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Speaker 6: Hey, ologites, Hi Ali Ward in your space. Hi, it's
Speaker 6: me so herbs. Let's talk about it. Herpetology, what is it? Okay?
Speaker 6: It's the study of amphibians like newts and salamanders and
Speaker 6: all all froggies and toads and reptiles like tortoises and
Speaker 6: turtles and crocodiles, also snakes. What huh. Don't worry about them.
Speaker 6: Don't worry about it. Okay, listen. If you're afraid of
Speaker 6: the S word, we will address that. We will soothe
Speaker 6: your fears for real. But herpetology, generally, it's a lot
Speaker 6: of different animals, and technically it's the study of poikilothermic
Speaker 6: ectothermic tetrapods. What are those words? Are they words? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 6: I had to look it up, but I'm gonna break
Speaker 6: it down. Poikilothermic no idea, how that's pronounced? Means an
Speaker 6: animal whose internal temperature varies considerably. Exothermic is when the
Speaker 6: regulation of your hot bod depends on external sources like
Speaker 6: sunlight or a heated rock surface. Now, a tetrapod means
Speaker 6: four legged, although I think of a toad and tell me,
Speaker 6: tell me those front two aren't arms like toads have hands,
Speaker 6: right am, I own drugs? Okay? So herpetology, Okay, what's
Speaker 6: the anomology here? It's far more brutal than you can
Speaker 6: even imagine. So you think herpies and herpetology. Maybe this
Speaker 6: was about scales, like scaling it, I had no idea.
Speaker 6: I was like skin rashes. Okay, it's more poetic. So
Speaker 6: the viral skin conditions, which for fun we're gonna call
Speaker 6: Jenny herbs, cold sores, chicken pox, those come from the
Speaker 6: herpes virus, which comes from a Greek word hair pene,
Speaker 6: which means to creep like a rash. That's where it
Speaker 6: comes from. Now her petology comes from the Greek hair pain,
Speaker 6: same word to creep. Not really helping this image issue
Speaker 6: is the fact that when you think of adults who
Speaker 6: keep lizards in a tank in their garage, like the
Speaker 6: word creep may or may not come into play, But
Speaker 6: once you understand the splendor of green and scaly critters,
Speaker 6: you'll be like, oh man, I too want a reptile
Speaker 6: condo in my home. Now, every time you hear the
Speaker 6: word creep in this episode, a bell will sound and
Speaker 6: you can feel free to take a big sip of
Speaker 6: whatever beverage you're having, or you can do a small
Speaker 6: inconspicuous dance. Speaking of let's take a quick break to
Speaker 6: step into a segment. I like to call creep in
Speaker 6: your reviews. So when you rate and subscribe and leave
Speaker 6: a review on iTunes, helps get Ologies up in the
Speaker 6: science charts and it helps other people find the podcast. Also,
Speaker 6: I record all my asides in a closet and it
Speaker 6: really makes my day. So I read every single one
Speaker 6: of them, and I'm going to read you a fun
Speaker 6: one every week. Okay, Blooty Blot said, the format is great.
Speaker 6: Ali's interjections are awesome and it makes the podcast unique,
Speaker 6: almost like those nineties TV shows where the character is
Speaker 6: aware of the camera. Okay. Another way to support Ologies
Speaker 6: is just tell friends, tweet or Instagram about it. You
Speaker 6: can make some memes and on Instagram. This week Ologies
Speaker 6: is giving back. We're doing a giveaway of a full
Speaker 6: enamel pin set. We've never done a giveaway before. I
Speaker 6: don't really know how it works, so we'll see how
Speaker 6: it goes. So check out at ologies on Instagram for
Speaker 6: the details. You can also become a patron. My heart
Speaker 6: is cheap, and I set the patreon to have the
Speaker 6: lowest threshold I think possible, so you can support the
Speaker 6: show for as little as twenty five cents an episode.
Speaker 6: It is statistically feasible that at least one person on
Speaker 6: Earth has twenty five cents in loose change lingering in
Speaker 6: their butt crack right now. Patrons get their questions first
Speaker 6: to theologists. There's also other perks like increased self esteem.
Speaker 6: You get my undying non sexual love okay onto theologist.
Speaker 6: So I was a fan of this doctor on the
Speaker 6: website Twitter dot com for a while, where as alongside
Speaker 6: wild he enjoys a healthy twenty two thousand followers, he
Speaker 6: follows exactly six hundred and sixty six back. I always
Speaker 6: respected his really swift, kind of somewhat gruff identifications of
Speaker 6: snakes from these like blurry probably mid running away photos
Speaker 6: that people would send him. People would be like a snake,
Speaker 6: take a picture and then at him on Twitter, and
Speaker 6: I thought, one day, I want to hang out with
Speaker 6: this person. I want to ask about his love of
Speaker 6: snacks and herbs, and as fate would have it, I
Speaker 6: was in Alabama for less than twenty four hours shooting
Speaker 6: Innovation Nation. That's the science show I'm on on CBS
Speaker 6: every Saturday morning, in case you want some Alley Ward
Speaker 6: science content that does not involve casual use of the
Speaker 6: term motherfucker. Anyway, Alabama, So as an associate research professor
Speaker 6: at Auburn University. He was a local, and he agreed
Speaker 6: to meet me where else, folks, but at hampton In
Speaker 6: at eight pm after I flew in. Here's the problem.
Speaker 6: I had been in four states and four time zones
Speaker 6: so far that day, and a very kind Alabama front
Speaker 6: desk lady set us up at a conference room, and
Speaker 6: as I went to record, I realized I didn't have
Speaker 6: an SD card in my Zoom recorder. So I left
Speaker 6: this ologist alone in the hampton In while I borrowed
Speaker 6: my producer's rental car. I sped to a best Buy.
Speaker 6: I purchased a sixty four gig SD card. I should
Speaker 6: be covered. Then I came back to hampton In only
Speaker 6: to realize that zooms inexplicably only take up to thirty
Speaker 6: two gig cards. I don't know why so at this
Speaker 6: point I left this herpetologist again, now nine pm in
Speaker 6: this Hampton in conference room and kitchenette, to recklessly drive
Speaker 6: to the Best Buy again. At this point I requested
Speaker 6: that he set a timer to see if I could
Speaker 6: make it back in under fifteen minutes. I thought, let's
Speaker 6: make a game of this. At this point, he can
Speaker 6: only assume I'm clinically insane or a truly ineffectual murderer.
Speaker 6: So hustling round two, I made it in thirteen minutes.
Speaker 6: So by the time we actually recorded this episode, we
Speaker 6: had the rapport of two people who had been stranded
Speaker 6: on an island in a slapstick movie from the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 6: It's one of my favorite interviews ever. I love it.
Speaker 6: We address turtles, snake IDs, the fear of snakes, tools
Speaker 6: for herpin Wyb York is a lot like a cave salamander, nudists,
Speaker 6: frog storms, a lot of behind the scenes Indiana Jones, trivia,
Speaker 6: the ethics of hunting and conservation biology. It's great. So
Speaker 6: get ready to let herps into your heart with polyologist
Speaker 6: and herpetologist, Doctor David Steen. Please record, okay, dude, it
Speaker 6: looks like this is recording this is a really big victory. Okay,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna get your levels. You are a soft spoken person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I could turn it up a little bit.
Speaker 6: I would get uncomfortably close to the microphone. These are
Speaker 6: like stand up comedian microphones, so they expect you to
Speaker 6: be up in their business. Right, So I think my
Speaker 6: Internet is up and running. I mean I I should
Speaker 6: just I feel like I should just burn sage around myself.
Speaker 6: What kind of ologists do you identify with, Like a necologist,
Speaker 6: a wildlife biologist, herpetologist. What do you call yourself?
Speaker 4: Well, I've certainly been called worse than any of those things.
Speaker 4: It depends on who I'm talking to. In general, I
Speaker 4: like to think of myself as a wildlife ecologist and
Speaker 4: conservation biologist. So I study how wildlife interact with other
Speaker 4: species and their surroundings. But most of the work that
Speaker 4: I do relates to amphibians and reptiles, and that's where
Speaker 4: the herpetology comes in.
Speaker 6: So are you a herpetologist?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we can go with that, Okay, Yeah, I study
Speaker 4: amphabians and reptiles, so yeah, I think it would be
Speaker 4: accurate to call me a herpetologist.
Speaker 6: I became aware of you on Twitter because you're like
Speaker 6: fire when it comes to snake ideas, Like someone will
Speaker 6: send you the sasquatch equivalent of like it looks like
Speaker 6: a rope from half of football field away and you're like, oh,
Speaker 6: that's a copperheaded How do you know? How did you
Speaker 6: get so good at that?
Speaker 4: Well? I like to think that it's kind of like
Speaker 4: how you recognize friends and family. You're not necessarily it's true, though,
Speaker 4: you're not necessarily looking at the length of someone's mustache
Speaker 4: or the color of their eyebrows. You just recognize them.
Speaker 4: And I think that is how I see the snakes,
Speaker 4: So you don't necessarily have to well, I don't necessarily
Speaker 4: have to look at for those really specific features. It's
Speaker 4: just an overall feel.
Speaker 6: So it's like if someone's like, who's this and you're like,
Speaker 6: that's Aunt Janet, like it's just boom.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right. And that's why it makes it hard
Speaker 4: to answer the questions when people say, well, how can
Speaker 4: you tell us this and not this? And because it
Speaker 4: isn't you know, So it's and I don't want to
Speaker 4: make people think that that's how I identify snakes, because
Speaker 4: there's always exceptions.
Speaker 6: How many books about snakes. Did have you read and
Speaker 6: when did you start reading them?
Speaker 4: I've read forty six books about snakes, but the night
Speaker 4: is young, so.
Speaker 6: You started them this morning, that's right.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I do have a lot of reference
Speaker 4: books growing up. I like to learn about the creatures
Speaker 4: around me, and so between fifty and one hundred books
Speaker 4: something like that?
Speaker 6: Did you start young? Did you start getting amphibian and
Speaker 6: reptile books when you were a kid for like every occasion?
Speaker 4: Yeah. I have always been interested in creepy crawley things
Speaker 4: and like to spend times in streams and looking under
Speaker 4: rocks and things like that. So my family was very
Speaker 4: supportive and I was inundated with all the reptile and
Speaker 4: alphaebian toys and books that I could imagine. I started
Speaker 4: with dinosaurs, but it evolved.
Speaker 6: Where exactly were you raised.
Speaker 4: From New York and I've spent most of my life there?
Speaker 6: What part of New York?
Speaker 4: Well, it's when I say New York, people often imagine
Speaker 4: the city, and I actually lived in Orange County, New York,
Speaker 4: which is about forty five minutes away from the city.
Speaker 4: It's surprisingly rural. It's near Bear Mountain State Park and
Speaker 4: Stirling Forest we had bears, timber, attle, snakes, you name it.
Speaker 4: So it was a fun place to be.
Speaker 6: When you were growing up. Did your parents just let
Speaker 6: you loose? Were you like a free range child, like
Speaker 6: go out, don't get caught in some barbed wire, go
Speaker 6: look at stuff, or were you like an indoor kid
Speaker 6: reading books.
Speaker 4: I think that a little bit of both. It was
Speaker 4: definitely a different era, and I remember people talk about
Speaker 4: watching Stranger Things and how the kids can just wander
Speaker 4: off and have fun and catch frogs, and so there
Speaker 4: was definitely a lot of that.
Speaker 6: Side note, a few years ago, some research came out
Speaker 6: that kids are not any less safe than they were
Speaker 6: a few decades ago. In fact, crime in America peaked
Speaker 6: in the early nineteen nineties and has been going steadily
Speaker 6: down since. There was an article in the Washington Post
Speaker 6: called There's never been a safer time to be a
Speaker 6: kid in America and it has stats and graphs on
Speaker 6: the following crime rates. So why is helicopter parenting on
Speaker 6: the rise? Well? One twenty sixteen study claimed that Americans'
Speaker 6: fear of crime is statistically related to the level of
Speaker 6: violence portrayed on primetime TV, and another study tracked that
Speaker 6: the less satisfied we are with a government, the more
Speaker 6: likely we are to misjudge and inflate danger. So I
Speaker 6: don't have kids. If I had a dog, I would
Speaker 6: probably you put it in a papoose and it would
Speaker 6: never be more than a meter away from me. But
Speaker 6: the website free range kids dot com seems to make
Speaker 6: a case for just chilling out and letting your children
Speaker 6: romp off leash. I don't know. Up to you. They
Speaker 6: could also just read a book, but.
Speaker 4: I was also kind of a bookworm, so a little
Speaker 4: bit of both.
Speaker 6: Just sitting by a stream reading a book about snakes
Speaker 6: looking for snakes sounds pretty nice, right, I think this
Speaker 6: is my life. Now. How long have you been in Alabama?
Speaker 6: Because we're in a Hampton in conference room in Opelika.
Speaker 6: Opelika Opeka part is Alabama. So how how long has
Speaker 6: a New York guy been in Alabama?
Speaker 4: I've been in the South since two thousand and four.
Speaker 4: But they say it doesn't matter how long I'm down here,
Speaker 4: I'll always be a Yankee. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 6: The snake's better in New York or Alabama.
Speaker 4: See, I don't really want to offend anybody or puss
Speaker 4: anybody off. And that's really kind of a controversial statement.
Speaker 4: But New York doesn't have as many snakes, but they've
Speaker 4: got some cool ones, like timber rattlesnakes, and they're rarer
Speaker 4: up there. We've got timber rattlesnakes down here too, but
Speaker 4: they're kind of a diamond, doesn't They show up right
Speaker 4: in town actually, much to everybody's dismay.
Speaker 6: As born and bred West Coaster, I know nothing about
Speaker 6: timber rattlers, nothing, but I found out they're potentially one
Speaker 6: of the most dangerous snakes in North America because they're big,
Speaker 6: they have a lot of venom. They are also relatively
Speaker 6: chill as hell, and they warn you a bunch before
Speaker 6: they strike. They're like, come on, man, come on, rattle, rattle,
Speaker 6: so they give you fair warning. They're also kind of
Speaker 6: famous as a symbol of American anger and resolve. So
Speaker 6: in the seventeen hundreds, all these European doctors came to
Speaker 6: the US and they were like, my heavens, these sninky
Speaker 6: beasts saw no match for my shitty curs. So they
Speaker 6: were so bad ass we started to envision ourselves as
Speaker 6: timber snakes. Benjamin Franklin, who is noted in the Ornithology
Speaker 6: episode for throwing shade at garbage eating bald eagles. Was
Speaker 6: pro herb listen to this? In seventeen seventy five, he
Speaker 6: wrote about timber snakes, she has no eyelids. She may
Speaker 6: therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. Okay, well, she
Speaker 6: just doesn't have eyelids. She never wounds till she has
Speaker 6: generously given notice, even to her enemy. Was I wrong,
Speaker 6: sir in thinking this a strong picture of the temper
Speaker 6: and conduct of America? Your hero a timber rattlesnake? You
Speaker 6: know that. Don't tread on me flag E've ben seeing
Speaker 6: the last decade or so that has a name. It's
Speaker 6: called a Gadsen flag, and the Tea Party adopted it
Speaker 6: in two thousand and nine. Is kind of a GOP symbol,
Speaker 6: so it has these indignant Republican connotations. Now, But the
Speaker 6: poor timber snake, because on these posters and flags there's
Speaker 6: usually just horrendously rendered coiling and this snake always looks
Speaker 6: like a shit emoji to me, which is like, don't
Speaker 6: tread on me. Indeed. Now, more on why you should
Speaker 6: not be afraid of snakes later in the episode Trust me.
Speaker 6: Do you get more frantic texts and tweets at different
Speaker 6: times of the year, like do you know, like, Okay,
Speaker 6: it's rattle snakes season, Like I'm getting a lot of
Speaker 6: what is it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, And it is pretty interesting to look for
Speaker 4: those kinds of trends. In the spring, all the snakes,
Speaker 4: many of the snakes are going to be coming out
Speaker 4: of hibernation, so they're going to be basking and looking
Speaker 4: for food. That's when a lot of people see them.
Speaker 4: In the falls, when the vipers are looking for mates,
Speaker 4: so they're going to be moving around, more people are
Speaker 4: going to see them. Then late summer, that's when the
Speaker 4: babies hatch or are born, and so you get tons
Speaker 4: of requests to identify babies.
Speaker 6: So dead of winter is kind of like a quiet
Speaker 6: snake time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is my downtime. That's why I can talk
Speaker 4: and I'm not identifying lots of snakes right now.
Speaker 6: Again, how I was able to sequester him for hours
Speaker 6: in a Hampton in Well? Why are people so freaked
Speaker 6: out by snakes, reptiles, amphibians. I personally, I'm down with them,
Speaker 6: I'm totally fine with them. But I have a certain
Speaker 6: brother in law I'm not gonna mention him by name. Okay,
Speaker 6: I talked to my sister Celeste, and I can tell
Speaker 6: you a little more so. My brother in law is
Speaker 6: a professional heavy metal guitarist. Like he travels all over
Speaker 6: the world, that is his job. He has hair down
Speaker 6: to his waist, he wears all black. He plays a
Speaker 6: flying v guitar, and I have seen him flip off
Speaker 6: amphitheaters much to the crowds glee. You do not mess
Speaker 6: with dudes like this, You just don't. But when it
Speaker 6: comes to snakes, the dude just cannot even He is
Speaker 6: like a wonderful brother in law. He's a great person,
Speaker 6: and I find this to be his most endearing characteristic.
Speaker 6: He hates them. And I asked about this, my sister
Speaker 6: texted me, I believe he once walked off a photo
Speaker 6: shoot solely at the idea a snake could be there.
Speaker 6: He's a very tough looking person, but he can't even
Speaker 6: see when TV. Why are some people freaked up with them?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 6: Have you found.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we don't have the answer for that, but it's
Speaker 4: definitely the case. Believe it or not. You're not the
Speaker 4: first person to tell me that you know somebody that's.
Speaker 6: Scared of snake shocking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is really common. And there are some folks
Speaker 4: that point to research that say babies have this innate
Speaker 4: ability to recognize snakes, and that suggests that we have
Speaker 4: this we're born with this fear. And I'm not entirely
Speaker 4: convinced of those arguments. I think that we may have
Speaker 4: this innatebility to recognize snakes and react to them, but
Speaker 4: society helps push that initial reaction into fear. Ask anybody
Speaker 4: that does educational shows with snakes, and you could see
Speaker 4: the kids running up. They want to touch it, they
Speaker 4: want to feel it, they want to ask questions about it,
Speaker 4: and in the back of the room, their parents are
Speaker 4: really scared. And then eventually the kids see the parents
Speaker 4: and they get scared too. So I think it's largely
Speaker 4: society that influences something biological in us.
Speaker 6: Maybe it's maybe it's biblical lore. Maybe it's just like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 6: I've heard of these guys. They're troublemakers. Man. For you
Speaker 6: know what, I'm gonna have to put on underpants. It's
Speaker 6: just going to be a downward spiral. So if you
Speaker 6: have children and you're afraid of snakes, you should bury
Speaker 6: your emotions and appear as though you're not bothered.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's I think it's well of Parenting
Speaker 4: is not my expertise, but I think that it's important
Speaker 4: to let kids explore their curiosity and not get caught
Speaker 4: up in what you might be scared of.
Speaker 6: Have you had any reptiles or amphibians or other wildlifey
Speaker 6: type of things as pets.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Growing up, I would catch everything that I could
Speaker 4: and then hide it in tanks in the basement, you know,
Speaker 4: beg my parents to buy me whatever it was crawling
Speaker 4: around at the pet store too, So I did have
Speaker 4: a lot of lizards and snakes and fish and salamanners
Speaker 4: and things like that. I was allowed to catch things
Speaker 4: from the wild, but I had to let them go
Speaker 4: in two weeks. That was the compromise.
Speaker 6: You had a Fortnite clause exactly, like after one fortnight,
Speaker 6: the beast shall be returned.
Speaker 4: To the forest or you turn into one.
Speaker 6: Yeah, do you have a do you have a favorite animal?
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, that's such a dumb question. I don't care well.
Speaker 4: I get asked it a lot, so you think i'd
Speaker 4: have an answer ready. I kind of like I like
Speaker 4: them overall. I like how they're interacting with each other.
Speaker 4: I like that each species that we know today has
Speaker 4: these unique look and these unique strategies and just fit
Speaker 4: into the biodiversity puzzle in a different way. There's something
Speaker 4: about Eastern diamondback routle snakes, which are just really impressive.
Speaker 4: They're just they're the largest rottle snake in the world.
Speaker 4: They're only found in the southeastern United States, and they
Speaker 4: just have this quiet power dignity about them.
Speaker 6: So it's so dignity. Are there any just snakes or
Speaker 6: just clowns, like just like the just idiots?
Speaker 4: Uh? So, I guess I would think of the hog
Speaker 4: no snake, and it has all these strategies for uh,
Speaker 4: not getting eaten. Basically, it's going to play dead, it's
Speaker 4: gonna puke up its last meal. It's gonnah. What's the
Speaker 4: language on this?
Speaker 6: Oh you can say whatever.
Speaker 4: It shit's all over itself and you if you try
Speaker 4: to catch it. So I guess I I you know,
Speaker 4: these are all great strategies for not getting eaten, but
Speaker 4: they do kind of make them seem a little silly.
Speaker 6: So hog noose snake down to clown? Good to know,
Speaker 6: that's right? So did you always want to do this
Speaker 6: or at what point did you decide I'm going to
Speaker 6: be a scientist who studies wildlife or did it kind
Speaker 6: of evolve where all of a sudden you were like, oh, whoa.
Speaker 6: I looked up and here I am. I guess I'm
Speaker 6: doing this.
Speaker 4: I've always been interested in creatures, and if you had
Speaker 4: asked me in second grade what I wanted to be
Speaker 4: when I grew up, I'd say a naturalist. Didn't really
Speaker 4: know what that meant, but I liked nature, and so
Speaker 4: naturalists sounded good.
Speaker 6: Cook aside, naturalist is not to be confused with naturist,
Speaker 6: which is a person who subscribes to the notion that
Speaker 6: we should be nude more around each other and sometimes
Speaker 6: in public. I don't know. For more information, Wikipedia naturism,
Speaker 6: where you can read up on the nuances of the philosophy.
Speaker 6: You can also scroll through a gallery of nude people
Speaker 6: at festivals in pools, enjoying a barbecue in nothing but sneakers.
Speaker 6: So back to naturalists who like wildlife, which is also
Speaker 6: usually nude and sometimes just as Harry.
Speaker 4: Over time that evolved into zoology and wildlife management, and
Speaker 4: that's when I went to.
Speaker 6: School for stupid question. I don't care.
Speaker 7: I love them.
Speaker 6: Okay, do you have any favorite movies or television shows,
Speaker 6: or at least favorite ones about reptiles and amphibians where
Speaker 6: you're like they got it wrong, or you're like, you
Speaker 6: know what, you nailed it?
Speaker 4: Well, there's only some. Okay. So everybody wants to know
Speaker 4: about snakes on a Plane right right, I'm here to
Speaker 4: tell you I've never seen it.
Speaker 6: Never seen that movie too close to home.
Speaker 4: I think I've gotten the gist of it, right, Snake's
Speaker 4: on a Plane, right scary.
Speaker 6: Snake's on a Plane, by the way, was written by
Speaker 6: a first time Hollywood screenwriter, Shocking, and it was originally
Speaker 6: titled Venom. It was turned down by more than thirty
Speaker 6: studios before it was finally made, and it now enjoys
Speaker 6: a fresh rating of sixty nine percent on Rotten Tomatoes,
Speaker 6: which seems like the perfect amount.
Speaker 4: But it's fun. Anaconda is another movie. I have seen
Speaker 4: that one, and you know, I can just kind of
Speaker 4: turn off the biologist side of my brain if I'm
Speaker 4: watching something that's clearly entertainment. On the other hand, sometimes
Speaker 4: people get their information about biology and snakes from movies,
Speaker 4: and I don't think anybody's looking to snakes on a
Speaker 4: plane to get their biology facts. So I'm okay with
Speaker 4: how outlandish it is. But you know, something like the
Speaker 4: Jungle Book or Jurassic Park and things like that, people
Speaker 4: take that kind of information and then that becomes what
Speaker 4: they know about biology. So I'm a little harder on
Speaker 4: those kinds of movies and TV shows.
Speaker 6: Did you like the documentary Jumanji.
Speaker 4: The original or the remake?
Speaker 6: Kidding, I've never seen Jumanji. I think there's animals in it.
Speaker 6: What about? What about the scene where it rains frogs
Speaker 6: in Magnolia? Were you like that would never happen?
Speaker 4: So what has happened?
Speaker 6: Oh? It did happen?
Speaker 4: That has happened before?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 4: Yep?
Speaker 6: So tell me everything. Also, I'm so sorry if I
Speaker 6: just spoiled the ending of Magnolia.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know if I've seen it. Okay, what
Speaker 4: happens in that one?
Speaker 6: It rains frogs?
Speaker 4: Okay, It's fine, that's the big reveal at the end.
Speaker 6: There's an emotional journey on the way there. That's it's
Speaker 6: worth having.
Speaker 4: So many frogs are breeding in these shallow, temporary wetlands,
Speaker 4: and if a big storm comes through it could suck
Speaker 4: up that moisture and frogs in the process. What sure,
Speaker 4: I mean, you can imagine a tornado doing it, so
Speaker 4: maybe it'll be a step down from that.
Speaker 6: So it's like a sharknado, but a rainstorm of frogs.
Speaker 4: It's exactly like a frog nado.
Speaker 6: So how many frogs are we talking? Like? How long?
Speaker 6: Is it like, oh, ten frogs fell out of the
Speaker 6: sky or are we talking like? I got to look
Speaker 6: into this. First off, I'm sorry I gave away that
Speaker 6: scene from Magnolia, but you have had nineteen years to
Speaker 6: see it, so my apology is really just a formality
Speaker 6: and quite hollow. Also, frog storms are indeed a thing,
Speaker 6: as are fish storms, spider storms, toad storms, and worm storms.
Speaker 6: They think maybe a tornado like water spout sucks them
Speaker 6: up and carries them and then rains them back down. Now,
Speaker 6: according to the Wikipedia page entry entitled rain of animals quote,
Speaker 6: several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled,
Speaker 6: but healthy and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event.
Speaker 6: That's the good news. The bad news is there are
Speaker 6: examples where the product of the rain is not intact animals,
Speaker 6: but shredded body parts, which is a real bummer. I
Speaker 6: found this very stoic account on YouTube by a user
Speaker 6: called the Second Fleet from two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: Twenty to February two thousand and seven, thirteen hundred hours,
Speaker 1: usually full of greenwich mainta on it's just been raining frogs.
Speaker 6: It shows a paved path dotted with sadly smashed frogs.
Speaker 6: So whatever kind of day you're having, if toad arms
Speaker 6: and they are arms, didn't land on your umbrella, it's
Speaker 6: a good day for all of us.
Speaker 4: These are kind of the thing of legend, but there
Speaker 4: are you know, reliable accounts of them.
Speaker 6: I'm going to ask you some rapid fire questions because
Speaker 6: we have so many questions. These are from listeners. I'm
Speaker 6: going to start with the patreons because they are paying
Speaker 6: to support the podcast. So if you're not a patron,
Speaker 6: love them. Essentially you can get your question bumped to
Speaker 6: the tops.
Speaker 4: Now we're worth it, right.
Speaker 6: But before we take questions from you, our beloved listeners,
Speaker 6: we're going to take a quick break for sponsors of
Speaker 6: the show. Sponsors. Why sponsors, You know what they do?
Speaker 6: They help us give money to different charities every week.
Speaker 6: So if you want to know where ologies gives our money.
Speaker 6: You can go to Aliward dot com and look for
Speaker 6: the tab ologies gives back. There's like one hundred and
Speaker 6: fifty different charities that we've given to already, with more
Speaker 6: every single week. So if you need a place to go,
Speaker 6: donate a little bit of money but you're not sure
Speaker 6: where to go. Those are all picked biologists who work
Speaker 6: in those fields, and this ad break allows us to
Speaker 6: give a ton of money to them. So thanks for
Speaker 6: listening and thanks sponsor.
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Speaker 4: Okay, your questions now, let me clarify. You're going to
Speaker 4: be yelling these questions very quickly. Am I also supposed
Speaker 4: to be answering them immediately if you can briefly?
Speaker 6: Right? Okay, I'll be screaming at the at you through
Speaker 6: a bullhorn and you have four seconds to answer each one.
Speaker 6: That's not true, okay, but we do. We have a
Speaker 6: lot of questions, So, okay you ready. Alex in Trony
Speaker 6: wants to know are snakes just getting a bad wrap
Speaker 6: I either garden of Eden or are they really a
Speaker 6: bunch of sneaky dicks?
Speaker 4: So snakes are really hard to find, They're always hiding,
Speaker 4: But I don't really think of them as sneaky. I
Speaker 4: think of them as scared. I mean, they do not
Speaker 4: want to be found. So that's how I'd probably put
Speaker 4: a spin on that.
Speaker 6: Oh so they're just defensive exactly.
Speaker 4: They want to Yeah, they're not. They don't want to
Speaker 4: sneak up on you. They do not want to be
Speaker 4: seen by you.
Speaker 6: Snakes not sneaky.
Speaker 4: Cool you heard it here.
Speaker 6: First, Late Night Pie wants to know what allows amphibians
Speaker 6: to live in a hybrid environment of water slash land.
Speaker 6: Do they breathe air or water? And also, if you
Speaker 6: had to kiss a frog, what kind would you pick?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that covers a lot of territory there, it really does.
Speaker 4: So amphibians are a really diverse group. But the classic
Speaker 4: example is the frog that lives on land. It goes
Speaker 4: in water, lays its eggs, then it's a tadpole, then
Speaker 4: it turns into a frog, and that's the classic amphibian
Speaker 4: life cycle. But there's a lot of exceptions. There's a
Speaker 4: lot of salamanders that never leave the water. Some frogs
Speaker 4: lay their eggs on leaves and they drop into the water,
Speaker 4: so lots of different strategies. Many have gills and that
Speaker 4: helps them breathe in the water. They also have semi
Speaker 4: permeable skin which helps them do some respiration through that,
Speaker 4: and others have lungs and some have both over the
Speaker 4: course of.
Speaker 6: Their life, so it varies. Yes, axe lotles have cool
Speaker 6: ass gills, though well they just hang on to them.
Speaker 6: They look like they look like Vegas showgirl fans a
Speaker 6: little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, now that you mentioned that's true.
Speaker 6: So in axe Lottel is a kind of salamander. It
Speaker 6: lives exclusively in a few lakes in Mexico, and it
Speaker 6: retains these baby characteristics, like these external gills, which look
Speaker 6: so much like one of Cher's fantastic feather fan headdresses
Speaker 6: from the eighties. I would also like to apologize to
Speaker 6: Slovenian cave olms, which are different than Axilettl's, but they
Speaker 6: still have baby gills and they look like their long
Speaker 6: lost siblings.
Speaker 4: So They're one of the unique examples that they never
Speaker 4: really grow up with. The technical term is paedomorph and
Speaker 4: they retain their juvenile characteristics, in this case on a
Speaker 4: quantic lifestyle and gills for their whole life.
Speaker 6: Is that also called neotny? Is that something else? Is
Speaker 6: that only in breeding?
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's see that the paedomorph I think is retaining
Speaker 4: the juvenile characteristicsoty and I don't remember.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's with breeding, So niotny That retaining of those
Speaker 6: juvenile traits happens both in nature and in like the
Speaker 6: selective breeding that domesticated wolves into dogs, which are a
Speaker 6: lot like puppy wolves. Also, humans are an example of niotny.
Speaker 6: I did not know that, And the retention of juvenile
Speaker 6: traits in us may have helped us develop better communication
Speaker 6: with each other. They're not sure. Also it makes us
Speaker 6: look cute, like baby. I always feel like one human
Speaker 6: being who has retained juvenile characteristics is Byork. I always
Speaker 6: feel like she's just like a ash ah. Like, wonder,
Speaker 6: what about if you had to kiss a frog? What
Speaker 6: kind would you pick? Is this going to be some
Speaker 6: poisonous frog that's going to get you lit?
Speaker 4: I don't know how to get consent from a frog,
Speaker 4: So I'm just gonna let it go on its way.
Speaker 6: Good answer. Nicholas Smith wants to know what was the
Speaker 6: last snake to have legs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a pretty cool question because the general idea
Speaker 4: is that they all to be lizards and then a
Speaker 4: group of animals kind of branched off, lost their legs
Speaker 4: and became snakes. So when does one of these animals
Speaker 4: stop being a lizard and start being a snake. That's
Speaker 4: kind of hard to say, but we do have fossils
Speaker 4: to look at. Some snakes today still have these little
Speaker 4: remnants of legs, like the boas and the pythons. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they have these little vestigial limbs on the back. They
Speaker 4: got nubbins, They got nub and legs.
Speaker 6: Yep, what can you go there? Tickle little little mubbins.
Speaker 4: You could, yeah, as a matter of fact. And it's
Speaker 4: you know, there's lizards that don't have legs and there's
Speaker 4: those snakes that have the little nubbins, So you know,
Speaker 4: nature's really messy.
Speaker 6: I did not know that. That's pretty exciting. I'm excited, right,
Speaker 6: that's pretty dope. I had no idea. Russell Kelly wants
Speaker 6: to know, what's the biggest thing in anaconda can eat.
Speaker 4: So lots of people are being lots of people are
Speaker 4: scared of being eaten by an anaconda. There's no real
Speaker 4: reliable records of that happening. However, they can take large
Speaker 4: things like deer and pig and maybe a small taper
Speaker 4: or came in which is the alligator relative that lives
Speaker 4: down in South America, and humans. You know, I want
Speaker 4: to say it's impossible, but it's not something that I
Speaker 4: spend too much time worrying about, right.
Speaker 6: I feel like there's always disgusting photos on the internet
Speaker 6: you can find if you were to look for them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's mostly pythons from Southeast Asia. Oh, when we're
Speaker 4: talking about people being eaten by snakes, it doesn't happen often,
Speaker 4: but when it does happen, it tends to be in
Speaker 4: Southeast Asia.
Speaker 6: Why is that.
Speaker 4: The snakes are big and the people are small?
Speaker 6: Okay, so it's a all right, So it's a great show,
Speaker 6: all right. Priscilla Raymond wants to know. Living in Australia,
Speaker 6: we have many deadly snakes. I know, when you see
Speaker 6: one you need to stand still. However, I hear that
Speaker 6: the tiger snake is aggressive? Should I stand still or
Speaker 6: poo my pants and run? And if I come across
Speaker 6: one of these bad boys, what should I do?
Speaker 4: You know, if someone asks you, should I poo my pants?
Speaker 4: Who's going to say no?
Speaker 6: Yes? Always yes?
Speaker 4: Do that? You know? A little respect goes a long
Speaker 4: way when it comes to dealing with snakes, even the
Speaker 4: potentially dangerous ones. You know, give them your space, their
Speaker 4: space and don't try and catch them, and that'll cut
Speaker 4: down your risk significantly. People think of snakes as aggressive.
Speaker 4: I think of them more as defensive. They're kind of
Speaker 4: responding to a threat, and so if you don't threaten them,
Speaker 4: they're probably going to.
Speaker 6: Be okay, right, Like they're not out there hunting for humans.
Speaker 4: No, what does a little snake have to gain by
Speaker 4: going after and starting a fight with somebody that's one
Speaker 4: hundred times larger.
Speaker 6: Right, So they're just like, stay out of my space.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, And if you threaten some species and
Speaker 4: some scenarios, it's going to you know, bluff or come
Speaker 4: towards you a little bit, and that can be perceived
Speaker 4: as aggressive, but again it's because it was scared.
Speaker 6: Not a listener question, But have you ever been bitten
Speaker 6: by a snake like with fanks.
Speaker 4: Oh, a fanged snake? Uh, what is a fang anyway?
Speaker 6: I mean a viper, a pitch viper. So pit vipers
Speaker 6: are called that because they have these heat sensing pit
Speaker 6: organs on either side of their head near the nostrils,
Speaker 6: so they have a sixth sense that use infrared detectors
Speaker 6: to seek heat. How bollers that? And now here's some
Speaker 6: quick stats to banish your snake fears for good. You ready,
Speaker 6: Just here's some get real facts. These are taken from
Speaker 6: doctor David Stein's website. In the United States, seven to
Speaker 6: eight thousand recorded venomous snake bites a year happen. On average,
Speaker 6: only about five result in death. He says. This includes
Speaker 6: all the drunk knuckleheads that are showing off with a
Speaker 6: snake they caught. It includes all the people at rattlesnake roundups,
Speaker 6: holding rattlesnakes and letting them strike at their boots. It
Speaker 6: includes all the religious snake handlers proving their faith. It
Speaker 6: includes the people who keep venomous snakes as pets. It
Speaker 6: includes all the wildlife researchers who handle live rattle snakes
Speaker 6: as part of their job. It includes the pest control
Speaker 6: workers that remove venomous snakes from their hiding places. It
Speaker 6: includes all the Steve Irwin wannabes that harass venomous snakes
Speaker 6: for no particular reason. It includes the people who work
Speaker 6: with rattle snakes to extract their venom every day. And
Speaker 6: it includes all the people who use shovels and other
Speaker 6: hand tools to kill snakes in their yard. All of
Speaker 6: that five people a year die. He says, you can
Speaker 6: dramatically decrease your chances of being bitten by a venomous
Speaker 6: snake by promising not to be any of those people.
Speaker 6: So I know sometimes we feel afraid of snakes. Some
Speaker 6: studies have shown that children and babies aren't innately that
Speaker 6: afraid of snakes. It's really watching the parents' reactions to
Speaker 6: snakes that ingrains that fear in us. So don't waste
Speaker 6: your energy on being afraid of snakes. It's more likely
Speaker 6: that a falling TV will kill you, as it does
Speaker 6: to about one hundred Americans a year. Snakes are terrified
Speaker 6: of you. They just want to eat rats and peace.
Speaker 6: So you have better things to worry about and better
Speaker 6: ways to stay alive. Honestly by putting your phone down
Speaker 6: and not having a TV topple on you. Now has David,
Speaker 6: who is a professional harper and snake identifier, has he
Speaker 6: ever been bitten by a pit viper?
Speaker 4: No, I haven't. I've been bitten by many non venoma snakes, many, many, many,
Speaker 4: But I'm really careful around venoma snakes. And to the
Speaker 4: point when people come and see me work, they're pretty
Speaker 4: bored because they grew up. I mean they grew up
Speaker 4: watching the TV and you're dancing around, You're flicking these
Speaker 4: snakes around. That's not how I do it. And I've
Speaker 4: got all my fingers still, fortunately because of that.
Speaker 6: What is that hook called that looks like the thing
Speaker 6: that you turn the sprinklers on, but you're handling deadly
Speaker 6: snakes with it. What is it called?
Speaker 4: Sure, you can have a snake hook which has a
Speaker 4: little bit more of a curve at the end of it.
Speaker 4: And there's also what's called a stump ripper, which is
Speaker 4: a little We got to come up with these fancy
Speaker 4: names for these things, right.
Speaker 6: A stump ripper.
Speaker 4: It's better than just a stick. Yeah, I mean, they're
Speaker 4: basically all just golf clubs. But that's not fun to say.
Speaker 4: And the stump rippers are a little sturdier and you
Speaker 4: can use for flipping over logs and things like that,
Speaker 4: which is where many snakes like to hang out.
Speaker 6: Oh so that's sort of just like a that's like
Speaker 6: an all access pass to the under the log. Exactly,
Speaker 6: got it.
Speaker 4: And there's a lot of variations. You can buy snake
Speaker 4: hooks of different size. You can buy them that retrack
Speaker 4: so you can travel with them. There's a company out
Speaker 4: in Denver, Colorado. They put all kinds of emblems and
Speaker 4: stuff on them. So this is kind of gear for herpetologists.
Speaker 6: I looked and I found this one place live trap
Speaker 6: dot Com then had an absolute glut of raccoon traps
Speaker 6: and stump rippers and snake hooks. Man and they have
Speaker 6: a registry which I imagine either causes a lot of
Speaker 6: friction among newly engaged couples or snaky people find their soulmates.
Speaker 6: And that warms my heart. How many snake hooks do
Speaker 6: you have?
Speaker 4: I have one snake cook Okay?
Speaker 6: Is it your favorite? Are you like this is okay?
Speaker 6: I could upgrade.
Speaker 4: Look, when you're a pro like me, you don't need
Speaker 4: all the accessories and all the gimmicks. You just give
Speaker 4: me my standard snake cook.
Speaker 6: This was this was your big opportunity to get a
Speaker 6: shout out or a sponsorship from like like those platinum,
Speaker 6: those gold crystal studded snake cooks.
Speaker 4: She never crack.
Speaker 6: Yeah, like the situation, a fine Italian snae cook. Okay,
Speaker 6: Mike Melchure wants to know, have you ever been to
Speaker 6: Snake Island. I don't know if that is a euphemism.
Speaker 4: Snake Island he's referring or she is referring to a
Speaker 4: snake an island that's off of Brazil. There's a ton
Speaker 4: of these venomous snakes that there's these pit pipers there,
Speaker 4: really high densities. Every once in a while there's a
Speaker 4: show about some expedition looking for treasure or snakes there.
Speaker 4: I've never been there.
Speaker 6: Okay. There were a few good documentaries on Snake Island,
Speaker 6: ones on National Geographic. It features this very god voiced
Speaker 6: narrator detailing the tension between a snake and a bird.
Speaker 6: And then there's another full length documentary put out by
Speaker 6: Vice wherein this affable white guy who looks like your
Speaker 6: friend's boyfriend, who's on an improv team goes to Brazil
Speaker 6: and says things.
Speaker 4: Like I'm going fucking crazy because we're sleeping on an
Speaker 4: island full of snakes.
Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure I'm going to die.
Speaker 6: And then he interviews masked bio pirates who catch and
Speaker 6: smuggle the snakes. Tonally, both of the programs have an
Speaker 6: underlying WHOA, that's a lot of snakes man vibe? Would
Speaker 6: you want to go there?
Speaker 4: That would be pretty cool?
Speaker 6: Okay, So like if you want a trip to Snake Island,
Speaker 6: you'd be like, oh.
Speaker 4: Heck, yes, wait is that did I?
Speaker 6: I don't know. I wish that I could give that
Speaker 6: as a parting gift, like and you know what, a
Speaker 6: like single one way trip to Snake Island you're vanished.
Speaker 6: That would be like literal hell on Earth for some people.
Speaker 6: And it would be like your heaven.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I could. I could be a little
Speaker 4: bit more creative if I'm going to describe heaven. But
Speaker 4: I'd have fun. Okay.
Speaker 6: There's also snow cone machines there, and uh, it never
Speaker 6: gets too hot.
Speaker 4: Hey, you know what, I had thirteen minutes to explore
Speaker 4: this room. Storage in there. There's a freezer in there.
Speaker 4: It's full of ice cream? Is it really in hot pockets?
Speaker 6: Are you kidding me? Oh dang, I loove for thirteen minutes.
Speaker 6: I might take a hot pocket on the way charges
Speaker 6: of the room the baller. Okay. John Worster wants to
Speaker 6: know what is the coldest climate that a snake is
Speaker 6: able to live in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, snakes are pretty adaptable, and you can find them
Speaker 4: pretty far north. There's adders, it's a kind of viper
Speaker 4: in Europe. There in Scandinavia, what yep, Northern Russia. And
Speaker 4: over here in North America. You can have garter snakes
Speaker 4: all the way up through Canada, not through Canada, but
Speaker 4: through much of it. And it's all about strategies, you know,
Speaker 4: the viper in Europe, it's going to be underground for
Speaker 4: most of the year, and then it warms up for
Speaker 4: a couple months, and then it gets really busy, you know,
Speaker 4: figuratively and literally just that brief window. Garter snakes they
Speaker 4: also have a relatively small window. But they need to
Speaker 4: find these really unique areas to spend the winter. That's
Speaker 4: why you're going to see them congregating in some areas
Speaker 4: like the snake pits and Narsis. These are limestone caves
Speaker 4: basically that go below the freezing level, and in the
Speaker 4: fall they're all congregating. In the spring they're all emerging.
Speaker 4: Tens of thousands of snakes. Pretty cool.
Speaker 6: Was there a scene in Indiana Jones where he falls
Speaker 6: into a pit of snakes?
Speaker 4: Yes, that was a kind of a less natural situation,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I think you can hear things rattling and
Speaker 4: hissing and they're all harmless snakes.
Speaker 6: When you see a snake pit, is it or video
Speaker 6: of a snakepit? Have you ever seen one in real life?
Speaker 4: I did go to the Narcis snake pits and that
Speaker 4: was pretty cool.
Speaker 6: Did it just look like like Bonnaroo for snakes? Like
Speaker 6: it was just like so many snakes you couldn't even
Speaker 6: see who was.
Speaker 4: More like, what's those hedonism resorts? It was kind of
Speaker 4: like that for snakes.
Speaker 6: Like a like a burning man like snake like snake
Speaker 6: burning man.
Speaker 4: If you say so, I've never been.
Speaker 6: So everyone just knude and just who's doing Wow? I
Speaker 6: didn't know? You know, Okay, because again, my family's from
Speaker 6: Montana and one of them posted some video of a
Speaker 6: bunch of rattlesnakes all in a den and it was
Speaker 6: so fascinating to watch, like do you spend time looking
Speaker 6: at videos online of weird stuff?
Speaker 4: Too much time?
Speaker 6: Really? What's your favorite hashtag? What's what's the one that
Speaker 6: you use the most?
Speaker 4: Not a copperhead, right, not a common mouth? Yeah. I
Speaker 4: started doing that because people are finding snakes, and you know,
Speaker 4: I'll just you know, ninety percent of the snakes people see,
Speaker 4: they think it's venomous, and often it's a copperhead, and
Speaker 4: so I just wanted to highlight how often people make
Speaker 4: that mistake, and so, yeah, check that one out.
Speaker 6: Would you say that the best way to check really
Speaker 6: quick on whether or not a snake is venomous is
Speaker 6: just to look for the triangle shaped head.
Speaker 4: So it gets back to what we were talking about
Speaker 4: early year in that I don't emphasize tips or tricks
Speaker 4: or specific features because there's always exceptions and many harmless
Speaker 4: snakes Actually, when they're feeling defensive, they will make their
Speaker 4: head look like a triangle. So a lot of snakes
Speaker 4: have made a really critical error in making themselves look venomous.
Speaker 4: So it's just kind of an overall feel and once
Speaker 4: you start getting comfortable with the snakes, you'll be able
Speaker 4: to identify them quickly.
Speaker 6: So you just got to read more books on snakes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's not satisfying, Like, hey, how do
Speaker 4: I learn snakes? So I'll read books.
Speaker 6: Jenna Ericson wants to know. Is there such a thing
Speaker 6: as a snugly snake? Have you encountered one?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So I was doing an outreach event just on Friday,
Speaker 4: as a matter of fact, and I had this huge
Speaker 4: black pine snake and it was cold out and the snake,
Speaker 4: you know, we used to call them cold blooded, but
Speaker 4: ectothermic is the technical term. It was cold, it wanted
Speaker 4: to warm up, and so it wrapped itself around my
Speaker 4: neck and that's where it hung out. So that was
Speaker 4: kind of a cuddly snake.
Speaker 7: Just getting up in there exactly.
Speaker 6: It was a little snake scarf.
Speaker 4: It was a big one. But yeah, how.
Speaker 6: Many pounds did away?
Speaker 4: Oh? Well?
Speaker 6: Or how many feet? How do you quantify a snake?
Speaker 6: When you say I saw a big snake, do you
Speaker 6: say it was like this big, this long, weighed this much?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they always weigh less than people expect, so I
Speaker 4: generally go with length because that's more impressive.
Speaker 6: It was five or six feet, that's a big snake.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 6: That's quite a scarf. It's quite a state.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Bonnie Dutch, who was amazing. She designs a lot of
Speaker 6: the merch that we have on the site.
Speaker 4: I need to get some.
Speaker 6: I know. I'll hook you.
Speaker 7: I'll hook you up.
Speaker 6: Bonnie Wests note. Can all different snake breeds be friends?
Speaker 6: She said? We used to play in a sunny hill
Speaker 6: covered in snakes as kids what and there would be
Speaker 6: all colors and sizes, all chillen together in the sun.
Speaker 6: She said it was like the sun was their god
Speaker 6: and the hill was church. So she asked, was there
Speaker 6: no fighting in church? Are they just cool all the time?
Speaker 4: I would have loved to see this scene. It sounds
Speaker 4: really cool. So snakes are a really diverse group. Some
Speaker 4: will eat each other. Some will spend the winter together
Speaker 4: because they're limited by those unique places where they can
Speaker 4: escape the cold. So yeah, some are friends, some are food.
Speaker 4: I'm using friends, not literally right, but they they can
Speaker 4: spend time with each other, for sure.
Speaker 6: I didn't know that. I figured that they'd be like,
Speaker 6: I'm the snake on this scene, please remove yourself from
Speaker 6: my orbit.
Speaker 4: So that would be something we associate with a territorial animal.
Speaker 4: And there's really limited evidence that snakes are territorial.
Speaker 6: Oh so they're nicer than we've given them credit for.
Speaker 4: That's what I keep trying to tell everybody.
Speaker 6: Let's see. Corolina Ludden wants to know what is the
Speaker 6: appeal of having a snake as a pet. What do
Speaker 6: you do with them? She said, I'm not into them,
Speaker 6: but I want to understand.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for you know, wanting to put yourself
Speaker 4: in other people's shoes. That's admirable. Right, I don't have
Speaker 4: any snakes as pets, but they're beautiful. They're low maintenance,
Speaker 4: they don't smell, they're not going to be barking, so
Speaker 4: kind of the perfect bet, and.
Speaker 6: They eat like once every couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, really easy.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's fine. Emily Georgia wants to know where does
Speaker 6: the scary noodle's body end and the tail begin or
Speaker 6: is it just a tail with eyes?
Speaker 4: I mean it's actually just a neck with eyes. So
Speaker 4: the tail, technically, it's going to start at the kloaca.
Speaker 4: And I know that listeners already know what the kloaca
Speaker 4: is from here interview a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 6: So if you're not familiar with kloacas, go back, take
Speaker 6: a listen to the Ornithology episode where you will learn
Speaker 6: everything you need to know about all purpose orifices that
Speaker 6: are reptile and bird buttholes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's not the tail is not a big
Speaker 4: portion of the body. It's like the last eighth.
Speaker 6: So it's sub kloaca exactly. Oh, that's good to know.
Speaker 4: Posterior to the cloaca.
Speaker 6: Posterior Cloaca. That sounds like a really awesome neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Speaker 6: I live in postereo Cloaca. We have like really good
Speaker 6: brunch spots. Okay. Oh. Sam Gottfredson says, what are the
Speaker 6: mechanisms that cause a snake to bite even after it's dead?
Speaker 4: Nerves? Okay, Yeah, if an animal gets hit by a
Speaker 4: car or is killed suddenly, it still might have some
Speaker 4: nerves firing and that could cause the mouth to close.
Speaker 6: Jocelyn Furnace has a very important question, ken Snake's fart.
Speaker 4: Who asked this question Jocelyn.
Speaker 6: Furnace, But Jenna Erickson also wanted to know the answer.
Speaker 4: Okay, do you know about this book called No does
Speaker 4: it Fart? No? I feel like this person knows about
Speaker 4: it because it was last year or so. Somebody asked
Speaker 4: me if snake's fart and people ask that to me
Speaker 4: not infrequently, so I said, sigh, yes they do, and
Speaker 4: that started a hashtag does it Fart? And Nick Caruso
Speaker 4: and Danny Rabbit Lodi, I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name,
Speaker 4: compiled all the answers and wrote a book does it Fart?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 4: Yeah? And they should give me a cut after I
Speaker 4: just plugged their book.
Speaker 6: So were you partly one of the things that precipitated
Speaker 6: this to exist?
Speaker 4: I really can't take credit for it. I did answer
Speaker 4: a question on the topic and they ran with it.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, this is history. This is like when
Speaker 6: you find out who was at the signing of the
Speaker 6: Declaration of Independent is in the background. Like, this is
Speaker 6: so exciting.
Speaker 4: This is bigger than that.
Speaker 6: This is bigger than Kate Gilmour, who was our primatologist
Speaker 6: on episode two, wants to know why do some lay
Speaker 6: eggs and some give birth to live young.
Speaker 4: It's such an interesting phenomenon and it's kind of a
Speaker 4: quirk of evolution. And so because this is a rapid
Speaker 4: fire segment, I can't really get into the details of it,
Speaker 4: but the general idea is that egg laying was probably
Speaker 4: the ancestral condition. That's what the animal in the beginning had,
Speaker 4: and then live birth evolved from that. But it hasn't
Speaker 4: been directly there. They've been going back and forth. There's
Speaker 4: different kinds of egg laying and live birth, so evolution.
Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, what are the advantages of live birth?
Speaker 4: So you can let's see, the eggs are really good
Speaker 4: because you've got this really climate controlled little spot. But
Speaker 4: the live birth, you know, they're ready to go. They're
Speaker 4: not as vulnerable to predation, so that would probably be
Speaker 4: a big benefit.
Speaker 6: They can outrun whatever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they can start biting stuff. They're ready to go.
Speaker 6: They hit the ground biting, good for them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and in stable climates it might be an advantage
Speaker 4: because you don't necessarily need that enclosed space and neck.
Speaker 6: I always think again, Indiana Jones, that lives you know
Speaker 6: what I mean? Why all of my snake, all of
Speaker 6: my reptile knowledge apparently is for Harrison Ford.
Speaker 4: Wee. Well, I'm gonna blow your mind because many of
Speaker 4: the animals in that scene were actually legless lizards.
Speaker 6: What yeah, whoa whoa wait wait wait wait wait wait
Speaker 6: okay wait what all right? Okay? I took a dive
Speaker 6: into the snake pit of info, and oh man, he
Speaker 6: was right. Okay for the most part. Now, there's a
Speaker 6: scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc where Indy and
Speaker 6: Marion have to escape the Well of Souls, which is
Speaker 6: a snake filled underground bunker.
Speaker 4: Take this, wait it in anything that slithers.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, this so Places of Slytherin. Turns out
Speaker 6: most of the snakes in the Well of Souls weren't
Speaker 6: actually snakes at all, but legless lizards, which have visible
Speaker 6: ear holes, which snakes don't have. Okay, why why did
Speaker 6: they put legless lizards in there? Well? Three thousand snakes
Speaker 6: were ordered months in advance, but the production crew laid
Speaker 6: out all the snakes and they discovered that three thousand
Speaker 6: was nowhere near enough to blanket the set in their
Speaker 6: snake covered dystopia. So another seven thousand snakes were procured
Speaker 6: for a total of ten thousand snakes, but a bunch
Speaker 6: of those they had to get a bunch of legless
Speaker 6: lizards in a pinch. So Indian Marion in it are
Speaker 6: swinging torches around and apparently filming with a nightmare because
Speaker 6: these ectotherms weren't afraid of fire, and they actually tried
Speaker 6: to get closer to the flames to warm themselves. They
Speaker 6: just could not take direction. I'm sorry, why did they
Speaker 6: do that? Okay, we got this a little mixed up.
Speaker 6: I thought David was talking about out another of videophobic.
Speaker 6: That's Fear of Snakes, seen at a dinner in Temple
Speaker 6: of Doom, where a snake is slit and a bunch
Speaker 6: of a live snakes tumble out. So it turns out
Speaker 6: that dish is called Coiled Wrigley's aka Snake Surprise, And
Speaker 6: according to this Indiana Jones fan page, it was live
Speaker 6: baby eels stuffed inside a moist Boa constrictor. So the
Speaker 6: eels were also not snakes. And don't worry, this dish
Speaker 6: does not appear to be real. It is a fictitious
Speaker 6: menu item anyway. But Indiana Jones eels in one movie,
Speaker 6: legless lizards in another.
Speaker 4: Maybe they were. I got a good deal. You could
Speaker 4: tell the difference if you.
Speaker 6: Look at them, you could tell the difference. I mean,
Speaker 6: I could I tell the difference shave of the head. Yeah, okay, yeah, oh,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna look into this.
Speaker 4: So here's the way you tell the difference between a
Speaker 4: snake and a legless lizard. You have a staring contest
Speaker 4: with and sometimes you'll beat the lizard because they have
Speaker 4: eyelids and the snakes do not.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, Daniel la Venias, I'm sorry, Daniel, I'm
Speaker 6: probably pronouncing that wrong. Who is awesome? He asks from
Speaker 6: flattened out ribs to glide to tail scales, it look
Speaker 6: like a spider to lure birds and worm like appearances
Speaker 6: to feed on ant larva larvae. Snakes are awesome, But
Speaker 6: which is the most awesome adaptation you've seen?
Speaker 4: The most awesome adaptation is just the fact that, look,
Speaker 4: imagine you had to survive in the woods with no
Speaker 4: arms and no legs. How long would you last?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, I'd be toast.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But all these different kinds of snakes have figured
Speaker 4: out a way to make it work. And so I
Speaker 4: think that's my answer.
Speaker 6: Just the fact that they are yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 4: It works for them. You know, they lost their limbs,
Speaker 4: probably because it's easier to move underground, but somehow they've
Speaker 4: figured out all these amazing ways to get bhy, whether
Speaker 4: it's constricting their prey or this modified salima that's basically venom,
Speaker 4: or things like indigo snakes which are just grabbing other
Speaker 4: snakes and chewing their head. I mean, you do what
Speaker 4: you gotta do.
Speaker 6: If a snake gets bitten by another snake, is it
Speaker 6: like haha, a nice try, dude, or is it like, oh,
Speaker 6: you got me with my own tactic.
Speaker 4: I never saw it coming.
Speaker 6: I mean they are they immune to their own venom?
Speaker 4: No, they're not immune. And you know so when snakes
Speaker 4: are storing their venom, they're in these specialized glands. But
Speaker 4: if another snake were to bite a snake and it
Speaker 4: gets into their bloodstream, they would see effects from that.
Speaker 6: Wow, they'd be like, why you gotta do me like this?
Speaker 4: I thought we were friends. I thought we covered that man.
Speaker 6: Aaron Talbot Hi Aeron, wants to know. Is it true
Speaker 6: that rattlesnakes are starting to evolve and become much more
Speaker 6: sneak because they're using their rattles less.
Speaker 4: This is one of the things that I hear a lot,
Speaker 4: and it makes sense, but there isn't really evidence for it.
Speaker 4: So I put this in the urban legend category.
Speaker 6: Okay, it might be flim flam. Yeah, okay, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 6: That's one step closer to debunking flim flam.
Speaker 4: Yeah. NPR had a story about this okay, And so
Speaker 4: that gave it a lot of play. And there's different variations.
Speaker 4: One is that people are killing the snakes that make
Speaker 4: a lot of noise. Another one is that pigs are
Speaker 4: eating the snakes that are making a lot of noise. Again,
Speaker 4: it makes sense, but we don't really have evidence that
Speaker 4: it's actually happening.
Speaker 6: How can pigs eat snakes?
Speaker 4: There are tough, really, they are really tough, and they
Speaker 4: probably feel it when they're eating, when they're bitten by
Speaker 4: a venom of snake, but it doesn't necessary. It might
Speaker 4: ruin their day, but it doesn't kill them.
Speaker 6: Wow, They just keep going their machines.
Speaker 4: They are an incredible destructive force throughout this country. There, yeah,
Speaker 4: feral pigs.
Speaker 6: I had no idea. So today's invasive feral wild pigs
Speaker 6: are descended from wild boar that was introduced plus escaped
Speaker 6: domestic pigs and some hybrids of the two. And I
Speaker 6: found out wild pigs are super destructive. They cause the
Speaker 6: US like one point five billion dollars each year in damages.
Speaker 6: They look like a barnyard pig who went on a
Speaker 6: low carb diet and grew its hair out into like
Speaker 6: a lazy shag. They eat crops, They they edge out
Speaker 6: native species, they spread disease. They're considered vermin in some states.
Speaker 6: They were also considered really fucking adorable by me. I'm sorry,
Speaker 6: so they're like whatever, dude, Yeah, that's tough. I had
Speaker 6: no I had no idea go pigs. Ginger Larsen wants
Speaker 6: to know, do you have any tips or advice for herpin? Also,
Speaker 6: can you define herpin?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Herpin is one of the terms or going out
Speaker 4: and catching herps is something that you don't want to
Speaker 4: necessarily use in mixed company without explaining that herping is
Speaker 4: the act of going out looking for amphibians and reptiles.
Speaker 4: Remember those animals make up herpetology, which is creepy crawley things,
Speaker 4: and herps is shorthand form fimians and reptiles as well.
Speaker 4: So the number one trick is to learn the natural
Speaker 4: history of these animals. Walk around natural areas and just look.
Speaker 4: They're not going to be advertising their presence, So just
Speaker 4: walk slowly, pay attention to your surroundings and I'm sure
Speaker 4: you'll come across something.
Speaker 6: Be a little patient.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, sometimes those nature shows spoil us and
Speaker 4: they do a lot of editing and cutting and so
Speaker 4: it seems like you're seeing an animal every ten seconds.
Speaker 4: Often it takes a lot of walking around before used
Speaker 4: to find something because they don't want to be found.
Speaker 6: Okay, so just give it a minute.
Speaker 4: Give it a minute, and if you want to talk
Speaker 4: to you know specifics. In the spring at dusk, drive
Speaker 4: around natural areas. Often these snakes and frogs will be
Speaker 4: crossing the road. After rains, you might find amphibians walking
Speaker 4: to wellans. So it depends on what kind of species
Speaker 4: and where you're living.
Speaker 6: What is the best kind of boot for this activity?
Speaker 4: You got?
Speaker 6: Oh, these are not These are not These are like
Speaker 6: mall boots. They're not going to do it.
Speaker 4: That would probably fend off most reptile attacks. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: I wear closed toad shoes if I know I'm going
Speaker 4: to be in an area where there's venomous snakes. That's
Speaker 4: really all the precaution I take. And I just watch
Speaker 4: where I put my feet.
Speaker 6: You don't wear like iron anklets, because don't they like
Speaker 6: to go over the ankles a little bit.
Speaker 4: I've never worn iron anklets before. There are things like
Speaker 4: snake boots, which are these really rugged looking, heavy duty things,
Speaker 4: and the only times I've worn those is when I
Speaker 4: was specifically radio tracking rental snakes. So you know you're
Speaker 4: going right towards it. You're saying, I think the signal
Speaker 4: is here, and you're walking around. Pretty much everybody I
Speaker 4: know that studied rattlesnakes has accidentally stepped on one, but
Speaker 4: they haven't bitten.
Speaker 6: Really.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Later I was like, wait, how do you put a
Speaker 6: radio tracker on a freaking rattlesnake? Dude? How does that happen?
Speaker 6: And boy, howdy did I find out? I scrubbed through
Speaker 6: a twenty two minute video with Banjo music, and I
Speaker 6: learned that snakes are captured, They're put under general anesthetics,
Speaker 6: they don't feel anything, and then a flexible radio antenna
Speaker 6: is surgically implanted in their skin. Then they're medicated, they recuperate,
Speaker 6: they're released into the wild. I know that's going to
Speaker 6: sound a little cookie, all right, but I was like, yeah,
Speaker 6: maybe alien abductions are real, like we do it to
Speaker 6: snakes and stuff, so like maybe that happens to humans
Speaker 6: as possible. Anyway, back to rattlesnakes, Let's say that you
Speaker 6: were bitten. Because I live in Los Angeles, I hike
Speaker 6: on occasion once I saw a little guy right right
Speaker 6: next to the trail and narrow trail. Let's say I
Speaker 6: had gotten bitten on my ankle. Should I try to
Speaker 6: suck the venom out with my mouth and spit it out?
Speaker 4: Your priority should be getting professional medical care.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 4: And I don't tend to give medical advice because that
Speaker 4: gets me in a little trouble. But I'd say that
Speaker 4: most doctors would probably say not to try sucking out
Speaker 4: them out. Okay, yeah, no, turnit, No sucking out the venom.
Speaker 4: No ice. They say that the most important thing you
Speaker 4: can do is have a pair of car keys or
Speaker 4: cell phone to call somebody.
Speaker 6: Okay, I checked it, and if you suck on a
Speaker 6: snake bite, you'd only get about one one thousandth of
Speaker 6: the venomount yikes. So there's no DIY. There's no life
Speaker 6: hack for this.
Speaker 4: I do not recommend any life hack for venoma snake bite.
Speaker 6: I will tell you. Let's say that you have a
Speaker 6: phone and you drop it in water, and let's say
Speaker 6: that you're worried about how much water is in the phone.
Speaker 6: And let's say you were to put your mouth on
Speaker 6: some part of the phone and suck some of the
Speaker 6: water out sometimes that helps.
Speaker 4: That can't be true. I've done that, So there's water
Speaker 4: inside the I need to look at it.
Speaker 6: I dropped my phone of water and try to suck
Speaker 6: the water out of the ports.
Speaker 4: Look, it's a scary, stressful situation.
Speaker 6: I should have just called an ambulance at that point.
Speaker 6: Side note. When we recorded this a month ago, doctor
Speaker 6: Stein told me he was leaving Auburn University soon to work.
Speaker 6: Are you ready for this? On an island with sea turtles?
Speaker 6: He is now a research ecologist at the Georgia Sea
Speaker 6: Turtle Center on an island it's called Jackal Island. He
Speaker 6: tells me. Turtle Island is the bomb his words. I
Speaker 6: looked it up and it's so idyllic and perfect. My
Speaker 6: stomach started hurting because of beauty.
Speaker 4: It's yeah, it's you know where people go to vacation.
Speaker 6: So you're gonna live on a vacation island full of
Speaker 6: sea turtles.
Speaker 4: I'm going to live adjacent to a sea turtle island,
Speaker 4: which is much better than Snake Island.
Speaker 6: And I was gonna say that the appeal slightly higher.
Speaker 6: So does that mean you get to count baby sea turtles.
Speaker 4: There? It's a loggerhead nesting beach and there's a lot
Speaker 4: of there's a lot of sea turtle action going on there. Yeah,
Speaker 4: including babies.
Speaker 6: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: Dream it's kind of exciting.
Speaker 6: Do you dream about herpetology?
Speaker 4: I can't recall any specific dreams I've had about tiles
Speaker 4: and amphibians, but surely, surely it's happened.
Speaker 6: I'm sure. Side note, At this point, the nice lady
Speaker 6: from the Hampton in front desk came into the conference
Speaker 6: room to show some other lady around. She just forgot
Speaker 6: we were in there. It had been that long. That's okay,
Speaker 6: I got you're in here.
Speaker 4: They have questions, Yes, No, it's a stopping and starting thing.
Speaker 4: Check out what you needed.
Speaker 6: To Yeah, if you need to go look ice cream,
Speaker 6: hot pockets, you're going to leave that in right. Yeah,
Speaker 6: the whole thing. They were so sweet. Okay from Twitter? Uh,
Speaker 6: Glistening Hamsters wants to know midwife toads. I love how
Speaker 6: they go beep.
Speaker 4: That's not a question, Thanks for your comment, Glistening Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think you're referring to narrow mouth toads, which do
Speaker 4: have kind of a nasal sound when they're breeding.
Speaker 6: Oh they go away.
Speaker 4: I think that's what glistening hamsters is referring to.
Speaker 6: Okay, so midwife toads are dope. They're named because the
Speaker 6: male carries around a clutch of fertilized eggs on his
Speaker 6: back to protect them before letting them hatch and swim
Speaker 6: away in the water. They chirp and they sound like
Speaker 6: a heart monitor. They're like beep, beep, beepe Now. Narrow
Speaker 6: mouth toads have a call that sounds a lot like
Speaker 6: a lamb bleeding. They're like, Matt, Matt, Matt. Okay, you guys,
Speaker 6: I love toads, kybirds. One wants to know do turtles
Speaker 6: recognize people they know?
Speaker 4: So this is probably a really controversial question because people
Speaker 4: perceive things from their pet turtles that I, as a researcher,
Speaker 4: can't necessarily appreciate. So I'm not going to take away
Speaker 4: from them the fact that maybe turtles do recognize people.
Speaker 4: But I'm not sure if it's been the subject of
Speaker 4: rigorous study yet. Okay, you know, crows do. Jury is
Speaker 4: still out on turtles. I think.
Speaker 6: Do you think in working with turtles you'll find out
Speaker 6: if certain ones are like, hey, bro, what's up?
Speaker 4: I do not think I will find that out.
Speaker 6: Okay, you let me know though.
Speaker 4: So one thing that we do know is that some
Speaker 4: turtles are what we call trap happy, and if you
Speaker 4: set trap in a wetland, it'll be there every day.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, what's that about?
Speaker 6: They Are they like murders or are they just very dumb?
Speaker 4: Maybe maybe they're hungry and dumb, bad memory?
Speaker 6: Who knows what recidivism though, They're just like I'm back man, Yeah, okay, Hi,
Speaker 6: they need better parole officers. Last questions, What is the
Speaker 6: thing about your job or your life as a herper
Speaker 6: that sucks? What are you like? I hate this?
Speaker 4: You know, reptiles and amphibians are really amazing animals, highly
Speaker 4: endangered in general that we're losing species, we're paving over
Speaker 4: their habitats, and so conservation biology is kind of this
Speaker 4: crisis discipline where you're struggling to learn as much as
Speaker 4: you can to stave off these extinctions, and sometimes it's
Speaker 4: not possible. So that kind of sucks.
Speaker 6: So that's the grand bummer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I hope this is not the end of the podcast,
Speaker 4: because we don't want to end on a bummer.
Speaker 6: No, no, we never end with a stage five bummer.
Speaker 6: What is the best thing about your job? What just
Speaker 6: like gives you butterflies keeps you going. You're like, I'm
Speaker 6: so lucky. I can't believe they pay me for this.
Speaker 4: I'm really lucky to work with a great group of
Speaker 4: people that are really passionate about these animals, passionate about
Speaker 4: increasing our knowledge of them and making the planet a
Speaker 4: better place for them and us. And that's a great
Speaker 4: place to be.
Speaker 6: So your colleagues, my colleagues, really so other people are
Speaker 6: the best thing about your job. That's that's surprising. You
Speaker 6: don't normally hear people say that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it's true. It's true. It's it really makes
Speaker 4: things better when you're surrounded by people that are all
Speaker 4: working towards a common goal and are bright and motivated,
Speaker 4: and that's why they're there.
Speaker 6: If someone wanted to be a herpetologist or a wild
Speaker 6: life ecologist, what would you tell them to do? What
Speaker 6: would you what do you wish you could be? Like, hey, yo, little.
Speaker 4: Me, You get experience any way you can figure out
Speaker 4: if it's for you. Surround yourself with people that share
Speaker 4: those kinds of goals and figure out if it's for you,
Speaker 4: and a path will emerge.
Speaker 6: Is there anything I should eat before I leave? Alabama.
Speaker 4: Barbecue is big here. Okay, I'm not big on barbecue,
Speaker 4: but barbecue is big here. Oh and boiled peanuts.
Speaker 6: Oh, I'll try a boiled peanuts. Okay, great, I've never
Speaker 6: Why do they'd even do that?
Speaker 4: They're easier to show, I guess.
Speaker 6: Okay, Like, when have you ever been shelling a peanut
Speaker 6: and been like, oh, I gotta stop it. Digg a
Speaker 6: nap like they're peanuts.
Speaker 4: Look, if you do a few hundred of them, get cramps.
Speaker 6: Okay, boiled peanuts on the list. Thank you so much
Speaker 6: for being on. Thank you for coming to a Hampton
Speaker 6: in conference room in the middle of Opaca Ola.
Speaker 4: I got it.
Speaker 6: I got it.
Speaker 4: Yes, nice job. I'm honored to be here. I was
Speaker 4: really excited when I got the invitation.
Speaker 2: Yay.
Speaker 6: Sorry about the SD cards.
Speaker 4: That's fine.
Speaker 6: I hope it's worked. Can you watch if it didn't?
Speaker 6: So what did we learn? Unless you wrestle the venomous
Speaker 6: ones with your hands or sport, don't worry about snakes.
Speaker 6: Don't worry about snakes. Chances are if you're afraid of them,
Speaker 6: it's because your parents were so rebel against your parents
Speaker 6: and love a snake. Also shake a toad's hand and
Speaker 6: tell it I love them now. To find out more
Speaker 6: about doctor David Stein, go to david astein dot com.
Speaker 6: He has so many links to great science articles he
Speaker 6: was quoted in, such as the November twenty seventeen issue
Speaker 6: of Gonfroggin called him herper of the Week. And here
Speaker 6: are two more titles of articles he's been quoted in.
Speaker 6: This ten dollars sex toy is helping scientists study turtles.
Speaker 6: Here are the worst smells in the world, according to scientists.
Speaker 6: These are marks of good science communication. They're interesting. You
Speaker 6: can also follow him on Twitter or Instagram at alongside
Speaker 6: wild He's living alongside Wildlife on Facebook. He also runs
Speaker 6: a nonprofit which you can learn about at alongside Wildlife
Speaker 6: Foundation dot org. I'll put all these links up in
Speaker 6: the show notes and at aliward dot com slash ologies,
Speaker 6: so if you don't have a pen, don't worry about it.
Speaker 6: You can find me at ali Ward or at ologies
Speaker 6: on Twitter and Instagram, and head to Instagram for this
Speaker 6: week's ologies Enamel pin set giveaway. I'm so excited. You
Speaker 6: can become a patron at patreon dot com slash ologies.
Speaker 6: I absolutely love making this podcast. I love it so much,
Speaker 6: and you may have noticed, I don't run any ads.
Speaker 6: It's entirely funded by listeners through Patreon and merch sales.
Speaker 6: That helps pay my merch ladies. It helps pay Stephen
Speaker 6: Ray Morris to sound edit all this for me. He
Speaker 6: totally undercharges me and I would love to pay him
Speaker 6: what he deserves. Thank you so much, Steven. We will
Speaker 6: hopefully get to that point. Join the Ologies podcast Facebook
Speaker 6: group which is full of some of the best kind, curious,
Speaker 6: hilarious people ever, So thank you Hannah and Aaron for
Speaker 6: running that. Shannon Feltis who also goes by Urban Farm Foods,
Speaker 6: and Bonnie Dutch who's on ets run ologiesmerch dot com.
Speaker 6: Shannon is also a chef in Portland and she's having
Speaker 6: a dinner with Panatologist from episode six Cole and Perry.
Speaker 6: She's gonna come out to Portland, so I'm gonna try
Speaker 6: and get up there for that too. So you can
Speaker 6: go to eatfeastly dot com for more info on that. Also,
Speaker 6: if you listen to the end of the episode, you
Speaker 6: know that I usually tell some dumb secret at the
Speaker 6: very very end as a thank you for sticking it out.
Speaker 6: I feel like most people don't listen to the very
Speaker 6: end of a podcast. So I decided to confess weird
Speaker 6: stuff this week. I will tell you I got insanely
Speaker 6: busy with a bunch of writing deadlines, and I wore
Speaker 6: the same shirt from Wednesday night until Friday afternoon. I mean,
Speaker 6: I work from home and it's a great shirt and
Speaker 6: I just time got away from me. Okay, another secret.
Speaker 6: This is a good secret. This is a less embarrassing secret.
Speaker 6: I start shooting a new Netflix science show this week.
Speaker 6: I'm so excited, and I will give you more info
Speaker 6: on that when I know I legally can I guess.
Speaker 6: So until then, ask smart people dumb questions and ask
Speaker 6: snake people from questions. Also total arms.
Speaker 7: Okay, byebye pack Aderman College, Mombiology, cryptozoology, lithology, yeahurology, meteorologylogy, technology, seriology.
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