Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology in school, and guess what, I'm mad
Speaker 1: as Helen. I'm not gonna take it anymore. What do
Speaker 1: animals do when they're mad? From skunk in to squeak
Speaker 1: into outright bluff? And we're talking some peeved little critters
Speaker 1: who have just about had it with the bowl honky.
Speaker 1: We'll find out why you don't want to get on
Speaker 1: the bad side of skunks, sea hair, squeaking frogs, stuck
Speaker 1: up stick bugs, and many other furious creatures discover this
Speaker 1: mor as we answer to the angel question, are owls
Speaker 1: just cats with wings? Joining me today to Get Angry
Speaker 1: is cartoonist, TV writer and filmmaker Anna Selina's welcome. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to be here. I was inspired to do
Speaker 1: this episode about angry animals because as your dog is
Speaker 1: mad at you right now, I heard through the grape
Speaker 1: vine the dog rumor mill. It's true, and it's a
Speaker 1: vicious dog rumor mill. But my dog, Eady is a puppy.
Speaker 1: She's six months old, she just got spayed, and she
Speaker 1: has to wear a cone and like she's the couest,
Speaker 1: happiest puppy and she's so funny pissed right now, Like
Speaker 1: she just glares at me. She keeps getting stuff stuck
Speaker 1: in her cone, like bones get stuck, but she's like
Speaker 1: chewing on. It's a really miserable time for a dog
Speaker 1: to be and it's all your fault, and I feel guilty.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm sorry, but it's the law. I had
Speaker 1: to do it. You monster, How could you put her
Speaker 1: in a cone? Like all she wants to do is
Speaker 1: like chew at her stitches, so you have to keep
Speaker 1: bring your back in. But no, you gotta make your
Speaker 1: look so achelous. Martini glass Martini. How does she how
Speaker 1: does she express her frustration and indignation with you? She'll sigh, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess that it's a dog thing, like she will.
Speaker 1: First of all, she'll try to itch and can't, and
Speaker 1: then we'll like kind of freak out and go with circles,
Speaker 1: and then we'll just stop and go yep, and then
Speaker 1: look up at me like you did this, and I'll
Speaker 1: never forget you and be dramatized forever and be on
Speaker 1: the floor. Yeah, yeah, no, my dog has mastered the
Speaker 1: angry sigh where she her thing is if I'm not
Speaker 1: if I stopped playing with her at any point, like
Speaker 1: when she wants to play, like we can have been
Speaker 1: playing and playing and then I stopped, and then she
Speaker 1: will put her little chin right next to whatever toy.
Speaker 1: It is that that I am not cooperating and throwing
Speaker 1: around and look at me and as go yep, and
Speaker 1: it's meant to hurt me. Yeah, right, And that's I
Speaker 1: think that's what it is. It's like, look what you're doing.
Speaker 1: What I mean, look what you're doing to me? You
Speaker 1: a monster. Well, today we are talking about the ways
Speaker 1: animals communicate to you that they are angry or scared. Usually,
Speaker 1: anger and fear are very connected in in the animal kingdom,
Speaker 1: and I would say in human psychology too, it's they're
Speaker 1: very linked. Like when you're scared, you get mad. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you get so mad you get scared. You know, It's
Speaker 1: like they're they're very actually similar emotions. And and I
Speaker 1: think fear can lead to anger, and so a lot
Speaker 1: of these anger responses that you see in animals is
Speaker 1: maybe more accurately described as a fear response, but they
Speaker 1: that they channel that fear into this like angry response
Speaker 1: to try to protect themselves, to try to ward off predators,
Speaker 1: which I feel like if you really psychoanalyze some humans,
Speaker 1: that's probably the reason for a lot of anger in
Speaker 1: our own society too. Right, Oh yeah, I mean this
Speaker 1: is as you're describing that. I'm like, oh yeah, that
Speaker 1: pretty much describes a fringe political movements. That's what a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are very afraid and then come
Speaker 1: together and anger. Yes, I yeah, I couldn't have put
Speaker 1: it better myself. It is look and we can see
Speaker 1: that in the Animal Kingdom. So we're not alone in
Speaker 1: our horrible French book. Okay, maybe we are, Maybe we
Speaker 1: are a little bit. But we are going to talk
Speaker 1: about skunks first because I think they are sort of
Speaker 1: the most famous in terms of their response when you
Speaker 1: piss them off. So, I mean everyone basically knows how
Speaker 1: it works, right You you anger a skunk, you make
Speaker 1: a skunk feel like you are in their space, they
Speaker 1: will spray you with stinky stuff. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: what exactly happens when you get sprayed by a skunk.
Speaker 1: So Scotts generally don't want to spray you. They they're
Speaker 1: not like looking to to stink you up. But it's
Speaker 1: not like you know, I know that you may think
Speaker 1: that if you have a skunk mechanism, like every problem
Speaker 1: when you have a hammer looks like a nail. Every
Speaker 1: problem when you're a skunk looks like someone to get
Speaker 1: stink on. That's not good. It's not good. That's not
Speaker 1: a good thing. But whatever. So skunks will be very
Speaker 1: reticent to spray you because they kind of don't want
Speaker 1: to like have the confrontation get to that point, and
Speaker 1: it actually costs them in resources. So when you agitate
Speaker 1: or scare a skunk, first, they'll try foot stomping, which
Speaker 1: I love, just anchor stomping its feet. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: it's adorable. It would make me want to hug them more,
Speaker 1: and then I would get sprayed. So then after the
Speaker 1: foot stomping comes hissing and puffing out its tail and
Speaker 1: curling it it's back like a cat. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the the classic cat response to when you've pissed them off,
Speaker 1: when you're about like point zero two seconds away from
Speaker 1: getting your face ripped off. So if that doesn't work,
Speaker 1: if you're still like I'm I'm gonna come up to
Speaker 1: this skunk and we're gonna be friends, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hug it, and and it's it's stamping its feet and
Speaker 1: hissing and you're just not picking up those social cues.
Speaker 1: They'll do a handstand showing you it's anal arsenal of
Speaker 1: scent glands, and if that's not a clue for you
Speaker 1: to hit the road, they will then spray you. So
Speaker 1: the reason they're actually hesitant to spray is they only
Speaker 1: have about five stink bullets in the chamber before they
Speaker 1: run out of juice, and it actually takes them over
Speaker 1: a week for them to produce enough to refill and
Speaker 1: recharge the anal glands. So they don't want to use
Speaker 1: all that up if they can otherwise avoid confrontation. But
Speaker 1: they as a last resort, do they ever walk around
Speaker 1: just totally depleted? I mean, that's a good question, I imagine.
Speaker 1: So if they continue to get it attacked by some
Speaker 1: kind of like very stink resists, stink resistant animal, they
Speaker 1: may in fact have that issue. In fact, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about an animal that they really do have to worry
Speaker 1: about because they are stinkproof. Um. So, uh, the two
Speaker 1: stink glands on either side of its anus can spray,
Speaker 1: a jet of the of the spray spray a jet
Speaker 1: of the fluid up to ten ft or three meters
Speaker 1: far due to these really strong muscles that push on
Speaker 1: the glands. It's like a muscle that just like squeezes
Speaker 1: the gland like it's a turkey baster. Joy. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at this picture the skunk that's actually this is actually
Speaker 1: not a skunk. So that's really funny. I didn't include
Speaker 1: a picture of the skunk because it's like, ah, you
Speaker 1: know what a skunk looks like, but that's not a skunk,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about that. That felt a minute,
Speaker 1: but this is I'm kind of pleased to hear you
Speaker 1: say that, because we're The interesting thing about that animal
Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about is it looks exactly
Speaker 1: like a skunk. You think it's a skunk black and
Speaker 1: it's not a fluffy tail. Yeah, that's a shocking. It's
Speaker 1: a case of parallel evolution. It's really interesting. So well,
Speaker 1: now I have googled a picture of a real skunk,
Speaker 1: and I'm even more convinced these two animals are exactly
Speaker 1: the same. But there's so cute. I mean, skunks and
Speaker 1: I actually have a skunk that lives in my backyard
Speaker 1: that like I have to be aware of and not
Speaker 1: go to pias, give it its space. But they look
Speaker 1: like fluffy little cats. I just say, I wish. Do
Speaker 1: people have skunks as pets every world? They do? They do,
Speaker 1: And actually there's a surgery think that they do on
Speaker 1: these skunks that basically removes the anal glands so that
Speaker 1: that they're not so stinky. But yeah, people do keep
Speaker 1: skunks as pets. I wouldn't say. I mean, my general
Speaker 1: philosophy on pets is, you know, like we already have
Speaker 1: cats and dogs, which are much easier to keep as pets,
Speaker 1: so I not to go with the go with the animal.
Speaker 1: You don't have to remove the anal stink glands from
Speaker 1: to have it be livable with you. But look, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think in terms of in terms of like exotic pets,
Speaker 1: they're not. They're not like the worst exotic pets to have.
Speaker 1: It seems like they're they're pretty cute and they're not.
Speaker 1: I would say, as long as you're not like bringing
Speaker 1: them somewhere where they're not like, uh, they they're not
Speaker 1: a native species, so you're not potentially introducing an invasive spee. She's, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, admittedly I don't know too much about it,
Speaker 1: but like it's probably not like a terrible pet. I
Speaker 1: don't really know, but I wouldn't just get one on
Speaker 1: a whim. Yeah, yeah, And I look, I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to get a skunk as a pet, but if anyone
Speaker 1: out there has one, right in, send me pictures, let
Speaker 1: me know how it is. I'd imagine they do like
Speaker 1: digging a lot, so I imagine they really like to burrow.
Speaker 1: So they're probably pretty destructive, like sort of like people
Speaker 1: who keep ferrets as pets. They love to dig, they
Speaker 1: love to rip things up. So there, you have to
Speaker 1: know what you're getting into with these non traditional or
Speaker 1: exotic pets is that they can be very destructive. They
Speaker 1: can have a lot of energy, and so you you
Speaker 1: don't want to like get a pet like that, thinking
Speaker 1: it like it's just gonna be like, oh, it's just
Speaker 1: a stripy kitty, and then it ruins your your house, uh,
Speaker 1: and then you like don't know what to do with it,
Speaker 1: or like you know, give it up because you weren't
Speaker 1: prepared for it. So yeah, you know, you have to
Speaker 1: know what you're going to get into and you keep
Speaker 1: something like a skunk corch. I think for most people
Speaker 1: it's probably not an ideal pet. I'm going to say, right,
Speaker 1: they are adorable. In fact, there are pet skunks that
Speaker 1: are like albino pet skunks and they're so cute because
Speaker 1: they got little pink noses. Adorable and they're a little
Speaker 1: they're little topads, are really cute and it just got
Speaker 1: these little puffy topads because they love they dig and burrows,
Speaker 1: so they have these like tough reinforced toepads that makes
Speaker 1: it easier to dig and burrow. But they're very cute. Um,
Speaker 1: but stinky, and that stink is uh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: no joke. The fluid that they spray out of their
Speaker 1: anal glands, it contains sulfurous compounds and in addition to
Speaker 1: being stinky, can irritate the skin and cause temporary blindness
Speaker 1: if it gets into the eyes. So it's not just
Speaker 1: the foul odor. It's actually an irritant. So an animal
Speaker 1: that gets it on it will have a double whammy
Speaker 1: the bad odor and little sting and potentially even blind
Speaker 1: them for a little while. And the stink is so
Speaker 1: potent that humans can detect it almost four miles away
Speaker 1: from the source, which is six kilometers. So yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: So all the times I've smelled skunk, it might not
Speaker 1: be because there was a skunk nearby. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's like it could be up to almost four miles away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is like immaterial. I feel like it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it skunks four miles away. I'm cool. That's a thirty
Speaker 1: minute drive in l A. Yeah. Yeah, I mean yes
Speaker 1: in l A. Like you smell a skunk and to
Speaker 1: take you an hour to get there. Uh, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I mean it is interesting because it really when you
Speaker 1: think about how potent it is far away, like to
Speaker 1: get a face full of the stuff. Now, I've never
Speaker 1: been sprayed by a skunk. I mean I'm sure there
Speaker 1: are people who have actually experienced directly getting sprayed by
Speaker 1: the skunk. I can't imagine it. It seems like I
Speaker 1: think I would just die because I have a pretty
Speaker 1: sensitive nose. I get a really strong gag reflex when
Speaker 1: it comes to bad smells, and I think I would
Speaker 1: just die instantly, like you have to use baking soda
Speaker 1: and hydrogen peroxide to get it out. Like it's I
Speaker 1: think my soul would leave my body just to escape
Speaker 1: the stink. It's such an effective defense that they don't
Speaker 1: have that many regular predators because most of them learn
Speaker 1: it's not a good time. The only animal they really
Speaker 1: have to worry about on a regular basis is the
Speaker 1: great horned owl because great horned owls do not have
Speaker 1: great senses of smell. They have incredible eyesight, incredible hearing,
Speaker 1: but they don't really rely on their smell. So to
Speaker 1: an owl like the great horn owl, it's no big
Speaker 1: deal if they get sprayed. So they will often eat skunks.
Speaker 1: So that is the one predator that they probably try
Speaker 1: to deploy these stink bullets over and over again. It
Speaker 1: just doesn't have that much of an effect on them. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting. Who do that in the animal kingdom?
Speaker 1: Like the most powerful weapon would be smell? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: can be extremely powerful. In fact, it's we see this
Speaker 1: evolve over and over again, not just in the skunk,
Speaker 1: but in other animals. So um, like I was talking
Speaker 1: about earlier, when you when you cheated and look the
Speaker 1: head and then I'm kidding, but you know when you
Speaker 1: look at that, when you looked at that image, that
Speaker 1: is not a skunk, That is a striped pull cat,
Speaker 1: and they are only distantly related. And this is a
Speaker 1: case of parallel evolutions. So it looks like a skunk. Uh,
Speaker 1: And it's not a skunk, it's not a cat. And
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a pole. I guess it's vaguely
Speaker 1: pole shaped. But yeah, it is in the weasel family,
Speaker 1: including badgers, otters, weasels, ferrets, and more. And so they're
Speaker 1: a somewhat distant relative of the skunk. The skunk is
Speaker 1: part of the weasel super family, which is a larger
Speaker 1: category than just the weasel family and the weasel super Family,
Speaker 1: which sounds like a great Like that sounds like a
Speaker 1: great new Marvel movie, The weasel Superfamily just family, the
Speaker 1: family of superpowered weasels. I would watch that. I would
Speaker 1: watch that. Weasels are speaking of cute animals, I mean,
Speaker 1: weasels are really cute. Yeah, Like, like, the weasel family
Speaker 1: includes things that aren't like, not what we would call weasels,
Speaker 1: like otters, badgels, bade otters, and badgers. Um. But weasels
Speaker 1: themselves are as cute as they are. They are so deadly,
Speaker 1: not not to humans but to other animals. They are
Speaker 1: surprisingly very effective carnivores, and they can take down things
Speaker 1: that are bigger than them. They can take down surprisingly
Speaker 1: like like they will take down birds of price sometimes.
Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible. So, okay, I have to ask this though,
Speaker 1: so otters are in the weasel families, so they're not
Speaker 1: that related to dogs. Then are they otters where the
Speaker 1: dogs of the sea. No, No, otters are not that
Speaker 1: closely related to dogs. They are in the weasel family.
Speaker 1: They're they're so social, they're so like to look at
Speaker 1: otters and they're like linking arms floating, and I just
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, that's a dog on water.
Speaker 1: They do seem they do seem like the puppies of
Speaker 1: the ocean. Interestingly, so pinnipeds, which are also like seals
Speaker 1: and like other seal like animals, the sea lion and
Speaker 1: walrus is, those are all pinnipeds and they they also
Speaker 1: seem like they're the dogs of the sea, like the
Speaker 1: puppies of the sea. But they actually, while they are
Speaker 1: not in the weasel superfamily, they did branch off um
Speaker 1: sort of from a common ancestor of the weasel super family,
Speaker 1: so that they're closer to weasels than dogs. Sea lions
Speaker 1: I think so, I believe. So that's mind blowing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's earth shattering because they also look like puppies. They do.
Speaker 1: They really do. Also, hyenas not closely related to dogs,
Speaker 1: more closely related to felines than they are to dogs.
Speaker 1: What Oh my gosh. That's what's so crazy about um.
Speaker 1: About like evolution is that you if you have a
Speaker 1: form that is relatively successful, you'll see convergent and parallel
Speaker 1: evolution where either related, distantly related, or unrelated species will
Speaker 1: evolve similar traits, as we'll see here in this this
Speaker 1: distinct section of the show. So, like I was saying earlier,
Speaker 1: they are distantly related to the skunks, and that they're
Speaker 1: both part of the weasel super families. So that is
Speaker 1: a larger grouping of species that also includes raccoons, red pandas,
Speaker 1: and skunks. M hm, okay, So skunks live exclusively in
Speaker 1: the America's like you know, people in North America and
Speaker 1: and uh, we're certainly accustomed to skunks here. Um. While
Speaker 1: pole cats live in the savannah areas of central southern
Speaker 1: and sub Saharan Africa. They're about the same size as
Speaker 1: like a medium to small smaller sized skunk species and specimens.
Speaker 1: While skunks are omnivores, striped pole cats are carnivores, only
Speaker 1: eating meat, so they eat small rodents, reptiles, and insects.
Speaker 1: Skunks will also eat meat, but they will eat vegetation
Speaker 1: and basically anything that they can find and put in
Speaker 1: their mouths and get get down there, which I relate
Speaker 1: to it. They'll take anything. I like it. Lobe are.
Speaker 1: Skunks are crepuscular, which sounds gross, but it just means
Speaker 1: more active at dusk and dawn, while striped polk cats
Speaker 1: are active at night. They're nocturnal. Interesting, they look very similar.
Speaker 1: So striped polk cats are black with white stripes or
Speaker 1: dark brown with white stripes, maybe a little a few
Speaker 1: white spots that run along their backs, very similar to
Speaker 1: the skunk. I mean, it fooled you, and I was convinced,
Speaker 1: and it makes me wonder the times I saw. I mean,
Speaker 1: where are these? Where do you find? These? Are only
Speaker 1: in uh on the African continent probably, yeah, maybe I've
Speaker 1: seen them ad But they look I mean, they look
Speaker 1: identical except their stripe pattern. It's just a little different.
Speaker 1: Like if I if one of these guys somehow made
Speaker 1: it to America and I saw it, I think it
Speaker 1: was a skunk, like, you know, even even knowing about it,
Speaker 1: even with the fore knowledge of the stifferent species, I
Speaker 1: would still be fooled. They're very similar looking. You would
Speaker 1: stay away from it knowing it would spray you. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing is they do. This is what's
Speaker 1: so interesting is that not only do they look like
Speaker 1: a skunk, but they also spray like a skunk. And
Speaker 1: yet they have evolved independently. While they share common ancestor,
Speaker 1: they're not like, you know, they didn't evolve branch off
Speaker 1: from skunks or something. That's not why they look so similar.
Speaker 1: They both independently evolved their their stripes, their appearance, and
Speaker 1: this spray, and it's there's a reason that they both
Speaker 1: have this this black and white striped appearance, and that
Speaker 1: is it's a pi semicism. It's advertising that they have
Speaker 1: this capability of of of defensive spraying. And you know,
Speaker 1: unlike maybe other types of animals, mammals struggle to have
Speaker 1: like super bright coloration. So having like a black and
Speaker 1: white pattern in white stripes is gonna be a very
Speaker 1: strong signal for a mammal who has sort of a
Speaker 1: more limited palette than say like you know, you know,
Speaker 1: with like poison arrow frogs, they can be bright red
Speaker 1: or bright blue to advertise their poison. Mammals typically don't
Speaker 1: have that kind of color range. So um so having
Speaker 1: a bold pattern and very huge contrast, which you can't
Speaker 1: get much more contrast than black and white, is a
Speaker 1: way for them to have a bold pattern that will
Speaker 1: warn potential predators that they actually have this feature, and
Speaker 1: so predators will learn, hey, when last time I tried
Speaker 1: to mess with one of these skunks in America, I
Speaker 1: got sprayed, So I learned the skunk pattern, and then
Speaker 1: an animal in Africa will learn like, hey, last time
Speaker 1: I tried one of these pull cats, it had this
Speaker 1: black white pattern. I got sprayed. I'm not gonna mess
Speaker 1: with them again. So it's just so cool. Though it
Speaker 1: seems like, how could this possibly be a coincident, it's
Speaker 1: coin sidents. It's not necessarily that it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: they both evolved this way. It's that it's such an
Speaker 1: effective strategy that, uh, you know, and you give it,
Speaker 1: you give it enough millions of years, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's a good chance it's going to happen. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that these stripes are so functional. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they are fashionable and functional. So they really are. And
Speaker 1: so they will spray anyone who makes them too uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: They will. They have a slightly different strategy than the skunks.
Speaker 1: I don't believe they do the handstand thing that American
Speaker 1: skunks do. I think that they will arch their backs,
Speaker 1: they raise their tails sort of like a cat. Um
Speaker 1: doesn't sprays anyone who gets too close with a noxious,
Speaker 1: smelly and irritating fluid from their anal glance. So that
Speaker 1: sounds familiar, doesn't it. Yeah, it's it's really interesting. So
Speaker 1: you have these things that look so similar to a skunk,
Speaker 1: and while they do share a distant relative, it seems
Speaker 1: I think the their evolutionary paths just were in terms
Speaker 1: of developing the stink spray and their stripes were relatively independent,
Speaker 1: which is so cool. It seems like it's a good
Speaker 1: life to be a pole cat or a skunk because
Speaker 1: most animals don't mess with you. Granted, you have to
Speaker 1: worry about the owl, but so do squirrels. I assume,
Speaker 1: like I assume all the other rodents and everything have
Speaker 1: to worry about owls. So you just get to be
Speaker 1: like you get to roam, you know. I feel like
Speaker 1: they probably have a little swagger. Probably. Also, we should
Speaker 1: worry about owls more. I'm just saying, yeah, just saying.
Speaker 1: Owls are terrifying. They really are. I mean like, I
Speaker 1: love them. I love them. I love to be scared
Speaker 1: by them. But they are scary when you think about it.
Speaker 1: They are the way their next move, their talents. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're actually going to talk about some owls later on
Speaker 1: in the show, so, uh, prepare yourself for that. It's
Speaker 1: actually really cute. But um, so this, uh, there's one
Speaker 1: uh like to demonstrate how universal that stinky spray really is.
Speaker 1: Let's look at an extremely different animal than the skunk
Speaker 1: or the pull cap. And this is the sea hair,
Speaker 1: which is a species of sea slug, a sea dwelling gastropod.
Speaker 1: They're called the sea hair because they have what looks
Speaker 1: like rabbit ears. These are really rhinofores, so they are
Speaker 1: sent taste receptors on their head that looks like a
Speaker 1: pair of bunny ears. Uh. Otherwise, there resemblance to a
Speaker 1: rabbit I think is rather vague because they look more
Speaker 1: like a slug creature with weird folds on their back.
Speaker 1: So when sea hairs are agitated, they will release an inky,
Speaker 1: purple or magenta ish substance. It's actu beautiful, it's quite
Speaker 1: pretty looking, which is full of opaline and ammonium from
Speaker 1: ink glands in their mantle cavity. So just a quick
Speaker 1: like explanation of the anatomy of the sea hair. So
Speaker 1: the mantle cavity is the area sort of in the
Speaker 1: center of its body. It's inside of what looks like
Speaker 1: these like folded up wings like there, or like flaps
Speaker 1: on the side of their body. Um, So it's like
Speaker 1: in there. Those skin flaps are called parapodia, and they
Speaker 1: can actually use them similar to wings when they're swimming,
Speaker 1: but when they're just kind of like crawling around, they're
Speaker 1: usually folded up and they look it makes them actually
Speaker 1: look pretty plant like because it's like they look like
Speaker 1: these sort of I don't know, just like like some
Speaker 1: kind of like yeah, yeah, exactly. Um. And speaking of plants,
Speaker 1: the ink that that purple purple ish ink is thought
Speaker 1: to be derived from red algae eat that they eat,
Speaker 1: and the compounds they use in in the ink is
Speaker 1: that they get from their diet. So what's interesting about
Speaker 1: this skunk spray of ink is it's a little different
Speaker 1: from other animals who use the defensive spray technique. So
Speaker 1: there's like you know, from from skunks to pole cats
Speaker 1: to like you have stink beetles who do the same thing.
Speaker 1: You have some species of bird chicks vomit dispensive vomit
Speaker 1: at predators. That's like stinky and irritating. So that like
Speaker 1: the stinky irritating thing is a very common defense mechanism. Now,
Speaker 1: the thing the sea hairs do is a bit of
Speaker 1: a honeypot trap. So they spray this purple ink and
Speaker 1: it actually attracts predators like lobsters who like to eat
Speaker 1: sea hairs, and they will try to ingest the stuff,
Speaker 1: so they like suck up this this ink. Not only
Speaker 1: does it distract them away from the sea hair, giving
Speaker 1: the sea hair and opportunity to escape, it actually cloggs
Speaker 1: up their scent and taste receptors and makes it so
Speaker 1: that they can no longer smell. It's like it's like
Speaker 1: a reverse sting. It's the inverse of a skunk spray,
Speaker 1: where it makes you not be able to smell anything
Speaker 1: at all. So which need in the ocean if you're
Speaker 1: some sort of sea creature, because that's how you're sensing
Speaker 1: things exactly. Yes. So so those those big antenna that
Speaker 1: that um lobsters have that you always see waving around
Speaker 1: from you and and seafood restaurants, they use those to
Speaker 1: kind of like smell or taste the water. They're they're
Speaker 1: chemo receptors, so they can use them to hunt down prey.
Speaker 1: So if they get clogged by the compounds in this
Speaker 1: inky substance that the sea hare sprayed, they can no
Speaker 1: longer smell or taste anything. And so instead of going
Speaker 1: continuing to chase after the sea hair, they're spinning all
Speaker 1: their time, first of all, trying to clean the stuff off,
Speaker 1: and in total confusion, and like you know, you suddenly
Speaker 1: have these major senses that you use to navigate and
Speaker 1: to hunt, like suddenly gone. You're you're basically paralyzed until
Speaker 1: you can like figure out how to get get rid
Speaker 1: of this stuff. I mean, this seems extremely effective, yes,
Speaker 1: does it? I mean, who's their owl? Who's there owl?
Speaker 1: That's a good question. You know what, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Probably humans, yeah, for sure, because we're
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, whatever, we're the owl. We're technically the
Speaker 1: sort of horned owls of the world in terms of
Speaker 1: just finding a way to best all animals at their defenses,
Speaker 1: which sounds like a compliment, but I don't mean it
Speaker 1: that way. I'm with great power, great responsibility, which we
Speaker 1: have completely squandered in right, were no spider Man's were
Speaker 1: no spider Man's um. Yeah, so it's it's really really interesting.
Speaker 1: Sing Before we move on to the next section, just
Speaker 1: a couple of honorable mentions. Vultures. There's this fact what
Speaker 1: I see spread around that vultures vomit at predators or
Speaker 1: or potential threats because they don't have that many real predators,
Speaker 1: but they can get threatened, especially like vultures who live
Speaker 1: on continental African compete like with other scavengers for food.
Speaker 1: But they actually don't projectile vomit, or there's not that
Speaker 1: much evidence that suggests they like projectile vomit on their
Speaker 1: rivals or their enemies in order to like get vomit
Speaker 1: on them. It's actually just like to lighten the loads
Speaker 1: so that they can escape. So if they're back, why
Speaker 1: you know, like like hyenas or lions or some some
Speaker 1: competitor who's trying to attack them. When they're feeding on carrion,
Speaker 1: they will vomit, which makes them able to fly better
Speaker 1: because they you know, they ingested incredible amount of this
Speaker 1: carrion and typically it would make them more sluggish flyers,
Speaker 1: but you know they vomited. It probably distracts the the
Speaker 1: the enemy for a while too, because it you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, hey, vomit. And you know how much
Speaker 1: animals love to slurp it vomits. Oh my dog loves it.
Speaker 1: And just one more honorable mention. I think I've mentioned
Speaker 1: this before on the show. The Scandinavian field fair birds
Speaker 1: are these communal birds who will protect their nests and
Speaker 1: youngs from ravens by dive vombing them with poop. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Yeah, it's you know, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: pretty crappy defense, but I mean that in a good way. Uh.
Speaker 1: And like the poop And I feel like I've mentioned
Speaker 1: this recently, but whatever, you can hear it again. The
Speaker 1: poop is actually slightly caustic and it will break up
Speaker 1: the oil on a raven's feathers, and those oils on
Speaker 1: feathers are actually really important for flight. Being able to
Speaker 1: fly keeps the feathers organized in such a way that
Speaker 1: they basically remain sort of like a solid feather, like
Speaker 1: you know, like if you take a feather and you
Speaker 1: get it messed up, like if you if you take
Speaker 1: a bird feather and you put like soap on the
Speaker 1: soapy water, then it like it all separates, all the
Speaker 1: all the little filaments on the feathers separate. Uh. So
Speaker 1: that basically happens. So until the raven can get away,
Speaker 1: Like if they continue to get pooped on, they are
Speaker 1: their life is actually in danger because it may make
Speaker 1: them incapable flight until they dry off and get more
Speaker 1: oil on their feathers, which makes them very vulnerable to predators.
Speaker 1: So they do not want to be in this situation.
Speaker 1: So it's an extremely effective defense a community of people
Speaker 1: crapping on their enemies. So their enemy is the raven. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: birds fight other birds all the time. I just feel
Speaker 1: like that's some mean girl stuff. That's like, hey, raven,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna screw up your feathers, poop on your feathers.
Speaker 1: It's like to be fair though. To be fair, though,
Speaker 1: the ravens probably are trying to prey on their nestlings,
Speaker 1: their babies, though Okay, well fine, it's justified. You can
Speaker 1: poop on someone who's trying to eat your babies. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: inserts the raven joke right here. But yeah, So we've
Speaker 1: talked about animals who use stink as a weapon. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about animals who use squeak as a weapon. That's
Speaker 1: that's just my way of saying animals who use their
Speaker 1: vocalizations as a way to ward off predators or anybody
Speaker 1: who has given them a hard time. And the first
Speaker 1: one I want to talk about I definitely have talked
Speaker 1: about on the show before, but it bears repeating often
Speaker 1: and I love it so much. It's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things. It's the desert rain frog, which one of
Speaker 1: my favorite animals. They are so cute. They are a
Speaker 1: frog that lives on the coast of South Africa and
Speaker 1: Mabia and they are only about the length of a finger,
Speaker 1: but they are very round. They're just little. They they
Speaker 1: look like blow up like balls. They look inflated. They
Speaker 1: look like you took a little uh toy frog, I guess,
Speaker 1: and just and it was made out of rubber and
Speaker 1: you just blew it up. If you poked it, it
Speaker 1: would explode. Yes, actually I will, I will say that
Speaker 1: there are toads that do explode. And this happens when
Speaker 1: ravens and crows figure out that they figure out, these
Speaker 1: birds figure out to how to like they love like
Speaker 1: a certain organ inside of the toads and they will
Speaker 1: eat it. And but they just like basically poke a
Speaker 1: hole in the toad and eat that one organs they
Speaker 1: like and leave the rest of them alone and then brutal.
Speaker 1: So then then the toads will just explode when they
Speaker 1: like like basically fill up with air. And that is
Speaker 1: a horrifying way. That's just a side note. But um
Speaker 1: so these guys, even though they look like they're they're
Speaker 1: like little balloons that are about to explode, they they're not.
Speaker 1: They're they're fine. And so they don't hop because they're
Speaker 1: so round. They just waddle and they burrow into sand
Speaker 1: and try to absorb as much moisture as they can
Speaker 1: in these sands along the coast. And when they're threatened,
Speaker 1: they squeak very mad, very big mad at you, and
Speaker 1: don't we all you know, that's one I can relate to.
Speaker 1: I will squeak, yeah, just an angry squeak too. So
Speaker 1: people know to mess with me. Well, here is the
Speaker 1: squeak of an angry desert rain frog. It's the cutest
Speaker 1: angry sound I've ever heard. I was expecting something a
Speaker 1: little more vicious. That was delightful. I know, Like if
Speaker 1: if this little desert rain frog was angry squeaking at
Speaker 1: me because I was getting close to it, it just
Speaker 1: would make me want to hug it more and be
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, yeah. I mean, here's this little
Speaker 1: blobby ball of a toad like waddling around and squeaking
Speaker 1: so cute. I think this would have the opposite effect
Speaker 1: of its intention. I mean, I assume other animals just
Speaker 1: want to pick him up and squeeze them. It must work.
Speaker 1: It must work if if these the species is still alive,
Speaker 1: it must work in some manner, even if animals just
Speaker 1: feel sorry for it and leave it alone. That's what
Speaker 1: it is. It's so sad. I mean, looks skunks have
Speaker 1: a good life, but these little frogs have a They
Speaker 1: have a bad life. They have a tough life. It's
Speaker 1: hard to be so cute and adorable, you know, aggressive, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hard to be cute and scary. Another animal that
Speaker 1: is cute but must try to be scary are owl
Speaker 1: chicks burrowing owl chicks, So burrowing owl chicks will mimic
Speaker 1: the sound of an animal much scarier than they are.
Speaker 1: So you could say that owls, well, that ends well
Speaker 1: for these baby owls. More at eleven Beautiful Poetry. Now,
Speaker 1: I do want to retract a statement I made, which
Speaker 1: was owls are terrifying, because these owls are extraordinarily cute,
Speaker 1: especially these chicks. They look like if fran Leebowitz was
Speaker 1: a small chick, Like they just have a They have
Speaker 1: a look on their face that is like I don't
Speaker 1: want to I don't want to mess with you. They
Speaker 1: look grumpy but cute. They are like middle school goths,
Speaker 1: I think is that fair to say, where they're like
Speaker 1: little babies, you know, like middle schoolers are are little babies.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to any middle school schoolers listening, but you
Speaker 1: are cute little babies to me. And they have like
Speaker 1: this dark eyeliner around their face, and they kind of
Speaker 1: have this like sort of like grumpy expression, but they're
Speaker 1: so cute and they're black nails, you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're just nobody understands me. It's like, oh, yeah, your
Speaker 1: body understand you need a baby, yeah, and it's that
Speaker 1: with a fluffy body, just like a fluffy, fuffy, fluffy body,
Speaker 1: so cute. I apologize to the world's middle school golfs.
Speaker 1: Your your your feelings are very valid, but you're also
Speaker 1: very cute. Yea, And no disrespect because look, I was
Speaker 1: a wanna be middle school golf I tried, but it
Speaker 1: just came off dorky. That's the best. That is the
Speaker 1: best though. So they are burrowing owls live on the
Speaker 1: American continent in grasslands and deserts. They are little owls
Speaker 1: who like to burrow. The name is it's right, it's
Speaker 1: right there in the name of people there. So because
Speaker 1: they're relatively small, they're so like I would say, um,
Speaker 1: they don't grow any bigger than like under a foot. Now,
Speaker 1: they must be the cutest owl species five dollar foot
Speaker 1: long birds. But the the smallest owl in the world
Speaker 1: is actually called the elf owl. Uh. It is found
Speaker 1: in uh in Texas, and it is another it's not
Speaker 1: actually a burrowing owl, but it likes to desert habitats
Speaker 1: and they like to live in woodpecker holes and inside
Speaker 1: cactus holes. And they are they you know, fit in
Speaker 1: the palm of your hand. I've really come around on owls.
Speaker 1: I spent all this time thinking they were kind of scary,
Speaker 1: kind of creepy, and I could watch these burrowing owl pictures.
Speaker 1: There is there's a video. There's a video. I'll try
Speaker 1: to find it and included in the show notes, but
Speaker 1: there's a video of someone releasing rehabilitated burrowing owls into
Speaker 1: the wild. And they they use a tube basically, I
Speaker 1: believe they have like a tube that goes into the
Speaker 1: ground is as a um temporary burrow shelter for them
Speaker 1: to use, and they just like put the owl in
Speaker 1: the tube, put the owl in the tube, and like
Speaker 1: the owls are very grumpy looking, and so they're just
Speaker 1: sort of like nudging their little tushies until they go
Speaker 1: inside of the tube. It's so funny. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: That's what makes them so good. They just have this
Speaker 1: permanent furrowed brow, a permanent angry scowl. But they're so
Speaker 1: small and cute it's hard to take them seriously. So
Speaker 1: the little ones, the the nestling owls, have a bit
Speaker 1: of a problem because they're small and cute and probably
Speaker 1: very delicious to predators, so toward them off the baby
Speaker 1: owl lets pretend to be a big scary rattle steak
Speaker 1: by making a sound I'll play for you right now.
Speaker 1: It's scary, right, that's terrifying. And it sounds like, what
Speaker 1: does that sound come out of their mounts? I mean
Speaker 1: they're not necessarily their mouths, but like that, they're they're there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a terrifying sound. And I just can't square it
Speaker 1: with this picture. I'm looking at grumpy chicks. It's like,
Speaker 1: I take it back. They're not like middle school goths.
Speaker 1: They are like middle schoolers who listen to metal and
Speaker 1: but like dressed like a total dork. And but then
Speaker 1: like we'll try to like a sing along with metal
Speaker 1: songs and go like like you know, death throttle. And
Speaker 1: then you look and it's this cute little kid with
Speaker 1: a rollie backpack in a black This might be this
Speaker 1: might be getting slightly autobiographical for me. You are the
Speaker 1: burrowing owl. It's me. It's me, me and middle school.
Speaker 1: I do have to note to the listener because they
Speaker 1: don't get to see this, but Anna has just brought
Speaker 1: the pepper onto the screen with the little cone and
Speaker 1: it is I can The dog is like looking at
Speaker 1: me like saying, look, look what she's done to me.
Speaker 1: She hates it so much. Can you believe this? What
Speaker 1: I've been She's turned me into like a satellite dish?
Speaker 1: Can you believe this? And I tried to get her
Speaker 1: like a and a kind cone because it's a little softer,
Speaker 1: soft cone. She freaking hates it. Yeah, I wish, I
Speaker 1: wish all the listeners could see this, because she does
Speaker 1: look like an ice cream cone. So another animal, who
Speaker 1: is sorry? Another animal I think is very cute. This
Speaker 1: one's a little the threatening uture of the animals is
Speaker 1: a little more um tangible is elephants. They are big
Speaker 1: and beefy, but they are really interesting, intelligent animals. Um
Speaker 1: and they because they are so intelligent, they learn about
Speaker 1: threats in their environment, and they actually have ways to
Speaker 1: communicate uh, the these these ideas, these warnings to other elephants,
Speaker 1: and in fact, elephants actually have a specific angry swear
Speaker 1: word for humans, oh my god, because we're the worst. No.
Speaker 1: Researchers have found that African elephants have a specific low
Speaker 1: rumbling call that they make to warn their cohorts about
Speaker 1: the presence of humans. Because human poachers and farmers often
Speaker 1: shoot elephants, they learn to see humans as a potential
Speaker 1: soull threat, so much so it seems they have a
Speaker 1: specific called just to say, oh humans, Oh I love elephants. Man,
Speaker 1: They're just some nice animals who are doing their best
Speaker 1: to stay away from humans and not getting their respect
Speaker 1: they deserve. No I do, I mean it's it's there's
Speaker 1: something like humbling about the fact that elephants like are
Speaker 1: so are so aware of our shenanigans that they're just
Speaker 1: like they they have. I call it a swear word
Speaker 1: because even though technically there's no scientific classification of like
Speaker 1: swear words that like an elephant would use to me
Speaker 1: a word that's like oh a human that is responded
Speaker 1: to by all the elephants, like fleeing the area, that's
Speaker 1: a swear word. That's an elephant swear word. Word. You
Speaker 1: don't want to get called that if you're an elp
Speaker 1: fit right right, your your mother is a human like
Speaker 1: the biggest insult. If you're an elephant, definitely never forget it. Porcupines.
Speaker 1: Porcupines are most famous for using their spines as a
Speaker 1: defense when they're mad, but they also squeal to let
Speaker 1: you know they are unhappy, especially females. If like a
Speaker 1: male is bugging her and trying to mate with her,
Speaker 1: and she does not want anything to do with him,
Speaker 1: like she has nothing to worry about, because, like porcupines,
Speaker 1: consent is like vital for porcupines, because a male physically
Speaker 1: cannot mate with a female unless she wants them to,
Speaker 1: because she will need to roll up her her tail
Speaker 1: and so that her spines roll backwards so the male
Speaker 1: can mount her without being impaled by her spines. But
Speaker 1: if she's getting annoyed by a male continually trying to
Speaker 1: seduce her, she will just start telling at him. So
Speaker 1: here are some squeals. I believe this is an angry
Speaker 1: female telling a male to piss off. Okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can hear the exasperation in her voice where she's
Speaker 1: just like, come on, yeah, it sounds less like angry
Speaker 1: and more just like yeah, I know, right, just like okay, alright,
Speaker 1: I get it now. Buzz off clients are just so relatable.
Speaker 1: Also relatable are screaming hairy armadilla's. I mean, don't you
Speaker 1: have days when you just feel like a screaming hairy
Speaker 1: armadillo every day? Every day? Always harry and um in
Speaker 1: my head. I'm always screaming, always screaming, screaming internally when
Speaker 1: when Japan, because Japan did a much better job of
Speaker 1: getting coronavirus under control, Like when they opened up their
Speaker 1: theme parks, I think like they were like people had
Speaker 1: to wear masks and also they had a sign that said,
Speaker 1: like please scream internally. Um yeah, like like by screaming,
Speaker 1: you're like, you know, spitting out spit. So they want
Speaker 1: people to like scream internally, and like I feel that
Speaker 1: so much. I feel it. It's like the theme of
Speaker 1: this pandemic. Just scream internally. We're all feeling well, screaming. Harry.
Speaker 1: Armadillos scream externally as well. They are found in South America,
Speaker 1: and if you pick one up, they start shrieking like
Speaker 1: a man drake, you know the whole mythos. Yes, a
Speaker 1: man drake. It's in Harry Potter, it's in folklore, you know.
Speaker 1: It starts screaming, screaming. Harry, Armadillos are like real life
Speaker 1: man dreaks um And I believe I've talked about these
Speaker 1: on the show, but again I think that these they're
Speaker 1: just it's I love the indignation of these guys, So
Speaker 1: I think it's worth hearing it again. So they're not
Speaker 1: particularly social, so it's unlikely that the scream is an
Speaker 1: alarm call to warn their buddies. It's probably just a
Speaker 1: car alarm effect. So by by shrieking like this, they
Speaker 1: are attracting the attention of other animals. So if you
Speaker 1: have a smaller predator who's probably afraid of larger predators
Speaker 1: or competition, and this car alarm starts going off in
Speaker 1: the form of this screaming hairy armadillo, you might want
Speaker 1: to like get out of there before someone else shows up.
Speaker 1: So here's what it sounds like. That is also a
Speaker 1: cute sound, but I hear the anger in them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds it sounds like a It sounds very much
Speaker 1: like a car alarm to me, like an angry car alarm.
Speaker 1: It really does. I wonder if man breaks, like the
Speaker 1: mythology of Man Drake's come from these screaming hairy armadillos.
Speaker 1: You think it would. I don't. I'm not sure because
Speaker 1: I think because these are found in South America. I
Speaker 1: wonder if there's like a man Drake legend that does
Speaker 1: originate in South America, the European one, I would. I
Speaker 1: bet it's just because sometimes plant roots have that human look.
Speaker 1: So we actually talked about that um last time on
Speaker 1: the pot about her idolia, where you see shapes, particularly
Speaker 1: human shapes, and things that uh have ambiguous patterns. So like,
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen a particularly like messed up root
Speaker 1: or piece of ginger, ginger for me, like sometimes looks
Speaker 1: like little people, freaks me out. Or like carrots, carrots
Speaker 1: that are like growing in your backyard and gets all
Speaker 1: weird and twisted, like sometimes they look like little people
Speaker 1: because it looks like they have legs and arms, their
Speaker 1: little legs twisted like yeah, they're sitting exactly crossed, and
Speaker 1: so probably like you know, these these uh ancient Europeans
Speaker 1: picked up some like like root vegetable, it looked like
Speaker 1: a little human. They're like, yep, that's a demon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely a demon. Yep, there that there's a demon.
Speaker 1: That's what I do whenever I find a carrot, a
Speaker 1: weird shaped carrot. Now this is the work of the devil.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, and it happens all the time. I
Speaker 1: love carrots. I'm constantly eating devil carrots exactly. I mean
Speaker 1: that's you know, have you ever seen a rabbit um
Speaker 1: possessed by Satan because of all the devil carrets that
Speaker 1: they destroy. Right, and that's I mean, who hasn't seen
Speaker 1: a rabbit possessed by Satan? Right? You look at a
Speaker 1: rabbit with its beady little eyes. Yeah, those are Satan.
Speaker 1: I don't trust them. I don't trust they don't never
Speaker 1: trust the rabbit. They're deeply involved in the occult. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're always so anxious. And I feel like it's
Speaker 1: because of the guilt coming out it come and out
Speaker 1: of magician's hats. You know that that's occult stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what do you do when you're just you're just
Speaker 1: a little boop in in nature, just a little a
Speaker 1: little cutie out there and mother in cruel mother nature
Speaker 1: with not too many defenses to your name, and you're small,
Speaker 1: and maybe you're even delicious um, and you've got a predator.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you look pretty edible. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: just you gotta bluff sometimes you just have to. You
Speaker 1: gotta lie, you gotta say like, no, actually, I'm the
Speaker 1: scariest thing in the world. And this is called dimatic
Speaker 1: behavior or startled display, also known as bluffing. So this
Speaker 1: is when an animal uses a posture or behavior to
Speaker 1: bluff about. It's the offensive capabilities. It's like a cat
Speaker 1: arching its back and puffing up to appear larger. Uh,
Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily mean the animal is defenseless and can't
Speaker 1: defend itself at all, but it's overstating like how much
Speaker 1: of a threat it is to try to avoid confrontation.
Speaker 1: So like a cat can scratch you up pretty good,
Speaker 1: but when it's arching its back and puffing up, it's
Speaker 1: trying to make itself look bigger, so that you're calculating,
Speaker 1: like whether to confront this cat, and you see this big, puffy,
Speaker 1: angry looking at and you're like, whoa, that's a big cat.
Speaker 1: I don't want to deal with that. So um. I
Speaker 1: mean one kind of like example of this is often butterflies,
Speaker 1: moth caterpillars, even frogs will have these false eye spot
Speaker 1: There are these big color spots that look like eyes,
Speaker 1: and when they kind of put those out there, it's
Speaker 1: too startle predators to think like, oh my god, like
Speaker 1: there's these big eyes looking at me, and it's meant
Speaker 1: to scare thee way, even though you know obviously they're
Speaker 1: not real eyes, and the moth probably doesn't actually pose
Speaker 1: any real danger to the predator. And so I want
Speaker 1: to talk about some of my favorite cases of dimatic behavior,
Speaker 1: starting with the frill necked lizard also known as the
Speaker 1: frilled dragon, one of my favorite lizards. This is found
Speaker 1: in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It's got a
Speaker 1: big attitude and big face flaps. I feel like having
Speaker 1: big face flaps is always a good good thing when
Speaker 1: you have a big attitude. Oh yeah, yeah, because it's
Speaker 1: kind of like you're wearing a big head dress. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like demands attention. It's it's big Martin van
Speaker 1: Buren energy with with the you know, the side the
Speaker 1: side burns that go all the way down to the neck.
Speaker 1: It's like very mutton chop, but like powerful, powerful mountain
Speaker 1: powerful mutton chops that just go out like several feet
Speaker 1: like that. That to me like that sort of big
Speaker 1: Martin van Buren energy. I just want to give you
Speaker 1: some credit for that analogy, because I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: Martin van Buren, I kind of see that. But I
Speaker 1: googled him and was reminded just how intense his yes,
Speaker 1: cheek flaps are his button chops. They don't just hang,
Speaker 1: they fly out from either side of his face like
Speaker 1: a lizard, right exactly. And when he was threatened in
Speaker 1: the Senate, he does actually push out his mutton chops
Speaker 1: and rattles them, shakes them while shrieking, and that does
Speaker 1: ward off this predatory senators. Yes, yeah, of course. So
Speaker 1: this frill necked lizard is relatively long. It's just under
Speaker 1: three ft long including the tail, so it's a little
Speaker 1: under a meter long. It's you know, it's not like
Speaker 1: a small lizard. But but that is including its tail.
Speaker 1: And it's not like it's not beefy, it's not like muscular,
Speaker 1: so it's pretty skinny. It's relatively scrawny, so it's still
Speaker 1: vulnerable to predators. It lives in trees and it eats
Speaker 1: insects and small mice. But like, let's let's cut the bs.
Speaker 1: I know what everyone's here for. It is for the
Speaker 1: face frills, the neck frills. They have big flaps of
Speaker 1: skin all around their throat which they can spread like
Speaker 1: an umbrella when they feel threatened. So what they'll do
Speaker 1: is you, you you you anger, one of these guys. You
Speaker 1: scare them, they will do it. Pull a Jurassic Park
Speaker 1: like that little that little dinosaur that got really mad
Speaker 1: at Newman. They will open their mouths, which actually the
Speaker 1: inside of their mouths are like bright yellow um and
Speaker 1: then their frill has this bright orange and red color
Speaker 1: to make it visually stunning. So it's just like suddenly, boom,
Speaker 1: big colorful umbrella opening up, meant to startle predators. So
Speaker 1: this neckbrella, as I like to call it, is supported
Speaker 1: by cardial that is connected to the hioid bone. So
Speaker 1: we have a hyoid bone. If you feel like between
Speaker 1: like the base of your neck and your chin, you'll
Speaker 1: actually feel like it's a symmetrical bone that's actually kind
Speaker 1: of shaped like a horseshoe, so you can feel like
Speaker 1: a thick you know, be gentle, don't choke yourself, but
Speaker 1: you can feel this bone on your neck. In these lizards,
Speaker 1: the hyoid bone is like elongated, and that those elongated
Speaker 1: hals of that hyoid bone works like umbrella spokes to
Speaker 1: help expand the frill, and then it's further supported by cartilage.
Speaker 1: So basically, you know, it's sort of sort of like
Speaker 1: an umbrella method of action. I keep calling it an umbrella.
Speaker 1: It works a bit like an umbrella. So not only
Speaker 1: is it used to fend off predators or competitors. It's
Speaker 1: also used in romance to seduce the lady. Oh, of
Speaker 1: course worse because it's beautiful. I mean, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: get dressed up, you don't waste it. Also, something Martin
Speaker 1: van Buren would do during mating would um would flap
Speaker 1: out his sideburns romantically, and he used that to um
Speaker 1: attract females. Oh yeah, I mean you look at those
Speaker 1: sideburns in to me, I see attraction, I see seduction.
Speaker 1: Those just ray uh wyry, bushy sideburns. I think the
Speaker 1: word you're looking for is a raw sexual energy. When
Speaker 1: I think Martin van Buren, I think raw sexually. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too. I'm glad. I'm glad we agree on that. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: who wouldn't want like a sexy umbrella dance from one
Speaker 1: of these lizards. I'd be seduced. Oh it's and you know,
Speaker 1: you know this lizard can like protect you and take
Speaker 1: care of you and like in the rain, you know,
Speaker 1: use his neck frills to TechEd you in the rain.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm in As as the history books tell
Speaker 1: us about Martin van Buren, like it was noted, he
Speaker 1: was quite a gentleman used his mutton chops to shield
Speaker 1: ladies of the Senate from the rain. I'm joking, of course,
Speaker 1: because women weren't senators back then. Oh yeah, they weren't
Speaker 1: even allowed close to the They weren't even allowed to
Speaker 1: leave the house. So one more owl in this episode.
Speaker 1: This is the Eurasian eagle owl, who puffs up like
Speaker 1: an angry cat. Now what's interesting about this owl is
Speaker 1: they're quite big already. Uh So, they grew up to
Speaker 1: be about two and a half feet long, which is
Speaker 1: about seventy five cimeters, and they have a wingspan as
Speaker 1: tall as a full grown human, which about six ft
Speaker 1: or one point eight meters. And they despite being relatively big,
Speaker 1: they will still use a threat display when they feel upset,
Speaker 1: upset the spaghetti uh or when they feel threatened. So
Speaker 1: it's this is evidence that like these these dimatic displays,
Speaker 1: these these startle displays, are not just for animals that
Speaker 1: like are defenseless, like Eurasian eagle owls are are do
Speaker 1: have a lot of defenses. They are quite large, but
Speaker 1: still they want to avoid confrontation where they can so
Speaker 1: if something a larger predator is threatening them or even
Speaker 1: another Eurasian eagle owl. They will use this defense, so
Speaker 1: you know they it's just like puffing up like a
Speaker 1: big angry cat. I do believe owls are the kitty
Speaker 1: cats of the sky. Yes, because they're so grumpy. They're
Speaker 1: perceiving them to be grumpy, and I honestly perceive I
Speaker 1: love cats, but they're grumpy. They are very grumpy. I
Speaker 1: love cats too. That does not mean that they aren't
Speaker 1: perpetually crotchety. Yeah, much like much like owls. Um I
Speaker 1: would say like owls. This is not to say that
Speaker 1: owls make good pets. I'm sorry what Harry Potter has
Speaker 1: taught you. They're not. They're not great pets. They're not loyal,
Speaker 1: like in Harry Potter because Headwig was loyal, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: like how loyal is a cat? Take that and like
Speaker 1: cut it by like and you've got yourself an owl.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like some people do keep owls as pets.
Speaker 1: I just personally don't think that it's a great idea
Speaker 1: because they you know, they need like a lot of
Speaker 1: space to fly around and to be able to hunt
Speaker 1: and stuff, and so I don't really think they make
Speaker 1: ideal pets. It feels a little cruel to have an
Speaker 1: owl as a pet because they live to hunt and fly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, birds of prey raptors have
Speaker 1: a very like there. I don't think they crave human affection.
Speaker 1: They may enjoy, like I have definitely seen birds getting
Speaker 1: their heads scratched and stuff. But like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: they may enjoy some of the things we can provide them,
Speaker 1: like food, shelter and like acceptable levels of head scratch ease,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot that they need, and so I
Speaker 1: think that, like, I think there's a whole thing like
Speaker 1: after Harry Potter, a lot of people wanted to keep
Speaker 1: owls as pets, and it was a big problem because
Speaker 1: they were not expecting, you know, they were expecting the
Speaker 1: kind of owl situation in the fantasy books where the
Speaker 1: owls are magical and get you male and stuff. But
Speaker 1: I didn't just hang out in their tiny little cage
Speaker 1: that Yeah. No, I mean, like, I wouldn't say that
Speaker 1: there's no circumstance in which an owl can be kept
Speaker 1: by someone in a way that's like humane. Like, I
Speaker 1: think there's probably ways like that. You can have animal
Speaker 1: husbandry where people keep owls but they have enough space
Speaker 1: for them to fly around and like it's not like
Speaker 1: a tiny cage and stuff, and they're well aware of
Speaker 1: their needs and stuff. But I would say in most like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want an owl in my apartment. It'll be great,
Speaker 1: it'll be just like Harry Potter. Don't do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the people I know who have birds as pets,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking specifically of one friend. That bird that she has.
Speaker 1: I guess it is like a cocke cockatoo. Cockat cockatos
Speaker 1: are the ones with like little red cheeks and a
Speaker 1: little yellow on. I feel like that's what she has,
Speaker 1: and it's so social. The bird like loves her and
Speaker 1: nuzzles her and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, that I see.
Speaker 1: But the owl I don't. Birds of prey, birds of
Speaker 1: prayer not very social parrots uh generally speaking, like pair
Speaker 1: of keats, uh, cockatiels, cockatoos highly social in fact like that.
Speaker 1: That's what's interesting to me about keeping a parrot species
Speaker 1: as pets is that they require huge amounts of attention
Speaker 1: and affection. So like that's a whole other thing where
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say they make bad pets, but you have
Speaker 1: to think about them as a huge responsibility, not just
Speaker 1: in caring for them, but the amount of stimulation, attention,
Speaker 1: and just general entertainment that they're gonna need, I think
Speaker 1: it's probably even more than a dog. And you know
Speaker 1: how dogs need constant attention and affection like bird like
Speaker 1: some bird species like some types of cockatoos and maccaws
Speaker 1: and parrots. I mean, like one of the most um
Speaker 1: needy of like intellectual stimulation are African gray parrots and
Speaker 1: they also, I would say often need to be kept
Speaker 1: with another uh parrot of the same species as a companion.
Speaker 1: So they are a huge, huge responsibility. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of bird owners will agree with that that they
Speaker 1: some of them like have intelligence that's similar to a toddler,
Speaker 1: so yeah, and they will act like a toddler. And
Speaker 1: they have beaks that can like crush shell um nuts
Speaker 1: open so um, yeah you don't want to get yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's a you know, a big responsibility, even for
Speaker 1: parents who I think can be happy with human owners
Speaker 1: if they're treated well. Um. But something like a bird
Speaker 1: of prey like an owl, I think it's not that
Speaker 1: there would there's no way to like have an owl
Speaker 1: in captivity and have it have a good life, but
Speaker 1: it's it would be. It's hard, very hard to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll stick with my dog. Yes, i will stick with
Speaker 1: a dog. And then maybe I'll get a cat and
Speaker 1: like put little owl wings on it. Yeah, right, cat,
Speaker 1: the furrowed brow, like give them the little angry eyebrows.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not hard with a cat. They already
Speaker 1: kind of do that. Well. One last animal to talk
Speaker 1: about before we go our fasmids, which sounds like we're
Speaker 1: gonna start ghost hunting, but really they are just stick bugs.
Speaker 1: So stick bugs are a group of insects who include
Speaker 1: things like you know the stick bug that you think
Speaker 1: of from a bug's life that just looks like a long,
Speaker 1: thin stick. Some are green, some are brown, uh, some
Speaker 1: are actually leaf shaped, some are tiny, but some can
Speaker 1: be like the length of your forearm. So there's a
Speaker 1: huge amount of diversity within the phasmid species. And some
Speaker 1: even have wings and can fly, and some have little
Speaker 1: wings that are only used as display and they have
Speaker 1: some really interesting, uh startled display behaviors. So they do
Speaker 1: like to rely on camouflage. So the you know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm a stick, like, don't bother me. They do look
Speaker 1: very convincing. Is very much like sticks exactly, and the
Speaker 1: ones that are sort of more leaf shaped, it's like
Speaker 1: hey I'm a leaf, or like hey I'm a thorny
Speaker 1: like match, like just leave me alone, leave me alone,
Speaker 1: but ump ump. But if that doesn't work, they will
Speaker 1: resort to a startle display. So here is an example.
Speaker 1: Peruphasma shoulta of Peru is a black stick bug, which
Speaker 1: may kind of look creepy and threatening to us because
Speaker 1: it's this jet black long bug with these bright yellowish
Speaker 1: green eyes, but you know it, it's that's doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: translate to innate fear in animals who want to eat it,
Speaker 1: so and they are actually not threatening to humans at all.
Speaker 1: They just like to sip on nectar. If they are
Speaker 1: threatened by a predator, they will flash their wings, which,
Speaker 1: while comically small in proportion to their body and useless
Speaker 1: for flying, they actually have this bright red coloration that
Speaker 1: can be used to startle a potential predator. So it's
Speaker 1: just like someone's trying to sneak up on you and
Speaker 1: eat you, and you suddenly turn around and you flash
Speaker 1: these red flags at them to scare them off, kind
Speaker 1: of like bulls, right, Yeah, they do the red to
Speaker 1: make I guess it makes bulls angry. But still, something
Speaker 1: about the color red's interesting that it has this reaction
Speaker 1: in the animal kingdom. I mean it's interesting because I
Speaker 1: think with it's a bit of a myth with bulls
Speaker 1: that the color red agitates them. I think it's just
Speaker 1: the Yeah, I don't even think they can really it's
Speaker 1: like distinguish red that much from other colors. It's probably
Speaker 1: just because red is bright enough that they can see
Speaker 1: it pretty well. It's it's more the it's not specifically red.
Speaker 1: It's just the action of the bullfighter waving something at
Speaker 1: them and agitating them. So they're just antagonizing them. Uh. Interesting,
Speaker 1: I fell for the misconception. You fell for it. You
Speaker 1: fell for it. But but it's not like a dumb
Speaker 1: thing to think, because like bees actually do get agitated
Speaker 1: by the color red actually because red and black are
Speaker 1: very similar to them, and when they see black, they
Speaker 1: think about animals who will invade their nests, like bears
Speaker 1: or or badgers or something that have that dark coloration,
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, this is this is gonna invade
Speaker 1: my nest. So if you wear a red shirt and
Speaker 1: you go and poke a beehive, they're gonna be be pst.
Speaker 1: Oh that's really good too, because you know, I poke
Speaker 1: a lot of bee hives. I know it, I'll wear
Speaker 1: like yellow. Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you
Speaker 1: about maybe not poking so many beehives. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to hang out with them. It's not
Speaker 1: from any malice, right, dying, I'm just trying to see
Speaker 1: what's up, basically knocking on their front door, being like,
Speaker 1: hey bees, you want to hang exactly that. They never
Speaker 1: see it that way, but that's what, right, right, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, just keep trying. Yeah, definitely. One more thing
Speaker 1: about the proof pasma stick bugs is that they do
Speaker 1: have one defensive mechanism, which again is an irritating liquids,
Speaker 1: so that skunk. That skunk technique is so popular, So
Speaker 1: it's an irritating liquid they can spray from a gland
Speaker 1: near their heads, so they will do that if nothing
Speaker 1: else works. Um. There are other species of basman who
Speaker 1: will accompany the flashing of colorful wings with actually rubbing
Speaker 1: the wings together, which is called stridulation, which creates a
Speaker 1: buzzing sound like a bumblebee to scare off enemies. I
Speaker 1: don't know, that's that's a little spooky. They're like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like angry little noisemakers, like you know how you
Speaker 1: have the like like noisemakers that like do colorful things
Speaker 1: or like clacking to like colorful fans together to to
Speaker 1: scare something off. So it's kind of festive and menacing,
Speaker 1: menacingly festive. Yeah. Yeah, they're like little moracas. TI means
Speaker 1: spiny leaf bug nymphs. Let's talk about that. That they
Speaker 1: sound cupe down they and they are to me they
Speaker 1: sound cute. They don't look cute. I'm sorry to the
Speaker 1: insect lovers of this podcast, but I struggle with bugs.
Speaker 1: I understand, but I think they look a little cute.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can win you over. So the nymphs, which
Speaker 1: is basically the baby version, will are They're quite small
Speaker 1: and you know, about like less than the size of
Speaker 1: like your your thumb, like half the size of your thumb.
Speaker 1: I don't actually know how big your thumb is, but
Speaker 1: you know, under an inch long little little guys. They
Speaker 1: can actually and they they can start off being quite
Speaker 1: a bit smaller too. In fact, they can be close
Speaker 1: to the size of an ant. And because they're so
Speaker 1: small and they are potentially delicious to some sort of insectivore.
Speaker 1: They will curl up their posteriors, which makes their abdomens
Speaker 1: look round instead of the skinny kind of stick bug
Speaker 1: shape that they are, so predators will confuse them for
Speaker 1: an ant, and nobody wants to mess with ants, because
Speaker 1: you know how aunts are you like mess with one?
Speaker 1: They call their like five thousand sisters who come over
Speaker 1: and like give you a stern talking to and buy you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they rolled deep. Okay, I made a mistake. I think
Speaker 1: that's very cute that they curl their butt. And I
Speaker 1: Google image searched these spiny bugs and I accidentally found
Speaker 1: a giant spiny stick bug. Yeah, the adults I can see.
Speaker 1: I think they're cool, but I wouldn't describe them as cute,
Speaker 1: describe them as interesting. The giant ones are the size
Speaker 1: of a human hand, and that's that's a big bug.
Speaker 1: So spiny leaf insect adults have a little bit more
Speaker 1: money where their mouth is in terms of startle displays.
Speaker 1: So they first of all release an odor that I
Speaker 1: guess smells like toffee, which is meant to ward off predators,
Speaker 1: but for me, it would have the opposite effect, like
Speaker 1: someone's cooking something, making some cookies. So they do have
Speaker 1: sharp spines all over their bodies and on its rear legs,
Speaker 1: so they curl up their abdomen similar to the babies,
Speaker 1: but instead of making them look like an ant, it
Speaker 1: just makes them look bigger and chunkier and more threatening.
Speaker 1: And it's like, since they're all covered in spines, it's
Speaker 1: like displaying all these little little spikes which normally are
Speaker 1: used as a form of camouflage to make them look
Speaker 1: like a thorny branch uh and and but once they
Speaker 1: are discovered like, hey, you're not a branch, you're an insect.
Speaker 1: And they're like, ah ha, but I still have all
Speaker 1: these thorns, so you better not bother me. And so
Speaker 1: they will basically like move their back legs like pincers
Speaker 1: as a threat display, and they do like they can't
Speaker 1: actually poke you with them, and like a thorn, they
Speaker 1: can't actually hurt you. So you know that there. It's
Speaker 1: just because it's a bit of bluffing, like overstating how
Speaker 1: dangerous they are. It doesn't mean they can't do a
Speaker 1: little bit of damage. Yeah, So they're not real pincers.
Speaker 1: They just make it look like pincers, right, but their
Speaker 1: back legs and they're covered in spikes, so they work like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's enough enough for me to stay away exactly Before
Speaker 1: we go, I do want to do show you this
Speaker 1: artwork that I found that is by an artist named
Speaker 1: Nicole Bannowits who does inflatable artworks. So it's like big
Speaker 1: inflatable costumes and this she has all sorts of like weird.
Speaker 1: It's like sort of organic horror sci fi looking stuff.
Speaker 1: And I'll include a link in the show notes, or
Speaker 1: you could google Nicole Banno wits Uh. And this is
Speaker 1: called the Stinded Defense a dimatic behavior. So what we're
Speaker 1: talking about, And it's a person in like a costume
Speaker 1: that it has just a bunch of like inflatable spikes
Speaker 1: and then what looks like a scorpion singer coming off
Speaker 1: of her head. It looks a little bit like a
Speaker 1: thing from like the thing, you know, the titular thing
Speaker 1: from the thing. It looks like a kind of like
Speaker 1: an alien, yeah, like a white alien, yeah, but creature
Speaker 1: like a like a bug, just really big. It's an
Speaker 1: uncomfortable looking costume, but it's I guess it's all inflatable,
Speaker 1: so it's not actually too spiky. But yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I love that. So this artist's work is inspired by
Speaker 1: actual evolutionary biology, so by a dimatic behavior, and she's
Speaker 1: got all sorts of art in there she think is
Speaker 1: really interesting. But yeah, I love that. I love it
Speaker 1: when artists are inspired by nature in interesting ways. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're beautiful. It is kind of spooky and scary looking
Speaker 1: these costumes, but they're also just gorgeous. Yeah. How cool
Speaker 1: to be inspired by these like natural systems of defense. No, exactly,
Speaker 1: I love it. So that's I wanted to share that
Speaker 1: with you guys because I think it is really cool. Well, Anna,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today. This was
Speaker 1: so fun, This was so far learned so much. I
Speaker 1: feel a little more like inspired to handle my angry
Speaker 1: dog right now, because you know, she it's it's not
Speaker 1: her fault. Now, she's got like a little lizard base
Speaker 1: flap situation going on with the phone. Yeah, just tell
Speaker 1: her she looks like Martin van Buren and she'll know,
Speaker 1: and she she'll know what I We'll take it as
Speaker 1: a compliment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So thank you so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad we could work through some anger issues here.
Speaker 1: I think as you saw she's just e's in a mood.
Speaker 1: We've made a lot of progress to Yeah, well, where
Speaker 1: can people find you? You can find me on Instagram
Speaker 1: at bad Comics with an X by Anna with two ends. Um,
Speaker 1: but if you just google bad Comics usually the first
Speaker 1: person that pops up and um, I'm on Twitter the
Speaker 1: same handle, and hit me up with your dog cone
Speaker 1: stories if you've been through this before, because I just
Speaker 1: like feel so I feel so sorry for her, you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to hell seeing her get stuff stuck
Speaker 1: in the cone is really pathetic. She's an angry little
Speaker 1: corn hole, she is, and she's a doc sin so
Speaker 1: she's already like so just chip on her shoulder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so stubborn. You can find me on the internet at
Speaker 1: Creature Future Pod, on Instagram at Creature feet pot onto
Speaker 1: Twitter that's f E a tenet that something very different.
Speaker 1: You can email me your listener questions Creature Feature Pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com and your pictures of animals. I
Speaker 1: love to see them. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you want to leave a rating or review that
Speaker 1: actually really really helps the podcast tells the algorithm that hey,
Speaker 1: we're a good podcast, and also I read them all
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate it. It really makes my day
Speaker 1: when I get a nice review. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening, and thanks to this Space Classics for
Speaker 1: their super awesome song Exo Alumina. Creature feature is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the
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