0:06

Welcome to Creature Future production of iHeartRadio.

0:09

I'm your host of Many Parasites, Katie

0:11

Golden. I studied psychology

0:13

and evolutionary biology, and today

0:15

on this show, it's a listener

0:18

questions episode. You

0:20

send me your questions via

0:23

email or Twitter. I guess sometimes

0:26

and I do my best to answer them. If

0:28

you are listening to this and you're thinking, hey,

0:31

I have a question, why aren't you answering my question?

0:33

Well, you can write to me at Creature

0:35

Featurepod at gmail dot com.

0:38

So onto the first listener question.

0:41

Hey, Katie, I was just curious. Do you know if any

0:43

other animals lose their hair as they age?

0:46

And if yes, is it like with humans where it's super

0:48

selective which hair disappears in which

0:50

keeps growing strong right untill we

0:52

croak? This is from p K. Thank you for

0:54

the question. Baldness

0:57

is common in humans, and it

0:59

is actually found another animals,

1:02

either as a permanent and

1:04

useful feature, such as the bald

1:07

heads of vultures and buzzards,

1:09

which keeps them clean when they are feeding

1:11

on carrion. There's also the bald

1:13

skin of naked mole

1:15

rats and

1:18

of course elephants, which you know their

1:20

skin. They do have hair on their

1:22

skin, but it's very thin and

1:24

fine. But these are

1:27

evolutionary traits. These have

1:31

adapted over a long period of time, and

1:34

so it is something that benefits

1:36

these animals. But

1:39

there is I think the kind of conception

1:42

of baldness in humans is something that

1:45

changes over time due to age,

1:47

due to genetics, environment

1:50

and hormones. So in humans,

1:52

pattern baldness is

1:55

a type of baldness that occurs

1:58

during aging, and you usually follows

2:00

a pattern. It is hereditary,

2:03

and it is typically more

2:05

pronounced in people assigned male at

2:08

birth than in female,

2:10

but it occurs for both males and

2:12

females. What happens

2:15

is the hair follicles shrink over

2:17

time and the hair

2:19

becomes shorter and thinner until

2:22

it stops growing

2:25

thick and full like it used to. So the

2:27

follicle isn't dead, but the hair

2:30

is so thin and fine it is

2:32

no longer visible. And

2:34

so the reason that pattern

2:37

baldness isn't as common

2:39

in furry animals like

2:41

you know your cats or what have you, is

2:44

that if they have fur, generally

2:46

there's a good evolutionary reason for

2:48

it, and there are selective pressures

2:51

for them to keep that fur. In humans,

2:53

the hair on our head might keep us marginally

2:56

warmer or offer some sun protection,

2:58

but it's not as article to

3:00

our survival, especially

3:03

given our ingenuity and

3:05

our social behaviors and being

3:08

able to invent things like hats, so

3:11

we are able to sustain a

3:13

large population of people with baldness.

3:16

So the mechanics of how pattern

3:18

hair loss works in humans relates to

3:21

the sensitivity of a keratin

3:24

protein to the androgen hormone

3:26

and the lack of this keratin protein on

3:28

human scalps. So this

3:31

is why you can have a hairy chest

3:34

or back or other parts

3:36

as well as like a fully luxurious beard,

3:39

while also having a bald head.

3:41

The scalp doesn't have the same type of

3:44

kerotin protein as these other parts

3:46

of the body and so a different type

3:48

of sensitivity to androgen. So while

3:51

androgen can cause hair growth

3:53

on other parts of the body, it can actually

3:56

overstimulate and cause hair loss

3:59

on the scalp. Androgen

4:01

can actually shorten the growth cycle

4:04

of hair on the scalp, and

4:06

that inhibits hair growth while

4:09

you know, still growing hair elsewhere on the body.

4:13

This is also why trans people who

4:15

take male hormones can both

4:17

gain the ability to grow a

4:19

beard or other body hair, but can

4:21

also paradoxically cause

4:24

baldness on the scalp, not always

4:27

but sometimes. Again, it has something

4:29

to do with genetics. That

4:31

is why pattern baldness is

4:33

also called androgenetic alopecia.

4:37

So animals can experience

4:39

baldness due to stress

4:42

or mange. Right. Mange as a

4:44

skin infection caused by mites, and

4:47

it can cause hair loss all over

4:49

the animal's body. A lot of the

4:51

cryptid sidings that people document,

4:53

like the chupacabra, are typically coyotes,

4:56

dogs, or foxes affected by

4:59

mange, which alters their appearance. But

5:02

this is kind of different from human balding.

5:04

Right, Like human balding is not due to a

5:06

disease, It is just a natural

5:09

genetic predisposition to the hair

5:11

follicles shrinking in response to androgen

5:14

So are there animals who experience

5:16

this kind of pattern baldness the

5:19

same kind that occurs in humans

5:21

where it happens as you age, And

5:24

yes, actually it does. There

5:26

is an animal called the stump tailed macaque.

5:29

It is a primate found in

5:31

South and Southeast Asia.

5:34

It has a red, hairless

5:37

face, a stubby tail,

5:39

and shaggy brown fur. Both

5:42

male and female stump tailed macaques

5:45

experience pattern baldness as

5:47

they age on their heads, so

5:49

their baldness is thought to be caused

5:52

by similar factors that

5:54

affect human baldness, so like the

5:57

androgenetic alopecia that

5:59

occurs in humans. Also,

6:02

there are certain breeds of domesticated

6:05

dogs, usually short, short

6:07

haired, and pure bred dogs

6:09

such as docsins, who also

6:12

have patterned baldness, but

6:14

it's not usually just like on the top of their

6:16

head. It would be on the ears,

6:19

chest, and back legs, so

6:21

it Yeah, it does occasionally occur

6:23

in other animals, but it is way

6:26

more common in humans. So

6:28

yes, it does occur in other animals,

6:31

but yeah, it's relatively rare. It's

6:33

kind of an interesting, somewhat

6:36

unique thing that occurs in humans

6:38

and the other examples that I mentioned. All

6:41

right, onto the next listener question. Hello

6:43

Katie, long time, first time.

6:46

I just found out about the Morning Gecko

6:48

and my mind can't comprehend them. Have

6:50

you done an episode on them in the past, and

6:53

I don't remember it. If you haven't done an episode

6:55

on the Morning Gecko, would you please? I

6:57

don't understand how they clone themselves, how

7:00

they evolve that ability. Are there any

7:02

evolutionary advantages to being able

7:04

to clone yourself? And are there other animals that

7:06

can do the same thing or something similar? Thank

7:09

you and this is from Tuck so Hey

7:11

Tech. Thank you for the really cool question.

7:13

This is a great question. There are

7:15

a few species of reptiles who

7:17

can do the same thing as the morning gecko,

7:20

who can reproduce asexually, and

7:22

there are a lot of animals

7:24

who do so or go

7:26

through cycles of cloning and sexual

7:28

reproduction, like aphids

7:31

like coral so whiptail

7:34

lizards are another

7:37

reptile who reproduce asexually

7:39

and are entirely female. They're very similar

7:41

in terms of how their sexual reproduction works

7:44

to the morning gecko. So whiptail

7:46

lizards use three sets of chromosomes

7:48

to create heterozygotic

7:51

offspring. So all this

7:53

means is that, you

7:56

know, we have pairs of matching

7:58

chromosomes, and chromosome

8:00

has the same number of alleles and alleles

8:03

that line up with each other, kind of like

8:06

a zipper lines up with another half

8:08

of the zipper. So for heterozygotic

8:12

organisms, the aligning alleles

8:16

are not the same. They can

8:18

be slightly different So imagine

8:21

like a zipper, where each little tooth represents

8:24

an allele, and you have

8:26

the left zipper and the right zipper, and these are each chromosomes,

8:30

and each tooth of the zipper is

8:32

like a different color, and this example

8:34

color is a stand in for like nucleotide

8:37

sequence of the allele. So

8:39

in monozygotic animals, each

8:41

zipper tooth is matched with the same color

8:44

of zipper tooth on the opposite side,

8:46

But in heterozygotic animals, each zipper

8:49

tooth is matched with a different colored

8:51

tooth, and they can still

8:53

zip together. It still functions, And so

8:55

this is how you get sort of dominant

8:57

and recessive genes in interacting

9:00

with each other. You can have a

9:03

recessive allele maybe that is

9:06

negative or something that gets over rowed

9:08

by a dominant allele, and then it

9:11

can protect you from something like rare

9:13

disease. And so in

9:17

the case of whiptail lizards,

9:19

they can actually create this heterozygotic

9:22

zipper effect even through clonal

9:25

offspring by having three

9:27

sets of chromosomes rather than

9:29

the usual two, and so they give their

9:32

offspring twice the number of chromosomes

9:34

than sexually reproducing animals give

9:37

their offspring. So

9:40

Now let's talk about the morning geckos

9:42

since this was brought up in the question. They

9:45

are from Southeast Asia, but

9:47

they are invasive to the Americas

9:49

and Australia. It is

9:51

a small brown gecko who looks

9:54

pretty plain, but their

9:56

reproductive cycle is really fascinating. Like

9:58

the whiptail lizards, they are typically

10:01

an all female species. Occasionally

10:04

they will give birth to an oopsie

10:07

male baby. Usually

10:09

this offspring cannot reproduce and

10:12

so yeah, these geckos

10:14

use parthenogenesis to reproduce.

10:16

It is asexual reproduction from

10:19

an unfertilized egg, and

10:22

rather than combine their

10:24

genes with a male, they

10:26

will shuffle their own genetic material

10:28

to reproduce, just like

10:31

the whiptail lizard. They are also

10:33

triploid, so that means that

10:35

they have three

10:38

sets of chromosomes, just

10:40

like the whiptail lizard, and

10:43

that allows them to have

10:45

their offspring be heterozygots.

10:48

So why is it so important

10:51

to be a heterozygote. Well,

10:53

this allows some genetic

10:56

diversity to avoid dileterious

10:59

alleles from stef Say

11:01

you have an allele that actually causes

11:03

an issue, having an opposite

11:06

allele on another chromosome, that's slightly

11:08

different can actually protect an organism from

11:10

sort of mistakes stacking

11:12

up. But because these geckos,

11:14

the morning gecko and species like

11:16

the whiptail lizard are still clonal

11:19

and they aren't able to shuffle

11:22

and replenish their genetic library

11:24

like sexually reproducing animals

11:26

do, they are still vulnerable

11:29

to things like environmental change

11:31

or disease. Because if one

11:34

of these geckos is vulnerable to

11:36

something happening, say the

11:38

temperature changing slightly or some fungal

11:41

infection happening, and it

11:43

has a vulnerability to it, well so

11:45

does all of the rest of the population. Because

11:48

they're genetically so similar, if not identical,

11:51

so they will be affected in similar

11:53

ways. Whereas a population

11:56

that has more genetic diversity has

11:59

more of a chance of their being an

12:01

individual or individuals who

12:03

have some adaptation or

12:05

difference that allows them to deal

12:08

with environmental stressors.

12:12

So the question would be why would

12:14

you ever want to be a clonal

12:16

species? Well, I mean the main

12:18

thing is just that you don't have to date. You don't

12:20

have to be in the dating pool. Not

12:23

having to find a partner or compete

12:25

to find a partner means that you can simply

12:27

drop your little lizard pants and lay

12:29

an egg when the conditions are right. This

12:32

allows them greater ability to

12:34

reproduce without constraints.

12:37

So this is one of the reasons

12:39

they are such an invasive species. All

12:41

they need is one individual to land

12:43

on an island or new continent to

12:46

establish a population there. They don't even need

12:48

to find a partner

12:50

to reproduce, so that is

12:52

a benefit. But

12:55

then you know, so these these geckos

12:57

and lizards have kind of comp

13:00

and stated for the fact that clones

13:02

are less genetically diverse by using

13:04

that three chromosome trick.

13:07

But other species I mentioned earlier, like

13:09

aphids coral, they

13:11

will have both a sexual

13:14

and sexual reproduction and sometimes

13:16

it happens in seasonal cycles

13:18

or depending on the environment,

13:20

And that's another way that a species

13:22

can try to

13:25

compensate for the downsides

13:27

of both sexual and a sexual reproduction.

13:30

So like with sexual reproduction,

13:33

you know you have to find a partner, it can be tricky

13:35

and you can't create as many

13:38

offspring as quickly, whereas

13:40

with a sexual reproduction you can create

13:42

a lot of offspring. And

13:45

so kind of combining both systems

13:47

for these organisms allows them to introduce

13:50

some genetic diversity while also

13:52

pumping out a lot of babies,

13:54

which is, you know, important

13:56

if you're an avid, because gosh, you're just

13:58

a tiny little jellybean

14:01

of the natural world. Everybody

14:03

likes to eat, especially ladybugs. Anyways,

14:06

we're gonna take a quick break

14:09

and when we return we will

14:11

answer another couple listener questions.

14:16

All right, onto the next email. I

14:19

have a burning question. Why is dog

14:21

skin like that? You can just grab

14:23

a handful of dog skin. You

14:26

can't do that to a human it hurts,

14:28

but dogs like it. You can grab

14:31

fistsful of dog skin on the back

14:33

of their neck, which makes sense for scruffing

14:35

puppies, but you can also do it

14:37

on their butt, legs and belly.

14:40

It's like it's hardly attached. The

14:42

only place you can do that on a human is the

14:44

elbows, and it's the

14:46

same with cats too. I don't know for sure,

14:48

but I was traumatized by Michael Moore's

14:51

Roger and Me, and I'm guessing that you can grab

14:53

a fistful of buddy skin too. How

14:55

come some animal skin is all loose

14:57

like that? Thanks will Well, will I

15:00

I have not seen that movie, and I don't know

15:02

what you're referring to, and I'm going to keep

15:04

it that way because I do like

15:06

bunnies. So yeah, as you pointed out,

15:08

dogs, bunnies, cats, a lot of other

15:10

animals actually have looser skin than

15:13

humans. Like if you try to sort of scruff

15:15

your own neck, you're gonna have a bad time.

15:18

And as you point it out in your question,

15:20

one reason that dogs, bunnies, and

15:23

cats skin is loose on their neck

15:25

is that as puppies and kittens, they

15:27

can easily be transported by the neck

15:29

by their mother. Now, don't do that

15:32

with adult dogs

15:34

or cats or well, actually I don't

15:36

know too much about handling rabbits, but

15:39

yeah, if you scruff an animal

15:42

that is an adult without supporting them properly,

15:44

you can hurt them. Because it's really only meant

15:47

for kittens and puppies

15:49

because they're lighter and so there's less pressure

15:51

on that neck scruff. So

15:54

yeah, always always grab

15:56

your animal's skin with care you

15:59

cut, Like if you own a dog, you kind of know,

16:01

like you can usually like sort of massage your

16:04

dog's neck and like there's skin that kind

16:06

of is loose there, and they're

16:08

happy enough to have their skin kind of massaged

16:11

in a way that would maybe be uncomfortable for

16:13

a human. But you know, aways,

16:15

always be gentle with your dog skin because

16:17

even though it's looser, it

16:20

can still be sensitive, especially in places

16:22

like on their bellies or on their haunches.

16:25

But yeah, so it

16:28

is definitely looser than human skin,

16:30

and loose skin in animals

16:33

has a variety of purposes,

16:35

including protections. So

16:37

loose skin around the throat or

16:40

other vital organs can prevent

16:42

an animal from being injured or killed

16:45

if they're clad or bitten by another animal,

16:48

so basically their skin will be grabbed

16:50

while their organs will be safe.

16:53

In fact, some animals go to

16:55

the extreme when it comes to this

16:58

type of defense. The

17:01

hagfish have, which are

17:03

basically these like deep sea fish

17:06

that look like gross slimy

17:08

tubes, and hagfish have

17:11

such loose, detached skin. They're

17:13

basically like a long, tough,

17:16

mucas y water balloon filled with organs,

17:19

which makes it really hard for a predator

17:21

to puncture their internal organs because they

17:23

can grab them, but they're basically just like

17:25

grabbing the skin while the

17:28

organs shift around inside

17:30

them. So this is protection

17:32

for the hagfish. Another

17:34

interesting species is the

17:37

African spiny mouse. So

17:39

African spiny mice have this

17:41

adaptation, which is detachable skin.

17:44

Their skin can actually be built, pulled

17:46

off and grow back, allowing

17:49

them to escape predation by

17:52

the skin of their teeth, which I guess technically

17:54

it's just the skin everywhere, but it's

17:56

sort of like that the

17:59

the technique that some lizards

18:02

have where their tails can pop off.

18:04

So yeah, it's their skin can basically

18:07

come off, come loose, and the

18:09

mouse can live another day. It regrows

18:11

the skin and is

18:14

able to survive predation. So

18:17

really there's a lot of good reasons

18:19

to have loose skin. So the better question

18:22

is why humans and some other animals

18:24

have really tight skin, since

18:27

it puts us at greater risk of a predator

18:29

or competitor biting our organs.

18:31

Right, we don't have that same defense technique

18:34

that say a dog has, so

18:36

humans and some animals

18:38

like pigs have very firmly

18:41

attached skin. Actually, pig

18:43

skin is similar to humans,

18:46

and it's often used in research sort

18:49

of to examine it in place

18:51

of human skin because of how similar it

18:54

is. So we

18:56

also have a limited

18:58

paniculous noosis, which

19:01

is a thin layer of muscle attached

19:04

to the skin. So you have you

19:06

noticed like your dog or a horse

19:08

can like twitch its hind legs,

19:10

say, like a fly lands on a horse a

19:13

horse's butt, and it's skin

19:15

just kind of like flicks around, twitches around

19:18

to kind of ward off this fly. We

19:22

can't really do that. We have a

19:24

very limited muscle

19:27

control of our skin. And

19:29

so you know, this is a limited

19:31

thing that we cannot do.

19:33

So why again, why have we lost

19:36

this ability? So this

19:39

is it's a big question. So one

19:41

of the possible benefits of more

19:44

firmly attached skin may have to do with our need

19:46

for sweat glands.

19:49

You know, like maybe we are more kind

19:51

of endurance hunters. We need to

19:53

have a lot of sweat glands. We need to

19:56

be able to have our skin get kind

19:58

of like evenly coated and sweat to

20:00

cool off if we're doing sort of these

20:03

this sort of endurance hunting.

20:07

Also, it could have something

20:09

to do with the immune function of our

20:12

skin. Uh, Honestly,

20:14

I am not entirely certain

20:16

why this is, and I really want to find

20:18

out more. If there

20:20

are any dermatologists or skin

20:23

experts out there who have an answer, you

20:25

can write to me at Creature featurepod

20:27

at gmail dot com. In the meantime,

20:30

I will continue to keep my eyes

20:33

peeled for skin

20:35

news. That's right. I will

20:37

keep reading the news to see if any more

20:40

discoveries come out about human

20:43

skin and why why

20:45

we don't gotta lose saggy baggy skin seems

20:48

like it'd be fun. You could just kind

20:50

of like slide around in it,

20:52

you know. Can you imagine if we had

20:54

naked mole rat skin and we were just no,

20:57

there would be no more marketing

20:59

to get rid of or wrinkles, because we'd

21:01

all have wrinkles by design, and

21:03

we'd think they look sexy, and that

21:05

would be great. It'd be liberating. We should

21:07

be allowed to have wrinkles in age.

21:10

In fact, we should come out all

21:12

Benjamin buttony and just get

21:14

older. That's how I feel. Let's

21:18

move on to another listener

21:21

question. So here

21:24

it is, Hi, Katie. I just saw this short

21:26

video of a spider tailed horned viper

21:28

and was truly horrified, But I thought it

21:30

might inspire you to do a show on some of

21:33

the most amazing or horrifying cases

21:35

of memoricry. This is from Amanda

21:37

m Hi Amanda, So

21:39

the spider tailed horned viper is

21:41

indeed an amazing mimic It is a

21:44

viper that lives in the mountains

21:46

of Iran and Iraq, with a

21:48

tail tip that looks uncannily

21:51

like a spider, even with

21:53

these little sort of dingly

21:56

bits that look like legs.

21:58

So it will wiggle this tip

22:00

of its tail until it grabs

22:03

the attention of a bird or other small

22:05

insectivore, and the bird

22:07

will come down try to eat this spider,

22:09

but hey, that's just part of a snake.

22:12

And then at this point the viper will strike

22:14

and it will get its lunch. So

22:17

I did actually talk about this snake

22:20

a while back on an episode called

22:22

the Go Home Nature, You're Drunk, which

22:25

aired August fifteenth, in twenty

22:27

nineteen. So that was a really long time

22:29

ago. I was just a little baby, little

22:31

baby podcaster and my little podcasting

22:34

diapers. I didn't know what I was doing at that point,

22:36

but yeah, you could listen to it Go

22:39

Home Nature, You're Drunk, August fifteenth,

22:41

twenty nineteen. But yeah, I

22:43

definitely will do more cases

22:46

of horrifying mimicry. I

22:48

love mimicry. I think it's

22:51

really fascinating. So yeah,

22:53

keep your ears peeled. For that, I

22:55

guess you don't peel your ears. What's

22:58

the term for that? Keep your ears perked?

23:02

We can't even perk our ears. We've lost

23:04

so much through evolution in terms of

23:07

moving our skin and our ears around.

23:09

All right, So last listener

23:12

question. One

23:14

question I have is why some sloths have

23:17

to climb down to the ground to poop, exposing

23:19

them to overwhelming danger. Why don't they

23:22

just poop from the skies like most birds,

23:25

which is a worse calamity to your hat

23:27

than most droppings.

23:29

So, Michael D. From Sacramento,

23:32

thank you for this question. I always

23:34

love a poop question. Keep them coming. So

23:37

before I answer the question

23:39

directly, here's some background that will

23:41

help you understand. There is this interesting

23:44

thing that happens when sloths descend

23:46

and poop. They are able to

23:50

facilitate the life cycle of

23:52

a symbiotic moth that lives

23:54

on the sloth spur. The

23:56

moth that lives in the sloths fur actually

23:59

poops on the sloth and

24:01

will dye sometimes in its

24:03

fur, which sounds gross like you have a bunch

24:05

of moth poop and corpses in your

24:07

fur, But actually what

24:10

that does is provide fertilizer

24:13

for another symbiote that lives

24:15

on the sloth, green algae.

24:17

So green algae lives on the sloth. You can actually

24:20

see algae sometimes on sloth. They'll have

24:22

a greenish tint to their

24:24

fur. And this algae feeds

24:27

on the moth droppings or even

24:29

the moth corpses. And the

24:31

algae is beneficial

24:34

to the sloth because it grows

24:36

on the sloth skin and fur, and the

24:38

sloth can actually absorb vitamins

24:41

and nutrients through its skin from

24:44

this algae that it otherwise can't

24:46

get through its diet. So

24:49

ecologist Jonathan Polly and his

24:51

team at the University

24:54

of Wisconsin think that this algae

24:56

moth connection may be a reason

24:59

for the sloth inefficient pooping

25:01

method of climbing all the way down

25:03

from the tree onto the ground. So

25:06

Polly describes the sloth descending

25:09

the tree to poop as quote, it's like

25:11

if you had to go to the bathroom and you were programmed

25:13

to go run a five k on the interstate

25:15

before you could go to the bathroom, which you

25:18

know, man, I've I've been

25:20

camping, and the worst part of camping is

25:22

like trying to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night,

25:25

either walking all the way to the one bathroom

25:28

on the campsite or finding like

25:30

a secret spot when you're really out there.

25:32

I did that once, had like a mouse

25:35

run across my foot as I was trying

25:37

to do a little bit of pee,

25:39

and that was horrible. Don't recommend.

25:42

I mean, I still enjoy the

25:44

great outdoors, but I do love

25:47

a convenient bathroom. I think humans

25:49

really nailed that. So

25:52

back to the moth. Uh. Basically,

25:55

when the back

25:57

to the moth, back to the sloth. When the sloth

26:00

the sinds to poop, the

26:03

moth can then lay its eggs

26:05

in the sloth poop. So the moth hops

26:07

off of the sloth, lays its eggs

26:10

in the sloth poop, and that

26:12

is where the new generation of moths

26:15

will hatch. And then those as

26:18

the sloth is doing its business pooping,

26:21

the new generation of moths, the moth

26:23

larvae can actually crawl onto the

26:25

sloth, and so

26:28

the sloth gains these passengers,

26:30

and these are helpful passengers. This is

26:32

a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship

26:35

where the sloth provides the moth a

26:37

home and the moths provide

26:39

the sloths. Well, it's

26:41

like a complicated symbiosis,

26:44

right, because it involves at least three

26:46

organisms, where it's the sloth, the moth,

26:49

and the algae, and so the moth

26:51

helps grow the algae which helps the

26:53

sloth, and the sloth provides a home

26:55

for the moths. It's beautiful,

26:58

it's a beautiful relationship. It's

27:00

a pollocule, a natural pollocule.

27:03

So there have been other explanations

27:06

proposed for why sloths to send

27:08

all the way to poop, and none of these are

27:10

mutually exclusive. They could all be

27:12

factors. So one is that, like

27:14

maybe they want to go down so

27:16

that they make less noise. I guess if they pooped

27:19

from the tree, it might make a plopping sound, and

27:21

they don't want to be conspicuous. Another

27:23

theory is that it's a social activity, a way

27:25

to meet other sloths, other sexy

27:28

singles in your area. I

27:30

do love a singles bar just

27:32

called the poop floor

27:34

where you get over all of your embarrassments

27:37

and hang ups from the beginning because you

27:39

all go just you know, to poop

27:41

on the forest floor and meet

27:43

other sloths. That's

27:45

great for them. I'm really happy

27:47

for them. Anyways, that'll do it

27:50

for our listener Questions episode.

27:53

If you have a question that you would like me

27:55

to answer, you can write to me at Creature featurepot

27:57

at gmail dot com. I am also exciting

28:00

submissions of pet photos for

28:03

me to look at. And it's

28:06

not like a contest. You don't win anything.

28:08

You don't really gain anything at all by

28:10

sending me these photos. But guess what, I

28:12

get a bunch of cute photos of animals.

28:15

So hey works out for me. Anyways,

28:18

Thank you guys so much for listening. If

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28:58

Wednesday six