Ba-Gawk! How Peacocks Work

If you’ve ever wanted to know why peacocks have such amazing feathers, why they’re not all called peacocks, and plenty of other neat stuff about peacocks, then perhaps this episode on peacocks is for you. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:06Speaker 03

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:16Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck. Jerry's here, too. And I can't think of anything hilarious to say, so I'm just gonna say this is stuff you should know.

• 1:28Speaker 04

  That's right. Live show listener request edition, because Peacock's came to us. Did you get her name? Or is, can we just say the wonderful young girl at our Atlanta live show?

• 1:42Josh Clark?

  I really want to say Sarah, but I'm not sure. So whoever you are, young girl who suggested Peacock's at the Atlanta show, write in to tell us your name so we can tell everybody.

• 1:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, so this is a great idea. We're talking about Peacock's, which is, if you want to look at the, the word itself, it's English, and it is derived from the Latin word pavo. And in Old English, that was pronounced pawa, P-A-W-A. And that was shortened over the years to po, eventually pocock, then powcock.

• 2:19Speaker 04

  And I guess peacock and it's linked a little bit to this old expression, proud as a poe, which is, you know, how a peacock kind of struts around all prideful. And then eventually it became peacock.

• 2:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And you would think it would have become peacock like in the 1950s or 60s. But no, it became peacock as far back as the 1300s.

• 2:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:40Josh Clark?

  So that's it for etymology of peacocks, but there's a little more about the word peacock because a lot of you are getting things wrong and you need to be corrected.

• 2:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:49Josh Clark?

  Harshly sometimes. A peacock is specifically the male of the species.

• 2:55Speaker 04

  Obviously.

• 2:57Josh Clark?

  The pehen is the female. So if you see a brown, kind of drab looking peacock and you say, look at that brown peacock, well, you just sound like a hayseed.

• 3:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:09Josh Clark?

  It's a pehen and she's not drab, she's camouflaged.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  That's right. Their little babies grow pechicks. And if you want to talk, as we're going to, about the, the species as a whole, we're going to be saying peefowl. And then we will, you know, when we say cock, we're going to mean male. When we say hen, we're going to mean lady. And when we say chick, we're going to mean baby.

• 3:33Josh Clark?

  Okay. I think we've really laid it out.

• 3:36Speaker 04

  There are three main species, speaking of laying this out, of the peefowl. And you have the most common that you, if you live in the United States and you've seen one, maybe in a zoo, maybe in a park, or maybe just strutting around your neighborhood.

• 3:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, we have some walking around our area too.

• 3:52Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Is it, I mean, the same ones from many years ago? Because you told the story years ago about the, the sound of the peacock.

• 4:00Josh Clark?

  Sorry, no, those were, those were Yumi's grandma's peacock, neighborhood peacocks.

• 4:08Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 4:08Josh Clark?

  And for some reason, the ones that live around me are not a disturbance at all. I mean, they make their sounds, but it's few and it's few and far between. It's not annoying at all. It's kind of cute. And it's just a different experience than it was around Yumi's grandma's house.

• 4:28Speaker 04

  All right. Fair enough. I mean, I've talked before about my neighborhood peacocks. I have not seen them. In a few years, so I don't know if they're still around. And the house is on my morning dog walk. So I haven't seen those peacocks around in a little while, those peafowl. So I'm not sure if they're around, but we used to see them occasionally and it was all great fun. But where I started 10 minutes ago saying is if you see one of those in the United States, you're probably almost certainly looking at a blue peafowl or an Indian peafowl.

• 5:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure. They are not native to the United States, although they thrive in coastal, warmish areas, kind of muggy areas, you could say, too, although also arid areas. Anyway, California and Florida, let's just specify that. They do really well there, but they're native to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

• 5:21Speaker 04

  Yes, exactly. They're the most common, a little less common, but still more common than the third group is the green peafowl or the Javanese peafowl, so native to Java, Southeast Asia and Myanmar. And then what's our little third grouping?

• 5:38Josh Clark?

  The Congo peafowl.

• 5:41Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 5:42Josh Clark?

  Little, little, it's like a little mini turkey. He looks like, they look like. They're native to the Congo Basin in Africa. And the Indian and Javanese peafowl prefer kind of openish fields and maybe kind of tree-lined streets. That's why they love neighborhoods, parks, like it replicates their native habitat. The Congo peafowl prefer to live in the forest itself.

• 6:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's right.

• 6:10Josh Clark?

  So that's, that's where they like to live.

• 6:12Speaker 04

  No matter which kind of peafowl you're talking about, they're all going to be omnivores. They eat lots of seeds and berries and, you know, plant life and stuff like that, as well as some insects, but they'll also munch down on a mouse or a little cute lizard or a snake if they want to, if they're feeling peckish, I guess.

• 6:34Josh Clark?

  Get it, Peckish?

• 6:35Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:36Josh Clark?

  So, um, they are the, among the largest flying birds in the world. Um, a lot, something a lot of people don't realize about peafowl is that they, um, can fly. Apparently, the green peafowl, fowl, yeah, I said that right?

• 6:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:51Josh Clark?

  Is a, is a pretty strong flyer. The Indian or blue peafowl is not great, but they can make it to the roof of a two-story building.

• 7:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:01Josh Clark?

  Pretty fast if a dog like Momo barks at them. I can tell you that.

• 7:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've seen that too.

• 7:06Josh Clark?

  Um, so they're, they can fly and, and they are very large, too. Um, blue peafowl, the most common one, they're the biggest of the three. The adult male can measure 50 inches. It's a little over four feet. God knows how many meters we're talking about. Let's say 1.2. Um, and it's trained so that, that what you think of as the tail feathers are actually not the tail. They actually protrude out of the back of the, the peafowl or the peacock in this case. That can be five to seven feet long. So they are a big, big bird. Not big bird size, but they're still a big bird.

• 7:45Speaker 04

  That's right. And as you'll see, that, uh, that big, beautiful train is a big part of the mating ritual. So when you see that thing fully displayed, when that peacock wants to have a little good time with a peahen, that thing may go five to seven feet in every direction.

• 8:03Josh Clark?

  It's amazing.

• 8:04Speaker 04

  Very, very large.

• 8:05Josh Clark?

  They also use it to defend their territory. I saw a guy laying pavers once and he was apparently laying pavers on a peacock's territory because the peacock had his train like fully fanned out.

• 8:17Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 8:17Josh Clark?

  And was like shaking and staring at the guy like, "I'm gonna kill you if you don't stop laying pavers right there."

• 8:22Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 8:22Josh Clark?

  The guy just completely ignored him. It was pretty funny to see because that peacock was quite serious.

• 8:28Speaker 04

  I bet. Uh, so the blue adult male peacock is about a 13-pounder. Uh, if you don't count wild turkeys, which are usually put into a different family, although they can be in the pheasant family, uh, they are the largest, the peacock, that is, is the largest in the pheasant family.

• 8:44Josh Clark?

  You're not gonna take a shot at the family name for the turkeys?

• 8:48Speaker 04

  No, I wouldn't gonna, but you can.

• 8:50Josh Clark?

  Uh, Melia grididae.

• 8:53Speaker 04

  Oh, great.

• 8:54Josh Clark?

  I think I got it. I didn't even practice that one.

• 8:57Speaker 04

  Good job.

• 8:58Josh Clark?

  But those turkeys, did you say they can weigh up to 30 pounds?

• 9:02Speaker 04

  Uh, I didn't say that about the turkeys, but yeah, they're, they're big.

• 9:05Josh Clark?

  That's a big turkey. It's like baby Huey types.

• 9:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, I got that turkey family living in, uh, living at my camp. There's six or eight of them now. They're just, they hang around together, get them on the camp cam. It's just lovely.

• 9:18Josh Clark?

  Well, are they used to your presence or, cause those things run. They have really sharp eyesight and they scatter quick.

• 9:25Speaker 04

  No, no. I mean sadly, all the wonderful camp activity is when I'm not there. Uh, they, I have a feeling that they peer through the woods and they're like, oh, the guys are down there again.

• 9:35Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 9:36Speaker 04

  They'll, they'll leave tomorrow.

• 9:37Josh Clark?

  Spending a weekend like standing up against a tree and not moving, seeing what happens?

• 9:42Speaker 04

  No, I'll do that though.

• 9:45Josh Clark?

  You should. Buy yourself some nice camouflage clothing first though. It'll help a lot.

• 9:49Speaker 04

  I've already got that stuff.

• 9:51Josh Clark?

  Okay. Uh, so I also said that the blue peahens are sometimes considered drab and I mean, compared to the males, they are not quite as, as, uh, easy on the eyes, right? But they're brown and they're drab because the female blue peahens, um, are responsible for guarding their nests. And even though they spend a lot of time roosting in trees, very often they sleep overnight in trees. They build their nests on the ground and little depressions on the ground lined with sticks. And so they have to defend that, that nest at all times. The easiest way to defend it is to not be seen.

• 10:29Josh Clark?

  So they, uh, steer clear of, uh, being seen by things like leopards and tigers and mongooses and all that, um, by blending in with the surrounding terrain.

• 10:39Speaker 04

  And mimosas.

• 10:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah, Momo doesn't actually want to predate the peacock. She just wants it to know, like, this is Momo's yard, peacock.

• 10:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, let them know who's boss.

• 10:50Josh Clark?

  Right, exactly. Momo's boss.

• 10:52Speaker 04

  So, the green peafowl, you know, we're going to talk about, a little bit about all of them, even though the blue are the most common. But the green, if it's not mating season, you may not be able to tell them apart. They both have that really nice green neck, that sort of light green here and there. And during mating season is when you're going to see the males train grow a lot longer, but then they molt and they shed those. So, more or less, they look about the same when it's not mating season.

• 11:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and they're both very, very beautiful. They have amazingly beautiful feathers as well.

• 11:24Speaker 04

  Very pretty.

• 11:25Josh Clark?

  The little Congo peafowl, they're kind of cute. Dark blue neck feathers and dark green and black train. Females are also brown. But they, they're just not, nothing can beat a blue peacock.

• 11:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:39Josh Clark?

  They just can't, I'm sorry. That's a hill I'll die on if I have to.

• 11:43Speaker 04

  No, it's fantastic. And if you have one in your neighborhood and as a pet in captivity, if one of your neighbors does, you may just get used to that sound and get used to seeing them because they could live 40, 50 years when kept as pets. I'm not suggesting that they be kept as pets, I'm just saying that people do that. They live about 10 to 25 years in the wild.

• 12:02Josh Clark?

  Yeah. They can also kind of haul pretty fast. They can run up to 10 miles an hour when they need to.

• 12:08Speaker 04

  Okay, you've got to get a good running start if you want to get off the ground, I guess.

• 12:11Josh Clark?

  That's right. With their little, like, aviator goggles on.

• 12:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, totally.

• 12:17Josh Clark?

  You want to take a break?

• 12:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:18Josh Clark?

  All right, well, we're going to do that, everybody, watch this.

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• 14:16Josh Clark?

  So, I think it's high time that we talk about what everybody thinks of when they think of peacocks, which is that amazing train of feathers spread out in a fan behind them, and it's correct to say him. And this is all part of the mating ritual, right? That's the whole point of those feathers. Again, the peacock will use it to try to ward off or intimidate trespassers in their territory, but for the most part, the whole thing is to impress the peahens.

• 14:45Speaker 04

  That's right. And when a male wants to impress a peahen, that peacock will prop up those feathers into a big, beautiful fan. Dave likens it, Dave helped us with this, to like an inverted umbrella, so it's sort of, you know, when you see it, it's sort of pointed back from their butthole area toward the hen.

• 15:08Speaker 04

  And they will shake those feathers and the shaking isn't just like, hey, look how pretty and iridescent this gorgeous train is. Science has discovered semi-recently that those vibrations are in lockstep with the peahen's head feathers that they used to think were just for show, but now they realize they vibrate at the same intensity and that they can actually sort of feel when those tail feathers are vibrating in their direction through their head feathers.

• 15:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they're like receivers. Isn't that neat?

• 15:41Speaker 04

  Super cool.

• 15:42Josh Clark?

  They resonate at the same rate. The male peacock, when he shakes those feathers, that fan, he can shake it at more than 25 times a second.

• 15:54Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 15:55Josh Clark?

  And that resonance, I think it's like 25.6 Hz to be exact, that just happens to be tuned in almost precisely to the crest feathers on the peahen's head. And in addition to the sight, apparently peahens have amazing sight, so they're seeing everything that the peacock's showing them, but also they're feeling it, like that's transmitting, that vibration or resonance is transmitting to their head. So it's quite a, like, you're not going to turn down a peacock if you're a peahen. They're pretty amazing dudes, I guess.

• 16:27Speaker 04

  That's right. And before we get emails, I'm sure Josh will admit that when you said it just happens to vibrate the same frequency, that is no accident at all. It's called natural selection, baby.

• 16:37Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, sure. I guess I'll admit that.

• 16:40Speaker 04

  I mean, you're just being cheeky, but I'm sure somebody would write in and say, no, Josh, it didn't just happen to vibrate that way. It's by design.

• 16:46Josh Clark?

  Intelligent design people, you mean?

• 16:50Speaker 04

  No, no.

• 16:51Josh Clark?

  Creationists?

• 16:53Speaker 04

  No, by design, as natural selection.

• 16:57Josh Clark?

  That's very teleological.

• 16:59Speaker 04

  I don't even know what that means. What's that mean?

• 17:01Josh Clark?

  It means that everything has a purpose, so it was designed to be a certain way.

• 17:08Speaker 04

  Love that. See, people, when you don't know a word, it's okay to say, I don't know what that means.

• 17:13Josh Clark?

  It sure is, Chuck. That's a great example to set.

• 17:15Speaker 04

  So, and you didn't talk down to me. You told me the definition. Now I'm a little bit smarter because of you.

• 17:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I wasn't like, dummy. Listen up.

• 17:24Speaker 04

  Teleological.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  All right, so we need to cover this part of the mating ritual because the fact of the matter is, the peacock loves to get around the block, if you know what I mean. They have a social structure called a lek, L-E-K, which is basically a harem, and the male is going to mate with several females. But here's the part that's a little, maybe not intuitive. Even though the male is mating with many females, the male isn't running the show as far as who he gets to do that with.

• 18:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so he's putting on this huge show, not to be like, "I'm hypnotizing you, baby, do my bidding." He's doing it because he's like, "Check me out, don't you like me? Like, look at this, aren't I amazing?" And the female can either be like, "I've seen better," or she could be like, "Yeah, you're right up my alley. You just happen to be vibrating at my resonance."

• 18:22Speaker 04

  And he says, "That's teleological."

• 18:24Josh Clark?

  So, yeah, so one of the ways that a male will make himself seem even more virile than he is, there's something called the hoot-dash noise. And just the hoot is the noise part. It's called a hoot-dash because right after the male hoots, he dashes toward the female and they start mating, right? It's actually quite disturbing to see. A lot of mating in the animal world is really disturbing.

• 18:48Speaker 04

  I saw a video too. It's like, the dash was very close to the hoot.

• 18:53Josh Clark?

  Yeah. But that's what that noise is called. So males realize that like, the more hoot-dashing or hoot sounds that they make, the more females in earshot, but not in eye shot, I guess, will hear, "Oh, wow, like Terry really gets it on with a lot of peahens. I'm going to give him a shot next time he comes around because he must be very virile." Like, a third of those hoot-dash sounds are faked, essentially.

• 19:23Speaker 04

  That's right. So when that finally happens, the female peahen will scratch out a little depression in the ground, basically, and line it with sticks. And that's their little nest. They're gonna lay four to eggs that are gonna hatch after four weeks. And those little peah chicks are up and around, pretty much right out of the gate. It'll take them a couple of weeks to fly. And those boys that are peacocks, aren't gonna get those train feathers until their second year. They're like, why don't you just chill for a couple of years and not think about that thing?

• 19:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah. They are so cute, too. Do not rely on the internet for what a baby peacock looks like. Apparently, it's been a great example to demonstrate how much AI is just screwing the internet up.

• 20:09Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 20:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Yeah, if you go on Google image search for baby peacocks, like, people think that there's pictures of like a giant, or like a miniaturized, cute, big-eyed peacock, and that that's a baby peacock. They all look like peahens, like little brown peahens. But even if they're peacocks, that's how they start out. So just check it out. Just search baby peacock for images.

• 20:34Speaker 04

  And it's a lie?

• 20:36Josh Clark?

  It's a lie, for sure.

• 20:38Speaker 04

  Oh, my god. That's the cutest little iridescent blue baby duckling thing I've ever seen.

• 20:44Josh Clark?

  Right. But it doesn't exist. That's not real.

• 20:49Josh Clark?

  Hey, don't blame me. Blame the AI running the internet.

• 20:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, those eyes are suspiciously large and Disney-like.

• 20:58Josh Clark?

  So one other thing about the peah chicks is that they stay with their mom for two to six months, depending on whether they're in captivity in the wild. Moms are much more maternal instinct-wise in the wild than they are in captivity. So, you know, depends on the situation, how long they hang around them. But just watching, have you ever seen a peahen with her little peah chicks following her?

• 21:23Speaker 04

  No, I've just seen the turkey version at the camp.

• 21:27Josh Clark?

  It's very cute. Oh, my god. I'll bet baby turkeys are pretty cute, too.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  Yeah. The following around is just very cute, because like, mom's up front, and there's like six little guys and girls just following it along, like, I can keep up, I can keep up.

• 21:40Josh Clark?

  And there's always one straggler that has to like run faster to catch up with the group.

• 21:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, Barney.

• 21:44Josh Clark?

  Love that guy. Who?

• 21:47Speaker 04

  Barney.

• 21:49Josh Clark?

  That's a perfect name.

• 21:51Speaker 04

  So the dads, as far as blue and green peacocks go, are not around. They're complete absentee dads. But hey, if you're feeling bad for the family unit, just go to the Congo. Because those Congo peafowl are monogamous. They don't have those legs. They like one lady and they hang around and feed and raise peachicks with mommy.

• 22:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah, pretty great, huh?

• 22:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's great.

• 22:15Josh Clark?

  So I think we should talk a little bit about natural selection, sexual selection, Charles Darwin, kind of what you were alluding to earlier, right?

• 22:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, because Charles Darwin was bringing a little too much of his human baggage to some of this research. It seems pretty clear, don't you think?

• 22:32Josh Clark?

  Uh huh, for sure.

• 22:33Speaker 04

  And how was he doing that?

• 22:37Josh Clark?

  So Darwin grew up or lived in the Victorian era where women were viewed as passive, submissive. They were just there and had their fingers crossed that a man of adequate dashingness would come along and marry them, right? So that meant that it was the men, the males of the Victorian era human species, in England at least, that were responsible for sexual selection. They chose the winners and the losers among women. Well, Darwin was looking around the world of nature, basically all the other animals, and was like, that's not really what I'm seeing out there. And in the peacocks in particular, the females are, again, drab, really camouflaged.

• 23:22Josh Clark?

  While the males have these amazing, beautiful displays, that strongly suggests that the males are performing for the females and it's the females who are doing the sexual selecting. And he had such a hard time wrestling with this. There's a quote from him that said, "The sight of a pea feather made him sick." Because he could not. Give in and he finally was, you know, science got the better of him and he's like, "That's just how it is. I don't like it, but females in the animal kingdom are typically the ones who select sexually and end up are the, they're the drivers of natural selection. They choose what passes on to the next generation based on the kind of male mates that they choose.

• 24:03Speaker 04

  That's right. And that choosing is based on the, that flashy display that we're going to talk a little bit more about as far as the colors and stuff go and that vibration. But if there's science behind that, or is there science behind that? Yes. In 1994, it seems like it at least, there were some researchers in Britain that found that the bigger peacocks that had more eye spots, you know, they look like eyes. What are they called? Ossili?

• 24:30Josh Clark?

  Ocelli?

• 24:30Speaker 04

  Ocelli?

• 24:32Josh Clark?

  In, in the Italian, it'd be celli because C followed by a vowel is a ch sound. So let's just go with Italian, say ocelli.

• 24:39Speaker 04

  Okay. But the more of those they have and the larger that they are and the more just big and beautiful they are, it looks like the larger offspring they're going to have, they're going to be more likely to survive. So it seems like they are more genetically fit.

• 24:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And those eye spots play a real starring role in this whole sexual selection and mating process, right? So the feathers in and of themselves are pretty amazing, but the eye spots, these little dots with different colors on them that are like scattered all across the train feathers, the fan, they are of a slightly different structure, slightly different density than the rest of the feathers surrounding them. So when that train resonates at 25.6 hertz, they appear to stand still and float against the background of the other feathers that are vibrating at the same frequency, but are just of a slightly different density. And this is so important. These ocelli, the eye spots are so important.

• 25:40Josh Clark?

  The scientists have figured out that other species that also have eye spots aren't, they don't share a common ancestor with peacocks that had eye spots, Chuck. Eye spots evolved separately over different times among different species. They're that important for mating.

• 26:02Speaker 04

  That's right. And thanks to our listener mail in the Ruby Ridge episode. It's called "Convergent Evolution and Not Co-Evolution."

• 26:11Josh Clark?

  Very nice. I say we take a break then, since we're done talking about eye spots, right?

• 26:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, we'll finish up with Act Three, right after this.

• 26:18Josh Clark?

  Oh, wait, wait. There was one more thing about eye spots.

• 26:21Speaker 04

  Wait, stop the presses. Jerry, roll tape.

• 26:26Josh Clark?

  Researchers have figured out for sure that eye spots play a big role because some poor schmo of a peacock had his eye spots covered up. And they said, "Go out to ladies' night and see what happens."

• 26:36Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:36Josh Clark?

  And he got nothing from nobody ever while his eye spots were covered up.

• 26:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, the copulation, the quote is, "Their copulation success declined to almost zero."

• 26:50Josh Clark?

  Almost. They were just being nice.

• 26:52Speaker 04

  They were. All right, now, are we breaking?

• 26:54Josh Clark?

  Yes, I don't have any other breaking news.

• 26:57Speaker 04

  All right, everybody take five, then we're back.

• 27:13Speaker 05

  Snoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness? I'm Shaquille O'Neal, and this shouldn't be anybody's experience. Ask your doctor about Zepbound, terzipatide, the first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.

• 27:29Speaker 06

  Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15-milligram injection. Zepbound contains trezepatide and should not be used with other trezepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic

• 28:14Speaker 06

  reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plant-to-be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulphonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems.

• 28:36Speaker 05

  Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979, or visit zepbound.lily.com.

• 28:55Speaker 04

  All right, we are back to finish up with peacocks, and we're going to talk a little bit about something we did an entire episode on, and that is iridescent. This was many years ago that we did an ep on iridescent, and if you want to really deep dive on the science of it, you can go listen to that ep. But what we're looking at in the case of peacock feathers, and why they look iridescent and are just so shiny and majestic-looking, is because of the shape. It's a physical shape of something, and not necessarily a color of something, right?

• 29:32Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the the pigments that are in the peacock's tail feathers are melanin. And melanin typically looks brown to us. It's what gives human skin kind of a brown cast to it. That is melanin pigment. And it's no different in a peacock's feathers, but the structure is totally different. Like you said, there's a crystalline structure of overlaying barbs that if you looked in an electron microscope, you can see quite clearly. And those barbs, those crystal barbs of melanin, there's like little gaps between them. And in fact, it creates what's called a partial band gap, which means that electromagnetic

• 30:12Josh Clark?

  waves do not penetrate some area depending on where that light is hitting. To put simply, Chuck, depending on which angle, which direction, light hits these melanin rods, the crystalline melanin rods, it's going to reflect or absorb all different kinds of light. And so the same structure can reflect or absorb different kinds of light depending on where the light hits it, which means if you're looking at it one way and you move slightly to the left, you're looking at a different part of that structure and it's reflecting different colored light. And that's how iridescence comes along.

• 30:50Speaker 04

  That's right. Partial band gap, not to be confused with the partial gap band, which is the sad tour when two out of three of those guys went out on the road.

• 31:01Josh Clark?

  It wasn't a very good tour, was it?

• 31:02Speaker 04

  It wasn't a very good joke. But I couldn't help myself. Yeah, I mean, that's iridescence in a nutshell. That's basically how it it works in across nature. It's just about, you know, the structure of the the thing. And like, you know, what do we talk about? We talked about fish and butterfly wings, mainly, I think.

• 31:24Speaker 04

  On that episode?

• 31:26Josh Clark?

  It's so neat. And it, yeah, it's just the structure. If you take a bunch of crystals and pile them on top of each other and little weird repeating patterns, they're going to become iridescent. It's gorgeous. Apparently Isaac Newton figured it out all the way back in 1704.

• 31:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:40Josh Clark?

  Based on, yeah, based on peacock feathers. He said, "Check these out, man. I know what's going on. You'll just have to find out."

• 31:49Speaker 04

  That's right. We do need to talk about their yelp, because it's, you know, I mean, you used to do a pretty good impression. You want to try it?

• 32:00Josh Clark?

  Help! Help!

• 32:02Speaker 04

  It always sounds like help.

• 32:04Josh Clark?

  That's what it sounds like to me. It's uncanny and unnerving.

• 32:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, it is. And I always laughed at that years ago until like we got our own neighborhood peacocks. And then I would hear it occasionally. And I was like, "Yeah, Josh is right." Or is Josh in that backyard right now? Like, it's one of those two things is happening. Yeah, it's pretty shrill. It can get annoying if you live near one. I don't mind it so much because I didn't live next door to one, but it's usually in the morning and evening. During mating season, it can pick up a bit. So I don't know if there were complaints or if these local peacocks just, you know, met their natural end, you know? I don't know if they were taken out or if they were moved to a farm. You know what I'm saying?

• 32:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I know what you're saying.

• 32:48Speaker 04

  Or if they just had little peostrokes.

• 32:50Josh Clark?

  That's, uh...

• 32:53Josh Clark?

  They were elf-struck.

• 32:55Josh Clark?

  So they also, they honk too. Like, I can't even do the honk.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  Like a goose?

• 33:02Josh Clark?

  That's that hoot-dash thing. Sounds kind of like a honk.

• 33:05Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. It does sound a little honkish.

• 33:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so they can do that a lot too. And if you put it all together, yeah, it can be very annoying, but I, Chuck, I cannot figure out what the difference is between Yumi's grandma's neighborhood, my neighborhood, because I have a completely different

• 33:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:23Josh Clark?

  opinion of the annoyance level of peacocks now. I don't understand why, but there's the facts.

• 33:30Speaker 04

  Well, maybe you aged into it.

• 33:33Josh Clark?

  I guess so. I'm older, wiser, gentler.

• 33:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:38Josh Clark?

  More peacock-loving.

• 33:39Speaker 04

  Sure. I think we all get that way.

• 33:42Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 33:43Speaker 04

  All right, so let's talk about the history of these things, jumping back a little bit. A few thousand years ago, the ancient Phoenicians were the first folks to say, hey, these things are great. Let's move them around to different places because these things strutting around a palace is really something to see. So they brought them from India to Syria. They were traded around the Mediterranean at that point, and they did become like a status symbol. If you were nobility or royalty or had a lot of money or lived in a palace, then you probably wanted some peacocks strolling around your property.

• 34:15Josh Clark?

  Yeah, you might also want to eat them.

• 34:17Speaker 04

  Ew.

• 34:19Josh Clark?

  I forgot to send you this thing that I found. The Romans ate them, but they specifically liked their tongues. Peacock tongue was a delicacy in ancient Roman times.

• 34:28Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 34:30Josh Clark?

  In the Middle Ages.

• 34:31Speaker 04

  Wait, where are you gonna send me?

• 34:33Josh Clark?

  This is what I'm about to tell you.

• 34:34Speaker 04

  Oh, okay. I thought you were gonna send me a peacock tongue.

• 34:38Josh Clark?

  In the mail.

• 34:39Speaker 04

  Flash, uh, flash ride.

• 34:41Josh Clark?

  Bleeding.

• 34:43Josh Clark?

  So in the Middle Ages in Europe, they would actually eat peacock, like the whole thing.

• 34:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay.

• 34:50Josh Clark?

  But they figured out a way to remove the skin so that the feathers all came off too. Then they would roast the bird and then they would redress it with its feathers to be served at the, to the lord of the manor by the most beautiful girl in, at the party, I guess.

• 35:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:07Josh Clark?

  And then it would just sit there for a little while. They would carve into it, eat it, and have a lot of trouble digesting it because apparently it's really tough. So much so that doctors of the time were like, don't eat peacock. It's really just not good for you.

• 35:19Speaker 04

  So they would just stick the feathers back in it in an ornamental way?

• 35:24Josh Clark?

  The picture I saw, or the painting I saw, made it look like they did a pretty good job of, yeah, making it look like it was alive again.

• 35:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, interesting. I think even a lot of meat eaters appreciate the animal not looking like its original form when it's on the plate.

• 35:43Josh Clark?

  Sure, right. You don't really want to recognize it.

• 35:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, like, you know, I love a Branzino, but I don't like that fish head looking up at me.

• 35:52Josh Clark?

  Oh, no? No, you don't like roly poly fish heads?

• 35:56Speaker 04

  Uh, no, I don't want to see it, but I'll still dine on a Branzino. I got a friend whose brother will take that eyeball out and eat it right at the table in front of everybody.

• 36:05Josh Clark?

  What is wrong with that guy?

• 36:07Speaker 04

  I mean, supposedly that's the thing to do, you know, use all the animal, but I just, I don't want to eat an eyeball.

• 36:13Josh Clark?

  No, did I ever tell you about the time we went to H and F and like, we, we just went too far?

• 36:18Speaker 04

  No.

• 36:19Josh Clark?

  So for everybody who doesn't know, H and F is a restaurant in Atlanta, and they're well known for like, using all parts of the animal.

• 36:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:28Josh Clark?

  And we went and we were like, if you go further down the menu, like, it gets more and more hardcore. And we just kind of tried it one time and we got as far as fried chicken heads or beaks, which had a lot of the head attached still.

• 36:43Speaker 04

  Goodness.

• 36:44Josh Clark?

  Like, the whole table just kind of, it just took a dark turn and everybody stopped talking and it was a bad jam. So I don't recommend the fried chicken beaks at Holman and Finch anymore.

• 36:55Speaker 04

  That sounds too much like a Mcnoggin. You remember that?

• 36:59Josh Clark?

  No.

• 36:59Speaker 04

  I think I sent it to you years ago. It was supposedly in a thing of chicken nuggets, but it was a, a deep fried little chicken head that got through and they called it the Mcnoggin.

• 37:12Josh Clark?

  That is what H and F sells as a, as a dish.

• 37:15Speaker 04

  All right. This has been very instructive.

• 37:18Josh Clark?

  For sure. I know, our poor, our poor live show fan Sarah is like,

• 37:24Speaker 04

  I know.

• 37:24Josh Clark?

  Sorry, I asked for it.

• 37:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, I said butthole earlier, too. This is going downhill.

• 37:28Josh Clark?

  It is.

• 37:29Speaker 04

  All right, so back to history and peacocks. Lord Krishna in the Hindu tradition wears peacock feathers as a headdress. And there have been many other examples over the years in Greek mythology and Roman mythology about the peacock. I believe Hera even had peacocks pulling her chariot.

• 37:49Josh Clark?

  At 10 miles an hour.

• 37:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly.

• 37:53Josh Clark?

  She, she was protected by a giant named Argus, who had 100 eyes. And he was killed by Hermes, and so she brought him back as the peacock. I thought that's a great story.

• 38:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:05Josh Clark?

  There's also the peacock throne, right?

• 38:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, the peacock throne is one of the most expensive things that's ever been made. If it drives at home, I think it was about twice the cost of the Taj Mahal to build this one throne, which had, oh, 2,500 pounds of gold, 500 pounds, not 500 precious stones, 500 pounds of precious stones.

• 38:32Josh Clark?

  Uh huh. Including the Kori Noor Diamond, which is 105 karat diamond. Pretty amazing stuff. They managed the Mughal Empire in India managed to hang on to the throne for about 100 years until they were invaded by the Persians, I believe, who were like, we're taking this throne. This is essentially the reason we invaded was to get this throne. And they disassembled it and basically sold it off for parts, right?

• 38:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:00Josh Clark?

  But if you go onto the internet and you search peacock throne, you will see photographs of a peacock throne that looks pretty amazing. And you will say, well, how could this have been destroyed back in the 17th or 18th century?

• 39:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:14Josh Clark?

  And the, the reason why is because what you're looking at is the replica that King Ludwig II of Bavaria, our friend, the fairy tale king.

• 39:23Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:23Josh Clark?

  Had constructed for his castle, Nusshwinstein.

• 39:28Speaker 04

  Look at that.

• 39:29Josh Clark?

  Nusshwinstein?

• 39:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:32Josh Clark?

  Which one?

• 39:33Speaker 04

  I don't know. I'm just amazed that you brought that around. Nice work.

• 39:36Josh Clark?

  Thanks.

• 39:37Speaker 04

  Nusshwinstein, sounds great.

• 39:39Josh Clark?

  Nusshwinstein.

• 39:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:40Josh Clark?

  Any chance I have to bring King Ludwig II into the story, I'm going to take it.

• 39:45Speaker 04

  Well, you had that shirt made. That helps.

• 39:48Josh Clark?

  Ask me about King Leaping this second.

• 39:51Speaker 04

  Endangered, yes or no? Indian bluefowl are not endangered. In fact, they're doing really, really well. And you mentioned, you know, in places in Florida and even Southern California, they can get a little out of hand with their menace. They can tear up foliage and they can poop all over the place and they can destroy habitats that other birds have. So people sometimes now even are trapping them and giving them vasectomies.

• 40:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah, there's a town called Pinecrest, a suburb of Miami, which is giving peacocks vasectomies. So if you couldn't have guessed, Pinecrest is a rather well-healed suburb of Miami because a lot of towns can't afford to give peacocks vasectomies.

• 40:36Speaker 04

  That green pea fowl, they are under threat, though. They're listed as endangered because they are from Southeast Asia and a lot of their natural habitat has been done away with thanks to land development and agricultural mowing down of their environment. And also farmers who will poison them if they come into their fields.

• 40:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah, there's only, I think, 10,000 to 20,000 left of them in the wild. Hopefully, someone steps up because losing any animal to extinction sucks. But losing particularly beautiful ones that their very presence makes the world a better place to live in, those are, you don't want to lose those.

• 41:15Speaker 04

  That's right. And as for the Congo pea fowl, we don't want to forget about those fellas. They are vulnerable. Also habitat loss and hunting, and there are about 10,000 of those in the wild.

• 41:27Josh Clark?

  Man alive.

• 41:28Speaker 04

  I know.

• 41:30Josh Clark?

  Let's see, I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I don't really think we have anything else, do we?

• 41:36Speaker 04

  I got nothing else.

• 41:37Josh Clark?

  Oh, a group of pea fowl. You know, what is it, collective nouns? Isn't that what they're called?

• 41:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, or that was another name for them, something of something.

• 41:48Josh Clark?

  Yes, I remember what you're talking about. I don't remember what it was, too. But in this case, peacocks, a group of peacocks are called a pride, an ostentation, or a party, a peacock party.

• 42:02Speaker 04

  I like that.

• 42:03Josh Clark?

  I do, too. I like all three of them. Well, since Chuck and I agreed that we like the collective nouns for peacocks, then obviously we have just unlocked listener mail.

• 42:15Speaker 04

  I'm going to call this Maine and billboards. Hey, guys. Longtime superfan of spreading the Stuff You Should Know Kool-Aid. Ooh, far and wide. Flavor aid, I think. They make any miles I drive to reach anywhere in Maine flyby, so thanks for that. When you ask someone in Maine how far away a destination is, be prepared to often hear about an hour, but that can mean 45 minutes to nearly two hours. Fun fact here, though, about Maine. During a recent episode on Kudzu, you were talking about how it takes over billboards, and I know you get a lot of listener mail from Maine. I thought you might like to know, an exciting factoid. Have you ever been to Maine and marveled at its natural beauty? Well, part of that is due to something that's missing.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  Billboards, guys. Maine law does not allow billboards of any kind. They have a very prescriptive law regarding signs not on business property, AKA, in Maine vernacular, official business directional signs. The rules are very strict and include a special provision that rolling signs, like ones attached to vehicles, cannot even be used to get around these requirements. And I think it is a $30 license fee to get a sign that can be 48 inches by 12 inches or 72 inches by 16 inches, and you can only use two fonts. They must be white with a single color background, and this is literally just to say, like, my pressure washing business

• 43:41Speaker 04

  is down there, or whatever.

• 43:43Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:44Speaker 04

  They say that people in Maine consider billboards to be detrimental to the preservation of scenic resources, and that is a great law, and that's one reason we love Maine. And that is from, who's that from? That's from Katrina Peterson.

• 43:58Josh Clark?

  Thanks, Katrina. That is a very sensible, awesome law. I love that. It's one of the worst things to see when you're driving down the highway is a bunch of billboards.

• 44:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:08Josh Clark?

  It's terrible. Great. Thanks for letting us know that. Hopefully, as Maine goes, the rest of the world follows. And if you want to be like Katrina and get in touch with us and let us know of a very sensible local law, we love that kind of thing. You can send us an email to [email protected].

• 44:28Speaker 03

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 44:44Speaker 05

  Snoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness? I'm Shaquille O'Neal and this shouldn't be anybody's experience. Ask your doctor about Zepbound Trzepatide, the first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.

• 45:00Speaker 06

  Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity to improve their OSA. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15-milligram injection. Zepbound contains Trzepatide and should not be used with other Trzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction.

• 45:45Speaker 06

  Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plant-to-be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulphonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems.

• 46:07Speaker 05

  Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbound.lily.com.

• 46:14Josh Clark?

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• 46:45Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.