Join Ellen & special guest, podcasting powerhouse Steven Ray Morris, for a long-anticipated review of those furry little predators that have inspired devotion and admiration for thousands of years: the cat. We discuss the history of humans’ relationship to cats, ancient Egypt, fluid dynamics, how they manipulate the laws of physics, the future of cats in space, what makes each cat special to us, and so much more. Links: Find more of Steven's work on his website: https://www.stevenraymorris.com/ Check out Steven's podcast See Jurassic Right! Follow Steven on Twitter and Instagram! Learn more about how you can celebrate World Okapi Day! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Ellen fawns over the viral pygmy hippopotamus & Christian goes big with the harpy eagle. We discuss the evolution of hippos, blood sweat, poocoptering, Moo Deng, smooch breaks, sloth staredowns, and so much more. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok! Source for harpy eagle call: https://xeno-canto.org/316474

Spider scientist Dr. Sebastian Echeverri returns to share with us his top 3 favorite spiders. We discuss spiders who go from moving like shadows to soaring through the air, spider cowboys with sick lasso moves, wife guy spiders who move in on the first date, how spiders appear in video games and movies and how they could be so much cooler, and of course so much more. Links: Check out Sebastian's book, Spiders of the United States & Canada Learn more about Sebastian and see more of his work at spiderdaynightlive.com For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Christian hoots with siamangs & Ellen hollers with laughing kookaburras. We discuss defying gravity, how screaming fits into any good morning routine, birds' double-barreled voices, the true identity behind the SpongeBob dolphin sound, and more. Links: Audio source for siamang calls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Symphalangus_syndactylus_20170623_Dou%C3%A9-la-Fontaine.ogg Audio source for kookaburra calls: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dacelo_novaeguineae_ANWC_X00516.opus For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Join Ellen & special guest, science communicator Lucca of Lucca's BioHub, for a look back on the half-a-billion year history of bugs. We discuss ancient millipedes as long as a horse, whether we’d rather fight 2 million ant-sized humans or one human-sized ant, the arms races and tiny empires and intertwined symbiotic relationships that have shaped the very planet into the world we know today, and so much more. Links: See more of Lucca's BioHub at their website! Follow Lucca on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Ellen gets the ball rolling with dung beetles & Christian jaws away about the giant moray eel. We discuss tiny boots, field trips to the planetarium, The Mummy (1999), secret jaws, why moray eels make that face, teamwork on the reef, fact checking The Little Mermaid, and more. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

We're out traveling this week! In the meantime, please enjoy this episode of Bugs Need Heroes, in which Ellen joined hosts Amanda Niday and Kelly Zimmerman to settle a debate: are shrimps bugs? Are mantis shrimps shrimps? We discuss how they may or may not be turning into crabs and what they might think of sunsets. Tangents include Godzilla, weddings, pet store stories, internet memes, Sailor Moon and anime translations. Originally aired on the Bugs Need Heroes podcast on June 23, 2024. Links: Find the original version of this episode, episode notes and links over at the Bugs Need Heroes podcast! Learn more about the podcast on their website! Follow Bugs Need Heroes on Instagram, Twitter and Reddit! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok! Bugs Need Heroes theme music: "Ladybug Castle" by Rolemusic

Join Ellen & special guest, biodiversity champion Kai Gómez D'hers, for a journey through the skies of Argentina on some of the biggest wings in the world. We’re talking about the important role of scavengers as nature’s sanitation engineers, the cascading impacts of poison on entire ecosystems, how communities can work together to make ecological miracles happen, what’s up with the puppets, and so much more. Links: Learn more about the Andean Condor Integral Conservation Plan at the PCCA's website: English / Español Follow the PCCA on Instagram! Connect with Kai on Instagram! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Christian chews on the Gila monster & Ellen struts her stuff with the Indian peacock. We discuss Christian's Duolingo streak, lizard venom, yet another hot take from Charles Darwin, how to haze a peacock, and so much more. Real G's move in silence like the Gila monster. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Join Ellen & wildlife educator Sarah Skebba for a review of a modern-day dinosaur with some pretty extreme approaches to life: the rhinoceros hornbill. We’re talking about bizarre beaks with built-in resonance chambers, the most unpleasant nesting situation I have ever heard of, how zoos are helping conserve endangered birds in the wild, and so much more. Links: Learn more about edZOOcating and find educational resources for nature-loving kids at edzoocating.com! Follow edZOOcating on Instagram and YouTube! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Ellen gets back in the saddle with seahorses & Christian goes dumpster diving with raccoons. We discuss why seahorses are the chameleons of the ocean, how males give birth, corn etiquette, a surprisingly common myth about America's most iconic furry bandits, and so much more. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Ellen & special guest, marine biologist Jasmin Graham, review some of the coolest, cutest and sometimes the goofiest sharks in the ocean: hammerheads. We discuss what it’s like to study sharks in the wild, shark evolution and the huge questions scientists still have about it, the puppiest shark, and so much more. Links: Pre-order Jasmin's book, Sharks Don't Sink! Learn more about Jasmin's work on her website! Follow Jasmin on Twitter! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Christian keeps an eye out for sand boas & Ellen clears her cache with black-capped chickadees. We discuss googly eyes, troubleshooting reptile poop, skin of Theseus, borbs, inventory management, brain barcodes and factory resets, and so much more. Links: Report beak deformities to the Alaska Science Center For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

join Ellen & special guest, naturalist and author of Secrets of the Octopus Sy Montgomery, for a look into the life and mind of some of the ocean’s most mystifying aliens: the giant Pacific octopus. We discuss an octopus’s least favorite texture, what happens when an arm goes rogue, the underwater city of Octopolis, how to make interspecies friendships, and so much more. Links: Find Secrets of the Octopus wherever you get books! Find more of Sy's work at her website: symontgomery.com For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Ellen comes out of her shell with hermit crabs & Christian is tickled pink by flamingos. In this week's beach episode, we discuss vacancy chains, shell economies, crustacean diss tracks, Florida postcards, and making new enemies in a flamboyance. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Join Ellen & special guests Owen Ever and Laine Kaplan-Levenson for a revue of gay animals! We discuss manatee wuzzles, elephant matriarchy, giraffes necking in more ways than one, eagle throuples, the impact of prejudice on science, and so much more. This episode is a celebration of love, family, and community in - as our guest puts it - the animal queendom. NOTE: Since a lot of this episode is about the diversity of sexual behavior in animals, naturally it does contain more discussion of sex than most of our episodes, including behaviors that aren’t just motivated by reproduction. These discussions are not graphic or explicit, but it is a focal point of the conversation so I do encourage any young listeners to please check in with your grown-ups before listening. Links: Check out A Field Guide to Gay Animals! Follow the podcast on Instagram! Follow Owen on Instagram and learn more about their work on their website! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Christian bubbles over with hype for the diving bell spider & Ellen tells some fish tales about the legendary oarfish. We discuss Hotwheels sisyphus, Doordash for spiders, diving technology, Pokemon, sea serpent mythology, bioluminescence and so much more. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Join Ellen & special guest, naturalist and birder Dara Miles Wilson, about some of the brightest and boldest members of the corvid family: the tenacious and charming blue jays. We discuss the audacity of jays and their amazing hawk impressions, what to put in your birdfeeder and why you might want to add a little spice, why blue jays aren’t actually blue, and so much more. Links: Follow Black AF in Stem on social media (linktree here) and check out the virtual and in-person events for this year's Black Birders Week! Follow Dara on Instagram or Twitter! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Join Ellen & special guest, wildlife biologist and author Sophie Osborn, for a review of the skydiving champions of the animal kingdom: peregrine falcons. We discuss the adaptations that let these incredible birds tear through the sky at literally breakneck speeds, biomimicry in aircraft design and sporting goods, the plague of pesticide and how we almost lost some of our most iconic birds, and the lessons that birds can teach us about our own role in the environment. Links: Get your own copy of Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds by Sophie Osborn! Follow along with Sophie's work at her website! Watch peregrine falcons on the National Aviary's livestream, Peregrine FalconCam! For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Ellen earns her stripes with zebras & Christian DOES care about the honey badger. We discuss the mysteries of stripes, video games as scientific experiments, the important role of cool jackets in wildlife rehabilitation, zebras in unusual places, viral videos from 2011, venom resistance, cheetah mimicry, and so much more. Links: For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website! Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord! Follow Ellen on TikTok!