Creature Feature

These animals seem like hoaxes! Living tampons that walk the earth, purple blobs who walk UNDER the earth, a new animal superhero, and the weird sex-capades of horny bees! Discover this and more with guest Vanessa Guerrero, as we answer the age-old question, is that a snorkel coming out of your butt or are you just happy to see me?  Footnotes: (Warning, icky) rat-tailed maggots look like crawling...

A quokka for your patience :)  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the BEE MOVIE CANCELLATION SPECIAL!!! That’s right, we are TAKING ON BEE MOVIE, to HOLD IT ACCOUNTABLE for all its inaccuracies with Jamie Loftus and Caitlin Durante!!  Footnotes:  Bee orchid Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this holiday special, we will explore three holiday classics, Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, Die Hard, and The Santa Clause, and recast the leading roles as even more incredible real-life animals with Joelle Monique!  Footnotes: Rudolph the Glowing Tasmanian Devil? Glowing platypus  Glowing wombats Glowing bilby ears  Bioluminescent sea unicorns?  GIANT pyrosome:  Flashing pyrosome Blizzard of...

The Creature Feature holiday special episode will air next week! In the meantime, please enjoy this soothing Q&A where I answer your questions about animals! And though we talk about alien parasites and the horrifying truth behind guinea pigs, let the soothing tones of my voice and ambient music bring you some tranquility.  Footnotes:  Parasitic salminicola Sun bear epic tongue   Plough snails...

Today on the show, we’re talking about those tubular dudes, those little wiggle pipes, those cylindrical squamates, SNAAAAAKES! From the goofiest, to the cutest, to the most dazzling snakes, we’re going to find out how truly odd snakes can be with our guest, Maggie Mae Fish! Footnotes: Arabian sand boa! Madagascar leaf-nosed snake Male and female leaf-nosed snakes Tentacled snake  Elephant trunk s...

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This year I know a lot of your responsible folks are modifying your normal holiday season to be safer. But we don’t have to isolate from turkeys, so I’m gonna invite a whole flock of turkeys into your home! We’re gonna talk turkey facts, turkey romance, turkey history, and alternative turkeys with our guest Alison Stevenson! Show Notes: A turkey snood that's... um... Turkey sounds! Ocellated turke...

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic when it comes to news, so here are some animal news stories that you may have missed with our guest Alex Schmidt!  Footnotes:  Anti-bear robot wolves!  Dystopian bear facial recognition!  Bear raids convenience stores! Wolves got voted in!  Giant murder hornet nest found!  Two new species of greater glider discovered, found to be TOTALLY CUTE!  Somebody l...

I don’t know about you guys, but my brain is completely melted after this election week! So I thought I’d take it easy today and answer some fascinating listener questions! Footnotes:  Baby pygmy hippo ;)  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we’re discussing some horror tropes you can find right in nature! Evil deadly lakes, fungus that isn’t fun, terrifying ANT-ics, and things that go bump in the night! Stay tuned for an audio guessing game with David Bell & Tom Reimann ! Footnotes: Lake Natron Dead animal statues of Lake Natron  Alien fungus Uh oh more alien fungus  Jumping spider ant mimic Predatory female spider ant mimi...

Today we’re visiting the spookiest, smartest, most spectacular family in the animal kingdom: the corvids! Crows, ravens, rooks and more! Are crows the smartest being on earth? Do they mourn their dead? Featuring crow expert Dr. Kaeli Swift! Footnotes! Dr. Swift's spooky crow study!   DO NOT BE ALARMED! CROW RESEARCH!   Genius New Caledonian crows   Crow gifts?   Learn more about your ad-choices at...

On this first episode of our two-episode spooktacular, Bridgett Greenberg and Abe Epperson help us flee from a chitinous terror, a ten-legged devilish decapod, a creepy crustacean crawling closer and closer! ATTACK! OF THE KILLER CRAAAAABS!  Footnotes:  King "crab"   Porcelain "crab" Hairy stone "crab"   Inspirational tweet   Flower crab spider Another crab spider   Happy face spider Clown face on...

From slimy love unicorns to sexy eight-legged twerking, we’re looking at all the beautiful and bizarre mating habits of all sorts of creatures, gastropods, arthropods, birds, and mammals with our guests Carolina Barlow & Devin Leary. Footnotes: Snail love dart, aw yeah... Black widow males twerk for love! Cosmophasis umbratica rave!  Twelve-wired bird of paradise video Wilson’s bird of paradis...

Today on the show we’re scouring the animal kingdom to look for a new species of animal to cast as the replacement Garfield! Will it be the pygmy bluetongue skink? The gulper eel? Reticulated python? Or another candidate? Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question: is Garfield measured more by his laziness, his hatred for Mondays, or his ability to eat an entire tray of lasagna in on...

I got my brother, Aaron Goldin, to come on the podcast to talk about siblings in the animal kingdom! From siblicide to unstoppable armies of siblings!  Footnotes:   Baby sand tiger sharks eat each other in the womb!   Tiger salamander cannibal morph!   Baby bald eagles A giant caterpillar? Millipede baby buddy ball!  Black lace weaver spiders at a uh, family dinner...  Copidosoma floridanum wasp c...

While us humans are all trying to figure out our favorite hobbies to occupy our time, animals are already running, crocheting, and baking circles around us! We’re talking bee bakers, web-spinners, carpenters, fake astronomers, and dolphin shenanigans with our guest, Teresa Lee! Footnotes:  Bee bread!   Bee sorbet!   Webspinner!   Carpenter ants handiwork! Honeypot ants!  Carnivorous stars!   Dolph...

Reproduction is the key to evolution, which means that mother nature can get a little strange when it comes to sex. We’re talking about strange equipment, bizarre courtship, and fatal attraction with Arden Myrin! Footnotes: Crane Fly! Echidna!  Echidna penis (NSFW) Bull penis cane?   Whiptail lizards Hanging flies hanging out North American Porcupine! Old world porcupine Brown widows (yes that lit...

Today on the show, we’re talking about INTERSPECIES BUDDIES! We’ll talk about the difference between mutualism and commensalism, why every birdy loves a capybara, how the beaches of the Galapagos are a great place for friendship, and the only time you want to be inside the mouth of a giant moray. Footnotes: Marine iguana! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Amblyrhynchus_cristatus_...

Today on the show we’re talking about ridiculous species names, and learning all about the animals behind them. Can you really judge a pigbutt worm by its name? Or a screaming hairy armadillo? Or a lumpsucker fish? Footnotes: Pigbutt worm : Pigbutt worm face :  Lumpsuckers!  Lil lumpsucker sucking on a finger Lumpsuckers on balloons Lumpsuckers sucking on lumpsuckers Tassled wobbegong Hellbender s...

Animal pranks aren’t always just for fun, they can be crucial for survival. We’re going to fall down a web of lies, deceit, and outright mockery. Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question: you can pick your nose, you can pick your friend’s nose, but can you pick a monkey’s nose?  Footnotes:  Portia spider Iranian spider-tailed viper   Fork-tailed drongo Capuchins pranking eachother...

Why are some animals nocturnal? What evolutionary adaptations do you have to make to be awake during the GRAVEYARD SHIFT with horror expert with Sabina Graves? And what lurks in the ocean… at night? Discover this and more as we answer the age-old question, why is owls? I mean, why… why is owls?  Footnotes:  T he cathemeral fossa Barking gecko mating call Australian greater glider THE TAILS The tar...

We’re talking animals that are unusually musical, from up in the skies to deep under the ocean. We have a special guest Dajae Williams, an Engineer at NASA, who uses music to educate and inspire, as answer the age-old question: do all birds like Taylor Swift, or just the swifts? Footnotes: Dajae Williams' website SongHive Musician wren Wood thrush Humpback whale song Blue whale song Learn more abo...

Today on the show we’re going to look at the truth behind viral stories about animals! Which claims are real, and which are dirty lies? Footnotes: Salmon shark pictures on Twitter? Dwarf lantern shark Pygmy shark Famous orca pregnant again?  Decapitated wolf eel head biting? A live wolf eel Spotted zebra?  Melanistic fox? Cross fox?  Many different fox color morphs Unicorn puppy?   Seal trying to...

The animal kingdom is full of devoted parents, whose child rearing skills are incredible, shocking, and gross! Some parents, like our guest Steph Williams, would give you the shirts off their backs, and others would give you the skin off their backs... literally. Footnotes: Horned marsupial frog Horned marsupial frog with eggs (warning, yucky) Blue poison dart frog with tadpole on his back Surinam...