October 11, 2024 • 21 mins
In this follow-up episode with wildlife photographer and communications director at Zoo Miami, Ron Magill, we are taken on an audio safari of some of Ron's favorite animal encounters. From flamingo voyeurs, to Gem's life-altering love of a spider, this bonus episode is packed with animal action.
Featuring: Ron Magill, Emily Estefan, Gemeny Hernandez
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ready, you've prepared a couple of animals.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Teach us about.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Well, you know, I was gonna teach you a couple
of things. You know. This photograph you see here now
is a photograph I took in South Africa of a
cheetah with her kitten when her cub went when I
saw her, and she actually trusted me to the point
she bought the cub out. And it's one of those
moments where as a wildlife photographer, that's what you want
to have. You want to have the trust of an animal.
You don't want to have to scare an animal or
(00:37):
make an animal, you know, you want to have the
trust of an animal. That animal, the cheetah and the
harpy eagle of my two favorite animals in the world.
Fastest land animal on Earth. Not the fastest animal though.
You know what the fastest animal on earth is, No
beaty and said, yeah, dad boy, the peregrine falcon carriage
(00:58):
speeds of over two hundred mile. Oh stupid, that's really fast. Knowledge.
You know, you were talking about the animals when they
change sexes. It's not necessarily hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodite is an animal
that has parts of both sexes, but is not actually
reproductive when they change sexes. It's called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesisesis yes,
(01:22):
and that's when animals can change sexes. You know, you
talk about animals that do things that are incredible. Wallabies, kangaroos,
they are able. Once the female wallaby gets pregnant, she's
almost pregnant the rest of her life, but she's able
to suspend the development of the baby. If there's not
enough water, if there's not enough food. Baby could be
like and it goes into like a suspended animation in
(01:45):
her uterus as a marsupial, and then if there's a
bundance of water, all of a sudden, it starts to
develop again and then it'll come out. This is really
cool stuff. Box turtles, box turtles or box turtles. The
box turtle can breed a female and the female will
store the sperm for up to seven years. Oh my god,
and every year for seven years she'll lay fertile eggs
(02:07):
from that one reading seven years ago. Well, the good
thing about that is this the animals don't have to
meet each other every year to reproduce that turtles. It
could be could I have for you? I want to
tolerate this one time. I don't have to see you
for seven years. It's perfect. But animals these adaptations that
(02:29):
are just unbelievable when you think about it. You know,
all crocodilians and most most turtles too. You determine the
sex of the baby by the temperature that you incubate
the a gap.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, it's really cool. Think about that for human beings.
I want to boil. Let's put you in the oven. Okay,
I'm serious. This is really cool stuff people when you
look at and that's why I was really impressed when
I was watching you guys talk about your animals. These
these are well read ladies, done their research. I'm as impressed. Anyway,
this was a moment, Oh my gosh. I'll never forget
(02:58):
this moment. I was with my wife. There's a leopard.
We saw the slepperd make a kill, okay, and she bought.
She bought the kill to the base of a termite
mount and then she came up to the termite mount.
Son is rising Light's beau do I'm thinking the pictures.
My wife is there with me with my kids, and
she's sitting up there. I go, she left that kill
down there. She's got to have cubs. And my wife
is going, okay, So we wait an hour, goes by cubs,
(03:20):
and you know, I start hearing this thing from my wife.
She does this thing where she sits next to me.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
She kind of goes, I mean she's tired.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I go, I go, I go, what, honey? She goes, well,
how long are we going to wait? Here? I go, honey,
I'm telling you there are clubs down there. If a
cub comes up, it's going to be amazing to see
this mother that she trusts us enough that the cub
will come up. She'll call it up. Fine. There are
two words that you never want to hear from your wife.
Number one is fine. The other one is whatever. And
(03:53):
when they're both together, like fine, whatever, you're screwing, you're
in the doghouse, fine, whatever, fine, whatever. Okay. So I
said okay, And just when I said okay, we'll get
the grass started moving and I'm going camera. I was
sitting never said it, and that little cub came up
and went up to its mother, and I'm going, tears
are coming down my eyes. And I looked at my
(04:14):
wife and I go, meet this and she does one
of these things fine, but my kids were like, my
kids were like, you know so emotionally, oh my god,
we just see this. It was fantastic. Yeah. So just
by Cia, you have to have patience. So I don't
have patience with people, but with animals, I can wait forever.
And when you're in a place like Africa, you sit
there and even if nothing's happening, you don't see any cars,
(04:36):
you see no planes, you see no buildings, no no
utility polls. You're that place as it could have been
five hundred years ago. And there's something about disconnecting that
way and being there. It is, like I said, it connects.
It connects you. It connects you. It makes you. You
sit there and you think about all the things that
are really important in your life. And that's the beauty.
This bird, Oh my gosh, this is the greatest dance
(04:59):
of any bird on the planet. This is an argist pheasant.
This is an argust test. And what he does is
when he sees the female, because again, the guy's got
to work for it the whole time.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Animal.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Okay, he sees the female, he takes his wings and
he goes inverted like this, and he shows all those feathers,
and then he makes a little hole between him and
he looks with his eye through the center to see
if she's looking. As he's doing the dance, that's what
he's doing. He's looking at that little hole and he's going, baby,
you see what I'm.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Doing for you.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
You see what I'm doing for you. And more often
than that she goes yeah, but and she walks away,
but he keeps on trying.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
They really are.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And the thing you have to understand is they never
forced themselves on the female. It's the female who decides.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Always she gives the female he's the one who gives
the consent. I mean that when I say no means
knowing the animal king. The male will sit there and
dance and do all kinds of things. But until she
says okay and presents, he never tries to force himself.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You see, it's not that hard.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It's not that hard. Now you'll see it. Sometimes you
see animals that it looks like, well, no, no, that's
because the female has given him the cue.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah. I see animals that produce it.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It looks a little brute. All the humans that has
been really documented to rape, you get animals that it
sometimes looks, you know, like you know, the rhino can
be sometimes kind of brutal.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's really remarkable though, when you really think about it,
is because people usually think that animals have a more
quote unquote animalistic relationship.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
When it comes to me, the misconception, you know. I
do a very popular talk I used to do called
Sex and the Animals, and I talk about the parallels
that people and animals have. Oh yeah, and I show
and I show people really how much like us animals are,
you know, and how much you can learn from animals.
And I show this using all kinds of images. I mean,
it's an adult's only talk, but I don't use any
(06:38):
profanity or anything. But it's very graphic. But people look
at them and wow, you know, and they look at
themselves like one of the things that I show, you know, flamingos.
Flamingos are monogamous one mate, okay, but but but but
they won't do it with each other unless thirty other
flamingos are watching. No, so let me tell you what
(07:04):
zoos have done When we don't have thirty flamingos in
the flock, but we want them to breathe, what do
we do sit and watch. No, we're not flamingos. That
doesn't want it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, I don't know what.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
They put them in a room full of mirrors. Oh
my god, and pn the look in the mirrors and
they go, yeah, that's hot, and they do the thing.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Okay, that is the That is one.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Of the quest things. That's a fact. Okay, that's a fact.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I need to go to the sex talk.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Oh you know what, one of these days, I'm going
to do the sex talk for you guys. We'll have
we'll have like a private little party of some of
your favorite people and mirrors. But you know another thing
that I talked about flamingos. You'll appreciate this, Okay. I
show a nest. Flamingo's only lay one egg. Okay, So
(07:51):
I have a nest with a flamingo on it, and
there's two eggs in the nest. And I ask people
all the time, why are there two eggs in the nest?
And everybody's, oh, she stole an egg, or she stole
an egg, or somebody put another egg there. Never do
they get the answer right. But you know the right
answer is tell us it's our lesbian pair of flamingos.
It's our lesbian pair of flingers. They both lay an egg. Now,
(08:12):
those eggs themselves are not fertile, but what we do
is we take those eggs out and we replaced them
with fertile eggs from a heterosexual pair. They hatch those
eggs and they are great parents. They are some of
the best parents we've ever had. And another thing I
want to make very clear is that we hear all
kinds of people with their prejudices and stuff. But I
(08:33):
can tell you, and this is just scientific observation. Those
chicks the day raise grew up, they're headosexual chicks. They
have chicks of their own, total, totally normal, and everything's fine.
Component Okay, there's so much things. Homosexuality is found throughout
the animal There are volumes about that. And yet you
hear these people talk about things like, oh no, it's
(08:54):
just a deviation that the humans. It's so untrue. If
we just watch animals, we can learn so much more
about ourselves. And just watching animals, I swear.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
He's just solving today. Jesus.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Okay, well, Jem said, showed us that cute little which
dude who can re grow his limbs.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They are highly endangered in the wild, but in under
human caring captivity, they breed them like bunnies. And you
can actually buy them online if you go on you
can buy all different color phases, all different stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
How do you feel about that, because sometimes I'll tell
you this. I was a spider parent, right, No, no,
I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I'm not there yet.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I jump really and I learned so much about spiders.
And my her name was Scarlett, and the people said,
you're probably going to be surprised, but they didn't know
that Scarlet recently passed. But yeah, it was tragic. It's
insane how something that's a few millimeters big can absolutely
ensnare your heart.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
But that says about you is what a great person
you are.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well see, I don't know, but I definitely feel very
grateful to have had Scarlet with me as long as
I did, because I think that spiders are another animal
that get a really bad rap.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Absolutely, what an incredibly important role they play, Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
My gosh, Oh my gosh, and how incredible I think
also specifically just the jumping spider in the Iraq maid world,
how they exist, how they don't really spin webs to
catch their prey, and they essentially.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Pounce their predators.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Then, and I was learning about a jumping spider in
another part of the world that are essentially involved to
be vegetarians. So having scarlet, I couldn't help but ask myself.
You know, I had this beautiful little enclosure for her,
and I was like, but does she really belong there?
You know, we we've seen shows her chimp Amazing. Come on,
(10:58):
so we've seen shows like Chimp Crazy. Humans have the ability,
I know, humans have the ability to develop. Maybe I
would say supernatural. I don't want to call it abnormal,
but supernatural relationships with animals that could lead to a
very detrimental situation because an adult chip does not belong
in the care of a human being who doesn't know
what they're doing. But in general, what do you think
(11:20):
about the concept of pets and having these like these little.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I think when you do the proper research with an
animal like an axel, whatever it is, it can help
save the species because they would have become extinct if
they had not become They actually became incredibly popular with
some video game, whether it's Fortnite or something. They became
a very important character, and that's when they became incredibly
important because we have them on display at the zoo
(11:48):
and all the kids come in, they can want to
take pictus of them because they play it in this
video game. You know, if that was a way to
help raise awareness about the animal, I have no problem
with that. Now, if it was the pet trade that
was taking them out of the wild, then I have
a problem. What was taking out in the wild is
they were losing their habitat because in Mexico and the
small little lakes, they were just developing around their pollution.
That was the problem. So here we have this is
(12:10):
an animal doesn't get very large. It can be maintained
under human care in a good aquarium setting, with the
proper care. I don't have a problem with that. Same
thing with like bearded dragons and things like that. Yeah,
because unfortunately now it's harder and harder for people to
have a single family home with a yard where they
can put a dog out in there that a lot
of people in small condos apartments. You still want to
I would still want to teach a kid the responsibility
(12:31):
of having a pet and developing that bond. And sometimes
those animals are perfect. Now when you're talking about things
like venomous snakes like cobras and stuff like that. No, no,
these are not animals that are to be pets. But
there are certain animals leopard get gos, bearded dragons, jumping spiders.
I'd never heard of one being a pet. But I'm
really amazed.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
About that there's a whole community. They're solving a rack noophobia.
I'm convinced.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Oh, I've never I've always fought spiders incredibly fascinating. I've
raised tarantulas several Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I heard about the fact that their soft bodied If
you ever see a tarentialism were high, please don't try
to like knock it down because they'll die instantly.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But listen, I think the more we can connect people
to animals responsibly, not Jim Crazy, not Tiger King, not
any of that train wreck stuff that we've seen, I
think the better it is. You know, that'll again getting
people to care. And look how you feel about spiders now,
so so little Scarlet has done more for her species,
(13:34):
for her phylum, for her kingdom, whatever it is, than
any other spider is done with regard to what you're
able to say, because here we have a beautiful woman
who's saying I love spiders, and it's so contrary of
what you would expect from a beautiful woman who would go.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I'm just telling you I have since I met Scarlett,
I've never ever looked at a spider in the same way.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
They're incredible animals, incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Fact sating creatures. Really, Oh, Scarlet, well, I think we
have one or two more photos before we have to
Diorbit back to Earth, which I want to lock the door.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I don't want to let this man out.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I know, absolutely, but I don't think there's enough room
in here for him anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It's too tall for space.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
That is a weird animal that's called the Babarussa. It's
a it's a rare wild pig from Indonesia. Yeah, except
its tust grow through its face. Oh, they come out
the male. It's only the male, but the female doesn't
have the tust. But the tust grow through the face
and it's hairless. It's like a naked pig that has
these tests to go through his face. It looks like
(14:39):
a flipping airli and from Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Or something like that.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's really a fantastic, fantastic animal. I just thought because
your producer told me, Well, they're going to talk about
stranging weird animals. That's a strange word animal.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I think it's really really he's pretty punk rock, I think.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, actually is pretty pretty incredible, pretty incredible. Look at
that Oh my god taper. A lot of people look
at it and they think it's like an anteater because
it has this little proboscis nose on it. It's actually
a distant relative of the rhino on the horse. And
that's one that was just born at the zoo a
couple of weeks ago. Just when they're born, they look
(15:16):
like little watermelon sers. Oh, that was one of the
most famous pictures I've ever taken in my life.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh you took that?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I took that. I took them all. Yeah, I took
them all.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think I saw it online.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It is. It's the picture I took of the flamingos
in the bathroom at Hurricane Andrew. We took them all
and we threw in the bathroom, and I said to myself,
that looks really strange. So I'm just gonna throw them
in the take a picture of this because and I
never thought anything of it. And then Hurricane Andrew can
destroyed everything and I got a call from the news
agencies and they say, hey, Ron, do you have a
picture kind of reflecting the hurricane that's not some boat
(15:49):
in the middle of the street or some you know
house with no roof on it. I go, you know,
I got this picture of the flamingos that we put
in the bathroom and they als survived because we put
them in the bathroom, they would all been dead. And
I sent it to them. Newsweek ran it as a
two page spread. It. Yeah, back then there was no Internet,
but it went what could have been viral because when
over all the wire services for the news went all
over the world. Actually, and to this day, to this day,
(16:10):
on the anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, that picture always comes
up online.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
God.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Wow, there's my favorite animal in the planet.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
The harpy Eagle's gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's so proud. It makes the bald eagle look like
a pigeon, massive talents, just gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
We saw some sorry, we saw some red kites.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You were in Scotland and we stuff that's beautiful and
they fed them.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
That's when I almost got killed by hippo on the
Nile River. Oh no, he's lunging after me and I'm
in a.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Little they're quite aggressive.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, they look. More people are killed and injured by
hippos in Africa.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Than anything I told you. I told you because.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
The internet's latest hippo.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
That is a weird animal. You know what it is. Yes,
I am so proud of you ladies be here. You
should have your own.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
No, we actually we were so happy that you're here.
They actually saw you talk about.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah. The key incredible animal found in New Zealand lays
one big egg, massive egg that you can't believe it
lays this egg. It's so big. It's a flightless bird
and it's the only bird that has its nostrils at
the very end of its beak. Wow, it's really cool bird.
Really cool bird.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Why did it develop that's nostrils at.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
The end of its beak because it goes into the
ground looking for grubs, So it needs to find those
grubs with the end of its beak, smelling them the
worms and everything. It's fantastic. Next, that's what we call
my dad, not a koala bear.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Because they're marsupials. Right, Why don't we call them because
people think they look like a teddy?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Okay, are interesting animals. You know, I'll tell you what
is one of the biggest threats to koalas because their
numbers are really declining badly. And you know what's what's
kind of the biggest disease. It's wiping them out.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Is it humans?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
No?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Okay, chlamydian?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Do you know why here? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, we've talked about this.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
We like edibles.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I don't know why I'm here. That's you're right, Condia,
that's what's wiping them out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Them and the people that told people home homes. Yeah,
did you know they have some of the highest levels
of Yeah, we'll have an episode about.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
This only living relative to the draft. It wasn't even
discovered until nineteen twelve in the forest of the Congo
with the Turi forest, which is then calls that year.
Do you ever see the tongue on those things? No? No, next,
look at that. Oh, it's like a python comes out
of the mouth.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's a missing member of gifts.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
They will take their tongue out and they lick their
eyes with it. That's a cool party, man. If I
could do that, I know. It's an incredible animal. See
it wraps the tongue around, cleans its snout, and everything.
You got something in your eye. Hold on a second, No,
It's incredible to watch. So one of my favorite pictures
ever taken this was This was the in the Okavango
Delta in Botswana and this line is was coming across
(18:59):
to take a kill away from some painted dogs, wild
dogs that made it behind me. So I placed my
vehicle between me and the dogs, and she ran right
at me as the sun is setting the reflection of
the water. That's one of my favorite pictures ever taken
because it was just one of those moments and she
ran right by me. That that adrenaline that rushes by
you when you have a linus running right at you
like that and everything is frozen like that.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Anyway, I love animals, but we have very different definition
of fun.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
You just want a big contest this photograph.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Did you hear that part you're a Nico ambassador, sir, Yeah,
but that's because we love you. Please anything for you
I get.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I get to be in places like this in the
Pontanal in Brazil, and I got right the minute that
guy got that fish and was repositioning it and frozen
in the air and all the bugs blowing around the
reflection all that stuff. It's just that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You got his last moment of life.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That was it. It was goodbye. I call that one. Gotcha.
Proboscis monky. Have you ever seen a Probosco smunk? Oh,
they're from Borneo. I photographed this guy in Borneo. A
tree kangaroo, a kangaroo that literally lives up in the trees.
It's the most beautiful little animal you ever see. This
is him sticking at his head out of the pouth.
You listen. The point is the diversity and the beauty
(20:12):
that we have in the wild kingdom is infinite. It
is infinite. I learned something every day working with wildlife.
I'm an old man now, and yet I feel like
I'm seventeen years old opening a book for the first time,
every time I go into a forest, every time I
go into a jungle, every time I go into place
like the Arctic or the Antarctic or whatever, seeing those
things for the first time again. I was a kid
(20:33):
who grew up in a small apartment, hard working immigrant parents,
didn't have much at all that I have been able
to have the privilege of seeing the things that I see.
For me, I just feel an obligation to share that
with as many people as I can. Okay, I've gotten
very lucky, you know. Look here I am in Okay.
Ready, you've prepared a couple of animals.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Teach us about.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Well, you know, I was gonna teach you a couple
of things. You know. This photograph you see here now
is a photograph I took in South Africa of a
cheetah with her kitten when her cub went when I
saw her, and she actually trusted me to the point
she bought the cub out. And it's one of those
moments where as a wildlife photographer, that's what you want
to have. You want to have the trust of an animal.
You don't want to have to scare an animal or
(00:37):
make an animal, you know, you want to have the
trust of an animal. That animal, the cheetah and the
harpy eagle of my two favorite animals in the world.
Fastest land animal on Earth. Not the fastest animal though.
You know what the fastest animal on earth is, No
beaty and said, yeah, dad boy, the peregrine falcon carriage
(00:58):
speeds of over two hundred mile. Oh stupid, that's really fast. Knowledge.
You know, you were talking about the animals when they
change sexes. It's not necessarily hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodite is an animal
that has parts of both sexes, but is not actually
reproductive when they change sexes. It's called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesisesis yes,
(01:22):
and that's when animals can change sexes. You know, you
talk about animals that do things that are incredible. Wallabies, kangaroos,
they are able. Once the female wallaby gets pregnant, she's
almost pregnant the rest of her life, but she's able
to suspend the development of the baby. If there's not
enough water, if there's not enough food. Baby could be
like and it goes into like a suspended animation in
(01:45):
her uterus as a marsupial, and then if there's a
bundance of water, all of a sudden, it starts to
develop again and then it'll come out. This is really
cool stuff. Box turtles, box turtles or box turtles. The
box turtle can breed a female and the female will
store the sperm for up to seven years. Oh my god,
and every year for seven years she'll lay fertile eggs
(02:07):
from that one reading seven years ago. Well, the good
thing about that is this the animals don't have to
meet each other every year to reproduce that turtles. It
could be could I have for you? I want to
tolerate this one time. I don't have to see you
for seven years. It's perfect. But animals these adaptations that
(02:29):
are just unbelievable when you think about it. You know,
all crocodilians and most most turtles too. You determine the
sex of the baby by the temperature that you incubate
the a gap.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, it's really cool. Think about that for human beings.
I want to boil. Let's put you in the oven. Okay,
I'm serious. This is really cool stuff people when you
look at and that's why I was really impressed when
I was watching you guys talk about your animals. These
these are well read ladies, done their research. I'm as impressed. Anyway,
this was a moment, Oh my gosh. I'll never forget
(02:58):
this moment. I was with my wife. There's a leopard.
We saw the slepperd make a kill, okay, and she bought.
She bought the kill to the base of a termite
mount and then she came up to the termite mount.
Son is rising Light's beau do I'm thinking the pictures.
My wife is there with me with my kids, and
she's sitting up there. I go, she left that kill
down there. She's got to have cubs. And my wife
is going, okay, So we wait an hour, goes by cubs,
(03:20):
and you know, I start hearing this thing from my wife.
She does this thing where she sits next to me.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
She kind of goes, I mean she's tired.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I go, I go, I go, what, honey? She goes, well,
how long are we going to wait? Here? I go, honey,
I'm telling you there are clubs down there. If a
cub comes up, it's going to be amazing to see
this mother that she trusts us enough that the cub
will come up. She'll call it up. Fine. There are
two words that you never want to hear from your wife.
Number one is fine. The other one is whatever. And
(03:53):
when they're both together, like fine, whatever, you're screwing, you're
in the doghouse, fine, whatever, fine, whatever. Okay. So I
said okay, And just when I said okay, we'll get
the grass started moving and I'm going camera. I was
sitting never said it, and that little cub came up
and went up to its mother, and I'm going, tears
are coming down my eyes. And I looked at my
(04:14):
wife and I go, meet this and she does one
of these things fine, but my kids were like, my
kids were like, you know so emotionally, oh my god,
we just see this. It was fantastic. Yeah. So just
by Cia, you have to have patience. So I don't
have patience with people, but with animals, I can wait forever.
And when you're in a place like Africa, you sit
there and even if nothing's happening, you don't see any cars,
(04:36):
you see no planes, you see no buildings, no no
utility polls. You're that place as it could have been
five hundred years ago. And there's something about disconnecting that
way and being there. It is, like I said, it connects.
It connects you. It connects you. It makes you. You
sit there and you think about all the things that
are really important in your life. And that's the beauty.
This bird, Oh my gosh, this is the greatest dance
(04:59):
of any bird on the planet. This is an argist pheasant.
This is an argust test. And what he does is
when he sees the female, because again, the guy's got
to work for it the whole time.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Animal.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Okay, he sees the female, he takes his wings and
he goes inverted like this, and he shows all those feathers,
and then he makes a little hole between him and
he looks with his eye through the center to see
if she's looking. As he's doing the dance, that's what
he's doing. He's looking at that little hole and he's going, baby,
you see what I'm.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Doing for you.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
You see what I'm doing for you. And more often
than that she goes yeah, but and she walks away,
but he keeps on trying.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
They really are.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And the thing you have to understand is they never
forced themselves on the female. It's the female who decides.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Always she gives the female he's the one who gives
the consent. I mean that when I say no means
knowing the animal king. The male will sit there and
dance and do all kinds of things. But until she
says okay and presents, he never tries to force himself.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You see, it's not that hard.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It's not that hard. Now you'll see it. Sometimes you
see animals that it looks like, well, no, no, that's
because the female has given him the cue.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah. I see animals that produce it.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It looks a little brute. All the humans that has
been really documented to rape, you get animals that it
sometimes looks, you know, like you know, the rhino can
be sometimes kind of brutal.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's really remarkable though, when you really think about it,
is because people usually think that animals have a more
quote unquote animalistic relationship.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
When it comes to me, the misconception, you know. I
do a very popular talk I used to do called
Sex and the Animals, and I talk about the parallels
that people and animals have. Oh yeah, and I show
and I show people really how much like us animals are,
you know, and how much you can learn from animals.
And I show this using all kinds of images. I mean,
it's an adult's only talk, but I don't use any
(06:38):
profanity or anything. But it's very graphic. But people look
at them and wow, you know, and they look at
themselves like one of the things that I show, you know, flamingos.
Flamingos are monogamous one mate, okay, but but but but
they won't do it with each other unless thirty other
flamingos are watching. No, so let me tell you what
(07:04):
zoos have done When we don't have thirty flamingos in
the flock, but we want them to breathe, what do
we do sit and watch. No, we're not flamingos. That
doesn't want it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, I don't know what.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
They put them in a room full of mirrors. Oh
my god, and pn the look in the mirrors and
they go, yeah, that's hot, and they do the thing.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Okay, that is the That is one.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Of the quest things. That's a fact. Okay, that's a fact.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I need to go to the sex talk.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Oh you know what, one of these days, I'm going
to do the sex talk for you guys. We'll have
we'll have like a private little party of some of
your favorite people and mirrors. But you know another thing
that I talked about flamingos. You'll appreciate this, Okay. I
show a nest. Flamingo's only lay one egg. Okay, So
(07:51):
I have a nest with a flamingo on it, and
there's two eggs in the nest. And I ask people
all the time, why are there two eggs in the nest?
And everybody's, oh, she stole an egg, or she stole
an egg, or somebody put another egg there. Never do
they get the answer right. But you know the right
answer is tell us it's our lesbian pair of flamingos.
It's our lesbian pair of flingers. They both lay an egg. Now,
(08:12):
those eggs themselves are not fertile, but what we do
is we take those eggs out and we replaced them
with fertile eggs from a heterosexual pair. They hatch those
eggs and they are great parents. They are some of
the best parents we've ever had. And another thing I
want to make very clear is that we hear all
kinds of people with their prejudices and stuff. But I
(08:33):
can tell you, and this is just scientific observation. Those
chicks the day raise grew up, they're headosexual chicks. They
have chicks of their own, total, totally normal, and everything's fine.
Component Okay, there's so much things. Homosexuality is found throughout
the animal There are volumes about that. And yet you
hear these people talk about things like, oh no, it's
(08:54):
just a deviation that the humans. It's so untrue. If
we just watch animals, we can learn so much more
about ourselves. And just watching animals, I swear.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
He's just solving today. Jesus.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Okay, well, Jem said, showed us that cute little which
dude who can re grow his limbs.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They are highly endangered in the wild, but in under
human caring captivity, they breed them like bunnies. And you
can actually buy them online if you go on you
can buy all different color phases, all different stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
How do you feel about that, because sometimes I'll tell
you this. I was a spider parent, right, No, no,
I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I'm not there yet.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I jump really and I learned so much about spiders.
And my her name was Scarlett, and the people said,
you're probably going to be surprised, but they didn't know
that Scarlet recently passed. But yeah, it was tragic. It's
insane how something that's a few millimeters big can absolutely
ensnare your heart.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
But that says about you is what a great person
you are.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well see, I don't know, but I definitely feel very
grateful to have had Scarlet with me as long as
I did, because I think that spiders are another animal
that get a really bad rap.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Absolutely, what an incredibly important role they play, Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
My gosh, Oh my gosh, and how incredible I think
also specifically just the jumping spider in the Iraq maid world,
how they exist, how they don't really spin webs to
catch their prey, and they essentially.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Pounce their predators.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Then, and I was learning about a jumping spider in
another part of the world that are essentially involved to
be vegetarians. So having scarlet, I couldn't help but ask myself.
You know, I had this beautiful little enclosure for her,
and I was like, but does she really belong there?
You know, we we've seen shows her chimp Amazing. Come on,
(10:58):
so we've seen shows like Chimp Crazy. Humans have the ability,
I know, humans have the ability to develop. Maybe I
would say supernatural. I don't want to call it abnormal,
but supernatural relationships with animals that could lead to a
very detrimental situation because an adult chip does not belong
in the care of a human being who doesn't know
what they're doing. But in general, what do you think
(11:20):
about the concept of pets and having these like these little.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I think when you do the proper research with an
animal like an axel, whatever it is, it can help
save the species because they would have become extinct if
they had not become They actually became incredibly popular with
some video game, whether it's Fortnite or something. They became
a very important character, and that's when they became incredibly
important because we have them on display at the zoo
(11:48):
and all the kids come in, they can want to
take pictus of them because they play it in this
video game. You know, if that was a way to
help raise awareness about the animal, I have no problem
with that. Now, if it was the pet trade that
was taking them out of the wild, then I have
a problem. What was taking out in the wild is
they were losing their habitat because in Mexico and the
small little lakes, they were just developing around their pollution.
That was the problem. So here we have this is
(12:10):
an animal doesn't get very large. It can be maintained
under human care in a good aquarium setting, with the
proper care. I don't have a problem with that. Same
thing with like bearded dragons and things like that. Yeah,
because unfortunately now it's harder and harder for people to
have a single family home with a yard where they
can put a dog out in there that a lot
of people in small condos apartments. You still want to
I would still want to teach a kid the responsibility
(12:31):
of having a pet and developing that bond. And sometimes
those animals are perfect. Now when you're talking about things
like venomous snakes like cobras and stuff like that. No, no,
these are not animals that are to be pets. But
there are certain animals leopard get gos, bearded dragons, jumping spiders.
I'd never heard of one being a pet. But I'm
really amazed.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
About that there's a whole community. They're solving a rack noophobia.
I'm convinced.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Oh, I've never I've always fought spiders incredibly fascinating. I've
raised tarantulas several Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I heard about the fact that their soft bodied If
you ever see a tarentialism were high, please don't try
to like knock it down because they'll die instantly.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But listen, I think the more we can connect people
to animals responsibly, not Jim Crazy, not Tiger King, not
any of that train wreck stuff that we've seen, I
think the better it is. You know, that'll again getting
people to care. And look how you feel about spiders now,
so so little Scarlet has done more for her species,
(13:34):
for her phylum, for her kingdom, whatever it is, than
any other spider is done with regard to what you're
able to say, because here we have a beautiful woman
who's saying I love spiders, and it's so contrary of
what you would expect from a beautiful woman who would go.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I'm just telling you I have since I met Scarlett,
I've never ever looked at a spider in the same way.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
They're incredible animals, incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Fact sating creatures. Really, Oh, Scarlet, well, I think we
have one or two more photos before we have to
Diorbit back to Earth, which I want to lock the door.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I don't want to let this man out.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I know, absolutely, but I don't think there's enough room
in here for him anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It's too tall for space.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
That is a weird animal that's called the Babarussa. It's
a it's a rare wild pig from Indonesia. Yeah, except
its tust grow through its face. Oh, they come out
the male. It's only the male, but the female doesn't
have the tust. But the tust grow through the face
and it's hairless. It's like a naked pig that has
these tests to go through his face. It looks like
(14:39):
a flipping airli and from Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Or something like that.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's really a fantastic, fantastic animal. I just thought because
your producer told me, Well, they're going to talk about
stranging weird animals. That's a strange word animal.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I think it's really really he's pretty punk rock, I think.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, actually is pretty pretty incredible, pretty incredible. Look at
that Oh my god taper. A lot of people look
at it and they think it's like an anteater because
it has this little proboscis nose on it. It's actually
a distant relative of the rhino on the horse. And
that's one that was just born at the zoo a
couple of weeks ago. Just when they're born, they look
(15:16):
like little watermelon sers. Oh, that was one of the
most famous pictures I've ever taken in my life.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh you took that?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I took that. I took them all. Yeah, I took
them all.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think I saw it online.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It is. It's the picture I took of the flamingos
in the bathroom at Hurricane Andrew. We took them all
and we threw in the bathroom, and I said to myself,
that looks really strange. So I'm just gonna throw them
in the take a picture of this because and I
never thought anything of it. And then Hurricane Andrew can
destroyed everything and I got a call from the news
agencies and they say, hey, Ron, do you have a
picture kind of reflecting the hurricane that's not some boat
(15:49):
in the middle of the street or some you know
house with no roof on it. I go, you know,
I got this picture of the flamingos that we put
in the bathroom and they als survived because we put
them in the bathroom, they would all been dead. And
I sent it to them. Newsweek ran it as a
two page spread. It. Yeah, back then there was no Internet,
but it went what could have been viral because when
over all the wire services for the news went all
over the world. Actually, and to this day, to this day,
(16:10):
on the anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, that picture always comes
up online.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
God.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Wow, there's my favorite animal in the planet.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
The harpy Eagle's gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's so proud. It makes the bald eagle look like
a pigeon, massive talents, just gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
We saw some sorry, we saw some red kites.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You were in Scotland and we stuff that's beautiful and
they fed them.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
That's when I almost got killed by hippo on the
Nile River. Oh no, he's lunging after me and I'm
in a.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Little they're quite aggressive.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, they look. More people are killed and injured by
hippos in Africa.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Than anything I told you. I told you because.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
The internet's latest hippo.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
That is a weird animal. You know what it is. Yes,
I am so proud of you ladies be here. You
should have your own.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
No, we actually we were so happy that you're here.
They actually saw you talk about.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah. The key incredible animal found in New Zealand lays
one big egg, massive egg that you can't believe it
lays this egg. It's so big. It's a flightless bird
and it's the only bird that has its nostrils at
the very end of its beak. Wow, it's really cool bird.
Really cool bird.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Why did it develop that's nostrils at.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
The end of its beak because it goes into the
ground looking for grubs, So it needs to find those
grubs with the end of its beak, smelling them the
worms and everything. It's fantastic. Next, that's what we call
my dad, not a koala bear.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Because they're marsupials. Right, Why don't we call them because
people think they look like a teddy?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Okay, are interesting animals. You know, I'll tell you what
is one of the biggest threats to koalas because their
numbers are really declining badly. And you know what's what's
kind of the biggest disease. It's wiping them out.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Is it humans?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
No?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Okay, chlamydian?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Do you know why here? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, we've talked about this.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
We like edibles.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I don't know why I'm here. That's you're right, Condia,
that's what's wiping them out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Them and the people that told people home homes. Yeah,
did you know they have some of the highest levels
of Yeah, we'll have an episode about.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
This only living relative to the draft. It wasn't even
discovered until nineteen twelve in the forest of the Congo
with the Turi forest, which is then calls that year.
Do you ever see the tongue on those things? No? No, next,
look at that. Oh, it's like a python comes out
of the mouth.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's a missing member of gifts.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
They will take their tongue out and they lick their
eyes with it. That's a cool party, man. If I
could do that, I know. It's an incredible animal. See
it wraps the tongue around, cleans its snout, and everything.
You got something in your eye. Hold on a second, No,
It's incredible to watch. So one of my favorite pictures
ever taken this was This was the in the Okavango
Delta in Botswana and this line is was coming across
(18:59):
to take a kill away from some painted dogs, wild
dogs that made it behind me. So I placed my
vehicle between me and the dogs, and she ran right
at me as the sun is setting the reflection of
the water. That's one of my favorite pictures ever taken
because it was just one of those moments and she
ran right by me. That that adrenaline that rushes by
you when you have a linus running right at you
like that and everything is frozen like that.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Anyway, I love animals, but we have very different definition
of fun.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
You just want a big contest this photograph.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Did you hear that part you're a Nico ambassador, sir, Yeah,
but that's because we love you. Please anything for you
I get.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I get to be in places like this in the
Pontanal in Brazil, and I got right the minute that
guy got that fish and was repositioning it and frozen
in the air and all the bugs blowing around the
reflection all that stuff. It's just that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You got his last moment of life.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That was it. It was goodbye. I call that one. Gotcha.
Proboscis monky. Have you ever seen a Probosco smunk? Oh,
they're from Borneo. I photographed this guy in Borneo. A
tree kangaroo, a kangaroo that literally lives up in the trees.
It's the most beautiful little animal you ever see. This
is him sticking at his head out of the pouth.
You listen. The point is the diversity and the beauty
(20:12):
that we have in the wild kingdom is infinite. It
is infinite. I learned something every day working with wildlife.
I'm an old man now, and yet I feel like
I'm seventeen years old opening a book for the first time,
every time I go into a forest, every time I
go into a jungle, every time I go into place
like the Arctic or the Antarctic or whatever, seeing those
things for the first time again. I was a kid
(20:33):
who grew up in a small apartment, hard working immigrant parents,
didn't have much at all that I have been able
to have the privilege of seeing the things that I see.
For me, I just feel an obligation to share that
with as many people as I can. Okay, I've gotten
very lucky, you know. Look here I am in Okay.
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Gemeny Hernandez
Emily Estefan
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