A Date With Nature

So I was thinking we could check in on some animals and how their romantic lives are going so we can live vicariously through them. Or, as we'll see, maybe romance isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Will you be wooed by throbbing red face balloons, puffer fish art and ce slug congo lines? Discover this and more as we answer the Agel question. If your date is thirty times your size, how do you make sure you

don't end up as her appetizer? Right now, dating is pretty difficult given the fact we need to self isolate to prevent the spread of COVID. But that doesn't mean I can't take all of you, my listeners on a date right now to the realm of learning romantic nol. Let's take a look at some of the weirdest dating habits in the animal kingdom. Even within our own species, our tastes regarding romance are highly diverse. Some people like

candlelit dinners, some people like monster trucks or candlelit monster trucks. Personally, I tried to my potential mate on our first date by telling him all of my favorite weirdest parasites, and somehow we're still together. But when it comes to attracting a partner, animals truly have us beat when it comes to the sheer drama of it all. Joining me today to discuss some of these hopeless and sometimes boneless romance. Ticks is producer, writer, and also hosts the Rough Stuff podcast.

Bridge at Greenberg. Hey, it's me. Thanks for having me, Bridget. It's so good to have you on. Yeah. I'm excited. I feel like I got out easy last time, since you were talking about cute animals and I am very squeamish about slugs and bugs. That's right, Yeah, I I so unfortunately. Yeah, this does actually have slugs in it, and I'm just realizing that now. And I remember you did tell me you do not like slugs specifically. Unfortunately I started writing these notes before I booked you as

a guest. So, you know, train left the station we're doing this. It's got two entirely different species of slugs on it. Bridget. Yeah, the slug train is left, and we're just gonna have to deal just you know, hop on that slimy grass traam. But first, we're actually not going to talk about a slug, to your delight, We're going to talk about hooded seals. Alright, Yeah, seals are cool. Have you ever heard of a hooded seal? I don't

think so. Well, that's just wonderful. I'm I always love it when my guest does not know about an animal because it's so fun to listen to you freak out when I tell you cool because I have an idea that I like seals. But now I, well, look, I like this seal, so clearly you will too. Hooded seals are found in the central and western North Atlantic oceans

and coasts. They kind of look like dalmatians. They have light brownish, whitish grayish fur with dark spots, and they can kind of they range in color variations a bit, but yeah, they're they're they're like the ocean dalmatians. And they actually get pretty big. So they can grow up to about eight feet long, which is two and a half meters, and way up to nine hundred pounds. So so these are these are some big bucks, big big boys and girls. Yeah, and the boys are bigger than

the females. Uh. They eat all sorts of sea kritters like fish, crustaceans, krill, and squid. They are adept swimmers. They're able to dive for about twenty five minutes, although some individuals have lasted over fifty minutes in a dive, and they can dive from a few hundred to over three thousand feet or one thousand meters under the ocean, which that's you know, for a mammal, that's a lot like a whale, I know, can be under for a long time. But that that feels like it's a rival, Like, yeah,

it's a it's up there. It's a long time. Yes. Seals are pretty good swimmers and pretty good divers, especially the hooded seal. And I like the idea of being an ocean explorer in a little submarine and then just like a hooded seal comes right up to you're viewing porthole or something. It is just like ha, and like it rockets down like you down there. I also like that.

I also like that some are a lot better than others because it makes me feel like there's a seal Olympics that happens, like they get competitive with each other. Dune dune, did it end? Did it done? Did it done? And it's like a harp seal just kind of flopping aimlessly. And then sea lions show up and they're like the jock bros of the seal Olympics. They're they're the track stars.

They really are. I mean, sea lions aren't actually seals, obviously, they're very closely related, but they can move on land a lot better than seals. Yeah, because they've got those long, long legs. Yeah, they're the true athletes. Yeah, yeah, they're the bros. I think we've actually talked about that before, like that sea lions are the jock bros of the sort of seal walrus group for sure. And they're like they're the most attractive ones, Like they're the hottest ones.

And I'm glad to hear, like your preference in uh, sort of like seals and sea lions and learning about your romantic preference amongst those, like, yeah, sea lions, that's uh, you know those are straight up hotties. Bridget attracted to sea lions. Don't love. Don't love that moniker for me. But I said it, so you did say it, and we did capture it on on tape, so there is no avoiding it. Now. Look here, I'm gonna give you just some free compromise, which is that hooded seals. I'm

hot for hooded seals. So there you go, like we've got yeah, we've got mutually assured destruction here. Yeah, exactly are are going to shut off after this gets released. So unfortunately for me and my romantic inclination towards the hooded seals is that they're typically solitary and they you know, they're they're not they're not the most gregarious of seals.

Their Yeah they've got they've got their hoodie. Yeah they've got their hood their hooded because they wear a hoodie and they're like, nobody understands me, but that just makes me want the more. But they do get together in large groups during mating or molting seasons and they gather in these big groups to find a partner or shed their fur, which sounds great and cool. So the reason they're called hooded seals is that males have a weird

hood on top of their snout. So when this hood is flaccid, which is a great word that I love to use, it kind of just looks like a flat flap of dark skin on top of their muzzles. It isn't like super apparent. You're like, okay, here's a here's a seal, and he's just kind of got like maybe a slightly more prominent muzzle than most seals. But oh boy,

that's not all it is. Guys can tains multitudes. There's a hidden surprise inside these seals because they can inflate their nose right up like a big old floffy bubble. Oh okay, yeah, just yeah, just just just scroll down this dock. Just take a box here it oh, it looks like it's a oh okay, well, so I guess when it's red, that's when it's inflated. Okay, So I understand the confusion you're seeing to two different It is like a reversible nose here. This is a this is

a versatile nose balloon. And there are two two modes that this nose blue can be in. So the first one is when they basically just inflate the nose on top of their head and it just looks like they have this big, bulbous nose balloon. It's this big floppy bubble of skin. It looks like there's another animal like saying hi, do it upside down like it crawled on

its face? Right. What it's like. Imagine if your nose was instead of being you know, firm, like was made out of sort of a balloon material and you could like plug your nostrils and just like blow really hard and it blows up like a balloon. And that's basically what's happening here. What also happens is that's that's just

that's just their first form, their first nose form. Their final nose form is they can evert the lining of their nostrils, so like push out this nasal lining outside of their nostrils and blow a big red balloon that comes out of their nose. That looks so painful. It's I don't think it is because it's designed to do that. It does. It does seem like it would hurt, but it looks like they're these two. That's just their natural

that's their resting scream face. But they so imagine like when you blow a bubble, like a gu um bubble with some you know, let's call it bubblegum um, and you blow some bubblegum, like you get this big bubble, but you're you're not. You're like blowing it that thin layer of gum and filling it with air and blowing it out of your mouth. That's what they're doing, but out of their nose, and the bubble gum is their nasal lining, and it's permanent, like it's like they permanent,

it's attached to them, thank you, yes, exactly. So it's this big red bubble that they blow out of their nose and it is made out of their nasal lining, and they can inflate it and deflate it as much as they want whenever they want, and typically when they want to do it is when it comes to mating the ladies. Yeah, that's uh, I get I get the appeal. Yeah, big old nose bubble, big old nose bubble. And it's red too, which is fun. That's a romantic color. I

feel like you know, like a big yeah. It's like one of those. And it's kind of it's almost because I guess, like it's sort of weird nose lining. It's almost the shape of a heart, you know. It's not like a perfectly round spirit's kind of I mean probably more closely resembles a kidney bean. But let's say a heart. Let's say a red heart. Let's say a heart. If these were like money tuns characters, they would for sure

be a peppe lapew kind of heart. Exactly exactly, yes, just this bit like like you know how their eyes pop out of their sockets, it's their nose popping out of its nose hole, except inside out. Yeah. Anyways, so it seems so uncomfortable. I don't think they're okay with it though, Yeah, but it does look uncomfortable. It makes me feel like if I did that, it would be uncomfortable.

But again, I'm not a male hooded seal, So there you go, if only so, what they do is they blow out that big red nose balloon and they flop it around menacingly at their rivals for mates, like a big yeah, flops around like a big sock 'em bopper,

and they use. So first of all, it's an intimidating display, and because it takes a lot of energy to physically fight each other, the way they kind of try to minimize injuries to each other when competing for females is whoever's got the biggest floppy ist nose bubble is probably gonna be the strongest anyway. So then they just they're just like, no, you win, you got the biggest nose bubble. That's we don't have to come to actual blows. That's

very kind. Yeah, it's civil, it's very civil. I was worried you're gonna say they like fight nose balloons like they you said the Rockham stock'em thing. Well, but you know, soock'em boppers, I mean they aren't. I well, I really wanted Stockholm bopper when I was a kid, But my parents I don't think they I don't know, yeah, probably too violent, they weren't. They never like put too fine

a point on it. And I don't think I really asked that much because I think I had this sense that this would disrupt the peace in the house, and I didn't want to be the one to kind of create a war zone in the house, and so I let I let the issue subside. But yeah, so they are using these as sort of you know, it's like a sport. It's like nose sports, but to show their they're mating potential and to ward off rivals, and they actually also use it to seduce mates. So they wobble

it around. They create acoustic sounds with these nose bubbles that are both can be a threatening warning but also kind of like a serenading their potential mate. They play wonder Wall exactly. Anyways, here's wonder Wall. What're just like every freshman caught like dude in college exactly. It's would be like I guess the human analog is if like freshman dudes like would blow a big balloon out of their nose and then kind of drum it in a circle to try to seduce women, but then also like

try like flap it at each other. Does that make sense? I think I get it. I've seen it, bridget if you want to, if you want to see a video of them flapping this thing around, I have highlighted it for you and pink there and you can click on it. It almost looks like it's eating its own nose bubble whoa, Oh, that's so weird. Do you remember those like well weird kids. There was that like putty that you would put at the end of a straw and it would blow up

into a balloon. Yeah, yeah, like the yes, yes, I do that weird toy that was like the invincient bubbles or I don't remember, Like it was impalpable bubble and it was just like this putty that you blew up. That's what this reminds me of. Oh, look at them fight. This is so weird. They're so awkward. They just flop at each other essentially like to to try to resolve the fight. Everything about them is just floppy. I don't floppy, They don't wrestle. Whopping they well, they do have bones.

We are going to talk about some animals that don't have bones, but these guys they've got bones. It's just surrounded in a lot of very fidd layer Yeah, it's a lot of flopping nous. Yeah, they're just fury little sex. Yeah, that's that's accurate. Yeah. They also can inflate and deflate the hood underwater to create threatening acoustic sounds to warn off potential rivals or predators. That's metal yes, this is a multifunctional nose balloon. Unfortunately, females do not have a

nose balloon, so I think that's not fair. Yeah, that's sex is a plane and simple. There's got to be like a hooded seal suffragette movement where it's like, give us nose balloons please. Yeah, imagine the good they can do with nose balloons. Behind every great nose balloon is a woman. Is how that goes? Right? And of course, yes, what happens if it? Like do they ever pop? I feel, you know, that's an interesting question and one I actually

avoided research. That's fair. I get that it feels like a lot of blood, right, I'm not sure I even want to know about that, but it seems like they run that risk. Yeah, I guess, like maybe if they have like balloons of equal size, it's going to be like a lightsaber battle. But with balloons, I don't know. With lightsaber battle, I don't know. They I like the fact that they fight and don't want to go for blood, like they're aggressive, but like they don't mean it. Yeah.

I really love the creative solutions that a lot of animals have come up with to avoid actual fighting. With each other. It's it's pretty wonderful, especially the more artistic ones, Like we'll flop a big red balloon at each other, and whoever's the floppyest and biggest will just assume is the winner here, right, And they're like, so I think they're so lazy up. They're like, I don't want to flop enough to fight you. It's so much exactly have you seen a seal try to throw a punch. It

is honestly kind of pathetic. So, you know, the elephant seals will actually fight each other, and it's gruesome because they throw their next together. They kind of just like slam their thick meeting next into each other and they can get really bloodied in it. It's pretty horrible. So yeah, I love I love these hooded seals. They've they've come up with a real, real elegant solution here by like

blowing their nose holes out. God if we if humans could figure that out, you know, if we could, yeah, you know what, just like sort of ritualized like instead of wars, whoever's got the biggest balloon, we're gonna as soon wins. That would be great. I love it, which so much. Just send out all our best balloon artists exactly, exactly, Yeah, but we're not artists. Well now, now, Bridget, now, bridget, I don't think all clowns are balloon artists. I don't

think you can generalize like that. I'm sorry, I'm sorry to the community. You should you should be well. Speaking of balloons, I want to talk about puffer fish, who have their own very interesting method of seducing a mate. And if getting blasted with nose balloons isn't your thing, maybe you could be seduced by a puffer fish the living balloon, which interestingly, they don't inflate themselves to attract a mate, so spoilers. No, it's they don't turn themselves

into a balloon like a like a hooded seal. They actually that that ballooning is a defensive technique and it's kind of it's not like fun for the puffer fish to inflate itself like that all willie nilly. I think it's like slightly traumatic. So they really only do that when they feel like their life is in danger, and it really does help them avoid predation because when you're a big balloon, it's hard to swallow you down. And they also have spikes and uh tetra to toxins that

makes them really deadly sometimes to eat. So they're they have really figured out this whole, like I'm going to make myself a horrible balloon that you just can't eat. They've mastered the art of being unappetizing, because I don't want to eat a big poison balloon, and I can't

imagine animals in the ocean want that either. No. Growing growing up by by the bay and the ocean, I remember we would see pufferfish and then we would try to get them to blow up by I think that then it's so mean, And then I learned how bad it is, like really it's not good for the fish, like it's no, like it is dramatic, and I felt horrible about it. Never you know, I thought it was

fun for them. Yeah, it does. It looks like it would be fun to to your credit, it does look like it would be fun, because then you would become like, you know, like those bouncy balls that we like when your kid and you're like, what were those like the big super bouncy they look like, yeah, well like or the balls that you exercise on as adults, but as kids you like sit on and bounce on the yoga balls or the ones that you would see in the same right exactly, and like so that that seems fun

as a kid. So for a kid, it's like if I could turn into a big bouncy ball, that would be perfect. A fish could turn into a ball. How could that not be fun for everyone? How couldn't that be fun for the fish? But it's not. So, yeah, you bullied those fish. So unfortunately, bridget, I don't think any of these puffer fish are going to try to will you, which is a real shame because there you really did, and you missed out on one of the most beautiful mating rituals in the animal kingdom. Sorry but

I know. But it's the species of puffer fish off the coast of Japan called the white spotted puffer fish or and here we go, I'm gonna pronounce this name really good and well. It's called the torque wait torque wiggan er, torque wiganer albo maco torque wiggener albo maculosis, which has been discovered to create elaborate patterns in the sea floor to wouf females. But so artistic, it is artistic it is. It's beautiful. So the white spotted puffer

fish is a small puffer about five inches long. When they're not inflated, they're kind of a boxy looking fish. And the way that puffer fish swim is they flutter their fins really rapidly that allow them to hover instead of swim. They're kind of like the hummingbirds of the ocean, and they've got little beaks and their eyes move independently, similar to a chameleon. So actually, puffer fish are one of my favorite fish because they have such expressive faces,

eyes can they're adorable. They have little beaks that make it look like they have a little teeth, so they have a doofy little expression, and their eyes can follow you, and they really they're also very curious fish. I've had a puffer fish in my aquarium and they it's like the only fish I've had in my aquarium that would like follow me as I walk around the room and

get really excited. I would feed it like blood worms and stuff, and you'd get really excited and come up to meet me, and it would play in the streams I had, like this this jet stream of water that was part of the filter system and it would like kind of like surf the jet stream and yeah, they're just really they're they're really fascinating, uh and fun fish as long as you don't bully them, Bridget. But this all goes a lot with my narrative. Yeah, yeah, you're

your narrative of just and and feeling guilty about everything. Yeah, happy, too happy to help you along with all that guilt. So to attract a mate, these white spotted pufferfish will create elaborate crop circles in soft sand on the ocean floor. So this is the males creating these designs for females. And these designs they kind of look like, um, the mandala or something the you know what I mean, like the things that the monks draw on the sand and then they went yeahs or like some kind of weird

jello mold made out of sand. So here's here's his artistic process. He will clear out the coarse sand, leaving just the finest sand in a circular area. And he's got it. Since he's a old puffer fish, he's got to do this with his fins in his in his beak. You know, you don't got no hands. So he also clears out shells and places them along the rim of his creator, both to clean out the center of it and also to decorate the the area outside of his artwork.

Did you watch Finding Dory? Yes? Yes, how her parents like create a line of shells for her to her to find. That's what that They stole that from proper fish and they do that, but not to find their long lost daughter, but to attract the ladies. So a, so he will work on his beautiful little mating circle for a week, working constantly, otherwise it will get destroyed

by the currents. So these are like, these are very I know, these are such a zen fish though, Like they really you know, it's like a zen garden and that idea of the impermanence of their art. And they work so hard at it. It's it is. They these are inspiring little fish. Yeah, just to attract it, just to find some love, just to fine love exactly. Think about that, you guys. Yeah, they're putting themselves out, They're

they're making themselves a target exactly. I mean, I know times are tough right now for everybody who wants to date, but think about these little puffer fish. They got work on, They got to work on their design for like a week constantly. It's really hard the artists, they're artists. Unfortunately, I feel like with humans, like that's one of the worst Well maybe not for everyone, but one of the worst things you can do on a first date is like show someone your art, like, here's an art I did. Oh,

I would immediately leave. I would, I would, I think I would. Just I don't know. It's even if it's good art. There's something about sharing your art with someone that is so vulnerable. Is it's I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm saying it hurts me to think about doing it. Like if I like met someone for the first time and I'm like, here's an art I did, it makes me feel naked in a way that physically hurts. Yeah,

it's cringe e that's that's not a thing. These popper fish are really wearing their their hearts on their on their balloons on the Yeah. Exactly, well said, well spoken. Also, there these little these little crop circles or mating circles have almost perfect radial symmetry. Oh yeah, I've I've been looking at this video, so you've been talking. I've seen it. It's so cute. They're so cute. And you see you see the finished product, right, like that's big, big crops.

It's beautiful, right, it's beautiful. I it's a I can't draw a straight line. I don't know how they're doing this. Yeah, it's it's unfathomable. It's it's a beautiful design. It's it looks like a sunburst or I don't even it's it's it's beautiful. And if the female is impressed, she will lay her eggs in the of his design. That's like, it's so romantic. Yeah, and I'm not I'm not a softy per se and that is so sweet. And also

I'm just very impressed. I want to try to spray paint the lines of a soccer field and it was a mess. Uh, And these fish, we gotta get these fish doing some some work on some soccer fields. My boyfriend and I were trying to cut out circles out of wax paper to line a baking tin, a circular baking tin, and somehow we managed to do every geometric

shape except a circle. It's impossible. These are I think we even we even made like a snowflake, but not a circle, a beautiful snowflake a very complex just made the mona Lisa out of damn it. But I wanted a circle. A circle. This is incredible, But what it's doing. Are they all different? I think they're probably all slightly different.

They're all symmetrical like that, and they all have that sort of general design of like what what what it is is they move their little bodies through the sand and they have it's basically like they have these sort of like the the time markers on a clock, Like they have these divots all through radially symmetrical in the circle, but then in the center they're kind of doing these like like swooshies, like these little like almost um waves like radiating out from the center like a sun. And it's,

uh yeah, it's it's huge and it's beautiful. It's like, uh, you know, I don't know, like ten times twenty times larger than the than the puffer fish itself. It's it's it's incredible. Yeah, that is I would lay my eggs in that circle. Good. Good to hear that. Yeah. Thanks. What if crop circles are just aliens trying to woo each other and get another alien to lay its eggs in the center of it? Oh? Yeah, what or if it's just like that creates the alien human species, that

is our next stage of evolution. Oh god, oh no, oh god, oh no. When it comes to romantic patterns, a lot of human cultures settled upon the heart shape. But where does that come from? It's certainly not very similar to a real heart and accurate heart shape is more like a lop sided acorn with a bunch of

veins and chambers and stuff. One theory is that the heart shape actually comes from the heart shaped leaves of the sylphium plant, which was used as a contraceptive and aphrodisiac in fifth century BC and was depicted on silver coins in ancient Greece. Turns out we've been horny for plants this whole time. Time. Whoops. When we return, we're going to talk about a little lover with some big problems.

Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman was a nineteen fifty eight B movie about a wealthy heiress who gets turned into a giant lady by an alien. As the trailer states, she was quote incredibly huge with incredible desires for love and vengeance. In evolutionary biology terms, this would be an extreme example of sexual dimorphism. Sexual dimorphism is where one sex of a species has significant physical differences from the other,

either in size, color, or other elements of anatomy. Think of the colorful male peacock and the more toned down p hen or the huge nose and size of an elephant seal compared to the smaller, more normal looking female elephant seal. Although we often think of male animals of being bigger and stronger, this is definitely not always the case. Many female animals are larger than their male counterparts, such as most species of spiders, many fish owls, the spotted hyena,

and the blue whale. But sometimes the female is so large compared to the male it becomes a bit of an unfortunate situation when it comes to mating. I love that the entire premise of some horror movies is just what if women were huge? It's so really right. Yeah. I don't know if it's suposed to be scary or sexy or like a mix of the two. It's but I do love it. I love the creativity that goes behind that. Like women but big as a building. It's

so transparent whatever. Weird, yeah, insecurity or probably mixed together little Columbary, Little Columbary. Unfortunately, for the argonau octopus, this is not a weird niche fetish. It is a very real thing and it's a big problem for the males. So argonaut octopus males have a problem, which is that females see them as a snack. Not sexually, not like a snack as like you are a snack because you're pretty and I like you, but frutally because the females

they want to eat them. And let me give you a little bit background on the Argona octopus. They are indeed an octopus. They are very interesting cephalopod. They're found all over the world in tropical oceans, and the females

are pretty spectacular looking. So they only grow about four inches long or tin centimeters in terms of their bodies, but they actually create shells that grow up to almost a foot it so these shells that they make look like a nautilus shell made out of paper and if you look in the dock, actually have a photo of this. Oh it really is. It's beautiful and it's interesting. So nautilus is are that shelled cephal pod that are actually

related to octopuses. But this is an instance of convergent evolution, not like the argonau octopus didn't like evolved from the nautilus. This is this is interesting version of convergent evolution where they evolved this shell all on their own. And this shell is actually an egg case that the female creates and lives inside along with her brood. So this egg case is made out of a thin layer of calcite, unlike most shells which are made out of argonite, which

is a fact. I'm sure that the mineralologists out there were like, that's not a word mental, it's a geologists geologist. Yeah, it was like, is there a difference between those two things. So, in fact, the shell wearing females look a lot like an extinct cephalopod called the ammonite, which some people may know like fossil collectors like those ammonite fossil the shell that that they're those like spirally fossils, And it was

a tentacled creature that resided in a shell. And again it's likely that this is another case of convergent evolution where yeah, this was an extinct cephalopod distantly related to the octopus, but the octopus re evolved forming the shell, which is really fascinating, and the argonauts shells have a bubble of air in it to keep it buoyant, and they're very they're very thin shell, so very very light

and kind of ethereal looking. But it does provide some protection for the female and especially for her eggs, and it gives her a little buoyant house to live in and makes it easier to swim around. And that's all great for the female, but males have a very different situation. So they're only a little over a centimeter big, which is about one the size of a female with her shell on, so that that is real tiny. I got a diagram in there to show you the size difference.

Oh no, it's really cute because like you see this female and it's this octopus emerging from a shell, looking very strange and very interesting. And then you have this like little tiny and that's the male, just this a little tiny like dot on it and about the size of her eyeballs. I know, it's adorable. It's so cute. They're trying, they're trying so hard. But the problem for these males is not a sense of inadequacy, but a sense of deliciousness, because they make an easy little snack

for the females. So if they try to mate with a female, the female might be just like, hey, you're tiny and small and you fit right in my mouth and en them and it happens. So in order to try to survive this and to actually get the female to accept it's uh sperm, the ARGONNT males have perfected the art of social distancing sex, which is by detaching an arm that holds their sperm um and they rip it off and fling it at eligible females like a ween or javelin. Oh my god, that's cool, what a

cool Olympic sport? Exactly ween or javelin. So it's actually not their their penis. It is called a hecto caudals, which is the it's basically they take their tentacle and they put a little sperm packet on it, and then they remove that tentacle and toss it at the female and the female is like, oh cool. It's like well, it's like an arm holding a bunch of sperm, perfect present for me. I love it, thank you. It's like Amazon, just cool, cool, my children are got my sperm tentacle

packet today. That's great. They will sometimes even stockpile these tentacle sperm javelins in their shell and just disseminate their eggs when they're ready. Just hoarding, hoarding, like these these weener tentacle sperm things. How many like I guess I regrow their their sperm tentacles the male. Yeah, yeah, they can regrow their tentacles. It's it's unclear how often they actually have the chance to mate like that, but yeah,

they in theory, they probably can regrow that tentacle. I'm just not I don't think it's known whether or not they actually do or if they're just like, well, my job here is done and then then pass on to octopus heaven. They could regrow the tentacle, and it at least means that they were able to get their their sperm to the female without the email just eating the holding a little guy and not even knowing what she's missing. Yeah, he could be a great guy. He could have been

a great guy. Yeah, give him a chance. We've actually talked about this method of mating before on this show, when I think it was in the episode Aliens, and we talked about the blanket octopus. Because blanket octopus males will also use the hectocotalists and by tossing their arm

at the female and piecing out. But I think that the in this case just the the absolute urgency for these little guys to get away from these huge females as quickly as possible as a much more stark but yeah, it's it's an it's an interesting technique, like like take it, take my seat, and then run away. Take my seat, don't eat me. That's all the sad existence, like here you go, here's my arm, just gonna go. Had I go here, take my love, be the mother of my children.

By I want to inspire that kind of intimidation that that is a that is a that is a boss girl. Wait, boss queen, what is it? Boss boss bas boss boss queen. Yes, queen, eat eat as mails you go their little snacks, little snacks exactly, that's that's right. And then just put their put their sperm arm in your pocket, exactly, collects me sperm arms as you can, because your boss. That I also I'm super jealous of the idea of like, yeah, I'm just gonna hang onto this for a later time,

you know. Now it's not a great time for me, right right, Yeah, Like on the road. I'm gonna want these planning like down really good, just like you know you have like a little cupboard full of like this one was from Gary. I don't know about Gary. Oh this one's from Larry. I did like Larry. I could pick the eat. I don't know they are. Yeah, yeah, they got their own little sperm banks. Yeah they got

a sperm library. Just check out, check out a book whenever you want, pour it over your eggs and there you go. You got kids. Oh god, what a convenient system for the ladies and a terrifying existence for exactly. I do love the convenience of it all. So now I want to talk about I'm sorry to say it, Bridget, but it's slugs times. So I have done I have done you a huge favor, and I have made the photo of the slugs I'm going to talk about really tiny, so you can choose to zoom in on that if

you want. That is way too kind, but I appreciate I appreciate it. When I say tiny, I made it like like a cinameter squared wide. So Bridget doesn't have delok at this unless she wants to. It is so you are such a gracious house well, these are banana slugs. And I think even for people who aren't normally grossed out by slugs, these are some intimidating slugs. Yeah they're there. I know these because, yeah, they're the ones. I'm like, yeah, these are the gross ones. These are the ones that

made me afraid. Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I bring them up because we talked about, like with the argonau octopus, how they detach their leg and throw it at the female by choice. Well, sometimes penis isn't meant to be detachable, but animals jail break those wieners and attach them anyways. Of course they're monsters. Yes, let me tell you the ballad of the banana slugs and their unfortunate romantic existence. And sometimes they listen. Okay,

sometimes they do chew a wiener off. But let me before you judge, let me tell you all about the noble banana slug. So, banana slugs are large, gooey yellow terrestrial slugs. They are according to some people, it's objective. There are three species of banana slugs that live in North America, so some of my fellow North Americans may have had the privilege of seeing them in person um, are you one of those people, Bridget? Have you seen a banana slug in person? I have, and I was

physically twitching for like an hour. Where was this? I was camping around Big Sir. Of course that's northern Yeah, that's where that's where they are. Yeah, I love Big Sir, but I don't really like it was beautiful and then I saw that and the trip is ruined. Well, so they do grow up to be around ten inches long, or they can grow up to ten inches long, which is about twenty five cimeters, and they can live up

to seven years. They're I don't know why backroased me out that they can be old because they can remember you, Bridget, come back there, they'll remember you. But yeah, they I mean they're their lives bean ranges from one to seven years. But yeah, they can look pretty long for it for dank slug. And here's here's some cool banana slug facts. They need to keep their skin moist to stay healthy and to help them breathe via gas exchange. So they have a nice thick layer of mucus that they can

even create a cocoon out of. So they can bury themselves in soil or leaves and remain dormant until their environment is acceptable moist. Oh god, everything makes it worse. Well, maybe this fact will cheer you up, all right, No, I'm lying it won't. Actually, if you try, if you try to eat a banana slug, your mouth will fill with expanding slime and your tongue will go numb. So

let me explain. You may have heard, I don't know, if you live in an area where it's like um there, I've heard that people dare each other to lick banana slugs. And I remember I was at sixth grade camp and we had a camp counselor was like, do not lick banana slugs. And if someone if someone dares you to lick a banana slug, don't do it because it will your mouth will fill with goo and it will just like froth up into like this big, these big thick

sheets of goo. And I thought she was kind of just telling tall tales, but no, turns out she was right. And the reason this happens is their mucus is made out of mucin granules. These are little teeny tiny microscopic granules that expand when they come into contact with water. So if you look a banana slug. These granules will expand in your saliva like tiny microscopic bits of select or mucus rice and fill your mouth with slug pudding. Yeah, I hate that term. I hate that term so much.

I'm sorry. It's all right. My shoulders are at my ears for a bridget I'm really sorry. I did not plan to torture you with this episode. Was just like, oh, I should have bridget on and I'm like, just have a lot of slugs in it. Yeah, no, you're doing your job. I don't blame you. The slugs are always

the animator. Yeah, well maybe this this is some some solace if you put a banana slug in your mouth, is that your tongue won't feel the slime because your tongue will go numb because their their mucus contains an anesthetic agent. And that is another reason though, animals don't really want to eat these guys, because like, if you are a predator and your mouth is now full of sliming, your tongue is numb, that is not going to be a good experience. Oh God, I hate him. I don't

like them. I Also, there's not enough money in the world. Uh, if I was at your camp to like a slug, there is not not even a lot, not even a little kiss, just to see if they're prints and disguise. I had a nightmare about slugs coming out of my mouth. I was very young, and I think about it maybe once a week. There's a a Japanese comic artist, Genie Eto, who does these horror comics, and he has one where like,

these slugs come out of this girl's mouth. So I don't know why I'm telling you that, but hey, you're not the only one who has that fear. Yeah, no, I that's a good horror. That's yeah, that's a good horror. So you can't. You can't kiss a banana slug. But what do what do hours banana slugs do? I bet you were wondering that bridget, But you're wondering how banana slugs romance each other and you want to hear about it. Yeah,

I guess, so that's why I'm here. So banana slugs, like all slugs, are hermaphrodites, and they carry both male and female organs, So that tongue numbing, expanding slime horror also contains pheromones to attract a mate. So once a pair of slugs meet up, they will both exchange sperm with each other, kind of like how you know you meet up, Like we both like you meet someone, you both exchange your phone numbers and stuff, except it's sperm because they, you know, they both have both male and

female reproductive organs. But they can't like self fertilize, They have to find someone else, so they just exchange stuff like here, you take some of my sperm, I'll take some of your sperm. We'll see which one works out exactly number maybe slightly. Yes. But here's here's a problem, which is that once in a while they get a

little tangled up with with their wieners. And so if if a penis gets stuck in the female reproductive tract, the penis must somehow be removed so they won't be locked together forever, because that is a commitment that goes a little too far for these banana slugs. They're like, hey, cool, we'll meet up. We'll exchange your sperm, but I do not want to be tied to your wiener forever. Sorry. Wait, so it always gets stuck? No, no, no, just occasionally,

just occasionally. God, that would be a poorly designed animal. Though I'm sure it happens. I'm sure I'm gonna find an animal like that isn't like how I mean? This might not be a question. You know, how common of an occurrence? Is this enough that it has been noted by researchers. I don't know what that means. I don't think it happens all the time, but it happens with enough regularity that we have observed it and documented it. Okay, yes,

enough enough, that's right. It happens enough once, I feel like would be enough. But once this is too many, maybe I would go as far as to say, yeah. So usually it is the recipient of the weener who does the chewing off, though sometimes the owner will chew off its own weener in desperation to escape, like a wolf chewing off its own paw to escape trap. You

see what happens. The problem is the female genitals have these like muscles that like hold onto the male genitals, and sometimes those muscles just work too good and it locks on there and then they get stuck together and they're like, well, somebody's gonna lose a wiener and it's not gonna be me. Oh, they're too strong for their own good. Yeah. I mean. The one nice thing though, is because they are hermaphrodites and they have both male and female genitals. It's like there's not it's not just

like one. They all run this risk, right, it feels sort of equitable. I guess it did. It's not one sided, right, exactly, Like they understand what they're getting into. Someone must get their penis bitted. Yeah, they probably don't understand that because they're not very smart. They've got like kind of tiny brains. But you know what, maybe that's a blessing. Maybe maybe it's good not to have self awareness in that situation. Yea, yeah, in that situation you kind of just want instinct. Yeah.

And then one one last fact to just kind of like with this fact simmer in there. Once the penis has been successfully a hundred and twenty seven hours off, they typically the one who received the penis will eat it as a fun snack because wasted waste, not want not is what I say. Oh my god, monsters, they're monsters. Well, nothing to convince me otherwise. Well, I mean, but are we the real monsters, bridget because we don't. Yeah, No, I'm gonna go ahead and and and and not yes,

and you here right, we are not the monsters. That's actually probably fair. You know, Uh, this sounds horrible, Yeah, it's well, you know, I mean, look, look, it's easy to judge when you're not covered in numbing, numbing slime and getting your wieners stuck in another person. You know,

it's easy to judge. Yeah, I guess, I guess I have not been have not been lucky enough to be in this situation from our law deposition, as a species that don't regularly chew off each other's wieners like you know, it's it's just it's easy for us to judge, That's all I'm gonna say, High and Mighty Throne. Why aren't all living animals hermaphroditic? That is, it seems like the safest way to ensure the continuation of the species is

giving everyone both sets of reproductive equipment. Right. Well, to answer this question, first, let's talk about how different sex is evolved in the first place. Sexual reproduction evolved over one point two billion years ago in early eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotes are all organism with a nucleus enclosed into membrane within the cell. Where eukaryotes. Worms are eukaryotes, plants are eukaryotes,

mushrooms are eukaryotes. So early eukaryotic cells developed sexual reproduction, the exchange of two gamets, each containing a set of chromosomes that combined to form a new organism with two sets of chromosomes. Sexual reproduction has been the preferred choice of reproduction amongst eukaryotes, including most species of plants, animal, and fungi. This maybe because sexual reproduction protects species from major bad mutations by having two different sets of chromosomes.

So most plants are actually hermaphroditic, well, just a few have two distinct sexes. Meanwhile, most animals are dioecious, meaning individuals generally have either male or female organs. One theory is that it's costly to have both sexual organs as their major energy costs. Producing sperm and gest dating eggs both cost resources, so if you're doing both at the same time, you may be burning the candle from both ends,

so to speak. When we return, we're going to talk about another lovely little sliming hermaphroditic critter who has no problem burning that candle from end to end to end to end. While we sometimes consider mating to be a private affair, that's a very limited perspective. Not all species are so inhibited. Some species of frogs gather in huge mating mobs that can become so hectic and cramped that

individuals get smothered to death. In fact, a species of Amazonian frog called Ranilla proboscidia is so highly competitive during mating they forego the whole till death do you part bit, and males will actually harvest eggs from dead females to attempt to fertilize them. Other species of frogs have understandably shied away from these mass mating events by finding or even constructing their own private mating pools so they and

their partners can mate in peace. See hairs, on the other hand, have figured out a way to have very organized, but still very public making spectacles. Okay, so, Bridget, I do want to talk about another sluggish animal. It's not I'm hoping this one, won't. I actually hope you kind of like this one. Maybe not, we'll see. Let's let's let's just go, let's go on this journey together. Let's find out. Yeah, have you you know, generally about like sea slugs. Right, Oh yeah, those those still bother me

quite as much. Good good, good good. So let's talk about sea hairs. So sea hairs are actually distantly related to banana slugs, and they both belong to the clade Heterobranchia, which contains snails and slugs both on land and aquatic. Uh. They are yeah, like I said, they are a type of sea slug. And actually on the show, we have talked about the sea bunny before, which is a related animal, and they sea hair. I don't think it's quite as adorable as the sea bunny. Bridget actually got to show

you a sea bunny. This is, yeah, if necessary, because that just sounds cute. It's very cute. I'm going to show you. Yeah, that's pretty cute. I can't hate that. I can't, can't. So this is so sea bunnies, like we've talked about before our new to Brinks, and they look like little cotton balls with bunny ears and a bunny tail. And that little cotton tail is actually their lungs that they breathe through. So they breathe through their toshi,

which is amazing and wonderful. They're one of my favorite, one of my favorite animals the sea bunny and sea hairs, aren't they. I don't think they have quite the same cuteness factor. If you google sea hair you'll see what I'm talking about. Yeah, because bunny. So they're called a sea hair because the rhino floors, which are those like little fleshy antenna on top of their head, look a little bit like rabbit ears. And those those ears don't

really hear anything. They actually smell and taste the water, and they There are many species of sea hair, and they are found all over the world's oceans, in coastal waters where there's dense vegetation for them to eat, and they range in color and size. I think most of them look like weird little dumplings. I guess with with with bunny ears and they um So. The largest sea hair is the California black sea hair, which grows up to thirty inches long and thirty one pounds. So that's

in fourteen ms. That's insane. Yeah, it's that's a little Maybe that's a little too much for me. That's that might be a little too much sea hair for me, even Yeah, that's a big that's a big s that's a big sack. Of goo exactly. So another species of California sea hair is the A flies Ya californica. I think, yeah, it flies Jah Californica, which eats red algae and consequently

has a pinkish reddish hue. And not only that, but it can like actually ink at predators like a squid or an octopus, and it inks purple, purpleish pinkish ink in this big plume. So if you scroll down, you actually can see this, and I think it's rather pretty that. Okay, the ink is cool. The fact that it looks like it's coming out of it's open back I don't love,

but the ink is cool. Right, So what what Bridge is looking at is this this sea here, and you know how like um, you know how like certain dumplings they have, like you you it's sort of a semi circle and then the top of it you kind of like pinch the edges of the dumplings. So there's like these like flaps on the top. Imagine that. But it's got a tail and it's also got ahead with like a little weird head face tentacles. Yeah. Yeah, it's those like flaps are actually kind of wing like of it.

So the back isn't like split open. Those are just those are just like wings that are kind of like resting on top of its back. But it it is odd. It is an odd shaped animal. Yeah, thinking of that as a thirty pound thing, yes, that's all that much. Don't love it? Um. I think that it's that's its max weight, so that that's at least we know it

doesn't get more than that. Yeah, But that that purple ink that its views out is really interesting because it has an ink gland along its back that releases that that plum of magenta colored ink, and it also can release a sort of white colored ink which is made out of opaline, which is a component found in opal, which is distasteful to predators. So that's it's really cool.

It's like there, you know, like that the color festivals where you throw around like colorful chalk or something, right, or like I guess people are doing it now with like baby showers or baby gender revealing. Yeah, let's let's

stick with the color runs because the other one is stupid. Yeah, yeah, where they like I've actually heard like with the So so what I'm talking about is at these gender revealed parties, which I could launch into a whole thing of like I don't know different about that, but that's a different podcast. But like they will fire off I guess like colored powder where like you, I'm not actually I'm not a pyrotechnician,

so I don't know how this works. But you like it's like a little like smoke bomb, but then it's sprays either like pink or blue. But then sometimes, like these smoke bombs explode, so it's actually kind of dangerous. So maybe don't do it always, except unless you're hired pyrotechnic people. I don't know. But if you if you do have a if you do want to have a pink plume, and you have an un nderwater gender revealed party, you could bother a sea hair. Yeah, just get a

big stick. And now that I say that all out loud, all of those words combined, I don't like them. So don't do that. Get all your friends scuba licenses right right. If you're gonna do something as silly as a gender revealed party, you should at least do at scuba diving. But but but don't bully a sea hair. I take that back. I do not fully see hairs come ups. Don't have gender revealed parties. Don't bully puffer fish. This has been this has been like an after school special

show about all the things. Just this is my new brand. It's just lecturing my listeners on which animals you shouldn't bully. Hint, it's all of them. Just let them be, Just let them be. So sea hairs have parapodia, and that those are those like weird fleshy ribbons you see that run along it's back, and they actually can use them like wings, so they like swim sort of like like and flash them like wings. They fly in the ocean. I think

it's pretty. I think it's pretty. Although I guess if you think about like a flying terrestrial slug, that often does seem yeah, it's not a great idea. But like they're terrestrial slug cousins. They are also hermaphrodites, so meaning that they have female and male reproductive organs. But they are a bit less misanthropic when it comes to mating than the sea slug because they hold these big old sea hair swinger parties where they formed long mating chains.

Which yeah, so because they have both female and male genitalia, they can basically link up like one long sex congo line and d D. So the first in the line acts only as a female, the second in line mounts her as a male. And then I'm to say, I'm gonna use I'm going to say they because again female and male genitalia. I don't think obviously these are these are animal sex as gender doesn't apply to these guys.

But for just for clarity, So so the first one acts as a female, the second one acts as both a female and a male, so on and so on, and then the last in the chain only acts as a male. And then that's because you see how how that works, right, Like you you mount the first one, and then your second in line, so you're also getting getting mounted, and then the third one is mounting the second one, and so on and so forth, and you just get a big, long, long, fun congo sex chain. Yeah.

I feel like the slug at the front and back. They're getting the run to the deal. Everybody else, you know, yeah, gets to do both have both times. Yeah. I mean, actually, if you're thinking about it in terms of I'm not sure, I'm not hard to person sure of this, but if you're think about it in terms of evolutionary cost, I would say the one in the front gets the most raw deal because laying eggs is costly, and if you can pass on your genetic material without having to lay eggs,

that's cool. So the one in the back is getting the best deal because potentially doesn't have to lay eggs. But I'm not sure, like they may like, I don't know, if they only engage in like one sex chain, they could do a bunch of sex chains, in which case everybody gets a turn swap sex teckically exactly, when they do lay eggs, they lay millions of them in long spaghetti like strands. And that's cool. That is cool. Uh, gross, but cool? What a weird form of like spaghetti cavia,

you know, being being awfully judge. I think it's beautiful, these sex sex calmed congo lines and then they make makes eggs spaghetti that turns into babies. Be the circle of life, fascinating, the literal circle of life. It's up to interpretation, Yes, yes, exactly, how do you feel about it? Look, it's the it's it's the majesty of love making amongst sea slugs. And I personally I think it's great. I think it's beautiful. I was like in middle school and

everyone was finding out about like grinding dancing. Uh. At bar Mitzva's people would everyone would line up and it would be like boy girl boy girl in like a long chain of teenage dry humping and that's what But wow, yeah, that is kind of that is pretty similar. Again, what do you like do you think like the person at the front of the grind grindline, like, is that like a raw deal? Like that seems kind of like awkward.

You're just like you're like the only because it seems like but then you're like the face of the grindline and that seems like weird that you have to kind of like if you're at the head of the grind line, then like it's you're like the head of the grind line, and that's like a lot of visibility and culpability that I wouldn't really want. I wouldn't write like are you are you the captain of the hump line? And I don't want to be like, yeah, it's me the captain

of the line. That was for the more confident, the more confident among us. Yeah, yeah, not me. No, I would want to be somewhere in the middle. I would say, like somewhere well within the middle of the grind or maybe like back middle sort of, and so that like nobody can see me being here in the grind line.

And also like I'm not a good enough to answer to have set the rhythm for an entire chain right right, or maybe I don't know, maybe maybe back of maybe back of the grind line, because then I can leave to go the bathroom whenever I want, because like being stuck in the middle of the grind line, Like what if you have to get the bathroom and then you're like stuck in the middle of the grind line and you can't break the grind line. You don't want to

be the one who broke the grind line. You don't want to be the one to ruin the grind line. It only takes one personally. Yeah, this is this is like, this is making me sweat from social anxiety. So I'm sorry. I feel I feel like this is payback for Bridget having to learn about sea slugs, and she's learn about slugs. Is like like here, here, here's some social anxiety for you, Katie. I'm sorry. Yeah, don't appallsize I deserve it. No, this is this is more than this is very fair phobia

into the territory. I think what we could all use at the end of this episode is to talk about big snake sex parties. Right. That's that's that's a good closer. That's a closer if I've ever heard. I like to end on an uplifting note, and that is big snake sex balls. Um. So uh, snakes may seem like unfriendly, but some species get really, really very friendly during mating seasons.

And so let's talk about garter snakes. So garter snakes participate in something that is about as opposite of social distancing as you could possibly get, because sometimes they get they just wind themselves in these big balls of snakes that are all trying trying to mate, and it's great. And so garter snakes are a sort of smaller genus

of snakes. They're typically harmless to humans. If they do have venom, it's very mild and they can't really effectively bite people and inject that venom, so they're they're just sweet little noodles and you don't you don't have to worry about them too much. They come in different colors each species, and they are endemic to North America. So if you are another North American like me. You've probably seen them around. I've seen garter snakes around and there

they could be quite pretty. So the California red sided garter snake is very stunning. It has these red bars on its side and a bright neon blue strip running down its back. Wow, that's cool. That looks like a power Ranger snakes. Yeah, exactly. So some species of garter snakes participate in massive sex parties, you know, just like Power Rangers. That's a fan fic. I read, yep, yep, it's a fan fic. We've all possibly written or read

all of the We're all equally guilty for that. So there's another species of garter snake that lives in Manitoba, Canada, and they are called the red sided garter snakes, and they do massive mob mating where tens of thousands of individuals slithered together in a big, beautiful sex ball that is known scientifically as a mating ball, which I was like, I wrote these notes as like calling it a sex ball,

and like that's crue, that's crass. I should look up the what they actually call it, and it's just called a mating ball. So you know, UM's what it is. It's yeah, there's not too many words. I don't know how more poetically you could put it, you know, I don't know. Spear together, spear pile, yeah, yeah, baby making

pile again doesn't roll off the tongue that well. So, because the mortality rate for garter snakes in the winter is so high, it's kind of difficult if you're just kind of like looking looking in the singles pages to find a female to mate with. So their solution is forming a giant mosh pit that gives everyone a higher chance to mate. And that's great, but it does come at a high price other than just grow gross. Uh. They can also be fatal to males who basically expend

all their energy and resources on sperm. So they like they're they're doing so much mating, and what what happens is like before this mating they actually have, they like aren't really eating at this point, so they are just on this mating frenzy, mating as much as they can without eating. So if you're powering, right, if you're like expending a lot of your your resources on these sperm packets that you're giving to the females, you're you're losing

you're losing a lot of resources real quick. So sometimes it can be fatal for these males. They literally, you know, grind themselves to death. But some male garter snakes have developed an interesting trick. So when mating, garter snakes actually release pheromones, which males and females can seek out to

find each other. And females and males each have their own brand of pheromone, but some tricky males produce both female pheromones and male pheromones and that tricks other males to cuddle with them, which seems like why would you want that? Well, so snakes are, like like other reptiles, cold blooded, meaning that they can't thermoregulate and they have

to sit in the sun to get body heat. And conversely, it's it's not like their blood is always cold, like when they get too warm, they have to get in the shade to regulate that down. So basically they just have to manually regulate their body temperature unlike unlike mammals, So if they want to get some cheap, easy heat, they can trick other males to cuddle with them and get some free warmth. And I don't know, like of all the sort of sneaky strategies like the in nature.

I think getting free cuddles is one of the cutest ones. That is the sweetest ones. It seems like a long way to just get a cuddle with your brow. But I know, right right, like I wish. Yeah, it's so much toxic snake masculinity here, just like you know, just like cutli or bro, you know, and I know, I know that's like right now, we're all self isolating. But if you do happen to be isolating with a bro,

cuddle that bro, you know, cud. We all need cuddles, responsible cuddles, though at this point, responsible consensual cuddles, all right, Yes, only only cuddle the people you're living with, you know, only cuddle the people you've been self isolating with for a few weeks. And also, you know, consensually. My roommate walked by at that moment, and I said that and looked directly at her, and then she left. Well did you try making her an intricate mandola out of sand

or bon? Once we hang up, I'm going to feel this apartment with sand in in Florida, there's actually a different species of snakes, these water snakes that also form do these massive mating balls, and they are so I guess enthusiastic about it that, um the the have you seen this? Like where the I've heard of this? Yeah yeah. Park management actually warns park visitors of the big snake mating balls and like like closes parts of the parks

off so that these snakes can mate in peace. Yes for snake, because I you said the mating ball thing, and I was like, I've heard of this for some reason. And yes, good old Florida we have those mating balls. It's really funny. They're trying to calm people at the same time as like trying to educate them where and so this was a a Facebook post by officials in Florida amidst the snake mating season, and it's they said, quote it appears that they have congregated for mating. They

are non venomous and generally not aggressive. As long as people do not disturb them. Once the eating is over, they should go their separate ways. So please don't panic that the they'll they won't be here in the big sex pile forever. Don't worry. Everyone chill, They're just having their you know, yeah, yeah, I do. I do like the idea though that's so like obviously social distancing rules

don't have to apply to snakes right now. So like as we're all like having to stay home, and I feel like the snakes are gonna be like we have all the time in the world and all the space we want to have big sex parties. So they're just gonna be everywhere, like not caring, not worrying, just taking over with their big snaky sex ball. Do they get stuck? This is a dumb question. It's not a dumb question. Actually, I bet some of them, do you know, I think

not inevitable. I it probably happens, to be honest, I don't know, Like I don't know if like researchers are going like kind of picking through these snake piles and like doing performing autopsies on the dead snakes to see what the cause of death was, whether they were like crushed to death or something. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it probably occasionally happens, Like if you're in the middle of a sex ball, that

could happen. I just keep thinking of I think it's a thirty right the rat king where like a bunch of rats get their tails tied together and yes, yes, oh, I see like you're you're thinking they might get like tied in a knot together. Yeah, but it's the cartoon world I live in in my head. Well rat, well rat can do that? Does happen where rats actually like their tails get tied in and not and they get stuck together like if they're too like too densely populated.

I think that happens. I yeah, I'm sure, you know, maybe it happened of snakes. I do think snakes are unlike rat tails. I think because snakes have much more control over their muscles in their body, probably less likely to get super tangled. But I'm sure they at least get sometimes, like for a little while tangled, because like when they are mating, they do kind of wrap around each other. So it seems inevitable that someone's gonna get

like stuck. It's gonna be like a twister situation where you're words sometimes you know, is this my is this my snake part? Or is this someone else's snake part? And you think it's your tail but someone else's tail? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you just gotta laugh it off, you know what, you know what happens to everyone. Yeah, it's the beast of many many, many, many many many snakes. What they call it? Yep, of course, yep. Yeah, snake balls. What horrible balls, What

a horrible thing to come across. It's like like a big ball of yarn, but may out of snakes. I don't know why park Range even say don't go near that. If I saw a big ball of snakes. Well that's you, though, Bridget I think I need that warning personally, because if I see a big ball of snakes, I'll be like huh. Like I saw a big ball of bees and I went up to this ball of bees and I was like huh. And only as I approached them, as what did I think, like, well, maybe it's not a good

idea to disturb the be ball. But apparently they so they were actually just like searching for a new hive. And bees are actually quite doucile when they are in that state. So I was not in too much. Obviously I didn't go more anything, unlike some Unlike some people, I don't bully random animals. But yeah, I would say, but I did. There there was a moment where I was like, you know, well I do know a lot about bees. I'm not a total be expert, so maybe

I shouldn't approach this be ball. And I would caution other people not to approach random balls of bees either, because you never know. They could be they could be fighting. It could be that they're like chilling and searching for a new hive and they're not particularly aggressive, or they could be plotting something and you don't know it and they're just gonna they're like trying trying to form a megatron of bees and you wouldn't know it until it's

too late. Yeah, you don't want to be near that when that comes up. Nope. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Bridget and suffering through all of the slug parts. Um, I really, but I promised you I did not plan to torch you with this episode. It was all I like, well, it's okay, No, you're very I mean, you were very cut. You're as kind as you could be about it. And I got off easy last time I was on the cute episode. Next time I'll try to have you on it on a

cute one again. Well we'll sort of like go back and forth like horrifying cute, horrifying cute, I didn't have the pupper fish. But yeah, that's true. That's memory. I'll walk away with and the sea bunny and the sea bunny. I think bunny. Sea Bunny really washes down the I finally made peace with a mollusk and that's good. I'll see. That's that's wonderful. That's beautiful. Yeah. Well, so do you

have anything to plug bridget? Uh? Yeah, you can head over to a small beans Patreon or you know, Spotify iTunes and listen to rough Stuff, a podcast that I host where we invite some comedians on and we talked about some embarrassing childhood moments. And then also we're have another podcast, uh called The Casting the Curious where we're reviewing the Fast of the Furious movies. That's great. Yeah, so you can listen to either of those podcasts or both,

preferably on the small bean speeds. Yeah. I was on. I was on rough Stuff and I talked about how when I was when I was a baby, I hate snails sometimes, and that's what I learned about bridgets a huge problem with malls. Yeah, yeah, immediately, yep. Sorry. You can find us on the internet at Creature feature pot on Instagram at creature feet pot on Twitter. That's f e A T, not f e T. That's something very different.

You can hear my Katie thoughts on Twitter at Katie Golden or of course, as always, I am at pro bird rites where I am trying to put the reins of the world into the proper wings, not hands of birds. You know, I think it's about times, about noble cause it is noble cause kids, birds, the birds cost sometimes some of them do. Anyway, Yeah, this is this is a comedy podcast about animals. Thank you guys so much for listening. Really appreciate it. I hope you're all doing

doing all right out there. Um, if you're enjoying the show, uh yeah, like leaving a review and a rating and subscribing and downloading, all those things really help. I know it doesn't is you're you're sitting there with something like that's not gonna that's not gonna help Katie. That's Katie is not going to notice it when I rate it. But I do. I feel it. I actually it's like it feels like a thunderbolt going on through my heart and like somebody rated my podcast. I'm so thankful. It

feels so good. It's like confetti everywhere. I love it and it does actually really help the podcast gets us up in the algorithms and that that helps the podcast continue to be a podcast. Thanks to the Space Colassics for their wonderful song Exolumina Creature features of production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit I heeart radio dot com, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Do you next Wednesday?