Alie Ward

And you might be feeding the coyotes.

So real talk, keep your kitties indoors.

But a leash is also a good idea.

We talked about stinky glands, and Andy Pepper and Emily Stauffer wanted to know, Emily asked, I don't know if this would be part of this ology, but what is it with nervous poops?

Is that a defense mechanism?

Andy asked, are there animals that poop for defense and not just out of fear, and does it matter?

Honorable mention to patron BrioDiversity, who shared that they, quote, know of two snakes, the Sonoran coral snake and the Western hooknose snake, that use cloacal popping, basically farting on command, to repel predators.

BrioDiversity called them Ophidian flatulists.

and wondered if any of Ted's research has caught wind of any other animals that employ farshal arts in self-defense.

Honestly, if you've ever been close to someone with IBS, you know it can certainly keep you anxiously ensconced in a bathroom stall when things get dicey.

Our brains and guts.

What about horned lizards?

A hand the bee, Lee Jacobstock, wanted to know, Jacob asked my question, how the heck do some lizards straight up shoot blood out of their eyeballs?

All right, there's a glut of information available on this, but let's break down how to shoot blood from your eyes in case there's ever a weird guy staring at you at the bus stop.

So first, be a horned lizard, which means eating a diet of mostly harvester ants.

And if you recall from our Mimicology episode with Dr. Terry McGlynn about ants, harvester ants, the juicy ones that used to roam untouched lands,

are struggling because of invasive ant colonies, which means horned lizards are going hungry.

But as for the blood, so these horned lizards are able to constrict some muscles around their eyes, which keeps the blood kind of shunted and dammed up in a few sinuses under the eyeball.

Then as it's ready, it's like building up, the lizard further constricts those muscles really quickly and the blood has nowhere to go but out and they can shoot it up to four feet away.

And this would be like you being able to say, like spit the entire length of a bowling lane.