April 21, 2021 • 53 mins
Human inventiveness is displayed in our ability to mimic other animals using only our natural voice. In this episode, we’ll explore the "why" of natural voice calling, how it’s become ingrained in our hunting culture, and talk to a PHD economist to discover if there's really a correlation between an ability to owl hoot and increased overall woodsmanship. We’ll also interview a human voice expert and some of the best natural voice callers around (including one of the world’s best). This episode is literally a hoot.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M Correlation does not equal causation. So just because you
can ol hoot turkey call, does not mean that that
causes you to be a good hunter. If you go
out with a guy turkey hunting and he rears back
and al hoots with his mouth or crow calls with
his mouth, what does that tell you about that guy?
(00:21):
He's he's authentic. He's a real hunter, right, He's a
real deal. On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast,
we're gonna explore a communication technique is old is mankind
using the voice to mimic animal sounds. I'm trying to
understand why humans do this, how it's advantageous for hunting,
(00:42):
and how natural voice calling has embedded itself into our culture.
We're gonna talk to the first person I ever heard
al hoot with their mouth, a PhD who's an expert
on understanding correlations, an expert on the human voice, and
we're gonna have a conversation with the world's most decorated
natural voice turkey caller who's called turkeys on The David
(01:06):
Letterman Show and The Tonight Show. Gonna be a fun ride. Oh,
you are a very effective al hooter. From a competitive standpoint,
get off stage. My name is Clay Nukelem and this
(01:32):
is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten
but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where
we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their lives
close to the land. Mimicking animal sounds to communicate with
(01:56):
the natural world is as old as the hunt, and
hunting is as old as mankind. Part of human uniqueness
as compared to other animals is our ability to use
our brains to conjure extremely varied strategies to acquire food.
(02:18):
A small part of the equation is our ability to
mimic animal sound, and there are many reasons why we
do this. Humans mimic owls, turkeys, crows, squirrels, quail, white
tail deer, coyotes, and even hawks. These sounds are used
in multiple applications. One would be to communicate with other
(02:39):
humans in incognito ways so that other animals aren't alerted
to human presence. You know, like a human making some
type of bird call to let his partners know that
he's made it to a certain location. Secondly, human hunters
mimic the sounds made by the animals they're hunting and
hopes of drawing them into stry king distance. These are
(03:01):
typically sexually based calls or territorial calls. Elk and turkey
would be great examples of this. Thirdly, there are relationships
between animals of different species that evoke predictable responses when
the call of the other is made. The best example
of this would be shocked goblin of turkey. This is
(03:23):
when a breeding crazed male turkey will gobble just about
any loud sound in the woods, including owl's, woodpeckers, and crows,
even though his breeding has nothing to do with those animals.
Another example of this would be the calm feeding sounds
of one species could indicate to other animals of a
(03:46):
different species that everything in that section of the woods
is okay. Basically, it would be like saying there are
no predators over here because I'm calm and relaxed. A
good example of this would be like a hen turkey
making content feeding calls that would calm an approaching theary.
(04:07):
I'll never forget the first time I heard someone hoot
like a barred owl. You're about to meet my friend
Josh Lunsford. Josh is a lanky cowboy type with a
firm handshake and a strong I gate. But he's a
corporate executive in the communication business and he's a veteran
(04:28):
turkey hunter in Woodsman. It may sound funny, but the
first time I heard Josh al hoot with his mouth,
it impacted me. I didn't know people could do that,
and I never forgot it. So Josh, me and you
were we grew up together. But the first time we
(04:50):
ever went hunting together was when I was in college
and I remember telling one of our mutual friends. I
was like, man, I'm going turkey hunting in the morning,
and he said, well, I can't go, but Josh is going.
And so I called you and we said, hey, well
let's go together. And so we went to a place
that both of us knew, some public land. We walked
I presumably we rode together in a truck. This was
(05:13):
twenty years ago. So we we get out. We walked
back in there before daylight. It was a place with
a lot of birds. At the time. I had only
turkey hut with my dad my whole life, never hunt
it with another turkey hunter. And I remember it got
just about daylight, I mean just you know, the birds
started chirping, and uh, you didn't say anything to me.
You we were knelt down on the ground and you
stood up and just oh, you know, you let out
(05:37):
a big ol hoot. And I remember being so impressed.
I was just like, holy moley, I'd never heard anybody
out hoot with their mouth and you didn't think anything
of you al hoot and a turkey gobbled way over
on the ridge and we chased them around. Would never
kill one that day. So I want to hear your
ol hoot to see if I remember it like I
(05:57):
remember it that day absolutely so um. And you know,
and just in just one note, right, mutual friends, I
had learned it from them. So you hunted with uh
with our friends Scott Ny, that's right. Did they ever
formally teach you or did they? They were just like
you know, it's one of those things where you're hunting
with people and you witness them doing something and you
(06:18):
want to get better at it and you want to
use it the way they did. You know, I grew
up using it to find someone in the woods, not
actually use it as a location call. And so that
was how I learned to use it as a locator calling.
How it could be so instrumental into making you more
successful turkey hunting. Right, Um, yeah, I absolutely do it
for you. Um, you can probably do it as good
as I can these days. Um. But oh it sounds
(06:47):
just like I remember it. That's good. If you go
out with a guy turkey hunting and he rears back
and our hoots with his mouth or crow calls with
his mouth, what does that tell you about that guy?
He's taking the time to test and being better at
the sport, Right, He's not. He's not just just purchased
his way into the sport by buying all the gadgets. Right,
(07:08):
He's He's authentic, he's a he's a real Um, he's
a real hunter. Right, He's a real deal, you know.
And and what I'll tell you is, yeah, has it
made me more successful in a lot of different ways?
Clay And a simple fact that I don't have to
carry as much stuff I don't. I don't own an
al hoot, I don't own a crow call, I don't
own a box call. I own a couple. I own
a couple of die forragm calls and a slate call.
(07:29):
Let me ask you this, do you ever al hoot?
Not in the turkey situation. Would anything happen in this
living room where Josh Lunsford without hood? Uh? Yeah, when
the hogs win, that's it. That's it. He's talking about
the Arkansas razorbacks. I'm sure you've heard of him. As
(07:52):
intriguing as the social communication mechanisms of the natural world
are maybe even more interested in something quite it's strange
that I've taken note of in Southern culture, and maybe
it's other places. I can't say for sure, but it's this.
There's a lot of street cred and social status that
comes with being a hunter that can make good natural
(08:15):
voiced calls. Why people that can mimic the hoot of
a barred owl are usually good woodsman. Let me take
it a step further, they're usually could turkey hunters. To
a hunter, this may seem like a no brainer, but
if you think about it, it's kind of strange. You see,
A barred owl is a nocturnal avian predator, usually not
(08:38):
weighing more than five pounds. It makes its living off
a small rodents. A wild turkey is a large bird
waring at the thirty pounds that spends the majority of
its life walking around eating insects, nuts, and green brows
off the ground. The only things these animals have in
common is they got a pair of wings and they
roughly inhabit the same geographic is But I will suggest
(09:03):
that if you were looking for a sure fire and
quick way to find a good turkey hunter, you could
start by asking to hear their owl hoot. M However,
the water gets really muddy right here, and even more
complex because this is a dynamic correlation that I'm suggesting,
because it is possible to be a good turkey hunter
(09:27):
and not be able to owl hoot. Wait a minute,
I'm getting confused. You know what we need? We need
somebody that knows about correlations to explain what this means.
Dr Malachi Nichols is an economist and he's the director
of evaluation and data quality for an education focused nonprofit.
(09:50):
Maybe he can help us sort this out. Dr Nichols,
I am trying to under d stand correlations because it's
very clear to me that I make correlations all the time.
I don't fully understand the mechanisms of them, but I
(10:13):
find them to be like, really predictable. So help me
understand the connection that I very clearly see between people
that can our hoot very well with their mouth and
their ability to be good woodsman. What what's the connection
that I'm seeing there? You know, I would I would
(10:34):
take it one step back and say, as a researcher, like,
this is a social science question, right, It's just the
study of human behavior. The statistical tool that we use
is correlations, and and simply put a correlation, it's just
quantifying the strength and the direction of a relationship between
two things. So if a moves, how does be moved?
(10:56):
So if they're weak correlations and strong correlations, how do
I tell the difference? And is there a is there
a terminology that would describe a correlation that that isn't
a legit correlation? And when I think of one that
is And I'm thinking about spurits correlations and spurious correlations.
Are are correlations that appear statistically to be related, but
(11:16):
if you look at the context, there's no relations. What's
an example. What's a good example of a spurious correlation?
So I'm looking I'm thinking about data in the eighties
and nineties of an increased use of people wearing seatbelts
was associated or related to a decrease in astronauts dying
in space right, So statistically it was a true statement,
(11:38):
but really there was no connection between the two, no
connection at all. That's the power and also the hardship
of statistics and data. So in my situation where I'm
seeing a correlation between a person's ability to out hoot
or mimic natural sounds and then they're jumping to their
general overall ability to be an effective hunter, I see
(11:59):
the strong correlation. Okay, but inside the same situation, you
don't have to be an ol hooter to be a
good hunter. What what does that mean? Like if if
it's there's for sure correlation, but it doesn't always have
to be. And what you're describing is that it's a
something that we say in our world is that correlation
(12:21):
does not equal causation. So just because you can ol
hoot a turkey call does not mean that that causes
you to be a good hunter. It doesn't. It's not caused.
It's just it happens to have a relationship. And so
therefore you have outliers. Therefore you have people who are
good hunters that can't turkey call or can't ol hoot,
And it just says this is a correlation, there's a relationship,
(12:44):
but there's other factors that cause you to be a
good hunter. Do we use correlations constantly and don't even
realize it? Oh yeah, it's association. It's it's again going
back to the aspect. This is a social science question, right,
the study of human behavior, and so we're always as
human beings trying to make connections. It's really like a
short cut, like if I hear you ol hoot, you
(13:07):
don't have to tell me your story. I know a
lot of them, So it's like a it's like a
social shortcut if there were I want you to guess
for me. So if I had ten people lined up
in a line and I went through the line in
a blind test and had them ol hoot, and then
I made judgments on their experience and hunting, do you
have any predictions on how often I would be right?
(13:30):
Probably of the time, I think, Dr Milka Nichols. Okay,
last thing here, do you do you know the cadence
of a bard owl? Who? I have no idea? Okay,
I'm gonna do it for you, and then I want
to hear you. I want to hear your bart out here. Okay,
So this is the hoot of a bard owl. Oh there,
(13:56):
it's a it's a who cooks for you, who books
for you. All. You may not be in experienced hunt,
but you're head at that direction. Let me get there therection.
(14:17):
Now that we've got all that sorted out, I want
to introduce you to some of the voices in my
world that all fit the correlation that I've so strongly identified.
I don't ever remember not knowing Steve Phillips. He's a
good friend of my dad's and families, and he's always
(14:38):
had an incredible knack for using his voice to mimic
animal sounds. The guy is simply gifted, and wouldn't you
know it, he's a heck of a woodsman too. When
did you start mouth calling just using your natural voice?
I started mouth calling using my natural voice probably about
(15:00):
seventy six or seventy seven. I didn't start turkey hunting
until the late eighties. But Kathy and I lived out
across the street from a guy that was like old
McDonald's farm. I mean, he had every kind of animal,
and he even had wild turkey, had one gobler, and
he had like four hens. And so I'd sit out
on the lawn chair out on the front yard, and
I'd listened to them hens, and I would listen to
(15:22):
him and he had gobble, and listen to him. So
I started practicing mimicking those hens and the calls that
they would make to make him. God, yeah, I never
put a diaphragm any kind of slate call. Didn't know
what they were, didn't turkey hunt. So I just started
messing around, and so I got to where I could
walk out on the front yard any morning and call
(15:44):
and he had gobble. Then in about the late eighties,
I got asked by a guy who asked me if
I want to go turkey hunt? And I said, well,
you know, I don't know how he's turkey hunting. What
do you do? And he's, well, you need to get
a diaphragm call. And I said, well, I'll go. I
can call him with my mouth, and he is cured
me I probably couldn't. So he took before daylight and
(16:04):
he turned me out and he said that he knew
there was some turkeys in there, and he actually told
me what I needed to do. You know, he said,
pulling on top the mountain, listened to you here one,
and try to get as close to it as you can.
And and then make your call. I said, okay. So
we went got on the mountain, heard the turkey gobble.
I got in what I thought was rather close, made
(16:25):
my mouth call. He answered me. I just sit there
a little bit, and before I knew it, he gobbled
right below me. I called him again, and here he
came in. I shot him and killed him. Went back
to the truck within probably an hour and a half,
and I thought, you know, there's nothing to this turkey hun.
Little did I know there was a lot to turkey hunt.
(16:46):
Andy Brown, who's a good friend of yours. He taught
me everything I know about turryn He taught me, you
know what to do, when to do, and so I
took it to the next level. I practiced all the time,
learning how to call. Let's hear you calls. Yeah, I
usually use two different locator calls. Early morning is the alcohol.
We'll we'll do an alcohol when the first get out,
(17:07):
right right before daylight, you know, while it's still dark.
I'll usually get out and all and then you can
also sometimes darn if you get two or three hours.
I know you've heard two or three hours come in,
and that really gets a turkey really fired. Up you can,
(17:32):
and that will get them really to get them laughing.
And then later on, you know, in the morning or
something near in the day, I use a crow call,
and so I learned how to make a crow call
with just my mouth, not a crow calls. That sounds good, man,
(17:55):
I bet you can call a crow in right now,
we'll probably okay, now, what I know you for? Well,
I know you're for your crow calling. I'll call them
hit him again. It's crows lit in the tree about
fifty shotgun range from us. If you've got a turkey
(18:15):
choke on, I wish you'd call all right, let me
hear your your turkey call. Okay, as you will know
you know, your your regular yelp call. That's what I
used the most. But when the turkey gets in close,
you know what do you usually here? When turkeys get
in if hands are in they're not calling real loud.
They're doing more of a purring and just talking. And
(18:36):
I will hit him with and then I'll slow down
a little bit when they get in closer. And all
this that sounds really good, sounds really good. Most people
(19:02):
can't call that good with a diaphragm. Okay, here's here's
my question for you. Do you see a correlation between
people that can natural voice call and people that are
really good woodsman? Yes, I do. Let me tell you this.
I think there's two kinds of turkey hunters. There's a
caller and then there's a turkey killer. And I consider
(19:22):
myself a turkey killer. I'm not the best caller in
the woods. You've got guys that go to these contests,
and I mean they're really good. I think personally that
the call is about maybe, but I think the set
up in location and how you set up on a
turkey determines whether you're gonna kill that turkey or not.
(19:43):
To me, I've always said that somebody that can call
with her voice has a lot of street cred in
my book, so you got some street cred, man, show me,
show me your squirrel bark that's good trying to call
us crows? And I heard you call while ago there
(20:15):
was one that's awesome. Do you ever use a OL
hoot or anything for something other than a functional turkey locator?
Hunters as group of hunters, as you know, uh, you know,
we we do use an OL who I can actually
pick out, like Andy and Wayne and Scott. You know
(20:35):
your different tones. I can tell when they're who. They
can tell when I who. You know they learn that sound.
So if we're ready to get down out of the woods,
are ready to leave, or if we kill something willow,
who do you ever do it when you're not hunting?
You like like, uh, something good happens at that? Like yeah, yeah,
(20:55):
we we get out and you will allow who do
at the house? When something what? What does it mean
when Steve phillips ol hoots not in the woods, like
what what's given an example of something that's happened? Why
would you alhoot? Usually usually if something good, you know,
has happened, I might be out in the backyard and
and uh, one of the kids have done something. I'll
(21:16):
sometimes I'll throw one out is bad, you know, it's
it's a celebratory, celebratory. There you go, there you go, exactly.
It was zero surprise to me when I learned that
Moe Shepherd had a good owl and crow call. The
(21:40):
guy is a turkey hunter's turkey hunter. He's been successful
year after year on some tough public ground, and a
spring hasn't passed in the last forty five years. When
he hadn't brought home a spring gobbler. He's got a
unique technique for prepping his voice to make the hoot
of a barred owl. Meet most shepherd. So you I
(22:05):
know you al Who because I've heard you do it before.
But you also cro called with your voice. Yes, I do.
I do. I do it a lot with my voice
because it's so handy and easy and you don't have
to move or anything. You know, I can be sitting
there totally still, and if a turkey hadn't goblded in
a while, but I'm working or something other, I can
just call with my voice. And you know, I did
(22:28):
anybody teach you or just I just learned to do
it on my own. Like I said, when I was
a kid, I heard all those sounds out in the
woods and stuff, but I didn't really try. I tried,
but didn't make much success that. I didn't really learn
to al who until I was probably turkey hunting, did
you somebody? Ah? Yes, I had a brother in law
that that al Who did. He's one that got me
(22:51):
into turkey hunting and he was good at al hooting. Okay,
what good voice callers are usually pretty good woodsman and
pretty good hunters. Okay, walk me through your al hooting process,
because I know you you kind of have something you do.
Like I said, I tried it for years when I
was younger, and then one day I I'd seen somebody
(23:12):
kind of doing this I was hunting with and the
best time, Remember he said, you know, he said, you
gotta get your throat right to make the noise come
out right. He said, if you don't it, this blurts out.
So I kind of swallow some air, if that makes
any sense. I swallow air for three or four gulps
before I start mouth hoot, and it gets the right
tone in there. And like I said, I'll you'll probably
(23:34):
hear this. You should be here a little bit of
this of me swallowing the air, like I said, I
talked about very nice. Let me hear your crocs. Tell me.
(24:01):
I don't know what it's called, but you know, curls
make a lot of different sounds and lots of different
serious series. And you know, sometimes Turkey's gobble a long series.
Sometimes they gobblet short calls, you knowiced short blasts and stuff.
So you know, it's just whatever mode I'm in or
what mood I mean, what I've blast out when I did,
but I can do several different cadences of it. So
(24:33):
Old Ryan Grab is an all around woodsman, from bears
to turkeys to catching spring croppy. He's an expert. I've
actually never turkey hunted with Ryan, but I knew he
had a good out hoot before I ever heard it.
Our ability to make hacurate predictions based on correlations is stunning,
and its streamlines our ability to make judgments. I want
(24:57):
you to meet Old Ryan flint face Grab. He rarely
smiles for pictures, so I called flint face. So where
where did you learn to use your natural voice to call? With?
Just growing up and probably hearing some older guys in
high school that I knew that were hunters, you know,
(25:18):
and they had hunted a few more years than I
actually had, and heard them doing that al hoots, you know,
turkey open crow call, and you know stuff I started.
You just kind of started doing it on your own.
There was times I would, you know, when I was younger,
I'd sat outside and just at night by myself from
the driveway while the family was inside, you know, and
(25:40):
I just tried to practice. Let me let me hear
your on a good spring morning to get a turkey
to god, I'm not very good at Come on, I'm not.
I'm really not better at crow than I am. Well,
I want to hear your out and your crow. Oh
oh crow crow? That sounds good man. So do you
(26:19):
do you ever use a barred alcohol for anything other
than hunting? Like like, for instance, would there ever be
a reason that you would bard alcohol in your house?
Maybe to aggregate the life sometimes? Or do you ever
alhoot when you're excited about something as a celebratory of time? What? Okay?
(26:41):
What would what would have to happen in Ryan Grab's
life for him to al hoot? Not at a turkey gobble?
Give me an example, Oh, catch a three pound crappy.
Benjamin Moore is a New York based voice and speech
teacher where he coaches Broadway, film and TV actors, as
(27:04):
well as diplomat scientists and economists at some high salutant
organizations like the United Nations. Benjamin works for the Link
Ladder Center for Voice and Language and the City University
of New York. I've got a feeling that he's got
some insight into why humans are so good at mimicking
(27:25):
animal sounds. Benjamin I am trying to understand why humans
are so dynamic in our ability to mimic. The only
animal that I can think of off hand that does
this as a mocking bird. But are there other examples
in the animal kingdom of animals that can mimic other sounds?
(27:47):
There are a lot, But as far as mimicking human
speech goes, the only other animals that really do that consistently.
There have been some like strain age things about seals,
and even an elephant one time that learned how to
say a few words. But but in the animal kingdom,
it's birds, it's parrots, parakeets. Probably the the king of
(28:13):
of imitating our speech are parakeets. They can learn as
many as four hundred words. Let me ask you this, Benjamin,
if we're so unique in our ability to mimic other animals,
what is it from an anatomy and physiology perspective that
allows a human to make so much variation in our voice,
um our, larynx, and respiratory system is much more sophisticated
(28:39):
than any of the other species going. We have a
big range. Most of us in our daily conversation have
a couple of octaves of range with a little bit
of training, every one of us can have something more
than than four octaves, so we have this big range
from low in the voice to high end the voice.
And then on top of that, up above vocal cords,
(29:01):
that tube that comes up from the vocal folds called
the pharynx. It goes up, goes up behind the mouth,
goes up through the nose. Uh, there's that obviously comes
out through the mouth where there's the tongue, that jaw
on the lips. That whole tube has muscles there that
not only are good for swallowing food, but also adjust
(29:22):
the shape of the vibrations as they come up and out.
All of that has this incredible flexibility. We learn it
just like the parrots do and the mockingbirds do. We
learn most of our sounds through imitation and all the
languages of the world. There's something more than two thousand
sounds that human beings are able to produce, and every
(29:44):
one of us that is normally functioning when we're born
can hear and distinguish all those different sounds. Over a
period of time, we begin to lose it because it's
not useful, and the brain begins to streamline itself for
what is a useful commune occation and what's not? I
have one final question for it. I know all these
people that are incredible natural voice callers, why are they
(30:10):
so good at this? And other people are not. With
the understanding that all of us are born a little
bit different. Some vocal cords are longer than the others,
and the shape of the mouth and stuff is always
going to be different, the real difference is their interests,
their passion in the subject um. Almost to everybody can
(30:33):
develop a huge range in different ways of speaking. We're
just really flexible that way as a species. And we
do know that human beings who want to be an
expert in something, whether it's a professional athlete or an
artist or a mechanic, what their passion is, and they
say it takes about ten hours to become an expert
(30:54):
at something. What their passion is really drives him in
a couple of different ways. One is that that emotional
framework allows us to marry our intellect with our physical
skill sets, so that the skill sets just aren't something
that the body is doing. There's a real understanding that comes.
But also with that passion comes an ability to perceive
(31:20):
and really focus in on the details of a situation.
Like for these natural callers, they are hearing that turkey
in a way that even when I would go out
and try to hunt, I was like, I never I
know for sure I'm not hearing a turkey the way
Preston is, for instance, and how attuned he is with
his ears is like a symphony conductor. So, Benjamin, are
(31:44):
you familiar with the hoot of a bard owl? I am. Okay,
I'm gonna hoot like a bard owl. Okay, I want
you to tell me what I could do better if
you can just in one who here, here's my ol hood.
I'm gonna step back just a little bit, all right,
give it a go. Oh okay, that's my wow. That's great.
(32:07):
Once you go up into that high part, the tongue
is gonna want to come up, but you're gonna want
to try to leave that down so that it's more
resonant coming up through through the front part of your face.
So try to keep my tongue down, so you're going
to keep the back that's closer. Yeah, I pushed my
(32:31):
tongue down. I'm I have to say, I'm impressed going.
I wasn't expecting that. That is great. Preston Pittman isn't normal.
He's one of the best natural voice callers on the
continent and certainly the most decorated. After meeting him, it's
(32:56):
clear he must have been raised in a clutch of
wild turkeys. Anthropomorphism is when we assign animals human like traits.
Zoo morphism is when we assign a human animal like traits.
Preston has been zoo morphies, or maybe he's just a
darned good Mississippi turkey hunter and woodsman. Preston became the
(33:20):
Mississippi State turkey calling champion when he was sixteen years old.
Today he's sixties seven years old. He won that first
calling contest with his natural voice. Since that time, he's
won the World Turkey Calling Contest, the World Natural Voice
Turkey Calling Contest, the World Gobbling Turkey Calling Contest, and
(33:41):
he was the World Champion Natural Voice al Hooter. He
is the only person to hold five different world titles.
He was on The David Letterman Show three times and
The Tonight Show with Jay Lenno colling turkeys. But of
more note than all these accolades, Preston is probably as
good a turkey hunter as has ever drawn a breath
(34:05):
of air. Here's the clip of Preston in his prime.
(34:39):
I ain't gonna tell that called to you. It's not
for sale or no man money. That's my natural voice.
I'm Preston Pittman. I've been blessed that I've held the
world championship several times, the World Natural Voice Calling Championship.
But let's tell you what. There is nothing in this
world that sounds is good? Is natural voice calling? Does
(35:00):
suppressing tell me about when you first started using your
natural voice for calling? Well, they pick on me a
little bit. Say uh that when I was hatched on
November of nineteen fifty three, that when I popped out
of my mama and the baby doctor grabbed me by
my hind leg and spanked me on the rear end
(35:21):
instead of crying, is what come out of my mouth.
But in all seriousness, me and from a family that
always hunted and always fish, I guess I couldn't help
but hunt. And my dad was not a turkey hunter.
He was a big dog person. Back whenever we hit
quail here in the South um and run deer with dogs,
(35:43):
and we did things together. And they used to have
an old timy day and a little town by the
name of Carthridge, Mississippi. And at that Fourth of July,
which when it was celebration of our great country, they
had a turkey calling contest, a duck colin kind tests
and acts throwing contests, and they had the Mississippi State
(36:04):
UH duck collin the Mississippi State UH Championship in turkey collin.
Back when I was about twelve, I met a general
m the name of Jack Dudley, who at that point
in time was the Mississippi State champion wild turkey caller,
and um, he was good enough just on that day
to start working with me, kind of tell me what
to do and how to stretch my local cords, and
(36:25):
I'll be dead gun. At the end of the day,
I was. I was making a somewhat of a turkey sound,
and uh. Kind of the rest of the story is
I had won the fishing rodeo for kids, and I
was a year two old, so I had already been
awarded the plaque, and uh, I had to get the
black back and that was okay, I understood. Well, I
(36:46):
just kind of made myself as I I said, one
day and I'm gonna come back and with me a trophy.
He up here between something, I'm gonna be able to
do it. But Mr Dudley would go to some of
the sportsman's clubs and do a little short seminars. He
the forty five rpm record that I memorized, you know,
word for work, and it was on Turkey Column. It
was on Turkey column. Really are there any of those
(37:08):
left today? And you know, I know what there was
one I met in your house. Uh huh and for
salf uh. And at one point in time, I could
literally quoted my Hello, my name is Jack Dudley, and
I'm gonna teach you how to turkey call. The first
call that I'm gonna teach you is gonna be a
maiden coll. And this is the way you do a
(37:30):
maiden coll. You know, three us and two cluck. But
kind of making a long story short, At sixteen years old,
I went back to that same contest and I won.
And we didn't have youth editions back then, you know,
it was a calling contest and very few of those.
And I want the Misssippi State championship perkey collar. And
(37:53):
from there it just went on and I own and
I own, and I on and on Preston, act like
I've never turkey hunted, and give me a good look
into the vocalizations of the wild turkey. And again this
is all just with your natural voice. Okay, well it's
sixties seven years old. I have stretched my my layers
(38:16):
next my vocal cords so much till it's like a
rubber band that you laid up on the dashboard as
the truck. I can barely up a little bit, cluck
a little bit, per a little bit, and sometimes gobble.
So the quality is not there too many people, especially,
I'm just gonna say it, since podcast and Facebook and
YouTube and all that junk, they won't learn how to
(38:39):
kick you run, cackles, lying down on excited hand, the apps, cutting, YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, yadda. No. No,
As a beginner, you need to learn one sound and
one sound only until you can do it exactly the
way that you want to do it every time. And
that is the basic hen yep. I will use a
human analogy with to you. I can take one word
(39:03):
and have three very total different meanings. I can go hey,
or I can go hi. All right, I can go
he and you can do that all basically with a yelp.
So it's kind of like building a house. Build that
(39:23):
foundation solid, then start adding a call. Then go back
and do your foundation. It's calm, it's cool, is collective,
is peaceful, it's tranquility. Come on in, big boy, I
want to date you. Okay, there can be that's more
(39:49):
of I'm reaching out. I won't company. Where are you
an assembly? Call's bring our fault either way. Are speeding
it up, speeding the rhythm up? Are acting more excited
day in day out, especially on southern birds. Then I
(40:12):
don't want unless I know the particular bird or I'm
just trying to locate one. I will always revert back
to softer, calmer calling. Let me ask you a question.
So you you are a natural voice caller, and you're
also you also do incredible diaphragm calls and all kinds
of the calls. But I'm interested in your natural voice stuff,
(40:35):
and I understanding how much of that was practice, how
much of it was natural? Okay? Even Mr Dudley looked
at me as his son. He says, you're natural. He said,
everybody can't do this crap. I'm in hell in there,
I'm sucking in, which gives you more rasp to our now,
(40:56):
and it's not like what it used to be. But
it's almost like me saying the word. I'll get your
tone working. Describe what's happening in your mouth when you
make that gobble. I'm sucking air in and I'm mimicking
the word. Then I get my tongue to flopping up
(41:19):
and down, and I will use my cheeks, watch my cheeks.
I'm bringing it in and I'm bringing my my my
my mouth in to get the tail off of the gobble.
But anybody and everybody can at least what I call
squeak something out like they can get a because that's
(41:40):
all I'm doing now. I mean I've lost it, but yeah,
I mean you can hear the word out in there.
I'll take it out. But I'm over exaggerate. Yeah, you
can get a little something. And let me tell you this.
Take a group of a hundred turkey hunters anywhere in
the United stuf eates. I'll bet you there aren't over
(42:02):
two to five people that can do anything with their
natural voice. It's something he has not heard. He is
not used to it. A natural voice collar. As far
as harvesting a bird, a natural voice collar and or
either a trumpet our wingbone user will kill some of
(42:24):
those that you walk up to the limb and you
hang his spurs upon her. Any swings back and forth.
And you think natural voice calling gives you an advantage
in hunting with fan buttser doubts. I mean, I'm I'm
basically I use a little bit of everything now, but
my my go to collars a diaphragm, that's first, okay,
but there's a lot of times I'm blowing a diaphragm,
and just to mix it in, I'm liable to throw
(42:46):
my voice to make it sound like another hen coming
in and add that little more realism into it. You
you told me about adding realism to your calling, said,
and how you would used to bark like a squirrel
or you would crow like so you're calling the turkey,
so there's a gobbler here and you're kendy up and
but then you might bark like a squirrel. Let me
tell you what I'm doing it spending and I'm I
(43:08):
basically kind of kenning in on tough turkeys. Now, okay,
hard bird birds that's call shy birds has been missed
with birds are in that four and older your range bracket.
But I heard everything. Okay. Then they had to the
kitchen sink drawn at him. Well I'm fitching. Now throw
the kitchen sink, the como, the basktub, hecked front door
at him. I tried to paint a picture and buy
(43:30):
that for y'all turkey hunters out there. What happens whenever
a crow gets on birds, he starts raising king right
and looking at the turkey, right at the turkey. How
many times have you been sitting in the woods and
have like a little thicket or a blowdown or is
in between you and your bird? The bird shuts up.
Five minutes is gone by, Nothing has happened. Ten minutes
(43:54):
is gone by, nothing has happened. You hadn't heard anything,
But you didn't notice that little thrush that come flying
out of that thicket? What made it come flying out?
And then twelve fourteen minutes later, fifteen minutes later, all
of a sudden, Oh my god, where'd he come from? There?
He is in full struck. He's been there the whole time.
So as I tell people, I see with my ears,
(44:17):
because I see more with my ears than I do
with my eyes. It's paying attention to the squirrel barking,
we'll do something moving through the woods, and if you
will pay attention as to what's going on in mother nature,
you will automatically step up. Now if you can add
some of those sounds, like when we used to have
Bob White quail, that was one of my favorite things
(44:38):
to do, was to sit there and see if I
can still do it. I would mix that in with
my calling quiller trying to get back together, or throw
a Bob White at it. You know, the Bob White
whistle mixing in with your turk, mixing in with your
turkey callings. That means there's other wildlife there at ease.
(44:59):
So he's gonna think, well, there's quail over there that
I could learn a redbird. I want to learn a
redbird so bad it was pathetic. I want to go
a little bit deeper with you to the kind of
the thing behind the thing in In Southern culture, it
means something to be able to call with your natural voice.
What would if if a guy walked into this camp
(45:19):
right now and he could al call like a barred owl,
he could gobble like a turkey with his mouth, what
would what would that say to you about his woodsmanship,
his hunting prowess. I can answer that very simply, very shortly.
I don't want you on my land because that tells
(45:43):
me that is a person who is dedicated, especially if
they could do a full range of calls. That tells
me that that individual is either one a kid or
that is a seasoned outdoorsman. Like I said, stay all
my land. I don't want somebody like that in there.
So the bard owl in Mississippi culture, Yes, where would
(46:09):
Preston Pittman al hoot? Not in a turkey hunting situation?
Give me an example of why you would al hoot
in your life. Oh, I'm telling you that real quick.
Instead of hooping, hollering, whatever it may be. I think
probably every contest that I ever won, I did something
like this right here, and then I gotta lie. Uh
(46:36):
you let me get in a football game, which I
don't go to a whole bunch of because I'm in
the wood hunting. Then uh, I can do that single note,
you know, like that who I instead hollering and screaming
and it's it's it's it's my happy holler. And what
it breaks down to, you know, I'm happy or I'm
rooting for somebody. Why do you think we do that?
(46:58):
Because it's a Southern thing. I mean, you gotta eat grits,
you know what I mean. I don't need no oatmeal
or cream a wheat junk. It's a grit thing, is
what it is. It's just it's a Southern thing. Press
that I'm I think for a Southern Okay, I'm gonna
I'm gonna set you up for something. To judge me. Okay,
(47:20):
my my assessment of myself. I think I am a
average Southern al hooter. Can you want me to judge
you being in a contest or do you want me
to judge you as a hunter? Judge me as a
hunter and then give me the critique of of a
of a contest. But I want I'm gonna al hoot
and I want you to give me just your honest assessment,
(47:41):
and I want you to coach me because let me
tell you something, I take a lot of pride in
my al hooting and I use it all the time.
I mean I I use it. I want the truth. Man.
Oh that's my sequence. You are a very effective al hooter,
(48:10):
probably a little better than average from a competitive standpoint.
Get off stage, Okay, you ain't gonna hold a candle. Okay,
that's being reliance with you and also too so I
had to coach you right now from a hunting purely perspective. Yes,
there are so many times when you go into all
(48:30):
the different notes that an owl makes, he's doing gobbled
once or twice, and you ain't hurt him. There he
goes You needed short like or even just the who
I Preston, You've made a lifestyle a career, and you've
(48:51):
dedicated yourself and your personal passion towards not just turkey hunting,
but turkey calling. What does turkey hunting mean to Presston Pittman?
It's my life. I don't know any other real way
to to to to put it, but it is. Uh,
It's a gift that God Almighty gave me, who blessed
(49:16):
a barely high skeool educated person that dreamed of being
a game board and so I could be out and
outdoors all the time, which, oh Lord God is it's
giving me a dream come true. It's basically what it has.
And at sixty seven I have not lost that passion.
(49:37):
Have you? Have you ever thought about why? I mean,
like you think about a human and what we're here
on earth to do? Why we're here? Why is turning
so special to you? Remember this. I enjoy all of
the outdoors, but there's something about that time of year.
It's about sitting there and seeing the beautiful dog woods
(49:59):
come into full balloon. It's about the first buttercups, you know,
start to pop up. It's about seeing life come back
to the dead woods again. It's about being mesmerized by
a spider. Is something about that time of year. It's
like everything's gonna be okay, the winner's over with, it's
(50:20):
not cold, and there's life in everything again. You know what?
I what I hear when I hear you talk like
this and describe nature in these ways because I hear
somebody that's really paying attention, and it's perceptive and aware
and cognizance of detail. And I think that as hunters,
(50:43):
we're we're in a situation where we are trying to
fool a part of nature, and so we're having to
embed ourselves inside of a system that we're usually not in.
You're paying attention to all this stuff, and I think
that's a quality that is lost inside of much of
(51:03):
modern society because technology different things, moder the modern world
has taken away our need for that type of awareness.
And so just as I hear you describe that, I
take it as a personal challenge to be more aware
and be more in tune with what's going on around
because that just provides this rich palate for what I
(51:24):
see inside of you as a man that's passionate, loves
what he's doing, appreciative with what he's doing, and that
doesn't come by accident. That's real, intentional. No humans. Ability
to mimic the wide array of animal sounds is a
special part of human uniqueness, and it's embedded itself into
(51:46):
our culture. In the South especially, there is cultural value
placed on realism and even higher social status assigned to
the people who are proficient at it. A good our
hoot is a reflection of confidence, practice, and natural talent,
and carries with it a strong correlation of being a
proficient woodsman. It's really unique when you think about it,
(52:10):
but we have incorporated, or maybe even hijacked, the language
of the barred owl to communicate with other humans a
very high level of meaning. That nine notes sequence would
take a whole lot of human words to describe what
it means. I wonder where else in our lives we
do this. Humans are constantly looking for shortcuts and communication
(52:34):
to tell others who we are. Much of the time,
these messages are calling card for deeper human relationships. Even
an owl hoop, these social science questions are highly interesting
to me, and they make me more aware of myself
and why I do what I do. When I hear
(52:54):
somebody ol hoot, I feel a deep connection to them,
and I suspect, but that's an ancient social mechanism and
I like it. Oh oh oh, I love it.
M Correlation does not equal causation. So just because you
can ol hoot turkey call, does not mean that that
causes you to be a good hunter. If you go
out with a guy turkey hunting and he rears back
and al hoots with his mouth or crow calls with
his mouth, what does that tell you about that guy?
(00:21):
He's he's authentic. He's a real hunter, right, He's a
real deal. On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast,
we're gonna explore a communication technique is old is mankind
using the voice to mimic animal sounds. I'm trying to
understand why humans do this, how it's advantageous for hunting,
(00:42):
and how natural voice calling has embedded itself into our culture.
We're gonna talk to the first person I ever heard
al hoot with their mouth, a PhD who's an expert
on understanding correlations, an expert on the human voice, and
we're gonna have a conversation with the world's most decorated
natural voice turkey caller who's called turkeys on The David
(01:06):
Letterman Show and The Tonight Show. Gonna be a fun ride. Oh,
you are a very effective al hooter. From a competitive standpoint,
get off stage. My name is Clay Nukelem and this
(01:32):
is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten
but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where
we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their lives
close to the land. Mimicking animal sounds to communicate with
(01:56):
the natural world is as old as the hunt, and
hunting is as old as mankind. Part of human uniqueness
as compared to other animals is our ability to use
our brains to conjure extremely varied strategies to acquire food.
(02:18):
A small part of the equation is our ability to
mimic animal sound, and there are many reasons why we
do this. Humans mimic owls, turkeys, crows, squirrels, quail, white
tail deer, coyotes, and even hawks. These sounds are used
in multiple applications. One would be to communicate with other
(02:39):
humans in incognito ways so that other animals aren't alerted
to human presence. You know, like a human making some
type of bird call to let his partners know that
he's made it to a certain location. Secondly, human hunters
mimic the sounds made by the animals they're hunting and
hopes of drawing them into stry king distance. These are
(03:01):
typically sexually based calls or territorial calls. Elk and turkey
would be great examples of this. Thirdly, there are relationships
between animals of different species that evoke predictable responses when
the call of the other is made. The best example
of this would be shocked goblin of turkey. This is
(03:23):
when a breeding crazed male turkey will gobble just about
any loud sound in the woods, including owl's, woodpeckers, and crows,
even though his breeding has nothing to do with those animals.
Another example of this would be the calm feeding sounds
of one species could indicate to other animals of a
(03:46):
different species that everything in that section of the woods
is okay. Basically, it would be like saying there are
no predators over here because I'm calm and relaxed. A
good example of this would be like a hen turkey
making content feeding calls that would calm an approaching theary.
(04:07):
I'll never forget the first time I heard someone hoot
like a barred owl. You're about to meet my friend
Josh Lunsford. Josh is a lanky cowboy type with a
firm handshake and a strong I gate. But he's a
corporate executive in the communication business and he's a veteran
(04:28):
turkey hunter in Woodsman. It may sound funny, but the
first time I heard Josh al hoot with his mouth,
it impacted me. I didn't know people could do that,
and I never forgot it. So Josh, me and you
were we grew up together. But the first time we
(04:50):
ever went hunting together was when I was in college
and I remember telling one of our mutual friends. I
was like, man, I'm going turkey hunting in the morning,
and he said, well, I can't go, but Josh is going.
And so I called you and we said, hey, well
let's go together. And so we went to a place
that both of us knew, some public land. We walked
I presumably we rode together in a truck. This was
(05:13):
twenty years ago. So we we get out. We walked
back in there before daylight. It was a place with
a lot of birds. At the time. I had only
turkey hut with my dad my whole life, never hunt
it with another turkey hunter. And I remember it got
just about daylight, I mean just you know, the birds
started chirping, and uh, you didn't say anything to me.
You we were knelt down on the ground and you
stood up and just oh, you know, you let out
(05:37):
a big ol hoot. And I remember being so impressed.
I was just like, holy moley, I'd never heard anybody
out hoot with their mouth and you didn't think anything
of you al hoot and a turkey gobbled way over
on the ridge and we chased them around. Would never
kill one that day. So I want to hear your
ol hoot to see if I remember it like I
(05:57):
remember it that day absolutely so um. And you know,
and just in just one note, right, mutual friends, I
had learned it from them. So you hunted with uh
with our friends Scott Ny, that's right. Did they ever
formally teach you or did they? They were just like
you know, it's one of those things where you're hunting
with people and you witness them doing something and you
(06:18):
want to get better at it and you want to
use it the way they did. You know, I grew
up using it to find someone in the woods, not
actually use it as a location call. And so that
was how I learned to use it as a locator calling.
How it could be so instrumental into making you more
successful turkey hunting. Right, Um, yeah, I absolutely do it
for you. Um, you can probably do it as good
as I can these days. Um. But oh it sounds
(06:47):
just like I remember it. That's good. If you go
out with a guy turkey hunting and he rears back
and our hoots with his mouth or crow calls with
his mouth, what does that tell you about that guy?
He's taking the time to test and being better at
the sport, Right, He's not. He's not just just purchased
his way into the sport by buying all the gadgets. Right,
(07:08):
He's He's authentic, he's a he's a real Um, he's
a real hunter. Right, He's a real deal, you know.
And and what I'll tell you is, yeah, has it
made me more successful in a lot of different ways?
Clay And a simple fact that I don't have to
carry as much stuff I don't. I don't own an
al hoot, I don't own a crow call, I don't
own a box call. I own a couple. I own
a couple of die forragm calls and a slate call.
(07:29):
Let me ask you this, do you ever al hoot?
Not in the turkey situation. Would anything happen in this
living room where Josh Lunsford without hood? Uh? Yeah, when
the hogs win, that's it. That's it. He's talking about
the Arkansas razorbacks. I'm sure you've heard of him. As
(07:52):
intriguing as the social communication mechanisms of the natural world
are maybe even more interested in something quite it's strange
that I've taken note of in Southern culture, and maybe
it's other places. I can't say for sure, but it's this.
There's a lot of street cred and social status that
comes with being a hunter that can make good natural
(08:15):
voiced calls. Why people that can mimic the hoot of
a barred owl are usually good woodsman. Let me take
it a step further, they're usually could turkey hunters. To
a hunter, this may seem like a no brainer, but
if you think about it, it's kind of strange. You see,
A barred owl is a nocturnal avian predator, usually not
(08:38):
weighing more than five pounds. It makes its living off
a small rodents. A wild turkey is a large bird
waring at the thirty pounds that spends the majority of
its life walking around eating insects, nuts, and green brows
off the ground. The only things these animals have in
common is they got a pair of wings and they
roughly inhabit the same geographic is But I will suggest
(09:03):
that if you were looking for a sure fire and
quick way to find a good turkey hunter, you could
start by asking to hear their owl hoot. M However,
the water gets really muddy right here, and even more
complex because this is a dynamic correlation that I'm suggesting,
because it is possible to be a good turkey hunter
(09:27):
and not be able to owl hoot. Wait a minute,
I'm getting confused. You know what we need? We need
somebody that knows about correlations to explain what this means.
Dr Malachi Nichols is an economist and he's the director
of evaluation and data quality for an education focused nonprofit.
(09:50):
Maybe he can help us sort this out. Dr Nichols,
I am trying to under d stand correlations because it's
very clear to me that I make correlations all the time.
I don't fully understand the mechanisms of them, but I
(10:13):
find them to be like, really predictable. So help me
understand the connection that I very clearly see between people
that can our hoot very well with their mouth and
their ability to be good woodsman. What what's the connection
that I'm seeing there? You know, I would I would
(10:34):
take it one step back and say, as a researcher, like,
this is a social science question, right, It's just the
study of human behavior. The statistical tool that we use
is correlations, and and simply put a correlation, it's just
quantifying the strength and the direction of a relationship between
two things. So if a moves, how does be moved?
(10:56):
So if they're weak correlations and strong correlations, how do
I tell the difference? And is there a is there
a terminology that would describe a correlation that that isn't
a legit correlation? And when I think of one that
is And I'm thinking about spurits correlations and spurious correlations.
Are are correlations that appear statistically to be related, but
(11:16):
if you look at the context, there's no relations. What's
an example. What's a good example of a spurious correlation?
So I'm looking I'm thinking about data in the eighties
and nineties of an increased use of people wearing seatbelts
was associated or related to a decrease in astronauts dying
in space right, So statistically it was a true statement,
(11:38):
but really there was no connection between the two, no
connection at all. That's the power and also the hardship
of statistics and data. So in my situation where I'm
seeing a correlation between a person's ability to out hoot
or mimic natural sounds and then they're jumping to their
general overall ability to be an effective hunter, I see
(11:59):
the strong correlation. Okay, but inside the same situation, you
don't have to be an ol hooter to be a
good hunter. What what does that mean? Like if if
it's there's for sure correlation, but it doesn't always have
to be. And what you're describing is that it's a
something that we say in our world is that correlation
(12:21):
does not equal causation. So just because you can ol
hoot a turkey call does not mean that that causes
you to be a good hunter. It doesn't. It's not caused.
It's just it happens to have a relationship. And so
therefore you have outliers. Therefore you have people who are
good hunters that can't turkey call or can't ol hoot,
And it just says this is a correlation, there's a relationship,
(12:44):
but there's other factors that cause you to be a
good hunter. Do we use correlations constantly and don't even
realize it? Oh yeah, it's association. It's it's again going
back to the aspect. This is a social science question, right,
the study of human behavior, and so we're always as
human beings trying to make connections. It's really like a
short cut, like if I hear you ol hoot, you
(13:07):
don't have to tell me your story. I know a
lot of them, So it's like a it's like a
social shortcut if there were I want you to guess
for me. So if I had ten people lined up
in a line and I went through the line in
a blind test and had them ol hoot, and then
I made judgments on their experience and hunting, do you
have any predictions on how often I would be right?
(13:30):
Probably of the time, I think, Dr Milka Nichols. Okay,
last thing here, do you do you know the cadence
of a bard owl? Who? I have no idea? Okay,
I'm gonna do it for you, and then I want
to hear you. I want to hear your bart out here. Okay,
So this is the hoot of a bard owl. Oh there,
(13:56):
it's a it's a who cooks for you, who books
for you. All. You may not be in experienced hunt,
but you're head at that direction. Let me get there therection.
(14:17):
Now that we've got all that sorted out, I want
to introduce you to some of the voices in my
world that all fit the correlation that I've so strongly identified.
I don't ever remember not knowing Steve Phillips. He's a
good friend of my dad's and families, and he's always
(14:38):
had an incredible knack for using his voice to mimic
animal sounds. The guy is simply gifted, and wouldn't you
know it, he's a heck of a woodsman too. When
did you start mouth calling just using your natural voice?
I started mouth calling using my natural voice probably about
(15:00):
seventy six or seventy seven. I didn't start turkey hunting
until the late eighties. But Kathy and I lived out
across the street from a guy that was like old
McDonald's farm. I mean, he had every kind of animal,
and he even had wild turkey, had one gobler, and
he had like four hens. And so I'd sit out
on the lawn chair out on the front yard, and
I'd listened to them hens, and I would listen to
(15:22):
him and he had gobble, and listen to him. So
I started practicing mimicking those hens and the calls that
they would make to make him. God, yeah, I never
put a diaphragm any kind of slate call. Didn't know
what they were, didn't turkey hunt. So I just started
messing around, and so I got to where I could
walk out on the front yard any morning and call
(15:44):
and he had gobble. Then in about the late eighties,
I got asked by a guy who asked me if
I want to go turkey hunt? And I said, well,
you know, I don't know how he's turkey hunting. What
do you do? And he's, well, you need to get
a diaphragm call. And I said, well, I'll go. I
can call him with my mouth, and he is cured
me I probably couldn't. So he took before daylight and
(16:04):
he turned me out and he said that he knew
there was some turkeys in there, and he actually told
me what I needed to do. You know, he said,
pulling on top the mountain, listened to you here one,
and try to get as close to it as you can.
And and then make your call. I said, okay. So
we went got on the mountain, heard the turkey gobble.
I got in what I thought was rather close, made
(16:25):
my mouth call. He answered me. I just sit there
a little bit, and before I knew it, he gobbled
right below me. I called him again, and here he
came in. I shot him and killed him. Went back
to the truck within probably an hour and a half,
and I thought, you know, there's nothing to this turkey hun.
Little did I know there was a lot to turkey hunt.
(16:46):
Andy Brown, who's a good friend of yours. He taught
me everything I know about turryn He taught me, you
know what to do, when to do, and so I
took it to the next level. I practiced all the time,
learning how to call. Let's hear you calls. Yeah, I
usually use two different locator calls. Early morning is the alcohol.
We'll we'll do an alcohol when the first get out,
(17:07):
right right before daylight, you know, while it's still dark.
I'll usually get out and all and then you can
also sometimes darn if you get two or three hours.
I know you've heard two or three hours come in,
and that really gets a turkey really fired. Up you can,
(17:32):
and that will get them really to get them laughing.
And then later on, you know, in the morning or
something near in the day, I use a crow call,
and so I learned how to make a crow call
with just my mouth, not a crow calls. That sounds good, man,
(17:55):
I bet you can call a crow in right now,
we'll probably okay, now, what I know you for? Well,
I know you're for your crow calling. I'll call them
hit him again. It's crows lit in the tree about
fifty shotgun range from us. If you've got a turkey
(18:15):
choke on, I wish you'd call all right, let me
hear your your turkey call. Okay, as you will know
you know, your your regular yelp call. That's what I
used the most. But when the turkey gets in close,
you know what do you usually here? When turkeys get
in if hands are in they're not calling real loud.
They're doing more of a purring and just talking. And
(18:36):
I will hit him with and then I'll slow down
a little bit when they get in closer. And all
this that sounds really good, sounds really good. Most people
(19:02):
can't call that good with a diaphragm. Okay, here's here's
my question for you. Do you see a correlation between
people that can natural voice call and people that are
really good woodsman? Yes, I do. Let me tell you this.
I think there's two kinds of turkey hunters. There's a
caller and then there's a turkey killer. And I consider
(19:22):
myself a turkey killer. I'm not the best caller in
the woods. You've got guys that go to these contests,
and I mean they're really good. I think personally that
the call is about maybe, but I think the set
up in location and how you set up on a
turkey determines whether you're gonna kill that turkey or not.
(19:43):
To me, I've always said that somebody that can call
with her voice has a lot of street cred in
my book, so you got some street cred, man, show me,
show me your squirrel bark that's good trying to call
us crows? And I heard you call while ago there
(20:15):
was one that's awesome. Do you ever use a OL
hoot or anything for something other than a functional turkey locator?
Hunters as group of hunters, as you know, uh, you know,
we we do use an OL who I can actually
pick out, like Andy and Wayne and Scott. You know
(20:35):
your different tones. I can tell when they're who. They
can tell when I who. You know they learn that sound.
So if we're ready to get down out of the woods,
are ready to leave, or if we kill something willow,
who do you ever do it when you're not hunting?
You like like, uh, something good happens at that? Like yeah, yeah,
(20:55):
we we get out and you will allow who do
at the house? When something what? What does it mean
when Steve phillips ol hoots not in the woods, like
what what's given an example of something that's happened? Why
would you alhoot? Usually usually if something good, you know,
has happened, I might be out in the backyard and
and uh, one of the kids have done something. I'll
(21:16):
sometimes I'll throw one out is bad, you know, it's
it's a celebratory, celebratory. There you go, there you go, exactly.
It was zero surprise to me when I learned that
Moe Shepherd had a good owl and crow call. The
(21:40):
guy is a turkey hunter's turkey hunter. He's been successful
year after year on some tough public ground, and a
spring hasn't passed in the last forty five years. When
he hadn't brought home a spring gobbler. He's got a
unique technique for prepping his voice to make the hoot
of a barred owl. Meet most shepherd. So you I
(22:05):
know you al Who because I've heard you do it before.
But you also cro called with your voice. Yes, I do.
I do. I do it a lot with my voice
because it's so handy and easy and you don't have
to move or anything. You know, I can be sitting
there totally still, and if a turkey hadn't goblded in
a while, but I'm working or something other, I can
just call with my voice. And you know, I did
(22:28):
anybody teach you or just I just learned to do
it on my own. Like I said, when I was
a kid, I heard all those sounds out in the
woods and stuff, but I didn't really try. I tried,
but didn't make much success that. I didn't really learn
to al who until I was probably turkey hunting, did
you somebody? Ah? Yes, I had a brother in law
that that al Who did. He's one that got me
(22:51):
into turkey hunting and he was good at al hooting. Okay,
what good voice callers are usually pretty good woodsman and
pretty good hunters. Okay, walk me through your al hooting process,
because I know you you kind of have something you do.
Like I said, I tried it for years when I
was younger, and then one day I I'd seen somebody
(23:12):
kind of doing this I was hunting with and the
best time, Remember he said, you know, he said, you
gotta get your throat right to make the noise come
out right. He said, if you don't it, this blurts out.
So I kind of swallow some air, if that makes
any sense. I swallow air for three or four gulps
before I start mouth hoot, and it gets the right
tone in there. And like I said, I'll you'll probably
(23:34):
hear this. You should be here a little bit of
this of me swallowing the air, like I said, I
talked about very nice. Let me hear your crocs. Tell me.
(24:01):
I don't know what it's called, but you know, curls
make a lot of different sounds and lots of different
serious series. And you know, sometimes Turkey's gobble a long series.
Sometimes they gobblet short calls, you knowiced short blasts and stuff.
So you know, it's just whatever mode I'm in or
what mood I mean, what I've blast out when I did,
but I can do several different cadences of it. So
(24:33):
Old Ryan Grab is an all around woodsman, from bears
to turkeys to catching spring croppy. He's an expert. I've
actually never turkey hunted with Ryan, but I knew he
had a good out hoot before I ever heard it.
Our ability to make hacurate predictions based on correlations is stunning,
and its streamlines our ability to make judgments. I want
(24:57):
you to meet Old Ryan flint face Grab. He rarely
smiles for pictures, so I called flint face. So where
where did you learn to use your natural voice to call? With?
Just growing up and probably hearing some older guys in
high school that I knew that were hunters, you know,
(25:18):
and they had hunted a few more years than I
actually had, and heard them doing that al hoots, you know,
turkey open crow call, and you know stuff I started.
You just kind of started doing it on your own.
There was times I would, you know, when I was younger,
I'd sat outside and just at night by myself from
the driveway while the family was inside, you know, and
(25:40):
I just tried to practice. Let me let me hear
your on a good spring morning to get a turkey
to god, I'm not very good at Come on, I'm not.
I'm really not better at crow than I am. Well,
I want to hear your out and your crow. Oh
oh crow crow? That sounds good man. So do you
(26:19):
do you ever use a barred alcohol for anything other
than hunting? Like like, for instance, would there ever be
a reason that you would bard alcohol in your house?
Maybe to aggregate the life sometimes? Or do you ever
alhoot when you're excited about something as a celebratory of time? What? Okay?
(26:41):
What would what would have to happen in Ryan Grab's
life for him to al hoot? Not at a turkey gobble?
Give me an example, Oh, catch a three pound crappy.
Benjamin Moore is a New York based voice and speech
teacher where he coaches Broadway, film and TV actors, as
(27:04):
well as diplomat scientists and economists at some high salutant
organizations like the United Nations. Benjamin works for the Link
Ladder Center for Voice and Language and the City University
of New York. I've got a feeling that he's got
some insight into why humans are so good at mimicking
(27:25):
animal sounds. Benjamin I am trying to understand why humans
are so dynamic in our ability to mimic. The only
animal that I can think of off hand that does
this as a mocking bird. But are there other examples
in the animal kingdom of animals that can mimic other sounds?
(27:47):
There are a lot, But as far as mimicking human
speech goes, the only other animals that really do that consistently.
There have been some like strain age things about seals,
and even an elephant one time that learned how to
say a few words. But but in the animal kingdom,
it's birds, it's parrots, parakeets. Probably the the king of
(28:13):
of imitating our speech are parakeets. They can learn as
many as four hundred words. Let me ask you this, Benjamin,
if we're so unique in our ability to mimic other animals,
what is it from an anatomy and physiology perspective that
allows a human to make so much variation in our voice,
um our, larynx, and respiratory system is much more sophisticated
(28:39):
than any of the other species going. We have a
big range. Most of us in our daily conversation have
a couple of octaves of range with a little bit
of training, every one of us can have something more
than than four octaves, so we have this big range
from low in the voice to high end the voice.
And then on top of that, up above vocal cords,
(29:01):
that tube that comes up from the vocal folds called
the pharynx. It goes up, goes up behind the mouth,
goes up through the nose. Uh, there's that obviously comes
out through the mouth where there's the tongue, that jaw
on the lips. That whole tube has muscles there that
not only are good for swallowing food, but also adjust
(29:22):
the shape of the vibrations as they come up and out.
All of that has this incredible flexibility. We learn it
just like the parrots do and the mockingbirds do. We
learn most of our sounds through imitation and all the
languages of the world. There's something more than two thousand
sounds that human beings are able to produce, and every
(29:44):
one of us that is normally functioning when we're born
can hear and distinguish all those different sounds. Over a
period of time, we begin to lose it because it's
not useful, and the brain begins to streamline itself for
what is a useful commune occation and what's not? I
have one final question for it. I know all these
people that are incredible natural voice callers, why are they
(30:10):
so good at this? And other people are not. With
the understanding that all of us are born a little
bit different. Some vocal cords are longer than the others,
and the shape of the mouth and stuff is always
going to be different, the real difference is their interests,
their passion in the subject um. Almost to everybody can
(30:33):
develop a huge range in different ways of speaking. We're
just really flexible that way as a species. And we
do know that human beings who want to be an
expert in something, whether it's a professional athlete or an
artist or a mechanic, what their passion is, and they
say it takes about ten hours to become an expert
(30:54):
at something. What their passion is really drives him in
a couple of different ways. One is that that emotional
framework allows us to marry our intellect with our physical
skill sets, so that the skill sets just aren't something
that the body is doing. There's a real understanding that comes.
But also with that passion comes an ability to perceive
(31:20):
and really focus in on the details of a situation.
Like for these natural callers, they are hearing that turkey
in a way that even when I would go out
and try to hunt, I was like, I never I
know for sure I'm not hearing a turkey the way
Preston is, for instance, and how attuned he is with
his ears is like a symphony conductor. So, Benjamin, are
(31:44):
you familiar with the hoot of a bard owl? I am. Okay,
I'm gonna hoot like a bard owl. Okay, I want
you to tell me what I could do better if
you can just in one who here, here's my ol hood.
I'm gonna step back just a little bit, all right,
give it a go. Oh okay, that's my wow. That's great.
(32:07):
Once you go up into that high part, the tongue
is gonna want to come up, but you're gonna want
to try to leave that down so that it's more
resonant coming up through through the front part of your face.
So try to keep my tongue down, so you're going
to keep the back that's closer. Yeah, I pushed my
(32:31):
tongue down. I'm I have to say, I'm impressed going.
I wasn't expecting that. That is great. Preston Pittman isn't normal.
He's one of the best natural voice callers on the
continent and certainly the most decorated. After meeting him, it's
(32:56):
clear he must have been raised in a clutch of
wild turkeys. Anthropomorphism is when we assign animals human like traits.
Zoo morphism is when we assign a human animal like traits.
Preston has been zoo morphies, or maybe he's just a
darned good Mississippi turkey hunter and woodsman. Preston became the
(33:20):
Mississippi State turkey calling champion when he was sixteen years old.
Today he's sixties seven years old. He won that first
calling contest with his natural voice. Since that time, he's
won the World Turkey Calling Contest, the World Natural Voice
Turkey Calling Contest, the World Gobbling Turkey Calling Contest, and
(33:41):
he was the World Champion Natural Voice al Hooter. He
is the only person to hold five different world titles.
He was on The David Letterman Show three times and
The Tonight Show with Jay Lenno colling turkeys. But of
more note than all these accolades, Preston is probably as
good a turkey hunter as has ever drawn a breath
(34:05):
of air. Here's the clip of Preston in his prime.
(34:39):
I ain't gonna tell that called to you. It's not
for sale or no man money. That's my natural voice.
I'm Preston Pittman. I've been blessed that I've held the
world championship several times, the World Natural Voice Calling Championship.
But let's tell you what. There is nothing in this
world that sounds is good? Is natural voice calling? Does
(35:00):
suppressing tell me about when you first started using your
natural voice for calling? Well, they pick on me a
little bit. Say uh that when I was hatched on
November of nineteen fifty three, that when I popped out
of my mama and the baby doctor grabbed me by
my hind leg and spanked me on the rear end
(35:21):
instead of crying, is what come out of my mouth.
But in all seriousness, me and from a family that
always hunted and always fish, I guess I couldn't help
but hunt. And my dad was not a turkey hunter.
He was a big dog person. Back whenever we hit
quail here in the South um and run deer with dogs,
(35:43):
and we did things together. And they used to have
an old timy day and a little town by the
name of Carthridge, Mississippi. And at that Fourth of July,
which when it was celebration of our great country, they
had a turkey calling contest, a duck colin kind tests
and acts throwing contests, and they had the Mississippi State
(36:04):
UH duck collin the Mississippi State UH Championship in turkey collin.
Back when I was about twelve, I met a general
m the name of Jack Dudley, who at that point
in time was the Mississippi State champion wild turkey caller,
and um, he was good enough just on that day
to start working with me, kind of tell me what
to do and how to stretch my local cords, and
(36:25):
I'll be dead gun. At the end of the day,
I was. I was making a somewhat of a turkey sound,
and uh. Kind of the rest of the story is
I had won the fishing rodeo for kids, and I
was a year two old, so I had already been
awarded the plaque, and uh, I had to get the
black back and that was okay, I understood. Well, I
(36:46):
just kind of made myself as I I said, one
day and I'm gonna come back and with me a trophy.
He up here between something, I'm gonna be able to
do it. But Mr Dudley would go to some of
the sportsman's clubs and do a little short seminars. He
the forty five rpm record that I memorized, you know,
word for work, and it was on Turkey Column. It
was on Turkey column. Really are there any of those
(37:08):
left today? And you know, I know what there was
one I met in your house. Uh huh and for
salf uh. And at one point in time, I could
literally quoted my Hello, my name is Jack Dudley, and
I'm gonna teach you how to turkey call. The first
call that I'm gonna teach you is gonna be a
maiden coll. And this is the way you do a
(37:30):
maiden coll. You know, three us and two cluck. But
kind of making a long story short, At sixteen years old,
I went back to that same contest and I won.
And we didn't have youth editions back then, you know,
it was a calling contest and very few of those.
And I want the Misssippi State championship perkey collar. And
(37:53):
from there it just went on and I own and
I own, and I on and on Preston, act like
I've never turkey hunted, and give me a good look
into the vocalizations of the wild turkey. And again this
is all just with your natural voice. Okay, well it's
sixties seven years old. I have stretched my my layers
(38:16):
next my vocal cords so much till it's like a
rubber band that you laid up on the dashboard as
the truck. I can barely up a little bit, cluck
a little bit, per a little bit, and sometimes gobble.
So the quality is not there too many people, especially,
I'm just gonna say it, since podcast and Facebook and
YouTube and all that junk, they won't learn how to
(38:39):
kick you run, cackles, lying down on excited hand, the apps, cutting, YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, yadda. No. No,
As a beginner, you need to learn one sound and
one sound only until you can do it exactly the
way that you want to do it every time. And
that is the basic hen yep. I will use a
human analogy with to you. I can take one word
(39:03):
and have three very total different meanings. I can go hey,
or I can go hi. All right, I can go
he and you can do that all basically with a yelp.
So it's kind of like building a house. Build that
(39:23):
foundation solid, then start adding a call. Then go back
and do your foundation. It's calm, it's cool, is collective,
is peaceful, it's tranquility. Come on in, big boy, I
want to date you. Okay, there can be that's more
(39:49):
of I'm reaching out. I won't company. Where are you
an assembly? Call's bring our fault either way. Are speeding
it up, speeding the rhythm up? Are acting more excited
day in day out, especially on southern birds. Then I
(40:12):
don't want unless I know the particular bird or I'm
just trying to locate one. I will always revert back
to softer, calmer calling. Let me ask you a question.
So you you are a natural voice caller, and you're
also you also do incredible diaphragm calls and all kinds
of the calls. But I'm interested in your natural voice stuff,
(40:35):
and I understanding how much of that was practice, how
much of it was natural? Okay? Even Mr Dudley looked
at me as his son. He says, you're natural. He said,
everybody can't do this crap. I'm in hell in there,
I'm sucking in, which gives you more rasp to our now,
(40:56):
and it's not like what it used to be. But
it's almost like me saying the word. I'll get your
tone working. Describe what's happening in your mouth when you
make that gobble. I'm sucking air in and I'm mimicking
the word. Then I get my tongue to flopping up
(41:19):
and down, and I will use my cheeks, watch my cheeks.
I'm bringing it in and I'm bringing my my my
my mouth in to get the tail off of the gobble.
But anybody and everybody can at least what I call
squeak something out like they can get a because that's
(41:40):
all I'm doing now. I mean I've lost it, but yeah,
I mean you can hear the word out in there.
I'll take it out. But I'm over exaggerate. Yeah, you
can get a little something. And let me tell you this.
Take a group of a hundred turkey hunters anywhere in
the United stuf eates. I'll bet you there aren't over
(42:02):
two to five people that can do anything with their
natural voice. It's something he has not heard. He is
not used to it. A natural voice collar. As far
as harvesting a bird, a natural voice collar and or
either a trumpet our wingbone user will kill some of
(42:24):
those that you walk up to the limb and you
hang his spurs upon her. Any swings back and forth.
And you think natural voice calling gives you an advantage
in hunting with fan buttser doubts. I mean, I'm I'm
basically I use a little bit of everything now, but
my my go to collars a diaphragm, that's first, okay,
but there's a lot of times I'm blowing a diaphragm,
and just to mix it in, I'm liable to throw
(42:46):
my voice to make it sound like another hen coming
in and add that little more realism into it. You
you told me about adding realism to your calling, said,
and how you would used to bark like a squirrel
or you would crow like so you're calling the turkey,
so there's a gobbler here and you're kendy up and
but then you might bark like a squirrel. Let me
tell you what I'm doing it spending and I'm I
(43:08):
basically kind of kenning in on tough turkeys. Now, okay,
hard bird birds that's call shy birds has been missed
with birds are in that four and older your range bracket.
But I heard everything. Okay. Then they had to the
kitchen sink drawn at him. Well I'm fitching. Now throw
the kitchen sink, the como, the basktub, hecked front door
at him. I tried to paint a picture and buy
(43:30):
that for y'all turkey hunters out there. What happens whenever
a crow gets on birds, he starts raising king right
and looking at the turkey, right at the turkey. How
many times have you been sitting in the woods and
have like a little thicket or a blowdown or is
in between you and your bird? The bird shuts up.
Five minutes is gone by, Nothing has happened. Ten minutes
(43:54):
is gone by, nothing has happened. You hadn't heard anything,
But you didn't notice that little thrush that come flying
out of that thicket? What made it come flying out?
And then twelve fourteen minutes later, fifteen minutes later, all
of a sudden, Oh my god, where'd he come from? There?
He is in full struck. He's been there the whole time.
So as I tell people, I see with my ears,
(44:17):
because I see more with my ears than I do
with my eyes. It's paying attention to the squirrel barking,
we'll do something moving through the woods, and if you
will pay attention as to what's going on in mother nature,
you will automatically step up. Now if you can add
some of those sounds, like when we used to have
Bob White quail, that was one of my favorite things
(44:38):
to do, was to sit there and see if I
can still do it. I would mix that in with
my calling quiller trying to get back together, or throw
a Bob White at it. You know, the Bob White
whistle mixing in with your turk, mixing in with your
turkey callings. That means there's other wildlife there at ease.
(44:59):
So he's gonna think, well, there's quail over there that
I could learn a redbird. I want to learn a
redbird so bad it was pathetic. I want to go
a little bit deeper with you to the kind of
the thing behind the thing in In Southern culture, it
means something to be able to call with your natural voice.
What would if if a guy walked into this camp
(45:19):
right now and he could al call like a barred owl,
he could gobble like a turkey with his mouth, what
would what would that say to you about his woodsmanship,
his hunting prowess. I can answer that very simply, very shortly.
I don't want you on my land because that tells
(45:43):
me that is a person who is dedicated, especially if
they could do a full range of calls. That tells
me that that individual is either one a kid or
that is a seasoned outdoorsman. Like I said, stay all
my land. I don't want somebody like that in there.
So the bard owl in Mississippi culture, Yes, where would
(46:09):
Preston Pittman al hoot? Not in a turkey hunting situation?
Give me an example of why you would al hoot
in your life. Oh, I'm telling you that real quick.
Instead of hooping, hollering, whatever it may be. I think
probably every contest that I ever won, I did something
like this right here, and then I gotta lie. Uh
(46:36):
you let me get in a football game, which I
don't go to a whole bunch of because I'm in
the wood hunting. Then uh, I can do that single note,
you know, like that who I instead hollering and screaming
and it's it's it's it's my happy holler. And what
it breaks down to, you know, I'm happy or I'm
rooting for somebody. Why do you think we do that?
(46:58):
Because it's a Southern thing. I mean, you gotta eat grits,
you know what I mean. I don't need no oatmeal
or cream a wheat junk. It's a grit thing, is
what it is. It's just it's a Southern thing. Press
that I'm I think for a Southern Okay, I'm gonna
I'm gonna set you up for something. To judge me. Okay,
(47:20):
my my assessment of myself. I think I am a
average Southern al hooter. Can you want me to judge
you being in a contest or do you want me
to judge you as a hunter? Judge me as a
hunter and then give me the critique of of a
of a contest. But I want I'm gonna al hoot
and I want you to give me just your honest assessment,
(47:41):
and I want you to coach me because let me
tell you something, I take a lot of pride in
my al hooting and I use it all the time.
I mean I I use it. I want the truth. Man.
Oh that's my sequence. You are a very effective al hooter,
(48:10):
probably a little better than average from a competitive standpoint.
Get off stage, Okay, you ain't gonna hold a candle. Okay,
that's being reliance with you and also too so I
had to coach you right now from a hunting purely perspective. Yes,
there are so many times when you go into all
(48:30):
the different notes that an owl makes, he's doing gobbled
once or twice, and you ain't hurt him. There he
goes You needed short like or even just the who
I Preston, You've made a lifestyle a career, and you've
(48:51):
dedicated yourself and your personal passion towards not just turkey hunting,
but turkey calling. What does turkey hunting mean to Presston Pittman?
It's my life. I don't know any other real way
to to to to put it, but it is. Uh,
It's a gift that God Almighty gave me, who blessed
(49:16):
a barely high skeool educated person that dreamed of being
a game board and so I could be out and
outdoors all the time, which, oh Lord God is it's
giving me a dream come true. It's basically what it has.
And at sixty seven I have not lost that passion.
(49:37):
Have you? Have you ever thought about why? I mean,
like you think about a human and what we're here
on earth to do? Why we're here? Why is turning
so special to you? Remember this. I enjoy all of
the outdoors, but there's something about that time of year.
It's about sitting there and seeing the beautiful dog woods
(49:59):
come into full balloon. It's about the first buttercups, you know,
start to pop up. It's about seeing life come back
to the dead woods again. It's about being mesmerized by
a spider. Is something about that time of year. It's
like everything's gonna be okay, the winner's over with, it's
(50:20):
not cold, and there's life in everything again. You know what?
I what I hear when I hear you talk like
this and describe nature in these ways because I hear
somebody that's really paying attention, and it's perceptive and aware
and cognizance of detail. And I think that as hunters,
(50:43):
we're we're in a situation where we are trying to
fool a part of nature, and so we're having to
embed ourselves inside of a system that we're usually not in.
You're paying attention to all this stuff, and I think
that's a quality that is lost inside of much of
(51:03):
modern society because technology different things, moder the modern world
has taken away our need for that type of awareness.
And so just as I hear you describe that, I
take it as a personal challenge to be more aware
and be more in tune with what's going on around
because that just provides this rich palate for what I
(51:24):
see inside of you as a man that's passionate, loves
what he's doing, appreciative with what he's doing, and that
doesn't come by accident. That's real, intentional. No humans. Ability
to mimic the wide array of animal sounds is a
special part of human uniqueness, and it's embedded itself into
(51:46):
our culture. In the South especially, there is cultural value
placed on realism and even higher social status assigned to
the people who are proficient at it. A good our
hoot is a reflection of confidence, practice, and natural talent,
and carries with it a strong correlation of being a
proficient woodsman. It's really unique when you think about it,
(52:10):
but we have incorporated, or maybe even hijacked, the language
of the barred owl to communicate with other humans a
very high level of meaning. That nine notes sequence would
take a whole lot of human words to describe what
it means. I wonder where else in our lives we
do this. Humans are constantly looking for shortcuts and communication
(52:34):
to tell others who we are. Much of the time,
these messages are calling card for deeper human relationships. Even
an owl hoop, these social science questions are highly interesting
to me, and they make me more aware of myself
and why I do what I do. When I hear
(52:54):
somebody ol hoot, I feel a deep connection to them,
and I suspect, but that's an ancient social mechanism and
I like it. Oh oh oh, I love it.
Host
Clay Newcomb
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