WEBVTT - Animal Sexual Fluidity 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.400 Works dot com. Hey, welcome the Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.200 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. We 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.720 live in a UH we have in a curious biological world. 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.520 We've profiled a lot of interesting UH specimens on this 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.560 show over the years, and UH today we want to 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:32.760 talk about animal sexual fluidity and general the general fluidity 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.840 of of of sex and gender itself in the animal kingdom. Yeah, 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.680 because we can't help but sort of take our human 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:46.400 nous and just projected onto other organisms out there. So 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.320 when we talk about gender bending, so to speak, in 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.120 the animal world, what are we talking about. We're not 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:56.400 just talking about sharing parental duties. So I'm talking about 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.280 the sea horse. It's not enough to carry up to 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.840 fifteen hundred eggs in your marine animal version of a 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:07.600 baby Bjorn to be considered someone who is gender switching. 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.880 So we are going to talk specifically about animals that 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.520 change their sex and why they do it. And while 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.479 we're talking about this, why not talking about the sex 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.600 change chicken? Oh yes, you're talking about Gertie the hen 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.800 who later became Bertie B. E R T. I e 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.840 Bertie instead of Gertie. H. This was the rooster. Yes two. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:31.679 This is in two thousand eleven where you had a 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.520 pair of British chicken farmers and they observed a spontaneous 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.640 gender change in their previously egg laying hen Gertie. So 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.039 she began to walk around like a rooster, put on weight, 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.760 developed wattles under her chin, and she also grew dark 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.559 brown plumage and a scarlet cockscomb on top of her head. Yeah, 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.880 and she began to crow. Um. The British couple said 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.600 that at first the crow was terrible, but with practice 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.680 is she actually sounded like a rooster. And according to 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.560 Remy Molina, writing for Live Science, um, what happens with 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.640 birds is that you have to sex organs present during 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:14.560 the embryonic stages, but once a chicken's female jeans kick in, 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.440 it typically develops only the left ovary. The right go nad, 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:21.880 which is yet to be defined as an ovary or 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.840 testies or both. It's called the OVI testis remains dormant. 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.679 So the idea here is that something like an ovarian 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.600 cyste tumor, or maybe even a diseased adrenal gland caused 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.040 the ovary to shut down and Gertie and then the 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.919 dormant ov testis kicked in and produced androgens, which are 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.800 hormones that are associated with male characteristics, which would have 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:49.760 led to Gurtie's but then Bertie's physical and behavioral changes. 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.600 And this is more of an example of a loophole 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.560 in sexual dimorphism. Um. But we're really going to talk 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:02.280 more about organisms that are intentionally switching this up as 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.040 a survival tactic or even a response to environmental conditions, 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.399 situations where sex switching, yeah, is about the long game 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.280 of survival. Now, there are a couple of types of 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.799 sex switching um. The first is simultaneous hermaphrodites, and they 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:23.359 have both female and male reproductive parts for their entire life, 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.280 and they can mate with any other member of their 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.440 species they should find we're talking about more like fish 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.079 and gastropods slugs to call back to our our slug 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.880 sex episode. Yes, that make up the bulk of this type. 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:41.360 And then you have a sequential hermaphrodites. And sequential hemaphrodites 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.760 are born as one sex but change completely into the 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.240 other sex during the course of their lives. So this 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:52.720 is definitely the more engaging for humanized example of sex 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.960 changing because it's one where an animalist is actually transitioning 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.800 from one gender into another and sometimes back again. So 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.680 the question is why doesn't it occur more especially if 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.240 you consider that this kind of strategy would double your 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:11.680 chances for a Saturday night, so to speak, because you'd have, 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.560 you know, from these strategies a large number of offspring. 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.039 So Suzanne Alonso, Assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.039 at Yale University, says, quote, an intuitive yet rarely studied 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.080 explanation is that the considerable time or energy it takes 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:34.760 to change sex make hermaphroditeism unfeasible for most animals. That 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.159 was the idea that she went into when she and 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:42.560 her team created this theoretical model of hermaphrodite and separate 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.800 sex life histories and in their their game that are 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.360 rather the model sex change players I put players in 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.320 quotes vary the age of their sex change, while the 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.200 separate sex strategy responds by altering the number of male 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.600 and female offspring it produced. And they found that a 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.839 hermaphrodite could spend thirty percent of its lifetime in the 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.680 process of changing sex and yet still persistent a population. 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:15.480 And so would that suggests is that UM only huge 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:22.160 changes or cost rather UM can disfavor sex change SOT 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.480 is not really enough to be of concern to limit 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.839 that species lifespan. They can still exist while doing this. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:32.840 If it were more up to a fifty of their time, 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.480 so many percent of their their time and energy changing 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.120 into another sex, then it might become an issue. And 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.560 so Alonso and the researchers say that just taken a loan, 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:47.080 that this cannot be the only reason why it's rare 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.760 in nature. And maybe it's more about the environmental conditions 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.159 which are generally more balanced, so you don't have to 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.520 worry so much about there being too many females are 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.919 too many males, Okay, So it's when the environment is 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.880 out of balance that's when something has to change. Yeah, 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.360 And she also said for some species, parental duties might 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.240 affect this as well, so it might be more advantageous 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:17.120 just to have a separate sex system in place. Okay. Alright, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.280 so this leads us to the area of gender performance. Now, 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.359 this is an obviously a situation where a male is 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.800 not changing into a female, female is not changing into 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.920 a male, but sometimes there is an advantage in pretending 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.200 that you are a member of the opposite gender. One 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:38.080 wonderful example of this, UH is the occurs with cuttlefish. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.239 So you have to you have a two tiered system 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.200 of males with cuttlefish. You have a big brash brawlers 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.839 and then you have smaller, stealthy lotharios. And the footage 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.720 of of these encounters between the males, particularly in the 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:55.000 larger cuttlefish species, not the cute, small ones, the little 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.799 iridescent ones that you see um at so many aquariums 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.960 that I'm talking about, the big cthulu esq ones. They 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.599 get into these big carrying fights with each other, like 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:10.080 ripping tentacles apart, just really brawling all over the rights 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.520 to the female cuttle fish that are that are sort 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.520 of waiting in the wings there. So on the surface 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:18.600 of things, this might seem like it would just really 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.160 favor the big, brash brawlers while the stealthy gal gutarios 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.160 would be on the outskirts, right, what are the how 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:25.920 are they going to get in there? Well, so what 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.760 they do is they use uh the cuttlefish powers of 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.960 shape changing and color changing, particularly by use of their chromatophores, uh, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:37.040 to look like a female to sort of draw in, uh, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.720 change their color a bit, and then they can move in. 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:41.760 They move in closer to the female. And then the 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.880 big the big brawler guy that's over here hanging out, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.360 he looks over and he's like, oh, that's just another 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.280 female getting close to the female that I want. Maybe 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.239 all made with both of them, So I'm not gonna 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.160 do anything, right, But meanwhile that the little guy is 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.480 getting closer and closer so that he can breed and 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:02.360 often does successfully breed with the female cuttlefish. And so 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.920 just clever is this disguise and so so perfect the 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.840 use of their chromatophores. Two thousand twelve study out of 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.720 McQuire University in Sydney, Australia found that males can actually 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.480 split themselves down the middle, appearing to be a male 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.000 on one side of their body and a female on 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:25.280 the other. So he's floating here between the big brawler 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.360 and the female and the big brawler it looks like 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.320 a lady cuttlefish just floating there harmless. But on the 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.920 other side he's flirting and uh and and gaming to 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.200 mate with the female. I like that. It's kind of 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:41.760 like having your own split billboard. Yeah, indeed, all right, Now, 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:47.600 the female market squid does a similar thing. What she 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:52.079 does is she flashes a pair of fake testies. And 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.360 this is really interesting because the life of a female 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.960 market squid is not an easy one. You have hundreds 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.840 of thousands of market squids gathering to reproduce with really 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:08.560 aggressive behavior from the males, which often causes injuries. And 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.960 female squids they will lay tubes of their eggs on 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.520 the seafloor and that's all good and well, except that 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.200 a lot of times above them will be a big 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.160 ball of um, sort of breeding ball in the ocean 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.679 going on, and so it's really easy for them to 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.560 kind of get sucked back into that breeding ball. And 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.680 again it's very violent. It takes up a lot of 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.360 their energy and their resources. And they have just laid 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.600 these tubes of eggs on the floor. So what do 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.800 they do to try to counteract this, Well, they use 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.320 a little subterfuge. They control the appearance of this white 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.600 stripe down the part of their body that mimics the 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:51.680 approximate size, color, and position of testies on a male squid. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.199 So the male sees this and thanks, oh, not female 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.120 leave alone. She gets off scott free. And according to 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.600 Daniel Dumar teeny, one of the co authors of us 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.560 study on female market fish, So we've seen the chromatov force, right, 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:11.240 the chromatov force. Um, this those sort of specialized pigment 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.920 cells and the ability to change coloring, right, but we 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.200 have never seen before, uh, the ability to turn white 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.880 on and off. And this is due to a specialized 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.240 type of cell called ol lucaphour. So she's essentially it's 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.000 like when the taxi sign goes in service out of service, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.040 we m with, you know, just testies as the stumble. 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:37.000 I suppose all right, well that that brings us to 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.280 the world of garter snakes. Now I want to everyone 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.360 to imagine themselves in Manitoba, Canada for a minute. Alright, 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.520 the snow has melted, spring is setting in, and that's 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.880 when it pens of thousands of red sided garter snakes 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.760 emerge from their limestone dens and begin to engage in 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:59.000 great tangled mating rituals. We're talking Roman orgies of serpentine 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.200 sex performed right out in the open, right there on 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:07.840 the limestone. Yeah, and just big, big yeah, caligula, balls 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.280 of snakes going at it right there in front of 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.719 God and everybody. Afterwards, after all of a sudden done, 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.200 now they end up sliding off into the local marshes 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.880 for the summer, carry about their life, and then they 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:23.439 return to their dens in early fall. Now, generally speaking, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.520 in each of these big clustered balls of snakes, there's 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.760 a female at the center because the males are competing 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.800 for the mating rights there, and that's all that. That's 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.920 what's going on in this big tangle. But in some 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:40.000 cases the males actually mimic females to wind up at 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.320 the center of the heap slide. Yeah. Now you might 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.360 wonder why why would a male snake do that? Well, 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.400 I think think again about the fact that they're they're 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.200 doing this. They're having this big snake orgy out in 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.360 the open. So birds of prey are well aware that 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.480 this occurs, because this isn't all you can eat snake buffet. 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.520 Just just come down to you know, talents and beaks, 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.080 blazeon and just eat as much as you want. So 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.600 there is a survival advantage in being at the center 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.440 of that heap, because you're gonna be far harder to 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.880 get to there's far less possibility that these birds of 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:17.800 prey are going to feed on you. So maybe this 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.800 male snake, he doesn't have an actual shot at reproductive 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.800 success in in a tangle, but he pretends to be 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.559 a female, he can at least get a survival advantage 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.320 and and and get to snake off into the marshes. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.559 So all plots in nature lead back to boozing buddies. 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.080 So you're saying, yeah, okay, so we're talking about females 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.920 imitating males imitating females. Yeah, I'm pretty sure this was 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.400 in one of Shakespeare's Traumatis, but I don't remember which one. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.600 I'm sure. I'm sure that Shakespeare looked at the African 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.280 bat bug, which is a small, reddish brown parasite that 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.520 feeds off bat blood. Take that bats, and uh probably 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.320 penned a couple of stories based on the um. These 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.520 bat bugs practice something called traumatic insemination. We've talked about 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.880 this before. It's when males stab females in the abdomen 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.520 with needle like penises and the inject spurned directly into 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.280 the bloodstream. And uh, yeah right, it's it's pretty it's 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.920 pretty violent. It's hard on the females, and it's also 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.240 hard on other males because sometimes males do it to 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.080 other males and so this may be more of a 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:28.800 combat thing. So to protect themselves, the female bat bug 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.600 developed something called para genitals. We're talking about a funnel 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:37.839 like genital opening on their body that tricks the male 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.199 bat bug into sticking that, you know, the needle like 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:48.120 penis into this area that is filled with immune cells. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.520 So it's it's really a smart strategy by the female 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.840 batbugs because what it does is it reduces the site 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.680 of injury to this one location and it's guiding the 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.960 pro straight and straight into a bucket of immune cells, 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:08.240 and that helps to reduce the impact of injury. Now, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:13.240 male bat bugs took notice of this, and this is 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.600 where the males who are imitating females comes in and 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.440 created a similar paragenital to redirect attacks on their bodies. 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:27.080 Except that the para genitals made them look more like females, 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.960 so right, oops. So they adopted a differently shaped funnel 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:38.320 which is more open and exposed, and that greatly reduced 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.320 to texts. So now you have females noticing that the 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:47.080 males have done this and made this adaptation, and they 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:51.280 also adopt the differently shaped funnel and clause. Rerhinehart of 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.200 the University of Sheffled UK, who led us study on 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:59.920 this um says that both of these female and male 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:05.160 bat bugs who made these for their adoptions adaptations, uh, 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.360 they suffered fewer mating scars than those with standard closed forms. 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.440 So we see just this arms race between the genders 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:18.080 in these African bat bugs. Right, So then the question becomes, 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:22.280 so cool, do they just keep creating these these uh 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.480 iterations of para genitalia until they become ridiculous looking? Yeah, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.760 until it becomes I mean, I guess there has to 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.120 be a point where the like the wave kind of 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:36.640 breaks and falls back, right, because at some point, um 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.880 it would it would not be sustainable. So there'd be 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.200 like a level of complexity that it couldn't go beyond. Right, 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.320 So yeah, that brings up the question about what form 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.720 will they ultimately take? Now, another wonderful example of this 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.680 time of pseudo gender is the female spotted heighteninga. And 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.320 this is this is pretty remarkable because female spotted hyenas 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:02.080 are the socially dominant, larger and more aggressive of their species, 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.240 and they have a pseudo penis. Now, to be clear, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.520 what they have here is an enlarged delatorus that can 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.360 actually achieve a seven insurrection, as well as a structure 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.400 that looks like a scrotum, a pseudoscurotum that's formed from 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.520 the labbya and uh. This makes them the only female 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:24.200 mammalian species devoid of an external vaginal opening. And that's 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.520 why we used to we used to think that that 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.760 they might be hemaphrodites, that they're these were either hemaphrodite 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.440 individuals in the species or or that the species itself 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.000 featured hemaphrodites um. Now, on a there are a lot 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.480 of mysteries that remain about like what purpose this actually 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.520 serves for the for the spotted hyenas. But on a 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.120 biological basis, it's all due to higher levels of the 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.360 hormone androgen in the females, particularly the pack dominant females, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.080 So it gives them their greater sizes, the greater strength, 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:59.760 but it also makes reproduction difficult. So this uh, they're 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.280 basically three areas where where where the where we see 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.120 the wages of this first of all creates an awkward 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.439 mounting situation for males and females, but sure that clariss 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.000 is getting in the way. Yeah. In fact, it's the 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.679 point they say that the males like really have to 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.640 learn how to do it. Like there are some species 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:19.320 they just you know, take to it like a horse 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:21.760 to water. But with the spotted hyena, the male is 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:23.280 going to have to get in a little practice before 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:28.000 we can actually connect um. Also, there's a there's some 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.640 difficult plumbing here when it comes to to the birth 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.080 of the pups because they have to give birth through 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.359 this pseudo penis. So on one level, you're talking about 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.480 a narrow birth canal. It's an inch in diameter and 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.680 the tissue often caress a two pound pup squeezes through, 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.120 and that rip can actually prove fatal, So that means 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.959 there's a higher mortality rate for a first time spotted 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.399 hyena mothers. Additionally, the umbilical cord is a bit on 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.879 the short side compared to the length of the birth tube, 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.440 so the cord often breaks before the cub and merges, 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.320 and this can this can lead to uh to death 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.840 for the for the young cub. In fact, of hyena 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:12.399 cubs die of suffocation inside the pseudo penis. So another 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.760 example of this that we we've had on this show 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:17.760 many times, I feel like I need to say and 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.679 come out to the stage again once again and join us. 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:26.560 Brazilian cave insects um because in the May two thou 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:31.360 and fourteen edition of Current Biology Yoshizawa Casauro at All, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:36.879 they documented their findings from when they dissected four species 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.760 of cave dwelling winged insects from Brazil called Neo Trogola, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.240 and they realized when they dissected them that the females 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:50.080 had an internal penis like structure that they likely only 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:56.119 extended during mating, and the males had a pouch like vagina, 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:00.800 and so, okay, what are the mechanisms of this well mating, 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:05.040 the female spiny penis gets tightly anchored to the males 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:10.439 male vaginas sperm duct, allowing the female to receive the semens. So, 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:12.960 in other words, the penis function is more like a 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.800 straw than a spout, and if the male tries to 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.119 break away, the abdomen would well rip open and he 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.240 would lose his genitals there um. The female insects also 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.560 mate with multiple males, and they can store two batches 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:32.240 of sperm in the body, all right. What they think, 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.719 the researchers think is that it could be the environmental 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.640 conditions that have created this sort of penis like structure 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:43.719 in the female cave insects. That's because there is a 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.520 lot of competition among males for fertile females, and in 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.760 the cave environment, food is scarce, and so it turns 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.520 out the female sperm is seen as a nuptial gift 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.320 because not only um can the female cave sy fighter 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.439 transfer this to her eggs, but before she does so, 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.680 she can actually eat some of it and it has 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:09.560 nutritional value. So you see here that that's why the 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.159 female is taking the role here as the aggressor in 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.600 the reproductive relationship and essentially scooping out that sperm with 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.080 this penis like structure. All right. That brings us to 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.080 the area of gender change outright, ginger change. And we 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.199 see this particularly in three different fish species, which serves 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.520 as wonderful examples, the first of which is the anonymy 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.640 fish a k a. The clown fish, and if you're 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:39.160 a parent a k a. The nemo fish. Um. These 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.760 are some of the most prominent examples of sequential hermaphrodites. 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.639 UH they live in a mutualistic relationship with a single 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:48.879 an enemy for most of their lives. Since this, of 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.679 course the uh you know, the small aquatic organism with 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:57.240 the with the stinging tendrils, right, but the the anemone 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:00.640 fish are have an immunity to that sting. So it's 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.480 wonderful safe place to live. But they're also kind of 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:08.399 isolationalist here. Okay, So in this anonymy neighborhood, you have 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.280 a sole female UH and the and the largest male, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.159 and those are the ones doing all the mating. But 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.639 when the female dies, the largest fish in the ananymy 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:20.159 neighborhood becomes a female, and then she begins mating with 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.399 the next male. So you have a huge advantage to reproduction. 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.480 In this UH. You get additional genetic diversity because every 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.520 fish in the immediate environment is a potential mate. But 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:32.680 it's also particularly good since again as we're talking about 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.399 a secluded little neighborhood, a secluded environment, they don't stray 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:41.040 from far from home. So if you need that that diversity, 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:43.600 if you need a new female, you just make one 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:49.359 from the population. Another example of this is the parrot fish, 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:53.040 which is common around around tropical reefs. Throughout the world, 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.439 and one of the adaptations that makes them unique and 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.840 really interesting is that they have pharyngeel teeth which you 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.119 can use to grind up corals, or they used to 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.160 grind up corals. Another thing is that at night they 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:10.160 surround themselves in this mucus like cocoon to protect them 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:12.320 while they sleep in The idea is that the cocoon 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.840 could mask their scent in making them harder for nocturnal 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.399 predators like more eels to find. But of course the 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:24.360 super interesting thing about them um is that they can 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:29.600 change sex in response to fluctuations in population density. So 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.359 they have two strategies when it comes to this. In 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.040 the first strategy, they're all born female and then later 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.480 they can change sex into males and they can also 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:44.639 begin life as males. Second strategy known as primary males, 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.000 and it's thought again that this sex change is in 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.919 response to low population density in in one or the 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:58.919 other of the genders. So in parrot fish populations, the 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:03.360 large superman males these are large males that were once female, 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:07.240 are dominant and they claim most of the females and 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:11.600 the primary males often spawning groups with one female, So 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:14.320 starting out as a female and then changing sex later 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.040 would be really advantageous. Females don't have any trouble finding 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.440 mates no matter how large they are, while the males 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:25.520 are much more reproductively successful as larger individuals, so they 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.160 can reproduce as females when they're younger, and then when 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.320 they grow to a large enough size to compete as males, 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:36.280 they change sex and reproduce as super males. And they 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:39.760 see a similar situation with hawk fish now hawk fisher 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:43.960 another tropical corald dwelling fish um and in the while, 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.720 they have been been observed to participate in what we 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.800 call bidirectional sex change. Uh so they're going from female 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:55.000 to male but then also back again. So it's a 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.119 similar situation with the parrot fish. You know, functional females 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.160 changing into males. If a don and it's super mail dies, 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:05.520 but they can change back. Ah. So they are multidirectional 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.000 when it comes to that. Yeah, multidirectional. You can think 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:09.720 of it in terms of, you know, they there's a 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:12.440 there's an opening on the staff, this individual can transition 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:14.560 into that road for into that role for a little bit, 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:17.280 but then when they're no longer needed there back into 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:19.480 their previous role. And this kind of this reminds me 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.600 of that whole concept of survival as a whole, as 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.640 a species, right, because it's not just about the individual 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:29.520 fish here, it's looking at the whole population and responding 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:32.240 accordingly and making sure that yes, we can respond to 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:36.480 that and change and and um you know, offspring and 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:41.240 it's corresponding genetic packages can be furthered into the future. Yeah, 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:42.879