Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature, future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on this show, we are talking about weird
Speaker 1: animal feds. Animals can have culture, but sometimes that culture
Speaker 1: is uncultured. From dolphin p to I'm a caque on
Speaker 1: your back, these animals are definitely going to ruin your
Speaker 1: fancy dinner party. Discover this and more as we answer
Speaker 1: the age old question are cockatoos learning to be the linkuits?
Speaker 1: Joining me today is segment director of The Daily Show,
Speaker 1: former Cracked buddy of mine, Carmen Angelico.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1: It has been too long, Carmen, too long since I've
Speaker 1: had you on the show and told you about disgusting
Speaker 1: animal facts on.
Speaker 2: Ay have nothing to say at dinner parties to you know.
Speaker 1: I'm solving that problem for you you. I do want
Speaker 1: to note that today's show has some mature themes, like
Speaker 1: frank discussions of sex and bodily fluids, So if you
Speaker 1: have kids, maybe give it a listen before having them
Speaker 1: listen with you. I'm gonna still avoid like knotty words
Speaker 1: or use a duck quack too, you know, so that
Speaker 1: the bad words don't get spoken. But there's gonna be
Speaker 1: scientifically accurate words to describe the fluids that biological creatures
Speaker 1: are constantly letting gush out of them.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate there's a duck quack potentially.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I you know, I like to have a
Speaker 1: clean show while I'm talking about pee and poop and
Speaker 1: uh pus and various other horrible things. Worms, worms that
Speaker 1: go up your butt and into your brain. Oh oh,
Speaker 1: still gonna, still gonna, still gonna say no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no words though that's like darn. Don't say darn on
Speaker 1: this show, all right, So let's just get right into it.
Speaker 1: Amazon River dolphins, also known as photo dolphins, are found,
Speaker 1: of course in the Amazon River. Uh and hey, they're
Speaker 1: really magical because they are pink dolphins. They have this
Speaker 1: beautiful pink coloration. They actually grow to be pink as
Speaker 1: they mature into adults. Males are pinker than females. The
Speaker 1: reason that they're pink is actually very cool, very masculine.
Speaker 1: Their skin is worn down through knocking into things, like
Speaker 1: they scar very easily, so when they wrestle with each other,
Speaker 1: when they rough house, when they fight with one another.
Speaker 1: The abrasions form this pink scar tissue. So the pinker,
Speaker 1: the manlyer the dolphin.
Speaker 2: Huh. Well, wow, I didn't know bumping one another was
Speaker 2: such a good I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like dolphin bumper cars and they turn pink
Speaker 1: and it really it really does it for the ladies, Carmen,
Speaker 1: I have put in the chat here a link to
Speaker 1: photos as well. There will be a video in this
Speaker 1: article that you may or may not want to look
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 2: Right, so just a brief.
Speaker 1: Description of these dolphins. They grow to be over eight
Speaker 1: feet long, over two and a half meters. They have
Speaker 1: very long snouts. They have flexible necks. Their neck vertebrae
Speaker 1: are actually unfused, so they can bend their next at
Speaker 1: a ninety degree angle, so they can like nod at you.
Speaker 1: They can be like, hey, what's up, I'm a dolphin
Speaker 1: like kind of look at you, like do the head turn,
Speaker 1: like what you talking to me?
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I appreciate being acknowledged with a good
Speaker 2: head nod. Yeah, it's like myself, it's up.
Speaker 1: Dolphins gonna go sup to you, which is unusual for
Speaker 1: usually a dolphin's neck does not accommodate the sub motion.
Speaker 1: So these ones are similar to belugas in that they
Speaker 1: have more neck movement that they can do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always good to know. Yeah, I know what
Speaker 2: dolphin depending on how they acknowledge.
Speaker 1: Me, right, if you can, like you could probably we
Speaker 1: could probably teach these dolphins how to nod yes or
Speaker 1: shake their heads no. So answer any yes or no
Speaker 1: questions like did we make a mistake not also becoming
Speaker 1: sea mammals and they nod yes. Uh so they are
Speaker 1: really intelligent creatures. They like to drum the water with
Speaker 1: branches or hold up live turtles in order to court females.
Speaker 1: So if you've ever dated a drummer or someone who
Speaker 1: owns turtles, you understand how this works, how this this
Speaker 1: wooze woo's a lady or or otherwise.
Speaker 2: Honestly, if more people showed me turtles just to you know, but.
Speaker 1: This is dating advice. Everyone have a turtle, I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, take good care of it, right, don't
Speaker 1: just have a nice have a nice space for it.
Speaker 1: Really plan it out, do research on your turtle, but
Speaker 1: do show it to the person you are trying to woo,
Speaker 1: and they may be into it, particularly if they're a
Speaker 1: female photo dolphin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just you know the look of a well kept,
Speaker 2: well taken care of turtle is healthy turtle. Turtle, healthy turtle.
Speaker 1: Healthy turtle. Guys, we're not we're not impressed by your
Speaker 1: anemic turtle that you got at the back of a
Speaker 1: magazine and that you don't take good care of, that
Speaker 1: you don't feed a good diet to you. But the
Speaker 1: healthy ones, the good, robust turtles. And we're like, if
Speaker 1: that man can take care of a turtle, by god,
Speaker 1: he can take care of me.
Speaker 2: Oh man, Well, okay, all right. These dolphins, Yeah, they've
Speaker 2: got technique. They've got a technique.
Speaker 1: They've got a technique. They drum, they turn pink, they
Speaker 1: present turtles, and they do shoot their pee out of
Speaker 1: the water like a fountain. So, uh, this is the
Speaker 1: new behavior that has been observed by scientists, this fad
Speaker 1: among pink river dolphins where the males will like roll
Speaker 1: over on their bellies, stick their penis out of the
Speaker 1: water and then urinate in like this sort of glorious
Speaker 1: arc like they're a fountain plot twists. Their buddies like
Speaker 1: their male buddies have been seen playing in the urine stream,
Speaker 1: like there, it's summer and it's a sprinkler.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I could see that they're supporting their friend, you know.
Speaker 2: They're like, this friend is trying to get the attention
Speaker 2: of a lady, and all the guys are like, you've
Speaker 2: got this, dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, I've never really heard of like
Speaker 1: playing in your bro's peace stream as being supportive, but
Speaker 1: it feels supportive and a little supportive. It's twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a bro has to play in another bro's stream.
Speaker 2: I guess. I mean, you know, listen, it's I'm not
Speaker 2: the dolphins in this situation, but I mean, unless it
Speaker 2: is them trying to stop the dolphin from being successful
Speaker 2: with their stream.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's not exactly known why they do this.
Speaker 1: The theories are that they are doing some kind of
Speaker 1: chemical communication, so like they you're Animals often use urine
Speaker 1: as a form of communication, from giraffes who like taste
Speaker 1: each other's urine, to dogs who smell each other's urine.
Speaker 1: A lot of animals will taste or smell urine not
Speaker 1: just to be weird little freaks, but to find out
Speaker 1: information about the animal that has left the urine, so
Speaker 1: like if they're male or female, if they're in estrous,
Speaker 1: meaning if they are reproductively active at the time. And
Speaker 1: so it's thought that perhaps this dolphin urine portrays some
Speaker 1: information about the dolphin, and then maybe by spraying it,
Speaker 1: you know, in the air in an arc like a stream,
Speaker 1: it makes it much more obvious where the PP is
Speaker 1: because if you just pee in the water, like, how
Speaker 1: do you know if you're another dolphin where that PP
Speaker 1: is because everything's water except for the warm spot. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's one theory. I think I have an alternative theory.
Speaker 1: Since we're at the theory stage and it's not like
Speaker 1: we have proven why dolphins pee on each other. I
Speaker 1: wonder if part of it is playfulness, just like having
Speaker 1: fun with your bros, play and play, you know, Like
Speaker 1: it's not so different from people, is it when guys
Speaker 1: like write their names in the snow.
Speaker 2: That's true, That's yeah, that's a very good, you know analogy.
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like people that do not
Speaker 1: have sort of the stylusts, the urinary stylists that allows
Speaker 1: for writing your name in the snow, we need to
Speaker 1: come up with something like an attachment nozzle. So that
Speaker 1: we can also join in on the name writing fun
Speaker 1: or just get really good at like crab walking around
Speaker 1: while being I don't know, but it seems unfair.
Speaker 2: Good Okay, I mean this is a happy learning, I
Speaker 2: guess you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I uh. It is interesting because this is definitely
Speaker 1: a trait in dolphins that is very sex dependent. So
Speaker 1: it seems like it's the males that do it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this could be because it's a male specific behavior.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's being territorial, maybe it's trying to communicate something
Speaker 1: about their mating status, or another theory. It's just because
Speaker 1: they got they got a nozzle and the females don't,
Speaker 1: and so the females can't really do it right. Like again,
Speaker 1: like why why do people with penises write their names
Speaker 1: in the snow versus people with vaginas. It's that the
Speaker 1: vagina is not really so well designed for writing your
Speaker 1: name in the snow. It's very well designed for a
Speaker 1: number of things, just not that well.
Speaker 2: So the the arc is like the peeing in the snow,
Speaker 2: showing off right the ability.
Speaker 1: Possibly okay, possibly, I don't again, like the researchers are,
Speaker 1: this is a relatively new discovery and so researchers are
Speaker 1: in the theorizing stage, so I feel more entitled to
Speaker 1: just throw out my wild theories that have literally no
Speaker 1: evidence yet. Like maybe it's a political statement. We don't know,
Speaker 1: who knows, well, we have to ask, that's the challenge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what I think about your stupid land pee
Speaker 1: in the air, you know. Or maybe they're just recreating
Speaker 1: that classic bumper sticker, the Calvin ping on.
Speaker 2: You know. Honestly, I mean, if it was all that,
Speaker 2: if it was just that some that they somehow got
Speaker 2: access to that bumper sticker and ever since it's been that,
Speaker 2: that would be hilarious.
Speaker 1: I never quite understood the Calvin bumper sticker peeing. Do
Speaker 1: you know anything about that?
Speaker 2: Don't believe it or not. I don't know the history
Speaker 2: of that, understand it personally. Yeah, but it feels pertinent
Speaker 2: to the situation that you're describing.
Speaker 1: It seems like there's always going to be sort of
Speaker 1: a Calvin peeing bumper sticker type situation for every species
Speaker 1: of animals, which is, you know, that's that's inspiring in
Speaker 1: a way. Are we so different?
Speaker 2: You asked a good question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there is a video. If you're wondering of
Speaker 1: one of these dolphins ping. I'll link it in the
Speaker 1: show notes. It's from National Geographic and yeah, it's you.
Speaker 1: You just you see everything. You see it all happening.
Speaker 1: The dolphin p experts call it aerial urination, and there
Speaker 1: are dolphin p experts. By the way, a study by
Speaker 1: Clariana Ruho weang it all observed them and over the
Speaker 1: course of nine days, researchers documented aerial urination thirty six times.
Speaker 1: So they do it a lot. The lead researcher said,
Speaker 1: an end of jewel will start to slowly flip belly
Speaker 1: up and expose the penis and urinate. When another male
Speaker 1: is present, he may sometimes chase the urine stream with
Speaker 1: his rostrum. Now, the rostrum is like the nose of
Speaker 1: the dolphin. Oh that long nose thingy, that's the rostrum.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, I didn't know that, didn't know the name.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go. We're learning a lot of things
Speaker 1: about peeing and rostrums.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is I'm definitely gonna have a lot
Speaker 2: to talk about at my next dinner party.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a I think the fanci or the
Speaker 1: dinner party, the more likely I think you should bring
Speaker 1: up like this, Like yeah, like if it's if it's
Speaker 1: a black suit dinner party, you're gonna really impress people
Speaker 1: with your river dolphin golden showers talk.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm ready to impress, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because a Native Amazonian folklore believes that the
Speaker 1: or river dolphins can transform into humans and come out
Speaker 1: of the water, and that they like wear a hat
Speaker 1: to disguise their blowhole, which I guess that they can't,
Speaker 1: like they can transform into a human, but they got
Speaker 1: to breathe out of the blowhole, so I guess they
Speaker 1: got a blowhole on their head, but they put a
Speaker 1: little hat over it, which, hey, you know what game is?
Speaker 2: Game?
Speaker 1: Ah, And these are called incantato And it's either a
Speaker 1: beautiful man who comes ashore and impregnates maidens or a
Speaker 1: beautiful woman who seduces married men and then after a
Speaker 1: week of this, she trans kind of like transforms him
Speaker 1: into a baby and then transfers him into his own
Speaker 1: wife's womb. It's so a lot of the folklore stories
Speaker 1: about these things, things like changlings, things like these, the
Speaker 1: dolphins stories, it's usually a way to explain tragedy. Actually,
Speaker 1: so like things like, uh so if a man like
Speaker 1: drowns and leaves behind a wife who's pregnant, maybe this
Speaker 1: story came about where it's like, well, actually he was
Speaker 1: seduced by a man by a dolphin that turned into
Speaker 1: a beautiful lady and then turned him into a baby
Speaker 1: that's now in your womb. So then you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So it's a it's a very interesting kind
Speaker 1: of cultural thing. And of course the other one where
Speaker 1: it's like a dolphin transforming into a beautiful man and
Speaker 1: getting maiden's pregnant, that's like a way to be like, hey, now,
Speaker 1: why are you pregnant? It's like, well a dolphin did it.
Speaker 1: What am I supposed to do about it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean wow, I you know, I I'd heard
Speaker 2: of like the folklore of the changeling, but this is
Speaker 2: such a fascinating take on that and it's cool to know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've read about with changelings. What's interesting about that
Speaker 1: is it seems like it was an explanation for people
Speaker 1: who would get sick and die sometimes where it was
Speaker 1: like they would think that maybe the person who's like
Speaker 1: sick and dying, especially if it involved something where they
Speaker 1: would become delirious or have dementia that that person was
Speaker 1: exchanged with like a changeling. And so it's kind of
Speaker 1: a it's a tragic thing because it's sort of a
Speaker 1: way for people to cope with the grief of someone dying,
Speaker 1: especially babies. Right, So, like if a baby suddenly gets
Speaker 1: sick and dies for no kind of observable reason, at
Speaker 1: this point of time, it'd be like, well, a change
Speaker 1: link came swapped out the baby, So my baby is
Speaker 1: alive somewhere living with the fairies, whereas this baby was
Speaker 1: like a fake baby who died. So yeah, when you
Speaker 1: look behind a lot of these like kind of seemingly
Speaker 1: strange or silly tales of folklore, it is often describing
Speaker 1: either something cultural or something psychological, right, like coping with
Speaker 1: grief in these cultures.
Speaker 2: I am actually going to talk about that at it
Speaker 2: in your party, because I think that's fascinating. This is
Speaker 2: all really interesting.
Speaker 1: As long as you also talk about the ping.
Speaker 2: Obvious obviously, you know, I mean it would be after
Speaker 2: I have to set it.
Speaker 1: Up, right, yeah, right, You you kind of warm them
Speaker 1: up with the talk about folklore and cultural grief, and
Speaker 1: then you hit them with the dolphin pea fountain and
Speaker 1: then you right, and then they're gonna go through the
Speaker 1: several stages of grief and shock after being told that, Well, uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna take a little break here while
Speaker 1: you digest all that information. And when we get back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about macacus and the interesting things they
Speaker 1: do with deer. Again, you have children, maybe consider listening
Speaker 1: ahead for this part. And it's deciding whether this is
Speaker 1: appropriate or not. It's science, though, it's all based in size.
Speaker 2: So we'll be right back. This is fascinating, I mean,
Speaker 2: it really is. I like it. I like it. I
Speaker 2: like knowing this. I like knowing more things about the world.
Speaker 1: You know, and there are a lot of things in
Speaker 1: the world, and it's important to don't know them, even
Speaker 1: when it's macaque humping deer. So you we have talked
Speaker 1: about the river dolphins and how like the boys were
Speaker 1: having all the fun with peeing in the air. Now
Speaker 1: we get to talk about something that both sexes can
Speaker 1: enjoy in the macaque population, and this is mounting a deer.
Speaker 1: And when I say mounting a deer, I don't mean
Speaker 1: sticking it on your wall. I do mean two things though.
Speaker 1: One riding a deer and two wink wink riding a deer.
Speaker 1: Wink wink so.
Speaker 2: Yes verbalizing wink wink, wink, wink wink wink.
Speaker 1: Japanese macaques are those fuffy, red faced, very very cute
Speaker 1: primates who bathe in hot springs like they're snow monkeys.
Speaker 1: You know, if you've ever seen those hot spring monkeys,
Speaker 1: these are what I'm talking about. They are really smart,
Speaker 1: they're highly social. They'll throw snowballs at each other. They
Speaker 1: are the These are the monkeys, or these are the
Speaker 1: macaques that learned how to season their yams by dipping
Speaker 1: the yams in salt water. They watched this, like ingenious
Speaker 1: female macaque many years ago, like decades ago, do this,
Speaker 1: and now it's a cultural phenomenon among macacus. They've all
Speaker 1: learned to season their yams with salt water. Uh. And
Speaker 1: there's a new fad among the macaques, and this time
Speaker 1: it's riding deer in multiple ways.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Skia deer are small deer that live in Japanese forest.
Speaker 1: They're very cute. They're super super cute. They're like much
Speaker 1: they're like a I would say ponies deer like. They're
Speaker 1: much smaller than the large deer that we would have
Speaker 1: like in North America, and they're relatively chill. They live
Speaker 1: in Japanese forests and they have become the object of
Speaker 1: affection for Japanese macaques. So it started with one male
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. A male started going around hopping on
Speaker 1: these deer's backs and you know, trying to mate with
Speaker 1: them in a way that was mechanically questionable.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: It was thought that maybe he was sexually frustrated or bored,
Speaker 1: we don't know. Then in twenty eighteen, researchers found that
Speaker 1: other macaques, five females, were also jumping onto deer and
Speaker 1: trying to mate with them, again in a situation that
Speaker 1: was mechanically questionable. Yeah. So then the observation has continued
Speaker 1: that these macaques are like this. Basically, this fad of
Speaker 1: jumping on a deer and then humping them has just
Speaker 1: exploded among macaques. Sometimes they'll ride the deer around like
Speaker 1: it's a little pony, and sometimes they'll hump the deer
Speaker 1: or both. Sometimes it's both.
Speaker 2: And this is recent. This is a new discovery.
Speaker 1: On it It isn't, yes, so it's it's a new
Speaker 1: discovery in terms of like it's the observation started in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, and it seems like it's become sort of
Speaker 1: a fad among them. We don't know if this behavior
Speaker 1: has happened before, right, it's very plausible that it could
Speaker 1: have happened before, or that maybe there's waves. Just like fads,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of come and go in human society,
Speaker 1: it's possible that this comes and goes in macaque society.
Speaker 1: You know. Deer humping sort of like how you know
Speaker 1: what the sort of Saturday Night Live hip gyration thing
Speaker 1: was a thing and then it wasn't a thing, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's a thing again. I really couldn't tell you
Speaker 1: because I'm not very cool.
Speaker 2: So hey, I think you're very cool.
Speaker 1: That's really nice of you. You've never seen me try
Speaker 1: to dance at a wedding. Oh but you know, I
Speaker 1: look like a ma caque trying to mate with a deer,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, I didn't know that was a
Speaker 2: dance move option.
Speaker 1: But well it's it's acrobatically intense and it does get
Speaker 1: you kicked out of some weddings, but you know, I
Speaker 1: stand by it. So they jump on the deer's backs
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's if you're wondering what the deer think
Speaker 1: about it, they actually don't seem to mind it too much.
Speaker 1: They actually like to hang around the macaques because they
Speaker 1: will get groomed by the macaques. The macacus will eat
Speaker 1: little ticks and fleas and things like parasites that are
Speaker 1: on the deer. They also like to eat the fruit
Speaker 1: that the macaques drop, and sometimes they eat their poop
Speaker 1: because you know, it's really a shame that human beings
Speaker 1: are just we're just so darned fussy. We just we
Speaker 1: eliminate so many things from our diet, like poop, dead people, rocks,
Speaker 1: you know, all sorts of things that like animals have
Speaker 1: the have the grit and the culinary courage to really
Speaker 1: go for it.
Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah, yeah, I guess, I'm I guess I'm just
Speaker 2: not there with the macaques. You know, it's just not
Speaker 2: you're right, culinarily, No, not there.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah. I have I have some like texture issues
Speaker 1: with like food and stuff, so I don't think I
Speaker 1: would be down for eating macaque poop either. Also, it's poop,
Speaker 1: so that's not great either, But like generally yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's the macqu poop will have like a
Speaker 1: lot of sort of quasi digested like vegetable vegetation or
Speaker 1: fruit in it, and so the deer will then help
Speaker 1: themselves to their leavings.
Speaker 2: Well at least that it's mutually beneficial in that way.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is actually considered to be a very freaky
Speaker 1: form of symbiosis.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yes, because first of all, like if a deer, because
Speaker 1: like often you'll have like uh sad to say, like,
Speaker 1: you know, situations in nature that are not very consensual.
Speaker 1: In this case, if a macaque gets on a deer's
Speaker 1: back and the deer is not really interested in getting
Speaker 1: a very gross back massage, the deer will just sort
Speaker 1: of shake the macaque loose and they'll just fall right off.
Speaker 2: Oh great, well, you know great.
Speaker 1: And then sometimes the deer is just like what you're doing?
Speaker 1: What back there? I don't care, I'm a deer. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'll eat your poop later.
Speaker 2: Maybe, ah, poop. It always comes back to the poop.
Speaker 1: It really doesn't, I'm you know, it happens a lot
Speaker 1: on this show, and I have to, like I swear
Speaker 1: to you it's because I read scientific papers, like I swear,
Speaker 1: I promise, and not that I'm subscribed to poop monthly.
Speaker 2: So the yeah, a lot of sands to it. You know,
Speaker 2: as we as we've as we've learned. I think many
Speaker 2: of us have learned from a very important book from
Speaker 2: our childhood.
Speaker 1: Everybody poops, everybody poops, and some people will eat that poop. No,
Speaker 1: maybe I shouldn't. Some some species will will eat poop
Speaker 1: and hope it's not you.
Speaker 2: I haven't read that book.
Speaker 1: I have been trying to get a publisher on that book,
Speaker 1: and no one's biting. I don't get it. I'm just
Speaker 1: a brave truth teller.
Speaker 2: And I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So this is possibly the grossest fact, in my humble opinion,
Speaker 1: that I've ever said on the show. So you know, again,
Speaker 1: brace yourselves. Maybe cover the ears of your of any
Speaker 1: child around you, your own ears. If you've got a
Speaker 1: ma caque with you, or deer with you, cover their
Speaker 1: ears as well.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Basically, nobody listened to this, So there is a there,
Speaker 1: and I promise you this is a scientific observation the deer.
Speaker 1: When a male macaque humps the deer and ejaculates, some
Speaker 1: of the deer reach around and lick the ejaculate off
Speaker 1: of their back. And these freaky scientists have the gall
Speaker 1: to come up with a theory that possibly this is
Speaker 1: symbiosis because it has a nutritional benefit. And guys, look,
Speaker 1: I am a big advocate of science, but someone help
Speaker 1: these poor researchers because I think they might be bored
Speaker 1: and I think they might need to get out more sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah wow, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean National Geographic more like National pornographic. I don't know. Wow,
Speaker 1: it's I literally read this in the National Geographic and
Speaker 1: I feel I feel like I've done something wrong.
Speaker 2: No, hey, you're just sharing with everyone else. And when
Speaker 2: nobody was listening to that question, because.
Speaker 1: If I if I my personal philosophy is that if
Speaker 1: I have to suffer, everyone suffers.
Speaker 2: So now knowledge is.
Speaker 1: A disease that I like to surpread.
Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, I mean I again, I feel like
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna have to contact you after these
Speaker 3: dinner parties and I share everything I've learned because it
Speaker 3: could be a wild ride of a dinner party.
Speaker 1: Listen, if you don't if you can't stand me at
Speaker 1: my most talking about the cats ejaculate getting eaten by deer,
Speaker 1: you don't deserve me at my Bodo River dolphins peeing
Speaker 1: in the air.
Speaker 2: I think that's that's the exact quote.
Speaker 1: That is the exact quote. I've got one of those
Speaker 1: like wooden plaques that have all the different like fancy
Speaker 1: fonts on it, and.
Speaker 2: It's really long, long, it.
Speaker 1: Takes up a lot of space. Anyways, guys, if you're
Speaker 1: still here and you're still listening and you didn't shut
Speaker 1: off the podcast, I really appreciate you. Thank you you uh.
Speaker 1: And we're going to take a quick break, you know,
Speaker 1: a palate cleanser will say, and then we will talk
Speaker 1: about we'll finish the show with something slightly less gross.
Speaker 1: Actually actually way less, way, way way less gross. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, right, yeah, yeah, all right, guys. Now we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about cockatoos playing with garbage, because sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, like sometimes I feel like a little cockatoo
Speaker 1: playing around in garbage not thinking about my problems. So
Speaker 1: are you familiar with Australia.
Speaker 2: Carmen, I am familiar with Australia.
Speaker 1: How familiar?
Speaker 2: Not ultra familiar. I mean I know where it is
Speaker 2: on the map, I know certain facts about it. I
Speaker 2: have never been there, sadly, and I don't and I
Speaker 2: would love to learn more. So, if this is an
Speaker 2: opportunit unity for me to learn more. I am excited.
Speaker 1: What's your number one Australia fact?
Speaker 2: That you know that there are certain animals that live
Speaker 2: on the continent of Australia that don't live anywhere else
Speaker 2: in the world.
Speaker 1: That is very true. Those are called endemic animals and
Speaker 1: there's a good amount of them. A lot of them
Speaker 1: are marsupials. These are birds that live in New South
Speaker 1: Wales in Australia. And these are cockatoos. They're a type
Speaker 1: of parrot. You probably have seen them before. These are
Speaker 1: sulfur crested cockatoos. They are white with a yellow crest
Speaker 1: on the top of their heads and they have sort
Speaker 1: of yellow splash under their wings. They're very, very pretty
Speaker 1: relatively large parrots. They're about yay big, which you can't
Speaker 1: see because it's a podcast, but i'd say, you know,
Speaker 1: like a foot long sandwich ish big so which I
Speaker 1: don't think is actually a foot Is it foot.
Speaker 2: Longs No, I don't think they are anymore really fall
Speaker 2: foot long, but I don't know if they accurately measure
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 1: I don't know that they're an imperial foot, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure someone's got a foot that is that long?
Speaker 2: That long? Yeah, and maybe that's what they're not actually
Speaker 2: talking about the measure of just some random person's foot.
Speaker 1: This is why we have to switch to metric. So
Speaker 1: kakatoo's about the size of a foot long sandwich, whether
Speaker 1: or not it's actually a foot long. They're very, very intelligent.
Speaker 1: Their natural habitat is woodland in Australia, but due to
Speaker 1: the spread of the suburbs and the erburbs and the
Speaker 1: burbs and the urban and human in general, they have
Speaker 1: found their way closer to human society. And because they
Speaker 1: have such a high degree of social awareness and intelligence,
Speaker 1: learning and taking cues from one another, certain trends will
Speaker 1: pop up among the cockatoo community. So an example of
Speaker 1: just like how intelligent they are and their social behavior
Speaker 1: is that while foraging, one cockatoo will keep watch from
Speaker 1: a tree and signals to the rest of the cockatoos
Speaker 1: if it since is danger approaching. And this has been
Speaker 1: an observation that has been made to the point where apparently,
Speaker 1: and please Australians write to me if I'm wrong about this,
Speaker 1: because I frankly do not trust the Internet anymore. At
Speaker 1: this point, cockatoo or cocky has been used. It's possibly
Speaker 1: a little antiquated, but it's been used in Australian slang
Speaker 1: for like a police lookout, like someone who is on
Speaker 1: the lookout for the police when you're trying to put
Speaker 1: too many shrimp on your barbie and you're worried about
Speaker 1: getting arrested.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, okay, So when I do eventually visit, I'll know,
Speaker 2: I'll understand more.
Speaker 1: You'll understand and you will also when you do visit
Speaker 1: and you want to do crimes, because I know you, Carmen,
Speaker 1: you'll want to befriend the cockatoos so that you can
Speaker 1: have them alert you to when the police are coming
Speaker 1: to bust you for your illegal, illegal kangaroo boxing outfit.
Speaker 2: Oh why do you have to already? Well, you know,
Speaker 2: if I've any excuse to befriend the cockatoos, that's uh,
Speaker 2: I'll take it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They are rather bold when it comes to people,
Speaker 1: and you can, in certain ways befriend them. Feeding them
Speaker 1: can cause problems because then boy, are they going to
Speaker 1: expect that and really really get in your business. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would necessarily recommend that, but yeah,
Speaker 1: they are They're super super social, very intelligent. They have
Speaker 1: been kept as pets. I personally, unless you're ready to
Speaker 1: take care of a dinosaur that has an incredibly powerful
Speaker 1: crushing beak that can I think actually break your bone,
Speaker 1: that has the permanent mind of a human toddler, I
Speaker 1: would not keep it as a pet. I mean, but
Speaker 1: if you want a small dinosaur that has a powerfully
Speaker 1: crushing beak that can break your fingerbones, that permanently has
Speaker 1: the mind of a two year old human being child,
Speaker 1: then sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't. That wasn't what I was on the
Speaker 2: lookout for a pet. I'm gonna have to think on it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like my dog because she's dumb, and she likes
Speaker 1: belly rubs, and she has the she has the bite
Speaker 1: force of like a twist tie.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's a good bite force.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she doesn't. She's you know, or maybe like a
Speaker 1: bag clip. I'm gonna say a bag clip. She's got
Speaker 1: the bite force of a bag clip, and she she
Speaker 1: does get a little bit body with me sometimes. But
Speaker 1: you know again, bag clip, okay, bag clip? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it like holds, it holds generally, it holds the chips in,
Speaker 1: but a little air will get in and make it stale.
Speaker 1: Yes bite which like, I'm she's always doing this When
Speaker 1: I give her a bag of chips to keep fresh.
Speaker 1: It's like you had one job, dog, one job in
Speaker 1: this house, keep my chips fresh. So yes, cockatoo's possibly
Speaker 1: not good pets, but incredibly cool animals, very social and
Speaker 1: because they are so intelligent again sort of like tiny
Speaker 1: dinosaur human toddler brains. Uh, they get into an enormous
Speaker 1: amount of mischief, especially amongst a human suburban and urban structures.
Speaker 1: They have learned how to rip up any cheaply constructed
Speaker 1: building materials. Like if you're trying to put plastic facades
Speaker 1: on your buildings, these cockatoos are gonna know it, They're
Speaker 1: gonna find it, and they're gonna rip that to shreds.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I feel like they're right, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I think like if you're cheaping out on construction materials
Speaker 1: and these cockatoos find you, they're basically like free architectural auditors,
Speaker 1: like pointing out shoddy shoddy design and shoddy construction, but
Speaker 1: actively yeah, ripping it apart for no clear reason.
Speaker 2: They're actively being like, well this isn't strong enough, Well.
Speaker 1: Here's your problem. Just completely tears off a chunk of
Speaker 1: plastic rain gutter.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: So they you know again, and they have come up
Speaker 1: with a fun game and this is called flip the bin,
Speaker 1: and it is when they go to people's garbage bins
Speaker 1: and they flip the lid open and then they just
Speaker 1: toss garbage around and sometimes they'll like find things to
Speaker 1: eat inside, but a lot of the time it's for
Speaker 1: the thrill of the game. So this is an example
Speaker 1: of cockatoo culture because it started in twenty fifteen with
Speaker 1: one cockatoo doing it, uh, and he was probably a
Speaker 1: really cool cockatoo. Everyone wanted to copy him, and by
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen it had become a wild fat among a
Speaker 1: wide number of cockatoos. And sometimes, like they'll like flip
Speaker 1: it and play with the garbage. Sometimes they just do
Speaker 1: it for the thrill of flipping the lid. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: do it with an audience and then all the other
Speaker 1: cockatoos get really excited once they flip the lid. It's
Speaker 1: just a it's just a game, man, It's it's a
Speaker 1: fun thing to do with your buddies.
Speaker 2: Okay, well again, it seems like the buddies get involved
Speaker 2: in these activities a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like I don't know, Like for
Speaker 1: a while everyone was flipping bottles, water bottles when we
Speaker 1: did that.
Speaker 2: Yes, or yes, flipping couples.
Speaker 1: First it was like the solo cups that you're supposed
Speaker 1: to flip, and then if you didn't do it right,
Speaker 1: you got beaten with pool noodles pool noodles or maybe
Speaker 1: that was me, I don't know, but everyone everyone's had
Speaker 1: that experience, right and then and then it was like
Speaker 1: water bottles that you flip and then you try to
Speaker 1: get it to land. Yeah. Yeah, what are kids flipping
Speaker 1: these days? Is it POGs again? Did we send me
Speaker 1: back around to POGs?
Speaker 2: I did not. I don't know if POGs are back,
Speaker 2: but uh, honestly, I'm shocked. I'm shocked that they aren't.
Speaker 2: By now, they aren't. Right, it's such a good flippable thing.
Speaker 1: I've seen some bay blade content online a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think Babe blades might be making a grand comeback.
Speaker 2: Oh are they they're flippable?
Speaker 1: Well, they're more like tops. I think they're like plastic
Speaker 1: tops that have a rip chord so they go really fast,
Speaker 1: so they have that' centripetal force and then they do
Speaker 1: flip sometimes like you have a Guys, I'm gonna explain
Speaker 1: bay blades to you for a second. Here you have
Speaker 1: an arena, a plastic bowl shaped arena, and then you
Speaker 1: I've never done this with an I've never done bay
Speaker 1: blade before, but as far as I can tell, you
Speaker 1: like do a rip chords that gets the like the
Speaker 1: top is in like a little chamber, and then you
Speaker 1: pull a chord and it spins the top really fast
Speaker 1: and or releases it into the plastic arena, which is
Speaker 1: sort of a bowl shape, and you put another bay
Speaker 1: blade in there, and then the bay blades fight by
Speaker 1: bumping into each other a lot of times, and then
Speaker 1: one of the is the victor based on which one
Speaker 1: is still spinning. And that's bay blades. You don't look impressed, Carmen,
Speaker 1: And I.
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I guess you know. I'm taking a
Speaker 2: lot in today. I thought it was just going to
Speaker 2: be nature, and now it's so much more than that.
Speaker 1: Blades are a force of nature.
Speaker 2: They are you know, you've got me, There is all
Speaker 2: around us at all times. Yeah. No, we've gotten into physics,
Speaker 2: we've gotten into folklore, and we've gotten into obviously biology.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, maybe maybe the kids are gonna flip
Speaker 1: bin lids like the cockatoo's. I hope they just don't
Speaker 1: do the dolphin thing, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah, that that's I would prefer the
Speaker 2: bin flipping myself as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, personally. Uh, you know, if we if we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a new TikTok trend, let's have it be bin
Speaker 1: flipping or you know, just a hey, new idea for
Speaker 1: a TikTok trend. What if it's picking up litter and
Speaker 1: putting it in the bin? Kids? That's cool?
Speaker 2: Right? Oh, I'm flipping for that.
Speaker 1: I flipping out for picking up litter and putting it
Speaker 1: in the bin.
Speaker 2: Can we Yeah? How how good of a trend is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Are we cool? Are we not cool?
Speaker 1: I feel like we're very cool? And the Zoomers and
Speaker 1: uh is the zoomers? Wait, the Zoomers aren't the youngest. Now,
Speaker 1: who's the little ones?
Speaker 2: Alpha?
Speaker 1: Oh? That's kind of not a fun name. I feel
Speaker 1: like we got to come up with a more fun name.
Speaker 2: Well, they'll come up with, I'm sure a nickname. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, we all get we all get a bunch
Speaker 2: of different names, that's true. Yeah, but hopefully everybody is
Speaker 2: having fun with POGs.
Speaker 1: I hope so too. I can't wait to start blaming
Speaker 1: Generation Alpha for my problems and uh yeah, so so. Culture, guys,
Speaker 1: animals have it. Culture is defined by basically ideas that
Speaker 1: get passed on from one individual to others and then
Speaker 1: to you know, other generations. And these are all examples
Speaker 1: of them. This is just these are just the grossest,
Speaker 1: trashiest examples that I could find. So you're welcome.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, this episode, you know, you're really uh, you're
Speaker 2: really testing the audience with this one a little bit.
Speaker 1: I feel like I gave them appropriate amounts of warning.
Speaker 2: You did, you really did. In fact, at one point
Speaker 2: you told them not to listen at all.
Speaker 1: At one point I told them to throw their phone
Speaker 1: into the ocean and never listen to a podcast again.
Speaker 1: But that's just how it is. Sometimes we're gonna end
Speaker 1: the episode with something a little more, a little more friendly.
Speaker 1: So I like to play a little game called Guess
Speaker 1: Who's squawk on the Mystery Animal Sound Game. Every week
Speaker 1: I play Mystery Animal sound and you the listener, and
Speaker 1: you the guests, try to guess who is making that sound.
Speaker 1: Last week's Mystery Animal sound hint was this Some people
Speaker 1: just have a prickly personality. All right, So did you
Speaker 1: hear those pathetic little sound? Oh? I sure did, and
Speaker 1: I think I can guess. All right, what do you think,
Speaker 1: Carmen porcupine? You are absolutely correct. Congratulations to the fastest
Speaker 1: guesser's grant w Miriam R, Emily M. And Jared M
Speaker 1: for guessing correctly as well. This is a baby North
Speaker 1: American porcupine named Spike who is upset because he fell
Speaker 1: off a porch and someone uh with very heavy duty
Speaker 1: gloves picked him up and gently put him back next
Speaker 1: to his mom, but the baby was not having it.
Speaker 2: That is an upsetting experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, clip off of the porch, right, And apparently it's
Speaker 1: one that porcupines have quite a bit, because they are uh,
Speaker 1: they fall out of trees a lot, uh, and they're
Speaker 1: relatively clumsy, so much so that they have developed a
Speaker 1: special adaptation for their clumsiness and getting impaled by their
Speaker 1: own spikes.
Speaker 2: They have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have antibiotics in their skin in case they
Speaker 1: fall and stick themselves with their own bills.
Speaker 2: What. Yeah, well, I'm glad they have antibiotics in their
Speaker 2: own skin.
Speaker 1: But ouch also ouch also get indeed, ouch indeed also, Uh,
Speaker 1: that is a that is a problem, like when you
Speaker 1: were covered in very sharp spines and some and you
Speaker 1: like fall a lot. It is a thing that can
Speaker 1: happen where you do put poke yourself, uh with your
Speaker 1: own spines. Uh. And so their skin has antibiotics natural
Speaker 1: antibiotics in it to prevent infection. Uh. And then they
Speaker 1: make terribly cute noises the whole time they're bumbling around.
Speaker 1: Oh there's so Yeah. I love their survival strategy of
Speaker 1: being really cute, possibly quite stupid, but just so spiky
Speaker 1: nobody can really do anything about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's you know, you don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about people bugging you if you're spiky, but you could
Speaker 2: just kind of exist and be adorable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, exactly. So they're well, you coke yourself sometimes too.
Speaker 1: It ain't that the truth though, And you got a
Speaker 1: prickly personality sometimes you poke yourself. That's uh. I bet
Speaker 1: everyone wonders, why why didn't you become a therapist or
Speaker 1: a life coach when I come up with these things
Speaker 1: mm hmmm hmm. Anyways, uh onto this week's mystery animal sound.
Speaker 1: The hint is this start your engines. I got any guesses, Carmen,
Speaker 1: aren't your engines?
Speaker 2: Is the hint? I mean, I want to say a bird,
Speaker 2: but that's all as far as I can get. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 2: is that right?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Mostly, No, that's okay. I didn't say you're ready either.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I don't mean to.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I prefer the accuracy. Also, the
Speaker 2: most big is it a bird? You know?
Speaker 1: You know you gotta you gotta start somewhere and starting
Speaker 1: with is it a bird? That's that's a perfectly valid attempt.
Speaker 1: It's wrong, It's terribly terribly wrong. But it's not it's
Speaker 1: not even a bird. You're completely wrong. You don't win anything,
Speaker 1: but you tried, and that that's something.
Speaker 2: That's a you know, trying, as they say, is a
Speaker 2: win in itself.
Speaker 1: Except for that, I've never heard anyone what are you
Speaker 1: talking about?
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I heard somebody say that, and by somebody,
Speaker 2: I mean myself at this moment. But but you know,
Speaker 2: I respect and I understand that it is not a bird.
Speaker 1: Well, you don't win anything except for the knowledge that
Speaker 1: you are incorrect. And uh, but if you out there
Speaker 1: think you know who might be making this sound, please
Speaker 1: write to me at Creature Future pot at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: I promise I won't be mean to you like I
Speaker 1: am to call Carman. But she's strong and she can
Speaker 1: take it.
Speaker 2: I am very strong. And for those who are trying
Speaker 2: to guess, it's not a bird, so don't.
Speaker 1: It's not a bird, she's actually really helped all of
Speaker 1: you by ruling out all birds. So it's not a bird.
Speaker 2: Bird.
Speaker 1: That's a huge gent You've done a great service to
Speaker 1: the community.
Speaker 2: You're welcome. Yeah, I lost your game exactly.
Speaker 1: She took one for the team. She's a martyr, true.
Speaker 2: Carman.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on and joining us.
Speaker 1: It was also fantastic to see you again. Uh. Tell
Speaker 1: the people where they can find your work.
Speaker 2: Well, if you watch The Daily Show, you can see
Speaker 2: many of my pieces that I direct air there. Otherwise
Speaker 2: it's a little she's.
Speaker 1: A little show called The Daily Show. You've probably never
Speaker 1: heard of it. It's like it's really niche. It's really niche.
Speaker 1: It's like this little indie show called The Daily Show.
Speaker 1: Hardly any part of it.
Speaker 2: Uh. And if you want to see my specific work,
Speaker 2: you can go to my website Carmen Angelica dot com.
Speaker 2: And uh, otherwise, you know, I guess yeah, that's kind
Speaker 2: of where most of the information for me is. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: maybe the next time I'm on this podcast so that
Speaker 2: I can learn more about animals.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I'll have you back on, and I will
Speaker 1: try to find even worse things to talk about next time.
Speaker 2: I did request things be pretty pretty gross for my benefits.
Speaker 1: You know, she's lying to cover for me. I sprung
Speaker 1: that with no warning.
Speaker 2: You know, listen, that's that's how much I like you. Yeah, like,
Speaker 2: I take I want to I'll take the gross thing.
Speaker 1: I did send an email a few hours earlier ago,
Speaker 1: I like, is this okay? Are you gonna be all right?
Speaker 2: Is this? And and I'm really and I'm really strong
Speaker 2: as as a discussing, I'm very strong. I can handle those.
Speaker 2: And so are all of you. Stuck for all of
Speaker 2: you science, This is what it takes to know and
Speaker 2: fully understand science.
Speaker 1: This is sometimes you got a way through the p
Speaker 1: and the very horny macaques to really get to the science.
Speaker 1: And you can put that on a piece of wood
Speaker 1: in a lot of different fontsh A.
Speaker 2: Very long one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that one shorter got a way
Speaker 1: through keey and horny macaque to get to the science.
Speaker 1: That's not so bad.
Speaker 2: That's not even a paragraph that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it'll fit. It'll fit on like a normal
Speaker 1: sized board. I think if and you use a lot
Speaker 1: of curly fonts and it'll be good. And guys, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for during I mean to day. If
Speaker 1: you want to have a guess or the Creature Feature
Speaker 1: Special super special game be guess Who's squawking? You can
Speaker 1: write to me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: If you have any questions I you can also write
Speaker 1: to me. I occasionally do listener questions about animals and
Speaker 1: evolutionary biology. If you've got pictures of your pets, send
Speaker 1: those right to me. Right in there. Get those in there.
Speaker 1: And if you leave a rating or review, that tangibly
Speaker 1: helps me and the podcast, and I appreciate and I
Speaker 1: read all of them. And thank you so much to
Speaker 1: the Space Cossacks for their super awesome song. XO Lumina.
Speaker 1: Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like
Speaker 1: the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or Hey guess what?
Speaker 2: Maybe listen to your favorite.
Speaker 1: Shows not your mother. I can't tell you what to do,
Speaker 1: but please don't flip the bins over, put the garbage
Speaker 1: in the bins so the cockatoos can be the one
Speaker 1: and make a huge mess of things because honestly, they
Speaker 1: deserve it. They deserve everything they want, those little dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: See you next Wednesday
Speaker 2: By H.