Falling With Style

Secretly incredibly Fascinating the Internet's Darling Alec Schmidt. Welcome head, Thanks for having me. That's always so great. Every Yes, I'm very excited. I think here, I think we're all like this. First of all, I've selected for you some choice choice gifts or Jeff's whatever you used to say, and we will of course, this is a podcast, so we will need to describe these in detail for the listeners. Also, as always, include all the images in these show notes.

But yeah, we are talking about animals who know how to fall. They know how to take a fall, and they do it with pizzazz and flourish, and it is incredible These are not flying animals. These are animals that fall really well. I feel like I can really relate to them because I can't fly either, and then at the same time I cannot relate to them because I lack physical grace. It seems like they're really good at doing a movement that looks cool when dropping out of

the air. I'm yeah, so I'm like, I do do take a tumble on occasion. I do fall down, you know, perhaps more than my fair share. Um. I sometimes catch my self in a cool way, though, so I think it all evens out. It's like, yes, I trip in my own shoes for seemingly no reason, but then when I catch myself, I think I look cool doing it.

Even the way you said that was very stylish, Like I'll probably not get it verbatim, but like I take a tumble on occasion, like I'm imagining you had a fancy party, Like I take a tumble on occasion, and then Mr Bean movements all over the room, then tumble on occasion. Yeah, but yes, this is essentially what we're talking about today. It's okay to fall as long as you do it with confidence, which is what these animals do. And Alex, do you believe in dragons? Oh, I'd say no, broadly.

I was I was thinking a lot about the Chinese zodiac the other day, and I was born in the Year of the Dragon, so maybe that's something. This is very upproposent because they're real dragons. Dragons is real breaking, fantastic. Yeah, it's like learning I'm real. It's great. Yeah, yeah, teeny as long as you go teeny weeny, little teeny weenie. Flying dragons are very real. The drake a lizard also known as the flying dragon. It is a real animal.

These are little lizards about eight inches or twenty centimeters in the length including their tails, so you know your neil guys. And typically they look just like skinny, little olive green lizards with a band of yellow under their throats. Sometimes they're very cute. They're very pretty, but nothing extraordinary, just lizarding around being lizards. Uh. They live in the

forests of Southeast Asia and southern India. They are arboreal, meaning they live in trees where they eat ants and termites, and they are safer from predators than they would be on the ground. So you know, normal lizard lifestyle. So far, it broadly sounds better than the lizard laves I'm used to in my general situation. Like I remember, I don't

in l A anymore. But when I moved to l A, my first job was in Santa Clarita, which is in like the desert north of l A. And there would be lizards on the ground and I kept getting super excited about it. And the people I know from the Southwest were like, no, there's just lizards around, and they're kind of underfoot and they're just little scrambly guys. These lizards sound like they're living it up in the tops of trees, a very happy forest society. Like yeah, and

there's sky rises in their trees. And it is actually for these lizards, it makes sense because they are able to avoid predation by staying in the trees. I mean, this is widely speaking, why a lot of species like to be in the trees. It makes them less of a target for predators that prowl the ground. So the males therefore can be very territorial of their trees and do not necessarily like to share, and they will extend.

This is what they do, like when they want to tell another male back off, I'm I'm I own this tree, they will extend a long, bright yellow dow lap. But a dow lap is is like a flap of skin under their throat, under their chin to warn other males to back off. Do lamps are also used in sexual selection to like attract females, So like, check out my little yellow do Hicky. It's terrifying to males and attractive

to females. As I understand that this podcast often finds ways that the animals are like us, the humans, and am I supposed to be able to relate to an animal where the behaviors for fighting with other men also has something to do with attracting women? Is that a thing I'm supposed to relate to? Am I supposed to find that similar? I mean, I don't know, I don't like. I guess what would be sort of an analogous thing with with human males. I guess it would be, uh

asking someone on Twitter. I don't know, Oh, I'm I was joking. I'm the kind of like all wearing leather jackets, doing masculine stuff. It's all like you know, like boxing, like way punching other authors was like gonna attract these ladies, and I'm gonna mess up this dude. At the same time, naming Way is the most attractive of the authors. That is true, especially when he extends his dow lap. The

ladies love. The ladies love a dow lap. I think that's that much as universal amongst all species is the ladies love an extendable dow lap, especially if it's bright yellow. But yeah, they in addition to this incredible dow lap, they have another trick. They have flaps of skin connected to their torso that they can extend that act as gliding wings, and they can sail through the sky like

tiny dragons. So, Alex, I have shared with you an image of one of in fact, a moving image of one of these lizards as it jumps off a tree and engages in flight. It looks man, I guess I watched some of them recently. It looks like basically every shot in a Marvel movie in a good way where somebody like flies off of that hell of carrier thing and just a sense to the earth for combat. It looks really cool, like it's the falcon doing that. Yeah, No, it looks really cool. It looks like some kind of

mechanized I don't know, yeah, like a little Superhero. It extends out. This maybe is a dated reference, but to me, it looks a little bit like a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Does anyone anyone know that movie? Anyone? No, wasn't that like the first Marvel movie? Keep up, Keep up. Well, it's like it's like these these colorful wings that like extend out, like they unfold perpendicular to the lizard. So it is really cool looking and it's super weird because

it is actually supported by extended rib bones. So so yeah, they're actual rib bones. Like they have these extensions of these rib bones, and normally they lay flat at their sides, but then when they want to fly, they extend outward, like if your arms were kind of laying flat at your side and then you move your arms and like a t pose. They do that with their arms as well, and then their whole, this whole flap unfurls behind their

arms and forms these little wings. It is incredible. I think I'm even seeing it on the jift because like it does expand its wings and start gliding, but before that, on initial jump. It's basically a really cool torpedo. And it must because the bones are really aligned to the body. There yeah. Yeah, they run flush with the body really well, and then only when they really need to unfurl the wings they come out. It's uh yeah, it's really it looks very very cool. I highly encourage you to look

up gifts of the Draco Lizard. I'll also include them in the show notes because it is they do. They look like tiny superheroes like Lizardman. Yeah. Like, if this was a movie, the immediate previous moment would be James Bond or Ethan Hunt talking to a guy from Langley who's like, and by the way, the territory there is really scary. What and then he does this show like it's one of these situations. It's really cool. Yeah, it's like a like a secret agent lizard who's just learned

that in the other tree. I don't know, some actresses being held hostage. I can't really think of secret agent lizard plotlines. I'm just not in that mindset right now. Yeah, I mean, you know, let's let's seek a more peaceful world, you know what I mean. We can we can beat Lizards of the Plowshares, you know what I mean. Let's do that so in a single leap they can travel over two hundred feet or sixty meters, So this isn't some like yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not peddling little hop

they can seriously glide without losing all that much altitude. Man. I also, I'm maybe there's too much Prosidrick. Soon people will hear a wonderful, secretly incredibly fascinating episode where Katie Golden is the guest about imperial units of measurement, and I like that feet and meters I understand both of those. So when you shared both for both systems, it just hit me twice. It was great at such a long

distance two hundred feet or sixty that's wild. Yes, yeah, no it is, it's it's I mean, And also think about how teeny tiny these guys are. It'd be like if one of us, like in one of these you know those like squirrel suits that people use like for gliding. They look absolutely bonkers, uh deadly and scary um, but it'd be like, I mean, you know, these guys are like barely these aren't even a foot long, So it'd be like traveling. I don't know, like four hundred times

there body so like traveling. I don't know what's for like four hundred times your own body length in one leap. It's crazy. Yeah, It's like it's like when I take up late in somewhere, but it's like, obviously I can't go this distance delta can. So if only we hadn't get enough of these lizards though, And like sort of if you if you tie each one with a bit of string and then attach them to like yourself, and you have like hundreds of these guys, could you do

it with the mechanics of it work out. I'm headed to Charlotte Douglas. Let's do this, Let's make it happen. It's an airport. But yeah, they really look like fantastical little dragons, and they're very colorful to Their wings range from yellow and orange, and in males can also have these like bands of blue. It's truly incredible looking. They look they either look like a fantasy dragon or something prehistoric from like dinosaur times, which they're just they're just

lovely and amazing looking. Oh yeah, I look, because there's there's other pictures you're down here, and one of them. The wings are really pretty. It's like a yellow with black stripes and a red edge to it. It's sort of it's almost like the Dilophosaurus from Jurassic Park. But if you took the face frills and put it on the sides of the bag. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, there were a lot of these gliding dinosaurs that you know, eventually, like we had birds come into play that probably evolved

from some of these gliding dinosaurs. Of course these are these are lizards, which is the the shared the same ancestor as dinosaurs. But dinosaurs didn't evolve from like lizards, even though like they're all reptiles. Um. But yeah, I mean it is, it is really fascinating. What a thing, man. I have never made that connection. I guess I didn't know about any gliding lizards, but I never thought of that as some kind of intermediate stage or relative or

part of the broader thing. Because birds birds as dinosaurs. Birds are birds are dinosaurs, uh, and their relatives, you know, their their ancestors. Um, We're probably a little kind of they were more reptile like uh than modern day birds. And of course I'm not like the this is a case of convergent evolution with this gliding lizard. I don't believe they shared any ancestors with like the ancestors of birds. Um.

But still it is. It is fascinating because you can see sort of like these you know, these kind of different methods of flight. Also, it is fascinating that with birds, their wings are made out of extended finger bones in their arms, so it's a very different construction of their wing, whereas with these guys, their wings are made or I guess gliders are made out of extended rib bones, so

it is a different type of wing. And so it is it is really interesting to see these like different methods of This is not quite flight because they don't gain altitude, but it is a really incredible display of anatomy of like being creative with anatomy of like yeah, I can just like shoot out my rib bones and then have a membrane in between each bone, and now I got gliders. Why not? Yeah? And like as cool

as flight or gliding would feel. As you describe both of those physical structures, I didn't want to do either of them myself. I'm not I'm not interested. Like that sounds awful either way as an experience for me. Yeah, you don't want to grow out, but I'm sure it's good for them, your bones and stretched skin over them.

That doesn't sound like a good time to you. No, my yeah, I feel like my fingers and my ribs are my two weakest points, maybe toes like and you know, you know where else, but like there's there's a short list of areas I don't want to put the pressure of like lift onto you know what I mean, forget it. I can see that. Yeah, when you look at like when you look at the way that bird wings or even bat wings and you see like how long their

little thingies are, it gets a little creepy. Yeah, oh keep that inside the old skin there, please, thank you my request. Yeah, yes, especially especially bats, because with birds, while they do have us, you know, some some stretched skin, they a lot of their flight is on the projection of their feathers, so they don't need a big membraneous flap of skin to keep them aloft. A lot like that is what feathers do for them. But you look

at a bat and it's all skin. There's no feathers, it's just like skin, and they're still able to manage flight with it. So I just I love all these different methods of gliding and flight. How you know that you have a similar end result of some kind of wing or glider but then very different body parts involved. Like with there are mammal gliders like the colugo, the flying squirrels, and they usually have a flap of skin.

But it's a colugo the same as a flying squirrel. No, No, it's a it's like a very primitive it's not it's not quite a primate, but it is like it shares a common ancestor think with primates. Also with flying squirrels. I sort of always assumed there was a real correct name for those that I just don't know. So I was like, maybe it's girls. There maybe a Latin name, but I don't need to know it because because flying squirrels is good. No, colucos are um. They're actually found

in Southeast Asia. Uh, And yeah they're related to primates. They aren't primates, but they're they're mammals that kind of like share a common ancestor with primates and they're really fascinating looking. But yeah, they they're also called like flying lemurs, although they are not lemurs like flying squirrels. They have just like this flap of skin that's like attached to their arms and their legs, and a lot of gliding

mammals have the structure. So it's like it's similar to you know, the the flying suit that people that we've engineered, and that's some people who don't have that self preservation instinct will put on and then zoom down mountains. But it's like, you know, this like flap that's connected to their arms and then to their lower lay. But it's a very different style of glider than these draco lizards because the draco's there. Their gliders are not attached to

their legs or their forearms. It's just attached to their rib bones that they you know, are able to with the use of muscles like either extend or lay flat against their body. So really it's it's just so cool that you'll have gliding at many different gliding animals, but many different techniques and different anatomies and different kinds of like evolutionary strategies. Yeah, that's amazing. Wow, I like that. I guess it's nice that the air is available all

the time. I like air being available all the time, Like I don't I don't use it really for anything, but it's it's just like a space we could be moving through if we chose, and all these different animals were like, yeah, it's wide open up there. I'm going to figure it out something. Yeah, yeah, no, it is, it is, it is. I mean it is a testament

to the pressures of like. The by having a any kind of available space where a living organism can be in like it is physically possible for them to occupy that space, and it is possible for them to evolve traits to take advantage of that space. It's almost inevitable that will it will happen. In fact, it happens over

and over again. So it is incredible. Yes, But when we get back from the break, we're going to talk about a little guy who also is capable of impressive falls, but without a parachute, wings, gliders, nothing, he doesn't just straight up naked. Never mind, I don't want to shame you. To take a back. So we talked about the draco lizard, which is an incredible little guy who it's got these gliders on the side of its ripped cage that it

uses to glideing compressive distances. But I guess like the only it seems like the only way that animals can survive these falls is through having some kind of evolved skin flap or glider or feathers or something. Except there is a little, a little dude who is putting those assumptions to the test. There is a world class skydiver who can successfully dive from the tallest trees in the world without a parachute, which I do not recommend you

try at home unless you are a wandering salamander. So, the wandering salamander is a small, brown, four unassuming amphibian. It's just like about I don't know about the size of your hand, your palm, very tiny, guy, um. And they live in the redwood forests of California, and these trees are very very tall, and the salamanders can climb around a hundred and thirty feet or forty meters up into the trees. Yeah, feet and meters. Hit me twice. Leave it. So they will snack on insects they find

in the trees. They're nocturnal. They also have no lungs or gills. They breathe through their skin instead, they do gas exchange with their skin. This is a trick that some yeah, this is a trick some amphibians are capable of doing. And this is why amphibians also things like gastropods, like they can breathe through their skin. But this is

why they have to live in very moist environments. So these salamanders always have sort of this moist sheen on their skin, and they have to live somewhere where they won't dry out so much. So in these foggy, moist, sort of humid redwood forests, their skin will stay hydrated. And the because you need water H two O to facilitate gas exchange, which allows them to extract oxygen from

the air. Wow. Yeah, and so we and so there's all these different Like it's a tiny salamander that can leap out of a tree impossibly and breathe without gills and lungs and stuff. And then they named it the wandering salamander. Yeah, the name is like the main thing about these guys. They go from place to place. Yeah, don't expect him to settle down. He's a wandering salamander. Yeah,

it's uh. They could have called them the super skin breathing, jumping salamander, but now, yeah, they were like this type of salamander. The big thing about them they will never pick a favorite coffee shop. They just keep going to different ones. I can't believe it become a regular think about it. Don't ask it for restaurant recommendations. It doesn't know. Yeah.

So yeah, the first bar we went to was good, let's stay here, salamander that it's like, and does anybody need anything from the tenth floor, I'll go get it really fast. It's like, yeah, it's more interesting. Yeah. So they are also able to leap from these tall trees and somehow survive with no skin flaps, no wings, no big webbed feet, no parachute, nothing. So it is really incredible to watch these little sale managers just floating through

the air because you can actually see this. Researchers wanted to see how they survive from falling from trees, and they stuck these little dudes in a vertical wind tunnel and so you can watch the video of the little selement or just spinning and floating arms all out, all starfished out, just you know, free bird playing in the background. It's a beautiful thing. Is it just that like indoor

skydiving stuff you can do in some city exactly? But that's what I'm looking at here, I think in his chif it's exactly what it is, Yes, vibing out like the people in the commercials for that. They've never done it. Yeah, now I want to do it. I mean, this salamander makes me want to do it because he looks like he's having a real good time. He's just he's just he is just vibing. He's chilling. Gravity has no you know, he's the master of gravity, has no fear. It's incredible,

spinning around having a good time. Yeah, just like floating and kind of wobbling. Basically the movements of lava lamp stuff or like for like Windows media player visualizations or something. You know, this is really just viby, antarctic little movements. I like it. You gave me a very unethical You gave me a very unethical idea, which is um, having just a bunch of these guys in like a wind tunnel on my on my bedside to watch all day long. It's unethical. I would never do it, but now I

can't stop thinking about it. So these salamanders, it's interesting you bring up indoor skydiving, and the reason it looks so similar to that is they actually adopt a very human like skydiving posts. They extend their arms and their legs out, they hold up their chest and by like star fishing. Like this, they increase their body's surface area and the wind resistance slows their descent. This is what is called drag, which is not a drag if you are trying to survive a fall. So, uh, that's I'm

a dad. That's how I announced everyone I am a dad, So I'm not going to survive a fault dad of rebelling. Now, I refuse um man. I I do sometimes just want to like, I don't know, annoy annoy random children with like science puns. So I do think it's like I've I've learned this from my father, and I need I need to now do it to others so so they can.

These salamands can also precisely control their trajectory by using their tail as a rudder or tucking in a leg, so they're not just casting themselves at the mercy of gravity. They are the masters of their descent. And so they are so good at naked skydiving that they don't really disind trees by climbing down. They just use nature's elevator, which is falling. Man, it's just but also thinking of the previous lizard that does sort of a leaping bullet shaped move out of a tree like c G I have.

The action movies such as Later Pierced Brows and Bonds or Marvel have taught me, like the hero jumps out of a plane or whatever, and then there are two movements they can make. They can either do this drag thing that this salamander is doing to like slow down, or they can do the bullet thing to move to the thing. And I'm seeing I'm seeing animals do both things. Amazing. We could actually replace all c g I and stunts with with lizards and amphibians. Apparently, I would love that.

Like you're watching you're watching Mission Impossible seven or whatever they're on. You see Tom Cruise like getting out of a plane and then suddenly just like cuts to one of these salamander's falling and with with the music and everything going. But you just like, you know, just to spend disbelief like this, this is now Tom Cruise the salamander. Right, if you're looking for the tucked tail, you're not in

the movie. You know, you're not fully taking it in, like don't don't be, don't be a cinema sins about this people, exactly is it is? It? Really? Like it's the it is the you know when like people say it's the something of the law, like, oh, letter of the law, spirit of the law, spirit of the law. There it is. Wow, sorry, god, my brain, it's yeah. You gotta you gotta look for, like, you know, the spirit of the movie, not details such as is this tom cruise or an amphibian that lives in the redwood

forests of California? Those are unimportant details. I also, I do like to imagine all stunt men and stunt women living in a redwood forest when they're not making movies. I'm sure that just feels right to It does feel right. God, I'd love to hang out with that crew. That'd be awesome. Yeah, Like I can like that cabin that a commando who has become disenchanted with the force lives in before there's

one last mission to bring them back. I want all stunt men to live in those And right, why haven't we had like a movie about like Hollywood stunt people have We would be so good. They deserve it, they get they do so much of the stuff gets a little of the credit. Um. But yeah, I mean, these these salamanders are they typically don't jump all the way

down from the tree onto the forest floor. What they try to do is land on another tree, and this allows them to jump to other trees, quickly, find other mates of a danger, and just get around because they like to wander. I guess that's appropriate. Man, that's good though. Yeah, when you when you quit your tree, you want to have an ex tree lined up. It's just it's a better situation all around. Gold It's it's not a golden parachute.

It's a confident salamander. You want to be a confident salamander. All these CEOs getting confident salamanders where they leave, which sounds fine compared to the real thing. So we've talked about draco lizards, the little real dragons that can glide through the sky. We've talked about salamanders who are so confident in falling they don't even need a pair of shoot. Now, let's talk about some of the best falls that marine life can do. You might be thinking, like, how can

an aquatic animal even fall? They're like in the water, dumb, dumb. I imagine everyone thinking at me with arms crossed, if I, if I may bring some extraordinary expertise in here. When they're moving downward, it's actually because they're swimming down there in water not air. Ah, yes, yes, sorry, I guess last section is canceled because Alex Alex out thought me, outmaneuvered me mentally. I was destroyed biologic and facts. So no,

But what we are talking about our rays. So rays are those flappy oceanic gliders with flat bodies, these two wings. At times they have a stinger. Uh. They are cartilage us and are closely related to sharks. You know what I'm talking about, right, Manta rays, sting rays. Lots of different species of rays. I like that their shark relative. Yes, yes, shark cousins and the There are many, many different species of rays. But right now we are going to talk

about one particular genus, the mobula. So the mobular ray is found all over the world in warm oceanic waters. Depending on the species, mobulas can grow from around four ft or one meter to seventeen feet or five meters from wing to wing, so they can get quite big. I hope the really big ones are irritated with the really little ones. We're not in the same club. Try is hard to be us. We're basically like brothers, you know, the same You mean you need me and you and

me we're the same. Yeah, um, I hope it's wearing that little hat that I've only seen in tropes about children, where it's a little ball cap that's speech ball colored, like it's five or six color propeller, like like a big what are you doing? Like I again or different species? I'm not your big brother. Yeah, yeah that's cool. That's cool. Uh might if I hang out with Yeah. That hat has only ever existed as a prop in a prop house.

No real person has ever worn it. I know I had a I had one of those little hats when I was a kid, the propeller hats. Yeah, yeah, it's a toy. But I was really sad because it didn't just like I had seen in cartoons that you you know, you get the propeller going and you actually are able to like take off in flight. Not true, right, not not even a little bit true. It was very disappointing. Is the last chunk of the episode animals that do

take off? That? Yes, the last The last animal is man who uses the propeller hat to float down from amazing heights. Don't do that. Don't try that. It doesn't work. I tried it. As a kid. It didn't work, just led to like a scraped knee and and disillusionment. So yes, momule rays are also called devil rays, but they're actolutely. They're actually fine, they're actually cool despite being called devil rays. Most species of Mobula lack a tail stinger, or if

they have a stinger at all, it's harmless. So it's a very fearsome moniker. But you know, there's chill, their chill, little sea pancakes. Not to make the show to sports sea, but have you heard of the Devil rays sports mascot. There's a baseball team in Tampa Bay, Florida. They're now called the Tampa Bay Rays, but when they were first an expansion baseball team, they were called the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and I always thought that was just like

a made up aggressive thing and that. But they've since changed it to raise because I think people were not into devil rays. They were like, what is that? Now I finally know what that is. I'm a humgus baseball fan. I had no idea. I think devil rays was a cooler a cooler name, both as someone interested in biology and heavy metal. H So, you know, it's just you know, go back, go back to being called the devil rays. That's awesome. Yeah, and their their logo is a little

devil roy. That's so cute. I love that. I think I think they were going for a verbal rhythm like Tampa Bay devil ray, you know. But now it's just the race. Yeah, oh my goodness, wow sports huh really going downhill ever since they got rid of the devil ray um. So yeah. They are also filter feeders. They just eat plankton. So they're really sweet little things. They're not scary at all, little sleep floppers, flopping glinding around

under the water. They're so graceful and beautiful. Sometimes they form these big shoals where you just have these big groups of of these devil rays all kind of like shoaling together, swimming together in these big balls and like

gracefully changing direction together. It's beautiful. They actually to me, looking at one of these mobular rays from like the top, they look like if Batman was like squished squished into a pancake, you see that, right, or like or like maybe like the like the bat wing, you know, his like airplane thing that's kind of shaped like a bat ish. It sort of looks like if a bat also was wearing Batman's hat, and then it's like, you know how

Batman's caves. Sometimes they depict it with like a hundred specialty suits on a big clothing rack or whatever, like this is the scuba aqua whatever it is, right, but a bat that's wearing Batman's hat because they have like their heads are sort of you shaped, with these two prongs kind of coming off off near their eyes, and then the rest of their body is sort of typical ray you know, like like with the wings sort of the downward wings that it's kind of this like V

shape um, and then and then a tail. I mean I can see how they look, I guess a little menacing. To me, they look cute. I like them, they do. Yeah. I think that's part of why I was so surprised to learn they're related to sharks, because, like I like, I know, this is not how evolution works, but part of my like cartoon brain wants to think evolution is

one animal deciding to look like a different animal. So just the idea that there was this shark that wanted to be really flat and weird is fun to me. And these guys are like flat and weird in a really appealing way. It's great. Yeah, yeah, now they have decided to go the pancake root and it worked out

well for them. Uh. And there are other nickname other than devil rays is flying rays because they do an extraordinary behavior where they leap out of the water, glide, flap their little wings, and then crash back into the water in a spectacular belly flop. And you've probably you've probably seen dolphins gracefully slipping in and out of the water as they jump barely making a splash. Mobula Rays

they don't do this style for them. They pride themselves on doing the biggest, sloppiest belly flop they can possibly manage. This jip is so stupid. This I'm looking at a jim. Some wonderful person got really cinematic footage of like many devil rays doing this just direct leap into the air, flap back down into the water, maneuver the crap. I

love that there's a crowd of them. It feels like this should be soundtracked, like when the Ewoks are celebrating at the end of Return, like it's it's a real just party going on of pointless sleeping, it's into the air and landing. It's great and it is I mean it is a party atmosphere because these are rays that are trying to flirt with other rays. By making these loud splashes, they create a sonic wave underwater, alerting eligible singles to their location. And the bigger the splash, the

more noticeable they are. So male mobulas do this breaching, jumping out and splashing into the water the most, but females will also partake, and it's often these big groups of all these rays all putting on a stunning show as they try to impress a potential mate. Uh. And they can actually, they can get some serious altitude. They can leap up to six and a half feet or two meters out of the water. Wow. Yeah, it really

looks like it. Because I'm looking at the mountains behind these guys and stuff, I kind of have a general sense of the depth and scale and everything. They're really getting up there. This is not like, this is not that thing where it's like, oh something, what am I thinking of? Never mind, Yeah, I love the leaping. This is just right. And then just like the flapping of their little because like the wings that they have are

for uh, therefore gliding through the ocean. There there for swimming, they're not really for flying, and yet here they are flapping these little wings and a little more altitude. It's it's so cute. They're so cute. I think all rays are really cute, but these guys just like being the zest, the jois de vive of these little these so little

actually they can be quite quite big. But yes, it's just incredible, just such spunk, right because they they're not going to take off when they come out of the water. They are flapping as if they are going to just proceed to fly into a tree and make a mast or something. It's really we're going to marsh. Yeah, no, it's it does look very optimistic, like they've just kind of forgotten that they're not birds and they're not bats, and they're just like, you know, I'm a bat now

we and then falling back down. But yeah, it is, it's it's just it's so cute. Yeah. Also, if I remember right, the Tampa Bay baseball team, they have a stingray tank at the stadium, and I wish it was a bunch of them constantly leaping or like when there's a home run. They do this, they would be great,

but that's probably not how it works. No, no, yeah, I I feel like if they were doing that, that would mean that they're in an amorous mood, which you know might not be appropriate for all the kids who show up for the baseball And it's a two one count to Jeff Cappinger. Also, we can see the raise are amorous, amorous, and the pitch oh man, actually, I take it back. I do want baseball integrated with animal

mating rituals. But then you have to like because I don't want them to just be in a little tank. It means taking the baseball to their habitats, like a big floating lootilla of baseball right next to the rais or nothing. Right, it's it's field of dreams, but instead of walking out of a cornfield to to play ancient baseball, it's guys like going through a double ray party on surfboards or something you could do like underwater baseball. Just real slow. Oh yeah, right, the manager is going to

have to take out that picture. I mean his arm is tired. He ran of oxygen um. His arm is tired. Though that's the main reason the third baseman is turning blue, which I've never seen this strategy before. You hate to see it. I don't know that much about baseball, I'll be honest. I mean, you don't want the third basement to turn blue? That's pretty good crystal, all right? All right, well then maybe I know more than I thought. Yeah,

you should manage my favorite team. But yeah, yeah, there's gonna be some real change around here you put me in charge. There was a clip the other I won't divert it too far, but there was a clipp the other day of the White Sox manager in the first inning probably falling asleep, like they had the camera on him, and it looked like was probably falling asleep. So I think you're ready. I think you could do it. You

would probably remain awake for the first inning. If I was president of baseball, I would never fall asleep during the baseball Only outside of baseball times would I sleep. So already more well qualified, I wouldn't get rid of the Devil Raises the name of my baseball team, because what the heck? That is such a cool name and that's just the Raise. Come on, Yeah, these guys are great.

They got such a baseball spirit and I'm proud of them, and I don't want them to get discouraged just because baseball teams are changing their names from devil rays to just raise. That's the you know, I see you guys out there, I see you you mobular rays. They could have changed it to the mobular rays. That would have been cool too. It's a cool name, oh man, I'd love that because the minor leagues especially, there are a lot of teams with relatively obscure animal names, like the

snappers and stuff and so yeah, and the miners. You could some kind of like wandering salamander franchise. Also, mobulas sounds like a mob of draculas, so it sounds cool. There as the plural word for it. Yet a flock of draculas is called a mobula. Yeah, you thought it'd be a murder. Murder was taken. Murder was taken. We had to be a mobula. Biologist never used those funny names, like it's like, did you know, like a group of crows is actually called a murder on a group of

vowels is called a parliament. It's like I've I've never see actual Like it's no, it's not really used in biology papers. I don't ever see it actually used really the different like things like flocks versus herds versus shoals, yeah, of course, yeah, or troops, like there are there are general ones that are done for like very different animals, but when you get really specific, like a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance, it's like you just made

that up right now, I don't. I don't know, like, even if it's true, I don't really see any anyone using that in any official capacity. I'm I'm really glad to hear that, honestly, because I really always felt like I really want to celebrate science and support science, and I really always felt like those nouns were specifically just

British nobility around. I always assumed it's like an earl was bored and decided to just a group of British nobles is called a rough by the way, Yeah, uh, well, I think we've we've covered some of the world's most spectacular followers. Uh. And it's it's a good reminder. It's like you can fall down, you could pick yourself up, but you could also fall down a really fun and cool way that's also active to mates. So you know, nothing wrong with falling, is what I'm saying. Yeah, I

like the especially I feel like animals. And again, I know evolution is not individual choices by animals, but it feels like so many animals have either chosen to fly or chosen to walk, swim, etcetera. And I like that so many of them are in the middle area between light and not flight. You're just gliding around. Look, you know it's we think that you can only conquer the

skies by going up flying. No, like you can, you can be like you know what, gravity, You and I let's team up together and get something done and not instead of fighting gravity. It's like we're we're joining forces two for me to be a little salamander guy just jumping out of trees. Uh uh you know, yeah, I love it. Just you gotta work with physics sometimes, give

yourself a little express elevator, you know what I mean this? Okay, Now we're getting dangerously close to telling people to just like fall great distances, and I don't don't want to do that. Human human beings are not quite We're not Our bodies are not as capable of handling these kinds of feats. Uh as these animals so you know, leave it to the professional like the like the little salamanders and the little flying lizards and the ray but not

you know, but they're professionals. Yeah, buzz Lightlier. Also, I wish, I wish the buzz Lightyear movie was just kind of about the real buzz Lightyear learning how to fly. That would have been fun just watching tape of mobular rays, like, Okay, what do they do? What do they do? Like Chicken Run, but a fully man sized buzz Lightyear. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't watch the movie, so I have no opinion on it, but you know, that's I just I just like to see things getting launched into the air. This

this is gonna sound weird. The most recent movie I've watched his Chicken Run. It was. It was a lot of fun. It's still great. It is. It's that was a good movie. It's about chickens trying to learn to fly to escape escape their egglaying operation. But really it's kind of a metaphor for unionization and and the fight against oppressive capitalism because I think I only saw it as a child in a theater and then now and I was like, oh, this is a pretty based movie. Yeah,

but make it chickens. Well, before before we get all political, we gotta play a game. This game is called Guess Who's Squawking? The Mystery Animal Sound Game. Every week I play a mystery animal sound and you know, the listener try to guess. Hey, this squawking can be any animal. I know it's called Guess who squawking? But it's not just birds. Can be any animal in the world. Uh, in the universe really, once we find aliens. So um.

Last week's mystery animals sound, the hint was don't blame the dog for this one, but it is the sound of a happy carnivore. Okay, So I promise this is not a rude noise and just play a part for you. I wouldn't do that. I'm not a child. So who do you think? Get squawk? Can anything's making this sound? I got an aquatic vibe from it and almost kind of a dolphin sound, But I don't know if it's a dolphin. I'll just go dolphin. You are correct, Alex,

good job, Yes, bonus points. Can you guess what it's doing? Oh? Yeah, that's that's the more difficult to ask. And I think I think I was able to get it because Atlantic Bil those cellphones were a prime animal at my childhood zoo that I later worked in as a guide. So we didn't we didn't like go through the dolphin exhibit on the tours. But I I've gotten to hear him a lot and it's a lot of like clicking and funky sounds, flicking and squeaking part noises. Yeah, what was

it doing because it sounded happy. I'm going to say it was like rooting out some kind of food out of a thing. Alex You are so good, that is exactly what is happening. Nice job, well done up. Yes, so this is a dolphin hunting and closing in on a fish. You're like the dolphin whisperer, alex I. Brookfield Zoo was like training me shout at Brookfield z Brookfield, Illinois, outside Chicago. I feel like I feel like I heard that sound and I activated, like Jason Bourne, like a

bunch of dolphin training just turned on. I don't know very much about that was a sleeper cetation. I'm gonna finish taping and be capable of like perfectly feeding dolphins, like I throw fish individually into their mouths or something. I'm gonna have incredible skills. You're you get elected dissent and you start passing like pro dolphin bills and you

don't even know why was it the cetacean candidate or so? Uh? Yeah, As the dolphin closes in on its prey, it emits a terminal buzz which is so narrow that lets it precisely close in on the fish. And that little squeak at the end is called a victory squeal. It's a happy sound as the dolphin catches its meal, so it's it is happy and it did find food. So you are so correct. I am very impressed and a little suspicious.

I feel exactly the same about myself. Yes, so I actually got some guesses that it was an orca or bluega which was closed but no cigar. Still, thank you guys for writing in your gifts. Is really good sleuthing everyone. You narrowed it down to a cetacean, which is impressive. Um. Also, technically that sound of the dolphin was from two weeks ago, since last week I aired a rerun so I could go on a little vacation. Um, So congratulations to Nathan

A who actually guessed the rerun sound correctly. That sound was the rock high Racks, which is an adorable little mammal, little fluffy. Uh. And they are related to elephants incredibly onto this week's mystery animals sound. The hint is the Sharks and the Jets are about to have a showdown, but they really ought to calm down. H So uh Alec, you gott guesses the correct answer is space alience what presiden, we got it, we got it, we did it game over.

But if you think you may know what this is other than the space sailing space sil Lands, which he clearly is space aliens, you can write to meet Creature Feature Product gmail dot com. Alex, thank you so much for joining me today or can people find you? Hey? Thank you? And my podcast is called Secretly Incredibly Fascinating and I hope people check it out. If you just search Secretly in your podcast you have, you'll find it.

It's a red logo and uh and I don't know when this comes out with Katie's on one either soon or recently and has been on many of them and amazing on all of the ones she's been on, so but I hope people like it. It's history and science and stories about things that we didn't think are amazing, but our I highly recommend it. I think if you

like this podcast, you will like secretly incredibly fascinating. Yeah, and we just did one on imperial units, which it is really really interesting and slightly frustrating sometimes of the history of imperial units. Why we have feet and inches instead of the metric system like everyone else. But yeah, there's a lot of like really surprising details. So I

definitely recommend checking that out. When that comes out, it should be pretty around the tent anyways, get um but yeah, and uh yeah absolutely um and oh what was I gonna say? Oh? Yeah, you can find the show on the internet at creature feet pot on Twitter. That's f T not e E teen. That is something very different. Uh and hey, you know what, thank you so much for listening to the show. If you're enjoying it and you write a rating or review, I really appreciate it.

I read all the reviews, I print them out, and I am creating like an iglue. I'm creating like a tint out of all of the reviews, like a paper mache home, so that when I'm feeling sad, I just go inside my little tent made out of all your reviews and then I feel so warm and cozy. Um. Yeah, so you know, I still need to have some like uh, flying buttresses and roof details added to my review tints.

So if you want to write a review, I'll be able to print it out and maybe I'll get you know, some more architectural architecturally sound structures in the in the building I'm making out of reviews. This makes a lot of sense, and I think it will motivate people to write reviews. Uh. And thanks to the Space Classics for their super awesome song Exolumina Creature features paraduction. If I Heart Radio nailed that. For more podcasts like you just heard,

visit the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast All. Hey, guess what where have you listen to your favorite shows? I do not judge you. I never will judge you. That's not a real song. Do you next Wednesday? What's so fun? Asper