Summary: <p>We’ve reached the big two-oh! Episode 20 catches us up on listener suggestions.</p> <p><a href="http://www.thecrossoveru.com/">Crossover University podcast</a> wants to know about geckos and <a href="http://bearlyreadybrodcast.libsyn.com/">Bearly Ready Broadcast</a> wants to know about the shoe-billed stork! Your wish is my command! Also those are some neato animals.</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-213" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shoebillbeholdme-300x170.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="170"></p> <p>Behold the majestic shoebill!</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-214" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shoebillpet.jpg" alt="" width="259" height="194"></p> <p>12/10 would pet softly</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-215" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shoebillinflight.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="183"></p> <p>Pterodactyl-y</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-218" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/crested-gecko-water-300x175.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="175"></p> <p>Adorable crested gecko, aka eyelash gecko</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-217" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Delcourthimself-184x300.jpg" alt="" width="184" height="300"></p> <p>Alain Delcourt and stuffed giant gecko. I bet they both hate this picture.</p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>This week we have two more listener suggestions. The hosts of Crossover University suggested geckos as a topic because they have a leopard gecko named Lockheed, after the X-Men character, as their podcast mascot. The hosts of Barely Ready podcast want to hear about the shoe billed stork. I’m not sure if they have a pet shoebill as a mascot. Both are awesome fun pop culture podcasts. I’ll put links in the show notes so you can check them out.</p> <p>The shoebill is commonly called the shoe-billed stork. Originally researchers thought it was related to storks, but DNA analysis shows that it’s actually more closely related to pelicans. I was going to go into details of the confusion about where the bird fits in the avian family tree, but basically it’s just two groups of scientists shouting back and forth, “Storks!” and “Pelicans!” Probably not that interesting to most people.</p> <p>The shoebill is a big bird, four or even five feet high, mostly due to its long legs. Its wingspan can be almost nine feet. It lives in swampy areas in east central Africa and its toes are really long, which distributes its weight over a large surface so it can stand on floating vegetation without sinking even though it doesn’t have webs between its toes. Its feathers are slate gray and it has a little floofy tuft on the back of its head. But the most memorable part of its appearance is its bill. It’s a great big heavy bill with a hook on the end. It looks like the shoebill could kill crocodile</p>
