Sophodra's Tips 1: Chickens

This is the first episode in the storyline of "Humans-B-Gone!" You can watch it here.

### Episode Summary

Sophodra , the owner of Humans-B-Gone!, a pest control company in Formicosa City, introduces herself and notes that the viewer may be interested in learning about "gubs," which she clarifies are not animals with bones. She describes a problem with chickens appearing during a certain time period and how to control their presence. Sophodra explains that chickens are similar to starfish in their behavior and sessile stage, where they root in place and filter feed on protocules. She suggests waiting for the chickens to enter this stage to solve the problem, but notes that people often lack patience and call for pest control. Sophodra describes her attempt to lure the chickens with snail eggs, which led to unintended consequences such as the attraction of weasels and vultures. This, in turn, attracted hawks, which prey on chickens , creating more problems. So she drops the egg and get splattered. In turn, Sophodra explains how they didn't just fix the chicken problem, but the weasles and vultures and hawks.

At the end Gregorsa states:
"What you have just seen is a translation of a short orchideo piece, added by Sophodra to Formicosa City's local repository of educational and advertising material. It didn't take off."

### -Gregorsa's Notes-

Click the number to get the info for that citation marker. There are 15 points possible.

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**[1]**

Chickens are very intelligent birds. However, even a chicken missing all but the base of the brain is capable of carrying out most life functions, including walking and eating.

In your world, "Mike the Headless Chicken" was a famous example of this in action.

**2 pts** if you knew this about chickens.

**[2]**
    Completely lacking a brain (or most recognizable organs), with eyes on the tips of its arms, each arm with a will of its own, and a mouth in the very center. Where you and I are bilaterally symmetrical (mirrored on two sides), the starfish is pentaradial (mirrored on five).
Did you know? You're far more closely related to the starfish than you are to me.

**3 pts** for knowing starfish taxonomy.

**[3]**

Echinoderms like starfish and sea urchins start out life as bilateral animals similar to you. However, at some point a sort of secondary head called the *rudiment* begins to grow in the animal's side. This rudiment grows into the actual starfish. Eventually, it breaks off and swims away, leaving the original body to die.

In the chickens of our world, the original body does not die...and it is not the starfish head that swims away.

**2 pts** for familiarity with echinoderm embryogenesis.

**[4]**

A relative of the starfish, the feather star spends its juvenile stage in a *sessile* state--that is, staying in one place. Like the chickens of our world, the feather star uses its feathery appendages to sift microscopic food from its environment.

When it reaches adulthood, the feather star becomes *motile* (mobile) and swims away.

**2 pts** if you know what a feather star is.

**1 pt** for knowing these definitions.

**[5]**

The weasels of your world would not survive a visceral eversion. Instead, members of the weasel family like stoats and ferrets, when excited, may perform a "war dance."

It's really very cute, by your standards.

**1 pt** if you've ever seen a ferret's war dance.

**[6]**

    Zone-tailed hawks are known to fly together with turkey vultures. Turkey vultures, being scavengers, are non-hostile and pose no threat to other birds.
Precisely because of this, it is thought that the hawk may be pretending to be a vulture in order to catch prey birds off guard.

**1 pt** if you've heard of this vulture mimicry.

**[7]**
    A *parasite* strives to keep its host alive so that it may continue to live in it indefinitely.

A *parasitoid* has no such concerns.

There will be points if you remember this later.

3 pts if you know it now.

**[Honorable Mentions]**

Wood's jewel scarab *(Chrysina woodii)*

Confused flour beetle *(Tribolium confusum)*

### Sources for the Episode

Each episode has sources that are listed at the end of the episode, click "Sources" to show all the sources at the end of the episode.

Sources
• Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). *Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary.* Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.

• *Mike the headless chicken festival - fruita, co* - June 3rd and 4th 2022. City of Fruita Colorado. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/mike

• Necker, R. Specializations in the lumbosacral vertebral canal and spinal cord of birds: evidence of a function as a sense organ which is involved in the control of walking. *J Comp Physiol A* 192, 439 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0105-x

• *The head of a Starfish.* Science 2.0. (2014, August 27). Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.science20.com/beamlines/head\_starfish-116048

• Steven W. Boyce, Barbara M. Zingg, Teresa L. Lightfoot, *Behavior of Mustela Putorius Furo (The Domestic Ferret), Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice,* Volume 4, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 697-712, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1094-9194(17)30032-4.

• Willis, E. O. (1963). Is the Zone-Tailed Hawk a Mimic of the Turkey Vulture? The Condor, 65(4), 313–317. https://doi.org/10.2307/1365357

• *Parasitoids.* Parasitoids | University of Maryland Extension. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://extension.umd.edu/resource/parasitoids

1. ↑ CaptainVindaloo Public Domain
2. ↑ Pam Brophy CC BY-SA 2.0
3. ↑ Warner JF, Lyons DC, McClay DR CC BY 3.0
4. ↑ Nick Hobgood CC BY-SA 3.0
5. ↑ Keven Law CC BY-SA 2.0
6. ↑ Alan Schmierer CC 0
7. ↑ Scott Bauer Public Domain
8. ↑ Sarefo CC BY-SA 3.0