(upbeat music) Well happy Halloween everybody, and welcome to Naturally Wild.

My name is Steve Wildman Wilson.

I serve as your host here each week on the show.

Hey, I've got a question for you.

What's the first thing that pops in your mind when you hear the word Halloween?

Other than free candy.

I mean, what critter do you see in your mind when you think about Halloween?

You know, I think of things like bats and tarantulas and snakes and spiders.

And when I think of those creepy critters, I think of my good friend Eric Maynard.

Not that he's a creepy critter, but he does know all about them.

Welcome back.

How you doing?

Doing great.

Glad to be here.

It's good to have you back.

Man, you've become my critter man here on the show.

Well, I'll do what I can for you.

Thank you.

He works for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

He is assistant chief of the Education division at the Game and Fish and runs nature centers all around the state.

So this is sort of your job, as you will.

Yep.

But I want to talk about that.

I want to have you on to talk about it because all these creepy critters I just mentioned, they really get a bad rap here at Halloween.

They do.

You know, a lot of that comes from people just not understanding.

That's why we do this show.

Yeah.

So we're trying to educate people.

That's why we have education division at Game and Fish people, people hear bits and things.

There's lots of good stories that get passed on.

A lot of them are not very accurate and stuff.

So people just don't understand.

So some of these critters get a little bad rap.

You know, I think the media does that as well.

When I worked there, you guys taught me a lot about anytime you see a black bear, usually whether it's mounted or a picture of one, they're never just laying there nice.

They're usually like that.

And obviously that portrays a different thing than what we want to portray.

Because all these, all these things I just mentioned, plus some, they serve a purpose.

Sure.

And people have to realize they may not serve a purpose for you directly, but they do serve a purpose in the overall environment.

So they have their place.

And even if we don't like them or understand them, we need them out there.

Well, I know you've brought a great horned owl before.

You brought a a hawk, red tailed hawk.

And we learned about those.

Like you said, they're all important in the ecosystem.

And so here tonight, what have you brought us tonight?

Some things I know you couldn't get it out of, the first thing I always think about is bats.

And those are hard to come by.

In fact, I'm glad you didn't bring one.

Yeah.

And bats are one of those things that don't make good pets.

You do have to have special permits and stuff for them.

But, yeah, they don't make good pets.

They're kind of hard to keep.

But there are a lot of misunderstandings about bats.

And we want to keep in mind.

These are not pets either.

They're wildlife.

So we don't want you keeping these things we're talking about as pets.

That's for cats and dogs.

Yep.

But now bats in Arkansas are very interesting though.

There's different types of bats here in Arkansas.

Yeah, we've got 15 or 16 different species.

Big eared bats and little brown bats and Seminole bats and hoary bats.

There's all kinds of things.

And a lot of times people think of big groups of bats coming out of caves.

Yeah.

And in some cases, that's very true.

There are huge numbers of bats that live in some caves.

But there are also bats that are more solitary, and they don't even live in caves.

They like to live in trees.

They get under the bark of some trees and pine trees and stuff, and they may only have one or 2 or 3 gather together and hibernate in the wintertime.

So it's not always the thousands of bats coming out of a big old cave.

Because in some parts of the state we don't have caves.

You know, down in the Delta where I am, but we have plenty of bats.

Yeah.

And they do serve a good purpose.

They're eating those blood sucking mosquitoes.

You think about Halloween.

You know, that's a scary creature, right there.

Bloodsuckers right there.

I understand when they, they gather as they fly, do they, I've heard, like, they have Velcro type stuff in their wings, and they fly and collect them and eat them.

How they do that?

So bats use echolocation.

Okay.

Which means they make these little clicking sounds and they bounce off something, and it comes back to their ears and they can hear where they are.

If you think about a mosquito is really hard to see flying around.

But they're blind.

Well.

Yeah, for the most part, they can't see very well.

I mean, hang around in the dark in caves all the time.

You don't need to see.

They don't need to see.

But, so as they're flying, trying to catch a mosquito or some other flying insect, as they get up to it, they can spread their wings out and their wings go back.

That skin stretched out goes back to their back legs also.

Okay.

And they can kind of cup it around it and catch whatever that is, kind of like a big net.

So they're flying around, find out where that bug is.

And then they scoop them, scoop it up, and then they bite it in their mouth and chew it up and eat it.

Might want to point out that I know you were talking about bats in caves, and there are some problems with bats, white nose syndrome.

White nose syndrome.

So there's a lot of caves that you can't get in these days, closed off because, short version is white nose syndrome is a fungus disease that gets on the bats while they are hibernating, and it gets on their mouth and their nose and stuff and can cause them to quit breathing.

Yeah.

So we don't want to spread that from cave to cave.

I just, I think I remember, what I remember most about bats, I went to Carlsbad Caverns a long time ago and I was small.

So, you know what impresses kids, the droppings of the bats.

And I heard they make perfume out of that.

Is that true?

They they do use or used to use that as different kinds of makeup.

So bat guano.

No, no.

Bat guano was used in the processing of making makeup and is also used to make gunpowder.

Really?

Black powder back in the day.

Yeah.

Really?

Black bats.

Black bats and black powder.

Wow.

Okay, well, we'll get off the bats now, but they do serve a purpose here.

But they they do get a bad rap.

You see them on every doorstep around Halloween and advertisements and so forth.

Let's talk, next thing I used to see a lot of is spiders.

So lots of different kinds of spiders in Arkansas.

Yeah.

Thousands of species of spiders across the world.

The one we think about a lot, maybe during Halloween, is the big one.

The tarantula that we have in Arkansas.

That's a type of spider?

That's a kind of spider.

And they are big for what we're used to seeing.

I mean, with other spiders, little wolf spiders and jumping spiders and stuff.

So they're big.

Not as big as they get in some places.

We've got one right there.

Yeah.

You can see that.

So let me bring that thing over.

Let me see.

This is locked isn't it?

So we have one kind of tarantula in Arkansas.

And depending on where you live, it's either called the Texas brown or an Arkansas chocolate spider.

They're found in about two thirds of the state.

They don't like it over in the Delta where it's flat.

They like rocky areas.

These are not very active hunters.

So some spiders, when sun goes down, they come out at night, they're crawling around.

They're actively hunting, looking for prey.

Some spin big webs, you know, trying to catch it.

They are monitoring their webs and stuff.

Tarantulas live in little tunnels underground, and the tunnel may only be a foot to two foot long.

And they usually hang around there.

They hang around at the front of their little tunnel and wait on a cricket or a grasshopper or something to come by, and then they'll rush out and catch it and come back in their tunnel, and they hang around there so they don't get out very much.

Although this time of year, in the fall, people see a few more of them because it's breeding season and the males will get out and roam around, sometimes up to a mile and a half out looking for a female.

And so that's the time people see the most.

I get the most reports of them.

And all these trains, I see them crossing the roads up in the Ozarks, in the Ouachita areas.

It's just that time of year.

They're out.

It's like, brings it just like deer season.

Deer crossing the road so be careful out there.

You know, when I was growing up, I remember seeing some of these.

I think I remember actually catching some.

Yeah.

I'm sure mom told me they couldn't hurt you.

But do they, do they bite?

They can bite.

So they're, and luckily, I do not have firsthand experience, but my understanding is their bite is somewhere between a bee sting and a wasp sting.

And their fangs are interesting.

Some spiders have fangs that close side to side.

Kind of like they're biting.

Pinchers.

Yep.

But tarantulas are, they come up and down, and when they're going to bite their food, they come up, and then they kind of have to basically stab it in into them and inject their venom.

And that's just digestive.

Now this is a little bitty fella here.

They get pretty big.

The ones I remember as a kid, maybe I was just small and they all look big, but, is that a normal size?

Is that a baby?

That's a, that's about normal size.

Is it really?

They can get a little bigger than that.

Yeah.

As a kid I remember them being bigger also.

But I think it's because when you put it on my little foot, they look big.

My eyes got big.

I know that.

He doesn't move much.

Is he sleeping?

Nothing to do.

Well, there's nothing to do, nothing to eat right now.

Remember, they hang around in their little tunnel, and they don't move around a whole lot.

Until it's mating season, and then they'll travel a mile and half to find a girlfriend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Do we have as many as we used to?

You know, that's hard to say.

I don't think so.

We don't get near as many reports as we used to of them.

What the cause of that is, I don't know, but I would be willing to bet it's some kind of man made.

I was wondering, I was wondering what the limiting factors were.

Well, if you think about, it's always habitat and food.

Yeah.

If we are developing land and clearing land and stuff and taking away their habitat, and then if we're spraying pesticides and killing insects.

That's their food source.

Wow.

So we don't know about the future on that.

All right, now, the next thing you have here we want to talk about.

We got a real surprise for you at the end of the show, but just briefly.

So skulls are kind of creepy.

Well, Halloween, you know, a lot of times people are putting skeletons out and bones out and all that kind of stuff, but, when you're walking in the woods, sometimes you come across some bones and you find skulls and stuff.

They don't have to be scary.

Sometimes people think they're scary, but they're not.

And they can tell a lot about the animals.

If you don't know exactly what it was, at least if you study it some, and look at the teeth.

It's got real flat teeth like this.

These molars.

Yeah.

Then that's something that eats plant material.

Deer?

Deer.

This one actually is a calf skull.

Okay.

Now, that one is a bear skull.

And I don't think that one opens up.

We've talked about bears.

And bears are omnivores, so they have these flat teeth back here in the back.

But see those big canines?

I do.

They also will eat meat and stuff occasionally.

I said we talked about them being, they call them carnivores, but they're really omnivores.

They'll eat anything.

Eat berries and they will eat honey, you know, not like in the cartoons.

They'll eat anything they want to.

This one is a good example.

This is a pure carnivore.

This is a mountain lion skull.

Wow.

You'll notice it does not have the flat teeth because it's not eating berries and vegetables and all that kind of stuff.

And then one of my favorites is really interesting.

You know what that is?

No.

Give me a hint.

Give me a hint.

Got a little bitty braincase here, so it's not very smart.

Kinfolk I was thinking about with me, but no.

(laughs) So this is, this mammal has the most teeth of any mammal in North America.

It's got 40 teeth.

Got these big canines in the front so it's scary looking.

Wait.

40 teeth?

It's got 40 teeth.

A baby alligator?

Nope.

Mammal.

Oh, it's a mammal.

I give up.

What is it?

I give you a hint.

Oh, let me read.

Shoot, a possum.

I didn't know they had 40 teeth.

Yep.

Possums have lots of teeth.

Not much of a brain case in there.

Not very smart.

But, yeah, they're pretty interesting with all those teeth.

And they'll eat just about anything they come across.

Wow.

And I know you can also tell a lot about here with the placement of the eyes, because some of them have keener sense of eyes and smell.

If their eyes are forward facing or they're more on the side.

You know, forward facing usually means you're a predator.

And if you're more to the side, no matter what you're talking about, mammals or birds, more likely to be a prey because you're trying to see all around and watch for those predators.

Well, I'm going to move these to the side.

And you've got a special surprise for us.

You know a lot of times people see bones and stuff and associate them with my next animal here.

So we're gonna roll right into that.

All right.

And folks I want to remind you, obviously, Eric's over all the nature centers for the Game and Fish Commission.

They're located all around the state.

Got five of them, I think, now?

Yes.

Five.

And, the good thing they're free of charge.

You can go.

In fact, you can go and see some of these skulls and a lot of other things, antlers.

And they even have touch tables where they want your kids to go touch it.

So, that's different from when I was growing up.

They didn't let us, oh, Lordy.

Do I need to move?

Make this easy.

Not going to give him a choice.

Oh, I'm glad you got a hold of him instead of me.

Here we go.

Look at him.

I've never been this close to a vulture.

And we've got two kinds of vultures in Arkansas.

We'll see if he'll sit down here, okay?

Okay.

Just stay right down there.

Maybe not.

Maybe not.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, buddy.

It's okay.

All right.

So.

So we've got two kinds of vultures.

We've got black vultures and turkey vultures.

And they're pretty easy to tell apart because turkey vultures have a red head like a turkey.

I was going to ask you, this looks like a black turkey vulture, but it's not.

Nope.

This is a black vulture.

They got a little different color underneath their wings when you see them flying up overhead.

If you see them riding the, the current, the air current.

Yeah.

And they've got a white band on the underneath, if it goes all the way up to the body, that's a turkey vulture.

That's a turkey vulture and a red head.

And it's got a red head.

Okay.

Hard to see a little red head.

That's true.

If they spread their wings out and you look up there and that white only goes part way and it black up against the body, black vulture.

Black vulture.

Now, Eric, what is the difference in a, in a vulture and a buzzard?

Or is there a difference?

There really is.

Lots of people call these buzzards and it's it's amazing how long those myths or that misunderstanding sticks around.

Oh, oh, I knew he was taking off then.

But when settlers came over, back in the 16, 1700s from Europe, they saw this big black bird circling overhead.

They thought it was the same bird they had at home, which they called a buzzard.

And it's a big black hawk.

So the closest thing we have in the United States to a true buzzard is a red tailed hawk.

Really?

So we don't really have true buzzards?

No, not like Europeans.

So vultures, even though we kind of throw them in with birds of prey a lot of times.

Are they birds of prey?

Well, they're actually closer related to storks.

Storks?

So you think about they have weak feet, they got big claws, but they got weak feet.

They don't grab hold of stuff.

They've got that bare head there.

And so similar to a stork.

Yeah.

Now, vultures, since they have weak feet, they don't go out and catch their own food.

I start saying, are they kind of lazy?

They just let somebody else kill it, and then they come down and eat the remains?

I don't, I don't know if I'd call them lazy, that's kind of mean.

Well, the eagle's the same way.

Well, eagles are kind of lazy.

But look at him.

So they, rely on finding food that's already dead.

Hey, they might be lazy, but they're smart.

Let somebody else do the work.

They have a really good sense of smell.

Really good sense of smell.

So they can find stuff in the forest under the tree canopies.

They can't see it, but they can smell it long ways off, miles away.

And since they don't capture their own food, you know, think about it, if you've got a storm for 2 or 3 days and they can't get out and find food, or they're just not very lucky, they don't find anything, they might not have anything to eat for a few days.

So when they finally find roadkill, possum been laying out there for a day.

And that doesn't sound very good for you and I, but that sounds like a buffet to a vulture.

So they will actually get to eating at it, and sometimes vultures will eat so much they can't fly.

They get so heavy.

I've done that at Thanksgiving dinner before.

It happens, you know, you don't want to get up and move.

Well, they actually can't fly.

Wow.

Which is a real problem if a predator.

Well, yeah.

Comes along, you know, like a coyote or something bigger than them and sees this little bird sitting on the side of the road, whatever, and decides, hey, that would make a pretty good meal.

Yeah, well, if a coyote gets up closer to it, birds start to get scared, and first thing they do is they'll kind of puff up real big.

They'll start spreading their wings out.

You know, like a lot of animals want to look as big as and fierce as they can.

If that coyote keeps getting closer and doesn't get scared off, eventually it'll get close enough where the vulture has to do something to save its life.

So what happens is that coyote gets up so close, it will regurgitate, it'll throw up right in front of that coyote.

And you think about what that dead possum smelled like before it went in, it's worse coming back out.

So while the coyote is basically sitting there trying to figure out what in the world?

I don't know what happened.

This guy is now light enough, it just turns and flies away.

Yeah.

So it gives up its meal.

It's a last resort.

Last resort.

Or he's going to be the meal.

Yep.

Wow.

Yeah, I noticed him, boy, using that beak down there, ripping on that.

And that's why when you find these bones out there, there's no meat.

I mean, they clean them up pretty good.

Yeah.

Their natural reaction when they bite is their head jerks.

So when they reach out and bite down and grab something, their natural reaction to rip it, rip it off, it rips it off.

And they can eat anything so they can eat stuff that has been killed by the plague.

Really bad diseases.

It doesn't transfer to them?

It doesn't bother them.

So they actually are cleaning up the environment.

Not just cleaned up the dead possums, but cleaning up disease.

There's your purpose again.

Yep.

And if they get lots of stuff, you know, they're eating possums and getting their head down in there They they get dirty and they might get stuff on their feathers and stuff.

Sometimes you'll see them standing up in the the trees with their wings all spread out, sunning himself.

That also kills the bacteria.

So the UV light from the sun helps clean them.

They do get hot and to help them cool off, this sounds really creepy to some people, I think they're really interesting birds.

Yep.

More you know though, the more you appreciate them.

So they actually poop down their legs.

No comment.

So sounds nasty, but that helps them cool off.

Well, it makes sense.

So when they're hot, it also actually acts as a, helps clean their feet from the bacteria and stuff.

Walking around on the dead animals.

Yeah.

Believe it or not, vulture poop on their feet.

That helps clean up the bacteria.

Sure.

And keep them cool all at the same time.

And now, how old is this one?

Can you tell the age?

Do they ge larger than this?

Well, they're like lots of other birds.

It depends on the sex of the bird.

Females are typically a little larger.

Once they get to be adult size, which doesn't take but about 6 or 9 months, and then after that, there's really not a good way to tell how old they are.

You know, you're either an immature bird or you're an adult bird.

Mating season for the birds is spring like other birds?

Spring like other birds.

These are cavity nesters.

I can remember as a kid up around Greers Ferry Lake, one time, my brother and I, we crawled down into a little hole smaller than that crate there and crawled down in there and shined our flashlight and looking.

There were two black vultures down there sitting on their eggs, on the eggs down there in the nest.

And you come out pretty quick?

I came out pretty quick and didn't go back in there for quite a while.

But yeah, in the spring they'll get in those cavities, little holes and stuff.

And that's where they raise their eggs.

And about how many eggs usually do they?

Two, two.

Maybe three.

Yeah.

So not very many.

Do they share, a lot of birds, some of them, the mama takes care of the nest and the father goes get stuff to eat.

Or do they share that?

Yeah.

Both.

Both of them are going to bring back food and feed the babies.

Yeah.

So interesting.

Probably not the food you'd want.

No no, no.

Remember they're eating their stuff and gonna go bring it back and kind of regurgitate.

Well, that's what birds do anyway.

How's the population on them?

Are they holding their own pretty good?

They are.

And they are protected species.

So we have to remember that.

So, you know, there's no hunting season on them.

They don't cause any real problems.

Sometimes you hear stories about vultures will kill calves sometimes.

Yeah, that's a rarity.

Sometimes you may find, they're pretty brave.

So, I mean, they might be where a cow has had a calf and there's afterbirth, that kind of stuff.

I mean, they're going to be there waiting on a free meal and stuff, too.

So them actually killing calves is very rare.

Well that's true.

You know, we've talked about it here on the show before.

You know, you say I've seen eagles come by and carry kids off and cows off and no, that's why we do the show here because those are all myths.

You can see those white panels I was talking about.

That's why he's doing that.

He's displaying it.

But they don't go all the way up to the body.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's the black panel.

Black vulture.

And you've got the turkey vultures.

Do they coexist?

You'll find them in the same areas.

Yes.

But a lot of times, if you notice when you're driving down the road, where we see a lot of them.

Yeah.

You either see a group of black vultures or a group of turkey vultures.

So it's rare to find both of them at the same place.

So they don't intermix?

Not too much.

Wonder why.

They look so much alike.

They don't seem to think so.

They don't like each other.

Don't like each other that much.

If we go down the road, would you see more of these than you would turkey vultures?

I think it depends on which part of the state you're in.

Turkey vulture is more in the south and east?

You know, we have both of them all over the state.

So I'm not going to try and say you're going to see more in one area because someone will call and say, no, you were wrong.

I can drive the same road and some days I see nothing, but yesterday I drove down the road near my house.

Big group of black vultures.

Okay.

I would have told you if you'd asked me the day before, most of the time, I see turkey vultures.

Yeah, and these things get smart, too, because I know when you drive down the road, first couple of times they fly off, but other, after that, they'll go, oh, he's good, I'm going to eat.

You'll notice there's something, I think they're the older ones that have been around, they they just hop 2 or 3 steps over.

They know they're going to drive past.

Those young ones, they kind of fly around.

They get scared, then they come back.

A lot of competition for that food out there.

Yeah, well, that's great information.

And, what a great thing to know for Halloween.

And we wish everyone a happy Halloween.

And whether you run across a black vulture or a turkey vulture or a tarantula or any of these bones out there, now you'll know what you're looking at.

So, Eric, thanks so much, buddy.

Thanks for coming in.

Glad to be here.

I'm already looking for your next show, so you'll be thinking about something else you can bring.

We'll do it.

All right.

All right.

Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in tonight to Naturally Wild.

We'll see you next time right here on Arkansas TV.

This program was made possible by Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, East Harding Construction Company, David's Burgers, Greenway Equipment, Arkansas Farm Bureau, and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

(upbeat music)