Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck.
Speaker 2: Jerry's here too, And I can't think of anything hilarious
Speaker 2: to say, so I'm just going to say this is
Speaker 2: stuff you should know.
Speaker 1: That's right. A live show listener request edition because peacocks
Speaker 1: came to us. Did you get her name? Or can
Speaker 1: we just say the wonderful young girl at our Atlanta
Speaker 1: live show?
Speaker 2: I really want to say Sarah, but I'm not sure. So,
Speaker 2: whoever you are, young girl who suggested peacocks at the
Speaker 2: Atlanta show, right in to tell us your name so
Speaker 2: we can tell everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is a great idea. We're talking about peacocks,
Speaker 1: which is, if you want to look at the word itself,
Speaker 1: it's English and it is derived from the Latin word pavo,
Speaker 1: and in Old English that was pronounced pah wah pawa,
Speaker 1: and that was shortened over the years to poe eventually pocock,
Speaker 1: then palcock, and I guess peacock. And it's linked a
Speaker 1: little bit to this old expression proud as a poe,
Speaker 1: which is, you know how a peacock kind of struts
Speaker 1: around all prideful, and then eventually it became peacock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you would think it would have become peacock
Speaker 2: like in the nineteen fifties or sixties, but no, it
Speaker 2: became peacock as far back as the thirteen hundreds. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's it for etymology of peacock. But there's a
Speaker 2: little more about the word peacock, because a lot of
Speaker 2: you are getting things wrong and you need to be corrected, Yeah, harshly.
Speaker 2: Sometimes a peacock is specifically the male of the species. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the p hen is the female. So if you see
Speaker 2: a brown, kind of drab looking peacock, he's you look
Speaker 2: at that brown peacock, Well, you just sound like a
Speaker 2: hay seed. Yeah, it's a p hen and she's not drabbed,
Speaker 2: she's camouflaged.
Speaker 1: That's right. Their little babies cairlled pea chicks. And if
Speaker 1: you want to talk as we're going to about the
Speaker 1: the species as a whole, we're going to be saying
Speaker 1: p fowl. And then we will you know, when we
Speaker 1: say cock, we're going to mean male. When we say hn,
Speaker 1: we're going to mean lady. And when we say chick
Speaker 1: we're going to mean beebe Okay, I think.
Speaker 2: We've really laid it out.
Speaker 1: There are three main species, speaking of laying this out
Speaker 1: of the pa fowl. Uh and you have the most
Speaker 1: common that you if you live in the United States
Speaker 1: and you've seen one, maybe in a zoo, maybe in
Speaker 1: a park, or maybe startting around your neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have some walking around our area too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, is it? I mean the same ones from
Speaker 1: many years ago, because you told the story years ago
Speaker 1: about the sound of the peacock.
Speaker 2: Sorry, no, those were those were Yumi's grandma's peacock. Neighborhood peacocks.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, And for some reason, the ones that live
Speaker 2: around me are not a disturbance at all. I mean
Speaker 2: they make their sounds, but few and it's few and
Speaker 2: far between. It's not annoying at all. It's kind of
Speaker 2: cute and it's just a different experience than it was
Speaker 2: around Jumi's grandma's house.
Speaker 1: All right, fair enough. I mean I've talked before about
Speaker 1: my neighborhood peacocks. I have not seen them in a
Speaker 1: few years, so I don't know if they're still around.
Speaker 1: And the house is on my morning dog walk, so
Speaker 1: I haven't seen those peacocks around in a little while
Speaker 1: those p fowl, So I'm not sure if they're around,
Speaker 1: but we used to see them occasionally and it was
Speaker 1: all great fun. But where I started ten minutes ago
Speaker 1: saying is if you see one of those in the
Speaker 1: United States, you're probably almost certainly looking at a blue
Speaker 1: pfowl or an Indian p fowl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. They are not native to the United States,
Speaker 2: although they thrive and coastal wormish areas, kind of muggy areas,
Speaker 2: you could say, too, although also arid areas anyway, California
Speaker 2: and Florida. Let's just specify that they do really well there.
Speaker 2: But they're native to India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. They're the most common, little less common, but
Speaker 1: still more common than The third group is the green
Speaker 1: p fowl or the Javanese p fowl, so native to Java,
Speaker 1: Southeast Asia and me and mar And then what's our
Speaker 1: little third grouping.
Speaker 2: The Congo p fowl. That's right, little it's like a
Speaker 2: little mini turkey. He looks like they look like they're
Speaker 2: native to the Congo basin in Africa, and the Indian
Speaker 2: and Javanese p fowl prefer kind of open ish fields.
Speaker 2: And maybe kind of tree lined streets. That's why they
Speaker 2: love neighborhoods parks like it replicates their native of habitat.
Speaker 2: The congo pea fowl prefer to live in the forest itself. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's right, So that's that's where they like to live.
Speaker 1: No matter which kind of pea fowl you're talking about,
Speaker 1: they're all going to be omnivores. They eat lots of
Speaker 1: seeds and berries and you know, plant life and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, as well as some insects. But they'll also
Speaker 1: much down on a mouse or a little cute lizard
Speaker 1: or a snake if they want to. If they're feeling peckish,
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 2: Get a peckish. So they are among the largest flying
Speaker 2: birds in the world. At Something a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't realize about p fowl is that they can fly. Apparently,
Speaker 2: the green pea fowl fowl, yeah I said that right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: is a pretty strong flyer. The Indian or blue pea
Speaker 2: fowl is not great. But they can make it to
Speaker 2: the roof of a two story building. Yeah, pretty fast.
Speaker 2: If a dog like Mamo barks at them, I can
Speaker 2: tell you that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen that too.
Speaker 2: So they can fly and they are very large too.
Speaker 2: Blue pea fowl the most common one. They're the biggest
Speaker 2: of the three. The adult male can measure fifty inches.
Speaker 2: It's a little over four feet. God knows how many
Speaker 2: meters we're talking about, let's say one point two. And
Speaker 2: it's train, so that what you think of as the
Speaker 2: tail feathers are actually not the tail. They actually protrude
Speaker 2: out of the back of the pea fowl or the
Speaker 2: peacock in this case. That can be five to seven
Speaker 2: feet long. So they are a big, big bird, not
Speaker 2: big bird size, but there's.
Speaker 1: Still a big that's right. And as you'll see, that
Speaker 1: big beautiful train is a big part of the mating ritual.
Speaker 1: So when you see that thing fully displayed, when that
Speaker 1: peacock wants to have a little good time with a
Speaker 1: p hen, that thing may go five to seven feet
Speaker 1: in every direction.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, very very long.
Speaker 1: Arch.
Speaker 2: They also use it to defend their territory. I saw
Speaker 2: a guy laying pavers once, and he was apparently laying
Speaker 2: pavers on a peacock's territory because the peacock had his
Speaker 2: train like fully fanned out. Oh really, it was like
Speaker 2: shaking and staring at the guy like, I'm going to
Speaker 2: kill you if you don't stop laying pavers right there.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, the guy just completely ignored him. It was
Speaker 2: pretty funny to see because that peacock was quite serious.
Speaker 1: I bet so. The blue adult male peacock is about
Speaker 1: a thirteen pounder if you don't count wild turkeys, which
Speaker 1: are usually put into a different family, although they can
Speaker 1: be in the pheasant family. They are the largest. The
Speaker 1: peacock that is is the largest in the pheasant family.
Speaker 2: You're not going to take a shot at the family
Speaker 2: name for the turkeys. No, I wouldn't gun on it,
Speaker 2: but you can, uh, Millia Gridi Day. Yeah, great, I
Speaker 2: think I got it. I didn't even practice that one.
Speaker 1: Good job.
Speaker 2: But those turkeys, did you say they can weigh up
Speaker 2: to thirty pounds?
Speaker 1: I didn't say that about the turkeys, but yeah, they're big.
Speaker 2: That's a big turkey. It's like the baby hweie types.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I got that turkey family living in living at
Speaker 1: my camp. There's six or eight of them now, they're
Speaker 1: just they hang around together. I get them on the
Speaker 1: camp camp. It's just lovely.
Speaker 2: Well, are they used to your presence or because those
Speaker 2: things run? They have really sharp eyesight, and they scatter quick.
Speaker 1: No, no, I mean sadly. All the wonderful camp activity
Speaker 1: is when I'm not there. Well, I have a feeling
Speaker 1: that they peer through the woods and they're like other
Speaker 1: guys are down there again?
Speaker 2: Right to leave tomorrow, spending a weekend like standing up
Speaker 2: against the tree and not moving seeing what happens.
Speaker 1: No, I'll do that, though you should.
Speaker 2: Buy yourself some nice camouflage clothing first, though it'll help
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: I've already got that stuff.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I also said that the blue pea hens
Speaker 2: are sometimes considered drab, and I mean compared to the males.
Speaker 2: They are not quite as easy on the eyes, right,
Speaker 2: But they're brown in their drab because the female blue
Speaker 2: pea hens are responsible for guarding their nests, and even
Speaker 2: though they spend a lot of time roosting in trees,
Speaker 2: very often they sleep over night in trees. They build
Speaker 2: their nests on the ground and little depressions on the
Speaker 2: ground lined with sticks, and so they have to defend
Speaker 2: that nest at all times. The easiest way to defend
Speaker 2: it is to not be seen, so they steer clear
Speaker 2: of being seen by things like leopards and tigers and
Speaker 2: mongoose and all that by blending in with the surrounding.
Speaker 1: Terrain and momos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Momo doesn't actually want to predate the peacock. She
Speaker 2: just wants it to know, like, this is Momo's yard. Yeah, peacock,
Speaker 2: let them know who's boss, right, exactly, Momo's boss.
Speaker 1: So the green pea fowl, you know, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about a little bit about all of them, even
Speaker 1: though the blue are the most common, but the green,
Speaker 1: if it's not mating season, you may not be able
Speaker 1: to tell them apart. They both have that really nice
Speaker 1: green neck, that sort of light green here and there,
Speaker 1: And during mating season is when you're going to see
Speaker 1: the male's train grow a lot longer. But then they
Speaker 1: molten they shed those so more or less they look
Speaker 1: about the same when it's not mating season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're both very, very beautiful. They have amazingly
Speaker 2: beautiful feathers as well. The little congo pea fowl, they're
Speaker 2: kind of cute, dark blue neck feathers and dark green
Speaker 2: and black train. Females are also brown, but they they're
Speaker 2: just not Nothing can beat a blue peacock, Yeah, they
Speaker 2: just can't. I'm sorry. That's a hill I'll die on
Speaker 2: if I have to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fantastic. And if you have one in your
Speaker 1: neighborhood and as a pet in captivity, if one of
Speaker 1: your neighbors does, you may just get used to that
Speaker 1: sound and get used to seeing them because they could
Speaker 1: live forty to fifty years when kept his pets. Not
Speaker 1: suggesting that they be kept his pets. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that people do that. They live about ten to twenty
Speaker 1: five years in the wild.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They can also kind of haul pretty. They can
Speaker 2: run up to ten miles an hour when they need to.
Speaker 1: Okay, you got to get a good running start if
Speaker 1: you want to get off the ground.
Speaker 2: I guess with their little like aviator goggles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: Uh you want to take a break, Yeah all right,
Speaker 2: well we're going.
Speaker 1: To do that.
Speaker 2: Everybody watch this.
Speaker 1: Stop.
Speaker 2: So I think it's high time that we talk about
Speaker 2: what everybody thinks of when they think of peacocks, which
Speaker 2: is that amazing train of feathers spread out in a
Speaker 2: fan behind him, and it's correct to see him and
Speaker 2: this is all part of the mating ritual, right, that's
Speaker 2: the whole point of the those feathers. Again, the peacocks
Speaker 2: will use it to try to or off or intimidate
Speaker 2: trespassers in their territory, but for the most part, the
Speaker 2: whole thing is to impress the pea hens.
Speaker 1: That's right. And when a male wants to impress a
Speaker 1: p hen, that peacock will prop up those feathers into
Speaker 1: a big, beautiful fan. Dave likens it. Dave helped us
Speaker 1: with this to like an inverted umbrella, So it's sort
Speaker 1: of you know, when you see this sort of pointed
Speaker 1: back from their butthole area towards and they will shake
Speaker 1: those feathers, and the shaking isn't just like, hey, look
Speaker 1: how pretty and iridescent this gorgeous train is. Science has
Speaker 1: discovered semi recently that those vibrations are in lockstep with
Speaker 1: the p fowl's head feathers that they used to think
Speaker 1: were just for show, but now they realize they are.
Speaker 1: They vibrate at the same intensity, and that they can actually,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of feel when those tail feathers are
Speaker 1: vibrating in their direction through their head feathers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like receivers.
Speaker 1: Isn't that neat super cool?
Speaker 2: They resonate at at the same rate the male peacock
Speaker 2: when he shakes those those feathers that fan, he can
Speaker 2: shake it at more than twenty five times a second,
Speaker 2: and that resonance I think it's like twenty five point
Speaker 2: six hurts to be exact. That just happens to be
Speaker 2: tuned in almost precisely to the cress feathers on the
Speaker 2: pea fowl's head. And in addition to the site, apparently
Speaker 2: p hens have amazing sight, so they're seeing everything that
Speaker 2: the peacock's showing them, but also they're they're feeling it
Speaker 2: like they're there. That's transmitting that vibration or resonance is
Speaker 2: transmitting to their head. So it's quite a like you're
Speaker 2: not going to turn down a peacock if you're a
Speaker 2: p hen. They're pretty amazing dudes.
Speaker 1: That's right. And before we get emails, I'm sure Josh
Speaker 1: will admit that when you said it just happens to
Speaker 1: vibrate the same frequency, that is no accident at all.
Speaker 1: It's called natural selection. Baby.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sure, you're.
Speaker 1: Cheeky, But I'm sure somebody would write in and say, no, Josh,
Speaker 1: it didn't just happen to vibrate that way. It's by design.
Speaker 2: Intelligent design people.
Speaker 1: You mean no, no creationists, no by design as natural selection.
Speaker 2: It's very teleological.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that means. What's that mean?
Speaker 2: It means that that everything has a purpose. So it
Speaker 2: was like design to be a certain way.
Speaker 1: I love that. See, people, when you don't know a word,
Speaker 1: it's okay to say I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2: It sure is, Chuck, that's a great example. This set.
Speaker 1: So and you didn't talk down to me. You told
Speaker 1: me the definition. Now I'm a little bit smarter because
Speaker 1: of you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wasn't like a dummy. Listen up.
Speaker 1: Teleological, all right, So we need to cover this part
Speaker 1: of the mating ritual because the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is the peacock loves to get around the block, if
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. They have a social structure
Speaker 1: called a lech l e k, which is basically a harem,
Speaker 1: and the male is gonna mate with several females. But
Speaker 1: here's the part that's a little maybe not intuitive. Even
Speaker 1: though the male is mating with many females, the male
Speaker 1: isn't running the show as far as who he gets
Speaker 1: to do that with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's putting on this huge show not to
Speaker 2: be like, I'm hypnotizing you, baby, do my bidding. He's
Speaker 2: doing it because he's like, check me out, don't you
Speaker 2: like me? Like look at this isn't aren't I amazing?
Speaker 2: And the female can either be like I've seen better
Speaker 2: or she could be like, yeah, you're right up my alley.
Speaker 2: You just happen to be vibrating at my residence, right.
Speaker 1: That's telelogical.
Speaker 2: So yeah. So one of the ways that a male
Speaker 2: will make himself seem even more virile than he is,
Speaker 2: there's something called the hoot dash noise, and just the
Speaker 2: hoot is the noise part. It's called a hoot dash
Speaker 2: because right after the male hoots, he dashes toward the
Speaker 2: female and they start mating. Right, it's actually quite disturbing
Speaker 2: to see a lot of mating in the animal world
Speaker 2: is really disturbing.
Speaker 1: This saw video too, It's like the dash was very
Speaker 1: close to the hoot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's what the noise is called. So the
Speaker 2: males realize that like the more hoot dashing or hoot
Speaker 2: sounds that they make the more females in earshot but
Speaker 2: not in eyeshot. I guess well here, oh wow, Like
Speaker 2: Terry really gets it on with a lot of p hens.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give him a shot next time he
Speaker 2: comes around, because he must be very virile. Like a
Speaker 2: third of those hoot dash sounds are faked essentially, that's right.
Speaker 1: So when that finally happens, the female p hen will
Speaker 1: scratch out a little depression in the ground basically and
Speaker 1: line it with sticks, and that's their little They're going
Speaker 1: to layford to eggs that are gonna hatch after four weeks,
Speaker 1: and those little pea chicks are up and around pretty
Speaker 1: much right out of the gate. It'll take them a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks to fly. And those boys that are
Speaker 1: peacocks aren't gonna get those train feathers until their second year.
Speaker 1: They're like, why don't you just chill for a couple
Speaker 1: of years and not think about that thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are so cute too. Do not rely on
Speaker 2: the internet for what a baby peacock looks like? Apparently
Speaker 2: it's been a great example to demonstrate how much AI
Speaker 2: is just screwing the internet.
Speaker 1: Oh really, yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah. If you go on Google image search for baby peacocks,
Speaker 2: like people think that there's pictures of like a giant
Speaker 2: or like a miniatureized cute, big eyed peacock, and that
Speaker 2: that's a baby peacock. They all look like p hens,
Speaker 2: like little brown p hens. But even if they're peacocks,
Speaker 2: that's how they start out. So just check it out.
Speaker 2: Just search the baby peacock for images, and it's a lie.
Speaker 2: It's a lie for sure.
Speaker 1: That's the cutest little iridescent blue baby duckling thing I've
Speaker 1: ever seen.
Speaker 2: Right, but it doesn't exist. That's not real. Hey, don't
Speaker 2: blame me, blame the AI running the internet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those eyes are suspiciously large and disney like.
Speaker 2: So. One other thing about the pea chicks is that
Speaker 2: they stay with their mom for two to six months,
Speaker 2: depending on whether they're in captivity in the wild. Moms
Speaker 2: are much more maternal instinct wise in the wild than
Speaker 2: they are in captivity, so you know, depends on the
Speaker 2: situation how long they hang around them. But just watching,
Speaker 2: have you ever seen a p hen with their little
Speaker 2: pea chicks following her?
Speaker 1: Uh no, I've just seen the turkey version at the camp.
Speaker 2: It's very cute. Oh my god, I'll bet baby turkeys
Speaker 2: are pretty cute too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the following around is just very cute because like
Speaker 1: mom's up front and there's like six little guys and
Speaker 1: girls just following it along like I can keep up,
Speaker 1: I can keep up.
Speaker 2: And there's always one straggler that has to like run
Speaker 2: faster when the group.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Barney, love that guy who Barney.
Speaker 2: That's a perfect name.
Speaker 1: So the dads, as far as blue and green peacocks go,
Speaker 1: are not around. There are complete absentee dads. But hey,
Speaker 1: if you're feeling bad for the family unit, just go
Speaker 1: to the congo because those congo p fowl are monogamous.
Speaker 1: They don't have those leks. They like one lady and
Speaker 1: they hang around and feed and raise pea chicks with mommy.
Speaker 2: Yeah pretty great.
Speaker 1: Huh, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2: So I think we should talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: natural selection, sexual selection Charles Darwin, kind of what you
Speaker 2: were alluding to earlier.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, because Charles Darwin was bringing a little too
Speaker 1: much of his human baggage to some of this research.
Speaker 1: It seems pretty clear, don't.
Speaker 2: You think, Uh huh for sure?
Speaker 1: And how was he doing that?
Speaker 2: So Darwin grew up or lived in the Victorian era
Speaker 2: where women were viewed as passive, submissive. They were just
Speaker 2: there and had their fingers crossed that a man of
Speaker 2: adequate dashingness would come along and marry them, right, So
Speaker 2: that meant that it was the men, the males of
Speaker 2: the Victorian era human species in England at least, that
Speaker 2: were responsible for sexual selection. They chose the winners and
Speaker 2: the losers among women. Well, Darwin was looking around the
Speaker 2: world of nature basically all the other animals, and was like,
Speaker 2: that's not really what I'm seeing out there. And in
Speaker 2: the peacocks in particular, the females are again drab, really camouflaged,
Speaker 2: while the males have these amazing beautiful displays. That strongly
Speaker 2: suggests that the males are performing for the females and
Speaker 2: it's the females who are doing the sexual selecting. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he had such a hard time wrestling with this.
Speaker 2: There's a quote from him that said the sight of
Speaker 2: a pea feather made him sick, right because he could
Speaker 2: not give in. And he finally was you know, science
Speaker 2: got the better of him. And he's like, that's just
Speaker 2: how it is. I don't like it. But females in
Speaker 2: the animal kingdom are typically the ones who select sexually
Speaker 2: and end up are the They're the drivers of natural selection.
Speaker 2: They choose what passes on to the next generation based
Speaker 2: on the kind of male mates that they choose.
Speaker 1: That's right, And that choosing is based on that flashy
Speaker 1: display that we're going to talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about as far as the colors and stuff go, and
Speaker 1: that vibration. But if they're science behind that, or is
Speaker 1: there science behind that? Yes, In nineteen ninety four it
Speaker 1: seems like it, at least there were some researchers in
Speaker 1: Britain that found that the bigger peacocks that had more
Speaker 1: eye spots, you know, they look like eyes. What are
Speaker 1: they called.
Speaker 2: Asily ocelli In the Italian it'd be celli because ce
Speaker 2: followed by a vowel is a just sound. So let's
Speaker 2: just go with Italian, say, oh chelly.
Speaker 1: Okay. But the more of those they have, and the
Speaker 1: larger that they are, and the more just big and
Speaker 1: beautiful they are, it looks like the larger offspring they're
Speaker 1: going to have that are going to be more likely
Speaker 1: to survive. So it seems like they are more genetically fit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and those eye spots play a real starring role
Speaker 2: in this whole sexual selection mating process. Right. So the
Speaker 2: feathers in and of themselves are pretty amazing, but the
Speaker 2: eye spots, these little dots with different colors on them
Speaker 2: that are across like a like, scattered all across the
Speaker 2: train feathers the fan. They are of a slightly different
Speaker 2: structure slightly different density than the rest of the feathers
Speaker 2: surrounding them. So when that train resonates at twenty five
Speaker 2: point six hurts, they appear to stand still and float
Speaker 2: against the background of the other feathers that are vibrating
Speaker 2: at the same frequency, but are just of a slightly
Speaker 2: different density. And this is so important. These o'celly. The
Speaker 2: eye spots are so important. The scientists have figured out
Speaker 2: that other species that also have eye spots aren't. They
Speaker 2: don't share a common ancestor with peacocks that had eye spots. Chuck.
Speaker 2: Eye spots evolved separately over different times among different species.
Speaker 2: They're that important for mating.
Speaker 1: That's right, And thanks to our listener Mail in the
Speaker 1: Ruby Ridge episode, it's called conversion evolution and not co evolution.
Speaker 2: Very nice. I say we take a break then, since
Speaker 2: we're done talking about eye spots, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll finish up with that three right after this.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, wait, there was one more thing about eye spots.
Speaker 1: Wait stop, the presses Jerry roll tape.
Speaker 2: Researchers have figured out for sure the eye spots play
Speaker 2: a big role, because some poor schmoe of a peacock
Speaker 2: had his eye spots covered up and they said, go
Speaker 2: out to ladies night and see what happens, and he
Speaker 2: got nothing from nobody. Ever will his eye spots were
Speaker 2: covered up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the copulation The quote is their copulation success declined
Speaker 1: to almost zero.
Speaker 2: Almost. They were just being nice.
Speaker 1: They were all right, now are we breaking Yes.
Speaker 2: I don't have any other breaking news.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody tick five, then we're back stop. All right,
Speaker 1: we are back to finish up with peacocks, and we're
Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about something we did
Speaker 1: an entire episode on, and that is iridescent h This
Speaker 1: was a this was many years ago that we didn't
Speaker 1: up on iridescence. And there's if you want to really
Speaker 1: deep dive on the science of it, you can go
Speaker 1: listen to that ep. But what we're looking at in
Speaker 1: the case of peacock feathers and why they look aridescent
Speaker 1: and are just so shiny and majestic looking is because
Speaker 1: of the shape. It's a physical shape of something and
Speaker 1: not necessarily a color of something, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the pigments that are in the peacock's tail feathers
Speaker 2: are melanin, and melanin typically looks brown to us. It's
Speaker 2: what gives human skin kind of brown cast to it.
Speaker 2: That is melanin pigment. And it's no different than a
Speaker 2: peacock's feathers, but the structure is totally different. Like you said,
Speaker 2: there's a crystalline structure of overlaying barbs that if you
Speaker 2: look on an electron microscope you can see quite clearly.
Speaker 2: And those barbs, those crystal barbs of melanin, there's like
Speaker 2: little gaps between them, and in fact, it creates what's
Speaker 2: called a partial band gap, which means that electromagnetic waves
Speaker 2: do not penetrate some area depending on where that light
Speaker 2: is hitting. To put simply chuck. Depending on which angle,
Speaker 2: which direction, light hits these melanin rods, the crystalline melanin rods,
Speaker 2: it's going to reflect or absorb all different kinds of light.
Speaker 2: And so the same structure can reflect or absorb different
Speaker 2: kinds of light depending on where the light hits it,
Speaker 2: which means if you're looking at it one way and
Speaker 2: you move slightly left, you're looking at a different part
Speaker 2: of that structure, and it's reflecting different colored light, and
Speaker 2: that's how iridescence comes along.
Speaker 1: That's right, partial band gap, not to be confused with
Speaker 1: the partial gap band, which is the sad tour. When
Speaker 1: two out of three of those guys went out on
Speaker 1: the road.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a very good tour, was it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a very good joke. What I couldn't help
Speaker 1: my Yeah, I mean that's eridesnence in a nutshell. That's
Speaker 1: basically how it works in across nature. It's just about
Speaker 1: you know, the structure of the thing, and like, you know,
Speaker 1: what do we talk about? You talked about fish and
Speaker 1: butterfly wings mainly. I think on that episode.
Speaker 2: It's so neat And yeah, it's just the structure. If
Speaker 2: you take a bunch of crystals and pile them on
Speaker 2: top of each other and little weird repeating patterns, they're
Speaker 2: going to become iridescent. It's gorgeous. Apparently Isaac Newton figured
Speaker 2: it out all the way back in seventeen oh four. Yeah,
Speaker 2: based on aggressive Yeah, based on peacock feathers. He said,
Speaker 2: check these out, man, I know what's going on. You'll
Speaker 2: just have to find out that's right.
Speaker 1: We do need to talk about their yelp because it's
Speaker 1: a you know, I mean, you used to do a
Speaker 1: pretty good impression. You want to try it?
Speaker 2: Help?
Speaker 1: Hell, it always sounds like help.
Speaker 2: That's what it sounds like to me. It's uncanny and unnerving.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And I always laughed at that years
Speaker 1: ago until like we got our own neighborhood peacocks, and
Speaker 1: then I would hear it occasionally and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Josh's right, or is Josh in that backyard right now?
Speaker 1: Like it's one of those two things is happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty shrill. It can get annoying if you live
Speaker 1: near one. I don't mind it so much because I
Speaker 1: didn't live a next door to one, but it's usually
Speaker 1: in the morning and evening during mating season. It can
Speaker 1: pick up a bit. So I don't know if there
Speaker 1: were complaints or if these local peacocks just you know,
Speaker 1: met their natural end. You know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: they were taken out, or if they were moved to
Speaker 1: a farm, you know what I'm saying, yeah, or if
Speaker 1: they just had little peace strokes that's bad.
Speaker 2: They were elf struck. So they also they honked too, Like,
Speaker 2: I can't even do the honk and the goose that's
Speaker 2: that hoot dash thing sounds kind of like, oh yeah
Speaker 2: it does.
Speaker 1: I'm a little hankish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they can do that a lot too, And
Speaker 2: if you put it all together, yeah, it can be
Speaker 2: very annoying. But I chuck, I cannot figure out what
Speaker 2: the difference is between Umi's grandma's neighborhood my neighborhood, because
Speaker 2: I have a completely different opinion of the annoyance level
Speaker 2: of peacocks. Now I don't understand why, but there's the facts.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe you aged into it, I guess.
Speaker 2: So I'm older wives or gentler. Yeah, we're peacock loving.
Speaker 1: Sure, I think we all get that way. Sure, all right,
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the history of these things. Jumping
Speaker 1: back a little bit a few thousand years ago. The
Speaker 1: ancient Phoenicians were the first folks to say, hey, these
Speaker 1: things are great, Let's move them around to different places,
Speaker 1: because these things strutting around a palace is really something
Speaker 1: to see. So they brought them from India to Syria.
Speaker 1: They were traded around the Mediterranean at that point, and
Speaker 1: they did become like a status symbol if you were
Speaker 1: nobility or royalty, or had a lot of money or
Speaker 1: lived in a palace, then you probably wanted to some
Speaker 1: peacock strolling around your property.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you might also want to eat them. Bow, I
Speaker 2: forgot to send you this thing that I found. The
Speaker 2: Romans ate them, but they specifically liked their tongues. Peacock
Speaker 2: tongue was a delicacy in ancient Roman times in the
Speaker 2: Middle Ages.
Speaker 1: Wait, where are you going to send me?
Speaker 2: This is what I'm about to tell you.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I thought You're gonna send me a peacock
Speaker 1: tongu in the male Flashow.
Speaker 2: Why is this so? In the Middle Ages in Europe,
Speaker 2: they would actually eat peacock like the whole thing, but
Speaker 2: they figured out a way to remove the skin so
Speaker 2: that the feathers all came off too. Then they would
Speaker 2: roast the bird, and then they would redress it with
Speaker 2: its feathers to be served at to the lord of
Speaker 2: the manor by the most beautiful girl at the party.
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, And then it would just sit there
Speaker 2: for a little while. They would carve into it, eat
Speaker 2: it and have a lot of trouble digesting it because
Speaker 2: apparently it's really tough. So much so that doctors of
Speaker 2: the time were like, don't eat peacock. It's really just
Speaker 2: not good for you.
Speaker 1: So they would just stick the feathers back in it
Speaker 1: in an ornamental way.
Speaker 2: The picture I saw, the painting I saw made it
Speaker 2: look like they did a pretty good job of it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: making it look like it was alive again.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Interesting. I think even a lot of meat eaters
Speaker 1: appreciate the animal not looking like its original form when
Speaker 1: it's on the plate.
Speaker 2: Sure right, you don't really want to recognize it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Like it? You know, I love a brainzeno, but
Speaker 1: I don't like that fish head looking up at me.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, you don't like roly poly fish heads?
Speaker 1: Uh no, I don't want to see it. But I'll
Speaker 1: still dine on a braanzeno. I got a friend whose
Speaker 1: brother will take that eyeball out and eat it right
Speaker 1: at the table in front of everybody.
Speaker 2: Wrong with that guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, supposedly that's the thing to do, you know,
Speaker 1: use all the animal. But I just I don't want
Speaker 1: to eat an eyeball.
Speaker 2: No to ever tell you. By the time we went
Speaker 2: to H and F and like we we just went
Speaker 2: too far. No, so for everybody who doesn't know. H
Speaker 2: and F is a restaurant in Atlanta, and they're well
Speaker 2: known for like using all parts of the animal. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and we went and we were like, if you go
Speaker 2: further down the menu like gets more and more hardcore.
Speaker 2: We just kind of tried it one time and we
Speaker 2: got as far as fried chicken heads or beaks, which
Speaker 2: had a lot of the head attached still in goodness,
Speaker 2: like the whole table just kind of it just took
Speaker 2: a dark turn and everybody stopped talking and it was
Speaker 2: a bad jam. So I don't recommend the fried chicken
Speaker 2: beaks at Homan and Finch anymore.
Speaker 1: That sounds too much like a mcnoggan. You remember that, No,
Speaker 1: I think I sent it to you years ago. It
Speaker 1: was supposedly in the thing a chicken nuggets, but it
Speaker 1: was a a deep fried little chicken head that got
Speaker 1: through and they called it the mcnoggan.
Speaker 2: That is what HNF sells as a as a dish.
Speaker 1: All right. It's been very instructive, for sure.
Speaker 2: I know, our poor, our poor live show fan Sarah
Speaker 2: is like, I know, sorry, I.
Speaker 1: Asked for it, Yeah, I said, butthole earlier too. This
Speaker 1: is going downhill, all right, so back to history in
Speaker 1: peacocks Lord Krishna in the Hindu tradition, where's peacock feathers
Speaker 1: is a head dress, and there have been many other
Speaker 1: examples over the years in Greek mythology and Roman mythology
Speaker 1: about the peacock. I believe Harrah even had peacocks pulling
Speaker 1: her chariot.
Speaker 2: At ten miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: She she was protected by a giant named Argus who
Speaker 2: had one hundred eyes, and he was killed by Hermes,
Speaker 2: and so she brought him back as the peacock. That's
Speaker 2: a great story. Yeah, there's also the cock throne, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the peacock throne is one of the most expensive
Speaker 1: things that's ever been made. If it drives at home,
Speaker 1: I think it was about twice the cost of the
Speaker 1: taj Maha to build this one throne, which had oh,
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred pounds of gold, five hundred pounds, not
Speaker 1: five hundred precious stones, five hundred pounds of precious stones.
Speaker 2: Including the Corey Newer diamond, which is one hundred and
Speaker 2: five carrot diamond. Pretty amazing stuff. They managed. The Mughal
Speaker 2: Empire in India managed to hang on to the throne
Speaker 2: for about one hundred years until they were invaded by
Speaker 2: the Persians, I believe, who were like, we're taking this throne.
Speaker 2: This is essentially the reason we invaded was to get
Speaker 2: this throne, and they disassembled it and basically sold it
Speaker 2: off for parts. Right. Yeah, but if you go onto
Speaker 2: the Internet and you search peacock throne, you will see
Speaker 2: photographs of a peacock throne that looks pretty amazing, and
Speaker 2: you will say, well, how could this have been destroyed
Speaker 2: back in the seventeenth or eighteenth century? And the reason
Speaker 2: why is because what you're looking at is the replica
Speaker 2: that King Ludwig the Second of Bavaria, our friend, the
Speaker 2: fairy tale King, had constructed for his castle. Nushwe look
Speaker 2: at that, Nushefinstein. Yeah, which one?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just amazed that you brought that around.
Speaker 1: Nice work, thanks, any Uschefinstein sounds great.
Speaker 2: Nuschwinstein. Yeah, any chance I have to bring King Ludwig
Speaker 2: the Second into the story, I'm going to take it.
Speaker 1: Well, you had that shirt made.
Speaker 2: That helps ask me about King Ludvig the Second.
Speaker 1: Endangered? Yes or no? Indian bluefowl are not endangered. In fact,
Speaker 1: they're doing really, really well, and you mentioned you know,
Speaker 1: in places in Florida and even southern California, they can
Speaker 1: get a little out of hand with their men. They
Speaker 1: can tear up foliage, and they can poop all over
Speaker 1: the place, and they can destroy habitats that other birds have.
Speaker 1: So people sometimes now even are trapping them and giving
Speaker 1: them vasectomies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a town called pine Crest, a suburb of Miami,
Speaker 2: which is giving peacock's vasectomy. So if you couldn't have guessed,
Speaker 2: pine Crest is a rather well healed suburb of Miami
Speaker 2: because a lot of towns can't afford to give peacocks vasectivey.
Speaker 1: That green pea fowl, they are under threat though they're
Speaker 1: listed is endangered because they are from Southeast Asia and
Speaker 1: a lot of their natural habitat has been done away
Speaker 1: with thanks to land development and agricultural mowing down of
Speaker 1: their environment and also farmers who will poison them if
Speaker 1: they come into their fields.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's only I think ten twenty thousand left of
Speaker 2: them in the wild. Hopefully someone steps up, because losing
Speaker 2: any animal to extinction sucks, but losing particularly beautiful ones
Speaker 2: that their very presence makes the world a better place
Speaker 2: to live in those are You don't want to lose those.
Speaker 1: That's right. And as for the congo p fowl, we
Speaker 1: don't want to forget about those spellas they are vulnerable,
Speaker 1: also habitat loss and hunting, and they're about ten thousand
Speaker 1: of those in the wild.
Speaker 2: Man alive.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: Let's see. I'm trying to think if there's anything else.
Speaker 2: I don't really think we have anything else, do we?
Speaker 1: I got nothing else?
Speaker 2: Oh? A group of pea fowl? You know? Yeah? What
Speaker 2: is it? Collective nouns? Isn't that what they're called?
Speaker 1: Uh? Yeah, that was another name form something of something.
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember what you talking about. I don't remember
Speaker 2: what it was too, but yeah, in this case, peacocks,
Speaker 2: A group of peacocks are called a pride, an ostentation,
Speaker 2: or a party, a peacock party. I like that. I
Speaker 2: do too, I like all three of them. Well, since
Speaker 2: Chuck and I agreed that we like the collective nouns
Speaker 2: for peacocks, then obviously we have just unlocked listener mail.
Speaker 1: I'm going to call this Maine and Billboards. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: longtime super fan of spreading the stuff. You should know
Speaker 1: kool aid oh far and wide flavor eight. I think
Speaker 1: they make any miles our drive to reach anywhere in
Speaker 1: Maine flyby, So thanks for that. When you ask someone
Speaker 1: in Maine how far away a destination is, be prepared
Speaker 1: to often hear about an hour, but that can mean
Speaker 1: forty five minutes to nearly two hours. Fun fact here
Speaker 1: though about Maine. During a recent episode on Kadzu, you
Speaker 1: were talking about how it takes over billboards, and I
Speaker 1: know you get a lot of listener mail for Maine.
Speaker 1: I thought you might like to know an exciting factoid.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to Maine and marveled at it's
Speaker 1: natural beauty? Well, part of that is due to something
Speaker 1: that's missing billboards. Guys. Maine law does not allowed billboards
Speaker 1: of any kind. They have a very prescriptive law regarding
Speaker 1: signs not on business property AKA and main vernacular official
Speaker 1: business directional signs. The rules are very strict and include
Speaker 1: a special provision that rolling signs like ones attached to
Speaker 1: vehicles cannot even be used to get around these requirements.
Speaker 1: And I think it is a thirty dollars license fee
Speaker 1: to get a sign that can be forty eight inches
Speaker 1: by twelve inches or seventy two inches by sixteen inches,
Speaker 1: and you can only use two fonts. They must be
Speaker 1: white with a single color background. And this is literally
Speaker 1: just to say, like my pressure washing business is down
Speaker 1: there or whatever. They say that people may consider billboards
Speaker 1: to be detrimental to the preservation of scenic resources. And
Speaker 1: that is a great law. And that's one reason we
Speaker 1: love Maine. And that is from who is that from?
Speaker 1: That's from Katrina Peterson.
Speaker 2: Thanks Katrina. That is a very sensible, awesome law. I
Speaker 2: love that. It's one of the worst things to see
Speaker 2: when you're driving down the highways, to billboards. It is terrible.
Speaker 2: Great thanks for letting us know that. Hopefully as Main goes,
Speaker 2: the rest of the world follows. And if you want
Speaker 2: to be like Katrina and get in touch with this
Speaker 2: and let us know of a very sensible local law.
Speaker 2: We love that kind of thing. You can send us
Speaker 2: an email to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
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