What's New Podcast - LIVE from SeaWorld San Diego

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

The crew checks in from SeaWorld San Diego for a special edition of Whats New Pod. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's jasee.com and claim your $250 Jace case today through July 31st. What's up everybody and welcome to a special edition of What's New Pod coming to you live from SeaWorld. Yay! I have Julianne. I have Tyler. Randy and we're coming to you live from outside the shark encounter inside the park right now. I always say this is like our fifth time recording a podcast as SeaWorld and they're always so good to us.

And I just want to put it out there just like, you know, if you don't live in the area and you want to, let's say, travel across the country, just coming to San Diego is worth it to also go to SeaWorld. Like last night we went to go see a baseball game. And that, I mean, Park is like one of the best parks I've ever been to. Beautiful. I've said it once. I'll say again, Petco Park, top five park in the country. Yeah, I mean, if you're not a fan of the team or let's just say your team's in town in San Diego and you want to make a weekend of it, you can go to the ballpark, go to a game,

and then you can also hit up SeaWorld. And it's also just located in like they called the Gaslamp District. And just downtown San Diego, super walker. so much fun. One of the best cities that you can go to. When I put it into like the list of places that would do radio, I've always said it would be San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego.

I always tell people when they want to come to California and like you have to find time to go to San Diego. I tell people because people are like, oh, like I want to go to L.A. I want to go San Francisco. I'm like, go to San Diego first. Just do it first. I went to Old Town San Diego last night and walked around. Yeah, it's so historic down there. There was even a, I didn't

get to go there, but there's a haunted house. Oh, I've done, I've done a I did a ghost tour once in El Town San Diego. Yeah. It's like a jury or a courthouse. There you go. It's a courthouse. And I guess like whenever, whoever would be found guilty, they would hang them there and all their tombstones are out. And the guy at the front desk when I checked in last night said that if you were to take pictures of the tombstones, you could see little oras of lights over the tombstones. There are bars in Old Town, San Diego that are older than the state of California. Oh, really?

They're older than San Diego. Because this has been around for so long. It's next to Mexico. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I love San Diego. I always sell people. A little personal tour guide right here. And speaking of being next to Mexico, you're going to get the best Mexican food in San Diego. You are. Yeah.

There's a bunch of breweries, too, that you can stop by. Super fun. Also, you can hit up TJ if I want. Yeah, absolutely. You can do that. I was trying to talk to Nacho last night when we're at dinner. I'm like, maybe we should hit DJ Sunday morning, but we forgot our passports. Do you need them to drive in?

We were talking about that. Yeah, you do need a passport. I think they changed it. You get a passport card. So if you get your passport, I know it's because I'm literally doing this right now. You get a passport card for $30. And with that card, you can go international on boat or a car. Yes.

You can't fly. Yeah, it used to be able to just cross the border with your driver's license, your normal ID. Right. I think like maybe 10 years ago, the change was like, you have to have your basketball. It's been a minute. So San Diego is a gateway to a lot of fun things. There's a lot of things you can do. You're only, you're literally just a couple hours away from my life.

That's what you're trying to do. But San Diego has it all. SeaWorld is definitely like the crown jewel. Today is a great day to be here because today we're going to go to a concert. And they have this whole concert series that's going on. I'm sure you've probably seen it on. TikTok, super viral. What are some of the groups that we've seen?

I mean, the Ying-A-A twins really, like, kind of set it off. Dude, like, we walked in. The first thing I saw was Soldier Boy and Paul Wall, and I was like, yeah, I'll be here for that. That rules, like, I won't be here. I know. Was it Walker Hayes that was on there, too? I believe so, yeah.

Yeah, I was like, what? Applebee's on the late night. Come on, Tyler, they're seeing. We know you know. I don't know. Also, what we love about SeaWorld is the food. Like every time we come here, we usually come during the food festival. But today that you can buy, the all you can eat food passes.

And that's what we're enjoying today. Now, the first thing that we did see when we got here was a behind the scenes tour, which not everybody can get. It's about saving animals. Now, they have this whole rescue operation behind the scenes at SeaWorld that I think they don't give themselves enough flowers on. Like anytime you see in the news, there's a seal stuck somewhere or there's a dolphin stuck somewhere. Who do you think people are calling? Are they calling their local police or firefighters? No, they're calling SeaWorld.

SeaWorld have all the facilities set up to take care of animals like this. And the whole behind, the whole park, they have doctors. Rehabilitation centers. Yeah, everything. And I don't think they get enough credit for that. And it's all in their own dime, too. And they said they have an 83% return rate to the ocean? Yeah.

That's amazing. I did not know that. Yeah, and they're all through the coastline, too. They're bringing in animals from Oregon, Washington, all the way from Alaska, which, by the way, I asked the question, how do turtles get here from Washington, Oregon? That was a good question. She shared, our guide shared a really cool organization called Turtles Fly 2, which is like the funniest coolest thing ever, turtles get to fly in PJs.

Yeah, she's down to San Diego. She's like, oh, yeah, we hit up people who have, like, private interests for like, hey, can you, like bring a turtle down? So I'm just thinking, like, oh, yeah, I have a turtle in the back. She shared a story that she picked up a turtle once from like a gold-plated interior jet. And she's like, who does this jet belong to? And there's just a turtle in a box. So super cool.

What they do here is really awesome. So, yeah, they do so much rescue work. People just need to Google it and find out everything that they do. And I think we're going to get our day started here and have our first interview. All right. State your name and what you do here at SeaWorld. My name's Tori Jones. I'm an Aquaris here at SeaWorld San Diego.

I've been here for about three years now, and right now I am not working directly with the sharks and shark encounter, but the sharks out at the front of the park in Explorers Reef. Now, I heard a fun fact that sharks have been around longer than the rings of Saturn. Is that true or not true? I don't know entirely about the rings of Saturn, but I do know that they're older than trees. I mean, they've been here longer than anything. When the planet was covered in water, the sharks were there. Aren't there some sharks that can live to be like hundreds of years old?

Yeah, so the Greenland shark is a species that. I mean, they're estimated about 250 years, but there's been some records about 500 years old. Wow. So they live a real long time in really cold water. Wow, I heard like alligators can live, I don't know, pretty long. Yeah, reptiles do have pretty long lifespans in general. I had no idea about the sharks.

Yeah, yeah. As someone who works with sharks, do you have like a favorite shark? My favorite shark is a shark that we don't have here. It's the great hammerhead. It's the first shark I ever got to see in the water. So I've always kind of been mesmerized. by them. Also, they're just so weird looking. I just love them so much. But my favorite shark here would definitely be our zebra sharks or our Australian leopard sharks. Now, wait a minute. You said

see a hammerhead in the water. How did that happen? So my family is avid scuba divers. We've all been scuba diving for years. I started on 11 years old and my first dive that I ever got to go do with my grandma. We did off the coast of Florida, I believe. And I was so young, but we were in the water and my grandma like grabs my hand and I look over and there's this massive hammerhead. And at the time. I didn't know it was a great hammered. It was smaller. So we were like, oh, maybe juvenile, but they were like, oh, my God, that's like the coolest shark you can see on one of these dives. So we're really, really excited. So then did that just make you fall in love and want to work at the world? Yeah, I think just my grandparents' influence in general, like, really

inspired me. I mean, I've been a water baby forever and seeing the videos of my grandparents travel all over the world and dive with the sharks and do all these crazy things. I was like, man, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life. That's so cool. Now, should people be afraid of sharks? I think a healthy respect is due. They are very powerful animals. And I mean, when we're swimming, we're in their environment. You need that healthy respect. However,

I don't think they're ever targeting us. It's most of the time mistaken identity. We're not really a prey item for them, but they do want to come over and check us out. They just don't have hands like humans do to check things out, so they're going to use their mouths. But I just think sharks are so important to the planet that it would be

not fair to them to kind of cast them out because of the media that we've consumed over the years, like Jaws and all the scary shark movies. They're not represented correctly, but they're so important. They're the apex predator, so they're taking care of all of the levels below them. They're taking care of all those sick fish. They eat them, get them off the reefs. So if there's no sharks, there's no reefs, if there's no reefs, there's no reefs, there's no oceans, no planet.

So they do contribute pretty heavily to the ecosystem. Now, in the SeaWorld Shark Encounter, we saw some big sharks in there. Yeah. What's the biggest one in there? largest shark is our lemon shark in there. She's quite a big girl. I don't know her exact weight, but when we weighed her, it's probably close to 300 pounds. She's a really big girl. She's a really big girl. She's a really good eater. She'll come over and eat, but I mean, if you're in the water, she doesn't really care about you. How do you feed them? You just, like, you just throw it in there? So we have long tongs that we have a specific diet for each shark, so we want to make sure they're getting the fish that we have prepped for them. So we do long tongs and we wait for them to come over and we'll swim it in front of them, make it really interesting for them. We like to play with them, so they're nice and stimulated and excited. to eat. And then we also have other species like fish and some bottom dwellers in there. So we do broadcast feeds as well. Yeah, that's what we do with Tyler. We have some long tongs just in case he doesn't take off on our hands.

Like a chicken sandwich on the long stick and just make it interesting for him. So do you have a question. So you said each shark has a specific diet, right? So which shark gets which fish and like what fish do they eat? It's kind of depending on like the day, we like to switch it up for them, give them some variety almost. It depends on the size of the fish. to like our Blue Runner and our Bonita fish are a little bit bigger than, say, the herring and stuff that we feed. So it depends on the shark, and each shark does have individual taste.

So they're all kind of picky eaters. So there's some fish that they just don't want. So there's days where we prep a whole bucket of Blue Runner and none of the sharks want Blue Runner. They only want the Bonita. It just depends on the day, but we try to make it as versatile. Sometimes they get salmon. So, yeah, it just really depends on the day.

So here's a question, speaking of fish and sharks, the fish that live with the sharks, They never have to worry about being like meals for the sharks? They all just live together? Yeah, most of the sharks know where the food is coming at this point in their lives. They've been here a really long time. They know they're going to get fed. So, I mean, they're not going to extend all that energy to go catch those fish.

Sometimes it does happen. Sometimes the fish will swim into a shark or sharks just irritated that day. We do have some yellow tail in there. They're really, really big fish. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. I get it, dude. I get it.

I get it. They're so big, but they'll come and even divers. They come and they bump into us. and they really run into us, and I can see why it would be annoying why a shark might want to take a little bite. Yeah. It does happen sometimes,

but it's not their main food item. Okay, one last question, personally for you, why should people come to SeaWorld? I think SeaWorld is a great place to learn about animals that you might never get to encounter in your day-to-day life. Like, I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's completely landlocked. There's no oceans.

If I didn't have my grandparents and learn from them, I probably know nothing about the oceans. And so I think SeaWorld is a great place to go, and learn and get interactions with these animals, and it really instills a care and a passion about them in younger generations, which we really, really need right now. Because, like I said, with the shark movies and everything, older generations are genuinely scared,

and it's just so deeply in our brains that it's just not something we can erase, but we can teach new generations the difference and teach them how to respect the oceans and everything like that. I think SeaWorld, all the different areas, the mammals, the fish, the birds, everything, it all contributes to that. It's conservation is the number one. Awesome. Nice.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next up, state your name and what you do here at SeaWorld. Jackie Plaza, and I'm the vice president of sales and marketing. Oh, nice. Okay. So you know everything that's happening at SeaWorld, like all the events.

And we're really into the events that happen here. I mean, the concert lineup is amazing. Also, we love the food fairs that you have at the festivals. And that's one of our favorite parts as well. And of course, the park and the rides, but what's going on lately here? Well, you're here on the right day. We have E-40 in town from the Bay Area. It's the first time that he's performing here at SeaWorld, so we could not be more excited.

By the way, he was, you know, we track our reserve seating, and he was one of the top people selling, the top artist selling. Oh, nice. So it's pretty incredible to see. We had that lineup. He's just one of many in the lineup. So, you know, we started out with Yin Yang Twins, but we have, after E. 40. We've got Jordan Sparks. We've got Soldier Boy. I saw you have a Shanti.

Yep, a Shanti. I saw Jenny Wine on the schedule. Oh, wait. Genuine's been here three times already. And he gets in the crowd with all of the audience. So it's so fun because the women go nuts for Jenner. I'm literally like hugging him. He's saying happy birthday one year. He's just like incredible. Yeah. The women love Genuine. That's so great. Including me. I was personally so excited because the Bay is what? In the building.

The Bay in the building. I'm born and raised in the from the. We were listening to Yay Airy on the way I'm not even from the Bay Area I was like this is great I love you 40 I'm a big stuff curry fan So you know what yeah so definitely love the bay Well okay so on top of the concerts what else Oh we have so much so actually next week

This is pretty incredible we've never done it before But we are hosting a viewing party for the World Cup Semi-finals on Tuesday and then again on the Sunday for the finals and guess where we're doing it Orca Stadium watch party with whales so on the big We're going to be showing the game or starting the match and then the whales are going to be swimming around and I heard a rumor that back in the day They used to love watching the Super Bowl Their few of them are actually part of this research study where they play where they play Pong against one another

So they're able to use their mouths and their heads in order to move like a cursor around and they can play against each other So I am hopeful that when a goal is scored and everyone goes goal the whales are going to be jumping up everywhere So that's one big thing. Yeah, I think some people here in this circle are going to be back next weekend. Yeah, we might be. We might have to swing. I'm sold. Not in.

If you guys want to come, we have the nice person pair of reserve seats for you. Oh, nice, nice. Personally, what is your favorite part of the park? Oh, my God, just the animals. And our team, you know, some of our team has worked with our animals for like 30 years. You know, some of the animal care team have met their, their, they're a hard. husbands and wives together here, their kids work here. It's just so incredible to see the bond between them. Yeah. So I love, you know, I love shark attraction. I love, you know, we have

nighttime shows now for the first time back, you know, in a really, really long time. First time, dolphin night show, dolphins touch the sky. Night does something with animal presentations where it just makes it really dreamy and really cool. And it's a whole different way to see these animals who have such like magic to them. The same thing with Orca. We have an Orca Nighttime Show. Those were two new ones that started this summer. So that's every single night here. They're included with park admission. I love them.

And then I'd say I'd cap it off with the ocean of dreams. That's our drone show. So for many years, we did fireworks. This year, we have launched our drone show. And people love it. It's a story about ocean conservation. And it shows orcas and jellyfish and just everything in the sky. And it makes you, it gives you, it's like the perfect way to end the day.

Like you just feel like tingly. Well, those drone shows are just so over the top now. Oh, my God, they're cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's really, really cool. This has like a soundtrack to it and a voiceover and it takes you. It feels like you're on like another planet almost.

So yeah. Now I do, I do have another question. Okay. And I want to ask everybody that comes by, for you personally, why should people come to see World? Oh, it's just. I know you already listed a lot of reasons why, but for you, you're number one reason. I would say like the nostalgia of it.

You know, I lived in L.A. for probably about 25 years and I came down and moved down to San Diego for this job and I was just blown away. To see how you just feel carefree and young and there's like some sort of like weird thing that occurs when you get here where you're just like you're a kid again. And I don't think you can find that very often in life. So it's less of something to see and more just the ambiance. Like it's really fun to bounce around with like your sister or your friend or your kid. Like you know and just have a good day.

Like it's truly like it takes all the stress away. You have fun. You see animals. I mean, these are animals you can't see anywhere else. Like, when you guys have a chance, go check out our cold weather penguins. Like, the only other place to see them is Antarctica. I will be there. He has a penguin tattoo.

Do you really? Yeah. Oh, I love it. So he's excited for the penguins. But, oh, man. Well, thank you so much for stopping by today. Thank you for having us and hosting us. It's such a good time every time we come by.

Awesome. Can you say something real quick in the mic? Is she allowed to say something in the mic? You want to say something in the mic? Want to say something in the mic? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Well, we'll do this quickly then. Julian, come over here quick. Sit down, Randy, quick. Once he's on the table, he's usually very good. Okay, cool. All right, here we go. State your name and what you do here at SeaWorld.

Yeah, I know. First introduction was the Alligator, so who's this guy? My name's Jojo. Help me here. Here's Elsa. We work for a company called Conservation Ambassadors, and we're actually here doing a North American Wildlife Program in Mission Bay Theater here at SeaWorld San Diego.

Nice. And our company, Conservation. ambassadors has actually worked with SeaWorld for the last 30 years. And so what we do is we take him rescued wildlife, either animals that are illegal pets that get confiscated by fishing wildlife or animals that were injured to the point where they can't be released back onto the wild and then mostly do educational programs in schools with them. But every once in a while we're down here on contracts like this and kind of give a face to a lot of the rescued wildlife that SeaWorld takes care of as well.

Because they have one of the most amazing rescue wildlife programs on the planet here at SeaWorld. But there are usually ending up back on to the wild, while ours are able to be in new settings and for presentations like this. So we come out and we kind of give a face to that rescue program. Now, you instantly drew a crowd because you just busted out a six-foot alligator, and his name's Spike, I heard. Now, I just want to let everybody know I got really close to Spike. I was probably within a half a foot of Spike.

You can pet him if you want. And I will pet him because they bring this up on the show all the time, on the Woody Show that I would be afraid of a three-foot alligator if I saw one in the wild. And I said, I wouldn't. Alligators in general are pretty mild manner. They'll usually flee from people. The only alligator ever had come at me like how I would look like lunch was a 12-foot alligator that was used to people. Wow.

And so that's one of the biggest things is a lot of these instances where people are attacked by alligators or stuff like that, a lot of times they're alliators that people have been feeding in the wild. They're tossing them hot dogs and stuff. and they start to see people as a food source, and that creates an encroachment closer to people, and that's when a lot of those problems arise. Now, that being said, I've worked with both alligators and crocodiles, and there's a bit of a personality difference between the two. Yeah, the crocodiles, you got a little bit more edge there.

I had a foot and a half-long crocodile that would come out and just trying to attack my boot every time I went in. While Spike, he's very easy to get along with outside of his pond. So he only gets fed in his territory, in his own pond, And that creates a bit of separation from work and home life. And so he acts a bit more like a real alligator in his enclosure. Okay. And Louisiana has crocodiles or alligators?

So they actually have both. So the Everglades has the American crocodile, which is a class one endangered species, which was brought back from thought to be extinction. And they found a few of them in a backwater cooling pond of a nuclear power plant. And now there's about thousands of them. Do they go in the dark? Yeah, a little bit. You know, most things down there in the bayou do.

No, it's... The reason I do bring it up, because I hear there's a low rate of people being attacked in Louisiana when it comes to alligators and crocodiles. And that's mostly due to coexisting with them for so long. It's not usually the locals that end up in a lot of these circumstances. Maybe there's something in the water in Florida, weren't there? Yeah, because the numbers between Louisiana and Florida, I was just trying to figure out, you know, that's why I asked crocodiles or alligators.

Nobody's getting attacked by crocodiles here in the U.S. They're so highly endangered. You're lucky enough to even see one. Oh, okay, okay. Yes, but no, and to be honest, it's one of those sensationalized things. It's like a shark attack. Same thing.

It happens once in a year, and then all of a sudden it's a big deal. Now, in the recent years, things have changed a little bit. But just with knowledge and knowing the animals themselves and people being responsible, it really wouldn't happen very often.

And like you said, this guy's sitting here on a table, he's just sunbathing. I know, and we're surrounded by like hundreds of people right now. At the Joe Gator. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of part of it is he's very, very used to people. Now, if he was set free into the wild, he would actually be more likely to attack somebody because he doesn't fear people.

He's so very used to him that he would come right up to people and be like, where's my lunch? And that's why he's with us at our center. And he was actually found during a drug raid in Los Angeles about 34 years ago. Really? Yeah. So he was found during a drug raid and he was confiscated in the center. He was about three and a half feet long at the time when he came to us. And we feed him up to where he's nice and fat and happy,

but only grows about an inch to an inch and a half a year. Wow. That's really cool. So there are no gators that are native to California, right? Like they all came in from other parts. Right. So, yeah, they're one of the most common illegal pets that get confiscated by fish and wildlife. A lot of people go to other states like Nevada or Texas and buy an alligator and try and smuggle it into California.

Wow. We have very, very strict exotic wildlife laws, which is good. It protects the animals themselves and also our agriculture, which is a big deal. But, yeah, so these guys are one of the more common ones. We have another alligator in our program. His name is Chubs. He was found in our frat house. Yeah, I don't know how he pledged, but he was part of a frat house.

What frat? Was he found in the Florida frat house? I'm not allowed to disclose. There's a lot of confidence. There's only one college out there is named after the gator, so. I'm always fascinated. This was Northern California. That's the only hint I can give you.

I'm always fascinated by how gators are found on the West Coast. At the L.A. Zoo, there's one right at the entrance that was found in like someone's lake in their backyard or something. So it's always crazy. I mean, alligators are cool, but I'm like, why would you want one as a lot? It makes no sense. Personally, after hearing all these stories, I think a lot of it stems from something having something different than what everybody else is. It has to be exotic. It has to be interesting.

It has to be something new. That's why people get monkeys and alliators and all these other things and it never works out the way they think. They're not Disney Channel animals, you know? Yeah, zebra, right? What happened? It's never happened to wizards. For a parent.

So when people come to SeaWorld, how do they see alligators? Okay, so we're a contractor, so we're down here different times of the year for different stuff. Some years we'd hear a lot, other years not as much. Like this year, we've been here pretty consistently. We were doing for their Seven Seas Festival, we were doing an Animals of the World program, taking people on our journey around the world through learning about different animals from different continents.

That was a really fun one. For the summer, considering it was a 250th anniversary of America, we decided to go North American Wildlife and celebrate some of the animals that we have living here in the United States that we feel tend to get overlooked. And it is kind of one of those things. Now, the Allioter, not so much.

But for instance, our other guest, you want to go grab it real quick? We can bring them out at the same time. We have more guests. This next guest is one that I think is often underappreciated. It has a bit of a reputation for being one of the uglier animals on this planet. Is it named Tyler?

Don't be like that. Wow. She is an amazing creature. We were just talking about this creature, like right before we showed up. That's awesome. This is one of my favorite animals. Yeah, so you can bring her around to them, Elsa. And just I'll stay here with the gator.

So that's Billy. She's about a three and a half year old Virginia opossum. and they're amazing creatures. This is North America's only marsupial. So these guys are pouched animals like the kangaroos and koalas, but because they're tree climbers, their pouch is actually a little bit different. It goes in sideways, like a sweatshirt pocket with a hole in the middle,

so that the babies are nice and safe as moms climbing up down those trees. But her being three and a half, she's actually kind of a senior citizen. They only live about three or four years. Wow. Yeah, but in three to four years, they can have over 50 babies. Wow. I love possums. Yeah, possums are pretty awesome.

She's got more teeth than any of the land mammal in North America. Wow. Where can you find possums in America? I grew up in Northern California. I would visit the canals area like Sacramento where my grandmother lived and it's full of possums. But even in the San Francisco Bay Area, we'd have possums everywhere. Yeah. So raccoons seem to have taken over to the Bay Area a little bit.

They have a good stronghold on it. You will still find a possums in the Bay Area, just not quite as frequently. For instance, I grew up in Auburn. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where our half of the facility is. So we're based really in Weimar, California, right near Sacramento. And we're such high altitude.

We don't get as many opossums either. They're out there, but you don't see them as much. But opossums were originally an East Coast animal. So they're originally an East Coast animal that was spread all around the United States. They're in the Great Depression to breed and be used as a food source. Really? Yes, they breed very fast. In her three-to-four-year lifespan, like I said, she can have over 50 babies.

They're omnivorous animals so they can eat any kind of foods And so they were kind of a perfect animal To bring along to the West Coast And feed people Now they just release them into the wild And let them breed and then people would hunt them But they are now seamlessly moved into the western half of the United States

And they're actually one of the least impactful invasive species on the planet Wow Yeah, it's pretty amazing Always break for possums Yes, yes I always break for possums Yeah, I love those bumper stickers too but just a real cool animal.

Now, a question, I don't know the legality behind owning a possum as a pet, but is it the closest wild animal that could be domesticated to be a pet? So every native species here in the United States is not legal to own as a pet. Without permitting and stuff like that. Now, there are other states where permits are easy to get. That's like when you see people that have raccoons and skunks and stuff like that as pets. Certain states have very lax permitting laws. You can apply for those permits.

very easily and get that animal. Not something I'd ever recommend. I love her a lot. I wouldn't have her living in my house, though. You know, she's a pretty, like, alert animal. She wants to kind of mosey and eat her food. And so we set up her enclosure where she can feel like an actual opossum, but you guys just pet her. You know, you guys, we got her so used to people

that you guys were able to pet her. And so that takes work, though. That takes a little bit of effort, a little bit of training, and what we call conditioning. So getting an animal to act like these two takes a little bit of training. Now, if you remember what I said about Spike, how he acts like a real alligator in his territory.

So let's say a person gets an alligator as a pet, they have him in an enclosure in their home, then he's going to think that's his home and he's going to act like a real alligator at that point, and that causes his problems. I wouldn't want him living in my home, but once he's out and about, he does pretty good. He's going to want to wiggle here a little bit.

I'm actually going to throw him right back, all right? Wait, wait, wait, wait, do you guys want to feel him real quick? Yeah. Well, there's your excitement for you. That was... I got to say, even with my bark joke, you didn't flinch. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, okay. Thank you. I touched the gator. I was not afraid. That was the... When he was like, oh, yeah, I got a couple friends with you. I'm like, all right, cool. We got, like, you know, a little, like, bird or something.

That's a gator. Yeah. That was a gator, dude. Will he get bigger? Yeah, he'll grow his entire life. So you grow, based on how much food they're getting, how warm the environment is. Yeah, so we keep them nicely healthy and proportional. That's the biggest thing you're looking for.

is to keep their proportions correct. When they're malnourished or misfed, they kind of get weird shaped. And that's a big indicator for Ruff House. Naturally. Yeah, right? My question isn't a little weird shape. I have a bearded dragon.

Definitely not an alligator. But for dragons, I've been told that the bigger that, when you get a bigger tank, they grow bigger. Is that kind of the case for gators as well? Or gators always just continue to grow regardless of how big of an enclosure they live. Yeah. So it's something that's, been a slight fallacy

a little bit. Especially with the like the beardies and stuff. Beardies almost have a top size that they get to. They will continue to grow most of their life. But they usually end up at a pretty typical range. You know, I haven't seen a five foot bearded dragon that's living out in the grasslands of Australia. But it's one of those things that people started to say

that if you keep them in a smaller tank, you give them less food, they'll stay smaller. And it's really that less food side That is really the bigger indicator of it. Also, sunlight is a huge thing. It's a huge part of the alligator's lives for the reptiles' lives. So for them, it's a lot of varying factors. I've seen alligators kept in terrible conditions that are massive.

So small enclosures, way too big for them, and they still manage to grow. So it's one of those things that kind of got skewed a little bit. I've seen it happen with some fish. So some fish, it's kind of like tank size. actually does make it vary a little bit. But as far as the reptiles go, not so much. How do babies do they have? Alligators?

Yes. They'll have at least like 20 eggs right around there. And a lot of them will hatch, and about one and every 12 survives. I do have to ask one question before we leave. Oh, sure. And I ask everybody, you personally, why should people come to SeaWorld? Why should people come to SeaWorld? Well, one, every dollar that you spend here at SeaWorld adds up to supporting a company

that has rescued over 43,000 animals since opening their gates. I work with their vet staff here. I work with their rescue team. They do some of the most amazing work on the planet, not to mention the passion that it spreads about wildlife. When you see the dolphins here or the whales here, the sea lions, or even the jellyfish, which is an awesome new exhibit, you create a personal connection with those animals,

and I don't feel people care about stuff that they don't have a personal connection with. That's why we do our job. That's why we're out in schools letting kids meet an alligator. And that same philosophy is why you should want to come to SeaWorld. Not to mention the fact that it's fun. You've got rides, you got concerts, you got all sorts of really cool stuff going on. And this one's a, it's a small park.

It's fun. It's like, I've done work at SeaWorld, especially SeaWorld San Diego. This feels family to me because I grew up down in this area. We've worked with them for a very long time. And you come to Sea World, especially. you're a passholder, you get to know everybody here. You'll recognize people. And that's a really cool thing for me.

But yeah, just spread that passion about wildlife. That is what they've been best at, and that's what they'll continue to be best at, is getting people to care about, especially about marine wildlife. Awesome. All right. I do have one more question.

So if someone wants to get into your line of work, how do they do it? Like, what do you go to school for? So you're asking the... I know the answer. So first of all, I know the answer, but I'm the wrong. person asked. Okay. So my mom and dad started our half of our wildlife rescue center. Oh really? Okay. Yeah. So I grew up

working with animals. I'm basically a nepo baby. Um, so, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I enjoy my job, I worked hard at it, but, um, I grew up to me. I had the advantage of literally working with animals my entire life. My parents went to a school called Moore Park College that has the Edom program, which is a hands-on training zoo. And literally you stopped that zoo for two. And literally, years and you can get her job almost anywhere in the field. Now, that's a direct route. That's like the trade school route. The other ways you can go is behavioral sciences.

Any of the like studying animal behavior, even human behavior plus animal handling experience, whether it's with dogs and cats, cattle, anything like that, just can get you in the door. And most people have to work their way up. Most of the time you get a job. Like for instance, Elsa worked here at SeaWorld before I stole her from the company. she was a zoological assistant and so she was mostly making like

doing the fish house which is preparing the fish for all the animals in the park and that's an early morning shift getting up and making the fish for everybody else well not making the fish but thawing the fish and getting it all set up and that's a cool part that's a big part of the facilities here and she happened to want to volunteer for us

when I was doing a summer contract and that volunteer work that she did is what got her her job So a lot of times, our companies like mine will hire volunteers that work for us, or you can take out that volunteer experience and apply it to anywhere else. And that's the biggest thing. Just show commitment and keep applying. There's not that many jobs in our field. So keep applying.

I know people that have waited their entire lives to work with animals, and they end up doing it in retirement. And so, you know, there's lots of different ways to do it. But the Morpark College, the Edom program, is the most direct. bath and that's where most of the animal trainers so that's for people that work directly with the animals, that's where they went. Cool. All right. Awesome. Thanks, man.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. See you later, Alligator. Yay. Yeah. All right, well, I think we're going to lose Tyler and he's going to start working with animals now. It's so funny because

I told myself if I didn't love doing media and if I didn't love doing radio, honestly I think working at a zoo probably would have ended up being where I'm at. Matt has had to keep Tyler from crawling to that carrier with the gator, dude. I know. Dude, I think it was cool.

And it was like, eyeballing me and everything. And I'm just like, this is kind of wild. You know, it was great because people were walking by and not knowing if that gator was real. Yeah, they thought it was a statue. I'm watching. So, like, Jill's right behind me, there's this chick that's just like, oh my God.

When she's like, no, it's not real. And then she's like, oh, my God, it's real. Well, I saw little kids, like, trying to, like, creep up with them, the lady that was standing by us to guard everybody. Yeah, but she didn't see her, so I was, I was ready to pound on that little girl. Don't touch it. That's the only thing I'm looking at the corner of my.

I'm like, okay, there's a lot of kids here. Please do not run up on this. Yeah, so we take a second to recognize and give the possum the respected decisions. Oh, God. Possoms are dope, man. Ashtag, always great for possums. Shout out possums. You know what?

So when I was a little growing up, we would leave our cat food outside in the front yard by the front door. One night, I walked outside, not thinking anything. I just opened up the front door, and I jumped up. back so far. It was a freaking family of possums. I got so scared and I never, ever in my life that I would touch a possum. And I did. My mom still leaves cat food out in front of her house and she gets skunks, raccoons, possums. A skunk actually sprayed her porch like a couple weeks ago. Don't, don't possums hiss when they get scared or get mad. I mean, to be fair, look if someone's coming up with me, I'm probably hissing too. I used to live next to San Francisco State and

they would crawl under my house. Possum, skunks, raccoons, all kinds of stuff. We have deer that run by. Now skunks are interesting because skunks will lunge at you. They'll like stomp their little paws at you to be like, yo, bro, back off or it's going to get gross. My brother's down from Massachusetts, and he's here visiting the SeaWorld Park with us,

and his ring camera went off on his phone, and on his camera you see a little family of skunks going underneath his shed. And he's like, they were on their back, rolling around. You see the mama, was at least six little babies behind them off. Just let them live up. They're ready to party. Yeah.

They want to be outside. Well, we're going to go enjoy the park some more. I'm looking at our schedule. I think we're going to meet a penguin today. Yes. I'm excited for that. We're going to meet a penguin. My life is complete.

And then what else is on our schedule? I want you to waddle up to it. I don't know. Look, there might, there's going to be a World Cup game going on when we meet this penguins. I'm going to be showing it some soccer a little bit. Introduce him to a little to my life. And then after that, we got the E40 concert, Shamoo Light up the night. Yes.

And then the drone spectacular, the ocean. We have a jam-pack day. I want to at least go on wine ride. By the way, the coasters here are absolutely kick-ass. I went on almost all of them last time, and this place knows how to have fun. Yeah, it's not stable. I'm excited for it. All right.

Dude, SeaWorld somehow got better as I got to become an adult than when I was a kid. It's wild. Which, by the way, no one talks about this either. The aerial tram that's in the back of the park is really fun, too. Gets a nice look over the bay. You can see, obviously, the whole park. Yeah, it's super cool. What are we doing here, man?

We're going to go enjoy SeaWorld. You should too. Check out the new shark encounter and enjoy the food. We already did. We're going to do it again, actually. Yes. Barbecue. It's a special edition of What's the UPod live from SeaWorld.

We'll see you next week.