On this, our 344th Evolutionary Lens livestream, we discuss new cats, fat bears, and overwhelmed frogs. The tilcayo, a newly named species of cat from Bolivia, is part of a group of New World “tiger cats” that live on the outskirts of the Amazon basin. We discuss Carnivoran relationships, cats more specifically, and what is known about the history and ecology of the tilcayo in particular. Then: it’s fat bear week at Katmai National Park in Alaska, where grizzlies are fattening themselves on salmon for the Winter ahead; we discuss hibernation, reproductive diapause, and general chonkiness in bears. Finally: female Cope’s gray treefrogs have a harder time choosing good mates when there’s a lot of noise, and when there are too many suitors—kind of like how women often make bad choices when confronted with chaos and wingmen.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Lescroart & Nogales-Ascarrunz et al 2026. Phylogenomics and museomics reveal five distinct species of tiger cats in South America. Current Biology 36: 1-15: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)01110-3
National Geographic’s tilcayo pics: https://news.nationalgeographic.org/photos-new-wild-cat-species/
Meet the bears: https://explore.org/meet-the-bears#h_75305921118711789688140871
Hemingway et al 2026. Choice overload constrains mate choice independent of energetic masking. iScience 29: 1-13: https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2589-0042%2826%2902464-8
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Holding Screen
00:05:02 It Smells Like Autumn
00:06:44 Cats, Fat Bears, and Overwhelmed Frogs
00:10:25 Sponsor: Cowboy Colostrum
00:14:25 Sponsor: CrowdHealth
00:17:03 Sponsor: Branch Basics
00:21:02 The Tilcayo: A Brand-New Cat
00:25:32 An Orphaned Kitten in the Andes
00:28:47 Inside Phylogenetics
00:33:21 Carnivores vs. Carnivorans
00:34:58 Hyenas: Cat Adjacent, Not a Cat
00:42:38 The Answer Is Software
00:49:50 Meet the Tilcayo
00:51:53 Five Cryptic Species of Tiger Cat
00:55:03 Why So Many Little Cats?
01:04:17 Sympatric, Allopatric, or Parapatric?
01:06:49 Apologies to the Dog People
01:08:59 80% Neurotic, 10% Psychotic
01:12:39 A Raccoon, a Lemur, and a Wild Kitten
01:18:35 Fat Bear Week
01:23:14 The Bears' Cupboard Strategy
01:25:29 Meet the Bears of Katmai
01:28:47 Yes, Bears Have Diapause
01:31:28 Strategy, Luck, or Dominance?
01:38:28 Overwhelmed Frogs
01:44:21 Why Are Frog Choruses So Loud?
01:50:31 What Counts as a Good Choice?
01:52:09 Clubs, Wingmen, and Bad Decisions
01:56:07 Hot Guys With Less to Say
01:57:04 Be Good to the Ones You Love
We have "cartesian blinders being put on us so that we are trying to make sense out of scraps of information and hints." - @bretweinstein
WEINSTEIN: I mean, even if you have your villains who are engaged in the behavior that motivated this war in Iran, even if that's the story, presumably most of the people in the path of these ferocious bombings that he is describing are not deserving of going back to the Stone Age.
In fact, I distinctly remember him telling us that part of what we were up to was liberating the people of Iran from their tyrannical regime.
So if it's the tyrannical regime that justifies the ferocious bombing, then it's a tragedy that other people are going to be sent back to the Stone Ages with them. Right?
HEYING: It's it's not a narrative. It's an incoherent set of talking points.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, it's a kind of cheerleading that is completely inappropriate from the perspective of the president.
Bret Weinstein discusses the Trump administrations "back to the stone age" recent remarks in the latest episode of The Evolutionary Lens, Episode 320 "Are we back in the stone age?" on DarkHorse.
Bret Weinstein explains, "If you stop businesses from starting here, and if you drive people so that they move elsewhere—even though it's difficult to do—then the point is the tax base dries up, which then forces you to become even more predatory for the people who stayed.
And that's really the thing, right? They're setting themselves up so that they have to go after more and more people, because the people who are starting new businesses are not going to do it here."
Bret and Heather discuss new cats, fat bears, and overwhelmed frogs. The tilcayo, a newly named species of cat from Bolivia, is part of a group of New World “tiger cats” that live on the outskirts of the Amazon basin. We discuss Carnivoran relationships, cats more specifically, and what is known about the history and ecology of the tilcayo in particular.
Then: it’s fat bear week at Katmai National Park in Alaska, where grizzlies are fattening themselves on salmon for the Winter ahead; we discuss hibernation, reproductive diapause, and general chonkiness in bears.
Finally: female Cope’s gray treefrogs have a harder time choosing good mates when there’s a lot of noise, and when there are too many suitors—kind of like how women often make bad choices when confronted with chaos and wingmen.
Rumble: ...
Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying will go live for Episode 344 of The Evolutionary Lens to discuss new cats, fat bears, and overwhelmed frogs.
Streaming on X, Youtube, and Rumble. Join the Watch Party here on Locals for the only place to chat while they're live at 11:30am PT.
"And so we fall again.
Summer’s exuberance gives way to decay, a slowing down, the falling of the leaves. Winter’s slumber will, in turn, cede to the springing of the leaves anew. A cycle, a circuit, a loop. We return, over and over, to the same literal place in our solar system. But we are never quite the same again."
