WEBVTT - How Do Roadrunners Work?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.520
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:10.920
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam Here, I'm afraid that we've

0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.360
<v Speaker 1>got it all wrong about road runners. Close your eyes,

0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:18.480
<v Speaker 1>assuming you're not driving or something similar, and picture a roadrunner.

0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.840
<v Speaker 1>What do you see? A bird call and leggie like

0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.760
<v Speaker 1>an ostrich with a billowy blue tail. When it runs,

0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.599
<v Speaker 1>all you see is a pinwheel of legs and a

0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.400
<v Speaker 1>streak of dust. And it's constantly being pursued by one

0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:36.600
<v Speaker 1>wiley coyote named yes, wiley coyote, but always without exception escapes,

0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.479
<v Speaker 1>alas as entertaining as they are, Warner Brothers cartoons have

0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.080
<v Speaker 1>rarely been going for scientific accuracy. Real road runners don't

0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.760
<v Speaker 1>even say beep beep. Road Runners are unique among birds,

0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>though mostly due to their ability to rent it speeds

0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.440
<v Speaker 1>up to twenty seven miles or forty three kilometers per hour.

0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.040
<v Speaker 1>Most closely related to cuckoo and about the size of

0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.920
<v Speaker 1>a crow. The two species of roadrunner, the greater roadrunner

0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.760
<v Speaker 1>or geocockics California aus and the lesser road runner or

0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.320
<v Speaker 1>geocockyx Bellocks, are scrawny desert birds with long tails and

0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.640
<v Speaker 1>curved beaks, and they love to hang out on the ground,

0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.120
<v Speaker 1>despite the fact that it can get hot in the

0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.560
<v Speaker 1>deserts and shrublands of the southwestern United States, Central America,

0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.959
<v Speaker 1>and South America. Oh We spoke via email with Dean Ransom,

0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.440
<v Speaker 1>a wildlife biologist and roadrunner researcher in the Department of

0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:35.000
<v Speaker 1>Biology at Baylor University. He said road runners are quite

0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.679
<v Speaker 1>capable of powered flight, but they spend most of their

0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.720
<v Speaker 1>time on the ground. When they do occupy the trees,

0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.880
<v Speaker 1>they usually hop up to the lowest branch and hop

0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.440
<v Speaker 1>up to where they need to go. But it's the

0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.480
<v Speaker 1>terrestrial running habit that makes them somewhat unique. They're a

0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.360
<v Speaker 1>mid sized predatory bird that feeds on reptiles, insects, and

0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.880
<v Speaker 1>small mammals like field mice and rats. They chase down

0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.560
<v Speaker 1>their prey and then either kill it with strikes to

0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.880
<v Speaker 1>the head or grasp it by the tail and slam

0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.320
<v Speaker 1>it down on a rock for the killing blow. Road

0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.080
<v Speaker 1>Runners mate for life, but are normally pretty solitary otherwise.

0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.280
<v Speaker 1>They nest in trees and are prolific re nest ors

0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.359
<v Speaker 1>and meaning that if they lose their first nest predators,

0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:18.880
<v Speaker 1>they'll go right out and look for different real estate.

0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.240
<v Speaker 1>Ransom said. The road runners lay and hatch eggs asynchronous lee,

0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.760
<v Speaker 1>which means there will be noticeable size and age differences

0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.760
<v Speaker 1>among a brood of young roadrunners. In years of food scarcity,

0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.320
<v Speaker 1>the oldest young often eats one or more of its

0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.000
<v Speaker 1>younger siblings, and sometimes for the same reason, the adults

0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:43.520
<v Speaker 1>will eat their young to survive and breed another day. Brutal, yes,

0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.839
<v Speaker 1>but it's tough out in the desert, and roadrunners don't

0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.639
<v Speaker 1>get a break from it since they don't migrate, living

0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.120
<v Speaker 1>year round in the same stomping grounds. To deal with

0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.720
<v Speaker 1>the extreme heat of the days and the plummeting nighttime temperatures,

0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.960
<v Speaker 1>road runners employ a physiological process called copper in which

0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.920
<v Speaker 1>they lower their body temperature on cold nights to conserve

0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.959
<v Speaker 1>body heat and energy expenditure. In the mornings, when the

0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.880
<v Speaker 1>sun comes up, they bask in the sun to warm up,

0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.160
<v Speaker 1>putting on quite a display in the process. They turn

0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.520
<v Speaker 1>their backs to the morning sun and erect all of

0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:21.320
<v Speaker 1>their feathers, exposing black, pigmented skin underneath that absorbs heat.

0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.720
<v Speaker 1>Road Runners have feet in which two toes are pointed

0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.800
<v Speaker 1>forward and two toes are pointed backward. Scientists call this

0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:34.280
<v Speaker 1>a zygodactyl foot arrangement. It's not terribly uncommon in perching

0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.880
<v Speaker 1>birds like Swift's owls, woodpeckers, and the like, but it's

0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.320
<v Speaker 1>pretty unique in a bird that spends most of its

0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.920
<v Speaker 1>time hoofing around in the desert. It makes their tracks

0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.320
<v Speaker 1>look X shaped, which makes it near impossible to tell

0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.840
<v Speaker 1>which direction the bird was running in. These tracks have

0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.560
<v Speaker 1>captivated humans for millennia. The symbol of road runner tracks

0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.920
<v Speaker 1>has been used to ward off evil by some Pueblo tribes,

0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.440
<v Speaker 1>and stylized roadrunner prints have been identified an ancient Anasazi

0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.440
<v Speaker 1>and maga Yan rock art. In fact, road runners have

0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.040
<v Speaker 1>figured prominently in human stories up through the present day.

0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.120
<v Speaker 1>Pueblo peoples of New Mexico have a tradition of drawing

0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.720
<v Speaker 1>road runner tracks on the ground near the resting place

0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.320
<v Speaker 1>of a newly dead loved one in order to lure

0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.800
<v Speaker 1>evil spirits away from the soul as it makes its

0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.040
<v Speaker 1>way to the afterlife. Eating road runner meat has been

0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.800
<v Speaker 1>thought to bring speed by some Native American traditions, and

0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.039
<v Speaker 1>crossing paths with a roadrunner has been thought to bring

0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.479
<v Speaker 1>good or bad luck, depending on the direction of approach.

0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.280
<v Speaker 1>Early European colonists said that roadrunner tracks could lead a

0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.480
<v Speaker 1>lost traveler to a path, and of course, the road

0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.680
<v Speaker 1>runner of Looney Tunes fame is a somewhat magical and

0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.760
<v Speaker 1>certainly lucky figure. After all, how many times can of

0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.240
<v Speaker 1>hungry coyote try to murder you with Acme brand Rube

0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:59.839
<v Speaker 1>Goldberg machines and failed miserably many many times? It turns out.

0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.800
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by

0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.080
<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other

0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.359
<v Speaker 1>speedy topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff

0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:15.760
<v Speaker 1>is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts in my

0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.800
<v Speaker 1>heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:20.560
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.