: they're really cool hair. They have that umbrella like crest
Speaker 1: that's why they're called umbrella birds. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: call them pompadour birds, but whatever, it's fine. Umbrella birds
Speaker 1: does roll off the tongue pretty well. They also have
Speaker 1: an inflatable wattle. So a wattle is typically a it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a tube of flesh that hangs down
Speaker 1: from the neck. There are other birds that have wattles.
Speaker 1: Think of a turkey, you know. They have those those
Speaker 1: like long neck dangles that are usually red and purple.
Speaker 1: And it's typically a sexual organ because it is involved
Speaker 1: in attracting a mate. So this tube of feather covered
Speaker 1: skin descends from its neck. It can inflate it and
Speaker 1: it helps amplify its mating calls. And it looks like
Speaker 1: a black dramatic feather boa just hanging from its neck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or like a scarf. Yeah, for sure, featherballa is perfect.
Speaker 1: You kind of all include links to this in the
Speaker 1: show notes. You kind of have to see it in
Speaker 1: action because it really wiggles and jiggles and just kind
Speaker 1: of is imagine just the most dramatic like rockabilly goth
Speaker 1: guy like flouncing into a room, tossing a black feather
Speaker 1: boa over his neck and then like inging you some
Speaker 1: kind of intense romance song, and that's basically the strategy
Speaker 1: that these birds have. When it comes to me, I
Speaker 1: was thinking like very Broadway like this was like looking
Speaker 1: at this bird, it's like very Broadway costume, like I
Speaker 1: have to make sure that the people in the back
Speaker 1: of the auditorium can see how fabulous I am right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just feel the emotion radiating off of my neck wattle.
Speaker 1: So the bare necked umbrella bird has the kind of
Speaker 1: the black haircrest and pompadour thing. It's inflatable. Neck wattle
Speaker 1: is actually bright red and featherless, so kind of kind
Speaker 1: of a nudy version, you know, whatever flips their boat honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm not judging. And then the long wattled umbrella bird
Speaker 1: wins the award for wait for it, the largest wattle
Speaker 1: of the umbrella bird genus. Wow, who the who the guest,
Speaker 1: and the award goes to I know, like, there are
Speaker 1: a million animals and so coming up with names for
Speaker 1: all of them must be must have been very, very difficult.
Speaker 1: But it's really nice when there's just one like that
Speaker 1: that's just on the nose and you're like, I didn't
Speaker 1: have to jump through any hoops for that. It's it's
Speaker 1: a it's got a long wattle. It's the long wattle
Speaker 1: umbrella bird, right exactly. I mean at a certain point
Speaker 1: you run out of like, like, what are you gonna say,
Speaker 1: like the fancy long wattle. No, it's just got a
Speaker 1: long wattle, right, It's like, what do you want? What
Speaker 1: am I gonna say? Am I going to call this
Speaker 1: like a gary bird? I don't know, Just it's got
Speaker 1: a long wattle, alright, I have other birds to name today,
Speaker 1: we're moving on. I named this bird has a beak bird.
Speaker 1: I'm running out of ideas. Is that really the name
Speaker 1: of a bird? No? But the fact that I had
Speaker 1: to double chick right exactly. I really should have just
Speaker 1: played it off like like, yeah, I'm referring to you,
Speaker 1: you're the expert. It would question me the Audubon Society.
Speaker 1: Maybe they would, actually, I don't know. It's not the
Speaker 1: first time I've had the Audubon Society track me down.
Speaker 1: But that's a story for another day. So the their
Speaker 1: long inflatable wattle can be retracted in flight or lengthened
Speaker 1: to impress the ladies. Just I don't know, visually picture
Speaker 1: that this living tissue feather boa getting like cinched in
Speaker 1: or being extended depending on the bird's mood. Oh goodness,
Speaker 1: as it gets longer, like yeah, hey ladies, how you doing,
Speaker 1: Hey ladies? Boom? So they their wattle can be as
Speaker 1: long as their whole body. And they can also make
Speaker 1: their their little headcrest stand erect, like as if Elvis
Speaker 1: could make his hair like kind of like go whoop
Speaker 1: like when he's trying to impress women. Doesn't look like
Speaker 1: a mohawk when it does that, or or is it
Speaker 1: more like, um, the entirety of their hair is standing.
Speaker 1: It just poops it up, just makes adds more volume,
Speaker 1: adds more style. In my in my head, it was
Speaker 1: going from being a pompadour to a mohawk and then
Speaker 1: back again. And I will never be able to unsee
Speaker 1: that a convertible hairstyle. Maybe in the future we'll get
Speaker 1: one of those. That'd be cool. I would watch that
Speaker 1: cyberpunk movie for sure. Maybe Matrix flore is happening. These
Speaker 1: birds actually do remind me of a real person, a
Speaker 1: goth I just saw on the street, and God bless
Speaker 1: this wonderful person. He was wearing a full on black
Speaker 1: trench coat, and this is during like COVID times, so
Speaker 1: he was also wearing a matching black face mask that
Speaker 1: like covered almost his entire face and neck other than
Speaker 1: his eyes. I think he even had like an umbrella.
Speaker 1: It was absolute high drama fashion and absolute function, like
Speaker 1: high high COVID coature. I loved it. It was great.
Speaker 1: I mean I think it was. I know I sound
Speaker 1: like maybe I'm making fun. I'm actually really respect this
Speaker 1: person because they are rocking their style and being socially responsible,
Speaker 1: and I think I have so much goddamn respect for
Speaker 1: that form and function. Yeah. I don't know much about
Speaker 1: the fashion world, but form and function together and like
Speaker 1: adhering to this style that you're very committed to, that
Speaker 1: that deserves to be commended. Right Like I'm a goth
Speaker 1: and I am socially responsible. I'm a goth who cares
Speaker 1: about your grandma. That is beautiful. So much respect for
Speaker 1: this person, and it says so much too, just about
Speaker 1: the nature of this how serious this issue is, because
Speaker 1: like we we talked earlier about how the goth movie
Speaker 1: is very counter culture, and it's like no, we're like
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go out and not wear a mask,
Speaker 1: like I'm not conforming by wearing a mask. It's just
Speaker 1: the right thing to do. It's counter culture, not counter human,
Speaker 1: not counter not counter your grandma exactly. And if there's
Speaker 1: any golfs out there, or you don't have to be golf,
Speaker 1: could be rockabilly. I don't care any anyone with a
Speaker 1: particular fashion perspective who listens to the show and you've
Speaker 1: got you've got a cool face mask style that that
Speaker 1: you like to rock out like, yeah, show it to me.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see it. But yeah, absolutely absolute respect
Speaker 1: for people who are maintaining their individuality but also being
Speaker 1: socially responsible. Really appreciate the same, and then teach me
Speaker 1: your ways, because I've never been like fashion like fashion wise,
Speaker 1: I've never been on top of it, So please please
Speaker 1: teach me your ways. Maybe you could get a lesson
Speaker 1: from the Umbrella Birds. I would love that. Nothing would
Speaker 1: make me happier. Some of our younger listeners may not
Speaker 1: know what the Satanic panic was in the US. During
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties and nineties, a conspiracy theory emerged that
Speaker 1: there were widespread Satanic rituals that left behind a string
Speaker 1: of murders and abuse, and even that the world was
Speaker 1: being run by satanic witch cults. While there was no
Speaker 1: actual evidence of there being a bunch of murderous Satanic
Speaker 1: cultu ravaging the countryside or running the world by sacrificing virgins,
Speaker 1: the conspiracy gained popularity, especially when law enforcement and therapists
Speaker 1: used now discredited techniques of extracting quote memories from people
Speaker 1: using suggestive or coercive hypnosis and interrogation. When a potentially
Speaker 1: vulnerable person, such as a child or summon seeking mental
Speaker 1: health assistance, is faced with an authority figure, that authority
Speaker 1: figure can have a concerning amount of sway over that
Speaker 1: person's mental state and memory. Perhaps creepier than the idea
Speaker 1: of satanic cults is the idea that you can indeed
Speaker 1: affect memories and people, even unwittingly. Many of these therapists
Speaker 1: and interrogators may not have even known they were creating
Speaker 1: fabricated memories, but their techniques, which they thought were forcefully
Speaker 1: extracting memories, were actually creating them. In nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: a woman sought therapy for a family issue. The psychiatrists
Speaker 1: use hypnosis and staged exorcisms, convincing the woman that she
Speaker 1: had been in a satanic cult as a child had
Speaker 1: eaten babies, had killed her own childhood friend, which of
Speaker 1: course was not true, and had a hundred and twenty personalities,
Speaker 1: including angels and animals, which also included a duck. Later,
Speaker 1: the woman realized these were not memories but fabrications, and
Speaker 1: distressing ones at that, so she soothed the psychiatrists in
Speaker 1: one In nine seven, University of Washington psychologist Professor Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Loftus and Jacqueline E. Pickerel wanted to investigate how these
Speaker 1: tragic and irresponsible abuses of power could occur. They conducted
Speaker 1: a study in which participants attended two sessions where they
Speaker 1: were told to remember certain childhood memories. Some of the
Speaker 1: memories were accurate provided by family members, while others were
Speaker 1: fabricated by the researchers. They found it only took two
Speaker 1: sessions to convince almost thirty percent of their subjects that
Speaker 1: the false event took place. While it's unlikely you could
Speaker 1: convince a random volunteer that they took part in satanic rituals,
Speaker 1: someone in a stressful position, such as in an interrogation
Speaker 1: room or clinical setting, may be more vulnerable to these
Speaker 1: mind alterations. So remember that time we were walking in
Speaker 1: a forest and a tree started to bleed. No, well,
Speaker 1: let's make some new memories together after a short break.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we don't give plants enough credit for being creepy.
Speaker 1: There are plants that smell like rotting carcasses to attract
Speaker 1: pollinating insects, such as raphlegia. There are plants that are carnivores,
Speaker 1: trapping insects and their jaws like the venus fly trap,
Speaker 1: or in a sticky pit of doom, such as picture plants.
Speaker 1: And there are some plants that just love to be
Speaker 1: super extra horror dramatic. So, Megan, do you like plants?
Speaker 1: I mean, I do flowers and trees, and I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I kind of missing that. I miss being able to
Speaker 1: go outside and just pass by a bush. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: touch a tree, stroke a stroke a shrub, I know, right,
Speaker 1: slow down and smell the roses. I miss plants too,
Speaker 1: So this whole section is dedicated to plants, specifically satanic
Speaker 1: goth plants, which are pretty great. So I think that
Speaker 1: people often underestimate plants and their ability to just be
Speaker 1: super creepy, super dramatic. And I want to talk first
Speaker 1: about the desert bloodwood tree who already wins a prize
Speaker 1: for that name. That's a great name. That's a great name.
Speaker 1: That's like, hey, people out there who are bored and
Speaker 1: trying to start like a metal band right now, Desert
Speaker 1: bloodwood tree. There you go, did it for you. So
Speaker 1: this tree is found in the Australian desert. It has
Speaker 1: rough bark and thick leaves. It grows up to fifty
Speaker 1: ft tall, which is fifteen meters, which is pretty good.
Speaker 1: It's in the same family as eucalyptus. It kind of
Speaker 1: looks like a eucalyptus. Maybe the bark is like it's
Speaker 1: not like smooth um kind of bark. It's pretty rough um.
Speaker 1: But here's here's the thing is, when you cut into it,
Speaker 1: it bleeds what looks like thick using red blood. So
Speaker 1: there's a picture of that for you. It looks like
Speaker 1: it looks like a tree that has like a big
Speaker 1: oozing scab wound. And it's not just like it looks
Speaker 1: like any old type of blood. It looks like straight
Speaker 1: up hammer horror film movie blood. Yes, like did you
Speaker 1: ever did you ever see Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow? I
Speaker 1: saw part of it. I think I think when I
Speaker 1: was a kid. I saw it and I think some
Speaker 1: dude's head got chopped off, and then I stopped watching it.
Speaker 1: But so, but basically, the headless horseman would make his
Speaker 1: entrance in and out of like this crazy tree, like
Speaker 1: in and out of hell, and like there a bunch
Speaker 1: of dead bodies there. And I'm looking at this and
Speaker 1: I'm like this, like just seeing that bright red color
Speaker 1: like on the bark of a tree as it's drenched,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm getting very Tim Burton sleepy hollow vibes
Speaker 1: from it does look a little bit like a bloody
Speaker 1: portal to Hell that just closed up or is just
Speaker 1: opening up. Exactly. Yeah, it looks or it makes me
Speaker 1: think of, you know, like I don't know, some kind
Speaker 1: of horror story where this tree is a dry ad
Speaker 1: and then if you cut into it, it like bleeds
Speaker 1: human blood. Yeah, or like the land is cursed or
Speaker 1: something like that. Exactly. Yeah, this this looks like it
Speaker 1: would be right at home in some sort of horror fiction.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, I want to throw some of
Speaker 1: my favorite horror writers at it. I'm like, see this
Speaker 1: picture and then tell me weave me a tale. I
Speaker 1: want to throw them directly at the tree, Like, look
Speaker 1: at the tree. Feel it's blood, look at it. So
Speaker 1: this blood is actually, as you might have guessed, SAP.
Speaker 1: So SAP is kind of like tree blood. It's often
Speaker 1: so like trees will produce SAP that can be used
Speaker 1: as a defensive mechanism. So like you know how insects
Speaker 1: get trapped in amber, So when you cut into a
Speaker 1: tree and it uses this like sticky sap out, that's
Speaker 1: a defensive technique against little little beetles and insects that
Speaker 1: try to like bore into the tree. So this is
Speaker 1: this just happens to be bright red, very blood like sap. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is interesting. What any idea what causes that? I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I think it's because of a high concentration
Speaker 1: of tannins in the SAP. So tannins give trees and
Speaker 1: other plants a sort of dark content. It's actually what
Speaker 1: makes tea dark, so that that might be what it is. Whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, it's remarkable, Yes, it's it's I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of pretty as long as you, uh ignore
Speaker 1: the fact it kind of looks like a flesh wound.
Speaker 1: It also reminds me of those fountains you can get
Speaker 1: for Halloween where it's like a blood fountain and it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like you put in like fake blood
Speaker 1: and it's like bright red blood fountain. Yeah. Yeah. If
Speaker 1: if I, if you weren't explaining this to me right now,
Speaker 1: and I just saw this like out of the blue
Speaker 1: or out of context, I would assume that this tree
Speaker 1: was sick somehow, that like some sort of fungus got
Speaker 1: got into this tree and that it was causing it
Speaker 1: to die. Yeah. Yeah, it looks it looks injured, looks
Speaker 1: badly hurt. So the crystallized SAP has actually been used
Speaker 1: as an antiseptic by Aboriginal people's for many, many years.
Speaker 1: So it's a very well known tree by people who
Speaker 1: have lived with this tree. And it actually is able
Speaker 1: to grow what are called bush coconuts or bloodwood apples
Speaker 1: that can be eaten, and that's a whole interesting story
Speaker 1: in itself. So these bush coconuts are warty growths on
Speaker 1: the trees, which are also called galls, which are made
Speaker 1: in reaction to the larva of a scale insect. So
Speaker 1: a scale insect is like they're these little like dome
Speaker 1: shaped insects that feed on the tree. They kind of
Speaker 1: look like barnacles a little bit, but their insects and
Speaker 1: when their larva like kind of warm their way into
Speaker 1: the tree um This is a common tactic of parasitic
Speaker 1: insects that prey upon plants. So the parasitic larva will
Speaker 1: induce a gal to grow, so either by injecting a
Speaker 1: chemical or just by injuring the plant, and then the
Speaker 1: plant grows this like kind of tumor growth around the larva,
Speaker 1: and that tumor growth actually has a lot of nutrients
Speaker 1: inside it. It's it's kind of in a way similar
Speaker 1: to tumors in a human body. So like a tumor
Speaker 1: in a human body will send out these messages to
Speaker 1: the body to supply it with blood and help the
Speaker 1: tumor grow and give and basically steal nutrients from the
Speaker 1: healthy parts of your body. And so these parasitic larva
Speaker 1: that induced this goal or like this like weird tumor
Speaker 1: are kind of doing the same thing. They're tricking the
Speaker 1: plant into putting a bunch of nutrients into this little
Speaker 1: protective ball. But if you are a hungry human, you
Speaker 1: can pick a bush coconut from the tree, crack it open.
Speaker 1: I mean, like a coconut and the inside kind of
Speaker 1: looks a little bit coconut like because it has this
Speaker 1: like white flesh on the inside which is from the tree,
Speaker 1: and it's full of starchy nutrients. And you can also
Speaker 1: eat the larva because that is free protein. You know,
Speaker 1: I was on board until you mentioned the larva. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, if you think, sorry, oh no, I was
Speaker 1: just gonna say, bloodwood apples is like the coolest name
Speaker 1: for a fruit, like ever, I know, I do want to.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe this is too revealing about me, but
Speaker 1: if you said, like, this is a bloodwood apple, it
Speaker 1: makes me want to eat it more than a regular apple. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: absolutely like that. That's what this reminds me of. It's
Speaker 1: like this is something right out of a dark, grim
Speaker 1: fairy tale, right, It's like that, Drake mean, like you're
Speaker 1: like orange and I'm like no, and then you're like,
Speaker 1: what about a blood orange? Like yeah, you had me
Speaker 1: at blood Like bloodwood apples just sounds like marketably so cool,
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Well, but you know, if you
Speaker 1: think the larva is gross, I mean I know that
Speaker 1: we are conditioned, especially in the US and and UM
Speaker 1: to see insects as you know, gross but we do
Speaker 1: eat honey, at least I do. I love honey. Honey
Speaker 1: Honey is plant nectar that has been processed inside of
Speaker 1: the bodies and regurgitated. So you know, it's all a
Speaker 1: matter of perspective. That's a great point. You know, it's
Speaker 1: important to, Yeah, you like, before you turn your nose
Speaker 1: up at something, you recognize we're a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of commonplace foods, right, I mean, beer and wine
Speaker 1: is bacteria poop. You know what I'm saying is you're
Speaker 1: a hypocrite unless you eat larva. Well you've convinced me
Speaker 1: if I have the opportunity, you need to have a
Speaker 1: bloodwood apple. Well, I've got an apple. I've got a
Speaker 1: big old sack of bloodwood apples. I'm going Cindia here
Speaker 1: right now. Like, I don't. I'm sorry, that was a joke.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get your hopes. But like, doesn't
Speaker 1: that sound like something an evil witch would keep inside
Speaker 1: of her wood inside of her woodland cottage? Like, I
Speaker 1: just like a bushel of bloodwood apples. We're we're creating
Speaker 1: a character. I feel like we have a witch that
Speaker 1: turns into a Dracula parent who has a bunch of
Speaker 1: bloodwood apples like and and obviously we say this would
Speaker 1: no disrespect to any anybody who practices any witches, Yeah,
Speaker 1: to any any practicing wickens out there, But no, we're
Speaker 1: talking about straight up storybook which like let that that's
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, and talking about snow white snow
Speaker 1: white witches that go around killing girls or thinking doing
Speaker 1: it in a weirdly roundabout way. Now I've got I've
Speaker 1: got some choice words for or the snow white witch,
Speaker 1: because it's like you could just you could just kill her,
Speaker 1: you know, like what's with this whole Like, and she
Speaker 1: would go into an eternal sleep unless some guy kisses her.
Speaker 1: And she's really pretty, so I can't imagine any guy
Speaker 1: kissing her. Good plan, She tried like outsourcing it, because
Speaker 1: she tried to have the Woodsman do it and he
Speaker 1: decided not to and so she's like, I'm going to
Speaker 1: roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty and
Speaker 1: do it myself. And she picks the most yet circuitous,
Speaker 1: roundabout way of going about dispatching her enemies, and it
Speaker 1: just says, yeah, it just seems horribly inefficient, like you're
Speaker 1: just like, hey, snow white came here, I'm your queen
Speaker 1: and she's like yeah, and she's like, and now I
Speaker 1: stab you done? You know. I mean, I'm not advocating
Speaker 1: for it. I don't want snow White to get stabbed,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying it just doesn't make any sense. Maybe
Speaker 1: the queen didn't actually want to be a queen. Maybe
Speaker 1: she wanted to be an actor and then, but you
Speaker 1: can't really do that when you're royalty. You have a
Speaker 1: country to run, and so she was just using this
Speaker 1: as an excuse to do a bit. I think she
Speaker 1: was using it as an excuse to live the hag lifestyle.
Speaker 1: I think she wanted the hag lifestyle, but she didn't
Speaker 1: want the hag responsibilities. So she kind of just wanted
Speaker 1: to moonlight as a hag and this was her way
Speaker 1: to do it. Like, yeah, you know, I can't think
Speaker 1: of any other reason. No, I can't either. I think
Speaker 1: we solved it. We solved snow White on this podcast
Speaker 1: about animals. We got to the bottom of that mystery.
Speaker 1: So now I want to talk about another ghoulish and
Speaker 1: spooky tree. This tree doesn't have as cool of the name.
Speaker 1: It's called the sandbox tree. The sandbox tree is like
Speaker 1: the body mod goth of the tree world, you know,
Speaker 1: like with a bunch of piercing and spikes and body mods.
Speaker 1: So this tree is found in the amaz Zonian Rainforest
Speaker 1: and in other tropical regions in North and South America.
Speaker 1: It's bark is completely covered in huge, nasty looking thorns.
Speaker 1: So I've got a picture in here for it. It's
Speaker 1: just all thorns basically. Consequently, it is sometimes called a
Speaker 1: monkey no climb tree, which I like that name a
Speaker 1: little better. Actually, it's straightforward. It's like it's again like
Speaker 1: the naming convention of the long wattled umbrella bird. It's like,
Speaker 1: monkeys don't climb this tree. So this is a monkey
Speaker 1: do not climb tree. No more monkeys climbing on this tree.
Speaker 1: So if that's not misanthropic enough for you, it also
Speaker 1: has toxic caustic SAP that has been used by fisherman
Speaker 1: to poison fish again rude or used to lace poison
Speaker 1: weapons like poison arrows. If that's not goth enough for you,
Speaker 1: it has exploding fruit. This tree is so metal. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, it's very I would say it's a little extra.
Speaker 1: So you're like, okay, dial it back. A couple of
Speaker 1: not dial it down, Tim Burton Tree. Yeah, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very Helena bottom carter where it's like Helena just
Speaker 1: sometimes you're a little too much bottom, Like there's a
Speaker 1: little too much bottom carter. Like I get that you
Speaker 1: are actually Helena bottom carter, but sometimes like your extra
Speaker 1: bottom carter and I need you to dial back. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we just want you to be Helena, that's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just yeah, give us the Helena and not the bottom carter.
Speaker 1: Now is this fruit also poisonous? I think if you
Speaker 1: eat it you get super bad diarrhea, So yeah, probably
Speaker 1: so so I would I would say that counts as poisonous,
Speaker 1: so hard pass on this and go back to those
Speaker 1: blood would apples. Well it's a soft pass because of
Speaker 1: the diarrhea. But yeah, so um so they they have
Speaker 1: fruiting bodies again, simmer down, Helena bottom carter, but they
Speaker 1: look like tiny black pumpkins. It just does so at
Speaker 1: that point. At this point, this is like the live
Speaker 1: journal or tumbler of a goth kid who's like making
Speaker 1: their O see character Tree, which is like and it's
Speaker 1: got spikes all over and its sap is poison and
Speaker 1: it's fruit is poisoned, and it's fruit or a little
Speaker 1: black pumpkins. It does feel a little edge lordy as
Speaker 1: far as little trees go, right, Like, I didn't feel
Speaker 1: like the like the bloodwood tree was trying too hard.
Speaker 1: This tree, actually, yeah, it does feel like it's trying
Speaker 1: just a little hard. It's like it sees the bloodwood tree,
Speaker 1: which has got its whole cool as that it going on.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, I've got spikes, I got like black pumpkins,
Speaker 1: and oh did I mention they explode like the Hobgoblins bombs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's how cool I am. I'm basically like a
Speaker 1: Sparta Man villain, basically so hardcore. I don't know why
Speaker 1: we made it sound like a teenager. Well this, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like it kind of deserves it all this drama.
Speaker 1: So these little black pumpkin capsules are seed pods, and
Speaker 1: they explode once they're ripe. So they start out as
Speaker 1: green when they're unripe, and then they turn black and
Speaker 1: then they explode naturally, and they distribute the seeds over
Speaker 1: a hundred feet away from the tree, and the explosion
Speaker 1: causes the seeds to fly at a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: miles per hour, which is seventy per second. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is why it's also sometimes called the dynamite tree, which gosh, yeah,
Speaker 1: again a little I don't know, maybe a little overboard, right,
Speaker 1: Like I get I get it. Your your tree. You
Speaker 1: want to distribute your seeds because it increases the chance
Speaker 1: that the saplings will be able to grow, because they
Speaker 1: need to be able to grow without being covered by
Speaker 1: other trees. So you don't want to like compete with
Speaker 1: your own baby saplings. So that's why trees have invented
Speaker 1: all these methods of distributing seeds over large areas. But
Speaker 1: it seems like a bit of an excuse to be
Speaker 1: a drama queen the like. Granted, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be strolling through the Amazon anytime soon, but could you
Speaker 1: like imagine just like walking through a forest and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like these these fruit explode and going
Speaker 1: like right, and it's going out? How did its sixty
Speaker 1: miles before? It just flies? Like wow? Man, that's like
Speaker 1: if I got flying, Yeah, if I got like tree
Speaker 1: seed trapnel in my eye just like while walking through
Speaker 1: I feel like at that point I would realize that
Speaker 1: there is an angry forest god who does not want me.
Speaker 1: I would never go outside again, which I have good
Speaker 1: news for you. I'm kind of living that life right now.
Speaker 1: Speaking of staying in. I hope everyone is practicing good
Speaker 1: dental health. No, this is not a segue to an ad.
Speaker 1: It's a segue to the bleeding tooth fungus. What so
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about some bleeding teeth bleeding teeth? Well,
Speaker 1: I do have a gennis appointment in a couple of months,
Speaker 1: so probably better to prepare myself now, right right, yeah, yeah, again,
Speaker 1: another another cool band name idea, bleeding bleeding tooth fungus.
Speaker 1: I think, to me, that's like a that'd be like
Speaker 1: a techno goth kind of thing, you know, like like
Speaker 1: I think it's like the knockoff version of bleeding gums
Speaker 1: Murphy from The Simpsons. That's the first thing in my head,
Speaker 1: right right, yeah, No, I think you're right. I think
Speaker 1: nature copied the Simpson Simpson did it copied them? Yep,
Speaker 1: Simsence did it. So this is the scientific name of this.
Speaker 1: Let's see if I can pronounce this in one go
Speaker 1: hide nullum pecky. That sounds great. That's awesome, so smart.
Speaker 1: That sounds so smart. That's such a cool name. So
Speaker 1: it has a few interesting nicknames, like I mentioned bleeding
Speaker 1: tooth fungus also called red juice tooth, strawberries and cream,
Speaker 1: and the Devil's tooth. One of those things is not
Speaker 1: like the other. I know, I know, right, It's like
Speaker 1: it's like Devil's tooth, strawberries and cream. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: wait a minute for you who invited you to this
Speaker 1: naming meeting. Just imagine all these like really glum goths
Speaker 1: scientists in this meeting to name this fungus, and then
Speaker 1: this one very cheerful, cheerful lad going, why don't we
Speaker 1: name it strawberries and cream? It reminds me of my
Speaker 1: favorite snack, And then we cut over to the next one.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, I Devil's too. I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: what this looks like because I'm like, what, which name
Speaker 1: is more fitting? So I'm looking at the picture now
Speaker 1: and like I kind of get where the guy who
Speaker 1: was like strawberries and cream is coming from. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: like I think, I don't necessarily know if Devil's tooth
Speaker 1: is what I would have initially come up with, but
Speaker 1: I can see how how the name applies. I would say,
Speaker 1: Mueller covered in jam. You know, you know how like, um,
Speaker 1: there are those like seeing I pictures where like, um,
Speaker 1: it's like you look at this picture, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: what do you see? Well? I see two women's faces
Speaker 1: looking at each other. The other person goes, I see
Speaker 1: a case, and then the person who did who's holding
Speaker 1: out the pictures like, well, you're both right, you're just
Speaker 1: looking at it from different perspectives. I hate that guy.
Speaker 1: That guy needs to commit to one or the other area.
Speaker 1: He needs to stop being ambiguous with his art. But no,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I'm seeing with that. Like looking
Speaker 1: at this picture, I'm like, oh, I can totally see
Speaker 1: the guy who's like, what do you see? I see
Speaker 1: strawberries and cream, and the other person to you know,
Speaker 1: no big deal, I see the tomata. So this fungus
Speaker 1: is found in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Korea,
Speaker 1: and Australia, so it's safe to say that it's probably
Speaker 1: taking over the whole world. But whatever. At this point
Speaker 1: it is fine, don't worry about it. But some last
Speaker 1: of us fungus going to be happening right now that
Speaker 1: would be terrifying in real life or pretty metal weirdly
Speaker 1: appetizing weirdly appetizing zombies. So what we're seeing here, and
Speaker 1: I do encourage you look it up. I also have
Speaker 1: a link in the show notes to a photo. So
Speaker 1: the fungus is a white kind of look. I can
Speaker 1: see why. It's sort of like a tooth like. It
Speaker 1: looks a little bit like a weird, funky shaped moler.
Speaker 1: It has a bunch of tooth like projections. Actually, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that one. Definitely, that bigger one definitely looks like
Speaker 1: a mohler of some kind. Yeah. Yeah. It Also it's
Speaker 1: like it's like a molar that has a bunch of
Speaker 1: teeth on the molar tube because each of those like
Speaker 1: little little tooth like projections contains spores, but the you
Speaker 1: can't really see those as well. That's just a fun
Speaker 1: little detail. It's like the moler that has teeth, which
Speaker 1: is cool. And then it looks like it is just
Speaker 1: bleeding a bunch of bright red blood or I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe strawberry jam. It's hard to tell. Sometimes it's like
Speaker 1: you think you come across a murder scene and then
Speaker 1: you taste it's like this is strawberry jam. Murder solved.
Speaker 1: Why this is just corn syrup? There was this viral
Speaker 1: image and I cannot attest to the veracity of this,
Speaker 1: so so please forgive me if this was a fake.
Speaker 1: But it was like this little dog lying on the
Speaker 1: floor and it looked like it. It was like this
Speaker 1: little white, fluffy dog. It looked like it was covered
Speaker 1: in blood. And then you got closer and it was like,
Speaker 1: it's totally fine. It had just gotten into jam. It
Speaker 1: was covered in strawberry jam, and it had fallen. It
Speaker 1: had fallen asleep because it ate so much started jam
Speaker 1: was taking a little jam naphill puppy. I guess you
Speaker 1: could say it looks like a big, weirdly shaped moller
Speaker 1: covered in blood or jam or whatever. The bleeding aspect
Speaker 1: of it, where it seems to be oozing these droplets
Speaker 1: of blood, is actually called gutation. So this is where
Speaker 1: a plant or a fungus sweat out sap so it
Speaker 1: can It looks on a plant where the gutation droplets
Speaker 1: are actually clear, it looks like dew drops, but the
Speaker 1: plant is actually excreting sap, almost like their sweating. And
Speaker 1: weirdly enough, the red pigment in this fungus, the sweat
Speaker 1: of this bleeding tooth fungus actually contains antibacterial and anticoagulant properties,
Speaker 1: which I don't know. That's cool. I guess that's really cool.
Speaker 1: The fungus is actually a symbiote. Symbiote, the fungus receives
Speaker 1: carbon from the host and the host receives minerals from
Speaker 1: the fungus, so they have a cool exchange there. And this,
Speaker 1: you know, like, if someone dared you to eat this fungus,
Speaker 1: do you think you'd do it? No, Like, on the
Speaker 1: one hand, yeah no, And like it just it looks
Speaker 1: like blood blisters. Looks like a bunch of blood blisters.
Speaker 1: I would never I would never eat anything resembling blood blisters.
Speaker 1: This fungus is actually not poisonous, even though it looks
Speaker 1: super poisonous. Looks it looks like it would murder you.
Speaker 1: It looks like it its like would murder you and
Speaker 1: then absorb your blood to make more blood. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it is not poisonous. But I wouldn't go around eating
Speaker 1: it because apparently it tastes really gross. Also, in general,
Speaker 1: unless you really know your stuff about mushrooms, don't eat
Speaker 1: any mushroom because like you may think, like, oh, I
Speaker 1: know what this mushroom is it's fine, and you eat
Speaker 1: it and it's actually a different mushroom that looks almost
Speaker 1: exactly the same that make sure but fall off and
Speaker 1: your eyeballs bleed. So you know, no, like, yeah, only
Speaker 1: the only mushrooms I eat are the ones I get
Speaker 1: from the supermarket, So right, yeah, that's probably probably safe.
Speaker 1: Bet I would be very tempted, though, Like if I
Speaker 1: could be assured that this was this type of fungus
Speaker 1: and it's not going to kill me, I'd want to
Speaker 1: give it a little lick, just the little one. I
Speaker 1: was just about to say, I like, like knowing that
Speaker 1: someone out there looked at this and went I'm gonna
Speaker 1: eat it and then went yep, sure as gross Like
Speaker 1: that to me is mind boggling. I'm like, who looked
Speaker 1: at that and went, oh, let's I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: taste it? No? Can I? Can? I be honest here?
Speaker 1: I think that would probably me, you know, Like I mean, like,
Speaker 1: if I knew it wasn't going to hurt me, that
Speaker 1: would be me. That would be Like, if I knew
Speaker 1: it wasn't poisonous, I probably know what probably happened. It was.
Speaker 1: It was the strawberries and cream scientist who was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think I'll give it to loot. Oh no, this
Speaker 1: doesn't taste like strawberries and cream at all. I have
Speaker 1: been bamboos And he's like, we must change the name.
Speaker 1: They're like too late, sorry, you already submitted it. There
Speaker 1: are no take backs, and he's like, oh, faddle sticks. Well,
Speaker 1: onto the next one. Scientists are they spend not very
Speaker 1: many people know this. They spend eight of their time
Speaker 1: just naming things. That's where all those government grants are
Speaker 1: going to the to the naming rooms, the naming chambers.
Speaker 1: Are you an aspiring which you'll have to become a
Speaker 1: botanist first. There are many plants that are associated with
Speaker 1: witchcraft or the supernatural. Man Drake plants, a genus of
Speaker 1: flowering nightshade, have roots that often look a little bit
Speaker 1: too human like, leading people to believe that they really
Speaker 1: are a small humanoid figure with supernatural properties. They're said
Speaker 1: to be able to scream and kill those who hear
Speaker 1: it when being plucked from the ground, so people would
Speaker 1: tie the plants to dogs to trick the dog into
Speaker 1: uprooting the man drink. Fortunately, man drake plant can't kill
Speaker 1: you with their scream, given that they can't scream at all.
Speaker 1: What they can do is send you on a wild trip.
Speaker 1: They contain hallucinogenic alkaloids, which may have led to the
Speaker 1: belief that they can be used in witchcraft to meet
Speaker 1: with the devil. I mean if by having a meeting
Speaker 1: with the devil they meant getting high as hell. And
Speaker 1: if you're thinking of trying these out, either to conduct
Speaker 1: a ritual or to quote meet the devil, I'd advise
Speaker 1: against it. They're super poisonous and will cause vomiting, diarrhy a, dizziness,
Speaker 1: among other nasty symptoms. There are much less unhealthy ways
Speaker 1: to meet with the devil, such as writing him a
Speaker 1: nice letter and the blood of your enemies. When we return,
Speaker 1: we're going to meet a few satanic creatures who aren't
Speaker 1: so bad when you get to know them. From black
Speaker 1: cats to bats, they're all sorts of animals who have
Speaker 1: become scapegoats for evil. Sometimes they're literally goats. Goats have
Speaker 1: historically been associated with the devil and witches in European
Speaker 1: folk lore, and while it could have something to do
Speaker 1: with those devilish horns and weird looking eyes, it could
Speaker 1: also be due to Greek mythology surrounding the satyr, a horny,
Speaker 1: drunken goatman who engaged in all sorts of weird sexual pursuits.
Speaker 1: But more generally, I think we like to blame animals
Speaker 1: for evil because it makes us feel better about being human.
Speaker 1: If animals are beast like creatures are the real monsters,
Speaker 1: then humans are free of sin. And sometimes we even
Speaker 1: justify mass beetle murder by saying it will cleanse our souls. So, Megan,
Speaker 1: under what circumstances do you think you would hail satan um?
Speaker 1: Probably none, I see it. I mean that's fair enough.
Speaker 1: As I said, I was raised Catholic, and I'm not
Speaker 1: very religious these days, but like, because of that upbringing,
Speaker 1: I have it instilled in me to like not mess
Speaker 1: with certain things, Like I don't like I know, it's
Speaker 1: just a game, but like I'd never play with a
Speaker 1: Uiji board, Like I can understand that. Look, I understand that.
Speaker 1: You know personally, I don't personally hail Satan. Again, I
Speaker 1: am all for religious freedom, so if you do choose tor,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, especially in the Middle Ages and stuff,
Speaker 1: religious people were always accusing animals of being various forms
Speaker 1: of Satan. So I think if Satan actually was all
Speaker 1: these different animals, that would that would earn my respect,
Speaker 1: Like you really, you can be all these animals all
Speaker 1: at once. He's Satan, just an animal, Like, right, are
Speaker 1: you an animal? Satan? So that's cool. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. That would be really cool. Like I maybe
Speaker 1: maybe I would hail Satan in the scenario in which
Speaker 1: he's an animalph and he had one of those cool
Speaker 1: cube things so that I could be an animalph too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all I needed to hear. And he's like, you
Speaker 1: is fine, And I'm like, wait, no, so don't stay
Speaker 1: as an animal for more than two hours, or you'll
Speaker 1: thank you for clarifying that I wasn't sure. So I
Speaker 1: ask you that question not to trick you into a
Speaker 1: life of sin, into pravity, but because I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about the devil beetle or the Devil's
Speaker 1: coach horse beetle. So this is a long, black, stinky
Speaker 1: beetle who has been thought to be associated with the
Speaker 1: devil since the Middle Ages. Grows about an inch long,
Speaker 1: it's jet black. It's found in Europe and northern Africa.
Speaker 1: It kind of I guess the best way I can
Speaker 1: describe it is it looks like a giant flat ant
Speaker 1: with a long segmented tail and wings. It looks like
Speaker 1: somebody took a rolling pen and just kind of flattened
Speaker 1: out and aunt. Does that make sense? Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like that's a good description of it. It, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: it doesn't really look like a beetle to me too.
Speaker 1: It's too narrow in my mind to be a beetle. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is not an ant. I don't want
Speaker 1: people to be confused. It just has it looks a
Speaker 1: little bit like that. Now, obviously its body is not
Speaker 1: segmented in the way that it ant is. It doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have that little wasp cinched in abdomen. It's
Speaker 1: just kind of it's got like a it's got an
Speaker 1: ant like head. It's got these big mandibles and then
Speaker 1: it's got um, a couple of body segments, you know, sleek, sleek,
Speaker 1: modern like um yeah, sleek and modern like uh like.
Speaker 1: It's the iPhone of beetles, exactly, like the black the
Speaker 1: black iPhone of Beatles. It's got that nice matte black
Speaker 1: beetle new air right right exactly. I'm not the biggest
Speaker 1: insect fan, but like say, like we were talking about
Speaker 1: at the at the top of the show, certain animals
Speaker 1: get a bad rap and I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of insects like this one where their mistakes they could
Speaker 1: easily be mistaken for something that they're not. As an
Speaker 1: excellent example of that, like, if I saw one of
Speaker 1: these in my home, I would probably assume it was
Speaker 1: it was some sort of ant and it would be
Speaker 1: unwelcome in my space. But like, yeah, like which is unfortunate,
Speaker 1: because yeah, it doesn't it probably like beetles typically, as
Speaker 1: far as I know, and granted I'm not a zoological expert,
Speaker 1: but beatles typically like don't really hurt people, right, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they can sometimes give you a nasty bite.
Speaker 1: These ones actually, uh, those big mandibles are capable of
Speaker 1: a bit of a bad bite. They don't inject venom,
Speaker 1: you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone typically, right Basically, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean some beetles do spray caustic stinky juice at you,
Speaker 1: which these ones do happen to do, but I you know,
Speaker 1: they only do it if you deserve it, really so.
Speaker 1: In English folklore, the devil beetle was said to have
Speaker 1: eaten the core of Eve's discarded apple, and instead of
Speaker 1: being regaled for not wasting fruit, it has been ostracized
Speaker 1: for being evil. And thus the beetle obtained the knowledge
Speaker 1: give given to Adam and Eve, and it started its
Speaker 1: own beatle society. And this beetle was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: I'm naked, Oh jeez, cheapers or no um. They have
Speaker 1: also been slandered as helping Judas find Christ, so they
Speaker 1: allegedly knarked on Christ by using their tails to point
Speaker 1: in the direction of where he was hiding. And what's
Speaker 1: interesting about this one is it's at least tangentially related
Speaker 1: to be these beetles behaviors. So the devil Beatles do
Speaker 1: curve their tails upward like a scorpion, but it is
Speaker 1: not to tell you where Christ is hiding, to like
Speaker 1: cheat at hide and secret Christ. But it is actually
Speaker 1: a threat display that they do when they're feeling threatened
Speaker 1: and they're warning you that they are about to shoot
Speaker 1: some stinky yellow goo at you unless you back off.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate an animal that gives you a heads
Speaker 1: up what's about to happen. I always look, yeah, what
Speaker 1: I think Some of these, like Middle Ages religious people
Speaker 1: did like some some religious person was like saw this
Speaker 1: and then continued to pester the beetle and the Beatles like,
Speaker 1: don't do it, I warn you. In then they just
Speaker 1: like kept poking at it, and then it shots stinky
Speaker 1: yellow goo at this person. And then this person is
Speaker 1: like furiously writing like and the beetle judas to find
Speaker 1: Christ and they should all be destroyed, and the beetle
Speaker 1: is actually a witch in disguise. We must burn all beetles. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny say that because in Ireland the
Speaker 1: protocol was that you had to burn these beetles and
Speaker 1: not step on it because again which rules I suppose,
Speaker 1: because you had to burn it to kill the devil beetle.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, like stepping on it wasn't good enough, right.
Speaker 1: I like to imagine they had like very small scale
Speaker 1: inquisition where you like construct a tiny pyre for this
Speaker 1: beetle or like put it in a tiny iron maiden
Speaker 1: trying to get it to confess tiny pire, and you
Speaker 1: would literally just light a match. Yeah, Like how I
Speaker 1: feel really bad for animals that like get stigmatized like
Speaker 1: this by just human society of people just not knowing
Speaker 1: any better, exactly like black cats yeah, exactly. And so
Speaker 1: I'm like looking at this, and I'm like this, it's
Speaker 1: a wonder this thing isn't extinct. Given we thought they
Speaker 1: were evil and would probably try try to murder them
Speaker 1: any chance we got. It's it's a wonder they're still around.
Speaker 1: It's almost as if some sort of dark forces helping them.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how like humans seem to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a thing I don't understand, we must kill it.
Speaker 1: In European folklore, it said that if you kill one
Speaker 1: of these beetles, you will be forgiven for seven years
Speaker 1: of sin, which seems like a really convenient excuse to
Speaker 1: feel good about crushing an innocent beetle just because it's
Speaker 1: stinky and bite you sometimes. I mean, come on, uh,
Speaker 1: like you can make up for the fact that you, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, light on your taxes or something like, right,
Speaker 1: you committed tax fraud, and so you're like, it's cool,
Speaker 1: just crush a bunch of beetles. Let's just kill a
Speaker 1: few beetles and squarsis it's all good. I murdered someone.
Speaker 1: How many beetles do I have to kill? Like until
Speaker 1: we're until we're all like even Stevens like, I'm fully
Speaker 1: prepared to murder as many beetles as it takes because
Speaker 1: I just love killing. That is such like Middle Age European. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I burned the city to the ground. I guess
Speaker 1: I gotta kill a beetle now, and we're all squares.
Speaker 1: I literally like, what year did like London catch fire?
Speaker 1: I guess that wasn't the Middle Ages. I think that
Speaker 1: was more like the seventeen hundreds, but like, like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I burned all of London. But it's cool, guys, I
Speaker 1: killed the devil beetle before I did, so guess who
Speaker 1: also burned in that fire? The devil beetle. So really,
Speaker 1: I think I came out ahead of this one. I
Speaker 1: mentioned ear they are sort of the pastel goth, and
Speaker 1: I want to put forth the case that Flamingos are
Speaker 1: pastel GoF because they, of course are that beautiful, vibrant pink.
Speaker 1: They're kind of these like basically you would think that, oh, flamingo,
Speaker 1: that's the anti goth, but no, have you seen a
Speaker 1: picture of what looks like them vomiting blood into their
Speaker 1: baby's mouths. I have not. I can't say I ever have.
Speaker 1: So someone actually sent me this viral video on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and I'm really sorry I would credit you. I cannot
Speaker 1: find the tweet for the life of me, but thank
Speaker 1: you so much Twitter user. And it looks like a
Speaker 1: flamingo stabbing its partner in the head until it bleeds
Speaker 1: and then the blood runs down into the chick smells.
Speaker 1: So basically you've got one flamingo on top of the other.
Speaker 1: It's got its beak on the flamingo skull. It looks
Speaker 1: like it's stabbing the flamingo in the head, and this
Speaker 1: blood is like running down the flamingo's head and into
Speaker 1: the baby's mouth. I have a video of that for
Speaker 1: you to watch. Oh my gosh, Like just from your description,
Speaker 1: that sounds so metal. I mean, if you think I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna show you like basically a flamingo snuff film, um,
Speaker 1: it's it's okay. It definitely. Yeah. It looks like they're
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, like flamingo murder is happening right now, right,
Speaker 1: like like I have stabbed your head to feed my child.
Speaker 1: But so there's there's more to this story. And this
Speaker 1: is actually a very sweet and loving video. So this
Speaker 1: is actually a confused flamingo parent trying to feed its
Speaker 1: chick crop milk, but accidentally letting it dribble all over
Speaker 1: its partner's head, who is also feeding their chick crop milk.
Speaker 1: So that that sounds really probably confusing to people who
Speaker 1: are like, wait, birds milk. What birds are not mammals,
Speaker 1: so they don't have mammary glands. But crop milk is
Speaker 1: a fluid produced in the bird's crop. So the crop
Speaker 1: is a muscular pouch near the throat where food is
Speaker 1: stored and awaits passage into the rest of the digestive system.
Speaker 1: And some bird species can use this crop to process
Speaker 1: food for their chicks. So pigeons, doves, and penguins create
Speaker 1: crop milk. In pigeons, it's actually called pigeon milk, which
Speaker 1: a little you know. I love birds, um, but if
Speaker 1: someone tried to say, like, here, you want to drink
Speaker 1: this room temperature glass of pigeon milk, I think I'd
Speaker 1: faint that away. I could thank you for being so
Speaker 1: considerate that appreciate the offer, but I'm I'm I'm good.
Speaker 1: I'm good. Actually I'm good without the pigeon milk. But
Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah, I appreciate the offer, your hospitality. Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you. I the thought is what counts. Well, you
Speaker 1: did think I would want pigeon milk, So that's not
Speaker 1: a great thought actually, now that I think about what
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, and then I would flee from
Speaker 1: this person's home and never return. So crop milk is
Speaker 1: a fat and protein rich fluid produced by the lining
Speaker 1: of the crop, and flamingo's crop milk is produced not
Speaker 1: just in the crop but glands in the entire upper
Speaker 1: digestive system. So the reason it looks like blood is
Speaker 1: probably because of the high density of carotenoid pigments that
Speaker 1: they collect from their diet of algae and crustaceans that
Speaker 1: are all rich in beta keratin. So that's what also
Speaker 1: gives them their pink color. So flamingo chicks actually come
Speaker 1: out with sort of grayish white feathers, and as they
Speaker 1: mature into adults and eat enough of this beta caratin,
Speaker 1: it turns their feathers pink. So like all of this
Speaker 1: is basically a big misunderstanding, the flamingos are just innocently
Speaker 1: basically regurgitating milk from their insides into their chick's mouth
Speaker 1: in a very sweet parenting move. Um, nothing gross having here, gross, No,
Speaker 1: just parental love. Their crop. Milk actually does contain quote
Speaker 1: unquote blood in a way like it has red and
Speaker 1: white blood cells in it, but it's not it's not
Speaker 1: really like blood. It's not. It's not it's it's not
Speaker 1: like we were making Dracula jokes earlier. It's not like
Speaker 1: feast upon my blood flesh, right exactly exactly. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that color because of the red
Speaker 1: blood cells. I think it's that color because of the
Speaker 1: the carotenoid pigments that they get their diet. I love
Speaker 1: that factoids about flamingo so much is that they're not
Speaker 1: naturally pink. It's it's all in the diet. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: if a human being basically overdosed on carrots, your skin
Speaker 1: would turn a little bit orange. I mean you'd have
Speaker 1: to have I've seen a lot like, oh, if you
Speaker 1: eat too many carrots, your skin is going to turn orange.
Speaker 1: But I think you have to eat insane amounts of
Speaker 1: carrots for that to happen, like because carrots do actually
Speaker 1: have carrotin in it um, but like it is, it
Speaker 1: would be just like grotesque amounts of carrots, like you
Speaker 1: would have to be on a almost disgusting carrot regimen,
Speaker 1: like like a conveyor belt, putting a carrot in your
Speaker 1: mouth every minute, every day, I think for your skin
Speaker 1: to turn orange from carrots again hard pass. I like carrots,
Speaker 1: not that much. You can wash it down with some
Speaker 1: nice pigeon milk. You know. I was just thinking to
Speaker 1: myself about how hungry I am because I haven't had
Speaker 1: lunch yet. But now I'm not for you, I am good.
Speaker 1: It's called the creature feature diet, where you just lose
Speaker 1: your appetite. In fact, I don't think I'll ever eat again.
Speaker 1: Oh that's not well, that's not doctor approved. This podcast
Speaker 1: does not sanction that diet. No, no, no, it doesn't. Guys.
Speaker 1: Eat food. Food is good for you. Eat food or
Speaker 1: you will die. Yeah, yeah, that's that's actually scientifically true.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you don't have to drink pigeon milk though
Speaker 1: it could make your bones strong, but you don't have
Speaker 1: to just stick to regular milk. Yeah, just stick to
Speaker 1: regular cow teat milk that we suckle from cows. Totally
Speaker 1: normal and totally good. Turn the weirdest things into food,
Speaker 1: don't we We do, we really do? You know? We
Speaker 1: scoff at like at like bloodwood apples and pigeon milk.
Speaker 1: But here we are drinking cow teat juice. You know
Speaker 1: that's that's that's sweet, sweet juice from the cow teet.
Speaker 1: It is funny. I was making fun of the guy
Speaker 1: earlier who decided like, hey, I'm gonna eat that mushroom.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat that funce to determine whether or not
Speaker 1: as delicious or gross. And then he was like, I
Speaker 1: tried it, and now I know it's gross. Like I
Speaker 1: was making fun of him just now. But someone at
Speaker 1: some point in time, Yeah, I was looking at a
Speaker 1: cow and decided I'm gonna drink that right, And this
Speaker 1: is so weird idea I would never write exactly like
Speaker 1: like oh this this object came out of this chicken butt.
Speaker 1: I'm putting it in my mouth now. Boom, yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: I've I've pulled this weird root out of the ground.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll eat that too. Gosh, how did we
Speaker 1: do it? How did we figure it out? I legitimately
Speaker 1: don't know. I think a lot of people died on
Speaker 1: on the on that kind of like quest to find
Speaker 1: edible things that animals poop out, A lot of trial
Speaker 1: and error that a lot of trial and error in
Speaker 1: the whole, like which animal excretions can we put in
Speaker 1: our mouth? Sort of adventure O lord. So to end
Speaker 1: the show, I want to talk about one of my
Speaker 1: favorite geckos, which yes I do have a favorite gecko,
Speaker 1: and it's the Satanic leaf tailed gecko. Natally, he's so cute,
Speaker 1: he gosh, so amazing him, he's so cool. He looks
Speaker 1: like a dragon with no wing, like he looks like
Speaker 1: Satan's dragon, but he doesn't have wings. But other than that,
Speaker 1: like a Satanic dragon made out of lava and fire,
Speaker 1: and its eyes are it out of fire. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: So this is the euro Platus fantasticus. So and it
Speaker 1: is called fantasticus because again that's like from the word
Speaker 1: fantasia or phantasm, where it's like it is fantastic looking.
Speaker 1: It's it looks like an imaginary creature, so it is.
Speaker 1: It's a little guy, so like a baby dragon. It's
Speaker 1: only grows about three inches and it really looks like
Speaker 1: it's made out of living fire and brimstone. So it's
Speaker 1: got red eyes. It's got skin that comes in a
Speaker 1: variety of hues of black, reddish brown, gold, can even
Speaker 1: have a purpleish hue and oranges, and its tail looks
Speaker 1: like a dead leaf, and it has a number of
Speaker 1: spines all over its body, and it even has these
Speaker 1: like notches in its tail and skin to make it
Speaker 1: look more convincingly like a dead leaf, like you know
Speaker 1: how dead leaves have those like kind of like brown
Speaker 1: notches as the leaf is decaying. And it's got like
Speaker 1: these little fleshy horns over its eyes, and it is
Speaker 1: indeed a form of crypsis to try to make it
Speaker 1: look like the leaves that you would find in Madagascar
Speaker 1: that are dead or dying or changing color, and it
Speaker 1: allows them to evade predators or to sneak up on
Speaker 1: their insect prey. I'm just a harmless leave, don't worry
Speaker 1: about it. It's fine. I'm just a dead leave. It's fine.
Speaker 1: It has a last ditch maneuver where it can open
Speaker 1: its mouth, and it has a bright red mouth that
Speaker 1: I guess spooks predators, but it's also kind of like funny.
Speaker 1: It's like a stoplight kind of like like as if
Speaker 1: a predator is like, well, the light is red, so
Speaker 1: I guess wait a minute, and then and then it's gone. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're absolutely beautiful. Again, look up picture. I'll have
Speaker 1: a picture linked in the show notes. But they are
Speaker 1: they're they're like if if you told me to come
Speaker 1: up with like a satanic dragon, I don't think I
Speaker 1: could have come up with something that's cool. The like
Speaker 1: it's funny that you bring up like lava and that
Speaker 1: it's very dragon esque, because like, did you did you
Speaker 1: ever get around to saying frozen two? No? I want to,
Speaker 1: but I haven't seen it unfortunately, not to give too
Speaker 1: much away, but there's like a little fire salamander in it.
Speaker 1: It's very cute and very adorable. When I think fire lizard, though,
Speaker 1: this is more what comes to mind, Like this is
Speaker 1: so cool. It looks like the ball rog but a lizard,
Speaker 1: a cute lizard. Yeah, you know, just like that that
Speaker 1: tulkyn esque description of it being like living fire and smoke,
Speaker 1: but in a little lizard body like geck body. It's
Speaker 1: it's not really a fitting description, like looking at all
Speaker 1: the orange hues on it and everything like that, but
Speaker 1: there's something about this this little lizard guy that makes
Speaker 1: me keep thinking of the word obsidian. But that's that's
Speaker 1: not like that's not an accurate it's not an accurate
Speaker 1: descriptor of what it looks like, but that's the word
Speaker 1: that keeps coming to mind. But obsidian is volcanic glass,
Speaker 1: so maybe you know it's like on its way to
Speaker 1: become a obsidian. So cool. It really is cool. And
Speaker 1: like other leaf tailed gecko species, it can actually bark
Speaker 1: and scream when threatened, So that's cool. Just imagine this
Speaker 1: thing screaming, screaming fire lizard that like can open its
Speaker 1: mouth and seemingly like emits red light. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 1: I love it, Like, yeah, it's it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where it's like you can't make that up. That's
Speaker 1: so good. Yeah, Like I want to be I want
Speaker 1: to be like a Game of Thrones queen, but I'm
Speaker 1: just covered in geckas. Have so many of these geckos.
Speaker 1: It's like can they fly and breathe fire? Well no,
Speaker 1: but they're cool, right, Like you hold it up in
Speaker 1: your hand and you're like Dracaras and it just opens
Speaker 1: its mouth and it's just got its little red tongue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just eats eats a mosquito. It's like that mosquito defied me,
Speaker 1: and you're like, all my enemies will kneel before me
Speaker 1: that that little beetle would not bend the knee, and
Speaker 1: so I had to burn it well or like eat it.
Speaker 1: But anyways, are you not intimidated? Also, that beetle was
Speaker 1: Toad's evil, So like, I'm super cool and free of
Speaker 1: sinden because this this lizard did that on my behalf. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I'm into it. Man. I would say a better ending
Speaker 1: the Game of Thrones in my opinion, but hey, what
Speaker 1: do I know? The bar was not high? Ah, well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today. I hope
Speaker 1: you learned a lot, maybe converted to Satanism. I don't know,
Speaker 1: not if that that was my goal or anything. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is really fun. I love I love animals
Speaker 1: that just go full spooky ah they like the world
Speaker 1: is magnificent and it's it's wonderful getting a chance to
Speaker 1: learn about, you know, creatures out there that you might
Speaker 1: not have like ever heard about before. And like I
Speaker 1: had never heard of this cool satan leaf tailed get
Speaker 1: go before today. And I had never heard of the
Speaker 1: umbrella bird or or and really any of these things
Speaker 1: and so or the or the strawberries and cream bleeding
Speaker 1: tooth fungas or pigeon milk. It's just you know again,
Speaker 1: I've I've been staring at the inside of my apartment
Speaker 1: for a long time now, and this is a nice
Speaker 1: reminder that the world out there is wonderful and weird
Speaker 1: and beautiful in every way, full of beautiful animals and
Speaker 1: exploding trees, exploding trees that want to be spider man villains,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, horrifying birds that stab their significant
Speaker 1: others in the head to feed their don't though that's slander.
Speaker 1: All they're doing, They're there's simply regurgitating bird milk, and
Speaker 1: that is, I think, a beautiful thing. It is like again,
Speaker 1: nature is weird and wonderful, and I think we should
Speaker 1: appreciate how weird and wonderful it is. I agree. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining me on this learning journey. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me and for teaching me. I'm so uh
Speaker 1: do you have anything a book? Um? Well, I'm Megan
Speaker 1: Selina's again. You guys can follow me on Twitter and
Speaker 1: Instagram at the manguin that's t G M E N
Speaker 1: g U I N. I have a YouTube channel called
Speaker 1: silver Screens or my roommate, and I talk about horror
Speaker 1: things and I have a Lost retrospective podcast called No
Speaker 1: Love Lost, where my co host Willing loves Lost and
Speaker 1: I don't, and we talk about it and is it
Speaker 1: lost Lost like the plane crash show? Right? Yeah, exactly. Uh,
Speaker 1: Like I I was a fan of the show, and
Speaker 1: then the show had its ending and I decided I
Speaker 1: wasn't a fan anymore. The whole idea behind our podcast
Speaker 1: is that we're going back, Um, we have to go back.
Speaker 1: We're going back to the beginning, and you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of going through an episode by episode and the
Speaker 1: we're what we're hoping to find out is if by
Speaker 1: the end of the journey, by the and we get
Speaker 1: back to the to the end of the series, if
Speaker 1: I've managed to change his mind and convince him that
Speaker 1: the show is actually terrible, or if he's actually managed
Speaker 1: to convince me otherwise that it's actually good. So I see.
Speaker 1: So that's sort of the thesis of our podcast of
Speaker 1: like trying to look at a show from somebody else's perspective.
Speaker 1: What if you both just like concluded feeling like it's alright.
Speaker 1: I guess that is a distinct possibity. It could be
Speaker 1: by the time we get to the end of it
Speaker 1: that we're both just like, yeah, it was okay, okay,
Speaker 1: balances out. Um. And then I'm also a member of
Speaker 1: Rooster Team Radio, where me and my co host talk
Speaker 1: about roost Teeth related shows. So go and check all
Speaker 1: of those things out. I I tweet about all of them,
Speaker 1: so uh yeah, go check those out and enjoy. Yes,
Speaker 1: And you can find us on the internet at Creature
Speaker 1: Feature put on Instagram, at Creature feet put on Twitter.
Speaker 1: That's f e a T, not f e ET that's
Speaker 1: something very different. You can't find me on Twitter. I
Speaker 1: am at Katie Golden if you're interested in my Katie thoughts.
Speaker 1: They're not necessarily podcast related. They're just all my ramblings,
Speaker 1: all my Katie thoughts. Um. I'm also a pro Bird Writs,
Speaker 1: where I put forth the idea that maybe we should
Speaker 1: just let birds take over the world, you know, just
Speaker 1: just once, just we'll try it. We'll try it and
Speaker 1: see how it fits. And thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for listening. I know times are really tough right now,
Speaker 1: so I am just always so I don't know, just
Speaker 1: like so thankful you're choosing to listen to to my
Speaker 1: little podcast or I really appreciate it, and if you
Speaker 1: are enjoying the show, if you want to like subscribe,
Speaker 1: leave a comment or a rating. That actually really helps me.
Speaker 1: It first of all makes you feel great. Faeds my
Speaker 1: enormous huge e go thanks to me feel uh. It
Speaker 1: really makes my day when I see a nice review.
Speaker 1: And it also really helps me because podcasts are hosted
Speaker 1: on platforms where all these robots are like beat boop,
Speaker 1: is your podcast good? And then like doing writings interviews
Speaker 1: kind of, it's like tells the robots that we're doing
Speaker 1: a good job, and that really helps us. Thanks also
Speaker 1: to the Space Classics for their super gopic song. X Alumina.
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