Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature a production of Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your Girls of Many Parasites. Katie Gee, it's actually Katie Golden.
Speaker 1: I studied psychology and Evo butionary biologic and today on
Speaker 1: the show, it's a Halloween episode. Hags, slime Frogs, and
Speaker 1: the Boogie Woogies who can kill you with a touch?
Speaker 1: Discover this more as we answer the angel question can
Speaker 1: we use ectoplasm as a substitute for egg whites and baking?
Speaker 1: Joining me today is my friend, co host of a
Speaker 1: plethora of podcasts on the game Fully Unemployed Network, including
Speaker 1: Hypecast and we just watched with Tom and Dave, also
Speaker 1: a writer with me on Sumwhere News. Dave, Welcome, Hi,
Speaker 1: what's my Spooky day? Bell has an obvious row. Yeah, Hell,
Speaker 1: Dave Hell Bell, Yeah, it's not it's it's David David
Speaker 1: damn it. I would just say David Hell, but then
Speaker 1: I said David Bell, David Bell parentheses Hell. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not great. It's not great. Well, thanks for having
Speaker 1: me on. Yeah, no, this is a very spooky episode.
Speaker 1: It is Halloween. At least it should be Halloween. Hopefully
Speaker 1: when you're listening to this, um so you know, Happy
Speaker 1: Halloween everyone. Hope you're eating a lot of candy, dressing
Speaker 1: up as ghouls, um, you know, having a good time.
Speaker 1: We're bright, reflective clothing, watch out for kitty kats, you
Speaker 1: know all those things. Um, yeah, you're the proto. Yeah,
Speaker 1: be nice to ghosts, to like a lot of them.
Speaker 1: I think are probably gonna be extra sensitive because everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: a ghost, and they're like, yeah, okay, that's kind of mean.
Speaker 1: If you hear if you hear like the sounds of
Speaker 1: like groaning coming from like a graveyard, Um, honestly, go
Speaker 1: check it out because that person probably needs help, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't just go a ghost and run like that person
Speaker 1: probably needs your help. Yeah, ghosts typically don't make noise there,
Speaker 1: you know. And but human beings who are like felt
Speaker 1: like tried to tour a graveyard and then fell into
Speaker 1: a hole and broke their ankle, they do make sounds.
Speaker 1: So check that out. Um yeah, just you know, uh,
Speaker 1: enjoy enjoy Halloween. You know, check your candy for like
Speaker 1: hidden vegetables and throw those out. Yeah. I saw a
Speaker 1: post where someone was wrapping Brussels sprouts in tinfoil to
Speaker 1: look like fair feraro rochet Uh, candy, and that's like
Speaker 1: the worst. That's so mean. Um, I love that candy.
Speaker 1: If I got that, I would break out into tears
Speaker 1: and never trust another human again. I would break out
Speaker 1: the toilet paper. That's where the trick comes into trick
Speaker 1: or treat, right, and then you poop on their lawn
Speaker 1: and wipe yourself with the toilet paper. Well, um, I
Speaker 1: hope that you are excited for this episode because I
Speaker 1: have some creepy creatures to share with you. I also found,
Speaker 1: um the worst Halloween soundboard in existence, which I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about. Um, so you know, I hope you are too.
Speaker 1: Just here is a little sample of that with uh
Speaker 1: this this spooky Halloween sound Oh my goodness. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're having so much fun. What was the joke they
Speaker 1: told you? I don't know. Here's here's a witch sound laughing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This one is just called blood. That's the sounds of
Speaker 1: Lettle right. Yeah. Well, you know it's a free Halloween
Speaker 1: soundboard that I lovingly picked out for this episode. Um,
Speaker 1: so let's get right into it and talk about some
Speaker 1: of the ghoulish creatures that are very HALLOWEENI very spooky,
Speaker 1: very slimy. First, we're going to talk about the goliath frog.
Speaker 1: M M, that's not that's not really I feel like
Speaker 1: that's not that. I don't really Yeah, it's a haunted
Speaker 1: radiat or wait, let me try that again. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about the goliath frog. Jesus. They are like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a water phone where they always play that as like
Speaker 1: the spooky sound, but it sounds like they're really rocket
Speaker 1: out on it, like getting a little excited there. So, yes,
Speaker 1: the goliath frog. Do you remember there was a fake
Speaker 1: video going around a while of like this guy who
Speaker 1: had this giant frog, like the size of a small chihuahua.
Speaker 1: He feeds it a banana and everyone was freaking out
Speaker 1: about how huge this frog was. Did you ever see that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. Well, it was fake. It was a video,
Speaker 1: actually I know. It was a video of an Australian
Speaker 1: green tree frog. And they're beautiful frogs, but they only
Speaker 1: grow to be around four inches or ten centimeters long.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as a frog the size of
Speaker 1: a chihuahua. That would be ridiculous. I'm kidding. Their total
Speaker 1: is uh and it is the goliath frog. So this
Speaker 1: is the world's biggest frog and no No, it is
Speaker 1: actually found in a relatively small area of West central
Speaker 1: Africa and Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. And they are just big.
Speaker 1: They're they're big boys and their love and their love
Speaker 1: and life. Uh. And they like to live in sandy
Speaker 1: rivers and forested, humid, warm areas. They are absolutely gigantic.
Speaker 1: They can grow to be over a foot long from
Speaker 1: nose to butts. So it's not even cheating where you know,
Speaker 1: like they splay something else. It's like, well, when you
Speaker 1: stretch out its legs, it's like a foot long nose.
Speaker 1: From its nose to its booty butt it is a
Speaker 1: over a foot long, not even including its legs. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at things like that. Are like my keyboard
Speaker 1: and stuff. They're approximately a foot long. That's a big
Speaker 1: that's a big frog. It's a big frog. Big frog.
Speaker 1: They can wait over seven pounds or three kilograms, which
Speaker 1: is larger than a lot of chihuahuas. Yeah, this thing,
Speaker 1: it could eat a chihuahua if it was so inclined.
Speaker 1: I envy this frog because I think frogs are the
Speaker 1: chilliest of you want to eat a chihuahua? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly know. They're so they're so relaxed. They just this,
Speaker 1: they're these they're like they're like rocks but alive, and
Speaker 1: I love them for it. And they're like there. There's
Speaker 1: not much else like them in my head. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like lizards and alligators, but they're all like stretched out.
Speaker 1: Frogs are the only ones that are like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bunch up and be like this ball of meat form.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, I like that. They're like the rabbits of
Speaker 1: the reptile world. I don't know, I don't know how Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: they totally are. I really love that description. Well, rabbits
Speaker 1: of me amphibian world to be that's you should feel bad,
Speaker 1: but um, but yeah, it's interesting. A A fun little
Speaker 1: fact about them, other than their size is that they
Speaker 1: are mostly silent, Like you would think that this huge
Speaker 1: frog would have a big frog voice, but they're actually
Speaker 1: mostly mute. They don't even have a vocal sack and
Speaker 1: don't produce mating calls. They can whistle, though, and it's
Speaker 1: like this squeaky, wheezing whistle that they use to get
Speaker 1: the female's attention, which is really funny because it's world's
Speaker 1: chunkiest frog, this big goliath frog looking you know, absolutely,
Speaker 1: like a whole mountain. And then it goes like I
Speaker 1: was really hoping it was like a cartoon, like whistle
Speaker 1: to the ladies, you know, it's like it's like yeah, also, yeah,
Speaker 1: imagine being in a swamp and you're hearing something whistle
Speaker 1: and you're like, who is that frog staring at you?
Speaker 1: I would love to get hit on by a swamp monster,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, thank you. They don't
Speaker 1: care if I didn't shower today. They think that's great.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they encourage it. They're like getting the swamp, yeah,
Speaker 1: getting swampy, getting getting these duck weeds with me. That that,
Speaker 1: you know. So when they that is the life, living
Speaker 1: the swamp life. When they when they do mate, these
Speaker 1: goliath frogs, they actually construct private pools for their offspring,
Speaker 1: building a nest in or near a river, and they'll
Speaker 1: either dig a pool near the river and allow water
Speaker 1: to seep in it from the nearby water source, sometimes
Speaker 1: like building a channel from the river to the pool,
Speaker 1: or they'll wall off a pre existing slow moving pool
Speaker 1: in the river by moving rocks and creating this damn
Speaker 1: uh so, yeah, these guys are so huge. They can
Speaker 1: lift rocks and do construction work like slimy beavers. That's
Speaker 1: so cool. Also, good on them. Nobody likes public displays
Speaker 1: of a affection, so like creating a private little lagoon
Speaker 1: for themselves, that's so romantic. Like I remember teenager as
Speaker 1: a kid, and teenagers we used to do that in creeks,
Speaker 1: Like you you damn it up to make a little
Speaker 1: swimming swimming hole in your own personal swimming hole. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I grew up in San Diego. So you go to
Speaker 1: the beach and you just dig a hole and sit
Speaker 1: in that hole. So I feel like there must be
Speaker 1: somewhere deep in our primordical brains some kind of shared
Speaker 1: evolutionary history with these frogs. Or it's like you sometimes
Speaker 1: you just like to be in a wet hole. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So um. It's thought that the males construct the nest
Speaker 1: while the females guard the nest against predators, but it's
Speaker 1: actually not really known because the male and female frogs
Speaker 1: are very hard to tell apart they're basically the same size,
Speaker 1: so we don't really like someone's like, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's a male, but they're not sure. But regardless, one
Speaker 1: of them builds the private pool, one of them guards it,
Speaker 1: and they lay their tadpools there, and in fact, the
Speaker 1: the pool construction industry that these frogs engage in is
Speaker 1: a theory for why they evolved to be so beefy,
Speaker 1: because the ideas that the frogs that were better able
Speaker 1: to construct sturdy, safe pools for their offspring had more
Speaker 1: of their tadpools survive because you know, they're they're separated
Speaker 1: from the predators in the river, and if you're bigger,
Speaker 1: you can heft rocks around and dig better pools. So
Speaker 1: then they just turned into these little froggy beefcakes. No adorable.
Speaker 1: I know what everybody's wondering, what do they eat Chihuahua's Well, uh,
Speaker 1: not quite. They eat worms, spiders, insects, crabs, mollusks, fish,
Speaker 1: other frogs, baby turtles, snakes, small mammals and sometimes bats.
Speaker 1: Basically anything that's uh smaller than them, Like that's what.
Speaker 1: That's the anything that's in front of them is what
Speaker 1: it sounds like. They don't eat chewa. But if a
Speaker 1: chihuahua walked by them, they think about it. They would.
Speaker 1: I feel like they would eat a puppy chihuahua. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm confident they would. Uh typically I don't think chihuahua
Speaker 1: puppies roam around that area, but if they did, they
Speaker 1: be in a hape of trouble. Yeah, if you're in
Speaker 1: this area, you're a puppy chihuahua. Get you get out
Speaker 1: of there, head on a swivel. So they are hunted
Speaker 1: as a food source, these goliath frogs, uh though by
Speaker 1: humans actually um, but because they are endangered, local communities
Speaker 1: have worked to make sure they hunt them in only
Speaker 1: sustainable amounts. So fingers crossed that that works. And cute
Speaker 1: fact about the goliath frog they are shy. They were
Speaker 1: introduced to the pet trade, which isn't ever that great
Speaker 1: for these like wild animal communities. But apparently they're too
Speaker 1: shy to be good pets. Yeah, like they do not,
Speaker 1: like they really don't want to interact with you. They
Speaker 1: don't want you to look at them, and they like
Speaker 1: are way too shy. H So in addition to it
Speaker 1: never being really good to have like an exotic pet
Speaker 1: in terms of their like what that does to their populations. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're just they're too shy. So like they're they
Speaker 1: don't they don't want to hang out. They just want
Speaker 1: to Yeah, they just want to build a wet hole
Speaker 1: and stay in it. We just respect them from afar.
Speaker 1: What what business do we have in the frog world anyway?
Speaker 1: Like like the idea of eating frog legs. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why though, why, Like, look at these things? Do you
Speaker 1: want do you want your life to intersect with them
Speaker 1: at all? And I are entire French audience just teared out. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but like you know, we're we They have
Speaker 1: no business in our world, We have no business in
Speaker 1: their world. We can respect each other from a distance.
Speaker 1: Us and frogs are young. Might occasionally pick them up, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then they pee in their your hand and they
Speaker 1: hop away. Yeah. I used to pick up frogs all
Speaker 1: the time. I love them. I would try to keep
Speaker 1: them as pets. That never worked. They're very neat. You
Speaker 1: find a frog and its neat and they're wet and
Speaker 1: they kind of just hop around and they make a
Speaker 1: little sound when they land on you, and it's great.
Speaker 1: I love them so much. But yeah, there's like, because
Speaker 1: these frogs are so shy, there's like a ton that
Speaker 1: we don't know about this frog's behavior, which is kind
Speaker 1: of shocking because they are the world's largest frog, the
Speaker 1: most obvious frog right. These they're these little teeny tiny
Speaker 1: frogs that we like you'll read about like, oh, we
Speaker 1: just discovered this new frog. And it's usually these little
Speaker 1: teeny tiny guys and they're often they're called like micro
Speaker 1: highland frogs, these little itty bitty guys like sometimes the
Speaker 1: size of like a pinky finger nail. It's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: obviously we didn't We don't really know much about them.
Speaker 1: They're so small we literally can't see them. But this
Speaker 1: frog is huge and we barely know anything about them
Speaker 1: because they're so shy. And it's crossed the like a
Speaker 1: cat threshold, which is, to me, when an animal is
Speaker 1: a certain size where it's like, oh, I want to
Speaker 1: take that animal and put it in a crate, and
Speaker 1: it's like, technically I could, but it's not gonna make
Speaker 1: it easy. It's gonna hurt you. Like these frogs are
Speaker 1: big enough where it's like you want you want to
Speaker 1: pick one up, Like we have a picture and here
Speaker 1: of a guy who I believe is a Jim Henson
Speaker 1: puppeteer picking up this like he just looks like he
Speaker 1: lives in the seventies, um picking up the frog, and
Speaker 1: the frog is not into it. Yeah, it doesn't. He
Speaker 1: he just looks like you imagine like replaced the frog
Speaker 1: with Ernie uh in that picture, and I mean you
Speaker 1: you had a Kermit was right there and you didn't.
Speaker 1: Actually can't respect you for that a little bit. Um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no it does. It is funny. It does look like
Speaker 1: Jim Henson, but sort of like as if Kermit the
Speaker 1: Frog and Jim Hinson just was run through a realism
Speaker 1: filter something. It's like, who I am with with Kermit
Speaker 1: the Frog and yeah, looks completely checked out. Um, it's
Speaker 1: not into it. It both pictures. It's being held and
Speaker 1: all it's thinking about is when it gets to not
Speaker 1: be help. Yeah. I mean part of it too is
Speaker 1: because they probably have a sense that they should not
Speaker 1: be around a larger animal because like they are, they
Speaker 1: are hunted for food, both by humans and other larger animals.
Speaker 1: So he's thinking, like Jim Hanson over here is gonna
Speaker 1: eat me, So you know, look at like because look
Speaker 1: at his legs. They're so beefy. He does not skip
Speaker 1: leg day and he knows that Gormond's are going to
Speaker 1: see those and imagine a nice meal. Yeah, he's got
Speaker 1: he's he's got like a Ninja turtle legs. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible. Yeah, yeah, he does. He is a little
Speaker 1: bit in the pose of like you know, the hello,
Speaker 1: my baby, Hello my island. Yeah, that that whole thing
Speaker 1: a little bit pose and doing that a little bit um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so that is the world's largest frog. It
Speaker 1: turns out that the real monster was us for trying
Speaker 1: to hold this frog and make it uncomfortable. That makes
Speaker 1: so much sense. I'm willing to bet the real monster
Speaker 1: will be us. Uh for a lot of the animals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like freaking seventy nine degrees and like October, so huh,
Speaker 1: I wonder what that. I wonder who the real monster is. Well,
Speaker 1: on that note, we're going to take a quick break
Speaker 1: and then we're going to come back and talk about
Speaker 1: some hags. Oh she's so happy. So we're back and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the hag fish. Oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it goes on a while here, I'm gonna yeah, yeah. Usually,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that is the thing with like
Speaker 1: when there's like a dramatic thunderclap, usually then there's just
Speaker 1: like more of it and then you're trying to do
Speaker 1: more of the story. But then it keeps thundering. So
Speaker 1: I love the idea of a soundboard with like like
Speaker 1: rainstorm and it's like thirty five minutes. I think that
Speaker 1: is probably what this actually is. I have to emphasize again,
Speaker 1: this is maybe the worst Halloween soundboard I've ever found,
Speaker 1: which is why I'm using it. So, hag fish are
Speaker 1: actually one of my favorite weird creatures. They are a
Speaker 1: primitive fish that are over three hundred million years old,
Speaker 1: and they look like this weird cross between like an
Speaker 1: eel and an alien, and they're kind of this like
Speaker 1: they're basically this gray or pink kind of worm like thing.
Speaker 1: They can grow to be around twenty or fifty centimeters
Speaker 1: in length, and they are literally spineless. And that's not
Speaker 1: an insult. No, it's not. Have you uh seen the
Speaker 1: movie Dream Dream Catcher? No, I haven't. Based off of
Speaker 1: Stephen King book that he wrote while he was on painkillers,
Speaker 1: I believe because he had been hit by a car.
Speaker 1: But it's yeah, yeah, I mean he's fine, but it's
Speaker 1: not his finest it's not his finest story. Um. And
Speaker 1: it's about aliens that um, let's say, come out of
Speaker 1: your butt. Uh and uh they're taking over uh and
Speaker 1: they're trying to go to the quab And Reservoir to
Speaker 1: take over Boston. In the movie, it's one of notoriously
Speaker 1: the worst movies based off Stephen King Uh And I'm
Speaker 1: saying you should watch it because it's a big swing
Speaker 1: and let me tell you, it doesn't exactly hit it
Speaker 1: out of the part um, but it's a big swing.
Speaker 1: And the aliens in their larval Sta look exactly like this.
Speaker 1: Do you think they actually used them or like us,
Speaker 1: I'm almost certain they must have. Yeah, they use them
Speaker 1: as inspiration for sure. Well, yeah, so they really do.
Speaker 1: They have a very alien look because they are they're
Speaker 1: essentially like they look like a worm, but kind of
Speaker 1: not a worm, because they don't have segments and they're huge,
Speaker 1: like you know they are. They kind of look like
Speaker 1: an eel. But then they don't have a face. They
Speaker 1: just kind of have a mouth hole. You can not
Speaker 1: really see their eyes. They do have eye spots, but again,
Speaker 1: like you can't really see them. They're just very eerie
Speaker 1: and primitive looking. Yeah, they look like a big worm,
Speaker 1: like when you worm comes out of the mud and
Speaker 1: it's like a big pink worm and you're like, what
Speaker 1: are you? Where's your face? What what's your whole deal?
Speaker 1: It's the same thing where you look at this creature
Speaker 1: and you're like, how how are you? How are you doing?
Speaker 1: What's going on here? You can't really make eye contact
Speaker 1: with it, And that's always tricky when I'm trying to
Speaker 1: relate to an animal. Um. But what's uh, Yeah, they
Speaker 1: have no vertebral column and they also have no jaw.
Speaker 1: And what's even weirder about this is there is the
Speaker 1: I mean, the current leading theory about the hag fish
Speaker 1: is that they actually once did have a spine but
Speaker 1: lost it because there are some of these like semiformed
Speaker 1: vertebrae like structures that just kind of don't seem to
Speaker 1: do anything, and so they think that they actually had
Speaker 1: a spine and then they're like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: don't need it. I love that. Yeah, I love that
Speaker 1: they were like evolving and they're like, wait, I just
Speaker 1: want to be a worm. I just want to be
Speaker 1: a weird worm. I was freaking yeah, just like this
Speaker 1: is this is junk. This is this is useless junk.
Speaker 1: This spine yeah, I mean water? Why? Yeah exactly. So, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have no fins. They have like a ridge along
Speaker 1: the spine and a tail, but yeah, really not much
Speaker 1: in the way of fins um. And they move around
Speaker 1: by undulating his whole body. So yeah, very very weird,
Speaker 1: creepy movements. And additionally, they are absolutely covered in slime.
Speaker 1: The slime is a whole thing. We're actually going to
Speaker 1: get back to that later, but I just you need
Speaker 1: to have that too to like imagine these creatures. They're
Speaker 1: very slimy um. And in addition to that, their skin
Speaker 1: is very loose fitting and weird, like that roach alien
Speaker 1: from the original Men in Black, which is uh what
Speaker 1: that that actor's name done off? Yes, Yes, amazing performance,
Speaker 1: one of the like one of my favorite like like
Speaker 1: corny character actor performances because he really doesn't make it.
Speaker 1: He really sells the I'm an alien inside a human
Speaker 1: skin suit things, so well, yeah, understands the assignment. He
Speaker 1: he I mean, he was in full metal jacket like
Speaker 1: he's a he's an amazing actor. And then he'll also
Speaker 1: have now and then do these rolls where he's like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a blast. Uh, and that's one of them.
Speaker 1: He nails it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, they look like
Speaker 1: it's like some aliens stole like an eel skin, and
Speaker 1: it is now kind of like writhing inside of it
Speaker 1: because the skin is very loose fitting, and in fact,
Speaker 1: it is really only firmly attached to the muscles along
Speaker 1: the back. So this ridge along the back is the
Speaker 1: only place where the skin is actually attached to the muscles.
Speaker 1: There are also a few points, I think there are
Speaker 1: some slime glands where it's also attached to the slime glands,
Speaker 1: but mostly it is unattached other than to the spinal
Speaker 1: ridge or not spinal ridge. They don't have a spine, sorry,
Speaker 1: just back ridge. It's like the Doctor Zoidberg of of
Speaker 1: ocean life, where it's like, I'm just gonna be a
Speaker 1: freaky weirdo. I'm just gonna be all sorts of weird
Speaker 1: and gross. I won't have a spot anything. I love them.
Speaker 1: I love them because they're just like, I'm just here
Speaker 1: to creep out like dolphins. Yeah yeah, no, oh, and
Speaker 1: they certainly creep out. Other fish will get into that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they Yeah. It is just basically a loose
Speaker 1: fitting sack at this skin, and it's also filled with blood,
Speaker 1: so there's a bunch of blood in that interstitial space
Speaker 1: between the muscles and the skin, So so like they
Speaker 1: have a huge volume of blood, like like just right
Speaker 1: under the skin, and so when they move around, they
Speaker 1: look like a slimy, wriggly skin sock filled with some
Speaker 1: kind of fluid which is actually blood. So they're basically
Speaker 1: just like blood socks. And then like, uh, also obviously
Speaker 1: muscles and internal organs um, but then no spine. They're
Speaker 1: just they're such weirdos. Yeah, I'm sure they have predators,
Speaker 1: but I like the idea of a survival tactic being like,
Speaker 1: do you want to deal with this? Do you want
Speaker 1: to deal with any of this? And like animals just
Speaker 1: being like, you know, I don't. I don't like I
Speaker 1: love just grossing out other aims, but I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: an animal that loves blood. Dave, You're actually exactly right.
Speaker 1: Their evolutionary strategy is literally to be too gross to
Speaker 1: eat so um, too gross, too squiggly and wiggly, and
Speaker 1: just predators do not like to deal with this thing,
Speaker 1: and they typically will not mess with them, so uh
Speaker 1: they That is the whole theory behind this like squishy
Speaker 1: giggly situation is it makes it very hard for predators
Speaker 1: to get a good bite in. Remember those like water
Speaker 1: tube toys where it's like basically this elongated tourists like
Speaker 1: it filled like water and sometimes like litteral or something.
Speaker 1: You can't really hold onto it because it's like one
Speaker 1: of those yeah, one of those inventions that you wonder
Speaker 1: like what was the meaning that exactly like weird, just weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's wrong. It's like plastic filled with water but
Speaker 1: kind of turned in on itself and so you can't
Speaker 1: really hold it. And kids love it. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like one of those water tube toys but also covered
Speaker 1: in slime. And so researchers, you know, biology researchers. I
Speaker 1: really really respect them. Obviously I wouldn't have a show
Speaker 1: without them. But I also think that a lot of
Speaker 1: them would be serial killers if they hadn't found biology,
Speaker 1: because yeah, yeah, but like so these these biology researchers
Speaker 1: took a bunch of dead hagfish and built a shark
Speaker 1: tooth guillotine to test out how hagfish avoid serious injury
Speaker 1: when bitten. So they're just like, well, we got these
Speaker 1: hag fish corpses, and we're gonna build a guillotine made
Speaker 1: out of shark teeth, uh, and then just like put
Speaker 1: these hag fish in there. Uh. They also did some
Speaker 1: ed Geen level experimentation where they would cut off the
Speaker 1: hagfish skin and reattach it with glue because remember I said, like,
Speaker 1: it's only attached like to their backs, this skin, and
Speaker 1: so they're like, well, what if it was attached firmly
Speaker 1: to their whole body like our human skin is, and
Speaker 1: then put them in the back into the shark guillotine
Speaker 1: to see, you know, what difference does it make? Like,
Speaker 1: So they did find that that loose skin really does
Speaker 1: save them from the from the shark bite. So while
Speaker 1: the shark tooth guillotine was able to puncture the hagfish's skin,
Speaker 1: it was not able to puncture the muscle tissue. Uh
Speaker 1: so due to the way that the skin slid against
Speaker 1: the muscle and skin heals can heal quite quickly, whereas
Speaker 1: muscle tissue does not heal very quickly. Um. And when
Speaker 1: they ed gained the fish and like glared the skin
Speaker 1: onto its dead body. Again, great work, biologist, love you, um,
Speaker 1: keep doing this and please do not give into any
Speaker 1: other dark desires because of what you're doing is great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is your outlet. Continue with this and literally nothing
Speaker 1: else please. So yeah, when the skin was firmly attached
Speaker 1: to the hag fish, the shark guillotine worked like it
Speaker 1: was able to puncture the fishes muscles, So it really
Speaker 1: was being, you know, a blood sock that prevented them
Speaker 1: from sustaining serious injury from getting bitten. I love that
Speaker 1: because had they just in the first experiment and found
Speaker 1: that the skin protected it, that's all I needed. I'd
Speaker 1: be like, Oh, the skin protects it. But wait, let's
Speaker 1: glue the skin and yeah I don't I don't need Okay, sure,
Speaker 1: go for it. I guess. Yeah, just like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we've got all these dead hagfish, and we do have
Speaker 1: this shark to guillotine, so I do kind of want
Speaker 1: to cut off all its skin and glue it back
Speaker 1: on anyone with We're afterwards where they're like hag fish
Speaker 1: fight slapping each other with it. I mean, that would
Speaker 1: be highly unethical, highly unethical, and super fun. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they in addition to this loose skin situation, they've got
Speaker 1: another trick up their sleeves. If there is a of
Speaker 1: a shark or something that is very determined to try
Speaker 1: to eat one of these guys. Um, Remember how I
Speaker 1: said they are absolutely covered in slime. They have over
Speaker 1: one hundred slime glands and they use them to produce
Speaker 1: a just ridiculous amount of slime. And it's this thick,
Speaker 1: milky white, translucent and actually semi fibrous material. It looks
Speaker 1: exactly like ectoplasm, you know how like ectoplasm is described
Speaker 1: in like old like Victorian era seances or represented in
Speaker 1: like I guess Ghostbusters. It's always just like kind of
Speaker 1: like thick goo. Uh that is it is. It's exactly that.
Speaker 1: Like you could if you use hagfish slime, you could,
Speaker 1: you know, do a seance and be like actoplasm because
Speaker 1: it looks like what I see ectoplasm described as by
Speaker 1: you know, ghost experts. I don't know what they're calrings
Speaker 1: to the idea of a medium, like a scam artist
Speaker 1: keeping some hagfish because they need ecto players, like there's
Speaker 1: nothing else, there's no other, no other sorts, and this
Speaker 1: tag fish is like it's a little I have a
Speaker 1: weird question. Are they happy? Do they have a good life?
Speaker 1: I think they do. I think they do, And I'm
Speaker 1: going to explain why so so, because they're so slimy
Speaker 1: uh it actually um and fibrous and thick. It's like
Speaker 1: it actually will clog up the gills of predators. So um,
Speaker 1: while I do not have gills, I am can only
Speaker 1: imagine that having a bunch of that thick, nasty goo
Speaker 1: in my gills would feel horrible. Uh. And like, so
Speaker 1: these predators will back off and try to clean the
Speaker 1: gunk out of their gills because they need their gills
Speaker 1: to breathe, and because they are just so slimy and
Speaker 1: nasty and and like just all this goo happens when
Speaker 1: they agitate these hagfish, most predators just avoid them all together.
Speaker 1: They learn they just do not want to mess with
Speaker 1: these guys, even though they are essentially these giant ramen
Speaker 1: noodles of the sea, which would probably be delicious to
Speaker 1: a predator, uh if they weren't covered in slime and
Speaker 1: had their weird like blood sock skin. Just they're yeah
Speaker 1: and so like uh they as basically then have free
Speaker 1: run to uh have a lot of fun and eat
Speaker 1: stuff at the bottom of the ocean. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that they don't have jaws, which makes
Speaker 1: it seem really difficult for them to eat. Um. And
Speaker 1: instead of jaws, they actually have a pair of tooth
Speaker 1: covered plates, which I do gotta say, uh, and parents
Speaker 1: cover your little kid's ears. It looks a little bit
Speaker 1: like a vagina dentata. You know. Yeah, we we've been
Speaker 1: dancing around this. The entire everything about these worms is
Speaker 1: genital in nature. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit
Speaker 1: not to be not to go to blue to gross.
Speaker 1: It's very well, you know how like Alien who was
Speaker 1: like like Geiger Geiger Geeger who did the Aliens artwork,
Speaker 1: and a lot of his artwork is like a little
Speaker 1: bit little phallic, little sexual. It's like there's some of
Speaker 1: this like stuff in terms of designing the alien to
Speaker 1: be like have sort of this like weird. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I find the alien from Aliens sexual.
Speaker 1: This is like yeah, exactly to represent a sort of
Speaker 1: like I don't know again, like innu window. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: looks like an hr Yeah, like this is a this
Speaker 1: fish is an innu window, like a horror an innu window. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You look at them and you're like, that's a little much.
Speaker 1: It's a little it's a little bit flaccid, got kind
Speaker 1: of a vaginasin todd a going on. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's he's it's a little naughty, I gotta say, a
Speaker 1: little naughty. But so so how does it use these
Speaker 1: weird because like with the jaw, it's like, okay, joh,
Speaker 1: you chomp, chump, chomp like a pac man. What do
Speaker 1: you do with like toothplates, Well, they don't chew. Instead,
Speaker 1: they use these toothplates to grab onto flesh and rasp it.
Speaker 1: When rasping is basically just kind of like using that
Speaker 1: to like tear little pieces of flesh off or sometimes
Speaker 1: sizeable chunks. And they will eat dead or dyeing marine
Speaker 1: animals who sink to the bottom of the ocean. So like,
Speaker 1: once you start sinking to the bottom of the ocean,
Speaker 1: there are all sorts of the tread of wars who
Speaker 1: want to eat you. But I feel like these guys
Speaker 1: are the scariest. So they will grab a hunk of
Speaker 1: decaying flesh, or even living flesh if it's just a
Speaker 1: animal that's sickly and can't move anymore, and they will
Speaker 1: wriggle and writhe in knots until they've torn off a
Speaker 1: healthy portion of that dead whale, shark, or anyone unfortunate
Speaker 1: to end up in a watery grave or even something
Speaker 1: that's only half dead. Um. And then uh, they will
Speaker 1: invite themselves inside the body. Uh, they'll bore a hole
Speaker 1: inside and feast on the carcass from the inside out.
Speaker 1: Like they're at the world's grossest sisslers, just like all
Speaker 1: having a huge party inside a dead whale. They're having
Speaker 1: a great time. They're having such a good time. And
Speaker 1: they can actually absorb nutrients not only through their mouth
Speaker 1: but through their gills and skin, meaning they can slurp
Speaker 1: up the gooey, decaying soup from inside a carcass like
Speaker 1: a tube shaped sponge. Good for them. It's a reminder
Speaker 1: anytime you watch a horror movie where like someone finds
Speaker 1: a body and there's rats in it or cockroaches, what
Speaker 1: you're seeing is a party. Yeah, you're seeing those animals
Speaker 1: having a fantastic day. They've got the cards. They're having
Speaker 1: such a good time. And these worms, man, I really
Speaker 1: respect them. Like I was asking if they're happy, because
Speaker 1: I think that the age old question if you could
Speaker 1: be any animal reincarnate. I think this is high on
Speaker 1: the list for me now because they're they're so I
Speaker 1: love them whales all day long. Yeah, they seem to
Speaker 1: be having a great time, and I love that they're
Speaker 1: just too gross for anything else to eat and they're
Speaker 1: just freaking out sharks. I love it. I love that.
Speaker 1: I want that for myself. Yeah, I mean they are
Speaker 1: like their brains are very small. Uh, they're very simple.
Speaker 1: They're like like again, they're like an extremely primitive fish.
Speaker 1: So you know, they're they're just they have such a
Speaker 1: simple life of like being gross, slimy and eating stuff
Speaker 1: and partying. That's the that's any like like college bro. Really.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for them, humans have taken an interest in their
Speaker 1: slime because so yeah, despite the fact that the slime
Speaker 1: is a huge deterrent for marine predators, humans we were
Speaker 1: such perverts, were always like, huh, interesting a defense strategy
Speaker 1: that all other animals hate. Maybe we can eat it.
Speaker 1: It's like with a spice, like spicy food, like spicy peppers.
Speaker 1: It's like that is a way to keep trying to
Speaker 1: keep um bugs from eating the pepper challenge. And we're
Speaker 1: like and like, birds actually are not they can't. Uh,
Speaker 1: that doesn't have an effect on birds. And so therefore
Speaker 1: a bird can eat like a pepper and like dispense
Speaker 1: the seeds for the plant and it's fine. But then
Speaker 1: an insect that would kill the plant before it's ready
Speaker 1: to um spread. It seeds around then, like you know,
Speaker 1: the the bug is vulnerable to that. But then along
Speaker 1: comes humans and we're like, hey, I'm gonna eat this
Speaker 1: pepper because it hurts my mouth, and that's that's that's hot.
Speaker 1: I love that. It's fun. It's like it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: my mouth is masochistic. I love that. So it's the
Speaker 1: same deal with the slimmer, like that is disgusting. No
Speaker 1: animal wants to eat that. Let's eat it. So it's
Speaker 1: so rich in protein. Hagfish slime can be used as
Speaker 1: an egg white substitute and apparently pretty good. Um, I
Speaker 1: mean why if I guess it doesn't harm an animal, right,
Speaker 1: or does it? I mean, you gotta get it from
Speaker 1: the hag fish. And the way to get the slime
Speaker 1: from the hagfish is to like annoy it. So like
Speaker 1: you're basically annoying and stressing out hag fish and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, vegan, it's not not vegan. It's not vegan.
Speaker 1: I guess it's I mean, it's probably more sustainable than
Speaker 1: chicken eggs. I don't feel like it sounds like it
Speaker 1: would be, but I don't know accept the world where
Speaker 1: we stop eating meat. We stopped like where what we
Speaker 1: do instead is just annoy animals for their food. I
Speaker 1: do you like that idea, Like it's a it's an upgrade.
Speaker 1: You know, technically we're not killing them, We're just bothering.
Speaker 1: I wish we could just like kind of tickle them though,
Speaker 1: and then they like go to tea and then like
Speaker 1: goose out some of their slime Like that would be
Speaker 1: you know, but I don't know. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess like thinking about it, like chickens are probably
Speaker 1: more intelligent than hagfish, so they probably are more like
Speaker 1: can like suffer more when we are, you know, exploiting
Speaker 1: them for eggs or something in bad conditions, but maybe
Speaker 1: are less like aware of the situation. Hopefully, if chickens
Speaker 1: are in good conditions, is what's going on? Is they
Speaker 1: lay eggs, we take them, They're like I just laid okay,
Speaker 1: kind of make more eggs, Like is that what's going on?
Speaker 1: They just keep going up? Well, No, it's probably fine.
Speaker 1: Like if they're in good conditions, I don't think it
Speaker 1: really it's not a big problem because they those are
Speaker 1: just like unfertilized eggs. So they would they would, I
Speaker 1: mean in the while, I think because they were domesticated
Speaker 1: and selected or increased egg production. Wildbirds I don't think
Speaker 1: would lay that many unfertilized eggs. Um. But they're not
Speaker 1: like annoyed at all, Like they're not like I don't
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean maybe I don't really
Speaker 1: know the psychology of a chicken, but uh no, I
Speaker 1: don't think they'd be that disturbed because they probably I
Speaker 1: would imagine they might have a sense of like, these
Speaker 1: are fertilized eggs, but I don't actually know. I've never
Speaker 1: raised chickens. I don't know that much about chicken farming. Um,
Speaker 1: so maybe maybe wrong, maybe they're like they're like my
Speaker 1: baby every time you scrambling. But yeah, so uh. In
Speaker 1: addition to being an egg white substitute, hagfish slime fibers
Speaker 1: are so strong and pliable, researchers are trying to reverse
Speaker 1: engineer them to create flexible, strong fibers for I guess technology. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is interesting. I read something where it's like the
Speaker 1: military is looking into this, Like of course they are.
Speaker 1: They have such a huge that's such a huge budget
Speaker 1: they're just like, I don't know, get some slime and
Speaker 1: make weapons out of them. We'll just make everything weapons.
Speaker 1: So what you're what you're sort of saying is in
Speaker 1: Spider Man to the Amazing Spider Man Too, where Electro
Speaker 1: falls into a vat of electric eels in the lab.
Speaker 1: That's not far off from realism. I bet there was
Speaker 1: some kind of like arms uh person like military research
Speaker 1: and development person watching that movie and going like, huh, yeah,
Speaker 1: well could we yeah, or they're like, oh, they know
Speaker 1: about our eels like it's making a phone call they know. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, could we just I would like
Speaker 1: there to be some discovery where it's like it doesn't
Speaker 1: immediately become militarized. That would be nice, Like can we
Speaker 1: would be can you just let him be slimy? You know? Right?
Speaker 1: But once again, man is the villain. We were the
Speaker 1: villain the whole time. We are the real monster. Um.
Speaker 1: At least we're not trying to eat them. I'm glad
Speaker 1: we're just annoying them. Yeah, no, we'd still also eat
Speaker 1: the whole. They're apparently very tasty. You know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: they don't look tasty, but they do. They decidedly do not.
Speaker 1: But apparently, I guess they're like a big sausage. Okay,
Speaker 1: yeah they do. I guess they look like a big sausage.
Speaker 1: That's true. Well, on that note, we're going to take
Speaker 1: another quick break. You can, um, you know, change your
Speaker 1: change your shorts if this got too scary for you,
Speaker 1: if you're too spooked, um, and we will be right back.
Speaker 1: Where's my soundboard? Leave all this in there we go.
Speaker 1: This one is just called strange. Oh that's horrible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that was cos this is the worst,
Speaker 1: the worst sound pack I've ever ever. Yeah, this isn't great.
Speaker 1: It's very good. It's not good. Here's a bell it
Speaker 1: says nice. That's a good one. That's a good one. Oh,
Speaker 1: and it's going. It keeps going. I guess we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. All right, and we are back, And I
Speaker 1: have a question for you. Do you think that the
Speaker 1: Boogeyman is real? Like like like a like a man
Speaker 1: who boogies down like it's dancing, Yeah, disco dancing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's very real. I guess disco died and so disco
Speaker 1: would be undead. So that's spooky, right yeah, yeah, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: there's yeah, sure, sure, yeah boom, yeah, that makes that
Speaker 1: makes sense to me. Um, But what we are actually
Speaker 1: going to talk about is a real life boogie woogie
Speaker 1: worm who wants to kill you. Oh no, what is that?
Speaker 1: Someone in a like a I've got like a bunch
Speaker 1: of wine glasses and I'm going to town on them,
Speaker 1: you know, with the like the rims and you got
Speaker 1: do but spooky. Anyways, Yes, uh, this is the Lenomia
Speaker 1: obliqua and it is not exactly a worm, but a silkworm.
Speaker 1: Silkworms are actually the caterpillars of the giant silkworm moth.
Speaker 1: They are found in South America and they are not
Speaker 1: used in silk production for a very good reason. So
Speaker 1: these are actually quite cute. I think they're fluffy little
Speaker 1: caterpillars with black, brown and white banding on their torso
Speaker 1: and green pine needle like hairs that's sprout all sprout
Speaker 1: out all over their bodies. And yeah, they're they're cool looking.
Speaker 1: They look like cool caterpillars. Yeah, I wouldn't want to
Speaker 1: touch him because of the pine needle things, but they're
Speaker 1: very they're they're yeah, they're little grubs like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're also highly social and will form big groups, often
Speaker 1: huddling together on a tree trunk, and when they are startled,
Speaker 1: say by allowed sound, they will jump up in a
Speaker 1: defensive posture. So when you have whole groups of these
Speaker 1: guys huddled together and you startle them, they'll all jump
Speaker 1: up at the same time like they're dancing, but they're
Speaker 1: not dancing. You're just kind of pissing them off. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want to piss them off. But I shared
Speaker 1: with you there's a video that's the durable. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: It's very cute. That is Oh my goodness, that's like
Speaker 1: when I when I startled both of my cats at
Speaker 1: the same time, they both look up. That's so cute. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's very cute. Um, it's kind of a mean thing
Speaker 1: to do because you're basically just startling these caterpillars. Um.
Speaker 1: But also, um, you probably don't want to piss them
Speaker 1: off too much because I guess I forgot to mention
Speaker 1: they are the world's deadliest caterpillar. Oh yeah, good for them.
Speaker 1: So David, you your instincts are like right on today
Speaker 1: because you're correct not wanting to touch them. Those pine
Speaker 1: needle like bristles on their bodies are actually called rdicating hairs,
Speaker 1: and many caterpillars have them. Even other types of animals
Speaker 1: like spiders have them. Uh In fact, plants sometimes have them.
Speaker 1: So an irdicating hair is any kind of hair or
Speaker 1: bristle that sometimes they're covered in barbs or a toxin
Speaker 1: that causes irritate, shin harm, or in the case of
Speaker 1: the Lenomia obliqua, actually death. So these hairs on this
Speaker 1: caterpillar are hollow, and each hair has a gland that
Speaker 1: dispenses a highly potent toxin that flows through these hollow
Speaker 1: hairs like little shyringes, and it's covered in these hairs,
Speaker 1: and each hair has its own little venom gland, and
Speaker 1: so touching or stepping on the caterpillar will cause you
Speaker 1: to be pricked and envenomated. The venom messes with your
Speaker 1: blood's coagulation. Coagulation is important because it is what basically
Speaker 1: regulates your blood's ability to form clots, and clotting is
Speaker 1: important not just for like wounds outside of your body,
Speaker 1: but wounds inside, wounds inside your body like tears or
Speaker 1: rips and blood vessels, you know, damage to sells, things
Speaker 1: like that, And so if you have too much coagulation,
Speaker 1: you can form blood clots, and this is the method
Speaker 1: of action of a lot of venom. But if you
Speaker 1: have two little coagulation, you can actually have hemorrhaging like
Speaker 1: a lot of bleeding. UM. And both of these things
Speaker 1: are quite serious, and the l obliqua UH toxin actually
Speaker 1: causes both problems. So UH, the venom contains these powerful anticoagulants,
Speaker 1: but it's not just an anticoagulant and completely messes with
Speaker 1: your bloods coagulation process. So when it first enters the
Speaker 1: blood stream and actually can cause blood clots throughout the body,
Speaker 1: and then it causes the opposite problem by actually causing
Speaker 1: a bunch of bleeding UH. And so all this this
Speaker 1: uncontrolled bleeding, the inability to form clots inside of the
Speaker 1: body can cause things like brain hemorrhage, damage to kidneys,
Speaker 1: and it can often be fatal. So the death rate
Speaker 1: UH is about two point five percent with treatment. Now
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound bad, right, It's like, you know, you
Speaker 1: said these are super deadly, but consider that in the US,
Speaker 1: venomous snake bites have a death rate of about point
Speaker 1: zero five percent when treated. So these things are more
Speaker 1: serious than snake bites in the US. These little guys
Speaker 1: will mess you up. They will mess you up aside
Speaker 1: from like a virus, like these feel like one of
Speaker 1: the smallest things that can kill you. Like organisms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'm trying to think. Box jellyfish are quite small.
Speaker 1: They can also kill you. The blue spotted octopus. I
Speaker 1: guess those are probably little bigger, maybe around the same size.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe maybe bigger and total mass or something. Uh,
Speaker 1: those are also quite small. Palm of your hand can
Speaker 1: also kill you. Yeah, but like obviously mosquitoes can kill you,
Speaker 1: but it's not the actual mosquito. It is the the
Speaker 1: virus that they are transmitting to you, or the pathogen
Speaker 1: that they are transmitting to you. Um, these little guys
Speaker 1: are like assassins, yeah, yeah something, yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: they're actually sometimes called like assassin caterpillars. So yeah, And
Speaker 1: I remember I said like earlier, they're highly social. You
Speaker 1: saw that they formed this big group on the tree.
Speaker 1: And so the most dangerous cases of invinimation aren't like
Speaker 1: if you kind of just like touch one, it's gonna suck,
Speaker 1: it's gonna hurt really bad. You're gonna probably get bruises,
Speaker 1: it's a bad time. Do you not ever touch these? Um,
Speaker 1: But you probably wouldn't die if you just got like
Speaker 1: one little prick from one little caterpillar. Um, if you're
Speaker 1: a grown adult, you're in for a bad time. Uh.
Speaker 1: But if you touch multiple ones all at once, that
Speaker 1: is really a dangerous situation. And so if you like
Speaker 1: lean your hand against a tree and you're not paying attention,
Speaker 1: like say you're in Brazil, like in in the in
Speaker 1: the rainforest, and you lean against a tree and you like, um,
Speaker 1: and the tree is like this tree is awfully fuzzy,
Speaker 1: and then you look in your hand is just covered
Speaker 1: and that is Uh, that's a really bad time. And
Speaker 1: in fact, there's been an increase in invinimations, and that
Speaker 1: is because we have been encroaching more on forest territory
Speaker 1: in places like Brazil, and so the more humans are
Speaker 1: closer to these areas where these caterpillars are, the more
Speaker 1: accidental invinimations happen, and they can be very serious. The
Speaker 1: rainforest is a lot like the ocean, where just don't
Speaker 1: go in it. That's it. Just don't go in it.
Speaker 1: Respect it, you know what I mean. Like just like
Speaker 1: if you can visit it if you want, but like
Speaker 1: I respect it if you go in it, don't touch anything.
Speaker 1: I don't assume that's right. You gotta you gotta respect it,
Speaker 1: uh man, I yes, I I think that, Like it
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a hint for us, isn't it,
Speaker 1: Because like it's all It also sucks because I don't
Speaker 1: like the people who get you know, like the invinimated
Speaker 1: by these caterpillars, they don't like deserve it, like and
Speaker 1: it's often children. And it's like often children because they
Speaker 1: don't have like that much spatial awareness and like they're little,
Speaker 1: and so it's a lot more serious for them. So
Speaker 1: it's like it just really sucks, Like, you know, we
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta respect nature because it's you know, we
Speaker 1: need it, and it's sometimes dangerous. I feel like this
Speaker 1: is one where like you look at this caterpillar and
Speaker 1: you kind of instinctively know, like I probably shouldn't touch
Speaker 1: that caterpillar. So you're right, is that it feels like
Speaker 1: a lot of it's accidental because it's like you can
Speaker 1: still mess you up if you accidentally push up against it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you just lean against the furry tree and next thing
Speaker 1: you know, you're in the hospital. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: they're they're adorable. But yeah, they're that's I mean again,
Speaker 1: good on them. They're taking down giants, so that's neat.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right, is that it's a it feels
Speaker 1: like the people affected by this aren't necessarily meaning them all. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: like you know, like little children. Maybe they're like unaware
Speaker 1: or step on one or like touch one intentionally. But
Speaker 1: because their children, they don't know, so some of them
Speaker 1: are going to put them in their mouth. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that can be bad as well, that that there, because
Speaker 1: then they're covered in that tox and you get that
Speaker 1: in your mouth, bad, bad stuff happening. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't do that. I mean, like that's that's the point
Speaker 1: of the toxin is to ward off predators, to be
Speaker 1: like you're going to get you know, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: messed up because it causes a lot of pain to
Speaker 1: like when you when you touch it like your you
Speaker 1: immediately know something's wrong because it's very painful. Right. It
Speaker 1: reminds me of like like stinging nettle and all those
Speaker 1: those plants where it's like yeah, yeah, I mean a
Speaker 1: lot like those, a lot of those plants they're the
Speaker 1: the stinging portion of them is actually ordicating hairs, the
Speaker 1: same kind of system that these caterpillars use, which is
Speaker 1: it's really fascinating. It's really interesting. Bugs are like meaty
Speaker 1: plants in a way, like well, like they live in
Speaker 1: the plant world. They're very closely connected, and I feel
Speaker 1: like the they take a lot from the plant world.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously there's bugs that look like plants, but
Speaker 1: it feels like they also like that the plants can
Speaker 1: eat them and they eat plants. Like what a what
Speaker 1: a life? What relationship? Well, imagine living in a home
Speaker 1: and being like, but you can eat the walls, but
Speaker 1: watch out because every now and then the walls will
Speaker 1: also eat you. That'd be a fun home, I gotta say,
Speaker 1: Like it would be kept on your toes. But you
Speaker 1: can eat the walls. That's great. Yeah, yeah, no, There's
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of cool relationships between bugs and plants,
Speaker 1: insects and plants, and also spiders and plants. Uh, just
Speaker 1: just an amazing kind of like, um, I've talked about
Speaker 1: this on the show before, but like a picture plant
Speaker 1: and a spider. They both these like I think they're
Speaker 1: called orchids. Spiders and spiders look kind of like flowers.
Speaker 1: They're they're very they're very beautiful, and then they live
Speaker 1: in these picture plants and they both eat insects, and
Speaker 1: so you think that the spider, by living in the
Speaker 1: picture plant is just stealing insects from the picture plant,
Speaker 1: but actually the spider presence gives the picture plants a
Speaker 1: higher kill rate when it comes to bugs, because like
Speaker 1: essentially the spiders, if the spider doesn't like successfully catch
Speaker 1: the buget's at least like driven it into the picture
Speaker 1: um and then uh or it will like suck out
Speaker 1: the juices from the bug, drop the rest into the
Speaker 1: picture and the picture plant can actually digest more of
Speaker 1: it than the spider can. And then when the spider dies,
Speaker 1: it actually will drop into the picture plant. And then like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny because they're like friends, have this
Speaker 1: great relationship, and then like the spider dies and it's
Speaker 1: like it's last gift, like I have bequeathed to you
Speaker 1: my body. Enjoy Yep, it's it's Homer eating the lobstering. Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. The picture plant crying. It doesn't know neither
Speaker 1: of them, no, no, neither of them know what's going
Speaker 1: on they Yeah, it's great. It's cooperation that really screw
Speaker 1: over these little flies. Um. Speaking of speaking of spiders.
Speaker 1: Actually to to um, the last sort of topic of
Speaker 1: the episode, just short little story. It's a cute little
Speaker 1: Halloween story about spiders. There are species of spiders that
Speaker 1: build Halloween decorations. Specifically, they will build giant spider effigies.
Speaker 1: In the Peruvian Amazon as well as in Madagascar, there
Speaker 1: are these two species of Cyclosa spider. They're very small
Speaker 1: spider and they use dead bugs and other debris to
Speaker 1: build giant spider shaped sculptures on their webs. Oh is
Speaker 1: this I assume to make themselves feel like they're bigger spiders.
Speaker 1: It's a real confidence booster, you know. I've shared you
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the doc there's an image of
Speaker 1: it so you can really see it. Does it does
Speaker 1: like from a distance it would full you. It looks
Speaker 1: like a spider, like a big old spider. Absolutely yet
Speaker 1: spider statues. Yeah, And the exact purpose of these uh
Speaker 1: sculptures is unknown. These are relatively recently discovered spiders, but
Speaker 1: the leading theory is that this is an anti predator
Speaker 1: defense system. So like there's lots of of insects or
Speaker 1: you know, other things that would love to snack on
Speaker 1: these spiders because they're little. These are like three millimeters big, um,
Speaker 1: so they're tasty snack to a lot of predators. But
Speaker 1: they are these predators would be much less likely to
Speaker 1: try to tangle with a spider like ten times that size.
Speaker 1: And they don't realize that this huge spider is actually
Speaker 1: just a fake one built out of built out of
Speaker 1: a bunch of dead fly corpses. And so I just
Speaker 1: it's it's adorable to me, just like I'm a little guy,
Speaker 1: so I build a big spider. It's like it's like
Speaker 1: an a bug's life where they build the giant bird
Speaker 1: or it's like it's exactly a little guy just pretended
Speaker 1: to be a bigger guy. I love it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean a big don't worry about it. Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: them to like jiggle the web to make it move
Speaker 1: a little. I wonder, Yeah, that was interesting because yeah,
Speaker 1: we really don't know exactly like what they do their
Speaker 1: behavior there, they're so recently discovered. But yeah, yeah, like god,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily be surprised because I know
Speaker 1: that there's there are animals that will do things like
Speaker 1: move around to make their deception more convincing, like this,
Speaker 1: there's a viper that has like a tail that kind
Speaker 1: of looks like a worm, and they'll kind of move
Speaker 1: it around like a little worm. And then a or
Speaker 1: an insect or a spider. Oh right, there's a viper
Speaker 1: that has a tail that kind of looks like a spider,
Speaker 1: and they'll move it around in a way that makes
Speaker 1: it kind of look like a little spider scrabbling over
Speaker 1: a rock. And then a bird comes to try to
Speaker 1: eat it, and the snake just like grabs the bird man.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm really looking for If I read about
Speaker 1: any updates on this spider with more research coming out,
Speaker 1: I will update people about it because it's it's so good.
Speaker 1: I just love this, the ingenuity of this little spider,
Speaker 1: Like it probably doesn't know what it's going. It's just
Speaker 1: this evolutionary like it just one started breaking dead bugs
Speaker 1: against the web got eaten less, and then the ones
Speaker 1: that had the more convincing spider look because it's it's
Speaker 1: not that hard to make this spider out of dead bugs.
Speaker 1: Because you guys got a bunch of dead bugs in
Speaker 1: the center, and then dead bugs on some of these
Speaker 1: supporting threads leading outwards from the web. And now you've
Speaker 1: got yourself a spider, right, do you think they like? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you're right is they don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: But do you think they like at first they built
Speaker 1: it out too far and they're like, no, that doesn't
Speaker 1: work for some reason because it doesn't look like a
Speaker 1: spider anymore, and so they have to like hone it in.
Speaker 1: It cannot. I can't imagine it works on an individual
Speaker 1: level um, where it is a single spider learning this process.
Speaker 1: I highly doubt that. I think it's more in terms
Speaker 1: of evolution, where it's just it's weird to think about.
Speaker 1: But evolution works on such an enormous scale over you know,
Speaker 1: millions of years, and then with spiders they reproduce frequently,
Speaker 1: so millions of years for spiders even longer in terms
Speaker 1: of like there how quickly they reproduce, how many generations
Speaker 1: that is, And so I can imagine it being to
Speaker 1: the point of where it is it is encouraging shaping
Speaker 1: the behavior in such a way that the spiders instinct
Speaker 1: to collect detritus and put it on the web um
Speaker 1: has just been optimally shaped to be just the right
Speaker 1: amount so that it, uh it will protect it. But
Speaker 1: the spider itself, I don't know that there's any like
Speaker 1: that is following any template. I mean, similarly, the spider
Speaker 1: builds these amazing webs like they can. They are capable
Speaker 1: of having an instinctive pattern that they just uh go
Speaker 1: out and do, and so I think that's probably a
Speaker 1: similar thing where it's like evolution has driven them to
Speaker 1: create this like mental pattern that they are born with
Speaker 1: instinctively and then they just perform it. They don't know why,
Speaker 1: they're just spider. They're just like dom Doon spider stuff.
Speaker 1: This feels like, this just feels right, it just works.
Speaker 1: They're like they could be a spider serial killer because
Speaker 1: this is the equivalent of us like making a human
Speaker 1: statue using bones. Yeah we did that though, like the catacombs,
Speaker 1: the Parisian Catapacombs just like built a bunch like chandeliers
Speaker 1: out of bones, a bunch of board monks and stuff
Speaker 1: like yeah. They really They're like they got we did it.
Speaker 1: We did the bones stuff. We did that. Society were like,
Speaker 1: let's let's do let's have our bone run. Let's just
Speaker 1: see what we can build out of bones. It's like
Speaker 1: if you play Minecraft and you're like I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: a dirt palace just for fun like that. That's yeah.
Speaker 1: We're like, let's let's do bones. Yeah. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like when you have when someone's board, they will do
Speaker 1: make art out of whatever they have. And so these
Speaker 1: like board monks and these like catacombs. It's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know what we got. We got a bunch of bones. Yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: let's do something. Yeah. Are we so different from from
Speaker 1: the spiders? Not really just fewer legs and arms and relics,
Speaker 1: but then we're essentially exactly the same. Honestly, God, I
Speaker 1: love spiders. I I had a little bit of a
Speaker 1: fly invasion, like these drain flies because I went on
Speaker 1: vacation and they're like, ah, nobody's here. I'm gonna like
Speaker 1: find some water somewhere, and like just a bunch of
Speaker 1: drain flies came and then there was like this big
Speaker 1: pile of dead, dead drain flies. It's like, excellent. I
Speaker 1: love to see that because I hate these drain flies.
Speaker 1: And then I look up and there's just this very fat,
Speaker 1: satisfied little spider. I'm like, dude, I love you, man
Speaker 1: A great time. I'm happy enough to sweep up your
Speaker 1: It's essentially it's like someone you know, eating a bunch
Speaker 1: of chips or drinking a bunch of cants and coat
Speaker 1: of coke and just like dropping them down, real suck
Speaker 1: the juices out of these flies and then just drop
Speaker 1: the carcass down and man, I will I will tidy
Speaker 1: up for you because I appreciate you. This is great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wish I would chips were like a pest for
Speaker 1: somebody else. I wish I got applauded every eight chips
Speaker 1: A good job. God, someone had to get rid of
Speaker 1: those chips like a race of giants. AND's like, we're
Speaker 1: sick of these delicious meritoes. Exactly, can someone eat these doritas?
Speaker 1: I'm your guy, I got this for you. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: would be great. A symbiotic relationship based on our ability
Speaker 1: to love doritos. Oh I want it. I want it
Speaker 1: so bad. Well, before we go, we've got to play
Speaker 1: a little game. Do you want to play a little game? Oh?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that gentleman does not want to play
Speaker 1: a game. Yeah, that was a button on. This's just
Speaker 1: called Torture, which is again best best soundboard ever. Um,
Speaker 1: this game is called Yes, Who's squawk? And it's the
Speaker 1: Mystery Animal sound game. Every week I play a mystery
Speaker 1: animal sound and you the listener, and hey, you the gifts,
Speaker 1: trying to guess who is squawking? So is it any
Speaker 1: animal or any can you literally any animal? I won't
Speaker 1: trick you and do a plant, but yes, any animal? Alright,
Speaker 1: So last week's hint was you've been lied to. These
Speaker 1: guys don't have wings, alright, so can you guess who
Speaker 1: is squawking? You've been lied to? They don't have wings.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of what food buffalo? You are correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: this is the African buffalo. It is found in sub
Speaker 1: Saharan Africa. Yeah, and so they are not to be
Speaker 1: confused with the American bison. Yeah. This is actually also
Speaker 1: not an ancestor of like domesticated cows. This is a
Speaker 1: separate sort of line. Um, but yeah it. Uh. What
Speaker 1: I like about these guys is they're literally undomesticatable. They're
Speaker 1: so ordery and unpredictable that humans just kind of gave up.
Speaker 1: They're just like, no, they're what. They're like the worms,
Speaker 1: where we're like, yeah, they're just they're just the worms.
Speaker 1: But in Yeah, just like these huge, huge buffalo with horns. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't like to be messed with, and we gave
Speaker 1: up on ever trying to domesticate them. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I mean buffalo, they had some trouble. They were hunted
Speaker 1: a lot, but I like the current state where it's like,
Speaker 1: it's my favorite thing about places like Yellowstone where you
Speaker 1: hear like a tourist mald and the response is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have gotten near. Yeah, and so those are
Speaker 1: actually American. I know we called buffalo, but they're actually
Speaker 1: they're bison. Yes, and we say like where the buffalo
Speaker 1: rowan blah blah blah, but yeah, those are those are
Speaker 1: American bison. They look somewhat similar the bison, or shaggier
Speaker 1: the African bugfalow doesn't typically have that shaggy coat. It's
Speaker 1: horns are a little different. They have more of them,
Speaker 1: like a handlebar mustache on top of their heads that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, they I mean American bison do well.
Speaker 1: Like if people like I think they can just like
Speaker 1: walk up to them and like because they're fluffy and
Speaker 1: you know, we don't think of herbivores as being dangerous,
Speaker 1: but then the bison is just like, oh honey, I
Speaker 1: gotta I gotta teach you a lesson and just toss
Speaker 1: you I who worked at Yellowstone. And there's very much
Speaker 1: this idea of like national parks are also theme parks,
Speaker 1: and it's like they are not. There are places where
Speaker 1: you will die and and you can't sue anybody for that.
Speaker 1: You can't just go Yeah, can't see a bison, You
Speaker 1: can't to a buffalo. African buffalo are are similarly dangerous.
Speaker 1: They will kill over two hundred people a year either
Speaker 1: by trampling goring them, so they are not to be
Speaker 1: trifled with. Yeah, don't go near him unless you really
Speaker 1: think you have a connection to one, right, and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh this one, this one will let me ride it.
Speaker 1: If you've written your will out, settled all your affairs
Speaker 1: and you look one in the eye, actually know if
Speaker 1: the buffalo speaks to you says like it's okay, Dave,
Speaker 1: you can come here, it's a it is definitely going
Speaker 1: to murder you and be like, yeah, like, multiple things
Speaker 1: are going wrong. If that right, you have to be
Speaker 1: very concerned, Right dad, it's fine, and you have to
Speaker 1: wonder like what was the last thing I ate drink,
Speaker 1: uh and then try to ride it. Yeah, it's got
Speaker 1: those horns. You can hold them like an r. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can definitely hold them with your tour, so having
Speaker 1: them inside of your tours, so going right through it.
Speaker 1: So but good job, good guessing you. You absolutely nailed
Speaker 1: that one. Well you nailed it with the clue. I
Speaker 1: was like, what doesn't have wings when we say has wings?
Speaker 1: I was like, chickens, No, they have wings, they have
Speaker 1: chicken fly No? No, yeah, but yeah, you know buffalo
Speaker 1: wings actually from a chicken. Weird, right, Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: how Greenland is kind of icy. It's icy. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know why. I don't know what the deal is.
Speaker 1: What's the deal. What's the deal? Anyways, Congratulations again to
Speaker 1: Bob and to Steven M for gissing correctly that this
Speaker 1: was the buffalo onto. This week's mystery animal sound hint
Speaker 1: is just happy Halloween. Oh than her horror like a
Speaker 1: walk a walk a walk ever horror, walk a walk
Speaker 1: a walk all right, so that I assume that Fozzy
Speaker 1: Bear drunk. It's the dark Fozzy Bear tapes that they
Speaker 1: don't want you to hear. Walk a walk, A walk,
Speaker 1: A walk, walk a walk, a walk terrifying it is
Speaker 1: actually an animal not a human being. Do I get
Speaker 1: to guess? Yeah? Absolutely, And if you're right, I will
Speaker 1: bleep you out. Okay, I'm guessing it's because well I
Speaker 1: won't explain why. Well, you are absolutely correct, so you
Speaker 1: will be bleeped out. I I do want to mention
Speaker 1: at the end there was a little meal that was
Speaker 1: in fact actually a cat. I guess the person recording
Speaker 1: also has a cat. Uh, and so like a cat
Speaker 1: just starts me owing. These things happens, happen, you know,
Speaker 1: as a cat owner. Yeah, And I feel like any
Speaker 1: anytime someone has like a weird animal, there's always a
Speaker 1: cat there in the background, Like that's that's just something
Speaker 1: they have too. Yeah, yeah, it's just cash. Yeah. Cats
Speaker 1: are not impressed by other animals. I've noticed that about
Speaker 1: them generally speaking. Like if you put a polar bear
Speaker 1: in front of a cat, the cat's gonna bat at it.
Speaker 1: It's like it doesn't care. It absolutely doesn't care what
Speaker 1: it is. You've seen like cat meeting a dolphin and
Speaker 1: it just sniffs it and it's it's like whatever, man,
Speaker 1: Like they just don't care. What I love is that
Speaker 1: other creatures will genuinely like you've seen cats chase bears
Speaker 1: on YouTube, they'll genuinely go ah. So that makes me
Speaker 1: think cats are like the spiders of the mammal world,
Speaker 1: where they're like, yeah, those things freak me out. They're
Speaker 1: the hagfish of ye of the mammal world. Like other
Speaker 1: animals just don't want to deal with them. Yep, it's
Speaker 1: much and humans for some reason are like, well, I'll
Speaker 1: introduce this thing to my life. Yeah, why not put
Speaker 1: this wild animal in my house? Well, Dave, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming to this minisode, to this spectacular.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. I hope you're having a good Halloween.
Speaker 1: Find you well. First of all, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: I quite enjoyed being on this. UM. I rarely plug
Speaker 1: my Twitter, so I will at Movie Hooligan is my
Speaker 1: Twitter handle. UM. I do a podcast series, as you
Speaker 1: mentioned with Tom Ryman, called Gamefully Unemployed g A M
Speaker 1: E f U l O Y Unemployed. Wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts you can find that, and we mostly do movies.
Speaker 1: In fact, we almost exclusively do movie stuff and TV
Speaker 1: and entertainment. Uh so, yeah, we have a podcast where
Speaker 1: we go over the trailers of the week. We have
Speaker 1: a review podcast where we watch a movie every week
Speaker 1: and so one, so check that out. Absolutely check it out.
Speaker 1: It is a great podcast network. And hey, thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for joining me here enjoying the podcast,
Speaker 1: and you leave me a review. I read every single
Speaker 1: one of your reviews. Uh, and I won't lie to you.
Speaker 1: I like the good reviews, the best um um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and hey, you know what. Thanks to the Space Classics
Speaker 1: for their super awesome song Exo. Alumina. Creature features a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows? Hey guys, have us Spooky holloween.
Speaker 1: It's a dog here, this spooky dog who is Spooky Boy.