Just the Zoo of Us

Join Ellen & special guest, wildlife photographer and author Mark Smith, for a review of the worldwide masters of sea and sky. Ospreys almost disappeared from our coasts during the 20th century, as our guest shares with us, making us even luckier than ever to share the planet with them today. Through his years traveling the world to capture the beauty of these raptors, our guest has learned a lot of valuable life lessons that he is here to share with you. We discuss optional thumbs, how birds can use the physics of the ocean to their advantage and even turn prey into their ride home, designs for a modern family crest, and more.

Links:

• Get The Spirit of Birds wherever you buy books!
• Follow Mark on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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The arc of history is long, but it bends towards shrew. We discuss tasks that require zero cats, supercontinents, venom and cancer research, iron-plated teeth, load-bearing spines, what shrews have in common with a hostile Minecraft mob, and more.

Works Cited:

• “In Vivo Detection of Human TRPV6-Rich Tumors with Anti-Cancer Peptides Derived from Soricidin” - Chris V. Bowen et al., PLoS One, March 2013
• “Deciphering an extreme morphology: bone microarchitecture of the hero shrew backbone (Soricidae: Scutisorex)” - Stephanie M. Smith, Proc R. Soc. B, April 2020
• “Dehnel's phenomenon is not a simple reduction of size: seasonal change in skull shape of the long-clawed shrew (Soricidae, Mammalia)” - Yugo Ikeda et al., Proc R. Soc. B., August 2026
• "Why Do Some Shrews Have Dark Red Teeth?" - John Wible, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
• “Moving Nose to Tail, Shrew 'Conga Line' Shimmies Online” - Laura Geggel, LiveScience, July 2017
• “Acoustic behavior in the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda): Ultrasonic click production in a novel environment” - Margaret E. Gleason, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, July 2023
• “Sorex palustris underwater Sniffing - Vanderbilt University” - Luis Azevedo Rodrigues, YouTube
• “Water Shrew Walks on Water” - MyBackyardBirding, YouTube

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, wildlife ambassador and returning guest Marco Wendt of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, to shine a spotlight on the world’s most famous amphibian. From Mesoamerican legend to medical research labs to the lush caves of Minecraft, axolotls have inspired stories and innovation and wonder in humans all over the world but their story starts in the heart of Mexico, which is why our guest has chosen them as the frilly little faces of this episode in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. We discuss the axolotl’s indigenous name and its roots in a mythological prop hunt, some possible designs for custom skins, what human metamorphosis might look like, setting your future reincarnations up for success, and more.

Links:

• Follow Marco on Instagram and TikTok!
• Plan your next trip to see axolotls at the San Diego Zoo!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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This chunky lizard is living proof that two heads are better than one. We discuss BTS (disambiguation), secret signals encoded in lizard tongues, accidentally flirting with the wrong end of your true love, "roommates," and so much more.

Works Cited:

• “Why is the tongue of blue-tongued skinks blue? Reflectance of lingual surface and its consequences for visual perception by conspecifics and predators” - Andran Abramjan et al., The Science of Nature, August 2015
• “Following trails of partners in the monogamous lizard, Tiliqua rugosa” - C. Michael Bull, Christian Lindle, Acta Ethologica, September 2002
• “Mate Familiarity Affects Pairing Behaviour in a Long-Term Monogamous Lizard: Evidence from Detailed Bio-Logging and a 31-Year Field Study” - Stephan T. Leu et al., Ethology, April 2015
• “Lovestruck Lizards: The Monogamous Relationships of Shingleback Skinks” - Exotics Keeper blog, February 2024
• “Lizard suffers world's worst pregnancy” - Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, February 2007
• “Scientists Confirm Shingleback Lizards Only Reptiles That Mate For Sake Of Aging Mothers” - The Onion
• “Strengthening protection of endemic wildlife threatened by the international pet trade: The case of the Australian shingleback lizard” - S. Heinrich et al., Animal Conservation, July 2021

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & returning guest wildlife educator Christian Flores for a conversation about the Zoology of Pokémon. What can we learn about the wildlife and ecology of our world through the fantastical creatures in the world of Pokémon? We are gonna talk about the convergent evolution of different species of Pokémon, like Tauros and Bouffalant, the mega evolution of salmon, why Komodo dragons might actually be steel-types, and of course we’re making teams. Which real animals would go on our guest’s team and which Pokémon are going on mine? You’re about to find out.

Links:

• Follow Christian on YouTube, Instagram, and BlueSky!
• Follow along with The Artemis Paleozoo! Pre-orders available from Rextooth Studios!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Ellen and Christian get a feel for the garden eel. We discuss fortified butts, science's greatest unsolved mysteries, flirting techniques for the ultimate homebodies, video chatting with eels, and so much more.

Works Cited:

• “Morphological specializations in heterocongrinae (Anguilliformes: Congridae) related to burrowing and feeding” - N. De Schepper et al., Journal of Morphology, March 2007
• “Spotted Garden Eel” - California Academy of Sciences
• “Peek-A-Boo with Hawaiian Garden Eels” - Nature on PBS, YouTube
• “Life in the flow: unique adaptations for feeding on drifting zooplankton in garden eels” - Alexandra Khrizman et al., Journal of Experimental Biology, August 2018
• “Spawning behavior of garden eels, Gorgasia preclara and Heteroconger hassi (Heterocongrinae), observed in captivity” - Tomohiro Kakizaki et al., Marine and Freshwater Behavior and Physiology, August 2015
• “This Japanese aquarium wants you to FaceTime its shy eels” - Emiko Jozuka, CNN Travel, May 2020
• "First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea" - Rosalind M. Wright et al., Scientific Reports, October 2022

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Joined Ellen & special guest, conservationist and herpetologist Harpreet Singh Sethi, for a look at the snake appropriately named the Giant Lord of the Water. While the false water cobra is the main topic of the episode - and is even a silent but very much present guest for recording - we discuss a lot, like multifaceted approaches to conservation, taking a snake in a box on the bus, convergent evolution of hooded snakes all over the world, the care and keeping of reptiles, stories from the field, and so much more.

Links:

• Follow Harpreet's Wildlife on YouTube and Instagram!
• Check out Harpreet's documentary: What NO ONE Tells You About Snakes in India | Beyond the Fear | Snakebite | Documentary
• Audio source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYFD4BsEruI
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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In this week's re-broadcast of an episode from April of 2023, Christian cheers for pom-pom crabs & Ellen explains what makes mourning doves so coo-l. We discuss how crabs clone their own pets, what type of milk pigeons order in their lattes, and a suspicious pattern of criminal activity.

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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It's fall yall - time for Ellen and Christian to embark on a multi-generational odyssey with monarch butterflies. We discuss why butterflies are total heartstoppers and their style twins, real-life shinies, what's going on inside a chrysalis, an annual journey that takes multiple generations to finish, how to best support wild monarch butterflies, and so much more.

Works Cited:

• "Danaus plexippus" - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• “Predator induced colour polymorphism in Danaus plexippus L. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in Hawaii” - John Stimson and Mark Berman, Heredity, March 1990
• “Comparative unpalatability of mimetic Viceroy butterflies (Limenitis archippus) from 4 South-Eastern United-States populations” - David B. Ritland, Oecologia, Jan 1995
• “What was learned?” - Monarch Watch, University of Kansas
• "The phenomenal monarch migration" - Mara Koenig, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• “An experimental displacement and over 50 years of tag-recoveries show that monarch butterflies are not true navigators” - Henrik Mouritsen et al., PNAS, April 2013
• "Joint Statement Regarding Captive Breeding and Releasing of Monarchs"
• “Is Captive Rearing Hurting Monarchs?” - Elizabeth Anne brown, National Wildlife Federation, March 2026

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & very special guest zookeeper and conservationist Alice Vassallo for the inside scoop on one of the world’s most mysterious not-so-big cats. We discuss differences between zookeeping practices in Europe and the US, swiping right if you have rotatable ankles, marshmallows as a last resort, have an eclipse interlude, and so much more.

Links:

• Check out Alice's podcast (profanity warning)!
• Follow Alice on Instagram!
• Check out the Clouded Leopard Working Group!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
• Follow Just the Zoo of Us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram & Discord!
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Ellen weaves her magic on sociable weavers. We discuss the three pillars of science communication, trick entrances, plane cabin pressurization, bullying for the greater good, lizard gossip, and more.

Works Cited:

• "The Sociable Weavers of the Kalahari" - Ultimate Safari, YouTube
• "Kapokvoel, Cape Penduline-Tit.(Anthoscopus-minutus)" - Coerie Ferreira, YouTube
• “Largest bird’s nest” - Guinness Book of World Records
• “Sociable Weavers Increase Cooperative Nest Construction after Suffering Aggression” - Gavin M. Leighton, Laura Vander Meiden, PLOS One, March 2016
• “At home with the birds: Kalahari tree skinks associate with sociable weaver nests despite African pygmy falcon presence” - Tasmin L. Rymer et al., Austral Ecology, May 2014
• “Kalahari skinks eavesdrop on sociable weavers to manage predation by pygmy falcons and expand their realized niche” - Anthony M. Lowney et al., Behavioral Ecology, June 2020
• “Pygmy Falcon predation of nestlings of their obligate host, the Sociable Weaver” - Rita Covas et al., Ostrich - Journal of African Ornithology, Nov 2009

Links:

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Join Ellen & special guest marine biologist Kristyn Plancarte for a review of the world’s wettest weasels. We discuss beluga whales’ fake six packs, the unique challenges of caring for animals who so desperately crave chaos and destruction, dolphin MLMs, how adorable animals could save the world, and so much more.

Links:

• Follow Kristyn on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch!
• Learn more about Kristyn on her website!
• Check out the Elakha Alliance to learn more about sea otter conservation!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
• Follow Just the Zoo of Us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram & Discord!
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Ellen is blowing up about pufferfish. We discuss what pufferfish have in common with chameleons, seafloor crop circles, culinary applications of deadly neurotoxin, and so much more.

Works Cited:

• “All puffed out: Do pufferfish hold their breath while inflated?” - Georgia Evelyn McGee & Timothy Darren Clark, Biology Letters, Dec 2014
• “Treatment of Tetrodotoxin Poisoning” - Sophie Yushuo Li, Theoretical and Natural Science, April 2023
• Dolphins purposely 'getting high' on pufferfish - Dolphins - Spy in the Pod: Episode 2 - BBC
• "Pufferfish Builds Sand Sculpture for Mating" - Nature on PBS
• “Seeking a Deadly Delicacy: Pufferfish, Regional Gastronomy, and Pharmacology in Middle Period China” - Zihan Guo, Journal of Chinese History, July 2026
• “Chefs Train for Years to Serve This Rare Poisonous Fish” - Bon Appetit, June 2024
• “Pufferfish in China: diners lured by delicacy now country has bred them poison-free” - Elaine Yau, South China Morning Post, February 2019

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, journalist and writer Sharon Guynup, for stories from the world of conservation. Our guest’s career has taken her all over the world, from the forests of India to the highways of rural America, where she has experienced both ends of the spectrum of human relationships to nature. She’s been part of busting wildlife trafficking rings and abuse and she’s seen communities join forces to protect and preserve their native species. Her stories include a population of lions brought back from near extinction, a crime campus, a tiger attack, e-mails from Joe Exotic, gas station pizza, influencing entire new laws, a Hollywood celebrity cougar, and so much more.

Links:

• Pre-order Sharon and Steve's book Big Cats, available October 6!
• Read more from Mongabay at https://mongabay.org/!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Ellen & special guest Isaac answer questions from young listeners! We discuss bug guts, milking squids, the blobfish's secret Final Form, getting upped, ancient sharks with table saws for faces, and so much more.

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest, writer and scientist Dan Werb, for a look at the animal neighbors that have made themselves at home in our own backyards: synanthropes. The word means a wild, undomesticated animal that lives closely alongside humans, whether that means scurrying through subway tunnels or curling up in an old refrigerator at the bottom of the sea or quietly roosting right over your head, all of which we discuss in this episode. We also talk about a university campus turf war between dogs and baboons, the genetically enhanced Super Soldiers of New York City, villainous plants, the ancient prehistoric roots of our spiritual relationship with ravens, and other fascinating stories featured in Dan’s book, Our Wild Familiars, which has just released this week.

Links:

• Pick up Our Wild Familiars where books are sold!
• Follow Dan on Instagram!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Ellen and Christian return from their travels to review the good, the bad, and the ugly of the mongooses. We discuss the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, historical plurals, neurotoxin Darth Vader, checking in with Pliny the Elder, the most "mean girls" scientific study ever, mysteriously weird pupils, the global issue of mongoose-induced ecological destruction, and so much more.

Works Cited:

• "Mongoose" - Etymonline
• “How the mongoose can fight the snake: The binding site of the mongoose acetylcholine receptor” - Dora Barchan et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, August 1992
• “Why the honey badger don't care: Convergent evolution of venom-targeted nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in mammals that survive venomous snake bites” - Danielle Drabeck et al., Toxicon, March 2015
• Book 8, chapter 36 of Natural History - Pliny the Elder, 77 CE
• “Experimental evidence for delayed postconflict management behaviour in wild dwarf mongooses” - Amy Morris-Drake et al, eLife, September 2021
• Hawaii Invasive Species Council - Mongoose (Urva auropunctata)
• “Negative Impact of an Invasive Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes javanicus on Native Wildlife Species and Evaluation of a Control Project in Amami-Ohshima and Okinawa Islands, Japan” - Fumio Yamada & Ken Sugimura, Global Environmental Research, December 2004
• Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, Schedule 2 - New Zealand government

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Ellen & special guest, science journalist and host of Radiolab and Terrestrials Lulu Miller, discuss the lifelong impact of science communication, review bald eagles, and share a very special podcast treat. Terrestrials: The Trio originally aired on July 26, 2024: https://radiolab.org/podcast/terrestrials-the-trio240726

From the original episode description:

"High above the banks of the Mississippi River, a nest holds the secret life of one of America’s most patriotic creatures. Their story puzzles scientists, reinforces Indigenous wisdom, and wows audiences—all thanks to a park ranger named Ed and a well-placed webcam. If you want to spoil the mystery, here ya go: it’s a bald eagle. Actually, it’s three bald eagles. A mama bird and daddies make a home together for over a decade and give new meaning to our national symbol."

Links:

• Learn more about Terrestrials: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab-kids
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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Join Ellen & special guest science communicator, infectious disease researcher, and the Khaleesi of Mosquitos for a review of some of the animal kingdom’s most controversial creatures. We discuss whether our guest would rather fight 10,000 mosquitos or a gorilla, evil squiggles and how malaria works, larval cannibalism and mosquito-on-mosquito crime, what the insectary is doing with all those soup cups and dental dams, and so much more.

Links:

• Follow Cassandra on Instagram orYouTube!
• Learn more about the the Kaushansky Lab at Seattle Children's Hospital's Center for Global Infectious Disease Research!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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We add another string to our bow by learning about the fiddler crab. We discuss the arc of history bending towards crab, the MogBot 2000, bad dating advice, non-orientable wormholes, and so much more.

Works Cited:

• “The Design of a Beautiful Weapon” - John Christy, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
• “On the Other Hand: The Myth of Fiddler Crab Claw Reversal” - Judith S. Weis, BioScience, April 2019
• “Sexual selection for structure building by courting male fiddler crabs: an experimental study of behavioral mechanisms” - John H. Christy et al., Behavioral Ecology, May 2002
• “Synchronous waving in fiddler crabs: a review” - Patricia Ruth Yvonne Backwell, Current Zoology, July 2018
• “Robotic crabs reveal that female fiddler crabs are sensitive to changes in male display rate” - Sophie L. Mowles et al., Biology Letters, January 2018
• “Not what it looks like: mate-searching behaviour, mate preferences and clutch production in wandering and territory-holding female fiddler crabs” - M. Peso et al., R. Soc Open Sci.. August 2016
• “Dishonest signalling of fighting ability and multiple performance traits in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi” - Simon P. Lailvaux et al., Functional Ecology, March 2009
• “The effects of neighbor familiarity and size on cooperative defense of fiddler crab territories” - Isobel Booksmythe et al., Behavioral ecology, November 2011
• “Beyond Abiotic Decay: Fiddler Crabs Accelerate Plastic Fragmentation in Pollution Hotspots” - Jose M. Riascos et al., Global Change Biology, December 2025

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
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