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, and today on the show, it is
Speaker 1: hot outside and I need to cool off, so maybe
Speaker 1: I'll lick my arms. We're having a heat wave here
Speaker 1: and I imagine a lot of you out there are
Speaker 1: dealing with the same. So let's cool down with some
Speaker 1: stories of how animals beat the heat, from the origin
Speaker 1: of sweat to the only trickle down theory that actually works.
Speaker 1: We're going to find out that when it comes to
Speaker 1: cooling down, no bodily fluid is off the table. Discover
Speaker 1: this more as we answer the age old question why
Speaker 1: do dogs pants? Is it because they don't want to skirt?
Speaker 1: Joining me today is Front of the show my producer
Speaker 1: producer at I Heart Radio of Many a fine podcast,
Speaker 1: an overall wonderful person, Joel Monique. Welcome, Fie, Katie. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having me back. I am so
Speaker 1: excited to have you back. I love recording with you
Speaker 1: and it's always great to catch up. Yes hell yes,
Speaker 1: especially in this heat. Uh listeners, my air conditioner has
Speaker 1: just kicked on. Hopefully it's not interfering too much, but
Speaker 1: it can't go off because it is extremely hot out here.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. We can tolerate some air conditioner white noise
Speaker 1: in the background to keep you from melting. That is acceptable. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is hot here. We've been having temperatures and like
Speaker 1: the mid nineties. Some days it breaks a hundred. It's
Speaker 1: pretty bad. I live in um Tour in Italy, which
Speaker 1: is a northern Italy. It is even hotter in the south. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you live in southern California. Yes, I just got
Speaker 1: a new roof deck to you, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll just go hang out with my bare feet just
Speaker 1: on the roof. It'll be classic Californian and my feet
Speaker 1: that You've got to put some sts on back in
Speaker 1: that house before we die of It was so hot.
Speaker 1: My dog was trying to come out. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: your poor pads on. Your absolutely not. It's just it's
Speaker 1: unbearable until the night comes and then it's lovely. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. It's hard. I think when it's just so hot,
Speaker 1: there's so little relief unless you stand in front of
Speaker 1: an air conditioner seven and that's expensive, so so it
Speaker 1: can get pretty bad. Of course it's getting worse. I
Speaker 1: probably cannot do this animal themed, environmental themed episode without
Speaker 1: mentioning global warming the elephant in the room, although that's
Speaker 1: that's mean to elephants. Let's not put that on thee
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, there are record droughts here. It's
Speaker 1: pretty bad, and you know, it's just it's another reminder
Speaker 1: that global warming is not some distant thing in the future.
Speaker 1: It's happening now and it sucks. Yes, it does suck.
Speaker 1: I'm keen. We should sleep during the day. We have
Speaker 1: to adapt as our ancestors did, and we should be
Speaker 1: sleeping during the day and the sun is out so
Speaker 1: we can be come nocturnal creatures and enjoy the night
Speaker 1: when it's acceptably cool. This sounds good to me. I
Speaker 1: like this idea. Also, just like we should become semi
Speaker 1: aquatic if I could sleep in like a water bed,
Speaker 1: not a water bed where it's dumb and it's like
Speaker 1: full of water, but I mean, like in the water
Speaker 1: and be right without drowning. That's the trick. How do
Speaker 1: I do that without drowning? Scientists, you know, stop worrying
Speaker 1: about stopping global warming and get on, you know, the
Speaker 1: water bed the submersible beds. So yeah, it is. It's
Speaker 1: very hot, and humans have some techniques to stay cool,
Speaker 1: but as do all sorts of animals in the animal kingdom,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of really interesting ways to
Speaker 1: stay cool. But first, I do want to talk about sweating,
Speaker 1: because you know that you're probably familiar with I don't
Speaker 1: mean that as an insult. I'm also familiar with it personally.
Speaker 1: I sweat a huge amount while doing podcasts. I don't
Speaker 1: know why, even when it's not hot out, I just
Speaker 1: like turn into a bucket of sweat when I'm podcasting.
Speaker 1: Is that t M I I'm sorry, now you know, uh,
Speaker 1: now you have a horrifying visual to go with what
Speaker 1: is happening in your ears. But yes, so humans sweat
Speaker 1: a lot, and we sweat to keep cool, but we
Speaker 1: are not the only animals that sweat. Humans. Primates and
Speaker 1: equines meaning horses, zebras, and donkeys also sweat all over
Speaker 1: their bodies. You may have heard that other animals don't
Speaker 1: have sweat glands that you know we sweat, whereas dogs
Speaker 1: don't sweat or your cat doesn't sweat. But actually most
Speaker 1: mammals do have sweat glands. They just have them on
Speaker 1: their footpads and maybe some other sparsely furred areas of
Speaker 1: their bodies, like their chins, But they don't use these
Speaker 1: sweat glands for their primary method of cooling down. Uh.
Speaker 1: Only humans, primates and horses. All kinds of horses in
Speaker 1: the horse family have sweat glands all over our bodies
Speaker 1: and use it as a primary means of cooling so akrin.
Speaker 1: Sweat glands in other mammals, while possible to use to
Speaker 1: cool off, has another primary purpose. The sweat is usually
Speaker 1: on the footpads like I mentioned, and is excreted when
Speaker 1: the animal is stressed. This actually helps the animal grip
Speaker 1: surfaces better, providing friction. It's why our hands get sweaty
Speaker 1: when we're nervous. You know, we started out with a
Speaker 1: lot of sweat glands in our hands, and when you're
Speaker 1: nervous or excited, you will get very sweaty hands. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure we've all had that experience when we're on
Speaker 1: a date or doing something like public speaking and your
Speaker 1: hands get really sweaty and yeah, and it's like hard
Speaker 1: to hold your nervous to hold hands with someone or
Speaker 1: shake hands with someone because your hands all sweaty. That
Speaker 1: is not your fault. That is the fault of your
Speaker 1: ancestors who used that sweat to better grip onto things
Speaker 1: like tree branches as they were fleeing a predator. So
Speaker 1: they would feel nervous, not because they're on a date
Speaker 1: or giving a presentation, but because they were being chased
Speaker 1: by a predator and their life was on the line. Yes,
Speaker 1: and so does the sweat would make it just so
Speaker 1: that you could like he said, it's for grip, but flick,
Speaker 1: I feel like it would make you fall. Yeah, you're like,
Speaker 1: I feel like our bodies are betraying us all the time.
Speaker 1: I just want to say, um, y'all, don't act in
Speaker 1: the best interest of us emotionally or um representatively. We
Speaker 1: are just sweaty, nervous beings. But there are no lions
Speaker 1: after us. Why why do we have the same interaction. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because, yeah, sweat, when you're trying to like
Speaker 1: hold onto someone's hand or holding a slick sort of
Speaker 1: like man made surface like a steering wheel, is not
Speaker 1: going to give you that much friction. But when it's
Speaker 1: against more natural surfaces like on bark, it actually does
Speaker 1: give you some friction and a brief, you know, amount
Speaker 1: of sweat as you were fleeing a predator. Just a
Speaker 1: little bit of sweat. Actually, it does make your hands
Speaker 1: a little more sticky. It's like you can do kind
Speaker 1: of a fun party trick when you're really sweaty. You
Speaker 1: can like hang spoons or something off your body where
Speaker 1: you're sweaty because it sticks. Uh, if you have too
Speaker 1: much sweat, of course, it will start to get kind
Speaker 1: of slippery. So like when you are in a state
Speaker 1: of sort of constant stress, constant anxiety, you might start
Speaker 1: to get a little bit too much sweat and that
Speaker 1: might start to affect your grip. But generally this was
Speaker 1: for fast and dangerous encounters with predators. So get in
Speaker 1: a little bit of sweat. Getting a little sticky on
Speaker 1: your hands really helped you grab those tree branches, give
Speaker 1: you a slight edge because even a matter of like
Speaker 1: a fraction of a second could mean the difference between
Speaker 1: life or death. When we were back in the old days,
Speaker 1: when we were like little tree shrewd type animals, I
Speaker 1: take back what I said, body, you're doing great. Thank
Speaker 1: you for supporting us and saving our lives. Bless yes.
Speaker 1: And so that is why we still have a lot
Speaker 1: of animals that have sweat in their footpads, but it's
Speaker 1: not really used as a main method of cooling. However,
Speaker 1: for humans and those other species that I mentioned, sweat
Speaker 1: is now used for cooling and it's very effective. So
Speaker 1: sweat is water, salt, and some other ions that are
Speaker 1: excreted by millions of sweat glands all over our skin.
Speaker 1: A lot of sweat is concentrated in our palms that
Speaker 1: relic of our early ancestry, and that is why your
Speaker 1: hands tend to get so sweaty and uncomfortable situations. Um,
Speaker 1: but we have a little bit less in terms of
Speaker 1: sweat on like our trunk. Uh, but our feet can
Speaker 1: also get quite sweaty. But why why sweat? It's annoying.
Speaker 1: It gives us big stains in our shirt, big pit stains,
Speaker 1: makes us sticky. It's gross, Like it seems like you
Speaker 1: don't when you're out and you're like, I'm so I'm hot,
Speaker 1: and now I'm like hot and sweaty. It's gross immediately exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's not a pleasant feeling except when you're trying
Speaker 1: to get a little cooler, especially with a nice breeze.
Speaker 1: So if you have ever experienced that where you're in
Speaker 1: the hot, hot sun. You're so hot and then you
Speaker 1: get just a little breeze and it just feels so good.
Speaker 1: The reason that breeze, even if it's a hot breeze,
Speaker 1: is making you feel so good. It is facilitating evaporative cooling.
Speaker 1: So when sweat evaporates, it cools the skin. And this
Speaker 1: is because the conversion from a liquid from that liquid
Speaker 1: sweat form into a gas by the sweat molecules takes
Speaker 1: energy in the form of heat. So to convert it
Speaker 1: from a liquid to a gas, it requires heat. It's
Speaker 1: gonna draw some of that heat from the ambient temperature,
Speaker 1: but some of it will be from your body. So
Speaker 1: it's taking heat from your body to fuel this conversion
Speaker 1: into a gas. And so as it's evaporating, it is
Speaker 1: leeching heat out of you and it feels very good. Wow.
Speaker 1: I never questioned how sweat work before, as I was like,
Speaker 1: it's pouring out of me. I wish away. That was
Speaker 1: my relationship with sweat before. Yeah, I know the whole
Speaker 1: chemical reactions are happening there. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of shame around sweat, like it's unhygienic, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we try to cover it up, but it is. It's
Speaker 1: serving a very important purpose. And I know that when
Speaker 1: I am walking around in a hundred degree whether, I
Speaker 1: am very very happy that I am sweating, because I
Speaker 1: do appreciate the cooling effect, Like if you don't have
Speaker 1: that sweat, you don't have any efficient method to cool
Speaker 1: your body temperature down in the heat, because we are
Speaker 1: not equipped like animals and that they have different methods
Speaker 1: of sweating. Um, but our human way, and I should
Speaker 1: also include other primates as well as horses. Uh. The
Speaker 1: fact that we can sweat so much and have that
Speaker 1: as a cooling system has been speculated to be the
Speaker 1: reason why we're able to be such good marathon hunters,
Speaker 1: because we are not Yes, we're not the fastest, we're
Speaker 1: not the most naturally armed animals out there, but we
Speaker 1: were really good at having really good stamina and basically
Speaker 1: just tiring our prey animals out and being able to
Speaker 1: out marathon them so that by the time we caught
Speaker 1: up to them, they were exhausted and we were okay.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons they think maybe this was
Speaker 1: the case is that we were so sweaty, so we
Speaker 1: were able to cool down much more efficiently than these
Speaker 1: animals that would often have to pant and rely on
Speaker 1: things like large ears, which like having a really large
Speaker 1: ear will allow your blood to be cooled down, but
Speaker 1: having being drenched in sweat gives you really good evaporative cooling.
Speaker 1: It's really as long as you have a replenishable water source,
Speaker 1: it is really efficient in terms of cooling you down.
Speaker 1: And so maybe this is why we were such effective hunters.
Speaker 1: Humanity is so dark, like, well, I don't have the
Speaker 1: natural claus or strength to to catch my food. I'll
Speaker 1: run it until it's exhausted. I'll just stop you until
Speaker 1: you're like, fine, guy, I've done. I think about Willie
Speaker 1: Mammoth and the tactical effort it took for hunters and
Speaker 1: packs to take these things down um as metal as hell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again never stopped to think about how sweat played
Speaker 1: an actual like effort and roll in their ability to
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's we are at
Speaker 1: tiring species. We we just annoy and uster animals to death.
Speaker 1: My dog knows all of that. She's like, yes, every day,
Speaker 1: she's all over me. I want to sleep on this couch.
Speaker 1: She's gonna kill me one of these days. I would
Speaker 1: never I lust she. I'm a babysitting my sister in
Speaker 1: law's cat and she's very sweet, but every time I
Speaker 1: try to pet her, she looks at me like she's
Speaker 1: the cool girl and I'm trying to sit at her
Speaker 1: table and she's like, what really you think you think
Speaker 1: this is appropriate? Every time lines up from a nap,
Speaker 1: who are you? And why? Uh? They are our best
Speaker 1: friends and it is an unequal relationship. It is a
Speaker 1: little bit unrequited. So equines like horses, also sweat all
Speaker 1: over their bodies as well as primates, and they are
Speaker 1: also really good marathon runners. So they actually instead of
Speaker 1: using the crime sweat glands, they use apple crime sweat glands,
Speaker 1: and so it's slightly different sweat glands, and it's slightly
Speaker 1: different sweat. So sweating means that both humans and horses
Speaker 1: need to drink a lot of water. We also need
Speaker 1: to replenish the electrolytes that we excrete out inner sweat,
Speaker 1: and that's the salty mineral mixture that sweat is. Like
Speaker 1: if you've ever tasted sweat, I mean I don't recommend it,
Speaker 1: but it's salty um and there are other minerals, other
Speaker 1: ions in it, but horses actually have higher concentrations of
Speaker 1: these ions in their sweat, so they are more in
Speaker 1: danger of electrolyte loss through sweating, and equestrians people who
Speaker 1: care for horses worn of a white foam that can
Speaker 1: form on their skin if they're sweating out a lot
Speaker 1: of electrolytes, which actually so when it rubs against their harnesses,
Speaker 1: it produces a lather, It produces a foam and you
Speaker 1: can see this this kind of foamy thing because it
Speaker 1: is not just water, it's salt and other ions, other
Speaker 1: minerals that is forming this lather. And so, yeah, if
Speaker 1: you have a horse and you have it in the heat, um,
Speaker 1: you have to be very careful to make sure it
Speaker 1: both is getting a lot to drink, but it's also
Speaker 1: able to replenish its electrolytes through food or other supplementation.
Speaker 1: I thought this was a horse stepping out of the
Speaker 1: shower before you what it is. They are dripping. It
Speaker 1: looks like they didn't get all the soap of yeah,
Speaker 1: other chest, but no, that's taked on salt from the sweat, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like it's a it's a lather. So it's not
Speaker 1: just salt, but it's other ions as well. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it is um. You know, it's not necessarily like a
Speaker 1: really bad sign if there's a little bit of weather
Speaker 1: on a horse, but they definitely need to then replenish
Speaker 1: their water in their electrolytes because they're excreting a lot um. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and actually, uh, plants also sweat kind of so we
Speaker 1: don't think of plants as having these kinds of animal
Speaker 1: like yeah, but they do so uh. There are pores
Speaker 1: in their leaves that allow water to evaporate and causes
Speaker 1: the same evaporative cooling effect that we get when we sweat.
Speaker 1: So while it's not technically sweat, they are uh, they
Speaker 1: are able to benefit from evaporative cooling as water is
Speaker 1: basically whisked out of their pores and turned into a
Speaker 1: gas and the same process happens, which you know is
Speaker 1: good for plants to keep from overheating. Uh. And it's
Speaker 1: also why sometimes when you are in a forest you
Speaker 1: will feel a lot of coolness, not just because of
Speaker 1: the shade, but you may also be getting sort of
Speaker 1: a secondary benefit from this evaporative cooling from these plants
Speaker 1: and one other animal that is said to quote unquote
Speaker 1: sweat is the hippo So hippos seem to sweat a
Speaker 1: reddish pink fluid. It's actually called blood sweat. It's not
Speaker 1: made out of blood, but the oily substance is not
Speaker 1: technically sweat, and it is not used for evaporative cooling.
Speaker 1: It's actually us Yeah, so it's actually a sunscreen, skin moisturizer,
Speaker 1: and water repellent skin protector, all in one naturally produced ointment.
Speaker 1: Sephora could never, they could never, that's right, bottle it.
Speaker 1: Oh god, Yeah, there's gonna be there's gonna be new
Speaker 1: hippo sweat cosmetics. Hopefully not hopefully the hippos don't let
Speaker 1: you get close enough to them to rob them of
Speaker 1: their precious pink sweat. But yeah, to stay cool, hippos
Speaker 1: hang out in the water. They're semi aquatic, so they
Speaker 1: don't really need sweat to benefit from evaporative cooling, but
Speaker 1: they use this oily sweat to protect their skin from
Speaker 1: the sun and from absorbing too much water. Uh and
Speaker 1: so yeah, it is. It is, you know, technically not
Speaker 1: a sweat, but it is an interesting use of you know,
Speaker 1: sort of the sweating action to produce something that actually
Speaker 1: protects them not from the heat but from the sun
Speaker 1: and from other elements. If you've ever been to a
Speaker 1: retirement home in Florida, you you'll understand the look. It's uh,
Speaker 1: a lot of like brown tannish. It looks like carburetor
Speaker 1: oil sort of dripping down for hippo's forehead. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: paints quite a picture, but I'm glad they found a
Speaker 1: solution that works for them. Yeah, it does look like
Speaker 1: you know when someone uses some some of that like
Speaker 1: spray on die or or what is it like real
Speaker 1: like touch up your hair, or like spray on tan
Speaker 1: in it like drips down. Uh, but it's meant to
Speaker 1: look that way, So no judgment here. So we've talked
Speaker 1: about sweat. That's how humans stay cool, it's how other
Speaker 1: primates stay cool, It's how horses stay cool. But what
Speaker 1: about other animals, Like we have talked about how they
Speaker 1: produce some sweat on their paws, but that's not really
Speaker 1: enough to benefit from evaporative cooling to really get their
Speaker 1: body temperature down. So there are a couple of ways
Speaker 1: that animals can reduce their temperature that you will see
Speaker 1: in your own pet animals. So cats and dogs both
Speaker 1: demonstrate two different kinds of of cooling methods. And so
Speaker 1: cats do have sweat glows like on their paws, but
Speaker 1: it's not enough, like I said, so they have to
Speaker 1: lick themselves to cool the rest of themselves off through evaporation.
Speaker 1: Dogs meanwhile, use panting as their main method of cooling.
Speaker 1: So you see your dog, it's panting, its tongue is
Speaker 1: lolling out. Uh. And so the reason this helps cool
Speaker 1: down the dog is it is another form of evaporative cooling.
Speaker 1: The movement of air over the mucus membranes inside their mouth,
Speaker 1: inside their nose causes evaporation. And like sweat works, it
Speaker 1: is leeching heat from their mucus membranes and they expel it.
Speaker 1: It's like when you when your dog pants in your face,
Speaker 1: you get this hot, hot, stinky mist. They are expelling
Speaker 1: that evaporative cooling right out at you. So face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my my, I got my dogs some new salmon treats.
Speaker 1: She loves them so much, and so I keep giving
Speaker 1: them to her. But ah, the breath, it's so it's
Speaker 1: so foul. But I will do anything to make her happy.
Speaker 1: So listen, they need to treat bought my dog duck
Speaker 1: treats she's got off for them equally gamy, bad breath.
Speaker 1: We again, as you said, we do it for love.
Speaker 1: We do it for love. We will endure the stink
Speaker 1: for love. So you may. If you're a cat owner,
Speaker 1: and you may have noticed that your cat does occasionally pant,
Speaker 1: cats can pant, you actually will see that sometimes with
Speaker 1: lions and other wildcats. Your domesticated cat won't pant too much,
Speaker 1: but occasionally, uh. They typically don't need to uh so
Speaker 1: unless they overly exert themselves or are anxious. Otherwise, licking
Speaker 1: themselves does basically cover them for that, so they can pant.
Speaker 1: They can cool themselves that down that way, but that's
Speaker 1: really only rarely when they've really over exerted themselves or
Speaker 1: or when they're nervous. It's a kind of self soothing
Speaker 1: thing that makes sense to me. I too, will get
Speaker 1: the shower. I don't have a cat's tongue, so I
Speaker 1: can't prefore say wait to get myself cool all over.
Speaker 1: But I do understand being like, what if I just
Speaker 1: sto in the shower, frank cold water all over me
Speaker 1: for five minutes? Yeah, yeah, I was when I was
Speaker 1: still living in Los Angeles when we were having a
Speaker 1: heat wave and we had I don't know, it was
Speaker 1: like it would get up to like a hundred and
Speaker 1: three hundred and four at night. Still it was still
Speaker 1: that hot at night, and I would just like wake up,
Speaker 1: go to the shower in my pajamas, turn on the shower,
Speaker 1: you know, just like get drenched, even wearing my pajamas,
Speaker 1: squelched back to bed and just flop down. Uh. And
Speaker 1: that was the only way I could make it through
Speaker 1: the night without I don't know, breaking down sobbing, which
Speaker 1: actually the sobbing might help might help cool my people. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, getting getting your body drenched really helps you
Speaker 1: stay cool. And kangaroos know this, but they don't use
Speaker 1: uh they don't use a shower. They do use spit
Speaker 1: and so like your cat, they will lick themselves to
Speaker 1: stay cool, but they do it in a very specific way.
Speaker 1: So kangaroos living in the out bag must endure temperatures
Speaker 1: exceeding a hundred degrees fahrenheit or thirty eight degrees celsius. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty hot out there, so to cool down they
Speaker 1: lick and spit on their arms. Just go to town.
Speaker 1: You can see their arms are like soaked in saliva
Speaker 1: and they enjoy the evaporative cooling that I've talked so
Speaker 1: much about on this podcast. It is such an effective
Speaker 1: way to cool down that it is no wonder that
Speaker 1: multiple animal moles have developed this technique. So why their arms, Like,
Speaker 1: why are they focusing their licking on their arms? So
Speaker 1: their arms actually have less fur than a lot of
Speaker 1: their body. Their arms also are full of many, many
Speaker 1: blood vessels. One way to cool down is to cool
Speaker 1: down your blood. You'll see this in animals that have
Speaker 1: big ears, like the wild African hair has these huge ears,
Speaker 1: and UH, it's because you have their blood vessels spread
Speaker 1: out over a large surface area and as air passes
Speaker 1: over it cools down the blood. It goes back inside
Speaker 1: their body and so it lowers their internal body temperature.
Speaker 1: With kangaroos, by licking their arms until they're soggy and
Speaker 1: covered and spit the evaporate of cooling, UH is cooling
Speaker 1: down the many blood vessels that run through their arms,
Speaker 1: and thus is cooling down their entire body. I thinking
Speaker 1: of every time I gave lions eight cong and she
Speaker 1: came back to me covered with peanut butter. Her elbows
Speaker 1: and like all you have to do is eat a
Speaker 1: little bit of it, and you just put your whole
Speaker 1: self in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. It gets messy,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of funny because they just like their
Speaker 1: paws are very like hand like. They're not hands, they
Speaker 1: don't really they don't have true opposable thumbs, but they
Speaker 1: kind of have a hand like look and they just
Speaker 1: stick out their arms and just start going to town licking,
Speaker 1: getting you know, just dripping with spit. It's gross, but
Speaker 1: it's effective. You gotta do what you gotta do to
Speaker 1: stay cool. Listen, we can't judge. I've I have in
Speaker 1: the past to get cool, driven around in a minivan
Speaker 1: with the air conditioning pumping because we didn't want to
Speaker 1: try to cool an entire space with just a window
Speaker 1: box fan. I have sat in front of a window
Speaker 1: box fan and just played games for hours waiting for
Speaker 1: that heat. So who am I to judge you covering
Speaker 1: yourself in your own spit to cool down exactly. There
Speaker 1: are some restaurants that have misters in really hot areas,
Speaker 1: and so my technique is to like go to the
Speaker 1: restaurant and I don't want to eat there, but gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm so interested in their menu. I'm just gonna stand
Speaker 1: here for a little while as the Mr spray me, like,
Speaker 1: do I order a drink from right here under the spray? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I really need to study this menu, sir to make
Speaker 1: my decision about your fine restaurants. So please leave me,
Speaker 1: leave me be. So a lot of animals, a lot
Speaker 1: of mammals will lick themselves to stay cool, and this
Speaker 1: includes rats who also like to lick a specific body part.
Speaker 1: Uh but it is the males and they like to
Speaker 1: lick their scrow ums. Oh boy, So the males promise
Speaker 1: they're just doing this to cool down. It is nothing weird,
Speaker 1: nothing perverse. Ah, These little little rats just telling scientists like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's too cool down. Yeah, you don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: can't worrying on towards This is just how we sleep. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: turn away, dacty say, and don't worry about this. Um. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: rats don't only lick their scrotums to stay cool. They
Speaker 1: will lick their whole bodies. They mostly focus on their feet,
Speaker 1: their tails, and the males like to focus on their scrotum. Uh.
Speaker 1: So if that sounds like they're just a little weird
Speaker 1: little kinksters. It is actually because of a similar reason
Speaker 1: why kangaroos like their arms. They're focusing on their body
Speaker 1: parts that have the least amount of fur because this
Speaker 1: is the most efficient when it comes to evaporative cooling.
Speaker 1: The cooling effect is the closest to their blood vessel. Uh,
Speaker 1: And so they may lick their scrotums um and get
Speaker 1: some coolness down there. And look, little buddies, whatever you
Speaker 1: gotta do to keep cool in this heat. You know, listen,
Speaker 1: you don't want to reach that point where you're like,
Speaker 1: I can't hardly breathe. I am so like just my
Speaker 1: lungs feel sticky that when I lived in a place
Speaker 1: that was humid, that was the issue, is I would
Speaker 1: be like trying to get in a deep breath that
Speaker 1: you would just feel the heat inside of your body. So,
Speaker 1: while we don't recommend you try all of the ways
Speaker 1: these animals are staying cool, we definitely understand that you
Speaker 1: have to do what you have to do. It's harder
Speaker 1: to sweat in humidity, so your body's natural evaporative cooling
Speaker 1: technique doesn't work, and really high humidity. Yeah, So so
Speaker 1: it has to do with the fact that when you're
Speaker 1: in drier weather and you have a breeze and you
Speaker 1: have the heat, um making water vapor is relatively straightforward.
Speaker 1: But in high humidity environments, UH, the the ambient air
Speaker 1: is already somewhat saturated with uh with water vapor, and
Speaker 1: so the air has a certain capacity for water vapor.
Speaker 1: So sweat doesn't really evaporate. There's not enough room for
Speaker 1: it in the surrounding air, and so you may feel
Speaker 1: like you sweat more in human conditions, but really you're
Speaker 1: just you're sweating the normal amount, but it's not evaporating,
Speaker 1: and so you're not really getting the benefits. So you'll
Speaker 1: be hot and sticky and muggy and you're not getting
Speaker 1: that evaporative cooling technique, which is why hot and humid
Speaker 1: is one of the worst experiences for a human being.
Speaker 1: It's explaining a lot about Florida. I get it now.
Speaker 1: Every Florida man is partially forgiven because you had to
Speaker 1: deal with that. It sounds terrible. Yeah, yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1: You got a factor in humidity when people commit crimes.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, but was it humid? Because I kind
Speaker 1: of get it. Then stay cool, But yeah, so it is.
Speaker 1: It's really like that horrible feeling you get when it's humid,
Speaker 1: Like it really reminds you how effective and how good
Speaker 1: our body system of sweating is, because without the evaporative
Speaker 1: cooling of our sweat, it gets really miserable. But when
Speaker 1: we get back, we're actually going to talk about some
Speaker 1: animals who do have a technique to try to cool
Speaker 1: down even in somewhat humid conditions. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: just lay back, lick your arms, and keep it cool
Speaker 1: and we will be right back. Joel, your favorite topic.
Speaker 1: Oh no, it's it's birds. It's birds. Oh good, here
Speaker 1: we go, here we go. Okay, all right, tell me
Speaker 1: about birds. Sweaty birds. Well, unlike the mammals we talked about,
Speaker 1: birds truly do not have sweat glands even on their feet. Uh.
Speaker 1: And their mouths and tongues tend to be relatively dry,
Speaker 1: of course, depending on the species, and they really only
Speaker 1: typically produce saliva for swallowing purposes. So like preening their feathers,
Speaker 1: licking themselves is not going to be a super effective
Speaker 1: way to cool down. Like mammals, they can't sweat. So
Speaker 1: how do these poor little birdies stay cool? Well, they
Speaker 1: have to get really creative, I mean really really really creative,
Speaker 1: just like storks and vultures, who have a very crappy
Speaker 1: way of cooling down, if you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: a real air crap fish and our craps really hitting
Speaker 1: the fans, so to speak. It's poop, it's poop, joel, Oh, no, Katy,
Speaker 1: what are you doing to well? Storks and vultures poop
Speaker 1: on their legs to stay cool. That we have found
Speaker 1: the one time I would prefer to be hot. So
Speaker 1: this process is called euro hydrosis, and it's a method
Speaker 1: done by some species of birds to cool themselves down
Speaker 1: in the heat. So bird poop is usually more of
Speaker 1: a liquid. So bird's got one hole that does it
Speaker 1: all the cloaca uh so they do not have separate
Speaker 1: holes for separate functions like alone. Yeah, And so when
Speaker 1: they poop, it's often mixed with urine and it can
Speaker 1: be quite runny. That's why bird poop is typically pretty
Speaker 1: running and therefore it is wet. And what have we
Speaker 1: learned about wetness evaporative cooling? So absolutely so, wetness can
Speaker 1: evaporate bing bang boom. Now you've got an evaporative cooler
Speaker 1: on your legs, man out of poop. I don't see
Speaker 1: what the problem is. It all comes out of one
Speaker 1: hole to start that problem. Number one, Now you're covered
Speaker 1: in poop. Yeah, I know sullivan evaporates, but I'm doubting
Speaker 1: that every last bit of it, that is you are
Speaker 1: correct in that assumption. Um. Sometimes you will see storks
Speaker 1: and vultures with these adorable white stockings on their legs. Uh.
Speaker 1: And those stockings are actually poop. In fact, the poop
Speaker 1: so thoroughly covers maraboo stork legs that it is easy
Speaker 1: to mistake them for having white legs and black feet,
Speaker 1: when in fact they have black legs. Um, and all
Speaker 1: that white stuff is poopies. I'm struggling to see the
Speaker 1: good side of bridge. As scary as they were before,
Speaker 1: and now they're unhygienic and disgusting. Well in terms of hygiene,
Speaker 1: at least for New World vultures who do this poop
Speaker 1: on their legs trick. Their poop is very hygienic. So vultures,
Speaker 1: despite having a reputation for being gross because they eat
Speaker 1: carry on rotting food and so you think they'd be
Speaker 1: real nasty, they're actually very fastidious and their gut contains
Speaker 1: very strong anti microbial antibacterial properties, so they don't get
Speaker 1: sick when they eat rotting, festering carrion. And so it's
Speaker 1: speculated and being researched that their poop may also have
Speaker 1: antiseptic properties, and so when they poop on their legs,
Speaker 1: it may actually be killing harmful bacteria on their legs.
Speaker 1: And so not only are they cooling themselves down, but
Speaker 1: they are cleaning their legs, if you can call poop
Speaker 1: covered legs clean. I have never heard of a poop
Speaker 1: sanitizers before. Uh, my mind is a little bit blown.
Speaker 1: I thought poop could only make things much dirtier and
Speaker 1: disgusting because typically we're expelling things like bacteria and microbes
Speaker 1: out of our system that we don't want to keep
Speaker 1: in there, and so it's coming out in our poop,
Speaker 1: and so that poop is very unhygienic. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't want to touch it. You don't want to you know,
Speaker 1: get it around. And probably the reason we find it
Speaker 1: so disgusting is that is an evolutionary trait to keep
Speaker 1: us from playing with poop and getting it all around
Speaker 1: and getting it in our bodies, because that can make
Speaker 1: it sick. It's also a method of transmission of things
Speaker 1: like parasites. So yeah, our poop is disgusting, don't touch it,
Speaker 1: whereas a vulture poop potentially not as disgusting, more antiseptic. Now,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't trade in your bottle of hand sanitizer for
Speaker 1: a turkey vulture quite yet. Um, but it is a
Speaker 1: topic of research. There are studies I think really recent,
Speaker 1: I think in two I don't know if they've actually
Speaker 1: come out with the results yet, but they are investigating
Speaker 1: the anti microbial properties of turkey vulture poop. So that
Speaker 1: is exciting. What was I just reading Turkey vulture poop monthly?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? Hopefully not. No, I lost it. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but I will see. It's impressive the way the animal
Speaker 1: kingdom has adapted, and I'm sure it will unfortunately have
Speaker 1: to continue to adapt to keep themselves cool. I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we don't have to do it that way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I prefer the refrigerated water inside of my house method
Speaker 1: of cooling. Yes, yeah, I mean not all birds cool
Speaker 1: this way. In fact, it really is. It does seem
Speaker 1: to only be uh storks and New World vultures, other
Speaker 1: birds who don't crap all over themselves. Um, we'll actually
Speaker 1: do things like goal or fluttering where they flutter the
Speaker 1: gol or sack that's like the throat sack. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so this causes air to run over the inside of
Speaker 1: their throats and mouths, evaporating moisture from their mucous membranes.
Speaker 1: So they essentially pant like a dog, just using slightly
Speaker 1: different muscle action. It looks like a boa. And if
Speaker 1: I was ever going to do jag, this is how
Speaker 1: I would be, Like, this is how I cool myself down.
Speaker 1: Get like a nice big boa. Now I'll make it flutter.
Speaker 1: It would be very fun that you'd be called miss
Speaker 1: gol or sack, which you know, I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: like I I like it. I think it's a good name.
Speaker 1: I love its gali sack. Let's go. So, so, why
Speaker 1: then if a lot of birds use this goal or fluttering,
Speaker 1: which does make them sound very southern bell, doesn't golor fluttering? Um,
Speaker 1: like they have some kind of like you know eighteen
Speaker 1: hundreds weird diagnostic we gave to women where it's like
Speaker 1: wandering womb and goal or fluttering. But yeah, so why
Speaker 1: do some birds do goal or fluttering? Where as the
Speaker 1: storks and New World vultures seem to do this poop
Speaker 1: on the leg tricks. Uh. So, researchers are trying to
Speaker 1: figure out why these birds evolve this strategy. Some of
Speaker 1: their observations about like the where these birds tend to
Speaker 1: be and what characteristics they share for the poop on
Speaker 1: the legs cooling air conditioner is that they tend to
Speaker 1: live in hot, humid and not super windy environments and
Speaker 1: so yeah, so it's like it is harder for us
Speaker 1: to cool off with evaporative cooling in uh somewhat human environments.
Speaker 1: So like having a bunch like sort of drenching your
Speaker 1: legs in this over a wider surface area, you're maybe
Speaker 1: going to have a little bit more success with some
Speaker 1: evaporative cooling. It's like when you're in a really hot
Speaker 1: environments and maybe there's a little bit of humidity tool
Speaker 1: and your sweats not doing enough, you really just want
Speaker 1: to dunk some water over your head, Like take a
Speaker 1: water bottle and dunk it on yourself. It's like the
Speaker 1: best feeling. I want to get one of those giant Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's like when it's hot out, that's like the only
Speaker 1: time I want to be a coach because it's like, yes,
Speaker 1: if I win the championship. Around it just feels like
Speaker 1: so that poop conditioner also only works if you have
Speaker 1: access to water while not living in it. So like,
Speaker 1: if you live in water, you don't really need to
Speaker 1: poop on yourself to stay cool because you're in water.
Speaker 1: But if you're not living in water, however, you do
Speaker 1: have access to a lot of water, you can spare
Speaker 1: that moisture that you're pooping out. And it's sort of
Speaker 1: like if you have a bottle of water and you
Speaker 1: have access to a lot of water, you're not worried
Speaker 1: about it. You can dunk it on your head. But
Speaker 1: if you don't have a lot of access to water,
Speaker 1: you're not going to waste it on cooling yourself down
Speaker 1: because you know you'll be thirsty. Um. It's like that,
Speaker 1: but in evolutionary terms, soity to adapt to any situation. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's kind of humbling. Yeah, I would never think to
Speaker 1: do half of these things. Again, I'm with you, find
Speaker 1: me a bed, submarge me in the water, h let
Speaker 1: me become amphibious. This is the only way I would
Speaker 1: It's the ingenuity of like, you know, hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: or millions of years of just like, did this animal
Speaker 1: dive heat stroke or did it somehow managed to pass
Speaker 1: on its jeans? And that's that's it, And it creates
Speaker 1: such an incredible complexity of like birds pooping on their
Speaker 1: legs to stay cool. It is incredible. Another aspect to
Speaker 1: these birds is they have relatively long legs. Of course,
Speaker 1: storks obviously very long legs, runway ready legs. To a
Speaker 1: lesser extent, New World vultures they do still have quite
Speaker 1: long legs, and they live in these similar hot, slightly
Speaker 1: human environmental conditions with access to water, but they're not
Speaker 1: semi aquatic. So this seems to be the recipe for
Speaker 1: these birds to poop on their legs, and it's really interesting. Listen.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I don't live in a human space so
Speaker 1: I don't have to witness it. But I'm glad the
Speaker 1: birds have figured out a system that works for them.
Speaker 1: I don't want to shame anyone again for how they
Speaker 1: stay cool, so I'm just gonna stay good on you
Speaker 1: bird do want you must to stay cool, So I
Speaker 1: hope this helped cool you down. Everyone listening, you know
Speaker 1: I'm not telling you to like lick your forums or
Speaker 1: poop on your legs, especially the latter. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: do that last part licking your arms, I mean if
Speaker 1: they're clean. You know, look who am. I don't think
Speaker 1: going to be very successful, but you could try. We
Speaker 1: have we have sweat that that is, we are already
Speaker 1: equipped with a really good cooling system. But you know,
Speaker 1: if if you if you want to see what it's
Speaker 1: like to be a kangaroo, you know, go for it.
Speaker 1: I'll say that. But before we go, we've got to
Speaker 1: play a little game called Guess Who's Squawking? I mean,
Speaker 1: like some theme music like da da da d um.
Speaker 1: We can get you sound from the music life. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll hang on the future me put game show music
Speaker 1: in right now. Welcome to Guess Who's Squawking the Mystery
Speaker 1: Animal Sound game. You could win a brand new car Boo.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I do love Cariboo too. Uh So last
Speaker 1: week's Mr Animal Sound The hint you can tell this
Speaker 1: is from a I think it was actually the week
Speaker 1: before last week because I had to take a little
Speaker 1: break last week, but the hint was I know Father's
Speaker 1: Day was the last week. At this point, is like
Speaker 1: last last my last, last, last week. Um okay continues,
Speaker 1: but it's still not too late to celebrate the amazing
Speaker 1: dad who makes this sound? M hm that hell mm
Speaker 1: hm m hmm. What is that? Okay, it's it's deep.
Speaker 1: Might it sounds frog like in nature? But you're saying
Speaker 1: it's definitely a bird. I didn't say it's definitely a bird. Um,
Speaker 1: it is an animal. It could be a bird. M
Speaker 1: m hm. I never thought of a bird being able
Speaker 1: to go that deep, but I know they have a
Speaker 1: lit range. Ah, I'm gonna guess some kind of jungle bird.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say South American. Mm hmm. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: a swallow. M that's very interesting. You were right on
Speaker 1: the South American part, but not so right on the swallow.
Speaker 1: So this is the Riha. It is a large flightless
Speaker 1: bird that is distantly related to the ostrich and emu
Speaker 1: and lives in South America. They are smaller than the ostrich,
Speaker 1: kind of like a fun sized Ostrich. So male reria's
Speaker 1: make this booming call to attract females to mate. It's
Speaker 1: a very low frequency. In fact, some of you out
Speaker 1: there may not be able to hear it at all,
Speaker 1: depending on the range of your hearing. Uh, it is
Speaker 1: such a low low frequency. They will mate with several
Speaker 1: different females and they are great dads. So the females
Speaker 1: will lay the eggs in a male's nest, a scraped
Speaker 1: out area of dirt, and then the females are like,
Speaker 1: I'm out of here. See good luck, because I know
Speaker 1: their job is over. And the males are the ones
Speaker 1: who incubate and later protect the hatchlings. Wow, how do
Speaker 1: we aspire? Can we switch places? I too? Like listen,
Speaker 1: they're like lit. We'll take many a lover, but we'll
Speaker 1: raise all the kids and women can go rest? Or
Speaker 1: do you have to carry the baby? So after that,
Speaker 1: you know, chill for a bit? I really I appreciate
Speaker 1: this style. I think to do modern world, we should
Speaker 1: all be adapting to what this bird is doing. They
Speaker 1: know what's up. Oh, let's inject rha DNA into our
Speaker 1: human DNA. I'm sure that'll end. Well, it's so onto
Speaker 1: this week's mystery animal. Sound the This monster can devour
Speaker 1: entire hills. But are you still just a baby? Oh? Whoa,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess it's a real housewife of New Jersey.
Speaker 1: They were very disaster you it does sound a little
Speaker 1: bit of that of that like you and Devour Hill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say with real House all right, Yeah no,
Speaker 1: that's a fair guess. Well, if you out there think
Speaker 1: you know who's squawking, you can write to me at
Speaker 1: Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. I'm also on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Creature feet Pod. That's not very different, Joel.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for keeping it cool with me,
Speaker 1: learning about how animals stay cool and tolerating our discussions
Speaker 1: of birds crapping on themselves. Where can people find you? Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me back, Katie. This
Speaker 1: was wonderful. I always learned something new when I'm here,
Speaker 1: and that's a gift. Uh. You guys can find me
Speaker 1: all over the internet, actually when you get to j
Speaker 1: O E L L E M O n I q
Speaker 1: u E. I also have a new podcast, it's called
Speaker 1: Comic Con metapod, where every week we do a deep
Speaker 1: dive into a convention. So we had a great episode
Speaker 1: where we talked to the creators and writers and voices
Speaker 1: behind the Avatar, the last Airbendrew series. Last week we
Speaker 1: did a deep dive into a bunch of different Marvel
Speaker 1: characters and coming up uh next week, we're going to
Speaker 1: do a dive into thor Love and Thunder with one
Speaker 1: of your workal artists and my friend Rosie Night, talking
Speaker 1: about all things thor So. If you guys are into Marvel, DC,
Speaker 1: video games, movies, whatever, coming out with us. It's like
Speaker 1: going to a con without having to risk any of
Speaker 1: the concrude, which for the safety of your own home,
Speaker 1: which is fly. It's my favorite. Speaking of sweat comic con,
Speaker 1: I don't mean and I love you guys, but deodorant
Speaker 1: is a gift um. But that sounds incredible, That sounds
Speaker 1: really fun. Please do I ask those people at Marvel
Speaker 1: why they have Spider Man but no Storkman, who his
Speaker 1: power is pooping on his legs. I'm gonna pitt you
Speaker 1: to fight you right now. Well, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: coming on a treasure always, and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. If you're enjoying this show and you want
Speaker 1: to leave a rating or review, I certainly do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I really, I truly do read all the reviews and
Speaker 1: they make me so happy. So thank you so much
Speaker 1: for writing those, and thanks to the Space Costs for
Speaker 1: their super awesome song. Exo Lumina Creature feature is a
Speaker 1: product action of I heart Radio. For more podcasts like
Speaker 1: the one you just heard, visit the I heart Radio
Speaker 1: app Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what a stork? But
Speaker 1: I don't care where you'll listen to them, Just listen
Speaker 1: to them. See you next Wednesday. Bye,