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, we're talking
Speaker 1: about great parents. Hi, Mom and dad. The animal kingdom
Speaker 1: is full of devoted parents whose child rearing skills are incredible, shocking,
Speaker 1: and gross. Some parents would give you the shirts off
Speaker 1: their backs and others would give you the skin off
Speaker 1: their backs. We're talking thoughtful toads, families of frogs, doating plovers,
Speaker 1: and parental packyderms. To discover the more as we answer
Speaker 1: to the actual question is the first rule of Maccaque
Speaker 1: Dad Club that you don't talk about Maccaque Dad Club.
Speaker 1: Joining me today is our producer, Joel Monique and freelance writer,
Speaker 1: comic book creator, author of the web comic But What If?
Speaker 1: Though about superhero hijinks and parenthood activate Steph Williams. Hello, Hi,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me. I am excited
Speaker 1: to talk about parenthood despite me not being a parent
Speaker 1: unless you count my dog, which most people would not.
Speaker 1: I totally count it. So you are a mom. Well,
Speaker 1: let me not say unfortunately, but unfortunately, I guess I
Speaker 1: am a title that I am. We're proudly yeah. And
Speaker 1: how old is your kiddo? He is four going on
Speaker 1: forty two some days, some days fourteen. I just I
Speaker 1: never know. I love little kids who act like old
Speaker 1: people and or look like old people. When my brother
Speaker 1: was born, he looked like an angry, little old man.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's my older brother, so I have no
Speaker 1: memory of it, but I look at photos and it's
Speaker 1: extremely funny to me. He was cute, but he looked
Speaker 1: like an angry, grumpy, little old man. Sometimes I'm just like,
Speaker 1: you haven't been on this earth for a very long
Speaker 1: time for his attitude. But also I get it, so
Speaker 1: it's fine. It doesn't take too long to develop an attitude.
Speaker 1: I don't think. But today we are going to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the best parents in the animal world,
Speaker 1: and by best I mean most creative, wildest, and most devoted.
Speaker 1: And we will be handing out awards. But one might
Speaker 1: say that the only award they need is the satisfaction
Speaker 1: of raising children. I'm just kidding. Awards are really great.
Speaker 1: I love awards. First, I want to talk about how
Speaker 1: animals carry their young, like literally physically hold them, because
Speaker 1: as humans, we have a pretty. I guess we kind
Speaker 1: of take it for granted because we have hands and
Speaker 1: we just pick them up, scoop them up, you know,
Speaker 1: toss them over our shoulders. Will not toss gently, you know,
Speaker 1: delicately hold the baby. I know how to hold a baby.
Speaker 1: You're gentle by the time in the air, and they
Speaker 1: really don't know the difference. You know, kick flip a baby. No,
Speaker 1: don't kick flick the baby. I'm not saying that. But
Speaker 1: you said on your show to kick flick the baby. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't say that taken out a context. No, be
Speaker 1: very gentle with the baby. You hold it, you support
Speaker 1: its head. It's big, heavy head because babies they can't
Speaker 1: hold those heads yet because they're so small and floppy.
Speaker 1: But animals don't have well, I mean, some animals have hands,
Speaker 1: but they don't well. Some animals do have opposable thumbs,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them don't. So they have to
Speaker 1: get really creative about how they carry their young, and
Speaker 1: they often go to some extreme length to hold onto
Speaker 1: their young and to protect them from the outside world.
Speaker 1: So first I want to do some honorary mentions. Alligators
Speaker 1: carry their babies in their mouths after they've hatched, and
Speaker 1: they will gently transport them to the water. So this
Speaker 1: can look kind of horrifying because you see an alligator
Speaker 1: grab it a freshly hatched egg and kind of crack
Speaker 1: it open and toss the little one into its mouth,
Speaker 1: and you think, oh my god, she's gonna eat her baby.
Speaker 1: But no, she just carries them over to the water
Speaker 1: and gently releases them one by one, over and over
Speaker 1: until she's got her whole whole brood of little hatchlings
Speaker 1: into the water. Why can't they ride together? Why can't
Speaker 1: you have more than one in there? Yes, gets crowded,
Speaker 1: I guess, I mean maybe you probably could. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: ride on her head too. I they're sticky, I mean,
Speaker 1: but like kids are often sticky for no reason. So
Speaker 1: could you imagine that's on your tongue, still covered in
Speaker 1: that that egg amniotic sack? Yeah? Gross. Giant water bugs
Speaker 1: which are bugs that live in freshwater habitats. Joel, you're
Speaker 1: shaking your head, No, you know, I don't like swarms
Speaker 1: of things. It's not a swarm. It's a single bug
Speaker 1: together on its back so much. But it's eggs. So
Speaker 1: they have a built in snorkel and they can breathe underwater,
Speaker 1: and what Joel is freaking out about is that they
Speaker 1: will lay their eggs onto the male's back and the
Speaker 1: male will just carry them on his back until they hatch.
Speaker 1: So he's a great dad. I don't know why you're
Speaker 1: so upset. I heard it was the dad. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with it now because of that too, and
Speaker 1: only for that reason. But yeah, it is a little
Speaker 1: bit unsettling to see a big cluster of eggs on
Speaker 1: his back. Yeah, we're gonna actually talk about another animal
Speaker 1: a little later that it may be upsetting for some
Speaker 1: people who have triple phobia, which is a fear of
Speaker 1: clusters of things. So I'll give you a warning then
Speaker 1: when we're going to talk about it. But it is
Speaker 1: really cool. It's just, you know, it's so yucky. But
Speaker 1: before we talk about that, let's talk about pandas So.
Speaker 1: Pandem mothers will cradle their newborn young almost constantly because
Speaker 1: they're just small, little helpless pink jelly beans who can't
Speaker 1: do nothing and the mom's got to take care of them.
Speaker 1: They almost never put them down because it's again like
Speaker 1: this little helpless pink burrito that cook gets squish, tiny
Speaker 1: chippy check how do you know how um much they
Speaker 1: weigh when they're boy and they're super tiny? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know a number, but I'm gonna say probably
Speaker 1: about as much as a small Taco Bell burrito. I'm
Speaker 1: so hungry right now I could eat a baby panda.
Speaker 1: I did not like that one. So onto the animals
Speaker 1: who are actually getting the Animal Parent of the Year
Speaker 1: awards awards, Awards awards. So in third place is the
Speaker 1: horned marsupial frog. So I have provided you ladies with
Speaker 1: a picture of one of these frogs. I think they
Speaker 1: are awfully cute. They live in Columbia, Costa Ricua, Ecuador,
Speaker 1: and Panama. Their tree dwelling frogs. There are little guys.
Speaker 1: They're about two to three inches long, which is about
Speaker 1: seven centimeters. They're sort of a light tan and brown
Speaker 1: with sort of creamy white patches, and they got these
Speaker 1: little horns over their eyes that kind of looks like cool.
Speaker 1: I make up like a little bit of a little
Speaker 1: bit of a wing over their eyes, you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit dramatic. Yeah, I'm loving this look specifically. It's
Speaker 1: giving me like kind of almost like I feel like
Speaker 1: Huella Deville would be. Like I have to have these
Speaker 1: eyes like this look. It's a new uh fashion and
Speaker 1: glasses wear. Yeah, it's like a hundred and one dalmatians,
Speaker 1: but it's like two thousand and five scorned marsupial frogs
Speaker 1: because it has Oh gosh, imagine this guy sitting on
Speaker 1: the tip of your pencil while you're writing in school.
Speaker 1: You're definitely gonna focus. He's giving you the look. He's
Speaker 1: giving you the horn rim glasses look, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And some cool things about these little guys is that
Speaker 1: males will sound like a champagne cork when they're doing calls,
Speaker 1: so kind of a I can't really do it, but fancy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when we lay their eggs, instead of just leaving
Speaker 1: them somewhere to get eaten up by some predator, females
Speaker 1: will actually carry the eggs in a special pouch on
Speaker 1: her back, and males will help place the fertilized eggs
Speaker 1: into the female's pouch by pushing them in with his
Speaker 1: little toes, And basically the female's back will look like
Speaker 1: a pea pod with a bunch of eggs in it. Okay,
Speaker 1: so like some teamwork. Yeah, I can get into that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look particularly nice. It kind of looks like
Speaker 1: she's got a bunch of lumps under her back. But
Speaker 1: it is actually really nice strategy because it keeps those
Speaker 1: eggs safe and sound until they hatch and come out
Speaker 1: of her back. So I'm seeing a lot of inspiration
Speaker 1: for Kuala Deville and all of these things. Blue is gorgeous.
Speaker 1: First of all, it's like the most it's it's not
Speaker 1: devil Wares product Ruleian, but like four or five shage
Speaker 1: dark than that. It's literally what you're looking at now
Speaker 1: is the poison dart frog. So it is a beautiful
Speaker 1: tree frog found in Surinam. Uh. They are they're little,
Speaker 1: but very deadly. They are toxic, so you don't want
Speaker 1: to eat them, probably don't want to touch them. You're
Speaker 1: more likely to kick the bucket if you actually ingest
Speaker 1: this toxin. But it can also like if you get
Speaker 1: it on your your hands, you don't You could absorb
Speaker 1: some of it through the skin and you don't really
Speaker 1: want that. They are a bright, bright, bright blue. They
Speaker 1: look like living jewels. They're beautiful, and that coloration is
Speaker 1: actually a warning that they are toxic. So they're telling
Speaker 1: predators like, hey, no, don't don't try it, which is
Speaker 1: funny because like to us now as humans who like
Speaker 1: to eat tide pods, it looks kind of appetizing, So
Speaker 1: to animals who don't eat tide pods, it looks very dangerous,
Speaker 1: so they will not mess with them. And they get
Speaker 1: their toxins from their diet, so by stealing it from
Speaker 1: their prey like ants, centipedes and mites who have a
Speaker 1: toxin in them. That then the uh poisoned dart frog
Speaker 1: will consume and then concentrate and then excrete on their
Speaker 1: skin like a two for one deal nutrition and safety. Exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like eating a bunch of little lives. No, it's
Speaker 1: not like that, never mind, But it would be like
Speaker 1: if you could eat a bunch of nails and then
Speaker 1: just push the nails out through your skin and now
Speaker 1: you're the human porcupine. Is that a superhero stuff? No,
Speaker 1: but it definitely sounds like something that will come soon
Speaker 1: to studios. Sounds right up there, Alley, he eats nails
Speaker 1: for breakfast, but can he get love starring Timothy Shallomy.
Speaker 1: So for these blue poison dart frogs, during mating, the
Speaker 1: males will issue a soft call that females are attracted to,
Speaker 1: and the females actually fight over the males, and the
Speaker 1: winning female gets to lay her eggs that the male fertilizes,
Speaker 1: and then the female is done. She's off, she's off
Speaker 1: to book club with the girls. And now the male
Speaker 1: he's got to be the single dad to these eggs,
Speaker 1: so he protects the eggs and he becomes a very
Speaker 1: devoted little papa in a bunch of interesting ways. He
Speaker 1: will actually urinate on the tadpoles, which sounds kind of disrespectful,
Speaker 1: but it's actually to help keep them hydrated. And they
Speaker 1: will carry the tadpoles on their backs, painstaking a one
Speaker 1: by one and transport them to what are these little
Speaker 1: micro pools, which are these tiny pools that happen in
Speaker 1: actually inside trees when you have a plant like a
Speaker 1: bromeliad or another plant where it traps rain water, and
Speaker 1: you can actually get a little microbiome in there, a
Speaker 1: little micro pool, and then by depositing the little tadpole
Speaker 1: in there, it has its own little pool. It's relatively
Speaker 1: safe and sequestered, it doesn't have to compete with its
Speaker 1: siblings or with other tadpools, and then basically it grows
Speaker 1: up in its own little little watery crib, and so
Speaker 1: the fathers will go back and forth between its eggs
Speaker 1: and these little micro pools until it has successfully transported
Speaker 1: all of its tadpoles on its back to their own
Speaker 1: little private pools. I'm exhausted. Were multiple kids to have
Speaker 1: their apartments, my lord, back and between really born with
Speaker 1: a silver silver fly in their mouths? Pond of the
Speaker 1: year for real, because no, imagine getting ready for school.
Speaker 1: I think I would just leave an well, good good news.
Speaker 1: You know, mothers do get to just take it easy
Speaker 1: after all, up to the little dad's yep. And that's
Speaker 1: what I like to call feminism. Yes, scom one. But
Speaker 1: the winner of most creative, most devoted, and most horrifying
Speaker 1: parents carrying their babies is the Surinam toad. Oh look
Speaker 1: at him, who is a flatty And this is a
Speaker 1: very very interesting animal and I want you to bear
Speaker 1: with me as long as possible. We're going to to
Speaker 1: a little bit of a gross part. I will tell
Speaker 1: I will warn you before I go into description there.
Speaker 1: But these are they're really cool. So they are found
Speaker 1: in South America in slow moving streams and rivers. They're
Speaker 1: about four inches big, which is about ten centimeters. They're
Speaker 1: kind of shaped like a pentagon or like a leaf,
Speaker 1: kind of helps with its camouflage. It's brown and flat.
Speaker 1: It does kind of look like a frog and a
Speaker 1: leaf combined into some kind of weird pokemon. It is
Speaker 1: also called the star fingered toad because it has long,
Speaker 1: pointy fingers with little star like protrusions that helps it
Speaker 1: grip prey such as tiny fish and invertebrates. So so far,
Speaker 1: really fun, fun, charming, little little pokemon like toad, but
Speaker 1: the way it gives birth is fascinating, gross, and potentially
Speaker 1: triggering for people with triple phobia, which is the fear
Speaker 1: of clusters of things, either like clusters of holes or
Speaker 1: clusters of bumps. So if you want to skip ahead
Speaker 1: for this section, I will provide a time stamp here. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I have spared you ladies actually putting the photo
Speaker 1: of this in the slide show because I wasn't sure.
Speaker 1: You know, it's one of those things that you can
Speaker 1: easily google, but I don't have to inflict it upon you.
Speaker 1: So what happens is that first they will mate, which
Speaker 1: is typically what's necessary for reproduction, not always, but often,
Speaker 1: so the male toad will sound off with these seductive
Speaker 1: clicks underwater for the females, and if the female is impressed,
Speaker 1: she will go to the mail. The mail will get
Speaker 1: on top of the female and they'll start to do
Speaker 1: some sick kick flips as the female is laying eggs,
Speaker 1: so that as she's popping these eggs out, they're sort
Speaker 1: of like ping pong bawling like in between the toads,
Speaker 1: so they form like a sandwich. So it's like the
Speaker 1: female and then on top of hers the eggs, and
Speaker 1: on top of that is the male. And as the
Speaker 1: male is fertilizing the eggs, he's also pushing them into
Speaker 1: her back and they embed themselves into her back. And
Speaker 1: once that's done and the male goes away, those eggs
Speaker 1: that are now adhered to her back actually start to
Speaker 1: sink into her skin and her skin grows over them,
Speaker 1: and the effect is that it forms this honeycomb like
Speaker 1: structure of eggs on her back that looks slightly odd
Speaker 1: and possibly not fun to not fun and good to
Speaker 1: look at. For me, it doesn't upset me, but I
Speaker 1: can see it definitely upsetting some people and testing it
Speaker 1: does look a bit like goose bumps, but the eggs
Speaker 1: eggs have to go through so much. I googled it
Speaker 1: like a fool, and I am regretting this. I feel
Speaker 1: like I feel like I googled it like a fool
Speaker 1: is sort of a tagline of this podcast. You're still
Speaker 1: great stuff. I can't. I'm horrified, and just the thought
Speaker 1: of egg covered skin keep looking bad news. We haven't
Speaker 1: even gotten to the hatching part yet. Oh god. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the eggs actually fully developed into froglets, So they
Speaker 1: develop into tadpoles, but they stay under the skin, and
Speaker 1: then they develop into froglets, which are tiny frogs, and
Speaker 1: then once they're ready to come out, tiny fully developed
Speaker 1: little frogs will pop out of her back like pop
Speaker 1: worn And I mean she can lay up to a
Speaker 1: hundred eggs, so yeah, quite a few of these will
Speaker 1: hatch and come right out of there and just like
Speaker 1: a fun bunch of confetti. But the confetti is tiny
Speaker 1: frogs and it's coming out of a frog back. Is
Speaker 1: that a good visual? I'm sorry, this is worth of
Speaker 1: the entire Beard episode. I'm so sorry, but this does
Speaker 1: not actually hurt the mother, so the mother will fully
Speaker 1: heal even though after the hatching. I'm sorry to say it,
Speaker 1: it's not a It doesn't. It's not a great look
Speaker 1: on account of there just being a bunch of you know,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of holes in her back. It's not great.
Speaker 1: It's not great to look at. But she'll heal and
Speaker 1: actually shed her top layer of skin and be totally
Speaker 1: fine and rare to go for a whole new set
Speaker 1: of babies. So I think it's one of those things
Speaker 1: that is far more horrifying for us to hear about
Speaker 1: than for the actual frog. They're like, what's your problem?
Speaker 1: Got a bunch of babies popping out of my back?
Speaker 1: So what deal with it? And she gets like a
Speaker 1: mommy makeover right afterwards, exactly exactly, goes to the spa,
Speaker 1: you know, just relaxes for a bit and then starts
Speaker 1: the whole process all over again. I will be thinking
Speaker 1: about this in my nightmares, and I don't understand how
Speaker 1: science fiction has not picked up on this creature and
Speaker 1: made it the monster of all of our dreams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like alien. The movie would
Speaker 1: have been much more terrifying if instead of just being
Speaker 1: like one chest burster, it was like a hundred of
Speaker 1: them coming out of your back. It would not be
Speaker 1: my favorite franchise if they did that. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: imagine Mother's Day, though, You've got like a hundred kids
Speaker 1: who are like, man, thank you for letting me just
Speaker 1: like pop out of your back, Like, here's a billion
Speaker 1: back massages forever this Mother's Day. You've ever gotten for
Speaker 1: Mother's Day? Do you think the kids would be responsible
Speaker 1: to get good Mother's Day? Kiss? That is a good question. Oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't get a good gift, but it was sort
Speaker 1: of like my own thing that I already bought, But
Speaker 1: it was a new iPad because the iPad that I
Speaker 1: had became his iPad. I don't know when that transition happened,
Speaker 1: but it did. And I got a new one for
Speaker 1: Mother's da even though I had already purchased one for
Speaker 1: myself that he now owns. So that's in a way
Speaker 1: that means that you can understand the Surinam toad because
Speaker 1: you had to relinquish your iPad and the Surinam toad
Speaker 1: had to relinquish her back. I mean, and you know
Speaker 1: it's similar. I listen, I will give that I've had
Speaker 1: up a million times before I relinquished my back. Do
Speaker 1: male seahorses really get pregnant? Well? Kind of females grow
Speaker 1: eggs and then deposit the unfertilized eggs inside the male's
Speaker 1: brood pouch of flexible skin that grows over his abdomen.
Speaker 1: The male then fertilizes the eggs and will carry them
Speaker 1: as they develop into tiny baby sea horses, at which
Speaker 1: point he'll expel them with abdominal contractions like a baby
Speaker 1: squirt gun. When we return, we'll talk about some animal
Speaker 1: parents who really sacrifice it all for their kids. Animals
Speaker 1: aren't always the most devoted parents. Sometimes animals do no childcare,
Speaker 1: leaving their eggs or young to basically fin for themselves.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they even nibble on a few of their own
Speaker 1: children just for a bit of extra nutrition. The parent
Speaker 1: offspring relationship in the wild can be complicated, but in
Speaker 1: these cases, the ears truly devote their whole lives, sometimes literally,
Speaker 1: to taking care of their offspring. So now we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about some of the sacrifices that parents make
Speaker 1: for their children. Now I can't speak to this, but stuff,
Speaker 1: have you ever had to make sacrifices for your child? Yes,
Speaker 1: one major one before he was even born, because I thought, like,
Speaker 1: you know what, we'll put the pregnancy thing off or whatever.
Speaker 1: And so I bought seasons passes to a local theme park,
Speaker 1: thinking that I was going to get on this brand
Speaker 1: new roller coaster and enjoy my summer. And then I
Speaker 1: found out that I was pregnant in February. Um, and
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, So I'm just using this to
Speaker 1: go eat and walk around because I'm not writing anything.
Speaker 1: So it was fine. Um, and then now I just
Speaker 1: sacrificed my snacks. So some up at light who am
Speaker 1: like a burglar, like trying to eat my own, my
Speaker 1: own snacks, and then like it gets stuff that I
Speaker 1: think he doesn't like, and then guess who like it?
Speaker 1: Those are your snacks? Those are my snacks. We and
Speaker 1: I say we loosely because I'm not a parent, but
Speaker 1: in general human parents often make a lot of sacrifices
Speaker 1: for their children, and so do animals, sometimes to extreme extents.
Speaker 1: So here are our award winners of animals who make
Speaker 1: the most incredible sacrifices. In third place is the killed deer.
Speaker 1: So the killed deer, despite its very threatening name, is
Speaker 1: a little bird and it is a species of plover,
Speaker 1: which is a waiting bird found on the shorelines and
Speaker 1: wetlands of the America's and they have these long, runaway
Speaker 1: ready legs that allow them to wade on shorelines. And
Speaker 1: they're on the larger side of plover species, so they're
Speaker 1: about tin and ches or twenty four long. They're light
Speaker 1: brown with white bellies and white and black bands on
Speaker 1: their heads and necks and red eyes. And I think
Speaker 1: they're I think they're kind of cute. They look like
Speaker 1: little um, you know, they look very fashionable to me,
Speaker 1: And when mating, the male will actually just like stand
Speaker 1: on top of the female like they're doing an acrobatic routine.
Speaker 1: It's pretty funny to me. Like I just assoomed in
Speaker 1: on the photo. I was like, is he sitting on her?
Speaker 1: And he absolutely is? Um no comment, no comment that
Speaker 1: can freely be said on the right. I feel like, okay,
Speaker 1: so it's really bumping me out. Is how much bigger
Speaker 1: her son is than her? And why is she still
Speaker 1: carrying him? This looks like a full grown male bird
Speaker 1: and I know what that is. And they're mating. That's
Speaker 1: not yes, I thought we were talking about parents and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, we're still the carrying part part where
Speaker 1: they were doing it. Okay, this is that's not his mother?
Speaker 1: That is his lover um and I should carry all
Speaker 1: what is happy. I feel like this is meta in
Speaker 1: some way. I don't know how, but there's a message
Speaker 1: that we carry men on our backs. Yeah, okay, now
Speaker 1: I don't want to be eat graphic, but I have
Speaker 1: go for it questions because you think you typically in
Speaker 1: mating one person is behind the other or like the
Speaker 1: way that they're on top of each other. How is
Speaker 1: mating occurring? Well, so basically it's balance and good angling,
Speaker 1: I would say, like regular. So yeah, so like you,
Speaker 1: he's got to get balanced on there. He's got to
Speaker 1: get the angle right and then with a few well
Speaker 1: placed wing beats and balance, you can you can do it.
Speaker 1: You can get you can get get it. In the goal,
Speaker 1: I have a new perspective, and it's this this woman
Speaker 1: is a badass, Like look at look at the strength
Speaker 1: in her legs to support this entire relationship and make
Speaker 1: this baby happen. Uh, this is a warrior. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: well wait until you hear about the sacrifices she makes
Speaker 1: for her young. So she will lay her eggs on
Speaker 1: the ground, which can be a problem when it comes
Speaker 1: to predators. But she has a strategy, so she you know,
Speaker 1: she got her Bachelors of Arts in fine acting. And
Speaker 1: she will limp around, pretending to have a broken wing
Speaker 1: to entice predators to chase her and leave her eggs
Speaker 1: or hatchlings alone. Oh so she'll like stick her wing
Speaker 1: out and kind of limp around and look really pathetic
Speaker 1: and make these very sorrowful calls as a predator is nearby,
Speaker 1: and the predators thinking, you know, oh well, you know,
Speaker 1: I was going to eat these little legs, but look
Speaker 1: there's this whole huge bird that I could eat, and
Speaker 1: it is injured, so this is gonna be easy pickens.
Speaker 1: And then once she's led it far enough away, she'll
Speaker 1: be like psych and fly off and return to her nest.
Speaker 1: The dramatics. I love it, I really do. It's creative
Speaker 1: and how do these birds and I have a reality
Speaker 1: TV show? This is very bravo esque, the desperate house
Speaker 1: birds of the shore ways of the America's. So it
Speaker 1: is a bit of a risk though, because they're acting
Speaker 1: may work too well, and if the predator catches up
Speaker 1: to them, it can actually kill them. So they have
Speaker 1: to act just enough and stay on the ground long
Speaker 1: enough that it really truly they sell the idea that
Speaker 1: they are actually injured and but then they have to
Speaker 1: try to escape, So it's a it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a tricky balance to both like act injured long enough
Speaker 1: to draw the predator away from their nest, but not
Speaker 1: too long that they actually get caught by the predator.
Speaker 1: So really real high stakes method acting. Stick that in
Speaker 1: your pipe and smoke at Daniel day Lewis this remind me, uh, like,
Speaker 1: what do they call a stage? Moms like desperate to
Speaker 1: get their kids a part. Yeah, it's like causing a
Speaker 1: scene during somebody else's performance. What do oh no? And
Speaker 1: then she's like, hopefully they never remember that kid's performance.
Speaker 1: My baby's stopped? Or what are like, what are those
Speaker 1: memes that are going around right now where videos where
Speaker 1: the kids call their and say, hey, I'm being followed
Speaker 1: right now. Um, I might get a speeding ticket. Act
Speaker 1: as though, like you fell on the floor. This is
Speaker 1: very much thing. I haven't seen this a TikTok thing. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a TikTok thing. I gotta get on the TikTok.
Speaker 1: It's probably time all the cool kids are in second
Speaker 1: place for parents who sacrifices the most. We are actually
Speaker 1: going to talk about raya dad's rare dad's dads who
Speaker 1: do at all? So this bird is cute and I
Speaker 1: have never found a bird cut before. I'm so confused.
Speaker 1: I'll convert you at a certain dinosaurs. Oh but you
Speaker 1: know what, it's all the little baby birds around him.
Speaker 1: Yeah you so. Ria's are large flightless birds related to
Speaker 1: EMUs and ostriches. They are found in South America and wetlands,
Speaker 1: savannah and grasslands. So they weigh around sixty pounds, which
Speaker 1: is abouts and they stand a little over four ft tall,
Speaker 1: so about one point five meters tall. And they look
Speaker 1: like a small emo. I would say, because that's what
Speaker 1: I thought they were. Yeah, well they are. They are related,
Speaker 1: so so yeah, all it all works out. It all
Speaker 1: makes sense. And so males will advertise themselves to females
Speaker 1: and if the female is impressed, they'll mate, and then
Speaker 1: that's about as traditional as it gets. And then we
Speaker 1: get into the crazy world of rhead ads. So the
Speaker 1: male will lead the female to his nest after copulation
Speaker 1: so she can lay her eggs. But he's so protective
Speaker 1: of his nest he'll actually be aggressive towards the mother
Speaker 1: of his own offspring and she approaches his nest, and
Speaker 1: he'll only relax once he's completely convinced that all she's
Speaker 1: there to do is lay her eggs and leave. And
Speaker 1: the reason he's so on edge is that he is
Speaker 1: a proud papa with a bunch of different mamas because
Speaker 1: with multiple females and becomes a single dad of many
Speaker 1: many mothers and raises a huge clutch of eggs. So also,
Speaker 1: don't worry there is gender parody when it comes to sex.
Speaker 1: For the re Is, females will get it on with
Speaker 1: multiple males as well, so they're having a good time
Speaker 1: and then they don't even have to take care of
Speaker 1: the eggs. So how do we sign up? Like why
Speaker 1: if were like having a bunch of kids with a
Speaker 1: bunch of different women, but like actively eager to just
Speaker 1: be like, no, these are my children, now I run this.
Speaker 1: It's not even the half of it, because males can
Speaker 1: sometimes be responsible for up to eighty eggs at a time,
Speaker 1: and each egg is is pretty big, so they're about
Speaker 1: the size of like a mango. They're not as big
Speaker 1: as an ostrich egg, but yeah, they they're still pretty sizeable.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking about how it would make a great
Speaker 1: poached egg, but that's maybe inappropriate. Right now we're talking.
Speaker 1: We're all hungry. God would make a great omelet, but
Speaker 1: he has to be because of predators like me that
Speaker 1: wants to eat these these great omelets. He has to
Speaker 1: be extremely protective of the nest to keep the eggs
Speaker 1: safe as they incubate for six weeks, and he'll he
Speaker 1: will deprive himself of food to keep watched, so he
Speaker 1: may only get about a fourth of his normal amount
Speaker 1: of nutrition during this time because he's spending so much
Speaker 1: time watching the nest. And right before the eggs hatch,
Speaker 1: this is really cute. The chicks inside the eggs will
Speaker 1: issue little pop rocket like calls, like little tiny fireworks
Speaker 1: that helped them all coordinate their hatching so they all
Speaker 1: come out more or less at the same time, which
Speaker 1: is really important when you have a bunch of eggs
Speaker 1: from a bunch of different mothers and one incredibly flustered,
Speaker 1: stressed out dad. I want this movie or this TV
Speaker 1: series right now, So instead of taking you know, let
Speaker 1: me go save my kids, let me show you how
Speaker 1: how I protect eighty eight of them all at the
Speaker 1: same time. I want this. Give this one. Male can
Speaker 1: have one, right, Yes, yeah, I mean it'd be It'd
Speaker 1: be the ultimate TLC show, wouldn't it. And I would
Speaker 1: watch so fas maybe like eighty children others too. We
Speaker 1: don't even Oh my god, I try to picture what
Speaker 1: it must be like inside the eggs, like now no,
Speaker 1: not now, okay, that one wants to go, you feed
Speaker 1: up because we all need to be on the same
Speaker 1: schedule here. Yeah. Now, I know a dad can like
Speaker 1: father eighty of them, but how does he protect eighty
Speaker 1: Like are the father's nesting like near each year or
Speaker 1: sadly probably not all of them are going to reach maturity,
Speaker 1: probably not even all of them are going to hatch.
Speaker 1: And typically like once they hatch, I would say the
Speaker 1: whether or not they even start out with eighty, the
Speaker 1: group of like hatchlings is around I would say like
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty, which is still a lot, which is
Speaker 1: still a lot. Uh, And once they hatch, he is
Speaker 1: just extremely, extremely devoted to them, to the point that
Speaker 1: he will actually adopt missing chicks. So if one stressed
Speaker 1: out dad accidentally leaves behind a chick and then it
Speaker 1: bumps into another group with another stressed out dad, that
Speaker 1: Dad's just gonna be like you want to mind. I
Speaker 1: don't care. Get in here. We're all, we're all, we're
Speaker 1: all getting ice cream. Wow. What a phenomenal dream Daddy
Speaker 1: Bird Edition. I love these dad bods on these dad birds. Ah,
Speaker 1: these are some lucky bird women bird ladies. Just like
Speaker 1: it's there's something so there's something so hot about a
Speaker 1: guy who is a devoted dad. And I would say
Speaker 1: that these birds, I mean, these are just like the
Speaker 1: dad birds of the year. I'm not saying that. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I think these birds are hot. I'm saying theoretically,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, I think he might
Speaker 1: be the most impressive dad the animal pean. I know
Speaker 1: we're not done with our yet, but he's obviously a
Speaker 1: front running contender for sure. Yeah, he truly deserves the
Speaker 1: mug that says number one dad. If you have a
Speaker 1: mug that says number one dad, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Put that mug down. Give it to aurea. You're not
Speaker 1: doing it. I'm sorry. But in first place for the
Speaker 1: parent that makes the most sacrifices is the octopus. Because
Speaker 1: octopus mothers will take care of their young to such
Speaker 1: an extent that they will completely exhaust their resources and
Speaker 1: they will actually die. It's one of those things where
Speaker 1: it's kind of beautiful, but it's also extremely tragic and
Speaker 1: at the same time incredibly fascinating how this works. So
Speaker 1: octopus mothers, or as I like to call them, octomoms, remember, remember, guys,
Speaker 1: remember Fortunately, yes, absolutely sadly, they are some of the
Speaker 1: most devoted and self sacrificing mothers in nature. They reproduce
Speaker 1: only once and they really make it count. So, after
Speaker 1: a female octopus mates, she will find a din, lay
Speaker 1: her eggs, and then devote the rest of her life
Speaker 1: caring for all of her eggs. So she doesn't eat,
Speaker 1: she doesn't go anywhere. All she does is protect them
Speaker 1: and carefully woff water over them, which aerates them so
Speaker 1: they get fresh oxygen. And for some species this process
Speaker 1: has been recorded as lasting up to fifty three months. Yes,
Speaker 1: so you may be wondering, well, how can an octopus
Speaker 1: live without eating for fifty three months? That can't possibly
Speaker 1: be true. Well, for some octopuses, their din is deep
Speaker 1: in the ocean in very cold old waters, and her
Speaker 1: activity drops to almost being in a state of stasis
Speaker 1: where she is just covering her eggs, maybe gently wafting
Speaker 1: some water and aerating them. But that's all she does,
Speaker 1: so she's in a state of suspended motherhood, which is
Speaker 1: kind of eerie. It's it's strange that sounds like a
Speaker 1: horror movie. It does a little bit doesn't really honestly does.
Speaker 1: But also at the same time, the dedication in my
Speaker 1: head is off to her beautiful but also chilling. I
Speaker 1: don't know's i'd I imagine a sweet smile with like
Speaker 1: a very eerie sound coming from like a music box.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm picturing right now. I've never seen
Speaker 1: the movie Mother but and I know it has absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing to do with octopus. But that's just going to
Speaker 1: be for no one. Do we know that for sure?
Speaker 1: I'll find out there's in a cold Kidman ghost movie,
Speaker 1: or she just is a ghost and she stays with
Speaker 1: her children. Do you guys know this movie? Yes? For um,
Speaker 1: I think there's so many ghost small movies though others. Yes,
Speaker 1: I remember this movie. Listen, it's a two thousand one
Speaker 1: horror movie. If you're interested and your parents say it's okay,
Speaker 1: check it out. It's super good. But listen, like she
Speaker 1: is just like a down to ride moms. I want
Speaker 1: to take care of these kids. And I'm gonna protect
Speaker 1: them from these weird new people living in our house
Speaker 1: that I don't know and I don't like, and I
Speaker 1: just really, I really respect it. And again she died
Speaker 1: protecting them, and even after death, still watching over them.
Speaker 1: I thought you, I forgot that you were talking to
Speaker 1: our audience, and I thought you were telling me to
Speaker 1: ask mind her permission me too to watch this movie.
Speaker 1: I'm an adult. I'm an adult. I know what I want.
Speaker 1: Because I definitely was going to call my mom like, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: remember this. I do love you, Mom and dad. If
Speaker 1: you're listening, they do listen, So Hi, Mom and Dad,
Speaker 1: I love you. After I'm awarding all of these animal
Speaker 1: parents number one, this and that, but you're the real
Speaker 1: number ones, Mom and Dad. They're the ones. They are
Speaker 1: very nice. I'm glad they're not like these animal parents though,
Speaker 1: because that would be weird. So the octopus mothers do
Speaker 1: this insane strategy because it helps protect the eggs and
Speaker 1: gives them enough time to grow big enough that when
Speaker 1: they hatch, they have a much better chance of survival
Speaker 1: for a lot of ocean dwelling animals. When these eggs hatch,
Speaker 1: they're so teeny tiny that most of them end up
Speaker 1: just as snack food for other fish. So by investing
Speaker 1: all of this time and energy into caring for her eggs,
Speaker 1: first of all, she protects the eggs themselves from getting
Speaker 1: eaten up. And by being so devoted to them for
Speaker 1: so long, it gives them a chance to get a
Speaker 1: little bigger so that they have a much higher survival rate.
Speaker 1: And research has shown that octopus mothers are pre programmed
Speaker 1: to self destruct after laying and hatching their eggs. So
Speaker 1: it's not just that like you can't go up to
Speaker 1: a mother octopus and hand her like some kind of
Speaker 1: like octopus chow and she she won't eat it. She's
Speaker 1: just not interested. They refuse food that's offered to them,
Speaker 1: and in captivity, after their eggs hatch, they go into
Speaker 1: this weird self destruct sort of zombie mode where they
Speaker 1: actually will sometimes bang their head against the fish tank
Speaker 1: to like go into this death spiral. It's super super
Speaker 1: horrifying and weird. Um they'll even like start to just
Speaker 1: like chew off their own tentacles. It's like, I know,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like a zombie movie but with a
Speaker 1: mom like mom bees, I'm sorry, but I'm so weirdly, Um,
Speaker 1: I feel inspired by this in a creative way. In
Speaker 1: a creative way, but this is just don't eat your
Speaker 1: own hand I okay. I feel like if I tried
Speaker 1: to put this in a movie, people like, what do
Speaker 1: you try to say about moms? Was done with raise
Speaker 1: your children? Die now? Although maybe I'll be like, that's
Speaker 1: what society tells moms to do. Okay. It does seem
Speaker 1: a little anti feminist, doesn't it. I'm just so sad.
Speaker 1: Why did nature do this? Explain this so extreme? Nature
Speaker 1: only cares if you pass on your jeans, that's all
Speaker 1: it cares about. I know it's a weird thing to
Speaker 1: think about, but researchers have actually identified the part of
Speaker 1: the octopus that seems to be responsible for this self
Speaker 1: destruct thing. There's like a literal self destruct button. It's
Speaker 1: called the optic gland. It's a gland similar to the
Speaker 1: pituitary gland in land animals. The pituitary gland is something
Speaker 1: that regulates hormones, and in octopuses it seems to do
Speaker 1: the same thing. So when this optic gland is removed,
Speaker 1: the female octopuses, after laying their eggs, just abandoned them
Speaker 1: kept eating kept mating when about life as normal. So
Speaker 1: it seems like this optic gland has some kind of
Speaker 1: hormone regulation that programs the mother octopus to sacrifice herself
Speaker 1: for her young. So much sci fi good, it just
Speaker 1: makes no sense. Could you imagine a movie where they
Speaker 1: send women to this island or whatever they implant this
Speaker 1: thing and it's so terrible? Someone right there island up
Speaker 1: the octowomen? How is this not a movie from the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. I don't really. It really fits in with
Speaker 1: like the whole fifties philosophy of women being mothers and
Speaker 1: housewives too, you'd think, right, I mean, I guess like
Speaker 1: Stepford Wives and Handmaid's Tale does kind of like touch
Speaker 1: on these kinds of themes. But we haven't had a
Speaker 1: movie where there are mom octopus hybrids, and I think
Speaker 1: we need one. I mean, why not? Yeah? Why not?
Speaker 1: I think this is a really cool joke of nature.
Speaker 1: Like I I really like people be like nature, like
Speaker 1: you crazy, you know, but nature? What the hell? It's
Speaker 1: just really need? Do you ever thinks like aggressive? I
Speaker 1: do not like it. Yeah. Well they're off to fish
Speaker 1: college now die, They're not actually fish. I'm sorry. I
Speaker 1: apologize for that joke for being inaccurate. They are not fish.
Speaker 1: Their cephalopods also, just so you don't feel like there's
Speaker 1: some kind of gender inequity here. Um. Male octopuses also
Speaker 1: don't really last that much longer after after they fertilize
Speaker 1: their eggs, which is kind of odd. They have a
Speaker 1: pretty short lifespan, only about two years, so it's not
Speaker 1: like the males go off and have a long life
Speaker 1: ahead of them. It's it's just to me, it's actually
Speaker 1: really sad. I love octopuses. They're really intelligent, and I
Speaker 1: kind of hate that they have such a short lifespan.
Speaker 1: I want I know this is getting into sort of
Speaker 1: the mad science kind of playing god territory, but if
Speaker 1: we could like figure out how to genetically engineered octopuses
Speaker 1: that live longer and have fulfilling lives and hobbies, I'd
Speaker 1: be happy. And they just down there and then they'll
Speaker 1: be our overlords because that what happened, and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's fine, but they's but they're they're cute and playful.
Speaker 1: They like squirt water at aquarium keepers and stuff, so
Speaker 1: I feel like they'd be fun overlord. I'd take it
Speaker 1: to Octopuses aren't the only animal moms who die shortly
Speaker 1: after they're young are born. There are many other similar
Speaker 1: Paris animals. That is, animals who reproduce once and die
Speaker 1: soon after. This includes salmon who spawn and spend so
Speaker 1: much energy on their upstream migration that they go right
Speaker 1: to salm and heaven. May flies adult forms live for
Speaker 1: only twenty four hours, just long enough to mate and
Speaker 1: kick the bucket and mail marsupial mice well mate themselves
Speaker 1: to death when we return. Will conclude on a lighter note,
Speaker 1: parents who not only go on to have more than
Speaker 1: one kid, but grow up with their children and their grandchildren,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they're great grandchildren. Now we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about animal babysitters Clubs, which is actually a book series
Speaker 1: that I never read as a kid because it sounded
Speaker 1: super boring. You don't be mad about Babysitters club right now, really,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sure it's great, but to
Speaker 1: me as a child, I was like, I want to
Speaker 1: read a book about like fighting bears or something. I
Speaker 1: don't want to read a book about babysitting. That's barring
Speaker 1: beautiful friendship. And Claudia with the style, if you like replaced,
Speaker 1: if you replace like half of the babysitters with like
Speaker 1: maybe various animals, like you know, there's Claudia and Betty,
Speaker 1: and I don't actually know their names. But then like
Speaker 1: Cynthia is like like a lion, and she may babysit
Speaker 1: or she may nibble some of them, you don't know,
Speaker 1: more like a sloth, like watching the kids from a
Speaker 1: farm but not really paying a definitely not moving fast
Speaker 1: enough to keep up with these babies. Combine the genres
Speaker 1: of animorphs and babysitters club and I'm sold on your mind,
Speaker 1: because since they're actually in my mind. I was thinking
Speaker 1: that right now because I've only seen the movie. I've
Speaker 1: never read the books because same I said, now, why
Speaker 1: would I want to read about what I do every
Speaker 1: day with my brothers? So scientifically speaking, because I'm a
Speaker 1: huge nerd, babysitters clubs in nature is called elo parenting.
Speaker 1: So that's when you have individuals other than the parents
Speaker 1: helping to look after the young. And this actually happens
Speaker 1: relatively often, especially in more intelligent animals, and it's adorable
Speaker 1: every time, and I love it. So we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about some of the best babysitters clubs in the wild.
Speaker 1: So in third place is the cotton top tamarinds, who
Speaker 1: are adorable, the cutest. I love these little monkeys they are.
Speaker 1: They're so cute. I actually used to take care of
Speaker 1: cotton top tamarinds. Uh. They were in a behavioral study
Speaker 1: and I would feed them, and sadly I couldn't like
Speaker 1: cuddle them because it was like all extremely regulated, like
Speaker 1: you don't want to touch them, and you don't want
Speaker 1: to like you know, it's like all these concerns about
Speaker 1: passing on diseases. So I was in like full like
Speaker 1: you know, protective gear to protect them from my nasty
Speaker 1: human germs. But they were so cute and they would
Speaker 1: like tug on my lab coat and like I would
Speaker 1: have like a handful of raisins that I could feed
Speaker 1: them because like they loved raisins, and it was just
Speaker 1: like like they would like tug on me and be
Speaker 1: like I want to raise the So how did you
Speaker 1: explode from all the cuteness? I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: They were extremely extremely cute. So they are found in
Speaker 1: tropical forests in mostly in Colombia. They are really small
Speaker 1: monkeys actually one of the world's smallest. They grow only
Speaker 1: about ten inches, which is about cis long. Uh, and
Speaker 1: that's not including their tail. They actually have a long
Speaker 1: tail which is about uh fifteen inches or forty cimeters long,
Speaker 1: So they're mostly tail, but they are teeny tiny. They
Speaker 1: have these little grayish black faces and then these huge
Speaker 1: white hair dues that are these like tufts of wild
Speaker 1: fur on the tops of their heads and on their chest.
Speaker 1: They kind of look they have Einstein hair, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Yes, or you could listen children again,
Speaker 1: ask your parents, but if you could see mad Max
Speaker 1: thunder Joel has this white like poof streak afro straightened
Speaker 1: thing going on, and it's identical to what's happening on
Speaker 1: the contact Heir and so bears. It's so cute, can confirm.
Speaker 1: And their little tummies are also white and fluffy. They're
Speaker 1: they're just they kind of look a little bit like
Speaker 1: an orchestra conductor with their wild white hair and then
Speaker 1: like these little it almost looks like they're wearing a
Speaker 1: little tuxedos. It's they're very cute. They are extremely cute,
Speaker 1: and they're very very emotionally intelligent. They are critically endangered sadly,
Speaker 1: and they're just so there are such sweet little animals.
Speaker 1: They have this really interesting breeding strategy. So groups of
Speaker 1: these tamarinds, which are typically families that can be around
Speaker 1: tin individuals, will care for a set of twins from
Speaker 1: the dominant breeding pair. So the there's a dominant pair
Speaker 1: who and they almost always give birth to twins, which
Speaker 1: is really interesting, and they will this whole group will
Speaker 1: just take care of the twins and like lavish all
Speaker 1: their attention on these newborns, on these little babies, and
Speaker 1: the dominant mother actually tries to make sure that she's
Speaker 1: the only one giving birth at that time by expressing
Speaker 1: pheromones that delays puberty and prevents other females from breeding
Speaker 1: at that time, so that they all can just devote
Speaker 1: all of their time and intention to these two little babies.
Speaker 1: Humans need, when need, the ability to do exactly this.
Speaker 1: Like we're all gonna raise this baby at a time.
Speaker 1: I think everyone could get a nap. Steph could keep
Speaker 1: her snacks, alright, it's no problem, Yeah, snacks, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get the kids. Snacks were totally fine. We're distracting him
Speaker 1: with games, you know, we're using our very long tails
Speaker 1: to sling around. I don't know, I really enjoy the
Speaker 1: idea of this communal child. Yeah, well to two children
Speaker 1: at two babies twins so cute, and it is it's
Speaker 1: actually for the exact reason that you are saying. It
Speaker 1: is so that they because if you can imagine like
Speaker 1: two parents taking care of two little twins, and they're
Speaker 1: like literally little monkeys, so you know, all the mischief
Speaker 1: they're trying to get into and it's really difficult. But
Speaker 1: when you have a whole group taking care of them,
Speaker 1: the survival rate of these little babies is much much improved.
Speaker 1: And you may be wondering, little what's in it for
Speaker 1: the other Tamarins who are not parents, like they don't
Speaker 1: get to be parents. But the thing is that the
Speaker 1: composition of these groups changes. So as those babies grow
Speaker 1: up and they are become independent, now you have new
Speaker 1: mothers that and new fathers that become the new dominant
Speaker 1: breeding pair in their own group, which can have like
Speaker 1: parts of the old group. It can they change it up.
Speaker 1: So then basically what you get is that younger females,
Speaker 1: younger males learn how to be parents, and then they
Speaker 1: can go on and then become parents themselves, and then
Speaker 1: they have their own group of very helpful youngsters to
Speaker 1: help them raise their children. So it's a really successful strategy,
Speaker 1: and I think it's really sweet, and they all behave
Speaker 1: very altruistically. They'll share food, they'll babysit, they're really excited
Speaker 1: by it to like the younger monkeys like often really
Speaker 1: really want to spend time with a baby, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they can't even spend as much time as they want
Speaker 1: to because they're younger. And the older ones who are like, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: like you know, calm down, like you don't know what
Speaker 1: you're doing. I okay. Imagine a world where everyone's had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to know what it's like to be a
Speaker 1: parent before you have to actually be a parent. You
Speaker 1: have so many more healthy adults. But I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not enough to learn how to take care of a
Speaker 1: sack of flower for a week, and or I've learned
Speaker 1: you cannot get your child wet or else they get
Speaker 1: all stucky. I mean, isn't it? It's true? A little
Speaker 1: a little true, And you shouldn't make your child to
Speaker 1: turn your child into cookies because then you get a
Speaker 1: d and you come Jeffrey, what happened? I mean, you
Speaker 1: know you have it, you have your baby sack of flour.
Speaker 1: What's the harm and using a couple of cups of
Speaker 1: those to make some delicious nickerdoodles. But apparently it's you're responsible, boom.
Speaker 1: But in second place for cutest babysitter club is the
Speaker 1: Barbary macaques, So again we're sticking with the primates. These
Speaker 1: are monkeys found in Algeria and Morocco in the Atlas Mountains,
Speaker 1: and there's a small group in Gibraltar. So they are
Speaker 1: these they're bigger than the cotton top tamarins. There this
Speaker 1: light yellowish brown and they're very fluffy. They weigh around
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty pounds. They're they're about like ten to
Speaker 1: seventeen ms. Males tend to be heavier and bigger than
Speaker 1: the females, and they have these little pinkish faces and
Speaker 1: little stubbed tails, and they are very very cute. Their
Speaker 1: faces look a little bit like me after I get
Speaker 1: sunburned at a beach. Not anymore, I'm staying inside all
Speaker 1: the time now. Those sunburns for me healthiest skin ever.
Speaker 1: So like cotton topped tamarinds, they also engage in collective
Speaker 1: parenting where they just take care of each other's young.
Speaker 1: It's just this one big whole parents club and they
Speaker 1: love it. And to the point where Barbara Macaque males
Speaker 1: love to show off their young to other males. It
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be their own kids. They will
Speaker 1: pick up a random baby and show it off to
Speaker 1: each other and form this dad club. And they use
Speaker 1: the babies as an ice breaker to interact socially with
Speaker 1: each other, like, hey, look at this baby I've got,
Speaker 1: And then the other one's like, oh yeah, well look
Speaker 1: at my baby. It's like I like your baby too,
Speaker 1: and they just form. It's like it's like Pokemon, but
Speaker 1: with babies, and they love showing them off. They don't
Speaker 1: make them fight, but they do love showing them off.
Speaker 1: I love this so much. It makes me think of
Speaker 1: daddy daycare, but just a little primates. It's the cutest
Speaker 1: thing because who doesn't love a dad who knows what
Speaker 1: their child likes? You know, there doesn't love a proud dad.
Speaker 1: Many times where I tell my husband, hey, I'm tapping
Speaker 1: out for about an hour, um see y'all when I
Speaker 1: wake up, and he's proud to take up take them in.
Speaker 1: They play Mario and they do things, and I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure if there was like a dad coalition outside, he'd
Speaker 1: bring them take her son outside and hold him up
Speaker 1: like some We need more dad clubs. We can go
Speaker 1: outside again. Whenever that happens, When we can go outside again,
Speaker 1: this is look. We are preparing for a new world
Speaker 1: post pandemic, and we need to start starting the plans
Speaker 1: for dad clubs, right, like clubs for dads to show
Speaker 1: off their kids and have fun together as dads and
Speaker 1: do all little dad things, like all the things that
Speaker 1: make you cringe as them all. I can't even I
Speaker 1: feel like I can't like joke about what dads would
Speaker 1: do together without being insulting. But I do imagine things
Speaker 1: like laughing about farts and stuff. But maybe that's generalizing.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, no, So I've heard for fart jokes before recording,
Speaker 1: so it's not far and actually and I gave one
Speaker 1: of those jokes. So we do need gender parody when
Speaker 1: it comes to fart jokes. That's another another change that
Speaker 1: we have to make in the better, brighter world post
Speaker 1: post quarantine. So the collective parenting and social parenting with
Speaker 1: these barbary macaques, but in other animals as well. Solves
Speaker 1: this problem of uncertain parenthoods. So when you can't be
Speaker 1: certain of paternity, so you can either like compete or
Speaker 1: try to guard the females, make sure she doesn't mate
Speaker 1: with anyone else. You can like, they're even strategies of
Speaker 1: killing the offspring of other males, and it can get
Speaker 1: quite nasty. Or you can go in the other direction
Speaker 1: and just decide, hey, instead of just being jerks to
Speaker 1: each other, let's just collectively raise all are young together
Speaker 1: so that they all have a better chance at survival.
Speaker 1: And then we don't even have to worry about whose
Speaker 1: kids who or or whose name? Water? You know, whose
Speaker 1: sippy cup is? Whoever sippy cup? I think it's beautiful
Speaker 1: down with the patriarchy, no last name, none of them.
Speaker 1: You belong to no man. We are a group of
Speaker 1: people perspective. I'm down for all of this. I feel
Speaker 1: like this has been such an aggressively feminist episode Moms
Speaker 1: Yes to the point of absurdity, where it's like men
Speaker 1: should have eighty children at once and take care of
Speaker 1: them all by themselves. Oh great world, And men were
Speaker 1: distracted with children all the time, they could not be
Speaker 1: getting us into so much trouble. Okay, where you could
Speaker 1: be out doing things right angry comment or we'd goku
Speaker 1: for twenty saying like this is this is sexist against men.
Speaker 1: You want us to raise eighty children by ourselves? What
Speaker 1: literally do you want us to take care of eighty eggs?
Speaker 1: Feminism has gone too far? I'm sorry, we'd go. I
Speaker 1: truly am so speaking of the matriarchy and first place
Speaker 1: the most Incredible Animal Babysitters Club. Of course this is
Speaker 1: all subjective, but I do think I am actually correct.
Speaker 1: Is elephants. So, elephants are incredible animals. They are intelligent,
Speaker 1: they live quite a long time. Their lifespans can be
Speaker 1: similar to humans. Elephants have some of the cutest babies,
Speaker 1: and boy do they know it. So elephants social structure
Speaker 1: is actually really interesting. So elephants form matriarchal groups, so
Speaker 1: it's full of females and young males. When the males
Speaker 1: reach maturity, they typically disperse from the group, and these bowls,
Speaker 1: which are male elephants, will sometimes live alone. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: go and find other bachelors, and sometimes they kind of
Speaker 1: go and find other groups of um these sort of
Speaker 1: matriarchal groups and like go and mate with them. But
Speaker 1: they're usually kind of at the periphery of these matriarchal
Speaker 1: groups because you know, bulls can represent a threat to
Speaker 1: the female, so they are a little bit wary of them.
Speaker 1: But it's not you know, they can't have friendly relations
Speaker 1: with with these groups. And sometimes, like a group of
Speaker 1: bulls and a group, a matriarchal group of elephants will
Speaker 1: actually come together, especially in in times of hardship, and
Speaker 1: kind of work together. So it's really interesting. It's hard
Speaker 1: to simply state one generalization about elephants socialization because it's
Speaker 1: very complex, very interesting. They're just so intelligent that they
Speaker 1: have these extremely complex social interactions. UM. But generally speaking,
Speaker 1: I just said I wouldn't generalize, and now I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: but matriarchal groups of elephants are often family. Not always
Speaker 1: they can invide, they can welcome unrelated individuals into their herd. UM,
Speaker 1: but it is almost always it's it's basically always headed
Speaker 1: by an elder matriarch and when she dies, she is
Speaker 1: almost always replaced by her closest living relative, which is
Speaker 1: usually her daughter. And they these matriarchs really they lead
Speaker 1: their herd, they show them where to go to get
Speaker 1: water and food and where to migrate to to avoid
Speaker 1: uh these dry spells and other areas they contain. They
Speaker 1: live so long, they have all of this information they've
Speaker 1: gathered over this whole lifetime, so they are extremely valuable
Speaker 1: to the herd, and having a matriarch that has had
Speaker 1: a lot of experience really improves the herd's survival. And
Speaker 1: the death of a matriarch in an elephant herd seems
Speaker 1: to cause genuine grief and stress in the surviving group members.
Speaker 1: So Breese searchers have measured increased levels of stress hormones
Speaker 1: UH in the elephants poop, which is a little bit
Speaker 1: awkward because I imagine these researchers show up to an
Speaker 1: elephant funeral and they're like, you know, my condolences, my condolences, Uh,
Speaker 1: don't mind if I just scoop some of this into it,
Speaker 1: just to I'm so sorry for your loss, but just
Speaker 1: gonna take a little bit of that poop. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they have extreme emotional connections to the matriarchs, and they
Speaker 1: also have an extreme extreme emotional reaction to babies. They
Speaker 1: elephants are baby crazy. They love them. They will it
Speaker 1: is such a big to do when a new baby
Speaker 1: is born. Babies take up to two years to just
Speaker 1: state and it is a big, big deal, and the
Speaker 1: whole herd will fawn over the calf. They will try
Speaker 1: to stroke it with their trunks and like crowd around.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the mother actually just kind of piste off because
Speaker 1: everyone's crowding around her baby, and she gets kind of
Speaker 1: protective and doesn't want them to keep poking at it,
Speaker 1: but like they're just like so excited, they will crowd around.
Speaker 1: And elephant babies are are real handfuls, I guess, trunk
Speaker 1: fulls but ump ump and having the experience of older
Speaker 1: mothers in the heart is essential to take care of
Speaker 1: these little rascals because they are clumsy, they are curious.
Speaker 1: They will run around, trip over their own trunk, get
Speaker 1: into all sorts of mischief, and if you're a new mother,
Speaker 1: it can be really overwhelming. So you need the collective
Speaker 1: experience of the matriarch, your aunts, your sisters, and the
Speaker 1: help even of like your younger siblings or younger female
Speaker 1: elephants you may not have experienced raising young but are
Speaker 1: very willing to help out. So the old their mothers
Speaker 1: will teach new mothers all sorts of tricks on how
Speaker 1: to take care of their young, so like they will
Speaker 1: even like show them how to nurse. Like they'll like
Speaker 1: really like sort of like gently guide them, like here's
Speaker 1: how you nurse. Sometimes not so gently, like physically shoving
Speaker 1: them in the right position to help them nurse their young.
Speaker 1: They will basically call attention, like you need to pay
Speaker 1: attention to your kid when this happens. You have to
Speaker 1: do this. They can get really bossy, especially the matriarch.
Speaker 1: She can be kind of kind of tough on new
Speaker 1: mothers because she's trying to show them. Look, you have
Speaker 1: to like when your elephant trips over, you've got to
Speaker 1: come over and help them up, like this is a problem.
Speaker 1: So it's really fascinating to observe these elephants working together
Speaker 1: because it is so clear that you have this like
Speaker 1: learning going on, this teaching of this is how you
Speaker 1: take care of your young. And I'm gonna show you
Speaker 1: and you're gonna listen to me because you respect me
Speaker 1: as your matriarch. Step sounded annoying, your helpful um a
Speaker 1: little bit of both, a little bit of both. I'd
Speaker 1: imagine that is how the elephants feel about it too,
Speaker 1: because like you go from no child to a child
Speaker 1: in you know, just there they are and you're wondering,
Speaker 1: so when does motherhood hit me? Like is that just
Speaker 1: blossom all of a sudden. So I was very happy
Speaker 1: to have my mom and my grandmother there too, you know,
Speaker 1: tell me how to do this net but also at
Speaker 1: the same time, like they knew when to back off,
Speaker 1: because yeah, it's a lot, this is extreme, auntie Grandma,
Speaker 1: but he yes. And on the one hand, I've been
Speaker 1: graping a lot lately about the laugh of grandma's in films.
Speaker 1: I think it's a by small. Grandma's are amazing human beings, atypically,
Speaker 1: both grandmas are super awesome, and it upsets me that
Speaker 1: we do not honor them in our films, like giving
Speaker 1: them full characters and making them real people. And so
Speaker 1: I appreciate elephants being like, no, our matriarch is it,
Speaker 1: and she's she's our literal queen. I think it was
Speaker 1: like gorgeous Grandma day. Actually it will probably be about
Speaker 1: a week ago when this came out, but yesterday I
Speaker 1: think it was gorgeous Grandma. What I missed it those
Speaker 1: photos of my grannys who are anti first, but my
Speaker 1: grandmother has quite a collection and she stunts in them.
Speaker 1: Oh man, but yeah, it's it is, it is. I
Speaker 1: do think like we do need an actual good movie
Speaker 1: about elephants and show, you know, I would love to
Speaker 1: see an animated adventure of these elephants matriarchs and how
Speaker 1: they take care of their herd and maybe there's a
Speaker 1: young young elephant who's learning how to be a leader
Speaker 1: and stuff in SEUs and conflict an elephant resolution. Did
Speaker 1: you an elephants uh episode? Um like documentary that is
Speaker 1: super good that has a ton of baby elephant footage
Speaker 1: if that's your vibe and you feel like Dumbo has
Speaker 1: crowded the animated scene for far too long on elephants
Speaker 1: more elephant movies. Yes, also Dumbo is I mean, there's
Speaker 1: problemat problematic, but it's also inaccurate to take that Dumbo
Speaker 1: because like those those the elephant ladies would not turn
Speaker 1: on Dumbo just because he's got big years. They they would,
Speaker 1: you know, basically be like, hey, listen, we're going to
Speaker 1: help you raise your baby because we are incredibly excited
Speaker 1: about this. So it's it's uh yeah, sorry, not a
Speaker 1: good movie. Like they were brutal too, They reminded me
Speaker 1: of um some ladies at church who So you are
Speaker 1: not the pappy you would you would learned there. But
Speaker 1: real life elephants are incredible. They just there's something about
Speaker 1: that where I think, as humans, we think we're the
Speaker 1: only ones who spread information from generation to generation, were
Speaker 1: the only ones with a history and passing on traditions,
Speaker 1: and that's absolutely not true. And that is definitely very
Speaker 1: much an aspect of elephant life where they are passing
Speaker 1: on important information to new mothers from old mothers and
Speaker 1: grandmothers and aunts and sisters, and it's it's wonderful. It's
Speaker 1: a circle. For real. I want to attend an elephant
Speaker 1: baby shower. Actually I kind of do too. I'd be
Speaker 1: into it. Actually, So, as a human, you're probably not
Speaker 1: going to be welcome to an elephant baby shower because
Speaker 1: they are so protective. But there are cases of elephants
Speaker 1: who have been rescued by humans being comfortable enough with
Speaker 1: their human rescuers to come around to show off their babies.
Speaker 1: So it's actually a video here. I let me post
Speaker 1: it in the Please let me save an elephant so
Speaker 1: I can meet its You do have to first save
Speaker 1: the save the elephant though, that's like an important you know, sure, sure,
Speaker 1: sure listen, and I saying I want to manufacturer small accident,
Speaker 1: but you god, really baby, some misery stuff here elephant
Speaker 1: version of misery. Um. Yeah, no, but you you have
Speaker 1: to save an elephant, raise that elephant, and then wait
Speaker 1: for that elephant. Got a. Wait two years for the baby,
Speaker 1: just state then wait for wait, have probably another year
Speaker 1: or so until she feels comfortable bringing around and then yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I just I posted that YouTube in the
Speaker 1: slide show that you can look at. But five year plan,
Speaker 1: got it? Two years of pregnancy is a video all
Speaker 1: included in the show notes. It's um. An elephant Orphans
Speaker 1: was rescued by an elephant sanctuary called Sheldrick Trust in Nairobi, Kenya,
Speaker 1: and she was successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
Speaker 1: And then she came back to show them her baby
Speaker 1: that she had, and they called the baby Lily, and
Speaker 1: she was comfortable enough to allow her rescuers to touch
Speaker 1: her baby and pet her and feel her trunk, which
Speaker 1: is like one of the most intimate things that an
Speaker 1: elephant can allow you to do with her baby. So
Speaker 1: you know, the whole thing about like, oh, an elephant
Speaker 1: never forgets. They do have a very long memory, and
Speaker 1: they will remember if you if you do them a
Speaker 1: good one, and they'll let you see their baby. I
Speaker 1: can't believe people are mean to elephants. They're so nice.
Speaker 1: They love their babies, Like, why are you sitting on
Speaker 1: them in the ocean? Off these beautiful creatures. Do not
Speaker 1: write elephants, you guys, it's not fun, it's not grammable,
Speaker 1: it's mean. Don't do it. They just they mind their
Speaker 1: business and you just have to respect that. Well. They
Speaker 1: mind their business visa the humans, but not when some want.
Speaker 1: Not when an elephant has a baby, because then they've
Speaker 1: got something to say that. They have opinions. They have opinions.
Speaker 1: A bunch of backseat parenting going on here apparently. But yes,
Speaker 1: congratulations elephants for winning Best Babysitters Club Award, well deserved.
Speaker 1: Before we sign off here, I do want to issue
Speaker 1: a correction. What should we I'm probably going to make
Speaker 1: more mistakes in the future. What should we like name
Speaker 1: our corrections segment like auto Bird correct I don't know,
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, edification station, I don't know, but yes I
Speaker 1: did an oopsie goofer last episode. I incorrectly said leopards
Speaker 1: live in South America. I was thinking of jaguars the
Speaker 1: other spotty kiddies. So I was talking about how leopards
Speaker 1: and lions can hybridize and have offspring um. But also
Speaker 1: jaguars and lions also do hybridize, forming jag lions UM.
Speaker 1: And so I was thinking of jaguars. They live in
Speaker 1: South America. Leopards are actually found in sub Saharan Africa
Speaker 1: and Western and Central Asia and on the Indian subcontinent,
Speaker 1: and they do sometimes clash with lions in terms of
Speaker 1: their territory overlapping, so they may encounter each other in
Speaker 1: the wild. Very unlikely they're gonna fall in love and
Speaker 1: have babies, more likely gonna get mad at each other.
Speaker 1: And in terms of like differences between leopards and jaguars,
Speaker 1: leopards are a little bit smaller than the jaguar, and
Speaker 1: jaguars live in South and Central America. And uh, here's
Speaker 1: just like kind of an interesting fact. What we know
Speaker 1: as black panthers are often just melanistic jaguars, because there's
Speaker 1: no such thing as like a black panther species, like
Speaker 1: black panthers just being any species in the panthera group
Speaker 1: that is melanistic, so like a black panther, maybe a
Speaker 1: melanistic or black fur jaguar. The black panther who is
Speaker 1: Bagira in the Jungle Book would probably be a melanistic
Speaker 1: Indian leopard. So yeah, there you go. Some quick cat
Speaker 1: facts and correction on my Whoopsie Goofer last last episode.
Speaker 1: That's the here name of this Whoopsie geofer. Whoopsie Goopers.
Speaker 1: She had like a boiling sound of back down there,
Speaker 1: want want want want um. But thank you so much
Speaker 1: Steph for joining us today. And thank you so much Joel,
Speaker 1: our producer on the Hot mic. Uh steph Uh do
Speaker 1: you have anything to plug? I actually I know you
Speaker 1: didn't actually do. UM. If you would like to support
Speaker 1: any of my work, my web comics, UM, please please
Speaker 1: check out parenthood activate. Um you actually go to parenthood
Speaker 1: activate dot com. I promise there. It's just fun things
Speaker 1: going on with mom in and trying to just keep
Speaker 1: this four year old alive because that is the goal. Um.
Speaker 1: You can support my other comics if you really love superheroes. Um,
Speaker 1: but what if though on Patreon, so just search that
Speaker 1: and you'll be able to find it in both comics
Speaker 1: you can find on web tunes under the same name
Speaker 1: and also on Instagram, so please give it a check.
Speaker 1: But I think you all if you enjoy this, so
Speaker 1: you'll really in love um parenthood Activate because the very
Speaker 1: first web comic was me um asking for peto requests
Speaker 1: from my child, which he denies. So there's that. It's
Speaker 1: manager's children, truly. No days off and you can find
Speaker 1: us at Creature feature Pod on Instagram at Creature feet
Speaker 1: Pod on Twitter. That's f e A T, not f
Speaker 1: e T. That's something very different. I am at Katie
Speaker 1: Golden on Twitter you can check out my Katie thoughts
Speaker 1: and as always I am pro bird rights on Twitter
Speaker 1: where I proposed that birds birds as best. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know you disagree. Joel h Joel, Can people find
Speaker 1: you on Twitter? Sure? Yeah, I'm Joemanique all over the
Speaker 1: internet and find me at j O E L L
Speaker 1: E m O N. I qu that that sounded like
Speaker 1: a song to me. Thank you guys so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the show, if you leave a rating
Speaker 1: or review or subscribe, that actually really really helps me out.
Speaker 1: I read it all of the reviews. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening, and thanks to the
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