"It’s the most wonderful time of the year,
With the frogs that are freezing,
The snow buntings leaving. Oh this is so weird!
Its the most wonderful time of the year!"
In our second to last winter week, we take a look at two winter themed animals that appear to be.... normal. But this show is not called Weird Animal Facts for no reason. These two seemingly ordinary bird and frog are anything but. For the cold weathered snow bunting, that beautiful white plumage isn't even their winter plumage. They're white in the summer (which is the opposite of most Europeans)!
Guest appearances by "Julia Child" for a new segment of "The Bird Chef" teaches us just how to make a snow bunting and Funky-Chill Snow Blunt as he gives us a tour of his "Crib."
Wood Frog...Its a frog. That looks like a frog...and its brown...its small... yep. Its a frog. But as normal as this frog looks its actually a very wintery weirdo. Here's the only hint I'll give you. Wood frog cocktail: blood + sugar + urine = Not dying when frozen.
Scientific Names
Snow Bunting: Plectrophenax nivalis
Wood Frog: Lithobates sylvaticus
Instagram @wafpodcast
tiktok @wafpodcast
Email: wafpodcastexplicit@gmail.com
Facebook: "Weird Animal Facts: Explicit"
"It’s the most wonderful time of the year,
With the frogs that are freezing,
The snow buntings leaving. Oh this is so weird!
Its the most wonderful time of the year!"
In our second to last winter week, we take a look at two winter themed animals that appear to be.... normal. But this show is not called Weird Animal Facts for no reason. These two seemingly ordinary bird and frog are anything but. For the cold weathered snow bunting, that beautiful white plumage isn't even their winter plumage. They're white in the summer (which is the opposite of most Europeans)!
Guest appearances by "Julia Child" for a new segment of "The Bird Chef" teaches us just how to make a snow bunting and Funky-Chill Snow Blunt as he gives us a tour of his "Crib."
Wood Frog...Its a frog. That looks like a frog...and its brown...its small... yep. Its a frog. But as normal as this frog looks its actually a very wintery weirdo. Here's the only hint I'll give you. Wood frog cocktail: blood + sugar + urine = Not dying when frozen.
Scientific Names
Snow Bunting: Plectrophenax nivalis
Wood Frog: Lithobates sylvaticus
Instagram @wafpodcast
tiktok @wafpodcast
Email: wafpodcastexplicit@gmail.com
Facebook: "Weird Animal Facts: Explicit"
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With the frogs that are freezing
The snow buntings leaving. Oh this is so weird!
Its the most wonderful time of the year!
Welcome to the Winter Wonderland Weird Animal Fact: Explicit podcast, where you join me, Deidre: an unfortunate combination between an ice witch, Krampus and Buddy the Elf; and we learn about two weird winter time animals. Not that these animals are only alive during the winter, its just winter is the time of year that we associate the following animal with…or maybe, as you might not have ever heard of these two animals before. But I assure you, they are wintery and they are weirdos. The Snow Bunting and the Wood Frog. And I know, I know, to the untrained animal enthusiast these two animals are nothing. You think nothing of them, possible because you have never heard of them or because one is thought to a be an ordinary ground bird and the other…a frog. A wood frog. The name isn’t even that exciting. So what’s so weird and great about these two animals that together wouldn’t even fill up your socking? For that answer, you’ve come to the right place. I may not be an active zookeeper at the moment but I have studied animals my entire life; whether that be the six-year-old me questioning if Willy could really jump over that jetty to freedom or the 33-year-old me questioning why a child is allowed to be unattended with a killer whale…I’m sorry an orca. As a zookeeper of ten years and an animal educator I am always trying to find new fun facts and how to weirdly share them with you. Plus I don’t have to worry about offending any parents since this is my show for adult. Speaking of show: let the show begin!
**Snow Bunting: sounds like the batting style for Atlanta Braves playing baseball in a blizzard. But who am I kidding; it don’t snow in Atlanta. What a snow bunting actually is, is a bird. And when we think of birds the first few to come to mind are that of the mighty birds of prey or a robin. But the snow bunting is actually is most closely related to song birds and perching birds, more specifically they are a passerines. And if you don’t know what that word is. That’s okay. As there’s a lot of birds in the world and the order that the snow bunting happens to belong to (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) is the largest order of birds.
Fun Fact: More than half of the known bird species in the world belong to this order: Passeriformes. Meaning if you see a tiny song-bird looking thing, chances are it’s a Passeriformes.
If you’re still having trouble imagining what a snow bunting is, because let’s face it, only true bird nerds dive this deep into classifications of identifying birds (to become a birdnerd yourself, there’s an app for that! The Merlin app that helps you guess what bird you’re looking at. Check it out). But to help you better envision what a snow bunting looks like think about a sparrow, or a finch. And if that still doesn’t help then just imagine a round feather ball with short-ish beak. It’s not thick like a grossbeak or finch. For those of your who remember the teachings of Darwin, will recall that Darwin brought the name finch into the spotlight with his examples and illustration of adaptions of the beaks. As just like random draw of kitchen utensils, each has a different purpose; it just takes an expert like Charles Darwin or Julia Child to teach you the difference.
(As Julia Child) Hello, I’m Julia Child welcome to the bird chef cooking show. Today we’re going to make a snow bunting. This is a wonderful little bird to for us to do especially with the holiday season upon us. Before we begin on the snow bunting details we must get our main dough prepared, which is a bird obviously, so get out your lightweight bones and feathers. As we know there are many types of birds so it’s important to have a good solid foundation of a body to work with. And of the birds I’ve made I find that it’s the snow buntings that are quite remarkable and unique. Most think that the snow bunting is going to be just like any other bunting but they are quite different in one very important ingredient. Plumage.
Most buntings look the same no matter the time of year, but for the male snow bunting his plumage changes with the seasons. And although this is the holiday cooking special, it is odd to be making a male snow bunting this time of year as that iconic white plumage we are aiming for today is their summer plumage. So even though you make the white male now, when your guests arrive you can then use that as an opportunity to educate; then make it again in the summer.
To capture the snow bunting’s summer plumage, we don’t make it all white. Because if we make it too white then you’ll have yourself a McKay’s Bunting instead of a snow bunting. Grab your black coloring and with a gentle hand color in that black to the back, tail and wings. But only the outs of the wings need to black and the tail is black and white, so be careful not to completely black it out.
For those chefs out there who found this chunky bird to be too easy, then one thing you can always do is add the winter color first. By adding rust-colored patches on the head, “ears” and back, as well as adding more dark streaks on the back you’ll easily have the winter plumage of the snow bunting. Then, to get the whiter summer plumage all you need to do is a simple rub you can be rid of that rust and extra darkening you added for the winter.
And now we’re just about done. And the best part about this bird is that its an Arctic bird, so it likes the cold so no need to worry too much about heating it. And to make this as true to the recipe then you’ll want to make multiple individuals as they are also called “snowflakes” because when they forage on the ground they are normally in groups and if they get spooked then they all flutter around together making it look like snow flurry; which is where that nickname snowflake came from. With the artic field set I hope that you feel you can make a bird on your own. This is Julia Child and this is the bird chef and see you next time: Bird Appetit.
-
You did hear Julia correct. That white plumage that the male snow bunting is known for isn’t during the winter. They are white in the summer. Why? Well, simple, it has to do with their breeding season. There are strictly a northern bird; found from the northern United States to Iceland, Scandinavia to Scotland. As we know with winter comes very cold weather, and since its so cold, its probably not the best idea to stick around the North Pole when there really aren’t any seeds or insects available for your meals, especially when you have a pair of wings to fly down south for a few months where you know they’ll be food. But the thing is, when they go south in the winter, its not really all that white there. Here in the United States, during non-breeding the snow bunting has been seen as far sound at South Carolina and Texas. But once it starts to get a wee bit warmer the snow bunting will migrate back north to actual Arctic where its still pretty white on the ground.
Its actually the males who head north first, as they’ve got to stake claim to the good nesting spots. And because this is typically around spring when there’s still plenty of snow on the ground, the males need to blend in better and all they have to do is rub their chest, head and wings on the hard snow and off comes their darker winter plumage and hello sexy summer bod, patiently awaiting the ladies to join them in the breeding ground. Imagine if humans had a breeding ground…I guess that’d be Hinge and Tinder.
New app ideal, online dating where it keeps tracks of your breeding season and only makes you visible to potential suitors when you’re ready… Its called Breeding Season! Technically its called consent, also wouldn’t tracking human breeding season technically be tracking a woman’s menstruation cycle? I only said this was an idea!
But to find a mate for a snow bunting appears to be nowhere near as complicated as online dating. Animals seem much more sure of what they want in a mate. Plus, like Bumble, the girl gets to choose. While the male had the honor of finding the perfect nesting spot, or hopefully, it will be the female who decides if his crib, flying pizazz and voice is sexiest enough to dedicate an entire summer breeding season with.
(Cribs) What’s up yall. Its funky chill snow bunt, and I wanna welcome you my house, slide in. This rock house is designed for privacy so yall are lucky I’m letting take a peek. The front door looks like nothing more then a tiny crack. Ain’t no one but me and my sexy lady are getting in here. But I’m usually out in the yard, cracking down on seeds and insects, then with mama bunt nesting inside, she sitting real nice, I bring you some of the best grub I can find. Speaking of mama bunt, let’s go say hello. ~This is the Hallway right here; we don’t keep much in this thin crevasse hallway its mainly just a way to keep all those predators out. But we do got this one crack, right here, its too small for us to go down, but don’t it look pretty? ~ Hey yall this here’s my boo, she’s nesting on our eggs just now. We ain’t supposed to make too much noise in here. Hey babe! You looking sexy! Naw, its cribs, I’m just showing off how tidy you keeping it in here. She worked real hard to make it nice and warm and quaint in here. See all that moss she got tucked up under her the eggs? That’s to keep her and my babies warm. You probably leaned against the walls on the way in here, they cold ain’t they? My baby’s gotta keep warm. She’s also got some feathers and fur she found, shoved all that in there. It get cold up in here. She’s gotta stay warm and safe from all those hoodlums looking for an easy meal; it won’t be easy reaching through this security. ~Yah, yall I just want thank you for joining me and checking out my crib here in the Arctic. I better not be seeing you trying to sneak on in. Ya hear me. Peace.
-
Just because its spring time and getting closer to summer it does not mean that the Arctic is warm. It can still get 30 degrees below zero which helps to explain all that warm installation mama snow bunting has used to create that nest in the far back crevasses in between those boulders. But even once the eggs hatch and winter finally rolls around, the males, get their more colorful plumage and everyone heads south, they aren’t heading to the Bahamas, they still stay relatively north. Earlier when I said that there has been snow bunting sighting in the lower, warmer states didn’t mean that’s where they all go, if any thing those are the weirdos, as most of the snow bunting winter in more norther areas, where its still pretty cold. These birds are like the Starks, they do much better in the North.
So with it being so cold, how does a small bird with nearly naked legs keep warm? Think about how our body works. Right now as I sit here my feet are freezing because like the lazy idiot I am I have refused to put on socks. The reason my feet are so cold is because the blood that’s flowing into my feet is quickly getting cooled by the air that is touching my skin. If I was in the Arctic right now, running around barefoot then I could very literally freeze my toes off. That’s when the skin and underlying tissues freeze. That’s called frostbite. Birds that call cold places home, don’t have to worry too much about frostbite, not because they can’t get it, nor because they have tiny birdy socks to slip on, but because their feet don’t have as much fluid in the cells, unlike my toe-cicles. Their feet is basically just tendons and bones. But if they do want to go the “sock” route all they would have to do was to sit. By laying their fluffy feathers on their tiny toes, their plumage works just like the socks I still haven’t put on. Plus I have big feet! Meaning there’s more surface area for the cold to grab on to verse a tiny snow bunting whose feet and legs combined are probably only about an inch long.
But where the snow bunting has many adaptations to avoid freezing; such as going to the most north reaches of the Arctic in the summer, having very little fluid in the toes and by having nice fluffy feathers, there are many other animals who may not have these seemingly obvious adaptions to survive but does have some really, weird and wild ones, that clinically kills them.
**Wood Frog: This ordinary frog, that looks just like any small brown frog that you would imagine; dies every winter only to come back to life like the unfortunate souls who were murdered by the Night King. Only instead of joining his army to invade Winterfell, they return to life to eat and fuck. I mean that’s why I wake up every morning.
This mostly norther North America frog lives what appears to be a simple life as frog. It begins life as an egg, then through the amphibious process of metamorphosis transforms into a tadpole before reaching its final stage of Pokémon evolution to the fully formed Wood Frog. Basically, there looks to be nothing special about this frog. But, just like an Asian country singer the wood frog has a very unsuspecting talent.
Wait! This is a frog? And since frogs are amphibians that means they’re cold blooded. Don’t cold blooded animals have to live in warm climates? Not necessarily. It is true that many coldblooded animals that we know of live-in warm areas; such as Gila monsters that call the mostly warm country of Mexico home, the chameleons of the rain forests, or even the African black mamba. You’d think that being an ectotherm you’d want to live somewhere that would keep your body temperature warm. As mammals our body keeps up warm, verses most cold-blooded animals who rely on the outside temperatures to warm them. So then how does a frog that is found from Alaska to Canada keep warm during the winter? Unlike the snow bunting wood frogs can’t fly meaning that they’ll have to withstand those cold winter months.
As mentioned, many birds will migrate away from the cold, mammals like bears and ground hogs will eat a shit ton, so to build up all that fat storage inside them before they go into either a semi- or true hibernation, that way they can rely on that fat to provide the minimal amount of energy needed to keep things working. You see, the thing about mammal hibernation is that when they go into hibernation, they’re alive: their heart is still beating, lungs are still breathing and their brain is still functioning. But not the wood frog! When winter begins somehow this frog, that’s no bigger than your overdue credit card, turns into a Blockbusters Video that shuts down. But unlike the ‘90s favorite video rental stop, the wood frog only shuts down for the winter. But it completely shuts down. I doubt they even dream. They don’t breathe, they don’t think and their lungs aren’t functioning. But yet, once springs begins to show a whisper of arrival the wood frog miraculously comes back to life! HOW!?? How can this be? This sort of process is something we only see in sci-fi space movies. Its not something we humans can actually do. But boy do we want to.
But the reason why we can’t perform this suspended animation or suspended hibernation as some call it, is because our body functions differently. As we’ve mentioned in previous winter episodes of this podcast if we humans were to experience such cold temperature our blood cells would freeze due to the ice crystals that formed in our blood then we would die. But there’s a bit more to this dying. The reason why we die is because our blood cells dehydrate. It’s the ice that sucks the water from the cells and that’s what ultimate would do us in while in freezing temperatures: our dehydrated blood cells. But for those of you who have been listening to the winter episodes may already know the answer as to how the wood frog doesn’t die: anti-freeze. That’s right just like ice fish and springtails, the wood frog is able to create anti-freeze and unlike other animals of the cold, who are just naturally creating anti-freeze all the time the wood frog only makes this anti-freeze as temperature drop. And they are literally making it: think of it like a wood frog cocktail made of blood, sugar and urine.
Think about the last time you peed. Now think about how many times a day you urinate. What’s the longest you’ve got without expelling that yellow liquid? Well, if you’re a wood frog; its eight months. Peeing and pooping is our body’s way of getting rid of waste: things our body can’t use. The thing that is released in our urine is urea. That’s what we mammals get rid out as we ladies squat overtop that toilet. Reptiles release uric acid, which is very much the same. Its our liver that’s doing the work from converting ammonia into urea and its actually takes more energy for reptiles to convert ammonia to uric acid then it is for us to turn ammonia to urea (which might explain why we pee all the time and reptiles can go quite a long time without peeing. It’s a lot of work!)
Fun Fact: Producing uric acid verse urea has many advantages, less toxic and reduces water loss. Makes you wonder where mammals went wrong.
Not only do reptiles go the easy route by producing this uric acid but so does the wood frog. And once it starts getting cold the frog stores this uric acid, meaning its no longer peeing as frequently. Then somehow that uric acid gets mixed in with their blood. As it gets colder the blood starts to freeze, meaning the ice is sucking the water from the cells, but now is the time for the liver to join in and starts to produce glucose. And this is that magic cocktail that’s keeping the wood frog perfectly preserved. As the sugar from the liver mixes with the blood and uric acid it creates antifreeze! Meaning that those blood cells that would have otherwise dry out from the ice crystals don’t, because of the reaction that is created from the blood, uric acid and sugar.
This doesn’t mean that the wood frog is out of harms way. They can only really survive in this suspended animation is temperature stay about 0 degree Fahrenheit other wise it starts to get too cold and then the ice takes over and sucks out over 60% of the water in the frogs cells and then that would result in death. But at least they wouldn’t feel much.
And now it’s time for that guest participation game show: would you rather. Where you ask yourself; would you rather. Would you rather die; by the teeth and then being swallowed alive by a garter snake or would you rather die slowing in a cold sleepy time icy freeze? Remember whatever answer you choose will become your fate in your next life.
The only reason why the wood frog is able to come back to live after this winter freeze is because of the small amount of moisture that is retained in the cells. Remember, everything else in the frog is frozen! Literally. All the water surrounding the organs, the heart all a popsicle. Two thirds of their body is completely frozen! Then once temperature get above freezing they take about two days to snap out of it. Which might sound like a long time to you, but other amphibians doing go through winters the same way.
At the start of winter this tiny wood frog will find a nice place under nether a nice pile of leaves. Not quite a burrow and will stay here as temperatures lower, and will even stay (not that they have a choice at this point since they are frozen after all) they will stay even after large snow falls. Those leaves and snow actually help to insulate them a bit so to keep those slightly moistened cells from freezing. Other frogs will hibernation deep under water, in ponds, lakes or streams, and even though they are in that cold water, their body temperature never gets below freezing. And because of the wood frog spending winter on the land those two days they spend coming out of that freeze is actually much faster than their frog cousins that evolution decided for them to spend their winter in the waters.
But this frog freezes! And would be consisted dead if it was a human, but it comes back to life in the spring time! Its crazy! Its sensational! Its wild and its weird! The little frog is amazing! And I love it!
-Such love should mean only one thing: Scientific names are hard. I ask my roommate Emily to write down the scientific names of each animal we cover and I poorly attempt to read them. Think of this segment as giving the New York Time crossword to a ten-year-old. Sure, they might be able to get some, but over all its going to look like shit.
Snow Bunting: Plectrophenax nivalis
Wood Frog: Lithobates sylvaticus
-
This holiday season you have two choices: you can either take the advice of snow bunting and fly south for the winter so to wait for summer where you can return to the north to fuck in the somewhat warmer weather or you can make like a wood frog and sit frozen at the dinner table not acknowledging any of the bigotry and political words of your family members all while holding in the urge to pee and enjoying all that sugar. And if you’re looking to add some holiday cheer then be sure to rate and review this podcast wherever you listen so that other weirdos can find the show. And if you’re feeling really in the holiday spirit you can even support the podcast by clicking on the support the show link in the episode description. And be sure to join me next week as we finish up our weird winter wonderland look into the animals of the cold. Stay weird!