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 I'm recording this from the Katie Cave,
Speaker 1: which looks suspiciously like an apartment with a bunch of
Speaker 1: dog toys on the ground. Since we're all stuck in
Speaker 1: self isolation mode, I thought I'd bring a bit of
Speaker 1: nature to you, put it right in your ear holes.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at what the animals are up
Speaker 1: to right now. That's right, We're gonna talk about some
Speaker 1: goat invader macaque riots and what pandas are up to
Speaker 1: with some added privacy. Discover this and more as we
Speaker 1: answer the angel question. When you let penguins take over
Speaker 1: an aquarium, what's next the world? So, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's constructive or accurate to celebrate the quote return of
Speaker 1: nature during a pandemic. Not only is it insensitive to
Speaker 1: the human suffering in the wake of COVID, it's lacking
Speaker 1: in nuance. It also pits humans against nature in a
Speaker 1: way that I think is unnecessary. I've seen tweets claiming
Speaker 1: that nature has just hit the reset button, or that
Speaker 1: it turns out where the virus, which seems to imply
Speaker 1: that climate change in ecological destruction is the fault of
Speaker 1: your average, everyday human. The truth is humans and nature
Speaker 1: have lived together for hundreds of thousands of years. It's
Speaker 1: true that mankind has had a huge impact on the
Speaker 1: natural world, especially recently, since seventy wildlife populations have decreased
Speaker 1: by sixty percent. That's a massive acceleration just in the
Speaker 1: past fifty years due to increased deforestation, industry, and fossil
Speaker 1: fuel emissions. But cutting back on our destructive habits doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we should view things as humans versus nature, or
Speaker 1: that our existence in nature are mutually exclusive, and indeed,
Speaker 1: blaming the state of the ronment on the average person,
Speaker 1: especially the most vulnerable among us, who will be the
Speaker 1: most impacted by the virus, doesn't make much sense and
Speaker 1: ignores the huge institutional problems that are really driving ecological destruction.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, it's oversimplifying a complex situation. To say
Speaker 1: a pandemic is good for nature is generalizing an issue
Speaker 1: that has many unknown or rapidly unfolding consequences. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that a reduction in some types of
Speaker 1: human activity such as traffic and emissions made by factories
Speaker 1: can be good for the environment, but that's something that
Speaker 1: can be accomplished without the deadly threat of a virus.
Speaker 1: So today we'll be checking in on some of our
Speaker 1: animal friends to see how they're coping with the strangeness
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, and I'll also be debunking some viral
Speaker 1: stories spoilers. I'm happy to say that a cute story
Speaker 1: about kittens is true, and I'll tell it to you
Speaker 1: near the end of the show. Joining me today to
Speaker 1: check in on the animals is resting director, producer, writer
Speaker 1: and host of so many podcasts and overall talented Gil
Speaker 1: Drew Jones. Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining me. So we are recording this remotely. You are
Speaker 1: in your your little station. I'm in mind. How how
Speaker 1: are you doing. I'm good. I don't think my cat
Speaker 1: wants me in my house anymore, but other than that,
Speaker 1: we're great. Yeah, that's so interesting. I've I've heard other
Speaker 1: friends of mine who have cats talk about how their
Speaker 1: cat is starting to get tired of their presence and
Speaker 1: wondering when they're going to leave. Has your cat been
Speaker 1: sending you subtle signals? That they're tired of seeing you.
Speaker 1: She yeah, she'll her name's Dolly after Dolly Poong, why not.
Speaker 1: And she used to be so cuddly, but now she'll
Speaker 1: wait till I'm in like a deep sleep or doing
Speaker 1: something unproductive, and she'll like nip at my foot or
Speaker 1: you know, she'll sit like directly on my face. So
Speaker 1: I suffocate, like she's just right. Yeah, passive aggression. Passive aggression. Yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: my my dog has learned that I can't leave, so
Speaker 1: she has realized there's no incentive for her to be
Speaker 1: good anymore because I'm a hostage. So she's just run
Speaker 1: completely wild because she she's like, well, what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? You're you can't leave me, like you're stuck here,
Speaker 1: So she's you know, she's actually she's done the same
Speaker 1: thing like sat on my face in the morning. It
Speaker 1: seems to be a phenomenon. Word like pets are now
Speaker 1: sitting on our faces. Maybe they're like misinterpreting the news
Speaker 1: about you're supposed to wear a face mask, so they
Speaker 1: think it's like a face ass like put their butts
Speaker 1: on our faces and that's going to protect us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think I realized how smart she was until
Speaker 1: I was stuck with her twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 1: seven days a week. How devious. Yeah, exactly. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about some stories that have kind of
Speaker 1: on viral that actually, I think oversimplify this issue. So
Speaker 1: as people are quarantining and people are avoiding large crowds
Speaker 1: and staying home, obviously that's going to impact our urban environment,
Speaker 1: especially ones that we share with animals. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: news stories seem to be oversimplifying it, saying basically like, oh,
Speaker 1: nature has returned, and so here's a story. For example,
Speaker 1: you may have heard that due to the quarantine, the
Speaker 1: Venice Canals have become sparkling clean, swans have returned and
Speaker 1: dolphins have made their way up to the canals, like
Speaker 1: nature has completely reclaimed the Venice Canals. But the truth
Speaker 1: is actually a lot more complex. Have you heard the story, Drew? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I actually, um, I went to Venice a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, and so i've I've been to the canal
Speaker 1: and everything, and I saw pictures of it recently, and
Speaker 1: it's just so crazy how clear everything is. Because I
Speaker 1: remember I lost my I dropped my one in it
Speaker 1: and we couldn't even I mean two seconds in the water,
Speaker 1: it was gone, right, it's you know, as clear as
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, And actually, so that's the one true
Speaker 1: thing about this story, that the water is actually clearer,
Speaker 1: and the reason is really simple. It's just that without
Speaker 1: the boat traffic, it isn't disturbing the surface of the
Speaker 1: water that much. So the silt that is in the
Speaker 1: canals has settled to the bottom. So that's why they've
Speaker 1: cleared up. It's it's not like the water has like
Speaker 1: pollution is over and so the water has like returned
Speaker 1: to normal. It's it's simply just there's less traffic in it,
Speaker 1: so all that silt and stuff that like clouds the
Speaker 1: water has sunk to the bottom. And so yeah, they
Speaker 1: are actually very clear. But another story is that swans
Speaker 1: and dolphins have returned to the canals. And well, let's
Speaker 1: look at the swan story first. So swans have been
Speaker 1: spotted in the canals, but this isn't actually new. This
Speaker 1: isn't like a new thing that has happened because people
Speaker 1: are sheltering at home. There's a viral tweet with like
Speaker 1: over a million likes that claims that swans have finally
Speaker 1: returned to the canals, but This was a picture of Berno,
Speaker 1: which is a small island in Venice, and swans are
Speaker 1: actually regular feature of this area. When when you visited,
Speaker 1: were you able to visit Bruno? I was really in
Speaker 1: Venice for just a day, so I didn't get to.
Speaker 1: But I mean I've I've seen like photos of it before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and swans are like a regular feature there. And
Speaker 1: have you ever encountered a swan before? Yeah? I actually
Speaker 1: have a really like I was attacked by a swan
Speaker 1: when I was like four. They are not as cute
Speaker 1: as they see. No, No, in fact, that's what I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about. I'm sorry you're attacked. Actually my
Speaker 1: mom was as well. She was chased by a swan
Speaker 1: and just like was running screaming away from it, and
Speaker 1: she felt really silly. But yeah, they are. They can
Speaker 1: be very aggressive. And if you've met a swan, you
Speaker 1: know that they're not going to be intimidated by some boats.
Speaker 1: Like there's actually a story of a swan attacking a
Speaker 1: man's boat and capsizing it and the man actually drowned.
Speaker 1: And it's just they are not They look very graceful
Speaker 1: and delicate and like they would you know, like this
Speaker 1: sign of gentle nature returning. But really they're they'll defend
Speaker 1: themselves with a lot of ferocity. And the reason they're
Speaker 1: so aggressive isn't because they're a holes. They will very
Speaker 1: violently defend their nesting areas because they have to, like,
Speaker 1: if they want to keep their eggs and their chicks safe,
Speaker 1: they have to be very aggressive, and so that's their
Speaker 1: technique to keep people away. But sometimes that involves chasing
Speaker 1: four year olds around. Yea to them, I do think
Speaker 1: I was not somewhere I was supposed to be. But yeah,
Speaker 1: if you ever see baby swans or a swan's nest, yeah,
Speaker 1: don't don't go up to it, because you like, behind
Speaker 1: those adorable babies or those eggs is going to be
Speaker 1: a real angry swan going to give you a piece
Speaker 1: of its mind. Yeah. I wonder if you've ever seen
Speaker 1: like a photo of them with their mouth open like
Speaker 1: mold action, but it's it's actually terrifying, like if you yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they have spines in their mouth, and this is actually
Speaker 1: a feature of a lot of water fowl. So aquatic
Speaker 1: birds have those spines in the lining of their mouths
Speaker 1: or on their tongues, and it's to help them basically
Speaker 1: hook fish and prey in their mouths. Puffins have a
Speaker 1: ton of spines in their mouths. They're really good fishers.
Speaker 1: But it's really funny because it's these typically very graceful animals,
Speaker 1: like like a swan or these really cute birds like
Speaker 1: a puffin, and then they open their mouths and it's
Speaker 1: this horror show of spine. So the other story about
Speaker 1: the can nels is that dolphins have returned, but that's
Speaker 1: actually not true. So they haven't made their way up
Speaker 1: the Venice Canals and sort of like lept majestically through
Speaker 1: the air. And but there is an image of a
Speaker 1: dolphin in what looks like a canal, but this is
Speaker 1: actually a port in Sardinia, at the port of call
Speaker 1: Calaghary in Italy, and that's like, you know, hundreds of
Speaker 1: miles away from the Venice Canals. And it's so there
Speaker 1: may be some more dolphin activity closer to some ports
Speaker 1: due to decreased boat traffic, but you know, dolphins are
Speaker 1: still often found near ports and bays, and it's this again,
Speaker 1: is not necessarily a new thing. It's just that dolphins
Speaker 1: maybe a little less shy to swim around ports with
Speaker 1: the reduction in boat traffic. That's gonna be good news
Speaker 1: for some cetaceans, which is the group that includes dolphins
Speaker 1: and whales, where they can sometimes have running with boats
Speaker 1: and that's bad and it disrupts them. But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, so I want to talk about ways that
Speaker 1: the pandemic may actually adversely affect one particular cetacean. So
Speaker 1: there is a little species of Corpus called the faquita.
Speaker 1: You gotta google of aquita because you gotta see it.
Speaker 1: They are adorable. They are so cute. They're really tiny.
Speaker 1: They're about four ft long. They have this emo black eyeshadow,
Speaker 1: and they have a tiny they look they just look
Speaker 1: like a little baby dolphin. They aren't a baby dolphin,
Speaker 1: that's like the full grown adults are like four ft
Speaker 1: long and little and tiny, but and they aren't a dolphin.
Speaker 1: They're actually a porpoise. But they are absolutely adorable, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately they are critically endangered. So they have a tiny
Speaker 1: habitat in the upper Gulf of California, so that's between
Speaker 1: Baja California and Mexico, and it's estimated that there's only
Speaker 1: about like ten to twenty individuals left. So they're like
Speaker 1: on the brink of extinction due to fishing and animal trafficking.
Speaker 1: There's another endangered species that often gets fish called toto,
Speaker 1: a buff fish, and so the vacida is actually often
Speaker 1: get caught in the nets intended for these fish and
Speaker 1: are collateral damage for this fishing, and that's been really
Speaker 1: devastating to their population. So I'm bringing this up because
Speaker 1: I want to show that painting this picture of the
Speaker 1: pandemic as something being unilaterally good for animals, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's bad for people, but it's good for nature is
Speaker 1: really simplistic and short sighted. Because there's a marine conservation
Speaker 1: group that has a protective vessel called the Sea Shepherd,
Speaker 1: which patrols the area to protect the vakita, and it
Speaker 1: had to suspend its operations because of the pandemic. So
Speaker 1: normally they work with the mex government, who gives them
Speaker 1: fuel to patrol the area and protect the wakida. But
Speaker 1: because of the way the pandemic is affecting government structure
Speaker 1: and society in Mexico, the Mexican government can't keep supplying
Speaker 1: them with fuel right now, and it early demonstrates that
Speaker 1: it's it's too simplistic to say with the pandemic and
Speaker 1: with people having to stop doing things like this is
Speaker 1: going to be good for animals because there's also it's
Speaker 1: affecting everybody and that includes conservation groups. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: I think the idea that like humanity is inherently bad too,
Speaker 1: you know, the rest of the world is a weird
Speaker 1: concept because obviously, in order for the world to work
Speaker 1: the way it does, you know, humans have to be
Speaker 1: a part of the whole circle of life. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the pandemic has definitely made me more conscious
Speaker 1: of um, you know, animals and climate change and everything.
Speaker 1: I always thought I was pretty conscious, you know, our recycle.
Speaker 1: I'm an animal lever all of that, but seeing little
Speaker 1: things like the air clearing up or whatever has made
Speaker 1: me think, like, how am I going to continue to
Speaker 1: make this a thing after the pandemic is over. I
Speaker 1: think that's a really good way to look at it.
Speaker 1: I think that's the healthiest, most productive way to view it.
Speaker 1: So it's instead of thinking, oh, without humans, like the
Speaker 1: world would be better off because you know, we've we've
Speaker 1: been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and we've
Speaker 1: shared the planet four hundreds of thousands of years. It's
Speaker 1: only relatively recently that we've had such a incredibly negative
Speaker 1: impact on the environment, you know, in such a dramatic way.
Speaker 1: So if we can learn from this, like hey, we
Speaker 1: could actually pull back on some of our more destructive
Speaker 1: habits and and learn from this in a constructive way
Speaker 1: rather than sort of this really misanthropic way of just
Speaker 1: blaming regular people like, oh, you know, regular people having
Speaker 1: their lives up ended and being forced inside because of
Speaker 1: this pandemic, and you know, it is like a good thing.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think we need to be so misanthropic.
Speaker 1: I think we can be a lot more positive about
Speaker 1: it and view it as like, Okay, you know, we
Speaker 1: see that we can actually have a dramatic change in
Speaker 1: terms of improving air quality and improving the environment. So
Speaker 1: that's a positive thing in a way. But it's not
Speaker 1: a zero sum game. We can both have good lives
Speaker 1: as humans and also make changes to some of our
Speaker 1: habits to make the world better. So yeah, I really
Speaker 1: really like your perspective what you're taking away from it.
Speaker 1: So I do also want to talk about some more
Speaker 1: fun news I think. So have you heard that goats
Speaker 1: are taking over a Welsh resort I have seen like
Speaker 1: the video clips that people have been showing. I love goats, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: So I am really happy to report that this news
Speaker 1: is absolutely true. And oh boy, this is gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm not really sure how to pronounce this Welsh word,
Speaker 1: so please please forgive me, but it is I think
Speaker 1: land dud land duddn no lan duddn no whales. It
Speaker 1: is a resort town and mountain goats have taken it over.
Speaker 1: These are great orm cashmere goats. They are a species
Speaker 1: of mountain goat with big curly horns and long, shaggy
Speaker 1: white fur and beards, and they have made themselves at
Speaker 1: home at this resort town. Have you seen the videos
Speaker 1: of them just like running amuck? Yes, and there it's honestly,
Speaker 1: I think like that's what my heaven looks like, if
Speaker 1: we're being honest, like it just looks so free and
Speaker 1: que and uh, I can't it's wonderful. They have been
Speaker 1: eating hedges, they've been climbing billl things. So mountain goats
Speaker 1: are ridiculously good climbers. They can scale these really sheer
Speaker 1: cliff faces and so climbing a building is no problem
Speaker 1: for them. According to Andrew Stewart, who is a resident
Speaker 1: of this resort town, quote, they are very mischievous. They
Speaker 1: seem a bit wary of humans. They wouldn't go past
Speaker 1: me at one point, and we're very cautious. And he
Speaker 1: also said that there's not much that they can do
Speaker 1: about this goat takeover. He said, quote they'll go back
Speaker 1: of their free will or when they get bored. So
Speaker 1: I love how the residents have just basically accepted the
Speaker 1: goat takeover. It's you know, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: The town is belongs to the goats now. You really
Speaker 1: can't do anything with goats. I grew up on a
Speaker 1: farm in Kentucky and we had a couple of goats
Speaker 1: on the farm and they're kind of like giant cats,
Speaker 1: where like they don't really care how you feel, what
Speaker 1: you want them to do. They're just they're just there
Speaker 1: to do them and you just kind of have to
Speaker 1: deal with it. You have to abide the goats, like
Speaker 1: you can't. They they have their own agenda. On a
Speaker 1: recent episode, we talked about goat vocalizations and how they
Speaker 1: scream at us, and there are just so many reasons
Speaker 1: that they'll scream at us, like if they're jealous you're
Speaker 1: feeding another goat. They'll scream at you. They are there,
Speaker 1: you know. They are a force of nature, no pun into.
Speaker 1: So what's interesting about these goats is or they're not
Speaker 1: actually native to the area. They were originally a gift
Speaker 1: from Queen Victoria, and they are the species of the goat.
Speaker 1: The great orm Cashmere goats are actually from northern India.
Speaker 1: But these these goats that were a gift from the
Speaker 1: queen basically just like escaped and went feral, and now
Speaker 1: their ancestors are these wild goats, and now they've reclaimed
Speaker 1: the town and I love it so they you know,
Speaker 1: they escaped the town, they went out into nature, and
Speaker 1: now that people have to stay indoors, it's like, well
Speaker 1: the town is ours now it's goat times, like a
Speaker 1: bit of a British invasion. But that's such a strange gift.
Speaker 1: I feel like to like, yeah, here's some goats, here's
Speaker 1: some goats. I mean, you know, if I, like, if
Speaker 1: I was a lord, you know, and I had a
Speaker 1: lot of land, if someone gave me a bunch of goats,
Speaker 1: would be I like it, you know, it'd be neat
Speaker 1: and then the goats would probably dominate me, and I
Speaker 1: would think, Wow, the goat I was a gift to
Speaker 1: the goats, not Vice Apperson. Well, one thing that happened
Speaker 1: is that there obviously schools are closing for people's safety,
Speaker 1: but in Oakland, wild turkeys took advantage of these school
Speaker 1: closures and just took over a school, just started squatting there,
Speaker 1: like inside the building or just like on the campus.
Speaker 1: I think on the campus. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: worked their way inside. I mean, they don't have hands,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of hard, very true to get on
Speaker 1: in there, but I do. I like the idea of
Speaker 1: I know this isn't okay, guys, this this isn't necessarily true.
Speaker 1: But I'm imagining turkeys on a playground, just like on
Speaker 1: the swings, on the monkey bars, you know, playing around.
Speaker 1: I know that may not be true. It's it's my
Speaker 1: imagination palace. So I'm gonna I'm gonna say that's what's happening.
Speaker 1: But the visual that's going to get us through the
Speaker 1: day exactly. But yeah, they have the truth. The true
Speaker 1: part is that they are at the school and they
Speaker 1: have claimed the school for Turkey. It's now Turkey School.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, I wonder what you like learn
Speaker 1: at Turkey school. Do they make like hand humans? You
Speaker 1: know how like school children make hand turkeys, So like
Speaker 1: turkeys are gonna make like hand humans or like foot humans,
Speaker 1: like trace their foot and then it's like a human
Speaker 1: that would actually be really cute. Yeah, well slim a
Speaker 1: man looking like if you think abo exactly. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: just these poorly drawn humans cut out of construction paper
Speaker 1: in the shape of turkey feet. They'll have like home
Speaker 1: egg because like stoves probably really stressed them out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like, that's that's not that's not cool, like that,
Speaker 1: that's not a cool thing in Turkey cultures like that.
Speaker 1: You don't you don't bring up stoves. Come on, and
Speaker 1: math is just them like making graphs out of corn.
Speaker 1: I don't know Turkey school. So the lack of tourism
Speaker 1: has also had a large impact on animals and Lowbury,
Speaker 1: Thailand monkeys have been losing it over the lack of
Speaker 1: tourism and which also means a lack of food. So
Speaker 1: long tailed macaques have grown accustomed to humans feeding them
Speaker 1: at the Frau pring Sam Yacht Monkey Temple and Thailand,
Speaker 1: and they're going sorry no pun intended pun. Kind of intended,
Speaker 1: but they're going bananas, these maccaques, and they have been
Speaker 1: in the streets of this city just rioting and brawling
Speaker 1: with each other in response to the lack of tourists
Speaker 1: feeding them. Have you seen that video? Yeah, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at it right now. And this is kind of terrifying
Speaker 1: it is, isn't it. It's like much It's a little
Speaker 1: bit World war Z, isn't it? Like this big mob
Speaker 1: of angry monkeys rioting and losing it and it kind
Speaker 1: of feels it feels like a clip from like a
Speaker 1: movie about the apocalypse where it's like and monkeys are
Speaker 1: now taking to the streets and an angry mob. And
Speaker 1: and let me ask you a question, and this instance,
Speaker 1: is this a situation where like our humans helping, are
Speaker 1: we hurting another species by making them so like reliant
Speaker 1: on us? That's a really good question, and it's it's
Speaker 1: calm plex, right, So I would say it's really hard
Speaker 1: to say. So I would say making an animal completely
Speaker 1: reliant on humans feeding them is in general probably not
Speaker 1: a great thing for an animal population. So Seka deer
Speaker 1: are cute, fluffy deer with reddish white spotted fur, and
Speaker 1: these kind of reddish, rusty red antlers and tourists and
Speaker 1: visitors to Nara Park in Japan can buy treats to
Speaker 1: feed the population of deer and take photos with them.
Speaker 1: So they're like thousands of deer in this park and
Speaker 1: you can get these little rice crackers and feed the deer,
Speaker 1: and some of the deer have learned to like bow
Speaker 1: for the treats and then you feed them the rice crackers.
Speaker 1: But obviously now with people uh staying at home, the
Speaker 1: deer have just started roaming outside of the park and
Speaker 1: into of been areas and are eating people's potted plants
Speaker 1: and search for food because they no longer have the
Speaker 1: visitors feeding them, so so they're trying to learn how
Speaker 1: to like find for themselves. And so as of now
Speaker 1: that means like kind of roaming into this territory that
Speaker 1: they don't usually go in and and eating eating people shrubs.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, like, depending on how long it takes, everything
Speaker 1: and it kind of slowly, I don't want to say
Speaker 1: go back to normal, but like for people slowly start
Speaker 1: to you know, simulate back into some sort of normalcy.
Speaker 1: How animals like these deer are going to react, Like
Speaker 1: are they going to be more inclined to kind of
Speaker 1: claim this new territory, or if they're gonna if they're
Speaker 1: going to back off. Typically when it's a human versus
Speaker 1: an animal population, the animal population backs off, especially when
Speaker 1: it's a larger animal like a deer. So I would
Speaker 1: I would expect the deer to probably return to the park,
Speaker 1: But you know, it's it's hard. It is hard to say,
Speaker 1: like like maybe they will have to return to some
Speaker 1: self sufficiency and maybe that's going to change their relationship
Speaker 1: with people, Like a significant portion of the population is
Speaker 1: going to move somewhere else to try to find resources elsewhere.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's that's a really good question. I think
Speaker 1: this is going to have resounding effects on animal animals
Speaker 1: and are our relationship with them for a long time,
Speaker 1: And I think it's hard to say, like what that's
Speaker 1: gonna be. Human and animal relationships are complex. Our absence
Speaker 1: isn't always good for the animals who have come to
Speaker 1: rely on us, at least in the short term. For example,
Speaker 1: ducks are in a bit of a pickle given that
Speaker 1: their steady source of human treats have been cut off.
Speaker 1: But there's less obvious problems as well. Some species of
Speaker 1: birds who are nesting right now may choose accidentally bad
Speaker 1: locations for nests. Some human activity has changed so significantly.
Speaker 1: For example, a bird might make a nest in the
Speaker 1: tailpipe of a car or on a sidewalk, only to
Speaker 1: have that nest destroyed when people return outside. On the
Speaker 1: other hand, the reduction and urban noise pollution might make
Speaker 1: it easier for birds to make as the airways will
Speaker 1: be clear for their beautiful calls of comb get some loose.
Speaker 1: When we return, we'll talk about how animals and zoos
Speaker 1: are coping, and yes, some of them are going comb
Speaker 1: get some of this. We're going to discuss how animals
Speaker 1: and zoos are responding to the sudden absence of visitors.
Speaker 1: But first I want to talk about how the pandemic
Speaker 1: fits into the larger picture of conservation. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: most of you all listening right now care about animals
Speaker 1: just because they're rad and awesome, as do I. But
Speaker 1: as you may be well aware of, carrying a about
Speaker 1: the environment is also necessary for human survival. A study
Speaker 1: from Stanford University has found that forest loss and human
Speaker 1: encroachment on animal habitats makes it much more likely that
Speaker 1: a virus will jump from animal to human. The more
Speaker 1: we are in direct physical contact and conflict with wild animals,
Speaker 1: the more likely there will be a case of viral transmission.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about the case of a tiger with
Speaker 1: COVID to demonstrate that this is not a one way street.
Speaker 1: But first, do animals miss us? So, Drew you say
Speaker 1: you grew up on a farm, yep and Kentucky. So
Speaker 1: moving from a farm environment to like uh l a
Speaker 1: where there's not really that kind of seen here much,
Speaker 1: Like what what is that? Like? Like do you miss
Speaker 1: having sort of that Um, I guess that seeing animals
Speaker 1: on a daily basis like that? Or like I guess
Speaker 1: I should ask like what what it was like on
Speaker 1: the farm, Like what kind of farm it was, and
Speaker 1: like what your relationship was with the animals. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the farm, like my family's like a couple of acres
Speaker 1: in particular, we didn't have a lot of big animals.
Speaker 1: We had um more and so like pigs and chickens
Speaker 1: and um goats, you know, lots of dogs. We were
Speaker 1: pretty just like a we're more like for it was
Speaker 1: to enjoy rather than to harvest or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But the land surrounding us a lot of those people
Speaker 1: had you know, the bigger the cows, the horses and
Speaker 1: all that. And I definitely think moving to l A,
Speaker 1: there's um the sound quality is very different because obviously
Speaker 1: both are noisy, but for different reasons. Here, I hear
Speaker 1: cars all the time. There, you know you heard clucking
Speaker 1: or mowing or cricket, um like whatever. Um, So the
Speaker 1: sound qualities different, and the air qualities a lot different too.
Speaker 1: Fresh air. I feel like, yeah, mog is very real.
Speaker 1: The reason I ask is I want to talk about
Speaker 1: like what's happening with zoos right now because for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, zoos are one of the few ways
Speaker 1: that you can kind of connect with animals in a
Speaker 1: in a city. Um. Obviously issues about zoos are pretty complicated,
Speaker 1: but I think there are a lot of zoos that
Speaker 1: are really do care about like animal welfare and take
Speaker 1: care of their animals. Well. I really like the San
Speaker 1: Diego Zoo. I think they do a good job with
Speaker 1: conservation and taking care of their animals and doing a
Speaker 1: lot of public education. Um. And then because there's also
Speaker 1: the flip side of like have you seen a tiger king? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: Like there's definitely a flips to zoos where it's like
Speaker 1: there's an ugly underbelly of um of zoos where it's
Speaker 1: very clearly not a good situation for the animals. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a interesting show, but very very horrifying. What
Speaker 1: what's happening to these big cats? Um? So, I think
Speaker 1: one thing we don't necessarily think about with zoos closing.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's going to be different for people because where
Speaker 1: we we don't get to have this kind of cultural
Speaker 1: enrichment anymore. But the flip side of that is like,
Speaker 1: what what are animals up to in zoos right now?
Speaker 1: Without human visitors? And so obviously zoos have to keep
Speaker 1: running behind the scenes. You can't just like just leave
Speaker 1: the zoo to run itself. Um And this is an
Speaker 1: interesting experience, I'm sure for caretakers at the zoo because
Speaker 1: they have to now worry about uh COVID and trying
Speaker 1: to reduce their exposure to each other and and stay
Speaker 1: keep their social distance with each other. But also they
Speaker 1: have to keep taking care of the animals. And interestingly,
Speaker 1: so you'd think like, oh, like without humans there, the
Speaker 1: animals are just gonna have like a total field day.
Speaker 1: But for some of the animals, at the zoo's zookeepers
Speaker 1: are reporting that it's actually a weird change for them.
Speaker 1: So an employee at the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, Darren McGarry, says, quote,
Speaker 1: the chimpanzees start to wonder why there's nobody wandering around
Speaker 1: and they go to the window to look for people.
Speaker 1: We've got orangutans and chimpanzees and they do get used
Speaker 1: to people and the way you work around them, the
Speaker 1: routine that you have, and as soon as you start
Speaker 1: changing things, animals aren't particularly pleased about it. So at
Speaker 1: least some animals might actually kind of miss people visiting them,
Speaker 1: which I think is interesting. Yeah, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: I have a good buddy of mine who works at
Speaker 1: the Louisville Zoo, and um, he was talking about on
Speaker 1: his Facebook about how strange it is, you know, not
Speaker 1: having anybody comes into these animals at the zoo because
Speaker 1: in a way, these animals are almost like domesticated in
Speaker 1: the sense that like they kind of they're used to
Speaker 1: interacting with humans, whether it's just through a glass or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it is kind of weird that, like he was like, imagine,
Speaker 1: you know, just leaving your dog for a month and
Speaker 1: it I'm like interacting with it and I'm playing with
Speaker 1: it like your dog would fill some type of way.
Speaker 1: That's how a lot of these animals are. And I
Speaker 1: thought that was a really interesting way to put it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because one of the downsides of zoos is obviously providing
Speaker 1: the animals with enough enrichment, and it's something that a
Speaker 1: lot of zoos are really they struggle with, but they're
Speaker 1: really good at trying to get the animals as much
Speaker 1: enrichment as they can. But again, like people, visiting animals
Speaker 1: can actually be a form of enrichment for them, especially
Speaker 1: for more intelligent animals like the great apes, where they
Speaker 1: get to watch people. I mean, one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things to do at the San Diego Zoo is to
Speaker 1: go just kind of sit chill out next to the
Speaker 1: guerrillas and they watch you and they're interested in you,
Speaker 1: and it's I think that's you know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: one of these It's such an interesting duality. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: most optimal environment for an animal is going to be
Speaker 1: their natural habitat, but in a zoo environment, not having
Speaker 1: visitors can and not having the same routine, like not
Speaker 1: having all the crew in terms of like everyone, all
Speaker 1: the zookeepers and the regular staff like that that is
Speaker 1: going to be difficult for a lot of the animals
Speaker 1: who you know, rely on those interactions for enrichment. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that that is that is very interesting. Like like I
Speaker 1: kind of my point throughout this whole episode is like
Speaker 1: how how complex our relationship is with animals and how
Speaker 1: it's not you know, it's easy to say like oh,
Speaker 1: like with with people not going to zoos, like you know,
Speaker 1: the animals are going to be better off somehow like
Speaker 1: and that's not necessarily true. Um, but in in one case,
Speaker 1: in a very kind of funny way, uh, there are
Speaker 1: a couple of animals who may be enjoying their privacy.
Speaker 1: So have you heard about the pandas that have finally
Speaker 1: had a chance to get it on because they have
Speaker 1: some privacy from human visitors. I just saw the video
Speaker 1: of it on Twitter, and I was like, why is
Speaker 1: there a video of panda's mating. It's a rare occurrence.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's like seeing Hayley's comment, It's a beautiful, beautiful,
Speaker 1: rare occurrence in nature and we must watch it. It's
Speaker 1: totally not weird and perverted. I think we could all
Speaker 1: I think human kind could take a note from pandas
Speaker 1: about a little more careful with our p d A well.
Speaker 1: So it's it's an interesting thing. So at the Ocean
Speaker 1: Park Zoo in Hong Kong, the zoos Pandas yingi and
Speaker 1: Lily Uh successfully made it after trying for ten years.
Speaker 1: So pandas are notoriously bad at mating, especially in captivity.
Speaker 1: So the reason for this is that females are only
Speaker 1: receptive a few days every year to mating, so they
Speaker 1: only go in estris like I think, like summer d
Speaker 1: less than a week and it only happens like once
Speaker 1: a year, and so males really only have this one chance.
Speaker 1: And then males can be kind of bad at the
Speaker 1: reading the signals that the females are giving off, like
Speaker 1: the scent and the body language that they're actually an
Speaker 1: estris and can can successfully made at that time. So
Speaker 1: sometimes the males just don't even realize it's happening, or
Speaker 1: they misread a sign and they try to mate, like
Speaker 1: when the female isn't receptive in the female is not
Speaker 1: going to be happy about that. So in the while,
Speaker 1: even though it's still kind of tricky. They because there
Speaker 1: are larger groups of pandas, mating is a lot easier,
Speaker 1: so females are able to have their pick of males.
Speaker 1: And obviously this also has an implications for like, as
Speaker 1: panda populations decrease, it makes it even more difficult to
Speaker 1: keep the populations up because like, the more choice of
Speaker 1: mates you have, like, the more likely panda maating is
Speaker 1: going to happen. Because apparently pandas are really picky. So
Speaker 1: panda's only want to mate with another panda if they're
Speaker 1: attracted to that panda. Who who would have thunk? I think,
Speaker 1: I think I could take a lot of notes from
Speaker 1: female pandas. They have high standards. I think it is
Speaker 1: funny because maybe there's sometimes a conception that animals we'll
Speaker 1: just like mate with whatever they don't they aren't very
Speaker 1: fussy about it, like they they aren't choosy or selective,
Speaker 1: But in fact, a lot of animals are very selective
Speaker 1: about who they mate with, and it can have to
Speaker 1: do with like, quote unquote attraction, like especially birds. Like
Speaker 1: birds will make their choices and mates depending on whether
Speaker 1: they find them esthetically pleasing. So I think that sometimes
Speaker 1: animals are a lot more similar to us in this
Speaker 1: way than we may suspect, like they can be choosy too.
Speaker 1: They look female. Pandas have standards all right, Like they're
Speaker 1: not just gonna, you know, do there. I don't know
Speaker 1: what would it be like bamboo and chill with any
Speaker 1: old guy. It is comforting to know that um males
Speaker 1: of anti species like can't catch a hint about what
Speaker 1: right right? Exactly? Yeah, we we share that experience with
Speaker 1: the Panda's definitely bonding with the panda on the whole
Speaker 1: new level that I wasn't wasn't prepared for exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but so so Obviously, mating is difficult for pandas in
Speaker 1: captivity because imagine like you're abducted by aliens. You're dropped
Speaker 1: on an alien planet with like one other dude. Like
Speaker 1: it's not it's not like you gotta get to know
Speaker 1: each other. You know, you have to have some chemistry.
Speaker 1: You can't just like you're not just gonna be like
Speaker 1: all right, let's have a baby, like right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually didn't even think about that, Like you're basically
Speaker 1: just making an arranged marriage for these animals. It's like
Speaker 1: chopped on a planet with like Danny, DeVito, Like I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be super excited about that. Well speak for yourself.
Speaker 1: I would be over the moon. I love a Danny DeVito. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what's interesting is, yeah, it's these pandas have been
Speaker 1: trying to mate sort of awkwardly for about ten years
Speaker 1: and they have finally had a successful uh oh natural
Speaker 1: mating so like not not artificial insemination or anything. Um
Speaker 1: where where they Yeah, they they made it just the
Speaker 1: good old natural, old fashioned style, if you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And it makes me wonder if, like the
Speaker 1: lack of stress that comes from a lot of visitors,
Speaker 1: maybe that made it like easier for them to focus
Speaker 1: on each other or to relax and be able to mate.
Speaker 1: It's hard to say. We don't know if that's the case,
Speaker 1: but it certainly could be. I mean. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: it is pandamating season between March and May, so happy
Speaker 1: pandamating season, Drew. Are you having a good panamating season?
Speaker 1: Gather around the pandamating tree. Uh, string up the panamating lights.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's panamating season and the pandas started flirting
Speaker 1: back in March. Um Apparently Lee left some scent markings
Speaker 1: and started smelling ying ing um, which I think is
Speaker 1: very romantic. It's interesting, like I can't confidently say, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the panents started humping as soon as we turned our
Speaker 1: backs on them because they just wanted some privacy. But
Speaker 1: it does seem to be that maybe maybe there is
Speaker 1: some effect, like maybe the quietness and the solitude, like
Speaker 1: was it helped helped set the mood for them, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe like not having people constantly trying to
Speaker 1: interact with them and get their attention kind of they're like, well,
Speaker 1: we're here, we might as well get to it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's like so much stimulation from like watching people
Speaker 1: all day, like without that they have to look at
Speaker 1: each other and make eye contact and have conversations, you know,
Speaker 1: like those difficult conversations they've been putting off about like
Speaker 1: family planning and stuff, Like now they finally have to
Speaker 1: have those. Yeah. Maybe they agreed on a name finally,
Speaker 1: and now they're ready to start a fan Yeah. Well hope, Yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully a baby panda has been conceived. You know, we
Speaker 1: don't know yet, Like it takes a while for pandas
Speaker 1: to show signs of pregnancy. I think, so we won't
Speaker 1: know for a while but fingers crossed. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: love that. Baby pandas are like the cutest thing in
Speaker 1: the world, So I hope they when they first come
Speaker 1: out though they look like a weird pink naked mulerat Verifying,
Speaker 1: but they look like little aliens. But all most babies,
Speaker 1: I I never think babies are couper cute when they're
Speaker 1: fresh out of the mom, like pandas when they when
Speaker 1: they're fresh hot out of the mom, just like they
Speaker 1: do like little worms. But like give them little month
Speaker 1: or two and they start to get key. I mean,
Speaker 1: like it's funny because I think newborn babies are cute.
Speaker 1: But I think they're cute of every species. So even
Speaker 1: the weird bird babies that come out looking like like
Speaker 1: odd alien worm things like, I think those are cute.
Speaker 1: So I'm at least consistent with what I think is cute.
Speaker 1: So I do want to talk about You may have
Speaker 1: heard this the tiger who tested positive for COVID. Y. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is actually true as far as I can tell. Nadia,
Speaker 1: the tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID,
Speaker 1: which is of great note for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1: Um So, COVID we already know it's zooonotic, meaning it
Speaker 1: can jump from animals to humans, and apparently now it
Speaker 1: has jumped from at least one human to a tiger.
Speaker 1: Zookeepers suspect that one of the zoo keepers was asymptomatic
Speaker 1: and transmitted the virus to Nadia the tiger. She is
Speaker 1: the first confirmed case of feline COVID. She was tested
Speaker 1: after she exhibited signs of a dry cough. And there
Speaker 1: are other big cats at the zoo that also seemed
Speaker 1: to be getting sick, although they haven't received a test.
Speaker 1: So like, to give the test to the tiger, they
Speaker 1: have to sedate it, and it's a big process, and
Speaker 1: so like, basically the risks now outweigh the benefits of
Speaker 1: testing the other big cats that they're just assuming that
Speaker 1: cats that show the same symptoms are probably sick with COVID.
Speaker 1: I don't want to underplay the fact that this is alarming,
Speaker 1: but I also don't want people to like really panic.
Speaker 1: It's a it's concerning, but it's not. So here's some
Speaker 1: of the currencerns that I want to address first is like,
Speaker 1: and I know this is mostly a joke and it's
Speaker 1: but people are saying like, wait, why is a tiger
Speaker 1: getting a test ahead of like humans? So apparently the
Speaker 1: tests given to tigers are it's a feline tests, so
Speaker 1: it's completely different from the test given to humans. So
Speaker 1: it's not like the tigers are getting human tests, So
Speaker 1: don't worry about that. Another concerned people have is you know,
Speaker 1: like like yourself, you have a cat, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people have cats who are worried that they are
Speaker 1: going to either give COVID to their cats or get
Speaker 1: COVID from their cats, Like, has that been a concern
Speaker 1: of yours or have you thought about that? I've thought
Speaker 1: about when it was going around the cats could get COVID.
Speaker 1: I had a few friends who are a cat haters,
Speaker 1: who are like Sea, that's why you should get wrong
Speaker 1: with your cat, because give me coronavirus. But I wasn't
Speaker 1: too worried about us because we've really been locked up.
Speaker 1: But I'm more so thought about how much healthier my
Speaker 1: cat probably us than I am, because like, I make
Speaker 1: sure she eats super healthy food, and she's really at
Speaker 1: she you know, goes a bar on a Saturday night
Speaker 1: and up at a taco bell like I imagine system
Speaker 1: is a lot stronger than I. Well, I'm I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're not. I'm glad you're not panicking, and you shouldn't.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't panic, nor should other cat owners. So it
Speaker 1: is I understand the concern, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: legitimate concern. Whenever there's a virus that can jump from
Speaker 1: animals to people or people to animals, that's very concerning.
Speaker 1: But right now, there's no evidence suggesting that humans infect
Speaker 1: house cats regularly, like it's not something that happens very often,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing yet to suggest that the virus can
Speaker 1: then jump from the cat to the humans, so that
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any been any documented cases of that.
Speaker 1: Michael San Filippo, who is a spokesman for the American
Speaker 1: Veterinary Medicine Association, says, quote, this is almost exclusively a
Speaker 1: human to human transmitted disease. The risk two pets is
Speaker 1: very low, with only a handful of cases of the
Speaker 1: virus appearing in companion animals and no cases of people
Speaker 1: getting sick from their pets. So you know, it's it's concerning,
Speaker 1: but please don't like give your cat like a ticket
Speaker 1: to Antarctica and to say, like, well, see what we
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta socially distanced. Could never could never do that. No, no,
Speaker 1: I I know most most cat owners I know or
Speaker 1: like ride or die their cats. So it's a um
Speaker 1: but yeah, so it's a yeah, it's not not something
Speaker 1: to I think lose sleepover. It's just you know, you
Speaker 1: can maybe like practice the same kinds of practice as
Speaker 1: you do with other people. So like you know, you
Speaker 1: you're quarantined with your cat, and like you know, if
Speaker 1: you're if you interact with a cat like outside of
Speaker 1: the home or something like a neighbor's cat or something,
Speaker 1: just like wash your hands before and after touching another cat.
Speaker 1: Things like that. Just just stuff like that. But you know,
Speaker 1: I really wish that. I mean, I have a dog,
Speaker 1: and I kind of want to get a cat, but
Speaker 1: I can't tell if this is just sort of like
Speaker 1: quarantine brain going on right now, where it's like I must,
Speaker 1: I must acquire a cat, so I have to steal
Speaker 1: myself and and really think through this decision about whether
Speaker 1: I'm just going a little little cabin fever or cat
Speaker 1: cat fever. Cat cabin fever fever, I like that. So
Speaker 1: how does a virus joe from an animal to a
Speaker 1: human viruses infect their host by using surface proteins to
Speaker 1: attach to the surface receptors on a cell. Think of
Speaker 1: a key that opens a door. You know how corona
Speaker 1: looks like a spiky mace or like a couch ball.
Speaker 1: Those spikes are the surface proteins used to bind surface
Speaker 1: receptors on host cells. Once they've unlocked the cells, so
Speaker 1: to speak, they're able to enter the cell and hijack
Speaker 1: the cell's reproductive system to replicate their own DNA, infecting
Speaker 1: more cells and causing big problems for our bodies. So,
Speaker 1: if a virus is specialized for an animal, it doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily have the right surface proteins to bind to human cells.
Speaker 1: But when a virus mutates, especially if it originates from
Speaker 1: an animal not too far from us on the evolutionary tree,
Speaker 1: it has a small chance to become equipped to attach
Speaker 1: to and invade human cells. Usually mutations are harmful for viruses,
Speaker 1: but because they replicate so rapidly, occasionally luck will favor
Speaker 1: the virus and it develops just the right proteins to
Speaker 1: fit with our human cells. And because our immune systems
Speaker 1: haven't had a history of dealing with a disease, that
Speaker 1: usually affects another animal, it can be particularly difficult to
Speaker 1: fight off. But enough of this virus talk. When we return,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about some kittens that have infected our hearts.
Speaker 1: I mean not okay, not literally, it's okay. I don't
Speaker 1: have a case of heart kittens as far as I know,
Speaker 1: although there has been some mysterious mewing recently. Our pets
Speaker 1: good for your health. Obviously, it depends on a lot
Speaker 1: of factors, like if you have allergies or what you
Speaker 1: consider to be a pet. For instance, if you think
Speaker 1: an alligator as a pet, that's gonna be pretty bad
Speaker 1: for your health. But for the most part, owning a
Speaker 1: pet has a whole bunch of benefits. According to the
Speaker 1: c d C, owning a pet seems to be correlated
Speaker 1: with we're blood pressure, cholesterol, and trek lyceride levels. Dog
Speaker 1: owners in particulars seem to see a drop in cholesterol,
Speaker 1: although it's not clear what's causing this, as factors such
Speaker 1: as B M I and diet were controlled for Maybe
Speaker 1: dogs are secretly feeding us cholesterol lowering food when we're
Speaker 1: not looking. So we were just talking about the concerns
Speaker 1: that pet owners might have. But I have some really
Speaker 1: really good news, which is that animals are getting adopted
Speaker 1: at really high rates all over the country. Have you
Speaker 1: heard about this. It's so funny that you're talking about
Speaker 1: because my roommate and I were literally she wants a
Speaker 1: dog so bad, and she was talking about getting a dog,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I think it's because you're bored. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's not just your roommate, Like a lot of
Speaker 1: people are are thinking about doing this. So, like, shelters
Speaker 1: all over the country are being cleared out of animals
Speaker 1: because of all of the adoptions. So people are adopted
Speaker 1: and rescuing animals who would otherwise be waiting around or
Speaker 1: in some cases being put to sleep. So it's it's great,
Speaker 1: great news, like right now that that this is happening
Speaker 1: in a lot of shelters. So yeah, it's I think obviously,
Speaker 1: like the one of the big reasons is people want
Speaker 1: companionship while you're stuck at home. But I think it
Speaker 1: could also be like because people are able to work
Speaker 1: from home, you we have kind of the flexibility to
Speaker 1: adopt an animals. Oh one one cool thing, like if
Speaker 1: you're thinking about adopting an animal but you're kind of
Speaker 1: worried about like having to go to a shelter. A
Speaker 1: lot of shelters are doing curbside service to keep people
Speaker 1: safe while still doing adoptions. I love the idea of
Speaker 1: like pet drive through, Like, yeah, my mom actually um
Speaker 1: is a she's a foster like owner for a Sundcoast
Speaker 1: Animals shelter in Florida. Really cool. She social foster, you know,
Speaker 1: like um, a bunch of puppies and their mom or
Speaker 1: you know whatever maybe, And she was talking about how
Speaker 1: weird it's been since the pandemic because she's like, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm doing a drug deal. But like for puppies,
Speaker 1: you know, they have to put them on these long
Speaker 1: leashes and they have to let the dogs walk all
Speaker 1: the way over and then they can let go of
Speaker 1: the leash. Wants to make it to the new owner.
Speaker 1: She's like a very straight and would be like, I
Speaker 1: just don't want the pandemic to end. And then a
Speaker 1: bunch of people will be like, oh, I actually don't
Speaker 1: have time to take care of these yeah, and then
Speaker 1: they end up back in a shelter. Like I kind
Speaker 1: of get nervous about that, but I'm hoping for the
Speaker 1: most part, that's not an issue. I had that same
Speaker 1: thought and that same concern. I'm hoping. I think I'm
Speaker 1: kind of optimistic because I think that a lot of
Speaker 1: people who are adopting it may not just be like
Speaker 1: an impulse kind of thing. It maybe like they've been
Speaker 1: thinking about it for a long time and they've been
Speaker 1: kind of wanting to do it, but it's that hesitation
Speaker 1: where you're like, well, I'm not sure, you know, and
Speaker 1: I don't have time right now, and maybe I shouldn't.
Speaker 1: And then maybe this has just been like it's almost
Speaker 1: like maybe the anxieties around it and this feeling of like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: you know, I only you know, I only live once,
Speaker 1: and I really want to have a pet, and you
Speaker 1: know I should do that now, and I need someone
Speaker 1: right now. So I have that concern too, And I
Speaker 1: think people like, if you're thinking about adopting, really do
Speaker 1: think about what it will be like after self isolation ends,
Speaker 1: and like if you'll still be able to accommodate the
Speaker 1: animal into your lifestyle and give it, give it a
Speaker 1: lot of thought. But yeah, I do think a lot
Speaker 1: of it could just be like people have thought about
Speaker 1: it a while. It's I keep thinking about getting cat,
Speaker 1: but I'm really thinking hard about like, Okay, how is
Speaker 1: that going to change my lifestyle? And do I have
Speaker 1: the capacity for it? And will Cookie my dog like
Speaker 1: lose it? And in handy forever, I mean now it's
Speaker 1: the perfect time to potty train. If that's like something
Speaker 1: people were worried about when getting a dog, because it's
Speaker 1: like your second right. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: in some really really good news, heartwarming news with no caveats,
Speaker 1: is kittens visiting an aquarium. Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1: I don't know if my heart is, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to go for it. Prepare yourself because the Georgia Aquarium
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia is obviously close to the public, but
Speaker 1: they have paired up with the local Atlanta Humane Society
Speaker 1: to give little baby kittens a visit to the aquarium
Speaker 1: to see all the fishies. So the kittens are named Nemo, Guppy, Marlon, Bubbles,
Speaker 1: and Dory. I think that's very obviously from finding Nemo,
Speaker 1: and they have visited the aquarium and they got to
Speaker 1: play with the fit and the jellyfish. So you can
Speaker 1: see a video of this. I'm obviously going to include
Speaker 1: links to all of this in the show notes, but
Speaker 1: there's a video of one of the aquarium staff members
Speaker 1: who got on his scuba gear, either to do some
Speaker 1: tank maintenance or maybe just for fun, I don't know,
Speaker 1: and he was playing with the kittens from behind the glass,
Speaker 1: just like swimming around with the fish, tapping on the glass,
Speaker 1: and the kittens were losing losing it, going nuts. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just wonderful that I feel like we we
Speaker 1: need more videos like this during this time because it's like,
Speaker 1: it's just how can you get upset with this video?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's literally the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: It totally melted me. I am a puddle right now
Speaker 1: talking to you. I'm sort of a puddle with like
Speaker 1: a mouth flopping around on account on this video. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's not just a fun day for the kittens.
Speaker 1: I think it was done to raise awareness that you
Speaker 1: can still adopt animals and that shelters have to keep
Speaker 1: doing their their important work that they do. Another story
Speaker 1: I saw is the claim that right now they are
Speaker 1: letting elephants wander around the zoo and visit other animals.
Speaker 1: So I did some digging and this is not Fortunately
Speaker 1: don't have to completely debunk this, but it's not that right,
Speaker 1: This isn't a new thing. So there's a photo of
Speaker 1: this little baby elephant like high fiving a sea lion.
Speaker 1: And this actually happened in at the Oregon Zoo. So
Speaker 1: occasionally zoos will take animals who can walk around the
Speaker 1: zoo like just for a walk around for enrichment. And
Speaker 1: the photo of the baby elephant is at the Oregon
Speaker 1: Zoo and it's part of her routine morning walk around
Speaker 1: the zoo. And this was yeah back in and the
Speaker 1: baby elephants name is Jindra and the sea lion's name
Speaker 1: is Gus, and they are indeed high fiving. So I
Speaker 1: guess I bring this up to say that, like some
Speaker 1: of the new stories about like you know, zoos are
Speaker 1: are doing this new thing where they take animals on
Speaker 1: walks around the zoo and like have animals visit each other.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, that that's that's happened before. It's not.
Speaker 1: It's not all just like in response to the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But they're definitely doing it more now, I think because
Speaker 1: the zoos are closed and you know, they've got to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to do enrichment for the animals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad there's some type of interaction happening for the animals.
Speaker 1: It makes me feel like I went into the wrong
Speaker 1: career field though, because the idea of being the person
Speaker 1: who leads an elephant around the zoo to hang out
Speaker 1: with other animals with a dream. Yeah, yeah, it's ah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's it's a it's something like you know
Speaker 1: that you can feel like you're still giving animals some
Speaker 1: social interaction right now. So I want to in the
Speaker 1: show talking about I think probably a lot of people
Speaker 1: have heard about this, and this is wonderful. So penguins
Speaker 1: are taking for aquariums because the staff members of the
Speaker 1: aquariums are allowing penguins just to wander around and look
Speaker 1: at all the fish. So the Shed Aquarium in Chicago
Speaker 1: is close to the public, so penguins have been given
Speaker 1: free rein over the aquarium. So these are chin strap
Speaker 1: and rock hopper penguins. So those chin strap penguins are
Speaker 1: the little black and white ones um and rock hoppers
Speaker 1: are the little guys that have the little yellow like
Speaker 1: feathers coming out the sides of their heads. And they
Speaker 1: are rather small little penguins and very very curious little guys,
Speaker 1: and they can be seen in videos roaming around the
Speaker 1: aquarium visiting all the other exhibits. So, like I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier with the elephant story, this isn't a new thing.
Speaker 1: So they often allow penguins out of the exhibit to
Speaker 1: kind of wander around give them some enrichment. But right now,
Speaker 1: because the aquariums are close to the public, basically it's
Speaker 1: penguins time. Like one of the time, they get to
Speaker 1: go and visit as many exhibits as they want, wherever
Speaker 1: they want, like with supervision, but they basically they have
Speaker 1: a free all day passed to the aquarium to do
Speaker 1: whatever they want to do. And so not only is
Speaker 1: this obviously great for the penguins, it's so funny to
Speaker 1: see too, Like there's they they'll like go up to
Speaker 1: a jellyfish tank and a staff member will pick up
Speaker 1: a penguin so he gets a better view of all
Speaker 1: the jellyfish. It is adorable, and it also gives the
Speaker 1: other animals something to look at, so like animals that
Speaker 1: you can't take on a walk around the aquarium. So
Speaker 1: like a beluga, then they let the beluga see the penguins,
Speaker 1: and the penguin see the beluga, and it's a fascinating
Speaker 1: thing for both animals because obviously, so penguins and belugas
Speaker 1: do not share a natural habitat. They would never come
Speaker 1: across each other in in nature, but in the aquarium
Speaker 1: setting they get to visit each other and it's really
Speaker 1: it's like they are very fascinated by each other. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of love that idea of these animals getting
Speaker 1: to see each other, like and wondering what they must
Speaker 1: be going through their heads, you know, like a a
Speaker 1: bluega whale seeing a penguin. Like obviously, like you said that,
Speaker 1: they're never going to really cross pass in the real
Speaker 1: world like in the wildlife, so it's interesting. I I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, that's like, that's just so crazy. It
Speaker 1: makes you wish you knew what they were thinking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I know blugas often are very interactive, like when
Speaker 1: you come across them at a zoo or and aquarium.
Speaker 1: They're very curious. They're they're very intelligent, very social uh cetaceans,
Speaker 1: which are the what whales and dolphins are, and and
Speaker 1: they are able to rotate their heads so they can
Speaker 1: get a real good view of you, and so they
Speaker 1: will follow people around in They're very interested in what
Speaker 1: you're doing. So I imagine like without visitors, they're gonna
Speaker 1: need extra enrichment in order to keep them entertained because
Speaker 1: they are so intelligent. I do wonder though, when they
Speaker 1: see like a little tiny these little tiny bite sized penguins,
Speaker 1: if part of them are like I want to eat
Speaker 1: that penguine right. It reminds me like there is a
Speaker 1: video I feel like that when viral, like maybe a
Speaker 1: year or so ago, we're like there was this chimpanzee
Speaker 1: that was being taken care of and like the zookeeper
Speaker 1: let a dog in there, and like the dog and
Speaker 1: the chimpanzee like bonded and it was just thing. Ever,
Speaker 1: because it's like obviously they're not really gonna link up
Speaker 1: and you know the wild, but like what a cute
Speaker 1: pair that you didn't even think about? Yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: animals can form so many relationships in uh kind of
Speaker 1: man manipulated environments that they never would have in nature.
Speaker 1: Like cheetahs and dogs are often kept together at Zeus
Speaker 1: because cheetahs are very shy animals, very anxious, and to
Speaker 1: have a dog with them like makes them feel a
Speaker 1: little better. But obviously, like a golden retriever and a
Speaker 1: cheetah in the wild would not run into each other,
Speaker 1: but they actually are very compatible at uh in an
Speaker 1: artificial environment. Obviously, I'll include a link to this video,
Speaker 1: but like just seeing penguins just kind of like wander
Speaker 1: around the aquarium looking at stuff, like they take to
Speaker 1: it so well. They look so at home doing this.
Speaker 1: I feel like we've kind of opened a Pandora's box now,
Speaker 1: and these penguins are gonna be like, this is life
Speaker 1: now we own the aquarium. Yo. You guys are gonna
Speaker 1: have to figure something else out because it is our
Speaker 1: aquarium now, right. It's gonna be hard for them to
Speaker 1: go back to regular aquarium life. Yeah, they're just like, no,
Speaker 1: penguins are the new people now, like we got the memo,
Speaker 1: like we were on the place. Now it's us now,
Speaker 1: like business, business, business people, stuff, cars, pats, clothing, it's us.
Speaker 1: We're the people now. Well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me today, Drew. Do you have anything to plug
Speaker 1: before we go? Yeah, I do a lot of if
Speaker 1: you're interested in comic books, I do a lot of
Speaker 1: uh comic book based after shows over after bost TV.
Speaker 1: I have all the links to the different shows on
Speaker 1: my social media, which is okay, Drew J and thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. I feel like I learned so much
Speaker 1: about animals today. Oh well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me, and you can find us on the internet
Speaker 1: at Creature feature Pod on Instagram at Creature feed Pod
Speaker 1: on Twitter. That's f e A T, not f e
Speaker 1: e T. That's something very different. If you're interested in
Speaker 1: my Katie thoughts, I am at Katie Golden on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and of course, as always, I am the human participant
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Speaker 1: That actually really helps a lot. And I think I
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