Wildly Curious
Wildly Curious is a comedy podcast where science, nature, and curiosity collide. Hosted by Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole, two wildlife experts with a combined 25+ years of conservation education experience, the show dives into wild animal behaviors, unexpected scientific discoveries, and bizarre natural phenomena. With a knack for breaking down complex topics into fun and digestible insights, Katy and Laura make science accessible for all—while still offering fresh perspectives for seasoned science enthusiasts. Each episode blends humor with real-world science, taking listeners on an engaging journey filled with quirky facts and surprising revelations. Whether you're a curious beginner or a lifelong science lover, this podcast offers a perfect mix of laughs, learning, and the unexpected wonders of the natural world.
Wildly Curious
Odd Animal Friends: Heartwarming Stories of Unlikely Companions
In this episode of Wildly Curious (formerly For the Love of Nature), co-hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole share heartwarming stories of odd animal friendships. From capybaras hanging out with birds to Koko the Gorilla’s special bond with her kitten All Ball, this episode dives into the unlikely companionships formed in the animal kingdom. Whether it’s animals from different species or surprising duos living together in zoos, these stories will remind you of the connections that cross species lines.
Perfect for animal lovers, nature enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoys uplifting stories about the bonds animals can form.
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Hello and welcome to For the Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.
And I'm Katy. And today we have a, I don't know, like an interesting episode that we haven't really done quite anything like this before.
It's a heartfelt one.
Heartfelt one.
Feel good.
So we're talking about odd couples. And hold on, I'm trying to look at the message that we had. Laura and I put thought into these messages and themes, and then we don't remember them.
Okay, so this one is going to be about animals have been known to pair up with some odd companions. So we each have a few to talk about, and then, yeah, it's just fun. Like Laura said, it's just more of a heartfelt one.
Yeah, and it's not like we haven't done fun ones before. This is just a little bit different. It's a chicken soup for the soul-ish.
Chicken soup, man. I haven't thought about those in years. I'm trying to think of any if I have any nature news at all, and I don't think I do.
That's probably a good thing.
Yeah. People have been sending stuff to me, but I don't know if I can find it quick enough. Maybe for next time, I'll remember.
Yeah. All right. You want to go ahead and go first then?
Sure. So I have a really generic one. This is not a specific case as my other two are.
This is just a generalization of that capybara just like other animals.
Huh.
Anything? Yeah. It seems to be.
If you look up videos, if you just look up capybara companions, you get, there are so many. Real quick, for anybody out there who doesn't know what a capybara is, you're missing out.
Yeah.
And it is the world's largest rodent. Looks like a giant guinea pig. It's about two feet tall.
It's native to the aquatic habitats in Central and South America, and it spends almost all of its time in the water like a hippo. And the reason it probably just likes to hang out with other things is that they're very social animals. They're typically found in groups of around 10, but can be up to 40 during the wet season when things are good.
And their groups are to watch out for predators and keep good grazing spots and find a mate. So they're used to looking out for each other. So when it's just a guinea pig, when it's a capybara, it essentially is a guinea pig.
Yeah, yeah, a giant one. They just like to hang out with other things if they're all by themselves. So if you do a quick internet search, you'll see capybara chilling with all sorts of other animals and not just hanging out.
I'm talking being sat on, being slept on, being climbed on, or just in a big old cuddle pile. If you look it up, you will see capybara with ducks, capybara with turtles, capybara with a cat, capybara with a rabbit, capybara with monkeys, capybara with dogs, capybara with guinea pigs, capybara with chickens, capybara with rats, capybara with other birds. And for some reason, birds really seem to love riding on them.
You look that up, and there's birds riding capybara all the time. It's like they've harnessed these little horses. Capybara with humans, and even, it seems like at least one case of a capybara hanging out with a crocodile or caiman, which seems risky.
Yeah.
Those are the ones, those are the capybara that live on the edge there. That's for sure. Dang.
Yeah, the adrenaline rush. That's the real unlikely pair. They're predators.
They don't really eat the big capybara, but they will eat their babies. But I guess if you're childless and you got nothing to lose.
Right.
Capybara, a friend to all. Please look it up.
The pictures are just so cute.
I especially love when there's just a big pile of ducks. There's like ducks on them and around them, and everybody's just snoozing. It's so cute.
I have to look that up because I know I definitely see them with birds all the time and I don't know if I've ever seen a picture of a capybara when they didn't have birds nearby or on them or yes, like egrets and something on their back.
Birds and capybara. The birds are just like, there's help and make an excellent non-threatening ride.
Right. An excellent non-threatening ride. They're cute.
All right. Was that yours?
Yeah, that's it. I just shout out to the capybara out there.
Shout out to the capybara. All righty. So my first one shouldn't be too shocking.
I did Koko the gorilla and all ball.
I was hoping.
For a long time, I thought it was odd ball. And I always forget. No, it's all ball.
Like all A-L-L ball.
Oh, I don't know if I knew. And we've talked about Koko before, but it's been a long time. Yeah.
All right. So natural history real quick of gorillas. I know we've done gorillas in other episodes.
But they're a great ape species, not monkeys. Great apes native to the dense tropical rainforests of Central and Western Africa. They're just, I don't know.
They're one of my favorite animals. They're huge. They herbivores.
They feed mostly on leaves, stems, fruits, and occasionally insects if they need to. They live in very close-knit family groups led by a dominant male known as a silverback who is responsible for the protection and well-being of the whole group. The gorillas are known for their strength and powerful build because they are very stocky.
But they are also gentle giants with complex social behaviors and very strong family bonds. Unfortunately, though, gorillas face significant threats in the wild, including habitat loss, especially poaching and disease, because I think people oftentimes forget. Like because they're a great ape, they're so close to humans and they can catch diseases from humans.
In zoos, when COVID hit, if you work with great apes, you had to take same precautions as what you did if you were working around people all day. So they can catch a lot of the same diseases that we get. So because of all this, the poaching and everything, this has led some populations, particularly mountain gorillas, because there's different lowland gorillas, mountain gorillas, but that's the mountain gorillas.
Yes. They're being classified now as critically endangered and they have been for a while. So Koko, for those of you who don't know, Koko was a western lowland gorilla, and she was born in San Francisco Zoo in 1971.
From an early age, she was recognized as just being a little bit different, not just for her intelligence, but for her ability to communicate in ways that no other gorilla had before. At one year old, Koko began working with Dr. Francine Patterson, or they called her Penny, a graduate student at Stanford University who would go on to dedicate her entire life to studying Koko and teaching her American sign language. Over the years, Koko has learned to use over a thousand signs and could understand even more spoken English words.
Her ability to communicate with humans using ASL made her one of the most famous gorillas in the world and truly the symbol of intelligence and emotional depth of great apes.
Oh, yeah. Not even just great apes, but the intelligence of animals. If you're like, who's the face of intelligent animals?
It's Koko by far. Yeah, for sure.
Because this is who I thought like when I was younger, it totally made sense to me. I did not understand it. I was young.
Okay, probably like seven. But I was like, why don't we just ask Koko what the other animals are saying? Yeah, I thought they were all speak, you know what I mean?
Like in everything you ever see, the animals can all talk to each other.
They're all fluent, the birds.
She needs to be an interpreter.
Yeah. Just take this huge gorilla around the world with you and just be like, okay, Koko, what are they saying? What are they saying?
I thought that was the key and I couldn't believe that no one had ever thought of it before. He should have written them a letter.
That would have been like the now us as adults in the field. Like that would have been such a cute letter to get. Like why don't you just take Koko on tour and have her talk to all the animals?
Yeah.
That would be really cute. But Koko's story, it just captivated the public. Like I said, it sparked discussions around the capacity for language within animals and thought, challenging the boundaries that we thought was possible for.
So through her unique ability to communicate, Koko formed very deep connections with people around her, and even expressed desires and emotion that surprised many, leading to one of the most touching and unusual friendships ever documented. And it was her bond with a tiny kitten named All Ball. It is really adorable.
You want to talk about cute pictures? It's a huge ass carol off. And then just has this tiny, itty bitty little kitten that she was so gentle with.
And so excited to have.
No, yeah, she was pumped to have a kitten, which is adorable on all other kinds of animals too.
Yeah, it's just like any other kid that you're like, oh, you would like a cat.
Yeah, she had her own little pet. The bond between Koko and her kitten, All Ball, is a story that continues to touch hearts around the world. It all began when Koko, using her ability to communicate through sign language, expressed her desire for a pet.
She had seen humans with other animals and clearly understood the concept of, hey, this is a pet for companionship. Koko began signing words like cat and baby, making it evident that she wanted a small furry friend of her own. I can't even.
Also though, at the same time, you're like, okay, what have we done here? We've done here.
Yeah, because now she's making demand.
Have a great day with a pet.
Yeah. Whoa. Yeah.
This is like the same thing. We had an episode about animal language and communication and stuff, but dogs now being trained with the buttons and everything, and Bunny was one of the poodles, and how smart she is, and how they had to put Bunny on anti-depressants because she started to not be able to realize that she was a dog. And so she got so depressed whenever they had to really stick it into her head, you're a dog, because she kept asking, like, who am I?
What am I? Who am I? And they're like, oh my god.
Stop it.
It's too creepy.
Yeah. And so she had this crisis, so they had to put her on anti-depressants for a little bit because once she could tap into breaking the barrier of communication, and she has a ton of buttons too. But yeah.
But then other things that she does with the buttons is really funny too, of stringing together words, and you have to figure out what it is still, like, what do they mean by this? What do they mean by this kind of thing? Yeah.
But it's very clear. Cat baby. I want a cat baby.
I want a baby kitten. Yeah. This is what Koko wants.
A cat baby. That's definitely the right order of the words too. I just had a cat baby.
Yeah. A cat and a baby. In response, of course, to Koko's frequent pleas, she was given a tiny gray and white kitten whom she immediately named All Ball, which is so freaking cute that she named it anyway.
So the name was Koko's own creation, reflecting just the roundness of the kitten and perhaps Koko's playful sense of humor, which is one of my favorite things about the story about Koko in general. It's just how funny she was and how funny her sense of humor was, that you could see she actually had a sense of humor. Just so funny.
So anyway, the story just took off from there. I mean, it was despite being like a playful gorilla, Koko showed incredible gentleness and care towards her new companion. She cradled all ball, played with her, and even let the kitten sleep in her arms.
It was if Koko definitely instinctively understood the kitten, how fragile it was, and adapted her behavior to ensure that all ball felt safe and loved. Koko's care for all ball was definitely striking in its tenderness. And amongst all the research they were doing with Koko, obviously, her not being able to have offsprings on her own, they could tell this was her fill in for, this is what I want, is I wanted something little.
And so that alone, besides Koko's all her language and stuff, the whole companionship thing was also studied. There was a lot of research and everything that was done. And like I said, it definitely had a unique impact on how we understood not only language but the unique relationship between, Koko wanted a kitten, Koko got a kitten, and now Koko is acting out on, hey, no, I'm doing really good.
This is what I want. We'll play with it and talk. So yeah, so that's Koko and All Ball.
And I know whenever All Ball died, Koko was distraught.
Oh, I can't even imagine.
Yeah, could not. And then they try to get her, they got her a cat after that, I believe it was. And she was like, okay, cool, cat.
But it wasn't the same as All Ball for sure. So that's Koko and All Ball.
So cute. I remember one time too, she broke her sink and blamed it on the cat.
Yeah, the whole sink, she broke the entire sink and was like, no, it was All Ball. They're like, it's definitely, and like a parent catching a kitten a lie. Yeah, they're like, it's not the kitten.
No, it's not the kitten. It is definitely the kitten.
Yeah. My next one is not very famous, although it had a quick stint of fame in 2020 when we needed some good news. And this is Violet, the mini that she's an aid to blind animals.
Oh, I know. So I love donkeys. Mini donkeys in particular are native to Sicily and Sardinia, and they were not brought here to the United States until 1929, which I think is actually surprising.
Yeah. 1929, wow, I didn't think it was that.
I figured like they would have come over with settlers, not 1929. Huh. I guess somebody can fact check me there, but that's what I found.
They are herd animals. They're known for being laid back, chill, docile, and that they form very close attachments with things. They're observant and cautious, which is often confused for being stubborn, but they just need to think it out.
And so they're often used as companion animals. They are known for being like guard and herd. Yeah, they're very protective.
Because they form these close bonds, and because they're cautious, they do a really good job of keeping other things safe, like donkeys and kids, donkeys and sheep. You use donkeys.
Because they're so loud, that bray that they do can be heard, or whatever it's called, is so loud that, I mean, you can hear it. There is no mistaking. There's no mistaking.
Something is out there, and they need to go out and check it out.
And they're just a little bit different. It's not that horses aren't smart in things too, or that they're not herd animals, but horses aren't usually as cautious and observant as a donkey, and they're not as laid back, usually. You've just got this nice, chill, small, compact animal.
Anyway, her name is Violet, and she lives on a farm in Arkansas called Green Forest Farm, which, man, missed opportunity.
Yeah.
Go and visit her. These people on Green Forest Farm had a donkey named Violet first, and then eventually they rescued Molly, who was a blind cow. The poor thing, she was a young cow.
She wasn't like a calf, but she wasn't a grown up cow either. And I assumed that she was going to slaughter, and so they rescued her.
Yeah, she's blind. What else are you going to do with a blind cow?
Yeah, what are you doing with a blind cow? Besides hamburger, I mean, she couldn't find her way around. So they put her in a pen so that she could even find food and water because she would just run into things.
She couldn't find anything. I guess her sense of smell is good, but cows are definitely in your eyes. So they put her in this tiny little pen.
And then they were like, oh, man, the poor thing. This is a terrible quality of life. We need to give her a friend.
So they first, they put Violet the donkey in with her, and they didn't have anything to do with each other. But they did put a bell around Violet's neck, so that whenever Violet would walk around, the cow could figure out where she was and, oh, she's probably eating over there so she could find food.
Okay, that makes sense.
So Molly started following Violet around. But then they started to notice the Violet starting seemingly escorting Molly around. She would go to places and just wait and things like that.
And eventually, it got to the point where they were like, I think they've got this. So they let the cow out. They have a 20-acre farm and that cow can perfectly navigate because she follows Violet and Violet escorts her.
So they follow each other. So it's definitely not a one-way thing. Violet follows Molly, Molly follows Violet.
And this isn't where the story ends. You would think being a companion to a blind cow is enough work. No.
Then one of their 18-year-old horses named Raz got glaucoma and went blind.
Geez. What's going on this farm that all the animals are going blind?
They bought Molly. Raz just went blind from glaucoma.
Fair, genetics, whatever.
And then Violet was like, just join the herd. So Violet started showing the horse around.
Just Violet with a herd of blind animals behind her.
Mini donkey, just being like the caretaker.
Uh, yeah.
And so this whole thing, like I said, went viral in 2020. You can check out Violet has her own Facebook page, and they don't post regularly, but they do still post. And as I was like, looking through this page, I was so happy to see that Molly has had such a good quality of life since 2024, and she is a grown up, that she's now had at least two calves of her own.
And so Molly, the blind cow, has been a mother. And uniquely, so like typically, cow and deer and things, they park their babies, and then they come back to their babies. But when you're blind, because of like predators and safety and stuff, they like leave their babies.
When you're blind, you can't ever find that baby again. Molly follows Violet and makes her baby follow her. So which is just not typical for cows.
Apparently, that's what all blind cows do, is their babies must follow them. It's just this little herd following around Violet, the blind leading the seeing, no, the seeing leading the blind leading the seeing. Just so cute and wholesome.
That is cute. I remember, vaguely remember videos of that. I'm gonna have to go back and look at it, now that I know a little bit more of their background of it.
Yeah.
So kind of like my next one, sort of like Laura's, this one isn't super popular. I hadn't actually heard about it before, but it's Turk the Greyhound and Shrek the Owl, which I was like, interesting.
I haven't heard of that one either.
So Greyhounds, a dog, they can go up to, which I got it. Hold on, let me fact check this.
No, they can go crazy fast. Yeah.
But hold on. I'm questioning my number now. Yeah, no, 45 miles an hour.
Yeah.
Which is, I don't know, that just seems really fast for a dog. I mean, I know they race him and everything, but still. So anyway, so yeah, they're incredibly fast.
But despite their speed and their hunting instincts, because obviously you have that speed back in the day hunting, the Greyhounds are really known for their gentle, calm demeanor, often described as 40 mile an hour couch potatoes, which is a great description. They're also very affectionate, quiet and surprisingly laid back, making them definitely a beloved dog and companion in many homes. Now owls, the other opposite side of this unlikely duo is a barn owl.
So it's a Greyhound and a barn owl. Owls are obviously, most are nocturnal, known for their keen eyesight, silent flight, solitary nature, great sense of hearing. Barn owls in particular are recognized by their distinctive heart shaped faces, ghostly white plumage, and can literally be found pretty much all over the world.
So unlike Turk, who is built with a Greyhound, which is built for just speed, Shrek represents more the precision and quiet nighttime predator thing. The story of these two, Turk was a young Greyhound at the time, was just full of curiosity and energy when Shrek, a tiny barn owl, was brought into the household for care. Something happened where this family was like, we need to bring in this owl.
And then that's whenever Turk's natural hunting instincts, you would think that they would have kicked in. And that's not what happened. Instead of seeing Shrek as prey, Turk immediately showed a gentle interest in the owl.
He would approach Shrek with a mix of curiosity and caution, almost as if he understood that there was something special about this owl. And of course, because they had to bring it in and because rehab it and stuff. Shrek, for his part, seemed unbothered by the large dog.
It was like a mutual like, hey, the dog is like, something's wrong with this little guy. And the little guy is like, big predator, who cares kind of thing. Over time, their interactions grew frequent and friendly.
Turk would lie down next to Shrek, offering warmth and companionship, while Shrek perched nearby, just definitely comfortable in Turk's presence. And at first, it was definitely like a tolerance where the dog would seek out the owl or vice versa, and they would just tolerate each other. And then definitely became like a, oh no, hey, we're buddies, and they wanted to see each other and start seeking out that relationship.
So obviously, what makes that relationship so unique is how it defies definitely just the natural order of things. Greyhounds definitely have a strong prey drive. And owls too, for how skittish they can be.
There's a huge predator right there. They don't want to be anywhere nearby. So it's definitely just like an odd couple in the sense of, okay, neither one of these two things should have, one, ever even come in contact with each other if it wasn't for human interaction.
One, two, neither one of them should have been interested in each other, and they ended up being very interested in each other. So even though Laura's one, even though that this wasn't really studied as much as my first one with Koko and everything, it was still one of those ones that was like, oh, this is a funny little cute anecdote, and ended up getting some publicity behind it and stuff like that, because when are you ever going to see a greyhound and an owl? Never.
Yeah. And humans just love, we like to think of other animals as having friends and being like us. We anthropomorphize as much as we can.
All the time. So yeah, that's Turk and Shrek, which is just a hilarious name of a goat. It's so cute.
Yeah.
Yeah, Shrek.
Well, let me say one more thing. It was in Great Britain and it started in 2008. So it's like a little bit older now, but it wasn't like forever ago.
So that.
Yeah. That's also like mine is a little bit even further back than that. Not as old as Koko, but very famous for animal companions.
If you think of animal friends, a lot of people know this story, which is Owen and Mazee. Mazee is a tortoise, an Aldabra tortoise, and Owen is a hippo.
Oh yeah. I didn't know their names, but I've definitely seen this. Yeah.
Yes, yes. And just real quick, hippos are 8,000 pounds, native to Sub-Saharan Africa, and they live in big pods. They're the heaviest land animal after elephants.
Because they're just dense too. They're just dense and thick.
They're not maybe as tall as some things like rhinos, but they're chubby. Their tortoises are 550 pounds. Also, a big tortoise, like the second or third biggest.
They're native to the Aldabra Island, which is one of the Seychelles. Sometimes live in groups, sometimes. And the name Mzee is Swahili for wise old man, which is the perfect name for a tortoise.
Especially an old one. So here's the story. Owen the Hippo came to the park as a very young Hippo after being separated from his herd.
There were some heavy rains in December of 2004 that caused the Sabaki River in Kenya to flood and washed the pod of Hippos, his pod, that lived there, out into the mouth of the Indian Ocean. Crazy flooding sent him out there. Then these poor Hippos had some real terrible luck because then literally within the same month, like two weeks later, a tsunami hit the coast right there.
So I guess it's just storm season there, but it hit the coast. So the village that was right there at the mouth, they had been seeing this pod of Hippos just chilling. They were like, oh, it must have gotten washed down the river, and now they live here.
Then two weeks later, tsunami hits, and all the Hippos disappeared. They only found one Hippo. So either they had been washed away, or they booked a backup river, but left Owen behind by accident.
Either way, they found Owen, and he was actually out to sea on a coral reef. Like a little baby Hippo stranded on a coral reef.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, he wasn't like a calf, but he was a year old.
But still, yeah, but he was still very small. Very small still.
A baby. Yeah, a little baby. And so the local villagers really stepped it up, and they were like, we're gonna save this Hippo.
So they took all their boats out there, and as a village, tried to wrangle this Hippo, which you wouldn't think would be that hard, because it's a baby, but he's a slippery little bugger, and he is big. Like he's a baby, but he's a big baby, and he didn't want to be caught. So finally though, they did catch him in a net, and he was literally dive tackled by a man named Owen.
Dive tackled, and then wrapped in a net. So they named him after the guy that tackled him, because he's really the one that was credited with the rescue. So they brought him back to shore, and he was in real bad shape.
So they took him to Haller Park, or Haylor Park, which was a local sanctuary, and by local, I mean 50 miles away, but pretty local. He couldn't be released because he hadn't learned how to take care of himself because he's just a baby. And if you put him, if you, they were like, you know, you might be like, oh, we'll just find him another pod and let some mom will adopt him.
Hippos aren't like that. They're kind of snobby. They would be treated as, he would be treated as an intruder to the pod and probably just killed.
So they were like, we will keep him. Where will we put him? We have to find him a place that's got like mud and wallowing places.
So they put him in an enclosure with monkeys, bush bucks and Mzee, the Aldabra tortoise. And they didn't have any other hippos. They weren't made to be like a hippo sanctuary.
So there were no hippos. There was only Mzee. And immediately Owen ran over to Mzee and hid behind him, like he would behind a hippo, like his mom.
Just ran over and just hid behind him. And so at first, Mzee didn't like him. Right away, he was like hissing at him.
What the heck is this creature trying to get up all in my business? I'm an old man. He's 130.
He's done. He doesn't want anything to do.
This old man doesn't have time for any young whippersnapper hippos.
No, get away, get away.
But that night, he did allow Owen to snuggle up beside him and they found them asleep together in the morning. But this kind of went back and forth. Mzee would wander off and Owen would follow.
But eventually, they did start to see that Mzee would also follow Owen. So it did start to seem like it was reciprocating. Owen would only eat food if Mzee was there.
He would only eat what Mzee was eating. He was his mom or an uncle or grandpa or something. They swam together, they ate together, they drank together, and they slept together side by side.
And they even rubbed noses and nuzzled. Or at least Mzee, who was known to be like a keep to himself turtle, except for one keeper who would scratch his chin. Owen would nuzzle, they rubbed noses, and then Owen would nuzzle his neck, and Mzee would stretch his neck up so that Owen could give it some good scratches.
Cute.
So yeah, they really grew up together. And the thought was that Mzee and Aldabra tortoise is huge, and it has a big gray domed shell. So it's the closest looking thing to a hippo that Owen was probably like, it's a weird looking hippo, but that's all I gotta work with, close enough.
So they grew up together. Close enough, close enough. Close enough.
But eventually, Owen got bigger, and they were like, you know what? Owen, they found, they got another hippo girl, and they were like, Owen could have a girlfriend. Her name was Cleo, but Cleo was a bee, and was not very nice to Mzee, and they were actually really afraid that Mzee was gonna get hurt, so they had to separate them.
Owen needed Mzee to help him grow up, and Mzee is an old man. I'm sure he loved Owen, but he was probably ready to let him go. But their story is so famous, it can be read in three books, and was even turned into an off-Broadway musical.
Which I can't even imagine what that looks like.
All right, I gotta look that up now.
Can't even imagine.
A musical.
Who's the tortoise, and how did they do it?
Oh yeah, what did you go up to be? I'm in Broadway, and I'm a hippo. I play the hippo.
I play the hippo. And that's the story of Owen and Mzee.
Ah, perfect. I gotta watch that Broadway now. I gotta find it.
Books I can believe, but Broadway, I'm like, I gotta see this. This has to be seen.
Off Broadway. Off Broadway musical.
Yeah, still, close enough, man. That's so funny. In true fashion, as we always do, mine is also similar to yours, where it takes place in a zoo.
This is the story of B, the giraffe, and Wilma, the ostrich, which is an amazing ostrich name. Wilma. That is a great ostrich name.
It's not unusual to see giraffes and ostriches sharing the same enclosure at zoos. Not at all. That's actually one of the more common things.
They both come from the open savannas of Africa. And just because, though, that they share a space within zoos, like, it doesn't mean that they're going to, I don't know, they like each other. It's okay they tolerate each other, but they still want to be around their own kind.
So while it's common to see animals living side by side, Bea and Wilma's relationship definitely went far beyond just cohabitation and an exhibit. So giraffes, they're the tallest land animals on earth, native to African savannas. Their long necks allow them to reach leaves and buds high up in the tree, particularly from acacia trees, which make up a large part of their diet.
Despite their towering height, giraffes are often solitary or live within loose herds, is what they call it, with relatively peaceful and quiet nature for the most part. They communicate with subtle signs, small movements, and sounds that might be like, we just don't pick up on them, and things like that, or other species. In the wild, giraffes spend most of the time grazing and moving slowly across the landscape.
While they can be social animals for sure, their interactions are generally calm and reserved, unless they're fighting, like males and stuff are fighting over territory, which you'll see tons of videos of that online, because it is insane to see these things whip in their necks at each other and stuff, which is nuts.
Yeah, but there aren't usually giant herds of giraffes.
No, that's why they call it loose herds. It's just a few here and there. They come together, might separate for a bit and stuff like that.
On the other hand, ostriches are the largest and heaviest birds in the world. They're also native to this African savannas, and they're known for their speed. I've ridden an ostrich before.
They are pretty quick. Like a greyhound, run up to 45 miles per hour to escape predators. Unlike giraffes though, ostriches are highly social and often found within their flocks where they engage, and definitely more dynamic and active social behaviors.
Yeah, they're definitely known. I know they usually have relationships with zebras.
Yes, for sure. Their wings serve more for balance and display rather than flying, because again, they are flightless birds. And so all they use them for is balance, really, which I mean, I could see.
Their large eyes give them excellent vision, which is crucial for spawning predators from a distance. In captivity, ostriches retain their social nature, and while they can be curious and interactive, they're also very much so known for being cautious and sometimes even aggressive whenever they feel threatened or just stupid. I know the last thing that Laura and I worked out together, we had an ostrich that laid an egg in the middle of, there was a water feature, like a creek, and there was an ostrich that just laid an egg right in the middle of the creek, was like, this is where I'm going to give birth.
My baby is going to live in this creek.
An aquatic ostrich.
Yeah. All right. Not exactly the smartest.
So again, at first, while, you know, the pairing of an ostrich and a giraffe might seem practical, both species, yeah, they're from the same region, have similar habitats. But it definitely, like I said before, it turned out to be way more than just coexisting in the same space. So B, the giraffe, and B, the ostrich, definitely just started off as neighbors, sharing the zoo enclosures, and it didn't take too long.
So it was around 2010, when zoo staff first noticed that B and Wilma were spending an unusual amount of time near each other. Like they would both separate from others of their kind, and they just always hanging out around each other. And again, it's not uncommon for animals that share a mixed species exhibit be around each other a little bit more, but it was definitely noticeable enough that the keepers were like, something is going on there.
So they started not just tolerate each other, they were actively seeking each other out. Whether it was feeding time, rest periods, or simply exploiting their enclosures, Bee and Wilma were often side by side, moving in sync as if they were just like these two old ladies just walking around. Their interactions were definitely subtle, but significant.
Bee would lower her long neck to nuzzle Wilma, a gesture that could also be like, you know, a mix of like affection and protective. Wilma in turn often would stand close to Bee, even leaning against her towering legs, as though finding comfort in her presence. So just like chilling, like leaning up against her.
We're just lazy. Say what?
I said, we're just being lazy.
Yeah, right. Nice spot to rest is giant giraffe legs. Again, why is this relationship unique?
Yes, mixed species and enclosures are great. They're fantastic for exhibits, but this just went well beyond. In the wild, giraffes and ostriches might share the same space, just like they do within these two exhibits.
But they definitely, typically, don't interact closely, if ever at all. And so the bond between Billy and Wilma definitely challenged the idea of, you know, the animals in captivity, it's going to, yes, put them in a situation. We try to make it within zoos, like, as natural as possible.
But even though this isn't natural, it's like sharing a behavior like, oh, more so than tolerate each other, they really seem to like each other. For zoos, this kind of did have a different impact because of the story with Billy and Wilma's relationship. They've started to find it as a source for inspiration, prompting new ideas of how to create environments that foster not just the physical health of animals, but their social well-being as well.
Hey, maybe we should think outside the box. Like now that, I don't want to say that it's almost like animals are adapting to being in zoos and stuff because they're certainly not enough and zoos haven't been around long enough for that to really happen. But it started to be like, okay, now that they've been in zoos long enough, and now these animals are being born in zoos because zoos don't get animals in the US, so you don't get animals from the wild anymore.
So it's almost like we need to start thinking of it a little bit differently. Yes, these animals might not find social comfort in each other in the wild, but these animals weren't born in the wild. They were born within a zoo.
They were born here within the exhibit.
Yeah.
And so maybe we have to start thinking a little bit different about how we pair up animals and just, okay, these two, they might get along, they might not, but in being okay with like, all right, these two clearly have a friendship, there's clearly something going on here, and let's just let it happen. So it's pretty evident. So they leaned into it, shared the story, what had to sign up and everything that kind of showed about, talked about their friendship and everything.
All righty. Well, it looks like Laura and I got cut off from each other. Internet man, 2024.
So anyway, if you go on to Patreon and support us, we have videos that we do. So as Laura and I are recording all these, we do have video and we just haven't had the time really in years past. So go ahead and edit those.
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You'll just have to listen to find out. And then we'll be picking up the week after that with another full episode. Thank you guys for listening.
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