WEBVTT - Feed Drop: Echidnas! (Secretly Incredibly Fascinating) 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.240 Hey, folks, we have a treat for you, and you 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:04.160 already got an email about this if you are a 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.680 Maximum Fund member in the latest max Fund drive, you 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.240 all put so much support into our show, we were 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.680 able to pay an artist to make commemorative digital art 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.280 to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth episode of the show. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.000 That art is ready right now. It is in the 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.360 Boco vault. You should also have an email if you're 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.680 a member, with a link to go see it. If 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.599 you're not a member, you can also go ahead and 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.280 get that art, as well as previous digital art for 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.479 previous Milestone Siff episodes. There's a special unique character celebrating 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.680 each and every episode of our entire run. So it's 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:40.519 really just a wonderful, cartoony kaleidoscope of everything we've done. 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.640 Maximum fund dot org slash join is the place to 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.000 support our show make the entire thing possible. Maximum fund 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:52.480 dot org slash join. Thank you. Kidneys known for being 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:58.279 animal famous for being hedgehog shaped animals. Nobody thinks much 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.160 about them, So let's have some fun. Let's find out 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:24.960 why echidnas are secretly incredibly fascinating. Hey, they're folks. Welcome 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.440 to a whole new podcast episode of Podcasts all about 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.160 why being alive is more interesting than people think it is. 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.000 My name is Alex Schmid, and I'm not alone because 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.400 I'm joined by my ghost Katie Golden Katie. Yes, what 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.800 is your relationship to or opinion of Echidna's. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.920 I love them, That's how it is. We're in a 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.640 very loving relationship. I love everything about these frittle guys. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.880 They're so funky. They look like something out of a 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:58.960 surrealist painting, and they are truly very weird in terms 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:05.120 of their anatomy and how they work as animals. You know, 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.799 thumbs up Australia. You got another you know, got another 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:10.200 good one? 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.600 Yeah, totally. I mean you think about animals more than 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:15.800 I do. You have a wonderful podcast creature feature everyone 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.600 should listen to. But I feel like in my learning 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.840 about animals, there was a stage where people said, Australia 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.239 is different. Oh, you learned about the animals. Now we're 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.080 opening the Australia closet in the back of the story 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.640 so you can see those and and the kidneys are 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:31.600 one of those. It's awesome. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.079 They have a lot of marsupials and monotremes, and both 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.160 of those like to play by slightly different rules than 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:40.600 the rest of the mammals. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:43.040 So it's great. 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.359 So it's a you know, platypus included. It's it's but yeah, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.920 I actually find these guys kind of weirder than platypuses. 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.400 Platypuses actually make more sense to me than these guys, 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:55.880 so I'm excited to talk about them. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.959 And also two tiny programming notes. One is that when 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.359 folks bread up this topic, thank you to Da Koop 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.120 Beer for suggesting it, also ls Gregor and others for 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.600 supporting it. In the polls. A lot of it. Folks 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.119 brought up knuckles, the echidna from the Sonic Games. That's 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.440 our bonus topic, all knuckles. 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:15.760 All knuckles. 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.840 And then I've also found this pronounced more like echidna 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.080 and more like echidna, and I find I just go 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.120 back and forth. Please just go with it, folks. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:31.680 It's fine. Yeah, tomato tomato really yeah, they you know, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:33.800 it's another thing this. I don't know if you're going 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.240 to talk about this so much, but I think people 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.160 like in terms of their size, they're different species of echidna, 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.400 but the at least for one of the species, the 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.680 long beak echidnas. Those are like the size that people 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.880 think platypuses are. People imagine platypuses to be bigger than 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:56.400 they actually are. Platypuses are quite small, like a month 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:03.080 old kitten. They're they're pretty small the platypus. When you 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.720 look at pictures of an adult platypusts, people are usually 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.720 pretty shocked by how small they actually are, whereas a 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.520 kidneys are the ones that are actually a big handful, 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.040 And I think people have it flipped like people think 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.880 kidneys are the little ones. Platypuses are sort of the 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.240 bigger ones. But it's actually the opposite of kidneys are 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.120 like they're they're a nice armful of weird, spiky, snooty 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:24.039 little animal. 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.320 That's exciting. I in my research really focused out of kidneys. 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.640 That I missed that platypuses are so small. Apparently they're 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.839 only little more than the foot long as an adult. Great, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.159 maybe maybe approaching foot and a half or two feet. 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.000 That's that's not that big, yeah, because a lot of 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.240 that length is duck faced or tail, you know. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.560 Yeah, exactly. You can hold them in both of your hands, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.520 like if you cut your both your hands you can 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.840 fit a platypus in there very comfortably for some time. 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.440 Do I do this? How do I do this right now? 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.840 And then with with the a kidneys, that's not going 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:00.960 to at least for the long beaked to kidneys which 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.320 are bigger, that's not gonna work. It's too big. 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.360 Yeah, let's talk all about the echidnas and the long 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.680 beak and the short beak and so on, because on 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:11.880 every episode we lead with a quick set of fascinating 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.279 numbers and statistics. This week that's in a segment called 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:22.360 I might read some stats. That's the best idea. Gonna 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.800 put them on the SIFT podcast. 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.760 Golf clap, golf clap, golf claps all around. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.919 Thank you. Then it was a bit of my action 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.280 populated on the discord. Thank you. We have a new 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.520 name for this every week. Please make a Masillian wackem 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.320 bad as possible. Submit yours through Discord or to sif 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.000 pot at gmail dot com. The first number four echidnas 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.760 is two or four. We know how to count how 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.400 many achidney species there are in the world, but people 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.840 tend to call it either two or four because in 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.840 general there are short beaked echidnas and long beaked echidnas, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.000 and then also the long beaks break down into three 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.039 entire species according to taxonomous. 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.800 Yeah, I mean it's taxonomy is always a little bit 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.520 fiddly because you can sometimes have a species and have 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.919 an argument about whether there's two different species or of 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:21.200 ones subspecies. It's not necessarily that they discover an undiscover 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:25.200 species of these animals. It's that there's like genetic research 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:29.000 or arguments about whether or not they are they count 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.440 as an entirely different species when they're close enough genetically, 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.719 or if they're like a subspecies, things like that. 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.640 Yeah, and the short beaked ekidna is someone I've probably 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.440 seen the most like pictures of because that species lives 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.120 all over Australia and nearby islands. There are relatively large 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.320 numbers of them, and then long beaked echidnas all three 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.920 species around the island of New Guinea. And so if 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.719 you think of like quote unquote Australian animal, it's probably 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.760 a short beak ekidna. Those are a little bit smaller. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.200 They tend to be active during the day, long beaked 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.080 er active at night, and long beaked are in greater 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.040 danger of extinction. While this number there is twenty twenty 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.880 three because in the year twenty twenty three people documented 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.720 a living member of one of the long beaked ekidney 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:21.520 species with a camera for the first time. Wow, twenty 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:22.360 twenty three. 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:29.920 They're pretty I think outside of like natural rescue areas 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.360 and preserves are very very shy. Yeah. 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.760 Yeah, and apparently all the achidneys are shy, but especially 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.600 the long beaked. And then they're in the just parts 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.760 of New Guinea and in smaller numbers, and so we 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:47.000 have surprisingly little observation of some of these because that 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.000 one that we hadn't documented. It's a species that's called 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.840 Attenborough's long beaked Echidna in honor of Sir David Attenborough. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.640 Yeah. Well, he's a nice guy. He lies in the 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.480 dirt and talks about a kidness even when the cameras 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.680 aren't rolling. That's what people don't know is that he's 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:07.760 just always doing that where he's like lying in the 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.400 dirt talking about a kidness, but like when people notice 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.480 he's doing it, the cameraman come over and try to 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.400 catch him in the act. 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.440 Now, I want him to do all sorts of animal 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.840 behaviors that would be relatively impolite in human society. But 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.120 because he's describing it in such a nice voice as 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.000 he does it, we're all like, that's great. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.400 Yeah, he's like he's peeing on a chair leg explaining 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.800 how this helps him mark his territory, and we all 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:37.560 accept it. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.040 And we're like, oh, yeah, I wonder who he's going 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.200 to mate with in his territory that he's wallowing. And 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.120 we're like, look at that little guy wallow. That's how 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.439 he keeps cool. It's the only way they can keep cool. 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:53.240 But then who David Attenborough's David Attenborough documentary. It's sort 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.960 of a who do we get to narrate the David 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:58.720 Attenborough documentary? 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.920 It's the eternal question of nature? Yeah, yeah, because there's 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.000 the western lung beak to kidna, the Eastern lung beak 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.720 to kidna, and then Attenborough's long beak to kidna, and 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:15.280 in nineteen sixty one researchers decided they had discovered the 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.480 Attenborough's long beak to kidna species. In nineteen sixty one, 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.600 they found one deceased specimen, they identified it, put it 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.079 in a museum, said surely we'll see more of this, 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:31.520 and then nobody identified more of them until twenty twenty three. Wow, 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.560 And in the intervening sixty plus years, scientists wondered did 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.840 these go extinct, Like did we kind of find one 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.120 when they were on the way out? And apparently not. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.959 Yeah, they're just real reclusive. I mean, they spent a 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.160 lot of their time just snuffling around in the leaf 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.560 litter in these forests. So I don't think that it's 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.559 like super easy to spot them. 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.600 It does seem really hard. And at also like, if 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:57.280 you do see one, how do you tell it apart 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.440 from the other two. 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.040 From a different because yeah, they are quite similar looking, Yeah, exactly. 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:04.920 Yeah, we really won't spend any time on the differences 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.079 between these because it's not that visible or easy to 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:08.559 figure out. 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.280 It's only the long beaked and short beaked are pretty 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.199 easy to tell apart. And that's about it. 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.720 Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, And we only 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.520 found Attenborough's long beaked to kidna for the second time 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.839 ever because in twenty twenty three, a research team from 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:31.560 Oxford University tried to study the entire ecosystem of what's 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.560 called the Cyclops Mountains in the Indonesian half of the 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.400 island of New Guinea. We'll link just the geography of 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.439 New Guinea as an island that's about half in Indonesia 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.800 and half its own country of Papula and New Guinea. 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.720 And they were looking for all sorts of things in 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.120 these mountains. They found a lot of insects, species, they 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.760 found amphibians, they found a kind of tiny shrimp that 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.400 live in wet soil and in trees instead of say 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:58.640 an ocean. It's amazing. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:03.840 Yeah, man, it's gonna it's gonna be my next sort 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.200 of food sensation. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:10.160 Ugh, can we get some tree shrimp for the table? 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:12.360 Yeah, some tree shrimp poppers? Thank you. 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.440 They just pop over like they fly out of the kitchen. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.760 Yeah, that's that's pretty great. I love I love it 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.800 when you find out those like weird crustacean type animals 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:25.280 are just like not in the ocean. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.640 Yeah. And so they're doing this observation with dozens of 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.880 trail cameras, Like they wire up a bunch of video 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.760 cameras and they say, wow, we're finding like dozens of species. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.400 This is already great. And then toward the end of 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.760 the project, an echidna shuffles onto camera. Yeah, and they 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.360 look at the footage and they they say this is amazing. 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.480 This is the second identified Attenborough's long peaks to kidna ever, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:51.080 and they're not extinct. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.560 Turns out, I think that given that it's not like 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.360 a heavily surveiled area, it's safe to say that, like, 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:03.040 just because you don't see doesn't mean they're extinct exactly. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.079 And I also just love that some of these Akidney 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.720 species are basically secret, Like we still need to find 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.400 out a lot more about these there's a lot to 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:14.240 learn about the world. 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.040 Yeah, they're just secretly incredibly secret. That's it. That's all 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:19.600 we know about them. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:26.920 Sis, yes, yeah, and yeah and pps Nature says that 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.080 the Eastern long beak to kidna is listed as vulnerable 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:34.880 by the IUCN that does these designations of species in trouble, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.640 and the other two are critically endangered. Meanwhile, we think 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.440 there are millions of short beaked to kidnas in Australia 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.120 and that species is of least concerned. They're not like 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.720 easy to find or super underfoot, but it's not a 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.280 species where we're concerned that they're going to go away. 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.640 Right, Unless you are concerned that they are going to 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:59.640 take over, then maybe we should be a little more concerned. 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:02.400 I welcome the takeover. Seems great. 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:04.920 They're very cool. I don't know how much you're going 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.760 to talk about like their snoots, but and the superpowers 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.080 of their snoots, but I trust them to run the government. 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:18.720 Yeah, this I love that this episode will be very biological, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.920 Like there's almost too much ECHIDNA anatomy and biology to 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:24.719 talk about, and so we're just going to be all 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.559 over the place of and then this is amazing, and 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:28.520 then this is amazing, and it's amazing that it's like 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.480 even for an animal episode, this is pretty biological because 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.800 the kidnap bodies are wild and yeah, and then also 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.040 those short beaked of kidneas are a target of the 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:38.880 pet trade. 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:40.719 Yeah, that's not great. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.040 We don't think that will like end their numbers, but 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.160 probably shouldn't keeping a kidney as a pet. And Australian 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.000 law says that there are some ways to legally sell 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.840 any kidnap pet if it's been raised in captivity. But 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.319 the thing is, it's really hard to breed echidnas in captivity. 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.800 And the number here is twenty nineteen. In twenty nineteen, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:08.400 forensic scientists created a database of ECHIDNA DNA by looking 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.160 at the DNA and their spines in order to fight 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.160 the illegal trade of echidnas. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:18.280 Ooh, this is this is exciting. This is like CSI echidna. 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:19.160 This is exciting. 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:24.240 It's those exact same kind of scientists. Yeah, and echidnas 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.040 are covered in spines and those are made of caraten. 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.440 It's like the hair and fingernails of humans. It's like 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.840 the scales of pangolins, if people remember the pangolin episode. 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:38.120 Around twenty nineteen, a team of forensic scientists at the 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:42.680 Australian Museum and also working with law enforcement, they found 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.040 that there were at least seventy echidnas listed for sale 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:50.320 as pats in Australia, but all of Australia's zoos had 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.920 only successfully bred about thirty ekidneys in the previous ten 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.560 years combined, and so they said, just based on the numbers, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.280 it's unlikely animal breeders bread all these. They're probably just 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.359 catching them in the wild and forging papers to sell them. 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.440 Yeah, like like faking baby photos of the echidnas, like 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.840 where they photoshop on little diapers, like no, we raise 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:13.080 this one, see you look. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:18.280 Right, baptism yeah, faith. 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.120 Yeah. The problem with one of the problems with the 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.600 pet trade is not necessarily that this is like people 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.400 might think like there's plenty of echidneys, they're not going 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:29.800 to make the kidneas go extinct, Like what's the problem 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.200 with the pet trade. One of the big problems is 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.960 UH disease. So zoonotic diseases are a huge concern with 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.800 the pet trades. So when you bring animals that don't 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.960 normally have a lot of contact with human beings or 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.640 different animals, right, Like echidnas are not a very social 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.040 animal with like a huge giant colonies of other kidnas, right, 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.520 and so you're bringing them and having them no noose 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.960 snowp to snoop with a lot of different animals, and 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.520 that's that's not good UH for or diseases jumping from 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.320 human to a kidner or kidney to human. And the 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.640 other thing is just like it is really like these 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.800 are they're not great pets. I wouldn't imagine. I think 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.880 that they seems like they're going to be happiest just 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:18.360 snoofling around in leaf litter in forests, and that's really 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:23.160 hard to recreate like a giant snowful zone in your backyard. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.720 I think it's probably not going to be adequate exactly. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.320 Yeah, a few verses this week they all said that 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.000 echidnas are both very plentiful in Australia and also not 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.160 seen that often because they're very shy and don't like 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.400 bigger at this. And so if you keep it as 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:38.760 a pat it has to be aut us all the time. 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:39.520 That's not what it wants. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:41.520 Come on, yeah, it's going to stress it out. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.920 And yeah, and so Now, as of twenty nineteen, Australian 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.480 authorities can use a database of a kidney DNA to 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.480 check out a pet trader's claim, Like they can take 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.960 DNA from the caroten spine of that echidna and check 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:02.360 whether it's parents are probably why old versus the known 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.200 echidnas and captivity. 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.760 And then does the kidnat get like a reprieve the 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:08.440 ceculic co If it's. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.159 That would if they could specifically five the parents, they 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.440 could like send it back to its family. That would 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.159 be a basic almost kind of a step back. The 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:23.119 next number is two, because platypuses and echidneys are the 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.400 two broad kinds of monotrems in the modern world. There's 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.399 really just one platypus species today. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.320 It's so weird. It's such a strange troop because like 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.480 all the other monotremes are extinct, these are the only 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:39.800 extant monotremes. It's so funky. They're so unique compared to 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.920 other mammals, even compared to like marsupials, which are quite weird. Yeah, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.040 they you know, they're the only well I don't want 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.120 I don't want to steal your thunder if you've got 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.280 if you've got stuff. But yeah, there, it's just just 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.280 it's super weird. Like they are mammals, but they're just 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.280 so different from the rest of placental mammals. 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.200 Yeah. I was always kind of loosely told that mammals 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.159 don't lay eggs, and then monotreams are mammals that lay eggs. 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.280 So there you go. Yeah, the. 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.400 Things categories are not black and white in biology. But yeah, 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:19.399 they are mammals. They do leggs. They also lactate, but 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:24.240 they don't have nipples, and so that means that their 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:26.520 milk just kind of like leaks out of their bellies 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.080 through their pores and just a free for all. They 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.440 also have a kloaca, which is not something that mammals 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:39.480 typically have. Like the kloaca is found in birds, reptiles, amphibians. 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.400 You know, it's this amazing hole that does a lot 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:46.320 of different stuff. But males also have a penis, and 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.320 it's a really weird one, so it's they're pretty all 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:51.679 over the place, these guys. 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.000 I also assumed monotreams would be named after the egg part, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.320 but apparently the word monotrem comes from etymology, meaning one opening. 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:06.040 Like you're named after the kloaka, the kloika for urination, defecation, mating. 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.120 Yeah, that's one thing that's really weird. If I can 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.320 just make one more note about the penis, which is 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.320 that the males have this very strange penis, but they 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.720 don't actually urinate out of the penis. They urinate out 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:22.440 of the kloaca. They only use the penis for sperm transfer. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:29.480 That's it, because it is into takeaway number one. A 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:34.920 melee kidna has a four front penis, which is sort 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.879 of like having a double reptile penis, sort of. 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.880 Yeah, these look look. I normally don't say google these 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:46.040 things because it's usually not safe, but if in the 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:51.000 safest way that you can look up ekidna penises, because 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.639 they're so yeah, to me, it's funnier than it is 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.919 gross or lude it just because it looks like a 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:03.120 little hand. It's like a little cartoon hand. They have 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:09.160 four heads, essentially like four apertures. And again like this 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.280 is not for your nation, this is only for sperm transfer. 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.520 Yes, yeah, apparently they like tuck it away except when 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:17.679 they're using it, and. 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:19.639 It's very polite. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.320 It is honestly keysors or science writing for The New 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.560 York Times by Natalie Angier, a twenty twenty one study 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:30.280 in the Journal's Sexual Development. And then a mental fluss piece, 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.600 which is one of many ways you can see pictures 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.359 because it has four glands, it has four sort of 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:40.119 tips on it. And then some observers compare this to 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.720 the hemipenes of reptiles, because a hemipene is a pair 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.520 of reproductive organs tucked into the reptile's body, usually until 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.080 it's time to mate. That's sort of like a two 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.640 headed penis. And then a kidness basically have a double 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.280 two headed penis. It's four heads. 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.120 Yeah, And if you actually, if you do look at 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.520 heavy pens of of reptiles, they look like medieval weapons 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:06.840 often because they're like spiky and weird. It looks like 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.680 some kind of weird, weird medieval weapon that probably didn't 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.440 work very well, but yet I believe also for the 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.400 for snakes and reptiles, they do not urinate out of those. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.000 Those are just for looking cool and passing on their DNA. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:24.960 The medieval element. Our recent episode about HS tapes, people 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:27.080 were very excited about your Phantom of the Robin Hood 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:29.439 Disney movie, and so now I'm thinking about Sir Hess 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.679 having some kind of weapon and penis combo and the 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.280 gritty reboot. 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.800 They never that never made it. They really need to 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.520 do a live action remake of Robin Hood. 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:41.880 Now. 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:44.399 I know that Disney doesn't have a great track record 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:48.640 with live action remakes. They're usually superfluous at best and 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:54.400 terrible monstrosities at worst. But hear me out, Okay, sir 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:59.639 Hey gets a heavy penis, we get the freaking lion 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:04.679 king treatment where these are realistic gas animals and like 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:08.159 to the tea and they're just fighting. And you just 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:12.359 got a fox and a sir his fighting and you 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:18.159 see sir His is weird mating apparatus. There's uh, you know, 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:19.680 do do do do do do? 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:19.920 Do? 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:24.200 Oh my god? Uh you know, I think it'd be cool. 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.680 We're gonna be like only a quarter of the way 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.000 through the pitch, and Disney has already walked us into 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.840 the parking lot and not validated if they put black. 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:39.359 Bags over our head and are taking us to the facility. 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.760 And this penis apparently we've done further continuing study of it, 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.480 because wow, there's so much going on, and we think 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:52.480 that the male akid is able to ejaculate from just 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:56.359