June 2, 2023 • 29 mins
In this episode, we explore the world of nocturnal animals—including some you may see at San Diego Zoo’s Nighttime Zoo! Join Rick and Marco as they discuss their favorite nocturnal species, in the sky and on the ground. Find out about reflective eyes, super hearing, and animals that live in the darkness of caves!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
When does the guest the world Marco went.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of
wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and San Diego
Zoo Wildlife Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees
the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
All right, everyone, before we get things going, you might
hear some really fun animal sounds, right right, and.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Maybe a guided tour bus or cards.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
That could be two that could be true Because we
are at the San Diego Zoo today recording, right.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's true, you know.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And if you're listening to this episode, it means the
Nighttime Zoo at the San Diego Zoo has officially kicked off.
Now this is for the summer of twenty twenty three.
We're excited it's been extended. But we thought Mark and
I are, like, you know, we're always recording in the
studio or office area, so why not come to the
zoo to talk about nighttime zoo and nocturnal species?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Right. I love the idea.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
I wanted to bring all the listeners into all this
as well, because you and I were just talking about
it before. When the sun comes down here in San Diego,
the zoo just completely transforms, right.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It really does, it really does.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
In my twenty plus years of working here, I've worked
a lot of nighttime events, and you know, you work
here every single day, but when you walk through at night,
it just has a very different vibe, you know. And
I think part of that is because the species. Of course,
the animals. Some are more active in the twilight hours,
some are more active to nighttime hours, some are less active.
(01:30):
So it changes also. I think what you experience, not
just a feel of it, but what you experience.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
And that's why I love the celebration so much. So
our guests can just get a completely different world and
experiences when they come to the San Diego Zoo, and
to learn about some of these unique adaptations, right, and
behaviors that we see with these nocturnal animals. So we
thought today, why don't we talk about some of these.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Internal animals, right?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I think we should. I think we should. It's a
fun way to celebrate nighttime zoo.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And of course I think some of the ternal species,
I know, I want to talk about with you, Marco,
and I want to ask you some questions ones you
want to talk about.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
They may or may not be species you'll find here
with the zoo.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But they might be species that live in your backyard
when you're sleeping.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And I also just love the aspect that maybe animals
that are up maybe the most popular out there, that
we get a chance to really highlight. I'm a big
fan of the underdogs, so when we were talking about
nighttime Zoo, oh, I had a list of really cool
species that I wanted to highlight.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So that's why I'm super stoked that all of you
are going to.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Be joining us in this episode the Sun Coming Down
and experience some of those nocturnal animal zoo sounds that
you're gonna be hearing.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
All right, well, Marcos, since you have a long list
you want to get you but I know we've.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Agreed to three eats, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But why don't you kick us off.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
What was one of your top number one nocturnal species
you want to want to discuss?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, thanks, Rick, Yeah, I'd love to.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You know, there's so many out there, but everyone knows
I'm a bird guy, so I thought, well, I gotta
talk about a bird, and when we think about nocturnal animals,
you know that particular nighttime world.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Instantly, I'm sure a lot.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Of you are thinking about owls and I was thinking
the same thing, right, So why don't we start things
off with an iconic species that many people around the
world have some sort of connection, whether it be positive
or negative.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Are you thinking of specific species of owl or are
you going to go with general owl?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I think for this particular episode, it be nice to
talk about these owl superpowers that they have. So yes,
all over the world, really, Rightcaus you and I know
there's so many different owls from some of the smallest
like the elf owl found in the southwestern United States
or the eagle owl, which you can experience here at
the San Diego Zoo, and for our listeners, eagle owls
they're found in Asia, Africa and they are remarkable and
(03:36):
they vary in different shapes and sizes in Europe as well,
I'm at at and again they change in color, like
the Europeans are that brown color. The African milky eagle
owl is a more of a gray black color. But
they have really unique adaptations regardless of where we are
on the continent.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
All right, so hit us up, hit us up.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
We I think in general, the population knows owls or nighttime.
You know, they're associated with all the nighttime stuff we hear.
There are different calls depending upon where you live.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
What is your number one superpower adaptation for the owl?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Oh, you know, it's an odd one, but it's really
the face for the owl.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's all about the face. Faces.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I think they're cute and honest, Rich, it was really
hard for me to pinpoint one of the superpower. So
I thought the face of an owl is super iconic.
And let me let me just highlight a little bit
the aspect of it, because you know, a lot of
people know raptors. Raptors are eagles and hawks and falcons
and owls, and they're grouped together because of these tools
that they used to hunt, right, the talons that most
people are familiar with to grab their prey. Owls have
(04:30):
a really unique face compared to like an eagle or
a falcon.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It's true, and I think maybe we don't always think
about that.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
You look at the eagle or a falcon, like you
just said, and they got that very sleek, sort of
very aerodynamic.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You know, their power totally diving down a super high Schman.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
But you look at the owl, it's kind of this
sort of flat, almost dishlike face.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Obviously not the aesthetics. Why do you consider that as superpower?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Well, I love it because, you know, being mainly a
nocturnal species, and let me preface you, there are some
owls that are a diurnal, like the western burrowing owl
here in Sandy.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Diurnal means daytime activity.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And some are crepuscular, meaning active in the twilight hours,
both morning twilight and evening TWI.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yes, some ego, but we're really having those nocturnal species.
So when you think of those strictly nocturnal owls, think
about the bar now as an example, which a lot
of people familiar with. It's the most common owl found
all over the world. So I'm gonna use this one
as any I'm.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Gonna throw your curveball real quick. What were they called
before humans made barns?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Oh, that's a good point. I don't know, but now
I want to find out right. See, you and I
will have an interesting conversation right on Google. But when
you guys can look up on your phones. Look at
this beautiful owl species, a heart shaped face, but it's
around concave disc of feathers. Now, they have this wide
face for a very specific reason. Now again, they want
to surprise their prey. They're a sit in weight predator.
(05:47):
So these owls are blending into their environment and this
facial disc. They're sitting there in that perch, and what
happens is is concave disc of feathers.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It's kind of like a satellite face. Ricky, That's that's
what they describe, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, you see those round concave disc of feathers around
the eye. So what's going on?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Everyone?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Picture an owl on a brand, let's say a great
horn owl as an example, sitting there waiting to spot
their prey. Maybe a little mouse is scurring underneath the
leaflet or maybe seventy five feet away.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Now that sound is traveling towards the owl.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
But what makes it super unique, this superpower und of
a highlight, is that round facial disc of feathers is
focusing the sound towards the owl's face and helping it
the funnel into the ear canals of the owls, which
I think is amazing, right.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You think about a satellite dish, and it is for
gathering information, gathering those waves of radio information or whatever
they they're gathering. In the case of the owl, like
you pointed out, though, it's gathering the sound waves, and.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
It's kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
We don't always think that something that's on the front
of the face can help funnel sound to the ears.
But to the point you brought up earlier, they're a raptor.
Their skull structure is not too terribly different from hawks
and eagles. It's just a feathers around their head that
make it look different, which then create.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
That exactly right your reference the eagle and the falcon earlier,
that narrow face.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know, they're remarkably quick hunters.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
The owls again, with those feathers that they have, it's
a little bit different of a style.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So they're that sit and weight predator.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So I know I mentioned the face of the owl,
of the concave, the focusing the sound towards the ear canal,
but those feathers are also going to add into silent flight.
And there's many more o the powers I wanted to highlight,
but I know I got to stop talking about the owl.
But with that silent flight alone to surprise their prey
when they hear from seventy five feet away. I mean
that is I think the most iconic nocturnal hunter out there.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, that's that's impressive, especially when we think having good hearing.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Me you have to have big years oh total, right,
but joa Dowie like, I don't see any right, They're
just holes in the side of the skull for the owl.
But the big facial disc of feathers acts like that
funnel of sound or that the ear would create to
bring that sound in.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, that is awesome.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, and little later on there's another species that really
uses sound in a different way that I can highlight.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
All right, that little.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Teaser, Well, you know, I got to be honest with ya,
I thought that bringing up owls. Yeah, them in the
cartoons we have this classic big eyeballs. I thought you
were going to go with eyesight honestly, as the main superpower.
I get why you went with hearing, but I'm going
to use the fact that you didn't talk about their
eyesight as.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
The sort of the segway into the species.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I want to talk about a species found throughout North America,
from Mexico to Canada.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
From coast to coast.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
They have been so well adapted that they as human
population grew in North America, their population grew too. They're
very resourceful, very smart, usually considered a bandit.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Or a problem.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Okay, so you maybe know what I'm going to get
modern culture.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I'm not I'm not promoting this term, but I'm just
going to say what I have seen on the internet.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Sometimes are referred to as a trash panda.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Oh the internet.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
But yeah, I've heard they are neither a panda or
just associated only with trash.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's the raccoon.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
The raccoon is this great nocturnal animal. And because you
didn't bring up eyesight, I want to talk about why
we perceive the eyes of raccoons and many many other
nocturnal species as glowing at nighttime.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Oh that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I remember as a kid, you'd watch cartoons, and so
we gets lost in the forests and all of a sudden,
these eyes light up in the forest. The reality is
they don't create light. Cartoons tend to take things a
little bit beyond reality. That's why they're cartoons and not reality.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So what we actually see.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So you're driving along and you turn onto a street,
your headlights get a flash of eyes, or if you
have a pet cat or.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Dog at home, you've taken a picture of the flash.
All of a sudden, you know, the picture comes back like,
oh my gosh, their eyes are glowing.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
There is a film of cells called tapedem lucidum, and
I might be saying it wrong, but I believe it's
to ped them lucidum, and this reflective cells behind the
retina that allow the eye of a lot of these
species to increase the amount of light from available light,
whether it's moonlight or street lights, or whatever the ambient
light may be at nighttime, sometimes even just starlight. This
(09:57):
is one more adaptation. These nocturnal species have to increase
available light for the receptor cells in the back of
the eye then to make sense of what they're seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Wow, that's a superpower.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
It is kind of a superpower, and humans do not
have that, although sometimes in some pictures our eyes might
appear red. That's the red blood cells picking up the
light and being reflected back. But for a lot of
nocturnal species, they have this membrane in the back of
the eye.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
So not only can the pupils perhaps.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Dilate larger than ours do as humans, but then they
have the reflector cells as well. And here's the other
fun thing. We're talking about cells in the receptor part
of the eye. There are cells called rods and cones,
and the more cones you have usually the more colors
you can see, or more definition of colors that you
can see.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Where the more rods.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
You have, it's black and white, but it's increased nighttime vision.
So here's a fun test for our listeners, especially the kids,
if you've never done this before. Go into a very
dimly lit room and have someone maybe beforehand, put out
a blue shirt and a red shirt, or two different
colored shirts without telling you which ones which, So you
don't know for sure what colors you're looking at very
dimly lit, almost completely dark room. Let your eyes adjust
(11:01):
and then see if you can tell the colors. Odds
are you cannot, because when we switch into nighttime vision,
it goes with more black and white. Now, if we
know beforehand what the colors are, we're walking through a
familiar area, it's quite often our brain will trick us
because we already know that wall is blue, and you
know that over there is purple. Our brain can trick
us into thinking we are seeing those colors at nighttime
when really we're not. So for a lot of nocturnal species,
(11:22):
they lack the color acuteness or the ability to see
as defined colors as you and I can, but they
have excellent nighttime vision because they have more of the
rods and fewer of the cones.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
That's an interesting point to you know, al's actually have
that same similar adaptation as well. So it's just amazing
how many of those predators at nighttime just have that ability,
and probably not just a predators alone, right right.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Right, Many deer different even deer, yeah, dear, have that too.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So deer can be nocturnal depending upon where they live
and what other species are awake when they're awake. They
are very good at walking through the forest very quietly
at nighttime using the same adaptations that the other species
have in their eyes for being able to see well
at nighttime.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Oh that's amazing, Rick, I love just how animals are
so well adapted to their environments into whatever kind of
I'm going to use the word reality, because they feel
there's different realities as realities. You know, we see the
world as we see with all this vivid color versus
what the huntingbird may see with a flower blooming in
front of them, right, versus as nighttime animals. And you
know we we're talking about eyesight with the raccoon.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Awesome choice, by the way.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
You love my raccoon, right, Can I say I want
to have one more thing?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Right? Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
People like to ask you, why do raccoons of all
nighttime creatures have the bandit.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Sort of mask.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
No one knows for sure why they alone seem to
have such a prominent mask. But what we do know
is that the black around eyes in general will absorb
light instead of reflecting it back into the eye, allowing
for better clarity of sights. So you can see that
in mirror. CAATs and some other species have black around
their eyes. But why raccoons versus opossum versus the skunk's
(12:49):
other nighttime species, right, why they have that black band
We don't know why for sure the raccoons have that
or not versus other species, but they do, and that's
why we assume that it's there.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's so cool, Oric, thank you for that. That's all awesome.
I'm learning something on this podcast as well, which not
a great.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Teach me something.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
What's species?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Well, I thought, you know, so we reference the raccoon
and the owl, and you know, I'm really big on
like the underdogs. You know that the misunderstood animals as well,
the myths.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
There's a handful, there's a lot, there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
You know, one in particular because a little bit ago,
we actually celebrated International that Awareness Day. So I thought,
you know, with that fresh in my mind and just
working with that amazing crew at the Safari Park, with
those Rodriguez fruit bats that have out there, why don't
we talk about bats. I mean, they're amazing folks. They're
nearly one thousand bad species. And I got to point
(13:37):
out only three feet on blood. So I just wanted
to throw that out there because then a lot of
you are thinking about the vampire bat.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
That's a bit very small.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Isn't that funny?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Isn't funny how our culture like there's there's literally just three.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Species, only three out of all of.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Them that feed on blood there in my number. That's
all we focused on.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
We've all heard the thuk your blood regular, the whole thing,
and there's a lot of stories about it, a lot
of different perceptions about these animals, folks. And I know
maybe you're getting the hebgb's right now, but trust me,
these are amazing species.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
They're so crucial for ecosystems all over the world. I
mean here in the United States alone.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
I liand this the other day. So I'm gonna drop
some facts on you guys. So there are forty seven
bat species found in the US and twenty one of
the twenty three in San Diego County. Wow, yeah, right,
And they're insectivores and they're nectar eaters as well. So
just wanted to point out the variability of bats and
what they do for ecosystems. Some are consuming large amounts
of insects out there, like mosquitoes, which you know, I'm
(14:38):
not too mad at thank you for the bats for that, right,
even though I know mosquitoes have their part in ecosystems
as well. Now, all others are also pollinators, so they're
feeding off of nectar. For instance, there's interesting bat species
in meical that are actually helping to pollinate the agaba plant.
I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with a gobba, right,
you know, some very yummy cocktails are made from those,
(14:59):
you know, misca and tequila for all my friends out there.
But also there's one in particular, those insectivores. They have
a really unique part in our ecosystems. These are these microbats.
They do something called echo location, which I'm sure a
lot of people are familiar with. For all your kids
out there too. There's a popular superhero, one of my favorites,
called Daredevil.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I want to throw that out there.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Daredevil, you remember he had He has sort of like
a sonar ability echolocation of his ziona to really see
the world, and it's kind of similar to bats. But
we're going to go back to more of the biological
reasons why bats are doing this.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
You know, these are a very unique animal.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
They're flying at remarkable speeds through the sky in the
nighttime hours, and they need to find insects floating in
mid air, for instance, a moth as an example, and
those are pretty hard animals a catch, especially if they're
flying about. So these bats are utilizing what's called echo
location to find their food. So they're able to see
their world and detect their prey by emitting these like
short bursts of high pitch sounds that bounce off of
(15:56):
objects and then return to the bats as echoes.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
So they're actually getting sort of a like like sonar
from a yeah exactly right, Yeah, yeah, they're bouncing that
sound back and then they're listening for how those sound
waves sound different to locate their food.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Right, interpreting the sound, It's not it's just wild to
me the way they're.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
You mentioned those the hearing of owls, but they're hearing
a noise the animal creates to find this. The bat
creates a sound and listens for the bounce back to
find their way exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
And it's such an amazing ability, you know. They also
have learned that they delay emitting a second signal until
they'll receive the echo from the first, so they can
really pinpoint on the prey as well, which I think
is a remarkable feature.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
And I also wanted to point out too.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
When they're emitting this really unique sound to find and
detect prey, they're also have this sort of temporary momentary
blindness because the bat can't speak with a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
So to avoid this problem, a number of bats will
squeak through their nose and have evolved a variety of
these elaborate nasal outgrowth.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
That direct this squeak.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I know, I was actually surprised by that, because when
you look at some of these really adorable bat species
out there, you'll notice some variations in this sinout into
the face. And true, I've never really understood why that
was until now from this really remarkable echolocation technique.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And you know, these bats, they are.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Insectivores, I wanted to point out, and I mentioned some
are eating nectar, some are pollinating interesting plant species as well,
but especially with insects, folks, because some of these bats.
Seventy percent of all bats eat insects, and I'm talking
about flies, mosquitoes, beetles, even cockroachs.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Mosquitoes especially are important right for all of them.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I mean, do you think about just the diseases mosquitos
can can spread and everything.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Thank you, that's an excellent point.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Bats are actually helping to mitigate that pliferation of diseases
around the world as well.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
And actually I found out a really.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Interesting fact about some bat colony found in Texas. They
eat about five hundred thousand pounds of mosquitoes nightly.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Wow, rightly, I think I know, let me say that again.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
There is a colony of bats guys in Texas that
eats five hundred thousand pounds of mosquitos.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So thank you to those bats.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Right, seriously.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah, So it's just incredible, all the nuances, all the
benefits of having bats healthy and populated all over the world.
You know, these are super misinistered animals on the planet,
and again many myths and misconceptions about them, but we
really need them to help out with ecosystems all over
the planet. I mentioned them pollinating plant species around the world,
(18:24):
helping maintain insect populations around the world as well.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So it just homage to those bats.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Right, I mean kind of like we said with the
snake episode of The Bushmaster. We were talking about, Hey,
you don't have to like them, but you know, just
accept them, you know, and appreciate the work they do
for us.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Acceptance. I love it. The guys perfect. Thank you, buddy.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, hey, you're talking about insectivorgers eating all those bugs.
You're talking about hearing I want to drop us down
to the ground.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh okay, species you can actually.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
See right here at the San Diego Zoo. Perhaps one
of our animal ambassadors. You can see out at Wildlife
Explorers base camp sometimes with their wildlife care specialists. The
three banded armadillo oh oh, and sometimes we colk they're interesting.
We can see them out with the wildlife care specialist
during the day. But the reality is they are nocturnal
and often I talked about with the raccoon, and although
(19:09):
you didn't talk about the site with the owl, they
have crace it a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
With nocturnal species, we think excellent nighttime.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Vision makes sense.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
It makes sense, right, you gotta have that great nighttime vision.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
But the bats kind of go that same route that
I'm going here with the armadillo in the sense that
they do have eyesight. They do have the capacity to see,
but their eyes for the most part are fairly undeveloped,
and the lenses are small enough and undeveloped enough that
they don't have the acuity of sight that other species have.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
No echo location, no echo location, no.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
But it start to look at what the armadillo does,
and they're rooting around in the ground looking for bugs
and grubs to eat, so eyesight they can't see through
the dirt, right, but they have really good hearing.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Like the bat.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
They have these almost similar to the owl satellite dish
shaped ears that they can focus down to listen for
bugs under ground. But sometimes they also have to use
those ears to listen for predators that might be walking
around sneaking up on.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Them like an owl.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Right there you go, like a right.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
So if your ears are busy, sometimes for listening for food,
sometimes listening for predators, you might miss out on your food.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So another adaptation they have is an incredibly good sense
of smell. We don't always think how a sense of
smell would be important for nocturnal species, but for the armadillo.
Although the three band of armadillo's nose is not a
whole lot bigger than a pencil eraser, it's very powerful
because what's inside the snout all the receptor cells inside
the snow, and they can push that little nose of
theirs into the dirt, and although there's some dirt that
(20:35):
gets in their nose, they can smell bugs and grubs
several inches below the soil. Stop put their ears up
to listen for a predator and start digging really fast
to grab themselves a snack.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Not only like a physical adaptation but a behavior they
modify themselves right to watch out for a predator, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So it's one of those things where we go to
nighttime zoo, we think about nighttime animals, we'll think of owls.
We'll think there's a really great vision, but don't forget
sometimes a scent. The smell is an adaptation for life
at night time as well, along with hearing and along
with the eyes sight.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Oh, that's remarkable, Rick, Yeah, it's really interesting too, how
just how adepth they are and these animals North America,
Central America, South America.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, and similar to what you're saying about the awl,
there's a wide variety of different species of armadillos, from
the tiny little pink faerry armadillo you're right, exactly, all
the way up to the giant armadilla we have here
in the United States, which referred to as a nine
band in armadillo found throughout Texas, Louisiana. Yeah, they've actually
gotten quite a bit further north as well. We have
the three band of armadilla. Here's our ambassadors at the
San Diego Zoo. They're about the size of a coconut,
so they're pretty cool to watch and totally see the
(21:35):
move around and you don't even see when they're out
with their wildlife care specials.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know, they're poking their nose into the ground, so
you know, is there snacks?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
And I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And they did a great job to showing those natural
behaviors as well. So that's a great species. And you know,
so you're mentioning an animal that you're mentioning is eating
a bunch of grubs out there, a lot of insects
right there.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Gums and bugs.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
That's your favorite, right, just like those bats.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
They're loving those bugs out there, and that is my segue.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Actually, they want to talk a little bit about the
creepy crawl.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, okay, what you got? Yeah, aren't they?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah they are, Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
You know, I hesitate to say creepy crawligies, but I
think people know where I'm getting at here.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
But I think insects sometimes get a really bad rap.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
And there's such a crucial type of wildlife for all
the corners of our planet. And by the way, an
amazing area called Spineless Marbles wild Left Explorers base Camp,
which now our guests can experience during the night time
s I had, and one of those animals I was
thinking about, thinking about nocturnal you know, interesting bugs out there,
and I thought, cockerroaches.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
What a cool animals.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
A little disclaimer for our audience.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
There's a lot of really cool different species of Cockroas
I think, can we hear cockroach, we think something creeping
in our cupboards or total you know, in our.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Case, which we don't like.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
But I want our audience to definitely know there are
so many unique species of cockroach that play a really
important role.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
But I just want to disclaimer that so people don't
turn it off absolutely.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Right wreck you know, I had a little conversation the
cockroach ester the letter, like I wanted to talk about
you guys. So this is my mom into highlight. He's
really missing this sort of animals. So I'm going to
drop some facts on you guys again. Cockroaches, these animals,
they've been around for millions of years, millions of years,
some of the most adaptable creatures on our planet. As
Rick was mentioning, there are approximately four thousand living species
(23:17):
of cockroaches four thousand.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
And seventy of them are found here in the United
States now some interesting facts about roaches.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Now.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
They have so many superpowers, so I'm gonna drop some
here for you guys. Cockroaches have been around since a
time of dinosaurs, which I think is super impressive in
its own right. They can live almost a month without food.
They can live two weeks without water. Some female cockroaches,
one say mate, can stay pregnant for life, which I
thought was a really unique adaptation.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Also, they can live up to one week without having
a head. Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Crazy is that talk about adaptability? And cockroaches can also
hold their breath for up to forty minutes and run
three miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So they are just the ultimate suit here, thank you.
They really really are so many superpowers.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
I mentioned all the variety species, but I wanted to
reference soon In particular, one is called a cave cocker roach,
which you can find at base camp honestly when you
go down to a spineless marbles area. And these are
a really unique species that are mainly in a cave
kind of environment. But there's an interesting word that I
learned the other day. It's detritivor.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Have you heard of this word before? Yeah, detritivor. It's
really unique, guys.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
So this is an animal which feeds on dead and
organic material, so they eat a variety of like dead insects, animals,
decaying fruit, and guano which can be interpreted as bat
or bird droppings.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And you know, being a bird guy, I'm such a
fan of vultures.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
By the way, when I think of those recyclers, I
think roaches are just right up in there. So when
we think about those giant cave roaches breaking down all
that organic material and when they go to the bathroom,
they're actually replacing and reintroducing these nutrients back into the soil.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
So they're basically helping things dec composed exactly, allowing things
to go from what they once were to now nutrients
to grow into something else exactly right.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
So just an amazing misunderstood species. It really helps with
ecosystems around the world. And you were mentioning about scent,
you know, being one of those trademarks some species. This
animal has a really interesting pheromone that they admit, so
during breeding season, they have two chemicals that are released
during the mating season. This sex pheromone is being released
by a female to help attract.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Mates from long distances away, which I think is a
pretty unique adaptation.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
But not only that, the male will then produce this
sort of like aphrodisiac sex hormone, which will then, I know,
kind of get the females a little more receptive. So
I just love the concept of using scent to communicate
in many aspects of wildlife, right right.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And I think you know we're next to our flamingos
and crested screamers.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
You can hear the crested streamer.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
So it's funny because a lot of times we think
about mating dances and attracting a mate from visuals or
through audio, like what the burger are calling out right now,
But here's the cockroaches.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
They're not doing any of those.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It's just a little chemical that only they can smell
amongst each other to help communicate.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Hey, you want to go out on a date later exactly?
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
That's anesome point too, because you a visual display at night?
Really not anyway? Right, yeah, right, hardly hardly.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
That's so cool. That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Well, I want to wrap it up with my third
one here before we wrap up the entire episode with
another species you can find right here at the San
Diego Zoo and might even get a chance to see
being active during nighttime.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Zoo, that's the Tasmanian devil.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh yeah, that's a great one.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
So we've talked a lot about hearing and sense of
smell and all that, well, the tas me the devil
kind of wraps it all into one. They've got great
nighttime hearing, they've got a great sense of smell, they've
got good nighttime vision. Also the complete package of a
nocturnal species. But here's the thing I want to cover
real quick.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
How they hunt at nighttime.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
And it's interesting although they aren't considered a social species,
so don't think of them like a pack of wolves
or a pride of lions. But when they find food,
they do get very vocal and and that's where the
name Tasmanian devil came from. When settlers first came to
that area, they would hear in the middle of the
night these horrific screams, and so the devils out there
(27:08):
is where that kind of came right.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So it's interesting where the name comes.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
From that way, but the concept and of all the
screaming and yelling, it attracts other Tasmanian devils and within
that moment of feeding there is a type of hierarchy
that does.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Exist, but there's no official social structure.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
A very interesting animal altogether, but a great representation of
all of the nocturnal attributes that we covered here where
we're talking about great hearing, a sense of smell, and
nighttime vision and all of that. And again, they tend
to be prepuscular. Like you mentioned a tournaments earlier in
the show. That means they're gonna be mostly active in
the twilight hours. So if you're here at the San
Diego Zoo for our nighttime zoo, all the fun activities
(27:48):
that happen for humans, So we have different acrobats, we
have different shows going on.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
You never know what you're gonna see. That usually kicks off.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Around four o'clock exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, So definitely enjoy all those things.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
But I also want you to start looking at the
activity behaviors of some of the animals.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Are they more active? Are they less active?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Are there calls you didn't hear during the day that
they're making as the sun goes down? I think one
of my favorites always gives me goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No matter what.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I've been working with animals for three decades, hear the
zoo for over two decades.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
No matter what. As the sun's going down, you hear
the lion do their long call.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Oh you know it just it travels, it rolls through
the valleys here of the San Diego Zoo and it's
just such a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So listen for things like that as well when you're
here during our summer hours and nighttime zoo.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
And if you are interested in coming to the nighttime
zoo at the San Diego Zoo, go to our website
san Diego Zoo dot org.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
All the informations there you can plan your entire trip.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
You can check out a map, all the things you
might need, plan your whole day to come and literally
stay till the sun goes down.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Oh and don't forget guys, we have these amazing apps
you utilize during your adventures here at the San Diego
Zoo or the Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
A good point.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Thank you, Marco, And as you know, I want you
to subscribe and tune into our next episode in which
Marco and I talk about the Mammo with the Longest neck,
which we celebrate on the longest day of the year
here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Ooh, exciting.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Marco Went and I'm Rick Schwartz. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
To SDZWA dot org.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producer
is Nikkia Swinton and our sound designer and editor is
Sierra Spreen. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
When does the guest the world Marco went.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of
wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and San Diego
Zoo Wildlife Alliance in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees
the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
All right, everyone, before we get things going, you might
hear some really fun animal sounds, right right, and.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Maybe a guided tour bus or cards.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
That could be two that could be true Because we
are at the San Diego Zoo today recording, right.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's true, you know.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And if you're listening to this episode, it means the
Nighttime Zoo at the San Diego Zoo has officially kicked off.
Now this is for the summer of twenty twenty three.
We're excited it's been extended. But we thought Mark and
I are, like, you know, we're always recording in the
studio or office area, so why not come to the
zoo to talk about nighttime zoo and nocturnal species?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Right. I love the idea.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
I wanted to bring all the listeners into all this
as well, because you and I were just talking about
it before. When the sun comes down here in San Diego,
the zoo just completely transforms, right.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It really does, it really does.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
In my twenty plus years of working here, I've worked
a lot of nighttime events, and you know, you work
here every single day, but when you walk through at night,
it just has a very different vibe, you know. And
I think part of that is because the species. Of course,
the animals. Some are more active in the twilight hours,
some are more active to nighttime hours, some are less active.
(01:30):
So it changes also. I think what you experience, not
just a feel of it, but what you experience.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
And that's why I love the celebration so much. So
our guests can just get a completely different world and
experiences when they come to the San Diego Zoo, and
to learn about some of these unique adaptations, right, and
behaviors that we see with these nocturnal animals. So we
thought today, why don't we talk about some of these.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Internal animals, right?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I think we should. I think we should. It's a
fun way to celebrate nighttime zoo.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And of course I think some of the ternal species,
I know, I want to talk about with you, Marco,
and I want to ask you some questions ones you
want to talk about.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
They may or may not be species you'll find here
with the zoo.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But they might be species that live in your backyard
when you're sleeping.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And I also just love the aspect that maybe animals
that are up maybe the most popular out there, that
we get a chance to really highlight. I'm a big
fan of the underdogs, so when we were talking about
nighttime Zoo, oh, I had a list of really cool
species that I wanted to highlight.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So that's why I'm super stoked that all of you
are going to.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Be joining us in this episode the Sun Coming Down
and experience some of those nocturnal animal zoo sounds that
you're gonna be hearing.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
All right, well, Marcos, since you have a long list
you want to get you but I know we've.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Agreed to three eats, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But why don't you kick us off.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
What was one of your top number one nocturnal species
you want to want to discuss?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, thanks, Rick, Yeah, I'd love to.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You know, there's so many out there, but everyone knows
I'm a bird guy, so I thought, well, I gotta
talk about a bird, and when we think about nocturnal animals,
you know that particular nighttime world.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Instantly, I'm sure a lot.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Of you are thinking about owls and I was thinking
the same thing, right, So why don't we start things
off with an iconic species that many people around the
world have some sort of connection, whether it be positive
or negative.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Are you thinking of specific species of owl or are
you going to go with general owl?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I think for this particular episode, it be nice to
talk about these owl superpowers that they have. So yes,
all over the world, really, Rightcaus you and I know
there's so many different owls from some of the smallest
like the elf owl found in the southwestern United States
or the eagle owl, which you can experience here at
the San Diego Zoo, and for our listeners, eagle owls
they're found in Asia, Africa and they are remarkable and
(03:36):
they vary in different shapes and sizes in Europe as well,
I'm at at and again they change in color, like
the Europeans are that brown color. The African milky eagle
owl is a more of a gray black color. But
they have really unique adaptations regardless of where we are
on the continent.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
All right, so hit us up, hit us up.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
We I think in general, the population knows owls or nighttime.
You know, they're associated with all the nighttime stuff we hear.
There are different calls depending upon where you live.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
What is your number one superpower adaptation for the owl?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Oh, you know, it's an odd one, but it's really
the face for the owl.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's all about the face. Faces.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I think they're cute and honest, Rich, it was really
hard for me to pinpoint one of the superpower. So
I thought the face of an owl is super iconic.
And let me let me just highlight a little bit
the aspect of it, because you know, a lot of
people know raptors. Raptors are eagles and hawks and falcons
and owls, and they're grouped together because of these tools
that they used to hunt, right, the talons that most
people are familiar with to grab their prey. Owls have
(04:30):
a really unique face compared to like an eagle or
a falcon.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It's true, and I think maybe we don't always think
about that.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
You look at the eagle or a falcon, like you
just said, and they got that very sleek, sort of
very aerodynamic.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You know, their power totally diving down a super high Schman.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
But you look at the owl, it's kind of this
sort of flat, almost dishlike face.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Obviously not the aesthetics. Why do you consider that as superpower?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Well, I love it because, you know, being mainly a
nocturnal species, and let me preface you, there are some
owls that are a diurnal, like the western burrowing owl
here in Sandy.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Diurnal means daytime activity.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And some are crepuscular, meaning active in the twilight hours,
both morning twilight and evening TWI.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yes, some ego, but we're really having those nocturnal species.
So when you think of those strictly nocturnal owls, think
about the bar now as an example, which a lot
of people familiar with. It's the most common owl found
all over the world. So I'm gonna use this one
as any I'm.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Gonna throw your curveball real quick. What were they called
before humans made barns?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Oh, that's a good point. I don't know, but now
I want to find out right. See, you and I
will have an interesting conversation right on Google. But when
you guys can look up on your phones. Look at
this beautiful owl species, a heart shaped face, but it's
around concave disc of feathers. Now, they have this wide
face for a very specific reason. Now again, they want
to surprise their prey. They're a sit in weight predator.
(05:47):
So these owls are blending into their environment and this
facial disc. They're sitting there in that perch, and what
happens is is concave disc of feathers.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It's kind of like a satellite face. Ricky, That's that's
what they describe, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, you see those round concave disc of feathers around
the eye. So what's going on?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Everyone?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Picture an owl on a brand, let's say a great
horn owl as an example, sitting there waiting to spot
their prey. Maybe a little mouse is scurring underneath the
leaflet or maybe seventy five feet away.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Now that sound is traveling towards the owl.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
But what makes it super unique, this superpower und of
a highlight, is that round facial disc of feathers is
focusing the sound towards the owl's face and helping it
the funnel into the ear canals of the owls, which
I think is amazing, right.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You think about a satellite dish, and it is for
gathering information, gathering those waves of radio information or whatever
they they're gathering. In the case of the owl, like
you pointed out, though, it's gathering the sound waves, and.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
It's kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
We don't always think that something that's on the front
of the face can help funnel sound to the ears.
But to the point you brought up earlier, they're a raptor.
Their skull structure is not too terribly different from hawks
and eagles. It's just a feathers around their head that
make it look different, which then create.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
That exactly right your reference the eagle and the falcon earlier,
that narrow face.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know, they're remarkably quick hunters.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
The owls again, with those feathers that they have, it's
a little bit different of a style.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So they're that sit and weight predator.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So I know I mentioned the face of the owl,
of the concave, the focusing the sound towards the ear canal,
but those feathers are also going to add into silent flight.
And there's many more o the powers I wanted to highlight,
but I know I got to stop talking about the owl.
But with that silent flight alone to surprise their prey
when they hear from seventy five feet away. I mean
that is I think the most iconic nocturnal hunter out there.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, that's that's impressive, especially when we think having good hearing.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Me you have to have big years oh total, right,
but joa Dowie like, I don't see any right, They're
just holes in the side of the skull for the owl.
But the big facial disc of feathers acts like that
funnel of sound or that the ear would create to
bring that sound in.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, that is awesome.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, and little later on there's another species that really
uses sound in a different way that I can highlight.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
All right, that little.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Teaser, Well, you know, I got to be honest with ya,
I thought that bringing up owls. Yeah, them in the
cartoons we have this classic big eyeballs. I thought you
were going to go with eyesight honestly, as the main superpower.
I get why you went with hearing, but I'm going
to use the fact that you didn't talk about their
eyesight as.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
The sort of the segway into the species.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I want to talk about a species found throughout North America,
from Mexico to Canada.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
From coast to coast.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
They have been so well adapted that they as human
population grew in North America, their population grew too. They're
very resourceful, very smart, usually considered a bandit.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Or a problem.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Okay, so you maybe know what I'm going to get
modern culture.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I'm not I'm not promoting this term, but I'm just
going to say what I have seen on the internet.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Sometimes are referred to as a trash panda.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Oh the internet.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
But yeah, I've heard they are neither a panda or
just associated only with trash.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's the raccoon.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
The raccoon is this great nocturnal animal. And because you
didn't bring up eyesight, I want to talk about why
we perceive the eyes of raccoons and many many other
nocturnal species as glowing at nighttime.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Oh that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I remember as a kid, you'd watch cartoons, and so
we gets lost in the forests and all of a sudden,
these eyes light up in the forest. The reality is
they don't create light. Cartoons tend to take things a
little bit beyond reality. That's why they're cartoons and not reality.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So what we actually see.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So you're driving along and you turn onto a street,
your headlights get a flash of eyes, or if you
have a pet cat or.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Dog at home, you've taken a picture of the flash.
All of a sudden, you know, the picture comes back like,
oh my gosh, their eyes are glowing.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
There is a film of cells called tapedem lucidum, and
I might be saying it wrong, but I believe it's
to ped them lucidum, and this reflective cells behind the
retina that allow the eye of a lot of these
species to increase the amount of light from available light,
whether it's moonlight or street lights, or whatever the ambient
light may be at nighttime, sometimes even just starlight. This
(09:57):
is one more adaptation. These nocturnal species have to increase
available light for the receptor cells in the back of
the eye then to make sense of what they're seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Wow, that's a superpower.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
It is kind of a superpower, and humans do not
have that, although sometimes in some pictures our eyes might
appear red. That's the red blood cells picking up the
light and being reflected back. But for a lot of
nocturnal species, they have this membrane in the back of
the eye.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
So not only can the pupils perhaps.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Dilate larger than ours do as humans, but then they
have the reflector cells as well. And here's the other
fun thing. We're talking about cells in the receptor part
of the eye. There are cells called rods and cones,
and the more cones you have usually the more colors
you can see, or more definition of colors that you
can see.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Where the more rods.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
You have, it's black and white, but it's increased nighttime vision.
So here's a fun test for our listeners, especially the kids,
if you've never done this before. Go into a very
dimly lit room and have someone maybe beforehand, put out
a blue shirt and a red shirt, or two different
colored shirts without telling you which ones which, So you
don't know for sure what colors you're looking at very
dimly lit, almost completely dark room. Let your eyes adjust
(11:01):
and then see if you can tell the colors. Odds
are you cannot, because when we switch into nighttime vision,
it goes with more black and white. Now, if we
know beforehand what the colors are, we're walking through a
familiar area, it's quite often our brain will trick us
because we already know that wall is blue, and you
know that over there is purple. Our brain can trick
us into thinking we are seeing those colors at nighttime
when really we're not. So for a lot of nocturnal species,
(11:22):
they lack the color acuteness or the ability to see
as defined colors as you and I can, but they
have excellent nighttime vision because they have more of the
rods and fewer of the cones.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
That's an interesting point to you know, al's actually have
that same similar adaptation as well. So it's just amazing
how many of those predators at nighttime just have that ability,
and probably not just a predators alone, right right.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Right, Many deer different even deer, yeah, dear, have that too.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So deer can be nocturnal depending upon where they live
and what other species are awake when they're awake. They
are very good at walking through the forest very quietly
at nighttime using the same adaptations that the other species
have in their eyes for being able to see well
at nighttime.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Oh that's amazing, Rick, I love just how animals are
so well adapted to their environments into whatever kind of
I'm going to use the word reality, because they feel
there's different realities as realities. You know, we see the
world as we see with all this vivid color versus
what the huntingbird may see with a flower blooming in
front of them, right, versus as nighttime animals. And you
know we we're talking about eyesight with the raccoon.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Awesome choice, by the way.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
You love my raccoon, right, Can I say I want
to have one more thing?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Right? Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
People like to ask you, why do raccoons of all
nighttime creatures have the bandit.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Sort of mask.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
No one knows for sure why they alone seem to
have such a prominent mask. But what we do know
is that the black around eyes in general will absorb
light instead of reflecting it back into the eye, allowing
for better clarity of sights. So you can see that
in mirror. CAATs and some other species have black around
their eyes. But why raccoons versus opossum versus the skunk's
(12:49):
other nighttime species, right, why they have that black band
We don't know why for sure the raccoons have that
or not versus other species, but they do, and that's
why we assume that it's there.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's so cool, Oric, thank you for that. That's all awesome.
I'm learning something on this podcast as well, which not
a great.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Teach me something.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
What's species?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Well, I thought, you know, so we reference the raccoon
and the owl, and you know, I'm really big on
like the underdogs. You know that the misunderstood animals as well,
the myths.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
There's a handful, there's a lot, there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
You know, one in particular because a little bit ago,
we actually celebrated International that Awareness Day. So I thought,
you know, with that fresh in my mind and just
working with that amazing crew at the Safari Park, with
those Rodriguez fruit bats that have out there, why don't
we talk about bats. I mean, they're amazing folks. They're
nearly one thousand bad species. And I got to point
(13:37):
out only three feet on blood. So I just wanted
to throw that out there because then a lot of
you are thinking about the vampire bat.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
That's a bit very small.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Isn't that funny?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Isn't funny how our culture like there's there's literally just three.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Species, only three out of all of.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Them that feed on blood there in my number. That's
all we focused on.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
We've all heard the thuk your blood regular, the whole thing,
and there's a lot of stories about it, a lot
of different perceptions about these animals, folks. And I know
maybe you're getting the hebgb's right now, but trust me,
these are amazing species.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
They're so crucial for ecosystems all over the world. I
mean here in the United States alone.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
I liand this the other day. So I'm gonna drop
some facts on you guys. So there are forty seven
bat species found in the US and twenty one of
the twenty three in San Diego County. Wow, yeah, right,
And they're insectivores and they're nectar eaters as well. So
just wanted to point out the variability of bats and
what they do for ecosystems. Some are consuming large amounts
of insects out there, like mosquitoes, which you know, I'm
(14:38):
not too mad at thank you for the bats for that, right,
even though I know mosquitoes have their part in ecosystems
as well. Now, all others are also pollinators, so they're
feeding off of nectar. For instance, there's interesting bat species
in meical that are actually helping to pollinate the agaba plant.
I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with a gobba, right,
you know, some very yummy cocktails are made from those,
(14:59):
you know, misca and tequila for all my friends out there.
But also there's one in particular, those insectivores. They have
a really unique part in our ecosystems. These are these microbats.
They do something called echo location, which I'm sure a
lot of people are familiar with. For all your kids
out there too. There's a popular superhero, one of my favorites,
called Daredevil.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I want to throw that out there.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Daredevil, you remember he had He has sort of like
a sonar ability echolocation of his ziona to really see
the world, and it's kind of similar to bats. But
we're going to go back to more of the biological
reasons why bats are doing this.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
You know, these are a very unique animal.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
They're flying at remarkable speeds through the sky in the
nighttime hours, and they need to find insects floating in
mid air, for instance, a moth as an example, and
those are pretty hard animals a catch, especially if they're
flying about. So these bats are utilizing what's called echo
location to find their food. So they're able to see
their world and detect their prey by emitting these like
short bursts of high pitch sounds that bounce off of
(15:56):
objects and then return to the bats as echoes.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
So they're actually getting sort of a like like sonar
from a yeah exactly right, Yeah, yeah, they're bouncing that
sound back and then they're listening for how those sound
waves sound different to locate their food.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Right, interpreting the sound, It's not it's just wild to
me the way they're.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
You mentioned those the hearing of owls, but they're hearing
a noise the animal creates to find this. The bat
creates a sound and listens for the bounce back to
find their way exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
And it's such an amazing ability, you know. They also
have learned that they delay emitting a second signal until
they'll receive the echo from the first, so they can
really pinpoint on the prey as well, which I think
is a remarkable feature.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
And I also wanted to point out too.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
When they're emitting this really unique sound to find and
detect prey, they're also have this sort of temporary momentary
blindness because the bat can't speak with a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
So to avoid this problem, a number of bats will
squeak through their nose and have evolved a variety of
these elaborate nasal outgrowth.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
That direct this squeak.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I know, I was actually surprised by that, because when
you look at some of these really adorable bat species
out there, you'll notice some variations in this sinout into
the face. And true, I've never really understood why that
was until now from this really remarkable echolocation technique.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And you know, these bats, they are.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Insectivores, I wanted to point out, and I mentioned some
are eating nectar, some are pollinating interesting plant species as well,
but especially with insects, folks, because some of these bats.
Seventy percent of all bats eat insects, and I'm talking
about flies, mosquitoes, beetles, even cockroachs.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Mosquitoes especially are important right for all of them.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I mean, do you think about just the diseases mosquitos
can can spread and everything.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Thank you, that's an excellent point.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Bats are actually helping to mitigate that pliferation of diseases
around the world as well.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
And actually I found out a really.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Interesting fact about some bat colony found in Texas. They
eat about five hundred thousand pounds of mosquitoes nightly.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Wow, rightly, I think I know, let me say that again.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
There is a colony of bats guys in Texas that
eats five hundred thousand pounds of mosquitos.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So thank you to those bats.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Right, seriously.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah, So it's just incredible, all the nuances, all the
benefits of having bats healthy and populated all over the world.
You know, these are super misinistered animals on the planet,
and again many myths and misconceptions about them, but we
really need them to help out with ecosystems all over
the planet. I mentioned them pollinating plant species around the world,
(18:24):
helping maintain insect populations around the world as well.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So it just homage to those bats.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Right, I mean kind of like we said with the
snake episode of The Bushmaster. We were talking about, Hey,
you don't have to like them, but you know, just
accept them, you know, and appreciate the work they do
for us.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Acceptance. I love it. The guys perfect. Thank you, buddy.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, hey, you're talking about insectivorgers eating all those bugs.
You're talking about hearing I want to drop us down
to the ground.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh okay, species you can actually.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
See right here at the San Diego Zoo. Perhaps one
of our animal ambassadors. You can see out at Wildlife
Explorers base camp sometimes with their wildlife care specialists. The
three banded armadillo oh oh, and sometimes we colk they're interesting.
We can see them out with the wildlife care specialist
during the day. But the reality is they are nocturnal
and often I talked about with the raccoon, and although
(19:09):
you didn't talk about the site with the owl, they
have crace it a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
With nocturnal species, we think excellent nighttime.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Vision makes sense.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
It makes sense, right, you gotta have that great nighttime vision.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
But the bats kind of go that same route that
I'm going here with the armadillo in the sense that
they do have eyesight. They do have the capacity to see,
but their eyes for the most part are fairly undeveloped,
and the lenses are small enough and undeveloped enough that
they don't have the acuity of sight that other species have.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
No echo location, no echo location, no.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
But it start to look at what the armadillo does,
and they're rooting around in the ground looking for bugs
and grubs to eat, so eyesight they can't see through
the dirt, right, but they have really good hearing.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Like the bat.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
They have these almost similar to the owl satellite dish
shaped ears that they can focus down to listen for
bugs under ground. But sometimes they also have to use
those ears to listen for predators that might be walking
around sneaking up on.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Them like an owl.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Right there you go, like a right.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
So if your ears are busy, sometimes for listening for food,
sometimes listening for predators, you might miss out on your food.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So another adaptation they have is an incredibly good sense
of smell. We don't always think how a sense of
smell would be important for nocturnal species, but for the armadillo.
Although the three band of armadillo's nose is not a
whole lot bigger than a pencil eraser, it's very powerful
because what's inside the snout all the receptor cells inside
the snow, and they can push that little nose of
theirs into the dirt, and although there's some dirt that
(20:35):
gets in their nose, they can smell bugs and grubs
several inches below the soil. Stop put their ears up
to listen for a predator and start digging really fast
to grab themselves a snack.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Not only like a physical adaptation but a behavior they
modify themselves right to watch out for a predator, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So it's one of those things where we go to
nighttime zoo, we think about nighttime animals, we'll think of owls.
We'll think there's a really great vision, but don't forget
sometimes a scent. The smell is an adaptation for life
at night time as well, along with hearing and along
with the eyes sight.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Oh, that's remarkable, Rick, Yeah, it's really interesting too, how
just how adepth they are and these animals North America,
Central America, South America.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, and similar to what you're saying about the awl,
there's a wide variety of different species of armadillos, from
the tiny little pink faerry armadillo you're right, exactly, all
the way up to the giant armadilla we have here
in the United States, which referred to as a nine
band in armadillo found throughout Texas, Louisiana. Yeah, they've actually
gotten quite a bit further north as well. We have
the three band of armadilla. Here's our ambassadors at the
San Diego Zoo. They're about the size of a coconut,
so they're pretty cool to watch and totally see the
(21:35):
move around and you don't even see when they're out
with their wildlife care specials.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know, they're poking their nose into the ground, so
you know, is there snacks?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
And I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And they did a great job to showing those natural
behaviors as well. So that's a great species. And you know,
so you're mentioning an animal that you're mentioning is eating
a bunch of grubs out there, a lot of insects
right there.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Gums and bugs.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
That's your favorite, right, just like those bats.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
They're loving those bugs out there, and that is my segue.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Actually, they want to talk a little bit about the
creepy crawl.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, okay, what you got? Yeah, aren't they?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah they are, Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
You know, I hesitate to say creepy crawligies, but I
think people know where I'm getting at here.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
But I think insects sometimes get a really bad rap.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
And there's such a crucial type of wildlife for all
the corners of our planet. And by the way, an
amazing area called Spineless Marbles wild Left Explorers base Camp,
which now our guests can experience during the night time
s I had, and one of those animals I was
thinking about, thinking about nocturnal you know, interesting bugs out there,
and I thought, cockerroaches.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
What a cool animals.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
A little disclaimer for our audience.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
There's a lot of really cool different species of Cockroas
I think, can we hear cockroach, we think something creeping
in our cupboards or total you know, in our.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Case, which we don't like.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
But I want our audience to definitely know there are
so many unique species of cockroach that play a really
important role.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
But I just want to disclaimer that so people don't
turn it off absolutely.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Right wreck you know, I had a little conversation the
cockroach ester the letter, like I wanted to talk about
you guys. So this is my mom into highlight. He's
really missing this sort of animals. So I'm going to
drop some facts on you guys again. Cockroaches, these animals,
they've been around for millions of years, millions of years,
some of the most adaptable creatures on our planet. As
Rick was mentioning, there are approximately four thousand living species
(23:17):
of cockroaches four thousand.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
And seventy of them are found here in the United
States now some interesting facts about roaches.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Now.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
They have so many superpowers, so I'm gonna drop some
here for you guys. Cockroaches have been around since a
time of dinosaurs, which I think is super impressive in
its own right. They can live almost a month without food.
They can live two weeks without water. Some female cockroaches,
one say mate, can stay pregnant for life, which I
thought was a really unique adaptation.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Also, they can live up to one week without having
a head. Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Crazy is that talk about adaptability? And cockroaches can also
hold their breath for up to forty minutes and run
three miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So they are just the ultimate suit here, thank you.
They really really are so many superpowers.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
I mentioned all the variety species, but I wanted to
reference soon In particular, one is called a cave cocker roach,
which you can find at base camp honestly when you
go down to a spineless marbles area. And these are
a really unique species that are mainly in a cave
kind of environment. But there's an interesting word that I
learned the other day. It's detritivor.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Have you heard of this word before? Yeah, detritivor. It's
really unique, guys.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
So this is an animal which feeds on dead and
organic material, so they eat a variety of like dead insects, animals,
decaying fruit, and guano which can be interpreted as bat
or bird droppings.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And you know, being a bird guy, I'm such a
fan of vultures.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
By the way, when I think of those recyclers, I
think roaches are just right up in there. So when
we think about those giant cave roaches breaking down all
that organic material and when they go to the bathroom,
they're actually replacing and reintroducing these nutrients back into the soil.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
So they're basically helping things dec composed exactly, allowing things
to go from what they once were to now nutrients
to grow into something else exactly right.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
So just an amazing misunderstood species. It really helps with
ecosystems around the world. And you were mentioning about scent,
you know, being one of those trademarks some species. This
animal has a really interesting pheromone that they admit, so
during breeding season, they have two chemicals that are released
during the mating season. This sex pheromone is being released
by a female to help attract.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Mates from long distances away, which I think is a
pretty unique adaptation.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
But not only that, the male will then produce this
sort of like aphrodisiac sex hormone, which will then, I know,
kind of get the females a little more receptive. So
I just love the concept of using scent to communicate
in many aspects of wildlife, right right.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And I think you know we're next to our flamingos
and crested screamers.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
You can hear the crested streamer.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
So it's funny because a lot of times we think
about mating dances and attracting a mate from visuals or
through audio, like what the burger are calling out right now,
But here's the cockroaches.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
They're not doing any of those.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It's just a little chemical that only they can smell
amongst each other to help communicate.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Hey, you want to go out on a date later exactly?
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
That's anesome point too, because you a visual display at night?
Really not anyway? Right, yeah, right, hardly hardly.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
That's so cool. That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Well, I want to wrap it up with my third
one here before we wrap up the entire episode with
another species you can find right here at the San
Diego Zoo and might even get a chance to see
being active during nighttime.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Zoo, that's the Tasmanian devil.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh yeah, that's a great one.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
So we've talked a lot about hearing and sense of
smell and all that, well, the tas me the devil
kind of wraps it all into one. They've got great
nighttime hearing, they've got a great sense of smell, they've
got good nighttime vision. Also the complete package of a
nocturnal species. But here's the thing I want to cover
real quick.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
How they hunt at nighttime.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
And it's interesting although they aren't considered a social species,
so don't think of them like a pack of wolves
or a pride of lions. But when they find food,
they do get very vocal and and that's where the
name Tasmanian devil came from. When settlers first came to
that area, they would hear in the middle of the
night these horrific screams, and so the devils out there
(27:08):
is where that kind of came right.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So it's interesting where the name comes.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
From that way, but the concept and of all the
screaming and yelling, it attracts other Tasmanian devils and within
that moment of feeding there is a type of hierarchy
that does.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Exist, but there's no official social structure.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
A very interesting animal altogether, but a great representation of
all of the nocturnal attributes that we covered here where
we're talking about great hearing, a sense of smell, and
nighttime vision and all of that. And again, they tend
to be prepuscular. Like you mentioned a tournaments earlier in
the show. That means they're gonna be mostly active in
the twilight hours. So if you're here at the San
Diego Zoo for our nighttime zoo, all the fun activities
(27:48):
that happen for humans, So we have different acrobats, we
have different shows going on.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
You never know what you're gonna see. That usually kicks off.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Around four o'clock exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, So definitely enjoy all those things.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
But I also want you to start looking at the
activity behaviors of some of the animals.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Are they more active? Are they less active?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Are there calls you didn't hear during the day that
they're making as the sun goes down? I think one
of my favorites always gives me goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No matter what.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I've been working with animals for three decades, hear the
zoo for over two decades.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
No matter what. As the sun's going down, you hear
the lion do their long call.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Oh you know it just it travels, it rolls through
the valleys here of the San Diego Zoo and it's
just such a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So listen for things like that as well when you're
here during our summer hours and nighttime zoo.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
And if you are interested in coming to the nighttime
zoo at the San Diego Zoo, go to our website
san Diego Zoo dot org.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
All the informations there you can plan your entire trip.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
You can check out a map, all the things you
might need, plan your whole day to come and literally
stay till the sun goes down.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Oh and don't forget guys, we have these amazing apps
you utilize during your adventures here at the San Diego
Zoo or the Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
A good point.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Thank you, Marco, And as you know, I want you
to subscribe and tune into our next episode in which
Marco and I talk about the Mammo with the Longest neck,
which we celebrate on the longest day of the year
here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Ooh, exciting.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Marco Went and I'm Rick Schwartz. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
To SDZWA dot org.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producer
is Nikkia Swinton and our sound designer and editor is
Sierra Spreen. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the
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Rick Schwartz
Marco Wendt
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