Odd Couples

on a shark? So let's take a trip down to imagination station. Imagine you're a tiny, adorable, helpless frog living in Peru. You're smaller than a leaf. You're dwarfed by the many large creatures who want to devour you. Carefully, you make your way across the leafy forest floor, flinching at every sound. Your tiny legs can't carry you too fast. You can hop all right, but not enough to outrun

a swift predator. So you waddle around gingerly, searching for ants, doing your best impression of a dead leaf so you don't get hassled. You're munching on a particularly tasty ant, when if you had hairs on the back of your neck, which you don't you're a frog, but you'd feel them prickle. Suddenly, in a flash, two huge black, hairy legs grab you and lift you into a set of gigantic hairy mandibles. This creature tastes you, tossing you around, and its jaws

like a breath mint. You can feel it's pettipalps clamped down on you in let you go. You look up and realize it's your best friend in the whole wide world, a giant tarantula. She invites you into her din and you too, share a cozy day together. Been that ended so much nicer than I thought it would be. Yeah, usually the imagination stations in with horrible death, but this time it's friendship. Well, how else is a friendship supposed to start unless one of you winds up wholly in

the other's mouth. So that's kind of how I make all my friends, of course, speaking of which, joining me today is comedian writer and actor Blake Wexler. Thank you, thank you for having coming in. I mean, I think we're friends. I haven't tried to like devour you though,

that's the thing. No, no, no, And that's been very respectful and well to be fair, I mean, you know, I what's going on with these tarantulas is it was testing to see whether this frog was food or friends, and that all of a sudden, like a very ignorant thing. You were about to say, if you sub did in any other demographically, what's going on with these goddamn tarantulas and their hairy legs. These tarantulas, let me tell you about them. They're nice, you schues, and I think they

should be preserved. Oh very nice. Oh you're very progressive. So tarantulas and narrow mouthed frogs have formed an unusual alliance in Peru, Sri Lanka, India, and possibly elsewhere. I know that's pretty generic, but we just I mean, this is kind of a newly discovered relationship. So scientists aren't sure how far reaching this is, these narrow malekin frogs. It's like, can you use their proper name, police, sir? Okay, they're micro Hiliday. Is that very well? Yeah, very very well.

You've done very well so far. So yeah, it is funny how you have the scientific name micro Hiliday and then the unofficial or not unofficial, but the colloquial colloquial Layman's term offensive, and I know I didn't. I wasn't trying to go with Layman's terms because it's if you're lay you're gonna love this term, right, But the more casual one, which is it, so it's like micro hiliday

and then casually rolt frogs, it's like so insulting. It's like it's like Filifa day and the squinty eyed stink beest. There's never any in between. It's always this like fancy Latin and then and then the pooh butted, gross mud kelp, the illiterate red beetle ugly but well so the micro Hoiliday, these little tiny frogs form this friendship with these tarantulas, and when they meet each other, the interaction starts out

kind of tinse. So the giant tarantula grabs the humming Oh, sorry, these there's a specific species of microhiliday um called a humming frog, so that's a nicer name. That's very nice. So they'll grab the humming frog or any of these

species of micro Hoiliday. They'll move it around in its petal palps, and the petals are the little tiny legs out in front of its mouth and then kind of like move it around in its mandibles and it's like doing this checking of it and it makes this calculation of like, wait a minute, this is my friend frog, like this is a species of frog that I am

friends with. And then it puts it down delicately, and uh, the frog is like, hey, buddy, like you know, good to see you, and just skip this part going forward. But my friend, this happens every time. Look, I do appreciate your company. I would maybe like it if next time you could just send me a text and not put me in your mouth and your stinky, gross mouth full of dead flies and stuff. A polite nod with

suffice right, like you know, a fist bump. Could we do that a fist bump maybe, and no going in the mouth and get all right. I went to your daughter's all eight hundred of your daughter's weddings for Christ, so you don't have to do this every time. So there are actually multiple species of tarantulas and the Michael Holaday frogs that are friend But let's start with the dotted humming frogs, which is a specific species in Peru who have worked their way into the hearts of at

least a couple of tarantula species. The exact identity of the tarantulas is kind of under debate, but reports have named either the Colombian lesser back tarantula, which is a really pretty black tarantula with it's kind of near the base of its legs, near its abdomen. It's got these like pink splashes of color. And then there's also the chicken spiders, which is a type of their cowards. Well, actually they're called chicken spiders because they are rumored to

carry off baby chicks. I think that might be apocryphal, though, I think a baby chicken might be a little too big for these guys. Although it could it could happen occasionally. I just don't think they make a habit of it, because it seems kind of like a quite a mouthful floor. These guys that they do grow up to about a three inch diameter, so they can be quite big. But still they're not like monsters the humming frog to give you a sense of it, it's like this little tiny guy.

It's bodies about half an inch long, so the spiders are over three times its size. Here's a very cute picture of the tarantula and you see the little tiny frog just hanging out under the tarantula, happily sitting together, just totally relaxed because it's got it's big buddy with it. That is, it defies like logic seeing it, right, if you saw this photo, you would think that it's like the yeah, that the spider has snuck up behind this

this little frog. But if you you see a video of it, you actually will see the little frog like turn around, see the spier be like oh hey body, and then hop under it like like snuggle up close to it. It's it's really cute. It looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings. I'm not gonna go on. I don't want to spoil it. Well okay, right, Well

it'd be like if in Lord of the Rings. I mean remember when Frodo was really stupid the entire set of movies where he like it's like oh, spider webs and he's like just wiggling around, flailing and getting more spiderwebs on him and then what's what was the spider's name? Again? At what you doing here? A proto? What is good to see you, buddy? But yeah, it's it's like if Sheila was like, Hey, what's up a little friend? You

wanna you want to hang out together? You know? Yeah, And so here's what these two guys get out of this relationship. So the frog obviously gets a huge intimidating friend to protect it from other predators. So you have this tiny, appetizing looking frog, and then it's got this huge spider friend, this tarantula that is, you know, kind of menacingly cracking its knuckles. It doesn't have knuckles, but it's like kind of pounding one leg into the other

like knuckles. Yeah, not right, because each joint would probably have a knuckling tracking all of its joints. But what does the spider get out of it? Like that seems less intuitive, and in fact, it's actually quite interesting because these little frogs will protect the spiders eggs from ants. So the spider lays eggs and one of the main threats to these eggs are ants who will come and attack them and carry them off or eat them. And the spider or the transla is quite big, so it's

harder for it to target ants. I mean, like when you think about like catching ants, it's hard to get all of the ants when you're a big creature. But with the tiny frogs, they love to eat ants and they're small, so they can just like zoop zoop zoop, like find all the ants and get them before they get to the eggs. So basically they have the spiders

have an adorable little babysitter. The frogs have a huge friend that will protect them, and they hang out together and they like, well, like a spider will pop out of a din and then you'll see a tiny little frog face and he'll pop out of the din too, and they'll like kind of be close together. It's it's adorable that it's like Milo and Otis, but spider and a frog. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I love I don't know, I just I love that friendship. I think it's it. Also,

it humanizes the spiders a bit the tarantulas. Normally we think of tarantulas as these just murderous murder beasts, many legged murder beasts, and they are to be fair, but they they've got a heart, they've got a soft spot for these little frogs. And researchers, I mean, researchers are insane. What they wanted to see anything. I mean, you might agree with me once I tell this story. But they skinned the little frogs and then tied their skins to

another species of frogs that the spot the trash. Yeah see what I mean. So so they like turned these frogs, these uh, the different species of frogs that the tarantulas actually love to eat, and they put the skin on of the humming frogs that there are their friends, and made these like buffalo bill edgeen frogs, and the tarantulas like looked them over to the same thing, like you know, kind of palm them over in their little pet of palps,

and then they're like put them down. And so they're sensing something on the skin, either a scent or pattern on the skin, and then they leave them alone. But that's so scary from like the spider's perspective. When you think about it, like like you're like, oh, you're my friend, and then you like squint closer, and then you there's something slightly off. It's like, hey, buddy, what's wrong. It's

like sugar water. I don't think it's slightly off. I don't think these researchers have mastered like reupholstering a frigging frog and then another frog skin and then the frog is like what else can it do but play along or it's gonna get eaten. Like it's like, oh, hey, Jimmy, get to see you. Yes, I'm Jimmy, Jesus, it's to me. I don't want these sick not covered in another frog skin by mysterious giants. Nope, it's fine. Well that's a

weirdly specific thing to say. But it's good to see you. Yeah, really good to see you. And also, yeah, there's no way a human being would ever skin a frog and put maybe don't do that experiment, maybe skip that one. Yeah, at what cost do you want to know? I wonder if they do it the opposite way, where if they took the I'm going to call it the yummy frog and took its skin and put it on the friend,

that's interesting, then you would almost be sentencing it. Like today, that's like even more you know, cruel I love I love these sort of Jigsaw esque cruelty of it. Though, it's like if you want to go full on, what's what's that movie called the one with what's his name? Oh, Casablanca, Tom Cruise, and then it's like about it impossible. No, it's the one where they're evil and bad and do weird stuff the party one, Yeah, I think so. Secrets

in the Night, I forget absolutely famous. I'm going to cut all of this because I think it needs to stay. Oh boy, well, it's like a movie that's bad things happen right. Well, Tom Cruise looks like someone who's wearing someone else's skin. A little bit, a little bit, it's just a bunch of he's just a bunch of these frogs wearing are human. We can act. Don't look him right in the eye, kind of like cleans his eyeball with his tongue. Yeah, all right, Tom, I'm fine. Yeah,

it's something in my eye. So moving on. There's been a viral video of a coyote and a badger working together, and I'm sure you've seen this, but let's take another look at it, just to refresh our memory. Here. Looks like something out of a Disney it does. I like picturing that these two guys have been walking for like five miles and the coyote just keeps getting, you know, like hundreds and hundreds of feet ahead, and you finally just turns out, come on, come on, because that magic

doesn't break stride. That badger just kind of waddles along and the coyote is jumping around and it looks behind. It's really cute because it's looking over its shoulder and going like, come on, your friend, we gotta go. We gotta go hunt some gray old squirrels in the batteries, like I'm coming. Just oh my god, calm down, come on, bad you friend. We gotta well. Got found this giant too made out concrete. We can go through it. See what we can dig my own tunnels. Why are we

going through this? It's made out of concrete. I know, I just prefer dirt. Look it, little, I can run, didn't you see me run? Very nice? It's very nice. You well, So this video is not a hoax. It was captured by the Peninsula Open Space Trust or POST, which is a nonprofit organization that protects open natural spaces in the South Bay of San Francisco, California, and they use these remote sensor cameras to track the movements of

animals and see how they travel. And they found this coyote and badger using a culvert, which is a tube

of concrete under roadways that helps drain water. And they were using that culvert to safely cross the road, which I think is amazing and I love I love this video because it is I think it really gives you the sense of Okay, so animals sometimes form these relationships, and with a frog in a tarantula, you kind of get the sense of like, yeah, these are like little robots who kind of do these things that are advantageous

for their species. When you see the kiote and the badger like the coyote excitedly like jump and like look over children and be like come on, man, friend, I think it shows you this transition from yeah, this is their partnership, which I'll talk about. I'll explain why they form this partnership and why it's advantageous, but it can also, in my opinion, kind of transition into this area. They genuinely enjoy each other's company as much as an animal can,

like a dog enjoys your company. Even though we've over you know, thousands of years, formed this mutually beneficial relationship, evolutionarily speaking, we also just like each other. So let me talk a little bit about why coyote and badger are such good friends. So they are in fact conspiring together to kill some grand squirrels. So the coyote will often come up to a badger den. In fact, one eye witness saw coyote like knock on a badger's den

kind of like like like scritch. It's little pogast the intro and the badger comes out and it sees it's a coyote and they set off together to a ground squirrels set of dens and tunnels and they will root out the ground squirrel So the coyote and the badger

have slightly different techniques for hunting ground squirrels. The coyote is a little bit faster when it comes to like snatching them up when they come out of the holes, and the badger likes to is really good at digging these are, yeah, exactly, and it can dig the ground squirrels up from the front of the den and it'll

just like start builving in there. And so what they do is the badgers at the dim digging it up, trying to get ground squirrels, and the coyote watches the badger do this, and he goes off and finds an exit hole from the den. So it finds like the the ground squirrels emergency exit. So as the badger is getting any of the ground squirrels that try to escape

out of its way. The coyote is getting any of the ground squirrels that try to get out of the emergency exit, and sometimes the badger gets a meal, sometimes the coyote gets a meal. Sometimes they both get a meal because they've basically cornered these squirrels. So if the squirrel dodges the coyote by ducking back down into the exit hole, the badger is more likely to get a ground squirrel coming out its way. And if the squirrels try to escape, the badger goes right towards the coyotes.

So genius dynamic duo. Do the badgers use their big claws to like take out these ground squirrels. They both both claws and and their mouths like they'll touch down. I mean it is a little bit horrifying to see them. I have some video of it, but but they will, you know, the they just chew the squirrels up, like immediately, like it's dinner time immediately. You know how people have like in their homes, like those like picture frames. You

can upload like photos onto them of your family. I picture in your home instead of photos, you just have these videos of like badgers eating off squirrels heads. I'm not, it's not, you know, it's more of a mental library of photos, which is more vivid. The nice person I live with probably wouldn't want photos plastered everywhere of dead animals. You know, you got to make some compromises, that's take.

So yeah, it's uh, it is an amazing relationship to witness, and it's I love the video you see of them because they're probably going off to go on a hunt together, but it's clear they're traveling some distance together, and the kyote looks genuinely excited and it looks um like it. It really has this like fun friendship. Now it's harder to read the badger's expression. I mean, badger is willingly going along with the coyotes, so it's got to be

at least amenable to this relationship. It's hard to measure how an excited badger other than a badger that's like ripping your face off, but that's an excited yeah, exactly, I do. My how I imagine their relationship is like the coyotes really excited, the kind of excitable one, and the badgers maybe a little more gruff and kind of aloof but deep down, he really does love the coyote.

The buddies. They're great buddies, and he's like always kind of he's sort of the the nick Offerman sort of character, and then uh, and the coyotes sort of the the Leslie nope, uh, happy go lucky, Happy go lucky. Yeah, yeah, I just love I love that dynamic. It's really cute. Yeah, I'm picturing like a tigger in York. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm gonna go get some grown squirrels. I get we're going to rip their heads off. You'll probably get them all.

Coyote won't get any I don't know. I think you can rip one. Hall. Well, now I'm a little happy I lost my family. Badgers. Yeah, badgers have a little stubbly tails, right right. I like those. Yeah, as far as tails go, I like those doubly. I mean, did

you you saw in the video. It was really cute to see them, like like, look at the little look at that little took us like walking walking off that like to see I mean, I don't want to sound like a pervert, but to seeing like to like the little coyote and the little badger butts just like walking off in the distance together. It's very cute. Oh yeah,

not perverted at all. Yeah, it's very cute. There's another duo of unusual friends, gelata's and wolves in Ethiopia co exists peacefully, which seems unlikely because they're both sort of can be a little bit of pugnacious. Um So, Gelatas are a type of monkey, and they are kind of baboon like, but they aren't actually in the same group as baboons, but they're they're very closely related. And the Ethiopian wolves are they look like wolves, actually have kind

of a reddish coloration. Let me show you. Here's the Ethiopian wolf. They kind of have like a fox coloration. Yeah, yeah, but they are they look a little bit kyote like, but they are wolves. And then this is this is a gelata and you're actually looking at mostly males here interesting as evinced by their wiener that you can see. But they're they're actually quite quite beautiful. They have this like beautiful hair that just looks like a like a

kind of nineties style blowout. And then they have these red chests and iron Man. Yeah, like this like sort of triangle shaped red chest. And then I mean, you know, a weener of course, and and a standard four door sedan weiner, but they are a These gelatas are communal animals. So there's usually like a dominant male or dominant group of males, and then a bunch of females and they're

they're political structure. Is can be complex because it's not I think I've talked about this on the show before. Often when you talk about dominant like alpha males and then their harem of females, it's seen as is kind of like, oh, he rules over the females, but in fact, the females can when they can kind of vote a male out. So it's like more of a democracy because if the male they don't like this male, and a new group of males comes along, they'll actually help the

new males take over. And so these it's in the interests of these alpha males to cater to the female's desires, so they'll they'll voted out, yeah, to not get voted out, like they'll groom them, they'll do some like canvassing, you know. So, so you have this group of gelatas and usually they have a lot of babies around, and they're all sitting on the grass eating the grass. They love to pick

up these like tender shoots of grass. And then you'll see a wolf just kind of stalking along amongst the gelatas. And it's a very bizarre thing because none of the gelatas seem upset at all, even though it's a wolf. They have a bunch of young babies, juicy little babies that would make a great snack. You can quote me out of context about that um And but they aren't upset because they know that the wolves aren't after their babies.

They're just after the rodents because they've learned that if they are chill and they don't, you know, mess with the gelatas. As the gelatas are plucking up grass and foraging, they actually disturb the rodents that are nesting under the ground. And the rodents will come up and be like, hey, who's that on my roof and then boom like a wolf. I'll just eat it, you know, like who's on the rooftop? Is it sand? It? No, it's a wolf and your

head's gone now. But it's it's amazing because it's an interesting I mean, it is it's an you know, you have this predator, right, you have have this predator of the wolf that you would not think would be so comfortable, just kind of like walking around all these families sitting in picnicking out on the grass, but they're they're fine, and it's it's kind of incredible how these animals have learned, like you know what, like you know, sure, like I could have a gelata baby now, or I could wait

and have as many rodents as funny mice. Yeah, yeah, it's and it is kind of it is pretty cute to see, I mean, other than like, I mean, the rodents are getting the short ended of the stick this episode. But you know what I mean, in the name of friendship, what's a few dead ground squirrels and mice and nothing adorable little creatures? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, this one reminds me of the first one, and that like just intuitively

it's spiders eat frogs, wolves eat these little like monkey things. Yeah, I mean, well, the the adult gelat is, to be fair, are quite big and yeah yeah, and they could fight a wolf, but the wolf is not there too to harass them, so they just they don't attack the wolves, and the wolves don't try to sneak off with the baby's It is an interesting relationship because you do have kind of like both sides could attack each other, but they don't and they have come to an agreement to

screw over the road. And yes it's a common enemy. Yes exactly. Have you ever been to UH Animal Tracks? It's this wildlife sanctuary probably thirty miles north of l A. It's awesome, Like it's so great where they have there's different packages which is kind of funny, and that you can get the like primate packet or like the mammal package,

but it's extra if you want reptiles. Is this like, So you go and visit uh and then you yeah, you get to sit with them basically where you pay like X amount of money and it all like goes back into the like wildlife preserve and that they have. It's amazing. And they have um like a baboon and a lemur, and then they like these monkeys where they don't make them do tricks or anything like that's a big thing where they like just you know, if they want to do something, they just teach you about them.

But then they also have kangaroos, a fenic fox, um and armadill. Oh, and you get to meet all these animals. I should go there. What's it called again, It's called animal tracks. That's awesome, you would love it. I'm so glad you brought that up because actually, at the end of the show, I'm going to talk about an animal sanctuary in Australia. Someone contact contacted me about that and I was thinking, Man, I wish I lived in Australia

so I could go visit. But it's great, we have animal tracks right here in l a visit, I'll show Humans and animals sometimes form unusual but mutually beneficial partnerships, like people and dogs, or people and honey guide birds haven't heard of this well. Greater honey guides are small birds who live in sub Saharan Africa who have worked out a business partnership with people. Honey guys will happily lead humans to a bee five, so the human gets the honey and the honey guide gets to eat all

the bee larva and bees wax left behind. The honey guide will peep and trill at people to get their attention, spread its tail to reveal its white patch like a guiding target, and lead people to a bees nest. The bees can then be smoked out by people and we get to collect the delicious honey. The honey guide is satisfied with eating the grubs and wax, being insectivorous, and feasts on the destroyed nests that the humans have left behind.

Some communities, like the Jawa people in northern Mozambique, use whistles or calls to attract honey guides and invite them to go hunt for honey. In my opinion, the more humans team up with birds, the more unstoppable we become. When we return, we'll be looking at relationships of an intimate nature. Get your minds out of the gutter, people, I'm just talking about some sucker fish. Let's suck on some sharks. There are many types of symbiotic relationships animals

can have. Symbiosis generally describes the relationship between two different organisms over a long period of time. Symbiotic relationships can range from parasitic, where only one party benefits and the other party is harmed or stolen from. There's commence alistic where only one party benefits and the other party experiences neutral effects, or mutualistic, where both parties benefit. Sometimes biologists argue over whether a relationship is mutualistic or commence alistic.

So we're going to talk about some fishy business that gets right in the middle of this rather mild mannered controversy. Have you ever heard of a remora? A ramora is a type of fish called also called the sucker fish. It's a family of raith and fish who spend their day is riding on the backs of sharks, whales, turtles, and rays. Yes. Yes, so these guys the ones that, yeah, yeah, shark dongles. Yeah so the yeah, I do. I kind of like the name shark dongle a little better, but

that's okay. The name mro literally means hindrance in Latin, and they were named this because in the sixteenth century people believe that these fish slowed down ships because they would sometimes attach to ships. Yeah, they look like paris. They kind of look like, yeah, these little hindrance that's so mean, really rude, you you bead eyed hindrance. Hindrance.

But you know, so they look kind of like parasites, right, they look like leeches that are in the shape of a fish because they're like they got well, they look like they've got sucker mounts, right, and but they are actually not parasites. They provide a valuable service to the animal they've attached to. In the opinions of some bile, just other bile just say they just don't harm the animal, that the host animal at all, but they don't benefit it.

In my opinion, it seems like they do offer some benefits, so we'll talk about that. But actually it looks like they're using a big creepy soccer mouth to suck onto the the shark. But in fact, no, they're using weird creepy sucker hats. So ramoras have evolved front doorsal fins that act as suction cups, and it looks like a weird ribbed mouth, like here's a photo of it. Oh yeah, that is a ribbed mouth. It's totally not. It's actually a hat. So here it is on the fish oriented correctly.

So this is the top of its head and it's just wearing this like weird ribbed suction hat. And so when you see a ramora on a shark, it's actually riding upside down with its head attached to the shark, not its mouth. Interesting, that's crazy, yeah, yeah, it's It makes them seem a lot more goofy, like they're just like riding like attached to their head, going like, way, you're doing it wrong. Stop by attaching to sharks and whales and these other big animals using their weird section heads,

they get a free ride around the ocean. But the question is do what do their hosts get? And this

is a little bit controversial. So one of the other things that the remora gets is they get to eat parasitic copa pods, which are tiny crustaceans that feed off of sharks, whales, turtles, and raise One line of thought is that, hey, this is a benefit to the sharks because they're eating the copa pods the parasites, and then other others argue, like, well, they eat the ones that have already fallen off of the sharks, so like that

doesn't really they're not really doing anything. I think that even if something's like fallen off of it, like, it seems like it might still be a benefit because like maybe like a copa pod temporarily detaches, but it could reattach right, so I think on the margin, like it seems like that that might be a slight benefit. They also eat the scraps of food that fall from the cloud of carnage that sharks and these other animals produce

while feeding. That's a little more clearly just beneficial to the remora, although I don't know, like maybe by cleaning up the mess they leave behind they attract less competition. Yeah, but it's hard to say this is either a commence relistic relationship where the remora gets a lot of benefits and the sharks that it's hitching or right on just doesn't affect them, are neither harm or nor help, or it's mutualistic where they're both getting something out of the relationship.

I think it's it's like, it's not completely mutualistic. I think the remora gets a little more, but I think it might benefit the shark a little bit. In my non shark expert of you know, in my readings, I think the shark can actually claim the ramora as a dependent and write at all. Uh. In order to actually develop that suction hat ramires go through a really weird puberty from their larval stage to adults. So the dorsal fin migrates to the top of their head and flattens

out in the symmetrical ribbed pattern. And you know how I said that their ray fin fishes. All those ribs are like those bony rays that are on their fins but just flattened out and symmetrical. So with all those ribs and rays, you've got anything about sweet baby rays, talking about sauce, glead, I want my baby back, baby back, suction hat, rib house eat the suction hat and parasites nice.

Uh and so but when they're here's the mystery, right, So when they're in their larval stage or baby fish stage, um, like they don't have this section hat yet, so we don't actually know like how they feed, how they survive as as these teeny tiny fish. Some believe I know this is weasel words, but like generally, like this is such a mystery that it's hard to say, but there there's there's a well weasel words. This is like some people say that the larval remoras a bunch of weird bastards.

That's through the words where you're like saying some people say this, um, but you're not actually but but the right exactly, but this is this is a theory by biologist but it's unconfirmed, which is that maybe they use they have these kind of hooked teeth like when they're in their larval stage, and maybe they use that to like attach to like the gills of shark or something and hit your ride there, although we don't know um, so it's hearsay. Hearsay, I say, strick it, strike it

from the record. As adults, they reach up to one to four ft long, so they're not tiny, so like when a shark is cruising around, you can see the remora is very clearly like hitchen ride. And in fact, they can develop such a close relationship with their hosts they will become distressed if they get separated from their host, according to some of these researchers and observers, Like one such observer was saying, like one remor got detached from

it shark. The shark like went off without it, and it was like kind of frantically swimming around and then attached itself to the human observer like just like will you contacts like those people who have never not been in a relationship and like haven't really developed a sense of self outside of the relationship to pilot Fish are another type of fish who love sharks, raisin turtles, and these fish don't actually attach themselves like the remorse, so

they're slightly less cleaning, but they're still relatively cleany. So you can see, here's a group of pilot ship just hovering around a shark, like more of a standard fish. Yeah, yeah, they you their standard fish shape. They have bold black and white stripes. When it's excited, actually those bars kind of fade a little bit and it's body turns silvery with blue patches. So that's cool. Yeah, and they can be quite big. So they grew up to about two

ft long. And yeah, they are called pilot fish because they often follow ships. Uh, probably because they think the ships are a huge friend, just like they like to follow sharks and these other big aquatic animals like whales as well. And call them captain fish if they're going to get like the maritime version, they're not flying through the air exactly. Here you go, there you go, or like first mate fish. Yeah yeah, I like that cabin

boys of the sea. What's interesting about this relationship between sharks, oils and these pilot fish is that the sharks and whales rarely feed on the pilot fish, like observations of them actually attacking the pilot fish are basically statistically insignificant, and they seem to accept these pilot fish as little friends.

And so the pilot fish do provide probably provide a nice service for them, because they will go along the backs of the sharks and actually pick off parasites, and they will even the sharks will even allow them to pick little scraps of food from their jaws, which is incredible, just like yeah, okay, you know be my floss. I guess yeah, will yeah, just like little. It's like if if exactly like if a dentist just like started like you got some you got some schmoots in your mouth

and just like licking your teeth. But if the dentist just came up to you on the street, right, well, I mean I'll like your teeth for you. Of course, may I call you doctor? So there are reports that pilot fish also become very distressed when they are separated from their shark. But I have a little bit of a bone to pick with this idea, so that the reports are that like if a boat captures a shark, the pilot fish will follow the boat for weeks and

it's like, oh, they're sad that they're shark friend. But remember these pilot fish just love following boats in generals, So I don't necessarily think they're like, no, give me back my shark friend, which would be sad and adorable, but I think it's just like, wow, you're an even beer shark. I love you. Oh no, my shark friend a boat and then that's you're my friend now bigger shark friend. So one more aquatic duo I want to talk about is the urchin crabs and guess who their

friends are? It ur Wow, how did you do that? I went to an arts school for four okay worth every penny. So the urchin crab or carrier crab lives in the Red Sea and East Indian Ocean and they are best buds with the long spine sea urchin and they carry it around on his back like a yoda. So it actually only walks on its two front pairs of legs because the back, too, are always used to

carry the sea urchin. And I'm not trying to put you on the spot here but just throw out like a guess why you think the crab would want a sea archin friend? Like this is question? Yes, exactly exactly that. I just like I I think it's it's neat because sometimes like the intuition about this is not it's like not this like tricky thing, not like a convoluted thing. It's like, yeah, it's just protecting it, so you don't worry. I'm only capable of surface level thought. So so here

here it is. Oh wow, that looks like he's got two on his back. It's well, it's just a no, I think it's just one. That's a big one. Yeah, it's a real big one. And what's interesting is, yeah, it likes to carry these really big ones. And funny that it has to hold Yeah, that makes sense that it has to hold it. See, chins are animals, they're

kind of dorms. Sea urchins actually can move, and the fact that it's this big one means it's probably pretty mobile for a sea urchin, and if it wanted to struggle and like get away from the crab, it could, But in fact they're actually quite docile and they peacefully submit to being carried because while the crab gets armor from the sea urchin, the sea urchin gets a free ride because they're not as fast as a crab, so the crab can carry them around and they get to

go to a new area to feed, and it's it works out for both of them really great. It's so funny that the crab does. It's like a like an old man holding on to his to pay in the wind his head. Beautiful description. Thank you so much. You may have your own little remorse hitching a ride on you without even knowing it. Demodex follicule form and Demodex brevis our eyelash mites microscopic mites who live on your eyelashes. They have elongated bodies with a bunch of cute little

legs and claws. Sorry is that not cute? Anyways? Most adults have some eyelash mites, and for the most part this relationship seems commencelistic, meaning the mites get a home and get to eat our dead skin cells and we get nothing I mean grossed out, I guess, or if you want to think about it more positively, we get

a bunch of microscopic friends, so you're never alone. Typically, the mites cause no problems in humans, but in large quantities or for people with sensitive skin or immuno deficiencies, they can cause eye and skin irritation. But don't freak out. Most of the time, you can keep mites in check by gently cleaning your eyes keyword gently, you guys, like baby shampoo or just water. Don't go napalm in your eyeballs with bleach that will blind you and it won't

feel so good when we return. I'm going to infest your heart with good feelings as we explore some one of a kind adorable relationships between species. Sometimes relationships between species just happened to happen, and there's no greater pattern, just a random homeward bound situation. Often these oddball partnerships happen in captivity. Dogs and cheetahs become friends and zoos as Zookeepers have found that affable dogs make great companions

to the shy cheetah. There are countless videos of birds riding on top of dogs and cats, chickens snuggling up to kittens, cats adopting squirrels, cats and dogs kissing on the mouth. What is going on? Well, sometimes animals aren't so superficial and can see past the mere fact that

they're from entirely different species. So now I'm going to talk about these These relationships don't have any like wider evolutionary significance, but they're just kind of these random oddball couples that are really cute and fascinating to kind of show that sometimes animals will act outside of their kind of prescribed path of what the animals typically do, especially in weird situations. So this first one is this is a heartwarmer. Get those get those warm fuzzies in your

heart which aren't this time not worms, which is great. God. So, a baby hippo named Owen was orphaned in the two thousand and four Indian Ocean tsunami earthquakes, which were these huge devastating natural disaster. It caused flooding in Malindi, Kenya. This little baby hippo lost his parents, which is very sad. He was rescued by Dr Paula Cahumbu and the le Farge Ecosystem Sanctuary in mombas U, Kenya. He was also

rescued by a giant tortoise emotionally rescued. So Z is a hundred and thirty year old male to tortoise who

also lives at the sanctuary. And when Owen was placed in the sanctuary park, he immediately ran over to the tortoise and huddled next to him like hippos generally do with their mothers, And at first the tortoise was kind of confused, but then he grew to tolerate and even show affection towards the baby hippo, and the baby hippo would nozzle the tortoise, and then tortoise would kind of head bumped the hippo, and like it developed to the point where the baby hippo owen would just kind of

nudge the tortoise and the tortoise would follow the hippo around. And it's really interesting because it's not too surprising to me that the hippo would see this tortoise and it's orphan, and it just sees the shape. It's gray, kind of Bobby shape exactly. You're my new mom. Yeah, I mean not that close, but close enough. Yeah, but what I can't tell the difference between tortoises, And it's so surprising to me that the tortoise is just like, yeah, it'll

be your moment, sure, why not? Yeah, you can beat myself now. They do seem like like more agreeable animals. Tortoises. Yeah, they're they are very gentle generally. H but yeah, it is. It is. It's like it's like in you know, Kung Fu Panda, where it's like the duck and the panda like this huge, huge, panda and this little little I mean, the giant tortoise was initially about the same size, but as the zippo gets bigger, it's got to dwarf the tortoise. But it is. Yeah, it's a I don't know, it's

just really heartwarming. I guess some the show is often filled with horrible things eating each other, um, you know, but this time there's no twist. It's just really heartwarming. Can tortoises can they go into their shells or are they too big? Well? So they so giant tortoises, um don't really like tuck completely in their shells like box turtles can do. But you know, I mean the shell does provide them some protection. They can kind of like

tuck a little bit it in, but they don't. It's not like you know in the cartoons are just like zoop and then they're gone. They're too meeting for that. Yeah, that makes sense. And what are their predators like? Just you know, actually I would say they don't have too many predators because they're pretty big, because in my mind they don't have many predators, Like, yeah, I don't think they would. So they live in on the islands of

the Western Indian Ocean and also the Glapas. I believe they don't have any No, no, there's like there's not there's no big predators that would be large enough to eat them. Now, I don't let me check about the um. This is a very good question. So on the island the Western Indian Ocean islands, again, I would guess that there probably aren't any big predators there either. Um, So they might not have at least as adults, they might not have any natural predators as like little baby tortoises,

like probably birds would try to eat them. But but if they turn like ten, it's like, all right, you're going to live until your three things. Essentially, Yeah, yeah, I don't think they do. Like the adults have no natural predators, So yeah, that that does kind of make sense them Like it sees this hippo bounding towards it. It's like, all right, what's this about? What the hell? I don't know this? What is this? Is this a

few of my buddies stacked on top of each other. Yeah? Again, I like it's sort of like the badger coyote dynamic of like this excitable baby hippo and this like a hundred thirty year old tortoise who's like old and gratchy. Oh, it's like an up you know how the old guy makes friends with the little the little boy scout Kevin's the bird. I think who's the boy scout's name? I

don't remember a little boy scout? The hippo me but but yeah, so so it's just like this excited little hippo being like, hey, sure wouldould like to beat my new mommy. And it's like yeah, all right, all right, oh boy, let's go on adventures together please, And the turns like, alrighty, there's beauty. Let's go take a while because to him a hippo. Hippo's truthfully are they can run very quickly. Don't let their massive size fool you. Most of that size is pure muscle. They can destroy

you and run very fast. So now onto another cute adoption. So, uh, there's a story of a dalmatian adopting a lamb. But here's the twist. The lamb had Dalmatian spots. So there's a rare sort of colouration for a lamb where it actually forms these black and white patches and it looks like a dalmatian's coloring. But it's a lamb. And so there's a farm in Australia where this lamb was born

and it was orphaned. I couldn't find out whether it's mother died or some times the mother will just reject the lamb for who knows what, like you're you're a little freak, get out of here, weirdo. But the lamb really looked out because it was born on a freaking Dalmatian breeders farm. So uh. The lamb was paired up with a female Dalmatian who was in season, meaning it could give, it could get pregnant, like when they're in heat in estras um. So like, I guess it's like

a mom hormones we're going off. And it was like, yeah, I'll have a baby lamp. I love it. And so the dalmatian follows the lamb around, licking it incessantly licking its face and but and just doting on it, just totally loving it. Let me show you the video of it. It's very very cute. Now I'm not going to play the sound on this, but most of the videos sound is just the sound of the dog tongue lapping and going on. But it is it has like the same who.

I mean, like it's like from a distance, it's like, okay, here's a normal dalmatian and it's puppy and it's and then you take a closer looking you're like, well that's a weird shaped puppy. And then you get real close since that's a lamb at a minute, but it's so cute look at it. Just she just loves this, this little lamb to bits. That lamb, by the way, was a pyromaniac, and then the dalmatian reformed it. You know, they fight fires together. I love this story. I like

the backstory you gave it. Like I was rejected by my sheep community. It's like, well why is that I started fires? Started fires? Oh? You know that big fire in Australia with me. You don't like fires here either. It's getting milk. That dog loves that land. It seems like the other dogs too. Yeah, I mean, like dogs are you know great? Yeah, awesome. They they often will adopt other animals. They just have so much love to give.

But yeah, it is I mean probably also because this female dog has accepted the lamb as her her baby. The other dogs they're like, all right, it's your baby. Sure, why not. They're they're really yes, ending the dogs and um, one more really cute story of now this one. It's not clear whether it's adopting from a young age or if they have just kind of accepted this, uh, this individual into their group. But marine researchers found a bottle nose dolphin with a spinal deformity which had been taken

in by a group of sperm whales. So dolphins and sperm whales are not natural friends. And the dolphin that was seen with these sperm whales had a C shaped spine, so like, um, yeah, so due to what they guess is a congenital deformity, and it was observed with a group of sperm whales and they were just affectionately nuzzling

each other. The sperm whales seemed chill with it. And it's hard to say exactly the nature of this relationship because it was a rather quick observation, Like they didn't they weren't able to follow them over a matter of weeks or anything like that, so it's hard to you know, say, as a matter of fact, like, yes, they are all friends now, and you know it could be a brief interaction. But the bottle knows dolphin was definitely not anywhere near

a pot of dolphins. So the speculation is that it is has found this group of sperm whales and has either insinuated itself in their midst and it's like I'm your friend now, or they've accepted the dolphin as a friend, which is it's unusual because sperm whales don't even they don't hang out in the same part of the ocean. Don't they dive deep? No? No, I mean they do, need they do kind of occupy. Yeah, they occupy similar strata, but they it is true that they aren't in the

same pace as dolphins. They do dive deep and then they come up and service and dive deep again. But like, the dolphins move much quicker than the sperm whales and the but this dolphin, because of the spinal malformation, probably can't move as fast as other dolphins, and either it was rejected by its group because of its looks or maybe it just wasn't fast enough to keep up, which

is really heartbreaking. But you know, dolphins can kind of be bullies, like they can bully an individual that they just don't like, they don't accept it in their pod, which is really cliquish. They can yeah, no, they can attack each other. They certainly murder animals to eat, but like each other like yeah, I mean they can kind of fight each other. Yeah, like rival pods will fight each other. I don't know how efficacious they are and

murdering each other, but yeah, they they do fight. Um, and I think I would say, yeah, they probably can occasionally murder, but most likely they just like bullied this dolphin until it left or just swam fast and it was like ditched them. Well, now he has cooler friends, right exactly that are less cliquish. You missed upon the first time, so I had to do it again because dolphins click. Of course. Yeah there we go. So um, yeah, it is, it is really, it's it's fascinating. For the

most part. Sperm whales kind of probably avoid dolphins because a pot of dolphins could attack like a baby sperm whale and they don't want anything to do with that, and so but yeah, I mean, this little guy, it's like maybe they're just they recognize them. They they're like, you look like a weird, weird calf. All right, you can join us, So it's it's weird calf. Yeah, calf a calf is a baby. Well, yeah, I didn't mean

the part of a life. You look like an odd fel you look like a weird cow come on and trying to sure, But yeah, maybe they or it's just like so insistently trying to find friends that they're just accepting it as they're friend or it's just a brief interaction and then they go back to no, no, I won't accept that. Let's let's go ps that that they're all best friends. They formed a group called like the Misfits. No, no,

that's a band. What's a good name for like a group? Okay, now yes, but just like like the odd ball, like like hey, we're I guarantee you there could easily be a T shirt of a Remor on it, like the Remons stop t shirt, and like three people would enjoy wearing If you're the three people who would enjoy wearing that shirt, let me know make that shirt. Um this for so, I want to cap off the show and our stories of adoption to update us. We got a KOL update. I'm gonna play the KOL update sound here

call update. A few weeks ago, we talked about the fires in Australia. I talked about some places that you can donate to, and I had everyone vote on a koala for us at the show to adopt, and you guys voted and you voted for Oxley Twinkles the koala and I have it is official. Now I have adopted Oxley Twinkles. She thank you. She is my Koala daughter. Apparently, what happens with the koala adoption is you don't actually like get the koala, Like they don't send you the Koala.

It's just kind of right exactly what happens is the quala like occasionally calls me up and asks for money, um, and like it's like, yeah, I need some money for gas and it's like yeah, okay, I mean you are my daughter now, like right right, I want to see the receipt from the gas station, Like and don't give me a receipt from a gas station and you've crossed out all the booze and sharpie like I know, look, I was a young Koala wants to you. I've done all the tricks, so I know it. I know it.

But yeah, so so ox Oxley Twinkles Koala daughter of the podcast. Um, I want to talk to you or tell you about like the description of Oxley twinkles from the Koala Hospital website. Did you get a velvet worm with that? Did it come with a velvet worm or now sadly, I'm still working on that. I oh, oh,

that's thank you for reminding me. Because like, guys, please tell give me the website or number or address of a like an insect or not insects, sorry, but like an invertebrate rescue organization, because I desperately want to adopt a velvet worm. Now I understand I wouldn't blindly click on those links, by the way, I understand that probably by adopting a velvet worm. Again, like the Koala situation,

it's going to be a long distance relationship. I accept that, But I do want to at least in name, adopt a velvet worm, or at least UH sort of signal boost in inverted rescue organization, or probably more likely it would be an invertebrate conservation organization that UM uses the money to research how to help with UH invertebrate conservation UM. So yeah, like, if you have a good one or you are part of a group, send me. You can

contact me through Twitter and stuff. But you can also if you want send me an email Creature feature pod at gmail dot com. Also if you just want to send me an animal story or a picture of your cat. I love it so. Oxley Twinkles, Uh, here's the here's her stories. That she came in with her mother, Oxley Kaylee, who got I think hit by a car. But the mother survived, as did the Joey, and it was taken in by the Koala Hospital. And this little Joey, they said,

like her Joey with the big fluffy ears. We christened Oxley Twinkles as she was such a bright, alert, lively little Koala just like a twinkling star. My daughter is a star. She's very lucky. Yes, so it's it's wonderful. And if you guys wanna throw some more books at Oxley Twinkles, way honestly, any here's here's me talking out of character for a moment. Any donation you give to them, like any kuala you adopt, it just goes towards the Koala Hospital in general and the great work that they do.

So that's uh Koala Hospital dot org dot au. I'll

include that link in the show notes as well. I also got a message from Tom Rogers of the Podorou Palace Sanctuary in New South Wales, Australia, who sent me a gorgeous photo of a rescued koala named Sapphire and her baby Joey, and you know I'm going to post those to the social media's And he wrote to me that they had to evacuate the animals in the sanctuary during the height of the New South Wales fires, which was really stressful for the animals and I imagine the

rescuers too. So thank you so much, Tom Rodgers and everyone who works at the Poduru Palace for all the hard work you do and honestly heroic things you do for these animals. Definitely check out their website. I'll also include a link to it in the show notes. It's called Potaru Palace dot com. And I'm not sure if they're open right now, you could check, but if you live near New South Wales, Australia, you can visit their

sanctuary and help feed the animals. And then what was this the one year l A could you animal track animal tracks? And then there's another great one near l A in um Lake Arrowhead called wild Haven, Oh wonderful. So so yeah, shout out to all those groups. That's that's incredible. I I am definitely going to go check

out animal tracks. That sounds incredible. Great, got anything to plug Blake Wexler dot com at Blake wet Laurance social media, and then I'm headlining the Arcade Comedy Theater in Pittsburgh on February awesome, congratual, Thank you, Thank you can find us on Instagram at Creature Feature Pod on Twitter at Creature feet Pod. That's f e A T, not f e e T. That is something very different. You can find me at Katie Golden on Twitter. As always, I am at pro bird Rites, where I fight for the

rights of birds to completely dominate us. Yeah, and look, I think that partnership between birds and humans can only lead to honey and success. But mostly we should just worship birds. Uh. And if you again, like, if you want to reach out to me, definitely shoot me an email at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. If you've got any cool animal conservation stories, any cool resources you want to me to give a shout out, or pictures of your day cats and dogs or birds or whatever.

Thanks for the Space Classics. For their super groovy song x Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like this, visit the I heart Radio app to app a podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. See you next Wednesday.