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 Coral Reef Madness,
Speaker 1: from how reefs can begin, from the tenious microscopic grain
Speaker 1: of living rights to the bleaching that threatens our reefs
Speaker 1: and what we can do about it. Will also discover
Speaker 1: some of the fascinating inhabitants of reefs, including some little
Speaker 1: dudes who wear living boxing gloves. Discover this and more
Speaker 1: as we answer the age old question can you go
Speaker 1: through life with only one whole? Joining me today our
Speaker 1: podcasting legends and hosts of My Brother, My Brother and Me,
Speaker 1: as well as the adventure Zone ether Ce, Justin Travis,
Speaker 1: and Griffin McElroy. Welcome you guys us. Yeah, they so
Speaker 1: much for coming on. I am a big fan of
Speaker 1: ether C As someone who loves marine biology, I am
Speaker 1: super impressed with how you guys incorporate marine biology into
Speaker 1: the show. That's very nice to hear considering just how
Speaker 1: little research work went into that particular. It was mostly
Speaker 1: me looking at pictures of deep deep sea creatures and
Speaker 1: saying that looks cool, But I refuse to learn anything
Speaker 1: else about it aside from just that. But the extent
Speaker 1: of my research is watching the Anything, where David Attenborough
Speaker 1: talks about weird fish that light up deep down onto
Speaker 1: the Look at this guy, this one, this one's real weird.
Speaker 1: That's really good. Is David Attenborough here, sir, justin tuing
Speaker 1: some kind of like cockney David Attenborough, And I don't
Speaker 1: understand from it's this is fish, wouldn't it? Friends, Well,
Speaker 1: whatever you did, I really appreciated it. I really loved
Speaker 1: the giant flatworms wonderful and of course the hero zooks
Speaker 1: uh a being made of coral and symbiotic creatures and
Speaker 1: just the whole underwater environment. It's such a wonderful story.
Speaker 1: And it inspired me to do a whole episode about
Speaker 1: coral reefs because I think they're one of the coolest
Speaker 1: things on planet Earth. They're one of those things that
Speaker 1: as Dad actually knows more about coral having sort of
Speaker 1: been the uh the one who came up with a
Speaker 1: lot of the way that like living coral beings worked
Speaker 1: in in ether cy uh and and so he got
Speaker 1: very very very into them, and every time he would
Speaker 1: tell us stuff about the way coral worked. Uh, it
Speaker 1: always seemed made up, and I know it wasn't. It's
Speaker 1: just kind of a wild thing. Coral colonies are. It's inspiring.
Speaker 1: If only us humans could get it together as much
Speaker 1: as they they have. It's so rad when you first
Speaker 1: start learning to learn about coral as a kid and
Speaker 1: someone's like, that's alive, and you're like, okay, yeah, right, sure,
Speaker 1: in the same way that trees are alive. I know
Speaker 1: what alive is. Like, come on, does it eat chips? No? Okay?
Speaker 1: Is it moved by the music of Carly Ray Jebson,
Speaker 1: then we know it's not alive. Yeah. No, If it
Speaker 1: doesn't like Tacki's dust off its fingers, it's not alive.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Wait, hold on, Justin you said that with
Speaker 1: a lot of confidence. Do you know that coral isn't
Speaker 1: moved by the music of Carl Ray Jepson. Have you
Speaker 1: ever seen coral dance? Well? No, but I don't like
Speaker 1: to dance, said, there you have it, And here comes
Speaker 1: Katie with the first coral fact. It does dance. But
Speaker 1: maybe the first fact coral is very shy, very embarrassed.
Speaker 1: It's stage fright, okay, always looking at its little coral
Speaker 1: feet mom, uh, doing that dance you do and you
Speaker 1: don't really want to dance exactly. But yes, it is
Speaker 1: alive and it can actually move, especially in the first
Speaker 1: stage of its life. So coral are nidarians. They're related
Speaker 1: to jellyfish and see an enemy. Uh. So the way
Speaker 1: coral reefs form is it starts out as a free
Speaker 1: swimming larva. So it swims around like a little tiny
Speaker 1: grain of living rice. Uh. And it's scoots. It's very cute.
Speaker 1: It just kind of scoots around. It has a bunch
Speaker 1: of microscopic little hairs that wiggle around, allowing it to swim.
Speaker 1: It swims but first, which is interesting. Yeah, nice, the
Speaker 1: best way to do it. I'm looking at a picture
Speaker 1: of one here you've included. It does look like just
Speaker 1: a doctor shoals like gel insert that somebody has thrown
Speaker 1: into the ocean um And are you sure that you're
Speaker 1: not being bamboozled in some in some way and that
Speaker 1: this is not a gel insert? I mean, I am
Speaker 1: looking at it and it does look like a gel insert.
Speaker 1: I would it would be nice if we could just
Speaker 1: harvest ergonomic inserts from the ocean. Y. Yeah, that's much
Speaker 1: more sustainable. It would be back to the sea where
Speaker 1: you be, where you began. Everyone just throwing their shoes
Speaker 1: out there. I got my sea legs and my orthopedic inserts.
Speaker 1: Um no, but they're tiny. The brand, isn't it? There
Speaker 1: is there? It is? We killed a million of these
Speaker 1: little baby Nigerians just to make your feet feel like
Speaker 1: they're walking on clouds worth it? Yes, So coral larva
Speaker 1: is called a planula, and they swam around but first,
Speaker 1: and then it looks for a good rock to settle on.
Speaker 1: And it's very choosy because it's going to spend the
Speaker 1: rest of its life there. Now you know a lot
Speaker 1: about evolution of animals, right, so there's no way they
Speaker 1: started off swimming butt first, like there had to be.
Speaker 1: They were all swiming face first, and then why don't
Speaker 1: start doing but first? And they're like Jerry and then
Speaker 1: they all died and they're like, okay, Jerry nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what Jerry's doing, He's got have have we tried swimming
Speaker 1: but first, because maybe it's more effective. Yeah, it feels better.
Speaker 1: I mean if you think about their intention, right is
Speaker 1: to settle on a rock, so they have to like
Speaker 1: sit on it. So if you go but first you
Speaker 1: just kind of like, all right, and I sit here now.
Speaker 1: So so they like surfaces that have already been inhabited
Speaker 1: by coral or surfaces with a lot of algae growing
Speaker 1: on them. The coral erva can actually detect chemicals released
Speaker 1: from algae and are attracted to it, and so once
Speaker 1: they have latched onto its new home, the planiela undergoes metamorphosis,
Speaker 1: turning into a polyp, which is the best. I love
Speaker 1: the biological terms that just melt in your mouth, like polyp.
Speaker 1: I don't love that melt in my mouth. But I
Speaker 1: also him not like an animal expert, So maybe you
Speaker 1: have a different sort of metric for for what is
Speaker 1: phonetically pleasing for me? Paul paulp conjures up an unpleasant
Speaker 1: image in my mind. Yeah, you know, you you have
Speaker 1: to be in the know. It's the jargon, you know,
Speaker 1: that's no matter what. Proboscus is great. Proboscus is fun
Speaker 1: to say. That polyp is fun to say in a
Speaker 1: different way, it sounds like something like goopy dropping from
Speaker 1: a height, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean these
Speaker 1: are they are a little goopy, to be fair. So
Speaker 1: polyps take many different shapes. Generally they look like little mushrooms,
Speaker 1: flowers or seeing enemies. And at this point it has
Speaker 1: anchored itself to the rock. Uh, and it quickly starts
Speaker 1: to reproduce by butting. So I want you guys to
Speaker 1: take a little trip to a place I call imagination
Speaker 1: station where we get deep inside our thoughts and think
Speaker 1: if like you suddenly have like a pimple, And but
Speaker 1: it's not a pimple, it's a tiny you, and it
Speaker 1: keeps getting bigger and bigger until you have a whole
Speaker 1: new you attached to you, right next to you as
Speaker 1: your new best friend. Well, I wouldn't get along with me, frankly,
Speaker 1: that's a huge assumption, Katie. Yeah, just the one of
Speaker 1: me already gets on me's nerves. So I imagine if
Speaker 1: there was a bunch of me's sertifying for me's attention,
Speaker 1: that would get that would get old pretty fast, also
Speaker 1: sort of uh you know, visually horrifying. Yeah, me better
Speaker 1: have a plan to buy their own drugs because I
Speaker 1: don't have Listen, I can't keep two of us. That's
Speaker 1: the expenses out of control. Does the new one except
Speaker 1: that I was the original, because that also would be
Speaker 1: a problem problem. Thank you, Travis New me's better keep
Speaker 1: me his hands off. My wife's yeah, are you I lost?
Speaker 1: You can have her mud Where copies getting worse, they
Speaker 1: just get more aquatic. Okay, but Multiple City would have
Speaker 1: been a way different movie if he had just not
Speaker 1: completely detached from the original host body, if it was
Speaker 1: just for Michael Keaton's just wobbling around on two pairs
Speaker 1: of legs, that would have been a way better flick. Actually,
Speaker 1: do not know that Andy McDowell would have been like,
Speaker 1: I'll let me kiss you please, fair enough getting into
Speaker 1: Cronenberg territory there. But so it is a form of
Speaker 1: a sexual reproduction, self cloning to produce exact copies of
Speaker 1: the original, which, as you guys have pointed out, it's
Speaker 1: kind of nice that in humans, like we kind of
Speaker 1: scramble up our kids a little bit so that they're
Speaker 1: a little different, but you know, but maybe better, better,
Speaker 1: better versions of ourselves. So it is through this process
Speaker 1: of butting that a single polyp becomes a colony, and
Speaker 1: you can see the huge extravagant structures. So some individual
Speaker 1: polyps can be quite large. Some of the biggest are
Speaker 1: like five inches across, like the size of your hand.
Speaker 1: Um such as mushroom corals, but most of them are
Speaker 1: teeny tiny, real small, just about a millimeter wide, and
Speaker 1: can only be viewed with clarity by underwater microscopes. But
Speaker 1: it is the sheer volume of them, the number of them,
Speaker 1: that creates these large coral structures. So some coral structures
Speaker 1: are made up of thousands and thousands of clonal polyps.
Speaker 1: One estimate is that for species. Can I can I
Speaker 1: ask you a quick question, and I'm I'm really embarrassed
Speaker 1: my house since here this is is underwater microscope, a
Speaker 1: microscope made to go underwater, or just a microscope you
Speaker 1: took underwater. It's I think it's made to go underwater. Um, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't know, I've
Speaker 1: never but so don't feel bad for that question. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna assume, Like again, I'm not a physicists, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna assume something happens, like with the water refraction
Speaker 1: of the light, that you have to change things. If
Speaker 1: you had said that in a different tone of voice,
Speaker 1: I would have believed it. Can you just use all
Speaker 1: the tones of voices, try them all out, Try them
Speaker 1: all out for size, to see if any of them
Speaker 1: would sound like I know about it, so um each
Speaker 1: uh yeah. So but some of these coral polyp colonies
Speaker 1: can be quite large. So uh, each square meter of
Speaker 1: coral hosts about ten thousand small polyps, and a coral
Speaker 1: structure of clonal individuals can reach up to sizes of
Speaker 1: millions and millions of polyps. So that's a lot of polyps.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite catchphrase from Family Matters. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of pollups. Yeah. I love in Family Matters when they
Speaker 1: had the coral boy who showed up and took over
Speaker 1: the whole house. It's so all of that just comes
Speaker 1: from the one larva of that chilled out and was like,
Speaker 1: this is a good spot. I'm gonna make more of
Speaker 1: these a million times over. Well, it came. The first
Speaker 1: few came from that one, and then other ones came
Speaker 1: from the other ones, and then other ones came from
Speaker 1: those guys, and so it's sort of exponential growth because
Speaker 1: you have it's not just one pulp, like okay, I
Speaker 1: gotta do the millionth one. Now they're all starting to
Speaker 1: make these I understand, basically compound interests, and I don't
Speaker 1: know how we're not just swimming these things I hear
Speaker 1: that they're in they're a bit a bit of trouble lately.
Speaker 1: But like do a little math that we should all
Speaker 1: be coral and corel should be everywhere. Right. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's less like uh, compound interests and more like gentrification,
Speaker 1: where it's the coral going like I think this neighborhood
Speaker 1: is really ready to take off, and then they swarm
Speaker 1: into that neighborhood and right now there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of neighborhoods ready to take off. Yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: is it's interest. You would think like they would just
Speaker 1: cover everything, but you know, you have a lot of
Speaker 1: other factors things that want to eat them, like other
Speaker 1: coral that is competing with them and actually attacking them.
Speaker 1: And of course each polyp is not immortal. Even though
Speaker 1: coral structures can last a really long time, they can
Speaker 1: last from hundreds to thousands of years, each polyp has
Speaker 1: a lifespan of like, you know, maybe a couple of years. Uh.
Speaker 1: So it is that if they were unrestricted in growth, yes,
Speaker 1: they could cover the entire ocean, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of uh, interceding forces, sometimes not great like you know,
Speaker 1: people doing boo just eating them. Like so many foods,
Speaker 1: just reaching in there and grabbing a big crunchy chunk
Speaker 1: so um, you know. And speaking of like the crunchiness
Speaker 1: of coral um, which is something I do like to
Speaker 1: think of the mouth feel of coral, is that there
Speaker 1: is hard and soft coral. So soft coral is held
Speaker 1: together by a jelly like glue substance. And the most
Speaker 1: they have in terms of skeletal structure are these delicate,
Speaker 1: spiny protrusions of calcium carbonate. We don't really think like
Speaker 1: when we think of coral, we think more of hard
Speaker 1: or stony coral, which produced much more calcium carbonate, which
Speaker 1: is actually the same material that is used to make
Speaker 1: shells like seashells. And they form this hard rock like
Speaker 1: skeletal structure that protects their little polyp bodies. And so
Speaker 1: by creating this massive skeletal structure of calcium carbonate, they
Speaker 1: can make massive, massive structures like the Great Barrier reef
Speaker 1: off the coast of Australia that covers thousands of square
Speaker 1: miles like a hundred and thirty thousand square miles which
Speaker 1: for Europeans is three hundred and forty thou square kilometers,
Speaker 1: and go cubits are my one weakness. I don't know
Speaker 1: I knew it. Yeah I didn't. I didn't know where
Speaker 1: allowed to curse. Nice. Actually, for all the curses, I
Speaker 1: have to put a little quacksound over it, which, to
Speaker 1: be fair, is funny. So you should use you should
Speaker 1: use a choral sound effect. You think I don't have that,
Speaker 1: I do? You just wait, like I don't know five
Speaker 1: minutes that coral that started it. I bet the polyp
Speaker 1: started a great barrier. It feels pretty freaking proud of themselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're pretty smug. They weren't long long, long, long, long, long, long,
Speaker 1: long long dead. I bet they'd be like, but they're clones.
Speaker 1: You know, some of their clones might still be real. Well,
Speaker 1: it's more like what you need to see, my I
Speaker 1: d do you know who I'm The clones, clones, clones, clones,
Speaker 1: clone off My great great great great grand coral started
Speaker 1: this reef? Yeah, pal mine too, Yeah, you're right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well there's been a twenty thousand years of these annoying
Speaker 1: polyps arguing over that, and in fact, they actually a
Speaker 1: lie on top of an even older skeletal reef structure
Speaker 1: that's over six hundred thousand years old. So that's all
Speaker 1: basically dead. But what coral love to do is reuse
Speaker 1: the old structures that old dead coral have made. So
Speaker 1: like if a new polyp comes on and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is pretty great, I'm going to use the skeleton
Speaker 1: of this long dead coral uh and live there. So
Speaker 1: when they build these structures, even if the polyps themselves
Speaker 1: die off, they are still very useful for new polyps.
Speaker 1: And of course all of these surrounding sea life to
Speaker 1: take shelter in. Uh. It's it's really amazing. It's an
Speaker 1: amazing kind of architectural feet of these tiny, stupid, almost
Speaker 1: brainless animals. Is that why they like, don't they like
Speaker 1: sink old like battleships and stuff to be like starters
Speaker 1: for coral? Because I always thought like nobody asked, like
Speaker 1: the coral didn't ask for you to do that. It's
Speaker 1: just somebody said, like, what are we gonna do this ship?
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, maybe the coral will use it,
Speaker 1: sink it. You couldn't come up with a different way
Speaker 1: than just putting our garbage on the bottom. Okay, well yeah,
Speaker 1: actually that's been done a few times, and it's because
Speaker 1: coral really likes to have a structure to build off
Speaker 1: of it. And if they don't have that due toy
Speaker 1: like uh you know, storms or trawling and destruction, you
Speaker 1: actually need to replace it with something so like the Titanic.
Speaker 1: It's maybe it was an inside job by Coral enthusiast.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, this is what I've been saying. I
Speaker 1: nobody listens to me, but the truth will be revealed someday. Katie.
Speaker 1: A second ago, you you described Coral is stupid, and
Speaker 1: I just wanna um celebrate you for having the courage.
Speaker 1: A lot of us will just let Coral get by
Speaker 1: with being beautiful and endangered. The one who's like and stupid.
Speaker 1: It's so dumb. Yeah, it's so dumb. What's your favorite
Speaker 1: book by Coral? Just a trick to dumb that? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that it is important to point out the
Speaker 1: dumb animals because there are smart animals and for like
Speaker 1: all life has, you know, something to offer. It's like,
Speaker 1: well yes, but yeah, come on. I saw a news
Speaker 1: report not too long ago and the headline was that
Speaker 1: the Titanic is disappearing at an alarming rate, and all
Speaker 1: I could think it's like, yeah, man went right under.
Speaker 1: But apparently there's bacteria eating up the Titanic and people
Speaker 1: are worried about that, and I'm like, seems like it
Speaker 1: seems like a bad ship to sea. Yeah, you called
Speaker 1: my hat. We don't know that rot. You know, it's
Speaker 1: got emotional intelligence about coral, Like it knows when to
Speaker 1: gimme space. Yes, it knows when to talk, but more
Speaker 1: importantly when to listen. You know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: a great listener. Yeah, that's a good point. Just might
Speaker 1: not have your book learning. It didn't go to your
Speaker 1: fancy ivy league school, but it learned on the street.
Speaker 1: Katie Swart, Katie, I never, Katie, Coral knows how to
Speaker 1: change a tire. It can do Like here's the thing
Speaker 1: you do, you know how to change your own oil?
Speaker 1: I don't, but maybe Coral does. But it doesn't. It doesn't,
Speaker 1: It doesn't. It doesn't actually know how to do that.
Speaker 1: It is I mean, it is true like actually Coral
Speaker 1: as a group, right accident way that is more intelligent
Speaker 1: than each individual polite. For instance, they actually have these
Speaker 1: battles with other corals. So like the reef is full,
Speaker 1: it is very crowded, and so they will actually attack
Speaker 1: their neighbors try to like eat them or attack them.
Speaker 1: Uh and the way they eat actually so like their
Speaker 1: mouth is I got this is a big bombshell. But
Speaker 1: their mouth is also their butt, so not so wait,
Speaker 1: how do you know they're but first, Katie, if their
Speaker 1: seems like that's their face and there, But who are
Speaker 1: we to decide what a butt is? I mean it's
Speaker 1: where the poop comes out when there, when they don't
Speaker 1: wear the before poop goes in. That's what I call
Speaker 1: faded by the way. Pop. That's that's good, that's uh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they take in food out of the same hole
Speaker 1: that they excrete from. Once they attached to the rock ones,
Speaker 1: they become sessile the coral and they have a ring
Speaker 1: of tentacles around their mouth but that they can actually
Speaker 1: shoot a stinging cells out of, just like their cousins,
Speaker 1: the jellyfish that they can use to stun or even
Speaker 1: kill prey. So they have toxic mouth butts that they
Speaker 1: used to kill or stun prey or also attack other
Speaker 1: coral that's next to them. So you know, can't change
Speaker 1: a tire, but they can attack people with their mouth butts.
Speaker 1: Isn't it weird when when when they do like the
Speaker 1: End of the Year Podcast Awards of the podcast that
Speaker 1: includes the phrase toxic mouth butts. It is not the
Speaker 1: winner of all categories because it feels like it should be.
Speaker 1: They you thank you for saying that. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: So it's also like I have been trying to make
Speaker 1: this catchphrase that the cloaca of of the birds is
Speaker 1: the one hole that does it all, and it's just
Speaker 1: like it's never caught on. Uh you know, yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1: Although I'm very upset that it's cloaca. We said it
Speaker 1: wrong for a little bit. It's kloka kloaca, cloaca. It's fine,
Speaker 1: let's call the whole thing off. It's the whole thing off.
Speaker 1: In these polyp wars, is it like polyps from the
Speaker 1: same colony or is this like opposing How does that work?
Speaker 1: Usually it's opposing colonies will try to fight each other. Okay,
Speaker 1: So one reef is made up of lots of different colonies.
Speaker 1: It's not one like macro colony. Absolutely, yes, thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of different species of coral will occupy a reef,
Speaker 1: and in addition to actually eating with their mouth butts,
Speaker 1: they have another very important way of absorbing nutrients and
Speaker 1: that is through symbiosis with zooxanthela, or as it's phonetically pronounced,
Speaker 1: zooks anthela. So that is the name of a character
Speaker 1: that you've got. Your dad came up with an ether
Speaker 1: c um who is It's really great. I love that
Speaker 1: character so much. It touches my marine biology loving heart
Speaker 1: because it is this creature that is made up of
Speaker 1: the kind of the sum of its parts, like it is,
Speaker 1: incorporates all of this life within itself. And indeed, zoax
Speaker 1: anthela are microscopic algae that live inside the tissues of
Speaker 1: coral and they're quite welcome there because this algae can
Speaker 1: use photosynthesis and it passes the benefits onto the coral.
Speaker 1: The coral gives the algae a home protection and then
Speaker 1: the algae provides the coral with nutrients compounds like oxygen
Speaker 1: and glucose and amino acids and it is uh, it
Speaker 1: gives them a huge amount of energy and nutrients. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is incredible. I love that. Yeah, me too. How
Speaker 1: come I don't have any friends like that? Why can't
Speaker 1: we photosynthesize? I don't know, it seems like an oversite.
Speaker 1: But the algae symbiots also gives the coral a lush
Speaker 1: color and are responsible for many of the glorious hues
Speaker 1: you see in reefs. However, when coral reefs are stressed,
Speaker 1: the algae can die or be expelled, leaving the coral
Speaker 1: this definitely pale white, which is called coral bleaching. Another
Speaker 1: thing that you guys had in your podcast, which again
Speaker 1: I loved. I really I think it's such an important
Speaker 1: thing also to people, for people to know about um
Speaker 1: because without this symbiotic algae, these coral are at risk
Speaker 1: of dying because they've suddenly lost such a major component
Speaker 1: of the nutrients that they need. Now do these coral
Speaker 1: or do they ever like voluntarily get their mouthbuts bleached?
Speaker 1: Or is that just is that not? Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: it is. It's not because of just sort of pollution
Speaker 1: and human interference that bleached coral our thing. It's just vanity.
Speaker 1: They all they all read the magazines. They all know
Speaker 1: what's hot right up today? Is your mouth? But attractive
Speaker 1: to your I guess yourself, my mouth, but it looks
Speaker 1: like garbage. I got to go see Dr Clemens. I
Speaker 1: don't want to read produce with myself at off. Well
Speaker 1: on that lovely note. I think we should take a
Speaker 1: quick break and when we come back, we will talk
Speaker 1: more about bleaching in a way that is maybe different
Speaker 1: than advertised. I think, all right, so we will talk
Speaker 1: about what causes bleaching. This is the like sad part
Speaker 1: of the episode where I have to talk about global
Speaker 1: warming and environment and how you know, but we've got
Speaker 1: we will end up happy. Y'all can't see Katie, but
Speaker 1: Katie's use a lot of air quotes here. It's very
Speaker 1: it's it's the global warming that we're all feeling right now.
Speaker 1: Because the temperatures are hot. Um so yes, global warming
Speaker 1: and other things like pollution of farm runoff can cause
Speaker 1: the coral to violently expel the algae because the algae
Speaker 1: will start to actually produce toxic materials when they're when
Speaker 1: water temperatures are too high. And while this doesn't actually
Speaker 1: immediately kill the coral, even though they kind of look
Speaker 1: dead because they're white and pale. Without the energy that
Speaker 1: the zoo ex ampola provides, which is sometimes up to
Speaker 1: of the coral's nutrition, the coral can starve to death
Speaker 1: if they do not regain their algae in enough time,
Speaker 1: and they can't so like you may see a bunch
Speaker 1: of algae that looks super dead, but they are actually
Speaker 1: able to regain their algae if can issitions improve um.
Speaker 1: And again, this is I think a wonderful thing in
Speaker 1: ether Sea where the Zook's character would touch a piece
Speaker 1: of bleached coral and it would come back to life.
Speaker 1: And this is actually something that can happen. Our show
Speaker 1: is very scientific. You're absolutely right. I haven't thought about
Speaker 1: it was made up. I worried that that was that
Speaker 1: that was made up, but hey, I'm glad that we
Speaker 1: have a lot of science is made up until you
Speaker 1: can prove it's true. Griffin's science, you make it up
Speaker 1: and you say it enough times until people start to
Speaker 1: believe it. That's yes on this scientifically accurate program. I'd
Speaker 1: like to say that this is how science works. So
Speaker 1: uh So, this year, actually the Great Barrier Reef experienced
Speaker 1: yet another mass bleaching event, affecting up to six of
Speaker 1: the reef due to rising temperatures UM. But the heat
Speaker 1: wave ended soon enough, and actually the Great Berry Reef
Speaker 1: is undergoing one of the most impressive revive in like
Speaker 1: over thirty years, which is really heartening. I think it's
Speaker 1: really really important for people to know that it is
Speaker 1: definitely not too late. You hear all of this news
Speaker 1: about the environment being in danger, and it's very true,
Speaker 1: it's very important to listen to. But I think people
Speaker 1: get this kind of like do me, feeling like there's
Speaker 1: nothing we can do at this point. The reefs are dead,
Speaker 1: We're doomed. It's like, no, the barrier reef underwent this
Speaker 1: horrific bleaching and now is reviving back in an astounding way.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean we can relax, because of course, if like
Speaker 1: we continue on the path of global warming pollution. I
Speaker 1: don't know, uh, sunscreen, that is bad. Like, there's so
Speaker 1: many things that end up happening, Like you use the
Speaker 1: wrong snorkel and then you kill off an exotic fish.
Speaker 1: I even worry about it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, I don't think that's the take away.
Speaker 1: I don't think if you don't, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think that that, Um, I'm really
Speaker 1: sorry that I have to make this show. I think
Speaker 1: that that is a really impressive revival and second only
Speaker 1: to the revival of swing music in the late nineties. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, like the most impressive revival since
Speaker 1: Funny Girl. But then I realized that that was in
Speaker 1: the news and I don't know why, so maybe I
Speaker 1: I don't know that either. I don't know why that either.
Speaker 1: I was also gonna say banjo music at first, in
Speaker 1: like the two thousands, and that I thought, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought swing music would be more applicable. I don't want
Speaker 1: to go behind the bit anymore. I will actually hear
Speaker 1: more about coral, so uh, to be clear, justin I
Speaker 1: would say that we learned from if we learned from
Speaker 1: our mistakes, like, hey, sunscreen is actually super bad for coral.
Speaker 1: You actually see no sunscreen. That's like, hey, we fixed it.
Speaker 1: It's not so bad anymore. So you can go out
Speaker 1: and not get skin cancer but also not kill coral.
Speaker 1: So we can actually learn and then we fix things
Speaker 1: and it's definitely not too late. Coral can revive, it
Speaker 1: can make a comeback, and so there are also other
Speaker 1: really fun things that people can do to help coral reefs.
Speaker 1: And these are things that I think are It's really
Speaker 1: nice because it's like on an individual level, we often
Speaker 1: feel like like, uh, like, yes, we want global warming
Speaker 1: to stop, we want to save the environment, but what
Speaker 1: can I do as a person. It's hard to conceptualize
Speaker 1: what you can do as an individual, but there are
Speaker 1: a lot of really interesting coral revival projects that people
Speaker 1: can join. So you can replant coral uh and volunteers
Speaker 1: in coral nurseries can grow coral saplings. And then if
Speaker 1: you enjoy snorkeling or scuba diving, you can you're shaking
Speaker 1: your head. I don't belong down there. That's not my place.
Speaker 1: I breathe the air, Katie, I've belong up here's safe.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't make a fish come up here. Why would
Speaker 1: I go down there? Well, there's actually stuff that people
Speaker 1: who don't like the water can do, so like you
Speaker 1: can either do snorkeling and like replant things. You can
Speaker 1: even do surveys, like if you enjoy snorkeling recreationally or
Speaker 1: scooba diving recreationally, you can make surveys of coral reefs.
Speaker 1: But if you like to stay on land, I actually
Speaker 1: agree with you. I get a little freaked out with
Speaker 1: the water. Um. You can build things like coral trees,
Speaker 1: which are like these. They're these weird, sort of very
Speaker 1: dystoping looking metal pronged trees, but these are used as
Speaker 1: structures for coral to grow on, and they like basically
Speaker 1: put them under the water, like these weird post industrial
Speaker 1: Christmas trees and hang like pieces of coral off of it,
Speaker 1: and it's like okay, you go now, and eventually the
Speaker 1: coral will grow over this metal frame. And it's but
Speaker 1: it's great because like people can just do that and
Speaker 1: build that in case, in case we have some over
Speaker 1: zealous listeners, that's probably something you should arrange with someone
Speaker 1: before hammering. You shouldn't just like make like eighteen weird
Speaker 1: metal trees and then start calling people like, all right,
Speaker 1: who puts these in the ocean? For me, that's probably
Speaker 1: a good good call. But I you know, you, you
Speaker 1: do you. I'm not going to say not to build
Speaker 1: a bunch of weird metal trees. Just know that you
Speaker 1: may want to have a plan afterwards. Possibly. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's an amazing kind of thing. It's like people are
Speaker 1: just like, hey, we can actually regrow stuff. And actually,
Speaker 1: you guys mentioned earlier sinking things that has been done
Speaker 1: a lot um the off the Gulf of Mexico. They
Speaker 1: sunk an entire aircraft carrier that has been dubbed the
Speaker 1: Great Carrier REEF oh, I know. Imagine the one guy
Speaker 1: who got to clean out his bunk and he's like
Speaker 1: just one earbud left down there, just words. And it
Speaker 1: was also done in Florida with an old missile tracking ship. Um.
Speaker 1: It was done off the coast of Thailand with decommissioned
Speaker 1: tanks and Turkey uh sunk an airbus plane off the
Speaker 1: Aegean coast. So it's it's super satisfying to me when
Speaker 1: they like sink military equipment and it's like, it's the
Speaker 1: corals now you have it. Yeah, the Coral fight over it,
Speaker 1: unless unless the Coral knows what they have now with
Speaker 1: all those things. You know what I'm saying. Listen, now,
Speaker 1: this is okay to book end it. We started it
Speaker 1: talking about why isn't coral everywhere? And then Katie's like,
Speaker 1: coral can come back, but let's not get to cozy
Speaker 1: with the idea of coral coming back super hard. We
Speaker 1: need to keep it in balance, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We don't want too much coral because now they've got tanks,
Speaker 1: now they've got airplanes, now they've got aircraft carriers. It's terrified, y'all.
Speaker 1: Feel like the next great horror movie is like right
Speaker 1: there right, like Coral decides like that's enough, I've had enough. Well,
Speaker 1: I feel like we've Mushroom zombies are really hot right now,
Speaker 1: So I think coral zombies is the next, the next
Speaker 1: big thing. I like that, just like coral coming out
Speaker 1: of your eyeballs and like I I want to I
Speaker 1: don't like Katie, why do you like that? I mean
Speaker 1: it's the same reason I like the word polop. I
Speaker 1: guess broken, deeply, deeply, immeasurably emotionally broken, welcome, welcome forward.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's uh, I mean, it's the swords
Speaker 1: and the plowshares kind of thing with these sunken military
Speaker 1: equipment or like swords into reef reef shares. We can
Speaker 1: move on because this joke sounds too smart for risk.
Speaker 1: I didn't know the original, so I didn't definitely didn't
Speaker 1: get the bungeline. Yeah, it's something that I heard. I
Speaker 1: was like, this will sound good and smart, but uh, well,
Speaker 1: thank you. It worked. Yeah, so this has actually been
Speaker 1: done for a real long time. In ancient times, Persians
Speaker 1: built an underwater defensive wall against Arabian pirates by building
Speaker 1: an artificial reef for the boats to break upon. And
Speaker 1: in seventeenth century Japan fishermen would create artificial reefs to
Speaker 1: grow help and increase fish yields. So yeah, we've been
Speaker 1: sort of engine like engineering coral reefs for a real
Speaker 1: long time. My favorite now And occasionally I'll see like
Speaker 1: people will put like statues, sink statues to like give
Speaker 1: coral place to grow, and then other people like throughout
Speaker 1: you know, read it in the Internet, will be like
Speaker 1: it's proof of ancient civilizations and it's time like that
Speaker 1: was put there in like two thousand sixteen. What are
Speaker 1: you talking about. It's like a coral chia pet. That's
Speaker 1: also it's like get a Homer head down there, put play, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a Marge head, put some Aquaman three. It will
Speaker 1: be a really good tie in for the But a
Speaker 1: big Jason Momoa down there. Ah yeah, now that I
Speaker 1: love that. Now I want one, But not just because
Speaker 1: it's Jason Momoa, but you know, coral chia pets. So uh.
Speaker 1: We also have a way to draw visitors to these
Speaker 1: new coral reef settlements because one of the things that's
Speaker 1: important is like we just we put a thing down
Speaker 1: in the ocean, right and we're like, hey, it's a
Speaker 1: new home for you guys, and then the fish are like,
Speaker 1: what what do you mean? Like, okay, I don't really
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. So we have to make
Speaker 1: it seem already lived in, you know how, like when
Speaker 1: you go to an open house in the realtor like
Speaker 1: bakes cookies and like, you know, it's yeah, yeah, Like
Speaker 1: here's the crumpled magazine in the bathroom. Mah, could you
Speaker 1: imagine yourself having this magazine. They do that with coral reefs,
Speaker 1: so they will actually play the sounds of a healthy
Speaker 1: and thriving coral reef to attract fish to it and
Speaker 1: other coral reef inhabitants, uh, so that they don't feel
Speaker 1: like they're going to a ghost town even if they are,
Speaker 1: which is like I guess if a restaurant played like
Speaker 1: the sounds of happy, chattering patrons and you go in
Speaker 1: there and it's like a little weird because everyone's like
Speaker 1: there's just these mannequins everywhere, but it sounds like everyone's happy.
Speaker 1: I think it's really nice that you said that that
Speaker 1: would be a little weird, Okay. I think that's very
Speaker 1: forgiving of the ownership of that restaurant that if they
Speaker 1: blasted sounds of happy people eating, and I walked in
Speaker 1: and it was full of mannequins. But I would think
Speaker 1: this is a little weird, yea four stars a little weird,
Speaker 1: little weird for a little weird. But they did mention
Speaker 1: the word poll up quite a few times. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: what a brusquet. Sorry one more time, Katie, what was
Speaker 1: that noise? Well, here it is. Here is the noise
Speaker 1: of a healthy and thriving Uh oh, sorry, so paulop
Speaker 1: is on a monto poetic. It's what you're telling me.
Speaker 1: All that crackling sound are shrimp clicking. There a little
Speaker 1: clause and then various fish making calls. Because we think
Speaker 1: of them as being silent. It's just we can't really
Speaker 1: hear them with our bad not water ears. I don't
Speaker 1: know that I would describe my ears as bad just
Speaker 1: because they can't hear coral underwater. I think that's setting
Speaker 1: an awfully high bar for hold on, Can you guys
Speaker 1: not hear the sound of coral underwater? I hear it
Speaker 1: all the time. Is that not what's wrong with me? Well,
Speaker 1: so that is the sound that they play to these fish,
Speaker 1: and it actually is apparently effective for fish. They're like, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds like there's a party going on and they
Speaker 1: go over there and they hang out. Well, yeah, fish
Speaker 1: are dumb. I mean as long as they're highlighting which
Speaker 1: features are in are not intelligent? Fish are up there, man,
Speaker 1: I mean on a sliding scale, i'd say, like, they're
Speaker 1: not the dumbest. Well, no, that's polyps. Yeah, that's true enough.
Speaker 1: So when we get back, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: some of the most interesting inhabitants of world reefs, my favorites. Uh,
Speaker 1: and then we'll end with a little game. So we
Speaker 1: are back and I want to talk to you guys
Speaker 1: about some of my favorite inhabitants of the coral reefs,
Speaker 1: Like a funny neighbor, or like that teacher that you know, like, oh,
Speaker 1: they believe in you. That kind of thing. Neighbors that
Speaker 1: believe in you. I don't know, the neighbors don't the
Speaker 1: teacher believes in your neighborries a little nosy. I see
Speaker 1: the nosy neighbors, the teacher who believes in you. It's
Speaker 1: more about crabs though, actually crabs, I know crabs are good. Uh.
Speaker 1: So there's this is my favorite example of symbiosis. I
Speaker 1: think in the entire world. It is the boxer crab
Speaker 1: a k a. Pomp pomp crabs. You know, pompom crabs.
Speaker 1: They are little guys about the size of a quarter,
Speaker 1: very colorful, very beautiful, like they have these like orange
Speaker 1: and red stripes and little white speckles. Are beautiful, and
Speaker 1: they got little pom pomps on their arms, like little
Speaker 1: little pomp pomp boxing gloves. I would say those are
Speaker 1: two different things, by the way, Like if I see
Speaker 1: a cheerleader with like pom poms, I'm not like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're about to punch someone. These ones are though. It's
Speaker 1: like combination cheerleader boxer, which actually sounds kind of good,
Speaker 1: like combination cheerleader boxer. The pop the pomp pomps on
Speaker 1: this creature that you have sent us about a thousand
Speaker 1: images of. I enjoy the eyes that look like the
Speaker 1: devil's eyes. I are less hot for me and where
Speaker 1: I'm at in my life. They do seem like a boy.
Speaker 1: They do seem like an enemy that you would fight
Speaker 1: on a beach in like a Japanese role playing game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a little cutie that I want a stuffed animal for.
Speaker 1: It looks at some point it was nicer and then
Speaker 1: it got corrupted. He's just a frustrated little guy who
Speaker 1: wants to stay away from his little venomous boxing gloves. So, uh,
Speaker 1: those little boxing gloves are actually seeing enemies. Get out.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, but I don't want to leave. It's my house.
Speaker 1: But yeah it is. These are little sea an enemies
Speaker 1: that it has put on a hook on each of
Speaker 1: its little front legs. Uh, and they wave them around
Speaker 1: to scare off predators. And because they're seeing enemies, they
Speaker 1: actually do pack a toxic punch that they can use
Speaker 1: to you know, like yeah, jab people there, you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah for good for him, I know like this. They
Speaker 1: are indifferent to this happening, so it is interesting because
Speaker 1: they don't. It's not totally bad for them because the
Speaker 1: boxer crabs actually will also use the seen enemies to
Speaker 1: like scoop up food and eat it. But then as
Speaker 1: the boxer crab is eating, little pieces of food fall
Speaker 1: back down onto the CNN and so the enemy is
Speaker 1: still get to eat like the crumbs from the crab.
Speaker 1: It also is one of the only known instances of
Speaker 1: an unrelated species of animal helping another species with a
Speaker 1: sexual reproduction because a boxer creb wile usually find one
Speaker 1: enemy be like this is about good and right, and
Speaker 1: then rips it in half and then wears each half
Speaker 1: on its hands. And then now it's to sen enemies. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're going to is such a good word to use.
Speaker 1: It helps I ripping it in half. I thought you
Speaker 1: were going to say that he like has like well
Speaker 1: like ham puppets. He's like, now, kids, let me rub
Speaker 1: these two together, smoosh them together. Uh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he violently rips it in half. But then enemy is okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: like a good helper. Yeah yeah, so um so now
Speaker 1: now there's two c N enemies, so it actually in
Speaker 1: effect creates larger c N enemy populations that does live
Speaker 1: on its arms though, So that's it's just I think
Speaker 1: that's fun and cool. That's amazing. Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 1: It's fun for us, and I bet for the crab.
Speaker 1: I imagine the ripping part is not then enemy's favorite,
Speaker 1: but it is comfort. There's but yeah, it might prefer
Speaker 1: slightly different technique. I'm not really sure. But you know,
Speaker 1: if someone ripped me in half and then I turned
Speaker 1: into two griffins, I don't think i'd be like thanks.
Speaker 1: That was fun and cool. It's like I to think
Speaker 1: about this a lot more than you would think I do.
Speaker 1: But like if I did, I mean, obviously the ripping
Speaker 1: in half isn't a great thing, but if I did
Speaker 1: have a second me, it's like my first instinct is like, great,
Speaker 1: you can do this work for me, and then but
Speaker 1: then I'm sure I would also say back to me like, well, no,
Speaker 1: you do it so well unless that work is punching
Speaker 1: other fish. Think that that's going to help in this situation.
Speaker 1: Katie's that's too that's two button mouths to feed just
Speaker 1: the one job, but one income. Yeah, boss is gonna
Speaker 1: expect your boss is gonna expect you to double your
Speaker 1: productivity to like, that's just not the way that that
Speaker 1: the that the that the economy works. Unfortunately, these boss
Speaker 1: crabs and their capitalism. But the good news is that
Speaker 1: there are scientific diagrams of these little crabs, and there's
Speaker 1: no like they have tried, I'm sure, but there's literally
Speaker 1: no way for a scientist to draw a diagram of
Speaker 1: a boxing crab without making it look like a cheer routine,
Speaker 1: uh choreography. It really does look like bring it on,
Speaker 1: Deep Sea edition. They can't not do it. It's so good.
Speaker 1: So my other favorite inhabitants of the coral reef are
Speaker 1: the cleaner rass fish, not cleaner ass. Cleaner rass, yeah,
Speaker 1: they go see Dr Clemens for the clean eating um bleaching. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: uh so the cleaner rass are fish auto body detailing services.
Speaker 1: So they are vibrant little fish species who live in
Speaker 1: coral reef communities and run car washes for fish. They
Speaker 1: clean parasites off of fish's skin, and the fish literally
Speaker 1: line up to get cleaned by these little cleaner rasses.
Speaker 1: It's so good and it actually creates this tiny economy
Speaker 1: because some cleaner rass like to cheat their clients by
Speaker 1: like instead of just like picking off parasites, like actually
Speaker 1: eating a little there, they have this like protective mucous
Speaker 1: membrane which is apparently delicious, uh, and so they like
Speaker 1: to bite little pieces off. But if they do that,
Speaker 1: they get a bad review and that fish will boycott them.
Speaker 1: And so uh, not only will they get boycott by
Speaker 1: the client fish, but other cleaner rass if they see
Speaker 1: you like skimming a little bit of mucus off the top,
Speaker 1: they will also punish you because they don't want to
Speaker 1: lose clients. What the cleaner rass fish has like a
Speaker 1: four point five star rating, everyone knows like and they
Speaker 1: will chomp. Is that like? Is for like? Does it
Speaker 1: have to be five stars for a restaurant to not like?
Speaker 1: Like if your uber passenger rating drops to like a
Speaker 1: four point five, the drivers know that there was at
Speaker 1: least one time where you were a real dirt bag
Speaker 1: and that that nobody's gonna risk picking you up. Then
Speaker 1: one time you nibbled on them. You don't want to
Speaker 1: nibble on your I am. It doesn't seem like that
Speaker 1: should be worth a one star review, but apparently it is.
Speaker 1: Um Also, cleaner rass will try to make it up
Speaker 1: to their clients if they've been piste off by giving
Speaker 1: them a little free massage, like, hey, you know, sorry
Speaker 1: about that, sorry about nibbling on you, but you know
Speaker 1: what about this behind the shoulders behind I don't think
Speaker 1: fish have shoulders behind the fins. I've only had the
Speaker 1: fish pedicure. I forget what the fish the doctor fish
Speaker 1: name that they have at certain places where they come
Speaker 1: and they eat the dead skin off your feet that
Speaker 1: I have and it is surprisingly delightful, really tickles like
Speaker 1: the dickens. But at the end of it, I looked
Speaker 1: at my beautiful exfoliated feet and said, I would do
Speaker 1: I would I would do this again. I would give
Speaker 1: these fish five stars that have a griffin. Were you
Speaker 1: worried that they might develop a taste for you, come
Speaker 1: find you? It was. It was at a like a
Speaker 1: spa in Japan, and I was worried about how much
Speaker 1: giggling I was doing, and part of the other patrons,
Speaker 1: who definitely were not giggling, I thought they knew something
Speaker 1: I did not, um but I think everybody was just
Speaker 1: much more hestoic and not quite as tickling, said an
Speaker 1: impolite to the fish. They were used to it. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: the fish are professionals, though they understand. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: no that's I. That is also I would like to
Speaker 1: try that sometime. But my closest thing was that I
Speaker 1: used to have a little fish that was carnivorous, so
Speaker 1: I would feed it blood worms in the fish tank,
Speaker 1: and it would always just kind of nibble my fingertips
Speaker 1: as well, just to see if there's something something to
Speaker 1: that as well. That's bold and brave of you. I
Speaker 1: don't know that I would ever put my hand in
Speaker 1: water with something that was carnivorous fish. But then again,
Speaker 1: human foot skin is meat, so I guess I have
Speaker 1: done that kind of standard. I've established, right, But it's
Speaker 1: meat we don't need, so why not share it with
Speaker 1: the fish? Yeah? Well, I think we've just about done
Speaker 1: it in terms of coral But we do have to
Speaker 1: play a little game. It's called Guests Who Squawking? It's
Speaker 1: the Mr Animal Sound game. Every week I play a
Speaker 1: Mry Animal sound and you the listener, and hey, heck,
Speaker 1: even you, the guests, can guess, Hey, who's squawking? Now?
Speaker 1: I say squawking, but it's it's not always birds. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's birds, not always birds, It could be any animal
Speaker 1: in the world. And you try to guess who's squawking
Speaker 1: with nothing but a cryptic hint that I leave for you.
Speaker 1: So last week's hint was the sharks and the Jets
Speaker 1: are about to have a showdown, but they really ought
Speaker 1: to calm down. I have a guess, Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: who's squawking? I mean, based off of the description of
Speaker 1: the sharks of the jets, is it something like a
Speaker 1: knife bill like a knife like a knife bill burn?
Speaker 1: Isn't that a thing? Or my fingers. Something ghosts. Fine,
Speaker 1: guess there's spoonbill. Oh, that was what I was thinking of,
Speaker 1: a fork bill. No, that's what I was thinking, runs
Speaker 1: able spoonbill bird. Uh No, it's not that any other guy,
Speaker 1: is it? Is it a mammalian? Yes? Is it a
Speaker 1: Is it a a? Is it a sea otter? Close?
Speaker 1: So close? A river otter? Yes? You got it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: nice one. These are rival gangs of giant river otters
Speaker 1: encountering each other and fighting over territory. That is an
Speaker 1: amazing gift. I've actually you know what's funny is I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone's actually tried to like narrow it down
Speaker 1: by asking me, like, is it a mammal? But I'm
Speaker 1: happy to do it. Well, there's lots of animals that
Speaker 1: squeak in that way. Uh. And they they they have
Speaker 1: a delightful otter. I just moved to d C. And
Speaker 1: we just went to the smiths Odian Zoo, which has
Speaker 1: a whole otter exhibit, and they I'll be danged if
Speaker 1: they these guys aren't a little cuties. They are. These
Speaker 1: ones are big cuties though. Well that's less. That doesn't
Speaker 1: do it for me. They're five and a half feet
Speaker 1: or one point seven meters of cute. That's a big hotter.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a giant river otter. It's found in
Speaker 1: South America. And you know, as you gets from their
Speaker 1: name their giant river otters. So uh, they are big, fierce,
Speaker 1: and carnivorous. And while they eat mostly fish, they have
Speaker 1: also been known to take down a kimon. Oh they suck.
Speaker 1: I could Google image search these things river otters. No,
Speaker 1: I still I still mess with these guys. They got big,
Speaker 1: they got big bushimi eyes. But I'm still I love this.
Speaker 1: I'm still look at them. WHOA Well, okay, now there's
Speaker 1: some pictures of these guys that is actually not Some
Speaker 1: of these are like somebody drew a hotter they saw
Speaker 1: in a nightmare. Yeah, terrible looks like an even worse
Speaker 1: animal trying to crawl out of the face of this animal.
Speaker 1: They're kind of a fuss noodle, I will admit, but
Speaker 1: this is an auto that's seen some quack. A bit
Speaker 1: of a fussy noodle. But they have own natural predators
Speaker 1: aside from humans, because you know, look at them, but
Speaker 1: they are quite competitive and territorial with other groups of
Speaker 1: giant otters. They have throat patches that look like roor
Speaker 1: shart tests that actually act as name tags to identify
Speaker 1: themselves to their friends. So within a group of otters,
Speaker 1: they're quite friendly, they have extended family units, they hang out,
Speaker 1: They're pretty gentle with each other. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of internal conflict. But if there's a territorial conflict between
Speaker 1: two big groups of otters who are fighting over I
Speaker 1: don't know, a piece of river, uh, it can get
Speaker 1: pretty hairy. There have been otter murders where it's like
Speaker 1: they find a dead river otter, it's like, who could
Speaker 1: have done this? And turns out the culprit was coming
Speaker 1: from inside the river the whole time. They need a
Speaker 1: better pr person because the top Google image results searches
Speaker 1: for these things are are grow testus. They need better
Speaker 1: s e O these animals do, I'm google ing? I
Speaker 1: also think they should push it just be called river
Speaker 1: otters and whatever the other ones are should be called
Speaker 1: really tiny river otters normalize. Yeah. Yeah, the one where
Speaker 1: he's like standing and staring kind of like it is.
Speaker 1: It does trigger a little bit of that like fear
Speaker 1: I have in me of being eaten by a giant otter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this very new fear, I fear. Well, Uh, let's move
Speaker 1: on to this week's Mr Animal sound. The hint is,
Speaker 1: who's this knocking? Well, don't let it raise your hackles.
Speaker 1: Ah ah, that's the sound. Can you guys guess who's squawking?
Speaker 1: I was ready for it to be a dog? What
Speaker 1: the sorry? That is a that's um, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: a swallow? Oh is that cockatial? It's something with a
Speaker 1: fan that raises up right, you're talking about that. It's
Speaker 1: something we think. I don't know. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: have no idea it is it mammalian? Um? Well, here's
Speaker 1: the thing you'll find out on next week's episode of
Speaker 1: Creature Feature. Yeah, that's right. It's it's a big cliffhanger.
Speaker 1: Who would have funk it? Oh, that's the animal. It's
Speaker 1: a cliffhanger. Uh, it's actually um, it's actually me. I
Speaker 1: knew it. So yes, if you think you know who
Speaker 1: is squawking, you came write to me at Creature Feature Product,
Speaker 1: Gmail dot com. I'm also on Twitter Creature feet pod.
Speaker 1: That's not eighteen that has something very different. Uh, guys,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. If I if people even need to ask,
Speaker 1: where can people find you? The easiest way is to
Speaker 1: go to mclroy dot family. It's a webpage that has
Speaker 1: all our shows on it and like links to everything.
Speaker 1: That's the easiest way. Yeah, we don't know that much
Speaker 1: about animals. I'm just saying, if you heard us on
Speaker 1: this and you're like, more animal guys, these guys are
Speaker 1: really smart about animals. I don't think anyone would come
Speaker 1: away from this episode. Okay that is fair, yes, Travis,
Speaker 1: but yes, definitely if you have not listened to The
Speaker 1: ether c Adventure Zone, I highly recommend it if you
Speaker 1: enjoy marine life. I mean no, it's not a textbook
Speaker 1: of animal knowledge, but it is highly entertaining and I
Speaker 1: think it definitely stays true to the biology of the ocean.
Speaker 1: So yeah, thank you guys so much for joining me today.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you so much for listening. If you're
Speaker 1: enjoying the show and you want to leave a rating
Speaker 1: or review, I will be eternally grateful. Beyond the universe,
Speaker 1: beyond time itself. Ah, thanks so much the Space Classics
Speaker 1: for their super awesome song Exo Lumina Creature features of
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the
Speaker 1: one you just heard, Visit the I Heart Radio ap
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or Hey guess what where? Have you listened
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows? I don't judge you. See you
Speaker 1: next Wednesday.