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, I'm really
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites because we are talking about
Speaker 1: some of the gnarliest parasites infesting the animal kingdom, from
Speaker 1: flies who turned cows into Swiss cheese to the world's
Speaker 1: largest parasites. This episode is not for lunchtime. Discover this
Speaker 1: and more as we answered the age old question why
Speaker 1: did Sore and request we do an episode on warble flies.
Speaker 1: Joining me today is friend of the pod writer for
Speaker 1: American Dad, The Sore, and part of Quick Question with
Speaker 1: Soren and Daniel Sore and Booie. Welcome, Hello everybody. Oh
Speaker 1: it's so good to be back. Yeah. Last time we
Speaker 1: talked about beaver testes, and this time we're talking about
Speaker 1: horrible parasites. Yeah, some really gross ones. Um. I got
Speaker 1: really excited about warble flies because I briefly remember a
Speaker 1: biology teacher being like, oh, yeah, and there are these
Speaker 1: flies that live up in Alaska that will chase cariboo
Speaker 1: off of cliffs. And I was like, okay, and they
Speaker 1: forgot to ever check up on that. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go find this thing. Yeah, I mean they
Speaker 1: are kind of the biggest nightmare for ungula. I was
Speaker 1: unaware that they actually chase caribou off of cliffs. Is
Speaker 1: that true? So cariboos are aware of them, cariboo do
Speaker 1: not like them? Yeah, and and so I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what my I had a teachers.
Speaker 1: This is all of my information came from in high school. Um,
Speaker 1: so I take it with a grain of salt. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a teacher who said that the caribou are so
Speaker 1: upset and don't like them that they will run away
Speaker 1: from them. And as they're trying to get away from them,
Speaker 1: the warble flies will give chase and occasionally cariboo will
Speaker 1: careen off of cliffs trying to get away from them. Well,
Speaker 1: teachers say a lot of things. I had a teacher
Speaker 1: who said that the polls were going to reverse in
Speaker 1: our lifetimes and we'd all die. Um yeah, so, but yeah,
Speaker 1: warble flies are pretty scary, and I wouldn't blame a
Speaker 1: caribou for jumping off a cliff. Uh. And with that,
Speaker 1: I will say a content warning for this whole episode
Speaker 1: it's about parasites and they're super gross. So like, if
Speaker 1: you're eating a big, like wet plate of spaghetti, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't you know, save the spaghetti with like meat, sauce
Speaker 1: and pesto for later. I'm glad that you gave that
Speaker 1: content warning because now I feel very comfortable in uh
Speaker 1: diving into some other viscera and telling you that I
Speaker 1: got COVID. Oh I'm sorry about that. How are you
Speaker 1: feeling terrible? Um? Yeah, the last so I started having
Speaker 1: symptoms on well it's not gonn married any but I'm
Speaker 1: like like four days ago and it's just been I've
Speaker 1: just been wiped out. Yeah, I'm real sorry about that.
Speaker 1: All right, If you're feeling okay enough to podcast, yeah,
Speaker 1: actually today I feel like I turned a corner, so okay,
Speaker 1: all right, Well I don't but I don't want to
Speaker 1: be responsible for your downfall. So if you're not feeling good,
Speaker 1: we can stop the podcast. We have video in between us,
Speaker 1: so if you see me turning blue, right, we'll wrap
Speaker 1: it up like we'll come up with a good ending.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, I'll be like, wow, are you auditioning
Speaker 1: for the Blue Man Group? Anyways, I'm calling the doctor,
Speaker 1: but I'm sorry you're you're feeling bad. Um Hopefully discussing
Speaker 1: uh indo parasites will cherry up a little bit. Honestly,
Speaker 1: this is the this is the thing I want to
Speaker 1: talk about most, So this is great. So yeah, warble flies,
Speaker 1: apparently Soren is their number one fan. There a genus
Speaker 1: of large flies found all over in the northern hemisphere,
Speaker 1: and the adults look pretty harmless. They look like cute
Speaker 1: little bumblebees. They're fuzzy with black and yellow stripes, kind
Speaker 1: of finoculous looking. Meanwhile, the larva look uh like, well
Speaker 1: just larva, but they are hell demons that do unspeakable
Speaker 1: things that we're going to talk about right now. So
Speaker 1: they love to eat the flesh of ungulates, so they
Speaker 1: can infect cows, horses, sheep, goats, deer, dogs, cats, squirrels, rabbits,
Speaker 1: and sometimes even humans. Uh So, these cute, innocent looking,
Speaker 1: fluffy bee like flies will lay eggs on its victim
Speaker 1: and that's just where the trouble starts. So their whole
Speaker 1: adult life just basically revolves around having sex and laying
Speaker 1: eggs and then dying. They don't even have a working mouth,
Speaker 1: so they can't eat and then they die after five
Speaker 1: days up top warble fly a life. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: it's really about the hustle. That's great, good for them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I you know, there was a time in my life
Speaker 1: where I was like, I wish that food just came
Speaker 1: in pilform, you know, and you didn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about it. But these days I'm just glad I'm not
Speaker 1: a warble fly because it's not I don't know, man, Like,
Speaker 1: it's kind of strange to like go through all this
Speaker 1: effort to become an adult and then it's like, after
Speaker 1: five days pooping out some eggs, they're like, well, I'm done.
Speaker 1: I guess it could be kind of tough too, Like
Speaker 1: imagine the pressure on you to have sex. You're you
Speaker 1: gotta get it done, like it's important and you've only
Speaker 1: got a small window. There should be an American Pie
Speaker 1: about warble flies, sort of team comedy where it's like, no, no,
Speaker 1: this is also life or death for you. Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1: You don't really have time to set the mood or
Speaker 1: mess around with pastries. You do kind of have to
Speaker 1: like get it done efficiently and quickly. I do think
Speaker 1: American Pie would have been better if it ended with
Speaker 1: everyone falling down dead after laying their eggs after finding
Speaker 1: some megafunt to stick their eggs inside. What's what's the
Speaker 1: main character's name? I don't even remember. I'm going to
Speaker 1: say James, James. That that's a good solid American name. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember when he laid his eggs in that pie.
Speaker 1: That was hilarious. Levy. What's his name something? Levy. He
Speaker 1: raised his big thick eyebrows. He's like, son, you can't
Speaker 1: lay eggs in that pie. Your mom baked that pie.
Speaker 1: That's right. I could believe forgot the Eugene Levy was
Speaker 1: in that movie. Yeah, that's his name, not James. Yeah, anyways, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: So the eggs that these warble flies lay are usually
Speaker 1: deposited on the four legs of cows or whatever animals
Speaker 1: that they're infesting, but you know, given the opportunity, they'll
Speaker 1: lay them anywhere, anywhere on a living body. So they
Speaker 1: hatch in a few days, and then the larva burrowed
Speaker 1: down into the skin and traveled deep into the connective tissues,
Speaker 1: and that's where the fun begins. By fun, I mean
Speaker 1: Indo paris satism, which you know, I think universally beloved
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So they will secretly grow inside of
Speaker 1: their host for months before returning back to the surface
Speaker 1: of the skin and this form this, this forms this
Speaker 1: raised large bump or warble. I've never heard of a
Speaker 1: bump being called a warble, and so it's like it's
Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, yeah, this is why they're called
Speaker 1: warble flies because the bud they make is called a warble.
Speaker 1: It's like you just made that up, like it sounds.
Speaker 1: Have you tried the warble? Yeah? Yeah, like or like
Speaker 1: the it's like a carnival ride or something, the Great
Speaker 1: Warble experience. It would be kind of fun, I guess,
Speaker 1: to be in a little like a coaster where you're
Speaker 1: in like the warble fly and you go through tunnels
Speaker 1: through a giant cow. H Anyways, they metamorphosized into adults
Speaker 1: and then burrow out of the skin, leaving a big
Speaker 1: gaping hole in its wake, which you know, that's fun.
Speaker 1: And when you see like a bump like a warble,
Speaker 1: you might think like, oh, well, I better smash that
Speaker 1: before it hatches. Well, no, don't do that, because if
Speaker 1: you do that and prevent them from hatching, this will
Speaker 1: likely lead to infection and in some cases anaphylaxis, and
Speaker 1: that's bad Jesus Christ. Ah, it's so gross. But if
Speaker 1: you so you get one of these things, you have
Speaker 1: to keep it alive. Basically you're its mother at that point.
Speaker 1: But it hatch or and then like, your choices are
Speaker 1: either bad bad infection by letting it die, or a
Speaker 1: big scar that you'll never recover from. Yeah, I mean pregnancy,
Speaker 1: it's true. Or I think you do go to the
Speaker 1: doctor and they might be able to remove it or
Speaker 1: do something for you. But if you're if you're a cow, uh, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're a squirrel or a cow and you don't
Speaker 1: have a doctor. I don't think squirrels have doctors, then yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no there's nothing you can do about it. You
Speaker 1: just gotta wait for it to come out of you.
Speaker 1: Have you talked about bot flies on here before? I
Speaker 1: think I have a long time ago, and my guest
Speaker 1: was really sad about it there. I mean they just feunds,
Speaker 1: like a cousin or like a sister. Of these are
Speaker 1: I mean these are actually a type of butt fly.
Speaker 1: So it's the same um, you know, sort of I
Speaker 1: think genus of of animals. Yeah, obviously called a botfly
Speaker 1: because the buffly lays an egg under the skin and
Speaker 1: it creates a little oval shape that's called, of course,
Speaker 1: called a bot we'll call it. S just made that up,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's the same, the same sort of logic
Speaker 1: of the war will fly. But I've heard that with
Speaker 1: a botfly you can stays a little hole in the
Speaker 1: surface of the skin. It leaves a little vent basically
Speaker 1: so that it can the larva can breathe. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is true of the warble, but
Speaker 1: like if you tried to drown it, like if you
Speaker 1: tried to get into the water, it just starts wriggling.
Speaker 1: It was really really painful. Uh, and so you have
Speaker 1: you have no choice, but it's like surface because you're like, no,
Speaker 1: I can't. Or if you get one in an area
Speaker 1: that doesn't have a lot of meat, like on your foot,
Speaker 1: on your head or something like that. I've heard that
Speaker 1: you can leave a steak next to it for like
Speaker 1: a day, and it will it senses that there's a
Speaker 1: more fleshy area that it's moved to, and it will
Speaker 1: wriggle out and into the steak. Oh God, that sounds disgusting.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's true. Uh, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm realizing now it was the same biology teacher. I
Speaker 1: had a really great biology teacher. Maybe a full on liar,
Speaker 1: but I really enjoyed all of that. I am googling
Speaker 1: it so that you don't have to, because I can
Speaker 1: promise you don't want to google this. This is interesting.
Speaker 1: In nursing the peer reviewed journal of Clinical Excellence, Wow
Speaker 1: Clinical Excellence, they do say that a suffocation method for
Speaker 1: treating the parasitic human bot fly is placing any type
Speaker 1: of meat on top of the legion for forty eight
Speaker 1: hours and hopes that the larva will protrude into the
Speaker 1: meat in a way from the human. So, yeah, your
Speaker 1: teacher I maybe is correct there. I would again, if
Speaker 1: you've got a abot fly, go to a doctor. They
Speaker 1: probably have medical meat, you know, like like some kind
Speaker 1: of fancy medical grade meat to slap on you. You
Speaker 1: know how they're like lost meat, but in the medical field,
Speaker 1: they're going to charge you three thousand dollars. I know
Speaker 1: how it goes. I mean, there are medical maggots, so
Speaker 1: why wouldn't there be medical meat doctors Right to me
Speaker 1: at creature feature Pod at gmail dot com, let me
Speaker 1: know is their medical meat question mark. These type though,
Speaker 1: the warble flies, they target cows, and because this typically
Speaker 1: happens in cattle, it's a big pest for meat farmers.
Speaker 1: I mean actually, so there are different types of warble
Speaker 1: flies that specialize for different ungulates, like you mentioned caribou ones.
Speaker 1: They're also warm flies that attack cows. And the ones
Speaker 1: that attack cows are a huge menace and they will
Speaker 1: burrow through the cows flesh and leave these tunnels, which
Speaker 1: is horrible. Um, and the cow's immune system has to respond,
Speaker 1: like when you're injured, your your body puts forth a
Speaker 1: response to try to like, you know, fill in the hole.
Speaker 1: So the immune system fills the whole with white blood
Speaker 1: cells and other immune cells, which ends up looking kind
Speaker 1: of like a green goo. And this is called butcher's jelly.
Speaker 1: And it's yeah, I know, right, Like it's the worst
Speaker 1: name you could name anything, butcher's jelly. And then it
Speaker 1: is actually a horrible thing as well. It's this pew
Speaker 1: worthy name. Given what it is, it renders meat unusable
Speaker 1: for consumption. So luckily they don't like try to feed
Speaker 1: us butcher's jelly, but it is, yeah, it's bad and gross.
Speaker 1: News flash. The meat industry has a lot of disgusting
Speaker 1: things in it. Oh God, Butcher's jellies the best band
Speaker 1: name I could think of. It has pretty good And
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like this podcast could also be
Speaker 1: called just like band name generation podcast, because I've got
Speaker 1: things like proboscis and uh, you know, yeah, just some
Speaker 1: like or I was gonna say orthodontics, but I realized
Speaker 1: that's just a word that does is not really related
Speaker 1: to my podcast, but it popped into my head. So
Speaker 1: so you think that then a cow that is infected
Speaker 1: with warble flies would get it off the meat hook
Speaker 1: and a reprieve from slaughter, But that's not really how
Speaker 1: the meat industry works. Typically, these holes are only discovered
Speaker 1: after slaughter, and they will try to use what they
Speaker 1: can of the cow carcass and just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I guess cut around the butcher's jelly. I mean, it
Speaker 1: will say on their legs, and we're not really eating
Speaker 1: the legs. But they can get elsewhere. Yeah, they can
Speaker 1: like burrow from the legs, these tiny larva and I
Speaker 1: think even get like into the neck tissue. It's disgusting,
Speaker 1: does it? Can it get all the weight? They can
Speaker 1: get deep enough that they would suffocate them the larva.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think so. I think for some reason,
Speaker 1: I think because these larva when they are young, um,
Speaker 1: they are able to do gas exchange without like an
Speaker 1: open air event. And then when they become when they
Speaker 1: start to metamorphosis into adults, they return to the surface. Uh.
Speaker 1: So they probably migrate back to the surface of the
Speaker 1: flesh before they basically need that breathing. Oh no, I
Speaker 1: mean like you've canna get close if it's in the
Speaker 1: throat tissue. Oh, you're asking the cow can breathe? See,
Speaker 1: And I care about the parasite and worry about them,
Speaker 1: and you're more worried about the dumb cow. That's the
Speaker 1: way it should be. Everybody should be worried about one animal,
Speaker 1: and then that's their animal. I pick the most disgusting
Speaker 1: parasite to worry about because who else is gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I don't know of any cows person only who have
Speaker 1: been suffocated by warble flies. But if you're a cow
Speaker 1: and you or your friend has been suffocated by warble flies,
Speaker 1: you may be entitled to a settlement, so right to me. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we are doing a class action lawsuit against the
Speaker 1: warble flies. So, speaking of class action lawsuits, can warble
Speaker 1: flies infect humans? That's what everyone is thinking right now,
Speaker 1: I would assume, and I've got kind of bad news. Technically, yes,
Speaker 1: they can and sometimes do, so they don't target humans specifically. Uh,
Speaker 1: there is like the human bot fly that you have
Speaker 1: to worry about more in cases of the warble fly. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, infesting a human are quite rare, but when
Speaker 1: they knew happen, they're horrible. You were talking about reindeer
Speaker 1: warble flies or caribou warrible flies, and they will sometimes
Speaker 1: infect people in Norway and children are the most likely
Speaker 1: to be infective. And why are children the most likely
Speaker 1: to be infected? I don't know. My theory is that
Speaker 1: children are gross and they'll roll around and stuff they
Speaker 1: should not be rolling around in. It could be that
Speaker 1: because like the eggs take a few days to hatch,
Speaker 1: and so if like a kid doesn't want to take
Speaker 1: a bath for a couple of days, then like, you know,
Speaker 1: it gives them time to hatch. Um. You know. So
Speaker 1: usually what happens is this just causes some swelling and infection.
Speaker 1: In extreme cases, if left untreated, it can cause blindness.
Speaker 1: If the larva attacks the eye tissue. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: but these are exceedingly rare cases. Uh so typically you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about it. But if you want
Speaker 1: to worry about things, let me give you the most
Speaker 1: rare cases ever that are just the grossest most. I
Speaker 1: just okay, So in really rare cases of humans being
Speaker 1: attacked by warble flies, they can suffer cerebral my assis.
Speaker 1: So what does this mean? Well, my assis is when
Speaker 1: a larva lives and feeds inside your tissue, and cerebral
Speaker 1: means inside the brain. So we put these words together
Speaker 1: and what do we get? Brain worms? Hooray, it's my god,
Speaker 1: get them in your brain. You can, statistically speaking, you
Speaker 1: will not like, uh, it's extremely, extremely rare, but it
Speaker 1: does happen. So I'm so glad I brought this here
Speaker 1: because I this is like a thing I've been curious
Speaker 1: about for a long time, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: could look it up. That sounds gross. I think I'd
Speaker 1: rather just have somebody give me the hits. Maybe that's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. I google the most disgusting images so you
Speaker 1: don't have to. So if you're wondering whether it's ad
Speaker 1: to have larva in your brain. It is um It
Speaker 1: can cause seizures and hemorrhagic stroke, which are both bad
Speaker 1: things for you. And if this sounds potentially deadly, it is. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you can die from having larva in your brain. Uh,
Speaker 1: there are from you know, the stroke. The bleeding is bad.
Speaker 1: It's bad. Your brain is am I or am I
Speaker 1: just reacting? So? Uh, there are only about sixteen total
Speaker 1: cases of this ever recorded. So you know, it's not
Speaker 1: going to happen to you. All you health anxiety sufferers
Speaker 1: out there, it will not happen to you. It is
Speaker 1: not going to happen to you. It's going to happen. Uh.
Speaker 1: And if it does, it can be treated with surgery.
Speaker 1: So you know, don't worry about it. It's not a
Speaker 1: big deal. You're doing. There's no getting better. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: It's your number seventeen. There's already been sixteen. This has
Speaker 1: already been sixteen. Yeah, if you are number seventeen of
Speaker 1: people who have had larva in your brain, right to me,
Speaker 1: you may be entitled to a settlement from a class
Speaker 1: action lawsuit. I didn't realize how much heavy lifting this
Speaker 1: podcast was doing. And within the world there's so many
Speaker 1: people that you're now reaching out to to have right
Speaker 1: to you. Yeah, I mean I think that it's probably
Speaker 1: just very targeted. Like the demographic targeting is really good.
Speaker 1: So of the people in the world who have gotten
Speaker 1: brain parasites, they are probably listening to this podcast. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's an insult to me or
Speaker 1: to you the audience, but I'm not going to take
Speaker 1: it as once, so neither should you. So we're going
Speaker 1: to take a quick brain Yeah, I'm the one. I'm
Speaker 1: the one with the parasites and me. I mean this
Speaker 1: has been no secret. I opened up the podcast fully
Speaker 1: admitting it, so none of you should be shocked. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, we're gonna take a quick break. Um,
Speaker 1: while on the other side of the warble, we'll be
Speaker 1: talking about all right, so we're back, Um, how you
Speaker 1: feeling sore and feeling good? Actually, yeah, this has been
Speaker 1: really fun. Eat a big plate of like Joki with
Speaker 1: like bright green pesto. Yoki is perfect. Yes, absolutely, that
Speaker 1: is very on theme. Yeah, you know, I do love Nyoki,
Speaker 1: but the ones that's got the little like segments to
Speaker 1: it sometimes just mentally I can't do it because it
Speaker 1: looks like a larva looks it does look a little
Speaker 1: bit like the larva. Now, some yokie don't have those
Speaker 1: little segments, and I like those better because I can
Speaker 1: justify it more. But the ones that have the little segments,
Speaker 1: I'm like, why are you making mine yoki look more
Speaker 1: like a larva? And I like to have a little
Speaker 1: traction when it goes in my mouth. I don't want
Speaker 1: to just sliding down my throat by accident. Okay, well
Speaker 1: you know that I did not consider that the throat
Speaker 1: physics of the room to joki, But now I am
Speaker 1: thank you for that. So we are actually going to
Speaker 1: move on from warble flies. But don't worry, we're still
Speaker 1: talking about just gnarly parasites. So, and where do you
Speaker 1: think you would find the world's largest internal parasite? Okay,
Speaker 1: I've seen videos of people taking a stick and wrapping
Speaker 1: a flat worm around the stick out of their skin
Speaker 1: and it just keeps going and going and going. So
Speaker 1: I would assume that it's a platy helmets. Assume it's
Speaker 1: like some flat worm and an intestinal flatworm, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to say it's the Amazon. That's an interesting guess.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about it in terms of animals, though,
Speaker 1: where do you think you'd find the world's largest intestinal
Speaker 1: parasite o megafauna Africa? You're not even thinking big enough, man,
Speaker 1: there's oh goddamn it, it's always the ocean. It's in whales.
Speaker 1: It's like it's the world's largest parasites are in the
Speaker 1: world's largest animals, and it I mean, it's just cartoon.
Speaker 1: It's to me, it's like really funny logic where it's
Speaker 1: just like, Okay, you have a huge animal, so the
Speaker 1: parasites are gigantic because they can be so. Sperm whales
Speaker 1: are the largest toothed whale. They're not the largest whale.
Speaker 1: They are beaten in size by other whales, such as
Speaker 1: the blue whale, which is a bayleen whale, not a
Speaker 1: toothed whale. Sperm whales can grow up to be over
Speaker 1: fifty feet or sixty meters in length, although extra big
Speaker 1: ones can be nearly seventy ft long or over twenty meters,
Speaker 1: so you know they're they're big boys. Large adult sperm
Speaker 1: whales have no natural predators, and some animals, however, have
Speaker 1: still learned how to feed off of the body of
Speaker 1: a sperm whale without them even noticing parasites. So round
Speaker 1: worms are parasitic nematodes that infect a variety of animals,
Speaker 1: humans included. But the species that parasitizes, sperm whales, can
Speaker 1: grow to be ridiculously huge. They're just under an inch thick,
Speaker 1: so two point five centimeters, but they can grow to
Speaker 1: be almost thirty feet long or eight point five met
Speaker 1: How many people is that? That's like, all right, so
Speaker 1: that's five of me. That's five sores of parasites. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you were trying to play, like, you know,
Speaker 1: what is it pool chicken with a parasite from a
Speaker 1: toothed whale, you'd have to have five sorens stacked on
Speaker 1: top of their shoulders. Sort of trying to what even
Speaker 1: is the goal of pool chicken? I've never gotten it. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to knock the other
Speaker 1: person off of the back of the Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: know you're on with two people on each other's backs,
Speaker 1: and then you're supposed to knock the other person off.
Speaker 1: It's like, um, yeah, but you're doing using just your hands.
Speaker 1: That sucks. I think that instead the goal should be
Speaker 1: who can get inside the sperm whale? The fastest. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So for comparison, the largest round worms that can infect
Speaker 1: humans grow to be about point one inches or four
Speaker 1: millimeters thick and eleven inches or thirty centimeters long. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's not a big deal. A big foot's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fine. I mean compared to what is inside the
Speaker 1: sperm whale, does it really seem that bad now? No?
Speaker 1: But also because when you're a sperm whale, like you know,
Speaker 1: you can't go to a doctor when you've got something
Speaker 1: like that inside you. You're just like, well, yeah, because
Speaker 1: you can't fit in the door. Yeah, I mean this
Speaker 1: thing and those things must weigh at least ten pounds, right, yea,
Speaker 1: give or take a few pounds. Feel that? Oh god,
Speaker 1: that's so gross. Um. So yeah, it's name is plus
Speaker 1: cent aema gigantezma. And by that name, can you guess
Speaker 1: what part of the whale it likes to parasitize the most?
Speaker 1: Say it again, plus cent aema gigantisma. Yeah. Uh? Is
Speaker 1: it specifically in sex organs? Yes, so it likes to
Speaker 1: be in the uterus in placenta. What a little freak.
Speaker 1: It can also target the reproductive tract and memory glance.
Speaker 1: So this is a very misogynistic parasite that typically targets
Speaker 1: female sperm whales. Don't worry, though, we will get to
Speaker 1: a miss Andre's parasite leader in the show, just for
Speaker 1: equity's sake. But this is just the largest round worm.
Speaker 1: I didn't say it's the largest parasite in the world,
Speaker 1: did I No, So the largest parasite in the world
Speaker 1: is the tape worm tetra gon no porous kind of god,
Speaker 1: damn it. Hang on a second, I gotta catch my breath. Okay,
Speaker 1: tetra gono porous calipocephalis found in sperm whales. Again, poor
Speaker 1: sperm whales, And this thing can grow to be over
Speaker 1: nine ft or over twenties seven meters long, although they
Speaker 1: can grow to be almost a hundred and thirty feet
Speaker 1: or forty long. How many sorens is that? H wait?
Speaker 1: How many feet? The biggest ones can be a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty feet Uh huh um, I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: past ten in my multiplication table. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: very very long stack of sorens. So it is found
Speaker 1: in the gut of the sperm whale, usually in the intestines.
Speaker 1: And if you thought this couldn't get grosser. Um, you're wrong.
Speaker 1: So tape worms are segmented, just like Yoki. I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry for making that connection for everyone. I'm like, one
Speaker 1: of the worst things that I would do when I
Speaker 1: was a kid is I would make connections between food
Speaker 1: and gross stuff, um, and then not be able to
Speaker 1: eat that food. And now I'm just spreading my misery
Speaker 1: to others. Anyways. Uh. Yes, So tape worms are segmented,
Speaker 1: and each set mint has several sets of reproductive organs
Speaker 1: up to fourteen yea, which can produce eggs, making them
Speaker 1: disgustingly prolific reproducers. So yeah, if you ever was were curious,
Speaker 1: like how does tapeworm sex happen inside of sperm whale?
Speaker 1: Here it is, here it goes. So the segments on
Speaker 1: a single individual tapeworm can reproduce with each other, which
Speaker 1: is like even further than like what House of Dragons
Speaker 1: Game of Thrones goes, you know, with all the weird relationships.
Speaker 1: Like we're talking like a tape worm and it's got
Speaker 1: these segments and each segment has like fourteen reproductive organs
Speaker 1: and then they're all reproducing with each other. Um. They
Speaker 1: also so they shed their in segments, which will end
Speaker 1: up in the whale's poop, which can then be pooped
Speaker 1: out and ingested by another whale, which is way almost
Speaker 1: come on, stop being so nasty. Well that's an easy
Speaker 1: solution right there. Just spur with each other. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit hard though, when like you live in the
Speaker 1: water and then you poop and then it's just like
Speaker 1: there and the other whales trying to eat like a
Speaker 1: floating plate of spaghetti, and then some poop drift spy
Speaker 1: and you just kind of accidentally you're like, whoops, anyways, spaghetti.
Speaker 1: Did you just use that as the equivalent of like
Speaker 1: a a giant squid? I mean, that's essentially essentially Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a what what else is a giant squid? But
Speaker 1: a floating plate of spaghetti. So this can result and
Speaker 1: they're being more than one tape worm, like individual tape
Speaker 1: worm being inside the same whale. And if that happens, hey,
Speaker 1: they spice things up and mate with the other tapeworm
Speaker 1: rather than mating with its own segments. So fun. I mean,
Speaker 1: it helps diversify the gene pool. That's pretty cool. So
Speaker 1: they should fight to the death instead, that would be
Speaker 1: so much better. Nature. Yeah, no, it's actually just free
Speaker 1: love inside the whale. And further bad news is that
Speaker 1: the tetragona porous Caliptocephalus has over thousand segments, all producing eggs. Again,
Speaker 1: remember each segment can have like fourteen gonads, and this
Speaker 1: means that it probably produces nearly a million eggs a
Speaker 1: day and billions in its lifetime, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: a good amount. I would say, I don't think so wow,
Speaker 1: that's so gross. Yeah, I do want the record to
Speaker 1: show on the show that when you asked me what
Speaker 1: the largest one was, I did say some platty helmon thees, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is flower right, isn't that what what we're dealing with?
Speaker 1: Isn't that tapeworm? I believe that's the name. Look, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't memorize all. Let's look at up his names
Speaker 1: because I'm not a nerd. Well. I was learning platty almans.
Speaker 1: You were off at the parties. I was chucking tape
Speaker 1: worms for fun. Me let me see. Yeah, tapeworm also
Speaker 1: called sister ylum platty helman thees wow out nerding me
Speaker 1: on my own podcast. I feel so good, feel so
Speaker 1: good to be right, being smugly right, is actually one
Speaker 1: of the treatments for COVID. My not to get too
Speaker 1: far from the show. But um, when my son plays
Speaker 1: candy Land or he plays you know with his mom,
Speaker 1: he gets real excited if he wins, and he'll come
Speaker 1: like over me, like I won, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: don't tell me. Go rub it in her face, go
Speaker 1: back to her and show her that you won. And
Speaker 1: he's like okay. And my wife obviously does not like that.
Speaker 1: But it's so funny to watch a young child get
Speaker 1: in her face and go I won, I won. I mean,
Speaker 1: those are just essential life skills. I think the whole
Speaker 1: rubbing stuff and other people's faces that they need to
Speaker 1: learn at a young age so that when they're older
Speaker 1: they can have a podcast, they can actually go on
Speaker 1: other people's podcasts and do it to them, right. Right.
Speaker 1: So you may be wondering, why does the this horrifying
Speaker 1: huge tape worm have to produce so many gosh darn eggs? Right? Um, Well,
Speaker 1: the reason they're so nasty and make billions of eggs
Speaker 1: is that they need to play the game of large
Speaker 1: numbers living in a vast ocean with relatively few sperm whales.
Speaker 1: Because the ocean is so big, and you don't have
Speaker 1: like a huge density of sperm whales, you have to
Speaker 1: do like a Didos attack and spoof the ocean with
Speaker 1: millions and millions of eggs to make sure that some
Speaker 1: of your eggs get ingested by another whale. So basically, like,
Speaker 1: the more eggs you pump out, the more likely it's
Speaker 1: going to get ingested by some unlucky whales. So you
Speaker 1: just do as many goddamn eggs as you can possibly
Speaker 1: push out. I get it. The ocean is big, yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's just it's a light. It's the hustle,
Speaker 1: it's the grind, it's the you know, having sex with
Speaker 1: your own segments so you can produce more eggs having
Speaker 1: it's called multitasking, having fourteen gonads at once. So um.
Speaker 1: So on that note, I think we're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break and then hey, we're going to come
Speaker 1: back to another parasite. Don't you worry if you we
Speaker 1: ran out of parasites. We didn't. We never will. They're
Speaker 1: just so many, all right. So we talked about the
Speaker 1: very sexist whale roundworm that targets the uterus of female
Speaker 1: sperm whales. So now let's talk about some misssand dressed
Speaker 1: ruled Bachia bacteria. This is the reverse sexism that everyone's
Speaker 1: been talking about, finally revealed. So fellas, if you ever
Speaker 1: wanted to know what it's like to be oppressed just
Speaker 1: because you're a man, you should become a butterfly. Oh no, there,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But there
Speaker 1: are parasites for butterflies. Yeah, they their lives are like
Speaker 1: a week. The world is a cruel and dark place. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's it's fun it's funny though, sense of humor. So.
Speaker 1: Wolbachia is a genus of bacteria that are parasitic microbes
Speaker 1: that infect all sorts of arthropods. In fact, it's estimated
Speaker 1: that of arthropod species can be infected by Wolbachia. So
Speaker 1: arthur pods are anything from crabs to spiders, too, insects
Speaker 1: to butterflies, but we are specifically going to focus on butterflies.
Speaker 1: Wolbachia strains that infect many species of butterfly try to
Speaker 1: kill off male butterflies so that there's a higher proportion
Speaker 1: of females, and they also make female butterflies have sex
Speaker 1: more often, which you know but butterflies are girls, moths
Speaker 1: are boys. Mm hmm. Cats. I thought cats were girls
Speaker 1: and dogs were boys. That's cats are cats are girls,
Speaker 1: dogs are boys, Dolphins are girls, Sharks are boys. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's everything. I feel like, um,
Speaker 1: there's something wrong with that, but I can't put my
Speaker 1: finger on it. Also, typically a butterfly species, the females
Speaker 1: tend to be a bit more drab than the males. Uh.
Speaker 1: The males are often a little more brightly colored. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean not always. Sometimes there's not so much sexual dimorphism,
Speaker 1: but sometimes there is. Where Like, it's not that the
Speaker 1: females aren't colorful, but sometimes they're just a little bit
Speaker 1: less flashy than the males. So I mean the butterflies.
Speaker 1: It's important. This is obviously off tangent. But for butterflies,
Speaker 1: does it is it like birds? Like it matters how
Speaker 1: bright the male is? Yeah? Yeah, uh yeah it can.
Speaker 1: That flashiness can attract a mate for sure. I mean
Speaker 1: they are investing a lot in that. Uh. Sometimes, like
Speaker 1: the coloration is both for attracting a mate. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: um uh, it is a warning coloration to prevent predators
Speaker 1: from eating them. Sometimes it's mimicry of warning coloration, and
Speaker 1: they are edible, but then they're pretending not to be.
Speaker 1: So there are many different uses for the beautiful patterns
Speaker 1: found on butterflies, but yes, it can be for for
Speaker 1: mate selection, okay, um, And yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: similar in the way that like, you know, bright flowers
Speaker 1: can be very attractive to like bees and other pollinators.
Speaker 1: So having bright, flashy colors, it's going to bring attention
Speaker 1: to yourself as a butterfly, and getting attention is one
Speaker 1: of the most important things you can do when you
Speaker 1: are looking to reproduce. That's like the number one thing
Speaker 1: you have to be noticed if you're ever going to
Speaker 1: have a chance. And that whole thing about like trying
Speaker 1: to get noticed can take some very ridiculous forms, um
Speaker 1: that we've talked about on the podcast before, like just
Speaker 1: the ridiculous ways that birds act, like bower birds create
Speaker 1: a whole like museum of weird items for females to
Speaker 1: look at just to be showy. Unfortunately, we are not
Speaker 1: talking about cute birds right now. We're talking about uh,
Speaker 1: super sexist bacteria that wants to do away with as
Speaker 1: many male butterflies as possible. Now I say, wants to
Speaker 1: This is obviously bacteria. It's not got too many thoughts
Speaker 1: going on. Some might say no thoughts going on? So
Speaker 1: what is it? It's, uh, this teeny tiny microbe and
Speaker 1: it lives inside the reproductive cells of butterflies. Will Bakia
Speaker 1: prefers female hosts because it can be transferred from the
Speaker 1: female reproductive cells to the eggs to the next generation
Speaker 1: of butterflies. So this is how it propagates. So it
Speaker 1: it needs the female butterflies, but it doesn't really need
Speaker 1: male butterflies. So they will actually kill off the embryos
Speaker 1: of male butterflies within the egg by messing with their development,
Speaker 1: and this skews the butterfly population to have way more females,
Speaker 1: and this benefits the Wolbachia bacteria because then they have
Speaker 1: way more hosts who can pass on infected eggs flies
Speaker 1: or girls. That's no, they're not all girls. No, not
Speaker 1: quite yet. Uh. There there's some interesting twists in terms
Speaker 1: with that though. So, uh, this is not like I said,
Speaker 1: bacteria don't really have minds or brains. They actually, I
Speaker 1: mean literally, they don't have brains. So this is not
Speaker 1: intentional infanticide. The bacteria has no idea what it's doing.
Speaker 1: And also evolution doesn't sort of operate on this overseer
Speaker 1: kind of way, so it's not like, oh, well, we
Speaker 1: want to kill off the males so that there are
Speaker 1: more females. So however this happens, it has to be
Speaker 1: kind of by either by quote unquote accident or sort
Speaker 1: of a random mutation or random happenstance that ends up
Speaker 1: benefiting the bacteria. So what's likely happening is a lucky
Speaker 1: accident for the Wolbachia. The male embryonic development is incompatible
Speaker 1: with the presence of the bacteria, whereas the female embryonic
Speaker 1: development is not, and this happens to increase the proportion
Speaker 1: of females for the bacteria to use as a host.
Speaker 1: And since Wolbakia doesn't have like a hundred percent success
Speaker 1: rate in terms of infecting butterflies, there are males still
Speaker 1: to keep the population going, and so it can be
Speaker 1: a stable system, unless, of course, it's too successful and
Speaker 1: it kills off too many males and then species of
Speaker 1: butterfly cannot exist or it reaches a genetic bottleneck. The
Speaker 1: Wolbachia infection also actually causes female butterflies to mate with
Speaker 1: more males than they would typically, So so okay, this
Speaker 1: is uh, these poor males um who are just a
Speaker 1: fraction of the female population, are a super hot commodity.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you have all the females wanting to
Speaker 1: mate with them, which is exhausting for a poor little
Speaker 1: butterfly and causes their sperm packets to become smaller and
Speaker 1: of poorer quality. So they're literally these male butterflies are
Speaker 1: literally exhausted from all the sex they're having to have
Speaker 1: with these demanding females. And not just that, I mean
Speaker 1: you've seen butterflies out in the wild a gentle breeze
Speaker 1: and that butterflies like all over the place. It can
Speaker 1: barely move ten ft from one plant to another without
Speaker 1: being blown all over the place. It looks like they're
Speaker 1: they're walking in a torrential river like at all times
Speaker 1: they're being they have no choice in where they go.
Speaker 1: So it's got to be exhausting in general to be
Speaker 1: a butterfly and then to have to then have sex
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare. It's
Speaker 1: you know, they're very delicate creatures and they have to
Speaker 1: do with sex marathon just sounds like torment, so they
Speaker 1: are they continually do this because you're like, okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it again. I'm ready. I'm ready, I'm ready. No,
Speaker 1: no, no no, really really, um, So it is exhausting for
Speaker 1: these butterflies. It causes their sperm to degrade. So females
Speaker 1: can actually detect this, and uh, it makes them want
Speaker 1: to mate with more males because they're like, ah, that
Speaker 1: last guy I made it with, like his sperm packet
Speaker 1: was kind of shoddy, so I better try another male.
Speaker 1: Then they go with another exhausted male and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: well this guy's sperm packet is also pretty shoddy. Well
Speaker 1: I gotta try another one. So they keep trying all
Speaker 1: these males. The males are exhausted. It's this tornado of
Speaker 1: sex and well, baccia and I like that they can
Speaker 1: tell that the females like, they get it. They get it.
Speaker 1: They get a little packet and then they're like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels a little light. Yeah yeah. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that researchers know exactly how the females do it, um,
Speaker 1: but it is it is funny, like imagine just like
Speaker 1: going through a conveyor belt and a little like going
Speaker 1: like ding ding ding, bad sperm. So you would think
Speaker 1: all these poor butterflies, you know, victims of this malicious bacteria,
Speaker 1: and they're these fragile creatures. They have no way to
Speaker 1: fight back, or do they They do so evolutionarily they
Speaker 1: can fight back, and we actually can see this in
Speaker 1: real time, which is so cool because a lot of
Speaker 1: these evolutionary arms race between like a predator and prey
Speaker 1: or a parasite and its host, are hard to actually
Speaker 1: observe because they happen over you know, millions of years.
Speaker 1: But in the case of the blue moon butterflies, we've
Speaker 1: actually seen them evolved in real time in response to
Speaker 1: the Wolbachia. So blue moon male butterflies found on the
Speaker 1: Simon Island of Savai were in trouble. They were only
Speaker 1: one person of the population, absolutely outnumbered by female males,
Speaker 1: but they managed to develop an adaptation within ten generations
Speaker 1: of butterflies, which is just a year in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, and this genetic mutation allowed the male embryos
Speaker 1: to survive the infection from Wolbakia. So within a year,
Speaker 1: this brought the male population up to of all the
Speaker 1: butterflies in the island, so that it's incredible that you
Speaker 1: can see this happen on such a fast scale. Wow,
Speaker 1: and so quickly I just looked at these things. These
Speaker 1: things are really cool looking. They're like a black butterfly
Speaker 1: that have just four little dots on them, really bright
Speaker 1: little dots. Yeah, they're they're very pretty. They're really beautiful.
Speaker 1: The males seemed like they were defeated by this bacteria
Speaker 1: and then like tin generations, like one year of time,
Speaker 1: and then you see this sudden comeback because there is
Speaker 1: a mutation that allows these embryonic stage butterfly wies to
Speaker 1: survive the bacteria. It's incredible. So I do have to
Speaker 1: mention some other species of Wolbakia that infect different species
Speaker 1: of arthur pods because they're they're they're wacky and fun.
Speaker 1: So Wilbakia will change the sex ratios or even how
Speaker 1: sex works for some species of animals. So wil Bakia
Speaker 1: can turn males into functional females by inhibiting androgen production.
Speaker 1: So this is the case for arthropods like crabs or pillbugs.
Speaker 1: In fact, some populations of the common pillbug are all
Speaker 1: genetically male, but enough are infected with Wolbakia that alters
Speaker 1: them to be functionally female, that the population is stable,
Speaker 1: Like they're all genetically speaking, they are all boys. But
Speaker 1: the will box silver fisher girls. Oh god, we don't
Speaker 1: claim them silverfish. Uh, they're the worst bug. I hate those.
Speaker 1: They leave their little dusties on the wall. God. I
Speaker 1: love almost every single bug except for silverfish and um,
Speaker 1: house cockroaches because they're hey, come on now, because they're greasy. Man,
Speaker 1: They're like, they're they're great. Anyways, that's a tangent. I
Speaker 1: won't hate on cockroaches on this show. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's like they the bacteria have success like
Speaker 1: completely changed these populations of pill bugs where they are
Speaker 1: all born male and some of them turn into females
Speaker 1: because of the infection from the wolbakia, and they're able
Speaker 1: to survive because they're they become functionally female, and that
Speaker 1: population is stable, so it needs it. That's crazy. It
Speaker 1: needs the Yeah, it becomes dependent on the Wolbachia to
Speaker 1: continue that population, so at that point stops being a
Speaker 1: parasite and becomes it like it becomes like a symbiotic relationship.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a really interesting question because it's like
Speaker 1: is it at this point. It's a parasite when it
Speaker 1: is causing harm to the host and not offering any benefit.
Speaker 1: It's symbiotic when both of the animals in the relationship
Speaker 1: are benefiting. And so it's like, does it count as
Speaker 1: being like symbiotic when it's solved the problem that it
Speaker 1: comes in the first place. I don't really know. It's
Speaker 1: a good question. I I yeah, that that seems like
Speaker 1: a kind of I mean, I guess like at this stage, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they are somewhat symbiotic because they are dependent on each other.
Speaker 1: That is so interesting and I didn't really think about
Speaker 1: it that way, But that's messed up. Look what I'm
Speaker 1: doing for you. Look, I'm healthy. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: like some theories that things like mitochondria in in certain
Speaker 1: aspects of our biology. It started out as maybe not parasitic,
Speaker 1: but a symbiotic relationship that just become became sort of
Speaker 1: like completely linked forever. So you now cannot live without
Speaker 1: it and it cannot live without you, which you know.
Speaker 1: I guess that's the ultimate friendship usefulness. How useful are
Speaker 1: you to your friends being codependent? Yes, a healthy relationship. So, uh,
Speaker 1: I guess we've we've finally done it. We've talked about
Speaker 1: some of the nastiest parasites in the animal Kingdom. You
Speaker 1: can pick up that big, sloppy plate of yoki and
Speaker 1: spaghetti and you know, I don't know, uh like noodles,
Speaker 1: what other foods? I love that you've got in your mind.
Speaker 1: Everyone in your your audience is eating multiple types of
Speaker 1: pasta once. I mean, I live in Italy. It's a life.
Speaker 1: I'm actually having pasta tonight. But it's fun, little square
Speaker 1: shaped pasta, so I don't have to imagine that it's
Speaker 1: a parasite unless there's a square shaped parasite out there. Oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta find out what there is. But before we go,
Speaker 1: we've got to play a little game I like to
Speaker 1: call guess who's squawking the mystery at the sound game.
Speaker 1: I feel at this every single time that I still
Speaker 1: live with the fact that I missed the cassowary because
Speaker 1: cassowary is such a great animal. It's so important to me.
Speaker 1: It is good with little stabby fee. Well, maybe you
Speaker 1: can redeem yourself this time. I mean it's gonna be hard, though.
Speaker 1: It's a hard one at me. So here is the hint.
Speaker 1: They sound like drunks on land and alien spaceships in
Speaker 1: the sea, but they're always chill. H m hm. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was them on the surface. Now here are them underwater? Alright, So,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's easy peasy. Well, that sounds like
Speaker 1: there's some sonar happening underwater. Interesting, it's I know, there's
Speaker 1: a creature that has sort of a dome shaped head
Speaker 1: that acts very much like a satellite dish for sonar.
Speaker 1: But remember this, animals found both on land and in
Speaker 1: the sea. Oh. I figured it was just something that
Speaker 1: was like popping its head up every once in a while. Like, no,
Speaker 1: they are found on the land and in the sea.
Speaker 1: Oh no, what would be using won't be barking like
Speaker 1: that on the surface, okay, and then making those noises underwater.
Speaker 1: The only thing I can think is it's got to
Speaker 1: be like a a leopard seal or a walrus or
Speaker 1: something very interesting. Guests, so you're super close. It is
Speaker 1: a wettle seal. So it is a seal. So congratulations
Speaker 1: to Aaron, Kay, Pete K and Hailey D the three
Speaker 1: fastest gissers to answer correctly. So, yes, it is a
Speaker 1: wettle seal. And uh, it is a large gray and
Speaker 1: white splotchy seal found in icy regions near the Antarctic.
Speaker 1: They can make vocalizations both on land and in the ocean.
Speaker 1: On and they make these wonderful grunting noises, but under
Speaker 1: the water they can make these whistles and trills that
Speaker 1: sound like an alien spaceship. Each seal actually has its
Speaker 1: own unique song. In addition to what we can hear,
Speaker 1: they also produce ultrasonic sounds. What for what purpose? So yeah,
Speaker 1: they lack the anatomy for precise echolocation, but research believe
Speaker 1: they use these ultrasonic sounds to be able to find
Speaker 1: breathing holes in the ice during the darkness of winter
Speaker 1: so they don't get disoriented and run out of air.
Speaker 1: So they're probably the world's cutest, little weirdo spaceships. Yes,
Speaker 1: I gotta find those holes. Anything we've learned from this
Speaker 1: episode is you gotta find the holes. Say you were
Speaker 1: you did gets seal, So I think that you can
Speaker 1: count that as a victory. Okay, yeah, I guess leopard
Speaker 1: sealic idiot, Although if you looked at a wettle seal
Speaker 1: and I don't actually know the difference, like damn it.
Speaker 1: Of course, a wet seal, A leopard seal. What a
Speaker 1: fool I've been? Uh? Sor are you ready for this
Speaker 1: week's mry animal? Sound? All right? Here is the hint.
Speaker 1: In the winter they wear white, In the summer they
Speaker 1: wear brown, but all year round they sound like dinghis
Speaker 1: is uh. I think that that might be some sort
Speaker 1: of fairetish creature like a mink. M hmm, interesting, very
Speaker 1: interesting Those change color right in the winter. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there are There are stoats that change their colors. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: a long as like the the weener dogs of weasels.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking of, Yes, exactly. So that is
Speaker 1: an interesting guess um. But I am going to leave
Speaker 1: you hanging because I will reveal the answer next week
Speaker 1: on next week's creature feature. Saren, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining me my pleasure. Thanks for having me, and
Speaker 1: thank you for suggesting we talked about the warble flies.
Speaker 1: I love talking about some disgusting parasites. Me too. Actually,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. Feels like it was a salve
Speaker 1: to my COVID. Yeah, you know, it's like you do
Speaker 1: have COVID, but at least you don't have a sperm whales,
Speaker 1: tape worm kind of coiled up, basically entirely making up
Speaker 1: what should be you. Yeah, I don't have five of
Speaker 1: me inside and that feels pretty good. I think God
Speaker 1: every day I don't have five of me inside of me. So, uh,
Speaker 1: where can the people find you? You can find me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at sore and Underscore Ltd. Or you can
Speaker 1: find me on my podcast with Daniel O'Brien, also a
Speaker 1: crack of lump. You do a podcast called Quick Question
Speaker 1: with Soren and Daniel, and you can just watch my
Speaker 1: episodes of American Dead. We just had our season premiere
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. And hey, that was a
Speaker 1: sore booie joint. That was an episode that I wrote.
Speaker 1: It's the Wheels and the leg Man episode, kind of
Speaker 1: a noir story. Oh nice, nice American War with hard
Speaker 1: boiled eggs and them fatals, you know, the whole thing. No, no,
Speaker 1: with gum gum shoes shoes man out of gum. Oh
Speaker 1: so you were there your own track for a second
Speaker 1: investigations and who robbed the horse farm? Anyways? Did check
Speaker 1: that out? So and I sure hope you feel better soon,
Speaker 1: Get well soon, Rest up, dream sweet dreams of Butcher's
Speaker 1: Jelly and at that nourish your body and soul. Thank you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but seriously, I hope you feel better soon. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. It was a pleasure, Katie. Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 1: coming on, and thank you to the you, thank you
Speaker 1: to the you, the listener for listening, and thanks to
Speaker 1: the Space Classics for their super awesome song Exo Lumina.
Speaker 1: Preacher features a production of I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what wherever
Speaker 1: you listen your favorite shows. I don't judge you. See
Speaker 1: you next Wednesday.