Listener Q's: Mews, Blues, Deer Who Chews

Sometimes I have to do research because I'm not perfect. I don't got all the knowledge in my head, but it usually sends me on a really interesting research journey. So I love doing that. And if you are listening and you're like, hey, I want you to answer a question, what the heck? You can email me at Creature Feature pot at gmail dot com. And I tried to answer all the questions I get either on the show or responding to you via electronic mail. So let's get right

into it, shall we. Here's the first email. Hi, Katie, as a cat owner, I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the episode you did about the evolution of cats. It was also fun to hear about finding the ping pong ball and how many cats like playing with them, because I've just gotten some ping pong balls for my cats. They're a big hit with Physic. Here's a video of him playing with one. I've watched the video I can confirm it's very cute. The email continues. I also had

a question. My cats, who are indoor only often get the zoom ees and will tear around the house for no apparent reason. I've heard that other cats do this too, and so do some dogs. Do you know if this is something that only domestic animals do. I was wondering if it's because they don't run around as much outside that they have to get out their energy this way, and that probably animals in the wild wouldn't need these random bursts of running around. But if you have any insight,

I'd love to hear it. And thanks again for doing the show. I look forward to it every week. Best Erica. Thank you so much Erica for your kind words, your cat stories, and your video of Heasic playing with ping pong ball. I loved watching that and great question. So the zomies are indeed a thing. Cats get it, dogs get it. So what are they and do they happen to wild animals. So the technical term for zumies is

frenetic random activity period or FRAPP. I feel like zomies is a little bit of a better name than framp, but there you go. According to Dr Pamela Perry, a behavior resident at Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, quote, there is no known specific cause of FRAPs and dogs. However, they appear to be a way to release pent up

energy or perhaps apps to alleviate stress. A dog who has been home all day with nothing to do may feel the need to zoom around the house or yard to expend some of that energy and get some relief from hours of understimulation. For apps also can occur whenever a dog becomes very excited e g. When an owner returns after a long absence end quote. So personally, my dog Cookie gets the zoomies after her bath, which is something I've heard happening to a lot of people. I

think it's because she hates bathing. She gets pretty anxious, but she kind of has to, you know, just be patient and wait for the bath to end. And so she has all this pent up kind of anxiety. Uh. And then once she's done with the bath. She's probably really relieved, really excited to be done, and then has all this nervous energy that she had to kind of contain while I was bathing her. And so once she's free,

she just zooms around. She's releasing all that pent up stress, all that pent up energy, running around playing acting like a goofball. I mean, maybe like we've experienced this kind of thing, like when you do something really stressful and you're just like you're finally done with it, and you're just like, oh, you just gotta kind of shake it out.

You know. You feel kind of like, you know, shaking your whole body, shaking your arms, like kind of jumping a little bit, or even doing like a little dance or something. It's like I got through that. Yes, So it can be a response to both stress or positive things like being really excited to see you um or just like you know, kind of they got this extra energy and maybe they didn't have an opportunity to get out all that energy, so they just got to get

it out. Uh. The same kind of zoomies can happen for cats um and it works in a similar way, but there are some key differences. So cats do get the zoomies when they need to release energy. Unlike dogs, however, cats as often happen at dawn and dusk, and this is because cats are crepuscular, meaning that their activity levels are highest at dawn and dusk, and this is when the wild ancestors of our domesticated cats would hunt the most.

So your cat has kind of you know, cats are a bit less domesticated than dogs in a sense, you know, they've retained many more of their wild traits than dogs have, and so your cat may have retained some of these spurts of energy that they get at dawn and dusk and may express it in the form of zoom ees. So onto the question of whether wild animals get the

zooms and the answer is yes, absolutely so. Framps that frenetic random activity period UH or zomies have been observed in horses, ferrets, wallabies, elephants, and there's probably a lot more. The trick is, of course, being able to observe an animal long enough to notice the zoom ees and document them. Apparently bunny rabbits also get them, and apparently rabbit owners call them the bunny binkies, which is adorable and really weird.

But the thing is that we often observe these zomies in captivity because that's you know, that's where we see them the most. So it is definitely possible that there are fewer zomies in the wild because there are more opportunities to burn off this extra energy. Uh So, animals in the wild may still do the zoom ees um, but it's possible that they do them less often if

they have more chances to burn off that energy. So we kind of need to see some kind of comparative observational study between the same species of wild and captive animal, which I haven't been able to find anything of that nature, and it sounds pretty difficult to pull off, but I will keep my eyes open for any research about it.

Uh Yeah. And there was some research regarding rabbits and their fredetic random activity periods, and it didn't seem that having like a larger enclosure meant they would have fewer of that. But it's that's not like, that's not exactly answering our question. Um So, yeah, I think it's a

very interesting question. My guests would be that if you have like a really long day as an animal and you've done a lot of work that day, uh, in terms of either hunting or foraging or running away from predators. You're probably not going to have any excess energy that you expand through zoomies. But if you had not that much going on that day, even in the wild, yeah, sure, I don't see why you wouldn't want to express that extra energy because you got it and you gotta let

it out, So that is that is my guess. But of course I think it will be great. We could see some good comparative studies between animals in their natural habitants and animals in captivity. Onto the next listener question. A few weeks ago, I accidentally left an apple core on the coffee table and unsurprisingly woke up the next

day two hundreds of ants harvesting the leftovers. I love ants as much as the next Creature feature listener, but I eventually decided to take the apple core ants included and toss it into the organic spin in the backyard. Suddenly I started to worry if ants get around by following pheromone trails. Have I sentenced these ants to live out the rest of their days in exile or will they be able to find their way back to the colony,

even without the pheromones to guide them. And this is from Susie m this, This is maybe the sweetest email I've ever gotten. I feel that like I too. Sometimes you know, if there's an ant invasion, you gotta get rid of them, right, like you can't be eaten like ants with your cereal or having your apple. Crawling with ants is just not workable. But I feel bad about it, like I don't. I don't enjoy getting rid of ants.

And also that idea of like, oh, you you pick up a food item that all these ants are on you toss in the trash. All are all these ants doomed now to exile? Um, don't worry about that though, because your ants may indeed find their way home. Uh. Pheromones are very important for ant communication, but they are not the only thing that ants can rely on when it comes to navigation, So ants don't need to use

pheromones necessarily to find their way home to their colony. No, the ability of ants to navigate differs from species to species because different species have different behaviors, they have different social structures. Some ants have colonies, some types of ants don't even have a colony. We'll talk about that a little bit later, um, But different species will have different methods of navigation. Aunts who have a home colony will often have different techniques of finding their way to and

from their colony, because that is so critical. Yes, they do use pheromone trails laid out by other ants to find food sources, but they have got other navigational tricks up their little teeny tiny sleeves. So there is evidence that certain species of ants can use the sun's position as well as environmental markers to help guide them back to their colonies. Like there's some kind of I don't know, seventeen hundreds ship people sales salesman, that's not sailors. Okay,

there's the word man. I do not have my sea legs. I can barely even speak in seafaring terms. So yes, they can use all of these things to navigate. So a study found that by shifting the apparent appearance of where the sun was with a mirror, researchers were able to confuse ants and send them in the wrong direction. Mean but interesting results. A lot of common ants that we find in our homes have actually been found to

use complex navigation skills other than pheromones. There are ants like sugar ants, black carpenter ants um that that we've seen this in. But there's also ants primarily found in natural settings, such as rock ants. But all of these ants can memorize landmarks or structures and use them to aid in their navigation to and from their colonies. So vision and memorization are really important tools for these ants species.

In fact, um rock ants which I just mentioned, they do use pheromone trails to lead other ants, but they also excel in teaching roots to other ants through a technique known as tandem running. So there will be a leader ant who will guide a follower ant to food by moveing a short distance. She waits for the follower to literally bump into her rear uh, and then she continues going on like that. She goes a short distance,

the follower comes up bonks into her butt. She moves some more bonks into her butt until the goal is reached. The follower seems to memorize this specific path shown to her by the leader, and she doesn't necessarily need a pheromone trail to follow uh. And then when she goes back home, she doesn't retrace her steps from this path she followed she actually uses a different path entirely one based on her memorization of panoramic views or landmarks that

lead her back to her nest. So I would say, um, that shows that a lot of these ants, especially the ones that have us a solid colony that they need to get back to, have a number of different ways to find their way back home, mainly memorizing the visual cues around where their home is. Obviously, some ants can also use the position of the sun to tell them where their home is, but yeah, like they will memorize landmark and go towards that landmark and be able to

find their home that way. In contrast, there are ants called army ants. These are ants that actually encompass a wide variety of species, but they all share these similar characteristics, which is that they do not have a home colony. They just kind of march like a roving band of vikings who go and forage and pillage and eat everything in their path. But they do not have that home colony they have to get back to, and they really don't rely on their vision much at all. They do

not have good vision. Sometimes they're mostly blind, and they depend mainly on pheromone trails Uh, they could truly become confused if you pick one up and drop it off in a random location. Um. But in terms of the ants that you probably would find in your kitchen, they are most likely not army ants, but probably a species

of colony forming ants. And so I would guess that those ants that you dropped off in your garbage can, as long as they can get out of the garbage can and like reorient themselves to the kitchen, they can probably use visual cues uh and find their way back home. So fear not, Susie, you have not doomed those ants, um, probably and you can you can rest assured they will live another day to come and eat more of your apple. Next listener question, My girlfriend's cat always holds my hand.

He'll move his paw on top of my hand, and he'll move his paw when I move my hand, and sometimes digging his claws in to keep my hand in place. He usually does this while laying on my chest and purring. Is he being affectionate or is there more to it than that? I've attached some videos for reference from William T. Hi. William watched your videos. Um, very cute, very very cute. Uh.

This is another adorable question. Uh, and I would say long answer short, your kitty is indeed being affectionate and possessive. So cats love to use their paws on stuff. They love to scratch things, they love to need their paws

on stuff. And there's a few reasons. In part, it's thought that that needing thing that they do with their paws reminds them of the act of nursing when they were little, tiny kittens, where they would need their paws on their mother's tummy which would stimulate lactations so that they could nurse and drink milk. So when they're making like biscuits, either on a pillow or on your hand or on your lap, they are probably acting out that comforting movement of needing their paws they did as kittens.

Another purpose that they love to use their paws so much is that they actually have scent glands on their paws that they can mark what is theirs um. So like if they're kind of digging scratching at something, or digging their kind of claws into something or digging pressing their little paws um, they may be marking this thing is like I like this thing, this is mine. I declare that I own this, I own this person, I

own this hand. Um, And uh yeah, they actually that's also the reason that they rub things with their cheeks and their chins, as they have scent glands in both their cheeks and under their chin. Uh. And that so like they'll rub anything. They'll rub a chair, they'll rub you. They are marking things that they like, and it's like that's mine, now, that's mine, now this chair, this human,

this hand, this table online, um. And when they do these behaviors coupled with things like purring, it's a really good indicator that they are happy, they're content, and they love the person or the thing that they are rubbing up against cuddling with. And yes, so I looked at this video. I really do think that the kittie likes you. He probably likes the security of touching your hand and grabbing it with his paw. He has a positive association

with you as a source of comfort. So that's why he will like reposition his paw on top of your hand because it's like this is a thing I like. It brings me comfort to kind of push my paw into your hand, and so if you move it, he'll just move his paw back on your hand. I mean, you know, it is kind of similar to holding hands with people. I think that we do need to remember sometimes that yes, we can't anthropomorphize animals too much, but we also have to remember we are just big, weird animals.

And at some point in the past, you know, our our behaviors things like holy hands kissing. There may have been some like kind of weird evolutionary reason for these things, but eventually it turned into just kind of pure affection, pure love. And I think that can be said for sort of animal behaviors as well, where yeah, technically, you know, maybe like rubbing things with their paws or rubbing things with their cheeks and their chin, it's like scent marking,

it's marking their territory. But then I think there is room therefore, they associate this behavior with, you know, marking things that they like, and then it may kind of become just this sign of affection, something they enjoy doing. They're not coldly calculating these things. They may just be feeling love, feeling affection, feeling comfort and then doing these behaviors. And I think that's very similar to what humans do when we when we hug each other when we kiss

and hold hands things like that. So, yeah, your kitty likes you. Ah, you and Katy sit in a tree making kitty biscuits, all right? So onto the next listener question. I was listening to your recent episode on animal possception and your guest hosting on Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe? Can you communicate with new trinos? I started wondering if there have been any studies to see if people who are deemed colored deficient have their vision shifted into what

we normally consider invisible light. It occurs to me that some people would only have one or two cones to pick up on light and cause deficiency. But with the overwhelming number of animals who see in parts of the spectrum, we normally don't What if some of these people are able to see light the rest of us can't. My nephew is blue deficient, and after hearing you talk about Mona's cataract surgery, I started wondering if he might be sensitive to infrared light. This is from Palm Hi Tom.

This is a really interesting question. So the issue with us being able to see UV light is that typically it can't make it through our lens. So the lens is I mean, it's it's a lens, a biological lens that focuses light onto the back of our eyes, onto the retina, and this is how we can focus on things see clearly. So this lens actually filters out UV light, most UV light. Uh. And this is thought to be possibly advantageous because maybe it's protecting our retina's from UV

light because UV light can be damaging two cells. Um. But another theory is that there needs to be some filtering of light out of the spectrum because like when you when you have more light coming into the eye, you may be sacrificing sort of clarity being able to focus for a broader spectrum. So. Uh, those are a couple of theories why we have lenses that filter out

UV light. Um. So this is why the fact that the lens is the thing filtering out this UV light is why people with cataracts surgery where the lens is removed or removed and replaced with an artificial lens can see more UV light than people typically can. So. Um, this is that's the theory behind why maybe Money was able to see UV light because he had his cataracts removed. Nowadays, you actually can have your cataracts removed, or if you have something wrong with the eye, you can have your

lens replaced with an artificial lens. And this artificial lens helps you focus light, but it doesn't block out UV light as much as a biological lens does, and so it lets in more of that UVY light. So people who have had this surgery report being able to see more UV light and they reported as being sort of this violet blue color. And actually some UV light can get through our natural lenses. Some research has shown that young adults can detect UV wavelength of around three hundred

and fifteen nanometers. And there's also a wide variation in individuals in like what range of UV light that they can see. So UV light is a shorter wavelength, so uh, that's going to be harder to see the light the shorter the wavelength is because that falls off further and

further from our normal range of vision. So yeah, in terms of these these subjects that were tested on their ability to see this UV light, there was a range in terms of how many people could see like, um, you know, the wavelengths of light and which wavelengths they can see, which is really interesting in terms of why there are these variations. It's not very well understood. They seemed to find some correlation between sensitivity and the male sex, which is really weird. I don't know of any um

understanding why that is. There is also decreased UV sensitivity for those who frequently wore glasses or contact lenses. That seems a little more understandable. Usually if you have glasses or contact lenses, maybe there is some issue with the um you know, the the the way that the lens contracts over the eye, So maybe the lens is blocking out more you be light. We're not not exactly sure,

but that's an interesting finding. Uh. There's also decreased UV sensitivity for people of older age, so young adults can actually seem more UV light than older adults. Again, I'm not sure why that is. Maybe there's some something that happens to the lens as you age and it lets in less UV light. That's it's very interesting. It seems relatively new research, Like the idea that we can even see some UV light as a relatively new, uh new research, So I'm really interested to see kind of where they

go with that. So onto your other question, which is like the correlation between seeing UV light or color blindness a k a. Color deficiency. So color blindness or color vision deficiency, that latter name for it is a lot more accurate because it's not that people can't see color at all. It's about the range of color that they can see and how that color is going to be interpreted by the brain when you're getting the kind of

signals that you're getting from the eye. So, uh, it represents a shift in the visible light spectrum that in individuals I can detect and distinguish between. So in general, you have three basic types of cones. So you have blue, green, and red. There are the cones that are sensitive to the shorter wavelengths. Those are the blue cones. There's the middle wavelength green and longer wavelengths red um. So this

is a spectrum. These aren't really distinct categories. So your blue cones aren't only going to be picking up on blue. Green cones aren't only going to be picking up on green, and so on. And there's actually overlap of what these cones can pick up on. So a quote unquote blue cone and a quote unquote green cone may both be activated at the same time in terms of their the range of wavelengths of light that they can pick up

on overlapping. Like imagine, I mean, when you look at sort of the visualizations of like what your cones can pick up on, it's usually a bell curve in terms of like wavelength of light, and these bell curves actually overlap.

So the mixture of activation of the types of cones as well as the strength of activation results in the full spectrum of color for typically sided people, but someone with color deficiency will actually have more overlap of what their cones are picking up on than someone with typical vision. So there's actually several types of color deficients see and several different causes. So there's total color blindness, which is like the inability to see any color, and it's called monochromacy.

But this is actually not really a disorder of the eye. This is typically a disorder of the brain. So your eye can actually perceive color, pick up on color, but there is something that happens as that information is getting passed from the eye to the brain, where the brain cannot process that color. So uh, in terms of sort of like um problems with the actual eyeball, there things like um die chromacy where you can only perceive two colors.

But then there's a whole range of issues with with color vision in terms of like when you have anomalis or missing cones, in terms of how you're able to distinguish between the wavelengths of light the quote unquote blue green and had wavelengths of light uh and then perceive a clear color from that. So for a lot of people with color deficiency, they will have a much more overlap of what their cones are picking up on than

someone with typical vision. So for some people with color deficiency, their red cones, so the longest wavelength UH sensitive cones are actually down shifted in sensitivity to more mid range wavelength so the quote unquote green wavelengths, and we'll pick

up on green colors. So this means that when they're looking at something green, it will actually appear more reddish, so it comes out a kind of amber or brown because it's activating more of those red cones, And so those red cones are saying, hey, brain, this is a reddish color even though you know it is quote like truly green. Of course, when we're talking about true reality and our brain's perception of it it gets into a whole philosophical conversation that maybe I am not qualified to do,

but very interesting. So when the green cones, so those mid range wavelength cones are up shifted sometimes in terms of like either their anomalous or there's some issue with these cones, they may actually start to detect wavelengths of light closer to the red spectrum, and this actually results

in seeing green colors as yellowish. So both of these color deficiencies are categorized as red green color blindness, and they make it difficult for people to distinguish light on the red green spectrum, so they can see reds and greens. But then it gets they get more muddled because you have the more overlap in terms of when these cones are becoming activated. So in terms of Tom's question, it sounds like Tom's nephew, UH might have blue yellow color blindness.

I I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing. Which means that the cone are sensitive to short means that the cones that are sensitive to short wavelengths of light like blues, violets, or even shorter wavelengths like UV are actually more up shifted to be sensitive to mid wavelength than they are in a typically cided person. So that means when you look at blues, you'll see more greenish hues and it will be dimmer. In fact, sometimes blues

light come out as almost like black. It also affects how you see purples, which will come out as being more reddish. So from how I understand it, this would actually make it more difficult to perceive UV light because it's harder to pick up on shorter wavelengths of light

and distinguish them from mid wavelengths of light. But there are actually some studies that look into how people experience the world with color deficiency, because I think it is it's important to remember that, like if you have a different perception, right, like you have a different way, a different sensory experience from someone else, that doesn't make it worse.

It may make it more difficult. Because our society largely caters to sort of the the typical sided person's experience, we don't often make a great effort to um accommodate people who have any kind of like vision uh disorder, which you know, I think is a shame, but so it can make things difficult. Like you know, we have a lot of color coded things that may be more difficult for someone with the color deficiency. But just because you have like a different, a different sort of sensory

experience doesn't make it like inherently worse. So there are some theories that people that have various forms of color blindness may actually be able to pick up on certain patterns better. Uh. There was a theory that they may

actually be able to pick up on camouflage better. There's been mixed science about this, like some research has not been able to really find this, but there has been some research establishing that people with certain types of red green color blindness, they can actually distinguish different shades of khaki much better uh than the norm, which you know, I think that it means that there could be a lot of other areas in which, like say, someone with

blue light uh deficiency, like maybe they can pick up on certain shades or certain patterns better than the norm.

I wasn't able to find any specific research on this, but I think that this idea that when you have a certain sensory quote unquote deficiency, you may actually have a stronger sensory experience in another way, And so I think that's a completely reasonable idea, And you know, I think we see that actually with some people who are have complete blindness will actually become very sensitive to sound to the extent that there are people who are blind who are able to make a clicking sound with their

tongue and actually have learned how to do a form of human echolocation where they can use that to and like listen for the echo and use that to perceive their environment, which is really fascinating. It's amazing. I think it's so important to understand how adaptive our brains can be when we have a a sensory experience that is, you know, is different than what is typical. So I think that's a great question. I will keep my eyes peeled for any more research on, um, you know, the

experience of people with color deficiency. I think it is Uh, it's really important. Onto the last listener question. I really enjoyed your latest Halloween show. Have you heard of another scary animal? The water dear a k a. The vampire deer who has fanglike tusks sticking out of its mouth like a slavering Dracula. Speaking of normal deer, I've heard they sometimes eat eggs, squirrels and other small animals. Watch out slumper, your listener, Michael d. So. First of all, yes,

that is correct, dear, will sometimes eat meat. They are, of course herbivores, They're not considered omnivores like true omnivores, but on occasion they will be opportunistic they'll eat meat. Um. I don't think it's strictly well established why they do this. My assumption would be just you know, taking advantage of a situation essentially. But yeah, they they're they're typically herbivores, but they will on occasion eat meat, which is kind

of creepy. I don't know why. I mean, you know, I'm not creeped out by a raccoon that's an omnivore, but a deer eating meats it's something something off about that. And arms of the water dear, Yes, I do know about the water dear. I love them. I was obsessed with these guys ever since seeing a taxidermy one as a college student. I even wrote a whole paper on them about the uh. There's some controversy about whether females have a tuft of fur on their lips that is

mimicking the male tusk, and what that might mean. Why that might be the case, it's not. I was just you know, basically looking at the existing literature, wasn't doing any um independent research. But I wasn't doing any studies on it. But uh, still I have been really fascinated with this, this idea that the controversy surrounding why the females seem to have this lip tufed, and of course the fact that they are dear with giant, fearsome looking things.

So they are incredible. So I don't think I saved that paper, by the way, So thank goodness for you guys. You don't have to see any of my college writing. So. Water deer are small deer found in China and Korea. They're also known as vampire deer given the large things that the males sport. Females actually have much smaller canines. But like I mentioned before, uh, they have these tufts of fur that can sometimes be mistaken for fangs. And

there's this whole conversation and evolutionary biology. Are these tufts of for you know, like some kind of intentional mimicry? Is it just coincidence? And if it is mimicry, why, um? So, yeah, it is an interesting topic. So Uh. The deer have no antlers, but the teeth are used in a similar way to antlers. They are used for combat. So the large things are the size of like a long finger. They are not used for sucking blood. Uh. The deer

are herbivores. Instead. The things are used in territorial fights between males. They can be used either as straight up weapons or simply to intimidate other males. Uh. An interesting thing about the things is that they are actually partially mobile. They fit relatively loose in the socket, and so the deer can use its facial muscles actually move the things slightly, shifting them out of the way when they're eating, or even shifting them forward when threatening a rival. So really incredible.

I love those dear. If you haven't seen a water deer, look it up. It's like Bambi who has gone feral and is about to uh, you know, uh, suck your blood attack you. Um. Fortunately they aren't actually vampires. They do not suck blood, but yes they do. They do actually viciously attack each other. There have been male water

deer with like these vicious looking scars on them. Uh. They will not fight if they can help it, like if they can just sort of use them as intimidation, but they will actually attack each other and it can be It's usually not fatal, but it can be just like antlers. Actually, so we have come to the end of the emails, but now we are onto to uh the Mystery animal sound game. Every week I play in Mystery Animal sound and you, the listener, try to guess

who is squawking, who is making that sound? It can be any animal in the world. This is not just birds, it's not just bears. It's not just dogs or cats, anything anything in the world on land or in the sea. So here is last week's mystery sound and the hint was simply happy Halloween. I never horror like a walk a walk a walk. I never horror walka walka waka

walka Alright, can you guess who is making that sound? Well, congratulations to Grant W. Steven M and Emily M who wrote in and gets correctly that this is the raven. So ravens can mimic human speech, as can other types of corvids, including crows, magpies, jay's, rooks, jackdaws and probably more. Uh. The reason we don't see a lot of talking corvids compared to like parrots is that they're typically not pets, nor really should they be, in my opinion, so they

don't spend the time learning human speech. Along with parrots, many birds can mimic human speech. Actually, so Mina's Starling's, mocking birds, liar birds, and many more. The reason parrots are so particularly good at talking in human speech is not only are they very intelligent uh and are able to memorize a wide repertoire of sounds, they actually have a single synx. So the synx is like the bird version of a larynx. Larynx is the voice box of a human, the syrinx is the voice box of a bird.

A lot of songbirds have two synxes, and that actually can result in these like incredibly complex bird songs. If you've ever heard these like other worldly bird trills that sound almost digital, it's because they have these two synxes

and they can form these extremely complex sounds. But having those two syrinxes means your voice is not going to sound very human, where as a parrot having that single synx can more clearly mimic human speech because we humans have only one larynx um, so compare the sounds of a parrot mimicking human speech. Oh myever, why hit my garden?

Oh my? A very interesting. You can see that that parrot has a lot of trouble with the hard T sound because the T sound is not really produced with our voice box as much as it is the tongue touching the teeth. Although impareds do have strong tongues, so they can use their tongue a little bit to manipulate sounds. But yeah, that those those like the things that we make with our lips and our tongue are really hard for a bird to reproduce. Now here's a starling mimicking

human speech. And remember the starling has those two styrnxes instead of one. Music. Here's a station, lee music, here's a station. Here's a station. So that is a starling telling Alexa to play violin music and then Alexa responding both both uh is actually produced by the starling um both are talking, but the parent has a little, I guess a little more of a human inflection. The starling has this like interesting robotic quality to its voice due

to having those two steeringxes. Personally, I love the sound of a starling imitating a human voice. I think there's something really I don't know eerie about it. I really quite like it and I think it's quite impressive. Um. But yeah, so that is why parrots are the most famous for make impersonating human sounds. But I feel like ravens sometimes for me like get it even more spookily similar to a human voice, which I do love. So onto this week's mystery animal sound. The hint this alarm

call is no laughing matter. Can you guess who is making that sound? Well? If you can write to me at Creature Feature Product gmail dot com and if you have any listener questions, right to me too. I do these periodically. Next week we will be back to the typical format where I have a guest on and everything. But I do like answering your questions, So thank you

so much for listening. And if you have, like if you just a couple of minutes, you know, and you want to leave a rating or review, I really really appreciate that. I read all of the reviews, all your feedback. Uh. It makes me feel like connected to you, the audience, and it also helps out the podcast, So I really appreciate that. And thank you so much to the Space Classics for their super awesome song. Exo Alumina Creature features

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