Endangered Species (with comedian David Huntsberger)

0:00And now for an animal joke, why can't Tyrannosaurus Rex's clap their hands? I repeat, why can't Tyrannosaurus Rex's clap their hands? The answer is, going to be revealed at the end of the episode, but first, get your ears ready because... It's the happiest animal show I'm planet Earth. The happiest animal show I'm planet Earth. You want me to say... No! Do you want me to lie? No! Wait, yes! Well, it's the happiest animal show I'm planet Earth. Hello and welcome to the happiest animal show. On Planet Earth. The podcast that asks the very important question, what animal is making you happy today? Not yesterday. Not even last night, but today. I'm Rob. And I'm Laura, and we are a sister-brother pair of zoologists,

1:04filmmakers, and songwriters. We are here to explore the wonderful world of wildlife and discover why animals make us happy. Today, we are celebrating endangered species. We have a new, incredible song about punch the monkey that cute little baby macaque monkey who has been carrying around a special stuffed animal at the zoo. Plus, we chat with our special guest, comedian David Hunsberger. Here we go! What animal is making you happy today? I want to go! Today, we're talking about endangered species. Yes. What does that mean? There aren't very many of that animal left. Yeah, it's in danger of disappearing. Which is sad to think about, but I guess the good thing about knowing an animal is endangered is that we can help it. We can learn more about it, and scientists can then say, oh, we got to do something to protect it. Yeah. Rob, I think you should go first. What endangered species is making you happy today?

2:05So my animal has been are pretty much unchanged for like 35 million years. Oh, wow. I think if you could time travel. Back 35 million years ago, you'd basically see this thing look in the same walking around. Wow. And I guess I gave another clue. It walks around. Yeah. 35 million years. Yeah. So this is after dinosaurs? Yeah. So this animal is considered like a living fossil. Oh, that's exciting. It's definitely something that reminds me of old school and here's another clue. Old school mammals you'd see in those prehistoric mammal books. If you ever looked through. Yeah, like a saber tooth tiger. Yeah, like back then. And before that, some of these like crazy looking crazy cool mammals. Yeah. Okay, it's a mammal. It walks around. It's endangered, of course. So it's population is estimated to be between five and six thousand. That was not very many. No.

3:06And these days it lives pretty much in Central America and down a little bit into South America. It is a good swimmer. But it does live mostly on land, but it can swim. Yeah. It lives a good question. It lives mostly on land, but it can swim really well. But it swims as it swims in ponds or lakes and rivers? Yeah, I think all the above. All the above. It's not something you tend to see in the ocean. But it can be seen by the ocean, for sure. Okay. And I'll just give you the giveaway. It's got a really funny nose. Hmm. Yeah, a prehensile nose, in fact. Interesting. Does it have hooves? Yeah. Is it a tape ear? It is a tape ear. Specifically, it's the Baird's tape ear. Baird's tape ear. The tape ear. The Baird's tape ear. Yeah. What a specific and wonderful choice. For those of anyone listening who may not know what that looks like,

4:08would you describe what a Baird's tape ear looks like, Rob? Yeah, they get confused with pigs and hippos. Because they're big. They can weigh up to close to 700 pounds. They're big. It's the biggest land animal, land mammal in South America. Wow. Yeah. So they have short hair and they're gray brown color. And they have funny noses. It almost reminds you of like a miniature elephant trunk, the way that it can move. And when they swim, they actually can use it as a snorkel. Wow. Yeah. Why is a Baird's tape ear making you happy today? Because I never in my life thought I would see one in the wilds. But I did. I got to see one. I got to see more than one. I think I saw three different tapirs. Baird's tape ears. In Costa Rica. Yeah.

5:09The first one I saw, I was walking down the trail at night to go back to my little villa that I was staying in. And I heard a crunching sound in the dark. And I turned my flashlight. Never good. It was really close to me, whatever it was. And it was crunching really loudly. Sounded like it was something that was eating, eating leaves. And I shine my flashlight over. And there was this taper standing just a few feet off the trail, just eating leaves. Wow. I could not believe it. My mind was absolutely blown. So these animals they tend to come out at night. Did it care that you shown a light on it? Or did it keep eating? No, it didn't care. It just kept eating. That was also weird. I expected it to run away. So I think this one was used to people walking by. That's awesome. If I remember correctly, you worked with tape ears at the zoo. Yeah. Just for one day, I was working in the rainforest exhibit. And they just asked me to go in behind the scenes and the enclosure back there, the caged area. And just use a hose, basically, and clean off the floor.

6:12And this tapier back there was so scared of me that it screamed like a blood-curdling scream. Oh, no. And so I still remember the sound just being crazy. They were just saying they're trying to clean the floor and then just tap your screaming at you. Tap your screaming while I was hosing the floor. Or was it normal? Did it usually scream at people? I don't know. I don't have a clue. I hope, hopefully, it wasn't just me. Yeah, it was just blood-curdling scream. And I was like, I'm just hosing the floor. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm glad the one that I stumbled across in the forest didn't scream at me, because that would have been weird. Then there's something going on with tape ears than you. Yeah. You know, it's fun about them. I was reading about tape ears and like, you know, what do they do, you know? Yeah. What do they do? They wander around. They love eating fruit. They eat plants and fruit. And they are called nature's gardeners, because they end up planting the rainforest. That's nice. They walk around and poop out all the seeds that they ate.

7:16Yeah. Well, a bear's tapere. There's a great pick, Rob. Thanks. All right, we'll find out with Laura picked right after this. It's time for everybody's favorite game show. Sound! What is making this sound? Is it A, a parakeet, B, a tapere, or C, your uncle's dog who accidentally swallowed a squeaky toy? The answer is B, it's a Malayan tapere. Hold on, let me check with the judges. Did that squeaky noise really come from a 600 pound animal? Yep, it's a tapere. Thanks for playing everybody's favorite game show.

8:17Name that sound. And we're back. Laura, what endangered animals making you happy today? It is a reptile. Oh, okay. All right. It lives in the ocean. Oh, got it. Yep. As an adult, it eats algae and seagrass. Oh, all right. I think I know. The young ones can eat lots of things, I guess, but the adults are eating grass and algae. Okay, great. It does have a shell. Well, it's a sea turtle. It sure is, and it's a specific kind of sea turtle. I think it's the biggest kind of sea turtle with a hard shell. Oh, okay. We have seen them on land in Hawaii and other places. Do you have a guess? Yeah, you must be talking about the green sea turtle. Yep. Green sea turtle. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, why are green sea turtles making you happy today?

9:20Green sea turtles are awesome. They are one of the few turtles that will come out and just bask on the sand when we've seen them in Hawaii. Just hanging out on the beach. Yeah, it's so cool. I think that's like one of the only places you can see sea turtles out of the ocean, just basking in the sun. And then one of the things about thinking about endangered species is it can be hard because you think, oh no, there's not very many of them left. But I like to think about the scientists who are helping those animals. And we got to meet some of the scientists who are helping green sea turtles when we filmed a film in Saipan, which is a little island near Guam in the Pacific Ocean. No, no, yeah. And our movie is called My Hagen Dream. Hagen is the local word for sea turtle. H-A-G-G-A-N, Hagen. We got to go there because our researchers trying to figure out how to protect the nesting green sea turtles.

10:20But I just wanted you to tell about the time that you were thought you were ready to film and you weren't ready to film. Oh, man, seriously. So the biologists, it was this husband and wife couple, and they had very little sleep because they'd been up every night going to the beaches around the island, kind of tracking which turtles were laying eggs when. And so they could tell you, they had a chart of, and it was very few turtles that were coming back to these beaches. They were only like seven turtles that they had seen. And they knew which beach they came up on and when they laid their eggs. And they could tell you, oh, that turtle is going to come back on this night and lay another clutch of eggs. They were that good. So while we were out one night, one of the biologists said to me, are you ready? And I said, for what? And he just reached down and he flipped over a rock, a flat rock on the beach. And all of the sudden, little baby turtles started crawling out of the sand and I was not ready.

11:22And I panicked and I was trying to get my camera together so I could film it because I just wasn't ready to film. Luckily, my friend Stephanie with us, she was ready to film. And she got all the footage, but I missed it. I didn't get any deep footage. He was just trying to put your camera to the other of all his babies. Are like going to the ocean because they come out of the nest fast. They come out and they start running. And I didn't understand what happened. And this biologist told me that he knew that that nest was going to hatch on that day because they had it in their chart. The eggs were laid on this day. And so like two months later, the babies are going to be born. And he to protect the nest from predators and from people that would dig up turtle eggs to eat them, he put a rock over the nest after it was laid because he wanted to hide it. And then he knew he needed to come back on a certain night to take the rock away. So when he lifted the rock, all these turtles came running out of the sand. And I was so panicked because I didn't expect it to happen.

12:24I forgot to hit record. And it's nighttime too, right? It was nighttime. And we had to have special lights that were with a red filter. And so everything had to be filmed under red lights so it didn't disturb the turtles. And I didn't hit record. You never hit record. You had to record it in your brain. There's a memory. Well, green sea turtles, great pick, Laura. Thank you. And now for a song. If you've watched the news lately, you might have seen a story about a seven-month-old baby monkey named Punch at a zoo in Japan. Punch the monkey is a Japanese macaque who was born in the zoo and his mom didn't take care of him. So he was all alone and he started carrying around a stuffy, an orange stuffed orangutan just to make himself feel better. I wrote this song for Punch the Monkey. Enjoy.

13:40The other monkey bunch didn't really like Punch. They were tough and mean. But he found some joy with an orange stuffed toy from a sewing machine. Punch, punch, punch, punch the monkey didn't have family only had a selfie. Punch, punch, punch the monkey really made it a friend. And I hear a hurray of death. Was the only thing the baby would hold in his hands? And then one day another monkey came and gave him a hug. Then another macaque started grooming his back and picking out bugs. Slowly Punch became one of a bunch, so I'm singing this song. Because he's found his group. He's one of the true. He does belong. Punch, punch, punch, punch the monkey didn't have family only had a selfie. Punch, punch, punch, punch the monkey really made it a friend.

14:42And I hear a hurray of death. Was the only thing the baby would hold in his hands? Before we get on with the show, here's a quick message for the grownups. And just like that, we're back. It's that time in the show for the happiest animal. We're a fan of the show gives us clues to an animal that is making them happy. Today's submission is from 7-year-old Caleb from Lexington, South Carolina. Clue number one, this animal was huge. Clue number two, it lived in the ocean. Clue number three, it lived millions of years ago. Clue number four, it was a specific type of shark. The answer is, I'm Megalodon. Megalodons are the biggest shark known to science. And they make Caleb happy because they are Caleb's all-time favorite animal.

15:42Thanks for your submission, Caleb. grownups, if you or your family would like to submit a happiest animal, visit our website at happiestanimalshow.com. And while you're there, check out our shop where you can get your very own happiest animal t-shirt. Today, our special guest is comedian David Hunsberger, who hosts the Space Cave podcast and Intercepts podcast. Dave, thank you for joining us on the happiest animal show. Well, thank you for having me. I like the show. I'm excited. Me too. I think you guys bring a good energy and the world needs more of that and it's educational and it's a happy thing to do. Yeah, it is that. We try. And you've always been into science and comedy. So you're our kind of person. Yeah. Dave, we're going to ask you the very, very important question that we ask all our guests. What animal is making you happy today? And do you have clues for us? I do. And this is a special animal. I really am not familiar with it because almost no one is.

16:45So the first clue is it is an endangered species. Okay. It is local really to the cascade mountain range and more specifically where I saw it, the eastern Sierra Nevada's mountain range. This is a really elusive animal that was photographed for the first time and like, put a tracking collar on in decades like a month ago. And this is the biggest clue. This is, if you've seen anything about this, if you know what the animal is, it has a bushy tail. Okay. Is it a mammal? It is a mammal because it's got a bushy tail. Is it a fierce animal? I would describe it as a predator. Yes. You see something strange. You go, man, I feel like in all the books I've seen most of the animals, that's weird. And I remember saying that looks like a coyote, but with a bushy tail. So kind of that coloring.

17:45Hmm. Yeah, I only have one guess. I'm stumped. Yeah, because I think my guess is wrong. I can only think of the wolverine. No, no, some of the coloring I would say probably. Besides like, you know, the different canids we have here would just be like foxes, wolves, coyotes, then you got your different. Is that one of the canids? Yes. And I would say like of what you just listed. It's very much in that you're zeroing in. You're zeroing in. So probably a kind of a wolf or a kind of a fox. It was a Sierra Nevada Red Fox, which is red fox. Okay. Sierra Nevada Red Fox. We were driving and my partner doesn't remember seeing it, but I remember kind of looking up through the window and stopping and seeing it on the side of the road and being like, did you see that? She was like, oh, I missed it and it jumped and hopped away.

18:45And I was like, it looked like a coyote, but it had like a bushy tail. So some of the articles from local papers would say this, this animal has been spotted for the first time in decades. The Sierra Nevada Red Fox. That's right. It is specific. It is rare. That is awesome. I love foxes. What a great picture. Potentially fewer than 50 in that area potentially. And I think there may be more in the cascades. I haven't gotten to the bottom of that yet. If there's a bunch there. But in the Sierra Nevada, it's fewer than 50, they think. Amazing. So you've seen a super, super, super, super rare animal. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it made me excited at the time. And I wish at the time I had had the wherewithal to realize how record that was as opposed to like, well, I must be an animal I've never heard of. Yeah, this article I'm looking up says that headlines like after a decade of searching, California biologist finally catch this endangered fox.

19:46I mean, imagine if I had had the wherewithal to call like, fishing game or just someone like, I saw something you're looking for. I didn't know clue. That's amazing. That's incredible. Yeah, cool. It was so neat. And like, so when that, when I saw that article and then I sent it to my partner, I was like, remember, remember when we were talking about fox coyote thing? Yeah. It's real. And then she was, she didn't really remember seeing it as much. She's like, oh, I just remember mostly you talking about it. But I, I really had like taken it in. This fox that I thought was just a coyote with a bushy tail. I really didn't, I didn't absorb it as how rare it really was in the moment. And so, so I usually ask, you know, why is that animal making you happy? Is it because you, it made you happy later when you realized how special it was? How rare? Yeah. In fact, this show is probably why it's making me happy. Because I, I shared it with the only other person who experienced it with me. And they were moderately, you know, amused.

20:47There wasn't like a, we have to tell everyone. This is incredible. Well, we're taking that journey with you and we're very excited that that happened to you. Yeah, you, you, you should make a t-shirt. It says, I saw Sierra Nevada Red Fox. I really should. I would have pre, it should be, I want more people to know about them. Because one of the articles, they were kind of getting near Tahoe. So they're moving up the Sierra's and the more they move around and the more they get comfortable. Like when it saw our vehicle, it wasn't like a mountain lion. I was probably 30 seconds away once from seeing a mountain lion where we pulled up in a vehicle. And these people came out of an adjoining cabin. And they were like, there's a sweet older German gentleman. And they're like, don't get out of the car. There's a Puma. And we were like, and that is like exactly how he spoke. Very like worried and sort of, oh no. And we were like, what? And they were like, yeah, we came outside. And there was a mountain lion, like 10 feet from us.

21:48They said it just looked at them and they just kind of slithered off. And they thought it was old or maybe, but still concerning. But they had seen it. And for the first time I've ever heard, the mountain lion was not rattled. Wasn't, you know, let's get it. I was just like, oh, hey, and then just walked away slowly. So maybe it was older or getting used to being around people. But this, yeah, this fox that I saw, maybe it was starting to be like, you know, these cars keep going by. I don't think they even see me. And so maybe getting more stopping and pointing. And yeah, the clouds in our neighborhood will come within 10 feet of people and dogs and cars. It's pretty wild. Before we started recording, you told us about a time when you were in Puerto Rico standing under a tree and something interesting happened to you within Aguana. Yes. Yeah, yeah, we had, we had run a 5K in the morning. And so we were probably to cool off like standing in the shade or something like that kind of plant charting out our day. And then I went, ah, something, and then I looked up and, oh, an Aguana peed on me. A wild Aguana peed on you.

22:50I don't know if that's good luck or bad luck. Maybe both. Where'd you get hit in the shoulder or the head or right on the top of my forearm? Like if you're checking your watch right right in the middle there. That's where you got Aguana peed on. Yeah, yeah. Standard peed and didn't like burn me. Wasn't ultra acidic or anything like that. Pretty neutral pH, I would say. But a weird experience. Yeah. The Sierra Nevada Red Fox was such a great pick. It's so special to see a rare animal. And may everyone out there listening see their own rare and special animals someday. Yeah, Dave, thanks for joining us on this magnificent episode of the happiest animal show. Well, thank you for having me. I love what you guys are doing and keep it up. Thank you. Yeah, Dave, thanks for joining us on this magnificent episode of the happiest animal show. Well, thank you for having me. I love what you guys are doing and keep it up. Thank you. And now the time we've all been waiting for, the answer to the joke of the day.

23:51Why can't Taranosaurus Rexos clap their hands? Do you have a guess? The answer is because they're dead. And before we go, remember, we live on a beautiful planet. So go out and find what makes you happy today. Hey, grown-ups! We know you're busy, but if you like our show, we'd love for you to tell your friends and family about it. It's the best way for our podcast to grow. And grown-ups, you can also follow us on social media at Happiest Animal Show. Or check out other fun things on our website like how to submit an animal and how to get merch. Visit HappiestAnimalShow.com. The Happiest Animal Show is created by Laura Sam's Robert Sam's and Dave Kane, produced by Sisprostudios, hosted and directed by Laura Sam's and Robert Sam's. And written by Laura Sam's Robert Sam's. And with only a little help from our cat walking across the keyboard.

24:53Now, let's talk music. Original music is written and performed by zero-time Grammy award-winning songwriters, Laura Sam's and Robert Sam's, except for the end credits music which was written by Laura and Robert's grandma Max. And the joke answer suspense music written by David Schultz. The theme song was written and performed by Laura and Rob and mixed by Jason Wells of Audio Wells. And a huge thank you to JP and Cat from Earworm for arranging the music to our song Punch the Monkey. Thanks for listening. You're the best.