Creature Feature

Animal pranks aren’t always just for fun, they can be crucial for survival. We’re going to fall down a web of lies, deceit, and outright mockery. Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question: you can pick your nose, you can pick your friend’s nose, but can you pick a monkey’s nose? 

Footnotes: 

Portia spider

Iranian spider-tailed viper 

Fork-tailed drongo

Capuchins pranking eachother

Chimps pranking visitors

Octopuses pranking everyone

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Why are some animals nocturnal? What evolutionary adaptations do you have to make to be awake during the GRAVEYARD SHIFT with horror expert with Sabina Graves? And what lurks in the ocean… at night? Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question, why is owls? I mean, why… why is owls? 

Footnotes: 

1. The cathemeral fossa
2. Barking gecko mating call
3. Australian greater glider
4. THE TAILS
5. The tarsier
6. Incredible zooplankton
7. Spiny tiger shrimp

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We’re talking animals that are unusually musical, from up in the skies to deep under the ocean. We have a special guest Dajae Williams, an Engineer at NASA, who uses music to educate and inspire, as answer the age-old question: do all birds like Taylor Swift, or just the swifts?

Footnotes:

1. Dajae Williams' website
2. SongHive
3. Musician wren
4. Wood thrush
5. Humpback whale song
6. Blue whale song

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Today on the show we’re going to look at the truth behind viral stories about animals! Which claims are real, and which are dirty lies?

Footnotes:

1. Salmon shark pictures on Twitter?
2. Dwarf lantern shark
3. Pygmy shark
4. Famous orca pregnant again? 
5. Decapitated wolf eel head biting?
6. A live wolf eel
7. Spotted zebra? 
8. Melanistic fox? Cross fox? 
9. Many different fox color morphs
10. Unicorn puppy? 
11. Seal trying to impress a cat? 
12. Margay mimics
13. Orangutan handwashing? 

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The animal kingdom is full of devoted parents, whose child rearing skills are incredible, shocking, and gross! Some parents, like our guest Steph Williams, would give you the shirts off their backs, and others would give you the skin off their backs... literally.

Footnotes:

1. Horned marsupial frog
2. Horned marsupial frog with eggs (warning, yucky)
3. Blue poison dart frog with tadpole on his back
4. Suriname toads (warning, trypophobia trigger)
5. Killdeer mating
6. Killdeer faking injury
7. Rhea dad with babies
8. Octopus mothers
9. Cotton topped tamarin
10. Barbary macaque
11. Elephant showing off her baby to rescuers

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What happens when you stick two different animals together and let nature take its course? Some whacky evolutionary mixups! We’re talking scientists who accidentally created a hybrid, how hybridization works in the first place, and the mysteries of animals like the narulga and pizzly. Discover this and more as we and guest Kayla Maria answer the age-old question: how come scientists tried to make a Jesus fish? 

Footnotes:

1. Sturddlefish!!!
2. Geep! 
3. The Narluga
4. The Leopon
5. Pizzly!! 

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Today on the show we’re talking about D-D-D-DANK ANIMAL MEMES, KIDS with Alex Schmidt! Did you know humans aren’t the only ones spreading sweet memes? That’s right, we’re talking about viral birdsong that’s getting retweeted like crazy, otter tupperware parties, and dolphins engaging in the hottest new trend, “shelling.”

Footnotes: 

1. Otter tupperware parties
2. Dolphins shelling! 
3. Tandem recruitment in ants
4. Viral birdsong
5. Sperm whale dialects
6. Baby meerkat eating scorpion
7. Orangutan building nests

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Summary:  This week we're talking about something very important. We’re going to cover the use of dogs in cases of police brutality, the history of how dogs have been used as weapons, and the harm this does to people as well as to the dogs themselves. And at the end, we'll cover some of the positive jobs that dogs can do that are better for people and better for dogs.

Guests: Pallavi Gunalan, Joelle Monique

Footnotes:

1. Police dog bite study
2. Cancer sniffing dogs
3. Little "fairy" penguin
4. Oddball the sheepdog giving a fairy penguin a kiss
5. Supporting Black Lives mailing list
6. Supporting Black Lives Google Drive link

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Catch some Z’s with nap-time transformers, contortionists, animals who barely need a wink, and animals who slept in past their alarm by a few years. Discover this and more as we answer the age old question: how do you sleep floating in the middle of the sea? You’ll be otter-ly surprised with guest Alexis Torres! 

Footnotes:

Dead leaf butterfly

More of the dead leaf butterfly

Malachite sunbird

Malachite sunbird asleep

Sea otter use kelp to babysit

Giraffe sleeping with its head on its butt

Sperm whales sleep VERTICALLY

Viral "drunk" owl

Snowy owl chicks sleeping

Burrowing owl striking an Instagram pose

Desert snail forgot to set its alarm

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Today on the show, we’ll be talking about a BRIEF HISTORY OF BIRDS. Are there secretly still dinosaurs still lurking among us? How did birds learn how to fly? Why did some birds decide to be so small? Discover this and more as we answer the age old question, is birds dinosaurs? 

Footnotes:

1. Birds is dinosaurs?
2. Archaeopteryx
3. WONDERCHICKEN
4. Sandhill crane
5. Baby blue heron
6. Baby southern ground hornbill
7. Adult southern ground hornbill
8. The hoatzin
9. Inca tern mustache!
10. Inca tern calls
11. Indohyus (whale ancestor) 
12. Bee hummingbird

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