Join Ellen & special guest from the world of wildlife rehabilitation Emma Ratway for a review of the chompy rogues lurking at the bottom of ponds all over the country: snapping turtles. We discuss working with wildlife and getting to raise and release baby snapping turtles, a jury of one’s deers, a cat named Crunch Wrap Supreme, butt breathing, magnets, simple English wikipedia, eating board game pieces, and so much more.

Links:

• Follow Emma on Instagram!
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Ellen comes clean about the bluestreak cleaner wrasse. We discuss trust, cheating, fish patriarchy, manipulation, deception, game theory, the prisoner's dilemma, marketing, the mirror test, the horrors of self-awareness, and so much more. Christian drinks a Capri-Sun. 

Works Cited:

1. “Testing the Low-density Hypothesis for Reversed Sex Change in Polygynous Fish: Experiments in Labroides dimidiatus” - Tetsuo Kuwamura et al., Scientific Reports, March 2014
2. “Punishment and partner switching cause cooperative behavior in a cleaning mutualism” - Redouan Bshary & Alexandra Grutter, Biology Letters, July 2005
3. “Power and temptation cause shifts between exploitation and cooperation in a cleaner wrasse mutualism” - Simon Gingins et al., Proc. Biol. Sci., June 2013
4. “Male cleaner wrasses adjust punishment of female partners according to the stakes” by Nichola J Raihani et al., Proc. Biol. Sci., June 2011
5. “Cleaner fish are sensitive to what their partners can and cannot see” - Katherine McAuliffe et al., Communications Biology, Sep 2021
6. “Biting cleaner fish use altruism to deceive image-scoring client reef fish” by Redouan Bshary et al., Proc. Biol. Sci., Feb 2002
7. “If a fish can pass the mark test, what are the implications for consciousness and selfawareness testing in animals?” - Masanori Kohda et al., PLOS Biol, Feb 2019
8. “Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks” - Masanori Kohda et al., PLOS Biol., Feb 2022
9. “Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans” - Masanori Kohda et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Feb 2023
10. “Cleaner fish with mirror self-recognition capacity precisely realize their body size based on their mental image” - Taiga Kobayashi et al., Scientific Reports, Sep 2024
11. “The false cleanerfish relies on aggressive mimicry to bite fish fins when benthic foods are scarce in their local habitat” - Misaki Fujisawa et al., Scientific Reports, May 2020

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, zoology and science communication powerhouse Lindsay Nikole, for a review of some of the animal kingdom’s greatest hits throughout the history of the Earth. We discuss ecological gossip, mass extinctions, the Cambrian explosion and evolution’s “experimental” phase, swimming potatoes with googly eyes, giant bugs, bizarre prehistoric sharks, imaginary friend lore, and so much more.

Links:

• Pre-order your copy of Lindsay's book, Epic Earth!
• Follow Lindsay on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok!
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Ellen gets her claws out for the hairy frog. We discuss what the tooth fairy dispatch system is doing with all those teeth, frog gigging, Wolverine lore, the scariest horror of all: Chytridiomycosis, and so much more.

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, writer and science journalist Cara Giaimo, for a highlight reel of some of the animal kingdom’s biggest surprises. We discuss Lego trebuchets, the scifi potential of a projectile-based language, endangered relationships, biofluorescence, the great pacific garbage patch’s number 1 fan, and so much more. 

Links:

• Find Atlas Obscura: Wild Life and Leaving the Ocean Was a Mistake where books are sold!
• Follow Cara on BlueSky!
• Get updates from Cara's newsletter, What's New in Animals & Plants!
• Find more of Cara's work on her website: https://caragiaimo.com/
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Ellen jumps to conclusions about jack jumper ants. We discuss Metazooa, is it cake, a menace to public health, lime in the Coke, gamergate, casual abductions, learning walks, and so much more. 

Links:

• Play Metazooa: https://metazooa.com/
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Join Ellen & special guest artist and science communicator behind Nature Disturbed for an appropriate kickoff to the month of all things wretched with a review of disgust. We talk about phobias and ways that we can relate and empathize with even our most feared animals, why we might want to move in to a termite colony, anatomical surprises, the uncanny valley, how to make a slime meringue, and so much more. 

Links:

• Learn more about Nature Disturbed at naturedisturbed.com
• Follow Nature Disturbed on Instagram and check out the podcast!
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Ellen comes along for the ride with Galápagos tortoises. We discuss how giant tortoises crossed 600 miles of ocean, the superpowers built into their DNA that let them live for over a century, extinction and restoration, Charles Darwin's boat snacks, Kung Fu Panda lore, and so much more.

Links:

• Follow Poison Oak and find more of her work on Instagram: @poison.oak.nyc
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Join Ellen & special guest, primatologist and author Dr. Keriann McGoogan, for primatology storytime! Our guest shares experiences from her time working with lemurs in Madagascar and howler monkeys in Belize, like kind gestures from people helping out their local monkeys after a hurricane. She also brings us some truly juicy tales from the study of primates, like a true crime thriller involving missing monkeys, a power struggle, and even a double life, an airplane full of macaques, setting the record straight on baboon social heirarchies, and the instrumental role of women in shaping primatology and our understanding of nature.

Links:

• Learn more about Dr. Keriann McGoogan's work on her website
• Get your copy of Sisters of the Jungle: The Trailblazing Women Who Shaped the Study of Wild Primates
• Follow Keriann on Instagram!
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Sound Credit:

Black howler monkey: Alex Munro, via biacoustica: https://bio.acousti.ca/content/black-howler-monkey-short

Siamang: Frank Lambert, XC1031364. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/1031364.

Join Ellen & birder and science communicator Jason Hall for a review of a little bird full of big surprises: the American dipper.  We discuss birding pre-smartphone, Philadelphia’s role in ornithological history, the wild physiological adaptations that let this tiny songbird brave mountain rapids, smooth dance moves, aura farming, and so much more.

Links:

• Follow Jason on Instagram: @thebirdingbeardsman
• Check out Jason's podcast, The Bird Joy Podcast!
• Get involved in nature with In Color Birding!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Sound credits:

• Brown-headed cowbird: Thomas Magarian, XC527674. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/527674.
• American dipper: Ted Floyd, XC460525. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/460525.
• Swainson's thrush: Stanislas Wroza, XC1014351. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/1014351.