Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Future 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 hey, would you look at that?
Speaker 1: It's the holiday season. I hope you're all staying safe
Speaker 1: as you can this year, and that murder hornets haven't
Speaker 1: come down your chimney pretending to be tiny gift bearing elves. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be doing another edition of Listener Questions. I
Speaker 1: love answering your animal questions. Also, doing these special Q
Speaker 1: and A episodes are really fun and relaxing, especially around
Speaker 1: the winter season when I'm full of eggnog and trying
Speaker 1: to hibernate. Don't worry, I'm gonna have regular episodes of
Speaker 1: this winter, including a couple of holiday specials and an
Speaker 1: episode I'm really buzzed about. But I think I'll do
Speaker 1: one more of these Q and A s in a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Also, if you have any evolutionary biology
Speaker 1: or behavioral psycho pology questions that you would like to
Speaker 1: hear answered on the show, please send me an email
Speaker 1: at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. So let's
Speaker 1: dive right into your amazing listener questions. I reached out
Speaker 1: to Twitter and through the show to get some of
Speaker 1: your questions, and I am so impressed, you guys. These
Speaker 1: are amazing questions and they give me so much to
Speaker 1: work with because they have incredibly fascinating stories behind them.
Speaker 1: So first question is from Undaunted Zephyr on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: their question is why do baby American coots look like
Speaker 1: they are a little bit on fire? Which is really funny.
Speaker 1: Baby American coot so coots are a type of waterfowl,
Speaker 1: a bird that lives on the water, and their babies
Speaker 1: do look a little bit on fire. There, these cute
Speaker 1: little chicks, but their heads are sort of orangy red
Speaker 1: and their beak are reddish, and it looks like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like their heads are on fire. So first let's give
Speaker 1: some information on coots. So American coots again a type
Speaker 1: of water fowl. They swim and live partly on the water.
Speaker 1: Like ducks. They actually look a bit like ducks, but
Speaker 1: despite its duck like appearance, they are not at all
Speaker 1: that closely related to ducks. In fact, they're not even
Speaker 1: in the same order as ducks. They are actually rails.
Speaker 1: So the American coot are all black with a white bill,
Speaker 1: although females are a little bit more of an ashy
Speaker 1: color and they have bright red eyes. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: there in the rail family, which are birds that are
Speaker 1: found all over the world that often inhabit wetlands. So
Speaker 1: when you get a look at a coot's feet, you'll
Speaker 1: actually realize how much unlike a duck they actually are.
Speaker 1: So instead of those cute little duck paddle feet, coots
Speaker 1: have these long segmented toes where each area of the
Speaker 1: toe between the joints has a leaflike shape, and it
Speaker 1: looks really remarkable. It actually, to me looks a bit
Speaker 1: like a succulent plant, if that makes sense, because they're
Speaker 1: also a yellowish green color, and it it looks, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it looks like part like Giarmo del Toro
Speaker 1: creature monster, part plant, part alien. It's really cool. It's
Speaker 1: hard to describe them, so I'll definitely include an image
Speaker 1: in the show notes. But you can also just like
Speaker 1: look for American coot feet and I promise it won't
Speaker 1: be weird. So these weirdly shaped feet allow them to
Speaker 1: be as mobile on land as they are in the water,
Speaker 1: So you know how hard it is to walk on
Speaker 1: land with swim fins or scuba fins, and you've seen
Speaker 1: ducks walk on land, they're not like super agile. So
Speaker 1: being able to bend their toes and actually each you know,
Speaker 1: part of their toe is between the joints, having their
Speaker 1: own little paddle on it allows them to swim really
Speaker 1: efficiently and walk on land really well, because American quotes
Speaker 1: actually spend a good amount of time on land, and
Speaker 1: the feet allow them to navigate with ease. They also
Speaker 1: serve a couple of other interesting purposes, so the feet
Speaker 1: helps them in fights, which is cool, I guess uh.
Speaker 1: And they also actually will take off from water, so
Speaker 1: they'll do a water take off where they actually run
Speaker 1: kind of skimming along the surface of the water while
Speaker 1: beating their wings. And those segmented feet with the with
Speaker 1: the big surface area on each part of their toes
Speaker 1: actually gives their feet a lot of surface area that
Speaker 1: will push against the water tension of the surface of
Speaker 1: the body of water and allows them to get a
Speaker 1: little bit of left as they're trying to do take off.
Speaker 1: So it's really interesting, like if you look at other
Speaker 1: animals that can kind of do this sort of run
Speaker 1: all on the water, like Jesus lizards as they're called
Speaker 1: or or water water walking lizards. They actually have sort
Speaker 1: of similar situation going on with their feet where they
Speaker 1: have like this, you know, kind of like webbing and
Speaker 1: then the broad surface area that allows them to uh
Speaker 1: skim across the water like uh like dash and the incredibles.
Speaker 1: So onto the listener question about these amazing birds, which
Speaker 1: is why do the babies look like they're on fire? So,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned earlier, coot chicks have red scalps, red
Speaker 1: feathers on their neck, and red beaks, which are actually
Speaker 1: traits they lose as they become adults. And it's actually
Speaker 1: really really interesting why they're redheads. I'm not biased here,
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying this because I'm a red head
Speaker 1: and I think redheads are cool. Anyways, So the bright
Speaker 1: coloration of these chicks heads helps signal the parents to
Speaker 1: feed the chicks, and interestingly, it helps the parents play favorites.
Speaker 1: So this is really fascinating type of signaling. So often
Speaker 1: in nature, when you have a bright color in an animal,
Speaker 1: it is signaling something. It's either sexual signaling where you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm attractive, i'm healthy, come mate with me. It could
Speaker 1: be a pisimtism, where you're like, hey, I'm actually poisonous,
Speaker 1: stay away from me, like poison dart frogs. Um. It
Speaker 1: can be you know, I'm venomous, like with with snakes.
Speaker 1: It can also be dishonest signaling, like you could be
Speaker 1: mimicking something poisonous. So it's really really interesting. This is
Speaker 1: a special case of signaling that these chicks are doing,
Speaker 1: which is the brighter the coloration on the chick's head
Speaker 1: of this red, fiery color, the more the parents will
Speaker 1: feed the chicks. So the less colorful chicks actually get
Speaker 1: kind of bullied by the parents, who pick them up
Speaker 1: by the scruff of their necks and shake them if
Speaker 1: they get too close to the other chicks. So this
Speaker 1: seems really sad, like, oh, why would they play favorites
Speaker 1: with their own chicks, Like what's the deal? Well, actually,
Speaker 1: so the more brightly colored chicks are younger and weaker
Speaker 1: than the less brightly colored chicks, So the younger the chicks,
Speaker 1: the brighter they are. And also it means like when
Speaker 1: they're younger, they're more vulnerable, so the older chicks are
Speaker 1: more likely to be able to get food for themselves,
Speaker 1: so the parents when they are trying to make this
Speaker 1: strategic decision of who they give their attention to. They're
Speaker 1: actually giving their attention to the younger, more vulnerable chicks
Speaker 1: who are more brightly colored, because they are less likely
Speaker 1: to be able to survive without that extra attention, whereas
Speaker 1: the older chicks, you know, they actually are getting to
Speaker 1: the age where they can probably get some food for themselves.
Speaker 1: So by even though it seems kind of cruel, by
Speaker 1: coddling the younger chicks and chasing off the older chicks,
Speaker 1: they're ensuring that the most chicks possible will be able
Speaker 1: to reach adulthead, which I feel, as a younger blaying myself,
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a real good argument for
Speaker 1: me to get coddled, you know what I'm saying. Anyways,
Speaker 1: in evolutionary biology terms, this means that that red coloration
Speaker 1: on the chicks is an honest indicator of being weaker,
Speaker 1: which is really interesting. It's a it's a pretty rare
Speaker 1: type of signal, like we don't usually animals don't like
Speaker 1: say like, hey look at me, I'm a weakly, But
Speaker 1: in this case, by letting their parents know that they
Speaker 1: are younger and weaker, the parents are able to devote
Speaker 1: more attention to them more likely to help them reach adulthood.
Speaker 1: So that is a really interesting question. I think that was.
Speaker 1: It's it's always fascinating to me how a very simple
Speaker 1: question about like, hey, why is this thing this color
Speaker 1: can lead to such an extraordinary answer. All right, So
Speaker 1: onto the next question. So this is from David Krauss
Speaker 1: on Twitter, who asks how do spiders, much to my
Speaker 1: personal chagrin, day moving in temperatures that freeze out most insects.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna admit that I actually don't know where
Speaker 1: spiders rank in their winter hardiness to other arthur pods
Speaker 1: or two insects. But spiders don't really like the cold,
Speaker 1: and the only way they survive in the winter is
Speaker 1: by finding warmer areas like leaf litter, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: like on the forest floor you have a bunch of
Speaker 1: leaf and decaying things that actually can be a little
Speaker 1: bit warmer than staying out in the in the snow
Speaker 1: or decaying would or hey, your home. That's why you
Speaker 1: find a lot of spiders in the winter. Probably, So
Speaker 1: the reason they don't become spider sickles, you know, just
Speaker 1: totally frozen, is they actually have anti freeze compounds. In
Speaker 1: their blood. So if you're a listener of the podcast,
Speaker 1: you may know that this is not too uncommon, like
Speaker 1: there are other animals out there who have these. Basically,
Speaker 1: they are anti freeze protein that prevent uh ice crystals
Speaker 1: from forming in the blood and that prevents the cells,
Speaker 1: the blood cells and other cells in your tissue from
Speaker 1: basically exploding from from being frozen. And one thing to
Speaker 1: note is that spider blood is called hemo lymph. There
Speaker 1: you go. If you squash a spider and you get
Speaker 1: a bunch of goo on you, you can be like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I got hemo lymph on me. That's what
Speaker 1: I do anyways. Uh So, spiders, despite having that anti
Speaker 1: freeze compound in their blood, uh they actually still need
Speaker 1: shelter in the winter. So that's why they like to
Speaker 1: come inside your homes for some holiday cheer. They're not
Speaker 1: trying to spook you. In my opinion, as long as
Speaker 1: they're not venomous species, I'd say give them little tiny
Speaker 1: mugs of hot bug juice and ate little team ins
Speaker 1: and like a little like a little winter hat or
Speaker 1: like a little tuk or something. I think that'd be
Speaker 1: cute alright. A sort of related ish question from m V.
Speaker 1: Bramley on Twitter is what is the deadliest bug in America?
Speaker 1: And what are the chances of a swarm of them
Speaker 1: descending on Washington, d C? Anytime soon? Asking for an electorate?
Speaker 1: So the deadliest bug in North America is actually a
Speaker 1: little bit surprising. It is bees and wasps. So you
Speaker 1: might think of like the most venomous bug or Arthur
Speaker 1: Potter insect as being the most dangerous or deadliest, but
Speaker 1: it turns out it's really a combination of factors that
Speaker 1: makes bees and to slightly lesser extent, wasps the most
Speaker 1: deadly insects in America. In North America, So the reason
Speaker 1: they're so dangerous is the frequency of their stings, like
Speaker 1: the likelihood that you're going to be stung. There as
Speaker 1: a bunch of bees out, Obviously we want more um
Speaker 1: bees around. There have been some struggles with their population recently,
Speaker 1: but still you're much more likely to encounter a b
Speaker 1: You're also much more likely to frighten a bee in
Speaker 1: a way that's going to make them want to sting you.
Speaker 1: Whereas spiders, even the more venomous ones are pretty reclusive.
Speaker 1: I mean, brown recluses are called brown recluses. Uh, and
Speaker 1: while there they will use their venom to bite if
Speaker 1: they need to. They try to, like most of their
Speaker 1: strategy is just trying to stay away from you. Whereas bees,
Speaker 1: while they don't want to sting you, they're they're hesitant
Speaker 1: to do that because it is very costly for the bee,
Speaker 1: it will result in the worker bees death. But you know,
Speaker 1: she doesn't really necessarily want to sting unless she really
Speaker 1: feels like you're threatening, and especially if she feels like
Speaker 1: you're threatening the hive. So the reason though, while their
Speaker 1: venom is not that potent, I mean, anyone who's gotten
Speaker 1: stung by bee knows that it's not pleasant, but it's
Speaker 1: not super potent. However, despite not being the most venomous
Speaker 1: insect in North America, beastings can often cause allergic reactions,
Speaker 1: which is actually the more dangerous aspect of the beastings.
Speaker 1: So an allergic reaction can lead to anaphylactic shock, which
Speaker 1: is a life threatening condition that is extremely dangerous. You know,
Speaker 1: it makes the throat swell up, it you can struggle
Speaker 1: to breathe. That it's uh, it's something where you need
Speaker 1: to go to the hospital to treat. So actually about
Speaker 1: a hundred people die a year in the US due
Speaker 1: to beastings and to a lesser extent, to wasps sting.
Speaker 1: These are actually more dangerous when it comes to having
Speaker 1: that allergic reaction than wasps, which is interesting. It Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm thinking it's probably partially due to the fact that
Speaker 1: bees are more numerous than wasps, but it's also someone
Speaker 1: who's allergic to beastings isn't automatically also allergic to wasp stings,
Speaker 1: So there may be something to the actual beavin um
Speaker 1: that um. More people are allergic to and can also
Speaker 1: be uh. If you are, you can actually develop an
Speaker 1: increasing allergy to beastings. So if you're stung multiple times,
Speaker 1: you you can actually start to develop an allergy to beastings.
Speaker 1: The bee vinum itself is not super dangerous, so a
Speaker 1: non allergic, healthy adult can take up to you around
Speaker 1: a thousand beastings. I don't recommend it, definitely do not
Speaker 1: recommend that, but it will not kill you if you
Speaker 1: have a thousand beastings. Again, don't don't go get a
Speaker 1: thousand beastings. Guys. It's not not good. It's not a
Speaker 1: good time. I'm not speaking from experience, but I feel
Speaker 1: like It's one of those things where it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: if I had a bet chunk of money on whether
Speaker 1: getting a thousand beastings was gonna be a good time,
Speaker 1: I'd say it wouldn't be. Yeah. So someone who is allergic, however,
Speaker 1: can go into deadly anaphylactic shock after only one beasting.
Speaker 1: So the bee is deadliness really is due to that
Speaker 1: allergic reaction that some people have to their stings, rather
Speaker 1: than some insidious level of venom. Um. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I think in terms of like, uh, how you then
Speaker 1: view bees is like, I still love bees. I think
Speaker 1: these are really cool animals. Obviously they're incredibly important pollination.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't love honey? But also just as part of
Speaker 1: our environment. Um, However, you know, it's like it's good
Speaker 1: to know about. How Like, rather than vilifying bees for
Speaker 1: being dangerous, it's just like, hey, take that knowledge and
Speaker 1: then protect yourself. So, um, you know, just be careful
Speaker 1: around bees, especially if you're allergic, or if you haven't
Speaker 1: been stung before and you don't really know your allergy status. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you have any signs of an allergic reaction after
Speaker 1: being stung, or if you know you're allergic but you
Speaker 1: haven't had any signs yet and you've been stung, you
Speaker 1: should go to the er immediately. And if you have
Speaker 1: an EpiPen, you should use that. That's actually a really
Speaker 1: useful thing for people or you know, you um, that
Speaker 1: will help stave off the allergic reaction. But then you
Speaker 1: still need to go, uh go get medical help after that.
Speaker 1: So if you're stung by a beam, the best way
Speaker 1: to remove the stinger is actually by scraping it off
Speaker 1: pointy end first with the back of a fingernail. Basically,
Speaker 1: you don't want to put any pressure on the venom sack,
Speaker 1: which you can actually sometimes see, uh it's like this
Speaker 1: a little like fleshy twitching thing that's attached to the
Speaker 1: stinger at the base. And if you squeeze that sack,
Speaker 1: like if you try to basically like pinch it out
Speaker 1: or like tweeze it out and you you accidentally put
Speaker 1: pressure on that sack, you'll actually squeeze more venom into
Speaker 1: your ding sites. So basically, you carefully flick off the
Speaker 1: stinger as quickly as and as carefully as you can,
Speaker 1: either with you know, fingernail or if your fingernails aren't
Speaker 1: long enough, you can use like a credit card or
Speaker 1: or a hard leaf anything that basically you know it's
Speaker 1: not you don't want to like use your bare fingers
Speaker 1: because then you could get it, you know, sting yourself again.
Speaker 1: But once you've gotten that that out of there, then
Speaker 1: you want to wash your finger as soon as you
Speaker 1: can with gentle soap and water. Uh. And then you
Speaker 1: know you can apply a cool compress and take some
Speaker 1: over the counter pain relievers. Obviously if you're having anything
Speaker 1: more than just like some local swelling and pain, uh,
Speaker 1: go go see a doctor, as you know, immediately. All right,
Speaker 1: So I think we're gonna take a quick break, but
Speaker 1: then we will be right back. Get it, be right back, guys,
Speaker 1: All right, well I'll be our back, all right. So
Speaker 1: here is our next question. This is from Megan LeMay,
Speaker 1: who asks how much would would a woodchuck chuck if
Speaker 1: a woodchuck could chuck wood? Alternatively, our platypus is really
Speaker 1: luminous and under uv. So first with the platypus is
Speaker 1: I think we just talked about that on the show
Speaker 1: in our Barking News episode a couple of weeks ago. Um,
Speaker 1: I think Megan, you sent this question and actually before
Speaker 1: we recorded that that episode, so good looking out for
Speaker 1: that animal news. Yeah, but yes, that is absolutely true.
Speaker 1: It's an incredible recent discovery. Platypus for does glow a
Speaker 1: sort of eerie blue under UV light, and researchers aren't
Speaker 1: exactly sure why this happens yet, but I'm hoping we
Speaker 1: learn soon, so I'll keep an eye out for that.
Speaker 1: For any glowing platypus news, I will keep my ears
Speaker 1: and eyes open. So the wood chuck question actually has
Speaker 1: a really long answer, and it's very interesting and it's
Speaker 1: i think very important. So, as you may know, wood
Speaker 1: checks don't chuck wood. That's a misnomer, so why are
Speaker 1: they called that? So wood chucks are also just groundhogs
Speaker 1: by another name. Here's an interesting thing. Groundhogs can also
Speaker 1: be called whistle pigs because of the whistling alarm call
Speaker 1: that they make. So ground hogs or wood chucks are
Speaker 1: in the marmot family, which are large, furry, bold rodents
Speaker 1: who like to steal my backpacking gear when I encounter them.
Speaker 1: If you're ever hiking in especially in the Sequoias, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of marmots and they love the taste
Speaker 1: of your sweat. So if you leave any camping gear
Speaker 1: out that has any sort of salty sweat on it,
Speaker 1: you can bet a marmot is going to try to
Speaker 1: take it, so just be careful. So ground hogs or
Speaker 1: wood chucks eat mostly vegetation, berries, grasses. They will occasionally
Speaker 1: eat insects and very occasionally baby birds that they happen
Speaker 1: upon cool. So the reason we call groundhogs woodchucks sometimes
Speaker 1: is actually a really important history lesson, and it is
Speaker 1: due to the stubborn ignorance of American colonizers. So the
Speaker 1: likely story is that the Algonquian speaking Narragansett Indian nation
Speaker 1: of Rhode Island has a word for the groundhog that
Speaker 1: two colonists ears sounded like woo chuck, which later became woodchuck.
Speaker 1: It was likely a misunderstanding either of their actual word
Speaker 1: for groundhogs one or possibly from the word for a fisher,
Speaker 1: a non rodent carnivorous mammal in the weasel family. Either way,
Speaker 1: the colonists made no effort to properly learn the language
Speaker 1: of the people whose land they stole and who they massacred.
Speaker 1: So I think it's so interesting by learning about the
Speaker 1: etymology of words about animals and learning about the animals
Speaker 1: themselves elves. I mean, as you know, woodchucks don't chuck wood,
Speaker 1: so it leads to the question why are they called woodchucks.
Speaker 1: So with these starting questions, you can also learn about
Speaker 1: the less told history and bloodstains of America and realize
Speaker 1: that there's this whole other natural and human history of America,
Speaker 1: much of which is lost due to the genocide of
Speaker 1: all the people who are living here before colonists arrived.
Speaker 1: Learning about animals and the environment often comes hand in
Speaker 1: hand with learning about the history of people, and they
Speaker 1: really can't and shouldn't be separated, in my opinion. With that,
Speaker 1: I think we'll take a quick break and I'll be
Speaker 1: back to answer more listener questions. All right, and we
Speaker 1: are back, and I think I'll answer one more question today.
Speaker 1: So this is from for goodness Sakes. Sorry, this is
Speaker 1: from were Goodness Snakes? A Twitter user who asked me,
Speaker 1: is your favorite snake the chrysopola since they fly like birds,
Speaker 1: or is that your least favorite since they use that
Speaker 1: flight to eat many birds? Or just what's your favorite snake?
Speaker 1: So this is a great question. So the crossopola, which
Speaker 1: are also known as flying snakes, are really interesting. I
Speaker 1: can't hate them. I mean, it's hard to pick a
Speaker 1: favorite snake, but they are super fascinating. So they are
Speaker 1: a genus of snakes that live in Southeast Asia and
Speaker 1: are typically a sort of reticulated green and black with
Speaker 1: yellow bellies or mild variations on that color scheme. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're more brownish, sometimes they're more reddish. Uh. They feed
Speaker 1: on prey such as smaller reptiles, amphibians, rodents, bats, and yes,
Speaker 1: unfortunately birds as well. They have a mild venom which
Speaker 1: poses virtually no threat to humans, but it does pose
Speaker 1: a big threat to their prey. So the of course
Speaker 1: most signat sure aspect of these snakes is that they
Speaker 1: can fly. They fly by ascending trees, using ridges on
Speaker 1: their bellies to grip onto the rough tree bark. So
Speaker 1: once they are high enough, they will slither out to
Speaker 1: a branch until they hang over the edge and they
Speaker 1: kind of dangle like a fish hook and prepare themselves
Speaker 1: to jump. So once they are ready and they've triangulated
Speaker 1: their course, they will spring out and start gliding. They
Speaker 1: flatten their abdominal muscles and double the width of their
Speaker 1: bodies in a split second, turning themselves into like a
Speaker 1: long flat wing which undulates in the air to get
Speaker 1: further lift. So using this technique, they can fly over
Speaker 1: one hundred meters, which is about three hundred and thirty feet.
Speaker 1: In terms of my favorite snakes, uh, here's a few
Speaker 1: snakes that I like. So the hog nos nachs have
Speaker 1: this really cute habit of playing dead when they're scared.
Speaker 1: They also have these adorable little upturned snouts and they
Speaker 1: are generally harmless to humans, So adorable little cuties who
Speaker 1: just get scared and play dead when you happen upon them.
Speaker 1: Another really cool snake is the California red sided garter snakes,
Speaker 1: which are like the neon tetras of the snake world.
Speaker 1: They have this bright neon blue band on their backs
Speaker 1: and red bands on their sides with a dark blue
Speaker 1: square pattern, and they also have more neon blue on
Speaker 1: their bellies. They can bite, and they have a mild venom,
Speaker 1: but it's typically only kind of a local itching and
Speaker 1: burning and slight swelling in humans, so you know, not
Speaker 1: too bad. I wouldn't get bit by them, I mean, okay,
Speaker 1: so going forward, any time I say an animal probably
Speaker 1: won't kill you if it bites. You still don't get
Speaker 1: bitten by that animal, all right, it's not an invitation
Speaker 1: to stick your arm in a garter snake pit. All right, Cool,
Speaker 1: We're cool, all right. So I think, though, my favorite
Speaker 1: snake is the Arabian sand boa because it is an
Speaker 1: absolute dorcas total goof is complete silly muppet of a snake.
Speaker 1: They are found in the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, so
Speaker 1: they live in desert regions and spend most of their
Speaker 1: time buried under the sand. They have a sandy light
Speaker 1: brown pattern coloration to camouflage with their desert environment, and
Speaker 1: they grow up to be about fifteen inches long, which
Speaker 1: is about thirty eight centimeters, and they are relatively chunky.
Speaker 1: They're like, instead of being a slender snake like the
Speaker 1: flying snakes, they are kind of they're kind of thick,
Speaker 1: thicker than a bowl of oatmeal. These snakes, So these
Speaker 1: goofballs look like someone filled the stocking with stuffing and
Speaker 1: put a couple of google is up on top of
Speaker 1: their head. And it is so silly looking, so unlike
Speaker 1: other snakes. Their little beady eyes are right on the
Speaker 1: tops of their head, peering in either direction, totally looks
Speaker 1: made up like a muppet. And the reason they look
Speaker 1: this silly is that the location of their eyes allow
Speaker 1: them to pop up from under the sand and just
Speaker 1: kind of like lit. The tops of their heads come
Speaker 1: up from the sand like a little periscope, so they
Speaker 1: can peep out for little prey and then if the
Speaker 1: prey comes by, they will ambush them. And it also
Speaker 1: lets them keep an eye out for predators, so these
Speaker 1: little snakes will eat geckos and warm lizards, which are
Speaker 1: small legless lizards that aren't actually snakes. So the goofiness
Speaker 1: just goes all the way down. In fact, I really
Speaker 1: love this topic. I think I'm going to have a
Speaker 1: whole episode on the goofiest, most fun, most cool snakes ever,
Speaker 1: So look forward to that Twitter user for good of
Speaker 1: snakes uh And I think that'll do it for questions today.
Speaker 1: You guys, this was really absolutely great. All of your
Speaker 1: questions were amazing, really led me down some rabbit holes
Speaker 1: of both research and being able to tell you some
Speaker 1: really cool evolutionary biology stories. So thank you so much again.
Speaker 1: You know, if you have some questions for me, send
Speaker 1: them on over to Creature feature Pod at gmail dot
Speaker 1: com and if you have pet pictures, send those to
Speaker 1: me as well. If you've got crab memes, I love
Speaker 1: crab memes, you know, the all those crab memes about crabs.
Speaker 1: Love those, send those in. You can also find me
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I am at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Creature Feet Pod. That's f e A T not
Speaker 1: Feta is something very different on Twitter h And I'm
Speaker 1: Katie Golden on Twitter. That's k A T I E
Speaker 1: g O L D I in. Don't always tweet about animals.
Speaker 1: I also tweet about all the things I'm passionate about
Speaker 1: in life. So you know, there you go. It'saw my
Speaker 1: Katie thoughts and so yeah, definitely appreciate you guys reaching
Speaker 1: out to me. It really means so much to me.
Speaker 1: And hey, if you're enjoying the show, if you could
Speaker 1: leave a review and a rating, that would be so excellent, Like,
Speaker 1: let me know if you like these q and as
Speaker 1: and you want me to keep doing them past past
Speaker 1: the holidays, or if you don't like them. Please don't
Speaker 1: give me a bad rating though, just because you don't
Speaker 1: like the Q and a s, because like you know,
Speaker 1: I can change, maybe I can change. So yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Those reviews really do help me a
Speaker 1: lot with the old with the old Apple podcast algorithm,
Speaker 1: and uh, they mean so much to me. I read
Speaker 1: everyone and I cherished them all, so thank you so much.
Speaker 1: And guys, I really hope you have wonderful winter season,
Speaker 1: wonderful holidays. But you know, stay safe. I know you're
Speaker 1: all really smart, so I probably don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about you, guys, but you know I love you all,
Speaker 1: so I do, so you know, stay safe, keep keep
Speaker 1: keep up those quarantines, and we'll get through this time.
Speaker 1: And I think we will still have a wonderful, wonderful
Speaker 1: winter despite it being a little different. So you know,
Speaker 1: just hanging there, you guys. I am here with you,
Speaker 1: going through the same thing. So all right. Thank you
Speaker 1: to this Space Colassics for their super awesome song. Ex
Speaker 1: Alumina Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey guess
Speaker 1: what where have you listen to your favorite shows? See
Speaker 1: you next Wednesday.