Ten Things I Like About... Podcast

Summary: Are Screamers in need of conservation? Join Kiersten to find out!   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org Data Zone by Bird Life: https://datazone.birdlife.org IUCN Red List: https://www.iucnredlist.org American Bird Conservancy: https://abcbirds.org/bird/southern-screamer/ Asociacion Armonia: https://armoniabolivia.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is the final episode of Screamers and we'll be talking about conservation. Like everything else with Screamers this episode will have a few twists. The tenth thing I like about Screamers is conservation. Each species has a story of it's own, so we'll take them one by one. Let's start off with the Southern Screamer. Southern Screamer, Chauna torquata, also known as the Crested Screamer is found from the eastern half of Bolivia south into Argentina as far as Buenos Ares Province and east through Paraguay into south western Brazil and Uruguay. The conservation status of the Southern Screamer is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources as Least Concern. This means that Southern Screamer population numbers are steady or increasing. Their population trend is listed as stable with adult individuals estimated between 66,700 to 667,000 individuals. The last time this species was assessed was in 2024. This species of Screamer is impacted by habitat loss. As wild lands are drained and deforested to create more land for cattle ranching and farming, Southern Screamers lose vital habitat, but a 27,000 acre reserve created in 2008 by Asociacion Armonia to protect the Blue-throated Macaw had the added bonus of offering protected habitat to the Southern Screamer. Barba Azul Nature Reserve protects 250 species of birds and is an important stop over for migratory shorebirds.  If you are interested in seeing the Southern Screamer at the reserve you can book a conservation birding trip through American Bird Conservancy. All fees support the reserve and American Bird Conservancy's mission for protecting wild spaces for birds. Now there are other things keeping the Southern Screamer protected, this is the twist for this species, ranchers and farmers actually like having Southern Screamer nearby as they are excellent guard birds and raise the alarm when any predators come near. Sometimes people sneak a young Screamer away from the parents and keep them on their property for exactly that reason.  Southern Screamers have also been seen eating invasive plants species, such as white clover, which means they are helping their own conservation efforts.  The Northern Screamer, Chauna chavaria, also known as the Black-necked Screamer is in a similar situation as the Southern Screamer. This Screamer is found across northern Columbia from the Atrato River and Magdalena River valleys east into the Lake Maracaibo area of Venezuela. They are also under pressure from habitat destruction for ranching and agricultural use. As of the latest surveys in 2023, the Northern Screamer is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. Their population is stable with 60,000 to 130,000 mature adults. Locally, in Columbia and Venezuela, they are listed as Vulnerable. Conservation efforts in these countries include educational campaigns bringing awareness to Northern Screamers and their importance in the local environment. Several preserves have also been established to help protect the wetland areas that these birds rely upon. Other threats to the Northern Screamer include egg collection by humans for use as food and collection of young for the local pet trade.  The last species of Screamer, the Horned Screamer, Anhima cornuta, is found in the Amazonian regions of Venezuela, to the eastern llanos of Columbia, to eastern Bolivia and south-central Brazil. Their latest assessment by the IUCN was in July of 2024 and they are currently listed as Least Concern with a stable mature adult population estimated between 16,700 to 66,700. There are not many conservation efforts in the region specifically aimed at the Horned Screamer, but there are established conservation sites throughout their range to prevent more wetlands from being drained for ranching needs.  The subcutaneous air sacs found in all three species of Screamer keep these birds from being on the menu internationally, but locally some people do hunt them for food. It is probably an acquired taste and you need to know how to prepare the meat just right to make it palatable.  It is nice to report on species that are still thriving in our ever changing world and I am glad to know that local conservation effort exists for all three species on Screamers. Thank you so much for joining me for another series of Ten Things I Like About… I learned a lot about the Screamer as I wrote this series and I hope you learned a lot by listening. My tenth favorite thing about Screamers is conservation. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  I will be taking a bit of a break at the beginning of summer, so join me again in July for a brand new series on an unknown or misunderstood creature.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Join Kiersten as she talks about the eyes and beaks of the Screamer.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Ornithology 3rd Edition by Frank B. Gill “The evolutionary relationship among beak shape, mechanical advantage, and feeding ecology in modern birds,” by Guillermo Naval, Jen A. Bright, Jesus Marugan-Lobon, and Emily J. Rayfield. Evolution 73-3;422-435, Society for the Study of Evolution. doi:10.1111/evo.13655 “Bird Eye Color: A Rainbow of Variation, a Spectrum of Explanations,” by Eamon C. Corbett, Robb T. Brumfield, and Brant C. Faircloth. Https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13276. Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is the penultimate episode of Screamer and the ninth thing I like about this animal is their eyes and beaks. One of the things that is often overlooked in bird is their eye color, so today we will delve into the variations that exist by looking through the eye of the Screamer. Bird beaks, or bills either is correct, also vary extensively through out the avian family. Beak shape often indicates what type of food the birds eats, but like everything else about the Screamer, things are not always as they seem. Bird eye color varies more than anyone expected. Not many researchers have attempted studying this characteristic and the few that have taken up this research topic and finding more questions than answers. Colors ranged form dark black or brown to vivd emerald green, sapphire blue, scarlet and crimson, turquoise, and even white. There is even a bird with pink eyes. It is absolutely amazing the various hues that birds' eyes contain.  Irises can be one color or more than one. The eyes of Rock Pigeons, one of the most disliked birds around the world, are bicolored starting with a ring of yellow on the outside and red/orange close to the pupil. The Satin Bowerbird has eyes with a vibrant blue ring on the edge of eye with an equally vibrant ring of purple next to the pupil. The Three-streaked Tcharga has a ring of light spots that look like stars set in a dark background giving them some of the most unique bird eyes around.  Eye color in birds can change as a bird matures, for example Osprey eye color changes from red as juveniles to yellow as adults. Sexual dimorphism is also present in some species of birds meaning the female's eyes are a different color than the male's. Seasonal changes in eye color can also happen, for example Brown Pelican eyes change from brown to blue during breeding season. Southern Screamers and Northern Screamers both have brown eyes as adults, while Horned Screamers can have yellow to orange to red eyes as adults. To clarify, I found no research indicating that these birds eye color changes as they age, but I could only find reference to their adult eye color.  There are three things that contribute to the color of a bird's eye, pigments, blood vessels, and structures. These three color options are still being closely studied but certain pigments are responsible for light colors and different pigments are responsible for darker colors. For example, carotenoids are responsible for the orange color of birds in Family Anatidae which includes certain ducks. An increased amount of blood vessels in the eye creates the red eyes of some species.  Why do bird have such varied eye color? The short answer is we just don't know. It could be related to how they find food, where they nest, diurnal versus nocturnal behaviors, communication, or another reason we have not thought of yet. Much more research needs to be done to answer this question, but for now, we can marvel at the extreme variation of bird eye color.  Now, let's take a look at some bird beaks. Just like eye color bird beaks vary tremendously. They can be wide and flat like a duck, tweezer-like similar to a gnatcatcher, chisel-like as the raven's beak, long and thin like a hummingbirds, and deeply curved like the honeycreeper. These are only a few beak shapes found in the avian world. What a bird eats can impact the shape of its beak. Keeping this idea in mind, let's look at the Screamer's beak. Screamers eat leaves, stems, flowers, and roots of aquatic vegetation, so we might assume that their beaks would look at lot like their closer relatives ducks, geese, and swans who also eat similar items. Duck bills are flat and wide with some serration on the inside to help grasp aquatic grasses, but as we know Screamers have a hooked beak reminiscent of a raptor beak.   Hooked beaks help raptors tear apart their prey to facilitate swallowing. If the Screamer eats plant material why does it have a small hooked beak? It has to be hard work to get enough food using a smaller beak to pick up leaves, flowers, and plant roots. It is so much effort for a food item that is low in calories. Once again there is no easy answer to this question, but new study discovered that what a bird eats isn't the only determination of beak size and shape. Turns out we should be thinking about the birds beak in the same manner that we think of our hands. Beaks are not just for eating, they are for manipulating the environment.  Screamers may have hooked beaks to help them build nests, feed their young, or manipulate their environment in ways that we have yet to discover. Once again Screamers are pushing the boundaries of normal avian behaviors. Thank you for joining me for the ninth episode of Screamers. I hope you learned something new, I know I did and my ninth favorite thing about Screamers is their eyes and beaks. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for the final episode of Screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Do Screamers actually scream? Find out in this episode of Ten Things I Like About Screamers.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Observations on the Horned Screamer,” by Frank B. Gill, F.J. Stokes, and C.C. Stokes. Wilson Bulletin, Vol. 86 (1974), Iss. 1, Art. 6. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/wilson_bulletin/vol86/iss1/6 Screamer Vocalizations: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/horscr1/cur/sounds Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it.   Listeners, let me first apologize for missing a week in the middle of Screamers. Spring has started off extremely busy for me and time got away from me. Let's jump back in with episode eight of Screamers. The eighth thing I like about Screamers is their vocalizations. Yes, that's right we are finally going to talk about the attribute that gives these birds their common name, Screamers. Most of the research I found on the vocalizations of Screamers focused on the Horned Screamer, Anhima cornuta, so what we talk about today pertains to this species. All species of Screamers make similar calls and vocalizations that's where the name come from, but the specific details in this episode are about the Horned Screamer.   Most of what we know about Horned Screamer vocalization and related behaviors come from the research of Frank B. Gill. Three vocalizations have been observed and described from observations of wild Horned Screamers.  I promise you that none of them are a melodious song that you associate with songbirds. Their calls are definitely more like their close relatives swans, ducks, and geese. I cannot play any of these calls for you in this episode due to copyright agreements, but I will post links in the show notes that you can follow to listen to these calls. The first call that we'll talk about what is titled the Moo Co call. M-O-O C-O is the spelling. This call is bisyllabic meaning it has two notes. The second note has a distinctly lower frequency than the first note. The intensity of this call varies from a melodious call to a harsh bark to a coughing note. The volume of this call can vary from soft and only heard when close to the bird or very loud and can be heard from over a mile away. That's quite a call! The Moo Co calls are often given by couples in a duetting sequence. When this happens the birds combine their calls by overlapping the second note of the first individual with the first syllable of the second individual. This can result in a trisyllabic call Ha Moo Co or Ha Moo-o Co. This call is where the local name for Horned Screamers, jamuco, comes from. This triple call is only performed by couples, most likely mated pairs, as it was never heard from a single, lonely individual. The triple Moo Co call is the call that mated pairs use to reinforce their bond through the year and at the beginning of each breeding season. It is believed that males produce a louder and deeper pitched Moo Co call than females which makes the duetting a bit more musical. It can also aide in identifying sexes through vocalizations. Moo Co calls are used for alarm calls, distance calls, and greetings. The second call is called honking as it closely resembles the honking calls of a goose. This call consists of two distinct patterns given in various combinations. One of the patterns has seven to eight strongly developed harmonics. This sequence typical lasts about 30 seconds and is often accompanied by head and neck bobbing, especially when multiple screamers are together. Honking is typically used for distance calling and greetings. The third call is a loud bugle-like call titled the Trumpet call. This call consists of two syllables with a low introductory note and a second inflected note. This one is meant for long distance communication as is it the loudest of all three vocalizations. With these three call descriptions, we can clearly see why these birds are called Screamers, when you listen to these calls it will reinforce this name. These birds do a lot of screaming! I do have to admit that the duetting between two Screamers is quite hypnotic and has a lovely sound. I can see why they reestablish their bonds and their territories using this call. In the wild, screamers typically do most of their vocalizing in the early morning, but will call sporadically throughout the day. Morning brings Moo-Co calls to greet the morning and talk to the neighbors. Remember this species of screamer lives in small groups of 5 to 10 with everyone helping define a territory, so knowing that everyone made it through the night and where they are is important. If nothing really happens during the day, the screamers are quiet but, if they decide to move locations or other screamers encroach on their territory, things can get loud. Moo Co calls are made when groups decide to move locations and can be heard during take-off when individuals are close together. If an individual within an established group changes location they are quiet upon take-off but are greeted loudly with honking upon landing.  Honking between isolated groups, up to a mile apart, happens a lot. One group will begin honking with occasional trumpet calls and then nearby groups will respond. This kind of check-in can last about 20 minutes and involve up to seven different groups. We are not entirely sure why they do this, but it is certainly a great way to get information about your surrounding environment.  Honking and trumpeting erupt when other groups of screamers land near territory boundaries or cross over into an established territory.  There is one last call we need to discuss. Screamers also produce a nonvocal sound using the unusual subcutaneous air sacs we discussed on the last episode. This call is a low-intensity sound created during pair bonding activity and family greetings. It is produced with the body in a horizontal position, with the tail slightly lowered. Feathers in the middle of the neck region are repeatedly raised and flattened in concert with this “ugh” sound. We are not exactly sure how Screamers produce this sound, but it is hypothesized that it is created by forcing air through the subcutaneous air sacs in the neck. Well, Screamers just get more and more interesting with each episode. I hope you enjoyed this look at Screamer vocalizations because it is my eighth favorite thing about this amazing bird. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next we for another exciting episode about screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: You mean Screamers have even more physical oddities? Yep! Join Kiersten to find out about more anatomical anomalies of Screamers.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Ornithology 3rd Edition by Frank B. Gill “A peculiar association: the skin and the subcutaneous diverticula of the Southern Screamer (Chauna torquata, Anserifomes), by Mariana B. J. Picasso, Maria Clelia Mosto, Romina Tozzi, Federico J. Degrange, and Claudio G. Barbeito. Vertebrate Zoology, 64(2): 245-249, 7/25/2014. “A Study of the Pterylosis and Pneumaticity of the Screamer,” by Ida S. DeMay. The Condor, March 1940, vol 42. Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. In this episode we will continue with our anatomical anomalies. The seventh thing I like about Screamers is their unusual feather pattern and subcutaneous air pockets. That is not a sentence I ever thought I would say, but I have had this experience many times since I've started Ten Things I Like About…  Just like the last episode, we will have to do a little bit of background on avian anatomy before we jump into the Screamer anomalies, so let's get started. Birds are covered in feathers. When talking about nature you should not use all or never because there is always an exception to the rule, but we can safely say that all birds have feathers. Feathers help bird do lots of different things such as keep warm, keep cool, keep hidden, or advertise their presence, and of course fly. They have different types of feathers that cover their body, such as flight feathers, both primary and secondary that help them fly, tail feathers that help them during flight and balance while perching, downy feathers that lay close to the skin to help with temperature regulation, and bristles that are often seen near the eye or mouth. Feathers grow out of the skin from pores. They are not spread along the entire skin like the fur of most mammals. Avian feathers grow in tracts on the birds body. The concentration of the tracts can differ depending on the species of bird, for example, Tundra Swans, which have approximately 25,000 feathers, have 80% of those feathers on their head and neck, where as, songbirds have 2000 to 4000 feathers and only 30 to 40% are found on the head and neck. In between these track are patches of bare skin called apteria.  There are nine major feather tracts. These names of the feather tract are not important for our purposes, but where they are located is pertinent. On most birds the feather tracts travel from the middle of the head at the base of the beak down the spine to the tail. There are more tracts on the tops of the wings from shoulder to wrist, along the side of the neck and belly, and long the legs. You may be thinking, “I have never seen big ‘ole bald spots on birds?” Well the feathers in the tracts lay flat and cover the apteria. That's why we don't see them. For any one you that have pet birds that you can handle and groom, know just what I'm talking about.  Okay, what does this have to do with our Screamers? Well, Screamer feathers do not grow in tracts like other birds. They grow all over their body. Screamers have no apteria, no patches of bare skin. Why? We don't know. The other bird species that have this type of feather growth pattern are the flightless ratites including ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries, as well as penguins, so what the flighted Screamers are doing with this pattern of feather growth, we're not entirely sure. But it is one more thing that makes Screamers unique. The second anatomical anomaly of Screamers that we are going to talk about in this episode is the odd subcutaneous air bubbles they possess. That is right, I said subcutaneous air bubbles. This is pretty odd, let's delve into it. First a bit of background into bird respiration. Birds do have lungs similar in structure to mammals but they function differently. Most bird species have two lungs attached to the trachea via two bronchi. Sounds pretty familiar, but the air flow is different. In mammals air flow is both in and out. Birds breathe in only one direction, but they have only one trachea. So how does this work? Air sacs that are part of their respiratory system. These sacs allow birds to utilize all the oxygen in each breath and disperse carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere while employing continuous, unidirectional, efficient flow of air. Amazing! This respiratory system it what allows birds to process enough oxygen to fly and prevent them from overheating when they are in flight. Pretty important stuff. Screamers have an oddity associated with their respiratory system. They have subcutaneous diverticula, also known as, pneumatic diverticula, subcutaneous air cells, or superficial air cavities, all over their body. These bubbles are full or air and lay between the skin and muscles. These structure appear to be extensions of their respiratory system.  Why do they have these extra air sacs? Once again, we don't know. Screamers are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. But boy it does make them fun! We can make educated guesses as to why they might need these, such as Screamers fly at unusually high altitudes and the excess air sacs ma  y help in buoyancy keeping the body light. This combined with their highly pneumatic bones that we learned about in the last episode could explain the extra air sacs. These subcutaneous air sacs may also help them extract as much oxygen out of thin air as possible. We do know that it gives them a strange crackling noise when they walk, and keeps them safe from hunters. The extra air sacs make them unappetizing to the human palate.  Well, that's it for episode seven of Screamers and I hope you found it as fascinating as I did because my seventh favorite thing about them in their anatomical anomalies. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about Screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Can Screamers get any stranger? You bet! Join Kiersten as she discusses some skeletal anomalies that Screamers possess.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Functional significance of the uncinate processes in birds”, by Pete G. Tickle, A. Roland Ennos, Laua E. Lennox, Steven F. Perry, and Jonathan R. Codd. The Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 3955-3961. 2007 doi:10.1242/jeb.008953 “Uncinate processes in birds: Morphology, physiology and function,” by Jonathan R. Codd. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Vol 156, Issue 3, July 2010, 303-308. Britannica: Screamers, https://www.britannica.com Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. Episode six of Screamers is going to take us on an interesting journey into  Screamer anatomy because the sixth thing I like about screamers is their weird anatomical quirks. Last episode we talked about one of their special anatomical accessories, the spurs. In this episode we will look at two more of the Screamer's anatomical anomalies that also pertain to the skeleton. Many of you have probably heard somewhere that birds have hollow bones. This is a simplified statement about bird bone anatomy. We will need to understand this a bit before we talk about screamer bones, so, those of you that already know this, bear with me, for those of you who are hearing this for the first time, hold on to your hat, I'm about to blow you mind. Vertebrate skeletons are made up of hard, calcium rich bones. It's what give our bodies their shape and ability to move. Birds are vertebrates so they rely on their skeleton to give their body shape and act as the anchor for muscles to allow them movement, just like mammals. Avian bones are special because they have adapted to the bird's need to fly. If you have too much weight defying gravity can be difficult. Flighted birds adapted to this challenge by evolving less solid bones than mammals.  Using the word hollow, makes you think of a tube, such as a straw or toilet paper tube that is completely open inside with no internal structure. You can look through one end and see clearly out the other end with no obstacles. Bird bones are not hollow in this manner. Their bones have an internal structure throughout the tube. If we were to look inside a bird's bone we would see more of a honeycomb design. It's essentially bones with air pockets. These are called pneumatic bones.  The bones have lessened weight by getting rid of dense material but have increased strength by adding structure throughout the middle of the bone. This is how flighted birds can get off the ground and fly. They have bones that contain more air that provide structure for the body and muscles without being so solid that flying is a struggle.  Now having said this, if we look at an average flighted bird, say a Bald Eagle or a Northern Cardinal, not all of their bones have this honeycomb structure. Typically, the larger bones will have this structure and smaller bones will not. The smaller bones will be more solid. This is where the Screamer skeletal oddity applies. All the bones in a screamer have this open honeycomb structure. All of them, including the smallest toe bone. Screamers have the most pneumatic skeleton of any living bird. And we have no idea why.  Screamers are good flyers. Once they get up into the air, they soar like vultures, riding the thermals. They can soar for hours at a time, but as we know they spend most of their time on the ground in or around water. They are a larger bird, so maybe this has to do with their interesting bone structure. On the other hand, geese and swans are the same size, are great flyers and spend most of their time on or near the water, but they do not have this skeletal anomaly.  This is not the only abnormality about the Screamer skeleton. Another oddity sets Screamers apart from almost all other birds. This interesting tidbit involves the uncinate processes. As before, we need to do a short anatomy lesson to fully understand the anatomical oddity of the Screamer.  The uncinate process is a bony projection that is attached to vertebral ribs in avian skeletons. These projections are important in avian respiration. Birds do not have a muscular diaphragm like mammals to help them inflate and deflate the lungs. Birds rely on the movement of their sternum to breathe. That's why it's so important to hold birds properly when restraining them for veterinary care or scientific measurements. If you put too much pressure on the sternum, you can suffocate them.  Studies have shown that the uncinate processes are integral in avian respiration acting as attachment site for muscles used in the mechanics of breathing. The presence of an uncinate process on the ribs of a bird increased the respiration function by 2 to 4 compared to a bird without an uncinate process. These processes allow the bird to more easily rotate the dorsal ribs forward, pushing the sternum down and inflating the lungs. Seems pretty important to me! The length of the uncinate process varies by species and seems to be impacted by what physical activities the bird partakes in most often, for example walkers versus divers versus non-specialist birds. Further studies have shown that the uncinate process is actually important in both inhalation and exhalation in birds. I don't think I need to tell you this, but this little bone extension seems like a mighty useful tool and one that all birds should have, but the title of the episode isn't Screamers: Skeletal Normalities but Screamers: Skeletal Anomalies.  So, here it is folks. Screamers do not have uncinate processes. That's right, they do not have these little bones that are so helpful for breathing. And once again, we don't know why. None of the three species of Screamers have uncinate processes. They can breath, clearly they are living creatures that process oxygen just like the rest of us, but unlike most species of birds they do not utilize uncinate processes to do it. Every episode I write about these incredible birds makes me like them more and more. I hope you think so too because my sixth favorite thing about Screamers is their skeletal anomalies. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about Screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: What is it with those spurs? Join Kiersten as she takes a closer look at Screamer spurs.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “On the Spurs On Birds' Wings,” by R. L. Rand. The Wilson Bulletin, June 1954, Vol. 66, No. 2. Birds of the World: https://birdsoftheworld.org Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The fifth episode of Screamers is the beginning of a few focused on anatomy. We will start off with the fifth thing I like about Screamers, their spurs. The spurs on the wings of these birds certainly set them apart from their closest relatives; ducks, geese, and swans. These little anatomical gems have been fascinating ornithologists for years. I found a paper published in 1954 in the Wilson Bulletin titled “On the Spurs of Birds' Wings.” The author, A.L. Rand, describes the spurs of all the Screamers in decent detail. Rand used specimens at the Chicago Natural History Museum for his study. What he found, I have to admit, was quite fascinating and for a paper written in 1954, it was fairly easy to read and understand. I've read a lot of scientific papers in my day and this one was a delight.  The close up inspection that Rand gave the three Screamer species revealed some interesting details. Let's talk about these details. All species of Screamer have two spurs. These spurs are attached to the metacarpals of the wing, as we have established in past episodes. The first spur, the larger one, is located on the process of metacarpal 1. The process on this metacarpal is used for attachment of the extensor muscles. The second spur is on the distal end of metacarpal 2.   These spurs are described by Rand as follows, “conspicuous, stout, smoothly tapering, sharp spurs with a slight radial curve.” End quote. The spurs are found on both wings, so Screamers have four spurs. The spurs are made up of a horny material on top of a bone center. The horny material is keratin. Upon close inspection, the spurs of the Screamers showed fine lines around the base of the spurs indicating growth in layers. One specimen had three separate bands which may indicate annual growth. At one time is was thought that the spur could be used to determine age of the bird through an annual molt, but there isn't any evidence that this holds true. Next, let's look at each species spurs a bit closer. The following numbers are based on the specimens that Rand looked at in the Chicago Natural History Museum, but on average they seem to hold up over time. Anhima cornuta, the Horned Screamer, spur is triangular in cross section. The spur curves toward the body. All the corners are sharp including the tip. The length of the first spur on the male is 58-61mm and the second spur is 15-16mm. Female spurs are smaller with a length of 50-55mm for the first spur and 11-17mm for the second spur. Chauna torquata, the Southern Screamer, spur is nearly oval in cross section but has a sharp-edged flange near the proximal edge resembling the triangular spur of the Horned Screamer. The length of the male's first spur is 30-47mm while the second spur is 13-20mm. The female's first spur is 35-45mm and the second is 15-17mm.  Chauna chavaria, the Northern Screamer, spur is smoothly oval in cross-section and is sharp only at the tip. The male's first spur is 28mm and the second super measures 18mm. The female's first spur is 30mm and the second spur is 18mm.  Typically the male's spurs are longer than females, even though this last example shows the opposite, we have to remember that Rand was looking at only a few specimens at one museum for this paper.  Current research indicates that Screamers develop the outer portion of the spur at one year of age. Fledglings do not have the outer protrusion of the spur. So what do they use this spur for? The fact that they don't develop them until they are on their own indicates that they use them for protection or defense. Screamers have been seen in the wild using the spurs during ma ting season to win the right to court a female. Couples are also fiercely defensive of their nests and have been seen using the spurs as weapons against intruders, both intraspecies, other Screamers, and interspecies, anything else dumb enough to come near a Screamers nest. So, how and why did Screamers develop these spurs in the first place. Wing spurs occur in other bird species besides, Screamers. Yep, that's right, other bird out there have wing spurs. Most of them are smaller birds than Screamers and have only one spur per wing. Well developed wing spurs actually occur in Family Anhimidae: these are our Screamers, in Family Anatidae (ducks and geese): only 2 species out of the 144 species and they have only one spur, Family Jacanidae (jacanas): only 2 out of 7 species and they have only one spur, and Family Charadriidae (plovers): only 10 out of 25 species and they have one spur.   The spur on most species is an extension of modification of the process of metacarpal 1 with serves as the attachment area for the extensor muscles. If you feel this bone in almost any species of bird you can feel a point or knob, so all species had the potential to develop a spur. It varies depending on the flight needs of different species. So why did some birds develop this spur? If we look at the species that have spurs in modern times, most of them nest on the ground, and spend a lot of thier lives on the ground in water or on water. To successfully protect your mate and young you may depend on using your wings as weapons to fight off predators. When these species of bird did that, the presence of this modified bone increased their survival rates, so this could be the explanation for the evolution of the spur in these species. The bone was playing double duty, a base for the muscle attachment and a useful weapon. I think this is just another instance of nature making so much sense. Man, nature is wicked cool. I hope you were surprised by this close up look at Screamer's spurs because it is my fifth favorite thing about them. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about Screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Do Screamers hang out with other Screamers? That depend on the specs. Join Kiersten to find out a little about the social structure of each species of Screamer.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Aspects of the Biology of the Horned Screamer in Southwestern Colombia,” by Luis G. Naranjo. The Wilson Bulletin, Vol. 98, No. 2 (June, 1986, pp. 243-256 “Mortality of four captive-born crested screamer chicks (Chauan torquata)”, by Lana Fox, Alexis Moreno, and Gregory Bradley. Open Veterinary Journal, 2019 Apr 28:;9(2):120-125. Doi:10.4314/ovj.v9i2.5 Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is episode four of screamers and the fourth thing I like about Screamers is their social structure. As we have learned previously, there are three species of screamers. Each species is found in a different range of South America, but they reside in similar habitats and eat similar diets. Their coloration is slightly different which does help in identification once you have those differences memorized. Interestingly these three species that are alike is so many ways have different social structures. Let's start off with the Northern Screamer, also known as the Black-necked Screamer, Chauna chavaria, This screamer is found across northern Columbia from the Atrato River and Magdalena River valleys east into the Lake Maracaibo area of Venezuela. They are most often found near water in habitats such as swamps, marshes, lagoons, riverbanks, and seasonally flooded river plains. They are a non-migratory species, so remain in the same area year round. The social structure of the Northern Screamer seems to revolve around the mated pair. Once a pair bond is established, that couple remains together and defends a territory year around. The pair mates for life or an extended period of time. Since they are a bit anti-social when it comes to entertaining other Northern Screamer neighbors, their social structure is fairly simple. They live in small familial groups consisting of the mated pair and their offspring.  I found very few research papers doing in-depth studies into this species social structure but based on other species that remain in familial groups, once the offspring are old enough to reproduce they leave the parents' territory to find their own mate and establish their own territory, or are run off by the parents to find their own mate and establish their own territory. An educated guess dictates that this is the behavior the Northern Screamers follow, as well. To remain genetically diverse and produce healthy offspring, you gotta leave home. Let's travel south and visit with the Southern Screamer, also known as the Crested Screamer, Chauna torquata. They are found from the eastern half of Bolivia south into Argentina as far as Buenos Ares Province and east through Paraguay into south western Brazil and Uruguay.  Southern Screamers prefer tropical and subtropical wetlands including lakes, marshes, and flooded meadows with scattered trees. They are permanent residents wherever they are found. The social structure of the Southern Screamer varies depending on the season. During breeding season, mated pairs are extremely territorial and will defend their established area fiercelyincluding using the spurs on their wings to fight off intruding screamers or other animals. In the off season, Southern  Screamers are the most gregarious of all the screamer species. They gather together in groups of up to 1500 individuals. This species seems to have the closest relationship to humans. These large groups are often seen foraging near livestock. This may have something to do with them gathering in larger groups. It may be a safety in numbers situation, or it could simply be an abundance of resources available in their region. Whatever the reason, the Southern Screamer is definitely the most gregarious screamer of all three species. The third species of screamer is the Horned Screamer, Anhima cornuta. The range of the Horned Screamer is much larger than our other two species and includes the Amazonian regions of Venezuela, to the eastern llanos of Columbia, to eastern Bolivia and south-central Brazil. Habitat frequented by these birds include tropical lowland freshwater areas such as lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes, and swamps. Just like the other screamer species, Horned Screamers are permanent residents of their ranges and appear to defend territories year round. Mated pairs will bond for life and both parties participate in defending the territory. Some studies indicate that Horned Screamers live in smaller groups for longer periods of time than other species. These groups may not be related because mated males have been seen driving off their male offspring when they tried to court the female mate, which is the juvenile's mother.  Mated pairs that remain in the same territory do not nest near each other so as not to encroach on each others resources, but sharing the responsibility of defending a larger territory can be advantageous to their survival.  I find it so interesting that three species of bird that are so similar in almost all aspects of their lives can have such diverse social structures. This episode is a bit shorter than most but we have a lot more to learn about the social structure of all the Screamer species. I hope someone out there listening to this podcast is inspired to jump into this subject so we can all learn more about the social structure of this species because it's my fourth favorite thing about screamers. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about Screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How do Screamers make more Screamers? Join Kiersten to find out about Screamer reproduction.    For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org Ornithology 3rd Edition by Frank B. Gill The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg by Tim Birkhead Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. Welcome to the third episode of Screamers. The third thing I like about Screamers is how they make new Screamers. Let's talk about reproduction. Since this is the first bird we've discussed, I'm going to start off with a very basic introduction to bird egg anatomy and overall bird reproduction. Then we'll look at individual Screamers.  Basic egg anatomy explains how chicks can actually survive inside what looks like a solid capsule. I know I used to wonder how baby birds could live and grow inside a hard shelled egg. What I'm going to walk you through next is a basic egg anatomy lesson. To learn more in depth, I recommend Tim Birkhead's book The Most Perfect Thing. He describes the avian egg masterfully and it is an enjoyable read.  The avian egg consists of three main layers, the hard outer shell, the albumen (egg whites), and the yolk (the yellow center). In a fertilized egg, not the ones we eat for breakfast, the embryo will start off in a pocket in the yolk. As the embryo grows the yolk decreases. There are other layers, capillaries, and veins throughout the the egg connecting the chick to food (the yolk), removing its waste, and exchanging gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide.  The albumen is the chick's water supply and consists of water and proteins. It also acts as a shock absorber protecting the embryo from movement aa well as protecting it from drastic temperature changes. Sounds cozy! Sounds like nature at its most amazing.  The outer shell protects the chick from getting squished when mom and dad incubate, it is permeable to allow exchange of gases. There are teeny-tiny holes that allow oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. That is the key to a chicks survival, a sturdy out protective shell that is flexible enough to let thing in and out. Seriously, bird eggs really are the most perfect thing nature has ever created. Where do bird eggs come from? Well, from inside the female. It begins in the ovary where a ovum waits to be released into the oviduct. As it travels through this structure, it gathers all the layers it needs around the ovum or fertilized embryo to result in a successfully laid egg. There are ‘pitstops' along the journey through the oviduct where the egg gathers each layer, approximately three until the eggs arrives at the cloaca ready to be laid. This process can take as little as 24 hours or up to a week. Birds lay only one egg at a time. They can lay one to several eggs in a clutch and this depends on the species of bird and the resources available to them during breeding season.  Now that we have a very rudimentary understanding of egg production let's take a trip out to the field and find out how Screamers reproduce. Horned Screamers, Anhima cornuta, pair for life or at least for several years. The male gets the female's attention with a variety of courtship behaviors. Now, males will fight each other for the right to court a female and they use the spurs on their wings as weapons. Once the males has won the right to court the female, one courtship behavior consists of head-bobbing. Both partners will participate in this activity. One partner will approach the other and they will both stretch their necks out and bob their heads up and down one to three times. To confirm their pair bond, preening of each other's head and neck feathers will commence and this behavior will continue throughout the year and throughout their relationship.  Before copulation, the male walks around the female with his beak pressed down against his inflated crop. His neck is retracted and his dorsal feathers are standing up. After he circles her, he will bow his head 1 to 3 times in front of the female. If she accepts copulation will occur and take only about ten seconds. Seems like a lot of work for just ten seconds but I applaud him for his courteous behavior.  Horned Screamers breed year round with no clearly defined breeding season that we are aware of at this time. They nest on the ground with both partners helping build the nest. It is typically located in or near marshy vegetation by shallow water. It will be 8 to 10 cm deep and made of reeds and sticks. A female will lay 2 to 8 smooth yellowish-white eggs and both parents will share in the incubation duties. Females will typically sit on the eggs during the day and males at night. Young are precocial and can walk as soon as they hatch. They will follow their parents fro 60 to 75 days learning what to eat and how to navigate the world. Southern Screamers, Chauna torquata, also create long term pair bonds. Males will fight each other for the opportunity to attract mates using their wing spurs like the Horned Screamer. Once pair bonds are created, the partners will duet together solidifying their pair bond. They will continue these duets reaffirming their bond throughout their relationship. Southern Screamers will mate from July to December. They create nests similar to Horned Screamers and both parents share all the parental duties until the chicks are on their own. Chicks are precocial after hatching and are running around following the parents until about 13 weeks.  Northern Screamers, Chauna chavaria, also maintain long lived pair bonds. During the breeding season males will call loudly to proclaim territory and these territories will be protected against other animals all year long. Males and females will duet together to establish their pair bond. They will also preen each other. During courtship displays, Northern Screamers walk side by side with their heads almost touching their backs. They produce low, coarse sounds as they walk.  Copulation occurs on the ground. Nests are similar to the other two species of screamer and is often in shallow water or next to the water. Peak egg laying season is October through November but breeding may happen year round. Females will lay 3 to 5 yellow-white eggs with a granulated shell. Both parents incubate the eggs and watch after the young once they hatch. Northern Screamer chicks are also precocial. They spend a lot of time in the water just after hatching to protect the chicks. The chicks will fledge from the protection of their parents at about 14 to 15 weeks.  Northern Screamers are solitary nesters but will form loose groups outside of breeding season. Screamers have very similar reproductive behaviors with slight differences that make each species unique. I hope you enjoyed this episode because my third favorite thing about Screamers is how they make baby Screamers. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next we for another exciting episode about Screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: There are three species of Screamers. Join Kiersten to meet each one of them in more detail.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org Encyclopedia of Life: https://eol.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is the second episode of Screamers. I hope you enjoyed the introductory episode about this unknown animal. The second thing I like about Screamers is that there are three species of this bird. Let's take a closer look at each species. Last week, I quickly mentioned the three species of screamer and gave an all encompassing description of this group. Today we will look at each species similarities and differences a bit closer. Let's start off with the Northern Screamer, Chauna chavaria. The Northern Screamer is 30 to 36 inches or 76 to 91 cm long. They have a stout body with a disproportionately small head. As I said in the first episode, they have little, tiny heads compared to their body. Sexes have the same coloration, so both males and females look alike. Adults have a gray crown that begins at the beak and ends just beneath the eye. Longer dark gray to black feathers stick out behind the head a bit like a short ponytail. White feathers spread from under the chin and sweep across the face just below the line of gray crown feather. The long, gangly neck is covered in shorter black feathers giving the appearance of a shaved neck. Fuller gray fathers cover the rest of the body from the base of the neck to the base of the legs. Bare, red skin covers the eye area from the beak to directly behind the eye. Adult beaks are gray and their legs are orange with hefty, turkey like feet that have slight webbing between the toes. Juveniles are duller in coloration. All three species of screamer have sharp spurs on their wings at the manus, which is the distal portion of their forelimb.  The Northern Screamer is also known as the Black-necked Screamer. From the description I just provided, I can see why. The northern part of their name comes from there distribution in South America. This screamer is found across northern Columbia from the Atrato River and Magdalena River valleys east into the Lake Maracaibo area of Venezuela.  They are most often found near water in habitats such as swamps, marshes, lagoons, riverbanks, and seasonally flooded river plains. They are a non-migratory species, so remain in the same area year round. Movement within that region is not uncommon in the search of food and searching for mates and appropriate territories by juveniles and non-breeding adults. The Northern Screamer eats leaves, stems, and roots of aquatic plants. They usually graze like geese and can sometimes be seen doing this is loose flocks.  Northern Screamers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. They were last assessed in February of 2023 with a stable population numbering 60,000-100,000 mature individuals.  Species number two, I am covering the species in random order so no importance is placed on which I speak about first, second, or last, the Southern Screamer, Chauna torquata.  The Southern Screamer is also 30 to 36 inches or 76 to 91 cm long. They have a stout body with a disproportionately small head. This will be the same for all three species. The coloration differs from the Northern Screamer in slight ways, but once you know what to look for it is quite obvious. The Southern Screamer has a gray face from the crown of the head to an inch below the chin. They have the crest feathers sticking out from the base of the skull just like the Northern Screamer. The coloration on the neck of the Southern Screamer begins with one stripe of white feathers below the gray face and a stripe of black below the white feathers, The white and black feathers ring the neck like a collar. Below the black stripe the rest of the body is covered in gray feathers. The beak is gray and bare, red skin covers a small area on the face from the beak to just behind the eye, similar to the Northern Screamer. Their legs are orange with hefty, turkey like feet with a small potion of webbing between the toes. And, of course, they have the sharp spurs on the manus. Southern Screamers are also found in South America but south of the Northern Screamer's range, which explains the name. They are found from the eastern half of Bolivia south into Argentina as far as Buenos Ares Province and east through Paraguay into south western Brazil and Uruguay.  They prefer tropical and subtropical wetlands including lakes, marshes, and flooded meadows with scattered trees. They are permanent residents wherever they are found, but seasonal changes documented in a portion of their range suggests local movement. They are also herbivores and typically eat leaves, stems, and seeds of aquatic plants. They also graze like geese, but have been seen digging for food. Flocks of up to 100 individuals may forage together in non-breeding seasons. Southern Screamers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. They were last assessed in July of 2024 with a stable population numbering 66,700-667,000 mature individuals.  The last species of Screamer is the Horned Screamer, Anhima cornuta. Once again we start off with a large bodied bird 30 to 36 inches or 76 to 91 cm long. They also have the typical small head of other screamers. The coloration differs from the other two. Horned screamer are gray over the majority of their body with white speckles on the crown, throat and wing coverts, those are the feathers on the top of the wing. The belly is white. Their beak is gray and they have the typical thick legs and slightly webbed feet, but their legs are gray not orange. They also have the spurs on the manus. Their is one striking difference between this screamer and its other two cousins and that is the long thin horn-like projection on the top of its head. This is where the name Horned Screamer comes from.  This “horn” typically measure 5 inches or 15 cm in length and shoots forward in an arch over the front of the head. It is very thin, so don't think of it like a goat horn, think of it more like a flimsy antenna. It is made of cartilage and we're not currently sure what its purpose is in the bird's life. The range of the Horned Screamer is much larger than our other two species and includes the Amazonian regions of Venezuela, to the eastern llanos of Columbia, to eastern Bolivia and south-central Brazil.  Habitat frequented by these birds include tropical lowland freshwater areas such as lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes, and swamps. They are also herbivores eating leaves, stems, and seeds of plants. They do like grasses and sedges along water.  They are permanent residents and groups of 5 to 10 will often live together defending a territory from other screamers.  Horned Screamers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. They were last assessed in July of 2024 with a stable population numbering 16,700 to 66,700 mature individuals.  That's it for episode two of Screamers. I hope this deep dive into these three species has been an interesting ten minutes for you because my second favorite thing about Screamers is their three species.  If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next we for another exciting episode about screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: What's all that racket? Could it be a Screamer? Join Kiersten to find out. Show Notes:  Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  My name is Kiersten and I have a Master's Degree in Animal Behavior and did my thesis on the breeding behavior of the Tri-colored bat. I was a zookeeper for many years and have worked with all sorts of animals from Aba Aba fish to tigers to ravens to domesticated dogs and so many more in between. Many of those years were spent in education programs and the most important lesson I learned was that the more information someone has about a particular animal the less they fear them. The less they fear them the more they crave information about them and before you know it you've become an advocate for that misunderstood animal. This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is episode one of the new series on Screamers. The first thing I like about Screamers is that they are birds. Yes, that's right screamers are birds. Screamers are not people who run around screaming, I mean technically yes, but that is a subject for a different podcast all together, not Ten Things I Like About… I can't believe I have created over 100 episodes and this is the first time I‘ve talked about a bird. It is a great bird to start with, though. We'll have lots of twists and turns with this little known but seriously interesting bird. First, we'll start at the beginning. What is a screamer? We have established that it is a bird but there many, many birds out there so I'll narrow it down for you. Here comes the taxonomy: (For those of you just joining this podcast, taxonomy is the method that scientists use to classify and differentiate between species of living organisms. It consists of various group names to help make sure we're all taking about the same animal, plant, or invertebrate.) The taxonomy of screamers is a follows:  Kingdom: Animalia ( they are animals) Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata (they have an internal skeleton) Class: Aves (birds) Order: Anseriformes (this order includes the screamers as well as ducks, geese, and swans) Family: Anhimidae Species: There are three species of screamer. The Horned Screamer, Anhima cornuta, the Southern Screamer, Chauna torquata, and the Northern Screamer, Chauna chavaria.  All three species of screamers look similar. They are a large birds at 27 to 36 in or 71 to 92 cm, weighing about 3100 grams, with a wingspan of 5.5 feet or  1.7 meters. That is a decently big bird. They are classified with other waterfowl, ducks, geese, and swans, so you may be imagining a goose-like bird, but here is one of our first twists.  Screamers look more like a turkey than a goose. They have a large body with a short neck and tiny head, especially compared to their body. They have a hooked beak, more like a bird of prey than a duck. Their legs are thick and stocky, and they have very little webbing between their toes. Doesn't sound much like a duck at all! So why are ducks and screamers classified in the same order? Genetic testing and cladistics science shows them as close relatives to ducks, geese, and swans, so they share an order but are in separate families.  Screamers are found in wetland areas of South America such as swamps, marshes, lagoons, and lakes, as well as open savannas and meadows, and in the floodplains of moist tropical forests. They are most often found around water and they can swim, but they do not spend as much time in the water as ducks and geese. Another strange twist with screamers is the long spurs they have on their wings. Yes, long spurs on their wings. There  are two large, curved spurs attached to the elbow on each wing of the screamer. The larger one is at the joint and a smaller one is just beneath that. They look like terrible claws they use to rip open prey animals or fight off predators, but they tend to use them only during intraspecies dominance fights at breeding season.  This segues us into twist number three, screamers are herbivores. They have short, hooked beaks like raptors and scary spurs on their wings like a predator, but they eat leaves, stems, flowers, and roots of aquatic vegetation. They may throw in a few seeds, insects, and arthropods, but no carnivorous hunting. This is not what you expect when you look at a picture of this bird. I have saved the most interesting tidbit for last. Why are they called screamers? Well, for once the name of an animal is actually perfect because screamers scream. They make a call that sounds a bit like a trumpet gone bad and they make it often. So, screamers are called screamers because they scream.  In the upcoming episodes we will dive into the topic of screamers in more detail. I hope that this overview of our next unknown animal has gotten you excited about this new series because my first favorite thing about Screamers is that they are birds. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next we for another exciting episode about  screamers.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Bat conservation is the subject of the final episode of the series on bats. Join Kiersten as she talks about what is going on to help bats.    For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Books: “Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson “America's Neighborhood Bats,” by Merlin Tuttle “The Bats of Europe and north America,” by Wilfried Schooner and Eckard Grimmberger “Bats: A World of Science and Mystery,” by M. Brock Fenton and Nancy B. Simmons “The Secret Lives of Bats,” by Merlin Tuttle Websites: Merlin Tuttle Bat Conservation: https://merlintuttle.org Bat Conservation International: https://www.batcon.org EUROBATS: https://unric.org BatLife Europe: https://www.batlife-europe.info Podcasts: BatChat from Bat Conservation Trust in the UK Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. Sadly, this is the last episode of bats. I've had a ton of fun writing and recording these episodes. One of my favorite things to talk about is bats and I absolutely love educating people about bats. The tenth thing I like about bats is the conservation plans that we have developed to help them survive everything the world throws at them. All bats around the world are under threat. Some are classified as endangered and most populations are in decline. But there are people out there, like myself and you, fabulous listeners, that are trying to make the future of bats bright. Some of the things bats are fighting against include habitat destruction. Forested habitats across the globe are being cut down for human use. Building houses, strip malls, converting forest to grazing land, and mining caves for minerals are all devastating threats to bat populations. Shifting temperatures is also something impacting bats. The timing of the emergence of insects with the timing of the emergence of insectivorous bats from hibernation needs to be spot on, but with the altered temperatures around the world, that timing has shifted. Insects are emerging earlier because of warming winters and the bats are missing the window. This can negatively impact bats that migrate long distances to return to nursery sites where they raise their pups. Even nectar eating bats are impacted by the warmer temperatures because plants are blooming earlier and earlier. Those that follow the blooming flowers are getting caught in end of winter freezes that they are not physiologically equipped to deal sometimes resulting in death. Disease is another threat to bats. Currently in the United States insectivorous cave dwelling bats are combating a disease called White-nose syndrome. This disease is caused by a fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans or Pd, that loves cool, damp places. Sound like a bat hibernaculum? Exactly. The spores of the fungus get on the face of hibernating bats and digs into the skin there. It blooms into a white fluffy structure, hence the name white-nose syndrome. The fungus itself does not kill the bats, but it irritates the bats rousing hem from sleep too often during their hibernation causing dehydration resulting in death.  We now know that this fungus came from Europe on the shoes of some spelunkers. Equipment was not cleaned properly before entering a cave here in the United States, so the spores were spread. It first appeared in caves in New York State and has now spread across all of the Eastern US and is making its way across the Midwest. It can survive in any cave that stays cooler all year round. When this arrived in 2006 it hit three species the hardest, the Little Brown Bat, Northern Long-eared Bat, and Tri-colored Bat. Their populations declined 90%. This is one of the reasons I chose the topic of my Master's thesis. There is very little we can do to help bats combat this disease, but there is some hope that they can survive this on their own. Bat populations in Britain and surrounding countries have been in decline for much longer than those in the United States. When White-nose syndrome was traced back to the spelunkers that had just returned from a European caving trip, scientists on both continents began to collaborate and share notes. In an effort to find a cure for W hite-nose syndrome, they discovered that the bats in England have antibodies in their system that targets Pd. The bats living in Europe today survived a previous infection of this fungus. Their populations were drastically cut, but they pulled through. Recent studies have shown that some bats in the US infected by this fungus are beginning to survive hibernation and are showing antibodies for Pd. One type of bat has actually increased in population due to human activities and that is the Vampire bats. Because more livestock has been  introduced to South America due to increased human populations and the desire for more beef, vampire bats, especially Desmodus rotundus, the Common Vampire Bat's populations have increased. This is the species of bat that relies on mammal blood. Yeah bats! That's what I have to say and I'm sure you agree, but their numbers have exceeded an healthy ecosystem population. So, once again human activity has put a bat species at risk. Vampire bats have become a nuisance and are spreading diseases more readily between people and cattle.  So extermination became the way to handle the problem, but the manner in which people where killing the vampire bats was also killing every other species of bats. It was a free for all, kill all the bats you see. Merlin Tuttle has been studying bats for over sixty years and he has been touting good PR for bats since he's been able to take pictures of them. So he decided to jump into the trouble with vampire bats. His love of bats drove him to find a way to save all the species. To do that he knew he'd have to win over the people who lived with the vampire bats. He and a local scientist and conservationist developed away to help control the vampire bat population without impacting the other species of bats that live in the region. It's working, people feel empowered by their options and now understand that not all bats are vampire bats. Some bats need to be protected. As hard as it is for me to support anything that kills any species of bat, I admire Merlin Tuttle's path to conservation. Win friends, not battles.  Both human sprawl and disease are devastating to bats, but one of the biggest threats to bats is fear. Those of you that have listened to this whole series and those of you that listened to this series because you have an interest in bats, know that fear of bats is real. I certainly understand it. These are nocturnal animals that swoop out of the dark and can frighten you. Myths abound about their behaviors and many of these myths are untrue. False information can lead to fear and fear leads to very bad things for bats.  How can we help bats? The first thing that you can do today, is spread the truth about bats. Tell everyone you know and those you're standing in line with at the grocery store the truth about bats. Dispelling fear goes a long way to protecting current and future bat populations. Use the information you've learned in the series to change people's minds about these small creatures.  You can also join organizations such as Merlin Tuttle Bat Conservation, or Bat Conservation International, both of these organizations are based in the United States but have programs that help bat conservation around the world. EUROBATS and BatLife Europe are two organizations that strive to protect bats and conserve vital habitat for bats in Europe. A bit of online sleuthing will help you find a bat conservation organization near you. I will also post some of my favorite books about bats, podcasts, and websites in this episodes show notes. I can't say how much fun this series was for me to write and post. I'm so happy you all joined me for Bats. They are such misunderstood animals and they deserve all the good PR we can give them. My tenth favorite thing about bats is all the conservation efforts we have developed to protect these amazing animals. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me in two weeks for the beginning of a new series about Screamers.    (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Join Kiersten as she lays out some of the coolest facts about bats!   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work?united-states/arizona/stories-in-arizona/top-10-bat-facts/ https://www.doi.gov/blog/13-facts-about-bats https://batcon.org Bat honking link: http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/136292 Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is the ninth episode of Bats and if I haven't convinced you that they are some of the most amazing creatures on the planet yet, this episode will surely do that. The ninth thing I like about bats is all the cool facts about them.  Some cool bat facts have been sprinkled throughout the other episodes but it never hurts to talk about fun facts again!  Such as…There are 1400 bat species. That's one thousand four hundred species of bat. They make up 1/5 of all mammals. And they range in size from one of the smallest mammals on the planet, the Bumblebee Bat that weighs only as much as a US penny, to the Flying Foxes that can have a wingspan of six feet! That's three cool facts in one go. It's always a party when you're talking about bats. Bats are found on ever single continent including most islands, expect Antarctica. That's pretty cool. Very few animals, outside of humans, are found on so many bodies of land. Remarkably, bats have been around in Europe, North America, South America, India, and Australia for millions of years. Bats show up in the fossil record dating back to the Early Eocene which is roughly 47.5 to 55 million years ago. That's well before humans existed. And…when we study these fossils, they show that bats have changed very little in structure from that time. When animals change very little from the time of their appearance in the fossil record  to today that means they are pretty close to evolutionarily perfect. I think that's very cool.  We also know from studying these fossils that bats have been using echolocation from the beginning. Bats have the most well developed echolocation system of any animal, that we are currently aware, of course. Which is a cool fact in and of itself, but it takes it to a whole other level knowing they have been echolocating for millions of years. Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight. Yes, we have flying squirrels but they can only glide. Bats flap their wings to propel them through the air. Similarly to birds, bats can create sustained flight. While we are discussing flight, the Mexican free-tailed Bat is the fastest bat in flight. They are able to reach speeds of 100 mph. That's fast! Speaking of Mexican Free-tailed Bats, the colony that lives in Bracken Cave in Texas has approximately 15 million individuals making it the largest known bat colony on Earth, as well as the largest concentration of mammals on Earth. The cool facts never end with bats! Let's talk life expectancy. Typically the smaller an animal the shorter the life span. For example, if you have a pet mouse or rat, they typically live a year to two years, where as your dog or cat can live 10 to 15 years. It's just physics, but bats break this rule. Most of them are fairly small and on average they can live 20 years. Some species, such as the Little Brown Bat, can live 30 years. The oldest bat, a Brandt's Bat which is an insectivorous bat, was discovered in 2006 flying wild in Siberia and it was 41 years old!  We know the age because this bat was tagged and had a record of lifespan recorded by scientists. That is cool! Some male bats got milk! The male Dyak's Fruit Bat is able to feed their young from their own mammary glands. It is currently the only known example of natural paternal lactation. Scientists don't know why. What's also interesting in this species is that the dads actually have a role in raising their young. That is not common throughout bat species. Dyak's Fruit Bat is found on the Sunda Shelf of Southeast Asia. All bats have belly buttons! Since they are mammals, they are born live and are connected to mom through an umbilical cord during gestation. Just like us, actually just like almost all mammals. Not all mammals will retain a belly button after the umbilical cord falls off, bats do. Just like humans. That's cool! Female bats can get pregnant whenever they want! Some species of female bats are capable of retaining sperm in their reproductive tract until conditions are right to get pregnant. Mating will occur in fall and the female can retain the sperm in their system, delaying fertilization until spring when resources are high and success is better supported. One of the scarier things about bats is that they seem to appear out of nowhere! When they fly at night using their echolocation to hunt, they do not make sounds that the human ear can hear. It's not scary when you understand it though. But some bats make noises that we CAN hear, some bats even honk. Yep! Male Hammer-headed Fruit Bats honk to attract females during breeding season. I will leave a link in the show notes that lead you to a recording of honking bats! Bat noses can help them see! We know that bats use ultrasonic sound that they emit to hunt and navigate. This is echolocation. Some species of bats have wrinkled skin and flaps of skin called noseleaves on their face and nose that help them use their echolocation calls in various ways allowing them to multitask. They can hunt and avoid crashing into each other at the same time! Most fruit bats have long extended hooks on their wings, also called thumbs, that they use to hold on to branches and fruits, but not all fruit bats have well developed thumbs. Spix's Disk-winged Bat developed suction cups to help them cling to and climb smooth surfaces such as leaves. Take that Spider-Man! The disks are on the wings and ankles and look just like a traditional suction cup. The bats use muscles within the disks to alter the shape of the disks creating suction or release. Spix's Disk-winged Bat is found from southern Mexico to northern Brazil. This adaptation has evolved separately in two different species because there is an Old World Sucker-footed Bat that also has these suction cups, but is not related to the Spix's. How fascinating! These cool bat facts are just a sample of all the fascinating things we know about bats. I am sure we will discover so much more as we continue to study bats. My ninth favorite thing about bats is all the cool facts about them! If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about bats!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How do bats help people? So many ways! Join Kiersten as she tells us why we should be thanking bats.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Merlin Tuttle Bat Conservation: https://www.merlintuttle.org “Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. There are so many myths about bats that I HAD to do a second episode. The seventh thing I like about bats is continuing to myth bust. In the last episode we covered why bats fly around our heads: not because they want to get into our hair. We talked about diseases: bats do carry disease but the odds of contracting a disease from them is slight and completely avoidable. And we talked about all bats wanting to suck are blood: completely false only one species of bat, out of all 1400 species, even drinks mammalian blood. Most of these involved Microchiroptera so let's talk about some myths that include Megachiroptera, as well as our little ones. We've all heard, if not used, the saying “Blind as a bat.”, but bats are not blind. All species of bats can see. Some can see better than others but they all have functioning eyes, as far as we know based on the species studied as of the beginning of 2025. Microchiroptera typically have tiny eyes, which may have influenced the old saying, and they do not rely heavily on sight to maneuver their way through the world. But they do use their eyes. Megachiroptera, our amazing fruit bats, have larger eyes and rely on their sight more than microbats. Most, if not all, Megabats do not use echolocation to find food and fly. Their chosen food item is not flitting around trying to make themselves a hard target. Fruit is pretty sedentary, just growing and hanging out on a branch, so Megachiroptera use their vision to find food. Their eyes are much more advanced then bats that rely on echolocation to find their prey. Some nectar eating bats also have larger, higher functioning eyes that can help them find flowers in bloom. So our first myth busted in this episode is that bats are blind. This is completely false, bats are not blind. Maybe we should rephrase and say “Blind as a Cave Fish?” Myth number two: Bats are filthy vermin. This one is also false. Bats keep themselves very clean. They are a lot like cats in that they groom themselves fastidiously. They must keep their wings clean to be able to fly. If there is too much gunk built up on that thin skin, they can't fly right.  When I was studying the Tri-colored Bat in Georgia during winter hibernation, I actually caught a few bats grooming themselves in the hibernaculum. I also did an internship with the Lubee Foundation in Florida that houses the largest colony of fruit bats in the United States. These bats spent the majority of their day grooming themselves and each other. Constant grooming also keeps them clean of parasites such as mites and ticks. A build up of these bloodsuckers can drain a bat to the point where they are too weak to hunt for food. Helping keep your neighbor free of these little pests also helps keep you free of these little pests, especially when you live in a colony. So, myth number two busted. Bats are not dirty vermin, they are very clean animals. Our third myth involves only fruit eating bats. Many people think that bats devastate fruit crops and should be exterminated to preserve farm grown produce. This is false. Bats actually help keep farmed groves healthy and productive. Fruit bats do eat fruit, of course, but they target overripe fruit. They favor the fruits that have passed that perfect ripeness and are on the edge of rotting. This is not the fruit that we want to eat and not the fruit that farmers harvest. When farmers let bats do their thing, it helps keep the groves healthy by ridding the trees of fruits that attract insects and rodents that can decimate a crop. If you keep bats from doing their jobs, then you get these pests. We actually have bats to thank for some of the fruits that we love to eat. Banana, mango, and avocado plants are all pollinated by nectar eating bats. 300 species of fruiting plants rely on bats to either pollinate them or spread their seeds. When fruit bats eat the overripe fruit they often swallow the seeds. The seeds pass through their digestive track and are deposited, with a little fecal fertilizer, far from the parent plant where they will grow into another plant.   Those of you out there that like tequila, have another reason to thank bats. Agave plants that are used to create tequila are only pollinated by nectar eating bats like the Lesser Long-nosed Bat.  The last myth is one that I talked about in the very first episode of this series. Bats are flying rodents. False! Bats are not rats with wings and the taxonomic classification that I discuss in that first episode proves that. Bats and rats are included in the same Class Mammalia but they diverge, which means they separate, at Order. Rats are classified in Order Rodentia, bats are in Order Chiroptera.  All rodents are in a separate order from bats and as scientific processes for collecting data have advanced over the years, each test, including DNA, reinforces the fact that bats and rats are not related outside of them both being vertebrate mammals.  This is a wide spread myth from all over the world and can be seen in some of the names used for bats on other languages other than English, for example. Letushiya meesh is the Russian name for bats which translates to “flying mouse”. But, listeners, you now know the truth about whether bats are rodents. They are not rats, mice, or any other kind of rodent. Well that covers most of the common myths about bats and as you can hear these animals are very misunderstood. That's why myth busting is my seventh favorite thing about bats. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about bats!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Bats what to fly into your hair and suck your blood! False! In this episode Kiersten talks about some of the most common myths about bats and uncovers the truth.   For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. We are just halfway through bats, listeners, and am am super excited for this episode. One of my favorite things when I teach about bats is myth busting. So, the sixth thing I like about bats is breaking down and wiping away the myths that make us fear them.  As humans we are often afraid of the dark and we are definitely afraid of things we do not understand. This is a double whammy against bats. They come out at night, fly around where we can't see them, and make strange squeaky noises we don't understand. Misunderstanding leads to myths, myths lead to fear, and fear leads to bad news for bats. In this episode we're going to take a look at some of the most common myths about bats and determine what's true and what's not.  One of the oldest myths about bats is that they want to fly into your hair.  I understand where this one came from, but it one hundred percent false. Bats do not want to be in your hair. This originated from campers misinterpreting bats swooping around their heads as they were enjoying the outdoors at night. Okay, if they don't want to get into my hair, what are they doing swooping around my head? If you are outdoors, there are others creatures that are attracted to us such as mosquitos. If you are sitting by a fire, other species of insects are attracted to the heat and light. I think you see where I am going with this, the bats are swooping down to catch the insects that are hovering around our heads. Anyone who has ever been bitten by a mosquito, you are probably thankful for this behavior. One less mosquito…am I right? I have actually used this behavior to advantage when I took a mammalogy class and we went out the study bats in the wild. If you stand on a well used trail with your headlight pointing straight forward and stay still, insects will begin to fly through your light. The bats won't be far behind. You can see them swooping through the light to catch the insects and it is so cool! This brings me to the second half of this myth. Bats only end up hitting your head when you panic and throw up an arm up and they are unable to avoid the sudden movement. They are never aiming to land in your hair.  Why did the bat that got trapped in my house swoop at me? There wasn't a swarm of insects in my living room! First, bats never want to be in your living space, but sometimes they get lost or they've been roosting in your cabin when you haven't been using it and you coming in for a weekend disturbs them. They just want to get out and away from you and back to a quiet roosting spot. What happens when they swoop toward you in the middle of the room is that as they are flying around looking for a place to hide or an exit and as they approach the walls they have to slow down to turn around. When they slow down they lose elevation and swoop toward the floor in the middle of the room where you're standing flipping out.  Don't panic. Just relax. Open a door if you can to offer an exit. If the bat lands on the wall and settles down, you can carefully place a box over the bat and use a piece of cardboard and slowly slip it under the box from the bottom up to catch the bat inside the box. Holding both pieces together, take the box outside away from the building and release the bat. Okay now that we know that bats don't want to tangle up in our hair, let's talk about diseases. Can bats make us sick? Do bats get sick? Yes and yes, but that's not the end of the answer. Just like any other mammal, bats can get sick and can transmit diseases to other mammals.  Histoplasmosis is a disease caused by a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum. Humans can become sick if they breath in the spores of the fungus. Histoplasmosis is often associated with bats and birds, but neither one of them is responsible for the illness. The fungus loves to grow on fertile poop. They especially love places with lots of poop. Colonial bats that are roosting together in building or caves create a lot of poop. Bats are typically very loyal to roosting sites and will use them continuously for an entire season, so that create a bunch of poop. The fungus will grow on the poop piles and when another mammal, such as a human, comes across the fungus laden poop they may breath in the spores and get sick. Not the bats, or birds, fault. Now let's talk rabies. Almost all mammals can become infected by and transmit rabies. Bats have long been saddled with the misconception that they carry rabies and transmit it willynilly. Bats can contract rabies, just like almost any other mammal, and they can transmit it to another mammal, but they cannot carry it throughout their entire lives. Rabies is fatal. It is a virus that replicates and finds new hosts. That is it's only goal, survival. When the mammal that it is in begins to die, it wants a new host. No mammal can host it for more than 14 days without perishing.  Protecting yourself from both of these diseases is easy. Don't enter a cave or building that you know is a roost for a large colony of bats. If you must, or they have taken up residence in your attic, wear a respirator and contact professionals that can relocate the colony so the roost can be cleaned and sanitized. When it comes to rabies, don't handle any wildlife, including bats. When animals are suffering from the end stages of rabies, the virus causes the infected mammal to behave unusually in hopes of encountering a new possible host.  If you see a bat on the ground, or active during the day, don't pick them up. Call for assistance and follow their instructions to protect yourself and the bat. You can place a cardboard box over the bat to keep it and others safe until someone can assist you. The last big myth of this episode is that all bats want to suck my blood! This is defiantly false. There is only one species of bat that wants to suck a mammals blood. The Common Vampire Bat, Desmodus rotundus, is a blood drinker. Two other species of bats are also blood drinkers but they specialize on birds. These bats are fall ound only in Central and South America. There are no reports of these bats being found anywhere else.  Common Vampire Bats typically feed on cattle and goats but they can feed from humans, as well. Just like any animal that has found a consistent food source, they will revisit that food source night after night. They never take enough blood to suck an animal dry because these bats weigh only ounces. They take enough to survive and that is all.  My pattern remains the same and I have gone over time again. This episode discussed myths primarily about Microchiroptera but there are myths out there about Megachioptera as well and we will delve into those in the next episode. Thank you for joining me for my sixth favorite thing about bats, myth busting. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about bats!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: To migrate or not to migrate? How do bats deal with cooling temperatures? Join Kiersten as she travels through bat migration.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “America's Neighborhood Bats,” by Merlin Tuttle “The Bats of Europe and north America,” by Wilfried Schooner and Eckard Grimmberger “Flying-Foxes - The bush refugees” by Martin Pueschel Backyard Bats Project: https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife-conservation/living-with-wildlife/backyard-bats-project/  Music written and performed by Katherine Camp Bats: Migration Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The fifth thing I like about bats is migration. Yes! Bats do migrate, well some bats migrate. Have you ever wondered why you see bats in the spring and summer and not in the winter? Many microbats either migrate or hibernate, while megabats may migrate from area to area following the fruiting and flowering seasons. In this episode we will investigate the ways bats cope with colder weather in temperate regions or the non-fruiting season is tropical areas. Let's start with a quick definition of migration. Migration is a mass movement of living creatures from one area to another. It is often seen seasonally and can be influenced by available resources. Birds will migrate north in spring following available food resources and seeking optimum breeding grounds. They will migrate south again for the winter as the northern regions cool down diminishing food resources. Male tarantulas will migrate much shorter distances in fall searching for female mates. Bats that rely on insects can either migrate from northern regions to southern regions where the insects are still active in, or hibernate in place during the colder months of the year. The insectivorous bat species of North America choose one of these two options. The Mexican Free-tailed bat, one of the most plentiful species in southern United States, also known as the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat, is a migrator. They will spend the warmer parts of the year in the United States traveling as far north as Northern California all the way across the country to South Carolina. Here they hunt insects at night and roost in caves or bridge overpasses during the day. They travel and roost in huge colonies and some roosts can number in the millions. It's quite a sight to see them exit their roosts come sundown. If you are ever in an area where you can do this, do it. It is something you don't want to miss in your lifetime. Come colder temps in late fall when insect activity begins to slow, Mexican Free-tailed bats begin to depart. They are heading to Central and South America, following warmer temperatures. They will find caves and other enclosed spaces to spend their days until spring and summer roll around again when they will head north . The Big Brown Bat, another insectivorous species found in North America, is a permanent resident where it is found. And they are found all over North America from Mexico to the northern border of some Canadian provinces. They are much more tolerant of colder temperatures and will hibernate as opposed to migrate. As insect activity wanes they will search for secure hibernating structures. We call these hibernaculums, and Big Brown Bats are not terribly picky. When I was researching my thesis, I found Big Brown Bats in the cave where I filmed the Tri-colored Bats. They were much closer to the entrance of the cave where temperatures were colder and less humid than the interior where the Tri-coloreds where found. Big Browns will hibernate in groups, small or large, or as individuals in caves, abandoned or little used buildings, attics, walls, even under tree bark. They are generalists that are quite adaptable to their environment, which is why they are one of the most widespread bats in North America. Not all migrators are insectivorous bats. The Lesser Long-nosed Bat migrates from southern Mexico to the Southwestern states of the US. They are nectar eaters and they follow the blooming flowers. They don't come up too far into the United States but they love the flowering cactus and agave plants of the lower desert regions. They come up just after the rainy season in spring that jumpstarts the blooming season in the desert. There is actually a Community Science Project called Backyard Bats that is ongoing in Arizona with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. This project asks you to monitor your hummingbird feeders overnight to determine if nectar is going down during the night. If it is you may have visiting bats! For those of you in Arizona, I will leave a link in the show notes so you can participate in this project. European bats have similar choices when dealing with changing temperatures. The Lesser Horseshoe Bat found in Europe is a permanent resident where they are found. They utilize hibernaculums in the winter and separate roosts in the warmer months. So, we could consider them short distance migrators. They travel only about 5 to 10 kilometers or 3 to 6 miles between the different sites. They are active during peak insect activity. The Greater Mouse-eared Bat, an insectivorous bat found in Central Europe, is classified as a partial migrant. Partial migrants fly over 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, from winter to spring roosts.  What about fruit-eating bats that don't have to worry about changing seasonal temperatures? They migrate. They don't migrate as far as some of our insectivorous friends in North America, but they still travel following food. They are a bit more like permanent residents because they stay in the same region, but they travel around that region following the blooms and fruits in trees. Most will roost together so you can see large groups of bats flying through the sky searching for ripening fruits. This movement is impacted by available food and also by the rainy season. To migrate or not to migrate? Another amazing adaptation that makes bats even more fascinating. Thanks for traveling with me through this episode because my fifth favorite thing about bats is migration.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about bats!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How do bats make more baby bats? Let us count the ways! Join Kiersten as she discusses the various reproductive techniques bats use to make more bats.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson Music written and performed by Katherine Camp Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. I apologize for missing last week, listeners. The holidays snuck up on me and I just didn't have time to write, record, edit, and post before Christmas was upon me. Let's get back to bats! The fourth thing I like about bats is making more bats! Chiroptera reproduction is interesting and diverse. Microbats and Megabats are mammals, so they give live birth and nurse their young with milk, but we're going to take a closer look at the reproductive cycle of some of the specific species of bats in this episode.  As my loyal listeners know, I earned my Master's of Science in Animal Behavior by studying the breeding behavior of the Tri-colored Bat, Perimyotis subflavus. I chose to study the breeding behavior of this particular bat because they are heavily impacted by White-nose Syndrome, a disease that impacts the hibernation behaviors of bats that overwinter in caves that remain around 55 degrees or cooler throughout the year. Many of the caves on the East coast of the United States fit this bill. I will be talking more about this problem in a future episode. The reason I wanted to study the breeding behavior is because we did not have a record of how these bats reproduced. If their numbers fell so low that we needed to intervene to help save the species from extinction, it was essential that we knew how they reproduced so we could offer everything they needed in a captive setting. So, off I went with my husband in tow to sit for hours at a time in a dark cold cave at 2am to record the behavior of hibernating Tri-colored Bats. What did I learn? We discovered that in this cave, the Tri-colored Bat males will seek out females during their hibernation periods and mate with them. Yes, that's right these little boogers mate with the females while they are sleeping! We were shocked! But it is the optimal time to mate with females without having to expend excessive amounts of time and energy vying for their attention.  I agree that it sounds terrible. Not very nice at all. No consent from the females, but it works for this species of bat. The males and females go their separate ways as soon as the winter season passes so the males have no chance to breed later in the year. The female's body stores the sperm until it is needed. When the time is right, the sperm will fertilize the egg and she will become pregnant.  Many species that hibernate in caves breed during the fall season as males and females are swarming into the caves. For these species there are two paths to fertilization. One I just talked about, where the female stores the sperm in her reproductive tract until spring. Another path is immediate fertilization. Long-fingered bats from the Old World practice this method. The females and males breed in fall and fertilization happens immediately, but development of the fetus is slowed during hibernation so that the female will be ready to give birth come spring.  For species that have a long distance migration, such at the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat, breeding occurs most often in the early spring as they are entering their summer roosts. The physical stress placed upon them by a migration from Central America to the Southern United States may prevent them from breeding until they reach their destinations. Tropical species of bats that are not impacted by temperate weather changes have a greater variety of reproductive patterns. Insectivorous species that rely on invertebrates for food are constrained by the wet and dry seasons and typically have one offspring a year during the height of insect season.  Species of neotropical fruit-eating bats will often have two reproductive cycles a year. Bats in family Phyllostomidae will breed early in the year, a few months later the young are born, then the females will enter a postpartum estrus and become pregnant again. This allows them to have more young during the flowering and fruiting season of the year before the rainy season begins. The Jamaican Fruit Bat has a slight alternation in that they will breed early in the year and birth young a few months later as we just discussed, but their second cycle will have a lengthened fetal development, so that they are pregnant during the rainy season and birth their second young when the dry season occurs again. Now, attracting mates is something that many species of bats have to concern themselves with, and they have so many ways to do it! The Gambian Epauletted Fruit Bat has whit tufts of fur on it's shoulders that are used to attract a female. With this and an attractive scent release by glands, they attract a female for mating. This is an active form of mating where the female chooses her mate.  African Hammer-headed Fruit Bats form leks during breeding season. Leks are display grounds where males gather to perform to attract and win a mate. These particularly bat males will call loudly to get a female's attention as she passes and hopefully win her favor.  Courtship displays can include wing-flapping, vocalizations, and mutual grooming. Sac-winged bat species will hover in front of a female while opening a glandular sac that is located in front of each wing. We presume that he is wafting a pheromone at her to win her attention.  In some flying fox colonies where males and females roost together throughout the year, males do very little to attract a female's attention for mating and often mates with her even when she doesn't appear to agree.  When young are born, females will give birth in a roost site. Sometimes that is in a nursery, like the Mexican Free-tailed bats, where many mothers are giving birth in the same place. Sometimes that is in a smaller colony with males and female together such as many flying fox species. And sometimes that is alone, like the red bat species of North America, that are solitary roosters.  Young are born hairless and helpless. Their eyes are closed and they cannot fly. They will drink milk produced by their mother. During birth, some mothers will hang upside down and the young will instinctively grasp onto the mothers fur, while some Megachiroptera will use their thumb-like hooks to hold onto a branch creating a four pointed position that helps them catch their young as they are born.  There is evidence that fruit bats that live in the same colonies throughout the year will have helpers at birth. Older females will come to the aid of new mothers, physically helping them birth their young and guiding the pup into their arms, while younger females will roost nearby watching. This has been seen in captive colonies many times, with one or two reports from wild colonies. But, boy oh boy, what an amazing behavior! There is still so much we have to learn about bat social behavior. Young are born feet first so they can help pull themselves out of the birth canal. Bat young typically weigh up to 40 percent of the mother's own body weight. That's like a 115 pound woman, or approximately 40 kilos giving birth to a 40 pound baby, or a 20 kilo baby. Holy smokes!  Bats that roost in large nursery colonies will leave the young behind, gathered tightly together to conserve body heat, when they hunt and return to nurse the young through the daytime. They find their young without fail every time they come back to the colony. When young are first born, or in solitary nesting species, mothers will keep the babies on them as they search for food. They will cling to the armpit area holding on with the well developed thumb hooks with their mouths latched onto a nipple. Can you imagine flying around at night looking for insects with a baby attached to you that weights almost half your own body weight?! Most species of bats will birth only a single pup, yes bat babies are called pups, at a time. A handful of species will birth twins, such as the Hoary Bat and the Red Bat, and will have one pup attached to each nipple. Most bats have only two nipples so producing more than that can be problematic. Not to mention how big each baby is! The bats in the Lasiurus Genus can have two, three, four, or five pups at a time. They have four nipples so larger litters are doable.  Bat pups grow quickly and are typically flying on their own at about about thirty days or so. Once they can fly, they are on their own. Or so we think. We are still studying this and some research shows that young my rely on their mothers for a longer period of time. They may learn much more from their mothers than we know. There is no current evidence that males have any role in raising the young past fertilization. Well, I've done it again listeners, I have gone over time. I think you can expect that with every episode in this series about bats. If you can't tell, I do like them a lot. Thanks for joining me for my fourth favorite thing about these amazing mammals, their reproduction. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about bats!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Now that we've talked about Megachiroptera, let's talk about Microchiroptera! Join Kiersten as she talks about the smallest bats. Show Notes: “Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

Summary: Join Kiersten as she talk about the largest bats in the world, the Megachiroptera. Don't worry it's not scary at all!   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: https://www.ecologyasia.com https://batcon.org “Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The second thing I like about bats is Megachiroptera. If you remember from the last episode, which I'm sure you do, Megachiroptera refers to the Old World bats found in Asia, Africa, Australia, and some Pacific Islands. These are the larger bat species and in this episode we're going to take a closer look at them. You may know Megachiroptera by their more commonly used name, Flying Foxes. They get the name from the fact that their faces look a lot like foxes. You may also hear these bats referred to as the Old World Fruit bats or megabats, There is only one Family under Suborder Megachiroptera and that is Family Pteropodidae. There are approximately 170 species of megabats but keep in mind we are always discovering new species of animals and scientists are always rearranging classifications based on new information.  Where are Megachiroptera found? They can be found in Asia, Africa, Australia, and on a few islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is often said that they are Old World species only. That refers to the fact that they are not found in the Americas. No Megachiroptera are found in North, Central, or South America. Since I live in North America that make me a little sad because megabats are freaking awesome! What kinds of habitats are these bats found in? That is often dictated by what they eat and most Megachiroptera are frugivores. So, they will be found where fruits are very plentiful. This places the bats in forested habitats that have large fruit bearing trees for our bigger species and medium size fruits for our smaller species. Forests seems to be the typical choice of most Megachiroptera because it offers the most variable fruit. So what do they eat? We just answered this question. Most Megachiroptera eat fruit. Fruit makes up the majority of their diet, but an occasional flower or leaf might get thrown in the mix. It's very interesting to watch fruit bats eat because they don't actually eat the pulp of the fruit. They bite into the fruit and chew it into a pulpy mess letting the juices of the fruit flow down their throat as the more fibrous portions of the fruit fall out the sides of their mouth. I did a two-week internship at the Lubee Foundation in Gainesville, FL some time ago and got to see this up close and personal. I was all prepared to watch these bats tear into the pieces of fruit and leave nothing behind, but that is not what happened. We were cleaning chewed up fruits off the floor by the shovelful. It was kinda gross, but it did not take away from the majesty of these animals. What kind of fruits are we talking about? A lot of the same things that we eat. In the wild they will eat bananas, mango, papaya, figs, various berries, and citrus fruits. In captivity they get a lot of the same fruits with some different kinds of melons thrown in, as well. The fact that these bats eat the same kinds of fruits that we like is what gets them into trouble with fruit growers, but these bats are looking for the overripe fruit and tend to leave the ripe fruit or slightly underripe fruit that growers pick to sell alone. These bats actually do the fruit growers a favor by getting rid of the overripe fruit that attracts destructive insects and the bats help spread seeds to propagate more fruit plants. Are fruit bats and flying foxes the same kind of bat? Yes and no. The term Flying Foxes typically refers to the Pteropus genus. These bats are the ones that have the long muzzle, the tiny little ears, the round heads, large teeth, and look a lot like foxes. These bats are fruit bats, but there are other species of bats that are also fruit bats but are not Pteropus bats.  One of the questions people ask about Flying Foxes in particular, is why they have such large, scary teeth? They use those large, scary teeth to rip into the tough skin of the fruit they eat. Hav you ever tried to bite into a mango, or papaya or banana with just your teeth? It's tough. Since they don't have opposable thumbs, they use their teeth. Megachiroptera tend to hang out in large groups and roosts during the day in trees. They will hang from their short back legs using the large curved claws that are used only for roosting. You can see them hanging in the tallest trees like Christmas ornaments. Like their smaller cousins, they do tend to be more active at night, but you can see them flying at dawn and dusk. This makes them a bit more crepuscular than nocturnal, but they can still be moving around at night.  Unlike their smaller cousins, they don't seem to use echolocation much, if at all. It does make sense that they might not use this because their prey items are fruit. The fruit typically doesn't fly around at night trying to avoid being eaten by a bat. Scientists are still trying to determine if some species of Megachiroptera use echolocation, possibly in a different way than insect eating Microchiroptera. Fruit bats do have better vision than their smaller, insect eating cousins because they rely on that to find their food. Most flying foxes actually have color-vision to help them find their fruit and determine whether it is ripe enough for them to eat. When they get close enough to the chosen item, they will also use their sense of smell to make sure this is just what they want.  Now both Mega and Micro bats have essentially the same anatomy, with one striking difference. Megachiroptera have a large hook that protrudes from the top of the wing that looks an awful lot like a thumb with a claw at the end. They use this to help grasp fruit and use as a way to grasp onto branches when they need to hold on with their wings for various reasons.  The largest species of Megachirotera comes from southeastern Asia. It is found only on the islands of the Philippines. The Golden-crowned Flying Fox has a wingspan over five feet long and is the heaviest bat weighing in at 3 pounds. It gets it's name from the yellow colored fur that adorns it head and is also known as the Golden-capped Fruit Bat.  The smallest species of megabat is the Spotted-winged Fruit Bat that is found in southern Thailand through Peninsular Malaysia to the Riau Archipelago and parts of Borneo. They weigh in at 15 grams and are only 5-6cm from head to toe. They get their name from the pale spots on the wings, fingers joints, face, and base of the ear. They are fruit eaters and are most often found in lowland primary rainforest or tall secondary forests. As you can see there is quite a wide range of species in the Megachiroptera. Now I could go on, but I have used up my time. Thanks for joining me for my second favorite thing about bats, the Megachiroptera.         If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another exciting episode about bats.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: To this day, bats have been one of the most misunderstood animals. Join Kiersten as she reveals what bats are and begins a new series about these amazing creatures.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  My name is Kiersten and I have a Master's Degree in Animal Behavior and did my thesis on the breeding behavior of the Tri-colored bat. I was a zookeeper for many years and have worked with all sorts of animals from Aba Aba fish to tigers to ravens to domesticated dogs and so many more in between. Many of those years were spent in education programs and the most important lesson I learned was that the more information someone has about a particular animal the less they fear them. The less they fear them the more they crave information about them and before you know it you've become an advocate for that misunderstood animal. This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This series is near and dear to my heart. We will be delving into the world of bats. To this day, this species of animal remains one of the most misunderstood in the animal kingdom. Despite all of the PR efforts of researchers, naturalists, and photographers, humans still cannot look past some of the myths about bats. But we will start off with the firstling I like about bats, what they are. As I mention in the opening of each series, I earned my Master's of Science studying the breeding behavior of the tri-colored bat. This is a small species of insectivorous bat native to eastern North America. I studied them in the state of Georgia. I was already enamored of bats before I undertook this research, but working up close with these tiny creatures solidified my love of them and expanded my respect for them as a species, so this series of Ten Things I Like About….is all about the misunderstood bat. Let's start at the beginning. What is a bat? Loyal listeners, you know where this is going. We are going to start off with some taxonomy.  Bats are classified under Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Cordata, Subphylum Vertebrata, Class Mammalia, Order Chiroptera, Suborder Megachiroptera, Family Pteropodidae, Suborder Microchiroptera, and under Microchiroptera there are many more families.  What does all this classification tell? Kingdom Animalia means bats are animals as opposed to plants or invertebrates. Phylum Chordata puts them in a group of living beings with a central flexible rod supporting their dorsal side or back. Subphylum Vertebrata means they have an internal skeleton that supports their body. Class Mammalia puts them in the same class as us. Bats are mammals which means they have hair on their bodies, they give live birth, and they nurse their young with milk. Order Chiroptera is the order specific to all bats and Chiroptera is Latin for hand-wing. There are two suborders for bats, Suborder Megachiroptera is the group of larger bats (mega kind of gives that away) and Family Pteropodidae refers to the Old World bats that are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Family Pteropodidae contains around 45 genera and approximately 200 species of fruit-eating bats. The second Suborder of bats is Microchiroptera which includes the smaller bats (hence micro) and the over 900 species of bats classified as Microchiroptera that are found all over the world.  Now we know that bats are mammals, let's take a look at Chiroptera. Why was this word used in association with bats? If you break it down, chiro means hand and pteron means wing, giving us hand-wing. Those of you that are not driving while listening to this episode, take a moment and search for bat anatomy on the internet or in book, yes books still exist. Take a good look. Does the pattern seem familiar? Take a look at your own hand. Do you see it? That's correct. Bats have the same bones in their wing that we have in our hand, leading us back to Chiroptera or ‘hand-wing'. This is actually one of my favorite classifications in Class Mammalia. It makes a great talking point and links bats directly to humans which goes a long way to dispelling some of the fear people have of bats. A future episode will be dedicated to discussing and debunking the myths and fears surrounding bats, but I will say that 99% of those fears are misconceptions. Including the one that says bats are flying rats. Bats are not rats with wings and the classification proves that. Bats and rats are included in the same Class Mammalia but they diverge, which means they separate, at Order. Rats are classified in Order Rodentia. All rodents are in a separate order from bats and as scientific processes for collecting data have advanced over the years, each test, including DNA, reenforces the fact that bats and rats are not related outside of them both being vertebrate mammals. Bats range in size from the thumb-size Bumblebee Bat to the six-foot wings span Malaysian Flying Fox, but they all have one thing in common. You all know what that is, wings. Every species of bat, that we currently know about, has wings. A thin membrane of skin called a patagium stretches between the bones of the wing creating a surface area that allows bats to fly. Bat are the only mammals with true flight. But what about flying squirrels, right? Flying squirrels also have a patagium that stretches from the wrist to the ankle, but they are only able to glide. They leap from a height, snap open the patagium, and glide down. Bats can use their wings to propel themselves, just like birds. This is true flight. Bats do have to fall from a height so they can catch air in their wings before they begin to flap, but it doesn't have to be too high. Bats such as Pallid Bats, that are gleaners focus on catching insects near the ground and occasionally find themselves on the ground while hunting. They can scramble to a rock or low shrub and get high enough to catch some air with at least one wing flap, and they are off. There is one type of bat that can takeoff from the ground and that is Vampire bats. Since they are adapted to finding food on the ground, their anatomy has developed to allow them to make a small jump and catch the air from the ground.  Bat anatomy has changed very little from the Eocene epoch which is about 60 million years ago. The oldest fossils found are some of the best persevered and most complete. Fossil have been found in Germany and North America and they show fully formed bats. It doesn't tell us much about the divergence of bats but is does tell us that the anatomy of bats has changed very little from their first appearance in the fossil record. When that happens it means that animal is so well adapted to its niche in the ecosystem that they haven't needed to change. To me it means that bats are perfect.  So now you know that bats are mammals, that they are not rats, that they are the only mammals capable of true flight, and you know the super cool meaning behind their scientific classification of Chiroptera. This is just my first favorite thing about these amazingly cool, misunderstood animals. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next we for another exciting episode of bats.        (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Episode 94: Nepenthes: Conservation Summary: How are Nepenthes doing in the wild? Can we help them if the need help? Join Kiersten as she answers these questions and more about Nepenthes conservation.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Nepenthes Conservation: Preserving Earth's Carnivorous Marvels,” Singapore Carnivorous Plant Society. https://sgcarnivorousplantsociety.medium.com Nepenthes Species. IUCN Red List, https://www.iucnredlist.org “I'll Have Flies with That,” by Kali Shiloh. Stanford Magazine, September 2022. https://stanfordmag.org *This article also highlights some responsible carnivorous plants growers.* Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. Once again we find ourselves at the bittersweet final episode of a series. It's always exciting to finish a topic but sad to say goodbye to my chosen topic. The final episode of Nepenthes is the fifth thing I like about them and that is conservation. Just like Rafflesia, the biggest obstacle to the survival of all wild growing Nepenthes is habitat loss. Once again we can blame ourselves for this as vast tracts of rainforest are cleared for agriculture, logging, and urban development. Unlike Rafflesia that cannot be collected from the wild because of its unique life cycle, Nepenthes can be collected from the wild. Collecting various species of Nepenthes has become big business and the race to possess the most unique and hard to obtain species has created a market for illegally harvested plants.  Changing weather patterns is also impacting the future survival prospects of many Nepenthes species. Some habitats are receiving less rainfall causing many species of Nepenthes to struggle for survival. Their habitats are changing so quickly the plants cannot adapt fast enough. And something that the entire world is battling that is also impacting Nepenthes, invasive species. Humans, whether knowingly or unknowingly, have spread both plants and animal species all around the globe. When these non-native species are introduced to other habitats, chaos ensues. Nepenthes plants are battling both invasive plants and animals that are either stealing the resources they need or damaging their habitats. How can we help wild Nepenthes? By doing many of the same things we are doing for Rafflesia. We need to establish protected areas and reserves that include Nepenthes habitats. This action has the added bonus of helping any other plants, animals, and insects that also live in these habitats, as well as securing natural spaces that positively impact human health. We can also enforce and strengthen legal protections already in place for Nepenthes species. Unlike Rafflesia, there are 123 species of Nepenthes listed on the IUCN's Red List. The Red List is a catalog of species that have been studied enough to determine a population count and trending patterns of that population number. Many of the Nepenthes species listed are Least Concern which means that their population numbers are healthy and stable or increasing, but 45 of these species are categorized as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered. The important thing about being listed by the IUCN is that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species can pass measures to help regulate international trade in the listed species. Continued research of Nepenthes species in the wild is an important step to successful conservation. If we know where and what these plants need to survive, we can expand preserves and bolster laws protecting them. This also provides information that can be utilized to successfully propagate Nepenthes in captivity. Some of the critically endangered species may only be saved by propagating them in greenhouses and botanical gardens. And the last thing we all can do to help is educate everyone about these wicked cool plants! Letting people know about these amazing living beings is the number one best way to ensure their survival into the future. Tell your friends, family, and strangers in the grocery store line about these unbelievable unknown plants. Feel free to give a little shout out for my Ten Things I Like About…podcast while you're at it! Let's talk a little bit about the hobbyists that are propagating Nepenthes in captivity. Collecting Nepenthes out of the wild one of the activities that is cause for concern, but not all hobbyists are part of the darker side of collecting Nepenthes. Many, probably most, are people that follow all the rules and regulations established to protect the plant in the wild. Some are even involved in propagating critically endangered species.  There is a market for Nepenthes outside of scientific study and conservation and this is where I fell down a rabbit hole of unbelievable prices. If you do a search for Nepenthes on the internet the first sites that pop up are online shopping sites. You can buy hundreds of different species ranging in price from $10 to $1900. The most expensive Nepenthes species ever sold is Nepenthes veitchii that sold for $3500 in 2020 earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World records for the most expensive carnivorous plant on the planet.  If you are interested in delving into this interesting but addictive world, you can find several online sites to purchase any number of Nepenthes species. But do your research and make sure these sites offer lab grown Nepenthes so you are not supporting illegal collection for the wild. The lab grown species will also have a better chance of survival in captivity since they are already used to that environment.  You can also join many Carnivorous Plant Societies from all over the world. Many of these organizations have seed banks that store varies species or carnivorous plants including Nepenthes. They will sell seeds to those interested in trying their hand at growing from seed and offer advice and support along your journey. Most of these organizations are also great places to find information on new scientific discovers. Many of them improve captive cultivation techniques and are happy to share with the public and research facilities simply because they love their plants. That is all for this episode of Nepenthes. I am glad you joined my for my fifth favorite thing about this carnivorous plant, conservation. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Reporting on Nepenthes and Rafflesia has been a fun ride for me and I hope you all enjoyed it, as well. Join me in two weeks for the beginning of a new series about a misunderstood or unknown animal.   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Do plants eat meat? Yes they do! Join Kiersten as she discusses the diet of Nepenthes which includes more than just meat.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Caught in a Trap,” The Biologist 62(2) p12-14. “Nepenthes lowii: the carnivorous plant that evolved into a toilet,” by Paul Simons. The Guardian, April 2023. https://www.theguardian.com “Bats Are Acoustically Attracted to Mutualistic Carnivorous Plants,” by Michael G. Schoner, Caroline R Schoner, Ralph Simon, T. Ulmar Grafe, Sebastian J. Puechmaille, Liaw Lin Ji, Gerald Kerth. Current Biology, Volume 25, Issue 14, 20 July 2015, Pgs 1911-1916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.054 Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The fourth thing I like about Nepenthes is its diet. These are not your typical plants. Sunlight is not the only thing on the menu. I have spoken of a portion of the diet in the previous episodes, so we all know that Nepenthes eats meat. But before we jump into that portion of their diet let's look at the other half of their diet. It's this half that led to the need for the meat eating side of Nepenthes nutrition. Nepenthes is like other plants that use photosynthesis to grow. I don't know about all of you listeners, but it has been a minute since 6th grade science class, so here is a refresher on how photosynthesis works.  Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create sugars that they can utilize to survive. Plants take in carbon dioxide through small holes in the leaves, stems, flowers, and other parts of the plant. They will combine that with water, usually absorbed through the roots, and sunlight. The sunlight is the energy that helps the plant combine the carbon dioxide and the water together to create glucose which they use as food to grow big and strong. If they only need those three things, what's up with the soil? Soil offers plants minerals that they need to boost their health and growth.  Plants can live without it but to reproduce successfully they need an extra kick. The need for this extra kick is why Nepenthes evolved to eat meat.  Most Nepenthes species grow in nutrient poor soil or no soil at all. So they evolved to get the extra minerals they need from another source.  How do you catch prey if you don't have teeth or claws and you are rooted in place? Well, you bring the prey to you! Nepenthes developed pitcher traps to attract and catch prey without having to use teeth and claws or roam about searching for prey. The pitcher develops from tendrils that grow as the plant matures. Tendrils will emerge from the midline of leaves and as it matures the tip of the tendril will begin to inflate with air. Once it has inflated to the desired size, which depends on the species and whether it is a lower pitcher or an aerial pitcher, it will fill with liquid. The top of the pitcher will pop open when the pitcher is ready for use.  The pitchers of Nepenthes are classified as pitfall traps. This means that they are relying on insects falling into the pitcher and getting stuck inside. A pitfall trap is a trap that something falls into and cannot climb the walls to get out. So, how does this work for the Nepenthes pitcher? The pitcher will attract insects with the scent of pollen. Insects will investigate the trap searching for the source of the smell. There is no pollen to be found inside the pitcher so the insects will turn to leave and discover that they cannot. As they try to climb out, the waxy lining of the pitcher will flake away leaving the insect struggling to get out. But no upward motion is possible and the prey item eventually falls into the liquid at the bottom of the pitcher. The liquid is mainly water until prey falls in and sloshes the water around as it attempts to get out. The vibrations created by the struggle stimulate digestive glands which release a digestive acid. The acid is so strong that an insect the size of a midge will disappear completely within hours. Nepenthes rajah, one of the largest Nepenthes species, can digest mice! What are they getting from these digested insects and mammals? Nitrogen and phosphorus which are vital minerals for the healthy growth of the plant. Those of you that are gardeners probably recognize those elements as being important to plant survival. If you supplement your gardens with fertilizer the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus are extremely important.  Let's take a closer look at a specific Nepenthes species's hunting strategy. Nepenthes rafflesiana produces two different pitchers, upper and lower, like many pitches plants do. The uppers pitchers specialize in attracting flying insects while the lower pitchers focus on terrestrial insects. The upper pitchers are narrow and release fragrant compounds that mimic the scent of flowers. This attracts a wide range of rainforest pollinators that mistake the scent for a good snack. They will enter the pitcher in search of the source of the aroma and come in contact with sticky polysaccharides that coat the wings rendering them useless. The insects can't fly out and fall into the liquid to be digested. The lower pitchers of Nepenthes rafflesiana use a lining of wax crystals to trap terrestrial insects. It attracts mainly ants. When the ants enter the pitcher the wax crystals attach to the ant's feet preventing them from climbing out of the pitcher. It clings to the feet causing them to slip along the surface of the pitcher leading them to the liquid death below. Some Nepenthes are generalists and are happy to take whatever they can get in their traps, but remember competition for pollinators is fierce so some spices have become specialists. Nepenthes albomarginata has a band of white hairs just below the rim of its pitchers. These hairs are bait for termites. And this Nepenthes sure knows how to do it right. It can catch 20 termites per minute during a frenzied feast. Okay, now we're going to talk about what inspired me to report on Nepenthes for my podcast. Remember in the first episode when I said these plants fed on something unusual that gives a whole new twist on the term “potty mouth”? Well, here we go! Nepenthes rajah can digest mice and rats, but that's not what it's really shooting for when it attracts these animals. What is really wants is the rodents poop. Yep, that's right it wants the rodent to use its pitcher as a potty. The feces of these animals is high in nitrogen  and much easier to digest than the body of an insect or mammal.  Nepenthes lowii was the species that caught my eye when I was researching unusual plants. This plant has large pitchers that have evolved to attract mountain tree shrews that slip into the pitcher to lick a fatty substance that oozes from the lip of the pitcher. The shrew balance on the edge of the pitcher and as they eat they leave behind a deposit. There is some speculation that the substance emitted by the pitcher my have a laxative component that ensures the animal leaves behind a deposit before the depart.  Nepenthes hemsleyana attracts a specific animal to roost in its pitchers so it can collect poo all day long. The lid of this plant's pitcher is shaped specifically to reflect bat echolocation frequencies. Bats such as Hardwicke's Wooly Bat use echolocation to find acceptable day roosts. They search for the right reflection from a plant structure to indicate an acceptable daytime roost. Nepenthes hemsleyana had evolved to reflect the correct frequency luring the bat in to roost throughout the day. The bat will poop as they sleep the day away and the plant will catch it in the pitcher. Talk about a Bed and Breakfast! Can you believe it! This plant is so amazing!! I can go on about Nepenthes diets, but I've run over time already. I'm so glad you joined me for this episode of Nepenthes because my fourth favorite thing, honestly my most favorite thing, about them is their diet. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another episode about Nepenthes.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How do Nepenthes become big strong plants? Join Kiersten as she walks through the stages of Nepenthes life cycle.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Nepenthes. Wikipedia (This page is well referenced). ”Pitcher Plant: Tropical Pitcher Plants-Nepenthes sp.” The North Creek Wetland, https://www.uwb.edu Tropical Pitcher Plant-Nepenthes. Carnivorous Plant Resource. https://www.carnivorousplantresourcs.com Nepenthes Phylogeny, International Carnivorous Plant Society. https://www.carnivorousplants.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The eighth episode of Unbelievable Unknown Plants is also the third episode of Nepenthes and the third thing I like about this supercool plant is its life cycle. Now, I'm sure you remember the unusual life cycle of Rafflesia from previous episodes, boy that was a fun episode. Nepenthes is not quite as unusual, but it it still exciting. No laughing, this really is exciting. It all starts with a meet-cute. A male Nepenthes meets a female Nepenthes, they fall in love, get married, have babies, and live happily ever after. No not really, but Nepenthes are dioecious which means individual plants are either male or female. Mature plants do start off as seeds, unlike Rafflesia they do not rely on a host plant to harbor them until they are ready to bloom. Nepenthes are more like traditional plants that rely on seeds germinating in soil to grow.  They cannot pollinate themselves, so how do they create seeds? They must rely on a pollinator to get the whole reproduction thing started. Once the plant has matured, flowers will bloom. Both sexes produce flowers. Male's flowers will produce pollen, while the female's flowers will have carpels, the reproductive structure. The flowers will grow on a long spike. Several flowers will grow on one spike. The flower spikes are completely different structures from the pitchers that these plants are so well known for. Pollen needs to get inside the carpel for the reproductive cycle to begin. Nepenthes rely on insects to do the pollinating, but as we discussed with Rafflesia the competition for insect pollinators is fierce, so Nepenthes has targeted non-typical insects to do their bidding. They give off a not-so-sweet smell to attract insects such as blow flies, midges, male mosquitos, and wasps; while also attracting more typical pollinators such as moths and butterflies.  Before you start scratching your head and wondering how the insects survive a visit to a pitcher plant that eats insects, remember the flowers and the pitchers are two different parts of the Nepenthes plant. The pollinators are not attracted to the pitcher trap they are only attracted to the flowers, so they are safe to drink from the flowers and pick up and deposit pollen without getting eaten.  Once the female flowers have been pollinated, a four-sided capsule will develop. Inside this capsule is 50 to 500 seeds. The seeds are light in weight with an embryo in the middle and two wings, one on each side. The seeds are distributed by the wind, so the low weight and wings help the seeds travel further away. Hopefully those seeds will settle in appropriate soil to begin the reproductive process all over again. When they do, the seeds will sprout developing a shallow root system and a climbing stem that can reach several meters long. Along the stems alternate leaves will sprout. These leaves will become the pitchers. A tendril will extend past the end of the leaf at the midrib. This tendril will swell and droop eventually becoming the pitcher. Most Nepenthes produce two types of pitchers, “lower pitchers” that grow near the ground and “upper pitchers” that grow higher on the plants. The lower pitchers are usually larger and may actually sit on the ground. The upper pitchers also called aerial pitchers are usually smaller and may be a differ color than the lower pitchers. These two types of pitchers can posses different features meaning one plant may have two different types of pitchers. The upper pitchers generally develop as the plant matures and will often create loops in the vine so the plant can hold onto something to help stabilize it. This is an incredibly cool adaptation, I mean mind-blowingly cool, but it can make identifying species difficult.  As the pitchers are growing they are developing a hatch on the top of the pitcher. When the pitcher is ready to attract and trap prey, the top pops open and the pitcher will emanate a scent that attracts targeted prey items. The two different types of pitchers that one plant produces often attract different types of prey. That is genius! I guess the last question about the life cycle of Nepenthes is how long do they live? We don't have a perfect answer for this yet, but it appears that they can live indefinitely. If they have the right habitat, food resources, and water, they can live forever. That doesn't mean that every Nepenthes plant will live forever. In the wild, they are battling habitat loss, food depletion, broad spectrum herbicide use, and poaching which all impacts their potential life span.   It also doesn't mean if you run out and buy one from the store that it will live forever. I know the ones that I brought into my house lasted maybe a year, but I was a novice at caring for them and bought them on a whim. People more knowledgeable than I can encourage them to live a long an healthy life in a home but you have to put some blood, sweat, and tears into it.  Thanks for joining me for the third episode of Nepenthes because my third favorite thing about them is their life cycle.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform you're listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another episode about Nepenthes.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How many species of Nepenthes are there and where are they found? Join Kiersten as she takes you on a trip to discover the Nepenthes species.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Nepenthes. Wikipedia (This page is well referenced). “Caught in a Trap,” The Biologist 62(2) p12-14. Tropical Pitcher Plant-Nepenthes. Carnivorous Plant Resource. https://www.carnivorousplantresourcs.com Nepenthes Phylogeny, International Carnivorous Plant Society. https://www.carnivorousplants.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The second episode of Nepenthes is all about species and where they are found. They do prefer areas similar to Rafflesia but they are more widespread.  Let's start from the beginning with the classification of Nepenthes. We have talked about scientific classification before but as a quick refresher this classification method is used to help determine the number of species within a group of living things. It helps scientists and researchers  determine who is related to whom. It is constantly evolving as classification methods are continually changing. It began with visual similarities between living creatures, then behaviors were incorporated, and with the advent of DNA testing classification has jumped forward and some things have been turned on its ear. Classification for Nepenthes is a follows: Kingdom - Planta (Plants) Subkingdom - Tracheobionta (Vascular Plants) Superdivision - Spematophyta (Seed Plants) Division - Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants) Class - Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons) Subclass - Dilleniidae Order - Nepenthales Family - Nepenthaceae Genus - Nepenthes Species names will follow genus. So how many species of Nepenthes are there? To tell you the truth, I'm not totally sure. My research for this episode lead me to sources that said 30 to 35, 140, and as many as 170. The International Carnivore Plant Society says Nepenthes species numbers are in excess of 100. I think we'll go with that number because it gives a bit of wiggle room. I'm inclined to believe this site because they get crazy scientific when discussing the origins of modern day Nepenthes. One of the most interesting things I could decipher from this blog is that the modern day Nepenthes genus has no close relatives. So when digging into the evolutionary history of this genus, there are no transitional species that can lead us back to an ancestral beginning. Maybe these wicked cool pitcher plants are so perfect they've never evolved from their original template.  Let's take a closer look at a few Nepenthes species. One of the largest species of Nepenthes is Nepenthes rajah that grows pitchers large enough to hold 3.5 liters or 1 US gallon of liquid. That's a pretty big pitcher plant. Nepenthes rajah traps are large enough to drown rats. They are known as the “king of the pitcher plants”. As an aside Nepenthes rajah is also the largest carnivorous plant in the world.  Nepenthes argentii is considered to be the smallest species of pitcher plants with a pitcher opening of 2-4 millimeters and a pitcher size of 30 cm. That's a pretty tiny pitcher plant.  The rarest species of known Nepenthes is Nepenthes clipeata. Only 15 individual plants were known to exist in the wild in 1997. It's found only on the granite cliff faces of Mount Kelam in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It may very well be extinct today.  Nepenthes mirabilis is the most widely distributed species of Nepenthes. It is found in Indochina throughout the Malay Archipelago, it is found in China and also Australia. This species varies greatly in color throughout its vast range. So where are these plants found in the wild? They are mainly found in the Old World Tropics, ranging from South China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. There are two species found in Madagascar and one species found in the Seychelles. Nepenthes are also found in Australia and New Caledonia. India and Sri Lanka also host a few Nepenthes species. The greatest diversity of Nepenthes are found in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippines. What kind of habitats do Nepenthes favor? Like Rafflesia, many pitcher plants of this species are found in hot, humid lowland rainforests but some are found in other habitats. Many are tropical montane plants found on the side of mountains where they experience warm days and cool to cold, humid nights. Some are tropical alpine species that grow in areas that have cool days and near freezing nights.  The majority of species are restricted to small ranges within these different habitats. Some of them may only be found on one mountain and no where else, like Nepenthes clipeata.  Nepenthes species are often classified as lowland species or highland species based on the altitudes at which they grow. Those that grow below 1200 meters or 3900 feet above sea level are considered lowland and thrive with warmer climates that vary little temperature-wise from day to night. Highland species that grow above 1200 meters prefer warm days that bleed into much cooler nights. Nepenthes lamii grows at the highest altitude of any other Nepenthes species, 3520 meters or 11,500 feet above sea level. Most Nepenthes species tend to be found in environments with high humidity, a lot of precipitation, and moderate to high light levels. Some species have evolved to thrive in dense, shaded forests. Many species do well on the margins of tree and shrub communities or clearings. Some species such as Nepenthes mirabilis have been seen growing in clear-cut forest areas, roadsides, and disturbed fields. There are even species that have adapted to grow in savanna-like grass habitats. These amazing plants tend to grow in acidic soils that boast little nutrients and often contain peat, white sand, sandstone, or volcanic soils. Some species can grow in soils with high heavy metal content, such as Nepenthes rajah, some can grow on sandy beaches in the sea spray zone such as Nepenthes albomarginata. Soil isn't always necessary for pitcher plants to grow as some have evolved into lithophytes that can grow in or on rocks while others are epiphytes that grow on other plants, like trees. We've taken quite a ride in the second epidote of Nepenthes and my second favorite thing about them, is where they are found. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform you're listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another episode about Nepenthes.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Our next unbelievable unknown plant eats something quite unusual. Join Kiersten as she unravels the amazing life of Nepenthes.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Nepenthes, Britannica Online: https://www.britannica.com Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. In episode six of Unbelievable Unknown Plants were are introducing the first episode of or second plant. Like Rafflesia, we will be talking about several species of plants collectively called Nepenthes. The first thing I like about Nepenthes is the amazing plant itself. Let's talk about the family in general before we pinpoint a few very interesting species that we will highlight in following episodes. If you have gone into the garden department of a home improvement store or a Wal-Mart at anytime in your life you may be familiar with Nepenthes. It is also known as monkey cup and tropical pitcher plant. Sound familiar? Unlike Rafflesia, humans have figured out how to cultivate some species of Nepenthes and with the correct set up, it can be pretty easy. So they have been mass produced for sale. I have to admit I have had a few in my lifetime. We will go more in-depth with this topic in a future episode. I suspect this will be a rabbit hole of addictive behavior. As I did my research on this plan t I came across several websites dedicated to the sale and care of Nepenthes. Some of these plants sell for over $1000 US dollars. Who-boy! I cant's wait for that episode! There are 140 known species of Nepenthes and, in the wild, they are mainly found in Madagascar, Southeast Asia, and Australia. What is it that makes these pitcher plants so unbelievable? They eat meat! Yes, that's right, these are carnivorous plants. Every species of Nepenthes that we currently know of is classified as a carnivorous plant that captures insects or other prey by luring the targeted prey to them through scent. The shape of the pitcher makes it difficult if not impossible for the prey to escape once it has ventured inside where the sweet scent they want has led them. I've always found it interesting that a plant eats meat. I mean everything has to survive and Nature is amazing, but it does seem a bit oxymoronic that a plant eats meat. On the other hand maybe it's karmic. Insects and mammals eat plants so why not evolve a plant that eats insects and mammals. Some have taken it a step farther int their pursuit of nutrient and have evolved to utilize a very special diet. They are still dependent on mammals for this nutrient but they aren't eating the animal itself. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I will say they give the term “potty mouth” a whole new twist. Pitcher plants are perennial, which means the same plant regrows every year. Many grow in very acidic soil and some are epiphytes. An epiphyte is a plan  t that grows on another plant for support purposes only. Epiphytes have no attachment to the ground or obvious nutrient source. They are not parasitic to the host plant causing no harm to the structure upon which they are growing. It's no wonder that Nepenthes has evolved to utilize an alternative source of nutrients if they grow in an acidic soil, which typically offers little in the way of usable nutrients, or no soil at all.  Nepenthes vary in size. Some are the perfect fit to attract a tiny fruit fly while others are so large they can attract and digest rats. You heard that correctly, I said rats. That is one big pitcher plant! Like Rafflesia, some species of Nepenthes are engendered in their native habitats, but unlike Rafflesia more than one of these species is listed as endangered by the IUCN which makes conservation of these species so much easier. We will take more about this is future episodes. The first episode of Nepenthes is a bit shorter than my usual episodes but don't worry the next four will be packed full of amazing facts about Nepenthes. Think of this one as an introduction to this amazing plant, a bit of a teaser, if you will. Thanks for listening to the sixth episode of Unbelievable Unknown Plants and I'm glad you joined me because my first favorite thing about Nepenthes is Nepenthes.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.  Join me next week for another episode about Nepenthes.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Is the stinkiest flower in the world in danger of disappearing forever? Join Kiersten as she discusses the conservation status of Rafflesia.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Most of the world's largest flowers (genus Rafflesia) are now on the brink of extinction,” by Pastor Malabrigo Jr, Adriane B. Tobias, Joko Witono, Sofi Mursidawati, Agus Susatya, Mat Eunuch Siti-Munirah, Adhityo Wicaksono, Reza Raihandhany, Sarah Edwards, and Chris J. Thorogood. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10431 “Colossal Blossom: Pursuing the peculiar genetics of a parasitic plant,” by Jonathan Shaw. Harvard Magazine. https://www.harvardmagazine.com Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is episode five of Unbelievable Unknown Plants and the final episode of rafflesia. The fifth thing I like about rafflesia is awareness that conservation discussions are bringing to this unknown plant. Awareness is always important for any conservation efforts. That is one of the main reasons I decided to do this podcast. Getting the word out is the best weapon in a conservationist's tool belt for saving an imperiled species. When it comes to rafflesia the conservation efforts is what really brought this flower into the public eye. The first paper I found when diving into the research on this lifeform was titled “Most of the world's largest flowers (genus Rafflesia) are now on the brink of extinction.”  Despite the recent increased interest in Rafflesia, the flower as a species is in danger of extinction. When we say that we mean all species of Rafflesia not just one species. What makes Rafflesia so vulnerable to disappearing? If you've listened to the last four episode you might be able to piece it together yourself. In the second episode in this series, I talked about where Rafflesia can be found. All species of Rafflesia are restricted to one area of the world. They are found on several islands within the southeast Asian region but they are only found in the Philippines, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Peninsular Malaysia. They rely on the tropical rainforest areas of these islands, which restricts them to only a portion of the terrain.  The number one reason Rafflesia are endangered is habitat loss. The above mentioned paper predicts that 67% of known habitats for Rafflesia are not in a protected area. This means that these habitats are at risk from human encroachment for lumber, clear cutting for farming, and greed, in general. Rafflesia are found only on Tetrastigma vines, as far as we currently know, and these are only found in rainforests of southeast Asia. If these vines are removed, we lose all species of Rafflesia.  Those of you that are loyal listeners may be saying, what about protections that come with IUCN listings of endangered species? That is a good point, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature only lists one Rafflesia species as Critically Endangered. In 2008 Rafflesia magnifica was listed as Critically Endangered with a population trend of decreasing.   Rafflesia magnifica is found only on Mindanao Island, Philippines. The habitat in which this particular flower is found is being destroyed for road construction and conversion of the rainforest into banana plantations.  Why are more species not listed by the IUCN? Even though researchers that published this paper urge the world to take action to list all Rafflesia as endangered, there are steps that must be taken to warrant this listing. The biggest obstacle is the lack of data determining the population numbers of Rafflesia. These flowers are hard to find as they bloom at random times and have no indication that they are about to bloom. It's hard for scientists to find them, much less make an accurate count of them. Without this hard evidence, a listing by IUCN is impossible. So scientists are doing the next best thing. They are bringing awareness of this plant to the world. Many international news companies have picked up this story and run with it. Smaller news outlets are highlighting this flower, and people like me are getting the name out there as well. The best way to save any species is to get the public interested. The more that they know the better. What can we do? The scientists involved in the research of Rafflesia populations have proposed a four-point action plan.  1. We need greater protection of Rafflesia habitats which targets the populations at most risk. Southeast Asia has the fastest disappearing forests on the planet, and as we know this is the only place where Rafflesia are found. 2. We need a better understanding of the full diversity of Rafflesia that exists which will better inform decision-making. A big problem with current protections is that the species diversity of Rafflesia are still under debate. How many species actually are there of Rafflesia? Sampling expeditions and genetic testing must be a priority. 3. We need to develop methods to successfully propagate Rafflesia in captivity. 4. If we introduce new ecotourism initiatives to engage local communities in Rafflesia conservation, it can go a long way. When given alternatives to destructive farming to feed your family, locals get on board with protecting local wildlife. Several of the countries that host Rafflesia are doing their best to protect these flowers through ecotourism initiatives, local laws, and research in National Parks. For example, local villagers in West Sumatra are benefiting from Rafflesia ecotourism by building social media platforms that announce blooming events to attract paying tourists, bring awareness to the Rafflesia, and carefully manage the risks of trampling the flowers due to unsupervised visitors.  Indonesia celebrates Rafflesia as one of its national flowers.  In Sarawak, Malaysia all Rafflesia are listed by the local government as “Total Protected Plants” under the Wildlife Protection Ordinance of 1998. Let's go bak to number three of the four-point action plan. Many species of wildlife, flora or fauna, have benefitted from our efforts to breed or propagate individuals in captivity, so why not do this with Rafflesia? I love your thought process, listeners! The problem with this is that Rafflesia is a parasitic plant that relies on a host plant for survival, it's not like other flowers where we just collect some seeds and put them in the ground. Rafflesia seeds have to get into the Tertrastigma vine to germinate and we still don't know how that happens. No having said this, Bogor Botanic Garden in West Java, Indonesia has had some success in propagating Rafflesia. They have successfully bloomed Rafflesia patma 16 times. There are several botanical gardens around the world that are in line to learn the secrets discovered at Bogor Botanic Garden, so they too can help conserve this amazing plant. Even with these efforts, most Rafflesia species are still at great risk of disappearing forever, but hopefully with more exposure we can help Rafflesia have a bright future. This is the final episode of Raflessia but only the fifth in the Unbelievable Unknown Plants series and my fifth favorite thing about Rafflesia is the conservation effort being made to secure their future.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    So join me next week for another episode about Unbelievable Unknown Plants.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Boy that sticks! Rafflesia are beautiful but stinky flowers. Join Kiersten as she explains why they smell so foul.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Colossal Blossom: Pursuing the peculiar genetics of a parasitic plant,” by Jonathan Shaw. Harvard Magazine. https://www.harvardmagazine.com “What's that smell? The putrid scent of Rafflesia consueloae, its origin and developmental regulation,” by Erika Marie A. Bascos, Edwina S. Fernando, Melizar V. Duya. Lilian Jennifer V. Rodriguez. Flora, Volume 318, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2024.152571 Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The fourth episode of rafflesia is titled ‘What's With That Smell?', because the fourth thing I like about this amazing plant is the smell. Rafflesia arnoldii is known as the corpse lily. It's not just a terrible nickname it earned on the school playground because of some strange mishap that it had no control over, no it actually smells like rotting meat. And it is absolutely on purpose. Why would a flower want to smell like rotting meat? Well, smell emitted by any flower is typically aimed at a pollinator. The flower wants to attract an animal that is mobile that can help with reproduction. Mingling your pollen with another flower's pollen is the way fertilization happens which results in fruit production that contains seeds which will produce new plants.   There are a lot of plants out there and many of them use flowers to reproduce, so competition to attract a pollinator is fierce. Rafflesia have adapted to attract an unlikely pollinator, the carrion fly. Carrion flies are not your typical pollinator they do not fly around looking for flowers with nectar and pollen to eat. They do fly around looking for dead animals upon which to lay their eggs. The females lay eggs on rotting meat so when the eggs hatch the larvae have something to eat. Yum!  Rafflesia are attracting these flies because no other flowers are doing so. It works well, for the flower, the flies, on the other hand, are wasting genetic material by laying eggs on something that smells like what they want but is not really meat. The flies wander around the flower looking for the best place to lay their eggs, most likely the smelliest part of the flower, which appears to be inside the bowl shape in the middle of the flower. As the fly determines the best place to lay eggs it gets covered in pollen. Now rafflesia pollen is different from other flower's pollen. It is a snotty, viscous liquid as opposed to powered pollen that is typical of most other flowers. The liquid pollen remains on the fly from days to weeks allowing the female fly to retain the pollen until it is, hopefully, attracted to another rafflesia. What is it in the scent of rafflesia that makes it smell like rotting meat? Researchers asked this question too and they decided to create a scent composition of Rafflesia consueloae. They identified 13 volatile compounds in the scent of this rafflesia species. Now there were two other scent compound studies done before this on Rafflesia cantleyi and Rafflesia kerri. They found dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide and these floral volatile were also found in the study of Rafflesia consueloae. These are both sulfur containing volatiles and are the same ones produced by decomposing meat. So that's where the smell comes from. This parasitic plant has figured out how to produce the exact same scent as actual rotting meat. In studies investigating what female carrion flies were most attracted to, these two compounds were also profiled. The female carrion flies love these smells. These scents attract the females specifically because they are looking for rotting meat on which to lay their eggs. The females flies take their time looking for just the right spot in the flower to lay their eggs and as they do they come in contact with rafflesia's pollen.   But where is the best place to lay their eggs? Turns out these sulfide based scents are more heavily released from specific places in the flower that draw the fly deep into the interior so it becomes covered in the liquid pollen.  Another Interesting tidbit to come out of these studies is that the rafflesia flower emits different scents at various stages of development. Remember I said  they found 13 different floral volatiles in the study of Rafflesia consueloae. Not all thirteen of them were released through the entire lifecycle of the flower. The dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide where only released when the flower was in full bloom. This flower just keeps getting more and more fascinating as we go along.  The immense size of rafflesias may also be related to their chosen pollinator. Rotting meat is often large in size since we're talking about decomposing animals, to be frank. Carrion flies are attracted to larger carcasses because they give off more scent and will probably still be decomposing when their eggs hatch. Scientists believe this may be a possible explanation for the large size of rafflesias. They are offering carrion flies the entire package. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that other plants pollinated by carrion flies such as the skunk cabbage in New England and the Stapelias of South Africa, are also large flower plants.  One last attribute of rafflesia may also be related to the carrion fly. Rafflesia blooms emanate heat as they grow. The skunk cabbage also does this and is able to raise its temperature nearly 30 degrees. Originally scientists thought this thermogenesis was an adaptation that allowed flowers to bloom earlier at the end of winter by melting snow, but this doesn't apply to rafflesia because they are all found in tropical habitats.  Another explanation is that the heat allows rafflesia to more easily volatilize the odors they produce. The better to attract the carrion fly. The heat also allows the carrion fly to function at a lower energy cost while looking for a cozy place to lay her eggs, so she spends more time inside the flower. Every time I write a new episode about this flower I cannot believe what amazing adaptations it has. The smell that rafflesia produces is my fourth favorite thing about them.    If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    So join me next week for another episode about Rafflesia.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Does a unique flower like rafflesia how a unique life cycle? Join Kiersten to find out!   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Most of the world's largest flowers (genus Rafflesia) are now on the brink of extinction,” by Pastor Malabrigo Jr, Adriane B. Tobias, Joko Witono, Sofi Mursidawati, Agus Susatya, Mat Eunuch Siti-Munirah, Adhityo Wicaksono, Reza Raihandhany, Sarah Edwards, and Chris J. Thorogood. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10431 Start the Week Podcast: Mysterious Plants. 04 March 2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds “Colossal Blossom: Pursuing the peculiar genetics of a parasitic plant,” by Jonathan Shaw. Harvard Magazine. https://www.harvardmagazine.com Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The third thing I like about rafflesia is its life cycle. In the first episode I hinted it at it a bit. Most of its life it is invisible and is a parasitic plant with a specific host plant. Let's get into the fine details of rafflesia's life cycle, and strap in listeners because this one is a doozy. When I chose rafflesia as my next unknown creature, I had no idea how how crazy the life cycle was, but my research has blown my mind. Enough anticipation, here we go. Rafflesia have no roots, no shoots, no stems, and no leaves. Off to a good start when talking about a plant, right? The only thing left is petals and reproductive parts. Well, that's essentially what rafflesia are made up of. They spend most of their life hidden within the vines of their host plant. Vines in the genus Tetrastigma are the current host plants to rafflesia. They may be the chosen host due to the fact that they hold a lot of water, as do many vines. Rafflesia buds pop out of the vines with no warning, or a least with no prior indication that we have seen. The buds pop out from a vine and will grow for months until they are the size of a cabbage, a large cabbage, like a basketball size cabbage. They look like the cabbage, as well. As the bud grows the petals remain wrapped tight like a cabbage.  Most of the buds will be an orange color, since a good majority of rafflesia are a brick red color. When the bud is ready to bloom, five petals will unfold. In the middle of the flower is the floral chamber. Quoting from the Harvard Magazine article by Jonathan Shaw, the central floral chamber is (quote) “orb-shaped, with a circular opening at the top, [it} resembles a planetarium or astronomical observatory with a mottled roof partially opened to the sky.” (End quote). In the largest rafflesia flower, Rafflesia arnoldii, the chamber is big enough that an infant could comfortably take a nap inside.  This is such a poetic and accurate description of the middle of rafflesia. Inside the opening is a disk covered with spikes. It looks like one of those rubber spiky balls that you can get your for dog. They give the inside of the planetarium structure a bit of a medieval torture chamber feel. Scientists have not determined what these structures do for the flower.   The bloom will last about a week. During that week it is trying to attract pollinators to help is reproduce, just like all flowering plants. Those of you that are gardeners about there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When the plants that you've loving planted and taken care of bloom, then you see the real reward. Pollinators such as honeybees, native bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and bats are attracted to the blooms and help the plant swap pollen which leads to reproduction. That is the same goal for rafflesia, as well. They use scent, jut like other flowers, to attract pollinators, but the scent they produce is a bit different than your typical flower. Rafflesia arnoldii, is also know are the ‘corpse lily' or the ‘carrion flower'. That probably tells you what you need to now about the scent of this enormous flower. It smells like rotting meat. We are going to delve deeper into the details of this odoriferous scent in a future episode, but rafflesia is targeting a specific pollinator, carrion flies. Carrion flies are attracted to rotting meat where they their eggs so the larvae can consume the decaying flesh and transform into adult flies. Rafflesia employ a trick that many plants use to get what they need from mobile animals, pollen from another flower that they themselves cannot reach. The pollinator will visit the flower that is advertising what it is interested in, take a little reward, unknowingly get itself covered in pollen, then they visit another flower where the pollen from the first flower mixes with the second flower, and so on.  The carrion fly is attracted to rafflesia where they will lay their eggs. They don't known that this will not help them spread their genetics because when their eggs hatch the maggots will have nothing to consume, but the flower is getting what it wants out of this relationship. When the fly crawls around inside the central floral chamber looking for the best place to lay eggs, they get covered in pollen.  Once again rafflesia is different from other flowers. Most plant pollen is powdery, dusting anything that touches it with a layer of pollen that clings long enough to travel to another flower nearby. Rafflesia pollen is a viscous liquid. The fly's back gets coated with this thick, yellow liquid where it can remain for several days to weeks. Scientists are not completely sure why rafflesia use a gooey liquid pollen as opposed to a powdery pollen, but it may help keep the pollen in place longer than the powder based pollen. Rafflesia blooms unpredictably and generally not in clusters. So a pollinator has to travel a lot further to find another rafflesia flower that is in bloom. If the pollen falls off before it finds a second flower, it's not helpful.  If a rafflesia is successfully pollinated, the female flowers produce fruit that looks like a pile of cow manure. Yum! These piles are filled with hundreds of thousands of seeds. Each of these one millimeter seeds come equipped with an oil body that may have something to do with seed dispersal. Here is where we lose the path of rafflesia life cycle. Researchers have not yet determined how rafflesia seeds get where they need to go to begin life. We've come almost full circle, so let's go back to the beginning for a moment. Remember when I said that rafflesia is invisible for most of its life until it begins to bud? This is because rafflesias are parasitic plants that rely on a physical connection the a vine in genus Tetrastigma. These vines hold a lot of moisture which may be why rafflesia have chosen these particular vines as a host. To create new flowers the seeds of rafflesia must come in contact with a Tertasigma vine. We don't know how that happens. Some say that tree shrews may eat them and them poop them out, elephants step on the fruit and track them through the forest to the correct vine, but the oily bodies on the seeds indicate that ants may be the transporters of the seeds. Other species of flowers use oil bodies to attract ants to do their seed dispersal, so this may be what's happening with rafflesia, as well.  We have successfully come full circle with the life cycle of rafflesia, and I told you it was a doozy. I hope you enjoyed the ride because my third favorite thing about rafflesia is their life cycle.  If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    So join me next week for another episode about Rafflesia.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Where are rafflesia found? Join Kiersten as she visits Southeast Asia (not literally) to find out.    For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   “Most of the world's largest flowers (genus Rafflesia) are now on the brink of extinction,” by Pastor Malabrigo Jr, Adriane B. Tobias, Joko Witono, Sofi Mursidawati, Agus Susatya, Mat Eunuch Siti-Munirah, Adhityo Wicaksono, Reza Raihandhany, Sarah Edwards, and Chris J. Thorogood. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10431 Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The second thing I like about rafflesia is where it is found. This genus of plant has a very small distribution. Let's talk about where you can find these amazing flowers. You probably remember from last week's introductory episode  that rafflesia our found in southeast Asia. None have been found outside this region at the recording of this podcast in 2024, although researchers believe that there are more within this region that have yet to be seen and described by science. The majority of rafflesia are found in the Philippines, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Peninsular Malaysia. For your reference, Peninsular Malaysia refers to the western portion of Malaysia, or the island portion, and consists of 11 states and two federal territories. Let's take a look and where specific species of rafflesia are found. Before I get started, please excuse any mispronunciation of country names. I mean     no offense.  Rafflesia arnoldii, the largest species of rafflesia with a spread of three feet in diameter, is found in Malaysia in Borneo and Sarawak. This rafflesia has two varieties, the second variety is Rafflesia arnoldii atjehensis which is found in Indonesia on West Kalimantan and Sumatra. Rafflesia aurantia is fund in the Philippines in Luzon and the Quirino Province. Rafflesia azlanii is found on Peninsular Malaysia in Perak and Pahang. Rafflesia baletei is fund in the Phillipones on Southern Luzon and the Camarines Sur Province. Rafflesia bengkuluensis is found in Indonesia in Souther Sumatra. Rafflesia cantleyi is found in Peninsular Malaysia and on Tioman Island. Rafflesia consueloae, the smallest rafflesia at only 9.7cm in width, is found in the Philippines in Luzon, Nueva Ecija Province.   Rafflesia gadutensis is found in Indonesia on the Western coast of Sumatra and Benkulu. Rafflesia hasseltii is found in Indonesia's central Sumatra. Rafflesia keithii can be found in Malaysia's Borneo and Sabah and Indonesia's East Kalimantan. Rafflesia kerrii is found in Peninsular Thailand as well as Peninsular Malaysia. Rafflesia lagascae is found in Luzon in the Philippines. Rafflesia lawangensis can be found in North Sumatra and the Gunung Leuser National Park of Indonesia. Rafflesia leonardii is found in Luzon, Phillipines. Rafflesia lobata can be seen in Panay, Philippines. Rafflesia manillana lives in Samar Philippines. Rafflesia meijeri blooms in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Rafflesia micropylora is also found in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Rafflesia mira and Rafflesia mixta are both found in Mindanao, Philippines. Rafflesia patna is found in Java, Indonesia. Rafflesia philippensis is, you guessed it, found in the Philippines, Luzon Island, Quezon Province, Mt. Banahaw. This flower also goes by R. Banahaw or R. banahawensis in an homage to where it grows. Rafflesia pricei is found in Borneo, Sabah, possibly N. Sarawak, Brunei, and Kalimantan. Rafflesia rochussenii lives in Western Java and Sumatra, Indonesia.  Rafflesia schadenbergiana and Rafflesia speciosa are both found in the Philippines in Mindanao and Panay respectively. Rafflesia tengku-adlinii is found in Borneo and Sabah Malaysia. Rafflesia tuan-mudae is also found in Malaysia but in West Sarawak. Rafflesia verrucosa resides in Mindanao, Philippines. Rafflesia zollingeriana is found in eastern Java, Indonesia. The remaining species of rafflesia that we currently know of have incomplete taxonomic identification, so we are not sure if they are all seperate species from the one described above, but they are all found in Indonesia or Peninsular Malaysia. Thanks for hanging in there listeners, I didn't list these all out just so I could say rafflesia a lot, although I have to admit it is fun to say, I want to highlight how many places each specie is found. If you didn't tune it out, you may have noticed that most species are only found in one place. Only five species are found on more than one island. Since most of these flowers are found on islands, the theory of island biogeography applies. This theory, in a nutshell, says that larger islands should host a larger amount of species than smaller islands because larger islands are, well, larger. This holds true for the majority of islands that host rafflesia, but when dealing with nature, there is always an exception to the rule.  This is true of rafflesia. The island of Luzon is seven times smaller than Borneo yet both of them host the same amount of rafflesia. Scientists are not sure why yet, but research into this is ongoing. When discussing distribution of this plant, we do have to keep in mind that scientists are still discovering new species or discovering known species in new locations, so our knowledge is continually evolving.  Most rafflesias are found in a rainforest habitat on the island where they bloom and that is due to the nature of the host plant upon which they rely. The vines in the genus Tetrastigma seem to be the only vines that host these amazing flowers and they are mostly found in rainforests. Now that we know what rafflesia is and where to find it, next week we will delve into its unusual life cycle.  Thank you for listening to episode two of rafflesia. The locations where this incredible flower is found is my second favorite thing about them.  If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    So join me next week for another episode about Rafflesia.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Rafflesia is a flower but not just any ole flower. Join Kiersten as she discusses this highly unusual plant.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Most of the world's largest flowers (genus Rafflesia) are now on the brink of extinction,” by Pastor Malabrigo Jr, Adriane B. Tobias, Joko Witono, Sofi Mursidawati, Agus Susatya, Mat Eunuch Siti-Munirah, Adhityo Wicaksono, Reza Raihandhany, Sarah Edwards, and Chris J. Thorogood. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10431 “Rafflesia arnoldii,” Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, https://www.kew.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops)   Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  My name is Kiersten and I have a Master's Degree in Animal Behavior and did my thesis on the breeding behavior of the Tri-colored bat. I was a zookeeper for many years and have worked with all sorts of animals from Aba Aba fish to tigers to ravens to domesticated dogs and so many more in between. Many of those years were spent in education programs and the most important lesson I learned was that the more information someone has about a particular animal the less they fear them. The less they fear them the more they crave information about them and before you know it you've become an advocate for that misunderstood animal. This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This series will be a bit different from previous ones because we're going to talk about two unknown species. We'll delve into two amazing plants that have quite unusual life cycles.  This is the first episode of a series focused on unbelievable, unknown plants. The first plant I'm going to talk about is Rafflesia and the first thing I like about this plant is rafflesia itself. Rafflesia is actually the genus of 42 different species of plants. This genus includes the largest solitary flower in the world. Rafflesia arnoldii grows up to three feet in diameter and can weigh up to 15 lbs. That's one heck of a big flower!  This is also an amazingly beautiful flower. It has five large, rounded petals. The middle of the flower looks like a bit like a giant salad bowl, but that is just part of the outer petals. If you look at a side view of this flower the outer petals look like the letter Y. Beneath the inner lip of the flower sits the central column where the stamens are located. Almost every species of Rafflesia follows this basic anatomical pattern. Each one has it own distinct details but generally follows this pattern. All Rafflesia are a red color with white or yellow spots all over. They look like a cartoon version of a flower. Maybe something you see in a Super Mario Brothers video game. The red hue varies by species and one is such a pale pink it almost looks white. The spots also vary is shape from round dots like a polka-dot pattern to round edged rectangles to blotches that have no discernible shape. All Rafflesia that we currently know of are found in Southeast Asia. This is one of the most plant-rich areas on the planet and Rafflesia are found only here. As I stated before there are 42 species of this amazing plant and since the beginning of the 21 century the species count has doubled from the number described between 1821 and 1984. Thirteen species were described in 1997.  Now I'm not done with the amazing facts about Rafflesia. These flowers are invisible for most of its life cycle, because the main part of the plant lives hidden within another plant. Rafflesia are considered parasitic. The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines parasite as an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other's expense. Rafflesia are some of the most amazing parasites on Earth, as far as I'm concerned. We'll delve more into this topic in a future episode, but the Rafflesia chose vines in the genus Tetrastigma as their host plants. Island living is the life for Rafflesia. Most of them are found on small island throughout Southeast Asia. Some of them are found on only one island and no where else.  Taxonomy is still disputed about these flowers so classifying them can be a challenge. Beyond classification, we know little about these plants. Why they chose the hosts that they choose, which species are found where, when they will bloom, and some much more. Scientists are still studying these amazing flowers, but time is running out. Many of these flowers habitats are disappearing at a terrifying rate. There may be rafflesia disappearing before scientists even discover them. We will talk about all these topics in the first half of this series of Unbelievable unknown plants. I'm excited about this one listeners! I picked a great plant to start off with because my first favorite thing about rafflesia is rafflesia.    If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    So join me next week for another episode about Rafflesia.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Are tanuki in danger of extinction? Join Kiersten to find out all about the conservation status of the tanuki.   For my hearing impaired listeners a full transcript is available in the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org “A path to human-raccoon dog harmony: identifying factors influencing the tolerance of urban residents in Shanghai towards a neglected species,” by  Qianqian Zhao, Yihan Wang, Lejie Wu, Yidi Feng, Yuhan Li, Zhuojin Zhang, Qing Zhao, and Fang Wang. People and Nature, Vol 6, Issue 3. Https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002//pan3.10636.  Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays)  Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is the final episode of Tanuki. A little bitter sweet for me because I've had a great time researching and talking about this truly unique canine, but here we are and the tenth thing I like about the raccoon dog is their conservation status. Those of you who are consistent listeners know that I typically finish a series with a conservation episode and tanuki is no exception. This is a conservation episode with good news, overall, though. The raccoon dog is not in need of extreme conservation efforts as of this recording due to their adaptability.  The IUCN Red List has the raccoon dog listed as Least Concern. IUCN stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature which was established in 1948 bringing conservation to an international stage. This organization brings the world together with a shared goal of protecting nature. The IUCN Red List categorizes animals and plants by their population levels in endemic habitats and regions. Ratings range from Unknown to Extinct.  The raccoon dog is categorized as Least Concern which means their population levels are good and remain stable. This is mainly due to the raccoon dog's adaptability, as I said before. They are excellent at using what their environment has to offer. This is good news. We don't have tp worry about tanuki disappearing from the planet, but they are experiencing pressure from the same things that all animals and plants are suffering from. Habitat loss is causing more and more individuals to move closer to human neighborhoods, loss of insects and amphibians is causing some populations to alter their diets, and changing temperatures are causing raccoon dogs to change behaviors to accommodate shorter hibernation times.  Hunting is a concern. Raccoon dogs are hunted in every region they are found whether an endemic area or introduced. There is only one managed program involving hunting and that is within an introduced area. This is understandable. An adaptable animal in an introduced habitat can become destructive fairly quickly. The issue with hunting tanuki in their native habitat is that population numbers should be monitored so that they do not drop below genetically diverse numbers leaving no hope for recovery.   Just because the raccoon dog's population is doing well and we do not need to currently worry, it's never too early to look at what conservation efforts need to include for the future. A study recently released in March of 2024, is testing the waters. The research was done in Shanghai, China and the title of the paper is “A path to human-raccoon dog harmony: identifying factors influencing the tolerance of urban residents in Shanghai towards a neglected species.”   One of the best places to start when considering how to sculpt a conservation plan is gathering information about how the people near the area feel about the flora and fauna of the area. How does this wild place impact their lives. Is it important to them? Would they miss if it disappeared? Do they know what that habitat supports?  I believe that all habitats and animals should be conserved in their natural, true state just because they exist. We should conserve and preserve because they exist and for no other reason. Everything deserves a place to live and thrive and we, humans, are some of the most adaptable creatures on the planet, so we can change our behaviors to fit in with nature. Instead we alter everything to meet our needs.  One of the best ways to get people onboard about conservation is to show them how these animals and wild places benefit us. It is a great tool to have in the conservationists backpack. The researchers in Shanghai wanted to know how residents felt about raccoon dogs. They devised a poll and collected 281 completed surveys from residents of Shanghai which is a rapidly developing city. Scientist wanted to investigate people's knowledge, attitude, and tolerance towards raccoon dogs. They considered a few demographic variables such as gender, age, and education because they hypothesized that these might influence a person's familiarity with raccoon dogs. They also included four variables of human dimensions such as familiarity with raccoon dogs, trust in wildlife management authorities, perceived benefits of raccoon dogs, and perceived risks of raccoon dogs. Using these four dimensions they designed multiple questions to quantify participant's responses. The surveys were conducted in 10 residential areas that have high human-raccoon dog conflict. The data revealed something I have known for a long time which is that when people are educated about an animal, they understand it more and then they care about it more. The recommendation from these scientists is: “To promote harmony between urban residents and nature and foster their affection for urban species, educational campaigns and citizen science, which refers to the participation of non-professional citizens in scientific research, can be used to address conflicts both between humans and wild animals and between people with different opinions.” I could not have said it better myself! On that note, I'll close the final episode of Tanuki with my tenth favorite thing being that the future of tanuki conservation looks bright.     If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    I'll be taking a break for summer but I'll be back in September. So join me in a month for a brand new series about another misunderstood or unknown creature.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Raccoon Dogs have a complicated relationship with humans. Join Kiersten as she talks about how humans use raccoon dogs.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org The Origins of “Murmansk” Fur and Its Role in the Fashion Industry,” by Madison Dapcevich, https://www.snopes.com Keeping Raccoon Dogs as Pets, https://www.rspca.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays)  Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The ninth episode of Tanuki isn't exactly something I like about this animal but it is a reality for this animal. This episode we will discuss how humans use the raccoon dog. The human relationship with nature, which we think we are removed from but in reality are impacted by and greatly impact, is often complicated. We love it, we hate it, we want to conserve it, we want to exploit it. Humans have struggled long and hard to figure out how we fit into the world in which we live. Raccoon dogs are on a long list of living creatures that have a complicated relationship with humans. We love them, we hate them, we want to conserve them, we want to exploit them. And boy have we figured out how to exploit them. As many invasive species around the world, raccoon dogs were introduce to other portion of the planet by humans, for use by humans. This is what happened to the raccoon dogs on Finland and Europe. They were brought there by humans for food and fur. Today raccoon dogs are still used for food and fur.  In North America and portions of Europe we have made great strides to reduce the fur trade and it has been successful, but it still hangs on. I cannot fault humans from the past that used animal fur to survive in frigid weather, but back then the entire animal was often used for survival. One animal was hunted and everything was utilized. Today, for the most part, fur is fashion and I have never understood why humans think that fur looks better on them than on the animal that grew it.  in Japan, China, and Russia, raccoon dogs are raised to supply the fur trade. The fur is often marketed as murmanski, tanuki, Asiatic raccoon or Finn raccoon fur. Murmanski or tanuki is often seen in European countries, where as North American markets see Asiatic raccoon or Finn raccoon fur most often.  I am not entirely opposed to raising animals commercially for human use, but we must remember to give them the respect as living animals that they deserve. I am opposed to raising animals for use in fashion which is not necessary for our survival.  Conditions within these fur farms are deplorable. Raccoon dogs are kept in overpopulated cages, fed only enough food to keep them alive long enough to grow to the desired size before being slaughtered and skinned. Raccoon dog fur is used mostly to trim the hoods of jackets or to make stoles or adorn other items of clothing. Raccoon dog fur is not useful for making coats to withstand freezing temperatures. Humans use this strictly as a fashion statement. Snopes also recently confirmed a research report that some labels claiming the fur trim on their clothing is faux fur is actually tanuki fur, so be aware when buying faux fur. I found some reference to raccoon dog yarn, but could not get any substantial descriptions of what it is or how it is made. Some rumors say it is shaved from raccoon dogs once a year like sheep and processed into yarn, but I cannot confirm these reports. Regardless, I can't imagine how many raccoon dogs you'd have to raise to make any profit off of this endeavor. Having large quantities of animals for profit usually leads to lax care. This is often marketed as tanuki yarn. In Japan and China, tanuki may be on the menu. Several exotic meat markets in these Asian countries sell raccoon dog meat. Selling non-domesticated animals to eat is never a good thing. Most often these animals are hunted to near extinction in their native habitats which can throw the entire ecosystem off, creating even bigger problems not to mention killing a species that has every right to live merely because it exists. The other major problem with this practice is that it spreads disease. Wild animals are susceptible to disease. It is a natural part of life. Disease is one way that nature keeps populations of all living things in balance. When you kill wild animals and bring them into a market place to sell, you can also be sending home whatever diseases that animal is carrying with them. If the animal is not handled and prepared properly it could have disastrous results. In several countries, there is a raccoon dog hunting season. Now, I have no problems with hunting these animals in countries that they have been introduced to, such as Finland, as long as they are hunted humanely without tortuous methods such as bear traps. Hunting them in their natural ranges is also acceptable as long as populations are managed so that their numbers never plummet to dangerous levels.  Of course, why you are hunting these animals is important to me. In areas where they are injurious, such as an introduced habitat, I completely understand hunting them to remove them from a non-native area. Hunting them for the sheer joy of hunting to kill a living animal and trying to kill as many as possible, that I have issues with and have never understood. Humans use raccoon dogs for one other thing, pets. Raccoon dogs are apparently popular pets in England, one of their non-native ranges. It is illegal in England to have them as a pet. Raccoon dogs do not make good pets. They are not a domesticated breed of dog so it does not matter how you raise them, they will always be wild animals. They need large areas to roam, a varied diet of items that most humans do not want to provide, in other words not dog food, and we do not know enough about their social structure to know if they can live without the company another raccoon dog. Keeping a wild animal in a human household is not a good idea for the human or the animal in question. Please do not buy a raccoon dog for a pet, no matter what anyone tells you. Keep in mind that most countries outside of their natural range, including the countries they were introduced to years ago, have outlawed buying, selling, or owning raccoon dogs as pets or commercial animals. This is to prevent them from escaping and setting up residence in that country, because these animals are extremely adaptable as we have learned from the rest of this series. This has been a tough episode for me. It is hard for me to talk about the exploration of any wild animal, but I thought it was important information. This is the end of the ninth episode of the tanuki.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for the penultimate episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: We're not yet done with the mythology of tanuki. Join Kiersten for another episode about the supernatural aspects of the raccoon dog.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: https://mythick.com/tanuki https://wildinjapan.wordpress.com https://livejapan.com https://www.curiuosordinary.com https://sakura.co Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The mythology of the Tanuki is vast and a little confusing, but it's the eighth thing I like about this incredible animal. In the seventh episode we also talked about mythology of the tanuki. We learned that the mythological raccoon dog has the ability to change shape. They can imitate people and inanimate objects, such as tea kettles. They are known to shape shift into people. Typically they pick people who enjoy gambling, cheating, drinking, stealing and lying. They will imitate government personnel and go to citizen's houses to play tricks on them. They have even impersonated monks, learned Buddhism, then taught it to humans. I'm wondering how close their teachings were to true Buddhist teachings. They are so good at imitating people that they can live several years, possibly an entire lifetime, as humans before changing back into tanuki. There are ways to tell if you have run into a tanuki in disguise. According to legend tanuki wear a certain kimono that gives them away, but I have't found any description of what this kimono looks like or how it differs from a human kimono.  So I don't know how helpful that tip is… If you see someone walking in the rain and they are not getting wet, without using an umbrella presumably, they could be a tanuki. Also, if the tanuki becomes sufficiently distracted they may forget to keep their tail hidden which gives them away as not being human.  Tanuki can also change inanimate objects into other objects. For example, they can change leaves into money which they will probably use to gamble or trick humans into selling them something for a pile full of leaves.   Tanuki are portrayed as mischievous trouble makers, helpful tricksters, and devious murderer s. Whatever they are, they are found throughout Japanese cultural history. If you visit Japan, you will see statues in front of many stores and for sale to customers. The statues emphasize the helpful persona of the tanuki. These statues all look the same because each item on the raccoon dog has meaning. These items represent the eight signs of good luck. Item One: A straw hat: The straw hat is used to protect yourself from trouble and unexpected accidents. Item Two: Big eyes: Big eyes help you observe and pay attention to everything around you so you can make correct decisions. Item Three: A smiling face: A smile reminds you to be friendly and kind to others. Item Four: Wine Bottle: The bottle contains Japanese sake, or rice wine, and represents learning the qualities and character of a person that does not have to worry about eating. This one is a bit confusing, but what I believe is that this encourages a person to take notice of those that work hard to keep their family fed. Item Five: A book: The book is a place to record cash transactions. It is  important in creating trust when borrowing money to help build trusting relationships between people. Item Six: Th belly drum: One of the stories from the last episode talks about the tanuki using their bellies as a drum. Th belly drum represents a steady, calm, and daring attitude in life. Item Seven: The “golden-bags”, that is written in parentheses, represent luck that will get better and better and create more and more money or fortune. Item Eight: The Tail They have a big fluffy tail, on the status and in reality. The tail on the statue helps to support the balance of the body implying stability. It also represents the end. This one makes perfect sense to me. It also means wishing for a firm ending to life or a certain event in life. These statues are quite cute and certainly imply a sense of impish good luck.   Let's take a closer look at the “golden bags” that is the seventh item on our lucky statue. The “golden bags” come with parentheses because it refers to the tanuki's scrotum.  A bit of a warning here, we will be taking about male genitals for the rest of this podcast, if that is offensive to you, please be aware. Also, gentleman, this conversation may become a bit traumatizing for you, so take care. One of the strangest abilities mythological tanukis have is the ability to stretch their scrotum to incredible sizes!. Yes, I am talking about the skin that surrounds the testes, the reproductive organs, of most male mammals.  Tanuki can enlarge and shape change their scrotum into unbelievable sizes and shapes. It's actually such an intregal part of the tanuki legend that during the Edo period a Japanese artist created a series of prints depicting the many ways that tanuki use their scrotum.  They can use them for fishing and hunting. One print shows four tanuki standing in knee high water, these tanuki look like humans with dog-like faces and tails, stretching their scrotum out like a fishing net. They use the skin to corral fish and scoop them up.  Another print show a single tanuki throwing his scrotum, which is still attached to him, into the air from a cliff edge to catch flying cranes. Another hunting related print shows tanuki using the scrotum to carry their bounty by pulling it behind them or over their shoulders. It doesn't stop there. Tanuki can use their scrotum to workout. One print shows several tanuki using their expandable skin as weights. One is doing leg lifts while another dead lifts his scrotum. Two others are watching presumably cheering them on. Apparently this skin doesn't just expand in size but can increase in density as well.   Tanuki can also use their scrotums as weapons. One print shows a tanuki beating an extremely large catfish to death with his expandable pouch. It can also help them stay warm on a cold day. There is a print that shows five tanuki using their elastic skin as a tent, sleeping bag, and cloak. Convenient. If you forget your camping gear just find a kind tanuki that will share theirs. One print shows tanuki using their scrotum as a boat carrying themselves and several other tanuki across the water. There are so many other things that they can use their scrotums for that I could go on for awhile, but I won't because I think you get the picture. Also, I just can't say the word scrotum one more time! So to sum up, tanukis are a bit of a catch all for unexplainable supernatural activities. If you don't know what it is, it's probably a tanuki in disguise.  This concludes the mythology episodes of tanuki. It was a bit of a crazy ride but it is my eighth favorite thing about raccoon dogs.    If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for the penultimate episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Tanuki are also animals that are wrapped in mythology. Join Kiersten as she talks about the complicated mythology involving raccoon dogs.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: https://mythick.com/tanuki https://wildinjapan.wordpress.com https://livejapan.com https://www.curiuosordinary.com https://sakura.co Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The seventh and eighth thing I like about the Tanuki is the mythology surrounding this interesting animal. Mythology involving the tanuki is odd but abundant, so it will get two episodes.  When I began doing research on the raccoon dog the first thing that popped up was Japanese mythology involving the tanuki. It wasn't was I was looking for so I just pushed it aside and kept digging for the natural history of the raccoon dog. As you know, I haven't found as much information as I'd like on this lovely canine, but I thought, why not talk a little bit about the mythology built around this curious creature. It is inspired by the live animal, after all. Mythology often originates through the need for humans to explain the unexplainable. In doing that, we have attributed some very interesting qualities to the tanuki. The Tanuki of mythology are bit complicated. They are portrayed as trouble makers, but also as entities that help humans. Original stories depict tanuki as evil doers with bad luck that possess humans. But later stories describe them as harmless pranksters. The Japanese word translated into English can be either monster tanuki or trickster tanuki.  The earliest mention of the tanuki, as the mythological entity, is  from the second oldest written book in Japanese history. Finished in 720 by the prince of the imperial court. It mentions tanuki as shapeshifting creatures that cause a lot of trouble. Mythological tanuki bear a striking resemblance to the real life creature with a few exaggerated attributes, but we will talk more about that in the next episode. What can we look forward to if we run into a mythological tanuki? Let's look at a few folk tales to see what we might be in for. Before we jump in, I apologize for butchering any of the Japanese names I am about to mention. Bunbuku Chagama is the tale of a tanuki that transforms into a tea-kettle. It does this to repay a poor man who helped free it from a trap. I guess he was so poor he could not afford a tea kettle so that could be very useful. Anyway, the tanuki couldn't withstand the heat from the fire and then became stuck and was unable to completely transform into the tanuki again. So he stayed with the old man and performed tightrope walking to earn money for the old man. This doesn't sound too bad. Strange, but not too bad. Shoji Tanuki Bayashi is the tale of a group of tanuki that try to scare away priests from a temple by transforming into various yokai, which are ghosts or demons. It was working until a new priest arrived and was not afraid of the apparitions, so the tanuki try to drive him away with noise by holding nightly parties. The priest sneaks into the party and deciding that they look like they're having fun begins to play his shamisen, a tree-stringed traditional Japanese instrument. The tanuki took this a a challenge and replied by beating their bellies even louder. Mythological tanuki have large pot-bellies that they use like drums. The musical battle persisted for four nights. The leader of the tanuki beats too hard on his belly, killing himself. Hey, it's all fun and games until someone pops a belly, right? This last tale is a bit more gruesome. Kachi-kachi Yama is the dark story of  devious tanuki. A childless old couple that lived in the mountains had a special friend that they treated like a child, a wild hare. The couple also had a enemy, a raccoon dog. The raccoon dog openly taunted them and stole from their garden. One day the old man caught the raccoon dog and gave it to his wife asking her to make tanuki stew. Th etanuki pleaded for his life and begged the old woman to let him go. Being kind hearted, she released the tanuki who repaid her by beating her to death with a hammer. Some stories continue to tell how the tanuki made a stew out of the old woman and disguised himself as her until the old man came home and sat down to a hot bowl of tanuki stew. The raccoon dog then reveals who he is and what the old man is eating. The tanuki runs away after the murder and deceit. When the hare hears about what happens it promises revenge and sets a trap for the tanuki. Stories vary, but the most common trap is the hare tricking the raccoon dog into carrying a bundle of firewood on its back. When the tanuki is completely involved in its task, the hare lights the wood on fire, taking revenge on the killer raccoon dog.  This story is pretty bad. The first two were mostly harmless fun, but feeding someone wife to them, that's dark. Throughout Japanese history, the mythological tanuki has been evil and vengeful as well as charming and playful. I guess it all depends on the outcome. That's all for the first half of Tanuki Mythology I can't wait to share part two with you because the mythology of the Japanese tanuki is my seventh and eight favorite thing about them.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How do tanuki hunt for food? Join Kiersten as she shares some surprising behaviors that Tanuki use to catch prey.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org “Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) In the Community of Medium-sized Carnivores n Europe: Its Adaptations, Impact on Native Fauna and Management pf the population.”, by Katrina Kauhala and Rafal Kowalczyk. https://researchgate.net Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. We're more than halfway through Tanuki and the sixth thing I like about them is how they hunt and forage. Since tanuki are omnivores they do a little of both. I know we have talked about their diet already, but we'll talk a bit more about how they find their food in this episode and we will also talk about what's eating them.  As you may remember from previous episodes, we don't know as much about tanuki behavior in the wild as we should so this episode will be a bit shorter that average, but I will do my best to enlighten you on this episode's topic. We have already established that raccoon dogs are omnivores which means they eat both protein and vegetation. Looking at the proteins that they eat, we can see a pattern. Raccoon dogs, regardless of where they are found, tend to eat similar proteins. Insects, frogs, bird eggs, shrews, crabs, fish, small reptiles, carrion, and human refuse. Can you see the pattern? They are all small prey items. What does this tell us? Raccoon dogs rely on their own capabilities to catch food. They do not hunt in packs, like some other canines, which means that they are restricted to hunting small prey or eating carrion.  From radio telemetry studies that have been done in the last few years, we know that some raccoon dogs remain together in pairs throughout the year and we assume they hunt together. But this doesn't mean they are going after larger prey together. These animals are approximately the size of red foxes, so two won't be able to take down any larger prey than a single raccoon dog.  Tanuki that live near enough to water will eat fish, crabs, and other aquatic life. I haven't found many descriptive accounts, but it is known that they will dive under water to catch their prey. This truly surprised me because there are no other canids that do this to catch prey. I'd love to see some video! They have also been seen catching fish from the shore using their paws to snag this slippery prey. This a unique behavior in the canid family, few, if any, other canines exhibit this hunting behavior.  Raccoon dogs will also climb trees in search of food, which explains the bird eggs and the passerines, or songbirds, that are found in their feces. In Europe raccoon dogs have been blamed for the downswing in the populations of certain game birds, but no evidence has been found that supports this hypothesis. Eider eggs and meat have been found in the feces of Finnish raccoon dogs, but there is no evidence that they are hunting healthy eiders. It is postulated that they may have taken advantage of a disease that spread through this population of waterfowl.  As of the recoding of this episode, there is no correlation between raccoon dog presence at the decline of bird populations in any habitat in which they are found. When resources are low, Tanuki take advantage of human trash. We throw away a lot of stuff these critters can eat. It is not beneath them to take an easy meal where they can get it.  When it comes to vegetation, tanuki will eat berries, fruits, flowers, seeds, bulbs, and roots of various plants. They love a little human garden and have no problems taking a nibble when they can. They are small and usually forage at night, so they can easily get in and out of areas without being seen. Their coloration, brown fur and black masked face, helps them blend in like little thieves in the night.  Now that we know how they are finding food, let's find out who hunts raccoon dogs.  You're not going to believe this listeners, but we don't know what kinds of anitipredator behaviors raccoon dogs possess but we do know who eats them. I know, how can we know so much about this animal and also know so little. It really is amazing. Raccoon dogs must worry about a plethora of animals that might be interested in hunting them including Gray wolves, Eurasian lynx, wolverines, Japanese Martens, golden eagles, sea eagles, Eurasian eagle owls, domestic dogs, and humans. Yep, that's right humans eat these guys too. In Japan, tanuki are on the menu. That's all she wrote for this episode of tanuki. I'm glad you joined me for this one because how tanuki find their food is my sixth favorite thing about them. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Let's talk babies! The reproductive cycle of the Tanuki is simple but interesting! Join Kiersten as she walks you through the seasonal changes that brings Tanuki pups.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The fifth thing I like about Tanukis is their reproductive cycle. Like many mammals, raccoon dogs enter eastru only once a year; therefore, they bear young only once a year. In the last episode we discovered that tanuki are monogamous, meaning the male and female mate with only one partner each year. In some populations these bonds may last year after year, where as other populations may only stay together one year. Now, as we all know, before mating comes courting. So let's start there. I'd love to tell you how they court each other with elaborate dance, vocalizations, or hide and seek, but we just don't know. Not much research has been done on wild populations courting behavior. I'm unsure why. It could be either no one focused their research on the topic or it is difficult to find and observe courting behavior in the wild.  From captive individuals, we have learned that scent-marking and male female interactions increase before the female ovulates. She is courted by three to four males and an up turned U-shape tail indicates that the male is interested in mating and may also play a role in determining dominance. Reluctantly, that's about all we know about raccoon dog courting. Once the male and female have determined they are a fit couple, they will mate. This behavior typically happens in early March and gestation lasts approximately 60 days. Pups are typically born sometime in May. This is not coincidence, listeners. It's perfectly timed so that pups are born when there is abundant resources available. Nature, man, it is perfect. For populations that hibernate through the winter, breeding season begins just after they wake to warmer temperatures.  After the female is pregnant, the couple will find a burrow to call home. They will move into an abandoned badger or fox den and make it their own, and why not, quick move in and minimal energy output. Toward the end of gestation, the female will remain in the den while the male hunts for food and brings home dinner.  Typically five to seven pups are born in each litter.  The young are altricial at birth, meaning they are born with closed eyes, very little hair, and the inability to care for themselves. They are covered in black fur without the mask facial markings. At nine or ten days, the pups eyes open and teeth emerge around fourteen to sixteen days. They will wean around 30 to 40 days, but until then they rely on mom for milk. By weaning time, their facial markings are evident making them look like miniature versions of their parents.  While mom stays in the den with the pups, dad hunts for food bringing home the bacon, as they say. Once the pups are weaned, they transition to solid food and mom leaves the den. After being cooped up with her young, she goes out to hunt while dad take over parental duties. She will bring back food for the pups and until they are ready to leave the den male and female will trade off hunting and pupsitting duties.  By about three months, they pups are the size of young adult raccoon dogs. Four month of age brings hunting lessons. The pups will follow mom and dad and learn how to hunt by watching their parents. At nice to eleven months, the pups will be full grown and out on their own.  By the time they leave the company of their parents, they are sexually mature and the following spring, they will most likely be looking for mates of their own. We are not sure how long raccoon dogs live in the wild, but in a study of trapped tanuki the oldest males were approximately 5 and 1/2 years while the females were 7 and 1/2 years. Of 320 captured individuals, 68.4% were younger adults. It's not terribly surprising tha these mammals mature at such a young age given that they may only live 5 to 7 years.  In captivity, tanuki have lived to just over 14 years.  That concludes this episode about the reproductive cycle of the tanuki. Thank you for listening because raccoon dog reproduction is my fifth favorite thing about this intriguing mammal.     If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How social are tanuki? Do they hang out in packs like wolves or solitary like a fox? Join Kiersten as she dives into the social structure of the raccoon dog.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com “Latrine utilization and feces recognition in the raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides”, by I. Yamamoto. Journal of Ethology, June 1984. Nyctereutes procyonoides, Raccoon Dog. Animal Diversity Web. https://animaldiversity.org Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The fourth thing I like about Tanukis is their social structure. Canids have a variety of different social structures, from family packs like wolves, monogamous pairs like coyotes, and solitary lives like foxes. Today we'll take a closer look at the raccoon dog's social activities. Tanuki are, genetically, more closely related to foxes than any other canine, but their social structure is more closely related to coyotes. We are still learning about these understudied animals, but what we know so far shows that tanukis pair off during the breeding season. Once they have paired off, it appears that they may stay together year round. If not closely together in distance they appear to at least share a home range.  Telemetry data shows that tanukis remain in pairs or in small groups within the same home range throughout the year. A home range is a space that an animal can be consistently found that includes hunting grounds, a water source, and a denning site. Non-migratory animals typically remain in their home range for their entire life as long as all resources that they need continue to be offered in that home range. During breeding season a male and a female tanuki pair off and will share a denning site to raise their offspring together. We will delve into reproduction and rearing the young in the next episode.  As stated before, it is unclear whether mated pairs remain together throughout the year but there is evidence that they remain together when they are sleeping or resting. Some populations that live in colder regions will actually hibernate together. Pairs will endure the coldest times of the year in a den with their mate. By the way, tanuki are the only canids that hibernate, that we currently known of, anyways.  As we've discovered in previous episodes, there are differences in behavior based on the location of the tanuki populations. There is no evidence that tanuki live in groups, consistently, in Finland. They will live in pairs with their young offspring, but do not stay together once the young are old enough to survive on their own. Here, the mated pair will stay together in their home range throughout the year.  During the breeding season, in Finland, the mated pairs home ranges never overlap with other mated pairs. Outside of breeding season, some overlap can be seen but only peripherally. The home ranges of mated pairs is pretty stable, fluctuating with the seasons probably due to resource availability, but for the most part they utilize the same space year round. Juveniles that have left their birth home range and have yet to pair off with a mate, have much larger home ranges than mated pairs. This is due to searching for an acceptable home range and a mate of their own. Japanese tanuki also appear to remain in pairs throughout the year, once they have mated. There is evidence that these bonds last for multiple years. Again, they will live with their young until the offspring are ready to head out on their own. Unlike the Finland populations, some Japanese individuals may return to their natal home range, that is where they were born, after they reach maturity.  It is interesting that telemetry research shows tanuki from two different populations live in pairs and small groups for at least a portion of the year, because whenever they are seen by humans they appear to be alone. There are very few reports of seeing raccoons dogs together. I'm not sure what exactly what to think of that, but it's an intriguing mystery. Don't you think, listeners? When I find out that animals are solitary or live in small groups, one of the behaviors that I always want to know about, is communication. All creatures need to communicate with others of their own kind, but how do they do it? Raccoon dogs have several ways to communicate with each other.  Vocalizations are one way that tanuki communicate. They whine, whimper, and mew which are vocalizations that are often associated with friendly greetings or submissive interactions. They can also growl when threatened, but they do not bark.  Body language is important to tanuki as with other canids, but raccoon dogs do not appear to use tail wagging as a form of communication. Most other canines will use tail wagging to communicate various intentions, but as far as we know the tanuki does not. The tanuki does communicate in a unique way. They have social latrines. Yes, I said social latrines. This is a common spot where many tanuki will use the restroom. They urinate and defecate in these social areas, not at the same time, but in the same space. They will sniff the area each time they visit and appear to pick up some information from the piles of excrement. Other canids often use scent marking from urination and defecation to announce their territory boundaries, but tanuki use these latrines to pass information between family members and unrelated tanuki. We need to do much more research on these social latrines to determine what kind of information is passed at these social hubs. Well, that's all for the social behavior of the raccoon dog, we have a lot more to learn, but my fourth favorite thing about this canine is their social structure.  If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: What are Tanuki eating? Join Kiersten as she discusses just what raccoon dogs are eating in the wild.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com   Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is episode three and the third thing I like about raccoon dogs is their diet. I actually do enjoy some of the same foods that raccoons dogs eat, but what I really like about their diet is how varied it is depending on their location. As mentioned before, Tanuki are classified as omnivores. Omnivores are animals that eat both meat and veggies. This is exactly what the Tanuki does. Let's look at what often determines the kind of food animals eat, their teeth. Tanukis are canids, which is the family of animals that include wolves, foxes, and domestic dogs. These animals usually share the same kind of dentition, or structure and layout of teeth. Most canids are classified as carnivores, even though many do eat fruits and vegetables at some time during the year. Takunis have six incisors in the top jaw and six incisors in the bottom jaw. They have two canines, top and bottom. They have four premolars, top and bottom. And two to three molars, top and bottom. This gives them a total of 42 to 44 teeth. This is a typical amount for a canine. In canids, the premolars are carnassial teeth. These are essentially modified molars that are sharp to help shred and tear meat. The carnassial teeth in the Tanuki are reduced compared to other canids and their molars are larger. This pattern speaks to their omnivorous diet. In the previous episodes we discussed a few differences between the indigenous Japanese populations and the introduced Finnish populations. We will continue this comparison with their teeth, because there are noticeable difference between the different populations, so much so that scientists can determine the origin of a raccoon dog by inspecting their teeth. Whoa! That's exactly what I thought, too! The case study I'm referencing measured 65 skulls from Finland raccoon dogs and 104 skulls from raccoon dogs in Honshu, Japan. They took 22 different measurements of adult teeth and skulls. The skulls of Finnish raccoon dogs were larger both overall and in relative body size than those of the Japanese population. Mandible width and jaw height were the most useful measurements in determining location of each raccoon dog with a 100% correct classification.  The mandibles of the Finnish raccoon dogs are more robust with a more powerful jaw than those of Japanese origin. Japanese individuals have a longer snout with longer tooth rows than the Finnish specimens. Molars of the Japanese raccoon dogs are larger in relation to skull size versus the Finnish Tanuki. What do these differences in skull and tooth morphology tell us about these creatures? Excellent question, listeners! It tells us what they are eating.  So what are Tanuki eating in the wild. As we just discovered, it appears to depend on where they are located. I find that fascinating! They are the same animal but their diet varies depending on what habitat they live in. It shows how adaptable they are and this is certainly an attribute they share with the North American Raccoon, after whom they are named.  Tanuki, in general, are ominous, which means they eat both meat and vegetation. The percentage and type of food varied depending on Japan versus Finland. As we just determined, Finland raccoon dogs have slightly larger jaws meaning their massater muscles are larger which in turn mean they probably eat more meat and possibly larger prey than Japanese Tanuki.  How do researchers determine what animals in the wild are eating? Poop! A lot of poop. Scientists, often undergraduates eager to get into the sciences, collect lots and lots of feces. You have to note the area where it is found, the date, time of day, and any other factors that might be important, such as the weather. These samples are then returned to the lab were they will be processed and someone gets to dissect an awful lot of poo!  In this case study the researchers determined that thought the year the diet of raccoon dogs, whether in Finland or Japan, varies. This is most likely due to natural resource fluctuations. In Finland frogs, lizards, and invertebrates are commonly eaten in summer and autumn. Fish are eaten in late winter. Berries and fruits are eaten in late summer and autumn. If we look at food resources in percentages we see 56% of mammals, voles and shrews being very popular, 34% were bird remains, 8% were frogs or lizards, 20% fish, 51% invertebrates, 89% plants, and 49% carrion, which is dead, decaying animal matter. A note on the most common bird remains found in Finland raccoon dog feces, the Common Eider, a type of duck found in coastal waters, and eggs were most often found in Finland's raccoon dogs feces. It is not believed that at the time of the recording of this podcast that the predation of the Tanuki on the Common Eider in Finland detrimentally impacts their populations. Let's take a look at the diet of the Japanese populations. In Japan, Tanuki diet has been studied in different habitats. For the most part, it follows the same pattern as the Finland population with invertebrates fruits, rodents, birds, frogs and fish. In the subalpine zone diet consisted of 90% insects mainly Coleoptera, which is the family that includes a lot of beetles, and these were seen year round. 58% included earthworms except in the cooler months of January to April. Berries and seeds made up 49% of the diet. These were also seen year round with a lower amount in January to April when fewer plants are producing berries and seeds. 46% of the diet consisted of small mammals, January to June.  In mountainous regions diet consisted of 78 to 100% of Coleoptera insects in spring and summer, Orthoptera in autumn, that's grasshoppers and crickets, and Hemiptera, which includes the True Bugs, in winter. Fruits are eaten year round with a percentage of 77 to 100%, except in May. This is may be because the fruits are just ripening at this time. From April to December, crustaceans, such as Japanese freshwater crabs, make up 28 to 71% of the diet with fish at 9 to 27%, birds 8 to 21%, small mammals 7 to 25%, carrion consisting mainly of sika deer and serow, aka goat-antelopes, at 10 to 37%.  In the countryside, insects seem to be the most important food resource year round with available fruits such as persimmon supplementing the diet in autumn and early winter.  In urban and suburban areas, raccoon dogs will feed mainly around human dwellings and have included garbage into their diet. No surprise there! Any animal that has adapted to living in human dominated areas has taken advantage of our propensity to create a lot of trash. Garbage was found year round at a percentage of 72%, with insects, mainly beetles, at 46%, persimmon fruit at 30% in spring and summer, earthworms at 24%, birds at 21% in winter and spring, and Myriapoda, millipedes and centipedes at 11% year round.   This may have been a bit more specific than you expected in our talk about diet. But I found the differences and similarities across the populations interesting enough to highlight the percentages. Plus, someone did a lot of poop scooping and dissection to get this information, so I thought I'd spread the information around as far as possible. No pun intended.  Once again I think this episode shows the adaptability of the Tanuki and makes them an even more fascinating canine. Thanks for hanging in there to the end, listeners, because my third favorite thing about this unknown canine is their diet. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Where are tanuki found? Join Kiersten as she looks at the range of the Japanese raccoon dog.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com   Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it.   Last episode I introduced you the Japanese raccoon dog, the tanuki. In this episode we're going to talk about where they can be found. Which I s the second thing I like about them. You may be thinking, it's a Japanese raccoon dog, so what more is there to discuss. They're from Japan. You are right, listener, but that's not the end of the story. Let's take a deeper dive into where the tanuki can be found. The native range of the raccoon dog covers much of China, northeast Indochina, Korea, Amur, and Ussuri regions of Eastern Siberia, Mongolia, and Japan.  The earliest known ancestors of the raccoon dog are 3.7 million years old. Fossils of a subspecies was found in Europe 4 million years ago. Nyctereutes megamastoides, a large ancestor of raccoon dogs, lived in Europe while another subspecies, Nyctereutes sinensis lived in China during the Pliocene era and the early Pleistocene era. The distribution of this animal decreased during the Pleistocene. Nyctereutes megamastoides went extinct and Nyctereutes sinensis decreased in size. The later Chinese species evolved into the modern species we know today. The ancestors of todays residents of Japan probably colonized this area between 0.4 Ma and 12,000 years ago using the Sakhalin or Korean peninsulas. When the Japan Sea opened approximately 12,000 years ago the modern tanuki became isolated from other subspecies. These individuals began to adapt to a mild marine climate. Another subspecies evolved in Russia adapting to much colder climates. Their fur caught the eye of humans who introduced them to European parts of the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century. As many introduced species do, the raccoon dog spread quickly and was detected in Finland in the 1930s. The Finnish population peaked in the 1980s and has remained stable. Raccoon dogs are currently among the most numerous carnivores in Finland. The two different populations of raccoon dogs have evolved to be distinct from each other in size and behavior. We'll talk more about these differences in future episodes.    Where within these two distinctive populations, Japan and Finland, can we find the raccoon dogs? In Japan, they can be found all over the country, but they can be classified into mountain types and village types, at least in the satoyama habitat where their home range use was studied. The mountain type where found to favor secondary forest and herbaceous areas. The village type was found in agricultural landscapes. Within both of these types, the least favorite habitats were the cedar plantations and the most favored were rice fields. Much like this mammals, namesake, the North American raccoon, tanuki can be found in urban areas as well. Within urban cities, they are found most often in areas with forest cover. In Finland, the tanuki uses different habitat seasonally. In southern Finland they used a barren heath habitat in all seasons, while they used moist heath habitat in late summer. Lake shore were all popular in both summer and autumn where food resources were plentiful regardless of the season. Water is also useful when these mammals encounter domestic dogs. They often run into the water to get away from the dogs. Rock piles on barren heaths provide great denning options during breeding season. When young are able to leave the den in mid-summer, parents will take them into meadows and abandoned fields. In late summer moist heath fields attract these omnivorous creature with abundant berries and insects. Autumn leads the raccoon dog to pine forests in search of abundant berries and into human cultivated gardens. I found it interesting that these two populations used available habitat and resources in different ways. It shows how adaptable these creatures are. It speaks well of their continued survival in an ever changing world. It also, once again, shows a similarity with their namesake, Procyon lotor.    That's it for this episode of the Tanuki. I know we got a little scientific in this episode but my second favorite thing about this critter is where they are found and that could only be described with a little fossil talk. Thanks for hanging in there.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: A raccoon that's a dog? Not exactly. Join Kiersten as she introduces you to the Tanuki.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, edited by David W. Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. Raccoon dogs: Finnish and Japanese raccoon dogs - on the road to speciation?” By Kaarina Kauhala and Midair Saeki, pgs 217-226. https://static1.squarespace.com   Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is the first episode of a new series and I'm excited to introduce you to the tanuki, the Japanese raccoon dog. The first thing I like about this animal is its existence.  So, what exactly is the tanuki? It's called the raccoon dog, but it's not really a raccoon or a dog. Nyctereutes procyonoides is not related to raccoons, but it is in the dog family. Tanuki are canids and they are most closely related to foxes, but continuing research on this topic may show that they are related only to themselves. We'll have to wait a see what the future brings for the Tanuki family tree. For now they remain canids related to foxes. Looking at them, you can completely understand why they got the name raccoon dog. They have a masked face just like a raccoon, they are small and fluffy, like a cute dog. But they are not domesticated canids, they are a wild animal.  They have dark facial markings that surround the eyes and taper down the cheeks, like a raccoon. Their fluffy coat is yellowish brown, and while they do have a long tail, it is not ringed like a raccoon, just a yellow-brown like the rest of its coat. It has short limbs covered in black or brown fur. They have a heavy body, small snout with a thin, delicate muzzle, and rounded ears.   If this description is making you need to see this cutey for yourself, take a moment to search for an image of them online and be prepared to fall in love. If you're driving while listening to this episode, please wait until you've reached your destination. The tanuki is not a big animal. They are approximately 20-26 inches, or 50 to 65cm, in length. Their tail is 5 to 7 inches, or 13 to 18cm, long. They weigh around 17.5 pounds, or 7.5 kg. This is probably another reason they got the name raccoon dog, as this is the approximate size of an average raccoon. There is no discernible size difference in males verse females, but there is a difference in sizes throughout subspecies. Tanuki are indigenous to Japan, southeastern coastal Russia, and eastern coastal China. Indigenous means that they are native to these areas. Today they can also be found in areas of Europe where they were introduced for human uses. I'll go more in depth with this topic in a future episode. Raccoon dogs are largely nocturnal, but can be seen foraging at sundown and sunrise. They are generalists when it comes to their diet and are classified as omnivores. Omnivores are animals that eat both proteins, such as meat, and vegetation. Depending on where they live, their diets vary slightly. In their native ranges they tend to be more frugivorous, that's eating fruits, and vegetarian; while, in their introduced range they tend to be more carnivorous.  Raccoon Dogs are incredibly adaptable, much like the North American animal that shares their name, and can be found in various habitats. They do tend to favor scrubby forest areas where they can easily disappear in low growing plants and food resources are plentiful. In Japan they have adapted to a more urban existence and due to the mythology of the raccoon dog in this country, they seem to be surviving. Don't worry, I'm dedicating a whole episode to the mythology of the Tanuki. I hope this first episode has you as excited about the raccoon dog as I am because my first favorite thing about them, is them! If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about Tanuki.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Want more cool facts about slime mold? Who doesn't!? Join Kiersten for more unbelievable facts about slime mold.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Slime Molds: No Brains, No Feet, No Problem,” Science Thursday. PBS. https://www.pbs.org “100 million years in amber: Researchers discover oldest fossilized slime mold,” University of Gottingen. Science Daily. https://www.sciencedaily.com “Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. The last episode of Slime Mold has arrived. It's bitter sweet for me because I have loved researching this organism but I'm also excited about which  creature will come next. We're going out with a bang though, the tenth thing I like about slime mold is that there are so many more cool facts about it! Before we delve into the the amazing facts we haven't yet discussed about slime mold, let's talk about conservation and control. Slime mold is not in any need of conservation methods at the time. The species that we know about are all doing well. There is plenty of places for slime mold to thrive and some species, like the Dog Vomit Slime Mold, are doing better than ever because of our need to use mulch on our landscaped gardens. This is good news for this organism, but we have to keep in mind that disappearing habitat like forests and wetlands means that all creatures that rely on these areas are at risk. As we change the landscape around us to fit our needs, we take away habitat that these organisms rely on to survive. That does include slime mold. Many people contact local gardening clubs and college extensions to ask how to control slime mold that they find in their gardens. The only thing you need to do, is scoop out the mulch that is growing on and throw it out. Slime mold doesn't harm plants that it is near or on. Most of the time it dries out and goes away before it can damage any plants that you might find it on. So control is a moot point, really, and after listening to this series, I hope you get excited about the slime mold you find in your backyard! Okay let's talk about some of the other cool facts about slime mold.  If slime mold gets torn apart it can reform! The protoplasm of slime mold allows it to be separated and reform again when the pieces get near each other. Each tiny bit is interchangeable. Every individual protoplasm unit of slime mold can become a vein or limb-like projection that reaches out in the direction the mold wants to travel. There are, however, organelles inside the slime mold that are unable to do this. They are fixed as organelles and never change.  It does beg the question can you kill slime mold? “It's hard to say,” says Tanya Latty, an Australian researcher studying slime mold. There is a beetle that eats slime mold, but can it eat enough to kill an individual glob? “We don't know if they eat enough of the body to make a difference,” continues Latty. “You could lose half of the biomass and it wouldn't matter. It would just reorganize itself and be like, “I'm fine!” End quote.  If you can't kill slime mold, how long can it live? Excellent question, but we have no idea how long slime mold can live. When it dries out its called a sclerotia and it can survive like this for up to two years and still be revived with a little bit of moisture. As of the recoding of this podcast in 2024, a zoo in Paris has a slime mold currently on display in its plasmodial form that they acquired in 2019. That's five years of living as a protoplasm.  How long has slime mold been on earth? British and German scientists estimate that slime mold may have evolved 600 million years ago. In 2020 researchers discovered the oldest fossilized slime mold. It was a 100 million year old sample preserved in amber.  For organisms without feet, slime mold can travel some long distances. When in its plasmodial form the blob can travel one inch an hour (I may never complain about rush hour traffic again!), but it's not this form that allows them to travel all over the world. When reproducing, the spores are released into the air and have, somehow, travelled on the wind around the globe. There are slime molds with identical genetic structure found in the United States and New Zealand. That is an amazingly long way to travel on the wind! Speaking of genetics…during the RNA editing phase slime mold genes make uncommonly large numbers of corrections. They are continually making changes to its original plans. Jonatha Gott of Case Western University says, “As it's making a copy of the DNA, it changes it. It's incredibly precise and incredibly accurate. If it does't do this, it dies. It's a really crazy way to express genes.” It also makes it incredibly interesting to scientists developing ways to cure cancer. I have no doubt that the list of cool facts about slime mold will continue to grow as we learn more about this unbelievable organism. I'm glad I was able to share some of the cool facts we currently know about slime mold with all of my listeners because that's my tenth favorite thing about slime mold. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me in two weeks for a new series about another misunderstood or unknown creature.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Looking for an easy care but unusual pet? Slime mold might be just what you're looking for! Join Kiersten as she talks about slime molds as pets.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Slime Molds: No Brains, No Feet, No Problem,” Science Thursday. PBS. https://www.pbs.org The Slime Mould Collective, https://slimoco.ning.com Carolina Biological Supply Company, https://www.carolina.com Slime Moulds: The University of Warwick, Life Sciences, https://warwick.ac.uk Music written and performed by Katherine Camp     Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. We've reached the penultimate episode of slime mold and it's kind of an odd one, although, most of these series has been odd. The ninth thing I like about…well I'm on the fence about whether I truly like this, so let's say the ninth thing I'm going to talk about slime mold is people keeping it as a pet. This is may be the most unusual creature to keep as a pet, but I guess you could get attached to this little rule breaker. It seems they might be easy to feed, a few oats can go along way, they don't need a large space to roam around, and they don't need a lot of light. Keeping the proper temperature and humidity levels might be the most difficult task, but let's see what some slime mold pet owners have to say. The University of Warwick in Coventry, England has instructions on the L  Ife Sciences page for how to keep slime mold alive. It's fairly straight forward. The slime mold they talk about is our old friend Physarum polycephalum, aka The Blob. This is the species most commonly used in laboratory experiments and was the focus of most of the intelligence studies we talked about in the last episode.  According to the Warwick guide to looking after your slime mold, it really is fairly simple. You can keep your slime mold in any waterproof container. They use petri dishes at the university, but any plastic tub is sufficient. It will need a source of moisture, so a damp piece of kitchen towel works just fine. Having a supply of oats on hand is a must, but you don't need much more than that to feed your slime mold. You can feed it every few days, but be sure that you do, or it might make like Harry Houdini and escape imprisonment.  If the slime mold gets hungry it will figure out a way to slip out of it's tub and look for the nutrients it needs. It also doesn't like to hang out on old food, I'm really who does, so when you feed it you want to put it to one side so it moves around it's enclosure. Exercise does keep you healthy.  If you're looking for a pet that doesn't need a lot of clean up, your in luck with slime mold. You'll need to clean up the piece of substrate it's living on at least once a week. You can lure it to one side for food and remove the paper it's laying on with a new piece. This actually does sound kind of fun. When you've had enough of slime mold parenthood, you can just let if dry out in the dark and it goes into a sort of torpor. The dried up slime mold in called a sclerotia. It can stay on this state for almost tow years. Then it can be woken up by re-dampening the paper and feeding it oats again. Sounds pretty fool proof to me! But, just like any living creature, there are problems that can arise. I find it interesting that Warwick University offers a troubleshooting guide to slime mold. Makes it sound like a computer program not a living organism. None the less, it sounds like good advice. As mentioned before, you may have an escape happen. If you do, they say you can just lure it back into its enclosure with some yummy oats.  If you're slime mold becomes smelly or moldy, more so that usual I guess, then it may have become contaminated with something. You can coax a bit of it onto a new piece of paper and move it into a new container. The rest of the slime mold and the old container will need to be bleached. If your slime mold turns brown or gray, remember healthy blobs are typical a yellow color, or becomes runny. I have bad news. It's dead. You'll have to start over with a new colony, after an appropriate mourning period, of course. If your slime mold develops black spots and stops moving. Mazel tov, you're a parent! Your slime mold was probably exposed to too much light and has moved onto the next stage of its life, making spores. That's it for this colony of slime mold. You'll have to start over again. I take back what I said before, this does seem like a pretty easy pet to have, although on long vacations you'll need to have a pet sitter. Do they have a slime mold option on Rover?   While doing research for this episode I found a website called The Slime Mould Collective. Mold spelled mould, the European spelling. There were people asking questions about slime mold from all over the world. Could be a good way to bond with someone from across the planet. Slime mold, bringing us together. Stranger things have happened. If you have other pets, such as fogs to cats, keep in mind that while slime mold is not toxic to them ingestion of the slime mold could cause some tummy troubles. The earthy smell that slime mold produces when it's healthy might attract your four-legged furry friends, so for everyones sake, especially your carpet, keep your slime mold in a secure space away from your other pets. There are two ways to obtain your slime mold. You can collect some from your garden or you can order some from online providers. The Carolina Biological Supply Company will ship you a slime mold started kit for about $53 US dollars. This is aimed at the science class so it comes with sclerotia for five slime mold starters, 10 Petri dishes lined with agar solution, and one Physarum plasmodium plate.  Collecting some from your garden will be a lot less expensive, but I'm hesitant to do that. After everything I've learned about slime mold intelligence how could I take it out of its natural habitat. For all we know, it could know that it's no longer living in the wild but stuck in a plastic butter tub in someone's kitchen. You may be shaking you head right now or laughing out loud, but just think back to the last episode where we talked about all the things slime mold can do without a brain. The next thing we discover about slime could that it has consciousness. I wouldn't put anything past this amazing little organism. Thanks for sticking with me to the ninth episode of slime mold, listeners, I may have to revise what I said at the beginning of this episode and say my ninth favorite thing about slime mold is that you can keep it as a pet. I may just go order some right now! If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about slime mold.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Can an organism without a brain be smart? You bet! Join Kiersten as she discusses some of the smart things slime mold can do.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov “Eight smart things slime molds can do without a brain,” by Alissa Greenberg. Nova, September 21, 2020. Https:://www.pbs.org   Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. It's time for episode eight, listeners, and this is all about something I never thought I'd say in the same sentence as slime mold. The intelligence of slime mold is the eighth thing I like about this unbelievable organism. We have established in previous episodes that slime mold has no brain, nor does it have any nerve clusters or ganglia of any kind that can organize impulses to indicate a creature that can make decisions, but this is exactly what slime mold can do. Before we jump in, I want to touch on how slime mold travels. As you remember, there are two phases of slime mold, one is stationary and the second is mobile. The plasmodium is the mobile state of the slime mold. The plasmodium is a multinucleate mass of protoplasm that results from the fusion amoeba-like, motile cells. This is the feeding, creeping stage of this organism. They remain in this form when resources are abundant. This is the form that scientist study a lot and this is how we found out just how smart slime mold is. What exactly is it that makes us say slime mold is smart?  In the senses episode, we discovered that slime mold can smell food. They then pulsate in the direction of that food, but the really amazing thing is that it can choose the best food for them. In laboratory experiments, slime mold will reach out appendages in the different directions of offered food items. These food items are not the same quality. Slime mold, before even touching the food, will decide which one offers the best nutrition value and then concentrate its efforts on that food source. For a brainless organism that's pretty amazing, can you believe that? The next incredible feat of slime mold has to do with obtaining the food. When put into a maze with oats, slime mold loves oats, at both the entrance and the exit of the maze, this mold will stretch itself along the maze to find the shortest path in which it can eat both supplies of food at the same time! It can perform this amazing feat with 37 different points. To let you know, the number of possible ways to connect 37 points starts with an 8 and ends with 54 zeros. Slime mold can figure out the most efficient way to eat at all 37 points at the same time! I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that. Slime mold can also remember where they've been. In these food experiments, researchers noticed that the slime mold rarely retraced a previous path. They started to wonder if the slime mold was remembering where it had been? Turns out, it was. When it travels down a path it leaves behind slime, like actual slime, similar to a snail trail, that tells the mold it has already been there so don't bother. Brilliant! We're going to stay in the realm of memory but throw in habituation. Have you heard of habituation? If not, habituation is when you get used to something you don't like but doesn't really hurt you. It's like getting used to an annoying noise. Advanced organisms are great at habituation but what about slime mold? You got that right! Slime mold can habituate to adverse stimuli.  In a laboratory experiment, researchers placed oats on the other side of a bridge. To reach the food slime mold had to cross the bridge. Typically, the mold could reach the food in about a hour. Researchers placed salt on the bridge. Slime mold is not fond of salt. It doesn't hurt it, that we can tell, but the slime mold doesn't like it. This slowed the progress of the mold to ten hours, but once it got across the bridge it got the oats. It was rewarded with a treat for crossing the salty bridge. The next day the researchers repeated the setup. How would the slime mold react? Surprisingly, the slime mold crossed the salty bridge again but faster this time. The next day, the crossing time decreased again. The slime mold remembered that if it crossed the salty bridge it could reach the yummy oats, and essentially toughed it out, habituating itself to an adverse stimulus.  If none of this has convinced you that slime mold is out of this world, I've got one more for ya. Slime molds can teach other slime molds what it has learned! Take that in for a moment. After the salt experiment results, the researchers started to wonder if slime mold might be able to share this information. I mean, why not? This organism has broken all the other rules.  A little background here. If you take two slime molds and  place them next to each other they will combine to make one slime mold. Over time, these researchers discovered that if they let slime mold that had learned to tolerate salt interact with other slime mold that had not habituated to salt for approximately three hours, the new slime mold tolerated salt without having to go through the habituation trials! My mind just exploded! Slime mold is essentially teaching other slime mold.  This organism surprises me every single episode! My eighth favorite thing about slime mold is its incredible intelligent abilities. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another fascinating episode about slime mold.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: What can we learn from studying slime mold? So much! Join Kiersten as she discusses some of the more recent studies involving slime mold.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Slime molds as a valuable source of antimicrobial agents,” by Vida Tafakori. AMB Express, 2021; 11:92 doi:10.1186/s13568-021-01251-3. “Slime Mold Leads to High-Tech Research For Stetson Computer-Science Students.” June 16, 2021. Stetson Today: The New Site of Stetson University. https://www2.stetson.edu “Using a ‘virtual slime mold' to design a subway network less prone to disruption,” Tyler Irving, University of Toronto. Phys Org News. https://phys.org   Music written and performed by Katherine Camp  

Summary: Are you telling me a brainless protists has senses? You bet! Join Kiersten as she discusses slime mols senses.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes: “Slime Mould Senses” Warwick Life Sciences. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci “Phototaxis and Photomorphogenesis in Physarum polycephalum Plasmodia”, by Th. Schereckenbach. Blue Light Effects in Biological Systems pp 463-475. Proceedings in Life Sciences, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69767-8_51 “The Intelligence of Slime Mold,” by Hannah Gillespie, The Appalachian Voice. October 11, 2019. https://appvoices.org “Can Slime Molds Think?” By Nancy Walecki. Harvard Magazine, November-December 2021. https://www.harvardmagazine.com   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is episode six of slime mold and today we're talking senses. I know it sounds a little odd to talk about senses in a life form that doesn't even have a brain but the fact that slime mold has senses is the sixth thing I like about it. To be honest, slime mold doesn't have all the traditional senses that we think about creatures having, such as sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, but the senses they have are pretty mind-blowing for such a simple organism. Let's look at sight first. He-he, see what I did there? On boy! I'm stuck in a pun-cycle! Seriously, slime mold can't actually see, there is no evidence of an optical nerve or any kind of optical receptors in slime mold. They do have the ability to sense light. Most of the time, slime mold will avoid light. Blue light and UV light can damage DNA and the slime mold consistently moved away from these wavelengths. On the other end of the spectrum, red light influenced the movements of slime mold but to a lesser degree than blue and UV.  Light affects slime mold in various ways. In laboratory experiments, visible light has been shown to inhibit growth, induce a light avoidance response in mobile slime mold, control the change of plasmodial slime mold into resting structures, and trigger a formation of fruiting bodies. Movement influenced by light is called phototaxis. It looks like slime mold may not be able to see light in the traditional sense, but it defiantly has quite the impact on this organism. In the diet episode we already sniffed out slime molds sense of smell, but let's revisit it quickly here. Slime mold doesn't possess an olfactory system in the traditional sense. In mammalians we have a centralized olfactory system that concentrates the cells that collect scent. It's our nose! Slime mold does not have a nose, but it does have olfactory cells all over its form. So, it's kind of like one big nose. It is able to determine, by smell, which direction it wants to go to find high-quality food. It can, somehow make decisions based on the scents in the environment. Chemotaxis is movement influenced by chemical scents in the environment. Slime mold has this ability. In laboratory experiments, slime mold moved toward oats and paprika, both a good source of acceptable food, and moved away from black pepper and turmeric. Sense of smell often goes hand in hand with a sense of taste. Slime mold definitely behaves like it has a sense of taste as well as smell, because it avoids engulfing certain types of food.  Items high in salt, caffeine, and items with a high pH level are all commonly avoided by slime mold. Oats, sugar, and high protein foods all attract slime mold. Now, of course, these items all give off a chemical scent that we know the slime mold can sense, but it's reasonable to believe that it may also have a sense of taste. We'll have to wait for future research to see if it's true. Moving on to the sense of touch. There is really no way for use to truly understand what slime mold feels, but there is research that shows slime mold has preferences for certain surfaces. Like Goldilocks, slime mold wants a surface that is just right. They want something hard but not too hard. They will pick wood over a rock or over a loose patch of moss.  There is no evidence, yet, that slime mold is capable of hearing, but give it some time. I don't think we should rule anything out when it come to slime mold. We do know that slime mold employs mechanosensation to judge objects in the distance without coming into physical contact with them. Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University presented challenges to the slime mold in a laboratory setting to see what it was capable of. They placed the slime mold in the center of a petrie dish and placed glass discs on opposite sides of the dish. One side held one disc and the other side held three discs. They turned off the lights and left the slime mold for approximately 12 hours. When they checked on the slime mold, it consistently traveled toward the side contains three discs. Now, they filmed the progression of the slime mold to make sure it hadn't  reached all the way out to each side touching the discs and then determined which way to go. The slime mold never touched any of the discs before it favored the side with the three discs.  To make this even crazier, the slime mold showed a preference for discs that took up more horizontal space than discs that were closer together or stacked on top of one another. They are still not sure how the slime mold is processing this information, but the presence of protein channels called TRP have been found in slime mold. The human brain uses these TRP channels to process mechanosensation input. Notice I said the human brain, and as we know by now, slime mold does not have a brain. So , how is slime mold processing the information that helps it determine the mass of objects on the horizon? I don't know about you, but each episode of this slime mold series amazes me. Slime mold senses is mu sixth favorite thing bout this under appreciated organism.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about slime mold.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Where does slime mold come from? Join Kiersten as she explains how slime mold reproduces.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Slime Mold Reproduction” Brad Renner, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. bioweb.uwlax.edu “Slime Mould,” by Thomas J. Volk, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 2001. https://www.sciencedirect.com “The Blob: Slime Molds.” Herbarium Utah State University. https://www.usu.edu   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This is episode number five of slime mold and the fifth thing I like about slime mold is how it reproduces. Some of you may be wondering where exactly do slime molds come from? Well, when a mommy slime mold and a daddy slime mold love each other very much…. No, no just kidding. Slime molds are delivered by a stork….Okay, it's out of my system. Now, seriously. Slime molds reproduce through spores. These spores can lay dormant in soil for many years. This is why it seems like slime molds arise out of nowhere. They were just tucked down into the soil waiting for the right time to grow. As we've discussed in previous episodes, that usually happens after a nice warm rainy season.  A general life cycle for slime mold follows a basic pattern. It begins with a stalk-like structure with a sporangium on top. Spores are held inside this sporangium and when they are mature and the environment is just right, the spores are released. The spores will germinate into an ameboid cell. These cells  enter into the feeding stage for a certain period of time. When the slime mold enters the mature stage it will begin preparing to fruit and you'll see young sporangium fruiting. Then we arrive back at the stalk-like structure where we began. This pattern holds true for both plasmodial and cellular slime molds with some slight differences. The life cycle of plasmodial slime molds includes two stages. When those perfect conditions happen the spores resting in the soil germinate and release small, motile cells. Two of these cells will get together and form a shapeless mass, the plasmodium. Which is, as we know, a multinucleate mass of protoplasm. This is the feeding and creeping stage of the organism.  The second stage is triggered by drying weather. If the plasmodium begins to dry out too quickly or is starved, it forms a survival structure called sclerotium. This is a hard-walled mass that will protect the cells within until environmental conditions improve. Inside, spores are created waiting for favorable weather to return. And when it does the plasmodial slime mold will be on the prowl again. Now, think back to that first slime mold episode with me. In that episode we learned that there is more than one kind of slime mold. We just discussed reproduction of plasmodial slime mold, so let's take a gander at cellular slime mold reproduction. Cellular slime molds reproduce in a similar manor as plasmodial slime mold with one major difference. Cellular slime molds remain individual cells with one nucleus.  The individual slime molds, also known as slime mold “slugs”, will crawl along substrate at 1 millimeter per hour leaving behind a trail of chemicals. These chemical trails will attract other slime mold slugs. When many of them finally come together they form a pseudoplasmodium. It's a pseudoplasmodium because the cells remain separate with their one nucleus a piece. As the slugs aggregate about one-third of them will come together to create a fruiting body. A fruiting body is a stalk-like structure with a sporangium on top filled with spores. When the weather is moist enough and at just the right temperature, the spores are released and cellular slime molds are released to start the cycle all over again. Once again slime mold is blowing my mind and I hope you feel the same way because reproduction is my fifth favorite thing about this amazing protist. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about slime mold.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Slime mold eats some pretty interesting stuff, but how it finds it's food is they really fascinating part. Join Kiersten as she talks about who slime mold eats.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Show Notes:  “Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov “Slime Mould,” by Thomas J. Volk, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 2001. https://www.sciencedirect.com “Slime Mold Nutrition” Brad Renner, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. bioweb.uwlax.edu “Eight smart things slime molds can do without a brain,” by Alissa Greenberg, Nova, Monday, September 21, 2020. https://www.pbs.org   Slime Mold: Diet Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. On to number four, listeners, and we're talking diet. I'm learning so much researching this series and the fourth thing I like about slime mold is what it eats! Slime mold was thought to be a fungus for quite some time, so people were amazed to find out that it ingests it food, then digests. That doesn't sound so odd to me, since that's what I did with my breakfast this morning, but that's not how fungus does it. Fungus digests its food externally before absorbing it. So, this is what researchers expected when they looked at how slime mold eats. To say the least, they were surprised. Let's take a closer look at how slime mold eats. We're going to investigate how Myxomycota, the true slime molds, eat their food.  As a quick reminder, Myxomycota are the plasmodial slime molds. They exist as a plasmodium. A plasmodium is a blob of protoplasm without cell walls and only a cell membrane to keep everything together. (I see why this inspired a 1950s horror movie.) They are essentially an amoeba and amoebas eat their food well, like the Blob. They engulf their food and then digest it. By engulf I mean completely surround it with their amoeba body. This process is called pseudopodia. The definition of pseudopodia is a temporary protrusion of the surface of an amoeboid cell for movement and feeding. This is what slime mold does when it is preparing to eat. The next step is phagocytosis. Phagocytosis is the act of eating or damaging foreign components in cells. According to Science Direct phagocytosis is a universal cell function, which starts with the recognition and binding of a particle, generally in a receptor-dependent manner, and leads to its internalization and degradation. Sounds pretty complicated to me but, I guess it's essentially digestion. Some organisms may use it for other things besides digestion such as defending against invading pathogens, it is also important during development and in adulthood for normal turnover, remodeling, and disposal of tissues, but that's a whole other podcast. The important part of this definition is that this is the process that helps slime mold digest its food. Alright! We know how slime mold eats, let's look at what slime mold eats. Bacteria is a big favorite of slime mold, but they can also eat decaying leaves, decaying logs, yeasts, other protists, and poo.  Hey, somebody's gotta do it, right?! So far the diet and eating habits of slime molds don't seem too unusual compared to other creatures, expect for maybe the poo, but we're just getting to the really mind blowing part. First of all, slime mold can smell its food. I know what you're thinking, how can a blob of cells with no detectable olfactory system smell food? The answer is that they have olfactory receptors all over the cells connected into the amoeba. These receptors are similar to the receptors that mammals, including humans, have lining their nasal passages. I'll pause a moment while you let this information sink in… Hold on to your hat though, it's about to get even more amazing! Some mold actually shows preferences for food. That's right! If given the choice between two potential food sources they will chose the one that has the best nutritional value.  Ecologist and entomologist Tanya Latty has studied slime molds extensively and in her research she's discovered that slime molds make smart decisions about their nutritional needs. To be successful slime molds need sugars and proteins. In a laboratory setting, Latty and colleagues offered Physarum polycephalum, also know as the many-headed slime, 35 different recipes made of different ratios of the nutrients slime mold needs to survive. The slime mold chose to engulf the foods that offered the best balance of elements and avoided the recipes that would harm them or weren't worth the effort to ingest. You heard me correctly, they chose the food themselves. If nothing else blows your mind about slime mold, I just said a living entity that has no brain or any detectable ganglia is making a decision! Need another example? Latty also tested whether slime mold could make trade-offs between quality of food and risk. (I can't even believe I'm reporting this, it's so amazing!) The researchers set up an experiment where they put the preferred food under a bright light and less desirable food in the dark. Slime mold doesn't like bright light, so you'd expect it to stay in the dark and eat what it can get, right? But from what we've just learned you may be thinking it took the chance and ate the food in the light because it was worth the risk. The results were not this simple. What actually happened I that the slime mold only took the risk to enter the bright light to engulf the food if the food was fives times more nutritious than what was in the dark. That is crazy amazing! This entity that is a blob of simple cells kept together by a common wall is processing information from olfactory receptors and choosing to make a calculated trade-offs to ensure it's survival. Holy Cow!! Quoting from an article from PBS Nova Latty says, “If you're a basic system, you'd expect you always choose one. You have a simple rule that always works. If you're sophisticated, you get some information about quality of food and intensity of light and do some calculations to figure out if it's worth it.” End quote. Looks like slime mold is in the second category. Latty continues, “That implies some molds are able to process information between two different attributes of a food source, which seems pretty sophisticated thing for, well, mucus.” End quote. I have no words for this…it's truly amazing. Stick with me listeners because it only gets cooler from here. The diet and feeding behavior of slime mold is my fourth favorite thing about this mind-blowing creature. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about slime mold.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: How many species of slime mold do you think there are? You'd be surprised! Join Kiersten and a guest co-host as she talk about the different species of slime mold.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean   Summary: “What is Slime Mold?” By Stephen C. George. Discover Magazine, Apr 21, 2023. https://www.discovermagazine.com “Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov “The Biota of the Gordon Natural Area - Slime Molds.” https://www.wcupa.edu   Transcript  (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. In the third episode we're going to talk about how many different species of slime molds scientists are currently know exist. If you rsememrb from episode one, its a lot! To discuss this topic, I've asked a previous guest to help me out. Welcome, Georgiy! Thanks for helping me talk about slime mold!   Georgiy: You're welcome!   Kiersten: Do you know how many different slimes molds there are?   Georgiy: You just said a lot. Kiersten: I did but that's not a very good numerical description. Did you listen to the first episode of this series? You didn't did you!   Georgiy: Meep! No comment.   Kiersten: I'm not sure how I feel about that, but why don't you try to guess how many species of slime mold we currently know about?   Georgiy: (Guess)   Kiersten: Is that your final answer?   Georgiy: Maybe…   Kiersten: Do you want me to just tell you?   Georgiy: Yes, please.   Kiersten: Over 1,000 different species of slime molds have been recorded.   Georgiy: That's a lot!   Kiersten: That's what I said!    Georgiy: I heard that some of them have some strange names. Isn't there one called dog vomit?   Kiersten: Yes, there is one called dog vomit. That one is also called scrambled egg slime mold. Fuligo septica is the scientific name for the dog vomit slime mold. It's an extremely common specimen. It can also vary in color from white, yellow, orange, to red. Do you know hay the color can vary so much?   Georgiy: Maybe because of something it eats?   Kiersten: That's right! At least one reason it can vary in color is what it eats. Temperature and pH levels can also impact the color. I have some pictures here of different slime molds, do you want to help me describe them to our listeners?   Georgiy: Sure.   Kiersten: Okay, here's the first one. The scientific name is Arcyria cinerea. What does this one look like?   Georgiy: Describe it. Carpet fibers. A close-up picture of white carpet fibers. Five fluffy. oblong structures are attached to one stock.   Kiersten: The common name of this one is white carnival candy slime mold. Take a look at Ceratiomyxa porioides. Can you describe this one?   Georgiy: Looks like a shower loofa! It's white with structured chambers.   Kiersten: This one's common name is coral slime. Let's look at one more. Check out Tubifera ferruginosa.     Georgiy: It looks like red shaved ice. A snow cone with red flavorin   Kiersten: I like this one. It's such a pretty shade of red. Its common name is Raspberry slime mold.   Georgiy: That's great name for it. Let's look at another one.   Kiersten: Okay, but this is the last one. We can't look at all of them! With over 1000 known species we'd be here for a long time and this episode in only ten minutes! How about Trichia scabra?   Georgiy: They look like little orange bee-bees. They are all lined up together.   Kiersten: I think you could easily overlook this one, but it's common name is cool. Saffron soldiers!   Georgiy: It is the color of saffron, that orange-yellow color and they are lined up like soldiers. Saffron is a spice that's pretty tasty isn't it?   Kiersten: It is! From the research I've done for these episodes it seems you can eat slime mold. No one recommends it, but most of them appear to be non-toxic. Just to make this clear, we're are not recommending you eat slime mold. Right?   Georgiy: Right!   Kiersten: So, Georgiy…what do you think about slime mold?   Georgiy: I think it's pretty cool! There are so many species in so many colors and shapes.   Kiersten: Thanks for helping me talk about the different types of slime molds today.   Georgiy: You're welcome!   Kiersten: We're just getting started with slime molds and my third favorite thing about them is that there is over 1,000 unique species.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another episode about slime mold.       (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Summary: Where can you find slime molds. Everywhere! Join Kiersten as she tells you the best places to look for slime mold.   Show Notes:  “Introduction to the Slime Molds” UC Berkeley “What is Slime Mold?” By Stephen C. George. Discover Magazine, Apr 21, 2023. https://www.discovermagazine.com “Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov "Slime Molds" Mount Rainer National Park. https://www.nps.gov   Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

Summary: Yuck! What is that goopy, gross pile of snot?! It's Slime Mold! Join Kiersten as she reveals slime mold.   Show Notes:  “Introduction to the Slime Molds” UC Berkeley “What is Slime Mold?” By Stephen C. George. Discover Magazine, Apr 21, 2023. https://www.discovermagazine.com “Slime Molds” by Dr. Sharon M. Douglas, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. https://portal.ct.gov Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

Today is World Pangolin Day! To celebrate this amazing but highly endangered animal, we're reposting the first episode of our series on pangolins. Please enjoy and go back and listen to the rest of the series to learn more about the pangolin!    Originally Aired:  9/14/2022   Pangolin Scales Summary: Join Kiersten as she talks about her first favorite thing about pangolins, their scales! This episode is the first of ten about the amazing pangolin.   Show Notes:  References for this episode - The Encyclopedia of Mammals edited by Dr. David Macdonald www.savepangolins.org https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/facts-about-pangolins Pangolin Conservation Organizations:  Rare and Endangered Species Trust - www.restnamibia.org Save Vietnam's Wildlife - www.svw.vn