Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show, we are talking about murderous
Speaker 1: bats and the bats who love them, from scary draculas
Speaker 1: who have a soft side, to beats who are the
Speaker 1: scourge of the water. These bats have unusual victims. Joining
Speaker 1: me today to discuss some spooky spunky bats is actor comedians.
Speaker 1: She's been in shows like Abby's Hacks, Abbott, Elementary Lucifer
Speaker 1: and After Midnight It's Kimmy of a Portia.
Speaker 2: Welcome. Wow. When you said bats, you left out the
Speaker 2: murderous part. Uh. When you teed up what we be
Speaker 2: chatting about, and.
Speaker 1: We're talking about we're talking about bad boy bats, like
Speaker 1: these are the bad boys of the bat world. There's many,
Speaker 1: many species of bats, hundreds of species of bats, and
Speaker 1: a lot of them are real cute where they just
Speaker 1: kind of like sip nectar, eat fruit, eat bugs. These
Speaker 1: guys are a little more hardcore. I thought it's sort
Speaker 1: of Halloween speed speas and it's spooky speason. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so we got to talk about some spooky bats who
Speaker 1: actually are while not dangerous to people, they are they
Speaker 1: are dangerous to some animals and perhaps fit the spooky
Speaker 1: theme a little more than like say, an adorable fruit bat.
Speaker 2: That's fair, But I feel like you tell me, because
Speaker 2: you'll know, what is the bat that we're like hanging
Speaker 2: all over our homes on these decorations, the like plainest looking.
Speaker 1: Bat, you mean, like the like you know.
Speaker 2: The classic Halloween decor Halloween decorvette.
Speaker 1: You know, I actually do have an answer to that,
Speaker 1: which and this is very opinion based because, like you know,
Speaker 1: I would say that the Halloween de coor bat probably
Speaker 1: does vary a bit. But the one that to me
Speaker 1: looks like the most sort of like this bat is
Speaker 1: going to turn into a Dracula at any moment, is
Speaker 1: the spectral bat? Actually have an image of that for
Speaker 1: you look at it? Yeah, it is like it's got
Speaker 1: just kind of the classic bat features. It's it's relatively large, actually,
Speaker 1: it's it's got a wingspan of about three feet.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's like I would say, it is large,
Speaker 1: large mouse, small rat sized in its body. Uh, And
Speaker 1: it has just the classic bat presentation where it's got fangs,
Speaker 1: it's got the snubnose. It's got kind of an elongated face.
Speaker 1: I would say that this one, like when I like,
Speaker 1: let me see if I just like google Halloween decoration bat.
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of them are a lot of
Speaker 1: them are just black outlines. So that's there's that, right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, when I look at like sort of the
Speaker 1: more realistic ones. Actually a lot some of the like
Speaker 1: realistic ones, Like they go for really big ones, so
Speaker 1: then they model them after fruit bats, who actually are
Speaker 1: quite large. But yeah, they're fruit bats. There. They don't
Speaker 1: they don't drink blood, they don't eat eat. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that this one, the spectral bat, is
Speaker 1: the sort of to me, one of the more classic
Speaker 1: spooky looking bats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I believe you. I'm looking at it. That
Speaker 2: looks like that looks like all the haunted house hanging guys.
Speaker 2: It's black, you know I think of bats, you think
Speaker 2: like pitch black. Like the wings. I mean, his body's
Speaker 2: like a little bit brown and fuzzy. But yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: That's the guy.
Speaker 1: That's the guy. That's the one. They're also known as
Speaker 1: false vampire bats because a lot of people kind of
Speaker 1: have the misapprehension that because they have those long teeth
Speaker 1: that they are vampire bats. I mean, this looks like
Speaker 1: this looks sort of like a classic vampire but something
Speaker 1: that you would expect to like fly up to you,
Speaker 1: like bite your neck or something, they don't do that.
Speaker 1: They don't do that. Vampire bats tend to be much smaller.
Speaker 1: They usually have pretty snubby faces. Actually, there's only I
Speaker 1: think about three species of true vampire bats who drink blood.
Speaker 1: So actually, when you're looking at the hundreds of species
Speaker 1: of bats, very few of them actually drink blood. This
Speaker 1: one does not drink blood. This one's actually found in Mexico,
Speaker 1: South and Central America, which actually that is the region
Speaker 1: where vampire bats do tend to be. But yeah, this one,
Speaker 1: despite having those really long things that look like you know,
Speaker 1: it would be using that for sip in blood carry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they do not feed on blood. But in my opinion,
Speaker 1: they're actually more menacing than vampire bats because vampire bats,
Speaker 1: despite sort of their you know, spooky name, they they
Speaker 1: do drink blood, but they're more like parasites than they
Speaker 1: are predators. We will talk later in the show about
Speaker 1: a case in which they are they are actually a
Speaker 1: threat to the animals that they prey on. But usually
Speaker 1: it's like they will nip at the ankles of some livestock,
Speaker 1: kind of lap at the blood a little bit, and
Speaker 1: unless they intentionally spread some disease, they're not really harming, uh,
Speaker 1: their their host. It's more like it they're more like
Speaker 1: fluffy mosquitoes.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say mosquito. That's exactly what it sounds
Speaker 2: like to me. Keeping at the ankles.
Speaker 1: Come on, I know, that's yeah, that's it's like the
Speaker 1: most annoying place to get the mosquito bite and also
Speaker 1: one of the more because that's your ankles are often
Speaker 1: the thing that's uncovered, right you're wearing maybe you're wearing jeans,
Speaker 1: kulottes just in case you got to wade through some
Speaker 1: water and you're wearing sanday, yeah, and then you get
Speaker 1: you get the bites right on the like right on
Speaker 1: the ankle bone is the worst, and they seem to
Speaker 1: love it. So I hate that so much. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: just because in it there's not a lot of meat
Speaker 1: to itch down there. It's yeah, no, it's it's very bad.
Speaker 1: So yeah, these are these are they're more vampire bats
Speaker 1: and more like pests. They're menaces. They're not really that
Speaker 1: scary in terms of like they don't drain blood, humans
Speaker 1: certainly don't have much to worry about from them, Like
Speaker 1: occasionally there will be there's only one species of vampire
Speaker 1: bat that frequently encounters humans and might sometimes drink human blood.
Speaker 1: But again, like they're not draining blood. They usually only
Speaker 1: do it to people who work on farms with livestock.
Speaker 1: So so, yeah, vampire bats not that scary. But these guys,
Speaker 1: these spectral bats, I would say they kind of fit
Speaker 1: the villainous bat description a little more because even though
Speaker 1: they don't drink blood, they are carnivores and they're not
Speaker 1: just insectivores. Like there are a lot of species of
Speaker 1: bats who eat insects. It's great, they eat up mosquitoes,
Speaker 1: so like they are actually yeah, like we're we're on
Speaker 1: team bats when it comes to mosquitoes. So they're they're great, right,
Speaker 1: But no, these guys actually are very fierce hunters. They're carnivores,
Speaker 1: and while they do eat insects, sometimes they will eat
Speaker 1: birds and other bats and rodents as well. Like they're
Speaker 1: big enough that they can actually snatch sizeable small mammals
Speaker 1: and eat them.
Speaker 2: Oh, they're eating other bats eating other bats.
Speaker 1: It's bats. Uh, it's bats. The bats. It's very sad
Speaker 1: to see. So they stalk their prey. Actually, in terms
Speaker 1: of eating other bats, they'll sometimes eat vampire bats because
Speaker 1: vampire bats are pretty yeah, they're pretty small, so they
Speaker 1: can they can grab them and they'll silently like hover
Speaker 1: above their victims. They use echolocation to find them, uh,
Speaker 1: and then they swoop down grab them with their claws,
Speaker 1: and then those you know those teeth that have those
Speaker 1: like big fangs that make them look like a little draculas,
Speaker 1: they use those more like a jaguar than they Then,
Speaker 1: like a vampire, they bite down on the skull of
Speaker 1: their prey to kill them. Oh, and then fly their
Speaker 1: lifeless bodies back to their roost where they feed on
Speaker 1: all the edible parts and just dump the inedible parts
Speaker 1: like feathers, tails, bones down in a big pile beneath them. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: these are these are the real deal. These are the
Speaker 1: These are the most halloweeny bats I think out there.
Speaker 2: Dang, they're dumping these bones like they've got a crypt
Speaker 2: down there. Yeah, the little catacombs. Yeah, of they're dead
Speaker 2: prey freaky guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've got a big big bone pile under them,
Speaker 1: and they're social, so they roost with other spectral bats
Speaker 1: and so they having a bone bone party, bone party. Yeah. Actually,
Speaker 1: so like, yeah, when you're ranking bats in terms of
Speaker 1: sort of bad boy scary monster behavior, I think that
Speaker 1: these ones rank pretty high. But still it's kind of
Speaker 1: funny is when it comes to their own species, they're
Speaker 1: really really sweet. So when they're not out murdering, they're
Speaker 1: actually really nice. Wow. They greet their friends with like
Speaker 1: this little hug, so they kind of like wrap their
Speaker 1: wings around each other. Uh, it's very cute.
Speaker 2: I like them now. Yeah all you need, all I
Speaker 2: need out of animals is that they like hugs, and
Speaker 2: I'm in.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They cuddle their families in sort of like a
Speaker 1: big sort of hug ball. They all like snuggle together.
Speaker 1: Males will bring food to their female partners when she's nursing,
Speaker 1: so she can't really hunt while she's nursing, so her
Speaker 1: male partner will bring her food, you know, like a
Speaker 1: murder victim of course. But yeah. Still. Parents will also
Speaker 1: bring prey to their pups once their pups are big
Speaker 1: enough to start eating solid food. Uh. And yeah, they
Speaker 1: they just kind of exhibit very like fun, spunky behavior.
Speaker 1: They like to play with each other. They'll chase bugs
Speaker 1: around like they they don't even like they'll chase cockroaches
Speaker 1: and stuff and bugs that are in their roost, and
Speaker 1: then they don't even necessarily kill them. They'll like catch
Speaker 1: up to them and be like, all right, keep running
Speaker 1: because like this is fun for me. They're like little
Speaker 1: They're basically like little flying house cats.
Speaker 2: I guess, so that's kind of cute. I wish they'd
Speaker 2: get those cockroaches though. Yeah, those guys they were killings
Speaker 2: a mosquitoes, they'd be my heroes.
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think they probably kill cockroaches pretty frequently.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if they're eating mosquitoes
Speaker 1: that might be a little too small for them. But yeah,
Speaker 1: cockroaches I think would be something that they would would
Speaker 1: kill and eat. But yeah, it's just it's like they're
Speaker 1: they have kind of the same demeanor as like house cats.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're even a little more social than housecats. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like they go out, they murder, and then they come
Speaker 1: home and they cuddle.
Speaker 2: So far, I like this murderer. This murderer is not.
Speaker 1: So bad, right, It's like it's like Jason Voorhees after
Speaker 1: like a long day of murdering camp counselors, like just
Speaker 1: comes home as his wife and his kid. They're all
Speaker 1: like wearing the little hockey masks. Uh yeah, just uh
Speaker 1: you know, haven't.
Speaker 2: An they chase their neighbor around. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna take a quick break and then we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about a couple of diminiscing bats. Uh include,
Speaker 1: And these ones have a very interesting sort of like
Speaker 1: the dark Knight theme, except this is the darkest night. Uh,
Speaker 1: Batman's getting naughty with it will be your back, so
Speaker 1: you know Batman Robin there? Uh what I mean what
Speaker 1: like Robin's ward. I've never quite understood the legality of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just quite literally just it's plainly and he's
Speaker 2: just the sidekick, right, Yeah, he's like tags along, he's
Speaker 2: like an intern.
Speaker 1: He's an intern. Well, in the wild, bats and Robin's
Speaker 1: don't necessarily get along. In fact, there has been a
Speaker 1: recent exciting scientific discovery which is that a bout was
Speaker 1: observed eating a robin. Oh and we as we just discussed,
Speaker 1: bats do eat birds, so that's not necessarily like with
Speaker 1: a spectral bat, that's it's not necessarily news, but usually
Speaker 1: it's by snatching them from nests or while they're roosting,
Speaker 1: so kind of like when they're just hanging out. But
Speaker 1: there have been new observations that show some bats have
Speaker 1: mastered and even more impressive bird snatching method of grabbing
Speaker 1: migratory birds right out of the air while they are
Speaker 1: migrating and then eating them mid air. So yeah, no, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like little like that, like little fluffy drones, murder drones,
Speaker 1: but fluffy. So this guy, this guy is called the
Speaker 1: Greater Noctual bat. Actually he's pretty cute. He's kind of
Speaker 1: a goofball. Like the one we just talked about. The
Speaker 1: spectral bats kind of look like your classic spooky HALLOWEENI bat.
Speaker 1: This one looks like a funny little guy. He's the
Speaker 1: largest bat in Europe. He's got a wingspan of one
Speaker 1: and a half feet, as fluff brown fur and rounded
Speaker 1: ears and kind of a goofy face. I did share
Speaker 1: an image of them with you.
Speaker 2: He just kind of you know, yeah, I am looking
Speaker 2: at it. It looks like a squish faced dog. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's cute, I think, in a kind of doofe
Speaker 1: looking the way, don't he doesn't look particularly murderous, but
Speaker 1: he is. So these guys are able to snatch migratory
Speaker 1: birds mid flight and just eat them like in the air.
Speaker 1: So this was first documented in Spain in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: when researchers recorded a noctual that grab a European robin.
Speaker 1: By the way, European Robin's one of my favorite birds.
Speaker 1: They're so cute. They're these adorable, little, round, fluffy guys.
Speaker 1: They're very friendly, very sweet sounding.
Speaker 2: So this is so sad. Why did you add that
Speaker 2: that makes me more or upset to be?
Speaker 1: Like, well, I just want to be I want to
Speaker 1: be fair to all the participants in this, Like I
Speaker 1: love bats and I think this is very cool, but
Speaker 1: I also really feel very bad for this poor robin.
Speaker 2: I feel bad for the robins. Yeah, they're migrating. It's
Speaker 2: if you were on a road trip and somebody ate
Speaker 2: you while you were in your car.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it pretty much just grabbed you and ate
Speaker 1: you like an impanada. Yeah. So they the the way
Speaker 1: they recorded the feeding was by attaching a little backpack
Speaker 1: onto a bat. And this backpack recorded sounds like it's
Speaker 1: it's to keep things small. It just had audio capabilities.
Speaker 1: They didn't weren't. Like, they didn't put like a GoPro
Speaker 1: on a bat because then the bat when you're able
Speaker 1: to fly. Yeah, so it's a recording of it echo locating, uh,
Speaker 1: finding the bird. You can hear the They identified the
Speaker 1: species of bird by the sounds of its panicked peeping,
Speaker 1: which is very sad. I played with the idea of
Speaker 1: playing the audio on the show. No, I decided not to.
Speaker 1: I mean I will in the show notes. I'll include
Speaker 1: a link to the article where if you would like
Speaker 1: to listen to it, you can listen to it. It's like,
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of it's like weirdly distressing because
Speaker 1: this is like animals, right, and we're all used to
Speaker 1: Animal Planet and animals eating each other. But somehow, when
Speaker 1: it's in an audio only format, it makes it really
Speaker 1: creepy because you.
Speaker 2: So much more sinister.
Speaker 1: It really is, because you hear the echo locating, you
Speaker 1: hear like the chirping of the bird, and then this
Speaker 1: like crunch and then silence, no, and then like the
Speaker 1: sound of the back crunching on bone. I decided not
Speaker 1: to not to play the sound.
Speaker 2: Uh good, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you're interested the there's a Scientific American
Speaker 1: article you can read I'll include in the show notes,
Speaker 1: uh called this bat recorded itself catching and eating a
Speaker 1: songbird in mid air and it's exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so yeah, they they they found the new
Speaker 1: new spooky bat stuff happening. The researchers were super excited
Speaker 1: about it, uh, which is just like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: this is beautiful and wonderful and it's just them having
Speaker 1: recorded like audio of a bat crunch showing down on
Speaker 1: a bird.
Speaker 2: I'm proud of you guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good job researchers. Another interesting thing, so like kind
Speaker 1: of uh, we're a little batman themed here because this
Speaker 1: is bats versus penguines. Oh you know, like so we
Speaker 1: so yeah in real life, like if it was a batman,
Speaker 1: like a man with the sort of instincts of a bat,
Speaker 1: it would be eaten Robin, but it would also be
Speaker 1: going after the penguin. It would it would not be
Speaker 1: a great situation for Gotham. I'm going to say that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, because like in real life, bats are the
Speaker 1: enemies of penguins, which sounds strange because bats do not
Speaker 1: like cold weather, and we associate penguins with cold weather.
Speaker 1: But in southern Peru there is this very limited region
Speaker 1: where there are actually penguins that live there and bats
Speaker 1: because it's tropical enough for the bats, and there are
Speaker 1: species of penguins that actually live in more tropical environments
Speaker 1: who don't live in the freezing cold of the Antarctic. So, Kimmia,
Speaker 1: actually I did not mean to do this, but the
Speaker 1: last time I had you on, I think it was
Speaker 1: it was on a on a Poop episode. I talked
Speaker 1: about these penguins and when I was like, I was
Speaker 1: sort of looking at my old research unintentionally, this is
Speaker 1: the exact thing I talked to you about, like the
Speaker 1: last time you're on.
Speaker 2: Well, are these the ones that shoot the poop?
Speaker 1: Yes, these are the penguins that shoot the poop? IM
Speaker 1: but I gotta I gotta mention them because it's a
Speaker 1: it's these vampire bats. Who are these a menace to
Speaker 1: these poor little penguins. They're very cute penguins. I think
Speaker 1: the bats are cute too. I don't know who decide
Speaker 1: with because I base all of my moral decisions on cuteness.
Speaker 1: But anyways, the the they usually don't cause to many problems.
Speaker 1: They usually feed on larger, larger mammals, but they they
Speaker 1: sometimes will go and pick on the umble penguin chicks,
Speaker 1: who are more defenseless than the adults. And it's a
Speaker 1: problem because the the chicks don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: defenses and it can actually can weaken them. So it's
Speaker 1: like they don't usually outright drain them of all their
Speaker 1: blood and kill them. That's not that's not typically what happens.
Speaker 1: But if it's a vulnerable chick, so if they're drinking
Speaker 1: its blood and potentially passing disease, that we're leaving it
Speaker 1: without a lot of its blood that it needs, it
Speaker 1: can be deadly or certainly weaken them and harm them.
Speaker 1: So in order to protect their chicks, the adults will
Speaker 1: launch a full scale assaults on the bats. They start
Speaker 1: with screaming at them. If that doesn't work, they kick
Speaker 1: dirt at them, and if that doesn't work, they have
Speaker 1: their secret weapon, which is shooting their poop.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's good, and you know what, I'm cool that
Speaker 2: now that I've heard a lot about the spot. He
Speaker 2: freaking deserves it stinks.
Speaker 1: He's yeah, he's he's biting babies. That's that's not great.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Humboldt penguins are so well known for their
Speaker 1: poop shooting techniques. There was a paper that won the
Speaker 1: Ignoble Prize in Fluid Dynamics in two thousand and five
Speaker 1: that studied the pressures and forces required for the penguins
Speaker 1: to project al shoot their poop. The study is called
Speaker 1: Pressures produced when Penguins pooh Calculations on Avian defication. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's.
Speaker 2: Almost funnier when you use all of the official terms
Speaker 2: right in the title of that Adian defecations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, it's it's it's was a very good paper.
Speaker 1: The Ignoble Prize is not necessarily for bad research, it's
Speaker 1: for good research. That's really funny.
Speaker 2: Also, that's exactly what that is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So in real life, you would like Batman would
Speaker 1: fight the penguin, but it would get really bad, really gross,
Speaker 1: really bad. Like I feel like the penguin in the
Speaker 1: movies is just depicted as being pretty gross. Uh, like,
Speaker 1: especially Danny DeVito's one, Like they did a Dandy the
Speaker 1: Danny DeVito version. I forgot which Batman that was in?
Speaker 2: Uh is Forever?
Speaker 1: No Batman? Maybe? Was that? Which one Batman Forever?
Speaker 2: Was?
Speaker 1: The nipples one? With George Clooney where they had the
Speaker 1: outfits with the nipples baked in Batman Forever, right am
Speaker 1: I Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, no, I think I am right. I think that's
Speaker 1: the George Clooney version. No, wait, is that I got
Speaker 1: I gotta get this right, Yeah, we need it Batman Forever.
Speaker 1: No that No, that had Val Kilmer in it. Okay,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I don't know, but yeah, that had Val
Speaker 1: Kilmer in it. It had The Riddler as Jim Carroll. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's been so many, there's been too many Batman's Batman
Speaker 1: with Danny de vit Vito as the Penguin. That was
Speaker 1: Batman Returns, Returns by Tim Burton. They really yes, right yeah?
Speaker 1: And this yeah, it had Michael Keaton as Batman again
Speaker 1: he came back. They really did a number on Danny DeVito.
Speaker 1: They made his mouth black for some reason. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: made him look gross, but I don't think they had
Speaker 1: him shoot poop, so which is like.
Speaker 2: A missed opportunity, you know, they're gross, like just kind of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like commit to it because he has little penguin friends.
Speaker 1: I think in the movie.
Speaker 2: Oh if he doesn't actually do the but all of
Speaker 2: his minions and henchmen are run out of the woodwork
Speaker 2: to come shoot poop at Batman.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 2: It's just pretty.
Speaker 1: It should be the penguin sort of sitting the bird
Speaker 1: style on an awning and then like when Batman comes,
Speaker 1: they like turn around and then start trying to snipe
Speaker 1: at them with like with poop missiles, deadly poop.
Speaker 2: That's really good.
Speaker 1: This is why they need to consult biologists for Batman.
Speaker 2: I agree. I agree. These movies would be so much
Speaker 2: funnier and more accurate.
Speaker 1: And more accurate. Accuracy is always funnier. We're going to
Speaker 1: take a quick break and when we get back, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about a couple of other bats who
Speaker 1: have unusual dietary requirement. So these bats are I think
Speaker 1: really cool. Like these are bats who do not do
Speaker 1: the normal bat thing of either eating insects, birds, fruit, nectar,
Speaker 1: or blood. They have one particular thing they like to
Speaker 1: eat and that's fish. These are fish eating bats. There
Speaker 1: are bats who specialize in fishing. There are two species
Speaker 1: that do this. There's the greater bulldog bat found in
Speaker 1: Latin America and the fish eating miotis found in the
Speaker 1: Gulf of California. I feel like in terms of names,
Speaker 1: the greater bulldog bat really won out, Like that's a
Speaker 1: nice kind of name descriptive, whereas the fish eating miotis
Speaker 1: is like kind of sounds like a disease.
Speaker 2: It does, the myotis part is really giving a disease. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're so right, where it's just like or it's that
Speaker 2: one's better because the greater bulldog bat plasier yeah, after
Speaker 2: a different animal.
Speaker 1: Usually when it's when it's like a greater or a lesser,
Speaker 1: it means, uh, it is slightly larger or slightly smaller
Speaker 1: than some other relative species. But it does sound very judgmental,
Speaker 1: like the greater bulldog bat, like there's a there's a
Speaker 1: kind of crappy bulldog bat out there that you you
Speaker 1: don't want to you don't want to deal with. But
Speaker 1: because this, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: It's just like a stupid bed that just sits on
Speaker 2: the dock.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the sucky bulldog bat that nobody likes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like its name implies, the greater bulldog bat has a droopy,
Speaker 1: jowly face. It also has orange fur and these very
Speaker 1: weird rake like feet. I have shared with you some
Speaker 1: photosipless guy. His face is really very bulldog esque. Yes,
Speaker 1: got the jowls, but he's also got this bright orange fur.
Speaker 1: He's it's a very silly looking bat.
Speaker 2: These nails look a little bit like what some people
Speaker 2: would bring in to the salon. Yeah, I'd like this please.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, these are they they are definitely what are
Speaker 1: those like acrylics or the way you get the like
Speaker 1: long the long sort of rake like.
Speaker 2: Things, somel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these are fashion and function, Yes they are.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: They use echolocation to detect ripples on the surface of
Speaker 1: bodies of water. These are going to be streams, rivers, ponds,
Speaker 1: and lagoons. The ripples indicate the presence of fish, and
Speaker 1: so the bulldog bats swoop down. They use their clawed
Speaker 1: rake like feet to catch the fish and then shoves
Speaker 1: the fish into their mouths. And the reason they have
Speaker 1: these jowls is that they need space for the fish.
Speaker 1: So they're kind of like pelicans in that way. It's
Speaker 1: very fun that like when they actually have their mouths
Speaker 1: full of fish, they look very weird. I have shared
Speaker 1: that with you as well. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's h it's there's a few ways you might describe this.
Speaker 2: The better way I'm gonna say, is like a juicy butt.
Speaker 1: Like a juicy butt is one way. For sure, it's
Speaker 1: kind of cute because it like, it looks very pleased
Speaker 1: with itself, because its little lips are sort of stretched
Speaker 1: into a smile, and then underneath it are these two
Speaker 1: sort of bulbous cheeks. Ye bowl with fish. It's sort
Speaker 1: of like the way that a hamster shoves things in
Speaker 1: its mouth, but it's sort of below the chin. So
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, maybe a little scrotle one might say,
Speaker 1: But is.
Speaker 2: What I was trying to not say.
Speaker 1: Yeh, there we go, but you know, you kind of
Speaker 1: have to. I mean, and it's that's it, plain as
Speaker 1: day it is. But you know, so that's that's a
Speaker 1: happy Greater Bulldog bat full of fish. Yeah there. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of one of those things where there
Speaker 1: there are so many species of bats, and our concept
Speaker 1: of bat behavior is like, you know, I think most
Speaker 1: people know about fruit bats, most people know about vampire
Speaker 1: bats and insect eating bats, but there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like variation in bat diets, like these guys. These guys fish,
Speaker 1: and there are bats who only drink nectar and their
Speaker 1: bodies are very specialized for these tasks. So there's this
Speaker 1: completely unrelated species of bat who also fishes. Uh, this
Speaker 1: one actually is a sea bat. This is scretch of
Speaker 1: the sea. Its name is unfortunately not sea bat. It's
Speaker 1: the fish eating miotis, which it.
Speaker 2: Makes it sea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's it's really too bad. But it's
Speaker 1: a cute little brown bat with a white belly. Doesn't
Speaker 1: really look too much like the bulldog bat. But it
Speaker 1: shares the same rake like feet. Ah. So it feeds
Speaker 1: on marine fish and crustaceans. Uh. It's so well adapted
Speaker 1: for sea life that it has evolved to be able
Speaker 1: to drink sea water and pee out the salt. So
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's drinking. It's drinking seawater and pissing out
Speaker 1: the salt, which sounds like something like a hardened sailor
Speaker 1: would like say.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're so right, right drinking the seawater and.
Speaker 1: Perfect. Yes. So yeah, these little guys they're very like
Speaker 1: they're they're se like like the idea that there are
Speaker 1: like sea bats bats who fish in in the in
Speaker 1: the sea and roost on the coastline. They exist. Uh,
Speaker 1: they also share their roosts with petrels. Petrels are a
Speaker 1: species of sea bird. And really interestingly, like we've we've
Speaker 1: talked on the show about bats, basically all these other
Speaker 1: bats being the enemies of birds, like it's not a
Speaker 1: good snatching them out of the air and chewing on
Speaker 1: their bones. These ones, actually I'm ending on a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a positive note because these have a
Speaker 1: nice relationship with the with the petrels, So the bats
Speaker 1: do not really bother the petrels at all. The bats fish,
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're they're fisher bats. Uh. And but
Speaker 1: the petrels have learned to roost near the bats because
Speaker 1: the bats are really aggressive towards these predatory lizards because
Speaker 1: there are these lizards who will go after both the
Speaker 1: bats young, but they also go after the petrels eggs
Speaker 1: and their chicks. So the petrels don't really know how
Speaker 1: to deal with the lizards. They they are a little
Speaker 1: bit they just get a little spooked by them. But
Speaker 1: the bats are really aggressive and they will like aggressively
Speaker 1: go after lizards and start attacking them, beating their wings
Speaker 1: at them. So the petrels, by nesting near the bats,
Speaker 1: actually are thought to benefit from the bats protection. So
Speaker 1: they so these these fish eating miotises are sort of
Speaker 1: the more batman like of the bats in terms of.
Speaker 2: WHOA, that's right, they're fighting crimes exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: They're fighting crime and not eating the baby birds, which
Speaker 1: is nice of them. Yeah, but yeah, they so. They
Speaker 1: They are pretty chill, pretty cool bats, unless you're fish,
Speaker 1: in which case they will skim along the surface of
Speaker 1: the water and they dunk their little rake like feet
Speaker 1: in like fishing nets and catch them. Yeah, which is
Speaker 1: just I don't know, I think that's pretty cute.
Speaker 2: I'm impressed. I went fishing for the first time this year,
Speaker 2: and I did it for maybe three minutes because I
Speaker 2: hated it. But I it was not easy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean a lot of it's just sitting around
Speaker 1: right like, you're not.
Speaker 2: That part I liked. I didn't like putting the worm
Speaker 2: on the hook. Ah yeah, or guy, yeah, it's just
Speaker 2: squirming and I have to like impale it with a hook.
Speaker 2: Yeah Nope, not for me.
Speaker 1: I chickened out me too. I feel like if I
Speaker 1: had rakes for feet, it'd be a lot easier, though,
Speaker 1: Oh totally yeaheah.
Speaker 2: I'd be scoop and fish left and write out the water.
Speaker 1: In your big bulldog jowls that are two sacks under
Speaker 1: your chin that you can stuff fish into. Yeah, someone
Speaker 1: should try it. Someone should like paraglide with rakes attached
Speaker 1: to their feet and see how good you are at fishing. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, try that. That would be the real batman.
Speaker 2: That is the real batman.
Speaker 1: That's the real batman right there. So before we go,
Speaker 1: we gotta play a little game. This is called I
Speaker 1: Guess you squawking the Mystery Animal sound game. Last week's
Speaker 1: Mystery Animal sound The hint was this, it may sound
Speaker 1: like a cat call, but I assure you this animal
Speaker 1: wants nothing to do with cat, all right, kimya, I promise.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to what this is.
Speaker 1: There's no way, I promise to you it's not. It's
Speaker 1: not a construction worker harassing. Oh yeah, exactly. So this
Speaker 1: is the screaming piha. It's a bird. It is a
Speaker 1: relatively mundane looking bird that lives in the Amazon Lowlands. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's actually member of the kotinga family, which includes some
Speaker 1: of the most brightly colored, beautiful birds in the world.
Speaker 1: This is not that kind of bird. It's very drab looking.
Speaker 1: Like if you look, I don't Yeah, if you look
Speaker 1: at a picture of it. It's just like, yeah, great bird,
Speaker 1: that's it. It's not it's not very exciting, but yeah,
Speaker 1: makes up for it with its distinctive wolf whistle call
Speaker 1: of going like I can't. I'm not gonna whistle against
Speaker 1: this microphone. That's gonna be a horrible experience for everyone.
Speaker 1: But yeah it does the loa like wee wo sound
Speaker 1: wo woo. A little flirty, little frisky, little flirty. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely uh one of the there's a lot of
Speaker 1: tropical birds, and so many of them are beautiful to
Speaker 1: look at. This one's kind of a dud, but you know, hey,
Speaker 1: it's got break. Makes up for it with charisma.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's a beautiful little voice right there.
Speaker 1: Right, it's very it's very fun and flirty. All right,
Speaker 1: Well onto this week's mister ann will sound. The hint
Speaker 1: is this uh something is lurking in the cold waters
Speaker 1: and it's adorable. Not that that's a that's an Italian ad.
Speaker 1: Actually it's for that's an Italian ad for cream cheese.
Speaker 1: Did you know that? Like they just called cream cheese
Speaker 1: in Italy Philadelphia?
Speaker 2: Oh I did know that. Yeah, the brand.
Speaker 1: They just call it Philadelphia. So if you're at a
Speaker 1: restaurant I hate personally, I do not like cream cheese.
Speaker 1: So I have learned that if anything is like it
Speaker 1: says Philadelphia, it's like, well that's a boy, cream cheese
Speaker 1: on it. Anyway, you're sound, that's funny. Here's the sound,
Speaker 1: all right, can't mean any.
Speaker 2: Just no way. I mean it sounds like we're in
Speaker 2: a space ship. Yeah, like very like you're being sucked
Speaker 2: up into a UFO.
Speaker 1: It's Aliens.
Speaker 2: It's Aliens. That's my guests. They're Aliens.
Speaker 1: Underwater underwater alien. Man. I wish there was I wish
Speaker 1: there was that movie Underwater Aliens. Is there is there
Speaker 1: underwater Aliens?
Speaker 2: I don't know what God not that I know, but
Speaker 2: I think you're onto something. Movie. Make this very biologically
Speaker 2: accurate movie.
Speaker 1: Right, there's got to be an underwater Aliens movie. The
Speaker 1: abyss is that uh by James Cameron?
Speaker 2: Oh he did that and Avatar. He's just like writing
Speaker 2: about alien guys.
Speaker 1: Aiend. He just wants any excuse he can get to
Speaker 1: be in a submarine. This is what I figured. This
Speaker 1: is what I've learned about James Cameron is that his
Speaker 1: entire movie making career is just so he can get
Speaker 1: into a submarine and he actually does it right, you know,
Speaker 1: unlike the other unfortunately unfortunate rich guys who did that.
Speaker 1: Did that? Did that? I forget what was that submarine
Speaker 1: that did not did not submerse properly Ocean Gate titan Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was nasty business. No, James Cameron actually does that,
Speaker 1: except he knows what he's doing, so like he lives
Speaker 1: through it. So he's gone into a very deep sea submarines.
Speaker 1: And yeah, because I like he's because so he he uh.
Speaker 1: He obviously did the Titanic and Avatar and did all
Speaker 1: this like technological what's it? But I think the Abyss
Speaker 1: I have not seen it, but apparently, with a quick
Speaker 1: look at the old Wikipedia, seems to be about a
Speaker 1: submarine that finds aliens underwater. So that's neat.
Speaker 2: Okay, I gotta check up the Aboo right.
Speaker 1: The fact it's by James Cameron and yet I've never
Speaker 1: heard of it does make me think that maybe it's
Speaker 1: not good.
Speaker 2: It's bad.
Speaker 1: That is probably a bad a bad movie. Hey, you
Speaker 1: know what, like it's Halloween times. Maybe check it out?
Speaker 2: Uh, check out the abass are We? Bookie season recommendation for.
Speaker 1: Today the abase without ever having seen it or being
Speaker 1: able to attest to its quality. Go watch the OBSS
Speaker 1: and it's always sent you through the perspective of James
Speaker 1: Cameron just really really likes to be in submarines. Well, Kimmia,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today. Where can
Speaker 1: the people find you?
Speaker 2: You can find me on Instagram at child Clown. Thanks
Speaker 2: for having me. I love doing this show because I
Speaker 2: learned so many silly things.
Speaker 1: It's just like I feel bad that I like made
Speaker 1: you listen to the poop stuff twice.
Speaker 2: And No, it was kind of fun because I knew
Speaker 2: where we were going, and then I got to kind
Speaker 2: of me the expert, as I said one thing, being like, oh,
Speaker 2: these are the guys that you poop.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, suddenly I'm a biologist.
Speaker 1: You're suddenly biologist. Jane goodall over here, guys, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. If you think you know who
Speaker 1: made the mis or animal sound, or you have any questions,
Speaker 1: you can write to me at Creature feature Pod at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Thanks to the space Cossics for their
Speaker 1: super awesome song Exolumina. Creature features a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the one you just listened to
Speaker 1: is the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or hey, guess what
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I'm not sure, mother,
Speaker 1: I can't judge you, I can't tell you what to view.
Speaker 1: But if you are in a horror movie and you
Speaker 1: have like a bat theme villain, it's more likely to
Speaker 1: grab you with giant rake than to bite your neck,
Speaker 1: So watch out for that. Mm hmm. Rakes are spooky.
Speaker 1: I'm calling it. Rakes are the spookiest, spookiest thing. Uh
Speaker 1: see you next Wednesday.
Speaker 2: M