Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show, it's a listener Questions episode.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, guys. It is twenty twenty five. Staying
Speaker 1: alive in twenty twenty five. I'm gonna answer some questions
Speaker 1: I have. I've got a bit of a backlog, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep doing some of these. I think next
Speaker 1: week will probably be a normal episode, but I might
Speaker 1: have yet another listener Questions episode to do in the future.
Speaker 1: Do keep sending them to me, though, I will keep
Speaker 1: answering them. If you have your very own questions you
Speaker 1: would like me to answer, either through email or on
Speaker 1: the show, you can write to me at Creature Feature
Speaker 1: Pod at gmail dot com. So let's get right into it.
Speaker 1: I had some really really interesting questions this time, so
Speaker 1: I'm super excited. Hi, Katie. I came across this Reddit
Speaker 1: thread on dinosaur ants. I find this fascinating and have
Speaker 1: the mental imagery of an ant in their finery being
Speaker 1: stripped down, thrown in a sackcloth smock, then tossed in
Speaker 1: the dungeon. I thought you might enjoy it too. Hope
Speaker 1: you're all in good health. Give Cookie a treat for
Speaker 1: me or regards Ronnie. So thank you so much for
Speaker 1: sharing this with me. The reddit post says, today I
Speaker 1: learned a high ranking dinosaur ant who challenges her queen
Speaker 1: but fails will be immobilized, publicly chastised for several days,
Speaker 1: join the working class, and lose all hope of ever
Speaker 1: ruling or reproducing. So this is really interesting. I believe
Speaker 1: that this probably comes from the study with the catchy
Speaker 1: title functional Morphology of the dufour gland and the queenless
Speaker 1: Ant Dinopone Nara quadriceps. Dinosaur Ants are a queenless species,
Speaker 1: meaning that they technically don't have a specific morphological queen
Speaker 1: that is born to be queen. However, there is a
Speaker 1: dominant alpha female who essentially acts as the queen of
Speaker 1: the small colony. She's the only one officially permitted to reproduce.
Speaker 1: The ants immediately ranked under her will sometimes be able
Speaker 1: to become the dominant female and reproduce themselves. It's actually
Speaker 1: quite similar to the social structure of say a meerkat colony,
Speaker 1: where you have sort of this quasi usocial situation so
Speaker 1: the worker ants can reproduce and are really only kept
Speaker 1: in line by the alpha females enforcers. Worker ants who
Speaker 1: can reproduce are called gammer gates, not to be confused
Speaker 1: with gamergate, the stupidest controversy to ever happen. So yeah,
Speaker 1: these are gammer gates. The dinosaur ant colonies are pretty
Speaker 1: small to other ant species, having tens instead of hundreds
Speaker 1: of individuals, so some of these individuals will try to
Speaker 1: reor surp the dominant female. Sometimes this is successful, like
Speaker 1: the female's ranks just below the alpha might stage a
Speaker 1: successful coup or take over her duties when she gets older.
Speaker 1: But occasionally the female's rank just below the alpha will
Speaker 1: try to lay an unfertilized egg that will hatch and
Speaker 1: become a male, and typically enforce her aunts will try
Speaker 1: to find these eggs and remove them before they hatch.
Speaker 1: If the alpha detects this behavior or encounters a challenger directly,
Speaker 1: she will mark the cheater with a pheromone sort of
Speaker 1: like an APB on this female who is trying to
Speaker 1: lay eggs, which triggers the female enforcers to immobilize the culprit.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting because she's kind of acting like a
Speaker 1: mob boss. The alpha does not need to directly engage
Speaker 1: in violence, but has her mobster like enforcers do the
Speaker 1: dirty work for her. So she's got a bunch of
Speaker 1: goons who goes and they will yeah, as the posts
Speaker 1: suggests that they'll physically restrain the female and discourage this behavior.
Speaker 1: So it is really interesting to see these dinosaur ants
Speaker 1: kind of behaving like an organized crime family. It's very fun.
Speaker 1: I would definitely watch a version of A Bugs Life
Speaker 1: where we see mob ants. I please make that happen.
Speaker 1: Next listener question, Hey Katie, I am training to become
Speaker 1: a groomer of dogs and right now I'm studying hard
Speaker 1: for my written exam. Well not right now, because I'm
Speaker 1: writing this email. And the chapter about parasites on dogs,
Speaker 1: there was a casual mention of a veterinarian who infected
Speaker 1: himself with Odecti's cinotus, or spider like ear mites. I
Speaker 1: tried to find his original journal on the subject, but
Speaker 1: unfortunately I don't have access to it. I think his
Speaker 1: name is R. A. Lopez and the title of the
Speaker 1: article is hilariously of mites and men. I thought the
Speaker 1: story might interest you. The host of many parasites. This
Speaker 1: is true. I would love to learn more about mites
Speaker 1: if you're ever interested to do an episode on them.
Speaker 1: I'm also hearing about dog's coats going through visible changes
Speaker 1: after neutering. I have seen cases of it in real
Speaker 1: life too. I know that it has something to do
Speaker 1: with hormonal changes, but I don't understand what the exact
Speaker 1: cause is. Is there any chance you could explain it
Speaker 1: a little. Thanks. I love your show and I recommend
Speaker 1: it to others all the time. Oh well, thank you,
Speaker 1: and this is from Meryl also shared a silly photo
Speaker 1: of their dog Candy for my enjoyment, and I did
Speaker 1: enjoy it, so thank you. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: sharing this with me. Of Mites and Men was an
Speaker 1: article written for the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical
Speaker 1: Association in nineteen ninety three by Ari Lopez and documents
Speaker 1: his incredible dedication to first hand research on spider like
Speaker 1: ear mites. So he was a veterinarian who intentionally infected
Speaker 1: himself with ear mites from a cat to see if
Speaker 1: they would take to a human ear He was inspired
Speaker 1: to do this when one of his clients brought in
Speaker 1: their ear mite infected cats that had very severe MTE infection,
Speaker 1: and the daughter of this family complained of feeling itchy,
Speaker 1: which went away after the cats were treated. So these
Speaker 1: are direct quotes from Ari Lopez about what he did
Speaker 1: to himself. So quote, I decided to be a human
Speaker 1: guinea pig. Immediately I heard scratching sounds, then moving sounds
Speaker 1: as the mites began to explore my ear canal. Itching
Speaker 1: sensations then started, and all three sensations merged into a
Speaker 1: weird cacophony of sound and pain that intensified from that
Speaker 1: moment on and on. At first, I thought this wouldn't
Speaker 1: and couldn't last very long. However, as the day and
Speaker 1: evening wore on, I began to worry the paritis, which
Speaker 1: means itching, was increasing. The sounds in my ear, fortunately
Speaker 1: I had chosen only one ear were becoming louder as
Speaker 1: the mites traveled deeper towards my ear trump So that's
Speaker 1: quite a colorful description. He apparently repeated the experiment three times,
Speaker 1: and for his forays into the field of very masochistic entomology,
Speaker 1: he received an Ignoble Prize, which is sort of a
Speaker 1: joke award for not necessarily bad studies, but very weird studies.
Speaker 1: And so he apparently read a poem about ear mites
Speaker 1: at the ceremony and then passed around dead bug samples
Speaker 1: to the audience. I was not able to find the
Speaker 1: poem about ear mites. If anyone knows where I can
Speaker 1: get a copy of that, please do send it to me.
Speaker 1: Would love that. His of mites and man paper has
Speaker 1: been cited numerous times in the entomology literature, so he
Speaker 1: is a true hero of entomology. He has since passed away,
Speaker 1: so otherwise I would definitely have him on the show,
Speaker 1: because man, what a fantastic idea. Just put some cat
Speaker 1: ear mites in your ear because you're brave and you're
Speaker 1: doing it for veterinary science. Incredible. All right, onto your
Speaker 1: next question about why dog coats might change after neutering.
Speaker 1: So dog coats going through changes due to hormone levels
Speaker 1: post neutering. Hormones also have a huge effect on hair
Speaker 1: and humans. Actually, so testosterone can both help grow body
Speaker 1: hair but also cause you to lose hair on your head. Likewise,
Speaker 1: androgen and estrogen levels can affect hair growth or cause
Speaker 1: disorders such as hair loss or alopecious. So it's really
Speaker 1: interesting because you can't necessarily say, like a hormone causes
Speaker 1: hair loss or causes hair growth. It's the levels of
Speaker 1: these hormones and the amount the hormonal cycles that can
Speaker 1: cause both hair gain and hair loss. And of course
Speaker 1: it also depends on the type of hormone determines where
Speaker 1: on the body you'll also get hair growth. So for dogs,
Speaker 1: what does the evidence tell us regarding neutering. It's a
Speaker 1: bit unclear actually, so that doesn't mean it's not a
Speaker 1: real phenomenon, but just that there's a lack of strong research.
Speaker 1: So coat changes, Okay, I did read this, which is
Speaker 1: coat changes in Castrated Bitches, a review of the literature,
Speaker 1: which is what it's actually called, because a bitch is
Speaker 1: a female dog. This is an actual term. I'm not
Speaker 1: being naughty here, So this is this review of literature
Speaker 1: failed to find strong evidence of coat changes following spaying
Speaker 1: due to a lack of research. However, there is a
Speaker 1: great deal of anecdotal accounts about coat changes following spaying
Speaker 1: or neutering, so vets that were surveyed in the UK
Speaker 1: do report coat changes to be a potential negative consequence
Speaker 1: to neutering. I still think neutering and spaying is worth it,
Speaker 1: because controlling the dog population is way more humane than
Speaker 1: trying to preserve coate integrity. I would say that I
Speaker 1: can't really find great research documenting this change, though. My
Speaker 1: guess is the reason it's really hard to find a
Speaker 1: pattern in dogs in terms of coat changes following neutering
Speaker 1: or spang is that breed and genetics means that the
Speaker 1: dog's response to neutering or spain is highly heterogeneous. Uh so,
Speaker 1: meaning that there are probably plenty of dogs who do
Speaker 1: not encounter cooat changes and plenty who do, depending on
Speaker 1: their breed, depending on their specific genetic makeup, maybe even
Speaker 1: depending on when the spang or neutering is done, what
Speaker 1: point in their life it's done. So, and the type
Speaker 1: of coat change may be different, so it's really hard
Speaker 1: to document a clear pattern. Like some dogs may experience
Speaker 1: some coat thinning, some might experience like a change in
Speaker 1: the code of change in the texture of their fur. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so like being able to document a clear pattern is
Speaker 1: probably quite difficult. But given the role that hormones play
Speaker 1: in hair growth in humans and other mammals, I think
Speaker 1: it is reasonable to assume that neutering or spain may
Speaker 1: have an effect on coat depending on the individual, and
Speaker 1: that it's likely due to the change in hormone production.
Speaker 1: Just as some individual humans may go bald, or have alopecia,
Speaker 1: or have thicker or thinner hair, or go gray earlier
Speaker 1: or later, which can all be affected by hormones, So
Speaker 1: hormones can have an effect on hair follicle size, and
Speaker 1: hair follicles can become smaller due to say, if there's
Speaker 1: like a high level of androgens or in men, or
Speaker 1: lower levels of estrogen and higher androgens in women, and
Speaker 1: those smaller hair follicles can then cause eventual thinning and
Speaker 1: then total loss of hair and some individuals. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I think it's definitely possible. Like if you notice
Speaker 1: a pattern of dogs coats changing after neutering, I think
Speaker 1: that that there really might be something there. But it's
Speaker 1: also kind of difficult because it could just be a
Speaker 1: change that would happen as the dog matures anyways, which
Speaker 1: you know, like it's sort of a timing thing, right,
Speaker 1: like you notter the dog and then later you notice
Speaker 1: this hair change. Maybe that was inevitable, but yeah, that's
Speaker 1: one of the difficulties of being able to prove that causality.
Speaker 1: But maybe there will be more studies in the future.
Speaker 1: I'll keep my eyes open for them. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean and certainly, like there's a lot of things you
Speaker 1: can do for your dog's coat if you want, if
Speaker 1: you're concerned about it. There's a lot of like nice
Speaker 1: sort of treats and things like fish skin and oils
Speaker 1: that you can give your dog that can improve coat quality,
Speaker 1: help reduce shedding, things like that. But again, it's going
Speaker 1: to be highly individualized, like some dogs respond differently. It's
Speaker 1: just you know, we have such a huge variety of
Speaker 1: types of dog coats that it's really hard to predict
Speaker 1: what's going to go on with your dog's coat. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you could always always look up resources for your specific breeder.
Speaker 1: If you've got a mutt like I do, just try
Speaker 1: in different treats, trying different diets and stuff and seeing
Speaker 1: what they like best and what makes them the softest
Speaker 1: and the happy. Hi Katie. Not a huge question. But
Speaker 1: on today's episode, you played the sound of a frigatebird
Speaker 1: and it sounded like one of those giant corrugated plastic
Speaker 1: tubes that they had in the eighties that you'd spin
Speaker 1: and they'd whistle. Worly tubes. I didn't know that's what
Speaker 1: they were called, but I remember them. But if you
Speaker 1: bent them, they had that hollow popping sound. Man, I
Speaker 1: loved those so much. I'm someone who likes to crack
Speaker 1: my knuckles, so like those little tubes, like bending and
Speaker 1: around cracking. Ugh, so good, now I want one. Anyways, Once,
Speaker 1: while paddleboarding on the Washington Coast, I saw a bunch
Speaker 1: of cormorants on a big booie. I could hear a
Speaker 1: very similar noise to the frigatebird, but only saw cormorants.
Speaker 1: Do cormorants always make also make that noise? It's very cool?
Speaker 1: Love the sh Anna, Thank you so much for this email. Anna,
Speaker 1: first of all, reminding me of that thing from the
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties, I used to play with those two.
Speaker 1: And also I love cormorants. They are one of my
Speaker 1: favorite birds to see all bird watching. Their names are
Speaker 1: really cool because they come from a Latin portmanteau for
Speaker 1: sea raven, which is just the coolest thing. They look
Speaker 1: really cool, they sound really cool. As you've observed, they
Speaker 1: do that wonderful behavior where they hold their wings out
Speaker 1: so to me, they look like goth ducks kind of
Speaker 1: combined with penguins, with long necks and those nice, long,
Speaker 1: slightly hooked beaks. They're usually sort of a either a
Speaker 1: dark brown or black. Sometimes they have like a white belly.
Speaker 1: They look really prehistoric to me, especially the great cormorant,
Speaker 1: which I highly encourage you to google a picture of.
Speaker 1: They're absolutely gorgeous. They look like these mohas wearing dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: I really love them. And they do that lovely basking behavior.
Speaker 1: They spread out their wings and the sun. Most likely
Speaker 1: it's to help them dry their feathers after diving, and
Speaker 1: it's really beautiful. It's one of those things like often
Speaker 1: when I'm bird watching aquatic birds, they may be quite
Speaker 1: far away and it's kind of hard to identify them,
Speaker 1: But when I see a bunch of sort of prehistoric
Speaker 1: birds out there with their wings unfurled, just kind of
Speaker 1: basking in the sun, then I know it's probably a cormorant,
Speaker 1: all right. So on to the sound. So, given that
Speaker 1: you're on the Washington coast, you probably ran into a
Speaker 1: branch cormorant who developed these beautiful blue goler pouches. That's
Speaker 1: the pouch right below their beaks during mating season only,
Speaker 1: so if it's not their mating season, they won't have
Speaker 1: these pouches. But during their mating season they do have
Speaker 1: those blue pouches, and they do indeed sound a bit
Speaker 1: like one of those corrugated plass stick tubes. So here
Speaker 1: is what they sound like. So yeah, a plus plus identification. Anna,
Speaker 1: I think you're you're spot on. Those are cormorants. You
Speaker 1: heard their calls. Uh. I. I don't know necessarily if
Speaker 1: they're brands cormorants. I would need a little more information,
Speaker 1: but very likely there's there might be a few other
Speaker 1: species on the Washington coast. But yeah, that fantastic find.
Speaker 1: If there are any other bird watchers out there and
Speaker 1: you are curious about what you have seen or heard,
Speaker 1: maybe I can help. Just send me an email at
Speaker 1: Creature feature Pod at gmail dot com and I'll try
Speaker 1: to help you identify your birds, solve you solve your
Speaker 1: bird mysteries if you have them. Onto The next listener
Speaker 1: question starts with this, dendarro gastridians. Have you seen this?
Speaker 1: This doesn't seem real. I have heard of the parasitic
Speaker 1: bartacles that take over crabs, but have you've heard of
Speaker 1: crabs that are parasites of starfish and look like corals.
Speaker 1: This blew my mind best Asher, and they linked to
Speaker 1: a YouTube video about the dendro Gestrata parasites. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much for this question. It is a really
Speaker 1: fascinating topic. I love parasites, as you all probably know
Speaker 1: quite well at this point. So dendro Gstrata is indeed real,
Speaker 1: so let's talk about it. It is an order of crustaceans,
Speaker 1: so it is in the same subphylum as crabs, but
Speaker 1: also lobsters, shrimps, woodlouses, so those are actually terrestrial isopods, copapods,
Speaker 1: and barnacles. That's right, So barnacles are also crustaceans, and
Speaker 1: Asher refers to the barnacle that is a parasite to crabs.
Speaker 1: This is sacculina. These are barnacles that parasitize crab altalia
Speaker 1: and cause males to start showing female behavior. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the bartacles are also crustaceans. They're very very distant cousins
Speaker 1: to the crabs that they target. Being cousins in the
Speaker 1: animal kingdom does not always get you special treatment. So
Speaker 1: dendro Gastrita are an order of animals remember it goes
Speaker 1: kingdom phylum class order, family, genus species. You can remember
Speaker 1: this as King phil came over for good soup. That's
Speaker 1: it's kind of a bad pneumonic but that's what I learned.
Speaker 1: I don't know why dendro Gaster is a genus of
Speaker 1: this order of parasitic crustaceans that have a branch like
Speaker 1: symmetrical structure and use c stars as hosts, so they
Speaker 1: take over the main body cavity of the sea star.
Speaker 1: If you dissected an infected c star, you might just
Speaker 1: assume that the structure was a weird organ or vein
Speaker 1: structure because it looks it does not look really like
Speaker 1: an animal. It looks like maybe a starfish's veins or something.
Speaker 1: But it's actually another animal taking advantage of the seastar
Speaker 1: as a home and feeding off of its nutrient supply.
Speaker 1: So yes, it's a very real animal. It's understudied, but
Speaker 1: it is really interesting. I would not say that dendro
Speaker 1: gasters are crabs, given that they are just as related
Speaker 1: to barnacles and copapods. Actually, when you look at some
Speaker 1: of the weirder copapod anatomy, who you know, these like
Speaker 1: a lot of copapods are also parasites. It makes a
Speaker 1: lot more sense that dendro gasters are also crustaceans. But yeah, still,
Speaker 1: dendro gasters are super, super weird. They do not look
Speaker 1: like animals. They look like some kind of weird organ
Speaker 1: and it's creepy to me how little we actually know
Speaker 1: about them. It's just really hard to study aquatic parasites,
Speaker 1: especially those who are hiding inside of starfish like little
Speaker 1: prizes inside living pinatas. Isn't that Isn't that fun? Good
Speaker 1: image there? Anyways, Guys, I really appreciate all these questions.
Speaker 1: They're fantastic. They force me to do research and look
Speaker 1: into things that even I might not know all that
Speaker 1: much about. So I really appreciate that helps me learn.
Speaker 1: I hope I've helped you learn. So yeah, send any
Speaker 1: question about evolutionary biology and animals to me at Creature
Speaker 1: Featurepod at gmail dot com. And I believe next week
Speaker 1: will be a regular episode. If not, it'll just be
Speaker 1: another listener questions episode while I do a little bit
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five catch up here. But yeah, welcome
Speaker 1: to the new year, everyone, New year, New Critters, got
Speaker 1: to keep going on exploring the Natural World with you
Speaker 1: guys getting infected with ear mites. Maybe don't do that.
Speaker 1: As cool as that guy was, I cannot end good
Speaker 1: conscience tell you to pour cat ear mites down your ear.
Speaker 1: It's not a great idea. We've already got that contribution
Speaker 1: to science. So pour something else down your ear, don't.
Speaker 1: I'm please. Your ears are so delicate and sensitive. Don't
Speaker 1: put anything in there except for this podcast. This podcast
Speaker 1: is very healthy to put in your ears, so keep
Speaker 1: doing that. Send me your questions to Creature Feature Pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. I will be back next Wednesday
Speaker 1: with more show on. Thank you guys so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the show, you leave a radio review.
Speaker 1: I appreciate every single one of them. They truly do
Speaker 1: health the show. And thanks to the Space Classics for
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Speaker 1: I Guess what where you you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: I don't judge you. I'm not your mother. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you what to do, except please don't put ear
Speaker 1: mites down your ear. It's gonna have a very predictable effect. Yeah. Anyways,
Speaker 1: see you next Wednesday.