Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, we're talking
Speaker 1: about cheeky cats from lynx Is that refused to be
Speaker 1: the missing links to extinct cats. Who ask if that's
Speaker 1: a tooth in your pocket? Or if you're just happy
Speaker 1: to see me? Discover the more as we answer the
Speaker 1: angel question. You can pick your friends, you can pick
Speaker 1: your cats, nos, but can cat pick their friends out
Speaker 1: of a police lineup? Yeah? Joining me today is comedian
Speaker 1: Cat Lover and the Jeff part of Tom and Jeff
Speaker 1: Watch Batman. Jeff May welcome. Hey, well it's me, It's
Speaker 1: Jeff May. It's It's watched Batman. I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: be here. I also studied evolutionary biology when I was
Speaker 1: in college. Really, that's awesome. I did. I was a
Speaker 1: bio minor even though I was a history and education major,
Speaker 1: and my advisor got mad at me for wasting my money.
Speaker 1: We have very similar back stories then, because I did
Speaker 1: psychology as my major and evolutionary biology I gotta study
Speaker 1: Tartar grades and I got to study the human brain
Speaker 1: at the same time smart, Like, what are you going
Speaker 1: to do with those two things? My whole college plan
Speaker 1: was just like I like people and animals and I
Speaker 1: want to learn everything about them. And you know, surprisingly
Speaker 1: that's maybe not the best career choice, just to be
Speaker 1: genuinely curious about the world. But they didn't know about
Speaker 1: podcasts back then either, So here we are it was
Speaker 1: it was not on our radar. Boy, did we accidentally
Speaker 1: tumble into an existence that somehow became mildly lucrative. Yes,
Speaker 1: science education, it's the way to uh, to just keep
Speaker 1: learning yourself. That's my dirty little secret is that this
Speaker 1: podcast is a secretly away for me to continue learning
Speaker 1: about things. And one thing that I love learning about
Speaker 1: I I love kiddies. I gotta admit it. I do
Speaker 1: have a dog, but I grew up with cats, and
Speaker 1: I just I just love cats. I love every single
Speaker 1: cat on the planet. Their attitude, their whole deal, I'm
Speaker 1: all about it. I love them. They're they're very bold existence.
Speaker 1: They they see because they have that like too good
Speaker 1: for it vibe, but then they're also very needy at
Speaker 1: the same time, and that to me, like you get
Speaker 1: to see the microcosm of life in that with a cat.
Speaker 1: Cats just like I can do this on my own
Speaker 1: and then but also you need to open that can
Speaker 1: for me or and I love that. I love that
Speaker 1: about them. They're strong but vulnerable, and I yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that about them. Today we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: just that juxtaposition of the strength and the whole our
Speaker 1: ability of cats and the the The one I want
Speaker 1: to start with is this wonderful story of the Iberian Lynx.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, do I mean, I guess in
Speaker 1: l A you probably do see some bobcats right occasionally.
Speaker 1: I know, like according to next door, there's a mountain lion.
Speaker 1: Mostly coyotes, but there's uh, there's a like mountain lions
Speaker 1: are like our big our main export export is that
Speaker 1: it we're just shipping them off the Seattle, the exporting
Speaker 1: mountain lions. Yeah, no, I mean the San Gabriel Mountains
Speaker 1: near near l A does have mountain lions. And there's
Speaker 1: I forgot his name, like it might be P twenty four.
Speaker 1: He's that mountain lion. He's our neighborhood mountain lion. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I live in the shallow valley. Yeah, and everybody's like
Speaker 1: I found him he's like a celebrity out here. It's
Speaker 1: like it would be like seeing like, oh I I
Speaker 1: saw you know Becca do Mornay. I saw her at
Speaker 1: the Vaughans. Everyone's just like, oh, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: I saw twenty four, who was walking behind the Vons. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well when I lived in l A, I did see
Speaker 1: Patton Oswald. Um. I it's a hard call though, between
Speaker 1: seeing p twenty four and seeing Patton Oswald. Like, I
Speaker 1: love them both, but you know, god, I wish I
Speaker 1: could have seen two. The Lion doesn't have a Grammy.
Speaker 1: That's I mean rude first of all to make this
Speaker 1: a competition Grammy competition, But yeah, I mean the Lion
Speaker 1: does deserve a Grammy. A little background on on this
Speaker 1: Mountain Lion. He is this scrappy individual who is basically
Speaker 1: because humans have split up the uh natural habitat with freeways. Uh,
Speaker 1: this this guy has kind of like he's in this
Speaker 1: like little island surrounded by freeways, and he is a
Speaker 1: an amazing intrepid survival story in terms of just like
Speaker 1: how he's managed to keep going when he's sort of
Speaker 1: like isolated in this way. Yeah, he's it's the mountain
Speaker 1: lion version of that book Hatchet, you know, any one
Speaker 1: of those, like the Call of the Wild, he should
Speaker 1: be it should be the Call of the civilized. Or yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's a he's a good dude. And uh. And
Speaker 1: he does venture up to the burbank North Hollywood area
Speaker 1: quite often because that is sort of where he is trapped. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do like that he is respected, like a respected
Speaker 1: member of the community, because it's it's worse when like
Speaker 1: you have a wildcat who is a budding civilization and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh man, this this this cat is scary
Speaker 1: and I don't want it near me. And it's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know what, maybe he's he's a little gentleman
Speaker 1: that you should welcome. Maybe not with he's by you,
Speaker 1: but you know, yeah, no, you give him a wide berth.
Speaker 1: He's Angeline. That's who he's the He's like that, like
Speaker 1: that l a celebrity whose existence is just because they exist,
Speaker 1: they are that celebrity. And I love that for him.
Speaker 1: I like and I like a cat. I like a
Speaker 1: good cat, you know. And uh, and we have good
Speaker 1: access because California, you know, because you're like California, you
Speaker 1: guys got this kind of we we have all the animals,
Speaker 1: every animal. It's I mean for being such a like
Speaker 1: California's thought of you know, you think of like l
Speaker 1: A and these very dense urban environments, but uh, there are.
Speaker 1: It is an incredibly bio diverse state. It's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have uh, a Ralph's and a vans. Which one
Speaker 1: does do the mountain lions prefer? H Yeah? I think
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned the vons, So I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to maintain comedic consistency in that one. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I mean California is huge. I was. I performed in
Speaker 1: Eureka not too long ago, and it was it was
Speaker 1: just you forget that the state is so big that
Speaker 1: it has literally everything. Yeah, and I'll have family back
Speaker 1: on the East coast or like, do you make it
Speaker 1: up to San Francisco a lot? I'm like, do you
Speaker 1: drive down to Baltimore all the time. They're like, no,
Speaker 1: that's way far away. I was like, yeah, that's exactly
Speaker 1: the distance. It's huge. Yeah, it's because it's like one state.
Speaker 1: We think of it as being small, but having it's
Speaker 1: such a huge territory, of course you're going to have
Speaker 1: this like massive range which makes it difficult both for
Speaker 1: humans and animals to traverse all those freeways. Yeah, one
Speaker 1: of my favorite places to go. I'm really excited about
Speaker 1: what you're bringing here because one of my favorite places
Speaker 1: in l A to go is the Librea tar pits Um,
Speaker 1: which is weird because it seems like a one and
Speaker 1: done kind of a trip, but I go there all
Speaker 1: the time. I like the smell, which is weird. It's
Speaker 1: a objectively bad smell, but I like it. It's like gasoline.
Speaker 1: There's something very tempting about that smells. Me just want
Speaker 1: to touch the guitar, Like, Yeah, how would I do
Speaker 1: with your targets? Oh? Not so good? Not so good?
Speaker 1: But new TikTok challenge is going to be like thetbrea
Speaker 1: tar pits Can you get out? I don't challenge. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a very yes, that's a very apprescient thing to
Speaker 1: talk about, because we are going to talk about um,
Speaker 1: some big cats that have gone extinct that we're around
Speaker 1: the Librea area. But first let's talk about a cat
Speaker 1: that is actually a different, very different region in southwestern Europe. Um.
Speaker 1: It is similar to cats you'll find in California and
Speaker 1: in the rest of the United States. The bobcat. Now
Speaker 1: you're probably familiar with the bobcat. Those are those cute cats.
Speaker 1: They're wildcats, but they're not huge. They're bigger than a
Speaker 1: house cat. They're about the size of like a dog.
Speaker 1: They have that adorable little stubby tail. They're kind of spotty,
Speaker 1: those pointy ears of the little ear toughs and those
Speaker 1: mutton chops. Yeah, they look like Wolverine. Yes, not the animal,
Speaker 1: but the guy, the fake the fictional character Wolverine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like he's kind of compact, but he's strong. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's strong but mighty. So you know. The Iberian lynx
Speaker 1: is similar in appearance to the bobcat, but different. So uh,
Speaker 1: it's found in southwestern Europe. It is related to the
Speaker 1: Eurasian lynx, the Canada lynx, and the bobcats. So these
Speaker 1: are the species of lynxes in the world. And it's
Speaker 1: thought that the Iberian lynx shared a common ancestor with
Speaker 1: the Eurasian lynx, and that the Eurasian lynx actually used
Speaker 1: the bearing Land Bridge to cross over into North America
Speaker 1: and basically became both the bobcats and the Canada lynxes.
Speaker 1: So yes, eised, yeah, but can't see your hand there
Speaker 1: needs to be like a sound for your hand raising
Speaker 1: in a podcast like who oh I did it specifically
Speaker 1: because it makes no sound, but I didn't want to interrupt. Well,
Speaker 1: I've solved that problem for you, which we have. We
Speaker 1: have exacerbated the problem, how fault Like when we say
Speaker 1: common ancestor, I mean, isn't it like how far back
Speaker 1: do you have to go? Because wouldn't they all technically
Speaker 1: have a common ancestor it's a cat, because it would
Speaker 1: have to be. There has to be some sort of
Speaker 1: evolutionary spot where you're like, well, this is where you
Speaker 1: start measuring where ancestry is common, because then we're always
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, aren't we all that fish that walked
Speaker 1: out of the water. It's actually yes. I mean like
Speaker 1: both the fish that we started out as and a
Speaker 1: primate that we started out those would both be common ancestors.
Speaker 1: It just it's basically every time you step back you
Speaker 1: will find another common ancestors. So you zoom in enough,
Speaker 1: the smaller the time scale, usually like you'll have a
Speaker 1: smaller group of species all sharing a common ancestor, So
Speaker 1: like the lynxes all share a common ancestor that other
Speaker 1: big cats do not share. They might share common ancestor
Speaker 1: with Wolverine. I mean that's what I tell myself when
Speaker 1: I want a little bit of an ego boost, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, me and Wolverine we share a common ancestor.
Speaker 1: So you know what, me and Lebron James are like
Speaker 1: evolutionarily basically the same person, essentially the same. So like
Speaker 1: when I put like forks between my fingers, it's not
Speaker 1: you know, it's not a pathetic cosplay. It's actually, you know,
Speaker 1: me sharing a common ancestry with It's correct, is what
Speaker 1: it is. Well, speaking of Wolverine, the mutton chops, we
Speaker 1: have to talk about them because the Iberian lynx, even
Speaker 1: though it's similar to the bobcat, it is the differences
Speaker 1: are very clear when you look at it. It is
Speaker 1: a stunning looking animals. So bobcats are really cute. They're
Speaker 1: kind of they've got these round, fluffy faces with these
Speaker 1: cool side burns. But I Buring lynxes are much more
Speaker 1: sharp looking, the more europe angular. Yeah, they yeah, they
Speaker 1: have sort of this. Their mutton chops are longer and
Speaker 1: more pointed. They look like, uh yeah, they just look
Speaker 1: a little more debonair. I don't know, how else to
Speaker 1: describe it. They are sleeker, even though they have the
Speaker 1: same pointed ears and sort of spotted coats. They're leaner,
Speaker 1: they're taller, uh, and they're longer than the bobcats. So
Speaker 1: they're kind of like the bobcat's cool European cousin, which
Speaker 1: it's like if you put a Bobcat and a pencil sharpener,
Speaker 1: which we don't recommend on this podcast, but we don't
Speaker 1: try because the standard North American bobcat that we think of, like,
Speaker 1: it's a very pettible looking cat, whereas this one looks
Speaker 1: like a knife, but like a very cool yeah, like
Speaker 1: like it wouldn't surprise me to see this cat having
Speaker 1: bottle service at a club. Yes, you know, it kind
Speaker 1: of reminds me. It's like the difference between Move Fossa
Speaker 1: and Scar. I always thought Scar was very cool looking.
Speaker 1: I didn't approve of, you know, the whole like brother
Speaker 1: murdering thing, but you know, he was a cool looking cat.
Speaker 1: Sorry about your high horse caves. Some of us are
Speaker 1: fine with fraud side. Okay, actually, I think including Bob
Speaker 1: cats so h because if I remember correctly, I believe
Speaker 1: sometimes the offspring do fight each other to the death.
Speaker 1: But anyways, the Iberian links uh It is I think
Speaker 1: a stunningly beautiful cat um, but it almost went extinct
Speaker 1: starting in the twenty century with the usual suspects over hunting,
Speaker 1: habitat loss, but even more deviously, uh It's main prey,
Speaker 1: rabbits had their population decimated by disease. And you might
Speaker 1: be thinking, like, finally something that is not humans faults. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say, uh still our faults. So what
Speaker 1: happened is um with rabbits. There is a disease, a
Speaker 1: virus called mixomatosis, and it was actually released by humans
Speaker 1: to coll the rabbit populations in the nineteen fifties in
Speaker 1: both France and in Australia. Now in Australia they have
Speaker 1: a little bit of a better excuse. Rabbits are invasive,
Speaker 1: but in France, rabbits are a natural part of the environment.
Speaker 1: It's just that they were considered pasts and so they
Speaker 1: let this disease run rapit decimate the population, which is
Speaker 1: a problem for like a few reasons. One is, you
Speaker 1: probably shouldn't just release a virus into the wild and
Speaker 1: let it run its course. What movie are you making
Speaker 1: here where they're just like you know we should do,
Speaker 1: is we should make a virus that will absolutely mutate
Speaker 1: and wipe us out exact. I mean that's like I
Speaker 1: think that's how Resident Evil happens. Yeah, where we tried
Speaker 1: to I mean, yeah, we we introduced a virus I
Speaker 1: think to primates in that movie. But yes, so it
Speaker 1: could become a zoonotic disease and kill us all um.
Speaker 1: But you know, the most likely thing to happen is
Speaker 1: it just decimates this rabbit population, which innovent itself is bad.
Speaker 1: First of all, rabbits are an important part of the ecosystem.
Speaker 1: They're cute and adorable, uh, and they are have a
Speaker 1: massive impact on the other species of animals that live
Speaker 1: with them, namely, uh, they're predators, like the Iberian lynx.
Speaker 1: We think of things like a predator and prey as
Speaker 1: being at odds with each other because they are, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to kill each other or only only one person
Speaker 1: believes that only one only one half of that of
Speaker 1: that interaction believes the at odds aspect. The other one
Speaker 1: thinks great, I think it's just great. Well, yeah, so
Speaker 1: we think they have this adverse serial relationship, which is true,
Speaker 1: but they also rely on each other. So like if you, uh,
Speaker 1: if you don't have the rabbit population, obviously the Iberian
Speaker 1: lynx is population is going to suffer tremendously. But on
Speaker 1: the other hand, predator species are also important for prey
Speaker 1: species because they do actually help keep their populations at
Speaker 1: a sort of a maintenance level naturally without just introducing
Speaker 1: a huge disease. And actually by having predator interactions with prey,
Speaker 1: as long as everything is in balance, it can keep
Speaker 1: that prey from succumbing to something like disease. Um. So
Speaker 1: in this case, the fact that humans decided to you know,
Speaker 1: just like introduce a disease to these rabbits, miant that
Speaker 1: we decimated the Iberian lynx population. And so the Iberian
Speaker 1: Lynx dwindled to under a hundred individuals. Uh, so they
Speaker 1: were very close to extinction. Wow. Yeah, that's a that's
Speaker 1: a what some would say if you're ever talking about
Speaker 1: a population and that's the number you're going for. That's
Speaker 1: like an old mining town population ten years after the
Speaker 1: gold like went out, which I can actually imagine like
Speaker 1: an old mining town population of bob cats, like you know,
Speaker 1: wearing hats. Yeah, yeah, hello, dear, Yeah, the one too. Yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: Bob's great, That's that's where we got that from folks
Speaker 1: true story. So, uh, but this is not where the
Speaker 1: story ends. So they did not go extinct like some
Speaker 1: other cats we're going to talk about later. The Iberian
Speaker 1: Lynxes are not quitters. Uh. They are making a comeback
Speaker 1: now with the help of conservationists, of course, but they
Speaker 1: are also incredibly intrepid, wonderful creatures. Oh, there have been
Speaker 1: conservation efforts breeding the lynx in captivity, but ultimately it
Speaker 1: is the Iberian lynx is refusal to die that has
Speaker 1: paid off and meant that this reintroduction has been a success.
Speaker 1: So after the captively bred lynxes were released, they have
Speaker 1: shown incredible resilience living amongst humans and rebituating to their habitats.
Speaker 1: So an example of how these lynxes are able to
Speaker 1: like survive in in their limited habitat and like really
Speaker 1: managed to kind of sneak their way around humans is
Speaker 1: there have been these recorded examples. One was a lynx
Speaker 1: hit her newborn cubs in a house while the owners
Speaker 1: were throwing a house party. I mean that's pretty amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: i mean it's like that's so that's like you just
Speaker 1: crashed a house party. Yeah, and had your babies, put
Speaker 1: your little babies in there. Yeah, they're like playing beer
Speaker 1: pong over or they don't even notice you are giving
Speaker 1: birth to a bunch of endangered lynx. Is probably wine pong.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, it is Europe. Yeah, it's probably a
Speaker 1: bunch of wine pong. And then whenever you score, they
Speaker 1: go hold instead of ha ha ha. They all do
Speaker 1: the French. Does anyone smell some Iberian lynx after birth?
Speaker 1: It's like, no, that is my stinky cheese. That You're
Speaker 1: all cartoons. They are all cartoons. I'm sorry for you
Speaker 1: got webbits. I'm sorry all of France. You all literally
Speaker 1: sound like that. I will not apologize to France. And
Speaker 1: they know what they did. They know what they did,
Speaker 1: and I mean they're probably honestly more offended by the
Speaker 1: idea that their cheese smells like lynx after birth. That
Speaker 1: is what I'm going to get the hatmail about, not
Speaker 1: the offensive accent. So another linx named Milvius, which I mean,
Speaker 1: great name, first of all, good job conservationists. But Milvis
Speaker 1: repeatedly robbed a rabbit research facility. He jumped over the
Speaker 1: chain link fence and started just snatching these rabbits. Uh,
Speaker 1: and just like used this research facility as his own
Speaker 1: personal rabbit grocery store. I mean, that's that's a good move.
Speaker 1: It's good work if you can get it. Honest, there's
Speaker 1: there's his praise. That is the that's the dominoes of
Speaker 1: of sort of that experien where he said it's gonna
Speaker 1: have to work. It's just basically getting delivered for him. Yeah. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: make the humans work for them, which I think is fair.
Speaker 1: You know, we like we have a miacopa, right, we
Speaker 1: have an our bad with the whole disease, all the
Speaker 1: rabbits and see if that works out. Okay, And now
Speaker 1: the links is like you know what, hey, look, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna take some of your rabbits. You having your
Speaker 1: research facility, and what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah, they all have makeup on Uh. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I think this may have been a less well actually,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was one of the cause.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was a cosmetic research facility, but
Speaker 1: if it was even doubler, props to these lynxes. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: like you're you know, you're really sticking it to Loreale.
Speaker 1: That's French, right, this is the perfect solution. Let's get
Speaker 1: rid of of, you know, cosmetic testing on rabbits because
Speaker 1: we don't need it. But those linkses do need those bunnies, uh,
Speaker 1: and so you know, turn them into links grocery stores
Speaker 1: for the for you know, win win it's it's literally
Speaker 1: a win win situation. I mean even for the even
Speaker 1: for the rabbits, because I can guarantee becoming a Lynx's
Speaker 1: dinner is probably better faith than being in a cosmetic
Speaker 1: research lab. Actually probably definitely. H there's zero percent chance
Speaker 1: that that's not the case. So conservationists have also tried
Speaker 1: to make freeways safer for the lynx Is by installing
Speaker 1: under passes, which are tunnels for the lynx Is to
Speaker 1: walk through, and the links Is immediately picked up on
Speaker 1: what these conservationists were laying down and learned to use
Speaker 1: them good links, job links, secret links, tunnels. They love
Speaker 1: it and they I love I love that aspect about
Speaker 1: where they're like, yeah, well they're like working with it,
Speaker 1: like you see a links with a hard hat on
Speaker 1: being like, yeah, we're gonna need it a little bit
Speaker 1: wider here. Sometimes my party babies need to come through
Speaker 1: here with me, and they do a wide walk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got one of those those levels, you know, with
Speaker 1: the little bubbles and then just like sort of shakily
Speaker 1: holding out up with his pausing. I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is structurally sound. Have you checked? Yeah? Yeah? Are
Speaker 1: we going to do this? What's our what is what's
Speaker 1: our sediment here? What's our sediment level? Here's gonna settle properly?
Speaker 1: Are Yeah? Yeah, I mean there are so there are
Speaker 1: a lot of animals that we try to sort of
Speaker 1: have conservation with who are very fussy, um through no
Speaker 1: fault of their own, they just like have very specific
Speaker 1: evolutionary niche. They are very difficult to reintroduce to the wild.
Speaker 1: But these Iberian lynxes are on it. They are so
Speaker 1: they are so ready. They look crafty. Yeah, they're like
Speaker 1: put me in coach, Yeah, yeah, they're they're ready to go.
Speaker 1: It's a utility cat, yes, yeah. Yeah. And in fact,
Speaker 1: so they have gone from less than a hundred individuals,
Speaker 1: like under ninety individuals to over a thousand in the
Speaker 1: wild US A lot of parties to crash. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I I have a lot of hope for them. I
Speaker 1: am really hopeful about this story. And I'm I'm just
Speaker 1: so happy that these guys are out there robbing labs.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful. Good job, sharp kitty. Yeah, they really are
Speaker 1: like Wolverine when he started that movie about stealing the bread.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, bread stealing Wolverine. Yeah. Alright, So we just
Speaker 1: talked about the Iberian lynx that is clawing its way
Speaker 1: back from near extinction, and now we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about some big, bad cats that we're not so lucky. Um. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about the LaBrea tart pits. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think is sometimes surprising
Speaker 1: to people is like that, you know, you had these incredible,
Speaker 1: huge animals like mammoths, you know, just hanging out in
Speaker 1: l A. Yeah, they're really big guys. I love them
Speaker 1: so much. Also, in l A you would get things
Speaker 1: like saber tooth tigers. I'm so excited about it. So
Speaker 1: we have this particular perception of sabre tooth tigers as
Speaker 1: being you know, like these huge lion like animals that
Speaker 1: had these two huge saber teeth. You know, the more
Speaker 1: we learn about them, the more interesting the picture gets.
Speaker 1: Because we have these fossil records of these these big
Speaker 1: cats that look like saber tooth tigers. And then as
Speaker 1: we examine them, and there there are many different species
Speaker 1: of animals that could be considered saber tooth tigers. Um,
Speaker 1: we get a clear picture of what they were, what
Speaker 1: the different species were, and what was going on. And
Speaker 1: some of them, it turns out, aren't even cats. Um.
Speaker 1: So right, it's so it's really fast. Yes. So uh first, uh,
Speaker 1: not all sabretooth tigers just lit their things hang out.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about only the cool ones letting it
Speaker 1: all hang out. Yeah, the cool the cool bad boy
Speaker 1: of the saber tooth tiger kingdom. Yeah. Actually, you know,
Speaker 1: the Homothereum is a genus of lion size saber tooth
Speaker 1: tigers that it went extinct about twelve thousand years ago,
Speaker 1: and they were found all over the world from the
Speaker 1: America's to Africa, and they did indeed, they were imperialists.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what that means. Let's call
Speaker 1: them cosmopolitan that that that that is fair, That that works. Also,
Speaker 1: I would like to add before we continue that for
Speaker 1: the people that are listening that are wondering why we're
Speaker 1: not making wolverine saber tooth jokes, I want you to
Speaker 1: know that we recognize that saber tooth is Wolverine's arch enemy.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna keep moving. Yes, we both recognize that.
Speaker 1: We both knew that for sure. Yeah, that's all we
Speaker 1: talked about before recording exactly. I was the lore of
Speaker 1: Marvel comics, Wolverine. I will stay I know the lore
Speaker 1: of Marvel comics deeply, and I'm not just saying this
Speaker 1: so I won't get emails. It's absolutely true and I
Speaker 1: don't need to learn anything else about it. So that
Speaker 1: let's move on. Let's prevent that from the from the
Speaker 1: inbox there, let's pull that out. So yeah, so the
Speaker 1: Ethereum saber tooth tigers was specific species of saber tooth tigers,
Speaker 1: and they had those giant things. And originally we thought
Speaker 1: that these things just kind of like stuck out um.
Speaker 1: But a new research they may have actually politely tucked
Speaker 1: in their fings into lower lip pouches. So researchers observed
Speaker 1: the ways that lions yawned and that their fings would
Speaker 1: fit into their lower lips. Uh, and they made calculations
Speaker 1: based on the homothereums the specific species. Actually, there are
Speaker 1: multiple species of Homothereum, but this specific species homothereum Lattidin's.
Speaker 1: They had this like mouth structure that researchers were able
Speaker 1: to examine, and they realized that there's actually room and
Speaker 1: these lip pouches for them to fit their things. So, uh,
Speaker 1: how polite a polite little teeth purse. Yeah, there's also
Speaker 1: it's interesting it seems like they also had these cute
Speaker 1: little bob tails, so they kind of looked like big
Speaker 1: bobcats instead of like big toothy lines. Could they be
Speaker 1: the missing links? I'm so sorry. Now that's a good one.
Speaker 1: I kind of walked right into that, just like a
Speaker 1: lot of these saber tooth tigers walked right in the
Speaker 1: little bread tarpets. Oh roasted boot Oh no, those are
Speaker 1: so good. They make me want to smile lad on nice.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the smile add on, the smile add On
Speaker 1: is a genus of saber tooth tigers where their teeth
Speaker 1: actually did stick out all goofy like like a big
Speaker 1: old smile. I legitimately thought that the smile add on
Speaker 1: was named that because of the way the teeth was
Speaker 1: ye like this big old smile d on. The largest
Speaker 1: saber tooth did have teeth truly so big that they
Speaker 1: couldn't fit them in their lip folds, and they kind
Speaker 1: of stuck out like these big silly daggers. And this
Speaker 1: is where it gets really interesting, because you look at
Speaker 1: this little bob tailed homothereums and you look at the
Speaker 1: smile ad On and you think, Okay, the smile Don
Speaker 1: has these huge things, these huge just like these big daggers.
Speaker 1: It's got to be taking down the bigger prey, the
Speaker 1: tougher prey, because it has this much more fearsome looking
Speaker 1: mouth and the polite smaller homothereum. They must have been
Speaker 1: a little more you know, taking down smaller prey, a
Speaker 1: little more coy about it. Yeah. Yeah, But in fact
Speaker 1: the opposite is probably true. So the smile Adon, despite
Speaker 1: having larger teeth in size, it didn't go after the
Speaker 1: toughest prey. It probably preferred to prey on things like
Speaker 1: deer or tape ears rather than chase down large bison. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it had a weaker bite force than modern cats.
Speaker 1: That makes sense actually, right. Yeah, The technique used was
Speaker 1: just using those big old things that it had as daggers,
Speaker 1: and so you know, it only needed so much bite force.
Speaker 1: Basically stab an animal in the neck with its dagger
Speaker 1: teeth and take it down. But it wouldn't be very
Speaker 1: good for taking down something really big and tough like
Speaker 1: a mammoth or a bison. Yeah, it's like getting stabbed
Speaker 1: one time versus thirty times with like the smaller teeth.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be like, yeah, that's probably gonna do a
Speaker 1: lot more damage in the in the long run. Well,
Speaker 1: so this is what brings us to the home ethereum,
Speaker 1: which didn't have those. It had larger things than like
Speaker 1: a modern day lion, but they weren't sticking out and
Speaker 1: they were smaller. They look, you know, they had that
Speaker 1: little bob tailed me a little cuter, but they would
Speaker 1: take down larger prey than the smilodon uh, such as
Speaker 1: young mammoths and mastodons and bison, and its jaws were
Speaker 1: perfect for grabbing, holding and tearing through tough flesh, so
Speaker 1: it could grab onto something, you know. Those those big
Speaker 1: things did help it like get a hold on it
Speaker 1: and then it would tear big chunks off. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we've who's we've all been there. When you sit down
Speaker 1: with your mammoth, I always say, you know, cheer your
Speaker 1: mammoth or else you're gonna choke on it. Yeah, cheer
Speaker 1: your mammoth in massive chunks. Yeah. Yeah, it's called a
Speaker 1: mass to dawn because you've gotta masticate a lot because
Speaker 1: it is Yeah, like that, that was very good. This
Speaker 1: is a cave caveman dad humor. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: dad humor. Has been around since we were caveman. So
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm in, I'm in. That's why I go
Speaker 1: down to my man cave. So we have this clearer picture, right,
Speaker 1: So we have different kinds of saber tooth tigers. We
Speaker 1: had the smile it On that was like sort of
Speaker 1: the archetypical saber tooth and it's big teeth sticking out,
Speaker 1: but it actually went after smaller prey than the ones
Speaker 1: that didn't have those teeth sticking out. Um. But there
Speaker 1: is another thing that seems like a saber tooth tiger
Speaker 1: but is not at all a saber tooth tiger, and
Speaker 1: that is the bi Lacos Smillests. That is a honker
Speaker 1: of a name. Thi Lacco Smelless was once thought to
Speaker 1: be a genus of big Cat. Indeed, they looked like
Speaker 1: a saber tooth tiger. They lived in South America and
Speaker 1: went extinct around three million years ago. Yikes, So it
Speaker 1: probably did not overlap with a smile on or the homothereum. Uh.
Speaker 1: In fact, it wasn't even a cat, despite looking very
Speaker 1: cat like, so was in fact a landfish is what
Speaker 1: we call them, which actually, you know, when you think
Speaker 1: about it, aren't all mammals just land fish don't, isn't it? Like?
Speaker 1: I always think about the evolution of whales as being
Speaker 1: the weirdest form of that biological evolution because they were
Speaker 1: like wolves basically. Yeah. So first they were least tiny,
Speaker 1: like deer like animals, the whales, and then they turned
Speaker 1: into like a weird alligator otter. H it's like semi aquatic,
Speaker 1: horrifying looking cross between a crocodile and an otter. And
Speaker 1: then it turned into sort of a weird, almost hippo
Speaker 1: like thing, and then it started to turn into the whale.
Speaker 1: So it went from the sea to the land back
Speaker 1: to the sea. Yeah, it's a crazy glow up. So,
Speaker 1: but Dilaco Smillis was not a cat. Despite seeming like
Speaker 1: a cat, it sadly never had a glow up either.
Speaker 1: It just remained funky until it went extinct. It had
Speaker 1: these large saber like canines, and not only that, but
Speaker 1: a bone structure on their lower jaw that supported the canines,
Speaker 1: which looked like long scabbard shaped curved double chin, so
Speaker 1: it looked like jay Leno's chin. But take that cleft
Speaker 1: and probably have like basically just two chins coming out
Speaker 1: that heard about this my two chins that holds my big,
Speaker 1: my big saber teeth. Yeah. Yeah, So basically these chin scabbards,
Speaker 1: they didn't completely sheathe the teeth. It partially protected them
Speaker 1: from damage. But it's thought that like one side probably
Speaker 1: did stick out, and it had a cat like tail,
Speaker 1: it had claws, and it was about the size of
Speaker 1: a jaguar. But researchers realized that this was not a
Speaker 1: cat at all, but actually a close relative to the marsupials.
Speaker 1: It was a sparacodont. Okay, I'm right, see what we
Speaker 1: got going on here? Science. I always love that. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite jokes is the Jim Gaffrigan seahorse joke
Speaker 1: where the scientists where he's like, yeah, that's the female seahorse.
Speaker 1: He's like it's having babies, and he's like that's the
Speaker 1: male and he's like having babies like the male has
Speaker 1: the babies just making stuff up when they're like that
Speaker 1: that's a that's a fish. Now that was that was
Speaker 1: a fish. Yeah, I will admit it does seem like
Speaker 1: pile just are just kind of making things up as
Speaker 1: they go. But really they're just discovering new things as
Speaker 1: they go. There are rules. Although this this thing, the
Speaker 1: dilacto smellss uh. It feels like it's made up. It's
Speaker 1: breaking every rule. I mean, Jeff, just just look at
Speaker 1: a picture of it. I I also recommend everyone else
Speaker 1: look at a picture of it because you really just
Speaker 1: you have to look at this thing's face and really
Speaker 1: question everything about life and existence. Yeah, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: not mad about it. We're gonnat. I'm a fan. Like
Speaker 1: that's what I want out of my animals, is I
Speaker 1: want them to look stupid. Yeah. So it's got this
Speaker 1: like really long like double chin that just like is
Speaker 1: supporting this long tooth. And we know it has this
Speaker 1: because it's like it's bone. It's made out of bones,
Speaker 1: so it survives in fossil evidence. Uh, And it has
Speaker 1: such a bizarre anatomy and paleo illustrators have just gone
Speaker 1: wild with different interpretations of this, Like some look like
Speaker 1: basically a lion, just with a huge pointy jay leno chin. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some looks like kind of like a bonkers Tasmanian devil. Again,
Speaker 1: like all of these have the weird chin, Like the
Speaker 1: one of them, it just looks like nuts. It just
Speaker 1: looks like nuts. There's no way to get past it.
Speaker 1: Can google it. You're gonna come across the pictures. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be like that is nuts. One has interpreted the
Speaker 1: chin as being a little like more separated, like the
Speaker 1: cleft being a little more wild forked, yeah, more forked.
Speaker 1: Or there's one that kind of looks like a nightmare
Speaker 1: otter with a long tongue, and there's some speculation like
Speaker 1: maybe this had a long tongue for slurping organs. So uh,
Speaker 1: just trying to like they're just trying to be like
Speaker 1: it was a vampire. They're trying so hard to just
Speaker 1: be like it was Morbius. It was like it was
Speaker 1: it was, it was it was Morbous. Let's let's scare
Speaker 1: it here. This is Morbous. Ah, So Morbous is not
Speaker 1: a cat we know like that, so just so that
Speaker 1: people know Morbous not a no, yeah, I mean more
Speaker 1: bus was a failure, I think more quickly than these
Speaker 1: ridiculous things were a failure. But this thing is is
Speaker 1: an evolutionary prank. It feels like it doesn't it sosa
Speaker 1: trus despite having these big things, You think like, okay,
Speaker 1: so maybe they have a similar strategy to like the
Speaker 1: smell it on that like stabs things to death. It was,
Speaker 1: but they think, no, it didn't stab things, it didn't
Speaker 1: grab and tear things. It was potentially a scavenger. Who
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, I forgot to mention it
Speaker 1: has a pouch, so that's another thing. It just carries
Speaker 1: its babies in a pouch. Um, yeah, why not? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Why not? Why why not have some animals? And then
Speaker 1: I had a pinwheel on its head and then could
Speaker 1: like flick it and go pl you know yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: Poka dots, yeah, bright yellow PoCA dots yeah yeah. And
Speaker 1: and and police sirens. Uh. And when you booped its nose,
Speaker 1: it played all stars. Somebody once told me my chin
Speaker 1: was gonna roll me. But yeah, so yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And they thought that maybe it used its huge things
Speaker 1: like surgical instruments to hair open carcasses and then scooped
Speaker 1: up organs and then used a long tongue to slurp
Speaker 1: the innerds. That's one theory. I like how. One of
Speaker 1: the theories is maybe it was lazy, like maybe it
Speaker 1: didn't want to hunt. Maybe it just wanted to find food.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a weird freak that cut up corpses
Speaker 1: and slurped out the organ juice. Yeah, now they're just
Speaker 1: being like bullying teenage girls. Maybe it's dad's weird. I
Speaker 1: mean on this in this specific scenario, I kind of
Speaker 1: am on the side of the bowling teenage girls because like,
Speaker 1: look at it. Come on, his animals should be bullied. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he is very different, and that's the message of today.
Speaker 1: You should bullying animals that are different from you. So
Speaker 1: you're voting for that for prom queen. So other researchers
Speaker 1: speculate that the tongue was less of a slurping tool
Speaker 1: and more like a big cats uh of today, where
Speaker 1: they have this popilla covered tongue. So, you know, like
Speaker 1: a big cat, their tongue is like sand paper. They
Speaker 1: can actually shave flesh off of bones. You know how
Speaker 1: your little kiddies, your little house cat's tongue is so scratchy. Well,
Speaker 1: a big lion's tongue is super scratchy and can literally
Speaker 1: rip flesh off of a bone by licking it. And
Speaker 1: so that's one speculation is that this man had like
Speaker 1: a sand paper tongue like with you know, like slice
Speaker 1: open a carcass with its big weird teeth and then
Speaker 1: just like lick the flesh off of bones. But it
Speaker 1: seems like all researchers agree. Despite there being many different theories,
Speaker 1: the one thing they all agree on was this thing.
Speaker 1: It was a freak. It was weird, very strange scientific analysis,
Speaker 1: freaking weirdo. And that's fine. I love when you see
Speaker 1: microscopic looks at what the popula look like and like, oh,
Speaker 1: meat hair, yeah, meat, little meat hairs. We'll meat meat
Speaker 1: meat hooks. So when you're when your cats licking you
Speaker 1: that sand papery field, that's sharp meat hair. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel I wonder, I don't know the answer answer
Speaker 1: to this, but I wonder how long it would take
Speaker 1: for a cat to lick like the same spot on
Speaker 1: your skin before your skin starts coming off, because I
Speaker 1: feel like maybe like hours, days, maybe I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I feel like that would be like trying to be
Speaker 1: like I wonder how long it would take for me
Speaker 1: to punch a rock until it broke. Like it might
Speaker 1: be one of those things where it's like this is
Speaker 1: this is not going to work. The word I mean
Speaker 1: licks to get to the center of a meat meat pop.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. Well, only one way to
Speaker 1: find out. I gotta I gotta die and have a cat. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we're going to take a quick break, but when
Speaker 1: we get back, we are going to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit more about our domesticated cats. Uh and you know
Speaker 1: if we should let them literally lick us to death,
Speaker 1: because maybe so, I want to talk about our domesticated cats.
Speaker 1: Our house cats are wonderful kiddies. They I think they
Speaker 1: love us, but they're not going to look a gift
Speaker 1: horse in the mouth and not eat us if they die.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? What's our last gift to
Speaker 1: our cats? You know? I mean it's like unless you
Speaker 1: leave like a massive amount of money in your wheel
Speaker 1: and this will go to Mrs Muffins and uh, you
Speaker 1: know this whole investment portfolio and all my bitcoins, all
Speaker 1: my apes go to my cat. Doage coin go to
Speaker 1: my dog? Obvious? Yeah, that's that's obvious. That seems discriminatory
Speaker 1: that there's like doge coin, but there's no cadge coin.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you there's cat coins. That's probably right, you know,
Speaker 1: I should be arguing for fewer crypto coin, not more. Um,
Speaker 1: unless all crypto coin is is just like a little
Speaker 1: like token that's you give to a cat and then
Speaker 1: the cat receives scratches for the token that I would endorse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that would be great. That would be like a
Speaker 1: very fungible token for pets. So, cats I think are
Speaker 1: really interesting because we kind of think of them as
Speaker 1: being less personable than dogs. You know, they're they're not
Speaker 1: They're not as friendly, they're more independent. You know. The
Speaker 1: idea is like, oh, you know, maybe this cat is
Speaker 1: just using me for food. Uh, and it doesn't like
Speaker 1: form friendships. But there is some research that is digging
Speaker 1: into that question of like our cats truly sort of
Speaker 1: like the solitary creature, or you know, can they have friends?
Speaker 1: I mean, I like to think I'm a friend of cats.
Speaker 1: Is this a one sided friendship? Though? Are you always
Speaker 1: texting these cats and they're like, oh, sorry, I can't
Speaker 1: do it tonight. Maybe later. Yeah, they're just like sorry,
Speaker 1: just just read this, just got this text. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know that you saw it was seen like days ago.
Speaker 1: It's like, sorry I missed this. You have your your
Speaker 1: read receipts are on. Sorry. Yes, Actually feel like cat
Speaker 1: would just be like no, yeah, no, that is I
Speaker 1: think that's more of a cat's vibe. Is just like
Speaker 1: or leaving you on read actually is the cat's vibe.
Speaker 1: That's the ultimate cat move, just leaving you on read. Uh.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're looking into whether whether cats would
Speaker 1: go stoot or if maybe they have just a small
Speaker 1: sliver of compassion in their kitty hearts. And they looked
Speaker 1: into other cats actually form social bonds with other cats,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to see, like can of cat learned
Speaker 1: something like another cat's name, And so they looked at
Speaker 1: they had to find cats that had like social connection,
Speaker 1: so cats that lived with other cats. But they wanted
Speaker 1: to compare cats that had these close bonds with other
Speaker 1: cats and cats that had more casual acquaintances with other cats.
Speaker 1: And the way they did this is they compared groups
Speaker 1: of cats in cat cafes and house cats that lived
Speaker 1: in homes. Yeah. So in cat cafes usually the setup
Speaker 1: is like you have a bunch of cats, but unlike
Speaker 1: a cat colony or multiple cats in a home. You know,
Speaker 1: like these cats maybe you know there are so many
Speaker 1: of them, they're less likely to form these interpersonal relationship.
Speaker 1: There's sort of interactions with each other is more limited.
Speaker 1: But have you been I have not been to a
Speaker 1: cat cafe. I kind of want, but I tried to
Speaker 1: get in and they were like, oh, we are booked.
Speaker 1: Did you not make a reservation? And I was like
Speaker 1: that's fair. And then I was like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I want like a beverage in a place with
Speaker 1: that many cats, because that's kind of like a cat
Speaker 1: cafe is a kind of place that like the the
Speaker 1: government should get involved to like get these cats into
Speaker 1: a shelter. But then it just goes to the cat cafe.
Speaker 1: But the toxoplasmosis you probably get at the cat cafe
Speaker 1: just feeds their bottom line because toxoplasmos is gandha I,
Speaker 1: at least in rats, has been shown to make rats
Speaker 1: attracted to cats. We don't know if that happens in humans,
Speaker 1: but if it does, then there you go. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, yet they should probably make the first taste
Speaker 1: of the cat cafe free then, so you get addicted
Speaker 1: to cats by huff and their toxoplasmos is GANDHIA. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I probably have it because while I'm not
Speaker 1: like attract dead two cats, I sure do like cats.
Speaker 1: It's good you, I sure do think I sure do
Speaker 1: think they're great. But yeah, so the most important difference
Speaker 1: between the cat cafe and like house cats who lived
Speaker 1: together with other cats is that in cat cafes, people
Speaker 1: don't really use the cat's names that much. They don't
Speaker 1: like call them by their names because it's like you're
Speaker 1: having a chance encounter with a cat at a cat cafe.
Speaker 1: You you like, you know, pet the cat, you interact
Speaker 1: with cat, but they're not using their names constantly and
Speaker 1: consistently like the house cats. So they had the study
Speaker 1: set up where they would take these cats from these
Speaker 1: two different groups and show them basically, like uh, an
Speaker 1: image of a cat and then have like an audio
Speaker 1: recording of a cat's name, and sometimes it would be
Speaker 1: like the name of one of their companion cats and
Speaker 1: then an image of that companion cat, so you know,
Speaker 1: totally expected, or it would be the name of a
Speaker 1: companion cat and then an image of a completely unrelated cat.
Speaker 1: And what they found is that for the cat cafe cats,
Speaker 1: they didn't really seem uh to care that much. They
Speaker 1: didn't seem to gaze more at the incongruo uh name
Speaker 1: versus picture, whereas with the house cats by a few seconds,
Speaker 1: they stared a little longer at the images where it
Speaker 1: was like the name of one of their companions, but
Speaker 1: it was a picture of a stranger cat. So the
Speaker 1: idea being that maybe these cats are going like, wait,
Speaker 1: what that's not frank, Yeah, who excuse me? What's going
Speaker 1: on there? Yeah, And it is funny because cat cafe
Speaker 1: has more party vibes, yes, whereas cats in a home
Speaker 1: have more like in the home vibes, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: homie vibes. But like, yeah, with a cat cafe, it's
Speaker 1: just like you're at a rave. It's probably a carave
Speaker 1: because I'm sure they're passing around a lot of cat nep.
Speaker 1: You know, honestly, got to talk to your cat about
Speaker 1: these these kind of party situations, Like I'm not saying,
Speaker 1: don't know how great they are. Yeah, yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: like catnip responsibly, you know what I mean? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: nip nip nip nippet in the bud cat nip responsibly.
Speaker 1: That would totally be an anti drug campaign for cats.
Speaker 1: Side question for you, Ye, favorite cat names that you've
Speaker 1: had for your cats? Go? I mean, I've only had
Speaker 1: two cats, and it was Mittens and Binkie. Okay, those
Speaker 1: are good. That's Mitten's solid cat name. Yeah. I mean.
Speaker 1: The thing is, it's hard for me to pick a
Speaker 1: favorite name because I loved them both and so associate
Speaker 1: their names with them. What I did like was that
Speaker 1: the names inadvertently kind of suited their personality. So Mittens
Speaker 1: was this very posh, very prim and proper cat. Binky
Speaker 1: was stupid and um, you know, I love an idiot cat.
Speaker 1: It's very dumb, very dumb, very like almost like Quasi Ferrell.
Speaker 1: It felt like their names were kind of meant to
Speaker 1: be Mittens that's sort of a civilized names, whereas Binky
Speaker 1: had a frenetic energy the name did, and Pinky was
Speaker 1: cross eyed. Nobody would be surprised he wasn't. But he
Speaker 1: would sometimes poop in his litter box and get really scared.
Speaker 1: I think of what was happening with the poop, and
Speaker 1: then run out of the litter box, scattering poop everywhere.
Speaker 1: Oh pinky bank bank. Oh he was a sweet He
Speaker 1: was dumb, but very very sweet. We had my my
Speaker 1: X and I rescued some cats, um like, not rescued
Speaker 1: from a thing, but literally off the street. And uh
Speaker 1: we had burning building from an unabandoned building. We had
Speaker 1: Cat Jeff and she was like the smart bully. And
Speaker 1: then we had Pants and Pants was a sweet idiot.
Speaker 1: Pants didn't have a tail. Pants was tail less. And
Speaker 1: that's why her name was pants. Pants does sound like
Speaker 1: a sweet idiot name, doesn't it right? It's it was
Speaker 1: like the names hit so perfectly. She was very sweet,
Speaker 1: and then Cat Jeff was just this mean bully. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you know it was it was funny way because
Speaker 1: we had you know, when we broke up, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you can change the name of the cat.
Speaker 1: I know you probably don't want to keep saying my
Speaker 1: name in this situation. And she's like, her name is
Speaker 1: cat Jeff. Yeah, that's not changing, And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: that's a good name for a girl. Cat to cat
Speaker 1: Jeff cat Jeff, Yeah no, no, it's it's a rolls
Speaker 1: right off the tongue. Makes me think of that famous
Speaker 1: Internet cat, George, Uh, you know George and Gene George, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Gen and George and George. Gina is the smart cat,
Speaker 1: and then George's is, you know, unsurprisingly, kind of the
Speaker 1: dumb one. We love George. We love George. Though he
Speaker 1: can't open doors, he's on Twitter, he can't really open doors.
Speaker 1: But he's you know, pro unionization, So there you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's progressive. It's progressive, a progressive cat. So before we go,
Speaker 1: I well, actually two things. One I want to there's
Speaker 1: a quick news story that I had to share with you.
Speaker 1: A cougar accidentally went into a school and was safely
Speaker 1: rescued from having to learn English in Pescadero, California. So
Speaker 1: a juvenile mountain lion accidentally wandered into a high school,
Speaker 1: went into a mostly empty campus, went into an English classroom,
Speaker 1: and the the custodian that was there like saw this
Speaker 1: like mountain lion like in the English classroom and was
Speaker 1: just like okay and closed the door. And custodians are
Speaker 1: just so badass, and they're they're they're so like that
Speaker 1: needs to be a way higher on the respect level
Speaker 1: piece of employment. It deserves so much more respect. I mean,
Speaker 1: they just even when you're not dealing with mountain lions,
Speaker 1: there's so much that comes with the responsibility of a custodian.
Speaker 1: You were literally behind the scenes making sure that school
Speaker 1: is running and functioning. H But yeah, so this this,
Speaker 1: uh they called uh you know, yees animal Control who
Speaker 1: came and rescued the cougar from having to learn in English.
Speaker 1: So I'd say that's a win. Good job, cougar. Uh.
Speaker 1: So the last last last thing before we go is
Speaker 1: our mystery animal sound game Guess who's squawking? Every week
Speaker 1: I play a mry animal sound and you, the listener,
Speaker 1: gifts who is making that sound? So last week's hint
Speaker 1: was it's a bird from the book Around the World
Speaker 1: in Eadie Birds by Mike Unwin, who was my guests
Speaker 1: that week, and Mike kindly did a bird call and
Speaker 1: made me guests. So here's his bird call again. Um,
Speaker 1: and then here is the bird's actual call that sounds
Speaker 1: kind of like a like a car alarm, doesn't I
Speaker 1: It sounded like at first two people, like someone smacking
Speaker 1: blocks of wood together. Um. My favorite thing about hearing
Speaker 1: these calls is that everyone we hear is just something
Speaker 1: trying to have sex. That that is so funny to
Speaker 1: me that we're like, check out this beautiful call and
Speaker 1: then you're like that it's trying to mate. Yep, pretty much,
Speaker 1: and now we're putting it out. It would be like
Speaker 1: it would be like if aliens had videos of of
Speaker 1: like drunk people at bars trying to hook up, and
Speaker 1: they're like, here's the call of the North American man.
Speaker 1: You up, you up? You up? Yeah? Just just just
Speaker 1: writing beautiful on Instagram photos the hallway gorgeous, gorgeous, beautiful queen, gorgeous. Yes,
Speaker 1: so U congratulations to Jared, m ariy L and Robert
Speaker 1: S who all correctly guess that this is the purple
Speaker 1: crested Torocco. So this is an amazing bird. It is vibrant, purple,
Speaker 1: green and red. It's a frugivore. It eats fruits and
Speaker 1: it is the national bird of Swatini because it eats
Speaker 1: fruits and it throws up the seeds which helps spread
Speaker 1: the seeds for germination. So very important. Beautiful bird. What
Speaker 1: a what a weird existence for a bird. And I
Speaker 1: appreciate it because like I picture like a small bird
Speaker 1: swallowing like whole pears and then just like immediately regretting
Speaker 1: it and having to vomit out the seeds. This is
Speaker 1: just like a whole cause and effect system. It's actually
Speaker 1: not that small of a bird. It's sort of a
Speaker 1: medium to large size bird. It's like not it's like
Speaker 1: I think it's it's nine ft tall. It's about chicken sized.
Speaker 1: I would say maybe not nine ft mm hmm um.
Speaker 1: So onto this week's mystery animals sound. The hint is
Speaker 1: why the long face panda? Wait a minute, you're not
Speaker 1: a panda, So, Jeff, you got any guesses? Uh? Yes,
Speaker 1: is it a panda holding a balloon and pulling in
Speaker 1: the air out of the mouth. I do have a
Speaker 1: I have a guess, but it sounds is it a
Speaker 1: red panda? Or is that too easy? I mean, I
Speaker 1: can't answer that because fair enough, you won't know until
Speaker 1: next Wednesday when I answer this week's I Guess Who's squawking,
Speaker 1: which by that point will be last week's guess Who's squawking?
Speaker 1: But you know, very very good guess, valiant, valiant guess,
Speaker 1: you'll have to wait a whole week, just like everyone else.
Speaker 1: I definitely won't just tell you after we're done recording.
Speaker 1: But hey, Jeff, thank you so much for coming on
Speaker 1: today and for talking to me about kitty cats and
Speaker 1: sometimes not kitty cat. I love it, honestly, Like, here's
Speaker 1: the thing is, I love animals. I adore Katie Golden.
Speaker 1: Anytime I can mix those two things together is a
Speaker 1: great experience. And I'm glad. I got to say. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen you since you you moved, so technically I'm
Speaker 1: seeing you, and I hope it's good, and I hope
Speaker 1: there are so many wonderful Italian animals that you are
Speaker 1: are getting acclimated to. There are common swifts right now,
Speaker 1: which are these wonderful birds who scream constantly. So yes,
Speaker 1: I love that and they're like a pretty much pretty
Speaker 1: much the No, it was a blast coming on. I
Speaker 1: really do love it. And uh, you know, podcasting is
Speaker 1: is fun. It is fun. We talk because we talk
Speaker 1: about stuff and then you guys listen and we just
Speaker 1: like sit and your ears and we whisper secrets to you.
Speaker 1: And that's how it works. So many secrets, so many secrets,
Speaker 1: sometimes about Batman, sometimes about birds. Yeah, well, just speaking
Speaker 1: of Batman, where can people find you? Well, if you
Speaker 1: want to find me on Instagram and Twitter at hey,
Speaker 1: there Jeff Row if you want to listen to some
Speaker 1: of my stuff I got I do. Of course, Tom
Speaker 1: and Jeff watch Batman on the game Fully Unemployed Network
Speaker 1: with uh, you know Tom Ryman, who I'm I'm sure
Speaker 1: you're all very familiar with. You can check me out
Speaker 1: on Popular Opinion and you Don't Even Like Sports both
Speaker 1: on the un Popps Network with Adam Todd Brown. Uh,
Speaker 1: you Don't Even Like Sports is a sports podcast for
Speaker 1: people that hate sports, um, which is my entire fan base,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's very nerdy. And then I have my
Speaker 1: own show called Jeff Has Cool Friends, which is a
Speaker 1: long form interview podcast and you can just google that
Speaker 1: or if you want to go to patreon dot com.
Speaker 1: Slash Jeff made for early access to uncensored episodes with
Speaker 1: bonus content. Head on over there. Um, I got a
Speaker 1: lot of cool stuff coming and um, if you want
Speaker 1: to I was on an Flix game show that was
Speaker 1: pretty neat. That's cool. So if you you want to
Speaker 1: see me on Bulli on Netflix. Uh, they edited it
Speaker 1: to make it look like I didn't win, but I
Speaker 1: actually so that's pretty fun. Those fiends. I knew it.
Speaker 1: I knew it the whole time. Well, you guys, it's fun.
Speaker 1: It's fun. Well, if you think you know the answer
Speaker 1: to this week's guess who squawking are you? I just
Speaker 1: want to reach out and ask some questions. You can
Speaker 1: email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: also on Twitter at Creature Feat Pod. That's f E
Speaker 1: A T, not f E two. It's something very different.
Speaker 1: Uh and hey, thank you too, Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. If you're enjoying the pod and you leave
Speaker 1: a rating, I really really appreciate that. And if you
Speaker 1: leave a review, I will read it, and again I
Speaker 1: will really appreciate them. I I print them all out
Speaker 1: and then just like sort of create a human being
Speaker 1: out of them, like a paper mache person, and then
Speaker 1: hug it. That's what I sharing. Sharing and reviewing is
Speaker 1: so important, folks. Please, it is very important for the
Speaker 1: algorithm and also for the paper mache man I'm building,
Speaker 1: like I said, making a paper trainche man out of
Speaker 1: the reviews that I'm printing out so I can hug him.
Speaker 1: But he's missing a whole arms, So you know, if
Speaker 1: you yeah, So if you want to be part of
Speaker 1: the paper machine man I'm building out of reviews, do
Speaker 1: leave a review and I will read it and love it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, I really appreciate it. And hey, thanks to
Speaker 1: the Space Classics for their super awesome song. Excel Alumina
Speaker 1: Creature features of production of I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts like the one You Just Heard, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heard Radio app Apple podcast or Hey guess what Marby
Speaker 1: A listen to your parents shows, not your mom. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna tell you what to do. Whatever you want, look,
Speaker 1: go wild, go nuts. See you next Wednesday. By