SATANIC PANIC!

rather devilish but are mostly misunderstood. Join us as we explore these creatures of Zennite and day, like zidracula parrot, a very gothic gastropod, bleeding plants, exploiting trees, and a beetle with a reputation of biblical proportions. Discover this more as we answer the angel question can humans and birds unite? Over our love of fashion, often our love of animals

is a beauty contest. We are concerned about the fates of pandas Koala's tigers and eagles, which is a wonderful thing is these are wonderful animals, but sometimes it's harder to appreciate the more scary, dastardly looking animals. However, you can't judge an animal by its cover, and you can't judge a bird by how much it looks like an evil which is familiar. Joining me today to panic about satan is fellow podcaster and horror ficionado Megan Selena's say, everybody,

how are you? Thank you so much for joining me, Megan, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited too. I wanted to do this episode for a while. I have been collecting examples of animals and also plants, exemplary examples of goth style. I know that like goth style, there are many different styles of like goth. I know that goth isn't the same as like Satanists. And also, you know, death metal is its own whole thing,

so there's a bunch of print styles. But I think there's a case to be made for all of these creatures. They really fit into that general vibe of of goth or death metal or you know, Satanism but the fun but the fun friendly kind, you know what I mean? Yeah, these are these are hardcore but like also kind of adorable, right exactly, which I think a lot of quote unquote

Satanists are. I know that a lot of people like are what is it like the Satanic Church where they're not like they're not really oh, we gotta sacrifice virgins level Satanists, it's more of sort of this almost activism of religious freedom. They're not actually sacrificing virgins, is what I'm saying. No from And granted I was I was raised Catholic Um and so like everything in my upbringing about like Satanism and everything like that was very like, don't do that, it's demonic, dat it at it up.

But like, yeah, don't don't, don't prevale Satan. I would say that's a major tenant of I'm not religious personally, but I do know that in Catholicism, don't hail Satan is a big is a big thing. It seems to be Catholicism one oh one or just really Christianity one

oh one, don't hail Satan. But like, as an adult, everything I've heard about Satanists, yeah, seems to be more like it seems to be actually pretty inclusive and progressive, and it's not like it's almost kind of like people are doing it ironically, Like it's not actually think they

worship the devil. It's chipster hipster Satanists. Yeah, it's and I imagine I imagine some like hardcore Satanists who are actually into like virgin sacrifice, like, oh, these hipster Satanists, Like I was into Satanism back in eighteen twelve, back

before it was cool, um exactly. But yeah, No, I think it's more like actually being progressive about like very much standing for just in terms of like what I've heard lately is that it's it's more about like, as you said, freedom and pushing like women's rights and just generally speaking kind of being anti religious fundamentalism that wants

to take us back several steps. Similarly, I think goth style is not it's not necessarily about being cynical or really down like I think it's there's a lot of sort of goth style where and I'm personally I'm not a goth. I I like bright colors and way too much, but I mean there are pastel goths, so you know, I think it's more about embracing a sort of counterculture aesthetic.

And so you know, on that note, I want to take a look at some animals that are super duper golf looking, and I think I want to flip the perspective on these of like they're not scary looking to me, I mean maybe to some people they are, but I really want people to appreciate how awesome they are. And like a lot of these things that look really scary and satanic are really cool and really fun and sometimes

like really nice and sweet. Like there's some really cute things going on here that just they look a little demonic, but they're really cute. There's a comic book artist that used to follow way back in the day named test Stone, who very much described his style as candy coated horror, sort of scary imagery but also bright colors. And if these animals are an example of sort of cute but also kind of scary, I'm I'm excited to see what's

in store. Oh absolutely, Yeah, it's like skeletons, but they're having a tea party. That's my kind of party for sure. So meg In, do you want to learn about the Dracula parrot? Yes? Does he have an adorable cape and maybe maybe scarf of some sort, Yes, he does, absolutely So. This is pesquits carrot or also known as the vulture in parrot. But I've seen sort of being called the Dracula parrot. I'm not sure if it's officially named the

Dracula parrot. If that's just kind of a nickname that people have been giving it, but it's a it's a good name for this guy. So they look like the Broms Stoker Dracula version of a parrot. Yeah, I can definitely see the Bella Legosi esque resemblance. Yeah. Um yeah. He's got a black head and it's like the black feathers extend to his breast, but his wings and like sort of most of his body are red and then he's got like black tail feathers as well. That's so cool,

very dramatic bird, I think. So these are found in the rainforests of New Guinea. They are fairly large, so about eighteen inches from head to tail, which is forty six cimeters, So that's that's a good sized parrot. That's a good amount of bird. They have a black vulture like face with leathery skin instead of feathers, and a long, hooked beak. So that's why they're also called the vulture in parrot because they have a sort of vulture look

going on. But they do have some feathers on top of their heads, so it looks kind of like the front of their face looks like a bit like a black vulture. But then they have a mohawk on top of their head. It really looks like a cyberpunk version of Dracula, if that makes sense. He looks like he's here to make a statement. Yes, yes, yeah, and he does have that kind of regal bellogosie look or Gary

Oldman old and that's terrible. Yeah, and the terrible nineties film where where Kiana Reeves seemed more dead than the dead guys. I have a soft spot for that movie. But yes, it's not I mean same, It's not Francis Ford Coppola's best work. So while this parrot looks like it would suck blood from virgins, they're actually frugivores, meaning that it eats primarily fruit, so it loves figs, that's its favorite fruit. And it will sometimes just delicately sip

nectar from flowers. So these are little sweetheart birds. I'm picturing like an anthropomorphic version of this having a tea party, like extending the spinky as it sits very regally, and and maybe it has the Gary Oldman top hat. Yeah. Have you seen what we do in the Shadows, the movie mockumentary? I sadly have not. It's been on my list of movies to watch for ages. And I know I'm going to get so much flak for admitting that I haven't seen it as it yet, but no, I

have not. It makes me think of that the whole five of that movie, of like, oh, they look like fierce vampires, but then they're kind of like they're kind of cute. I mean, they do kill and eat people, and but you know, still, they do acute in a lovable way. So that bare leathery face that looks kind of scary, like a skexus or like a vulture, it actually does serve a similar purpose to a vultures bare face.

So vultures have a nude face and neck because they dunk their heads in carcasses and if they had feathers, blood and guts and all sorts of goop, goopy goop would get on their feathers, and that's bad. And vultures, despite their bad reputation, are actually very hygienic. They serve a wonderful purpose. They are the undertakers of the natural world. They dispose of carcasses. They're actually the terminus for a lot of diseases. And again they're very clean. They're very fastidious,

they'll they'll clean their face. They I mean, they do poop on themselves to keep cool. But who hasn't done that once in a while. But like the vulture, the dracula parrots, their faces are bare, so they can kind of go right into a fruit and get all this sticky fruit juice on their face and it doesn't it doesn't like stick to their feathers. And because can you imagine like putting a feathery face in like a fig and pulling it out, and then your feathers are dressed

all clumped together with fig juice. I have a hard enough time just keeping myself clean as I eat fruit, So yeah, I can only imagine what that would be like if I didn't have thumbs. Yeah, like if you were covered in feathers and you didn't have thumbs, nightmarescenary. I think that's like a that's like an ancient human punishment, right,

tar and feathering. But I like what you said about the vultures sort of getting a bad rap, because that is very much I I feel like probably something you guys unpack quite a bit in this show is that, like there are a lot of animals that get a bad reputation because of how they look, when in fact they serve a very important, very important purpose in their particular ecosystems. So yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. I mean I'm a big fan of all the creepy Crawley's. I love spiders,

I love vultures, I love snakes. I think and even honestly some of them are genuinely dangerous, but I still like them. So oh yeah, you can admire from Afar exactly exactly the Dracula parrots. They look a little spooky, in my opinion, in a really cool way. I think. I don't know, I think that even people who are scared by some animals, like they're going to look at this bird and be like, yeah, that's a cool kind of spooky. Yeah, that's like a radical kind of spook.

I like that you brought up skets, because yeah, now that you've said it, I'm like that, Yep, it looks he looks like he could be in the Dark Crystal for sure. Yeah, like a Skexas, but with a really nice fancy robe and maybe an ascot. I would actually love if, like whatever, the next big fantasy film to come out, I want the Evil Wizard to have one of these guys. As a pet. Yeah, I want this to be the evil wizard. Yes, into a giant a giant bird exactly. Did you ever see that m e

Walk movie way way back in the day. I don't remember which one of the two Ewalk movies it was, but like one of the was it the Christmas Special? I saw part of the Chewbacca Christmas Special. Goodness, No, but one of the one of the standalone e Walk movies. There was an evil witch in it who could turn back and forth into a bird, and I thought that was really cool, like interesting, This bird definitely looks like it could be an evil witch or an evil wizard

for sure. Yeah, or what we think is an evil witch or wizard, but it's just misunderstood. Yeah, it's actually just a really cool, laid back, chill dude. So these are very social birds actually, I mean this is again like goths are seen as being very antisocial, like human goths. I don't know that they are. I think that they're just really they can be really into a counterculture but also be very pro social. And the same thing for these guys. So they are often seen together in pairs

or in large groups. And I know that. So when you guys, see a photo of these beautiful birds, You're gonna want one as a pet. You're gonna be want to You're gonna want to be the person on the block that has this awesome Dracula parent. Unfortunately, I think that the pet trade is having a really bad impact on their population. So there species is vulnerable due to the pet trade. And in my opinion, admittedly not a Goth, but I think that commercialization is like super not Goth.

I think like the commercialization of animals and stuff is like that, that's that's not Goth, right, Goth isn't about that? Now, that's such a sellout thing to do, right exactly, That's that's poser sell out things to do. So yeah, I would not I would not recommend getting these as a pet. I would recommend admiring them from afar And they are beautiful.

They're so dramatic. I love just the absolute theatrical melodrama that these birds bring because they have a call that sounds like a squeaky old door flapping in the wind on a stormy night. Oh my god, I'm gonna play this for you. Oh my goodness, that absolutely sounds like it would it would be a sound effect in a haunted house in a terrifying ghost movie. Yeah, or an episode of Scoop. It's really nice, fully worked by these birds.

They're so wonderful. They are so wonderful. So now I want to basically look at the gastropod version of this bird. That's a good segue, that makes a lot of sense. So there is a giant red and black goth snail that is I mean, it is beautiful, maybe horrifying, I don't know. I like it. So this is Platyma tweetier, which is a rare large land snail found in Malaysia in a very limited area in the Montane Cloud forest on the peninsula. So it's about as big as a

human hand. So you you could hold this guy. And they have a jet black shell with a bright red trim. Their heads are black and then that kind of like turns into a gradient and then it's like full on bright red near their tails and on their bellies. Oh yeah, no, this thing is like the red in it is so bright and vibrant. I have trouble believing that this is a real photo and not like something photoshopped. Like, um, did you ever have an easy bake oven when you

were a kid. I did. Yeah. Um, there was a boy version of easy Bake Oven. Um that was two kids. Yeah, Creepy Crawley, the Creepy Crawley's. Yeah, yeah, I remember those ads. Crawlers in the ad they would always like show the boys like scaring the sister with these things. I'm like, why is she scared? And those are cool? Wait? Were they were they edible? I don't remember. Were they edible or were they just like goopy? I don't believe they

were edible. I believe it was literally like I think if you had made them edible, like somehow like they felt like that wouldn't be good for boys because it's too close to cooking, too close to cooking. I don't know. I do remember an edible version. So like with the but with the Creepy Crawlers, you would pour some kind of polymer substance rubbery and into a mold, bake it and it'd be these like bright colored bugs. Yeah. This looks like like something a kid would make from those

old Creepy Crawley's ads. And I mean that. I mean that in the best way. It looks mean, in a flattering way. Yeah. No, yeah, it looks fake, it looks photoshopped, but it is not. They are. They are extremely rare, and there's very little research about them, and which is too bad because there also becoming victims of the exotic pet raid, which is a little disconcerting because there's not

much information about how large their population is. They're extremely limited to like this very specific altitude in these montane cloud forests. So not only is the illegal pet trade potentially harmful to a very small population, also it's hard to raise them and breed them in captivity, and people find that they have very little success because they are so highly specialized for their natural habitat. They and a

very specific altitude, which is something you can't recreate. You can't like, I don't know, like put your pet snail in a little terrarium and put them on a weather balloon so he's at the right alplitude. No, that's that's heartbreaking. Like I understand the motivation because I see these guys. It's like I want this as a pet, you know. I want them to hang around on my shoulder and I feed them little leaves and stuff and we just like hang out, me and my mass cools and we're

best friends. I mean, my cool goth snail friend. But yeah, it is. I think people don't necessarily because there are some animals that we can keep as pets, but then these ones, unfortunately, the pet trade is potentially very bad for their population. And it's also I don't think you're gonna be able to successfully keep and breede these. They will probably die off, which is gonna be sad habitat

loss also threatens these really incredible snails. So you know, if you're a conservationist researcher looking for a new subject, these seem really cool. And I'm not just saying that because they're cool and goth and have a nice well okay, maybe I am, so what, but they're cool and also in need of help exactly exactly. Don't you want to

be the person who saves the goth snail? Absolutely? Like I like you said, I totally understand the the motivation for wanting these because even just looking at these pictures, I'm like, I want that, but right, but you can't, like, just because something looks cool doesn't give you the right to it. And yeah, and I mean, like you know, I think that humans are we are kind of like collectors by nature. You know, we like collecting things, which

makes a lot of sense. But I think that an attitude of just appreciating that this guy is out there in the world living is also really fun and cool. It's like, yeah, there's a cool black and bright red goth snail with a black shell being a total emo drama queen somewhere, and that's great. I love to live in a world where that is true. He's beautiful, but he's not a Pokemon. You can't he's not you can't keep him. He's not young. He does come in a

poke bawl though. Yeah, I mean, yeah, like if, but I'm pretty sure that if there's not already a Pokemon that kind of looks like this, I'm sure that in the next game, there's got to get on it. Get on it, Nintendo. So the next goth animal. I want to talk about our umbrella birds again. We're back to the birds. Birds are just really good at being dramatic. It's just the bird is the word, and the word

the word is goth chic. So umbrella birds are a genus of birds who are all ridiculously flouncy looking, if that makes sense. So umbrella birds are found in the rainforests of Central and South America. There in the Kotina family of tropical forest birds. The umbrella birds are a really fancy, goth dramatic just I don't know, I'm thinking of like Artitia except Mail. Yeah, very Adam's family, except it's the males, of course that are the most dramatic.

So I guess more more of a Gomez situation going on here. It's funny that you say that, because, yeah, like just kind of looking at um, the way that the feathers on their heads are shaped, it kind of reminds me of like old Victorian ladies with big hats and feathers sticking out of them. Did you ever see that Guillermo del Toro movie Crimson Peak? No, I didn't. I do like Guillermo del Toro, though his version of Victorian fashion is very much what I'm reminded of while

looking at these birds. For sure, I can. I can visualize that somehow, even though I haven't seen it. I can like, yeah, perfect, yeah, perfect, Yeah. So there are three species of umbrella birds. There's the Amazonian umbrella bird, the bare necked umbrella bird, and the long wattled umbrella bird. So the general description of all of these birds is that they're all blackbirds about crow size. They could even be confused with crows, except that they have this huge

flamboyant pompadour hairstyle and huge wobbling neck wattles. So actually not that much like a crow. Actually, the best description I can think of is rockabilly goth. Uh, Like if a rockadoodle decided that black was his color. Exactly, Yes, exactly,

like if Rockadoodle went totally goth. Yeah. So, the they have this crest of feathers that, like you were talking about before, it like forms this like pompadour like and and for the young folks out there that don't know what a pompadour is, it's like this basically like Elvis hairstyle that shoots way out of your head. It's like a cone of hair that just shoots out of your head like Greaser's used to do. I think, exactly Greaser's, but pumped up to the max. Have you ever heard

of the Tokyo Rockabilly Club phenomenon? What So, there is a group of performers and rockabilly enthusiasts who have for years met up at the Yoyogi Park in Tokyo to dance and to perform and to celebrate rockabilly culture. And they have some of the best hairstyles I've ever seen. They have the best pompadours who that like defy gravity almost it's just InCred it's incredible, and they're incredible performers as well. They will do these really cool rockabilly dance

routines and it's it is extremely awesome. I highly recommend checking out one of their performances. Ain't the world a magnificent place? Just like I know, I know things are tough right now, but like it's seeing, it's hearing and seeing things like that that makes me go, yeah, you know what, the World's pretty awesome. Sometimes when I think about, like why I want to fight for our world, it's things like both birds and humans are fighting to preserve

rockability culture. It's wonderful. What other planet, What other planet do we have both birds and humans rocking this excellent hairstyle, you know what I mean? And this, and it's it's things like that that can bring us all together. It's exactly exactly so these birds are much more than just they're really cool hair. They have that umbrella like crest that's why they're called umbrella birds. I mean, I would call them pompadour birds, but whatever, it's fine. Umbrella birds

does roll off the tongue pretty well. They also have an inflatable wattle. So a wattle is typically a it's kind of like a tube of flesh that hangs down from the neck. There are other birds that have wattles. Think of a turkey, you know. They have those those like long neck dangles that are usually red and purple. And it's typically a sexual organ because it is involved in attracting a mate. So this tube of feather covered skin descends from its neck. It can inflate it and

it helps amplify its mating calls. And it looks like a black dramatic feather boa just hanging from its neck. Yeah, or like a scarf. Yeah, for sure, featherballa is perfect. You kind of all include links to this in the

show notes. You kind of have to see it in action because it really wiggles and jiggles and just kind of is imagine just the most dramatic like rockabilly goth guy like flouncing into a room, tossing a black feather boa over his neck and then like inging you some kind of intense romance song, and that's basically the strategy

that these birds have. When it comes to me, I was thinking like very Broadway like this was like looking at this bird, it's like very Broadway costume, like I have to make sure that the people in the back of the auditorium can see how fabulous I am right now. Yeah, just feel the emotion radiating off of my neck wattle. So the bare necked umbrella bird has the kind of

the black haircrest and pompadour thing. It's inflatable. Neck wattle is actually bright red and featherless, so kind of kind of a nudy version, you know, whatever flips their boat honestly, I'm not judging. And then the long wattled umbrella bird wins the award for wait for it, the largest wattle

of the umbrella bird genus. Wow, who the who the guest, and the award goes to I know, like, there are a million animals and so coming up with names for all of them must be must have been very, very difficult. But it's really nice when there's just one like that that's just on the nose and you're like, I didn't have to jump through any hoops for that. It's it's a it's got a long wattle. It's the long wattle

umbrella bird, right exactly. I mean at a certain point you run out of like, like, what are you gonna say, like the fancy long wattle. No, it's just got a long wattle, right, It's like, what do you want? What am I gonna say? Am I going to call this like a gary bird? I don't know, Just it's got a long wattle, alright, I have other birds to name today, we're moving on. I named this bird has a beak bird. I'm running out of ideas. Is that really the name of a bird? No? But the fact that I had

to double chick right exactly. I really should have just played it off like like, yeah, I'm referring to you, you're the expert. It would question me the Audubon Society. Maybe they would, actually, I don't know. It's not the first time I've had the Audubon Society track me down. But that's a story for another day. So the their long inflatable wattle can be retracted in flight or lengthened

to impress the ladies. Just I don't know, visually picture that this living tissue feather boa getting like cinched in or being extended depending on the bird's mood. Oh goodness, as it gets longer, like yeah, hey ladies, how you doing, Hey ladies? Boom? So they their wattle can be as long as their whole body. And they can also make their their little headcrest stand erect, like as if Elvis could make his hair like kind of like go whoop

like when he's trying to impress women. Doesn't look like a mohawk when it does that, or or is it more like, um, the entirety of their hair is standing. It just poops it up, just makes adds more volume, adds more style. In my in my head, it was going from being a pompadour to a mohawk and then back again. And I will never be able to unsee that a convertible hairstyle. Maybe in the future we'll get one of those. That'd be cool. I would watch that

cyberpunk movie for sure. Maybe Matrix flore is happening. These birds actually do remind me of a real person, a goth I just saw on the street, and God bless this wonderful person. He was wearing a full on black trench coat, and this is during like COVID times, so he was also wearing a matching black face mask that like covered almost his entire face and neck other than his eyes. I think he even had like an umbrella. It was absolute high drama fashion and absolute function, like

high high COVID coature. I loved it. It was great. I mean I think it was. I know I sound like maybe I'm making fun. I'm actually really respect this person because they are rocking their style and being socially responsible, and I think I have so much goddamn respect for that form and function. Yeah. I don't know much about the fashion world, but form and function together and like adhering to this style that you're very committed to, that that deserves to be commended. Right Like I'm a goth

and I am socially responsible. I'm a goth who cares about your grandma. That is beautiful. So much respect for this person, and it says so much too, just about the nature of this how serious this issue is, because like we we talked earlier about how the goth movie is very counter culture, and it's like no, we're like I'm not going to go out and not wear a mask, like I'm not conforming by wearing a mask. It's just the right thing to do. It's counter culture, not counter human,

not counter not counter your grandma exactly. And if there's any golfs out there, or you don't have to be golf, could be rockabilly. I don't care any anyone with a particular fashion perspective who listens to the show and you've got you've got a cool face mask style that that you like to rock out like, yeah, show it to me. I'd love to see it. But yeah, absolutely absolute respect for people who are maintaining their individuality but also being

socially responsible. Really appreciate the same, and then teach me your ways, because I've never been like fashion like fashion wise, I've never been on top of it, So please please teach me your ways. Maybe you could get a lesson from the Umbrella Birds. I would love that. Nothing would make me happier. Some of our younger listeners may not

know what the Satanic panic was in the US. During the nineteen eighties and nineties, a conspiracy theory emerged that there were widespread Satanic rituals that left behind a string of murders and abuse, and even that the world was

being run by satanic witch cults. While there was no actual evidence of there being a bunch of murderous Satanic cultu ravaging the countryside or running the world by sacrificing virgins, the conspiracy gained popularity, especially when law enforcement and therapists used now discredited techniques of extracting quote memories from people

using suggestive or coercive hypnosis and interrogation. When a potentially vulnerable person, such as a child or summon seeking mental health assistance, is faced with an authority figure, that authority figure can have a concerning amount of sway over that person's mental state and memory. Perhaps creepier than the idea of satanic cults is the idea that you can indeed

affect memories and people, even unwittingly. Many of these therapists and interrogators may not have even known they were creating fabricated memories, but their techniques, which they thought were forcefully extracting memories, were actually creating them. In nineteen eighty six,

a woman sought therapy for a family issue. The psychiatrists use hypnosis and staged exorcisms, convincing the woman that she had been in a satanic cult as a child had eaten babies, had killed her own childhood friend, which of course was not true, and had a hundred and twenty personalities,

including angels and animals, which also included a duck. Later, the woman realized these were not memories but fabrications, and distressing ones at that, so she soothed the psychiatrists in one In nine seven, University of Washington psychologist Professor Elizabeth Loftus and Jacqueline E. Pickerel wanted to investigate how these tragic and irresponsible abuses of power could occur. They conducted a study in which participants attended two sessions where they

were told to remember certain childhood memories. Some of the memories were accurate provided by family members, while others were fabricated by the researchers. They found it only took two sessions to convince almost thirty percent of their subjects that the false event took place. While it's unlikely you could convince a random volunteer that they took part in satanic rituals, someone in a stressful position, such as in an interrogation room or clinical setting, may be more vulnerable to these

mind alterations. So remember that time we were walking in a forest and a tree started to bleed. No, well, let's make some new memories together after a short break. Sometimes we don't give plants enough credit for being creepy. There are plants that smell like rotting carcasses to attract pollinating insects, such as raphlegia. There are plants that are carnivores, trapping insects and their jaws like the venus fly trap, or in a sticky pit of doom, such as picture plants.

And there are some plants that just love to be super extra horror dramatic. So, Megan, do you like plants? I mean, I do flowers and trees, and I'll be honest, I kind of missing that. I miss being able to go outside and just pass by a bush. Yeah, I know, touch a tree, stroke a stroke a shrub, I know, right, slow down and smell the roses. I miss plants too, So this whole section is dedicated to plants, specifically satanic

goth plants, which are pretty great. So I think that people often underestimate plants and their ability to just be super creepy, super dramatic. And I want to talk first about the desert bloodwood tree who already wins a prize for that name. That's a great name. That's a great name. That's like, hey, people out there who are bored and trying to start like a metal band right now, Desert bloodwood tree. There you go, did it for you. So this tree is found in the Australian desert. It has

rough bark and thick leaves. It grows up to fifty ft tall, which is fifteen meters, which is pretty good. It's in the same family as eucalyptus. It kind of looks like a eucalyptus. Maybe the bark is like it's not like smooth um kind of bark. It's pretty rough um. But here's here's the thing is, when you cut into it, it bleeds what looks like thick using red blood. So there's a picture of that for you. It looks like it looks like a tree that has like a big

oozing scab wound. And it's not just like it looks like any old type of blood. It looks like straight up hammer horror film movie blood. Yes, like did you ever did you ever see Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow? I saw part of it. I think I think when I was a kid. I saw it and I think some dude's head got chopped off, and then I stopped watching it. But so, but basically, the headless horseman would make his entrance in and out of like this crazy tree, like in and out of hell, and like there a bunch

of dead bodies there. And I'm looking at this and I'm like this, like just seeing that bright red color like on the bark of a tree as it's drenched, I'm like, I'm getting very Tim Burton sleepy hollow vibes from it does look a little bit like a bloody portal to Hell that just closed up or is just opening up. Exactly. Yeah, it looks or it makes me think of, you know, like I don't know, some kind of horror story where this tree is a dry ad and then if you cut into it, it like bleeds

human blood. Yeah, or like the land is cursed or something like that. Exactly. Yeah, this this looks like it would be right at home in some sort of horror fiction. And I'm just like, I want to throw some of my favorite horror writers at it. I'm like, see this picture and then tell me weave me a tale. I want to throw them directly at the tree, Like, look at the tree. Feel it's blood, look at it. So this blood is actually, as you might have guessed, SAP.

So SAP is kind of like tree blood. It's often so like trees will produce SAP that can be used as a defensive mechanism. So like you know how insects get trapped in amber, So when you cut into a tree and it uses this like sticky sap out, that's a defensive technique against little little beetles and insects that try to like bore into the tree. So this is this just happens to be bright red, very blood like sap. Yeah, which is interesting. What any idea what causes that? I'm

not sure. I think it's because of a high concentration of tannins in the SAP. So tannins give trees and other plants a sort of dark content. It's actually what makes tea dark, so that that might be what it is. Whatever, whatever it is, it's remarkable, Yes, it's it's I think it's kind of pretty as long as you, uh ignore the fact it kind of looks like a flesh wound.

It also reminds me of those fountains you can get for Halloween where it's like a blood fountain and it's just kind of like you put in like fake blood and it's like bright red blood fountain. Yeah. Yeah. If if I, if you weren't explaining this to me right now, and I just saw this like out of the blue or out of context, I would assume that this tree was sick somehow, that like some sort of fungus got got into this tree and that it was causing it

to die. Yeah. Yeah, it looks it looks injured, looks badly hurt. So the crystallized SAP has actually been used as an antiseptic by Aboriginal people's for many, many years. So it's a very well known tree by people who have lived with this tree. And it actually is able to grow what are called bush coconuts or bloodwood apples that can be eaten, and that's a whole interesting story in itself. So these bush coconuts are warty growths on the trees, which are also called galls, which are made

in reaction to the larva of a scale insect. So a scale insect is like they're these little like dome shaped insects that feed on the tree. They kind of look like barnacles a little bit, but their insects and when their larva like kind of warm their way into the tree um This is a common tactic of parasitic

insects that prey upon plants. So the parasitic larva will induce a gal to grow, so either by injecting a chemical or just by injuring the plant, and then the plant grows this like kind of tumor growth around the larva, and that tumor growth actually has a lot of nutrients inside it. It's it's kind of in a way similar

to tumors in a human body. So like a tumor in a human body will send out these messages to the body to supply it with blood and help the tumor grow and give and basically steal nutrients from the healthy parts of your body. And so these parasitic larva that induced this goal or like this like weird tumor are kind of doing the same thing. They're tricking the plant into putting a bunch of nutrients into this little

protective ball. But if you are a hungry human, you can pick a bush coconut from the tree, crack it open. I mean, like a coconut and the inside kind of looks a little bit coconut like because it has this like white flesh on the inside which is from the tree, and it's full of starchy nutrients. And you can also eat the larva because that is free protein. You know,

I was on board until you mentioned the larva. Well, you know, if you think, sorry, oh no, I was just gonna say, bloodwood apples is like the coolest name for a fruit, like ever, I know, I do want to. I mean, maybe this is too revealing about me, but if you said, like, this is a bloodwood apple, it makes me want to eat it more than a regular apple. Yeah, no,

absolutely like that. That's what this reminds me of. It's like this is something right out of a dark, grim fairy tale, right, It's like that, Drake mean, like you're like orange and I'm like no, and then you're like, what about a blood orange? Like yeah, you had me at blood Like bloodwood apples just sounds like marketably so cool,

I know, I know. Well, but you know, if you think the larva is gross, I mean I know that we are conditioned, especially in the US and and UM to see insects as you know, gross but we do eat honey, at least I do. I love honey. Honey Honey is plant nectar that has been processed inside of the bodies and regurgitated. So you know, it's all a

matter of perspective. That's a great point. You know, it's important to, Yeah, you like, before you turn your nose up at something, you recognize we're a lot of a lot of commonplace foods, right, I mean, beer and wine is bacteria poop. You know what I'm saying is you're a hypocrite unless you eat larva. Well you've convinced me if I have the opportunity, you need to have a bloodwood apple. Well, I've got an apple. I've got a big old sack of bloodwood apples. I'm going Cindia here

right now. Like, I don't. I'm sorry, that was a joke. I don't want to get your hopes. But like, doesn't that sound like something an evil witch would keep inside of her wood inside of her woodland cottage? Like, I just like a bushel of bloodwood apples. We're we're creating

a character. I feel like we have a witch that turns into a Dracula parent who has a bunch of bloodwood apples like and and obviously we say this would no disrespect to any anybody who practices any witches, Yeah, to any any practicing wickens out there, But no, we're talking about straight up storybook which like let that that's what we're talking about, and talking about snow white snow white witches that go around killing girls or thinking doing

it in a weirdly roundabout way. Now I've got I've got some choice words for or the snow white witch, because it's like you could just you could just kill her, you know, like what's with this whole Like, and she would go into an eternal sleep unless some guy kisses her. And she's really pretty, so I can't imagine any guy

kissing her. Good plan, She tried like outsourcing it, because she tried to have the Woodsman do it and he decided not to and so she's like, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty and do it myself. And she picks the most yet circuitous, roundabout way of going about dispatching her enemies, and it just says, yeah, it just seems horribly inefficient, like you're just like, hey, snow white came here, I'm your queen and she's like yeah, and she's like, and now I

stab you done? You know. I mean, I'm not advocating for it. I don't want snow White to get stabbed, but I'm saying it just doesn't make any sense. Maybe the queen didn't actually want to be a queen. Maybe she wanted to be an actor and then, but you can't really do that when you're royalty. You have a country to run, and so she was just using this as an excuse to do a bit. I think she was using it as an excuse to live the hag lifestyle. I think she wanted the hag lifestyle, but she didn't

want the hag responsibilities. So she kind of just wanted to moonlight as a hag and this was her way to do it. Like, yeah, you know, I can't think of any other reason. No, I can't either. I think we solved it. We solved snow White on this podcast about animals. We got to the bottom of that mystery. So now I want to talk about another ghoulish and spooky tree. This tree doesn't have as cool of the name.

It's called the sandbox tree. The sandbox tree is like the body mod goth of the tree world, you know, like with a bunch of piercing and spikes and body mods. So this tree is found in the amaz Zonian Rainforest and in other tropical regions in North and South America. It's bark is completely covered in huge, nasty looking thorns. So I've got a picture in here for it. It's just all thorns basically. Consequently, it is sometimes called a monkey no climb tree, which I like that name a

little better. Actually, it's straightforward. It's like it's again like the naming convention of the long wattled umbrella bird. It's like, monkeys don't climb this tree. So this is a monkey do not climb tree. No more monkeys climbing on this tree. So if that's not misanthropic enough for you, it also has toxic caustic SAP that has been used by fisherman to poison fish again rude or used to lace poison weapons like poison arrows. If that's not goth enough for you,

it has exploding fruit. This tree is so metal. Oh my gosh, it's very I would say it's a little extra. So you're like, okay, dial it back. A couple of not dial it down, Tim Burton Tree. Yeah, like, yeah, it's very Helena bottom carter where it's like Helena just sometimes you're a little too much bottom, Like there's a little too much bottom carter. Like I get that you are actually Helena bottom carter, but sometimes like your extra bottom carter and I need you to dial back. Sometimes

we just want you to be Helena, that's all. Yeah, just yeah, give us the Helena and not the bottom carter. Now is this fruit also poisonous? I think if you eat it you get super bad diarrhea, So yeah, probably so so I would I would say that counts as poisonous, so hard pass on this and go back to those blood would apples. Well it's a soft pass because of the diarrhea. But yeah, so um so they they have fruiting bodies again, simmer down, Helena bottom carter, but they

look like tiny black pumpkins. It just does so at that point. At this point, this is like the live journal or tumbler of a goth kid who's like making their O see character Tree, which is like and it's got spikes all over and its sap is poison and it's fruit is poisoned, and it's fruit or a little black pumpkins. It does feel a little edge lordy as far as little trees go, right, Like, I didn't feel like the like the bloodwood tree was trying too hard.

This tree, actually, yeah, it does feel like it's trying just a little hard. It's like it sees the bloodwood tree, which has got its whole cool as that it going on. It's like, well, I've got spikes, I got like black pumpkins, and oh did I mention they explode like the Hobgoblins bombs. Yeah, that's that's how cool I am. I'm basically like a Sparta Man villain, basically so hardcore. I don't know why

we made it sound like a teenager. Well this, I mean, it's like it kind of deserves it all this drama. So these little black pumpkin capsules are seed pods, and they explode once they're ripe. So they start out as green when they're unripe, and then they turn black and then they explode naturally, and they distribute the seeds over a hundred feet away from the tree, and the explosion causes the seeds to fly at a hundred and sixty

miles per hour, which is seventy per second. Yeah, which is why it's also sometimes called the dynamite tree, which gosh, yeah, again a little I don't know, maybe a little overboard, right, Like I get I get it. Your your tree. You want to distribute your seeds because it increases the chance that the saplings will be able to grow, because they need to be able to grow without being covered by other trees. So you don't want to like compete with

your own baby saplings. So that's why trees have invented all these methods of distributing seeds over large areas. But it seems like a bit of an excuse to be a drama queen the like. Granted, I'm not going to be strolling through the Amazon anytime soon, but could you like imagine just like walking through a forest and all of a sudden, like these these fruit explode and going like right, and it's going out? How did its sixty

miles before? It just flies? Like wow? Man, that's like if I got flying, Yeah, if I got like tree seed trapnel in my eye just like while walking through I feel like at that point I would realize that there is an angry forest god who does not want me. I would never go outside again, which I have good news for you. I'm kind of living that life right now. Speaking of staying in. I hope everyone is practicing good dental health. No, this is not a segue to an ad.

It's a segue to the bleeding tooth fungus. What so do you want to talk about some bleeding teeth bleeding teeth? Well, I do have a gennis appointment in a couple of months, so probably better to prepare myself now, right right, yeah, yeah, again, another another cool band name idea, bleeding bleeding tooth fungus. I think, to me, that's like a that'd be like a techno goth kind of thing, you know, like like I think it's like the knockoff version of bleeding gums

Murphy from The Simpsons. That's the first thing in my head, right right, yeah, No, I think you're right. I think nature copied the Simpson Simpson did it copied them? Yep, Simsence did it. So this is the scientific name of this. Let's see if I can pronounce this in one go hide nullum pecky. That sounds great. That's awesome, so smart.

That sounds so smart. That's such a cool name. So it has a few interesting nicknames, like I mentioned bleeding tooth fungus also called red juice tooth, strawberries and cream, and the Devil's tooth. One of those things is not like the other. I know, I know, right, It's like it's like Devil's tooth, strawberries and cream. Wait a minute, wait a minute for you who invited you to this

naming meeting. Just imagine all these like really glum goths scientists in this meeting to name this fungus, and then this one very cheerful, cheerful lad going, why don't we name it strawberries and cream? It reminds me of my favorite snack, And then we cut over to the next one. He's like, no, I Devil's too. I'm curious to see what this looks like because I'm like, what, which name is more fitting? So I'm looking at the picture now and like I kind of get where the guy who

was like strawberries and cream is coming from. Yeah, But like I think, I don't necessarily know if Devil's tooth is what I would have initially come up with, but I can see how how the name applies. I would say, Mueller covered in jam. You know, you know how like, um, there are those like seeing I pictures where like, um, it's like you look at this picture, it's like, oh, what do you see? Well? I see two women's faces

looking at each other. The other person goes, I see a case, and then the person who did who's holding out the pictures like, well, you're both right, you're just looking at it from different perspectives. I hate that guy. That guy needs to commit to one or the other area. He needs to stop being ambiguous with his art. But no, that's kind of what I'm seeing with that. Like looking at this picture, I'm like, oh, I can totally see

the guy who's like, what do you see? I see strawberries and cream, and the other person to you know, no big deal, I see the tomata. So this fungus is found in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Korea, and Australia, so it's safe to say that it's probably taking over the whole world. But whatever. At this point it is fine, don't worry about it. But some last of us fungus going to be happening right now that would be terrifying in real life or pretty metal weirdly

appetizing weirdly appetizing zombies. So what we're seeing here, and I do encourage you look it up. I also have a link in the show notes to a photo. So the fungus is a white kind of look. I can see why. It's sort of like a tooth like. It looks a little bit like a weird, funky shaped moler. It has a bunch of tooth like projections. Actually, um, yeah, that that one. Definitely, that bigger one definitely looks like

a mohler of some kind. Yeah. Yeah. It Also it's like it's like a molar that has a bunch of teeth on the molar tube because each of those like little little tooth like projections contains spores, but the you can't really see those as well. That's just a fun little detail. It's like the moler that has teeth, which is cool. And then it looks like it is just bleeding a bunch of bright red blood or I don't know,

maybe strawberry jam. It's hard to tell. Sometimes it's like you think you come across a murder scene and then you taste it's like this is strawberry jam. Murder solved. Why this is just corn syrup? There was this viral image and I cannot attest to the veracity of this, so so please forgive me if this was a fake. But it was like this little dog lying on the floor and it looked like it. It was like this little white, fluffy dog. It looked like it was covered

in blood. And then you got closer and it was like, it's totally fine. It had just gotten into jam. It was covered in strawberry jam, and it had fallen. It had fallen asleep because it ate so much started jam was taking a little jam naphill puppy. I guess you could say it looks like a big, weirdly shaped moller covered in blood or jam or whatever. The bleeding aspect of it, where it seems to be oozing these droplets

of blood, is actually called gutation. So this is where a plant or a fungus sweat out sap so it can It looks on a plant where the gutation droplets are actually clear, it looks like dew drops, but the plant is actually excreting sap, almost like their sweating. And weirdly enough, the red pigment in this fungus, the sweat of this bleeding tooth fungus actually contains antibacterial and anticoagulant properties, which I don't know. That's cool. I guess that's really cool.

The fungus is actually a symbiote. Symbiote, the fungus receives carbon from the host and the host receives minerals from the fungus, so they have a cool exchange there. And this, you know, like, if someone dared you to eat this fungus, do you think you'd do it? No, Like, on the one hand, yeah no, And like it just it looks like blood blisters. Looks like a bunch of blood blisters. I would never I would never eat anything resembling blood blisters.

This fungus is actually not poisonous, even though it looks super poisonous. Looks it looks like it would murder you. It looks like it its like would murder you and then absorb your blood to make more blood. But yeah, it is not poisonous. But I wouldn't go around eating

it because apparently it tastes really gross. Also, in general, unless you really know your stuff about mushrooms, don't eat any mushroom because like you may think, like, oh, I know what this mushroom is it's fine, and you eat it and it's actually a different mushroom that looks almost exactly the same that make sure but fall off and

your eyeballs bleed. So you know, no, like, yeah, only the only mushrooms I eat are the ones I get from the supermarket, So right, yeah, that's probably probably safe. Bet I would be very tempted, though, Like if I could be assured that this was this type of fungus and it's not going to kill me, I'd want to give it a little lick, just the little one. I was just about to say, I like, like knowing that someone out there looked at this and went I'm gonna eat it and then went yep, sure as gross Like

that to me is mind boggling. I'm like, who looked at that and went, oh, let's I think I'm gonna taste it? No? Can I? Can? I be honest here? I think that would probably me, you know, Like I mean, like, if I knew it wasn't going to hurt me, that would be me. That would be Like, if I knew it wasn't poisonous, I probably know what probably happened. It was. It was the strawberries and cream scientist who was like, oh, I think I'll give it to loot. Oh no, this

doesn't taste like strawberries and cream at all. I have been bamboos And he's like, we must change the name. They're like too late, sorry, you already submitted it. There are no take backs, and he's like, oh, faddle sticks. Well, onto the next one. Scientists are they spend not very many people know this. They spend eight of their time just naming things. That's where all those government grants are going to the to the naming rooms, the naming chambers.

Are you an aspiring which you'll have to become a botanist first. There are many plants that are associated with witchcraft or the supernatural. Man Drake plants, a genus of flowering nightshade, have roots that often look a little bit too human like, leading people to believe that they really

are a small humanoid figure with supernatural properties. They're said to be able to scream and kill those who hear it when being plucked from the ground, so people would tie the plants to dogs to trick the dog into uprooting the man drink. Fortunately, man drake plant can't kill you with their scream, given that they can't scream at all. What they can do is send you on a wild trip.

They contain hallucinogenic alkaloids, which may have led to the belief that they can be used in witchcraft to meet with the devil. I mean if by having a meeting with the devil they meant getting high as hell. And if you're thinking of trying these out, either to conduct a ritual or to quote meet the devil, I'd advise against it. They're super poisonous and will cause vomiting, diarrhy a, dizziness,

among other nasty symptoms. There are much less unhealthy ways to meet with the devil, such as writing him a nice letter and the blood of your enemies. When we return, we're going to meet a few satanic creatures who aren't so bad when you get to know them. From black cats to bats, they're all sorts of animals who have

become scapegoats for evil. Sometimes they're literally goats. Goats have historically been associated with the devil and witches in European folk lore, and while it could have something to do with those devilish horns and weird looking eyes, it could also be due to Greek mythology surrounding the satyr, a horny, drunken goatman who engaged in all sorts of weird sexual pursuits. But more generally, I think we like to blame animals for evil because it makes us feel better about being human.

If animals are beast like creatures are the real monsters, then humans are free of sin. And sometimes we even justify mass beetle murder by saying it will cleanse our souls. So, Megan, under what circumstances do you think you would hail satan um? Probably none, I see it. I mean that's fair enough.

As I said, I was raised Catholic, and I'm not very religious these days, but like, because of that upbringing, I have it instilled in me to like not mess with certain things, Like I don't like I know, it's just a game, but like I'd never play with a Uiji board, Like I can understand that. Look, I understand that.

You know personally, I don't personally hail Satan. Again, I am all for religious freedom, so if you do choose tor, you know, I think, especially in the Middle Ages and stuff, religious people were always accusing animals of being various forms of Satan. So I think if Satan actually was all these different animals, that would that would earn my respect, Like you really, you can be all these animals all at once. He's Satan, just an animal, Like, right, are

you an animal? Satan? So that's cool. Yeah, that's that's pretty awesome. That would be really cool. Like I maybe maybe I would hail Satan in the scenario in which he's an animalph and he had one of those cool cube things so that I could be an animalph too. Yeah, that's all I needed to hear. And he's like, you is fine, And I'm like, wait, no, so don't stay as an animal for more than two hours, or you'll

thank you for clarifying that I wasn't sure. So I ask you that question not to trick you into a life of sin, into pravity, but because I want to talk to you about the devil beetle or the Devil's coach horse beetle. So this is a long, black, stinky beetle who has been thought to be associated with the devil since the Middle Ages. Grows about an inch long, it's jet black. It's found in Europe and northern Africa. It kind of I guess the best way I can describe it is it looks like a giant flat ant

with a long segmented tail and wings. It looks like somebody took a rolling pen and just kind of flattened out and aunt. Does that make sense? Yeah, I feel like that's a good description of it. It, Yeah, because it doesn't really look like a beetle to me too. It's too narrow in my mind to be a beetle. Yeah, yeah, I mean it is not an ant. I don't want people to be confused. It just has it looks a little bit like that. Now, obviously its body is not segmented in the way that it ant is. It doesn't.

It doesn't have that little wasp cinched in abdomen. It's just kind of it's got like a it's got an ant like head. It's got these big mandibles and then it's got um, a couple of body segments, you know, sleek, sleek, modern like um yeah, sleek and modern like uh like. It's the iPhone of beetles, exactly, like the black the black iPhone of Beatles. It's got that nice matte black

beetle new air right right exactly. I'm not the biggest insect fan, but like say, like we were talking about at the at the top of the show, certain animals get a bad rap and I feel like a lot of insects like this one where their mistakes they could easily be mistaken for something that they're not. As an excellent example of that, like, if I saw one of these in my home, I would probably assume it was it was some sort of ant and it would be

unwelcome in my space. But like, yeah, like which is unfortunate, because yeah, it doesn't it probably like beetles typically, as far as I know, and granted I'm not a zoological expert, but beatles typically like don't really hurt people, right, well, yeah, I mean they can sometimes give you a nasty bite. These ones actually, uh, those big mandibles are capable of

a bit of a bad bite. They don't inject venom, you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone typically, right Basically, Yeah, I mean some beetles do spray caustic stinky juice at you, which these ones do happen to do, but I you know, they only do it if you deserve it, really so. In English folklore, the devil beetle was said to have eaten the core of Eve's discarded apple, and instead of being regaled for not wasting fruit, it has been ostracized

for being evil. And thus the beetle obtained the knowledge give given to Adam and Eve, and it started its own beatle society. And this beetle was like, oh no, I'm naked, Oh jeez, cheapers or no um. They have also been slandered as helping Judas find Christ, so they allegedly knarked on Christ by using their tails to point in the direction of where he was hiding. And what's interesting about this one is it's at least tangentially related

to be these beetles behaviors. So the devil Beatles do curve their tails upward like a scorpion, but it is not to tell you where Christ is hiding, to like cheat at hide and secret Christ. But it is actually a threat display that they do when they're feeling threatened and they're warning you that they are about to shoot some stinky yellow goo at you unless you back off. I always appreciate an animal that gives you a heads

up what's about to happen. I always look, yeah, what I think Some of these, like Middle Ages religious people did like some some religious person was like saw this and then continued to pester the beetle and the Beatles like, don't do it, I warn you. In then they just like kept poking at it, and then it shots stinky yellow goo at this person. And then this person is like furiously writing like and the beetle judas to find Christ and they should all be destroyed, and the beetle

is actually a witch in disguise. We must burn all beetles. Well, you know, it's funny say that because in Ireland the protocol was that you had to burn these beetles and not step on it because again which rules I suppose, because you had to burn it to kill the devil beetle. Oh my gosh, like stepping on it wasn't good enough, right.

I like to imagine they had like very small scale inquisition where you like construct a tiny pyre for this beetle or like put it in a tiny iron maiden trying to get it to confess tiny pire, and you would literally just light a match. Yeah, Like how I feel really bad for animals that like get stigmatized like this by just human society of people just not knowing any better, exactly like black cats yeah, exactly. And so I'm like looking at this, and I'm like this, it's

a wonder this thing isn't extinct. Given we thought they were evil and would probably try try to murder them any chance we got. It's it's a wonder they're still around. It's almost as if some sort of dark forces helping them. It's crazy how like humans seem to be like, oh, this is a thing I don't understand, we must kill it.

In European folklore, it said that if you kill one of these beetles, you will be forgiven for seven years of sin, which seems like a really convenient excuse to feel good about crushing an innocent beetle just because it's stinky and bite you sometimes. I mean, come on, uh, like you can make up for the fact that you, like, I don't know, light on your taxes or something like, right, you committed tax fraud, and so you're like, it's cool, just crush a bunch of beetles. Let's just kill a

few beetles and squarsis it's all good. I murdered someone. How many beetles do I have to kill? Like until we're until we're all like even Stevens like, I'm fully prepared to murder as many beetles as it takes because I just love killing. That is such like Middle Age European. Yeah, like I burned the city to the ground. I guess I gotta kill a beetle now, and we're all squares. I literally like, what year did like London catch fire?

I guess that wasn't the Middle Ages. I think that was more like the seventeen hundreds, but like, like, oh, yeah, I burned all of London. But it's cool, guys, I killed the devil beetle before I did, so guess who also burned in that fire? The devil beetle. So really, I think I came out ahead of this one. I mentioned ear they are sort of the pastel goth, and I want to put forth the case that Flamingos are pastel GoF because they, of course are that beautiful, vibrant pink.

They're kind of these like basically you would think that, oh, flamingo, that's the anti goth, but no, have you seen a picture of what looks like them vomiting blood into their baby's mouths. I have not. I can't say I ever have. So someone actually sent me this viral video on Twitter, and I'm really sorry I would credit you. I cannot find the tweet for the life of me, but thank

you so much Twitter user. And it looks like a flamingo stabbing its partner in the head until it bleeds and then the blood runs down into the chick smells. So basically you've got one flamingo on top of the other. It's got its beak on the flamingo skull. It looks like it's stabbing the flamingo in the head, and this blood is like running down the flamingo's head and into the baby's mouth. I have a video of that for you to watch. Oh my gosh, Like just from your description,

that sounds so metal. I mean, if you think I'm just gonna show you like basically a flamingo snuff film, um, it's it's okay. It definitely. Yeah. It looks like they're they're like, yeah, like flamingo murder is happening right now, right, like like I have stabbed your head to feed my child. But so there's there's more to this story. And this

is actually a very sweet and loving video. So this is actually a confused flamingo parent trying to feed its chick crop milk, but accidentally letting it dribble all over its partner's head, who is also feeding their chick crop milk. So that that sounds really probably confusing to people who are like, wait, birds milk. What birds are not mammals, so they don't have mammary glands. But crop milk is

a fluid produced in the bird's crop. So the crop is a muscular pouch near the throat where food is stored and awaits passage into the rest of the digestive system. And some bird species can use this crop to process food for their chicks. So pigeons, doves, and penguins create crop milk. In pigeons, it's actually called pigeon milk, which a little you know. I love birds, um, but if someone tried to say, like, here, you want to drink this room temperature glass of pigeon milk, I think I'd

faint that away. I could thank you for being so considerate that appreciate the offer, but I'm I'm I'm good. I'm good. Actually I'm good without the pigeon milk. But thank you. Yeah, I appreciate the offer, your hospitality. Yes, thank you. I the thought is what counts. Well, you did think I would want pigeon milk, So that's not a great thought actually, now that I think about what I was gonna say, and then I would flee from

this person's home and never return. So crop milk is a fat and protein rich fluid produced by the lining of the crop, and flamingo's crop milk is produced not just in the crop but glands in the entire upper digestive system. So the reason it looks like blood is probably because of the high density of carotenoid pigments that they collect from their diet of algae and crustaceans that are all rich in beta keratin. So that's what also

gives them their pink color. So flamingo chicks actually come out with sort of grayish white feathers, and as they mature into adults and eat enough of this beta caratin, it turns their feathers pink. So like all of this is basically a big misunderstanding, the flamingos are just innocently basically regurgitating milk from their insides into their chick's mouth in a very sweet parenting move. Um, nothing gross having here, gross, No,

just parental love. Their crop. Milk actually does contain quote unquote blood in a way like it has red and white blood cells in it, but it's not it's not really like blood. It's not. It's not it's it's not like we were making Dracula jokes earlier. It's not like feast upon my blood flesh, right exactly exactly. Yeah, And I don't think it's that color because of the red blood cells. I think it's that color because of the

the carotenoid pigments that they get their diet. I love that factoids about flamingo so much is that they're not naturally pink. It's it's all in the diet. Yeah. I mean, if a human being basically overdosed on carrots, your skin would turn a little bit orange. I mean you'd have to have I've seen a lot like, oh, if you eat too many carrots, your skin is going to turn orange.

But I think you have to eat insane amounts of carrots for that to happen, like because carrots do actually have carrotin in it um, but like it is, it would be just like grotesque amounts of carrots, like you would have to be on a almost disgusting carrot regimen, like like a conveyor belt, putting a carrot in your mouth every minute, every day, I think for your skin to turn orange from carrots again hard pass. I like carrots, not that much. You can wash it down with some

nice pigeon milk. You know. I was just thinking to myself about how hungry I am because I haven't had lunch yet. But now I'm not for you, I am good. It's called the creature feature diet, where you just lose your appetite. In fact, I don't think I'll ever eat again. Oh that's not well, that's not doctor approved. This podcast does not sanction that diet. No, no, no, it doesn't. Guys. Eat food. Food is good for you. Eat food or you will die. Yeah, yeah, that's that's actually scientifically true.

Maybe maybe you don't have to drink pigeon milk though it could make your bones strong, but you don't have to just stick to regular milk. Yeah, just stick to regular cow teat milk that we suckle from cows. Totally normal and totally good. Turn the weirdest things into food, don't we We do, we really do? You know? We scoff at like at like bloodwood apples and pigeon milk. But here we are drinking cow teat juice. You know that's that's that's sweet, sweet juice from the cow teet.

It is funny. I was making fun of the guy earlier who decided like, hey, I'm gonna eat that mushroom. I'm gonna eat that funce to determine whether or not as delicious or gross. And then he was like, I tried it, and now I know it's gross. Like I was making fun of him just now. But someone at some point in time, Yeah, I was looking at a cow and decided I'm gonna drink that right, And this is so weird idea I would never write exactly like like oh this this object came out of this chicken butt.

I'm putting it in my mouth now. Boom, yeah, yeah exactly. I've I've pulled this weird root out of the ground. I guess I'll eat that too. Gosh, how did we do it? How did we figure it out? I legitimately don't know. I think a lot of people died on on the on that kind of like quest to find edible things that animals poop out, A lot of trial and error that a lot of trial and error in the whole, like which animal excretions can we put in

our mouth? Sort of adventure O lord. So to end the show, I want to talk about one of my favorite geckos, which yes I do have a favorite gecko, and it's the Satanic leaf tailed gecko. Natally, he's so cute, he gosh, so amazing him, he's so cool. He looks like a dragon with no wing, like he looks like Satan's dragon, but he doesn't have wings. But other than that, like a Satanic dragon made out of lava and fire, and its eyes are it out of fire. It's amazing.

So this is the euro Platus fantasticus. So and it is called fantasticus because again that's like from the word fantasia or phantasm, where it's like it is fantastic looking. It's it looks like an imaginary creature, so it is. It's a little guy, so like a baby dragon. It's only grows about three inches and it really looks like it's made out of living fire and brimstone. So it's

got red eyes. It's got skin that comes in a variety of hues of black, reddish brown, gold, can even have a purpleish hue and oranges, and its tail looks like a dead leaf, and it has a number of spines all over its body, and it even has these like notches in its tail and skin to make it look more convincingly like a dead leaf, like you know how dead leaves have those like kind of like brown

notches as the leaf is decaying. And it's got like these little fleshy horns over its eyes, and it is indeed a form of crypsis to try to make it look like the leaves that you would find in Madagascar that are dead or dying or changing color, and it allows them to evade predators or to sneak up on their insect prey. I'm just a harmless leave, don't worry about it. It's fine. I'm just a dead leave. It's fine.

It has a last ditch maneuver where it can open its mouth, and it has a bright red mouth that I guess spooks predators, but it's also kind of like funny. It's like a stoplight kind of like like as if a predator is like, well, the light is red, so I guess wait a minute, and then and then it's gone. Yeah, Yeah, they're they're absolutely beautiful. Again, look up picture. I'll have

a picture linked in the show notes. But they are they're they're like if if you told me to come up with like a satanic dragon, I don't think I could have come up with something that's cool. The like it's funny that you bring up like lava and that it's very dragon esque, because like, did you did you ever get around to saying frozen two? No? I want to, but I haven't seen it unfortunately, not to give too much away, but there's like a little fire salamander in it.

It's very cute and very adorable. When I think fire lizard, though, this is more what comes to mind, Like this is so cool. It looks like the ball rog but a lizard, a cute lizard. Yeah, you know, just like that that tulkyn esque description of it being like living fire and smoke,

but in a little lizard body like geck body. It's it's not really a fitting description, like looking at all the orange hues on it and everything like that, but there's something about this this little lizard guy that makes me keep thinking of the word obsidian. But that's that's not like that's not an accurate it's not an accurate descriptor of what it looks like, but that's the word that keeps coming to mind. But obsidian is volcanic glass, so maybe you know it's like on its way to

become a obsidian. So cool. It really is cool. And like other leaf tailed gecko species, it can actually bark and scream when threatened, So that's cool. Just imagine this thing screaming, screaming fire lizard that like can open its mouth and seemingly like emits red light. Yeah, so cool. I love it, Like, yeah, it's it's one of those things where it's like you can't make that up. That's so good. Yeah, Like I want to be I want to be like a Game of Thrones queen, but I'm

just covered in geckas. Have so many of these geckos. It's like can they fly and breathe fire? Well no, but they're cool, right, Like you hold it up in your hand and you're like Dracaras and it just opens its mouth and it's just got its little red tongue. Yeah, just eats eats a mosquito. It's like that mosquito defied me, and you're like, all my enemies will kneel before me that that little beetle would not bend the knee, and so I had to burn it well or like eat it.

But anyways, are you not intimidated? Also, that beetle was Toad's evil, So like, I'm super cool and free of sinden because this this lizard did that on my behalf. Yeah, exactly, I'm into it. Man. I would say a better ending the Game of Thrones in my opinion, but hey, what do I know? The bar was not high? Ah, well, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you learned a lot, maybe converted to Satanism. I don't know, not if that that was my goal or anything. But yeah,

this this is really fun. I love I love animals that just go full spooky ah they like the world is magnificent and it's it's wonderful getting a chance to learn about, you know, creatures out there that you might not have like ever heard about before. And like I had never heard of this cool satan leaf tailed get go before today. And I had never heard of the umbrella bird or or and really any of these things and so or the or the strawberries and cream bleeding

tooth fungas or pigeon milk. It's just you know again, I've I've been staring at the inside of my apartment for a long time now, and this is a nice reminder that the world out there is wonderful and weird and beautiful in every way, full of beautiful animals and exploding trees, exploding trees that want to be spider man villains, and um, you know, horrifying birds that stab their significant others in the head to feed their don't though that's slander.

All they're doing, They're there's simply regurgitating bird milk, and that is, I think, a beautiful thing. It is like again, nature is weird and wonderful, and I think we should appreciate how weird and wonderful it is. I agree. Thank you for joining me on this learning journey. Thank you for having me and for teaching me. I'm so uh do you have anything a book? Um? Well, I'm Megan

Selina's again. You guys can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at the manguin that's t G M E N g U I N. I have a YouTube channel called silver Screens or my roommate, and I talk about horror things and I have a Lost retrospective podcast called No Love Lost, where my co host Willing loves Lost and I don't, and we talk about it and is it lost Lost like the plane crash show? Right? Yeah, exactly. Uh, Like I I was a fan of the show, and then the show had its ending and I decided I

wasn't a fan anymore. The whole idea behind our podcast is that we're going back, Um, we have to go back. We're going back to the beginning, and you know, just kind of going through an episode by episode and the we're what we're hoping to find out is if by the end of the journey, by the and we get back to the to the end of the series, if I've managed to change his mind and convince him that the show is actually terrible, or if he's actually managed

to convince me otherwise that it's actually good. So I see. So that's sort of the thesis of our podcast of like trying to look at a show from somebody else's perspective. What if you both just like concluded feeling like it's alright. I guess that is a distinct possibity. It could be by the time we get to the end of it that we're both just like, yeah, it was okay, okay, balances out. Um. And then I'm also a member of Rooster Team Radio, where me and my co host talk

about roost Teeth related shows. So go and check all of those things out. I I tweet about all of them, so uh yeah, go check those out and enjoy. Yes, And you can find us on the internet at Creature Feature put on Instagram, at Creature feet put on Twitter. That's f e a T, not f e ET that's something very different. You can't find me on Twitter. I am at Katie Golden if you're interested in my Katie thoughts. They're not necessarily podcast related. They're just all my ramblings,

all my Katie thoughts. Um. I'm also a pro Bird Writs, where I put forth the idea that maybe we should just let birds take over the world, you know, just just once, just we'll try it. We'll try it and see how it fits. And thank you guys so much for listening. I know times are really tough right now, so I am just always so I don't know, just like so thankful you're choosing to listen to to my little podcast or I really appreciate it, and if you are enjoying the show, if you want to like subscribe,

leave a comment or a rating. That actually really helps me. It first of all makes you feel great. Faeds my enormous huge e go thanks to me feel uh. It really makes my day when I see a nice review. And it also really helps me because podcasts are hosted on platforms where all these robots are like beat boop, is your podcast good? And then like doing writings interviews kind of, it's like tells the robots that we're doing a good job, and that really helps us. Thanks also

to the Space Classics for their super gopic song. X Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the show, you just listen to visit the I Heart Radio app, app podcasts, or hey, wherever you get your ding ding podcast c next Wednesday,