Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Creature feature. I'm your host and
Speaker 1: definitely a human Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and I like to explore the behaviors of humans and animals.
Speaker 1: It's like a couple's counseling session between humanity and nature. Today,
Speaker 1: I thought we could all use a bit of a
Speaker 1: pick me up, a bit of ear bleach. So we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about cuteness. Why do we love baby animals?
Speaker 1: Do baby animals love us? What are some of the
Speaker 1: cutest studies in science? What's the scientifically proven cutest age
Speaker 1: for a doggie? Discover this and more as we answer
Speaker 1: the age old question, yankes what's it like to give
Speaker 1: birth to a baby porcupine? So some of the cutest
Speaker 1: scientific experiments are conducted on children. All right, that sounded
Speaker 1: way more ominous than it really is. Child development studies
Speaker 1: can be incredibly adorable. Here's one of my favorites. You
Speaker 1: know how young children think that when they cover their
Speaker 1: eyes that they're suddenly invisible. Researchers wanted to see what
Speaker 1: that kid logic is. If you're blind, everyone else is blind,
Speaker 1: or if you think that covering your eyes hides the
Speaker 1: rest of you. Somehow, they tested three and four year olds,
Speaker 1: gave them goggles that were either blacked out, making them
Speaker 1: completely blind, or mirrored where they could see out but
Speaker 1: nobody could see in. Of the thirty seven children, only
Speaker 1: seven could grasp the concept of being able to see
Speaker 1: out of their goggles, while others couldn't see their eyes,
Speaker 1: and all but one of those seven children thought that
Speaker 1: meant they were invisible. They even think that if someone
Speaker 1: else is wearing an eyemask, that person is hidden. It
Speaker 1: seems that their sense of visibility and presence is dictated
Speaker 1: by eye contact, meaning that their sense of self and
Speaker 1: others is guided by their understanding of visual gaze. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's why Peekaboo is such a fun game. You're popping
Speaker 1: in and out of existence like some sort of dark wizard.
Speaker 1: Joining me today is Bridget Greenberg, host of the show
Speaker 1: Rough Stuff, producer and all around awesome gal. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I would also like to add, uh, the cutest guest,
Speaker 1: the cutest guest, So that's that's why we're doing this
Speaker 1: today exactly. Uh. Speaking of the cutest guest, do you
Speaker 1: have any cute baby stories involving you or embarrassing just
Speaker 1: embarrass yourself. Um. Yeah, when I was little, Um, my
Speaker 1: nose is very squishy, like I can bend it all
Speaker 1: the way, can I? Can you see I'm not going
Speaker 1: to touch it. Holy yeah, my nose moves. Is it
Speaker 1: missing cartilage? It's missing cartilage because when I was a baby,
Speaker 1: I just fell on the face and just didn't didn't
Speaker 1: break my fault. And I think that stunted um the
Speaker 1: bone of my nose like a bons I knows. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And now I really like movable squishing crazy. I almost
Speaker 1: doubsked if I could touch it, and then I realized
Speaker 1: would be inappropriate. No, people do it allow when I
Speaker 1: told them it does apparently feel weird. I'll take your
Speaker 1: word for it. You don't have to do it, but
Speaker 1: yeah you can. You can move that nose right around.
Speaker 1: Uh so uh oh. In terms of my baby stories,
Speaker 1: let me think, Um, well, my first word was cookie. Well, no,
Speaker 1: my first I mean my first word was mom and dad.
Speaker 1: Of course mommy and daddy, and then cookie because I
Speaker 1: knew where my priorities were. Um, and I also thought
Speaker 1: that age wasn't linear, so I thought that uh uh,
Speaker 1: I guess as I got older, I would eventually be
Speaker 1: older than my parents. I thought that as well. Really
Speaker 1: I thought that not with my parents, but with my
Speaker 1: younger cousin. I was really afraid because I was a
Speaker 1: young and it was the first time anyone in my
Speaker 1: family was younger than me, and I was really worried
Speaker 1: that I was going to lose that status of being
Speaker 1: an older cousin. Finally, right, because she'd catch up to you. Well,
Speaker 1: one time, this this kid in like kindergarten, was teasing
Speaker 1: me and was like, well, I'm older than you, so
Speaker 1: you have to do what I say. So I was like, well,
Speaker 1: someday I'm gonna be older than you. And she was
Speaker 1: so confused, and I was so certain that that was
Speaker 1: the case. You say stuff with confidence, carry that lesson
Speaker 1: through young Katie Golden. UM. So this kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me of another cute child study. UH. There's something known
Speaker 1: as the scale air study UH that shows that children
Speaker 1: have a pretty loose understanding of scale. So when they're
Speaker 1: presented with life size objects like a slide or one
Speaker 1: of those little toy cars that they ride around in, UM,
Speaker 1: then they'll play in them normally, but then the scientists
Speaker 1: present them with miniature versions of those items. So a
Speaker 1: tiny slide and a tiny toy car, and the kids
Speaker 1: will try to like get in them or sit on
Speaker 1: them just like they were a regular side. So here's
Speaker 1: a here's a few pictures of that happen. They look
Speaker 1: like baby giants. I know they're they're like they try
Speaker 1: to sit on on doll chairs. They try to slide
Speaker 1: down the slide. Um. So the thinking is that, uh,
Speaker 1: in their brains, uh, there's like you have these the
Speaker 1: visual processing center, uh, and it has to combine spatial
Speaker 1: information with information about an object size. But with a child,
Speaker 1: they just can't. They can't get those parts of the
Speaker 1: brain aren't properly communicating, so they can't really integrate these
Speaker 1: uh and then understand that foot can't go in tiny car,
Speaker 1: but they try. They try, They're gonna try. What does
Speaker 1: that also equate to like normal sized objects? Like if
Speaker 1: I put a baby in a driver's seat of the
Speaker 1: car while they try to pedal it, Yeah, probably I
Speaker 1: would assume, so good thing they try to like they
Speaker 1: try to put It's sort of like when kids will
Speaker 1: try to put on their mommy's shoes and like it's
Speaker 1: like they don't care that the shoes are big. They'll
Speaker 1: still put them on and try to walk around, and
Speaker 1: then they'll try to put on dolls shoes too and
Speaker 1: see if those fit. Yeah, uh, that makes sense. I did.
Speaker 1: I did get my arms stuck in a stair banister.
Speaker 1: So I feel like it's a same thing. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: totally normal, Bridget's. It wasn't my head, it was my arms. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean if it was your head, though, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to worry about like trying to get out with
Speaker 1: your nose because you could squish your nose. Because yeah,
Speaker 1: because my nose, you're like you're kind of like a
Speaker 1: cat where you can like smoosh yourself through. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: liquid like the terminator. Um. Well, speaking of really cute
Speaker 1: scale things, we're gonna shift the conversation to baby loggerhead turtles. Turtles. So, uh,
Speaker 1: there's some sea turtles out there that are wearing tiny swimsuits.
Speaker 1: No freaking here we go. Here's the picture. Oh it's
Speaker 1: like a little it's a little one piece swimsuit. Um,
Speaker 1: like a little rash guard. Yes, exactly. So researchers at
Speaker 1: the University of Queensland and Australia are providing them with these, uh,
Speaker 1: these swims it's like, oh, who are you wearing? University
Speaker 1: of Queensland and Australia swim week turtles. So they're part
Speaker 1: of a study that aims to analyze their poopies. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the problem is that researchers really want to collect
Speaker 1: the sea turtle poop, but it's hard because they poop
Speaker 1: in the ocean and then it just gets dispersed in
Speaker 1: the water. You can't you can't get that sweet, sweet
Speaker 1: turtle poop, right right. Uh. So they developed a special
Speaker 1: poop tube to collect the poop. But the only way
Speaker 1: to attach the poop tube to the sea turtle in
Speaker 1: a noninvasive way is to attach it to a total
Speaker 1: onesie swimsuit. Um. And so that they called the swimsuits nappies,
Speaker 1: which I think is Australian for diaper. Um. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: let's say turtles. Wait, that's not really no, No, you're
Speaker 1: going there Scottish. Let's um, let's let see I am Australian.
Speaker 1: I am Australian sea turtles. Where that was almost David,
Speaker 1: I can't do it. It's it's they all blend together
Speaker 1: to me. Um. So the study is an attempt to
Speaker 1: discover the sea turtles diets, so they can find out
Speaker 1: where the turtles forage for food. Uh, and how to
Speaker 1: better protect the turtles from human activity. Uh. So that's
Speaker 1: a poop tube is a word that like, the sea
Speaker 1: turtle swimsuits gave me a lot of joy, but poop
Speaker 1: tube also gave me poop tube sea turtles swim suits,
Speaker 1: say the turtles. It sounds like something they would advertise
Speaker 1: on like Nickelodeon toys, like those commercials baby swimsuit poop
Speaker 1: tube turtles, Like like teenage mutant like, yeah, baby swimsup.
Speaker 1: How's the song go baby swimsuit bo turtles? I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm thinking more of the duck tails. The song
Speaker 1: poop tube baby turtle was wearing swimsuits. Poop tube. That's adorable.
Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered what the exact cutest ages for
Speaker 1: a dog? All of them? Well, the University of Florida
Speaker 1: was curious, and they used their grant money to good use.
Speaker 1: Uh they found out, using science, the exact age at
Speaker 1: which dogs are at their absolute pinnacle of cuteness. Uh.
Speaker 1: They had people right, how cute various breeds of dogs
Speaker 1: were at various ages. Uh. So I want to I
Speaker 1: want to toss out some numbers for me, give me some,
Speaker 1: give me some numbers. I'm gonna go. This is hard.
Speaker 1: I kind of want to give months. I know this
Speaker 1: is hard. This feels mean to the dog. I mean
Speaker 1: it's but this is science, Fridges, this is science. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say like one and a half to two
Speaker 1: unit unit one and a half to two what years old? Yours? No? No,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking months and dogs are they're old and useless.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they've aged out. We're not putting past their prime.
Speaker 1: Ten months, eight months, uh man, that's definitely not think younger.
Speaker 1: Younger like like four months, No, think younger. Is it
Speaker 1: like two days when they can't open their eyes and
Speaker 1: they're just like pink that's their peak ugliness. They're just
Speaker 1: like pink worm face. So the the exact point at
Speaker 1: which the dog has been perfected is eight weeks old. Weeks. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're at their absolute cutest. That makes sense because that's
Speaker 1: also isn't that the earliest you can adopt a dog? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, they're selling them at their height. Well, that's
Speaker 1: actually and that's a reason that's around the time you
Speaker 1: can adopt a dog, because dog moms start to kick
Speaker 1: out the puppies at eight weeks old. Man, they're like Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Once they're once, they're not enough. Yeah, so when you
Speaker 1: get a dog, it's like a car. It's only going
Speaker 1: to depreciate value exactly. That's what I tell my dog
Speaker 1: every day. It's like, every day you're depreciating. I drove
Speaker 1: you off the lot and now your resale value is
Speaker 1: really bad. Oh you wag your tail, but that's not
Speaker 1: going to increase your value. That's okay, that's only gonna
Speaker 1: get work. That's gonna break you keep doing that. That's
Speaker 1: so uh. Maybe this means that they've co evolved with
Speaker 1: humans to be absolutely the most adorable at their most
Speaker 1: vulnerable time when they get kicked out of the den um,
Speaker 1: which is one theory um. But what's also interesting to
Speaker 1: me is that eight weeks is about the time when
Speaker 1: wolf puppies leave the den and they go to what's
Speaker 1: known as the rendezvous site where they hang out with
Speaker 1: other puppies and they're communally taken care of by other
Speaker 1: adult wolves. So I almost think that maybe it's that
Speaker 1: this is a natural behavior to like, like, now the
Speaker 1: dog are the pups are old enough to go out,
Speaker 1: but instead of a rendezvous site because they're domesticated dogs.
Speaker 1: They just get adopted by humans where their rendezvous where
Speaker 1: they're like rum Springer watch rum Springer like chaperones. I
Speaker 1: guess they're awkward dog prom wouldn't dog probably so cute?
Speaker 1: I am throwing a dog from Was there a rumork
Speaker 1: to grade cuteness or was it just purely like that one.
Speaker 1: I think there was probably like a like a one
Speaker 1: to five, like one for the but ugly stupid looking dogs,
Speaker 1: you know, five for like just prime, beautiful, perfect puppy.
Speaker 1: I want to know if, like they if scientists have
Speaker 1: dialed in cuteness to like this is how big its
Speaker 1: eyes are compared to it? Yeah, no, I mean they have.
Speaker 1: I mean part of the reason that we see things
Speaker 1: as cute, as we'll talk about in a little bit
Speaker 1: is the baby schema, which is the proportions of baby
Speaker 1: faces like big forehead, big eyes, chubby cheeks. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: figured they must of, and that like Disney Pixar got
Speaker 1: ahold of that size because I remember specifically when watching
Speaker 1: Finding Dory and they showed little Dory and she just
Speaker 1: had these huge eyes like this tiny body, thinking like
Speaker 1: that's not fair. They figured something out that's gonna and
Speaker 1: I must felt like there's such increased activity and like
Speaker 1: the part of the brain that processes cute things that
Speaker 1: like you like start like an aneurysm just formed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I like. Bro. I was like, oh, Disney, this
Speaker 1: isn't fair. You really just like got to my heart
Speaker 1: right away. And it hasn't even spoken yet and it's
Speaker 1: a little high pitched for us. Speaking of Disney, I
Speaker 1: don't know why they haven't done a movie about sea lions.
Speaker 1: Oh man, right, those are cute. They are cute. They're cute,
Speaker 1: and they're so smart. They they're adorable little sea puppies. Um.
Speaker 1: And they there's a kind of internet rumor that they
Speaker 1: roll around in the sand for sun protection, and there's
Speaker 1: these viral images of these little uh sea lion babies
Speaker 1: uh and it usually comes with the caption of like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is natural sunscreen. And I was like, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: But I never saw any sources. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna bust this right wide open. Well,
Speaker 1: I found that these rumors come from an observational study
Speaker 1: where they actually it's true. This one is not a myth.
Speaker 1: Uh So this is great news because they do like
Speaker 1: to roll around in sand, and not only that, they
Speaker 1: will actually use their little flippers and like tossing on
Speaker 1: their back. So it's the reality is even cuter than
Speaker 1: the Internet says it is. Yeah, just flipping sands on
Speaker 1: their back, and they do it in hot weather. So
Speaker 1: it does seem to be some form of you either
Speaker 1: relief from the sun or sun protection. Man, pigs need
Speaker 1: to figure that out to be cuter. Like they do
Speaker 1: roll around in the mud the mud. Isn't that for
Speaker 1: sun protection too, It's it could be sun protest protection.
Speaker 1: It can also be too, um uh kind of get
Speaker 1: mites off of their skin, and like rolling around in
Speaker 1: dirt is a good way to sort of get get yourself.
Speaker 1: And like dirt can be a desiccant too, so it
Speaker 1: can dry out, writes another Parasites. I thought it was
Speaker 1: like pick sunscreen. Uh. Well, it's interesting is hippo's uh
Speaker 1: produce their own sunscreen from their sweat glands. It's like
Speaker 1: this kind of pink substance. Uh yeah, I want that. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean if you rub yourself against a hippo, I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, you'll die. The hippo will kill you.
Speaker 1: But at least you won't get a sunburn. Yea, do
Speaker 1: sea lions get sunburns? Because I want to say that,
Speaker 1: I mean they do have for so that offers them
Speaker 1: some protection. Um. I would imagine that the sun can
Speaker 1: when any animal could get a sunburn if their skin
Speaker 1: is in contact with the UV rays. Poor little guy, Like,
Speaker 1: that's why they're little. That's why they cover themselves and
Speaker 1: sands and they're like little, they're little churros. They looked
Speaker 1: like a little like a cinnamon. They're so cute. They're
Speaker 1: so cute. Um, I bet I know what you're wondering
Speaker 1: is how are baby porcupine is born. I would assume
Speaker 1: without their spikes, I would assume they're like little naked
Speaker 1: little bige worms. Um. Well, that's an interesting thing because
Speaker 1: that's sort of how hedgehogs are born. They kind of
Speaker 1: look like the little pink mice there. They look like
Speaker 1: little gumballs, and they they kind of have the starts
Speaker 1: of spikes, but they're not really there yet. They're like soft.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Um, but I want you to imagine giving
Speaker 1: birth to a twelve pound baby covered in quills, because
Speaker 1: this is the problem posed to porcupines relatively speaking so much.
Speaker 1: Uh so. In many porcupine species, including the North American porcupine,
Speaker 1: the porcupines are already born with quills, but they are
Speaker 1: soft and flexible, so they don't actually pose any risk
Speaker 1: to the mother. They harden within an hour of being born.
Speaker 1: Whoa uh so they will quickly harden into sharp points
Speaker 1: uh and which so it's a good thing that drys
Speaker 1: exactly um and uh. These are big babies relative to
Speaker 1: the porcupine size. So um they're about a foot in
Speaker 1: length and a pound and weight, which is the equivalent
Speaker 1: of a pound human mother giving birth to a twelve
Speaker 1: pound baby. Jesus. Uh that is horrifying. So they're soft
Speaker 1: and flexible. So is it like hair essentially like hair
Speaker 1: like white hair like sort of al dente pasta is
Speaker 1: suppose okay, probably super al dente extremely But here's a
Speaker 1: cute thing. They're called porkupets porky pets, the pupine I
Speaker 1: think I played that online when um, And they're able
Speaker 1: to cuddle with their mommy's because porcupine underbellies are soft
Speaker 1: and furry, and they can also flatten the quills that
Speaker 1: are on their backs so that they prevent um any
Speaker 1: kind of unintentional injury. Yeah, because I've seen porcupines walk
Speaker 1: around and they're not spiky there. I mean, they don't
Speaker 1: like they're not they don't. They are very furry looking.
Speaker 1: A lot of their quills are indeed spikes, So if
Speaker 1: you like get poked, yeah, don't touch it because those
Speaker 1: are actually sharp. But they are modified hair essentially. Um.
Speaker 1: So uh. They're also in the case of friendly fire.
Speaker 1: They do have some defense mechanisms. So one is that
Speaker 1: they instinctively know how to pull the quill out of
Speaker 1: their skin if like they or like if they get
Speaker 1: stabbed by someone else, just like they're dancing together and
Speaker 1: they get poked and then they yeah, they they know
Speaker 1: how to like they deflate the spine by like poking
Speaker 1: a hole in it, and then they pull out the
Speaker 1: rest of it. Um. Because like the quills are hollow
Speaker 1: and so they can like kind of remove some of
Speaker 1: the I guess it helps them pull it out. That's
Speaker 1: so cool. Why can't humans do like control any of
Speaker 1: our I want to just like drop a fingernail when
Speaker 1: I need to. Um. They're also their skin contains natural
Speaker 1: antibiotics that prevent infection. Oh so smart. Yeah, exactly they
Speaker 1: did that. That's good for them. That's good for them. Um,
Speaker 1: and there's uh so that's um. That's true of a
Speaker 1: lot of porcupine species, and like North American porcupines. But
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the prehensile tailed porcupines, who
Speaker 1: are extremely adorable and very unusual porcupines. So they live
Speaker 1: in Central and South America and they have a long,
Speaker 1: unspined prehensile tail. Uh so uh there. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: picture this and I think it means so you'll get
Speaker 1: to see one in just a minute. Um. So, the
Speaker 1: young aren't born with quills. Actually, they're born with soft
Speaker 1: red hair that will eventually harden into sharp black and
Speaker 1: white quills with age. Cool, so they get like they
Speaker 1: get their stripes right, exactly. They're all born redheads, right.
Speaker 1: They get older and go into an em and stay
Speaker 1: there even as adults. They're super cute. They have these big,
Speaker 1: bulbous noses. Um. And their calls sound like baby babbling
Speaker 1: in a non creepy way. Um. So I have an
Speaker 1: audio clip. Oh my god, and here he is with
Speaker 1: his little basket that he's lifted up. As I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, it sounds like a try hard noise. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Oh guy, So that I was assuming those
Speaker 1: were try hard noises. Yes, that was. That was a
Speaker 1: little preinstiled tailed porcupine trying to lift a little basket.
Speaker 1: Um lifting it with its tail. No, it's its little
Speaker 1: hand with its little arms, but its tail is. It
Speaker 1: is preins lift and used to help climb trees. It is.
Speaker 1: It's such. It looks like a fantasy creature, like a
Speaker 1: Star Wars fantasy creature. It looks like and it might
Speaker 1: be this is going to be a deep cut reference.
Speaker 1: Um Horden, here's a who uh Seth Rogan character in
Speaker 1: that movie. Yeah, I didn't well, I'll take your word
Speaker 1: for it. I didn't see uh yeah, no one did.
Speaker 1: I watched it on cable about fifty times in the
Speaker 1: eighth grade. You can see a little nose. It's got
Speaker 1: a very dumb little nose. It's it's snow is very
Speaker 1: big in bulbous I wanna it looks like if you
Speaker 1: poked it it would honk. Yeah, it looks very squishy.
Speaker 1: Um me and this guy we would get along. Well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I mean, your nose does not
Speaker 1: look like that, but but it feels like quality. It
Speaker 1: probably has the same textual quality. I'm gonna go live
Speaker 1: with my porcupine family found your family guys are cut?
Speaker 1: So why do photos of baby animals make us happy?
Speaker 1: As we've talked about on the show before, we're hardwired
Speaker 1: to find the baby schema to be cute. Big forehead,
Speaker 1: big eyes, chubby cheeks, toddling, fat bodies. The qualities that
Speaker 1: babies and young children have trigger our cuteness detection and
Speaker 1: make us want to take care of them. Studies have
Speaker 1: found that seeing something cute causes dopamine to get released
Speaker 1: in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that functions as
Speaker 1: part of the reward system in the brain. It's one
Speaker 1: of the main motivational neurotransmitters. In fact, researchers at Heroshima
Speaker 1: University found that looking at cute things help you concentrate
Speaker 1: better on tasks, and we can be suckered in by
Speaker 1: cuteness too. According to an article by The Daily Herald,
Speaker 1: researchers have found that people tend to see faces in
Speaker 1: the front of the car with headlights in the grill,
Speaker 1: and you can increase the markability of a car by
Speaker 1: making the features rounder and bigger, like the seven new
Speaker 1: Volkswagen Beetle, which was designed to look more like a
Speaker 1: baby's face. Don't worry, We'll be right back with more
Speaker 1: of that cuteness drug and load you up on dopamine.
Speaker 1: As we explore some heartwarming stories of animals and humans
Speaker 1: getting along. Humanity has been pretty bad to our fellow
Speaker 1: animals and to our planet, but once in a while
Speaker 1: we get together and actually do something pretty cool. One
Speaker 1: way is by building bridges, underpasses, and tunnels for animals
Speaker 1: to cross dangerous roads. Yeah, I mean, the dangerous roads
Speaker 1: are are bad in the first place, but creating safe
Speaker 1: paths for animals to cross can help save animals and
Speaker 1: human lives on the roadway. There are many kinds of
Speaker 1: wildlife crossings, some of which are grassy forests grown right
Speaker 1: over a bridge to make it more inviting to animals.
Speaker 1: There are specialized crossings for different animals, like elephant underpasses
Speaker 1: in Kenya, monkey overpasses in Brazil, and cariboo crossings in Canada.
Speaker 1: Here are some of the cutest, most unique bridges I've found.
Speaker 1: Its bridget one of them. Yes, bridget the bridge. That's
Speaker 1: what they comment, That is what they call you. That's
Speaker 1: what I call you. When I was a kid, I
Speaker 1: was afraid of bridges. Really, I would hide every time
Speaker 1: we go over them. And I grew up in Florida,
Speaker 1: where there are a ton of them. Yeah, because you're
Speaker 1: under mostly underwater, right, mostly underwater. I also thought all
Speaker 1: bridges were dropper just I see. So you thought it
Speaker 1: could just move under your feet at any given Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: there's a moment and fast and the furious to where
Speaker 1: they jump over a bridge, and that's my biggest fear.
Speaker 1: But well, I don't think these bridges will scare you,
Speaker 1: because here's one. There's a turtle tunnel in Japan that
Speaker 1: goes under a rail road to save turtles from the railroad.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's so smart. There's a penguin tunnel
Speaker 1: in New Zealand to prevent penguins from crossing dangerous roads.
Speaker 1: Oh done, little penguins. Dumb little penguins. One one across
Speaker 1: the road. You don't want to get in the way
Speaker 1: of them, No, you don't. I mean the pain. I'm
Speaker 1: sure it's like the penguins would be unscathed, but they would,
Speaker 1: they would cause something the humans would not. Uh. There's
Speaker 1: a rope bridge over a freeway in Victoria, New South
Speaker 1: Wales for squirrel gliders. Oh my god, because squirrel gliders
Speaker 1: they're also related like to the flying squirreld. They can't
Speaker 1: actually fly, they can only glide. So if they start
Speaker 1: off that once side of the road and try to
Speaker 1: glide across with nothing to help them across, they could
Speaker 1: just fall right on a truck. But that's why they
Speaker 1: got the bridge there. So there are tiny tunnels under
Speaker 1: roadways in New England to save spotted salamanders from getting
Speaker 1: crushed on their journey to mate. Oh I want like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess obviously animals can communicate, but like
Speaker 1: had they find out where these are and they just
Speaker 1: had to like run back and tell everyone. Well, they
Speaker 1: put the tunnels I think where they find the animals
Speaker 1: are highly trafficking the and like these highly trafficked areas
Speaker 1: for the animals. Although, so there's a Davis toad tunnel. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's in Davis, California. It's to save toads from
Speaker 1: getting pancaked while traveling to their ancestral wetlands. They even
Speaker 1: built some like little houses just just for funziesh my god.
Speaker 1: It's like a fracket. But the problem was the toades
Speaker 1: were too dumb to use it, so they had to
Speaker 1: use a light in the tunnel to kind of like
Speaker 1: give them some incentive to go into the tunnel. But
Speaker 1: then some of the lights were too hot so they baked.
Speaker 1: Oh no, but they fixed it. I'm pretty sure we
Speaker 1: went too far, too far with our kindness, literally killed
Speaker 1: them with kindness. Um. So there's also a beat highway
Speaker 1: in all Slow Norway. Uh, but it's a root filled
Speaker 1: with flowers on rooftops for bees to survive as they
Speaker 1: travel in an urban environment. That's nice. It sounds so dangerous.
Speaker 1: These are great. These are great. We need the beast.
Speaker 1: As someone who's allergic to be it sounds like a
Speaker 1: death trap. Yeah, I mean, just don't get down the highway,
Speaker 1: then avoid be highway. There's a salmon cannon in Columbia River,
Speaker 1: eastern Washington. It's to preserve the salmon population who get
Speaker 1: blocked by dams. So it's literally like these tubes that
Speaker 1: use some kind of text section eat technology. Um, they
Speaker 1: just reciphon technology to like like you know, they go
Speaker 1: into the tube, then they launch them out the other side.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen this before and I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's in a cartoon or Yeah, there's real
Speaker 1: videos of this you could Uh, I'll probably put one
Speaker 1: in the show notes. You can also google it if
Speaker 1: you look for a salmon cannon. It's very good. Just
Speaker 1: imagine it with sound effects of giling. That's a human
Speaker 1: one of those that sounds fun. That would be fun.
Speaker 1: I mean water parks kind of like that. Uh so
Speaker 1: uh those are Oh and then there's a crab bridge
Speaker 1: on Christmas Island to protect Christmas Island red crabs during
Speaker 1: their annual mass migration um where there are just huge
Speaker 1: amounts of Christmas Island red crabs. If you've ever seen
Speaker 1: those online, they just like they it's like just it
Speaker 1: looks like a red tide on land, but it's all crabs.
Speaker 1: It's all crab. Crabs are mean, don't They're a bit
Speaker 1: crab Crabby had a lot of runnings with crabs Back
Speaker 1: in Florida. I used to have a hermit crab as
Speaker 1: a pet. It's favorite thing to do would be to
Speaker 1: crawl up into my armpit. Uh, pinch me in the
Speaker 1: armpit and not let go for it. Like it was
Speaker 1: impossible to get it off without ripping the skin because
Speaker 1: it was just like here I am now in your armpit.
Speaker 1: This is my place, and it would just latch on.
Speaker 1: It's like, well this is this is it? You know,
Speaker 1: right or die? I'm here now, deal with it. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I liked it so much, Like maybe
Speaker 1: it was sweaty or something, and it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it was humid and that was because, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's I had a crab that lived by my locker
Speaker 1: in high school and I had a little hole. But
Speaker 1: anytime I went by my locker would come out and like,
Speaker 1: come after me. You'll just have like crabs in your
Speaker 1: in Florida, I mean yeah, because I like it's you know,
Speaker 1: the campus is outdoors, so there's also they live in
Speaker 1: little holes. So it was pretty common to fall into
Speaker 1: a crab hole. I've done it. I'm everyone who grew
Speaker 1: up there. Sea hole I've fallen into. They're just like
Speaker 1: inland and your locking grass and then your foot will
Speaker 1: get caught. You fall into a sea hole and that's
Speaker 1: how you get arn't pit crabs. Yeah, that's that's exactly
Speaker 1: what happened. But yeah, I would have to like get
Speaker 1: my books out really quickly because this crab would come
Speaker 1: and just attack me if I spent too long by
Speaker 1: my locker. Ah, that's so funny bridget getting chased by crabs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was my high school bully that just would not
Speaker 1: leave me alone and I was just trying to get
Speaker 1: my books and go to class. So here's a real cute,
Speaker 1: solid bro moment that we've had with animals. Uh. So,
Speaker 1: researchers at Leaden University in the Netherlands wanted to answer
Speaker 1: the question on everyone's minds. Uh, do you mind only
Speaker 1: like to run in a hamster wheel because they're bored
Speaker 1: and like cages and stuff. Yeah, no, I think about
Speaker 1: that constantly. Yeah. So to answer this question, they left
Speaker 1: Hampson wheels out in nature to see what little animals
Speaker 1: would do if they would get on there and try it,
Speaker 1: and guess what they did. They did lots of them.
Speaker 1: It's fun for them and not just mice. So the
Speaker 1: wheels were used hundred times over two years by mice, rats, shrews,
Speaker 1: and even frogs. Frogs, just a little frogs. I don't
Speaker 1: think frogs would need them. I feel like they would
Speaker 1: just jump and then like hit the side. I mean,
Speaker 1: frogs do have some control over the size of their leaps,
Speaker 1: but their legs are so long wattle. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like it would be awkward. I mean, depending on the
Speaker 1: size of the wheel, right, do have like long limbs.
Speaker 1: It does seem pretty awkward. But a lot of these
Speaker 1: animals really loved it because they were repeat customers. You're
Speaker 1: gonna hang out by the wheel today. It was like
Speaker 1: a little park of them, right exactly. That's great. I
Speaker 1: want to put like a tiny gent like some kind
Speaker 1: of sort of um like a muscle beach for for
Speaker 1: for crabs, for crabs, crabs and mice. I was on
Speaker 1: a set once and there was we were outside and
Speaker 1: there was like a tiny little field mice just just
Speaker 1: napping in a tree, and about thirty human adults just
Speaker 1: stopped the work we were doing to watch this little
Speaker 1: field micelee. Ah, that is adorable. It was very cute.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget him. Well, we're gonna go bigger than
Speaker 1: field mice. Alright, let's do it. So the Thailand Friends
Speaker 1: of the Asian Elephant Hospital elements love elephants and elements
Speaker 1: with the two things elemental. Uh. So the it's a
Speaker 1: hospital in Thailand, uh And they are friends to elephants
Speaker 1: and they have fitted an artificial leg for Osha, an
Speaker 1: elephant who lost her front leg after stepping on a landline.
Speaker 1: Doctor Javocati, I think that's how it's pronounced, and I
Speaker 1: apologize if I mean's pronounce it. But he's an orthopedic
Speaker 1: surgeon who created a massive pros thesis that's the first
Speaker 1: of its kind that replaced nearly the entire functionality of
Speaker 1: the elephants front leg stone. Uh so leg stone. So
Speaker 1: Doctor Javocat, who has continued to develop new prose thesis
Speaker 1: for Mosha as she grows, says that she salutes him
Speaker 1: every time he comes to visit hers. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love that they're so smart. And I was wondering,
Speaker 1: so we clearly can feel empathy for elephants, although we
Speaker 1: do mistreat them sometimes. But you know, then there's wonderful
Speaker 1: humans like the Thailand friends for the Asian Elephant Hospital.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if it's a mutual, like if elephants
Speaker 1: can feel empathy for humans? Uh, because they show great
Speaker 1: empathy towards each other. I think I know this fact.
Speaker 1: I think I've heard this. Yes, so they showed great
Speaker 1: social and emotional intelligence. They often rescue their young from
Speaker 1: water and ditches um and anecdotally there's some evidence that
Speaker 1: this empathy can extend to humans. So there's a story
Speaker 1: of a young elephant in Thailand who was she was
Speaker 1: friends with a human because she was in uh one
Speaker 1: of the elephant sanctuaries there, um and so he was
Speaker 1: part of the Save the Elephant Foundation and he was
Speaker 1: just like playing around in a river with the elephant
Speaker 1: and he was fine, he was swimming, he was fine,
Speaker 1: and he was kind of like yelling out to the
Speaker 1: elephant because it's his buddy. But she thought he was drowning.
Speaker 1: So she ran over just like charged through the water,
Speaker 1: stood over him, and uh hoisted him out of the
Speaker 1: water with her trunk. Us. How terrifying of a moment.
Speaker 1: Like as sweet as that is, I know, because I
Speaker 1: could go extremely wrong. Um, but they are, I mean,
Speaker 1: for be such huge animals, they can be surprisingly gentle
Speaker 1: and delicate. Uh. There's another story of a bowl elephant,
Speaker 1: which is not a cute baby elephant like in the
Speaker 1: previous story, but a huge tasked bowl elephant UM who
Speaker 1: crashed into a home of a couple living in West Bengal, India,
Speaker 1: and they claimed that the elephant just smashed in a
Speaker 1: wall in their home. Uh and it occasionally happens the
Speaker 1: elephant will break into residences because they're looking for food
Speaker 1: and I mean the elephants, that's what they love. And
Speaker 1: the couple was very concerned because they had a baby
Speaker 1: in the crib and the wall was falling in above
Speaker 1: the baby and the elephant, you know, it was just
Speaker 1: rampaging through the house. And then it stopped when the
Speaker 1: baby started crying, and it went over to the baby
Speaker 1: and started lifting rubble off of the baby. And uh
Speaker 1: So the couple took the be to the hospital and
Speaker 1: it had some superficial injuries, but it was The baby
Speaker 1: was fine, but the elephant like, it's like, oh, whoops,
Speaker 1: my bad. Hereerhaps I almost crushed a baby. Yeah, yikes.
Speaker 1: And then that feels like if I'm stoned in public
Speaker 1: and a child and I'm like, oh, oh no. I
Speaker 1: definitely like sometimes I'm walking my dog and I like
Speaker 1: trip over her because she's kind of her movements are unpredictable,
Speaker 1: and she kind of darts. She's a little dock, so
Speaker 1: she like darts in and out and makes like strange movements,
Speaker 1: and so sometimes just stops like right under my feet
Speaker 1: and I trip over and I feel like this like huge,
Speaker 1: classy elephant. And then I'm like, I feel like someone's
Speaker 1: gonna watch me and think I'm just like kicking my
Speaker 1: dog for no reason. Um, and I'm just like falling over,
Speaker 1: like trying not to hurt the dog. I know, I've
Speaker 1: made some crazy moves like Ninja moves to avoid stepping
Speaker 1: on a dog right right, Like You're like, You're like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't need to protect my head, I need to
Speaker 1: protect the dog. Yeah. I also love the baby Elephants
Speaker 1: need to learn how to drink with their trunks. They
Speaker 1: just do whatever they can their whole face in the water.
Speaker 1: They also need help crossing rivers and stuff. So that's
Speaker 1: what's so cute about the baby elephant helping the human
Speaker 1: is like, I know what to do here. I got
Speaker 1: your poddy, just stomping over and the guys like grab. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's horrifying but adorable. I got your putty, this huge
Speaker 1: thing running towards you. Can animals help us become better people?
Speaker 1: Well duh. When it comes to empathy, certain preferences towards
Speaker 1: animals can predict higher empathy and tests. A psychology study
Speaker 1: at the University of Windsor, Ontario found that the preferred
Speaker 1: pets of children can predict higher empathy scores. The kids
Speaker 1: with the highest empathy scores tended to prefer having a
Speaker 1: pet drum roll prey these birds. Yes, also horses, but
Speaker 1: we don't care about the dumb horses. I finally feel vindicated.
Speaker 1: Being pro bird means you're just a better person. Whoa
Speaker 1: imagine the empathy of kids who want Pegasus as a
Speaker 1: pet like the ultimate empathetic those kids are. They're not
Speaker 1: going to be able to do They're just going to
Speaker 1: care too much. But not to worry dog and cat owners.
Speaker 1: Not only can animals help kids be kinder but healthier
Speaker 1: to pediatrician. Researchers at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland found
Speaker 1: that babies who grew up with cats or dogs, but
Speaker 1: especially dogs, were less likely to get sick than pet
Speaker 1: free homes and had lower risks of allergies. Though the
Speaker 1: cause of the correlation has not been verified, they theorized
Speaker 1: that exposure to pet microbes helped boost the immune system.
Speaker 1: The effects were profound. Babies with a dog in the
Speaker 1: family were less likely to develop an ear infection. Maybe
Speaker 1: dogs saliva should be bottled up and sold as medicine.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back. I gotta run to the petant office. Okay, guys.
Speaker 1: So there's a study published in a journal called Advances
Speaker 1: in Effective and Pleasurable Design by researchers at the Shibora
Speaker 1: Institute of Technology in Tokyo. The title of the study
Speaker 1: is quote evaluation of Kawaii feelings caused by stuffed animals
Speaker 1: to reduce stress. This study may be the most serious
Speaker 1: technical study about cuteness that I've ever read. Here's a
Speaker 1: choice quote from it quote, we have focused our attention
Speaker 1: on the effective value of kawai as an additional value
Speaker 1: of industrial products and have been conducting research to analyze
Speaker 1: their physical attributes systematically. Essentially, they hooked up a participant
Speaker 1: to an ECG sensor and measured their heart rate while
Speaker 1: they looked at or touched the stuffed animal. The paper
Speaker 1: includes images of the stuffed toys that were brought in
Speaker 1: by the participants, including a green kitty with big ears
Speaker 1: and a little bunny holding a heart. They found that
Speaker 1: heart rate decreased when looking at the stuffed animals and
Speaker 1: increased when touching them, possibly meaning there's an interesting interaction
Speaker 1: between being calmed by cute things and feeling excited at
Speaker 1: petting and booping them. Can you get cardio just by
Speaker 1: looking at squeezing a stuffed animal? Probably not, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to tell you. Have to live your life
Speaker 1: you'd like to give your heart a bit of arrest.
Speaker 1: Here are some of the most adorable animals that you
Speaker 1: may not have heard of, that you're definitely gonna want
Speaker 1: to look up images of. Don't worry, I've put the
Speaker 1: links to all these animals in the show notes, so
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Have you heard of pause? Oh? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I spend the majority of my time on the internet
Speaker 1: looking up cute animals. So those are the selfie taking animals. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In Australia, these guys the teddy bears. Just for funsies.
Speaker 1: I got a couple images here. Oh my god, they're
Speaker 1: so freaking cute. They look like yes, they look like
Speaker 1: a teddy bear mixed with a kangaroo mixed with like
Speaker 1: a mouse. Yeah, yeah, they're and they're super friendly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They're about the size of a house cat. They are marsupials.
Speaker 1: They're found on islands off the coast of Western Australia,
Speaker 1: including the famous Rott Nest Island, which it's called rott
Speaker 1: Nest from the Dutch rat nest. Uh because early explorers
Speaker 1: mistook them for giant rats. Well, I don't see them
Speaker 1: resemblance personally. They're dumb and have no souls. If they
Speaker 1: think these guys are rats, they just look like friendly
Speaker 1: little Teddy's uh bridgets serving some hot shade on the
Speaker 1: Dutch explorers hot take people. Yeah. Uh So they have
Speaker 1: pouches like kangaroos, and they're young, are called Joey's and
Speaker 1: they're super slutty. They're very promiscuous. Uh So the islands
Speaker 1: on which they live are mostly free of predators, so
Speaker 1: they're remarkably on a rate of humans. And they're very friendly.
Speaker 1: So they will walk up to you uh and let
Speaker 1: you take pictures with them, and they're super friendly and unafraid.
Speaker 1: But that does not mean you should touch them. Um.
Speaker 1: First of all, they have been note to bite people,
Speaker 1: because just because they're friendly doesn't mean they want you
Speaker 1: playing with them or trying to pick them up. They
Speaker 1: will bite you and you shouldn't play with them. You
Speaker 1: can get heavy fines for trying to uh poke around
Speaker 1: that they are wild animals. They are wild animals. Uh,
Speaker 1: you should never feed them human food that can kill
Speaker 1: them because it can dehydrate them and cause fatal kidney
Speaker 1: problems if it's you know, like if the salt content
Speaker 1: is different from their diet, like, they can die. You
Speaker 1: never feed a wild Yeah, and like any any human
Speaker 1: food can have aspects of it that could kill them.
Speaker 1: So don't do it. Just don't do it. But they
Speaker 1: are perfectly happy to walk up to you and take
Speaker 1: a selfie with you, and that's perfectly fine. So if
Speaker 1: you're polite and you give them some personal space and
Speaker 1: you don't ruin their diet, like, they will take a
Speaker 1: selfie like like an actual Instagram influencers. That's how you
Speaker 1: treat them. You can't Instagram influencers will not eat your
Speaker 1: garbage food. They will only eat plants. They will take
Speaker 1: a selfie with you, but they will not let you
Speaker 1: touch them. They will bite you. They will bite you.
Speaker 1: That is true. Uh. So, I also want to talk
Speaker 1: about another winner of the Cutest Animal Awards, which is
Speaker 1: dictis Dicticks. You want at pick pick? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: what that looks like a pokemon? It is a pokemon. Now,
Speaker 1: it's not Dick Dix live in the southern and Eastern
Speaker 1: African bush lands. It's one of the smallest ungulates in
Speaker 1: An ungulut is a hooved animal uh and it is
Speaker 1: a species of antelope that only grow up to be
Speaker 1: about a foot tall, twenty inches long and about ten
Speaker 1: pounds as adults. Bodies they're named Dick Dix because of
Speaker 1: the alarm calls they make, which kind of sounds like
Speaker 1: a squeaky toy. I'm gonna play a little clip of
Speaker 1: this for you, so freaking cute, like a little bird.
Speaker 1: I know, it sounds like a squeaky toy that like
Speaker 1: is kind of losing that squeak a little bit like
Speaker 1: an old squeaker. You know. I had a toy train
Speaker 1: when I was a kid that had a little squeaker
Speaker 1: toy and you would wind it up and it would
Speaker 1: like like do a little chugg a chugg a thing,
Speaker 1: and it had that exact sound. It was like, it's
Speaker 1: just like a steam engine. A tiny that's so cute.
Speaker 1: So they have an elongated snoot that helps them from overheating.
Speaker 1: It's actually called a snout, but I call it an
Speaker 1: The snow works like a bellows that cools blood that
Speaker 1: enters the snout area. Another cool fact, females are a
Speaker 1: bit bigger than males. Nice stick stick burn feminism, lean
Speaker 1: and ladies. Males have tiny horns. That's not an insult.
Speaker 1: They do literally have tiny horns and little tufted mohawks. Oh,
Speaker 1: little tough right over the somehow, a little punk, little
Speaker 1: punk tictic to go the man. They also create little
Speaker 1: roadways that they use when they feel threatened, so a
Speaker 1: lot of this is true of other prey animals, to
Speaker 1: like small rodents, where they will actually create pathways in
Speaker 1: the grass and in the bush that they know they
Speaker 1: can use that as a clear path away from predators.
Speaker 1: So they'll run along these little roadways that they've memorized
Speaker 1: to evade getting eaten because they're so cute and eatable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they know and they know that they know. They're like,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be after me, my cuteness in my meat.
Speaker 1: Their monogamous and they're okay, this is extremely cute. Uh.
Speaker 1: Males don't really fight from females that often, but when
Speaker 1: they do, they charge at each other. They stopped short
Speaker 1: and they rigorously waggle their heads menacingly, and then they
Speaker 1: run back and do it again until one of them
Speaker 1: eventually chickens out. Oh my god, what little scaredy cat.
Speaker 1: They just they never actually, they don't really have that
Speaker 1: many physical altercations. It's like a lot of friends. I'm
Speaker 1: just getting, just getting. It's like, yeah, how my dog plays.
Speaker 1: She's like, I'm not that tough. Yeah, my dog. She
Speaker 1: When I visit my parents house, she likes to chase bunnies,
Speaker 1: but when she corners a bunny, she runs back towards
Speaker 1: the house and then makes a big loop and then
Speaker 1: tries to like chase the bunny again, so like gives
Speaker 1: the bunny a head start because she has no idea
Speaker 1: what to do. Like, once she actually corners a bunny,
Speaker 1: she's like, I, honestly, I never prepared to get this far.
Speaker 1: So I didn't plan for this. I'm just gonna loop
Speaker 1: back around. Well, we'll do this again, We'll try again.
Speaker 1: Uh So, I'm I don't want to give mammals like
Speaker 1: all of the credit for bank cute. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: go under the sea and look at the Dumbo octopus.
Speaker 1: Oh have you heard of the I Uh So, here's
Speaker 1: a here's a quick image refresher for you. Aren't these
Speaker 1: guys like super super deadly. No, you're thinking of the
Speaker 1: I think you're thinking of the blue ringed us deadly
Speaker 1: off the coast of Australia. These guys are just cute.
Speaker 1: They look like if you they look like if you
Speaker 1: squeeze them, they would squeeze. Yeah, they they do kind
Speaker 1: of look like one of those squeezy toys. Uh. So
Speaker 1: they're actually a species of umbrella octopus known for the
Speaker 1: webbing between their tentacles that make them look like an umbrella.
Speaker 1: That's the name. They're called Dumbo because of their big ears,
Speaker 1: which are not ears, they're just fins that extend from
Speaker 1: the mantle of the octopus. Uh. And they move around
Speaker 1: by flat and they're a little so it looks, you
Speaker 1: know how like Dumbo flies around using them big years. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's that's how they do it. But you have a
Speaker 1: feather that they chase. They're cute and they steer with
Speaker 1: their tentacles. There they're just like boo boo boo boo
Speaker 1: boo years and then they steer with their tentacles. Yes. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're very rare octopus. They live at depths of around
Speaker 1: ten thousand feet um. They're found worldwide. Uh. Most are
Speaker 1: only about nine inches long. Um. They can change their
Speaker 1: skin color using chromatophor cells, just like other octopuses and
Speaker 1: other squids. Uh. And they are just the cutest thing.
Speaker 1: They're so tiny, they are so tiny and cute, look
Speaker 1: like they have bigger lives. They look like little squashies. Um. So,
Speaker 1: now I want to change your opinion. You're are you
Speaker 1: the person who doesn't like moths? Have someone else? That
Speaker 1: might be someone else? Not a big phantom moths. But
Speaker 1: I want to change anyone who dislikes moths. I got
Speaker 1: I got something to change your mind. Uh So, this
Speaker 1: is something that has been going around on the internet,
Speaker 1: and I want to do a little bit of myth
Speaker 1: busting too. So. Uh if you've ever heard of the
Speaker 1: Venezuelan poodle moth, may be wondering if this is a
Speaker 1: real animal. Uh So, there's images of this fluffy white
Speaker 1: moth who looks like a pokemon. Oh my god. Um
Speaker 1: looks like it has real human eyes. Um. It has
Speaker 1: big black eyes, and it's furry and white, and it
Speaker 1: it looks extremely fluffy with tufted legs. Yeah I would,
Speaker 1: I would cuttle it. Yeah I would too. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you imagine one of those like landing on your
Speaker 1: hand and you just like pet it, give it like
Speaker 1: a little like a little teeny tiny I'm not a
Speaker 1: bug fan. It is a cute bug um. And uh
Speaker 1: it's sometimes called a hoax, sometimes not. Well, it's not
Speaker 1: quite a hoax. But there are a lot of myths
Speaker 1: about this little guy. So first of all, there's an
Speaker 1: meage that goes around online that is called the Venezuelan
Speaker 1: poodle moth, and it is not a real moth. It's
Speaker 1: actually a felted sculpture made out of wool, so that's
Speaker 1: not real, but it does look pretty similar to the
Speaker 1: real poodle. Or it's not really a poodle moth. Um.
Speaker 1: There's not a known species of Venezuelan poodle moth. It
Speaker 1: gets this name because there's a photograph of one of
Speaker 1: these fuzzy moths taken in Venezuela and it looks like
Speaker 1: a poodle. But this photo is most likely of existing
Speaker 1: species of moths, so belonging to the R taste genus um.
Speaker 1: One candidate for what this moth could be is the
Speaker 1: R taste crib Burera or crib Aria moth, who looks
Speaker 1: a lot like the food photographed poodle moth the foodle
Speaker 1: graphed poodle moth. I like that is a cute guy.
Speaker 1: It's like wearing a little like Morpheus sunglasses, like a
Speaker 1: little little sunglasses and little leg warmers. It's actually super eighties,
Speaker 1: isn't it a furry or seventies? I guess like with
Speaker 1: the big furry leg warmers. It's um and it also
Speaker 1: often gets confused with another species of moth um and
Speaker 1: it's actually an existing species called the bombyx mori, which
Speaker 1: is a silkworm moth. And it's actually a domesticated animal.
Speaker 1: But um, what a weird so it hails from China.
Speaker 1: It's like the sheep of moths. Uh. It's used in
Speaker 1: the production of silk, so eat mulberry leaves and produced
Speaker 1: silk and strands. UH. It's wild ancestor, the Bombyx mandarina UH.
Speaker 1: It's found in northern India, northern China, Japan, Korea, and Russia.
Speaker 1: But it actually doesn't look very similar to the domesticated
Speaker 1: bombyx mori moth. Uh. The wild species is not pure white.
Speaker 1: It has pigment um and so the domesticated ones are
Speaker 1: very fluffy and cute looking um. So they've lost also
Speaker 1: lost their ability to fly because they don't need to
Speaker 1: because on these moth farms they just get fed, they don't.
Speaker 1: They just like, I'm living the life here exactly anywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so they are very cute. They look like fluffy poodles. Um.
Speaker 1: I like the idea that we ran out of stuff
Speaker 1: to call animals, so we just call it other animal names. Exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean poodles, sheeps right exactly. Or you could say
Speaker 1: that sheep are the bombyx mori moths. Of no, let's
Speaker 1: not do that. They are sheep moths. So another cool
Speaker 1: thing is there are these little fluffy moths on the moon.
Speaker 1: No freaking wait, Chinese researchers and the Lunar Exploration Program
Speaker 1: have put these silkworm moths on the moon. They want
Speaker 1: to see if they can survive in a mini ecosystem
Speaker 1: of plants. So it's an enclosed microcosm like kind of
Speaker 1: like a Martian with Matt Damon, but Matt Damon. They're
Speaker 1: making their own potatoes, poop potatoes, well exactly. So their
Speaker 1: poop is used to fertilize the plants, and the moths
Speaker 1: feed on the plants. So they want to see if
Speaker 1: the plants can phoe to synthesize, and if they can
Speaker 1: basically create this little little tiny world of moon lunar moths,
Speaker 1: moth astronuts, most nuts. I really hope that, like maybe
Speaker 1: if we destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons, I hope not.
Speaker 1: I hope not. I would prefer not that. But if
Speaker 1: it does happen, like maybe they'll continue to survive somehow
Speaker 1: and like create this whole colony of moon moths and
Speaker 1: then like it's a new civilization, they will tell our story.
Speaker 1: They will survive us. So I want to end the
Speaker 1: show with a news story that actually bridget you brought
Speaker 1: to my attention. So it's in our new segment. I
Speaker 1: want to call birds bounce balls. Yeah, so there's a
Speaker 1: viral video of a bird bouncing a golf ball on
Speaker 1: a golf course and looking extremely excited. Um, it's all
Speaker 1: posted a link to that video in the show notes uh,
Speaker 1: and it is a Brazilian bird called the sirium. I
Speaker 1: think maybe I could. I don't know. You're the one
Speaker 1: that's a tall tall, But I don't have a degree
Speaker 1: and bird. I have a degree in psychology, but I
Speaker 1: studied evolutionary but that's what I meant right right right, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't have a degree in ornithology, which is well,
Speaker 1: but this would be um, So you have a Twitter
Speaker 1: account pro bird rights on Twitter, which makes me the
Speaker 1: biggest expert on birds, the foremost expert again, best animal,
Speaker 1: most empathetic people love birds. I really wouldn't get set
Speaker 1: birds as best. I mean, part of it could be
Speaker 1: just like you have to be super impetuous to be
Speaker 1: able to look into the eyes of a bird and
Speaker 1: see it. So yeah, you can do it. So these
Speaker 1: birds there, um, they kind of look like more delicate
Speaker 1: ostriches um. They're smaller than an ostrich their legs are
Speaker 1: thinner um, and they are carnivores so they will eat eggs.
Speaker 1: So the reason it's bouncing this golf ball and looking
Speaker 1: extremely agitated is that it thinks it's an egg and
Speaker 1: it keeps trying to crack it open but it doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: So it's like, what what it's blowing its little bird mind,
Speaker 1: destructible egg. I looked at this video and just thought
Speaker 1: it was super stoked that it could bounce a ball. Maybe,
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't read its mind, but no, your
Speaker 1: story makes more sense that it was trying to kill it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's just an egg trying to scramble
Speaker 1: an egg. Yeah, I was just trying to be dramatic
Speaker 1: about this egg murder. Egg murder it was. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was just trying to make some eggs. But to make
Speaker 1: some eggs, I mean it could be. I mean I
Speaker 1: know that in babies when they try something in physics
Speaker 1: and it turns out unexpectedly because they have this kind
Speaker 1: of innate understanding of some physics. Like they know a
Speaker 1: big ball, if it's smacks a small ball, the small
Speaker 1: ball will both flying. But if a small ball smacks
Speaker 1: into a big ball, the big ball will either remain
Speaker 1: motionless or not really move that much at all. But
Speaker 1: if they see the opposite, like a like a small
Speaker 1: ball smacking a big ball that goes flying, their eyes
Speaker 1: get wide and they get really excited because it's it's
Speaker 1: start magic. So maybe the bird is like expecting the
Speaker 1: egg to crack and it doesn't because it's mine is
Speaker 1: just blown, and it's really excited because it's either I mean,
Speaker 1: either way it still works, because it's either that or
Speaker 1: it's having like an Elmer Fudd reaction and getting like
Speaker 1: very upset so you know what, it works either way
Speaker 1: for me, it's a little face just getting so red
Speaker 1: as it's Oh, it works either way. The video is
Speaker 1: still great. Well, Bridget, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: us today on our do you do you want to
Speaker 1: declare a winner in the cute off of animals? Oh? Man, um,
Speaker 1: that is hard. I if you choose wrong, everyone will attack,
Speaker 1: everyone will attack. Man. Yeah, it's hard to choose in
Speaker 1: a cute off. I did really like the dicktick Dick
Speaker 1: dick pick pick, the dict pick pick. It might be
Speaker 1: a name thing, but it is very cute. Don't send
Speaker 1: me dick picks, but send me dick dick pick picks.
Speaker 1: I almost don't want to say that into a microphone.
Speaker 1: All right, Well you've got anything to plug, Bridget? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got a couple of things. If you go to
Speaker 1: small Beans, you can find two of my podcast, one
Speaker 1: of which is called rough Stuff, where we have comedians
Speaker 1: on and they tell embarrassing stories about their childhood. Amazon
Speaker 1: there I talked snails when I was a kid, and
Speaker 1: that freaked me out quite a bit. And then there's
Speaker 1: another one called what Dinosaur Real Good, where my co
Speaker 1: host and I each ticke a dinosaur every week and
Speaker 1: talk about that dinosaur. And we wrote, Yeah, so have
Speaker 1: you talked about tarasaurs yet? We have? We had some
Speaker 1: nice Uh, we've talked about some but yeah, tons of dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: Well if you like, if you like this podcast, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna like this podcast? Yeah, uh. Where can people
Speaker 1: find you on on the internet. On the Internet, you
Speaker 1: can find it in your specifically dick Dick pick picks
Speaker 1: I K d I K P I K P I
Speaker 1: K thank you, Katie. You can find me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at bridget Tweets and on Instagram at bridget Underscore Greenberg.
Speaker 1: You can find us on the website Creature Feature pod
Speaker 1: dot com, on Instagram Creature Feature Pod, on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Creature feet Pod, at the a t uh and you
Speaker 1: can find me at Katie Golden and at pro bird Writes,
Speaker 1: where I will make sure that have the right to
Speaker 1: attack golf courses. Yeah, someone has to, someone has to
Speaker 1: truth to golf courses. And thanks to the Space Classics
Speaker 1: for their awesome song Exo Lumina