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Every Little Thing

How Hard Is It to Catch a Roadrunner?

Every Little Thing

Gimlet

Comedy, Education, Science

4.64.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Listener Pedro wants to know: are real-life roadrunners as fast as their cartoon counterparts? Roadrunner researcher Tina Guo gets us up to speed on this avian escape artist and the special feet-ure that makes these birds hard to track. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an every little thing, Mini.

0:03.8

You call the question, we find you an answer.

0:07.5

Today's question comes from Pedro in London.

0:11.3

So road runners, are they actually fast and do coyotes sometimes eat them or try to eat

0:17.5

them?

0:18.5

Thanks.

0:19.7

Have coyotes learned nothing from loony tunes?

0:22.5

Do they dare go after road runners?

0:24.5

Ah, coyote dove!

0:27.2

That's road runner researcher Tina Guo.

0:29.4

And she says, real like coyotes aren't as obsessed with road runners as their cartoon

0:34.3

counterparts.

0:35.3

Yeah, I don't think it's unheard of for a coyote to eat a road runner, but they're

0:38.1

not going to be targeting them.

0:40.8

And that's because road runners are just too fast.

0:44.0

They can run up to 25 miles per hour.

0:47.4

But super speed isn't their only advantage, Tina says.

0:50.6

They also have a secret weapon, funky feet that make them hard to track.

0:55.6

Most birds have three toes in the front and one in the back, so you can see which

0:59.4

way they're going from their tracks.

1:01.5

But for road runners, that's not the case.

1:04.3

Road runners have zygodactyl feet, so two toes in the front and two toes in the back

...

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