Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of My Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, it's another
Speaker 1: listener questions episode. Happy New Year, every guys, Every guys,
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, every guys. I talk good normal. That's
Speaker 1: this is going to be the new way that I
Speaker 1: talked in Hope you guys like it. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: wanted to start off the new year with some listener questions.
Speaker 1: Got a whole bunch of new creature features coming up
Speaker 1: in the year, you know, every Wednesday and so on.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm probably right now as you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: I'm probably full of some kind of beverage, eating some
Speaker 1: kind of snacks. So uh, you know, I'll be back
Speaker 1: in the saddle pretty soon. I think next week I'm
Speaker 1: gonna air a creature classic that I pull out from
Speaker 1: the archives and the archives from the old vintage the seller,
Speaker 1: the pod Seller, where I've got a bunch of pods
Speaker 1: aging and brewing and growing mold, but tasteful mold mold
Speaker 1: that you find on fancy cheese. So look forward to that.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys all had a good holiday season.
Speaker 1: Oh let's let's get right into it. Let me answer
Speaker 1: so your question as Hi, Katie, please hear me out.
Speaker 1: I love my pets. They are annoying, They demand a
Speaker 1: lot of time and attention, they don't really do much,
Speaker 1: and I devote a lot of time and resources to
Speaker 1: making sure that they are all as happy as possible.
Speaker 1: If I died, they would probably eat my corpse within minutes. Sure,
Speaker 1: I get a dopamine hint when I pet them, and sure,
Speaker 1: occasionally the cats even seem to like me. But the
Speaker 1: fish exist only to entertain the cats. And don't get
Speaker 1: me started on the dog. She is constantly trying to
Speaker 1: eat as much garlic and plastic as possible. The struggle
Speaker 1: is just keeping her alive. Am I being used? If
Speaker 1: one of them wanted to replace my tongue, I'd at
Speaker 1: least consider it. Sounds like a parasite to me. Thanks, Will, So,
Speaker 1: thank you for the question. Will. Uh. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I've gotten a similar question about whether dogs are parasites.
Speaker 1: And I'm always interested in talking about the nature of
Speaker 1: our relationships with animals because they're interesting and complicated. So first,
Speaker 1: let me do a little refresher on what isn't isn't
Speaker 1: a parasite and how biology defines relationships, So any close
Speaker 1: relationship between two or more organisms or species is called symbiosis.
Speaker 1: This could be the relationship between bees and flowers, or
Speaker 1: a tick on a dog. Symbiosis describes a whole variety
Speaker 1: of relationships, from mutualism where both organisms benefit such as
Speaker 1: the bee and the flower, to parasitism, where only one
Speaker 1: organism benefits at the expense of the other, like that
Speaker 1: tick on your dog. In Between these two poles is
Speaker 1: another type of relationship called commence ali is um, where
Speaker 1: one organism benefits while the other has a neutral outcome.
Speaker 1: So an example of this would be the cattle egret,
Speaker 1: which is a bird that hangs around unguluts hooved mammals
Speaker 1: and it waits for them to walk around and graze
Speaker 1: on grass, at which point the egret will eat the insects,
Speaker 1: fleeing the cattle. So the cattle doesn't really benefit, but
Speaker 1: no harm comes to the cattle while the e grit benefits,
Speaker 1: and this is a commensil relationship. So relationships between organisms
Speaker 1: and animals is not typically simple, and this can result
Speaker 1: in a lot of debate about the nature of a relationship.
Speaker 1: So an example of this is whether oxpeckers are parasites
Speaker 1: or mutualistic. We actually just talked about them on the show.
Speaker 1: They're those birds who eat pests off the backs of
Speaker 1: rhinos and other large mammals, but they also occasionally occasionally
Speaker 1: drink some of their hosts blood. And whether they benefit
Speaker 1: their host more than they harm them maybe up to
Speaker 1: some debate. So our pets parasites, are they mutualistic or
Speaker 1: commence al. One approach to answering this is to look
Speaker 1: at the history of dow geese and kiddies. So the
Speaker 1: origin of domesticated pets such as dogs and cats may
Speaker 1: have started out as a commence al relationship. The early
Speaker 1: wolf ancestors of dogs may have domesticated themselves to some extent,
Speaker 1: with only the most calm, unafraid, and non aggressive wolf
Speaker 1: like ancestors venturing near human camps to eat things like
Speaker 1: discarded food left behind. This would have benefited these early
Speaker 1: wolves while not really affecting humans one way or the other,
Speaker 1: which would have made it a commensal symbiosis. But our
Speaker 1: relationship changed as humans may have started to interact with
Speaker 1: these proto dogs more, maybe sharing food with them. Intentionally
Speaker 1: making them more dependent on us, maybe even selecting the
Speaker 1: proto dogs least likely to bite us. And over time,
Speaker 1: we really did domesticate these dogs, We engineered them even
Speaker 1: more precisely to do things like herd cattle or kill rats,
Speaker 1: protect us, and you know, entertain us, be our companions.
Speaker 1: So it could be a case that these very early
Speaker 1: wolf like ancestors had a commensal relationship with us that
Speaker 1: turned into a mutualistic relationship over time as we started
Speaker 1: to capitalize on what dogs could provide for us. Cats
Speaker 1: actually probably were more likely to start out with a
Speaker 1: more mutualistic relationship with us because they were probably drawn
Speaker 1: to human settlements due to the rats and mice that
Speaker 1: we're eating our food stores. And if they were eating
Speaker 1: the rats and mice, we would have benefited from that
Speaker 1: pretty immediately. And then of course we may have started
Speaker 1: to give them food intentionally to attract more cats to
Speaker 1: us because they got rid of rats and mice, which
Speaker 1: was good for us because it prevented the spread of
Speaker 1: disease and protected our food. Uh. And so yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's uh in terms of where our relationships are
Speaker 1: with cats and dogs, now, I would still describe it
Speaker 1: as mutualistic both from a biological and I guess philosophical perspective.
Speaker 1: Cat and dog populations are massive compared to their wild counterparts,
Speaker 1: which really shows how beneficial their relationship has been with
Speaker 1: humans and our quality of life as humans has also
Speaker 1: improved due to the domestication of dogs and cats, who
Speaker 1: have helped their society in terms of tasks like farming, protection,
Speaker 1: pest control, hurting cattle. Anonymal or emotional level, they are
Speaker 1: companions who can make us happier and healthier. And in
Speaker 1: terms of the cats and dogs, maybe eating us after
Speaker 1: we die, it does happen, but that may not really
Speaker 1: change the nature of our relationship. And let me explain
Speaker 1: it by talking about our complicated relationship with domesticated animals
Speaker 1: that we don't typically keep as pets. So while it
Speaker 1: may seem strange, even our relationship with other domesticated animals
Speaker 1: could be viewed as mutualism. Even those that we eat,
Speaker 1: such as cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep. We provide them food, shelter,
Speaker 1: and mating opportunities, while they provide us with meat or
Speaker 1: maybe even woolen eggs. Uh. In this case, we're looking
Speaker 1: at the symbiosis between humans and domesticated animals on a
Speaker 1: species level, not on an individual level. So mutualistic relationships
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily about the quality of life or morality. It's
Speaker 1: about whether a species survives. So due to human farming,
Speaker 1: the chicken population exploded, meaning it's quote unquote good for
Speaker 1: the species. But this doesn't mean each chicken has a
Speaker 1: happy life. For chicken farming is good for the environment
Speaker 1: or anything else. It's just saying that because humans domesticated
Speaker 1: chickens and breed them, we propagate more chickens. It's an
Speaker 1: a moral argument. So while we can describe the biological
Speaker 1: nature of this relationship is mutualistic, the morality of the
Speaker 1: situation is more complicated. Obviously, so when evolutionary biologists talk
Speaker 1: about the success of an animal, it's more about the
Speaker 1: animal being able to reproduce successfully, but giving an animal
Speaker 1: a good quality of life is more of a moral question.
Speaker 1: So that's all to say that if your cat or
Speaker 1: your dog eats your corpse after you die, it actually
Speaker 1: makes no impact on the existing mutualistic relationship. In fact,
Speaker 1: compared to our domesticated animal example, it's less impactful because
Speaker 1: they didn't even slaughter you for your meat. They just
Speaker 1: patiently awaited your natural device, which I think is kind
Speaker 1: of white. So if you are enjoying the company of
Speaker 1: your pets and they're enjoying yours as well as the
Speaker 1: food you give them and the fish, entertainment and all
Speaker 1: of love and cuddles, I think you're probably in a
Speaker 1: healthy mutualistic relationship. And your pets did not pay me
Speaker 1: to say this. Next question, Next Question. That's my song
Speaker 1: called next Question, So here it is. Hi Katie. First,
Speaker 1: I wanted to say that I am a big fan
Speaker 1: of the show. It's definitely my Wednesday treat. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: One question that I've had is are there animals that
Speaker 1: work out? I get that some animals may play fight
Speaker 1: or do something similar that builds skills, but do any
Speaker 1: animals do any kind of activity that solely builds muscle
Speaker 1: or slowly builds muscle? Get it? Anyways, So thanks again
Speaker 1: from Christian Thor. That's a very Thor is a good
Speaker 1: name for question about animals working out, So I love
Speaker 1: this question. Do animals get swolled? Do they work out?
Speaker 1: Do they go to the gym? Do they cross fit? So?
Speaker 1: Lots of animals can be very muscular, but typically it's
Speaker 1: due to their intense daily lives and maintaining a nutritional diet.
Speaker 1: Even early humans were probably pretty fit and muscular, but
Speaker 1: more lean muscles. So as long as we had enough
Speaker 1: food from the daily walking, running and physical exertion it
Speaker 1: took to survive, we probably had a pretty lean, leanly
Speaker 1: muscled physique. Uh. Now, obviously a lot of humans have
Speaker 1: cushier lifestyles and we're not forced to walk miles and
Speaker 1: miles every day, or climb things, or jump over rivers,
Speaker 1: or do long distance running to chase down prey. So
Speaker 1: if we want to make sure that we build muscle
Speaker 1: or stay fit, we have to do it intentionally. That said,
Speaker 1: I don't think that early humans were actually getting swollen.
Speaker 1: They probably weren't building a lot of muscle. There probably
Speaker 1: just wasn't time or resources to do that, and it
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily benefit them. They were probably more lithe and sinewy,
Speaker 1: especially our ancestors and hotter climates, who really had to
Speaker 1: do this long distance kind of jog running where we
Speaker 1: would literally just out endurance prey until they tired out.
Speaker 1: Because we weren't the fastest, we weren't the strongest, but
Speaker 1: we were the smartest and most stubborn. So uh another
Speaker 1: this is a guess. Kind of a side note, but
Speaker 1: the reason we aren't just naturally swollen muscular like guerrillas
Speaker 1: or lean and muscular like chimpanzees is our genetics. So
Speaker 1: humans actually have a higher body fat percentage than our
Speaker 1: primate relatives. Naturally, we have a genutation that makes us
Speaker 1: store more fat as white fat than our ape cousins.
Speaker 1: So human healthy body fat percentage has a pretty wide
Speaker 1: range generally speaking. I mean, I'm not a doctor, take
Speaker 1: that in mind, but generally speaking, it's around to over um,
Speaker 1: whereas other primates only tend to have around a nine
Speaker 1: percent body fat ratio. So researchers speculate that our ability
Speaker 1: to turn food into fat stores was important to keep
Speaker 1: our freakishly huge brains nourished. Instead of burning off fat
Speaker 1: for warmth immediately, human store as white fat, and those
Speaker 1: stores can keep our incredibly big and energy demanding brains fed.
Speaker 1: So that means that when we don't have to constantly
Speaker 1: walk or run, and we also have this natural tendency
Speaker 1: to have higher body fat percentage to like build visible
Speaker 1: muscle that you can see you really that takes this
Speaker 1: effort of going to the gym, eating a lot, going
Speaker 1: to the gym. These are not really natural behaviors for humans,
Speaker 1: and they're not natural behaviors for animals. Not being natural
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's bad or anything, by the way, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it's not. You know, we didn't we didn't
Speaker 1: have gym's back when we were nomadic humans, although it's
Speaker 1: hard to know, we may have had some kind of
Speaker 1: sports or fun play activities. Most animals do not have
Speaker 1: to work out to develop their muscles. They just build
Speaker 1: them naturally with eating, normal activity, and their physiology like hormones,
Speaker 1: so their hormones can regulate their muscle mass and metabolism
Speaker 1: without them ever having to go on a treadmill. A
Speaker 1: really incredible example of this are Barnacle Geese. They go
Speaker 1: on these mass migrations every year, and you would think
Speaker 1: that they would need to work out before going on
Speaker 1: these long distance flights, but they do not. Even though
Speaker 1: they don't work out, their wing muscles and their heart
Speaker 1: muscles actually get more conditioned and bigger right before their
Speaker 1: migration without them doing any kind of like extra physical activity.
Speaker 1: And the reason for this is there's some kind of
Speaker 1: environmental change that triggers some kind of hormone that changes
Speaker 1: their metabolism so that they're eating a little more, and
Speaker 1: then that eating converts into bigger muscle mass, more conditioned
Speaker 1: heart mass, which you know, doesn't seem really fair, probably
Speaker 1: especially around the holidays where we gotta keep track of
Speaker 1: our heart health and stuff as we're eating all these
Speaker 1: rich foods, and a barnacle goose can just eat a
Speaker 1: bunch and have good card. It's it's not fair. It's
Speaker 1: not fair, but you know, nature is not fair, I guess,
Speaker 1: So again back circling back to your question, because I've
Speaker 1: kind of been eating it a little bit. Do any
Speaker 1: animals work out and strengthen and build muscles. It's a
Speaker 1: really good question because it's been very sparsely studied. So
Speaker 1: there was an article published in in the British Ecological
Speaker 1: Society that was actually bemoaning the lack of research on
Speaker 1: whether some animals have to intentionally exercise before beyond their
Speaker 1: normal daily activity. And you know, other than this like it.
Speaker 1: It does actually seem to be kind of a blind
Speaker 1: spot and research admittedly it's probably pretty difficult to research.
Speaker 1: The only real evidence that I personally have seen this
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's not out there. So because I you know,
Speaker 1: I am, I am fallible in my research ability. But
Speaker 1: the only real evidence that I've seen are what was
Speaker 1: a study that put exercise wheels outside, like little hamster
Speaker 1: wheels outside to see what the wild mouse population would do,
Speaker 1: and they found out wild mice, undomesticated, just wild little
Speaker 1: mousies would use these hamster wheels as free gems. So
Speaker 1: they loved these hamster wheels. They would get on, they
Speaker 1: would exercise for no discernible reason. And of course this
Speaker 1: isn't really answering the question do they get swollen? You know,
Speaker 1: do they do this to build bustle, because we don't
Speaker 1: really know why these wild mice are doing it. It
Speaker 1: may be that they are not intentionally trying to work out,
Speaker 1: but instead there chasing that runners high that release of
Speaker 1: dopamine that when they run, they get this dopamine rush,
Speaker 1: just like humans do, and just like hamsters do and
Speaker 1: their hamster wheels. And the only other guests I would
Speaker 1: have of an animal that may work out would maybe
Speaker 1: be dolphins. And this is a bit of a shot
Speaker 1: in the dark, because dolphins will sometimes jump out of
Speaker 1: the water. I mean probably seeing that a dolphin majestically
Speaker 1: leaping out of the water, and researchers haven't really pinpointed
Speaker 1: exactly why they do this. There are a lot of theories.
Speaker 1: But maybe because this is something that requires so much
Speaker 1: you know, abdominal strength and it's it's a you know,
Speaker 1: energy demanding activity. Maybe it's some form of working out.
Speaker 1: Maybe they enjoy the physical stunt. There's no evidence for that. Uh,
Speaker 1: that is completely a shot in the dark. But since
Speaker 1: it is such a mystery what this behavior is, it's possible.
Speaker 1: So long story short, humans are the only animals that
Speaker 1: we know of who intentionally work out to build muscle,
Speaker 1: and early in our evolution we probably didn't do this.
Speaker 1: We probably just were happy enough to try to retain
Speaker 1: the amount of muscle mass and fact that we had
Speaker 1: based on our food source and all of the walking
Speaker 1: and running we had to do. And this probably didn't
Speaker 1: make us swell, probably make a super muscular That being
Speaker 1: like super muscular, really muscled is more of a recent
Speaker 1: human tradition, I suppose tradition, not really you know, habit activity,
Speaker 1: life style choice, I don't know, but yeah, And then
Speaker 1: also genetic mutations gave us a higher body fat percentage
Speaker 1: than like, you know, uh, primate relatives. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it is we cannot judge our human body types
Speaker 1: on other animals where unique, uh, and our evolutionary history
Speaker 1: is very unique. And yeah, our our desire to go
Speaker 1: to the gym in shape our bodies are its kind
Speaker 1: of a it's kind of a bit of a strange quirk,
Speaker 1: I guess for humans. So yeah, it's also you know,
Speaker 1: probably in terms of human history, it's probably It's is
Speaker 1: also a quirk of our current society. You know, like
Speaker 1: different types of body types go in and out of
Speaker 1: fash and throughout human history. So you know, don't be
Speaker 1: too jealous of article geese, is I guess what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say. Actually, I'm pretty jealous of article geese. Anyways,
Speaker 1: Next questions questions in disguise. Okay, hey Katie, I love
Speaker 1: the squirrel episode. I never knew there were so many
Speaker 1: insane squirrels out there. I have a question. When I
Speaker 1: was a kid, my mom took a course to become
Speaker 1: a wildlife rehabilitator. She would bring home orphan baby birds,
Speaker 1: all and squirrels from the rescue center, and my brother
Speaker 1: and I would help feed and care for them, and then,
Speaker 1: because we lived out in the sticks, we would release
Speaker 1: them in the backyard. A lot of the critters we
Speaker 1: set free would come back for handouts. One time, after
Speaker 1: I had given one of our squirrels such a handout,
Speaker 1: I watched her dig a little hole nearby, pretend to
Speaker 1: put the peanut down, and then made a show of
Speaker 1: patting all the dirt over the whole with great care.
Speaker 1: I could see her running away with the peanut still
Speaker 1: in her mouth, so I went and inspected the whole.
Speaker 1: It was, of course empty. At the time, I thought
Speaker 1: the fool had forgotten to actually put in the nut.
Speaker 1: Now I see I have been pranked. What kinds of
Speaker 1: pranks are other animals pulling on each other or us
Speaker 1: out there? I would love to know that I am
Speaker 1: not the only fool who fell for one. Thanks p S.
Speaker 1: Because we would sometimes get very small babies, we would
Speaker 1: have to bring them with us if we were going
Speaker 1: out of the house for too long to keep up
Speaker 1: with their feedings. One time we had a box of
Speaker 1: squirrels with us and had to stop the grocery store.
Speaker 1: But we couldn't leave them in the hot car, so
Speaker 1: I dumped all the babies into my sweatshirt before going inside.
Speaker 1: Even very young squirrels are great at clinging to fabric
Speaker 1: with their hooked nails, and they were happy to crawl
Speaker 1: around in my shirt and peek out of my sleeves
Speaker 1: and collar. Many double takes from the other customers happened
Speaker 1: that day. It was great. I thought you would appreciate
Speaker 1: that and maybe even think I was cool, because the
Speaker 1: kids at my school definitely didn't. Anyways, love the show.
Speaker 1: I am always very excited for Wednesday's all the best. Jata,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for that story. I love Oh
Speaker 1: my god, the little little squirrels poking out of your shirt.
Speaker 1: That's that's incredible. I would have been your friend in
Speaker 1: school for sure. So yeah, onto your question. I think
Speaker 1: this was based on the squirrel episode we did a
Speaker 1: little while back, and I have to catch up on emails,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I know this is a great question. And
Speaker 1: the point you were making about, uh, the squirrel intentionally
Speaker 1: not putting the peanut in the hall. That was something
Speaker 1: we talked about during the episode where squirrels will pretend
Speaker 1: to dig a hole and pretend to put a nut
Speaker 1: in the hole, but that is just a trick to
Speaker 1: keep other squirrels who may be spying on them from
Speaker 1: knowing where they're bearing their nuts. And it is a
Speaker 1: quote unquote prank in the sense that they are tricking
Speaker 1: other squirrels in order to protect their resources. And as
Speaker 1: you'll see in these other samples will bring up of
Speaker 1: animals pulling pranks. Animal pranks usually have some kind of
Speaker 1: intention other than just sort of the like prank you
Speaker 1: of human pranks, which are kind of pointless and sometimes mean.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess you can do a non
Speaker 1: mean prank, but I don't like mean pranks. Don't don't
Speaker 1: do mean pranks. I think a really good prank is
Speaker 1: something you can both laugh at and does not maybe
Speaker 1: causes the other person at most a mild surprise, but
Speaker 1: not don't you know, don't upset people Anyways, These pranks
Speaker 1: are uh definitely not done out of empathy. So yes,
Speaker 1: there are animals who pull pranks, so to speak. Male
Speaker 1: topy antelopes like to prank females in short, because they're
Speaker 1: a holes. They want to keep females within their territory
Speaker 1: as long as possible to increase the chance of mating.
Speaker 1: If the female begins to wander away, due to disinterest.
Speaker 1: The male will run out in front of her, looking
Speaker 1: in the direction of where she's going, while snorting, stomping,
Speaker 1: and keeping his ears alert, pretending as if a predator
Speaker 1: were lurking in that direction, and it's just a ruse
Speaker 1: to keep the female from leaving his territory. The males
Speaker 1: will only do this fake warning behavior when the females
Speaker 1: are in heat, demonstrating how targeted it is towards tricking
Speaker 1: their mates into staying longer and maybe mating with them,
Speaker 1: which I think is a toxic relationship. Girl, you can
Speaker 1: do better. Get out of there. Dump. Um so uh, Actually,
Speaker 1: my dog does something very similar whenever we're trying to
Speaker 1: leave the apartment. Every single time we try to leave
Speaker 1: the apartment, she'll start growling, her hair will stand on
Speaker 1: in she like makes these sort of runs towards the
Speaker 1: door as if she has spotted some kind of danger outside.
Speaker 1: And I am a hundred percent convinced that she is
Speaker 1: doing this, as you know, trying to trick us into
Speaker 1: thinking there's some danger outside and we have to stay
Speaker 1: in and stay with her and give her more treats
Speaker 1: and pets and attention. But I'm onto her. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: I'm slightly smarter than a dog. Here's another fun prank
Speaker 1: of the animal kingdom. Tufted capuchin monkeys, which are adorable,
Speaker 1: cute little monkeys, will do fake alarm cries to trick
Speaker 1: other monkeys so they can swoop in and sneak food away.
Speaker 1: So there was a study done that found this was
Speaker 1: especially true of these scrawnier monkeys who were not able
Speaker 1: to compete with the bigger monkeys or jock monkeys. So
Speaker 1: these scrawny monkeys tired of never being able to get
Speaker 1: the bananas that the experimenters would put in their environment, uh,
Speaker 1: they would issue these fake alarm calls, like they would
Speaker 1: cry cry wolf, like say hey there's hawk or some
Speaker 1: kind of dangerous predator nearby, and that would distract the
Speaker 1: jock monkeys long enough that these little nerd monkeys got
Speaker 1: to go in and grab the bananas for themselves, probably
Speaker 1: play some monkey D and D. You know, I had
Speaker 1: a good monkey time until the bigger monkeys probably came back.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, where's my bananas? Anyways, So one man's
Speaker 1: prank is another man's banana. Yeah, I think that's the lesson.
Speaker 1: So before we go, I'm going to do this week's
Speaker 1: game of Guess who squawk and the Mystery Animal Sound Game.
Speaker 1: So last week's hint was as adults, they look like
Speaker 1: a beautiful sunset, but as babies, they just don't want
Speaker 1: to be someone else's grub. So I'm going to insert
Speaker 1: the winners here. I am actually recording this ahead of time,
Speaker 1: so I don't know if I'll have my microphone, so
Speaker 1: it's either going to be my voice with a crappy microphone,
Speaker 1: or maybe robot Katie saying the winners of last week's
Speaker 1: animal Mystery sound game. Congratulations to Antib the winner for
Speaker 1: this week. The answer is the Taiwanese squeaking silk moth caterpillar.
Speaker 1: These plump, green, fussy babies issue a little squeak when poked.
Speaker 1: So this sound actually doesn't come out of their mouths,
Speaker 1: but out of tiny breathing holes called spiracles in their
Speaker 1: sides that they force air out of, like fleshy bagpipes.
Speaker 1: It's a spirical miracle. The squeak is meant to startle
Speaker 1: birds or other predators in the hopes that they will
Speaker 1: leave them alone, so very cute squeaks just like caterpillar bagpipes.
Speaker 1: So onto this week's sound. The hint is this is
Speaker 1: a trio of big babies who really wish you understood
Speaker 1: their point. Well, good luck guessing that. One um, the
Speaker 1: answer will be revealed. Uh, let's see either next week
Speaker 1: or well, next week I might play a classic. So
Speaker 1: if I do play a classic, the actual answer will
Speaker 1: be revealed two weeks from now. Don't worry, you'll find
Speaker 1: out what this mystery animal sound is. And hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I really hope that you've all had good holidays and
Speaker 1: that your next year has filled with wonderful, wonderful times,
Speaker 1: wonderful good times. Uh. And I really appreciate what you
Speaker 1: guys have done for me in terms of listening to
Speaker 1: my podcast. It means so much to me. I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed doing this and I really love hearing from you guys,
Speaker 1: all your animals, guesses, all your questions. It warms swarms
Speaker 1: my warms my heart, which is probably full of parasites,
Speaker 1: but you know, it still warms it. Uh. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening. If you think you know
Speaker 1: the answer to this week's animal mry sound game, if
Speaker 1: you want to write in a question or just say hi,
Speaker 1: you can email me at Creature Feature Pod act Gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. I can sometimes be a little slow in
Speaker 1: responding to things, but I try to get there eventually.
Speaker 1: You can also Hey, hang out at on Twitter website
Speaker 1: Creature Feet Pod. That's f a T not at the teeth,
Speaker 1: only very different. I'm also on Instagram at Creature feature Pod.
Speaker 1: Uh and thank you so much for listening. If you're
Speaker 1: enjoying the show and you leave a rating a review,
Speaker 1: I read all of the reviews, every single one of them.
Speaker 1: I print them out. I like toss them on the
Speaker 1: bed like it's a big pile of money, and I
Speaker 1: go like like I'm rich baby, and I tossed him
Speaker 1: up in the air like I'm that kid from blank
Speaker 1: Check movie. Remember that movie was decent director v HS
Speaker 1: movie anyways. Uh And thanks to the Space Cossics for
Speaker 1: their super awesome song excel. Luminous Creature features a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one
Speaker 1: you just heard, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or Hey Guess what, Maybe listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: See you next Wednesday.