Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, how do
Speaker 1: you get around the world when you're just a little dude?
Speaker 1: Life is tough on these teeny tiny's and so they
Speaker 1: need creative solutions to be able to get around without
Speaker 1: being immediately destroyed. From the world's idious videous snail to
Speaker 1: dastardly little fish to the littlest cowboys getting up in
Speaker 1: the sea. We're looking at some cuties who are sometimes
Speaker 1: surprisingly devious. Discover the some more as we answer the
Speaker 1: age old question. Maybe she's born with it, Maybe it's
Speaker 1: poops on spikes. Joining me today is front of the
Speaker 1: show brilliant comedian with a background in biotech, Pulo Viganalen, welcome, alright, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here again. So we're just talking
Speaker 1: about little time, little tie guys, little little teeny tiny's, uh,
Speaker 1: and you know it can be it can be rough
Speaker 1: on a little teeny tiny trying to navigate the world
Speaker 1: that is so much bigger. Being a voice for the
Speaker 1: voiceless right now, exactly the voice for the teeniest and
Speaker 1: tiniest of snails, which when you take them all together
Speaker 1: as like a voting block, you know, pretty significant. So
Speaker 1: have you heard the news that they discovered a new
Speaker 1: tiniest snail. I have not kept up on my snail news.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I mean, I have subscribed to Snails
Speaker 1: Galore bi weekly. So I'm up to come through snail mail.
Speaker 1: I'm done. Good bye, You're done, banned from comedy forever.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know, the smallest land snail in all
Speaker 1: the land, I guess has been discovered. So these are
Speaker 1: snails that are so teeny tiny. The adults are literally
Speaker 1: the size of a grain of sand. You can fit
Speaker 1: more than one of them on the tip of a
Speaker 1: ballpoint pin. So these are called Augusta pilla salmion and
Speaker 1: they were found in northern Vietnam. They are point six
Speaker 1: millimeters in diameter and uh, For some reason, researchers thought
Speaker 1: the best way to illustrate how small they were would
Speaker 1: be to take a picture of a bunch of the
Speaker 1: little snails inside a clear pill capsule, which just makes
Speaker 1: me think of some kind of weird snail medicine made
Speaker 1: out of just like swallowing a bunch of snails. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely isn't an appealing visual. Now, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: if we just can't see their snails in our medicine?
Speaker 1: Now you always think like is it just inside this pill?
Speaker 1: Is it just a bunch of little snails? Is this
Speaker 1: a secret doctors don't want us to find out about?
Speaker 1: This is gonna be when it Faltra is so close
Speaker 1: to selling this right now, it's gonna be on It's
Speaker 1: gonna be on Joe Rogan Show. He's in a lot
Speaker 1: of hot water right now, rightfully, so, so he's probably
Speaker 1: take it out on these snails, gonna take it down
Speaker 1: these snails. He's gonna try to sell it like as
Speaker 1: a coronavirus. Here, just pillful of snails? Why not? Why not?
Speaker 1: So one of the issues with being this tiny when
Speaker 1: you're a snail is how you move around without dying? So,
Speaker 1: oh my god, yeah, because snails are notoriously slow. And
Speaker 1: then when you're living on the tip of a ballpoint pen,
Speaker 1: how do you get down the pen? Wow? Incredible exactly.
Speaker 1: So you don't get down from a pen, you get
Speaker 1: down from a duck. That's snail humor. It actually it
Speaker 1: actually works. It hits really well with an audience of
Speaker 1: these tiny snails just just so you know, I'm just
Speaker 1: imagining them like the the Little Aliens and Toy story,
Speaker 1: just like stuck in this pill. So terrestrial snails have
Speaker 1: to leave the cozy moisteness of their shells and expose
Speaker 1: their fleshy parts which is a lovely sentence that I
Speaker 1: just said out loud, in order to travel along surfaces,
Speaker 1: but this actually exposes them to being dried out. So
Speaker 1: snails will use a trail of sticky slime to help
Speaker 1: them adhere to surfaces, which is one use of their moisture,
Speaker 1: and that slime trail is actually really interesting because it
Speaker 1: allows them to stick to a surface, but it also
Speaker 1: allows them to glide along a surface because when they
Speaker 1: adhere pressure to that slime, it actually condenses into more
Speaker 1: of a fluid state rather than a sticky adhesive state,
Speaker 1: and they can kind of glide along the surface. And
Speaker 1: the snail's body, in order to move and also to
Speaker 1: stay alive, needs a lot of moisture, needs moisture inside
Speaker 1: of its mantle cavity in order to facilitate gas exchange
Speaker 1: that it needs for breathing. So snail basically it's gott
Speaker 1: it's gotta it's gotta be damp. It's a little a
Speaker 1: little slip and slide. So what you're saying to me
Speaker 1: right now? Ye, do do one of them like? Since
Speaker 1: there's so many, I don't know. I guess that they
Speaker 1: don't live very close to each other probably right, or
Speaker 1: I guess maybe in order to reproduce they do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was wondering do they like do they because I
Speaker 1: always always see snails by themselves, but that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: But do they like make their little slip and slide
Speaker 1: and then other snails can use their slip and slide?
Speaker 1: Does happen? That's a really good question, you know what.
Speaker 1: I'm not actually sure. I think it probably depends on
Speaker 1: how recent the slime trail is. If it's really I
Speaker 1: bet you that they can and if it's you know if,
Speaker 1: but if it's kind of dried out longer, maybe they can't.
Speaker 1: But that's a really good question. And now you've got
Speaker 1: me wondering if snails ever used that strategy to like
Speaker 1: follow up the nails for mating. Now I'm imagining little
Speaker 1: c s I snails like like this was recent, someone
Speaker 1: was here, this this trail is still wet. That would
Speaker 1: be a really easy murder to solve if it was
Speaker 1: done by snails. Yeah, well there's a slime trail leading
Speaker 1: right over here to you know, Jeff's apartment. But he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, two feet away because he's so slow. He's
Speaker 1: like hasn't left the door yet. Exactly's like, oh, you
Speaker 1: got me, now you gotta come arrest me. But the
Speaker 1: police snails they have like little sirens that they've been
Speaker 1: put onto their their shells and then they start their chase.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a funeral. So, uh, these little ta tiny snails. Uh,
Speaker 1: their problem is when you're small, it's really hard to
Speaker 1: retain moisture. A lot of insects or other arthropods that
Speaker 1: are small they have a hard cuticle so they don't
Speaker 1: dry out. So like a tiny ant, it has this
Speaker 1: hard cuticle what what is basically its skin that keeps
Speaker 1: it from drying out. If you want to kill ants
Speaker 1: because you're a monster, or you want to protect your food,
Speaker 1: there's a way to do it without using like ant spray.
Speaker 1: You can actually use diet Tomacious Earth, which is this
Speaker 1: I'm always talking about diet as always, you joke, but
Speaker 1: whenever someone complains about ants. I'm like, well, have you
Speaker 1: heard about dietomaceous earth. It's made out of billions and
Speaker 1: billions of dead diet tom and their skeletons are so
Speaker 1: dry it absorbs all the moisture and it instantly kills
Speaker 1: the ant. Well not instantly, they stye a slow and
Speaker 1: painful death. But yeah, so it is something I like
Speaker 1: to talk about parties how you can kill ants with
Speaker 1: dietemacious earth, because, like I said, you can lay out
Speaker 1: this this dietomacious earth. It's a powdery substance, highly highly absorbent,
Speaker 1: and it will just suck all the moisture out of
Speaker 1: the snail or sorry, suck all the moisture out of
Speaker 1: the ant, which kills it. And so it can be
Speaker 1: used to kind of prevent ants from invading your home.
Speaker 1: But the point of that is, like the ant normally
Speaker 1: doesn't just like have all the moisture evaporate out of it.
Speaker 1: It has that hard cuticle that protects it. But these
Speaker 1: little snails do not have a hard cuticle. They have
Speaker 1: their shell. They also have a little door to the shell.
Speaker 1: It's called an operculum. It's like that little you know
Speaker 1: when a snail like close it up. They have sort
Speaker 1: of that little trapdoor that can close over their shell.
Speaker 1: That's what that is. So how do these teeny tiny
Speaker 1: snails survive without drying out? Skincare a lot of moisturizing
Speaker 1: acial products. Listen, they've been in Hollywood. They know this
Speaker 1: is just an advertisement for like Lourel, those Korean masks. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I do you
Speaker 1: know how many snails had to die to make the Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: they have made those masks out of snail slime, right
Speaker 1: like that they have, Yes, yes, there are I'm fully joking.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. Yeah, yeah, there's snail slime lotion.
Speaker 1: Uh and like snail slime masks, it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: highly moisturizing. Oh my god, what did we do to
Speaker 1: the snails? Melt them? That's gross, So sad for the snails.
Speaker 1: It is really ease. And can you imagine the smell
Speaker 1: because I can't. God, I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 1: Does snail slime smell? Snail slime doesn't smell that much.
Speaker 1: But I remember when I was a kid and I
Speaker 1: would collect snails and sometimes like just have a big
Speaker 1: pile of an in my hand. There was a distinct
Speaker 1: odor and it wasn't pleasant, so so um so. Basically,
Speaker 1: one way that these these tiny grain of sand sized
Speaker 1: snails don't die is that they are only found in
Speaker 1: dank human caves, so they live inside the sediment inside
Speaker 1: these caves. If they were in somewhere more dry or
Speaker 1: more exposed to the sun, it's likely that they would
Speaker 1: die because they would dry out. But another strategy is
Speaker 1: actually employed by another snail which is similarly sized, and
Speaker 1: it may give us some hints into this other snail's behavior.
Speaker 1: It's just very slightly larger. But and when I say larger,
Speaker 1: like by point something of a millimeter. And this snail
Speaker 1: is called a copra logos and it is the second
Speaker 1: smallest snail UH found in Louth. The copra logos have
Speaker 1: this very weird feature to their shell. They have these
Speaker 1: little spikes covered in what looked like beads, And what
Speaker 1: researchers have found is that beads are feces. It's a
Speaker 1: string of fecal beads, so little feces in sort of
Speaker 1: necklace form worn around these snails. It's you know, it's fashion.
Speaker 1: I gotta says fashion. Also my defense when I walk
Speaker 1: home at night. You know, Yeah, I also wear fegal beads,
Speaker 1: so no one bothers me. I prefer the these sort
Speaker 1: of morning star of my dog's poop bag. You know,
Speaker 1: when you get clean up after your dog have got
Speaker 1: a big turd in the plastic bag and you can
Speaker 1: kind of swing it around like a maze. Yeah, watch out,
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna get into a lot of time,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. So the reason for this like poop jewelry.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a Gothic poop jewelry because it's
Speaker 1: all these spikes covered in these little poop beads is
Speaker 1: they think that the dung pearls may actually, first of all,
Speaker 1: help attract mates, because how could it not. I mean, okay,
Speaker 1: so we're using the opposite right right with so maybe
Speaker 1: biochemical signaling to attract mates. And another proposed reason is
Speaker 1: it may help the snail from drawing out with the moisturizing,
Speaker 1: revitalizing power of tiny dung pearls. So again, Lourel, think
Speaker 1: about it. No, there's no like and Paltrow is not
Speaker 1: already on top of this. I feel like she this
Speaker 1: is a side note, but I feel like she has
Speaker 1: like a humiliation thing where she loves watching women right right.
Speaker 1: She she gets off on other women being humiliated just
Speaker 1: what she can tell them. She's like, put this in
Speaker 1: your in your vagina and wear these poop beads and
Speaker 1: they're like yeah, and she's like, perfect, no, wear this
Speaker 1: snail poop on your face. Did you do it? Oh
Speaker 1: my god, you actually did it? So hot? So polo V.
Speaker 1: I feel like we've all become a little more sedentary
Speaker 1: in the world, wouldn't you say, just on average? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that. You know, I'm trying. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: kind of escape, escape the my cozy life style. But
Speaker 1: it's hard. It's hard one to your sort of It's
Speaker 1: like when you are encouraged to stay indoors for your health,
Speaker 1: then it's like, all right, uh, but you've been indoors
Speaker 1: for too long, so now get out stop being sentary.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, but I got used to feeling smug
Speaker 1: about being lazy, so it's kind of hard to make
Speaker 1: that change. Yes, it's all of the incentives have reversed themselves.
Speaker 1: How are you how are you expected to move? You know, right? Right,
Speaker 1: remember when we were told you know, it's like you're
Speaker 1: helping other people and yourself by staying home. And so
Speaker 1: now it's like, well, you should maybe go on a
Speaker 1: run or go get some exercises. Like, can't I still
Speaker 1: feel like a hero for sitting on my couch because
Speaker 1: that would be nice? Yeah, I mean you still can
Speaker 1: you like you could treat yourself every time. That's true,
Speaker 1: I'm the real hero, I say, sitting on my couch
Speaker 1: is like nurses are actually doing things. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's actually that sedentary lifestyle does have its advantages in
Speaker 1: the natural world. You don't have to expend energy moving
Speaker 1: and if you're armored, you can kind of hunker down
Speaker 1: in a fortress. And this is the strategy that muscles use.
Speaker 1: Those little bivalve dudes that a lot of people like
Speaker 1: to eat, which I don't like to eat because when
Speaker 1: I try to eat them, I throw up. So, uh, well,
Speaker 1: that's a self defense mechanism. They didn't know they had
Speaker 1: specifically making me throw up, Right, so they've at least
Speaker 1: taken care of one predator. So muscles are a group
Speaker 1: of bivalves that have oblog shells, and there are many
Speaker 1: different species of muscles. So while muscles are known for
Speaker 1: being sedentary, they can actually move like other bivalves until
Speaker 1: they settle on the surface. You're saying bivalves, like, we
Speaker 1: all know what that means. But it's a bi valves,
Speaker 1: so that means two valves whatever. So it's basically clams
Speaker 1: like what you know. Clams are a specific bivalve, but
Speaker 1: it's any clam like creature that opens and closes like
Speaker 1: a book. It's got two valves and input valve in
Speaker 1: an output valve. That's why it's called a bi valve.
Speaker 1: It's got a foot that fleshy part it can stick
Speaker 1: out to kind of dig into the sand and move around.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the names for them, and it's bi valvea,
Speaker 1: which I'm pretty sure that's a sexual organ you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't. I was named incorrectly. Okay, okay, so
Speaker 1: we got these, we got these bi valves. So, clams, oysters, uh, geo, ducks,
Speaker 1: uh uh, muscles, they're all bi valves. Wow, it actually
Speaker 1: is more more difficult for me to name all the
Speaker 1: bivalves that I thought it would be. But hey, there
Speaker 1: you go. So oh scallops forgot scallops. So muscles are
Speaker 1: a type of bi valve and they can move like
Speaker 1: bi valves. Even though they don't seem like they should
Speaker 1: be able to move around, they can. They've got that foot.
Speaker 1: They can dig in the sand. They can even kind
Speaker 1: of swim with sort of a butterfly motion. But muscles
Speaker 1: tend to like to stick in one place when they can,
Speaker 1: so they can actually excrete a sticky glue like substance
Speaker 1: called bistle threads. So that's like if you've ever seen
Speaker 1: a muscle on the beach and it's stuck to a
Speaker 1: rock and try to pull it off. You can pull
Speaker 1: it off, it's not impossible, but it kind of it resists.
Speaker 1: It's sort of stuck to the rock, and so it
Speaker 1: is stuck to the rock by these bistle threads. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got that's like the fuzzy white stuff that's like
Speaker 1: underneath them exactly. Yes. So I feel like when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, I would I would pull off a
Speaker 1: muscle just out of curiosity, and then it kind of
Speaker 1: just messing with these snails and muscles. I was out
Speaker 1: there collecting empty shells. Maybe this is why, maybe this
Speaker 1: is why I throw up now when I try to
Speaker 1: eat muscles. It's like it's your origin story, like the
Speaker 1: retribution the muscles revenge. It's a dish best served taught.
Speaker 1: It's stok the muscles revenge. So h yeah, So the
Speaker 1: ability to stick to one place has its benefits. So
Speaker 1: they can stick somewhere and despite strong currents, they can
Speaker 1: just peacefully filter fee rather than moving around in a
Speaker 1: location that's maybe not as ideal. Those bustle threads can
Speaker 1: actually also be used in self defense in sort of
Speaker 1: a Spider Man spider Man. Yeah, yeah, Spider Man, just
Speaker 1: sort of in slow motion, really slow spider Man. So
Speaker 1: if they are secreted over slow moving predators like a
Speaker 1: dog welts, which are a carnivorous type of c snail,
Speaker 1: the muscle can trap the predator and protect itself. So
Speaker 1: it's like Spider Man, but in really really slow motion.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. They're gonna somehow incorporate that into a new
Speaker 1: Spider Man movie. It's a multiverse Spider Man movie. They're
Speaker 1: going to figure out a way to get these muscles
Speaker 1: in there. Yeah, like that would be muscle Man, but
Speaker 1: instead of being muscular, he's half half muscle bi valve.
Speaker 1: Now we're jumping into SpongeBob territory. Okay, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of the sort of by physiology of a muscleman,
Speaker 1: and it's a little gross, you know, yeah, we know,
Speaker 1: we can. We know we're not to design the we're
Speaker 1: the ideas people. Okay, it's the comic designer to design them, clearly.
Speaker 1: I like, I imagine the muscleman having like a bikini situation,
Speaker 1: like an aerial situation where the bikini is made out
Speaker 1: of muscles. But then since he's part muscle, is that
Speaker 1: like cannibalism? Yeah? Yeah, also didn't aerial? Did she like
Speaker 1: kill because like all the sea life is sentient and
Speaker 1: her subjects, so she did she kill one of her
Speaker 1: subjects for a bra Is that a thing? I would
Speaker 1: like to think that they died and we're like, this
Speaker 1: is my last dying wish. It's it's will, and its
Speaker 1: will that yeah accepted. You know, it happened right at
Speaker 1: the time when she started. I see, I leave, I
Speaker 1: leave my my wealth to my grandchildren, and I leave
Speaker 1: my body to that breastmid cover breast. That's that's how
Speaker 1: that's how grand dying wish is to not is to
Speaker 1: lock up that nipple. That's weird. That's weird. I mean,
Speaker 1: a cartoon clam can dream, so Now, we mostly associate
Speaker 1: muscles with the sea, but there are actually a variety
Speaker 1: of fresh water muscles as well. Fresh Water muscles typically
Speaker 1: use their foot that fleshy projection. I love saying fleshy projection,
Speaker 1: But that fleshy projection that bivalves can use for locomotion,
Speaker 1: but freshwater muscles typically use it to dig into the
Speaker 1: substrate of the river or stream to root itself so
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to move around. That's gotta be like,
Speaker 1: that's gotta be a lot of strain on that part
Speaker 1: of your body if you're just like holding on all
Speaker 1: the time. For me, it's I imagine like just sticking
Speaker 1: my foot in a ball pit and kind of you know,
Speaker 1: still like when you you really get your foot rooted
Speaker 1: and wedged down in that ballpit, and then all the
Speaker 1: children trying to knock you over, stay there for a
Speaker 1: really long time. Why are the children? Why are you
Speaker 1: fighting children in a ball pick case? Listen, My life
Speaker 1: is my life, all right. So one issue with being sessile,
Speaker 1: that that is being rooted in one place, is how
Speaker 1: do you make sure your offspring can be distributed elsewhere
Speaker 1: so your population isn't all concentrated in one area campaigning
Speaker 1: for the same territory nutrition. It's like if all your
Speaker 1: kids never move out, always raid the fridge. It's a problem.
Speaker 1: So before I discuss anything further, I'm gonna show you
Speaker 1: some pictures of some fish and some some weird sea life.
Speaker 1: So there's a picture here of a little spotted fish,
Speaker 1: you see that, m h, And like a little sort
Speaker 1: of a weird invertebrate dude. And a couple of worms.
Speaker 1: How are those worms look like fish too? Yeah, that
Speaker 1: kind of fish, like a little fish, like a little
Speaker 1: like eyes and mouth. Yeah, but they have they have eyes,
Speaker 1: they have mouths. You know, they've got one of them's
Speaker 1: got fins. So you know you've got You've got some
Speaker 1: fish and some sort of like weird little sea life. Um,
Speaker 1: it's all lies. It's it's lies. You're lying to me.
Speaker 1: I'm lying to you. Well, nature is lying to you too,
Speaker 1: so we're both we're both lying to you. Uh. There's
Speaker 1: this amazing Twitter thread that I recommend you guys. I'll
Speaker 1: check out by Fairish Gibber, where you can see a
Speaker 1: number of videos of tiny fish through sushing around against
Speaker 1: a rock. So you'll see this larger fish come up
Speaker 1: to it and chomp down. But as it bites, it's
Speaker 1: like this powder keg explodes with this white, powdery substance
Speaker 1: spraying everywhere. So Pulo, check out that that link, uh
Speaker 1: of that the video of fish, that fish munching on
Speaker 1: that little fish. Oh my god, Oh whoa, it just deflated.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, the little fish just diflated. What a decoy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that little wriggling fish is not a fish at all.
Speaker 1: It is part of a muscle's dastardly planned to reproduce.
Speaker 1: So in that video, that fish is actually a flap
Speaker 1: of tissue disguised as a fish. It's hard for me
Speaker 1: to wrap my mind head. It looks like a fish. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, crazy. It looks not at all like the
Speaker 1: rest of the muscle. No, it doesn't. Wait and so
Speaker 1: then inside of it is like eggs and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this is what happens is when the unsuspecting real
Speaker 1: fish bites down on what it thinks is this little
Speaker 1: tasty fish snack, the muscle releases a bunch of larvae.
Speaker 1: So these little muscle larvae or these little teeny tiny
Speaker 1: babies called glow kidia, and they look like these little
Speaker 1: zooplankton sized muscles, and they are so tiny that it
Speaker 1: would be hard for them to move around on their own.
Speaker 1: They're easy food for anything that eats like these little
Speaker 1: tiny larva. And upsettingly, it has these hooks on its mantle,
Speaker 1: So the mantle is like the fleshy inner part of
Speaker 1: the muscle, and it uses these hooks to lash onto
Speaker 1: the inside of the fishes gills, where it will absorb
Speaker 1: nutrients and spend a few weeks and this fun little
Speaker 1: playhouse before detaching and settling into substrates somewhere else. That
Speaker 1: is so weird. That's like when people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: I hear something in my ear. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a bug or whatever. But it's like these fish that
Speaker 1: are flying around underwater with things and their gills and
Speaker 1: they're like, I don't know, I feel sick Herman. And
Speaker 1: then and then it's like you'll be fine, Gerald, You're
Speaker 1: always you're always thinking you're sick. And Gerald's like, no,
Speaker 1: I really feel like there's something inside of me and
Speaker 1: it's these little guys. Yeah. Yeah. And typically this doesn't
Speaker 1: kill the fish, but if there's enough of them, they
Speaker 1: can actually clogg the fishes gills and so it can
Speaker 1: be harmful if there are too many of them. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that is it's just like, hey, I got got some
Speaker 1: other creatures babies in my eating holes. That's not it's
Speaker 1: not a great feeling. I don't think that's insane because
Speaker 1: they look so much like like real fish. Yeah, those
Speaker 1: lures are absolutely crazy because yeah, and there are different types.
Speaker 1: So there are lures that look like as one type
Speaker 1: of fish, there's a lure that looks like a different
Speaker 1: type of fish, like a minnow, and then there's a
Speaker 1: lure that even looks like a prawn or something doesn't
Speaker 1: even look like a fish. It looks more like a crayfish. Right,
Speaker 1: So there's this de depending on where they are and
Speaker 1: what the best prey is. Yeah, so it depends on
Speaker 1: the species of muscles, and yeah, whatever lure is the
Speaker 1: most effective for the larger fish in their area. And
Speaker 1: some muscles aren't even happy enough with just luring them close.
Speaker 1: They actually like to clamp down on the fish's head
Speaker 1: after luring it in and then just jet sprays larva
Speaker 1: into the fish's gills. So gross, I know. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so it when it when it reacts this way and
Speaker 1: the puff of white stuff is shooting out that's like
Speaker 1: from inside the muscle, right, It's just like the outer
Speaker 1: layer is the fish, and then inside the mussel, it's
Speaker 1: just like as soon as they clamp down, it goes
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. Yeah, so that that lure. The thing that
Speaker 1: looks like a fish but is actually part of the
Speaker 1: muscle is basically like this flap of flesh that it
Speaker 1: dangles outside of its body. And yeah, it just because
Speaker 1: when you look at it, it looks like a little
Speaker 1: fish kind of thrashing around like right on the tip
Speaker 1: of a muscle. It doesn't look like it's part of
Speaker 1: the muscle. Is that part of what it constantly has
Speaker 1: or does it only develop that like when it's ready
Speaker 1: to spray? No, it constantly has that, So it's it's
Speaker 1: just part of it's just part of the muscle um.
Speaker 1: But it'll move it. It can move it around, and
Speaker 1: it's sort of like extrudes it and twitch is it
Speaker 1: around when it wants to, uh, you know, forcibly force
Speaker 1: a fish to become a babysitter in the worst way.
Speaker 1: That's like a horror movie babysitter. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: already a horror movie just to be a forced babysitter.
Speaker 1: But then add on top of that that's sort of
Speaker 1: like indo parasite thing terrible, always asking if their games
Speaker 1: on your phone. So there are actually other muscles that
Speaker 1: developed a different technique, so they produce packets that contain
Speaker 1: their larva. So it's like it's just this packwood package
Speaker 1: full of muscle larva, and so they need the fish
Speaker 1: to want to uh open up this package though, so
Speaker 1: they actually disguise these packages as things like fly larva
Speaker 1: or invertebrates with fake ice spots and scales. Remember those
Speaker 1: pictures I showed you of the little worm wormy fish
Speaker 1: looking things and that other weird thing that looks like
Speaker 1: some kind of invertebrate or maybe even like a little
Speaker 1: like catfish larva or something. Those are not eyes, those
Speaker 1: are not mouths. Those are just clever coloration on these packets,
Speaker 1: just disguised as some bigger creature. And then when the
Speaker 1: fish bites into it, it breaks open like a parasite pinata,
Speaker 1: and all of these muscle babies infect the fishes gills.
Speaker 1: Some of them are like an attachment in the muscles
Speaker 1: still spring it, and others are like little packets exactly
Speaker 1: exactly little Trojan horses, except full of parasites Trojan babies,
Speaker 1: Trojan babies, which is not good marketing for that condom company. No, No,
Speaker 1: kind of the opposite thing that you're trying to trying
Speaker 1: to market for. Yeah, but it also sounds a little
Speaker 1: bit like Muppet babies. Muppet b babies. Yeah, Trojan parasite
Speaker 1: babies get fun. That'd be a fun show. Yeah, looking
Speaker 1: for They're always looking for reboots, so why not do
Speaker 1: a reboot? But Kermit is like teeny tiny and there's
Speaker 1: like hundreds of them. Any gets inside your lungs and
Speaker 1: then you just explode with piggies lungs and she's happy
Speaker 1: with it. Oh, miss Piggy. It would be fun to
Speaker 1: like for there to be Alien recreated. But with Miss Piggy, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like I've seen her like
Speaker 1: blown up in something before and stomping around right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that would make sense. I think she was
Speaker 1: in Pigs and Space or something, but like I want
Speaker 1: to see her as uh, you know who's the main
Speaker 1: protagonist in Alien? No, I can't remember, Lady mctough galurand no, no,
Speaker 1: it's isn't it um No, it's not Susan Surandon and
Speaker 1: it's not activity a yogurt lady, it's the other one. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: Jamie Lee Curtis is the activity activityal yogurt lady. No, no no, no,
Speaker 1: it's the other person. God, why have we not? Don't
Speaker 1: this episode? We're watching alien Sigourney Weaver. There is the story.
Speaker 1: I can't even say our names, Sigourney Weaver and Jamie
Speaker 1: Lee Curtis or who I mixing? Why are we talking about?
Speaker 1: I think we're pitching this to the Jim Henson Company.
Speaker 1: So it's good that we're practicing or walkthrough of it,
Speaker 1: Hollywood baby, Okay, all right, so we've talked about tiny spiky,
Speaker 1: poop covered snails and parasite Hignada's okay, stop turning me on, right.
Speaker 1: I thought we'd have an even an even more heartwarming
Speaker 1: story to end with. So what do you do when
Speaker 1: you're just a little guy who needs a ride around
Speaker 1: the great big ocean? So lots of oceanic creatures, even
Speaker 1: ones who grow into a formidable size, will start off
Speaker 1: teeny teeny mean seat, So consider the sunfish. Take the
Speaker 1: sun flish, God, take the sunfish please? I really see
Speaker 1: this is why, this is why you do the stand
Speaker 1: up and I don't know. This is why I do
Speaker 1: the sit down. You didn't stand up, and I sit
Speaker 1: down and and talk from here from my comfortable seat.
Speaker 1: So the sunfish, uh, the sunfish is larva, start off
Speaker 1: only a couple millimeters wide, and they grow into the
Speaker 1: biggest bony fish in the ocean. Yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: say the sunfish is like huge, very massive. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they're not they're not the biggest fish in the ocean
Speaker 1: because that are those are sharks. But the sharks are
Speaker 1: made out of cartilage. There are bony fish rather than
Speaker 1: cartilyginous fish, and the biggest bony fish is the sunfish,
Speaker 1: and they grew up to over two thousand pounds or
Speaker 1: one thousand kilograms. But they start off as just this
Speaker 1: little tiny pea. Oh my gosh, I'm looking at them.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at them in like someone's hand, and they
Speaker 1: look so cute and so frightened. And then they're like
Speaker 1: giant next to this like grown person. Yeah. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks so ridiculous. It looks so silly. What a life, Right,
Speaker 1: You start off as a little spiky pea and then
Speaker 1: you just grow into a giant, angry pancake. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like that they're like chill though they look too
Speaker 1: silly to be angry. That's true. That's true. Maybe when
Speaker 1: they're the little tiny spiky p that's when they're angry
Speaker 1: because they got a chip on their shoulder and they're
Speaker 1: just a little, a little tiny spike ball against the world.
Speaker 1: But then when they're a giant pancake, it's like whatever, man,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Can you imagine? Like I feel like people
Speaker 1: would be easily duped into buying the little spiky peas
Speaker 1: and thinking that they're like mini sunfish, and then they
Speaker 1: grow up and they were like, yeah, you gotta keep
Speaker 1: these big so you can get some sea monkeys, and
Speaker 1: then they just grow to the size of like your
Speaker 1: entire room. Yeah, it's so crazy, they're so big. But yes,
Speaker 1: they're so big and silly looking. Yeah, they're just the
Speaker 1: they're just and just the fact they're so flat and
Speaker 1: then they've got these huge eyes. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: love it. There's their mouths are like like circular, so
Speaker 1: it's like they look like they're constantly like out of breath.
Speaker 1: There was that video of that Bostonian guy freaking out
Speaker 1: about the sunfish. Do you remember that, No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play just a little clip from it to avoid,
Speaker 1: you know, copyright problems. But let me see if I
Speaker 1: can find it. That thing is big, Jay? What is
Speaker 1: that thing? It looks hurt. That thing looks hurt, Jake, Jay,
Speaker 1: that thing is hurt. Bro, Holy look at this thing?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? What is that? Bro? Jerry? What then?
Speaker 1: Is that? We gotta call the aquarium a shothing? We
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta call aquarium of something? Dude, a well
Speaker 1: meaning Bostonian guy was a recipe for a viral video. Now,
Speaker 1: what he's concerned about for the fish's safety is that
Speaker 1: sunfish do you tend to sort of lie in a
Speaker 1: horizontal fashion. They like near the surface. But they're fine.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it that they just like to do that.
Speaker 1: They're actually so. My point in bringing up the sunfish,
Speaker 1: other than to share with you that wonderful uh concerned
Speaker 1: citizen Bostonian, is that in the ocean, even big animals
Speaker 1: or medium sized animals can start off really tiny, and
Speaker 1: their chances of survival when they're really tiny are typically
Speaker 1: pretty low. So there's a ton of them. Usually there
Speaker 1: there will be like a ton of offspring. That's the
Speaker 1: case with the sunfish. They like have thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: of offspring at once, and so just statistically speaking, some
Speaker 1: of them have to survive. In fact, in the ocean,
Speaker 1: the largest mass migration happens every day. So from the
Speaker 1: depths of the ocean to the uppermost layer of the ocean.
Speaker 1: All of these little tiny animal babies, including like zooplank
Speaker 1: things that stay small and things that start off small,
Speaker 1: will make this big migration from the twilight zone, which
Speaker 1: is a real area in the ocean where it's it's
Speaker 1: basically because only a little bit of light gets that
Speaker 1: deep into the ocean. Oh, that's what it's called. Yes,
Speaker 1: And then in the less fun name is the mesopleagic zone. Um,
Speaker 1: but the TV show you have entered the mesoplatic zone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a hard sell for Rod Sterling before he
Speaker 1: discovered there was another name that he could use. Uh So,
Speaker 1: but yeah, at night they will move to the uppermost
Speaker 1: layer of the ocean because even though they like to
Speaker 1: stay in that twilight zone during the day, because even
Speaker 1: though that area is less nutrient dense than the upper
Speaker 1: layers of the ocean, it's safer during the day because
Speaker 1: of the lack of light makes the tiny zooplankton less
Speaker 1: detectable by predators. So that's just to get you acquainted
Speaker 1: with how there are these animals in the ocean that
Speaker 1: they start off life really tiny and they need to
Speaker 1: figure out creative ways to get around. So I think
Speaker 1: it's great that they have so many children, like my
Speaker 1: parents had to hoping one would not disappoint them, and
Speaker 1: it worked. Listen, you're you're your five thousand other brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters are are they went to grad school. They
Speaker 1: went to grad school some you know, like and you
Speaker 1: other five thousand wanted to be an artist artist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that does put sibling rivalries into the perspective because
Speaker 1: then at least you don't have to like do better
Speaker 1: in karate against like ten thousand other siblings. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: seems like a lot fight to the death. Oh that's
Speaker 1: why they called it squid gay Oh god, terrifying. So basically,
Speaker 1: when you're a little tiny dude in the ocean, you
Speaker 1: gotta get around somehow, and you gotta get around without
Speaker 1: being eaten, and you also got to get around being
Speaker 1: able to find food. Um, well, there is a little
Speaker 1: critter that has found a way to yeehaw. It's way
Speaker 1: around by riding a jellyfish. So the jellyfish rider is
Speaker 1: this tiny, transparent arthropod that will someday grow into the
Speaker 1: smooth fan lobster. So everything on this show is always lies.
Speaker 1: Never trust me when I call anything anything, because even
Speaker 1: though this is a type of slipper lobster, it is
Speaker 1: not a true lobster. They're not that closely related to
Speaker 1: like our familiar friend the lobster, which I feel like
Speaker 1: it's it's funny to me when they're like, this is
Speaker 1: not a true lobster, because it's like, um, actually that's
Speaker 1: the no true Scotsman fallacy. Who are you to say
Speaker 1: that's not a true lobster? Um? But yeah, so they
Speaker 1: are a crustacean decapod related to rock lobsters. So rock
Speaker 1: lobsters are not true lobsters. Uh, they're just that they
Speaker 1: are the most catchy one. Yeah. Yeah, they're in that
Speaker 1: that like B fifty two song. Yeah yeah that was
Speaker 1: what what what species representation from the incredible incredible job.
Speaker 1: I didn't get it when I was a kid. I
Speaker 1: thought it was like they were saying, like, this is
Speaker 1: a lobster who rocks, yeah, or is that what they're saying.
Speaker 1: I think that is. I think it can be both things,
Speaker 1: double meaning. It's such a deep song truly, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a rock it was a rock lobster. Ah, it makes
Speaker 1: you think, So this one does look like a slipper lobster,
Speaker 1: like very aptly name. Yeah, it's like kind of flat.
Speaker 1: It kind of looks like could wear it as a slipper.
Speaker 1: I don't recommend it. That'd be the like when you
Speaker 1: go scuba diving, the little flippers you wear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it should be called the flipper lobster. The slipper lobster
Speaker 1: who's not a lobster includes a variety of species, the
Speaker 1: largest of which can grow up to almost two ft
Speaker 1: or fifty centimeters long. So they're formidable, and like you said,
Speaker 1: they kind of look like a weird flipper. They're kind
Speaker 1: of like a lobster, but they're flatter, more triangular shaped.
Speaker 1: They don't really have large front claws. They just have
Speaker 1: these weird flat antenna. It's like so messed up that
Speaker 1: we name them for things that we could use them as.
Speaker 1: We're like, what is this? What what article of clothing
Speaker 1: for humans? Does this look like? Right, it's just like
Speaker 1: who were the sailors who were so I guess like
Speaker 1: just scourged with scurvy that they're like, I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: the lobster on my feet. Um. So the larva of
Speaker 1: these slipper lobsters are much tinier on the order of millimeters,
Speaker 1: so they have figured out a pretty great way of
Speaker 1: getting around. So they hit your ride on a jellyfish.
Speaker 1: So you can see these little dudes sitting on jellyfish
Speaker 1: having the having the time in their lives. That's that's
Speaker 1: got to be like a really fun ride just because
Speaker 1: of how a jellyfish moves, the motion of them, of
Speaker 1: their trajectory. And then also like everybody's scared of like
Speaker 1: all people are like I don't want to get caught
Speaker 1: up in all these jelly things, Like I don't want
Speaker 1: to get stung by jellyfish. And these dudes are like
Speaker 1: ratitude eng them from the not actually, but like they're
Speaker 1: just like on top of them, just chilling fully avoiding
Speaker 1: the stings. I mean speaking of ratitui and stings. Uh,
Speaker 1: these jellyfish are Gormond's and essentially they eat their ride.
Speaker 1: So it'd be like if ratitui was eating the dude
Speaker 1: in the movie. In addition to Ratitui two. Uh, if
Speaker 1: you can't stand the heat, get in them out of
Speaker 1: the kitchen because I'm going to eat you. It needs work.
Speaker 1: It does need to work. Admit it needs workshopping. I
Speaker 1: think we have at least four solid pitches for Hollywood
Speaker 1: from this podcast. We do. We have, uh, parasite Pinonta babies.
Speaker 1: We got, we got you know, Rattatui two. Um gets
Speaker 1: who's gets Who's dinner? And because who is dinner? Because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat you. That's that's the name of it.
Speaker 1: That's that's the kind of like sort of like incisive
Speaker 1: witty humor that Picks are. Really. That's what I literally
Speaker 1: was going to say. We're like, we're like bizarro Pixar
Speaker 1: because we're like we're still like humanizing all of these
Speaker 1: like animal type creatures, but in like a really messed
Speaker 1: up way, in a more realistic way. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: love a Pixar movie that's just you know, the same
Speaker 1: fun rendering, but just straight up you know, disturbed disturbs
Speaker 1: like a finding Nemo or Nemo just gets completely eaten
Speaker 1: by a bob at worm. Oh my god, So these
Speaker 1: little these little jellyfish riders will sit on the back
Speaker 1: of a jellyfish and ride it around the ocean and
Speaker 1: they will get an in flight meal made out of
Speaker 1: the very jellyfish that they are riding. So the slipper
Speaker 1: lobster larva will uh nibble on the venomous tentacles of
Speaker 1: the lobster, which of the jellyfish of the jellyfish. Yes, sorry,
Speaker 1: they will nibble on the venomous tentacles of the jellyfish.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't it doesn't hurt them, Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And this is really weird. So researchers have looked into
Speaker 1: why this doesn't hurt them, and they've found that, first
Speaker 1: of all, they have First of all, they have this
Speaker 1: very fastidious grooming that they do between eating. So they
Speaker 1: have these tiny comb like projections on their legs and
Speaker 1: they can use telling me, these lobsters are wearing bibs. Now,
Speaker 1: it's not exactly bibbs. It's like if you had like
Speaker 1: brush is attached to your hands, so every time you
Speaker 1: get crumbs on you, you just kind of like brush
Speaker 1: them off, But the crumbs are toxic stinging crumbs, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense, right, but you maybe, yeah, like like
Speaker 1: when you want to eat your stinging spaghetti, you gotta
Speaker 1: have hand brushes to clean clean it off. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope this. I hope people are getting it from
Speaker 1: it from these analogies some kind of yeah, some kind
Speaker 1: of I need a cooking show for these little lobsters.
Speaker 1: Little little baby is just like, now you know you
Speaker 1: want you want, you want those us And then jellyfish
Speaker 1: tentacles al dente And then does it is a jellyfish
Speaker 1: surviving still? It's yeah, it's probably not great for it,
Speaker 1: but they can survive the loss of a couple of
Speaker 1: tentacles because after all, like it's still getting transportation from
Speaker 1: this jellyfish. So and then oh yes, they don't want
Speaker 1: to kill it right away. And then, um, there's one
Speaker 1: on this jellyfish. Is it like one per jellyfish or
Speaker 1: they're multiple? Typically it's one one per jellyfish. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there are cases where there's more than one per jellyfish,
Speaker 1: but yeah, all the ones I've seen have been one
Speaker 1: per jellyfish. So no, like real energy efficient public transportation
Speaker 1: for these jellyfish or for these slipper lobsters. Also, when
Speaker 1: they eat the stinging tentacles, you may wander like, Hey,
Speaker 1: how does that not like kill them from the inside out. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: there is a membrane inside the slipper lobster gut that
Speaker 1: coats the stinging cells which protects them from internal damage.
Speaker 1: So that's like how we have acid in our stomach,
Speaker 1: that we have epithelia in lining our stomachs, so that
Speaker 1: like you know, we don't eat have our stomach acid,
Speaker 1: eat our own That's right, that's right. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you've ever wondered why doesn't our own digestive juices digest ourselves,
Speaker 1: it's exactly what Polvi just said. And then of course
Speaker 1: when there are problems with that system, we get gastro
Speaker 1: intestinal issues. Yep. I will include in the show notes
Speaker 1: a video of one of these little dudes riding around
Speaker 1: on a jellyfish for you to enjoy. It's set to
Speaker 1: some real just happy music, real wonderful. I cannot play
Speaker 1: it or I will get sued, but pull if you
Speaker 1: want to watch it for a minute, I'll give you
Speaker 1: time to do that. Oh incredible music. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is like weird. They're like way bigger than I thought. Well,
Speaker 1: this is an old so this is an older one.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a more developed one. It's getting bigger,
Speaker 1: and they start out really tiny and then they get
Speaker 1: bigger because they grow into their adult forms. So as
Speaker 1: they could be so freaking annoyed if this thing was
Speaker 1: on my head, just like eating my parts. It's it
Speaker 1: looks so big and then it's got little like the
Speaker 1: little brushes or whatever are just like constantly moving. I'd
Speaker 1: be like, you better give me a massage while you're
Speaker 1: up there. Are you kidding me? Like I don't want
Speaker 1: to like victim blame the jellyfish. But it does look
Speaker 1: like spaghetti, right, like you know you can they're they're
Speaker 1: they're sentience spaghetti. Come on, spaghetti, barely sentience spaghetti. Sentient
Speaker 1: is a little it is, So that's true. So this
Speaker 1: is wild though it looks like it's it's like and
Speaker 1: it's you know, it went to a bar and it
Speaker 1: it got it's trying to impress a lady and it's
Speaker 1: like riding a mechanical bowl. Do you think like these
Speaker 1: these little guys like compete go to sort of like
Speaker 1: a competition where they rev their jellyfish and ride them
Speaker 1: around drag raising their jelly face. See there's another Pixar idea.
Speaker 1: There we go. Yeah, we gotta we gotta get paid
Speaker 1: for this. No more free free idea. Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: we're you know, if you want access to more of
Speaker 1: our wonderful Pixar ideas, do you get you know? Where's
Speaker 1: our money? Yeah? Where is our money? Where is it?
Speaker 1: Another idea? Taking of money, bringing us to commert No
Speaker 1: speaking of money. Spicy spice spaghetti where this? This podcast
Speaker 1: is sponsored by Stinging Spaghetti Box. Spice spice spaghetti sounds
Speaker 1: like something from June Spice spaghetti? Spice spaghetti? He Who's he?
Speaker 1: Who makes the spice spaghetti? Al Dente? Makes the universe?
Speaker 1: Al Dente? Anyways, I'm going to stop before I hurt myself. Um,
Speaker 1: but before we go, we have to answer a very
Speaker 1: important question. That's that's who's squawking? Who was squawking? Last week?
Speaker 1: Every week we play a mry animal sound and I
Speaker 1: ask you, Hey, who's squawking? And then you guys right
Speaker 1: into me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com
Speaker 1: who you think is squawking? And you find out the
Speaker 1: subsequent week who it was and guess what it's the
Speaker 1: subsequent week. So here we go. The hint I gave
Speaker 1: last week was what's a dick? Dick so alarmed about?
Speaker 1: Maybe this critter at least once he's grown up. So,
Speaker 1: just for some frame of reference, addictic is a little,
Speaker 1: tiny antelope with a much more insidious name than it
Speaker 1: actually deserves. Um, it's adorable. And so yes, here is
Speaker 1: the sound. What so, pelo vi, what do you think
Speaker 1: is making that sound? Wait? So you said, like, how
Speaker 1: is it related to the dicktic? Okay, so the hint was,
Speaker 1: what's addictic so alarmed about? Maybe this critter at least
Speaker 1: once he's grown up? Okay, So what would hunt? An
Speaker 1: antelope like creature? Tiny antelope? A tiny a tiny antelope
Speaker 1: like creature that sounds like like a gym teacher, mad um,
Speaker 1: sounds like a whistle going up a little bit. Um.
Speaker 1: Is it like some sort of cat, some sort of
Speaker 1: wild cat warmer, very warm, like a like a bobcat
Speaker 1: type creature, very very close. Yeah, Mountain, let's say yes,
Speaker 1: Let's say yes, says the Well, it's not a bobcat,
Speaker 1: but it is the carackle. So the carackle is at
Speaker 1: least it's a coracle kitten. So this is a wildcat
Speaker 1: native to Africa. The Middle East, Pakistan, India in Central Asia.
Speaker 1: It has a reddish buff colored coat, a white belly,
Speaker 1: and most notably, two very tall ears with dark tufts
Speaker 1: of I maybe you didn't know the name, but I
Speaker 1: was picturing this cat, but I was picturing the ears
Speaker 1: with the thing on top. Oh, I'm so good at animals, Katie.
Speaker 1: It is kind of it is very similar to a
Speaker 1: bob cat, right, with those tufted ears, and it's taller.
Speaker 1: It's and it is also a medium sized big cats,
Speaker 1: so it's not one of the biggest cats, but it's
Speaker 1: a little it's got more of a sleek build. It's
Speaker 1: kind of got these tallerly gorgeous. They are absolutely and
Speaker 1: the little tops on top of the ears are just
Speaker 1: so cute. It's they They have completely sold me on
Speaker 1: this design for a cat. Like the fact that they
Speaker 1: have what looks like little feathers on the tops of
Speaker 1: their ears, and their eyes are so big when their
Speaker 1: mouths are closed, they look so innocent. They look like
Speaker 1: a little puss in boots. They really do. And although
Speaker 1: they're not like, they're very bad, very bad pets. People
Speaker 1: try to keep them as pets. It's a terrible idea,
Speaker 1: not just for the cat, but for the humans. Yeah, people,
Speaker 1: why would you keep this predator as a pet, Like,
Speaker 1: let it go be free and tufted. We can't ever
Speaker 1: see something good in nature without wanting to like possess
Speaker 1: the kittens. Yeah, the kittens are so cute. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1: They also have like little eyebrows that they do grow
Speaker 1: out of mostly as adults, but as kittens they have
Speaker 1: these like dark spots above their eyes that look like
Speaker 1: a you know, like a Marx Brothers you know, the
Speaker 1: ground show marks eyebrows or or Eugene Levy eyebrows. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's there. It's it's the vertical. Yeah. They're the perfect
Speaker 1: the perfect cat, the optimized and they're redheads. So you know,
Speaker 1: I feel, yeah, I feel kindred spirit with with these
Speaker 1: crackles and so that that weird like trill is basically
Speaker 1: the carackles mew So there now comes with a vibrato
Speaker 1: and um they yeah, like that kitten wants to be fed,
Speaker 1: so you know you'll have a cat mew at you
Speaker 1: for food. This kitten is doing this amazing trill basically
Speaker 1: basically to complain, and adults do the same thing. It's
Speaker 1: just a little bit of a deeper, deeper sound. Wait,
Speaker 1: so for me ows? I thought that domesticated cats like
Speaker 1: developed the ability to mew in order to communicate with humans,
Speaker 1: but like wildcats also have like their own version of yelling,
Speaker 1: but for each other. Yeah, so, so these mews are
Speaker 1: for generally for kittens to communicate with their parents, like, hey,
Speaker 1: look at me, I'm here, don't forget about me, don't
Speaker 1: leave me behind the meal you're hearing. I don't know
Speaker 1: how much wild crackles like mew, but the one that
Speaker 1: you were hearing was from one that was in captivity,
Speaker 1: So it may may it may have learned to do
Speaker 1: this to provoke a response from its caretaker. Interest. Yes,
Speaker 1: but they may all they may do it in the
Speaker 1: wild if they're communicating with another carocle. But yeah, so,
Speaker 1: but it's just such a weird like it sounds auto tuned,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? It reminds me of how
Speaker 1: like how the way foxes sound is not at all
Speaker 1: like what you would think that you know, No, it
Speaker 1: sounds like a leprecron being murdered. Mm hmm yep. And
Speaker 1: and and don't ask how me and Katie know that
Speaker 1: we'll we'll never like we just happened to know after
Speaker 1: me called coins here me you shut up. I feel
Speaker 1: like you're allowed to say that because you're a redhead.
Speaker 1: I am, I mean, I am, and I have, like
Speaker 1: you know, I've got I've got that Irish, I've got
Speaker 1: that Irish in me, So I'm allowed. I'm allowed to
Speaker 1: burner Apricans. Oh my god, evil, we've underth Listen, you
Speaker 1: don't know Apricaans, but yeah, so onto this week's mystery animal.
Speaker 1: Sound here is the hint. Damn what a weird baby? Alright,
Speaker 1: So who do you think is talking there? I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I want to protect it. Like, I'm like, that
Speaker 1: is that is a perfect baby cry. It's everything maternal
Speaker 1: in me is screaming right now. I want to say,
Speaker 1: it's like some sort of non human primate. We're like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, because I was like, this is too
Speaker 1: visceral response to my body's experienced something something you want
Speaker 1: to love and protect. I will do one spoiler so
Speaker 1: people don't like just start sobbing in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day when they're listening to this. It is fine.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's happy, it's it's it's having a good
Speaker 1: time right now, Okay, yeah. I was definitely like, I
Speaker 1: need to say this baby. Yeah, yeah, these are these
Speaker 1: are happy noises that it's making. Um, so do not worry.
Speaker 1: This is it's a happy baby, but it's it is
Speaker 1: definitely a weird baby. So if you think you know
Speaker 1: the answer to this round of guests, who squawk and
Speaker 1: write them to me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Paula V. Thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: me today. This was blessed. Thanks for having me. I
Speaker 1: always learned like the coolest stuff. The last time I
Speaker 1: was here, I learned about how non human primates don't
Speaker 1: have the whites of their eyes, right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: And then I've been literally bringing it up every time
Speaker 1: I can to everyone I can. People up the street, Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: did you feel like the reason that Japanese guerrilla is attractive?
Speaker 1: And they're like, and I'm like, just go with me.
Speaker 1: It's a hot gorilla. Okay, listen, I'm not where No
Speaker 1: people are saying it's hot. People are saying people are
Speaker 1: saying it. Have you heard about this? Have you seen
Speaker 1: those people are saying this? Yeah? No that that was
Speaker 1: a great episode. Uh yeah, and so it's been great
Speaker 1: to have you back on and where can people find you?
Speaker 1: I am everywhere at Paula Vignal and p A L
Speaker 1: l A v I g U n A l A
Speaker 1: n UM. I've been pretty active on Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm also on TikTok and Clubhouse. Um. We are running
Speaker 1: our shows again starting in March, hopefully infection rates continue
Speaker 1: to fall down over here in Los Angeles and I
Speaker 1: run a show called Funnelingus and another show called Facial
Speaker 1: Recognition Comedy with my co producers. And funnel Lingus is
Speaker 1: the first time of the month at Hotel Cafe at
Speaker 1: a PM, and a Facial Recognition Comedy is usually the
Speaker 1: second Thursday of the month. I think March we might
Speaker 1: we might move it. Um, but yeah, in April we
Speaker 1: should be back. Um. But yeah, come come find me,
Speaker 1: come see us perform. Please do that. I highly recommend it,
Speaker 1: and thank you guys so much for joining me. If
Speaker 1: you're enjoying the show, if you leave a rating in
Speaker 1: a review, I am maternally grateful. I read all the
Speaker 1: reviews and I really appreciate it all the feedback, both
Speaker 1: constructive and kind. And yeah, and what else am I
Speaker 1: going to say about this outro? I just completely blanked.
Speaker 1: I wonder if I could ever just in this show
Speaker 1: just saying like goodbye. But I to break people out bye.
Speaker 1: No uh no, I have I have to say other
Speaker 1: stuff too. So thanks to the Space Costics for their
Speaker 1: super awesome song Exo Alumina. Creature features a production of
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast sorr. Hey,
Speaker 1: guess what where have you listen to your favorite shows?
Speaker 1: See you next Wednesday. Now I say bye bye bye