Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your hosts
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show Urine for a great show, guys,
Speaker 1: because we're talking about all the wee wee that's fit
Speaker 1: to piss. So we are talking about animal pe studies,
Speaker 1: about animal urine, the amazing facts about We've got three
Speaker 1: we wei stars here, animals whose urine is either fascinating,
Speaker 1: super important to the environment, or just weird, just very
Speaker 1: strange pe if we are gonna go from one of
Speaker 1: the largest actually, no not one of the largest, the
Speaker 1: largest mammal in the world to a strange, fuzzy little
Speaker 1: grimlin that you've probably I've never heard of. Joining me
Speaker 1: today is my personal friend and co host of Secretly
Speaker 1: incredibly Fascinating with none other than wah, which is perfect
Speaker 1: grammatic French. Everyone, I'm so happy to have Alex Schmidt
Speaker 1: joining me today.
Speaker 2: Alex, hi d thank you for having me. This is
Speaker 2: so great, and especially I feel like most schools and
Speaker 2: biology class or whatever they they're probably teachers who cannot
Speaker 2: tell you about animal p right. There's probably districts or
Speaker 2: parents groups or something where they shut it off, cut
Speaker 2: it down.
Speaker 1: My arch nemesis, the PTA, always trying to stop.
Speaker 2: The Pta, the PTA ironically.
Speaker 1: Oh the irony. Yeah, so animal p is actually very interesting.
Speaker 1: And on this show we do like to discuss the
Speaker 1: sorts of topics that might seem a little bit too risque,
Speaker 1: too in a pro to be taught in biology class.
Speaker 1: And this is one of them.
Speaker 2: I all be we all bee.
Speaker 1: Everyone does it. It's not weird. And if you don't
Speaker 1: do it, you should go to a doctor a urologist
Speaker 1: because you need to do it. It's very important. You
Speaker 1: should be proud of yourself every time you pee because
Speaker 1: that's that's okay, that's biology, baby, and you did it.
Speaker 1: So Alex, we just got you know what we got
Speaker 1: like to in this life. There's so little we control,
Speaker 1: and one of the things we can control is going
Speaker 1: to the bathroom. And I think that's a sacred human right, Alex.
Speaker 1: We also do like a little side project on so
Speaker 1: our our show Secretly Incredibly Fascinating is on the network
Speaker 1: Maximum Fun and we actually just we just did a drive.
Speaker 1: We just did a drive for new members. So if
Speaker 1: any of you are listening to that, you also subscribed
Speaker 1: over there. Thank you for that, and that we have
Speaker 1: been funded for a show that we do called uh
Speaker 1: the Inspectors Inspectors, but I like to call it us
Speaker 1: PISS because it's US Postal Inspection Service, which spells US piss. Uh.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's not our fault.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but now we're talking about they piss because it's
Speaker 1: animals whose pe is really interesting? And I did this
Speaker 1: whole topic not because I'm a freak, but because I
Speaker 1: read some news about a new study on whale p
Speaker 1: none other than the majestic Blean whale. Uh So whale p.
Speaker 1: There is a lot of it, so that's one thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it turns yeah, makes sense, right, there's there's a
Speaker 1: ton of whale pea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't. I'm very excited to hear how this
Speaker 2: is measured, like how they measure the p from the whale.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe they're estimating, maybe there's a big cath
Speaker 2: in her.
Speaker 1: I believe it's estimates. I do not think that there's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't think they cat up the whales. No, there's
Speaker 1: not really a great way to study whales. I think
Speaker 1: it is based on the knowledge of like the size
Speaker 1: of say whale bladders and their capacity and the calculated
Speaker 1: rate metage of urination. So that's that's how they because yeah,
Speaker 1: whales are Actually it's funny because they're the world's largest mammals,
Speaker 1: so you'd think we'd know everything about them. They're actually
Speaker 1: very difficult to study because they're deep in the water
Speaker 1: and it's hard to get there, and they're so big.
Speaker 1: It's not like we can take a whale carcass to
Speaker 1: your nearest lab and study the entire thing. Like, yes,
Speaker 1: like parts of whales are studied, of course, but it
Speaker 1: is it's very difficult to study them, but we do,
Speaker 1: and and this is one of them, a new study
Speaker 1: called Migrating Baling Whales Transport high latitude nutrients to tropical
Speaker 1: and subtropical ecosystems by University of Vermont conservation biologists Joe Roman.
Speaker 1: At all. Basically, this is a paper Roman. Joe Roman
Speaker 1: sounds a little bit like Joe Rogan. I know, Joe
Speaker 1: Rogan wishes he was at the intellectual level of studying.
Speaker 2: Whale p you know, so uh really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so uh this is a study on
Speaker 1: whale pp.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: For the most part, they just I guess we're too
Speaker 1: embarrassed to put that in the title. So we're talking
Speaker 1: mostly about large baling whales. Other whales, toothed whales like
Speaker 1: orc as, they certainly contribute, but it is really the
Speaker 1: big boys, the blue whales, the humpback whales. Uh, these
Speaker 1: are huge players in the nitrogen cycle in the ocean
Speaker 1: because peepy urea has a lot of nitrogen in it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, and I don't and I don't know a
Speaker 2: lot about the nitrogen cycle, but I think also especially
Speaker 2: most dryings I've seen of it, it's on land, like
Speaker 2: the sky and the earth are doing it, you know,
Speaker 2: So it's cool to think about it in the sea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's it's something that we may not know
Speaker 1: as much about because it's in the ocean and it's
Speaker 1: maybe harder to measure. But yeah, absolutely, nitrogen plays a
Speaker 1: huge role in the same way that it plays a
Speaker 1: role in our soil right for growing plants. Nitrogen in
Speaker 1: the ocean supports a lot of life like algae, phytoplankton.
Speaker 1: It is important in terms of depositing nutrients to create
Speaker 1: a fertilizer for the foundation of the food chain, super important. So,
Speaker 1: and the way the specific way that baling whales contribute
Speaker 1: to this is not just by eating and peeing, it's
Speaker 1: by eating and peeing in a very specific migratory pattern.
Speaker 1: So uh, they end up moving nitrogen from icy cold
Speaker 1: polar regions, very very cold regions. And it's interesting because
Speaker 1: in these polar regions, actually the ocean is a lot
Speaker 1: more nutrient dense. You have things like you have things
Speaker 1: like a lot of krill. You have a lot of
Speaker 1: things for the whales to eat. Balen whales or filter feeders.
Speaker 1: They're the ones that have those things that look like
Speaker 1: broom bristles in their mouths. So they're not they're not
Speaker 1: really going after like say tuna or fish. They're going
Speaker 1: after krill. Santa ah man. You know if Santa's look
Speaker 1: really tiny or his little his little elves, maybe they'd
Speaker 1: get caught in there.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they go after like every piece of art
Speaker 2: of Santa. They have to include a scale drive where
Speaker 2: like there's that stensil of a human to show you
Speaker 2: he's also.
Speaker 1: Very comes down the chimney. No one's ever said how
Speaker 1: big Santa is. Maybe he's planktonic. Explain it and why
Speaker 1: we can't see him. They eat krill, which are these
Speaker 1: small shrimp like animals and UH, and they eat massive
Speaker 1: amounts of them, so they actually find more of them
Speaker 1: in these colder regions. And so what happens is they
Speaker 1: feed in these polar cold regions and then to mate
Speaker 1: and to breed, they actually move to warmer tropical regions.
Speaker 1: And these warmer regions it has plenty of life, but
Speaker 1: it's less nutrient dense than the polar regions. And so
Speaker 1: they actually live off of a lot of their blubber
Speaker 1: when they're in these uh, these more tropical regions. And
Speaker 1: as they're burning that blubber, they're using the energy stores
Speaker 1: and all that nutrition they gathered when they're in the
Speaker 1: polar regions and they're burning it off and they're producing
Speaker 1: a byproduct PE and so and that PEE is the
Speaker 1: byproduct u urea, which is loaded with nitrogen, and that
Speaker 1: urea helps to fertilize these tropical areas. So they're moving nutrients,
Speaker 1: UH and fertilizer from these polar regions into the tropical regions.
Speaker 1: And in what the long haul truckers, they are like
Speaker 1: long haul truckers, especially for P for P which I'm
Speaker 1: sure long haul truckers also appreciate the idea of just
Speaker 1: peeing where you are. Uh, I know they've got jugs,
Speaker 1: you know, depositing it on the side of the road.
Speaker 2: Fertilized plant get empty. Yeah, it's it seems like I'm sure.
Speaker 2: I'm sure. That's like day one of being a trucker.
Speaker 2: You fall into some kind of routine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have your you have
Speaker 1: your piss jug.
Speaker 2: They don't just use the diner with the sign that
Speaker 2: says eat at and ame of diner.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's uh, it's gotta be tough, man, it's
Speaker 1: gotta be I I have I have pea anxieties, so man,
Speaker 1: I would.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: I'd like to be a whale though, because no one
Speaker 1: would know except for the giant, except for the enormous
Speaker 1: warm spot. A single whale can actually pee out two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty gallons of pee a day. That is
Speaker 1: daily amounts. It's a lot of Wow, it's a lot.
Speaker 1: It's quite a bit. And so through their urine, their
Speaker 1: placentas and carcasses, whales release around three thousand, seven hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty tons of nitrogen into lower nutrient areas. So
Speaker 1: that's that's an incredible transfer of nutrients to these areas
Speaker 1: that need them. So it helps support these warmer areas,
Speaker 1: help support like you know, coral reefs, all the animals there, plankton, phytoplankton.
Speaker 1: It's a fantastic, a fantastic sort of boost to these ecosystems.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I have and I'm still hung up
Speaker 2: on just the idea too, that the colder parts of
Speaker 2: the ocean are denser in life. Like if you'd forced
Speaker 2: me to guess, I would have said the opposite. I
Speaker 2: would have imagined, like the ocean of the Equator is
Speaker 2: like a tropical rainforest. The ocean. You know, yeah, I
Speaker 2: guess it's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is very interesting because it's like you have
Speaker 1: these kind of like one thing that is true is
Speaker 1: that when you get very very deep in the ocean,
Speaker 1: then some nutrients, like the nutrient gradient is kind of
Speaker 1: more spread out. But then you have like these these
Speaker 1: hot spots of nutrients near thermal vents. But in colder waters,
Speaker 1: you actually do have a high density of things like krill.
Speaker 1: You have like a lot of tuna, you have a
Speaker 1: lot of these these sort of large groups of schooling fish,
Speaker 1: like a bunch of biomass. Part of that is the
Speaker 1: light cycle in these areas. So like even though it's colder, right,
Speaker 1: and you'd think like, oh, well then that would mean
Speaker 1: there's fewer animals there, you still have like a lot
Speaker 1: of energy that is contained within these waters.
Speaker 2: Cool. Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I always like to find out that we have so
Speaker 2: many mental pictures of habitats where we think nothing lives there,
Speaker 2: you know, like a sahara or just a black of
Speaker 2: ice with one polar bear standing on it. But no,
Speaker 2: it's full of life. It's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it is, it is. It is true
Speaker 1: that like polar bears do sometimes have a tough run
Speaker 1: of it because they're actually like on the land, so
Speaker 1: polar regions, like when you're on the land itself, because
Speaker 1: that is not very conducive to the growth of vegetation
Speaker 1: on the terrain. Yes, actually it's pretty tough. That's why
Speaker 1: things like penguins they go in the water to fish
Speaker 1: because there's not a lot of stuff like in the
Speaker 1: Arctic on or sorry, in the Antarctic for them to
Speaker 1: feed on on the land or in the Arctic. Certainly
Speaker 1: there's parts of the Arctic where a lot of animals
Speaker 1: like seals and polar bears will need to like go
Speaker 1: in the water, and then polar bears of course will
Speaker 1: go after the animals that are fishing in the water.
Speaker 1: It is really cool. This is a little more kind
Speaker 1: of like complicated science. But the way that the cold
Speaker 1: waters work is it encourages some sea mixing that can
Speaker 1: actually bring up nutrients that are sequestered in these like waters.
Speaker 1: So you have the system that like you'd think of
Speaker 1: course like that warm you know, it'd be easier for
Speaker 1: life to exist in warm waters. But it's a very
Speaker 1: kind of specific chemical thermodynamic process that churns up nutrients
Speaker 1: in the water, allowing you know, the smallest forms of
Speaker 1: life to thrive, and then you have this thriving food chain.
Speaker 2: Wow. Amazing. Yeah, yeah, just never you just never think
Speaker 2: about this stuff with the sea. It's all down there.
Speaker 2: And plus I have a phobia of sea creature. So
Speaker 2: I'm trying you do you do?
Speaker 1: Whales are fine? Okay, Well, I figured I figured this
Speaker 1: is I'm not intentionally trying to torment you on this episode,
Speaker 1: So there's no jellyfish.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Part of and part of my lore with my
Speaker 2: silly phobia is that if I can imagine it as
Speaker 2: a land animal, it's okay. Yeah, and whales. It's just
Speaker 2: some kind of like packetrm or elephants or something. It's fine.
Speaker 1: They used to be terrestrial animals. They used to be
Speaker 1: sort of these little deer like animals, and then they're
Speaker 1: just like, I'm tired of living on land. Man, too
Speaker 1: many taxes, so then they lost all of their limbs
Speaker 1: and wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: It is this complex the text cheets.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's these.
Speaker 2: Cons that they were like still too many taxes about.
Speaker 1: Off real offshore for tax holdings. Yeah, have you.
Speaker 2: Seen the tax bill in even the Cayman Islands? Forget it,
Speaker 2: I've going down there about in the Cayman Oceans.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The reason that whales migrate, right because like, well
Speaker 1: why not just stay in these polar regions because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of food there for them to eat, like krill,
Speaker 1: is that it's actually easier for them to keep their
Speaker 1: calves save and alive in these warmer waters. The calves
Speaker 1: can't swim as well, it keeps them safe from larger predators,
Speaker 1: and it also forced like it has they all kind
Speaker 1: of go into these regions to be in sort of
Speaker 1: a meet and greet area for mating. Because whale, really
Speaker 1: large whales some smaller whales like dolphins, which is a
Speaker 1: type of toothed whale actually, or orcas tend to be
Speaker 1: in groups right, like a pot of way of dolphins,
Speaker 1: but they're really big ones like blue why they're usually
Speaker 1: actually relatively solitary and they communicate over really long distances.
Speaker 1: That's why the whales song where it's like ooh, it's
Speaker 1: a method of communication over a very long distance. But
Speaker 1: the mothers and the calves hang out quite a bit.
Speaker 1: But otherwise you.
Speaker 2: Don't have like very good whales song. By the way,
Speaker 2: I can't just thing you.
Speaker 1: But so when they go to these tropical waters, it
Speaker 1: forces them into a more dense area and it makes
Speaker 1: it easier for them to find a mate. We honestly
Speaker 1: don't know that much about the largest whales and their
Speaker 1: mating practices, like blue whales, because it's hard to see them, man,
Speaker 1: they're in the water. You'd think that we would be
Speaker 1: able to because they're so big, but it's just like
Speaker 1: we don't. We can't just like hang out down there
Speaker 1: in a submarine waiting around for whales to get it on.
Speaker 1: So it's actually very rare that we observe it. And
Speaker 1: actually the one time we did observe it. I think
Speaker 1: in blue whales it was actually a two males, which
Speaker 1: was hilarious that like, we've weighed around really long time
Speaker 1: and then it just spits in the face of homophobes
Speaker 1: who don't understand that a lot of animals are gay.
Speaker 1: So I love it.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe it'll turn out that blue whales are just
Speaker 2: these wild pan sexuals, you know, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I wouldn't be wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like that that homosexual encounter was between many encounters
Speaker 2: among the kinds of whales.
Speaker 1: It really fits their vibe to be honest, that all
Speaker 1: that all whales are pant sexuals proved me wrong. So yes,
Speaker 1: so they they they move into these warmer waters for mating,
Speaker 1: which also means they actually leave behind, uh placenta, and
Speaker 1: that placenta also contains a bunch of nutrients, and that
Speaker 1: also contributes to the this nitrogen cycle. It contributes to
Speaker 1: the fertilization of these waters. They also each placenta waste, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: weighs hundreds of pounds.
Speaker 2: Concept has never crossed my mind in my whole life.
Speaker 1: There they're mammals, placential male Yeah, of course they got one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like three pounds. It is nutrient bomb or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's quite literally.
Speaker 1: Is it's probably around that, you know, like it's hundreds
Speaker 1: of depends depends on the species of whale, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hundreds of pounds. So yeah, and this study, uh,
Speaker 1: the study has shown that like whales are the main
Speaker 1: distributor of nitrogen to tropical waters that the uh, which
Speaker 1: is like extremely important for the whole the whole system.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: Yes, the studies lead author told the University of Vermont newspaper, quote,
Speaker 1: we call it the great whale conveyor belt, or it
Speaker 1: can also be thought of as a funnel because whales
Speaker 1: feed over large areas, but they need to be in
Speaker 1: a relatively confined space to find a mate, breed and
Speaker 1: give birth. And the University of Vermont newspaper titled the
Speaker 1: article on this, uh the whale p funnel, the Great
Speaker 1: Whale PA funnel. So that's that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Give that student their degree right now. They did it.
Speaker 2: They have nothing more to learn at the University of Vermont.
Speaker 1: Also also Ed Goodall, head of the Intergovernmental Engagement at
Speaker 1: Whale and Dolphin Conservation, told the National Geographic National Geographics
Speaker 1: Melissa Hobson quote, the ocean is spluttering along like an
Speaker 1: old car with rusty parts that aren't functioning properly. So
Speaker 1: you know, so basically we need we need.
Speaker 2: This whale peepe What what they saidis fying just the
Speaker 2: verb spluttering straight off of pee talk. I imagined like
Speaker 2: a difficult stream that's set on.
Speaker 1: Me drunk problem, A drunk whal.
Speaker 2: The urologist and a psychologist. Why I reacted.
Speaker 1: A drunk whale trying to aim for the ocean and
Speaker 1: somehow missing and somehow missing its hits Greenland instead.
Speaker 2: Right, Conservative American political officials scattering as this happens.
Speaker 1: Yet, god ah man, I would love it if the
Speaker 1: whales came to Greenland's defense just formed a great peak wall.
Speaker 1: So this process of whales distributing nitrogen with their pee
Speaker 1: used to be even more impressive. You know, we went
Speaker 1: through this whole I think we've talked about this on secretly.
Speaker 1: Incredibly fascinating for something I forgot which topic. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there used to be obviously a huge whaling industry, like
Speaker 1: around three million whales were killed in the twentieth century alone,
Speaker 1: drove their populations down enormously. Yes, and so given what
Speaker 1: we know about the nitrogen cycle. It's likely that this
Speaker 1: huge reduction in whale populations and ergo whale pe means
Speaker 1: that the density of life in the ocean is like
Speaker 1: a fraction of what it used to be in terms
Speaker 1: of like the because there needs to be this fertilization
Speaker 1: process for say tropical waters to be rich in life.
Speaker 1: So wow, right, it's a funny thing, right, Like whale
Speaker 1: p turns out super super important, just incredibly important. So
Speaker 1: when you see like a study and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: why are we studying whale p? This is why absolutely
Speaker 1: important to like all life in the ocean and therefore
Speaker 1: on Earth.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and all those news stories too, whenever they're
Speaker 2: like can you believe this topic is being studied, Like, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: there's probably a reason. Yeah, why would professional scientists just
Speaker 2: be goofing off but also working really hard you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? Yeah, like they either study something important
Speaker 2: or go home and cook or go on vacation a yeah,
Speaker 2: like they don't waste time and work super hard both.
Speaker 1: Yeah, life life on Earth is like a giant Jenga tower,
Speaker 1: and like you might look at one piece and it's like,
Speaker 1: whale P, how is this important? And you pull it
Speaker 1: out and the whole thing just like comes crashing down.
Speaker 1: It was all, yeah, it was all being held up
Speaker 1: by whale p guys.
Speaker 2: I also I also want to know how many people
Speaker 2: made some kind of little micro blog post, you know,
Speaker 2: ex Blue sky its atter ibat, like can you believe
Speaker 2: they're talking about whale p while that person was using
Speaker 2: their phone on the toilet? I want another savage because
Speaker 2: up too well.
Speaker 1: Or goshtern hypigrites. Yeah, yeah, so there we have it.
Speaker 2: Folks who would even think about this flesh?
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, well, you know, whale p
Speaker 1: it's extraordinary, doing a lot more for the world than
Speaker 1: some politicians, am I right?
Speaker 2: And I really didn't know how the ocean works. There's
Speaker 2: so much transit of calories and resources and energy whatever
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: I really like how you I really like how you
Speaker 1: describe them as pe long haul truckers that that's so apt.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, They're body is the what's it called the
Speaker 2: back of the truck where the stuff is.
Speaker 1: The the trailer the tractor. I'm also imagining them wearing
Speaker 1: the like mesh baseball hats with some like funny whale
Speaker 1: related pun like whale whale whale lookuta is and like
Speaker 1: they have like their fin has sort of the like
Speaker 1: a sexy lady whale, like it's a mudfla.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, instead of BUCkies, it's buck peas. There you go,
Speaker 2: that would be the gear. Do you know BUCkies stops.
Speaker 2: I guess that's certainly not in Italy, but it's only
Speaker 2: a southern US thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, i'll, i'll. I'm sure people from that region
Speaker 1: are laughing at your show so.
Speaker 2: Hard at buck peas, they can't stand it. They applause
Speaker 2: the show to yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they bust their guts right up at that joke. Alex.
Speaker 1: Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. I'm gonna take a
Speaker 1: quick break, and when we get back is more urine science.
Speaker 1: Hooray whoop. All right, Alex, So I'm just gonna I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna spit this right out. Chinese soft shelled turtles
Speaker 1: urinate through their mouths.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no for the questions, So Chinese soft shelled turtles,
Speaker 1: what are they? They are these sort of olive green,
Speaker 1: flat aquatic turtles with a relatively soft shell, long neck,
Speaker 1: and long pointed snoots. They are silly looking animals.
Speaker 2: I google the picture and the face is very muppet.
Speaker 1: It's very muppet. It looks like an alien muppet. And
Speaker 1: they do excrete urine out of their mouths. Now, they
Speaker 1: do have a kloaeca. The kloeca be the whole that
Speaker 1: does it all. In birds and reptiles and amphibians, the
Speaker 1: kloaca is it's like it's like our rectum and our
Speaker 1: urinary opening and all other openings down there combined into
Speaker 1: one magical hole.
Speaker 2: But yeah, if we had more of a grindset, we
Speaker 2: would have a cloaca. We would just knock it all out.
Speaker 2: It's like a four hour work week.
Speaker 1: But for all sufficient man, Yeah, yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like it's like we're doing all of these separate workflows
Speaker 1: and we could have it all go through a kloaca
Speaker 1: come on work flow. Yeah. But yeah, So these these
Speaker 1: turtles often, like you know, an animal with the kloaca,
Speaker 1: everything comes out of the kloaca, urine, feces, reproductive materials.
Speaker 1: But for these Chinese soft shelled turtles, they urinate mainly
Speaker 1: out of their mouths. Now, they can urinate out of
Speaker 1: the kloaca, but a lot of the important urrea extreme
Speaker 1: actually happens through the mouth. So they The way they
Speaker 1: do it is they take water into their mouth, kind
Speaker 1: of hold it there like you're swishing it, and then
Speaker 1: they spit it out back out into like the water.
Speaker 1: So usually they're like on land, they stick their head
Speaker 1: in a puddle. They take in the water, kind of
Speaker 1: let it soak there for a while, and then spit
Speaker 1: it back out. And when they're spitting it back out,
Speaker 1: it is with it comes a bunch of urea that
Speaker 1: they just excreted through their mouths.
Speaker 2: Weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the way they study it's.
Speaker 2: Super reverse of swallowing up pill Yes, like like first
Speaker 2: I need water or last I need water and then
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's a good metaphor.
Speaker 1: It's it's something is what it is alex Uh. The
Speaker 1: way these these scientists study these turtles is they like
Speaker 1: restrain them on land and then like had like pottle,
Speaker 1: like like a puddle of water or a bucket of water,
Speaker 1: and like the the turn is like, well it got
Speaker 1: a pee and like stuck its head in the water,
Speaker 1: held water in its mouth, and then when it spitted out,
Speaker 1: the researchers were able to measure that there was an
Speaker 1: increase amount of urrea in the bucket, so you know, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2: I guess yeah, And that's probably not too bad for
Speaker 2: the turtle because you got a pe.
Speaker 1: So they did lit the turtle peace, so that's that's
Speaker 1: always good, you know. Yeah, I'm sure the turtle is
Speaker 1: just a little mildly inconvenienced.
Speaker 2: Yea.
Speaker 1: So, like the lining of the soft shelled turtle's mouth
Speaker 1: transports urrea from the blood stream and it's able to
Speaker 1: kind of osmos out into the water. So it holds
Speaker 1: the water in its mouth. It has a bunch of
Speaker 1: urea that's in its mouth and it's able to be
Speaker 1: excreted into the water osmos into this water. They have
Speaker 1: all these sort of fingerlike projections in their mouths called
Speaker 1: pilla that facilitates this transfer. And the reason that they
Speaker 1: have such a like why not just pee? Why not
Speaker 1: just pee out the kloaca? Right, it seems simpler. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the reason they do it grinds it, Yeah, chloaca grindset.
Speaker 1: The reason they do it in such a roundabout way
Speaker 1: is the brackishness of the water in their natural habitat.
Speaker 1: So a brackish water is salty water. It's not as
Speaker 1: salty as sea water, but it's relatively salty, so in
Speaker 1: swamp they live in swamps and marshes, the water's a
Speaker 1: bit salty, so it's brackish because of this higher salt
Speaker 1: concentration than say fresh water. If they had to drink
Speaker 1: enough water to move urrea out into their urine, because
Speaker 1: like we drink a lot of water, and that helps
Speaker 1: facilitate us transporting waste products out our pea. So the
Speaker 1: water is running through our system basically helping us osmos
Speaker 1: all of these these waste products like urea, carrying it
Speaker 1: down through the body, through our kidneys into our bladder
Speaker 1: and we peel it out and that's the miracle of
Speaker 1: pea time. So with these turtles drinking all that brackish
Speaker 1: water means taking in a lot of salt. Now they
Speaker 1: have all this excess salt and they would have to
Speaker 1: deal with it somehow. So instead of having to deal
Speaker 1: with all that excess salt in order to facilitate urination,
Speaker 1: they've just like moved the urea excretion process from one end,
Speaker 1: the far end, to the front end where they they
Speaker 1: just swish the water in their mouth, let that let
Speaker 1: all the urea come out in that water in their mouth,
Speaker 1: and then spit it out. So those unique urea transporter
Speaker 1: proteins exist in the lining of the mouth, whereas it
Speaker 1: does not exist in the kidneys, which is really interesting.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. What a good reason to do it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, great, Yeah, they just they kind of like they
Speaker 1: solve this plumbing issue by like that, what if we
Speaker 1: switch the polarities of the pea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this, this is going to destroy the grind set
Speaker 2: Alpha success bro podcasts about how great kloacas are. I know,
Speaker 2: this is the kind of information they don't want out there.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm coming for Cloaca bros. And they know it.
Speaker 1: They're scared of it.
Speaker 2: Really, guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you might be wondering, well, why don't they just
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get rid of the excess salt.
Speaker 1: And in fact, this is the case for other turtles.
Speaker 1: Sea turtles use a different technique to deal with sea salt,
Speaker 1: the extremely salty waters, so they drink salt water all
Speaker 1: the time. They excrete the water through lachrymal glands, so
Speaker 1: they're crying. They cry out the excess salt. So you
Speaker 1: may see a sea turtle it looks like it's crying.
Speaker 1: You might think it's because of all the plastic straws
Speaker 1: in the ocean. No, it's because it has to excrete
Speaker 1: extra salt out in its tears, and this allows it
Speaker 1: to It's basically solving the same problem that the soft
Speaker 1: shelled turtle has in a different way, because evolution is
Speaker 1: not necessarily going to always arrive at the same exact
Speaker 1: solution to a similar problem, and sometimes that's because of
Speaker 1: different types of evolutionary pressures. Sea turtles obviously live in
Speaker 1: a different environment, they have a different method of feeding,
Speaker 1: they have more salt in their water, so these glands
Speaker 1: probably ended up being the best solution for them. But
Speaker 1: sometimes you can just have two perfectly good solutions for
Speaker 1: the same process for the same problem. Because yeah, evolution, Yes,
Speaker 1: if it works, it works, that's the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially it seems like evolution is that its most
Speaker 2: creative and lazily just do it. When it comes to holes,
Speaker 2: you know, well that hole will do that, done, trying
Speaker 2: done thinking. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We basically when you examine basically any organism, we are
Speaker 1: all tubes of varying complexities.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as long as the two functions, stuff goes in
Speaker 1: one and comes out the other, go out your sulf
Speaker 1: and animal.
Speaker 2: See that for this reason, I'm going to stop discriminating
Speaker 2: against sea sponges. All this time, I've been like, we're
Speaker 2: super different, but no.
Speaker 1: We just tubes, sea squorts and sea sponges. Just kind
Speaker 1: of like cut out all of the other nonsense.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna start letting sea sponges be customers in my
Speaker 2: business and hire my jobs and stuff. Yeah, it's time
Speaker 2: we're the same.
Speaker 1: I've learned of Rungebob is thrilled. All right, So we're
Speaker 1: going to take a quick break and when we are
Speaker 1: when we come back, we're going to discuss the most
Speaker 1: delicious smelling urine in the world.
Speaker 4: Code creature feature gets you, all right, So, uh, there
Speaker 4: is a critter out there, Alex who's urine smells like
Speaker 4: hot buttery movie theater popcorn.
Speaker 2: It's me, no, who is it? Gross?
Speaker 1: So and so we're actually staying in Asia. We're now
Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia. There is an animal. It peas relatively normally.
Speaker 1: It peas out of its urethra. It's a mammal, but
Speaker 1: it's urine smells like buttered popcorn. This is the binter wrong,
Speaker 1: otherwise known as the bear cat. It's found in Southeast
Speaker 1: Asian tall forest so it is a vivarid. This is
Speaker 1: the family to which civets, genets, and fosses belong. So, Alex,
Speaker 1: I want you to take a look at that that
Speaker 1: cute bear cat for a minute and just appreciate its
Speaker 1: scrungly appearance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say what you said the name.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm pretty sure there is one of
Speaker 2: the cute ones, and it is one of the cute ones.
Speaker 1: It's one of the cute ones.
Speaker 2: It's I forgot how cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're they're dark gray with orange eyes. They have
Speaker 1: this sort of like diamond shaped raccoon like face, long whiskers,
Speaker 1: rounded ears. They have this really thick, bushy, prehensile tail,
Speaker 1: and they're somewhat like stout and hefty, so they're not
Speaker 1: like long and noodlely. They're like they're solid bear like,
Speaker 1: but not as big as a typical bear. They weigh
Speaker 1: around forty to fifty pounds, which is about eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty two kilograms, with a body length of around thirty
Speaker 1: inches or eighty centimeters, and a tail of up to
Speaker 1: thirty five inches or seventy centimeters, so they have quite
Speaker 1: like their tail is about as long as their bodies.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love when you use the word scrungly because
Speaker 2: they are it's like a scrungly dark red panda. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a really cute animal. It's really great and they's
Speaker 2: very cute.
Speaker 1: They look like to me what I would think a
Speaker 1: realistic lorax would look like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, black and yes, yeah.
Speaker 1: Like a little scrungly guardian of the forest. They're active
Speaker 1: during both the day and the night. They just take
Speaker 1: a lot of naps, which man I relate. I feel
Speaker 1: like this isn't.
Speaker 2: So they're like newborn baby or me. Cool. Yeah, cool.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is probably what I naturally would
Speaker 1: do if if I didn't have to exist in society,
Speaker 1: like active at day at night, but just a lot
Speaker 1: of naps happening. They're omnivores, so they eat fruits, but
Speaker 1: they also prey on insects, small mammals and birds when
Speaker 1: they can get them. So you know, they're they're they're
Speaker 1: that's just those are just those are just a flying nuggets.
Speaker 1: So uh, onto their pea. It smells like popcorn and
Speaker 1: there's no way around it. It's just this isn't this
Speaker 1: is a famous uh sort of comparison. There is in
Speaker 1: fact a study on this particular phenomenon published in the
Speaker 1: Science of Nature by Duke University ecologist Lydia Green at All,
Speaker 1: which is called Reproductive Indocrine Patterns and Volatile Urinary Compounds
Speaker 1: of Arcticus binter Wrong Discovering why bear cats smell like popcorn?
Speaker 2: Cool? Yeah, yeah, I mean we both love popcorn. We
Speaker 2: talked about that on Yeah, and it's very tempting. I
Speaker 2: don't know, like, if I smell popcorn, I have to
Speaker 2: go home and have popcorn or have it at the theater.
Speaker 2: I walked past. There's a theater kind of down our street.
Speaker 2: It's it's trouble for.
Speaker 1: Me that smell the theater popcorn smell. I know. It's like,
Speaker 1: I know, like that butter is not like actual butter.
Speaker 1: It's some kind of strange corn amalgam. But man, do
Speaker 1: I want to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, whichever your lab scientist made it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like powerful. It's like some kind of like
Speaker 1: sunflower seed oil thing concoction made in a lab, and
Speaker 1: I can't get enough of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've evolved to mostly subsist on it. I don't
Speaker 2: really get a lot of other stuff.
Speaker 1: So the researchers found that bear cat peek contains two
Speaker 1: aceetyl one pyroline to a p which they believe quote
Speaker 1: is likely to be responsible for the bentong's characteristic popcorn aroma.
Speaker 1: So okay, Essentially, what happens is the bentrong peeps, but
Speaker 1: they're scrungly, right, they're really fluffy, Their tails are super fluffy.
Speaker 1: What happens is some of that peepee gets soaked into
Speaker 1: their fur. If you have a fluffy dog, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a problem sometimes where or a real fluffy cat,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes that ppe goes where it's not supposed
Speaker 1: to go, which is either in the litter box or
Speaker 1: on the ground. But for the bentterong, this is a feature,
Speaker 1: not a bug, and so some of it sticks to
Speaker 1: their tail fur and it gives them that popcorn aroma.
Speaker 1: And the theory about why why do they they smell
Speaker 1: so good and delicious through their disgusting peepee is that
Speaker 1: it is a sexual signal of reproductive readiness, because like,
Speaker 1: the males have a higher concentration. So the idea is
Speaker 1: it's like some sort of like reproductive signal for the females.
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, look, you know, but they're not sure
Speaker 1: we're not exactly sure why they have this odor, but
Speaker 1: given whenever there's like a difference between the sexes, that's
Speaker 1: a hint that it could be something to do with reproduction,
Speaker 1: with like competition or trying to attract a mate. That's
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily the case. There can be sexual dimorphism
Speaker 1: that is not necessarily related to sexual reproduction. But so
Speaker 1: often is that the case that it's a good guess.
Speaker 2: It's almost more fun if it's not for anything sexual.
Speaker 2: It's just for love of the game. When it comes
Speaker 2: to pcorn, you know, just.
Speaker 1: Like so they can get into movie theaters and have
Speaker 1: sort of fanks just blow past that counter, yea aroma camouflage.
Speaker 1: They wear little popcorn suits and they sneak in so
Speaker 1: they can watch our movies.
Speaker 2: Right. That one nineteen year old in the Simpsons with
Speaker 2: the primitively ready voice is like, he's probably staff just
Speaker 2: lets him in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So researchers are really on the case about why
Speaker 1: do these cute little animals smell like delicious popcorn? It's
Speaker 1: their pea, And no, I don't think it tastes like
Speaker 1: it smells, so don't try it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess a lot of it there's no
Speaker 2: way to know this. A lot of animals probably like
Speaker 2: corn is what I'm imagining. So it's probably exciting to
Speaker 2: the bent rupt right, Like it's probably romantic to them
Speaker 2: in a way, it's not to us. I've always just
Speaker 2: a exciting.
Speaker 1: I've always said that corn is romantic.
Speaker 2: It's the most sensual of the Midwestern grains, for sure.
Speaker 2: So I bean's all business corn. Yeah, we're getting down.
Speaker 1: Exactly all right. So before yeah, print that out, have
Speaker 1: your name forever tied to that sounds good to me. Ah,
Speaker 1: before we go, I would like to play a little
Speaker 1: game called Guess Who's squawking? The mystery animal sound game
Speaker 1: game every week by you're squawking' it's it's Alex Schmidt's.
Speaker 1: Last week's mister Annilsund was this. I don't mean to
Speaker 1: bring religion.
Speaker 3: Into this, and let me play it for you, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Alex?
Speaker 1: Beautiful, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Really didn't expect that sound?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I ignore that.
Speaker 2: You said you don't want to bring religion into.
Speaker 1: It, said, I don't want to bring religion into it?
Speaker 2: Is it? Is it? Easter bunny stuff, Easter bunny stuff.
Speaker 1: It's a good GISs, very good guess I know.
Speaker 2: It's the passover wound bat.
Speaker 1: It's the Australian easter bilby. No, I'm kidding. Sorry, it
Speaker 1: sounded really exist. I know it does exist. The Australian
Speaker 1: easter bimby does exist. Sorry, not bimby bilby. Uh. It
Speaker 1: is a sort of rabbit like looking marsupial animal. The
Speaker 1: rabbits are invasive, so in Australia they have a campaign
Speaker 1: to turn the bilby. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: what a bimbi is. That that's just a made up word.
Speaker 1: But they want to turn the bill be into sort
Speaker 1: of Australia's version of the easter bunny, because the bill
Speaker 1: b is actually endemic to Australia, whereas the rabbit is invasive.
Speaker 1: But this is none of that. So this this sound.
Speaker 2: Boobies also look like that marsupial and dune that they
Speaker 2: call polytrdes too, So that's fun.
Speaker 1: Yes, I understand that very well. Yes I've seen no
Speaker 1: so this sound. The one that sounds like an Internet
Speaker 1: dial up is the capuchin bird, named after capuchin monks
Speaker 1: because it has a bald head. It is a tropical
Speaker 1: bird found in South America. You might think it's this
Speaker 1: beautiful bird with glorious colors. It's it's not so it
Speaker 1: has a bald head like a vulture. It's got this brown, fluffy, down,
Speaker 1: feathery coat. They look very strange, very ugly, but their
Speaker 1: call is apparently quite attractive to their their counterparts, female counterparts.
Speaker 2: It's so weird. They're like very feathered and a really
Speaker 2: lovely orange color, a lot of it. But then their
Speaker 2: head specifically looks like that plague mask guy. Yes, so
Speaker 2: like it's really pretty until the head.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, oh oh okay, yeah, that's so stark.
Speaker 1: Yeah yep. Well yeah, that's.
Speaker 2: The good monastic pull. There's a lot of monks. That's
Speaker 2: a fun one.
Speaker 1: All right, So onto this week's mister Animals sound. The
Speaker 1: hint is this, this little rock dweller is just saying hi,
Speaker 1: all right, you got any guesses?
Speaker 2: That was even better than the that's what Rocketoiler's saying. Hi.
Speaker 2: One of like, besides Bison, one of my favorite animals
Speaker 2: is elephants, and I feel like I period that fact
Speaker 2: that they really had a one time.
Speaker 3: And some.
Speaker 1: Alex you are so smart. That is absolutely correct. In
Speaker 1: order to make it fair to the listeners, one of
Speaker 1: the game no, because I have technology. This is pre recorded,
Speaker 1: so I will bleep out just the part where you
Speaker 1: say the name of the animal. But Alex gave you
Speaker 1: a free hint there, which is that it is the
Speaker 1: latest two Elephants. So there you go. Uh, fantastic job, Alex.
Speaker 1: I am super compressed. Thank you, amazing.
Speaker 2: And they had my childhood zoo the actual answer, So
Speaker 2: that's the other fantastic.
Speaker 1: But don't worry. Everyone will know, everyone will know you're right,
Speaker 1: and you will be sent this. You'll be sent this
Speaker 1: week's UH prize, which is a box full of rocks.
Speaker 2: Oh but I wanted the special pee.
Speaker 1: And a vial of bin wrong key to pour on
Speaker 1: your popcorn. Oh God, that I mean, I mean myself
Speaker 1: grossed out. I grossed myself out, Alex.
Speaker 2: I have I have received popcorn through the mail, so
Speaker 2: I would if you sent me that, I would think
Speaker 2: it's one of those like carrots tubs or the nuts
Speaker 2: on Clark in Chicago or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, please don't, please don't send Alex pee covered bear
Speaker 1: cat pee covered popcorn. That would be very bad. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: although yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's against the rules. I don't know the rules,
Speaker 2: but I'm as it's.
Speaker 1: Against the rules that I just made right now, which
Speaker 1: is don't send Alex bearcat pee on popcorn. Alex, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today. Where can people
Speaker 1: find you? What kind of projects? What kinds of projects
Speaker 1: do you do with I don't really, I'm not, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I invited you on and I'm not really
Speaker 1: familiar with your body of work. So if he could
Speaker 1: do it to all the people? What what? What? What?
Speaker 1: What do you do?
Speaker 2: Just the funniest, increasingly bisified face. That's great. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: so glad your co hosts SIF with me because it
Speaker 2: makes the show great.
Speaker 1: Really incredibly fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, secretly incredibly fascinating. So I hope people check it out.
Speaker 2: And I assume a lot of listeners here know it already.
Speaker 1: If they don't, it's a secret.
Speaker 2: This show is amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm winking, and this is the sound my wink mace.
Speaker 2: Dis place in the uh yeah, what's it called? The
Speaker 2: balls bird? Capuchin bird? There we go.
Speaker 1: Now, Alex does a fantastic job on that show. He
Speaker 1: does all the research, teaches me things every week. I
Speaker 1: never like I always have something to talk about at
Speaker 1: awkward parties. Which has saved my life. My social life
Speaker 1: is saved because of Alex. Like I can be at
Speaker 1: a party I don't know what to talk about, and
Speaker 1: because he teaches me all these incredible facts about things
Speaker 1: I can be like, h do you know that w
Speaker 1: D forty has a secret recipe that's in San Diego,
Speaker 1: which is where I was born? And everyone loves me
Speaker 1: now I'm I'm the bell.
Speaker 2: Of the ball and I get that from mostly listening
Speaker 2: to this show sometimes casting. So it's cool that we
Speaker 2: both get to do that, preaches, So please do.
Speaker 1: Check that out secretly incredibly fascinating. I am on there
Speaker 1: every week with Alex and guys, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. If you're enjoying the show and you leave
Speaker 1: a rati or review, it really helps me and encourages me.
Speaker 1: It keeps me going in the way that whalu'reine keeps
Speaker 1: tropical regions of the ocean going. And thanks to the
Speaker 1: Space Cossics for their super awesome song. Ex Alumina. Creature
Speaker 1: features the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like the
Speaker 1: one you just heard, visit the iHeart Radio ap Apple
Speaker 1: of Gold, cast a right here or rah I'm leaving
Speaker 1: that take in, dammit. Listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or hey, guess what, wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: See you next Wednesday.