54. Frogmouth and Pig-Nosed Turtle

Noses and mouths!

Two animals with weird features. A frogmouth: who is not a frog nor an owl. A frogmouth a bird! That looks like a Muppet. And a pig-nosed turtle is a turtle with a pig nose and looks like a sea turtle...but isn't a sea turtle. This turtle requires fresh water! So a fresh water turtle.

If you're confused don't worry, as I help to clarify, and if I don't help them there are always images available to view on our Instagram and Facebook.

If you'd like to donate and learn more about EDGE of Existence, click on their website:
https://www.edgeofexistence.org/

Scientific Names:
Tawny Frogmouth: Podargus strigoides
Sunda Frogmouth: Batrachostomus cornutus
Pig-nosed Turtle: Carettochelys insculpta

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Transcript

Noses and mouths! That’ll be the highlight of today. No not necessarily the senses themselves but the name’s sake and most prominent feature of the two animals of today. Hi, I’m Deidre, a zookeeper of ten years and the host of Weird Animal Facts: Explicit a show dedicated to the weird, odd, unusually, gross and often times disturbing facts about animals (which is this show you’re listening to. This is Weird Animal Facts: Explicit. You’re listening to it now.) And hopefully you are of age, as this podcast is not appropriate for children. But at least most of the adult content I talk about is relating to animals! So that’s better right? Anyways….

The two animals of today are the frogmouth and pig-nosed turtle. See I told you; noses and mouths! And if you’re confused as to what exactly we are talking about, don’t worry, we’ll go over it. But in the meantime, if you would like a visual to see how accurate I am at describing both animals then go check out our Instagram or Facebook page to see images today’s animals. No enough of the intro, let’s get on with it!

***Frogmouth: imagine a Muppet; a bird Muppet. It has the large scowling eyes of Sam the Eagle with the wide mouth of Kermit the Frog. But the frogmouth, is not a frog. It’s a bird. Its about the size of Rizzo the Rat, if not smaller, and is as misunderstood as the Swedish Chef because at first glance you think the frogmouth is a part of the tree it lives it, thanks to the remarkable camouflage plumage and statue-ist posture when a predator is about. Then on second glance, once the frogmouth, relaxes, it looks like an owl. It is not an owl! Nor it is a frog. It looks like a frog, due to the Kermit style mouth and big bulgy eyes, and it also looks like an owl, because of their rounded body, and again those big haunting eyes that look to be in premiant bitch face once it makes eye contact with you. 

“Look at me you will not! The frogmouth has spoken.”

The frogmouth, is actually not an owl at all. The frogmouth is actually more closely related to nightjars then to owls. 

(theme song) Its now time for Actually Actual Facts, with me Ashley! Hi nerds it’s your girl Ashely here with some actually actual facts about Strisores. Alright, nerds, don’t lose your head. Strisores is actually just the clade, you know, animals with a common ancient ancestor. Like how the elephant shrew is actually more related to elephants then shrews, and are both in the same clade. Strisores is a clade of birds that actually include, quite a lot of them: swifts, hummingbirds, nightjars, potoos, oilbird and the frogmouth. But get this, just to confuse you more, there was actually a recent study published in 2019 that used, what they call a total -evidence approach (meaning like they actually looked at both DNA and fossils together) and they think that there might actually be some convergent evolution involved and not all of these birds actually evolved from the same ancient ancestor. But the silly think about science is that other people have to test what you tested, to know for sure. Like that’s how thorough and persist science can be. So, for now, until the actual scientists decide to split up these birds’ evolutionary tree even more or not, they can all just stay in the same clade. That’ll actually make things much easier for now. This has been actually actual fact with me Ashely. Thanks for playing. Bye.

My thought on the matter is, when we think about last week’s episode; the aardvark and giant anteater; who have pretty much the same adaptations but yet, evolved from different ancestors basically due to Pangea’s split, since aardvarks are from Africa and giant anteater are from south America; perhaps it’s a regional difference that will split up the Strisoes clade. But the one problem with my thought (with this thought, not all my thoughts, as we won’t be diving in to the dangers of my brain just now), is that unlike the land mammals of the aardvark and giant anteater these birds can fly. Meaning, how the hell do we know where they originated from? When did they start flying? Where did they fly to? Do they migrate? Does that help determine how these birds will or can be classified? This is all too much for my brain to manage at the moment. So instead of digging into the detailed science that a Ph.D. student should be doing, instead let’s just look at the frogmouth as a species. 

Fun Fact: There are 14 species of frogmouth birds in the world. And if you see one in a zoo, especially here in the States, you are more than likely to see a Tawny frogmouth who is native to Australia and Tasmania. 

Double Fun Fact: Frogmouth species can be found from Papua New Guinea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, India, Laos, Singapore to the Philippines. 

These birds like the forested areas. And if you have ever seen one, it should be obvious why. They are the envy of every hunter that has ever stepped foot into a Cabela’s. When we humans try to blend into the forest landscape we have to spend hundreds of dollars for jackets, bibs, hats, packs, some even go so far to by camouflage tents, ATVS and crossbows; all so that they can look like a tree. For the frogmouths of the world, they don’t need huntsman’s wardrobe as their feathers are naturally tree colored….I mean camouflaged. 

And its not that the hunters of the world or frogmouths want to look like a single tree, they simply want their imagine to disappear as their prey and or predator looks across the forest landscape. Unlike human hunters, who are big in comparison to the other predators of the forest, frogmouths, aren’t. As mentioned, the largest frogmouth species, the large frogmouth (great job at naming things scientists), is only slightly bigger than my foot is long. Meaning, as a small bird, they aren’t just hiding from their food, they are also hiding so not to become food. 

This is like if human hunters had to not only hide from the deer, they were hunting but also the bear and puma that wanted to murder them (and if you’re new to hunting, don’t worry, the chance of you getting eating by a bear or puma while sitting up in your tree stand is very slim. Not impossible, but slim). In the frogmouth’s case, they have got this camouflage thing down! If you were that hunter who had to also avoid being eaten by that bear or puma, then if you saw one nearby or hear something suspicious you would flatten your camouflaged jacket, real thin, lift your nose up, close your eyes and freeze. They probably close their eyes so that the last thing they see isn’t their attacker murdering them. Actually, they close their eyes since their eyelids blend in better with the forest then their bright yellow or orange eyes, but maybe it’s for both reasons.

When hunting those, the frogmouth will need their eyes. Although not directly in front of their face, like an owl, the frogmouth will need those eyes for hunting. As a nocturnal/crepuscular hunter…

Crepuscular: occurring or active during dawn and dusk.

They do have decent night vision and hearing, similar to owls. And another owl similarity the frogmouth has are their wing feathers. You know how I’ve called owls the ninja of the sky? Well, frogmouths are also ninjas as they too have silent flight. Think of those toothed scissors your hairdresser used so to thin out your hair and then they come in with those scissors at the ends of your hair, giving those ends a comb-like serrations. Which in the frogmouth’s case, breaks up the turbulent air so that their flight is silent and those moths, centipedes, worms, spiders, snails and slugs don’t hear what’s coming until its too late. Plus, that big Muppet mouth, can be yellow on the inside and looks like a flower! So if a flying little critter gets too close, those whisker like feathers surrounding that opened mouth can sense that, and snap! No flight needed. 

Man, is all this talk about eating making you hungry? What about hungry for love? (Did you see what I did there? That was a pretty good transition wasn’t it?...I was until you said that.)

Some, polyandrous people will find the love life of the frogmouth, weird. But from society’s standards of mating, the frogmouths love life, is very much approved. These birds won’t be going to hell as they, just like ideal American Family of the fifties, are monogamous. (Monogamous. Do do do do. Monogomous). That’s with one female mama and one male papa. And together, they make the perfect family. And in my opinion frogmouths are even more of the perfect family then that American Dream family of the fifties, as unlike that fifties dad who would wake up, eat breakfast. go to work, come home, eat dinner, maybe some sex then go to bed to do it all over again the next day, all while hardly interacting with their child; the frogmouth dad pulls the same weight as the mom. Both incubate the eggs (but of course it was the mom who laid it so in the long run, I still think the female might have had the more difficulty job). But the male frogmouth, not only helps to sit on the eggs but also will help to feed to chick. And not just by bringing home a paycheck and ignoring the children. The father frogmouth, just like the mom, will hunt and feed its baby. But maybe that’s why the frogmouth developed such a large mouth…so to help the man find it better. All of us women, who have known or even laid with a man, know how hard it can be for a man to find something; the ketchup bottle that’s in the door of fridge, their keys that are on the nightstand, toilet paper that’s under the sink or even the citreous. Men have proven that they need help from time to time. 

But again, this reason for the giant frogmouth is just my random theory. I have lost of stupid theories, like lizard people and how I wish I was one, as lizards are amazing. But my idea of a lizard person is more lizard fact based then that other theory out there. How cool would it be to be an actual lizard! Okay maybe my thought on lizard people is more of a wish then a theory. Maybe one day when science goes wrong, I too can become a lizard. Oh! But why species of lizard would I want to be…Oh that’s easy, horned lizard. Or Komodo dragon! Or a chameleon! Alligator (which isn’t a lizard). I’d want to be an alligator…Back to frogmouths.

~Bird calls with Deidre. In case you ever decided that you’d rather be a bird then a human, or even over a lizard, then consider learning how to mimic the call of a bird. In most bird identification guides, in addition to describing to you what the bird looks like it also phonetically spells out how the sound of the bird should sound so you know what to listen for; or if you’re me, you can mimic. But since I only have a bird book for birds of the United States, since that’s where I live, we turn to the internet. According to birdsinthebackyards.net which is an Australian based website the call of the tawny frogmouth should sound like a soft, deep, continuous, “ooo-ooo-ooo” sound. And each “ooo” is with 3 Os.  Go ahead and give this call a try….My turn!...now he’s what it actually sounds like.

https://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Podargus-strigoides

But according to eBird.org, which is product of Cornell Lab of Ornithology (and an app you can download, which I just did) the Sunda Frogmouth, which I just fell in love with! Its little, big eyes with those whisker feathers also around that wide head, is said to give a harsh, grating caw, as well as clear whistles and a brief rolling series of harsh notes. You give this call a try…my turn….Here’s what it actually sounds like. 

https://ebird.org/species/sunfro1/ 

This has been Bird Calls with Deidre.

~

Now since we know just what a frogmouth is and sounds like, let’s learn how not to say their scientific name. Scientific Names are hard.

Tawny Frogmouth: Podargus strigoides

Sunda Frogmouth: Batrachostomus cornutus

**Pig-nosed Turtle: Do you remember that sea turtle they found with a straw up its nose? Well, that’s what this turtle looks like! A turtle with two tiny straws sticking out its nose…too soon. Okay so maybe not exactly. But this turtle does have a weird looking face. It looks like an ordinary sea turtle but smaller and its not a sea turtle, this dude requires the purest of all water: the fresh water. But it does look like a leather back turtle, because unlike all the other turtles of the world, this dude doesn’t have a hard shell. Its soft, just like newborn’s skull. Also, similar to sea turtles the pig-nosed fresh water turtle has flippers. Which is weird! And you might not think so as when most people think of turtles, they think of the sea turtles from Finding Nemo, but most turtles aren’t living in the sea and don’t have flippers. Really, most have feet. Like the snapping turtles, mud turtles, box turtles, and even the Chinese softshell turtles of the world all have feet with claws for digging, not flippers for swimming, even though they all spend quiet a lot of time in water. But the weirdest thing about the pig-nosed turtle is in fact, its short, stout, flexible and fleshy pig nose. More on this nose later, but first we must ask ourselves…

Could the pig-nosed turtle be the evolutionary link between the fresh water and sea turtles of the world?!! Perhaps. As they are the only surviving member of the their entire family: Carettochelyidae, and this branch of their evolutionary tree goes back 140 million years!

And since we already attempted one word let’s just get their scientific name out of the way: Scientific names are hard:

Pig-nosed Turtle: Carettochelys insculpta

As a relic the pig-nosed turtle stands alone. Yes, it is a fresh water turtle, but it is very unique. As stated, it has flippers like sea turtles, and that soft shell. Which is also weird considering scientist already have a family of soft shell turtles that does not include the pig-nosed turtle. Why? Well it could be due to the region they’re found in. Most of the world’s soft shell turtle (who I should also mention have clawed feet) can be found in Africa, Asia and North America. While our pig-nosed turtle is found in fresh waters of northern Australia and southern New Guinea. And since the pig-nosed fossil records are so old, as in all the other turtles of the world evolved from other turtles, it leaves the pig-nose turtle a weird loner.

Fun Fact: In 2015 a fossil of a turtle with a pig snout was found in Utah. But it belongs to an extinct family of turtles, so no more related to the pig-nosed turtle we’re talking about today then you are to chimpanzee.

Double Fun Fact: Our pig-nosed turtle also goes by the fly river turtle; because its can be found in the fly river. But Pig-nosed turtle is weirder and that’s what you’re all here for.

Let’s take a few moments to focus in a bit more on that weird nose. And ask, why? Why does it have that ridiculous nose? Can they smell underwater? After all, when we think about a pig’s nose or even an aardvark that’s what their pig snout if for; for smelling. Can a turtle smell underwater? 

Yes, turtles will have at least a minimum sense of smell under the water thanks to something called a barbel. Think of a barbel like the whiskers on a catfish. Some turtles will have obvious barbels while our pig nosed turtle friend doesn’t… but their nose, yep that pig nostril is actually very good at smelling. It helps them find food and helps them breath! Not under the water; they don’t have gills. They have to, need to breath air. 

But coming up to the surface can be dangerous. As air and land predators could see you and then eat you. So not to be seen and to keep hidden that pig nose will move! Instead of how, other aquatic turtles are forced to lift most of their head above the water to breath the pig nose of the pig nosed turtle will rotate so to reach the surface and allow air in; just like a snorkel. 

Where we can all agree that the visual and functionality of the pig-nose is weird, one think that you maybe be able to see is the weirdness of their babies. For most animals, such as humans, after the love making and fertilization happens is when sex of the baby is determined. We may not know it until the ultrasound shows a penis or not, but biologically speaking that baby is already on its way into creating little boy or little girl parts well before we even know what it is. But that’s not the case for the pig nosed turtle and many turtles, fish, some lizards and all crocodilian species. What determines their babies sex is the temperature. 

Imagine you and your partner talked and decided it would be better financially to have a boy instead of a girl (after all most girls require make-up, tampons, pads not to mention girls are smart meaning you’ll have to start saving ten years ago for their college fund). And instead of leaving the will it be a boy or girl debate up to chance all you had to do was lower the temperature of the uterus just a smidge. Then viola! You have a dumber less expensive boy (Disclaimer: there is no scientific evident that states having a boy will be cheaper financially then a girl. Unless it’s a boy cat. Cats don’t cost as much as a kid.).

But how would temperature decide gender? And what if that turtle is gender-fluid? Well since we can’t straight up ask a turtle how they identify as we’re going with biology: sperm equals boy, ova equals girl. For the reptiles and fish whose gender is determined by temperature it has to do with an enzyme that controls sex steroids: aromatase. Basically if the temperature is warmer then that triggers aromatase to produce more female hormones, which gives us more biological females, where cooler temperatures the aromatases will develop more male hormones creating more biological males. And the reason why I say more is because most reptile and fish lay multiple eggs and depending on the construction of the nest, the outside temperature the eggs could all be at different temperatures meanly you’ll get different genders But if the temperature of the eggs is between the range of higher temper (which give us more females) and lower temps (which give us more males) then the eggs have a pretty even chance of developing in to either a female or a male. 

And when we think about global warming, which is real; you can see how this could be a threat to this endangered species. That’s right, this weird nosed turtle is endangered! And if temps are too high, then they could only have females and even though some animals don’t need a male to make babies, at this time, the pig nosed turtle does. But right now its not the higher temperature that has placed this animal on the endangered species list, its poaching of eggs in combination with a few other factors. This turtle has been known to live into their 30s but doesn’t reach sexual maturity until they’re at least 15, then when they do mate, its every few years, not every year. Basically, in order to keep up with the poachers demand for eggs these turtles need to be fucking a whole lot more. But since we can’t just start playing sexy turtle porn with kinky music out over the rivers northern Australia and Southern New Guinea the next best thing is to donate to conservation efforts. Launched by the Zoological Society of London, EDGE of existence is a global conservation initiative that focuses on helping threatened species that represent a significant amount of unique evolutionary history. Such as the Attenborough’s long beaked echidna, Chinese giant salamander, pig-nosed turtle and many, many more. If you’d like to help out these species and more click on the link in the show notes then find your way to their donate page so that you can help save an evolutionary important species. And if you aren’t in the position to donate money, then the next best thing is to spread to word. By teaching others about the pig-nosed turtle or really any animal you found a love for will result in creating more caring people who will want to help and save the animals of this world. It may not seem like much, but a short conservation with a friend, family member or even a stranger at a bar could result in that ultimate step needed to help protect this world we all call home. 

And hey, if you send them to this podcast more props to you! And for those of you who are new, please rate and review this podcast wherever you are listening and I can’t wait to share even more weirdness with you next time. Stay weird! 

https://www.edgeofexistence.org/