Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Future production of My Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host A Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show we are
Speaker 1: doing another listener question episode. But first I have an announcement.
Speaker 1: So I am actually undergoing a big move to a
Speaker 1: new place physically in the world, which means I have
Speaker 1: to take a few weeks off so I can get
Speaker 1: all my stuff and a big old bundle and a
Speaker 1: big old backpack and start trekking my way all the
Speaker 1: way across the country. Uh. So that means I will
Speaker 1: need a few weeks off to do everything. But do
Speaker 1: not worry, I will be back. I am still going
Speaker 1: to do the podcast, and in fact, I will be
Speaker 1: back for a new season. I don't now that I'm
Speaker 1: recording this, I don't remember what season we are. I
Speaker 1: think it's season three. I think it's season three. So
Speaker 1: season three is coming up. It is gonna premiere on
Speaker 1: September eight. But before you panic thinking or what the heck,
Speaker 1: how what am I gonna do with that creature feature
Speaker 1: between now and September eight, Well, don't you worry. I'm
Speaker 1: going to have during this time. Uh, some listener question
Speaker 1: episodes just like this one. I'm also going to have
Speaker 1: some old episodes that I am going to dig up
Speaker 1: from the way back is the pod closet, These old tapes,
Speaker 1: old dusty old tapes, you know, wipe the dust off
Speaker 1: of them, gonna re upload them, do some do some
Speaker 1: little fix ups, little edits here and there with little
Speaker 1: little intros and yes, so just some of my favorite
Speaker 1: episodes that I've done over the years that I'm going
Speaker 1: to revitalize, do a little spit shine on so you
Speaker 1: can listen to them. So I will still be putting
Speaker 1: out episodes every week until we're back. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: I really appreciate everybody for listening to the podcast all
Speaker 1: this time. Now I'm so excited for season three. I've
Speaker 1: got got big plans, big plans, just big elephant sized plans.
Speaker 1: It's not like an actual elephant. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: have an elephant on the show. I really looked into
Speaker 1: that option though, I gave it serious thought, but unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it's hard to get a mic stand to the level
Speaker 1: of an elephant and get getting all the levels right.
Speaker 1: It's really hard. If you do any audio editing, you
Speaker 1: know how hard it is. To do a podcast with
Speaker 1: an elephant's very difficult. But other than that, I I
Speaker 1: have some some good plans, some fun, fun new segments
Speaker 1: I think we can do on the show. So I'm
Speaker 1: very excited and I cannot wait to come back for
Speaker 1: season three. And in the meantime, please enjoy the listener
Speaker 1: question at a sods and my old episodes because they
Speaker 1: are some of my favorites. I think you'll really like them.
Speaker 1: So let's get right into the listener questions, you guys.
Speaker 1: So this week for listener questions, I thought I would
Speaker 1: focus on a theme, and that theme it's pets. We
Speaker 1: love our pets, but not just the kiddies and the doggies.
Speaker 1: We love all pets. And here's the first question. It
Speaker 1: is from James on Twitter, who wrote to me, what's
Speaker 1: up with the cutest animal? Hermit Crabs? So? I had
Speaker 1: a hermit crab as a pet when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: and I gotta say, not the best pet. I loved it,
Speaker 1: I really did love it. But it's favorite thing to
Speaker 1: do was crawl inside my armpit, pinched my skin and
Speaker 1: not let go until I literally had to use tweezers
Speaker 1: too delicately, Priy, its claws open so it would release me,
Speaker 1: which you know, I don't think was fun for either
Speaker 1: me or the hermit crab, to be honest, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was trying to see if my arm pit
Speaker 1: could be its new home. Was hoping. Maybe I don't know. Also,
Speaker 1: if you have a hermit crab as a pet, it
Speaker 1: actually requires a lot of care to keep it healthy
Speaker 1: and alive. You need to provide new, bigger shells for
Speaker 1: it as it grows. It needs moisture, it needs food,
Speaker 1: it needs space. Uh. If you're ever looking into getting
Speaker 1: a pet, even one as simple as a hermit crab,
Speaker 1: definitely do a lot of research beforehand so you know
Speaker 1: you have the right environment and the right resources for it.
Speaker 1: Because they are delicate creatures. Despite their hard looking exterior,
Speaker 1: they're actually quite soft on the inside, as you will
Speaker 1: find as we discuss so. Hermit crabs are a family
Speaker 1: of very interesting crustaceans that famously do not grow their
Speaker 1: own shells. Instead of investing in armor, they grow themselves.
Speaker 1: Like most of their decapod cousins, like crabs and lobsters,
Speaker 1: hermit crabs don't armor their abdomens and instead rely on
Speaker 1: the protection of abandoned shells from ed molluscs, So why
Speaker 1: invest your own resources into something you can scavenge. This
Speaker 1: is the strategy of the hermit crab. Its claws and
Speaker 1: fore limbs have a hard exoskeleton, but it's abdomen is
Speaker 1: soft and curls inwards to one side. Kind of looks
Speaker 1: like a little macaroni noodle attached to this hermit crab.
Speaker 1: It can be quite surprising to see the actual body
Speaker 1: of a hermit crab if you've never seen that. So
Speaker 1: this curled shape allows it to anchor itself into an
Speaker 1: abandoned spiraling shell. Hermit crabs are both land dwelling and
Speaker 1: marine dwelling. Uh there are some hermit crabs that have
Speaker 1: specially adapted for the land and some who mostly spend
Speaker 1: their time in the ocean. So land dwelling hermit crabs
Speaker 1: can breathe as long as their gills are kept moist,
Speaker 1: whereas primarily marine dwelling hermit crabs. They can breed for
Speaker 1: a limited amount of time if their gills are moist,
Speaker 1: but mostly they do the water. So as hermit crabs grow,
Speaker 1: they must find new, bigger shells. So normally, if you
Speaker 1: have another decapod another crustacean. They have that hard exoskeleton
Speaker 1: that they will grow out of. So what they do
Speaker 1: is they crack that old exo skeleton, they shed it,
Speaker 1: they hide while they grow their new exoskeleton. Hermit crabs
Speaker 1: instead of doing that, they exit their old shell that
Speaker 1: they scavenge from some other mollusk, and then they find
Speaker 1: a new shell that some dead mollusk left behind and
Speaker 1: they use that as their new upgraded home as they grow.
Speaker 1: Often uh they use the shells of sea snails, but
Speaker 1: other shells will do as well. Some hermit crab species
Speaker 1: will even use chunks of dead wood or immobile structures
Speaker 1: such as abandoned coral Hermit crabs will often compete with
Speaker 1: other hermit crabs over idea eel shells, but sometimes there
Speaker 1: is a fair amount of cooperation that is truly incredible
Speaker 1: to see. So if a hermit crab finds a shell
Speaker 1: that is a bit too large, it will actually hold
Speaker 1: onto that shell and return to its original cramped shell,
Speaker 1: and then it waits for a hermit crab to approach
Speaker 1: the large shell if it fits this newcomer. That means
Speaker 1: that the first hermit crab can have the larger crabs
Speaker 1: old home, which is probably going to be the perfect
Speaker 1: size for this hermit crab. I imagine you go to
Speaker 1: the store and you're buying a pair of jeans and
Speaker 1: you find a pair of jeans that's just one size
Speaker 1: too big for you, but you hold onto them. And
Speaker 1: someone comes up to you who's a little bigger than you,
Speaker 1: and they've got some old jeans that they've grown out
Speaker 1: of that would probably fit you perfectly, And you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: what about these genes that are a little bit too
Speaker 1: big for me? And so you swap jeans. Now you
Speaker 1: have a pair of jeans that fits perfectly, but also
Speaker 1: you live in of jeans and you never leave the
Speaker 1: jeans until you get bigger, which now that I'm talking
Speaker 1: about has kind of been my lifestyle lately. But anyways,
Speaker 1: So what this results in is a congo line of
Speaker 1: hermit crabs who are exchanging shells with each other. So
Speaker 1: it's this chain of hermit crabs trading homes one size up.
Speaker 1: So it's like, all right, I've got a shell, it's
Speaker 1: too small for me. I found a shell it's too
Speaker 1: big for me. You're big enough for this new shell.
Speaker 1: You take off your old chill, I take that I
Speaker 1: don't need my old smaller shell. And then a smaller
Speaker 1: hermit crab is going to see that and say like,
Speaker 1: oh well, I can take this even smaller shell and
Speaker 1: shed my shell. And then a smaller hermit crab was like,
Speaker 1: oh okay, but now I can get this shell. So
Speaker 1: lines of hermit crabs trading houses. The next h G
Speaker 1: TV reality show swapping hermit shell houses coming to a
Speaker 1: TV in some kind of ocean near you. Here is
Speaker 1: another email about Pet's fellow Katie. First of all, I
Speaker 1: love your show so much. I'm excited for the week's topic.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I've always loved animals and science classes so
Speaker 1: much that a lot of my time I've spent researching
Speaker 1: random animals of my own actually have a question for
Speaker 1: you or the pod. I have a cockatial named Cora,
Speaker 1: and she is just full of radiant personality, like hissing
Speaker 1: at me for looking in her direction and adoring my mom.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if she may actually experience spite and
Speaker 1: keep track of people's actions parents similar to Corvid's thriving
Speaker 1: group living and can communicate a lot to each other
Speaker 1: and seem to experience a wide array of emotions, so
Speaker 1: I think she may be experiencing more than the simple
Speaker 1: observed risk aversions. Thank you so much for your amazing
Speaker 1: and hilarious content on Creature Future. You really make my
Speaker 1: week all the time. All thank you so much. And
Speaker 1: this is from Anthony, and Anthony sent me a bird
Speaker 1: hacks uh who who. He reassured me that that Cora
Speaker 1: is a vet certified to be a beefy lady. She
Speaker 1: is larger relative to other cockatils and with muscle in
Speaker 1: a tiny bit of stomach pudge, but she's healthy and beautiful.
Speaker 1: Thank you for this picture of the cute chunk of
Speaker 1: feathers that is Cora. Amazing, beautiful, glorious, radiant. So you
Speaker 1: are correct. Cockatiels and other parrots are highly social and
Speaker 1: extremely intelligent. In fact, this means that, as you probably
Speaker 1: know Anthony, having one as a pet is a massive commitment.
Speaker 1: They require constant social attention and affection and experience very
Speaker 1: complex social emotions. So in terms of your question, is
Speaker 1: it experiencing spite does it have these sort of more
Speaker 1: sophisticated emotions, I would say that's very likely. Studies have
Speaker 1: demonstrated that cockatiels have a deep under standing of complex
Speaker 1: cognitive concepts such as object permanence. Object permanence is something
Speaker 1: that humans have to learn as young babies. They we
Speaker 1: go through a period of time where we have to
Speaker 1: learn about object permanence as we grow into toddlerhood. So
Speaker 1: the fact that cockatiels have this sense of object permanence
Speaker 1: is very promising for their intelligence. Cockatils do hiss, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, and typically hissing is to express annoyance, although
Speaker 1: there is an exception. Male cockatiels will sometimes hiss as
Speaker 1: part of their courtship rituals. So if it looks at
Speaker 1: you and hisses, has definitely given you some attitude. So
Speaker 1: cockatils in the wild demonstrate complex social behaviors. They are
Speaker 1: endemic to Australia, meaning that's the only place that they
Speaker 1: are found in the wild. They're one of the smaller
Speaker 1: members of the cockatoo family. They have a yellow face
Speaker 1: and a crest and rosy red cheeks and a gray
Speaker 1: body plumage. They are highly social. They live at least
Speaker 1: in pairs, if not in large flocks. Sometimes up to
Speaker 1: a hundred cockatiels can flock together. They use their crests
Speaker 1: as a way to signal their emotions. Perked up crests,
Speaker 1: that little little the crest is that little feathery whoop
Speaker 1: on top of their head, if you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, the little, the little lootle bopper right on
Speaker 1: top of their head. It's adorable. Perked Up crests can
Speaker 1: indicate excitement, while flattened crests can indicate anger or defensiveness.
Speaker 1: But there are less obvious angles of the crest, such
Speaker 1: as nearly flat but kind of sticking out in the back,
Speaker 1: which males sometimes do to appear attractive to females, like
Speaker 1: they're doing slick back hair or something. Sometimes they have
Speaker 1: the crest at like a forty five degree angle when
Speaker 1: they're relaxed. It can be hard as a human to
Speaker 1: always read a cockatiel's crest expressions, but if you can
Speaker 1: get a handle of it, you will be able to
Speaker 1: better understand your cockateal. If you're thinking about adopting a cockatiel,
Speaker 1: I would really research them because they can live to
Speaker 1: be over twenty five years old, and they need a
Speaker 1: lot of space to exercise outside the cage and huge
Speaker 1: amounts of lug and attention. I think in some ways,
Speaker 1: intelligent birds like a cockateal can be a bigger commitment
Speaker 1: than a dog, and certainly other parrot species can be
Speaker 1: a much much bigger commitment because they live such a
Speaker 1: long time and they're like I've said this before, but
Speaker 1: it's like a two year old's brain for some of
Speaker 1: these birds, like cockatoos and parrots and macause, it's like
Speaker 1: putting a two year old's brain in a dinosaur's body
Speaker 1: with a very powerful beak that can break through nuts.
Speaker 1: So you've got to really think about if you want
Speaker 1: to deal with that responsibility. Cockatels are a little easier
Speaker 1: to take care of than something like a cockatoo, but
Speaker 1: there's still a huge commitment. Like I said, they can
Speaker 1: live to be over twenty five years old, and they
Speaker 1: need so much social attention. You need to have that
Speaker 1: time to be able to give them that love and attention. Uh.
Speaker 1: Budgies or parakeets as they're called, are less intensive. They
Speaker 1: still need socialization. They're going to be the happiest if
Speaker 1: you have them in a group or in pairs, but
Speaker 1: they don't live as long, they don't need as much space.
Speaker 1: They live to be about five to eight years old.
Speaker 1: So if you really love birds, but you don't think
Speaker 1: you have the time commitment for a cockatial I would
Speaker 1: advise getting something like a like a finch or or um.
Speaker 1: You know, but if you really want that social interaction
Speaker 1: with a bird, but you you're maybe kind of a
Speaker 1: little concerned about having the commitment of something like a cockateal.
Speaker 1: Parakeets are highly social, but they aren't quite as they
Speaker 1: don't live as long as they don't need as much
Speaker 1: as a cockatil does. But they still need attention and
Speaker 1: they really do like to be in pairs. They really
Speaker 1: enjoy each other's company. Large cockatoos, such as the sulfur
Speaker 1: crusted cocka two, can be a huge responsibility. It is
Speaker 1: like having a screaming dinosaur with a toddler brain, and
Speaker 1: they can live to be over sixty years old. So
Speaker 1: if you're interested in owning a bird, really do a
Speaker 1: lot of research and think about whether your lifestyle will
Speaker 1: work with the needs of these little flying literal dinosaurs. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you have the resources, time, and emotional
Speaker 1: capacity to take care of a cockatil, they can be
Speaker 1: extremely affectionate, very rewarding, and form a very intense bond
Speaker 1: with you. It is absolutely right or die with birds.
Speaker 1: I am a huge lover with birds, but I know
Speaker 1: my limitations. I don't think I could ever own a
Speaker 1: bird more complicated than a finch um with my current lifestyle,
Speaker 1: even though I have a dog and she requires a
Speaker 1: lot of attention. But that's part of it. God, this
Speaker 1: would be such a jealous household if I had to
Speaker 1: manage the emotional needs of my dog and of a bird.
Speaker 1: Oh the drama. Well, I'm avoiding that time to talk
Speaker 1: about cats. It's cats times. Sometimes I feel like I
Speaker 1: don't talk about cats enough. I love cats. I'm a
Speaker 1: currently a dog owner. I want to get a cat
Speaker 1: because my dog seems to accept the presence of cats,
Speaker 1: and she actually likes cats a lot more than she
Speaker 1: likes other dogs. So big cat lover grew up with cats.
Speaker 1: So I'm delighted to answer this email about cats. Hi, Katie,
Speaker 1: I've been meaning to write for ages to tell you
Speaker 1: how much I enjoy your podcast. Thank you, it was
Speaker 1: especially helpful during the pandemic. I'm so glad. I'm really
Speaker 1: happy to hear that. Here are a few photos of
Speaker 1: my current kitties, Pangaia and Physic wonderful names. Pangaea, my
Speaker 1: eight year old female is the smaller dilute tortoiseshell one,
Speaker 1: and Physics seven year old male is a larger, buff
Speaker 1: colored cat. I've seen these cats. I can confirm to
Speaker 1: you the listener, they are adorable. So I have a
Speaker 1: couple of cat related questions. When Pangia plays, she often
Speaker 1: likes turning her head so she's looking at me up
Speaker 1: side down. Any idea why that's a good angle. She
Speaker 1: also makes little noises during the day, not me owing
Speaker 1: except when she wants my attention, but little grunts and
Speaker 1: other small noises, kind of like she's muttering to herself.
Speaker 1: I have a friend who has a cat who makes
Speaker 1: similar noises, but until these two, I hadn't run into
Speaker 1: cats who made noises like that. Do you know if
Speaker 1: there might be any meaning behind it? Thanks again for
Speaker 1: your podcast, Erica. Thank you so much, Erica, not only
Speaker 1: for your kind words, but your beautiful pictures of your
Speaker 1: wonderful little kitty cats and for your cool question. I
Speaker 1: love kitties. I, like I said, I had cats growing up.
Speaker 1: I'm probably riddled with toxoplasmosis. Uh, that's probably why I
Speaker 1: love cats so much. But anyways, as someone who loved
Speaker 1: both dogs and cats, I really enjoy noting the difference
Speaker 1: between these two animals. Dogs co evolved with us in
Speaker 1: a way that makes it almost intuitive for us to
Speaker 1: communicate a dog's body expressions, I think are pretty easily
Speaker 1: read by a human. Uh. And dogs have gotten undergone
Speaker 1: these immense changes from when they're wolves. But cats, they
Speaker 1: basically figured, I'm already perfect. I don't need to change
Speaker 1: for you humans, Like I'm gonna stay as cat as
Speaker 1: I can be. So once we started having a grarian
Speaker 1: society's cats noticed all the rodent problems we had with
Speaker 1: our grain. Like I noticed you got a mouse problem.
Speaker 1: I can take care of them, maybe for a little
Speaker 1: dish of milk, you know, just asking for a little
Speaker 1: a little bit off the top of your milk, and
Speaker 1: I can take care of your mouse problem, no problem.
Speaker 1: And that's uh, that's how we formed this mutually beneficial
Speaker 1: relationship with these cute little murder beasts. So uh. They
Speaker 1: were good for our grain supplies, probably good at preventing
Speaker 1: the spread of disease by killing rats and mice. And
Speaker 1: we had this, we formed a business partnership. So that's
Speaker 1: why house cat behavior is not all that different from
Speaker 1: the behaviors of wild felines, they really didn't have to
Speaker 1: evolve much to be accepted into human society. They're kind
Speaker 1: of lifestyle worked with ours, whereas with wolves, wolves are
Speaker 1: much more aggressive. They're they're kind of lifestyle as wolves
Speaker 1: in the wild didn't really jell as well with humans.
Speaker 1: So wolves had to go undergo a domestication in order
Speaker 1: to fit into our lifestyle. And so that's why a
Speaker 1: dog is. Their behavior and their appearance is much more
Speaker 1: different from a wolf than say a domesticated cat or
Speaker 1: a I guess a house cat, compared to say, like
Speaker 1: a wildcat. You may see some species of wildcat. You
Speaker 1: look at a cat, it's like, well, their coat color
Speaker 1: is kind of different, but they're basic attitudes and and
Speaker 1: uh behaviors are are pretty similar. Now that's not to
Speaker 1: say wildcats are just like housecats that you can pick
Speaker 1: up in love and they'll be perfectly fine. No, but
Speaker 1: they are. Their behavior can be remarkably s miller and
Speaker 1: uh that's why some of their quirks are just so
Speaker 1: strange to us and so hard to understand what they're doing.
Speaker 1: You may be baffled when a cat rolls over on
Speaker 1: its back it exposes it's belly. You think, oh, you
Speaker 1: want a belly rub. You try to rub the belly. Nope,
Speaker 1: it was a trap. Now you've got an angry cat
Speaker 1: scratching your eyes out. Uh. When dogs roll over onto
Speaker 1: their backs, we think, okay, it's a belly rub, and
Speaker 1: they often are asking for a belly rubs. But in
Speaker 1: cat language, it's like cats are speaking Greek and we're speaking, uh,
Speaker 1: some other language than Greek. It's so hard to understand them.
Speaker 1: When cats roll over onto their back, uh, it may
Speaker 1: be a signal that hey, I trust you. Uh. It
Speaker 1: rarely means they actually want belly rubs. Some cats might.
Speaker 1: You know, cats have very different personalities. Some of them
Speaker 1: will be real oddballs. Like I had two cats growing up.
Speaker 1: One was, you're very classic like grumpy cat. She was,
Speaker 1: she had an attitude, she had pride. She was gray, paceful,
Speaker 1: a great hunter, and she would flame mice in front
Speaker 1: of my eyes, and she would accept pets if I
Speaker 1: did them in a very respectful way. My other cat
Speaker 1: couldn't kill a fly. He was a goof as he
Speaker 1: was scared of his own shadow. And he uh would
Speaker 1: want to like sit on my chest with his face
Speaker 1: in my face every morning. So just very different behaviors
Speaker 1: from different cats, um, but generally speaking, a cat rolling
Speaker 1: on its back means it's comfortable with you, and it's
Speaker 1: showing you it's belly because it's saying like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not afraid you're going to attack my belly
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna like get me in these sensitive areas,
Speaker 1: so it's comfortable. In terms of cats turning their heads
Speaker 1: upside down, sometimes a friendly cat will turn their head
Speaker 1: upside down and like rub it on the ground because
Speaker 1: they are leaving a pheromone marking on the things that
Speaker 1: they feel at home with. But your cat is just
Speaker 1: sitting there with its head like turned upside down and
Speaker 1: it's not rubbing anything, and it's just looking at you.
Speaker 1: I don't really know what that means. My best guess
Speaker 1: is your cat is curious about what you're doing, and
Speaker 1: she's trying to get another angle on you, just trying
Speaker 1: to get a different view of different perspective to maybe
Speaker 1: better figure out like what's going on with you. Especially
Speaker 1: if she's playful, she may be trying to get sort
Speaker 1: of a new perspective of what you're doing, playing around,
Speaker 1: having a good time, getting a getting a good view
Speaker 1: as for muttering around the house. So this is another
Speaker 1: thing where it's really remarkable to me. Different cats often
Speaker 1: make different vocalizations. I had a cat who would chirp
Speaker 1: at birds, whereas the other one really wouldn't as much.
Speaker 1: But cats do chatter at birds. Uh. The reason they
Speaker 1: do this is something of a mystery. There's a number
Speaker 1: of theories. It could be excitement, it could be frustration
Speaker 1: and not being able to chase the bird. It could
Speaker 1: be a form of mimicry. There's a there's a cat,
Speaker 1: a wildcat called the margart cat, which is it looks
Speaker 1: kind of like an awful lot if you know what
Speaker 1: that looks like. It's sort of got rounded ears, a
Speaker 1: spotted pelt. It's one of the it's a smaller wildcat
Speaker 1: but weighs up to about eight pounds or four kilograms,
Speaker 1: and it lives in Central America, Brazil, Paraguay and sort
Speaker 1: of tropical UH forests. And it mimics the sound of
Speaker 1: a crying baby monkey. So they actually love to eat
Speaker 1: uh monkeys, small mammals, and so they will mimic this
Speaker 1: cry of a pied tamar and baby So pied tamar
Speaker 1: is very little monkey, very cute um, but for the
Speaker 1: margar it's a wonderful meal. So they will pretend to
Speaker 1: be the sound like this little crying monkey, and then
Speaker 1: that seems to cause other monkeys to go out to
Speaker 1: investigate and oops, it was a trap. It's actually pretty
Speaker 1: insidious when you think about it. The cat is pretending
Speaker 1: to be a crying baby, and then when the monkeys
Speaker 1: go and investigate because they want to help, they get eaten.
Speaker 1: Quite devilish. But in terms of house cats, we don't
Speaker 1: know if they chirp to try to attract birds. That's
Speaker 1: not not anything proven, but we do see in the
Speaker 1: wild that there there is an example of a wildcat
Speaker 1: that does use its vocalization is a form of mimicry,
Speaker 1: so that is that is potentially possible. Another theory is
Speaker 1: that cats have an instinctive activation of the throat and
Speaker 1: mouth muscles when they see prey because that's what they
Speaker 1: use to like bite the prey. So they're making this
Speaker 1: a little like chirping squeaking sound because they want to
Speaker 1: bite it, which I don't know if that's true, but
Speaker 1: whatever the case is, it's very cute. Uh. In terms
Speaker 1: of your cat just kind of muttering, not in the
Speaker 1: presence of birds, just kind of stomping around the house
Speaker 1: and muttering to itself. Uh, there's a variety of meetings
Speaker 1: for cat grunts. Some cats are just more vocal than
Speaker 1: other cats. They'll just make noises when they move, and
Speaker 1: it's hard to know exactly what that is. You kind
Speaker 1: of have to use context for what their little grunts mean.
Speaker 1: If the cat is content and happy, they're probably just
Speaker 1: making happy little noises just you know, cats like to
Speaker 1: Cats like to make noises when they're happy. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: do a little meal, sometimes they prayer. Sometimes they can
Speaker 1: just like little make little grunts. So it could be
Speaker 1: a sign there just chilling, having a good time, just
Speaker 1: almost like whistling to itself or something. Uh. If the
Speaker 1: cat is uncomfortable, she may be voicing annoyance or displeasure.
Speaker 1: So in order to understand the cat lingo, you've kind
Speaker 1: of got to take in the cat's body language. In general,
Speaker 1: vibe you gotta vibe check your cat all the time.
Speaker 1: Vibe checking a cat is a complex procedure, uh, multifaceted operation.
Speaker 1: Best of luck to you vibe checking your cats. But
Speaker 1: from what I can tell from these photos, these are
Speaker 1: happy kitties and they're probably baby making, happy little grunts.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys so much for tuning into my
Speaker 1: Pets Listener Questions episode. If you have a question about
Speaker 1: your pet or about an animal, about a strange creature
Speaker 1: that's been stalking you in the night, send me your
Speaker 1: questions at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. You
Speaker 1: can find me on Instagram at Creature Feature Pod. You
Speaker 1: can also find me on Twitter at Creature feet Pod.
Speaker 1: That's not et that is something very different. And if
Speaker 1: you're enjoying the show and you leave a rating and review,
Speaker 1: I read all the reviews and I appreciate them. I
Speaker 1: really do. And of course, as always, thanks for the
Speaker 1: Space classics where they're super awesome. Song excel Lumina. And
Speaker 1: again we will be back for season three. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's season three on September eight, with all new episodes,
Speaker 1: all new animals, all new terrifying stories about about creatures. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I can't wait to see see you guys again.
Speaker 1: And I mean that because I've got all sorts of
Speaker 1: spies all over the world. That you see a bird outside,
Speaker 1: that's probably me spying on you with my spy birds.
Speaker 1: You can't wait to see you guys again for season
Speaker 1: three and uh but again. In the meantime, we've got
Speaker 1: oldies but goodies that I'm refurbishing, fit shining for you
Speaker 1: to listen to. Uh so stay tuned for those. Creature
Speaker 1: features a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: like the one you just heard, visit the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcast, or Hey, guess what where have
Speaker 1: you listened to your favorite shows? See you next Wednesday
Speaker 1: and see you in September for season three.