Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show Top Ways to Stay Cool.
Speaker 1: It's a little warm out there, so here's some advice
Speaker 1: from animals on how to stay cool. From fluttering to
Speaker 1: fanning to self burial. These hot critters have some cool
Speaker 1: tips that you probably don't want to try at home.
Speaker 1: Discover this more as we answer the angel question what
Speaker 1: kind of potato has a secret surprise inside? Joining me
Speaker 1: today to beat the heat are the hosts of Let's
Speaker 1: Learn Everything, Tom, Caroline and Ello. Welcome.
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1: How are you guys doing where you're living? How what's
Speaker 1: the weather like?
Speaker 3: It's kind of chilly where I'm at right now. Ray, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's pretty miserable here.
Speaker 4: It is scorching here. So you guys can both have
Speaker 4: a lovely time, is what I will say. I'm so
Speaker 4: happy for you guys. That's great. No, it is literatingly
Speaker 4: hot Europe in the US.
Speaker 2: Europe is burning right now because of you know, global
Speaker 2: warming and stuff. So we've escaped in the UK s
Speaker 2: for now, for now, for now, no one will escape
Speaker 2: in the end, the.
Speaker 3: Most ominous way to start an episode.
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, I'm I'm in Italy, So it's not great.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're due for a I guess it's called
Speaker 1: a reverse cyclone, which I suppose means that the air
Speaker 1: just stops moving, which sounds bad and apparently it is.
Speaker 1: So that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2: Here. It's going to be like forty degrees celsiu's plus
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's in paraheity.
Speaker 1: Sorry, it's bad. Somewhere near near the hundreds, I think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not good. It's not great. Time you're on on
Speaker 1: the East coast in the US. It's pretty pretty hot.
Speaker 4: There and it gets muggy, which is the worst part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're actually going to talk about why humidity sucks
Speaker 1: so hard, scientific reasons why humidity is the worst, because
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about how animals cool off. And
Speaker 1: you may or may not want to try some of these.
Speaker 1: You probably won't.
Speaker 3: But I'm so burying myself in a.
Speaker 4: Hole anyway, I was gonna say, this is one of
Speaker 4: our favorite things is being able to bring weird scientific
Speaker 4: facts to party small talk. And this is like, this
Speaker 4: is the best because anytime everyone's like, oh, in that weather,
Speaker 4: I can be like, well, have you tried.
Speaker 2: That's not going to get annoying every time, because every
Speaker 2: time it's hot at a party, you're just like, well,
Speaker 2: if you tried wiggling your body alone, you will.
Speaker 1: For some of the advice that you may gather from
Speaker 1: this podcast, I can't guarantee it will help with uh
Speaker 1: making new acquaintances, but you know you can try. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk a lot about evaporative cooling in
Speaker 1: this episode, so a brief explanation of how it works.
Speaker 1: When water evaporates, molecular bonds break, So this is a
Speaker 1: process that requires energy. So energy is actually sucked out
Speaker 1: of the surface where the water was and is released
Speaker 1: into the air or water vapor This is why when
Speaker 1: we sweat and we are outside and the sweat evaporates,
Speaker 1: we feel a little better. So sweating, actually, even though
Speaker 1: it's gross, helps cool us down. It provides a very
Speaker 1: important service to our bodies and not overheating.
Speaker 4: That makes sense.
Speaker 2: But some animals don't sweat, right.
Speaker 1: That's right. Some animals don't sweat, and so they have
Speaker 1: to come up with other options. But sometimes they still
Speaker 1: use evaporative cooling. Just not through sweat. Oh yeah, and
Speaker 1: actually this is why humidity sucks so bad for us.
Speaker 1: Is bad when it's humid, you still sweat. You might
Speaker 1: think like, well, I get sweatier in humidity, and it's
Speaker 1: not true. You're not getting sweatier. It's just that your
Speaker 1: sweat is not evaporating. So there's so much water in
Speaker 1: the air already the water has reached a saturturation point
Speaker 1: and it's harder for new water to evaporate. So high
Speaker 1: humidity can actually be quite dangerous. So at lower temperatures,
Speaker 1: high humidity can overheat you faster because weat is no
Speaker 1: longer as effective at cooling you down. So that is
Speaker 1: why sort of the wet bulb temperature, where you're looking
Speaker 1: at how the temperature in human conditions actually affect the
Speaker 1: human body, is so important, and why being in a
Speaker 1: really humid environment can be actually quite dangerous in terms of.
Speaker 2: So okay, that makes sense. Just so, wet bulb is
Speaker 2: the term for that, and it's what that means how
Speaker 2: it actually feels to humans.
Speaker 3: Well, wet bulb.
Speaker 1: Is the way you measure temperature in high humidity by
Speaker 1: measuring the evaporation sort of from like a wet cloth
Speaker 1: cover bulb, So it's measuring how it feels to you
Speaker 1: as a human versus what the actual temperature is.
Speaker 2: Yet, so I want to say there's a lot there's
Speaker 2: always discourse online between Americans and British people around this
Speaker 2: time of year when it starts to get hot in
Speaker 2: the UK and they're like, that's not hot. You don't
Speaker 2: know what hot is because I live in Arizona or whatever.
Speaker 2: But it's really really huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, kay.
Speaker 2: It does rain all the time, it rains constantly. It's
Speaker 2: hot and wet, so I'm guessing the are wet ball
Speaker 2: temperature is very high and you can feel it. It's horrible.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I for one, I'm not really in favor of gatekeeping
Speaker 1: when people get heats, you know. I think it's just
Speaker 1: bad when the weather's really hot and people are suffering,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that it's really you know, because
Speaker 1: it's like, well, there are many factors too that affect
Speaker 1: whether you're suffering like you're I think also like the
Speaker 1: architecture in the UK of architecture in Arizona in terms
Speaker 1: of how the buildings are more designed to help you
Speaker 1: out in the winter not in the summer.
Speaker 2: Exactly. So you also don't have we don't have air conditioning.
Speaker 1: That's a huge thing, right, Like, because if you're in
Speaker 1: Arizona and you're like in air conditioning all the time,
Speaker 1: even if it's like one hundred and five outs outside,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be okay indoors, Whereas like if you cannot
Speaker 1: get relief from the heat and it's like only ninety
Speaker 1: seven degrees out, but you just can't get any relief,
Speaker 1: you can still get heat stroke.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that makes wow perfect. I have literally I had
Speaker 4: known about the concept of like evaporation and sweat how
Speaker 4: that cools. I was like, yeah, I know that, and
Speaker 4: I was familiar with the concept of humility. I'd never
Speaker 4: put those two together to explain why it's so miserable
Speaker 4: when it's muggy. That makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we just it's a you know, sweat
Speaker 1: is a wonderful, wonderful gift we have been given.
Speaker 3: To be able to cool off. I would like what
Speaker 3: be referred to as a gift before it actually is.
Speaker 1: So, as you guys noted earlier, some animals don't sweat
Speaker 1: like birds, So how do you birds cool down? Have
Speaker 1: you ever thought about it?
Speaker 2: Oh? Uh?
Speaker 4: Bird bath, burpath bird bath.
Speaker 1: That is actually correct. One way that they cooled down
Speaker 1: is taking little bird baths, so dunking in water. Lots
Speaker 1: of animals do it, We do it, and it is
Speaker 1: a very good way to benefit both from being inside
Speaker 1: the water and like if the water temperature is lower
Speaker 1: than the temperature outside of the water, it can lower
Speaker 1: your body temperature. Or once you exit the water and
Speaker 1: that water evaporate, you will down.
Speaker 4: It's like manual sweat sweat.
Speaker 1: Store bought sweat for when you don't sweat enough. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: can you guys think about any other ways you think
Speaker 1: that birds might cool themselves off.
Speaker 3: They've got really big wings, maybe they could use them
Speaker 3: like a fan.
Speaker 1: They actually can just a life. Some birds will raise
Speaker 1: their wings up and as if they're about to fly,
Speaker 1: but they just kind of keep them stretched and it
Speaker 1: lets air flow in. And this is another thing that
Speaker 1: you'll see often is animals trying to increase sort of
Speaker 1: the contact with cool surfaces or the cool air with
Speaker 1: large amounts of surface area. Because if you have a
Speaker 1: large surface area with a lot of blood vessels running
Speaker 1: through it, and you make sure that that is all
Speaker 1: contacting the cool air, all of that blood flow will
Speaker 1: get cooled down. So the higher this amount of surface
Speaker 1: area and the amount of blood vessels that are close
Speaker 1: to the surface, the faster that blood will cool down.
Speaker 3: So elephants airs and things like that, like that's why
Speaker 3: it is so big. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: In fact, we're going to talk about elephants in some
Speaker 1: of their Oh, but that that is exactly the same
Speaker 1: mechanism that is used.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: There is also a way that they can use their
Speaker 1: beaks with the same principles. So some burn have large
Speaker 1: beaks like two cans and two cans take advantage of
Speaker 1: all that surface area, so they have blood flow through
Speaker 1: their beak, and they can actually increase the flow of
Speaker 1: blood going through their beaks and weather allowing war blood
Speaker 1: to cool down.
Speaker 2: That's is that like it's not a conscious thing, right,
Speaker 2: That's it's like when our blood vessels expand in.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, but it would be funny of like did
Speaker 1: you remember to flow blood? Right? It's like when you
Speaker 1: get really self conscious about blinking and breathing weight? Has
Speaker 1: this always been something I have to worry about?
Speaker 2: I feel really dumb, but I feel like I thought
Speaker 2: that beaks were just like nails just like extra. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't have any innovation or blood flow.
Speaker 1: Parts of the beaks don't have blood flows. So that's
Speaker 1: not a that's not a dumb thing to think. It's
Speaker 1: just some parts of the beak have some blood flow
Speaker 1: in it, and then know there may be parts of
Speaker 1: the beak that don't have as much a blood flow
Speaker 1: or innervation.
Speaker 3: I always thought of it like the same way like
Speaker 3: cats claws and dog's claws and things like that, you
Speaker 3: don't want to trim because there is some blood flow
Speaker 3: in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it is. It is similar to that exactly.
Speaker 1: And so speaking of cats and dogs, birds can pant
Speaker 1: like it.
Speaker 2: I bet that's so cute.
Speaker 1: It's it is very cute. But they even have one
Speaker 1: more technique. So in addition to panting, they can do
Speaker 1: something called golar fluttering, which is looking at it is
Speaker 1: very cute and kind of funny. So like the bird's
Speaker 1: mouth will just be hanging open, and then you'll see
Speaker 1: its throat just kind of fluttering. Oh, just kind of
Speaker 1: rapidly inflating and deflating.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, wait, is that one of the pictures
Speaker 3: that we've got?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a owl, a little owl doing it.
Speaker 1: I think I also through a video.
Speaker 2: I think I've seen birds do this and bit and thought, yes,
Speaker 2: that they were doing some kind of vocalization that I
Speaker 2: couldn't hear something.
Speaker 1: The vocalization is I'm too hord.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's what they're communicating.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yes, many bird species do this, from pelicans to owls.
Speaker 1: So golar just means throat related and fluttering is fluttering,
Speaker 1: So golar fluttering just means throat jiggling. I don't know
Speaker 1: why they didn't call it that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: So how does that actually help them cool down?
Speaker 1: I mean, so it is the same mechanism as dog panting.
Speaker 1: So with dog panting, can you, like, given what we've
Speaker 1: learned about evaporative cooling, can you get how that helps
Speaker 1: a dog cool down?
Speaker 3: Is it evaporating off their tongue faster?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, So as they pant, the moisture in their mouths,
Speaker 1: their tongue in their throat come into contact with the
Speaker 1: air and can evaporate, and so they get this cool
Speaker 1: down effect. And it is the same thing that's happening
Speaker 1: with these birds with golar fluttering. The moisture in the
Speaker 1: throat is coming into contact with air. Kind of that
Speaker 1: is being pumped in like fluttering kind of bellows action.
Speaker 1: And this is actually much faster than the panting of
Speaker 1: a dog. Golar fluttering can get up to speeds of
Speaker 1: six hundred muscle movements per minute versus that of around
Speaker 1: two hundred when it comes to panting.
Speaker 2: Whoa wow, So.
Speaker 1: Don't skip throat day. But yeah, the difference between golar
Speaker 1: fluttering and panting is just in what muscles are used.
Speaker 1: Panting uses muscles in the thoractic cavity, whereas gol or
Speaker 1: fluttering uses upper throat muscles.
Speaker 5: I'm interesting, just amazed at all of these adaptations for temperature,
Speaker 5: for keeping cool, which I feel like we all take
Speaker 5: for granted or as or think of it maybe as
Speaker 5: like a human thing, but like it's so clearly important
Speaker 5: to thermal regulation and stuff like that for these animals.
Speaker 4: That's just it's just so cool to think that all
Speaker 4: these things have adapted for it must be very important.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, exactly. And I mean birds are like us.
Speaker 1: They are warm blooded, meaning that they are able to
Speaker 1: thermal regulate internally. It doesn't mean their blood is warmer
Speaker 1: than say a reptile, but you know, so they aren't
Speaker 1: they even though they are little dinosaurs, they are just
Speaker 1: like us in terms of being warm budding. So we've
Speaker 1: talked about evaporative cooling and how you can pant, you
Speaker 1: can do a little bird bath. What do you think
Speaker 1: you would do to really cool down when there's no
Speaker 1: water available?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Oh ah? What else is available?
Speaker 4: Is that airflow? Air?
Speaker 1: Very good question? What might be available? Well, storks and
Speaker 1: vultures have come up with a very creative and a
Speaker 1: little bit gross to be horrified by.
Speaker 4: This is like like blood or something.
Speaker 1: No, not quite. It is more like poop and pea.
Speaker 3: That's fine, Some poop and pea just.
Speaker 1: You know themselves.
Speaker 3: That's that's keeping it in the family perfect, not.
Speaker 1: Like after after winning a big sports game dunking gatorade
Speaker 1: on someone else. So there, some species of stork and
Speaker 1: vultures will relieve themselves on their own legs, and that
Speaker 1: will allow the evaporative cooling effect of the running sort
Speaker 1: of poop pee combination to cool them down. It evaporates
Speaker 1: and lowers their body temperature.
Speaker 2: Hey, I guess yeah, Well.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like peeing in the pool to like
Speaker 1: warm yourself up, except in reverse. And of course I
Speaker 1: don't do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, never, I don't want to the pool. Never. Never,
Speaker 3: I'm suddenly not going to admit to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in vulture species, this poop actually doubles believe it
Speaker 1: or not as a cleansing agent.
Speaker 3: I feel incorrect.
Speaker 2: I mean, I believe you, Katie, but it doesn't feel right.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel right. But it has uric acid in it,
Speaker 1: which helps kill off bacteria on their legs. So after
Speaker 1: a long day of standing knee deep in carrying that
Speaker 1: uric acid can actually help clear off kill off some
Speaker 1: of that bacteria. So it is it's a triple threat.
Speaker 1: They get the satisfaction of relieving themselves, they can cool down,
Speaker 1: and they kill bacteria that may be on their legs.
Speaker 1: So what's not to love.
Speaker 2: About this animal advice we're going to talk about in
Speaker 2: this episode. This is one that you definitely should not
Speaker 2: be following. Please no.
Speaker 4: Though, Yeah, and on purel doubles.
Speaker 1: Both There you go, I would have been really useful
Speaker 1: advice during the pandemic. Just I I cannot, I cannot
Speaker 1: get good conscience say that urine is actually hand sanitizer.
Speaker 1: It's not. Don't do that.
Speaker 4: And also it sounds like in this situation it's just
Speaker 4: less gross than the stuff they're stepping in, So it's
Speaker 4: sort of like lesser of two evils almost. But and
Speaker 4: then also there is yeah, there.
Speaker 2: Is this thing online that where people say, like urine
Speaker 2: is sterile. It's not, oh yeah, it's yeah, no, it's
Speaker 2: got So don't do anything. Don't don't drink that stuff
Speaker 2: if you were thinking about it.
Speaker 1: None taking we see unless you're unless you're like an
Speaker 1: ancient European trying to make purple dot out of snails
Speaker 1: in urine, I don't really see what the use of
Speaker 1: getting urine on yourself is.
Speaker 3: You know what, if that is your thing, then you
Speaker 3: do ye.
Speaker 1: Sure, well, we are gonna take a quick break while
Speaker 1: I allow everyone to take an actual bathroom break so
Speaker 1: nobody feels tempted to pee on themselves. But when we
Speaker 1: come back. When we come back, we will talk about
Speaker 1: how some of the biggest and some of the smallest
Speaker 1: animals stay cool surprisingly in similar ways. Who so, both
Speaker 1: animals great and small must keep cool. So let's compare
Speaker 1: the cooling methods of one of the world's largest animals,
Speaker 1: the elephant, with one of the smallest, the be So
Speaker 1: one of you, I think maybe Carolina or Ella mentioned
Speaker 1: that they think that perhaps elephants use their ears.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that was me, Caroline.
Speaker 1: Yes, good job. I'm sorry for giving Ella any.
Speaker 2: I'll take it for your audience who hasn't heard us before.
Speaker 2: Caroline and Caroline and I will basically sound like the
Speaker 2: same person for this episode, and that's fine.
Speaker 1: It's I think especially hard for Americans because it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: British accents. I just assume you're very smart, and everyone
Speaker 1: is the same, maybe three to four actors.
Speaker 3: That it's true.
Speaker 2: I am Benedict Combatch, I knew it. So.
Speaker 1: Yes, elephants do have those huge ears, and just like
Speaker 1: we talked about terms of surface area, those are great
Speaker 1: for cooling down. You have. It's perfect right, because you
Speaker 1: have a thin layer of skin. The blood vessels are
Speaker 1: close to the surface, so if you get airflow, it
Speaker 1: will help those blood vessels cool down and then you
Speaker 1: circulate that blood into the rest of your body. And
Speaker 1: of course, like the flapping of the years, they are
Speaker 1: able to do that wonderful ear flapping that we associate
Speaker 1: with elephants. Oh yeah, it helps them cool down.
Speaker 4: This is really telling on the kind of nerd I am.
Speaker 4: But I was like, oh, it's like a like a
Speaker 4: heat sink and like a computer. It's like the radiator. Right, yes,
Speaker 4: you get you get the place where all the all
Speaker 4: the hot can go and then radiate out.
Speaker 1: Different we're covering all our bases. NERD has a place
Speaker 1: here except for well no I won't I won't even
Speaker 1: gate keep but you know who you are. So but yeah,
Speaker 1: so they have this incredibly fast uh rate of blood
Speaker 1: flow from their ears into their body. In addition to that,
Speaker 1: they elephants are smart and they've got these wonderful trunks.
Speaker 1: So they will use these trunks to blast cool mud
Speaker 1: or water.
Speaker 5: They're water cooling likes okay, yes, yes, just like a computer.
Speaker 1: They are elephants exactly like a computer in this way.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they they like to hit themselves behind the
Speaker 1: ears and that will help them really cool down quite efficiently.
Speaker 1: They also will cover themselves in mud and take dust baths,
Speaker 1: uh and of course take regular baths, and that will help.
Speaker 1: And the dust and the mud baths are especially helpful
Speaker 1: because they actually will cover themselves in like a layer
Speaker 1: of mud, which helps protect them from the sun and
Speaker 1: it helps protect them from parasites. So it's so small, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is actually something that we can learn from
Speaker 1: them in terms of them using water behind their ears
Speaker 1: and cooling down their ears. As a human, you can
Speaker 1: take advantage of this same surface area method. So areas
Speaker 1: on your body where there are large blood vessels close
Speaker 1: to the surface of the skin will cool your whole
Speaker 1: body down more quickly. So you want to target areas
Speaker 1: like your neck, your hands and feet, your growing area,
Speaker 1: and under your arms. So putting some water, some ice
Speaker 1: or air full of there will help you cool down
Speaker 1: more efficiently. When you use ice, it's always a good
Speaker 1: idea to put something between the ice and your skin.
Speaker 1: You don't want, like if it's so cold it hurts,
Speaker 1: that's not good. Like you don't want to like injure
Speaker 1: yourself by by being too cold there. But yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're really hot and you target those areas your neck, hands, feet,
Speaker 1: growin area, and under the arms are really good places
Speaker 1: to help cool you down.
Speaker 2: I just want to say I've never been more aware
Speaker 2: of different areas of my body sweating right now, I
Speaker 2: kind of like thinking about all of I'm like stuck
Speaker 2: to my chair and I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is interesting because like for me, like
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say which, but some of the areas
Speaker 1: that I listed do get very sweaty. And one of
Speaker 1: the reasons, like you may have a lot of sweat
Speaker 1: glands there, is that it is a great area for
Speaker 1: you too cool down.
Speaker 2: That makes so much sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and of course, uh, elephants also just fan their
Speaker 1: ears like big old giant fans and it's adorable. It's
Speaker 1: so cute. But what you may not have known is
Speaker 1: that honey bees actually use a similar method in terms of.
Speaker 2: That wings fit.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're wings. So honey bees are use social species,
Speaker 1: meaning that they have a hierarchical colony where members have
Speaker 1: breeding or non breeding roles, and their behavior is oft
Speaker 1: and around ensuring the success of the whole colony. So
Speaker 1: when it gets hot, the worker bees, which pretty much
Speaker 1: are all females, we'll do a few things that some
Speaker 1: of them will beat their wings like little fan units
Speaker 1: and just be like little living fans that help cool
Speaker 1: down the colony. Gosh, and when you have a bunch
Speaker 1: of them all like one bee doesn't seem like it
Speaker 1: could do much, but when you have a bunch of them,
Speaker 1: it actually generates a good amount of airflow.
Speaker 3: Wow, so cool, so good.
Speaker 2: They can kind of thing right as well, like they
Speaker 2: can warm up, uh and like hive by I don't think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they yes, by getting close and vibrating. In fact,
Speaker 1: there are some bees who are the often the prey
Speaker 1: of giant Asian hornets. Oh yeah, surround the hornets and
Speaker 1: vibrate and they actually cook the hornet alive. And that's
Speaker 1: but that's why I like it's people were freaking out
Speaker 1: about the giant murder hornets in North America because our
Speaker 1: bees don't have this defense mechanism because they didn't with
Speaker 1: the giant hornets. So the bees that co evolved with
Speaker 1: the hornets do actually have more defense mechanisms. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so they they can as they can sort of jiggle
Speaker 1: and vibrate to warm the colony up, warm each other up,
Speaker 1: or cook something alive. They can also fly their wings
Speaker 1: like very very rapidly and cool down.
Speaker 2: Do you haven't like that? And do you have a
Speaker 2: number on the kind of beats per minute?
Speaker 1: You know you'd think that would be something i'd have.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes me think cod perfect. Yeah, Like you
Speaker 2: know hummingbirds where they move so fast you can't see them.
Speaker 1: Like yes, Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned hummingbirds because hummingbird
Speaker 1: flight and beef flight actually share some things in terms
Speaker 1: of how their really rapid wing movement creates these little
Speaker 1: air vortices that help give them lyft, and so they
Speaker 1: are kind of similar in the way that their wings
Speaker 1: give them lift in this very unique way where you know,
Speaker 1: you have slow fires where you have lift that you
Speaker 1: know kind of like how a plane where you have
Speaker 1: air sort of flowing under the wing. But yeah, bees
Speaker 1: and hummingbirds generate these like little little vortexes, vortices that
Speaker 1: generate this.
Speaker 4: This is also interesting can because we had on a
Speaker 4: previous episode, I like very quickly dropped a fact that like,
Speaker 4: while bees aren't like amazing at thermoregulating themselves, that hives
Speaker 4: generally can stay at like a stable temperature. And I
Speaker 4: had to like it was like a quick rapid fact
Speaker 4: as part of like the bigger topic, and I never
Speaker 4: got to look into it, and so now I feel
Speaker 4: like I got to got to learn that, which is amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so they it's really interesting how they kind
Speaker 1: of they do a bunch of things, like each each
Speaker 1: worker will kind of do different tasks depending on need.
Speaker 1: Some workers will actually kind of leave the colony just
Speaker 1: to make sure there's like fewer bodies in there so
Speaker 1: it doesn't warm up so much. Pretty much, It's like
Speaker 1: when you leave a summer party and you're just like,
Speaker 1: I can't warm in here. You could sort of reframe
Speaker 1: that as you being really altruistic, like I would stay,
Speaker 1: but I care about you all too. They also will
Speaker 1: send out, uh, some some of the workers will go
Speaker 1: out and be basically living water jugs. They drink and
Speaker 1: drink and drink, come back into the colony and they
Speaker 1: just sort of spray it everywhere. They let their sisters
Speaker 1: drink some of it, they'll recurgitate it for their sisters,
Speaker 1: and then they'll also spray it over the colony and
Speaker 1: then that helps cool things down. Then if you especially
Speaker 1: when you have the combination of the little the little
Speaker 1: fans and the water in the colony, then you have
Speaker 1: evaporative cooling again. And so it's you know, it's really
Speaker 1: amazing how they all kind of come together to create.
Speaker 3: This so cool.
Speaker 2: Just what I think I've learned everything about bees, like
Speaker 2: ten new cool things about them. Yeah, but I guess
Speaker 2: so most bees are solitary bees, so I guess that
Speaker 2: they don't have this system, they just have to hide
Speaker 2: in the shade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they might use they might fan their
Speaker 1: wings as well to cool themselves down. I think of yes,
Speaker 1: definitely getting into cooler places. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: bee species that are like they still build like sort
Speaker 1: of rudimentary little burrows.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They yeah, because like there are there are a lot
Speaker 1: of native bee species. We're talking about honey bees, but
Speaker 1: native bee species that have very very different styles of
Speaker 1: living where they don't live in colonies and they live
Speaker 1: and reproduce on their own. They may live in loose
Speaker 1: sort of like there may be a bunch of them
Speaker 1: that live kind of in close quarters, but they're not
Speaker 1: use social. They don't actually work together. They just kind
Speaker 1: of live in similar areas and typically can get along
Speaker 1: all right, Okay, but yeah, it is It is very interesting.
Speaker 1: I think that once you have this use social system,
Speaker 1: you start to get really weird and complex behaviors because
Speaker 1: of that, the sort of the way that they give
Speaker 1: different tasks, and by give different tasks, often that either
Speaker 1: means through sort of pheromone signaling or you have just
Speaker 1: the maturation of the female. So from from hatching to death,
Speaker 1: Like a different aged female will do different behaviors. And
Speaker 1: that's one way to kind of like make sure that
Speaker 1: the tasks are kind of separated out the workers.
Speaker 2: In this hot weather. I would like to remind everyone listening.
Speaker 2: But you can get for your for your gardens. You
Speaker 2: can get little solitary bee units with little holes in
Speaker 2: that they can come and stay in when.
Speaker 1: They're yes, carpenter. Bees love that. They love it. Yes,
Speaker 1: And and you can also get like they're like these
Speaker 1: waterstones where you can just it just like is a
Speaker 1: small amount of water collected on it, but then that
Speaker 1: helps bees, it helps other insects like rehydrate. So there're
Speaker 1: lots of fun little things you can use in your
Speaker 1: garden to make it a nice place for for bees. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I I I think it's a
Speaker 1: it is. I always love it when we kind of
Speaker 1: make an effort to create housing for bees and for
Speaker 1: a little insects. It's just so cute. It's like, uh,
Speaker 1: they couldn't be more different from us, but we're like,
Speaker 1: would you like a little.
Speaker 2: My parents. I got one for my parents' garden, and
Speaker 2: I go and check on it when I see them,
Speaker 2: And you can see like all the different holes getting
Speaker 2: filled up like they block them over there. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: I got I got one for my mom, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if I accidentally got a haunted one, but
Speaker 1: nobody wants to go in.
Speaker 4: There because there's a ghosts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Victorian ghost bees in there. Well, we are going
Speaker 1: to take a quick break. Do you an exorcism for
Speaker 1: those Victorian ghost get that. We are going to talk
Speaker 1: about a somewhat equally ghulish topic, which is burying yourself
Speaker 1: to escape the heat. So one way to escape the
Speaker 1: heat is going underground. Lots of animals who live in
Speaker 1: climates where temperatures fluctuate wildly from being really cold at
Speaker 1: night to being really hot during the day will burrow,
Speaker 1: which helps them stay cool in the heat and warm
Speaker 1: when the temperatures drop. So that's why, I mean, one
Speaker 1: of the reasons we have so many burrowing animals, especially
Speaker 1: in in environments that either get really cold or really
Speaker 1: warm or both.
Speaker 2: So like mia cats and those that makes so much sense.
Speaker 2: I'm merely caul about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Some animals actually just skip the whole construction
Speaker 1: aspect of burrows, like Mirkess will have these really nicely
Speaker 1: constructed interlocking burrows, and some just are like e, I
Speaker 1: can't be bothered, and then they can't bury themselves.
Speaker 3: Oh that is brilliant.
Speaker 1: The Saharan sand vipers will undulate their bodies until they
Speaker 1: are buried under the sand, which not only cools them
Speaker 1: down but gives them an incredible hiding spot to lurk
Speaker 1: until an unlucky victim walks by. They leave just their
Speaker 1: eyes exposed. Their eyes are like covered by these horn
Speaker 1: like projections that keeps the sand from getting eyes and
Speaker 1: they wait and they just kind of rest there. They're
Speaker 1: nice and cool and unbothered, and then if prey walks by,
Speaker 1: they can just grab it.
Speaker 2: Can I say this? You've shared with this? They are
Speaker 2: so funny looking. They're like little eyes, so like they
Speaker 2: look really cross eyed and weird, and their heads are
Speaker 2: so huge. I love them.
Speaker 1: They're very doofy looking. I in general love snakes, and
Speaker 1: I understand that vipers can sometimes freak people out. But
Speaker 1: of the vipers, I feel like this one is one
Speaker 1: of the goofiest looking ones. So it's hard hard for
Speaker 1: me to be scared of it, especially since there is
Speaker 1: one that there's a video of one that buries itself
Speaker 1: in sprinkles. I shared that with you guys, so I
Speaker 1: will give you the next minute or two to just
Speaker 1: enjoy that.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 2: I have God.
Speaker 3: I need that in my life immediately.
Speaker 1: You guys all have the linkage.
Speaker 2: So I guess if you just give them anything to
Speaker 2: bury themselves in, they will is the idea.
Speaker 1: Sand, anything that shares sort of the general physical properties
Speaker 1: of sand, and they will bury themselves.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: I love watching them bury themselves. I was gonna say,
Speaker 3: you wiggle, isn't it.
Speaker 2: With the sprinkles you can really see like how the
Speaker 2: undulating motion works, like how it's kind of Yeah, it
Speaker 2: looks so cool if you.
Speaker 1: It's like when you're in a ball pit as a
Speaker 1: little kid and you kind of like scoot your way
Speaker 1: down to the bottom of the ball and they wait
Speaker 1: for some other kid walk by and then grab them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what the sand viper does.
Speaker 2: If you like these sand vipers, I'll say there is another.
Speaker 2: There's a sand burying snake called the Kenyan sandboa, which
Speaker 2: are really good beginner snake pets to have. I've always
Speaker 2: wanted one. They're super cute and if you hold them,
Speaker 2: they're very cute in your hand. They don't mind being handled.
Speaker 2: They they'll like put their press the little heads in
Speaker 2: between the gaps and your fingers because they're trying to
Speaker 2: bury themselves in the sand, so they're like wiggle through.
Speaker 2: It's super cute.
Speaker 1: I think I think I saw one of those and
Speaker 1: the owner got them. You know, those like turtle sandboxes.
Speaker 1: Was that just an American thing or did everyone does?
Speaker 1: Everyone knowing? Yeah, like plastic turtle sand boxes. I had
Speaker 1: one as a kid. They were a big thing, and
Speaker 1: she got a mini one for her little sandbog And
Speaker 1: you just see this little sandburg go in and like
Speaker 1: bury itself inside the little turtle sand box. That's thepe
Speaker 1: cutest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: So sweet, Oh my goodness. I also love this is
Speaker 3: a different animal, but I love watching I don't know
Speaker 3: what species of spider is, but there's a spider species
Speaker 3: that like uses his little legs and will like scoop
Speaker 3: sand over its head and then it'll like lie really flat.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's for calling itself down. I think
Speaker 3: it is for camouflage, but like watching it do it,
Speaker 3: I'm just like so fascinated by it. You know, they're
Speaker 3: just like scoopoooop scoopy, and then they'll be like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm not quite I'm not quite right, yew, and then
Speaker 3: they'll really flat.
Speaker 4: I'm glad we're all pro snake here, because if someone
Speaker 4: was afraid of snakes and then saw this video of
Speaker 4: a snake hiding in sprinkles, they'd be like, now they're
Speaker 4: in my ice cream tune.
Speaker 1: No, I loved it. The sixth Side sand Spider. That's
Speaker 1: a spider that kind of lowers itself into sand and
Speaker 1: kind of scoop sand over itself. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that one.
Speaker 1: Cute, so fun. Probably not cute if you if you accidentally,
Speaker 1: like come upon it and you just see legs sticking
Speaker 1: out of the sand.
Speaker 3: But you know what, cute, that's never gonna be. We live,
Speaker 3: I'm in England. That's not a situation I have to
Speaker 3: worry about.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: That's fine.
Speaker 1: I used to get scorpions in my room because I
Speaker 1: lived in southern California and we lived next to a canyon.
Speaker 1: So that was that was fun.
Speaker 3: Toopping out that One't like that, No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The real the real reason the Americans won the Revolutions.
Speaker 1: We just told the bish that we have scorpions and
Speaker 1: stuff like.
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't want to do with that.
Speaker 1: So now I want to talk about an animal that
Speaker 1: buries itself, but its process is far more complicated, kind
Speaker 1: of grosser and really interesting. So this thing looks like
Speaker 1: a snake, but it very much is not a snake.
Speaker 1: This is the West African lungfish. It is an eel
Speaker 1: like fish that is four hundred million years old in
Speaker 1: terms of its species. It pre dates the dinosaurs.
Speaker 2: Holy, it hit a point in evolution and it was like,
Speaker 2: I'm perfect, I'm good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, never change yourself.
Speaker 1: Rather reason, there is no reason to evolve if you
Speaker 1: continue to sex. If you continue to sex, she is
Speaker 1: successfully reproduce, and there's no evolutionary pressures on you to change.
Speaker 1: There's no reason for you to change. That's why we
Speaker 1: have both species that are very new and species that
Speaker 1: are very old. Evolution only happens when there's some kind
Speaker 1: of pressure on you to evolve because whatever is whatever
Speaker 1: is happening for you, your environment's changed, or things are
Speaker 1: just not working for you, or there's sexual selection pressures.
Speaker 1: But for these guys, they're cool with it, they're fine,
Speaker 1: they're doing good. They are very strange looking to. Their
Speaker 1: fins are sort of modified in the in that they
Speaker 1: kind of look like just these long like spaghetti arms
Speaker 1: and legs.
Speaker 4: I thought might be like a little whiskery things, but no, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's what they look like.
Speaker 2: The sins they use that.
Speaker 3: Kind of what does not do anything.
Speaker 1: Well, kind of help some flop around on land. I'll
Speaker 1: explain why they're on land.
Speaker 3: There are a lungfish.
Speaker 1: So they're a lungfish. They do have lungs. They can
Speaker 1: both use their gills to collect oxygen from the water
Speaker 1: and lungs to breathe air. It has to breathe actually
Speaker 1: every thirty minutes or so, otherwise the gills are more supplementary.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so this is African lung In evolution, lungfish
Speaker 2: are ones that they came out of the water, right,
Speaker 2: and then they evolved back into the water because they
Speaker 2: were like No, that's what I think we learned that one.
Speaker 2: That's like the evolutionary process.
Speaker 3: I mean, why they have both.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they probably yes, I'm trying to remember
Speaker 1: if this is the one, but I think this might
Speaker 1: be because they Yeah, so they developed lungs. They were
Speaker 1: able to breathe air, but they ended up really not
Speaker 1: making the full transition to being a terrestrial animal.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I'm not about this land thing.
Speaker 1: You know. An animal who even did that more are cetaceans, whales, dolphins.
Speaker 1: They were fully terrestrial, like uh, you know, walking on
Speaker 1: land and everything, full on legs, and then they're like,
Speaker 1: you know what, not for me, and then started to
Speaker 1: become more and more aquatic through many, many iterations of
Speaker 1: evolution until they completely ditched the lands.
Speaker 2: Brings me so much joy.
Speaker 1: At one point in their evolutionary history, they kind of
Speaker 1: looked like a weird little deer thing whoa quite a deer,
Speaker 1: but like this little thing that kind of had like
Speaker 1: deer like legs. It didn't have hooves, but yeah, they
Speaker 1: looked like weird little bambies. And then they just turned
Speaker 1: into a whale.
Speaker 3: All I'm picturing now is like a weird little dead
Speaker 3: thing with human feet because like, as soon as you
Speaker 3: say it hooves, that's exactly like that's what my brain
Speaker 3: goes to, you know, horrifying.
Speaker 1: Look up the evolutionary history of the whale, and for
Speaker 1: some of the stages in its evolutionary history, you're not
Speaker 1: too far off. There was a line version that looked
Speaker 1: like an otter mixed with an alligator. It's weird. It
Speaker 1: gets very strange. Yeah, So back to the African lungfish.
Speaker 1: They live in environments where water sources can dry up,
Speaker 1: which is bad if you're a fish. So they have
Speaker 1: evolved to be able to go up on land and
Speaker 1: bury themselves in mud. So during dry seasons they will
Speaker 1: burrow into the mud and of course they can breathe air,
Speaker 1: so they're okay in that sense, but they aren't really
Speaker 1: gonna do well if they dry out. They need, you know,
Speaker 1: they need to have this like protective layer of mucus.
Speaker 1: If they completely desiccate and dry out, they will die.
Speaker 1: So they bury themselves and then go into a state
Speaker 1: of estivations. So estivation is just like hibernation. It's just
Speaker 1: during warm and dry hot seasons during like the summer,
Speaker 1: versus during cold seasons like the winter. So they will
Speaker 1: actually cover themselves in mucus which dries into a cocoon
Speaker 1: and they will lower their metabolic rate and live off
Speaker 1: of their own muscle tissues. Now, usually when we are
Speaker 1: living off our own tissues, we kind of go off
Speaker 1: of fat stores. This is true of a lot of
Speaker 1: animals too, that hibernate or estivate. These actually eat consume
Speaker 1: their muscle tissue, and they can stay in the state
Speaker 1: of lowered metabolism inside their little mucous cocoon under the
Speaker 1: ground for around a year.
Speaker 2: Oh so cool, yea, so freaking cool.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm seeing why they stuck around for so long.
Speaker 4: They got and they got this sleep mode. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Wow. I mean, don't oh, I feel like when the
Speaker 1: summers get really hot, it's just like I want to
Speaker 1: be a little lungfish myself in mud.
Speaker 4: I want to wake up and.
Speaker 1: Myself in a cocoon of mucus and just like peace out.
Speaker 3: You know, like not even when it's too hot, just
Speaker 3: like any minor inconvenience to my life. But like I
Speaker 3: just like go and hang out in a little muddy.
Speaker 3: Thank you, it's not too much.
Speaker 1: I'm going in my mud.
Speaker 2: That's so cool.
Speaker 1: So actually, if you if you dig these guys up,
Speaker 1: which you shouldn't because it messes with them. So but
Speaker 1: but I mean, I guess unless you're gonna eat it.
Speaker 1: I actually don't know if people eat these. They don't
Speaker 1: seem very good like to eat.
Speaker 4: But once you get past cocoon, it's actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I've actually shared with you a clip of
Speaker 1: some people digging one of these up and it looks
Speaker 1: like a weird potato they find in the ground. How
Speaker 1: they actually peel it and then like this fish plops out.
Speaker 4: It's encasing, it looks like paper.
Speaker 2: I was like, it's really thick.
Speaker 1: I was very shocked to I thought this was a hoax,
Speaker 1: and I had to do some serious research to sure.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen those videos on TikTok of people
Speaker 2: like pouring pepsi and mentoes into a hole and then
Speaker 2: pulling out a fish. Yeah, that's what it feels like. Yeah, obviously,
Speaker 2: but that's it feels like this.
Speaker 1: Yes, I've seen those. Those are almost entirely hoaxes or like,
Speaker 1: uh yeah, like we're like some fish kind of like
Speaker 1: pops out of the ground. These are the only ones
Speaker 1: I know of that will actually do stuff.
Speaker 4: It's like a fish.
Speaker 2: It's so it's so as well, and it's so the area.
Speaker 2: That's so crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's why that cocoon is so important because
Speaker 1: it helps seal in their moisture. It actually also it's
Speaker 1: living tissue that can keep bacteria out and protect the lungs.
Speaker 1: Oh my ash. Once it becomes the rainy season, the
Speaker 1: rain will soak into the ground these the soil will
Speaker 1: become mud, the fish will rehydrate, and they just kind
Speaker 1: of like come out of the ground like nothing, no
Speaker 1: big deal, Like nothing happens.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's gonna be My question was like, hey, that's
Speaker 4: a good security, macha, but how are you going to
Speaker 4: get out? But it's like a built in like timer
Speaker 4: kind of a thing that like it detects. It is
Speaker 4: also like those those little capsules that have like a
Speaker 4: foam dinosaur in them and that you hydrate and then
Speaker 4: they they yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently most people do occasionally eat lungfish, but well
Speaker 2: people avoid it because they don't taste that good.
Speaker 1: That's not basically what I thought. Something that makes a
Speaker 1: mucus cocoon doesn't inherently sound delicious. Yeah, but I could
Speaker 1: be wrong. I've been wrong before about like there are
Speaker 1: certain animals where it's like there's no way anyone touches
Speaker 1: this thing. But yeah, people eat it and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's delicious, like really maybe sure, Yeah, maybe I'm the one.
Speaker 4: Maybe I'm the one.
Speaker 3: With the weird I'm the weird one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, these I think these one win the
Speaker 1: prize for the most extreme method I'm avoiding, right, it's Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is just unexpected because the little satchel that that
Speaker 1: little mucus pouch that they're in, really it's like about
Speaker 1: the size and shape of a potat you know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like a whole eel like fish should be
Speaker 1: in there. But he just peels it like it's an orange,
Speaker 1: and then the blong fish is it pops out very annoyed,
Speaker 1: very frustrating.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it looks like he's peeling like a
Speaker 2: horn colp, Like that's what it looks like to me.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that fascinates you about
Speaker 2: this is just like the evolutionary steps to get to
Speaker 2: this point, Like, you know, it's not like one lungfish
Speaker 2: went down and suddenly buried and covered itself in mucus,
Speaker 2: Like what were the steps before this that ultimately led
Speaker 2: to this quite extreme adaptation. I think that's so interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, if you think about it, I
Speaker 1: mean the behavior of a lot of mucus production probably
Speaker 1: was beneficial before they were able to make these cocoons,
Speaker 1: because the more mucus you create the more sort of
Speaker 1: protected you are against drying out. And so probably like
Speaker 1: over time, the fish that were able to produce more mucus,
Speaker 1: we're the ones that ended up surviving until you get
Speaker 1: to the point where, like they produce so much mucus
Speaker 1: that even when they get completely dried out, they're like okay,
Speaker 1: And so then you get to this this point, I
Speaker 1: mean this is they're not completely unique in being able
Speaker 1: to do something like this, right, Like, there are species
Speaker 1: of mollusks molluscs like land snails and slugs that can
Speaker 1: actually sort of coat themselves in a mucus to protect
Speaker 1: themselves even when sort of like dried out. Frogs I
Speaker 1: think also will sometimes bury themselves and cover themselves in
Speaker 1: a protective mucus layer. So mucus is used by a
Speaker 1: lot of animals. Is sort of just like you know,
Speaker 1: a suit of armor when it comes to drying out.
Speaker 2: Always talk about mucus. Like the sweat thing before is
Speaker 2: now making me think about how much mucus I have
Speaker 2: in my throat and I can't stop thinking about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so far as the tools I've brought to this
Speaker 4: party on how to cool yourself down are sweat piss
Speaker 4: and you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't say it was gonna be ready.
Speaker 4: It's not.
Speaker 1: Well, guys, Before we go, we do have to play
Speaker 1: a little game which play every week. It is called
Speaker 1: the Mystery Animal Sound Game. I Guess who's squawking? I
Speaker 1: play a mystery animal sound, and you, the listener, and
Speaker 1: you the guests, try to guess, Hey, who's making that sound?
Speaker 1: So last week's mystery animal sound hint was this Squeakers
Speaker 1: here doesn't like being handled. In fact, his own hands
Speaker 1: have turned into something else.
Speaker 4: What whoa?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: You guys hear that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like it.
Speaker 4: It's a really like grinding sound.
Speaker 2: I would assume it's some kind of insect. That's very
Speaker 2: reminds you of like how crickets rubbed their legs together.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah it does. Yeah yeah, maybe it's claws.
Speaker 4: They're like nails against each other.
Speaker 1: Interesting guesses.
Speaker 3: So is that?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: Is that what you guys want to guess? Some kind
Speaker 1: of inner?
Speaker 2: I'm going to guess an insect.
Speaker 3: I'm also wondering about your Yeah, the clue it doesn't
Speaker 3: like to.
Speaker 2: Be the clue.
Speaker 1: Remind you the clue was squeakers here doesn't like being
Speaker 1: handled in fact, his own hands have turned into something else.
Speaker 1: You see.
Speaker 3: That made me think of a mole or something. But
Speaker 3: I don't know. I can't picture how a mole with
Speaker 3: like big old dicky claws would make that noise.
Speaker 4: I don't I'm picturing a little, a little, a little
Speaker 4: mousey friend that can maybe like grind its nails against
Speaker 4: each other, like the teeth.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Like, oh, my brain also just went
Speaker 3: to teeth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fast, I'm sticking with an insect.
Speaker 1: These are all very very good guesses, are wrong, but
Speaker 1: still guesses. This is the big brown bat. Yes, of course.
Speaker 1: It is congratulations to listener Auntie B who guessed correctly. Wow,
Speaker 1: this is the big brown bat. My hint. Of course,
Speaker 1: the hands and arms of bats have turned into beautiful
Speaker 1: effective wings.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The noise, yeah nice?
Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah.
Speaker 1: The big brown bat is one of the most common
Speaker 1: bats found in North America. They are insectivorous and echo
Speaker 1: locate to find their prey. That squeaking, clicking noise he's
Speaker 1: making while it could be used for echolocation in this case,
Speaker 1: it is a video of him being gently picked up
Speaker 1: by a bat rescuer who is annoying this bat quite
Speaker 1: a bit, so the bat is not happy. But yes,
Speaker 1: they generally are quite social when it comes to their
Speaker 1: own species. They live in colonies of hundreds of individuals
Speaker 1: at times. But yeah, they are really effective insect hunters.
Speaker 1: They can eat up to six hundred insects per hour.
Speaker 1: So thank a big brown bat for making sure we're
Speaker 1: not just completely covered.
Speaker 2: Thank you, big Wow the lazy dog.
Speaker 1: All right, are you guys ready for this week's mister
Speaker 1: amill sound? Let's do it all right? Here is the hint.
Speaker 1: Start your engines, fellows. This speedster is revving up, but
Speaker 1: running is not exactly what's on his mind this time.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that really does sound like an engine revinge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, it is. It is the ferrari, the well
Speaker 1: known species.
Speaker 2: We're not guessing that one else.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you can guess and if you guess correctly,
Speaker 1: I will just leave you out. And if you gits incorrectly,
Speaker 1: I'll just you'll be public.
Speaker 3: It makes me feel like a like a big cat
Speaker 3: making like a sound like a high girl.
Speaker 4: I know it doesn't fit the clue at all, but
Speaker 4: it does sound. It makes me think of like whale sounds, right,
Speaker 4: that's like low uh, vibration.
Speaker 2: I think it sounds. I don't know. Now I'm after
Speaker 2: not understanding the last clue. I'm reading too much into
Speaker 2: the next one.
Speaker 3: Could it be an ape of some sort which is
Speaker 3: going to be like swinging very quickly through branches rather
Speaker 3: than because like that sounds, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I feel like you can also just be a bird,
Speaker 4: because birds make a lot of sounds.
Speaker 3: Basically, we want to guess everything.
Speaker 2: I would like to guess any is it?
Speaker 1: Is it one of of is it some kind of animal?
Speaker 1: You guys are guessing, Yes, you are corrected. Congratulation for
Speaker 1: ruining my game.
Speaker 4: You guess is that we got to split the prize strategy.
Speaker 1: Well, if you out there think you know who is
Speaker 1: making that sound, you can write to me at Creature
Speaker 1: feature Pod at gmail dot com. You can also write
Speaker 1: to me your questions, which I periodically answer on Listener
Speaker 1: Questions episodes. Sometimes I'll email back even depends on how
Speaker 1: I'm feeling, but I do. I always appreciate your questions,
Speaker 1: and I tried to answer all of them. Guys, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today. Hey, why don't
Speaker 1: you tell the people where they can find you?
Speaker 2: Well, we are Let's learn everything. The three of us together,
Speaker 2: we are. We are Let's learn everything. We learn everything.
Speaker 2: We have a science kind of podcast where we dive
Speaker 2: into interesting science y things. You can find us on
Speaker 2: all all podcast platforms. We're part of the Maximum Fun
Speaker 2: Network and we do a lot of animal related content.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 4: We actually did a topic on thermal biology which was
Speaker 4: similar but didn't overlap, I don't think at all, which
Speaker 4: was very interesting.
Speaker 1: Did you talk about poop and did not?
Speaker 4: I think we should have a meeting afterwards. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: think that. I think that's.
Speaker 2: What the dialogue I once talked about domesticating the process
Speaker 2: of domesticating foxes. That's the kind of like big science experiments.
Speaker 1: That uh huh so cute.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember talking about trying to bring back the
Speaker 3: dodo a. Yeah, that was such a such a good
Speaker 3: pick a living bird.
Speaker 1: This one was defeated by.
Speaker 4: If you're also new, I think we just dropped a
Speaker 4: best of episodes, So if you want to give a
Speaker 4: little sampler platter into some of our topic one.
Speaker 1: A little Moves Booge Moves Booge.
Speaker 4: And also, if you only only listen to exclusively listen
Speaker 4: to podcasts with Katie on them well, very soon. I
Speaker 4: think depending on when this drops, you will also be
Speaker 4: able to listen to her on that podcast. Yeah, because
Speaker 4: we have a little guest episode. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But also if you want to find out like our
Speaker 3: socials individually, if you want to do like our discord server,
Speaker 3: et cetera, we've got a website.
Speaker 2: It's let's on everything dot com.
Speaker 3: Yes it is. Yes, we've recently changed it's let's learn
Speaker 3: everything dot com so you can find all of the information.
Speaker 1: Were great, Thanks, highly recommend, highly recommends.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. It's all fine.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for coming on, and thank y'all out
Speaker 1: there for listening. If you're enjoying the show and you
Speaker 1: leave a rating and or review, I read all the reviews.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all the ratings. It truly does help. And
Speaker 1: you know, just thanks for listening. That's that's I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I enjoy being able to talk about animals pooping on
Speaker 1: themselves with you. Thanks for the Space Classics for their
Speaker 1: super awesome song. Ex Alumina. Creature features a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the ones you us heard. This
Speaker 1: is the arheart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or you guess
Speaker 1: what really listen to your favorite shows? Could you understand that?
Speaker 4: I'm yeah, sure, people don't know you do the whole
Speaker 4: podcast in one breath, which is really impressive.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 4: I'm just like, reading notes.
Speaker 3: Feels good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But my basic point is you can listen to
Speaker 1: this podcast anywhere, and I will see you next Wednesday.