Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about animal homes. We'll discover animals who built their
Speaker 1: homes out of straw, built their homes out of sticks,
Speaker 1: and built their homes out of bricks and poop and mucus.
Speaker 1: Discover this and more as we answer the angel question,
Speaker 1: what the heck is that aunt doing with that larva's
Speaker 1: But first let's address the elephant in the room, which
Speaker 1: sadly isn't a real elephant, even though I'd love to
Speaker 1: be buddies with an elephant. COVID nineteen, the coronavirus that
Speaker 1: is now a global pandemic, is certainly scary. I'm not
Speaker 1: a public health expert, and you should always listen to
Speaker 1: them over me. But here's what I've gathered. This is
Speaker 1: a very serious public health concern, but you shouldn't panic.
Speaker 1: This is survivable if we all work together to make
Speaker 1: ourselves and each other. Say. While COVID nineteen is not
Speaker 1: typically a serious illness for young and well people, more
Speaker 1: vulnerable groups such as older adults and those with serious
Speaker 1: pre existing diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and lung
Speaker 1: disease are at higher risk. According to the c d C.
Speaker 1: Just because there's a good prognosis for most people doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we shouldn't take this very seriously. We can absolutely
Speaker 1: save lives if we take the steps necessary to protect
Speaker 1: the community. Some of the things that you can do
Speaker 1: are washing your hands for at least twenty seconds in warm,
Speaker 1: soapy water, avoiding touching your face, and practicing social distancing.
Speaker 1: A lot of us are now practicing self isolation, avoiding
Speaker 1: large gatherings, and limiting social contact. This may seem extreme
Speaker 1: or scary, but it's actually really going to help out.
Speaker 1: By limiting social contact, we're slowing the spread of disease,
Speaker 1: and that's important. By slowing down the disease, we're helping
Speaker 1: to limit the number of cases so hospital roles and
Speaker 1: supplies don't become overtaxed. Of course, a lot of people
Speaker 1: still have to work and can't work from home, And
Speaker 1: I could go on a whole long runt about how
Speaker 1: our society should be better prepared to take care of
Speaker 1: everyone in times like these, but I'll spare you that.
Speaker 1: But if you can limit your social contact. You're helping
Speaker 1: out everyone who can't and everyone who is more vulnerable
Speaker 1: to the disease. But of course staying home can be
Speaker 1: hard on our mental health. So I thought this time
Speaker 1: i'd talk about animals who stay cozy in their little
Speaker 1: homes so we don't feel so alone. Joining me today
Speaker 1: to talk about cute and cozy animal abodes is our
Speaker 1: producer Joel Monique. Hey, there so much for that. I
Speaker 1: feel very reassured. Uh, we are obviously taking a lot
Speaker 1: of precautions here, which is why I'm back so soon.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try to limit our guests, but hopefully you
Speaker 1: guys will be hearing some familiar voices soon, so that'll
Speaker 1: be really exciting. Yeah, I think we're gonna probably take
Speaker 1: this remote pretty soon if we can. But yeah, we're
Speaker 1: being very careful here. I know I'm in my apartment
Speaker 1: with two other people because we're all staying home working
Speaker 1: from home and ye. But yeah, it's I mean it
Speaker 1: feels I think it feels apocalyptic because you see, like
Speaker 1: nobody's out on the streets and like shows, But that's
Speaker 1: it's not because we're running out of food. I want
Speaker 1: people like, don't panic too much about food. We're not
Speaker 1: going to run out of food. It's because of sort
Speaker 1: of the that group psychology of like you see other
Speaker 1: people buying it, and you see shelves empty and you
Speaker 1: start to panic and you start to load up on
Speaker 1: food and then it you know, and then other people
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, man, we're running out of food, so
Speaker 1: I need to get some food. And and it's not
Speaker 1: to say that it's like, oh, people are all stupid
Speaker 1: and overreacting. It's just kind of a it's a domino effect.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna be okay, nobody. You know, We're not
Speaker 1: gonna like, uh, running out of food in the country.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean if you can help out people
Speaker 1: who can't go to the grocery store and like, say
Speaker 1: you have a neighbor who can't get food, you know,
Speaker 1: like like give them some of your some of your macaronis,
Speaker 1: and shout out to our farmers who are still working
Speaker 1: out in the fields like picking plants and stuff. I
Speaker 1: saw some farmers aids videos on Twitter today, uh, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, in the rain, in the cold,
Speaker 1: knowing that we have to eat, really appreciate you guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear about ants and uh lava but though, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: which will come very soon. And it's so I did.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people are sticking at
Speaker 1: home when they can, and some people can't. But for
Speaker 1: those of us who can and are doing it, you know,
Speaker 1: good job on, you know, kind of helping helping the community.
Speaker 1: And here's some animal homes I think that are really
Speaker 1: cozy and might make you feel a little better about
Speaker 1: being stuck at home. So first I want to talk
Speaker 1: about weaver birds. Okay, let's do this. So these are
Speaker 1: okay in this section. These are the animals who make
Speaker 1: their homes out of leaves and straw. So, like the
Speaker 1: I kind of have a three Little pigs theme going on.
Speaker 1: I don't know how. I don't know if kids these
Speaker 1: days even know about three little pigs. Children, I hope
Speaker 1: you know that's I feel like that's the story everybody gets.
Speaker 1: My mom got it as a child. So yeah, is
Speaker 1: it all? Is it all like pep up pigs now? Though?
Speaker 1: And it's all dabs and tide pods and pepper pigs.
Speaker 1: I don't I'm old dogs. I'm here for it. So
Speaker 1: weaver birds are a family of birds that we've complex nests.
Speaker 1: There are many different species of weavers with different habits,
Speaker 1: but typically they're small birds. They're kind of sparrow like
Speaker 1: and they create their nests out of grass and other
Speaker 1: plant fibers. So rather than that typical little twig bowl
Speaker 1: that other birds make, weavers while they we have complex
Speaker 1: nests that can hang from branches. So first I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the bioweaver, and I sent you some
Speaker 1: of these photos, Joel, I'm looking at the bioweavers. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: So these homes are like sixties modern sort of homes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have you've seen the fireplaces they had in the sixties
Speaker 1: before these sort of round, free standing with a tall
Speaker 1: chimney teardrop, Yeah, yeah, definitely. And birds are very mod Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there are bright yellow sparrow like weaver who lives
Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia and India. They eat grain, seeds, insects,
Speaker 1: small amphibians, and mollusks sometimes too. Um. They're highly social
Speaker 1: and they will build little cities out of their nets.
Speaker 1: So they will take over a tree, build a bunch
Speaker 1: of these little tear drop It looks like it kind
Speaker 1: of looks like a weird Christmas tree because there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of these nests just dangling from the tree Metropolitan
Speaker 1: nesting situation exactly. So the males are the homemakers. They
Speaker 1: will weave the tear drop shaped nests and there's an
Speaker 1: orb bottom with the nesting chamber and an opening on
Speaker 1: the side and a narrow top that connects it to
Speaker 1: a tree branch. And it's made out of strips of
Speaker 1: rice patty leaves which are very painstakingly gathered and intricately
Speaker 1: woven together to form a solid mesh. It's like it's
Speaker 1: very solid. It's not like a sort of loosely weaved nets.
Speaker 1: It looks look solid. I mean it's holding at least
Speaker 1: two bodies and eggs in there. It's gotta it's gotta
Speaker 1: be sturdy. So they are known to make up to
Speaker 1: five hundred trips back and forth to gather plant fibers
Speaker 1: to weave the nest. And they are built on trees
Speaker 1: or man made structures if they're near an urban environment.
Speaker 1: Typically they do prefer either palm trees or thorny acacia trees,
Speaker 1: which the thorny trees are great because that offers more
Speaker 1: protection from predators, and they'll often have the nests overhanging
Speaker 1: the water and that elaborate construction and location makes it
Speaker 1: harder for predators to enter the nest and steal their
Speaker 1: eggs or their chicks. So if you think about a
Speaker 1: normal bird's nest kind of sitting in the like a
Speaker 1: crook of the tree, a snake can just kind of
Speaker 1: slither up there and be like, I'm gonna get you
Speaker 1: eggs and uh and snack on those eggs. But when
Speaker 1: you have this weird mod sixties tear drop shape dangling
Speaker 1: over water, a snake is going to be like, uh
Speaker 1: what no, what aliens bird aliens that they're not going
Speaker 1: to mess with that because they can't like figure out
Speaker 1: how to get in there. That certainly offers much more
Speaker 1: of a challenge for them if they wanted to try
Speaker 1: to get out there right exactly, I mean, and they
Speaker 1: could always just like fall right in the water. And
Speaker 1: you know, there are some snakes that don't mind getting wet,
Speaker 1: but some of them do, so you know, they're also
Speaker 1: bizarrely all built on the east side of the tree
Speaker 1: to protect the nests from southwest monsoon wins. Their breeding
Speaker 1: season is during the monsoon, so having that le extra
Speaker 1: protection from the winds is very important and uh, So
Speaker 1: the way the courtship works is that the males will
Speaker 1: partially build the nest, and females will come inspect the nest,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of poke around, be like interesting, interesting
Speaker 1: use of joists. They prefer well constructed nests. But most
Speaker 1: importantly is the location of the nest, So like the
Speaker 1: primo location and you know, like up at the top
Speaker 1: of the tree are the most favorite of nests. This
Speaker 1: is like the Bachelorette when they go to the homes
Speaker 1: and they have to like be like, is your family crazy?
Speaker 1: Does this house fit my lifestyle? I did dangling from
Speaker 1: a branch over a body of water, this is that's
Speaker 1: my kind of guy. Yeah, yeah, and look at look
Speaker 1: at this view. That whole probably offers a very cinematic
Speaker 1: lack of snakes. A lack of snakes is kind of
Speaker 1: my thing. Like, you know, like if if you have
Speaker 1: a snakeproof house, that's what I'm looking for. I think
Speaker 1: there was so in my hometown in San Diego. I
Speaker 1: think there was this big, like weird mansion that was
Speaker 1: built sort of in the Chaparral area, and they built
Speaker 1: like this huge wall to try to keep the snakes
Speaker 1: from getting it. But the thing is it didn't keep
Speaker 1: the snakes from getting in, didn't keep them from getting
Speaker 1: out though, because that sounds like probably probably the snakes
Speaker 1: got in there, couldn't figure out how to get out,
Speaker 1: and then they just had the big snake pit. And
Speaker 1: that was just a snake man, just a snake mansion
Speaker 1: full of bougie snakes. Well, a little mustache and monocles.
Speaker 1: Someone draw this snake mansion, I would write, bat slurt amazing.
Speaker 1: So once a female has selected the mate with the
Speaker 1: best constructed house, they will help the males put the
Speaker 1: finishing touches on the nest, maybe add a little bit
Speaker 1: of mud inside, you know, just those exactly. And sometimes though,
Speaker 1: there are sneaky females who will see a cute little
Speaker 1: couple with their beautiful house be like, hmm, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna lay my egg in
Speaker 1: there and they're gonna raise my baby and they won't
Speaker 1: even know it. Oh, well, that just seems great, you
Speaker 1: raise it. These birds live some soap opera lives, like
Speaker 1: very yes, exactly, like that was my baby raise. Do
Speaker 1: they come back for their kids? Now? Do we know
Speaker 1: why they just don't want to carraise their child. Well,
Speaker 1: because it's it's actually pretty smart because then they don't
Speaker 1: have to spend the resources on that baby, and it
Speaker 1: gets raised by someone else and they spend their It's
Speaker 1: a form of parasitism. So like, just like a parasite
Speaker 1: will feed on like say your blood or something, a
Speaker 1: brood parasite will steal resources from another pair of parents
Speaker 1: and get them to feed like cuckoo birds are famous
Speaker 1: for doing this. But yeah, but yeah, sometimes there will
Speaker 1: be individuals within a bird species that practice parasitism, like,
Speaker 1: not the whole species, just a few sneaky individuals. And
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of interesting how those dynamics work out
Speaker 1: because obviously not everyone can do that. You have a
Speaker 1: critical mass of how many like sneaky you can get
Speaker 1: away with. Yeah, exactly, Linda, I see you trying to
Speaker 1: drop your eggs in this basket and girl know out
Speaker 1: raising your child. It's Easter, though I would say it's
Speaker 1: it's an Easter or present. I hear peeping from inside
Speaker 1: the egg. No. So another type of weaver is the
Speaker 1: sociable weaver. So if you could scroll down to the
Speaker 1: second image, it's gonna look like a weirdlax palm tree thing.
Speaker 1: Loax palm tree is a really good description. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go avant garde hut. Yeah, it's weird because it's like
Speaker 1: around mound like Okay, so you know the light poles
Speaker 1: that are in like grocery store parking lots where they
Speaker 1: have like the four square lights on the top, imagine that,
Speaker 1: but there is like a grass skirt hut underneath it.
Speaker 1: It is so weird to look at, and especially looking
Speaker 1: at a number of these trees in the background and
Speaker 1: none of them have the nests, so weird. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. So I think that's actually telephone pole. It
Speaker 1: looks like a tree. I think I'm seeing things connected
Speaker 1: to it's a telephone pole. It looks like a tree
Speaker 1: that because the sociable weaver bird has built so much
Speaker 1: nest material that it looks like just the big shaggy tree.
Speaker 1: It actually the silhouette kind of looks like something you'd
Speaker 1: find it like some weird fashion weak thing, like a
Speaker 1: person with a big like hat made out of grass
Speaker 1: and a big like poncho made out of grass. But
Speaker 1: you know, huge telephone pole sized. So the sociable weaver
Speaker 1: is a bird in the weaver family that makes giant
Speaker 1: communal homes. So they live in the Calahari Desert of
Speaker 1: southern Africa. They look like little sparrows and their nests
Speaker 1: look like those weird huge Lorex style trees with like
Speaker 1: a big tuft at the top and like a huge
Speaker 1: like skirt. They can be just different shapes and sizes,
Speaker 1: but usually it's just a huge mass of dried grasses.
Speaker 1: So they will construct these nests on any pole structure,
Speaker 1: so it could be a tree, could be a telephone pole,
Speaker 1: any anything they can stick a bunch of dead grass
Speaker 1: onto essentially, and they will use these dry grasses and
Speaker 1: so many of them work together on this thing that
Speaker 1: they will make a giant apartment complex wehing up to
Speaker 1: a ton. Yeah, so it's basically just this massive bail
Speaker 1: of hey stuck up on a pole. How well, I mean,
Speaker 1: like with a bunch of individuals working together sticking stuff
Speaker 1: on there. Eventually it accumulates and you have But it's
Speaker 1: not just like one big nest. It's a bunch of
Speaker 1: little apartment uh, like a little apartment rooms. It seems
Speaker 1: to defy the law of physics that it stays up
Speaker 1: there with any kind of base, Like it's just literally
Speaker 1: you can see the bottom of this telephone pole. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's not like it's from the ground or like
Speaker 1: they built it at one point until it reached the ground,
Speaker 1: I guess. So, like the telephone pole probably has like
Speaker 1: some bars, like those little like sort of bars that
Speaker 1: show up the telephone pole. So probably once you have
Speaker 1: that lattice and they keep adding and adding and adding,
Speaker 1: and then at a certain point, the grasses are a
Speaker 1: sort of woe and together so that it is supporting
Speaker 1: itself by that. But I imagine if you gave that
Speaker 1: thing a good a good shake, like in an earthquake,
Speaker 1: it probably would collapse. But it's pretty balanced on both sides. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously it's not pulling the pole one way
Speaker 1: or the other. It's just a kind of like a
Speaker 1: really intriguing technical feat. Yeah, yeah, it is. It is
Speaker 1: bizarre to see, especially on a telephone poll, because like
Speaker 1: on a tree, you can see like, how okay, you
Speaker 1: got it all these Nike stuff. Yeah, but on the
Speaker 1: telephone pull, it really is sort of a house of
Speaker 1: cards there. But yeah, so, um, even though it looks
Speaker 1: like a random pile of dry grass, it's actually full
Speaker 1: of these little individual apartments which the weaver's painstakingly construct.
Speaker 1: They tend to them all year round and make constant
Speaker 1: home improvements. That might be another reason it kind of
Speaker 1: remains stables. They're always kind of you know, refurbishing it,
Speaker 1: making sure it's stable. And uh, they're little chambers with
Speaker 1: hallways leading from the entrance um and at the front
Speaker 1: of the entrance they have a nice little welcome map
Speaker 1: made out of spiky straw, which is actually an unwelcome
Speaker 1: matt because it's meant to ward off predators. And by
Speaker 1: building a huge apartment complex, these birds shelter themselves from
Speaker 1: the elements. Uh. They live in the desert, which can
Speaker 1: become extremely hot and extremely cold. So it ranges from
Speaker 1: a hundred and ten degrees fahrenheit during the day in
Speaker 1: the summer to fifteen fifteen degrees in the winter, and
Speaker 1: so those thick layers of grasses both insulate them from
Speaker 1: heat and cold. And these apartments are so wonderful that
Speaker 1: even other birds will sometimes take over an abandoned department. Wells,
Speaker 1: pygmy falcons, redheaded finches, and the rosy face love birds
Speaker 1: all love to kind of go in and squat. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they always like kick out a bird,
Speaker 1: but like if they find one that is not being
Speaker 1: lived in. Although the pegmy falcons are kind of stinkers
Speaker 1: because they well, they they're tight. Teeny tiny falcons are
Speaker 1: actually quite cute, like you know the do you remember
Speaker 1: Looney Tunes like Little Chicken Hawk, Like, yeah, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: like that. They look like falcons but mini. And they
Speaker 1: will sometimes note on a weaver bird or a weaver hatchling.
Speaker 1: But right, I know, but they aren't so bad. They're
Speaker 1: not just going bananas. They kind of seem to try
Speaker 1: to keep it, keep it a little bit reserved there.
Speaker 1: They're they're trying to keep it in control because I
Speaker 1: think they realized, like they got a good situation here
Speaker 1: and they can't just eat eat all their fellow tenants
Speaker 1: otherwise they're picking get epic. Did so able cohabitate with
Speaker 1: the birds? Yeah? Yeah, I can't look just occasionally eat
Speaker 1: a chick like, come on those, it's not your place,
Speaker 1: right listen, Okay, I get it. We all have to eat.
Speaker 1: Circle of life. Like I feel like if I had
Speaker 1: a really good apartment neighbor who always clean their trash
Speaker 1: and kept quiet and stuff and occasionally ate a bay be,
Speaker 1: that'd be okay, that'd be no problem given the living
Speaker 1: conditions of l A. You'd be like exactly. So now
Speaker 1: I want to move on a very different animal who
Speaker 1: also does social weaving, which is the weaver ant. So
Speaker 1: we were ants are found in Australian Asia. Did you
Speaker 1: see the photo? You know, after birds, what my least
Speaker 1: favorite things are, And I know, I know, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm very sorry. So this is not just a swarm
Speaker 1: of things, but an organized swarm of things that are
Speaker 1: building a giant apparatus. Well that good, better and worse,
Speaker 1: like teamwork makes the dream work. So I'm not here
Speaker 1: to teamwork. Shame them for doing what they but it
Speaker 1: does make my skin crawl to look. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: know if elaborating on this is going to make it better,
Speaker 1: but here we go. Anyways, I'm ready. So they're a
Speaker 1: family of ant species who we've nests using leaves and
Speaker 1: threads of silk. So the ants will line up along
Speaker 1: the edges of two leaves and pull them together. And
Speaker 1: then you have the other ants come along with larva
Speaker 1: in their mandibles, and I bet you're wondering what they're
Speaker 1: about to do. They squeeze the larva and apply the
Speaker 1: butts of the larva to the edges of the leaf
Speaker 1: like a hot glue gun. God, they squeeze out strands
Speaker 1: of sticky larval silk to bind the leaves together. This
Speaker 1: is child labor beat. Squeeze a child, and squeeze a child,
Speaker 1: make them spit out sticky glue thread and stitch those
Speaker 1: leaves together. I just love school. I love the idea
Speaker 1: of it. You have all these ants pulling these leaves together.
Speaker 1: To imagine like a Pixar movie of of this, all
Speaker 1: these ants together, but instead and then you like you
Speaker 1: have all right, Joe, bring in, bring in the glue
Speaker 1: glue team, And then they all have babies that they're
Speaker 1: squeezing the butts and just going sick the leaf together.
Speaker 1: We're good, next baby, bring in the next baby. So
Speaker 1: they keep adding leaves until they're happy with the nest size.
Speaker 1: And these can be quite big, so colonies can include
Speaker 1: over a hundred nests and span over multiple trees. So
Speaker 1: on the you can also see the image of the
Speaker 1: the aunt with the little larva and its mouth and
Speaker 1: it's just kind of going back and forth and back
Speaker 1: and forth with that sticky thread. And then you can
Speaker 1: see like a whole bunch of leaves. I'd say there's
Speaker 1: like fifty leaves. They're all stitched together in this giant ball. Okay,
Speaker 1: so guys, when she was explaining like squeezing the baby,
Speaker 1: I was picturing like on the scene, you know, the
Speaker 1: seam of a leaf who touched the sea. But this
Speaker 1: is like when you crazy glue with a child and
Speaker 1: you're like back back and forth across the span of
Speaker 1: the leaf. It's cross stitching with larva butt. And then
Speaker 1: we have like the the actual nest looks more it's
Speaker 1: it's more pop art. Wow, this is beautiful. This would
Speaker 1: make a great d I Y video, though, like how
Speaker 1: to how to like d I Y your own home
Speaker 1: with baby butt. I'm imagine people like be like, oh,
Speaker 1: let me get some larva and some tweezers and we'll
Speaker 1: just squeeze and there you go, baby back in your container.
Speaker 1: It's still not as wacky as some of those d
Speaker 1: I Y videos. Or it's like here, cut a soda
Speaker 1: bottle in half. Now, now take a box of cereal
Speaker 1: and pulp it and then stick it in the bottle,
Speaker 1: and now you have a steam engine. The weirdest one
Speaker 1: I saw was a shredded hot dogs with a paper clip.
Speaker 1: Why then they put it in an egg mixture, and
Speaker 1: then I like that in a waffle maker, and then
Speaker 1: they had like egg hot dog waffle stack, and then
Speaker 1: they covered that in melted beer cheese. It's the tower
Speaker 1: of babel, I'm telling you this is These d i
Speaker 1: y videos are our tower of babble, and some kind
Speaker 1: of cosmic being is going to strike us down like
Speaker 1: these are insufferable hot dog waffle You have gone too
Speaker 1: far humanity. While keeping social distance is good for our health,
Speaker 1: in terms of the spread of COVID nineteen, it's tough
Speaker 1: on mental health. So how can you stay mentally and
Speaker 1: physically healthy while staying in relative isolation. First of all,
Speaker 1: don't let the isolation and all the cancelation make you
Speaker 1: feel doomed. The fact that big gatherings are getting canceled
Speaker 1: is actually a very very good sign that people are
Speaker 1: taking this seriously and this will help slow outbreaks. Personally,
Speaker 1: I would be much more panicked if it weren't happening.
Speaker 1: School shutting down isn't apocalyptic, it's preventative. Right now in China,
Speaker 1: the number of new cases is going down, so it's
Speaker 1: possible to get this thing under control. Secondly, keep in
Speaker 1: touch with your friends and family. Call people and actually
Speaker 1: speak to them on the phone. I know it's weird
Speaker 1: when we're so used to texting, but it's important to
Speaker 1: hear other people's voices. Have them here yours, and if
Speaker 1: you can use video calls, that would be great too.
Speaker 1: A study published in The Lancet looked at the psychological
Speaker 1: effects of quarantine and advises that communication with loved ones
Speaker 1: and friends helps reduce the negative impacts of quarantine. And
Speaker 1: remember when you call someone, you're helping them out as well.
Speaker 1: If you can try to stay in communication with your
Speaker 1: social group and colleagues. Having a big support group and
Speaker 1: still feeling like you're a part of the community you're
Speaker 1: normally a part of is very important. Also, remember that
Speaker 1: if you have the ability to self isolate, your helping others,
Speaker 1: so you should take care of yourself, play some of
Speaker 1: your favorite games, do things that are relaxing for you,
Speaker 1: and try not to stay completely plugged into the news.
Speaker 1: Reach out to other people, cuddle your pets, take care
Speaker 1: of your house plants, and look at adorable pictures of
Speaker 1: sea bunnies. Seriously google that you will not be disappointed.
Speaker 1: When we return, we'll look at some animal homes made
Speaker 1: out of sticks in mucus. When did people start constructing homes?
Speaker 1: According to some archaeologists, it was around one point eight
Speaker 1: million years ago by some proto humans. At Oldo Pie,
Speaker 1: archaeologists discovered a circle of stones in a sunken spot
Speaker 1: of earth, leading some anthropologists to think that it's the
Speaker 1: foundation to some sort of ancient hut. Other anthropologists think
Speaker 1: this stone circle may have been made by accident by
Speaker 1: trees growing and pushing rocks in a circle. Personally, I
Speaker 1: think it's tree aliens, aliens disguised as trees who are
Speaker 1: making secret stone circles to confuse our scientists. I've got evidence,
Speaker 1: I've got proof. Go to go to www dot tree
Speaker 1: aliens dot org, dot geo cities, slash angel fire dot com.
Speaker 1: Let's get into the conspiracy. I love it. So now
Speaker 1: I want to talk about some animal homes that are
Speaker 1: made out of sticks and also mucus too. So have
Speaker 1: you ever heard of bagworms? So they are a family
Speaker 1: of moth larva species. There are over a thousand species
Speaker 1: of bagworms and they all make these really interesting protective
Speaker 1: cases made out of silk and materials that they find.
Speaker 1: So I want you to look in the dock and
Speaker 1: look at those little little log cabins. Okay, so those
Speaker 1: are actual like sticks that they built into a hole. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is made by an insect. That is imagine if
Speaker 1: instead of like a four door or a four wall
Speaker 1: structure of a log cabin, they were like, we're gonna
Speaker 1: make like a twisty spiral of logs. And it looks amazing.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a pyramid. It looks like it
Speaker 1: looks like a helix, a double helix. Like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: but made out logs. Anytimes see the double helix in nature,
Speaker 1: You're like, how we're all really connected. It's like DNA
Speaker 1: but made out of twigs. Man, We're all, we're all,
Speaker 1: we're all the same on this planet Earth. We call
Speaker 1: this ship we call a planet earth Man. Just having
Speaker 1: the galaxy together is when you did so cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the there's a lot of creativity that happens with
Speaker 1: what bag rooms can make their casing out of. So
Speaker 1: this is just some species that use twigs. Um, but
Speaker 1: I do want to talk about them because I absolutely
Speaker 1: adore their little constructions here. So, Clinia crimeria is a
Speaker 1: bag worm native to India who carefully constructs a spiraling,
Speaker 1: tapering tower of tiny twigs. They purposefully collect twigs of
Speaker 1: the right sizes to make a log cabin that starts
Speaker 1: at the base with these thick logs, which are they're
Speaker 1: still really really tiny, like the scale of it, it's
Speaker 1: hard to tell from the photos, but they aren't logs.
Speaker 1: They're they're just like twigs and probably like I don't know,
Speaker 1: under a quarter inch long, uh, pretty tiny, like think
Speaker 1: of a little little teeny tiny moth and then like
Speaker 1: an even tinier tinier and larva. So it's it's about
Speaker 1: that size little teeny tiny fairy like fairy cabins, and
Speaker 1: they will get increasingly thinner and shorter, uh and kind
Speaker 1: of spiral at the top to a tapered point, and
Speaker 1: they live like they kind of stick out of the
Speaker 1: base of this little cabin and they can actually walk
Speaker 1: around like a turtle, but their shell is made out
Speaker 1: of a log cabin. Okay, if you've seen Howl's moving
Speaker 1: castle picture, like instead of like a steampunk tech sort
Speaker 1: of front vibe, like it's all natural and that's exactly
Speaker 1: what you're getting. Like it's kind of looks like a beetle,
Speaker 1: but also mixed with an otter. He's got like weird
Speaker 1: whiskers on his face. Yeah. No, Howl's Moving Castle is
Speaker 1: a really good I love I love that movie, by
Speaker 1: the way. Yeah, he's I love him too. I think
Speaker 1: that is one of my favorite I do like Spirited
Speaker 1: Away to Speired Away is such a classic and it's beautiful,
Speaker 1: but there's something very much about like an awkward young
Speaker 1: woman who feels like an old lady. Yes, I love it,
Speaker 1: who's like in love with angry boys? Come on, you
Speaker 1: get me, love me some angry boys. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: also just love the creativity of all his little critters
Speaker 1: and creatures that he has in his movies. But yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely this does look like a Howl's moving castle made
Speaker 1: out of beetles and twigs so they can move around hunt. Uh.
Speaker 1: The female bag worms actually live in this little structure
Speaker 1: for their entire lives. They will curl up in their
Speaker 1: little log cabins. Even after they pupate into adults. They
Speaker 1: will mate, lay eggs, and disintegrate inside their homes, which
Speaker 1: is basically like my life right now. Waca waca. So
Speaker 1: the females pupate into their adult form, which is typically
Speaker 1: wingless and just chill out there for a few weeks,
Speaker 1: which also happens to be their entire lifespan and adult
Speaker 1: bag works like. Don't feel too bad for the females though,
Speaker 1: because even though the males get to go out of
Speaker 1: their little log cabins, they only live for two days,
Speaker 1: so they are they can fly on. Like the females.
Speaker 1: They're fuzzy black with transparent wings, and they really only
Speaker 1: need two days to get their business done. And that
Speaker 1: business is mating meat, meat and mate, and then you're done.
Speaker 1: And it's a real hardcore twinter thing, like hey, looking
Speaker 1: for someone to like may and then immediately die afterwards
Speaker 1: with thanks. Listen, it's our life just sped up fast.
Speaker 1: And that is that like darker inspiring. I carently tell
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go inspiring. Yeah, listen. They live a full
Speaker 1: life and days so many days to try maybe to
Speaker 1: them though, like they're like like like we're just like
Speaker 1: these huge giants that move really slow, and they're just
Speaker 1: like to them, two days is like forever. They're like
Speaker 1: these idiots, it's our seven get it together, all right,
Speaker 1: My wings already sprouted. I love in a bug's life,
Speaker 1: there's like a, uh, do do you remember that they
Speaker 1: had a fly at some I guess at a nightclub
Speaker 1: or performance thing, and like they disliked the performance. Are like,
Speaker 1: I spent half of my life here is after the
Speaker 1: circus and they all got into the street. Yes, I
Speaker 1: just have one more photo of this log Cabinet's just
Speaker 1: it's so crazy, right, it's like this. It looks like
Speaker 1: it was made by a personally, like a little fairy
Speaker 1: in a fairy garden. It's so lovely, and the size
Speaker 1: it seems like impressive that they're able to carry all
Speaker 1: of this too and balance it, and like if you're
Speaker 1: thinking about how do they build it on the outside
Speaker 1: of their body? It's weird too because they all have films, y'all.
Speaker 1: So how they used their sticky butt silk to keep
Speaker 1: it together? Yeah? I wonder if stuff like this. Now
Speaker 1: I don't have any evidence, this is all speculation, but
Speaker 1: I wonder if this is like things like this, maybe
Speaker 1: not this exactly, but like little constructs like this is
Speaker 1: what made people think about like tiny fairies and little
Speaker 1: little tiny people. I think almost it must have been
Speaker 1: like the little weird things you find in nature, particularly
Speaker 1: when you don't have internet or large printing presses to
Speaker 1: let you know, like you know what's happening. Your imagination
Speaker 1: runs with you. And and honestly, if you've ever spent
Speaker 1: extended time in nature, particularly if you come from like
Speaker 1: a a city or a more like urbanized space, there
Speaker 1: is fields magical out there. Like I went to the
Speaker 1: Redwoods recently and I was like, oh, wow, magic is
Speaker 1: real and it is there, and it's different from what
Speaker 1: you expect. Like in the Redwood forest there's bright green
Speaker 1: like in that grows off the trees. It looks almost artificial.
Speaker 1: It's such a bright green almost yeah beautiful, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, like some legends about fairies are
Speaker 1: from how mushrooms will grow in circles, and that's just
Speaker 1: sort of due to the root structure of these these
Speaker 1: fungal colonies. But like they'll see this little circle of
Speaker 1: like toadstools and think like, oh, that's a fairy ring
Speaker 1: and that they all sit on these little toadstools or
Speaker 1: dance around in a ring, and that causes these circles.
Speaker 1: I love human intervention. The idea of like interpreting these
Speaker 1: things is or like weird gifts or even like the
Speaker 1: Irish being like a way of dealing with sick babies
Speaker 1: that you couldn't help be like, oh, well this is
Speaker 1: a change link. I gotta go take it back to
Speaker 1: the forest. So fairy will my rightful baby, and like
Speaker 1: if it didn't, then okay, well that's fine. My baby
Speaker 1: is living forever with the fairies and very peaceful, loving life. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We did. We did some in the pass and we
Speaker 1: were we were always thinking with our correct brain. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of another animal that cares for its young in
Speaker 1: an interesting way, I want to talk about the African bullfrog,
Speaker 1: which is the ultimate introvert who creates home out of mucus.
Speaker 1: Home sweet home. So they are found all over the
Speaker 1: continent of Africa. So African bullfrogs are big old boys.
Speaker 1: The male's way up to four point five pounds and
Speaker 1: they can live up to like I've seen estimates up
Speaker 1: to forty five years or thirty five years and frog. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they'll pretty much eat everything they can stick in
Speaker 1: their big old mounts. So snakes, small birds, reptiles, rodents,
Speaker 1: smaller amphibians, their own children or your hand. Okay, don't
Speaker 1: mess with a bullfrog. They actually have sharp teeth that
Speaker 1: which aren't really teeth there, like these three large tooth
Speaker 1: like projections from their lower jaw. What that really hurt
Speaker 1: when they bite you. So the females can lay up
Speaker 1: to four thousand eggs at a time, and the male
Speaker 1: will actually help with the child wearing, so they'll stand
Speaker 1: guard over the eggs and tadpoles when they hatch. But
Speaker 1: once in a while, you know, look, dad's dad's got
Speaker 1: to have have his snacks, and so he will occasionally
Speaker 1: indulge in eat a few of the tadpoles. So many
Speaker 1: animals that are just like I had to eat a baby. Look, look,
Speaker 1: you know it's hard your baby. You're like taking care
Speaker 1: of the kids all day. Who's gonna blame you for
Speaker 1: eating a couple? I mean, when there's four thousand of
Speaker 1: them and you eat a few, I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it's but they are actually
Speaker 1: like kind of good fathers other than the eating some
Speaker 1: of their children, because they will painstakingly dig a channel
Speaker 1: from a pool of like if the tadpoles start to
Speaker 1: get dried out, like their little pool of water starts
Speaker 1: to evaporate, and they're a great risk of like being
Speaker 1: dried out and dying. So the male will dig a
Speaker 1: channel from the drying pool to a larger pond or
Speaker 1: a bigger body of water and just kind of painstakingly
Speaker 1: dig dig dig this channel so that the water will
Speaker 1: flow in and save his babies. Wow. Yeah, And if
Speaker 1: he eats a couple, I think he's earned it, you know,
Speaker 1: the nutritious uh he gave life, you could take it
Speaker 1: away you under roof, I eat you sometimes exactly. That's
Speaker 1: like our parents said, you're grounded to my mouth. So
Speaker 1: to protect themselves during dry season, they will dig holes
Speaker 1: and hibernate from ten months to up to two years.
Speaker 1: It's hibernation being lazy, get together frogs. So there's a
Speaker 1: problem though, of hibernating during dry season. And they do
Speaker 1: want to hibernate because dry season is not great for
Speaker 1: an animal who breathes through their mucus soaked skin, So
Speaker 1: they need mucus on their skin to help them breathe.
Speaker 1: They extract oxygen from the air through gas exchange, and
Speaker 1: the mucus on their skin helps them absorb dissolved oxygen
Speaker 1: from the air. And they also do have nostrils and
Speaker 1: lungs that they can breathe through, but that's not really
Speaker 1: going to help them that much when they're hibernating underground. So, uh,
Speaker 1: they will build mucus cocoons for themselves, which is a
Speaker 1: big old ball and mucus that will keep the frog
Speaker 1: from drying out during hibernation. Cool. Cool you yeah, big old,
Speaker 1: big mucus. Welcome to the podcast about Cute Animals. So
Speaker 1: the mucus cocoon actually becomes solid and it will only
Speaker 1: soften up when the rainy season returns, and that signals
Speaker 1: the bullfrog to wake up and emerge from its mucous
Speaker 1: cocoon unscathed but disgusting skincare routines and actually, so there's
Speaker 1: like some skincare products made out of snail slime. Have
Speaker 1: you seen that? Yeah, yeah, it's like the ideas that
Speaker 1: I think, like snail slime has some properties at least
Speaker 1: for the snail where it helps their skin heal, and
Speaker 1: so the ideas if we put it on our faces,
Speaker 1: then our skin also heals. Not exactly sure of the
Speaker 1: science of it, I have, out of morbid curiosity, tried it.
Speaker 1: I couldn't really tell a difference to be not to
Speaker 1: cast the spurgeons on it. Maybe it were I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna like. I'm just saying, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: there is hard evidence that putting snail slime on your
Speaker 1: face will help you with wrinkles. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it will hurt unless you're allergic if your snails don't
Speaker 1: on your face. Snails also just don't like harass snails.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, you're harassing snails. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: don't though, like, don't be like, oh, snail slime is
Speaker 1: good for my skin, and like pick up a snail.
Speaker 1: Snails goes like, hello, friend, what are you all good? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: no no, that probably has to be processed and I
Speaker 1: don't know that. Don't do it. I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone is doing it. But don't start. Don't start doing it.
Speaker 1: Please don't y yes, we we said no. We are
Speaker 1: not legally liable for anyone. It doesn't don't don't. Don't
Speaker 1: see what snails a little snail lawyer, snail snail it law.
Speaker 1: Now we're in b movie. You have snail lawyers. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to make emotion very slowly. Some of our
Speaker 1: most incredible human structures are made out of natural living resources.
Speaker 1: A living root bridge is a suspension bridge. Made out
Speaker 1: of live tree roots found in Megalia, India. They're made
Speaker 1: from the massive roots of rubber fig trees. Builders guide
Speaker 1: the roots to interlock with the roots of another tree
Speaker 1: across the river or to the stones and land mass
Speaker 1: on the other side. These bridges are very strong against
Speaker 1: weather and decay as they are alive and strengthen. Over time,
Speaker 1: the roots will grow and thicken and conjoin until it
Speaker 1: creates a very sturdy structure that can support a lot
Speaker 1: of weight. There's even a huge double deck or root
Speaker 1: bridge two root bridges stacked on top of each other,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to pay for upkeep. The living
Speaker 1: bridges are self renewing and sustainable. When we return, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about some little birdies who make their houses out
Speaker 1: of bricks and poop. As children, we were taught that
Speaker 1: a homemade out of bricks is the smartest choice. But
Speaker 1: those little piggies could have gotten even more creative as
Speaker 1: there are some homes made out of innovative materials. Recycled
Speaker 1: rubber tires have been used, plastic bottles, recycled newspaper. There's
Speaker 1: even a Buddhist temple, the watt Pamaha Chetti Kawa Temple
Speaker 1: in Thailand made out of recycled beer bottles. There's even
Speaker 1: been attempts to use corn cobs as a replacement for wood.
Speaker 1: So now let's look at how animals use interesting and
Speaker 1: unexpected materials to build their homes. So I don't talk
Speaker 1: to you about the red oven bird. Hute name very cute,
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like a recipe. Yeah, eighties a bird
Speaker 1: covered in hot cheetos. That actually sounds kind of good.
Speaker 1: Someone did it for Thanksgiving. One I did not partake
Speaker 1: is something I saw online. It looks beautiful. It's like oranges,
Speaker 1: crusty golden bird. Uh, if you tried it, let us know.
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like this is another Tower
Speaker 1: of Babbel situation that we're getting into, Like we're doing
Speaker 1: our crazy d I wise shredding wieners and making weener
Speaker 1: waffles and like now doing like hot cheetos turkeys. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Again, I think like tower of Babble, it's
Speaker 1: going to come crashing down on us. Yeah, it definitely
Speaker 1: came crashing down on somebody. There's indigestion involved, bad toilet times.
Speaker 1: So the South American bird lives in these structures that
Speaker 1: kind of look like ovens. They will mate in monogamous
Speaker 1: pairs for life and build cozy little mud home so
Speaker 1: pretty adorable. Their homes are domes made out of mud
Speaker 1: and clay with a side entrance and an inner chamber
Speaker 1: for the eggs, and they sometimes reinforce it with plant
Speaker 1: material as well. So if you scroll down you can
Speaker 1: see these little home. These are so cute. First of all,
Speaker 1: shout out to telephone poles for being homes for birds.
Speaker 1: They're so important for birds. Literally never thought about how
Speaker 1: birds were like, oh tall, like leafless tree structure and
Speaker 1: other animals can't climb for me, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: A lot of people ask why do birds sit on
Speaker 1: telephone wires? And I've been asked that, and it's like,
Speaker 1: because they like to sit on tall things and there's
Speaker 1: not a tree there. That's it's just available their homes.
Speaker 1: Again feeling sixties modern cheek. There's yeah, very mod three
Speaker 1: like holes. Uh, basically if you stacked like three I
Speaker 1: don't know what those like clay oven pots are called
Speaker 1: kiva's Maybe yes, if you were to sack them, you
Speaker 1: can look at a little hole, but then they attach
Speaker 1: on the inside. That would be the spird's nest. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty incredible. So these domes can actually last
Speaker 1: for years because they're made out of a pretty sturdy
Speaker 1: material of that mud and plant kind of creating this
Speaker 1: like bird concrete, and they can actually also be used
Speaker 1: by other birds once they're abandoned. But it's interesting. So
Speaker 1: I think why you're seeing these little little ovens stacked
Speaker 1: one on top of each other is that with each
Speaker 1: new brood, so every time they lay a new batch
Speaker 1: of eggs, they will build a new home for these
Speaker 1: new eggs. Keep building new homes, stay in their older
Speaker 1: siblings rooms. You're like, no, no, we'll just build you
Speaker 1: guys your own room exactically. I love that though. Not
Speaker 1: having to share a room with your stinky brother excellent.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding, brother, I love you. You know how
Speaker 1: they like travel with the mud or because it's like
Speaker 1: stacked on top of a telephone poll But I don't
Speaker 1: how do they move, But I think it's similar to
Speaker 1: that the weaver birds where they just make many, many trips,
Speaker 1: so they just kind of gather it up in their
Speaker 1: beaks and like slap it down and go back and
Speaker 1: get more. It's it's very labor intensive yes, and really
Speaker 1: cute is that the mated pair will often sit on
Speaker 1: top of their oven and sing duets together and pick
Speaker 1: sorry this is the next exactly, And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not actually sure why they do that. My gifts would
Speaker 1: be to strengthen their pair bond, to like, which is
Speaker 1: something birds due to kind of like they when they're
Speaker 1: monogamous and they form these long term relationships, they do
Speaker 1: these things to kind of strengthen their connection and their bond. Listen,
Speaker 1: you can't end date night just because you got married,
Speaker 1: exactly to keep things fresh. So all you couples out there,
Speaker 1: stuck at home, self isolating, sting together, do it sent
Speaker 1: us video Come on and Slam and Welcome to the gym.
Speaker 1: It's so so like so my boyfriend I will trick
Speaker 1: him into leading me into that song sometimes, like calling
Speaker 1: up a jar of gym and be like what is this?
Speaker 1: He's like, what do you mean? It's it's gym and
Speaker 1: slam and welcome to the gym. So it's a it's
Speaker 1: a consistent troll I've got going on. Um and that
Speaker 1: that's the of course the themes on to space jam
Speaker 1: in case you don't know, in case you're so lame.
Speaker 1: You don't know, please please fix your lady it is
Speaker 1: at some point. Yeah, but like also he wanted some
Speaker 1: more jam from the store, so I bought some and
Speaker 1: in the fridge I put a sign that said come
Speaker 1: on and slam and welcome to the and then just
Speaker 1: like the jam was under it's Yeah, are so cute.
Speaker 1: So another adorable bird pair are the hornbills. So hornbills
Speaker 1: are that zazoo type bird like from the lion king,
Speaker 1: who live in tropical regions in Asia and Africa. So
Speaker 1: there are many different species of hornbill. The one you're
Speaker 1: probably thinking of are the ones with like that big,
Speaker 1: like weird bulky thing right on top of their beak,
Speaker 1: and that big bulky beak actually really helps them to fight, hunt,
Speaker 1: and construct their elaborate nest. So a little bit about
Speaker 1: at hornbill beak now differs from species to species, but
Speaker 1: they typically have a hollow protrusion on the upper bill
Speaker 1: called a cask, which in some species just helped strengthen
Speaker 1: the bill, but in others it's so big it can
Speaker 1: act as a resonance chamber for louder calls, and in
Speaker 1: helmeted hornbills, the cask is actually not hollow and isn't
Speaker 1: filled with what's called hornbill ivory, which is a hard
Speaker 1: keratin and it is these casks that are just solid
Speaker 1: are used as battering rams in jousting matches with rival males.
Speaker 1: So these are multi functional and multi purpose bills that
Speaker 1: very amongst species, but one of the most common things
Speaker 1: that they are used for is to build their weird,
Speaker 1: isolated nests. So hornbills are typically monogamous and they work
Speaker 1: together to ensure the safety of their eggs and chicks.
Speaker 1: So female hornbills will find a tree hollow and leg
Speaker 1: their eggs and to make sure that snakes and other
Speaker 1: predators don't get their eggs and chicks, they will work
Speaker 1: together to seal the female in with her eggs. What's
Speaker 1: that like, Poe story the cask of manta or yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: where they seal the guy in the tunnels under paris.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Yeah, it's like that, only lovely and sweet, right,
Speaker 1: So they will so they will use mud, poop and
Speaker 1: fruit pulp to create this kind of weird concrete and
Speaker 1: seal off the entrance of this tree hollow and before
Speaker 1: it gets too small, the female will actually squeeze into
Speaker 1: the cavity and she'll sit in there, and then they
Speaker 1: will continue to build up this entrance until it almost
Speaker 1: completely cements her in and it just leaves a teeny
Speaker 1: tiny hole just big enough for the male to basically
Speaker 1: drop a little bits of food in through, so it's
Speaker 1: so small that snakes and other editors can't get in,
Speaker 1: and the male just has to kind of like boop,
Speaker 1: put a little berry in this hole so that he
Speaker 1: can feed the female and the chicks. And at this point,
Speaker 1: the female becomes completely reliant on the mail to go
Speaker 1: out and get food and bring it back because she can't. Thought, yeah,
Speaker 1: bring back all the non nutritious food. You're gonna be like, babe,
Speaker 1: not burgers again. Yeah? Yeah, fresh fruit. He's like, I
Speaker 1: asked for berries, not oops, all berries, cap and cron
Speaker 1: come on. So, when the chicks are grown and big
Speaker 1: enough to leave the nest, the female will kool aid
Speaker 1: Man style burst out of this concrete while just like
Speaker 1: oh yeah, motherhood over. Oh my goodness. Okay, So worst
Speaker 1: case scenario is something happens to the dad the female
Speaker 1: at anytime, who's break down, be like listen, I'm hungry,
Speaker 1: I have to get out of here. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting question. She might abandon her nest, but
Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately, like she might stay there and just
Speaker 1: kind of like keep hoping, and you know, could have
Speaker 1: a tragic ending. So it's really important for that mail
Speaker 1: to go out and get food. But yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a I'm not sure exactly what the strategy. I mean,
Speaker 1: my strategy would be a kool aid style burst out
Speaker 1: of there, find that male and give him a stern
Speaker 1: billing to with my big old beak. Okay, cool, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad she has a way out. And when she's ready.
Speaker 1: That scared me. I was like, you have to break
Speaker 1: her out or do the baby birds like have special
Speaker 1: I don't know, juice dissolve it. Listen, I never know
Speaker 1: what you're gonna bring me. It's always wild and she
Speaker 1: bursts out there like a hulk. I mean, can you
Speaker 1: imagine how satisfying that is? Like your birds are ready
Speaker 1: to leave the nest and you're like, I am out
Speaker 1: of here, but he's got to be ripe to like
Speaker 1: it's so much time in a very confined space. She's like,
Speaker 1: I have the shower and he watched his babies because
Speaker 1: I'm done now. So Finally, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: an animal who not only builds really interesting home, but
Speaker 1: like they look like pieces of art. So the cat
Speaker 1: is fly is a insect that is similar to the
Speaker 1: bagworm in that their larva builds protective casings. So catus
Speaker 1: flies are an order of insects with over twelve thousand species,
Speaker 1: and the adults are moth like flying insects. They're related to,
Speaker 1: but not contained within, the order Lepidoptera, which is moths
Speaker 1: and butterflies, and they are actually the titular flies that
Speaker 1: the bait and fly fishing is meant to imitate. And
Speaker 1: the reason is that the catus fly is partially aquatic,
Speaker 1: so their larva and pupa are aquatic with gills that
Speaker 1: they evolved after being terrestrial to evade land predation. So
Speaker 1: they first evolved terrestrial breathing apparatus and then they're like,
Speaker 1: oh dang, no, thank you and went back into the
Speaker 1: water because of all the predation. So most spectacular are
Speaker 1: the catisfly cases. So these are hard portable homes that
Speaker 1: the aquatic lava make to tech themselves. So they're made
Speaker 1: out of silk, saliva, and basically anything they can find.
Speaker 1: So this can be sand, pebbles, snail shells, plant material.
Speaker 1: Some of them are even like the Crimeria bagworm that
Speaker 1: builds those little log cabins, except it makes it out
Speaker 1: of aquatic plant stems. And so if you scroll down
Speaker 1: you can actually see some example of these things. Stunning
Speaker 1: right Oh whoa the one I mean, like out of
Speaker 1: what looks to be plant stems, it's so unique. It
Speaker 1: looks it's I'm having trouble describing it, but it looks
Speaker 1: like a weird It looks like a salad you would
Speaker 1: get at like a way too fancy restaurant, like a
Speaker 1: tasting menu menu, like at Spago or something where they're like,
Speaker 1: here's real salad that has been constructed into a tessaract.
Speaker 1: Some of these look like um oh gosh, I just
Speaker 1: have the word, I want to say, collages, but fancier.
Speaker 1: Uh mosaics. Yeah, some of them look like mosaics. This
Speaker 1: one with the shells, it's kind of like, yeah, compact.
Speaker 1: And then the one with like whoever found this giant
Speaker 1: purple stone to put right at the top of his head?
Speaker 1: Is honestly like, I love it. One of my favorite colors.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful accent to it's just like and this
Speaker 1: big stone button stones are kind of like earth tone colored,
Speaker 1: and this one is like just a beautiful purple Lady
Speaker 1: Gaga of cats beautiful. Holy crap, Sorry, I'm getting to
Speaker 1: the second level. Well, this requires some explanations. So to
Speaker 1: demonstrate that they'll basically use anything in their environment, there
Speaker 1: is an interesting art piece by French artist Hubert Dup
Speaker 1: where he collected cattisfly larva, stuck them in an aquarium
Speaker 1: and planted a bunch of precious materials in their environment
Speaker 1: so they would build beautiful cases made of pearls, gold,
Speaker 1: opal and other precious gems. So in these photos you
Speaker 1: can see they've got it's like this. They look like
Speaker 1: like jewelry because they've used like gold and they've lined
Speaker 1: their little bull larval bodies with gold and pearls and
Speaker 1: gems and they are really boogie. If you've ever had
Speaker 1: the privilege of seeing like very ancient jewelry, like the
Speaker 1: stuff um like the first um, oh gosh, what is
Speaker 1: the first pharaohs of Egypt? Like the early ones before
Speaker 1: became like a major plays or like for everyone discovered Egypt,
Speaker 1: where everyone was like, oh, this is our homeland to
Speaker 1: um or like very early Greek stuff. It's like sort
Speaker 1: of they flattened out the gold pieces. It almost looks
Speaker 1: hammered in places, which obviously these guys are not picking
Speaker 1: up hammers um. And then they've wove been like gorgeous
Speaker 1: pearls and this blue sort of like opally thing. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, like really artsy brooches you want to specially,
Speaker 1: I thought they were. They thought they were like brooch.
Speaker 1: I call it a brooch. I don't know if there's
Speaker 1: an appropriate way. I don't know if there's a right
Speaker 1: way I am. I'm really kind of revealing how unfancy
Speaker 1: a person I am that I don't even know what
Speaker 1: a brooches this. It does look like a brooch. I
Speaker 1: would wear this the bread, no katy, I've been wearing
Speaker 1: bread on me this whole time. It's super embarrassing. I
Speaker 1: thought it was the fancy thing to do. This is gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Like I didn't think anything a bug could create whatever
Speaker 1: fuel trendy, but designers could use. I want to know
Speaker 1: like what their processes like, if they are just like
Speaker 1: slapping it on any alware, or if they there's some
Speaker 1: amount of intention. There seems to be some pattern, but
Speaker 1: not a lot. I don't know if the pearls were
Speaker 1: stranded first, you know what, I can't tell if it's
Speaker 1: a strand of pearls that they sort of woven in,
Speaker 1: or if they have individual pearls. I mean, they're using
Speaker 1: their sticky, sticky silk as as is often the case,
Speaker 1: to attach these to their body. But yeah, I almost
Speaker 1: wonder if there is a pattern. I actually don't know
Speaker 1: this again wild speculation. My favorite thing to do on
Speaker 1: the podcast is that they probably try to make it
Speaker 1: as close to their environment as possible while still making
Speaker 1: it a protective casing. So it's both a level of
Speaker 1: camouflage and protection. So they probably want hard materials that
Speaker 1: protects their soft bodies but also camouflage. So if they
Speaker 1: can get things kind of stacked up in there that
Speaker 1: I guess like is a nice random distribution of their
Speaker 1: environment that's still protective. Yeah, I don't know, because like
Speaker 1: like they seem to be kind of putting a bunch
Speaker 1: of gems around and and kind of clusters and maybe
Speaker 1: thinking like this will look this will look natural, and
Speaker 1: this my aquarium full of fancy gemstones. I definitely see that.
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out like it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to be like a weight distribution thing at all, because
Speaker 1: one of them has some pearls like the head one
Speaker 1: on the very button one sort of in the middle. Uh,
Speaker 1: the stones don't seem to but the color seems sort
Speaker 1: of equally distributed, like where the blue is sort of
Speaker 1: like place evenly throughout. These are really fast, Like I
Speaker 1: could stay at these all days. I know, I know
Speaker 1: it was beautiful. I kind of want one, right, Oh no,
Speaker 1: actually I would even take one of I'm going back
Speaker 1: to the photos now of the natural materials and like
Speaker 1: kind of comparing and contrasting. Very similar, would apps I
Speaker 1: would take any like this most gorgeous ever seen by
Speaker 1: animal before? I know, I mean, like, I know these
Speaker 1: are aquatic, so I couldn't have one live on me
Speaker 1: as a brooch on my chest, but I kind of want. Dude,
Speaker 1: it has vacated. Maybe I could get like like bagworms
Speaker 1: that the other insects we talked about are terrestrials, So
Speaker 1: maybe I could get like a bagworm friend and have
Speaker 1: it live on me and be like I approach and
Speaker 1: I could go to a fancy party and be like,
Speaker 1: oh who are you wearing? And it's like, why column FAMMI,
Speaker 1: I would actually really love to see this us the
Speaker 1: bell of the ball, the bell of the ball covered
Speaker 1: in bugs. Well, thank you so much for joining me today,
Speaker 1: Joel turving me back. Yeah, I hope this kind of
Speaker 1: makes people feel a little better about being stuck in
Speaker 1: their homes, because you know, we ain't alone on this earth.
Speaker 1: Lots of other animals are huddling in and making it work,
Speaker 1: getting through the day, making it work by filling it
Speaker 1: with precious gems and poop. So yes, fill your homes
Speaker 1: with precious gems, love, laughter, and poop. So you got
Speaker 1: anything you want to plug? Uh? Yeah, you know. Keep
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast here and I heard Nerdificent Night
Speaker 1: Call is going to be if you guys are concerned
Speaker 1: about COVID and want to hear more at the developments happened.
Speaker 1: My call releases every Monday, and they are really the
Speaker 1: deep dive. This Monday, they'll have a call with UM,
Speaker 1: a doctor who kind of gives them like advice about
Speaker 1: like what do you want to be concerned about? What's
Speaker 1: not so to be concerned about? How can you you
Speaker 1: UM continue to live a normal life while practicing social
Speaker 1: distancing which was really converting to me. Uh, and you know,
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of new inside stuff to coming up.
Speaker 1: So you can follow me on Twitter at Gela Monique
Speaker 1: and I'll give you guys see updates there. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we are very very fortunate enough to be
Speaker 1: in an industry where we actually can keep doing stuff remotely,
Speaker 1: and I think that is a great privilege that we
Speaker 1: get to keep keep doing stuff. And I'm absolute. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate everyone who is still listening to the podcast,
Speaker 1: and I am really rooting for everyone out there. You
Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter at Creature Pod f a
Speaker 1: t not Feet something very different rolls on Instagram. I
Speaker 1: might go a little star crazy at home, so I'll
Speaker 1: probably post a lot of pictures in my dog, so
Speaker 1: please do check that out. It's Creature Feature Pod on Instagram.
Speaker 1: You can follow me on Twitter Katie Golden just some
Speaker 1: of my Katie thoughts. I uh, you don't really if
Speaker 1: I mean, if you don't want to peek behind the
Speaker 1: curtain see all my Katie thoughts, I do not blame you,
Speaker 1: but if you do, I'm at Katie Colden on Twitter,
Speaker 1: you definitely do. And of course, as always, I am
Speaker 1: at pro bird writes, where listen birds, we we got
Speaker 1: it going on. We know birds know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: I think we should all just become slightly more be
Speaker 1: the bird you want to see in the world. So,
Speaker 1: just so you know, as far as I know and
Speaker 1: and what my plans are is to continue to release
Speaker 1: the show every week, and I really appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: still tuning in. And yeah, if and if you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the show, one way you can really help me out
Speaker 1: is rate, review, subscribe, and download the podcast like it's
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like it does anything because you're just
Speaker 1: clicking buttons, but it actually really super helps me get
Speaker 1: up in those algorithms, and that is so important for
Speaker 1: me to keep this podcast going. So thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for listening, and I will see you next Wednesday.
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