SciShow Tangents - Spooky Month: Nocturnal Animals with Tom Lum!

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

There's a chill in the air and a shudder in our bones...it's Spooky Month! Come along with us on a treacherous journey full of mischief, mayhem, and many marvelously mysterious guests! Steady yourself, for who knows what frights lurk around the corner...Alas, our frightful fiends and friends, Spooky Month has nearly run its course - but not until we go out with a bang with our final ghoulish guest, Tom Lum! Join as we dare to tread amongst the creatures who belong to the night...nocturnal animals!SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter! A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Glenn Trewitt for helping to make the show possible!And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions! While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen[This, That, or the Other: Boys’ Night Out]Male animals float and call out to femaleshttps://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Pseudis_paradoxa%20-%20Paradoxical%20Frog.pdfAnimals in ritualistic sparring matches for several hourshttps://echidnawalkabout.com.au/how-kangaroos-fight/Patrolling perimeter and building up poop pileshttps://www.britannica.com/animal/kiwi-birdhttps://www.livescience.com/57813-kiwi-facts.html[Truth or Fail Express]Hedgehogs inflate like a balloonhttps://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-68833432https://www.livescience.com/59994-balloon-syndrome-hedgehog.htmlBandicoots spin to defend themselves https://crashbandicoot.fandom.com/wiki/Spinhttps://www2.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/native-animals/native-animal-facts/land-mammals/bandicootsTasmanian devils are soothed by musichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducking_the_Devilhttps://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/tasmanian-devilhttps://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2017/08/native-animals-should-be-renamed-with-their-aboriginal-names/Pygmy tarsiers / gremlins rotating their headshttps://www.wired.com/2015/01/absurd-creature-of-the-week-tarsier/https://primate.wisc.edu/primate-info-net/pin-factsheets/pin-factsheet-tarsier/[Ask the Science Couch]Vitamin D chemistry and nocturnal animalshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK56061/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8538717/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761812/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12899852/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2095.2009.00722.xhttps://www.mdpi.com/2571-841X/3/1/1 Patreon bonus: Teenage humans sleeping habits shifted towards nighthttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2820578/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/07420528.2023.2265480https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/10/among-teens-sleep-deprivation-an-epidemic.htmlhttps://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/134/3/642/74175/School-Start-Times-for-Adolescentshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6084759/[Butt One More Thing]Bats with false butts (but some sort of muscle)https://www.instagram.com/batworldsanctuary/p/DAbKf45RDjW/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mexican_free-tailed_bat_(8006850693).jpg

You're listening to a Complexly Podcast. Hello and welcome to SciShow Tangents, the frightly competitive science knowledge screen case. I'm your ghost Hank Gangrene and joining me this week as always is mad scientist Scary Riley. Hello. And our resident every wolf man Sam Skulls. Oh, oh, oh. You can do better than that. No, that was a cool guy werewolf.

They don't try that hard. The old calendar on the wall says that it's Halloween time. And as you know, we here at SciShow Tangents love to get in the Halloween spirit. It's spooky month! Where we've invited some ghoulish guests to Tangents Manor to join us. In fact, I hear another one of them approaching the door now Don't open the door It's friend of the show science communicator video essayist, and cohost of the Let's Learn Everything podcast.

It's Tom Lum. Hello. I would love to add cool werewolf to the end of that. I'm really obsessed with that concept. Specifically cool werewolf. Not like those werewolves that have a hard time and are emotionally tortured. We need a Teen Wolf werewolf that just does dunks.

I'm taking it easy. Yeah. Tom, it is very good to see you. Do you have a skill that I don't know you have already? Because I know you have a lot of skills. You know, there was definitely a period in high school where I 100% was just like accruing a bunch of skills because I thought that was how friendships were made.

And I did, I think, at one point, learn, but never tried to rip your shirt off, which is like an actual, you grip it a certain way and you pull. I can unicycle. Oh, wow. You can, I didn't know that. But that doesn't surprise me too much.

No, yeah. It hasn't come up in the video, but it's also funny because what happened was, I think in the earliest days of Amazon and stuff like that. And so I logged onto Amazon, saw this unicycle and I was like, this is so cool. And I was like, when my parents was like, can I get in there? They're like, no, truly no. So dangerous, so useless.

No. And then a few weeks later, a package came in the mail before my parents got home and it was unicycle. And I went up to them and I was like, oh, you guys, oh, you shouldn't have. And they were like, we did not order this. And it turns out I did so much research into this that I like put it in the basket, like calculated shipping and 100% ordered it for myself. And they were like, well,

well, I guess you're doing it now. I guess. This is a great way to get a thing. To get stuff when you're a kid. You're like, you guys, thank you so much. I wanted it so much. You said I couldn't have it, but then you ordered it for me.

And then they're like, yeah, I guess we did. Yeah. You have to use it selectively though, because that's going to wear off. You can't use that many wear off time two or three. Yeah, you got to really save room. Yeah, I think Unicycle was a safe bet for that one. Yeah, do it one time.

Be like, you bought me a whole case of Magic the Gathering cards. Oh, wow. I haven't even told Hank that I play Magic, but he just read me. He just looked into my eyes and knew that that was a recent hobby of mine actually this year. Did anything bad happen because of the unicycle? Are your parents right? Well something nearly bad happened, which is I almost joined the like, uh, clownery and juggling club in my college. Which was a dangerous thing that could have happened. You weren't like on the verge of going to the circus.

You were about to clown around in college some. We all joined some kind of clownery in college. I suppose the people who listen to this show probably, yeah. Well, I'm just going by the group of people in this room. By the Muppet podcast host. Okay, wait a minute. I'm a little bit like. Sam, what was your college clownery? What was the clowniest clownery that,

in an organized way? Can't just be like a party you went to. Organized clownery that, in an organized way? Can't just be like a party you went to. Organized clownery? Yeah. I don't know, nothing. I was the most boring. You went to art school. I feel like that is clownery.

I was the most boring person in art school. So I would just watch everybody else do the clownery and be like, great for you, good job. Yeah, I was just like from Montana and that got me through a lot of just being like, I'm from Montana and people would be like, that's amazing. So I didn't really have to try that hard. I was in a Rocky Horror Picture Show cast.

That's probably my highest level of clowning. That's a good push. Oh, that checks out. That's pretty clowny. Sari probably has a list as long as her dang arm of clownery that she did. In college or in general of skills that I like Tom, I just tried things out. If a friend said, I want to try this maybe then I would commit too hard to the bit in

effort of friendship and just like I think that is how I've been my entire life. One time, I don't know where I learned it from. I told my dad that I wanted to learn how to whittle. And so could I borrow his pocket knife? And I just disappeared into the backyard and was like, I'm going to teach myself how to whittle. Isn't that just like isn't that just like carving pieces off of a stick over and over again?

Making a big stick into a littler stick. Oh, Tom. A little, a little pig I whitt a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little.

A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little.

A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little. A little, a little.. Definitely, yeah. I feel like my one is pretty spooky. Rocky Horror Picture Show is a pretty spooky thing, but maybe not as spooky as just heading out into the woods with a knife.

With a knife. Here at SciShow Tangents, we gather together every once in a while to unnerve and disgust and horrify each other with science facts while also trying to stay on topic. Our panelists are playing for gory and for candy, which will be awarded at the end of the episode. And one of them will be crowned the King of Halloween. But first, we're going to introduce this week's topic with the traditional science poem this week from Tom.

I was working in the lab late one night when my eyes beheld an eerie sight for my monster from his slab began to rise, which could only mean, to my surprise, he was nocturnal. He was indeed nocturnal. He was nocturnal. I thought for sure he was diurnal. He was nocturnal. And that his sleep was eternal. He was nocturnal and that his sleep was eternal He was nocturnal, but he was simply nocturnal

I did feel like I needed to come in with the backup parts, but I the lag prevented it And I know what you're thinking yes, yes this poem was obviously inspired by the studies of Pickett et al., renowned biologists, loosely inspired by their work. Yeah. You did add so little. Well, so I thought I was going to really have to weird out a little bit here, but it's surprisingly already about nocturnality. Right from the start.

It's late one night and they're rising from the slab. They must be nocturnal. So the topic for the day is nocturnal animals. But first, before we get into it, we're going to take a quick break and then be back to define our topic. Before we get into it, we're going to take a quick break and then be back to Define our Topic. Welcome back, everybody! Ceri, what are nocturnal animals? I feel like we know this, right? We do know it, but this is one of them where you start thinking too hard and then you end

up in a rabbit hole. Or maybe it's just me. I love those. It's most of them. Yeah. So basically there are a bunch of different biological words to describe when animals are active during the 24 hour day. And nocturnal means you're active during the night, lit by moonlight, stars. When there's no moon, there's no moon.

Diurnal, the other improv in Tom's poem, is when you are active mostly during the day, lit by sunlight. That was bespokely, carefully written. I spent many, many hours at the writing table, improv out there. I liked Tom's poem, okay. And then the other two words that get thrown in the mix in these science papers are crepuscular, which is when animals are mostly active

during dusk or twilight. Sometimes dawn too, when the sun is just on the horizon. I love crepuscular. Could try so hard to fit that into the song, could not. But I do love that word. And then there's cathemeral, which is a mix of day and night. Just like if you're chaos, you have some day, you have some night in there. But then there's like the complex or chaotic ways in which we as humans, we have

our artificial lights that affect animals and their sleep cycles, they affect our own sleep cycles. And if you start thinking of different patches of the earth, so where we all live, North America, even across time zones, as the earth rotates around its axis and as the earth revolves around the sun, we still have like relatively regular chunks of day and night. But as you get up towards the poles,

then you get these incredibly long chunks of polar day or polar night where for over 24 hours, animals are experiencing night. And so if you are forced to live in night for days or months on end, are you really nocturnal? I don't know. And then you're diurnal half the year. You're nocturnal half the year. And that's where it's.

You can have different strategies at different times. Yeah, that's totally fine. You can have different strategies at different times. Yeah. That's totally fine. It's not, you're not like, you don't have to be in one category. Right? Don't put me in your box. Nocturnality is a spectrum.

Well definitely. And also it's variable. Just like sexuality. You don't have to be in one box your whole life. One thing that really, why I was also really excited about this and Sarah, you already touched on it a bit, is that one of the reasons why I think nocturnality is so cool to me is because it is like so clearly a biological phenomena that is, you know, I'm sure we're going to say it's a little messy, but it seems very clear and is clearly a cause

of astrophysics, at the end of the day. It's of the fact of the way that our planet is lit and rotates that causes this biology category that I think is so interesting how deeply physics and light-dependent it is, I think that so interesting how like deeply like physics and like light dependent it is. I think that's so so fascinating. I do wonder if there's sort of a limit like if we had had a much more slowly rotating Earth, would we have like multiple sleep cycles during each day and then have like more sleep

cycles during the night? Like if the day was two weeks long, you'd have to sleep at some point. And so you'd just be like picking times in the day to sleep. Or would we just be real like in slow motion? And then we would sleep. Everything would be slow. I don't think so. I don't think that the length of the day is what affects how fast you move.

I think that that's metabolism. You don't feel like you're talking way faster when it's nowadays and the days are so short. You're just zipping around. That's a good point. We do actually have variable day lengths here on Earth. There's probably some science that's been done. Which one are you? I'm corpuscular, I think.

Does that have to work? Yeah, that is. I get all my best work done right when the day's over, right when it's the most useless for me to do anything. Yeah, and I'm also naturally corpuscular. I would much prefer, well, into nocturnal. I think that from Twilight to 2 a.m. is like, yeah, that's the time.

That's the thing. Once you start getting into the sleep studies, they call these chronotypes, which is different preferences for sleep wake time. We can measure them largely with questionnaires of like, when do you like to go to sleep? When do you feel most active? But also things like your core body temperature and melatonin levels relative to light in the environment and like movement tracking and these sleep studies. And so there are different biological things going on.

We've had some genetic cues for people who are morning chronotypes or larks who wake up early, get going or evening chronotypes or owls who like get going later, stay up late. And where it gets kind of fuzzy is like where the social aspect comes in. So if you're a night owl and you're forced to wake up for school at 6 a.m. or work for 6 a.m. then there are indicators that that has increased stress,

increased likelihood of mental illness, things like that. But it could also just be, rather than that being the cause of it, could be the result of shifting your sleep schedule. I had two friends in high school for one summer. Basically, we had a theater thing that we were doing, and so there wasn't much else they were doing besides rehearsal in the nighttime. And so they decided to't, there wasn't much else they were doing besides rehearsal in the nighttime. And so they decided to try to be nocturnal for a month, where they woke up for rehearsal, for like an 8pm rehearsal, and then did the rest. And I was always like, wow, that's so cool.

How was it? And they were like, boring after a while, because nothing's open. But at first it's like, oh, that's so cool. After enough of those liminal space walks, after a while you're just like, man, I really could could use any food. Go to any restaurant, please. All right. We know what nocturnal means.

And that and also I assume that we know where the word comes from, which is knock, like and then turn because the whole world's turning all of them. That's it. The sun knocks on the door and says, tick tock. To every season. Well, it does come from the word knocks in Latin, which means night. So it is very, very straightforward, which then begat nocturnists, which means belonging to the night. So it is very, very straightforward, which then be at a nocturnist, which means belonging to the night. And then that's a great, why don't we just use that? Yeah.

And we could. The night. Oh, it's like, yeah. So are you much of an early bird or do you belong to the night? They get all of the like society working for them, but at least we get a cool name. Yeah. And then it just morphed from there to nocturnal and then nocturne in that vein. But the coolest thing that I learned is, you know, the word diary is used to like the thing that you write in to document your days. There used to be a word in English diarrhea.

Yeah, you shit your brains out into the book and then it's whatever is there and then you seal it up so no one can read your stink. No. Well, you write you write what happened to you during the day. But there used to be a word in English in the 1700s called a noxuary, which is what you write down what happens to you at night Dreams as most of the use cases like I have a purse I've got a parcel of visions and other miscellaneous in my noxuary and so it's what it's a dream journal Okay, very good name for a horror movie or some spooky book.

One of the coolest family of words, honestly. Everything you just said, so cool. I too can be a cool wolf. Okay. I have no confidence in my friends. Okay, when Sam said it, when Tom said it, no laughs. When I said it, everyone laughed or snorted. What do you think Sari was doing in the woods?

With my knife! Okay, we are now going to play a game, and the game is called Boys Night Out. If you think that humans get up to some wild stuff on a boys night out, we got nothing on some nocturnal bros of the animal kingdom. I'm going to describe to you some gnarly nighttime shenanigans, and it's up to you to guess which animal is behind them. You'll get three to guess from. If you want to join a nighttime hangout with our first group of bros, be prepared to let the good times come to you. Just lay back and float, literally. Males of this species float passively on the

surface of their watery homes while they call out to any females that might be around to swing by for some Netflix and chill. Is this the behavior of the paradoxical frog, the North American River Otter, or the dwarf crocodile? Did I say crocodile? Crocodile. A frog that's floating around. I think otters are a quiet bunch. That's my guess. I can see them hanging out though on their back and floating around is the thing. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to guess crocodiles because I think they float and they grunt. And they can go, ah.

There's something, you know. Yeah. What was the first one? Was the paradoxical frog. Now that sounds like a fake thing, but it could be real. And I'm going to guess it because I like that. I'm going to also go with paradoxical frog because I want River Otter.

I want otters to remain cute on their backs, as opposed to catcalling women, apparently. Do you guys want to know why paradoxical frogs are called paradoxical frogs? Yeah. Is it scary? Yes, please? No, I don't think so. Maybe a little bit. The tadpoles are bigger than the frogs. Oh, that is kind of scary. What happens to all their extra meat? They just lose it? I don't know. I didn't get that deep. The's call, here's more information unrelated to that thing about it. Oh, I keep thinking it's the frog and I'm like, yay! And it's like, no, just another tangent.

No, it is the frog. You guys are right. Oh, yay! Okay. So, yay! Oh, god. The call has been described as both strong and similar to a pig's oink, and they are they just like float around, chilling.

That's so cute, Aang going, Aang going oink oink. It could be like a cute oink oink, or it could be a, like a, and kind of gnarly snore. I'm scared to make the noise because then it's on record forever. Who's gonna break first? I also almost made the noise. Oh my God. I'm also scared. Thanks, Aang.

Aang going to do it. Who's gonna break first? I also almost made the noise. Oh my gosh. I was so scared. Thanks, Hank. Hank will do it. Hank's got so many audio recordings of him doing all kinds of things. Yeah, all kinds of stuff. All right, number two. On the opposite side of the vibe spectrum, our next group of bros only have one rule.

Do not talk about Fight Club. These absolute legends spend some nights in ritualistic sparring matches that can last several hours. Wow. Behavior of the Cyprus spiny mouse, the red kangaroo or the sportive lemur. Kangaroos just beating the shit out of each other.

I feel like yeah kangaroos are typically fighty. Yeah, that makes so much sense. I feel like also could mice lemurs or kangaroos. I feel like it's got to be kangaroos. I feel like they're fighting. I feel like kangaroos don't have a care in the world, so I think they can spend all night fighting. And a lemur, I think, would have to be like... It could be nocturnal, though.

I feel like mice are the most likely to be nocturnal of these bunch. Which of these... We should focus on the first part of the question. Which of these is meant to be a deep metaphor about toxic masculinity that most people are going to completely gloss over because of the cool stuff that happens with it in the movie. And people are just going to be like, I want to be that animal. Yeah. I want to be that house.

Yeah. I'm going to buy that red jacket and then not think about any of the deeper implications about the nature of capitalism and stuff like that. So that's kangaroos too, actually. Yeah, I'd want to be a buff kangaroo. I think that's what I'd pick. So yeah, I'll go with the kangaroos too, actually. So yeah. I'd want to be a buff kangaroo, I think. That's what I think. So yeah, I'll go with the kangaroos. I'm gonna go with lemurs, I guess, just to be,

I don't know, ZabuMafoo, you don't know what he was getting into after hours. I really don't. I don't think he was a supportive lemur, but his cousins, his rough and tumble cousins, ZabuMafoo, the clean as a whistle TV personality. Well, do you guys wanna know why it's called the Cypress Spiny Mouse?

Cause it's got- No way! It's got little spinies on it? It's got little spinies on it. It's kind of like, it's like, it's little hairs look a little spiny. Do you wanna know why they call the Red Kangaroos red, kangaroos? Cause they're kind of, they're kind of red.

Do you wanna know why they call them sportive lemurs? Cause they're doing sports and fighting each other all night. They do, because they do sporty stuff. They jump around and do big jumps. That's cool. But the answer is the red kangaroo. Oh, OK. Let's go!

Oh, good golly. These kangaroo fights, they're called boxing matches. Some fights are brief and brutal over territory or dominance, but friendly males will just spar with each other to hone their skills or just affirm an existing social status quo. So just hours of light punching. That freaks me out for some reason.

In the middle of the night, just some night punch. Yeah, actually, that's the worst. You're camping in the outback and you just hear like a, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. And you look at me just like, I'm returning. This is going into my noctuary and then I'm going back to sleep. Our last bunch of bros, they use the cover of darkness to wander out and patrol the perimeter

of their territory, pausing every few feet to set up or refresh their primary defenses. Piles of extra stinky poo. Is this the behavior of the kiwi bird, the honey badger, or the wombat? I feel like birds typically have not very buildable poop. That's true. Honey badger or what's the other? A wombat. Wombat with cubed poop.

Wombat. They're the cubed poop guys. Which, very buildable. The most buildable fact. Yeah, if Minecraft taught us anything. But that's the most buildable shape. I think I'm going to go for honey badge. Although actually I feel like then if during the era of the honey badger don't care that

might have been included in the list of various facts and I feel like I would have learned about that. You know, in that era of like, you know, Chuck Norris would tell me about that fact and then I'd get an ad for like bacon scented soap. You know, I went to see, I went to see Despicable Me 4. There's freaking Honey Badger jokes in that. That came out this year. What are they doing?

Vintage. They gotta get some new stuff. I guess it's for people my age who are like parents now and they're like, I remember that. Yeah. Those are who are in the writers room. That's the last funny thing they remember the last time that they laughed. What is that the Honey Badger thing? Is that the Honey Badger? The best joke they could think of.

I'm gonna put my, I'm gonna go for Honey Badger. I'm gonna go for Honey Badger actually. I'm gonna change my mind. I'm gonna try for it. I think I'm gonna pick Kiwi Bird because cause I know so very little about kiwi birds that it just seems like the safest bet. I'm also gonna go honey badger. I feel like they're most likely to patrol in my brain.

I can see them being surly and more territorial. So do you know why they call them honey badgers? Do they eat some kind of honey? Yeah, they go after the beehives. Do you know why they call them wombats? Because that's what they're called. I also don't know that one. Do you know why they call them kiwi birds?

Because they look like little kiwis. No, they call kiwis kiwis because they look like kiwi birds. Oh, wow. That's really flipped my world upside down. Kiwi, kiwi is indigenous, but it's like the noise that they make. Oh. It kind of sounds like that. Oh. Yeah.

And the answer is kiwi birds. Oh, wow. No way. I think it's so good this time. Ah! Yeah. Kiwis, they have a very sensitive sense of smell, in part because they are the only bird whose nostrils are at the tip of their beak instead of closer to their face.

The only bird? Whoa! The only bird! Holy cow! Probably there's some other birds that used to have that, but then they stopped existing. I mean, by being in New Zealand, I'm sure that that's isolated from other groups, so maybe that just didn't spare them, but that's wild. I feel like that's like the, you know, you drew a bird wrong or like drawing

and then it's like, no, it's actually there. And the keeper is like, actually, I'm glad that my nostrils are not on the end of my nose. I think that would be not a great vibe. I'm also glad your nostrils are not at the end of your nose, Hank. I've always said that. I do kind of like I do kind of like it when the upper lip is high Like a Nigel Thornberry kind of situation The keywords they just like they just smell each other shit

The follow-up fact we're gonna take a short break now and then we'll be back for another devious game. We played a fast and loose here today on SciShow Tangents, hope nobody minds, but Sari, Sari has our next game. Yes, I failed Boys Night, so now I gotta give the game, I gotta keep on my zero points. So there are lots of nocturnal animals out there and it's inevitable that some of them have inspired some fictional characters who may or may not be nocturnal. But in this-

I have a feeling I'm gonna be really good at this game. I think you might be. I think this is- Get it. But it is very Sam coded of a section because I need something easy to write. Wait. Oh, the one two.

That was the audio equivalence of the of the up high or down low too slow. I haven't seen you in so long in this. This is how it goes. I just saved up the little brother. No, I didn't mean it like that. I truly didn't. But it just came out of my mouth. In this Truth or Fail Express, I'm going to give you a statement,

and you'll have to tell me whether it's a true biology fact or a fiction invented for a character. Ooh. So, Sam, you can't be mean to me. You are just the most mean to me that anybody's ever been in my life. It's Halloween. We can't be mean to each other. It's the time when we come together and we're sweet to each other. That's right. That's the reason for the season. It's the spirit of Halloween. First statement is, hedgehogs are small, spiny nocturnal critters that curl up into a ball when they're threatened,

or in the case of the blue sneaker wearing Sonic the Hedgehog to go fast and blast their enemies. Like vibrating right now. I'm in trouble. I think this would be a good middling ground between a great equalizer. But sometimes when they get hurt, they inflate like a balloon and need to be deflated. Is this a fact about real life hedgehogs or a fiction about Sonic?

Oh. Mario does this sometimes, but I don't know. Sorry, do you mind if I just Google really quick Sonic inflation? I'm sure nothing will come up. Oh, okay, no, there's plenty of results. Yeah, I think it's the Sonic one. I think it must be a real hedgehog. I think it's a real hedgehog thing as well.

That's distressing and I just can't think that he's ever... Be deflated by who? By a friend? Yeah, I feel like I don't know this in Sonic. So I gotta go for real too. But I'm, yeah. It's distressing. I don't like it. You are all distressed and you are all correct.

Okay, great. Yay! I was just trying to picture that I did, you know, I just searched Sonic inflation. Hank? Hank? And I thought that was gonna be like a physics term. No, no, that's not what it is. Absolutely not. I was. Yeah, no, I.

This is a new one for me. Resetting your eyes. This is the sad thing is called balloon syndrome, and it's due to blunt force trauma or damage to like the lungs usually we think. It's a rare condition where hedgehogs get hit or squished or something like that if they're struck then air flows out of the lungs and into their body and they've got pretty loose skin because they curl up. Because they gotta get in a ball. They gotta get in a ball, so they got pretty loose skin.

And then they just kind of swell up like a balloon. It's like they're hyperventilating into a bag, but they're the bag? They're the bag, yeah. That's so sad. And then it vets, I think, just deflate. They just pop them. They put a needle in them and then drain the air out and deflate them. But if they're just in the wilderness, what happens?

They're just a balloon. then it's like Shrek when he blows up the frog and the rat and they just float away. They're just trapped like that forever. Where's that movie where they follow them? Yeah. Yeah. I love the idea that they burn through like 900 Shrek

spinoffs and eventually it's just like, who's those two guys? Who's that frog? We gotta tell them through the floating frog 900 Shrek spinoffs and eventually it's just like. Those two guys. We got to tell the story of the floating frog and the floating rat that floated to the moon. That sounds great, actually. Doesn't. Yeah, I think that'd be another like it's like the Puss in Boots sequel where you're like, oh, come on, this is a sequel. And then you're watching.

You're just like, oh, my God, I can't believe. So the second statement is a bandicoot are nocturnal marsupials that live in Australia and New Guinea or in the case of crash bandicoot on the Wampa Islands. Yeah, that's right. Both real and fictional bandicoots can get a little feisty to defend themselves against predators, but only one of them spins rapidly. Is this a fact about real Bandicoots or a fiction about Crash Bandicoot? This is adorable that Sari thinks that we were cool enough to not know the answers to

these questions. I don't know what Crash Bandicoot's default attack is actually. I have no idea what that what that could possibly be. I think I think if you had gone with the Lumpa Islands, you would have at least knocked me out. But no, I think Crash Bandicoot himself does spin. I don't think it's out of the question that a real bandicoot has spun to attack at some point in his life.

Yeah. But Crash Bandicoot's well known for spinning around. It's a fast game. It's a fast game, you guys. I Googled this and it's all, it's fine. Everybody, it's good. Nice and clean. Real life Bandicoots can jump really good. I have not found videos or anything of them spinning, but they mostly use their claws territorially

where they stand on their back legs and claw at each other to shoe each other away from their territory. But no spinning and whacking crates and whatnot that I can find. Driving a go-kart may not do anything like that. We'll whip through these fast because I over or underestimated. The problem is my best fact I'd used already in a different episode. Also in Australia, in the state of Tasmania, there's a different carnivorous nocturnal marsupial called the Purinina as a tribute to Aboriginal Tasmanian languages or the Tasmanian Devil by European colonizers who heard its growls

and screeches, which were then amplified in the Looney Tunes character Taz. Soothing music can calm one of them down. Is that a fact about real Tasmanian devils or a fiction about Taz? Hmm, that doesn't, that seems like it could be true of either. I was gonna be like, he spins, he spins. No. No. No.

Another spin question. Wow, Taz, crushed bandicoots are rip off of the Tasmanian devil. Never occurred to me before. But he is kind of... I think you're right. His name was originally Willie the Wombat. Crash Bandicoots was?

Yeah, Crash Bandicoot. And then they heard the word bandicoot and they were like, that's Slabs. And so I was like, no, that's not actually... Don't care. It's the same with the Wolverine, right? I feel like this is... I can see the cartoon. I can see this happening. So I'm going to go with the fictional for this one. Wow. I have no chance to survive, make my time. I think I'm gonna go with... I think that we can make a real...

No, I don't. It's the frickin' cartoon character. I can see in my head Daffy Duck playing flute for Tasmanian Devil. I'm not 100% sure that that's not... That's Devil. I'm not 100% sure that that's not... Oh, that's specific. I'm not 100% sure that wasn't just a flight of fancy that I had as a boy. But I'm pretty sure that this is fictional. You have the episode in your head saying, ducking the devil from 1957. Oh my God.

Daffy tries to lull Tas to sleep with a radio, a trombone, and the bagpipes. Yes. And eventually uses his own singing voice. So he made up the flute, I think. But it was, in fact, fictional. And real Purindinas are actually quite calm or fearful. They may seem aggressive because of their feeding rituals, are usually like loud or they're scavengers.

So they're feasting on a corpse together. Is it loud? And their mouth is not. Yeah. Nothing on a feasting on a corpse, huh? They're just like, I don't know, they store fat in their tails and are really calm and shy and won't really mess with them unless threatened. Where'd they get their names from just being kind of distasteful in general?

Europeans were like, what's that sound? It's the devil in the woods. And they got scared of them. I'm just eating a corpse in here. They're in there eating corpses too. Look, we all eat corpses. That's right. Let's be honest with ourselves. Last one, which you can sweep. You can all get all the points, all the candy.

Happy Halloween. Tarsiers are tiny nocturnal primates that mostly live in trees on Southeast Asian islands. They have bulbous round eyes to help them see at night. And with their big eyes, big ears, and fluffy faces, they sort of look related to Gizmo from Gremlins. However, only one of these creatures can rotate their heads nearly 360 degrees.

Is this a fact about tarsiers or a fiction about Gremlins? I know the answer to this one, so I will come back. I also know the answer to this. Stripe I will come back. I also know the answer to this. Stripe would love to get his hands on Gizmo and twist his head all the way around, but Gizmo wouldn't live through it, because it's not something Gizmo could do. It is real.

I think we're all on the same page. I'm gonna vote for the lemur can do this. It's the tarsier. This is the real thing. Yes. Oh, the tarsier, sorry. Yeah, yeah. The small primate., yeah, yeah. The small primate. But yeah, they basically took their good-for-seen-in-the-day eyeballs and made them real big through evolution,

or so happened that they got big through evolution, and the tarsier can't move their eyeballs around, so instead they can swivel their head up to 180 degrees. They can't move their eyeballs? No. Oh no. So they move their whole head instead. Most birds are also a similar thing and that's part of the reason why we think owls can turn their heads around so much is also because they have like pancake-y eyeballs so they can't like move their eyes around so they move their head more.

Also I know that, can you tell I also host a fun fact science podcast? Also, I know that right now in the Guinness Book of World Records, tarsiers are listed as the animal that can turn their heads their most, but they're wrong because sloths, I believe, can do it more because of their extra vertebrae. They can turn their heads a few degrees more, I believe, than tarsiers, or at least the same amount. Yeah. Tom, do you think that you could at some point make a book that's called like the Guinness book of wrong records where you just talk about Guinness records that are wrong?

That's also a topic we've covered on this show. Yeah. Of wrong records. I did also, I had, had another bonus fact that I was thinking about nocturnal animals being fictional and real is that, um, we talked that we talked about vampirism and how similar it is to actual vampirism. And I learned that vampire bats have a few properties, which is that A, various species of vampiric bats have different capabilities. Some allow them to have feet that let them climb faster. Some have different niches and abilities, if you will.

They also sometimes have, quote unquote, more aesthetic features because of their face structure as compared to other bats. And they are also communal and cooperative where they will sometimes exchange blood with each other if another member of their cohort doesn't have enough blood, they will regurgitate blood to them. Making them A, have special abilities, B, be beautiful, and C, be cooperative, thus making them most similar to Twilight Vampires. Ah. Was the thesis of that episode.

Good. How do they feel about the way that Bella smells though? How do they feel about, yeah, yeah, breaking into a girl's room and just staring at them? Yeah. I think that's the one that they don't have that one. Hold on tight, Spider Monkey. Spider Monkey.

That's right. So the final count, everybody in that one got four, Hold on tight, Spider Monkey. Spider Monkey. So the final count, we everybody in that one got four. So it's almost like it didn't happen. But that brings us to the final count. I shouldn't have written the game. Ceri with nothing. Me with four, Tom with six and Sam with seven. I love to be the king of Halloween.

Feels right. He is. The cool wolf man is the king of Halloween. I wore my orange shirt today. It's got monsters on it. Oh. It's right for me. And that means it's time to ask the science couch

where we ask some science questions to our finally honed couch of Razors sharp, spooky tiffy minds. What do we got? SuperBasidia10476 on YouTube and Softloves on Twitter asked, some animals need sunlight or vitamin D, right? How do nocturnal ones handle that?

Oh, interesting question. I have two proposals off of the top of the dome. One, nom, nom, nom. One, and two, metabolism, like other biochemistry that might happen. Does everything need vitamin D? Is that a- Yeah, you could also sort of maybe imagine a world where you don't actually need it, but I don't know.

But Saria has better information than me. Yeah, I mean, how much do we get from the moon? Probably not like a ton. I don't know. But also better information than me. Yeah. I mean, how much do we get from the moon? Probably not like a ton. I mean, you know, obviously not enough for a human, but I'm curious if maybe you might know specific wavelengths that the moon might not spit off. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Also, you can buy you can just buy a lamp. Those are helpful. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they do. Those are helpful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of those. That's what they do. They're tricking their parents into adding it to the Amazon cart and then going, you shouldn't have bought me that. A UVB lamp for me? For me?

And they're like, what is Amazon? We are Hedgehog. We are in the Amazon currently. Yeah, I mean, you kind of got it. This is a very intuitive answer as far as we know. So vitamin D, also known as calciferol, there are a couple different types of it. Vitamin D2, ergocalciferol is synthesized in plants like mushrooms, or plants, mushrooms, yeast, like those categories of things.

And then vitamin D3, also known as cholecalciferol, is what our skin synthesizes. We have enzymes and whatnot that when certain precursor molecules are exposed to UVB radiation from the sun, which is reflected by the moon a little bit, but probably not significant enough amounts, but maybe some, maybe a little bit. We synthesize it and then also get it throughout the food chain because various other animals can synthesize it using similar enzymes as well. So the main source if you can't make it on your own is your diet and not just nocturnal animals but

like cats and dogs. Sorry, sorry, I think the answer is hum hum hum. Oh, excuse me. Yeah. Cats and dogs must hum hum because they don't synthesize it in their skin. Well they're also covered in fur like many animals. They're in the shade all the time. But animals like cows and mice and whatnot can still synthesize vitamin D3. I think there's

something about the enzymes that are either deactivated or inefficient for some reason in dogs and cats that we have studied. And they're not able to perform synthesis in the same way. We've studied bats, like the Egyptian fruit bat, and it seems like they don't have any clear access to being in the sun or exposed to a lot of UVB or dietary sources of vitamin D. And they just seem to have lower levels than what we would maybe consider normal and they're fine. So they don't have any sort of problems with bone or neurological systems that we would typically expect in like a human, for example, with vitamin D deficiency.

And then stuff like fish underwater, whether they're, I don't know, they're just like far away from sunlight and they just eat. They just gotta eat the plants and stuff to get their vitamin D and to build it up and store it. Didn't even think about fish. Eternal needs for the fish. It's mostly animals and we're just like, eh.

Yeah. But they're not nocturnal. No, but many of them never see light in their entire lives. Yeah, I guess that's true. Well, we reached the existential crisis I was hoping we had, yay. Right at the end there. That's not hitting me, we reached the existential crisis I was hoping we had. Yay! Right at the end there.

Whoa. That's not hitting me too hard right now. Fish? I don't know. Inflation, though. Fish, like... I'm not sure about fish, Tom. I pulled Sonic Inflation earlier, so I'm dealing with my own stuff.

I've got enough, got my plate. I'm not sure about fish, Tom. I pulled Sonic Inflation earlier, so I'm dealing with my own stuff. I'm not sure about fish, Tom. I pulled Sonic Inflation earlier, so I'm dealing with my own stuff. I've got enough, got my plate. I'm not sure about fish, Tom. I pulled Sonic Inflation earlier, so I'm dealing with my own stuff.

I'm not sure about fish, Tom. I pulled Sonic Inflation earlier, so I'm dealing with my own stuff. I've got enough, got my plate. I'm not sure about fish, Tom. I pulled Sonic Inflation earlier, so I'm dealing with my own stuff. I've gotten enough, got my plate. Now for our listeners on our Patreon, we're gonna answer a bonus science couch question. Sam, what is it? Kaz McDew on Discord asked, Is it true that teenage humans have a shift more towards nocturnal sleeping habits, or are they just lazy? If you want to hear the answer to that question as well as enjoy all new episodes totally

ad-free, you can head over to our Patreon. That's patreon.com slash syshow tangents. At $8 a month, you get new episodes, ad-free and extended shenanigans as we answer a bonus science couch question every episode. You'll also get a link to our private Discord server and maybe also some goodies in the future and also definitely all of our old goodies from the past. Our patrons are the best. We're so grateful for their support of the show.

If you want to ask the Science Couch your question, you can follow us on Twitter at SciShow Tangents or check out our YouTube community tab where we'll send out the topics for upcoming episodes every week. Or you can join the SciShow Tangents Patreon and ask us on our Discord. Thank you to at Splizzacular on YouTube, at mightbejo on Twitter, and everybody else who asked us your questions for this episode. Tom, tell us where we can get more

of your extended shenanigans. Well, I've already mentioned it a few times. Some of the fun facts I have learned to mention today come from my show, Let's Learn Everything that I host with the wonderful Caroline Roper and Ella Hubber, who are smart enough to constantly amaze me and kind enough to put up with my bad jokes.

We learn about a science topic like quantum physics and then a miscellaneous topic like the history of gossip, which is not an exaggeration, that was one episode. So you can go listen to that. We will have a spooky episode also. We also love doing a spooky episode we've done some in the past and I also make science video essays now you can find them on YouTube if you search Tom Lum same with all the other social media places when my

parents named me they were like this baby's gonna have some stellar SEO Hank's also been on everything as well. He was on a very special 69 episode. It was so good. It was so much fun. If you like this show and you want to help us out, really isn't it too that you can go to patreon.com slash SciShow Tangents, become a patron, get access to all that stuff and our ad free episodes and our discord. Shout out to patron less acre for their support. Second, you can move us to review wherever you listen. That's very helpful. It helps us know what you like about the show and other people as well. And finally, if you want to show your love for SciShow Tangents, just tell people about us.

Thank you for joining us. I've been Hank Green. I've been Sari Reilly. I've been Sam Schultz. And I've been Tom Long. SciShow Tangents is created by all of us and produced by Jess Stempert. Our associate producer is Eve Schmidt. Our editor is Seth Glicksman. Our social media organizer is Julia Buzz-Bazio, our editorial assistants are Nipsey Chakrabarti and Alex Billow, our sound designers by Joseph Tuna-Medish, our executive producers are Nicole

Sweeney and me, Hank Green, and of course we couldn't make any of this without our patrons on Patreon. Thank you, and remember, the mind is not a coffin to be filled, but a jack-o-lantern to be filled but a jack-o-lantern to be lighted. But one more thing. One of the most famous nocturnal animals is of course the bat. But some species are famous instead, more so famous for having false butts. This occasionally goes viral because it's very cute. If you search for bats have butts, you'll see many a Reddit and Instagram post proclaiming

this. And some accounts like Bat World Sanctuary post, and I'm not kidding, hashtag bat booty Friday. And this is because some species like the Mexican free-tailed bat have what appears to be a super cute little tush. But it is not a real butt. And you can clearly tell it's not a real butt because the anatomy of the rear of these bats actually forms the butt Above the tail which is interesting, but highly recommend googling it. It's super cute. And now that you know, it's a false butt It's also mildly interesting now. I'm taking it. I'm taking

Umbridge with the false butt because it is their butt right like what butt, the butt and the poop hole are different things. I have been pounding on this drum for years. I mean, this is really bringing it all home for me because these legs are a butt. Yeah, it seems to have been maybe. I mean, the question is, is it the gluteus maximus and minimus? It's more of a muscle question or is it a functional? What how does it function or is it or is it truly maximus and minimus? It's more of a muscle question. Or is it a functional? How does it function? Or is it truly what you perceive?

I think it might be what you perceive. Like if it looks like a butt and it's where a butt goes, it's a butt. If it looks like a butt and it sounds like a butt, it's a butt. It doesn't have to sound like a butt. These butts don't. So, could this be merely posterior pareidolia? Our eyes seeing butts everywhere? Or could this be our butt,

our bat brethren be getting big bottoms? Believe it or not, couldn't find a lot of actual hard research on this, but maybe further research into this important issue can tell us, tell us some more maybe one day. We got to get a bat on the horn and ask them what they think that thing's called. That's funny because I was thinking somebody's need to dissect one of those boys and tell

me what those muscles are. No, can't we just ask them? We just need to figure out how to talk to these guys.