October 31, 2025 • 43 mins
Halloween early release special! Today on the show: KILLER BATS! Bats with very spooky dietary habits. From vicious carnivores that have a soft side, to the strangest sight you'll sea on the seashore. I'm joined by Kimia Behpoornia to discuss these adorable, murderous bats.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on the show, we are talking about murderous
bats and the bats who love them, from scary draculas
who have a soft side, to beats who are the
scourge of the water. These bats have unusual victims. Joining
(00:30):
me today to discuss some spooky spunky bats is actor comedians.
She's been in shows like Abby's Hacks, Abbott, Elementary Lucifer
and After Midnight It's Kimmy of a Portia.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome. Wow. When you said bats, you left out the
murderous part. Uh. When you teed up what we be
chatting about, and.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We're talking about we're talking about bad boy bats, like
these are the bad boys of the bat world. There's many,
many species of bats, hundreds of species of bats, and
a lot of them are real cute where they just
kind of like sip nectar, eat fruit, eat bugs. These
guys are a little more hardcore. I thought it's sort
(01:11):
of Halloween speed speas and it's spooky speason. Uh. And
so we got to talk about some spooky bats who
actually are while not dangerous to people, they are they
are dangerous to some animals and perhaps fit the spooky
(01:34):
theme a little more than like say, an adorable fruit bat.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's fair, But I feel like you tell me, because
you'll know, what is the bat that we're like hanging
all over our homes on these decorations, the like plainest looking.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Bat, you mean, like the like you know.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
The classic Halloween decor Halloween decorvette.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You know, I actually do have an answer to that,
which and this is very opinion based because, like you know,
I would say that the Halloween de coor bat probably
does vary a bit. But the one that to me
looks like the most sort of like this bat is
(02:19):
going to turn into a Dracula at any moment, is
the spectral bat? Actually have an image of that for
you look at it? Yeah, it is like it's got
just kind of the classic bat features. It's it's relatively large, actually,
it's it's got a wingspan of about three feet.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You know, it's it's like I would say, it is large,
large mouse, small rat sized in its body. Uh, And
it has just the classic bat presentation where it's got fangs,
it's got the snubnose. It's got kind of an elongated face.
(03:06):
I would say that this one, like when I like,
let me see if I just like google Halloween decoration bat.
I mean a lot of them are a lot of
them are just black outlines. So that's there's that, right,
But yeah, when I look at like sort of the
more realistic ones. Actually a lot some of the like
(03:28):
realistic ones, Like they go for really big ones, so
then they model them after fruit bats, who actually are
quite large. But yeah, they're fruit bats. There. They don't
they don't drink blood, they don't eat eat. But yeah,
I would say that this one, the spectral bat, is
(03:49):
the sort of to me, one of the more classic
spooky looking bats.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, and I believe you. I'm looking at it. That
looks like that looks like all the haunted house hanging guys.
It's black, you know I think of bats, you think
like pitch black. Like the wings. I mean, his body's
like a little bit brown and fuzzy. But yeah, that's it.
That's the guy.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's the guy. That's the one. They're also known as
false vampire bats because a lot of people kind of
have the misapprehension that because they have those long teeth
that they are vampire bats. I mean, this looks like
this looks sort of like a classic vampire but something
that you would expect to like fly up to you,
(04:30):
like bite your neck or something, they don't do that.
They don't do that. Vampire bats tend to be much smaller.
They usually have pretty snubby faces. Actually, there's only I
think about three species of true vampire bats who drink blood.
So actually, when you're looking at the hundreds of species
(04:52):
of bats, very few of them actually drink blood. This
one does not drink blood. This one's actually found in Mexico,
South and Central America, which actually that is the region
where vampire bats do tend to be. But yeah, this one,
(05:14):
despite having those really long things that look like you know,
it would be using that for sip in blood carry. Yeah,
they do not feed on blood. But in my opinion,
they're actually more menacing than vampire bats because vampire bats,
despite sort of their you know, spooky name, they they
(05:36):
do drink blood, but they're more like parasites than they
are predators. We will talk later in the show about
a case in which they are they are actually a
threat to the animals that they prey on. But usually
it's like they will nip at the ankles of some livestock,
kind of lap at the blood a little bit, and
(05:58):
unless they intentionally spread some disease, they're not really harming, uh,
their their host. It's more like it they're more like
fluffy mosquitoes.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I was gonna say mosquito. That's exactly what it sounds
like to me. Keeping at the ankles.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Come on, I know, that's yeah, that's it's like the
most annoying place to get the mosquito bite and also
one of the more because that's your ankles are often
the thing that's uncovered, right you're wearing maybe you're wearing jeans,
kulottes just in case you got to wade through some
water and you're wearing sanday, yeah, and then you get
(06:37):
you get the bites right on the like right on
the ankle bone is the worst, and they seem to
love it. So I hate that so much. Uh, it's
just because in it there's not a lot of meat
to itch down there. It's yeah, no, it's it's very bad.
So yeah, these are these are they're more vampire bats
(06:59):
and more like pests. They're menaces. They're not really that
scary in terms of like they don't drain blood, humans
certainly don't have much to worry about from them, Like
occasionally there will be there's only one species of vampire
bat that frequently encounters humans and might sometimes drink human blood.
(07:23):
But again, like they're not draining blood. They usually only
do it to people who work on farms with livestock.
So so, yeah, vampire bats not that scary. But these guys,
these spectral bats, I would say they kind of fit
the villainous bat description a little more because even though
they don't drink blood, they are carnivores and they're not
(07:47):
just insectivores. Like there are a lot of species of
bats who eat insects. It's great, they eat up mosquitoes,
so like they are actually yeah, like we're we're on
team bats when it comes to mosquitoes. So they're they're great, right,
But no, these guys actually are very fierce hunters. They're carnivores,
(08:09):
and while they do eat insects, sometimes they will eat
birds and other bats and rodents as well. Like they're
big enough that they can actually snatch sizeable small mammals
and eat them.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh, they're eating other bats eating other bats.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
It's bats. Uh, it's bats. The bats. It's very sad
to see. So they stalk their prey. Actually, in terms
of eating other bats, they'll sometimes eat vampire bats because
vampire bats are pretty yeah, they're pretty small, so they
can they can grab them and they'll silently like hover
(08:53):
above their victims. They use echolocation to find them, uh,
and then they swoop down grab them with their claws,
and then those you know those teeth that have those
like big fangs that make them look like a little draculas,
they use those more like a jaguar than they Then,
like a vampire, they bite down on the skull of
(09:17):
their prey to kill them. Oh, and then fly their
lifeless bodies back to their roost where they feed on
all the edible parts and just dump the inedible parts
like feathers, tails, bones down in a big pile beneath them. So, yeah,
these are these are the real deal. These are the
These are the most halloweeny bats I think out there.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Dang, they're dumping these bones like they've got a crypt
down there. Yeah, the little catacombs. Yeah, of they're dead
prey freaky guys.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, they've got a big big bone pile under them,
and they're social, so they roost with other spectral bats
and so they having a bone bone party, bone party. Yeah. Actually,
so like, yeah, when you're ranking bats in terms of
sort of bad boy scary monster behavior, I think that
(10:14):
these ones rank pretty high. But still it's kind of
funny is when it comes to their own species, they're
really really sweet. So when they're not out murdering, they're
actually really nice. Wow. They greet their friends with like
this little hug, so they kind of like wrap their
(10:36):
wings around each other. Uh, it's very cute.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I like them now. Yeah all you need, all I
need out of animals is that they like hugs, and
I'm in.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah. They cuddle their families in sort of like a
big sort of hug ball. They all like snuggle together.
Males will bring food to their female partners when she's nursing,
so she can't really hunt while she's nursing, so her
male partner will bring her food, you know, like a
(11:07):
murder victim of course. But yeah. Still. Parents will also
bring prey to their pups once their pups are big
enough to start eating solid food. Uh. And yeah, they
they just kind of exhibit very like fun, spunky behavior.
They like to play with each other. They'll chase bugs
(11:29):
around like they they don't even like they'll chase cockroaches
and stuff and bugs that are in their roost, and
then they don't even necessarily kill them. They'll like catch
up to them and be like, all right, keep running
because like this is fun for me. They're like little
They're basically like little flying house cats.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I guess, so that's kind of cute. I wish they'd
get those cockroaches though. Yeah, those guys they were killings
a mosquitoes, they'd be my heroes.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I mean, I do think they probably kill cockroaches pretty frequently.
I don't know. I don't know if they're eating mosquitoes
that might be a little too small for them. But yeah,
cockroaches I think would be something that they would would
kill and eat. But yeah, it's just it's like they're
they have kind of the same demeanor as like house cats.
Maybe they're even a little more social than housecats. But yeah,
(12:19):
like they go out, they murder, and then they come
home and they cuddle.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So far, I like this murderer. This murderer is not.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So bad, right, It's like it's like Jason Voorhees after
like a long day of murdering camp counselors, like just
comes home as his wife and his kid. They're all
like wearing the little hockey masks. Uh yeah, just uh
you know, haven't.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
An they chase their neighbor around. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
But we're gonna take a quick break and then we're
going to talk about a couple of diminiscing bats. Uh include,
And these ones have a very interesting sort of like
the dark Knight theme, except this is the darkest night. Uh,
Batman's getting naughty with it will be your back, so
(13:17):
you know Batman Robin there? Uh what I mean what
like Robin's ward. I've never quite understood the legality of that.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, he's just quite literally just it's plainly and he's
just the sidekick, right, Yeah, he's like tags along, he's
like an intern.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
He's an intern. Well, in the wild, bats and Robin's
don't necessarily get along. In fact, there has been a
recent exciting scientific discovery which is that a bout was
observed eating a robin. Oh and we as we just discussed,
bats do eat birds, so that's not necessarily like with
(13:56):
a spectral bat, that's it's not necessarily news, but usually
it's by snatching them from nests or while they're roosting,
so kind of like when they're just hanging out. But
there have been new observations that show some bats have
mastered and even more impressive bird snatching method of grabbing
(14:18):
migratory birds right out of the air while they are
migrating and then eating them mid air. So yeah, no, yeah, yeah,
like little like that, like little fluffy drones, murder drones,
but fluffy. So this guy, this guy is called the
(14:39):
Greater Noctual bat. Actually he's pretty cute. He's kind of
a goofball. Like the one we just talked about. The
spectral bats kind of look like your classic spooky HALLOWEENI bat.
This one looks like a funny little guy. He's the
largest bat in Europe. He's got a wingspan of one
and a half feet, as fluff brown fur and rounded
(15:01):
ears and kind of a goofy face. I did share
an image of them with you.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
He just kind of you know, yeah, I am looking
at it. It looks like a squish faced dog. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, he's cute, I think, in a kind of doofe
looking the way, don't he doesn't look particularly murderous, but
he is. So these guys are able to snatch migratory
birds mid flight and just eat them like in the air.
(15:34):
So this was first documented in Spain in twenty twenty three,
when researchers recorded a noctual that grab a European robin.
By the way, European Robin's one of my favorite birds.
They're so cute. They're these adorable, little, round, fluffy guys.
They're very friendly, very sweet sounding.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
So this is so sad. Why did you add that
that makes me more or upset to be?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Like, well, I just want to be I want to
be fair to all the participants in this, Like I
love bats and I think this is very cool, but
I also really feel very bad for this poor robin.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I feel bad for the robins. Yeah, they're migrating. It's
if you were on a road trip and somebody ate
you while you were in your car.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, that's it pretty much just grabbed you and ate
you like an impanada. Yeah. So they the the way
they recorded the feeding was by attaching a little backpack
onto a bat. And this backpack recorded sounds like it's
it's to keep things small. It just had audio capabilities.
(16:44):
They didn't weren't. Like, they didn't put like a GoPro
on a bat because then the bat when you're able
to fly. Yeah, so it's a recording of it echo locating, uh,
finding the bird. You can hear the They identified the
species of bird by the sounds of its panicked peeping,
(17:06):
which is very sad. I played with the idea of
playing the audio on the show. No, I decided not to.
I mean I will in the show notes. I'll include
a link to the article where if you would like
to listen to it, you can listen to it. It's like,
I think it's kind of it's like weirdly distressing because
(17:27):
this is like animals, right, and we're all used to
Animal Planet and animals eating each other. But somehow, when
it's in an audio only format, it makes it really
creepy because you.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So much more sinister.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
It really is, because you hear the echo locating, you
hear like the chirping of the bird, and then this
like crunch and then silence, no, and then like the
sound of the back crunching on bone. I decided not
to not to play the sound.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Uh good, but.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, but if you're interested the there's a Scientific American
article you can read I'll include in the show notes,
uh called this bat recorded itself catching and eating a
songbird in mid air and it's exactly what it sounds like.
Uh yeah, so yeah, they they they found the new
(18:24):
new spooky bat stuff happening. The researchers were super excited
about it, uh, which is just like, yeah, this is
this is beautiful and wonderful and it's just them having
recorded like audio of a bat crunch showing down on
a bird.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I'm proud of you guys.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, good job researchers. Another interesting thing, so like kind
of uh, we're a little batman themed here because this
is bats versus penguines. Oh you know, like so we
so yeah in real life, like if it was a batman,
like a man with the sort of instincts of a bat,
(19:06):
it would be eaten Robin, but it would also be
going after the penguin. It would it would not be
a great situation for Gotham. I'm going to say that.
So yeah, because like in real life, bats are the
enemies of penguins, which sounds strange because bats do not
like cold weather, and we associate penguins with cold weather.
(19:30):
But in southern Peru there is this very limited region
where there are actually penguins that live there and bats
because it's tropical enough for the bats, and there are
species of penguins that actually live in more tropical environments
who don't live in the freezing cold of the Antarctic. So, Kimmia,
(19:51):
actually I did not mean to do this, but the
last time I had you on, I think it was
it was on a on a Poop episode. I talked
about these penguins and when I was like, I was
sort of looking at my old research unintentionally, this is
the exact thing I talked to you about, like the
(20:12):
last time you're on.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Well, are these the ones that shoot the poop?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes, these are the penguins that shoot the poop? IM
but I gotta I gotta mention them because it's a
it's these vampire bats. Who are these a menace to
these poor little penguins. They're very cute penguins. I think
the bats are cute too. I don't know who decide
with because I base all of my moral decisions on cuteness.
(20:38):
But anyways, the the they usually don't cause to many problems.
They usually feed on larger, larger mammals, but they they
sometimes will go and pick on the umble penguin chicks,
who are more defenseless than the adults. And it's a
problem because the the chicks don't have a lot of
(21:01):
defenses and it can actually can weaken them. So it's
like they don't usually outright drain them of all their
blood and kill them. That's not that's not typically what happens.
But if it's a vulnerable chick, so if they're drinking
its blood and potentially passing disease, that we're leaving it
without a lot of its blood that it needs, it
(21:23):
can be deadly or certainly weaken them and harm them.
So in order to protect their chicks, the adults will
launch a full scale assaults on the bats. They start
with screaming at them. If that doesn't work, they kick
dirt at them, and if that doesn't work, they have
their secret weapon, which is shooting their poop.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Wow, that's good, and you know what, I'm cool that
now that I've heard a lot about the spot. He
freaking deserves it stinks.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
He's yeah, he's he's biting babies. That's that's not great.
But yeah, Humboldt penguins are so well known for their
poop shooting techniques. There was a paper that won the
Ignoble Prize in Fluid Dynamics in two thousand and five
that studied the pressures and forces required for the penguins
(22:17):
to project al shoot their poop. The study is called
Pressures produced when Penguins pooh Calculations on Avian defication. So yeah,
I mean it's.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Almost funnier when you use all of the official terms
right in the title of that Adian defecations.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah, uh, it's it's it's was a very good paper.
The Ignoble Prize is not necessarily for bad research, it's
for good research. That's really funny.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Also, that's exactly what that is.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, So in real life, you would like Batman would
fight the penguin, but it would get really bad, really gross,
really bad. Like I feel like the penguin in the
movies is just depicted as being pretty gross. Uh, like,
especially Danny DeVito's one, Like they did a Dandy the
(23:14):
Danny DeVito version. I forgot which Batman that was in?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Uh is Forever?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
No Batman? Maybe? Was that? Which one Batman Forever?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Was?
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The nipples one? With George Clooney where they had the
outfits with the nipples baked in Batman Forever, right am
I Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
No, no, I think I am right. I think that's
the George Clooney version. No, wait, is that I got
I gotta get this right, Yeah, we need it Batman Forever.
No that No, that had Val Kilmer in it. Okay,
so yeah, I don't know, but yeah, that had Val
Kilmer in it. It had The Riddler as Jim Carroll. Yeah,
(24:03):
there's been so many, there's been too many Batman's Batman
with Danny de vit Vito as the Penguin. That was
Batman Returns, Returns by Tim Burton. They really yes, right yeah?
(24:25):
And this yeah, it had Michael Keaton as Batman again
he came back. They really did a number on Danny DeVito.
They made his mouth black for some reason. Yeah, they
made him look gross, but I don't think they had
him shoot poop, so which is like.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
A missed opportunity, you know, they're gross, like just kind of.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, like commit to it because he has little penguin friends.
I think in the movie.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Oh if he doesn't actually do the but all of
his minions and henchmen are run out of the woodwork
to come shoot poop at Batman.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It's just pretty.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It should be the penguin sort of sitting the bird
style on an awning and then like when Batman comes,
they like turn around and then start trying to snipe
at them with like with poop missiles, deadly poop.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
That's really good.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
This is why they need to consult biologists for Batman.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I agree. I agree. These movies would be so much
funnier and more accurate.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And more accurate. Accuracy is always funnier. We're going to
take a quick break and when we get back, we're
going to talk about a couple of other bats who
have unusual dietary requirement. So these bats are I think
really cool. Like these are bats who do not do
(25:57):
the normal bat thing of either eating insects, birds, fruit, nectar,
or blood. They have one particular thing they like to
eat and that's fish. These are fish eating bats. There
are bats who specialize in fishing. There are two species
(26:17):
that do this. There's the greater bulldog bat found in
Latin America and the fish eating miotis found in the
Gulf of California. I feel like in terms of names,
the greater bulldog bat really won out, Like that's a
nice kind of name descriptive, whereas the fish eating miotis
(26:41):
is like kind of sounds like a disease.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
It does, the myotis part is really giving a disease. Yeah,
you're so right, where it's just like or it's that
one's better because the greater bulldog bat plasier yeah, after
a different animal.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Usually when it's when it's like a greater or a lesser,
it means, uh, it is slightly larger or slightly smaller
than some other relative species. But it does sound very judgmental,
like the greater bulldog bat, like there's a there's a
kind of crappy bulldog bat out there that you you
(27:23):
don't want to you don't want to deal with. But
because this, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
It's just like a stupid bed that just sits on
the dock.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, the sucky bulldog bat that nobody likes. But yeah,
like its name implies, the greater bulldog bat has a droopy,
jowly face. It also has orange fur and these very
weird rake like feet. I have shared with you some
photosipless guy. His face is really very bulldog esque. Yes,
(27:54):
got the jowls, but he's also got this bright orange fur.
He's it's a very silly looking bat.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
These nails look a little bit like what some people
would bring in to the salon. Yeah, I'd like this please.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, no, these are they they are definitely what are
those like acrylics or the way you get the like
long the long sort of rake like.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Things, somel.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, these are fashion and function, Yes they are.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
They use echolocation to detect ripples on the surface of
bodies of water. These are going to be streams, rivers, ponds,
and lagoons. The ripples indicate the presence of fish, and
so the bulldog bats swoop down. They use their clawed
rake like feet to catch the fish and then shoves
(28:46):
the fish into their mouths. And the reason they have
these jowls is that they need space for the fish.
So they're kind of like pelicans in that way. It's
very fun that like when they actually have their mouths
full of fish, they look very weird. I have shared
(29:08):
that with you as well. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
it's h it's there's a few ways you might describe this.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
The better way I'm gonna say, is like a juicy butt.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Like a juicy butt is one way. For sure, it's
kind of cute because it like, it looks very pleased
with itself, because its little lips are sort of stretched
into a smile, and then underneath it are these two
sort of bulbous cheeks. Ye bowl with fish. It's sort
of like the way that a hamster shoves things in
(29:45):
its mouth, but it's sort of below the chin. So
I mean, you know, maybe a little scrotle one might say,
But is.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
What I was trying to not say.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeh, there we go, but you know, you kind of
have to. I mean, and it's that's it, plain as
day it is. But you know, so that's that's a
happy Greater Bulldog bat full of fish. Yeah there. I mean,
it's just kind of one of those things where there
there are so many species of bats, and our concept
(30:17):
of bat behavior is like, you know, I think most
people know about fruit bats, most people know about vampire
bats and insect eating bats, but there's a lot of
like variation in bat diets, like these guys. These guys fish,
and there are bats who only drink nectar and their
bodies are very specialized for these tasks. So there's this
(30:41):
completely unrelated species of bat who also fishes. Uh, this
one actually is a sea bat. This is scretch of
the sea. Its name is unfortunately not sea bat. It's
the fish eating miotis, which it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Makes it sea.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, I know, it's it's really too bad. But it's
a cute little brown bat with a white belly. Doesn't
really look too much like the bulldog bat. But it
shares the same rake like feet. Ah. So it feeds
on marine fish and crustaceans. Uh. It's so well adapted
(31:24):
for sea life that it has evolved to be able
to drink sea water and pee out the salt. So
it's uh, it's drinking. It's drinking seawater and pissing out
the salt, which sounds like something like a hardened sailor
would like say.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Oh, you're so right, right drinking the seawater and.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Perfect. Yes. So yeah, these little guys they're very like
they're they're se like like the idea that there are
like sea bats bats who fish in in the in
the sea and roost on the coastline. They exist. Uh,
they also share their roosts with petrels. Petrels are a
(32:10):
species of sea bird. And really interestingly, like we've we've
talked on the show about bats, basically all these other
bats being the enemies of birds, like it's not a
good snatching them out of the air and chewing on
their bones. These ones, actually I'm ending on a little
(32:32):
bit more of a positive note because these have a
nice relationship with the with the petrels, So the bats
do not really bother the petrels at all. The bats fish,
you know, they're they're they're fisher bats. Uh. And but
the petrels have learned to roost near the bats because
the bats are really aggressive towards these predatory lizards because
(32:56):
there are these lizards who will go after both the
bats young, but they also go after the petrels eggs
and their chicks. So the petrels don't really know how
to deal with the lizards. They they are a little
bit they just get a little spooked by them. But
the bats are really aggressive and they will like aggressively
(33:19):
go after lizards and start attacking them, beating their wings
at them. So the petrels, by nesting near the bats,
actually are thought to benefit from the bats protection. So
they so these these fish eating miotises are sort of
the more batman like of the bats in terms of.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
WHOA, that's right, they're fighting crimes exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
They're fighting crime and not eating the baby birds, which
is nice of them. Yeah, but yeah, they so. They
They are pretty chill, pretty cool bats, unless you're fish,
in which case they will skim along the surface of
(34:07):
the water and they dunk their little rake like feet
in like fishing nets and catch them. Yeah, which is
just I don't know, I think that's pretty cute.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I'm impressed. I went fishing for the first time this year,
and I did it for maybe three minutes because I
hated it. But I it was not easy.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, I mean a lot of it's just sitting around
right like, you're not.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That part I liked. I didn't like putting the worm
on the hook. Ah yeah, or guy, yeah, it's just
squirming and I have to like impale it with a hook.
Yeah Nope, not for me.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
I chickened out me too. I feel like if I
had rakes for feet, it'd be a lot easier, though,
Oh totally yeaheah.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I'd be scoop and fish left and write out the water.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
In your big bulldog jowls that are two sacks under
your chin that you can stuff fish into. Yeah, someone
should try it. Someone should like paraglide with rakes attached
to their feet and see how good you are at fishing. Like,
you know, try that. That would be the real batman.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
That is the real batman.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's the real batman right there. So before we go,
we gotta play a little game. This is called I
Guess you squawking the Mystery Animal sound game. Last week's
Mystery Animal sound The hint was this, it may sound
like a cat call, but I assure you this animal
(35:47):
wants nothing to do with cat, all right, kimya, I promise.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I'm not going to what this is.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
There's no way, I promise to you it's not. It's
not a construction worker harassing. Oh yeah, exactly. So this
is the screaming piha. It's a bird. It is a
relatively mundane looking bird that lives in the Amazon Lowlands. Uh.
(36:23):
It's actually member of the kotinga family, which includes some
of the most brightly colored, beautiful birds in the world.
This is not that kind of bird. It's very drab looking.
Like if you look, I don't Yeah, if you look
at a picture of it. It's just like, yeah, great bird,
that's it. It's not it's not very exciting, but yeah,
(36:44):
makes up for it with its distinctive wolf whistle call
of going like I can't. I'm not gonna whistle against
this microphone. That's gonna be a horrible experience for everyone.
But yeah it does the loa like wee wo sound
wo woo. A little flirty, little frisky, little flirty. But yeah,
(37:05):
it's definitely uh one of the there's a lot of
tropical birds, and so many of them are beautiful to
look at. This one's kind of a dud, but you know, hey,
it's got break. Makes up for it with charisma.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Oh yeah, that's a beautiful little voice right there.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Right, it's very it's very fun and flirty. All right,
Well onto this week's mister ann will sound. The hint
is this uh something is lurking in the cold waters
and it's adorable. Not that that's a that's an Italian ad.
(37:46):
Actually it's for that's an Italian ad for cream cheese.
Did you know that? Like they just called cream cheese
in Italy Philadelphia?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Oh I did know that. Yeah, the brand.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
They just call it Philadelphia. So if you're at a
restaurant I hate personally, I do not like cream cheese.
So I have learned that if anything is like it
says Philadelphia, it's like, well that's a boy, cream cheese
on it. Anyway, you're sound, that's funny. Here's the sound,
(38:45):
all right, can't mean any.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Just no way. I mean it sounds like we're in
a space ship. Yeah, like very like you're being sucked
up into a UFO.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
It's Aliens.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
It's Aliens. That's my guests. They're Aliens.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Underwater underwater alien. Man. I wish there was I wish
there was that movie Underwater Aliens. Is there is there
underwater Aliens?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
I don't know what God not that I know, but
I think you're onto something. Movie. Make this very biologically
accurate movie.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right, there's got to be an underwater Aliens movie. The
abyss is that uh by James Cameron?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh he did that and Avatar. He's just like writing
about alien guys.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Aiend. He just wants any excuse he can get to
be in a submarine. This is what I figured. This
is what I've learned about James Cameron is that his
entire movie making career is just so he can get
into a submarine and he actually does it right, you know,
unlike the other unfortunately unfortunate rich guys who did that.
(39:57):
Did that? Did that? I forget what was that submarine
that did not did not submerse properly Ocean Gate titan Uh, yeah,
that was nasty business. No, James Cameron actually does that,
except he knows what he's doing, so like he lives
(40:19):
through it. So he's gone into a very deep sea submarines.
And yeah, because I like he's because so he he uh.
He obviously did the Titanic and Avatar and did all
this like technological what's it? But I think the Abyss
(40:40):
I have not seen it, but apparently, with a quick
look at the old Wikipedia, seems to be about a
submarine that finds aliens underwater. So that's neat.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Okay, I gotta check up the Aboo right.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
The fact it's by James Cameron and yet I've never
heard of it does make me think that maybe it's
not good.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
It's bad.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That is probably a bad a bad movie. Hey, you
know what, like it's Halloween times. Maybe check it out?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Uh, check out the abass are We? Bookie season recommendation for.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Today the abase without ever having seen it or being
able to attest to its quality. Go watch the OBSS
and it's always sent you through the perspective of James
Cameron just really really likes to be in submarines. Well, Kimmia,
thank you so much for joining me today. Where can
(41:39):
the people find you?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
You can find me on Instagram at child Clown. Thanks
for having me. I love doing this show because I
learned so many silly things.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
It's just like I feel bad that I like made
you listen to the poop stuff twice.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And No, it was kind of fun because I knew
where we were going, and then I got to kind
of me the expert, as I said one thing, being like, oh,
these are the guys that you poop.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
I was like, suddenly I'm a biologist.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
You're suddenly biologist. Jane goodall over here, guys, thank you
so much for listening. If you think you know who
made the mis or animal sound, or you have any questions,
you can write to me at Creature feature Pod at
gmail dot com. Thanks to the space Cossics for their
super awesome song Exolumina. Creature features a production of iHeartRadio.
(42:29):
For more podcasts like the one you just listened to
is the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or hey, guess what
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I'm not sure, mother,
I can't judge you, I can't tell you what to view.
But if you are in a horror movie and you
have like a bat theme villain, it's more likely to
(42:54):
grab you with giant rake than to bite your neck,
So watch out for that. Mm hmm. Rakes are spooky.
I'm calling it. Rakes are the spookiest, spookiest thing. Uh
see you next Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
M
Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on the show, we are talking about murderous
bats and the bats who love them, from scary draculas
who have a soft side, to beats who are the
scourge of the water. These bats have unusual victims. Joining
(00:30):
me today to discuss some spooky spunky bats is actor comedians.
She's been in shows like Abby's Hacks, Abbott, Elementary Lucifer
and After Midnight It's Kimmy of a Portia.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome. Wow. When you said bats, you left out the
murderous part. Uh. When you teed up what we be
chatting about, and.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We're talking about we're talking about bad boy bats, like
these are the bad boys of the bat world. There's many,
many species of bats, hundreds of species of bats, and
a lot of them are real cute where they just
kind of like sip nectar, eat fruit, eat bugs. These
guys are a little more hardcore. I thought it's sort
(01:11):
of Halloween speed speas and it's spooky speason. Uh. And
so we got to talk about some spooky bats who
actually are while not dangerous to people, they are they
are dangerous to some animals and perhaps fit the spooky
(01:34):
theme a little more than like say, an adorable fruit bat.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's fair, But I feel like you tell me, because
you'll know, what is the bat that we're like hanging
all over our homes on these decorations, the like plainest looking.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Bat, you mean, like the like you know.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
The classic Halloween decor Halloween decorvette.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You know, I actually do have an answer to that,
which and this is very opinion based because, like you know,
I would say that the Halloween de coor bat probably
does vary a bit. But the one that to me
looks like the most sort of like this bat is
(02:19):
going to turn into a Dracula at any moment, is
the spectral bat? Actually have an image of that for
you look at it? Yeah, it is like it's got
just kind of the classic bat features. It's it's relatively large, actually,
it's it's got a wingspan of about three feet.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You know, it's it's like I would say, it is large,
large mouse, small rat sized in its body. Uh, And
it has just the classic bat presentation where it's got fangs,
it's got the snubnose. It's got kind of an elongated face.
(03:06):
I would say that this one, like when I like,
let me see if I just like google Halloween decoration bat.
I mean a lot of them are a lot of
them are just black outlines. So that's there's that, right,
But yeah, when I look at like sort of the
more realistic ones. Actually a lot some of the like
(03:28):
realistic ones, Like they go for really big ones, so
then they model them after fruit bats, who actually are
quite large. But yeah, they're fruit bats. There. They don't
they don't drink blood, they don't eat eat. But yeah,
I would say that this one, the spectral bat, is
(03:49):
the sort of to me, one of the more classic
spooky looking bats.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, and I believe you. I'm looking at it. That
looks like that looks like all the haunted house hanging guys.
It's black, you know I think of bats, you think
like pitch black. Like the wings. I mean, his body's
like a little bit brown and fuzzy. But yeah, that's it.
That's the guy.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's the guy. That's the one. They're also known as
false vampire bats because a lot of people kind of
have the misapprehension that because they have those long teeth
that they are vampire bats. I mean, this looks like
this looks sort of like a classic vampire but something
that you would expect to like fly up to you,
(04:30):
like bite your neck or something, they don't do that.
They don't do that. Vampire bats tend to be much smaller.
They usually have pretty snubby faces. Actually, there's only I
think about three species of true vampire bats who drink blood.
So actually, when you're looking at the hundreds of species
(04:52):
of bats, very few of them actually drink blood. This
one does not drink blood. This one's actually found in Mexico,
South and Central America, which actually that is the region
where vampire bats do tend to be. But yeah, this one,
(05:14):
despite having those really long things that look like you know,
it would be using that for sip in blood carry. Yeah,
they do not feed on blood. But in my opinion,
they're actually more menacing than vampire bats because vampire bats,
despite sort of their you know, spooky name, they they
(05:36):
do drink blood, but they're more like parasites than they
are predators. We will talk later in the show about
a case in which they are they are actually a
threat to the animals that they prey on. But usually
it's like they will nip at the ankles of some livestock,
kind of lap at the blood a little bit, and
(05:58):
unless they intentionally spread some disease, they're not really harming, uh,
their their host. It's more like it they're more like
fluffy mosquitoes.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I was gonna say mosquito. That's exactly what it sounds
like to me. Keeping at the ankles.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Come on, I know, that's yeah, that's it's like the
most annoying place to get the mosquito bite and also
one of the more because that's your ankles are often
the thing that's uncovered, right you're wearing maybe you're wearing jeans,
kulottes just in case you got to wade through some
water and you're wearing sanday, yeah, and then you get
(06:37):
you get the bites right on the like right on
the ankle bone is the worst, and they seem to
love it. So I hate that so much. Uh, it's
just because in it there's not a lot of meat
to itch down there. It's yeah, no, it's it's very bad.
So yeah, these are these are they're more vampire bats
(06:59):
and more like pests. They're menaces. They're not really that
scary in terms of like they don't drain blood, humans
certainly don't have much to worry about from them, Like
occasionally there will be there's only one species of vampire
bat that frequently encounters humans and might sometimes drink human blood.
(07:23):
But again, like they're not draining blood. They usually only
do it to people who work on farms with livestock.
So so, yeah, vampire bats not that scary. But these guys,
these spectral bats, I would say they kind of fit
the villainous bat description a little more because even though
they don't drink blood, they are carnivores and they're not
(07:47):
just insectivores. Like there are a lot of species of
bats who eat insects. It's great, they eat up mosquitoes,
so like they are actually yeah, like we're we're on
team bats when it comes to mosquitoes. So they're they're great, right,
But no, these guys actually are very fierce hunters. They're carnivores,
(08:09):
and while they do eat insects, sometimes they will eat
birds and other bats and rodents as well. Like they're
big enough that they can actually snatch sizeable small mammals
and eat them.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh, they're eating other bats eating other bats.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
It's bats. Uh, it's bats. The bats. It's very sad
to see. So they stalk their prey. Actually, in terms
of eating other bats, they'll sometimes eat vampire bats because
vampire bats are pretty yeah, they're pretty small, so they
can they can grab them and they'll silently like hover
(08:53):
above their victims. They use echolocation to find them, uh,
and then they swoop down grab them with their claws,
and then those you know those teeth that have those
like big fangs that make them look like a little draculas,
they use those more like a jaguar than they Then,
like a vampire, they bite down on the skull of
(09:17):
their prey to kill them. Oh, and then fly their
lifeless bodies back to their roost where they feed on
all the edible parts and just dump the inedible parts
like feathers, tails, bones down in a big pile beneath them. So, yeah,
these are these are the real deal. These are the
These are the most halloweeny bats I think out there.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Dang, they're dumping these bones like they've got a crypt
down there. Yeah, the little catacombs. Yeah, of they're dead
prey freaky guys.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, they've got a big big bone pile under them,
and they're social, so they roost with other spectral bats
and so they having a bone bone party, bone party. Yeah. Actually,
so like, yeah, when you're ranking bats in terms of
sort of bad boy scary monster behavior, I think that
(10:14):
these ones rank pretty high. But still it's kind of
funny is when it comes to their own species, they're
really really sweet. So when they're not out murdering, they're
actually really nice. Wow. They greet their friends with like
this little hug, so they kind of like wrap their
(10:36):
wings around each other. Uh, it's very cute.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I like them now. Yeah all you need, all I
need out of animals is that they like hugs, and
I'm in.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah. They cuddle their families in sort of like a
big sort of hug ball. They all like snuggle together.
Males will bring food to their female partners when she's nursing,
so she can't really hunt while she's nursing, so her
male partner will bring her food, you know, like a
(11:07):
murder victim of course. But yeah. Still. Parents will also
bring prey to their pups once their pups are big
enough to start eating solid food. Uh. And yeah, they
they just kind of exhibit very like fun, spunky behavior.
They like to play with each other. They'll chase bugs
(11:29):
around like they they don't even like they'll chase cockroaches
and stuff and bugs that are in their roost, and
then they don't even necessarily kill them. They'll like catch
up to them and be like, all right, keep running
because like this is fun for me. They're like little
They're basically like little flying house cats.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I guess, so that's kind of cute. I wish they'd
get those cockroaches though. Yeah, those guys they were killings
a mosquitoes, they'd be my heroes.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I mean, I do think they probably kill cockroaches pretty frequently.
I don't know. I don't know if they're eating mosquitoes
that might be a little too small for them. But yeah,
cockroaches I think would be something that they would would
kill and eat. But yeah, it's just it's like they're
they have kind of the same demeanor as like house cats.
Maybe they're even a little more social than housecats. But yeah,
(12:19):
like they go out, they murder, and then they come
home and they cuddle.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So far, I like this murderer. This murderer is not.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So bad, right, It's like it's like Jason Voorhees after
like a long day of murdering camp counselors, like just
comes home as his wife and his kid. They're all
like wearing the little hockey masks. Uh yeah, just uh
you know, haven't.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
An they chase their neighbor around. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
But we're gonna take a quick break and then we're
going to talk about a couple of diminiscing bats. Uh include,
And these ones have a very interesting sort of like
the dark Knight theme, except this is the darkest night. Uh,
Batman's getting naughty with it will be your back, so
(13:17):
you know Batman Robin there? Uh what I mean what
like Robin's ward. I've never quite understood the legality of that.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, he's just quite literally just it's plainly and he's
just the sidekick, right, Yeah, he's like tags along, he's
like an intern.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
He's an intern. Well, in the wild, bats and Robin's
don't necessarily get along. In fact, there has been a
recent exciting scientific discovery which is that a bout was
observed eating a robin. Oh and we as we just discussed,
bats do eat birds, so that's not necessarily like with
(13:56):
a spectral bat, that's it's not necessarily news, but usually
it's by snatching them from nests or while they're roosting,
so kind of like when they're just hanging out. But
there have been new observations that show some bats have
mastered and even more impressive bird snatching method of grabbing
(14:18):
migratory birds right out of the air while they are
migrating and then eating them mid air. So yeah, no, yeah, yeah,
like little like that, like little fluffy drones, murder drones,
but fluffy. So this guy, this guy is called the
(14:39):
Greater Noctual bat. Actually he's pretty cute. He's kind of
a goofball. Like the one we just talked about. The
spectral bats kind of look like your classic spooky HALLOWEENI bat.
This one looks like a funny little guy. He's the
largest bat in Europe. He's got a wingspan of one
and a half feet, as fluff brown fur and rounded
(15:01):
ears and kind of a goofy face. I did share
an image of them with you.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
He just kind of you know, yeah, I am looking
at it. It looks like a squish faced dog. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, he's cute, I think, in a kind of doofe
looking the way, don't he doesn't look particularly murderous, but
he is. So these guys are able to snatch migratory
birds mid flight and just eat them like in the air.
(15:34):
So this was first documented in Spain in twenty twenty three,
when researchers recorded a noctual that grab a European robin.
By the way, European Robin's one of my favorite birds.
They're so cute. They're these adorable, little, round, fluffy guys.
They're very friendly, very sweet sounding.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
So this is so sad. Why did you add that
that makes me more or upset to be?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Like, well, I just want to be I want to
be fair to all the participants in this, Like I
love bats and I think this is very cool, but
I also really feel very bad for this poor robin.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I feel bad for the robins. Yeah, they're migrating. It's
if you were on a road trip and somebody ate
you while you were in your car.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, that's it pretty much just grabbed you and ate
you like an impanada. Yeah. So they the the way
they recorded the feeding was by attaching a little backpack
onto a bat. And this backpack recorded sounds like it's
it's to keep things small. It just had audio capabilities.
(16:44):
They didn't weren't. Like, they didn't put like a GoPro
on a bat because then the bat when you're able
to fly. Yeah, so it's a recording of it echo locating, uh,
finding the bird. You can hear the They identified the
species of bird by the sounds of its panicked peeping,
(17:06):
which is very sad. I played with the idea of
playing the audio on the show. No, I decided not to.
I mean I will in the show notes. I'll include
a link to the article where if you would like
to listen to it, you can listen to it. It's like,
I think it's kind of it's like weirdly distressing because
(17:27):
this is like animals, right, and we're all used to
Animal Planet and animals eating each other. But somehow, when
it's in an audio only format, it makes it really
creepy because you.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So much more sinister.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
It really is, because you hear the echo locating, you
hear like the chirping of the bird, and then this
like crunch and then silence, no, and then like the
sound of the back crunching on bone. I decided not
to not to play the sound.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Uh good, but.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, but if you're interested the there's a Scientific American
article you can read I'll include in the show notes,
uh called this bat recorded itself catching and eating a
songbird in mid air and it's exactly what it sounds like.
Uh yeah, so yeah, they they they found the new
(18:24):
new spooky bat stuff happening. The researchers were super excited
about it, uh, which is just like, yeah, this is
this is beautiful and wonderful and it's just them having
recorded like audio of a bat crunch showing down on
a bird.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I'm proud of you guys.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, good job researchers. Another interesting thing, so like kind
of uh, we're a little batman themed here because this
is bats versus penguines. Oh you know, like so we
so yeah in real life, like if it was a batman,
like a man with the sort of instincts of a bat,
(19:06):
it would be eaten Robin, but it would also be
going after the penguin. It would it would not be
a great situation for Gotham. I'm going to say that.
So yeah, because like in real life, bats are the
enemies of penguins, which sounds strange because bats do not
like cold weather, and we associate penguins with cold weather.
(19:30):
But in southern Peru there is this very limited region
where there are actually penguins that live there and bats
because it's tropical enough for the bats, and there are
species of penguins that actually live in more tropical environments
who don't live in the freezing cold of the Antarctic. So, Kimmia,
(19:51):
actually I did not mean to do this, but the
last time I had you on, I think it was
it was on a on a Poop episode. I talked
about these penguins and when I was like, I was
sort of looking at my old research unintentionally, this is
the exact thing I talked to you about, like the
(20:12):
last time you're on.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Well, are these the ones that shoot the poop?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes, these are the penguins that shoot the poop? IM
but I gotta I gotta mention them because it's a
it's these vampire bats. Who are these a menace to
these poor little penguins. They're very cute penguins. I think
the bats are cute too. I don't know who decide
with because I base all of my moral decisions on cuteness.
(20:38):
But anyways, the the they usually don't cause to many problems.
They usually feed on larger, larger mammals, but they they
sometimes will go and pick on the umble penguin chicks,
who are more defenseless than the adults. And it's a
problem because the the chicks don't have a lot of
(21:01):
defenses and it can actually can weaken them. So it's
like they don't usually outright drain them of all their
blood and kill them. That's not that's not typically what happens.
But if it's a vulnerable chick, so if they're drinking
its blood and potentially passing disease, that we're leaving it
without a lot of its blood that it needs, it
(21:23):
can be deadly or certainly weaken them and harm them.
So in order to protect their chicks, the adults will
launch a full scale assaults on the bats. They start
with screaming at them. If that doesn't work, they kick
dirt at them, and if that doesn't work, they have
their secret weapon, which is shooting their poop.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Wow, that's good, and you know what, I'm cool that
now that I've heard a lot about the spot. He
freaking deserves it stinks.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
He's yeah, he's he's biting babies. That's that's not great.
But yeah, Humboldt penguins are so well known for their
poop shooting techniques. There was a paper that won the
Ignoble Prize in Fluid Dynamics in two thousand and five
that studied the pressures and forces required for the penguins
(22:17):
to project al shoot their poop. The study is called
Pressures produced when Penguins pooh Calculations on Avian defication. So yeah,
I mean it's.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Almost funnier when you use all of the official terms
right in the title of that Adian defecations.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah, uh, it's it's it's was a very good paper.
The Ignoble Prize is not necessarily for bad research, it's
for good research. That's really funny.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Also, that's exactly what that is.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, So in real life, you would like Batman would
fight the penguin, but it would get really bad, really gross,
really bad. Like I feel like the penguin in the
movies is just depicted as being pretty gross. Uh, like,
especially Danny DeVito's one, Like they did a Dandy the
(23:14):
Danny DeVito version. I forgot which Batman that was in?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Uh is Forever?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
No Batman? Maybe? Was that? Which one Batman Forever?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Was?
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The nipples one? With George Clooney where they had the
outfits with the nipples baked in Batman Forever, right am
I Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
No, no, I think I am right. I think that's
the George Clooney version. No, wait, is that I got
I gotta get this right, Yeah, we need it Batman Forever.
No that No, that had Val Kilmer in it. Okay,
so yeah, I don't know, but yeah, that had Val
Kilmer in it. It had The Riddler as Jim Carroll. Yeah,
(24:03):
there's been so many, there's been too many Batman's Batman
with Danny de vit Vito as the Penguin. That was
Batman Returns, Returns by Tim Burton. They really yes, right yeah?
(24:25):
And this yeah, it had Michael Keaton as Batman again
he came back. They really did a number on Danny DeVito.
They made his mouth black for some reason. Yeah, they
made him look gross, but I don't think they had
him shoot poop, so which is like.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
A missed opportunity, you know, they're gross, like just kind of.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, like commit to it because he has little penguin friends.
I think in the movie.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Oh if he doesn't actually do the but all of
his minions and henchmen are run out of the woodwork
to come shoot poop at Batman.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It's just pretty.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It should be the penguin sort of sitting the bird
style on an awning and then like when Batman comes,
they like turn around and then start trying to snipe
at them with like with poop missiles, deadly poop.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
That's really good.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
This is why they need to consult biologists for Batman.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I agree. I agree. These movies would be so much
funnier and more accurate.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And more accurate. Accuracy is always funnier. We're going to
take a quick break and when we get back, we're
going to talk about a couple of other bats who
have unusual dietary requirement. So these bats are I think
really cool. Like these are bats who do not do
(25:57):
the normal bat thing of either eating insects, birds, fruit, nectar,
or blood. They have one particular thing they like to
eat and that's fish. These are fish eating bats. There
are bats who specialize in fishing. There are two species
(26:17):
that do this. There's the greater bulldog bat found in
Latin America and the fish eating miotis found in the
Gulf of California. I feel like in terms of names,
the greater bulldog bat really won out, Like that's a
nice kind of name descriptive, whereas the fish eating miotis
(26:41):
is like kind of sounds like a disease.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
It does, the myotis part is really giving a disease. Yeah,
you're so right, where it's just like or it's that
one's better because the greater bulldog bat plasier yeah, after
a different animal.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Usually when it's when it's like a greater or a lesser,
it means, uh, it is slightly larger or slightly smaller
than some other relative species. But it does sound very judgmental,
like the greater bulldog bat, like there's a there's a
kind of crappy bulldog bat out there that you you
(27:23):
don't want to you don't want to deal with. But
because this, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
It's just like a stupid bed that just sits on
the dock.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, the sucky bulldog bat that nobody likes. But yeah,
like its name implies, the greater bulldog bat has a droopy,
jowly face. It also has orange fur and these very
weird rake like feet. I have shared with you some
photosipless guy. His face is really very bulldog esque. Yes,
(27:54):
got the jowls, but he's also got this bright orange fur.
He's it's a very silly looking bat.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
These nails look a little bit like what some people
would bring in to the salon. Yeah, I'd like this please.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, no, these are they they are definitely what are
those like acrylics or the way you get the like
long the long sort of rake like.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Things, somel.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, these are fashion and function, Yes they are.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
They use echolocation to detect ripples on the surface of
bodies of water. These are going to be streams, rivers, ponds,
and lagoons. The ripples indicate the presence of fish, and
so the bulldog bats swoop down. They use their clawed
rake like feet to catch the fish and then shoves
(28:46):
the fish into their mouths. And the reason they have
these jowls is that they need space for the fish.
So they're kind of like pelicans in that way. It's
very fun that like when they actually have their mouths
full of fish, they look very weird. I have shared
(29:08):
that with you as well. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
it's h it's there's a few ways you might describe this.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
The better way I'm gonna say, is like a juicy butt.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Like a juicy butt is one way. For sure, it's
kind of cute because it like, it looks very pleased
with itself, because its little lips are sort of stretched
into a smile, and then underneath it are these two
sort of bulbous cheeks. Ye bowl with fish. It's sort
of like the way that a hamster shoves things in
(29:45):
its mouth, but it's sort of below the chin. So
I mean, you know, maybe a little scrotle one might say,
But is.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
What I was trying to not say.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeh, there we go, but you know, you kind of
have to. I mean, and it's that's it, plain as
day it is. But you know, so that's that's a
happy Greater Bulldog bat full of fish. Yeah there. I mean,
it's just kind of one of those things where there
there are so many species of bats, and our concept
(30:17):
of bat behavior is like, you know, I think most
people know about fruit bats, most people know about vampire
bats and insect eating bats, but there's a lot of
like variation in bat diets, like these guys. These guys fish,
and there are bats who only drink nectar and their
bodies are very specialized for these tasks. So there's this
(30:41):
completely unrelated species of bat who also fishes. Uh, this
one actually is a sea bat. This is scretch of
the sea. Its name is unfortunately not sea bat. It's
the fish eating miotis, which it.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Makes it sea.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, I know, it's it's really too bad. But it's
a cute little brown bat with a white belly. Doesn't
really look too much like the bulldog bat. But it
shares the same rake like feet. Ah. So it feeds
on marine fish and crustaceans. Uh. It's so well adapted
(31:24):
for sea life that it has evolved to be able
to drink sea water and pee out the salt. So
it's uh, it's drinking. It's drinking seawater and pissing out
the salt, which sounds like something like a hardened sailor
would like say.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Oh, you're so right, right drinking the seawater and.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Perfect. Yes. So yeah, these little guys they're very like
they're they're se like like the idea that there are
like sea bats bats who fish in in the in
the sea and roost on the coastline. They exist. Uh,
they also share their roosts with petrels. Petrels are a
(32:10):
species of sea bird. And really interestingly, like we've we've
talked on the show about bats, basically all these other
bats being the enemies of birds, like it's not a
good snatching them out of the air and chewing on
their bones. These ones, actually I'm ending on a little
(32:32):
bit more of a positive note because these have a
nice relationship with the with the petrels, So the bats
do not really bother the petrels at all. The bats fish,
you know, they're they're they're fisher bats. Uh. And but
the petrels have learned to roost near the bats because
the bats are really aggressive towards these predatory lizards because
(32:56):
there are these lizards who will go after both the
bats young, but they also go after the petrels eggs
and their chicks. So the petrels don't really know how
to deal with the lizards. They they are a little
bit they just get a little spooked by them. But
the bats are really aggressive and they will like aggressively
(33:19):
go after lizards and start attacking them, beating their wings
at them. So the petrels, by nesting near the bats,
actually are thought to benefit from the bats protection. So
they so these these fish eating miotises are sort of
the more batman like of the bats in terms of.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
WHOA, that's right, they're fighting crimes exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
They're fighting crime and not eating the baby birds, which
is nice of them. Yeah, but yeah, they so. They
They are pretty chill, pretty cool bats, unless you're fish,
in which case they will skim along the surface of
(34:07):
the water and they dunk their little rake like feet
in like fishing nets and catch them. Yeah, which is
just I don't know, I think that's pretty cute.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I'm impressed. I went fishing for the first time this year,
and I did it for maybe three minutes because I
hated it. But I it was not easy.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, I mean a lot of it's just sitting around
right like, you're not.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That part I liked. I didn't like putting the worm
on the hook. Ah yeah, or guy, yeah, it's just
squirming and I have to like impale it with a hook.
Yeah Nope, not for me.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
I chickened out me too. I feel like if I
had rakes for feet, it'd be a lot easier, though,
Oh totally yeaheah.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I'd be scoop and fish left and write out the water.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
In your big bulldog jowls that are two sacks under
your chin that you can stuff fish into. Yeah, someone
should try it. Someone should like paraglide with rakes attached
to their feet and see how good you are at fishing. Like,
you know, try that. That would be the real batman.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
That is the real batman.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's the real batman right there. So before we go,
we gotta play a little game. This is called I
Guess you squawking the Mystery Animal sound game. Last week's
Mystery Animal sound The hint was this, it may sound
like a cat call, but I assure you this animal
(35:47):
wants nothing to do with cat, all right, kimya, I promise.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I'm not going to what this is.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
There's no way, I promise to you it's not. It's
not a construction worker harassing. Oh yeah, exactly. So this
is the screaming piha. It's a bird. It is a
relatively mundane looking bird that lives in the Amazon Lowlands. Uh.
(36:23):
It's actually member of the kotinga family, which includes some
of the most brightly colored, beautiful birds in the world.
This is not that kind of bird. It's very drab looking.
Like if you look, I don't Yeah, if you look
at a picture of it. It's just like, yeah, great bird,
that's it. It's not it's not very exciting, but yeah,
(36:44):
makes up for it with its distinctive wolf whistle call
of going like I can't. I'm not gonna whistle against
this microphone. That's gonna be a horrible experience for everyone.
But yeah it does the loa like wee wo sound
wo woo. A little flirty, little frisky, little flirty. But yeah,
(37:05):
it's definitely uh one of the there's a lot of
tropical birds, and so many of them are beautiful to
look at. This one's kind of a dud, but you know, hey,
it's got break. Makes up for it with charisma.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Oh yeah, that's a beautiful little voice right there.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Right, it's very it's very fun and flirty. All right,
Well onto this week's mister ann will sound. The hint
is this uh something is lurking in the cold waters
and it's adorable. Not that that's a that's an Italian ad.
(37:46):
Actually it's for that's an Italian ad for cream cheese.
Did you know that? Like they just called cream cheese
in Italy Philadelphia?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Oh I did know that. Yeah, the brand.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
They just call it Philadelphia. So if you're at a
restaurant I hate personally, I do not like cream cheese.
So I have learned that if anything is like it
says Philadelphia, it's like, well that's a boy, cream cheese
on it. Anyway, you're sound, that's funny. Here's the sound,
(38:45):
all right, can't mean any.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Just no way. I mean it sounds like we're in
a space ship. Yeah, like very like you're being sucked
up into a UFO.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
It's Aliens.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
It's Aliens. That's my guests. They're Aliens.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Underwater underwater alien. Man. I wish there was I wish
there was that movie Underwater Aliens. Is there is there
underwater Aliens?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
I don't know what God not that I know, but
I think you're onto something. Movie. Make this very biologically
accurate movie.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right, there's got to be an underwater Aliens movie. The
abyss is that uh by James Cameron?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh he did that and Avatar. He's just like writing
about alien guys.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Aiend. He just wants any excuse he can get to
be in a submarine. This is what I figured. This
is what I've learned about James Cameron is that his
entire movie making career is just so he can get
into a submarine and he actually does it right, you know,
unlike the other unfortunately unfortunate rich guys who did that.
(39:57):
Did that? Did that? I forget what was that submarine
that did not did not submerse properly Ocean Gate titan Uh, yeah,
that was nasty business. No, James Cameron actually does that,
except he knows what he's doing, so like he lives
(40:19):
through it. So he's gone into a very deep sea submarines.
And yeah, because I like he's because so he he uh.
He obviously did the Titanic and Avatar and did all
this like technological what's it? But I think the Abyss
(40:40):
I have not seen it, but apparently, with a quick
look at the old Wikipedia, seems to be about a
submarine that finds aliens underwater. So that's neat.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Okay, I gotta check up the Aboo right.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
The fact it's by James Cameron and yet I've never
heard of it does make me think that maybe it's
not good.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
It's bad.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That is probably a bad a bad movie. Hey, you
know what, like it's Halloween times. Maybe check it out?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Uh, check out the abass are We? Bookie season recommendation for.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Today the abase without ever having seen it or being
able to attest to its quality. Go watch the OBSS
and it's always sent you through the perspective of James
Cameron just really really likes to be in submarines. Well, Kimmia,
thank you so much for joining me today. Where can
(41:39):
the people find you?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
You can find me on Instagram at child Clown. Thanks
for having me. I love doing this show because I
learned so many silly things.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
It's just like I feel bad that I like made
you listen to the poop stuff twice.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And No, it was kind of fun because I knew
where we were going, and then I got to kind
of me the expert, as I said one thing, being like, oh,
these are the guys that you poop.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
I was like, suddenly I'm a biologist.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
You're suddenly biologist. Jane goodall over here, guys, thank you
so much for listening. If you think you know who
made the mis or animal sound, or you have any questions,
you can write to me at Creature feature Pod at
gmail dot com. Thanks to the space Cossics for their
super awesome song Exolumina. Creature features a production of iHeartRadio.
(42:29):
For more podcasts like the one you just listened to
is the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or hey, guess what
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I'm not sure, mother,
I can't judge you, I can't tell you what to view.
But if you are in a horror movie and you
have like a bat theme villain, it's more likely to
(42:54):
grab you with giant rake than to bite your neck,
So watch out for that. Mm hmm. Rakes are spooky.
I'm calling it. Rakes are the spookiest, spookiest thing. Uh
see you next Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
M
Creature Feature News
Host
Katie Goldin
Show Links
RSSAbout Creature FeatureTheme SongPopular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.