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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 trop

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

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 Ra

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 Raff

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 flowe

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. Onl

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 scienti

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 po

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

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

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. T

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 wo

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, t

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

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 racc

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.

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

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, th

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 essential

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 Enginee

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 survi

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.

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

Episode 65: Echidna: Conservation Summary: What does the future of the echidna look like? Join Kiersten as she discusses echidna conservation For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Population and Conservation Status, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com “The Long-beaked Echidna: can we save the earth’s oldest living mammal?”, by Andrew L. Mack, 26 October 2015, Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com EchidnaCSI: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/environment/research/citizen-science/echidna-csi/echidna-research-conservation [email protected] Expedition Cyclops: https://www.expeditioncyclops.org/echidna 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 last episode of echidnas, and I have to say I’m sorry to see them go. They have been such an interesting animal to talk about. And as usual the last episode is all about the conservation work being done to ensure their continued survival. The short-beaked echidna is the most wide spread native mammal in Australia and is protected on the continent but that doesn’t mean they aren’t feeling the strain of our changing planet. Loss of habitat, loss of food resources, over-hunting, and problems encountered due to changing temperatures are problems all species of echidnas face. Another man-made problem threatening echidnas is feral dogs. They have no problems tracking echidnas and making a meal of them. Of our four species of echidnas, the short-beaked echidna is doing the best conservation wise. Overall, their populations are stable in the area that have been studied. An estimate made in 2017 says 5 to 50 million individual short-beaked echidnas may live in Australia. They are given a Least Concern status by the IUCN. The long-beaked echidnas are a different story. Over hunting of the long-beaked echidna is problematic. Since the 1960’s the long-beaked echidna has experienced an 80% loss of population. All long-beaked echindas, which is three out of the four species of echidna, are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. Here’s where the echidna and human stories twine together in a plicated braid. Indigenous peoples of the New Guinea are relied on echidnas and tree kangaroos as food sources. These two animals are the largest mammals native to this area. Back when human numbers were low, this wasn’t a problem. A few echidna were hunted for meat and the populations were allowed to replenish keeping up with the small amount taken for hunting. In 2015, a study done estimating the hunting of long-beaked echidna by Indigenous peoples found that in seven months hunters from 33 clans in two tribes killed and consumed 16 long-beaked echidnas. It doesn’t sound like a lot but, that is more than 25% of all the known specimens in the world ever collected. There are over 800 tribes in Papua New Guinea and thousands of clans with a taste for the echidna. Modern technology and dogs have made hunting for them even easier. It’s a fine line here with conservation efforts because we don’t want to take away from the importance of preserving indigenous peoples way of life, but this activity is also wiping out an animal that is older than human history. Researchers and educators must tread carefully but quickly to prevent the extinction of this animal. The biggest problem here is that the tribes are like separate countries. They all have different languages and different ways of life, so setting aside an area to protect the echidna is simply not possible. You have to approach each group of people and talk to the individually and explain the problems that the echidna faces. It can be done but it relies on time the long-beaked echidnas may not have left. But conservationists have not given up hope. What is being done to ensure the survival of this animal that has lived on this planet longer than any other mammal? Australia has laws in place that protect echidnas from exploitation and has set aside wild place as refuges for them, as well as other native wildlife. Researchers continue to study all species of echidna to learn about how they live and what they rely on to survive. With this information new regulations can be crafted to protect the animal itself and the resources they need to survive. This is the most difficult area of conservation though, becau

Summary: Some echidna senses don’t make much sense, but they’re really cool! Join Kiersten as she discusses echidna senses. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean “Functional Diversity and Evolution of Bitter Taste Receptors in Egg-Laying Mammals,” by Akihito Itoigawa, Akashi Hayakawa, Yang Zhou, Adrian D. Manning, Goujie Zhang, Frank Grutzner, Hire Imai. Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 39, Issue 6, June 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac107 “Distortion product otoacoustic emission and auditory brainstem responses in the echidna(Tachyglossus aculeatus),” by D M Mills and R K Shepard. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2001 Jun; 2(2): 130-46. “Color vision evolution in egg-laying mammals: insights from visual photoreceptors and daily activities of Australian echidnas,” by Shiina Sakamoto, Yuka Matsushita, Akihiro Itoigawa, Takumi Ezawa, Takeshi Fujitani, Kenichiro Takakura, Yang Zhou, Goujie Zhang, Frank Grutzner, Shoji Kawamura, and Akashi Hayakawa. Zoological Letters, 2024; 10: 2. 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 episode continues echidnas and the ninth thing I like about these incredible animals is their senses. Just like most mammals echidnas have eyes, ears, a nose, and a tongue which covers four of the five senses. We know they use their eyes to see, their ears to hear, and their nose to smell and we’re going to talk about all of these things in this episode. Whether they use their tongue to taste, I’m not sure, but we’ll try and find out an answer. I do know they use their nose for more than just smelling. Let’s get started. We’ll begin with vision. Echidnas are often described as nocturnal, as I said in previous episodes, but some researchers and zookeepers have seen them active during the day. What does this have to do with their vision? Whether an animal is diurnal or nocturnal can, evolutionarily speaking, influence the development of color vision. Not many controlled studies have been done to truly determine the daily behaviors of the echidna, but scientists have been able to determine that echidnas do have some color vision. Since reports say echidnas are active both day and night it does stand to reason they have at least some color vision opsins. Their distance vision is nothing to write home about. In other words, not great, but they are excellent at discerning shapes. They can distinguish a human shape from other forms, so that means they can probably distinguish other animal and plant forms, as well. They don’t rely on vision too much, but it is helpful during the daylight hours when and if they are active. Hearing is a sense that many animals with poor vision will depend on to survive. Echidnas are no expiation to this rule. They do have ears with which to hear, but the do not have external pinnae. The fleshly part of the ear that sticks out from the side of the head is called the pinna. We have them, dogs, and cat’s have them, many mammals have them, but not echidnas. They have a large slit behind their eyes, often hidden in their fur and spines. This opening connects to their auditory canal and allows them to hear. A study published in 2001, determined that echidna hearing is as sensitive as other mammals such as gerbils and rabbits but it is a much narrower frequency range. They did establish that echidnas have some sort of cochlear amplifier inside the structure of the ear but it is not the same as other mammals. Echidnas can hear frequencies above 20 kHz which is higher than typical bird or reptile hearing but lower than typical mammal hearing. Let’s take a quick lick, oh sorry, look at the sense of taste. The echidna has taste buds at the base of the tongue. The presence of taste buds implies that they can taste something. But what can they taste? A study published in 2022, looked at the bitter taste in the echidna. Bitter taste receptors are typically thought to help identify toxic chemicals in plants and invertebrates. This would be very important for an animal that eats invertebrates. This research concluded that echidnas do have just enough bitter taste buds to help keep them safe while foraging for food. More research will need to be done to find out if they have any other taste profiles. The nose. This is where we get to the really cool stuff. Echidnas have an excellent sense of smell. Their nose is located at the end of their l

Summary: Do echidnas dream? Join Kiersten as she travels into the sleep cycles of the echidna to find out if they dream. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: “Monotremes and the evolution of rapid eye movement of sleep,” J. M. Siegel, P. R. Manger, R. Nienhuis, H. M. Fahringer, and J. D. Pettigrew. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, B (1998) 353, 1147-1157. “The Echidna Tachyglossus aculeates Combines REM and Non-REM Aspects in a Single Sleep State: Implications for the Evolution of Sleep,” by J. M. Siegel, P. R. Manger, R. Nienhuis, H. M. Fahringer, and J. D. Pettigrew. The Journal of Neuroscience, May 15, 1996, 16 (10): 3500-3506. 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 episode continues echidnas and the eighth thing I like about this rule breaking mammal is the possibility that they may dream. I’m not kidding listeners, echidnas may actually dream. Let’s dive into this subject by finding out what happens when echidnas sleep. Discovering what happens when echidnas sleep has been a long a winding path. First, it’s pretty difficult to determine what a hard to find, nocturnal animal is doing when they’re sleeping. So most of the research done involving echidna sleep is done with the short-beaked echidna, Tachyglossus aculeates, because they are more easily found. In 1972, a report was published about the electrophysiological study of the short-beaked echidna. They were interested in the waking and sleeping state of the echidna. The way you study that is by recording the electrical impulses created by the brain during different activities. The 1972 study showed that echidnas do not enter REM sleep, the state of sleep in which dreams occur. Echidnas remained in a non-REM sleep the entire time they were unconscious. Based on this information, researchers postulated new hypotheses on when sleep developed two sleep stages. Since echidnas are biologically some of the oldest living mammals, some say primitive but I think that word makes them sound unimportant, the stages of sleep they exhibit could have meaningful implications on when mammalian sleep developed two distinct sleep stages. For years science excepted this result for the 1972 study. There was no reason to question the results. The research was sound and a second study published in 1996 seemed to support these results. The second study actually found that the typical sleep patterns of non-monotreme mammals, which is every mammal except echidnas and platypus, did not match the sleep patterns of the echidna. The really interesting result of this study was that they found that echidna sleep resembled both non-REM sleep patterns and REM sleep patterns in the same cycle. This is significant because in the average mammal REM and non-REM sleep happens in separate cycles. Using different methods of judging sleep and waking activity in the brain, revealed a truth that called for a reevaluation of the previous results. Really fascinating! Who knew the sleep patterns of an ancient-lineage mammal could mean so much to modern research? With these two studies kind of rubbing against each other, further research was definitely needed. In 1998, a study did look closer at the sleep patterns of the echidna. The previous two studies had used changes in EEG, electromyogram, and eye movement to determine whether the echidna actually experienced REM sleep. These researchers recognized the discrepancies created using these recoding methods and decided to look at the neuronal activity in the brainstem. The 1998 study added another layer to the echidna sleep mystery. Using new evaluation methods this study showed that echidnas do experience a sleep state resembling REM sleep in the brainstem, while the forebrain remains in a state resembling non-REM sleep. One of the questions that arose during this line of study was why do echidnas not show typical signs of REM sleep such as the rapid eye movement that gives this sleep cycle its name. Twitching of various body parts, as well as, eye movement is indicative of REM sleep in many mammalian species, including platypus which is the other extant monotremes on the planet. So why don’t echidnas display twitching muscles during REM? The scientists in this study thought that might be due to the fact that echidnas sleep in more exposed areas than platypus. The twitching of their spines would be

Summary: Do echidnas ever get on each others nerves? Join Kiersten as she talks about the social structure of echidnas to find out! For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Short-beaked Echidna. Bush Heritage Australia, https://www.bushheritage.org.au Eastern long-beaked echidna, Animalia, https://animlia.bio “Home Ranges, Movement, and Den Use in Long-beaked Echidnas, Zaglossus bartoni, From Papua New Guinea,” by Muse D. Opiang. Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 90, Issue 2, 14 April 2009, pages 340-346. https://doi.org/10.1644/08-MaMM-A-108.1 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 episode continues echidnas and the seventh thing I like about them is their social structure. Overall, all species of echidnas are solitary animals. They spend the majority of their lives alone, only coming together during breeding season. Then mothers will remain with the puggles until they are about 7 months old and they are able to leave the den and forage for themselves. Outside of breeding season and puggle-raising duties, echidnas live solitary lives. We do base this information on what we currently know about this enigmatic creature which, sadly, is not a lot. They are hard to study in the wild because they are typically nocturnal and they often dig dens that they stay in during the day. Researchers haven’t given up and do continue to try and learn as much as we can about their everyday lives. A study published in 2009 looked at the home ranges and movement of the eastern long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bartoni. The study showed that mature adult home ranges did not overlap with each other, but juvenile echidnas occasionally overlapped with female echidna home ranges. It is possible that these juveniles may have been the offspring of the females, but that was not proven. Home range size was estimated for 11 individual echidnas. Seven were positively identified by sex and 4 were estimated, giving a total of seven females and four males with three juveniles. Researchers strapped telemetry anklets to the subjects to document as many points as possible to estimate home range size. By the end of the research period, home ranges sizes varied from 2.2 hectares to 168.2 hectares. If you’re thinking that’s quite a large difference in home range sizes, you’d be right. Let’s look a little closer at these results. The individual with the smallest home range size only had 4 points of reference, so we’d probably throw that one out because of lack of data. The largest home range of 168.2 hectares was a juvenile with 43 points of reference, so most likely this is a good estimate of the home range. Because it’s a juvenile, the researchers believe that it was still trying to decide on a home range and that’s why it was wandering so far and wide. Most likely this is not indicative of a typical echidna home range size. This individual was also the one that overlapped with other home ranges. The more median size home range is what we’re really interested in. This gives us a better idea of the typical home range size of the average eastern long-beaked echidna. If we add all the home ranges together and divide we get and average of about 25 hectares. This is a pretty good size home range, lots of area to find insects to munch on and a nice place to find a den. Interestingly, the home range with the most points recorded was a size of 75 hectares for an adult female. Considering this individual was recored with 65 points of reference this might be a more typical home range size, but it could also just be this individual’s preference. This study was incredibly interesting and a great start to mapping out the needs of the eastern long-beaked echidna. So what makes a good home range? There are a few necessities that a good home range must contain. Food is definitely important. You must have enough food to sustain yourself before you settle down. Water is also important, but echidnas do not rely on standing bodies of water as much as other mammals. They can get water from the food they eat. The last thing that is incredibly important in a home range is a place to make a den. During this study, 223 dens of long-beaked echidnas were found. 209 of them were underground dens. Of the ones found above ground, it appears that most of them were utilized by juvenile echidnas. Maybe there is a learning curve for how a

Summary: Ouch! Echidna spines are no joke! Join Kiersten as she discusses this amazing echidna anatomy. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Physical Characteristics, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com “Observations on Fur Development in Echidna (Monotremata, Mammalia) Indicate the Spines Precede Hairs in Ontogeny,” by Lorenzo Alibardi, and George Rogers. The Anatomical Record, Vol 298, Issue4, p. 761-770. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.23081 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 episode continues echidnas and the sixth thing I like about them is their spines. Last episode we talked about how they defend themselves from the very few predators they have and one of those defense mechanisms was the spines they have on their backs. Today we’re going to take a closer look at these spines and find out what exactly they are and how they work. All four species of echidnas have spines. You may be asking what exactly is a spine, and this is a great question, listeners. You actually have spines all over your body right now! Not exactly, but spines are modified hairs. They are made out of keratin just like all mammalian hair, including human hair and nails. Spines grow out of the skin just like thin hairs. So spines are made up of a medulla, which is the innermost layer of hair. It’s the softest and most fragile layer and functions as the marrow of the hair. The medulla is surrounded by a cortex. This is the thickest layer of a hair and contains most of the pigment, when hair has pigment. The outermost layer is the cuticle which is made up of dead cells. This is also the same anatomy of the softer hairs most mammals carry, including the echidna. Underneath the skin the canal that the spines grow out of holds a thick inner root sheath made of cornified cells which surround the growing shaft. This shaft will eventually exit the skin with a sharp, pointed end and grow into the spine. Echidnas grow spines on the dorsal, that’s the top, and the lateral, that’s the sides of the body. The number of spines taper off toward the underside of the echidna where you find only softer hairs. Echidnas do have softer hairs on their back and sides, as well as the spines giving them a slightly fuzzy appearance. Echidna spines will vary in size depending on where they are on the body. Some will be longer and some will be shorter so they fit nicely along the body. The spines of echidnas have long roots that are embedded in a special layer of muscle. This layer of muscle allows the echidna to move each spine individually. Could you imagine be able to move the hairs on your body individually? That would be so cool! This of course aides the echidna in using its spines to protect itself from harm. The spines can be moved individually or as a group depending on what the echidna is doing. When used for protection against a predator, the idea is that the predators will get a nose or mouth full of sharp spines that will hopefully make them think twice about trying to continue eating this echidna. You may be thinking of another animal that does the same thing with quills, the North American porcupine. They use their quills to defend themselves just like the echidna with one little difference. When a North American porcupine encounters a predator they will back into the predator’s muzzle or whatever portion of their body that is exposed and the porcupine’s quills will release and stick in the animal’s body part. Definitely gets their point across. This is not what happens with the echidna. When a predator bites at or swipes at an echidna, their spines stay put. They are not hooked at the ends like the North American Porcupine’s quills and they are made to stay attached until they are naturally shed with age. The spines of an echidna can stay attached for years. This may have brought up another question from my intelligent listeners. What is the difference between a quill and a spine? To be completely honest I can’t find a great answer to this question. I can tell you that spines are used to refer to a broader group of modified hairs where quills are a specific type of spine. You often hear the term quill used when talking about porcupines. When doing research for this podcast all the sources I referenced said echid

Summary: Echidnas don’t have a lot of natural predators but they do have some great defense strategies. Join Kiersten as talks defense in echidnas. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Behavior and Ecology, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com Eastern long-beaked echidna, Animalia, https://animlia.bio 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 episode continues echidnas and the fifth thing I like about this monotreme is how they defend themselves. Echidnas don’t have many natural predators but they do have to worry about feral dogs trying to take a bite out of them. So, if something like this happens an echidna has four options. Option one is to run. Let’s do a little comparison of anatomy quickly. Many breeds of dogs have legs that are made for running. Of course, there are those that have gotten the short end of the genetic stick and have the short legs that don’t take them very far very fast, but most breeds can run fast. I wouldn’t say that echidnas legs are shot but they are not as long as most dogs, and their bodies are a bit wobbly and round. They certainly don’t have the fastest gait and they will not be out running a feral dog. So option number one, may not be the best choice. The second option is to dig. Now digging would certainly not be my first choice to protect myself from a predator, but I don’t have large claws made for digging. Remember from the habitat episode that we found out echidnas favor environments that have softer, looser soil. This allows them to find food but it also allows them to dig quickly down into the soil. So, option number two is to dig quickly down into the soil deep enough to cover their vulnerable underside and then pop up their spines. Hopefully, the dog will get a snout full of ouchy spines and decide to pursue another meal. Option three is hide. If they can find cover quickly they may be able to wedge themselves into a rock crevice or hollow long. They’ll squeeze in far enough to cover their face, legs and belly leaving their spines sticking out. This makes it pretty difficult for a predator to get a good grip and pull them out. The fourth option is similar to the last two but without all the digging. That statement probably gives it away, so listener, you’ve probably figured out that their spines are their fourth option. If they cannot dig or run, they will simply curl up into a ball and pop their spines out. The short-beaked echidna is one of Australia’s most abundant mammals, so these options must be working out for them. That’s all for this episode on defense. Thanks for listening because this is my fifth favorite thing about echidnas. 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 echidnas. (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: Making baby echidnas is weird! Join Kiersten as she talks echidna baby-making. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: “Echidna penises: Why They’re so Weird,” by Angela Heathcote, Australian Geographic, May 24, 2021. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au “Echidna trains: Explained,” by Australian Geographic, August 6, 2021. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au “Getting out of a mammalian egg: the egg tooth and caruncle of the echidna,” by Jane C. Fenelon, Abbie Bennetts, Neal Anthill, Micheal Pyne, Stephen D. Johnston, Alistair R. Evans, Abigail S. Tucker, and Marilyn B. Renfree. Developmental Biology, Volume 495, March 2023, pg 8-18. “Unveiling the echidna pouch: Insights from recent research.” The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. https://wildlife.org.au Classification of Living Things: Echidna Reproduction, by Denis O’Neil. https://www.palomar.edu 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 episode continues echidnas and the fourth thing I like about them is how they reproduce. I have to tell ya that this is the best episode yet! Be prepared to have your mind blown because echidna reproduction is unbelievable. Reproduction always starts with the wooing, so let’s start there, as well. You can always tell when echidna mating season is by the lines of males that are following a female. No kidding, male echidnas form “love trains” behind a female and follow her for days. I have found several different sources that say mating can occur anywhere from mid-May to early September. Males will follow a female around until they are the last one standing. Love trains can vary in number from 4 males to 11 males. The males will follow the females jostling each other, sometimes even pushing each other into ditches, to be the last male following the female. Once they’ve joined a love train the males are very focused on what they’re doing. Very few things can distract them from their goal of mating, including being weighed by scientists. Peggy Rismiller has studied echidnas for 30 years and she has picked up the last male in a love train to weigh them and, as soon as she puts them down, they are off again following the female. Males will travel long distances to court a female. She tracked one male who traveled 2 km or 1.2 miles a day to court two different females. If the male looses sight of the female he’s courting, no worries, he can follow her scent. Both males and females emit a musky scent during breeding season. After a male has outlasted the others, if the female is receptive, she’ll lay down on the ground and relax her spines. But his hard work is not done. Now the male has to dig down into the soil next to the female so he can line up their cloacas. Mating is performed cloaca to cloaca. Once the positioning is just right, the male will insert his penis into the female’s cloaca. Copulation can last from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. We’re going to take a moment to talk about the echidna penis because this particular organ has been deemed the weirdest reproductive organ in the animal kingdom by Smithsonian Magazine. An echidna’s penis is bright red in color and has four heads. Yes, you heard correctly, four heads. They do not use their penis for urination, like most other mammals, so the penis was able to become more elaborate. It appears that they only use two of the heads at a time when breeding. This is very unusual for mammals but it is see in some reptiles. More research needs to be done to understand how the echidna penis works and why it is structured the way it is. The penis is also fairly long reaching approximately 1/3 of the echidnas body length when erect. Stay with me listeners because it just keeps getting weirder. Once the female is pregnant she develops a pouch. Only pregnant female echidnas develop a pouch, and they only keep it while they are incubating their single egg. There are four stages of the pouch. Dr. Kate Dutton-Regester has been researching echidna pouches and took over 200 pictures of nine female echidna’s developing pouches. At the beginning of the breeding season the pouch is flat and difficult to see, by the time the female needs to incubate her egg the pouch margins have drawn together like a drawstring bag closing the pouch so incubation can begin. Once her offspring has left the pouch, it recedes over 12

Summary: We all gotta eat, right? The echidna eats insects. Take a trip with Kiersten as she travels through the digestive track of the echidna. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) Fact Sheet: Diet and Feeding, San Diego Wildlife Alliance Library. https://iecl.libguides.com “Characterizing the Gut Microbiomes in Wild and Captive Short-Beaked Echidnas Reveals Diet-Associated Changes,” by Tahlia Perry, Ella West, Raphael Eisenhower, Alan Stenhouse, Isabella Wilson, Belinda Laming, Peggy Rismiller, Michelle Shaw, and Frank Grützner 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 episode continues echidnas and the third thing I like about this amazing monotreme is what they eat and how they digest it. I know that sound like a strange thing to like, but it’s really quite interesting. One of the ways to tell if you have an echidna nearby is the distinctive way they hunt for food. The prey that echidnas are after lives mainly underground, so they poke holes in the soil with their long snouts. The holes are called ‘nose pokes”. Nose pokes are the width of the echidnas snout and the depth can tell you the species of echidna that’s digging around in your backyard. The depth, of course, depends on the length of the echidna’s snout. Long-beaked echidnas will produce deeper nose pokes than short-beaked echidnas. Once they find what they’er looking for, they use their long claws to tear open the invertebrates nests. How they find their prey is not well understood. Do they use a sense of smell? Do they use vibration detection? Do they use the sense of touch? We’re not entirely sure, but it may be a combination of all three. So, what are these echidnas digging around for underground. They are classified as myrmecophages. If you can remember way back to our first series about pangolins, you know that myrmecophages eat mainly ants. And that is one of the main prey items of the echidna. They specialize in eating termites, ants, scarab beetle larvae also known as pasture grubs, and moth larvae also known as grass grubs. When they come across beetle larva during the nose poke stage, scientists have noticed them using a corkscrew like motion to extract the larvae. They actually prefer the social living invertebrates such as termites and ants because they offer more reward for their effort. Which I can totally understand! Of those two insects, termites are higher on the list because they have softer bodies than ants and they tend to live in larger colonies. When possible, echidnas avoid ants, termites, and other insects that bite, sting, or have other chemical defenses. Sometime they have no choice but to go after ants, so they focus their efforts on the more defenseless areas of the ant colony such as the queen, the larvae, and the pupae. The general rule of thumb is to avoid prey that bites back, but after hibernation and before raising young, echidnas may endure some abuse to build up their fats stores. They have also been seen foraging around trees. Here they’ll stick their snouts under loose bark looking for termites and insect larvae. If it is a rotted tree or log, they will use their powerful claws to tear open the trunk exposing the insects within. They are not reliant on water to drink so they can live in areas without easy access to water sources. So now we know what they eat, let’s find out how they eat. It all starts with a long sticky tongue. The short-beaked echidna can extend its tongue seven inches or 18 cm out of its mouth. They can do that more than 100 times a minute! Their genus name, Tachyglossus, actually means fast tongue. A combination of circular and longitudinal muscles allows the tongue to extend and contract. The tip of the tongue is very flexible. It’s so flexible it can curve into a U-shape. That’s probably pretty helpful for scooping up lots of yummy termites. They do posses taste buds which are located at the back of the tongue. They must eat small ants and termites limited to only 55mm because that’s the only thing that will fit in their mouths. Their mouth doesn’t open very wide. If you ever hear someone say an echidna bit them, we know that’s a tall tail! Now, of course, they mainly focus on prey items that are already that size of smaller, but they can tear apart things that might be a bit bigger but is s

Summary: Join Kiersten as she takes a closer look at the habitats in which echidnas are found. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Short-beaked Echidna. Bush Heritage Australia, https://www.bushheritage.org.au “Home Ranges, Movement, and Den Use in Long-Beaked Echidnas, Zaglossus Barton, From Papua New Guinea,” by Muse D.Opiang. Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 90,Issue 2, 14 April 2009, pages 340-346. https://doi.org/10.1644/08-MAMM-A-108.1 Eastern long-beaked echidna, Animalia, https://animlia.bio Expedition Cyclops: https://www.expeditioncyclops.org/echidna “How the echidna lost its venom,” by Verity Leatherdale, University of Sydney, 13 November 2013. 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 episode continues echidnas and the second thing I like about this monotreme is their habitat. We talked a little bit about this in the first episode, but I want to dig a bit deeper into where each species is found. We know they are from Australia and surrounding areas but let’s look at exactly what kind of habitat they prefer. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates) is Australia’s most widespread native mammal. It is common throughout most of temperate Australia and lowland New Guinea. They can be found in Tasmania, King Island, Flinders Island, and Kangaroo Island. Almost every kind of habitat can be home to these shy creatures. Snow-covered mountains, montane forests, desert habitat, and even urban environments are home to the short-beaked echidna. The main requirement for echidna friendly habitat is a way to help keep them sheltered in extreme weather. They also tend to favor areas with soil that’s easy to dig into, but they are great diggers so they can survive with tougher soil. The eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni), also known as, Barton’s long-beaked echidna is found in New Guinea. It’ s found in the Central Cordillera and in Huon Peninsula. They inhabit tropical hill forests, sub-alpine forests, upland grasslands, and scrub. They are mainly found in the eastern half of New Guinea at elevations from 6,600 feet to 9,800 feet or 2 to 3 thousand meters. Some have even been seen as high as 13,000 feet or 4,100 meters. This species of echidna has long, dense fur with spines sprinkled throughout. Their thick fur helps keep them warm in colder weather. They have five long claws on their front feet and four on their back feet. These echidnas lack a tail, unlike the short-beaked echidna. According to a scientific study published in the Journal of Mammalogy in 2009, males of Zaglossus bartoni are smaller than females. Eastern long-beaked echidnas are typically found in dense vegetation and underground burrows. The western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) is found in the Bird’s Head peninsula and Foja Mountains of West Papua and Papua provinces. They are endemic to the Vogelkop region of New Guinea including the Arfak, Tamrau, Fak Fak, possibly the Charles Louis Mountains, as well as island of Salawati. They prefer alpine meadows and humid montane forests. Sir David’s Long-beaked echidna, named after the famous naturalist and wild animal advocate David Attenborough, is found in only one area, and as I mentioned in the first episode all we have to go on with this species is a specimen captured in the 1960’s. We know where they live because we see the evidence of their existence. Holes in the ground called nose pokes are indicative of echidna activity. In 2007, an expedition to the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia in the region of Papua recorded nose pokes and received information from locals about the existence of this echidna. They did not see a live echidna but they were hopeful that reports were correct and the animal still lived. Because we’d thought it was extinct. Here’s the really exciting information about Sir David’s long-beaked echidna. An expedition in 2023 to the Cyclops mountain caught video evidence of a live Zaglossus attenboroughi on a remote camera trap. It was the last day of the expedition and they had seen nose pokes in previously reported areas, but once again they thought they’d get no visual conformation until….there ii was waddling along triggering the camera to record video of its existence! We thought they were extinct for 60 years and researchers had rediscovered them! It’s very exciting. This species is found only in

Summary: Ech-what? Echindas are mammals that break all the rules of Nature! Join Kiersten as she takes us on a journey into the weird world of the echidna. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: “The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals,” edited by David W. Macdonald Echidna Fact Sheet, March 18, 2022. PBS Nature. https://ww.pbs.org “The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Echidna,” by Mary Bates, Wired, Jul 3, 2014. Short-beaked Echidna. Bush Heritage Australia, https://www.bushheritage.org.au 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 is the first episode of the next Ten Things I Like About…series. These ten episodes will be about the echidna! Ech-what? You say? The echidna. It’s an animal found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. You know what that means…It’s gonna be cool! And the mere existence of the echidna is the first thing I like about this exceptional animal. The echidna, also known as the spiny anteater, is an animal that bends the rules that nature has established. It is a mammal, but it reproduces by laying eggs. It feeds it young milk that is produces itself, but has no nipples. It has a pouch like a kangaroo but it is not a marsupial. The echidna is definitely a modern enigma. Let’s start off with what the echidna looks like. It’s kind of a combination between an anteater, a hedgehog, and the Niffler from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Not at all kidding. Okay here is my best attempt at a verbal description. Echidnas have a long beak like snout with a small nose and mouth at the end. Their eyes sit farther back on the face and are surrounded by dark brown fur that is generously laced with long thick light brown or yellow spines. They have large, long claws on their from feet to help dig into the soil. Their body is round and covered with the dark fur and spines. They do have a tail but you hardly notice it because of the spines. Their back feet also have claws but not quite as long as the front feet. They are short and hug the ground as they waddle around. They can grown to 35-75 centimeters or 14 to 30 inches with a 4 inch tail, depending on species. They can weigh between 5.5 to 22 pounds, once again depending on species. They really are quite a strange looking animal, but absolutely fascinating! And boy oh boy do they have cute little faces. There are four species of echidna. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeates), the Sir David’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), the eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni), and the western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii). The short-beaked echidna also known as the common echidna ranges in size from 12-18 inches or 35-40 cm. They can weigh 5 1/2 to 17 lbs or 2 1/2 to 8kg. Males of this species can be up to 25% larger than females. They can range in color from black to light brown with spines on the back and along the sides. They have a long, narrow, hairless snout. The western long-beaked echidna also known as the long-nosed echidna can be 18 to 35 inches or 45-90 cm. They can weigh between 11 to 22 lbs or 5-10kg. The coat color can also range from black to brown. They do have spines but they are shorter than other species’ and are often hidden by their longer fur. They have a very long snout that is curved slightly downward at the tip. Not much is known about the Sir David’s long-beaked echidna. It is the smallest of the long-beaked echidna’s. There is only a single specimen of this species of echidna collected by a Dutch explorer in 1961 in the Cyclops mountains of Indonesia. The eastern long-beaked echidnas is very similar to our short-beaked echidna except with a longer snout. There are several different subspecies listed under this echidna that ma

Summary: Rattlesnakes need love too! Join Kiersten as she talks about what threatens the survival of our scaly friends and how we can help. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin “Snake Fungal Disease” Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, https://cwhi.vet.cornell.edu IUCN Red List, https://www.iucnredlist.org “Timber Rattlesnakes” Pennsylvania DCNR, https://www.dcnr.pa.gov “Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake recovery plan” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov “Rattlesnake Roundup: a Texas tradition runs into criticism” by Evan Garcia, Reuters March 22, 2023. https://www.reuters.com Conservation Societies: The Orianne Society: https://www.oriannesociety.org The Rattlesnake Conservancy: https://www.savethebuzztails.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 episode concludes rattlesnakes. Those of you who have been enjoying this journey with can probably guess which episode this will be. I do have a bit of a pattern, but talking about conserving these wonderful animals for future generations is always the tenth thing I like about them. Welcome to rattlesnake conservation. Some of you may be thinking, are rattlesnakes in need of conservation? Does a venomous animal really need our help to survive? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding yes. Across their native range their numbers have been steadily declining for generations. And, as always, we are the main cause of their problems. Let’s take a look at the challenges they are battling, how we’re helping, and how we can continue to help. One of the major challenges rattlesnakes are facing is loss of appropriate habitat, especially along the east coat of North America. The Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake is found in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. Sounds like a lot a places right? Researchers have confirmed that less than half of their historical populations exist today, and most of that is found in Michigan and Ontario. That excludes eight states out of their original range. Now they are still found in those states but in such low numbers, they are considered rare. The eastern massasauga relies on wetland habitat and the adjacent uplands. Wetlands across the continent are a threatened habitat. Steps have been taken to protect the wetland habitat of the eastern massasauga and the snake itself. In 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the eastern massasauga rattlesnake as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. This gave more leverage to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for protection of the wetland habitat that the massasauga relies upon. For those of you that are still on the fence about protecting rattlesnakes, think about all the other animals that rely on wetlands to survive, you probably like at least, one of those. Not to mention the fact that wetlands are an important step in keeping water clean and drinkable, that includes the water that we drink. Timber rattlesnakes are also suffering from habitat loss. They are particularly reliant on habitat that has a combination of trees and rocky steppe areas. This habitat is often lost to urban and suburban sprawl. The timber rattlesnakes that live in northeastern areas rely on the rocky outcroppings as sunning areas and hibernation spots. The structure of the rocky developments provide excellent hidden holes for populations that live north enough to need hibernaculums to survive the winter. Pennsylvania, one of the states with a rapidly declining population of timber rattlesnakes, has implemented protections in state parks that contain the chosen habitat of the timber rattlesnake. There are fifteen areas in Pennsylvania state parks that you are not allowed to harm timber rattlesnakes or destroy or disturb their sunning and hibernation spots. I love the fact that we’re trying to get ahead of the extinction of these amazing animals. There are forty rattlesnakes listed on the IUCN’s Red List, almost all are in the crotalus family, and most of them are classified as Least Concern. A sigh of relief, right? Wrong, the IUCN Red List looks at the global populations of species, not regional populations. The good news is that the rattlesnakes are surviving across global areas

Summary: There are sooo many myths about rattlesnakes that Kiersten had to do a second episode! Join Kiersten as she dispels more myths about rattlesnakes. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin 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 episode continues rattlesnakes. We’re going to do one more episode about myths because there are so many about rattlesnakes and dispelling myths about this misunderstood animal in the ninth thing I like about them. Here’s a myth that even NPR ran a story about, so this is a great one to kick off this episode. Myth #9: Rattlesnakes are evolving to not use their rattle before striking. Completely untrue. Rattlesnakes still use their rattles to warn predators away. I know people have encountered rattlesnakes and never heard the rattle before they were very close to the snake. Some of those encounters ended with a bite or strike, and many have not. We have to remember the first way a snake protects itself is to be still and hide. They only break cover when they feel they are in imminent danger. Sometimes a human approaching is not enough danger to cause a rattle reaction. Maybe you’ve caught the snake off guard, they do sleep, and they didn’t notice you until it was too late for a warning rattle. There could be plenty of other explanations, but rest assured, rattlesnakes are still using their rattles. Myth #10: Rattlesnakes can jump ten feet in the air! This is 150% not true! Snakes cannot jump from the ground into the air. They physically cannot jump. They have no legs, they cannot tip back onto their tails and pop up like a spring, they cannot leap from a ledge to bite your face. It may work in the cartoons and in movies, but not in reality. Myth #11: Rattlesnakes use their rattles to mesmerize their prey. Nope! As I discussed in the pervious episode about rattles, rattlesnakes use their rattle to warn away predators. It does seem a bit counterintuitive to make noise to warn a predator of your location, because you are also exposing yourself to that predator, but the rewards outweigh the risks. They get to survive another day if they make the rattle noise and scare off the predator or the bison or horse that was just about to step on them. Myth #12: If you see one rattlesnake, there will be more waiting to get you when you leave. We need to break this one down. First of all, rattlesnakes are never out to get you. They do not hunt humans or aggressively pursue humans. They really don’t want to be around us at all. Secondly. Most of the time when you see one rattlesnake, they are alone. During certain times of the year, they are mating; therefore, you may encounter more than one at a time. In certain areas of North America, namely the eastern regions, during winter, rattlesnakes will hibernate together. Then you might encounter several when they are leaving their hibernaculum in the warming weather of spring. The important thing to remember here, is that they are never chasing you or corralling you to attack. Myth #13: Rattlesnake use their rattles to attract mates. As romantic as this sounds, it’s completely false. There is no evidence that male rattlesnakes use their rattle to attract mates. As stated before, rattles are for protective warnings. Myth #14: A rattlesnake bite can kill you! Unless you are allergic to their venom and have an anaphylactic reaction, you most likely will survive. Get medical treatment as soon as possible and your likelihood of surviving is very high. Antivenom is available at most hospitals and can be administered quickly. Not all rattlesnake bites are venomous. Dry bites can happen which means the snake bites but does not inject venom. We’re not exactly sure why this happens, but the rattlesnake does control when it injects venom and when it doesn’t. Myth #15: Rattlesnakes LOVE heat! This one is tricky, but it’s essentially a no. Snakes are ectotherms, which means they do not control their own body temperature. Mammals and birds produce their own body heat. Reptiles cannot do that. They depend on the temperature of the environment around them to warm or cool their body. If it is too cold they cannot move around or digest their food. So reptiles are more active in warmer weather a

Summary: Rattlesnakes are the only types pf snakes with a rattle, hence the name. But how much do you know about the rattle? Join Kiersten as she tells you everything you ever wanted to know about a rattlesnake’s rattle. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo “How Do Rattlesnakes Rattle?” By Cameron Duke, Live Science, August 12, 2023. https://www.livescience.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 episode continues rattlesnakes and today we’re going to learn about their namesake. The rattle on a rattlesnake is the eighth thing I like about this charming snake. In the Anatomy episode, I touched on the rattle but this episode will be a deeper dive into this unusual physical attribute. Rattlesnakes are not born with a rattle but they are born with the beginning of a rattle. They are born with what’s called a prebutton. The prebutton is a skin cap on the tip of the neonates tail. This is different from any other young snake’s tail. Only rattlesnakes have a prebutton. It is essentially a terminal scale like other snakes’ have on the ends of their tails, but it’s larger in size. Most snakes, other than rattlesnakes, have a tapered cone-shaped scale at the end of the tail, where as the rattlesnakes’ scale is wider and thicker. When the neonate rattlesnake molts for the first time, a few days to a week after birth, the prebutton they are born with sheds. After this molt another button is revealed that will be the beginning of the rattle that they will have for the rest of their lives. With each following molt a segment will be added to the rattle, creating a rattle chain. So, what is this rattle made of? It’s made of something very common in the natural world. You, listeners, have some of it on you right now in the form of hair and fingernails. That’s right, the rattle is made of keratin. Those of you who listened to my pangolin series should remember that keratin is the fibrous protein that is the main component of hair, feathers, hooves, claws, and horns. Just one more thing that links us all together. Let’s get back to the rattle chain. The links are hollow and each link interconnects with the one below it. A link is created each time the snake sheds. To grow larger snakes must shed their skin. Unlike us, their skin is not flexible enough to grow as they grow. So they must shed their skin to get bigger. Each time a rattlesnake sheds, the old skin leaves a piece behind on the tail creating a new link. When the old piece is pushed out by the shedding process, a new button develops beneath the new rattle link. This will be pushed out at the next shed. This brings us to a myth about rattlesnakes and aging. Many people believe that you can determine the age of a rattlesnake by the number of links on the rattle. If snakes only shed once a year, that would be true. But as I just explained, snakes shed when it’s time for them to grow. That can happen multiple times a year. Growth rates all depend on the amount of food that a snake consumes. When resources are abundant, a snake can grow quickly; when resources are scarce, a snake may grow slowly. Another reason judging a rattlesnake’s age by the rattle is problematic is that they aren’t very sturdy. Rattles are hollow and made of keratin, so they aren’t rugged enough to survive the rough and tumble life of a rattlesnake. When the rattle chain gets too long links will break off. In the wild, having a rattle with ten links is uncommon. Most rattlesnakes will be able to hold onto five or six links at a time. It’s not like they make a concerted effort to shortened their rattle, but slithering around on the ground can be hard on a hollow piece of keratin. When the rattlesnake travels they do hold the tail up keeping the rattle almost perpendicular to the ground. But avoiding predators or avoiding getting stepped on can lead you into some precarious situations that can cause the ends of the rattle to break off. Rattlesnakes in captivity are another story. They tend not to travel too far and their rattles are never exposed to rough terrain. Some captive rattlesnakes have been recorded with rattle chains containing twenty or more links. That’s a pretty long rattle! Now there is another reason why the rattle cannot be too long. If it’s too long it doesn’t do it’s job properly

Summary: Rattlesnakes are excellent hunters, but how do they do it? Join Kiersten as she explains how rattlesnakes hunt and catch their prey. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo “Pit Viper Can Detect Prey Via Heat” by American Museum of Natural History, https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/news-posts/pit-vipers-can-detect-prey-via-heat “Snakes’ Flexible, Heat-Sensing Organs Explained” by Harini Barath, Scientific American, February 1, 2010, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/snakes-flexible-heat-sensing-organs-explained 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 episode continues rattlesnakes and the seventh thing I like about this misunderstood animal is how they hunt and eat their food. We have covered some of this in the fangs and venom episode. In this episode we’ll take a look at how they find their food and catch their food. Let’s start off with how rattlesnakes hunt. They are classified as ambush hunters, which means they lay in wait until the right prey item comes to them. I love this strategy. Maximum reward with minimum effort! When you are an ambush predator you need to hide well so you can catch your prey by surprise. Rattlesnakes do this by sitting very still under low foliage, fallen logs, and dark crevices. The patterns on their skin, besides making them look so pretty, is camouflage to help them blend into the background. The light and dark patterning helps break up their shape so that prey items are unaware of what is waiting in the shadows. The second adaptation that rattlesnakes use to catch their prey is their tongue. We’ve already talked about this in the anatomy episode, but we’ll recap quickly. Snakes have forked tongues that collect scent particles when flicked into the air. Those scent particles cling to the tongue and are deposited in the Jacobson’s organ when the snakes bring the tongue back into their mouth. This organ decodes the particles and tells the snake what is in their environment. It helps them decide which direction to go when moving around their territory. Rattlesnakes have another very cool adaptation that allows them to essentially see thermally. Yes rattlesnakes can see heat signatures. That’s amazing! Rattlesnakes are in a group of snakes called pit vipers. This name comes from the fact that they have pits in their faces. Now, they didn’t have bad acne. These pits are by design. The heat sensing organs called ‘pits’ are located between their eyes and nostrils. How do they work? Is it like looking through a thermal camera? According to the American Museum of Natural History, there is a thin membrane that connects the thermal receptor to the brain at the optic nerve. This allows rattlesnakes to see the infrared signature created by heat. They have two of these front-facing organs and this helps them triangulate the direction and distance of warm-blooded prey, even in total darkness! No night vision googles needed! Rattlesnakes can use these heat sensitive receptors to detect infrared for up to three feet. That’s not a terribly far distance, so they use their thermal pits to help pin point where the prey is after they’ve used their sense of smell to find them. In 2010, a scientific study discovered the molecular process behind snakes’ night vision. They examined the nerve receptors in the pit organs of a rattlesnake. What they found was truly fascinating! Rattlesnake thermal pits produce a protein that, in other species of animals, including humans, detects chemical irritants. In rattlesnakes these “wasabi receptors”, as they are called, evolved to detect heat instead of irritants. Now we still don’t know exactly how snakes turn the information they receive from their thermal pts into infrared images. The membrane transfers the information to the brain, but how is it translated into a thermal image? A theoretical model proposed by University of Houston and Rutgers University researchers suggests an answer. They based some of their model on natural occurring pyroelectric materials. In nature these materials are rare but can be found in hard crystals. These types of crystals are not found in snakes. But what the paper proposes is that some soft cells can act as weak pyroelectric under certain circumstances. Quoting from Scientific American, “Sharma and his tea

Summary: Rattlesnakes are solitary animals. Are you sure? Join Kiersten as she turns what we know about rattlesnake lifestyles on its head. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin “Social Lives of Rattlesnakes”, by Rulon Clark. Natural History, March 2005. “Kin Recognition in Rattlesnakes,” by Rulon W. Clark. Proc. R. Soc. London B (Suppl.) 271, S243-S245 (2004), DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2004.0162 “Social Security: can rattlesnakes reduce acute stress through social buffering?” By Chelsea E. Martin, Gerad A. Fox, Breanna J. Putman, and William K. Hayes. Front. Ethol, 06 July 2023, Vol 2, 2023. DOI:doi.org/10. I 3389/fetho.2023.1181774 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 title of this episode might be a bit of a shock to you. Why are we talking about social structure in snakes? They’re solitary animals, right? Well, social structure is the sixth thing I like about rattlesnakes and it totally flipped the script on these interesting reptiles. In general, when we think about reptiles we think of solitary animals that do not share territory, dens, or any part of their life with other reptiles of the same species. This is especially true of snakes. But maybe we’ve been wrong about this assumption. Those of you that have listened to the reproduction episode already know that mothers will share a den with their young after they’ve been born until their first shed. This was a completely unexpected behavior when we first discovered it, so we shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that rattlesnakes are social in other ways, as well. Recent research has shed light on the social behaviors of snakes outside the natal den and, I hope you’re sitting down for this episode, because it’s going to rock your world! In the March 2005 issue of Natural History magazine, an article titled “Social Lives of Rattlesnakes” was written by Rulon Clark. Most likely many people scoffed at the title and if they read the article at all, they certainly didn’t believe the information contained within. Quoting form the article, Clark says “Timber rattlesnakes live as long as thirty years in the wild, and they seem to live as stable, cooperative community members. They appear to form lasting relationships with other individuals, follow similar paths through the woods, bask together before shedding their skins under the same fallen log, and sometimes follow each other from one den to another.” I can just hear the scoffs and see the bug=eyed disbelief, but since this article was published more studies based on Rulon Clark’s research have proven him right. Let’s take a look at what Mr. Clark wanted people to learn about rattlesnakes when he wrote this article. Timber rattlesnakes are of great concern to anyone who loves rattlesnakes. They are native to the east coast of the Untied States and have been in decline for a very long time. Many rattlesnake researchers focus their interest on these snakes so that we can learn everything about them before they disappear forever. Certain northeastern states are the only stronghold left for the Timber rattlesnakes. Now you probably don’t expect an ectothermic animal to live in an area that has weather cold enough to snow every year, but they do. The way they survive is to hibernate in a den that keeps them protected from the elements. They share these dens with other Timber rattlesnakes. Let me say that again. This animal that is often thought of being solitary, shares hibernation dens with other individuals of the same species. They head to den sites around mid-October and they usually emerge in early May. Genetic research done on some of these denning sites has shown that the groups that overwinter together tend to be closely related kin. Okay. Okay. I can hear you doubting this. Maybe you think the snakes are just returning to a place they know is a safe denning site that other clutch mates also know about. That could be true and it is probably one of the reasons that siblings are often found in dens year after year, but that doesn’t explain why they may be found in the same sunning sites or shedding together under the same fallen logs. There is evidence that snakes do recognize their own kin. In experiments performed with snakes born in captivity to wild caught mothers, female Timber rattler

Summary: Fangs and venom are two of the amazing adaptations that rattlesnakes are known for and feared for. Join Kiersten as she discusses these two valuable assets. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo 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 episode continues rattlesnakes and the fifth thing I like about this scaly creature is their fangs and venom. These two amazing adaptations make rattlesnakes adept hunters. We took a quick peek at them in the anatomy episode but today we’re going to take a closer look at both fangs and venom. Let’s tackle fangs first. As I said in the anatomy episode, rattlesnake fangs are found in the upper jaw of the snake near the front. The are recurved which means they curve back into the mouth. They are modified teeth, so covered in enamel like other teeth. The modification is a hollow canal that runs the length of the tooth. This canal connects the venom gland to the tooth and travels down the tooth to a small opening at the front of the tooth just above the sharp end of the fang. The tip of the fang is very sharp and is often compared to a hypodermic needle. There is one fang on each side of the mouth and they are the longest teeth in the rattlesnake’s mouth. The Eastern Diamondback, one of NA’s largest species, can have fangs 1 inch in length. These fangs are pretty sturdy but they can break. Since they are exceptionally important for the snake’s survival, new fangs are always growing. They sit just behind the current fang in the soft tissue of the gums. If one fang breaks another is ready to move up and grow out. This happens within a few weeks since the snake relies upon them to catch food. Older fangs are shed and replaced by a new ones even without sustaining damage. Occasionally, the active fang will fall out only when the new fang is grown out completely leaving the snake with two fangs in the same spot. Now, tootling around with inch long fangs hanging out of your mouth is not conducive to easy movement when your head is close to the ground. You’d catch that thing on all sorts of debris and either get stuck or drag it around with you all day. Yuck! Rattlesnakes are able to fold their fangs flat against the roof of their mouth. There is a fleshy sheath that the tooth sits in when the snake does not need them. The snake has muscular control over the fangs. They choose when to erect them or fold them. Let’s take a closer look at the venom itself. As mentioned before, rattlesnakes have venom glands. They have two venom glands that sit behind the eyes and connect to the canal in the fangs through a duct. The glands themselves are triangular in shape. This is what gives rattlesnakes their well-known arrow shaped head. A tendon that the snake can control pushes the venom into the fang when they strike at a prey item. They are in conscious control of how much venom they inject into a prey item. Vary rarely do they use all the venom at one time. In simple terms, there are two types of venom. One affects the blood by preventing coagulation and destroys the vessels. This one is a hemotoxic venom. The second one disrupts the nervous system causing paralysis and heart and respiratory malfunctions. This one is a neurotoxin. Previously it was thought that snakes produced one or the other. But with continued research into venom, we now know that most venomous snakes have a combination of both. The percentage varies with each species and even within population of the same species. Rattlesnakes tend to have a higher percentage of hemotoxins in their venom. Why do rattlesnakes even have venom? There are plenty of snakes out there that are non-venomous and are extremely successful creatures. So why venom? Scientists believe that venom evolved in rattlesnakes as a way to expedite the digestive process. Rattlesnakes do not wrap and suffocate their prey like constrictors do. During constriction prey item are typically squeezed so tightly that some joints and bones are broken even though it’s the lack of air that kills the prey. This process probably aides the constrictor in digestion. Since rattlesnakes do not squeeze their prey, they may have developed venom to assist in the digestion process. Venom does break down ti

Summary: There are so many myths about rattlesnakes. Join Kiersten as she dispels some of these harmful myths. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin “Coexisting with Rattlesnakes” by Bryan Hughes. Live lecture through Desert Rivers Audubon. www.desertriversaudubon.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 episode continues rattlesnakes and the fourth thing I like about rattlesnakes is dispelling myths about them. There are so many myths about this misunderstood creature and we’re going to talk about some of them today. Myth #1: Rattlesnakes are aggressive! This is not true. Rattlesnakes will avoid confrontation at all costs. They do not want to strike at anything except prey or a threat that will not leave them alone. It costs them a lot of energy to strike and even more energy to bite and inject venom. That venom is very important to catching and digesting prey, so they certainly do not want to waste it. These snakes appear aggressive because we humans can’t seem to leave them alone. For some reason everyone think it’s a great idea to get all up in their faces and poke at them with a stick then post it on social media to show how aggressive the snake is. If you come across a rattlesnake in the wild just leave it alone and give it some space. As soon as you walk away it will also leave because it doesn’t want to be in an area where they can be disturbed. Myth #2: Baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than the adults! Not true again. People think that babies have no control of the amount if venom they use, so they just squish it all out wherever they bite. Nope. Young rattlesnakes have just as much control as adults. We have to remember that they rely heavily on this venom to help them procure their food. They will not waste it if they can help it. It cost the time and energy to restock their venom. The venom of young rattlesnakes is slightly more potent than adults because they are eating different food. The slightly altered venom helps them kill and digest the food they’re eating. If s human or large mammal get bitten by a young rattlesnake it will most likely not be any worse than the bite from an adult. Myth #3: The abandoned eggs under the porch are rattlesnake eggs! Be careful! If you listened to the reproduction episode you already know that this is false. Rattlesnake do not lay eggs. They give live birth. Don’t freak out if you see a bunch of eggs on the ground, you do not have a nest of rattlers waiting to hatch. Most likely you have a quail or another ground bird nesting in your yard. Myth #4: Moth balls and snake repellent are a must if you live where rattlesnakes are found. There are a lot of products out there that promise to keep rattlesnakes away, but it’s all a lie. Mothballs do nothing but make your property smell like grandma’s closet. Rattlesnakes can’t smell the moth balls and if they did why would they avoid that smell. It means nothing to them. Mothballs might keep your human neighbors away, but not rattlesnakes. The snake repellent that you spread on your lawn is also a crock. You might as well just spread the money that you spend on buying it on the lawn. It’ll work just as well. Once again the snakes don’t care about the smell, if they can smell it at all. One last snake repellent myth that has lasted from the wild west days, is that snakes won’t cross a horsehair rope. Nope. The snake might pause a moment and taste the rope with his tongue before he slides over it, but that’s about it. The best way to prevent snakes from coming near where you live is to keep your property clean. Don’t let clutter stand in your yard. Myth #5: You can tell how old a rattlesnake is by counting the links on their rattle. No. Every time a rattlesnake sheds a new link is added to the rattle. Rattlesnakes can shed more than once a year. A year old rattler could have three links on their tail if it was a good food year and they grew a lot, on the other hand a ten year old rattlesnake might have eight links if they had a few lean food years. Not to mention the rattles are made of hollow keratin and can be fragile. They might lose the rattle in a confrontation with a predator or cut a few links off if it gets stuck in a crack in a rock. Myth #6: If you get bit, suck the venom out! Defi

Summary: How do rattlesnakes make baby rattlesnakes? You might be surprised! Join Kiersten as she gives you a rundown of rattlesnake reproduction. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo 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 episode continues rattlesnakes and the third thing like about them is their reproduction cycle. There are definitely a few things you probably didn’t know about rattlesnake reproduction, for some of you it may be more than a few things, and these facts will throw you for a loop. As we learned in last weeks episode, most rattlesnakes live in temperate regions, which means they live in habitats that have both a cold season and a warm or hot season. This is important because breeding season is kicked off by warming temperatures and the basking behavior that this encourages. The timing of this activity will vary depending on species but many species will breed in spring and summer. Some will mate in fall and we currently believe this is triggered by the shortening of daylight hours. After the snakes have had a bit of time to warm their bodies they shed, when it’’s breeding season females will release pheromones at the same time as this shed that indicate she is ready to mate. Males, once they have warmed up enough to move around, will follow those pheromones until they find the female. If she’s alone, the male will begin the mating ritual. First he’ll rub his chin along her head and flick his tongue gently along her back to entice her to accept him. If she doesn’t slither away, he’ll rub his body along hers, and if all still continues to go well for him she will raise her tail and give a little wave. He’ll line his cloaca up with hers so he can use his hemipenes to deposit sperm in her cloaca. The cloaca is the opening at the base of the tail where snakes do everything that entails things coming out of the body or going into the body. Mating rattlesnakes may be connected in copulation for up to three hours. If an uncoupled female is not alone when one or more males find her, the combat dance may occur. The two males will quickly race toward each other with their heads raised. They will entwine their necks and raise their bodies up vertically. They can push themselves up almost 1/3 of their body length. When they get too high they both tumble and untangle. Then the dance begins again. The two males will continue to ‘dance’ with each other until one of them tires, is forced to the ground, and slithers away. This combat dance can last up to thirty minutes. Typically, fangs are never used during this combat dance. Most often the larger of the two males will win, but not always. This can happen without the presence of a female, sometimes two male snakes searching for females that encounter each other may just fight because they’re in the same vicinity. Once sperm has been successfully transferred, the female can store that sperm for up to a year in a specialized structure in her oviduct. She’ll keep the sperm through winter hibernation until she can produce eggs that will then be fertilized by the stored sperm. This ensures that the eggs will mature at just the right time of year for the young to be born when the temperatures are warm and food is available for the young rattlers. It occurs to me that I’ve been talking about warm temperatures being important for reproduction. Warm temperatures are actually important for all reptiles for any activity. Reptiles are ecotothermic which means they are reliant on the temperature in the environment to maintain their own body temperature. Too hot or too cold and a reptile cannot function. Female rattlesnakes are ovoviviparous but are often referred to as viviparous in research papers. What do all these big word mean? Ovoviviparous means they incubate eggs inside their body and the young are born live. Viviparous means to give live birth, like most mammals. So technically both definitions apply to rattlesnakes. Females will incubate the fertilized eggs in her uterus. For about three months she’ll carry her offspring. During this time she’ll stop eating because as the embryos grow they take up more and more room in her body. It prevents her from swallowing prey whole because there is

Summary: Even though rattlesnakes are only found in the New World, there are a plethora of cool species. Join Kiersten as she take a few close up looks at some wicked cool rattlesnakes. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo https://www.savethebuzztails.org https://waterlandlife.org https://www.fws.gov/specis/eastern-massasauga https://www.desertmuseum.org https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu Music written and performed by Katherine Camp Transcript 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 episode continues rattlesnakes and the second thing I like about this astounding reptile is the variety of species alive today. Today we’ll start off with a little taxonomy. As a reminder taxonomy is the scientific classification of living creatures. It is a way of grouping plants and animals into families for easier study. Rattlesnake classification is as follows: Kingdom: Animalia (this means it’s an animal), Phylum: Chordata (roughly speaking they have a backbone), Class Reptilia (they are reptiles), Order Squamata (this contains lizards and snakes), Suborder Serpentes (snakes), Family Viperidae (a group of venomous snakes called vipers including rattlesnakes), Subfamily Crotalinae and two different genera including Crotalus and Sistrurus. Don’t worry there won’t be a test at the end of this episode! Currently there are 32 accepted species of rattlesnake with 83 subspecies. Upon the advent of DNA testing, this number has fluctuated as scientists discover more information about family relatedness based on genetics versus physical characteristics or behavior. Basically what I’m saying is that this number may be correct today but different tomorrow. The majority of species are found in Genus Crotalus and only three are classified in Sistrurus. There is one outstanding physical characteristic that separates the two genera. The scales on the top of the head of Genus Crotalus will typically be small and similarly shaped, while Genus Sistrurus will have a less uniform group of nine large scales on the crown of the head. There are always exceptions to the rule in Nature so this description is not a hard and fast rule, but a more general rule. Before we look at some specific rattlesnakes more closely, let’s discuss where rattlesnakes can be found on the planet. Rattlesnakes are a New World animal which means they are found only in North, Central, or South America. They can be found from southern Canada to central Argentina with the most variety found in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. A few are found on islands in the Caribbean such as Aruba. The habitats they are found in vary from desert to semi-arid desert to prairie to timber woodlands. They did not evolve to tolerate rainforest habitat. Rattlesnakes can be found in areas that have a cold winter as long as they have dens to hibernate in to keep from freezing to death. In areas that are warmer, they have adapted to living near human suburbs because they are attracted to the mice and rats that are attracted to us. In areas that are colder and the need for a denning sit that remains undisturbed through the winter is crucial, they are struggling to survive. Now that we know a little about rattlesnake taxonomy and where we can find them, let’s take a closer look at a few individual species. One of the most well known rattlesnakes is the Diamondback. This snake is an icon of the wild west of the United States but there is an Eastern Diamondback as well as a Western Diamondback. The eastern Diamondback is native to the southeastern United States and can be found in the pinelands of Florida, the coastal plains of North Carolina and southern Mississippi through eastern Louisiana. The western diamondback is found throughout the western portion of the United States including Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. The two snakes are separate species in Genus Crotalus. The eastern Diamondback is Crotalus adamanteus and the western diamondback is Crotalus atrox. As their name suggests they have large diamond shaped patterning on their back. It begins behind the head and travels down to the tail. The diamond shapes will be darker than the base color of the snakes. The eastern diamondback is typically brown or gray with the base color darkening to

Summary: Rattlesnakes are terribly misunderstood animals. Join Kiersten as she kicks of this series on rattlesnakes with anatomy For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake by Ted Levin Rattlesnake: Portrait of a Predator by Manny Russo 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 is the first episode of my second misunderstood animal, rattlesnakes. The first thing I like about this majestic reptile is their anatomy. Since rattlesnake are snakes, we’ll start off with general snake anatomy and then we’ll talk about the physical characteristics that make rattlesnakes, rattlesnakes. Let’s start off at the head with one of the snake’s most well-known physical characteristics and the one that has people associating it with the devil. The forked tongue is for more than just scaring humans. It’s an amazing adaptation that helps snakes interpret their surroundings. The tongue flicks in and out of the mouth to gather scent information. Snakes are essentially “tasting” the air when they flick their tongue in and out. The slightly damp tongue gathers scent particles when it is exposed to the air. When it comes back into the mouth the ends settle into the Jacobson’s organ that is situated in the roof of the snake’s mouth. This structure processes the scent particles that the tongue gathered telling the snake what’s in the environment around it. It’s quite amazing and allows the snake to find prey items, water, shelter, and protect itself against predators, all with the flick of its tongue. Moving to the top of the head, we find the eyes. This is another characteristic that freaks people out because snakes never close their eyes and some people think that they are being constantly started at with evil intent. But that’s not true, at all. Snakes don’t close their eyes because they can’t. They have no eyelids. They do have thicker lens’ over their eyes that help protect them from the environment like other animals’ eyelids. Snakes don’t have great distance vision either. So they are certainly not staring at you from several feet away. Their vision helps them pinpoint their strike when their prey or a predator is at very close range. At the end of their cute little snouts are their nares. Since they are terrestrial vertebrates, they do breath air. That’s what they use their nostrils for, since most of their olfaction is done with their tongues, but they do have olfactory epithelial cells that line the nasal passages. The presence of a predator or prey triggers a tongue flick, so some scent is likely absorbed through the nasal passages. Just below the nostrils, in between the eyes and the nostrils, are the thermal pits. As far as we know, most snakes have thermal pits, but they range in their sensitivity depending on species. These help snakes detect temperature differences in their environment. It’s another adaptation for hunting prey and keeping themselves safe. As they grow, snakes learn the differences between prey items, predators, and environmental heat signatures that might lead them to safe shelter. When we enter the mouth, we’ll see teeth. All species of snake, as far as we currently know, have teeth. They will vary in size, placement, and number, but all snakes have teeth. When you don’t have hands or paws to help you capture or hold your food, teeth come in super handy. (See what I did there?) Hee-hee! Snake teeth do have one thing in common across species and that’s the curvature of the teeth. Snake teeth are recurved which means they curve backwards. What we mean here is that their teeth are curved towards the back of the mouth. One more indicator that their teeth are used to hold food before they swallow it wh

Summary: Join Kiersten as she talks about the conservation status of the coelacanth and how we can help! For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: https://www.iucnredlist.org “Coelacanth: A Living Fossil From Eons Past (2023 Update),” by Lance Wilkins, Call Outdoors, https://www.calloutdoors.com “Coelacanth, the Famous “Living Fossil” Fish, Gets Endangered Species Act Protection, Scientific American, March 29, 2016. Https://blogs.scientificamerican.com. “Ghost fish: after 420 million years the deeps, modern gillnets from shark fin trade drag coelacanths into the light,” by Tony Carnie May 12, 2021. Mongabay, https://news.mongabay.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 episode concludes the coelacanth and the tenth thing I like about this animal is their conservation. Maybe I need to re-word that statement. I don’t like the fact that coelacanths need conservation, but it’s an important topic and we’re already working on protecting them for future generations. One of the questions that might have popped into your head when you saw the title of this episode, is do coelacanths really need conservation efforts? I mean they live so deep in the ocean and they’ve been alive since before the dinosaurs, how could they possibly need conserving? Well let’s talk about that. The answer to the first question is yes, but really that’s the answer to every animal on the planet these days, but that’s a whole other topic. Coelacanths, both the African and the Indonesian populations, do need conservation efforts. The main reason is that they are incredibly long lived animals. Recent research has shown that they may actually live 100 years or more. And, while this is exceptionally cool, it can also mean that they are slow to increase their population. Coelacanths don’t reach sexual maturity until somewhere between 35-50 years. That means they have to live at least that long before they can create more coelacanths. The latest population numbers for Latimeria chalumnae, the African coelacanth, is estimated at just around 250 to 500 individuals. Latimeria menadoensis, the Sulawesi coelacanth, is estimated at somewhere around 10,000 individuals. We have to take the numbers with a large grain of salt because counting coelacanth individuals is extremely tricky due to the fact that they live in extremely deep waters. Both species are listed on the IUCN Red List. This is the list that organizations all over the word use to determine what kind of protections should be developed for various species of wildlife including animals, insects, and plants. The African coelacanth is listed as critically endangered and the Sulawesi coelacanth is listed as vulnerable. Beside the fact that they reproduce so slowly what other threats are modern coelacanths facing? Those of you that are loyal listeners can probably guess what I’m about to say, human activity. Yes. This species that is older than a dinosaur and survived a planetary extinction event is losing its battle against humankind. I find that I have no words to portray how very sad this makes me. Ever since the coelacanth was rediscovered in 1938, fisherman have taken advantage of scientific interest in them. Selling them for research purposes really hit its stride after the 1980’s. Before then, fisherman often just threw them back and if the coelacanth was lucky they might have survived the pressure changes of the water. But, once scientific interest in studying the coelacanth boomed in the 1980’s, fisherman began trading them for payment or other things the fishermen needed with interested scientists. A coelacanth can be caught fairly easily with a small, primitive boat and a long fishing line. They don’t struggle much when you pull them up and native fisher’s knew just where to look to catch them. To encourage fishermen to stop catching coelacanth, they were provided with more seaworthy boats so they could venture farther out to sea to catch other types of fish, which also took them away from the coelacanths favorite habitat. This worked well until the boats fell into disrepair and then fishermen fell back to their old habits that they could practice using their simpler boats. Today coelacanths must avoid two separate deep sea fishing industries. One is the oil fisheries. This industry looks to capture large fish for the use of their oils. We have a lot of fish oil in various items that

Summary: Join Kiersten as she takes a trip through time with the fossil record of the coelacanth. For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean Show Notes: “Coelacanth Fish Fossils, Mawsonia Woodward, 1907,” by Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam, Ali Taher, Mohammad Ahmad, Mostafa Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa. https://issuu.com “The first late cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia) from North America: Evidence of a lineage of extinct ‘living fossils’.” By Lionel Cavin, Pablo Torino, Nathan van Vranken, Bradley Carter, Micheal J. Polcyn, and Dale Winkler. PLOS ONE, https://journals.plos.org “Fossils of Cretaceous-Period Coelacanth Discovered in Texas,” by Sergio Prostak, SciNews, November 16, 2021. https://www.sci.news “Oldest coelacanth, from Early Devonian of Australia,” by Zeroing Johanson, John A. Long, John A Talent, Phillipe Javier, and James W. Warren. Bill Lett, 2006 Sep 22; 2(3): 443-446; doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0470 “Earliest known coelacanth skull extends the range of anatomically modern coelacanths to the Early Devonian,” by Min Zhu, Xiaobo You, Jing Lu, Too Qiao, Wenjin Zhao, and Liantao Jia. Nature Communications 3, Article Number: 772 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1764 “Ghost Lineages,” by Matt Wedel, 5/2007 and 5/2010. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu Music written and composed 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 episode continues the coelacanth and the ninth thing I like about this animal is its fossil record. Throughout this series I’ve talked about the fossil’s of the coelacanth and how they are sometimes called a ‘living fossil’, so I thought we should take a few minutes to look at their actual fossil record. As we have discussed before coelacanths are old. The first coelacanths lived about 400 million years ago in the Devonian period. This was approximately 170 million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth. No matter how many times I say it, it still blows my mind! The fossil record of the coelacanth, just like everything else about this fish, is actually quite interesting. Throughout their long history coelacanths have been thought to be evolutionary conservative which essentially means they haven’t changed much, but when we look a litter closer at the various fossils we see a different story. Our modern living coelacanths look like something that swam right out of ancient history, but throughout their existence they have had several body shapes. Let’s look at the Devonian coelacanths. The best known Devonian coelacanth fossils come from the late Middle to early Late Devonian period. There are two early coelacanths that are well known, Gavinia and Miguashaia. These two genuses are considered primitive coelacanths because they are more like primitive lungfish and less like modern coelacanths in body form. What researchers look at to determine these classifications are the skull shape, the fin placement, and the tail. If we compare the skull shapes, in layman’s terms, of Miguashaia and Latimeria (as a reminder that is our modern coelacanth) the Devonian era coelacanth’s skull is broader and shorter, the body is shorter and more stout, and the tail is dramatically different. The Miguashaia tail technically has three parts like the modern coelacanth but the top fin is tiny while the bottom fin is much larger. The puppy dog tail portion of the tail that runs between the two fins sort of curves up a bit. The majority of the tail fin is below the midline and is square as opposed to the rounded tail of Latimeria. These are the most well known fossils from the Devonian period and they are fully formed enough that they can be placed in the coelacanth timeline based on body shape. But these are not the only fossils found from the Devonian era. There were fossils found in Australia from the early Devonian period suggesting coelacanths are even older than we previously thought. Researchers are hesitating to use these fossils when phylogenetically classifying coelacanths because it’s only a lower jaw bone. The existence of a dentary sensory pore in the jaw proves it is a coelacanth, as modern day coelacanths, as well as other fossils throughout the ages, have dentary sensory pores also. Now, there have been approximately 80 species of coelacanth fossils described from the Middle Devonian to the Late Cretaceous. The Late Cretaceous dates from 360 million years to 70 mill