WEBVTT - How Does the Blue-Footed Booby Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Laurin Bogel bamb here, what's brown, white and blue? And

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<v Speaker 1>moves like a TikTok dance challenge. The blue footed booby

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<v Speaker 1>a wild ocean bird that's named after an old insult

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<v Speaker 1>and is the subject of our episode today. And yes, friends,

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<v Speaker 1>that means I am going to be saying the word

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<v Speaker 1>booby a lot here, So fellow immature humans, go on

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<v Speaker 1>and get the giggles out, now, okay. The blue footed

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<v Speaker 1>booby is a medium large seabird that makes its home

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<v Speaker 1>in the tropical to subtropical bits of the Eastern Pacific,

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<v Speaker 1>from southern Mexico to Peru. They have salt and pepper heads,

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<v Speaker 1>white breasts, dark brown wings, and prominent, often bright blue

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<v Speaker 1>webbed feet, arranging in shades from cyan to azure. They

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<v Speaker 1>have long, pointed bills that sometimes also carry some blue coloration,

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<v Speaker 1>a sort of cigar shaped bodies, and narrow angular wings.

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<v Speaker 1>They stand a little over two and a half feet

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<v Speaker 1>tall about eighty centimeters, so about the size of a goose,

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<v Speaker 1>but shaped more like a duck with a pointy bill

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<v Speaker 1>and tail. And yes, they dance, specifically a male bird

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<v Speaker 1>will engage in a mating dance To attract a particular female.

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<v Speaker 1>He'll raise one foot at a time in a move

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<v Speaker 1>known as sky pointing, and circle around her in an

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<v Speaker 1>exaggerated strut to fit for the ministry of silly walks.

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<v Speaker 1>If she's impressed, she'll join the dance, and both birds

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<v Speaker 1>will extend their wings out to their size, raise their heads,

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<v Speaker 1>and call out with whistles and long, hollow sounding trumpets. However,

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<v Speaker 1>they are a rare seabird that's otherwise quiet most of

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<v Speaker 1>the time. The blue footed booby is believed to have

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<v Speaker 1>gotten its name from early Spanish explorers in the mid

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen hundreds, who doubted the intelligence of these and related

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<v Speaker 1>birds and called them pajaro bobo, meaning a bird that's

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<v Speaker 1>foolish or silly. English speakers transformed this to booby bird

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<v Speaker 1>a century later, possibly in conjunction with an existing English

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<v Speaker 1>insult of booby, meaning someone who's inept or childish. They

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<v Speaker 1>were referring to the way these birds move clumsily on

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<v Speaker 1>land and the unwitting way in which they approached humans

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<v Speaker 1>without fear. About half of the population of blue footed

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<v Speaker 1>boobies lives in the Galapka's Islands, the famously ecologically fascinating

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<v Speaker 1>chain of seventeen volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, about

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<v Speaker 1>six hundred miles or one thousand kilometers west of South America.

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<v Speaker 1>The islands are part of their closest neighboring country, Ecuador,

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<v Speaker 1>which in nineteen fifty nine declared ninety seven percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the island's land area a national park and preserved the

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<v Speaker 1>surrounding waters as a marine reserve. This declaration was preceded

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<v Speaker 1>by Charles Darwin's visit to the islands in eighteen thirty five,

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<v Speaker 1>where the flora and fauna that developed there in extreme

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<v Speaker 1>isolation inspired his evolutionary theory. The other half of the

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<v Speaker 1>world's blue footed boobies arranges along the western coasts of north,

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<v Speaker 1>central and South America, with most of these coastal denizens

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<v Speaker 1>concentrated in Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. The blue footed

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<v Speaker 1>boobies leave their nesting grounds at daylight to hunt their

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<v Speaker 1>preferred prey of small animals of the open ocean, which

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<v Speaker 1>takes them on flights over cold waters to fertile areas

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<v Speaker 1>where deep swells ascend to the surface that are rich

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<v Speaker 1>with things like sardines, anchovies, and squid. A. Once a

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<v Speaker 1>group of boobies locates as school, they'll dive down into

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<v Speaker 1>the water from great heights at high speeds. They can

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<v Speaker 1>hit the water going sixty miles an hour that's ninety

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<v Speaker 1>five kilometers an hour, and use that force to plummet

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<v Speaker 1>some eighty feet or twenty five meters below the surface.

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<v Speaker 1>On their way back up, the birds snap up their

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<v Speaker 1>targets in their beaks. Their skulls contain special air sacks

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<v Speaker 1>to prevent brain damage from these enormous changes in pressure.

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<v Speaker 1>Female birds tend to be a little bit bigger than males.

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<v Speaker 1>It's thought that this helps them dive deeper and scoop

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<v Speaker 1>larger catches, and thus build up nutrients for egg laying.

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<v Speaker 1>After finding a mate for the season via the aforementioned dance,

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<v Speaker 1>blue footed booby pears nest on land right on the

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<v Speaker 1>rocky terrain of shorelines, but they don't build elaborate nests

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<v Speaker 1>in preparation for eggs. Instead, after the female bird lays

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<v Speaker 1>one to three eggs on the rocks, both partners work

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<v Speaker 1>to create a nest around the eggs by doing what

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<v Speaker 1>comes naturally, excreting waste yep. The birds take turns protecting

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<v Speaker 1>the nest and flying out to catch dinner, with one

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<v Speaker 1>staying behind to keep the eggs warm and work on

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<v Speaker 1>their humble abode. Over time, they create a circular walled

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<v Speaker 1>nest a around the eggs, built with layer upon layer

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<v Speaker 1>of poop, but not all is always well within those walls.

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<v Speaker 1>Male booby's on shore of egg eternity with a new

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<v Speaker 1>female may destroy the eggs. Other booby species may maraud

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<v Speaker 1>the nest and break the eggs, and because the eggs

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<v Speaker 1>can hatch days apart from each other, older chicks may

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<v Speaker 1>kill their younger competition them's the breaks, but each new

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<v Speaker 1>generation highlights the reason that blue feet work for the booby.

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<v Speaker 1>The color comes from pigments that the birds in jest

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<v Speaker 1>through their fish rich diet. Any bird that's weak or

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<v Speaker 1>unhealthy will struggle to feed itself and therefore not gain

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<v Speaker 1>the brightest shade of blue for its feet. When the

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<v Speaker 1>male birds do that mating danced feet held high, they're

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<v Speaker 1>showing off their fitness to the female birds. For the

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<v Speaker 1>article this episode is based on, has to Forks spoke

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<v Speaker 1>with Lisa M. Webb, a licensed clinical psychologist who collected

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<v Speaker 1>data on blue footed boobies in the Galapagos Islands during

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<v Speaker 1>her master's in Environmental Health and conservation science. She said,

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<v Speaker 1>male blue footed boobies are evaluated by potential mates by

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<v Speaker 1>the blueness of their feet. This blueness is an indicator

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<v Speaker 1>of health and strength, as so a female will choose

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<v Speaker 1>a mate with vivid, dark blue feet as that suggests

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<v Speaker 1>a greater probability of healthy offspring. Their feet are so

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<v Speaker 1>striking partially because they're webbed, known in biology as totapalmate feet.

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<v Speaker 1>This means that all four toes of the foot are

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<v Speaker 1>joined by webbing that makes the bird's feet efficient flippers

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<v Speaker 1>in the water. A Webbed feet also help blue footed

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<v Speaker 1>boobies regulate their body temperature. If they become too cold,

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<v Speaker 1>they can balance on one leg and tuck one cold

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<v Speaker 1>foot into their downy white belly feathers. If they become

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<v Speaker 1>too hot, the blue footed booby cools off by pooping

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<v Speaker 1>on its own cerulean feet, love that their bodily waste

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<v Speaker 1>is so multi use. The blue footed booby is currently

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<v Speaker 1>listed as a species of Least Concern by the International

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<v Speaker 1>Union for Conservation, which watches out for signs of endangerment.

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<v Speaker 1>There are thought to be about ninety thousand individuals living

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<v Speaker 1>across their native territory. However, climate change and particularly ocean acidification,

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<v Speaker 1>are having an impact. As populations of the bird's food,

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<v Speaker 1>like sardines, has been going down. The blue footed booby

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<v Speaker 1>has been on a decline as well. Their population has dropped,

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<v Speaker 1>especially sharply on the Galapagos, which has researchers worried about

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<v Speaker 1>this delicate ecosystem in which these birds serve as predators

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<v Speaker 1>and prey and contribute nutrients back to the soil through

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<v Speaker 1>their poop. This is yet another reason that we should

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<v Speaker 1>all do what we can to help the environment, including

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<v Speaker 1>encouraging our elected officials to do so too. After all,

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<v Speaker 1>where else are we going to get dancing bluefooted birds

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<v Speaker 1>that make such good use of their excrement. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article the bluefooted Booby Dance gets

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<v Speaker 1>the Girl every Time on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by

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<v Speaker 1>Lareel Dove. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how Stuffworks dot Com, and it is produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit

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