Ba-Gawk! How Peacocks Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck Jerry's here too. uh and um I can't think of anything. hilarious to say so I'm just going to. say this is stuff you should know that's. right uh a live show listener request. Edition because peacocks came to us did.

you get her name or is can we just say. the uh wonderful uh young girl at our. Atlanta live show I really want to say. Sarah but I'm not sure so whoever you. are young girl who suggested peacocks at. the Atlanta show right in to tell us. your name so we can tell everybody yeah. so this is a great idea uh we're talking. about peacocks which is if you want to. look at the the word itself uh it's. English and it is derived from the Latin.

word Pavo and in Old English that was. pronounced Pawa p a wa and that was. shortened over the years to PO. eventually pook then. pocock and I guess peacock and it it's. linked a little bit to this old. expression proud as a Poe um which is. you know how a peacock kind of struts. around all prideful and then eventually. it became peacock 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. yeah so that's it for etymology of. peacock 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 harshly. sometimes uh a peacock is specifically. the male of the species. obviously the pen is the female so if. you see a brown kind of drab looking. peacock say look at that brown peacock.

well you just sound like a ha seed it's. a pen and she's not drab she's. camouflaged that's right uh they're. little babies are called PE chicks and. if you want to talk as we're going to. about the uh the species as a whole. we're going to be saying poul and then. we will you know when we say 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. BB okay I think we've really laid it out.

uh there are three main species speaking. of laying this out of the poul uh 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 strting around your. neighborhood yeah we have some walking. around our uh area too oh yeah is it I. mean the same ones from many years ago. because you told the story years ago. about the uh the sound of the peacock. sorry no those were um those were Yumi.

Grandma's peacock neighborhood peacocks. okay and for some reason the ones that. live around me um 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 um it's just a different. experience than it was around yumi's. Grandma's house all right fair enough I. mean I've talked before about my. neighborhood peacocks um I have not seen. them in a few years here 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 poul 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 poul or an. Indian P yeah for sure um they are not. native to the United States although. they thrive um coastal warmish areas.

kind of muggy areas you could say too. although also Aid 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 yes exactly um they're the. most common uh little less common but. still more common than the third group. is the green poul or the Javanese poul. so native to Java uh southeast Asia and.

uh Myanmar and then what's our little. third grouping the Congo. poul that's right little little it's. like a little mini turkey he looks like. they look like um they're native to the. Congo Basin in Africa um and the Indian. and Javanese poul prefer kind of. open-ish fields and um maybe kind of. Treeline streets that's why they love. neighborhoods Parks like it it. replicates their native habitat the.

Congo poul um prefer to live in the. forest itself yeah that's right so. that's that's where they like to live uh. no matter which kind of pile you're. talking about uh they're all going to be. omnivores uh they eat lots of seeds and. berries and you know plant life and. stuff like that uh as well as some. insects but they'll also Munch down on a. mouse or a little cute lizard uh or a. snake um if they want to if they're. feeling peckish I guess get peckish mhm.

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 PE foul is that they um Can Fly. apparently the green pea foul foul yeah. I said that right yeah is a is a pretty. strong flyer the Indian or blue P foul. is not great but they can make it to the. roof of a two-story building pretty fast. if a dog like Momo barks at him I can. tell you that yeah I've seen that too um.

so they're they can fly and they are. very large too um blue PE foul the most. common one they're the biggest of the. three the adult male can measure 50 in. it's a little over 4 feet God knows how. many meters we're talking about let's. say. 1.2 um and it's train 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 pile. or the peacock in this case that can be.

5 to 7t long so they are a big big bird. not big bird size but they're still a. big bird that's right and as you'll see. that uh that big beautiful train is 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 pen that thing may go 5 to 7 feet. in every direction it's amazing very. very large 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 head is trained like fully. fanned out oh really and was like. shaking and staring at the guy like I'm. going to kill you if you don't stop. laying pavers right there oh wow the guy. just completely ignored him it was. pretty funny to see cuz that peacock was. quite serious 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 you're not going to take. a shot at the family name for the. turkeys I wouldn't gonna but you. can uh milia gdid day oh great I think I. got it I didn't even practice that one. good job but those turkeys did you say. they can weigh up to 30. lbs uh I didn't say that about the. turkeys but yeah they're they're big.

that's a big turkey it's like like Baby. Huey types 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 cam cam it's just lovely well are. they uh used to your presence or because. those things run they have really sharp. eyesight and they scatter quick 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.

right tomorrow spending a weekend like. standing up against a tree and not. moving seeing what happens no I'll do. that though you should buy yourself some. nice camouflage clothing first though. it'll help a lot I've already got that. stuff. okay uh so I also said that the uh blue. peens 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 pee hens 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 in 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 so they. uh steer clear of being seen by things. like leopards and tigers and and all.

that um by blending in with the. surrounding terrain and. Momos yeah Momo doesn't actually want to. predate the the peacock she just wants. it to know like this is Momo's yard. Peacock let him know who boss right. exactly M's boss so uh the green poul um. you know we're going to talk about a. little bit about all of them even though. the blue were the most common uh 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 uh that.

sort of light green here and there and. during mating season is when you're. going to see the Mal's train grow a lot. longer but then they Mt and they shed. those so more or less they look about. the same when it's not Mating Season. yeah and they're both very very. beautiful they have amazingly beautiful. feathers as well very pretty the little. Congo PE foul they're kind of cute dark. blue neck feathers and dark green and. black train females are also Brown um. but they uh they're just not nothing can.

beat a blue peacock yeah it they just. can I'm sorry that's a hill I'll die on. if I have to yeah it's fantastic uh and. if you have one in your neighborhood and. 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 uh. when kept as pets um not suggesting that. they be kept as pets I'm just saying. that people do that uh they live about. 10 to 25 years in the wild yeah they can. also kind of pretty fast they can run up.

to 10 miles an hour when they need to he. you got to get a good running start if. you want to get off the ground I guess. that's right with their little like. Aviator goggles on yeah totally uh you. want to take a break yeah all right well. we're going to do that everybody watch. this. [Music].

so uh 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 that and it's correct. to say him um and this is all part of. the mating ritual right that's the whole. point. of those feathers again the peacocks.

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 pee hens. that's right and when a male wants to. impress uh a peen that peacock will uh. prop up those feathers into a big. beautiful uh. fan um 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 uh from their. butt whole area toward the hand and they.

will shake those feathers and the. shaking isn't just like hey look how. pretty and iridescent this gorgeous. train is uh science has discovered. semi-recently that those uh those. vibrations are en locked up with uh the. poul's head feathers that they used to. think were just for show but now they. realize they are they vibrate at the. same intensity and that they can. actually you know sort of feed when. those tail feathers are vibrating in.

their direction through their head. feathers yeah they're like receivers. isn't that neat super cool they resonate. at the same at the same rate the the. male peacock when he shakes those those. feathers that fan um he can shake it at. more than 25 times a. second and that resonance I think it's. like 25.6 Hertz to be exact that just. happens to be tuned in almost precisely. to the crest feathers on the pile's head. and in addition to the site apparently.

Pens have amazing sight so they're. seeing everything that the peacock's. showing them but also they're they're. feeling it like they're they're 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 pen they're. pretty uh amazing dudes I guess that's. right uh 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 oh. yeah sure I just cheeky but I'm sure uh. somebody would write in and say no Josh. it didn't just happen to vibrate that. way it's by. Design intelligent design people you. mean no no. no creationists no by. Design As Natural Selection it's very. teleological I don't even know what that. means what's that mean uh it means that. that everything has a purpose so it was.

like designed to be a certain way I love. that see people when you don't know a. word it's okay to say a I don't know. what that means it sure is Chuck that's. a great example to set so uh and you. didn't talk down to me you told me the. definition now I'm a little bit smarter. because of you yeah I wasn't like dummy. listen up tell. logical uh all right so we need to cover. this part of the mating ritual because. uh the fact of the matter is um. the peacock loves to to get around the.

block if you know what I mean um they. have a social structure called Al lek. which is basically a Herm uh and the. male is going to mate with several. females uh but here's the part that's a. little um maybe not intuitive uh 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 yeah so he's putting on this huge. show not to be like I'm hypnotizing you.

baby do my bidding um he's doing it. because he's like check me out don't you. like me like look at this isn't aren't I. amazing and the female can either be. like I've seen better or she could be. like yeah you're right at my alley you. just happen to be vibrating at my. resonance. you he says that's tell logical so yeah. so one of the ways that um a male will. um make himself seem even more viral. than he is there's something called The. Hoot Dash noise and just the hoot is the.

noise part uh 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 to see. that's all video too it's like the dash. was very close to the hoot yeah um but. that's what that noise is called so the. males realize that like the more hoot. dashing or hoot sounds that they make. the more females in earshot but not um.

in ey shot I guess will hear oh wow like. Terry really gets it on with a lot of a. lot of pee hens I'm going to give him a. shot next time he comes around because. he must be very viral like a third of. those hoot Dash sounds are faked. essentially that's right so uh when that. finally happens uh the um female pen. will um scratch out a little depression. in the in the ground basically and line. it with sticks and that's their little. Nest they're going to lay fora eggs uh.

that are going to hatch after four weeks. and those little peachicks are uh up and. around pretty much right out of the gate. it'll take them a couple of weeks to fly. uh and those boys uh that are peacocks. aren't going to 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. yeah they are so cute too do not rely on. the internet for what a baby peacock. looks like apparently it's it's been a. great example to demonstrate how much AI.

is just screwing the internet up oh. really yeah yeah if you go on Google. image search for baby. peacocks like like people think that. there's pictures of like a a giant or. like a miniaturized cute big eyed. peacock and that that's a baby peacock. they all look like peens like little. brown peens but even if they're peacocks. that's how they start out so just check. it out just search um baby peacock um. for image. and it's a lie it's a lie for sure oh my.

God that's the cutest little iridescent. blue baby duckling thing I've ever seen. right but it doesn't exist that's not. real hey don't blame me blame the AI. running the. internet yeah those eyes are. suspiciously large and Disney. like um so one other thing about the P. chicks is that they stay with their mom. for 2 to 6 months depending on whether. in captivity in the wild uh moms are.

much more um maternal Instinct wise in. the wild than they are in captivity um. so you know depends on the situation how. long they hang around them but just. watching have you ever seen a pen with. her little PE chicks following her uh no. I've just seen the turkey version at the. camp it's very cute oh my God I'll bet. baby turkeys are pretty cute too yeah. the the following around is is just very. cute cuz like up front and there's like. six little guys and girls just following.

along like I can keep up I can keep up. and there's always one straggler that. has to like run faster to catch up with. the group love that guy who. Barney it's a perfect name so uh the. dads as far as blue and green peacocks. go are not around they're complete. absentee dads um but hey if you're. feeling bad for the family unit just go. to the Congo cuz those Congo pile are. monogamous they don't have those lexs.

they like one lady and they hang around. and feed and raise peachicks with Mommy. yeah pretty great huh yeah it's great um. 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 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 uhhuh for sure and. how was doing.

that so Darwin grew up or lived in the. Victorian era where women were viewed as. passive submissive um they were just. there in and had their fingers crossed. that a man of adequate dashing nness. 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 in the losers among women well.

Darwin was looking around the the 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 the the. females are again drab really. camouflaged 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 yeah and. he had such a hard time wrestling with. this there's a quotee from him that said.

the sight of a pea feather made him sick. right he could not give in and he. finally be 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 that's right. and that choosing is based on the 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 uh if there's science. behind that or is there science behind. that yes uh in 1994 it seems like it at. least there were some researchers in. Britain uh that found that um the the. bigger peacocks that had more um eye. spots you know they look like eyes uh. what are they called oel ochelli oi in. in the Italian it'd be Chell because C. followed by a vowel is a CH sound so.

let's just go with Italian say o Chelli. okay but the more of those they have and. the and the larger that they are and the. more just big and beautiful they are um. it looks like the larger Offspring uh. they're going to have they're going to. be more likely to survive so it seems. like they are more genetically fit yeah. and those eye spots play a real starring. role in this whole um sexual selection. mating process right so the feathers in. and of themselves are pretty amazing but. the ey spots these little dots with.

different colors on them that are AC. like 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 ochelli. the ey spots are so important that. scientists have figured out that other. species that also have ey spots aren't. they don't share a common ancestor with. um peacocks that had ey spots Chuck ey. spots evolved separately over different. times among different species they're. that important for mating that's right. and uh thanks to our listener mail in.

the Ruby Ridge episode It's called. conversion Evolution and not. co-evolution very nice I say we take a. break then since we're done talking. about ey spots right yeah we'll uh. finish up with act three right after. this oh wait wait there was one more. thing about ey spots wait stop the. presses Jerry roll. tape uh researchers have figured out for. sure that ey spots play a big role. because some poor Schmo of a peacock had. his ey spots covered up and they said. go out to ladies night and see what.

happens and he got nothing from nobody. ever while his eye spots were covered up. yeah the copulation it the quote is. their copulation success declined to. almost. zero almost they were just being nice. they were all right now are we breaking. yes I don't have any other breaking news. all right everybody take five and we're. back. [Music].

stuff you should. [Music]. know all right uh 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. uh this was a this was many years ago.

mhm that we did an EP on iridescent and. there's um if you want a really deep. dive on the science of it you can go. listen to that up um but what we're. looking at in the case of peacock. feathers and why they look iridescent. and just so shiny and and Majestic. looking is because of the the the shape. it's a physical shape of something and. not necessarily a color of something. right yeah um the the pig ments that are. in the peacock's tail feathers are.

melanin um and melanin typically looks. Brown to us it's what gives um human. skin kind of a brown cast to it um 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 look in uh. on an electron microscope you can see. quite clearly and those barbs those. Crystal barbs of melon. um there's like little gaps between them.

and in fact it creates what's called a. partial band Gap um which means that. electromagnetic waves do not penetrate. some area depending on where that light. is hitting to put simply Chuck depending. on wh which angle which direction light. hits these um 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 a left. you're looking at a different part of. that structure and it's reflecting. different color light and that's how. iridescence comes along that's right uh. 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 it wasn't a very good tour was it. it wasn't a very good joke. but I couldn't help myself uh yeah I.

mean that's iridescence in a nutshell. that's basically how it it works in. across nature uh it's just about you. know the structure of of the the thing. um and like you know what do we talk. about we talked about fish and uh. butterfly wings mainly I think on that. episode 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 yeah based on impressive yeah based. on peacock feathers he said check these. out man I know what's going on uh you'll. just have to find out that's right uh we. do need to talk about their. Yelp uh because it's a you know I mean. you used to do a pretty good impression. you want to try it help yeah help it. always sounds like help that's what it. sounds like to me it's uncanny and.

unnerving yeah it is and I I always. laughed at that years ago until like we. got our own uh neighborhood peacocks and. then I would hear it occasionally and I. was like yeah Josh is right is or is. Josh in that backyard right now I like. it's one of those two things is. happening um yeah it's pretty shrill uh. 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 uh it's. usually in the morning and evening uh. during mating season it can pick up a. bit so I don't know if there were uh. complaints or if these local peacocks.

just uh you know met their natural end. uh 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 yeah I. know what you're saying or if they just. had Little P Strokes. that's they were elf. struck um so they also they honk too H. like I can't even do the honk and the. honk Goose that's that hoot Dash thing. sounds kind of like a oh yeah it does. sound a little honish yeah so they can.

do that a lot too and if you put it all. together yeah it can be very annoying. but I I Chuck I cannot figure out what. the difference is between yumi's. Grandma's neighborhood my neighborhood. because I have a completely different. yeah opinion of the annoyance level of. peacocks now I I don't understand why. but there's the facts well maybe you. aged into it I guess so I'm older wiser.

gentler yeah more more peacock loving. sure I think we all get that way sure uh. all right so let's talk about the. history of these things uh jumping back. a little bit uh a few thousand years ago. the ancient Phoenicians uh were the. first folks to say hey these things are. great let's move them around to. different places because these things. string around a palace is really. something to see uh so they brought them. from India to Syria uh they were traded. around the Mediterranean in at that. point and they did become like a status.

symbol if you were a nobility or royalty. or had a lot of money or lived in a. palace then you probably wanted do some. peacock strolling around your property. yeah you might also want to eat. them um I forgot to send you this thing. that I found the Romans ate them but. they specifically like their tongues. yeah uh peacock tongue was a delicacy in. ancient Roman times okay uh in the. Middle Ages wait where you going to S me. this is where I'm about to tell you oh. okay I thought you were going to send me.

a peacock T. him in the mail flash like why is this. flash. bleeding um so in the Middle Ages in. Europe they would actually eat peacock. like the whole thing yeah okay 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 yeah um 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 so they would just stick the. feathers back in it in an ornamental. way uh the picture I saw or the painting. I saw made it look like they did a. pretty good job of yeah yeah making it. look like it it was alive again yeah H. interesting I I think even a lot of meat.

eaters appreciate the animal not looking. like its original form when it's on the. plate sure right you don't really want. to recognize it yeah like it you know I. love a Brin Xeno but I don't like that. fish head looking up at me oh no no you. don't like roly poly fish heads uh no I. I don't want to see it but I'll still. I'll still dine on a bran Xeno I got a. friend whose brother will take that. eyeball out and eat it right at the. table in front of everybody. what is wrong with that guy I mean.

supposedly that's the thing to do you. know use all the animal but I just I. don't want to eat a iall no did I ever. tell you about the time we went to h&f. and like we we just went too far no so. for everybody who doesn't know hnf is a. restaurant in Atlanta and they're well. known for like using all parts of the. animal yeah and um we went and we were. like if you go further down the menu. like gets more and more hard core 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 and goodness 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 uh. homman and Finch anymore that sounds too. much like a mcnoggin you remember that. no I think I sent it to you years ago it. was. a 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 that is what hnf. sells as a as a dish all right this has. been very instructive for sure I know. our poor our poor live show fan Sarah is. like sorry I asked for it yeah I said. butthole earlier too this is going. downhill it is uh all right so back to. history and peacocks uh uh Lord Krishna. in the Hindu tradition wears peacock.

feathers as a headdress MH and there. have been many other examples over the. years and in Greek mythology and Roman. mythology about uh the peacock I believe. Hera even had peacocks pulling her. Chariot at 10 miles an hour yeah exactly. she um she was protected by a giant. named Argus who had a hundred eyes and. he was killed by Hermes and so she. brought him back as the peacock thought. that's a great story. yeah um there's also the Peacock Throne.

right yeah the Peacock Throne is one of. the most expensive things that's ever. been made uh if it uh drives at home I. think it was about twice the cost of the. Taj Maha to build this one Throne which. had oh 2500 lb of gold 500 PB not 500. precious stones 500 lbs of precious. stones uh-huh including the the Cory. nure Diamond which is 105 karat diamond.

pretty amazing stuff uh they managed the. mugal empire in India managed to hang on. to the throne for about a hundred 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 um. basically sold it off for parts right. yeah 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 yeah. and the the reason why is because what. you're looking at is the replica that. King ludvig II of Bavaria our friend the. fairy tale King oh yeah had constructed. for his Castle N. Nan look at that nven Stein yeah which. one I don't know I'm just amazed that. you brought that around nice work thanks.

any any chin sounds great NV finstein. yeah any chance I have to bring King. ludvig II into the story I'm going to. take it he well you had that shirt made. that helps ask me about King ludvig the. second uh endangered yes or no Indian. blue foul are not endangered in fact. they're doing really really well and you. mentioned you know in places in Florida. and even Southern California uh they can. get a little out of hand with their uh. Menace they can tear up foliage and uh.

they can poop all over the place and. they can destroy habitats that other. birds have so people sometimes now even. are trapping them uh and giving them. vasectomies yeah there's a town called. Pine Crest a suburb of Miami which is. giving peacocks vasectomy so if you. couldn't have guessed Pine Crest is a. rather well-healed suburb of Miami um. because a lot of towns can't afford to. give PE Cox. for uh that green pea foul they are.

under a threat though they're listed as. endangered uh because they are from. Southeast Asia and a lot of their. natural habitat has been done away with. thanks to Land Development and. agricultural uh mowing down of their. environment and so also farmers who will. poison them if they come into their. fields 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 um 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 that's right uh. and as for the Congo pile we don't want. to forget about those fellas uh they are. vulnerable um also habitat loss and. hunting and there are about 10,000 of. those in the wild man alive I know uh. let's see I'm trying to think if there's. anything else I don't really think we. have anything else do we I got nothing.

else oh a group of Pou you know what is. it collective nouns isn't that what. they're called uh yeah or uh that was. another name for him uh something of. something I yes I remember what you're. talking about I don't remember what it. was too but yeah in this case um. peacocks a group of peacocks are called. The Pride and. ostentation or a party peacock party I. like that I do too I like all three of. them uh well since Chuck and I agreed.

that we like the collective nouns for. peacocks then obviously we have just. unlocked listener. mail I'm going to call this Main and. billboards uh Hey guys longtime Super. Fan of spreading the stuff you should. know Kool-Aid oo far and wide flavorade. I think mhm uh they make any miles I. drive to reach anywhere in Maine fly by. so thanks for that uh when you ask. someone in Maine how far away. destination is be prepared to often here. about an hour but that can mean 45.

minutes to nearly 2 hours uh 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 for main. 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 Billboards guys uh main. law does not allow Billboards of any. kind they have a very uh prescriptive. law regard regarding signs not on. business property uh AKA and Main.

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 uh. these requirements and I think it is a. $30 license fee to get a sign that can. be 48 in x 12. in um or 72 in x 16 in 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 businesses down there or. whatever mhm uh they say the people of. main consider uh 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 uh who's that from that's. from Katrina Peterson 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 it's.

terrible uh great thanks for letting us. know that hopefully uh as main goes the. rest of the world follows uh 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 stuff. podcast iheartradio.com. [Music]. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the ihart radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your.

favorite shows. [Music].