Ear Bleach

cutest studies in science? What's the scientifically proven cutest age for a doggie? Discover this and more as we answer the age old question, yankes what's it like to give birth to a baby porcupine? So some of the cutest scientific experiments are conducted on children. All right, that sounded way more ominous than it really is. Child development studies can be incredibly adorable. Here's one of my favorites. You know how young children think that when they cover their

eyes that they're suddenly invisible. Researchers wanted to see what that kid logic is. If you're blind, everyone else is blind, or if you think that covering your eyes hides the rest of you. Somehow, they tested three and four year olds, gave them goggles that were either blacked out, making them completely blind, or mirrored where they could see out but

nobody could see in. Of the thirty seven children, only seven could grasp the concept of being able to see out of their goggles, while others couldn't see their eyes, and all but one of those seven children thought that meant they were invisible. They even think that if someone else is wearing an eyemask, that person is hidden. It seems that their sense of visibility and presence is dictated by eye contact, meaning that their sense of self and

others is guided by their understanding of visual gaze. Maybe that's why Peekaboo is such a fun game. You're popping in and out of existence like some sort of dark wizard. Joining me today is Bridget Greenberg, host of the show Rough Stuff, producer and all around awesome gal. Thank you. I would also like to add, uh, the cutest guest, the cutest guest, So that's that's why we're doing this

today exactly. Uh. Speaking of the cutest guest, do you have any cute baby stories involving you or embarrassing just embarrass yourself. Um. Yeah, when I was little, Um, my nose is very squishy, like I can bend it all the way, can I? Can you see I'm not going to touch it. Holy yeah, my nose moves. Is it missing cartilage? It's missing cartilage because when I was a baby, I just fell on the face and just didn't didn't break my fault. And I think that stunted um the

bone of my nose like a bons I knows. Yeah, And now I really like movable squishing crazy. I almost doubsked if I could touch it, and then I realized would be inappropriate. No, people do it allow when I told them it does apparently feel weird. I'll take your word for it. You don't have to do it, but yeah you can. You can move that nose right around. Uh so uh oh. In terms of my baby stories, let me think, Um, well, my first word was cookie. Well, no, my first I mean my first word was mom and dad.

Of course mommy and daddy, and then cookie because I knew where my priorities were. Um, and I also thought that age wasn't linear, so I thought that uh uh, I guess as I got older, I would eventually be older than my parents. I thought that as well. Really I thought that not with my parents, but with my younger cousin. I was really afraid because I was a young and it was the first time anyone in my family was younger than me, and I was really worried that I was going to lose that status of being

an older cousin. Finally, right, because she'd catch up to you. Well, one time, this this kid in like kindergarten, was teasing me and was like, well, I'm older than you, so you have to do what I say. So I was like, well, someday I'm gonna be older than you. And she was so confused, and I was so certain that that was the case. You say stuff with confidence, carry that lesson through young Katie Golden. UM. So this kind of reminds

me of another cute child study. UH. There's something known as the scale air study UH that shows that children have a pretty loose understanding of scale. So when they're presented with life size objects like a slide or one of those little toy cars that they ride around in, UM, then they'll play in them normally, but then the scientists present them with miniature versions of those items. So a tiny slide and a tiny toy car, and the kids will try to like get in them or sit on

them just like they were a regular side. So here's a here's a few pictures of that happen. They look like baby giants. I know they're they're like they try to sit on on doll chairs. They try to slide down the slide. Um. So the thinking is that, uh, in their brains, uh, there's like you have these the visual processing center, uh, and it has to combine spatial information with information about an object size. But with a child,

they just can't. They can't get those parts of the brain aren't properly communicating, so they can't really integrate these uh and then understand that foot can't go in tiny car, but they try. They try, They're gonna try. What does

that also equate to like normal sized objects? Like if I put a baby in a driver's seat of the car while they try to pedal it, Yeah, probably I would assume, so good thing they try to like they try to put It's sort of like when kids will try to put on their mommy's shoes and like it's like they don't care that the shoes are big. They'll still put them on and try to walk around, and then they'll try to put on dolls shoes too and see if those fit. Yeah, uh, that makes sense. I did.

I did get my arms stuck in a stair banister. So I feel like it's a same thing. Yes, you're totally normal, Bridget's. It wasn't my head, it was my arms. Well, I mean if it was your head, though, you wouldn't have to worry about like trying to get out with your nose because you could squish your nose. Because yeah, because my nose, you're like you're kind of like a cat where you can like smoosh yourself through. Yeah, I'm liquid like the terminator. Um. Well, speaking of really cute

scale things, we're gonna shift the conversation to baby loggerhead turtles. Turtles. So, uh, there's some sea turtles out there that are wearing tiny swimsuits. No freaking here we go. Here's the picture. Oh it's like a little it's a little one piece swimsuit. Um, like a little rash guard. Yes, exactly. So researchers at the University of Queensland and Australia are providing them with these, uh, these swims it's like, oh, who are you wearing? University

of Queensland and Australia swim week turtles. So they're part of a study that aims to analyze their poopies. Yeah. So the problem is that researchers really want to collect the sea turtle poop, but it's hard because they poop in the ocean and then it just gets dispersed in the water. You can't you can't get that sweet, sweet turtle poop, right right. Uh. So they developed a special

poop tube to collect the poop. But the only way to attach the poop tube to the sea turtle in a noninvasive way is to attach it to a total onesie swimsuit. Um. And so that they called the swimsuits nappies, which I think is Australian for diaper. Um. It's like, well, let's say turtles. Wait, that's not really no, No, you're going there Scottish. Let's um, let's let see I am Australian. I am Australian sea turtles. Where that was almost David, I can't do it. It's it's they all blend together

to me. Um. So the study is an attempt to discover the sea turtles diets, so they can find out where the turtles forage for food. Uh, and how to better protect the turtles from human activity. Uh. So that's a poop tube is a word that like, the sea turtle swimsuits gave me a lot of joy, but poop tube also gave me poop tube sea turtles swim suits,

say the turtles. It sounds like something they would advertise on like Nickelodeon toys, like those commercials baby swimsuit poop tube turtles, Like like teenage mutant like, yeah, baby swimsup. How's the song go baby swimsuit bo turtles? I feel like I'm thinking more of the duck tails. The song poop tube baby turtle was wearing swimsuits. Poop tube. That's adorable. Have you ever wondered what the exact cutest ages for

a dog? All of them? Well, the University of Florida was curious, and they used their grant money to good use. Uh they found out, using science, the exact age at which dogs are at their absolute pinnacle of cuteness. Uh. They had people right, how cute various breeds of dogs were at various ages. Uh. So I want to I want to toss out some numbers for me, give me some, give me some numbers. I'm gonna go. This is hard. I kind of want to give months. I know this

is hard. This feels mean to the dog. I mean it's but this is science, Fridges, this is science. Yeah, I would say like one and a half to two unit unit one and a half to two what years old? Yours? No? No, I'm thinking months and dogs are they're old and useless. But yeah, they've aged out. We're not putting past their prime. Ten months, eight months, uh man, that's definitely not think younger.

Younger like like four months, No, think younger. Is it like two days when they can't open their eyes and they're just like pink that's their peak ugliness. They're just like pink worm face. So the the exact point at which the dog has been perfected is eight weeks old. Weeks. Yes, they're at their absolute cutest. That makes sense because that's also isn't that the earliest you can adopt a dog? Yeah,

so yeah, they're selling them at their height. Well, that's actually and that's a reason that's around the time you can adopt a dog, because dog moms start to kick out the puppies at eight weeks old. Man, they're like Hollywood. Once they're once, they're not enough. Yeah, so when you get a dog, it's like a car. It's only going to depreciate value exactly. That's what I tell my dog every day. It's like, every day you're depreciating. I drove you off the lot and now your resale value is

really bad. Oh you wag your tail, but that's not going to increase your value. That's okay, that's only gonna get work. That's gonna break you keep doing that. That's so uh. Maybe this means that they've co evolved with humans to be absolutely the most adorable at their most vulnerable time when they get kicked out of the den um,

which is one theory um. But what's also interesting to me is that eight weeks is about the time when wolf puppies leave the den and they go to what's known as the rendezvous site where they hang out with other puppies and they're communally taken care of by other adult wolves. So I almost think that maybe it's that this is a natural behavior to like, like, now the dog are the pups are old enough to go out, but instead of a rendezvous site because they're domesticated dogs.

They just get adopted by humans where their rendezvous where they're like rum Springer watch rum Springer like chaperones. I guess they're awkward dog prom wouldn't dog probably so cute? I am throwing a dog from Was there a rumork to grade cuteness or was it just purely like that one. I think there was probably like a like a one to five, like one for the but ugly stupid looking dogs, you know, five for like just prime, beautiful, perfect puppy.

I want to know if, like they if scientists have dialed in cuteness to like this is how big its eyes are compared to it? Yeah, no, I mean they have. I mean part of the reason that we see things as cute, as we'll talk about in a little bit is the baby schema, which is the proportions of baby

faces like big forehead, big eyes, chubby cheeks. Yeah. I figured they must of, and that like Disney Pixar got ahold of that size because I remember specifically when watching Finding Dory and they showed little Dory and she just had these huge eyes like this tiny body, thinking like that's not fair. They figured something out that's gonna and I must felt like there's such increased activity and like the part of the brain that processes cute things that

like you like start like an aneurysm just formed. Yeah, that's I like. Bro. I was like, oh, Disney, this isn't fair. You really just like got to my heart right away. And it hasn't even spoken yet and it's a little high pitched for us. Speaking of Disney, I don't know why they haven't done a movie about sea lions. Oh man, right, those are cute. They are cute. They're cute,

and they're so smart. They they're adorable little sea puppies. Um. And they there's a kind of internet rumor that they roll around in the sand for sun protection, and there's these viral images of these little uh sea lion babies uh and it usually comes with the caption of like, oh, this is natural sunscreen. And I was like, that's interesting. But I never saw any sources. So I was like,

I'm gonna I'm gonna bust this right wide open. Well, I found that these rumors come from an observational study where they actually it's true. This one is not a myth. Uh So this is great news because they do like to roll around in sand, and not only that, they will actually use their little flippers and like tossing on their back. So it's the reality is even cuter than the Internet says it is. Yeah, just flipping sands on

their back, and they do it in hot weather. So it does seem to be some form of you either relief from the sun or sun protection. Man, pigs need to figure that out to be cuter. Like they do roll around in the mud the mud. Isn't that for sun protection too, It's it could be sun protest protection. It can also be too, um uh kind of get mites off of their skin, and like rolling around in dirt is a good way to sort of get get yourself. And like dirt can be a desiccant too, so it

can dry out, writes another Parasites. I thought it was like pick sunscreen. Uh. Well, it's interesting is hippo's uh produce their own sunscreen from their sweat glands. It's like this kind of pink substance. Uh yeah, I want that. Well, I mean if you rub yourself against a hippo, I mean, first of all, you'll die. The hippo will kill you. But at least you won't get a sunburn. Yea, do sea lions get sunburns? Because I want to say that, I mean they do have for so that offers them

some protection. Um. I would imagine that the sun can when any animal could get a sunburn if their skin is in contact with the UV rays. Poor little guy, Like, that's why they're little. That's why they cover themselves and sands and they're like little, they're little churros. They looked like a little like a cinnamon. They're so cute. They're so cute. Um, I bet I know what you're wondering

is how are baby porcupine is born. I would assume without their spikes, I would assume they're like little naked little bige worms. Um. Well, that's an interesting thing because that's sort of how hedgehogs are born. They kind of look like the little pink mice there. They look like little gumballs, and they they kind of have the starts of spikes, but they're not really there yet. They're like soft.

Yeah exactly. Um, but I want you to imagine giving birth to a twelve pound baby covered in quills, because this is the problem posed to porcupines relatively speaking so much. Uh so. In many porcupine species, including the North American porcupine, the porcupines are already born with quills, but they are soft and flexible, so they don't actually pose any risk to the mother. They harden within an hour of being born.

Whoa uh so they will quickly harden into sharp points uh and which so it's a good thing that drys exactly um and uh. These are big babies relative to the porcupine size. So um they're about a foot in length and a pound and weight, which is the equivalent of a pound human mother giving birth to a twelve pound baby. Jesus. Uh that is horrifying. So they're soft

and flexible. So is it like hair essentially like hair like white hair like sort of al dente pasta is suppose okay, probably super al dente extremely But here's a cute thing. They're called porkupets porky pets, the pupine I think I played that online when um, And they're able to cuddle with their mommy's because porcupine underbellies are soft and furry, and they can also flatten the quills that are on their backs so that they prevent um any

kind of unintentional injury. Yeah, because I've seen porcupines walk around and they're not spiky there. I mean, they don't like they're not they don't. They are very furry looking. A lot of their quills are indeed spikes, So if you like get poked, yeah, don't touch it because those are actually sharp. But they are modified hair essentially. Um. So uh. They're also in the case of friendly fire.

They do have some defense mechanisms. So one is that they instinctively know how to pull the quill out of their skin if like they or like if they get stabbed by someone else, just like they're dancing together and they get poked and then they yeah, they they know how to like they deflate the spine by like poking a hole in it, and then they pull out the rest of it. Um. Because like the quills are hollow and so they can like kind of remove some of the I guess it helps them pull it out. That's

so cool. Why can't humans do like control any of our I want to just like drop a fingernail when I need to. Um. They're also their skin contains natural antibiotics that prevent infection. Oh so smart. Yeah, exactly they did that. That's good for them. That's good for them. Um, and there's uh so that's um. That's true of a lot of porcupine species, and like North American porcupines. But I want to talk about the prehensile tailed porcupines, who

are extremely adorable and very unusual porcupines. So they live in Central and South America and they have a long, unspined prehensile tail. Uh so uh there. I'm trying to picture this and I think it means so you'll get to see one in just a minute. Um. So, the young aren't born with quills. Actually, they're born with soft red hair that will eventually harden into sharp black and white quills with age. Cool, so they get like they

get their stripes right, exactly. They're all born redheads, right. They get older and go into an em and stay there even as adults. They're super cute. They have these big, bulbous noses. Um. And their calls sound like baby babbling in a non creepy way. Um. So I have an audio clip. Oh my god, and here he is with his little basket that he's lifted up. As I was gonna say, it sounds like a try hard noise. Oh my god, Oh guy, So that I was assuming those

were try hard noises. Yes, that was. That was a little preinstiled tailed porcupine trying to lift a little basket. Um lifting it with its tail. No, it's its little hand with its little arms, but its tail is. It is preins lift and used to help climb trees. It is. It's such. It looks like a fantasy creature, like a Star Wars fantasy creature. It looks like and it might be this is going to be a deep cut reference. Um Horden, here's a who uh Seth Rogan character in

that movie. Yeah, I didn't well, I'll take your word for it. I didn't see uh yeah, no one did. I watched it on cable about fifty times in the eighth grade. You can see a little nose. It's got a very dumb little nose. It's it's snow is very big in bulbous I wanna it looks like if you poked it it would honk. Yeah, it looks very squishy. Um me and this guy we would get along. Well, I was gonna say, I mean, your nose does not look like that, but but it feels like quality. It

probably has the same textual quality. I'm gonna go live with my porcupine family found your family guys are cut? So why do photos of baby animals make us happy? As we've talked about on the show before, we're hardwired to find the baby schema to be cute. Big forehead, big eyes, chubby cheeks, toddling, fat bodies. The qualities that babies and young children have trigger our cuteness detection and

make us want to take care of them. Studies have found that seeing something cute causes dopamine to get released in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that functions as part of the reward system in the brain. It's one of the main motivational neurotransmitters. In fact, researchers at Heroshima University found that looking at cute things help you concentrate better on tasks, and we can be suckered in by

cuteness too. According to an article by The Daily Herald, researchers have found that people tend to see faces in the front of the car with headlights in the grill, and you can increase the markability of a car by making the features rounder and bigger, like the seven new Volkswagen Beetle, which was designed to look more like a baby's face. Don't worry, We'll be right back with more of that cuteness drug and load you up on dopamine. As we explore some heartwarming stories of animals and humans

getting along. Humanity has been pretty bad to our fellow animals and to our planet, but once in a while we get together and actually do something pretty cool. One way is by building bridges, underpasses, and tunnels for animals to cross dangerous roads. Yeah, I mean, the dangerous roads are are bad in the first place, but creating safe paths for animals to cross can help save animals and

human lives on the roadway. There are many kinds of wildlife crossings, some of which are grassy forests grown right over a bridge to make it more inviting to animals. There are specialized crossings for different animals, like elephant underpasses in Kenya, monkey overpasses in Brazil, and cariboo crossings in Canada. Here are some of the cutest, most unique bridges I've found. Its bridget one of them. Yes, bridget the bridge. That's what they comment, That is what they call you. That's

what I call you. When I was a kid, I was afraid of bridges. Really, I would hide every time we go over them. And I grew up in Florida, where there are a ton of them. Yeah, because you're under mostly underwater, right, mostly underwater. I also thought all bridges were dropper just I see. So you thought it could just move under your feet at any given Yeah. No, there's a moment and fast and the furious to where they jump over a bridge, and that's my biggest fear.

But well, I don't think these bridges will scare you, because here's one. There's a turtle tunnel in Japan that goes under a rail road to save turtles from the railroad. Oh my god, that's so smart. There's a penguin tunnel in New Zealand to prevent penguins from crossing dangerous roads. Oh done, little penguins. Dumb little penguins. One one across the road. You don't want to get in the way

of them, No, you don't. I mean the pain. I'm sure it's like the penguins would be unscathed, but they would, they would cause something the humans would not. Uh. There's a rope bridge over a freeway in Victoria, New South Wales for squirrel gliders. Oh my god, because squirrel gliders they're also related like to the flying squirreld. They can't actually fly, they can only glide. So if they start off that once side of the road and try to glide across with nothing to help them across, they could

just fall right on a truck. But that's why they got the bridge there. So there are tiny tunnels under roadways in New England to save spotted salamanders from getting crushed on their journey to mate. Oh I want like, I mean, I guess obviously animals can communicate, but like had they find out where these are and they just had to like run back and tell everyone. Well, they put the tunnels I think where they find the animals are highly trafficking the and like these highly trafficked areas

for the animals. Although, so there's a Davis toad tunnel. Uh, it's it's in Davis, California. It's to save toads from getting pancaked while traveling to their ancestral wetlands. They even built some like little houses just just for funziesh my god. It's like a fracket. But the problem was the toades were too dumb to use it, so they had to use a light in the tunnel to kind of like give them some incentive to go into the tunnel. But then some of the lights were too hot so they baked.

Oh no, but they fixed it. I'm pretty sure we went too far, too far with our kindness, literally killed them with kindness. Um. So there's also a beat highway in all Slow Norway. Uh, but it's a root filled with flowers on rooftops for bees to survive as they travel in an urban environment. That's nice. It sounds so dangerous. These are great. These are great. We need the beast. As someone who's allergic to be it sounds like a death trap. Yeah, I mean, just don't get down the highway,

then avoid be highway. There's a salmon cannon in Columbia River, eastern Washington. It's to preserve the salmon population who get blocked by dams. So it's literally like these tubes that use some kind of text section eat technology. Um, they just reciphon technology to like like you know, they go into the tube, then they launch them out the other side.

I feel like I've seen this before and I don't know if it's in a cartoon or Yeah, there's real videos of this you could Uh, I'll probably put one in the show notes. You can also google it if you look for a salmon cannon. It's very good. Just imagine it with sound effects of giling. That's a human one of those that sounds fun. That would be fun.

I mean water parks kind of like that. Uh so uh those are Oh and then there's a crab bridge on Christmas Island to protect Christmas Island red crabs during their annual mass migration um where there are just huge amounts of Christmas Island red crabs. If you've ever seen those online, they just like they it's like just it looks like a red tide on land, but it's all crabs. It's all crab. Crabs are mean, don't They're a bit crab Crabby had a lot of runnings with crabs Back

in Florida. I used to have a hermit crab as a pet. It's favorite thing to do would be to crawl up into my armpit. Uh, pinch me in the armpit and not let go for it. Like it was impossible to get it off without ripping the skin because it was just like here I am now in your armpit. This is my place, and it would just latch on. It's like, well this is this is it? You know,

right or die? I'm here now, deal with it. I don't know why I liked it so much, Like maybe it was sweaty or something, and it's like, I don't know, it was humid and that was because, yeah, I mean that's I had a crab that lived by my locker in high school and I had a little hole. But anytime I went by my locker would come out and like, come after me. You'll just have like crabs in your in Florida, I mean yeah, because I like it's you know, the campus is outdoors, so there's also they live in

little holes. So it was pretty common to fall into a crab hole. I've done it. I'm everyone who grew up there. Sea hole I've fallen into. They're just like inland and your locking grass and then your foot will get caught. You fall into a sea hole and that's how you get arn't pit crabs. Yeah, that's that's exactly what happened. But yeah, I would have to like get my books out really quickly because this crab would come and just attack me if I spent too long by

my locker. Ah, that's so funny bridget getting chased by crabs. Yeah, that was my high school bully that just would not leave me alone and I was just trying to get my books and go to class. So here's a real cute, solid bro moment that we've had with animals. Uh. So, researchers at Leaden University in the Netherlands wanted to answer the question on everyone's minds. Uh, do you mind only like to run in a hamster wheel because they're bored and like cages and stuff. Yeah, no, I think about

that constantly. Yeah. So to answer this question, they left Hampson wheels out in nature to see what little animals would do if they would get on there and try it, and guess what they did. They did lots of them. It's fun for them and not just mice. So the wheels were used hundred times over two years by mice, rats, shrews, and even frogs. Frogs, just a little frogs. I don't think frogs would need them. I feel like they would

just jump and then like hit the side. I mean, frogs do have some control over the size of their leaps, but their legs are so long wattle. Yeah, I feel like it would be awkward. I mean, depending on the size of the wheel, right, do have like long limbs. It does seem pretty awkward. But a lot of these animals really loved it because they were repeat customers. You're gonna hang out by the wheel today. It was like

a little park of them, right exactly. That's great. I want to put like a tiny gent like some kind of sort of um like a muscle beach for for for crabs, for crabs, crabs and mice. I was on a set once and there was we were outside and there was like a tiny little field mice just just napping in a tree, and about thirty human adults just stopped the work we were doing to watch this little field micelee. Ah, that is adorable. It was very cute. I'll never forget him. Well, we're gonna go bigger than

field mice. Alright, let's do it. So the Thailand Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital elements love elephants and elements with the two things elemental. Uh. So the it's a hospital in Thailand, uh And they are friends to elephants and they have fitted an artificial leg for Osha, an elephant who lost her front leg after stepping on a landline. Doctor Javocati, I think that's how it's pronounced, and I

apologize if I mean's pronounce it. But he's an orthopedic surgeon who created a massive pros thesis that's the first of its kind that replaced nearly the entire functionality of the elephants front leg stone. Uh so leg stone. So Doctor Javocat, who has continued to develop new prose thesis for Mosha as she grows, says that she salutes him every time he comes to visit hers. Oh my god, I love that they're so smart. And I was wondering, so we clearly can feel empathy for elephants, although we

do mistreat them sometimes. But you know, then there's wonderful humans like the Thailand friends for the Asian Elephant Hospital. I was wondering if it's a mutual, like if elephants can feel empathy for humans? Uh, because they show great empathy towards each other. I think I know this fact. I think I've heard this. Yes, so they showed great social and emotional intelligence. They often rescue their young from water and ditches um and anecdotally there's some evidence that

this empathy can extend to humans. So there's a story of a young elephant in Thailand who was she was friends with a human because she was in uh one of the elephant sanctuaries there, um and so he was part of the Save the Elephant Foundation and he was just like playing around in a river with the elephant and he was fine, he was swimming, he was fine, and he was kind of like yelling out to the elephant because it's his buddy. But she thought he was drowning.

So she ran over just like charged through the water, stood over him, and uh hoisted him out of the water with her trunk. Us. How terrifying of a moment. Like as sweet as that is, I know, because I could go extremely wrong. Um, but they are, I mean, for be such huge animals, they can be surprisingly gentle

and delicate. Uh. There's another story of a bowl elephant, which is not a cute baby elephant like in the previous story, but a huge tasked bowl elephant UM who crashed into a home of a couple living in West Bengal, India, and they claimed that the elephant just smashed in a wall in their home. Uh and it occasionally happens the elephant will break into residences because they're looking for food

and I mean the elephants, that's what they love. And the couple was very concerned because they had a baby in the crib and the wall was falling in above the baby and the elephant, you know, it was just rampaging through the house. And then it stopped when the baby started crying, and it went over to the baby

and started lifting rubble off of the baby. And uh So the couple took the be to the hospital and it had some superficial injuries, but it was The baby was fine, but the elephant like, it's like, oh, whoops, my bad. Hereerhaps I almost crushed a baby. Yeah, yikes. And then that feels like if I'm stoned in public and a child and I'm like, oh, oh no. I definitely like sometimes I'm walking my dog and I like trip over her because she's kind of her movements are unpredictable,

and she kind of darts. She's a little dock, so she like darts in and out and makes like strange movements, and so sometimes just stops like right under my feet and I trip over and I feel like this like huge, classy elephant. And then I'm like, I feel like someone's gonna watch me and think I'm just like kicking my dog for no reason. Um, and I'm just like falling over,

like trying not to hurt the dog. I know, I've made some crazy moves like Ninja moves to avoid stepping on a dog right right, Like You're like, You're like, well, I don't need to protect my head, I need to protect the dog. Yeah. I also love the baby Elephants need to learn how to drink with their trunks. They just do whatever they can their whole face in the water. They also need help crossing rivers and stuff. So that's what's so cute about the baby elephant helping the human

is like, I know what to do here. I got your poddy, just stomping over and the guys like grab. Yeah, that's horrifying but adorable. I got your putty, this huge thing running towards you. Can animals help us become better people? Well duh. When it comes to empathy, certain preferences towards animals can predict higher empathy and tests. A psychology study at the University of Windsor, Ontario found that the preferred

pets of children can predict higher empathy scores. The kids with the highest empathy scores tended to prefer having a pet drum roll prey these birds. Yes, also horses, but we don't care about the dumb horses. I finally feel vindicated. Being pro bird means you're just a better person. Whoa imagine the empathy of kids who want Pegasus as a pet like the ultimate empathetic those kids are. They're not going to be able to do They're just going to care too much. But not to worry dog and cat owners.

Not only can animals help kids be kinder but healthier to pediatrician. Researchers at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland found that babies who grew up with cats or dogs, but especially dogs, were less likely to get sick than pet free homes and had lower risks of allergies. Though the cause of the correlation has not been verified, they theorized that exposure to pet microbes helped boost the immune system. The effects were profound. Babies with a dog in the

family were less likely to develop an ear infection. Maybe dogs saliva should be bottled up and sold as medicine. I'll be right back. I gotta run to the petant office. Okay, guys. So there's a study published in a journal called Advances in Effective and Pleasurable Design by researchers at the Shibora Institute of Technology in Tokyo. The title of the study is quote evaluation of Kawaii feelings caused by stuffed animals to reduce stress. This study may be the most serious

technical study about cuteness that I've ever read. Here's a choice quote from it quote, we have focused our attention on the effective value of kawai as an additional value of industrial products and have been conducting research to analyze their physical attributes systematically. Essentially, they hooked up a participant to an ECG sensor and measured their heart rate while

they looked at or touched the stuffed animal. The paper includes images of the stuffed toys that were brought in by the participants, including a green kitty with big ears and a little bunny holding a heart. They found that heart rate decreased when looking at the stuffed animals and increased when touching them, possibly meaning there's an interesting interaction between being calmed by cute things and feeling excited at petting and booping them. Can you get cardio just by

looking at squeezing a stuffed animal? Probably not, but I'm not going to tell you. Have to live your life you'd like to give your heart a bit of arrest. Here are some of the most adorable animals that you may not have heard of, that you're definitely gonna want to look up images of. Don't worry, I've put the links to all these animals in the show notes, so I can't wait. Have you heard of pause? Oh? Yeah, okay, I spend the majority of my time on the internet

looking up cute animals. So those are the selfie taking animals. Yeah. In Australia, these guys the teddy bears. Just for funsies. I got a couple images here. Oh my god, they're so freaking cute. They look like yes, they look like a teddy bear mixed with a kangaroo mixed with like a mouse. Yeah, yeah, they're and they're super friendly. Yeah. They're about the size of a house cat. They are marsupials.

They're found on islands off the coast of Western Australia, including the famous Rott Nest Island, which it's called rott Nest from the Dutch rat nest. Uh because early explorers mistook them for giant rats. Well, I don't see them resemblance personally. They're dumb and have no souls. If they think these guys are rats, they just look like friendly little Teddy's uh bridgets serving some hot shade on the

Dutch explorers hot take people. Yeah. Uh So they have pouches like kangaroos, and they're young, are called Joey's and they're super slutty. They're very promiscuous. Uh So the islands on which they live are mostly free of predators, so they're remarkably on a rate of humans. And they're very friendly. So they will walk up to you uh and let you take pictures with them, and they're super friendly and unafraid.

But that does not mean you should touch them. Um. First of all, they have been note to bite people, because just because they're friendly doesn't mean they want you playing with them or trying to pick them up. They will bite you and you shouldn't play with them. You can get heavy fines for trying to uh poke around

that they are wild animals. They are wild animals. Uh, you should never feed them human food that can kill them because it can dehydrate them and cause fatal kidney problems if it's you know, like if the salt content is different from their diet, like, they can die. You never feed a wild Yeah, and like any any human food can have aspects of it that could kill them. So don't do it. Just don't do it. But they are perfectly happy to walk up to you and take

a selfie with you, and that's perfectly fine. So if you're polite and you give them some personal space and you don't ruin their diet, like, they will take a selfie like like an actual Instagram influencers. That's how you treat them. You can't Instagram influencers will not eat your garbage food. They will only eat plants. They will take a selfie with you, but they will not let you touch them. They will bite you. They will bite you.

That is true. Uh. So, I also want to talk about another winner of the Cutest Animal Awards, which is dictis Dicticks. You want at pick pick? Oh my god, what that looks like a pokemon? It is a pokemon. Now, it's not Dick Dix live in the southern and Eastern African bush lands. It's one of the smallest ungulates in An ungulut is a hooved animal uh and it is a species of antelope that only grow up to be about a foot tall, twenty inches long and about ten

pounds as adults. Bodies they're named Dick Dix because of the alarm calls they make, which kind of sounds like a squeaky toy. I'm gonna play a little clip of this for you, so freaking cute, like a little bird. I know, it sounds like a squeaky toy that like is kind of losing that squeak a little bit like an old squeaker. You know. I had a toy train when I was a kid that had a little squeaker toy and you would wind it up and it would like like do a little chugg a chugg a thing,

and it had that exact sound. It was like, it's just like a steam engine. A tiny that's so cute. So they have an elongated snoot that helps them from overheating. It's actually called a snout, but I call it an The snow works like a bellows that cools blood that enters the snout area. Another cool fact, females are a bit bigger than males. Nice stick stick burn feminism, lean and ladies. Males have tiny horns. That's not an insult.

They do literally have tiny horns and little tufted mohawks. Oh, little tough right over the somehow, a little punk, little punk tictic to go the man. They also create little roadways that they use when they feel threatened, so a lot of this is true of other prey animals, to like small rodents, where they will actually create pathways in the grass and in the bush that they know they can use that as a clear path away from predators.

So they'll run along these little roadways that they've memorized to evade getting eaten because they're so cute and eatable. Yeah, and they know and they know that they know. They're like, they're gonna be after me, my cuteness in my meat. Their monogamous and they're okay, this is extremely cute. Uh. Males don't really fight from females that often, but when

they do, they charge at each other. They stopped short and they rigorously waggle their heads menacingly, and then they run back and do it again until one of them eventually chickens out. Oh my god, what little scaredy cat. They just they never actually, they don't really have that many physical altercations. It's like a lot of friends. I'm just getting, just getting. It's like, yeah, how my dog plays.

She's like, I'm not that tough. Yeah, my dog. She When I visit my parents house, she likes to chase bunnies, but when she corners a bunny, she runs back towards the house and then makes a big loop and then tries to like chase the bunny again, so like gives the bunny a head start because she has no idea what to do. Like, once she actually corners a bunny, she's like, I, honestly, I never prepared to get this far. So I didn't plan for this. I'm just gonna loop

back around. Well, we'll do this again, We'll try again. Uh So, I'm I don't want to give mammals like all of the credit for bank cute. So we're gonna go under the sea and look at the Dumbo octopus. Oh have you heard of the I Uh So, here's a here's a quick image refresher for you. Aren't these guys like super super deadly. No, you're thinking of the I think you're thinking of the blue ringed us deadly off the coast of Australia. These guys are just cute.

They look like if you they look like if you squeeze them, they would squeeze. Yeah, they they do kind of look like one of those squeezy toys. Uh. So they're actually a species of umbrella octopus known for the webbing between their tentacles that make them look like an umbrella. That's the name. They're called Dumbo because of their big ears, which are not ears, they're just fins that extend from the mantle of the octopus. Uh. And they move around by flat and they're a little so it looks, you

know how like Dumbo flies around using them big years. Uh. That's that's how they do it. But you have a feather that they chase. They're cute and they steer with their tentacles. There they're just like boo boo boo boo boo years and then they steer with their tentacles. Yes. Uh, they're very rare octopus. They live at depths of around ten thousand feet um. They're found worldwide. Uh. Most are

only about nine inches long. Um. They can change their skin color using chromatophor cells, just like other octopuses and other squids. Uh. And they are just the cutest thing. They're so tiny, they are so tiny and cute, look like they have bigger lives. They look like little squashies. Um. So, now I want to change your opinion. You're are you the person who doesn't like moths? Have someone else? That might be someone else? Not a big phantom moths. But

I want to change anyone who dislikes moths. I got I got something to change your mind. Uh So, this is something that has been going around on the internet, and I want to do a little bit of myth busting too. So. Uh if you've ever heard of the Venezuelan poodle moth, may be wondering if this is a real animal. Uh So, there's images of this fluffy white moth who looks like a pokemon. Oh my god. Um looks like it has real human eyes. Um. It has big black eyes, and it's furry and white, and it

it looks extremely fluffy with tufted legs. Yeah I would, I would cuttle it. Yeah I would too. I mean, can you imagine one of those like landing on your hand and you just like pet it, give it like a little like a little teeny tiny I'm not a bug fan. It is a cute bug um. And uh it's sometimes called a hoax, sometimes not. Well, it's not quite a hoax. But there are a lot of myths about this little guy. So first of all, there's an meage that goes around online that is called the Venezuelan

poodle moth, and it is not a real moth. It's actually a felted sculpture made out of wool, so that's not real, but it does look pretty similar to the real poodle. Or it's not really a poodle moth. Um. There's not a known species of Venezuelan poodle moth. It gets this name because there's a photograph of one of these fuzzy moths taken in Venezuela and it looks like a poodle. But this photo is most likely of existing species of moths, so belonging to the R taste genus um.

One candidate for what this moth could be is the R taste crib Burera or crib Aria moth, who looks a lot like the food photographed poodle moth the foodle graphed poodle moth. I like that is a cute guy. It's like wearing a little like Morpheus sunglasses, like a little little sunglasses and little leg warmers. It's actually super eighties, isn't it a furry or seventies? I guess like with

the big furry leg warmers. It's um and it also often gets confused with another species of moth um and it's actually an existing species called the bombyx mori, which is a silkworm moth. And it's actually a domesticated animal. But um, what a weird so it hails from China. It's like the sheep of moths. Uh. It's used in the production of silk, so eat mulberry leaves and produced silk and strands. UH. It's wild ancestor, the Bombyx mandarina UH.

It's found in northern India, northern China, Japan, Korea, and Russia. But it actually doesn't look very similar to the domesticated bombyx mori moth. Uh. The wild species is not pure white. It has pigment um and so the domesticated ones are very fluffy and cute looking um. So they've lost also lost their ability to fly because they don't need to because on these moth farms they just get fed, they don't. They just like, I'm living the life here exactly anywhere. Yeah,

and so they are very cute. They look like fluffy poodles. Um. I like the idea that we ran out of stuff to call animals, so we just call it other animal names. Exactly. I mean poodles, sheeps right exactly. Or you could say that sheep are the bombyx mori moths. Of no, let's not do that. They are sheep moths. So another cool thing is there are these little fluffy moths on the moon. No freaking wait, Chinese researchers and the Lunar Exploration Program

have put these silkworm moths on the moon. They want to see if they can survive in a mini ecosystem of plants. So it's an enclosed microcosm like kind of like a Martian with Matt Damon, but Matt Damon. They're making their own potatoes, poop potatoes, well exactly. So their poop is used to fertilize the plants, and the moths feed on the plants. So they want to see if the plants can phoe to synthesize, and if they can basically create this little little tiny world of moon lunar moths,

moth astronuts, most nuts. I really hope that, like maybe if we destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons, I hope not. I hope not. I would prefer not that. But if it does happen, like maybe they'll continue to survive somehow and like create this whole colony of moon moths and then like it's a new civilization, they will tell our story. They will survive us. So I want to end the show with a news story that actually bridget you brought to my attention. So it's in our new segment. I

want to call birds bounce balls. Yeah, so there's a viral video of a bird bouncing a golf ball on a golf course and looking extremely excited. Um, it's all posted a link to that video in the show notes uh, and it is a Brazilian bird called the sirium. I think maybe I could. I don't know. You're the one that's a tall tall, But I don't have a degree

and bird. I have a degree in psychology, but I studied evolutionary but that's what I meant right right right, Um, yeah, but I don't have a degree in ornithology, which is well, but this would be um, So you have a Twitter account pro bird rights on Twitter, which makes me the biggest expert on birds, the foremost expert again, best animal, most empathetic people love birds. I really wouldn't get set

birds as best. I mean, part of it could be just like you have to be super impetuous to be able to look into the eyes of a bird and see it. So yeah, you can do it. So these birds there, um, they kind of look like more delicate ostriches um. They're smaller than an ostrich their legs are thinner um, and they are carnivores so they will eat eggs.

So the reason it's bouncing this golf ball and looking extremely agitated is that it thinks it's an egg and it keeps trying to crack it open but it doesn't happen. So it's like, what what it's blowing its little bird mind, destructible egg. I looked at this video and just thought it was super stoked that it could bounce a ball. Maybe, I mean, I can't read its mind, but no, your story makes more sense that it was trying to kill it. I mean, it's it's just an egg trying to scramble

an egg. Yeah, I was just trying to be dramatic about this egg murder. Egg murder it was. Yeah, I was just trying to make some eggs. But to make some eggs, I mean it could be. I mean I know that in babies when they try something in physics and it turns out unexpectedly because they have this kind of innate understanding of some physics. Like they know a big ball, if it's smacks a small ball, the small

ball will both flying. But if a small ball smacks into a big ball, the big ball will either remain motionless or not really move that much at all. But if they see the opposite, like a like a small ball smacking a big ball that goes flying, their eyes get wide and they get really excited because it's it's

start magic. So maybe the bird is like expecting the egg to crack and it doesn't because it's mine is just blown, and it's really excited because it's either I mean, either way it still works, because it's either that or it's having like an Elmer Fudd reaction and getting like very upset so you know what, it works either way for me, it's a little face just getting so red as it's Oh, it works either way. The video is

still great. Well, Bridget, thank you so much for joining us today on our do you do you want to declare a winner in the cute off of animals? Oh? Man, um, that is hard. I if you choose wrong, everyone will attack, everyone will attack. Man. Yeah, it's hard to choose in a cute off. I did really like the dicktick Dick dick pick pick, the dict pick pick. It might be a name thing, but it is very cute. Don't send me dick picks, but send me dick dick pick picks.

I almost don't want to say that into a microphone. All right, Well you've got anything to plug, Bridget? Uh? Yeah, I got a couple of things. If you go to small Beans, you can find two of my podcast, one of which is called rough Stuff, where we have comedians on and they tell embarrassing stories about their childhood. Amazon there I talked snails when I was a kid, and

that freaked me out quite a bit. And then there's another one called what Dinosaur Real Good, where my co host and I each ticke a dinosaur every week and talk about that dinosaur. And we wrote, Yeah, so have you talked about tarasaurs yet? We have? We had some nice Uh, we've talked about some but yeah, tons of dinosaurs. Well if you like, if you like this podcast, but you're gonna like this podcast? Yeah, uh. Where can people

find you on on the internet. On the Internet, you can find it in your specifically dick Dick pick picks I K d I K P I K P I K thank you, Katie. You can find me on Twitter at bridget Tweets and on Instagram at bridget Underscore Greenberg. You can find us on the website Creature Feature pod dot com, on Instagram Creature Feature Pod, on Twitter at Creature feet Pod, at the a t uh and you can find me at Katie Golden and at pro bird Writes, where I will make sure that have the right to

attack golf courses. Yeah, someone has to, someone has to truth to golf courses. And thanks to the Space Classics for their awesome song Exo Lumina