Introvertebrates

it's completely ditched its eyeballs. And spiders who should be called shiders because you know they're they're very shy. Discover this and more as we answer the agul question, isn't it about time we all got a cloaca? So lots of animals are shy in the sense that they don't really want to be eaten. Being timid isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially when you could make a tasty meal from many predators. Even those doing the eating may want to keep a low profile so they don't scare away

potential prey. Being introverted isn't a bad evolutionary strategy, but some animals take it to the extreme. Not that I can relate that all being a total party animal. Joining me today is co host of the game Fully Unemployed podcast network and former snail farmer David Bell. Hi, welcome, Dave, Thank you, thank you. I'm excited to be here. Do you want to explain really briefly why you're a former snail farmer. I got an aquarium in my twenties and we got two snails for it, and then it became

fifty snails because they really like to mate. I guess, uh, and that's it. That's the that's the end of the explanation. And then and then I don't know what happened to that tank. I think we gave the snails away because it was just too much to handle, too many mouths to Yeah, in your twenties, there's a lot of responsibility is having that many snails actually currently have that situation. I have an aquarium which is mostly snails. Now they're virus.

I love them, these little upy little things, but like, yeah, it could really snails can really take over. Yeah. I think they're the rams horn snails and those are they're the ones with the sort of like ice cream cone shaped shell and they are just unstoppable. That I'm going to become a snail woman, like they will be. This apartment will be snails soon. Yeah. So, Dave, today I want to talk about some introverted animals. And this is going to be really hard for us because we are

both just total social butterflies. You know, it's gonna it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be hard for us to relate to these introverted animals, right, I just gotta go out all the time. Yeah, that's what that's me. Everybody's like, look at Dave, He's always out there. Yeah, exactly. The quarantine is like a big departure from my normal routine where I was going out every day, hit in the town, painting that town red, bumping elbows, going to parties all

the time, randomly approaching strangers, talking to strangers. Yeah. Yeah, oh that's my favorite. I do love to talk to strangers. So good at it with strangers that you making phone calls for fun, Just hold someone up on the phone, you know best, it's the best. Yes, But what we will try to empathize with these introverted, shy animals, as hard as it is for us, the most gregarious people in the world. So Dave have you heard of the way that eels are coping with the quarantine times? Huh?

I imagine they're slithering in the water a lot. Theyre in holes, they pop out of holes and freak people out. Yeah, just doing the eel stuff, you know, opening their mouths in a weird way. Yeah, you're not too wrong. You've already this is good. You've got kind of a baseline understanding of the whole eel vibe. So now we're just going to kind of fill in the blanks and learn all about eels because they are one of the I

love these guys. They are just a bunch of shy like little spaghetti's, little pool noodles who are like the most adorable grumps to me. They love to sink into a hole and look at you like they're telling you to get off of their front porch, even though they don't have a porch. They got a real grandpa vibe. You've seen those videos of people petting eels like dogs. Yeah, yeah, that,

what's what's up with that? That's amazing? Well, actually I was going to talk about that, So probably the eels that they are petting maybe more's and as we will discuss soon, they can actually learn to be friendly towards humans. But it's not actually the best idea to pet a wild mora, not because it'll hurt you necessarily, but because that's not good for the wild moras or for the reefs.

But first, I want to talk about a little tiny eel that is about I don't know the size of a pipe cleaner, and it is the spotted garden eel. And so the Sumita Aquarium in Tokyo is growing concerned

that they're introverted. Garden eels are going to forget what humans are and grow even more introverted and afraid of people now that there are no visitors because of the lockdown, And so the aquarists are finding that it is difficult to take care of the eels and check in on their health because they have literally forgotten what humans are and now they're getting spooped. Like it didn't take very long.

They've just forgotten like what a person is. And it's like, yeah, just like I want to check up on your eel health, you know, like put a little tongue to press or down your eel mouth, and they're like, who are you? I don't know who you are? What are you what what and Sam's hill are you? You have things coming out of your body and you're not shaped like a little noodle. I don't know what you are and I'm not, frankly,

I'm not having any of it. Yeah, well, here's the thing, Like, like our hands kind of look like mouths, like you can make mouths with your hands, right, like puppets, And our feet kind of have like things on the end. So we must look like a big eel with a bunch of little eels coming off of them. Like imagine a person like that, where it's like a person, but then there's a people bunch people growing out of them.

I mean, the whole concept of hands and feet are probably really offensive to eels, just kind of like why would you grow this like defensive protrusion out of what could be a perfect noodle body? Right? They look at us and they're like, that's excessive. That is what are they doing? You need you just need the one the one long thing and you got the grabber and it

grabs and eats shoving your arms down our throats. Really so in order to make sure these eels don't just go completely feral and forget the touch of a human hand, they have set up a bunch of tablets with face time on for the eels to look at, and they've asked the public to call in and face time with the eels, so the eels once again become accustomed to human faces. Okay, why aren't we doing that right? Please face time with the eels. I'm going to do that

all day, all day. I'll link to an article. I'm not sure. I hope this is still going on. I think you can only call at certain hours. I'm hoping it's international. I'm not sure if it's just like they only accept like local callers, but yeah, I will definitely if there is a way to face time with these eels,

I will link you to it. And oh, they did mention in the article I read like, if you do face time with the eels, don't don't bow guard the eels, don't hog them, like, only spend five minutes because other people are eagerly wanting to face time with the eels. So you know that's going to be a problem for me. I was to just have the eel channel on in my apartment all day. Dave's gonna be on eel cam like all day. Yeah, yeah, so I do want to talk a little bit about what garden eels are, Dave.

I have a few photos in the dock here for you to look at. These are the first ones. Oh no, you're a little faces, stubborn little faces they yeah, and I see the FaceTime. That's terrific. Yeah, just these floating people looking at the eels with the light. I don't know, it looks looks like a haunted house or something. Imagine like being one of these eels and you pop out of your little burrow and there is just a person's face floating there. Right, they're gonna be like, well, this

doesn't make me like humans anymore. Like now they're like me, like they're doing some some weird big Brother stuff. It's like it's eel blade Runner. Yeah, it absolutely is eel blade running. The eels are living in a dystopian future, like a cyberpunk future, because it's also like these blue lights and stuff in the aquarium cyberpunk eels. Let me let me tell you a little bit about the spotted garden eels so you can get a sense of these

grumpy little little noodles. So they are a species of eel that they look like little pieces of spaghetti and they hide in the sand, so they burrowed down into the sand, so when you see them, you don't usually just see them swimming around in the water. They're usually just poking their heads out of the sand or poking out maybe like a third of their body length out

of the sand. And that's why they're called garden eels actually, because they all stick out of the sandy floor like a plant, and they live in clusters, so they kind of look like weird ocean grass. And they can grow up to about fifteen inches long, so that's forty centimeters with only a half inch diameter, so fourteen millimeters. So yeah, they're just little long tubes build. Yeah, if if I saw some one in an aquarium or close up, they'd

be very cute. But I imagine it's extremely unnerving if you're diving and you see what you think is grass and it starts slithering. Yeah, I can see them being creepy. Uh Yeah, I can see them like triggering a very specific phobia in people that they didn't even know they had. Yeah, imagine snorkeling and you're just kind of like floating around and you're you feel like some like grass on your tummy and you're like, oh that tickles, and you look down and the grass is just like got these eyes

and this really grumpy little face. Like they're like a Jim Henson character. Yes, yeah, the yeah, the mouth is downturned and really close to the eyes, so it looks like a really grumpy muppet. It remember the what are the aliens from? Remember those? Like nope, nope, no, no, no, no aliens. I do, but not enough to identify them

beyond what you just did to describe them. Yeah, they were a Jim Henson puppet that was basically like a sheet of fuzzy fabric and then like a big big mouth and they would just go ye in retrospect in retros, that feels real lazy of him, Like that feels like a last minute muppet that they were like, we just need a muppet for this segment, like I don't know,

put a sheet over his hand. They have an extensive character bible with a backstory and like how they had to escape their home planet because of their planet's version of global warming and they had to escape to Earth and now they're desperately trying to warn humans not to make this mistake, but they kind of condensed that into them, just saying yep. So it is a sort of cream color and covered in black spots, and it has yellow eyes.

They are found in the tropical oceans near Japan, Eastern Africa, and Polynesia. Uh. They dig burrows into the sand so they can quickly zip into the sand to hide from predators and stick back out to catch drifting food. And they basically spend their whole adult lives in these burrows. And during mating season, they'll just make burrows closer together so they can still mate while being homebodies, just carefully

scooching their burrows together as it should be. It's like moving next to someone, Like there's an apartment complex and there's someone you want to date, so you just like move next to them. And I was like, well, you know, I do think I mean, I know people just don't have the income to do this. I do think there should be a step between moving in together and dating, where it's do you want to move next to each other?

I want to be neighbors. Yeah, let's be neighbors. Let's see if that works, because then you know how noisy they are, sort of know how they live day to day. Um, if you can get along with someone as your neighbor. Basically you can have a marriage that lasts until you die, because it's hard. It's hard to get along with a neighbor. I have a neighbor that like just leaves garbage outside and like raw chicken cutlets on the staircase sometimes and

just once a whole pineapple. So in that case, I understand, like, Okay, so we wouldn't work out in a marriage because I don't I don't like to put pineapples outside, right, I know I'm the weird neighbor because like my my neighbor leaves her door open and she has a dog, and I'm just sort of like squinting at the sun and we'll just grab whatever her packages outside. I live like the guys in the bourbs, like you don't see me much, and then when I come out, I'm a nightmare. But

now that's just that's normal though. Yeah it is sort of normal. But it was kind of always what I was doing. So yeah, well but now it's just like you are the trendsetter. Yeah, that's true. I was ahead of the curve. So now I want to talk about what what are eels? What what are eels, als? What even our eels? Have you seen the David Dakovany jeopardy clip We're One of the answers was what are frogs? And then you hear David Daco just go what are frogs?

Like to himself just having fun over in the corner. That's excellent. I love that. What what are frogs? Frogs? Huh? When you think about it, it's a deep question. What are frogs? I know this isn't about frogs, but they are. They are weird, right frogs? We never we never think about it, but it's like, what are what is going on with you guys? You guys are agree? Yeah, I believe they should be more too black and fewer limbs in my opinion. So eels are in order of bony

ray fin fish with elongated bodies. So they are a fish. They're not a snake. They are not a piece of linguini. There fins have fused into a single cell that runs along the top and bottom of their bodies. And there are over eight hundred species of eels. The shortest species is the one jawed eel, which is about two inches long, which is five centimeters, and the longest eel is the slender giant moray that can grow up to thirteen feet which is four meters, and they can weigh fifty five pounds,

which is that's a that's like, gosh, it's too much. Well, you can jump rope with that though, Yeah, that's true. They wouldn't enjoy it. Do some underwater double dutch. I'm not saying you should do it. I'm not saying it's right to do that. I think it's cruel and wrong. All I'm saying is you could. That's true, that don't but you could you ever hear? You? Ever hear the band the Eels? No, they did, they did. There was like nineties they had nineties fame. They did what was it?

What was the song? Novaca? They did a song called I Like Birds that's like perfect for you? Oh my god? How have I not heard this band before? I don't know. Just the one song that's all you need. Do They have a song about jump roping with an eel and how you really want to jump rope with an eel but don't want to admit it to anyone. But the band is all tube shaped. They're all tubes shaped. Okay,

that's good. I'm imagining just like the sort of like wacky inflatable Uh, those like wack inflatable tube dancy guys, except like they're just made out of human flesh. Right, God, do you think of you would let us jump rope? No, no, you shouldn't, And I don't secretly want to either, sure, sure of course not. I imagine them with their little faces and you're jump roping and like they're just allowing it. Uh, and they just got that little eel face, that half

open mouth face. But yeah, that's probably not how would go. Well, no, it's probably how would go. But the eel, I would say, the eel's ability to express its fury is probably limited, so it would have that like gay mouthed eel face, but it would be furious with you planning things. Yeah. Yeah, So the heaviest species of eels is the European conger, who weighs up to two hundred and forty pounds. And that's a hundred and tink. That's that's you know, that's

a lot of eel. I feel like twounds. Yes, that's like a person. Yeah. Look at the there's a picture of a guy jump rope with me, jump rope with me, try to jump rope with me. So eels are typically quite shy. They like to burrow into sand or live in a din, in rocks or in a reef. They have all sorts of different kinds of skin colorations, so they can be spotted, banded pattern they can be really pretty. And that brings me to the Morays. So More's are a family of eels with species found all over the

world's scans. And by the way, when a species is found like all over the world, it's called a cosmopolitan species. When I first read like cosmopolitan animal, I was thinking, like just an animal with like a martini in its hand, voting in pr you know, yeah, hearing that. If I read that word, I'd be like, no, that's not what they're called. Like nice, try science book. It's this eel just kind of like holding his air pods with weird gills, and I just, you know, I read, I read an

interesting article in the New Yorker. So it's also the I believe the type of eel that those eels in the Little Mermaid were fashioned after the what are their names? I don't know. A goof and jeepers, I don't really flats some and jets some thank you so much. Joe, our producer just told us, Flotsom and Jetson, you had that, you had that ready, she had it like locked and loaded. I'm I'm sort of blown over that, which is the

best Disney villain. And I have her whole song memorized and she out so it's there, No, that that's that's that's good stuff. I do love I do love that song. But I forgot that their names are Flotsom and Jetson, but they are More's and so on. A couple of ways, like to know what a Moore is, I I think it's good to have like a little jingle. So here, here we go. Here's a little jingle to to identify a more when it don't have good eyes and it relies on it smells, that's SMA. When it's got big

sharp teeth in it hides in the reef. That's some more. Here you go, there we go. You're making my afternoon, Katie like you. That's good. Okay, that's good. That's that's my singing for the day. Actually, no, that's not my singing for the day. I have been singing a lot in quarantine. Not well, okay, I wouldn't say singing because I'm not really a singer, but I have been just singing random jingles throughout the day, much to the delight of my boyfriend and my dog, who have to hear

it all day long. Things like, you know, we're going to take the dog out, she's going to take a big dump, things like that, you know, just basically bringing a little joy to normal, everyday activities. Yeah, why not, exactly, it's what it's what you gotta, you gotta, you gotta find, you gotta find the jingle, is what I see. Do you sing jingles to remind yourself of things? Not so much. No, I sing jingles just to kind of narrate what I'm

currently doing. Okay, So yeah, no purpose, nothing, just just getting the energy out. Yeah, exactly, that's fair. I mean, I've definitely spent more time talking to my cat now because who the hell else am I going to talk to? Exactly. Yeah, we had a whole fight over treats, but it's it's over with and we got it. We got you've settled, you've buried the beef. Yeah, I had to buy more treats for her. She just didn't like the other ones. It was a whole thing. That's good. I mean you

should have known to immediately capitulate. But that's fine. It's a process. Well there, the temptations are trash, their trash food, but she they're like the combos for cats or doritos, but she won't eat anything else. So welcome to Cat treat Review Corner, A new a new segment in the podcast where I bring on cat treat expert David Bell and he reviews cat treats. You should bring you should, yeah, put me in every episode and Dave, what would you

say is the mouth feel of temptations? They're like cereal that wasn't. No, I wasn't. I didn't want When I was little, my dad my dad fed me cat food. Yeah, and then I wouldn't stop eating it for like a week. Oh Dave, oh boy. Wow. Well that's that's information. That is we're learning. We're this is a learning podcast, and we're learning. We're learning about animals, were learning about each other. Sometimes learning hurts, but it is learning, but it's yeah,

it's important. So now back to learn about more rays. They are medium, too large eels with long, protruding snouts and often they have these big, old, jagged teeth. They'll leave their mouth agape and open and close it slowly, and this actually helps them pump water through their gills. So, Dave, remember earlier you were talking about like how they kind

of open their mouths and close in. They had that weird expression where they just kind of it looks like they're just kind of like slowly yawning and then shutting their mouth over and over. I think there was a meme that described it as they look like they just told a joke, like and they're waiting for you to laugh at it. Yeah, it's it is. That is part of it. They are pumping water through their gills and they're telling a joke every time they do it. What what do you what do you call what do you

call a dumbass? Someone? Someone with legs and arms? That's an eel joke. Yeah, it's it's eel humor. You wouldn't get it. It's eel humor. So they tend to have more mucus on their skin than other eels. That's that's fun. That's a fun thing. Sometimes the mucus is even toxic. Yeah. They are predatory generally speaking, so they will eat you know, meat like other fish, and they will actually become very

affectionate with you if you feed them enough fish. There was this video I watched of this diver who kept feeding this more a fish and the more A was erry shy at first. It took her like years to get this more to get used to her. But finally the more I just like would cuddle with her, get in her arms. She would like pet the more ay. And this is where I'm a downer and tell you you can't do that with wild moras. So if you're scuba diving, the rule is just look at things, but

do not touch stuff. What are the consequences, Well, the consequences are first of all, you go to eel jail, you know, like where you go to like this jail and it's under the water, and like the bars are made out of like eels, you know, they like kind of stay in place, and the and you have like the jit what's what's the jail master called? I forgot

jail master. Jail master is like an awarded you know, the CEO of the jail and it's an octopus that just has a bunch of night sticks and every and every tentacle and you're you know rattling the bars and the bars are like electric eels, which actually we'll talk about electric eels in just a minute. I was going to ask, so I'm glad, yeah, yeah, so yeah, you go to eel jail. But also reef habitats are very

delicate and touching things can cause inadvertent destruction. And also like if wild morays get used to human attention, they may come up to boats or fishermen or you know, just like think it's safe to approach human people, and it's not always safe to do that an eel. Here's

my here's my pitch. Okay. I had this revelation watching the eel videos, and I've had it with a few other things like sea lions and seals and even fish is I didn't realize you could pet them, Like it's just like I didn't know that was an option that like fish, ees and eels, and they're perfect for that, Like they like pets. Why aren't Why aren't we domesticating the ocean more? I want to pat sea lion? How do I get a Okay? Okay, so first of all,

we do people do actually keep eels as pets. I don't know about the ethics of petting an eel who is a pet. I think it probably depends on the type of eel, on its personality. A lot of fish have that sort of mucas e stress coat. So if you actually touch a fish and pet it too much or pet it at all, it can distress the fish and it sheds that protective coat, and that makes it vulnerable to disease. I don't know if that's like just always the case. I've seen some people like basically pet

a koi fish and it seems to enjoy it. You know, maybe like limited touching of certain fishes. Okay, I don't know. I can't give you a list of fish to touch, so I would say don't touch any until you like find out like the list of fish you can touch. And generally speaking, I would say any wild fish or any wild basically any why old animal, don't touch that.

It's a forbidden pet, like the fish, like even the fish that damages are we can't keep doing this like more tempting doesn't meeting down and like in parking garages, giving like just a fish in a bowl and he's like, you know what I need? I need those dangerous pets last time? How did you get here? And it's like a bowl on a roller skate. It's like, how do you think? So I did promise we would talk about electric eels, which is an eel you would definitely not

want to touch. But it's also not actually an eel. So electric eels are not eels. They are knife fish. So they look a lot like eels. They're long, you know, they have that eel appearance, but they are actually in a different type of animal group. That was see there, we got another jingle. They are freshwater fish down in

Central and South America. They are very eel like, but they evolved separately and they can indeed produce electric voltage using organs made of electro sites, which are basically a bunch of tiny organic batteries that can produce electric charge. When a bunch of them are all stacked together, they can produce even more charged. So this can result in shocks of up to eight hundred and sixty volts and one amp of current, which is not deadly to a human, but it can give you a quick jolt of pain

followed by numbness. Some people have likened it to a stun gun, and that's kind of how they use it. So they can use that electric voltage to stun their prey. They can also use it as a way of like, uh, sensing their environment electro reception and that. So yeah, it's

like this multifunctional electricity. But sadly they aren't an eel, so you should we be concerned about them, because is there any other animal with electric like electro powers like platypusas can electric you know, Dave, I didn't say that. I didn't say a platypus, Did I say that. I didn't say that. No, But they have electroc reception, so they can sense electric signals and that's how they hunt for worms and other small squiggly things. The murky waters

sharks can detect electricity. But is there any other animal that can tas you? That's a good question. I don't. I mean, there are other there are other electric fish can taste you, but I think that that is the only animal I know of. We can't electrocute you. It seems weird. And again, it can't electrocute you in the sense that it can't kill you, right, But it does seem concerning, right, Like we have all these animals, there's so many of them, and there's like only like one

or two. That's like oh yeah, and this one will electricute you briefly, and it's like, what why are they doing that? And they're like, I don't know, it's it's it's got it's got power batteries, and like you just explained it and it sounded like the people have figured it out. It's just don't matter. It's weird. And if I were other animals, I'd be like, what the hell, why don't I get to electrocute? It does seem unfair. It does seem like a little bit unfair where it's like, well,

why doesn't every fish shoot lightning at people? Imagine how awesome the ocean would be if they were all doing it, if they were all Lord raid In from Mortal Kombat just having a blast. I guess like if you had too many, too many fish that could produce electricity, they'd all basically like electrify the water. All the fish would die and just be the sudden zap and like all the fish floating to the surface, dead at once, like a big blue whale, Like, oh that's the ocean. I want.

I want an ocean that if you step in like waves are tear ifying. I want I want a world where waves like beaches and waves are seen as like like volcanoes, where it's like, now you don't go to a beach, are you crazy? What if some of that ocean water gets on you, You're gone, You're dead. Well, when we get back, I want to talk about something called the sand shark, which sounds very terrifying, and I think you'll be surprised what it is. Are you an

introvert or an extrovert? Well, this question is misleading. Introversion and extroversion is not a strict binary, and most people don't fall neatly into one category. There's even a label for this. Ambiverts both exhibit introverted and extroverted qualities. Honestly, I don't even think you can encompass the full scope of different personalities with just these three labels introvert, extrovert or ambivert. It seems like it's a much more complex spectrum.

The existence of person reality tests may give us a sense that we can fall into a specific, quantifiable category, but the truth is that personality tests lack the sophistication to capture your whole range of emotion and behavior. Psychologists often urge caution about putting too much faith in personality tests,

especially outside the context of research. It may be fun to take personality tests as long as you take them with a grain of salt, especially ones that place you into specific categories rather than on a continuum of behavior. That said, when we return, we're going to talk about an animal who's definitely on the extreme end when it comes to that behavior continuum, and it's known as the sand shark. Imagine you're walking along some sandy desert dunes.

Maybe you're in a sci fi world where you wear weird outfits and take mind altering drugs called the Ice. You know, basically you're at burning Man. Well, you suddenly feel the sand shift beneath your feet. A sinkhole opens up, sucking you in with surprising speed. But that's just the start of your problems. As the sand drains below you, you see rows of sharp, hungry teeth and an eyeless

horror writhing beneath you. So, Dave, when you think, and this is I guess it's a leading question, but I'm expecting you to probably answer something differently than I want you to, because you know that's that's how it goes

in these in these podcasts. But what do you think like when you think of a reclusive animal, like a crazed reclusive mammal, what do you think of I think of living in like a cabin in the woods, maybe working on a novel, and like maybe the kids are scared of them, but like then it turns out or he or she turns out to be you know, really nice in the end, right or like yeah, or like owns a scary dog and the kids get their baseball stuck in their yard and they have to create a

bunch of contraptions to get that ball out. Well, I want to talk about something called the sand shark, which is sort of the opposite of that. Well, it's a bit of a roller coaster because at first you're like, sand shark. That sounds really scary. I mean I think there's a horror movie called sand shares. Yeah, yeah, probably sand sharks. Sandworms. Basically you put sand and then a scary enough sounding animal after it, like sand tigers, sand lions,

oh yeah, just burwing around. Well, there is a mammal known as the golden mole, which is a family of facorial mammals, which means that they live mostly underground or spend a lot of their time underground. And they look like a little it's kind of pokemon like. It looks like a gold like a golden colored mole, like a blondie version of a mole, you know, like a blondie brownie where you're like, this looks brownie shaped, but it's blond you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, those those little

those weird lie the live paste yeah cookie things. Right exactly. If you look in the doc, you can see a picture of this little guy. Let me check this out. Oh no, it looks like a shoe, looks like it kind of looks like it just like looks like a furry little ball with a nose and little toes sticking out. So here's here's the roller coaster ride, which is like you hear sand shark, you think, oh scary, you know, big teeth gonna eat me. Then you look at this

little guy and it's like, oh, that's so cute. It's just a little it's a little a little furry couchh ball with a nose and feet, right, and then but then when you learn about this it becomes terrifying again. At least if you're like a termite. Oh yeah, well, it's like if you if you had a co worker whose nickname was like killer Steve and he was like a little guy and you're like, what did he do? Like you know there's something We're like, why did you

get that name? Right? Exactly? It's on accountable. The people like yield see me. So yeah, they are. Often they have this like golden almost like iridescent fur, but some species are brown or slate gray, which must suck to be called the golden mole. It's like, well, why aren't you golden? And it's like, well, I don't know, you know, ask ask my god, Ask the god mole why they didn't give me golden fur. Ask the widow who named the not eels electric eels like we were, we're maniacs

when it comes to naming these things. Do you want to hear even more how much of a maniac we are when we come to naming animals? Dave, because it makes no sense. Golden moles are not moles or is the system that whoever sees it first gets to name it and there's no takesise Macsies like people are just like looks like a mole. Case close, they look very much like a mole. They have the mole like shape. They have the diggy claws, the little nose. They are

also blind, so they have no eyes. Actually they do have eyes, but they are completely covered in fur and skin and they are totally nonfunctional. So they look like, oh, what are those the triples in star Treks. They just they don't have like they do have a nose and claws, but they have like no eyes and they look basically they look almost exactly like a mole, but they're not

a mole. So they are in the order Afrosaurrikita, which also contains ten ricks, which is something we talked about on the Pokemon episode called Creature Moan, and which also contains otter shrews, which are neither otters nor shrews. So again the naming of these animals guys. Okay, So again recap, quick recap. Golden mole not a mole. It's in this group called afrosaurro Kita, which contains ten ric and otter shrews, which are not otters and they are not shrews. Okay.

So the golden mole also looks almost identical to Australia's marsupial mole, which is not a mole. Again, so the Australia's marsupial mole is not a mole. It is a It is a mo Okay, let me start over. The golden mole looks like a blonde mole, but it's not a mole. The golden mole looks very similar to the marsupial mole, which is also not a mole. It is a marsupial even though it looks like a mole, but it's not related to the golden mole, which again is

not a mole. Does that it seems like what we're doing is we're just we're we Where we crossed the line as as as a species is when we started describing animals by using the names of other animals. Because it's like, I get it. If something's like blue, you call it blue whatever. And and like like you see something that looks like a mole, You're like, yeah, that's like a mole like thing. You get it. It's a

sort of mole. But then it makes it confusing. Yeah, well when people discovered these, they just thought it was a mole probably and they didn't really you know, question it's like, oh that that there's I've seen those before. That's a mole And they didn't think about this idea, like the idea of convergent evolution, where you have two

animals who evolve independently to look almost identical. I think is hard to grasp for your you know, eighteen hundreds guy going out and like, hmm, yes, Watson, I've found a golden mole. I've tried to eat it, but there's not much meat on those bones. I'm surprised they didn't describe everything is like some because like I get it, like everything's kind of a mole, like my cats, kind

of a mole. It's small, it's furry, it's aggressive. Like yeah, it's like they're all it's almost you've seen those long sea moles. Yeah, I want to call them a tube mole to water tube mole. So golden moles of Southern Africa again not moles. They are introverts in the sense that they basically spend all their time burrowing underground to eat insects. So without eyesight, they appear to use their feet and their heads to since vibrations of predators and prey and he I don't know, I just wanted to

throw this fact out. They have a kloaka like birds and reptiles. Just just one hole that does it all. They're a real, real streamlined animal, no eyes, just one hole. They're really minimum. They do have a mouth, they do have nostrils, but they're minimizing the amount of holes in the body. See, we just need a tube and just one hole. That's all we need, and that's all we need to be. We just need to be a tube.

You guys learn from the eels and the golden moles try to live that tube life to life, and they also go into torpor when resting to conserve energy. So torpor is sort of like a mini hibernation where you slow down your bodily functions, so it's like a mega serious nap, but you can wake up out of it fairly quickly. So with hibernation it's much more serious, it lasts longer, it's harder to wake up. Torpor, you can kind of it's easier to wake up from. It's just

like an extremely serious nap. Or your heart rate and breathing slow down dramatically. And they have highly efficient kidneys and they don't really have to drink water, so they can get most of their moisture from prey. So they are just the most efficient little fuzzy donuts. Yeah, they got it all figured out. How do how do we how do we pretend like where the dominant species when these littles are running around? I don't know. I mean, you know, we say we're the most dominant, but are

we the most efficient? Yeah, we're not. We're definitely not the best species. Like we don't I don't know what these moles are up to. Also, like they could be running at all, I don't know. Well, they do spend a lot of time underground. Do we spend a lot of time underground? No, So we don't know what they're doing down there. We don't know what they're scheming their

little mole with their little mole plans. So there's a species of golden mole that spend all their time in sand dunes and they basically swim around under the sand and sneak up but sneak up on prey by burrowing under them and devouring them from below, like one of those worm from Tremors or the sandworms from Dune. You can actually see them swimming under the sand like remember in Looney Tunes, like when bugs Bunny would burrow under the dot and you'd see like a mound of dirt

moving around. It looks like that, but in sand, and they are able to sense the vibration of insects walking on the sand above and they will just like get right under the insect and eat it up, like imagine. That's literally the graboids and tremors. They feel vibrations, yeah, right right, and that's why that's why they are also

called a dune shark. I don't know why they aren't called the graboid dune graboids, but you know they don't so so they just like imagine being like a little termite or they will occasionally even eat small reptiles, but termites make up most of their diet. And you're just like, you know, walking on the sand. You don't see anything, you know, you're you're staying vigilant, and then like a sink whole swallows you up, and then a mole that caused the sinkhole swallows you up again with its teeth.

It's just horrifying. Yeah that is that's that's horror movie stuff. That's yeah, yeah, yeah, but adorable, adorable with an animal that's so droopy it can't use its eyes. It's like you're too squishy for sight, but they eat you from below exactly. So these dune sharks, the golden moles that live on the dunes don't tend to live in permanent burrows like other species of golden mole. They will just kind of like hang out in the sand. They will

live sort of in uh in the nighttime. They like burrow into little like caves under plants, and they will stick their whole head in the sand and listen for vibrations and burrow under and bugs, bunny their way over to a group of insects or small reptiles and just just eat them. Just chow down on those poor little suckers. They're doing a great job. I really I feel very like, I don't know, jealous. I guess like they just seem

to have it all, everything perfectly figured out. You want to live that sandy donut life, ye just I mean it does sound kind of luxurious in a way. You just kind of like and they like have this like shimmering golden fur and you see them just easily dive under the sand and they pop out and all the sand just like rolls off their back. It's I think it's that burrowing animals always seem like they're living under

their blankets. Yeah, yeah, I know. Do you ever like I have those mornings where I basically just like rip off all the blankets from the bed and as I move because it's like I don't want to leave bed that I have to for some reason. So as a compromise, I bring most of the bed with me. Yes, And then when you plant somewhere, you just sort of plant down in a sleepy position, right, and you just kind of like burrito it up right, you go, you you start the coffee maker, then you just lie straight down

on the kitchen floor. You're living the Golden Mole lifestyle. I'm actually named after. Is gonna say you're living the golden lifestyle. Your your family name is the family name is named after the Golden Mole, even though it's spelled differently. For copyright issues, we had to change the spelling. But yeah, we are named after the Golden mole. Sure do you have Do you have the same problem as me? Is you know when people like look up what does your name mean? Uh, and it's like, oh, it means it

means peacefulness, or it means this. I looked up my last name and it was just like it's like an instrument. Man, Okay, fine, Yeah, I don't know what I was expecting. Is it kind of the same with like it's golden golden? Like yeah, so I don't really know like what I have. I actually don't really know because it's g O L D E N Surprise Prize and it is a Jewish name. It is a Russian Jewish name, I think, originating somewhere near the Ukraine. And I don't know what it means.

Maybe it used to be like maybe it was like Goldsmith at one point, or you know, Schmidt or something, and like, but then it just got shortened to like yeah, just golden. We're just golden, you know. I hope it. I hope it goes all the way back to Dune Shark, Like you just due shark. We were golden mole shepherds. Yeah, also dune Shark. I just realized, is like that's like someone's mad Max name. Yeah yeah, yeah, he's got tubes coming out of his eyeballs or something. Oh yeah, he's

got tubes coming out every which way. It's these are very mad Max mammals, so and so efficient. Admire their efficiency. They got it all. Figure it out. I don't remize the whole, minimize the holes. And that's probably good because they're spending so much time underground. Like you're minimizing the amount of like holes that like sand can get into. Yeah, you can't get in your eyes. You don't need them.

You don't need your eyes because you're like like an earth bender listening to vibrations in the ground and like you you only need one hole really like downstairs and the downstairs plumbing. Only one hole means less sands gets in there. Yeah, just really really sleek redesign of a mammalian body that I enjoy. Good good on them, Good job moles. Golden moles use their superhering to their advantage, But for humans who are more introverted, noise can be

a problem. A study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology by below Zebek at All found that a noisy environment can affect performances on mental arithmetic tasks, but it depends on whether you're more introverted or more extroverted. Participants responded to a questionnaire that estimated their leanings towards extroversion or introversion. Those that were more extroverted were able to complete the arithmetic tasks faster in noisy environments compared to

quiet conditions. Conversely, more introverted people struggled with concentration and felt fatigue during noisy conditions compared to quiet conditions. The study does not reveal causation, that is, whether introversion or extroversion causes the difference in mental processing, or if introverted and extroverted lifestyles change the way your brains work in different environments. Either way, it does show that if you're more introverted and you have trouble concentrating in noisy environments,

you're not alone. When we return, we'll talk about an animal that fairly makes the sound, but whose bark is worse than its bite, well in most cases. So, Dave, this may be an odd question for you, given how much you are a party animal, loved party, But have

you ever been to a party or social gathering? Like you know in the before times you should be doing zero party you now, but when you wished you could just kind of flatten up against the wall and like just like lend into the wallpaper or sort of lay on the ground and pretend to be a rug and just kind of like flatten flatten on the ground and like still listen to people's conversations, but nobody notices you're there. You just you just turn like T one thousand, you

just turn to the wall. I mean, I know, I'm I love I love parties. Everybody look at me. Started I knew, I knew center center of attention, best party boy. No, I mean I would do the equivalent of, you know, going to the bathroom and figuring out how how many times I could go to the bathroom where it didn't seem like I had like diarrhea. Yeah, it's a delicate balance.

That was my sanctuary in in high school and college, just like I got to go to the bathroom and you know, like oops, like what's on my cell phone? Oh that I got a text and that means I have to go to the bathroom now. Oh yeah, the phone really helps. Yeah, phone helps. Pets. Pets help, Like you just absorbed Like someone has a dog. You just absorbed the dog into your being. So it's like me

and this dog, we've got important matters to discuss. You ever have it, though, I've had this happen where you do where the pets you you gravitate to the pet, and the pet even is like like I have other people to pet rejects you. It's like you're you're great, but it's been a it's been an hour, so I do ye oh absolutely, I've like I've like clung to a pet and a pet. It's it's just like you know, like okay, it's like it was nice to meet you, but like you not be so clingy. You're like really

cramping my style. Yeah it's and it's a pug and it's just no, please, please don't leave me. Well, I want to talk about an animal that has perfected the Wallflower method by basically just doing exactly what I described. And this is the wraparound spider. So, Dave, there is a picture. Do you are you? Oh? That's good. I'm glad.

I find them cute too. I have Okay, this is my my spider history is my best friend going up had a tarantula and so when I would sleep over, my face would be aligned with the terrarium, so I would wake up to like this tarantula just staring at me. Uh. And So what that did was it gave me like a little bit of nostalgia for them. But it's like it's like what the that aquarium is doing to the eels where its habituating the eels to the human faces.

In this scenario, you were the eel and the tarantula face was the human face, and it habituated you to the tarantula face the eel all time. Another another thing that UM like I got I found little or spiders a little creepy like I like them when they're fluffy, Yes, spiders. Another thing that made me like spiders more is my cat because she's like a big old tarantula. She's got she scuttles, she's got like you know, they got dead

eyes insector uh and so out of acted energy for sure. Yeah, and so like that actually has made me more like like spiders more because I was gonna scuttle, but not any treat. The specific treat, Well, this one is I've seen people describe this as horrifying. To me, it's really cute just because it's such a shy little little It's

just so shy. They just want to be just so. Basically, this shy Australian cutie likes to flatten itself and wrap around a tree branch, which is a form of crips is to make it look like a bit of bark or lichen and blend seamlessly into the branch due to a modeled leopard like coloration, So it's kind of it's brown, sort of modeled. It looks a little bit like a piece of bark, but it doesn't just sit on the branch. It wraps around it like you know, like a slap bracelet.

It's like a slap bracelet, but made out of a spider. It's just like or a cute one. Sorry not to not to keep going on the cuteness of spiders, but I think part of what makes them cute is that they're kind of horrifying. Yes, yeah, exactly. I had a friend described them perfectly as their lives are a combination of mortal terror and insatiable blood lust. Right, That's that's their two modes. Is like they're like, I don't want

to die and I just want some blood. There's this video of a spider getting spooked, like getting startled, and you know it's it starts out, you know, that's got these big slender legs and it's crawling towards you and it's got that spooky spider energy and then someone startled it and it just does a thing that you know, like most creatures do when they're startled, where it kind of jumps and then just like starts to flail away in a panic, all its legs operating and just a

panic just flailing. It's like and it's so awkward, you know, like skittting across the floor, stumbling and tripping a bit. Right, they're horrifying. I'm sorry, yeah, because they they're horrifying to little insects that they eat, but like to a human like they they'll look up to you, like mid digesting a fly and look like, oh, oh, oh god, this is awkward. Oh jeez uh little monsters. They also seem to know exactly, they know exactly how to bother us,

how to freak this out. Like I remember was driving once and a spider just started dangling down from the ceiling in front of my eyes, and it's like this spider could kill me, right, but it's all unintentional, right,

just just hanging on a thread. And then it kind of slowly turns around and tell its face to face with you, and you can imagine it just doing a tiny gulp, just like it's like it's like being dressed like a werewolf in public and you keep scaring children, and you don't want to scare children, but you're not going to take out. You can't take off the werewolf cost him. I'm so sorry. I have so many leg come for us. It's me too. I can't change who I am. So the wraparound spider tries to be as

obsequious as possible by wrapping around a tree branch. Its body is flat and disc shaped and its belly is convex, so it can Actually it's like perfectly molded to wrap around a tree branch like a glove, a glove made

out of spider, and it is fuzzy. So it's like I find these cute, but I will admit, like if I was walking around in Australia and I rested my hand on a branch and I I was like, huh, this is fuzzy, and then I look over and it's just this little spider going like hello, I would fall on panic, I'd be done, would kill me. Yeah, that's the thing, it's the surprise factor. Yeah, Like part of me is like I kind of want to wrap one to wrap around my finger, my arm. I think that would be

like a hug, like a warm, fuzzy hug. But if I were to, yeah, I put my hand on a branch in this hap it's coming, Yeah exactly. Yeah, well, I mean that's a good rule for any hug. I would say, you gotta know it's timing and like be accepting of it. So it is not actually doing this to startle us and to like just like you know, give us a good spook. It is doing this to protect itself from predators. So this is their daily routine.

Every night they construct a simple web to catch prey, and they tear it down every morning so that they leave no trace and they can hide against the tree and remain safe from predators. And so yeah, they're just really terminally shy they know, I mean, they're yeah, I get it. They're like, look, I'm not really living life this way, but I'm living, right. I am alive? Am I living? No? I am alive? Though. Yeah, It's it's

like it's like again, it's like an apocalypse. It's like the road where it's like keep moving, have a small camp, don't draw any attention to itself, right exactly. Yeah, it's just like I imagine just like them getting really nervous and starting to sweat. They don't sweat really, but like if there's a bird or another predator nearby, they're just like on the branch kind of like silently sweating, going

like I'm a branch. I'm a branch on my branch, a branch on my branch, right, just some bird feet like right near them, like consolutely, Yeah, just a normal branch, just doing normal branch stuff, normal branch. They should have done what other spiders and you said this Australia, right, and just get big enough to kill the birds. That seems like a technique. Just shoot lightning. Why don't all

animals shoot lightning? Lightning? Man. So one other reason to love these spiders is there not a threat to humans. They do have a mild venom, and but that's really just for their prey. They that venom is not typically dangerous to humans who aren't allergic, which again like don't just go poke in a spider because you don't know if you're going to be allergic have a bad reaction. And also leave the spider alone. Yeah, just leave it alone. Come on, they're shy there, They're poor little shy guys

and gals. Yeah, I feel like we would be less afraid of spiders if we viewed them as extremely awkward, shy little nerds just trying to trying to blend in, and they will go to great lengths to not be noticed by you, and like seriously serious length. So I want to talk about fryin Arachne de scipiens, which is also known as the bird dropping spider. So there are a few types of spiders and other insects that will actually try to look like bird droppings, but this one

really takes it to an other level. I think this is the best bird dropping mimic I've ever seen. So this spider is a very shy little crab spider from Malaysia who wants to is so desperate to go unnoticed by predators that it mimics a pile of pooh, which is also what I do when I don't, you know,

like when you don't. It's like especially now, like when I'm trying to socially distant, so like as like if I look like a piece of bird poop, like you know, or just like yeah, you get your you get your blankets that you're having with you all day and you wrap up like a like a piece of poop and they're also covered in bird poop because of all the birds I've been liting liting inside. It's like I can't go outside, come inside, share the space with me, poop

on my blankets. Yeah, So these bird dropping spiders are like the Daniel day Lewis of bird poop. They have the role of the lifetime, the only work every like five years. It is literally life or death. So this is the role of a lifetime pretending to be bird poops. So the spider's belly is chalky white with a kind of light shine on it. It's got these black legs with some splotches of white. Take a look at that photo of this thing. Is the poop around it part

of the spider? M m. That's an interesting question one I will answer. Um. You know what I appreciate about the spider he or she they they they're not disguising themselves as something we're gonna want to touch, right, So it's a good like. They're not you know, they're not the gummy bear spider or anything like that. They're not the dollar bill spider. Yeah, God, I want one of those.

It's like a bizarre coincidence. They just look like our currency, and every time you see a dollar bill in the ground. You have to ask yourself, is this spider I'm not going to touch you isn't going to fight me and scuttle away? So you do have to be careful around bird poop in Malaysia because it could be a spider. So, you know, as tempting as it is to touch the bird poop, could be a spider. So it maybe that's why we stopped touching bird poop. You know, makes you think, yeah, no,

it does. Yeah, everybody loves bird poop. So it will lay on its belly and curl in its legs to physically mimic a piece of dripping, splattered bird poop. So, like you mentioned earlier, it looks impossible because it also looks like the ground below it is splattered bird poop. And any bird poop actor knows that staging and atmosphere are the most important parts of embracing your character as

being bird poop. So so it weaves a flat white bed of sticky web that it anchors itself too, So it's not just to look like bird poop, although it doesn't, it gives us really nice stage of you know how like if if there's a piece of bird poop, it kind of splatters. There's like a flat part of white, dry crusty bird poop, and then a sort of like moister bulb of duty. This is like the spider is made this effect. So it's web is this flat white

it looks like dried bird poop. And then the spider itself looks like that, like little chunk of extra bird poop on top with you know, and the black legs modeled with the white. It is stunning how detailed its coloration is to look like splattered bird bird duty. I have a question about this spider and the last one. How do they know to do this? I mean they they don't. So they're spiders, right, They don't have the biggest brains. They don't really know that they're doing this.

They're not like even though I like joke about it, they are not like, all right, today's another day to pretend to be a piece of point. They aren't. They aren't a group of spiders of the same species. Who was like, hey, I have an idea. You see those bird poop, But like I this is probably a dumb question because it applies to just animal behavior in general. But like, has it seen bird poop? And it knows to do that. How does what is in its d n A that knows I need to look like bird poop.

It's a very good question, actually, and I think it's an important one to answer, because when you look at these animals, you're like, Okay, there's no way that God isn't just a giant like spider or a giant bird. And who's like, and you look like poop? Because it's funny. But so how this happens? And it's not that it's not planned by the spiders. So think of the spider as like a really sophisticated a computer program or a

little robot. And whenever there is a mutation, it's often mutations are bad, so they don't really do anything either bad or neutral. But occasionally there will be a mutation that increases an organism's chance of survival. And it's this only makes sense when you realize how long millions of years is, Like, millions of years is a really long time.

It's it's just a massive amount of time, especially for an animal like a spider that reproduces so quickly, has a relatively short lifespan and reproduces so you'll have many, many generations even within a year and then multiply that by by millions and millions of years, and so you'll get basically you have this computer program. It's not non actual. I'm not saying spiders are drones. I'm not starting a

conspiracy theory. But you you have this like organic program running, which is that if it passes on it's d N A, then that DNA is like the next generation of DNA, So like uh, any anything that prevents it from getting

eaten is passed on to the next generation. So you could have a slight alteration like maybe you know and and there can be like weird twists and turns to action as well, like the webbing could have been to trap little insects or to steady itself on a leaf and then but it looked kind of like bird poops, so predators avoided it because there are once you have like you do, like have visual systems that can recognize like, okay,

this is the shape of bird poop. So if you're a if you're a bird or another predator or a jumping spider which is one of their predators, and it looks it's looking for a specific pattern that to it reads food. Whereas bird poop is like, that's bird poop. You know that's not good. But so it's so so millions of years of these changes and then okay, and then it has a mutation where it's kind of it's

belly is white. Wow, Okay, that one actually survives more because it looks even more like bird poop, and then also changes in its its brain and its instincts where it does certain things that make it survive better. So again, like it's basically a computer that is able to self replicate over millions of years and change its own programming, and yeah, it's gonna turn into bird poop, is what

I'm saying. Right, that does make sense. It's it's a bizarre path that these specific spiders happened to take where they were in the right area where it was like yeah, okay, so I'm getting it where it's like it's evolution. This spider that just happened to look this way by pure coincidence, didn't even realize that it was doing this, where it's like, oh,

I just look less edible and the more. And then like that the one that survived, and then it kept going like we could be that we could look exactly like the poop of aliens and we don't even know, we have no idea. I think that is what is confusing when we think about evolution, because humans can and some animals potentially can make conscious survival decisions like yeah

we do, like why do we have hair? It's like I don't know, and it's like, well, because because it looks cool and it's fond to feather, right, But after like all this time, it's just that's like the way you'd ask the spire like why do you look like that? They're like I don't know, Yeah, like I didn't decide to look this way. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, but yeah, so it is yeah, it's I mean, like when you think about it, it is crazy how much complexity you get

through evolution. So it also emits a stinky odor that smells like bird droppings, which doesn't just you know, seal the deal and really sell its method acting. But it also attracts small insects, like it's prey that are super into bird poop, which works out really well for the bird dropping spider because it's like all the things that doesn't want to notice it, like are not into eating bird poop, but little insects that like it. Would be into coming over and checking it out, like are into

bird poop, so it comes over. It's it's the perfect, perfect disguise, right, much like the money spider, I want to exist. We should always be thankful that our food doesn't like that that it's not like, okay, um, this burger king is good, don't go to this one because it's actually a giant spider. Like I'm glad. I'm glad

that are like restaurants and stuff don't trick us. Well they do, but you know what I mean, they don't there there's not like monsters pretendings, right, I'm trying to think of, Like, so if I'm trying to make friends, like what would I dress up as to lure in the pool that I want to get to know while turning off everyone that I wouldn't want to get to know.

Right now, it's by wearing a face mask outside because it's like all the responsible good people are like, hey, that's great, I love that you're wearing a face mask, and all the terrible people think I'm being weird. Right, I think the face mask is it until it's until it suddenly until like you know, in like I don't know, five years from now, when it's hopefully not a problem anymore, hopefully like then, it would be weird to wear a face mask. But it's gonna be hard, though I think

it'll be it'll be good. Like I'm not saying I don't want it to happen. I do, but it's just gonna be weird. Like you're gonna feel untethered. It's gonna feel yeah, naked. I'll feel naked. You'll talk to me in my face and I'll feel naked, like we're having some kind of weird interaction. Like I feel like, do I need to put underpants on my face? You know? Yeah you could. That would also guarantee that only the cool people would go up, Yeah, exactly. Putting underpants on

your face is sort of the bird dropping spider method. Well, I gotta tell you, as someone who was a punk for very long, that is kind of the purpose of looking like a punk. Like the mohawk stuff. Oh yeah, I had, Oh my god, a mohawk for the better part of my most of my god, how did I not? Oh my god, I lived with a punk band. Oh my god. I I went to punk like I went to London and did like punk festival there. I've done a lot of punk stuff. Yeah the hell, how did

I know? Are you? You're not? Like this isn't a joke. I'm not getting My favorite bands are like British seventies punk. Oh my god, like like Coxspar and I'm dizzy right now learning this about you. Yeah, I still listen to punk, but like I used to dress like a punk. I'll send you some pictures that, um credible, But that's sort of part. There's a lot of reasons for the punk aesthetic, but one of them was always like almost just so

punks can identify each other. Because like when you're walking around like in public, like during when you know there's like punk shows in the area punk festival, you see the mohawks, you see you see, You're like yeah, yeah, and then you and then you like and then you call out oi oi oi boi, and then like have your your mohawk go up like a cockatoo exactly exactly. But you're scared. I guess how I dressed in high

school and in my twenties. No, no, you have to guess. Okay, well, I know you're into metal, right, so I'm gonna say, like you you're like ripped jeans, maybe like a Mega Death or like a Helloween T shirt. Uh, like real eighties style. Yeah, Sadly no, I dressed like a total dorc, I know, just like war basically jeans and sweaters most

of the time. And then in college I had this brief period of time where I look, I don't know why I did this, but I wanted to dress sort of like a glam hair metal so I would wear like I wore, like skirts over jeans. Didn't it didn't really make a whole lot of sense, you know, I should not it. In high school I was a mess too. It was my twenties where I like, I always liked punk, but I never dressed like but I mean, yeah, do glam metal man's great? Yeah. And then someone asked me like,

why are you wearing a skirt over jeans? And I was like, well, you never know when like a breeze gun come by, and you know, I like the look of the skirt, but I like the comfort of the genes you got sense. I don't know about that. I don't know. Well, well, Dave, thank you so much for joining me today on this journey to discover the invertebrate weight no introverts, introvertebrates, animals. Um, do you have anything to plug? Oh? No, Um, yeah I think I do. I I code. I co run a podcast network with

Tom Ryman. It's called game Fully Unemployed. Our our podcast is called It's it's I think it's marked a story mode on like iTunes and and the and the other podcast places. But you can also just check out our patreon at patreon dot com slash game fully Unemployed. You can also hit me up on on the on the Twitters at at movie hool again awesome, and you can find me on the internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram.

I'm going to try now actually loading pictures of the animals that we talk about on the Instagram, so we also have them in the footnotes. But if you're on another platform and those aren't working for you, I'm going to try to get those up on the Instagram as well. So that's at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram at Creature

feet Pod. On Twitter, that's f e a T, not f e E T. That's on my' are and different And you can find me on Twitter at Katie Golden and you know, just like my Katie thoughts, like they're not necessarily related to the podcast, Just Katie thoughts and as always, I am at pro bird rights as well, where I am fighting for everyone's rights to be a bird or bird poop. I don't judge. I don't judge. Thanks to the Space Classics for their groovy song. X Alumina.

Creature Feature is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit I heart radio dot com dot i heart radio app or rebulous to your shows. See you next Wednesday.