Just the Zoo of Us

Ellen is blowing up about pufferfish. We discuss what pufferfish have in common with chameleons, seafloor crop circles, culinary applications of deadly neurotoxin, and so much more.

Works Cited:

“All puffed out: Do pufferfish hold their breath while inflated?” - Georgia Evelyn McGee & Timothy Darren Clark, Biology Letters, Dec 2014

“Treatment of Tetrodotoxin Poisoning” - Sophie Yushuo Li, Theoretical and Natural Science, April 2023

Dolphins purposely 'getting high' on pufferfish - Dolphins - Spy in the Pod: Episode 2 - BBC

"Pufferfish Builds Sand Sculpture for Mating" - Nature on PBS

“Seeking a Deadly Delicacy: Pufferfish, Regional Gastronomy, and Pharmacology in Middle Period China” - Zihan Guo, Journal of Chinese History, July 2026

“Chefs Train for Years to Serve This Rare Poisonous Fish” - Bon Appetit, June 2024

“Pufferfish in China: diners lured by delicacy now country has bred them poison-free” - Elaine Yau, South China Morning Post, February 2019

Links:

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Join Ellen & special guest, journalist and writer Sharon Guynup, for stories from the world of conservation. Our guest’s career has taken her all over the world, from the forests of India to the highways of rural America, where she has experienced both ends of the spectrum of human relationships to nature. She’s been part of busting wildlife trafficking rings and abuse and she’s seen communities join forces to protect and preserve their native species. Her stories include a population of lions brought back from near extinction, a crime campus, a tiger attack, e-mails from Joe Exotic, gas station pizza, influencing entire new laws, a Hollywood celebrity cougar, and so much more.

Links:

Pre-order Sharon and Steve's book Big Cats, available October 6!

Read more from Mongabay at mongabay.org!

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Ellen & special guest Isaac answer questions from young listeners! We discuss bug guts, milking squids, the blobfish's secret Final Form, getting upped, ancient sharks with table saws for faces, and so much more.

Links:

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Join Ellen & special guest, writer and scientist Dan Werb, for a look at the animal neighbors that have made themselves at home in our own backyards: synanthropes. The word means a wild, undomesticated animal that lives closely alongside humans, whether that means scurrying through subway tunnels or curling up in an old refrigerator at the bottom of the sea or quietly roosting right over your head, all of which we discuss in this episode. We also talk about a university campus turf war between dogs and baboons, the genetically enhanced Super Soldiers of New York City, villainous plants, the ancient prehistoric roots of our spiritual relationship with ravens, and other fascinating stories featured in Dan’s book, Our Wild Familiars, which has just released this week.   

Links:

Pick up Our Wild Familiars where books are sold!

Follow Dan on Instagram!

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Ellen and Christian return from their travels to review the good, the bad, and the ugly of the mongooses. We discuss the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, historical plurals, neurotoxin Darth Vader, checking in with Pliny the Elder, the most "mean girls" scientific study ever, mysteriously weird pupils, the global issue of mongoose-induced ecological destruction, and so much more. 

Works Cited:

"Mongoose" - Etymonline

“How the mongoose can fight the snake: The binding site of the mongoose acetylcholine receptor” - Dora Barchan et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, August 1992

“Why the honey badger don't care: Convergent evolution of venom-targeted nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in mammals that survive venomous snake bites” - Danielle Drabeck et al., Toxicon, March 2015

Book 8, chapter 36 of Natural History - Pliny the Elder, 77 CE

“Experimental evidence for delayed postconflict management behaviour in wild dwarf mongooses”  - Amy Morris-Drake et al, eLife, September 2021

Hawaii Invasive Species Council - Mongoose (Urva auropunctata)

“Negative Impact of an Invasive Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes javanicus on Native Wildlife Species and Evaluation of a Control Project in Amami-Ohshima and Okinawa Islands, Japan” - Fumio Yamada & Ken Sugimura, Global Environmental Research, December 2004

Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, Schedule 2 - New Zealand government

Links:

For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!

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Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo