BewilderBeasts!

First aired February 2023

Twitter bans an ornithological society for posting photos of "woodcocks" while Melissa gets banned for "Hairy Man"; The Media takes special care to protect the identity of one little jailbird with hilarious results; and, no post is complete without a little butt science.

There is a photo that I can't stop laughing at in this episode - that photo is attached but also a part of this tweet:
https://twitter.com/CampbellxEmma/status/1178400639208116224

All of the articles I read directly from are here:

Dirty Birds:
https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/31/bird-charity-banned-from-twitter-for-posting-woodcock-photos-18196900/

Jail Bird:
https://time.com/5689057/bird-arrest/

Regenerative Butt Science
https://www.livescience.com/sea-spiders-anus-regeneration

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First aired October 2021

Fat Bear Tuesday is the culmination of a week-long bracket-style event inspired by mega-chonk bears and March Madness. What is it? Why is it? Who is going to win? Let's go!

****

Resources:
https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/fat-bear-week.htm

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/30/1041674219/fat-bear-week-2021

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/get-to-known-the-bodacious-bulky-bears-of-fat-bear-week-2021-180978778/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/650110/fat-bear-week-history

https://boingboing.net/2021/09/26/its-almost-fat-bear-week-when-online-voters-decide-which-bears-have-best-prepared-for-hibernation.html

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First Aired: Feb 10, 2022

A series of the best and funniest animal escapes, all inspired by a police blotter where a camel chase was afoot on a Kansas golf course.

Resources for today's episode:

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2041628_2041646_2041645,00.html

https://www.livescience.com/wildest-animal-escapes-2021

https://www.facebook.com/BonnerSpringsPD/posts/211926681120376

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/camel-causes-chaos-running-away-kansas-nativity-scene-rcna8061

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/true-californian-sea-lion-takes-94-805-freeway-rescue-rcna11428

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2012/09/llama-lam-saga-has-happy-ending-cowpens-national-battlefield10597

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/national-zoo-animal-escapes/2021/09/19/811aa4f4-17f2-11ec-9589-31ac3173c2e5_story.html

https://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/24/orangutan-ken-allen-san-diego-zoo-escape-artist-469908.html

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First aired: August, 2022
The Belgian government once used cats to deliver the mail. It went about as well as you would think.

Resources for today's exclusive episode:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64025/time-cats-delivered-mail-belgium

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-42098216

https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/news/morning-start-cats-once-delivered-mail-in-belgium/

https://www.cracked.com/article_28965_for-hot-second-belgium-relied-cats-to-deliver-mail.html

https://www.grunge.com/920707/belgium-once-used-cats-to-deliver-mail/

The Comic Liar: A Book Not Commonly Found in Sunday Schools - a book published in 1883. According to Goodreads: “This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.” It has 0  reviews or comments in Goodreads. Sorry Goodreads - I don't think the opinion is widely shared :)

The measure of things website.

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First Aired: January 20, 2023
This month's bonus ep for you is all about the chickens who give back in rather surprising ways - from keeping 100 tons (?) of food out of our landfills to preventing Dengue Fever in Central Florida.

BTW: Florida, you ok?

So, get some chickens, put on a farming hat, and let's go learn about chickens who do more than just poop you breakfast. Let's GOOOOOOOO!

Resources:
https://htrchickens.com/tag/belgium/#:~:text=%231.&text=Hens%20help%20recycle%20food%20and,an%20alternate%20waste%2Dmanagement%20system.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/belgians-egged-on-to-keep-chickens-ndash-but-they-re-not-for-eating-1942124.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17540287

https://www.permacultureproject.com/belgium-offers-chickens-to-waste-cutting-households/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8539877.stm

https://www.thebulletin.be/adopt-chicken-etterbeek

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2023/01/12/why-are-egg-prices-still-so-high-its-not-the-reason-you-think/?sh=12af174f7c6b

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2022/12/22/south-jerseys-chicken-lady-aims-to-bring-chickens-to-backyards-one-town-at-a-time/

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/chickens-in-florida-are-helping-to-detect-mosquito-borne-viruses-in-communities

Podcast: Coffee With the Chicken Ladies for general info and my own personal experience as a Noob in the chicken game. 

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First Aired: Nov 5, 2021
This month, New Zealand's Bird of the Year competition ruffled feathers, as per usual, when a bat took the gold. A look at the complex and controversial BotY awards and mean tweets at the non-tweety bats.

I got today’s information from :

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/14/934749679/for-the-birds-voter-fraud-ruffles-new-zealand-bird-of-the-year-competition

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2110/S00189/native-bats-cause-a-flap-entering-bird-of-the-year-competition.htm?fbclid=IwAR3B_D_QYsUdlLl848tHVjdzs_GWYV0sBPcr3YUueZMbT1Iu69UGmRJsAdQ

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/bat-flies-off-with-new-zealands-bird-year-title-2021-11-02/

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stpeterscitymissouri

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/12/new-zealand-twitchy-amid-claims-of-russian-meddling-in-bird-of-the-year-contest

https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/

https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/coronavirus-covid-19-national-news/tens-of-thousands-experiencing-long-covid-19-symptoms-in-ontario-science-group-4331926

https://www.livescience.com/bat-named-bird-of-the-year

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_of_the_Year

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-zealands-long-tailed-bat-is-crowned-bird-of-the-year-180978979/

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First aired April 19, 2022

Let's learn about the time an actual chimpanzee saved the Today Show, and changed morning news-ertainment forever. 

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Fred_Muggs
https://allthatsinteresting.com/j-fred-muggs
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324954729281
https://www.grunge.com/598607/the-truth-about-celebrity-chimp-j-fred-muggs/

And an episode of Ridiculous Crime - a 99% murder-free podcast on capers, crime, and utter ridiculousness, where I first heard about J. Fred Muggs  - if your older kids - I’d let Acey listen at 9, are into something like this, it’s clean language, silly, and great hosts. I don’t know the hosts, I have nothing to gain from it - just thought you might like it if you or family like to listen to such things. Check it out first before letting littles listen but I think, and you hear my show - you know what I’m cool with letting my kiddo listen to - it might be a lot more than you’d be ok with, so check it out first. Ridiculous crime

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First aired: Nov 26, 2023

One man dreams of being completely alone, but it turns out, companionship is human nature.  An unlikely meal ticket doesn't just save his life - but saves his humanity in 70 days of darkness, in Greenland's icy solar night. 

Big thanks to The Outlook Podcast Archive from BBC World Service for a podcast called “The chicken who sailed the world”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct34pm

Fowl Play - a book I’m reading on the history of chickens by Sally Coulthard. So much of our language - cooped up, henpecked, cocky, flew the coop - comes from these tiny evolved dinosaurs.

https://www.yachtingworld.com/all-latest-posts/the-hen-that-sailed-around-the-world-a-farewell-to-monique-144044

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/apr/21/why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-globe-french-sailor-guirec-soudee-monique

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36475672

https://www.guirecsoudee.com/

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First aired Nov. 2022

A man recently caught a goldfish the size of a 5th grader and Melissa is waiting for the goldfish food-delivery uprising.

Resources:
https://www.livescience.com/man-catches-enormous-goldfish-in-france

https://largest.org/animals/goldfish/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/07/11/minnesota-goldfish-invasive/ 

https://www.khq.com/news/thousands-of-goldfish-found-in-west-medical-lake-whats-next/article_15244861-1a80-5273-a27b-4e34db5160cb.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/watch-this-fish-out-of-water-drive-a-mini-vehicle-on-land-180979328/

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)

First Aired August, 2023:

A series of scientific studies to understand the human mind, but using a slimy gastropod in our place.

Because using meth on a human is illegal.

I got today’s information from 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/snails-memory-molecules-spd

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vww3/scientists-are-repeatedly-fucking-with-snails-memory

https://www.livescience.com/62559-snail-memory-rna-transfer.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/memory-transferred-between-snails-challenging-standard-theory-of-how-the-brain-remembers/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/science/memory-transfer-snails.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/2596/#:~:text=Scientists%20Made%20Snails%20Remember%20Something,remembered%20the%20trained%20snails'%20experiences.

https://www.iflscience.com/scientists-have-managed-to-erase-memories-in-a-snails-brain-42331

https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs3/3981/index.htm

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/09/snails

Support the show

Intro/Outtro music: Tiptoe Out The Back - Dan Liebowicz
Interstitial Music: MK2
Additional music: Freesound.com, Pixabay.org 

Instagram: @EggAndNugget (chicken stan account) or @MelissaMcCueMcGrath
Website: BewilderBeastsPod.com
Support the Show and get stuff! Patreon.com/BewilderbeastsPod
Your host, Melissa McCue-McGrath is an author, dog trainer, and behavior consultant in Southern Maine. She'll talk about dogs all day if you let her. You've been warned :)