The Villain Edit with Bats, Snakes and Madonna (The Opossum)

In this episode of "That’s Wild!" (Season 2, Episode 13), host Susan Altrui, co-host Joy Matlock, and MC Dustin Bean explore "the villain edit," taking a look at how pop culture, myths, and fear give certain animals an unfairly bad reputation. They are joined by Hannah Baker, General Curator at the Little Rock Zoo, to listen to real voicemails from concerned citizens and separate animal facts from fiction. The conversation also features a special in-studio appearance by Madonna, a 1.5-year-old rescue ambassador opossum living at the zoo.

The team kicks off the voicemails with a caller panicked over 30 to 50 vultures sitting on his roof, tearing the heads off fake owls, and "drooling disease". Hannah Baker sets the record straight, pointing out that vultures actually destroy disease rather than spread it, as their stomach acid has a pH of zero to one—as strong as battery acid.

Next, a caller trapped in her bathroom complains about a "blind, flying rat" that drinks blood, carries rabies, and wants to nest in her hair. Hannah clarifies that bats are warm-blooded mammals belonging to the order Chiroptera, not rodents, and they are the only mammals capable of sustained powered flight. They do not nest in human hair, and they are not blind, using exceptional low-light vision paired with echolocation to navigate. Out of about 1,400 bat species worldwide, only three are vampire bats—none of which live in Arkansas—and while bats can vector rabies and should never be handled directly, they are essential for insect control.

A third voicemail comes from a sleep-deprived new mom worrying if daddy longlegs are the most poisonous spiders in the world, if detaching a leg is a magic trick, and if killing one summons more. Hannah explains that harvestmen are arachnids but not true spiders, possessing zero venom glands. Detaching a leg, known as autotomy, is a survival distraction technique to escape predators while the leg keeps moving. They do not release recruitment pheromones when killed, and as omnivores, they even hunt black widows. The hosts also debunk the viral internet myth that humans swallow six to eight spiders a year in their sleep.

The fourth caller vents about mosquitoes bypassing bug zappers, citronella, and garlic oil while completely ignoring his wife. Hannah explains that bug zappers mostly kill harmless insects like moths because mosquitoes are drawn to carbon dioxide, body heat, and moisture rather than light. Only female mosquitoes bite because they n