Oh hey, it's a coin from your birth year that you keep in your nightstand for sentimental reasons and because you feel oddly emotionally attached to it. Ali ward your Internet dad back with another episode of the podcast audio Programologies, in which we explore a neurology every episode. Hop into my fated Nissan and let me take you to an island to talk about rotting meat, breath and big butts.
But first, some thanks to everyone who's a patron and gives a dollar a month or more to submit questions and see by the scenes photos and live streams. And that's all on patreon dot com slash Ologies. Also thanks to everyone out there subscribing and rating and of course submitting reviews for the show, which keeps it currently number three in the Science charts. This is all stupid show, can you believe it? I read all your reviews. I pick a just birthed one to read each week, such as,
for example, one left I don't feel like dancing? Who says this podcast reminds me to take a moment to appreciate something. I've struggled with anxiety and depression for years and sometimes it gets better of me. But every week I get to hear about something new and hear someone who is so passionate about their work even if it is obscure. Also, everyone else I've read your reviews, thank you so much for them. Okay, dazirology theologists themselves will
get to the etymology of this ology. Be forewarned pleasantly it involves backsides. Also, the entire reason that this episode exists is because I was just bebopping around Twitter dot com and I happened upon this person's bio and saw an ology I had never seen before, reached out immediately and it was on. So they got their Bachelor of Science in ecology at Griffith University and has been a
park ranger in Tasmania. Is currently getting their d phil at Oxford University, which apparently is the same as a PhD, but Oxford likes to spice it up a bit, and they've been a long time lover of carnivores. They have a particular affection for the doziurids like qualls, which you're like, I don't know what that is. That's okay, we go into it, and dazzi Urid is also the endangered Tesmian devil. Also instantly this person has the best laugh in the universe.
So they hopped on the horn as I clumsily fumbled my mic getting set up, and we just dove into a shimmering sea of facts about their Tasmanian roots and marsupial nipples. Beers. You shouldn't drink cookies. You should drink the most Australian way to have an afternoon. What Tasmanian devils smell like from both ends? Looney tunes, flim flammery, The disease threatening Tasmanian devils, Why they're called devils, what you can do to help them, and how indigenous knowledge
is critical to Australian ecology. All this and more with Kwal Talker and Tasmanian devil angel dazzirologist m Dale.
Hi, Allie, Hi, how are you? Can you hear me? Okay?
Good?
I can't. It's so good to hear your voice. It's so good to hear your voice.
Is crazy, I'm like so be I'm thrilled. I cannot believe that there's an ologist who studied these animals.
What time is it where you're right now? You're on the East Coast. No, you're in Oxford. No, I'm in Australia. It's a am Yeah.
Did I not say that they have the best laugh? They have the best laugh.
I was like trying to think of that. Are you in Tasmania? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. I had kind of an evacuation moment during the pandemic, right, yeah.
Okay, so how long are you back? How long are you back?
Man? I don't know. I mean it depends. Oxford was kind of like go home and don't come back. So I don't know. I might not ever go back. I mean I might, I will go back, but I mean I'm not counting on it.
You know, so for the foreseeable future.
Your home, yeah, which is really nice. Actually, it's really good. Especially I think it's like Tasmania is a lot to change right now, especially in the current political climate, and I'm really excited to be a part of that.
When I clicked on your bio, yeah, I was like, excuse me, a what ologist? I just was like that, that's like the first thing of course that honed in on if someone has ologists in their bio. I'm like, I have something. You'll be followed and I will be treating. And I looked it up and I was like fuck, Tasmanian devils and quaals.
Yeah, and things called fasca gales and Antikitus is like, DA's a yurid, like the most gnihliest animals. Let me tell you they're so cool.
Just in researching like basic Google search of like what kind of animals is and it's just this like thing that looks like like a cute little guinea pig feasting on rama And I'm like, what is happening? Can you give me just a very rough description of what Tasmania is like for people who literally probably think that it's a fictional place.
Well, it's so I'm gonna maybe do some code switching here in terms of like referring to Tasmania. So the paalawakani, which is Tasmanian aboriginal speak if word for Tasmania is literal wheata. And you know, part of part of me being a non indigenous Tasmanian is that I feel a great responsibility to, you know, acknowledge the people who own this land that I stand on that stolen land. So I'm in Nippaluna, which is Hobart, and Tasmania is an
incredible place. It's like the beauty here is amazing. So if you think about, like we have these these plants called pandani plants. When I say pandana, you might think of like pandana's on a beach. But these things grow up in like moorlands, up on high mountains, and they're massive. They're like four meters high, and they've all got this big shaggy coat, like a big winter coat, and they're
the largest heath plant in the world. We've got these massive like gum trees that are like pyromaniacs that like drop their leaves and drop their bark and they're the tallest flowering plants in the world. And then we have like incredible alpine tarans that are like have been formed through rocks, cutting through glaciers and like magma and stuff. And like it's a very awe inspiring landscape. Like you come to Tasmania, you fly or you you know, to take a boat in and the minute you get here,
I think, you know, your world changes. I never found a place like Tasmania. I've traveled quite a lot. I think a lot of Tasmanian's kind of like especially Qui Tasmanians end up leaving. It can be such a scary landscape to grow up in, but like it draws you back.
Okay. If you're like, I don't even know where Tasmania is, that's okay. We're not going to tell anyone. So Tasmania is like heart shaped island. It's one of Australia's states. It's off of the southeast coast, kind of like where America's Florida would be. It's off the coast of Melbourne. It's about the size of Ireland or West Virginia. It's got a population of about a half million people. And to the east of Tasmania is the larger patch of
earth that we call New Zealand. Now. Because Tasmania is more souther than the rest of Australia, it is thus closer to the South Pole, so it's a little cooler than mainland Australia. It has all four seasons, which is more than I can say for Los Angeles. It's got ferny, mossy, cool rainforests and mountains and bays and beaches. It's gorgeous. Boy, did em mention that queer Tasmanians leave. Let's get into that.
Tazi is a really weird place. When I was growing up here, I just really didn't see there was no one openly queer. It was really like it was a every anti gay landscape, anti queer landscape. Last year for Pride Month, we had a lovely guy called Alex Bond come and talk to us who works here at the University of Tasmania part time. And I didn't realize he actually worked in Tazzi and we were in Oxford, and when he started talking about Tasmania, I just burst into tears.
I've never I've never seen a queer scientist. I've never heard of a queer scientist from here. It was like it was a very isolating place for a long time. I was like my you know, I you know, I was really super closet and I went through lots of conversion therapy at my school and like that's just tazzy. But it's super excited to be back here and like see things changing, Like it's a very backwards place. I mean, I love it. I'm not I don't want to bash Tazzi too much. Like I love this place.
So it's a beautiful place and it's and yeah it's people like you who who speak up and make it even better.
Oh well, I hope. So it's just I feel like I want to be I want to be that kind of role model for other queer people because it was just so isolating to grow up here being queer, and just like it wasn't an option to be out like if you were you know, I think I remember I told my mum when I was like seven or eight, and like, bless her bless her heart. She just didn't, you know, She was like, you just need to keep that quiet, just like it was just that's just how
things are, you know. Yeah, but not anymore. I won't let another generation of Tasmanians go through that, like, you know, like that's what happened again.
Don't Mimi just legit crying? But also Tasmania, let's continue to look at it's good.
I could drive for like half an hour and then be in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't see a soul for weeks. Like and twenty percent of the state is a massive national part which is an incredible World Heritage site which will be preserved hopefully forever. We have really incredible like endangered grasslands, like if you want anything,
you come here, you'll find it. We have like these massive things called cave spiders that live for eighty years and they have sex for twenty four hours at a time, and they're incredible. Like in, this place has so much to offer, and the history here is so rich in terms of indig and First Nation people. I feel quite privilege. I've worked in the Parks and Wildlife Service for a while and I've been able to kind of engage with
that a little bit as a non Indigenous person. It's just a great privilege being a Tasmanian.
I've never been.
You have to go. It's incredible.
I've never been to Australia even yeah, I've never been to New Zealand. I've never been down there, so I know I got it to go do stow away on a freighter ship. It's just if I know who's done.
That, it'll be easy enough.
I hear the coffee Dananda is amazing too. Also, my accent is impeccable.
No, it's not.
And y'all the critters. Yeah, and now Tasmanian Devils. Yeah, we have heard about them via Looney Tunes for years and years and years. And one question I got on Patreon, which we'll get to Patreon questions in a bit, but was like, are they real? Like a lot of people are not aware that they're actual animals. Yeah, for me, what one is?
Yeah, so tas many devils are real. They're real, and they're just very sweet little things. So in the liny, this is my favorite thing to like, my favorite question to answer about them, because you know, in the new Tunes, Taz is like this crazy kind of tornado like animal that kind of like rips up things in his path and he's kind of quite like, you know, quite aggressive. But when you catch a devil in a trap, they
are just the most smoothie little babies. They just sit on your lap and they just let you do whatever you want. They'll like you can put your finger in their mouths to take and you take a biopsy of their tumors, you can take blood from their ears, you can give them a little pat and they're just so calm, just I mean, and a part of that is shock, I guess. But when I first worked with them, I was like, oh, well, we're gonna have to wear like
massive gloves and stuff. And the person who was teaching me was like, no, no, no, they're really chill and just dumped one on my lap. I was like, oh my gosh.
How big are we talking cat dog bread basket.
They're kind of like the side of a malties like that, kind of like kind of like small dog kind of size. Like they're not big, they're just they're all buffy. They've got massive like buffy heads.
Boofy buffy adjective Australian informal volumino is all puffed out regarding the hair or sleeves. Also means muscular and strong but stupid, like.
Chunky chunky boys. So dazzy urid is like the family that they're in with quoals and anticinnises and fasca, gales, et cetera. And it means hairy tails that they have those really these really hairy tails. But devils specifically store fat in the base of their tails that they have these little like these a little bit quite big bums.
Extraordin are really sweet to like, you know, you feel how healthy a devil is, Like some animals, like a sheep, you might feel like, you know, back behind it's like in front of its hip bone, see how much fat it has. For devil, you squeeze a little bum and you see how healthy they are. I think it's quite.
Sweet, but my god, your fieldwork is like a dog.
My gosh, it is. That's crazy. But they get there like they get their bad rap or their like their name devil from when invaders first came to Lotua, Tasmania, and they have this. You have to cut to a noise of a Tasmanian devil because it is otherworldly. And you know, I have at our farmhouse, we have devil's
under our porch. And when when you know, when they're feeling particularly vocal and want to have a little bit of a sing, like it's like the devil has literally risen from hell and is about to eat your soul. They have a really horrible voice.
Are you ready to hear one having a bit of a sing? I am? It's like a car.
Yeah, actually it is. It kind of does sound a bit like that, or like a cat and pain. It's specifically karaoke, maybe just anybody karaoke. I don't mean to hate carriage. But they also have like if you look at a picture, then they've got little like pointy years and so they look a bit a bit, a bit gnarly, you know, but and their ears are quite thin. That skin's quite thin. And when they get excited, the blood or rushes to their ears. Makes it makes it they
have little glowing red horns basically, so, oh my god. Yeah, when invaders came, you know, for the first time, you know, in their eighteen hundred so they heard this noise and they on a light and they saw this you know, pointy thing, and they genuinely thought it was a devil. And then imagine their surprise when like a little tiny thing came, you know, wobbling out of the bush sat of Malteesse. It came of licked their legs or something.
Like did you grow up? I mean, you grew up maybe seeing them under the portraits. So when did you decide, Okay, I'm going to dedicate my life to science and studying these little critters.
I was really lucky that I had. I was raised by my granddad who or my grandad and my mom, and my granddad was an ecologist. He was a botanist, and he always really encouraged me to like follow what I wanted to do, and he was you know, he would take me out to Seward's treatment plants and things to look at, like you know, plants and stuff and iver. Yeah, I love plants and they're really cool, really and a
really important thing. And I like looking at them and I enjoy their presence around me, But that was never my thing. But I remember seeing like devils, and you know, devils are a pretty iconic animal. They have been since I've been alive, and it kind of the whole like I cannot tell you in that in the dazzer urids, like there's so much cool stuff going on, and like so little is known about them because quite elusive, and until the facial humor kind of came around with the devils,
there wasn't much research being like happening on them. It was like a very kind of all very neglected in terms of like you know, in comparison to other, you know, other animals, like say that you know, the counterpart in the UK might be a badger or something. You know, there's quite a lot of research focused on you know, those kind of animals, whereas our little carnivores get kind
of neglected down here. So but there and they're so special, and seeing a devil in the wild, like it never gets old, Like it's.
Just oh, I couldn't I couldn't take it. Yeah, I'd be so upset.
Like it's always like it's fund seeing ones that you've caught before every moment is joyous in a way. I mean, yeah, so I guess that is kind of what attracted me. Is it this like there's not much we've just be done on them. They're really interesting, like all all of the species, all of the all of the families.
There, so Tasmanian devils, marsupials.
Yeah, they mastupers have a pouch which is called a marsupium. That's okay, that's just a random wanky fact for you. You have a section called wanky Facts.
You need your own podcast called M's Wanky.
Oh my god, that would go down so well. Start.
Okay, So M's Wanky Fact Number one is marsupial pouches are called marsupiums, and Taskmedian devils have them. But let's talk teats.
This is one of my favorite facts about devils and quolls. I think also like the smaller dasi yurds too. But so they only have four teets. So when they're born, they got to the strue. For all marsupials, all things that have pouches, they're born through the vaginal canal and they've got to climb a little way up to the pouch. Devils have four teats. Quolls have sixteeths, but they give birth to forty babies, So fourteen sixty babies have to crawl from the vaginal canal out to the find the
way to the pouch and get onto a teat. And only the four in these that have all six in the case of the quoll, survived. Oh my god, I know. And then the mom eats the rest of them.
Oh my god, Oh my god, that is ruthless.
Isn't that crazy? Imagine eating your own baby, playing a lot of them all the time, lot.
Like gummy bear, yeah, well, and little ticksack size yeah, oh god, like popcorn shrimp. That's like, if we had a bunch of babies the size of popcorn shrimp.
It will be.
And then the ones that made your way to the breasts and the strongest one and the rest of you, well, you're too weak. And that's why maybe when they're adults they're quite chill, because they got all their kind of really aggressiveness out of the way when they were just immediately born, like elbowing their siblings out of them to get to the teat.
How are the ones that find the tea, the Chosen four? How are they not total assholes like you think you would have? You know, you think like only the assholes ride.
Look, I mean it would be it's definitely. It's probably a combination of like what time were you born? And also like are you directionally challenged? Because if they walk, you know, the opposite way, they're gonna end up, you know, on the floor. It's just luck. I think it's just complete luck. Like I don't really I'm sure people really understand who wins because they don't get to you can't get to the other ones in time because the mum's already you know, had a bit of a you know,
a lick and eating them all. So but yeah, I mean they probably are assholes. Like if you had, if you it's about a devil jelly bean on the floor and you try to raise it, maybe it would be the sweetest, kindest angel baby you've ever met.
Oh my god, can you imagine you're just born? You take a wrong turn, you wind up at your mom's buttthole and she.
Relatable. But yeah, I know it's so hard. It's such a hard life being like a devil or a quote like if you start off on the wrong foot, like your whole life is really hard.
Yeah, they all deserve book deals. Now they're carnivores, and so you think, like a mom, she's got a nursey thing, so she needs meat. Do they do? They go straight from the teat to eating like insects, worms, like what happened, So.
It's it's different. So for devils, they'll be stuck on there for quite a long time with the teat like swills in their mouth, and they get stuck there for a while. They grow foh, and they open their eyes and they kind of ride around a mum's back for a bit and they still be suckling though at that point. But they should be trying them out on carrying like dead meat like scavenge meat. They're pretty much like obligate
They mostly they obligate red meat eaters. They don't really kind of stoop down to the level of insects like a qual what coals mostly like, well like Eastern cooals eat prominently insects and stuff. But yeah, devils are not app hunters. They've got oh no, no, no, no, they can't. Basically a recent study was published about they put like
cameras on devils to see what they do. And one devil tried to eat a wallabe and the wallaby got away, and then it just stood there, growling angrily, huffing and like getting upset with itself. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine? It's like if you go to the fridge there's like for the third time, there's nothing, there's something that you want to eat your stentd and you get really grumpy. It's kind of what the devil was doing.
I okay. Side note if you're like me and you struggle to form mental pictures of southern hemispheric marsupials that frankly sound fictitious. A wallabee is about ten pounds and kangaroo looking. It's a little smaller than a Tasmanian devil, but they're macropods, which means that they have big feet, and apparently tazzies are like, fuck, I can't even eat this if it's still alive. Ps. What kind of leggies do Tasmanian devils have?
So they've got like their back legs, they're kind of like a hyena in the way they walk. They've got like really long back legs. They kind of hobble so they can run pretty fast up at twenty five k's an hour, but they kind of they kind of wobble more than run in a way.
Okay, So I look this up, and if a Tasmanian devil were chasing you to try to beat your ass, you'd need at least an electric scooter to get away. So GTK good to know.
And they're really just like scavengers, so they'll eat. They eat a lot of roadkill. When the Tazi target the Pila scene was alive, they would have eaten the remains of their kills, but in their absence they mostly allow on roadkill. So it's pretty it's a pretty chill life for a devil baby, because your mum will just rock up. She'll just smell like a dead wallaby on the road, and you know, she'll kind of just pull it off
the side and you'll all start eating together. It's quite a family affair in that way.
Now, if if there is a marsupial that's been roadkill, I understand that you should try to check it to see if there's any bibus.
And there, yeah, little babies, I should always that's a thing that where it's almost like a like a rite of Passage's an Australia. I think you you check the pouch. Often in the pouch the'll be a little pinky, which is like a really little baby jolly bean stuck to the teeth. It's hard to raise such small babies. It can be done with the right cares, but you know, in lots of cases they'll be like a Joey just sitting,
you know, by its marmore in the bush. Yeah. But the other thing is because devils they are endangered, but from facial cancer, but also from roadkill. Like around four hundred devils die every year on the road because they scavenge off roadkill. And so it's really important that if anyone, if anyone, if anyone has many listening to this, drag the road kill off the road so devils don't get hit by cars accidentally.
Okay, Tasmania, maybe keep some taco tanks in your trunk and just do a little good Samaritan carcass dragging from now and again. But stay safe, please. Now am has mentioned facial tumors a few times, and don't worry. We're going to get into what the hell is happening with these tassy tumors in a bit and Tasmanian devils are only in Tasmania, correct.
Yeah, so they used to be on the mainland of Australia, but they haven't been there for about four thousand and three thousand years. It's unknown why they're not there, but that kind of that time frame Cohen's husband, dingoes kind of made their way to Australia and dingoes are quite avid hunters. There was no land bridge it Tasmina at that time, so they would have been Yeah, they would have just kind of slowly gone extinct on the mainland. Yeah.
And now what about qualls. Yeah, which, by the way, I thought at first was a quaker, which is a different thing by the bay. So quakers are those blisteringly cute little critters who are related to wallabies, but they look like a mix between a hamster and Tom Hanks and as it turns out, are not flesh shredders. Yeah, and how it was like quaker is a credible that's horrifying, Yeah, like an evil clown kind of away like sweet and
cute and then just bloother. Oh god, but a quarker in a quall a different different So what is a quall?
So a quoll is so there's a couple different types and tazzi. We have spotted tail quolls and eastern coals, and they are like they're just like devils, they're like, but they're they're actually psychotic. Like when you catch a quoll in a trap, you are lucky to walk away with your face still intact from that encounter. They're really quite they're quite like manic animals, and they're they're quite different to devils. They will actively hunt. Basically, they're like
big cats. We call them native cats actually occasionally, and they're like big cats, big long tails and spots all over them. So the spotted tail quoal has like spots on their tails and the eastern coll has no spots on their tails. They kind of have like little mousey faces and like the tiniest little piece knows that you just want to boop, but you know if you boop, you won't ever you won't ever be able to speak again, So you just have to resist so much to not boop a little snoop.
Oh my god. So qualls have more of a temperament that we have thought was belonging to Tasmanian double.
Yeah, oh yeah, that's completely flipped. Like yeah, devils of the chill chill due didn'ts like and the kind of like really like aggressive cousins that just really don't want to be around you. Oh can you not please? It's really strange, but like, and these things are like spotted tail quols are quite big there, but they can they weigh about three to four kilos and they're not that big, like they're really quite light, but they can be kind of quite long, but they can hunt things that are like,
you know, fourteen to eighteen kilos like I have. I remember once I was sitting by a river and I was just like watching a plant of course or something, and this spotted tail quoal just like jumped next to me and it had a possum in its mouth, the whole possum. And like, these things are that big, but they can bring down like massive prey and it's just
incredible what they can do. Like they are I know, devil's are really kind of thought as the apex predator, but I would I would put my money on the fact that, you know, spotted tail qualls had with most of the legwork down here in terms of like actually actively hunting and killing things that.
Story the only way that story could get more os was like if you were drinking a faster.
Oh my gosh, it's such a blasphemous thing to say. Don't talk me about Foster's.
I don't even know. I don't even know. Sitting in a river watching a platypus and then a quaal harps by with a past Oh.
Yeah, that's so quas really, doesn't it. Yeah? Yeah yeah?
And then a kangaroo time it punched me, and a crocodile like that. Conga, that's a good accent.
That's quite impressive.
I can't imagine anything. That's amazing. Oh my god. I need to figure out what kind of beers people drink down there, though, I have to. I'll research that.
It's like it's like four x a lower end beer, I guess in terms of like price. But there's like, I don't know, we have a lot of craft beer down here. It's quite impressive. Really. When I was, you know, honestly, when I was, like, you know, a teenager, there was like one bottle of that you could get like one type of beer from. And now there's like craft beers everywhere. It's very changed landscape. Let me tell you.
You have like artisanal VETERI.
Yeah, man, I got back this time and there was like, manuca honey, Tim Tams. I don't know, man, I'm not.
I don't know.
I don't want to hate on like growth, but I feel like that's a bit weird anyway.
Ps if you ever want to seem like a tassy local order of Bogues if you're in the North, and a Cascade beer in the South, and Bonus Cascades have a Tasmanian tiger on the label, which is now extinct because of colonization, which is like a stage four bummer.
Also side note, a Timtam slam is when you bite off diagonal corners of this chocolate cream filled wafer cookie and then you suck tea through it and then you jam the whole shebang in your shebang hall, which sounds perfect if you need to warm up with a thermos a tea while you work in the chill of a brisk July Southern hemisphere. Y'all, it's topsy turvy. And now what about field season? Like when is field season for you? When it's like mating season? And also let's talk about
their little face tumors. Yeah, yeah, I didn't even know that was the thing.
Yeah, yeah, So I'm not doing fieldbug right now. My kind of work is desk base. I'm doing some like modeling of the facial tumor and stuff. But if you're talking about a life cycle of a devil, they're breeding, well, probably February to May more like it, and their vegetation is about I think it's like twenty one or it could be fifty one days. It's one of those. It's one of those numbers that end in one something twenty diffree teenty or fifty days. I don't know. It's very different.
Numbers, but okay, I looked it up, and for twenty one days, they cook indoors before crawling out of her vagine and then dodging her late night munchies and beating dozens of siblings to make it to a teat And.
Then they stay around with mum until about like summertime here, so that's like November December. So they stick around with mom for quite a long time really, while they're growing in their pouch obviously, and then they're kind of learning how to be a devil, and so by December they're all really trying to find their own homes so devils
aren't territorial. They are solitary though, so they're not territorial in the way that you might think of like a lion being territorial, or like, I don't know, even a coal being territorial. They do use latrines. They'll like, they'll all poop in the same place, and they'll communicate by
anal gland secretions. So they have little like a little dog, they have little anal glands on the side of their bum holes, and when they poop, they kind of secrete a substance that kind of communicates different olfactory cues to their mates around them. But they don't have like territorial territory boundaries, but they do like being kind of in their own space. So in December, little dudes will kind of start walking around trying to find their own homes,
and that's kind of it's kind of not opportune. It's good for them because there's a lot of food around and easy food, and a lot of things are dying as well, like they're getting older and dying, so it's kind of easy prey. But there's a lot of people on the roads because someway everyone's going out to their shacks or to the beach or up to the bush.
So we get a lot of devils dying on the roads, young devils, which is a shame because they haven't even got the chance to start breeding, and they haven't even got the chance to survive the facial tumor yet. So we use a lot of devils young devils every summer because they they move around dusk and dawn, and it's hard to see them because they're jet black basically, you know, lesser little white shop on their balm and a little white sharp on their chest, so it's really hard to
see them. And if you're kind of doing one hundred ks an hour down the highway and little devil's feacing on a dead waller bey in the middle of the road, you're not going to you're not going to see end time. So there's like a big push for people to kind of really slow down dusk and dawn because it's unnecessary death. We can't really afford it at this point, you know, we lose semmi devil's too. Here's a segway to the facial tumor, which is so it's called tasmai devil facial
tumor disease. Or DFTD, and it came. It was first sighted up in a place called Narantapu in nineteen ninety six. And it's one of only two mammalian transitionionball cancers. The other one is like a really really old dog penis cancer.
Did you expect to hear the stack of words really all dog penis cancer served up into your ear like a club sandwich today? No? No, you didn't. And if you're a dog with a dick and you get canine venereal transmissible tumor, how do you deal with it?
Well?
According to the paper Diseases and Surgery of the Canine Penis, a dog dick doctor would recommend partial or complete penale amputation, depending on the tumor type and location. So are you glad you're not a dog? So is everyone except maybe Tasmanian devils.
What we think happened, it's hard to tell. What we think happened is a female devil up in the northeast of the state got cancer and through their behavior and also their logenet diversity spread throughout the state. Soti I say behavior they are quite gentle with people, and that could be, you know, an element of shock and stuff but amongst themselves they are quite grumpy. They don't have really good eyesight. They mostly use their smell and their hearing,
and they're really long whiskers to navigate the landscape. And also that there's not much carrying. There's not much food to eat really, I mean, it's mostly roadkill. Things will die, you know, naturally, there'll be a dead sheep in a field or something, but generally there's not a lot of food around. So they all have to kind of share, and they don't really. They're solitary. They don't like sharing. They're being forced now more than ever, especially as humans
encroach on their habitat more and more. They're being pushed together and having to eat together. And so when they're eating, they're all kind of they're all kind of going a bit crazy. They're getting a bit excited. It's like if you walk into your favorite restaurant and you saw a big player pasta and you were like, I haven't eaten in days, and you just start crying, and you know, you're all racing towards all your friends haven't eaten for days too, and it's all your favorite meal, and you
all start writing towards it. You get a bit grumpy. You know, it's natural, Like it's normal. I'm fight over pasta. They're far over, you know.
Yeah, dead possup, absolutely so, especially when you're like, I made it to a tea. I'm going to make it that you did.
Yeah, i'd be. My brother's is all eaten by my mom. I need to eat this.
Wait what were we talking about? Oh yeah, okay, fleshy cancer knobs. They kind of look like your skin to plum and it bore its way through their cheeks, eventually killing them and breaking my heart a thousand times over AKA Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease, which, let's be honest, should be called TDFTD, but it's none of my business. Anyway. They get bity with each other because of these long brunch lines and also because they get horny and.
If they get too closer to they naturally they just kind of bite each other on the face. But what that means is probably what this female did is she had this cancer, she bit another devil on the face, and then the cancer transmitted through that. And probably because they're quite closely genetically to each other, they went through quite a few bottlenecks. Even prior to invasion. Climate change is you know, over the millennia has made them shrink
and grow and shrink and grows. And then obviously post invasion, there was a lot of the bounties out on their heads like Tasmanian tigers because of the myth that they were eating their sheep when they've got a hunter sheep. And they've grown steadily since then until about the nineties, and they've declined quite rapidly with this tumor. But the interesting thing about it is it's a clonal cell. So, and I want to say here, I'm not a cancer researcher.
I'm just an ecologist. There's a lot of research out there that I'm not privy too, but from what I know, it's it's clonal. So when you buiop see the cancer cells, it's got the female devil, the first female devil cells in it, not the devil host cells. So okay, yeah, and then wow, so there's and they're so rare, these transmissible cancer. I say, there's only this one dog penis
one and the devil. But then in twenty fourteen, a second strain of the facial tumor showed up down in the south of the state, which has male genetics, so it's a whole it's almost like they've been struck by lightning twice. So they had this first one nineteen ninety six and then a second one emerged, and they're two different strains. You can tell with the DNA of each
of the strains. And basically we've lost, like you know, there's been declins of up to ninety five percent of devils in some area areas, there's there's probably less than like probably ten twenty thousand devils. Prior to DFTD kind of happening, we would have had like, I don't know,
two hundred and fifty thousand devils. It's a lot, a lot of deaths really, and it's almost one hundred percent mortality rate because what happened is they get they get it on their mouths and they can't get it elsewhere. They don't buy anywhere else really, but if they did buy somewhere else, it would infect there. But it's very facial facial orientated, but basically means they just starve to death over the period a period of a year or so, like slowly. So it's really sad and horrible. We've had
no examples of vertical transmission. We haven't ever seen a mom pass on it to her babies, but we have seen examples of say where a devil might have facial like have been a different true or from different individuals, so say they might have been bitten three or four times. Because the cancer is quite a stable cancer, but it
has mutated, and it will mutate within an individual. So while it will ssoll have the same genetic kind of composition of that first level that had it in nineteen ninety six or the one in the South in twenty fourteen, it does mutate, so you can tell if an individual has just one tumor that's spread or multiple different tumors.
That's kind of the basis of it. But there is there is some hope, Like I mean, it's incredible, like the amount of attention that the devil's got with this, like through cancer researchers, through cologists and biologists, it's been an incredible effort to help them. Where still we don't have any kind of cure, But what we have found is there are individuals that have recovered from it nice oh so they without any human intervention, they've reduced the
cancer in some way. Themselves, probably due to some kind of immune response. So there have been like a few weeks samples of devils kind of shrinking their own cancers in a way, which is badass as hell.
Yeah for real, Yeah, they think that a vaccine is possible.
I think they're working on a vaccine because the Men's Institute here at the University of Tasmania is like working great guns to find a cure for it.
So doctor Bruce Lyons of the University of Tasmania has said of the vaccine work that they're doing there that their research has found that, quote, the devil's immune system can in certain circumstances eradicate the tumors. But the next step is to connect the dots to hopefully produce a single shot vaccine, and he says we've still got a bit of a way to get there. But compared to the history of tumor immunology and human work, the achievements
with devils in the last ten years are outstanding. So that's promising. I mean, if they would just stop nipping at each other while eating or having sexy times, which is also how those face bites happen, then they would be fine. But it's not like you can just hand out information leaflets near Wallaby carcasses.
You can't stop a devil from being a devil.
So yeah, you can't quarantine, like, hey, well, no one bite each other.
Well, the thing we have tried that they have been quarantining devils on an island offshore off Tazzy. They've put a lot of devils on an island called Mariah Island. Why are you so obsessed with me? I think it's Palera kind of name is will Lou Wikiwaina they have about I guess, oh gosh, I don't want to say a number. I'm going to say a number and then bloody wrong. But it'll be like like three hundred devils
there now, and they're very genetically diverse devils. There's no roads there, like the only people that have cars there are the rangers. There's no cancer, so it's it's like an insurance population. But it's also like it kind of can feed into the main population too, because if you can create more genetic diversity offshore and then bring that to the main land of Tazzy, you can maybe kind of increase diversity enough that the cancer becomes us of a problem. It's kind of the aim there.
Yeah, oh my gosh and full of tech.
So, oh my gosh. They're so cute. They have like when you first get off the boat there, there's like a little like Rotto creation of devils whether all the mums kick their babies out to all these little baby devil's running around. It's so cute. They're so sweet.
Can I ask your Patreon qu Yeah, I got we got one thousand questions about the Looney Tunes character and we also just got a thousand questions.
Ah.
But before we get into your howling, screaming, blood filled and adorable questions, just a quick word about sponsors to make it possible for us to donate to a cause of each oligist choosing. And this week M had two great ones, so we're splitting them, with some going to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal STDA, which delivers funds to research and monitoring programs in response to devil facial tumor disease, with its key aim to keep Tasmanian devils
sustainable in the wild. And M would also really like to shout out and support Fire Sticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation, which aims to create a resilient social and ecological landscape
through cultural fire and land management practices and m said. Obviously, Australia has been hugely impacted by fire in the past few years, and Firestick supports traditional custodians in maintaining and building fire knowledge and practice, and it helps affected communities to heal in the aftermath of recent and future bush fires.
So to learn more about traditional fire custodianship, you can check out the film Returning Petroula on Vimeo, which I'll link in the show page on my website along with those two charities. So donations are made possible by the following sponsors, which you may hear about. Now, Okay, your questions, patrons, and so I'm just going to kind of like lightning around you. Yeah, okay, Ashley Curtin question, that's on all of our minds. What's the goss on their love lives?
Do they mate for life? Do they have a family lifestyle? Do mamas have flings and then raise the babies alone? Like, let's hear the juicy deeds.
Okay, So Devil's like a lot of out of They're really like they're quite promiscuous. They definitely don't make for life. They definitely have multiple different partners, and in fact, a baby set can be from multiple different fathers. So it just depends on you know, wet which which sperm is the fastest kind of and like which is the most verile I guess. But yeah, they'll just mate with anybody.
The breeding season is quite a noisy time. They're very like, you know, if you want to sing it, I guess this is so funny, like if you just hear their noise they make and imagine that that's either like them like being happy to see food or being happy to see someone they want to have sex with. It's like
it's like kind of the same kind of noise. And they have they have a large vocal range, and they definitely do like they have old factory like scent cube, but they also do make a lot of noise and being like I am ready to have a baby, So a lot of noise, a lot of like a lot of courtship, a lot of singing. But yeah, no, it's all very like males will just make with anybody, female will make with anybody. It's all. It's all kind of a it's a big free love kind of fest out there.
Yeah, it's very much like spring break. Yeah, oh yeah, a lot of bony.
Oh yeah, no noise.
Julie Bear on that note says sorry, but the dong question is compulsory. Do they have multi headed dicks like other marsupials? By the way, Ali did not know that was a thing.
So yeah, they they, I don't know, definitely must pupples who have like a kidness. I'm pretty shure have three prong dicks, which is crazy, right, what's that for?
Yeah? Yeah, I did not to bonuses. Just in case you lose, I got a couple of backup exactly.
I'm just googling to my devil penis. I don't I don't know. Uh, it's a picture here on I'm going to get some kind of oh it's a four headed penis.
Well I well, oh my goodness, sounds floral.
It looks kind of just like a generic penis. But it doesn't seem that that crazy.
All right?
Oh Google, Okay, you should google it because it's yeah, I don't know, just yeah, oh.
Yeah, I'm going to google. Don't worry, there's going to be in a sight on it. Okay. So yes, dude, echidnas have quandro dongs partly because the females have a vagina duo and from what I was able to google on the phallus of Tassy, it looked kind of like a sleepy earthworm. So let's meander casually over to butt smells. Julie Beer also wants to know what would be more pungent the spray of a tassy or pebula pew are skunk.
Hah, Well, they're not sinky. So I associate devils with what we do. We trap them in these big PBC pipe things that are kind of circular because it kind of makes them a bit more comfy, and then we put them in a Hessian bag. So I kind of associate the Tasmanian devil with the smell of.
A Hessian bag that's a burlap sack America.
And oh and so it smells quite nice to me when I think of what a devil smells like. And then also when I go looking for their poop, like it's like really quite it's kind of pleasant. Like I've worked with a lot smellier animals like quoals are pretty smell The thing is, their faces do smell like rotting meat, don't. They don't spray you like a skunk. They won't like skunk on you or whatever, but they do definitely smell like rotting flesh. So it depends what you're you're into.
I guess associations run strong, like you know what I mean, if it reminds you of being out in like hiking boots in the world doing the work you like, rotting flesh is like, mmm, it's not.
It's kind of like it's kind of like relaxing in a way.
Well, on that note, Ella Sugarman wants to know what shape are their poos. I'm hoping for cubes, but that is a wombat, right.
Yeah, wom bats have cube poops and I think it's recently someone just found it because of how their colon is shaped, which is interesting.
Hey, question are you eating? If so, just skip ahead about like a minute and.
A half, just a warm So. Devil pools are pretty pretty just generic carnival pooh. They have like they're quite long, like almost like a They've got like tapered ends and they're often joined in the middle by hair. They eat. They eat everything, Like when I say a Tasmanian devil like is a bit of a grut, a grut they are. They eat bones, they eat teeth, they eat eyes, they
eat hair, like everything. I remember once we put out a kangaroo carcass just because there was a kangaroo around the farm and it had passed away, so we put it out. I want to see what would happen. And the next morning it was there was the bones, and then next day there was nothing like they So in that way, the Lenitunes character is correct because they are like a tornado eating food. But you know, so no, they're poo. Just it's not that exciting compared to a wombat.
Pooh they have. Yeah, it's just like a lot of hair. It's like it's great. It's like like sausages, like sausages and you can see bits of you know, often you get like if they've eaten like a little wallabee or a little like Paddymelon, they'll have a whole jaw inside there inside their poop because their jaws are so small, and it's like getting a testimating devil poo and it's fine and like going through it is like my favorite thing.
Like when I go out on a walk and I smell devil poo, I like I'm down there like Gollum fleshious, like fingering it, breaking it off with my hands, and only saw the bushworks are walking past me like I'm some kind of real creep. But it's like they don't know, they don't know what it's crazy. I'm holding liquid gold. Basically, it's like everything's I could ever want is inside this boop.
I don't know that you're a desert Oh you thought scientists were normal, boring people. No, no, not at all. That is one giant falsehood. Oh, flim flam. What's the biggest myth about Tasmanian devils?
Like?
How did I not ask that already?
I think the biggest myth has already gone over. The biggest myth is obviously that they're grumpy, and they're really just not that grumpy. I think that that's kind of the biggest thing about devils. I think there's a lot of talk about them being like will like apex predators. I think that's a bit of slim flam too. I think there's a lot of I think we don't give quoals enough attention, and they are really the ones doing the heavy lifting and e ecosystems. They're the ones kind
of like equalizing everything. I mean, devils are important. I fucking love devils, but like I think we don't give quoals enough like kudos, because like, man, they are doing you know, God's work. I'm not religious, but if I was, I would be core religious.
You know, one nation under calls.
The biggest saying that I hate you already got I think I can't think of anything else.
Maybe that's a good one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh and Cameron Simpson has a question, what is up with their hair coloring being white below their necks? Is it random? Is it unique to Tasmanian devils as a server a purpose as opposed to calls? They have those spots, right.
Yeah, so quolls kind of when you see a quall in the wild, which is hard to do because they blend in so well. It's like they're kind of rusty color, all the black or the fawn and the spots they break them up in the landscape. They look like leaves basically. Whereas devils. Yeah, it's really really, really really rare to see a carnivore who's black and white. It's such a weird, stark coloring choice. And we do get devils that are just one hundred percent black, and we do get devils
that like have like almost quo like spots. It's very rare, but we do sometimes get devils with a lot of white on them. There's been a lot of like talk about what it could be. It could be for like defense, like you know, a big white you know, a big white kind of band is kind of quite like startling to another devil. And then they have if they have a big white band, that is, they'll have a matching one on their bum. So it's almost like you can't
tell which enders which. Maybe it's a confusing thing. Maybe it's like is this my fat bum or just my chunky chunky head? Who knows.
So?
And I guess because they are nocturnal or crepuscular, they kind of blur the line between being active a dawn and dust or overnight. You know, being black probably helps them, but also they don't have to blend in that well,
they don't. Nothing really hunts them. I mean, that's probably why the dingo did kind of decimate them so badly, because they are quite apparent, and that's it's one of like feral dogs, like loose dog packs here are a really big issue because they are quite starkly obvious to you know, a predator.
Oh and one more question from a patron and Jolie Brown wants, now, how adaptable are Tasmanian devils and calls to climactic change and other changes to their environment like heavy rainy season and drought stuff like that.
That is an incredible question because not very well. So they're quite hardy things in like other situations like as I said, fire not a problem, like you know, brush it off, shake it off, tay the swift. It's like they're kind of fine about like like those kind of more natural events climatic changes, know, they cannot deal with it. So devils, you know, over time, you know, through the fossil history, we've seen that there's been like massive drops
and massive inclines in terms of climate change. Same with quoals, Like Eastern quoals are probably my favorite animal. And I am like obsessive, compulsive, constantly looking at research being done about them. I'm some kind of like I'm like a
qual stand that's really quiet. It's kind of creepy. I mean, I don't anyway, they really are not doing well and they are really tightly linked in terms of their population numbers and density to rainfall and climatic change, and they really do fluctuate quite a lot, and so they're not doing so well. If we're talking about eastern coals, their numbers are low, as are though as they've been in
two hundred and thirty years. And you know, spottail quols aren't doing any better, and devils are low, but also for a different reason, but for you know, more the facial tumor kind of side of things. They're not doing well in terms of climate change. None of Tazzy is Tassy's. Really it's a very special landscape, but it's changing a lot. It needs wet winters and it needs you know, drier,
hot summers, and we're just not getting that. Everything's kind of flipped around often a word that people don't like to use in science, but they should be using more. The country is sick, like Tasmania especially is sick. The land is sick, and it's really heartbreaking to see it
kind of degrade and degrade more and more over time. Yeah, I think if we don't do something quick about climate change, we're going to lose these these these animals like so devils and eastern quolls are only found in Tazzi Tasmania became a refuge and now their last refuge isn't protecting them anymore. So we really failed these animals and we know so little about them, like it be deficented to lose them just because of you know how iconical they are.
But we just know so little about them. How can we lose them? Yeah, and what a loss of the world. Huge kind of group of animals that you know, just deserve so much more attention and funding thrown their way, which.
Is why we donated to UTAZ and their efforts. So please save these little tasties. Okay, maybe one more question from patrons. Casey Handmer himself in Australia says that he is not qualified.
Those are quite quality questions.
Yeah, one more question, Okay, one more question. Kathleen Jones says that they googled calls and immediately yelled fuck off at like computer at the top of my lungs. I want to kiss them but also nibble gently on their ears, but also become a marsupial and force them to live in my pouch. So can I feed them the best snacks? Is that common? If you work on a call? Do they like you? No, they don't you don't want to feed them because they'll bite your face off. Kathleen Jones.
But so here's a really interesting thing. So cats, domestic cats are really bad ecologically, like they kill a lot of burrs, they kill a lot of native rodents and stuff. So Mena Jones, who is my goddamn idol. If anyone wants to look at Tazzie Devil research, you just go to Google Schollar, type her name in and you'll be in Devil and Core research for hours. She's incredible and also my supervisor, and so anyway, she's great. One of
the reason I want to work with her. She is really she's really passionate about out making cats illegal in Tazzi and swapping that over with dazzy urups and so that you know, we call quolls our native cats, the natural kind of thing would to be to bring quolls into that equation and take cats out. But let me tell you, Okay, so I would say I am for that because I don't like cats in our landscape. They
are really like quite disastrous. But you know, I've raised qualls before and they are great, Like when you have them as for women, they're babies, and you know, if you're with them every day. They do love on you, and you can feed them. They love crickets. Their favorite food is crickets or like a little bit of peanut butter. They used to eat me and my dog's food and stuff. But the thing is, if you go away for even like a day and you come back, they're like, who
the hell are you? And they try and kill you, and then it's another like three weeks of them being like you have to be there all the time. They've got good hearts, but they have really bad memory. You just couldn't leave them alone.
So qualls pretty much like I care with polkadots, but also we'll treat you like a stranger and chew your face off. So maybe we don't swap kitties for qualls.
I would almost be like more inclined to be like devil's are the way to go, if you if you know, if if we wanted to go on that path of like getting rid of cats and putting in a native replacer. Quills are incredible animals. I'm not saying go out there and get one and put it in your home. You'll want you'll probably lose a hand. But if we're talking about what's best for Tasi and what's best for Australia and just not have any more cats and to have
more native animals around. And devils are a lot more you know, generally they're quite a lot more happy to be around humans than quolls are. They're not happy to be around humans, but they do it more than then quolls do.
Oh my gosh, is it legal to keep a Tasmanian devil?
No, So, like cares, you can get like a wildlife care a permit and then if like a devil, an imp comes in. That's what the baby devils are called imps. If an in comes in, you can raise it. But it's quite a specialized thing. And like they're quite hard to raise, and the quotes that I've raised it, it's hard work. Man. You've got to have a lot of space and you've got to have a lot of time
and do nothing else. Before I moved to Oxford, we used to raise kangaroos and stuff, and our last kangaroo, Kara, which is great. I would carry around in a pouch around the streets and stuff because she didn't like being alone. But you know, when she want a milk, she'd just like rock her pouch on the door and just make a lot of noise and be real grumpy, or like, if I want to talk about things that make devil noises, look up what a kangaroo sounds like? Like an easing gray kangaroo.
Poh boy, here we go. This is from a YouTube video called Kangaroo Sounds and Pictures for Teaching. And I just want you to know. I looked and the top upvoted comment reads, sounds like me getting up from bed.
Because they sound like the devil, so like it sounds nice, like having it sounds like dreamy, like oh wow, you raise the kangaroo, you raise quolls. It's hard. It's hard, you don't sleep day is weeks like it's and it's rewarding because they get to go back out where they belong. But like you know, that's also quite hard to say goodbye. Is like you spend so much time in but it's good because you're doing good for the environment. It's a lot of blood, sweat and tears. And you know they
don't really like you. They're not really gonna come cuddle you. They're gonna like look at you, like when are you gonna feed me? Crickets bru like Jesus.
And wherever you are out there, before you start painting a Tasmanian fern forest in your devil nursery, we're dreaming up in Instagram handle for your soon to be famous wild pet influencer. Maybe just like don't I mean, I get it. I would love a housewambad, but I gotta shatter your dreams here.
I wouldn't be for like exporting devils across the world as pets, but I think locally, if we could, you know, boost numbers in that way, it would be it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Yeah, that is I mean, I'm gonna stick with a dog. It's just literally so easy.
Like that's fine, Yeah, I feel yeah yeah.
As I as I record this, my dog is asleep on her back, spread eagle on her back. She's about the size of a of a quat. There are maltese.
Actually, she's like, oh, my dog's are maltese. He's sitting on my lap. He's a he's a very smoothie little boy. He's looking at me like, what are you doing? Why are you making so much noise? It's nine o'clock. He's a very grumpy boy.
Oh yeah, I think I'll stick to dogs, and Okay, the worst thing about what you do then it sucks the most about being a wait as a urologist, thank you.
Now you go. You got to say it. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. I think the worst thing is that I haven't been able to actually do field because I've been working in Oxford. I've been like working with a really cool team, like working with a really cool tech to try and bring that over here, but also like learn more statsy stuff to bring that back to Tazzy as well with some
really really cool team in Oxford. So the worst part has been for the last couple years I haven't been able to do any field work or like see a devil because I've been in Oxford and that my work is now quite death space, which is not what I got into ecology for, but that would change. But also I think the worst part is that, like the worst part genuinely that that's like the worst part for meself. Put it, I haven't been able to get out there and see them. But the worst part is seeing them
with the cancers. So if the cancers so far along that they're starving to death, we put them down, and that is just the saddest thing. And like even like so for example, if a mum's teets are enlarged, we will send her back even if her tumor's so bad, because we can't let her pups die. Yeah, so it's an equal tie between putting them down or letting them back out if you know what their fate's going to be. That is truly, truly heartbreaking, and it never gets easier.
Like it's just, oh my gosh, I'm thinking about it noways you want to cry because it's just like these pure gentle babies that just you know, through no fault of their own, have this horrible in visible cancer. Also, it's quite horrible. It smells bad, you know. You can you can tell when you have a devil with a fatal tumor when you get if you walk up to a trap, because it just smells like really pussy and ganky. I don't know that words, but yeah, anyway, that's the worst.
That's my new word, yanky wanky fact for.
Oh my gosh, amazing, Oh my god. But yeah, that's the hardest part.
Oh and then what about the best, What about just the thing that you love the most about your job?
I think seeing them like after you have processed them, so after you have them on your lap and you're doing what you need to do with the qual the devil seeing them run back to the bush. I remember the first time I ever saw someone like release the devil. She said, she's an incredible researcher. She said, go forth and prosper, And this little devil just like looked at her and then jumped into the bush. And I was like, what this devil does exactly what we're talking about. He's
gonna go and have a friend and mate. Now, I guarantee you this devil is like on a mission.
Now.
It's very inspiring. They just leap and they they just and they just are gone in a second. And that's kind of the most incredible part is like being able to be with them for this like short amount of time. It's such a privilege and an honor to be able to like be in their presence. It's almost like it's like it's like it's so awe inspiring sitting with these animals. And then every individual one is so important, like every single piece of data is so important for the future
of these devils and quolls. So you know, that's kind of the best part. And then also just like like just a lot of my job is out like sitting, you know, I go do work that in the afternover, sit on you know, in the bush and drink a beer and just listen to devils screaming around me. Like you can't not be so happy in those moments, Like it's really hard to be sad when you have that's your life.
Yeah, and that's like the ultimate expression of like I hate to see you leave, but I love to see you go because they do have those bubble butts and it's just what a joy to watch and walk away.
Yeah, it's like, WHOA, take your cute little butt out of here. Yeah yeah, Oh my gosh. Incredible. Anyway, thank you so much. It has been so nice, a great start to my Wednesday morning. I feel so.
Happy, my God and my Tuesday afternoon. So ask smart, hilarious people, really ridiculous questions about animals you may or may not have thought really exist, because the facts are astounding and their laughs are contagious. So you can follow
m Dale on Twitter at carnivores at All. They also tweet about other great tazzy scientists and are just an online joy in general, and there are links to the charities supported in the show notes and more links will be up at alleywar dot com, slash Ologies, slash Dazzy Urology, and we are at Ologies on Twitter and Instagram. Please be friends with us there. I myself am at ali Ward with one L on both say hi. Ologies. Visors and hats and stickers and t shirts even bathing suits
are available at ologiesmerch dot com. Thank you Bonnie Dutch and Shannon Feltis. They are two sisters who host the comedy podcast You Are That and they're hilarious and they help me manage merch. And thank you Aaron Talbert, who admins the very wonderful Ologies podcast Facebook group. Thank you Emily White, who is a professional transcriber. You can email her at hire Emilywhite at gmail dot com in case you have transcription needs, and she heads up the Ologies
transcription team. I see you all, I love you all. Transcripts as well as bleeped episodes for smallogites are up at aliwar dot com, slash Ologies Dash Extras. Thank you Caleb Patton for bleeping. Thank you Noel Dilworth for managing interview schedules. Assistant editor Jared Sleeper of Mindjamedia, who also hosts the mental health podcast I'm a Good Bad Brain and co parents our own grump be Boofy Bottom, Devil Grammy,
and of course to the Spots on Our Walls. Stephen Ray Morris, who stitches all the pieces together each week and also hosts his own podcast, The per Cast and the dino podcast Seed Jurassic Right, and there has never been a better time to check out his podcast, se Jurassic Right, because he's launching a back to school series. It starts on September seventh, and it features interviews with all kinds of paleo scientists about fossils and dinosaurs and
awesome topics. So if you like ologies, find see Jurassic Right and subscribe asap to hear the trailer for Stephen Ray morris is back to school series starting September seventh. So that's Sjr. With SRM.
Oh yeah.
Also Nick Thorburn wrote in perform theme music and if you listen to the end of the show each week, you are rewarded with some sort of tidbit, some kind of secret. This week here's a live hack, you know how. Sometimes you'll buy cucumbers, but you never end up eating them because you're like, I gotta cut them up and stuff. Okay, here's what I do. I just buy cucumbers and then I put the whole thing in the freezer, and then you can lop it in half. Put that thing in
a smoothie. Cucumbers and smoothies, they're great. Put them in there with some frozen berries, maybe a packet of like emergency done. I also like to throw in some green tea for flavor. There you go. Now you have a smoothie. Also, if you freeze a cucumber, you can slice it up and put it in your water like ice cubes. And then look who's drink and spaw water out of an old Del Taco cup?
You or me?
Maybe I'm talking about anyway. I hope you enjoy that. Put a bow in your hair, Google a quacka scream sing under your porch. It's a big, beautiful world out there, and be nice to each other. Okay until next week. Burbuie pack adermatology, bombology, r doo zoology, lithology, technology, meteorology, attology, ethnology, zereology, elinology.
Watch that the team as the insect Vicki's Keep Nighting the Loop with some TikTok's