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Strange Animals Podcast

Summary: A podcast about living, extinct, and imaginary animals!

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 Episode 090: Spiders! NO COME BACK, IT’S SAFE TO LISTEN | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:09

As we get closer and closer to Halloween, the monsters get scarier and scarier! Okay, spiders are not technically monsters, but some people think they are. Don’t worry, I keep descriptions to a minimum so arachnophobes should be okay! This week we learn about some spider friends and some spider mysteries. I stole the above cartoon from here. I am sorry, Science World. A cape made from golden silk orbweaver silk: Further reading and listening: Blue spiders Varmints! Podcast scorpions episode Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. It’s almost Halloween! I’m on the third bag of gummi spiders, although they’ve changed the flavor from last year so I only eat the orange and yellow ones. The purple and green ones are in the bucket to give out to unsuspecting children. Speaking of spiders…yes, I’m going there. I realize a lot of people are scared of spiders, but they’re beautiful, fascinating animals that are associated with Halloween. Don’t worry, I will try hard not to say anything that will set off anyone’s arachnophobia. Besides, there are some mysterious spiders out there that I think you’ll find really interesting. First off, you don’t have to worry about gigantic spiders like in the movies. Spiders have an exoskeleton like other arthropods, and if a spider got too big, some researchers think its exoskeleton would weigh so much the spider wouldn’t be able to move. Not only that, spiders have a respiratory system that isn’t nearly as efficient as that of most vertebrates, so giant spiders couldn’t exist because they wouldn’t be able to get enough oxygen to function. Specifically, some spiders have a tracheal system of breathing, like most insects and other arthropods also have. These are breathing tubes that allow air to pass through the exoskeleton and into the body, but it’s a passive process and spiders don’t actually breathe in and out. Other spiders have what are called book lungs. The book lung is made up of a stack of soft plates sort of like the pages of a book. Oxygen passes through the plates and is absorbed into the blood, which by the way is pale blue. This is also a passive process. In other words, that picture that’s forever popping up on facebook of the enormous spider on the side of someone’s house, it’s photoshopped. In fact, pretty much any photo you see of a gigantic spider or insect or other arthropod is either photoshopped or made to look bigger by forced perspective. Also, spiders with wings are photoshopped, because no spider has ever had wings, even fossil spiders all the way back to the dawn of spider history, over 300 million years ago. So that’s one less thing to worry about. Spiders live all over the world, everywhere except in the ocean and in Antarctica. The smallest spider known is .37 mm, so basically microscopic. It lives in Colombia and basically lives out its whole life not knowing most things about the world, li

 Episode 089: The Lavellan and the Earth Hound | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:59

As we get closer and closer to Halloween, the monsters get weirder and weirder! This week let’s look at two mystery animals from Scotland, one of which is supposed to break into coffins and eat the bodies! That’s disgusting! A stoat in its winter ermine coat: The Russian desman: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. We’re one week closer to Halloween and things are getting spookier and spookier. This week, we’ll learn about two mystery animals from Scotland. One of them poisons the water it lives in, and the other breaks into coffins to eat dead bodies. oh my gosh that’s horrible The lavellan was supposed to be a rat-like rodent but bigger than a rat with an oversized head, and with a venomous bite. It lived in marshes and in deep pools along rivers, and its presence was enough to poison the water it lived in. If cattle drank the water, they would die. It’s possible that the lavellan was just a story to keep children away from marshy areas and deep water. But it’s also possible that it might be based on a real animal. The name lavellan is the same name used in Scottish Gaelic for the water shrew and water vole. The water shrew is big for a shrew, but small in comparison to a rat, only 4” long, or 10 cm, not counting its long tail. The water shrew does have a venomous bite, but it’s not powerful enough to kill a cow. It eats small fish, snails and small crustaceans, insects, amphibians, and small rodents. The water vole is about twice the length of the water shrew, but with a relatively short tail. It mostly eats plants, although it sometimes also eats frogs and tadpoles. It’s also not venomous. But before we talk any more about the lavellan, we need to learn about the earth hound. The earth hound, or yard pig, is supposed to be a rat-like animal that lives in burrows and is occasionally unearthed when plowing. It’s the one that is supposed to dig into graveyards, break into coffins, and eat the dead bodies. We know more about the earth hound than the lavellan, largely due to a letter in the archives of the Natural Museums of Scotland. The letter was written by a man named Smith of Wartle, who in 1917 wrote to James Ritchie in Edinburgh. Smith’s letter said that the father of a local gardener had dug up an earth hound while plowing in 1867 or thereabouts. The animal bit his boot when he kicked at it, biting so hard that it cut through the leather. The man beat it to death with the plow’s singletree. Smith reported that the animal was dark brown, the size of a ferret but shaped roughly like a rat with a more doglike head, and a bushy tail that was about half the length of a rat’s tail. The head was long and the nostrils piglike, and it had white tusks—probably incisors. And it had feet like a mole’s, which makes sense if it is a burrowing animal. Stories of the ea

 Episode 088: Megabats and the Ahool | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 17:43

Our next Halloween monster is the ahool, a mystery bat from Indonesia and Java, but along the way we’ll learn about megabats in general–especially the hammerhead bat! Thanks to Grace, Grace’s sons, and Tania for the hammerhead bat suggestion! I’ve unlocked a Patreon bonus episode about burrowing bats, which you can listen to here. A hammerhead bat (male) from side and front. DAT SNOOT. (Photos by Sarah Olson and swiped off the web, because I have no shame.) The Egyptian fruit bat (Photo by Amram Zabari and swiped etc etc): Great flying foxes, sleepin (photo by Lars Petersson and swiped etc etc): Golden-crowned flying fox, flyin (photo by Dave Irving and swiped etc etc): Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week we’re going to learn about bats—some real, some mysterious, and all of them awesome, because bats are awesome! Listeners Grace and Grace’s sons requested an episode about hammerhead bats recently, which made me real

 Episode 087: Globsters | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 18:49

It’s October! Let the spooky monster episodes begin! This week we’re starting off with a bang–or maybe a squoosh–with an episode about globsters. What are they? Why do they look like that? Do they smell? Yes, they smell. They smell so bad. Trunko, a globster found in South Africa: A whale shark: The business end of a whale shark: A globster found in Chile: A globster found in North Carolina after a hurricane: A globster that still contains bones: Not precisely a globster but I was only a few weeks late in my 2012 visit to Folly Beach to see this thing: Further reading: Hunting Monsters by Darren Naish Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. It’s October, and you know what that means! Monsters! …and have I got a creepy monster for you this week. Grab your Halloween candy and a flashlight while I tell you about something called a globster. If you live near the seashore, or really if you’ve spent any time at all on the beach, you’ll know that stuff washes ashore all the time. You know, normal stuff like jellyfish that can sting you even though they’re dead, pieces of debris that look an awful lot like they’re from shipwrecks, and the occasional solitary shoe with a skeleton foot inside. But sometimes things wash ashore that are definitely weird. Things like globsters. A globster is the t

 Episode 086: Ammonoids and Nautiloids | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 11:51

Is it extinct? Is it alive? What is the difference between the ammonite and the nautilus? Did Kate get the two confused her whole life until a few months ago and thought they were both extinct? Maybe. A fossilized ammonite shell: Another fossilized ammonite shell of a different shape: A third fossilized ammonite shell of a yet different shape: A gigantic fossilized ammonite shell: A fossilized ammonite shell of gem quality, called an ammolite: This is what an ammonite might have looked like when it was alive. I drew this myself IN MS PAINT because I couldn’t find anything online I liked. There’s 15 minutes of my life I won’t get back: This is an alive and not extinct nautilus:

 Episode 085: Crocs, Gators, and Their Massive Terrifying Cousins | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 19:27

This week’s episode is all about crocodiles, alligators, and their relations. Thanks to Damian, John Paul, and John Paul’s son for the recommendation! A Chinese alligator: It’s easy to tell alligators and crocodiles apart. Just ask them to stand side by side, then lean over and look down to see the head shape. Broad-headed alligator on left, slender-headed crocodile on right: Saltwater crocodile. Look, I’m only going to say this once: DO NOT SIT ON A CROCODILE OKAY THAT IS JUST DUMB AND YOU WILL GET EATEN ONE DAY IF YOU KEEP ON DOING IT A gavial: Black caiman: Further reading: A newly discovered difference between alligators and crocodiles Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week’s episode is about crocodiles and alligators, and their relations. Thanks to a couple of different listeners for the suggestion, Damian and John Paul, and John Paul’s son. We’ve touched on crocodiles before in a couple of different episodes, including episode 53 about dragons, but alligators have barely had a mention. Crocs and gators aren’t actually that closely related

 Episode 084: Gorillas | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:42

This week let’s learn about a close relative, the gorilla! But first, if you don’t already listen to these fantastic animal podcasts, definitely check them out! Species   All Creatures   Life Death & Taxonomy   Animals to the Max   Varmints   Cool Facts about Animals Why hello there: This gorilla has some lettuce. It looks pretty good: Some mountain gorillas with awesome hair: GORILLA BABY FLOOFY HEAD ALERT: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week we’re going to learn about gorillas, mostly because I just found out they sometimes hum happily while they eat. And yes, I have audio of happy munching gorillas that will make you want to snack too. But first, did you notice what happened last week? If you subscribe to several animal podcasts, you might have noticed that the first week of September 2018 suddenly turned into big cat week! A bunch of us animal podcasters thought it would be hilarious to release episodes covering the same topic in the same week. Species covered snow leopards, All Creatures covered lions, Life Death & Taxonomy covered jaguars, Animals to the Max covered wildcats, Varmints covered tigers, Cool Facts about Animals covered mountain lions, and of course we had our mystery big cats episode. I’ll put links in the show notes to each podcast, but I recommend all of them. One thing I love is that all these podcasts can cover the same topic but approach it so differently that you’ll never get bored and think, Oh,

 Episode 083: Lions, tigers, and other big cats…of mystery! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 20:55

I’ve been meaning to do a big cat episode for a while, thanks to listener Damian who suggested lions and tigers! But when I started my research, I immediately got distracted by all the reports of mysterious big cats. So here’s another mysteries episode! Here are the links to some Patreon episodes that I’ve unlocked for anyone to listen to. Just click on the link and a page will open, and you can listen on the page. No need to log in. Marsupial lions Blue tigers and black lions The Queensland tiger, which is not actually about any kind of actual tiger A lion and cub. This picture made me die: The Barbary lion, possibly extinct, possibly not: Watch out! Tigers! A king leopard with stripe-like markings instead of spots: Further reading: Hybrid and Mutant big cats Peruvian mystery jaguar skulls studied Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week we’re going to learn about some mystery big cats. We’ve touched on big cats before in various episodes, including the British Big Cats phenomenon in episode 52. We’re definitely going to see some more out of place animals this week, along with lots of information about big cats of various kinds. Thanks to Damian who requested an episode about lions and tigers ages ago. I’ve also unlocked three Patreon episodes so that anyone can listen to them. They won’t show up in your feed, but there are links in the show notes and you can click through and listen on your browser without needing a patreon login. The first is about

 Episode 082: Animals with Face Tentacles | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:44

http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Episode-082-Animals-with-Tentacles-on-Their-Faces.mp3 This week we’re going to learn about animals with TENTACLES ON THEIR FACES oh my gosh Thanks to Llewelly for the topic suggestion! Don’t forget to come see me on the panel How to Start Your Own Indie Podcast at DragonCon 2018, at 4pm on Sunday, September 2, 2018 in the Hilton Galleria 6. A tentacled snake: A star-nosed mole. Hello, nose star! A caecilian, with its tiny tentacle circled: A squidworm: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. I’m back from Paris this week and definitely jet-lagged, but this episode should wake everyone up. It’s about animals with TENTACLES ON THEIR FACES A big thanks to Llewelly who sent me an article about the tentacled snake, which turned into this episode. I love it when people send me links to articles or suggestions for topics. I have a bunch of suggestions I haven’t gotten to yet, but I promise I will as soon as possible. I’m like a dog in a park full of squirrels. There are so many exciting animals to chase, it’s hard to know which one to follow. That reminds me. If you go to the strangeanimalspodcast.com website, there’s a page with a list of animals that I’ve covered in various episodes. If you don’t see your favorite animal on that list, feel free to email me with your suggestion! Also, if you’re listening to this episode the week it comes out, this coming weekend I’ll be at DragonCon in Atlanta. If you’re going to be there too, I’m on a panel about how to start your own podcast, part of the podcasting track. It’ll be at 4pm on Sunday in the Hilton Galleria 6. Now, on to the tentacles. We’ll start with the tentacled snake, which lives in parts of southeast Asia. It lives in both fresh an

 Episode 081: Little Yard Animals | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 20:52

This week we’re staying at home and looking around our own yards and gardens to learn about some of the little critters we see every day but maybe never pay attention to. Thanks to Richard E. for the topic suggestion, and thanks also to John V. and Richard J. for other animal suggestions I used in the episode! The common or garden snail: A couple of robins: A brown-eared bulbul nomming petals: An Eastern hognose snake. srsly, no one believes ur dead snek: The hognose in happier times: An Australian water dragon. Stripey!! The edible dormouse. I think you mean the ADORABLE dormouse: The eastern chipmunk:

 Episode 080: Mystery Dogs | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 21:16

This week we’re looking at some strange and mysterious canids from around the world! The African wild dog: A dhole: An old photo of the ringdocus and a newer photo of the ringdocus: A coyote: Sri Lankan golden jackal: The maned wolf MONEY SHOT: A bush dog:

 Episode 079: Starfish and Friends | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 23:28

This week’s episode is all about echinoderms, or at least the star-shaped echinoderms! Thanks to Llewelly for the suggestion about feather stars and crinoids! A very pretty starfish: Crown of thorns starfish. Do not touch: Pumpkin starfish or orange throw pillow? YOU DECIDE: Sea daisies. Not much to look at tbh: A banded arm brittle star: Ruby brittle stars: Brittle stars riding around in a jelly:

 Episode 078: The Great Auk and Penguins | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:32

Let’s learn about the great auk this week, along with some lookalike birds, penguins! A great auk, as painted by Audubon: A razorbill, the auk’s closest living relative: A fairy penguin, so tiny: An emperor penguin, so big: Tony Signorini wearing his Hoax Shoes: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week’s topic is one I’ve had on my list to cover for some time, and a couple of people whose names I forgot to write down also suggested. It’s the great auk, and while we’re at it we’re going to learn about penguins too. Picture this bird in your mind. It’s big, close to three feet tall, or 85 cm, black with a white belly and white spots over the eyes during breeding season. It has a big dark bill and eats fish and crustaceans. Its feet are webbed and it’s flightless, because instead of flying, it swims, fast and agile in the water but clumsy on land. It’s social, nesting in big colonies and laying one egg, which both parents incubate. Both parents also help feed the chick when it hatches. Pairs mate for life. And it lives in cold waters of the North Atlantic from eastern Canada to Greenland and Iceland over to the western coast of Europe. Wait a minute, you say, knowledgeably, because you know a thing or two about penguins. Penguins live in the southern hemisphere. What is going on?? The great auk is going on, my friend. And while the similarities between the great auk and the various species of penguin are striking, they’re not closely related at all. The great auk’s scientific name is Pinguinus impennis, and it was sometimes called a penguin, but the penguin is named after the auk because of the similarities between the two. The most obvious difference between the great auk and the penguin is the bill. Penguins

 Episode 077: The Tratratratra, Lemur of Mystery! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:56

I swear I didn’t make up the word tratratratra! It’s a real word for an animal that was probably real, although it may be extinct now. Let’s learn about this Lemur of Mystery and some of its friends! A mouse lemur: An indri: King Julian:   Further reading: Lemur News The Search for the Last Undiscovered Animals by Karl P.N. Shuker Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week we’re looking at an animal with a name I swear I’m not making up, the tratratratra. Seriously, it’s a real name. The animal itself…well, we’re not exactly sure. Tratratratra is the name of an animal that was supposedly common in Madagascar when the Malagasy people settled there around 2000 years ago. It was described as a lemur about the size of a calf with a human face but hands more like a monkey’s. Supposedly it still lives on Madagascar in remote, hard-to-reach areas. Madagascar is a big island off the coast of East Africa, with smaller islands around it. It has been isolated from both Africa and Asia for 88 million years, so many of its plants and animals are found nowhere else on earth. Lemurs are one example. There are over 100 known species and subspecies of lemur on Madagascar, but lemurs are found nowhere else in the world. Even more species of lemur have gone extinct since humans settled on the island, including one that might be the tratratratra. First of all, what’s a lemur? If you’ve seen the movie Madagascar, you have a pretty good idea of what a lemur looks like, although you may overestimate the amount of dancing they do. Technically the lemur is a primate, although it doesn’t look much like other primates at first glance. Different species can look radically different, of course, but in general they’re long-bodied animals with long tails and monkey-like hands and feet with nails instead of claws. They’re mostly social animals who eat plants and fruit, although some eat insects, arthropods, and other small animals. Most lemur societies are female-led. All are endangered due to habitat loss, poaching, and the illegal pet trade. While we tend to think of apes and monkeys when we hear the word primate, the primate order contains many other types of animal. Lemurs belong to the Strepsirrhini suborder, which includes bushbabies, pottos, and lorises. Apes and monkeys be

 Episode 076: The Orang Pendek | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:56

This week we’re back to Sumatra, that island of mystery, to learn about a mysterious ape called the orang pendek. A beautiful Sumatran orangutan: This orangutan and her baby have won all the bananas: This picture made me DIE: An especially dapper siamang, a type of gibbon: Here’s a walking siamang: The sun bear, looking snoozy: The sun bear, standing: Further reading: These are the articles where I got my quotes. This one has some general information. This one is by Debbie Martyr herself. Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. The island of Sumatra is a place that keeps popping up in our episodes. We’ve barely scratched the surface of weirdne

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