Oh my God, what is that?
This is a black-throated monitor lizard.
Okay, where do you want me for this?
Can I be in a cage of some kind?
No, you don't have to be in a cage.
Now, this guy's name is Darth Vader,
and he's pretty aptly named because when he gets upset
he starts to hiss and moan just like Darth Vader would.
Darth Vader doesn't moan. (audience laughing)
He doesn't hiss or moan. Yeah, he does.
Oh, Luke! Listen, if you saw--
(Conan moaning)
If you saw "Revenge of the Sith" he moans at the end.
He doesn't really moan. (audience applauding)
So anyway, this guys lives in Africa.
Can I put my hand out or is that the dumbest thing to do?
You know what, you can pet him on the back here,
but you probably want to keep your hand away from his mouth.
I'm going up over your head.
There you go, you can do that.
I'm using your skull as protection.
You're tall enough, so...
Okay, so this, yes.
So anyways, this is a large carnivorous lizard.
Oh, look at him, he's looking around like, that felt good.
He probably smells the cavy,
which is an animal about the size that he would eat.
These guys like to eat small mammals just like that rodent.
Is there anything I can feed
this monitor lizard right now?
You know, actually nope. Oh.
We're not gonna feed him
because if you get him stimulated--
If you feed him he's happy and doesn't attack.
He might try to eat me. Yeah, all right.
But yeah, check out those huge claws,
the tongue sticking out.
People think you get stung by that,
but it's actually how they smell.
It's just like a snake.
They collect scent particles and bring them back
into their mouth and that's how they kind of figure out
what's going on in their environment.
So this, not a good candidate
for making chums with another species.
He'll just kill anything, he's a creep, yeah.
Exactly, exactly, well, you know, predators, you know,
they get a bad rap because they eat other animals,
but they're really important.
You know, conservation-wise we want to protect them.
But yeah, if we brought out one of the little furry guys
with this lizard, wouldn't last very long.
Right, okay. Yeah.
Sounds like a good segment to me.
Yeah. (audience laughing)
We're about protecting the wildlife.
Yeah, I think you're not understanding
how television works.
If we put these next two species together,
they'd fight to death, but let's not see that.
All right, so our last species here
is really, really cool.
It's actually the first time that I've worked
with this particular species.
It's called an African southern ground hornbill.
And he's taking his time coming in.
[Conan] Doesn't seem to want to come in.
(Andy and audience laughing)
Did he run the other way? He just, I love that.
He took one peek and he was like, I think not.
(audience laughing)
Come on, it's a fun show.
Don't go by what you've read. (audience laughing)
What is this, tell me, this is a fascinating looking bird.
Okay, yeah, it's a bird, right.
It's called a southern ground hornbill, okay.
When you look at an animal like this
you can really see how birds are descended from dinosaurs.
Let's see if we can get him over here now.
Now Conan, I'm gonna give you,
do you want a piece of fruit or a chunk of dead mouse?
(audience groans) I would say neither.
Okay. (audience laughing)
[Conan] I'll have neither one.
Is it really, you just put a mouse in a blender?
Well, you know, you buy them frozen
and it's for carnivorous animals.
Look at that. Anyway, these guys
are carnivores, they're actually omnivores,
but they're out hunting in the African savanna.
And they're looking, check out those eyes.
They're really huge eyes with really long eyelashes.
Boink. Yeah, that didn't work.
Huge eyes that didn't see the huge clump of dead mouse
coming his way. (audience laughing)
And then what is that thing on the front of its throat?
[Trainer] So that helps them vocalize.
They're social birds, you can hear him making all sorts
of little squeaks and--
Yeah, he sounds just like Darth Vader.
(audience laughing)
(Conan mimics bird) Come on, we're friends.
[Trainer] Yeah, I walked in to that one.
So check out the bill here.
Southern hornbill is the name of the species.
That bill is strong enough that it could actually
crack through the shell of a tortoise.
Really? They have a fused vertebrate
in their neck and they can pound you,
which is why we're not getting any closer to him
because he's-- He's pretty close.
Well, you know, if you tried to pick him up right now.
Yeah. He could actually,
like, break a bone in your hand if he nailed you with that.
Well, I have very weak bones so that's not saying a lot.
I really do, I'm just terribly weak bones.
A little chunk of dead mouse.
I can't get over the chunks of dead mouse.
That's freaking me out right now.
Well, you know what?
When you take care of these animals in captivity
you gotta feed 'em what is healthy for them,
and in this case that's what they eat.
They eat other small animals.
[Conan] Well, I've noticed
you never come on the show with a mouse, so...