WEBVTT - Listener Q's: Bird Robots, Two Headed Snakes! 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.600 Welcome to Creature Feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.800 of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I study psychology and evolutionary biology, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.760 and today on the show, it's a listener's Questions episode. 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.880 I love to answer your questions. It always sends me 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:28.440 on a really interesting research trip. I go to the library, 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.159 and by library, I mean I send my Piamazon, go 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:37.360 on to Google scholar and el Sevier, etc. Make sure 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:42.400 I am answering your questions with as much accuracy as possible. 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:45.960 So if you have a question and you're like, hey, 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.080 wait a minute, I want that answered by Katie, you 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.720 can send it to me at Creature Featurepod at gmail 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:57.240 dot com. Any questions about evolutionary biology, your pets, ammals, 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.279 I will do my best to answer them as an 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:07.039 armchair zoologist. All right, so let's get right into it, Hi, Katie. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.800 Let me start by saying that Death Bloat Corpse Parade 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.679 is actually a really good pretend metal band name. I 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.520 have a question about bird sounds. Some birds can mimic 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.039 or have calls that sound almost mechanical or robotic rather 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.399 than melodic. Does that have something to do with the 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.520 mechanics of how birds produce sound. I've wondered this for 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.520 a while, but the recent mystery sound White Bell Bird 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.880 reminded me. Thanks as always for the great show, Carolyn. So, Carolyn, 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.720 this is a great question and one I've wondered about 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.440 many times myself. I think what have come to the 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.760 conclusion is that the reason they sound more mechanical is 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.720 how they can produce crisp sounds with rapid trills and 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:52.360 fluctuations that are loud, clear, and distinct, as well as 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:57.240 producing more than one note at a time. So when 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.720 human singers produce trills, there's a sliding between notes. Now 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.840 I'm not a singer, please don't laugh. This is what 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.400 it kind of sounds like for you. And you're like, oh, 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.040 you know, you have this sort of like in between 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.800 the notes. It's not like, oh, although really skilled operatic 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.520 singers can do that quite fast, not as fast as 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.920 a bird can, which makes it sound mechanical right, like 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.120 it sounds like a keyboard or an instrument. It doesn't 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.760 sound like something biological because it's so fast, it's so precise, 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.760 and there's no sliding around. So yeah, a bird can 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.760 go from one note to another extremely quickly without having 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.000 to make that slide in between the notes. So the 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:44.639 question is this a mechanical or learned difference in bird's 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:49.720 song versus human sounds or other mammal sounds. So surprisingly, 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.400 it's actually kind of a combination of the two. It's 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.880 not purely mechanical, but the mechanics are really important. It's 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:02.320 also how birds learn. Song Birds have a syrinx instead 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.840 of a larynx. The syrinx is the sound producing organ 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:09.440 in birds, whereas the larynx is the sound producing organ 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.400 in humans and other mammals. There are some physical and 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.520 mechanical differences between the syrinx of a bird and a 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:21.520 larynx that allows birds some special techniques. So the syrinx 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.560 of songbirds actually splits into two bronchial tubes, each of 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:31.000 which can operate independently of one another. That means they 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.040 can produce two notes simultaneously, something that is very difficult 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.200 for a human to do. There are actually a few 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.840 exceptions to this in terms of humans being able to 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.080 produce two notes at once. Tuven throat singers and other 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:50.120 overtone singers can produce two notes at once. This is 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.760 accomplished by an extremely skillful manipulation of the tongue and 0:03:54.840 --> 0:04:00.680 throat while singing to create a base, humming and overtone simultaneously. 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.720 It's really really cool. It takes a lot of skill 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.880 to master. Birds, of course, can do this more naturally. 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.960 They also have a lot of other mechanical differences, right, 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.160 They don't have lips or the shape of their mouth 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.400 openings that well. They do in a certain ways, so 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.839 like a large mouth that they can open really wide 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.400 can produce a louder volume. That's the case for the 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.880 white bell bird. But the precise control of shaping the 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.880 sound with like our mouths that we do with human language, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.200 a bird can't do. They don't have the lips for it. 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:39.279 They also don't use their tongues as much as humans 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.600 to manipulate sounds, or as much as other mammals. They 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.880 do use their tongue sometimes to shape sounds, especially parrots 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.640 when they're mimicking human speech, they can use that tongue 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.240 in a much rougher less We're much more skilled. We 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.080 have more muscles and fine motor control over our tongues 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.320 such that we can produce much mo more complex sounds 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.520 with our tongues, whereas birds can't do that. On the 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.120 other hand, they can produce very complex sounds through the 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:13.160 contraction of muscles inside the syrinx, which changes how the 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:17.039 sound vibrates. We also do this. You can experience it 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.360 yourself by humming with your mouth tightly closed. Clamp it shut. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.800 You start to hum. All of that is coming from 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.520 your vocal cords, right, the vibration of your vocal cords, 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:33.560 and you can hum pretty complex, right mmmm. It's all 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.520 coming from those vocal cords. None of that is really 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.080 coming from your lips or your tongue to produce that sound. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:46.120 So birds are the masters at this muscle manipulation. Their 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:51.279 syrinxes are also longer and thinner than mammalian larynxes, which 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.920 makes the production of sound more efficient, so they can 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:01.440 produce really complex, precise sounds that doesn't have as much 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.200 of the fluidity perhaps as human speech. Right, Like, we 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.320 have this sound that we kind of shape with our 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.800 mouths and our tongues and it comes out. And for birds, 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.799 they can just kind of hit that note with shifting 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.840 of those muscles from one vibration to another, which is 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.320 quite uncommon for humans to be able to do. We 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.839 can't a bit though, with and there are certainly people 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:31.360 who can mimic the sounds of birds through impressive larynx control. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.320 One of my favorite recent news stories is about a 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.840 little boy who learned to mimic birds in a way 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.800 that I've personally never heard before. I'll try to play 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:41.359 a clip for you right now. 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.120 That is not a blue jay you're hearing, not a robin, 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:52.040 nor a tufted titmouse. Those sounds are all coming from 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.680 a Samuel an eleven year old Samuel Henderson. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.920 I actually quite enjoy this. I actually think it's not 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.640 super surprising that a child is capable of doing this. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.599 I mean, I think this child in particular is really 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.760 really talented, But children are really really good at language 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:15.640 acquisition and learning how to manipulate sounds. And for a 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:17.760 kid to learn how to do this, right, I think 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.520 it's actually more likely a child could learn how to 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.680 do this, given the interest in it, than say, if 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.880 an adult wanted to suddenly learn how to do bird calls. 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.000 It would be more difficult for us to learn that, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.400 because as we get older, that kind of language ability, 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.960 the ability to manipulate sounds and learn how to manipulate sounds, 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.840 it just gets harder. It's not impossible if you want 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.640 to learn how to do bird calls. Don't be discouraged 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:48.120 if you're older. But yeah, it is easier as children, 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:52.400 which is interesting because birds are the same way. Young 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.720 birds can learn how to make really complex song, but 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.600 there's this crystallization period and after which birds really can't 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.880 learn that. They're not that good at learning new songs 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.160 or new noises. Parrots are something of an exception. There 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.040 are some birds that can learn into adulthood new sounds, 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:15.040 but younger birds are really really the best at it, 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.480 and for some songbirds that's really the only period of 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.440 time where they can learn new sounds. Unlike humans, where 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.480 we can be learners our entire lives. It just does 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.280 get a little bit harder. Maybe when we're adults we 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.800 have to as it's not necessarily harder to learn, because 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.800 we do learn how to learn better as we get older, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.600 but it is less. We don't absorb things as instinctively 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.360 as adults. We're not like a sponge, especially in terms 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.560 of acquiring languages, which I'm learning as someone trying to 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.559 become good at Italian. It's so much harder now as 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.160 an adult trying to learn Italian, even though I've learned 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.839 how to learn. I'm probably more disciplined than I used 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:55.839 to be in high school. But when I was in 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.640 high school, with that younger brain, language acquisition was just 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.280 a lot pastor came a lot more naturally to learn 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.240 these things and just have them sink in. So, if 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.480 there are any kids listening, if you want to learn 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.840 an instrument or learn a language and you're still a kid, 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.600 you know now is the best time to do it. 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.679 But it's never too late. That's the cool thing about 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.280 being human is we do have a lot of neuroplasticity 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.680 all throughout our lives. So it's actually it's actually fine. 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:26.560 If you miss your chance to learn how to play 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:28.720 the violin, you can learn as an adult. It's just 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:36.480 a little more challenge. Onto the next listener question. Hello, 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.360 I always enjoy learning about animals, which is why I'm 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.680 a big fan of Creature Feature. Thank you, thanks for 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.439 doing the show. Well, thank you for listening. I've also 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.800 been watching some VET shows and a recent episode that 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.560 I watched had a baby two headed snake. I was 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.720 wondering how common are situations like that? What would cause 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.160 a snake to be born with two heads? Are other 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.000 animals ever born with two heads. Any information would be great. 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.040 And here are a couple photos of my sne headed kitties, Erica, Erica, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.200 I have to admit I misread your email. At first, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:07.920 I thought you were saying here's a couple photo of 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.440 my two headed kitties. And I was aghast and I 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.880 was like, oh my god, how do you have multiple 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.600 cats with two heads? Because it is very very rare 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:23.720 for animals to be born with two heads, particularly mammals, 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.640 but it does happen. Any animal can be born with 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:32.120 two heads. It can happen in any species, although it 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.680 is extremely rare and even rarer for the individual to 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:41.520 survive past gestation. So the key thing is it's not 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.480 really one organism that has somehow decided to grow an 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.800 extra head. Right, we don't really have like a headbud, 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.440 you know, Like it's sort of like with there are 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.760 certain types of having an extra something that can happen, 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.520 like if you have an extra finger, you know, that 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.400 can happen in humans, where like with polydactylism, or you 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.720 kind of have like an extra site where you have 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.400 like stem cells creating another finger. Right, that's not really 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.640 the case for heads, for having an entire extra head. 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.079 For both humans and any other animal, you really need 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:24.760 to have a specific situation that would result in what's 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.079 called polycephaly having more than one head. So during embryonic growth, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.600 a few things can happen to create an extra head. 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.959 And it's the same types of situations that can also 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:42.480 create conjoined twins. So an embryo while undergoing division and 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:47.240 development can sometimes make an error and partially split. So 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:51.120 a full splitting of the embryo might result in identical twins, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.880 but a partial splitting can result in conjoined twins or 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:00.040 an individual that seems to have two heads. Right. In 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.280 that case, it's actually conjoined twins, but they're really limited 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.760 in terms of having like one body and two heads, 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:11.319 but they're still conjoined twins. Another situation is two embryos 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.360 that form at the same time that merge together. So 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:19.880 normally embryos developing together that didn't result from one embryo 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.319 or one blast is splitting in two are fraternal twins, 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.640 so they're non identical twins. It could be a boy 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.640 and a girl, they could look a little bit differently, 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.760 but they are developing at the same time in utero, 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.200 and so this happens with you know, it's pretty rare 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.920 that that happens. But it's even more rare that these 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.440 twins will actually kind of push it into each other 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.520 and sort of merge during development. Actually, there are some 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.160 cases in which one of the twins it's kind of 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.040 a miss. Like sometimes I hear like, oh, a twin 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.960 eats another twin in utero. It's not eating. What happens 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.360 is one twin absorbs the cells of the other twin 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.000 almost entirely. It's called a vanishing twin. And then you 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.640 really only discover it if you find maybe part of 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:13.520 like the twins cells or organs inside the living twin 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.840 later on. So it's not really eating another twin in utero. 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.679 There's nothing intentional about it. It's just at that point 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.280 cells absorbing other cells. So for an animal with two heads, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.960 what could happen is these two embryos mostly merge, except 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.400 for partially, you know, the part of it where they 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.480 have two heads. And so again it is a case 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.880 of conjoined twins, but in an extreme case where you know, 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:47.560 there's basically one body and two heads. So these types 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:52.560 of genetics shenanigans are really rare. It's rarer still that 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:57.240 one would survive two fetal maturity, and even rarer that 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.360 the newborn individual would survive past that to the complications 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.199 that arrived with conjoined blood vessels and a single heart 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.920 pumping for more organs or body parts than it bargained for. 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:15.640 So having two heads is a problem, mostly in terms 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:20.160 of those structural issues that would usually result in a miscarriage. 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:22.560 But even with a newborn it's going to make it 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:27.720 really hard for it to thrive. But interestingly so snakes, turtles, 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:33.560 and other reptiles seem to have this sort of two headed, 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:38.480 conjoined twin situation more than we see in other animals, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.120 at least like more in terms of what we observe. 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.120 Why this is, I'm not one hundred percent certain. It 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.000 could be that there's an increase in probability of there 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.080 being an incident. Given that reptiles lay eggs. They lay 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.840 a lot of eggs, and so there's two things that 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.800 go on with that, or actually three things. One is 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.440 that eggs are exposed to an environment more than say 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:07.040 an embryo that's developing in utero. The embryo developing in 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.240 utero is exposed to whatever the mother is exposed to. 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:15.480 Through eating, but an egg can be more directly affected 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:22.240 by environmental conditions like temperature, by pollution, et cetera. The 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.160 other thing is that in utero, right, one of the 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:30.920 interesting benefits of having a live birth is that the 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:37.160 animal can, the organism can kind of determine whether this 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.320 embryo is viable or not and whether it wants to 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:43.240 spend the resources on it. So in some cases, the 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:52.520 maternal body will not consciously just decide that the embryo 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:56.040 is not viable and will do a spontaneous abortion. And 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.760 it's a natural process that happens in all mammals. All 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:05.440 animals that are live give live birth, And this might 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.800 in a lot of cases, say, happen in the case 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.480 where you have like some sort of abnormality with an embryo, 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.480 like an embryo splitting partially or merging or something, it 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.040 may result in a miscarriage in a library animal, whereas 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.320 maybe that happens less often that like in an animal 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.160 that lays eggs. Obviously it's not going to necessarily miscarry 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.280 during the during the development of the egg, just whether 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:37.320 the egg continues to develop or not. Write the maternal 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.600 the mother's body doesn't really have any say in it 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:46.720 at that point. So also they lay you know, large 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.720 clutches of eggs, so you just have more chances for 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:55.120 something interesting to happen. Now, we probably only see a 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.240 great number of two headed reptiles due to the frequent 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.640 breeding and key being of reptiles. I think otherwise we 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.720 probably wouldn't see that. There may be also an element 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.520 of safe we're breeding them selectively, right, there might be 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.800 some inbreeding. I'm not really sure. There's not like great 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.879 research on this that I could find, and I was 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:19.080 curious in say, other examples of egg laying livestock or 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.120 domesticated eggling animals. It is true that like chickens will 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:29.199 have high rates of sort of conjoined twin cases, but 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.119 usually they're not viable. Usually it's something where they either 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.199 don't hatch or they die pretty shortly after hatching. So 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.800 it is really interesting to me that with reptiles there 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:45.159 does seem to be more, say snakes and turtles especially 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.920 that actually survive at least a few months, if not longer, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.760 with having two heads. I don't know exactly why that is. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:58.160 I couldn't find good research on that. My guess would 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:02.240 be it has something to do with the circulatory system 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:10.320 being more amenable to having that extra pressure of having 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:15.200 two heads, right, and somehow it being easier to bifurcate 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:20.400 those blood vessels. That does not arise in greater fatality rates. 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.119 But I really don't know. It's a really interesting question. So, 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.200 but to answer your question, it can't happen in any animal. 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:34.920 It's just very very rare. And the situation itself when 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:39.960 that could happen is very rare of embryos conjoining or 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.919 partially splitting, but it's even more rare that that pregnancy 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.720 would come to full term, or that the egg would 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.760 even hatch, and even even more rare that this animal 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:59.399 could live, you know, and be able to say, eat 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.760 or breathe normally. So yeah, very very rare, but it 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.760 does happen, which is pretty wild. And I mean, there 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:13.520 are cases of conjoined human twins where it's they essentially 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.439 have one body and two heads and you know they're conjoined. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:23.760 Twins are two individual people who do have complex situation 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:28.240 in terms of internal organs, but it's not like it's 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.760 not I want it to be clear that it's not 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.520 like a two headed person. These are two people and 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:39.240 they just are conjoined, but in a very complete way 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.120 where really they cannot be separated at all, right, because 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.359 they're sharing a lot of organs and so it seems 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:47.760 like it's a two headed person, but it's really two 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:55.480 people conjoined twins. So onto the next listener question. Hi, 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.760 while listening to the most recent episode, I immediately recognize 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.800 the American woodcock. Please be sure to mention their flexible 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.639 beak when talking about them. I adore them. My question 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:06.520 may be strange, but as someone who's around all kinds 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.840 of animals during my life, I desperately need to know 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:11.440 if they recognize when we repeat or mimic their sounds 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.240 back at them. I'm mainly curious about cats for this question. 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.359 I have a few in the home and a feral 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.199 population nearby, and I'm always curious to know if they 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.800 judge me or enjoy when I repeat their sounds back. 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.520 But I'd love to know if different animals have different 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:29.600 understandings or reactions. This is from Max. My max great 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.320 point about the woodcocks, So this is true. The tips 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:35.919 of their beak have a bit of give to it, 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.520 which allows them to open up just the tip of beaks, 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.719 so like you press your fingers together kind of tightly, 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:45.560 like your two index fingers together. You can kind of 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.240 just open the very tip of your index fingers together, 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.320 and so remember that sort of feeling of like opening 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.639 your index fingers together fully and just the just kind 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.280 of the tippy tip of it. So this this is 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:06.520 called disto. This is called distal rinko kinesis, and it's 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:09.920 also common among sandpipers. And the reason they have this 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.040 features that they can then dig their beaks into the 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.919 sand and open just the tips of their beak to 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:21.360 grab earthworms or other kinds of insects. And it makes 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:23.760 it a lot easier, right, like if you're looking at 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.639 your fingers right, it takes a lot less effort and 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:28.919 force to just open the very tips of your fingers 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.560 versus the whole like opening up. And if you combine 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:34.639 that with, say you have a bunch of pressure of 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.000 packed sand, bird's not necessarily going to be able to 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.919 open their beak fully under the ground or in sand, 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.920 especially a long, thin beak, but they could just open 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.440 that very tippy tip of the beak and then that's 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.680 exactly what they do to snatch up their prey from 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:56.520 inside sand or inside dirt. So onto your question. There 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:02.359 are definitely ways to kind of mimic animal sounds or 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:08.119 gestures that they can understand as being in their sort 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:13.919 of way of communication, right, including cats and dogs. So 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.399 if you've ever slowly blinked at a cat and you 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.560 see it blink back, that's a form of communication it understands. 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.240 It's kind of a way of saying like, I'm chill, 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.320 I'm relaxed, how about you, And if it blinks back, 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.560 it's kind of saying, yeah, I'm chill, I'm relaxed. It's 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.320 a show of trust of you know that things are cool, 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:36.480 like you're not anxious. Everything's cool. If you've ever fake 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:38.919 sneezed at your dog, I mean I highly recommend it. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.920 You kind of just do it and they might sneeze 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:47.000 back and it's kind of a playful gesture. Or if 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:49.600 your dog sneezes at you and you sneeze back, they 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.320 might actually sort of then drop down into a play 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.280 bow because they're saying, oh, you want to play I 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:58.680 sort of as like making this fake sneeze sound, which is, hey, 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:01.320 I'm feeling kind of playful. You sneeze back, and now 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:03.560 I'm in a play bow with their little paws on 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:05.960 the ground and their butts in the air because they're thinking, 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.320 you just responded to my place sneeze, so you want 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.600 to play. So if you're a dog or cat owner, 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.760 you probably have these like interesting little interactions all the time. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:19.880 You may not even maybe just natural at this point, right, 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.200 but you are communicating with them using their language when 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:27.040 you kind of learn these cues from them. Now, specifically 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:29.960 with cats, right, Like, I mean, anyone who's had a 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.800 cat or interacting with a cat, I'm sure we've all 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:35.840 faked a mew at a cat, tried to fake a 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:40.440 perretta cat, right and watched their reaction. Now, it's really 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:47.720 interesting because cats don't really mew at each other that much. 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:53.119 They do, but like say feral cats or cats just 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:56.960 sort of left in the company of other cats. They uh, 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:01.040 they do me ow at each other occasionally, but the 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:04.959 main purpose of meowing in say the ancestors of cats, 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.680 the African wild cat, is to communicate between the mother 0:24:08.720 --> 0:24:11.439 and the kittens. And then there's a lot of other 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:15.240 vocalizations that cats might communicate with each other, either for 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:19.959 mating or for territoriality, which is going to be more 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:24.840 of a growling and hissing. Right, So cats do communicate, 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.119 but the kind of mews that we so associate with 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:30.959 cats and are so frequent and adult cats seem to 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:35.880 be unique to domesticated cats in their communications with humans 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:40.760 because meowing at humans gets them attention and love and stuff, 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:43.720 and it's an instinct from when their kitchen, from when 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:47.720 they're kittens where meowing gets them attention from their mothers, 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:50.360 and then when they're in the care of humans, it's like, hey, 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.720 I'm meowing. I'm an adult, but I'm still basically being 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:58.280 taken care of by my human mommies. So I'm gonna 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:02.479 keep mewing and getting attention, eating food, getting cuddles. So 0:25:03.720 --> 0:25:07.600 because of this, it's really interesting. There there is some 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:11.120 research in terms of like how cats respond to human communication, 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:14.879 and there's some evidence that cats can tell when a 0:25:15.480 --> 0:25:19.560 human is addressing them versus just talking to another person. 0:25:20.280 --> 0:25:22.399 Our tones, i think change like when we look at 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:25.320 a cat, we're like I missed the wish girls like 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:27.479 our tones kind of change into this kind of like 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:32.440 baby talk cat talking. Cats, it seems, based on this research, 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:35.400 actually respond to that they can tell that it's being 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:37.440 addressed to them, or at least they pay more attention 0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:43.359 to those vocalizations, seem to heed them more then say 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:45.520