Better Than Human

This week in Better Than Human the Podcast we tackle the controversial topic of asshole animals. Guess what people? There are some animals that are straight up jerks! So much so that we had to add the following Trigger warning: This episode talks about forced copulation of animals by other animals, it isn’t recommended for all listeners.

In The Good The Bad The News
In the Bad, there are actual idiots out there paying for fake covid vaccine cards when they can just go and get the vaccine for free. What is wrong with people? And men’s right groups are mad because South Korean Olympic Archer An San has short hair. Really ... that’s how fragile their egos are that short hair offends them. 

In the Good, a plant that’s been right in front of us for years is found to be carnivorous and Olympic medalists share the gold. 

So what animals do Amber and Jennifer think are assholes? Jennifer 100 percent believes that Otters are not cute and adorable and are straight up necrophilic rapists. Amber hates wasps,  but seriously, who doesn’t hate parasites that eat their way out of caterpillars or have way too painful venom. Don’t be fooled by bottlenose dolphins or orcas either. Flipper was a fantasy. 

Want to learn more (cause you really should), listen now wherever podcasts are found. 

Listener Note: Even at their worst, animals are just animals being themselves, and unlike humans, they do not have the ability to be “evil”. ALL animals deserve respect, and the right to exist in this world. For more information on how you can help wildlife visit https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/wildlife-conservation

Except for mosquitoes, fuck mosquitoes

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The Pink Fairy Armadillo is, in fact, a real animal, but it is elusive enough to be considered mythical. The pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) is the smallest species of armadillo, and it is known as ‘the sand swimmer’ because they look like they are literally swimming through the sand. This animal is so rare in the wild and does so poorly in captivity that locals say, "you can track down any animal — except the pink fairy armadillo.”

In The Good The Bad The News
In the Good, Sunisa "Suni" Lee is the first Hmong-American Olympian and is kicking butts and taking names, and a French Panda gave birth to wins.
In the Bad, please don’t mansplain to a female Olympic gold medalist and Turkey is on fire and no one is talking about it.  

Don’t plan a trip to the zoo to see a Pink Fairy Armadillo,  individuals caught in the wild normally die during transport or within a couple days of arriving at their captive facilities. They literally die from stress over a change in location. Don’t plan to see them in the wild either. The Pink fairy armadillos are so rare that the person who has seen the most of them in the wild has only seen 12 in the last 45 years. 

Are Pink Fairy Armadillos endangered? Probably, but we don’t have enough information on their populations to know for sure. 

What do we know about Pink Fairy Armadillos? Listen now to find out.

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Did you know that Jeremiah was a Bullfrog? And, yes, he was a good friend of mine. But, no, he was not a toad, so shut up Amber.  All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. This frog, the American bullfrog, is the largest frog in North America. The male American bullfrog is one of the world's loudest animals. 

The Good The Bad The News - Jen’s cat Marceline (the Vampire Queen) ate a mouse, which was her job, so Jen doesn’t get why Amber is so worked up over it. Then we talk about the good and the bad of this year's Olympics.

Bullfrogs are opportunistic, ambush predators that prey on anything they can overpower and stuff down their throats. This ability to eat almost anything has allowed the American bullfrog to become an invasive species not only in western America but throughout the world. 

Listen now to learn more about the American Bullfrog and why Jennifer was wrong (XP). 

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We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

Like in the Hitchhikers Guild to the Galaxy, Garter Snakes are what one would call “Mostly Harmless”.  Do they have venom? Sometimes. Will it hurt you? Probably not. Compared to how humans treat this planet, Garter Snakes are most definitely harmless. Also, host Jennifer thinks they are very cute. The common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) is a group of snakes, which are indigenous to North America and found throughout the continent. On average, they grow a little less than 2 feet long (44cm) and can have patterns of different color stripes. 

First in The Good and The Bad News , Jennifer talks about the first US Capitol rioter conviction, which is both good and bad news. Then Amber talks democratic socialism which 100% of republicans do not understand and/or are rich assholes who do not want to be taxed more.

This week Amber picked the topic, because, you know, cute snake videos, but Jennifer picked the species, because, you know, random weird behaviors. What weird behavior you ask? Well, when mating, populations have way more males than females, (we don’t know why), so during mating season, they form "mating balls”. (Yep, a giant snake orgy). And that is not the weirdest thing they do while mating, just read the Nature, 1985, article titled "Female Mimicry in Garter Snakes"…. If you can. 

Listen now to learn about the Common Garter Snake, the animal Jennifer almost did her theses on.

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This week, Better Than Human tackles the Saber-Toothed Tiger which are most known for their large upper canine teeth. This animal is actually not closely related to a Tiger and is actually called the Saber-Toothed Cat, or Smilodon. The common house cat is more closely related to a Tiger than the Saber-Tooth Cat. Saber-Toothed Cats were specialized hunters, which may have made them wimpy or alpha predators (depending on how you look at it). 

First, in this week’s best and worst news, Jennifer talks about stupid jackasses swimming with sharks for attention, and the renaming of a moth to a less offensive name. Amber tackles Republicans having a temper tantrum because they couldn’t have fireworks at a sacred Native American Site. 

Saber-Toothed Cats went extinct during the Quaternary extinction event which ended around 10,000 years ago, and may or may not have been caused by humans (we probably caused it). Saber-Toothed Cats were more stocky than modern day tigers and lions, imagine a BullDog type Tiger. However, they are normally depicted in modern media as Tigers or Lions with long front fangs. Their habitats ranged from North America to South America, and they hunted large prey, like Bison and camels (yes, there was a species of Camel called Camelops which lived in the Americas, who knew, right?). Not a lot is known about the behavior of these animals, but there are a lot of different theories.

Listen now as hosts Amber and Jennifer dive into unknown mysteries of the Saber-Toothed Cat.

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We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

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This week, Better Than Human asks what are  some of the world's cutest animals that aren't well-known?  Our answers? Some strange, but adorable, animals. And no, they aren't all fluffy. 

First, listen to our newest segment, the best and worst of the news of the week. The Olympics committee made some dumb choices this week, but at least both Jen and Amber found some good news this week, as well. 

Amber picks the Fennec Fox which is is 100% cute and fluffy, but have you ever seen the small antelope species Dik-Dik? Have you ever looked to the ocean to find the cutest species on earth? Have you heard of the Dugong? The Sea Bunny? The Sea Leaf? And, what about the world’s misunderstood ugliest animal? 

Listen as we talk about some of the Earth’s most captivating animals. 

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Sloths are a group of mammals native to South America that are actually quite a bizarre animal that seems like it shouldn't exist. How is it normal for a species to have a weekly poo with a poo dance? And that isn’t even the weirdest thing about them. 

First thing first, this episode is coming out on the last day of Pride 2021, so let’s talk about some good things that happened this Pride Month.

Then we get into sloths, which are a weird animal that while can’t walk on the ground, and move slower than any other animal on the planet. Surprisingly, though, they are good swimmers. 

Two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths aren’t that closely related to each other and are only so similar due to Convergent evolution. Their ancestor, and the largest known sloth to ever exist, is the extinct ground sloth, which was as big as modern elephants. (Picture that). 

Listen now to learn about the curious Sloths, one of the strangest animasl of South America, and probably the world, too. 

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Flamingos: you’ve probably seen one, either in the wild or at a zoo. Fun to look at but not that interesting, right? Wrong! Flamingos, known for their pink feathers and standing on one foot, are a very delightful  group of birds, who happen to be more closely related to doves than water fowl. 

First we talk #LGBTQIA in professional sports, specifically Carl Nassib who has become the first active NFL player to come out as gay. We have come a long way,  but hopefully soon we will come to a day when an LGBTQIA player is so common it isn’t newsworthy. 

Talking about LGBTQIA, did you know that some Flamingos form homosexual pairs that have been known to mate, build nests, and even raise chicks together? They have even been known to form polyamorous partnerships. 

Listen as we answer some of Google's most asked questions about Flamingoes (like can they be blue) and learn about the fascinating Flamingos. 

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

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Guess what, Amber? Do you know what inchworms turn into because they’re caterpillars? They turn into butterflies or moths! Inchworms specifically turn into Geometer moths, which is a very large family of moths with over 23,000 species. A well-known Geometer moth is the peppered moth, which I bet you don’t remember the name, but remember learning about them in Biology class.

Inchworms are cute, and you’ve probably seen them dangling from threads in the forest. If you’re lucky enough, you might have even found one on yourself. Inchworms however, are generally regarded as a pest that can be hard to get rid of, which is why biological controls are commonly used against them. The biological control just happens to be terrifying parasitic wasps, and be glad you aren’t an inchworms cause you don’t have to worry about parasitic wasps laying their eggs inside of you.

We end the episode with the Rosy Maple Moth, a North American moth that is the smallest of the great silk moths. 

Listen now to learn about Inchworms, Parasitic Wasps, Peppered Moths, and the cute little Rosy Maple Moth.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

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We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

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This week’s episode is The Great White Shark, aka the  largest macropredatory fish of the oceans. 

First, what the heck happened to sharks 19 million years ago when 90% of sharks just disappeared from the ocean??? This unknown event didn’t seem to affect other ocean animals, but wiped out between 70% and 90% of shark species. Scientists have no idea what happened to the sharks, and we’ll have to wait probably a decade for more information, cause that's how science works. 

Of all the different shark species, the great white shark is responsible for most of the recorded shark bite incidents on humans. Does that make them bad? No. And, luckily for humans, we’re either too boney for the Great White’s liking, or we’re able to get away before we bleed to death. 

You might think White Sharks are related to the Giant Megalodon (which could literally grow to the size of a semitrailer), but they’re actually more closely related to Mako Sharks, which you’ve probably never heard of.

Due to recent scientific research we’ve recently learned a lot of about Great White Sharks that we didn’t know just a few years ago. Listen now as Better Than Human presents, The Great White Shark: Not the Scariest Predator in the Seas.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

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We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes