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Chapter 1: What fascinating stories about clownfish are shared in this episode?
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey there, Shore Wavers. It's Regina Barber, and today we're going underwater with science reporter Ari Daniel. Hey, Ari.
Hi, Regina.
So what do you have for us today?
Well, I want you to think of me in this episode as your, let's say, fairy godfather who's about to grant you three fishes.
I love this already. Okay, where are we starting?
We're going to go to the Western Pacific, among the tentacles of a certain kind of anemone called the bubble tip anemone.
Are we talking about clownfish?
Bingo.
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Chapter 2: Why do tomato clownfish lose their stripes as they mature?
To find a fin hold or foothold, right? In this like local social hierarchy.
Correct. Okay, on to fish number two. We head now to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pasifik Kiwele Mutambala is a PhD student at the Université de Lubumbashi there. And he told me that 17 years ago, a researcher from his university traveled to a waterfall in the south of the country where he saw something remarkable, Regina. Some fishes can climb up the waterfalls.
Fish climbing up waterfalls. I remember seeing these videos and it blew my mind.
It's incredible. They're called shell ears. Each one's the size of a fat French fry that can scale this 50-foot rock face behind the waterfall. Now, this behavior of climbing, it's been documented in fish and other parts of the world, but Pacifique says never before in Africa. That researcher 17 years ago, he filmed the phenomenon but ended up losing the footage.
Oh, no.
Devastating. And so that's why Pacifique, as a master's student, was determined to go get some evidence. So for a few years running during the rainy season, Pacifique visited the raucous Luilombo Falls, which you can hear in this video that he took, in search of upwardly mobile fish.
I tried to go close to the falls and observe very clearly what fishes can do.
He got drenched.
I was totally worried.
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Chapter 3: What unique climbing abilities do fish in the Democratic Republic of Congo have?
These guys, it's just keep climbing, just keep climbing. And the entire ascent takes close to 10 hours. It's an enormous effort.
Why? Where are they going through all of that, going up that waterfall?
The researchers can't be sure. Maybe there's better food up there or less predation, but it's still an open question.
This is so fascinating, Ari. I love this. Okay, let's move on to my third and final fish.
Okay, this one takes us to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago to a fish that the staff there believe has never been reared before in captivity. The aquarium has a small tank with two warty frogfish.
Huh.
Okay, awardee frogfish? I love this name. Okay, I'm going to look it up. It sounds very Halloween-y.
It'd be a great costume, actually, now that you mention it. Each one's about the size of a tennis ball.
These are very globular-looking fish. It is comically round.
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