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 today on the show, it's another
Speaker 1: edition of listener questions, from why flies fly like they fly?
Speaker 1: To the mysteries of whale eyes, Discover Them Moors, We
Speaker 1: answer the angel question, what are the sparrows plotting? And
Speaker 1: at the end of the show, I'll reveal the answer
Speaker 1: to last week's Yes, Who's talking Mystery animal sound game?
Speaker 1: So let's get right into it. This is a question
Speaker 1: from Jim. That's j E. M. Hi. Katie just wanted
Speaker 1: to say love the show. I listened nearly every night.
Speaker 1: I've got a nice little question for you. Why do
Speaker 1: flies have such unique flying patterns? Like why can't they
Speaker 1: just fly in a straight line? So this is a
Speaker 1: great question, Jim, and I will answer your question with
Speaker 1: another question, why is it so hard to swat a fly?
Speaker 1: Because it's incredibly difficult to predict their flight path. If
Speaker 1: they flew in a straight line, you'd have a much
Speaker 1: easier time swatting them. Or imagine you're a hungry bird
Speaker 1: or a bat. If they flew in a straight line,
Speaker 1: would be much easier to just scoop them out of
Speaker 1: the air and know where they're going to fly next.
Speaker 1: But by flying in a unique pattern, they evade predators
Speaker 1: and annoyed humans alike. But that's actually not the only
Speaker 1: reason that they don't fly in a straight line, And
Speaker 1: the answer involves a lot of complicated math and interesting neuroscience.
Speaker 1: So have you ever noticed how easy it is for
Speaker 1: a fruit fly to get right on your soda or
Speaker 1: maybe even your glass of wine or your beer. It's
Speaker 1: like they're psychic and they can just hone in on
Speaker 1: your drink as soon as you open it. So neuroscientists
Speaker 1: were also interested in this question, and they did a
Speaker 1: study where they put fruit flies in a dome, trapped
Speaker 1: them in there, and they hid an attractive odor, and
Speaker 1: then they used cameras to track the flies movements. So
Speaker 1: while it may look to us like the flies moving
Speaker 1: at random, it turns out when you actually map their
Speaker 1: flight path, they're moving in a pattern known as Levies distribution,
Speaker 1: which is an algorithm that helps optimize finding the source
Speaker 1: of a stimulus. It's kind of like a game of oh,
Speaker 1: you're getting warmer, you're getting colder. Uh So the fly
Speaker 1: will move in a straight line until the odor starts
Speaker 1: to get fainter, and then they turn in about a
Speaker 1: ninety degree angle, basically turning every time they feel they're
Speaker 1: getting colder. And so they're flying, not in circles or anything,
Speaker 1: but these little squares trying to hone in on that
Speaker 1: odor that they are hoping will be a tasty treat.
Speaker 1: So to us, it looks random without knowing what's going
Speaker 1: on in the fruit flies brain, and it looks very jittery.
Speaker 1: It looks like they're very whulsive. But it's really calculated
Speaker 1: way to uh locate a source of a pleasant odor
Speaker 1: for the fly. And it also has the added advantage
Speaker 1: of making it much harder to swap them or catch them.
Speaker 1: So it's a great both as a survival strategy and
Speaker 1: as a resource location strategy. All right, onto the next question,
Speaker 1: and this is from Sadie. Hi, Katie, Satie and Katie. Firstly,
Speaker 1: i appreciate your show so much. I'm an artist and
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with all things nature and fun facts in
Speaker 1: the podcast makes long days in the studio much more enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So, first question, I've been thinking about sleep
Speaker 1: and activity routines of the animals in my neck of
Speaker 1: the woods, and I was curious if which animals change
Speaker 1: those habits at different life stages. Are there other animals
Speaker 1: that are categorized as nocturnal at one stage than diurnal
Speaker 1: or crepuscular at another. I love that there's always someone
Speaker 1: out and about snacking and exploring at any time of
Speaker 1: day or night. So first let me before I move
Speaker 1: on to city a second question. I will answer that
Speaker 1: first question. So, yeah, there are animals whose circadian rhythms
Speaker 1: changes based on life stages. So a major example is
Speaker 1: the larvae of a variety of diverse sea animals. So
Speaker 1: fish and marine invertebrates like jellyfish will go through a
Speaker 1: life stage of being very very extremely teeny tiny. So,
Speaker 1: and this is what zooplankton is. Zooplankton is often not
Speaker 1: just um, a microorganism that has already grown as big
Speaker 1: as it will ever get. It's also a number of
Speaker 1: baby baby animals like that. They are called larvae, and
Speaker 1: this includes fish. It'll look like a big fish as
Speaker 1: an adult, but when they're fry, they're so tiny. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're even transparent. And it can also be jellyfish and
Speaker 1: other invertebrates in the ocean, and when they are this
Speaker 1: teeny and tiny zooplankton is an extremely appetizing source of
Speaker 1: nutrition for potential predators. They're completely defenseless. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: while they're this small, they make a mass migration up
Speaker 1: and down the water column, so they're not easy prey
Speaker 1: during daylight. So at night, millions upon millions of teeny
Speaker 1: tiny microscopic sea babies come from the dark depths of
Speaker 1: the ocean up to the surface to feed on detritus.
Speaker 1: So it is the largest daily mass migration of animals
Speaker 1: in the world. And as adults, when they become bigger,
Speaker 1: they don't need to do this daily migration because they're
Speaker 1: big enough to defend themselves that at least they're not
Speaker 1: easily eaten through a straw. So uh. Now, Sadie had
Speaker 1: a second question, so this is her second part of
Speaker 1: the email. The other thing I was wondering about comes
Speaker 1: from a couple of recent episodes of Radio Lab called
Speaker 1: Everyone's Got One and The Unsilencing, both super mind blowing
Speaker 1: and amazing about placnsus and immune systems. In more. I'm
Speaker 1: probably going to get some of this wrong, as I'm
Speaker 1: not a scientist and my listening comprehension is not well,
Speaker 1: that makes two of us. But basically they were talking
Speaker 1: about the way that the X chromosome has more of
Speaker 1: the instructions for immune related activity, and as a result,
Speaker 1: many women and other people with two X chromosomes have
Speaker 1: stronger immune systems, but also are more prone to autoimmune disorders.
Speaker 1: I'm now realizing that I'm not sure if other animals
Speaker 1: even have a similar chromosomal situation as we have with
Speaker 1: the X is and wise, but if so, do females
Speaker 1: of other species also have a stronger immune system on average.
Speaker 1: They discussed how there's immunosuppression that happens during pregnancy so
Speaker 1: the pregnant person's immune system doesn't attack the fetus. So
Speaker 1: I was also wondering if there was a difference between
Speaker 1: animals that carry their offspring versus those who lay eggs.
Speaker 1: I know that's a lot of stuff, but I've been
Speaker 1: wondering about it for like a week and couldn't think
Speaker 1: of anyone else who might be up for exploring it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then she attached a picture of her little puppy,
Speaker 1: Mango and some of her hands, and they are adorable. Actually,
Speaker 1: her dog, Mango looks a little bit like a new
Speaker 1: guinea singing dog, very very gorgeous. Uh so uh yeah.
Speaker 1: So in answer to the second question about X and
Speaker 1: Y chromosomes and immune systems, Uh, First, all kind of
Speaker 1: quickly go over how X and Y works in animals,
Speaker 1: and it's true not all animals have X and Y
Speaker 1: chromosomes as their sex determination system. Um, but humans do.
Speaker 1: We have the X and Y system. So uh, female
Speaker 1: will have two xes and male will have an X
Speaker 1: and a Y. And most mammals also have this system, uh,
Speaker 1: including some other non mammalian species. Bizarrely enough, this includes
Speaker 1: fruit flies and turtles. In animals with X Y sex determination,
Speaker 1: being female is the default. In male uh is one
Speaker 1: that hy chromosome is introduced, So some mammals, though, aren't
Speaker 1: X Y. The exceptions in the mammal kingdom include spiny rats,
Speaker 1: some species of bats, and some shrews who actually have
Speaker 1: an X O system. Doesn't mean they do cute kisses,
Speaker 1: although that's BET's do do some version of kissing, I guess,
Speaker 1: but know what that means uh is Instead of an
Speaker 1: X Y system, sex is not determined by the presence
Speaker 1: of a Y chromosome. In's fact, they don't have a
Speaker 1: Y chromosome at all. It is determined by the lack
Speaker 1: of a second X chromosome, so males will have one
Speaker 1: X and females will have two x is. Dos a
Speaker 1: kys drink live dangerously? Wait, how did that add? Go?
Speaker 1: Dos A keys? Oh, stay thirsty, my friends, dos a kiss.
Speaker 1: But that means you're female if you're of that are
Speaker 1: true anyways. Another type of sex determination system is the
Speaker 1: Z W system, so this is present in birds as
Speaker 1: well as some species of fish, insects, lizards, and snakes.
Speaker 1: This is basically the opposite of the X Y system.
Speaker 1: Females have a Z and a W chromosome, whereas males
Speaker 1: have to Z chromosomes. Uh, don't get too caught up
Speaker 1: on like the then the type of letter used to
Speaker 1: describe these chromosomes, like, the chromosomes aren't shaped like a
Speaker 1: Z or W, just like the X and Y chromosomes
Speaker 1: aren't really shaped like an X and and Y. The
Speaker 1: only time chromosomes really look like an X are when
Speaker 1: they're in a stage of mitosis or myosis where they
Speaker 1: cross over um. The just the different letters are to
Speaker 1: distinguish different types of of sex determ nation systems. And
Speaker 1: that the chromosomes will work differently depending on the types
Speaker 1: of sex determination system. But yeah, so to recap humans
Speaker 1: and most other mammals, as well as some other species
Speaker 1: are xx female and x y male. A few rare
Speaker 1: mammals as well as a lot of arachnids, and some
Speaker 1: insects have a system where a single X as male
Speaker 1: and two x is are female. Birds, some fish, some
Speaker 1: reptiles have a z W system where females are ZW
Speaker 1: and males are z Z. So uh Sadie, your dog
Speaker 1: mango is going to have a an xx or x
Speaker 1: Y determination system, whereas your chickens are going to have
Speaker 1: a z W or zz sex determination system. Uh So.
Speaker 1: Not all animals have the same type of sex determination chromosomes,
Speaker 1: but there are animals where immunology does differ based on
Speaker 1: their chromosomes or based on their sex. Uh So. As
Speaker 1: most mammals share the X Y chromosomal system same as humans,
Speaker 1: it could be that the X chromosome also codes for
Speaker 1: immunity in many mammals, and there's certainly evidence that females
Speaker 1: and many mammalian species have stronger immune systems that can
Speaker 1: be tracked to the level of gene transcription, which seems
Speaker 1: to imply that yes, it has something to do with
Speaker 1: the sex chromosome UH, and like in humans, fruit flies
Speaker 1: actually have immune systems that are coded by the X chromosomes,
Speaker 1: and thus gives female fruit flies a benefit. Even in
Speaker 1: animals who don't have the X y x X sex
Speaker 1: determination system UH, such as the animals that use the
Speaker 1: ZW system, there's still examples of immunological differences between the sexes.
Speaker 1: So in lizards, increased androgens and males can suppress their
Speaker 1: immune system compared to females, and female birds have as
Speaker 1: stronger antibody response to pathogens and Sadie, yes, you are
Speaker 1: absolutely right about autoimmune disorders. So having a stronger immune
Speaker 1: system may benefit females in terms of viruses and diseases
Speaker 1: and um. While having a stronger immune system may benefit
Speaker 1: females in terms of viruses and diseases, a more pumped
Speaker 1: up immune response also risks an overreaction to say, a
Speaker 1: relatively harmless pathogen or even just normal UH biological UH
Speaker 1: processes in your own body. There are examples of people
Speaker 1: being allergic to, say, their own hair follicles, so this
Speaker 1: can cause an autoimmune disease. So in fact, about seventy
Speaker 1: eight percent of people with autoimmune diseases are women. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I have checked out this study. It looks like the
Speaker 1: data available doesn't really break down in terms of say,
Speaker 1: like CIS women or trans women are people assigned female
Speaker 1: at birth. So there's some missing data there that would
Speaker 1: be really important in terms of linking this trend to
Speaker 1: chromosomes as opposed to say hormones or lifestyle. Um, but
Speaker 1: it it is. It is an interesting trend and one
Speaker 1: that I would think may have something to do with
Speaker 1: sex chromosomes, so anecdotally, which is not scientific. But I
Speaker 1: just moved to a new country. I moved to Italy,
Speaker 1: which has triggered my allergies because of all the new
Speaker 1: species of plants and pollen. But my husband is just
Speaker 1: completely fine, which is really frustrating because I'm just sniffling
Speaker 1: and he had a little bit of sniffles at first.
Speaker 1: Now my nose is just like a faucet. Uh. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I guess just trying to get used to the
Speaker 1: local pollen. I'm going to have to talk with some
Speaker 1: bees see how they do it. Uh. Yeah, But thank
Speaker 1: you so much Sadie for writing in for and for
Speaker 1: your wonderful at pictures. I hope you continue to enjoy
Speaker 1: the show. We are going to take a real quick break,
Speaker 1: but when we get back, we have even more listener questions.
Speaker 1: All right, and we are back, and we have even
Speaker 1: more sex shenanigans to talk about. So this question is
Speaker 1: from Jake uh So, Katie. First off, I love your
Speaker 1: show and I went all the way back to the
Speaker 1: beginning and listen to every single episode. Oh thank you, Jake.
Speaker 1: It is very educational and I love learning while I'm
Speaker 1: working anyway. I work in a military maintenance shop and
Speaker 1: for some reason the subject of dog fertility came about.
Speaker 1: Is it possible for a dog to have puppies from
Speaker 1: multiple different sires? Like could my buddies husky have puppies
Speaker 1: from a lab and a Rottwiler and others? If you
Speaker 1: could help us out on this conundrum, that would be awesome.
Speaker 1: Keep doing what you're doing, and we love the show,
Speaker 1: thank you. So yes, dogs can apps aolutely have puppies
Speaker 1: from multiple sires. This is called super fecundation. This is
Speaker 1: the fertilization of multiple eggs from multiple sperm from different
Speaker 1: sexual encounters. So this actually happens in many different animals
Speaker 1: and very rarely also humans. As long as there are
Speaker 1: multiple eggs released into the uterus and multiple sperm introduced
Speaker 1: into the sexual reproductive tract, more than one egg can
Speaker 1: be fertilized and just stayed around the same time. One
Speaker 1: thing this can mean is that these same father can
Speaker 1: have sexual intercourse on different occasions and with the mother
Speaker 1: create twins that would be conceived on different days. This
Speaker 1: can also mean multiple fathers could be responsible for twins
Speaker 1: or siblings born on the same day. And unlike humans,
Speaker 1: dog have litters of multiple puppies at once. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: humans can have twins, but the norm for humans is
Speaker 1: to have one offspring at a time. But yes, twins,
Speaker 1: even quintuplets, sex tuplets, octuplets, I don't know how else
Speaker 1: how further up to count in tuplets, no tuplets, nine tops,
Speaker 1: I don't know anyways. So yes, humans can have more
Speaker 1: than one offspring out once, but typically it's just one offspring.
Speaker 1: But dogs typically do have multiple offspring at once, which
Speaker 1: makes it more likely for dogs versus humans for a
Speaker 1: super fecundation to happen. So as long as the male
Speaker 1: dogs each mate with the female while she is fertile.
Speaker 1: You could get a litter of puppies that have different
Speaker 1: dog fathers and are even different breed mixes. So you
Speaker 1: could have one dog that's like half lab and and
Speaker 1: a half you know, Schnauzer. I don't know if a
Speaker 1: Schnauzer in a lab anyways, So yes, it can happen.
Speaker 1: It's the point which is really really interesting. So onto
Speaker 1: the next question. Uh, this is from Laura and it
Speaker 1: is about some birds Shenanigans. Hello, all summer, I have
Speaker 1: been wondering about our crazy backyard birds. We live in
Speaker 1: a small village in Michigan, and every evening we have
Speaker 1: a huge flock of how sparrows gather in our two
Speaker 1: maple trees in our backyard. They are very loud and
Speaker 1: we can see feathers and poop raining down on our backyard.
Speaker 1: I love bird o'clock and come outside every day to
Speaker 1: listen to their party. But I am curious about what
Speaker 1: they are doing. It happens all summer, so I don't
Speaker 1: think they are mating. They sometimes seem to be fighting
Speaker 1: with each other, although over what I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Sometimes after dark, if I come outside, I hear them
Speaker 1: stir so maybe they're roosting in our trees. They seem
Speaker 1: like a pretty social bird from what I watch at
Speaker 1: our bird feeders, so maybe they're just interacting with each other.
Speaker 1: Just curious if you have any insight. Regardless of what
Speaker 1: they are doing, I love them and am honored they
Speaker 1: choose our trees for their birdie raves. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the podcast. It has kept me company during
Speaker 1: many chores. Thank you, Laura. Yes, so, how sparrows are
Speaker 1: some of the most noisy little party ers I've ever heard? Uh.
Speaker 1: They are indeed extremely social and gregarious, and it's definitely
Speaker 1: not limited to mating seasons. In fact, when it is
Speaker 1: mating season, they are less social in terms of big groups,
Speaker 1: so they like to roost communally and just hang out
Speaker 1: together in general. So part of this is safety numbers.
Speaker 1: Sparrows are cute little snacks, but a large part of
Speaker 1: it just seems to be they really desire each other's company.
Speaker 1: They also enjoy bird o'clock. So the reason this happens
Speaker 1: every evening is that they are on a schedule. They
Speaker 1: engage in social singing and communal chirping right before they
Speaker 1: settle in for the night and also right before they
Speaker 1: leave the roost in the morning, So this seems to
Speaker 1: strengthen the social fabric. It works out little disagreements without violence,
Speaker 1: and it can help the birds form closer bonds, which
Speaker 1: can be important for the birds because sometimes they'll like
Speaker 1: follow each other to food sources and this it just
Speaker 1: helps them sort of act as a little bird community.
Speaker 1: But during mating and nesting seasons, the birds are actually
Speaker 1: less social and they will break off into pairs, and
Speaker 1: when they're choosing their nesting spots, they can be really
Speaker 1: really aggressive. I read one account of a sparrow I
Speaker 1: guess killed a rival. Now I'm not sure if it
Speaker 1: was a fellow sparrow or another bird's species, because they
Speaker 1: can be very very aggressive towards other bird species. But
Speaker 1: it killed this other bird and then just built its
Speaker 1: new nest right on top of this other bird, which
Speaker 1: is kind of a real interesting horror movie from a
Speaker 1: bird's perspective. I guess, like a house built on the
Speaker 1: grave of someone you murdered and you raise your kids
Speaker 1: in it. Real messed up birds, real weird. You know
Speaker 1: what's interesting is another species or multiple species of animals
Speaker 1: that also do communal roosting our bats, and they also
Speaker 1: chatter with each other there. They tend to actually be
Speaker 1: a lot more chill than something like a sparrow. They have,
Speaker 1: they don't get into too many fights. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of uh communal cooperation, like communal alloparenting, which means that
Speaker 1: they're raised helping raise each other's young and even sharing
Speaker 1: food and resources. So it's really interesting to me. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you ever read Stella Luna as a child,
Speaker 1: but this, uh, this idea of this little bat being
Speaker 1: adopted by these cute little birdies, it's I don't know
Speaker 1: if that would really happen. I think, uh, I think
Speaker 1: that bat would be dead meat. And on the other hand,
Speaker 1: I feel like bats are pretty chill. They get a
Speaker 1: bad reputation, but birds, generally speaking a little more high
Speaker 1: strung than bats. So we're actually gonna take a real
Speaker 1: quick break, and when we return, we have one more
Speaker 1: question about whale eyes, and then I will reveal the
Speaker 1: mystery animals sound from last week. Alright, so this question
Speaker 1: is from Kevin, Lauren and Natalie. You guys wrote some
Speaker 1: really nice compliments and I really appreciate that. Um, but
Speaker 1: right onto the question here. It is I have a question.
Speaker 1: I'm reading Moby Dick and came across this part where
Speaker 1: Melville describes the orientation of the sperm whale's eyes and
Speaker 1: how they see, And so here is the quote from
Speaker 1: Moby Dick. Moreover, while in most other animals that I
Speaker 1: can now think of, the eyes are so planted as
Speaker 1: imperceptibly to blend their visual power so as to produce
Speaker 1: one picture, and not too to the brain. The peculiar
Speaker 1: position of the whale's eyes effectually divided as they are,
Speaker 1: by many cubic feet of solid head, which towers between
Speaker 1: them like a great mountain separating two lakes and valleys.
Speaker 1: This of course, must wholly separate the impressions which each
Speaker 1: independent organ imparts. The whale therefore must see one distinct
Speaker 1: picture on this side and another distinct picture on that side,
Speaker 1: while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness. To him.
Speaker 1: Man in effect be said to look out on the
Speaker 1: world from a sentry box with two jointed sashes for
Speaker 1: his windows. But with the whale, these two sashes are
Speaker 1: separately inserted, making two distinct windows, but sadly impairing the view.
Speaker 1: This peculiarity of the whale's eyes is a thing always
Speaker 1: to be borne in mind in the fishery and to
Speaker 1: be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes. So
Speaker 1: they go on to ask is this how a sperm
Speaker 1: whale would actually process what it sees? He describes it
Speaker 1: as if the whale sees in the brain two distinct
Speaker 1: images as their eyes are set on opposite sides of
Speaker 1: their head. I assumed that the animals with eyes set
Speaker 1: on the sides of their head, like deer and whales,
Speaker 1: see in a way not that dissimilar to how humans do.
Speaker 1: Now that I'm writing this email, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I understand how human brains process the information they received
Speaker 1: from the eyes. At some point, our brain combines what
Speaker 1: we see into one's signal or image, processes that information
Speaker 1: and that is what we see. Does the sperm whale
Speaker 1: not do the same thing. They would just have a
Speaker 1: larger blind spot directly in front of their head and
Speaker 1: a greater view of what is behind or beside them. Well,
Speaker 1: this email is longer than I thought I would be.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for the great pod. So again this is
Speaker 1: from Kevin, Lauren and Natalie. Thank you so much guys
Speaker 1: for your question, so really interesting question. About whales. The
Speaker 1: thing is Herman Melville didn't really know what he was
Speaker 1: talking about. But on the other hand, neither do we
Speaker 1: really currently. So sperm whales are enormous, I'm sure you know.
Speaker 1: So there's a big problem when it comes to studying
Speaker 1: their brains, like how do you you know even do
Speaker 1: you do that? It's so big. There's no sperm whale
Speaker 1: sized m r I or e e g For something
Speaker 1: that huge normous. So first, something about whale eyes that
Speaker 1: we do know. They are adapted for or water vision,
Speaker 1: and it makes it such that their vision is less
Speaker 1: clear and less color based than human eyes. So studies
Speaker 1: on like the inside of their eyes seems to indicate
Speaker 1: that they see in gray scale and at lower resolution
Speaker 1: than humans with vision. So they also have multiple focal
Speaker 1: points per eye, So their pupils dilate and contract, not
Speaker 1: in like the neat little circle that humans do. Uh,
Speaker 1: they are actually a rounded crescent. So when fully contracted,
Speaker 1: the pupil actually narrows down to like two dots connected
Speaker 1: by a thin line of pupils. So they actually have
Speaker 1: two focal points per eye, which is really hard to
Speaker 1: imagine how their brain would interpret that. So Melville's idea
Speaker 1: that the whales have two separate images in their brain
Speaker 1: that remain separate, like two TV screens with a bunch
Speaker 1: of darkness us in between. I mean, we don't really know,
Speaker 1: but based on our own vision and other animals of vision,
Speaker 1: it seems like that's unlikely. So, uh, even if the
Speaker 1: whale's head is really massive, the brain could do a
Speaker 1: great job of splicing the images together into a single
Speaker 1: understandable image. So we actually, like you guys pointed out
Speaker 1: in your question, we have a blind spot and our
Speaker 1: brain will just overrite that with information we don't know.
Speaker 1: We don't see like a big black spot in the
Speaker 1: middle of our vision. We just fill in the blanks.
Speaker 1: So it is not a profound darkness. It's just we think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is normal. This is uh what what we see
Speaker 1: in the world. I mean, think about like can you
Speaker 1: see beyond your eyes limit, Like stare straightforward and think, well,
Speaker 1: what does it look like from my ear outwards? It's
Speaker 1: not a black void. It's it's just nothing. So oh,
Speaker 1: even a whale with a blind spot like that is
Speaker 1: probably not going to perceive a black void. It's just
Speaker 1: gonna not perceive that area which is a hard I know,
Speaker 1: that's a hard thing to like wrap your mind around.
Speaker 1: But still, so you know, it's very likely that sperm
Speaker 1: whales have a similar way of coping with this blind spot.
Speaker 1: In fact, whales have another source of information, visual information,
Speaker 1: which comes in the form not through sort of their eyes,
Speaker 1: but through their echolocation. So could whales put together the
Speaker 1: information they get from their biological sonar with their visual
Speaker 1: system to paint a clearer picture of the world. Again,
Speaker 1: we don't really have a definitive answer. It's really hard
Speaker 1: to study, uh, sperm whale in general, litt alone study
Speaker 1: a sperm whales brain. H. So you know, but I
Speaker 1: think that there isn't much utility to basically experience the
Speaker 1: world where you just have this big black void and
Speaker 1: then two separate screens. I think that would be too confusing.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't make much sense, I think for something like
Speaker 1: a sperm whale to have to deal with that all
Speaker 1: the time. My my guests would be that the brain
Speaker 1: does compensate for this void and maybe even includes the
Speaker 1: echolocation as a sort of aid in their visual processing,
Speaker 1: so that they maybe have a more coherent visual system. Uh,
Speaker 1: that isn't so like Jankie and interrupted by like you know,
Speaker 1: they're the blind spot that is their massive head. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's not to say that their vision is anything like ours.
Speaker 1: I would guess based on what I've read, And of
Speaker 1: course I don't know. I haven't like avatar into a
Speaker 1: whale brain, so I can't say what it's like to
Speaker 1: be a sperm whale. But I bet it isn't gray scale.
Speaker 1: And it seems like they sort of perceived, perceived this
Speaker 1: high contrast kind of gray scale image of the world
Speaker 1: around them. So the sea might be black or really
Speaker 1: dark gray, and then images that come out from it,
Speaker 1: maybe these kind of grainy white, ghostly images. And then
Speaker 1: maybe with the sonar they also get more detail of
Speaker 1: like depth perception of further away. So maybe it's just
Speaker 1: like weird gray and bright brilliant, bright white world of
Speaker 1: of these like ghostly images coming from this grainy dark sea, uh,
Speaker 1: that they put together in this like three D stereoscopic
Speaker 1: view of the world around them. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've not had the opportunity yet to
Speaker 1: interview a sperm whale on the show. But if you
Speaker 1: are a sperm whale and you'd like to be on
Speaker 1: the show, just you know, hit me up. So before
Speaker 1: we go, I'm going to reveal the mystery animal sound
Speaker 1: from last week's episode. So as a reminder, here was
Speaker 1: the hint. They may sound like Ringwraith, but these passionate
Speaker 1: fellows have something other than Frodo on their minds. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually had a bunch of people right in with
Speaker 1: the correct answer. I'm really impressed with each and every
Speaker 1: one of you. I know I make the game, but
Speaker 1: I don't think i'd even be as good as you
Speaker 1: guys are at guessing these sounds. So the first three
Speaker 1: to write in with the correct answer was Joseph P.
Speaker 1: Who is Johnny? Which that's their actual handle, it's who
Speaker 1: is Johnny? I'm not asking who is Johnny? And Maryanne D.
Speaker 1: Congratulations you guys, and to all the other ELK enthusiasts
Speaker 1: wrote in, great job guessing. So now onto this week's
Speaker 1: mystery sound. A hint. I sneakily mentioned this animal during
Speaker 1: this very episode of the podcast. Did you catch it all? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: if you have an idea of the answer, or you
Speaker 1: want to write in with a question or picture of
Speaker 1: your pets, you can reach out to me. A creature
Speaker 1: feature Pod at gmail dot com, Creature Feature Pod on Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Creature Feet Pod on Twitter. That's f e E ten,
Speaker 1: not f E t is something very different. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for listening. If you're enjoying the show,
Speaker 1: or you want to give me feedback, rating review, if
Speaker 1: you write that down in I Tunes or wherever you're listening,
Speaker 1: that really helps me. I read all the reviews and
Speaker 1: I really appreciate them, and thank you so much to
Speaker 1: the Space Classics for their super awesome song Exoluminate. Creature
Speaker 1: features a production of I Heart Radio or more podcasts
Speaker 1: like the one you just heard. Visit the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or hey guess what. Wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. Maybe if you're sperm oil,
Speaker 1: you listen down in the water with your weirdo eyes.
Speaker 1: See you next Wednesday.