Soothing Q&A Featuring Alien Parasites

Feature Pod at gmail dot com. Next week we're gonna have a regular episode, but for now, enjoyed the soothing, relaxing tones of a casual but well researched Q and A about animals. So I love this batch of questions very much. You guys are just so Yeah. I'm so proud of you all. You ask such amazing questions that always sends me on a great research tunnel and are things that, like I am really excited to address on

the show. So let us start with this first one, which is from Senor Moderna on Twitter, who asks what is the weirdest, creepiest science fiction eye story or behavior you know about any animal ever? So this is a hard one because there are so many it's hard for me to pick my favorites, but I'll just go through a few that came to mind. I mean, creepiest science fiction e ish I think has to go to the parasites. Like any number of parasites, they're always so incredible and weird.

So there are parasites that control their hosts brains, like the parasitoid wasp larva that infects or weaver spider brains and causes them to become mindless zombies. That's been a nice little cocoon for the parasite larva. And then the spider dies and the parasites suck all their juices out and just chucks their dead descated body out and goes to sleep in their little little cocoon that the poor

zombie spider had to weave for them. So that it's just so interesting to me that you have this very relatively simple animal like a wasp, and I mean especially the larva, and it has some kind of chemicals that manages to hijack the orb weaver spider's brain and make it we've a little crib for it, and it's just it's so insidious. It's so fascinating, very very sci fi to me too. Um there's also the head bursting fungus court of Steps, and I think we've mentioned this a

few times on the show. It's really fascinating. It infects Aunt's other insects, arthropods. It causes them to wander around like zombies before clamping down on a branch with their mandibles so the parasitic fungus can grow right out of their heads and at least more parasitic spores. So that is very to me horror movie, science fiction zombie movie esque. In fact, I think um so like in the Last of Us that video game, they use Cortoceps as the fungus that turns everyone into zombies. I think in I

think it's called Cargo. It's a zombie movie where I think the I think it's a parasitic fungus or something, and then it makes people stick their heads under the ground as the scores start to develop in like in their brains, and which reminds me a lot of the courtoceps, because these insects, like their last act is to bite down on a branch their mannible so that the fungus has a secure place to grow, which is really messed up and really interesting. The ocean also has some really

incredible sci fi type animals. In terms of the creepier ones, there is a microscopic parasite called salmoncola that infects It sounds like a beverage, doesn't salmonacola sounds like some kind of like coca cola, Like like there's cherry coke and then there's salmon flavored coke. But no, it is a parasite that infects salmon and directly feeds off of their A t P. So a TP is the most basic unit of energy that living creatures use. It is produced

from respiration. And so the fact that these Salminicola parasites feed directly on the A t P. They actually do not have any mitochondria and they don't breathe. So they're the only animal known in the world that does not breathe and doesn't use some kind of form of respiration. So they look like alien sperm to uh be blunt. They are shaped like sperm. And then they have these two ice bots that kind of you know, they look like the classic like gray alien kind of thing with

the with the big eyes. You know, you know what I'm talking about, Like any kind of alien logo. It just looks exactly like that, except attached to a little a little sperm tail. And those eye spots are not eyes at all. They are actually old stinger cells from

their ancestors, who were probably a more jellyfish like animal. Uh. Salmon Cola shares the same phylum as jellyfish of Nideria, so these are probably some kind of thing that like started out as a sort of jellyfish like like Nigerian, and then just lost a bunch of features so that they could become these little microscopic parasites on salmon. They now use those stinging cells that look like alien eyes, not to sting, but to actually latch onto the salmon tissue.

And another cool thing is they glow green under fluorescent lights. So they are I think the most alien looking and most alien acting, creepy little parasitic animal that I know of. They look like cartoonish aliens and they don't breathe, which is completely bizarre. So we're going to take a quick break and I will be right back to answer more of your listener questions. All right, and I am back, and I'm really excited about this question. This is from

Jamie wrote Farthing on Twitter, who asks how domesticated. Our cats, aren't they technically counted as a domesticated species. All I know is that they will cuddle in my lap and then bite my face when they're hungry. Oh, cats, the cuddly little demons who sometimes allow us to be in their presence and feed them. So they are indeed domestic hated. They are a separate species of animal from their wild counterparts that have been tamed and adapted to live as

pets to humans. But you are absolutely correct, Jamie, and noting that they are still really wild. So unlike dogs, cats are not too dissimilar genetically from their wild counterparts. It actually turns out that their natural wild behaviors, like

chasing mice suited humans really well. Like when we started to have a grarian societies where we would store grain, and we started to get mice and rats all in our business eating up our food, and cats came in as like, we will take care of these mice and rats, and hey, if you could give us a dish of milk every so often, we'd be cool with that. And so we formed a partnership with cat, cat and human

joining hand and paw to dominate the world. So they did adapt through selective breeding to be less scared and more tolerant of human you know, interacting with them, petting them without getting our faces scratched off. For the most part, dogs meanwhile, have made an incredible transformation from a wolf like ancestor who if you met, would definitely try to rip your face off into the sweet, lovable goofs that we know today. They were far more transformed to fit

our human society than cats had to go through. Also, one thing to note is that cats don't have in general the floppy ears like I think. There's the Scottish fold is a breed of cat that has the fold down ears, but they're quite rare. Most domesticated animals, on the other hand, from dogs too, bunnies to pigs, have those floppy ears because they've seen a loss of the firmness of their ear cartilage through domestication. This is due

to the way that animals develop as embryos. So neural crest cells are a group of cells in early embryonic development that go on to differentiate into many different types of cells, including cartilage melano sites which control for coloration. There's smooth muscle, and also certain types of neurons including

those that comprise the adrenal medulla. To kind of grossly generalize about the adrenal medulla, proportionally, larger adrenal medulla means in general, a more aggressive or easily frightened animal, whereas a smaller adrenal medulla a more chill animal. That's a that's a big generalization, but you know, otherwise I'd have to go into a lot more detail about the adrenal medulla,

and who has time for that. So fewer neural crust cells in embryonic development means a less developed adrenal medulla, which also just happens to mean also less cartilage, because, as I mentioned earlier, those neural crust cells both develop into cartilag millenna sites and also these adrenal mendula cells. So it just so happens that because these cells differentiate from the same cluster of cells, when you reduce that cluster of original cells, it means both less cartilage and

smaller adrenal mendula. And it also means that the millenna sites, the cells that control for coat coloration, are you know, more blotchy and patchy. That's why domesticated dogs have these little spots or patches on their fur, whereas wild wolves do not. It also means that with less cartilage, the

ears flop over because there's less strong cartilage. And you will notice that with cats, even though their ears aren't floppy, their coats tend to be more more modeled and patchy compared to their wild counterparts, which either can be they can have spots, they can have stripes, but it's usually pretty even even coding, whereas like you get calico cats and stuff, where you have these like spotches of coloration.

So that's that's pretty interesting to me. So the reason that cats did not go through as great of a change from their wild counterparts to domesticated pets is just simply that they didn't really need to. Their behaviors didn't require such a great change as like wolves did. I mean, interacting with a small, wild feral cat is a lot less dangerous than interacting with a wild wolf, to kind of put it in a simple way. But yeah, so cats did not really take that much coaxing to become

a house cat. They that life for them was pretty good, whereas wolves we had to go through a lot of iterations to get to Chihuahua's Yeah, really, great question. Another question from Twitter user eager Polcastra is to what extent are domesticated animals responsible for the decrease of wildlife in urban areas? So this is a really good question. Yes, the mess ssticated animals can do a lot of harm to indigenous species of animals and plants, especially in urban areas.

So cats are notorious bird killers. They actually kill one to four billion birds globally every year. So if you can keep your cat an indoor cat, that is going to be much better for the environment. And you know, definitely spaying newter your cat because they are wow doing a doozy on the bird population. In fact, naughty kitties have been the cause of thirty three extinctions worldwide, not just of birds, but other animals such as rodents. Uh like the key Largo wood rat in the Florida Keys.

So yeah, bad kitty, very bad. The dodo actually may have gone extinct due to the cats, dogs, pigs, and rats that came to the island Mauritius along with Dutch sailors. So rats not exactly the domesticated by humans, but they have definitely become adapters to in fact exploiters of human society to thrive. But yeah, when those Dutch sailors came over, they had ships that had cats and dogs and pigs, and those either out competed the dodos or killed their chicks,

or killed the dodos themselves. I mean the Dutch also killed some of the dodos. But yeah, it was a combination of hunting the dodo but also these invasive species of domesticated animals that really really spelled the end for those lovable goofball birds. Livestock can also cause the endangerment and possible extinction of species by grazing indigenous plants. And if there is overgrazing of indigenous plants, those plants can go extinct and endangered the wildlife that rely upon those plants.

So you know, like I always say, the ecosystem is like a Jenga tower, and you just don't know what's gonna happen when you take out one of those bricks. I'm not good at Jengas, so you know, it's especially bad in my case if I go around eating a bunch of birds. Does that make sense anyways? Next question, another question about pets. Uh. This is from Jess who reached out to me at Creature Future Product gmail dot com.

Uh So, she writes, Hi, Katie, I'm a huge fan in coming to you with a hard hitting guinea pig question. As long as I can remember, they've been a staple in elementary school classrooms and pet stores. How and when did a rodent from Peru become such a common pet. They have no discernible use, though I have attached some empirical evidence of their undeniable appeal. Thanks so much. Your podcast makes my compute to work so much better, Jess. Thank you so much, Jess, and thank you for the

cute guinea pig pictures. I will always take cute pet pictures any day, anytime, send them to me. So, Jess, I do have some terrible news for you about your guinea pig pals. So, guinea pigs came from the andies of South America, and they are the domesticated relatives of wild cavvies. So they were domesticated not as pets, but as livestock to be eaten. So we mainly associate them as pets in the US, but in South America they

are also food, much like rabbit. So in the city of Whuacho, Peru, there is a guinea pig festival where guinea pigs are dressed up in cute outfits and many dishes featuring guinea pig meat are served. And if you find that unsettling, you should check out any state fair in the US that will have like a petting zoo right next to a barbecue, or a cow and sheep

costume contest. Uh. It's really all a matter of which animals we grew up thinking of as pets and which we grew up thinking of as food, which is not universal and not really based necessarily on on anything scientific. You know, a guinea pig, I would say, is a lot less intelligent than a pig, like, you know, a hog pig that we eat in in all over the world. But you know, people may be more horrified by a little guinea pig being eaten than by bacon. It's all.

It's it's really interesting. It's like all this cultural perspective. Although I remember when I went to the fair. It was the Delmar Fair in San Diego where I grew up, and I loved all the animals, and I found out that these animals got sold uh for me, and I was horrified. And that was a sad day in my life to find that out, because I was like thinking like, oh, I want to be in fourage and raise one of these sheep, but then you have to give it away to get eaten. And it's not like something that I

think is morally wrong. In fact, I think it's really good for people to learn, like, hey, where the meat comes from. Like, if you're gonna you're gonna eat meat, it's better that you take care of the animal well and understand like what goes into raising an animal properly. But yeah, it is. It is kind of h It was one of those shocking moments of like, oh yeah, okay, it is. It is animals, it is sheep's in cute piggies.

Oh so yeah, very very interesting. Um, we're gonna take another quick break and then we will be back with just a few more of your listener questions. So hank tight, we are back and uh here is a question from Floyd Pollard who on Twitter who asks which bear is best? So I gotta say sun Bear, no contest, longest tongue, best bear tongue is almost a foot long. That bears the winner. Next question, John John on Twitter asks why

are snails so slow. Shouldn't making the ground slippery underneath them make them, you know, faster, So this is a really interesting question. There's actually a recent snail study at Stanford that seems to indicate that the snail slime their mucus. It does help with snail locomotion, but it's not essential or even the most important part of snail locomotion unless the snail is traveling vertically, in which case the sticky slime is very important because it allows the snail to

adhere to the surface. So snails move through a series of muscle contractions on their foot, so that's that flat base part of the snail. The mucus trail does help with their movement because as you put pressure, while it's very sticky, it seems like, well, how it's sticky, Like, how can they move across it easily? It seems like it would just like glue them down. But actually when they put pressure on the mucus, it stops being sticky and actually goes from being sticky to becoming a slick fluid.

So that's a really important interesting physical property of the snail slime. Like if you've ever um experimented with like these sort of different different fluids, Like there's the um what's it called, Like you bleck the the when you mix corn starch and water, and it's like this um non Newtonian fluid. And you can see, like difference in

pressure actually causes some fluids to change differently. So like when you mix when you mix corn starch with water and then you like slap it with your hand, like you have a high velocity pressure on the fluid, then it actually becomes firm more like a solid, whereas like if you slowly put your hand in, it behaves like a liquid. So I'm not sure that the same like it's not going to be the same exact reasons why snail slime changes property when you put pressure on it.

It's just an example of like how a liquid um can change its physical property depending on the pressure that you put on it. So the snail there's not that much pressure on it, it's sticky. It can help the snail cling to surfaces or crawl up surfaces. And if the snail puts pressure on it, it becomes slick so

it can slide across it. But yeah, this this Stanford study found that even in the absence of mucus, the snails can still move, so it really is those muscle contractions that is doing the mean force of movement for them, although the mucus does help them go along. In terms of why they're so slow, basically forming a wave movement with this very small squishy muscles along the foot of the snail isn't going to get them going very fast, no matter how well lubricated they are. So that's the

mechanics of why they're slow. They just they simply don't have like the muscle uh to get them going that fast, and they don't have the surface area on their foot to get them going that fast. Um. The reason they have not evolved to be faster is that they don't

really need to. Their shells offer them the protection that running away otherwise would, so instead of running, they have developed the strategy of hiding in their shells and so they don't actually have to be fast to escape predators, and they also don't have to be fast to eat. There they're chosen food, which is vegetation and leaves. But

there is actually a faster snail. So the fastest land crawling snail in the world is the marine plow snail, which can crawl at a breakneck speed of two point five centimeters a second doesn't sound super impressive, but when you look at videos of these snails booking it, it is kind of surprising because you are not used to snails moving that fast. The reason they can go so

fast that it has an unusually wide flat foot. So and the foot of the snail is just like that flat, you know, its main body like where you see that that flat thing that is what makes the slime and what what moves along um. But for these the plow snail,

it's really wide. It almost looks like wings, and it can use this to like physically push itself and undulate kind of like it's doing, you know, the worm dance move to get along, and it this will because it has this greater surface area where it can use its muscles to like basically shove itself and flop along. It actually gets to go a lot faster than um are

sort of common garden snail. So, uh, it needs to go faster than a common garden snail because it's preferred food is dead fish, jellyfish and other rotting things that have washed ashore, and these are very popular things for scavengers. So for it to get a crack at a carcass, it's kind of move pretty fast before it gets out

repeated by other snails or other scavengers. Also fun is that they can use this large flat foot to surf the waves, so like when they want to come ashore, instead of having to swim or crawl all the way there, they just fan out their foot and like surf on to shore. So that's that's when a snail can really get moving, is when they're surfers. So this next question is from doc Garby on Twitter who asks tarantulas with frogs, owls with snakes, crabs with anemones, captive cheetahs with dogs.

Is there any evidence of emotional attachment in these mutually beneficial pairings or could the respective creatures be swapped out for replacements of the same species without notice? So this is a very complex question first of all, So what doc Garby is talking about is some mutualistic symbiotic relationships here.

So with tarantula's and frog it is the micro highland frogs who team up with tarantulas, and the tarantulas do not eat these little tiny frogs, so the frogs benefit from the tarantulas because, first of all, they have protection with this big tarantula bodyguard, and they also get to eat bugs that are attracted to the remains of a

tarantula's kills. And the tarantula benefits from these little tiny frogs because the frogs love to eat ants, and ants love to eat tarantula eggs, so the frog protects the tarantula eggs from the ants. And ants are harder for the tarantulas to eat because they're so small and fast and nimble, and it's much easier for the frog who has this like really rapid fire tongue and mouth, to be able to eat the little ants. So the other

pairing that Doc Garby mentioned is owls with snakes. So Eastern screech owls and Texas blind snakes form a sort of partnership. So the Eastern screech owl will pick up one of these little Texas blind snakes, and these snakes are the little idy beauty things. They kind of look like oversized worms, and they plot them in their nest. But for the most part, instead of the chicks eating the blind snake, they the snakes will burrow down into the nest and actually pick off bugs, keeping pests away

from the owl's nest. And the other pairing that was mentioned was crabs with anemonies, which uh so palm palm crabs, which are these little tiny crabs very cute, will actually place little parts of anemonies on their claws and attach them there, and they use these as like uh these these venomous boxing gloves that can sting in any predator who tries to get too close. So this obviously benefits the crabs because it gives them cool boxing gloves, and

the this actually helps ennimonies reproduce. So by basically splitting up these niminy parts and transferring them around two different parts of the ocean, that allows them to disperse and reproduce by actually like like breaking off from the main animity and they can actually uh reproduce that way, which

is really fascinating. And the captive cheetahs with dogs thing is that in zoos where they have a cheetah, they will often pair it with a dog and raise them together with a puppy because cheetahs get really nervous all on their own and a they found that like, uh, dogs get along really well with cheetahs and vice versa, and it helps a cheetah feel really emotionally secure, and they also don't like have conflicts with the dogs as well, So it helps cheetahs who would otherwise be really anxious

in captivity, to be a little a little more relaxed and feel protected by their buddy the dog. In terms of the meat of the question, which is is there evidence of emotional attachment or could you swap out like any of these individuals. So I think, first of all, it kind of depends on the animal. I think that you know with when you have the more simple relationships like tranchlas with frogs, ass with snakes, frogs with anemonies, yeah,

I don't. I don't. I don't think they're particularly attached to any individuals, So I think you could swap them out. And now I'm not as certain about that answer with the tarantulas and frogs that have to look more into it. I'm not sure whether there's been research on that, whether they prefer any kind of like specific tarantula or any

The tranchilas stick to one specific frog. I do know that they do, uh prefer once they've learned sort of like their smell and taste I guess of their skin, like they do know that that frog is there their little buddy. And if you these researchers skinned some of these frogs and put there like the okay, so this

is messed up. But in the these micro highland frogs who are friends with tarantulas, there was there a research study where researchers would take one of the frogs which were the little buddies of the tarantula, and they would skin them and put that skin on another frog species that was not the buddy of the tarantulas. So the tarantula would not eat the frogs that normally they probably would eat once they had the skins of these micro

highland frogs. So the tarantulas definitely have a preference for that species. But in terms of whether they have a preference for individual frogs, I'm not sure is known. At

least I don't know it, but I would guess probably not. However, when you start to get more complex animals like cheetahs and dogs, they definitely have an attachment to individual dogs, individual cheetah like that you know, I mean, like if you have a dog, you know that that dog may form specific attachments with certain people or even certain other animals.

And this also happens in nature, coyotes and badgers will sometimes pair up and hunt together, and it seems like it is an individual seeking out a specific individual, like a coyote knows that a specific badger is down to hunt together, and so they go and team up. Now, in terms of whether there's an emotional connection behind this preference or whether it's just a practical thing of like, hey, I know this individual, we've gone hunting together before. I

know they're cool. I know that they are not gonna, you know, bite me or be unfair. It's hard to know like where the practicality starts and where the emotions start, and and if anything, I would guess that they'd be highly associated. Because for behaviors, you have to get some kind of reward or doing a behavior, and that can be like a physical reward feeling full, or a mental

reward of feeling happy, or a positive emotion. So in terms of survival, if animals get a positive emotion out of a beneficial relationship, that will probably help them continue to seek out that relationship. So I would say that for more complex animals like coyotes and badgers or cheetahs and dogs, that yeah, I would guess they do have an emotion behind it, an emotional attachment to the individual that they like to hang out with and brings them

some benefit. Um. But it's like, you know, we have emotions all the time that we may not think of as being like practical, but really do have a practical purpose, Like the reason humans like friends and family like it really is very helpful, in fact essential for our survival. Humans aren't the most strong, most you know, well adapted animals to survive on our own. We really depend on society.

Our whole human history is being depending on other people to help us, and we help them in our emotional attachment to other people, I help think really aided in our survival. So I think that there is this connection there right where evolutionary behaviors are also emotional behaviors, and it's kind of hard to separate out the two in terms of when, like which animals feel that emotion right Like it's actually it seems kind of hard for me

to be able to point a finger. It's like, all right, here's where the animal is complex enough to actually feel complex emotions. So, like, do you see enemies form an emotional attachment to the crabs who wear them as boxing gloves? Like, no, I don't. I don't think so. Other than literally being attached. Anemonies do not have a brain. They have a nervous system, but they have no centralized nervous system, so I don't think they have of really much capacity for thought at all. Uh,

just very basic stimulus response stuff. Uh. But then it's like, well, so does a cheetah feel something for the dog that it was raised with? Yeah? I think so. But then where you know, kind of in this spectrum of animal brain complexity, do the emotions start to set in? I don't know. I mean, it's really it's hard to say. I mean, you have like a rat, which I think is shows some very complex emotional intelligence. I think rats

may feel emotional bonds with each other and with humans. Uh, like anyone who is a pet owner who has a rat may attest to, but a mouse, I don't know, Like it's harder to it's kind of harder to see. Like mice seemed to have some problem solving ability. They

seem to have a preference for their siblings. But then when it it's like, well, it's their preference for their siblings just the evolutionary advantage of sticking with your siblings and trying to make sure like your genes pass on and maybe their genes pass on, and knowing that they're probably not going to attack you. It's I don't know, it's really hard. It's hard to say. It's hard to

tell how much capacity for emotion that might feel. And if anything, I think it's probably like a sliding scale of emotional awareness, like I would say, like maybe a mouse has some limited capacity for emotions. Maybe your rat has more capacity for emotions, and you get the more more and more complex, more and more social animals, and then maybe they get more like deeper emotions like humans

and apes and and dolphins, cetaceans, elephants. I think I'll have great capacity for deep emotions, so that that's as close to an answer that I can probably give. So yeah, really interesting question. Uh, And I think that'll do it for us to a with with your wonderful listener questions. Really enjoy all of them. Thank you so much for

sending them in Again. If you would like to send me some of your questions, all you gotta do is email me at Creature feature Pod at gmail dot com, or you can find me on Twitter Creature feet Pod. That's f e A T not f E T. That's something very different. And that's that's the Creature Feet Pod

on Twitter. I'm also Katie Golden on Twitter k A T I E G O L D I N. And yeah, that's my that's my people account, So I tweet about all sorts of things, all my Katie thoughts, not always animal related, but yeah, if you if you have animal questions, you can send those there as well. And of course on Instagram at Creature feature Pod on Instagram. Then those in there also. You got you got pet pictures, send them to me. I love them. You got crab memes?

Do it? Send it to me. You found a weird thing in your yard, I don't know, send it to me. I'll look at it. Will I be able to identify it? Maybe? Who knows? But go ahead and send those things, and I love reading them, and maybe I will answer some more questions on a future Q and A podcast. Yeah, let let me know. You know, if you guys like these Q and A things, maybe I'll keep doing them. If you kind of like maybe like them a little bit but want them to be like spread out between

episodes and like, yeah, just just let me know. Uh, And if you're enjoying the show, please leave a rating and review. That really not only helps me out with the old with the old Apple podcast algorithm, but it also really makes me feel good to read. I I really enjoy reading all of your feedback and comments. Really warms my little little bird heart. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you're all having as good of a holiday season as is possible. Please stay safe out there.

I love you all, uh and really care about you all, so you know I'm I'm here with you, you know, send me send me pictures of of your pets and like festive hat if you want, that'd be great. Thanks so much to the Space Classics for their super awesome song excell Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio for more podcasts like the one you just heard was the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast? Or Hey guess what? Where have you listen to your favorite shows? See you next Wednesday