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 brood X.
Speaker 1: There's often generational battles, boomers complaining about millennials, gen X
Speaker 1: complaining about zoomers, Zoomers duking it out with boomers in
Speaker 1: the thunder dome. But perhaps as we have our petty
Speaker 1: generational fights, we should stop to consider what's happening under
Speaker 1: our feet. Something is stirring. In fact, millions of some
Speaker 1: things are stirring. Rude X is about to emerge, and
Speaker 1: we should put aside our petty squabbles about whether millennials
Speaker 1: eat too many avocados or zoomers do too many TikTok's
Speaker 1: about avocados and prepare ourselves for Browed X that has
Speaker 1: been waiting seventeen years to emerge from the ground. What
Speaker 1: is browed X? Should we panic? Must we accept brewed
Speaker 1: X as our new leaders? And how might we ingratiate
Speaker 1: ourselves to them? Discover this and more to be answered.
Speaker 1: The angel question, how is it fair that swarms of
Speaker 1: baby turtles are considered cute, but swarms of bugs are
Speaker 1: considered quote qualifying. Joining me today to discuss brewed X
Speaker 1: and other mass spawning events is author of the book
Speaker 1: Where Am I Now? Actress? An unofficial President of All Millennials.
Speaker 1: Maura Wilson, Welcome, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to talk about this brewed X. It
Speaker 1: sounds a lot scarier than it actually is, I think,
Speaker 1: or is it. No, you're right, yeah, it sounds scary.
Speaker 1: It sounds like this is our come upance as a
Speaker 1: and we're about to face the music, the very loud music.
Speaker 1: But no, it is. It is actually very very interesting
Speaker 1: thing in evolutionary biology. So this browed X is a
Speaker 1: mass cicada blue. First, I want to ask you, Morow,
Speaker 1: how's your feelings towards cicadas. You know, I don't think
Speaker 1: they have them where I grew up, or at least
Speaker 1: not in the ways that they do on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: because I they so so seventeen years so they were,
Speaker 1: because I do remember hearing about them when I was
Speaker 1: a teenager. Yeah, so probably when I was That was
Speaker 1: two thousand four, so I would have been sixteen or seventeen,
Speaker 1: and I do remember spending my summer on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: and I think that was the first time I've ever
Speaker 1: heard cicadas. Yeah, yeah, I think we do get So
Speaker 1: I grew up in San Diego, and I think we
Speaker 1: get some cicadas there, but definitely we don't get the
Speaker 1: mass branding events that happens on the East Coast. I think, like,
Speaker 1: maybe i'd heard them before, but I didn't know what
Speaker 1: they were. Whereas whereas when I lived on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: like I definitely I had heard cicadas and and I
Speaker 1: knew what they sounded like, and I think, yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I was like visiting family on the East Coast in
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, and I was like, what's this
Speaker 1: weird noise in the trees that seems to be everywhere?
Speaker 1: And what are these like dead bodies littered on on
Speaker 1: the ground. So so so yeah, so I'm kind of
Speaker 1: indifferent to them. I don't think that they're They're like
Speaker 1: I like the sounds of crickets chirping. I don't mind
Speaker 1: the sounds of cicadas so much. It is a bit overwhelming,
Speaker 1: and it is a bit gross when like their corpses
Speaker 1: littered the streets. But again, I haven't had to deal
Speaker 1: with that as much. So, so it's it's not you know,
Speaker 1: it's not as much of an annoyance as like as
Speaker 1: like coyotes are to me, or like or or like
Speaker 1: snails or things like that where I'm like gross, you know.
Speaker 1: But then you missed the Giant snail episode that Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh god, snails dress me out so much. I'm sorry, Katie,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna have to skip that episode because I
Speaker 1: think they're I think they're the grossest things ever. My
Speaker 1: friend Bridget also she's been on the show, also disgusted
Speaker 1: by snails. Yeah, so I won't tell you the story
Speaker 1: about when I was a toddler. I used to just
Speaker 1: eat garden snails. I mean that's that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's French. That's it. Yeah, that's got Yeah exactly. Now
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I can't eat I can't eat scargo. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's because I like as a kid, it's just like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I've eaten enough snails good. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: heard it's also not very good unless it's prepared a
Speaker 1: certain way. So it's like it's like one of those
Speaker 1: things that turns out kind of rubbery and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how I managed. The reason, uh, I
Speaker 1: know I ate snails because I barely remember anything from
Speaker 1: that age is that my mom said that I would come,
Speaker 1: I would go out in the yard and then come
Speaker 1: back and I had like snail shell. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mark, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gagging. I don't I haven't done that in quite
Speaker 1: a while, I know. But just the idea is is, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: that's that's your gross out of the episode. Thank you
Speaker 1: for I figured there would be one. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: cicadas maybe not that gross, but maybe a little intimidating.
Speaker 1: So this spring in the US, we are welcoming millions
Speaker 1: of cicadas into the world in a mass hatching event.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I guess, like before we talk about
Speaker 1: the mass bonding, let's talk about like what what even
Speaker 1: is a cicada? Right? They are a very loud bug.
Speaker 1: They are a true bug. They're like we call a
Speaker 1: lot of insects bugs, but there are just a few
Speaker 1: species that are known as like true bugs and others
Speaker 1: that I guess I want to be bugs. I don't know.
Speaker 1: But it's like how there's no such thing as a
Speaker 1: fish Like I always thought like bug was kind of
Speaker 1: like a fake name that was just sort of grouping
Speaker 1: a bunch of different creatures together. There's actually but there
Speaker 1: is actually there is such a thing. There is actually
Speaker 1: true bugs. So yeah, I mean taxonomy gets very I
Speaker 1: don't know, there's a lot of gray areas. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of like you know, like with you mentioned with fish,
Speaker 1: there there are like rafein fish and then but a
Speaker 1: lot of things that aren't fish are called fish, like
Speaker 1: jellyfish are not fish. They're night arians. Um, We're actually
Speaker 1: gonna talk about some more night arians at the end
Speaker 1: of the episode, uh, which will be very strange. But yeah,
Speaker 1: So so Cicada's true bugs. And they're actually related to leafhoppers,
Speaker 1: those cute little leaf shaped bugs that are really good
Speaker 1: jumpers and they come in really interesting shapes. So I
Speaker 1: think we did an episode on leafhoppers before. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they are very interesting bugs, very beautiful they are. That's
Speaker 1: like one of the things that like blows. It's it's
Speaker 1: like like if you ever want to blow like a
Speaker 1: four year olds mind, you know, show them a picture
Speaker 1: of a leafhopper. Because I remember like I remember being
Speaker 1: in like preschool, in kindergarten and going to I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was a nature preserve or what that
Speaker 1: Seeing leafhoppers and stick bugs and just losing my like,
Speaker 1: what how does this exist? How does this? How is
Speaker 1: this a thing? Yeah? It looks yeah, they look like
Speaker 1: made up bugs that someone like paper machade together. And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna make a bug
Speaker 1: that's a lead. But I never would have thought they
Speaker 1: were related to cicada's. Yeah. Yeah, Like leafhoppers have that
Speaker 1: sort of triangular shape, so they're different. So there's there's
Speaker 1: leaf bugs that have the sort of flat leaf, and
Speaker 1: then there's leafhoppers where they still look like leaves, but
Speaker 1: they're like kind of folded up leaves where they have
Speaker 1: that triangular shape. Uh, and they're really good jumpers. If
Speaker 1: you've ever like you may see something that looks like
Speaker 1: a little leaf, but then it has like little legs
Speaker 1: and then you try to pick it up and then
Speaker 1: it just almost disappears by how quickly it can jump.
Speaker 1: That's a leafhopper. And cicadas are sort of like bigger
Speaker 1: versions of this, except they don't they don't uh typically
Speaker 1: camouflage as leaves. They have wings in a thick triangular body.
Speaker 1: There are many species of cicadas and They come in
Speaker 1: a variety of colors, from black to brown to green.
Speaker 1: There's even orange and blue hues. And they are fairly
Speaker 1: decently sized. So the smaller species are about point seven
Speaker 1: five inches or about two centimeters, and the largest species
Speaker 1: can be over two and a fourth inches long or
Speaker 1: five point seven centimeters, so you know big. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: seen them before and they are pretty big. The ones
Speaker 1: that I've seen were pretty big. Yeah. Yeah, Like you
Speaker 1: don't want to get hit in the face, like when
Speaker 1: you're when you're on your bike, just for example, no reason.
Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't had that happen, but I have had.
Speaker 1: What are the Jerusalem beetles or not? They're like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: or what are the crickets? What are it's not your
Speaker 1: recent crickets. What am I thinking of? They're like the
Speaker 1: big flying there's these big flying things that are like
Speaker 1: big and blue. They look like giant bees. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: those are I don't know what they're called. We have
Speaker 1: them in southern California. I think they're Are you thinking
Speaker 1: about june june bugs? No, they're not june bugs, because
Speaker 1: they're they're like they like fooled in on themselves. They
Speaker 1: like roll up and they fly and they're like brightly
Speaker 1: colored and they look like they're like some kind of
Speaker 1: flying beetle. And but I've I've gotten one in my
Speaker 1: hair before. Oh yeah. I was like by my friend's
Speaker 1: pool and one got caught in my hair. Uh. I've
Speaker 1: also I've also found multiple spiders in my hair before,
Speaker 1: which I think, which I think means or only one
Speaker 1: at a time. But like, I've had a spider in
Speaker 1: my hair once and then like I can't even remember
Speaker 1: it happening. But just last year, I found a spider
Speaker 1: in my hair and I was like, oh no, not again.
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, that's a weird thing to think.
Speaker 1: I'm just proving my goth side. Like up spider. I
Speaker 1: got a spider in my hair again? Oh no, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, yeah, I have. I have bad like luck
Speaker 1: with things getting in my hair too. I was at um,
Speaker 1: well I won't name the restaurant so I won't get sued,
Speaker 1: but a burger restaurant, and I felt something land on
Speaker 1: my head and I was like, well, that's strange. And
Speaker 1: I just sort of mindlessly reach up and pick it
Speaker 1: up and it's a giant cockroach. Oh good. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I was like um waiter, there's a cockroach that fell
Speaker 1: on me. And he was just like, oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I was like, you might you might want to look
Speaker 1: into that, like to check it out. I don't. I
Speaker 1: generally don't mind bugs. Like if a spider gets on me,
Speaker 1: there's an initial startle reflex. But it's something about it
Speaker 1: being in the hair that I hate, like like emerging
Speaker 1: from your hair, because you're like, it wasn't emerging in
Speaker 1: my hair. I just and it was a tiny spider,
Speaker 1: but yeah, the idea of it emerging from your hair
Speaker 1: feels like a like a creepy urban legend, right, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: like the oh what's that the grudge? You know, exactly,
Speaker 1: the fingers. The tiny spider I looked at it might
Speaker 1: have been a fig eater beetle, okay, yeah, because it
Speaker 1: was big and iridescent and that getting caught in my hair.
Speaker 1: I did mind that. I was like, you are too big.
Speaker 1: Get out of my hair right now? Yes, yes, no, no,
Speaker 1: I've I've I've been smacked by by and they just
Speaker 1: they just it's just like you are so big, how
Speaker 1: can you fly? Yeah? Exactly. I mean like that's how
Speaker 1: I feel about cicadas too, They look to eaty to fly,
Speaker 1: but they are. They are lighter than they look, and
Speaker 1: they have big wings. Even though like maybe getting smacked
Speaker 1: in the face or having them land in your hair
Speaker 1: might be unpleasant, you don't really have anything to worry
Speaker 1: about because they are vegetarian vampires. They will not suck
Speaker 1: on human blood. They only suck on tree blood or
Speaker 1: sap out of roots and tree twigs, so they thankfully
Speaker 1: they are not out for human blood. That's good to know.
Speaker 1: If they were, we would all be screwed. We would
Speaker 1: definite Oh we'd be so dead. Uh So, the extremely
Speaker 1: loud calls they make are due to their bodies basically
Speaker 1: being designed like an instrument. So males sing to attract females.
Speaker 1: So that loud, droning buzz you here in the summer
Speaker 1: that can be ear splitting at times, is males going
Speaker 1: come on and get some of this to all the
Speaker 1: females trying to attract them. It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: rising and falling sound, right like, dude, dude, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it kind of sounds like a little tiny buzz saw
Speaker 1: that like little little forest gnomes are doing some serious
Speaker 1: high rises in the forests with little teeny tiny buzz saws.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it gets very loud. I mean it gets
Speaker 1: as loud as a buzz saw. Like, it's very very
Speaker 1: loud because there are thousands of them right well, even
Speaker 1: a single one can produce a very loud call. And
Speaker 1: then when you combine them it, yeah, it can be
Speaker 1: deafening because one cicada can produce a sound that is
Speaker 1: about almost as loud as a chainsaw. Yeah, so crickets
Speaker 1: and other loud sound making bugs and another like there
Speaker 1: there are lots of animals that that can make loud sounds.
Speaker 1: Often use a technique called stridulation to produce their call.
Speaker 1: That's where they rub their wings or legs over a
Speaker 1: ribbed body structure and kind of like play themselves like
Speaker 1: one of those wood scraper instruments. Remember in school when
Speaker 1: they made you sit in the circle and you're like here,
Speaker 1: you get this wood block that you did. You get
Speaker 1: this like ribbed wood thing that you like scrape back
Speaker 1: and forth. You get the triangle. And like they would
Speaker 1: only entrust the triangle to the non annoying kids because
Speaker 1: like otherwise the situation would get out of control. That
Speaker 1: was a privilege that was, yeah, definitely, because otherwise it
Speaker 1: was just like clink clink, clink, clink clang and pandemonium. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that wooden thing that has like the grooves in
Speaker 1: it and you like rub the stick on it. It
Speaker 1: makes that like noise and it's like kind of the
Speaker 1: lame instrument that you get and you don't really love it.
Speaker 1: But uh, that is how a lot of crickets, and
Speaker 1: that's how other animals will produce that loud noise through stridulation.
Speaker 1: But cicadas don't use this technique like that. They are
Speaker 1: actually different. They don't use stridulation. They instead have specialized
Speaker 1: structures in their exoskeleton called tim balls. So tim balls
Speaker 1: are these membranes that are connected to muscles that can
Speaker 1: vibrate them rapidly, producing a very loud sound. In fact,
Speaker 1: cicadas are the loudest insect in the world. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like you know those like big metal sheets
Speaker 1: that you shake to make it sound like it's thunder. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen that happen, Like like I was on I
Speaker 1: worked on I remember we're on a movie once and
Speaker 1: we we were on this this lot that used to
Speaker 1: be like an air force base, I think, and there
Speaker 1: was a pool in there and they made thunder sounds
Speaker 1: by putting a giant sheet of metal in the pool,
Speaker 1: and it's like really scary echo. Yeah. I was always
Speaker 1: amazed by that. That's interesting. I didn't realize they actually
Speaker 1: put it in submerged it like in water, though it
Speaker 1: wasn't in water, it was an empty pool. Oh, I see,
Speaker 1: So it would would like the resonance of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the resonance would be very cool. It was really cool.
Speaker 1: I you know, it was one of those like, oh
Speaker 1: that's how they do that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be I feel like that would be spooky
Speaker 1: though too. There's something about like a big empty rooms
Speaker 1: and then like loud sounds in them. It was very spooky. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's spooky. It's like the idea of like going to
Speaker 1: a an abandoned theme park and then all like the
Speaker 1: the carousel just starts up and it's just music and
Speaker 1: an empty and then you're like, oh, well, zombies are
Speaker 1: going to come now exactly exactly what have you done? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But yeah, so so that these timbles kind of work
Speaker 1: like those big metal sheets, uh, and but they're they're
Speaker 1: they're smaller and they vibrate them much more quickly, and
Speaker 1: so you get that I don't know if you'd call
Speaker 1: it high pitched, but sort of medium pitched, like buzzing
Speaker 1: humming sound. And uh, and I provided you with lovely
Speaker 1: images of cicadas and like a little a little animated
Speaker 1: textbook illustration that ship. I don't know how helpful. This
Speaker 1: animation is all included in the show notes so everyone
Speaker 1: can see it. But basically it's showing like, look, it's
Speaker 1: this membrane and it goes it like sort of wobbles
Speaker 1: in and out. I think I find it really interesting. Also,
Speaker 1: I love that it's from a site called cicada mania
Speaker 1: dot com. Everybody has subscription, everybody has their thing. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm actually subscribed to Cicada bi weekly. But it looks
Speaker 1: and it's interesting because it's it's kind of ribbed structure.
Speaker 1: It looks mechanical. It looks like a machine part. In fact,
Speaker 1: the whole cicada looks very robot like. It looks like
Speaker 1: an alien machine, you know, kind of like a mixture
Speaker 1: between organic and machine, which I find pretty cool. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's how that that sound is produced. And just
Speaker 1: just for fun, I will play a really loud cicada
Speaker 1: I'll make sure it doesn't. It's not gonna blow out
Speaker 1: your ears because I'm going to control the volume. Um,
Speaker 1: so don't worry. But you know that this it's it
Speaker 1: sounds like construction work. Here is what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: It to me, it sounds almost like somebody revving up
Speaker 1: a motorcycle engine. Yeah, because it kind of it kind
Speaker 1: of goes like rude. Yeah, there's like sort of a
Speaker 1: rise and fall. Yeah, no exactly. Yeah, it's like little again,
Speaker 1: little forest gnomes on their math of hogs, just like
Speaker 1: rubbing around trying to get women's attention, which like it
Speaker 1: was probably yeah, I mean probably what a lot of
Speaker 1: dudes on motorcycles are trying to do. Yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: you're right. So kadas are very much like like duds
Speaker 1: on motorcycles. Yeah, just making some noise. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: that's yeah, that's that's what it seems like to me. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: so fellas and ladies out there, if you're trying to
Speaker 1: seduce someone, uh yeah, just like make really loud buzzing noises.
Speaker 1: I think it'll work. You've got the creature feature guarantee
Speaker 1: that that'll that'll get you some phone numbers by a motorcycle,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll definitely attract some people for sure. Or a
Speaker 1: buzz saw yeah, or a bus well yeah, if you
Speaker 1: just stand around with a buzz s I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people that will attract to you.
Speaker 1: But but very special people it'll be. It'll be a
Speaker 1: match made in heaven. Once you find someone who appreciates
Speaker 1: in a forest, maybe then it's like, oh, you're a
Speaker 1: lumberjack in the middle of it, in the middle of
Speaker 1: the street. Maybe not. Yeah, I'm not gonna make not gonnas.
Speaker 1: So now we know what cicadas are, and so we
Speaker 1: are ready to welcome millions and millions of new cicadas
Speaker 1: into the world this spring. It's like, you know, spring
Speaker 1: is always associated with cute little bunnies and cute little
Speaker 1: baby chicks, but why not cute little cicadas. So the
Speaker 1: spring is very special because the periodical cicadas are having
Speaker 1: their moment. So there are a few species of cicada
Speaker 1: that have periodical broots, so a mass brood that stays
Speaker 1: in stasis underground, often for over a decade and will
Speaker 1: emerge altogether in one big party. So right now in
Speaker 1: eastern and central US, cicadas that have been resting and
Speaker 1: developing underground for seventeen years will emerge fully grown and
Speaker 1: ready to mate. So, if you're seventeen years old and
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, like, these cicadas are the same
Speaker 1: age as you, They've just been your entire life, have
Speaker 1: been waiting underground to emerge. Oh so maybe so maybe
Speaker 1: I was born in a cicada year. You could have been, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think I turned seventeen the last time. Yea,
Speaker 1: so maybe your cicada baby. Exactly. So, this group of
Speaker 1: emerging periodical cicadas the spring are called brood decks, which
Speaker 1: I love how menacing, Like I love how scientists don't
Speaker 1: shy away from naming things like menacingly they don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course, you have to lean into it, you know.
Speaker 1: I love the book lean In by a Cicada, and
Speaker 1: it's just like the cover, looking professional. So this group
Speaker 1: of emerging periodical cicadas will emerge around May of this
Speaker 1: year in Delaware, Illinois, Georgia, Indiana, New York, Kentucky, Maryland,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan, Washington,
Speaker 1: d c So if you live in any of those places, congratulations.
Speaker 1: There will be millions of cicadas coming out this spring,
Speaker 1: and they will be extremely loud because they are looking
Speaker 1: for mates. Basically, what happens is they'll pop out of
Speaker 1: the ground, mate, lay their eggs, and then die in
Speaker 1: a few weeks. So the males will make their characteristic
Speaker 1: buzzes and the females will flick their wings which makes
Speaker 1: us kind of like snapping sound like a finger snap,
Speaker 1: much louder, and that is signaling to the male that
Speaker 1: they are enticed by their revving sounds. And then they
Speaker 1: go and mate, and then the female will lay the
Speaker 1: eggs in the branches of trees, and shortly after that,
Speaker 1: the adult ticada's die because that's that's it, like that,
Speaker 1: that's there. They've had their big party and then they're like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm out of here, and then they die. And that's
Speaker 1: why there's a bunch of Maria. You're mentioning, you found
Speaker 1: a bunch of cicada corpses. Yeah, now you'll also find
Speaker 1: often like a bunch of uh they're not necessarily corpses,
Speaker 1: but the final molding, so it's like they mold out
Speaker 1: of their various life stages. And so if you find
Speaker 1: sort of a hollow sort of kind of like amber colored,
Speaker 1: like it looks like sort of a casing. I remember
Speaker 1: what they look like because of the game nako at Sume,
Speaker 1: the cat collecting game. One of the cats, Like the
Speaker 1: cats will give you little treats and it'll be stuff
Speaker 1: like a broken collar. It's the kind of stuff cats
Speaker 1: will bring you, like like a a you know, an
Speaker 1: old an old you know, a shoelace or a broke
Speaker 1: half a mouse, and yeah, exactly. And and one of
Speaker 1: them is actually cicada multi oh wowating and I remember
Speaker 1: I saw that and I first saw it, like brought
Speaker 1: back so many memories. I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen one of these in years, but I
Speaker 1: know exactly what it is. Yeah, yeah, so they they
Speaker 1: you need to connect me with this game because I
Speaker 1: need to play any game that makes a cicada reference. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the Nicotsume, it's the cat Collector game for I
Speaker 1: love this. It's very cute. Yeah, I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 1: check it out. This episode is not sponsored by this
Speaker 1: but but if you want to sponsor us, get at
Speaker 1: me so you'll find both the cicada corpses, which you
Speaker 1: can tell if they're they're the corpse because they are
Speaker 1: actually they have the full wings and I think the
Speaker 1: ones in the US are sort of blackish blue color
Speaker 1: and then their wings are are lined in a bright
Speaker 1: orange and so that's that's the adult form of the cicada,
Speaker 1: whereas the casing, like the malten cicadas, it's sort of
Speaker 1: it'll be this like kind of translucent amber color. And
Speaker 1: the wings are clearly not fully developed on these because
Speaker 1: in their earlier stages of formation, the wings are little
Speaker 1: and they're not functional yet because they get bigger and
Speaker 1: bigger with each molting. So they traveling. They don't traveling groups,
Speaker 1: but they live in groups, right sworms, Yeah, because because
Speaker 1: they remember hearing them altogether. Yes, Yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 1: this is the this is sort of the entire point
Speaker 1: of this mass emergence from the ground, is that they
Speaker 1: emerge all at the same time, basically millions of them,
Speaker 1: and then all mate at the same time, lay their
Speaker 1: eggs at the same time, and then that'll start the
Speaker 1: process again. So yeah, because because I bet like females
Speaker 1: probably aren't that discriminating when it comes to Yeah, they
Speaker 1: can actually be because they have the they have the
Speaker 1: luxury to be discriminating because they're so many males. So
Speaker 1: like they'll listen to these these calls and if they
Speaker 1: like the song, like if it's it's like, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a nice that's a nice motor revving sound. Uh,
Speaker 1: they'll invite the mail over with the wing flicks and
Speaker 1: then they'll mate. So I just feel like if if
Speaker 1: you do your wing flick at like a group of guys,
Speaker 1: who's gonna know how do they know who it is? You? No?
Speaker 1: Not you? That guy? That guy know that one? No
Speaker 1: that one over there, No not you. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: really good question. I'm not sure. I would imagine it
Speaker 1: may have something to do with timing, like they hear
Speaker 1: a call and then they sort of do a wing
Speaker 1: flick at them right after their call. But yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: like there must be some that's a really good question.
Speaker 1: I wonder if there's any research onto like how they
Speaker 1: are able to like directionally locate where the stuff is
Speaker 1: coming from. I'm sure they probably have some a very
Speaker 1: interesting auditory system there there. Their auditory system actually also
Speaker 1: works as a resonance chamber, so it's like they they
Speaker 1: have this very complex little machine apparatus. So I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised if they have some very complex way of
Speaker 1: being able to differentiate the direction of sounds so that
Speaker 1: that would make it easier. I mean, that's yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a really good question. I went to theater school and
Speaker 1: very familiar with resonators, with using your vocal resonators and
Speaker 1: so so yes, what now what do you call me?
Speaker 1: Just let the the using, Yeah, using, using the different parts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the residence is something that you know, I
Speaker 1: admire other creatures. They're natural born actors, but they yeah,
Speaker 1: but especially when they live and die on the stage. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: And also with like how many of them are trying
Speaker 1: to exactly Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's true. When the
Speaker 1: female lays the eggs will actually lay them in the
Speaker 1: branches of trees. And then again the adults to Kato
Speaker 1: was like, well, we had our big party, now now
Speaker 1: we're out you and they die. Uh. And then the
Speaker 1: when the large the the eggs hatch with this little
Speaker 1: teeny nymph like a baby cicada. The nymphs will fall
Speaker 1: to the ground and burrowed down a couple of feet
Speaker 1: near the tree roots, near the plant roots, and then
Speaker 1: they will wait another seventeen years before they emerge again. Um. Underground,
Speaker 1: they live off the juices of the tree roots, which
Speaker 1: is called xylem. Basically, like I said, they are tree
Speaker 1: vampires um, and they take years to fully mature. So
Speaker 1: they go through many stages of molting and transformations from
Speaker 1: the nymph form, which is the young wingless stage after
Speaker 1: hatching two adults where they have the full wings and
Speaker 1: they're ready to party. Uh. So they slowly developed those
Speaker 1: wings which with each molting and then once they've reached
Speaker 1: their final stage of maturation, which is about at the
Speaker 1: same time. Because again they were all the eggs were
Speaker 1: laid at the same time, they all went underground at
Speaker 1: the same time. They're all synchronized, which is incredible. Uh.
Speaker 1: They will start to burrow upwards and they test the
Speaker 1: temperature of the earth and once it is above about
Speaker 1: sixty four degrees fahrenheit or eighteen degrees celsius, they're like, yep, temperatures,
Speaker 1: right out we come. And then it happens again and
Speaker 1: they actually leave a bunch of holes in the ground,
Speaker 1: which for me, that's like the spookiest part it's not
Speaker 1: seeing all the cicadas. It's like seeing the holes. Like
Speaker 1: do you ever have you ever read a gingi eto, uh,
Speaker 1: like his horror comics. No, I don't think I have.
Speaker 1: But I mean that just sounds creepy. There's a horror
Speaker 1: Mango where it's like all these human shaped holes in
Speaker 1: a cliff face and like people like go inside and
Speaker 1: just get sucked up. It's kind of it's just like
Speaker 1: all these like little cicada holes. It's just it's a
Speaker 1: little creepy. That's that. I don't know why, but that's
Speaker 1: the part that kind of creeps me out. And it's
Speaker 1: not it's not triple phobia. I don't have that, that's
Speaker 1: the Yeah, it's it's not really that. I think. It's
Speaker 1: just the knowing what they are. Like that's where like
Speaker 1: this brood comes out from I don't know, gives me
Speaker 1: the shivers. Um. I mean, I feel like if you
Speaker 1: grew up in southern California or or you know, anywhere
Speaker 1: in the Southwest, you probably holes in the ground means snakes.
Speaker 1: So I always, you know, my dad would always say,
Speaker 1: never put your your your hand or foot somewhere you
Speaker 1: can't see. Yeah. No, that's a good point. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: like I remember when I was a little kid and
Speaker 1: I was like digging around in the dirt. I found
Speaker 1: a hole. I was like, oh, I'll dig down in
Speaker 1: this hole. Scorpion, scorpion, and don't you that. Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: do that. That's why I have. I have family that
Speaker 1: live in the desert and they're just kind of like, well,
Speaker 1: the cat killed another scorpion today, and scorpions are so
Speaker 1: common to them, and I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's a bit overwhelming for me. Scorpions are. I think
Speaker 1: they're fascinating and cool, but but I'm want them. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want them to be doing battle with my cats
Speaker 1: or me. Yeah they're great parents. Scorpions are, but they
Speaker 1: don't want them in my room. I've I'm like in
Speaker 1: my parents house where I grew up, where actually I
Speaker 1: am right now because I'm visiting my parents because the vaccine. Hey,
Speaker 1: we're right next to sort of this arid canyon area.
Speaker 1: And so for whatever reason that bugs loved my room.
Speaker 1: Maybe they could sense a kindred spirit. But I would
Speaker 1: get like scorpions would get in there, and it's like
Speaker 1: it would only be my room for some reason, or
Speaker 1: maybe I was the only one looking around for scorpions.
Speaker 1: But it's scorpions. I got like a plenari in once.
Speaker 1: It's like weird, a sort of warm thing. And I
Speaker 1: got the you mentioned. I think it was a misnom
Speaker 1: where you were talking about the fig beatles, but the
Speaker 1: um but Jerusalem crickets are around here as well, So
Speaker 1: I got got one of those. Those are creepy, uh
Speaker 1: their faces something about I don't know, but yeah, so
Speaker 1: so I got a bunch of weird bugs, including uh,
Speaker 1: including scorpions, never a cicada though only heard them from
Speaker 1: a distance. Speaking of bugs and them encroaching on us,
Speaker 1: you may be asking, why do they do this mass
Speaker 1: brooding event? Is it just to scare us? What's going
Speaker 1: Is it an intimidation thing? Oh? God, why are they
Speaker 1: doing this? So it's interesting because most cicada species aren't
Speaker 1: like this. They don't lay in wait for seventeen years
Speaker 1: and then emerge on mass like uh. They live for
Speaker 1: a few years, and they have like annual mating cycles,
Speaker 1: just typical stuff. The periodical brooding cicadas are interestingly different,
Speaker 1: Like their whole name is based on this, this brooding
Speaker 1: habit they're called magic cicada, which sounds like it's like
Speaker 1: magic cicada, which is I love, But it actually comes
Speaker 1: from the Latin may gui or magi. I think it's
Speaker 1: magi um, yeah, which means to a great extent. So
Speaker 1: it's basically saying like, there's a bunch of them, But
Speaker 1: I also like to think that it's because they're magic,
Speaker 1: just like magic cicada. Yeah. But the purpose of this
Speaker 1: huge brood emergence is probably safety in numbers. There there
Speaker 1: are so many of them. As an individual cicada, you're
Speaker 1: statistically unlikely to be preyed upon in such a huge
Speaker 1: mass of others. And it makes mating easier because you
Speaker 1: just have one big meat and Greek party with millions
Speaker 1: of sexy singles in your area. Exactly. It's it's what
Speaker 1: everybody everybody like, you know, what what people be like,
Speaker 1: you know, me and my homies. Once we get the vaccine, Yes,
Speaker 1: of course, it's not going to be like that. It's
Speaker 1: much more going to be like you know us slowly,
Speaker 1: you know, climbing out of our cade where we've been hibernating. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's it's probably not going to be as fun and
Speaker 1: sexy as the cicadas, you know. But I didn't make
Speaker 1: that connection until now. But you're absolutely right. It's like
Speaker 1: a metaphor for emerging from quarantine. We're coming out of
Speaker 1: our holes that we've been in for which feels like
Speaker 1: seventeen years, but it's been over a year. And then
Speaker 1: we'll probably have a mass meeting open and we should
Speaker 1: definitely call like all the babies that happens because of
Speaker 1: like after the quarantine one like mating, we should call
Speaker 1: them brutex. They should be brute x. Yes, that would
Speaker 1: be that would be a great and and yeah, that
Speaker 1: would be a great, a great name for them, I
Speaker 1: think babies. And they would share, they'll share. Oh and
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is so perfect. It's like when
Speaker 1: nature is just poetic because we're going to share a
Speaker 1: birthday with millions of cicadas. Have a bunch of cicada
Speaker 1: babies or like, well, I guess not exactly, because they'll
Speaker 1: be conceived now, they'll they'll there's gonna be like quarantine
Speaker 1: has been long enough that there are you know, conceived
Speaker 1: in quarantine babies. That's true. That it's true. I thought
Speaker 1: there wasn't like there was expected a baby boom, but
Speaker 1: there wasn't because people didn't feel like having a child.
Speaker 1: There then there might still be there might still be
Speaker 1: in the next but yeah, but probably it was. It
Speaker 1: was a bit too depressing. I think there's gonna I
Speaker 1: think the celebratory we're out of quarantine baby boom is
Speaker 1: gonna be much bigger. I mean also because I think
Speaker 1: probably a lot of people wanted to have children and
Speaker 1: then we're waiting until after quarantine, So like I imagine
Speaker 1: a lot of them are going to be planned pregnancies
Speaker 1: of like, hey, we're out of quarantine, now we can
Speaker 1: start our families. Yeah, exactly, And so they're gonna be Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's beautiful. You your babies are going to share
Speaker 1: a special a special year with the millions of cicadas
Speaker 1: that are also going to breathe this year. Yeah, Cicada
Speaker 1: generation wonderful. It's just it's beautiful. It's it's like a poem.
Speaker 1: It's it's yeah, it's they're synchronized, you know, much like
Speaker 1: the cicadas themselves now synchronized with the cicadas. So we're
Speaker 1: just gonna slowly become more and more cicada like. Uh so. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another proposed theory for why they have such a long
Speaker 1: brooding cycle is that it makes it hard for predators
Speaker 1: to adapt to your weird intervals. So like, if you
Speaker 1: are only like you only emerge every seventeen years, evolutionarily,
Speaker 1: it's kind of difficult for predators to have, Like they
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of predators don't have a lifespan
Speaker 1: of seventeen years, so matching up with with that and
Speaker 1: being able to develop specific um evolutionary traits to be
Speaker 1: able to prey upon you is harder. Although some biologist
Speaker 1: disagree with this theory. They say, like, well, there's actually
Speaker 1: a fungus that has developed that can specifically prey upon
Speaker 1: these periodical cicadas, So obviously there's you know, but but
Speaker 1: I still think that like, yeah, obviously fungus like probably
Speaker 1: because it's under the ground and terrifying they are, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they they there's no defeating fun guy, Like that's the
Speaker 1: final boss. Honestly, like we we'd like to we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: no cicadas, No cicadas. We don't have to worry about them,
Speaker 1: fun guy, that's what we got to worry about. That's
Speaker 1: what's that's that's the zombie virus is not gonna be
Speaker 1: a virus is gonna be a fungus. Yeah, like the
Speaker 1: most terrifying. Like I think about how I'll walk outside
Speaker 1: and I'll see mushrooms pop up out of nowhere one
Speaker 1: morning and then the next day they'll be gone, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, how did you do that? How did you
Speaker 1: pop up and then go away? How? It's it's I
Speaker 1: I do not understand them. I have respect for them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not a fun guy expert as much
Speaker 1: as I wish I was, But yeah, they they there's
Speaker 1: something about room that spooks me because they're not they're
Speaker 1: not an animal, but they're not really a plant either
Speaker 1: or in that in between zone of spookiness. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so especially the parasitic fungus like Court accepts. Yeah, spooky
Speaker 1: because that goes inside and ant's brain or other insects
Speaker 1: Mexico uh like takes over their brain, makes them climb
Speaker 1: up a tree branch and then sprouts spores like right
Speaker 1: out of their brain. That's what the last of us
Speaker 1: that gave the video game about zombie apocalypse like that
Speaker 1: that the last of the space there zombie infection on
Speaker 1: the court as ups. Really that makes sense. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: heard about the last of us. But nobody has has
Speaker 1: told me that that that. Yeah, that sounds really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is. I really loved that aspect of the game.
Speaker 1: It's like the biological meshing sort of these biological facts
Speaker 1: with their their the science fictions. I mean we we
Speaker 1: we kind of understand bacteria, we we kind of understand viruses,
Speaker 1: but yeah, like fun guy and like what are they?
Speaker 1: Things are? Things? Are? Those are the misfolded proteins that
Speaker 1: that just like, yeah, houses a ruckets in your brain.
Speaker 1: They don't like that. Those are scary. But I do
Speaker 1: think like, aside from fun Guy, which are uh not
Speaker 1: a fun guy. Uh, you know, I think that that
Speaker 1: strategy of like if you lay in wait for like
Speaker 1: seventeen years, yeah, like birds aren't gonna know what to
Speaker 1: do about you, Like, their lifespans are typically not seventeen
Speaker 1: years long, so they're not going to have any memory
Speaker 1: of these brooding events. Are not going to know like
Speaker 1: when to come and pray on you. So I think
Speaker 1: that maybe that is part of the strategy. Um. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: sometimes there are stragglers who either come too early or
Speaker 1: too late to the big brooding party. So it's not
Speaker 1: not perfect, you know, Nobody's perfect. Poe Buddy's nerfect, and
Speaker 1: that applies to Cicada's too. I feel like I've heard
Speaker 1: them before. I've heard like like a strug. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like we get that, like used to get
Speaker 1: the they're not actually June bugs, but we call them
Speaker 1: June bugs in in California, And like once or twice
Speaker 1: we would get a June bug that was late. My
Speaker 1: mom was like, oh, sorry, dude, you're late. It's not
Speaker 1: June anymore. And and yes, Kada's eat here. Sometimes you'd
Speaker 1: hear like one and it was just like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like anybody is still out here. Yeah, uh yeah. But
Speaker 1: what's interesting is if there's enough stragglers, because there's so
Speaker 1: many of them, even if you're a straggler, the chance
Speaker 1: that there's going to be another straggler is pretty high.
Speaker 1: So uh, sometimes there are enough of them that they
Speaker 1: actually successfully made like a group of them, and then
Speaker 1: they can get off sink a little bit from the
Speaker 1: rest of them, and that can actually start a new
Speaker 1: brood that also they still have like the seventeen year cycle,
Speaker 1: but because they're like off sinc just a little bit,
Speaker 1: they start like a different brewd that will actually hatch
Speaker 1: different years. So there are many different um cicada brewds,
Speaker 1: so brute x is not the only one. There are
Speaker 1: cicada brewds that emerge every seventeen years. There's some that
Speaker 1: also emerge every thirteen years, so slightly different species. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I know I've heard cicadas at times that weren't
Speaker 1: just that wasn't just seventeen years ago. Yes, because well,
Speaker 1: first of all, there's the cicadas that aren't periodical brewders,
Speaker 1: so they they are around every year UM, and they
Speaker 1: don't do this behavior of waiting seventeen years. They have
Speaker 1: like a yearly reproductive cycle. But you may be saying, like, well,
Speaker 1: I've seen like mass emergence of cicadas and it hasn't
Speaker 1: been seventeen years since I've seen it. And that's because
Speaker 1: like they're they're on these different cycles. So this is
Speaker 1: not it's not that this event only happens every seventeen years.
Speaker 1: This brewed X is only gonna happen every seventeen years
Speaker 1: because their population is on this schedule. But there are
Speaker 1: gonna be other staggered populations of cicadas that are on
Speaker 1: different schedules. So we see these mass brewed emergence events
Speaker 1: every few years, and so it's yeah, so if you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss this mass brewed emergence, don't panic. There
Speaker 1: will be another one and you won't have to wait
Speaker 1: seventeen years. But if you want to see this specific
Speaker 1: brute event, yeah, will have to wait another seventeen years. Um.
Speaker 1: There's enough cicadas for everyone, don't mari. Speaking of which, actually,
Speaker 1: apparently I read that cicada's tastes like canned asparagus, which
Speaker 1: I don't know what, like the like vin di diagram
Speaker 1: of like people who have eaten canned asparagus and people
Speaker 1: who have eaten cicadas. Who has both eaten canned asparagus
Speaker 1: yuck and cicadas, Like people have eaten both of them.
Speaker 1: That they're like, oh, yeah, this is like the can
Speaker 1: asparagus that I eat, Like what, yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 1: an asparagus is like a very specific thing anyway, Like
Speaker 1: I think asparagus is Okay, It's not my favorite. My
Speaker 1: sister loves and she cooks it a lot, and you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll eat it if she cooks it, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: but I've never had it, can't And that sounds know. No,
Speaker 1: I'm like you, like, I'll have like roasted asparus. I
Speaker 1: don't love it. It's a little too fibrous for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: also making your pee smell weird. I'm not yeah, but like,
Speaker 1: but but I couldn't like eating something about canics asparagus
Speaker 1: just does not appeal to me at all. But then
Speaker 1: it's like, who is eating Like, well, actually, you know what,
Speaker 1: I guess it makes sense. The kind of person who
Speaker 1: would regularly eat canned asparagus probably what eat is a
Speaker 1: cana just out of curiosity. They already eating eating weird stuff,
Speaker 1: so yeah, right, why not? Yeah, it's like what, look,
Speaker 1: once you've stooped to the level of eating candid sparagus,
Speaker 1: so why not just try I'm thinking, is it like
Speaker 1: army rations or something? Because because or like survivalists, because
Speaker 1: survivalist because that seems like like the kind of people
Speaker 1: who would do it. They'll be like, yeah, we eat bugs,
Speaker 1: We've also eaten you know, these can vegetables. Yeah, of
Speaker 1: course bugs are going to be the meat of the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which I mean, like, yes, it grosses me out to
Speaker 1: think about, Like I I it both I both am like, oh,
Speaker 1: this's actually like a really good idea to like make
Speaker 1: cricket flower or something like that, because it's more readily
Speaker 1: available and it's you know, probably eat safer and maybe
Speaker 1: even than probably more humane than like factory farming and such.
Speaker 1: But but also like the idea gross. No, I'm with you, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, no, we should be probably eating more insects.
Speaker 1: That would be more yeah, ecologically good for the planet.
Speaker 1: Uh but yeah gross icky No, Yeah, I'm like I
Speaker 1: I and I think it's entirely cultural. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's any real logic to it. There are places where
Speaker 1: people do eat insects and like it's totally normal and fine,
Speaker 1: and they probably like, look there, they probably look at
Speaker 1: our food like they probably look at like a Carl's Jr.
Speaker 1: Like burger and be like what the hell? Yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: And I feel like there's yeah, and and people, and
Speaker 1: you can survive pretty well off of that. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: there's a Yeah, there's a guy that was accidentally got
Speaker 1: stranded I think somewhere in Australia, like in the desert
Speaker 1: brush area, and he survived by eating witchety grubs, which
Speaker 1: are these big like sort of you know how on
Speaker 1: the Lion King there's a scene where they like teach
Speaker 1: them about to eat big grubs. Is they're huge grubs
Speaker 1: and they just look not super appealing to eat. But
Speaker 1: people have been eating like for centuries. Uh, people have
Speaker 1: been eating um, the witchty grubs as as a part
Speaker 1: of like their diet, and they're they're perfectly good to eat.
Speaker 1: And this guy survived by eating them. Uh And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just it's it's totally cultural that we've we've been
Speaker 1: brainwashed to reject insects as food, but somehow be okay
Speaker 1: with factory farming, which is a little messed up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is which is even grosser, right, yes, way gross.
Speaker 1: I think like I don't like eating Like I I
Speaker 1: eat meat. Sometimes I don't eat a lot of meat,
Speaker 1: but like, but like when I do, like, I don't like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I would like to eat a cricket
Speaker 1: if it looked like a cricket, Yeah could, But I
Speaker 1: also don't like to eat meat that looks like the
Speaker 1: animal that it is. Like I I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I feel like for me, that's a psychological thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm kind of the opposite. I almost like
Speaker 1: want to know I'm just eating a I feel like
Speaker 1: if it's if you're like, this cookie was made out
Speaker 1: of ground up crickets. I feel like here, I've roasted
Speaker 1: this cricket and it's like prepared it, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, at least this is being honest with me.
Speaker 1: What it's true. I wouldn't want to be tricked into
Speaker 1: eating it or anything. Yeah, I think I would rather Also,
Speaker 1: I think i'd rather eat a prepared bug than I
Speaker 1: would to eat candasparagus. Absolutely, I'm not eating candasparagus. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't canned know or canned mushrooms too. I'd rather
Speaker 1: eat a freshly prepared insect um. In terms of the cicada,
Speaker 1: the cicada brewdex, like, should we be concerned about this?
Speaker 1: Like are you in imminent danger of having your face
Speaker 1: covered in cicadas and then like you know, skeletonizing. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: cicadas are harmless to humans. They don't sting or bite.
Speaker 1: They are allowed. So if you live near where this
Speaker 1: is happening, you might have some tough nights. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know they're not they they don't hurt humans. They
Speaker 1: also don't hurt the Uh, they don't really hurt the
Speaker 1: trees or crops or anything. They're not like locusts. They
Speaker 1: don't destroy crops. Uh. They will suck the juice out
Speaker 1: of tree twigs, which also doesn't really hurt the trees
Speaker 1: that much. Like it seems actually to just kind of
Speaker 1: like prune the trees. They don't really do lasting damage
Speaker 1: to the trees. There are even some arguments with that.
Speaker 1: Because they burst out these holes, it helps aerate the
Speaker 1: soil and it's actually good for the trees. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's probably a net neutral because they do suck
Speaker 1: some of the juices out of the roots, and when
Speaker 1: they lay their eggs, they actually like kind of cut
Speaker 1: into the tree a little bit to like stuff the
Speaker 1: eggs in, so they're secure there. So I think it's
Speaker 1: it's probably just a neutral effect on the trees. Um
Speaker 1: but I have seen some arguments that it's actually beneficial,
Speaker 1: so so maybe. But either way, they're not harmful, So
Speaker 1: just enjoy the big Cicada party that happens only once
Speaker 1: every seventeen years. They're kind of the musical theater kids
Speaker 1: of the insect world, which I mean I relate to
Speaker 1: as a musical theater kid. They're they're really annoying, but
Speaker 1: they're harmless. Yeah exactly. Yeah, don't don't like, don't hate
Speaker 1: on them too much. Just let them do their thing,
Speaker 1: you know, like like, you know, you can find them annoying,
Speaker 1: but they're just you know, yeah, they might be costs
Speaker 1: playing as vampires, but it's exactly like tomato juice. So
Speaker 1: they just want to hook up at the cast party,
Speaker 1: you know, they just want to hook up at the
Speaker 1: cast party. So so let them have their little their
Speaker 1: party full of you know, massage trains and and you
Speaker 1: go back underground soon enough. Yeah, exactly, exactly. They'll they'll
Speaker 1: grow out of it, you know, just as theater kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of kind of grow out of the Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's what they are. Cicadas with the theater kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure theater kids are going to be okay with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm okay with it, and I'm a theater kid. So exactly.
Speaker 1: You're the president of Peter Kids. God am I I
Speaker 1: might be. So we've talked about cicadas and their mass
Speaker 1: brooding events, but they are not the only animal that
Speaker 1: does this mare. Are you familiar with sea turtle mass
Speaker 1: hatching events? No, I'm not, but please tell me because
Speaker 1: I love turtles. Yes, So thousands of female sea turtles
Speaker 1: have this uncanny ability to emerge from the ocean all
Speaker 1: at once to lay their eggs at specific beaches. So
Speaker 1: there are all of Ridley sea turtles are one such
Speaker 1: species who will emerge by the thousands to lay their
Speaker 1: eggs at select beaches, like UH there's a beach called
Speaker 1: Osteon all in Costa Rica, and they seem to specific
Speaker 1: thickly select particular beaches to all come and lay their
Speaker 1: eggs on mass. And because they're all coming at the
Speaker 1: same time to lay their eggs, that means the eggs
Speaker 1: will all hatch around the same time as well. And
Speaker 1: so when these eggs hatch, they'll come out because like
Speaker 1: they bury them in the sand and they they have
Speaker 1: each one has a clutch of UH I think a
Speaker 1: couple of dozen eggs, and then they'll all come out
Speaker 1: at the same time, and the hatchlings will instinctively go
Speaker 1: towards the ocean UH possibly guided by light reflecting off
Speaker 1: of the water. UH. Some of them like they'll come
Speaker 1: out during night and like the moonlight reflecting off the
Speaker 1: water seems to be a beacon for them. These UH turtles,
Speaker 1: even though there are so many of them, actually surprisingly
Speaker 1: few will reach adulthood because they're small and delicious, like
Speaker 1: little like little cinnamon buns. Uh, and so like there
Speaker 1: are lots of scab injers and predators who wait for
Speaker 1: these events. They know what's happening, and these are very
Speaker 1: tasty treats for them because they're so defenseless and there
Speaker 1: they don't they can't move that quickly, so when they emerge,
Speaker 1: they have this very dangerous trek to the ocean. And
Speaker 1: so having this mass hatching event again gives you safety
Speaker 1: in numbers like you are, you know, you may not
Speaker 1: make it to the ocean, but like you're much have
Speaker 1: a much better chance if you're one of like thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of individuals. Then if it's just you coming
Speaker 1: out and then like a seagull is going to immediately
Speaker 1: see you and just snatch you up. So yeah, these
Speaker 1: these mass turtle hatchings, they happen all over the world. Um,
Speaker 1: but like often these populations of sea turtles prefer specific beaches,
Speaker 1: so they're often these events that that people wait for
Speaker 1: these turtles to hatch and and watch them or like
Speaker 1: sometimes yeah, yeah, it's it's quite something. I mean, the
Speaker 1: babies are so cute. It's hard though, because like you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of them aren't going to make it so
Speaker 1: and you can't you shouldn't interfere. Sometimes there are rescue
Speaker 1: groups that will like, uh kind of try to help
Speaker 1: protect them from like poaching and stuff. So but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is quite something though. So
Speaker 1: you know, watching a video of just like thousands of
Speaker 1: these turtles just like kind of like ambling because they
Speaker 1: can't move very well. Uh, they just kind of like
Speaker 1: use their little flippers to like kind of push themselves forward,
Speaker 1: and it's just like, yeah, I like the little patterns
Speaker 1: that they leave in the ground. I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: little patterns they leave in it. It does look like
Speaker 1: they're just moving forward, very very slowly, just finishing. It's
Speaker 1: very cute. I mean they're hustling. You can tell they're
Speaker 1: hustling as fast as they can. Unfortunately that's just not
Speaker 1: very fast. But yeah, they they really they really try
Speaker 1: to gun it to the ocean, but they can they
Speaker 1: can only move so fast because they're these little tiny,
Speaker 1: little tiny like sand dollars size things, and they Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's but yeah, you're right, the patterns they leave behind
Speaker 1: are quite beautiful. But you may have heard of these
Speaker 1: sea turtle mass hatchings, but there are also mass river
Speaker 1: turtle hatchings. Yeah, in the Amazon rainforest. So in Brazil,
Speaker 1: on the Purus River in the Amazon Rainforest, tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of baby array turtles, also known as the giant
Speaker 1: South American river turtles will hatch and make their way
Speaker 1: to the river. So, similar to the sea turtles, they're
Speaker 1: buried in the sand, which keeps the eggs safe. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you're wondering, well, why don't they just lay
Speaker 1: them in the ocean or in the river, the eggs
Speaker 1: are going to be just sitting ducks or sitting eggs
Speaker 1: for anything to eat, So burying them in the sand
Speaker 1: keeps them safe. Uh. And so once they hatch, that
Speaker 1: is when the real trouble starts. So they say giant,
Speaker 1: How how giant are they? Yeah? So as adults, the
Speaker 1: babies are small, obviously cute little babies, but as adults
Speaker 1: they get up to about two hundred pounds or weight.
Speaker 1: Those are the larger I think on average they don't
Speaker 1: reach that way, but like those are some of the
Speaker 1: larger individuals, and their shells can grow to be over
Speaker 1: three ft longer, over one ms long, So I think
Speaker 1: typically they're a little smaller, so more around like a
Speaker 1: hundred two hundred fifty pounds um and a little smaller shells,
Speaker 1: but they can get quite big. They're also, I think
Speaker 1: as adults, very cute. They have these long necks, and
Speaker 1: they have these little piggy noses, like little little piggy snouts.
Speaker 1: And then they also often like algae will grow on
Speaker 1: their shells, so that I think they're really cool. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they get like these mohawks of algae growing on them. Um,
Speaker 1: They're they're really interesting looking, very cool. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: the babies are adorable, but they face a very unfortunate odds.
Speaker 1: So in a protected area of the Parus River, these
Speaker 1: turtles will hatch on mass. So in nine thousand baby
Speaker 1: turtles hatch just within a few days of each other.
Speaker 1: And if you think that's gonna look like a huge
Speaker 1: pile of baby turtles, that is what it looks like.
Speaker 1: So unfortunately, even though there's just so many of them,
Speaker 1: you think like, well, god, there must be like huge
Speaker 1: numbers of these turtles. Unfortunately, only about one percent of
Speaker 1: them will reach adulthood. So it truly is just a
Speaker 1: law of large numbers. Like you want to make as
Speaker 1: many babies as you can because their odds are so slim,
Speaker 1: and you just want to make sure that some of
Speaker 1: them will make it to adulthood. What are their what
Speaker 1: are their predators? Do you know? Yeah, for the sea turtles,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of like birds are a big one,
Speaker 1: but they're also plenty of small sharks like in the
Speaker 1: ocean that are really good predators. What about the river
Speaker 1: ones and the river ones again, I mean, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of avenging birds that freshwater birds that will
Speaker 1: pray for them, and then um, I'm pretty sure. I
Speaker 1: mean there are a lot of big fish in these
Speaker 1: rivers that are would be happy enough to eat them.
Speaker 1: There's also otters, river arters I believe that live in
Speaker 1: the area. River otters are scary, like I like, I
Speaker 1: like otters, but river otters are scary. They're they're they're serious,
Speaker 1: they're serious like you do you think of the cute
Speaker 1: little sea otters. No, river arters are huge. They're like
Speaker 1: almost as tall, like as an adult man, and they
Speaker 1: they're long, they have huge teeth. They can take on crocodiles.
Speaker 1: They can like literally take on gators and crocodiles and
Speaker 1: hold their own so they're serious business. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: that that is perhaps one of the cutest mass spawnings.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the biggest mass spawning, you have
Speaker 1: to go to the Great Barrier Reef. Great Barrier Reef
Speaker 1: is home to the largest mass spawning events in the
Speaker 1: world of coral. So, I know, coral looks like a
Speaker 1: plant or a rock, but they are living animals, which
Speaker 1: is mind blowing. They just don't they don't look like
Speaker 1: they should be alive. They look like, you know, they
Speaker 1: look like set dressing. Yeah, my my grandmother had a
Speaker 1: coral ring and it's weird to me now because I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's almost like that's like closer to fur than it
Speaker 1: is to like, you know, skeletons. Yeah, exactly, and it
Speaker 1: was a very pretty ring. But I think about it
Speaker 1: now and I'm like, oh, so weird that that was
Speaker 1: alive once. Yes, yes, and so coral are very much alive.
Speaker 1: They are nidarians, which is the same phylum as jellyfish
Speaker 1: and see an enemies. So yeah, they're actually related to
Speaker 1: jellyfish and see enemies. They are often colonials, so that
Speaker 1: means they form these huge groups of many individual polyps.
Speaker 1: So polyp is like just like one individual like you
Speaker 1: see if you see a big branching thing of coral,
Speaker 1: chances are there like thousands of individual polyps or hundreds
Speaker 1: of individual polyps like on this piece of coral um.
Speaker 1: So a polyp generally speaking for coral is like a
Speaker 1: sort of oval structure. For some coral they look more
Speaker 1: like sort of a long flower with a stem. Some
Speaker 1: of them are more squat, some of them look sort
Speaker 1: of like a flower bulb. Some of them look more
Speaker 1: like pine cone shaped. But it's this is a living
Speaker 1: it's got it's a living animal with like living tissue,
Speaker 1: and it eats. They'll they'll filter feed and they like
Speaker 1: will come out of this um. These corals and like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, use use their flowering organs to like catch
Speaker 1: prey and and filter feed and just whatever is floating around.
Speaker 1: So colonial polyps will often share sort of a base
Speaker 1: either formed by fibrous proteins or calcified materials, uh, and
Speaker 1: so that will form these big beautiful structures that you
Speaker 1: see in the barrier reef. There are two main types
Speaker 1: of coral. There are soft corals and stony corals. Soft
Speaker 1: coral you may not even realize their coral because they
Speaker 1: look they don't look hard. They are visibly soft. They
Speaker 1: look sort of like a bunch of sea an enemy's
Speaker 1: or flowers. Is that this? Oh yeah, you have a
Speaker 1: picture of yellow ones and yeah, they look like they
Speaker 1: look like those bottlebrush tree you know of things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they look like spiny, but they look soft. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: they they are. They are softer. They don't generally have
Speaker 1: that like hard calcified skeletal structure. They're held together by
Speaker 1: jelly like tissues and they but they also do have
Speaker 1: some spiny structures that will support them. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: do they feel soft to touch? Yeah, so part of
Speaker 1: them would feel soft to touch, but the part of
Speaker 1: them that is the sort of like bass that's holding
Speaker 1: them together is going to be a little more firm,
Speaker 1: sort of like spiny, like like tree branches. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like the definitely the polyps themselves is going to be softer,
Speaker 1: but hard. Coral is and a feel hard, so that
Speaker 1: the stony coral uh is the stuff that you probably
Speaker 1: think of when you think of coral. They look like mineral,
Speaker 1: more like a mineral than an animal. But they are alive.
Speaker 1: So there are a bunch of tiny polyps on stony
Speaker 1: coral skeletal structures, and like these polyps are, they're less
Speaker 1: sort of like flowery looking than soft corals. They're more
Speaker 1: a little more conical shaped, and they give like these
Speaker 1: stony uh corals, a sort of harder, more rocky appearance. Uh.
Speaker 1: And because often like these, these polyps are very tiny,
Speaker 1: only like one to three millimeters, you can barely see
Speaker 1: each individual just looks like this rocky texture on like
Speaker 1: this coral doesn't look like there's a bunch of individuals.
Speaker 1: But if you zoom in, those little little bumps are
Speaker 1: actually like living polyps um. And if you ever I
Speaker 1: have a visual aid for Mara here, you guys can
Speaker 1: check out the show notes and and see pictures of this.
Speaker 1: But I actually found because I, like I mentioned, I'm
Speaker 1: actually at my my parents house right now, and I
Speaker 1: found this in the bathroom as a decoration. It's actually
Speaker 1: a um a coral skeleton. So this is uh the uh.
Speaker 1: This is a stony coral, and this is the calcified
Speaker 1: hard base of the skeleton that would home a bunch
Speaker 1: of little polyps. And I'm going to hold it up
Speaker 1: so you can see each of these little like they
Speaker 1: look like little holes or little divid's. I don't know
Speaker 1: how much detail you can get from the it has
Speaker 1: like little stars on it, Like I'm not little stars right,
Speaker 1: because that the little time like that was home to
Speaker 1: each of these polyps that had this like radial sort
Speaker 1: of branching structure. So each of those little like like
Speaker 1: feathery kind of star structures is where that that little
Speaker 1: polyp would have grown and have that like radial symmetry
Speaker 1: like a c an enemy or like a jellyfish um.
Speaker 1: But it was like a little indovid jewel. And of
Speaker 1: course all that's left now is the hard calcified structure
Speaker 1: or the skeleton. So if you have decorative coral um,
Speaker 1: that is a skeleton that you have basically. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we used to have. I like because when you
Speaker 1: when I as soon as I saw that, I was like,
Speaker 1: that looks familiar. And I feel like we might have
Speaker 1: had that in my bathroom when we were little, or
Speaker 1: like it's a common bathroom decade or like like on
Speaker 1: in like a little display on top of the the back,
Speaker 1: when we had like you had like the TV cabinet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like we had we had like we had
Speaker 1: like potpourri on one part of it, and we had
Speaker 1: but we had like pretty rocks and coral on there too,
Speaker 1: or maybe like my grandparents had it. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like that was that was a very kind of seventies
Speaker 1: eighties decorations exactly. Yeah. Yeah, And so it was kind
Speaker 1: of neat because I was like thinking about this episode
Speaker 1: and like and I was just like, you know, doing
Speaker 1: my business in the bathroom. We don't need to go
Speaker 1: in detail there. But I saw this like on a
Speaker 1: shelf and it's like, oh, hey, yeah, that's what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about today. Yeah. Yeah. So, because corals are often
Speaker 1: huge colonies with hundreds of thousands of individual polyps, and
Speaker 1: the Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's largest
Speaker 1: coral systems, with over six hundred distinct coral species. There
Speaker 1: are millions and millions of individual polyps in the Great
Speaker 1: Barrier Reef. By my rough calculation, when it is a
Speaker 1: coral species time to spawn, it gets buck wild in
Speaker 1: the ocean. So coral are sessile, which is just a
Speaker 1: way of saying their immobile. They spend their whole time
Speaker 1: just kind of staying still. Uh, you know, just like
Speaker 1: we've been on quarantine, we've been sessile. On our couches,
Speaker 1: and so having sex is a problem because how do
Speaker 1: you have sex and reproduce when you can't really move.
Speaker 1: So they will release sperm and egg packets into the water,
Speaker 1: and once if these sperm and egg packets just happen
Speaker 1: to bonk into each other, they will fertilize and form
Speaker 1: an embryo. So in order to match maximize the chance
Speaker 1: of successful fertilization, they have to synchronize because like if
Speaker 1: you just like send out your egg or your sperm
Speaker 1: packet and then it's like nobody else is doing it,
Speaker 1: maybe one person like way far away is doing it,
Speaker 1: the chances are going to bonk into each other, it's
Speaker 1: like pretty minimal. If everyone's doing it. It's a blizzard
Speaker 1: of sperm and egg packets, and the chance that you're
Speaker 1: gonna bunk into something and get it fertilized is very high.
Speaker 1: And so that's what they do. It's this blizzard of
Speaker 1: coral sperm and eggs, and it's super colorful, so uh
Speaker 1: like coral, very pretty, very colorful, and so you wouldn't
Speaker 1: even guess that it's such a such dirty business going
Speaker 1: on here because it comes in these colors of like
Speaker 1: yellows and pinks. Uh, and it's like this flurry. Uh.
Speaker 1: It looks like a magical enchanted blizzard. But you know
Speaker 1: that's ah, it's coral sex junk happen. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: photo that that I'm looking at here where there's like
Speaker 1: there's like coral spawning and it looks like like it's
Speaker 1: like really beautiful. You could put it up as like
Speaker 1: a photograph like in your home as ascoration. And then
Speaker 1: there's another one and there's a diver in the middle
Speaker 1: of it and he looks a little like, Okay, what
Speaker 1: did I get in the middle of here? Oh? Goh
Speaker 1: you guys. Gross, guys, just come one. Yeah. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like a snow globe, Like you turn in the
Speaker 1: snow globe and you see all these like big sort
Speaker 1: of like things of snow, except like it's pink and
Speaker 1: yellow and it's you know, coral sex gou Once they fertilized,
Speaker 1: this will create new coral polyps. You can actually look
Speaker 1: like there's an aerial photo too, like that shows these
Speaker 1: um like mass coral embryos that creates like this pink
Speaker 1: film on the ocean and look like someone just like
Speaker 1: spilled a bunch of pink ink. It's beautiful. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: just but it also like shows you the scale of
Speaker 1: this event. It's just huge, huge number of who any
Speaker 1: coral just making babies? And how often does this happen?
Speaker 1: I think this is a yearly event. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if like every species does it every year, but they
Speaker 1: they like that's staggered enough that this happens relatively often. So,
Speaker 1: uh should we be worried about this? Uh? Not really,
Speaker 1: I mean unless you are a fish in a lagoon
Speaker 1: during an unfortunately timed weather storm that causes coral sex
Speaker 1: goop to rain down in your home and literally suffocate you.
Speaker 1: But actually happened nine years ago in a lagoon in
Speaker 1: an atoll in the Cocoas Island in the Indian Ocean.
Speaker 1: A fluke storm blew a bunch of coral spawn into
Speaker 1: a lagoon system, which consumed oxygen, and then the decaying
Speaker 1: coral uh polyps released methane, which made the water unbreathable
Speaker 1: by the fish, who suffocated and died on mass. So sometimes, hey,
Speaker 1: coral sex does kill. Yeah, it's that's like getting caught
Speaker 1: up in like somebody else's drama. Oh jeez. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: like it shows you a text like between them and
Speaker 1: someone they're seeing, and it's like they expect you to
Speaker 1: resolve the drama. It's like, no, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be a fish in your coral right. It's a great
Speaker 1: way to tell them now I'm fishing your coral sex lagoon. Okay,
Speaker 1: don't know what you mean, You don't don't know they should.
Speaker 1: If they don't, you don't want to be their friend anyway, right,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. I mean like if they're if they're making
Speaker 1: you be a fish and they're coral sex again, that's
Speaker 1: to get out of there. Got those toxic ties. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we've covered probably as many mass spawning events
Speaker 1: as I can tolerate in one episode. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's like it's the beautiful cycle of
Speaker 1: life which sometimes happens in by the millions. But before
Speaker 1: we go, I do want to do a listener email
Speaker 1: that was in response to the last week's episode, which
Speaker 1: is about bunnies. Mark, you missed the bunnies by one
Speaker 1: by one week, so instead you had the mass cicada
Speaker 1: sex episode. I I mean, it's it's still interesting to me.
Speaker 1: And I got turtles, which I like so that's true.
Speaker 1: That's true too massive baby turtles. A lot of them
Speaker 1: are gonna die. But hey, it's but they're cute while
Speaker 1: they last. Yeah, it's it's an ephemeral thing. Yeah, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: enjoy enjoy the turtles every moment. Don't think about the
Speaker 1: turtles of the future. Think about the baby turtles of
Speaker 1: the now. Yeah, it's it's like the those those you know,
Speaker 1: what are those like the mandala's that they'll make in sand? Yeah,
Speaker 1: think about think about the beautiful patterns that the turtles
Speaker 1: making sand and shark and yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: you know, so it goes. Yeah, well, here is this
Speaker 1: very nice, not deadly email. Hi Katie. I'm a longtime
Speaker 1: listener and I really enjoyed your lagomorph episode. I am
Speaker 1: a bunny owner and an ecologist and really appreciated the
Speaker 1: love you give to these underappreciated fluff balls. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to tell you a few cool things that I've
Speaker 1: learned about pet domestic rabbits. First, they can be letterbox
Speaker 1: trained fairly easily and successfully, especially if they're spade or newter.
Speaker 1: I think in the show I threw a little bit
Speaker 1: of shade at bunnies. I said that you can try
Speaker 1: to litter box train them, but I think it's sort
Speaker 1: of on whether they want, whether they feel like it
Speaker 1: or not. But apparently it's uh like maya copa. Apparently
Speaker 1: bunnies will fairly readily poop in a litter box. They
Speaker 1: seem very stubborn domestic. Every domestic bunny I've met has
Speaker 1: has been like, I have a mind of mind. Like
Speaker 1: people think cats are hard to control. Bunnies, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh but yeah, but it's a whole new like cats
Speaker 1: are sort of like a little bit, but they're they're
Speaker 1: coy and playful about it, where they're like, oh maybe
Speaker 1: will I won't I, But they do. They do love
Speaker 1: you and they like bunnies. They're like, no, no, you
Speaker 1: think you're going to get me to do something, I'll
Speaker 1: kick you in the face and pee on you. Exact
Speaker 1: happen to me exactly. Although all the listener does admit
Speaker 1: that there will be an occasional misplaced bunny poop, so
Speaker 1: hey um. She writes that the secret is to put
Speaker 1: hay in or next to the litter box so they
Speaker 1: can eat while they poop or pete Luxury luxurious living
Speaker 1: um once litter trained, the bunnies can roam in an
Speaker 1: area of the house freely after some bunny proofing. The
Speaker 1: House Rabbit Society has lots of information on how to
Speaker 1: do this. I also just wanted to mention a few
Speaker 1: other super cute bunny behaviors. When they are very excited,
Speaker 1: bunnies will do a jump and a shake their bodies midair,
Speaker 1: which is called a binky. And when they are very relaxed,
Speaker 1: they will dramatically flop over on their side. Wow, that
Speaker 1: so cute. I actually had a cat named Binky, and
Speaker 1: he was He was pretty rabbit like because he was
Speaker 1: very scared. He never killed anything and would run away.
Speaker 1: And one time, this is in high school, and I
Speaker 1: came home and I was, you know, frustrated with school,
Speaker 1: so I dropped my books on the floor and across
Speaker 1: the room. I didn't realize the cat was there, and
Speaker 1: so he jumped like a like three meters into the areas.
Speaker 1: It's so funny, poor thing. Um. And then then the
Speaker 1: listeners shared some beautiful pictures of the bunnies which are
Speaker 1: just for me. So sorry about that. But oh and
Speaker 1: then and then she writes, I also especially appreciated your
Speaker 1: b episode I did my master's degree studying native bees
Speaker 1: in Ontario, so I appreciate it when b species other
Speaker 1: than honey bees get to mention. Uh, and this is
Speaker 1: from Emma. Thank you so much, Emma for your kind
Speaker 1: words and for your bunny facts. So I take it back.
Speaker 1: Bunnies can be litter box trained, but again, hey, look
Speaker 1: when they want to, like if they there may be
Speaker 1: a poop once in a while, and you're just gonna
Speaker 1: have to deal with it, right. Don't pretend like you
Speaker 1: can control the bunnies. No, you can't control a bunny.
Speaker 1: You can't control the bunnies. No, No, they are they're
Speaker 1: the strong back legs. They can they can slap you. Yeah. My,
Speaker 1: I have a friend who has bunnies, and she says
Speaker 1: that they they when they're piste off at you, they'll
Speaker 1: turn their back on you and kick with their back legs.
Speaker 1: They'll kick, yes that you, Yeah, which which I love
Speaker 1: you is. I love that about them. It's just like
Speaker 1: I love you bunnies for for being for being like
Speaker 1: the hey, screw you with your back legs. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I like that they stand up for themselves because like
Speaker 1: we have the sense of like, oh, they're just a
Speaker 1: little floppy bunnies. They don't. They're helpless rabbits. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I mean it's more like the Peter Rabbit level of
Speaker 1: like defiance. They Yeah, my sister was bitten by a
Speaker 1: bunny once. Yeah. Yeah, they got strong teeth, they do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: She said she had to get a technis shot after Yeah,
Speaker 1: because oh yeah, because their teeth are so long. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1: She said the shot hurt more than the bite, but
Speaker 1: it was still very very strange. But I mean basically
Speaker 1: the bunny is responsible for the shot too, exactly. Insult
Speaker 1: and injury to injury. Yeah, yeah, no, bunny is a
Speaker 1: serious but no, Like, I know, buddies are cute. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily discourage having bunnies as a pet, but if
Speaker 1: you want one, definitely look into it, because I would
Speaker 1: say they are one of the harder pet Like they're
Speaker 1: harder than a cat or a dog. I would say, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: just just check it out because because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of special care you have to do. Uh My, I
Speaker 1: had a friend who had a bunny and again, like
Speaker 1: I would pet it and then when it wanted me
Speaker 1: to stop, it would kick me and pee on me
Speaker 1: like it was a male, and I think they like
Speaker 1: to flick your in so so he would kick me
Speaker 1: in flick your on me, And I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I'll stick with cats and dogs. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can predict they're they're more predictive. I only sometimes get
Speaker 1: kicked by my dog, and that's usually honest. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: my cat will will you know, they'll go or maybe
Speaker 1: they'll hit me or bite me. Lately, if I'm annoying them,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, all right, we'll stop petting you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my my dog loves belly rubs. But like once, it's
Speaker 1: like she's got a very specific you have to pet
Speaker 1: her very specifically, and if you stopped like she she
Speaker 1: looks so sweet and angelic. But then if you pet
Speaker 1: her wrong, like suddenly the little Chihuahua demon face comes
Speaker 1: into play and it's oh my god, She's like, it's
Speaker 1: really funny. Satan takes over. Yeah. Well, Mara, thank you
Speaker 1: so so much for joining me. It's truly been a
Speaker 1: pleasure to have you on. Big thank you, big fan
Speaker 1: of you, big fan of your your Twitter and your articles,
Speaker 1: and so I am you know, trying to keep the
Speaker 1: fan girling to a minute. No, I mean I love
Speaker 1: your stuff, and I feel like and I love learning
Speaker 1: about things that that I don't know a lot about.
Speaker 1: So this is really cool to me. This is really fascinating.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you could learn about. And I'm
Speaker 1: sorry about all the about all the coral perversion. It's
Speaker 1: it's fine, it's fine. I'll give them their space. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to kink shame them. I mean if
Speaker 1: they if if you're like in a lagoon and they
Speaker 1: foist their kink upon you in the look, that's all bloma.
Speaker 1: It's problematic. You were wandering into their space. Yes, but
Speaker 1: that was like that. I just there's like a freak
Speaker 1: storm that dispensed all of this coral sex goo on
Speaker 1: these poor fish. It's like it's like the like a
Speaker 1: disaster movie, except a lot of core coral eggs and sperm.
Speaker 1: Attack of the killer coral, attack of the killer coral
Speaker 1: coral babies attack. Sounds like there might be a plane,
Speaker 1: Yeah there is? Or is it a storm of coral stuff.
Speaker 1: We've angered the coral We angered the corals. Yeah, now
Speaker 1: there's just gonna be a cyclone of like coral sperm. Sorry. Yeah, Well, well,
Speaker 1: thank you again for coming on where can people find you? Thanks?
Speaker 1: They can find me at Marra Wilson on Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 1: I also have a cameo. I I do videos where
Speaker 1: I will talk about you know anything, my cats or
Speaker 1: cookie recipes or cicadas and what I know. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: those are really fun to make. I have a newsletter
Speaker 1: at Mara dot subs dot dot com called We Tell
Speaker 1: the Vicar because I come up with names for fake
Speaker 1: British TV shows them every time. I don't want to
Speaker 1: put you on the spot, but can you can you?
Speaker 1: I can? I can? Yeah, I can. There's I'm just
Speaker 1: here to do the hoovering. There's that one the mission
Speaker 1: quigly bubble and squeak. Uh you know that's perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's and and and sometimes it's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to tell which ones are real and which ones are Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I would believe it. If it's like like I'm just
Speaker 1: here to do the hoovering, I would totally think it
Speaker 1: was one the real one. That's great, And you can
Speaker 1: find the show on the internet at Creature feature Pot
Speaker 1: on Instagram, at Creature feet Pot on Twitter. That's f
Speaker 1: e a T not teeth is something very different. You
Speaker 1: can also send me an email at Creature feature Pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com with all your questions, bunny pictures,
Speaker 1: choral questions. If you have a problem with Cicada's making
Speaker 1: loud sex noises, just let me know send me an email.
Speaker 1: Uh and I'm Katie Golden. You can find me at
Speaker 1: Katie Golden on Twitter, where I just post all my
Speaker 1: Katie thoughts um and as always I'm also pro bored
Speaker 1: rights um or as pro bird writes me and my
Speaker 1: birds will find out on Twitter. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. If you enjoyed the show and you leave
Speaker 1: me a rating and review, I will read it and
Speaker 1: it will make my day. I'll be floating on Cloud
Speaker 1: nine all day long when you leave nice reviews. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate them. And thanks to the Space Classics for
Speaker 1: their super awesome song Exo Lumina. Creature features a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one
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Speaker 1: Hey guess what you listen to your favorite shows. I
Speaker 1: don't judge even if you're listening it in like a
Speaker 1: coral sex lagoon. That's fine. I'm not here to judge.
Speaker 1: You just here to provide you with entertainment. See you
Speaker 1: next Wednesday, m