Creature Feature

Let's discover the CUTEST bugs on the planet! Bugs are some of the most populous and diverse animals on the planet, with a fascinating range of behaviors. I think that bugs are often overlooked: everybody loves a cute cuddly panda, but an adorable jumping spider? Who will hug ITS eight fuzzy arms? With special guest Carmen Angelica.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Velvet worm in action
2. Velvet worm looking absolutely adorable
3. Another velvet worm looking cute as heck
4. I AM IN LOVE WITH VELVET WORMS
5. Velvet worm cuddle pile!
6. Peacock spider dancing for its life! 
7. Peacock spiders showing off all their moves
8. Absolutely beautiful peacock spider
9. Bee flies are fantasy fairy creatures

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These avians are some regular Fabios, wooing the ladies with spectacular displays of romance. Why do birds dance? Why do some birds do the moonwalk? Can you walk on water if you love someone enough? Then, we play the popular bird dating show, The MATING GAME! With special guest Kimia Behpoornia.

FOOTNOTES:

1. The grebe's beautiful mating dance
2. The grebe's weed dance (heh)
3. The red-capped manakin's moonwalk
4. Lance-tailed manakin wingman dance
5. Blue manakin's boy band dance
6. Snowball the cockatoo's dance moves
7. Sea lion dances
8. Black-bellied bustard cork-popping call
9. Club-winged manakin buzz pop and lock
10. Capuchin bird's bizarre call
11. Willow grouse call
12. White bellbird's record-breaking loud call (warning: loud)
13. Howard the bowerbird dance
14. Frigatebird blows up his neck balloon
15. Kiwi's awkward mating ritual
16. Bald eagle mating spiral
17. Check out the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital

Habanera by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license

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Mother nature has whipped up some animals that are even weirder than what you can find in Star Wars. We talk about real life porgs, a monster scarier than a sarlaac pit, and an adorable alien-looking antelope. Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question: why does Fluke Skywater have hundreds of lightsabers? With special guest Maggie Mae Fish.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Puffin "flying" underwater
2. The horned puffin's fantastic mascara
3. Tufted puffin's weird head doodads
4. Inside a puffin's mouth
5. Japanese dwarf flying squirrel
6. Desert rain frog squeakin'
7. The horrifying bobbit worm
8. Light saber sharks
9. The saiga antelope
10. Video someone took of a saiga antelope shaking its nose (warning: audio windy & loud)

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As you may know, Australia is facing a human and ecological crisis right now, as fires ravage New South Wales. We’ll talk about the cause of these fires, how it’s affecting humans and animals in the area, and how human activity has influenced this disaster. Then we’ll talk about one of Australia’s most iconic animals, the Koala, as well as a whole bunch of other incredible animals found only in Australia. With special guest David Huntsberger.

FOOTNOTES:

1. VOTE on which koala we should adopt for the podcast
2. SO many people have donated to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital that their website is down. We can still donate on behalf of the koala we adopt through their GoFundMe
3. Video of the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
4. Koalas aren't the only ones in danger, check out the beautiful endangered Corroboree tree frog
5. Bog skinks are in serious trouble
6. Support the NSW Fire Service
7. Donate to WIRES, an Australian wildlife rescue organization
8. WWF has a wildfires donation fund
9. On to some fun stuff, here's a wombat farting and attacking corn
10. Australia's adorable pincushions, the echidna
11. A bandicoot
12. Just kidding, here's a real bandicoot
13. The adorable quoll, call 1-800-QUOLL-ITY-QUOLLS
14. The brushtail possum grabbing things with its little handsies
15. A dingo doing some yoga instruction (do NOT try this at home)
16. Long-nosed potoroo looking emo
17. Noisy kookaburra
18. The all-animals cover of Drowning Pool
19. Pink robins
20. Lyrebirds's standup impressions set
21. Australian magpie mimicking emergency vehicles

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The Cats movie presents a lot of misinformation about felis catus! So today we'll be talking cat facts: what are the answers to some of the most common questions about cats? What are some of the wildest wild cats in the world? And finally, what's going on with that Cats movie, huh? With special guest comedian Joey Clift.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Cougar purring
2. Cat tongue closeup
3. Cat slo-mo drinking water
4. The rusty-spotted cat, the world's smallest cat!
5. Hercules, the liger
6. The margay climbing a tree! 
7. The flat-headed cat
8. The Canada lynx's big ol' legwarmers
9. Pallas's cat looking like a muppet
10. Seriously Pallas's cats look like Yoda/Wookies
11. The Löwenmensch figurine, AKA, world's first furry
12. "Pinpointing the Exact Moment Cats Reviewers Lost Their Minds" 
13. "I took my dad, a veterinarian, to see Cats — he has some thoughts"

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Today on the show, HAPPY NEW FEAR! Let’s discover fears you didn’t even know you had with some horrifying creatures! Take a one way trip to decapitation station, check out some very creepy babies, and endure the existential crisis after finding out when a butt is NOT a butt. Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question, is 80 worms too many worms to have inside of you? With special guests Tess Lynch, Molly Lambert, and Emily Yoshida of the Night Call Podcast.

CONTENT WARNING: the trypophobia section starts at 00:42:55 and ends at 00:55:47

Footnotes:

1. The ant-head bursting fly, Euryplatea nanaknihali
2. Another fly that decapitates ants
3. Ants who decorate their homes with the heads of their enemies
4. Ant who pretends to be a butt
5. Study on Antman & Spiderman helping phobias
6. Margays imitate baby tamarins
7. Cats mimic the cry of babies
8. WARNING: CATERPILLAR BODY HORROR. Glyptapanteles wasp larvae bursting from a parasitized caterpillar.
9. Audubon Society's "When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide"
10. Creature FEET pod twitter
11. Margay used in episode image
12. Pied tamarin used in episode image

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Happy holidays everyone, it’s me, Katie Goldin, your host of many parasites! Today, on the second part of our two-part holiday special, we’ll be creating our own non-denominational holiday using evolutionary biology to make this magical time of year scientifically accurate! We’ll talk the biology of reindeer, and the best bacteria-filled lightshow in the world! With special guest Jamie Loftus of The Bechdel Cast.

FOOTNOTES: 

1. Cute reindeer noses
2. Reindeer eyeballs magically change color
3. Glowing Firefly squid looks like festive holiday lights
4. Glowing railroad worm
5. Foxfire (not firefox) glowing fungus
6. Angler fish's deadly but festive glowing light

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Happy holidays everyone, it’s me, Katie Goldin, your host of many parasites! On this two-part holiday special, we’ll be creating our own non-denominational holiday using evolutionary biology to make this magical time of year scientifically accurate! We’ll make our own, better Santa out of animal DNA, learning about these animals along the way! With special guest Jamie Loftus of the Bechdel Cast.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Hydra, an immortal wiener with tentacles
2. Quetzalcoatlus northropi
3. Peregrin falcon dive
4. Elephants never forget
5. Dolphins remember their friends
6. Crows hold eternal grudges
7. Ravens remember who's naughty and who's nice
8. Blue whales win at having a jolly belly
9. Howler monkey chorus
10. Gorilla getting tickled via Cell Press
11. Chimp laughing on the BBC

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Today we'll be talking about how animals prepare for winter! From hibernation, to magical wardrobe changes, to cryogenic freezing! Discover this and more as we answer the age old question: when, if ever, is the right time to breathe through your butt? With special guest Caitlin Durante of the Bechdel Cast.

FOOTNOTES:

1. My frozen bear heart
2. Calendar cells
3. Arctic fox faceplanting into snow
4. Arctic fox's awkward wardrobe malfunctions
5. Arctic fox shedding its coat
6. Ancient snow goggles
7. Frozen wood frog
8. Siberian salamander
9. Painted turtles breathe through their butts
10. Wild Yakut horses
11. MORE. FLUFFY. HORSES
12. Kulning video by Jonna Jinton

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Today on the show, Gobble Gobble! No, we’re not talking about turkeys this time, but the weird and wild eating behaviors of people and animals! We’re talking gluttonous grubs who gobble on gastropods, animals who store their leftovers like they’re leatherface on steroids, animal chefs and foodies with very peculiar tastes. Discover these animals and more as we answer the age old question: is eating civet poop a crappy thing to do? With special guests Anney Reese and Lauren Vogelbaum of the Savor podcast. 

FOOTNOTES:

1. Capuchins cracking open nuts
2. Baby ants making vomit soup for their caretakers
3. Catching Fire: How Cooking Makes Us Human
4. The Killer Shrews (1959)
5. Murderous fur-tube (Blarina brevicauda shrew)
6. Killer caterpillars (not from outer space)
7. Elanora's Falcons use live food-prisons
8. Early humans stored bone marrow
9. Fish-eye fluke
10. Shark-eye parasite
11. Beware eye-eating amoebas
12. Asian palm civet
13. The problem with Kopi Luwak
14. Fuzzy baby t-rex!

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