Why does an Aquarium have birds?

Today's episode is all about the Aquarium's Ambassador Birds! These animals live behind the scenes and come out for presentations like Birds Shorts, which happen daily in our Honda Pacific Visions Theater. We are joined by Aviculturist Heather who teaches us about the different types of birds she cares for, their stories, and helps us interview our first non-human guest.

Episode Transcript

 

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:05):
Hi, I'm Erin Lundy. And I'm Madeline Walden and this is
Aquarium of the Podcific. Apodcast brought to you by
Aquarium of the Podcific.Southern California's largest
aquarium. Join us as we learnalongside the experts in animal
care, conservation and more.
Welcome back to Aquarium of thePodcific. I'm Madeline Walden,
the aquariums digital contentand community manager. And I'm

(00:27):
Erin Lundy, conservationcoordinator for mammals and
birds. I'm very excited. Fortoday's episode, we're going to
talk to agriculture as Heatherpens. And we're also going to
hear from a very special guests.I think our first animal guests
on the podcast, I think so hisname is Lola, his name is low
love, he is a good bird. Lola,if you haven't guessed is one of

(00:47):
our birds that we have here atthe Aquarium and he is actually
a program or Ambassador animal.What that means is that Lola is
a very special animal who goesout and interacts with guests
and also does shows, and in thatway actually provides a lot of
educational messaging, but itkind of provides some context to
why we should care about some ofthese conservation messages. And
so Heather is bringing Lola inwhich we're very excited to have

(01:10):
a bird in the studio. It's very,it's a good time. I know we're
so excited. What kind of bird isLola Lola is a sulphur crested
cockatoo. And you will hear inthe episode or you won't hear in
the episode because Lola turnsout was very shy during the day
he was very, very shy. Andthat's okay. Birds can be shy
and to be honest, in a totallysilent Green Room. Recording

(01:33):
Studio. I can
why took me a while to get usedto it. I get it, like lack of
external sound must be verystrange for an animal so
although Lola was very shyduring our interview in the
studio, we do have some reallycute audio clips of Lola
externally post interview postsin her post interview rundown we
had to do a debrief debrief withLola be like how did you feel?

(01:54):
What do you think about thatepisode, and he had a lot to
say, I'm excited for you tohear. Lola is one of the cutest
Ambassador words and I'm notbiased or anything. I just I do
see him a lot. And he is oftengoing out and meeting guests.
And he makes people laugh. Oh,he cracks me up. I just I don't
think I ever really realizedthat birds can be funny. And I
actually think he's being funny.He's being funny. For sure he

(02:18):
knows it. Because when youlaugh, then he just makes fun of
your laugh. And that's extrafunny. So he's an amazing bird.
Just being in a quiet office andhearing Hello. Yep. And he's
just fine. He does say I loveyou. And he says, I think Hi
Lola. Mostly Hola. That's like abig one for ya. So, Shark goes

(02:38):
like that, too. And then heimitates a sea lion. He does a
lot of you'll hear it. It's waybetter when he does it. I
promise. It doesn't soundterrible.
But in addition to Lola as awonderful guest, Heather pens is
one of our agriculturist who hasbeen instrumental in training
some of these animals toparticipate in different like
face to face interactions withguests, but also with our bird

(03:01):
shorts, which is a relativelynew like program that we have,
where essentially our ambassadorbirds get to come out and do a
demonstration prior to the showsthat we have in our Pacific
Visions. And they are so cool.And I get to watch her develop
them from sort of the ground up,like picking the music and
picking the backgrounds we want.And she's trained the words also

(03:22):
to participate along with ouragriculture team. And
our birds are doing some reallycool they're so cool. We have a
hawk flying around in ourtheater, like, come on down.
There's a hawk, there's a hawkhere, there's a human side, a
different programming animal. Wehave a red footed boobie no one
has a red flag. Very fewinstitutions have red footed
boobies. They're prettyunderrepresented. So I'm clearly

(03:43):
very excited about birds.
We have a lot of different coolanimals that are all
participating in these birdshorts. And it's just cool to
see animals getting out and sortof fulfilling a mission and, you
know, being a part of theoutreach that we do with our
guests while they are stillliving, his incredibly fulfilled
and happy life. And part of thatfor these animals is going out

(04:03):
and like stretching theirwitness. Yeah, it is very
enriching for them. And I cantell Lola choice to field trips,
even if he did not enjoy today'sinterview because it was a very
strange, I think he was mostlymad that it wasn't just him
being interviewed. He likes tohave so why is she here? Why
does she get a mic? And I don'treally understand. I think we
would be remiss if we gave aBerta microphone just packed

(04:26):
backpack and then the screamingin it. That's I think what the
people want. That's true. Ithink that's what our audience
wants. We'll have that recordedepisode just hosted by Lola bus
into the microphone. If you guyswant that. Please let us know.
We'll do well. I'm not above it.I'm not above an entire episode
where we asked animals answerthat is fun. Oh, we should

(04:49):
interview Parker. at all it doesit he does. He'll sneeze on the
microphone. Perfect. Anyway, soWell, I your allergies.
So Heather and Lola have beenwonderful.
Guess I'm very excited to talk alittle bit more about sort of
what it means to be anambassador bird and sort of what
training goes into that becauseit is also very different than
some other types of trainingthat we do. And yeah, we're

(05:10):
gonna get to learn about areally, really cool animal
today. And Lola
shallots either. It's a reallyfun episode. Let's get into it.
All right, everybody. Welcomeback. We are here today with
Heather pens. Who is aagriculture's here at the
Aquarium Pacific. Is that yourcurrent job title right now?
Heather? Yeah, that is correct.Clean of birds. I think that's

(05:33):
actually yeah, I think itactually felt uncomfortable
saying agriculturist becausethey feel like you know, Queen
of birds just suits you so muchbetter. I'll take it. What is
aviculture? It is the someonewho studies and cares for birds.
That makes a lot of sense as towhy you work with.
But I know you work with otheranimals besides birds. We're

(05:54):
gonna get into that too. Yeah.Doesn't it doesn't encompass
everything, I guess. I guessthat's kind of how it is at the
aquarium your show doesn'tnecessarily encompass all the
animals you work with. That'swhat we've learned over the
course of our podcast is peopleare like, Oh, I work with
Doctopus. But I also feed thesea lions and you're like, Okay,
go last week's

(06:15):
amazing. How long have you beenat the aquarium? This is my
going into my fifth year. Nice.Wow, really? Yeah. I started off
as a volunteer for about a yearand a half. And then I was
hired. I just got my littleanniversary email. Oh, yeah.
That's incredible. What aboutlife before the aquarium what
was what's your background inus? I went to school at

(06:37):
America's Teaching Zoo, which isa school at North it's just a
two year program and yougraduate with a certificate
working animals talking aboutanimals, pre written pre
veterinary courses, care,restraints, handling all that
stuff. And so I actually had ajob at an aviary in Salt Lake
City the day I graduated, so Ihad that's packed up and ready

(07:00):
to go. Was it lined up for you?Like, partially through your
school? Did you meet the peoplethrough? Yeah, they did the
interviews at the school. Thatwas the only place that came?
Probably because my boss, thatfacility was a previous
students. So that makes sense.
Networking very important. Yeah.I think it's everyone's had such
a different background on this,like in terms of where they came

(07:21):
from, like, I'm pretty sure Jeffis a marketing background. You
know, everyone has likesomething different. And so it's
funny to hear really the fullspectrum of like, I went to a
Teaching Zoo, and I learned howto do this properly from like a
school. And then me was like,yeah, one day someone asked if I
liked frogs, and I said, Yeah,sorta. And then now that's my
thing. So it's kind of cool tosee the full spectrum of animal

(07:43):
backgrounds and stuff. I loveit. It is really cool to see.
Awesome, well, okay, what isyour, I guess, like day to day
like at the aquarium,
it's pretty full, actually. Soas an agriculturist, I come in,
and I take care of the birds.And I currently am managing the
large aviary, the lorikeetaviary, and then I also care for

(08:06):
the animal ambassadors alongwith a great team of people. And
but what's nice is I don't, itdoesn't just stop there. I also
get to help with sea lions, anda bunch of other things. And I
also get to do presentationswith those animal ambassadors.
Very cool. Yeah, it's been funto sort of utilize people's
background and experience andyou have experience working with
sea lions before, right? Right.I actually went to that school

(08:29):
to work with marine mammalsreally.
But I grew up my mom wasaffiliated with an animal rehab,
wildlife, rehab, and we alwayshad birds growing up. So I grew
up raising and sparrows, and,and crows. So I went to that
school to be a marine mammaltrainer. But then the birds got

(08:49):
every facility has birds, andeven an aquarium. I know, that's
one of our questions later on.It's like, why does it carry
that burden to that? I say, whynot? Sure. Why not? Everything's
connected.
I love it. Well, tell us alittle bit about the ambassador
program, what what is theambassador program, what our
ambassador birds I am veryexcited about our program is up

(09:10):
and coming. And so we've alwayshad an ambassador, animal
ambassador program.
And recently, there has beenmore of a focus on us. And we've
been asked to do more. And sowe're slowly gaining some
traction, and we're going to addsome more animals to our
collection, which we're alwayscareful about to make sure we're
going about the best proceduresto do so. And we're in the
process of making new programsfor our guests here at the

(09:34):
Aquarium of the Pacific. Soundsawesome. What are some things
you might consider when you'relooking at potentially a new
animal ambassador like some ofours are? Probably not what you
think, like I think people thinkof a very charismatic parrot as
an animal master, which wecertainly do have. But I think
some of our ambassador animalswould surprise people as well.
Yeah, that's a really goodquestion because not every
animal is going to be suited tobe an animal baster and we have

(09:56):
to make sure that we're pickingthe right animal for this
position.
I'm really glad you mentionedthat. So that's why we're being
so careful about our choices.And again, we are we are working
with animals that are nonreleasable meaning they were
wild, they were hatched wildbirds. And then something
happened usually because ofpeople, and they were injured
and those injuries werepermanent enough that they could
not be released. And so we areoffering them a home. So I have

(10:20):
to make sure that we arechoosing animals that will be
able to be conditionedsuccessfully. So this is
something that's enriching andpositive for their lives.
Absolutely. That's amazing. Wewant to make sure they have good
welfare, you know, and I thinkit's a really important
consideration. Mike, in hisepisode last season mentioned,
his absolute favorite animal isactually an animal that just

(10:41):
recently went through that wholeprocess and is our most recent
program animal acquisition,Lyra.
Tell us a little bit about Lyra.
I love her so So we recentlywell, it feels recently acquired
a red tailed hawk, and infalconry terms is referred to as
a passage Hawk, meaning in itsfirst year, she's in her first

(11:02):
year of being hatched. And soshe had she's pretty serious
injuries. Yeah, so it was takento a rehab. And not all of those
injuries healed, as we wouldhope to be released into the
wild. So I had heard that therewas a red tailed hawk that had
was capable of flight, but wasconsidered non releasable. And

(11:24):
when I heard about her age, Iknew that would be the right
parameters that would make thisa successful animal ambassador.
So we added a red tail hawk toour program. And she's been this
consistent, beautiful flyer, andshe currently flies over our
guests in our Pacific Visionstheater. And it's it's cool. She
also has a be dazzled. Yeah.

(11:45):
The float, I guess it's
it's very fabulous. Like she'sin a parade. I mean, I mean,
basically, it is a parade fromfrom the barn to the theater
shoe. I know, I see peoplelooking, I stop in my tracks
like, I know.
So we were talking about as shehas a cover that covers her
crate to keep her calm as wewheeled through the guests. And

(12:08):
it's, we happen to order avelvet cover for this crate,
which is really cute. And itjust so happened to Rochelle
volunteers be dazzled it withher name, and it's gorgeous
sparkly, might see it walkingaround the car, you might you
might get lucky to see the starbeing transformed or she goes to
her dressing room.

(12:29):
So like I kind of not to not tobe a downer, but I do kind of
want to hear about the number ofreasons why the animals are in
this position to begin with,because they are Ambassador
animals, they are going toinspire the public to care about
the animals and to takebrighter, better precautions
just in the world. So what aresome of the reasons that the
animals have ended up in our incare and then adopted by us? But

(12:52):
good question. So for instance,we are just talking about Lyra
and Lyra, more than likely basedon her injuries was hit by a
car.
She sustained a lot of damage toher hip, her hip was broken, her
feet were damaged. So that isone example.
And that was just from peoplethrowing stuff out of a car
window and then rodents feedingon those things and the hot

(13:13):
trying to do their job the fullcircle there. And that happens
quite often. A lot of times withALS. We have for instance, we
have Lola and Lola is a sulphurcrested cockatoo, and he is
considered a rescue. Because hewas an unwanted pet. At the age
of two and a half his ownersdecided he was too much to
handle. They're not domesticatedanimals. And they were looking

(13:37):
to have someone else take him hewasn't there forever animal. And
so he is considered a rescue.And he has been here for 17
years now. Oh, wow. Yeah, Ithink that speaks to a really
salient point that a lot ofpeople adopt birds or get birds
thinking that they are, youknow, an easy pet to manage. And
I feel like every single birdhas such an individualistic
personality and differenttraits. And to be honest, I can

(13:59):
be quite loud and messy andstubborn. And you know, all of
these things that indicate thatthey are super intelligent. And
so is there any What is it likeworking with the cast of
characters that are all thedifferent parts that we have
here? Well, I think our curatorhas learned not to hold a
meeting in front of Lola
and what happens when he holds ameeting?

(14:20):
Deafening scream continues onand on and on. Really funny. It
is. It is.
So yeah, that is one example
of disrespect.
He's just engaging with theaudience. You know it the thing
about animals is they listen tous talk all day long. They feel
like that's what my dogs youknow, like, they listen to us
talk all day long. And then theyhave something to say sometimes

(14:42):
and we can't ask them to bequiet. That's true. They have
stuff to say. Sometimessometimes.
When you when we acquired Lyra,she certainly was a wild animal.
And so sort of what went intoconditioning a hawk to be
comfortable flying over atheater with potentially
hundreds of people in it from
Being a wild hawk. That's a verystark difference. Well, it's a

(15:07):
lot of training and conditioningand using positive
reinforcement. So the best wayfor a raptor which is a bird of
prey, is to speak to theirheart, and you speak to their
heart through their stomach.They are very unlike parents,
they've taken a motion of theequation.
They're very kind of black andwhite, you feed me and it's
positive, you're positive. Andso by utilizing food, and

(15:28):
gaining that trust with her, Itook very small approximations.
And then when she realized thatnone of us are gonna do anything
negative to her, and that heropportunity to get a lot of
reinforcement, which is allsorts of things that are yummy,
just are tasty for yourself. Ilove a raw quail, who doesn't
love a rock quail, she was veryquickly through trust and

(15:50):
training, flying over base.She's was consistent and has
been consistent except for justone time.
And that was just stage fright.Honestly, every target stage
fright once in a while, you knowwhat she might not have done it
that one time in front of allthose people. But that isn't the
most talked about performance,of course, right. And what
happened, she, so she flies, soour audience have a mental

(16:14):
picture, she flies from the backof the theater behind everybody
down over the audience to thespeaker on stage. And we're
wearing a raptor glove, which isa leather glove that protects us
from her talons, and she landson the glove and eats her
favorite things, which can bemice or quail.
And so during training, and myco trainer, Susan and I had been

(16:35):
working on this behavior for awhile pretty much right out of
quarantine. She had beenconsistent flying down no
brainer, very easy, until we had300 people in the audience. And
I thought it was the groupbecause she had never seen a
group. But what it turned out tobe was the lighting change last
minute. And so we released herand she sat up on her box and I

(16:57):
could see her looking real hard.Oh, they have this amazing
vision. Right? But she's thedark, they don't fly. They won't
do it. And so she sat up therefor the longest time. And you're
like, Yeah, so my gosh, Scaliais the most darling.
I'm know, sometimes it happenswith our animals during we do
live streams, like the octopus,you can't make an octopus do

(17:19):
anything you know, they don'twant to do you can't make a hawk
do anything they don't want todo. So you have to get pretty
good about kind of filling thattime. And, you know, eventually
sometimes they come around andthen at some times you're like,
Alright, we're gonna wrap it upwith that. Participate today.
And there's no we can't tellthem to Yeah, and it's a good
learning experience for us. Andlike what we might change like,
do we do a slightly morelighting in the theater now?

(17:40):
Yeah, they're really now I cantell the difference. I guess I
was just so with the huge crowdand onstage it seemed different,
but I didn't. This is not mylighting, I I'm not gonna
perform
dim glow star brings her ownlighting around with them.
That's her. And that's you know,Lyra is a pop, she shows her the

(18:01):
ring light.
I would love to know thedifferences between raptors that
you work with and our parentsthat you work with personality
wise.
You know, there's a lot ofdifferences. I hate like
switching gears for both Iprefer I just love all the

(18:23):
birds. So you know, a birds ofprey, to me are much easier to
read, they're gonna show youright off the bat, if they're
uncomfortable, they're gonnashow you if it's some, there's
something off, you can read it,you can tell and you can make
your choices from there,behaviorally, to set them up for
the best success. Parents
are different because there'smore as social animal has more

(18:46):
emotion at play, and sometimesthey mask their feelings. And so
when they're stoic, and they sitthere like that, you don't know
if they're just takingeverything in and enjoying it,
it's enriching, or there'ssomething going on and you're
gonna find out later.
They're definitely a bit morecomplicated. You definitely need
to know your animal in all thedifferent situations and always

(19:08):
try to set it up where they aregoing to come out of that
experience, knowing that it'sgoing to be okay, and it's going
to be positive for the nexttime. Our birds of prey
typically pretty solitaryanimals. And whereas parrots
live in like huge congregations.Yes, they are solitary until a
mating season. Once they'regoing to mate. They'll stay in a
mate a pair, but they don't hangout in big groups. In fact,
they're territorial. Do theystay with? I mean, I guess it

(19:29):
would probably be speciesdependent, but do some species
like stay with their mate allthe time? Like, even out of
breeding season frequently?That's really cute. I didn't
know kill stuff together, right?
Honestly.
I learned a really cool term.It's you said in falconry terms
and I just love the phrasebecause like, when do you ever

(19:51):
get to say in South Korea, but Ilearned a really cool phrase the
other week that the phrase FedUp comes from falconry and it
generally is like your animal
is now full and is like, I'm notreally Yeah, I don't really want
to like do this stuff anymore.Yeah, he's done with you. It's
just like
it's just come to me, like solike frustrated with something,

(20:13):
but really just means that yourbird was cool at one point. I'm
so used to
that I haven't even consideredthat like what?
Up with you. I'm just I've eatena lot today and I can't do much
else like, that's actually howmost days
falconry has seasons. So youwill fly your hawk for season

(20:34):
one with your hawk. It's aworking relationship. It's a
partnership. It's really, it'sreally very different than what
we do here. But it's just reallyamazing and peaceful and really
bonding with that animal. Youspend all your time with your
laughter I mean, they're ridingwith you sometimes in the front
seat on a perch. That's reallyyou know, sometimes they're by
your bedside.

(20:55):
And then you go hunting withyour Raptor.
So when you say they're fed up,and it started by saying you're,
they're fed up for the season,so you give them a huge
whatever, they caught a duck,whatever they got. That's their
feast. And, yeah, that's reallyfunny. So yeah, I learned that
the term fed up came from infalconry terms, which it's just

(21:17):
such a cool thing to like, Idon't know, I just always wanted
to say in falconry terms, loveto learn more about kind of the
safety precautions you have totake with an animal like that.
You mentioned the glove. Are youkeeping a certain distance?
What's kind of, I'm sure it'sjust a constant kind of checking
in with the animal and you'rewatching. Yeah, with an animal
like Lyra who has the capabilityof, you know, potentially
choosing tensed. She isn'ttense. I love her so much. With

(21:42):
this training,
there's a very close bond andtrust. So they need to be pretty
close to you. And I have to beable to trust that she's not
going to use her natural weapons
against me for any reason. Sothere is a there is a closeness
when you're working with araptor and it's

(22:02):
it is a relationship. It is atrust. And you need you need
that for your success for thatanimal. Back and forth. Yeah, so
the glove kind of acts more ofprotection for your arm. I'm
assuming it's not necessarily aprecaution. If something were to
happen, but more of like sheshe's got
she's got those murder toe.Yeah. And she's not landing on
you with any sort of aggression.She's landed because you've

(22:23):
asked her to Yeah, and it's justthat's just how that's just how
it is. Yeah, yeah. Funny. That'sso cool. How long How? How often
do those clubs have to bereplaced? Are they did they get
worn pretty quickly? They do getworn, but mostly it's not from
the Raptors. Mostly, it's fromjust being Nick toss. Yeah, it's
from the humans.

(22:44):
Raptors do barely anything.
A little scratch? Well, also,there's like little pieces of
mice on it and stuff. You know.
I remember very early on whenyou had started working with
Lyra, you were like, do you wantto help me with an approximation
and that was just sort of likeone little baby step to getting
her to fly from one person tothe next. And I had never seen a

(23:06):
bird of prey up close. Like Igrew up in Hawaii. There's
nothing you know, like I nevereven thought about it and was
like cool little Hawk, you know?Sure. Find this bird.
The bird is like the biggestthing I've ever seen in my life.
And I'm not afraid of animals.But I had a little fear in my
heart that day because she justcomes flying in so hot. And she
landed on my arm. But I think myarm was positioned low or I

(23:26):
dropped it and she startedwalking up my shoulder. And
there's this picture thatHeather took, which is so funny,
because I look like I'm smiling.But my eyes are so wide and
fearful because she's lookingright in my eyeballs with her
legs. And I was like,
it knows nothing about her. Thatmeant ill you know, like she was
no, she's learning but yeah, shehas like the most intense like

(23:49):
she'll stare right in your eyesand I'll
have her back. What happens witha lot of our animals like aged
people to a ceiling encounterand from outside of the exhibit.
Oh, they're so cute. Once youget up to those guys Parker's
600 800 pounds sometimes youforget like, you're like, oh,
yeah, that's a that's big.That's Danny right next week.

(24:09):
He's got those teeth. Okay. Andthen you have to like, Oh, he's
so cute. He's actually a bigword.
Animals and amazing animal Ididn't you know, you don't
realize like you said, you don'trealize how big he is. Until I
had my 12 year old do andencountered right next to
encounters. Oh, he's like, oh,yeah, he's I guess he is kind of
forgot. And he's just like thegentlest guy. Like we're so

(24:31):
lucky with the animals that wehave. And a lot of it is good
training. And certainly thatgoes into them being comfortable
and an animal is not going toaggress on you if they're
comfortable in their situation.And so it's amazing to see these
animals come from situationswhere they're rescued wild
animals and over time become soconditioned and understanding of
the interaction that we'rehaving with them, that they're

(24:51):
really calm. Something that mayor may not be relevant to the
remainder of this podcast is weactually are working on
conditioning one of our animalsbest
There's right now isn't thatright? That is true. There's a
there's a low low right in frontof me a little guy is he is very
anti podcast. Yeah. What are youseeing? How are we working
through this? You just fed himso it did especially the first

(25:12):
time he's been open to takingsome food through his crate
door. So he's never been in thisroom before. There's microphones
in the green room. It's sodifferent 100 be visually for
him.
You know, he's been all overthis record. He's been here for
so he's been here longer than Ihave. And he's been everywhere.
So I kept this room apparently.

(25:33):
It's a lot and it's it's themost quiet I've ever seen. He's
like, it's quiet in here. I haveto be quiet. Now this room is
really funny because yeah,there's no ambient noise when
we're in kind of like, okay, itmust be a lot right? Just the
lack of sound. Yeah, like,something's out. So he's just
watching us so we'll see ifYeah, like, right around his
mouse, all of his feathers arepuffed up. What does that mean?

(25:54):
Like you are his body languageexpert. Like I know that's what
you're doing when you're doingthese things. What is he telling
us right now he's sitting tight.Like holding with his feathers
are pulled back like that he'sthere's an action that's about
to take, that's about to happenwhen he's sitting there. And
he's got his chin feathers allover there. He's he does not
plan to move from there rightnow. We get it. It's cool that
you can look at an animal andsort of be like this is you

(26:16):
know, vaguely how they'refeeling and what you know, we're
looking for. And so I don'tknow, it's been fun to just kind
of watch you choose the momentsof like, Hey, I'm going to offer
you a snack. Do you feel goodabout this? Do you want to take
it and he's doing his best toand as that's my favorite thing
is sitting in our admin officesand hearing Lola come by. It
makes my entire day and thensometimes they'll talk to me and

(26:37):
it's it's the best day ever.It's so funny, because I didn't
expect this behavior from him atall he winning, we take him to
the Honda Pacific Visionstheater back in minutes, which
is a big journey.
He's just flirting witheverybody the entire time. And
we have just as much of aproduction to and from the

(26:57):
program. And we're just in avery chill quiet room and he
says something.
Sentence, I'm pretty sure I'velike been walking and heard a
wolf whistle and been so oftenI'm like,
well, it's just like, hey, yeah,you
whistled at him as we werewalking here. So I get so cool.
We'll see if he will, if hedoesn't make an appearance

(27:19):
today. We'll do a post interviewwith him. Yeah, he's so cool.
It's, it's cool to see eachanimal have their own
personality. And certainly someof it is species dependent. But
I mean, even our lorikeets,right, like each of them has a
very distinctive, you wouldn'timagine like 100 birds in the
aviary, and they're alldifferent right now. It's a very
strong hierarchy ofpersonalities. Can you tell the

(27:41):
difference between them based onthe way they look personalities,
like somebody's not like somepeople can, but I'm doing my
best. There's a lot of birds inthere. We actually have this
second largest aviary.
I think it's the first of thestates but of all interactive
aviaries. lorikeet aviaries. Sothere's a lot of birds in there
and they all have differentnumbers on a number on that

(28:02):
band, but I can only tell so asmall percentage based on their
behavior
do you have a favorite? Yes. Whois writing core rank? high rank
or stage five clinger?
Yeah, I love that. I love that Ilike his personality. i There's
so many that I love but he's avery he's he's the boy look for

(28:26):
that skewed. Would you mindquickly listing all of our
Ambassador Burns and then maybewe can get into a little bit
about the other Ambassadoranimals? Yeah, so the ambassador
birds that I'm working with nowas Lola, the sulphur crested
cockatoo, who is quietly sittinghere, and we have Lyra or red
tailed hawk. We also have Sulaor red footed boobie. She's

(28:46):
cool. Yeah, it's really quiet.Never got to work with a movie
until I came here. It's justamazing Sula is I think the only
red footed movie that I know ofthat's under human care. And she
is one of the coolest words I'veever met. Like, definitely,
she's got her own personality.
I remember when she first cameto us, she had a stick that she
was obsessed with. Yeah, wethink she was younger at the

(29:08):
time. You know, we just had tokind of guess at their ages. And
her behavior kind of indicatedto us that this was a younger
bird who did a lot of plane. Andso she would play with a
favorite stick on a string. Andso so we could bring one of
those things as a way to engagewith her and reinforce her in
different locations. And it wasit was just really fun to watch.
It's been cool to see her kindof grow up here too. Yeah, yeah.

(29:31):
Okay, so we have Lola Lyra.
That's our job. And then wehouse. We have a small group of
reptiles. So we have severalsnakes to kingsnakes into boas,
and we now have three prehensiletailed skinks. Now we have
a baby. It's a really cute baby.

(29:53):
And Benny, oh, my goodness.throated Macaw many is a
beautiful bird and he is socool.
I thought that their salary isso in love when he comes by my
desk doesn't doesn't reallycommunicate especially the way
Lola does. Right? There's been atalk because I definitely
thought I heard Benny saying hithe other day but says hi. Okay,
as soon as I like looked, he waslike, I will not say a word. And

(30:17):
then that was the cutest thingis Lola taught Benny how to do
the monster behavior. So if youput your hand up like a claw,
and you say monster, he puts hisfoot up because our monster
was doing it again. Monster

(30:44):
That was wonderful, Benny, thankyou.
Lola taught in that oh my god,good job. Lola. Was like,
Listen, he's like, Please, I'mthe best trainer.
I mean, it's cool to know thatbirds can learn by mimicking
other birds, even other species.It's fascinating. And I mean,
they're they're roommates. Imean, not in the same enclosure.

(31:05):
But like, certainly they can seeeach other right. So what's
funny is Lola Lola knows all ofhis his cues, his essays. And so
if he sometimes he'll say tohimself target, or step up, he's
like, I'm doing it to learn morea little about that
communication with the birds.How is an animal able to talk?

(31:27):
How is it able to mimic what wesound like? Yeah. And how much
understanding of what they'resaying do you think they have
what's crazy is it's not clearto people exactly how they're
able to do that. They don't havevocal cords. And what's also
fascinating, it was speculatedby some a while ago that, why
would they need to be able tohave Yeah, that mimicking, which
not all of them do, some of themare great mimickers like some

(31:48):
people can sing really well. Andsome people like me cannot.
And so it was speculated thatmaybe the best mimickers can
mimic a predator to avoidanother predator coming in or,
but there's been nodocumentation and lots of
studies. And no one's ever seenor heard a parrot doing that
utilizing their ability to mimicother animals. But there is a

(32:11):
study of these birds havingtheir own family sounds of
recognition with each other inlarge flocks. So even though
they'll have family groups, theycan be found in huge, huge
groups of several 100. Birds. Socool. Yeah, I always wonder why
that was something they they hadand goes back to their
evolution, right? I mean, pickedup and do they name each other?

(32:31):
Like, that would be lower.That's your name? Oh, that I
need to look that up. No, weird.No, it'd be interesting to know
whether or not they like haveindividual names, like I know
some species. I think dolphins,they have like the whistle
signatures that are like that'sfor you. And so I wonder if
parents have the same?
Well, let us know.
Oh, actually, oh my gosh, I'm sonervous. He's looking at me.

(32:56):
He's like, my name is actuallyjust constant screaming the
whole time. He's been saying it
every time. Brett talks, that'swhat he's
it's a beautiful name. What'shis name? And he wants to raise.
He's like, I should go fulltime.

(33:18):
Well, buddy, I didn't know whatnow we'll call you by that only
can you imagine this is ourambassador, self requested card?
On screen. I think you'd have areally cool abt was like,
please.
I'm sorry, Scott in advance foryou.
Well, can we talk a little bitabout the little more about the
positive reinforcement, soyou're giving him some pellets

(33:39):
or some snacks right now? Yes.So we trained using positive
reinforcement. And just a quick,easy way to explain it is we
just reward behavior we like weignore behavior we don't like so
any of our animal ambassadors,including the reptiles, we do.
And some of you that come to theaquarium on a regular basis are
familiar with this, the twofinger touch. So if I go to one

(34:00):
of our snakes, and I, I touchthem gently on the back, and
there's a reaction.
That's their only way to tell methat they don't want to do it,
which I don't normally get thatfrom our snakes, but they have
that option if they wanted to.And it's the same thing with
Lola and Lyra, to and Benny. Soif we, we have a station in
their enclosure, and we ask themto go to that station, which is

(34:21):
a specific location in theirenclosure. And that's a really
highly reinforced bubble,station or location. If they go
to that station right off thebat. That's his way of telling
me to come out and see what youhave for me. And if they don't,
that's his only way to say, I'mnot feeling it today. So if he
doesn't, we respect that, and wetalk about it. And if it happens

(34:42):
more than once, then there'ssomething it's an indication
that something's not positivefor him, because the whole goal
is that he wants to come out andbe enriched and do things and
see the things now new stimuli.One of my favorite things about
training is that, you know,people always are like, Oh,
well, you make them do somethingand I'm like, No, the whole
thing is a conversation, youknow, like the animal is
expressing to me, either, hey,that's something that maybe

(35:04):
makes me nervous and you'reexpressing, I'll work through it
with you. And I think that thatcan be lost when you're just
looking at it externally, butthe minute that you're in it,
and it's the same as if you'retraining your dog, you know what
their boundaries are, and like,I'm not going to do that and
when they're uncomfortable, andevery single species has some
ability to communicate, but alsotraining is a way for us to give
them the tools to tell us whenthey do or don't want to. And I

(35:27):
think you probably more thanmost individuals at the aquarium
because you work with so manyAmbassador animals that come out
and meet people and have to dothings that might be
overwhelming or scary for ananimal have to work on these
relationships and communicationstyles and understand them so
much better. Like, I could tellyou a frog is probably
uncomfortable, but like, when isthe frog comfortable, you know,
like, they just constantly havethis a huge eyes. But like, for

(35:51):
all the different species ofbirds, you have to be able to
read a situation and like, getan animal to participate or,
except that they won't and belike, hey, that's okay. That's
something we can work on anothertime. And I think that's a
really cool aspect of our jobs,and especially your job that I
don't think we look at enough oflike you're talking to these
animals in your own way all dayevery day. And it's pretty cool

(36:12):
to see. That's one of thereasons why I stuck with working
with birds and training withbirds, because the biggest
reward is free flying birds. Andfor instance, take raptors are
birds of prey, they canreinforce themselves, Lyra is
perfectly capable of hunting onher own. But the fact that
through positive reinforcementand through our relationships,

(36:33):
she will choose to come to meand do that instead. And we can
do these performances. You know,in other places that I've
worked, it's completely outdoorsand all these animals are making
their choices. It's it's cool.It's cool, super relationship
based do and like, it's cool toknow that they know who you are
like Parker no offense again.But I don't think Parker has any
idea who I am. You know, he seesa person who shows up and feeds

(36:53):
him. Yeah, and he's like abucket of fish. I'm here for it.
Let's do it. But these birdslike you, and another person
who's brand new could ask theexact same thing of a bird and
they will give totally differentresponses because like, oh, no,
you
that's I like the way you askedme that. I would never do that
for you know how they're toldyou to do it.

(37:15):
Like a pretty big learning curveto you know, working with some
of the maybe less so for somespecies, like a snake that maybe
is like, pretty chill hangingout, however, but like for the
birds, especially Is there apretty big learning curve to
starting to work with them? Itis and it's different for every
person, it's a differentjourney, for sure. And for
instance, you know, Gary, my cotrainer has to work extra hard

(37:38):
at being currently the only guyon the team. So when you have a
bunch of girls working the sameanimals, and we deliver our cues
and our verbal in like a highpitch,
which I always do.
He's always done really good.And so he has to really keep up
on relationships, as we all do,of course, but him even more so
to make sure that he's workingand being able to hear these

(38:00):
animals equally as we can to getso cool. Something you would
never consider before. That'samazing, man.
I think I mean, it just goes toshow like how individualistic
they all are, given howintelligent they are and how
individual they are. Are theredifferences in like the types of
enrichment that you offer them?Or what types of enrichment

(38:23):
might you give a parent versus ahawk? And like, how do you keep
them entertained?
Parents,
you can overwhelm them for sure.But there they are fun to give
enrichment to, you're going togive them browse and bright
shiny toys and they love toshred things. And that's what
floats their boat. Or you haveto be careful some things can be

(38:45):
overwhelming to them and theycan be a little fearful. So you
get to actually sometimes youhave to take approximations and
have that toy outside theirenclosure and work your way
closer and closer. Like one dayyou will love this.
And we're not going to rush it.It's just gonna be 10 feet away
and then tomorrow nine feet
closer.
We have in the past given aChristmas tree to our Raptor.

(39:08):
Now Lyra is too big for aChristmas tree. She'll take down
a Christmas tree no problem.
That's funny. What I have doneis taken a shoe box. I got new
work shoes and I poked holes init and I put a quail. Oh, and I
had to show it to her. And thenI threw it on the floor and I

(39:29):
watched her anytime. Any birdthat piques has to turn his head
sideways is the cutest thing tome still to this day. So she
flew down and with that sternraptor look because you know
they have that natural sunvisormakes them look really like they
have no sense of humor.
She like got really low and shepeed really.

(39:49):
It was the cute I wish I hadfilmed it. Oh my gosh, I have to
film that this year. We have toput a camera inside the box to
see her I yeah, I go crow. Ishould have mine. Honestly you
Should
I just love the idea of justlike the
need to be to GIF or GIF? I wantto see that. Yeah, use that all
the time just

(40:11):
getting really close.
I love it. Cool. That's amazing.So that will be probably
considered like a huntingenrichment for her is there any
other hunting enrichment thatyou give to a raptor?
Hunting enrichment, we've doneenriching actions in sessions
where I can take her somewhereelse in the room, and I can just

(40:33):
toss something up. Yeah, invertand catch it and land and that's
just stimulating and funny ever.From what I understand from
those who worked at the OhioRaptor Center, she was a very
assertive hunter
in her flight and mediary whenthey're trying to prep her for
release, and so I've been usingthat quality and her to be able

(40:54):
to stimulate and give herenrichment outside of her
enclosure. So we can do flightsback and forth. I've even and
this might be for me, too. Ilike watching birds of prey from
the ground because it's reallykind of cute. Like
he just like rolls do roll orfood across and she just just
trucks

(41:15):
can we do a slow mo of like,running like face on little
lanes? Because it looks likethey're wearing trousers and so
you just get to see theirfeathers on their legs and I
love it. Yeah, why did they havesuch feathers all the way down
is like some birds theirfeathers and it's sort of like
that were their trunk you knowtheir body in like vultures.
Yeah, why do Raptors havefeathers all the way down. They

(41:36):
look like pants. Vultures havetons of
legal trousers, Oh, I see yourtrousers.
It's just their feathers all theway down for their protection.
It also helps protect them fromtheir price. So squirrel one
brown and bite kind of thing.And it's also worth.
Vultures, on the other hand,have naked legs and a naked head

(41:57):
because they eat dead things andthey'll actually stand in the
carcass and keep them clean hipskeep their feathers clean by not
having feathers in thoselocation paths and also things
are fighting back. I guess atthat point.
No protection needed, which is agood point. A lot of times
Raptors have been Raptors willeat carrion just like a vulture
can which is one of those thingswhy you wouldn't want them

(42:17):
around roads. Yeah. Don't throwyour food out your windows.
Don't throw anything out yourwindow. Yeah, absolutely. But
it's a there is that likeargument like Oh, I'm throwing
something biodegradable at nightto you know, nature, but that is
just creating a food source forother animals for they shouldn't
be anyway. Absolutely talk aboutthat in our bird shorts and
Pacific Visions. Throw in anapple quantum car window might

(42:39):
seem like a harmless act. It'sbiodegradable, but what feeds
rodents, which attracts Raptor,you know? And they're just
circle. Yeah. That sort of leadsto the first question we have
from social media. Like, why dowe have birds at an aquarium? I
think you touched on it. Themessaging is there, you know,
everything's interconnected. Butwhat's your rationale for

(43:01):
I
don't want to work here unlessthere's birds here. And there's
so much connection with birds,as most people do not realize I
you know, in my career workingwith birds, a lot of people
don't have that connection thatthey do with mammals. And I love
being able to change that, andshowing them
how important and cool birdsreally are, but their connection

(43:24):
is amazing. And each species andeach animal group or each bird
group has these importantconnections to our oceans and to
our ecosystems. Like you know,we talk about the red footed
boobie and how what they'redoing is their waste products
are given nutrients that arelike gardeners to coral reef
ecosystems. And how we cameabout finding that out, you
know, Lola here his, the sulphurcrested cockatoo is not an

(43:46):
endangered species, there arecockatoos that are critically
endangered. However, parents,like the cockatoo are
highlighted as frequent longdistance seed dispersers. And
that's really important to thesurvival of our plant species.
These guys, there's been studiesof how long these birds will fly
with branches.
And in their beaks.

(44:10):
Yes, like, don't make fun of me.I'm sorry. You never know what
stick is important. I evertalking now. I have walked up to
Lola's enclosure before and justseen him with a stick in his
hand and it is the mostthreatening thing you've ever
seen in your life on one foot onthe perch and then just a stick
being held out at you and you'relike, oh, I have fun. He did he
he got off and I'm gonna put upwe're getting comfy. He's like,

(44:32):
where's this?
Where's the stick? What's Davidto me? Did you saw
was so cool. It's been prettycool to see. I think something
someone told me once. Maybe youcan fact check me on this.
Someone told me that. Birds likeparrots can't taste like
capsaicin, or it doesn't givethem the same reaction like that

(44:52):
spicy food does to us. And sofor that reason, pepper has
developed capsaicin veryspecifically so that birds can
eat them.
disperse the seeds and poop themout, but wouldn't be averse to
it. And I was like what? Butmammals wouldn't because they
digest it. And I was like,That's great. Yeah, we could
give him a jalapeno right now or

(45:13):
anything. Yeah, someone told methey can't like experience spice
in that way. That makes sense.They don't.
In writing, it says they don'thave a sense of smell. However,
a lot of us that have beenworking with these birds. Notice
that if you, you can hold up apiece of food and they'll be
willing to take it visuallylike, oh, I want to try that.
And they'll get this, it'll getso close to their mouth. And the

(45:34):
last second, they'll pull backand shake their heads. So
there's something going on somesense, right? There's something
there. So I don't think acrossthe board. It's blanket, no
sense of smell. There'ssomething going on. Yeah. But
perceiving that would help mepepper.
I know that like parents alsouse their tongue like a finger,
right? Yes, absolutely. Sofunny. Their beak is like a hand

(45:56):
to them. There's this expertclimber. So they feel with their
tongue. And so it's intimidatingto new trainers. If a parent
especially opens their beat,yeah. Right at their hand. I'm
like, Oh, he's just checking.
Way to touch here. Yeah, he'sgonna give you a little lick.
See what you're all about?Getting an idea of what the
situation? But don't worry, he'snot smelling you. Yeah, he

(46:19):
probably can't. But we don'tknow. We don't know. He's doing
something after sea lionsession. He's not offended by
smell like fish.
likes fish. This is how I foundout Lola really likes. He likes
sushi. That's so cool. I have aquestion aside. Before we get
fully into that, do you have anyrecommendations for people who
aren't bird people who kind ofvisit the aquarium lorikeet for

(46:40):
us can be a little overwhelmingto someone who isn't introverts?
Do you have any suggestions forsomeone who maybe has like a
slight fear or worry? Where doyou start? Yeah, I wouldn't
start Lauren.
Our forest is amazing. And likeI said, it's very large. But if
you are bird phobic, or you'rejust starting, that might not be

(47:01):
your stepping stone. I wouldwatch from the outside first.
And then or come see some of ourbird programs where you're at a
distance where you feelcomfortable, are lorikeets I
love them. They're amazing. Theyhave very fast metabolisms. So
there's one minute where they'recompletely full, and you can't
predict when that is, and theywill not land on you. And then

(47:24):
20 minutes later.
Yeah, it's a littleunpredictable in there,
something that I've learned, andtry my best to stay on top of.
Yeah, so I would start smalljust by observing from a
distance I would watch from theoutside, because I'll actually
come and hang in and talk to youthrough the walls of the aviary.
And so I will a lot of timeswe'll watch parents, with small
kids who weren't ready to go inyet. Watch me outside. Yeah,

(47:47):
that's a great way to do it.That's yeah, see what happens.
And also, if it's not for you,that's totally fine, too.
There's, there's other ways likehe's like You can enjoy our
birds here at the Aquarium.Visiting the shows are not going
to land on your head during theshows. They're not gonna poop on
you. Maybe they might make poopon you. Hopefully might happen.
Hopefully, they don't land onyou either. It's also good luck
if you get pooped on. So let meYes, Lucky.

(48:16):
Speaking sort of along thoselines, I know that some people,
you know, a fear of birds ispretty normal for some people.
Are there any animals thatyou've been like? It's been an
unexpected negative reactionwhen you've brought them out for
a program or unexpected fanfavorites to an animal that
you're like, I didn't expectpeople to love this animal so
much. What's been your extremeson both ends? For that

(48:37):
experience? We occasionally getthe extreme where it's someone
who has a phobia. And you haveto realize what do I work with
snakes
tend to be the two
people I've never heard someonesay I'm phobic about otters get
it away from me. I am going toadd is like tarantulas and like,

(48:58):
scariest person.
I'll take your tarantula snakesand birds. These are what I work
with. I guess it's good thatthese are our animal
ambassadors, because that is myjob is to educate and to change
minds and to get people toappreciate all the aspects of
these animals. The opposite endof that is it's just so fun when

(49:20):
someone just lights up, lightsup. And then I had somebody
wanted to see me after apresentation several weeks ago,
and I got a call on the radioand I was like, oh,
like someone wants to talk toyou. Who did? Who did the last
bird show and that person wantsto talk to you. We have some
guests here. And I'm like, do Iknow these people? And they're
like, no, they're they justwanted to talk to you. And I'm

(49:40):
like, oh.
Scary.
So I came all the way up to thefront. And it was it was a
couple that were so excitedabout what they saw. And they
just wanted to talk my ear offabout a hawk they saw in their
backyard, and they wanted me tosay what it was like
I wish I couldn't see like,

(50:02):
it looked like a bird. It was apretty big, round wings and a
wider chest. And I'm like,there's so many.
I didn't want to squash that. Sowe chatted for quite a while.
That's just their excitement wasso reinforcing for me. Yeah, I
love that about you guys, you'reour staff here at the Aquarium
where if you have the time, butyou know, after our show, or

(50:25):
between, you know, betweenshows, and you're so passionate
about your job, we're sopassionate about the animals
that you work with, of course,you want to share them with the
world. And I just, I reallyappreciate that, that you, I
really appreciate that aboutyour department. I appreciate
that about our guests, you know,odd guests who comes up to you,
and it's like, Tell meeverything you know about those
guests? Isn't

(50:46):
the one off get loved there.It's so great. It's like a
question that I've never askedor thought of myself. Like, what
are otter tongues like? And Iwas like, I don't know, I never
close at them. And you're justlike opening their mouths and
you're like, let me and then youcome back out. And like it looks
like this. Take a picture.
I absolutely love. Sodefinitely, if you're visiting

(51:08):
the aquarium, don't be afraid totalk to our staff members,
everybody you know who workswith animals or even from our
education department. Even ourguest services staff is really
knowledgeable about the animalsthat are here. And they're
interesting behaviors, and wewant to talk and we want to talk
about it. We do well, that's ourjob bridging. That's why we
started this podcast, bridgingthat gap from our the mission of
our facility and what we do forconservation. And we're bridging

(51:29):
that gap too, for our guests tounderstand exactly what we're
doing. Because that's more thatis more poignant than any sign
or any pamphlet. Yeah, socialmedia listener wants to know how
they might be able to visit someof our ambassador animals or
where they might see them.Currently, the only scheduled
presentations that we're doingis in our Honda Pacific Visions
at 1030. And two o'clock, we doour program called Bird shorts,

(51:52):
which is a live animalpresentation, it's always going
to be a bird. That's whatthey're called and virture.
Again, every day, seven days aweek at 1030. And then at two
o'clock, those are the ones thatare scheduled and then we do
unscheduled surprise visits withour ambassador reptiles. So
anywhere outside, you typicallyoutside we can be anywhere we

(52:15):
are going to take out a steak ora skink and be out there in the
sunshine and talk to our guests.Someone's run Mike, sometimes
we're just walking around andengaging with people on the fly.
Yeah, so just stay aware of yoursurroundings. Maybe a sneak by
or maybe it's
also really cool in a positiveway in a positive way.

(52:36):
Exactly. Cool. Um, Who's theoldest Ambassador bird that we
have? Our oldest Ambassador Byrdis Lola.
He just Well, we do havelorikeets that are older.
He blinks so hard. He usually is19 years old. So he is our
oldest ambassador. Wow.Teenager, you're almost 29 No
rates and double decades.

(52:59):
On his birthday, I have that.It's October, October 5. Oh, my
gosh, a Libra. He He's a Libra.No wonder no, sorry. October
7 2000. Yeah, it turns out wellas the same birthday as a
curator. And maybe that's theconnection of why he's been
screaming is very excited.
Oh, he's communicating in hisown ways. Good job. Oh, 19.

(53:23):
Amazing. These guys can easilylive until their late 60s. Yeah,
I was gonna say too, with withthem being able to be purchased
as pets. You know, that's a hugecommitment. You're adopting
something that for a lifepotentially outlive you
depending on your age, she had acockatoo we had to at home, and
my parents growing up, and theyhad my mom had, she had picked

(53:43):
out this wallpaper that sheabsolutely loved. And then
within one day, the two hadpeeled up all the walls. And it
could do
this spear routes. Oh, I lovethat you had cockatoos growing
up and you still volunteer towork with?
Because I feel like that couldeasily go.

(54:05):
Yeah, you know, I accept you forwho you are. Want to know what
we had growing thing?
That's amazing. Cool. What arethe role of parrots in their
ecosystems we kind of talkedabout they are able to carry
those branches and see theirbiggest thing is blasey
dispersal. Yeah, they'reamazing. So they are they

(54:26):
transport seeds, because plantscan't migrate. They need help to
spread their seeds. And it's notjust birds, animals in general
will spread seeds, sodas, windand water. But these guys like I
said they're highlighted as big,frequent seed dispersers long
distance. And that's theirbiggest role that sulfur crested
cockatoo numbers have increaseddramatically and I eat from what

(54:46):
I understand they're considereda pest and they can be really
distracted to some people'sfarms in Australia. Yeah, I
think we kind of get a couple ofthose comments every time
because we are lucky enough toreach across Australia with our
social media posts. What's upyou
We're like, I have 10 of thosein my backyard right now.
Yeah, it's like 10 Lola's luckyhere and I know that like, I

(55:08):
don't know, it's crazy to seethose videos. Like someone walks
outside and there's justcockatoos all over the yard.
You're like I have any of ourambassador animals been born at
the aquarium.
While Yeah, very recently, a newbirth actually. And it I can't
say birth because prehensiletailed skanks actually give live

(55:29):
birth. Which is unusual forreptiles. Yeah. And so we have
baby Mojo. Who is it? Why is hisname Mojo? Why I'm glad you
asked because his dad is namedbanjo and his mother is named
monkey. So we put thosetogether. Jackie and banjo and
Mojo was one of the few timesone person suggested the name
and everybody agree. Yeah, I waslike, yes. Mojo is a great name.

(55:54):
It's got a lot of mojo. And hewas huge being born when they're
when they're born. They're aboutapproximately a third the size
of the mother 1/3 of the sizeand I read. Yeah, can you
imagine that would be like ahuman person giving birth to a
five year old and I stoppedreading stopped.
For me to hear Yeah. We did awhole I mean, it was basic done

(56:16):
learning. We did like a babyshower. We did the guests the
date that Mojo was born and howbig it will help it will be and
how much away I love that story.Because that those are animals.
We those are two animals we'vehad for a long time. Yes. Have
never bred and right all of asudden. Yep, the moon
after eight years, you know, younever know. Especially monkey

(56:40):
monkey is one of the oldest.She's one of two the oldest
living ever recorded.
Really? Yeah. She just had ababy. Yeah. So I assume it was
not physically possible for her.So she is doing very well using
that's so cool.
We have a very specific questionfor you from someone you might
know. And it is tell us a funfact about red tailed Hawks.

(57:04):
Sorry, coworker of our shadowedAmanda. Thanks for red tail
Hawks. Like all birds of prey,their vision is 10 times better
than our own. And their speed isincredible. So the fastest
animal in the world everyonethinks is the cheetah. But
actually, there are many birds,even some fish that go faster
than the speed of the cheetah.And the fastest animal in the
world is a raptor. Now Eaglescan go 70 to 80 miles an hour

(57:27):
long. Yeah, Hawk like Lyra 120miles per hour. And this is
referred to as a stoop. So thisis not flying and gliding out in
the air like you see them doingthis is when they tuck up their
wings and die like a bulletgoing after their prey. A lot of
times it's the impact alone thatkills their prey. Not
necessarily the sharp talons.It's just that impact coming in.

(57:50):
But the fastest of the Raptorsis the Falcons. And the fastest
of the Falcons is the NorthAmerican peregrine falcon at 242
miles per hour crazy. Are theyArthur? Like? I was gonna ask it
in the stupidest way. Are theylike built different?

(58:10):
Like, what
are they? They
think about birds likesongbirds, little birds, they
weigh nothing. They have hollowbones. They like you could look
at them and their bones seemlike they're gonna break at any
second. And I can't imaginediving at 240
and landing on something andyeah, the impact kills the

(58:31):
thing. But how does the impactnot kill the bird? How were
they? Do they like, put theirwings out at the last second and
they like SOP themselves, likehow and also how they're just
built? Or their legs. Likethey're all explained exactly
how they're built different forthe coolest fact. There's lots
of difference. A lot ofdifferent facts talk about but
my all time favorite. And thisis a falcon thing. They have a

(58:54):
tiny twist of bone and skin intheir nostrils. So if you look,
it's like a little island in themiddle of each nostril. And it's
just bone and skin. And so asthey're diving, you can imagine
if you've ever been in a car onthe freeway, and as a kid ever
stick your hand out the window,watch that force of air Yeah,
push your hand backwards. That'sjust going the speed limit

(59:16):
hopefully
for an animal that canphysically reach the type of
speeds that a Falcon can thatforce of wind hitting their face
if they were trying to take abreath that could explode their
lungs. And what that twist ofbone and skin does it breaks up
the wind and protects theirlungs so when they're doing that
die from several 100 feet in theair they can breathe normally

(59:38):
safely and that's the coolest
so definitely are so cool. Andamazing if I had that I would
probably get surgery for like adeviated septum you know like
and then for them to like I needthis so that I don't explode
while I'm if you had that thenyou can maybe dive from about
280 miles an hour.

(01:00:00):
Oh do that. I just don't think Icould stop. I'm just gonna
install a twist of bone in mynose. Let me do that
it's actually the twist for mydive
you wouldn't get it. You're nota falcon. I'm fed up.

(01:00:23):
Okay, we're done.
Good job circle.
Before we and is there anyfavorite stories you have of
working with the birds thatyou'd like to share? I feel like
every day is something new. SoI'm sure it's hard to keep track
of them. But do any storiesstick out so Sula, which we
haven't talked about Sula, quiteenough for the amazing brother

(01:00:44):
she is we could do a wholeepisode on right or red footed
Ruby, she's relatively new todoing these big theater shows
Burbridge shorts. And she is sheflies and we make it different
each time, kind of mix it up.But she does one A to B, which
is point A flight to point B andI'm talking the show. And when
I'm talking, these are animalsthat can be unpredictable and

(01:01:06):
things can happen. And my job isto keep talking as if it was
part of the presentation nomatter what.
And so lately, she has beenfeeling more comfortable. And
she has been deciding to doflights that don't land on my
arm
with a little bit of side eye.And so

(01:01:28):
you know, I'm sitting here, likean idiot with my arms.
And I've learned not to say andshe's gonna fly right over here
to me. And she flies and she'sgonna land I can see her and
then I can just see her face hereyes disconnect from me look
past me. And then she just keepsgoing. And she makes us
beautiful circle across we havea beautiful beachy sunset

(01:01:50):
backdrop.
And you see her fly across thisgorgeous setting.
As if it was planned. And that'sexactly what I do. Like, she is
going to take this time tostretch her way and give you a
gorgeous look at how beautifulthese rates are. Why Ray? Just
even inside them die. Where's hegonna go? Don't hurt yourself
with it. Make sure everything'ssafe. Like, where's my co

(01:02:12):
trainer? What's going on? Whywould she do this? We'll talk
about it later. And then shelands on the back of someone's
seat.
She does. Fortunately, Here'sgood. Nothing came out of her.
Yeah, there was no good luck atthat point. Okay, so go to bird
shorts if you if you got a good,good attitude about maybe
getting close to an animalbecause it can happen.

(01:02:35):
Just like I'm a pelagic bird.I'm going to demonstrate me
flying over the ocean that willmake friends with this guy.
What's your name?
Squid for me. By chance everyoneelse
yeah, blue shirt on today. It'sfunny hanging out around here.
Sometimes you rent your money.

(01:02:57):
Cool. Thank you so much outthere. This is a really fun
episode, I learned so much aboutour ambassador birds. And like I
said, we could really do anepisode on each each one. So
maybe that'll come in thefuture. It just the whole
season. Birds it's just been areally good time. I think the
funniest thing is that we havethis. We're Garius amazing
program animal right here withus. And he's just been so

(01:03:17):
nervous about the new settingthat like it's actually a great
opportunity. Our real lastquestion that we can edit in at
the end is we wanted to knowwhat Lola's best animal
impression at
sea lion.
You're very pretty bird. Whatkind of bird
it's time to use my teapot.
What's that? Good. Shark?

(01:03:40):
Good.
That's a favorite game to playas peekaboo peekaboo. Let's do
that one again, because that'spretty fun to begin.
If I scratch my head and saylet's think he scratches his
head and says where's yourbrain? Let's do it. Let's think
what's your

(01:04:02):
monster? Good.
Bye Lulu.
Aquarium of the Podcific isbrought to you by Aquarium of
the Pacific a 501 C threenonprofit organization in 2023.
The aquarium celebrates 25 yearsof connecting millions of people

(01:04:23):
worldwide to the beauty andwonder of our ocean planet. Head
to aquarium of pacific.org tolearn more about our 25th
anniversary celebration. Keep upwith the aquarium on social
media at aquarium Pacific ontick tock Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn. Thispodcast is produced by Erin
Lundy, Madeline Walden and ScottShaw. Our music is by Andrew
writes MA and our podcast art isby Brandy Kenny, special thanks

(01:04:46):
to Cecile Fisher and Anita viasand our audio visual and
education departments and to allof our amazing podcast guests
for taking time out of their dayto talk about the important work
that they do. But cific wouldn'tbe possible without the support
of the Aquarium's.
donors members guests andsupporters thanks for listening