8: Florida Panther & Red Lionfish
Christian: Hi everyone, this is Christian Weatherford.
Ellen: And this is Ellen Weatherford.
Christian: And you are listening to Just the Zoo of Us, where we take your recommendations for animals and rate them in categories such as effectiveness, ingenuity and aesthetics on a scale of... Zero to 10? I don't know if we've established a minimum.
Ellen: Well, you gave a 1, that's the closest we've gotten to zero.
Christian: That's true. Maybe we'll save that for future. And we are not zoological experts, we do this out of fun. We do some research and we try to do our best here.
Ellen: And if you catch a mistake that we've made, we can be connected with on social media and feel free to call us out and let us know if we got something wrong and we will do our best to make it right.
Christian: Definitely. All right, so I believe it is my turn to go first this week.
Ellen: It is. Let me hear what you got this week.
Christian: This animal was given to us by our friend Julie Gilson on a Facebook comment I believe.
Ellen: Thank you Julie.
Christian: Yes. So this week we've got the Florida Panther. So the Florida panthers is known by a couple of different names. Puma is one of them.
Ellen: Oh, okay, so a puma is the same thing as the Florida Panther. These are not different animals.
Christian: Yeah, yeah. And the scientific name, two different ones because there's a bit of a debate around the appropriate sub species, but one of them is Puma concolor cougar, whereas the other one is Puma concolor coryi, and I'll talk about why there's that differentiation a little later. So for the Florida Panther, I'm pulling most of my information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website. So let's get right into it. The Florida Panther: basic size for an adult, it differs a little bit between male and female in terms of weight, that is. So a male will weigh anywhere from 100 to 160 pounds, or 45 and a half to 72 kilograms. So that's pretty big, right?
Ellen: It's big cat.
Christian: I guess a lighter human or maybe average. I'm a little bit bigger than average.
Ellen: Oh, lighter, you think? That's a lighter human? That's good to know.
Christian: Oh nooo... A female cougar weighs 64 to 100 pounds, or 29-45 and a half kilograms. As far as their length is concerned, from nose to tail, 5.9 to 7.2 feet or 1.8 to 2.2 meters long.
Ellen: That's bigger than I would've thought based on the weights that you gave me.
Christian: Yeah, they're, they're big, but they're not chunky. They're agile.
Ellen: Oh, they're slim. Compact.
Christian: Yeah. And not, I guess I wouldn't say- they're not cheetah slim.
Ellen: Sure.
Christian: But they are lighter than say, lions.
Ellen: Okay. So these are built for agility.
Christian: Right. So the location, as the name might imply, Ii Florida in the United States, but specifically southern Florida, a particular area. Uh, so that's their breeding area, but males have been found to farther north, even as far north as Georgia. Their taxonomic order is carnivora and the notable evolutionary relatives are just other subspecies of panther. So again, going over our rating system: three categories, we have effectiveness, ingenuity and aesthetics. Effectiveness is how well do they do what they do. And ingenuity is, you know, uh, intelligence for those out there in the D&D scene like us.
Ellen: I would even- I would put also wisdom and probably even charisma into the ingenuity category.
New Speaker: I can see that, I guess it's a little dynamic, Huh?
Ellen: Your mental traits.
New Speaker: Yeah. And then finally, aesthetics. That one's pretty self explanatory. How cute they be. In each of these, we give a rating out of 10.
Ellen: A completely arbitrary, completely made up rating out of 10.
New Speaker: It's true. So don't @ me. Effectiveness: I'm giving the Florida Panther an 8 out of 10.
Ellen: That's pretty good.
New Speaker: It's a very effective hunter in its environment. The Florida panther goes after deer, wild hogs, raccoons, armadillos, rabbits, and even livestock and pets.
Ellen: Sounds like anything smaller than the panther is fair game.
New Speaker: Yeah, they're pretty, uh, they're pretty good at what they do in terms of hunting. They're usually very reclusive. It's kind of rare to see them honestly. And being a Florida native, I don't think I've ever actually seen a wild Florida panther.
Ellen: I've definitely never seen one outside of a zoo.
New Speaker: Yeah. Although now that I think about it, I guess I've never been to the exact area that they're known to be in.
Ellen: Yeah, we're up in the northern side of Florida.
New Speaker: Yeah. So yeah, 8 out of 10 for effectiveness. Ingenuity: um, I didn't find much to give them any points here. I'm just giving them a, I guess a bland six out of 10 for being, you know, a hunter, a cornerstone species Predator,
Ellen: Middle of the road.
New Speaker: Yeah.
Ellen: Nothing special, but not the worst.
New Speaker: Yeah, for sure. So like I mentioned, they're reclusive. Uh, I guess a negative I would give them is they're not very good with dealing with automobiles. They often are killed in automobile accidents.
Ellen: Mmm... The panther's only known natural predator.
New Speaker: I did see something that said the American alligator is a natural predator, but I could not find a source for that.
Ellen: Oh! That was... I said that in episode one.
New Speaker: Oh, did you!
Ellen: I think. Maybe.
New Speaker: Source: Ellen.
Ellen: Source is me!
New Speaker: So, right. 6 out of 10 for ingenuity. Aesthetics: I'm giving a full 10 out of 10.
Ellen: You're really dishing out the 10 out of 10s in aesthetics, aren't you?
New Speaker: I think Florida panthers are some of the cutest things around.
New Speaker: Oh my goodness.
New Speaker: They're absolutely adorable. So for those who may have never seen a picture of these, and just a quick reference here, the mountain lion is pretty much the same species, so if you've seen pictures of those,you already know what they, what these look like, but their whole body is tan and the midline of the back is a darker brown or rust color, and their belly is white of course.
Ellen: Excellent.
New Speaker: And the tip of their tail, the back of the ears and the muzzle are black.
Ellen: It's kind of a pointed look. It has some accents.
New Speaker: It's fierce.
Ellen: You said that about the lynx too.
New Speaker: There's some, there's some common aesthetic choices here. Florida panthers, very, very cute. And I assume, based on pictures and what I've seen, their fur looks super soft.
Ellen: I've never touched one.
New Speaker: Me neither.
Ellen: And you know what? Sadly, I probably never will.
Christian: That's probably for the best though, I imagine. So if you thought the adults were cute...
Ellen: Oh boy.
New Speaker: The kittens are even cuter.
Ellen: I have seen a picture of the baby Florida panther kittens recently and came to the revelation that they have spots.
Christian: Yeah! They're spotted, which they grow out of as they grow older, but also they usually have these blue eyes as kittens.
Ellen: Ohhh. Too Precious.
New Speaker: They're really, really cute.
Ellen: Yeah. I didn't realize that they had these, these little spots on them because by the time they're grown, they're just the solid tan color.
Christian: Yeah. So full 10 out of 10 aesthetics for the Florida Panther.
Ellen: Excellent.
New Speaker: So with the three scores of 8, 6 and 10, that gives us an average of 8 out of 10.
Ellen: That's a good cat.
New Speaker: It's a very good, really good cat. So earlier I mentioned about the differentiation in their scientific naming. So this is because there has been some disagreement on how to categorize the subspecies of the Puma concolor. So at one point there was over 30 sub species, some consider the Florida panther to be its own subspecies...
Ellen: As it rightfully should be. We deserve our own panther.
Christian: But based on a 2014 study of mitochondrial DNA of the Puma, they've, well I won't say they, but a lot of people consider there to be one subspecies for all of the Puma that are in the North and Central America. So the Mountain Lion, the Florida Panther, all of those considered to be the same subspecies. Okay.
Ellen: I think of the word "cougar" when I think of like an umbrella term to describe all of these sorts of North American mountain lions.
Christian: Yeah. So that's actually the sub species name. So it's Puma concolor cougar to describe that group, whereas other groups still consider the Florida panther to be its own sub species, which is where that other sub species name coryi comes from. C-O-R-Y-I, not sure if I'm pronouncing that right.
Ellen: It's all right. You're doing your best.
New Speaker: So here's something interesting. The conservation status of the Florida Panther, um, I think a lot of natives of Florida already aware, but they are in fact endangered.
Ellen: Poor kitties.
New Speaker: Yeah. So a lot of that has to do with the loss and degradation of their habitat, but also their habitat being separated from each other. I think we talked about this with the Asian elephant, right?
Ellen: Right, similar concept.
New Speaker: Yeah, where something kind of splits their environments and it's having a problem with the groups getting into other groups.
Ellen: Yeah. So that makes breeding and mating difficult, and then that leads to decrease genetic diversity, and then inbreeding and it's not good for the species in the long run.
New Speaker: Yeah, so it's funny you mention that because with the Florida panther, they've had problems with a lack of genetic diversity because what happens is maybe a big roadway will split their habitat. So what they found is Florida panthers, will either not cross those roadways anymore or they will die trying. Right. So what'll happen is you'll have smaller and smaller groups that are breeding, you have inbreeding going on. So one way they tried to help this is they brought eight female pumas from Texas and kind of introduced them into the southern Florida area. And after a while, they had over 20 kittens, and then remove those that were still living, cause some passed away because of natural causes. But after they did that and you know, more recent studies, they're already seeing the benefits of that. So introducing that group from a different part of the country is helping them with their genetic diversity.
Ellen: But those are Texas panthers...
New Speaker: So this goes back to it, right? So no matter what your flavor, they're still the same species, right?
Ellen: I guess...
New Speaker: So what they're really arguing is their sub species.
Ellen: Sure. But still they're not OUR Florida panthers.
New Speaker: So they're trying to bring them back, right. They're trying to help as much as they can. That their goal is to have three populations of at least 240 individuals, not counting parent dependent and kittens. The kittens do spend quite a bit of time with their mother, usually.
Ellen: Gosh, there aren't even that many?
New Speaker: No, there's not that many.
Ellen: Oh man. That's not very many at all.
New Speaker: Yeah. So ways to help, which I was surprised, um, how much literature there is on this, but some ways to help the Florida panther are to, one, drive slowly and panther country as they put it.
Ellen: Uh, what constitutes panther country?
New Speaker: So the territory of the Florida Panther is defined as the part of Florida that is just south of the Caloosahatchee river.
Ellen: Oh, okay. That's, that's way down there.
New Speaker: It is quite. Quite a ways. So yeah, number one to help is to make sure you drive slowly while you're in that area because like I mentioned earlier, they have a large amount of incidents where the panthers will die because of automobile collisions. And then second to help, they asked that you report any sightings or interactions to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1(888) 404-FWCC. So they ask you to do that so they have a better understanding of the movement and presence of the Florida Panther.
Ellen: You know, I've seen where they are posting like videos of motion activated cameras that have caught videos of panthers crawling around. It's really cool to watch.
Christian: It is. It is. And you can even find videos of the kind of more northwest relatives. The mountain lions, again, same species, but in that part of the country they're known as mountain lions. You can see them, you know, playing around in snow and eating... Caribou? I don't know if that's the correct animal.
Ellen: Eating ungulates. Various hoofed animals.
Christian: So the last way to help panthers: the Florida Panther Research and Management Trust Fund, it is primarily funded by owners of the Protect the Panthers specialty license plate. So you may have seen these around, these are Florida license plates on cars and they have the Florida panther smack dab in the middle. I think they're pretty cool looking.
Ellen: I need to go to the DMV right now.
Christian: So people that have these plates, they pay $25 towards this fund every year when they do their registration renewal, and that goes to supporting panther research. So again, that was the Florida Panther Research and Management Trust Fund.
Ellen: Oh, that's so great. I'm glad they do that. I'm going to have to, um, you know, I just kind of have like the default Florida license plate that has a little orange in the middle of it.
New Speaker: Yeah. Same.
Ellen: So I think next time I go to get my, uh, title or registration renewed, I'm going to ask them for the panther license plate.
Christian: Yeah. You know, there's a whole website on, on how to get those plates and how they work. Maybe we can include those as a description somewhere.
Ellen: Yeah, I'll throw them up on the social media.
New Speaker: Awesome. So that's all I have for the Florida Panther.
Ellen: Oh, thank you so much. That was so good. I really like this animal. And thank you, Julie for suggesting it.
Christian: Yes. Thank you, Julie. All right, Ellen, what do you got for us this week?
Ellen: The Red Lionfish. Yes. You probably know the fish that I'm talking about because this is a very popular fish to have in fish tanks. So you'll find these in a lot of like bougie aquariums. They're very visually impressive. So first of all, the red lion fish's, scientific name is Pterois volitans. That's with a silent p by the way, P-T-E-R-O-I-S volitans.
New Speaker: Oh, like a pterodactyl type thing.
Ellen: It's not similar to a pterodactyl, no.
Christian: I would be pterrified.
Ellen: Wow. Aw jeez, okay. So the information that I've got on the red lionfish I got from NOAA's National Ocean Service, the Florida Museum of Natural History, a couple of different articles from Smithsonian Magazine, and a slate.com article that I'll talk about a little bit later on. So to kind of introduce you to the lionfish, if you're not already familiar, this is not too big of a fish. It's 12 to 15 inches or 30 to 38 centimeters. So a little bit of a decent size, but it's not so big. Now, it's most easily identified by its... I know fish don't have plumage, but plumage is the word that I really want to use. The lionfish has this Mohawk of long, rigid spines and rays that jut outward from its body all along the, all along the spine and along like the bottom of it. It also has these long fanned out fins that have these sort of, they look like ribbons that trail behind the fins and also the tail fans out and it's just, it's extravagant.
New Speaker: Oh yeah.
Ellen: It has a very ornate appearance to it. So it's got these long spines sticking out everywhere. Also the entire body, including the spines and the fins, is covered in these alternating red and white zebra stripes. So that's where the red part of the name comes from. It's the red lion fish, but it has these red and white zebra stripes all over it. And also the name lionfish comes from the appearance of its long flowing fins and spines really makes the fish look a lot bigger than it is. And that kind of has a similar effect of the mane of a lion, of a male lion that, that big, poofy mane that really puffs it up and gives it a lot more size than it really has. It's, it's similar to a, to a lion. A lot of other people who deal closely with lionfish on a regular basis also draw parallels between the attitude of the lionfish and its namesake. Apparently they have similar personalities, but...
New Speaker: That's unfortunate.
Ellen: Yeah, I'll talk about that in a minute. So that's why they call it the lionfish. So originally, the lionfish is from the South Pacific and Indian oceans. So this is Australia, French Polynesia, Japan and Korea, that whole sort of area. However, these days you can find them throughout the western Atlantic Ocean. So all along the eastern coast of north and Central America as well as a heavy presence in the Caribbean Sea.
New Speaker: Wow, that's a big, it's a big chunk of space.
Ellen: Yes, it is. The family they belong to is called Scorpaenidae, also known as scorpion fish. This is a big family. There are hundreds of species of these scorpion fish and the common thread among scorpion fish is that they have these spines that you see on the lionfish. So one of the most notable relatives that I found of the lionfish is called the stone fish. And this is the world's most venomous fish. The number one, like most venomous fish in the world. Wow. It doesn't belong to the same family, but it is a pretty close relative. And I found that noteworthy, so I mentioned that.
New Speaker: Yeah, for sure. I believe I've heard of the media somewhere.
Ellen: Yeah, yeah. There's no shortage of coverage of these dudes. So for effectiveness, I gave these dudes a 7 out of 10. So the spines aren't just for appearances in all of those spines all along their body, they have these glands and the glands produce a really strong neuromuscular venom. So this is a super venomous fish. Now there aren't any published reports of death resulting from a sting from a lionfish, but boy does it hurt. It hurts real, real, real bad. So I collected a couple of quotes from the Internet from people. I've never been stung by a lionfish, so I collected a couple of quotes. Mike Ryan at Horizon Divers says, "it won't kill you, but it'll make you wish you were dead."
New Speaker: Oh man, that's intense.
Ellen: Mmhmm. Jeff McGregor, in the Smithsonian magazine article that I read describes, he says, "the guys on the dock will tell you that the sting of a lionfish is like getting hit hard by a hammer, then injecting the bruise with hot sauce."
New Speaker: Oh no...
Ellen: Yeah, it's very bad.
New Speaker: That's so graphic.
Ellen: Yeah. So you won't die from it, but you might as well. It's really, it hurts so bad. So they, this is kind of their primary defense mechanism, right? They've got these pointy spikes full of venom. What more do you need to keep yourself safe from predators?
New Speaker: Not much.
Ellen: And also that sort of visual indicator, those bright red and white stripes like, hey, don't mess with me.
New Speaker: Yeah, so it has the bark and then the bite to back it up.
Ellen: Yeah. It's not playing around now other than it's sort of defensive technique. It, it has this extremely quick strike. So the way they catch their prey is that they corner it. So they have this intimidation factor where they like, puff up their spines and they stretch their fins out so that they look bigger than they are and they corner the prey and then once they are close enough to it, they have a really, really fast strike. They really fast reflexes, but I mean they're really, really quick when they're striking, but other than that, they just kind of like slowly drift around. They're not in a hurry to particularly get anywhere. So their mouth is full of these really tiny little teeth that really just serve for grasping prey and holding them. But that's about it. They're not doing any damage with their teeth really, but they are very, very fast when they're catching prey, otherwise they're not fast at all. So that's why I gave them a 7 out of 10. They have pretty good defense, pretty good damage output. But you know, other than that, they don't really do too much. You know, they're, they're also vulnerable to being attacked from behind. So in their native territory, the predators that prey on them, such as cornetfish, will attack them from behind and kind of get the sneak on them because they are, they do just kind of like drift around. They're not very fast. So they're kind of easy to catch if you get them from the right angle.
New Speaker: Interesting.
New Speaker: Yeah. That's only in their own native territory, which I'll talk about, uh, the difference between that and where they currently are in just a second. But moving on to ingenuity. This is a fish, I gave it a 3 out of 10. It's not a bright fish, like, so I gave them 3 points for their hunting strategy. Like I said, they stalk their prey and then intimidate it and just kind of like corner it and then gobble it up once it's kind of cornered. So I gave him a couple points for being able to figure that out. Now I- major deductions for their failure to understand fear. They don't fear death at all. They are totally confident. They are, everyone that kind of like is around them often describes them as being indifferent to threats. They just kind of are like, yeah, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I'm literally covered in venomous spikes.
New Speaker: "What are you gonna do, eat me?"
Ellen: Quote from fish eaten. Yeah, they just kind of like drift around. They don't care. You can kind of swim right up to them and they'll get a little agitated but they won't like, flee from you and they kind of wish you would. They kind of wish you would. They just have this very arrogant attitude about them where they just kind of drift around and don't really care.
New Speaker: "Hey, I'm swimming here!"
Ellen: So yeah, they're, they don't really, they don't fear death. And I thought that was kind of dumb. Something that they also do that's really dumb is that they do not stop eating when they're full.
New Speaker: I can relate to that.
Ellen: Ah, yeah, me too. Uh, and it's something that I deduct my own ingenuity points, but, so the lion fish are kind of a bottomless pit. They just eat and eat and eat and eat and eat as much as they physically can, which has led to a whole plethora of problems in their own environment, but also problems for the lionfish itself. Lionfish are starting to become obese.
New Speaker: Oh...
Ellen: Yeah. Lionfish in the Atlantic are starting to store fat in their body where there should not be fat because they're eating so much. You don't think of fish as becoming fat, but these are some fat fish. So it's starting to actually like affect their health because they don't know when to stop eating. So they have kind of screwed themselves over with their own impulsive eating habits. Not to say that's not relatable, but I gave them pretty major deductions for that. So 3 out of 10 ingenuity. Moving on to aesthetics. This is kind of the big strength that the lionfish has. I gave it a 9 out of 10 because: work. This fish right here. This fish right here? This fish right here. Look this fish up if you haven't recently cause, so they have those long, fanned out pectoral fins, they remind me a lot of paper fans, right? Like it also looks like they have these ribbons that trail off the ends of them. And just really the whole look is just so good. It's just so good. It's beautiful.
New Speaker: Which I guess is probably why they're so popular in aquariums.
Ellen: Right. So their very impressive appearance led to them becoming really, really popular to put in personal fish tanks. And then when people started keeping them in fish tanks, then when they couldn't take care of them anymore, since they're so pretty, people were like, well, I don't want to just, you know, I guess humanely euthanize it, I'll just set it free. Don't do that. Don't do that. That's bad.
New Speaker: Yeah, when has that ever turned out good?
Ellen: No, not good. So to sum up my score for the red lion fish, that was a 7 out of 10 for effectiveness, a 3 out of 10 for ingenuity and a 9 out of 10 for aesthetics. Bringing us to an overall total of 6.3 out of 10 for the lion fish.
New Speaker: Okay.
Ellen: Now I am going to deduct some points for being honestly rude. Honestly, just so rude. I'm going to deduct some points because they have really become a major problem. Lionfish are devastating ecosystems in the southeast United States and Caribbean waters. Like,, we've talked about a couple of endangered and threatened species on this show where the efforts are being made to like preserve them and make sure we're doing everything we can to bring their numbers up. This is the complete opposite of that problem. There are way too many of these dudes in places where they're not supposed to be. So like I said, they've been released into the Atlantic Ocean, mostly by the pet trade people that just like the pythons that we talked about in South Florida, they were released from the pet trade and just kind of set off into the wilderness thinking, "surely no harm will come of this," and harm came of that.
Ellen: I got a lot of this information from a slate.com article by Christie Wilcox in July of 2013, the title of the article is "The Worst Marine Invasion Ever." So the problem with lionfish in the Atlantic is that in their native habitat there are a lot of fish that evolved with the lionfish and is familiar with the lionfish. So these are cornetfish sharks, grouper, they regularly eat the lionfish because they know what they are, right? They look at them, they're like, this is something I can eat. I know how to handle this. Nom nom nom, nom, nom, nom, nom delicious. So no real problems there because there are predators that keep their populations in check. Not so in the Atlantic because they've been introduced to this completely new ecosystem very suddenly and very recently, so too recently for predators to have developed any sort of habitual like, preference for eating them. So they are so dissimilar to anything else that lives there. There's nothing else in this ecosystem that looks like them. So the problem with that is that local predators don't recognize it as prey and smaller creatures don't recognize it as a predator.
New Speaker: Sneaky sneaky.
Ellen: Because it moves very slowly, right, it doesn't look like that. It probably doesn't look that threatening if you don't know what to look out for. So on either end, right, the ecosystem that they've been introduced to is just completely unprepared for responding to this fish. So the predators don't know to eat it, the prey don't know to run away. It's just really bad. This combined with the lionfish's, uncontrollable appetite is just kind of a recipe for disaster. So like I said, the lionfish don't stop eating when they're full. Lionfish are starting to become obese and they are eating way, way, way more than their fair share of the prey. And they will eat anything that will fit in their mouth. It's not like they have one particular thing that they eat, right? It's not like, oh they only eat this one type of shrimp, or oh they only eat this one mussel. They eat anything. The problem here is that they're eating things like parrotfish, which are really important to the control of algae and seaweed growth cause they're herbivores. So the parrotfish is important for keeping the growth of plant life in check. So the lionfish are eating the parrotfish, which is making the algae and seaweed growth all out of whack. Also the small little, little cleaner fish that you'll see, little fish that will come up to other fish and like clean their bodies and clean little parasites and stuff like that off of the bigger fish?
New Speaker: Yeah.
Ellen: Well, the lionfish eats those too, which means that now the big fish are more vulnerable to infections and parasites. So that's now threatening those populations in that way too. And also they're just kind of eating up any other little prey that is shared by other predators in the area, so like snappers, groupers, stuff like that. Really just getting a competitive edge against all of these other predators that- it's already, with the way that climate change is affecting those areas, they're already on the fragile side, and the lion fish is just coming through and cleaning up shop. Like just cleaning 'em out. These crazy insatiable appetites are just depleting the food available to other species in the area, which is becoming a huge threat to the biodiversity in that area in general. And they're eating so many other fish and leaving not only the other fish but also themselves with so few food options that they've started eating each other. Like lionfish have started cannibalizing each other.
New Speaker: There's one positive I guess...
Ellen: Nope. I mean that really just means that's how desperate they are. Like this is not, this is not a common behavior. This is not something you typically see in not just lionfish, but like in most fish and they're doing it just because they've eaten literally everything else. Lionfish are just this huge threat to basically every ecosystem that they have infiltrated in like, the entire Atlantic. Also because lionfish can't really be fished traditionally with like a reel and a hook because they don't bite on hooks. They very, very, very rarely will bite on a hook. That's not a reliable way to fish for lion fish. They also can't be caught with nets because they usually live in like really rocky reefs and rocky terrain where a net wouldn't work in that sort of situation. So the only way that you can really hunt them is with a spear.
New Speaker: Oh, I've heard of this.
Ellen: You have to get in the water with a spear and really just like, one by one, take these dudes out. Which, I mean, that's kind of cool. That sounds kind of fun, right? You just kind of jump in and like Assassin's Creed every like...
New Speaker: I mean, I hear spearfishing is pretty popular.
Ellen: Yeah. Due to the fact that like, hunting them is tedious and not super effective. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issues and annual Lionfish Challenge. So they are offering rewards for hunting and killing lionfish. So this was actually a really cool, I was reading about this today. This is really cool. You can participate from anywhere in the state of Florida.So the first batch that you submit for the contest can be submitted via photo. You can take a picture of the ones that you killed and send it in. So that's for your first batch. Any batch after that, you submit the tails of the lionfish that you have slain. So you cut the tail off, put the tail in a plastic bag and like write on it, I don't know, some information.
New Speaker: Is... Is this real life?
Ellen: This is real.
New Speaker: That's a video game.
Ellen: So you put the tail of a lionfish in a bag and you can bring it to these designated dive shops or regional offices that are serving as checkpoints with the Fish and Wildlife Commission where they'll like check off your fish and let Fish and Wildlife know how many lionfish you killed.
New Speaker: Then what do they do with it? With the tails, I wonder...
Ellen: Honey, I do not know. But so it's all over the Atlantic coast throughout the year, there are lionfish hunting events. Florida Fish and Wildlife has a calendar of lionfish hunting events on their website, so you can go, if you are into spearfishing or if this sounds like fun to you, you can go to their website and see where your nearest lionfish spear hunt tournament is taking place. These are literally all throughout the year. There's one like next week or something.
New Speaker: Huh.
Ellen: Yeah, they're, they're all over the place. So all over the state, right? Like all the time they're doing these because it is so important for people to get out there and start killing these lionfish cause they're destroying everything. They are destroying everything in their path and they must be stopped. Florida's whole like government is really doing their best to incentivize killing these dudes because they are the opposite of endangered. They're endangering.. Everything. They're doing a very bad job. So, another way that we can kind of incentivize keeping these numbers in check is by eating lionfish, which I don't do unfortunately because I just don't eat fish in general because it's icky, but I've heard they're really delicious.
Christian: Yeah. That's what I hear too. And if that opportunity ever presents itself, I will take that instantly.
Ellen: Yeah. So if you do see lionfish being offered as an option at a place where you are eating and you do eat fish, go for it. It is, uh, it's good for the environment. Please, please eat these dudes.
Christian: Are you telling me I can do my civic duty by eating food?
Ellen: Yes, please. Please eat this food.
New Speaker: I'm going to be the next local hero.
Ellen: I know we got Captain Planet over here. Come to the aid of the reefs by just eating as much fried fish as you can.
New Speaker: And behold, my endless maw.
Ellen: You could give the lionfish a run for their money. Kind of the general understanding of it was like, oh, the only thing with a more insatiable appetite for destruction than a lionfish is the human being.
New Speaker: Oh no, they're coming for us. They're coming for our title. No, can't let that happen.
Ellen: No, we gotta show them who's boss around here. So it's kind a, if you can't beat him, eat him sort of thing.
New Speaker: Is that how it goes?
Ellen: That's how it said on the website. So yeah, eat lionfish. And if you are a spearfisher, get out there and start killing them. Please. We're begging you. We're literally begging you. Please do it. Yeah. So I decided to deduct a couple of points from my personal score for the lionfish. My overall score for the lionfish was a 6.3 out of 10, but I'm taking a few points off for it being a total jerk and I'm gonna give it a 4.
New Speaker: Take that lion fish.
Ellen: Yeah. What do you think about that?
New Speaker: Probably not strongly either way.
New Speaker: You know, with their sort of general attitude, I bet even if they spoke English and understood numbers, they probably wouldn't- their massive ego probably wouldn't even take a hit. Now in their native environment, lionfish are not a bad thing. They're fine in their native environment where they have predators and there is an ecosystem in place that can keep them in check. But in my house, on my turf? In Mama's house, we don't- we do not stan lionfish. Lionfish can...
Christian: Get sauteed.
Ellen: Yeah. Lionfish can, uh, kick rocks. Get on out of here. Okay. That's all I had.
Christian: Well thank you. Um, I've heard, I've heard many stories of lionfish, but I'm glad I know more about them now.
Ellen: Yup. That's the, that's the red lionfish. The total jerk.
Christian: Well thank you Ellen.
Ellen: This is probably the first animal that I've done that I would not describe as a friend.
Christian: It's the opposite of what they said in Nemo: food, not friends.
Ellen: Fish are food, not friend. Fish are food. This fish are food. This fish are not friend.
Christian: Well thank you for that Ellen. So that about wraps it up for us this week.
Christian: We can be connected with on Twitter at @JustTheZooOfUs or on Instagram at @thezooofus. That is NOT @justthezooofus, I'm sorry that name was taken. On Instagram we're @thezooofus. We can also be found on Facebook by searching the title of the show, so find our page. If you have an animal that you want to hear us review, you can submit those to us atthezooofus@gmail.com, so send us your favorite animal friends and we'll talk about them on the show, and when we do, we will give you a shoutout. So also make sure your name is included in there so that we can give you props.
Christian: Yeah.
Ellen: Well one more real quick thing. Uh, if you like what you're hearing, I would really like it if you let your friends know that there's this cool animal podcast you've been listening to and it's called Just the Zoo of Us and you really think that they should check it out, so please help us spread the word. We have some really cool plans for things we want to do if our numbers really start to take off, so let people know what you're listening to. Uh, you know, spread the word. Give us some love on social media, link back to us, all that good stuff. We would really appreciate it.
Christian: Tell your animal lovin' friends. Tell your non-animal lovin' friends, we'll convert them.
Ellen: Except unless they don't like lionfish, because then I think this episode would really just kind of prop that belief up.
Christian: In which case, here's a fist bump through your headphones.
Ellen: Ayyy we also hate lion fish. Oh, I shouldn't say that. We don't hate lionfish.
Christian: No.
Ellen: Anyway, so yeah, a transcript of this episode, we'll be up at justthezooofus.home.blog, and finally we would like to thank Louie Zong for the use of his song "Adventuring" off of his album Bee Sides.
Christian: So good.
Ellen: It's so good. And all of his music is good and all of his art and content is excellent.
Christian: Love it, love it, love it.
Ellen: Love everything. Please go check his stuff out. And yeah, that's all I have for this week. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for listening.
Christian: Thanks everyone.
Ellen: Thank you, byeeeee!
Christian: Bye.