WEBVTT - You’ve Got Pee-Mail, Part 1 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.400 Hey you welcome to you Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:17.040 My name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:20.200 And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Stuff to 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.960 Blow Your Mind, we are going to begin a series 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.480 of episodes on a weird and interesting medium of communication 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:33.800 between animals, specifically communication by means of urine. I've said 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.279 this before on the show, but I think humans are 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:41.239 really a species defined by the power and complexity of 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.440 our communication skills. There is a lot that makes humankind unique, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.360 but communication, I think is the thing that makes us 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.960 most unique among the animals. When we want to share 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:57.440 information about the world or about our intentions with another person, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.720 we've got so many options. We can talk out loud, 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.600 we can use body language or sign language. We can 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.600 draw represent ideas visually. We can use written language, which, 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.759 of course that you know has as a million different 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.160 instantiations and different types of technology today. So you've got 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.440 everything from you know, the handwritten note, to mass media 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.600 like books and magazines, email, text messages, social media posts. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.600 I guess some people are probably still facts and. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.320 Yeah, but mostly we've got it reduced down to texting. 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:29.679 I think in general, we can throw all these things 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.600 out the window and we're just going to focus on 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.560 texting from here on out for the duration. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.080 I only want to read books in SMS format now. 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.119 But I think it's easy, because we have such mastery 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:48.520 over communication and communication technology to kind of not notice 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.720 media of communication that are not available to us, or 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.760 at least not usually. I love thinking about other media 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.559 of information sharing which do exist in nature, but which 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.560 are not used by humans, at least not consciously. And 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:12.360 it turns out a huge, pretty much unignorable example used 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:16.919 throughout the animal kingdom is urine communication through. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.880 P That's right, And as we get into this topic, 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.720 I'd encourage everyone out there to set aside their narrow 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.920 human understanding of urine as much as possible and open 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.840 your mind to the extent that we can to the 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:35.240 richer world of informational micturition. Gegling is still permitted, but 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.079 rethink you're in a bed as we proceed here now. 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.960 To get us started, I wanted to mention a recent 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.200 zoology story that first got me thinking about doing this 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.080 topic on the show. It was a paper published this 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:53.560 year in the journal Behavioral Processes by three researchers named 0:02:53.600 --> 0:03:00.120 Clariana Arujo Wang, Mauricio Kanter, and John Y. Wang, and 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:05.280 the paper was called aerial Urination suggests an undescribed sensory 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:10.840 modality and social function in river dolphins. So a bit 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.959 on the authors here. At least one of the authors 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.760 is affiliated with a river dolphin research project in Brazil 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:21.160 called Botos do dos Serrado, another with the Marine Mammal 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:25.000 Institute of Oregon State University in the United States, and 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.800 the third with Trent University in Ontario, Canada. I believe 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.680 they were all associated to some extent with a research 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:39.280 group called Cetasia Cetasia based in Canada, but this study 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:45.720 concerns individuals of the species Anya Jeffrentsis, also known as 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.920 the Boto or the pink river dolphin or the Amazon 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.000 river dolphin. Rob Have we ever done a long look 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.240 at river dolphins on the show? I don't think so. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.040 I don't believe we have. I imagine a lot of 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.480 you have seen images of them as we'll describe here. 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.720 Do not just picture any other sort of dolphin and 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.240 just color it pink in your mind, because the reality 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:10.720 here is a bit different. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.440 Yeah, these aren't just your bottle nose. This has a 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.880 distinctly alt dolphin feel. 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:18.240 So. 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.720 The Amazon river dolphin is the world's largest species of 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.440 freshwater dolphin, with males growing up to two point five 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.520 meters in length and one hundred and eighty five kilograms. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.000 Adult females are somewhat smaller than that. They look fairly 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:40.400 distinct from marine dolphins, with long, skinny snouts without a 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.920 pronounced dorsal fin like you would see on bottlenose dolphins. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.520 You kind of don't appreciate how much the dorsal fin 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.200 really contributes to the animal's profile until you see a 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.359 dolphin without one. It's not that it doesn't have a 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.240 dorsal fin, but it's more of a hump. Bodos have 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.960 kind of a if you're looking at them from the side, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.200 imagine a kind of plateau silhouette along the back with 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.599 a mid length corner gently sloping down to the tail. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.799 Yeah, And I just find they do just look bizarre. 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.760 They to me, they kind of look like if the 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.960 Cenobyites made a dolphin, you know, like out of a person. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.279 That's the kind of vibe I get off of a 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:21.200 pink river dolphin. 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:23.919 Yeah, I hope this doesn't come off as hostile to 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.560 them because they're wonderful creatures, but there is a there 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.520 is a suggestion of gore in their appearance. There's something 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.560 a little bit, a little bit squicky kind of but 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.240 also they've got a little smile sometimes. Have you seen 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.080 this in different pictures where if you look at the 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.520 head just right, it looks like they're they're giving you 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.640 a grin that's I don't know, it's a little creepy. 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.120 Yeah, I mean, it's a little easier to take that 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.640 that grin from a bottle nose dolphin. And part of it, 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.359 I'm just not used to seeing these guys. I guess, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.839 you know. They're beautiful in their own ride, but they're 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:54.960 also they're a little bit weird. 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.080 So bodos are found not just in the Amazon River, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.080 but in rivers throughout northern and central South America. I 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.240 believe they're in the Orinoco Basin as well, and at 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.280 least one other major river system. Bodos tend to be 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.120 more gray in color when they're young, but then adults, 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.599 especially the males, take on this blotchy pink color as 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.440 they mature. I've read in some sources that the pinkness 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.640 might be associated with places on the skin where there 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.440 have been sort of bumps or abrasions or wounds on 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.200 the skin over the years. But I think that's not 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.520 for certain. There seem to be interesting questions about all 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.800 of the environmental factors that determine the Amazon River dolphin's pinkness. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:39.719 It might also have to do with the opacity of 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:41.880 the water they live in, or with water temperature, or 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:43.880 maybe a few other things. This is not fully settled, 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.560 but anyway, I was just reading a few other things 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.400 about the species, generally in a twenty sixteen feature put 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.200 out by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.880 written by someone named Kirsten Fernley, and this article mentions 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:02.479 that many other dolphin species have a fused spine, but 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:08.320 bodos do not, and a bodo's unfused spine allows it 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.560 to actually turn its head from side to side, which 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.160 might not sound remarkable to you until you see a 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.680 picture of a dolphin turning its head to look at you. Yep, 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.000 pretty weird, rob, I've got a picture in the outline 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.920 for you to look at this dolphin. It's it's like saying. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.120 Hi, Yeah, it's a little bit creepy. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.640 Like other dolphins, bodos also use echolocation to navigate their 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.720 environment and to hunt, so that means emitting low frequency 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.040 clicks or slaps from a fatty organ on the head 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.320 called the melon, and then listening for the bounce back 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.080 to get information about their surroundings, which they sense with 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.000 sensory organs in their in their lower jaw. Especially, bodos 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.760 apparently eat lots of different kinds of prey fish, crustaceans, 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.800 reptiles which they catch in their long jaws. They apparently 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:00.880 have different kinds of teeth the front and the back 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:02.680 of the jaws. So if you see one of them 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.720 with the mouth open toward the front of the jaws 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.720 or this elongated snout, they'll have kind of pointy teeth 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.400 which are the grabber teeth that's for catching you and 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.160 not letting you go. And then they've got grinding teeth 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.400 farther back in the mouth. So that's your destiny if 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.280 you're a crab and one of these things digs you 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:24.280 up from the river bottom. Level of socialization among botos 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.960 seems variable. Sometimes they will gather in groups, especially if 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.959 feeding there's a lot of feeding resources nearby. Sometimes you 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.040 will see them in mother calf pairs, but it seems 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.719 most often adults live alone. There's solitary species. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.400 Now, I was curious about the mythology and the legends 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.840 concerning the Boto, so I looked into this a little bit. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.720 The name Boto is of Portuguese origin, but the indigenous 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.840 peoples of the Amazon and beyond new of them long 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:57.160 before the arrival of Europeans. Naturally, unfortunately, not much seems 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.680 to have survived concerning exactly how while those people in 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.640 pre Columbian times interpreted them in their folklore and myths. 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.400 But we might reasonably infer that there could be some 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:13.040 connection between what was believed in those days and more 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:19.439 modern folkloric beliefs about these river dolphins. But the modern 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.680 stories are pretty alarming, as pointed out in Amazon River 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.960 Dolphin Love Fetishes from Folklore to Molecular Forensics by Gravina 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.120 at All. This is published in Marine Mammal Science two 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.720 thousand and eight. The common folk belief one encounters is 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.680 that the Boto is a shape shifting seducer, or worse, 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.800 at dusk, the Boto can transform itself into a handsome 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:46.280 Caucasian male to dance boldly and seduce women. They are 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.040 also said to enter homes at night and paralyze the 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.000 occupants with their gaze before having their way with them. 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.160 And then it dawned, the boto must return to the 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.400 water into its natural form. The authors here point out 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.319 that in some regions the Boto legend is use to 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.720 explain certain teenage pregnancies that occur, and more generally, I've 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.840 seen the legend explain as something that was originally a 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:11.040 warning against the dangers posed by male colonists in potential 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.679 sexual violence. The nib dot com has a really good 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.679 web comic about this, if anyone wants to explore that. 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:23.440 But associated with these traditions are also sometimes practices of 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.079 using body parts of the boto as fetish items. The 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.520 eye can be held. Some of these traditions hold while 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.880 conversing with a romantic interest, because the power of their 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.760 gaze is irresistible, and so you can get some of 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.160 that power to rub off on you. And then there 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.880 are other traditions where one might take the dried, pulverized 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.000 genitalia of one of these river dolphins and then mix 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.280 it with talcum powder or perfume and then apply that 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.280 to your own genitals as a magic pleasure or fertility 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:59.840 boosting powder. The authors in that paper I cited, they 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.760 point out there are regional variations, as we've touched on, like, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.640 there's ultimately a lot of territory covered by the range 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.440 of the Boto, and that range is going to cover 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.440 a lot of variety. There's a lot of variety and active, 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.160 active cultural influences to be found in these regions. And 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.280 so when some areas there are indigenous beliefs that the 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.880 photo is too sacred to kill, while in other areas 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.000 there has traditionally been more of a practice of killing 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.559 them for their body parts and so forth. But the 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:35.640 bottom line is the Boto possibly a terrifying shape shifting seducer. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:37.880 And maybe this has something to do with its coloration 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.920 and it's kind of a kind of fleshy aspect of 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:45.160 its body. Maybe that's what leads to some of some 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:49.240 variations of these beliefs that it can take on the 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:50.400 form of a human being. 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.040 Yeah, the idea that there is something of blood about it, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.960 or maybe something about it being able to kind of 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.840 turn and look at you, I wonder possibly, yeah, Yeah, 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.640 But anyway, coming to the scientific paper, we're going to 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.880 talk about this will give you another a very different 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:19.040 way to think about the bodo. So in this paper 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.240 from Behavioral Processes in twenty twenty five, again that's a 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.080 rujo wang at all. The authors describe recent observations are 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.480 actually not that recent. It's from a few years back. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.600 I'll talk about that in a second. Describe their observations 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:38.160 of this behavior among bodos, which they call aerial urination. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.600 Another way to put it would be pea fountains. So 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.000 the pea fountain behaviors documented in this research took place 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:50.800 among wild bodos in a river in central Brazil called 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:56.400 the Token Teenes between September twenty fourteen and March twenty eighteen, 0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:00.199 and the observations were recorded from fifteen meters high observation 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.560 platforms at the water's edge. So the pea fountain behavior, 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.240 here's how it goes down. You got one male boto. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.800 Originally it turns upside down at the surface of the river, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:17.280 with its underside facing the sky and its penis sticking 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.160 up above the water line. Then it starts to pee, 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.480 projecting an arc of urine into the air, generally about 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:28.240 three feet long, which splashes down into the water. Nearby. 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:33.160 Usually while creating this pea fountain, the boto will continue swimming, 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:37.080 sometimes in a straight line, sometimes zigzagging back and forth, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.240 sometimes looping around in a circle. And this by itself 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.800 could be seen as a strange and interesting behavior, like 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.360 why take the trouble to flip upside down and pee 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:52.240 into the sky? Like why would you try to make 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:56.400 your urine cross the barrier of worlds into the unswimmable air. 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:58.440 Why not just do it straight into the water and 0:13:58.520 --> 0:13:59.480 go about your business? 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.160 Humans would never, right, so why would the dolphins? 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.120 I was exactly trying to think about when humans would 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:10.719 make a point to like submerge, just barely submerge their 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.040 bodies under the water in order to pee. I guess 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.160 the main reason I could the humans would do that 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.840 would be for like various forms of modesty, like in 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.560 order to not be seen peeing or not be heard 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:22.240 or something. 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.080 Yeah, yeah, I think that's that's a fine point. I 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.800 would also argue, and again, we're comparing dolphins with humans, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.880 which is closer comparison to be made than humans do 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:37.480 various other animals, but humans. When humans have the ability 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:42.840 to aim and control their urination streams, they are liable 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:48.240 to do novel things with their control within the acceptable 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.000 environment that they are urinating. I would bring to mind 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.800 occasionally one might see a target in a urinal that 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.360 sort of thing, sure, and that would encourage one to 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.320 aim for the target. Or maybe one is urinating in 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.240 the wild and there is like one rock that calls 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:06.600 out more than other rocks. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.680 Sure, yeah, uh huh, I see what you're saying. So 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.160 it can be a form of play or self amusement 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:16.200 in a way. And dolphins, you know, dolphins are intelligent animals. 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.240 You think that they might just maybe sometimes they do 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.440 things just to play, just kind of for a novelty 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:26.400 of the behavior. So there would be interesting questions even 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.520 if it was just the aerial urine stream. But here's 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.400 where it gets even more interesting. The authors of this 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.560 paper observed that two thirds of the time, sixty seven 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.520 percent of the time, one male river dolphin did this. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.880 It happened to be when there was another male right there, 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.480 right nearby, which the authors called the receiver of the 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:55.040 aerial urination. And what's more, the receiver dolphin would often 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.720 appear not to avoid the stream. Sometimes it would just 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.720 stay where it was in the water. Basically right under 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.880 where the stream was hitting. But often it would appear 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:10.000 to deliberately chase the stream of urine and try to 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.520 get under it. So really the dolphins would be going 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.560 out of their way to get peed on, it appears 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.760 to be yes, and not just to get peed on, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.280 to get peed on in the face. So the other 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.000 male dolphin here will approach the place where the airborne 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.200 stream is splashing down and it will stick its head 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.400 up out of the water to let the urine splash 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.680 down and run over its rostrum, which is what the 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.960 dolphins protruding beak like jaw is called. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.560 Again, humans would never so what's going on with these 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:43.680 river dolphins. 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.320 We don't have to make too many analogies to humans 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.640 and the positive or negative. No judgment here, but yes, 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.040 not a common behavior among humans at least we would think, right. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.000 And as we've been trying to relate here, urine is 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:02.600 not just urine to animals outside of the human domain. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.200 Urine can be informational. 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:07.800 That's right. So that brings us to the question of 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.000 why do they do this? Why would the dolphin pee 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.520 this way, and why would the other dolphins seek the 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.480 urine stream and try to get its face position, its 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.879 own face into the urine stream. To be clear, we 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.119 don't know the answer to this question. It is not 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:28.040 This is not settled, but the authors do try to 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.919 make an informed guess. They say, the most likely explanation 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.960 is its communication. The dolphin that peas in the air 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.640 is in a sense talking, and the dolphin that seeks 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.480 out the stream of urine is listening. Now, what would 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.399 they be talking about. Possibly it would be the dolphin's 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:51.159 quote social position and physical condition, which in fact is 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:55.800 very important information that male dolphins seek about each other 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.879 in order to navigate competition between one another, such as 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.520 competition for food or competition for mates. And this would 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.160 line up with the observation that aerial urination only ever 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.600 took place between males. The urinators were only males and 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:17.320 the receivers were only males. Now, another question you might 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.320 wonder about is why if this is in fact some 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.639 kind of exchange of information, and we'll get into a 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.399 bit more detail about that in a minute. What's the 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.160 need for the aerial stream Why up in the air 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.399 instead of the dolphin just peeing underwater and letting the 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.760 other dolphin, you know, detect it in the water. And 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.200 get whatever kind of information they need from it. There Again, 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.720 the answer is unknown, but one idea I read here 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:47.159 is that since dolphins are acoustically sensitive, the splashing of 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:52.760 the arc could alert nearby males that someone is pee talking. Now, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.560 it's kind of like the ringing of the telephone. It 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.760 is alerting you to come get the message, which you 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.720 would receive by the p on your face. Again, not known, 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.040 but that's an interesting guess. Because the dolphins they live 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.800 in a world of sound. They are constantly sensing sounds 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.480 that they themselves amid and bounce back, and other types 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.560 of sounds in the water. So the splashing could be 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:16.760 that that's a ring tone. 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:18.320 Ah, Now that is fascinating. 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.560 Another interesting fact I came across. This is actually unconnected 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.600 to the research about aerial urination, but I just wanted 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.159 to connect it because I read them both separately. In 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.640 that general article about bodos that I was reading from 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:36.160 the Triple As twenty sixteen, it mentions that bodos are 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.760 sometimes seen swimming upside down, but the author in this 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.040 case connects it to the fact that bodos tend to 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.680 have kind of chubby cheeks, like small eyes and chubby cheeks, 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:52.520 which some researchers think might give them trouble looking down 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.240 below them in the water, Like I can't see down there. 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.680 My cute chubby cheeks are in the way. Thus, maybe 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.800 swim upside down helps them see what's below them. 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:04.159 M Okay. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.360 Again, that may be totally unconnected to the aerial urination behavior, 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.960 but that's another observation of them sometimes just inverting for 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.880 some reason, and this is another possible reason for it. Now, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.919 coming back to the aerial urination paper, there's the question 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.800 of how the receiver dolphin would be getting information from 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.200 the urine stream if that is in fact what's happening. Well, 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:32.320 the authors point out that bodos have special sensitive bristles 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.000 in the rostrum that have already been documented to help 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.800 them search for prey in murky opaque water near river bottoms. 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:43.800 Rob I tried to find a picture where you could 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:47.000 see these bristles. I did attach one here in the outline. 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.120 They're very small, and most pictures of the Amazon River 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.159 dolphin's mouth or not from real close. But here's one 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:55.719 where you might kind of be able to see them. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.880 You see these little tiny white bristles along the edge 0:20:58.880 --> 0:20:59.280 of the mouth. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.680 Yeah, stubble, a little bit of stubble. I will reiterate 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.280 that in this picture too. It looks kind of like 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.800 some sort of a twisted cinebite. Yes. And this is 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.760 fascinating as well, because in talking about one animal weeding 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.880 the urine of another, we're often talking about the sense 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.600 of smell being involved. And we'll get more into that later, 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.400 but one of the things about dolphins is that dolphins 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.560 have a somewhat reduced sense of smell. We've talked about 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.520 that before on the show, talking about the evolution of 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.000 various aquatic mammals, and so it makes sense that they 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.040 would have to have some other capabilities in. 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.720 Play, that's right, And so that's what the authors hypothesize here. 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.720 They say that maybe hunting and foraging in river mud 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.320 is not the only thing these bristles are used for. 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:44.639 Quote. 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:49.040 We hypothesize that the bristles on Bodo's rostrums can serve 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:54.000 a chemical sensory role in detecting urine streams, and that 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.480 aerial urination, often occurring in the presence of other males, 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:02.720 serves social or communicative functions beyond the physiological need for 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:07.119 waste elimination. So again, we don't know for sure about this. 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.080 It's just sort of in the early stages of documenting 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.879 this behavior in an organized way and then trying to 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:15.280 see what we can figure out about it. I think 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.280 you need to do more controlled experiments to try to 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.720 isolate the variables and figure out what it's really doing. 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:26.240 But if this communication interpretation is correct, it could be 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.160 an important exchange of information that helps male bodos make 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.760 decisions about, say, whether it's worth it or probably more 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.160 often not worth it to fight with this other male 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.919 for access to food resources and mating with nearby females. 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:44.639 Like it's kind of like, here is my medical chart 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:47.639 through the taste of my urine. This confirms that I 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.520 am healthy, i am free of parasites, I've got plenty 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.680 of muscle mass, and I could put up a good fight. 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.679 So you know, you don't want to fight me. You 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:56.480 probably get hurt. 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.040 That's a great way of explaining it, because I think 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:02.000 it's no surprise to any of us that urine contains 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.040 a great deal of information. There's a lot of that 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:10.440 information that we can discern medically, but to an animal 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:12.840 that has a heightened sense of one sort or another, 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:16.119 they're able to read the urine to some degree and 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:17.960 get information out of it, like who is this guy? 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.400 Who do they think they are? Well, I can't check 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.439 their like LinkedIn profile or their their social media page, 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.080 but I can test their urine and read that for 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:27.880 more information. 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:30.800 Yes, and as we've talked about on the show before, 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:36.560 it's easy to think about this kind of competition based 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:42.679