Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. When the Nintendo hero Mario travels
Speaker 1: into the dream world of Subcan to battle the forces
Speaker 1: of wart, he encounters many strange creatures, including the mysterious
Speaker 1: bird Oh. While there seems to be some long running
Speaker 1: debate regarding the creature's gender, there's no denying the reptilian's
Speaker 1: ability to shoot eggs at their enemies. First of all,
Speaker 1: it is interesting that bird Oh shoots eggs out of
Speaker 1: their mouth. We don't normally think of this as the
Speaker 1: place eggs might emerge from, but it's actually not without
Speaker 1: precedence in the natural world. The now extinct gastric brooding
Speaker 1: frog of Australia famously incubated young in the mother's stomach.
Speaker 1: The female frog would swallow fertilized eggs or early stage
Speaker 1: larvae and brood them in her stomach, while the young
Speaker 1: would usually emerge from the mother's mouth gradually over the
Speaker 1: course of days. As Michael J. Tyler and David B.
Speaker 1: Carter reported in Animal Behavior back in one, restrained individuals
Speaker 1: were also known to release young via quote propulsive vomiting. Similarly,
Speaker 1: the Natural World Harbor's numerous examples of mouth brooding, in
Speaker 1: which fertilized eggs are kept in one of the parents
Speaker 1: mouths and sometimes swapped back and forth to allow both
Speaker 1: parents to eat. Darwin's frog is noted for mouth brooding,
Speaker 1: as are numerous fish species, including those in the chick
Speaker 1: lit family. But to actually eject eggs from your mouth
Speaker 1: as an offensive or defensive weapon, well, the notion of
Speaker 1: an agitated, gastric brooding frog certainly seems reasonably close to
Speaker 1: the idea, and while many creatures go to extreme links
Speaker 1: to protect eggs and young, the mathematics of parenting and
Speaker 1: survival don't always go in that direction. Consider the quaca
Speaker 1: or short tailed scrub wallaby of Australia. As the Australian
Speaker 1: Nature Conservatory points out, this cat sized macropod gives birth
Speaker 1: just twenty seven days after mating, and it stores its
Speaker 1: joey in a pouch. Here it continues to develop for
Speaker 1: another six months. If threatened, however, she may expel the
Speaker 1: joey onto the ground, where the thrashing, squealing youngster can
Speaker 1: serve as a distraction for a pursuing predator. While this
Speaker 1: may sound harsh, her survival is at stake, and she
Speaker 1: also has backups additional young suspended in the womb, which
Speaker 1: can be berthed shortly thereafter. It's not quite blasting egg
Speaker 1: projectiles at Italian plumbers, but it comes amazingly close in
Speaker 1: some respects. Perhaps Birdo employs a form of gastric brooding,
Speaker 1: and you've threatened, such as by Italian plumber dream Warriors,
Speaker 1: they simply projectile vomit some of their many many eggs
Speaker 1: in their defense. Tune in for additional episodes of The
Speaker 1: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us
Speaker 1: at contact It's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeart Radio.
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