Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Feature, a production of Elipark Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your ghost of mini Parasites, Katie, It's actually Kitty Katie Golden.
Speaker 1: I studied psychology and evoboutionary biologee and today on the show,
Speaker 1: it's a halloweenisode. Hags, slime Frogs, and the Boogie Woogies
Speaker 1: who can Kill You with a touch? Discover this more
Speaker 1: as we answer the age old question can we use
Speaker 1: ectoplasm as a substitute for egg whites and baking? Joining
Speaker 1: me today is my friend, co host of a plethora
Speaker 1: of podcasts on the game Fully Unemployed Network, including Hypecast
Speaker 1: and we just watched with Tom and Dave, also a
Speaker 1: writer with me on Summer News, Dave, Welcome, Hi.
Speaker 2: What's my spooky name day? Belle has an obvious roll.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hell Hell, Dave Hell Bell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not it's it's.
Speaker 1: David, David, Dave, damn it. I would just say David Hell,
Speaker 1: but then I said David Bell, Yeah, David Bell parentheses hell. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's not great. It's not great. Well, thanks
Speaker 2: for having me on. Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, this is a very spooky episode. It is Halloween.
Speaker 1: At least it should be Halloween, hopefully when you're listening
Speaker 1: to this, so, you know, happy Halloween everyone. Hope you're
Speaker 1: eating a lot of candy, dressing up as ghouls, you know,
Speaker 1: having a good time, wear bright reflective clothing, watch out
Speaker 1: for kittie kats, you know all those things. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: the pros. Yeah, be nice to ghosts, to like a
Speaker 1: lot of them. I think are probably gonna be extra
Speaker 1: sensitive because everyone's like, ooh, a ghost and they're like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's kind of mean.
Speaker 2: If you hear if you hear like the sounds of
Speaker 2: like groaning coming from like a graveyard, honestly, go check
Speaker 2: it out because that person probably needs help, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: don't just go a ghost and run like that person
Speaker 2: probably needs your help.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Ghosts typically don't make noise there, right, you know,
Speaker 1: And but human beings who are like felt like tried
Speaker 1: to tour a graveyard and then fell into a hole
Speaker 1: and broke their ankle, they do make sound. So check
Speaker 1: that out. Yeah, just you know, enjoy enjoy Halloween. You know,
Speaker 1: check your candy for like hidden vegetables and throw those out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw a post where someone was wrapping Brussels sprouts
Speaker 1: in tinfoil to look like fair fer Ao rochet candy,
Speaker 1: and that's like the worst. That's so mean. I love
Speaker 1: that candy. If I got that, I would break out
Speaker 1: into tears and ever trust another human again.
Speaker 2: I would break out the toilet paper. That's where the
Speaker 2: trick comes into trick or treat, right.
Speaker 1: And then you poop on their lawn and wipe yourself
Speaker 1: with the toilet paper.
Speaker 2: That's the trick.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope that you are excited for this episode
Speaker 1: because I have some creepy creatures to share with you.
Speaker 1: I also found the worst Halloween soundboard in existence, which
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about, so you know, I hope you
Speaker 1: are too. Just here is a little sample of that.
Speaker 1: With this this spooky Halloween sound.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Yeah, they're having so much fun. What
Speaker 2: was the joke they told me.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Here's here's a witch sound.
Speaker 2: God also laughter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one is just called blood.
Speaker 2: That's the sounds of blootle right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well you know, uh, it's a free Halloween soundboard
Speaker 1: that I lovingly picked out for this episode. So uh,
Speaker 1: let's get right into it and talk about some of
Speaker 1: the ghoulish creatures that are very halloweeny, very spooky, very slimy. First,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the goliath frog. That's that's
Speaker 1: not really I feel like that's not that. I don't
Speaker 1: really Yeah, it's a haunted radiator. Wait, let me try
Speaker 1: that again. Let's talk about the goliath frog. Jesus. They
Speaker 1: are like, yeah, it's a water phone where they always
Speaker 1: play that as like the spooky sound, but it sounds
Speaker 1: like they're really rocking out on it, like getting a
Speaker 1: little excited there. So, yes, the goliath frog. Do you
Speaker 1: remember there was a fake video going around a while
Speaker 1: of like this guy who had this giant frog, like
Speaker 1: the size of a small chihuahua. He feeds it a
Speaker 1: banana and everyone was freaking out about how huge this
Speaker 1: frog was. Did you ever see that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 1: Well, it was fake. It was a video, actually I know.
Speaker 1: It was a video of an Australian green tree frog.
Speaker 1: And they're beautiful frogs, but they only grow to be
Speaker 1: around four inches or tin centimeters long. There's no such
Speaker 1: thing as a frog the size of a chihuahua. That
Speaker 1: would be ridiculous. I'm kidding. They're totally and it is
Speaker 1: the goliath frog. So this is the world's biggest frog.
Speaker 2: And is it Australian.
Speaker 1: No, No, it is actually found in a relatively small
Speaker 1: area of West central Africa and Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Speaker 1: And they are just big. They're they're big boys, and
Speaker 1: they're loving they're loving life. Uh. And they like to
Speaker 1: live in sandy rivers, in forested, humid, warm areas. They
Speaker 1: are absolutely gigantic. They can grow to be over a
Speaker 1: foot long from nose to butt. So it's not even
Speaker 1: cheating where you know, like they display something else like well,
Speaker 1: when you stretch out its legs, it's like a foot long. No,
Speaker 1: from its nose to its booty butt, it is a
Speaker 1: over a foot long, not even including its legs.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm looking at things like that. Are like my
Speaker 2: keyboard and stuff. They're approximately a foot log. That's a
Speaker 2: big that's a big frog.
Speaker 1: It's a big frog. Big frog. They can weigh over
Speaker 1: seven pounds or three kilograms, which is larger than a
Speaker 1: lot of chihuahuas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this thing, it could eat a chihuahua if it
Speaker 2: was so inclined. I envy this frog because I think
Speaker 2: frogs are the chilliest.
Speaker 1: Of you want to eat? Oh sorry, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: No, they're so they're so relaxed. They just they're these
Speaker 2: they're like they're like rocks but alive, and I love
Speaker 2: them for it, and they're like the there's not much
Speaker 2: else like them in my head, but yeah, there's like
Speaker 2: lizards and alligators, but they're all like stretched out. Frogs
Speaker 2: are the only ones that are like, I'm gonna bunch
Speaker 2: up and be like ball of meat blob form.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, I like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like the rabbits of the reptile world. I
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't know how that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, they totally are. I really love that description. Well,
Speaker 1: rabbits of me amphibian world to be Yeah, bad, that's it.
Speaker 1: You should feel bad, but yeah I do. It's true,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's interesting. A fun little fact about them,
Speaker 1: other than their size, is that they are mostly silent,
Speaker 1: Like you would think that this huge frog would have
Speaker 1: a big frog voice, but they're actually mostly mute. They
Speaker 1: don't even have a vocal sack and don't produce mating calls. Uh.
Speaker 1: They can whistle, though, and it's like this squeaky, wheezing
Speaker 1: whistle that they use to get the female's attention, which
Speaker 1: is really funny because it's world's chunkiest frog, this big
Speaker 1: goliath frog looking you know, absolutely like a whole mountain.
Speaker 1: And then it goes like.
Speaker 2: I was really hoping it was like a cartoon like, well, whistle, so.
Speaker 1: The ladies, you know, it's like it's like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, also, yeah, imagine being in a swamp and you're
Speaker 2: hearing something whistle and you're like, who is that frog
Speaker 2: staring at you?
Speaker 1: I would love to get hit on by a swamp monster,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yeah, like, thank you. They
Speaker 1: don't care if I didn't shower today. They think that's great.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they encourage it. They're like getting this swamp.
Speaker 1: Yeah, getting the getting these duck weeds with me. You know.
Speaker 1: So when they that is the life, living the swamp life.
Speaker 1: When they when they do mate, these goliath frogs, they
Speaker 1: actually construct private pools for their offspring, building a nest
Speaker 1: in or near a river, and they'll either dig a
Speaker 1: pool near the river and allow water to seep in
Speaker 1: it from the nearby water sore, sometimes like building a
Speaker 1: channel from the river to the pool, or they'll wall
Speaker 1: off a pre existing slow moving pool in the river
Speaker 1: by moving rocks and creating this dam. Uh So, yeah,
Speaker 1: these guys are so huge. They can lift rocks and
Speaker 1: do construction work like slimy beavers.
Speaker 2: That's so cool. Also, good on them. Nobody likes public
Speaker 2: displays of infection, so like creating a private little lagoon
Speaker 2: for themselves. Yeah, that's so romantic. Like I remember teenagers,
Speaker 2: or as a kid in teenagers, we used to do
Speaker 2: that in creeks, like you you damn it up to
Speaker 2: make a little swim in swimming hole.
Speaker 1: Here, your own personal swimming hole. Yeah. I grew up
Speaker 1: in San Diego, so you'd go to the beach and
Speaker 1: you'd just dig a hole and sit in that hole.
Speaker 1: So I feel like there must be somewhere deep in
Speaker 1: our primordial brains some kind of shared evolutionary history with
Speaker 1: these frogs where it's like you sometimes you just like
Speaker 1: to be in a wet hole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: So it's thought that the males construct the nest while
Speaker 1: the females guard the nest against predators. But it's actually
Speaker 1: not really known because the male and female frogs are
Speaker 1: very hard to tell apart they're basically the same size,
Speaker 1: so we don't really like someone's like, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's a male, but they're not sure. But regardless. One
Speaker 1: of them builds the private pool, one of them guards it,
Speaker 1: and they lay their tadpools there. And in fact, the
Speaker 1: pool construction industry that these frogs engage in is a
Speaker 1: theory for why they evolved to be so beefy, because
Speaker 1: the idea is that the frogs that were better able
Speaker 1: to construct sturdy, safe pools for their offspring had more
Speaker 1: of their tadpooles survive because you know, they're separated from
Speaker 1: the predators in the river, and if you're bigger, you
Speaker 1: can heft rocks around and dig better pools. So then
Speaker 1: they just turn into these little froggy beefcakesh No adorable.
Speaker 1: I know what everybody's wondering, What do they eat chihuahuas well,
Speaker 1: not quite. They eat worms, spiders, insects, crabs, mollusks, fish,
Speaker 1: other frogs, baby turtles, snakes, small mammals and sometimes bats.
Speaker 2: Basically anything that's uh smaller than them, like that's what
Speaker 2: that's the anything that's in front of them is what
Speaker 2: it sounds like. They don't eat chiualas, but if a
Speaker 2: chihuaha walked by them, they think about it.
Speaker 1: They would I feel like they would eat a puppy chihuahua. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm confident they would. Typically I don't think chihuaha puppies
Speaker 1: roam around that area, but if they did, they'd be
Speaker 1: in a hape of trouble.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're in this area, you're a puppy Chiuala,
Speaker 2: you get out.
Speaker 1: Of there, head on a swivel. So they are hunted
Speaker 1: as a food source, these goliath frogs, though by humans actually,
Speaker 1: but because they are endangered, local communities have worked to
Speaker 1: make sure they hunt them in only sustainable amounts. So
Speaker 1: fingers crossed that that works. Yeah, And cute fact about
Speaker 1: the goliath frog, they are shy. They were introduced to
Speaker 1: the pet trade, which isn't ever that great for these
Speaker 1: like wild animal communities. But apparently they're too shy to
Speaker 1: be good pets. Yeah, like they do not, like they
Speaker 1: really don't want to interact with you. They don't want
Speaker 1: you to look at them, and they like are way
Speaker 1: too shy. So in addition to it never being really
Speaker 1: good to have like an exotic pet in terms of
Speaker 1: their like what that does to their populations. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're just they're too shy. So like they're they
Speaker 1: don't they don't want to hang out they just want Yeah,
Speaker 1: they just want to build a wet hole and stay
Speaker 1: in it.
Speaker 2: We just respect them from afire. What what business do
Speaker 2: we have in the frog world anyway? Like like the
Speaker 2: idea of eating frog legs, I'm like why though, why, Like,
Speaker 2: look at these things do you want? Do you want
Speaker 2: your life to intersect with them at all? No?
Speaker 1: And I just don't our entire French audience just to that.
Speaker 2: Ye. Sorry, I'm sorry, but like you know, we we
Speaker 2: they have no business in our world, We have no
Speaker 2: business in their world. We can respect each other from
Speaker 2: the distance. Us and frogs. Our young might occasionally pick
Speaker 2: them up, yeah, but then they pee in their your
Speaker 2: hand and they they hop away.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I used to pick up frogs all the time.
Speaker 1: I love them. I would try to keep them as pets.
Speaker 1: That never worked.
Speaker 2: Oh they're neat, they are neat.
Speaker 1: They're very neat. You find a frog and it's neat
Speaker 1: and they're wet, and they kind of just hop around
Speaker 1: and they make a little sound when they land on you,
Speaker 1: and it's great. I love them so much. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like, because these frogs are so shy, there's like
Speaker 1: a ton that we don't know about this frog's behavior,
Speaker 1: which is kind of shocking because they are the world's
Speaker 1: largest frog, the most obvious frog, right right. They are
Speaker 1: these little teeny tiny frogs that we, like you'll read
Speaker 1: about like, oh, we just discovered this new frog. And
Speaker 1: it's usually these little teeny tiny guys, and they're often
Speaker 1: they're called like micro highlight frogs, these little itty bitty
Speaker 1: guys like sometimes the size of like a pinky fingernail.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, well obviously we didn't. We don't really
Speaker 1: know much about them. They're so small we literally can't
Speaker 1: see them. But this frog is huge and we barely
Speaker 1: know anything about them because you're so shy.
Speaker 2: And it's crossed the like a cat threshold, which is
Speaker 2: to me, when an animal is a certain size where
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, I want to take that animal and
Speaker 2: put it in a crate, and it's like, technically I could,
Speaker 2: but it's not going to make it easy. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: going to hurt you. Like these frogs are big enough
Speaker 2: where it's like you want you want to pick one up,
Speaker 2: Like we have a picture in here of a guy
Speaker 2: who I believe is a Jim Henson puppeteer picking up
Speaker 2: this like he just looks like he lives in the
Speaker 2: seventies picking up the frog. The frog is not into it,
Speaker 2: yeah doesn't he He just looks like you imagine you
Speaker 2: like replaced the frog with Ernie in that picture.
Speaker 1: And I mean it's you had Kermit was right there
Speaker 1: and you didn't. I actually can't respect you for that
Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, no, it does. It is funny.
Speaker 1: It does look like Jim Henson, but sort of like
Speaker 1: as if Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson just was
Speaker 1: run through a realism filter or something. It's like, here
Speaker 1: I am with with Kermit the Frog, and yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks completely checked out.
Speaker 2: It's not into it. Both pictures is being held and
Speaker 2: all it's thinking about is when it gets to not
Speaker 2: be help.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean part of it too, is because they
Speaker 1: probably have a sense that they should not be around
Speaker 1: a larger animal because, like they are, they are hunted
Speaker 1: for food, both by humans and other larger animals. So
Speaker 1: he's thinking, like Jim Henson over here is gonna eat me,
Speaker 1: So you know, look at like because look at his legs,
Speaker 1: they're so beefy. He does not skip leg day and
Speaker 1: he knows that gormands are gonna see those and imagine
Speaker 1: a nice meal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got he's he's got like a ninja turtle legs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah he does. He is a little bit in
Speaker 1: the pose of like, you know, the hello, my baby,
Speaker 1: Hello my darlin. Yeah, that that whole thing a little
Speaker 1: bit pos and do that a little bit. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so that is the world's largest frog. It turns out
Speaker 1: that the real monster was us for trying to hold
Speaker 1: this frog and make it uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: That makes so much sense. I'm willing to bet the
Speaker 2: real monster will be yes for a lot of the animals.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Stuff, it's like freaking seventy nine degrees in like October.
Speaker 1: So huh, I wonder what that.
Speaker 2: I wonder who the real monster is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, on that note, we're going to take a
Speaker 1: quick break and then we're going to come back and
Speaker 1: talk about some hags.
Speaker 2: Oh she's so happy.
Speaker 1: So we're back and we're going to talk about the hagfish.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it goes on in a while here. I'm gonna yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Usually,
Speaker 1: I mean I guess that is the thing with like
Speaker 1: when there's like a dramatic thunderclap, usually then there's just
Speaker 1: like more of it, and then you're trying to do
Speaker 1: more of the story, but then it keeps thundering.
Speaker 2: So I love the idea of a soundboard with like
Speaker 2: like rain Storm and it's like thirty five minutes.
Speaker 1: I think that is probably what this actually is. I
Speaker 1: have to emphasize again, this is maybe the worst Halloween
Speaker 1: soundboard I've ever found, which is why I'm using it.
Speaker 1: So hagfish are actually one of my favorite weird creatures.
Speaker 1: They are a primitive fish that are over three hundred
Speaker 1: million years old, and they look like this weird cross
Speaker 1: between like an eel and an alien, and they're kind
Speaker 1: of this like they're basically this gray or pink kind
Speaker 1: of worm like thing. They can grow to be around
Speaker 1: twenty inches or fifty centimeters in length, and they are
Speaker 1: literally spineless. And that's not an insult.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. Have you seen the movie Dream Dream Catcher?
Speaker 1: No, I haven't.
Speaker 2: Based off of Stephen king book that he wrote while
Speaker 2: he was on painkillers, I believe because he'd been hit
Speaker 2: by a car.
Speaker 1: Or that's not as funny.
Speaker 2: But it's yeah, yeah, I mean he's fine, but it's
Speaker 2: not his finest it's not his finest story and it's
Speaker 2: about aliens that let's say, come out of your butt
Speaker 2: and they're taking over and they're trying to go to
Speaker 2: the Quabin Reservoir to take over Boston in the movie.
Speaker 2: It's one of notoriously the worst movies based off Stephen King.
Speaker 2: And I'm saying all this, you should watch it because
Speaker 2: it's a big swing. And let me tell you, it
Speaker 2: doesn't exactly hit it out of the park, but it's
Speaker 2: a big swing. And the aliens in their larval state
Speaker 2: look exactly like this.
Speaker 1: I wonderful. Do you think they have used them.
Speaker 2: Or like used almost certain they must have. Yeah, well
Speaker 2: they use them as inspiration for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, so they really do. They have a very
Speaker 1: alien look because they are they're essentially like they look
Speaker 1: like a worm, but kind of not a worm because
Speaker 1: they don't have segments and they're huge, like uh, you
Speaker 1: know they are. They kind of look like an eel.
Speaker 1: But then they don't have a face. They just kind
Speaker 1: of have a mouth hole. You can not really see
Speaker 1: their eyes. They do have eye spots, but again, like
Speaker 1: you can't really see them. They're just very eerie and
Speaker 1: primitive looking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they look like a big worm, like when you
Speaker 2: worm comes out of the mud and it's like a
Speaker 2: big pink worm, and you're like, what are you? Where's
Speaker 2: your face? What's your whole deal? It's the same thing
Speaker 2: where you look at this creature and you're like, how
Speaker 2: how are you? How are you doing? What's going on here?
Speaker 1: You can't really make eye contact with it, and that's
Speaker 1: always tricky when I'm trying to relate to an animal.
Speaker 1: But what's uh, Yeah, they have no vertebral column and
Speaker 1: they also have no jaw. And what's even weirder about
Speaker 1: this is there is the uh I mean, the current
Speaker 1: leading theory about the hagfish is that they actually once
Speaker 1: did have a spine but lost it because there are
Speaker 1: some of these like semi formed vertebrae like structures that
Speaker 1: just kind of don't seem to do anything, and so
Speaker 1: they think that they actually had a spine and then
Speaker 1: they're like, you know what, I don't need it that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that they were like evolving and they're like, wait,
Speaker 2: I just want to be a worm. I just want
Speaker 2: to be a weird worm.
Speaker 1: I have a freaking yeah, just like this is this
Speaker 1: is junk, This is this is useless junk. This spine yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they have no fins. They have like a ridge along
Speaker 1: the spine and tail, but yeah, really not much in
Speaker 1: the way of fins, and they move around by undulating
Speaker 1: his whole body. So yeah, very very weird, creepy movements.
Speaker 1: And additionally, they are absolutely covered in slime. The slime
Speaker 1: is a whole thing. We're actually going to get back
Speaker 1: to that later, but I just you need to have
Speaker 1: that too to like imagine these creatures. They're very slimy,
Speaker 1: and in addition to that, their skin is very loose
Speaker 1: fitting and weird, like that roach alien from the original
Speaker 1: Men in Black, which is uh what that that actor's
Speaker 1: name Donoff. Yes, Yes, amazing performance. One of the like
Speaker 1: one of my favorite like sort of like corny character
Speaker 1: actor performances because he really doesn't make it. He really
Speaker 1: sells the I'm an alien inside human skin suit things.
Speaker 2: So well, yeah, Danafero understands the assignment. He he I mean,
Speaker 2: he was in full metal jacket like he's a he's
Speaker 2: an amazing actor. And then he'll also have now and
Speaker 2: then do these roles where he's like I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: a blast, and that's one of them. He nails it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, they look like it's like some aliens
Speaker 1: stole like an eel skin and is now kind of
Speaker 1: like writhing inside of it. Because the skin is very
Speaker 1: loose fitting, and in fact, it is really only firmly
Speaker 1: attached to the muscles along the back. So this ridge
Speaker 1: along the back is the only place where the skin
Speaker 1: is actually attached to the muscles. There are also a
Speaker 1: few points I think there are some slime glands where
Speaker 1: it's also attached to the slime glands, but mostly it
Speaker 1: is unattached other than to the spinal ridge or not
Speaker 1: spinal ridge. They don't have a spine, sorry, just backridge.
Speaker 2: It's like the Doctor Zoidberg of ocean life, where it's
Speaker 2: like I'm just gonna be a freaky weirdo. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna be all sorts of weird and gross.
Speaker 1: I don't have it kin douche to anything.
Speaker 2: No. I love them. I love them, yeah, because they're
Speaker 2: just like, I'm just here to creep out like dolphins.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, no, oh, and they certainly creep out other fish.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that, but yeah, they uh yeah. It
Speaker 1: is just basically a loose fitting sack, this skin, and
Speaker 1: it's also filled with blood. So there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: blood in that interstitial space between the muscles and the skin. God,
Speaker 1: so like they have a huge volume of blood like
Speaker 1: like just right under the skin. And so when they
Speaker 1: move around, they look like a slimy, wriggly skin sock
Speaker 1: filled with some kind of fluid which is actually blood.
Speaker 1: So they're basically just like blood socks. And then like
Speaker 1: also obviously muscles and internal organs, but then no spine.
Speaker 1: They're just they're such weirdos.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm I'm sure they have predators, but I
Speaker 2: like the idea of a survival tactic being like do
Speaker 2: you want to deal with this? Do you want to
Speaker 2: deal with any of this? And like animals just being like,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't. I don't like I love just
Speaker 2: grossing out other ani animal, But I'm sure there's an
Speaker 2: animal that loves blood.
Speaker 1: Dave, You're actually exactly right. Their evolutionary strategy is literally
Speaker 1: to be too gross to eat. That's great, So too gross,
Speaker 1: too squiggly and wiggly, and just predators do not like
Speaker 1: to deal with this thing, and they typically will not
Speaker 1: mess with them. That's they that is the whole theory
Speaker 1: behind this, Like squishy jiggly situation is it makes it
Speaker 1: very hard for predators to get a good bite in.
Speaker 1: You remember those like water tube toys where it's like
Speaker 1: basically this elongated taurus, like it stilled like water and
Speaker 1: sometimes like litter or something. You can't really hold on
Speaker 1: to it because.
Speaker 2: It like one of those Yeah, one of those inventions
Speaker 2: that you wonder like what was the meeting that led
Speaker 2: to that? Exactly like weird, just weird stuff. It's wrong.
Speaker 1: It's like plastic filled with water but kind of turned
Speaker 1: in on itself and so you can't really hold it.
Speaker 1: And kids love it. So yeah, it's like one of
Speaker 1: those water tube toys but also covered in slime. And
Speaker 1: so researchers, you know, biology researchers. I really really respect them.
Speaker 1: Obviously I wouldn't have a show without them. But I
Speaker 1: also think that a lot of them would be serial
Speaker 1: killers if they hadn't found biology, because yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: like so these these biology researchers took a bunch of
Speaker 1: dead hagfish and built a shark tooth guillotine to test
Speaker 1: out how hagfish avoids serious injury when bitten. So they're
Speaker 1: just like, well, we got these hagfish corpses, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna build a guillotine made out of shark teeth. Uh
Speaker 1: and then just like put these hagfish in there.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: They also did some ed Yene level experimentation where they
Speaker 1: would cut off the hagfish skin and reattach it with
Speaker 1: glue because remember I said, like it's only attached like
Speaker 1: to their backs this and so they're like, well, what
Speaker 1: if it was attached firmly to their whole body like
Speaker 1: our human skin is, and then put them in the
Speaker 1: back into the shark guillotine to see, you know what
Speaker 1: difference does it make? Like right, So they did find
Speaker 1: that that loose skin really does save them from the
Speaker 1: from the shark bite. So while the shark tooth guillotine
Speaker 1: was able to puncture the hagfish's skin, it was not
Speaker 1: able to puncture the muscle tissue. So due to the
Speaker 1: way that the skin slit against the muscle, and skin
Speaker 1: heals can heal quite quickly, whereas muscle tissue does not
Speaker 1: heal very quickly. And when they ed gained the fish
Speaker 1: and like glued the skin onto its dead body. Again,
Speaker 1: great work, biologists, love you keep doing this and please
Speaker 1: do not give into any other dark desires because what
Speaker 1: you're doing is great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is your outlet, your.
Speaker 1: Outlet continued with this and literally nothing else please. So yeah,
Speaker 1: when the skin was firmly attached to the hagfish, the
Speaker 1: chark guillotine worked like it was able to puncture the
Speaker 1: fish's muscles. So it really was being, you know, a
Speaker 1: blood sock that prevented them from sustaining serious injury from
Speaker 1: getting bitten.
Speaker 2: I love that because had they just in the first
Speaker 2: experiment and found that the skin protected it, that's all
Speaker 2: I needed. I'd be like, oh, the skin protects it, right, Like,
Speaker 2: but wait, let's glue the skin and yeah I don't
Speaker 2: need Okay, sure, go for it, I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like, well, you know, we've got all these
Speaker 1: dead hagfish, and yeah, we do have this shark to guillotine,
Speaker 1: so I do kind of want to cut off all
Speaker 1: its skin and glue it back on anyone with me?
Speaker 2: Yeah, where afterwards where they're like hagfish fight slap at
Speaker 2: each other with it.
Speaker 1: I mean that would be highly unethical, highly unethical, and
Speaker 1: super fun. So yeah, they in addition to this loose
Speaker 1: skin situation, they've got another trick up their sleeves if
Speaker 1: there is a of a shark or something that is
Speaker 1: very determined to try to eat one of these guys.
Speaker 1: Remember how I said they are absolutely covered in slime.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: They have over one hundred slime glands and they use
Speaker 1: them to produce a just ridiculous amount of slime. And
Speaker 1: it's this thick, milky white, translucent and actually semi fibrous material.
Speaker 1: It looks exactly like ectoplasm, you know how like ectoplasm
Speaker 1: is described in like old like Victorian era seances or
Speaker 1: represented in like I guess Ghostbusters. It's always just like
Speaker 1: kind of like thick goo u that it is. It's
Speaker 1: exactly that. Like you could if you use hagfish slime,
Speaker 1: you could, you know, do a seance and be like
Speaker 1: ah ectoplasm because it looks like what I see ectoplasm
Speaker 1: described as by you know, ghost experts. I don't know
Speaker 1: what they're called.
Speaker 2: The idea of a medium like a scam artist keeping
Speaker 2: some hagfish because they need ectoplas like there's nothing else,
Speaker 2: there's no other, no other.
Speaker 1: Sort, and this tagfish is like it's a little Then.
Speaker 2: I have a weird question. Sure are they happy with
Speaker 2: all this? Do they have a good life. The hagfish,
Speaker 2: I think they do.
Speaker 1: I think they do, and I'm going to explain why so,
Speaker 1: Because they're so slimy, uh it actually and fibrous and thick.
Speaker 1: It's like it actually will clog up the gills of predators.
Speaker 1: So while I do not have gills, I can only
Speaker 1: imagine that having a bunch of that thick, nasty goo
Speaker 1: in my gills would feel horrible.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And like, so these predators will back off and try
Speaker 1: to clean the gunk out of their gills because they
Speaker 1: need their gills to breathe, and because they are just
Speaker 1: so slimy and nasty and and like, just all this
Speaker 1: goo happens when they agitate these hagfish, most predators just
Speaker 1: avoid them altogether. They learn they just do not want
Speaker 1: to mess with these guys, even though they are essentially
Speaker 1: these giant ramen noodles of the sea, which would probably
Speaker 1: be delicious to a predator, uh if they weren't covered
Speaker 1: in slime and had their weird like blood sock skin.
Speaker 1: Just they're no trouble, yeah, and so like uh, they
Speaker 1: basically then have free run to have a lot of
Speaker 1: fun and eat stuff at the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I mentioned earlier that they don't
Speaker 1: have jaws, which makes it seem really difficult for them
Speaker 1: to eat. And instead of jaws, they actually have a
Speaker 1: pair of tooth covered plates, which I do gotta say, uh,
Speaker 1: and parents, cover your little kid's ears. It looks a
Speaker 1: little bit like a vagina dentata, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the we we've been dancing around this. The entire
Speaker 2: everything about these worms is genital in nature.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit, yeah, a little bit not to
Speaker 1: be not to go too blue, too gross. It's very well,
Speaker 1: you know how like Alien who was like like Geiger Giger,
Speaker 1: the guy Gieger who did the Aliens artwork, and a
Speaker 1: lot of his artwork is like a little bit a
Speaker 1: little phelic, little sexual. It's like there's some of this
Speaker 1: like stuff in terms of designing the alien to be
Speaker 1: like have sort of this like weird. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I find the alien from Aliens sexual.
Speaker 1: This is like an actual yeah, exactly to represent a
Speaker 1: sort of like I don't know again, like innu window.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one hundred looks like an hr Giger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, like this is this fish is an innu window,
Speaker 1: like a horror an in the window.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you look at them and you're like, that's a
Speaker 2: little much.
Speaker 1: It's a little it's a little bit flaccid, got kind
Speaker 1: of a vaginasan todda going on. It's you know, it's
Speaker 1: he's it's a little naughty. I gotta say, a little naughty.
Speaker 1: Not yeah, but so so how does it use these
Speaker 1: uh weird because like with a jaw, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: jau chump, chomp, chump, like a pac man. What do
Speaker 1: you do with like toothplates, Well, they don't chew. Instead,
Speaker 1: they use these toothplates to grab onto flesh and rasp it.
Speaker 1: When rasping is basically just kind of like using that
Speaker 1: to like tear little pieces of flesh off or sometimes
Speaker 1: sizeable chunks. And they will eat dead or dying marine
Speaker 1: animals who sink to the bottom of the ocean. So like,
Speaker 1: once you start sinking to the bottom of the ocean,
Speaker 1: there are all sorts of detritive wars who want to
Speaker 1: eat you. But I feel like these guys are the scariest.
Speaker 1: So they will grab a hunk of decaying flesh or
Speaker 1: even living flesh if it's just a animal that's sickly
Speaker 1: and can't move anymore, and they will wriggle and writhe
Speaker 1: in knots until they've torn off a healthy portion of
Speaker 1: that dead whale, shark, or anyone unfortunate to end up
Speaker 1: in a watery grave, or even something that's only half dead,
Speaker 1: And then they will invite themselves inside the body. They
Speaker 1: will bore a hole inside and feast on the carcass
Speaker 1: from the inside out, like they're at the world's grossest sizzlers,
Speaker 1: just like all having a huge party inside a dead whale.
Speaker 2: They're having a great time.
Speaker 1: They're having such a good time, and they can actually
Speaker 1: absorb nutrients not only through their mouth but through their
Speaker 1: gills and skin, meaning they can slurp up the gooey,
Speaker 1: decaying soup from inside a carcass like a tube shaped sponge.
Speaker 2: Good for them. It's a reminder anytime you watch a
Speaker 2: horror movie where like someone finds a body and there's
Speaker 2: rats in it or cockroaches, what you're seeing as a party. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're seeing those animals having a fantastic day.
Speaker 1: They've got morbid Yeah, they're having such a good time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and these worms, man, I really respect them, Like
Speaker 2: I I was asking if they're happy because I think
Speaker 2: that that age old question if you could be any
Speaker 2: animal reincarnate, I think this is a high on the
Speaker 2: list for me now because they're they're so I love.
Speaker 1: Them whales all day long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they seem to be having a great time. And
Speaker 2: I love that they're just too gross for anything else
Speaker 2: to eat and they're just freaking out sharks. I love it.
Speaker 2: I love that. I want that for myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they are like their brains are very small,
Speaker 1: they're very simple. They're like like again, they're like an
Speaker 1: extremely primitive fish, so you know, they're they're just they
Speaker 1: have such a simple life of like being gross, slimy
Speaker 1: and eating stuff and partying.
Speaker 2: That's the life. That is the life that's any like
Speaker 2: like college bro. Really. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for them, humans have taken an interest in their
Speaker 1: slime because so, yeah, despite the fact that the slime
Speaker 1: is a huge deterrent for marine predators, humans we're such perverts.
Speaker 1: We're always like interesting a defense strategy that all other
Speaker 1: animals hate. Maybe we can eat it. It's like with
Speaker 1: a spice, like spicy food, like spicy peppers. It's like
Speaker 1: that is a way to keep trying to keep bugs
Speaker 1: from eating the pepper like challenge, and we're like and like,
Speaker 1: birds actually are not they can't. That doesn't have an
Speaker 1: effect on birds, and so therefore a bird can eat
Speaker 1: like a pepper and like dispense the seeds for the
Speaker 1: plant and it's fine. But then an insect that would
Speaker 1: kill the plant before it's ready to spread its seeds around. Then,
Speaker 1: like you know, the bug is vulnerable to that. But
Speaker 1: then along comes humans and we're like, hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: eat this pepper because it hurts my mouth. And that's
Speaker 1: that's that's hot.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: It's fun. It's like it's like, you know, my mouth
Speaker 1: is masochistic. I love that. So it's the same deal
Speaker 1: with the slimmer, like that is disgusting. No animal wants
Speaker 1: to eat that. Let's eat it. So uh, it's so
Speaker 1: rich in protein. Hagfish slime can be used as an
Speaker 1: egg white substitute, and it's apparently pretty good.
Speaker 2: I mean, why, I guess it doesn't harm an animal,
Speaker 2: right or does it?
Speaker 1: I mean you gotta get it from the hagfish. And
Speaker 1: the way to get the slime from the hagfish is
Speaker 1: to like annoy it, so like you're basically annoying and
Speaker 1: stressing out hagfish, and they're like, you.
Speaker 2: Know, slime not vegan.
Speaker 1: It's not not vegan. It's not vegan.
Speaker 2: I mean, why replace.
Speaker 1: I guess it's I mean, it's probably more sustainable than
Speaker 1: chicken eggs. I don't feel like it sounds like it
Speaker 1: would be, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: Accept the world where we stop eating meat, we stop
Speaker 2: like where what we do instead is just annoy animals
Speaker 2: for their food. I do like that idea, Like it's
Speaker 2: a it's an upgrade. You know, technically, we're not killing them,
Speaker 2: We're just bothering. I wish we just pets.
Speaker 1: I wish we could just like kind of tickle them though,
Speaker 1: and then they like go to heat and then like
Speaker 1: goosh out some other slime like that would be you know,
Speaker 1: but I don't know preferred. Uh yeah, I mean you know,
Speaker 1: I guess like you're thinking about it, like chickens are
Speaker 1: probably more intelligent than hagfish, so they probably are more
Speaker 1: like can like suffer more when we are, you know,
Speaker 1: exploiting them for eggs or something in bad conditions, but
Speaker 1: maybe yeah, they are less like aware of the situation.
Speaker 2: Hopefully, if chickens are in good conditions, is what's going on?
Speaker 2: As they lay eggs we take them, They're like I
Speaker 2: just laid okay, kind of make more eggs, Like is
Speaker 2: that what's going on? They just keep going, ah.
Speaker 1: Well, no, it's probably fine, Like if they're in good conditions.
Speaker 1: I don't think it really it's not a big problem
Speaker 1: because they those are just like unfertilized eggs, So they
Speaker 1: would they would, I mean in the wild, I think
Speaker 1: because they were domesticated and selected for increased egg production.
Speaker 1: Wildbirds I don't think would lay that many unfertilized eggs.
Speaker 2: But they're not like annoy at all, Like they're not like,
Speaker 2: come on, stuff stealing my hand.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think so. I mean maybe I
Speaker 1: don't really know the psychology of a chicken, but no,
Speaker 1: I don't think they'd be that disturbed because they probably
Speaker 1: I would imagine they might have a sense of like,
Speaker 1: these are fertilized eggs, but I.
Speaker 2: Don't actually know.
Speaker 1: I've never raised chickens. I don't know that much about
Speaker 1: chicken farming, so maybe maybe wrong, maybe they're like they're
Speaker 1: like my baby every time you scramble. Yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 1: So in addition to being an egg white substitute hagfish.
Speaker 1: Slime fibers are so strong and pliable, researchers are trying
Speaker 1: to reverse engineer them to create flexible, strong fibers for
Speaker 1: I guess technology.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is interesting. I read something where it's like
Speaker 1: the military is looking into this is like, of course
Speaker 1: they are. They have such a huge they have such
Speaker 1: a huge budget. They're just like, I don't know, get
Speaker 1: some slime and make weapons out of them. We'll just
Speaker 1: make everything weapons.
Speaker 2: So what you're what you're sort of saying is in
Speaker 2: Spider Man two, The Amazing Spider Man two, where Electro
Speaker 2: falls into a vat of electric eels in the lab.
Speaker 2: That's not far off from realism.
Speaker 1: I bet there was some kind of like arms uh
Speaker 1: person like military research and development person watching that movie
Speaker 1: and going like huh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, or they're like, oh they know about
Speaker 2: our eels like.
Speaker 1: Making a phone call, they know.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, you know, could we just I would
Speaker 1: like there to be some discovery where it's like it
Speaker 1: doesn't immediately become militarized. That would be nice, Like can
Speaker 1: we that would be can we just let him be slimy?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Right? But once again, man is the villain. We were
Speaker 2: the villain the whole time.
Speaker 1: You're the real monster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at least we're not trying to eat them. I'm
Speaker 2: glad we're just annoying them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we'd still also eat the whole Uh why
Speaker 1: they're apparently very tasty, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't look tasty, but they do.
Speaker 1: They decidedly do not. But apparently. I guess they're like
Speaker 1: a big sausage.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah they do. I guess they look like a
Speaker 2: big sausage. That's true.
Speaker 1: Well, on that note, we're going to take another quick break.
Speaker 1: You can, you know, change your change your shorts if
Speaker 1: this got too scary for.
Speaker 2: You, if you're too spooked, Yeah, if.
Speaker 1: You're too spooked, and we will be right back. Where's
Speaker 1: my soundboard? Here we go. This one's just called strange.
Speaker 1: Oh that's horrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what that was. We cat.
Speaker 1: This is the worst, the worst sound pack I've ever ever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this isn't great.
Speaker 1: It's not good. It's not good. Here's a bell. It
Speaker 1: says nice. That's a good one. That's a good one.
Speaker 1: And it's going it keeps going. I guess it won't
Speaker 1: be right back. All right, and we are back, and
Speaker 1: I have a question for you. Do you think that
Speaker 1: the Boogeyman is real?
Speaker 2: Like uh like like a like a man who boogies
Speaker 2: down like he's dancing, Yeah, disco dancing. Yeah, he's very real.
Speaker 1: I guess disco died and so disco would be undead.
Speaker 1: So that's spooky, right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, there's yeah, sure, sure, bogeyman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, boogeyman. Yeah, that makes that makes sense to me.
Speaker 1: But what we are actually going to talk about is
Speaker 1: a real life boogie wogie worm who wants to kill you.
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh no, what is that? Is someone in
Speaker 2: a like a a wind chime storm.
Speaker 1: I've got like a bunch of wine glasses and I'm
Speaker 1: going to town on them, you know, with the like
Speaker 1: the rims, And you go, oh yeah, but spooky anyways, Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: this is the Linomia obliqua. And it is not exactly
Speaker 1: a worm but a silkworm. So silk silkworms are actually
Speaker 1: the caterpillars of the giant silkworm moth. They are found
Speaker 1: in South America and they are not used in silk
Speaker 1: production for a very good reason. So these are actually
Speaker 1: quite cute. I think they are fluffy little caterpillars with black,
Speaker 1: brown and white banding on their tour so and green
Speaker 1: pine needle like hairs that's sprout all oh, sprout out
Speaker 1: all over their bodies. And yeah, they're they're cool looking.
Speaker 1: They look like cool caterpillars.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I wouldn't want to touch them because of the
Speaker 2: pine needle things, but they're very they're they're yeah, they're
Speaker 2: little grubs. I like it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They're also highly social and will form big groups,
Speaker 1: often huddling together on a tree trunk, and when they
Speaker 1: are startled, say by a loud sound, they will jump
Speaker 1: up in a defensive posture. So when you have whole
Speaker 1: groups of these guys huddled together and you startle them,
Speaker 1: they'll all jump up at the same time like they're dancing,
Speaker 1: but they're not dancing. You're just kind of pissing them off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to piss them off. But I
Speaker 1: shared with you there's a video durable.
Speaker 2: It's so cute.
Speaker 1: It's very cute.
Speaker 2: That is Oh my goodness. That's like when I startle
Speaker 2: both of my cats at the same time, they both
Speaker 2: look up. That's so cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's very cute. It's kind of a mean
Speaker 1: thing to do because you're basically just startling these caterpillars.
Speaker 1: But also you probably don't want to piss them off
Speaker 1: too much because I guess I forgot to mention they
Speaker 1: are the world's deadliest caterpillar. Oh yeah, good for them.
Speaker 1: So Dave, your instincts are like right on today because
Speaker 1: you're correct not wanting to touch them. Those pine needle
Speaker 1: like bristles on their bodies are actually called irticating hairs,
Speaker 1: and many caterpillars have them. Even other types of animals
Speaker 1: like spiders have them. In fact, plants sometimes have them.
Speaker 1: So an irdicating hair is any kind of hair or
Speaker 1: bristle that sometimes they're covered in barbs or a toxin
Speaker 1: that causes irritation, harm, or, in the case of the
Speaker 1: Lunomia obliqua, actually death. So wow, these hairs on this
Speaker 1: caterpillar are hollow, and each hair has a gland that
Speaker 1: dispenses a highly potent toxin that flows through these hollow
Speaker 1: hairs like little syringes, and it's covered in these hairs,
Speaker 1: and each hair has its own little venom gland, And
Speaker 1: so touching or stepping on the caterpillar will cause you
Speaker 1: to be pricked and envenomated. The venom messes with your
Speaker 1: blood's coagulation. Coagulation is important because it is what basically
Speaker 1: regulates your blood's ability to form clots, and clotting is
Speaker 1: important not just for like wounds outside of your body,
Speaker 1: but wounds inside, wounds inside your body like tears or
Speaker 1: rips and blood vessels, you know, damage to sells, things
Speaker 1: like that. And so if you have too much coagulation,
Speaker 1: you can form blood clots, and this is the method
Speaker 1: of action of a lot of venom. But if you
Speaker 1: have too little coagulation, you can actually have hemorrhaging, like
Speaker 1: a lot of bleeding, and both of these things are
Speaker 1: quite serious, and the l obliqua toxin actually causes both problems.
Speaker 1: So the venom contains these powerful anticoagulants, but it's not
Speaker 1: just an anticoagulant and completely messes with your blood's coagulation process.
Speaker 1: So when it first enters the blood stream, it actually
Speaker 1: can cause blood clots throughout the body, and then it
Speaker 1: causes the opposite problem by actually causing a bunch of bleeding.
Speaker 1: And so all this uncontrolled bleeding, the inability to form
Speaker 1: clots inside of the body can cause things like brain hemorrhage,
Speaker 1: damage to kidneys, and it can often be fatal. So
Speaker 1: the death rate is about two point five percent with treatment.
Speaker 1: Now that doesn't sound bad, right, Yeah, you know you
Speaker 1: said these are super deadly, but consider that in the US,
Speaker 1: venomous snake bites have a death rate of about zero
Speaker 1: point zero five percent when treated. So these things are
Speaker 1: more serious than snake bites in the US.
Speaker 2: These Wow, these little guys will mess you up.
Speaker 1: They will mess you up.
Speaker 2: Aside from like a virus like these feel like one
Speaker 2: of the smallest things that can kill you.
Speaker 1: Like organisms, Yeah, I think I'm trying to think. Box
Speaker 1: jellyfish are quite small. They can also kill you. The
Speaker 1: blue spotted octopus. I guess those are probably a little bigger,
Speaker 1: maybe around the same size. I don't know, maybe bigger
Speaker 1: in total mass or something. Those are also quite small.
Speaker 1: Palm of your hand can also kill you. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: like obviously mosquitoes can kill you, but it's not the
Speaker 1: actual mosquito. It is the virus that they are transmitting
Speaker 1: to you, or the pathogen that they are transmitting to you.
Speaker 2: These little guys are like assassins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think they're actually sometimes called
Speaker 1: like assassin caterpillars. So yeah, and remember I said like earlier,
Speaker 1: they're highly social. You saw that they formed this big
Speaker 1: group on the tree. And so the most dangerous cases
Speaker 1: of in venomation aren't like if you kind of just
Speaker 1: like touch one, it's gonna suck, it's gonna hurt really bad,
Speaker 1: You're gonna probably get bruises. It's a bad time. Do
Speaker 1: not ever touch these. But you probably wouldn't die if
Speaker 1: you just got like one little prick from one little caterpillar.
Speaker 1: If you're a grown adult, you're in for a bad time.
Speaker 1: But if you touch multiple ones all at once, that
Speaker 1: is really a dangerous situation. And so if you like
Speaker 1: lean your hand against a tree and you're not paying attention,
Speaker 1: like say you're in Brazil, like in the in the rainforest,
Speaker 1: and you lean against a tree and you like and
Speaker 1: the trees like, huh, this tree is awfully fuzzy, And
Speaker 1: then you look and your hand is just covered and
Speaker 1: that is, uh, that's a really bad time. And in fact,
Speaker 1: there's been an increase in invenomations, and that is because
Speaker 1: we have been encroaching more on forest territory in places
Speaker 1: like Brazil and so the more humans are closer to
Speaker 1: these areas where these caterpillars are, the more accidental uh
Speaker 1: invenomations happen, and they can be very serious.
Speaker 2: The rainforest is a lot like the ocean, where just
Speaker 2: don't go in it. That's it. Just don't go in it.
Speaker 1: Respect it, you know what I mean, Like just like
Speaker 1: you can visit it if you want, but like I
Speaker 1: respect it.
Speaker 2: If you go in it, don't touch anything. Yeah, don't
Speaker 2: touch anything.
Speaker 1: That's right. You gotta you gotta respect it, man. I yes,
Speaker 1: I think that, Like it is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a hint for us, isn't it, Because like it's it
Speaker 1: also sucks because I don't like the people who get
Speaker 1: you know, like the invenimated by these caterpillars, they don't
Speaker 1: like deserve it, like and it's often children, and it's
Speaker 1: like often children can they don't have like that much
Speaker 1: spatial awareness and like they're little, and so it's a
Speaker 1: lot more serious for them. So it's like it just
Speaker 1: really sucks, Like, you know, we got it. We gotta
Speaker 1: respect nature because it's you know, we need it and
Speaker 1: it's sometimes dangerous.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is one where like you look
Speaker 2: at this caterpillar and you kind of instinctively know, like
Speaker 2: I probably shouldn't touch that caterpillar. So you're right, is
Speaker 2: that it feels like a lot of it's accidental, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because it's like it can still mess you up if
Speaker 2: you accidentally brush up against it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just lean against a furry tree and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, you're in the hospital.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Man, they're they're adorable, but yeah they're
Speaker 2: that's I mean, again, good on them. They're taking down giants,
Speaker 2: so that's neat. But yeah, you're right, is that it's Ah,
Speaker 2: it feels like the people affected by this aren't necessarily
Speaker 2: meaning them all.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, like you know, like little children, maybe
Speaker 1: they're like unaware or step on one or like yeah,
Speaker 1: touch one intentionally. But because they're children, they don't know.
Speaker 2: So some of them are going to put them in
Speaker 2: their mouth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that can be bad as well. That that's
Speaker 1: because then they're covered in that tox and you get
Speaker 1: that in your mouth, bad, bad stuff happening. Don't Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: don't do that. I mean, like that's that's the point
Speaker 1: of the toxin is to ward off predators, to be
Speaker 1: like you're gonna get you know, you're gonna get messed
Speaker 1: up because it causes a lot of pain too, Like
Speaker 1: when you when you touch it, like you you immediately
Speaker 1: know something's wrong because it's very painful.
Speaker 2: Right that it reminds me of like like stinging nettle
Speaker 2: and all those those plants where.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, yeah, I mean a lot like those
Speaker 1: a lot of those plants. They're the the stinging portion
Speaker 1: of them as actually irdicating hairs, the same kind of
Speaker 1: system that these caterpillars use, which is is really fascinating.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting.
Speaker 2: Bugs are like meaty plants in a way, like well,
Speaker 2: like they live in the plant world. They're very closely connected,
Speaker 2: and I feel like the they take a lot from
Speaker 2: the plant world. Yeah, you know, obviously there's bugs that
Speaker 2: look like plants. Yeah, but it feels like they also
Speaker 2: like that plants can eat them, and they eat plants.
Speaker 2: Like what a what a life? What a relationship? Well,
Speaker 2: imagine living in a home and being like, but you
Speaker 2: can eat the walls, but watch out because every now
Speaker 2: and then the walls will also eat you.
Speaker 1: That'd be a fun home, I gotta say, Like it'd
Speaker 1: be kind kept on your toes, but you can eat
Speaker 1: the walls. That's great. Yeah, yeah, no, there's there's all
Speaker 1: sorts of cool relationships between bugs and plants, insects and plants,
Speaker 1: and also spiders and plants just just an amazing kind
Speaker 1: of like I've talked about this on the show before,
Speaker 1: but like a pitcher plant and a spider. They both
Speaker 1: these like I think they're called orchid spiders, and the
Speaker 1: spiders look kind of like flowers. They're very they're very beautiful,
Speaker 1: and then they live in these pitcher plants and they
Speaker 1: both eat insects, and so you'd think that the spider,
Speaker 1: by living in the picture plant is just stealing insects
Speaker 1: from the pitcher plant, but actually the spider presence gives
Speaker 1: the picture plants a higher kill rate when it comes
Speaker 1: to bugs, because like essentially the spiders, if the spider
Speaker 1: doesn't like successfully catch the bug, it's at least like
Speaker 1: driven it into the picture and then or it will
Speaker 1: like suck out the juices from the bug, drop the
Speaker 1: rest into the picture and the picture plant can actually
Speaker 1: digest more of it than the spider can, and then
Speaker 1: when the spider dies, it actually will drop into the
Speaker 1: picture plant and then like you know, it's funny because
Speaker 1: They're like friends, have this great relationship and then like
Speaker 1: the spider dies and it's like it's last gift, like
Speaker 1: I have bequeathed to you my body enjoy.
Speaker 2: Yep, it's it's Homer eating the lobster.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, yeah, exactly. Yeah. The picture plant crying. It
Speaker 1: doesn't know neither of them none, neither of them know
Speaker 1: what's going on. Yeah, it's great. It's cooperation that really
Speaker 1: screw over these little flies. Speaking of speaking of spiders,
Speaker 1: actually to a less sort of a topic of the episode.
Speaker 1: Just short little story. It's a cute little Halloween story
Speaker 1: about spiders. There are species of spiders that build Halloween decorations. Specifically,
Speaker 1: they will build giant spider effigies. Oh, and the Peruvian
Speaker 1: Amazon as well as in Madagascar, there are these two
Speaker 1: species of cyclosa spider. They're very small spider and they
Speaker 1: use dead bugs and other debris to build giant spider
Speaker 1: shaped sculptures on their webs.
Speaker 2: Oh is this I assume to make themselves feel like
Speaker 2: they're bigger spiders.
Speaker 1: It's a real confidence booster.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I've shared at the bottom of the doc there's an
Speaker 1: image of it so you can really see it. Does
Speaker 1: it does, like from a distance, it would fool you.
Speaker 1: It looks like a spider. Yeah, like a big old spider.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, the little spider statues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the exact purpose of these uh sculptures is unknown.
Speaker 1: These are relatively recently discovered spiders, but the leading theory
Speaker 1: is that this is an anti predator defense system. So like, right,
Speaker 1: there's lots of insects or you know, other things that
Speaker 1: would love to snack on these spiders because they're little.
Speaker 1: These are like three millimeters big, so they're a tasty
Speaker 1: snack to a lot of predators. But they are these
Speaker 1: predators would be much less likely to try to tangle
Speaker 1: with a spider like ten times that size. And they
Speaker 1: don't realize that this huge spider is actually just a
Speaker 1: fake one built out of built out of a bunch
Speaker 1: of dead fly corpses. And so I just it's it's
Speaker 1: adorable to me, just like, well, I'm your little guy,
Speaker 1: so I better build a big spider. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like in a bug's life where they build the
Speaker 1: giant bird or it's.
Speaker 2: Wizard, like it's exactly little guy just pretended to be
Speaker 2: a bigger guy. I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I meal big do worry about it is.
Speaker 2: That I wanted to like jiggle the web to make
Speaker 2: it move a little.
Speaker 1: I wonder, yeah, that would be interesting because yeah, we
Speaker 1: really don't know exactly like what they do their behavior.
Speaker 1: They're so recently discovered. But yeah, I yeah, like God,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily be surprised because I know
Speaker 1: that there's there are animals that will do things like
Speaker 1: move around to make their deception more convincing, like this.
Speaker 1: There's a viper that has like a tail that kind
Speaker 1: of looks like a worm, and they'll kind of move
Speaker 1: it around like a little worm. And then a or
Speaker 1: an insect or a spider. Oh right, there's a viper
Speaker 1: that has a tail that kind of looks like a spider,
Speaker 1: and they'll move it around in a way that makes
Speaker 1: it kind of look like a little spider scrabbling over
Speaker 1: a rock. And then a bird comes to try to
Speaker 1: eat it, and the snake just like crabs the bird man.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm really looking for if I read about
Speaker 1: any updates on this spider with more research coming out,
Speaker 1: I will update people about it because it's it's so good.
Speaker 1: I just love this. The ingenuity of this little spider
Speaker 1: like it probably doesn't know what it's doing. It's just
Speaker 1: this evolutionary like it just one started pretating dead bugs
Speaker 1: against the web got eaten less, and then the ones
Speaker 1: that had the more convincing spider look because it's it's
Speaker 1: not that hard to make this spider out of dead bugs,
Speaker 1: because you get just got a bunch of dead bugs
Speaker 1: in the center, and then dead bugs on some of
Speaker 1: these supporting threads leading outwards from the web, and now
Speaker 1: you got yourself a spider.
Speaker 2: Right. Do you think they like, yeah, because you're right
Speaker 2: is they don't know what they're doing. But do you
Speaker 2: think they were like, at first they built it out
Speaker 2: too far and they're like, no, that doesn't work for
Speaker 2: some reason because it doesn't look like a spider anymore,
Speaker 2: and so they have to like hone it in slowly.
Speaker 1: It cannot. I can't imagine it works on an individual
Speaker 1: level where it is a single spider learning this process.
Speaker 1: I highly doubt that. I think it's more in terms
Speaker 1: of evolution, where it's just it's weird to think about,
Speaker 1: but evolution works on such an enormous scale over you know,
Speaker 1: millions of years, and then with spiders, they reproduce so frequently,
Speaker 1: so millions of years for a spiders even longer in
Speaker 1: terms of like they're how quickly they reproduce, how many
Speaker 1: generations that is, And so I can imagine it being
Speaker 1: to the point of where it is. It is encouraging
Speaker 1: shaping the behavior in such a way that the spider's
Speaker 1: instinct to collect detritus and put it on the web
Speaker 1: has just been optimally shaped to be just the right
Speaker 1: amount so that it will protect it. But the spider itself,
Speaker 1: I don't know that there's any like that is following
Speaker 1: any template. I mean, similarly, the spider builds these amazing
Speaker 1: webs like they can. They are capable of having an
Speaker 1: instinctive pattern that they just go out and do, and
Speaker 1: so I think that's probably a similar thing where it's
Speaker 1: like evolution has driven them to create this like mental
Speaker 1: pattern that they are born with instinctively and then they
Speaker 1: just perform it. They don't know why. They're just spider.
Speaker 1: They're just like do doon spider stuff. Yeah, this feels
Speaker 1: this just feels right.
Speaker 2: It just works. They could be a spider serial killer
Speaker 2: because this is the equivalent of us like making a
Speaker 2: human statue using bones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we did that though, like the catacombs, the
Speaker 1: Parisian catapcombs just like built a bunch of like chandeliers
Speaker 1: out of bones, a bunch of boared monks and.
Speaker 2: Stuff like yeah, they really they're like they got we
Speaker 2: did it. We did the bone stuff. We did that anxiety.
Speaker 2: We were like, let's let's do let's have our bone run.
Speaker 2: Let's just see what we can build out of bones.
Speaker 2: It's like when you play Minecraft and you're like, I'm
Speaker 2: going to make a dirt palace just for fun like that.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, we were like, let's let's do bones.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's like it's like when you have when someone's board,
Speaker 1: they will do make art out of whatever they have.
Speaker 1: And so these like board monks and these like catacombs,
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't know what we got. We got
Speaker 1: a bunch of bones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's u let's do something with it.
Speaker 1: Are we so different from from the spiders? Not really
Speaker 1: just fewer legs and arms nice, but then we're essentially
Speaker 1: exactly the same, honestly. Yeah, God, I love spiders. I
Speaker 1: I had a little bit of a fly invasion, like
Speaker 1: these drain flies because I went on vacation and they're like, ah,
Speaker 1: nobody's here. I'm gonna like find some water somewhere. And
Speaker 1: like just a bunch of drain flies came and then
Speaker 1: there was like this big pile of dead, dead drain flies.
Speaker 1: It's like, excellent. I love to see that because I
Speaker 1: hate these drain flies. And then I look up and
Speaker 1: there's just this very fat, satisfied little spider. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: I love you. Man time, I'm happy enough to sweep
Speaker 1: up your It's essentially it's like someone you know, eating
Speaker 1: a bunch of chips or drinking a bunch of cans
Speaker 1: and coat of coke and just like dropping them down.
Speaker 1: They'll suck the juices out of these flies and then
Speaker 1: just drop the carcass down and man, I will I
Speaker 1: will tidy up for you because I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: This is great. Yeah, I wish I would chips were
Speaker 2: like a pest for somebody else. I wish I got
Speaker 2: a plot chips. Good job. God, someone had to get
Speaker 2: rid of.
Speaker 1: Those chips, like arace of giants AND's like, we're sick
Speaker 1: of these delicious critos.
Speaker 2: Exactly could someone eat these doritos. I'm your guy, I
Speaker 2: got this for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be great, a symbiotic relationship based on
Speaker 1: our ability to love doritos.
Speaker 2: Oh, I want it so bad.
Speaker 1: Well, before we go, we've got to play a little game.
Speaker 1: Do you want to play a little game?
Speaker 2: Oh no, Oh my god, that gentleman does not want
Speaker 2: to play a game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a button on This just called Porchure,
Speaker 1: which is again best best soundboard every day. This game
Speaker 1: is called Guess His Squawk and it's the Mystery animal
Speaker 1: sound game. Every week I play a mystery animal sound
Speaker 1: and you the listener, and hey, you the guests, trying
Speaker 1: to guess who is squawking?
Speaker 2: So is it any animal?
Speaker 1: Or is this any can you literally any animal? I
Speaker 1: won't trick you into a plant, but yes, any animal?
Speaker 1: All right. So last week's hint was you've been lied to.
Speaker 1: These guys don't have wings, all right, So can you
Speaker 1: guess who is squawking?
Speaker 2: You even lied to? They don't have wings. Uh, I'm trying
Speaker 2: to think of what food. Buffalo?
Speaker 1: You are correct, Yes, this is the African buffalo. It
Speaker 1: is found in sub Saharan Africa. Yeah, and so they
Speaker 1: are not to be confused with the American bison. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is actually also not an ancestor of like domesticated cows.
Speaker 1: This is a separate sort of line, but yeah, it
Speaker 1: What I like about these guys is they're literally undomesticatable.
Speaker 1: They're so ornery and unpredictable that humans just kind of
Speaker 1: gave up. They're just like, no, they're what.
Speaker 2: They're like the worms, where.
Speaker 1: We're like, yeah, they're just they're just the worms. But
Speaker 1: in yeah, just like these huge, huge buffalo with horns,
Speaker 1: they don't like to be messed with, and we gave
Speaker 1: up on ever trying to domesticate them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate that. I mean, buffalo, they had some trouble,
Speaker 2: they were hunted a lot. But I like the current
Speaker 2: state where it's like, it's my favorite thing about places
Speaker 2: like Yellowstone where you hear like a tourist mauld and
Speaker 2: the response is like, yeah, I shouldn't have gone near me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And those are so those are actually American. I
Speaker 1: know we called buffalo, but they're actually they're bison. Bison. Yes,
Speaker 1: and we say like we're the buffalo roa and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, but yeah, those are those are American bison.
Speaker 1: They look somewhat similar. The bison are shaggyar the African
Speaker 1: bufalo doesn't typically have that shaggy coat. Its horns are
Speaker 1: a little different. They have more of them, like a
Speaker 1: handlebar mustache on top of their heads. But yeah, no
Speaker 1: they I mean, American bison do well, like if people
Speaker 1: think they can just like walk up to them and
Speaker 1: like because they're fluffy, and you know, we don't think
Speaker 1: of herbi wars as being dangerous, but then the bison
Speaker 1: is just like, oh honey, I gotta I gotta teach
Speaker 1: you a lesson and just toss you.
Speaker 2: I had an aunt who worked at Yellstone, and there's
Speaker 2: very much this idea of like national parks are also
Speaker 2: theme parks, and it's like they are not fair places
Speaker 2: where you will die, yes, and you can't sue anybody
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 2: They will just go.
Speaker 1: Yeah that you can't see a bison, you can't to
Speaker 1: a buffalo. African buffalo are similarly dangerous. They will kill
Speaker 1: over two hundred people a year either by trampling goring them,
Speaker 1: so they are not to be trifled with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't go near them unless you really think you
Speaker 2: have a connection to one, right and you're like, oh
Speaker 2: this one, this one will let me ride it.
Speaker 1: If you've ridden your will out, settled all your affairs,
Speaker 1: and you look one in the eye. Actually, no, if
Speaker 1: the buffalo speaks to you says like it's okay, Dave,
Speaker 1: you can come here, it's it is definitely going to
Speaker 1: murder you and be like, yeah.
Speaker 2: Definitely, multiple things are going wrong. If that right, you
Speaker 2: have to be very concerned, David, it's fine. Then you
Speaker 2: have to wonder like, what was the last thing I
Speaker 2: ate drink and then try to ride it. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: got those horns. You can hold them like any.
Speaker 1: Yes, you can definitely hold them with your tour. So yeah,
Speaker 1: having them inside of your tour, so going right through it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but good job, good guessing. You absolutely nailed
Speaker 1: that one.
Speaker 2: Well you nailed it with the clue. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it doesn't have wings. When we say has wings, I
Speaker 2: was like, chickens, Nope, they have wings. They have chicken
Speaker 2: when pigs fly.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, yeah, but uh yeah, you know buffalo
Speaker 1: wings actually from a chicken.
Speaker 2: Weird, right, Yeah, it is weird.
Speaker 1: It's like how Greenland is kind of icy.
Speaker 2: It's icy. Yeah, I don't know why. I don't know
Speaker 2: what the deal is. What's the deal, what's the deal.
Speaker 1: Anyways, congratulations again to Bob and to Steven M for
Speaker 1: guessing correctly that this was the buffalo onto this week's
Speaker 1: mystery animal. Sound hint is just happy Halloween.
Speaker 2: Oh everhar.
Speaker 1: A walk a walk a walk ever horror.
Speaker 2: Walk a walk A walk a walker? Well, so that
Speaker 2: I assume that's Fozzy Bear drunk. It's the dark Fozzy
Speaker 2: Bear tapes that they don't want you to hear. Walk
Speaker 2: a walk, A walk a walk.
Speaker 1: It is actually an animal and not a human being.
Speaker 2: Do I get to guess?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, And if you're right, I will bleep you out.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm guessing it's because well I won't explain why.
Speaker 1: Oh you are absolutely correct, so you will be bleeped out.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I I do want to mention at the end there
Speaker 1: was a little meal that was in fact actually a cat.
Speaker 1: I guess the person recording also has a cat. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so like a cat just starts mewing and these
Speaker 1: things happen, you know, as a cat owner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like any anytime someone has like
Speaker 2: a weird animal, there's always a cat there in the background,
Speaker 2: Like that's that's just something they have too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's just cats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cats are not impressed by other animals. I've noticed
Speaker 2: that about them generally speaking. Like if you put a
Speaker 2: polar bear in front of a cat, the cat's gonna
Speaker 2: bat at it. It's like it doesn't care. It absolutely
Speaker 2: doesn't care what it is. You've seen like cat meeting
Speaker 2: a dolphin and it just sniffs it and it's it's
Speaker 2: like whatever, man, Like, they just don't care. What I
Speaker 2: love is that other creatures will genuinely like you've seen
Speaker 2: cats chase bears on YouTube, Yeah, they'll genuinely go ah.
Speaker 2: So that makes me think cats are like the spiders
Speaker 2: of the mammal world, where they're like, yeah, those things
Speaker 2: freak me out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're the hagfish of the mammal world. Like other
Speaker 1: animals just don't want to deal with them. Yep, And
Speaker 1: humans for some reason are like, well I'll introduce this
Speaker 1: thing to my life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why not, I'll put this wild animal in my house.
Speaker 1: Well, Dave, thank you so much for coming to this mienisode,
Speaker 1: to this spectacular. I really appreciate it. I hope you're
Speaker 1: having a good Halloween working oh find you well.
Speaker 2: First of all, thanks for having me on. I quite
Speaker 2: enjoyed being on this. I rarely plug my Twitter, so
Speaker 2: I will at movie Hooligan is my Twitter handle. I
Speaker 2: do a podcast series, as you mentioned with Tom Ryman,
Speaker 2: called Gamefully Unemployed g A M E f U L
Speaker 2: Y Unemployed. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can find that.
Speaker 2: And we mostly do movies. In fact, we almost exclusively
Speaker 2: do movie stuff and TV and entertainment. So yeah, we
Speaker 2: have a podcast where we go over the trailers of
Speaker 2: the week. We have a review podcast where we watch
Speaker 2: a movie every week, and so so check that out.
Speaker 1: Absolutely check it out. It is a great podcast network.
Speaker 1: And hey, thank you guys so much for joining me
Speaker 1: here enjoying the podcast, and you leave me a review.
Speaker 1: I read every single one of your reviews, and I
Speaker 1: won't lie to you. I like the good reviews the best.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and hey, you know what, thanks to the
Speaker 1: Space Classics for their super awesome song. Ex Alumina. Creature
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Speaker 1: shows and guys, have us Spooky Holly.
Speaker 2: It's a jog.
Speaker 1: Here's a Spooky Dog. Who is this spooky boy