July 20, 2018 • 35 mins
Is Florida the birthplace of ostrich racing? Why do male Emperor penguins get an extra stomach flap? And why should you be extra wary of a loose Cassowary? Mango and Gabe run through their biggest questions about the world’s biggest birds.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
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 (00:00):
Guess what gave? What's that? So I read this great
story in Scientific American. It's called Saving California Condors with
a chisel and hand puppets. So it has to be
one of the greatest titles I've read in a while.
But are you familiar with these birds? I mean, I
know they're huge birds, and I think they're in danger too,
(00:20):
aren't they. Yeah, that's right. So they were close to
extinction a few decades ago. I think the count was
down to just over twenty birds in the early eighties,
and that's actually when the Oregon Zoo stepped in. So
one of the strange things about condor eggs is that
sometimes the chicks aren't actually strong enough to break out
of the shells. So the caretakers at the zoo like
they stand by ready with a chisel to help them
(00:42):
break out. And in fact, it worked so well that
the zoo is now raised more than seventy condor chicks.
That's awesome. But what do they do then? Do they
release them into the wild? Yeah, but if the chicks
are raised in captivity without their parents, the minders have
to be really careful about how they feed them, because
you know, they don't want these birds to be too
trusting of humans, so they have these hand puppets made
(01:04):
to look like condors, and that's what they used to
feed the little hatchlings. But reading that story made me think,
you know, maybe it's time to do an episode on
some of the world's largest birds and also all the
secrets we definitely don't know about them, So let's dive in. Hey,
(01:41):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm mongo
Iss Articula and my good pal Will Pearson's on vacation today.
But I am so thrilled because I get to hang
out with the wonderful Gabe Luisier, who's on the line
with me. Hey, Gabe, how's it going. Hey, it's going well.
Thanks for having me. It's great to have you, gave
And on the other side of the soundproof glass car
having into the biggest, fattest turkey I've seen this side
(02:03):
of Thanksgiving. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. And
I've got to say, while Tristan's on theme as usual,
it does feel a little weird to watch him chow
down on a bird while we're also talking about birds. Yeah,
I mean, I was hoping we'd get to see Tristan
in like a big bird costume today, or maybe find
out that he's secretly been taking falconry classes or something. Well,
(02:26):
we should put that in the suggestion box for next time,
I think. But today's episode is all about the world's
largest birds. Yeah, that's right. We scoured the skies to
find the most oversized birds out there, and now it's
time to spill all their juicy secrets, like how have
large birds adapted for survival and how they got so
(02:46):
big in the first place. But you know, a mango,
I'm curious, where do you want to start with this one?
So I thought I kicked things off with a nice,
feel good story about one of the world's largest birds,
which is the wandering albatross. And this species of albatross
is big by just about any measure. Their bodies are
about three and a half feet from bill to tail.
They weigh twenty some pounds on average. But without a doubt,
(03:09):
their biggest and most striking feature has to be their
enormous wingspan. Because you know, I'm sure you probably know this.
Wandering albatrosses have the largest wingspan of any living bird.
It's between eleven and twelve feet from tip to tip,
and with wings that big, you know, these birds are
obviously built for flight. They've actually been known to circumnavigate
(03:30):
the Southern Ocean up to three times in a single year,
and one bird in particular is known to have traveled
nearly four thousand miles in just twelve days, which is
so impressive of course, but like, what's their secret for
covering that kind of distance? Because you have to think
that flapping a pair of twelve foot wings must take
an awful lot of energy. Yeah, there's really no way
an albatross could do that by flapping like they'd be
(03:52):
exhausted within an hour tops. Instead, albatross has actually used
this method called dynamics soaring, and it allows them to
a glide across these incredible distances without needing to flap
their wings. And this works because the birds have this
special tendon in each of their shoulders that helps lock
their wings into place. It's kind of a birdie cruise control,
(04:13):
and once their wings are locked into position, albatross is
simply glide along, swooping as needed to catch the wind
and gradually rise back up. That's really cool, but I
mean they never have to stop and take a rest
or anything. No, not really. I mean it's hard to
walk on land with that twelve foot wingspan. So apart
from mating season, wandering albatrosses tend to stick to the
(04:36):
air as much as possible. And there is one exception though,
if an albatross goes crazy and just eats way too
many fish, they might need to take a break and
float on top of the water for a while, you know,
until they've digested. Well that's pretty cute, but I think
you said you had a feel good story about albatross
is like, well, what exactly does that mean? Yeah, that's right,
(04:57):
and it's actually about one albatross in particular. Her name
is Wisdom, and as of this year, she's going to
be sixty seven years old, which makes her the world's
oldest known wild bird. She was born sometime in one
but this Biologists started tracking her in nineteen fifty six,
and since then, Wisdom has managed to rack up somewhere
between two to three million miles in flying time, which
(05:20):
is the equivalent of about four to six trips to
the moon and back. Gosh, that's incredible, or at least
I think it's incredible. I mean, I actually don't know
how long albatross is typically lived, do you. Yeah, I
mean it depends on the species, but they live I
guess for you to fifty years if they're lucky. Albatrosses
are one of those rare species of birds and wild
(05:41):
animals in general. I guess that sometimes live long enough
to die of old age. Well, I guess that's, you know,
one of the perks of that wandering lifestyle, right, because
I mean, if you're constantly on the move flying over
an ocean, you pretty much have an unlimited food supply
right there below you, and most predators wouldn't be able
to keep up with you anyway. Yeah, that's definitely true,
(06:01):
and amazingly the biggest threats to albatrosses are natural disasters
and also I guess the consumption of plastic, both of
which Wisdom has managed to avoid for almost seven decades now.
But perhaps the most interesting thing to me was that
she's birth and raised over forty chicks over her long lifetime,
and that includes her most recent one, which was hatched
(06:22):
just this spring. I've always thought albatrosses were really cool,
you know, partially because of all the old sea myths
around them, and also that epic collar ridge poem. But
you know, nowadays they mostly make the news. You know,
there's like YouTube videos and stuff that just kind of
make fun of how silly they look when they're trying
to walk on land, which kind of a bummer. I mean,
even the name albatross, which is pretty awkward in its
(06:45):
own right, Like it was apparently just taken from words
used to describe other sea birds. So it comes from algatas,
which was I guess, this Arabic word for a sea eagle,
and and then that was adapted into a Spanish word alcatraz,
which was the word for a pelican, and then finally
the word made into English. I guess this is the
seventeenth century, and that's when we got the word albatross. Well.
(07:10):
As poorly conceived as that name is, I think penguins
might have it even worse. And that's because way back
when sailors actually used to call them ours feet. That's ridiculous,
I know, and I mean you can guess why. Yeah,
I mean, it's on account of their short legs and
(07:30):
their feet being so close to their backsides. But you know,
thankfully the Welsh did come up with their own name penguin,
which literally translates as white head. So I like, how
both these names that are on such random characteristics, Like
you know, if if I was defining a penguin the
fact that it's bum touches his feet like that wouldn't
(07:50):
be a defining characteristic, you know, or or that they
have white heads, like do penguins even have white heads? Well,
I mean the white head name it was actually another
are a case of mistaken bird identity, just you know,
just like with the albatross, the Welsh applied the name
penguin to their local great ac population, and you know,
and ac being another kind of giant black and white
(08:12):
see birds. So the thinking is that some sailors just
mistook penguins for ox and the name just stuck. I mean,
I think we've got to make emotion to stop letting
sailors name things because they always get it wrong. But
I'm with you. Also, this is kind of random, but
have you heard Benedict Cumberbatch try to say the word penguins, Like,
(08:34):
for whatever reason, he always winds up calling them penguins
or penglings. It's just hilarious because he winds up doing
all this like penguin content, like he was in this
cartoon penguin movie and he did the narration for a
BBC documentary about penguins, and the whole time he's just
butchering the name, Like I have no idea how he
(08:55):
lands these gigs or why no one corrects him. That's
pretty hilarious. I had no idea, but I'm going to
YouTube it right after this episode. Should but you know,
since we're on the subject of penguins or penguins if
you prefer, we should really take a few minutes to
talk about the largest of their kind, which of course
our emperor penguins, and these big birds stand around four
(09:17):
ft tall, which makes them the largest of the eighteen
penguin species found on Earth. And you know, also a
far cry from the smallest penguin species, and that's the
little blue penguin, which is only about sixteen inches tall,
and that's when it's fully grown. I love that blue
penguins are so little, like like they're almost like a
(09:37):
pocket penguin. I just wanted to think, what I like
stuff it into my pockets. But let's talk more about
these emperors, Like is it just their size that sets
the emperors apart, or are they different from other penguins
in other ways as well? Yeah, well, one difference is
that emperor penguins don't do anything the easy way, like,
for instance, other penguins in the southern hemisphere, they make
(09:57):
the sensible decision to lay their eggs, you know, during
the relatively warm summer months, and that's the same time
when Antarctic cruizes make their rounds. But emperor penguins they
actually wait until winter arrives to do their mating. And
even then, emperors don't head for the warmth of the coasts,
you know, to lay their eggs. Instead, they do the
opposite and head south into the harshest weather. That's not
(10:24):
if I've learned anything from marsh of the Penguins. It's
that emperors don't make things any easier on themselves during
their incubation periods. Like I know, most penguin species will
build nests out of like loose feathers or tiny pebbles
and keep their eggs there until they've hashed. But emperor
penguins have a different system, right, Like, they incubate their
one egg for the entire season, and they do it
(10:45):
by standing still and I think balancing it on top
of their feet. Yeah, that's right. And and this method,
it really wouldn't work at all if it weren't for
some pretty impressive teamwork on the part of their parents.
Like because as soon as the mother penguin lay her egg,
she high tails it towards the sea to feed and
build up her fat reserves. So for the next eight
(11:06):
or nine weeks after that, the task of incubation is
left to the emperor dads, who are able to keep
their egg warm thanks to uh, this special loose fold
of skin that contains a high concentration of blood vessels
and this featherless patch of skin it kind of drapes
over the egg at all times to to keep it
from freezing. And that's why the father stands still for
(11:27):
months on end. I've actually read that male emperor penguins
typically burned through nearly half their body weight while waiting
for their mates to return. So this is actually one
of those rare cases in the animal kingdom where the
plumpest and pudgest males are also the most desirable. I
mean that they're you know, easily the best equipped to
survive those long months without a meal. Yeah that's true,
(11:51):
but you know, just so people know that we aren't
body shaming penguins or anything, I want to mention that
emperor penguins male and female, are actually quite athletic, or
you know, at least they are in the water. In fact,
while most aquatic birds would be lucky to dive two
hundred feet or so underwater, the emperor penguin is capable
of diving a stunning undred feet or more, and the
(12:14):
amount of time they can stay under is just as impressive.
Like I read, the longest dive on record for an
emperor is just under twenty eight minutes, so that actually
is staying to me like the fact that then go
fift hundred feet under the water that that's incredible. But
what is their secret? Well, it comes down to this
amazing trick of physiology. So basically, they can metabolize oxygen
(12:37):
at a slower rate during a dive than they would otherwise,
like when resting. And this is how Live Science explains it. Quote,
the penguins can switch between two modes of oxygen use,
either starving their muscles or giving them an extra shot
of oxygen to help keep them working. And so emperors
they actually have one other trick up their sleeves as well,
(12:59):
which is that their brains have evolved to tolerate extremely
low levels of oxygen without shutting down. So not only
can these birds control their flow of oxygen, they can
survive on a reduced flow for periods of time that
would result in brain damage or even death and just
about any other animal alright, So clearly they're the Olympic
divers of the animal kingdom, even if their parenting habits
(13:22):
are a little unusual. But now that we've covered everyone's
favorite flightless water birds, what do you say we switch
gears and talk about some of their land loving cousins.
Calmed down for that, But first, let's take a quick break.
(13:49):
You listen to part Time Genius and we're talking about
the secrets of the world's largest birds. Okay, Gabe, So
we've already covered the biggest fire a big swimmer, but
inch for inch and pound pound, the planet's tallest and
heaviest bird actually does neither of those things. And of
course we're talking about the ostrich here. Now. However awkward
they might look, ostriches are actually built for land speed.
(14:11):
In fact, they're capable of sprinting up to forty three
miles per hour in the short burths, and that actually
makes them the fastest bipedal runners on the planet. But
it's not just their speed that's so impressive. Their endurance
is absolutely staggering as well. Ostriches are able to maintain
speeds of thirty one miles per hour for up to
ten miles at a time, which is you know why
(14:32):
you never want to challenge an ostrich to a foot race,
right we all know that old saying. Yeah, but you know,
I did some reading on what makes ostriches such great runners,
and it turns out the key to their speed is
actually their toes. Really, so why is that? Well, so
most birds have three or four toes on each foot,
but ostriches only have two. And while you might think
(14:54):
this would hinder the birds balance in some way, the
reduced number of toes actually greatly improves their running form.
And as it turns out, two toed feet result in
less mass at the end of each leg, and that's
why ostriches can cover up to sixteen feet in a
single stride. Six ft in a single stride. That's crazy,
but you know, this whole two toe thing actually does
(15:16):
make sense. I I read somewhere that hoofed animals once
had more toes than they do now, but gradually, over
the course of millennia, their toes dwindled down to just
two per foot, and they, I guess it, became some
of the fastest runners in the world as a result
of that. But that's really fascinating to me. Yeah, that
is interesting. And you know, another thing I didn't realize
is that people have been racing ostriches, you know, for sport,
(15:39):
like the way we race horses. And this has been
going on for over a hundred years at this point,
and weird are still The practice got its start in Florida,
and that's where ostrich r of course it did, right,
of course, and that's where ostrige race tracks first started
popping up up and this was in the late nineteenth century.
Tourists would pay fifty cents to mount these giant birds
(16:01):
and attempt to ride them. And you know, I say
attempt because of course, writing an ostrich is easier said
than done, right, Like, they don't take well to training,
and it's next to impossible to make them run in
a straight line. Not to mention how hard it is
to hang onto the back of something that's moving at
forty miles per hour. You know that there's actually a
way around that problem now that there's this annual event
(16:23):
at the Meadowlands called the Ostrich Derby, and I've never gone,
but it just sounds so great to me. So instead
of writing the birds bare back, the jockeys are actually
being pulled along in these brightly colored chariots and the
whole thing is completely ridiculous, but it's got its own audience.
Two thousand eighteen was actually the seventh year the races
have been held, and you and I should really go
(16:45):
to this. Oh yeah, we gotta get tickets next year.
I do want to mention though, that if you ever
come face to face with a wild ostrich, running away
is not in your best interests well, I mean, there's
a good chance the ostrich will give chase. And remember
these things can top out at like forty five miles
per hour, so they will catch you right. And male
(17:08):
ostriches can go to be I think nine ft tall
and over three pounds, so you definitely don't want to
be on the receiving end of that. But uh, Ostriches
are sometimes known to attack humans if they feel their
territories being threatened, but if running is out, Like, what
is your best bet for surviving an angry ostrich attack? Well,
I looked into that because obviously ostrich attacks are such
(17:31):
a common threat that it's really just irresponsible to not
be prepared for one. And so this is the advice
I found in Discovery News. Instead of running away in terror,
they recommend quote hiding, playing dead until the bird becomes
bored and leaves, or standing your ground and fighting the
(17:51):
ostrich off with a long pole. I like this idea
of like fighting an ostrich off in a long pull,
and it makes a lot of sense to me. Right,
never go anywhere without your ostrich pole and you'll be
just fine. That's good advice. But you know, before we
move on from ostrages, I do want to talk about
a couple other ways that these massive birds tip the scales. So,
(18:12):
for one thing, they have the largest eyes of any
land mammal on Earth. Each eye is roughly two inches across,
which means they're about as big as a billiard ball
and even larger than the bird's own brains. Ostriches also
have the largest eggs in the world, which I guess
an average one comes in and about six inches in
diameter and weighs more than three pounds, which is about
(18:32):
as much as two dozen chicken eggs. Good lord, that
is one big omelet. Also, they're like people do eat them,
right like Aurent Ostrich eggs a delicacy in some places, definitely,
and a single egg provides quite a meal. I think
it's roughly two thousand calories, so basically a day's worth. Wow. Well,
(18:53):
I know there's at least one more giant bird we
wanted to cover today. But if you don't mind, there
are a couple of misconceptions about as are just that
have always bugged me. So I'd like to take a
couple of minutes to set the record straight on those.
And and actually I want to start with the idea
that ostriches bury their heads in the sand. Sure, so
I I remember this from mental class, but I remember
(19:13):
thinking it was just an illusion, right, Like, ostrich heads
are pretty tiny compared to the rest of their bodies,
so if you're looking at them at a distance and
they're like nibbling at food, it just might look like
their heads stuck in the ground. Yeah, that that's definitely true.
But you know, actually some researchers think the real root
of the myth has more to do with the nesting
habits of ostriches. So the birds they have to dig
(19:35):
some pretty big holes to stow those massive eggs you mentioned,
and sometimes these holes are up to eight feet wide
and two feet deep. And you know, it's during the
egg incubation period where all the confusion comes in. Like
ostrich parents take turns rotating their eggs with their beaks,
which you know obviously requires them to stick their heads
pretty far into the nest. So you know, to an observer,
(19:57):
it might look like the ostriches bury in its head
in the sand, but that's actually not what's going on
at all. That's really fascinating. I've never heard that. But um,
do you have like another austar smith you wonder? Sure? Yeah, yeah,
And and this one it actually goes beyond just ostriches
because it concerns the origin of an entire family of
flightless birds known as rattites. So along with ostriches, the
(20:20):
rabbits family also includes other big birds like EMUs and rays,
as well as tiny flightless birds like Kiwi's. And for
the longest time, researchers have assumed that rabbites never had
the ability to fly at all. And that's because we
know that the wings of these birds are still functional
rather than ornamental. So in Ostrich, for example, uses its
(20:44):
wings like a rudder. Not only are they good for
maintaining balance, they also helped the birds turn and break
when running at high speeds. So the thinking has been that,
you know, since their wings don't seem to be vestigial,
rabbites probably always lacked the ability to fly, and instead
they simply evolved from other ancient flightless birds, which is
(21:04):
really interesting. But I think we're saying is that theory
is now being challenged. Is that right, right? Yeah, that
is right. More recent research suggests that the ancestors of
rabbites spread to more isolated regions at a time when
their wings were still used for flying, and you know,
they likely did this as a way to avoid becoming
the lunch of their larger dinosaur cousins. And you know,
(21:26):
then as the dinosaurs died out and the continents began
to separate, these now isolated birds found themselves at the
top of the food chain and suddenly without the need
to escape to higher ground anymore. So once the need
for flight was removed, so too was the need to
stay small and you know, in order to be able
to fly, and and that enabled the birds to independently
(21:47):
evolve and become larger as well as flightless, which you
know makes a lot of sense. And it also explains
why far flung islands are home to so many big
flightless birds, right Like, Uh, New Zealand had this twelve
but tall, five pound moa bird and that was until
humans hunted it to extinction in the thirteenth century. And
Madagascar was also home to this elephant bird. I'd never
(22:10):
heard of this bird, but it's amazing. It was an
astonishing ten ft tall and nine pounds. Yeah, and I
mean jack birds can thrive in these islands settings, partially
because there aren't any you know, predators for them to
worry about, aside from humans, right exactly. Well, with all
that in mind, what do you say we talk a
little about another member of the ratsite family, one of
(22:32):
the world's biggest and most misunderstood birds, the island dwelling cassowary. Sure,
so this is actually what I've been waiting to talk about.
But before we do, let's take another quick break. Alright, mangoes,
(22:59):
So you said you were excited to talk about castlewaries
just like I am. So would you mind giving us
a quick rundown of their stats, because I somehow feel
they're not as well known as ostriches and penguins and
all these other birds we've been talking about. Yeah, that's
definitely true. Cassowaries are large, flightless birds. They've got black
and blue feathers and these big protective frills on the
(23:21):
sides of their heads called casks. And there are only
three species in the world at this point. To live
in the rainforests of New Guinea off the coast of Australia,
and the third and largest one lives at the wet tropics.
This is in the northern tip of Australia. You know.
Birds of the third species are called southern cassowaries, and
they typically weigh in around uh a hundred thirty pounds.
(23:43):
They stand about six ft tall, and they're also fiercely territorial.
If you intrude on their habitats, they'll happily slice you
up with their terrifying five inch long claws. Yeah, castawaries
are famous for that kind of deadliness, and and with
good reason, honestly, Like I was reading this article in
Smithsonian Dot com and the author Jacob Brogan. He said
(24:04):
that cassowaries resemble quote an ostrich as described by HP Lovecraft,
or maybe a turkey fused with a veloci raptor. And
I mean, if those descriptions don't sell you on how
dangerous these birds are, consider that they're also sometimes nicknamed
murder birds. Yeah, and I mean, not only do they
(24:27):
have those razor sharp clause you mentioned, they also have
one of the strongest kicks of any animal. And they
also have a tendency to charge their victims at up
to thirty miles per hour and then they pounce on
them by leaping up to five feet in the air.
That's terrifying. And it also makes me wonder, like what
if they remade the movie Birds with murder birds Like
(24:48):
that would be so much scarier. But you know, you
mentioned before the break that cassowaries are somewhat misunderstood, and
and I was hoping you clarify that a little bit. Yeah, well,
it's just like with ostriches, you know, cassowaries aren't some
kind of malicious human hunters like we might think of them.
They're actually shy, peaceful, and pretty harmless when left to themselves,
(25:09):
and in fact, a cassowary hasn't killed a human since
nineteen six and even then that was only in self defense.
And you know, while over a hundred humans have been
injured by cassowaries since then, we've actually done way more
damage to them, like car accidents and habitat loss. Those
kinds of things have decimated the southern cassowary population in Australia,
(25:33):
and in fact, they're now list is endangered and only
around fifteen hundred to two thousand or thoughts to be
left in the wild at this point, and and it
really it could be even fewer than that for all
we know. So one of the things I didn't get
too that was curious about the castawary is is how
did the locals feel about them? Because on one hand,
I think the birds would figure into like culture and folklore,
(25:56):
and on the other hand, people probably don't want these
giant dinosaur birds just slicing up their neighbors, right, Yeah,
that's a good point, and you know, I'd say it's
kind of a rocky relationship at the best. But the
cassowaries definitely have their supporters, like in fact, you'll often
see signs along the highways in Australia now that encourage
(26:17):
motorists to be cassowary on right, And you know that's
just to you know, get people to keep an eye
out for the birds while they're driving. And as for folklore,
castawaries have always been a big part of the mythologies
of Australia's rainforest tribes. For example, some locals believe that
cassowaries are cousins to human beings, while others say that
(26:40):
they are human beings who have been reincarnated as birds.
And and actually this last part there, it's actually even
inspired a bit of envy and in some of the
female locals, like they'll joke that they'd like to reincarnate
as female cassowaries, since it's the males of that species
rather than the females who sit on all the eggs
and then raise the chicks that hatch from them. Well,
(27:04):
you know, even apart from the stress free reincarnation for females,
Australians do have another reason to stand up for the
castagary cousins. Oh yeah, and what's that. Well, apparently cassowaries
are masters of seed dispersal, which means they're a big
part of why Australia still has as much rainforest as
it does. And this is something I learned from a
nat Geo article by Olivia Judson, so I just want
(27:26):
to go ahead and read her explanation of this relationship. Quote.
As Australia's fruit eaters in chief, cassawaries are also chief
architects of the forest. In the course of a day,
a single adult cassawary eats hundreds of fruits and berries.
Cassowary digestion is gentle, though, and does not harm the
seeds which emerge intact, and so as a cassawary wanders
(27:46):
through its territory, eating, drinking, bathing, and defecating, it moves
seeds from one part of the forest to another, sometimes
over distances of half a mile or more. It also
moves seeds up hills and across rivers. It's short, it
transports in ways that gravity alone cannot by means that
their fruit scented droppings, then, castawaries are a powerful vehicle
for spreading seeds around. That is pretty awesome, And you
(28:11):
know now that you mentioned it. That's something I read
about large birds in general, like how the growth or
loss of rainforests is directly tied to their presence. I mean,
the tallest, hardiest trees, those tend to come from bigger seeds,
and without birds big enough to carry or swallow them,
the odds of those seeds ever taking root is pretty slim.
(28:32):
So in a very real way, the future of our
rainforest depends on the existence of big, weirdo birds like
the Castle area like that. And you know, in fact,
there was this one study down on a particular tree
that only grows in a small region of Australia's coastal rainforest,
and it went a long way towards showing just how
crucial castawaries are for the tree's survival. And that's because,
(28:56):
according to the report, without passing through one of these
giant birds, only four percent of these tree seeds ever
take root and grow. But after passing through a castawary,
a looping two were shown to grow into adult trees.
I mean, that's remarkable, Like of those seeds that go
through castuwaries end up growing into trees. But why is
(29:19):
that exactly? That's the thing no one knows exactly. It's
it's still one of the best kept bird secrets out there.
And you know, because I like that idea of going out,
you know, with an air of mystery. What do you
say we just leave the discussion there and jump straight
into the fact off for it it? H yeah, okay,
(29:45):
So I'll go first, because I can't bear going through
an episode like this without at least mentioning the fastest
predator on the planet, the peregrine falcon, And they have
two unbelievable abilities. The first is their eyesight, and I
read somewhere that their vision it's about twelve times that
of humans, and they can actually use it to spot
a smaller bird from up to five miles away. And
(30:09):
once this prey is spotted, I mean it might as
well call it quits. Because peregrine falcons can fly over
a hundred and eighty miles per hour when they hit
peak speeds. That's terrifying. You know. I was at the
beach and walking with like, um a trade of food
and fries on it for for my kids, and this
seagull just swooped down and picked up one fry off
(30:32):
the plate, and I just remember being stunned at like
how fast it was and how accurate, and the fact
that like a falcon can do that at a hundred
eighty miles per hour is so scary to me. But
you know, we talked about penguins earlier, but I wanted
to note that while we think of penguins mainly being
at the South Pole, there are definitely a few other
spots where you can find them. In fact, the majority
(30:53):
of the world's eighteen penguin species also live around New Zealand.
But the reason I bring this up is because a
few years ago there was this fossil that was discovered
on what might be the largest penguin species to ever live.
It was probably over fifty million years ago, but the
penguin was six ft tall and two twenty pounds. So
even the Emperor penguin, which is gigantic, but seem tiny
(31:16):
next to this thing that's scared to even think about.
If if you search online for the bird hat craze
of the late eighteen hundreds, or if you listen to
the podcast Dressed, you will realize that this was a
really serious fat At some point these bird hats. Women
all over the US and Europe were wearing these hats
(31:36):
with feathers and even entire birds propped on top. Like
I was reading an article from Popular Science that talked
about how someone reported back after taking two strolls through
Manhattan in eight six and on this stroll they counted
seven hundred hats and five hundred and twenty five of
them were topped by feathers or just entire birds. So
(32:01):
I mean the craze it actually got so big that
several bird species became at risk of or even outright endangered,
and a campaign to stop the practice launched, and much
of this work led to the birth of the earliest
auto bonn societies, as well as the first federal conservation legislation,
which was the Lacy Act of n So do you
(32:24):
know that one of the ways researchers can take a
census of large birds on remote islands is from space?
And this is how researchers studying albatross in New Zealand
and on islands off the coast of Argentina actually keep
a better account of the birds. So it's with a
little help from cameras on satellites orbiting the Earth, researchers
can actually look at images and count the pixelated white
(32:44):
dots to see how many albatrosses are there, and ends
up being way cheaper and much less labor intensive than
having to travel and count them all in person. Oh
my bad. Well, you know, they might be able to
count birds from space, but one thing they won't be
able to do is take birds into space. Why is that, Well,
it's because birds need gravity to swallow. So unless we
(33:07):
come up with another way to assist birds and swallowing,
chances are you know, NASA is not going to be
bringing any birds on future Shuttle launches, at least not
anytime soon. Well, it just seemed wrong to me to
do an episode on Big Birds and not at least
mentioned Big Bird himself. So, you know, Carol Spinney, who
is the voice of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.
(33:29):
It turns out that if it wasn't for the encouragement
of a mentor, he might not have made it past
the first year of the show. When Spinney moved to
New York City, he didn't have much money. New York
City is obviously very expensive, and he didn't feel like
he was fitting in with the rest of the cast.
So just a few months into the gig he mentioned
this to Kermit Love, who's the man who built Big Bird,
And you know, he said, I might be quitting, and
(33:52):
Kermit encouraged him to give it some time, and in
fact he told him you'll never get an opportunity like
this again. It will get better given another mom and
nearly five decades later, I'm pretty sure he's glad he
got that advice. Yeah, I would say so, and I mean,
because there's just no way I could beat a big
bird fact. I think you'll have to take the trophy
(34:13):
for today. Well, I'll take that honor from your gives.
So thank you so much and for all you out there.
If we missed any bird facts, be sure to email
us at part Time Genius at how stuff works dot com,
where hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you
so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
(34:44):
Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't
be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
things we couldn't even begin to understand. CHRISTA McNeil does
the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and
does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
exact producer thing. Gay Blues years our lead searcher with
support from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown
and Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show
(35:05):
to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what
you heard, we hope you'll subscribe. And if you really
really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a
good review for us. Do we do we forget Jason?
Jason who
Guess what gave? What's that? So I read this great
story in Scientific American. It's called Saving California Condors with
a chisel and hand puppets. So it has to be
one of the greatest titles I've read in a while.
But are you familiar with these birds? I mean, I
know they're huge birds, and I think they're in danger too,
(00:20):
aren't they. Yeah, that's right. So they were close to
extinction a few decades ago. I think the count was
down to just over twenty birds in the early eighties,
and that's actually when the Oregon Zoo stepped in. So
one of the strange things about condor eggs is that
sometimes the chicks aren't actually strong enough to break out
of the shells. So the caretakers at the zoo like
they stand by ready with a chisel to help them
(00:42):
break out. And in fact, it worked so well that
the zoo is now raised more than seventy condor chicks.
That's awesome. But what do they do then? Do they
release them into the wild? Yeah, but if the chicks
are raised in captivity without their parents, the minders have
to be really careful about how they feed them, because
you know, they don't want these birds to be too
trusting of humans, so they have these hand puppets made
(01:04):
to look like condors, and that's what they used to
feed the little hatchlings. But reading that story made me think,
you know, maybe it's time to do an episode on
some of the world's largest birds and also all the
secrets we definitely don't know about them, So let's dive in. Hey,
(01:41):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm mongo
Iss Articula and my good pal Will Pearson's on vacation today.
But I am so thrilled because I get to hang
out with the wonderful Gabe Luisier, who's on the line
with me. Hey, Gabe, how's it going. Hey, it's going well.
Thanks for having me. It's great to have you, gave
And on the other side of the soundproof glass car
having into the biggest, fattest turkey I've seen this side
(02:03):
of Thanksgiving. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. And
I've got to say, while Tristan's on theme as usual,
it does feel a little weird to watch him chow
down on a bird while we're also talking about birds. Yeah,
I mean, I was hoping we'd get to see Tristan
in like a big bird costume today, or maybe find
out that he's secretly been taking falconry classes or something. Well,
(02:26):
we should put that in the suggestion box for next time,
I think. But today's episode is all about the world's
largest birds. Yeah, that's right. We scoured the skies to
find the most oversized birds out there, and now it's
time to spill all their juicy secrets, like how have
large birds adapted for survival and how they got so
(02:46):
big in the first place. But you know, a mango,
I'm curious, where do you want to start with this one?
So I thought I kicked things off with a nice,
feel good story about one of the world's largest birds,
which is the wandering albatross. And this species of albatross
is big by just about any measure. Their bodies are
about three and a half feet from bill to tail.
They weigh twenty some pounds on average. But without a doubt,
(03:09):
their biggest and most striking feature has to be their
enormous wingspan. Because you know, I'm sure you probably know this.
Wandering albatrosses have the largest wingspan of any living bird.
It's between eleven and twelve feet from tip to tip,
and with wings that big, you know, these birds are
obviously built for flight. They've actually been known to circumnavigate
(03:30):
the Southern Ocean up to three times in a single year,
and one bird in particular is known to have traveled
nearly four thousand miles in just twelve days, which is
so impressive of course, but like, what's their secret for
covering that kind of distance? Because you have to think
that flapping a pair of twelve foot wings must take
an awful lot of energy. Yeah, there's really no way
an albatross could do that by flapping like they'd be
(03:52):
exhausted within an hour tops. Instead, albatross has actually used
this method called dynamics soaring, and it allows them to
a glide across these incredible distances without needing to flap
their wings. And this works because the birds have this
special tendon in each of their shoulders that helps lock
their wings into place. It's kind of a birdie cruise control,
(04:13):
and once their wings are locked into position, albatross is
simply glide along, swooping as needed to catch the wind
and gradually rise back up. That's really cool, but I
mean they never have to stop and take a rest
or anything. No, not really. I mean it's hard to
walk on land with that twelve foot wingspan. So apart
from mating season, wandering albatrosses tend to stick to the
(04:36):
air as much as possible. And there is one exception though,
if an albatross goes crazy and just eats way too
many fish, they might need to take a break and
float on top of the water for a while, you know,
until they've digested. Well that's pretty cute, but I think
you said you had a feel good story about albatross
is like, well, what exactly does that mean? Yeah, that's right,
(04:57):
and it's actually about one albatross in particular. Her name
is Wisdom, and as of this year, she's going to
be sixty seven years old, which makes her the world's
oldest known wild bird. She was born sometime in one
but this Biologists started tracking her in nineteen fifty six,
and since then, Wisdom has managed to rack up somewhere
between two to three million miles in flying time, which
(05:20):
is the equivalent of about four to six trips to
the moon and back. Gosh, that's incredible, or at least
I think it's incredible. I mean, I actually don't know
how long albatross is typically lived, do you. Yeah, I
mean it depends on the species, but they live I
guess for you to fifty years if they're lucky. Albatrosses
are one of those rare species of birds and wild
(05:41):
animals in general. I guess that sometimes live long enough
to die of old age. Well, I guess that's, you know,
one of the perks of that wandering lifestyle, right, because
I mean, if you're constantly on the move flying over
an ocean, you pretty much have an unlimited food supply
right there below you, and most predators wouldn't be able
to keep up with you anyway. Yeah, that's definitely true,
(06:01):
and amazingly the biggest threats to albatrosses are natural disasters
and also I guess the consumption of plastic, both of
which Wisdom has managed to avoid for almost seven decades now.
But perhaps the most interesting thing to me was that
she's birth and raised over forty chicks over her long lifetime,
and that includes her most recent one, which was hatched
(06:22):
just this spring. I've always thought albatrosses were really cool,
you know, partially because of all the old sea myths
around them, and also that epic collar ridge poem. But
you know, nowadays they mostly make the news. You know,
there's like YouTube videos and stuff that just kind of
make fun of how silly they look when they're trying
to walk on land, which kind of a bummer. I mean,
even the name albatross, which is pretty awkward in its
(06:45):
own right, Like it was apparently just taken from words
used to describe other sea birds. So it comes from algatas,
which was I guess, this Arabic word for a sea eagle,
and and then that was adapted into a Spanish word alcatraz,
which was the word for a pelican, and then finally
the word made into English. I guess this is the
seventeenth century, and that's when we got the word albatross. Well.
(07:10):
As poorly conceived as that name is, I think penguins
might have it even worse. And that's because way back
when sailors actually used to call them ours feet. That's ridiculous,
I know, and I mean you can guess why. Yeah,
I mean, it's on account of their short legs and
(07:30):
their feet being so close to their backsides. But you know,
thankfully the Welsh did come up with their own name penguin,
which literally translates as white head. So I like, how
both these names that are on such random characteristics, Like
you know, if if I was defining a penguin the
fact that it's bum touches his feet like that wouldn't
(07:50):
be a defining characteristic, you know, or or that they
have white heads, like do penguins even have white heads? Well,
I mean the white head name it was actually another
are a case of mistaken bird identity, just you know,
just like with the albatross, the Welsh applied the name
penguin to their local great ac population, and you know,
and ac being another kind of giant black and white
(08:12):
see birds. So the thinking is that some sailors just
mistook penguins for ox and the name just stuck. I mean,
I think we've got to make emotion to stop letting
sailors name things because they always get it wrong. But
I'm with you. Also, this is kind of random, but
have you heard Benedict Cumberbatch try to say the word penguins, Like,
(08:34):
for whatever reason, he always winds up calling them penguins
or penglings. It's just hilarious because he winds up doing
all this like penguin content, like he was in this
cartoon penguin movie and he did the narration for a
BBC documentary about penguins, and the whole time he's just
butchering the name, Like I have no idea how he
(08:55):
lands these gigs or why no one corrects him. That's
pretty hilarious. I had no idea, but I'm going to
YouTube it right after this episode. Should but you know,
since we're on the subject of penguins or penguins if
you prefer, we should really take a few minutes to
talk about the largest of their kind, which of course
our emperor penguins, and these big birds stand around four
(09:17):
ft tall, which makes them the largest of the eighteen
penguin species found on Earth. And you know, also a
far cry from the smallest penguin species, and that's the
little blue penguin, which is only about sixteen inches tall,
and that's when it's fully grown. I love that blue
penguins are so little, like like they're almost like a
(09:37):
pocket penguin. I just wanted to think, what I like
stuff it into my pockets. But let's talk more about
these emperors, Like is it just their size that sets
the emperors apart, or are they different from other penguins
in other ways as well? Yeah, well, one difference is
that emperor penguins don't do anything the easy way, like,
for instance, other penguins in the southern hemisphere, they make
(09:57):
the sensible decision to lay their eggs, you know, during
the relatively warm summer months, and that's the same time
when Antarctic cruizes make their rounds. But emperor penguins they
actually wait until winter arrives to do their mating. And
even then, emperors don't head for the warmth of the coasts,
you know, to lay their eggs. Instead, they do the
opposite and head south into the harshest weather. That's not
(10:24):
if I've learned anything from marsh of the Penguins. It's
that emperors don't make things any easier on themselves during
their incubation periods. Like I know, most penguin species will
build nests out of like loose feathers or tiny pebbles
and keep their eggs there until they've hashed. But emperor
penguins have a different system, right, Like, they incubate their
one egg for the entire season, and they do it
(10:45):
by standing still and I think balancing it on top
of their feet. Yeah, that's right. And and this method,
it really wouldn't work at all if it weren't for
some pretty impressive teamwork on the part of their parents.
Like because as soon as the mother penguin lay her egg,
she high tails it towards the sea to feed and
build up her fat reserves. So for the next eight
(11:06):
or nine weeks after that, the task of incubation is
left to the emperor dads, who are able to keep
their egg warm thanks to uh, this special loose fold
of skin that contains a high concentration of blood vessels
and this featherless patch of skin it kind of drapes
over the egg at all times to to keep it
from freezing. And that's why the father stands still for
(11:27):
months on end. I've actually read that male emperor penguins
typically burned through nearly half their body weight while waiting
for their mates to return. So this is actually one
of those rare cases in the animal kingdom where the
plumpest and pudgest males are also the most desirable. I
mean that they're you know, easily the best equipped to
survive those long months without a meal. Yeah that's true,
(11:51):
but you know, just so people know that we aren't
body shaming penguins or anything, I want to mention that
emperor penguins male and female, are actually quite athletic, or
you know, at least they are in the water. In fact,
while most aquatic birds would be lucky to dive two
hundred feet or so underwater, the emperor penguin is capable
of diving a stunning undred feet or more, and the
(12:14):
amount of time they can stay under is just as impressive.
Like I read, the longest dive on record for an
emperor is just under twenty eight minutes, so that actually
is staying to me like the fact that then go
fift hundred feet under the water that that's incredible. But
what is their secret? Well, it comes down to this
amazing trick of physiology. So basically, they can metabolize oxygen
(12:37):
at a slower rate during a dive than they would otherwise,
like when resting. And this is how Live Science explains it. Quote,
the penguins can switch between two modes of oxygen use,
either starving their muscles or giving them an extra shot
of oxygen to help keep them working. And so emperors
they actually have one other trick up their sleeves as well,
(12:59):
which is that their brains have evolved to tolerate extremely
low levels of oxygen without shutting down. So not only
can these birds control their flow of oxygen, they can
survive on a reduced flow for periods of time that
would result in brain damage or even death and just
about any other animal alright, So clearly they're the Olympic
divers of the animal kingdom, even if their parenting habits
(13:22):
are a little unusual. But now that we've covered everyone's
favorite flightless water birds, what do you say we switch
gears and talk about some of their land loving cousins.
Calmed down for that, But first, let's take a quick break.
(13:49):
You listen to part Time Genius and we're talking about
the secrets of the world's largest birds. Okay, Gabe, So
we've already covered the biggest fire a big swimmer, but
inch for inch and pound pound, the planet's tallest and
heaviest bird actually does neither of those things. And of
course we're talking about the ostrich here. Now. However awkward
they might look, ostriches are actually built for land speed.
(14:11):
In fact, they're capable of sprinting up to forty three
miles per hour in the short burths, and that actually
makes them the fastest bipedal runners on the planet. But
it's not just their speed that's so impressive. Their endurance
is absolutely staggering as well. Ostriches are able to maintain
speeds of thirty one miles per hour for up to
ten miles at a time, which is you know why
(14:32):
you never want to challenge an ostrich to a foot race,
right we all know that old saying. Yeah, but you know,
I did some reading on what makes ostriches such great runners,
and it turns out the key to their speed is
actually their toes. Really, so why is that? Well, so
most birds have three or four toes on each foot,
but ostriches only have two. And while you might think
(14:54):
this would hinder the birds balance in some way, the
reduced number of toes actually greatly improves their running form.
And as it turns out, two toed feet result in
less mass at the end of each leg, and that's
why ostriches can cover up to sixteen feet in a
single stride. Six ft in a single stride. That's crazy,
but you know, this whole two toe thing actually does
(15:16):
make sense. I I read somewhere that hoofed animals once
had more toes than they do now, but gradually, over
the course of millennia, their toes dwindled down to just
two per foot, and they, I guess it, became some
of the fastest runners in the world as a result
of that. But that's really fascinating to me. Yeah, that
is interesting. And you know, another thing I didn't realize
is that people have been racing ostriches, you know, for sport,
(15:39):
like the way we race horses. And this has been
going on for over a hundred years at this point,
and weird are still The practice got its start in Florida,
and that's where ostrich r of course it did, right,
of course, and that's where ostrige race tracks first started
popping up up and this was in the late nineteenth century.
Tourists would pay fifty cents to mount these giant birds
(16:01):
and attempt to ride them. And you know, I say
attempt because of course, writing an ostrich is easier said
than done, right, Like, they don't take well to training,
and it's next to impossible to make them run in
a straight line. Not to mention how hard it is
to hang onto the back of something that's moving at
forty miles per hour. You know that there's actually a
way around that problem now that there's this annual event
(16:23):
at the Meadowlands called the Ostrich Derby, and I've never gone,
but it just sounds so great to me. So instead
of writing the birds bare back, the jockeys are actually
being pulled along in these brightly colored chariots and the
whole thing is completely ridiculous, but it's got its own audience.
Two thousand eighteen was actually the seventh year the races
have been held, and you and I should really go
(16:45):
to this. Oh yeah, we gotta get tickets next year.
I do want to mention though, that if you ever
come face to face with a wild ostrich, running away
is not in your best interests well, I mean, there's
a good chance the ostrich will give chase. And remember
these things can top out at like forty five miles
per hour, so they will catch you right. And male
(17:08):
ostriches can go to be I think nine ft tall
and over three pounds, so you definitely don't want to
be on the receiving end of that. But uh, Ostriches
are sometimes known to attack humans if they feel their
territories being threatened, but if running is out, Like, what
is your best bet for surviving an angry ostrich attack? Well,
I looked into that because obviously ostrich attacks are such
(17:31):
a common threat that it's really just irresponsible to not
be prepared for one. And so this is the advice
I found in Discovery News. Instead of running away in terror,
they recommend quote hiding, playing dead until the bird becomes
bored and leaves, or standing your ground and fighting the
(17:51):
ostrich off with a long pole. I like this idea
of like fighting an ostrich off in a long pull,
and it makes a lot of sense to me. Right,
never go anywhere without your ostrich pole and you'll be
just fine. That's good advice. But you know, before we
move on from ostrages, I do want to talk about
a couple other ways that these massive birds tip the scales. So,
(18:12):
for one thing, they have the largest eyes of any
land mammal on Earth. Each eye is roughly two inches across,
which means they're about as big as a billiard ball
and even larger than the bird's own brains. Ostriches also
have the largest eggs in the world, which I guess
an average one comes in and about six inches in
diameter and weighs more than three pounds, which is about
(18:32):
as much as two dozen chicken eggs. Good lord, that
is one big omelet. Also, they're like people do eat them,
right like Aurent Ostrich eggs a delicacy in some places, definitely,
and a single egg provides quite a meal. I think
it's roughly two thousand calories, so basically a day's worth. Wow. Well,
(18:53):
I know there's at least one more giant bird we
wanted to cover today. But if you don't mind, there
are a couple of misconceptions about as are just that
have always bugged me. So I'd like to take a
couple of minutes to set the record straight on those.
And and actually I want to start with the idea
that ostriches bury their heads in the sand. Sure, so
I I remember this from mental class, but I remember
(19:13):
thinking it was just an illusion, right, Like, ostrich heads
are pretty tiny compared to the rest of their bodies,
so if you're looking at them at a distance and
they're like nibbling at food, it just might look like
their heads stuck in the ground. Yeah, that that's definitely true.
But you know, actually some researchers think the real root
of the myth has more to do with the nesting
habits of ostriches. So the birds they have to dig
(19:35):
some pretty big holes to stow those massive eggs you mentioned,
and sometimes these holes are up to eight feet wide
and two feet deep. And you know, it's during the
egg incubation period where all the confusion comes in. Like
ostrich parents take turns rotating their eggs with their beaks,
which you know obviously requires them to stick their heads
pretty far into the nest. So you know, to an observer,
(19:57):
it might look like the ostriches bury in its head
in the sand, but that's actually not what's going on
at all. That's really fascinating. I've never heard that. But um,
do you have like another austar smith you wonder? Sure? Yeah, yeah,
And and this one it actually goes beyond just ostriches
because it concerns the origin of an entire family of
flightless birds known as rattites. So along with ostriches, the
(20:20):
rabbits family also includes other big birds like EMUs and rays,
as well as tiny flightless birds like Kiwi's. And for
the longest time, researchers have assumed that rabbites never had
the ability to fly at all. And that's because we
know that the wings of these birds are still functional
rather than ornamental. So in Ostrich, for example, uses its
(20:44):
wings like a rudder. Not only are they good for
maintaining balance, they also helped the birds turn and break
when running at high speeds. So the thinking has been that,
you know, since their wings don't seem to be vestigial,
rabbites probably always lacked the ability to fly, and instead
they simply evolved from other ancient flightless birds, which is
(21:04):
really interesting. But I think we're saying is that theory
is now being challenged. Is that right, right? Yeah, that
is right. More recent research suggests that the ancestors of
rabbites spread to more isolated regions at a time when
their wings were still used for flying, and you know,
they likely did this as a way to avoid becoming
the lunch of their larger dinosaur cousins. And you know,
(21:26):
then as the dinosaurs died out and the continents began
to separate, these now isolated birds found themselves at the
top of the food chain and suddenly without the need
to escape to higher ground anymore. So once the need
for flight was removed, so too was the need to
stay small and you know, in order to be able
to fly, and and that enabled the birds to independently
(21:47):
evolve and become larger as well as flightless, which you
know makes a lot of sense. And it also explains
why far flung islands are home to so many big
flightless birds, right Like, Uh, New Zealand had this twelve
but tall, five pound moa bird and that was until
humans hunted it to extinction in the thirteenth century. And
Madagascar was also home to this elephant bird. I'd never
(22:10):
heard of this bird, but it's amazing. It was an
astonishing ten ft tall and nine pounds. Yeah, and I
mean jack birds can thrive in these islands settings, partially
because there aren't any you know, predators for them to
worry about, aside from humans, right exactly. Well, with all
that in mind, what do you say we talk a
little about another member of the ratsite family, one of
(22:32):
the world's biggest and most misunderstood birds, the island dwelling cassowary. Sure,
so this is actually what I've been waiting to talk about.
But before we do, let's take another quick break. Alright, mangoes,
(22:59):
So you said you were excited to talk about castlewaries
just like I am. So would you mind giving us
a quick rundown of their stats, because I somehow feel
they're not as well known as ostriches and penguins and
all these other birds we've been talking about. Yeah, that's
definitely true. Cassowaries are large, flightless birds. They've got black
and blue feathers and these big protective frills on the
(23:21):
sides of their heads called casks. And there are only
three species in the world at this point. To live
in the rainforests of New Guinea off the coast of Australia,
and the third and largest one lives at the wet tropics.
This is in the northern tip of Australia. You know.
Birds of the third species are called southern cassowaries, and
they typically weigh in around uh a hundred thirty pounds.
(23:43):
They stand about six ft tall, and they're also fiercely territorial.
If you intrude on their habitats, they'll happily slice you
up with their terrifying five inch long claws. Yeah, castawaries
are famous for that kind of deadliness, and and with
good reason, honestly, Like I was reading this article in
Smithsonian Dot com and the author Jacob Brogan. He said
(24:04):
that cassowaries resemble quote an ostrich as described by HP Lovecraft,
or maybe a turkey fused with a veloci raptor. And
I mean, if those descriptions don't sell you on how
dangerous these birds are, consider that they're also sometimes nicknamed
murder birds. Yeah, and I mean, not only do they
(24:27):
have those razor sharp clause you mentioned, they also have
one of the strongest kicks of any animal. And they
also have a tendency to charge their victims at up
to thirty miles per hour and then they pounce on
them by leaping up to five feet in the air.
That's terrifying. And it also makes me wonder, like what
if they remade the movie Birds with murder birds Like
(24:48):
that would be so much scarier. But you know, you
mentioned before the break that cassowaries are somewhat misunderstood, and
and I was hoping you clarify that a little bit. Yeah, well,
it's just like with ostriches, you know, cassowaries aren't some
kind of malicious human hunters like we might think of them.
They're actually shy, peaceful, and pretty harmless when left to themselves,
(25:09):
and in fact, a cassowary hasn't killed a human since
nineteen six and even then that was only in self defense.
And you know, while over a hundred humans have been
injured by cassowaries since then, we've actually done way more
damage to them, like car accidents and habitat loss. Those
kinds of things have decimated the southern cassowary population in Australia,
(25:33):
and in fact, they're now list is endangered and only
around fifteen hundred to two thousand or thoughts to be
left in the wild at this point, and and it
really it could be even fewer than that for all
we know. So one of the things I didn't get
too that was curious about the castawary is is how
did the locals feel about them? Because on one hand,
I think the birds would figure into like culture and folklore,
(25:56):
and on the other hand, people probably don't want these
giant dinosaur birds just slicing up their neighbors, right, Yeah,
that's a good point, and you know, I'd say it's
kind of a rocky relationship at the best. But the
cassowaries definitely have their supporters, like in fact, you'll often
see signs along the highways in Australia now that encourage
(26:17):
motorists to be cassowary on right, And you know that's
just to you know, get people to keep an eye
out for the birds while they're driving. And as for folklore,
castawaries have always been a big part of the mythologies
of Australia's rainforest tribes. For example, some locals believe that
cassowaries are cousins to human beings, while others say that
(26:40):
they are human beings who have been reincarnated as birds.
And and actually this last part there, it's actually even
inspired a bit of envy and in some of the
female locals, like they'll joke that they'd like to reincarnate
as female cassowaries, since it's the males of that species
rather than the females who sit on all the eggs
and then raise the chicks that hatch from them. Well,
(27:04):
you know, even apart from the stress free reincarnation for females,
Australians do have another reason to stand up for the
castagary cousins. Oh yeah, and what's that. Well, apparently cassowaries
are masters of seed dispersal, which means they're a big
part of why Australia still has as much rainforest as
it does. And this is something I learned from a
nat Geo article by Olivia Judson, so I just want
(27:26):
to go ahead and read her explanation of this relationship. Quote.
As Australia's fruit eaters in chief, cassawaries are also chief
architects of the forest. In the course of a day,
a single adult cassawary eats hundreds of fruits and berries.
Cassowary digestion is gentle, though, and does not harm the
seeds which emerge intact, and so as a cassawary wanders
(27:46):
through its territory, eating, drinking, bathing, and defecating, it moves
seeds from one part of the forest to another, sometimes
over distances of half a mile or more. It also
moves seeds up hills and across rivers. It's short, it
transports in ways that gravity alone cannot by means that
their fruit scented droppings, then, castawaries are a powerful vehicle
for spreading seeds around. That is pretty awesome, And you
(28:11):
know now that you mentioned it. That's something I read
about large birds in general, like how the growth or
loss of rainforests is directly tied to their presence. I mean,
the tallest, hardiest trees, those tend to come from bigger seeds,
and without birds big enough to carry or swallow them,
the odds of those seeds ever taking root is pretty slim.
(28:32):
So in a very real way, the future of our
rainforest depends on the existence of big, weirdo birds like
the Castle area like that. And you know, in fact,
there was this one study down on a particular tree
that only grows in a small region of Australia's coastal rainforest,
and it went a long way towards showing just how
crucial castawaries are for the tree's survival. And that's because,
(28:56):
according to the report, without passing through one of these
giant birds, only four percent of these tree seeds ever
take root and grow. But after passing through a castawary,
a looping two were shown to grow into adult trees.
I mean, that's remarkable, Like of those seeds that go
through castuwaries end up growing into trees. But why is
(29:19):
that exactly? That's the thing no one knows exactly. It's
it's still one of the best kept bird secrets out there.
And you know, because I like that idea of going out,
you know, with an air of mystery. What do you
say we just leave the discussion there and jump straight
into the fact off for it it? H yeah, okay,
(29:45):
So I'll go first, because I can't bear going through
an episode like this without at least mentioning the fastest
predator on the planet, the peregrine falcon, And they have
two unbelievable abilities. The first is their eyesight, and I
read somewhere that their vision it's about twelve times that
of humans, and they can actually use it to spot
a smaller bird from up to five miles away. And
(30:09):
once this prey is spotted, I mean it might as
well call it quits. Because peregrine falcons can fly over
a hundred and eighty miles per hour when they hit
peak speeds. That's terrifying. You know. I was at the
beach and walking with like, um a trade of food
and fries on it for for my kids, and this
seagull just swooped down and picked up one fry off
(30:32):
the plate, and I just remember being stunned at like
how fast it was and how accurate, and the fact
that like a falcon can do that at a hundred
eighty miles per hour is so scary to me. But
you know, we talked about penguins earlier, but I wanted
to note that while we think of penguins mainly being
at the South Pole, there are definitely a few other
spots where you can find them. In fact, the majority
(30:53):
of the world's eighteen penguin species also live around New Zealand.
But the reason I bring this up is because a
few years ago there was this fossil that was discovered
on what might be the largest penguin species to ever live.
It was probably over fifty million years ago, but the
penguin was six ft tall and two twenty pounds. So
even the Emperor penguin, which is gigantic, but seem tiny
(31:16):
next to this thing that's scared to even think about.
If if you search online for the bird hat craze
of the late eighteen hundreds, or if you listen to
the podcast Dressed, you will realize that this was a
really serious fat At some point these bird hats. Women
all over the US and Europe were wearing these hats
(31:36):
with feathers and even entire birds propped on top. Like
I was reading an article from Popular Science that talked
about how someone reported back after taking two strolls through
Manhattan in eight six and on this stroll they counted
seven hundred hats and five hundred and twenty five of
them were topped by feathers or just entire birds. So
(32:01):
I mean the craze it actually got so big that
several bird species became at risk of or even outright endangered,
and a campaign to stop the practice launched, and much
of this work led to the birth of the earliest
auto bonn societies, as well as the first federal conservation legislation,
which was the Lacy Act of n So do you
(32:24):
know that one of the ways researchers can take a
census of large birds on remote islands is from space?
And this is how researchers studying albatross in New Zealand
and on islands off the coast of Argentina actually keep
a better account of the birds. So it's with a
little help from cameras on satellites orbiting the Earth, researchers
can actually look at images and count the pixelated white
(32:44):
dots to see how many albatrosses are there, and ends
up being way cheaper and much less labor intensive than
having to travel and count them all in person. Oh
my bad. Well, you know, they might be able to
count birds from space, but one thing they won't be
able to do is take birds into space. Why is that, Well,
it's because birds need gravity to swallow. So unless we
(33:07):
come up with another way to assist birds and swallowing,
chances are you know, NASA is not going to be
bringing any birds on future Shuttle launches, at least not
anytime soon. Well, it just seemed wrong to me to
do an episode on Big Birds and not at least
mentioned Big Bird himself. So, you know, Carol Spinney, who
is the voice of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.
(33:29):
It turns out that if it wasn't for the encouragement
of a mentor, he might not have made it past
the first year of the show. When Spinney moved to
New York City, he didn't have much money. New York
City is obviously very expensive, and he didn't feel like
he was fitting in with the rest of the cast.
So just a few months into the gig he mentioned
this to Kermit Love, who's the man who built Big Bird,
And you know, he said, I might be quitting, and
(33:52):
Kermit encouraged him to give it some time, and in
fact he told him you'll never get an opportunity like
this again. It will get better given another mom and
nearly five decades later, I'm pretty sure he's glad he
got that advice. Yeah, I would say so, and I mean,
because there's just no way I could beat a big
bird fact. I think you'll have to take the trophy
(34:13):
for today. Well, I'll take that honor from your gives.
So thank you so much and for all you out there.
If we missed any bird facts, be sure to email
us at part Time Genius at how stuff works dot com,
where hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you
so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
(34:44):
Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't
be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
things we couldn't even begin to understand. CHRISTA McNeil does
the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and
does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
exact producer thing. Gay Blues years our lead searcher with
support from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown
and Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show
(35:05):
to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what
you heard, we hope you'll subscribe. And if you really
really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a
good review for us. Do we do we forget Jason?
Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular 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!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.