February 26, 2025 • 52 mins
Today's show has some mature themes, like frank discussions of sex and bodily fluids, so if you have kids, maybe give it a listen before having them listen with you.
Freaky animal fads! Animals can have culture, but sometimes, that culture is uncultured. From dolphin pee to a macaque on your back, these animals are definitely going to ruin your fancy dinner party. Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question: are cockatoos learning to be delinquents? I'm joined by segment director for the Daily Show, Carmen Angelica!
Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dolphin-aerial-urine-behavior
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/macaque-monkey-deer-mate-sex-ride
Last week's mystery animal sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56O8pp-x8Zg
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Creature, future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on this show, we are talking about weird
animal feds. Animals can have culture, but sometimes that culture
is uncultured. From dolphin p to I'm a caque on
(00:28):
your back, these animals are definitely going to ruin your
fancy dinner party. Discover this and more as we answer
the age old question are cockatoos learning to be the linkuits?
Joining me today is segment director of The Daily Show,
former Cracked buddy of mine, Carmen Angelico.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It has been too long, Carmen, too long since I've
had you on the show and told you about disgusting
animal facts on.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Ay have nothing to say at dinner parties to you know.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I'm solving that problem for you you. I do want
to note that today's show has some mature themes, like
frank discussions of sex and bodily fluids, So if you
have kids, maybe give it a listen before having them
listen with you. I'm gonna still avoid like knotty words
(01:24):
or use a duck quack too, you know, so that
the bad words don't get spoken. But there's gonna be
scientifically accurate words to describe the fluids that biological creatures
are constantly letting gush out of them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, I appreciate there's a duck quack potentially.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yes, yes, I you know, I like to have a
clean show while I'm talking about pee and poop and
uh pus and various other horrible things. Worms, worms that
go up your butt and into your brain. Oh oh,
still gonna, still gonna, still gonna say no, no, no,
(02:06):
no words though that's like darn. Don't say darn on
this show, all right, So let's just get right into it.
Amazon River dolphins, also known as photo dolphins, are found,
of course in the Amazon River. Uh and hey, they're
really magical because they are pink dolphins. They have this
(02:30):
beautiful pink coloration. They actually grow to be pink as
they mature into adults. Males are pinker than females. The
reason that they're pink is actually very cool, very masculine.
Their skin is worn down through knocking into things, like
they scar very easily, so when they wrestle with each other,
(02:50):
when they rough house, when they fight with one another.
The abrasions form this pink scar tissue. So the pinker,
the manlyer the dolphin.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Huh. Well, wow, I didn't know bumping one another was
such a good I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, it's like dolphin bumper cars and they turn pink
and it really it really does it for the ladies, Carmen,
I have put in the chat here a link to
photos as well. There will be a video in this
article that you may or may not want to look
at all.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Right, so just a brief.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Description of these dolphins. They grow to be over eight
feet long, over two and a half meters. They have
very long snouts. They have flexible necks. Their neck vertebrae
are actually unfused, so they can bend their next at
a ninety degree angle, so they can like nod at you.
They can be like, hey, what's up, I'm a dolphin
like kind of look at you, like do the head turn,
(03:49):
like what you talking to me?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I appreciate that. I appreciate being acknowledged with a good
head nod. Yeah, it's like myself, it's up.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Dolphins gonna go sup to you, which is unusual for
usually a dolphin's neck does not accommodate the sub motion.
So these ones are similar to belugas in that they
have more neck movement that they can do.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, it's always good to know. Yeah, I know what
dolphin depending on how they acknowledge.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Me, right, if you can, like you could probably we
could probably teach these dolphins how to nod yes or
shake their heads no. So answer any yes or no
questions like did we make a mistake not also becoming
sea mammals and they nod yes. Uh so they are
(04:43):
really intelligent creatures. They like to drum the water with
branches or hold up live turtles in order to court females.
So if you've ever dated a drummer or someone who
owns turtles, you understand how this works, how this this
wooze woo's a lady or or otherwise.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Honestly, if more people showed me turtles just to you know, but.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
This is dating advice. Everyone have a turtle, I mean,
first of all, take good care of it, right, don't
just have a nice have a nice space for it.
Really plan it out, do research on your turtle, but
do show it to the person you are trying to woo,
and they may be into it, particularly if they're a
(05:32):
female photo dolphin.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I just you know the look of a well kept,
well taken care of turtle is healthy turtle. Turtle, healthy turtle.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Healthy turtle. Guys, we're not we're not impressed by your
anemic turtle that you got at the back of a
magazine and that you don't take good care of, that
you don't feed a good diet to you. But the
healthy ones, the good, robust turtles. And we're like, if
that man can take care of a turtle, by god,
he can take care of me.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh man, Well, okay, all right. These dolphins, Yeah, they've
got technique. They've got a technique.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
They've got a technique. They drum, they turn pink, they
present turtles, and they do shoot their pee out of
the water like a fountain. So, uh, this is the
new behavior that has been observed by scientists, this fad
(06:34):
among pink river dolphins where the males will like roll
over on their bellies, stick their penis out of the
water and then urinate in like this sort of glorious
arc like they're a fountain plot twists. Their buddies like
their male buddies have been seen playing in the urine stream,
(06:56):
like there, it's summer and it's a sprinkler.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Honestly, I could see that they're supporting their friend, you know.
They're like, this friend is trying to get the attention
of a lady, and all the guys are like, you've
got this, dude.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, it's you know, I've never really heard of like
playing in your bro's peace stream as being supportive, but
it feels supportive and a little supportive. It's twenty twenty five.
Sometimes a bro has to play in another bro's stream.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I guess. I mean, you know, listen, it's I'm not
the dolphins in this situation, but I mean, unless it
is them trying to stop the dolphin from being successful
with their stream.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No, it's it's not exactly known why they do this.
The theories are that they are doing some kind of
chemical communication, so like they you're Animals often use urine
as a form of communication, from giraffes who like taste
each other's urine, to dogs who smell each other's urine.
(08:08):
A lot of animals will taste or smell urine not
just to be weird little freaks, but to find out
information about the animal that has left the urine, so
like if they're male or female, if they're in estrous,
meaning if they are reproductively active at the time. And
so it's thought that perhaps this dolphin urine portrays some
(08:32):
information about the dolphin, and then maybe by spraying it,
you know, in the air in an arc like a stream,
it makes it much more obvious where the PP is
because if you just pee in the water, like, how
do you know if you're another dolphin where that PP
is because everything's water except for the warm spot. Right,
So that's one theory. I think I have an alternative theory.
(08:58):
Since we're at the theory stage and it's not like
we have proven why dolphins pee on each other. I
wonder if part of it is playfulness, just like having
fun with your bros, play and play, you know, Like
it's not so different from people, is it when guys
like write their names in the snow.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That's true, That's yeah, that's a very good, you know analogy.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I feel like I feel like people that do not
have sort of the stylusts, the urinary stylists that allows
for writing your name in the snow, we need to
come up with something like an attachment nozzle. So that
we can also join in on the name writing fun
(09:47):
or just get really good at like crab walking around
while being I don't know, but it seems unfair.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Good Okay, I mean this is a happy learning, I
guess you know.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, I uh. It is interesting because this is definitely
a trait in dolphins that is very sex dependent. So
it seems like it's the males that do it. Uh.
And this could be because it's a male specific behavior.
Maybe it's being territorial, maybe it's trying to communicate something
about their mating status, or another theory. It's just because
(10:23):
they got they got a nozzle and the females don't,
and so the females can't really do it right. Like again,
like why why do people with penises write their names
in the snow versus people with vaginas. It's that the
vagina is not really so well designed for writing your
name in the snow. It's very well designed for a
number of things, just not that well.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So the the arc is like the peeing in the snow,
showing off right the ability.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Possibly okay, possibly, I don't again, like the researchers are,
this is a relatively new discovery and so researchers are
in the theorizing stage, so I feel more entitled to
just throw out my wild theories that have literally no
evidence yet. Like maybe it's a political statement. We don't know,
(11:14):
who knows, well, we have to ask, that's the challenge. Yeah,
this is what I think about your stupid land pee
in the air, you know. Or maybe they're just recreating
that classic bumper sticker, the Calvin ping on.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know. Honestly, I mean, if it was all that,
if it was just that some that they somehow got
access to that bumper sticker and ever since it's been that,
that would be hilarious.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I never quite understood the Calvin bumper sticker peeing. Do
you know anything about that?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Don't believe it or not. I don't know the history
of that, understand it personally. Yeah, but it feels pertinent
to the situation that you're describing.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It seems like there's always going to be sort of
a Calvin peeing bumper sticker type situation for every species
of animals, which is, you know, that's that's inspiring in
a way. Are we so different?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You asked a good question.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, so there is a video. If you're wondering of
one of these dolphins ping. I'll link it in the
show notes. It's from National Geographic and yeah, it's you.
You just you see everything. You see it all happening.
The dolphin p experts call it aerial urination, and there
(12:37):
are dolphin p experts. By the way, a study by
Clariana Ruho weang it all observed them and over the
course of nine days, researchers documented aerial urination thirty six times.
So they do it a lot. The lead researcher said,
(12:59):
an end of jewel will start to slowly flip belly
up and expose the penis and urinate. When another male
is present, he may sometimes chase the urine stream with
his rostrum. Now, the rostrum is like the nose of
the dolphin. Oh that long nose thingy, that's the rostrum.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, oh, I didn't know that, didn't know the name.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, there you go. We're learning a lot of things
about peeing and rostrums.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I mean, this is I'm definitely gonna have a lot
to talk about at my next dinner party.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
You know, it's a I think the fanci or the
dinner party, the more likely I think you should bring
up like this, Like yeah, like if it's if it's
a black suit dinner party, you're gonna really impress people
with your river dolphin golden showers talk.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I mean, I'm ready to impress, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
It's interesting because a Native Amazonian folklore believes that the
or river dolphins can transform into humans and come out
of the water, and that they like wear a hat
to disguise their blowhole, which I guess that they can't,
like they can transform into a human, but they got
to breathe out of the blowhole, so I guess they
got a blowhole on their head, but they put a
(14:17):
little hat over it, which, hey, you know what game is?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Game?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Ah, And these are called incantato And it's either a
beautiful man who comes ashore and impregnates maidens or a
beautiful woman who seduces married men and then after a
week of this, she trans kind of like transforms him
into a baby and then transfers him into his own
(14:43):
wife's womb. It's so a lot of the folklore stories
about these things, things like changlings, things like these, the
dolphins stories, it's usually a way to explain tragedy. Actually,
so like things like, uh so if a man like
drowns and leaves behind a wife who's pregnant, maybe this
(15:05):
story came about where it's like, well, actually he was
seduced by a man by a dolphin that turned into
a beautiful lady and then turned him into a baby
that's now in your womb. So then you know what
I mean. So it's a it's a very interesting kind
of cultural thing. And of course the other one where
it's like a dolphin transforming into a beautiful man and
(15:25):
getting maiden's pregnant, that's like a way to be like, hey, now,
why are you pregnant? It's like, well a dolphin did it.
What am I supposed to do about it?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah? I mean wow, I you know, I I'd heard
of like the folklore of the changeling, but this is
such a fascinating take on that and it's cool to know.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, I've read about with changelings. What's interesting about that
is it seems like it was an explanation for people
who would get sick and die sometimes where it was
like they would think that maybe the person who's like
sick and dying, especially if it involved something where they
would become delirious or have dementia that that person was
(16:13):
exchanged with like a changeling. And so it's kind of
a it's a tragic thing because it's sort of a
way for people to cope with the grief of someone dying,
especially babies. Right, So, like if a baby suddenly gets
sick and dies for no kind of observable reason, at
this point of time, it'd be like, well, a change
link came swapped out the baby, So my baby is
(16:35):
alive somewhere living with the fairies, whereas this baby was
like a fake baby who died. So yeah, when you
look behind a lot of these like kind of seemingly
strange or silly tales of folklore, it is often describing
either something cultural or something psychological, right, like coping with
grief in these cultures.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I am actually going to talk about that at it
in your party, because I think that's fascinating. This is
all really interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
As long as you also talk about the ping.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Obvious obviously, you know, I mean it would be after
I have to set it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Up, right, yeah, right, You you kind of warm them
up with the talk about folklore and cultural grief, and
then you hit them with the dolphin pea fountain and
then you right, and then they're gonna go through the
several stages of grief and shock after being told that, Well, uh,
(17:33):
we're gonna we're gonna take a little break here while
you digest all that information. And when we get back,
we're gonna talk about macacus and the interesting things they
do with deer. Again, you have children, maybe consider listening
ahead for this part. And it's deciding whether this is
(17:57):
appropriate or not. It's science, though, it's all based in size.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So we'll be right back. This is fascinating, I mean,
it really is. I like it. I like it. I
like knowing this. I like knowing more things about the world.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
You know, and there are a lot of things in
the world, and it's important to don't know them, even
when it's macaque humping deer. So you we have talked
about the river dolphins and how like the boys were
having all the fun with peeing in the air. Now
we get to talk about something that both sexes can
enjoy in the macaque population, and this is mounting a deer.
(18:36):
And when I say mounting a deer, I don't mean
sticking it on your wall. I do mean two things though.
One riding a deer and two wink wink riding a deer.
Wink wink so.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yes verbalizing wink wink, wink, wink wink wink.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Japanese macaques are those fuffy, red faced, very very cute
primates who bathe in hot springs like they're snow monkeys.
You know, if you've ever seen those hot spring monkeys,
these are what I'm talking about. They are really smart,
they're highly social. They'll throw snowballs at each other. They
are the These are the monkeys, or these are the
(19:18):
macaques that learned how to season their yams by dipping
the yams in salt water. They watched this, like ingenious
female macaque many years ago, like decades ago, do this,
and now it's a cultural phenomenon among macacus. They've all
learned to season their yams with salt water. Uh. And
(19:40):
there's a new fad among the macaques, and this time
it's riding deer in multiple ways.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Skia deer are small deer that live in Japanese forest.
They're very cute. They're super super cute. They're like much
they're like a I would say ponies deer like. They're
much smaller than the large deer that we would have
like in North America, and they're relatively chill. They live
(20:10):
in Japanese forests and they have become the object of
affection for Japanese macaques. So it started with one male
in twenty fifteen. A male started going around hopping on
these deer's backs and you know, trying to mate with
them in a way that was mechanically questionable.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
It was thought that maybe he was sexually frustrated or bored,
we don't know. Then in twenty eighteen, researchers found that
other macaques, five females, were also jumping onto deer and
trying to mate with them, again in a situation that
was mechanically questionable. Yeah. So then the observation has continued
(20:59):
that these macaques are like this. Basically, this fad of
jumping on a deer and then humping them has just
exploded among macaques. Sometimes they'll ride the deer around like
it's a little pony, and sometimes they'll hump the deer
or both. Sometimes it's both.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
And this is recent. This is a new discovery.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
On it It isn't, yes, so it's it's a new
discovery in terms of like it's the observation started in
twenty fifteen, and it seems like it's become sort of
a fad among them. We don't know if this behavior
has happened before, right, it's very plausible that it could
have happened before, or that maybe there's waves. Just like fads,
you know, kind of come and go in human society,
(21:46):
it's possible that this comes and goes in macaque society.
You know. Deer humping sort of like how you know
what the sort of Saturday Night Live hip gyration thing
was a thing and then it wasn't a thing, and
maybe it's a thing again. I really couldn't tell you
because I'm not very cool.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
So hey, I think you're very cool.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
That's really nice of you. You've never seen me try
to dance at a wedding. Oh but you know, I
look like a ma caque trying to mate with a deer,
is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
So yeah, you know, I didn't know that was a
dance move option.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
But well it's it's acrobatically intense and it does get
you kicked out of some weddings, but you know, I
stand by it. So they jump on the deer's backs
and yeah, it's if you're wondering what the deer think
about it, they actually don't seem to mind it too much.
(22:55):
They actually like to hang around the macaques because they
will get groomed by the macaques. The macacus will eat
little ticks and fleas and things like parasites that are
on the deer. They also like to eat the fruit
that the macaques drop, and sometimes they eat their poop
(23:16):
because you know, it's really a shame that human beings
are just we're just so darned fussy. We just we
eliminate so many things from our diet, like poop, dead people, rocks,
you know, all sorts of things that like animals have
the have the grit and the culinary courage to really
(23:39):
go for it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Nice. Yeah, yeah, I guess, I'm I guess I'm just
not there with the macaques. You know, it's just not
you're right, culinarily, No, not there.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Right, Yeah. I have I have some like texture issues
with like food and stuff, so I don't think I
would be down for eating macaque poop either. Also, it's poop,
so that's not great either, But like generally yeah, uh,
(24:14):
but yeah, it's the macqu poop will have like a
lot of sort of quasi digested like vegetable vegetation or
fruit in it, and so the deer will then help
themselves to their leavings.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Well at least that it's mutually beneficial in that way.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yes, this is actually considered to be a very freaky
form of symbiosis.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yes, because first of all, like if a deer, because
like often you'll have like uh sad to say, like,
you know, situations in nature that are not very consensual.
In this case, if a macaque gets on a deer's
back and the deer is not really interested in getting
a very gross back massage, the deer will just sort
(25:00):
of shake the macaque loose and they'll just fall right off.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh great, well, you know great.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And then sometimes the deer is just like what you're doing?
What back there? I don't care, I'm a deer. Maybe
I'll eat your poop later.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Maybe, ah, poop. It always comes back to the poop.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
It really doesn't, I'm you know, it happens a lot
on this show, and I have to, like I swear
to you it's because I read scientific papers, like I swear,
I promise, and not that I'm subscribed to poop monthly.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
So the yeah, a lot of sands to it. You know,
as we as we've as we've learned. I think many
of us have learned from a very important book from
our childhood.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Everybody poops, everybody poops, and some people will eat that poop. No,
maybe I shouldn't. Some some species will will eat poop
and hope it's not you.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I haven't read that book.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I have been trying to get a publisher on that book,
and no one's biting. I don't get it. I'm just
a brave truth teller.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
And I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
So this is possibly the grossest fact, in my humble opinion,
that I've ever said on the show. So you know, again,
brace yourselves. Maybe cover the ears of your of any
child around you, your own ears. If you've got a
(26:35):
ma caque with you, or deer with you, cover their
ears as well.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Basically, nobody listened to this, So there is a there,
and I promise you this is a scientific observation the deer.
When a male macaque humps the deer and ejaculates, some
of the deer reach around and lick the ejaculate off
(27:02):
of their back. And these freaky scientists have the gall
to come up with a theory that possibly this is
symbiosis because it has a nutritional benefit. And guys, look,
I am a big advocate of science, but someone help
these poor researchers because I think they might be bored
(27:24):
and I think they might need to get out more sometimes.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah wow, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Mean National Geographic more like National pornographic. I don't know. Wow,
it's I literally read this in the National Geographic and
I feel I feel like I've done something wrong.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
No, hey, you're just sharing with everyone else. And when
nobody was listening to that question, because.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
If I if I my personal philosophy is that if
I have to suffer, everyone suffers.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
So now knowledge is.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
A disease that I like to surpread.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
All right, Yeah, I mean I again, I feel like
I'm gonna I'm gonna have to contact you after these
dinner parties and I share everything I've learned because it
could be a wild ride of a dinner party.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Listen, if you don't if you can't stand me at
my most talking about the cats ejaculate getting eaten by deer,
you don't deserve me at my Bodo River dolphins peeing
in the air.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I think that's that's the exact quote.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That is the exact quote. I've got one of those
like wooden plaques that have all the different like fancy
fonts on it, and.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's really long, long, it.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Takes up a lot of space. Anyways, guys, if you're
still here and you're still listening and you didn't shut
off the podcast, I really appreciate you. Thank you you uh.
And we're going to take a quick break, you know,
a palate cleanser will say, and then we will talk
about we'll finish the show with something slightly less gross.
(29:14):
Actually actually way less, way, way way less gross. I'm
gonna say, right, yeah, yeah, all right, guys. Now we're
going to talk about cockatoos playing with garbage, because sometimes,
you know, like sometimes I feel like a little cockatoo
playing around in garbage not thinking about my problems. So
(29:39):
are you familiar with Australia.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Carmen, I am familiar with Australia.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
How familiar?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Not ultra familiar. I mean I know where it is
on the map, I know certain facts about it. I
have never been there, sadly, and I don't and I
would love to learn more. So, if this is an
opportunit unity for me to learn more. I am excited.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
What's your number one Australia fact?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
That you know that there are certain animals that live
on the continent of Australia that don't live anywhere else
in the world.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
That is very true. Those are called endemic animals and
there's a good amount of them. A lot of them
are marsupials. These are birds that live in New South
Wales in Australia. And these are cockatoos. They're a type
of parrot. You probably have seen them before. These are
sulfur crested cockatoos. They are white with a yellow crest
(30:38):
on the top of their heads and they have sort
of yellow splash under their wings. They're very, very pretty
relatively large parrots. They're about yay big, which you can't
see because it's a podcast, but i'd say, you know,
like a foot long sandwich ish big so which I
don't think is actually a foot Is it foot.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Longs No, I don't think they are anymore really fall
foot long, but I don't know if they accurately measure
that way.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
I don't know that they're an imperial foot, but I'm
sure someone's got a foot that is that long?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
That long? Yeah, and maybe that's what they're not actually
talking about the measure of just some random person's foot.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
This is why we have to switch to metric. So
kakatoo's about the size of a foot long sandwich, whether
or not it's actually a foot long. They're very, very intelligent.
Their natural habitat is woodland in Australia, but due to
(31:38):
the spread of the suburbs and the erburbs and the
burbs and the urban and human in general, they have
found their way closer to human society. And because they
have such a high degree of social awareness and intelligence,
learning and taking cues from one another, certain trends will
(32:04):
pop up among the cockatoo community. So an example of
just like how intelligent they are and their social behavior
is that while foraging, one cockatoo will keep watch from
a tree and signals to the rest of the cockatoos
if it since is danger approaching. And this has been
an observation that has been made to the point where apparently,
(32:27):
and please Australians write to me if I'm wrong about this,
because I frankly do not trust the Internet anymore. At
this point, cockatoo or cocky has been used. It's possibly
a little antiquated, but it's been used in Australian slang
for like a police lookout, like someone who is on
the lookout for the police when you're trying to put
(32:47):
too many shrimp on your barbie and you're worried about
getting arrested.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Wow. Yeah, okay, So when I do eventually visit, I'll know,
I'll understand more.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
You'll understand and you will also when you do visit
and you want to do crimes, because I know you, Carmen,
you'll want to befriend the cockatoos so that you can
have them alert you to when the police are coming
to bust you for your illegal, illegal kangaroo boxing outfit.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Oh why do you have to already? Well, you know,
if I've any excuse to befriend the cockatoos, that's uh,
I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah. They are rather bold when it comes to people,
and you can, in certain ways befriend them. Feeding them
can cause problems because then boy, are they going to
expect that and really really get in your business. So
I don't know if I would necessarily recommend that, but yeah,
(33:52):
they are They're super super social, very intelligent. They have
been kept as pets. I personally, unless you're ready to
take care of a dinosaur that has an incredibly powerful
crushing beak that can I think actually break your bone,
(34:14):
that has the permanent mind of a human toddler, I
would not keep it as a pet. I mean, but
if you want a small dinosaur that has a powerfully
crushing beak that can break your fingerbones, that permanently has
the mind of a two year old human being child,
(34:36):
then sure.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, it wasn't. That wasn't what I was on the
lookout for a pet. I'm gonna have to think on it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I like my dog because she's dumb, and she likes
belly rubs, and she has the she has the bite
force of like a twist tie.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Oh yeah, that's a good bite force.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, she doesn't. She's you know, or maybe like a
bag clip. I'm gonna say a bag clip. She's got
the bite force of a bag clip, and she she
does get a little bit body with me sometimes. But
you know again, bag clip, okay, bag clip? Yeah, so
it like holds, it holds generally, it holds the chips in,
but a little air will get in and make it stale.
(35:22):
Yes bite which like, I'm she's always doing this When
I give her a bag of chips to keep fresh.
It's like you had one job, dog, one job in
this house, keep my chips fresh. So yes, cockatoo's possibly
not good pets, but incredibly cool animals, very social and
(35:47):
because they are so intelligent again sort of like tiny
dinosaur human toddler brains. Uh, they get into an enormous
amount of mischief, especially amongst a human suburban and urban structures.
They have learned how to rip up any cheaply constructed
building materials. Like if you're trying to put plastic facades
(36:09):
on your buildings, these cockatoos are gonna know it, They're
gonna find it, and they're gonna rip that to shreds.
And honestly, I feel like they're right, you know, Like
I think like if you're cheaping out on construction materials
and these cockatoos find you, they're basically like free architectural auditors,
like pointing out shoddy shoddy design and shoddy construction, but
(36:33):
actively yeah, ripping it apart for no clear reason.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They're actively being like, well this isn't strong enough, Well.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Here's your problem. Just completely tears off a chunk of
plastic rain gutter.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
So they you know again, and they have come up
with a fun game and this is called flip the bin,
and it is when they go to people's garbage bins
and they flip the lid open and then they just
toss garbage around and sometimes they'll like find things to
(37:09):
eat inside, but a lot of the time it's for
the thrill of the game. So this is an example
of cockatoo culture because it started in twenty fifteen with
one cockatoo doing it, uh, and he was probably a
really cool cockatoo. Everyone wanted to copy him, and by
twenty nineteen it had become a wild fat among a
(37:29):
wide number of cockatoos. And sometimes, like they'll like flip
it and play with the garbage. Sometimes they just do
it for the thrill of flipping the lid. Sometimes they
do it with an audience and then all the other
cockatoos get really excited once they flip the lid. It's
just a it's just a game, man, It's it's a
(37:50):
fun thing to do with your buddies.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Okay, well again, it seems like the buddies get involved
in these activities a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, it's kind of like I don't know, Like for
a while everyone was flipping bottles, water bottles when we
did that.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yes, or yes, flipping couples.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
First it was like the solo cups that you're supposed
to flip, and then if you didn't do it right,
you got beaten with pool noodles pool noodles or maybe
that was me, I don't know, but everyone everyone's had
that experience, right and then and then it was like
water bottles that you flip and then you try to
(38:36):
get it to land. Yeah. Yeah, what are kids flipping
these days? Is it POGs again? Did we send me
back around to POGs?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I did not. I don't know if POGs are back,
but uh, honestly, I'm shocked. I'm shocked that they aren't.
By now, they aren't. Right, it's such a good flippable thing.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I've seen some bay blade content online a little bit.
I think Babe blades might be making a grand comeback.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Oh are they they're flippable?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Well, they're more like tops. I think they're like plastic
tops that have a rip chord so they go really fast,
so they have that' centripetal force and then they do
flip sometimes like you have a Guys, I'm gonna explain
bay blades to you for a second. Here you have
(39:28):
an arena, a plastic bowl shaped arena, and then you
I've never done this with an I've never done bay
blade before, but as far as I can tell, you
like do a rip chords that gets the like the
top is in like a little chamber, and then you
pull a chord and it spins the top really fast
and or releases it into the plastic arena, which is
(39:51):
sort of a bowl shape, and you put another bay
blade in there, and then the bay blades fight by
bumping into each other a lot of times, and then
one of the is the victor based on which one
is still spinning. And that's bay blades. You don't look impressed, Carmen,
And I.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
I mean, listen, I guess you know. I'm taking a
lot in today. I thought it was just going to
be nature, and now it's so much more than that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Blades are a force of nature.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
They are you know, you've got me, There is all
around us at all times. Yeah. No, we've gotten into physics,
we've gotten into folklore, and we've gotten into obviously biology.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah, I mean, maybe maybe the kids are gonna flip
bin lids like the cockatoo's. I hope they just don't
do the dolphin thing, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, I mean yeah, that that's I would prefer the
bin flipping myself as well.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, personally. Uh, you know, if we if we're gonna
have a new TikTok trend, let's have it be bin
flipping or you know, just a hey, new idea for
a TikTok trend. What if it's picking up litter and
putting it in the bin? Kids? That's cool?
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Right? Oh, I'm flipping for that.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I flipping out for picking up litter and putting it
in the bin.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Can we Yeah? How how good of a trend is that?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Are we cool? Are we not cool?
Speaker 1 (41:29):
I feel like we're very cool? And the Zoomers and
uh is the zoomers? Wait, the Zoomers aren't the youngest. Now,
who's the little ones?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Alpha?
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Oh? That's kind of not a fun name. I feel
like we got to come up with a more fun name.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Well, they'll come up with, I'm sure a nickname. Yeah,
you know, we all get we all get a bunch
of different names, that's true. Yeah, but hopefully everybody is
having fun with POGs.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I hope so too. I can't wait to start blaming
Generation Alpha for my problems and uh yeah, so so. Culture, guys,
animals have it. Culture is defined by basically ideas that
get passed on from one individual to others and then
(42:23):
to you know, other generations. And these are all examples
of them. This is just these are just the grossest,
trashiest examples that I could find. So you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Oh wow, this episode, you know, you're really uh, you're
really testing the audience with this one a little bit.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
I feel like I gave them appropriate amounts of warning.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
You did, you really did. In fact, at one point
you told them not to listen at all.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
At one point I told them to throw their phone
into the ocean and never listen to a podcast again.
But that's just how it is. Sometimes we're gonna end
the episode with something a little more, a little more friendly.
So I like to play a little game called Guess
(43:10):
Who's squawk on the Mystery Animal Sound Game. Every week
I play Mystery Animal sound and you the listener, and
you the guests, try to guess who is making that sound.
Last week's Mystery Animal sound hint was this Some people
just have a prickly personality. All right, So did you
(43:31):
hear those pathetic little sound? Oh? I sure did, and
I think I can guess. All right, what do you think,
Carmen porcupine? You are absolutely correct. Congratulations to the fastest
guesser's grant w Miriam R, Emily M. And Jared M
for guessing correctly as well. This is a baby North
(43:52):
American porcupine named Spike who is upset because he fell
off a porch and someone uh with very heavy duty
gloves picked him up and gently put him back next
to his mom, but the baby was not having it.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
That is an upsetting experience.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, clip off of the porch, right, And apparently it's
one that porcupines have quite a bit, because they are uh,
they fall out of trees a lot, uh, and they're
relatively clumsy, so much so that they have developed a
special adaptation for their clumsiness and getting impaled by their
own spikes.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They have.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yeah, they have antibiotics in their skin in case they
fall and stick themselves with their own bills.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
What. Yeah, well, I'm glad they have antibiotics in their
own skin.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
But ouch also ouch also get indeed, ouch indeed also, Uh,
that is a that is a problem, like when you
were covered in very sharp spines and some and you
like fall a lot. It is a thing that can
happen where you do put poke yourself, uh with your
own spines. Uh. And so their skin has antibiotics natural
(45:06):
antibiotics in it to prevent infection. Uh. And then they
make terribly cute noises the whole time they're bumbling around.
Oh there's so Yeah. I love their survival strategy of
being really cute, possibly quite stupid, but just so spiky
(45:28):
nobody can really do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah, it's it's you know, you don't have to worry
about people bugging you if you're spiky, but you could
just kind of exist and be adorable.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, no, exactly. So they're well, you coke yourself sometimes too.
It ain't that the truth though, And you got a
prickly personality sometimes you poke yourself. That's uh. I bet
everyone wonders, why why didn't you become a therapist or
a life coach when I come up with these things
(46:02):
mm hmmm hmm. Anyways, uh onto this week's mystery animal sound.
The hint is this start your engines. I got any guesses, Carmen,
aren't your engines?
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Is the hint? I mean, I want to say a bird,
but that's all as far as I can get. Maybe, yeah,
is that right?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
No?
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Mostly, No, that's okay. I didn't say you're ready either.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Sorry, I don't mean to.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
I don't know, but I prefer the accuracy. Also, the
most big is it a bird? You know?
Speaker 1 (46:55):
You know you gotta you gotta start somewhere and starting
with is it a bird? That's that's a perfectly valid attempt.
It's wrong, It's terribly terribly wrong. But it's not it's
not even a bird. You're completely wrong. You don't win anything,
but you tried, and that that's something.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
That's a you know, trying, as they say, is a
win in itself.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Except for that, I've never heard anyone what are you
talking about?
Speaker 2 (47:29):
I'm pretty sure I heard somebody say that, and by somebody,
I mean myself at this moment. But but you know,
I respect and I understand that it is not a bird.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Well, you don't win anything except for the knowledge that
you are incorrect. And uh, but if you out there
think you know who might be making this sound, please
write to me at Creature Future pot at gmail dot com.
I promise I won't be mean to you like I
am to call Carman. But she's strong and she can
(48:01):
take it.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
I am very strong. And for those who are trying
to guess, it's not a bird, so don't.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
It's not a bird, she's actually really helped all of
you by ruling out all birds. So it's not a bird.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Bird.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
That's a huge gent You've done a great service to
the community.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
You're welcome. Yeah, I lost your game exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
She took one for the team. She's a martyr, true.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Carman.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Thank you so much for coming on and joining us.
It was also fantastic to see you again. Uh. Tell
the people where they can find your work.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Well, if you watch The Daily Show, you can see
many of my pieces that I direct air there. Otherwise
it's a little she's.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
A little show called The Daily Show. You've probably never
heard of it. It's like it's really niche. It's really niche.
It's like this little indie show called The Daily Show.
Hardly any part of it.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Uh. And if you want to see my specific work,
you can go to my website Carmen Angelica dot com.
And uh, otherwise, you know, I guess yeah, that's kind
of where most of the information for me is. Otherwise,
maybe the next time I'm on this podcast so that
(49:20):
I can learn more about animals.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yes, yes, I'll have you back on, and I will
try to find even worse things to talk about next time.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
I did request things be pretty pretty gross for my benefits.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
You know, she's lying to cover for me. I sprung
that with no warning.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
You know, listen, that's that's how much I like you. Yeah, like,
I take I want to I'll take the gross thing.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
I did send an email a few hours earlier ago,
I like, is this okay? Are you gonna be all right?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Is this? And and I'm really and I'm really strong
as as a discussing, I'm very strong. I can handle those.
And so are all of you. Stuck for all of
you science, This is what it takes to know and
fully understand science.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
This is sometimes you got a way through the p
and the very horny macaques to really get to the science.
And you can put that on a piece of wood
in a lot of different fontsh A.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Very long one.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, I feel like that one shorter got a way
through keey and horny macaque to get to the science.
That's not so bad.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
That's not even a paragraph that.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, that's it'll fit. It'll fit on like a normal
sized board. I think if and you use a lot
of curly fonts and it'll be good. And guys, thank
you so much for during I mean to day. If
you want to have a guess or the Creature Feature
Special super special game be guess Who's squawking? You can
(51:05):
write to me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com.
If you have any questions I you can also write
to me. I occasionally do listener questions about animals and
evolutionary biology. If you've got pictures of your pets, send
those right to me. Right in there. Get those in there.
And if you leave a rating or review, that tangibly
(51:27):
helps me and the podcast, and I appreciate and I
read all of them. And thank you so much to
the Space Cossacks for their super awesome song. XO Lumina.
Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like
the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts,
or Hey guess what?
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Maybe listen to your favorite.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Shows not your mother. I can't tell you what to do,
but please don't flip the bins over, put the garbage
in the bins so the cockatoos can be the one
and make a huge mess of things because honestly, they
deserve it. They deserve everything they want, those little dinosaurs.
See you next Wednesday
Speaker 2 (52:05):
By H.
Welcome to Creature, future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on this show, we are talking about weird
animal feds. Animals can have culture, but sometimes that culture
is uncultured. From dolphin p to I'm a caque on
(00:28):
your back, these animals are definitely going to ruin your
fancy dinner party. Discover this and more as we answer
the age old question are cockatoos learning to be the linkuits?
Joining me today is segment director of The Daily Show,
former Cracked buddy of mine, Carmen Angelico.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It has been too long, Carmen, too long since I've
had you on the show and told you about disgusting
animal facts on.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Ay have nothing to say at dinner parties to you know.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I'm solving that problem for you you. I do want
to note that today's show has some mature themes, like
frank discussions of sex and bodily fluids, So if you
have kids, maybe give it a listen before having them
listen with you. I'm gonna still avoid like knotty words
(01:24):
or use a duck quack too, you know, so that
the bad words don't get spoken. But there's gonna be
scientifically accurate words to describe the fluids that biological creatures
are constantly letting gush out of them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, I appreciate there's a duck quack potentially.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yes, yes, I you know, I like to have a
clean show while I'm talking about pee and poop and
uh pus and various other horrible things. Worms, worms that
go up your butt and into your brain. Oh oh,
still gonna, still gonna, still gonna say no, no, no,
(02:06):
no words though that's like darn. Don't say darn on
this show, all right, So let's just get right into it.
Amazon River dolphins, also known as photo dolphins, are found,
of course in the Amazon River. Uh and hey, they're
really magical because they are pink dolphins. They have this
(02:30):
beautiful pink coloration. They actually grow to be pink as
they mature into adults. Males are pinker than females. The
reason that they're pink is actually very cool, very masculine.
Their skin is worn down through knocking into things, like
they scar very easily, so when they wrestle with each other,
(02:50):
when they rough house, when they fight with one another.
The abrasions form this pink scar tissue. So the pinker,
the manlyer the dolphin.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Huh. Well, wow, I didn't know bumping one another was
such a good I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, it's like dolphin bumper cars and they turn pink
and it really it really does it for the ladies, Carmen,
I have put in the chat here a link to
photos as well. There will be a video in this
article that you may or may not want to look
at all.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Right, so just a brief.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Description of these dolphins. They grow to be over eight
feet long, over two and a half meters. They have
very long snouts. They have flexible necks. Their neck vertebrae
are actually unfused, so they can bend their next at
a ninety degree angle, so they can like nod at you.
They can be like, hey, what's up, I'm a dolphin
like kind of look at you, like do the head turn,
(03:49):
like what you talking to me?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I appreciate that. I appreciate being acknowledged with a good
head nod. Yeah, it's like myself, it's up.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Dolphins gonna go sup to you, which is unusual for
usually a dolphin's neck does not accommodate the sub motion.
So these ones are similar to belugas in that they
have more neck movement that they can do.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, it's always good to know. Yeah, I know what
dolphin depending on how they acknowledge.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Me, right, if you can, like you could probably we
could probably teach these dolphins how to nod yes or
shake their heads no. So answer any yes or no
questions like did we make a mistake not also becoming
sea mammals and they nod yes. Uh so they are
(04:43):
really intelligent creatures. They like to drum the water with
branches or hold up live turtles in order to court females.
So if you've ever dated a drummer or someone who
owns turtles, you understand how this works, how this this
wooze woo's a lady or or otherwise.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Honestly, if more people showed me turtles just to you know, but.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
This is dating advice. Everyone have a turtle, I mean,
first of all, take good care of it, right, don't
just have a nice have a nice space for it.
Really plan it out, do research on your turtle, but
do show it to the person you are trying to woo,
and they may be into it, particularly if they're a
(05:32):
female photo dolphin.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I just you know the look of a well kept,
well taken care of turtle is healthy turtle. Turtle, healthy turtle.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Healthy turtle. Guys, we're not we're not impressed by your
anemic turtle that you got at the back of a
magazine and that you don't take good care of, that
you don't feed a good diet to you. But the
healthy ones, the good, robust turtles. And we're like, if
that man can take care of a turtle, by god,
he can take care of me.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh man, Well, okay, all right. These dolphins, Yeah, they've
got technique. They've got a technique.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
They've got a technique. They drum, they turn pink, they
present turtles, and they do shoot their pee out of
the water like a fountain. So, uh, this is the
new behavior that has been observed by scientists, this fad
(06:34):
among pink river dolphins where the males will like roll
over on their bellies, stick their penis out of the
water and then urinate in like this sort of glorious
arc like they're a fountain plot twists. Their buddies like
their male buddies have been seen playing in the urine stream,
(06:56):
like there, it's summer and it's a sprinkler.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Honestly, I could see that they're supporting their friend, you know.
They're like, this friend is trying to get the attention
of a lady, and all the guys are like, you've
got this, dude.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, it's you know, I've never really heard of like
playing in your bro's peace stream as being supportive, but
it feels supportive and a little supportive. It's twenty twenty five.
Sometimes a bro has to play in another bro's stream.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I guess. I mean, you know, listen, it's I'm not
the dolphins in this situation, but I mean, unless it
is them trying to stop the dolphin from being successful
with their stream.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No, it's it's not exactly known why they do this.
The theories are that they are doing some kind of
chemical communication, so like they you're Animals often use urine
as a form of communication, from giraffes who like taste
each other's urine, to dogs who smell each other's urine.
(08:08):
A lot of animals will taste or smell urine not
just to be weird little freaks, but to find out
information about the animal that has left the urine, so
like if they're male or female, if they're in estrous,
meaning if they are reproductively active at the time. And
so it's thought that perhaps this dolphin urine portrays some
(08:32):
information about the dolphin, and then maybe by spraying it,
you know, in the air in an arc like a stream,
it makes it much more obvious where the PP is
because if you just pee in the water, like, how
do you know if you're another dolphin where that PP
is because everything's water except for the warm spot. Right,
So that's one theory. I think I have an alternative theory.
(08:58):
Since we're at the theory stage and it's not like
we have proven why dolphins pee on each other. I
wonder if part of it is playfulness, just like having
fun with your bros, play and play, you know, Like
it's not so different from people, is it when guys
like write their names in the snow.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That's true, That's yeah, that's a very good, you know analogy.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I feel like I feel like people that do not
have sort of the stylusts, the urinary stylists that allows
for writing your name in the snow, we need to
come up with something like an attachment nozzle. So that
we can also join in on the name writing fun
(09:47):
or just get really good at like crab walking around
while being I don't know, but it seems unfair.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Good Okay, I mean this is a happy learning, I
guess you know.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, I uh. It is interesting because this is definitely
a trait in dolphins that is very sex dependent. So
it seems like it's the males that do it. Uh.
And this could be because it's a male specific behavior.
Maybe it's being territorial, maybe it's trying to communicate something
about their mating status, or another theory. It's just because
(10:23):
they got they got a nozzle and the females don't,
and so the females can't really do it right. Like again,
like why why do people with penises write their names
in the snow versus people with vaginas. It's that the
vagina is not really so well designed for writing your
name in the snow. It's very well designed for a
number of things, just not that well.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So the the arc is like the peeing in the snow,
showing off right the ability.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Possibly okay, possibly, I don't again, like the researchers are,
this is a relatively new discovery and so researchers are
in the theorizing stage, so I feel more entitled to
just throw out my wild theories that have literally no
evidence yet. Like maybe it's a political statement. We don't know,
(11:14):
who knows, well, we have to ask, that's the challenge. Yeah,
this is what I think about your stupid land pee
in the air, you know. Or maybe they're just recreating
that classic bumper sticker, the Calvin ping on.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know. Honestly, I mean, if it was all that,
if it was just that some that they somehow got
access to that bumper sticker and ever since it's been that,
that would be hilarious.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I never quite understood the Calvin bumper sticker peeing. Do
you know anything about that?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Don't believe it or not. I don't know the history
of that, understand it personally. Yeah, but it feels pertinent
to the situation that you're describing.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It seems like there's always going to be sort of
a Calvin peeing bumper sticker type situation for every species
of animals, which is, you know, that's that's inspiring in
a way. Are we so different?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You asked a good question.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, so there is a video. If you're wondering of
one of these dolphins ping. I'll link it in the
show notes. It's from National Geographic and yeah, it's you.
You just you see everything. You see it all happening.
The dolphin p experts call it aerial urination, and there
(12:37):
are dolphin p experts. By the way, a study by
Clariana Ruho weang it all observed them and over the
course of nine days, researchers documented aerial urination thirty six times.
So they do it a lot. The lead researcher said,
(12:59):
an end of jewel will start to slowly flip belly
up and expose the penis and urinate. When another male
is present, he may sometimes chase the urine stream with
his rostrum. Now, the rostrum is like the nose of
the dolphin. Oh that long nose thingy, that's the rostrum.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, oh, I didn't know that, didn't know the name.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, there you go. We're learning a lot of things
about peeing and rostrums.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I mean, this is I'm definitely gonna have a lot
to talk about at my next dinner party.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
You know, it's a I think the fanci or the
dinner party, the more likely I think you should bring
up like this, Like yeah, like if it's if it's
a black suit dinner party, you're gonna really impress people
with your river dolphin golden showers talk.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I mean, I'm ready to impress, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
It's interesting because a Native Amazonian folklore believes that the
or river dolphins can transform into humans and come out
of the water, and that they like wear a hat
to disguise their blowhole, which I guess that they can't,
like they can transform into a human, but they got
to breathe out of the blowhole, so I guess they
got a blowhole on their head, but they put a
(14:17):
little hat over it, which, hey, you know what game is?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Game?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Ah, And these are called incantato And it's either a
beautiful man who comes ashore and impregnates maidens or a
beautiful woman who seduces married men and then after a
week of this, she trans kind of like transforms him
into a baby and then transfers him into his own
(14:43):
wife's womb. It's so a lot of the folklore stories
about these things, things like changlings, things like these, the
dolphins stories, it's usually a way to explain tragedy. Actually,
so like things like, uh so if a man like
drowns and leaves behind a wife who's pregnant, maybe this
(15:05):
story came about where it's like, well, actually he was
seduced by a man by a dolphin that turned into
a beautiful lady and then turned him into a baby
that's now in your womb. So then you know what
I mean. So it's a it's a very interesting kind
of cultural thing. And of course the other one where
it's like a dolphin transforming into a beautiful man and
(15:25):
getting maiden's pregnant, that's like a way to be like, hey, now,
why are you pregnant? It's like, well a dolphin did it.
What am I supposed to do about it?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah? I mean wow, I you know, I I'd heard
of like the folklore of the changeling, but this is
such a fascinating take on that and it's cool to know.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, I've read about with changelings. What's interesting about that
is it seems like it was an explanation for people
who would get sick and die sometimes where it was
like they would think that maybe the person who's like
sick and dying, especially if it involved something where they
would become delirious or have dementia that that person was
(16:13):
exchanged with like a changeling. And so it's kind of
a it's a tragic thing because it's sort of a
way for people to cope with the grief of someone dying,
especially babies. Right, So, like if a baby suddenly gets
sick and dies for no kind of observable reason, at
this point of time, it'd be like, well, a change
link came swapped out the baby, So my baby is
(16:35):
alive somewhere living with the fairies, whereas this baby was
like a fake baby who died. So yeah, when you
look behind a lot of these like kind of seemingly
strange or silly tales of folklore, it is often describing
either something cultural or something psychological, right, like coping with
grief in these cultures.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I am actually going to talk about that at it
in your party, because I think that's fascinating. This is
all really interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
As long as you also talk about the ping.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Obvious obviously, you know, I mean it would be after
I have to set it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Up, right, yeah, right, You you kind of warm them
up with the talk about folklore and cultural grief, and
then you hit them with the dolphin pea fountain and
then you right, and then they're gonna go through the
several stages of grief and shock after being told that, Well, uh,
(17:33):
we're gonna we're gonna take a little break here while
you digest all that information. And when we get back,
we're gonna talk about macacus and the interesting things they
do with deer. Again, you have children, maybe consider listening
ahead for this part. And it's deciding whether this is
(17:57):
appropriate or not. It's science, though, it's all based in size.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So we'll be right back. This is fascinating, I mean,
it really is. I like it. I like it. I
like knowing this. I like knowing more things about the world.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
You know, and there are a lot of things in
the world, and it's important to don't know them, even
when it's macaque humping deer. So you we have talked
about the river dolphins and how like the boys were
having all the fun with peeing in the air. Now
we get to talk about something that both sexes can
enjoy in the macaque population, and this is mounting a deer.
(18:36):
And when I say mounting a deer, I don't mean
sticking it on your wall. I do mean two things though.
One riding a deer and two wink wink riding a deer.
Wink wink so.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yes verbalizing wink wink, wink, wink wink wink.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Japanese macaques are those fuffy, red faced, very very cute
primates who bathe in hot springs like they're snow monkeys.
You know, if you've ever seen those hot spring monkeys,
these are what I'm talking about. They are really smart,
they're highly social. They'll throw snowballs at each other. They
are the These are the monkeys, or these are the
(19:18):
macaques that learned how to season their yams by dipping
the yams in salt water. They watched this, like ingenious
female macaque many years ago, like decades ago, do this,
and now it's a cultural phenomenon among macacus. They've all
learned to season their yams with salt water. Uh. And
(19:40):
there's a new fad among the macaques, and this time
it's riding deer in multiple ways.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Skia deer are small deer that live in Japanese forest.
They're very cute. They're super super cute. They're like much
they're like a I would say ponies deer like. They're
much smaller than the large deer that we would have
like in North America, and they're relatively chill. They live
(20:10):
in Japanese forests and they have become the object of
affection for Japanese macaques. So it started with one male
in twenty fifteen. A male started going around hopping on
these deer's backs and you know, trying to mate with
them in a way that was mechanically questionable.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
It was thought that maybe he was sexually frustrated or bored,
we don't know. Then in twenty eighteen, researchers found that
other macaques, five females, were also jumping onto deer and
trying to mate with them, again in a situation that
was mechanically questionable. Yeah. So then the observation has continued
(20:59):
that these macaques are like this. Basically, this fad of
jumping on a deer and then humping them has just
exploded among macaques. Sometimes they'll ride the deer around like
it's a little pony, and sometimes they'll hump the deer
or both. Sometimes it's both.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
And this is recent. This is a new discovery.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
On it It isn't, yes, so it's it's a new
discovery in terms of like it's the observation started in
twenty fifteen, and it seems like it's become sort of
a fad among them. We don't know if this behavior
has happened before, right, it's very plausible that it could
have happened before, or that maybe there's waves. Just like fads,
you know, kind of come and go in human society,
(21:46):
it's possible that this comes and goes in macaque society.
You know. Deer humping sort of like how you know
what the sort of Saturday Night Live hip gyration thing
was a thing and then it wasn't a thing, and
maybe it's a thing again. I really couldn't tell you
because I'm not very cool.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
So hey, I think you're very cool.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
That's really nice of you. You've never seen me try
to dance at a wedding. Oh but you know, I
look like a ma caque trying to mate with a deer,
is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
So yeah, you know, I didn't know that was a
dance move option.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
But well it's it's acrobatically intense and it does get
you kicked out of some weddings, but you know, I
stand by it. So they jump on the deer's backs
and yeah, it's if you're wondering what the deer think
about it, they actually don't seem to mind it too much.
(22:55):
They actually like to hang around the macaques because they
will get groomed by the macaques. The macacus will eat
little ticks and fleas and things like parasites that are
on the deer. They also like to eat the fruit
that the macaques drop, and sometimes they eat their poop
(23:16):
because you know, it's really a shame that human beings
are just we're just so darned fussy. We just we
eliminate so many things from our diet, like poop, dead people, rocks,
you know, all sorts of things that like animals have
the have the grit and the culinary courage to really
(23:39):
go for it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Nice. Yeah, yeah, I guess, I'm I guess I'm just
not there with the macaques. You know, it's just not
you're right, culinarily, No, not there.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Right, Yeah. I have I have some like texture issues
with like food and stuff, so I don't think I
would be down for eating macaque poop either. Also, it's poop,
so that's not great either, But like generally yeah, uh,
(24:14):
but yeah, it's the macqu poop will have like a
lot of sort of quasi digested like vegetable vegetation or
fruit in it, and so the deer will then help
themselves to their leavings.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Well at least that it's mutually beneficial in that way.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yes, this is actually considered to be a very freaky
form of symbiosis.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yes, because first of all, like if a deer, because
like often you'll have like uh sad to say, like,
you know, situations in nature that are not very consensual.
In this case, if a macaque gets on a deer's
back and the deer is not really interested in getting
a very gross back massage, the deer will just sort
(25:00):
of shake the macaque loose and they'll just fall right off.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh great, well, you know great.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And then sometimes the deer is just like what you're doing?
What back there? I don't care, I'm a deer. Maybe
I'll eat your poop later.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Maybe, ah, poop. It always comes back to the poop.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
It really doesn't, I'm you know, it happens a lot
on this show, and I have to, like I swear
to you it's because I read scientific papers, like I swear,
I promise, and not that I'm subscribed to poop monthly.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
So the yeah, a lot of sands to it. You know,
as we as we've as we've learned. I think many
of us have learned from a very important book from
our childhood.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Everybody poops, everybody poops, and some people will eat that poop. No,
maybe I shouldn't. Some some species will will eat poop
and hope it's not you.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I haven't read that book.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I have been trying to get a publisher on that book,
and no one's biting. I don't get it. I'm just
a brave truth teller.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
And I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
So this is possibly the grossest fact, in my humble opinion,
that I've ever said on the show. So you know, again,
brace yourselves. Maybe cover the ears of your of any
child around you, your own ears. If you've got a
(26:35):
ma caque with you, or deer with you, cover their
ears as well.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Basically, nobody listened to this, So there is a there,
and I promise you this is a scientific observation the deer.
When a male macaque humps the deer and ejaculates, some
of the deer reach around and lick the ejaculate off
(27:02):
of their back. And these freaky scientists have the gall
to come up with a theory that possibly this is
symbiosis because it has a nutritional benefit. And guys, look,
I am a big advocate of science, but someone help
these poor researchers because I think they might be bored
(27:24):
and I think they might need to get out more sometimes.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah wow, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Mean National Geographic more like National pornographic. I don't know. Wow,
it's I literally read this in the National Geographic and
I feel I feel like I've done something wrong.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
No, hey, you're just sharing with everyone else. And when
nobody was listening to that question, because.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
If I if I my personal philosophy is that if
I have to suffer, everyone suffers.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
So now knowledge is.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
A disease that I like to surpread.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
All right, Yeah, I mean I again, I feel like
I'm gonna I'm gonna have to contact you after these
dinner parties and I share everything I've learned because it
could be a wild ride of a dinner party.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Listen, if you don't if you can't stand me at
my most talking about the cats ejaculate getting eaten by deer,
you don't deserve me at my Bodo River dolphins peeing
in the air.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I think that's that's the exact quote.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That is the exact quote. I've got one of those
like wooden plaques that have all the different like fancy
fonts on it, and.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's really long, long, it.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Takes up a lot of space. Anyways, guys, if you're
still here and you're still listening and you didn't shut
off the podcast, I really appreciate you. Thank you you uh.
And we're going to take a quick break, you know,
a palate cleanser will say, and then we will talk
about we'll finish the show with something slightly less gross.
(29:14):
Actually actually way less, way, way way less gross. I'm
gonna say, right, yeah, yeah, all right, guys. Now we're
going to talk about cockatoos playing with garbage, because sometimes,
you know, like sometimes I feel like a little cockatoo
playing around in garbage not thinking about my problems. So
(29:39):
are you familiar with Australia.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Carmen, I am familiar with Australia.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
How familiar?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Not ultra familiar. I mean I know where it is
on the map, I know certain facts about it. I
have never been there, sadly, and I don't and I
would love to learn more. So, if this is an
opportunit unity for me to learn more. I am excited.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
What's your number one Australia fact?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
That you know that there are certain animals that live
on the continent of Australia that don't live anywhere else
in the world.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
That is very true. Those are called endemic animals and
there's a good amount of them. A lot of them
are marsupials. These are birds that live in New South
Wales in Australia. And these are cockatoos. They're a type
of parrot. You probably have seen them before. These are
sulfur crested cockatoos. They are white with a yellow crest
(30:38):
on the top of their heads and they have sort
of yellow splash under their wings. They're very, very pretty
relatively large parrots. They're about yay big, which you can't
see because it's a podcast, but i'd say, you know,
like a foot long sandwich ish big so which I
don't think is actually a foot Is it foot.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Longs No, I don't think they are anymore really fall
foot long, but I don't know if they accurately measure
that way.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
I don't know that they're an imperial foot, but I'm
sure someone's got a foot that is that long?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
That long? Yeah, and maybe that's what they're not actually
talking about the measure of just some random person's foot.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
This is why we have to switch to metric. So
kakatoo's about the size of a foot long sandwich, whether
or not it's actually a foot long. They're very, very intelligent.
Their natural habitat is woodland in Australia, but due to
(31:38):
the spread of the suburbs and the erburbs and the
burbs and the urban and human in general, they have
found their way closer to human society. And because they
have such a high degree of social awareness and intelligence,
learning and taking cues from one another, certain trends will
(32:04):
pop up among the cockatoo community. So an example of
just like how intelligent they are and their social behavior
is that while foraging, one cockatoo will keep watch from
a tree and signals to the rest of the cockatoos
if it since is danger approaching. And this has been
an observation that has been made to the point where apparently,
(32:27):
and please Australians write to me if I'm wrong about this,
because I frankly do not trust the Internet anymore. At
this point, cockatoo or cocky has been used. It's possibly
a little antiquated, but it's been used in Australian slang
for like a police lookout, like someone who is on
the lookout for the police when you're trying to put
(32:47):
too many shrimp on your barbie and you're worried about
getting arrested.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Wow. Yeah, okay, So when I do eventually visit, I'll know,
I'll understand more.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
You'll understand and you will also when you do visit
and you want to do crimes, because I know you, Carmen,
you'll want to befriend the cockatoos so that you can
have them alert you to when the police are coming
to bust you for your illegal, illegal kangaroo boxing outfit.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Oh why do you have to already? Well, you know,
if I've any excuse to befriend the cockatoos, that's uh,
I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah. They are rather bold when it comes to people,
and you can, in certain ways befriend them. Feeding them
can cause problems because then boy, are they going to
expect that and really really get in your business. So
I don't know if I would necessarily recommend that, but yeah,
(33:52):
they are They're super super social, very intelligent. They have
been kept as pets. I personally, unless you're ready to
take care of a dinosaur that has an incredibly powerful
crushing beak that can I think actually break your bone,
(34:14):
that has the permanent mind of a human toddler, I
would not keep it as a pet. I mean, but
if you want a small dinosaur that has a powerfully
crushing beak that can break your fingerbones, that permanently has
the mind of a two year old human being child,
(34:36):
then sure.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, it wasn't. That wasn't what I was on the
lookout for a pet. I'm gonna have to think on it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I like my dog because she's dumb, and she likes
belly rubs, and she has the she has the bite
force of like a twist tie.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Oh yeah, that's a good bite force.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, she doesn't. She's you know, or maybe like a
bag clip. I'm gonna say a bag clip. She's got
the bite force of a bag clip, and she she
does get a little bit body with me sometimes. But
you know again, bag clip, okay, bag clip? Yeah, so
it like holds, it holds generally, it holds the chips in,
but a little air will get in and make it stale.
(35:22):
Yes bite which like, I'm she's always doing this When
I give her a bag of chips to keep fresh.
It's like you had one job, dog, one job in
this house, keep my chips fresh. So yes, cockatoo's possibly
not good pets, but incredibly cool animals, very social and
(35:47):
because they are so intelligent again sort of like tiny
dinosaur human toddler brains. Uh, they get into an enormous
amount of mischief, especially amongst a human suburban and urban structures.
They have learned how to rip up any cheaply constructed
building materials. Like if you're trying to put plastic facades
(36:09):
on your buildings, these cockatoos are gonna know it, They're
gonna find it, and they're gonna rip that to shreds.
And honestly, I feel like they're right, you know, Like
I think like if you're cheaping out on construction materials
and these cockatoos find you, they're basically like free architectural auditors,
like pointing out shoddy shoddy design and shoddy construction, but
(36:33):
actively yeah, ripping it apart for no clear reason.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They're actively being like, well this isn't strong enough, Well.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Here's your problem. Just completely tears off a chunk of
plastic rain gutter.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
So they you know again, and they have come up
with a fun game and this is called flip the bin,
and it is when they go to people's garbage bins
and they flip the lid open and then they just
toss garbage around and sometimes they'll like find things to
(37:09):
eat inside, but a lot of the time it's for
the thrill of the game. So this is an example
of cockatoo culture because it started in twenty fifteen with
one cockatoo doing it, uh, and he was probably a
really cool cockatoo. Everyone wanted to copy him, and by
twenty nineteen it had become a wild fat among a
(37:29):
wide number of cockatoos. And sometimes, like they'll like flip
it and play with the garbage. Sometimes they just do
it for the thrill of flipping the lid. Sometimes they
do it with an audience and then all the other
cockatoos get really excited once they flip the lid. It's
just a it's just a game, man, It's it's a
(37:50):
fun thing to do with your buddies.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Okay, well again, it seems like the buddies get involved
in these activities a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, it's kind of like I don't know, Like for
a while everyone was flipping bottles, water bottles when we
did that.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yes, or yes, flipping couples.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
First it was like the solo cups that you're supposed
to flip, and then if you didn't do it right,
you got beaten with pool noodles pool noodles or maybe
that was me, I don't know, but everyone everyone's had
that experience, right and then and then it was like
water bottles that you flip and then you try to
(38:36):
get it to land. Yeah. Yeah, what are kids flipping
these days? Is it POGs again? Did we send me
back around to POGs?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I did not. I don't know if POGs are back,
but uh, honestly, I'm shocked. I'm shocked that they aren't.
By now, they aren't. Right, it's such a good flippable thing.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I've seen some bay blade content online a little bit.
I think Babe blades might be making a grand comeback.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Oh are they they're flippable?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Well, they're more like tops. I think they're like plastic
tops that have a rip chord so they go really fast,
so they have that' centripetal force and then they do
flip sometimes like you have a Guys, I'm gonna explain
bay blades to you for a second. Here you have
(39:28):
an arena, a plastic bowl shaped arena, and then you
I've never done this with an I've never done bay
blade before, but as far as I can tell, you
like do a rip chords that gets the like the
top is in like a little chamber, and then you
pull a chord and it spins the top really fast
and or releases it into the plastic arena, which is
(39:51):
sort of a bowl shape, and you put another bay
blade in there, and then the bay blades fight by
bumping into each other a lot of times, and then
one of the is the victor based on which one
is still spinning. And that's bay blades. You don't look impressed, Carmen,
And I.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
I mean, listen, I guess you know. I'm taking a
lot in today. I thought it was just going to
be nature, and now it's so much more than that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Blades are a force of nature.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
They are you know, you've got me, There is all
around us at all times. Yeah. No, we've gotten into physics,
we've gotten into folklore, and we've gotten into obviously biology.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah, I mean, maybe maybe the kids are gonna flip
bin lids like the cockatoo's. I hope they just don't
do the dolphin thing, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, I mean yeah, that that's I would prefer the
bin flipping myself as well.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, personally. Uh, you know, if we if we're gonna
have a new TikTok trend, let's have it be bin
flipping or you know, just a hey, new idea for
a TikTok trend. What if it's picking up litter and
putting it in the bin? Kids? That's cool?
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Right? Oh, I'm flipping for that.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I flipping out for picking up litter and putting it
in the bin.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Can we Yeah? How how good of a trend is that?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Are we cool? Are we not cool?
Speaker 1 (41:29):
I feel like we're very cool? And the Zoomers and
uh is the zoomers? Wait, the Zoomers aren't the youngest. Now,
who's the little ones?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Alpha?
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Oh? That's kind of not a fun name. I feel
like we got to come up with a more fun name.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Well, they'll come up with, I'm sure a nickname. Yeah,
you know, we all get we all get a bunch
of different names, that's true. Yeah, but hopefully everybody is
having fun with POGs.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I hope so too. I can't wait to start blaming
Generation Alpha for my problems and uh yeah, so so. Culture, guys,
animals have it. Culture is defined by basically ideas that
get passed on from one individual to others and then
(42:23):
to you know, other generations. And these are all examples
of them. This is just these are just the grossest,
trashiest examples that I could find. So you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Oh wow, this episode, you know, you're really uh, you're
really testing the audience with this one a little bit.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
I feel like I gave them appropriate amounts of warning.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
You did, you really did. In fact, at one point
you told them not to listen at all.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
At one point I told them to throw their phone
into the ocean and never listen to a podcast again.
But that's just how it is. Sometimes we're gonna end
the episode with something a little more, a little more friendly.
So I like to play a little game called Guess
(43:10):
Who's squawk on the Mystery Animal Sound Game. Every week
I play Mystery Animal sound and you the listener, and
you the guests, try to guess who is making that sound.
Last week's Mystery Animal sound hint was this Some people
just have a prickly personality. All right, So did you
(43:31):
hear those pathetic little sound? Oh? I sure did, and
I think I can guess. All right, what do you think,
Carmen porcupine? You are absolutely correct. Congratulations to the fastest
guesser's grant w Miriam R, Emily M. And Jared M
for guessing correctly as well. This is a baby North
(43:52):
American porcupine named Spike who is upset because he fell
off a porch and someone uh with very heavy duty
gloves picked him up and gently put him back next
to his mom, but the baby was not having it.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
That is an upsetting experience.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, clip off of the porch, right, And apparently it's
one that porcupines have quite a bit, because they are uh,
they fall out of trees a lot, uh, and they're
relatively clumsy, so much so that they have developed a
special adaptation for their clumsiness and getting impaled by their
own spikes.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They have.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yeah, they have antibiotics in their skin in case they
fall and stick themselves with their own bills.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
What. Yeah, well, I'm glad they have antibiotics in their
own skin.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
But ouch also ouch also get indeed, ouch indeed also, Uh,
that is a that is a problem, like when you
were covered in very sharp spines and some and you
like fall a lot. It is a thing that can
happen where you do put poke yourself, uh with your
own spines. Uh. And so their skin has antibiotics natural
(45:06):
antibiotics in it to prevent infection. Uh. And then they
make terribly cute noises the whole time they're bumbling around.
Oh there's so Yeah. I love their survival strategy of
being really cute, possibly quite stupid, but just so spiky
(45:28):
nobody can really do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah, it's it's you know, you don't have to worry
about people bugging you if you're spiky, but you could
just kind of exist and be adorable.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, no, exactly. So they're well, you coke yourself sometimes too.
It ain't that the truth though, And you got a
prickly personality sometimes you poke yourself. That's uh. I bet
everyone wonders, why why didn't you become a therapist or
a life coach when I come up with these things
(46:02):
mm hmmm hmm. Anyways, uh onto this week's mystery animal sound.
The hint is this start your engines. I got any guesses, Carmen,
aren't your engines?
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Is the hint? I mean, I want to say a bird,
but that's all as far as I can get. Maybe, yeah,
is that right?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
No?
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Mostly, No, that's okay. I didn't say you're ready either.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Sorry, I don't mean to.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
I don't know, but I prefer the accuracy. Also, the
most big is it a bird? You know?
Speaker 1 (46:55):
You know you gotta you gotta start somewhere and starting
with is it a bird? That's that's a perfectly valid attempt.
It's wrong, It's terribly terribly wrong. But it's not it's
not even a bird. You're completely wrong. You don't win anything,
but you tried, and that that's something.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
That's a you know, trying, as they say, is a
win in itself.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Except for that, I've never heard anyone what are you
talking about?
Speaker 2 (47:29):
I'm pretty sure I heard somebody say that, and by somebody,
I mean myself at this moment. But but you know,
I respect and I understand that it is not a bird.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Well, you don't win anything except for the knowledge that
you are incorrect. And uh, but if you out there
think you know who might be making this sound, please
write to me at Creature Future pot at gmail dot com.
I promise I won't be mean to you like I
am to call Carman. But she's strong and she can
(48:01):
take it.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
I am very strong. And for those who are trying
to guess, it's not a bird, so don't.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
It's not a bird, she's actually really helped all of
you by ruling out all birds. So it's not a bird.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Bird.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
That's a huge gent You've done a great service to
the community.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
You're welcome. Yeah, I lost your game exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
She took one for the team. She's a martyr, true.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Carman.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Thank you so much for coming on and joining us.
It was also fantastic to see you again. Uh. Tell
the people where they can find your work.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Well, if you watch The Daily Show, you can see
many of my pieces that I direct air there. Otherwise
it's a little she's.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
A little show called The Daily Show. You've probably never
heard of it. It's like it's really niche. It's really niche.
It's like this little indie show called The Daily Show.
Hardly any part of it.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Uh. And if you want to see my specific work,
you can go to my website Carmen Angelica dot com.
And uh, otherwise, you know, I guess yeah, that's kind
of where most of the information for me is. Otherwise,
maybe the next time I'm on this podcast so that
(49:20):
I can learn more about animals.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yes, yes, I'll have you back on, and I will
try to find even worse things to talk about next time.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
I did request things be pretty pretty gross for my benefits.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
You know, she's lying to cover for me. I sprung
that with no warning.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
You know, listen, that's that's how much I like you. Yeah, like,
I take I want to I'll take the gross thing.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
I did send an email a few hours earlier ago,
I like, is this okay? Are you gonna be all right?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Is this? And and I'm really and I'm really strong
as as a discussing, I'm very strong. I can handle those.
And so are all of you. Stuck for all of
you science, This is what it takes to know and
fully understand science.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
This is sometimes you got a way through the p
and the very horny macaques to really get to the science.
And you can put that on a piece of wood
in a lot of different fontsh A.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Very long one.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, I feel like that one shorter got a way
through keey and horny macaque to get to the science.
That's not so bad.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
That's not even a paragraph that.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, that's it'll fit. It'll fit on like a normal
sized board. I think if and you use a lot
of curly fonts and it'll be good. And guys, thank
you so much for during I mean to day. If
you want to have a guess or the Creature Feature
Special super special game be guess Who's squawking? You can
(51:05):
write to me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com.
If you have any questions I you can also write
to me. I occasionally do listener questions about animals and
evolutionary biology. If you've got pictures of your pets, send
those right to me. Right in there. Get those in there.
And if you leave a rating or review, that tangibly
(51:27):
helps me and the podcast, and I appreciate and I
read all of them. And thank you so much to
the Space Cossacks for their super awesome song. XO Lumina.
Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like
the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts,
or Hey guess what?
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Maybe listen to your favorite.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Shows not your mother. I can't tell you what to do,
but please don't flip the bins over, put the garbage
in the bins so the cockatoos can be the one
and make a huge mess of things because honestly, they
deserve it. They deserve everything they want, those little dinosaurs.
See you next Wednesday
Speaker 2 (52:05):
By H.
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