Welcome to Creature future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your hosts of Many Parasites Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, and today on the show Urine for a great show, guys, because we're talking about all the wee wee that's fit
to piss. So we are talking about animal pe studies, about animal urine, the amazing facts about We've got three we wei stars here, animals whose urine is either fascinating, super important to the environment, or just weird, just very strange pe if we are gonna go from one of the largest actually, no not one of the largest, the largest mammal in the world to a strange, fuzzy little
grimlin that you've probably I've never heard of. Joining me today is my personal friend and co host of Secretly incredibly Fascinating with none other than wah, which is perfect grammatic French. Everyone, I'm so happy to have Alex Schmidt joining me today.
Alex, hi d thank you for having me. This is so great, and especially I feel like most schools and biology class or whatever they they're probably teachers who cannot tell you about animal p right. There's probably districts or parents groups or something where they shut it off, cut it down.
My arch nemesis, the PTA, always trying to stop.
The Pta, the PTA ironically.
Oh the irony. Yeah, so animal p is actually very interesting. And on this show we do like to discuss the sorts of topics that might seem a little bit too risque, too in a pro to be taught in biology class. And this is one of them.
I all be we all bee.
Everyone does it. It's not weird. And if you don't do it, you should go to a doctor a urologist because you need to do it. It's very important. You should be proud of yourself every time you pee because that's that's okay, that's biology, baby, and you did it. So Alex, we just got you know what we got like to in this life. There's so little we control, and one of the things we can control is going to the bathroom. And I think that's a sacred human right, Alex.
We also do like a little side project on so our our show Secretly Incredibly Fascinating is on the network Maximum Fun and we actually just we just did a drive. We just did a drive for new members. So if any of you are listening to that, you also subscribed over there. Thank you for that, and that we have been funded for a show that we do called uh the Inspectors Inspectors, but I like to call it us PISS because it's US Postal Inspection Service, which spells US piss. Uh.
Yes, yes, it's not our fault.
Yeah, but now we're talking about they piss because it's animals whose pe is really interesting? And I did this whole topic not because I'm a freak, but because I read some news about a new study on whale p none other than the majestic Blean whale. Uh So whale p. There is a lot of it, so that's one thing. Yeah, and it turns yeah, makes sense, right, there's there's a ton of whale pea.
Yeah, I can't. I'm very excited to hear how this is measured, like how they measure the p from the whale. You know, maybe they're estimating, maybe there's a big cath in her.
I believe it's estimates. I do not think that there's like, oh, I don't think they cat up the whales. No, there's not really a great way to study whales. I think it is based on the knowledge of like the size of say whale bladders and their capacity and the calculated rate metage of urination. So that's that's how they because yeah, whales are Actually it's funny because they're the world's largest mammals,
so you'd think we'd know everything about them. They're actually very difficult to study because they're deep in the water and it's hard to get there, and they're so big. It's not like we can take a whale carcass to
your nearest lab and study the entire thing. Like, yes, like parts of whales are studied, of course, but it is it's very difficult to study them, but we do, and and this is one of them, a new study called Migrating Baling Whales Transport high latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems by University of Vermont conservation biologists Joe Roman. At all. Basically, this is a paper Roman. Joe Roman
sounds a little bit like Joe Rogan. I know, Joe Rogan wishes he was at the intellectual level of studying.
Whale p you know, so uh really.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so uh this is a study on whale pp.
Uh.
For the most part, they just I guess we're too embarrassed to put that in the title. So we're talking mostly about large baling whales. Other whales, toothed whales like orc as, they certainly contribute, but it is really the big boys, the blue whales, the humpback whales. Uh, these are huge players in the nitrogen cycle in the ocean because peepy urea has a lot of nitrogen in it.
Okay, Yeah, and I don't and I don't know a lot about the nitrogen cycle, but I think also especially most dryings I've seen of it, it's on land, like the sky and the earth are doing it, you know, So it's cool to think about it in the sea.
Yeah, and it's it's something that we may not know as much about because it's in the ocean and it's maybe harder to measure. But yeah, absolutely, nitrogen plays a huge role in the same way that it plays a role in our soil right for growing plants. Nitrogen in the ocean supports a lot of life like algae, phytoplankton. It is important in terms of depositing nutrients to create
a fertilizer for the foundation of the food chain, super important. So, and the way the specific way that baling whales contribute to this is not just by eating and peeing, it's by eating and peeing in a very specific migratory pattern. So uh, they end up moving nitrogen from icy cold polar regions, very very cold regions. And it's interesting because in these polar regions, actually the ocean is a lot more nutrient dense. You have things like you have things
like a lot of krill. You have a lot of things for the whales to eat. Balen whales or filter feeders. They're the ones that have those things that look like broom bristles in their mouths. So they're not they're not really going after like say tuna or fish. They're going after krill. Santa ah man. You know if Santa's look really tiny or his little his little elves, maybe they'd get caught in there.
But yeah, they go after like every piece of art of Santa. They have to include a scale drive where like there's that stensil of a human to show you he's also.
Very comes down the chimney. No one's ever said how big Santa is. Maybe he's planktonic. Explain it and why we can't see him. They eat krill, which are these small shrimp like animals and UH, and they eat massive amounts of them, so they actually find more of them in these colder regions. And so what happens is they feed in these polar cold regions and then to mate and to breed, they actually move to warmer tropical regions. And these warmer regions it has plenty of life, but
it's less nutrient dense than the polar regions. And so they actually live off of a lot of their blubber when they're in these uh, these more tropical regions. And as they're burning that blubber, they're using the energy stores and all that nutrition they gathered when they're in the polar regions and they're burning it off and they're producing a byproduct PE and so and that PEE is the byproduct u urea, which is loaded with nitrogen, and that
urea helps to fertilize these tropical areas. So they're moving nutrients, UH and fertilizer from these polar regions into the tropical regions. And in what the long haul truckers, they are like long haul truckers, especially for P for P which I'm sure long haul truckers also appreciate the idea of just peeing where you are. Uh, I know they've got jugs, you know, depositing it on the side of the road.
Fertilized plant get empty. Yeah, it's it seems like I'm sure. I'm sure. That's like day one of being a trucker. You fall into some kind of routine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have your you have your piss jug.
They don't just use the diner with the sign that says eat at and ame of diner.
I mean, it's uh, it's gotta be tough, man, it's gotta be I I have I have pea anxieties, so man, I would.
Hello.
I'd like to be a whale though, because no one would know except for the giant, except for the enormous warm spot. A single whale can actually pee out two hundred and fifty gallons of pee a day. That is daily amounts. It's a lot of Wow, it's a lot. It's quite a bit. And so through their urine, their placentas and carcasses, whales release around three thousand, seven hundred and eighty tons of nitrogen into lower nutrient areas. So that's that's an incredible transfer of nutrients to these areas
that need them. So it helps support these warmer areas, help support like you know, coral reefs, all the animals there, plankton, phytoplankton. It's a fantastic, a fantastic sort of boost to these ecosystems.
Yeah, and then I have and I'm still hung up on just the idea too, that the colder parts of the ocean are denser in life. Like if you'd forced me to guess, I would have said the opposite. I would have imagined, like the ocean of the Equator is like a tropical rainforest. The ocean. You know, yeah, I guess it's.
Yeah, it is very interesting because it's like you have these kind of like one thing that is true is that when you get very very deep in the ocean, then some nutrients, like the nutrient gradient is kind of more spread out. But then you have like these these hot spots of nutrients near thermal vents. But in colder waters, you actually do have a high density of things like krill. You have like a lot of tuna, you have a lot of these these sort of large groups of schooling fish,
like a bunch of biomass. Part of that is the light cycle in these areas. So like even though it's colder, right, and you'd think like, oh, well then that would mean there's fewer animals there, you still have like a lot of energy that is contained within these waters.
Cool. Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
I always like to find out that we have so many mental pictures of habitats where we think nothing lives there, you know, like a sahara or just a black of ice with one polar bear standing on it. But no, it's full of life. It's great.
Yeah, I mean it is, it is. It is true that like polar bears do sometimes have a tough run of it because they're actually like on the land, so polar regions, like when you're on the land itself, because that is not very conducive to the growth of vegetation on the terrain. Yes, actually it's pretty tough. That's why things like penguins they go in the water to fish because there's not a lot of stuff like in the Arctic on or sorry, in the Antarctic for them to
feed on on the land or in the Arctic. Certainly there's parts of the Arctic where a lot of animals like seals and polar bears will need to like go in the water, and then polar bears of course will go after the animals that are fishing in the water. It is really cool. This is a little more kind of like complicated science. But the way that the cold waters work is it encourages some sea mixing that can actually bring up nutrients that are sequestered in these like waters.
So you have the system that like you'd think of course like that warm you know, it'd be easier for life to exist in warm waters. But it's a very kind of specific chemical thermodynamic process that churns up nutrients in the water, allowing you know, the smallest forms of life to thrive, and then you have this thriving food chain.
Wow. Amazing. Yeah, yeah, just never you just never think about this stuff with the sea. It's all down there. And plus I have a phobia of sea creature. So I'm trying you do you do?
Whales are fine? Okay, Well, I figured I figured this is I'm not intentionally trying to torment you on this episode, So there's no jellyfish.
Yeah. Part of and part of my lore with my silly phobia is that if I can imagine it as a land animal, it's okay. Yeah, and whales. It's just some kind of like packetrm or elephants or something. It's fine.
They used to be terrestrial animals. They used to be sort of these little deer like animals, and then they're just like, I'm tired of living on land. Man, too many taxes, so then they lost all of their limbs and wouldn't know.
It is this complex the text cheets.
Yes, there's these.
Cons that they were like still too many taxes about.
Off real offshore for tax holdings. Yeah, have you.
Seen the tax bill in even the Cayman Islands? Forget it, I've going down there about in the Cayman Oceans.
Yeah. The reason that whales migrate, right because like, well why not just stay in these polar regions because there's a lot of food there for them to eat, like krill, is that it's actually easier for them to keep their calves save and alive in these warmer waters. The calves can't swim as well, it keeps them safe from larger predators, and it also forced like it has they all kind of go into these regions to be in sort of
a meet and greet area for mating. Because whale, really large whales some smaller whales like dolphins, which is a type of toothed whale actually, or orcas tend to be in groups right, like a pot of way of dolphins, but they're really big ones like blue why they're usually actually relatively solitary and they communicate over really long distances. That's why the whales song where it's like ooh, it's
a method of communication over a very long distance. But the mothers and the calves hang out quite a bit. But otherwise you.
Don't have like very good whales song. By the way, I can't just thing you.
But so when they go to these tropical waters, it forces them into a more dense area and it makes it easier for them to find a mate. We honestly don't know that much about the largest whales and their mating practices, like blue whales, because it's hard to see them, man, they're in the water. You'd think that we would be able to because they're so big, but it's just like we don't. We can't just like hang out down there in a submarine waiting around for whales to get it on.
So it's actually very rare that we observe it. And actually the one time we did observe it. I think in blue whales it was actually a two males, which was hilarious that like, we've weighed around really long time and then it just spits in the face of homophobes who don't understand that a lot of animals are gay. So I love it.
Maybe maybe it'll turn out that blue whales are just these wild pan sexuals, you know, you.
Know, I wouldn't be wouldn't be surprised.
Yeah, like that that homosexual encounter was between many encounters among the kinds of whales.
It really fits their vibe to be honest, that all that all whales are pant sexuals proved me wrong. So yes, so they they they move into these warmer waters for mating, which also means they actually leave behind, uh placenta, and that placenta also contains a bunch of nutrients, and that also contributes to the this nitrogen cycle. It contributes to the fertilization of these waters. They also each placenta waste, like, yeah, weighs hundreds of pounds.
Concept has never crossed my mind in my whole life.
There they're mammals, placential male Yeah, of course they got one.
Yeah, it's like three pounds. It is nutrient bomb or whatever. It's quite literally.
Is it's probably around that, you know, like it's hundreds of depends depends on the species of whale, but yeah, it's hundreds of pounds. So yeah, and this study, uh, the study has shown that like whales are the main distributor of nitrogen to tropical waters that the uh, which is like extremely important for the whole the whole system.
And then.
Yes, the studies lead author told the University of Vermont newspaper, quote, we call it the great whale conveyor belt, or it can also be thought of as a funnel because whales feed over large areas, but they need to be in a relatively confined space to find a mate, breed and give birth. And the University of Vermont newspaper titled the article on this, uh the whale p funnel, the Great Whale PA funnel. So that's that's fantastic.
Give that student their degree right now. They did it. They have nothing more to learn at the University of Vermont.
Also also Ed Goodall, head of the Intergovernmental Engagement at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, told the National Geographic National Geographics Melissa Hobson quote, the ocean is spluttering along like an old car with rusty parts that aren't functioning properly. So you know, so basically we need we need.
This whale peepe What what they saidis fying just the verb spluttering straight off of pee talk. I imagined like a difficult stream that's set on.
Me drunk problem, A drunk whal.
The urologist and a psychologist. Why I reacted.
A drunk whale trying to aim for the ocean and somehow missing and somehow missing its hits Greenland instead.
Right, Conservative American political officials scattering as this happens.
Yet, god ah man, I would love it if the whales came to Greenland's defense just formed a great peak wall. So this process of whales distributing nitrogen with their pee used to be even more impressive. You know, we went through this whole I think we've talked about this on secretly. Incredibly fascinating for something I forgot which topic. But yeah, there used to be obviously a huge whaling industry, like around three million whales were killed in the twentieth century alone,
drove their populations down enormously. Yes, and so given what we know about the nitrogen cycle. It's likely that this huge reduction in whale populations and ergo whale pe means that the density of life in the ocean is like a fraction of what it used to be in terms of like the because there needs to be this fertilization process for say tropical waters to be rich in life. So wow, right, it's a funny thing, right, Like whale
p turns out super super important, just incredibly important. So when you see like a study and it's like, oh, why are we studying whale p? This is why absolutely important to like all life in the ocean and therefore on Earth.
Yeah. Yeah, and all those news stories too, whenever they're like can you believe this topic is being studied, Like, yes, yes, there's probably a reason. Yeah, why would professional scientists just be goofing off but also working really hard you know what I mean? Yeah, like they either study something important or go home and cook or go on vacation a yeah, like they don't waste time and work super hard both.
Yeah, life life on Earth is like a giant Jenga tower, and like you might look at one piece and it's like, whale P, how is this important? And you pull it out and the whole thing just like comes crashing down. It was all, yeah, it was all being held up by whale p guys.
I also I also want to know how many people made some kind of little micro blog post, you know, ex Blue sky its atter ibat, like can you believe they're talking about whale p while that person was using their phone on the toilet? I want another savage because up too well.
Or goshtern hypigrites. Yeah, yeah, so there we have it.
Folks who would even think about this flesh?
Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, well, you know, whale p it's extraordinary, doing a lot more for the world than some politicians, am I right?
And I really didn't know how the ocean works. There's so much transit of calories and resources and energy whatever it is.
I really like how you I really like how you describe them as pe long haul truckers that that's so apt.
Yeah. Yeah, They're body is the what's it called the back of the truck where the stuff is.
The the trailer the tractor. I'm also imagining them wearing the like mesh baseball hats with some like funny whale related pun like whale whale whale lookuta is and like they have like their fin has sort of the like a sexy lady whale, like it's a mudfla.
Yeah.
Oh, instead of BUCkies, it's buck peas. There you go, that would be the gear. Do you know BUCkies stops. I guess that's certainly not in Italy, but it's only a southern US thing.
Okay, well, i'll, i'll. I'm sure people from that region are laughing at your show so.
Hard at buck peas, they can't stand it. They applause the show to yeah.
Yeah, they bust their guts right up at that joke. Alex. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. I'm gonna take a quick break, and when we get back is more urine science. Hooray whoop. All right, Alex, So I'm just gonna I'm just gonna spit this right out. Chinese soft shelled turtles urinate through their mouths.
Perfect.
Yeah, no for the questions, So Chinese soft shelled turtles, what are they? They are these sort of olive green, flat aquatic turtles with a relatively soft shell, long neck, and long pointed snoots. They are silly looking animals.
I google the picture and the face is very muppet.
It's very muppet. It looks like an alien muppet. And they do excrete urine out of their mouths. Now, they do have a kloaeca. The kloeca be the whole that does it all. In birds and reptiles and amphibians, the kloaca is it's like it's like our rectum and our urinary opening and all other openings down there combined into one magical hole.
But yeah, if we had more of a grindset, we would have a cloaca. We would just knock it all out. It's like a four hour work week.
But for all sufficient man, Yeah, yeah, you know, it's like it's like we're doing all of these separate workflows and we could have it all go through a kloaca come on work flow. Yeah. But yeah, So these these turtles often, like you know, an animal with the kloaca, everything comes out of the kloaca, urine, feces, reproductive materials. But for these Chinese soft shelled turtles, they urinate mainly
out of their mouths. Now, they can urinate out of the kloaca, but a lot of the important urrea extreme actually happens through the mouth. So they The way they do it is they take water into their mouth, kind of hold it there like you're swishing it, and then they spit it out back out into like the water. So usually they're like on land, they stick their head in a puddle. They take in the water, kind of let it soak there for a while, and then spit
it back out. And when they're spitting it back out, it is with it comes a bunch of urea that they just excreted through their mouths.
Weird.
Yeah, the way they study it's.
Super reverse of swallowing up pill Yes, like like first I need water or last I need water and then I don't know if there's a good metaphor.
It's it's something is what it is alex Uh. The way these these scientists study these turtles is they like restrain them on land and then like had like pottle, like like a puddle of water or a bucket of water, and like the the turn is like, well it got a pee and like stuck its head in the water, held water in its mouth, and then when it spitted out, the researchers were able to measure that there was an increase amount of urrea in the bucket, so you know, wow, yeah.
I guess yeah, And that's probably not too bad for the turtle because you got a pe.
So they did lit the turtle peace, so that's that's always good, you know. Yeah, I'm sure the turtle is just a little mildly inconvenienced.
Yea.
So, like the lining of the soft shelled turtle's mouth transports urrea from the blood stream and it's able to kind of osmos out into the water. So it holds the water in its mouth. It has a bunch of urea that's in its mouth and it's able to be excreted into the water osmos into this water. They have all these sort of fingerlike projections in their mouths called pilla that facilitates this transfer. And the reason that they have such a like why not just pee? Why not
just pee out the kloaca? Right, it seems simpler. So yeah, the reason they do it grinds it, Yeah, chloaca grindset. The reason they do it in such a roundabout way is the brackishness of the water in their natural habitat. So a brackish water is salty water. It's not as salty as sea water, but it's relatively salty, so in swamp they live in swamps and marshes, the water's a bit salty, so it's brackish because of this higher salt
concentration than say fresh water. If they had to drink enough water to move urrea out into their urine, because like we drink a lot of water, and that helps facilitate us transporting waste products out our pea. So the water is running through our system basically helping us osmos all of these these waste products like urea, carrying it down through the body, through our kidneys into our bladder and we peel it out and that's the miracle of
pea time. So with these turtles drinking all that brackish water means taking in a lot of salt. Now they have all this excess salt and they would have to deal with it somehow. So instead of having to deal with all that excess salt in order to facilitate urination, they've just like moved the urea excretion process from one end, the far end, to the front end where they they just swish the water in their mouth, let that let all the urea come out in that water in their mouth,
and then spit it out. So those unique urea transporter proteins exist in the lining of the mouth, whereas it does not exist in the kidneys, which is really interesting.
That's amazing. What a good reason to do it?
Yeah, great, Yeah, they just they kind of like they solve this plumbing issue by like that, what if we switch the polarities of the pea.
Yeah, this, this is going to destroy the grind set Alpha success bro podcasts about how great kloacas are. I know, this is the kind of information they don't want out there.
You know, I'm coming for Cloaca bros. And they know it. They're scared of it.
Really, guys.
Yeah, you might be wondering, well, why don't they just figure out a way to get rid of the excess salt. And in fact, this is the case for other turtles. Sea turtles use a different technique to deal with sea salt, the extremely salty waters, so they drink salt water all the time. They excrete the water through lachrymal glands, so they're crying. They cry out the excess salt. So you may see a sea turtle it looks like it's crying. You might think it's because of all the plastic straws
in the ocean. No, it's because it has to excrete extra salt out in its tears, and this allows it to It's basically solving the same problem that the soft shelled turtle has in a different way, because evolution is not necessarily going to always arrive at the same exact solution to a similar problem, and sometimes that's because of
different types of evolutionary pressures. Sea turtles obviously live in a different environment, they have a different method of feeding, they have more salt in their water, so these glands probably ended up being the best solution for them. But sometimes you can just have two perfectly good solutions for the same process for the same problem. Because yeah, evolution, Yes, if it works, it works, that's the whole thing.
Yeah, especially it seems like evolution is that its most creative and lazily just do it. When it comes to holes, you know, well that hole will do that, done, trying done thinking. Yeah.
We basically when you examine basically any organism, we are all tubes of varying complexities.
Sure.
Yeah, as long as the two functions, stuff goes in one and comes out the other, go out your sulf and animal.
See that for this reason, I'm going to stop discriminating against sea sponges. All this time, I've been like, we're super different, but no.
We just tubes, sea squorts and sea sponges. Just kind of like cut out all of the other nonsense.
I'm gonna start letting sea sponges be customers in my business and hire my jobs and stuff. Yeah, it's time we're the same.
I've learned of Rungebob is thrilled. All right, So we're going to take a quick break and when we are when we come back, we're going to discuss the most delicious smelling urine in the world.
Code creature feature gets you, all right, So, uh, there is a critter out there, Alex who's urine smells like hot buttery movie theater popcorn.
It's me, no, who is it? Gross?
So and so we're actually staying in Asia. We're now in Southeast Asia. There is an animal. It peas relatively normally. It peas out of its urethra. It's a mammal, but it's urine smells like buttered popcorn. This is the binter wrong, otherwise known as the bear cat. It's found in Southeast Asian tall forest so it is a vivarid. This is
the family to which civets, genets, and fosses belong. So, Alex, I want you to take a look at that that cute bear cat for a minute and just appreciate its scrungly appearance.
Yeah, I was gonna say what you said the name. I was like, I'm pretty sure there is one of the cute ones, and it is one of the cute ones.
It's one of the cute ones.
It's I forgot how cute.
Yeah, they're they're dark gray with orange eyes. They have this sort of like diamond shaped raccoon like face, long whiskers, rounded ears. They have this really thick, bushy, prehensile tail, and they're somewhat like stout and hefty, so they're not like long and noodlely. They're like they're solid bear like,
but not as big as a typical bear. They weigh around forty to fifty pounds, which is about eighteen to twenty two kilograms, with a body length of around thirty inches or eighty centimeters, and a tail of up to thirty five inches or seventy centimeters, so they have quite like their tail is about as long as their bodies.
Yeah. I love when you use the word scrungly because they are it's like a scrungly dark red panda. Yeah, it's a really cute animal. It's really great and they's very cute.
They look like to me what I would think a realistic lorax would look like.
Yeah, yeah, right, black and yes, yeah.
Like a little scrungly guardian of the forest. They're active during both the day and the night. They just take a lot of naps, which man I relate. I feel like this isn't.
So they're like newborn baby or me. Cool. Yeah, cool.
I feel like this is probably what I naturally would do if if I didn't have to exist in society, like active at day at night, but just a lot of naps happening. They're omnivores, so they eat fruits, but they also prey on insects, small mammals and birds when they can get them. So you know, they're they're they're that's just those are just those are just a flying nuggets. So uh, onto their pea. It smells like popcorn and there's no way around it. It's just this isn't this
is a famous uh sort of comparison. There is in fact a study on this particular phenomenon published in the Science of Nature by Duke University ecologist Lydia Green at All, which is called Reproductive Indocrine Patterns and Volatile Urinary Compounds of Arcticus binter Wrong Discovering why bear cats smell like popcorn?
Cool? Yeah, yeah, I mean we both love popcorn. We talked about that on Yeah, and it's very tempting. I don't know, like, if I smell popcorn, I have to go home and have popcorn or have it at the theater. I walked past. There's a theater kind of down our street. It's it's trouble for.
Me that smell the theater popcorn smell. I know. It's like, I know, like that butter is not like actual butter. It's some kind of strange corn amalgam. But man, do I want to.
Yeah, whichever your lab scientist made it is.
Yeah, it's like powerful. It's like some kind of like sunflower seed oil thing concoction made in a lab, and I can't get enough of it.
Yeah, I've evolved to mostly subsist on it. I don't really get a lot of other stuff.
So the researchers found that bear cat peek contains two aceetyl one pyroline to a p which they believe quote is likely to be responsible for the bentong's characteristic popcorn aroma. So okay, Essentially, what happens is the bentrong peeps, but they're scrungly, right, they're really fluffy, Their tails are super fluffy. What happens is some of that peepee gets soaked into
their fur. If you have a fluffy dog, you know, this is a problem sometimes where or a real fluffy cat, you know, sometimes that ppe goes where it's not supposed to go, which is either in the litter box or on the ground. But for the bentterong, this is a feature, not a bug, and so some of it sticks to their tail fur and it gives them that popcorn aroma.
And the theory about why why do they they smell so good and delicious through their disgusting peepee is that it is a sexual signal of reproductive readiness, because like, the males have a higher concentration. So the idea is it's like some sort of like reproductive signal for the females.
It's like, hey, look, you know, but they're not sure we're not exactly sure why they have this odor, but given whenever there's like a difference between the sexes, that's a hint that it could be something to do with reproduction, with like competition or trying to attract a mate. That's it's not necessarily the case. There can be sexual dimorphism that is not necessarily related to sexual reproduction. But so often is that the case that it's a good guess.
It's almost more fun if it's not for anything sexual. It's just for love of the game. When it comes to pcorn, you know, just.
Like so they can get into movie theaters and have sort of fanks just blow past that counter, yea aroma camouflage. They wear little popcorn suits and they sneak in so they can watch our movies.
Right. That one nineteen year old in the Simpsons with the primitively ready voice is like, he's probably staff just lets him in.
Yeah, So researchers are really on the case about why do these cute little animals smell like delicious popcorn? It's their pea, And no, I don't think it tastes like it smells, so don't try it.
Yeah, And I guess a lot of it there's no way to know this. A lot of animals probably like corn is what I'm imagining. So it's probably exciting to the bent rupt right, Like it's probably romantic to them in a way, it's not to us. I've always just a exciting.
I've always said that corn is romantic.
It's the most sensual of the Midwestern grains, for sure. So I bean's all business corn. Yeah, we're getting down.
Exactly all right. So before yeah, print that out, have your name forever tied to that sounds good to me. Ah, before we go, I would like to play a little game called Guess Who's squawking? The mystery animal sound game game every week by you're squawking' it's it's Alex Schmidt's. Last week's mister Annilsund was this. I don't mean to bring religion.
Into this, and let me play it for you, all.
Right, Alex?
Beautiful, isn't it?
Really didn't expect that sound?
Yeah, I ignore that.
You said you don't want to bring religion into.
It, said, I don't want to bring religion into it?
Is it? Is it? Easter bunny stuff, Easter bunny stuff.
It's a good GISs, very good guess I know.
It's the passover wound bat.
It's the Australian easter bilby. No, I'm kidding. Sorry, it sounded really exist. I know it does exist. The Australian easter bimby does exist. Sorry, not bimby bilby. Uh. It is a sort of rabbit like looking marsupial animal. The rabbits are invasive, so in Australia they have a campaign to turn the bilby. I don't know. I don't know what a bimbi is. That that's just a made up word.
But they want to turn the bill be into sort of Australia's version of the easter bunny, because the bill b is actually endemic to Australia, whereas the rabbit is invasive. But this is none of that. So this this sound.
Boobies also look like that marsupial and dune that they call polytrdes too, So that's fun.
Yes, I understand that very well. Yes I've seen no so this sound. The one that sounds like an Internet dial up is the capuchin bird, named after capuchin monks because it has a bald head. It is a tropical bird found in South America. You might think it's this beautiful bird with glorious colors. It's it's not so it has a bald head like a vulture. It's got this brown, fluffy, down,
feathery coat. They look very strange, very ugly, but their call is apparently quite attractive to their their counterparts, female counterparts.
It's so weird. They're like very feathered and a really lovely orange color, a lot of it. But then their head specifically looks like that plague mask guy. Yes, so like it's really pretty until the head.
Yeah, it's like, oh oh okay, yeah, that's so stark. Yeah yep. Well yeah, that's.
The good monastic pull. There's a lot of monks. That's a fun one.
All right, So onto this week's mister Animals sound. The hint is this, this little rock dweller is just saying hi, all right, you got any guesses?
That was even better than the that's what Rocketoiler's saying. Hi. One of like, besides Bison, one of my favorite animals is elephants, and I feel like I period that fact that they really had a one time.
And some.
Alex you are so smart. That is absolutely correct. In order to make it fair to the listeners, one of the game no, because I have technology. This is pre recorded, so I will bleep out just the part where you say the name of the animal. But Alex gave you a free hint there, which is that it is the latest two Elephants. So there you go. Uh, fantastic job, Alex. I am super compressed. Thank you, amazing.
And they had my childhood zoo the actual answer, So that's the other fantastic.
But don't worry. Everyone will know, everyone will know you're right, and you will be sent this. You'll be sent this week's UH prize, which is a box full of rocks.
Oh but I wanted the special pee.
And a vial of bin wrong key to pour on your popcorn. Oh God, that I mean, I mean myself grossed out. I grossed myself out, Alex.
I have I have received popcorn through the mail, so I would if you sent me that, I would think it's one of those like carrots tubs or the nuts on Clark in Chicago or whatever.
Yeah, please don't, please don't send Alex pee covered bear cat pee covered popcorn. That would be very bad. Yeah yeah, although yeah.
I'm sure it's against the rules. I don't know the rules, but I'm as it's.
Against the rules that I just made right now, which is don't send Alex bearcat pee on popcorn. Alex, thank you so much for joining me today. Where can people find you? What kind of projects? What kinds of projects do you do with I don't really, I'm not, I'm not. I'm sorry. I invited you on and I'm not really familiar with your body of work. So if he could do it to all the people? What what? What? What? What do you do?
Just the funniest, increasingly bisified face. That's great. Yeah, I'm so glad your co hosts SIF with me because it makes the show great.
Really incredibly fascinating.
Yeah, secretly incredibly fascinating. So I hope people check it out. And I assume a lot of listeners here know it already.
If they don't, it's a secret.
This show is amazing.
Yeah, I'm winking, and this is the sound my wink mace.
Dis place in the uh yeah, what's it called? The balls bird? Capuchin bird? There we go.
Now, Alex does a fantastic job on that show. He does all the research, teaches me things every week. I never like I always have something to talk about at awkward parties. Which has saved my life. My social life is saved because of Alex. Like I can be at a party I don't know what to talk about, and because he teaches me all these incredible facts about things I can be like, h do you know that w D forty has a secret recipe that's in San Diego,
which is where I was born? And everyone loves me now I'm I'm the bell.
Of the ball and I get that from mostly listening to this show sometimes casting. So it's cool that we both get to do that, preaches, So please do.
Check that out secretly incredibly fascinating. I am on there every week with Alex and guys, thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying the show and you leave a rati or review, it really helps me and encourages me. It keeps me going in the way that whalu'reine keeps tropical regions of the ocean going. And thanks to the Space Cossics for their super awesome song. Ex Alumina. Creature
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