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 the show, it's a listener Questions episode.
Speaker 1: I answer all of your evolutionary biology, animal, pet, bird,
Speaker 1: and space and time questions, and I answer emails that
Speaker 1: are sent to Creature Feature Product gmail dot com. By
Speaker 1: the way, if you have a question you would like
Speaker 1: me to answer, so let's get right into these emails
Speaker 1: of amazing questions about animals. So this email is called
Speaker 1: bird clocks Questions. Hi, Katie, I wanted to ask about
Speaker 1: bird's ability to tell time. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: I had a job that had be on the same
Speaker 1: bench every day, and I began to put out peanuts
Speaker 1: every half hour so the pigeons would come and enact
Speaker 1: their complex dramatic in her personal lives in front of
Speaker 1: me for free entertainment. Wise choice highly suggest doing this.
Speaker 1: After a series of events that I won't get into
Speaker 1: for fear of this email being too long, one of
Speaker 1: the pigeons was shunned from the friend group and started
Speaker 1: showing up to my bench a little before the half
Speaker 1: hour mark to try and get some peanuts before anyone
Speaker 1: else showed up. He was coming before any of the
Speaker 1: clock towers rang, which was the indication I was using
Speaker 1: for the half hour mark. Is it more likely that
Speaker 1: there was some other half hourly indication of time this
Speaker 1: pigeon was using, or that this pigeon was simply better
Speaker 1: at telling time than I was. Thanks, Miriam, Hi, Miriam.
Speaker 1: So this is a great question. Can birds tell time?
Speaker 1: And if so, how where do they wear their little wristwatch?
Speaker 1: Do they even have risks? All right, first let's start
Speaker 1: with let's focus on pigeons, because that is the bird
Speaker 1: you're asking a out. So pigeons seem like relatively simple birds,
Speaker 1: maybe not the smartest birds out there. Right. They like
Speaker 1: our garbage, they like handouts, and they like our cities.
Speaker 1: They don't have the sophisticated problem solving intelligent of crows
Speaker 1: or the social intelligence of parrots. So it might be
Speaker 1: surprising to find that pigeons are relatively complex in their
Speaker 1: ability to reason, particularly temporal and spatial reasoning. So there
Speaker 1: have been studies on pigeons, fortunately in regards to their
Speaker 1: ability to navigate time and space. So a University of
Speaker 1: Iowa study called quote non cortical magnitude. Coding of space
Speaker 1: and time by pigeons looked into how pigeons processed spatial
Speaker 1: and temporal information. So in humans and in other mammals,
Speaker 1: time and space are mainly processed in the parietal cortex,
Speaker 1: an area of the brain sort of towards the back
Speaker 1: of your head. You know, if you've ever worn a bun,
Speaker 1: if you've ever done ballet or just worn a bun,
Speaker 1: it's kind of under that area. So the problem is
Speaker 1: pigeons don't have a parietal cortex, and that leads to
Speaker 1: a question can they understand time and space? So pigeons
Speaker 1: were allowed to play a sort of pigeony computer game
Speaker 1: in this study, so they were shown short or long lines,
Speaker 1: like it just a line on a computer screen, and
Speaker 1: the length differed both in geometric length like a short
Speaker 1: line versus a long line, and the time that the
Speaker 1: line was shown on screen, so a line that was
Speaker 1: displayed on the screen for a longer period of time
Speaker 1: versus a shorter period of time. So after the line
Speaker 1: was shown, the pigeons were presented with two buttons symbolizing
Speaker 1: short or long, so they were kind of trained. One
Speaker 1: of the buttons represented short, and one of the buttons
Speaker 1: represented long, and they were awarded when they got it right,
Speaker 1: and then they were given a novel set of questions
Speaker 1: for the study. So essentially they had to press the
Speaker 1: right answer either short in length or short in time
Speaker 1: length for these lines, and they were rewarded with a
Speaker 1: little treeo if they got things right, So they were
Speaker 1: highly motivated pigeons. The researchers found a few things. First,
Speaker 1: that pigeons can indeed make a pretty good judgment about
Speaker 1: geometric length and of time length. Secondly, like humans and primates,
Speaker 1: they get messed up when you say, have a long
Speaker 1: line shown on screen for a short amount of time,
Speaker 1: and then you ask them to give an answer about
Speaker 1: how long is this in geometric length and how long
Speaker 1: is this in temporal length. So mismatching like a long
Speaker 1: a physically long line short period of time, or short
Speaker 1: line for a long period of time kind of messes
Speaker 1: them up. But that's not because they're necessarily stupid. It
Speaker 1: also messes up us up and other mammals up. So pigeons,
Speaker 1: like humans and primates and mammals, may process geometric space
Speaker 1: and time space similarly, maybe using similar structures in the brain.
Speaker 1: So this does show pigeons can judge duration, and they
Speaker 1: can also judge geometric length. But how does it know
Speaker 1: what time to go and say, seek out your peanut
Speaker 1: offerings cleverly ahead of the other pigeons with whom I
Speaker 1: guess this pigeon had a dramatic falling out with the
Speaker 1: pigeon group. I'd love to be in on this pigeon
Speaker 1: group chat. But regardless, pigeons can seem to tell time
Speaker 1: throughout the day, and they likely ascertain time with both
Speaker 1: an internal clock and external visual cues from the positioning
Speaker 1: of the sun. So fortunately, there was an actual study
Speaker 1: done in two thousand and six investigating your specific pigeon problem.
Speaker 1: There's a study called representing the Richness of Avian spatial
Speaker 1: cognition properties of lateralized homing Pigeon Hippocampus. It's a long
Speaker 1: study name, but they were looking at pigeon brains how
Speaker 1: they cope with spatial temporal recognition. So the pigeons were
Speaker 1: familiarized with an outdoor arena or an indoor lab arena,
Speaker 1: and the indoor lab had an artificial sun, so the
Speaker 1: researchers would lay out seed only at certain times of day,
Speaker 1: and the birds were able to learn when and where
Speaker 1: the food was, so when experimenters messed with the bird's
Speaker 1: circadian rhythm, like by having their day night cycles messed up,
Speaker 1: the birds kept making spatial airs when it came to
Speaker 1: finding the food, and when the researchers made a lesion
Speaker 1: in the bird's hippocampus, they were never they were no
Speaker 1: longer able to use the position of the sun to
Speaker 1: find the food. So most likely what Miriam's pigeon is
Speaker 1: doing to get to these peanuts before the rest of
Speaker 1: the crowd is that they this pigeon is using its
Speaker 1: own internal circadian rhythm modulated by hormones, as well as
Speaker 1: external cues such as the position of the sun to
Speaker 1: find your peanuts and time and space to be at
Speaker 1: the correct exact location temporally and spatially so that it
Speaker 1: will receive a peanut. Because this is what pigeons are
Speaker 1: capable of once you motivate them. I'd be really curious
Speaker 1: to hear if your pigeon runs a little earlier late,
Speaker 1: depending on the weather, say it's like really overcast all day,
Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't have the sun to guide it as much.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that would cause little mistakes. It still
Speaker 1: has that internal circadian rhythm, so it could probably still
Speaker 1: make a reasonable guess as to what time it is,
Speaker 1: but maybe it's precision would be off a little bit.
Speaker 1: Curious to hear about that, but yeah, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Miriam for your email for being a friend to this outcast,
Speaker 1: highly intelligent pigeon. Okay, so this email is called yard maintenance?
Speaker 1: Is a bug loving hippie? Hi? I live alone for
Speaker 1: the first time in the middle of nowhere in the country. Repeatedly,
Speaker 1: me and my parents have butt heads on my lack
Speaker 1: of yard management, i e. Grass cutting, etc. From a
Speaker 1: biology standpoint, how do I balance having my yard be
Speaker 1: a wild place without my parents concern of me inviting
Speaker 1: in rats and such? Is it even that important? How
Speaker 1: do other animals maintain their spaces so I don't feel
Speaker 1: like an evil human for maintaining mine to other beings detriment?
Speaker 1: Is there a bear or an animal who's obsessed with
Speaker 1: having a flat, green lawn? Am I too much of
Speaker 1: a hippie? Thanks so much, Love your pod. This is
Speaker 1: from Seth Hi Seth, So this is a great question.
Speaker 1: Humans who love nature and animals often have a bit
Speaker 1: of a conundrum we may love wildlife, but we don't
Speaker 1: want to be exploited by certain urban animals like rats, mice, ticks, mosquitoes, roaches, etc.
Speaker 1: Whose presence in our home can be gross, if not
Speaker 1: outright dangerous to our health. So first things first, you
Speaker 1: are not evil for maintaining your home in such a
Speaker 1: way that is good for your health. So as much
Speaker 1: as I love animals, including things like rats and mice,
Speaker 1: having them in your home is not healthy. So I
Speaker 1: don't think you should feel guilty at all for trying
Speaker 1: to prevent that from happening. I'm very much in favor
Speaker 1: of prioritizing your health and safety inside your home. It's
Speaker 1: much better to try to prevent mice and rats from
Speaker 1: getting in your home by say, making sure you don't
Speaker 1: have food left out, a lot of nooks and crannies
Speaker 1: for them to hide in, that your house is nice
Speaker 1: and sealed, not leaving garbage bins open and accessible outside.
Speaker 1: I'll mention other techniques to keep them out of your home.
Speaker 1: So prevention is the best. So how do you keep
Speaker 1: pests out while having a nice natural yard that's not
Speaker 1: just kind of a golf course? Right? So I think
Speaker 1: it is possible, But let's get into it, because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of different things you can do. First of all,
Speaker 1: it kind of depends on your location, like what pests
Speaker 1: really present an issue in your location, right, Like what
Speaker 1: species of mice and rats live near where you live.
Speaker 1: It's always good to kind of be familiar with what
Speaker 1: diseases are present in your area, right because that kind
Speaker 1: of changes can change your risk toalants. Right Like, if
Speaker 1: you live somewhere where lime disease is a big deal,
Speaker 1: having tall grass might be too risky. Whereas if you
Speaker 1: live somewhere where lime disease is not really an issue,
Speaker 1: and there's not a lot of ticks, you know, you
Speaker 1: might want to have long grass and that might be fine.
Speaker 1: Same thing with mice and rats. You can kind of
Speaker 1: look into your area. You know, hantavirus things like that
Speaker 1: are very very rare. I wouldn't personally, like be too
Speaker 1: preoccupied with worrying about it, but it's always good to
Speaker 1: kind of know if that's something that happens in your area,
Speaker 1: and just be careful of having say like sheds or
Speaker 1: enclosed areas where mice and rats can get into where
Speaker 1: you would go in and then breathe, because that's how
Speaker 1: those kinds of diseases transmit. But yeah, so in general,
Speaker 1: just if you get familiar, like find out like where
Speaker 1: you live, what are the pests that are the most
Speaker 1: likely to cause your problems, and also if there's any
Speaker 1: diseases that are occur or are common in your area
Speaker 1: to watch out for, because again, I think it is
Speaker 1: really important to take care of your health as much
Speaker 1: as it is important to be friendly to wildlife. So
Speaker 1: once you know what you're dealing with, you're going to
Speaker 1: be better able to make risk assessments for what you're
Speaker 1: willing to put up with. Essentially, I would say if
Speaker 1: you live in an area with a lot of pests
Speaker 1: like ticks especially, but also mice and rats, tall grass
Speaker 1: is going to be a risk factor for those things
Speaker 1: either getting on you like ticks or getting in your
Speaker 1: home because ticks love tall grass, mice and rats love
Speaker 1: to hide around in tall grass, So if you have
Speaker 1: a lot of tall grass, yeah, that might be a problem.
Speaker 1: And I mean it's not even necessary. I feel like,
Speaker 1: I don't know where I've heard this notion, but I
Speaker 1: feel like there's an idea that like dead tall grass
Speaker 1: is bad because that's where all the ticks are, but
Speaker 1: actually ticks really like moist environments. If you have a
Speaker 1: really lush, tall wawnd, that actually might host a lot
Speaker 1: of ticks. So if you have pets, that might be
Speaker 1: a huge problem. And of course for you too, it
Speaker 1: might be an issue walking around in that unless you
Speaker 1: have paths that you can walk in or wear high
Speaker 1: socks or long pants all the time. So rats, they
Speaker 1: are attracted to yards with a lot of hiding spots
Speaker 1: and food resources. So rats love things like wood piles.
Speaker 1: So if you've got a great woodpile right next to
Speaker 1: your house, that might not be great if you live
Speaker 1: somewhere or there's a lot of rats and you can't
Speaker 1: be sure that your house is completely sealed after them,
Speaker 1: because they love being in the woodpile, and if that's
Speaker 1: like right up next to your house, that's a nice
Speaker 1: entry point for them. They also love unsecured structures, like
Speaker 1: if you've got that old, loose, open shed, rats are
Speaker 1: gonna love to go in there. Bird Seed, Now, this
Speaker 1: is one that's kind of sad, right because if you
Speaker 1: like to have a bird feeder or something out in
Speaker 1: your yard, that's also going to attract rats. So if
Speaker 1: rats are a problem, I would say you might actually
Speaker 1: want to get rid of that bird feeder, maybe repace
Speaker 1: it for a replace it with a bird fountain water fountain,
Speaker 1: because that is just as if not more important than
Speaker 1: a bird feeder for their health ause you're providing them
Speaker 1: with a nice fresh source of flowing water, and you
Speaker 1: will attract birds to your yard. They love bird baths,
Speaker 1: they love bird feeders. So if rats are a problem
Speaker 1: for you, maybe switch your bird feeder with seeds for
Speaker 1: a bird bath or a bird fountain, or have a
Speaker 1: bird feeder that's really really secure. But that's gonna be
Speaker 1: tough because even if it's like really secure in terms
Speaker 1: of only birds can get at it, the birds are
Speaker 1: going to scatter seeds around, So that's a risk factor.
Speaker 1: It's kind of up to you again, what's more important
Speaker 1: to you and what your risk tolerance is. One way
Speaker 1: to have your yard be a nice beacon for local
Speaker 1: wildlife while also not being too welcoming too pests is
Speaker 1: to have kind of like a semi maintained yard where
Speaker 1: you have native plants right and can look up plants
Speaker 1: that are native to your area. So instead of having
Speaker 1: a lawn that gets really tall, you have a bunch
Speaker 1: of plants that grow in your area, and then you
Speaker 1: can kind of like groom them a bit, right, Like,
Speaker 1: the best way to groom these plants, like to discourage
Speaker 1: say rats from setting up shop while encouraging birds and
Speaker 1: insects and all sorts of other animals that love these
Speaker 1: plants is by making sure at the base of the
Speaker 1: plant that there's not allowed of like dense ground coverage
Speaker 1: near the base, so like sort of pruning the base
Speaker 1: of the plant wild, maybe allowing the branches and everything
Speaker 1: to grow as wild as you want. It's a good
Speaker 1: way to have wild plants that animals like while not
Speaker 1: creating sort of a suitable home for say rats. And yeah,
Speaker 1: actually something that's kind of fun is if you live
Speaker 1: in an area with hawks and owls, raptors, predators, predatory birds,
Speaker 1: having trees even dead ones can be a nice perch
Speaker 1: for them to look out for rodents. So like, if
Speaker 1: you have I mean this is going to depend on
Speaker 1: your preference, probably your neighbor's preference too, And also make
Speaker 1: sure you don't live in an area with a lot
Speaker 1: of fire risk. Right for having dead trees in your yard,
Speaker 1: I certainly think that you should always Again, like it's
Speaker 1: great to be welcoming to wildlife. You got to know
Speaker 1: the risks of your areas of wildfires, is it ticks,
Speaker 1: things like that, and then make sure you kind of
Speaker 1: modify your yard to keep you safe while welcoming animals.
Speaker 1: That being said, you have like a sort of a
Speaker 1: dead tree in your yard and you don't really want
Speaker 1: to get rid of it, right like, you don't mind
Speaker 1: how it looks. That's a nice perch for a hawk
Speaker 1: ornel and that will also help you with your rodent problem.
Speaker 1: And living trees are also great perches for raptors. So
Speaker 1: if you don't like the spooky dead tree asthetic haunted house, look,
Speaker 1: don't worry. You don't need to keep dead trees in
Speaker 1: your yard. You can have plenty of perches for hawks
Speaker 1: and owls. Anyways, there is I don't know how effective
Speaker 1: this is, but I'll throw it out there. Anyways, you
Speaker 1: could potentially go on the offense by having plants that
Speaker 1: rats actively dislike, like sage. I've read peppermint that could
Speaker 1: offend them due to their strong smell. A note of
Speaker 1: caution about peppermint, Apparently it's very very good at taking
Speaker 1: over a garden or yard. So you gotta really like
Speaker 1: peppermint to plant it. But yeah, I'm not really sure,
Speaker 1: Like I think if you plant those they might I
Speaker 1: just avoid those plants specifically. I don't know that they
Speaker 1: would avoid your whole yard, though. I think a better
Speaker 1: strategy potentially would be to replace. Say, you know, if
Speaker 1: you don't like mowing the lan right that's legit. I
Speaker 1: don't like mowing the lan I don't even have a lawn.
Speaker 1: I don't have a yard right now, so who am
Speaker 1: I to talk. But if you don't like mowing your
Speaker 1: lawn and you want some kind of ground cover, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of groundcovers you can get that are really
Speaker 1: low maintenance and also don't provide a lot of coverage
Speaker 1: for animals that you may not want like rats, mice, ticks, etc.
Speaker 1: While still being welcoming to local wildlife. So again I
Speaker 1: would definitely advise probably the best thing is if you
Speaker 1: have access to it, if you can afford it, finding
Speaker 1: plants that are local to you, like native plants, and
Speaker 1: then planting those, and there might be native groundcovers for
Speaker 1: your area, but you can also just look into other groundcovers.
Speaker 1: So here are some examples of ground covers that are
Speaker 1: not so tall and thick that they would potentially welcome
Speaker 1: rats in. There's clover, there's diamondia. There's creeping time, which
Speaker 1: may repel rats with its odor. Again, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm a little skeptical of the repellent plants when it
Speaker 1: comes to rats. I think rats are pretty stubborn when
Speaker 1: they want to get somewhere. There's, honestly, so a lot
Speaker 1: of choices that you can find something that works with
Speaker 1: your aesthetic preferences, your yard maintenance preferences. Right, Like, if
Speaker 1: you kind of want to set it and forget it,
Speaker 1: you can probably find a creeping ground cover that is
Speaker 1: helpful for that. Just yeah, do a little bit of
Speaker 1: research into it, look into it. Some ground covers can
Speaker 1: be really aggressive, so it might actually require more maintenance
Speaker 1: than you would like. So yeah, but there are ground
Speaker 1: covers other than grass that don't really require mowing. But
Speaker 1: we'll also keep your yard from becoming like a haven
Speaker 1: for ticks and rats. But I hope I've given you
Speaker 1: a range of options that might be helpful for you
Speaker 1: going forward. All right, So this email is called cats
Speaker 1: can't Taste Sweet, but dot dot dot very suspenseful. Hi, Katie,
Speaker 1: I know cats can't taste sweet, meaning they can't taste sweetness.
Speaker 1: But my terrible tabby Phantom makes me think he can.
Speaker 1: He is constantly trying to lick my beer when he
Speaker 1: thinks I'm not looking. He will even lick coffee mugs
Speaker 1: if they are forgotten to be put back in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: One time I was eating white chocolate and Phantom was
Speaker 1: so persistent. I gave him a very tiny piece, thinking
Speaker 1: he wouldn't like it. He chowed down and then wanted more.
Speaker 1: He did not get any more. By the way, I've
Speaker 1: never known a cat to be so particular about what
Speaker 1: they want to eat eat. I know some cats like
Speaker 1: people food, but why is he drawn to all these
Speaker 1: sweet things? Thank you for the pod and for answering
Speaker 1: all our questions. Melissa, So, I just did in a
Speaker 1: photo from the alleged sweet thief, and he looks really
Speaker 1: innocent to me. I don't know what to tell you. Melissa,
Speaker 1: looks innocent. Innocent before proven guilty, is what I say.
Speaker 1: But to answer your question, this is really interesting. First,
Speaker 1: let's address the baseline premise, right, can cats taste sweet things?
Speaker 1: So most of the evidence indicates that cats can't taste
Speaker 1: sugar in the same way that we do right When
Speaker 1: we taste sugar in general, we go bananas. We love it.
Speaker 1: It tastes really good to us. The two thousand and
Speaker 1: six study cats Lack a sweet Taste receptor found that
Speaker 1: cats have an unexpressed tasks one R two gene, and
Speaker 1: that is one of the two known genes that controls
Speaker 1: sweet taste receptors. So the other gene tests one or three,
Speaker 1: seems to function fine in cats. So it's not that
Speaker 1: they completely lack any genes that could potentially detect sweet taste.
Speaker 1: It's that one of the main ones does not seem
Speaker 1: to function. And also, there have been studies that show
Speaker 1: cats do not seem to have a preference for sugar
Speaker 1: at all, they don't seem to be attracted to it.
Speaker 1: So many have interpreted this study as evidence that cats
Speaker 1: categorically cannot taste sweet right, like, they just can't taste
Speaker 1: it in the same way we can't taste blue, or
Speaker 1: you can't taste blue, you amateurs. So I think it
Speaker 1: might be more nuanced than cats just not being able
Speaker 1: to detect sweetness at all. I think it does show
Speaker 1: they definitely have a difference in gene expression when it
Speaker 1: comes to the ability to detect sweetness, which I think
Speaker 1: for it might make it a really weak flavor, right
Speaker 1: they might some cats may not be able to taste
Speaker 1: it at all, some you know, maybe just really weak
Speaker 1: and they don't really notice it. The study also goes
Speaker 1: on to talk about how there are individual differences of
Speaker 1: gene expression for these genes and cats, so that leaves
Speaker 1: us with a few interesting possibilities. So one is that
Speaker 1: most cats cannot taste sugar, but some cats have a
Speaker 1: mutation that allow them to express that tas one or
Speaker 1: two gene or another related gene that actually allows them
Speaker 1: to taste the sweet better. Another option is that most
Speaker 1: cats have a weak ability to taste sugar, like it's
Speaker 1: not very strong. Maybe they don't even notice it, so
Speaker 1: they're typically unresponsive to it. But there are some cats who,
Speaker 1: due to genetic variability, have a stronger response to sugar,
Speaker 1: maybe stronger taste in general, right like in humans we
Speaker 1: have supertasters who have more taste buds on their tongue.
Speaker 1: And then the other option is that it is simply
Speaker 1: not possible for any cat to taste sugar, regardless of
Speaker 1: gene expression. So all these things I think are plausible.
Speaker 1: I lean more towards the more variable response, where some
Speaker 1: cats might be able to detect it really weakly, and
Speaker 1: maybe for some very particular cats with a particular gene
Speaker 1: mutation or a supertaster can actually taste it more strongly.
Speaker 1: That would be my guess. But all these things are possible.
Speaker 1: So yeah. The reason I lean towards maybe cats not
Speaker 1: being absolutely in no circumstance being able to taste sweetness
Speaker 1: is because the genes for sugar tasting is there, just
Speaker 1: that one of them does normally doesn't function. So they
Speaker 1: have like the recipes right for being able to taste sugar,
Speaker 1: and one of them functions. Maybe that doesn't do any
Speaker 1: and one of them typically doesn't function, but maybe in
Speaker 1: some cats it actually is expressed more so, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: could be a situation similar to super tasters in humans.
Speaker 1: I'm actually something of a super taste or myself. Not
Speaker 1: to brag, it's actually not a brag. It sucks. So
Speaker 1: it's a pretty useless superpower. It doesn't mean I'm a
Speaker 1: great somolier or food taste or whatever. Maybe some super
Speaker 1: tasters are. I lack the skill to go along with it.
Speaker 1: For me, it just means that a lot of things
Speaker 1: taste yucky. So I hate red velvet cake because it
Speaker 1: tastes really better to me. I believe it's because there
Speaker 1: is a red food dye in it that I can
Speaker 1: kind of taste a bitterness to that. Most people who
Speaker 1: don't have like the extra taste buds, they can't taste it.
Speaker 1: So what good does that do me? I just can't
Speaker 1: eat red velvet cake, so I have a higher density
Speaker 1: of taste buds on my tongue. A lot of super
Speaker 1: tasters are very sensitive to sour and bitter, which is
Speaker 1: interesting because I actually like dark chocolate and I like
Speaker 1: things that are sour in the acidic sense, like lemons,
Speaker 1: things like that. But it is interesting because a lot
Speaker 1: of certain sour tastes like cream, cheese, yogurt, sour cream
Speaker 1: are repulsive to me. I cannot handle it. Ah, So yeah,
Speaker 1: which again it could be a psychological response. Though I
Speaker 1: might have had a bad experience when I was a
Speaker 1: kid with like sour milk or something right, and that
Speaker 1: put me off sour tasting dairy products. So you know,
Speaker 1: we might have a situation where it's a combination of
Speaker 1: my weird genetic mutation having more taste buds and then
Speaker 1: my learned response to foods, And so this also can
Speaker 1: go for your cat. Right, So there's a possibility that
Speaker 1: your cat may not be able to taste sweetness. Right,
Speaker 1: he could, or maybe he can't, But he's simply highly
Speaker 1: socially curious and engaged, and he can tell what you like.
Speaker 1: So maybe you like sweet things and he can see, Oh, man,
Speaker 1: Melissa really loves this white chocolate, and he's really socially
Speaker 1: aware and he gets a bad case of kitty fomo
Speaker 1: and he really wants what you enjoyed so thoroughly right,
Speaker 1: So maybe he saw you sip in that beer. Like, man,
Speaker 1: Melissa really loves that beer. It's got to be great.
Speaker 1: He goes and tastes it, and whether or not he
Speaker 1: can enjoy the sweetness of it, he might be. Just
Speaker 1: the thrill of tasting a thing that you have tasted
Speaker 1: might be enough for him to have a positive association
Speaker 1: with it. So yeah, some cats are extremely interested in
Speaker 1: human food, whereas others are less interested. This could be
Speaker 1: due to differences taste or differences in their sociability, or
Speaker 1: combination of both factors. So I unfortunately cannot recommend like
Speaker 1: a taste test for your cat of sugar, coffee beer,
Speaker 1: because those things aren't, you know, really good for cats. Obviously,
Speaker 1: a tiny lick of some residue it's not gonna hurt
Speaker 1: your cat, but probably shouldn't encourage it, so you might
Speaker 1: kind of have to live with the mystery of whether
Speaker 1: your cat really has a sweet tooth or if he
Speaker 1: just loves you so much he wants to eat what
Speaker 1: you're eating. I could be both. So thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for your questions. I always have a blast
Speaker 1: answering them. If you have a question you'd like me
Speaker 1: to answer on the show, you can write to me
Speaker 1: at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. Can be
Speaker 1: about evolutionary biology, can be about your pets, can be
Speaker 1: about that poor lonely pigeon who lost all his friends
Speaker 1: because gosh, you know, I don't. I'm not gonna spill
Speaker 1: the tea on this pigeon. I feel like his business
Speaker 1: is his business. Well, guys, thank you so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and thanks to the Space Cossics for their super awesome
Speaker 1: song ex Aluminus. Creature features the production of iHeartRadio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: app Apple podcasts or hey, guess what where have you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. I'm not your mother, and
Speaker 1: I can't tell you what to do. I can tell you.
Speaker 1: Can you not cats? But can you have a little
Speaker 1: bit of white chocolate as a treat? Yes? Yes, you
Speaker 1: can see you next Wednesday.