Bizarre BeastsŘada 2025
What makes a weird animal weird? Once a month, hosts Hank Green and Sarah Suta introduce you to a new bizarre beast and explore the many answers to this question.
Kde se dívat na Bizarre Beasts • Řada 2025
19 dílů
- What Makes An Animal Smart?D1
What Makes An Animal Smart?Many birds are capable of complex problem solving, and even language, to a degree that seems too advanced if we just look at brain size. After all, a crow brain and a chimp brain aren’t the same size, yet some birds and great apes have been documented performing cognitive tasks at similar levels. So how do birds match wits with animals whose brains are tens of times bigger than theirs? And what does it even mean to be “intelligent?” - The Only Octopus With a Shell
D2The Only Octopus With a ShellThe octopus is a pretty odd animal under even the most ordinary circumstances – or ordinary by octopus standards, at least. So when folks start calling out one type of octopus as the strangest, there’s probably something special about it. And the argonaut, also known as the paper nautilus, lives up to the hype. - Don’t Grab The Venomous FrogsD3
Don’t Grab The Venomous FrogsPlenty of frogs can be poisonous, but Greening’s frog and Bruno’s casque-headed frog use bony spines on their snouts to break the skin of would-be predators and introduce toxins into their attacker’s bloodstream. This makes them the first species of truly venomous frogs that we know of. And they do it via headbutt. - Why Do River Dolphins Look… Like That?
D4Why Do River Dolphins Look… Like That?Why are there dolphins in rivers, and why do they look... like that? There are a handful of very similar-looking, but somehow unrelated river dolphins around the world. Where did they all come from, and what is it about living in rivers that causes dolphins to look so specific? - The Weird Bee That Isn't Social Or Solitary
D5The Weird Bee That Isn't Social Or SolitaryThere are a lot of different social structures in the animal world, but how did animals go from solitary to social, let alone from basic interactions to elaborate societies? The small carpenter bee may be just the beast to tackle this bizarre and fundamental evolutionary question. - Why Naked Mole-Rats Look Like...That.
D7Why Naked Mole-Rats Look Like...That.Naked mole-rats are not keeping their weirdness on the inside. And all their superficial strangeness—the distinctive look, the complex underground society, even the strategic poop-eating—is just the tip of the weird iceberg. - Why Do Hornbills Look So Mad?
D8Why Do Hornbills Look So Mad?Hornbills have great big beaks – and often bigger casques on top of those beaks – which certainly make it easy to remember their dinosaur origins. But don’t let their appearance intimidate you: at the end of the day, the real defining feature of hornbills may be their role as interspecies besties with mongooses. - Not Everything in Australia Wants to Kill YouD9
Not Everything in Australia Wants to Kill YouNot everything in Australia wants to kill you. Australia is home to 25 species of dangerously venomous snakes, but, as frightening as their venom may be, plenty of those snakes have a much softer side than their reputation lets on. In fact, a few of them are downright cuddly. - The Tiny Scorpions* In Your HouseD10
The Tiny Scorpions* In Your House*Pseudoscorpions are not actually scorpions, but a completely different type of arachnid with little claws, but no stinging tail. These tiny guys eat dust mites and other household pests while being some of nature’s most bizarre hitchhikers. - The Extinction (and De-Extinction?) of the Passenger PigeonD11
The Extinction (and De-Extinction?) of the Passenger PigeonMartha died on September 1st, 1914. She was 29. Martha wasn’t your average Hollywood starlet – she was something even more rare: an endling, the last member of her species. Just a few hundred years earlier, passenger pigeons flocks were so large that they could literally darken the sky for hours. So how did we get from those numbers to extinction? And are they really gone for good? - We’ve Been Looking For This Plant For 2000 YearsD12
We’ve Been Looking For This Plant For 2000 YearsAncient texts described silphium as a remedy for everything from tetanus to tooth ache, and a delicacy – it could do it all and was prized around the Mediterranean world. But by the end of the first century CE, it was gone. This plant has the dubious honor of being the first extinction in recorded history… or does it? - Why Cave Fish Keep Losing Their EyesD14
Why Cave Fish Keep Losing Their EyesThe Mexican tetra, lives in freshwater streams and pools from Mexico up into the southern United States. But these fish also live in cave systems in at least 29 separate places in Mexico, where they have no pigment, and anywhere from minimal eye function to virtually no eyes at all. - Why Thylacines (Definitely) Went ExtinctD15
Why Thylacines (Definitely) Went ExtinctThylacines, or Tasmanian tigers or Tasmanian wolves, went extinct in 1936. The conflict between them and settlers on the island is mostly to blame for loss of this marsupial, but the trade in thylacines for zoos, museums, and private collections also put a bounty on their heads. So, when it comes to saving a species, what happens when our zoological fascination is actually part of the problem? - Wild Horses Went Extinct...So Why Are There Still Wild Horses?D16
Wild Horses Went Extinct...So Why Are There Still Wild Horses?Przewalski’s horse, also known as the takhi, roamed wild across Eurasia continuously for tens of thousands of years. And with their disappearance, Earth lost the last of its truly wild horses. But the story of the takhi actually has a happy ending. - When is Extinction the ‘Right’ Choice?D18
When is Extinction the ‘Right’ Choice?Dracunculiasis is a painful parasitic disease caused by the Guinea worm. Where it once affected millions of people, after years of effort in 2024 there were only 15 cases. We hope that soon there will be zero. Since the Guinea worm is a member of the animal kingdom, are we talking about eradication or are we planning an actual extinction?
