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 am recording this podcast from
Speaker 1: my living room. Will my dog make a gift appearance today?
Speaker 1: I've got to tell you her podcasting skills are rough.
Speaker 1: As we are all adapting to a new way of
Speaker 1: life right now, in the name of public health, I
Speaker 1: want to look at some incredible animal adaptations to draw
Speaker 1: inspiration from. We'll discover some incredible immunities from critters we
Speaker 1: think of as dirty or dangerous, some animals who are
Speaker 1: hardcore to the bone, and some insects who are getting
Speaker 1: pretty creative with this whole adaptation thing. Discover this and
Speaker 1: more as we answer the asual question are birds real now?
Speaker 1: I know it's tough uncertain times for a lot of
Speaker 1: us right now due to coronavirus US. California and New
Speaker 1: York just issued orders for people to shelter at home
Speaker 1: and shut down non essential businesses or are having people
Speaker 1: work from home. This may seem extreme and scary, but
Speaker 1: getting that social distance is one of the best ways
Speaker 1: we can adapt right now to slow the spread of
Speaker 1: the virus. Human beings have a great advantage when it
Speaker 1: comes to being adaptable. We can at will change our
Speaker 1: societal habits to help protect us from new dangers such
Speaker 1: as a virus. So while it may be jarring to
Speaker 1: have to adapt to this new, more isolated way of life,
Speaker 1: think of it as a temporary society level adaptation. Not
Speaker 1: everyone can stay at home, such as people who work
Speaker 1: in grocery stores, pharmacies, and of course our nurses and
Speaker 1: doctors who are all risking their health to keep society
Speaker 1: functioning and save lives. But if you're able to stay home,
Speaker 1: it's incredibly important that you do so, even in areas
Speaker 1: where it hasn't been ordered. It may seem like a
Speaker 1: trivial thing, but by staying home when you can, you
Speaker 1: could literally save thousands of lives. I may seem like
Speaker 1: I'm exaggerating, but mathematically and scientifically it is absolutely the truth.
Speaker 1: Human contact is an exponential chain. If you contact one person,
Speaker 1: and that person contacts two people, and those two people
Speaker 1: each contact to other people, et cetera, you've indirectly contacted
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people. In terms of viral transmission,
Speaker 1: this means by breaking the chain even at one point,
Speaker 1: at one person, by staying home and away from groups
Speaker 1: of people, you've potentially saved thousands of lives in a way.
Speaker 1: This is a bit awe inspiring. Right now we have
Speaker 1: the power to be superheroes, to save someone's dad or
Speaker 1: grandma or sister, or your own friends and families. I
Speaker 1: know how weird it is to alter our habits so drastically,
Speaker 1: but adaptation can be strange. So today I want to
Speaker 1: talk about some very pecute all your animal adaptations to
Speaker 1: help inspire our own social isolation adaptation. Joining me today
Speaker 1: on a trip to adaptation station is writer and co
Speaker 1: host of the Nightcall podcast Emily Yoshida. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me, Katie. Yeah, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 1: So we are talking, uh sort of living room to
Speaker 1: living room on the internet, a new experience for all um.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, it's I'm really glad you're here to
Speaker 1: join me. I have some really these are some of
Speaker 1: my favorite animal adaptations. Of course I say that every
Speaker 1: episode that these are my favorite animals, but it's always true. First,
Speaker 1: I want to before we begin, I want to encourage
Speaker 1: people to rate, review, download, and subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker 1: It's actually super helpful to get us up in that algorithm,
Speaker 1: and that's how we get sponsors, and that's how I
Speaker 1: get money. So I can buy a bunch of yarns
Speaker 1: so I can knit a bunch of stuff while I'm
Speaker 1: stuck at home. I'm actually gonna start, I think crocheting
Speaker 1: a rug, because you know, that's what you do. I
Speaker 1: thought to find a project. I think any project that
Speaker 1: doesn't involve a screen is super important. Right now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are you do? You have any things that you're
Speaker 1: doing at home to kind of stay occupied? Well, I
Speaker 1: um made the mistake of trying to move in the
Speaker 1: middle of all this so um, which also involves getting
Speaker 1: a lot of furniture, because I mostly got rid of
Speaker 1: all my furniture after the last place that I moved from.
Speaker 1: So I UM, I did happen to find a really cute,
Speaker 1: um little art deco credenza, but cheap. But it was
Speaker 1: cheap because it needs to be refinished. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to start my first refinishing project. Now, for those of
Speaker 1: us speaking hypothetically, those of us who are uncivilized and
Speaker 1: don't actually know what a credenza is? What? What is that?
Speaker 1: This is? Basically, um, it's like an entertainment center. It's
Speaker 1: a se down. It's just a kind of low, long
Speaker 1: um shelf, usually withdrawers, or like a record cabinet if
Speaker 1: it's from the error of records um where you can
Speaker 1: just kind of put your inner you can put your
Speaker 1: various consoles and whatever on top or inside of it.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, I see. So those hypothetical people who
Speaker 1: didn't know what a credenza is, now they know. You
Speaker 1: learn something new every day. Yeah, well that's I think
Speaker 1: that's a that's a great project to have this kind
Speaker 1: of I mean, first of all, it gives you something
Speaker 1: to spend your time doing, and also it's improving your home,
Speaker 1: which you're gonna be a a lot right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything to improve the home is really paramount right now,
Speaker 1: because you notice every little thing that's wrong with it exactly.
Speaker 1: I'm like, have I vacuumed this carpet enough? I know
Speaker 1: I vacuumed it this morning, but should have vacuum it now.
Speaker 1: I don't even have a vacuum yet, So that's I've
Speaker 1: got to cross that bridge when we get there. Just
Speaker 1: use a pair of tweezers and tweez up individual floor particles.
Speaker 1: I mean, you got time. I mean, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: thorough and by the time you're done with with going
Speaker 1: across the entire floor, the other end of it probably
Speaker 1: needs to be tweezed again. So yeah, exactly. Well, speaking
Speaker 1: of vacuums, I want to talk about nature's little vacuum,
Speaker 1: the opossum. So you know, you've you've seen an opossum before.
Speaker 1: You know, these little, these little trash buddies. They are
Speaker 1: the only marsupial found in North America. What was your
Speaker 1: attitude towards opossums? You know, I had a really um
Speaker 1: scarring experience with a possum when I was when I
Speaker 1: was young. And it wasn't that it was like it
Speaker 1: wasn't that I got attacked by one or anything. It
Speaker 1: was just that I saw one at my school bus
Speaker 1: stop when I was I think I must have been
Speaker 1: in third grade or something, and um, it was out
Speaker 1: for some reason in daytime, and I think it couldn't
Speaker 1: see but it was just acting like it was drunk.
Speaker 1: So it was like umbling down the street and I
Speaker 1: never you know, I was like pretty young, I've never
Speaker 1: seen an animal act that way before, and it was
Speaker 1: really upsetting. It felt like a kind of like a
Speaker 1: zombie um possum wandering down the street, and I got
Speaker 1: really freaked out, and I ran up to the house
Speaker 1: that the driveway that I was waiting in just to
Speaker 1: like wait till it passed by. Yeah, I mean that's
Speaker 1: a that's a fairly rational reaction to an animal that's
Speaker 1: stumbling around when it's drunk that or like it's drunk,
Speaker 1: because that is actually one of the signs of rabies.
Speaker 1: But as we'll talk about, actually the possums are they're
Speaker 1: not immune to rabies, but they are one of the
Speaker 1: animals that are less likely to have rabies. So I
Speaker 1: think that because they look a little off putting. They
Speaker 1: have very teethy faces, they kind of look a little
Speaker 1: bit like big weird rats that they feel like they
Speaker 1: should be teeming with disease. But they're actually not that bad,
Speaker 1: and in fact, they in some ways actually save us
Speaker 1: from some dis eases. So just a few opossum facts here.
Speaker 1: They are, like I said, the only marsupial found in
Speaker 1: North America. As marsupials, they have pouches, and when they
Speaker 1: give birth to their litter, which is about seven babies. Uh,
Speaker 1: they look like little tiny, weird jelly beans that crawl
Speaker 1: up into their pouch and attached to one of their
Speaker 1: mother's thirteen teats that are inside this pouch. So think
Speaker 1: about it's like a kangaroo. But there's about seven of
Speaker 1: them and they each get in that pouch and attached
Speaker 1: to one of one of those nice nice mom mom teets.
Speaker 1: And when they get too big for the pouch, they
Speaker 1: will write on her back. I find that adorable. Some
Speaker 1: people might not so much. I'm hoping to convert people
Speaker 1: to be a possum lovers. They seem scary to a
Speaker 1: lot of people, and I understand it. They they've got
Speaker 1: a little bit of a stink face. I see it.
Speaker 1: But they're actually pretty cool and one of the less
Speaker 1: dangerous wild animals. So they aren't very aggressive. Obviously. Here's
Speaker 1: the caveat and never tried to pick up a while
Speaker 1: the possum never try to handle it. That's not going
Speaker 1: to be good. It will probably bite you if you,
Speaker 1: like try to grab it, but they don't. They're they're
Speaker 1: typically pretty scared of people. Well, they're not scared of people.
Speaker 1: They're kind of chill around people. They've gotten used to humans,
Speaker 1: but they don't they're not aggressive. They don't really want
Speaker 1: to tangle with you. When they feel threatened or cornered,
Speaker 1: they will hiss, spare their teeth, but mostly like if
Speaker 1: they really feel threatened, they'll do the whole play dead thing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're they're pretty, they're pretty chill. They just
Speaker 1: don't like if you scare them, they will try to
Speaker 1: protect themselves. And yeah, that playing dead thing. I think
Speaker 1: that also kind of gives them a spooky reputation, because
Speaker 1: there's nothing more upsetting than saying what you think is
Speaker 1: roadkill suddenly like jolt up. Yeah, I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: that I don't think they're cute. I do think that
Speaker 1: they're rather cute. It's just that there's something sort of
Speaker 1: uncanny about the postums that. Yeah, I guess that does
Speaker 1: account for it somewhat. Yeah, it's an unusual animal. I
Speaker 1: mean I definitely had a scare from an opossum when
Speaker 1: I was a kid. We had one in the backyard
Speaker 1: and it looked dead. Of course, we knew that opossums
Speaker 1: play apossum and pretend to be dead, but I guess
Speaker 1: we just didn't realize the extent to it. We thought
Speaker 1: it was just sort of like he would be able
Speaker 1: to see it breathing, and it's on its back and
Speaker 1: it's kind of like got one eye peeking open to
Speaker 1: see if you're buying it something like that. But this
Speaker 1: thing looked super dead. It smelled dead. It was rigid,
Speaker 1: like I think my dad very gently moved it with
Speaker 1: a shovel to see if it was alive, and it
Speaker 1: was stiff. It seemed like it had rigor mortis. And
Speaker 1: so my dad was like, well, you know, we we
Speaker 1: lived next to a canyon. So he very like gently
Speaker 1: and respectfully picked it up with shovel covered in it
Speaker 1: like a rag, and like carried it over to the
Speaker 1: canyon because he was thinking like, well, you know, at
Speaker 1: least then if we get if coyotes come to get it, like,
Speaker 1: it'll be in the canyon and not our backyard. But
Speaker 1: as soon as he kind of he you know, very
Speaker 1: gently kind of like put it because he he was
Speaker 1: you know, he was kind of freaked out about it.
Speaker 1: He wasn't like, oh, let's let's eat this up a
Speaker 1: possible over here. So he just was like, all right,
Speaker 1: sorry a little guy, and like put in the canyon
Speaker 1: and we watched it kind of roll off this shovel
Speaker 1: onto the ground. And it just gets on its feet
Speaker 1: and walks away. And it was the spookiest transition from like,
Speaker 1: yeah it was. It was so it was so spooky.
Speaker 1: And usually it's not really their fault. They're not doing
Speaker 1: it intentionally. It's actually a fainting response, so it's an
Speaker 1: automatic response and they can't wake up until after a
Speaker 1: little bit of time passes, just kind of like like fainting.
Speaker 1: So they're as they're probably as freaked out by it
Speaker 1: as you are, to be honest, is there an actual
Speaker 1: difference between an opossum and a possum? Yeah? Yeah, possums
Speaker 1: are related and they are also marsupials, but they're in
Speaker 1: Australia and opa sums are basically found in North America.
Speaker 1: But is there anything they're different like, and do they
Speaker 1: look they look different? They are different species? Yeah, huh,
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I thought it was just interchangeable. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of people find possums to be a little cuter.
Speaker 1: Their faces are a little less like long and rat like,
Speaker 1: they're fluffy. Uh, they're they're actually I find them very adorable.
Speaker 1: I also like opossums aren't an American variety, but I
Speaker 1: think more people find the possums a little cuter because
Speaker 1: they're fluffy, or they kind of look more like Teddy Bear,
Speaker 1: Like I'm looking it up right now. I looked up
Speaker 1: possum versus opossum, and I found an image that says
Speaker 1: possum is an Australian cutie and opossum is an American freaky.
Speaker 1: It's true, Okay, I didn't realize this I and I
Speaker 1: don't even know that I was familiar with the possum
Speaker 1: because this is a new looking creature to me. I've
Speaker 1: only seen an opossum, so I think they're both cute personally,
Speaker 1: but I get it, I get why they're little different.
Speaker 1: So one other reason the opossum has a bit of
Speaker 1: a spooky reputation is that when they're scared, one of
Speaker 1: the things they do is this open mouth, defensive hissing
Speaker 1: and drooling, which makes them look like they're rabid. But
Speaker 1: typically this is just a defensive technique meant to freak
Speaker 1: you out, and they're actually not necessarily rapid. Obviously, I
Speaker 1: would never risk it personally. Uh that It's like, it's like,
Speaker 1: why why risk it? You know, they're not, like I said,
Speaker 1: some people think that they're immune to rabies they're not.
Speaker 1: They can still get it, just at a lower rate
Speaker 1: uh compared to other mammals, and this is speculated to
Speaker 1: be due to their lower body temperatures. They run a
Speaker 1: little colder than most mammals do. In fact, when they're
Speaker 1: playing dead, they can lower their entire body temperature by
Speaker 1: an additional half a degree celsius and they release anal
Speaker 1: gland odors. Their parasympathetic nervous system makes their respiration dropped
Speaker 1: by a third, in their heart rate drop by a half.
Speaker 1: So that's why they can pull off such a compelling
Speaker 1: definitely learn how to do that. How do they know
Speaker 1: what what what it means to smell dead? Like? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's not the individual, it's their parasympathetic
Speaker 1: nervous system, which they really don't have any control over.
Speaker 1: It just kind of happens automatically, and it's just over
Speaker 1: over many, many thousands of years of evolution, each of
Speaker 1: these traits seemed to give them a little bit of
Speaker 1: a benefit in terms of deterring predators and making them
Speaker 1: think they're a stinky corps. I have to say that
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that um myself, but also, like all humans,
Speaker 1: don't have the same reaction to being scared that our
Speaker 1: anal glands produced the smell of a corpse, because I
Speaker 1: think that that would be going to a horror film
Speaker 1: a really unpleasant experience. Some people do poople, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know not not is common, but no shame here. This
Speaker 1: is a no shame the podcast. You can poop yourself
Speaker 1: a little bit as a treat. So I think one
Speaker 1: of the lesser known things about opossums is some of
Speaker 1: their superpowers. So apossums are actually immune to many snake
Speaker 1: venom varieties. So peptides in their blood grant them immunity
Speaker 1: to snake venom of several species, including some rattlesnakes, and vipers,
Speaker 1: and it even works against snake venom from species outside
Speaker 1: of their natural habitat of North America, like India's rush
Speaker 1: russell viper. And these peptides have been isolated by researchers
Speaker 1: and have been found to work to protect mice who
Speaker 1: have been injected with the opossum peptides, and researchers think
Speaker 1: that these apostom peptides could be used as a cheap
Speaker 1: universal anti venom, especially in areas where snake bites are
Speaker 1: common and I think that's really cool that, you know,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think of this as
Speaker 1: this little like stink beast that is scary and dirty,
Speaker 1: but like they may hold the key to helping us
Speaker 1: with snake bites a right, good for possums, Good for possums. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you guys. They also helped fight against lime disease. So,
Speaker 1: like I was saying, these are nature's vacuums because they
Speaker 1: love to eat ticks. It's their favorite things. They eat
Speaker 1: ticks like popcorn. I don't know what's your what's a
Speaker 1: what's a snack that sings to you? Popcorn? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love popcorn. T Well, they eat them like popcorn, and
Speaker 1: dear ticks love to give you lime disease, which is
Speaker 1: a very serious disease that can linger for years and
Speaker 1: years and years and cause a lot of nasty complications
Speaker 1: and is really a terrible thing. And you know, when
Speaker 1: opossums eat up those deer ticks, that decreases the number
Speaker 1: of deer ticks out there, and that helps control the
Speaker 1: spread of lime disease. In fact, opossums are able to
Speaker 1: kill of the ticks that get on their fur, and
Speaker 1: they'll also eat a bunch of ticks that they find
Speaker 1: on the ground. They just hoover them up. They love
Speaker 1: them so much. It makes me feel like possums like
Speaker 1: if they're if they're eating all this stuff, they're there,
Speaker 1: this is what they They're like bottom feeders basically, which
Speaker 1: makes me feel like they will survive the apocalypse more
Speaker 1: so than anybody else, right, I mean, they're like they're
Speaker 1: like little Nature's little room buzz. It's it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: So it's like, I now understand why it's kind of
Speaker 1: nasty to eat possums as like roadkill. I've never I've
Speaker 1: never eaten a possum, and I don't know what it takes.
Speaker 1: I've never heard it's done what people report. I figure
Speaker 1: it is done. Like do you know like what people
Speaker 1: describe the taste does? Is it like kind of ticky?
Speaker 1: Just imagine it being kind of meally like yeah, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that they enjoy what they're eating. I feel
Speaker 1: like it is a bit of the killing the Golden
Speaker 1: goose though, right, Like if they eat so many deer ticks,
Speaker 1: you can't can't eat deer ticks if if you're eating
Speaker 1: the animal they eats the deer ticks. They also eat cockroaches, rats, mice,
Speaker 1: dead animals, snails, and slugs, basically anything nasty they're happy
Speaker 1: to eat. Are they considered scavengers or um? There are
Speaker 1: omnivorous scavengers. They're pretty opportunistic. They will scavenge, they'll hunt,
Speaker 1: they'll eat fruit, and they'll eat all sorts of little critters. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They they're a little they're they're a little trash buddies.
Speaker 1: They love it. They're they're, like I said, Nature's room buzz. Well,
Speaker 1: how do they compare to raccoons? So I feel like,
Speaker 1: are like the cuter possums, like, because they're also little
Speaker 1: trash buddies to the raccoons eat all this nasty stuff. Also,
Speaker 1: raccoons are also omnivores and they do hunt as well
Speaker 1: as eat plants and and berries and uh, you know, insects.
Speaker 1: But I would say, actually, I'm a little like if
Speaker 1: you were to say, do you want to spend time
Speaker 1: with an opossum or a raccoon, I would pick the opossum.
Speaker 1: First of all. Raccoons have, as far as I know,
Speaker 1: higher rates of rabies than opossums, and I think they're
Speaker 1: probably a little bit less chill than an opossum. They
Speaker 1: may seem a little less scary, but I think that
Speaker 1: apossums are slightly more more chill than raccoons. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like if I hung out with an apossum, the
Speaker 1: worst thing that was going to happen to me is
Speaker 1: I had to smell in some stinky death anal gland
Speaker 1: odors from the possum. But yeah, they're they're, They're I
Speaker 1: think their diets are pretty similar. Now. I don't think
Speaker 1: raccoons are as good as hoover and up those ticks,
Speaker 1: though they don't have that nose, that little needle nose
Speaker 1: to get in all those It's like an ant eater
Speaker 1: or something. It's like it's like a little funnel for
Speaker 1: for dear two. Well, I haven't seen any attempts on
Speaker 1: YouTube to domesticate possums, but maybe they're out there. I
Speaker 1: just know that that's a whole genre of YouTube that
Speaker 1: I have watched. I'm sure there are opossum pets. I'm
Speaker 1: positive I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure they would make the best pets, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: it so another animal that I think is kind of
Speaker 1: scary but actually could offer us some promise are sharks. Now.
Speaker 1: I love sharks, and I think that public attitudes on
Speaker 1: sharks are shifting slowly but steadily. More people like sharks
Speaker 1: while they seem scary. I think there's a potential that
Speaker 1: in the future sharks could save many more lives than
Speaker 1: they actually end up taking. Which sharks. There are so
Speaker 1: many different species of sharks, and most of them are harmless,
Speaker 1: and the ones that are dangerous kill very few people.
Speaker 1: So it is I think they get a bad reputation for,
Speaker 1: you know, not not the best reasons. I mean, I mean, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: sometimes they'll they'll munch on a leg or two. I
Speaker 1: get it. It's not always great, but yeah, they they
Speaker 1: have these really interesting properties, and they actually are seem
Speaker 1: to be quite hardy, and it's speculated that they may
Speaker 1: get disease at a lower rate, including cancer. I've got
Speaker 1: a like a lot of things with research about animals.
Speaker 1: The truth of this may be complicated by the fact
Speaker 1: that it's hard to study them. So while they're are
Speaker 1: fewer reports of disease and sharks, that could be that
Speaker 1: it's harder to locate six sharks because like, if they're unhealthy,
Speaker 1: they're less likely to say like approach or research vessel
Speaker 1: and get you know, inspected by researchers, and their low
Speaker 1: rates of cancer could be because they have some resistance
Speaker 1: to it, but it could also be that they live
Speaker 1: in relatively carcinogen free environments, so they're just less likely
Speaker 1: to get cancer because they're in this like open ocean
Speaker 1: where there aren't as many carcinogens as other places. There
Speaker 1: is a myth, and I'm surprised to learn this that
Speaker 1: people thought that sharks are immune to all disease and
Speaker 1: can't get cancer, which is not true. They can, in
Speaker 1: fact get cancer. And while this seems kind of like
Speaker 1: a harmless myth, like, oh man, that's that's cool, that's
Speaker 1: a fun reputation for the shark to have, it's actually
Speaker 1: really harmful for the sharks and for people. So the
Speaker 1: myth originates by this idea that their cartilage can stop
Speaker 1: camp sir, and this has actually led to killing sharks
Speaker 1: for their cartilage for a treatment that doesn't work. So
Speaker 1: both the sharks who get killed and the people who
Speaker 1: have cancer who get duped into buying these pills are
Speaker 1: the victims here. And this myth is based on some
Speaker 1: real research which is finding that cartilage has anti angiogenic properties,
Speaker 1: so that means it inhibits the growth of new blood vessels,
Speaker 1: and so tumors actually grow by sending out growth hormones
Speaker 1: to encourage blood vessels to feed them. It's all very
Speaker 1: like sci fi spooky, like you have this tumor and
Speaker 1: it's like sending out messages to your body to get like, uh,
Speaker 1: blood vessels to grow towards it and feed it. So
Speaker 1: if you have something that's anti angiogenic, which just means
Speaker 1: it it blocks the growth of blood vessels, that can
Speaker 1: help slow the growth of a tumor. And cartilage has
Speaker 1: that property. And so someone got it in their head that, oh,
Speaker 1: shark cartilage like must be great at this because we
Speaker 1: don't find that many sharks with tumors. And if you
Speaker 1: take a pill with some ground up shark cartilage, it's
Speaker 1: going to help your cancer. But it doesn't it has
Speaker 1: it actually. In fact, it's like we know demonstrably that
Speaker 1: these shark cartilage pills have absolutely no effect on tumors.
Speaker 1: And so it's a really frustrating thing where people, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of get like, there's it's the misuse of research,
Speaker 1: and it's it's always frustrating to see that where it's
Speaker 1: like you have something that's like based in a little
Speaker 1: bit of science. You know, first of all, shark cartilage
Speaker 1: may be no different from other cartilage. And second of all,
Speaker 1: you can't just eat cartilage, you know, that's not how
Speaker 1: it's gonna help with with tumors. So it's always it's
Speaker 1: always frustrating, I think, because I think it dilutes actual
Speaker 1: research when you get these sort of half half developed
Speaker 1: things where it's like, okay, so it's like the whole
Speaker 1: stem cells thing. Have you there's that podcast on it.
Speaker 1: Have you listened to that one? What's it called? It's
Speaker 1: always funny when you do see like a beauty product
Speaker 1: or something, it's like it's stem cell i cream. It's like, what,
Speaker 1: so you have the stem cells on your body? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you just put them on your body. That's how they work, right,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm looking. Oh, oh it's called it's called
Speaker 1: Bad Batch and it's I I highly recommend that as
Speaker 1: long as you're not squeamish about medical stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a great investigative podcast into the world of
Speaker 1: how stem cells, which are actually a really promising field
Speaker 1: of research, are misused by some bad actors who are like,
Speaker 1: you know, you just like put stem cells in random
Speaker 1: places in your body and that helps you somehow. And
Speaker 1: it's like, no, just stem cells to your forehead. Apply
Speaker 1: the stem cells directly to your forehead. Vape the stem cells.
Speaker 1: You know. I saw, I saw our local vape shop
Speaker 1: was still open. Great to see that essential business still
Speaker 1: open by the studio or um well no, just just
Speaker 1: by my just by my apartment, because I'm this this
Speaker 1: is my studio now and my home and my everything.
Speaker 1: Well we'd is we we dispensaries are considered a necessary
Speaker 1: business to stay open during our lockdown. So you know,
Speaker 1: I mean that I actually humans are death. That I
Speaker 1: get though, I mean we WE'D I think as Actually
Speaker 1: it's got like a medicinal purpose, so that that that
Speaker 1: I'm okay with. I don't know, maybe vapes do too.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be so harsh on the vapes.
Speaker 1: It's just funny enough, yeah, exactly. So, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that shark cartilage doesn't seem like, you can't just eat
Speaker 1: shark cartilage, please don't. It doesn't help. There is some
Speaker 1: real research about a promising gift that sharks could give medicine,
Speaker 1: and it is an organic compound found in dog fish
Speaker 1: sharks that has broad anti viral properties. Again, don't just
Speaker 1: rub a dog fish shark on your forehead. That's not
Speaker 1: gonna work. But let me let me talk about this compound.
Speaker 1: So it's called squalamine. So it hasn't yet yielded any
Speaker 1: medications that work on humans, but researchers are studying how
Speaker 1: to use it to work as an anti viral in
Speaker 1: people and potentially even to treat certain cancers and eye disorders. So,
Speaker 1: squalamine has been found in dog fish shark tissue and
Speaker 1: it can help fight viruses. It's been tested against viruses
Speaker 1: behind dangay fever and hepatitis. Again, it hasn't been used
Speaker 1: to treat humans yet. It's just been found like in isolation,
Speaker 1: like it can like kill these viruses and it disrupts
Speaker 1: a virus's life cycle, which makes it harder for the
Speaker 1: virus to propagate within live tissue. So I think that's
Speaker 1: that's pretty that's pretty cool, as long as we don't
Speaker 1: get some some jerk who's like, oh, you've got to
Speaker 1: grind up a dog fish and turn it into a Well,
Speaker 1: how do you get the extracts from it. Do you
Speaker 1: you have to kill it to get it or I, well,
Speaker 1: I would assume. I would assume most of the time
Speaker 1: they are killing the sharks to get this compound. That's
Speaker 1: why it's so frustrating when it's like, Oh, just just
Speaker 1: be like some kind of weird mermaid vampire and drink
Speaker 1: dog fish shark blood while we're still working on those
Speaker 1: apossum and shark derived super serums. We owe a lot
Speaker 1: of things to many animals for their contribution to medicine.
Speaker 1: The Brazilian pit viper's venom was able to be used
Speaker 1: to synthesize capital prill, an anti hypertensive compound that helps
Speaker 1: reduce blood pressure and can reduce the risk of death
Speaker 1: after a heart attack. It can also help spare the
Speaker 1: kidneys in cases of diabetes. A hormone found in the
Speaker 1: heel monster lizard's minimous saliva helped synthesize accinetide, a treatment
Speaker 1: for diabetes. There are many other things discovered about animal
Speaker 1: biology that has and will continue to be able to
Speaker 1: contribute to medical science. Just one reason it's so important
Speaker 1: to care about our ecology and the survival of species. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we should care just because animals are cool and red
Speaker 1: and wonderful, but they can also save our butts, So
Speaker 1: let's save their butts. To ask not what you can
Speaker 1: do just for your own butt, but for every other
Speaker 1: butt on the planet. Inspiring words. When we return, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about a couple of very cute little animals with
Speaker 1: a very spooky secret. Welcome to today's installment of the
Speaker 1: League of Supercritters who care about justice and heroism. When
Speaker 1: danger calls, who's there to answer the phone? Is it
Speaker 1: a bird? Is it a plane? Or is it a
Speaker 1: semi aquatic amphibian? It's that last thing. It's Dr Newtton,
Speaker 1: a Newt who was blasted with radioactivity. You know, the
Speaker 1: good kind that turns you into a superhero, not the
Speaker 1: bad kind that destroys every cell in your body. Anyways,
Speaker 1: Dr Newton patrols the city or well, you know, the pond,
Speaker 1: and uses his incredible superpowers to fight evil, such as
Speaker 1: Gills Finnegan, the dastardly fish, who is evil. When the
Speaker 1: bad guy attacks rib Capaw, Dr Newton uses his rib
Speaker 1: cagerane to stab the bad guy in the mouth with
Speaker 1: this rib bones. Pretty cool superhero. So and only I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about the Spanish ribbed newt, which has
Speaker 1: one of the most unusual defensive tactics I've ever seen
Speaker 1: in any kind of animal. If you look at the document,
Speaker 1: you will see a picture of this little guy really stunning,
Speaker 1: kind of inquiry adorat um and dirty is the right
Speaker 1: word for him. Yes, yes, I captioned this as a
Speaker 1: very dirty looking animal. It's got those big, big eyes,
Speaker 1: it's got like a big wide mouth that's kind of
Speaker 1: permanently affixed, and kind of a doofy little that is
Speaker 1: the sound. This picture is very much a sort of
Speaker 1: audible picture, and it is that kind of like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, guys, I don't know, very cute. He's very
Speaker 1: wet looking and very cute. Yeah, yeah, he is very cute.
Speaker 1: He looks very harmless and kind of dopey. But he's
Speaker 1: got rib spikes. Now, if you scroll down, you will
Speaker 1: see those rib spikes, and they're weird. So he can
Speaker 1: actually thrust his rib cage over to the side and
Speaker 1: poke his rib bones out of his skin. So when
Speaker 1: the Spanish ribbed newt feels threatened, it pushes its pointy
Speaker 1: rib bones out of its side and uses them to
Speaker 1: sting predators. So it swings the rib cage until it
Speaker 1: pierces through their skin, and at the same time, their
Speaker 1: skin actually produces a milky toxin, so when the rib
Speaker 1: cage pokes through the skin, it actually picks up the
Speaker 1: toxin that's on the surface of the skin. And when
Speaker 1: it jabs its predator, those rib bones work as toxic
Speaker 1: barbs to thend off the animal trying to eat it,
Speaker 1: and it can cause pain or even death to any
Speaker 1: predator unlucky enough to try to put this thing in
Speaker 1: its mouth. Um. This just reminds me of like either
Speaker 1: the Maleficent movie or when Lady Gaga had like the
Speaker 1: bony cheekbones, like that kind of cool look. It's like that,
Speaker 1: but with your ribs, which also just feels like a
Speaker 1: whole um certain genre of terrible tumbler that used to exist.
Speaker 1: I do feel like this could be a Gaga address.
Speaker 1: Like a dress that like makes it look like you
Speaker 1: have these rib bones like sort of jetting out of
Speaker 1: your side, like spoilers or something. It's very fashioning. It's
Speaker 1: very like like um like constructed sort of um tour.
Speaker 1: It's a very like severe kind of almost eighties look.
Speaker 1: I feel like, yeah, yeah, like like you just have
Speaker 1: spikes kind of coming out everywhere on your shoulder pads.
Speaker 1: You got shoulder pads, it can poke an eye out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is kind of like that. I mean work, it's
Speaker 1: quite a look, it is. It's it's a statement, I
Speaker 1: would say, and the statement is don't put me in
Speaker 1: your mouth. So you'd think it would kind of suck
Speaker 1: to have to constantly pierce through your own flesh with
Speaker 1: your ribs um kind of like how it to day
Speaker 1: It's fine, but yeah, it's like with wolverine where they're
Speaker 1: actually able to very quickly heal their skin. So that
Speaker 1: always kind of weirded me out with like wolverine cards,
Speaker 1: like he just always like with his little hand claws.
Speaker 1: They just always are cutting through that skin between your knuckles.
Speaker 1: It's creepy. But yeah, I mean kind of kind of
Speaker 1: a rip off of the Spanish rib new Really, do
Speaker 1: you think it's actually inspired by that? I mean, does
Speaker 1: any other animals do this sort of quick healing thing.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never heard yea, yeah, actually so a
Speaker 1: lot of amphibians are very good at healing their skin,
Speaker 1: and in fact, harry frogs also do something similar. We've
Speaker 1: actually talked about them. On the show before on the
Speaker 1: Superheroes episode, Harry frogs will break their handbones and push
Speaker 1: them through their skin like claws, so very much like Wolverine,
Speaker 1: and they're also able to heal well. It's actually not
Speaker 1: quite known how what how these guys work. It's assumed
Speaker 1: that they're able to heal up quickly because like there
Speaker 1: have been specimens caught that seemed to have healed, but
Speaker 1: they've never actually been able to keep one in captivity
Speaker 1: and see what the processes. So we aren't quite at
Speaker 1: the point where we can make a human Harry frog
Speaker 1: hybrid for a very like weird looking huge Hugh Jackman,
Speaker 1: you know, like a frog froggish huge Jackman. I don't
Speaker 1: like that image at all. Well, it's not as cool
Speaker 1: like to fight with your ribs as like um is
Speaker 1: to fight with your your hands or your claws or
Speaker 1: something like if you're just sort of singing your Torso
Speaker 1: I think that's a matter of perspective because if it's
Speaker 1: like if it's from like like aggressive torking, I think
Speaker 1: that could be actually a really cool way to fight someone.
Speaker 1: It's like, look, but don't touch right exactly, sort of
Speaker 1: like just like a seductive dance. But you're you've got
Speaker 1: like ribs, spikes just like jutting out of your skin.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, convenient exactly that This is one word comes
Speaker 1: to mind with these newts that can jab their own
Speaker 1: rib bones out of their skin, and it is convenient.
Speaker 1: But using your bones as a defensive weapon isn't unique
Speaker 1: to amphibians, which sounds like a really weird pickup line.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about pottos and they are
Speaker 1: primates who are in the same sub order as lemurs,
Speaker 1: and they live in tropical rainforests in Africa and in
Speaker 1: English speaking regions in Africa. It's actually known as the
Speaker 1: softly softly do you two? It's smooth, quiet gait through
Speaker 1: the trees. Same and yeah, Emily is freaking out a
Speaker 1: little bit because they're so cute. It looks so soft.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I believe it earned its name. Yes
Speaker 1: they are, Yes, they are incredibly soft. They are closely
Speaker 1: related to slow lorises, and they actually look a little
Speaker 1: bit like them. They've got that really soft looking rusty
Speaker 1: tan for they've got big brown eyes that you could
Speaker 1: just drown in. Their adorable I'm I am in love,
Speaker 1: of course, I'm always falling in love hopelessly on this podcast,
Speaker 1: and here I go again. I am in love with
Speaker 1: the potto. So they also have short, fluffy tails. They
Speaker 1: are very furry, and they have little nubby ears. Emily,
Speaker 1: how would how would you in your own words, describe
Speaker 1: this animal? Um? This animal looks like an emoji. UM.
Speaker 1: It's got these little ears that are like they I
Speaker 1: don't know. It says that they're about fourteen inches long,
Speaker 1: so it looks like the ears might be about the
Speaker 1: size of like a pinky finger. They're just like we're
Speaker 1: gonna imagine like putting up your little pinkies next to
Speaker 1: your head to little little potto ears. UM. In one
Speaker 1: of these pictures here, his tongue is sticking out, so
Speaker 1: he kind of looks like the tongue sticking out smiley. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I think like the an
Speaker 1: amanopia for this animal is just like nam Nam Yeah,
Speaker 1: uh like you, like you said, they're about fourteen inches
Speaker 1: or thirty five centimeters long, excluding that little tail, and
Speaker 1: the tail is only about two to four inches or
Speaker 1: five to ten centimeters, And they have stubby little fingers
Speaker 1: and in fact, they don't really have an index finger.
Speaker 1: It is vestigial and it's only a tiny little nub.
Speaker 1: And they have what is known as a toilet claw
Speaker 1: on their hind legs that they use for personal grooming.
Speaker 1: And I'll leave it to the imagination what you think
Speaker 1: they use that for. That's a very nice euphemism there.
Speaker 1: It's not just for potty stuff. It's it's you know,
Speaker 1: like it's like, yeah, exactly. So they actually don't have
Speaker 1: too many predators just because of their nocturnal habits, their
Speaker 1: quiet movement through trees, and their ability to do crypsis
Speaker 1: through very slow movement, and they just kind of quietly
Speaker 1: hang out in the trees and eat fruit and insects.
Speaker 1: But if they do come in contact with a predator,
Speaker 1: and they have a nifty defense tactic, which is that
Speaker 1: they have unusually long and sharp neck vertebrae that are
Speaker 1: really pointy, and it seems like they should almost pierce
Speaker 1: through the skin, but fortunately they don't. They are covered
Speaker 1: in thick fur and skin, so it's just this kind
Speaker 1: of like weird bumpy neck that's got these like spikes
Speaker 1: right under the skin. And you can see a skeleton
Speaker 1: of one of these guys if you scroll down, and
Speaker 1: you can see their neck. How sharp and pointy their
Speaker 1: neck vertebrae is, which is, you know, not not super
Speaker 1: common with mammals. It looks almost like a like some
Speaker 1: something evolved from a stegasaur or something like. It's just
Speaker 1: these sort of like fingers kind of on the neck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting you say that because there are some paleontologists
Speaker 1: who point to this animal is kind of an example
Speaker 1: of what these may have been used for, like comparing
Speaker 1: their skeleton to some of these dinosaurs skeletons that have
Speaker 1: that those like weird and of course dinosaurs often had
Speaker 1: much more elaborate uh exactly like these big, big, long
Speaker 1: cervical vertebrae that we're just like incredible. But yeah, these
Speaker 1: these guys have it too, and they um so when
Speaker 1: they're threatened, they will tuck themselves in a cute little
Speaker 1: ball with their hands covering their heads, which is just adorable.
Speaker 1: And it just exposes those next spikes, which again they're
Speaker 1: not so long that you can't like see like like
Speaker 1: spines like on a porcupine coming out of their neck.
Speaker 1: It's just that their neck kind of like protrudes a
Speaker 1: little bit, and it's a little blumpy and it's thought
Speaker 1: that it kind of functions like one of those anti
Speaker 1: coyote vests that little dogs wear. Have you seen them
Speaker 1: where it's like these like plastic spikes that cover your
Speaker 1: entire dog to try to protect it with from coyotes.
Speaker 1: And it's like the dorkyest looking vest you can get
Speaker 1: your dog, but it does keep them safe from coyotes.
Speaker 1: I like the idea that like a dog is going
Speaker 1: to wear it and get made fun of by its
Speaker 1: dog friends, but then a coyote comes and like he
Speaker 1: bravely fends off the coyote with his like crazy like
Speaker 1: safety vest. It's like just punk like punk. It's just
Speaker 1: punk fashionactly, it is punk fashion. Yeah, these are very
Speaker 1: punk punk primates. And yeah, so like it's gonna be
Speaker 1: kind because like if a predator goes for the neck,
Speaker 1: it's gonna get that kind of those spines, those bony
Speaker 1: protrusions in its mouth. It's not going to be great.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be harder for it to get at the neck.
Speaker 1: But it's also these next spines might not only be
Speaker 1: used as an anti predator defense. It's thought that it's
Speaker 1: also used in mating, and there's some evidence to suggest
Speaker 1: that they use these to stimulate sexual partners, and that's fun.
Speaker 1: It's always nice to have like ant though on the
Speaker 1: back of your neck a vibe. It's look, I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of neat, you know, like like they've got
Speaker 1: they've got love and war in one in one bone structure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's business in the back, but that business is also
Speaker 1: party as well. I like it, very cute. And then
Speaker 1: there's one more picture I did of one of these
Speaker 1: little guys in a defensive posture, very cute, tucking its
Speaker 1: little head down there. I love I love these guys.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, yeah, these these guys. And also
Speaker 1: like the we talked about the slow lorist too. They
Speaker 1: just have very interesting creative defensive techniques. Of course, the
Speaker 1: slow lorist can get it kind of secretes a toxin
Speaker 1: from near its armpits in its arms, and then it
Speaker 1: licks that up and then it once it's in its mouth,
Speaker 1: it can then bite something and it has a toxic
Speaker 1: bite because of the stuff that it's like from its armpits.
Speaker 1: So that that's that's pretty cool. Cute, cute, little Cutei's
Speaker 1: with real real weird, weird stuff. They're gonna pull on
Speaker 1: you if you try to threaten them. Oh I'm looking
Speaker 1: at slow Loris's slow Laura. Oh my god, I love them,
Speaker 1: love them great animal. A plus, did you know that
Speaker 1: children have weird bones? Children's bones heal much more quickly
Speaker 1: than us adults, despite all that tree climbing in general tomfoolery,
Speaker 1: because children's bones grow so rapidly. When they break, they
Speaker 1: heal much more quickly than our old adult bones, and
Speaker 1: the fact that they're still growing allows the bones to
Speaker 1: fix its shape. Kid bones are also super bindy. They're
Speaker 1: less brittle than adult bones, and they're more prone to
Speaker 1: bending than breaking. This isn't always a good thing. A
Speaker 1: bent bone can be more difficult to treat and set
Speaker 1: than a cleanly broken bone because it's harder to detect
Speaker 1: on an X ray and the nature of the injury
Speaker 1: is less clear. Bones that bend and break in children
Speaker 1: are called green stick fractures. This references the difference between
Speaker 1: new green branches and old dry branches. New branches bend
Speaker 1: a bit before cracking, whereas old dry branches are brittle
Speaker 1: and will snap and break. Really makes me feel good
Speaker 1: about being an adult. The green stick fractures typically occurs
Speaker 1: in kids under ten years old. Also, did you know
Speaker 1: that babies have way more bones than adults. While most
Speaker 1: adults have two hundred and six bones, babies have almost
Speaker 1: three hundred. This is because when you're born, you have
Speaker 1: more soft cartilage in the body, and these soft bones
Speaker 1: fused together as you drow. When we return, we're going
Speaker 1: to discuss a couple animals that don't have any bones
Speaker 1: at all. Make no bones about these animals. They have
Speaker 1: some pretty wild adaptations. Right now, rumors abound that birds
Speaker 1: aren't real, that there's some kind of government conspiracy or
Speaker 1: robotic draw own. As a totally unbiased party who is
Speaker 1: not funded by Big Bird, I could tell you that, absolutely, declaratively, positively,
Speaker 1: this is categorically false, a foul accusation. My lawyers are
Speaker 1: fighting against crow bono. My lawyers, who are well versed
Speaker 1: in bird law, are also working on another case copyright infringement.
Speaker 1: The defendant a six legged flying impost So Italy, if
Speaker 1: you could, could you take a look at the YouTube
Speaker 1: videos that I have linked for you? Sure think right now?
Speaker 1: The sounds not important, just the visuals. Well, it looks
Speaker 1: like a big old butterfly, but it's also a hummingbird.
Speaker 1: The humming fly butterbird, butterbird, I like that name better.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately they are called hummingbird moths, but butterbird is a
Speaker 1: great name that, uh think. Yeah, it's too bad you
Speaker 1: weren't around when they were naming these guys. So hummingbird
Speaker 1: moths are indeed moths. There are different species and genuses
Speaker 1: found all over the world. It's a moth. Yes, Oh
Speaker 1: it's creepy. I hate it. Oh. I thought I totally
Speaker 1: just thought it was a bird that was that was
Speaker 1: acting like, Oh, that's so weird. Oh I kind of
Speaker 1: I kind of hate this son. Did you think it
Speaker 1: was like a hummingbird? I thought it was like proboscis.
Speaker 1: It was using like, oh weird. I mean you are
Speaker 1: you are right about the proboscis part, so you know. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they are. They are insects and they look
Speaker 1: a lot like hummingbirds. Um. There's the hummingbird hawk moth
Speaker 1: species found in southern Europe, northern Africa, and Japan. And
Speaker 1: there's the Himarus genus of moths, also known as hummingbird
Speaker 1: moths down in North America and the UK. Both the
Speaker 1: hummingbird hawk moths and the Himarus moths belong to the
Speaker 1: sphinx moth family. So some species of Himarus moths have
Speaker 1: transparent pains on their wings, such as the snowberry clear
Speaker 1: wing moths. So that's one way you can kind of
Speaker 1: tell the difference between the North American and UK hummingbird
Speaker 1: moth and the hummingbird hawk moth is that if they
Speaker 1: have clear wings, they're probably in North America or the UK.
Speaker 1: Not that it sounds like you're going to go out
Speaker 1: of your way to try to find these guys, because
Speaker 1: you seem very freaked out. Now. The reason Emily is
Speaker 1: having such a strong reaction is they look uncannily similar
Speaker 1: and they act exactly like hummingbirds. In fact, a lot
Speaker 1: of hummingbird sightings actually are erroneous, uh, because they are
Speaker 1: the hummingbird moths instead. And and like the Audubon Society
Speaker 1: has a whole thing about like being able to tell
Speaker 1: the different guys. I'm sure they're suing them for copyright infringement, yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, like to telling the like do a takedown
Speaker 1: complaint on hummingbird mobs. But yeah, they they are hard
Speaker 1: to tell apart, especially because they move so fast. Um
Speaker 1: it is a and you might think that this is
Speaker 1: because like the moms are mimicking the hummingbird, but in
Speaker 1: fact they're not. It is a case of convergent evolution.
Speaker 1: So convergent evolution is when you have two different animals.
Speaker 1: They can be related. They could be completely unrelated, like
Speaker 1: in this case, but they will evolve very similar traits
Speaker 1: but completely separately. And for that it can be like
Speaker 1: for the same reason, it can be for slightly different reasons,
Speaker 1: but like, basically they have evolved very very similar traits
Speaker 1: and sometimes very startlingly close ways. Like these these molds
Speaker 1: that look like hummingbirds. If you scroll down, you'll see
Speaker 1: another one that looks weirdly like it's shockingly like a hummingbird. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The tail thing is also really upsetting. I don't know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it feels sort of annihilation or something. It
Speaker 1: just feels like, yeah, for having this weird mind of
Speaker 1: its own. And yeah, like someone took a moth and
Speaker 1: put it in a mold and grew it in the
Speaker 1: shape of a hummingbird. Yeah, I mean, so they are,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned that tail, they like down to these
Speaker 1: very minor details, they look very similar and act very
Speaker 1: similarly to hummingbirds. So they can beat their wings rapidly.
Speaker 1: They produce a buzzing sound just like hummingbirds. They hover
Speaker 1: and sip nectar from elongated proboscus that looks like a beak.
Speaker 1: Uh their butts look like hummingbird butts. They have a
Speaker 1: fan tail of bristly hairs that looks like a hummingbird's tail,
Speaker 1: and it's body is covered in hairs that look like
Speaker 1: hummingbird feathers. And sometimes they even share the same coloration
Speaker 1: as hummingbirds, like they have that bright green and red
Speaker 1: that a lot of hummingbirds have, and that bright coloration
Speaker 1: even serves a similar purpose to hummingbirds in terms of
Speaker 1: it being for sexual selection. And they even look like
Speaker 1: they have pupils, which they actually don't, So like many insects,
Speaker 1: they have faceted eyes, and it's just it looks like
Speaker 1: they have pupils that follow you everywhere, But this is
Speaker 1: an optical illusion. These faceted eyes actually absorb light coming in.
Speaker 1: Like if you have a shiny ball and like you
Speaker 1: move around, it looks like that highlight, that little shiny
Speaker 1: highlights kind of following you around. It's just like that,
Speaker 1: except sort of inverse. Instead of reflecting light, it is
Speaker 1: absorbing the lights so as you move around, it looks
Speaker 1: like there's a dark spot, so it looks like their
Speaker 1: eyes are following you, but they're not. You look, you
Speaker 1: look terrified. Yeah, the moths were an early kind of creepy,
Speaker 1: creepy thing for me as a kid. And I don't
Speaker 1: know why, Like moths are pretty relatively harmless, but they
Speaker 1: always they always freaked me out as a kid. So
Speaker 1: I don't like learning about this other whole other life
Speaker 1: of moths, the moths masquerading as a harmless hummingbird. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually so when I was a kid, I've had
Speaker 1: some good experiences with them. Maybe, well, I guess it's
Speaker 1: all perspective, because maybe for you this would be a nightmare.
Speaker 1: But I had a sphinx moth, which is, like I said,
Speaker 1: that is the it's the same family that these hummingbird
Speaker 1: moths are in. And it was just this big I
Speaker 1: actually think I thought it was a hummingbird um, And
Speaker 1: it was like flying around and it landed on me,
Speaker 1: and it was this beautiful, beautiful moth with this beautiful
Speaker 1: kind of pink and black coloration, and it was just
Speaker 1: very friendly and it didn't want to leave me, and
Speaker 1: it like clung to my shirt and I tried to,
Speaker 1: like I was pretty pleased with it, and I was
Speaker 1: on a hike, and at the end of the hike,
Speaker 1: I tried to like delicately pull it off me and
Speaker 1: put it on a plant, but every time I would
Speaker 1: pull it off, it would like fly back on me
Speaker 1: and like cling on um. So I ended up just
Speaker 1: like going home with it because it was just like
Speaker 1: a local hike, so it wasn't a change in environment,
Speaker 1: but it would not like I kept trying to release it,
Speaker 1: and it kept just like attaching itself to me. So
Speaker 1: I like put a little box, put some like plants
Speaker 1: and stuff in the box to like for its natural environment,
Speaker 1: because I thought it was like best friends with me,
Speaker 1: and I put in the box and it died in
Speaker 1: like probably probably what was going on was I was
Speaker 1: probably wearing like a bright shirt and these moms like
Speaker 1: once they have made it, that's actually the end of
Speaker 1: their life, uh cycle. So it was probably at the
Speaker 1: end of its life, Michael. It probably saw me this bright,
Speaker 1: warm thing and it was just like, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: going to cling onto you until till it's over. So
Speaker 1: I felt I felt so bad though, because I was like,
Speaker 1: you're my new best friend, and then it passed away
Speaker 1: and I was just I was totally devastated. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I've always had a soft spot for molds. So the
Speaker 1: reason they actually look and act so similarly to hummingbirds
Speaker 1: is that basically the hummingbird model works just as well
Speaker 1: for them as it does for hummingbirds. So if you
Speaker 1: think about it, it makes sense the hummingbirds styled of
Speaker 1: hovering instead of landing to sip nectar. It both helps
Speaker 1: them avoid predation because they're not stopping, it helps them
Speaker 1: get as much nectar as possible, and it works for
Speaker 1: these molds as well. And in fact, in a way,
Speaker 1: they are superior to the hummingbird when you look at
Speaker 1: their wing beat capacity, So hummingbirds get in fifty wing
Speaker 1: beats per second while the mingbird. Hawk moths get in
Speaker 1: eighty five wing beats per second. And they are unlike
Speaker 1: a lot of moths, which are nocturnal, they're active in
Speaker 1: the day because you know, flowers sometimes go to sleep
Speaker 1: at night and actually close up shops. So you want
Speaker 1: to get as many much of that sweet sweet nectar
Speaker 1: in your little body as you can, you gotta go
Speaker 1: around during the day. So they are active at the
Speaker 1: same time as hummingbirds too, so you know, and they
Speaker 1: have there in the same flowery regions as well. So
Speaker 1: a lot of times you see a hummingbird if you
Speaker 1: live in the regions where they the hummingbird moth is
Speaker 1: that maybe a big old moth. Wow, I've I've been.
Speaker 1: My eyes are opened now. I will never trust an
Speaker 1: adorable hummingbird again. Um, but I mean, I guess it
Speaker 1: does make sense because a hummingbird is really imitating a
Speaker 1: bug more than it's imitating a bird, like a hummingbird
Speaker 1: in many ways acts more like a bug, like yeah,
Speaker 1: something it's just looks exactly looks like a hummingbird. There
Speaker 1: is a there's a hummingbird called I think the b hummingbird,
Speaker 1: and it's yeah, little tiny, it's not quite as small
Speaker 1: as a bee, but it's pretty dang close. It is
Speaker 1: teeny weeny. Yeah, yeah, they are sort of there is
Speaker 1: kind of a weird it's like, I guess, sort of
Speaker 1: the the crossover species between bird and insect. Obviously that's
Speaker 1: not how evolution works, but you know, like I feel
Speaker 1: like if there was some kind of like uh insect
Speaker 1: bird conference, like you'd have the diplomats from the insect
Speaker 1: to bird congregation, be like the hummingbird moths and then
Speaker 1: the hummingbirds, and it's like, see, we're not so different
Speaker 1: after all. So what is your attitude towards ladybugs? Um?
Speaker 1: I like ladybugs. I generally try to, you know, move
Speaker 1: them outside if they're inside, and make sure that they
Speaker 1: can be, you know, in their natural habitat. I tried
Speaker 1: to be kind to them. Yeah, have you ever had like,
Speaker 1: have you ever picked up a ladybug and it seems
Speaker 1: like it peas on you? I don't thinks so, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've Yeah, I've had. This happened to
Speaker 1: me a lot, especially as an inquisitive child who doesn't
Speaker 1: respect the personal space of insects. Um. I would pick
Speaker 1: up any insect I could find, and I would often
Speaker 1: just pick up a ladybug. And what would happen is
Speaker 1: it looks like it peas on you because it releases
Speaker 1: this sort of orangeish yellow fluid on your hand. It
Speaker 1: doesn't smell really good. Um. And it was very frustrating
Speaker 1: as a kid because it's like I loved the ladybugs.
Speaker 1: I wanted to hold them, and it's like, oh, I
Speaker 1: just pete on me for some reason. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's not really p. They p defensive blood on you
Speaker 1: to ward you off. If you've ever harassed a ladybug,
Speaker 1: maybe it's happened to you that like kind of stinky
Speaker 1: yellowish liquid. But it is, first of all, it's not p.
Speaker 1: It is defensive hem o lymph, which is ladybug blood.
Speaker 1: Man called ladybugs. Why that they? Oh? Because like period thing?
Speaker 1: I don't I kind of I was like, so suddenly bad.
Speaker 1: I was like, on how periods work. It does scare
Speaker 1: some people off, so you know, I could definitely see
Speaker 1: some like early eighteen hundreds biologists finding a ladybug and
Speaker 1: it's like, look at this ladybug, you know, having her
Speaker 1: period all over my hand. Well, actually, it also doesn't
Speaker 1: come out of the ladybugs private parts. It comes out
Speaker 1: of its leg joints, which it secretes out to kind
Speaker 1: of gross you out so you won't eat it. It works, well,
Speaker 1: I was reading this thing. It even works on pest control.
Speaker 1: I was reading the America con Pest blog and it
Speaker 1: warns people who have their homes invaded by ladybugs, quote,
Speaker 1: please don't frighten the ladybugs. Like they're they're how to
Speaker 1: guide in terms of how to deal with a ladybug invasion,
Speaker 1: just cryptically saying like, please don't frighten the ladybugs. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna be pretty. And yeah. So, while ladybugs are
Speaker 1: great for your garden because they eat up destructive aphids,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes they invade your home by the thousands,
Speaker 1: which is I've never had that happen either, but it
Speaker 1: can happen, and often, like when cold weather happens and
Speaker 1: they are trying to find a nice, warm place, it's
Speaker 1: pretty rare that you'll get a massive ladybug invasion. Usually
Speaker 1: it's just like a handful of them getting inside and
Speaker 1: chilling out, in which case I mean, come on, you can.
Speaker 1: You can share the space with a couple ladybugs, But
Speaker 1: I do see that it's a problem when thousands of
Speaker 1: them get inside. Now do you dare click on the
Speaker 1: video know that I have in this document, Emily, Yeah, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: this is like the kind of thing that turns my stomach.
Speaker 1: I even like ladybugs, but um well, if you want,
Speaker 1: I can just describe this video's not for me. It's
Speaker 1: already it's I get bumped out and they're like yellow
Speaker 1: and brown. Um, yeah, oh yeah, you like the bright
Speaker 1: red ladybugs. I really get worried for them. It feels
Speaker 1: like it feels like, for whatever reason, I don't think
Speaker 1: this is true, but I always assume it's like they're
Speaker 1: like leaves that haven't been like doing there. I see
Speaker 1: they haven't been when they're sort of a dimmer color. No, no,
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily true, but yeah, I get it, like
Speaker 1: sinks sort of. The more dusky colored ladybugs feels like wrong,
Speaker 1: like there's there's they're like zombie ladybugs or something. But no, um,
Speaker 1: but this is an ABC News video that explores someone's
Speaker 1: house that has been invaded by thousands and thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands and thousands of ladybugs. It's just a
Speaker 1: sea of this orangy red moving mass of ladybugs. And
Speaker 1: they're like trying to sweep it up, and they've got
Speaker 1: like buckets of ladybug as if they're bailing out a
Speaker 1: ship that's drowning in ladybugs. It's a you know, a
Speaker 1: little and a lot of massive amounts of any anything.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna don't know. It's like it's like the
Speaker 1: whole phobia, but bus just yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty bad.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I thought it would be a
Speaker 1: great idea to bring this up as people stay in
Speaker 1: your homes. I guess a positive spin could be like,
Speaker 1: maybe your board at home, but at least your home
Speaker 1: isn't filled with ladybugs, unless it is filled with ladybugs,
Speaker 1: in which case I'm sorry. Well, I'm glad. That's there's
Speaker 1: a new problem that I didn't know about that somebody
Speaker 1: can have and I now I know about. I mean,
Speaker 1: but doesn't it make you feel grateful that your house
Speaker 1: isn't flooded with lady fo um? I've had the ants thing.
Speaker 1: The ants thing is a common California problem. Uh, exactly,
Speaker 1: But I don't know something about the ladybugs. The boldest
Speaker 1: they look like worts all over your home. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love and they'll kee blood at you to make them mad. Well, Emily,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today having I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Is there anything you want to plug
Speaker 1: for our listener? Sure, you can listen to my podcast
Speaker 1: that I do with Molly Lambert and Tess Lynch called
Speaker 1: Nightcall right here on the iHeart Network. And I'm also
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Emily Orshda. I don't really know what's
Speaker 1: going on there, but that's kind of where you can
Speaker 1: find me most times. Um, and that's it. And I'm
Speaker 1: in my house also, it's another place that I will
Speaker 1: be pretty reliably over the next who knows how long,
Speaker 1: So all sorts of Yeah, it's it feels like I
Speaker 1: have like a portal to another world right now, because
Speaker 1: like you're in your house and I'm in your house,
Speaker 1: but like it's like we're connected through the portal of
Speaker 1: podcasting all the reality out there, everybody's living rooms and
Speaker 1: their microphone setups exactly exactly. You can find us at
Speaker 1: Creature Feature Pod on Instagram, Creature Feet Pod on Twitter.
Speaker 1: That's f e A T, not f E T. That's
Speaker 1: something very different. You can find me also on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I'm at Katie Golden if you're interested in my Katie thoughts,
Speaker 1: and of course I'm at Pro Bird Rights, where I
Speaker 1: try to debunk this insane claim that birds aren't real
Speaker 1: in our some government conspiracy. Come on people, or should
Speaker 1: I shage say sheeple people, sheep people. Anyways, we also
Speaker 1: have shirts in our store. I will provide a link
Speaker 1: for that in the show. No, and and yeah I will.
Speaker 1: New episodes are going to keep coming out every Wednesday
Speaker 1: because I'm all set to keep recording at home. And
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for listening to us, and
Speaker 1: thanks to the Space Cossics for their super awesome song.
Speaker 1: Ex Alumina Creature Feature is a podcast by i Heeart
Speaker 1: Radio You. If you want to listen to more awesome
Speaker 1: podcasts like the one you just heard, you can go
Speaker 1: to i heeart radio dot com, the I heart radio app,
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Speaker 1: your next Wednesday