Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeart Radio. I'm your
Speaker 1: host of Mini Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and
Speaker 1: evolutionary biology, and today on the show, it's birds in
Speaker 1: the News Owls. Well that ends well, we're talking about
Speaker 1: some noteworthy birds, especially owls. This is a very owl
Speaker 1: heavy episode because I like to keep up with the
Speaker 1: bird news, because if you birds news, you bird lows.
Speaker 1: So we will learn about orange owls, what's happening. We
Speaker 1: will also learn about how an owl was at the
Speaker 1: center of a fight for the Endangered Species Act. And
Speaker 1: we will in the show with a short sweet kids
Speaker 1: story about robots taking care of birds, which I do love.
Speaker 1: Discover this and more as we answer the age question
Speaker 1: was the wild Robot just a documentary? Joining me today
Speaker 1: is friend of the show, producer host of the podcast
Speaker 1: Rough Stuff as well as shooting threes, Bridget Greenberg.
Speaker 2: Look, Hi, it's me. I heard an owl the other
Speaker 2: day at like at like four in the morning, and
Speaker 2: I was very excited, and I woke up my boyfriend,
Speaker 2: who was not as excited as me about hearing an owl.
Speaker 1: I am so proud of you, Bridget. I can't even
Speaker 1: begin like this is I this is why you're on
Speaker 1: the show. I approved so much. Tell your boyfriend he's wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: This happens with my husband all the time, where I'm like,
Speaker 1: did you hear that bird? He's like, what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? And it's like do you have ears? Do
Speaker 1: you not hear the birds?
Speaker 2: Like they're all around us?
Speaker 1: I cannot. I cannot navigate to save my life. I
Speaker 1: will like go into a building, exit the building, and
Speaker 1: run directly into like either traffic or a wall. Uh.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 1: I can never find my way around. I have no
Speaker 1: sense of direction.
Speaker 2: The fact that I'm not in a parking garage right
Speaker 2: now looking for my car is amazing.
Speaker 1: No, No, I know, same, same I've I've been. I've
Speaker 1: been stuck in a parking garage just going around and
Speaker 1: around and around for like more times than I care
Speaker 1: to admit. Uh. And I I do sometimes have to
Speaker 1: be guided like a sort of untrained mongrel uh to
Speaker 1: make sure I do not interact dangerously with traffic. So
Speaker 1: you would think that, Okay, my skills of observation are
Speaker 1: not that great. But the thing is, I'm using like
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent of my brain power to like hear
Speaker 1: listen for and observe birds. So every time I got
Speaker 1: your important yeah, I'm like, I'm like Brett, who's my husband?
Speaker 1: Like Brett, there's a cout Did you hear that? That
Speaker 1: was a cout? Hey, there was a There's a tit?
Speaker 1: Did you hear that tit? Hey, there was a houseparrow?
Speaker 1: Did you hear that?
Speaker 2: They'll guide you. The birds will guide you if you listen.
Speaker 1: The birds will guide you, possibly into traffic. But the
Speaker 1: point is it's really important to observe birds at the
Speaker 1: expense of any other sort of.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we're on the same page there, and people have
Speaker 1: been observing one particular bird near Lake here on Michigan.
Speaker 1: People have spotted an uh orange owl. Orange owl just dropped, Yes,
Speaker 1: new orange owl. New orange owl is So they have
Speaker 1: spotted a snowy owl that people have named either Rusty
Speaker 1: or Creamsicle. I kind of like creamsicle. Yeah, I'm sort
Speaker 1: of on the I'm voting for creamsicle is the name?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Rusty is like, yeah, cute classic. There are probably
Speaker 2: other birds named Rusty Creamsicle. Creamsicle is it original name?
Speaker 1: Also, if you see this bird, oh wait, I have
Speaker 1: to yeah, I have to give you the images because like,
Speaker 1: this is like a bright This is not just kind
Speaker 1: of orange in the sense of.
Speaker 2: No, it's not a color.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a like how a fox is orange
Speaker 1: or whatever, where it's like, it's a pretty decent foxes
Speaker 1: are a decent orange. But it's like a natural looking orange.
Speaker 1: This is bright, synthetic looking orange.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like someone like a toddler started coloring it
Speaker 2: with a cran and then forgot.
Speaker 1: Yep, that is but like precisely, precisely what it looks like,
Speaker 1: like a toddler kind of spilled some cran juice. Cran
Speaker 1: juice isn't a thing, but.
Speaker 2: The grand juice.
Speaker 1: That is kind of what it looks like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a stunning bird, very beautiful. Yeah. Creamsicle. Yeah,
Speaker 2: creamsicle is a name one hundred because it's also got
Speaker 2: the white mixed in. It's not just as.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, no, it's it's one hundred percent of creamsicle. Uh,
Speaker 1: perfect name. No notes on that this bird is a singular.
Speaker 1: It's not that this is a new species. This is
Speaker 1: a snowy owl, so this is known. And the the
Speaker 1: fact that it looks like it's been stained with a
Speaker 1: highlighter or dipped in sauce has been there's been multiple
Speaker 1: photographs of it, so it's not like a photoshop hooks
Speaker 1: or something of that nature. So it is definitely a
Speaker 1: bird that exists who is orange, and we don't really
Speaker 1: know why. So it's not like it's not like, oh yes,
Speaker 1: oh yes, we know this is this owl has uh
Speaker 1: orangeitis that.
Speaker 2: You know, are like a variety of snowy owl that
Speaker 2: is orange.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no no. Researchers are like, no, this
Speaker 1: is not this is not normal, and so there have
Speaker 1: been a variety of theories as to what is going on. Obviously,
Speaker 1: someone could have possibly captured a snowy owl, dyed it
Speaker 1: and then release it as a prank, which seems somewhat
Speaker 1: unlikely in my opinion. I not I don't put it.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not a good prank. It's not that
Speaker 1: I don't put it past people. I you know, as
Speaker 1: much as I love humanity, we got some stinkers, We
Speaker 1: got some stinkers, and we got some perverts. So I
Speaker 1: would believe a person would do this. It's that I
Speaker 1: think it's that I doubt the person who would want
Speaker 1: to die an owl orange would have the capacity to
Speaker 1: do it. You know what I mean, like a pigeon,
Speaker 1: Sure you can't. You can catch a pigeon. So like
Speaker 1: people have caught pigeons and like done weird things to pigeons,
Speaker 1: like glued little hats to their heads, which I disapprove of.
Speaker 1: Don't do that. If a pigeon wants to wear a hat,
Speaker 1: it'll wear a hat.
Speaker 2: You don't. If you glue it will find a hat. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're around enough trash, I'll find a hat.
Speaker 1: And honestly, like pigeon fashion is so far advanced from
Speaker 1: human fact, like pigeons who wear bread around their necks
Speaker 1: or bagels around their necks. Like, pigeon fashion is beyond us.
Speaker 2: Yeah we're not ready for that runway walk.
Speaker 1: No, no, exactly, So leave the pigeons alone. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like I would, I would believe this was a prank
Speaker 1: if it was a pigeon because people are weird. But
Speaker 1: a snowy owl, I don't see how someone would catch it.
Speaker 1: I mean it's possible, but it just seems it seems
Speaker 1: like an odd thing to do. Uh, it's not done
Speaker 1: by researchers, right, because there are like bird conservation projects
Speaker 1: and stuff, but there's nothing right.
Speaker 2: There are other ways to tag bird.
Speaker 1: There used to be I think, like a few decades ago,
Speaker 1: there used to be some things where they would use
Speaker 1: paint to track birds. But that was a long long
Speaker 1: time ago. We don't do that anymore. It's banding birds now.
Speaker 1: Radios or banding birds no longer using paint to track
Speaker 1: migratory birds.
Speaker 2: So that's that's a lot of paints. I would imagine. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would imagine they just like kind of give a
Speaker 2: stripe when they did it, not try to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't dunk. They didn't dunk the bird into
Speaker 1: sort of the that little package of seasoning that comes
Speaker 1: in with Kraft.
Speaker 2: Mad and cheese. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, So various researchers have various theories. So
Speaker 1: one is by Michigan State University bird coloration expert Kevin McGraw,
Speaker 1: who thinks it's possible the owl has a mutation resulting
Speaker 1: from environmental factors such as pollution. So that's theory number one,
Speaker 1: that this bird is an orange mutant. Huh.
Speaker 2: Sad for the reason, but cool turnout like that if
Speaker 2: we get more orange owls, that's pretty cool, but you know,
Speaker 2: for bad reasons ultimately net zero.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want the lesson to be let's let's
Speaker 1: keep oranging our owls like.
Speaker 2: No, no, it's a net negative for sure, but cool.
Speaker 1: But that's that's a theory, right, that is not there
Speaker 1: has been no evidence of that, other than the fact
Speaker 1: there's an orange owl going around. Auburn University ornithologist Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Hill believes it is not a mutation. He thinks that
Speaker 1: it the pattern of coloration seems to be a die
Speaker 1: that was applied. But again the question is why and
Speaker 1: who and how and what?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what I mean? I like I people are weird,
Speaker 2: they really are. So I'm being like, this is my bird,
Speaker 2: and I want to know it's my bird. But owl
Speaker 2: seem hard to.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 2: I I've had enough like trouble, trying to trama, housecats, nails.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine trying to die an entire owl.
Speaker 1: I've often thought about how one would go about dying
Speaker 1: an entire owl. I've given a lot of thought of it,
Speaker 1: about it, a lot of thoughts to it. But I
Speaker 1: would imagine be quite difficult. And owls are essentially the
Speaker 1: cats of the sky. Yeah they don't, they really do.
Speaker 1: They don't want to be dyed. Uh, And so it's
Speaker 1: not like. It's not like an eery PoTA where the
Speaker 1: owls are just gonna like fly around and deliver you
Speaker 1: mail and let you do weird wizard stuff to it.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna like that, and it's gonna use its
Speaker 1: big clause on you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Every time I've seen an owl at like a
Speaker 2: zoo or some sort of bird.
Speaker 1: Show, bird show isn't the word that you're looking for.
Speaker 2: But all right, yeah, but you know you know bird
Speaker 2: with bird Yeah, bird show, bird shop.
Speaker 1: You're right, I apologize, I apologize. It is called bird show.
Speaker 2: Bird show. This is bird show.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They do have the vibe of cats of like
Speaker 2: gaze upon me, do not come near me?
Speaker 1: Yes, but gaze, Yeah, you make gaze. The last theory
Speaker 1: is the one that I believe in. This is the
Speaker 1: explanation that really does it for me. Uh. A third
Speaker 1: bird expert, doctor Scott Whedenschnall. Also he has the best name,
Speaker 1: so I gotta go with him. He's the co founder
Speaker 1: of Project Snowstorm, a snowy owl research group. He told
Speaker 1: The New York Times New York Times is how do
Speaker 1: you say that? New York Times is James Krugnall Knolly
Speaker 1: New York Times is James Krignolly. The most likely explanation
Speaker 1: is that it was the icing fluid at an airport,
Speaker 1: since some formulations are that red orange color. Oh, I
Speaker 1: think he. I think that's what happens. That feels them
Speaker 1: right that like doesn't me.
Speaker 2: That that kind of feels like the Okham's razor. Uh.
Speaker 2: The simplest answer is the best. Uh, this alog it's
Speaker 2: got spilt on.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, Like when I look at this al, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that guy could have gotten blitzed with a diceer sprayer
Speaker 1: and uh, also like it there's like kind of it
Speaker 1: explains the kind of tied eye pattern, the pattern, right yeah.
Speaker 1: And also like there there's like some white feathers above
Speaker 1: the orange ones, and it's like, yeah, it could have
Speaker 1: also molted some of the other feathers and so that's
Speaker 1: why some of them look like pristine and other ones
Speaker 1: are sort of like have this color spread on it.
Speaker 1: So I think this, I think this guy got blested
Speaker 1: with with plane juice. Oh no, yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean and that also his his his face in
Speaker 2: the in the first one is like, yeah.
Speaker 1: I get me, Yeah, he's he's a this this is
Speaker 1: a this is a bird that now has a vendetta
Speaker 1: against planes, which does worry me. Yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we should be concerned about that.
Speaker 2: We should watch out for this bird. If you're in
Speaker 2: if you see creamsicle, you see creamsicle out your window
Speaker 2: and you're flying it does it does seem like it
Speaker 2: just takes one, you know these days, it just takes one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, Creamsicle. Creamsicles revenge hopefully won't happen, but yeah,
Speaker 1: poor Creamsicle. Also, if you are in the Michigan Lake
Speaker 1: here on area, uh, do not snitch on creamsicle. I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't emphasize this enough. Don't be a snitch. If
Speaker 1: you see creamsicle. Feel free to take a photo marvel
Speaker 1: at creamsicles beauty and orange appearance, but do not post
Speaker 1: online where you see creamsicle. If you take a photo
Speaker 1: and you want to share it online, scrub it of
Speaker 1: any I identifying information. Because people do not want this
Speaker 1: owl to be harassed. This owl is like a bird celebrity.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like bird Scarlet jo It's like bird
Speaker 1: Scarlet Johansson. I think I saw recently this post about
Speaker 1: like Scarlet Johansson doesn't like to take photos with fans
Speaker 1: because she it's like kind of an invasion of her privacy.
Speaker 1: And it's like, yeah, that completely makes sense, scargo. I'm
Speaker 1: one hundred percent on her side. Like she's probably out
Speaker 1: some stalkers, so she doesn't want photos taken. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: Creamsicle is the Scarlet Johansson of owls.
Speaker 2: And and yeah it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like if you know where she is, No you don't,
Speaker 1: No you don't, No you don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I yeah. I feel like owls are very you know, solitary,
Speaker 2: and like their silence too. I'm sure they don't want
Speaker 2: swarms of people around them. No, no, they aren't knowing them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and oh, you know, it's already been through so much.
Speaker 2: It was so exciting to see an orange owl and
Speaker 2: then I was like, oh, yeah, it got hit with plane.
Speaker 1: The good news that the good news is that the
Speaker 1: sort of Michigan Wildlife Conservation group has said that the
Speaker 1: owl appears to be in good health. So great, Creamsicle
Speaker 1: seems fine. I keep saying the owl. We don't actually
Speaker 1: know the owl sex Uh, I'm calling her her because
Speaker 1: she's beautiful, but could could easily be a meal. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's doesn't probably not, probably does not care. It's like,
Speaker 1: is that mouse? Is that tasty mouse? No, don't care.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's its priority.
Speaker 1: Taste mouse, kill the mouse. No, all right, creamsicle seems
Speaker 1: to be doing fine.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: Probably got pribe, got blasted with the plain juice.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, it's got a cool as as long as
Speaker 2: it's healthy. It's got a cool it's got a cool die.
Speaker 1: It's gotta it's got you know, try something out. It's
Speaker 1: got cool vibes. We saw her across the room and
Speaker 1: we thought you had cool vibes. So but keep it
Speaker 1: across the room. Don't harass this owl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't stry anymore playing juice on owls. That seems
Speaker 2: not good.
Speaker 1: That's right. The airport, the local, the Michigan Airport refused
Speaker 1: to comment on the story.
Speaker 2: So they're like, yeah, yeah, we know.
Speaker 1: Owl owl Tinder just dropped, bridget. I know you're like,
Speaker 1: if you're worried about owls finding love, worry no longer.
Speaker 1: Owl tinder is here, thank god. So Western burrowing owls
Speaker 1: are literally the cutest owl in existence.
Speaker 2: They are those are are those? Well? No, not Western?
Speaker 2: I was thinking of the hoot owls from the Carl
Speaker 2: Hyason book. They were in Florida. Those are those are
Speaker 2: that's deep Florida. Lord, that's a he's a Florida author. Okay,
Speaker 2: there was a whole book called in a movie called
Speaker 2: Hoot about burrowing owls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, burrowing owls are all gonna be cute though,
Speaker 1: no matter where they are. These ones are Western burrowing
Speaker 1: owls found in California, and they are adorable. They are
Speaker 1: terrestrial owls, which means that I mean they can fly,
Speaker 1: but they burrow. They spend their time in burrows. They
Speaker 1: most spend most of their time on the ground hunting,
Speaker 1: and they are I think the cutest owl in existence.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they lie on their tom tums just to like
Speaker 1: get that, like sunbathe. They're small owls. They're brown with
Speaker 1: these big yellow eyes. They only weigh about five ounces.
Speaker 1: They're truly a handheld owl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're little, tiny birds.
Speaker 1: They're owl many and they're super cute. They have this
Speaker 1: perpetual look of either shock, deep a fence, or plane stupidity.
Speaker 1: Usually there's like a trio of them staring at the camera.
Speaker 1: One of them looks angry, one of them looks shocked,
Speaker 1: and the other one looks deeply stupid. I don't know
Speaker 1: how they always manage to get the three three owls
Speaker 1: in a band. Yeah formation I I will have pictures
Speaker 1: of it in the show notes. But I highly recommend
Speaker 1: just googling burrowing owls. They're very silly. Anyways, these little
Speaker 1: dumb dumbs need our help finding love. Uh. This is
Speaker 1: an article in Geo by Kate Ferby, which is the
Speaker 1: perfect name name to be writing about the burrowing owls, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: they are ferbie like they are ferbies, they're real furbies.
Speaker 1: So apparently these owls are Their populations have been declining
Speaker 1: in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of the
Speaker 1: problems with population decline, especially when it comes to urbanization
Speaker 1: or suburbanization suburban crawl, is that you are kind of
Speaker 1: making these genetic bottlenecks, and so genetic diversity goes down
Speaker 1: in the overall health of the species declines. So owl
Speaker 1: conservationists have created uh basically owl Love Island. So they
Speaker 1: it's a it's a camp for owls where they go
Speaker 1: as juveniles and it's to like they check on their health.
Speaker 1: They ban them. They do like genetic tests and blood
Speaker 1: tests and then like for the winter period because a
Speaker 1: lot of the juveniles are it's still the population in
Speaker 1: this area is still somewhat fragile. So they keep the
Speaker 1: juveniles there over winter in this big bird sanctuary so
Speaker 1: that they're they're grow up nice and healthy. And then
Speaker 1: they play uh like match maker for these birds.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: But they they do it by finding like the least
Speaker 1: in bread match for them. So one of the problems
Speaker 1: when you have a declining population is if the birds
Speaker 1: mate with someone like their cousin, it's not great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So they're trying, they're trying to get these birds to stop,
Speaker 1: uh stop doing incests, some doing in so they they
Speaker 1: find they find a bird that's like very genetically distant
Speaker 1: from the other bird, pair them up. And when they're
Speaker 1: like when they are in adults and they are released
Speaker 1: from bird love camp. Uh they uh just it's like
Speaker 1: you will ask like, okay, how do you like have
Speaker 1: birds get married? What do you mean like these you're
Speaker 1: matching these birds like they're birds.
Speaker 2: What do you do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you throw both of them in a hole.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that will do it.
Speaker 1: That'll do. So they they find burrows for these birds
Speaker 1: because they they they like like they either make them
Speaker 1: or find the burrow and they will take them the pair.
Speaker 1: The match set that there's like you are this is this?
Speaker 1: This match pair is the most genetically diverse birds. They're
Speaker 1: the least related. You're not cousins, so congratulations. They stick
Speaker 1: them in the hole, and the birds are like cool
Speaker 1: with it, Like they they're just like okay, because again
Speaker 1: at this point, the yeah, hey you're you live in
Speaker 1: hole too.
Speaker 2: We have so much in common. Yeah, what else do
Speaker 2: you need? This?
Speaker 1: Nice?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: The you're the bird of my dreams. You're also in home.
Speaker 1: I'm in hole. You're in hole.
Speaker 2: It's a nice hole. You want to stay in this hole?
Speaker 1: Fore, yeah, let's just stay in hole together. So like
Speaker 1: it seems to work because again because it's like uh
Speaker 1: it is they're out in wild, in the wild at
Speaker 1: this point, they can do whatever they want. But they're
Speaker 1: pretty happy usually with this match. And they're not always
Speaker 1: like one hundred percent monogamous, but they tend to be
Speaker 1: like they might have like some breeding seasons where they
Speaker 1: go and they like kind of get a hall pass.
Speaker 1: They explore and explore a little bit. It's like an
Speaker 1: open marriage. But like they they they.
Speaker 2: In hole for so long a hole Yeah, it's like
Speaker 2: it's like like I met someone.
Speaker 1: I met someone today who also lives in hole. Right, crazy, right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, they seem to be happy with the matches,
Speaker 1: and apparently this is working like surprisingly well. By diversifying
Speaker 1: their DNA. They this has resulted in their telomeres doubling
Speaker 1: in length, which is really good news for the owl population. Again,
Speaker 1: telomeres are sort of like, it's like this, on the
Speaker 1: end of your your DNA, you have like this strand
Speaker 1: of proteins that don't necessarily do anything, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of like you know how I get on the end
Speaker 1: of your zipper. You have that like long metal thingy
Speaker 1: that like stops the zipper from just like coming off.
Speaker 1: That's what a telomere is. Essentially, It's like a strand
Speaker 1: of proteins that prevents the the things that like run
Speaker 1: around run along the DNA, copying the DNA called like enzymes,
Speaker 1: from basically messing up once it gets to the end
Speaker 1: of it. And so the shorter the telomere, the more
Speaker 1: uh basically the shorter the lifespan of the organism, because
Speaker 1: then you start getting more more and more airs, chance
Speaker 1: of cancer, chance of airs that is uh, incompatible with
Speaker 1: staying alive and so longer telomeres are generally good for
Speaker 1: an animal and uh so yeah, by this this bird
Speaker 1: love Island is creating healthier birds by increasing the bird diversity.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's working. Love Island never works. I love that.
Speaker 2: It feels like summer camp for birds. Like it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I went to like a sleepway camp that was like
Speaker 2: that felt like this of like find find your nice
Speaker 2: little jewish boy. I went to what this owl camp is?
Speaker 1: I went to a science camp and uh it was, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, nerds are very horny, so famous, surprisingly surprisingly
Speaker 1: horny nerds. I was in the I was in the
Speaker 1: computer science group, and uh yeah, like the I would say,
Speaker 1: probably the probably the horniest group and the least likely
Speaker 1: to do anything about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they're the computer They're not quite on the
Speaker 2: scale of band nerds. Yes, on the horny scale of.
Speaker 1: But band nerds like get pretty freaky with it.
Speaker 2: I feel like, yeah, yeah they're theater nerds are band
Speaker 2: nerds on the other end, all those spit belts.
Speaker 1: Anyways, Yes, I'm glad they're finding love owl tender is
Speaker 1: working working really well for these burrowing owls, which is
Speaker 1: it's great news.
Speaker 2: So just drop them in a hole with another owl,
Speaker 2: and that rarely work.
Speaker 1: You just drop in. You just drop them in a
Speaker 1: hole with another owl.
Speaker 2: Which you know, if only love were that easy.
Speaker 1: Only maybe maybe it could be, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it could possibly be. Uh, that's what I
Speaker 1: feel like. I went through with my my husband, like
Speaker 1: we went through the pandemic together, and so it was
Speaker 1: kind of like we were dropped in a hole together,
Speaker 1: and it really I turned to him, I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: you're in hole too. We have so much in common.
Speaker 1: I'm in hole, You're in hole.
Speaker 2: I'm in Yeah. I think my boyfriend and I came
Speaker 2: out of the other side of the pandemic being like, oh,
Speaker 2: we can be alone together for for three years in
Speaker 2: not going outside. All right, this works, Yeah, this works,
Speaker 2: It works works good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's a that's that's it's it's a good dating strategy. Yeah, invite,
Speaker 1: invite the person that you like to a hole.
Speaker 2: So also, and also when you're this cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little baby. Fun fact about baby burrowing owls.
Speaker 1: They can hiss like a rattlesnake to ward off present.
Speaker 1: So they just like a little angry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're little. I feel like they don't have Yeah,
Speaker 2: I feel like they don't have a lot of other defenses.
Speaker 1: One of their defenses is stomping snakes. Like if a
Speaker 1: snake tries to get in the row to like get
Speaker 1: the babies, they stomp on them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they do. Got those sharp cloths they do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're feisty. They're like little tiny kittens of the
Speaker 1: of the the out the bird kittens, bird kiddies. Indeed,
Speaker 1: last owl story. So, northern spotted owls are at the
Speaker 1: center of a power struggle with the Trump administration. Weird, right,
Speaker 1: resist didn't think I was gonna drop politics in this episode,
Speaker 1: did Boom? Gotcha?
Speaker 2: Welcome to their resistance, Welcome to the owls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, I you know, like this is not usually
Speaker 1: a political podcast, but honest, like it has become completely
Speaker 1: unavoidable because of all the stuff happening visa the environment.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so yeah, it's everywhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Anyways, so Trump has invoked a god Squad panel, which
Speaker 1: sounds great. H So this is basically it is a
Speaker 1: panel that relates to the Endangered Species Act. It is
Speaker 1: a group of high level officials who are trying to
Speaker 1: override the Endangered Species Act like a bunch of Captain
Speaker 1: Planet villains. Wow, yeah, sou So. The Endangered Species Act
Speaker 1: includes a provision that allows for some of it to
Speaker 1: be overridden if it is in the public interest. So
Speaker 1: this means like, well, so it's supposed to be only
Speaker 1: applied in very very specific, very rare circumstances. It is
Speaker 1: that has rarely ever happened. Like once it happened because
Speaker 1: there needed to be a dam on a body of
Speaker 1: water and in order and that threatened the whooping crane.
Speaker 1: So in order to do the dam, they had to
Speaker 1: do all of these extra protections for the whooping crane
Speaker 1: or to make up for the fact that they were
Speaker 1: doing this dam. But they needed the dam for either
Speaker 1: I don't know for yeah, for water water, thank you,
Speaker 1: bridget that's the word I was looking for. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so it's really not meant to be used very often,
Speaker 1: but obviously uh in this case, like like the interpretation
Speaker 1: of like in the public interest seems to be now
Speaker 1: like Trump and his rich friends and like wat to
Speaker 1: it exactly, and like the the the villains from Captain Planet,
Speaker 1: whom I forget like doctor pollution or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it just doesn't like the look of it anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so uh the basically, yeah, so it should it
Speaker 1: should not, it should not. This God Squad is called
Speaker 1: the God Squad because the ideas like they have the
Speaker 1: god h yeah, yeah, they have the power of life, death,
Speaker 1: the blah blah blah, Jurassic Park, et cetera.
Speaker 2: So cool, not ominous at all onto the significance of
Speaker 2: the northern spotted owls.
Speaker 1: These little guys have this brown coloration and white spots
Speaker 1: with cute, perpetually grumpy white eyebrow markings.
Speaker 2: Most owls do look grumpy, these ones. They are not surprised.
Speaker 1: These ones have the added benefit of having like like
Speaker 1: sort of eyebrows, which make them increase the grumpiness. I'm
Speaker 1: dropping this owl into the document right now.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a grumpy Every animal should have distinctive eyebrows. Yes,
Speaker 2: it makes them so readable. Yes, he looks grumpy, he
Speaker 2: looks angry.
Speaker 1: He's very grumpy and angry. And what I like about
Speaker 1: that is he's basically going no, you don't to do
Speaker 1: yeah to the God squad that's trying to Yeah. So yeah.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, the gods, the God Squad, tried
Speaker 1: to allow logging despite threats to these Northern spotted owls,
Speaker 1: and the government was sued by environmental groups who said
Speaker 1: that the decision was based on politics rather than science,
Speaker 1: and due to the litigation, the Bureau of Land Management
Speaker 1: withdrew the logging request. So the Northern spotted owls, I
Speaker 1: just imagine them in the courtroom like going like I
Speaker 1: may not be a city city lawyer.
Speaker 2: You know. There is also like something to the markings
Speaker 2: around its face that makes it look like a tough,
Speaker 2: mean judge, whereas a powdered wig.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want I want these owls to be the
Speaker 1: ones leading the process cution at the Hague.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, they they have like you look at
Speaker 2: those eyebrows and they are you're not you don't don't
Speaker 2: with me, So I really do. You're not getting away
Speaker 2: with it exactly.
Speaker 1: So I really do like these spotted owls as the
Speaker 1: symbol of resistance to the attack on environmental protections.
Speaker 2: So yeah, following this owl into battle, for sure?
Speaker 1: I would. I would, Yes, I would follow this owl.
Speaker 1: Probably he'd take me to a tree and then up
Speaker 1: a kind of nugget of fur and mouse bones, and
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yeah, you owl for this precious gift.
Speaker 2: I had to dissect one of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too, and I like, I asked my teacher
Speaker 1: if I could keep all the little mousebone parts and
Speaker 1: she was like, yeah, you can. It's not just did
Speaker 1: that you do but you can't? Was like, great, put
Speaker 1: them in my lunch box. Yeah. My mom was like,
Speaker 1: is their mouse bones in your lunchbox?
Speaker 2: You know? Yeah? That's that teacher. How to make a
Speaker 2: make a call based on your vibe of like is
Speaker 2: she doing this because she's interested.
Speaker 1: Or because it was necromancy wants to murder? It was necromancy,
Speaker 1: but the educationalency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the cool kind. So yeah, she had to
Speaker 2: make a real vibe decision there on whether you could
Speaker 2: keep the mouse bout.
Speaker 1: And she made the right decision. I grew up, Yeah
Speaker 1: she did almost normal. So last little story here, Bridget
Speaker 1: is about the real life Wild Robot. Did you see
Speaker 1: that movie Wild Robot?
Speaker 2: I did? And oh I love that.
Speaker 1: It got me too. I love it so much. I
Speaker 1: freaking love the movie. It's so good. It's scientifically questionable.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the animals man are at the end.
Speaker 1: All the animals get along on the island. I don't
Speaker 1: know what they're eating, if not each other.
Speaker 2: But but you know, friendship, the power of friendship.
Speaker 1: Friendship. Maybe they have a system where like the old
Speaker 1: ones giddy.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's like a donner party, right, or
Speaker 2: like I worked it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or like Midsummer Midsummer where the old where the
Speaker 1: old the old people get thrown off a cliff, but
Speaker 1: in this case the old animals. Anyways, The Wild Robot
Speaker 1: was a really adorable movie. I loved it. There's a
Speaker 1: real life Wild Robot situation going on. The Chingolo is
Speaker 1: a tiny South American sparrow with rusty coloration, uh which
Speaker 1: its population is in decline, but which is a problem
Speaker 1: because do the habitat loss and population decline, some of
Speaker 1: the young chingolos are left without adult birds to tutor them, uh,
Speaker 1: to teach them how to sing because younger yes, songbirds
Speaker 1: aren't pre programmed with the songs. They actually learn them
Speaker 1: from older birds. They're pre programmed with the ability to
Speaker 1: learn the songs, but they actually have to learn them.
Speaker 1: And so if there's too much habitat loss, not a
Speaker 1: high enough population density of birds, they may not learn
Speaker 1: the full song. So there's the complexity of this song
Speaker 1: is starting to decay, and so researchers and conservationists got
Speaker 1: together and created a bird tutor robot, which is basically
Speaker 1: like it sounds like it's going to be a cute
Speaker 1: like robotic bird, it's.
Speaker 2: More just it's like a speaker.
Speaker 1: It's more of a speaker. But the thing is it's
Speaker 1: a fancy speaker because it's not just playing pre recorded
Speaker 1: bird songs. They trained a model to learn how the
Speaker 1: song used to be based on old recordings, on old notes,
Speaker 1: so that they could create a very not just like
Speaker 1: a kind of bad recording or something, but to create
Speaker 1: a really clear song and one that they can like,
Speaker 1: you know, add variations to that that existed in the
Speaker 1: older song.
Speaker 2: And uh so they songwriters, okay.
Speaker 1: Ai, songwriters are are saving birds. I mean it is
Speaker 1: it is. I think it is a a It's one
Speaker 1: of the applications where it's like, this is what we
Speaker 1: should be using, yes, exactly, uh a tool. Yes. So
Speaker 1: it seems like some of the young birds are learning
Speaker 1: from the song robots and have started incorporating the old
Speaker 1: complexity of the songs into their song. So it does
Speaker 1: seem to be working. And this is happening in the
Speaker 1: in Buenos Aires in Peri aira Erolla Park. So just
Speaker 1: you know a little bit of a little I like
Speaker 1: to I like to judge up the end with a
Speaker 1: little bit of good news there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's sweet. One technology doing what it is
Speaker 2: supposed to do, helping organic species. There we go.
Speaker 1: This is what Yeah, this is what we're supposed to
Speaker 1: be doing with technology, but not laying off artists so
Speaker 1: that we can have a movie posters with people with
Speaker 1: like seventy five teeth, extra fingernails and like a nostril
Speaker 1: in their eye.
Speaker 2: Bill, yeah, something with something off. Just yeah, teach the
Speaker 2: birds music again exactly. Yeah, And I feel like this
Speaker 2: is it's like baby Einstein for birds.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: They're like, yeah that like reading comprehension is going down
Speaker 2: in younger generations, same with birds, but they figured it out.
Speaker 2: They're learning again.
Speaker 1: The implication is we could also be teaching these birds
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift songs and be able to go to the rainforest.
Speaker 1: Ye hear's some good dead poets society.
Speaker 2: Right, So yeah, you know, you never you don't have
Speaker 2: to listen to someone else hiking with a bluetooth speaker anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just the bird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, although I guess like if that happens enough, the
Speaker 1: birds are gonna start learning whatever is on those awful
Speaker 1: bluetooth speakers. Don't do that, folks. Yeah, not only is
Speaker 1: it being for other hikers, it's also uh not great
Speaker 1: for the birds. They don't it's going to confuse them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, headphones, we don't want to and you don't not
Speaker 2: ever snarr music. All right.
Speaker 1: Before we go, we got to play a quick little game.
Speaker 1: This is called Gifts Who Squawk in the Mystery Animals
Speaker 1: sound game. Every week we play a mystery animal sound
Speaker 1: and you the listener, and you the guests, try to
Speaker 1: guess who was making that sound. Last week that sound
Speaker 1: hint was this This little baby does not want to
Speaker 1: be hung out to dry. All right, Bridget did you
Speaker 1: hear those those little plaintive cries?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, My guess is based off the clue, and
Speaker 2: it is some sort of.
Speaker 1: Bat It's a It's a very good guess based on
Speaker 1: my clue. But sadly I think I was a little
Speaker 1: misleading with it. No, this is the call of an otter.
Speaker 1: It's a baby otter. Sometimes baby otters are left by
Speaker 1: their mothers to float. Often the mothers will kind of
Speaker 1: entangle them with floating kelp so that they don't drift
Speaker 1: away and they cry like this so their mothers know
Speaker 1: where to find them, so they have it. So if
Speaker 1: you ever hear like you're out on a boat out
Speaker 1: on sea and then you hear a baby crying, I mean,
Speaker 1: it could be a baby if you have one with you,
Speaker 1: but it also could be a baby otter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh god, I love otters so much. If I
Speaker 2: could just hold one's little hand.
Speaker 1: I know, and they would probably they might, they might
Speaker 1: hold your hand back. Uh yeah, so cute. Uh So
Speaker 1: onto this week's uh mystery animal sound. Uh the hint
Speaker 1: is this. Uh, I don't mean to bring religion into this,
Speaker 1: all right, Bridge, you hear that weird sound that was?
Speaker 2: That was a wild one.
Speaker 1: And you got any guesses?
Speaker 2: Uh again, my my guesses will be very basic and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna go wail.
Speaker 1: That's a very interesting guess and we will find out
Speaker 1: next time on Creature Feature. She's correct, Richard, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining me today. Where can we? Where
Speaker 1: can the people find you?
Speaker 2: You can find me on Instagram. Sarah and I my
Speaker 2: my co host Small Beans Network post chef to our
Speaker 2: Instagram bs podcasting and you can also find me personally
Speaker 2: there at bridget Underscore Greenberg. Then you'll post what I'm
Speaker 2: up to when things happened.
Speaker 1: Do check that out. Bridget is delightful in all of
Speaker 1: her works. And thank you guys so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If if you're enjoying the show and you leave the
Speaker 1: rating or review, that always helps me out and I
Speaker 1: read all of them. And thanks to the space Cossics
Speaker 1: for their super awesome song exce Aluminus Creature features a
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Speaker 1: just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts. Are You Kiss?
Speaker 1: For reculous your favorite shows. I'm not your mother, can't
Speaker 1: tell you what to do. Don't harass Orange Owls though,
Speaker 1: don't do it. Don't do it. See you next Wednesday.