Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeart Radio. I'm your host of Mini Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, it's birds in the News Owls. Well that ends well, we're talking about some noteworthy birds, especially owls. This is a very owl heavy episode because I like to keep up with the bird news, because if you birds news, you bird lows.
So we will learn about orange owls, what's happening. We will also learn about how an owl was at the center of a fight for the Endangered Species Act. And we will in the show with a short sweet kids story about robots taking care of birds, which I do love. Discover this and more as we answer the age question was the wild Robot just a documentary? Joining me today is friend of the show, producer host of the podcast Rough Stuff as well as shooting threes, Bridget Greenberg.
Look, Hi, it's me. I heard an owl the other day at like at like four in the morning, and I was very excited, and I woke up my boyfriend, who was not as excited as me about hearing an owl.
I am so proud of you, Bridget. I can't even begin like this is I this is why you're on the show. I approved so much. Tell your boyfriend he's wrong.
Yeah.
This happens with my husband all the time, where I'm like, did you hear that bird? He's like, what are you talking about? And it's like do you have ears? Do you not hear the birds?
Like they're all around us?
I cannot. I cannot navigate to save my life. I will like go into a building, exit the building, and run directly into like either traffic or a wall. Uh.
Sure.
I can never find my way around. I have no sense of direction.
The fact that I'm not in a parking garage right now looking for my car is amazing.
No, No, I know, same, same I've I've been. I've been stuck in a parking garage just going around and around and around for like more times than I care to admit. Uh. And I I do sometimes have to be guided like a sort of untrained mongrel uh to make sure I do not interact dangerously with traffic. So you would think that, Okay, my skills of observation are not that great. But the thing is, I'm using like ninety nine percent of my brain power to like hear
listen for and observe birds. So every time I got your important yeah, I'm like, I'm like Brett, who's my husband? Like Brett, there's a cout Did you hear that? That was a cout? Hey, there was a There's a tit? Did you hear that tit? Hey, there was a houseparrow? Did you hear that?
They'll guide you. The birds will guide you if you listen.
The birds will guide you, possibly into traffic. But the point is it's really important to observe birds at the expense of any other sort of.
Yeah.
So we're on the same page there, and people have been observing one particular bird near Lake here on Michigan. People have spotted an uh orange owl. Orange owl just dropped, Yes, new orange owl. New orange owl is So they have spotted a snowy owl that people have named either Rusty or Creamsicle. I kind of like creamsicle. Yeah, I'm sort of on the I'm voting for creamsicle is the name?
Yeah, Rusty is like, yeah, cute classic. There are probably other birds named Rusty Creamsicle. Creamsicle is it original name?
Also, if you see this bird, oh wait, I have to yeah, I have to give you the images because like, this is like a bright This is not just kind of orange in the sense of.
No, it's not a color.
Yeah, it's like a like how a fox is orange or whatever, where it's like, it's a pretty decent foxes are a decent orange. But it's like a natural looking orange. This is bright, synthetic looking orange.
Yeah, it's like someone like a toddler started coloring it with a cran and then forgot.
Yep, that is but like precisely, precisely what it looks like, like a toddler kind of spilled some cran juice. Cran juice isn't a thing, but.
The grand juice.
That is kind of what it looks like.
Yeah, what a stunning bird, very beautiful. Yeah. Creamsicle. Yeah, creamsicle is a name one hundred because it's also got the white mixed in. It's not just as.
Yeah yeah, no, it's it's one hundred percent of creamsicle. Uh, perfect name. No notes on that this bird is a singular. It's not that this is a new species. This is a snowy owl, so this is known. And the the fact that it looks like it's been stained with a highlighter or dipped in sauce has been there's been multiple photographs of it, so it's not like a photoshop hooks or something of that nature. So it is definitely a bird that exists who is orange, and we don't really
know why. So it's not like it's not like, oh yes, oh yes, we know this is this owl has uh orangeitis that.
You know, are like a variety of snowy owl that is orange.
No, no, no, no no. Researchers are like, no, this is not this is not normal, and so there have been a variety of theories as to what is going on. Obviously, someone could have possibly captured a snowy owl, dyed it and then release it as a prank, which seems somewhat unlikely in my opinion. I not I don't put it. It's not it's not a good prank. It's not that I don't put it past people. I you know, as much as I love humanity, we got some stinkers, We
got some stinkers, and we got some perverts. So I would believe a person would do this. It's that I think it's that I doubt the person who would want to die an owl orange would have the capacity to do it. You know what I mean, like a pigeon, Sure you can't. You can catch a pigeon. So like people have caught pigeons and like done weird things to pigeons, like glued little hats to their heads, which I disapprove of. Don't do that. If a pigeon wants to wear a hat, it'll wear a hat.
You don't. If you glue it will find a hat. Yeah, they're around enough trash, I'll find a hat.
And honestly, like pigeon fashion is so far advanced from human fact, like pigeons who wear bread around their necks or bagels around their necks. Like, pigeon fashion is beyond us.
Yeah we're not ready for that runway walk.
No, no, exactly, So leave the pigeons alone. But yeah, like I would, I would believe this was a prank if it was a pigeon because people are weird. But a snowy owl, I don't see how someone would catch it. I mean it's possible, but it just seems it seems like an odd thing to do. Uh, it's not done by researchers, right, because there are like bird conservation projects and stuff, but there's nothing right.
There are other ways to tag bird.
There used to be I think, like a few decades ago, there used to be some things where they would use paint to track birds. But that was a long long time ago. We don't do that anymore. It's banding birds now. Radios or banding birds no longer using paint to track migratory birds.
So that's that's a lot of paints. I would imagine. Yeah, I would imagine they just like kind of give a stripe when they did it, not try to.
Yeah, they didn't dunk. They didn't dunk the bird into sort of the that little package of seasoning that comes in with Kraft.
Mad and cheese. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So uh yeah, So various researchers have various theories. So one is by Michigan State University bird coloration expert Kevin McGraw, who thinks it's possible the owl has a mutation resulting from environmental factors such as pollution. So that's theory number one, that this bird is an orange mutant. Huh.
Sad for the reason, but cool turnout like that if we get more orange owls, that's pretty cool, but you know, for bad reasons ultimately net zero.
Yeah, I don't want the lesson to be let's let's keep oranging our owls like.
No, no, it's a net negative for sure, but cool.
But that's that's a theory, right, that is not there has been no evidence of that, other than the fact there's an orange owl going around. Auburn University ornithologist Jeffrey Hill believes it is not a mutation. He thinks that it the pattern of coloration seems to be a die that was applied. But again the question is why and who and how and what?
Yeah, what I mean? I like I people are weird, they really are. So I'm being like, this is my bird, and I want to know it's my bird. But owl seem hard to.
Like.
I I've had enough like trouble, trying to trama, housecats, nails. I can't imagine trying to die an entire owl.
I've often thought about how one would go about dying an entire owl. I've given a lot of thought of it, about it, a lot of thoughts to it. But I would imagine be quite difficult. And owls are essentially the cats of the sky. Yeah they don't, they really do. They don't want to be dyed. Uh, And so it's not like. It's not like an eery PoTA where the owls are just gonna like fly around and deliver you mail and let you do weird wizard stuff to it.
It's not gonna like that, and it's gonna use its big clause on you.
Yeah. Every time I've seen an owl at like a zoo or some sort of bird.
Show, bird show isn't the word that you're looking for.
But all right, yeah, but you know you know bird with bird Yeah, bird show, bird shop.
You're right, I apologize, I apologize. It is called bird show.
Bird show. This is bird show.
Uh.
Yeah. They do have the vibe of cats of like gaze upon me, do not come near me?
Yes, but gaze, Yeah, you make gaze. The last theory is the one that I believe in. This is the explanation that really does it for me. Uh. A third bird expert, doctor Scott Whedenschnall. Also he has the best name, so I gotta go with him. He's the co founder of Project Snowstorm, a snowy owl research group. He told The New York Times New York Times is how do you say that? New York Times is James Krugnall Knolly
New York Times is James Krignolly. The most likely explanation is that it was the icing fluid at an airport, since some formulations are that red orange color. Oh, I think he. I think that's what happens. That feels them right that like doesn't me.
That that kind of feels like the Okham's razor. Uh. The simplest answer is the best. Uh, this alog it's got spilt on.
Right exactly, Like when I look at this al, I'm like, yeah, that guy could have gotten blitzed with a diceer sprayer and uh, also like it there's like kind of it explains the kind of tied eye pattern, the pattern, right yeah. And also like there there's like some white feathers above the orange ones, and it's like, yeah, it could have also molted some of the other feathers and so that's why some of them look like pristine and other ones are sort of like have this color spread on it.
So I think this, I think this guy got blested with with plane juice. Oh no, yeah.
I mean and that also his his his face in the in the first one is like, yeah.
I get me, Yeah, he's he's a this this is a this is a bird that now has a vendetta against planes, which does worry me. Yeah, yeah, I think we should be concerned about that.
We should watch out for this bird. If you're in if you see creamsicle, you see creamsicle out your window and you're flying it does it does seem like it just takes one, you know these days, it just takes one.
Yeah, so yeah, Creamsicle. Creamsicles revenge hopefully won't happen, but yeah, poor Creamsicle. Also, if you are in the Michigan Lake here on area, uh, do not snitch on creamsicle. I can't. I can't emphasize this enough. Don't be a snitch. If you see creamsicle. Feel free to take a photo marvel at creamsicles beauty and orange appearance, but do not post online where you see creamsicle. If you take a photo and you want to share it online, scrub it of
any I identifying information. Because people do not want this owl to be harassed. This owl is like a bird celebrity. It's like it's like bird Scarlet jo It's like bird Scarlet Johansson. I think I saw recently this post about like Scarlet Johansson doesn't like to take photos with fans because she it's like kind of an invasion of her privacy. And it's like, yeah, that completely makes sense, scargo. I'm one hundred percent on her side. Like she's probably out
some stalkers, so she doesn't want photos taken. That makes sense. Creamsicle is the Scarlet Johansson of owls.
And and yeah it's beautiful.
Yeah, like if you know where she is, No you don't, No you don't, No you don't.
Yeah, I yeah. I feel like owls are very you know, solitary, and like their silence too. I'm sure they don't want swarms of people around them. No, no, they aren't knowing them. Yeah, and oh, you know, it's already been through so much. It was so exciting to see an orange owl and then I was like, oh, yeah, it got hit with plane.
The good news that the good news is that the sort of Michigan Wildlife Conservation group has said that the owl appears to be in good health. So great, Creamsicle seems fine. I keep saying the owl. We don't actually know the owl sex Uh, I'm calling her her because she's beautiful, but could could easily be a meal. But yeah, so it's doesn't probably not, probably does not care. It's like, is that mouse? Is that tasty mouse? No, don't care.
Yeah, so that's its priority.
Taste mouse, kill the mouse. No, all right, creamsicle seems to be doing fine.
That's good.
Probably got pribe, got blasted with the plain juice.
Yeah. Oh, it's got a cool as as long as it's healthy. It's got a cool it's got a cool die.
It's gotta it's got you know, try something out. It's got cool vibes. We saw her across the room and we thought you had cool vibes. So but keep it across the room. Don't harass this owl.
Yeah, don't stry anymore playing juice on owls. That seems not good.
That's right. The airport, the local, the Michigan Airport refused to comment on the story.
So they're like, yeah, yeah, we know.
Owl owl Tinder just dropped, bridget. I know you're like, if you're worried about owls finding love, worry no longer. Owl tinder is here, thank god. So Western burrowing owls are literally the cutest owl in existence.
They are those are are those? Well? No, not Western? I was thinking of the hoot owls from the Carl Hyason book. They were in Florida. Those are those are that's deep Florida. Lord, that's a he's a Florida author. Okay, there was a whole book called in a movie called Hoot about burrowing owls.
Yeah, well, burrowing owls are all gonna be cute though, no matter where they are. These ones are Western burrowing owls found in California, and they are adorable. They are terrestrial owls, which means that I mean they can fly, but they burrow. They spend their time in burrows. They most spend most of their time on the ground hunting, and they are I think the cutest owl in existence. Sometimes they lie on their tom tums just to like
get that, like sunbathe. They're small owls. They're brown with these big yellow eyes. They only weigh about five ounces. They're truly a handheld owl.
Yeah, they're little, tiny birds.
They're owl many and they're super cute. They have this perpetual look of either shock, deep a fence, or plane stupidity. Usually there's like a trio of them staring at the camera. One of them looks angry, one of them looks shocked, and the other one looks deeply stupid. I don't know how they always manage to get the three three owls in a band. Yeah formation I I will have pictures of it in the show notes. But I highly recommend
just googling burrowing owls. They're very silly. Anyways, these little dumb dumbs need our help finding love. Uh. This is an article in Geo by Kate Ferby, which is the perfect name name to be writing about the burrowing owls, which, yeah, they are ferbie like they are ferbies, they're real furbies.
So apparently these owls are Their populations have been declining in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of the problems with population decline, especially when it comes to urbanization or suburbanization suburban crawl, is that you are kind of making these genetic bottlenecks, and so genetic diversity goes down in the overall health of the species declines. So owl
conservationists have created uh basically owl Love Island. So they it's a it's a camp for owls where they go as juveniles and it's to like they check on their health. They ban them. They do like genetic tests and blood tests and then like for the winter period because a lot of the juveniles are it's still the population in this area is still somewhat fragile. So they keep the juveniles there over winter in this big bird sanctuary so
that they're they're grow up nice and healthy. And then they play uh like match maker for these birds.
Uh.
But they they do it by finding like the least in bread match for them. So one of the problems when you have a declining population is if the birds mate with someone like their cousin, it's not great. Yeah, So they're trying, they're trying to get these birds to stop, uh stop doing incests, some doing in so they they find they find a bird that's like very genetically distant from the other bird, pair them up. And when they're like when they are in adults and they are released
from bird love camp. Uh they uh just it's like you will ask like, okay, how do you like have birds get married? What do you mean like these you're matching these birds like they're birds.
What do you do?
Yeah, you throw both of them in a hole.
So yeah, that will do it.
That'll do. So they they find burrows for these birds because they they they like like they either make them or find the burrow and they will take them the pair. The match set that there's like you are this is this? This match pair is the most genetically diverse birds. They're
the least related. You're not cousins, so congratulations. They stick them in the hole, and the birds are like cool with it, Like they they're just like okay, because again at this point, the yeah, hey you're you live in hole too.
We have so much in common. Yeah, what else do you need? This?
Nice?
Is it?
The you're the bird of my dreams. You're also in home. I'm in hole. You're in hole.
It's a nice hole. You want to stay in this hole?
Fore, yeah, let's just stay in hole together. So like it seems to work because again because it's like uh it is they're out in wild, in the wild at this point, they can do whatever they want. But they're pretty happy usually with this match. And they're not always like one hundred percent monogamous, but they tend to be like they might have like some breeding seasons where they go and they like kind of get a hall pass. They explore and explore a little bit. It's like an
open marriage. But like they they they.
In hole for so long a hole Yeah, it's like it's like like I met someone.
I met someone today who also lives in hole. Right, crazy, right, So yeah, they seem to be happy with the matches, and apparently this is working like surprisingly well. By diversifying their DNA. They this has resulted in their telomeres doubling
in length, which is really good news for the owl population. Again, telomeres are sort of like, it's like this, on the end of your your DNA, you have like this strand of proteins that don't necessarily do anything, but it's kind of like you know how I get on the end of your zipper. You have that like long metal thingy that like stops the zipper from just like coming off.
That's what a telomere is. Essentially, It's like a strand of proteins that prevents the the things that like run around run along the DNA, copying the DNA called like enzymes, from basically messing up once it gets to the end
of it. And so the shorter the telomere, the more uh basically the shorter the lifespan of the organism, because then you start getting more more and more airs, chance of cancer, chance of airs that is uh, incompatible with staying alive and so longer telomeres are generally good for an animal and uh so yeah, by this this bird love Island is creating healthier birds by increasing the bird diversity.
Hey, it's working. Love Island never works. I love that. It feels like summer camp for birds. Like it is.
Yeah.
I went to like a sleepway camp that was like that felt like this of like find find your nice little jewish boy. I went to what this owl camp is?
I went to a science camp and uh it was, uh, you know, nerds are very horny, so famous, surprisingly surprisingly horny nerds. I was in the I was in the computer science group, and uh yeah, like the I would say, probably the probably the horniest group and the least likely to do anything about it.
Yeah. Yeah, they're the computer They're not quite on the scale of band nerds. Yes, on the horny scale of.
But band nerds like get pretty freaky with it.
I feel like, yeah, yeah they're theater nerds are band nerds on the other end, all those spit belts.
Anyways, Yes, I'm glad they're finding love owl tender is working working really well for these burrowing owls, which is it's great news.
So just drop them in a hole with another owl, and that rarely work.
You just drop in. You just drop them in a hole with another owl.
Which you know, if only love were that easy.
Only maybe maybe it could be, is what I'm saying. Maybe maybe it could possibly be. Uh, that's what I feel like. I went through with my my husband, like we went through the pandemic together, and so it was kind of like we were dropped in a hole together, and it really I turned to him, I'm like, wait, you're in hole too. We have so much in common. I'm in hole, You're in hole.
I'm in Yeah. I think my boyfriend and I came out of the other side of the pandemic being like, oh, we can be alone together for for three years in not going outside. All right, this works, Yeah, this works, It works works good. Yeah.
So that's a that's that's it's it's a good dating strategy. Yeah, invite, invite the person that you like to a hole.
So also, and also when you're this cute.
Yeah, it's a little baby. Fun fact about baby burrowing owls. They can hiss like a rattlesnake to ward off present. So they just like a little angry.
Yeah, they're little. I feel like they don't have Yeah, I feel like they don't have a lot of other defenses.
One of their defenses is stomping snakes. Like if a snake tries to get in the row to like get the babies, they stomp on them.
Yeah. Yeah, they do. Got those sharp cloths they do.
Yeah, they're feisty. They're like little tiny kittens of the of the the out the bird kittens, bird kiddies. Indeed, last owl story. So, northern spotted owls are at the center of a power struggle with the Trump administration. Weird, right, resist didn't think I was gonna drop politics in this episode, did Boom? Gotcha?
Welcome to their resistance, Welcome to the owls.
Yeah, so, I you know, like this is not usually a political podcast, but honest, like it has become completely unavoidable because of all the stuff happening visa the environment. Uh yeah, so yeah, it's everywhere.
Yeah.
Anyways, so Trump has invoked a god Squad panel, which sounds great. H So this is basically it is a panel that relates to the Endangered Species Act. It is a group of high level officials who are trying to override the Endangered Species Act like a bunch of Captain Planet villains. Wow, yeah, sou So. The Endangered Species Act includes a provision that allows for some of it to be overridden if it is in the public interest. So this means like, well, so it's supposed to be only
applied in very very specific, very rare circumstances. It is that has rarely ever happened. Like once it happened because there needed to be a dam on a body of water and in order and that threatened the whooping crane. So in order to do the dam, they had to do all of these extra protections for the whooping crane or to make up for the fact that they were doing this dam. But they needed the dam for either I don't know for yeah, for water water, thank you,
bridget that's the word I was looking for. Uh. And so it's really not meant to be used very often, but obviously uh in this case, like like the interpretation of like in the public interest seems to be now like Trump and his rich friends and like wat to it exactly, and like the the the villains from Captain Planet, whom I forget like doctor pollution or whatever.
Yeah, but it just doesn't like the look of it anymore.
Yeah, so uh the basically, yeah, so it should it should not, it should not. This God Squad is called the God Squad because the ideas like they have the god h yeah, yeah, they have the power of life, death, the blah blah blah, Jurassic Park, et cetera.
So cool, not ominous at all onto the significance of the northern spotted owls.
These little guys have this brown coloration and white spots with cute, perpetually grumpy white eyebrow markings.
Most owls do look grumpy, these ones. They are not surprised.
These ones have the added benefit of having like like sort of eyebrows, which make them increase the grumpiness. I'm dropping this owl into the document right now.
Oh that's a grumpy Every animal should have distinctive eyebrows. Yes, it makes them so readable. Yes, he looks grumpy, he looks angry.
He's very grumpy and angry. And what I like about that is he's basically going no, you don't to do yeah to the God squad that's trying to Yeah. So yeah. In nineteen ninety two, the gods, the God Squad, tried to allow logging despite threats to these Northern spotted owls, and the government was sued by environmental groups who said that the decision was based on politics rather than science, and due to the litigation, the Bureau of Land Management
withdrew the logging request. So the Northern spotted owls, I just imagine them in the courtroom like going like I may not be a city city lawyer.
You know. There is also like something to the markings around its face that makes it look like a tough, mean judge, whereas a powdered wig.
Yes, I want I want these owls to be the ones leading the process cution at the Hague.
Yeah, yeah, no, they they have like you look at those eyebrows and they are you're not you don't don't with me, So I really do. You're not getting away with it exactly.
So I really do like these spotted owls as the symbol of resistance to the attack on environmental protections.
So yeah, following this owl into battle, for sure?
I would. I would, Yes, I would follow this owl. Probably he'd take me to a tree and then up a kind of nugget of fur and mouse bones, and I'd be like, yeah, you owl for this precious gift.
I had to dissect one of those.
Yeah, me too, and I like, I asked my teacher if I could keep all the little mousebone parts and she was like, yeah, you can. It's not just did that you do but you can't? Was like, great, put them in my lunch box. Yeah. My mom was like, is their mouse bones in your lunchbox?
You know? Yeah? That's that teacher. How to make a make a call based on your vibe of like is she doing this because she's interested.
Or because it was necromancy wants to murder? It was necromancy, but the educationalency.
Yeah, yeah, the cool kind. So yeah, she had to make a real vibe decision there on whether you could keep the mouse bout.
And she made the right decision. I grew up, Yeah she did almost normal. So last little story here, Bridget is about the real life Wild Robot. Did you see that movie Wild Robot?
I did? And oh I love that.
It got me too. I love it so much. I freaking love the movie. It's so good. It's scientifically questionable. I don't know what the animals man are at the end. All the animals get along on the island. I don't know what they're eating, if not each other.
But but you know, friendship, the power of friendship.
Friendship. Maybe they have a system where like the old ones giddy.
I don't know, it's like a donner party, right, or like I worked it out.
Yeah, or like Midsummer Midsummer where the old where the old the old people get thrown off a cliff, but in this case the old animals. Anyways, The Wild Robot was a really adorable movie. I loved it. There's a
real life Wild Robot situation going on. The Chingolo is a tiny South American sparrow with rusty coloration, uh which its population is in decline, but which is a problem because do the habitat loss and population decline, some of the young chingolos are left without adult birds to tutor them, uh, to teach them how to sing because younger yes, songbirds aren't pre programmed with the songs. They actually learn them
from older birds. They're pre programmed with the ability to learn the songs, but they actually have to learn them. And so if there's too much habitat loss, not a high enough population density of birds, they may not learn the full song. So there's the complexity of this song is starting to decay, and so researchers and conservationists got together and created a bird tutor robot, which is basically like it sounds like it's going to be a cute like robotic bird, it's.
More just it's like a speaker.
It's more of a speaker. But the thing is it's a fancy speaker because it's not just playing pre recorded bird songs. They trained a model to learn how the song used to be based on old recordings, on old notes, so that they could create a very not just like a kind of bad recording or something, but to create a really clear song and one that they can like, you know, add variations to that that existed in the older song.
And uh so they songwriters, okay.
Ai, songwriters are are saving birds. I mean it is it is. I think it is a a It's one of the applications where it's like, this is what we should be using, yes, exactly, uh a tool. Yes. So it seems like some of the young birds are learning from the song robots and have started incorporating the old complexity of the songs into their song. So it does seem to be working. And this is happening in the
in Buenos Aires in Peri aira Erolla Park. So just you know a little bit of a little I like to I like to judge up the end with a little bit of good news there.
Yeah, that's that's sweet. One technology doing what it is supposed to do, helping organic species. There we go.
This is what Yeah, this is what we're supposed to be doing with technology, but not laying off artists so that we can have a movie posters with people with like seventy five teeth, extra fingernails and like a nostril in their eye.
Bill, yeah, something with something off. Just yeah, teach the birds music again exactly. Yeah, And I feel like this is it's like baby Einstein for birds.
It is.
They're like, yeah that like reading comprehension is going down in younger generations, same with birds, but they figured it out. They're learning again.
The implication is we could also be teaching these birds Taylor Swift songs and be able to go to the rainforest. Ye hear's some good dead poets society.
Right, So yeah, you know, you never you don't have to listen to someone else hiking with a bluetooth speaker anymore. Yeah, it's just the bird.
Yeah, although I guess like if that happens enough, the birds are gonna start learning whatever is on those awful bluetooth speakers. Don't do that, folks. Yeah, not only is it being for other hikers, it's also uh not great for the birds. They don't it's going to confuse them.
Yeah, headphones, we don't want to and you don't not ever snarr music. All right.
Before we go, we got to play a quick little game. This is called Gifts Who Squawk in the Mystery Animals sound game. Every week we play a mystery animal sound and you the listener, and you the guests, try to guess who was making that sound. Last week that sound hint was this This little baby does not want to be hung out to dry. All right, Bridget did you hear those those little plaintive cries?
Yeah? Yeah, My guess is based off the clue, and it is some sort of.
Bat It's a It's a very good guess based on my clue. But sadly I think I was a little misleading with it. No, this is the call of an otter. It's a baby otter. Sometimes baby otters are left by their mothers to float. Often the mothers will kind of entangle them with floating kelp so that they don't drift away and they cry like this so their mothers know
where to find them, so they have it. So if you ever hear like you're out on a boat out on sea and then you hear a baby crying, I mean, it could be a baby if you have one with you, but it also could be a baby otter.
Yeah, oh god, I love otters so much. If I could just hold one's little hand.
I know, and they would probably they might, they might hold your hand back. Uh yeah, so cute. Uh So onto this week's uh mystery animal sound. Uh the hint is this. Uh, I don't mean to bring religion into this, all right, Bridge, you hear that weird sound that was?
That was a wild one.
And you got any guesses?
Uh again, my my guesses will be very basic and I'm gonna I'm gonna go wail.
That's a very interesting guess and we will find out next time on Creature Feature. She's correct, Richard, Thank you so much for joining me today. Where can we? Where can the people find you?
You can find me on Instagram. Sarah and I my my co host Small Beans Network post chef to our Instagram bs podcasting and you can also find me personally there at bridget Underscore Greenberg. Then you'll post what I'm up to when things happened.
Do check that out. Bridget is delightful in all of her works. And thank you guys so much for listening. If if you're enjoying the show and you leave the rating or review, that always helps me out and I read all of them. And thanks to the space Cossics for their super awesome song exce Aluminus Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts. Are You Kiss?
For reculous your favorite shows. I'm not your mother, can't tell you what to do. Don't harass Orange Owls though, don't do it. Don't do it. See you next Wednesday.