Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Boulba bom Here Two Cans, Sam, that bird
Speaker 1: with the horn shaped, rainbow striped bill on the front
Speaker 1: of the Fruit Loops cereal box, has made the two
Speaker 1: can recognizable to generations of people who have never been
Speaker 1: anywhere near the Neo Tropics, and even before Sam began
Speaker 1: following his nose, the two cans undeniable graphic appeal led
Speaker 1: to its dramatic profile gracing advertisements decades beforehand. Two cans
Speaker 1: have been used to promote everything from Guinness beer in
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties to the Brazilian Social Democracy Party in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. But two cans in actuality don't have
Speaker 1: anything to do with beer, democracy or cereal, although they
Speaker 1: definitely concern themselves with fruit. Two cans are a group
Speaker 1: of social birds native to Central and South America. They
Speaker 1: spend their days doing what any good fruit givore that is,
Speaker 1: fruit eater does, dispersing the seeds of the trees whose
Speaker 1: fruits they eat. The smallest two can species, the lettered
Speaker 1: are Sorry, is only about eleven inches that's twenty eight
Speaker 1: centimeters tall, and weighs only about four and a half ounces.
Speaker 1: That's around a hundred and thirty grams. But the largest,
Speaker 1: the Toco two can, is nearly three times is tall
Speaker 1: and six times is heavy. What all two can species,
Speaker 1: and there are over forty of them, have in common
Speaker 1: is their preference for their home turf. Two cans don't migrate,
Speaker 1: their habit of making nests in the hollow cavities of trees,
Speaker 1: and of course they're long, often colorful bills. For the article,
Speaker 1: this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke by
Speaker 1: email with Thomas Schulenberg, who studies neotropical birds at the
Speaker 1: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He said, two cans use their
Speaker 1: bills to do all the things that any bird would do,
Speaker 1: but perhaps the most important function is to grab fruit,
Speaker 1: and much of the fruit that they eat can be
Speaker 1: swallowed in a gold gulp. The bird grabs something with
Speaker 1: the tip of the bill, then tosses it towards the
Speaker 1: back of the throat and swallows. Two cans also capture
Speaker 1: and eat small vertebrates when they find them, mostly small
Speaker 1: lizards and frogs, and the eggs and nestlings of smaller birds.
Speaker 1: Aside from feeding, two cans use the bill to preen
Speaker 1: the plumage just like any other bird. Of course, a
Speaker 1: bird doesn't need a bill is splendid as the two
Speaker 1: cans to eat fruit. Many other avian frugivores have substantially
Speaker 1: smaller bills, so it must be that the bill of
Speaker 1: the two can serves some other rolls aside from showing down.
Speaker 1: In many two can species, the bill and head are
Speaker 1: used in displays communications with their own kind. Schulenberg said
Speaker 1: the larger species of two cans the genus run fastest.
Speaker 1: The model for the fruit loop's icon, often perch on
Speaker 1: exposed sites in the canopy and call while throwing the
Speaker 1: head back and swinging it from side to side. And
Speaker 1: in all species, the bill of the male is significantly
Speaker 1: longer than the bill of the female, So resumably the
Speaker 1: size of the two can bill owes as much or
Speaker 1: more to sexual selection as it does to any functional requirement.
Speaker 1: Two cans bills might also be useful for shedding excess heat.
Speaker 1: A study published in the July two thousand nine issue
Speaker 1: of Science magazine suggested that given the surface area of
Speaker 1: the bill, which accounts for between thirty and fifty percent
Speaker 1: of the bird's entire body, a two cans beak receives
Speaker 1: a lot of blood, which can serve as a good
Speaker 1: tool for thermal exchange. Schulenberg added there's a growing awareness
Speaker 1: now that the bill serves a similar function even in
Speaker 1: species with much smaller bills, such as sparrows. Since two
Speaker 1: cans don't migrate, you won't find two can species anywhere
Speaker 1: other than their native range, unless, of course, they were
Speaker 1: taken there through the exotic pet trade. However, two cans
Speaker 1: bear a striking resemblance to a type of bird found
Speaker 1: in subtropical Africa and Asia called a hornbill. Both are
Speaker 1: large birds with large, long, colorful bills, and superficially very similar,
Speaker 1: but they're not really to one another at all. Schullenberg said.
Speaker 1: The two can and hornbill branches of the bird world
Speaker 1: diverged from each other around fifty to fifty five million
Speaker 1: years ago, so they've each been going their own way
Speaker 1: for a long long time. Any similarities between them are
Speaker 1: the result of convergent evolution, the independent acquisition of similar
Speaker 1: traits or behaviors. Although you'd have to be in the
Speaker 1: neo tropics to see a two can in the wild,
Speaker 1: some people do keep them as pets. They're not legal
Speaker 1: in every country or even in every US state, but
Speaker 1: can be kept in some places with a special license
Speaker 1: or zoological certificate. Two cans are active and time consuming pets,
Speaker 1: expensive due to their need for a constant supply of
Speaker 1: fresh fruit, and are long lived. A two can in
Speaker 1: captivity lives in average for around twenty to twenty five years. Also,
Speaker 1: they are wild animals that haven't had generations to get
Speaker 1: used to cohabiting with humans. Up toucan whose hormones are
Speaker 1: telling him to perform a raucous mating display in your
Speaker 1: kitchen just might be part of what you have to
Speaker 1: get used to and will be much more challenging and
Speaker 1: difficult to train away than, for example, a dog that
Speaker 1: gets up too early on a Saturday morning. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article the toucan is Far more
Speaker 1: than the Fruit Loop's mascot on how stuff Works dot com,
Speaker 1: written by Jesselyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with hostuffwork dot Com, and it's
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
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