Listener Q's: Dead Wasps, Cannibals, Cute Bunnies!

give it my best shot to answer. So let's get right into it with the first question. Dear Katie Golden. A few weeks ago, I was in church when an infant was being baptized, and our excellent priest said, casually as people do, that the baby was just quote soaking up everything like a sponge, and I thought, I think sponges are pretty heavily involved and filtering. However, I'm very ignorant about sponges, so when I got home, I took a cursory look and found that I wasn't wrong, but

more importantly, that sponge physiology is remarkable and romantic. So I naturally and immediately hoped you might do sponges. Thanks for thinking about it. From Marianne. Thank you so much for this episode idea, mary Anne, I agree that sponges are fascinating. They have no brains, no organs, no true tissues. They only have the ability to move around when they're larvae. They can regenerate into a new sponge if you break

off a peach. They are pretty magical. Their cells can migrate through their bodies and some cells can even change function. There are even carnivorous sponges which can trap and eat small prey. They don't even have just one mouth, they

have many, many, many tiny mouths called ostia. Despite the fact that they have no noses, they can also do this thing called a sneeze, where they eject waste filled mucus out of their tiny mouths, so they sneeze through their mouths, which is rude for a person to do, but normal for a sponge to do. And you can only see this sneeze if you speed up footage of

a sea sponge. But there is some footage online if you look for a sea sponge sneeze, I think you should find it should be safe to look for that, I think, but yeah, it is a great idea to do a whole episode on sea sponges. I would love to do that and I probably will soon, so thank

you for that suggestion. Onto the next question. Hey, Katie, I was wondering if you were tasked with writing a Black Mirror episode in which the bad actors running the military of a nation wanted to utilize the animal kingdom for espionage in some way, like Valdimir the Blugo, which creature would you force to become our surprisingly skilled collaborator. This is from PK. Thank you for the surprisingly specific question. So some background on what listener PK is referring to.

Vladimir is a beluga that well, actually it's called Vladimir with kind of an H. It's like an H in front of the name Vladimir. So Vlaldemir is a beluga that was found by Norwegian fishermen in twenty nineteen with

a camera strap to it. The theory is that it's a spy beluga from Russia, given that the camera says quote equipment Saint Petersburg, which if it's an actual spy beluga, seems kind of sloppy to label your beluga essentially as coming from Saint Petersburg, So it seems a little too obvious to be an actual spy beluga, but both the US and Russia have indeed used wales in military program Still, it's also probable that the whale is part of some

kind of zoological research or other purpose, given how the camera was so clearly labeled, which again seems weird if it's a spible luga. Onto the question of what animal would I use as a spy. I think I would use an animal that's pretty cosmopolitan. So when I say cosmopolitan, it doesn't mean a cultured animal. It means an animal that lives all over the world, so that you could train it and deploy it and it would not raise

too many suspicions. So one also that could be equipped with a tiny spy camera and would be guaranteed to come back to a certain location. My first thought is bees. I'd probably recruit some bees, affix tiny or quarters or cameras to them. As long as my target was near some flower, I would have an army of faithful little spies who would return to the hive at whenever you know they're done doing their little patrol of all the flowers.

So I think they would be quite useful. I guess the downsize of the downside of them is the fact that they are so small. But honestly, pigeons are also good candidates for spies because you can train a pigeon to return to a specific location a lah homing pigeons, and in fact, in World War One, pigeons were given spy cameras and they were actually used for espionage. The CIA also used pigeons as spies during the Cold War and actually use them on American soil purportedly for quote

unquote testing. The pigeons were outfitted with cameras that were very readvanced at the time, and we're able to take high definition photographs of their targets with like a lot of detail. It was pretty exciting. I guess for the CIA, little suspicious that they were using them on US soil. I'm not saying we're currently surrounded by spy pigeons, but I guess maybe think before you share state secrets while giving bread to pigeons in the park. That's just my suggestion.

All right, on to the next listener question. Hey, Katie love the show. I have a couple questions for your trove of knowledge. One is it true that killing a wasp or hornet will attract others to that location? And two? Why are some dogs particularly interested in their pemails while others aren't. I have a Betty whippett who absolutely has to smell everything he walks past, but isn't very interested

in socializing with other dogs. All other dogs I know enjoy a sniff, but aren't as adamant or throw as he is. Maybe he's just strange and he attached pictures of the little doggie, So this is from Iona. Thank you for the questions and for the lovely photo of the dog. I know his name's not mister Grumpers, but he looks like a mister Grumper's because he's got a mister Grumper's face. So let's answer the first question. First, is it true that killing a wasp or hornet will

attract others to that location? So first, let's talk about bees.

Actually not my spy bees that I talked about earlier, but species of honeybees who will release alarm pheromones when they are attacked, and they will also release an alarm pheromone when they use their stinger, which detaches and higher concentrations of alarm pheromones will induce other honey bees to want to sting, although this plateause ONTs a certain maximum concentration of alarm pheromone is detected, which is pretty clever when you think about it, because once you get enough

bee stings that the threat has probably been dealt with, and if you get more things coming to sting, that's just superfluous attacks. And it's costly because it kills the bee. So killing a bee does other than like the bee killing itself by stinging you, doesn't really cause it to release alarm pheromones. Unless it releases the alarm pheromones before you kill it, it's unlikely to attract other bees. Or if by killing it you kind of smooth it and

like I guess, pop open the alarm pheromone gland. When a bee dies, it does release olaic acid, which induces hygienic cleaning behavior and other bees basically undertaking behaviors, so they will clear out the dead bee because they smell the olaic acid, and this is probably you know, to keep the hive clean and hygienic. You know, you gotta bring out you're dead. When you live in a hive and you gotta keep things clear so disease doesn't spread

onto wasps and hornets. So social wasps and hornets both have alarm pheromones like bees, that allow them to coordinate with their sisters when there is a threat or a

target to attack. So, like a bee, if you manage to kill a wasp or hornet, if before you kill it, you trigger its alarm pheromone that will potentially alert other wasps or hornets to your location, or if you smush it such that the alarm pheromone gland releases that chemical, you may also attract other wasps or hornets to your location. But is the act of killing the wasp or hornet the trigger to releasing pheromones? So, like say you expertly assassinate a wasp before it even knows what hits it,

is that going to release pheromones? Because I see a lot of advice online not to kill a wasp because it will attract other wasps by releasing an alarm of pheromone, like the killing of the wasp is what releases the pheromone. But I was not able to find any research that would back up that claim. It seems more likely that when you kill a wasp, or you kill a hornet, you don't immediately kill it so it has a chance

to release that alarm pheromone before dying. Or if you smash the wasp and you release the contents of its venom glands which contains the alarm pheromones, that could also draw more wasps or more hornets to your location. But like if you had an instant wasp kill death ray that can just turn a wasp from being alive to dead, the dead wasp itself does not really release an alarm

pheromone just because it died. Otherwise, wasps would freak out all the time every time a wasp dies of natural causes inside the nest, and that would not be safe or practical for the wasps. In fact, studies of wasp alarm pheromone, they actually capture the wasps by freezing them.

So they capture the wasp, they freeze them and this kills them and that way they can safely extract the alarm pheromone from their venom sacks, so you know, because they don't they don't want to like kill them by smashing them or having them be scared before they die, so that you know, they release the alarm pheromone, so they can extract it this way, and wasps and hornets, just like bees, also engage in this sort of undertaker

behavior where they remove dead coy members. So it's very likely that just like in bees, there's some kind of chemical release upon death that the other members of the colony are sensing that lets them know that it is

time for body disposal. I don't know if the exact chemical has been identified in wasps and hornets, but you know, whether it's like a like acid like in bees, or some other fatty acid or something else entirely, I don't know, but yeah, I suspect that they are, you know, pretty well equipped with a chemical that lets other their sisters basically know that there's a dead body here cleared out. But it's not the same as an alarm pheromone. It doesn't, you know, have them all convene to go to war.

It's just basically like, hey, there's a dead body over here, you got to clean it out. So that would be my answer is like killing them might indeed cause other wasps to convene at the location if they're so so wasps, but it's not because it's a dead wasp releasing the pheromone.

It would be the wasp is aware of the danger, like that instinct to release the pheromone happens before it dies, or you've smushed it such that it releases the pheromone anyways by just kind of popping open the venom glands. So yeah, real fun stuff with wasps. So we are going to take a quick break. But when we get back, we've got more listener questions. I am going to now answer the second half of the question why some dogs

are particularly interested in peepe smells while others aren't. The prison who rode in has a dog who is very interested in smelling everything he walks past, but he is not interested in socializing with other dogs. It's really interesting. I have noticed this too. I have a dog, my dog Cookie, who loves smelling everything. She also is not necessarily that interested in socializing with other dogs. She's a little scared of other dogs. I think with I mean

with sense. It is a very enriching activity for dogs. So I would highly recommend people lit their dogs smell things on walks. It is like for dogs, their sense of smell is so incredibly powerful and detailed that it's almost like our vision is to us where they can find so much information just from smelling smells. They know, like when something came by, what it was, they can usually tell, like, you know, like was this dog you

know in estress? Was this dog you know stressed? So all sorts of things from these piece smells, and then all sorts of other things from so many other different smells, and so to them, like when they sniff around in a part or wherever, they are getting all this information. So it's like reading a newspaper or looking at an art gallery. They're getting a lot of stimulation from it.

So it's really enriching for them. It's a nice idea to let your dog sniff around, get some good sniffs in, because they're essentially just like keeping up with doggy news. Why some dogs are more interested in it than others, I mean, it's a really interesting question. I think it just comes down to dogs having different personalities. You know, my dog is kind of an introvert like your dog. She enjoys smelling things a whole lot, but she gets

a little bit scared from other dogs. So maybe for her, you know, the smells are a much more safe way for her to keep up with the dog news know, like who her neighbors are, what other dogs are doing, but it doesn't come with the same sort of intimidation that she experiences when she's actually face to face with

another dog. So she really enjoys the smells. Maybe it's really stimulating for her too, because if she's really high strung, she gets you know, a lot of stimulation just from the smells alone, whereas maybe for another dog, they're more easily bored by just the smells and they want more

stimulation by actually playing with other dogs. I would like in it, maybe too humans, you know, like some people like you know, more thrilling things like horror movies or roller coasters, whereas others are maybe more satisfied with, you know, more calm things, and just taking in like a painting or a book really you know, slowly and methodically is plenty satisfying. So I think dogs are the same way.

Some dogs are thrill seekers, they need more stimulation than just smelling, and some dogs really just enjoy focusing on

smelling and taking in their environment that way. All dogs typically have such a refined sense of smell, though, I think it's a good idea to let them smell and it's There's actually been some studies that allowing dogs to smell their environment and search for things with smells like gives them a more optimistic outlook, like they are more likely to continue to try to attempt puzzles and things like when they are given the chance to just smell

around their environments. So I highly encourage allowing your sweet little dog who love smelling things to keep on sniffing. Onto the next listener question. Do cannibal morphs of axe lottles look different from the regular morphs? Also? Are they physiologically different from their non cannibal brethren. I've also heard that cannibalizing others can cause an axe a lottle to quote grow up and become a salamander looking little beast. Are there cannibal morphs of animals other than axe lottles?

I know there are other animals that are just generally cannibals, but are there any that just have the occasional weird guy who starts munching on his friends or enemies? I guess, why do you think people are so driven to keep exotic animals as pets when they should not be pets like chimpanzees? Is it a desire to feel special or different. Do they think they have a special connection with that animal or is it something I'm not thinking of. My first pet was a rabbit named Cookie, which is also

my dog's name, by the way. And after hearing that pet birds aren't really domesticated and are apparently the same as their wild counterparts, I've been wondering if the same is true for rabbits, or if bunnies are more like dogs and have been selectively bred over a period of time to be domesticated for other common animals that are kept as pets like rats, mice, fares, hamsters, etc. And then I got a bunch of beautiful photos of Cookie the rabbit rest in peace, little Cookie the rabbit, and

a pet dog named Bear who's adorable. And this is from Sky. Thank you for all of the really good questions and adorable animal pictures. Cookie was a very cute little look like a little oreo and Bear is an adorable little grimlin of a dog. I love all these questions, so I'm gonna answer all of them. Let's first start with the first question, which is do cannibal morphs of axe lottles look different from the regular morphs also are

they physiologically different from their non cannibal brethren. I've also heard that cannibalizing others can cause an axe lottle to grow up and become a salamander looking little beast. So interestingly, there are many species of amphibians whose larva can become cannibal morphs, such as tadpole and salamander larva. Now remember that axe lottles are permanent juvenile forms of salamanders, which is called neotony. So cannibal morphs of toads occur when

they eat large prey such as shrimp. They will then become and remember, cannibal more, the larval forms of toads are tadpoles. These cannibal tadpoles, when they eat a larger prey like shrimp, will then become carnivorous and cannibalistic and will only eat meat or other tadpoles, and will be larger than their brethren who are not cannibalistic. They usually have like bigger mouths. They're larger, they are kind of freaky looking when you compare them to their smaller siblings.

Cannibal morphs of salamander larva also happen, so salamanders and axe lottls are very closely related. Ax lottles just happen to be Basically, they are salamanders, but they retain all of their juvenile characteristics throughout their entire life. Where salamanders go through a metamorphosis process similar to like toads go from tadpole to toads, Salamanders go from being aquatic to being terrestrial. So salamander larva can also turn into cannibal morphs.

Usually this is due to low nutrition stress. They will develop larger heads and jaws, and they will be able to eat their fellow salamander larva. So yes, for salamanders, their cannibal morphs have a different size from the others, and it is you know, it's there. They're larger, they got bigger mouths, similar to the toads onto ax lottels. Now axe lottels are interesting. So young axe lottles, like salamanders,

can become cannibals if there's not available food. Typically they specialize in eating the arms or legs of their fellow axe lottles. But cannibalism is so common amongst axe lottels, it's not so much that there is a cann morph of axe lottles. It's kind of an opportunistic thing where they will if they can, they will eat the arms of their fellow young axe lottles and try not to

get their limbs eaten. And in fact, it's so common that it's thought that the axe lottle's amazing ability to regenerate their arms and legs could be a response to this selective pressure of just so many arm and leg nibbling that happens when food is scarce. Yeah, so axe lottles, unlike the previous examples, seem to be typically all potential cannibals, and they may be like the cannibells who are successful, may actually be bigger because they're more successful at feeding

and didn't have their limbs eaten off. I don't think that there is a specific cannibal morph of axe lottles. Now, it's true that axe lottles, which normally of their entire lives in their aquatic juvenile forms with gills, can mature into a full salamander if they are able to ingest enough iodine. So in the lab this is done with injections. I've seen some sources say that they can get enough iodine through cannibalism, but I've not really seen exactly what

studies these sources are referring to. I don't really see any research to back this up. I think it's theoretically possible if they're able to get enough iodine in their diet, but I don't think it would just be through cannibalism that they could mature into a full salamander. But they would have to get quite a bit of iodine in their diet. And usually like these sort of adult morphs happen like in laboratory settings. Onto the next ques question

in this batch of questions. So this question was why do you think people are so driven to keep exotic animals as pets when they should not be pets. Well so, in the case of and this is sort of just all my theorizing. In the case of dangerous exotic pets such as tigers and lions, I personally think it's a

power fantasy. I think that it being a creature that in the wild would not hesitate to kill you, but if you have it under your control, or you know so you think you have it under your control in captivity, it might make you feel powerful. I mean, for some it could be about domination, or for others, it could be feeling special in the way that like, I think it's a similar phenomenon to like serial killer groupies, people who write into serial killers and think that they're in

love with serial killers. Like the idea is like I'm so unique. This killer animal or this killer person will see something in me and respect me and not kill me, and is like my friend or whatever, and so like you know, for people who own dangerous exotic animals, I think it's similar, like this killer animal is my pet and friend rather than my predator, and that makes me special.

Of course, this does not always work out in the humans' favor, and it almost never works out in the animals favor, so I don't necessarily think it's a healthy way of viewing relationships between humans and animals. So in terms of less dangerous exotic pets, so not like your chimpanzees, lions, or tigers, but you know, like smaller exotic pets, I think a lot of it is novelty, like you want something more exciting than a cat or a dog. I

personally find cats and dogs plenty exciting, very fascinating. Behaviorally, I think the fact that they've co evolved with us to some extent. Their behavior really really interesting, So to me, there's nothing cooler than that. But you know, I do understand that exotic pets are They're unusual, and so we are often drawn to novelty, to interesting things that we haven't seen before. And certainly a lot of exotic pets

are really cute and cool. I've seen my share of exotic animals that I wish I could keep as a pet, because they're really cute or beautiful, and I'd love to hold them and pet them. The reason I generally don't go for these types of pets is that there's a lot of difficulty in figuring out whether they are ethically sourced or if I can really provide them with a good quality of life, if I can even keep them alive. When I was a kid, I really wanted all sorts

of exotic animals. Though like I wished I could keep them, I didn't get them because I don't think my parents wanted to turn our house into a zoo. But I do. I think that, like when I was a kid, it was born out of this and fascination with nature, and so I don't really blame people who see like a cool animal and wish they could have it as a pet. I don't think it's a bad human quality that we see things and we want to be friends with these animals.

It's just that when when we're adults, you know, we have a responsibility to do research and make sure that we know what we're doing before we buy a pet we've never heard of. And if you don't know much about this animal and you're drawn to its novelty, I think the responsible thing to do is to realize, well, if I don't know much about this animal, how can

I provide a good life for it? You know. That's not to say that all non domesticated animals make bad pets or they're an ethical it's just a really tricky territory and you really really have to know what you're doing, you know, And the ethics of like the animal trade is not very transparent. It's not like you can go to pet store and be like, hey, did you is this frog like ethically traded? So that's that's going to

be really difficult to figure out. So, you know, I think that in order to own an animal that is, you know, more unusual, you have to do a lot of research. You have to really know what you know, what the situation is with those animals, and how to keep them happy and healthy. So onto the last question.

This question was about animals and domestication because the listener referenced an episode where I talked about how birds aren't really domesticated and are very similar to their wild counterparts, and so the listener was wondering if the same is true for rabbits or for pets like rats, mice, ferrets, hamsters, and et cetera. So, bunnies are definitely domesticated. They are

far more docile around humans than their wild counterparts. You can actually see the classic signs of domestication in bunnies. Their ears flop down. You see their coat coloration kind of change, much like with dogs. With dogs, the ears flop down, they have the color blocking on their coats, which is something that is kind of a side effect

of domestication. While it's true we will look for those traits and then try to exaggerate them in our dog breeds and bunny breeds, the ear cartilage weakening and the

coat colors sort of turning spotty and blotchy. That is a side effect of essentially during the development of the animal as a fetus, Like there are these neural crust cells that when we select for animals with a better temperament, we're essentially selecting for certain types of like you know, this neural crust development that also impacts things like cartilageduction, coat color. So it's like this interesting thing that just

sort of by this like accident. They are connected in terms of the animal's development, both the you know, the temperament and coat and cartilage development. And so you see that in domesticated bunnies, you see the floppy ears. I would actually compare bunnies more to cats and dogs than I would to like pet birds, pet exotic birds. Obviously, chickens are domesticated and are much more docile than jungle foul. So chickens are a bird that's been domesticated. So domesticated

rabbits cannot be released into the wild. I don't care what you read with watership down, that situation would generally not be good for domesticated bunnies. They do not have the same kind of survival abilities as wild rabbits. Wild rabbits, meanwhile, do not make particularly good pets, and even when raised as young, they will not be as docile as a

domesticated bunny. Bunnies can make great pets, they just take a lot of care and research because some concepts around keeping them, such as like leaving them in a hutch all the time or feeding them carrots all the time, are not good care practices are. They're a big responsibility, just like a dog, just like a cat. In fact, in some ways they may be more difficult than a dog or a cat because they have all sorts of behaviors that you have to you know, like nibbling behaviors.

They're always trying to chew on things, so you have to be careful about electrical cords. But you know, you and I think there's like, you know, they need a lot of freedom. They need a lot of like hopping around space. So that might be difficult sometimes for people to provide, especially when the ideas that like, oh, you just keep them in a cage all the time, which

is not really good for them. But yes, I mean if you once you know like what you have to do with bunnies, and if you are able to provide them with all the stimulation and food and care that they need, they can be great pets. In fact, I've heard bunnies will follow their owners around the house. They can be very loving. They are fully a domesticated pet, so they are not like a wild exotic animal. Pet rats, hamsters, mice,

guinea pigs, and ferrets are also all domesticated. Their behaviors are significantly different from their wild counterparts, mainly in that they are more docile, much more easily handled, much calmer around humans. So pet ferrets, which seem sort of like some little wild, wild little grimlin that you get from the forest, are actually fully domesticated. They are not simply captured and tamed blackfooted ferrets from the wild. Pet ferrets

are domesticated, much like bunnies versus wild rabbits. In fact, the first pet ferrets were probably domesticated over two thousand years ago. So all of the animals that I listed can make good pets, given that you research them beforehand, ferrets being perhaps the most high intensity in terms of activity and destructiveness, and rats being very needy in terms

of socialization. Sometimes also depending on where you live, you can't keep them as pets, especially in islands like Australia, because escaped pets can kill or out compete with the native species, so you always want to check that to make sure that they're actually safe to keep in your local area. But yeah, I mean, you know, these are all animals that I think can make very good pets.

It's just something that I think, I mean, especially with like hamsters, like it's seen as like a starter pet, and it often results in the hamster dying because like a child who's too young to understand is given the hamster and doesn't know how to take care of it. And hamsters are actually very delicate. They can be quite

difficult pets to keep healthy. And it's you know, I think that you know, despite the challenges, it's very worthwhile as long as you put in a lot of effort into taking care of the animals and doing what you need to do to keep them healthy and safe. And you know, I am definitely not against responsible pet ownership, and I think all of them can make good pets. So, you know, thank you guys so much for listening. That'll

do it for this listener Question episode. If you have a question that you would like me to answer, you can write to me at Creature Featurepod at gmail dot com. As you can tell by this episode, I am happy to answer any question relating to animals, to people, to people and animals, and you know it's I really enjoy these because it will send me on fun little research paths and make me think about things sometimes I haven't

even thought about before. So please do suit me those questions and next next time I will do the Animals Sound of the Week answer that for you, So stay tuned for that, and thank you so much to the Space Classics where there's super awesome song so Lumina Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey, guess what where have you listened to your favorite shows? I don't judge you. See you next Wednesday.