WEBVTT - Listener Q's: Potoos! 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:12.119 Welcome to Creature Feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.480 of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.400 and today on the show, it's a listener questions episode. 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.040 You send me your questions to Creature Feature Product gmail 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.880 dot com and I answer them from questions about pets 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.600 to evolutionary biology to random animal questions. I do my best, 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:39.280 so let's get right into it. First question is from 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.600 Will h who sent me a TikTok video and asked 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.320 is this real or AI slot? So thank you for this, 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.360 Will and anyone else out there. If you see something 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:57.640 online about an animal that looks weird or too good 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.640 to be true or too strange to be true, or 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.200 you're trying to tell the difference between something that's fake 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.080 and real, send me an email and I will try 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.080 to help you out with that. So I really feel you. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.160 Because there's so much AI slop out there. It is 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.160 getting harder to tell the real animals from the fakes, 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:22.080 which isn't great. But fortunately the video that Will scent 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.520 is very real. It depicts this bird that certainly looks 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.280 like a Jim Henson muppet. It does not look real. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:34.920 So this is a species of po to bird. These 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.360 birds have huge, gaping mouths, they have giant eyes. They're 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.240 mostly nocturnal. They look like owls sort of, although they 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:48.600 are not owls. They have these beautiful camouflage feather that 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.480 looks like tree bark, which allows them to perch on 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.040 stumps to blend in. They'll even lift their little heads 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.160 up at an angle so that their sharp profile looks 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.600 like a split piece of wood jutting out from the stump. 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.720 And they will lay their eggs on these stumps, which 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.080 kind of sounds stupid, except that they carefully select a 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.360 stump that has a cranny or a nook that they 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.400 can wedge in the egg and when they're incubating the 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.600 egg and using this amazing camouflage that makes them look 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:21.640 like they're part of the you know, like when you 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:27.000 see some wood and a tree's fallen or snapped in half, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.160 and the wood's uneven and there's like parts of the 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:32.760 bark that kind of are jutting up. The po two 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.840 mimics this look by using kind of the angles of 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.360 its body and then its coloration to look like a 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.639 piece of bark. It's very convincing and so when it's 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.000 incubating the egg, the egg's completely hidden from sight. I 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.120 think I've also read that the egg can kind of 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.680 look a bit like maybe some fungus on the on 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.640 the bark, so that might help it, like say, if 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.840 a parent is not sitting on it. So in the 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.160 video that will sit and it looks like. This is 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.639 a great po two which is found in South America, 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.720 and they have this really creepy call, which I'm going 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:19.560 to play for you right now. Ah. So that's a 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.840 call that was recorded in Colombia. Here's another recording that 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:32.200 was done in Brazil, so you know that would be 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:37.080 sort of disconcerting to hear at night. And then when 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.960 you look at them, they are also pretty creepy. Their 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.320 iris is dark brown, but when their pupils are expanded, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.680 it looks like they have these huge, solid black eyes, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.400 like a doll's eyes. They're about a foot long in 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.520 height with a wingspan of over two feet. They are 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.200 predators and they chase after mainly large flying insects that 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.320 they'll find in the rainforest, or even the occasional bat 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.440 or small bird. Whatever flies in the air and can 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.520 fit in their mouths. The po too will try to eat. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.320 It's kind of terrifying to think of if you were 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.120 that size, like if you're a little fairy. There's this 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.400 thing that perfectly blends in with a stump, just looks 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.040 like a piece of wood, and then it sits there 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.840 until you fly by, and then jumps out at you 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.159 with this giant, gaping, muppet like mouth and just eat 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.640 your right up. So I would think, given that this 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.600 bird is so strange looking and has such a kind 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.280 of creepy call, that it would have a few sort 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.720 of like myths about it cultural stories about it, and 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.960 I did find some. So one is that parts of 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.520 its body are sometimes uses charms to ward off seduction, 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.720 which I guess, you know, if we listen to that 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.360 call again, Yeah, I can kind of see how that 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.240 would be considered a ward against seduction. It's not a 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:08.839 very seductive call. But there's also apparently a story told 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.240 by the Shuar group a it's a group of indigenous 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:18.599 people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, I unfortunately struggle to 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.280 verify whether this is actual folklore. I could only find 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:27.560 references to this on sort of the Park National Forest 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:33.600 Lodge websites, So I apologize if this is not culturally accurate, 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.919 but this is what I read. In the story. A 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.960 husband tries to get space from his wife by climbing 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.000 up a vine, and then she follows after him, and 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.279 he is frustrated with her following him, so he cuts 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.880 the vine, which causes her to fall, and she's so 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.760 hurt by his actions that she turns herself into a 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.000 bird the po two and starts to cry out in 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:03.760 the night, my husband husband or I shearu, I shearu. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:09.680 I'm not sure if this is the actual story, but 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.200 it's thought that this, like the call, is this mournful 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.839 cry of this wife who was spurned by her husband. 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.520 So yeah, I mean, it's a It's a fascinating looking bird. 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.039 It is very real though, and it does look like 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.400 something out of some strange fairy tale, a weird puppet 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.880 or maybe AI, but it is absolutely real. Just a 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:37.920 sort of a tip with identifying AI animals, you kind 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:43.160 of want to look for a lot of like weird smoothness, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.799 the lighting being like really perfect for a strange animal 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.280 you've never seen before. Sometimes those are giveaways, right, because 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.800 if there's a newly discovered animal, it's unlikely that it's 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.000 going to be in perfect studio lighting. But you know, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.080 on occasion there are animals that are well documented to 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.120 have really good photos taken of them that are absolutely bizarre. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.880 So yeah, it's getting harder and harder to tell. So 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.760 go ahead, and if you have any questions about things 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.400 that you're not sure whether it's true or not, I'll 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:16.440 try to look into that. Next listener question, Hi, Katie, 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.560 I'm not sure if you ever want to discuss this 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.320 issue on the show, because it's very dark and controversial. 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.560 I was wondering if you had any great academic resources 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.280 or studies on the topic, though too many I've found 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.480 have an agenda. I volunteer at an open intake municipal 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:36.800 kill shelter with the dogs. The city requires SPAE and neuter, 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:41.200 but it is a secondary charge, not animal control. Walking 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.040 around checking to see I am in the South. She 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.080 means the Southern United States. How has the North conquered 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.480 this problem? We have a partner shelter that takes at 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.080 least one hundred dogs from US a year and they 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.880 get adopted anyway. What are the reasons that SPAE and 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.720 neuter campaigns never took hold down here in the South? 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.160 I read we have more strays because we have milder winters. 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.320 I know animal cruelty and hoarding exist outside this region. 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.520 Attached are some shelter pups. Thank you, Caitlin. Hi, Caitlin. 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.280 First of all, all the doggie is so cute, so cute. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.080 I hope they get adopted. I understand how challenging it 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.120 must be to work at a shelter knowing that not 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.400 all your animals will find homes, and in order to 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.000 be humane, some of these animals have to be put down. 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.480 And I know there is this stigma against kill shelters. 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.400 I mean, the name itself sounds very violent. It's important, 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.320 I think, for people to recognize that shelter workers never 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.000 want to have to put animals down. They're not doing this, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.240 you know, for any other reason except that there's simply 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:50.240 not infinite resources, infinite amount of space, and so if 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.880 these animals aren't adopted out fast enough, you know, rather 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:58.320 than letting this animal starved slowly to death and suffer, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.880 the decision is made to humanely put them down, which 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.320 is very sad. Of course, I don't really like the 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.839 term kill shelter and no kill shelter. It just I 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.480 think it would be more accurate as Caitlin kind of 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.760 phrased it to say open and take shelters, or with 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.959 the no kill shelters. I think a more accurate name 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.960 would be limited admission private shelters, because what the no 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.520 kill shelters often do is they'll reject animals coming into 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.040 their shelter that they know will probably not be able 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.440 to be adopted or if they don't have space, which 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.760 is of course in their right. I'm not saying that 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.280 these limited admission private shelters shouldn't exist. I think they 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:44.960 can do good work. But these animals that get rejected 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.360 from the limited admission shelter have to go somewhere, and 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.000 often that is like a municipal shelter also known as 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.040 like a kill shelter, because they take in all of 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.200 the animals that come in off the streets and because 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.280 they don't again and have unlimited resources, infinite amount of space, 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.600 and they can't adopt them all out. Rather than keeping 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.600 these animals in like confined conditions where they're all in 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.400 tiny cages where they can't move around or they don't 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:19.320 have enough food, they are they're euthanized, which is which 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.679 is really sad, I think, but it's not it's not 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.640 done out of cruelty, it's done out of compassion for 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:33.440 these animals. So onto the issue of how to different 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:39.040 shelters manage to when we're talking about like municipal shelters, 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.360 like why do have some have lower rates of euthanasia 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:47.080 than others? And it's usually resources issue and the number 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.920 of strays, And of course the best way to reduce 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.560 the need for euthanasia and shelters is spaying and neutering programs. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.640 As our listener pointed out, so you know animals that 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:02.199 are both strays and those with home being sterilized. Preventing 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:08.240 an overflow of animals like so spain and neutering programs 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.199 as well as the habits of owners fixing their own 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:16.040 pets will very regionally. Uh. There was a survey that 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.280 looked into this discrepancy. There's a paper by Carrol Glasser 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.240 called Attitudes towards Spay and neuter in the US population 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:29.080 Urban versus Rural Cat Dog and Demographic Differences, And there's 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.720 some interesting results from this survey which found that there 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.319 wasn't as much of a discrepancy in attitudes between oral 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:42.800 populations and rural populations as was expected. Set there seems 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:46.600 to be maybe more of a generational generational difference. So, 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:52.960 for instance, millennials, surprisingly that's my generation. They're less likely 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:57.600 than older generations to understand spain and neuter programs like 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:03.280 what why they're important there, or to understand what the 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.840 process is. They're also more likely to be concerned about 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:10.120 the health effects on their pets, and they're also less 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.760 likely to see it as morally positive to have it 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.280 done to their pets than older generations. So there seems 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.840 to be sort of this like shift in attitude towards 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.520 spang and neutering to be less favorable. There's also a 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.800 slight gender difference, so women are more likely to find 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:31.000 spang and neutering to be more moral than men. I 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.040 can't say why. I don't really know why that is, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.360 but I think it is interesting because the main thing is, 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.640 this survey doesn't really seem to indicate that there's a 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.920 difference between say, an urban setting, or a huge difference 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.640 between an an urban setting and a rural setting in 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.400 terms of attitudes towards spang and neutering. But you know, 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:57.840 this is one survey, So in terms of answering Caitlin's question, 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.560 I looked into a some other research. So the first 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.360 thing is to confirm that Caitlin's observations reflect a wider 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.040 trend of there being more stray animals in the South 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.720 versus the North, and in fact that does seem to 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.160 be the case. So there was a twenty eighteen review 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.360 called Dog Population and Dog Sheltering Trends in the United 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.080 States of America. This is by Andrew Rowan and Tamara Kartal. 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.000 They are affiliated with the Humane Society, so you could 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.120 argue that they may have some bias, but they did 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:35.240 observe that quote. While New Hampshire and New Jersey have 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:39.480 low intake and euthanasian rates and have significantly lower numbers 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.880 of stray dogs, other states, especially in the South, report 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.360 much higher numbers. So this does seem to back up 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.360 Caitlin's personal observations as someone who works in a shelter. 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:55.000 So also, according to this review, in places like New 0:13:55.080 --> 0:14:00.240 Jersey where they have lower euthanasian numbers, there are eight 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:06.680 wide low income spay and neuter programs, So the decrease 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.520 in euthanasia seems to be driven by lower levels of 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.079 animal intake to shelter. So what that means is if 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.840 there's less animal intake to shelters. Usually that means there's 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:23.680 less of a stray population. Uh So that seems to 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.400 be driving the euthanasian numbers down, which would mean there's 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.320 fewer strays in these areas, which might indicate that these 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:36.520 spay and neuter programs that are funded by the government 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.160 and low income areas for low income families with pets 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.680 for strays does seem to be having an impact on 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:48.720 the amount of straight dogs in the area, And adoptions 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.320 have also risen slightly, but they just don't account for 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:55.040 the majority of the decrease in the euthanasia rates. So 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:59.480 I would say, given that, like you know, these both 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.360 these studies seem to indicate that it's possibly more of 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:07.800 a policy issue rather than say a cultural difference, I 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:12.040 would say that the most likely driver for the difference 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.120 between the North and the South is whether there are 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:19.480 these statewide spaying neutering programs that cover the cost for 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.680 low income families or low income areas. Probably, if we 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.840 want to see if you're animals being euthanized, we would 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.640 have to increase funding for these spaying and neutering programs 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.160 in these states. There might be more I'm not really sure. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.880 I'd love to hear from people who are more familiar 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.760 with the politics regarding these issues in the South, but 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.920 there might be more political resistance to bills that fund 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.720 these programs. Maybe there might also just be more poverty 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.960 in some of these states, so that would compete with funding. 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.400 So that would be my educated guests, But I am 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.520 definitely not an expert on this topic. I think it's 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.440 really important to talk about though, thank you Caitlin for 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:05.880 writing in. I think it is a sensitive question, but 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.080 I think that even though it's sad and it's kind 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:13.760 of difficult to discuss, I think it is really important. Otherwise, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.840 powerre we ever going to figure out how we can 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:21.880 get those the shelters less full of dogs that can't 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.720 be adopted, Like we can't just sweep it under the rug. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.880 And I think it's also really important to note that 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.200 for so called, you know, like kill shelters, like, it's 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:35.120 absolutely not morally wrong to adopt from these shelters that 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.240 euthanize animals. In fact, by adopting from those shelters, you 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.320 are helping to reduce the number of animals that are 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.080 in the shelters. And then that leaves up more space 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.560 for animals, and that keeps the euthanasia numbers lower as well. 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:57.680 So please don't just avoid municipal shelters because they use euthanasia, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.520 because those animals also need to be adopted. And it's 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:07.080 again like the private shelters that are no kill shelters. 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:11.360 I'm I don't have a problem with those, but it's 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.000 the animals that they reject, like they don't take in, 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.119 will ultimately end up going to a municipal shelter. So 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.280 it's not really that they you know, I don't know 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.080 that other than the fact that these private shelters may 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:28.280 increase capacity for their being more shelter space for dogs, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:34.320 they're not it's not necessarily that, you know, they are 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:38.919 just voluntarily not killing dogs. They are just in a 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.840 position where they are able to not take in all 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.080 the dogs off the streets, so they are able to 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.919 not employ euthanasia. So you know, that's that's the situation. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:51.920 It's a it's a sad one, but yeah, I think 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.679 it's a it's a really important thing to discuss, and 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.040 I really appreciate you writing in and anyone else who 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.040 is familiar with these issues or works in shelters or 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.080 has an opinion on it. Please feel free to write 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.080 to me. I'd be really happy to hear from you. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.920 All Right, on to the next listener question. Dear Katie. Today, 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.080 in an orchid house in Estepona, Spain, I learned about 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:20.560 the parfumier bees U Glossini. I would love to know 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.439 more about them, and about other artisanal wars Bauer birds 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.879 and a few other artisanal courtiers I know a bit about, 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:31.040 but more is good, So back to Uglossini. According to 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:36.200 Wikipedia quote, the male Euphresia proparata is highly unusual among 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:40.119 insects and seeking out and collecting large quantities of insecticide. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.359 Dressler discovered in nineteen sixty seven e Proparada collecting aldrin 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:49.040 and Roberts in nineteen eighty two observed them collecting DDT 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:53.560 in huge amounts from houses in Brazil, amounting to several 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.520 percent of the bees weight without suffering any harm from 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:01.640 the activity. Exclamation point always a fan. This is from 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.719 mary Ann. Hi, mary Ann, this is a really cool topic. 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:07.920 Thank you so much for writing to me about it. 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.240 I think as much as it's important for us to 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:15.920 reduce our the amount of pollutants like pesticides that leach 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.440 out into the environment. I always find it fascinating when 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.800 animals manage to adapt to the nasty stuff that we 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.080 come up with. It's really really interesting. So orchid bees 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.439 uglossini are a group of brilliant jewel like bees. They 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:35.440 have this beautiful metallic coloration. There are many species, including 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:41.000 Euphresia preparata, so these are found in the Amazon basin 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:46.439 in South America. They are this metallic green and indigo bee. 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.880 And as listener Mary Anne pointed out, it is attracted 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.919 to insecticides, including DDT, which is normally really bad news 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:02.560 for insects and also birds. So orchid bees, the orchid 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.480 bee species in general, collect scent producing compounds from flowers. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.399 So basically the males create a perfume for themselves to 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.240 attract females, storing them in their leg baskets, so they're 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:16.720 behind legs like a lot of bee species have these 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:22.359 little divots in them where they can store pollen among 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:26.560 these kind of like grooves, and in these bees, the 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:34.920 males will store basically compounds that create perfume scents and females. 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.400 These these leg baskets that the males have like they 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:43.960 act as like diffusers sort of incense diffusers, and the 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.800 females prefer males with a good cologne, and they're more 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.840 likely to successfully entice a female to mate with them 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.840 if they have perfume in their little leg baskets. So 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:01.280 Euphresia proparata seems to find DDT and other types of 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:07.600 pesticide compounds to have that genesicua poffume that smells good 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:12.160 to these bees. So it's similar enough to orchid compounds 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:14.800 that they typically for them to also use that to 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.720 try to attract females. And because the bees only collect 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:22.040 a specific broken down compound from say DDT or these 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.920 other pesticides, and they also don't consume it, they store 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.359 it in their leg baskets, the compound does not seem 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:31.960 to harm them physically. Now, what I don't know is 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.439 how successful it is with the ladies, whether they prefer 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.720 actual orchid compounds or this kind of like pesticide knockoff. 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.080 I don't know. I'd be really interested to find that out. So, guys, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:48.120 these were fantastic questions. I really love them. They help 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.080 me learn as well, by the way, Like I have 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:52.480 to do research for these questions to make sure I'm 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.520 giving you the right answer and that helps me on 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:57.920 my learning journey. I hope I helped you a little 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.800 bit on your learning journey. Do you have any evolutionary 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.439 biology animal related questions photos of your pets? You can 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:11.320 write to me at Creature Feature pod at gmail dot com. Again, 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:14.600 thank you so much for these questions, and thanks for 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.160 the space classics where there's super awesome song Exolumina. Creature 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.359 Feature is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:23.520 the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:25.480 podcast or Hey, guess what where have you listen to 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.640 your favorite shows? I can't judge you, just don't go 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.320 spraying DDT on yourself and expecting your date to go well, 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.439 it only works for bees. See you next Wednesday.