Welcome to Creature Future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, and today on the show you Yes, you can be a citizen scientist this spring and summer. There are things to look out for in your own backyards. I am talking about special events that are current, that are happening now or in a few weeks, that you can keep
alert to in your backyard. Well, if you live in North America, in certain locations, but in general, you can be a citizen scientist. That means observing animals and then making reports to various research institutions, to things like eye naturalists, and this actually really helps researchers. So we are gonna be talking about new birds. We're gonna be talking about
incredible broods. We're going to talk about something that was discovered by citizen scientists that sounds like it came out of the horror game Slash TV show The Last of Us Discover This and more as we answer the age old question when is it a good time for your butt to be a fun guy? Joining me today is voice actress, host of the JV Club and a ton of other podcasts. Janet Varney welcome.
Thank you so much. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to laugh when you said can you be a fun guy and win? And so last that giggle.
Laughter is not allowed, not permitted.
This is a very serious.
Very serious.
I'm reaching our contract.
Yeah, it's a very serious science show. No laughter, no fun, everything's really dry. I'm so excited to have you suggested. I really liked your topic suggestion, which is talking about like the kinds of animals that you can find sort of in your own city, in your own backyard. And I really love this concept, and I love the way in which that people like you and me can engage in science. Because I am a science communicator. I'm not
a scientist. I don't do research, but do I take photos of animals and then send them to a naturalist or to researchers who I know are looking for these photos. I don't send them randomly to people who don't know what's going on, but yes I do. And it's really fun, it's really exciting. Like once I snapped a photo of alligator lizards mating, so I sent it to Greg Pauley. He's a herpetologist at the the LA Natural History Museum,
and you know, it's it's amazing. It's it's so cool to be able to interact with scientists and with science and research this way and it's actually really helpful.
Yeah, that's totally awesome. We have in our I live right near Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and there's like a ton of, you know, kind of public facing stuff that you can do to get involved in. One of the things that we do, not just in Griffith Park but in my own neighborhood is Raptor Watch, is you know, keeping your eyes on searchin raptors' nests and reporting back.
I'm gone a lot, so I haven't been able to sign up because the last thing I want to do is like not show up for something that wonderful and important raptor d I don't want to fail rapt duty. But but you're right, the feeling of knowing that, like you're engaging with your environment and you're even helping us better understand our environment and respect it and all that kind of stuff is like the coolest.
Well, so I have exciting news for you because this is something that is actually in your neck of the woods. This is a a new bird just dropped in southern California.
They dropped a new bird.
They they released a new bird. Kind of literally, I'll ex plane. So there is a small bird called swin Hoe's White Eye. It is a little little guy. It's like smaller than a playing card. It's got this cute little tan belly, this chartreuse head, wings and butt, and then this beautiful, vague, glamorous white eyeliner. So it does it is. These are cute little guys and they are killing it with that eyeliner.
They really are. This is this is a this is a hot look. I love it. These I did not really, you know, from just thinking about scale, from looking at the photo initially, I did not realize they were that tiny? Are they? They look sort of goldfinchy, but not is there? Yeah? Is that that? Maybe that's what I because we have with tons of goldfinches, so hopefully I won't mistake, uh, this little guy for a goldfinch and then not not appreciate how special it is.
I mean it's that I think that greeny tinge and that white around the eye is yea yeah, yeah, I've tried before using white eyeliner. I did it, did not work for me.
Oh me, neither.
I think it's like, I mean, you know, I think both of our complexions are you know, easily washed out by say like hey, it's like I'm already very pale. If I add white eye learner to it, it doesn't work. But if our skin was shartruths like this, yeah, I think it would work.
I've never wanted your true skin more or at all, now I do, so.
Yeah.
I love this little critter.
They're very, very pretty, and if you are a bird watcher or backyard birder, or just general bird appreciator in southern California, you may spot them, especially in a tree that has flowers or berries. They often like to sip nectar or eat berries. Even like hunting bird feeders, if you have them, you might catch one of them.
Sort of, that was my next question.
Okay, And they don't have that really long beak that the hummingbird has, so they can't get quite as deep, but they still do have a bit of a beak, and it's a little curb so they can get in there a little bit. You can kind of It's interesting because you can see these nectivorous birds like this one that sip nectar, and you can see the beak it's like kind of long, a little bit pointy, but many
stages away from the hummingbird. But you can see that like maybe evolutionary path of this bird could have been maybe similar to a hummingbird's ancestor, with a shorter beak but still zipping nectar.
Sure, and just because I don't want anyone to worry that you have an expert by any means in any way on the show, I'm happy to represent the most rudimentary of enthusiasts. But so a bird like this, like with a hummingbird, they don't don't they have like a little tongue that was also involved in the beak. But this with this little character, is he or she uh sip with like is a tongue in play or is it mostly beak action?
Okay, yes, yes, that tongue is going to help them sip. It's not not quite as long in fancy as the hummingbird, but that narrow beak a little bit curved and then a little bit of tongue action is going to help them draw up nectar into their beak. Cool and so, but they're unlike hummingbirds, they can also they can diversify, so they can eat berries, which you know, can open and close their mouth pretty easily and snap up a berry.
And so yeah, if you have like a lot of like flowering lush plants in your area, you may spot one of these. But here's the catch. They are not really supposed to be in southern California. They are from East and Southeast Asia, completely across the world. So, Janet, I want you to guess how they might have gotten to southern California.
Well, I'm gonna say, not, Migraine, I'm gonna say brought over to ce commercially, perhaps like seeing that there was some incentive there. It's harder for me to imagine somehow these ending up on like a cargo ship just randomly and like building a nest and hanging out there. So I guess that's my That will be my guess. That is absolutely correct, all right.
These little guys. The thought it's not exactly known, but the leading theory is that they escaped from the pet trade in Orange County, California. And so we actually have another bird, the Chevron parakeep, that also escaped the pet trade, and you can see it all over southern California, but this one is much more recent, So this came around two thousand and six, and they've been in southern California since and six. But recently they're population seems to have
a big boom. There's been many more reported sightings. It seems like they are finding their niche and reproducing quite
a bit. So there's always like, so they are an invasive species, but invasive species can range in terms of how bad they are right in terms of like how much they impact local flora fauna, how they impact the plants, how they impact other birds, other animals, because like they can either directly, you know, safe overfeed on berries or overfeed on plants and then cause damage to native plants, or they can outcompete native birds, other or insects or something.
So there are a lot of factors in terms of how they could have an effect, but so far we don't actually know if they are having a negative effect on the local native plants and animals.
So they are like a kind of the opposite end of the known spectrum at this time than say the feral cat in Australia, which I was just reading about and feeling very bad for the Bilby's.
Yeah, the Bilby's.
So cute in the side, But boy, oh boy, are they cute.
I judge an animal in terms of their cuteness mostly by the nose. The snoop is a very important factor in the cuteness.
I would say, ears and snoop, and this one has both very adorable ears, very adorable snoop.
They did you see the whole thing of like they do the Bilby, the Easter Bilby instead of the Easter bunny because no, yeah, so rabbits are also invasive, also bad for Bilby's and other animals, not because of predation, but because they are competing with them, right and so, and they're bad for the local vegetation and so there they are, just as they're at war with feral cats there at war or with feral rabbits, and so sort of as a branding thing of like, hey, we don't
actually want rabbits here, they did the whole like Easter Bilby, get.
A chant bil so doing that here.
I'm a love that you can get a chocolate Easter Bilby. I don't know how expensive the shipping would be from Australia, but you know, probably a lot worth it. But yeah, so so so far, these little little white eyed birds. Uh, it is unknown what impact they have and in fact it's unknown how big their population is. There's been more reports of sightings. It seems like their population is on
the rise, but researchers need more data. So that is something that people can do from their backyards right or on your walk or whatever. If you see one of these birds and you can look up pictures of the swin Hoe white eye bird, and if you see one of these you can snap a photo or make a report of where you see it. You can go through
like a naturalist is the main one. And so yeah, I mean there's an article called on the Brink of Explosion identifying the source and potential spread of introduced Zosterops white eyes in North America. Also an article in The
LAist by Jacob Margolis that has more information. But yeah, generally, just if you're if you're a bird enthusiast and you see one of these guys and you take a photo or observed just like where it is where you saw it, you can you can actually add a data point to the research that is going on about the spread of these little guys.
There it is, I'm looking at it right now. Okay, So zaster Ops that's that's it sounds like a disease spelling. I know. It's actually his name.
Is the full scientific name is Zosterops simplex, which which make it makes it sound like a.
Mouth sounds like easily. Yeah it really does. Yeah, it really does. Zoster Ops white eyes. I have a really bad cases astro ops white eyes.
No. I know, it's like, oh, I don't want to be around you. I don't want to catch your z aster op white eyes.
It's interesting too, because when you talk about, yeah, when you were talking about the population boom, but also that it if that's relative to getting more engagement from the public.
You know, my first thought was like, gosh, how do you I guess you can look at overall the kind of data that you're getting in from the public to see if there's an increase in general and not just about these birds in particular, because that seems like such a challenge to go yeah, or people just seeing the more for like, what are all the reasons that people are a seeing the more and b reporting the more and is it truly a population boomers or something else
going on that we have to isolate and identify.
You are thinking exactly like a biologist, like a scientist, because that is that is one of the issues with things like this, because if you get a like if you encourage more observations, you're gonna get more observations, and then that might make it look like there's a big population boom, like people are more aware of it, so
they're making observations. But there are ways to like kind of overcome that, right because you maybe you start the clock at the point at which it's like, well, we made had this awareness at this point, so then we
look at the growth from that point onwards. You can also do things like, okay, we made this made you know, all of sort of California or something south southern California reads this newspaper or whatever and has this this thing and then so they're all making these observations and then seeing if you see like a change right like in the observations, like maybe they start more in southern California. Do they move you know, to the north, do they
move to the east? You know? So it's you're absolutely right, it's really important to separate out like, oh, we just have a bunch of new observations. Well is that because people are noticing it more sort of like how you know, we may suddenly get a bunch of diagnoses for, say, like a disease that we've now become more aware of, and it's like, oh, everyone has this now. It's like, well, because now we're aware of it. Same thing with this bird.
I'm so mean to this bird. I keep like comparing it to a disease.
I mean, that's just what's going to happen if you're an invasive species. It's not these guys fault. But I will say side note. When I tucked this into Duc dug O and I looked up Zostrops white I you know how it gives you like a suggestion of what you might be looking for. It was very eager to fill in for me. Zostrops white eyes for sale.
Oh wow, really.
Seems telling, right, I mean, it thinks that that must be what I came onto a search engine for. Yeah, so I find that very interesting.
This is one of the problems with the exotic pet trade. I am you know, I am a big fan of people keeping pets, and I understand that a lot of pets that we can keep are not going to be
native to the region. In which we live, and that's often not a problem, but it can often be a problem, especially for a pet that can easily escape, right, Like there are types of like snakes, birds, you know, rodents like these are pets that can fairly easily escape, and especially animals that have a high fecundity can reproduce fairly quickly.
You know, that can be a big problem. So yeah, I mean, right now, it doesn't seem like maybe they're a problem, but it's also we don't there just hasn't been a lot of research, so there could be problems that this adorable little bird causes. I mean, it's not so c it's so cute. It's not its fault, right, Like they are adorable. They did they didn't choose to be sold in the pet trade, and you know they're
just trying to make it work. But yeah, when we I mean, I think it's funny because like when we think of invasive species, we think of something menacing and you know, like the pythons in Florida, But really it's it can be an adorable little bunny rabbit in Australia or an adorable bird. But yeah, so far we don't know, because like I think the chevron parakeets are relatively benign
in southern California. Yeah, so hopefully this bird will be benign and it'll just be another cute little bird to see. But for instance, in Hawaii, a similar species, a bird not exactly this one, but a similar species, has reaped tavoc there because it out competes from the native birds, and you know, it can cause these these native birds to become endangered, and it's you know, can be really bad.
Well, the smaller the ecosystem and the more like you know, island bound or whatever, I'm sure the higher the chances are that something kind of severe could happen. I mean, it's interesting. I'm like wondering if these guys build their nests, you know, in the same kind of safe areas that like a goldfinch would, because you also wonder, like could a predatory species adapt to I mean, listen, I'm not excited about you know, aphex predators eating these little birds
eggs or eating these little birds. But I also wonder, because there are so many predators in southern California, if you know, there could be some sort of like accidental population control that happens just as those predatory species adapt to having the availability of these little qts that I don't want anyone to eat, but you know, got to keep the system going.
I mean, you could say, uh, the general rule is that the more similar the species behavior is to the other native species, then yeah, the predators are just gonna be like another thing on the menu. Great if it has special adaptations, which I don't. I don't know of any special adaptations that this bird has that would be particularly effective against snakes and other predators in southern California, So I think I think it will just be on the menu with the other birds, but maybe not. You know.
It's another thing is that it is in an environment that is very different from its original home in East and Southeast Asia, where it's very very lush. This sort of kind of semi tropical area California, Southern California is
a desert. But the reason it's able to thrive here is because human beings don't necessarily want to live without flowers and cool plants, and so we plant things that are not native that have lush flowering fruits and or lush flowers and fruits and berries, and so then these birds will join us in the suburbs and urban areas and basically exploit the setup that we have created, this like fake lushness in what is a desert.
Yeah, well, I feel like we've I mean, I'm I feel good yet nervous about these these little Zostrup simplexes.
I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled. I got to tell you, I'm looking at the picture right underneath, very different kind of a look from this other winged creature I'm trying to have. I mean, it's beautiful and a little unsetting, little creepy. We well, maybe a little creepy.
We're going to take a quick break and then we are going to talk about this mystery winged creature that has Janet unsure how to feel.
Perfect.
All right, so we are back and Janet, you have spotted our next little member of the mystery crew of creatures that people should keep an eye out for. And what are you looking at here? How would you describe this interesting little guy?
Okay, where do I start? First of all, I don't know, I mean, again, a biologists, not a zoologist, not a I mean, I just so I'm really trying to get creative here. I'm gonna say the first thing that catches your eye. About this, aside from this creature's eyes, which I'll talk about in just a second, is this really beautiful wing that is mostly transparent, but it has it's almost like I mean, it's almost like a piece like the top part of you know, if you look, I
think about the a quarter of a butterfly wing. If you're sort of thinking about looking straight on at a butterfly, you imagine the upper left or the upper right piece of that. Imagine that that has more transparency like you would maybe imagine from a fly's wing or something. But
it's very but it is very pretty. So there's some white and kind of I mean, is there some kind of gold or yellow coloration, looks like there's a little orange in there, lots of black, kind of like a black lining that creates these little segments of the uh, the wing. And then I want what I want you to do is then I want you to imagine that it's on a tiny catfish. Because it's a body, I
can't see most of its body. I feel like I'm only looking at its sort of head and right past its head, but there's something sort of fish like about it. And then I want you to go ahead and just stick to bright large red orbs on for eyes, and then just throw on some little crab claws for uh, not claws, but the but the legs, crab legs, not their claws, but some little crab legs for it's it's uh, it's so so that it can land, get around and
scuttle around on stuff. That's my that's my best attempt to describe this.
How did I do you have painted a beautiful brain picture?
Uh?
This is the way I would describe it is like if you took a giant fly and mashed it together with like a grasshopper, and then made it look surprised at all.
Yeah, definitely grasshop er. I guess I could have gone that route. I decided to go with a more shocking fish.
Well, it's it is. It is chunky though, it's shiny and chunky, so it does have I can totally see sort of that crustaceany look to it, which is yeah, keep that in mind for later. Stick a little pin on that. So this is a cicada.
A oh, it's just as after all that it's a cicada.
It is a cicada. It's you probably heard it, but have you like seen one up close like this.
I mean I thought I had. I mean, I feel like I've seen cicadas, but I guess I haven't seen or do they all have like bright red bead eyes.
There are different species, but I.
Think the ones in Okay. I mean, I've had one land on me, much to my chagrin, in Arizona, and for sure in Arizona. You know, the thing you're going to see more than the cicadas is the little crispy shells that they leave when they shed their skin, which are very fun too petchy off of of yeah, to kind of crunch into a dust after you pick them up off of off of a nice piece of bark.
But I did not. I mean, I guess if you made me guess, I should have come to Cicada, especially when you gave me the grasshopper hint.
Well, I think, out of context, it's surprising to see cicadas. I always like, I hear their sound and I'm like, I don't know, I'm thinking of some kind of like grasshopper like thing or something, and.
They have a just an evil tiny robot. Yeah, a little old tiny robots a metallic sound.
It does make a very metallic sound shocking. But the reason I bring up cicadas is that if you live in North America, in the Midwest and southeast United States, you are in for a treat that rivals the total eclipse that just happened, because there is going to be a double brewed emergence this spring, so it is gonna be a very special event. So cicadas do emerge every year, right like we have this yearly emergence of cicadas. Their life cycle is essentially, the females will lay eggs into trees.
They cut a little slice into the tree, lay their eggs there. The eggs hatch into nymphs, little tiny babies. They drop down to the ground, burrow under the ground. They can go as far as around two feet under the ground. And then they stay there for at least a year, and then all at once they all come out. The males make this incredibly loud buzzing sound to attract the females. There's a mad dash to get the mating done, to lay the eggs, and then they all die in
a few weeks. So they but this is the thing is life, I know, amazing, right Like, So you spend most of your time as a juvenile, just hanging out underground, sipping on the sap from tree roots. Uh, and then you have like three to six weeks of total madness of just trying to mate as fast as you can, and then you drop dead. Wow.
Yeah, I mean listen, you get you get to some underground, you get some above ground by being in the trees, and you get to drive people crazy with how incredibly loud you are. I mean, this is uh, this is an insect that was linked as a possible cause of I hate to use the term Vana syndrome because I think that I know that that's like very hurtful to the Cuban people who are like, please don't put the name of our city into this thing that you think
is like a sonic weapon. But you know, it's when I've listened to a great podcast about it, actually, which I wish I could remember the name of. It's really good about the that phenomena, and when they first played like that, you know, the whole sort of like misunderstanding which was kind of debunked as like no, no, no, this isn't actually what this was, and it's not even
what the people who had this thought it was. It's just sort of an Uh, it's just an unfortunate like, it's just an unfortunate situation where there happened to be a bunch of really loud cicadas. Yeah that they were like, could this have anything to do with why we're having these symptoms? And it was like, no, it doesn't, and the symptoms still happened. But but the first time I
heard I was like, well that's cicadas. Yeah, like that sound that you know, feels like and it's it's an assault to your ears, cicada.
It's a complete sensory experience.
Bless them.
Well, how do we know that the cicadas aren't in league with the Cuban government to undermine I have nothing?
So a double brood? So double brood? How did that happen? How was there a double set coming?
So this is really this is very interesting. So there are some species that they go through a yearly life cycle. There are others and those are called annual cicadia, sick annual cicadas. There are other cicadas who are periodical cicadas, and they have a life cycle that can range from two years to seventeen years. And so that means that when the nymphs pop out of the trees burrow underground.
They can spend up to seventeen years of their life just waiting underground, sipping on tree root juices, and then at the seventeen year mark, all of them all at once emerge and do the crazy mating just orgy fest for a few weeks. And the double brood is because there is a brood, a thirteen year cyclical sorry, a thirteen year periodical cicada brood, and a seventeen year periodical cicada brood that have a lined so they are emerging at the same time. And this is something that hasn't
happened for two hundred years. So yeah, because it think the just the synchronicity of it, the last time this happened was two hundred years ago. The next time this happened, it's gonna be another like two hundred years, is gonna be in like twenty twenty forty five, so it is. It is really incredible. And so there are going to be anywhere from like billions to potentially like a trillion cicadas just like which seems made up? That does that
seems like too many that are going to emerge. And so if you are near the cicada geddon, which is happening in you know, the nor in the Midwest and southeast United States, you will start to notice holes popping out of the ground. And then you're gonna notice just a deafening cock cacophony of cicadas making an incredible sound. It is not the end times, uh, you are not. You're not about to be raptured. These are cicadas and they will made over the course of a few weeks.
Then they'll die. And yeah, you're gonna find all those like crunchy little shells everywhere. It's uh, they look intimidating sometimes because they're they're pretty big. They're you know, like bigger than my thumb a little bit. But they are totally harmless. They don't want to they don't want to mess with you. They don't want to bite you. They're not like venomous.
They don't want to have sex with you. Again, they do not want to have sex with you.
Not with you, with uh, with anything vaguely cicada shaped yet.
Uh.
So you can celebrate cicada get in by just observing all the cicadas, by enjoying the train quality of like a billion cicadas all screaming.
I wonder if there's going to be more ear plug purchases than in past years. Really in those areas.
I'd be interesting to track. My husband is an economist. I'm going to suggest that to him as a research topic. Like ear plugs and cicadas, is there a connection?
It just doesn't seem possible, Like, and it's the same with crickets. I guess, you know, you just sort of we all take for grant. I mean I think I did as a kid. I feel like I was a fairly curious kid. But you also when you're younger, there are some things that you just kind of take it face value. And I guess I just I hadn't. I didn't spend as much time as maybe I should have thinking about the immense noise that comes from this tiny thing.
Well it's so interesting because well, crickets are you know, they can project for sure, but cicadas are particularly loud. Cicadas are a little bit different, uh from stridulators like crickets, So they do produce sound mechanically, not through like a voice, but they actually have these Instead of just rubbing one body part against another, they have these what are called timbles. They are these like structures, these kind of membraneous structures, you know, like like what's it.
Called like symbol like symbols, Like symbols rhymes with timbles.
It does rhyme with timbles. But you know, like the monkey that slaps the symbols together. These are timbles. So they are connected to muscles. They vibrate them really rapidly. Vibration, yeah, vibration that is very very rapid. And they also have sort of a resonance chamber. Uh and so like basically you know how like you can like wiggle a metal sheet and make a thunder sound. It's like that, but we have a bunch of these little membranes. H if
you actually like, if you like like this. This is what's interesting about cicadas is they kind of have this like mechanical look. If you sort of look at this timble structure, it looks sort of like a bunch of layers of metal together. But these are actually just like these sort of thin membranes. They vibrate and then their
bodies are designed as a resonance chamber. And it's just it's such a rapid force that they can actually produce from this this thing that's relatively small, they can produce a sound that's nearly as loud as like a chainsaw.
I mean that is nuts and so okay. So the little critters that are coming out of the ground that they're male and female, that both in the broods that are coming out, and the females you are, they're just going somewhere too, I mean, are they just kind of like in the trees also they are, and they're just sort of like, yeah, they're looking whoever's yeah, depends on the species.
Some of them like they're both mobile and they're looking for each other, and the males making this sound and the female's going for it. But in so species, it's like the males stay put and then the females have to come to them because the males are lazy, and you know, it's like, well, you have to come over here.
They're like, baby, I'm exhausted, I'm a listen, I'm in a band. If you want to hang out with me, you got to come to my band's shows. I'm too busy. I'm either rehearsing my band, or I'm performing with my band, or I'm traveling with my band. Baby, you want to be with me, come to where the band is. You know what I'm talking about.
Girl, exactly. We've all been through this. We've all had a cicada in our life. But one interesting thing about these is that you would think you'd wonder, like, well, why why do they need seventeen or thirteen years underground? That seems excessive, Like they don't need a lot of time to develop.
A lot of about being a brooding teenager. You never come out of your room. You're two, You dug yourself two feet underground.
Yeah, come on, they are a whold They are a whole teenager by the time they emerge. Yeah, and so no wonders.
They're so horny.
Oh man, I just it's so good. They don't have internet, these cicadas, I know, can you imagine.
Well, some trees talk to trees, tree roots talk to each other. I don't know they can kind they could they could be Yeah, a little internet there.
But yeah, no, I mean the reason for the law, I mean, it's still not exactly known why they do this, but one the leading theory is that it is a way to kind of like create an unpredictability about like when they emerged. The reason that they all emerge at once is fairly straightforward safety in numbers. If you are part of a huge brood, then it is just statistically less likely you get eaten, even though a lot of
you are going to get eaten. But to emerge at such a like weird like periodical thing of like every thirteen years, every seventeen years. There are other broods that
do it at different intervals. That is potentially to make difficult for predators, parasites and other and like pathogens the three piece from adapting to you essentially like if they adapt to your life cycle, like you emerge every year, maybe a pathogen or a predator or a parasite will learn like, hey, they come out every year, and so
I adapt in order to exploit this yearly emergence. But if you're only coming out every thirteen years or seventeen years, this is an irregularity and it's a long period of time. So you may be going beyond the life cycle of a lot of predators, of a lot of things that would exploit you, and so it is harder for them to specifically adapt strategies against you to either exploit you as a parasite or as a predator. That doesn't mean that predators don't eat these. They do. They eat them
a lot of them. But the point is like having like a special adaptation that makes you just a master at a cicada munch or cicada parasitizing, or even like a virus or a pathogen that could adapt to it, like with this like weird interval, like it actually makes them kind of a hard target to adapt to, except for when they're underground, and there are actually things like fungal infections and nematods and things underground that can parasitize
them while they are in that period, which is really interesting.
But you know, is that is that kind of the only thing that can happen to you when you're down there, or can like some sort of burrowing critter find you, just stumble across you and go, hey, I'm a off hand. I can't think of a single one hole. I don't think they.
Oh absolutely yeah no, if they're they can be definitely preyed upon underground by burrowing animals. It's just that it is not as exploited a region as say the surface, right, Like burrowing animals they have to put in work to do their tunnels and so you know the excavation, uh is you can only excavate so much of the ground, and so yeah, they will still be preyed upon, they will still have issues underground, but it is safer than the surface. And is speaking of eating these guys, uh,
they are edible for people. We can eat them and if you I mean, I have never had a cicada, but I have heard that they actually taste fairly good, similar to like say seafood, kind of like the kind of look like crustaceane.
Yeah.
I don't know if that's true, but because I have never tried it. But if you live in one of these areas where there's going to be this mass emergence, check out like your local rest if you're if you're adventurous, if this sounds interesting to you, Sometimes like local restaurants will start offering cickeda meals, so like essentially collect they collect the cicadas, they prepare them, cook them, and you can eat them.
Good source of protein like a cricket, like yeah, absolute protein powder and stuff.
Yeah. Yeah, their meat, they're bug meat.
I think you'd have to char that baby pretty black for me to I need to get like what I taste is the taste of of just like burnt wood needs to be sure, I need a grasshopper.
But Billy, what'd you think? You know what?
I'm sure? I think it was like a chocolate cover grasshopper. So it was one of those things where you're like, oh, you've done everything you can to disguise and and and sort of you know, nullify whatever bug eating experience you're supposed to have, Like I definitely haven't had, like, hey, here's a you know, yeah, here's a baked here's a baked grasshopper.
Nothing a grasshopper, here's a here's a a tart with grasshoppers all lined up like pecans.
Yeah, I exactly.
I I'm not much of an insectivore myself. I want to be, like, I think it would be cool, and I wish I did not have the sort of uh like revulsion towards eating insects that I have, like because it's just like, well, now there's this whole cuisine that I can't have because I have this cultural notion that bugs. Bugs is gross. I'm not supposed to eat them. I've eaten ants the same, and I think I had a
cricket once. But yeah, uh, it's just it's hard for me to get past that, and I wish I could, because hey, you know what, like food's food, and I don't want to be yeah, I don't want to be so picky, but yeah, let me.
Ask you this cool question, and please tell me if we're getting off topic, because you know, I could tasks six hours about almost any subject. But so with something like that, how much of that revulsion. You don't have to know the answer to this, but I'm interested if you have any speculation on it. How much of something like that is, like, because you know, for example, when you when you find that you're afraid of a certain type of creature, and and you know, we you can
have a conversation about that. Most people sort of understand like, well, you know, to have a sort of genetic predisposition towards fearing spiders, or towards fearing rats, or towards fearing snakes. Like there's reasons for those predispositions to exist, and some of them may be happening at the genetic level, like
at the cellular level. I wonder I'm wondering with you know, the sort of revulsion around insects, like had you and I been raised in a similar environment except for our parents, or our small community or our city or our state or whatever embraced eating insects more. Do you think that, you know, we would just completely be fine with it. Do you think that there would be like some level of a version that we couldn't put our finger on? Like, what are your thoughts on that?
I've actually thought about this a lot? This is a great question, Okay. I mean there are absolutely certain versions we have that may be innate in terms of like like things that are like spider shaped, snake shaped. We have sort of this like innate kind of like the reflex, which can be overridden by say learning about them or culturally overridden people because I mean people keep snakes as pets, people keep tarantulas as pets. These kinds of fears can
be overwritten by new information eating insects. It's hard to say whether we have an innate revulsion to insects in terms of a food source. My suspicion is that maybe for some insects we might things that are pests, right that, like, are things that we may see as like unsanitary or pests like parasites. Yeah, perhaps there is grubs exactly exactly and so we we do have an evolutionary history of
being insectivorous. And you know, even even with parasites, right, like you pick mites and ticks and stuff and fleas off of your friend and you eat it. And so in terms of what we do know is there are a lot of human cultures that exist today where insect eating is not taboo, it is not considered gross, and people enjoy eating insects, and so it is clearly something that answer to your question of like, if we had been raised different would we find would we find insects gross to eat?
No?
I don't think so. I think if we had been raised that we eat cicadas, you know, every year in a big cicada eating festival, I think we would not find that gross.
Just I agree with you. It's kind of a bummer if you look a bumer opportunity exactly.
This is how I feel. It's like I want to if I have children, I want to figure out a way to not make them feel grossed out by the concept of eating bugs, you know, just in case, like you know, the meat industry collapses in the future, and you know what, like give them more options. But no, but I mean it's also like bugs are kind of pretty,
and some of them sort of look like candy. I don't know, Like, if I look at a bug, I'm like, that might be kind of fun to eat, But then when I think about eating it with all the little legs and the segments that, I'm like, no, that seems bad. I don't want to do that. But then part of me is like, ah, but I'm curious. Yeah, it's hard to override the the revulsion, but I want to. But yeah,
I think so there's two options. I think one is that we could have an innate aversion to it, but one that is overridden by culture, or we do not have an innate aversion to it. And so depending on your culture, you're even you're either taught in aversion to insects or you are not taught it, And I suspect it's the latter. I don't think we're born with an aversion to eating insects, unless maybe there's a very specific kind of like maybe we're we have an aversion to spiders.
That would make sense, Yeah, but eating any insect I don't know, because like something like what is really the difference between say, like a shrimp and a cricket in terms of like their looks, you know, when I was This is a fun story, but like when I was a and I think I've told it on the show probably like a million times, so sorry for repeating myself. But when I was a toddler, I would eat snails like a baby, like baby toddler, like crawling around kind
of in the yard. I would pick up snails and eat them. And somehow I as an adult, like I am grossed out by snails. But then there's a lot of like right now I'm living in Northern Italy, like escargoes on the menu all the time, and a lot of people like it, and it's like I can't eat it now because I'm grossed out. But when I was a baby, I would eat raw snails out of the garden. So yeah, so I feel like I really do think the the general aversion to all insects, I don't think
that that's innate. I think we learned that maybe there's specific insects that may be, you know, like spiders that we have.
So it just and I know you need to move on, but just to put a button on this and to bring it back around to to like your own backyard
like one's own backyard. One of the things that's been kind of running in the background has we've been talking about this for me is like, when I think about the insects I see in my own yard, if I had to eat one of them, I'm going to take snails off the menu, because I feel like I do have tons of snails and I'm gonna take I'm gonna take like grasshoppers, snails, and crickets off the menu because I feel like I've already been given permission to eat those, right.
I have an idea. I know what I categorically would one hundred percent avoid, and I include spiders and I and I am afraid of spiders, but I've really come a long way. I feel much more friendly with them now. Now. When I am gardening and I pull up a rock and there's a giant wolf spider that, you know, hunkers and sort of proud, just trying not to be seen, I'm like, hey, buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you. Like
that's okay, I'm sorry, I interrupted. Whereas like when I was younger, I would have squealed and run away and not been in the garden. And when I say younger, I mean like twenty I mean like twenty five. I don't mean like I've gotten much better about that. I've gotten much better about ore weavers. Now I can stand right next to them as they're building a web and look at how crazy and scary they look, and really say, wow,
you're working so hard on that. And the chances are fair that this is gonna get broken before you're even done, because someone's gonna walk into it or bird's gonna fly. So, but I definitely don't want to eat them. I do not want to eat spiders. I've decided that I would like some roly pulleys. They can go ahead and roll up into a perfect circle, perfect sphere will fry them up and then they'll just be like these nice little crunchy bits. Yeah, and that feels that feels doable to me.
Like that feels even more doable to me in some cases than like, you know, even just thinking about like crickets or snails, like somehow just because it becomes an like a shape instead of a creature. Yes, if you want to roll yourself up, we could turn them into dippin' dots, like, there are options. We have a cereal we have options for those tiny little roly pulleys, which are also very cute, and I don't mind crawling on me. So I feel
kind of guilty saying that. But I'm and what I know I won't Another thing I know I won't eat is I forget what their actual name. They're like Latin name or their scientific name is, but what we call mustache bugs. I don't need to eat a bug that it has all of those legs, like you were saying, I mean, those are like it's like eating a little brush. It's like eating I mean, I guess. But when I when I was growing up, I thought of a millipede and a centipede as being these sort.
Of how centipede is how I know them.
Okay, So I mean those things they are like. I mean, mustache bug makes a lot of sense because they have this bushy look, like a walking mustache. And the idea of having to get those little hairy legs down is just on a puke.
The mouthfeel on. That can't be good. The interesting thing about the roly pully is those are terrestrial isopods. They are actually, that's right.
They are related to the like fossils.
Yes, they are related to marine isopods. So they are kind of like surf and turf. I guess, all in one, all in one.
Yeah, I feel guilty. I'm sorry, Little roly Poly. Sorry.
Potato bugs are always fine, It's fine. The great thing about the pill bugs is you can just take them with a glass of water. If you don't like the mouthfeel of the crunching, you know, that's me. I mean, I feel like ants is kind of cheating. I've eaten ants. It's they just taste like eating a little graine of pepper.
Yeah, they're very spicy.
They're very spicy. But yeah, I don't like grubs. Grubs isn't something I want to eat. That's the scene in the Lion King has always grossed me out. My gosh, you know it's hard, Like, man, I don't like anything that has like a pop to it, like a like a gusher sort of thing. So spiders. Spider's definitely not I don't you know, like anything where you bite down on it and there's like a pop and like a no, I don't want.
To you got me? Yeah, No, you're so right.
Yes, that's not a situation I want. So it's like, oh, yeah, so what what isn't like that. I don't know. I'm trying to think, oh man, because I was gonna say butterfly, but I feel like their bodies. No, that wouldn't be good. That would not be good. No, I mean I honestly, like, what.
About like a little beetle, Oh, poor beetle.
Little beetle, like if it's really small though, Yeah, I feel like crunchy bugs are better than squishy Yeah, but bugs that pop in your mouth, like that's not like I'm even dressed out like I used to have. I don't like killing spiders once in a while. It's like a kind of a necessity situation, especially like if it's a venomous species. It's like I'm sorry, you know, I gotta I.
Know, I'm not. I'm okay killing and I feel I feel bad about.
It, like I don't want to, but I will do it. And then but the popping sound that they make, like when I hate it, I feel it's like I feel guilty and it's disgusting.
Put in your cicada at earplugs.
Just like please scream in my ears.
And wear a boot with a big, like a really chunky feel, so that you not your foot is experiencing.
No, I hate it. It's like it's like popping, is is it? But it's it's but it's a spider. It's so right. No, it's so with any spider that I do not have to like that is not venomous, I like leave alone, or like like transfer outside or something. Jumping spiders are adorable and I love them, and they can stay in the house because they are really cute.
I've never I don't know what jumping spider you're talking about, but unfortunately, the only most recent jumping spider I had discussed with anyone is like the Huntsman spider in Australia, which sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Oh no, so so jumping really big, Yeah, but you're talking about small.
This is yeah, this is a These are it's not just these are not just spiders that jump. There's a whole range of species of these, these spiders called jumping spiders, and they're tiny and they're cute. And I'm going to find a picture for you actually, because this is very important.
I mean, does it look like just so your average little house spider that's kind of just really small and doing it doing its own thing.
Really like they are. They're like to me, they are actively cute. Let me see if I can find like a good representation of why I find them cute.
I mean, they are not a good sign that you're having to come through multiple photos.
I'm just saying, put one of your best eight feet forward. It's uh, here we go. This one's this is a good one because he's waving.
Oh yeah, give me a wave. I'll take the wave.
Here we go.
You know, I'm sorry, the scope of my whole day feels like it changed.
But think about that pop it's a terrible thing.
Oh yeah, yeah, well that looks like a tarantula kind of kind But they're teen, But those are I don't know if I've seen. I mean, I guess if I haven't seen, I'm gonna have to look. I mean, I show.
You just a photo of what it looks like on something like so you can see, yeah, what it looks like without the close because this is like close up photography. And then this is just what it looks like on someone's hand.
All right, let's have a look at.
This or fingers.
Oh yeah, I mean I'm sure I've seen those little guys. Yeah, those little guys. Yeah, I don't have a problem with those at all. Well, I see those one except yeah, for sure. I mean, can they also like dangle down on via a web or do they just jump? Like do they do you see them floating kind of like on your range top. I'll look and be like, what are you doing?
Most of you doing this aren't really so much gonna do that, Like most of them just kind of walk around. They do produce webs to some extent. Some of them are a little bigger. I actually still find the bigger ones cute, like.
Are they eating gnats and stuff?
Like?
Are they eating?
Like, yeah, they kind of like cut down there.
Quite large. You look like a little fairy kind of you look like a hairy Harry fairy fairy.
But he's got like a little mustache, which is actually just it's petipalps, the little things on its face.
Extremely cute. Yeah, I mean again, you're kind of getting into like something that yeah, sort of cartoonish looking exactly. I like tarantula's and wolf spiders because I like their little their fur, because fur it feels less threatening to me than the hard what's that called precipice, crep escape? What is it?
I look carapace is I think carapace.
But I love I don't need to say a hard yeah, I love that.
Those are great words. Even if I can just.
Get some of the syllables or any of the letters. They don't even have to be an order. Yeah, I don't need that shiny. I mean, boy, if ever there was a that a creature that looked venomous, it's a black widow. I mean, all power to them again, I will kill them. But it's very impressive. How macabre and bo do they?
They're very much they they they as as the kids say, they read the assignment, they read the assignment. But the funny thing about the funny thing now I'm doing the tangent. But the funny thing about the hairs. Like liking the fuzzy spiders, which I agree with, I think they're cute. A lot of these fuzzy spiders have what are called
irridicating hairs. They are actually irritating hairs that are meant to like kind of come out like a lot of tarantulas, Like if you pet them, you can actually kind of get a rash. Because they are meant to be protective parents. It's like yeah, where it's like, don't pet me. Like, but some of them you can actually pet because they're not they're not gonna hurt you. But a lot of tarantulas you pet them and then their hairs like kind of come off, and then now you've got a rash on your whoops.
But thank you. Yeah.
Before before we take a break and move on to the next section, UH, if you want to join sort of these cicada tracker community, you can go to cicadasafari dot org uh and kind of submit the photos or observations you make for cicada Gadden twenty twenty four. I don't know if they're calling it cicada gaeddin. I'm trying to make that happen. I think they even have like an iPhone app. So yeah, cicadasafari dot org and you can you too, can join in on the cicada adventure.
So we are going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're gonna have one more short story about citizen sciences discovering something really weird. All right, right, so we are back. Citizen science does not just occur in the US. It is an international phenomenon. And so in UH, in India, in the Western Ghats, there was a group of herpetology frog enthusiasts just kind of going around making observations, taking photos, and they found a frog with a mushroom growing out of it's But.
Wow, I've I don't know what I would have needed to do to get ready for this. I know I didn't do it, and I'm not ready for it. And I'm looking at a picture and I think I know which thing was a reference to the last of us.
It's this. It's definitely this. Yeah, So, to be a little more honest, it's coming out of its rear flank. I don't know if you can call out it's but I'm gonna I'm gonna say it. But and it's like a literal tiny I'm not talking about a fungal infection like oh, you know athletes. But it's a literal mushroom, little mushroom like a little a white stem and a white little cap. It's a tiny mushroom growing out of this poor, cute, little innocent frog.
Yeah.
Yeah, so, uh, this frog is a h it is called I forgot its name. I wrote it down. The frog is a rouse golden black rows golden backed frog. Actually the full name is like rouse intermediate golden backed frog, which is a mouthful I'm just gonna call it a little cutie. Uh. So it's it is alive, and so it's not like a situation where it's dead and then the mushroom's growing out of its dead body. That wouldn't be as interesting. No, it's alive and it has this tiny,
perfect little mushroom growing out of its rump. These hobbyists, these these herpetology hobbyists like snapped a picture. They didn't capture the frog because they were being respectful. They didn't want to like, you know, mess with the environment at all. They but they they took a couple of pictures and they published their picture in the Journal of Reptiles and
Amphibians and then frog that picture. Even more nature enthusiasts, like my cologists and like mushroom hobbyists like looked at this mushroom like trying to identify will what is the mushroom? You know, what the frog is? What's the mushroom? The most likely candidate that they came up with is the bonnet mushroom, which is a Mycena fungus that typically lives on rotting wood and not It is not known to like be a parasite of frogs. So this is really interesting.
Wow, so what do we what do we do with this?
Right? Like, is this like the start of sort of a last of Us frog apocalypse? I mean probably not right, Like it could just be a fluke somehow. There's this thing where sometimes a it's actually in I don't know if you'd call it my isis when it comes to fungus, But when it comes to say, like like larvae that accidentally become parasites, it's called my assis where it's like, say you get like a fly larvae in your in your gut, and it's like living there. It's not an
obligate parasite. It doesn't need to be a parasite. But then it has found its way inside a yeah, and it's making the best out of a bad situation. That is what I would guess is going on with this this mushroom, like a spore somehow got under this frog's skin or inside of this frog. Yeah, and then it managed to sprout its way out of the frog. But yeah, it's still it's like extreme. Like. The other option could
be that there is a type of fungal infection. There's that fungus it is actually the fungus that the Last of Us game and TV show is based on. It's called ophio cordyceps and that does actually yeah, that does actually infect insects like ants, grasshopper, spiders and then grows out of like it kills them, but then it like grows sprouts out of their body.
One of the all time great reality based yes, like versions of Armageddon.
Yeah, no, I I I appre I very much appreciate the the sort of I mean so I did a whole You can probably look back in the show's history. We did an episode on the Last of Us like mostly I really love it. There was one like one line where it was like they in the show saying like, oh, there's no treatment for fungus, Like we've got antibiotics, but we don't have anything.
Wait what that's not true. It's not true at all. We have anti fungals in any way. Have you heard of athletes heard, Yes, we have. Have you heard of yea?
And even for like brain like fungus, like there are there are fungi you know that can infect the brain. We have treatments for that too, and it's very books. Well yeah, but you know you have to have some kind of dramatic thing going on, I guess. Anyways, so this poor frog, it's got a little mushroom growing on us. But actually we don't know.
Cute frog, it's a cute mushroom. They're both cute.
Maybe they're working together. We don't know. If this frog is upset with this mushroom. Maybe it doesn't even notice it. Maybe they're friends. Who knows. Because, like, frogs can be infected with fungus, but again, similar to athlete's foot, it's not like a whole mushroom, like a whole ass mushroom growing out of the ass of the frog. That's not
like generally how fungal infections work in frogs. It's like a fungal infection and a human, you know, you might see like a film or something on their skin, but it's not going to be like, hey, I'm a mushroom. I'm growing out of this frog. So if you find if you live in Indian and you live in the western guts, and you find a frog with a mushroom growing out of its butt, do take a photo. I mean, if you live anywhere and you find a mushroom growing.
Out of a yeah, frog, fair, fair enough.
Or anywhere out of the frog take a photo, you know, because that might be interesting. Uh, who knows. Maybe this is a one time deal. Maybe it's a new trend, maybe it's a new sort of frog fashion. We'll only know if we all join together to try to find more mushroom frogs.
I mean, it's very interesting. It's interesting in the sense that, of course, like I mean, you were of course you're talking about the idea of you know, something being more incidentally parasitic than being you know, intentionally. So but when I see something like this, like what does jump into my mind is the sort of more I mean, I
guess it's everything that's that spreads seeds through. But like thinking about you know, my dog picking up you know, briers or picking up you know, little thistles and stuff like that, it is intentionally going into his hair so that it can spread to a location that it couldn't get to otherwise. So yeah, it's funny because like obviously this isn't necessarily that, but it does feel like you could, in that way imagine somehow the mushroom.
Is like I'd like to try, you know what I mean, I just think, yeah, dispersal is very important for a lot of sort of immobile organisms, and so in a way, like it's that's what Opeo Cordyceps is doing with the insects.
So one could imagine that this could adapt in order to use the frogs and in a lot of cases like an adaptation maybe sort of, you know, it is like a random thing that can happen, either a random mutation or something that happens, right like maybe originally with the opiod Cordyceps, like a curious ant eats it, you know, they eat these spores and then this starts to happen, and then the the fungus adapts more and more in
order to exploit this situation. So you know, like even if this is an accident, right, it could the course of evolution could make it less and less of an accident. Where this special is like, actually, I've got a pretty sweet deal here growing out of this frog. I got I got free transportation.
Yeah, are you kidding me? Absolutely? And as far as that poor little aunt, listen, we like curiosity. Don't feel like you can't be curious, but maybe just don't eat something in the wild. You can be curious and learn you don't have to learn by eating a fungus you're not sure about spores.
And you just say no. The their program for ants did not work. H Nancy reag Ant was not to not to write on this issue. So wo before we go, we do got to play a little game. It is called the guess who squawk and Mystery animal sound game. Every week I play a mystery animal sound and you the listener, and you the guests, try to guess who is making that sound. The hint last week was this, this bearded fellow is the bell of the ball.
WHOA?
All right? So Janet, whoa?
What happened at the end?
It's an same animal, new sound, same animal.
That was It dropped a sick beat at the end. Yeah, okay, this bearded beauty is the bearded beauty.
This bearded beard fellow is the bearded fellow. Who's to say he's not beautiful? Though?
Okay, so it's so bearded. The thing that is confusing for me is like I'm realizing that I don't know if we use the word beard across like a bunch of difference fauna, or if it because I feel like when I think of beard, I feel like, Okay, well I know that the people talk about bearded lizards. I know people will talk about, like, you know, bearded primates, people talk about, you know, bearded dogs. Have I heard a beard describe? Like, who's is there a bird out
there that's being described as being bearded? I don't know so, but probably, I mean, I guess probably, But beard is funny to imagine with something with a beak, so I guess. So the problem was is that my first inclination when I heard that sound was to go monkey, because I because I heard bearded And immediately it was like, oh, okay, well, you know that's a chitterer chirp that could maybe be a bird and maybe be a monkey. Again as a
total a person who has no idea about anything. Um, then you hit me with the sounds at the end, and now I feel even more confused. That feels like
again I could not know less about animals. The something about the rhythmic nature of that almost felt more like well, it felt like it was coming from the chest or throat somehow, more like the sort of pulse of like right, like it's this kind of explanation of sound more than like up in the front of the mouth or the beak, and I don't know if that again, I'm basically this is not absolutely nothing, but that kind of freaked me out because it was so consistent for so long that
felt like maybe more of a bird sound. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm completely and totally stumped. And it may be none of the things I've mentioned and be a totally different creature, and I have no idea.
You for someone who keeps saying like, oh, I don't know anything about animals, you your ability to zero in on the right questions is very impressive because you.
Are right, this is a bird, okay.
And it is coming from the throat, and you're right that this is a bearded bird. This is the bearded bell bird, so a bell of the ball.
There was even more information packed into that clue than I realized.
Yes, the clues, it's all, mister policeman. I've left all the clues. I don't remember them. But yeah, this is a bird found in South America. It is found in Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago and northern Brazil. It lives in humid forests. They are forgiven there.
You are. Oh my goodness, you really have a beard.
They really have a beard.
You look like you hung it or you hung it around your neck.
It is these are it kind of looks like feathers, but these are not feathers. These are actually wattles. So these are fleshy projections. Wow, coming off of their chin. They are Otherwise you know, they're they're nice looking. They have sort of like a brown head, a white body, and black wings. But it's that beard that is so unique about them.
I have to say, it's clearly wattles. I mean, to me, it doesn't look like feathers. You really can see that. It has the consistency of like almost like rubber. Like yes, if you're tapped against them, they would be like, yeah they Why did they need that for?
That is to track the ladies to be as sexy as possible. They're not. You don't find that, you don't find that handsome.
I love it. I'm just so amazed because it's just one of those times where you know, look, I know we're not supposed to anthropomorphize, and I know that you know, we can't relate everything to humanity, but that being said, it's just so funny that you know, that's a real aesthetic choice, like like like a strap and dude with like a big, great lumberjack beard, you know. I mean that's a look, and that's a look that you know, some people call like the Portland, Oregon look. You know,
also like being bald and having a big beard. Like I have several friends who sort of are rocking that look and they wear it well, and I like them better with beards. I like my friends who have those beards. I like them better with them. And so it's amazing to me. Again, no shade to this bird unless it wants it, which it does because it's a venezuela so it's a lot of green, So some shade as a gift. It's just very funny that it's like, oh, I get it. Yeah,
facial hair looks. Yeah, it's a good look for some people.
You mentioned that it's like not good to anthropomorphize, but I would say it's okay some situations, especially when it comes to birds aesthetic choice, because a lot of these choices are complete, they seem to be pretty subjective and with no real like practical purpose, right like does this model actually do anything? Well, not necessarily. It could just be that the females are like that looks good. I like that as is the call. The call is to
attract the females over and it's very very loud. It's one of the loudest bird calls. Uh. And that is in order to get females to come over from great distances. And then once they get there, he will show off his amazing bird, his amazing beard, his plumage and hope that she is impressed. H And so yeah, I mean it kind of like to kind of like people.
And I have to say too, I mean, as part of that, like you hear that. And I was thinking about that in terms of some of the little froggies in Hawaii, for example, like part of being living inside kind of a jungle environment, it seems like everybody's trying to be louder than everybody else. So it must make everyone so loud because there are so many sounds and calls happening in a really lush landscape like that that no wonder everybody has to play their music a little
bit louder than everybody else, you know. Also, yes, exactly this led me to it also offered me up. There's lots of wonderful pictures of the bearded bell bird, but it also offered me up the three the three wattled bell birds. I don't know if you've seen this. I mean that is an amazing, like sort of Fu Manchu mustache. Yes, and it is very special. Indeed, so I have two new favorite birds there.
Yeah, the bill birds are quite ostentatious. I highly encourage you to explore them all. But yeah, their their facial business is incredible and in diverse and yeah, absolutely they are competing for yes.
No, this maating moment of what she's sitting nearby going yes, yes, more please seek me.
Uh. Yeah, it's it's amazing. Uh. It is very cute and kind of pathetic the way males to suit a lens to you across the females. No kidding, so sorry, So onto the next mister annimal sound the hint is this, Well, I've already given you a hint this episode, so no more hints. All right, you got any guesses?
I mean, based on the hint about the hint, I guess I would say it sounds like it could be. And God, that's an irritating sense between that and the sound of drones in the park when you're just like wanting to have a nice walk you don't want to hear and the sound of a mosquito in your ear. I mean those are there's metallic, Yeah, those metallic, multi
level metallic person distant buzzes. Unfortunately to me, if you wanted to make a horror movie about people going crazy, not unlike you know, the sort of like great, you know, great and good rabid zombie, you know, sort of like oh this is like Raby's it makes it wants to spread by blah blah blah. If there's some incentive to having a sound that makes people want to hurt each other. I mean, I just feel like my temper is so much shortened by being in that noise for a length of time.
I wish you had written bird box because I think you could have made it. There you go, Yeah, you are absolutely correct, so which means I'm going to bleep out just your correct answer so other people can guess. But the people do know, they will know that you are correct, and so you can you have won the prize, which is a thumbs up.
I'm a painful pleaser. Just give me that. Just give me that.
A A plus with a little thunderful. Well it's scratch and sifts you know like a little Oh, you can better bundle of grapes or an orange or something. Man, I love it.
Yeah.
Well, Janet, thank you so much for joining me today.
We're Katie. They can find me, I guess mostly on Instagram. I'm decent on Instagram. Blow please don't DM me. Find me at my website Janetvarney dot com. I never check my dms, but on Instagram, at the JV Club, and you can listen to my podcast on Maximum fund the JV Club. You can also listen to my podcast about Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Cora that I do for Nickelodeon Paramount, which is called Braving the Elements.
And if for some reason you're a true crime buff in addition to being a fan of all things natural and wonderful, you can also find me on Truth and Justice, which is a wrongful convictions podcast.
Amazing.
Yeah, thanks for having me. This was I would do this every day. This is so fun. I love your podcast.
If Janet's voice sounds familiar and you're an Avatar the Last Airbender fan, she is the voice of Cora, and I'm you've done other voices as well. It's I have this thing that happens when, like, you know, I watched a lot of cartoons because I refuse to grow up. And if I hear a voice actor or actress and I'm like, how do I know you? Like, where do I know you from?
Right?
Because your voice is I do the same, yeah, where it's like your voice is a little different from the character your voice because you're you're an actress, you do an actual character. Then it's like, man, where do I know you from?
Yeah? That's well. I always like to say Korra is just kind of stays at a more consistent, less cartoonish level, which is sort of ironic that like the cartoon I'm best known for is just the most kind of cool version of my voice, and then I'm more of a cartoon than she is. So that's kind of how that panned out.
But it's like it's but yeah, the NPR voice, But that's right fantasy, Yes, that's right. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. And if you are enjoying the podcast and you leave a review. I read all of them, every single one. I print them out and I just kind of stack them up and then you know, I you know, like in the movies, where they put a bunch of money and then roll around on it.
For some reason, I do that with reviews. Podcast reviews wonderful and thank you so much for the space cssics for their super awesome song XO. Lumina Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what where have you listened to your favorite shows? I don't I don't judge it. I'm not your mother. I can't tell you what to do. You got to make these decisions for yourself. Fly, baby birds, you fly
on your own. Now it's time. See you next Wednesday.