Today, you’ll learn about eels that burrow into the hearts of sharks and feast on their blood, parrots that love to gab on video calls, and the secret of the bowhead whale’s cancer fighting superpower.
Today, you’ll learn about eels that burrow into the hearts of sharks and feast on their blood, parrots that love to gab on video calls, and the secret of the bowhead whale’s cancer fighting superpower.
Shark Week continues all week long on Discovery. For the latest, head to SharkWeek.com.
Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/shark-eating-eels-lonely-parrots-whales-repair-dna
Shark-Eating Eels
Lonely Parrots
Whales Repair DNA
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[SFX: INTRO MUSIC/WHOOSH]
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today, you’ll learn about eels that burrow into the hearts of sharks and feast on their blood, parrots that love to gab on video calls, and the secret of the bowhead whale’s cancer fighting superpower.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: It’s Shark Week! And to celebrate I thought I’d kick off this episode with a story about a creature that could actually give the shark a run for its money in the scary department. Like, these things are freaking terrifying.
NATE: A creature scarier than a shark? I know sharks are critical apex predators that we need to respect and protect them. But yeesh. They’re super scary! The teeth! The speed! The agility! The TEETH! What could be scarier than that?
CALLI: How about an eel that burrows into a shark’s heart and feeds on its blood?
NATE: Gross. Yeah. That’ll do it.
CALLI: The snubnosed eel - sometimes also called the pugnose eel - is a charming creature. They slither along the depths with little snub faces full of teeth. They use those teeth to suck the life out of fish and crustaceans and…in some cases…burrow into the body cavities of larger fish that are trying to eat them.
NATE: That really paints a picture. Try to eat me and I will literally burrow into your body.
CALLI: Want to hear more?
NATE: Do I have to?
CALLI: Yes. In 1992 researchers dissected an 871 pound shortfin mako shark and found two juvenile snubnose eels in the shark’s heart. They were dead, but after a little more investigation, they found shark blood inside the eels. In other words…
NATE: …they were alive inside the heart for at least some amount of time. Yikes.
CALLI: Exactly.
NATE: Okay. So I understand that they are able to burrow into the body of the shark, but how did they find their way to its heart?
CALLI: Researchers aren’t really about that. But there’s another type of eel…
NATE: Oh boy. Here we go.
CALLI: …called snake eels - which are also called burrowing eels because they have this hard tip on the end of their tail that they use to cut their way into the seabed to burrow. But they can also use those sharp tails to burst out of the stomachs of predators that have eaten them whole.
NATE: It’s like Jonah and the Whale, eel edition.
CALLI: Yeah. But sometimes they burrow their way out of the stomach and end up in some other part of the body, where they die. Their mummified remains have been found inside the body cavities of 11 different predators.
NATE: Okay. You’ve proven your point. Sharks aren’t the only scary creatures in the sea. Now…all this parasitic eel talk is making me kinda hungry. Break for lunch?
CALLI: Behave.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: How do you make a pet parrot happy?
CALLI: Okay…a riddle. Let’s see…give it a cracker? Get it? Polly wanna…oh never mind.
NATE: Nice try. I’m sure crackers will make plenty of parrots happy, but it turns out that an even better thing to give a parrot might just be an iPad and their parrot pals’ phone number.
CALLI: I’m sorry. Did you just say an iPad?
NATE: Researchers conducted a study in which 18 parrots were taught how to make video calls to their bird friends, and evidence suggests they all benefited from these avian online gab sessions.
CALLI: Awwwww. I want to video chat with a parrot!
NATE: Right?
CALLI: But…uh…why?
NATE: As in why did they do this study?
CALLI: Whose big idea was to see if parrots liked video calls?
NATE: That’s a great question - and it’s actually surprisingly kind of a big deal. See, there are some 20 million pet parrots living in American homes, and most of them are either alone or live with one or two other birds. But in the wild, most species of parrots live in huge flocks. They’re actually very social animals.
CALLI: Okay. That makes sense. Does living without other birds affect them negatively?
NATE: Not always - but it absolutely can. Isolation can cause all kinds of problems. They can get bored, for one thing. They’re really smart creatures…
CALLI: I mean…yeah. They can talk!
NATE: That boredom and isolation can cause psychological problems just like it would in us. But in the parrots, that can manifest as pacing, constant rocking - sometimes they’ll even try to harm themselves and do things like pluck their own feathers.
CALLI: Polly wanna playdate.
NATE: Exactly! And that’s what led one of the co-authors of the research, Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas from the University of Glasgow to ask a couple of questions. One: would video calls have any positive effects on parrots, and two: if you trained them to call each other, would they actually choose to do so?
CALLI: Wait a second - they actually trained them to make the calls themselves?
NATE: Sorta. Here’s what they did. When the parrots wanted to phone a friend, they would ring a little bell. Their human friend would then present them with a tablet with images of several of their friends. They would touch which bird friend they wanted to call and the video chat would begin. By giving the birds the option to call, they were able to make some assumptions about their preferences.
CALLI: Makes sense. They make the calls probably because they wanted to make the calls. Is that how they realized that the calls had a positive effect on them?
NATE: That’s just one way. The birds also just plain had fun on the calls. They sang to each other. They played. They bounced up and down and got silly. They would mimic social behaviors, like preening themselves. They’d even show each other their toys. All of the owners said they wanted to continue with the calls.
CALLI: So I know there’s a lot of talk about Zoom fatigue, but I’ll be honest, I’d absolutely accept on a call from a cute little parrot any day of the week.
NATE: Turns out, so would other parrots! And that’s why new ideas like this are such a big deal. Making the lives of our pets a little better sometimes means thinking outside of the box.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Let’s talk a little bit about cell mutation. Everytime a cell replicates itself, there’s a chance it could mutate, and while some mutations are totally harmless, others can be dangerous and even fatal.
NATE: That’s basically how cancer works, right?
CALLI: Yeah, some of those dangerous mutations can damage our DNA and lead to certain cancers. And you’d think that the more cells a creature has, the more cell replication takes place, the more mutations happen, and the more likely they are to suffer from cancer, right?
NATE: That makes sense, I guess. An elephant - for example - has way more cells than a human, so it would follow that it probably has a higher likelihood of developing those kinds of conditions. But…I know how this show works, so I think you’re probably going to tell me that’s wrong.
CALLI: Right! I mean - you’re wrong about the cells, but right about the show! Large-bodied animals are often especially resistant to cancer. It’s a mystery called Peto’s paradox. More cells, but less risk for cancer. Your example - the elephant - can live almost as long as humans and yet they rarely die from cancer. And now scientists have discovered that the enormous bowhead whale has its own anti-cancer superpower, and that could unlock help for humans.
NATE: Wow. So this is probably a dumb question, but are elephants and bowhead whales related somehow?
CALLI: Not exactly. In fact, elephants fight cancer differently than the bowhead whale. The elephant has extra copies of genes that basically block tumors from occurring. So when cells are damaged, their bodies just clear them out. But the bowhead whale does it a little differently.
NATE: Whoa. That’s a big mammal.
CALLI: They’re pretty awesome. They live in the arctic and subarctic waters, and they have these massive triangle-shaped skulls they use to break through the ice. And if you ever wondered what animal has the biggest mouth - wonder no more.
NATE: The bowhead whale has the biggest mouth?
CALLI: Yeah. Of any animal. Except for my friend Sally who can’t keep a secret to save her life.
NATE: Ohhhhh Sally. Okay - so how does the bowhead fight off cancer if its different from how elephants do it?
CALLI: While the elephant stops the tumors from happening in the first place, for years researchers hypothesized that the bowhead is actually able to just repair damaged DNA. And recently, Vera Gorbunova from the University of Rochester in New York and her colleagues were able to test that hypothesis in the lab using cells from an actual bowhead whale. And what they found confirmed it.
NATE: The bowhead whale was able to repair damaged DNA?
CALLI: Not just patch it up, either. Other animals they tested repaired their DNA, but did a kinda sloppy job.
NATE: Got it. Like my Uncle Ronny patching up everything with duct tape.
CALLI: Exactly. But the bowhead whale can repair breaks in its DNA as if nothing ever happened. Those little double helix strands are like brand spanking new. And one thing I didn’t mention - these guys can live over 200 years.
NATE: That’s an old whale!
CALLI: And that’s why researchers are so excited about this discovery. The fact is, a cure for cancer and the secret to living longer might already be swimming around out there. And this brings us one step closer to finding it.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: Two dead snubnose eels were found inside the heart of a mako shark. Scientists believe they were somehow able to burrow their way into the heart and feast of the shark’s blood until they died. Shark Week continues all week long on Discovery. For the latest, head to SharkWeek.com!
NATE: Researchers taught parrots how to make video calls to other birds to see if they would benefit from this kind of technology and whether or not they’d choose to call each other if given the option. Turns out, parrots love talking to other parrots, even if it’s only on Zoom.
CALLI: Researchers found one of the secrets to the bowhead whale’s whopping 200-year lifespan. It’s their ability to repair damaged DNA to like-new condition, a discovery that could have amazing potential for humans’ search for cancer cures.