Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: You're a host of many parasites. Katie Golden. I studied
Speaker 1: psychology and evolutionary biology and Happy Valentine's Times. Today, I
Speaker 1: thought that we'd look at a different type of love,
Speaker 1: platonic love between species. That's right. We're looking at some
Speaker 1: cross species cuddles, some dynamic duos, and truly unusual friendships
Speaker 1: within the animal kingdom to discover this is more as
Speaker 1: we answer the angel question is it fun to suck
Speaker 1: on a shark? So let's take a trip down to
Speaker 1: imagination station. Imagine you're a tiny, adorable, helpless frog living
Speaker 1: in Peru. You're smaller than a leaf. You're dwarfed by
Speaker 1: the many large creatures who want to devour you. Carefully,
Speaker 1: you make your way across the leafy forest floor, flinching
Speaker 1: at every sound. Your tiny legs can't carry you too fast.
Speaker 1: You can hop all right, but not enough to outrun
Speaker 1: a swift predator. So you waddle around gingerly, searching for ants,
Speaker 1: doing your best impression of a dead leaf so you
Speaker 1: don't get hassled. You're munching on a particularly tasty ant,
Speaker 1: when if you had hairs on the back of your neck,
Speaker 1: which you don't you're a frog, but you'd feel them prickle. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: in a flash, two huge black, hairy legs grab you
Speaker 1: and lift you into a set of gigantic hairy mandibles.
Speaker 1: This creature tastes you, tossing you around, and its jaws
Speaker 1: like a breath mint. You can feel it's pettipalps clamped
Speaker 1: down on you in let you go. You look up
Speaker 1: and realize it's your best friend in the whole wide world,
Speaker 1: a giant tarantula. She invites you into her din and
Speaker 1: you too, share a cozy day together. Been that ended
Speaker 1: so much nicer than I thought it would be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: usually the imagination stations in with horrible death, but this
Speaker 1: time it's friendship. Well, how else is a friendship supposed
Speaker 1: to start unless one of you winds up wholly in
Speaker 1: the other's mouth. So that's kind of how I make
Speaker 1: all my friends, of course, speaking of which, joining me
Speaker 1: today is comedian writer and actor Blake Wexler. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for having coming in. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: we're friends. I haven't tried to like devour you though,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. No, no, no, And that's been very
Speaker 1: respectful and well to be fair, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I what's going on with these tarantulas is it was
Speaker 1: testing to see whether this frog was food or friends,
Speaker 1: and that all of a sudden, like a very ignorant thing.
Speaker 1: You were about to say, if you sub did in
Speaker 1: any other demographically, what's going on with these goddamn tarantulas
Speaker 1: and their hairy legs. These tarantulas, let me tell you
Speaker 1: about them. They're nice, you schues, and I think they
Speaker 1: should be preserved. Oh very nice. Oh you're very progressive.
Speaker 1: So tarantulas and narrow mouthed frogs have formed an unusual
Speaker 1: alliance in Peru, Sri Lanka, India, and possibly elsewhere. I
Speaker 1: know that's pretty generic, but we just I mean, this
Speaker 1: is kind of a newly discovered relationship. So scientists aren't
Speaker 1: sure how far reaching this is, these narrow malekin frogs.
Speaker 1: It's like, can you use their proper name, police, sir? Okay,
Speaker 1: they're micro Hiliday. Is that very well? Yeah, very very well.
Speaker 1: You've done very well so far. So yeah, it is
Speaker 1: funny how you have the scientific name micro Hiliday and
Speaker 1: then the unofficial or not unofficial, but the colloquial colloquial
Speaker 1: Layman's term offensive, and I know I didn't. I wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to go with Layman's terms because it's if you're
Speaker 1: lay you're gonna love this term, right, But the more
Speaker 1: casual one, which is it, so it's like micro hiliday
Speaker 1: and then casually rolt frogs, it's like so insulting. It's
Speaker 1: like it's like Filifa day and the squinty eyed stink beest.
Speaker 1: There's never any in between. It's always this like fancy
Speaker 1: Latin and then and then the pooh butted, gross mud kelp,
Speaker 1: the illiterate red beetle ugly but well so the micro Hoiliday,
Speaker 1: these little tiny frogs form this friendship with these tarantulas,
Speaker 1: and when they meet each other, the interaction starts out
Speaker 1: kind of tinse. So the giant tarantula grabs the humming Oh, sorry,
Speaker 1: these there's a specific species of microhiliday um called a
Speaker 1: humming frog, so that's a nicer name. That's very nice.
Speaker 1: So they'll grab the humming frog or any of these
Speaker 1: species of micro Hoiliday. They'll move it around in its
Speaker 1: petal palps, and the petals are the little tiny legs
Speaker 1: out in front of its mouth and then kind of
Speaker 1: like move it around in its mandibles and it's like
Speaker 1: doing this checking of it and it makes this calculation
Speaker 1: of like, wait a minute, this is my friend frog,
Speaker 1: like this is a species of frog that I am
Speaker 1: friends with. And then it puts it down delicately, and uh,
Speaker 1: the frog is like, hey, buddy, like you know, good
Speaker 1: to see you, and just skip this part going forward.
Speaker 1: But my friend, this happens every time. Look, I do
Speaker 1: appreciate your company. I would maybe like it if next
Speaker 1: time you could just send me a text and not
Speaker 1: put me in your mouth and your stinky, gross mouth
Speaker 1: full of dead flies and stuff. A polite nod with
Speaker 1: suffice right, like you know, a fist bump. Could we
Speaker 1: do that a fist bump maybe, and no going in
Speaker 1: the mouth and get all right. I went to your
Speaker 1: daughter's all eight hundred of your daughter's weddings for Christ,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to do this every time. So
Speaker 1: there are actually multiple species of tarantulas and the Michael
Speaker 1: Holaday frogs that are friend But let's start with the
Speaker 1: dotted humming frogs, which is a specific species in Peru
Speaker 1: who have worked their way into the hearts of at
Speaker 1: least a couple of tarantula species. The exact identity of
Speaker 1: the tarantulas is kind of under debate, but reports have
Speaker 1: named either the Colombian lesser back tarantula, which is a
Speaker 1: really pretty black tarantula with it's kind of near the
Speaker 1: base of its legs, near its abdomen. It's got these
Speaker 1: like pink splashes of color. And then there's also the
Speaker 1: chicken spiders, which is a type of their cowards. Well,
Speaker 1: actually they're called chicken spiders because they are rumored to
Speaker 1: carry off baby chicks. I think that might be apocryphal, though,
Speaker 1: I think a baby chicken might be a little too
Speaker 1: big for these guys. Although it could it could happen occasionally.
Speaker 1: I just don't think they make a habit of it,
Speaker 1: because it seems kind of like a quite a mouthful floor.
Speaker 1: These guys that they do grow up to about a
Speaker 1: three inch diameter, so they can be quite big. But
Speaker 1: still they're not like monsters the humming frog to give
Speaker 1: you a sense of it, it's like this little tiny guy.
Speaker 1: It's bodies about half an inch long, so the spiders
Speaker 1: are over three times its size. Here's a very cute
Speaker 1: picture of the tarantula and you see the little tiny
Speaker 1: frog just hanging out under the tarantula, happily sitting together,
Speaker 1: just totally relaxed because it's got it's big buddy with it.
Speaker 1: That is, it defies like logic seeing it, right, if
Speaker 1: you saw this photo, you would think that it's like
Speaker 1: the yeah, that the spider has snuck up behind this
Speaker 1: this little frog. But if you you see a video
Speaker 1: of it, you actually will see the little frog like
Speaker 1: turn around, see the spier be like oh hey body,
Speaker 1: and then hop under it like like snuggle up close
Speaker 1: to it. It's it's really cute. It looks like a
Speaker 1: scene from Lord of the Rings. I'm not gonna go on.
Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil it. Well okay, right, Well
Speaker 1: it'd be like if in Lord of the Rings. I
Speaker 1: mean remember when Frodo was really stupid the entire set
Speaker 1: of movies where he like it's like oh, spider webs
Speaker 1: and he's like just wiggling around, flailing and getting more
Speaker 1: spiderwebs on him and then what's what was the spider's name? Again?
Speaker 1: At what you doing here? A proto? What is good
Speaker 1: to see you, buddy? But yeah, it's it's like if
Speaker 1: Sheila was like, Hey, what's up a little friend? You
Speaker 1: wanna you want to hang out together? You know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so here's what these two guys get out of
Speaker 1: this relationship. So the frog obviously gets a huge intimidating
Speaker 1: friend to protect it from other predators. So you have
Speaker 1: this tiny, appetizing looking frog, and then it's got this
Speaker 1: huge spider friend, this tarantula that is, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of menacingly cracking its knuckles. It doesn't have knuckles, but
Speaker 1: it's like kind of pounding one leg into the other
Speaker 1: like knuckles. Yeah, not right, because each joint would probably
Speaker 1: have a knuckling tracking all of its joints. But what
Speaker 1: does the spider get out of it? Like that seems
Speaker 1: less intuitive, and in fact, it's actually quite interesting because
Speaker 1: these little frogs will protect the spiders eggs from ants.
Speaker 1: So the spider lays eggs and one of the main
Speaker 1: threats to these eggs are ants who will come and
Speaker 1: attack them and carry them off or eat them. And
Speaker 1: the spider or the transla is quite big, so it's
Speaker 1: harder for it to target ants. I mean, like when
Speaker 1: you think about like catching ants, it's hard to get
Speaker 1: all of the ants when you're a big creature. But
Speaker 1: with the tiny frogs, they love to eat ants and
Speaker 1: they're small, so they can just like zoop zoop zoop,
Speaker 1: like find all the ants and get them before they
Speaker 1: get to the eggs. So basically they have the spiders
Speaker 1: have an adorable little babysitter. The frogs have a huge
Speaker 1: friend that will protect them, and they hang out together
Speaker 1: and they like, well, like a spider will pop out
Speaker 1: of a din and then you'll see a tiny little
Speaker 1: frog face and he'll pop out of the din too,
Speaker 1: and they'll like kind of be close together. It's it's
Speaker 1: adorable that it's like Milo and Otis, but spider and
Speaker 1: a frog. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I love I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just I love that friendship. I think it's it. Also,
Speaker 1: it humanizes the spiders a bit the tarantulas. Normally we
Speaker 1: think of tarantulas as these just murderous murder beasts, many
Speaker 1: legged murder beasts, and they are to be fair, but
Speaker 1: they they've got a heart, they've got a soft spot
Speaker 1: for these little frogs. And researchers, I mean, researchers are insane.
Speaker 1: What they wanted to see anything. I mean, you might
Speaker 1: agree with me once I tell this story. But they
Speaker 1: skinned the little frogs and then tied their skins to
Speaker 1: another species of frogs that the spot the trash. Yeah
Speaker 1: see what I mean. So so they like turned these frogs,
Speaker 1: these uh, the different species of frogs that the tarantulas
Speaker 1: actually love to eat, and they put the skin on
Speaker 1: of the humming frogs that there are their friends, and
Speaker 1: made these like buffalo bill edgeen frogs, and the tarantulas
Speaker 1: like looked them over to the same thing, like you know,
Speaker 1: kind of palm them over in their little pet of palps,
Speaker 1: and then they're like put them down. And so they're
Speaker 1: sensing something on the skin, either a scent or pattern
Speaker 1: on the skin, and then they leave them alone. But
Speaker 1: that's so scary from like the spider's perspective. When you
Speaker 1: think about it, like like you're like, oh, you're my friend,
Speaker 1: and then you like squint closer, and then you there's
Speaker 1: something slightly off. It's like, hey, buddy, what's wrong. It's
Speaker 1: like sugar water. I don't think it's slightly off. I
Speaker 1: don't think these researchers have mastered like reupholstering a frigging
Speaker 1: frog and then another frog skin and then the frog
Speaker 1: is like what else can it do but play along
Speaker 1: or it's gonna get eaten. Like it's like, oh, hey, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: get to see you. Yes, I'm Jimmy, Jesus, it's to me.
Speaker 1: I don't want these sick not covered in another frog
Speaker 1: skin by mysterious giants. Nope, it's fine. Well that's a
Speaker 1: weirdly specific thing to say. But it's good to see you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: really good to see you. And also, yeah, there's no
Speaker 1: way a human being would ever skin a frog and
Speaker 1: put maybe don't do that experiment, maybe skip that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at what cost do you want to know? I wonder
Speaker 1: if they do it the opposite way, where if they
Speaker 1: took the I'm going to call it the yummy frog
Speaker 1: and took its skin and put it on the friend,
Speaker 1: that's interesting, then you would almost be sentencing it. Like today,
Speaker 1: that's like even more you know, cruel I love I
Speaker 1: love these sort of Jigsaw esque cruelty of it. Though,
Speaker 1: it's like if you want to go full on, what's
Speaker 1: what's that movie called the one with what's his name? Oh, Casablanca,
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise, and then it's like about it impossible. No,
Speaker 1: it's the one where they're evil and bad and do
Speaker 1: weird stuff the party one, Yeah, I think so. Secrets
Speaker 1: in the Night, I forget absolutely famous. I'm going to
Speaker 1: cut all of this because I think it needs to stay.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, well, it's like a movie that's bad things
Speaker 1: happen right. Well, Tom Cruise looks like someone who's wearing
Speaker 1: someone else's skin. A little bit, a little bit, it's
Speaker 1: just a bunch of he's just a bunch of these
Speaker 1: frogs wearing are human. We can act. Don't look him
Speaker 1: right in the eye, kind of like cleans his eyeball
Speaker 1: with his tongue. Yeah, all right, Tom, I'm fine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's something in my eye. So moving on. There's been
Speaker 1: a viral video of a coyote and a badger working together,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you've seen this, but let's take another
Speaker 1: look at it, just to refresh our memory. Here. Looks
Speaker 1: like something out of a Disney it does. I like
Speaker 1: picturing that these two guys have been walking for like
Speaker 1: five miles and the coyote just keeps getting, you know,
Speaker 1: like hundreds and hundreds of feet ahead, and you finally
Speaker 1: just turns out, come on, come on, because that magic
Speaker 1: doesn't break stride. That badger just kind of waddles along
Speaker 1: and the coyote is jumping around and it looks behind.
Speaker 1: It's really cute because it's looking over its shoulder and
Speaker 1: going like, come on, your friend, we gotta go. We
Speaker 1: gotta go hunt some gray old squirrels in the batteries,
Speaker 1: like I'm coming. Just oh my god, calm down, come on,
Speaker 1: bad you friend. We gotta well. Got found this giant
Speaker 1: too made out concrete. We can go through it. See
Speaker 1: what we can dig my own tunnels. Why are we
Speaker 1: going through this? It's made out of concrete. I know,
Speaker 1: I just prefer dirt. Look it, little, I can run,
Speaker 1: didn't you see me run? Very nice? It's very nice.
Speaker 1: You well, So this video is not a hoax. It
Speaker 1: was captured by the Peninsula Open Space Trust or POST,
Speaker 1: which is a nonprofit organization that protects open natural spaces
Speaker 1: in the South Bay of San Francisco, California, and they
Speaker 1: use these remote sensor cameras to track the movements of
Speaker 1: animals and see how they travel. And they found this
Speaker 1: coyote and badger using a culvert, which is a tube
Speaker 1: of concrete under roadways that helps drain water. And they
Speaker 1: were using that culvert to safely cross the road, which
Speaker 1: I think is amazing and I love I love this
Speaker 1: video because it is I think it really gives you
Speaker 1: the sense of Okay, so animals sometimes form these relationships,
Speaker 1: and with a frog in a tarantula, you kind of
Speaker 1: get the sense of like, yeah, these are like little
Speaker 1: robots who kind of do these things that are advantageous
Speaker 1: for their species. When you see the kiote and the
Speaker 1: badger like the coyote excitedly like jump and like look
Speaker 1: over children and be like come on, man, friend, I
Speaker 1: think it shows you this transition from yeah, this is
Speaker 1: their partnership, which I'll talk about. I'll explain why they
Speaker 1: form this partnership and why it's advantageous, but it can also,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, kind of transition into this area. They
Speaker 1: genuinely enjoy each other's company as much as an animal can,
Speaker 1: like a dog enjoys your company. Even though we've over
Speaker 1: you know, thousands of years, formed this mutually beneficial relationship,
Speaker 1: evolutionarily speaking, we also just like each other. So let
Speaker 1: me talk a little bit about why coyote and badger
Speaker 1: are such good friends. So they are in fact conspiring
Speaker 1: together to kill some grand squirrels. So the coyote will
Speaker 1: often come up to a badger den. In fact, one
Speaker 1: eye witness saw coyote like knock on a badger's den
Speaker 1: kind of like like like scritch. It's little pogast the
Speaker 1: intro and the badger comes out and it sees it's
Speaker 1: a coyote and they set off together to a ground
Speaker 1: squirrels set of dens and tunnels and they will root
Speaker 1: out the ground squirrel So the coyote and the badger
Speaker 1: have slightly different techniques for hunting ground squirrels. The coyote
Speaker 1: is a little bit faster when it comes to like
Speaker 1: snatching them up when they come out of the holes,
Speaker 1: and the badger likes to is really good at digging
Speaker 1: these are, yeah, exactly, and it can dig the ground
Speaker 1: squirrels up from the front of the den and it'll
Speaker 1: just like start builving in there. And so what they
Speaker 1: do is the badgers at the dim digging it up,
Speaker 1: trying to get ground squirrels, and the coyote watches the
Speaker 1: badger do this, and he goes off and finds an
Speaker 1: exit hole from the den. So it finds like the
Speaker 1: the ground squirrels emergency exit. So as the badger is
Speaker 1: getting any of the ground squirrels that try to escape
Speaker 1: out of its way. The coyote is getting any of
Speaker 1: the ground squirrels that try to get out of the
Speaker 1: emergency exit, and sometimes the badger gets a meal, sometimes
Speaker 1: the coyote gets a meal. Sometimes they both get a
Speaker 1: meal because they've basically cornered these squirrels. So if the
Speaker 1: squirrel dodges the coyote by ducking back down into the
Speaker 1: exit hole, the badger is more likely to get a
Speaker 1: ground squirrel coming out its way. And if the squirrels
Speaker 1: try to escape, the badger goes right towards the coyotes.
Speaker 1: So genius dynamic duo. Do the badgers use their big
Speaker 1: claws to like take out these ground squirrels. They both
Speaker 1: both claws and and their mouths like they'll touch down.
Speaker 1: I mean it is a little bit horrifying to see them.
Speaker 1: I have some video of it, but but they will,
Speaker 1: you know, the they just chew the squirrels up, like immediately,
Speaker 1: like it's dinner time immediately. You know how people have
Speaker 1: like in their homes, like those like picture frames. You
Speaker 1: can upload like photos onto them of your family. I
Speaker 1: picture in your home instead of photos, you just have
Speaker 1: these videos of like badgers eating off squirrels heads. I'm not,
Speaker 1: it's not, you know, it's more of a mental library
Speaker 1: of photos, which is more vivid. The nice person I
Speaker 1: live with probably wouldn't want photos plastered everywhere of dead animals.
Speaker 1: You know, you got to make some compromises, that's take.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's uh, it is an amazing relationship to witness,
Speaker 1: and it's I love the video you see of them
Speaker 1: because they're probably going off to go on a hunt together,
Speaker 1: but it's clear they're traveling some distance together, and the
Speaker 1: kyote looks genuinely excited and it looks um like it.
Speaker 1: It really has this like fun friendship. Now it's harder
Speaker 1: to read the badger's expression. I mean, badger is willingly
Speaker 1: going along with the coyotes, so it's got to be
Speaker 1: at least amenable to this relationship. It's hard to measure
Speaker 1: how an excited badger other than a badger that's like
Speaker 1: ripping your face off, but that's an excited yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I do. My how I imagine their relationship is like
Speaker 1: the coyotes really excited, the kind of excitable one, and
Speaker 1: the badgers maybe a little more gruff and kind of
Speaker 1: aloof but deep down, he really does love the coyote.
Speaker 1: The buddies. They're great buddies, and he's like always kind
Speaker 1: of he's sort of the the nick Offerman sort of character,
Speaker 1: and then uh, and the coyotes sort of the the
Speaker 1: Leslie nope, uh, happy go lucky, Happy go lucky. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just love I love that dynamic. It's really cute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm picturing like a tigger in York. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go get some grown squirrels. I get we're
Speaker 1: going to rip their heads off. You'll probably get them all.
Speaker 1: Coyote won't get any I don't know. I think you
Speaker 1: can rip one. Hall. Well, now I'm a little happy
Speaker 1: I lost my family. Badgers. Yeah, badgers have a little
Speaker 1: stubbly tails, right right. I like those. Yeah, as far
Speaker 1: as tails go, I like those doubly. I mean, did
Speaker 1: you you saw in the video. It was really cute
Speaker 1: to see them, like like, look at the little look
Speaker 1: at that little took us like walking walking off that
Speaker 1: like to see I mean, I don't want to sound
Speaker 1: like a pervert, but to seeing like to like the
Speaker 1: little coyote and the little badger butts just like walking
Speaker 1: off in the distance together. It's very cute. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: not perverted at all. Yeah, it's very cute. There's another
Speaker 1: duo of unusual friends, gelata's and wolves in Ethiopia co
Speaker 1: exists peacefully, which seems unlikely because they're both sort of
Speaker 1: can be a little bit of pugnacious. Um So, Gelatas
Speaker 1: are a type of monkey, and they are kind of
Speaker 1: baboon like, but they aren't actually in the same group
Speaker 1: as baboons, but they're they're very closely related. And the
Speaker 1: Ethiopian wolves are they look like wolves, actually have kind
Speaker 1: of a reddish coloration. Let me show you. Here's the
Speaker 1: Ethiopian wolf. They kind of have like a fox coloration. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they are they look a little bit kyote like,
Speaker 1: but they are wolves. And then this is this is
Speaker 1: a gelata and you're actually looking at mostly males here
Speaker 1: interesting as evinced by their wiener that you can see.
Speaker 1: But they're they're actually quite quite beautiful. They have this
Speaker 1: like beautiful hair that just looks like a like a
Speaker 1: kind of nineties style blowout. And then they have these
Speaker 1: red chests and iron Man. Yeah, like this like sort
Speaker 1: of triangle shaped red chest. And then I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: a weener of course, and and a standard four door
Speaker 1: sedan weiner, but they are a These gelatas are communal animals.
Speaker 1: So there's usually like a dominant male or dominant group
Speaker 1: of males, and then a bunch of females and they're
Speaker 1: they're political structure. Is can be complex because it's not
Speaker 1: I think I've talked about this on the show before.
Speaker 1: Often when you talk about dominant like alpha males and
Speaker 1: then their harem of females, it's seen as is kind
Speaker 1: of like, oh, he rules over the females, but in fact,
Speaker 1: the females can when they can kind of vote a
Speaker 1: male out. So it's like more of a democracy because
Speaker 1: if the male they don't like this male, and a
Speaker 1: new group of males comes along, they'll actually help the
Speaker 1: new males take over. And so these it's in the
Speaker 1: interests of these alpha males to cater to the female's desires,
Speaker 1: so they'll they'll voted out, yeah, to not get voted out,
Speaker 1: like they'll groom them, they'll do some like canvassing, you know. So,
Speaker 1: so you have this group of gelatas and usually they
Speaker 1: have a lot of babies around, and they're all sitting
Speaker 1: on the grass eating the grass. They love to pick
Speaker 1: up these like tender shoots of grass. And then you'll
Speaker 1: see a wolf just kind of stalking along amongst the gelatas.
Speaker 1: And it's a very bizarre thing because none of the
Speaker 1: gelatas seem upset at all, even though it's a wolf.
Speaker 1: They have a bunch of young babies, juicy little babies
Speaker 1: that would make a great snack. You can quote me
Speaker 1: out of context about that um And but they aren't
Speaker 1: upset because they know that the wolves aren't after their babies.
Speaker 1: They're just after the rodents because they've learned that if
Speaker 1: they are chill and they don't, you know, mess with
Speaker 1: the gelatas. As the gelatas are plucking up grass and foraging,
Speaker 1: they actually disturb the rodents that are nesting under the ground.
Speaker 1: And the rodents will come up and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: who's that on my roof and then boom like a wolf.
Speaker 1: I'll just eat it, you know, like who's on the rooftop?
Speaker 1: Is it sand? It? No, it's a wolf and your
Speaker 1: head's gone now. But it's it's amazing because it's an
Speaker 1: interesting I mean, it is it's an you know, you
Speaker 1: have this predator, right, you have have this predator of
Speaker 1: the wolf that you would not think would be so comfortable,
Speaker 1: just kind of like walking around all these families sitting
Speaker 1: in picnicking out on the grass, but they're they're fine,
Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of incredible how these animals have learned,
Speaker 1: like you know what, like you know, sure, like I
Speaker 1: could have a gelata baby now, or I could wait
Speaker 1: and have as many rodents as funny mice. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's and it is kind of it is pretty cute
Speaker 1: to see, I mean, other than like, I mean, the
Speaker 1: rodents are getting the short ended of the stick this episode.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean, in the name of friendship,
Speaker 1: what's a few dead ground squirrels and mice and nothing
Speaker 1: adorable little creatures? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, this one reminds
Speaker 1: me of the first one, and that like just intuitively
Speaker 1: it's spiders eat frogs, wolves eat these little like monkey things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, well, the the adult gelat is, to be fair,
Speaker 1: are quite big and yeah yeah, and they could fight
Speaker 1: a wolf, but the wolf is not there too to
Speaker 1: harass them, so they just they don't attack the wolves,
Speaker 1: and the wolves don't try to sneak off with the
Speaker 1: baby's It is an interesting relationship because you do have
Speaker 1: kind of like both sides could attack each other, but
Speaker 1: they don't and they have come to an agreement to
Speaker 1: screw over the road. And yes it's a common enemy.
Speaker 1: Yes exactly. Have you ever been to UH Animal Tracks?
Speaker 1: It's this wildlife sanctuary probably thirty miles north of l A.
Speaker 1: It's awesome, Like it's so great where they have there's
Speaker 1: different packages which is kind of funny, and that you
Speaker 1: can get the like primate packet or like the mammal package,
Speaker 1: but it's extra if you want reptiles. Is this like,
Speaker 1: So you go and visit uh and then you yeah,
Speaker 1: you get to sit with them basically where you pay
Speaker 1: like X amount of money and it all like goes
Speaker 1: back into the like wildlife preserve and that they have.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. And they have um like a baboon and
Speaker 1: a lemur, and then they like these monkeys where they
Speaker 1: don't make them do tricks or anything like that's a
Speaker 1: big thing where they like just you know, if they
Speaker 1: want to do something, they just teach you about them.
Speaker 1: But then they also have kangaroos, a fenic fox, um
Speaker 1: and armadill. Oh, and you get to meet all these animals.
Speaker 1: I should go there. What's it called again, It's called
Speaker 1: animal tracks. That's awesome, you would love it. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you brought that up because actually, at the end
Speaker 1: of the show, I'm going to talk about an animal
Speaker 1: sanctuary in Australia. Someone contact contacted me about that and
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Man, I wish I lived in Australia
Speaker 1: so I could go visit. But it's great, we have
Speaker 1: animal tracks right here in l a visit, I'll show
Speaker 1: Humans and animals sometimes form unusual but mutually beneficial partnerships,
Speaker 1: like people and dogs, or people and honey guide birds
Speaker 1: haven't heard of this well. Greater honey guides are small
Speaker 1: birds who live in sub Saharan Africa who have worked
Speaker 1: out a business partnership with people. Honey guys will happily
Speaker 1: lead humans to a bee five, so the human gets
Speaker 1: the honey and the honey guide gets to eat all
Speaker 1: the bee larva and bees wax left behind. The honey
Speaker 1: guide will peep and trill at people to get their attention,
Speaker 1: spread its tail to reveal its white patch like a
Speaker 1: guiding target, and lead people to a bees nest. The
Speaker 1: bees can then be smoked out by people and we
Speaker 1: get to collect the delicious honey. The honey guide is
Speaker 1: satisfied with eating the grubs and wax, being insectivorous, and
Speaker 1: feasts on the destroyed nests that the humans have left behind.
Speaker 1: Some communities, like the Jawa people in northern Mozambique, use
Speaker 1: whistles or calls to attract honey guides and invite them
Speaker 1: to go hunt for honey. In my opinion, the more
Speaker 1: humans team up with birds, the more unstoppable we become.
Speaker 1: When we return, we'll be looking at relationships of an
Speaker 1: intimate nature. Get your minds out of the gutter, people,
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about some sucker fish. Let's suck on
Speaker 1: some sharks. There are many types of symbiotic relationships animals
Speaker 1: can have. Symbiosis generally describes the relationship between two different
Speaker 1: organisms over a long period of time. Symbiotic relationships can
Speaker 1: range from parasitic, where only one party benefits and the
Speaker 1: other party is harmed or stolen from. There's commence alistic
Speaker 1: where only one party benefits and the other party experiences
Speaker 1: neutral effects, or mutualistic, where both parties benefit. Sometimes biologists
Speaker 1: argue over whether a relationship is mutualistic or commence alistic.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about some fishy business that
Speaker 1: gets right in the middle of this rather mild mannered controversy.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of a remora? A ramora is
Speaker 1: a type of fish called also called the sucker fish.
Speaker 1: It's a family of raith and fish who spend their
Speaker 1: day is riding on the backs of sharks, whales, turtles,
Speaker 1: and rays. Yes. Yes, so these guys the ones that, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: shark dongles. Yeah so the yeah, I do. I kind
Speaker 1: of like the name shark dongle a little better, but
Speaker 1: that's okay. The name mro literally means hindrance in Latin,
Speaker 1: and they were named this because in the sixteenth century
Speaker 1: people believe that these fish slowed down ships because they
Speaker 1: would sometimes attach to ships. Yeah, they look like paris.
Speaker 1: They kind of look like, yeah, these little hindrance that's
Speaker 1: so mean, really rude, you you bead eyed hindrance. Hindrance.
Speaker 1: But you know, so they look kind of like parasites, right,
Speaker 1: they look like leeches that are in the shape of
Speaker 1: a fish because they're like they got well, they look
Speaker 1: like they've got sucker mounts, right, and but they are
Speaker 1: actually not parasites. They provide a valuable service to the
Speaker 1: animal they've attached to. In the opinions of some bile,
Speaker 1: just other bile just say they just don't harm the animal,
Speaker 1: that the host animal at all, but they don't benefit it.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, it seems like they do offer some benefits,
Speaker 1: so we'll talk about that. But actually it looks like
Speaker 1: they're using a big creepy soccer mouth to suck onto
Speaker 1: the the shark. But in fact, no, they're using weird
Speaker 1: creepy sucker hats. So ramoras have evolved front doorsal fins
Speaker 1: that act as suction cups, and it looks like a
Speaker 1: weird ribbed mouth, like here's a photo of it. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a ribbed mouth. It's totally not. It's actually
Speaker 1: a hat. So here it is on the fish oriented correctly.
Speaker 1: So this is the top of its head and it's
Speaker 1: just wearing this like weird ribbed suction hat. And so
Speaker 1: when you see a ramora on a shark, it's actually
Speaker 1: riding upside down with its head attached to the shark,
Speaker 1: not its mouth. Interesting, that's crazy, yeah, yeah, it's It
Speaker 1: makes them seem a lot more goofy, like they're just
Speaker 1: like riding like attached to their head, going like, way,
Speaker 1: you're doing it wrong. Stop by attaching to sharks and
Speaker 1: whales and these other big animals using their weird section heads,
Speaker 1: they get a free ride around the ocean. But the
Speaker 1: question is do what do their hosts get? And this
Speaker 1: is a little bit controversial. So one of the other
Speaker 1: things that the remora gets is they get to eat
Speaker 1: parasitic copa pods, which are tiny crustaceans that feed off
Speaker 1: of sharks, whales, turtles, and raise One line of thought
Speaker 1: is that, hey, this is a benefit to the sharks
Speaker 1: because they're eating the copa pods the parasites, and then
Speaker 1: other others argue, like, well, they eat the ones that
Speaker 1: have already fallen off of the sharks, so like that
Speaker 1: doesn't really they're not really doing anything. I think that
Speaker 1: even if something's like fallen off of it, like, it
Speaker 1: seems like it might still be a benefit because like
Speaker 1: maybe like a copa pod temporarily detaches, but it could
Speaker 1: reattach right, so I think on the margin, like it
Speaker 1: seems like that that might be a slight benefit. They
Speaker 1: also eat the scraps of food that fall from the
Speaker 1: cloud of carnage that sharks and these other animals produce
Speaker 1: while feeding. That's a little more clearly just beneficial to
Speaker 1: the remora, although I don't know, like maybe by cleaning
Speaker 1: up the mess they leave behind they attract less competition. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to say this is either a commence
Speaker 1: relistic relationship where the remora gets a lot of benefits
Speaker 1: and the sharks that it's hitching or right on just
Speaker 1: doesn't affect them, are neither harm or nor help, or
Speaker 1: it's mutualistic where they're both getting something out of the relationship.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's like, it's not completely mutualistic. I
Speaker 1: think the remora gets a little more, but I think
Speaker 1: it might benefit the shark a little bit. In my
Speaker 1: non shark expert of you know, in my readings, I
Speaker 1: think the shark can actually claim the ramora as a
Speaker 1: dependent and write at all. Uh. In order to actually
Speaker 1: develop that suction hat ramires go through a really weird
Speaker 1: puberty from their larval stage to adults. So the dorsal
Speaker 1: fin migrates to the top of their head and flattens
Speaker 1: out in the symmetrical ribbed pattern. And you know how
Speaker 1: I said that their ray fin fishes. All those ribs
Speaker 1: are like those bony rays that are on their fins
Speaker 1: but just flattened out and symmetrical. So with all those
Speaker 1: ribs and rays, you've got anything about sweet baby rays,
Speaker 1: talking about sauce, glead, I want my baby back, baby back,
Speaker 1: suction hat, rib house eat the suction hat and parasites nice.
Speaker 1: Uh and so but when they're here's the mystery, right,
Speaker 1: So when they're in their larval stage or baby fish stage, um,
Speaker 1: like they don't have this section hat yet, so we
Speaker 1: don't actually know like how they feed, how they survive
Speaker 1: as as these teeny tiny fish. Some believe I know
Speaker 1: this is weasel words, but like generally, like this is
Speaker 1: such a mystery that it's hard to say, but there
Speaker 1: there's there's a well weasel words. This is like some
Speaker 1: people say that the larval remoras a bunch of weird bastards.
Speaker 1: That's through the words where you're like saying some people
Speaker 1: say this, um, but you're not actually but but the
Speaker 1: right exactly, but this is this is a theory by
Speaker 1: biologist but it's unconfirmed, which is that maybe they use
Speaker 1: they have these kind of hooked teeth like when they're
Speaker 1: in their larval stage, and maybe they use that to
Speaker 1: like attach to like the gills of shark or something
Speaker 1: and hit your ride there, although we don't know um,
Speaker 1: so it's hearsay. Hearsay, I say, strick it, strike it
Speaker 1: from the record. As adults, they reach up to one
Speaker 1: to four ft long, so they're not tiny, so like
Speaker 1: when a shark is cruising around, you can see the
Speaker 1: remora is very clearly like hitchen ride. And in fact,
Speaker 1: they can develop such a close relationship with their hosts
Speaker 1: they will become distressed if they get separated from their host,
Speaker 1: according to some of these researchers and observers, Like one
Speaker 1: such observer was saying, like one remor got detached from
Speaker 1: it shark. The shark like went off without it, and
Speaker 1: it was like kind of frantically swimming around and then
Speaker 1: attached itself to the human observer like just like will
Speaker 1: you contacts like those people who have never not been
Speaker 1: in a relationship and like haven't really developed a sense
Speaker 1: of self outside of the relationship to pilot Fish are
Speaker 1: another type of fish who love sharks, raisin turtles, and
Speaker 1: these fish don't actually attach themselves like the remorse, so
Speaker 1: they're slightly less cleaning, but they're still relatively cleany. So
Speaker 1: you can see, here's a group of pilot ship just
Speaker 1: hovering around a shark, like more of a standard fish. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they you their standard fish shape. They have bold black
Speaker 1: and white stripes. When it's excited, actually those bars kind
Speaker 1: of fade a little bit and it's body turns silvery
Speaker 1: with blue patches. So that's cool. Yeah, and they can
Speaker 1: be quite big. So they grew up to about two
Speaker 1: ft long. And yeah, they are called pilot fish because
Speaker 1: they often follow ships. Uh, probably because they think the
Speaker 1: ships are a huge friend, just like they like to
Speaker 1: follow sharks and these other big aquatic animals like whales
Speaker 1: as well. And call them captain fish if they're going
Speaker 1: to get like the maritime version, they're not flying through
Speaker 1: the air exactly. Here you go, there you go, or
Speaker 1: like first mate fish. Yeah yeah, I like that cabin
Speaker 1: boys of the sea. What's interesting about this relationship between sharks,
Speaker 1: oils and these pilot fish is that the sharks and
Speaker 1: whales rarely feed on the pilot fish, like observations of
Speaker 1: them actually attacking the pilot fish are basically statistically insignificant,
Speaker 1: and they seem to accept these pilot fish as little friends.
Speaker 1: And so the pilot fish do provide probably provide a
Speaker 1: nice service for them, because they will go along the
Speaker 1: backs of the sharks and actually pick off parasites, and
Speaker 1: they will even the sharks will even allow them to
Speaker 1: pick little scraps of food from their jaws, which is incredible,
Speaker 1: just like yeah, okay, you know be my floss. I
Speaker 1: guess yeah, will yeah, just like little. It's like if
Speaker 1: if exactly like if a dentist just like started like
Speaker 1: you got some you got some schmoots in your mouth
Speaker 1: and just like licking your teeth. But if the dentist
Speaker 1: just came up to you on the street, right, well,
Speaker 1: I mean I'll like your teeth for you. Of course,
Speaker 1: may I call you doctor? So there are reports that
Speaker 1: pilot fish also become very distressed when they are separated
Speaker 1: from their shark. But I have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a bone to pick with this idea, so that the
Speaker 1: reports are that like if a boat captures a shark,
Speaker 1: the pilot fish will follow the boat for weeks and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, they're sad that they're shark friend. But
Speaker 1: remember these pilot fish just love following boats in generals,
Speaker 1: So I don't necessarily think they're like, no, give me
Speaker 1: back my shark friend, which would be sad and adorable,
Speaker 1: but I think it's just like, wow, you're an even
Speaker 1: beer shark. I love you. Oh no, my shark friend
Speaker 1: a boat and then that's you're my friend now bigger
Speaker 1: shark friend. So one more aquatic duo I want to
Speaker 1: talk about is the urchin crabs and guess who their
Speaker 1: friends are? It ur Wow, how did you do that?
Speaker 1: I went to an arts school for four okay worth
Speaker 1: every penny. So the urchin crab or carrier crab lives
Speaker 1: in the Red Sea and East Indian Ocean and they
Speaker 1: are best buds with the long spine sea urchin and
Speaker 1: they carry it around on his back like a yoda.
Speaker 1: So it actually only walks on its two front pairs
Speaker 1: of legs because the back, too, are always used to
Speaker 1: carry the sea urchin. And I'm not trying to put
Speaker 1: you on the spot here but just throw out like
Speaker 1: a guess why you think the crab would want a
Speaker 1: sea archin friend? Like this is question? Yes, exactly exactly that.
Speaker 1: I just like I I think it's it's neat because
Speaker 1: sometimes like the intuition about this is not it's like
Speaker 1: not this like tricky thing, not like a convoluted thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, it's just protecting it, so you don't worry.
Speaker 1: I'm only capable of surface level thought. So so here
Speaker 1: here it is. Oh wow, that looks like he's got
Speaker 1: two on his back. It's well, it's just a no,
Speaker 1: I think it's just one. That's a big one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a real big one. And what's interesting is, yeah,
Speaker 1: it likes to carry these really big ones. And funny
Speaker 1: that it has to hold Yeah, that makes sense that
Speaker 1: it has to hold it. See, chins are animals, they're
Speaker 1: kind of dorms. Sea urchins actually can move, and the
Speaker 1: fact that it's this big one means it's probably pretty
Speaker 1: mobile for a sea urchin, and if it wanted to
Speaker 1: struggle and like get away from the crab, it could,
Speaker 1: But in fact they're actually quite docile and they peacefully
Speaker 1: submit to being carried because while the crab gets armor
Speaker 1: from the sea urchin, the sea urchin gets a free
Speaker 1: ride because they're not as fast as a crab, so
Speaker 1: the crab can carry them around and they get to
Speaker 1: go to a new area to feed, and it's it
Speaker 1: works out for both of them really great. It's so
Speaker 1: funny that the crab does. It's like a like an
Speaker 1: old man holding on to his to pay in the
Speaker 1: wind his head. Beautiful description. Thank you so much. You
Speaker 1: may have your own little remorse hitching a ride on
Speaker 1: you without even knowing it. Demodex follicule form and Demodex
Speaker 1: brevis our eyelash mites microscopic mites who live on your eyelashes.
Speaker 1: They have elongated bodies with a bunch of cute little
Speaker 1: legs and claws. Sorry is that not cute? Anyways? Most
Speaker 1: adults have some eyelash mites, and for the most part
Speaker 1: this relationship seems commencelistic, meaning the mites get a home
Speaker 1: and get to eat our dead skin cells and we
Speaker 1: get nothing I mean grossed out, I guess, or if
Speaker 1: you want to think about it more positively, we get
Speaker 1: a bunch of microscopic friends, so you're never alone. Typically,
Speaker 1: the mites cause no problems in humans, but in large
Speaker 1: quantities or for people with sensitive skin or immuno deficiencies,
Speaker 1: they can cause eye and skin irritation. But don't freak out.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, you can keep mites in check
Speaker 1: by gently cleaning your eyes keyword gently, you guys, like
Speaker 1: baby shampoo or just water. Don't go napalm in your
Speaker 1: eyeballs with bleach that will blind you and it won't
Speaker 1: feel so good when we return. I'm going to infest
Speaker 1: your heart with good feelings as we explore some one
Speaker 1: of a kind adorable relationships between species. Sometimes relationships between
Speaker 1: species just happened to happen, and there's no greater pattern,
Speaker 1: just a random homeward bound situation. Often these oddball partnerships
Speaker 1: happen in captivity. Dogs and cheetahs become friends and zoos
Speaker 1: as Zookeepers have found that affable dogs make great companions
Speaker 1: to the shy cheetah. There are countless videos of birds
Speaker 1: riding on top of dogs and cats, chickens snuggling up
Speaker 1: to kittens, cats adopting squirrels, cats and dogs kissing on
Speaker 1: the mouth. What is going on? Well, sometimes animals aren't
Speaker 1: so superficial and can see past the mere fact that
Speaker 1: they're from entirely different species. So now I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about these These relationships don't have any like wider
Speaker 1: evolutionary significance, but they're just kind of these random oddball
Speaker 1: couples that are really cute and fascinating to kind of
Speaker 1: show that sometimes animals will act outside of their kind
Speaker 1: of prescribed path of what the animals typically do, especially
Speaker 1: in weird situations. So this first one is this is
Speaker 1: a heartwarmer. Get those get those warm fuzzies in your
Speaker 1: heart which aren't this time not worms, which is great. God. So,
Speaker 1: a baby hippo named Owen was orphaned in the two
Speaker 1: thousand and four Indian Ocean tsunami earthquakes, which were these
Speaker 1: huge devastating natural disaster. It caused flooding in Malindi, Kenya.
Speaker 1: This little baby hippo lost his parents, which is very sad.
Speaker 1: He was rescued by Dr Paula Cahumbu and the le
Speaker 1: Farge Ecosystem Sanctuary in mombas U, Kenya. He was also
Speaker 1: rescued by a giant tortoise emotionally rescued. So Z is
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty year old male to tortoise who
Speaker 1: also lives at the sanctuary. And when Owen was placed
Speaker 1: in the sanctuary park, he immediately ran over to the
Speaker 1: tortoise and huddled next to him like hippos generally do
Speaker 1: with their mothers, And at first the tortoise was kind
Speaker 1: of confused, but then he grew to tolerate and even
Speaker 1: show affection towards the baby hippo, and the baby hippo
Speaker 1: would nozzle the tortoise, and then tortoise would kind of
Speaker 1: head bumped the hippo, and like it developed to the
Speaker 1: point where the baby hippo owen would just kind of
Speaker 1: nudge the tortoise and the tortoise would follow the hippo around.
Speaker 1: And it's really interesting because it's not too surprising to
Speaker 1: me that the hippo would see this tortoise and it's orphan,
Speaker 1: and it just sees the shape. It's gray, kind of
Speaker 1: Bobby shape exactly. You're my new mom. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: not that close, but close enough. Yeah, but what I
Speaker 1: can't tell the difference between tortoises, And it's so surprising
Speaker 1: to me that the tortoise is just like, yeah, it'll
Speaker 1: be your moment, sure, why not? Yeah, you can beat
Speaker 1: myself now. They do seem like like more agreeable animals. Tortoises. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they are very gentle generally. H but yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: It is. It's like it's like in you know, Kung
Speaker 1: Fu Panda, where it's like the duck and the panda
Speaker 1: like this huge, huge, panda and this little little I mean,
Speaker 1: the giant tortoise was initially about the same size, but
Speaker 1: as the zippo gets bigger, it's got to dwarf the tortoise.
Speaker 1: But it is. Yeah, it's a I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just really heartwarming. I guess some the show is often
Speaker 1: filled with horrible things eating each other, um, you know,
Speaker 1: but this time there's no twist. It's just really heartwarming.
Speaker 1: Can tortoises can they go into their shells or are
Speaker 1: they too big? Well? So they so giant tortoises, um
Speaker 1: don't really like tuck completely in their shells like box
Speaker 1: turtles can do. But you know, I mean the shell
Speaker 1: does provide them some protection. They can kind of like
Speaker 1: tuck a little bit it in, but they don't. It's
Speaker 1: not like you know in the cartoons are just like
Speaker 1: zoop and then they're gone. They're too meeting for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. And what are their predators like? Just
Speaker 1: you know, actually I would say they don't have too
Speaker 1: many predators because they're pretty big, because in my mind
Speaker 1: they don't have many predators, Like, yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: they would. So they live in on the islands of
Speaker 1: the Western Indian Ocean and also the Glapas. I believe
Speaker 1: they don't have any No, no, there's like there's not
Speaker 1: there's no big predators that would be large enough to
Speaker 1: eat them. Now, I don't let me check about the um.
Speaker 1: This is a very good question. So on the island
Speaker 1: the Western Indian Ocean islands, again, I would guess that
Speaker 1: there probably aren't any big predators there either. Um, So
Speaker 1: they might not have at least as adults, they might
Speaker 1: not have any natural predators as like little baby tortoises,
Speaker 1: like probably birds would try to eat them. But but
Speaker 1: if they turn like ten, it's like, all right, you're
Speaker 1: going to live until your three things. Essentially, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think they do. Like the adults have no
Speaker 1: natural predators, So yeah, that that does kind of make
Speaker 1: sense them Like it sees this hippo bounding towards it.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, what's this about? What the hell?
Speaker 1: I don't know this? What is this? Is this a
Speaker 1: few of my buddies stacked on top of each other. Yeah? Again,
Speaker 1: I like it's sort of like the badger coyote dynamic
Speaker 1: of like this excitable baby hippo and this like a
Speaker 1: hundred thirty year old tortoise who's like old and gratchy. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's like an up you know how the old guy
Speaker 1: makes friends with the little the little boy scout Kevin's
Speaker 1: the bird. I think who's the boy scout's name? I
Speaker 1: don't remember a little boy scout? The hippo me but
Speaker 1: but yeah, so so it's just like this excited little
Speaker 1: hippo being like, hey, sure wouldould like to beat my
Speaker 1: new mommy. And it's like yeah, all right, all right,
Speaker 1: oh boy, let's go on adventures together please, And the
Speaker 1: turns like, alrighty, there's beauty. Let's go take a while
Speaker 1: because to him a hippo. Hippo's truthfully are they can
Speaker 1: run very quickly. Don't let their massive size fool you.
Speaker 1: Most of that size is pure muscle. They can destroy
Speaker 1: you and run very fast. So now onto another cute adoption. So, uh,
Speaker 1: there's a story of a dalmatian adopting a lamb. But
Speaker 1: here's the twist. The lamb had Dalmatian spots. So there's
Speaker 1: a rare sort of colouration for a lamb where it
Speaker 1: actually forms these black and white patches and it looks
Speaker 1: like a dalmatian's coloring. But it's a lamb. And so
Speaker 1: there's a farm in Australia where this lamb was born
Speaker 1: and it was orphaned. I couldn't find out whether it's
Speaker 1: mother died or some times the mother will just reject
Speaker 1: the lamb for who knows what, like you're you're a
Speaker 1: little freak, get out of here, weirdo. But the lamb
Speaker 1: really looked out because it was born on a freaking
Speaker 1: Dalmatian breeders farm. So uh. The lamb was paired up
Speaker 1: with a female Dalmatian who was in season, meaning it
Speaker 1: could give, it could get pregnant, like when they're in
Speaker 1: heat in estras um. So like, I guess it's like
Speaker 1: a mom hormones we're going off. And it was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll have a baby lamp. I love it. And so
Speaker 1: the dalmatian follows the lamb around, licking it incessantly licking
Speaker 1: its face and but and just doting on it, just
Speaker 1: totally loving it. Let me show you the video of it.
Speaker 1: It's very very cute. Now I'm not going to play
Speaker 1: the sound on this, but most of the videos sound
Speaker 1: is just the sound of the dog tongue lapping and
Speaker 1: going on. But it is it has like the same who.
Speaker 1: I mean, like it's like from a distance, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: here's a normal dalmatian and it's puppy and it's and
Speaker 1: then you take a closer looking you're like, well that's
Speaker 1: a weird shaped puppy. And then you get real close
Speaker 1: since that's a lamb at a minute, but it's so
Speaker 1: cute look at it. Just she just loves this, this
Speaker 1: little lamb to bits. That lamb, by the way, was
Speaker 1: a pyromaniac, and then the dalmatian reformed it. You know,
Speaker 1: they fight fires together. I love this story. I like
Speaker 1: the backstory you gave it. Like I was rejected by
Speaker 1: my sheep community. It's like, well why is that I
Speaker 1: started fires? Started fires? Oh? You know that big fire
Speaker 1: in Australia with me. You don't like fires here either.
Speaker 1: It's getting milk. That dog loves that land. It seems
Speaker 1: like the other dogs too. Yeah, I mean, like dogs
Speaker 1: are you know great? Yeah, awesome. They they often will
Speaker 1: adopt other animals. They just have so much love to give.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it is I mean probably also because this
Speaker 1: female dog has accepted the lamb as her her baby.
Speaker 1: The other dogs they're like, all right, it's your baby. Sure,
Speaker 1: why not. They're they're really yes, ending the dogs and um,
Speaker 1: one more really cute story of now this one. It's
Speaker 1: not clear whether it's adopting from a young age or
Speaker 1: if they have just kind of accepted this, uh, this
Speaker 1: individual into their group. But marine researchers found a bottle
Speaker 1: nose dolphin with a spinal deformity which had been taken
Speaker 1: in by a group of sperm whales. So dolphins and
Speaker 1: sperm whales are not natural friends. And the dolphin that
Speaker 1: was seen with these sperm whales had a C shaped spine,
Speaker 1: so like, um, yeah, so due to what they guess
Speaker 1: is a congenital deformity, and it was observed with a
Speaker 1: group of sperm whales and they were just affectionately nuzzling
Speaker 1: each other. The sperm whales seemed chill with it. And
Speaker 1: it's hard to say exactly the nature of this relationship
Speaker 1: because it was a rather quick observation, Like they didn't
Speaker 1: they weren't able to follow them over a matter of
Speaker 1: weeks or anything like that, so it's hard to you know, say,
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, like, yes, they are all
Speaker 1: friends now, and you know it could be a brief interaction.
Speaker 1: But the bottle knows dolphin was definitely not anywhere near
Speaker 1: a pot of dolphins. So the speculation is that it
Speaker 1: is has found this group of sperm whales and has
Speaker 1: either insinuated itself in their midst and it's like I'm
Speaker 1: your friend now, or they've accepted the dolphin as a friend,
Speaker 1: which is it's unusual because sperm whales don't even they
Speaker 1: don't hang out in the same part of the ocean.
Speaker 1: Don't they dive deep? No? No, I mean they do,
Speaker 1: need they do kind of occupy. Yeah, they occupy similar strata,
Speaker 1: but they it is true that they aren't in the
Speaker 1: same pace as dolphins. They do dive deep and then
Speaker 1: they come up and service and dive deep again. But like,
Speaker 1: the dolphins move much quicker than the sperm whales and
Speaker 1: the but this dolphin, because of the spinal malformation, probably
Speaker 1: can't move as fast as other dolphins, and either it
Speaker 1: was rejected by its group because of its looks or
Speaker 1: maybe it just wasn't fast enough to keep up, which
Speaker 1: is really heartbreaking. But you know, dolphins can kind of
Speaker 1: be bullies, like they can bully an individual that they
Speaker 1: just don't like, they don't accept it in their pod,
Speaker 1: which is really cliquish. They can yeah, no, they can
Speaker 1: attack each other. They certainly murder animals to eat, but
Speaker 1: like each other like yeah, I mean they can kind
Speaker 1: of fight each other. Yeah, like rival pods will fight
Speaker 1: each other. I don't know how efficacious they are and
Speaker 1: murdering each other, but yeah, they they do fight. Um,
Speaker 1: and I think I would say, yeah, they probably can
Speaker 1: occasionally murder, but most likely they just like bullied this
Speaker 1: dolphin until it left or just swam fast and it
Speaker 1: was like ditched them. Well, now he has cooler friends,
Speaker 1: right exactly that are less cliquish. You missed upon the
Speaker 1: first time, so I had to do it again because
Speaker 1: dolphins click. Of course. Yeah there we go. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, it is really, it's it's fascinating. For the
Speaker 1: most part. Sperm whales kind of probably avoid dolphins because
Speaker 1: a pot of dolphins could attack like a baby sperm
Speaker 1: whale and they don't want anything to do with that,
Speaker 1: and so but yeah, I mean, this little guy, it's
Speaker 1: like maybe they're just they recognize them. They they're like,
Speaker 1: you look like a weird, weird calf. All right, you
Speaker 1: can join us, So it's it's weird calf. Yeah, calf
Speaker 1: a calf is a baby. Well, yeah, I didn't mean
Speaker 1: the part of a life. You look like an odd
Speaker 1: fel you look like a weird cow come on and
Speaker 1: trying to sure, But yeah, maybe they or it's just
Speaker 1: like so insistently trying to find friends that they're just
Speaker 1: accepting it as they're friend or it's just a brief
Speaker 1: interaction and then they go back to no, no, I
Speaker 1: won't accept that. Let's let's go ps that that they're
Speaker 1: all best friends. They formed a group called like the Misfits. No, no,
Speaker 1: that's a band. What's a good name for like a group? Okay,
Speaker 1: now yes, but just like like the odd ball, like
Speaker 1: like hey, we're I guarantee you there could easily be
Speaker 1: a T shirt of a Remor on it, like the
Speaker 1: Remons stop t shirt, and like three people would enjoy
Speaker 1: wearing If you're the three people who would enjoy wearing
Speaker 1: that shirt, let me know make that shirt. Um this
Speaker 1: for so, I want to cap off the show and
Speaker 1: our stories of adoption to update us. We got a
Speaker 1: KOL update. I'm gonna play the KOL update sound here
Speaker 1: call update. A few weeks ago, we talked about the
Speaker 1: fires in Australia. I talked about some places that you
Speaker 1: can donate to, and I had everyone vote on a
Speaker 1: koala for us at the show to adopt, and you
Speaker 1: guys voted and you voted for Oxley Twinkles the koala
Speaker 1: and I have it is official. Now I have adopted
Speaker 1: Oxley Twinkles. She thank you. She is my Koala daughter. Apparently,
Speaker 1: what happens with the koala adoption is you don't actually
Speaker 1: like get the koala, Like they don't send you the Koala.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of right exactly what happens is the
Speaker 1: quala like occasionally calls me up and asks for money, um,
Speaker 1: and like it's like, yeah, I need some money for
Speaker 1: gas and it's like yeah, okay, I mean you are
Speaker 1: my daughter now, like right right, I want to see
Speaker 1: the receipt from the gas station, Like and don't give
Speaker 1: me a receipt from a gas station and you've crossed
Speaker 1: out all the booze and sharpie like I know, look,
Speaker 1: I was a young Koala wants to you. I've done
Speaker 1: all the tricks, so I know it. I know it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so so ox Oxley Twinkles Koala daughter of
Speaker 1: the podcast. Um, I want to talk to you or
Speaker 1: tell you about like the description of Oxley twinkles from
Speaker 1: the Koala Hospital website. Did you get a velvet worm
Speaker 1: with that? Did it come with a velvet worm or
Speaker 1: now sadly, I'm still working on that. I oh, oh,
Speaker 1: that's thank you for reminding me. Because like, guys, please
Speaker 1: tell give me the website or number or address of
Speaker 1: a like an insect or not insects, sorry, but like
Speaker 1: an invertebrate rescue organization, because I desperately want to adopt
Speaker 1: a velvet worm. Now I understand I wouldn't blindly click
Speaker 1: on those links, by the way, I understand that probably
Speaker 1: by adopting a velvet worm. Again, like the Koala situation,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a long distance relationship. I accept that,
Speaker 1: But I do want to at least in name, adopt
Speaker 1: a velvet worm, or at least UH sort of signal
Speaker 1: boost in inverted rescue organization, or probably more likely it
Speaker 1: would be an invertebrate conservation organization that UM uses the
Speaker 1: money to research how to help with UH invertebrate conservation UM.
Speaker 1: So yeah, like, if you have a good one or
Speaker 1: you are part of a group, send me. You can
Speaker 1: contact me through Twitter and stuff. But you can also
Speaker 1: if you want send me an email Creature feature pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. Also if you just want to
Speaker 1: send me an animal story or a picture of your cat.
Speaker 1: I love it so. Oxley Twinkles, Uh, here's the here's
Speaker 1: her stories. That she came in with her mother, Oxley Kaylee,
Speaker 1: who got I think hit by a car. But the
Speaker 1: mother survived, as did the Joey, and it was taken
Speaker 1: in by the Koala Hospital. And this little Joey, they said,
Speaker 1: like her Joey with the big fluffy ears. We christened
Speaker 1: Oxley Twinkles as she was such a bright, alert, lively
Speaker 1: little Koala just like a twinkling star. My daughter is
Speaker 1: a star. She's very lucky. Yes, so it's it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: And if you guys wanna throw some more books at
Speaker 1: Oxley Twinkles, way honestly, any here's here's me talking out
Speaker 1: of character for a moment. Any donation you give to them,
Speaker 1: like any kuala you adopt, it just goes towards the
Speaker 1: Koala Hospital in general and the great work that they do.
Speaker 1: So that's uh Koala Hospital dot org dot au. I'll
Speaker 1: include that link in the show notes as well. I
Speaker 1: also got a message from Tom Rogers of the Podorou
Speaker 1: Palace Sanctuary in New South Wales, Australia, who sent me
Speaker 1: a gorgeous photo of a rescued koala named Sapphire and
Speaker 1: her baby Joey, and you know I'm going to post
Speaker 1: those to the social media's And he wrote to me
Speaker 1: that they had to evacuate the animals in the sanctuary
Speaker 1: during the height of the New South Wales fires, which
Speaker 1: was really stressful for the animals and I imagine the
Speaker 1: rescuers too. So thank you so much, Tom Rodgers and
Speaker 1: everyone who works at the Poduru Palace for all the
Speaker 1: hard work you do and honestly heroic things you do
Speaker 1: for these animals. Definitely check out their website. I'll also
Speaker 1: include a link to it in the show notes. It's
Speaker 1: called Potaru Palace dot com. And I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: they're open right now, you could check, but if you
Speaker 1: live near New South Wales, Australia, you can visit their
Speaker 1: sanctuary and help feed the animals. And then what was
Speaker 1: this the one year l A could you animal track
Speaker 1: animal tracks? And then there's another great one near l
Speaker 1: A in um Lake Arrowhead called wild Haven, Oh wonderful.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, shout out to all those groups. That's
Speaker 1: that's incredible. I I am definitely going to go check
Speaker 1: out animal tracks. That sounds incredible. Great, got anything to
Speaker 1: plug Blake Wexler dot com at Blake wet Laurance social media,
Speaker 1: and then I'm headlining the Arcade Comedy Theater in Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: on February awesome, congratual, Thank you, Thank you can find
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at Creature Feature Pod on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Creature feet Pod. That's f e A T, not f
Speaker 1: e e T. That is something very different. You can
Speaker 1: find me at Katie Golden on Twitter. As always, I
Speaker 1: am at pro bird Rites, where I fight for the
Speaker 1: rights of birds to completely dominate us. Yeah, and look,
Speaker 1: I think that partnership between birds and humans can only
Speaker 1: lead to honey and success. But mostly we should just
Speaker 1: worship birds. Uh. And if you again, like, if you
Speaker 1: want to reach out to me, definitely shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. If
Speaker 1: you've got any cool animal conservation stories, any cool resources
Speaker 1: you want to me to give a shout out, or
Speaker 1: pictures of your day cats and dogs or birds or whatever.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the Space Classics. For their super groovy song
Speaker 1: x Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like this, visit the I heart Radio
Speaker 1: app to app a podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. See you next Wednesday.