Creaturekringletimes Holiday Special Part 2

Happy holidays everyone, It's me Katie Golden, your host a many parasites. Today, on the second part of our two part holiday special, we'll be creating our own nondenominational holiday using evolutionary biology to make this magical time of year scientifically accurate. We'll talk the biology of reindeer and the best bacterial filled light show in the world. Happy creature, Grank,

Happy creature, Grank Happy creature. Gre I feel like you're a little pitch either, little pitch, little pitchy joining the note, joining me today to create a new holiday out of spare animal parts. As comedian co host of The Bechtel Cast, screenplay writer of Santa University, Jamie Loft it hello, but a little pitchy, a little pitchy. I appreciate the feedback

and I love just the note. It's good because you know sometimes people are They're like, no, it's not worth it, right right, I'm always looking to improve, are open to constructive criticisms. The holidays need to be harder on your loved ones. And usually, yeah, you have to take a firm hand with your loved ones. You have to call them out when like, say they're wrapping isn't really up to snuff. Oh yeah, I will choose the smallest thing

and go on for hours exactly. And if you are, if they threatened to not invite you back, that's when you know you're really honest. That's when you've done it. That's when you've won. You've got the holidays. You've won the holidays. And it's unwinnable. It is a winnable objective based time of year. Absolutely absolutely so today. I know last time we constructed our own Santa and that is

kind of the first part of creating creature. Kringle Times are nondenominational holiday fun times based in science and evolutionary biology, and we came up with hydro catsa crotal clause, yes, which was very impressive. Right, And if you haven't heard, if you don't fear his name yet, you should probably go back and listen to the first part of this two part holiday special. I just don't repeat it three

times in a row. I would I would recommend no, no, no, especially not like when you're looking in a reflective surface. You could really end up in some hot water. And we don't want a little bit of a pickle. Well, today we're gonna be talking about reindeer and other math magical mystical creatures and a holiday light show worthy of creature Kringle times. So I want to start off just giving giving you the real science facts about reindeer because

they're actually quite interesting. So, reindeer are also known as caribou in North America, and it is the same thing. Actually a lot of people don't know that, myself included. Yes, thank you for your educating. You're very welcome. So reindeer are in fact a species within the deer family, and they are circumpolar. Get your mind out of the gutter, because you know what that means. That means they live

around the North Pole all around the same. I'm gonna say latitude is latitude the one that is like the belt around the globe. Mm hmmm, I would never know. Yes, yes, I'm gonna say no, I think latitude's vertical is okay, like longitude it is. I believe it is, then longitude okay. The point is that they are all found around the land areas along the northern regions such as the Subarctic,

the boreal tundra and mountains of North America, Europe and Siberia. Okay, so they like to they like to chill out around the North Pole. They like it. They like it nice and coal. Yeah. Uh. And normally we talk about tiny deer on the show, like the the the cutie little deers, like the little dick Dicks, the little the little crowd favorite, yes, the crowd pleasers. But these are these are are some big boys and gals, these reindeers. So they do have

some subspecies that are smaller. So the uh, small barred reindeer weighs up to about two hundred pounds and the finish forest subspecies of reindeer way up to five fifty pounds. No, thank you, but it's they're so fluffy. Okay, and that's I guess I take it a big old antlers old. I can see antlers. They're probably antler heavy, right, there's gotta be a hundred pounds right there. I don't know

if they can. That's a good question. When they weighed them, did they counter you know, you like include the antlers or did they like counterbalance the antlers the distribution of weight I think wouldn't help me be less right, Yeah, Like is it n antler and just this tiny inconceivable body bird body? Still that is scarier? Yeah, yeah, that that is even scar It is it is, isn't it?

So all reindeer subspecies these are well suited to cooler climates, and they have been an important source of food and materials for people who have lived in northern polar regions. Uh. And so I want to talk about like some sort of conceptual reindeer myths. So like when you think of like a Santa reindeer, you think of one with like a little like other than Rudolph. Obviously they have the

little black, shiny, bold nose, but they don't have that. Oh. Sorry to be the bearer of science here, but I'm about to pitch a fit. Okay, I would have what very nose fuzzy dog nos Yeah, well, I mean it's not shiny like a dog noose. Like Look, it's big, it's big. They have those big, big nostrils, and it's fuzzy, it's fluffy. Why did they change that? I feel like that's a perfectly cute nose they've got. I know, I

don't know. I think it's a mistake and it's a mistake that will not be repeated in in Creature Kringle Times, which is not after this our nondenominational holiday celebration open to all. Yes, absolutely so they don't have those shiny little noses there. They do. Actually, sometimes their noses do turn red, well not red red, but like sort of soft pink, like like the little pink, little pink. It's it's cute, it's it's nice little blush, a little like

little peach blush. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, it seems like a nice, nice little Uch. What's that horrible makeup company that the billboards bother me looks like that? Yeah, that horrible makeup company. I'm going to quack that out. Probably all the all the models look so wet and what I'm like, that's that's the idea. We want everyone to

look wet, And you're like, why quack cosmetics, everyone's moist. Ever, I feel like like some people will know exactly even with the quack, but like, oh the company or the models wet. Yeah, they'll know, but it's just like quack is there, so we dry them off. But these ones have a nice The reindeer have a nice matt nose blush. It's really good. It's very fetching, and it's actually because of all the capillaries in their nose to keep it

warm in the frigid weather. And reindeer are actually one of the only species of deer where the females have antlers as well as the males. Up a point for feminism, another point for feminine Another talk about the animal kingdom. Women win. They do well technically that not even often. You wouldn't. I don't even know that. I haven't been keeping track, I think, to be honest with you, in the animal kingdom, at some point everyone's going to get

one win and a lot of losses. Yeah. Yeah, So the antlers fall off every year and are replaced with a new growth of antlers. Male reindeer shed their antlers in December, whereas females retain their antlers throughout winter. So news flash, Santa's reindeer not boys. No, No, these are lady reindeer because they have the antlers still. And we know that lady reindeer do not shed their antlers in December, whereas males do. I did not know that. So they're so weak, and so I feel like, so the names

of the reindeer, are they very gendered? I don't remember. So there's Dancer, there's Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and vix and I feel like those could all be Cupid daughter. But I think that they're all pretty gender neutral, but most fictional adaptations assume them male. Yeah, that's I think a problem. It's sort of like a B movie how a lot of the bees are males, and like that would be

I'm sorry, but yeah, they are matriarchy. They have a queen and most of the workers are all female, and they have a few little males that just hang around until they're needed for meeting. I think it's a human problem. There's a new Danny plus movie out called Noel, and they they the way they revise um the sexist Christmas history is they make it seem like it's never occurred to them to have a female Santa, that women were

excluded simply as an overseas Wasn't that? Wasn't that a joke in one of your Santa University things like and everything that happens in Santa University eventually comes true, right because I remember I watched your Your Your animated special of the Santa University, and there's a So Santa University is a university where all Santa's attend and the top Santa wins Santa, but the Santa is killed every year, right,

and an arena Santa is sport if you win. The best case scenario of Santa University is that you get to live for one more year, right, But for most they will die in the year that they attend. I feel like Santa University is very much in touch with like the natural kingdom, Like that is a win. Like exactly in Santa University, there's like a woman Santa, and it's like a woman gal. Santa can also be named Santa,

which I think is really groundbreaking, very groundbreaking breaking. The Santa ceiling breaking, the candy cane ceiling blasting, threat so previously on the part one of our two part holiday special, we did make a news better Santa Hydra cats croto clause. We did a good job. We did a good job.

It was very good, very scientifically accurate, and but we do kind of need to work out iron out some of the details of his relationship with the reindeer, because in this version Santa, the slay and the flying ability, the ability to carry presents, all these things, the immortality has all been kind of bundled. It's a bundle deal into one entity. But the reindeer, I think it's good to keep them and on retainer, on retain. I feel like sort of an entourage. Maybe the reindeer rides Santa

for once. Wow, it's it's a reversal, but you know, but but sometimes you know it's right, the reindeer going to ride Santa exactly exactly. So we've got our team of female reindeer with their antlers riding on top of Santa. What do you think their job is. I don't know that they have a job. I think it maybe for once a joy ride. It may be a joy ride.

I do like that. I like that. I also just like the idea that these reindeer are just drunk on the Noog, on the Hydro, the giant lying parasaur immortal Santa, and they're just a real good time And it's okay because they're not flying, so it's not flying under the influence. It's they are just there to have a good time. They're basically just ubering they are on Santa, right, Okay, yeah,

I like it. Now. Realistically, Santa might want to eat one of these reindeer, but I'm gonna say they're probably too much antlers and too many hoofs, so they're they're probably okay right, probably safe. So yeah, maybe they could even like keep snacks on their their antlers, sort of like little or Durv's little little top oftrophe on their antlers, kind of like a like little cheese and crackers and

canapees and things on their antlers. And whenever hydra cats crotal claws which rolls off the tongue so good gets hungry, they just like shake off some cheese bits from their antlers and and into its giant beak like mam, I like that. I do. People, We've solved the holidays, and they just that they can finally coexist it's like an equitable maybe slightly not equitable. Maybe more of the work

is landing on hydrogen proto clause. But but again, for once, for once, the reindeer get to pass off the rains. I like it, I like it, and then they give it like we actually prefer to be called caribou. Yeah, that's true. I'm sorry. Don't force your festive naming conventions. And that's that's a that's a creature, kringle Pa. When we return, we'll talk about another strange feature of Santa's reindeer, their eyeballs. Flying hooved creatures have been associated with winter

holidays before Christianity. In Nordic mythology, the pagan god Odin wrote a flying eight legged horse named Slate near Sleep Near Yule was the holiday that preceded Christmas, celebrated around winter Solstice on December one. Rather than reindeer, gods and spirits flew around on the wild ride. It was a terrifying but festive experience, as Odin would deliver toys and sweets. Children filled their boots with hate for sleep near to munch on as this opta horse made stops at the

many homes. When Christianity came on the scene. They wanted to ease Pagans into the shift in religions, so they borrowed heavily from mule traditions. Odin was replaced by St. Nicholas, and the eight legged horse god slap Near was replaced by eight reindeer guiding a sleigh. But I think our creature Kringle times needs to be a bit more metal. So let's give reindeer some credit for being terrifying by looking at their magical color changing eyeballs. Love it, Jamie.

Are you ready to see some disembodied reindeer eyeballs? Yes, thank you for checking in. You're welcome there. They look like jewels, don't they. If you I would never have guessed. So wait, that is that's their eyeballs. Well, they're not cut open, they're just removed its eyeball sands. The rest of the reindeer they just have like eyeball minus reindeer. So they just have like Instagram filters for eyes. Like

what is that? So reindeer eyes change from gold to blue from the summer to the winter, so like they go from a summer to a winter. Is that how they see things? Or is it just the how do they see? I will explain all First, I want to ask you, um, are you a summer or winter? Oh? I'm a summer, Okay, I'm I'm actually winter. So that's great.

We could like be one reindeer together because like so like you you wear like gold and such like gold gold like looks good on you, yellows and things and and for me, blues go well with my transparent blue veins. So so this article I read on National Geographic which actually has this picture of these uh disembodied reindeer eyeballs a bit of a warning there, but all included in

the in the episode notes. I do want to do a shout out to the writer Ed Young whose introductory sentences quote when Glenn Jeffrey first took possession of a huge bag full of reindeer eyes, he didn't really want them. That is the science writing that I live for. That is something to be treasured. That's a that's a good hook. I would say sometimes science writing is lacking in a

good hook. That has nailed a big bag full of reindeer eyes, which he didn't really want, Like, I have so many questions, like who gave him this bag of reindeer eyeballs. Why doesn't he want them? Why the change? It was a change of heart or did he never want first place? Did his eyeball heart grow two sizes bigger that the year after Little Cindy Lou who gave him a big old bag reindeer eyeballs. Did he receive news midway through his voyage with these eyeballs that the

eyeballs were no longer needed or superior eyeballs had been found? Right? Like? Are the was? He sort of like it? Was it a Scrooge situation where he had this big bag of eyeballs. He's like, bah humbug, I don't want these eyeballs. He goes to sleep. The three ghosts of eyeballs passed informed him of how cool reindeer eyes are, and then he woke up with a revelation and he shouts out to a small boy, bring me the biggest bag of reindeer eyeballs you can find. Yeah, I think I like to

think that it was that. And then all of the people got eyeballs, and what turned what it turned out happening? Unfortunately, I said, no one wanted eyeballs. And he thought he was being very generous, but he actually terrorized local community. Any one of these realities could be true. Congratulations and and young. That is the best introductory sentence to a science. It's it's inspiring. So the story is that this this

man was a researcher. At the time, he didn't know how special reindeer eyes were, but after studying these eyeballs, they found that they are quite special because they change, like we said, from from gold to blue, gold in the summer, blue in the winter. And it is First, I gotta tell you a little bit about the anatomy of the reindeer eyes. So the tape tongue lucidum is a reflective layer of tissue behind the retina. It's not

just found in reindeer. It's also what makes like cat eyes and other animal eyes glow, like when you do a flash photo and then your cute little kittie like turns into a demon. It's because the light is reflecting off of the tapedum lucid um. That was the devil. Well, they the devil is inside of the cats, but that's not one of the sign stocks. That the coincidence. So it's a reflective layer of tissue. It helps animals see

in dim conditions by reflecting light. So this is the part of the eye that causes that shifting color in the reindeer eyeballs. So what happens is in the winter, reindeer pupils dilate for months on ends so that they can see in the low light conditions of the winter.

And as they do that, this squeezes blood vessels that help drain fluid out of their eyes, so that constant pressure of their pupils being dilated causes temporary glaucoma, and that pressure on the tap to tape tom lucidum changes how densely the fibers are and how light interacts with it, so it squeezes that reflective layer until basically the structure

changes such that it reflects light differently. So with the loose, loose weave of eyeball fibers, they reflect yellow light, and with the tight glaucoma densely packed weave of fibers, they reflect blue light. Reindeer again, reindeer again, and all the stuffs. This is a little bit unrelated, but I would wear one of those reindeer eyeballs around my neck. They're beautiful,

they are. They do. Actually, that's the thing is they do look like a beautiful sort of like a what do they call like a cabo shown with like a little like like paint painted iridescent paint. It's like those little glass bubble things. And you do oh, yes it does, yes, yes, yeah, they are beautiful. I don't it's not humane. No, I just suggested. But I mean I would do if a if a reindeer, an old reindeer willed me, yes, their eyeballs,

I would appreciate it. Just I'm just putting up putting that up there for sure, only if it was like decided in advance, right, you know, as they want to remember me, or if like these scientists with their big old bags of reindeer eyeballs, maybe once to just toss a couple my way. Now I think that maybe this is we were not considering a villainous side to that, and that perhaps the reindeer eyeballs had been stolen a

crimbus time caper. Yeah, a vengeful, a vengeful, vengeful being who wanted to remove Maybe the reindeer had seen too much, you know, you'll ever see anything again energy. I don't know. Maybe it was a vengeful Rudolph. Maybe it was a vengeful Rudolph. Yeah, and how do we even how are you going to laugh at my nose if you can't see it? Exactly? I wanted to talk a little bit about this just reminded me, this change from from gold to blue. That remember that dress that was a meme,

the blue gold dress. Optical illusions. Some people saw blue and black and other people saw gold and white. When did that happen? Fifteen? Yeah, this is a hip hip and Happening podcast, the hip the hip reference. Yeah, no, I mean that with that too, them like it's it's very it's black and blue. I never I could see the other way, And I was curious why why this happened and what actually happened in the meantime after that meme faded away? Is a lot of researchers did research,

psychology researchers and eye researchers. So yeah, I know, right, nerds, get get with the times. That's not the meme now is dripping in in reindeer eyeball jewels. Give me a baby Yoda analysis. Baby Yoda moves, some see a baby Yoda, some see a middle aged Yoda exactly whereas the psychology exactly so. Color constancy is a term for how our brain determines color not just on absolute light values, but

in like based on our environments. So we take into account what we think the relative color is and make adjustments so in different light conditions we can still assess the color of something. So there's been so many studies

on this dumb dress controversy. Brain scans of people looking at the white gold or black blue dress found that those who saw it as white gold were engaged in more interpretive processing, meaning that the areas of the brain responsible for creative interpretation were more active, whereas those seeing it as black and blue, which is the objectively correct answer,

We're used more raw visual data. And it's crazy because like there's just like so much research on this that researches even linked the differences in the dress due to eye anatomy differences, like difference in the structure of eye. Uh. And we're like even within the same person, like in the progression of like a neurological disease like MS, like their interpretation of the dress change, which I think is what I don't understand why they're putting people who have

neural neurological diseases. You're like all right, would you like to look at this dumb dress meme again? I hope that they got paid. Well, that's probably I mean deeply annoying. I'm sure that like they were compensated, but still it's like super annoying. Yeah, leave me, how is that? How is that your your question? I mean, I do I approve of most of these these studies on the dress thing, like that's that's fun, that's good. That like bugging bugging

people with neurological disorders about five year old meme? Growing? Come on, use a fresher meme. Yeah, give it, give me a danker meme. Give me what the Bernie Sanders pastrami meme? What there's the It's like an Elizabeth Warren Bernie Sanders you remember they had them for the last election too, or it was like on the issues and I would say, like on giving a cat a little bit of salami, not pastrami and Elizabeth Warren, I would say cats cannot have a little slammy and Bernie so

I was say cast can have a little salami. I see, it's a fun me. That's cute. It's just all designed to make Bernie Sanders look fun. Really it is fun to give cats a little salammy, just a little like a little tiny microscopic shaving of salami. And it's like, you know, Elizbe's Warren isn't wrong. Cats shouldn't know. They should not know, absolutely not. Sometimes cats can have a little slam. Here's a public service announcement over these creature

kringle times. Resist the urge to fill your pet up with human food to the broom, Resist the urge to just shove as much. I saw my cat. My cat was like drinking soup the other day. I was like, what are you doing. I left and I came back. He was drinking soup. Oh my god, I discussed I had a childhood cat. Or I turned my back and he just got right in the macaroni and cheese. That's right in there, dove right in that. It's fun. Public service announcement to Okay, so first, to the humans, don't

fill your pet with holiday foods and treats. Bad for them. Public service announcement to the pets. Could you could just stop like taking all that ding dang holiday food. It's not for you, but it's so good. Don't put your face in the soup. Don't put your face in the macaroni and cheese. It's not for you, and your owners are suckers. If you look at them, they will give you the food and it's bad for you. Then your

owners are going to look like the bad guy. But it's you know, and you're pressuring them into giving filling them up with mashed potatoes a little salami. If you do your dog have a stalking you know what she does because of my mom. I knew it. My mom is so funny because she's sometimes she disapproves of dogs and clothing. She's like, oh, that's just silly like dogs, and then she's like, I think we should get your

dog pajais. My mom also hates dogs and clothing. But then I dress sunny up like a cowboy, and all of a sudden, no, it's changed. You know the moms. Here's the thing with the moms is they'll sound they'll do the reasonableness, like, you know, the dogs shouldn't be in clothing, which is probably true. But the dogs can wear a little clothe. You can wear a little clothing, and they can have a little stocking. I have a little can't be the same size as yours. No, I

think I have it's got to be Payah. On the first part of this holiday special, we invented a new Santa for Creature Kringle Times, a combination of immortal hydro DNA, the transatlantic flying ability of the giant pterosaur cats a codalists, the ability to remember naughty people of a crow, the belly of a blue whale, and the ability to scream out ho ho ho of the howler monkey. His name is Hydrots Croto Clause, and he brings regurgitated treats to

good boys and girls and destroys the naughty. He flies across the globe accompanied by his terrifying blue eyed female reindeer. And one such rangeer is more terrified ying than the rest. Her name Rudolph, and we'll discover how she might have evolved to have such a brightly glowing red nose. Done Duh Jingle Jingle Jingle. Imagine you're prancing along an enchanted winter wonderland in a snowy forest when you see a beautiful sight, a glowing light show greenish and red creature

Kringle Times lights. They glow and dance and flash, and you frolic over to enjoy the beautiful miraculous lights. There's a big yellow glowing ball dancing so festively. So you skip on over like a little who and who Ville and reach up to touch this big, bright, glowing orb. But as your eyes adjust to the light, you've noticed something shining in the background. Two huge car tire sized eyes and an enormous hungry beak. Merry Kringle times it

boom before snatching up in its glowing tentacles. Jamie, Welcome to the science real of bioluminescence. Oh, I love bio. This is we've done bioluminescence talk about together. In fact, you may hear a familiar friend from last time, what a treat. So. Bioluminescence is the holiday lights of the

natural world that are festive year round. And the reason I bring up this horrible imagination station story is that one of our festive friends examples is the firefly squid, which we will talk about soon, which looks it looks like a holiday light display. It looks very Kringle times. I'm excited to see it. But there. Let's first, I want to give sort of an overview of bioluminescence, because it is a glorious, magical thing that happens in nature.

So bioluminescence is a chemical reaction UH and it could be either produced by the animal itself. It can also be a symbiotic relationship with bacteria, and the bacteria are the ones that produce the bioluminescence. It can also be obtained by eating prey items that contain the ingredients necessary for bioluminescence. In all cases, bioluminescence is a chemical reaction known as chemoluminescence yeah of luciferin and luciferaise or photoprotein.

So Luciferin is a class of small molecules that will emit light when they are oxidized. This reaction is catalyzed by luciferase, which is an enzyme that enables the luciferin to be oxidized, and this chemical reaction creates light. It's a cold light because it doesn't actually produce that much heat, which is probably good for the bioluminescent animals because if you really overheating, overheating cheat pies. So bioluminescence is not

just to attack prey. It actually has a multitude of purposes. So one is propagation, which is so bacteria can bioluminess so that they'll be eaten by editors and inside the predator they breed because they're bacteria and they don't they don't play by your rules, kinky little free exactly. It can be speaking of which, it can be for sexual selection,

attracting a mate with your dongle you're glowing horngus. So it can be, as we've implied earlier, to lure and prey, such as the anglerfish whose bulb contains symbiotic bacteria that glows and lures and little fishies and then they snap them up. It can also be defensive to distract predators. So remember our friend the vampire squid, that little little drama go tough guy uh and they that vampire squid

shoots by luminescent goo to distract predators. Yes, yes, the shiny goo kind of like just like throwing sparkly confetti and then running away, which is kind of how I want to like when I'm confronted, Like if I'm like, hi, what's your name in and someone's like you've already met me, you know me? Why don't you remember my name? I'm like just kidding, And then sparkle confetti and they run away and then like Nature's answer to the Little Men

in Black mind race right exactly exactly. So, as I mentioned earlier, we're going to talk a little bit about the firefly squid getting you a good picture. As you can see in in the regular light, looks like a normal, normal squid, but in the dark it looks like holiday cringle lights. Whoa, it's so beautiful. Oh wow, they're close up. They're just little jewels. They're a little they're like they're you know there, just animal. You know that the what's

it called the Chevy Chase Christmas Special? What second? The National Lampoon Christmas Specially gets the house all covered in lights, just completely covered in lights. But the squid are I haven't seen those. I mean, it's basically all the whole movie is a Chevy Chase. Go no, no Christmas is ruined. So, like I said, it's a squid who looks like Christmas lights exploded onto a squid. And it's it's a little guy. It's about three inches big with many, many points of bioluminescence.

Their native to the oceans along Japan. It's dotted with photophores, which are light producing organs. They flash them to lure and prey, and it also lights up its whole body during mating. Just just a whole light show. I like it. I like it, And like, you know what sex is a performance? It is and I don't I think that little with it? Yeah I would. This is just a little hint. I would like a light show in sort of the courting rituals in my life. That wouldn't that

be incredible? It would be cool? Right if someone someone hangs some you know it hangs a tasteful string of lights to indicate and it's not physically invasive. It's beautiful, right, it's easy to take down exactly. Yeah, I think instead of nagging each other all the time, perhaps just carry

a small string of lights. Right, It's string of lights that you kind of dance around with and then you're like, oh, you have to do like a little okay yeah, right, and then and you kind of you know, or you flash them, like maybe you have like a full body suit like re suit covered in little lights and andy circus like mo cab. Right, and then like when you see someone you're interested in, you flash the lights and if they flash back, it's a match. You're like, that's beautiful.

That's beautiful, and that's a that's a happy black mirror episode. Maybe that's like our creature Kringle times. Uh. Instead of mistletoe, it's covering yourself in tiny led lights and flashing them when you are sexually interested in someone, I think, and assaulting someone exactly, like, oh, you're under the mistletoe. I guess like that hass aggressives, I mean asking for it. Yeah, that's that's sometimes I'm just standing in a doorway. Yeah,

that's you know, that's I think that. Like, you know, it's like, oh, you're under the missiletoe. You want to kiss It's like, no, the party's really full, right, it's full. I'm this. I didn't hang this here. Yeah, I'm I'm deeply in love with someone else. You can only be said to maybe be indicating your preference. If you're wearing an apparatus that is hanging the missiletoe above you at all times, maybe then you are indicating a preference for

being kissed. But I think that even so, you should still ask you all yeah, and and the light the light show still asks. I think you should. I mean, it's best if you it's you still got I mean obviously always got to check in and ask, but I think it does help along that interaction. Like we both we both flashed our our squid suits at each other, so you know, may I kiss you? And then you're like, hey, yeah, I would actually enjoy that because I too flash my

squid suit at you indicating my interest. And I really appreciate your Thank you for checking in right, thanks for respecting me at every step in this festive kissing times. Yeah, see how much better this holiday is? Already exactly the rules. So let's talk about some more bioluminescent creatures. There's the railroad worm, which is the larva of a genus of

beetles that is called frick so thricks. Yep. They are found throughout the America's and they look like a normal caterpillar in day times, but in the dark they look like a train with lights on. Let me get you check out this little buster check them out? Okay, So, as you can see, it looks kind of like normal yellowish caterpillar in the daytime. At night that's party time, it's covered in a little greenish greenish lights. I don't

appreciate that. Nat Geo called it weird and wild. I gets normal and good I mean normalized glow in the dark gown. Yeah, you've got a real good hit with the bagful eyebowls reindeer. But you can't call this weird. This yourself, yeah exactly. So, yes, it glows and it undulates and it's beautiful. And so they are called railroad worms because they kind of look like trains with all the lights on in the cabin as they wriggle around.

And they even have glowing uh they have eleven glowing dots on the sides of their bodies, and they have a red glowing dot on their head, which is very cringle times, I think it is. And the lights warn predators that they are toxic, which again very wish more people did that, Like you know, it's it's polite, it's courtesy.

I imagine how much easier it would be to go through really any area of life toxic people merely marked them a shirt, sort of like how you know dogs wear the little like I'm anxious around other dogs, don't pet me. Emination, Like if we had shirts that was like, I'm a toxic person, trust me, you don't need me, and you ask for references if you want a heads up, like you can. I'm just strongly suggesting against it. I

like it. So the reason that they have the green dots on the side and the red dots in the head is that they actually have different lucifer raise enzymes which will create slightly different chemical reactions which causes different different flavors of light. I like it. Yeah, And then I want to talk about foxfire fungus because it's not just animals that get a claim on bioluminescence. I had a real brain fart moment where it's like, funguses aren't animals,

are they? Well? Oh no, no, I'm scared they're not. No, they're they're actually in kingdom of of fungi, which is separate from the king ms of plants and animals. Okay, there you carry. It's like like animals, but it's just like it's fungus an animal. So I got a little too much of the creature Kringle knog any. So fox fire is also called fairy fire, and it's the light created by bioluminescent fungus, So it's many species of fungus. Does this makes this fox fire? It's just the generic

term for any bioluminescing fungus. Is that why there's a web browser called Firefox. I have no idea. I don't know why I thought you would I have I don't know why you're ambushing me with these questions about browser. Sorry, corner trapping you like Katie Golden doesn't know what hours of research on fungi you want me to talk about Mozilla fire like? Jeez, maybe if I can show you a picture of this, you will leave me alone. I

don't know hard to say. Let's let's give nap you another shot here Redemption arc WHOA, Oh my god, that's so cool. It looks like it looks like a glow in the darkness stick. It looks like a stoner's bedroom. Well, hey, I wasn't a stoner when I was a child, and I plastered that with glow in the dark stars. I meant, I guess an adult stoner's bedroom. I don't expect it in an adults bedroom, That's true, but sometimes I want it. You just find a pet snake and a bunch of

glow in the dark paraphernalia. So the light is created by bioluminescence. It glows greenish blue. The fungus feeds onto kinge wood and it creates its own lucifer aise enzymes. And it's thought that the purpose of this bioluminescence maybe to attract insects to spread spores, or maybe even to deter animals from eating it, because glowing things are often

not something you should eat, but it's tempting. I know when I was a kid, I always wanted to crack open one of those glow sticks and just slurp them up like a go gurt. I feel like we grew up in a very bizarre time for foods that don't

look edible, looking too like the purple catchup exactly. I feel like we were almost it was almost some sinister experiments trained children to want to eat things that don't look at it because it's like, okay, you've got the multicolored goldfish and the purple ketchup and it's like, okay, you're making that fun. I get it. But then it's like, and here's tied pods and glow sticks, but you don't eat those, right. I feel like we were set up to want to eat cut things, and then this generation

is really suffering. And yeah, I used to have learned from our mistakes. I used to have blue margarine in a squeezy bottle. You could just squeeze water as you say it blue margarine on toast. I would yeah, my mom would true, Sorry, I'll stop calling it. I like it. It was like a treat. My mom was like, do your homeworka and I'll give you space toast. Space toast. That doesn't take it better. Anything blue does make it space. Yeah, you can just plue milk blue cheese. They had blue

SpongeBob Macaroniongebob Macaroni. I would get the yellow SpongeBob macaroni, and I actually preferred it, not because I cared too much about SpongeBob, but I liked the texture of the SpongeBob shaped noodles. The shape it allows allows the cheese to flow through them. They were you could breathe through them and a little blow through you SpongeBob dark. Yes, so sometimes this fox fire of the fungus is bright enough to read by, and it was actually used as

an early form of glow in the dark technology. In s It was used to illuminate instruments in the first ever combat submarine, the turt not an intimidating name for a combat submarine. But that's how it sneaks up on you, right, No one expects the turtle blood, right McConnell, that's true that the turtle with a lot of so I brought up by luminescence, first of all because it's wicked cool, but also because for our creature kingle times, I feel like we need to revise Rudolph. Now, clearly Rudolph is

Now wait, does Rudolph have antlers? I guess that's a good question, right, I think I think that Rudolph does have antlers. I think in the in the stop motion special, we don't see Rudolph with antlers or yeah, I think he's just got a little little could So if he doesn't have antlers, I guess he could be a male reindeer. But if he does have antlers in December, then she's

got to be a female reindeer. These absolutely, these absolute pigs making Christmas entertainment don't understand, right, it's a matriarchy, right, so I think. But let's imagine how a real Rudolph would evolve, Like, why would Rudolph have a glowing nose, like an actual glow glow in the dark nose? That it's never the franchise does not attempt to explain it. Yeah, it just is that hydric cats a crotal clause or Q claus could uh could use to to fly by.

So I mean I think, you know, I do think that probably it would be a symbiotic bacteria in that nose, sort of like the angler fish, because they have that little bold that bulb, the little dongle that they used

to lure in prey love. When the bulb is on the dongle and the bulb on the dongle, it glows, and it would be we know, we can get the red biolumin essence from the railroad worm that has that enzyme, So you got you got that that sort of lucifer raise in their produced by bacteria or maybe even just like a bunch of like symbiotic railroad worms. I don't know. And then who's to say, And then but why would

why would this be the case? Like there's got to be a reason for this glowing nose, and don't tell me it was to help Santa. There's always an issue with that because you're like, well, you know, what's the reach? How strong is this luminate? It's like you wouldn't. You wouldn't be reaching beyond a few feet in front of you, right, right, exactly. So I think here's my theory is Rudolph is a predator.

This is the glowing noses, bioluminescence to lure and prey because maybe I mean and it's red like a berry, so it's probably the lure in small winter birds. Sure, maybe a waxwing or something get in there, wants to eat that big bright berry of a nose. It's glowing so they can see it. Really, it's attractive bait, bait, so Rudolph would have giant jaws to snap up. The little Birdie is sort of like an angler, right, is a brutally carnivorous woman, right, which actually fits with our

hydrogen crotal clause, which is also a predator. So you have these two, the team of apex predators. The thing through this guy house Christmas that we're creating a bloom house, Well, it's just like it's like it's a horror movie. It's scary, it's not. You keep using the H word. I keep H and M. Yeah. I don't think that these are monsters. I think if you could learn anything from listening to this show is that horrible creatures aren't monsters. They just are.

They just are We just they just are. We have and I think Creature Kringle Times is about understanding them. So in honor of that, I want to sing a song with you. It's called Rudolph's Violuminescent Nose out to the tune of Nothing. No, no, it's not to the tune of anything because of copyright issues. So this is my own, very own composition. If there's any similarities to any other tune, it's purely coincidental. Yeah, and I'm confident that our singing abilities are not gonna be spot on

enough to infringe in. It's gonna to which is great. You know. I'm sorry for criticizing you for being pitchy because I think legally speaking, legally speaking, it's going to save my key stir Well. There you go. All right, so let's let's do this. Maybe I might put some jingles in the background, but there's not gonna be any means acapella. Acapella do it, let's do Yeah, alright, let's try and a one and a two and a three

nose reindeer had a violina essent no like an angler fish. Yeah, full of symbiotic bacteria whose enzymes catalyze the oxidation of a light emating compound. Come on, somebody, Some would even say it claws like that's quid, Like that's quid. Yeah. All of the other reindeer were frightened of his hunt. Sorry, sorry, her massive teets, lady snabbing up tiny birdies while camouflage the very reee. Then one foggy wait wait, sorry, cring old times creature, your cringle times. There we go. Sorry,

this is a nondenominational holiday. Then one foggy creature cring old times night. So say a hydro catsa cotal claws, rude off with your nose and jaws. Let's go hunt for prey tonight. All of the other reindeer as they cower down in fear. Oh, Rudolf, oh Lord, please serve us for another blood. So, dear God, I'm monster though, Rudolf, Oh Lord please spect wait, oh wait, Dakota, Oh yes, sorry, Rudolf, Oh Lord, please spare us for another blood. So dear,

do you know nice? That's nice, that's great, good for us. Yeah, well, thank you all for joining me on this very special two part holiday special and for Jamie for sticking through it and singing all the songs with me. It's been a true pleasure. You've been integral to creating the lore of Creature Kringle Times. Thank you. We've I think we've done it. We've created a better holiday. I think that we have and I and if you can't hang then, I mean you know, the doors right there. Honestly though,

the door is kind of revolving door. Because back, please come back, please, there's only the two of us here in our Creature Kringle Times. We're having a great time. We're having a great time about so much shallow light up like our body suits. Please don't be alarmed by head trick as at hydrotal clause. Yeah, they're very nice. Yes, Just don't get too close. Just don't get too close to the beak area. Yeah, just stay away from the area. That peripheral isn't great. It's the it's the it's our

creature Kringle Times motto. Stay away from the beak, Stay away from from the beak. You've heard the song. You've heard the song for the stay away from the stay away from the bak. No jingle in the background. The beak is the business and stay away from it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, Join us, Join us, Happy Creature Kringle Times. Trade off your trade, your cheese for your bread and your Creature Kringle Times presence. We've got all the grudge holding crows,

they come, throughs, they come. We've got the ravens who know if you've been naughty, and we'll give you the cold shoulder. You've got glowing squids. It's join us, Join us, Join us. Well, it's been a real treat. Jamie, you've got anything to plug? Yeah, you can just follow me on Twitter at Jamie Loft as help. And I've got a new podcast called My Year in Mensa that's about my year in Mensa that'll be out sometimes this month. Yes, yes,

that's awesome. So Creature Kringle Times, by the way, thank you. Happy Creature Kringle Times to you as well to everyone. Like I said, it's it's a holiday for everyone. Absolutely yes. So you can find us at Creature feature Pod dot com, Creature feature Pot on Instagram, Creature feet Pot on Twitter. That's f E T f E T. That is something very different. I have been your host of Mini parasites.

Katie Golden, I am also the human friend of pro Bird, writes Twitter that explores a universe in which birds are actually the dominant species. Thanks so much for listening, you guys, if you're if you're enjoying the show and you're full of creature Kringle time spirit, and if you'd like to, you know, leave a nice reigning in a review that that really helps subscriptions, super help. It's just but honestly just listening. I super appreciate it. That's it fills me

with Kringle spirit. Thanks to the Space Classics for their super festive song ex Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. See your next Wingle I kind of say jingle times. I don't know, I got Wednesday. See you next Wednesday. Oh they're God, be good you next week. Tell me about a passion.

And since there very very Kringle creature Kringle place, let's see your nixt wingleing