Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature future 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 redheads, from red fur to red hair to red scales.
Speaker 1: We're seeing red in a whole new light. Discover this
Speaker 1: and more as we answer the age old question why
Speaker 1: are red pandas? Joining me today to talk until We're
Speaker 1: red in the face is video essayist, actor and writer
Speaker 1: and friend of the show, Maggie may Fish. Welcome, Hello, Katie,
Speaker 1: Thank you us so much for having me on such
Speaker 1: an austachious episode. That austachious, it's I think that's like
Speaker 1: auspicious plus ostentatious. Maybe all right, a very exciting episode.
Speaker 1: My dear Katie, So you've you've actually seen the new movie, uh,
Speaker 1: Turning Red right, the new Pixar movie. Yes, yes, I
Speaker 1: have not yet, so no spoilers, um. But it has
Speaker 1: something to do with a little girl turning into well
Speaker 1: a young lady perhaps turning into a red panda at times.
Speaker 1: And it looks adorable. Did you enjoy it? I was
Speaker 1: telling right before we started recording. It's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite Pixar movies that I've seen a hot second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I loved it. That's great, that's great. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I promise this is not like a paid advertisement show.
Speaker 1: I'm just really excited that there is a Pixar movie
Speaker 1: that features the Red Panda because they are adorable, adorable animals,
Speaker 1: amazing animals are adorable. And I will say this is
Speaker 1: no spoilers, but Red Panda's being adorable is a big
Speaker 1: part of the plot. I'm sold already, so I'm absolutely
Speaker 1: gonna see it. But yeah, I thought that with that
Speaker 1: movie out, I could do a show on the red
Speaker 1: heads of the Animal Kingdom. So we'll start out with
Speaker 1: some facts about red pandas and then we're going to
Speaker 1: move on to some other animals that feature a red head.
Speaker 1: And a spoiler alert, you don't always need hair to
Speaker 1: be a red head. But yeah, So first let's start
Speaker 1: out with the fabulous red Panda. So quick facts about
Speaker 1: red Panta. First of all, most important fact is they're
Speaker 1: incredibly cute. Just yes, number one scientific fact. Yeah, very cute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there have been the whole papers written about how cute
Speaker 1: it is and how it's a little tootsy wood sees
Speaker 1: are just adorable. So, despite the fact that they are
Speaker 1: called red pandas, they are actually not related to giant pandas,
Speaker 1: those big lovable black and white bears. Giant pandas are
Speaker 1: in the bear family orsa Day, whereas red pandas are
Speaker 1: in the mist Doyla day family, which includes weasels, skunks,
Speaker 1: and raccoons. So they are not Yeah, they're not really
Speaker 1: related to panda bears, the red pandas, even though they
Speaker 1: share a similar habitat. I knew about the raccoons, but
Speaker 1: I didn't even I didn't even think of weasels. But
Speaker 1: nobody ever thinks of the poor weasels on purpose. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think of the weasels always. But yeah, So, even
Speaker 1: though they are in the same clayd as bears, they're
Speaker 1: actually more closely related to walruses than they are to bears.
Speaker 1: So yeah, not not very closely related to panda bear
Speaker 1: is at all. And so just a quick sort of
Speaker 1: visual description of the red panda. I'm sure a lot
Speaker 1: of people have seen them because they are a striking animal,
Speaker 1: very cute. They have this stunning red fur, white tipped ears, eyebrows, cheeks,
Speaker 1: and muzzles. They have black rings, on their tail and
Speaker 1: black belly fur. There typically about the size of maybe
Speaker 1: a large house cat, but they can weigh up to
Speaker 1: around thirty pounds or fifteen kilograms, so they can get
Speaker 1: you know, chubby and chicken. Maybe not as big as
Speaker 1: the red panda in the in the movie, but they
Speaker 1: are they they're they're cute, little little dudes. So what
Speaker 1: they do share with the giant panda is its habitats.
Speaker 1: So similar to the giant panda bear, they do live
Speaker 1: in China. Uh. There are also Himalayan subspecies of red panda.
Speaker 1: Oh I did not know that. Yeah, So they will
Speaker 1: live in bamboo and mixed forests. They are arboreal, meaning
Speaker 1: they spend most of their time hanging out in trees. Also,
Speaker 1: similar to the giant panda, they have false thumbs that
Speaker 1: they can use to climb and grasp bamboo, and they
Speaker 1: also do like to eat bamboo. They are mostly herbivorous,
Speaker 1: and we'll eat bamboo leaves and shoots and use their
Speaker 1: little little thumbs not just to climb trees, but also
Speaker 1: to grab onto a piece of bamboo and pull it
Speaker 1: down to their mouth and chew on it. An impression, yes,
Speaker 1: and it was very convincing. I thought I was talking
Speaker 1: to red panda. Actually, I've seen a red panda at
Speaker 1: the Sandy Ugo Zoo a couple of months ago. Um,
Speaker 1: and yeah, are just sleeping in the trees. They love
Speaker 1: to sleep. It's like their favorite thing to do. They're
Speaker 1: actually nocturnal crepuscular, meaning they are most active in twilight
Speaker 1: and at night. Um. But during the day they love
Speaker 1: to sleep and they'll just hang out in a tree,
Speaker 1: like with their little feet just dangling down, splayed out. Um.
Speaker 1: And when it gets cold, they actually can survive in
Speaker 1: in cold temperatures, like in in snowy areas. What they'll
Speaker 1: do is they're still sleeping in the tree, but they'll
Speaker 1: curl up into a little ball and use that big
Speaker 1: fluffy tail as a blanket to cover themselves, so they're
Speaker 1: nice and cozy, don't I just I love I love
Speaker 1: the commitment to tree naps in these little dudes. It's
Speaker 1: just total commitment to the sleepy tree lifestyle. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really makes a person wanna do the same, large tree,
Speaker 1: live there for as long as possible, just dangling, and
Speaker 1: it would seem like they'd be sitting ducks lying in
Speaker 1: those trees. Taking all these naps because they're that bright
Speaker 1: red coloration, and so like, oh, well, wouldn't some kind
Speaker 1: of predator just go and grab them. But actually they
Speaker 1: do have a form of camouflage because in these trees
Speaker 1: that they like to sleep, they the trees often host
Speaker 1: big clusters of this rusty brown moss, this kind of
Speaker 1: reddish brown moss, and it's just kind of dangles from
Speaker 1: these trees and big clumps, and so the red panda
Speaker 1: when it's dangling and napping, kind of looks like a
Speaker 1: big clump of moss. WHOA, Okay, that means I was
Speaker 1: about to have I didn't want to ask you too
Speaker 1: many questions, Katy, but I was going to ask you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: how can they send a tree all day? That's wild?
Speaker 1: I did not know that. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: you can ask me all the questions you want. I
Speaker 1: should not have held back. Yeah. So um. And one
Speaker 1: of the reasons they do like to nap so much
Speaker 1: is that their metabolism is a little weird. Similar to
Speaker 1: the panda, they actually take it. It's not so efficient
Speaker 1: for them to eat bamboo, even though it is a
Speaker 1: successful strategy because bamboo so plentiful. They actually have a
Speaker 1: carnivores gut, and they are not very efficient at eating vegetation.
Speaker 1: This is the same as the unrelated giant panda, who
Speaker 1: also has a bear's car carnivores gut. Um, so giant
Speaker 1: panda's actually the bears have to eat their mother's poop
Speaker 1: when they're very young to get the right gut bioms
Speaker 1: so they can actually digest bamboo, and red pandas have
Speaker 1: a similar specific gut biom. I wasn't able to find
Speaker 1: any information on whether they eat their mother's poop. You
Speaker 1: would think that if they did that it would be known,
Speaker 1: but um, they do have to eat around of their
Speaker 1: weight in bamboo in order to extract enough energy from it,
Speaker 1: and which seems like a lot. But they're actually a
Speaker 1: little more efficient than giant pandas because they're able. The
Speaker 1: red panda is able to digest around of the vegetation
Speaker 1: they eat, whereas giant pandas can only digest around sev
Speaker 1: of the vegetation vegetation. So yeah, yeah, red panda's much
Speaker 1: more efficient, much more productive, and they poop really fast
Speaker 1: too because they're digestive system. Yeah, oh good, good, Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm happy for them, honestly, not just note that is funny.
Speaker 1: I mean there are I feel like humans include it,
Speaker 1: you know, as not being able to process lacta. There
Speaker 1: are so many things that you know, creatures aren't technically
Speaker 1: perfect for in their environment, but they still make do
Speaker 1: or find ways to adapt, right, us included soy milk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is really interesting because you
Speaker 1: look at how essentially it's very rare for a carnivore
Speaker 1: to kind of make that transition to vegetation, like the
Speaker 1: red panda has um. The fact that the bamboo so
Speaker 1: plentiful means that it is it can create these evolutionary
Speaker 1: niches for animals to exploit, and so even if it's
Speaker 1: somewhat inefficient for them to digest it, the fact that
Speaker 1: there's just so much dang bamboo, it's like they're going
Speaker 1: to exploit that resource. Yeah, I feel like at that point,
Speaker 1: having even though only like of it gets digested, it's everywhere.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, you know, it's like you know McDonald's,
Speaker 1: technically you can't really digest it, but it's everywhere. It's everywhere,
Speaker 1: So of course I'm going to get so red pandas
Speaker 1: have diversified their diet a little more than the giant panda.
Speaker 1: They will also eat fruit, acorns, eggs, and even small
Speaker 1: animals such as birds or small mammals, but they really
Speaker 1: don't actively sort of like make that a huge part
Speaker 1: of their diets. Just kind of opportunistic. Yeah, they just
Speaker 1: mostly like the lazy lifestyle of eating bamboo and sleeping
Speaker 1: a lot because they need to conserve their energy because
Speaker 1: it's such a such a difficult plant to digest in
Speaker 1: their little carnivore tummies. They're also kind of loaners. They're solitary.
Speaker 1: Cubs will hang out with their moms for a while,
Speaker 1: but adults will mostly lead solitary lives, and so in
Speaker 1: order to mate, they actually need a few tricks in
Speaker 1: order to enter the dating pool actually find someone to
Speaker 1: mate with. One thing they do is make calls. So
Speaker 1: females will make this adorable sound when they are in
Speaker 1: the mood for romance that I will play for you
Speaker 1: right now, and that is called twittering that sounds like
Speaker 1: I have horse have goose like cute that very cute,
Speaker 1: very cute horse goose sound that they're making. They will
Speaker 1: also leave piles of poop as calling cards for other
Speaker 1: eligible red panda bachelor's or bachelorettes to find. Remember when
Speaker 1: I said they actually poop really fast after eating. Uh,
Speaker 1: those piles of poop are sort of like an indication
Speaker 1: that they're nearby, because you know, the fresh pile of poop. Hey,
Speaker 1: you must have been here pretty pretty you know recently,
Speaker 1: so come find me. Yeah, it's like leaving your number
Speaker 1: around exactly exactly. It's like, Hey, that that hot red
Speaker 1: panta just gave me your poop pile. I think I
Speaker 1: got a shot. Oh my god, go get her. We
Speaker 1: have to talk about baby red pandas. It's a necessity.
Speaker 1: They are extremely playful and full of energy. So Sarah Glass,
Speaker 1: a curator of the Red Panda exhibit at Knoxville Zoo,
Speaker 1: told Smithsonian Magazine that at six weeks old, red pandas
Speaker 1: reached the popcorn stage where they will randomly jump around,
Speaker 1: jump into walls, jump into each other. They just at
Speaker 1: this age are rambunctious and extremely playful. Oh. They'll also
Speaker 1: stand up on their high pause and like hold their
Speaker 1: arms out and then pounce on their their parents as
Speaker 1: this kind of like a game, which they'll actually do
Speaker 1: as adults. Uh. If they are territorial, so they have
Speaker 1: this kind of like they're they're so cute. They're too
Speaker 1: cute to fight in a way that's scary. It's just
Speaker 1: like this standing and lunging kind of thing to try
Speaker 1: to intimidate the other red panda away. Oh man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like tries you might still look like an adorable
Speaker 1: stuffed animal. It's really it's like it's it's really like
Speaker 1: one of those bro fights, you know where the bro
Speaker 1: where it's a couple of bros and they're like, so like,
Speaker 1: you want to go, Bro, you want to go, But
Speaker 1: then they never go. They never really go because they're
Speaker 1: actually friends, you know, but yeah, you know, they gotta
Speaker 1: have a little posture, bro, Yeah I'll go. Bro. They
Speaker 1: show each other, they're like tribal tats and everything. You're like,
Speaker 1: you know, but they they're never Their intention is never
Speaker 1: to really actually go. It's just, you know, just to
Speaker 1: get that holographic Pokemon. The other one has one weird
Speaker 1: fact that we know about red pandas that I don't
Speaker 1: know why we need to know this, but we do,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna tell you is that red pandas are
Speaker 1: the only known non primate that is able to taste
Speaker 1: artificial sweetener, uh, which researchers found out because they left
Speaker 1: out bowls of water sweeted with artificial sweetener versus plain water,
Speaker 1: and the red panda's preferred the bowls with the artificial
Speaker 1: sweetener in it, so they can taste artificial sweetener. Well,
Speaker 1: there goes all my diet cokes, dandies. I hate the
Speaker 1: taste of a sparta What is it a sparta me
Speaker 1: or yeah, yeah, I know my partner, Yeah, I cannot
Speaker 1: stand it. Um, yeah, yeah, it's and I think it's
Speaker 1: a genetic thing where it's there's a like you just
Speaker 1: have a certain like taste receptor that can pick up
Speaker 1: on this kind of aftertaste that taste kind of nasty.
Speaker 1: And so these researchers are saying there's like this genetic
Speaker 1: aspect in wild animals of whether or not they're able
Speaker 1: to taste artificial sweetener, just like in humans. Sometimes our
Speaker 1: taste buds are kind of different, and some people hate
Speaker 1: the taste of Brussels sprouts, some people love it, and
Speaker 1: that kind of there's like this difference in the way
Speaker 1: that we can perceive taste, and that's the same thing
Speaker 1: with animals as well. Um, but apparently the red Panta's
Speaker 1: love a spotted meat, so they can have mine. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1: there we go. You know what, the world finds a
Speaker 1: way to balance itself out. Googlemats it from redhead to redhead.
Speaker 1: You can have my. Now we are going to talk
Speaker 1: about another stunning redhead in the animal kingdom, and this
Speaker 1: is the red Uakari, also known as the bald Uakari
Speaker 1: or the English monkey. Uh. These are New World monkeys
Speaker 1: of who not only have a marvelous red coat, but
Speaker 1: a bright red face that looks exactly like my face
Speaker 1: after I've been out in the sun with no sunscreen. Uh, Maggie,
Speaker 1: do you are you able to like be out in
Speaker 1: the sun without getting a sunburn? Uh? Oh no, no
Speaker 1: actually uh in high school I was once sun burned
Speaker 1: by the moon somehow burned. Yes, yes, very thin skin. Um,
Speaker 1: wear a lot of hats. Yeah so yes, I also
Speaker 1: deeply identify this monkey that I existed. Yes. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: have to wear sunscreen, folks, You just have to. It's
Speaker 1: so important. Mm hmmm you don't want to be called Rudolph.
Speaker 1: It's also very important for your health. Um. But fortunately
Speaker 1: these red Uakaris are not sunburned. This is their natural
Speaker 1: pigmentation and it's totally healthy and uh, they actually find
Speaker 1: it very attractive. And so a little bit of info
Speaker 1: about these monkeys. They are found only in western regions
Speaker 1: of the Amazon in Brazil and Peru in var Zaiah
Speaker 1: forests and so these are forests that are floodplains near
Speaker 1: white water rivers and so during the wet season, during
Speaker 1: the rainy season, these uh forests was actually flood. The
Speaker 1: bald uakari is a little monkeys's just a little little dudes.
Speaker 1: They will, Yeah, they kind of look like when you
Speaker 1: look at a picture of it, you kind of get
Speaker 1: the sense that they're kind of big, but that they're
Speaker 1: just really fluffy. They're super they've got this very shaggy furbit.
Speaker 1: In reality, they're only around eight pounds um, which is
Speaker 1: three point five um. They have that really shaggy red
Speaker 1: coat and a stout little tail. So unlike a lot
Speaker 1: of primates, there are a few primates that have like,
Speaker 1: you know, no tail, but uh, in terms of a
Speaker 1: lot of monkeys will actually have a long, pre insile tail.
Speaker 1: But these monkeys, uh do have a tail, but it's
Speaker 1: really stubby. It's um, it's like it's not so short
Speaker 1: that it's like a bobcat length tail. It's a little
Speaker 1: longer than that, but it's not as long as typically
Speaker 1: a monkey's tail would be. And it's also super thick
Speaker 1: and fluffy. It's adorable. Yeah, it looks like a furry
Speaker 1: beaver tail. It does, it really does. And they speaking
Speaker 1: of beavers, they have these very powerful jaws with these
Speaker 1: intimidating looking bulging fans um but these are not really
Speaker 1: used for predation. Their teeth form a comb that they
Speaker 1: can use to strip open hard, unripe fruit and pry
Speaker 1: open the shells of nuts. They love to eat nuts.
Speaker 1: That is one of their favorite foods, along with seeds.
Speaker 1: Uh Sometimes they'll eat fruit, flowers or random stuff they
Speaker 1: find like animals, tiny animals or bugs, but that's mostly
Speaker 1: just like you know, they'll eat it if they find it. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: you know. But uh So, during the flooding seasons, they
Speaker 1: spend all of their time in the tree tops, completely
Speaker 1: avoiding the ground because it's full of water and they
Speaker 1: don't want to be in there. And so in the
Speaker 1: dry season they will sometimes come down from the trees
Speaker 1: to scavenge for seeds and other foods, but they really
Speaker 1: do prefer to be up in the trees, similar to
Speaker 1: the red pandas. Unlike the red pandas, however, they are
Speaker 1: highly social. They live in groups ranging from five They're
Speaker 1: highly she's waiting to she hears me, and she knows
Speaker 1: mm hmmm hm. They are highly social, living in groups
Speaker 1: ranging from five members to a hundred, which is yeah.
Speaker 1: Can you you're looking at a picture of one of
Speaker 1: these beautiful red faced, bald faced beauties. It's just can
Speaker 1: you imagine a hundred of them hanging around in the
Speaker 1: tree tops? I cannot, but I can tell you that's
Speaker 1: a party I would want to be invited to. Yes,
Speaker 1: do you think they would welcome me as a straw
Speaker 1: very blonde? Or do you think I'm not? I gotta
Speaker 1: quite honestly, your hair does have the beautiful like copper
Speaker 1: color of their you know, the fluffiest parts of them.
Speaker 1: So as long as you were sunburned, yeah, yeah, get
Speaker 1: a sunburn, which I usually try not to do to
Speaker 1: avoid skin cancer, but for the monkeys, maybe I'll do it.
Speaker 1: So um. Yeah. Being red in the face is not
Speaker 1: actually a sign of anger in these monkeys. This is
Speaker 1: a permanent coloration and it's actually an indicator of good health.
Speaker 1: Monkeys that are sick will often have a more pale,
Speaker 1: blanched face, so having that bright red face will make
Speaker 1: them attractive to mates. Um. Another thing they do to
Speaker 1: make themselves attractive to mates. At least the females will
Speaker 1: produce their own perfume, uh sent that they use to
Speaker 1: attract males. So just you know, like, what is she
Speaker 1: who is she wearing? She's wearing herself. That's beautiful and
Speaker 1: very deep it is she doesn't need to change for anyone, Yeah, exactly. Um.
Speaker 1: So even though they're typically like pretty pretty sociable, they
Speaker 1: will be territorial. So a group will claim a territory
Speaker 1: and they actually have like a core group of females
Speaker 1: that don't change territories, and they will be joined by
Speaker 1: males from that were born in another group. Smartene pool. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's kind of similar to the way
Speaker 1: this happens in various groups of social animals. So it's
Speaker 1: similar to the way that lion prides actually work. In
Speaker 1: this case, they're actually multiple males that will come live
Speaker 1: with the female, so it's not like one male with
Speaker 1: a bunch of females or two you know, males with
Speaker 1: a bunch of females um. But with lions, typically the
Speaker 1: females will form sort of this core group that is
Speaker 1: relatively stable, and the daughters kind of stay and don't disperse,
Speaker 1: whereas the males that are born in that group will
Speaker 1: go off and disperse and start their own pride or
Speaker 1: joined another pride. And uh So it's a similar thing
Speaker 1: with these monkeys, except that the there are multiple males
Speaker 1: in a group, and they'll you know, hang out in
Speaker 1: this territory. And then when males are born in this group,
Speaker 1: once they reach maturity, they'll go off and disperse and
Speaker 1: join a different group somewhere else. Um. And in order
Speaker 1: to maintain their territory from possible other uakari who want
Speaker 1: to come in and uh steal their space, they will
Speaker 1: actually put on aggressive displays like puffing out their shaggy
Speaker 1: coats and wagging their little stubby tails and yelling. It
Speaker 1: honestly sounds really cute. I'm sure to be intimidating, just
Speaker 1: like the red pandas standing on their hind legs and
Speaker 1: like holding their arms out. It's like, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: like you're trying to tell me to go away, but
Speaker 1: it looks like you want to hug. I just want
Speaker 1: to scoop you up more. Yeah, do do not do that,
Speaker 1: but I understand the desire to do so so much. So, yes,
Speaker 1: it's a little guy. Yeah you're you're a You're a
Speaker 1: reptile fan, aren't you. I am, Yes, I love them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, uh, this we are talking about a red
Speaker 1: head that does not need hair to have a red head.
Speaker 1: This is the a gamma A gamma it is a
Speaker 1: lizard found in sub Saharan Africa. Um. It is also
Speaker 1: known as the red headed rock gama. So these little
Speaker 1: guys are well, they're not that tiny, but they're not big.
Speaker 1: So they're around thirteen to thirty centimeters which is like
Speaker 1: five to eleven inches long. Males are generally larger than
Speaker 1: the females. Okay, that's bigger than I thought. Yeah they're
Speaker 1: they're not They're they're not little tiny like um, you know,
Speaker 1: little tiny lizards you find in your garden typically, But yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're a little bigger, but they're not huge. So
Speaker 1: they are insectivores who use uh, their tongue to be
Speaker 1: They have like this mucous gland on the end of
Speaker 1: their tongue and like use it to stick on to
Speaker 1: pray kind of like um, like a chameleon um, but
Speaker 1: it's a it's a short, shorter tongue, so they don't
Speaker 1: have the same kind of like whip like tongue that yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's sticky, so it can trap insects. So
Speaker 1: the reason it's known as the red headed rock a
Speaker 1: gama is that dominant males have a bright red head,
Speaker 1: and uh, they also have this beautiful bright blue body.
Speaker 1: So females, juvenile males, and subordinate males have more of
Speaker 1: an olive green coloration. So adult males will have a
Speaker 1: blue body, but only the dominant males will have this
Speaker 1: bright red colored head, and their heads will actually change
Speaker 1: colors from all of two red if they become the
Speaker 1: dominant male. WHOA, that's wild, like the whole visual of
Speaker 1: an animal changing just because of their position in their
Speaker 1: community exactly. Yeah. The fact that the politics can actually
Speaker 1: like you know, it is kind of funny, like you know,
Speaker 1: we have like you know, red and blue colors that
Speaker 1: are associated with politics, and then with these lizards, like
Speaker 1: their heads literally will turn red when they win a
Speaker 1: political battle. M O. So the dominant male is known
Speaker 1: as the cock. So h it is the only one
Speaker 1: who is able to mate with females. So the cocks
Speaker 1: mating territory is usually centered around a display rock on
Speaker 1: which the cock will sits. The cock sits on the rock, uh,
Speaker 1: and it will cock on the rock and it will
Speaker 1: seduce females by bobbing its head and doing push ups.
Speaker 1: So very cocky indeed, yes, yes, how true to life.
Speaker 1: So subordinate males can only mate if they find their
Speaker 1: own territory or successfully knock the cock off his rock,
Speaker 1: fighting him and winning to gain his territory in mating opportunities.
Speaker 1: The subordinate's head color will then change and he will
Speaker 1: become the new champion with the red head. Um And
Speaker 1: to try to deter a subordinate males from trying to
Speaker 1: take them on, dominant males will do the same kind
Speaker 1: of tough guy push ups, but in this case, instead
Speaker 1: of using it to flirt, they're using it to try
Speaker 1: to threaten these subordinate males. M hm. Threatening and flirting
Speaker 1: are two sides of a similar coin. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: isn't that it's kind of you know when when someone
Speaker 1: like flexes, you know, it's like, uh, look how strong
Speaker 1: I am. It can be a form of flirtation with people,
Speaker 1: or it can be like a you know threat, like
Speaker 1: I'm really strong. Um, so it's like a threat to
Speaker 1: your your competition, but maybe to someone you're trying to seduce.
Speaker 1: It's not it's like saying, hey, check out these welcome
Speaker 1: two tickets to the gun show. So, uh, they are
Speaker 1: able to quickly change the shape of these nano structures
Speaker 1: on their skin and the the krematophores and distribution of
Speaker 1: the pigmentation to be able to undergo this dramatic rapid
Speaker 1: color change. And their color can change not only based
Speaker 1: on sort of there you know position, their dominant position.
Speaker 1: It can also be based on temperature, season, mood. So yeah,
Speaker 1: these are these are the mood rings of the animal kingdom. Wow?
Speaker 1: And so does it come from it comes from like
Speaker 1: inside the animal as opposed to like an external uh
Speaker 1: thing making them change color? Yeah? Will it in their
Speaker 1: little hearts? Yeah? So it's I mean it's probably regulated
Speaker 1: with things like hormones that will trigger this this change
Speaker 1: in I mean you think about how like when you're embarrassed, right,
Speaker 1: you blush, and that is a physical change that happens
Speaker 1: on your body, but it is based on your your
Speaker 1: you get a sort of maybe a rush of adrenaline
Speaker 1: or something, and it makes you flush, it opens up
Speaker 1: the blood vessels. Now for these lizards, it's a different
Speaker 1: mechanism where it's not so much that they're they're blushing,
Speaker 1: as it is these these cells that will form the
Speaker 1: color on their skin will undergo sort of a structural
Speaker 1: change that changes how the light hits it, and it
Speaker 1: also can change these way that the pigmentation is distributed. Uh.
Speaker 1: These cells are called the chromatophores um. I don't think
Speaker 1: as much is known about how these specific lizards the
Speaker 1: mechanism works, but there are similar mechanisms that happen with
Speaker 1: say like chameleons, and that's how they can rapidly change
Speaker 1: their color. So it seems like it's probably a pretty
Speaker 1: similar mechanism. But yeah, it is is fascinating that a
Speaker 1: lizard can feel like like, oh, I'm I'm the king
Speaker 1: of the hell now, and so my face is going
Speaker 1: to be red. Yes, it is something where it is
Speaker 1: not necessarily that they're thinking through I'm going to turn
Speaker 1: red now, but it is a physiological change similar to
Speaker 1: like if you're maybe scared or like, uh, you're watching
Speaker 1: a thriller or maybe even listening to a piece of
Speaker 1: music where you can get goose bumps. So like, that
Speaker 1: is a physical change on your body that is occurring
Speaker 1: just from how you're feeling, which is kind of crazy
Speaker 1: when you think about it. Yeah, little guys feeling. It
Speaker 1: would be a lot easier to be a therapist if
Speaker 1: like your patients literally like turns the kind of colors
Speaker 1: that they were feeling, so you can be like, well, okay,
Speaker 1: so I see that your face is turning red, um,
Speaker 1: and your body is turning blue. So uh, not the
Speaker 1: cock off the rock. So before we go, we have
Speaker 1: to address a very important issue and that is the
Speaker 1: mystery animal sound from last week. Every week I play
Speaker 1: a mystery animal sound and you out there, the audience,
Speaker 1: and you the gifts try to guess who's squawking. And
Speaker 1: I give you a little hint because I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not mean, um, and you will try to guess who
Speaker 1: is making that sound. It can be any animal. It
Speaker 1: can be a fish, it can be a bird, it
Speaker 1: can be it can be a you know, a bear, anybody,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what, any animal. With that said, uh, I
Speaker 1: will play for you this sound that we played last week.
Speaker 1: And here is the hint. When you find out how
Speaker 1: this sound is produced. I'll bet I could knock you
Speaker 1: over with a feather, all right, where you're able to
Speaker 1: hear that little people? Yes, wow, Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: it was very relaxing. I felt like a spa. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: context clues. It sounds like it's any rainforest possibly type biome.
Speaker 1: Maybe mm hmmm like a toucan. No, okay, m hmm okay,
Speaker 1: that is my pick though, yes can. Well it's a
Speaker 1: very very interesting guess um that I'm not being I'm
Speaker 1: not being descending. But congratulations to chat Joey, Pete, and
Speaker 1: Mary Andy who all correctly guessed the club winged mannequin. So, Maggie,
Speaker 1: you're not so hard. You got the right general class.
Speaker 1: You get it's a bird, so you're not too far off.
Speaker 1: But no, this is not a two can. It is
Speaker 1: the club winged mannequins. So, um, it is much smaller
Speaker 1: than a two can. It's actually a relatively small um
Speaker 1: tropical bird. Uh. It has you So you did guess
Speaker 1: correctly that it is in a tropical forest. It's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a rainforest, but very similar. It's a cloud forest
Speaker 1: of central and South America. And speaking of redheads today,
Speaker 1: this little bird has at least the males have a
Speaker 1: bright red head. And they actually are not using their
Speaker 1: voice to make this sound. This sound is not coming
Speaker 1: out of their little beaks at all. It is using
Speaker 1: its feathers to make that little dude, what okay, you're
Speaker 1: right knocking over the feathers while how would you think
Speaker 1: a bird would make sound with their feathers, Maggie, Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. At one of there's some sort of
Speaker 1: like water on their feathers or some sort of like
Speaker 1: other elements on it to make that noise when rupped together,
Speaker 1: like some kind of like percussive uh. And glands, some
Speaker 1: glands the sound glands of the bird. Yeah, but it is,
Speaker 1: I mean, the confusion about it is legit because it
Speaker 1: is so strange, uh that it would be able to
Speaker 1: make this sound with its feathers and it it took
Speaker 1: a while for biologists even figure out that this was
Speaker 1: not a typical bird call from its syrinx the sort
Speaker 1: of the voice box of the bird. It is it's
Speaker 1: feathers being vibrated. So yeah, the club wing mannequin has
Speaker 1: these modified flight feathers that feature ridges, and they have
Speaker 1: another modified flight feather that is really stiff with this
Speaker 1: curved tip, so it actually works like yeah, like a
Speaker 1: like a washboard in a spoon. And they will shake
Speaker 1: these feathers at a rate of a hundred times a second,
Speaker 1: and that will produce that musical sound. They're shaking their
Speaker 1: tail feathers. They really are, I mean, technically it's actually
Speaker 1: their wing feathers, but you know, but yeah, it does it.
Speaker 1: Actually it kind of looks like it's shaking its tail
Speaker 1: feathers because to do this, it will actually kind of
Speaker 1: stick its butt up and then put its wings like
Speaker 1: kind of up behind itself. It's very cute and yeah,
Speaker 1: so it. But the weird thing is that in order
Speaker 1: to withstand such vigorous shaking, the mannequin has actually evolved
Speaker 1: solid bones. So, as you may know, birds actually have
Speaker 1: um hollow bones. Most birds that can achieve flight have
Speaker 1: hollow hollow bones um to allow them to be light
Speaker 1: enough to be aerodynamic. But the mannequin how to get
Speaker 1: rid of those hollow bones otherwise when it shakes its
Speaker 1: wings like a little Morocca and break its bones. So
Speaker 1: it actually is a really bad flyer, really clumsy and not.
Speaker 1: It has traded in its ability to fly gracefully for
Speaker 1: the ability to be a little a little little Morocca
Speaker 1: fair trade. I mean that that's pretty impressive. It is,
Speaker 1: and it's enough to impress the late club wing mannequins,
Speaker 1: and that is really all that matters. As long as
Speaker 1: they can survive predation and feed themselves. If they can
Speaker 1: impress the ladies enough, that means they will successfully reproduce,
Speaker 1: and this becomes a successful case of sexual selection. It's
Speaker 1: like me, I'm a I'm a bad driver, you know,
Speaker 1: but but he traded that in for my personality. And exactly,
Speaker 1: you can't have both. You can't be a good driver
Speaker 1: and I have a personality. They are mutually explusive anyone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So these birds are one of the only known non
Speaker 1: insects to use stridulation to produce sound like this. There
Speaker 1: are other non insects that do this, but yeah, they
Speaker 1: are rare insects. Often we'll do this like crickets. There
Speaker 1: are katie DIDs, um to kada's. A lot of insects
Speaker 1: use strigulation, but in terms of non in sect animals,
Speaker 1: vertebrates very rare. So this is a special, special bird.
Speaker 1: So now onto this week's mystery animal. Sound, Uh, this
Speaker 1: is that animal who's squawking. Guess who's spoken. So this
Speaker 1: week's hint is this is another redhead with legs that
Speaker 1: go all the way up. So Maggie, what do you think? Wow?
Speaker 1: I mean that could be anything from like Kasmanian devil
Speaker 1: to an older monkey in my mind. Uh wow, Actually
Speaker 1: maybe some sort of bear, maybe like a sun bear.
Speaker 1: They're kind of reddish. M hmm, all right, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be gonna go with that bad guess. Well, uh, you
Speaker 1: could be right or you could be totally wrong, but
Speaker 1: you will find out next week on the show next Wednesday. Uh.
Speaker 1: I love to leave a good cliffhanger. But Maggie, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today. Where can that
Speaker 1: people find you? This was so much fun. Thank you
Speaker 1: for asking me on this very austaciousous. I love that
Speaker 1: new word. Yes, you know what animal? New animals are
Speaker 1: invented all the time. Might as well invent some new
Speaker 1: words while right? Uh yeah, If you wanna see me
Speaker 1: inventing other new words, you can follow me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: which is just my name Maggie may fish um and yeah,
Speaker 1: also over on YouTube. I do some fun film analyzes
Speaker 1: and we just did one on twin Peaks. Were talking
Speaker 1: all about red lighting, so speaking of red hoods and
Speaker 1: don't they have like a red room in that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: These do, yes, yeah, very thematically linked. We actually do that.
Speaker 1: We do have a couple episodes um that cover animal documentaries,
Speaker 1: so well I'm gonna check those out. Let's get off
Speaker 1: this ding pod so I can check those out right now.
Speaker 1: Highly recommend Maggie's channel. Do check that out. And if
Speaker 1: you think you know the answer to this week's mystery
Speaker 1: animal sound, you can write to the podcast at Creature
Speaker 1: Feature Pod at gmail dot com. I'm on the Internet
Speaker 1: of the other locations as well on Instagram at Creature
Speaker 1: Feature Pod, on Twitter at Creature feet Pod. That's f
Speaker 1: E A T not FT. How did something entirely different? H?
Speaker 1: And thank you guys so much for listening to the show.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying it and you leave me or rating
Speaker 1: a review, I really do appreciate it. I mean, you
Speaker 1: could scream to the heavens that you like the show.
Speaker 1: That would be nice too, but the only way for
Speaker 1: me to know that you're liking the show is if
Speaker 1: you do leave a rating or review. And I do
Speaker 1: read them all and you know, hang them up, plaster
Speaker 1: my walls with them. Uh so, yeah, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: And thanks to the Space Classics for their super awesome
Speaker 1: song ex Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio.
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Speaker 1: me just be generous and say, wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: heck heck, wherever you listen to podcasts. See you next Wednesday.