Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: I'm your host of.
Speaker 1: Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on this show, we're stealing our meals. We're
Speaker 1: like that guy from now One Musical Lay Miss Robbs,
Speaker 1: who he stole loaf of bread, and so do these animals.
Speaker 1: We're talking about klepto parasites who will steal their food,
Speaker 1: just like your coworker who takes your lunch all the time.
Speaker 1: Call tell me he's a klepto parasite. I'm sure that'll
Speaker 1: go well. Discover this and more as we answer the
Speaker 1: asi old question if someone's not gonna eat their own bar?
Speaker 1: Is that fair? Scoop it up? Is that too gross
Speaker 1: to have on a podcast? Joining me today is proprietress
Speaker 1: of the website How to Eat La and host the
Speaker 1: smart Mouth podcast, Catherine Spires. Welcome.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It is always a delight to be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I We're we're off to a good start. I'm
Speaker 1: already talking about eating vomit. And yeah, yeah, why don't
Speaker 1: you tell I have had you on the show before,
Speaker 1: but just to refresh people's memories. Oh, you're you are
Speaker 1: a food expert tress.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, everything I do is extremely feminine. Yeah. I
Speaker 3: am a food writer, food journalist, super interested in food history.
Speaker 3: So smart Mouth is about food history, and that's that's
Speaker 3: what I focus on. I like knowing where things come from.
Speaker 3: And then you mentioned how to Eat La, which is
Speaker 3: also my new life's work. Some can you call something
Speaker 3: your life's work if you've only spent a year on it? Yes,
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and that's just restaurant reviews.
Speaker 3: And I like to think that I'm better at it
Speaker 3: than everybody else, so you know, it's not a reindorsement,
Speaker 3: you know myself.
Speaker 1: I think I like that attitude because too many people
Speaker 1: are like, well, I'm starting this website. I don't actually
Speaker 1: know anything, but I thought i'd start a website, and
Speaker 1: so it is refreshing to have someone who starts a
Speaker 1: website because you truly do know more than say, someone
Speaker 1: like me, which is honestly true. I like food, but
Speaker 1: do I know the origin of the humble Hamachi fish?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: I don't. Well.
Speaker 3: The other thing, too, is I think even if I
Speaker 3: have my moments where I don't think I'm good at things,
Speaker 3: I think when I'm talking to people, and I want
Speaker 3: them to consume the things I prey. I have to
Speaker 3: at least pretend, right. Yeah, I don't like it when people,
Speaker 3: you know, post here's a thing. No, that hasn't inspired
Speaker 3: me to consume it at all.
Speaker 1: Non confidence, even if it's not well deserved. That's the thing, exactly.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: But antically in your case, Catherine, it is well deserved, and.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: As it is for me because I'm the best at animals.
Speaker 1: What does it mean to be best at animals? I
Speaker 1: won't explain, It's self evident. So we are talking about
Speaker 1: klepto parasites today. Klepto parasites are animals who like to
Speaker 1: steal their food, and it is incredible. I do. Okay.
Speaker 1: We were having a conversation before we start recording that
Speaker 1: I just feel like is too good to leave out
Speaker 1: of the show. We were talking about Vespertine. It is
Speaker 1: a restaurant in Los Angeles which is incredibly expensive. I
Speaker 1: don't remember how expensive it is, but it is pricier
Speaker 1: than your average you know, Burger shack, and it presents
Speaker 1: you with food that's supposed to be extremely creative and artistic.
Speaker 1: But it's stuff like food stuck onto branches of driftwood,
Speaker 1: and like a tiny little smear of something, or what
Speaker 1: appears to be a cannonball with some cream on it,
Speaker 1: and the cannonball is not edible. You just lick the
Speaker 1: cream off of the cannonball. And I feel that this
Speaker 1: is sort of a reverse klepto parasitism, where you are
Speaker 1: the one getting fed, but at the same time, I
Speaker 1: feel like stolen from in some way.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I feel like restaurants like that maybe just
Speaker 3: need to call themselves an interactive art project. Yes, because
Speaker 3: that's what it is more than it's dinner and people
Speaker 3: want to come and they want to have dinner and
Speaker 3: maybe say, erase that from your mind.
Speaker 2: That's not what we're about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is art. Yeah, maybe they I don't know,
Speaker 3: maybe they'd be more successful.
Speaker 1: I would respect them. I would respect them so much
Speaker 1: with that where this is art, because I think I
Speaker 1: have once you if you say do something weird and
Speaker 1: I ask you, what are you doing? That's very strange.
Speaker 1: You have just picked up you a piece of garbage
Speaker 1: and put it on your head. But if you say
Speaker 1: it's art, I'm gonna believe you and I'm gonna be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is very symbolic of our current capitalistic society.
Speaker 3: I get it. There you go, yeah, see exactly. It's like, here,
Speaker 3: come to this art show and we'll feed you. It's
Speaker 3: like a better deal than like sit here for three hours,
Speaker 3: are tedious?
Speaker 1: Yeah, come to this art show and you know, suck
Speaker 1: some I guess caviar from this mannequin's butt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I don't eat. Sex will be provided.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be if I was gonna open a
Speaker 1: fancy restaurant, I would I would do stuff like that,
Speaker 1: put caviar on a mannequin and be like, you gotta
Speaker 1: look it off. This mannequin. Isn't that artistic? Yeah?
Speaker 3: And then it becomes a thing where the actual art
Speaker 3: project is seeing how far you can push.
Speaker 1: Right right exactly, Like here's a leaf with a snail
Speaker 1: on it. You're supposed to smell it, not eat it,
Speaker 1: and see if people accept that.
Speaker 3: You know, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well I mean we've
Speaker 3: got a million dollar idea, right right, well so yes,
Speaker 3: And honestly, animals have already figured all this stuff out.
Speaker 1: They know how to make the food experience artistic and
Speaker 1: exciting through the can you call Theft an art I
Speaker 1: think so, right, the art absolutely, such as the artful
Speaker 1: Dodger exactly.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think I love a heist movie. I like
Speaker 3: seeing how they get it done.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Oceans, yes, one through eleven, so
Speaker 1: you know that. I think indeed theft is an art
Speaker 1: and these animals are artists.
Speaker 3: Don't sleep on Oceans eight Oceans eight, just saying, just saying,
Speaker 3: I don't actually yeah, I don't actually know. I've never
Speaker 3: seen a single Oceans movie, and I don't know what
Speaker 3: the numbering system means or is. Yeah, it's the number
Speaker 3: of people involved in the hests.
Speaker 1: Like chronological numbers.
Speaker 3: Well, they did it first, and then you know they
Speaker 3: made a woman version and that had to have fewer
Speaker 3: people obviously. Okay, eight, you know eight, like how a
Speaker 3: lady is shaped with boobs in butt. So cuckoo bees, Catherine,
Speaker 3: let's start talking about animal biology.
Speaker 1: Okay, you've heard of cuckoo birds. There's also cuckoo bees.
Speaker 1: So cuckoo bees is a type of bee. And there
Speaker 1: are many types of bees right outside of honeybees. In fact,
Speaker 1: you know tons of species. Most species of bees are
Speaker 1: not necessarily use social bees like honeybees, they can be independent.
Speaker 1: So cuckoo bees lay their eggs in the nurseries or
Speaker 1: hives of other bees. So there are a few different
Speaker 1: species of cuckoo bees with different strategies allowing their newborns
Speaker 1: to steal their meals. But bees in the nomadine family
Speaker 1: lay their eggs in the nests of bee species that
Speaker 1: have a like they form sort of a cell. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's in a piece of wood. Maybe they you know,
Speaker 1: create a nest out of like some material like mud,
Speaker 1: and then they put their little larvae in and seal
Speaker 1: it off and then it's like I've done it. And
Speaker 1: they usually they also put some food in there for
Speaker 1: their larva to feed on. So it's like crap creating
Speaker 1: a crib and then sealing your baby in it with
Speaker 1: all the food they'll need, and then they grow into
Speaker 1: an adult and burst their way out of the crib.
Speaker 3: Humans aren't allowed to do that, no, which is.
Speaker 1: You know, I think if you put food in there,
Speaker 1: it's technically not an effect, right right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Totally fine.
Speaker 3: So many rules helicopter parents.
Speaker 1: I know, right, you gotta like feed your child every day.
Speaker 3: These cuckoo bees are real seventies parents.
Speaker 1: No, well, no, so the cuckoo bees are worse. I'm
Speaker 1: just describing. This is the the life of a solitary
Speaker 1: bee where they put their their larvae inside this little
Speaker 1: like that they're actually exhibiting a good parenting for a
Speaker 1: bee because they create.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, so right right, Solitary bees are the ones
Speaker 3: who do this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, like, there are many species of bees who
Speaker 1: do this, and these are they're just different from say,
Speaker 1: honey bees, where it's like a single bee queen who
Speaker 1: is the one giving birth. These are bees who are solitary.
Speaker 1: So all of the females will try to produce offspring,
Speaker 1: and they put their larva in this little crib that
Speaker 1: they've created for them, a little nest. And so the
Speaker 1: cuckoo bees are even lazier. So the cuckoo bees will
Speaker 1: go to this nest and they lay their egg inside
Speaker 1: the wall of the nest, and as that egg hatches
Speaker 1: and the larva hatches, it will drill its way into
Speaker 1: the nest and then feed on both the larva and
Speaker 1: whatever food that the host bee had left for its
Speaker 1: own offs bring. So it's like if you have like
Speaker 1: a nursery and a demon puts a baby, it's it's
Speaker 1: demon baby in the wall, and that demon baby crawls
Speaker 1: out of the wall into your nursery and eats your
Speaker 1: baby and all your baby's food.
Speaker 2: Hate it when that happens.
Speaker 1: I hate it when that happens. I you know, man,
Speaker 1: I thought my insurance policy would cover such an event. No, man,
Speaker 1: that's an that's an unnatural disaster, supernatural disaster. We do
Speaker 1: not cover supernatural disasters.
Speaker 3: So uh okay. And then for both kinds, like the
Speaker 3: parasite version in the non or the less parasite version,
Speaker 3: do when the bees hatch or when they when they
Speaker 3: become bees, do they just fly off?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they chew their way out of the nest and
Speaker 1: they fly off.
Speaker 3: Okay, But these cuckoo bees, first they eat everything in sight,
Speaker 3: and then they take eggs.
Speaker 1: They eat both the hosts, the host's own baby, and
Speaker 1: also the food, usually like a pollen ball that was
Speaker 1: left behind for the baby. So yeah, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's similar to how cuckoo birds work. Cuckoo birds
Speaker 1: will lay their eggs in the nests of a host
Speaker 1: bird species. The cuckoo bird egg hatches, and often the
Speaker 1: cuckoo baby will push the other chicks out of the nest,
Speaker 1: or at least they will steal food because basically they're big,
Speaker 1: they are demanding of the other birds, and the birds
Speaker 1: will try to feed this cuckoo baby at the expense
Speaker 1: of their own offspring because they've been tricked.
Speaker 3: Okay, So the birds don't know that this egg did
Speaker 3: not come out of them, that's right, okay. And and
Speaker 3: then so how do the other animals feel about cuckoo
Speaker 3: birds and cuckoo bees.
Speaker 1: I mean, if they unders stand what's going on, I
Speaker 1: don't think they appreciate it. So with birds, at least
Speaker 1: when it comes to cuckoo birds, a lot of bird
Speaker 1: species have evolved counter strategies to prevent cuckoos from invading
Speaker 1: their nests. There's even a bird species I don't remember
Speaker 1: the name of it. It may actually be multiple species
Speaker 1: where the birds will start to sing sort of songs
Speaker 1: around their eggs, so the chicks will learn sort of
Speaker 1: this code. And then when the chicks hatch, the mother
Speaker 1: listens for this code, and if there's a baby who
Speaker 1: doesn't know it, that baby gets kicked out of the
Speaker 1: nest because it's more most likely a brood parasite, which
Speaker 1: is what these are called brood parasites. Huh. Interesting, And
Speaker 1: cuckoos aren't the only brood parasitic bird. There's also cowbirds
Speaker 1: which can be brood parasites. So yeah, it's in very
Speaker 1: loo gritive, I guess evolutionary strategy to be able to
Speaker 1: steal the parental care of others. And so you do
Speaker 1: see it in a lot of species and a lot
Speaker 1: of different families of animals. It's so rude, it's very rude,
Speaker 1: you know. It's it's like someone I don't have kids,
Speaker 1: but I imagine it would be like if you have
Speaker 1: a kid and you have a neighbor who has a
Speaker 1: kid their age, and they're always dropping that kid off
Speaker 1: at your house and they're like, yeah, just so they
Speaker 1: can have a playdate. But then now you're feeding this
Speaker 1: kid and you're making two peanut butter sandwiches, and it's
Speaker 1: a real it's a real, real situation.
Speaker 3: I think that's that's an occurrence. I've heard of such things. Yeah,
Speaker 3: happening among humans for sure. But you're not allowed to
Speaker 3: you're still not allowed to like kick the parasite kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't, Like you can't throw the kid out
Speaker 1: the window, because as humans we do sort of have
Speaker 1: this pesky morality where we do not want to harm
Speaker 1: other people, especially small little children people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which I'm not sold but whatever.
Speaker 1: But that's a but that's the where the term cuckold
Speaker 1: comes from in you know, in English language, like a cuckoo,
Speaker 1: a cuckold someone who is unwittingly raising the offspring of another.
Speaker 3: So I did not know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go from cuckoo birds to cuckoo bees us.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I love this little inell vocabulary, don't.
Speaker 1: I do hope in cels are not listening to this
Speaker 1: show because uh, I don't want to give them more
Speaker 1: weird evolutionary psychology stuff to latch onto. Perhaps even more
Speaker 1: devious than the cuckoo bird or cuckoo bee is the
Speaker 1: cuckoo catfish. It's a yes. It's a species of spotted
Speaker 1: catfish that are usually around the length of your hand.
Speaker 1: They can grow to be under a about like a
Speaker 1: little under a foot long, but usually they're smaller than that.
Speaker 1: They can actually be kept as pets in the aquarium trade,
Speaker 1: and they're kind of cute looking, but they have this
Speaker 1: sinister side. So wild cuckoo catfish come from Lake Tanganika,
Speaker 1: which is one of the largest lakes in the world
Speaker 1: found in East Africa. The cucka catfish take advantage of
Speaker 1: another lake inhabitant, the mouth brooding cicklid fish. So this
Speaker 1: mouth brooding ciclid is a fish who keeps their eggs
Speaker 1: in their own mouth to allow them to hatch within
Speaker 1: the safety of their own jaws. So ciclid. There are
Speaker 1: a bunch of different species of cyclids, and there are
Speaker 1: different species of mouth brooding cicklids. So some of these
Speaker 1: species even allow the fry, like the little baby fish
Speaker 1: to stay in their mouth a little while after they've hatched,
Speaker 1: until they're big enough to have a better chance of survival.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know how kangaroos keep their Joey's
Speaker 1: in their pouch. It's like that, but with fish, they
Speaker 1: typically don't have a pouch, although seahorses do have a pouch,
Speaker 1: but these mouth brooding fish they don't have a pouch,
Speaker 1: so they keep them in their mouths and they generally
Speaker 1: don't eat any of these offspring. They just keep them
Speaker 1: safe in their mouth and they actually don't feed much
Speaker 1: during this time. So it's a great sacrifice. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so already very interesting behavior. But then the cuckoo catfish
Speaker 1: takes it another step further, and they are attracted to
Speaker 1: the smell of these freshly laid mouth brooding cicklet eggs,
Speaker 1: and the catfish will sneak up and lay her own eggs.
Speaker 1: Like So what happens is the mouth brooder. It's this
Speaker 1: great motherfish who lays her eggs and then she'll slurp
Speaker 1: them all up, but leave them in her mouth. She
Speaker 1: doesn't swallow them, so they don't get digested. They're just
Speaker 1: in her mouth. And so the cuckoo catfish sneaks in
Speaker 1: lays her eggs on top of this other pile of eggs.
Speaker 1: So the sicklid, unwittingly also consumes these cuckoo eggs. Right,
Speaker 1: these catfish eggs. You're making faces.
Speaker 3: I'm really worried about what's coming next.
Speaker 2: I'm terrified.
Speaker 1: You have good instincts. You would if you would be
Speaker 1: a good you would be a good fish because you
Speaker 1: have good instincts.
Speaker 3: This is about to be very gross and upsetting.
Speaker 1: Okay, it suns you know, it's similar to what we've
Speaker 1: already been talking about. So the the uh, the these
Speaker 1: cuckoo catfish eggs will hatch actually more quickly than the uh,
Speaker 1: the eggs of the ciclid, And so the young catfish
Speaker 1: will eat the eggs of the cicklid while enjoying the
Speaker 1: safety of its hoast's mouth, and they just hang out.
Speaker 1: They eat all the eggs and then they hatch, and
Speaker 1: it's a total loss for this poor ciclid. It's like
Speaker 1: if some I mean to put it in human terms,
Speaker 1: is perhaps a little upsetting, but it be like if
Speaker 1: some kind of parasite could invade your womb, eat your baby,
Speaker 1: and then you give birth to this thing, and it's like, anyways,
Speaker 1: I'm out of here. See, oh god, that's upsetting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I did think you were gonna say they
Speaker 3: ate their way out of the host. That happens a lot, yes,
Speaker 3: oh my god, but not for these guys, not for catfish.
Speaker 1: The catfish just it's just baby eating. It's just innocent
Speaker 1: eating of eggs, not eating out of the host. But
Speaker 1: that does happen a lot with a lot of parasites
Speaker 1: where they do eat their way out of hosts.
Speaker 2: Yuck, yuck. Everything is so gross.
Speaker 1: It is nature's disgusting. And whenever someone's like, well it's natural,
Speaker 1: it's like, have you seen nature. Don't look to nature
Speaker 1: as a moral guide. It's messed up.
Speaker 3: No, nature's messed up.
Speaker 2: They're real grody.
Speaker 1: We are going to take a quick break and when
Speaker 1: we get back, we are gonna talk about how to
Speaker 1: steal food right from someone's mouth and maybe the grossest
Speaker 1: way you could possibly imagine. Okay, we're back. So, Catherine,
Speaker 1: if someone is stuffing their face with fries and you
Speaker 1: are thinking, I would really like a fry, what would
Speaker 1: you do in that situation?
Speaker 3: I would I would just take one from the plate.
Speaker 3: If you act like it's casual, then everyone will be like, okay,
Speaker 3: this is a casual stealing of the French fry, and
Speaker 3: that is it.
Speaker 1: Okay. I think all of us have partaken in the
Speaker 1: casual French fry theft, which is I think there is
Speaker 1: a social contract in place where it is okay to
Speaker 1: steal a fry if you're talking to someone, yeah, one
Speaker 1: or two is okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you're taking like half of them and you didn't
Speaker 1: pay for them, then no.
Speaker 2: I suppose.
Speaker 3: But then that gets into that tricky situation where if
Speaker 3: you take half of them, that's one thing, But if
Speaker 3: the person comments and was like, wow, you ate half
Speaker 3: my fries, then they're actually the rude one.
Speaker 1: So I agree to disagree. I think I think that
Speaker 1: the fry rule is that it needs to be less
Speaker 1: than a fourth of the fries the fry total. Otherwise
Speaker 1: it's like, what are we on a date?
Speaker 3: Well maybe this is like a cute and fun way
Speaker 3: of turning something into a date.
Speaker 1: Right, it's like kissing, but through fry theft. Anyways, we're
Speaker 1: gonna that's a lot nicer than what the skua does.
Speaker 1: So askua would harass you until you throw up your
Speaker 1: fries and then eat the fries. That just is a
Speaker 1: level of harassment that I can't even fathom. I mean,
Speaker 1: what what form does that take? How do they make
Speaker 1: you grow up? Well, they're seabirds, so just being very annoying.
Speaker 1: So Skua's a lot of seabirds actually are kleptoparasites. If
Speaker 1: you have interacted with any kind of goal, any kind
Speaker 1: of seagull, you probably have already observed this phenomenon of
Speaker 1: seagulls being incredibly bold and sometimes stealing food out of
Speaker 1: people's hands. Yeah and yes, yeah, I have any seagull experience.
Speaker 3: Well maybe not me personally, but I grew up in
Speaker 3: Seattle and there's ferry boats and Puget Sound and lots
Speaker 3: of times people think it's funny to sort of like
Speaker 3: hold their ice cream cone or whatever up in the
Speaker 3: air because seagull's going to get it, which is funny
Speaker 3: if you're doing it on purpose. But the thing is
Speaker 3: seagulls will come and grab food out of anybody's hand,
Speaker 3: whether it's for them or not. And it really starts
Speaker 3: as people, it really does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in general, it's not good to train animals to
Speaker 1: become more of a problem.
Speaker 3: No. And yeah, speaking Seattle, when I was up there
Speaker 3: last summer. The summer before I went to Olympic National Park,
Speaker 3: which is on the peninsula in Washington State, and we
Speaker 3: had to like chase deer away from our picnic table,
Speaker 3: I mean really aggressively. The deer were not scared, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't want.
Speaker 2: To touch a wild animal.
Speaker 3: But no, I feel like like if I shoved it
Speaker 3: maybe that would be most effective.
Speaker 1: And you gotta Sometimes you gotta spank a deer. It's okay,
Speaker 1: We've all had to do it. No, don't spank. Don't
Speaker 1: spank deer. It might kick you. Also, you shouldn't do
Speaker 1: that that's mean to the deer. But no, it is
Speaker 1: a big problem. People should not be feeding deer and
Speaker 1: getting them acclimated to people. It's not good for the people.
Speaker 1: It's not good for the deer. Deer have deer ticks. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can spread lime disease, which you do not want. Yes,
Speaker 1: and also it's unhealthy for the deer. Deer should be
Speaker 1: avoidance of human civilization for their own safety as well.
Speaker 1: And also there is a problem when you have like
Speaker 1: big congregation points of like a lot of deer in
Speaker 1: one area trying to all mooch off of people, because
Speaker 1: that can spread chronic wasting disease. It's a problem. So
Speaker 1: ignore the deer, yeah, no matter how cute they are.
Speaker 3: It's like a little bit of a tangent. But just
Speaker 3: coyotes in La are not afraid of humans anymore. Squirrels
Speaker 3: are certainly not afraid of humans.
Speaker 1: And actually worlds are friends or something aggressively friendly. Frighteningly friendly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: frighteningly friendly.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 3: And up in the Pasadena area, all the bears are
Speaker 3: just like walking down the streets and stuff, and it
Speaker 3: really it it freaks me out, and I think it's
Speaker 3: not good and I don't it's I.
Speaker 1: Don't know, they're not snow white. It's a bad sign,
Speaker 1: like a bad snow white. Yeah, and you're singing a
Speaker 1: song and all the wild animals are coming towards you. Fine,
Speaker 1: But in typical circumstances, no, the habituation of animals to
Speaker 1: humans is not good unless they are, you know, domesticated,
Speaker 1: in which case it's typically okay. But yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: not good. It's not that you can't appreciate animals and
Speaker 1: nature and want to be closer to them, but the
Speaker 1: way to be closer to them is to you know,
Speaker 1: visit respectfully and watch them at a respectful distance, versus
Speaker 1: feeding them food that's bad for them and that will
Speaker 1: make them form habits that could end up being really
Speaker 1: harmful for themselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, But with seagulls, they don't care. They don't
Speaker 1: care about harmony or anything at all. But seagulls are
Speaker 1: actually not the worst offender in terms of being aquatic
Speaker 1: birds that steal food. I would say that skuas are
Speaker 1: the biggest bullies of the aquatic bird, the waterfowl. So
Speaker 1: skuas kind of look like a seagull, but they are
Speaker 1: They can be brown or white with some brown and
Speaker 1: black spots or not spots but like a black head.
Speaker 1: And some have seasonal plumage that can change. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they all share one thing in common, which is that
Speaker 1: they are professional buttholes. They are incredibly aggressively mean, and
Speaker 1: they will be they'll essentially, uh, pretty much all Skewus
Speaker 1: species tend to be very vicious kleptoparasites, if not outright
Speaker 1: predators of other birds. They are incredibly bold. They lack
Speaker 1: all boundaries. They will steal and eat the chicks of
Speaker 1: other bird species, including penguins. They'll even steal milk from
Speaker 1: elephant seals by like sneaking in to a nursing elephant
Speaker 1: seal mother and like, you know, sippin' at a.
Speaker 3: Nip oh that.
Speaker 2: I don't care for that at all.
Speaker 3: No, that's that's perverted. That's a criminal perversion.
Speaker 2: I don't like that.
Speaker 1: It's like if at the ending of Grapes of Wrath,
Speaker 1: instead of this woman feeding the old guy, it was
Speaker 1: like this very annoying bird comes over and helps itself
Speaker 1: less poetic, less poetic exactly. I feel like the consensual,
Speaker 1: you know, it felt more consensual in grapes of wrath.
Speaker 1: This is just this is just a pervert bird. And
Speaker 1: so they will harass other aquatic birds, even those larger
Speaker 1: than themselves, until their victims are so stressed they will
Speaker 1: regurgitate their recent meals. So a reaction to extreme stress
Speaker 1: and fear can be to vomit or to regurgitate your meal.
Speaker 1: This is something common in animals. I mean some people
Speaker 1: might have experienced that before. So these poor birds that
Speaker 1: get harassed by the skewas'll regurgitate their hard earned catch
Speaker 1: a fish or whatever they've been eating, and then the
Speaker 1: skuas will just start eating that regurgitation. And they also
Speaker 1: will do really heinous crimes, like they'll go right into
Speaker 1: penguin colonies, ignore all these angry penguins and then steal
Speaker 1: their eggs and chicks, and sometimes just like right in
Speaker 1: front of the parents, like just you know, a few
Speaker 1: meters away, they will just start eating the chicks and
Speaker 1: the eggs. And yeah, they are they'll even like go
Speaker 1: right under the butts of the penguins and steal their
Speaker 1: eggs or their chicks. They are so they're like the
Speaker 1: most chaotically evil animal in the world.
Speaker 3: I don't like these guys.
Speaker 1: They are a little mean, but I kind of in
Speaker 1: a weird way, I admire how just you know, I
Speaker 1: guess both they are. They're they're a holes and they're
Speaker 1: not shy about it.
Speaker 2: It just is this like.
Speaker 3: The best use of their own energy. They could be hunting,
Speaker 3: but instead they're distressing other creatures out well.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing, is that all most aquatic
Speaker 1: birds do some form of kleptoparasitism and will steal from
Speaker 1: each other. It just turns out that these birds are
Speaker 1: particularly aggressive. They will hunt for themselves. But you know,
Speaker 1: if they are able to successfully steal from others then
Speaker 1: and it works, then it works, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of really interesting things in terms
Speaker 1: of evolutionary biology and these the concept of like cheating
Speaker 1: and stealing and stuff in the ways in which there's
Speaker 1: evolutionary arms races in terms of trying to combat thieves
Speaker 1: combating cheats. But the harsh truth is that your thief
Speaker 1: in your cheat in nature, and it works. There's no
Speaker 1: consequences for you.
Speaker 3: Hey, I know, I'm certain you've talked about this on
Speaker 3: the show before, but just real quick, do you think
Speaker 3: that when the you know, the recent spate of orca's
Speaker 3: going after boats. Are they do we have any sense
Speaker 3: of are they having fun doing that?
Speaker 1: M This is a great question, and that actually leads
Speaker 1: us into the next animal, which is that there are
Speaker 1: actually we see this behavior of ramming and bullying to
Speaker 1: get another animal to regurgitate its food in pilot whales
Speaker 1: and Riso's dolphins, who are actually they are both dolphins,
Speaker 1: but they actually look more like I would say, more
Speaker 1: like a killer whale and orca than they do a dolphin.
Speaker 1: These are medium sized dissetaceans who are both in the
Speaker 1: dolphin family. They have blunt heads and look a little
Speaker 1: bit like belugas, but they are a grayish black and Arisa,
Speaker 1: so the pilot whales are a grayish black whares. The
Speaker 1: Resa's dolphins are a modeled gray, and both of these
Speaker 1: species have been observed charging and harassing sperm whales. So
Speaker 1: sperm whales are huge. There are a whale many times
Speaker 1: the size of these guys, but these smaller whales, these
Speaker 1: smaller dolphins will ram them and the especially like right
Speaker 1: into the mouth of the sperm whale, and the sperm
Speaker 1: whale will get stressed and regurgitate its food, which these
Speaker 1: little bullies will just like help themselves to so in
Speaker 1: terms of your question about the orcas, I mean orcas
Speaker 1: may I'm wondering if this is a similar behavior, Like
Speaker 1: maybe the orcas do ram whales or other animals in
Speaker 1: order to either bully them by like to get out
Speaker 1: of their territory, or to get them to regurgitate food.
Speaker 1: And maybe they've started doing this to boats, either because
Speaker 1: it's fun and it's a behavior they already know how
Speaker 1: to do, or or because they're annoyed by the boats,
Speaker 1: or because they're hoping the boats will regurgitate some food
Speaker 1: for them.
Speaker 3: Hm hmm. Yeah, I guess it could be any of
Speaker 3: the above or all of the above.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or all of the above. Yeah, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: orcas aren't always polite, but that's okay. We still love them.
Speaker 3: Do you love dolphins like standard dolphins, bottlenose dolphins?
Speaker 1: You mean, like yeah, I mean I think that they
Speaker 1: get they get a bad rap sometimes because they have
Speaker 1: behaviors that seem a little bit psychopathic. But when you
Speaker 1: look at their behavior, these kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to judge an animal by human morality because
Speaker 1: it is they have like a fundamentally different sort of
Speaker 1: sense of the world, So it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: judge the dolphins. I think that they're also they're interesting
Speaker 1: because their behavior is very diverse depending on the individual.
Speaker 1: Like there be some real real jerk dolphins, and there
Speaker 1: can be much more nice, like sweeter, nicer dolphins. They're
Speaker 1: not just it's not like the skuas who sort of
Speaker 1: like basically all of them are jerks. Oh but you know,
Speaker 1: because they need to be. But you know, with some
Speaker 1: like and some jerk behaviors that dolphins do actually serve
Speaker 1: a purpose. Like they've been seen they like will torment
Speaker 1: octopuses by slamming them against the water, and you think,
Speaker 1: like that seems like a jerk move, but it turns
Speaker 1: out that if they're to eat an octopus, octopuses can,
Speaker 1: like as they're swallowing them, those limbs can like kind
Speaker 1: of suction onto their throats, so if they don't fully
Speaker 1: kill them, they can actually choke on the octopuses. So
Speaker 1: they will slam these octopuses over and over again, pulverizing
Speaker 1: them basically until they are absolutely sure they're dead so
Speaker 1: they don't choke. So sometimes cruel seeming behavior on the
Speaker 1: part of the dolphins is actually just survival.
Speaker 3: Wow, the animal kingdom is like even and wilder than
Speaker 3: we are.
Speaker 2: Let's believe as children.
Speaker 1: It's rough, it's it's a it's a tough world out there. Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break and then when we
Speaker 1: get back, we are going to talk about some little,
Speaker 1: itty bitty klepto parasites who are much braver than their
Speaker 1: size would seem to indicate. Okay, so this is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite animal names, and it's a real it's
Speaker 1: you know, they're I guess official name, uh, freeloader flies
Speaker 1: as described, Yes, pretty much. They're also known as jackal flies,
Speaker 1: but I like freeloader flies better. Yeah, and which they
Speaker 1: it is? They are a family of teeny tiny klepto
Speaker 1: parasites who are very very bold. They rarely grow to
Speaker 1: be bigger than three millimeters, So like, these are little,
Speaker 1: teen tiny flies. Like multiple freeloader flies can fit on
Speaker 1: a single bee wing, so you know they're they're little guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so at such a small size, you would think
Speaker 1: that these flies would steer clear of predators like spiders,
Speaker 1: but instead observers can find these little flies dancing on
Speaker 1: the recently killed prey of a spider or other predatory insect,
Speaker 1: like right next to the spiders, so it is they
Speaker 1: are I mean, I guess you could describe them as
Speaker 1: kind of like, I mean, the way that Disney portrays
Speaker 1: hyenas is unfair to hyaenas. It doesn't really work that way,
Speaker 1: but the kind of stereotypical way in which people think
Speaker 1: of hyenas where they go and they crowd around a
Speaker 1: lion's kill or something, but really it's more with hyenas
Speaker 1: and lions. The stealing goes both ways for them also,
Speaker 1: like lions will steal from hyaenas and hyenas will steal
Speaker 1: from lions, and it's kind of a you know, it
Speaker 1: is not this unequal relationship where the hyenas are just
Speaker 1: always scavenging. The hyenas also hunt, but they'll scavenge and
Speaker 1: lions also scavenge, so okay. But with these flies, they
Speaker 1: seem to be pretty dependent on these spiders in terms
Speaker 1: of getting food from their recent kills. So the flies
Speaker 1: seem to be attracted to the smell of recently killed insects,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they are incredibly specific. So some species of
Speaker 1: freeloader flies specifically fixate on the smell of freshly killed bees,
Speaker 1: and that's it. They're like on a bee diet.
Speaker 3: Only bees, only bees, any kind of bee.
Speaker 1: I it can be different types of members of the
Speaker 1: heminopteras order, so like, yeah, it can be different types
Speaker 1: of bees, different species of bees, but bees or wasps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so they appear to lick and consume fluids from
Speaker 1: the dead insect, which has already been injected with digestive
Speaker 1: enzymes by the spiders. So essentially what spiders do is
Speaker 1: they you know, pump their victims full of these digestive enzymes,
Speaker 1: turned them into like a smoothie, and the spider can
Speaker 1: slurp it up. But then these little freeloader flies also
Speaker 1: you know, take the little sip themselves and allow the
Speaker 1: spider to do the hard work of capturing the prey
Speaker 1: prepping it into a smoothie, and then they just slurp
Speaker 1: it up and the spider doesn't seem to either be
Speaker 1: the wiser or attack them, which is really really interesting.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Yeah, I think I like this thought of
Speaker 3: the spider sort of marinating its meat and having a
Speaker 3: cookout for the neighbors and they all get to eat
Speaker 3: this delicious marinated meat.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Also I've decided I don't I think I'm afraid of spiders.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 3: What are people afraid of spiders? Just because of the
Speaker 3: way they look? They are disconcerting looking.
Speaker 1: There's some evidence that like a fear of spiders and
Speaker 1: snakes may be somewhat innate, so that maybe spider bites
Speaker 1: and snake bites can't can be or have been in
Speaker 1: our history dangerous enough that we have some instinctive fear.
Speaker 1: But you know, for me, I went through like an
Speaker 1: arachnophobic phase as a kid and then just sort of
Speaker 1: flipped on it because I was so scared of them
Speaker 1: that I would be interested in them because I've always
Speaker 1: been kind of interested in the things that I'm scared of,
Speaker 1: and then I started loving them and then no longer
Speaker 1: being scared of them. I think they startle me right,
Speaker 1: like if one is like on me, Yeah, it's very startling,
Speaker 1: but I would like if I see one, I'm not like.
Speaker 3: Afraid of it.
Speaker 1: So but I think, yeah, I think that's the I
Speaker 1: think there's there may be some kind of instinctive fear.
Speaker 1: And then also they are very like the their movements
Speaker 1: are interesting because they're very fast, and they are they
Speaker 1: move in a way that is I guess uncomfortable. And
Speaker 1: then also they can they can bite you. And most
Speaker 1: spider bites are harmless, but the I guess there's a
Speaker 1: fear of the venomous spider bites, which are very rare.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeahallid.
Speaker 3: I I think I have a reasonable fear of bees.
Speaker 2: But just this.
Speaker 3: Morning, I walked out my front door to water my
Speaker 3: plants and I saw that there was a wasp nest
Speaker 3: or hornet's nest. I couldn't tell, right, a boat, Oh no,
Speaker 3: my door, which is not good. So I googled to
Speaker 3: try and find out is this the yellowjacket or what?
Speaker 3: And I found out about something called a thistle down
Speaker 3: velvet ant.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, that's that's a species of uh there, it's
Speaker 1: a yeah, it's a wasp.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And they they're like it's because of the flightless ones
Speaker 1: or the reason that they're called these velvet ants because
Speaker 1: they look kind of like a giant ant.
Speaker 3: But yeah, just the yeah, and the thistle down one
Speaker 3: in particular is fuzzy and white and it's just about
Speaker 3: the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's adorable. What are you gonna do about it?
Speaker 3: Though? Well, I think that, I mean, tell me if
Speaker 3: I'm wrong. The only thing I know to do is
Speaker 3: an exterminator, because I know that if I try to
Speaker 3: knock it down myself, they'll try and kill me. So yeah,
Speaker 3: is there something else that I should do?
Speaker 1: No, I think that it's really difficult when you have
Speaker 1: a wasp nest that close to you, because I think
Speaker 1: that as much as I love, you know, insects and stuff,
Speaker 1: I don't have any objections to getting rid of insects
Speaker 1: that are you know you are in danger of getting
Speaker 1: stung by. I don't know much about the thistle down
Speaker 1: velvet ants. If they are particularly aggressive they are, okay, well,
Speaker 1: then yeah, I think you're making the right call.
Speaker 3: I don't, honestly, fortunately, okay, unfortunately, slast fortunately I don't.
Speaker 2: This is not what they are.
Speaker 3: I kind of wish they were, except for it's good
Speaker 3: that they're not, because I would try to keep them
Speaker 3: as my own and name them and think that they're.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see hippies.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but they're also called cow killer wasps.
Speaker 2: That's how strong they are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, you want an exterminator for that, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't I have no problem with that because I
Speaker 1: think it's your safety. Like if they're bees, sometimes you
Speaker 1: can call a local apiary or apiarist beekeeper, I guess
Speaker 1: is what it's called, and they will come and they
Speaker 1: will instead of killing the bees, they will come and
Speaker 1: they will take the bees and they will relocate them.
Speaker 1: So like honey bees are the ones that sometimes colonize
Speaker 1: your house, and so a beekeeper might come and relocate
Speaker 1: the bees. Wasps aren't civil enough before that happen. It's
Speaker 1: I don't. I think most times with the wasps, they
Speaker 1: just they just have to kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: uh kill them or somehow move the nest and you
Speaker 1: know it's a but yeah, I know, no shame in
Speaker 1: that because you don't want to get stung. A bunch
Speaker 1: of times.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I've had that happen before.
Speaker 3: I did not care for it, yeah at all. And
Speaker 3: my garden is actually full of bees and I feel, God,
Speaker 3: do you think that I have to tell the guys
Speaker 3: to like keep their poison to this one very specific area.
Speaker 1: I mean, it depends on the quality of the exterminator.
Speaker 1: I guess, like a good exterminator should be careful, not
Speaker 1: to like completely blasted everywhere. But you know, I mean
Speaker 1: just like, uh, yeah, it should it should be Okay,
Speaker 1: usually I think that it is very localized to the
Speaker 1: actual nest. They shouldn't like, I don't think they're going
Speaker 1: to like drop a drop a wasp bomb down on it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, I mean it's also like, honestly, sometimes wasps.
Speaker 1: I again, I don't know that much about the thistledown
Speaker 1: velvet aunts, but yeah, they can be predatory towards bees.
Speaker 1: So if you're worried about the bees, I wouldn't worry
Speaker 1: too much about these wasps.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well I like that, and I'm going to keep
Speaker 3: that in mind to assuage my guilt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if these specific
Speaker 1: wasps are bee predators, but there are certainly a lot
Speaker 1: of wasps that are.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, and then so these are two and that yeah,
Speaker 3: that's blah blah blah. We'll just assume that, yes, exactly so.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and speaking of killing bees, yeah, so these
Speaker 3: there are species of these freeloader flies that love to
Speaker 3: suck on dead bees, and they rely on these spiders
Speaker 3: to kill the bees for them, and sometimes their relationship
Speaker 3: to spiders is even closer and more intimate. So some
Speaker 3: freeloader fly species have been observed feeding around the mouth
Speaker 3: and but of spiders many times larger than the flies.
Speaker 3: So and it seems that rather than killing the fly,
Speaker 3: the spider allows this. So there is speculation that the
Speaker 3: fly may be providing a cleaning service to the spider,
Speaker 3: like both a spider dentist and proctologist, I suppose. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I know proctologists, their job isn't just to clean the
Speaker 3: butt that I know that, I understand that. But still,
Speaker 3: so basically the fly is grooming the spider maybe and
Speaker 3: getting nutrition from it, sort of like have you seen
Speaker 3: those like cleaner wrasts, those little fish that clean other fish. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're these little slender fish who pick off parasites of
Speaker 3: larger fish. And so yeah, it seems like based on
Speaker 3: these observations, these spiders have this symbiotic relationship with these
Speaker 3: these freeloader flies who and they may even like open
Speaker 3: their sort of mouth parts to allow the fly better
Speaker 3: access without actually eating them. So maybe the calculation might
Speaker 3: be between these flies and these spiders where the spider
Speaker 3: if they eat the fly, sure, that's like a quick
Speaker 3: meal but then maybe this these flies like avoid this
Speaker 3: spider or get spooked off, and letting them clean them
Speaker 3: instead of eating them might benefit them more than just
Speaker 3: eating this tiny little spider or tiny little fly.
Speaker 2: What if?
Speaker 3: What if it is a romantic and sexual relationship though
Speaker 3: it's unlikely, but you know, I think that I can't
Speaker 3: be against it isn't unlikely, just kind they're different species.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's not a lot of so you can have
Speaker 1: You could I could imagine something where there could be
Speaker 1: some like if the fly is cleaning around the spider's genitals,
Speaker 1: it could be that the spider is like there's some
Speaker 1: reward pathway right to the sensation there where the spider
Speaker 1: is fine with it, and so in that way, you
Speaker 1: could think of it as a sexual relationship if that's
Speaker 1: the case, which I don't know romance. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: an insect having a concept of romance, although there are
Speaker 1: some spiders who like jumping spiders who do these really cute,
Speaker 1: colorful displays for their partners, So I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be too hasty there. Interspecific sexual relations sexual relation, really,
Speaker 1: interspecific sexual relationships are very rare, just because you know,
Speaker 1: it's not something that generally works out, and.
Speaker 2: The breakups are rough.
Speaker 1: The breakups are rough, and especially if the species are
Speaker 1: really different from each other, that doesn't mean it does
Speaker 1: not happen. Especially they're like, there can be weird things
Speaker 1: with birds because birds baby birds sometimes have this imprinting things.
Speaker 1: So like birds who imprint on humans may actually be
Speaker 1: sexually attracted to humans and try to have sex with humans,
Speaker 1: which doesn't work because the birds just basically flying into
Speaker 1: your face and you're like, what is happening with this bird?
Speaker 1: So yeah, so that's a hopefully unrequited love situation with
Speaker 1: the birds and the humans. And there are sometimes sexual
Speaker 1: relationships between closely related species, like say a polar bear
Speaker 1: and a grizzly bear, and you know, on occasion they
Speaker 1: can actually result in offspring, like a roller roller bear
Speaker 1: or pisley, and so yeah, you can't have that. But
Speaker 1: a fly and a spider, I just I think they're
Speaker 1: too different. I don't know that it's gonna work out. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: fair enough, but you could you could write that book.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, Yeah, the spider and the fly
Speaker 1: and the fly cotton, the spiders webs and it's basically
Speaker 1: like fifty shades of gray, but this spider stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, basically, you know exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. On that wonderful note, before we go, we got
Speaker 1: to play a little game called the Mystery Animal Sound Game.
Speaker 1: Every week I play Mystery Animal Sound in you the listener,
Speaker 1: and you the guests, try to guess who is making
Speaker 1: that sound. So last week's episode was a rerun because
Speaker 1: I was having some technical difficulties. But just to make
Speaker 1: sure you're not left hanging if you're listening to these
Speaker 1: episodes in sequence, the mystery animal sound was a pigeon
Speaker 1: cooing happily. So there you go. Anyways, onto the actual
Speaker 1: mystery animals sound of the well the week before last
Speaker 1: week and time, ain't she a fickle mistress? Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: last week, sometimes it's week before last week. Okay, so
Speaker 1: this is the most recent new Mystery Animal sound guessing
Speaker 1: game entry.
Speaker 3: Here we go.
Speaker 1: This was the one from the Fallout episode. The mystery
Speaker 1: animal sound was this A picture is worth a thousand words,
Speaker 1: but this critter paints a clear picture with its call.
Speaker 1: All right, Catherine, you got any guesses as to who
Speaker 1: might be making this sound?
Speaker 2: Oh? Gosh?
Speaker 3: Uh? It was very Disney esque I feel like, no,
Speaker 3: I feel like I can't narrow it down because I'm
Speaker 3: thinking bird, I'm thinking some sort of frog or toad.
Speaker 3: But I'm also thinking like any kind of baby animal.
Speaker 2: So this one gets me stumped.
Speaker 1: Well, this is actually an African painted dog dogs is like, yes,
Speaker 1: this is a canine a cannon. So African painted dogs
Speaker 1: are adorable wild canids who have spotty, patchy coats that
Speaker 1: look like you spilled a bunch of brown and white
Speaker 1: paint on it. They're pretty, though, it's very very pretty.
Speaker 1: They live in sub Saharan Africa, and there are five
Speaker 1: species of these types of African painted dogs. They are
Speaker 1: highly social, but unlike most social species of predators, females
Speaker 1: are the ones who will go off and disperse to
Speaker 1: new packs. So like what you see with say lions
Speaker 1: or something, is that you'll have a male born in
Speaker 1: a pride and then the male goes off to start
Speaker 1: a new pride or find a new new pride, and
Speaker 1: in these ones, that's actually the males that stay sort
Speaker 1: of at their natal packs, and it's the females who
Speaker 1: go off to find a new pack. They are also
Speaker 1: they do have hierarchies with like a domin breeding pair.
Speaker 1: But they're relatively easy going with each other, and they've
Speaker 1: actually been known to vote on whether they depart for
Speaker 1: a hunt by account of social sneezing. So social sneezing
Speaker 1: is like a fake huffing sneeze, and it is something
Speaker 1: that the dog is using to communicate that it wants
Speaker 1: to go on a hunt. And there's like, as these
Speaker 1: dogs get together, when there's sort of a plurality of sneezes,
Speaker 1: they all decide to go off on the hunt.
Speaker 3: They're so that's so smart, and they're they're puppies with
Speaker 3: mouse ears.
Speaker 2: How can this be?
Speaker 1: They do have mouse ears? Yes, Oh they're adorable.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Did has anyone tried to domesticate them?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know for sure. I would imagine
Speaker 1: they might be difficult to domesticate, just as it would
Speaker 1: be difficult to domesticate a hyena or a wolf.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I see that there's a zoo that gave them a
Speaker 3: Golden retriever mom, But I know that's different.
Speaker 1: That's so cute. They do that with cheetahs as well,
Speaker 1: where like they'll raise a cheetah with like a companion dog,
Speaker 1: because cheetahs are really shy, but they like to have buddies,
Speaker 1: so like having a dog helps them with stress. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I mean these are they're they're really beautiful dogs. They
Speaker 1: uh so the even though they're canines, they are not
Speaker 1: It's not like dogs were domesticated from these dogs. They
Speaker 1: are dogs were domesticated. It's more or less agreed upon
Speaker 1: that all of our domesticated dogs, like our pet dogs,
Speaker 1: came from wolves, not from these African painted dogs.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I just think that if any canine wants to domesticate,
Speaker 3: we should let it. Oh my god, they're really cute.
Speaker 1: They are extremely cute. Ye, So onto this week's mystery
Speaker 1: animals sound. The hint is this they can be victims
Speaker 1: of thieves or thieves themselves. May the most punning rogues win?
Speaker 1: All right, Katherine, you got any guesses?
Speaker 3: Some sort of chicken, some sort of chicken.
Speaker 1: Usually safe with that. It is a good, very good
Speaker 1: guess when it comes to animal calls or to food. So, Katherine,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3: Where can people find you? Well, let's see, I oh,
Speaker 3: I'm on TikTok at Catherine Spires. You'll have to look
Speaker 3: at the show notes to see how to spell my
Speaker 3: first and last names, and on Instagram at Katherine Underscore Spires,
Speaker 3: and then howdoeatla dot com.
Speaker 1: Yes, I highly recommend How to Eat La because LA
Speaker 1: food is amazing, but you need a guide book, like
Speaker 1: absolutely it is. It is like it's a labyrinth where
Speaker 1: one haul leads you to the most divine food you've
Speaker 1: ever had and the other corridor leads you to snakes
Speaker 1: and spiders.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's the absolute truth. That's how it is here, That's.
Speaker 1: How it is. Thank you guys so much for listening
Speaker 1: to the show. If you're enjoying it and you leave
Speaker 1: a rating and review, it actually tangibly helps me. It's
Speaker 1: like giving me a high five, but also a high
Speaker 1: five to the algorithm, which makes the algorithm like me better.
Speaker 1: I don't really know how it works, but it does
Speaker 1: actually help me. And thank you to the Space Classics
Speaker 1: for their super awesome song Exo Alumina. Oh wait, I
Speaker 1: almost forgot. If you know the answer to the mystery
Speaker 1: animal sound game, you can write to me at Creature
Speaker 1: featurepot at gmail dot com. You can also write to
Speaker 1: me any kind of animal questions. I occasionally do listener
Speaker 1: questions episodes where I try to answer your animal biology
Speaker 1: evolutionary biology related questions. AH Creature Feature is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio or more podcasts like the ones you just heard.
Speaker 1: Visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Hey Guess what.
Speaker 1: Wherever you listen to your favorite shows wherever, literally wherever.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna care, don't worry about it. See you
Speaker 1: next Wednesday.