WEBVTT - Do Bald Eagles Really Steal Babies?! (And other Eagle Questions... Answered!) 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:12.320 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:13.280 What's that mango? 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.800 So there are all sorts of weird things I didn't 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.040 know about bald eagles before this week. Apparently our national 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:20.759 bird can swim. Did you know this? 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:22.439 I did not know this. 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:25.640 Yeah. I found this video on YouTube where the bird 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.680 just lands in the water and then kind of does 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.760 like a butterfly stroke. It's amazing to watch, and apparently 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.960 they can swim for pretty long distances. Also, I didn't 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.720 realize that bald eagles have a third eyelid. It's like 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.959 a clear membrane that almost acts like safety goggles, so 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.440 it can see underwater when it's catching fish or when 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.200 flying through debris. But the weirdest thing I learned about 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.280 the bald eagle is that when it squawks, it kind 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.479 of actually let me just play this club. 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.120 Wait, so that's what an eagle sounds like? 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.200 Yeah, that is the sound of an eagle roaring. 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.800 I don't know mega that sounds more like a seagull 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:06.120 if you ask me, I know. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.800 I was so stunned. So I looked into it a 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.200 little more. And here's a quote from a site I 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.560 like called bird Note. Watch Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Report, 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.000 and you'll see a bald eagle streak across the screen, screaming, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:24.600 talents outstretched, ferocious, majestic. But in the spirit of truthiness, 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.720 we must declare that the bird you hear is not 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.160 a bald eagle, but a red tailed hawk. 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:30.399 So nice. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.440 Apparently, editors since the early days of Hollywood decided to 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.080 switch out the eagles cry because it was a little 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:40.360 too pip squeaky and the sound wasn't medacing or patriotic enough, 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.679 so they regularly switch it out for the red tailed hawk. 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:44.600 Isn't that nuts? 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.280 That's wild? But actually, now that you say that, I 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.760 feel like I remember it and I will never forget 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.160 that whole intro to that show as many years as 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.800 it's been since it's been on. It was so good. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.720 Well, that is just the first of a whole bunch 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.520 of eagle facts we've got today, So let's dive in. 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:24.079 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.440 Will Pearson and as always I've got my good friend 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.960 Mango here and sitting on the other side of that 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.640 big booth, that's Dylan now I'm trying to figure out 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:33.959 what he's doing back there. He appears to be lining 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.400 up a bunch of Are those two pays? Mango? 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.320 So apparently when Dylan heard we were doing an episode 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.160 on bald eagles, he realized what a coincidence it is, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.000 because he's actually got an Etsy shop that sells two 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:46.440 pays for bald eagles. 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:48.720 Wow, that is so cool. 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.240 And I guess he told me the hair pieces boost 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.040 that bird's confidence, So he's got to do the Lord's 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:55.440 work here. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.120 He's so enterprising that Dylan. Now, obviously this week is 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.040 July the fourth, and it feels fitting that, of course 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.240 we're doing this show on bald eagles. 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:06.639 So I'm curious, have you ever seen bald eagles in 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:07.040 the wild. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.079 Well, as you know, Mango, I have relatives that live 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.680 in rural Virginia, just about an hour or so south 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:15.760 of Charlotte's Full there, and it's one of my favorite 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.120 places to go in the country and just be out 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.520 in the middle of nowhere. And we would sit at 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.040 my aunt Barbara's house, and we would always look across 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.400 this farm out over into these mountains, and they would 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.480 always point out these couple of eagles nests there, these 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.480 bald eagle nests, and I always loved watching them, so yes, 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:35.120 I have actually, so how about you? 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.720 That is really cool. I you know, when Lizzie and 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.240 I were first dating, we went to the Pacific Northwest 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.119 and we drove up from Portland to the San Juan 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.000 Islands and this guy at this inn we stayed that 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.240 would gin up this bald eagle show at night for you, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.200 And it was just spectacular. I was really charmed by 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.000 like the wildlife and landscape and just the birds I 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:55.240 thought were so beautiful. 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.320 Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And obviously the eagle is one 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.760 of our national symbols as a mayor Americans. But one 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.800 of the things we should address right at the top 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.040 of this episode is the one person who had zero 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.280 respect for the bald eagle, and interestingly, that's our founding father, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:11.640 Benjamin Franklin. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.360 Yeah, there's the whole thing, how he wanted a turkey 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:15.440 as a national bird, right. 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.000 Well, you know, it's an interesting story because I've heard 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.239 that fact a lot, so I decided to look into 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.680 this a little bit more. And it's definitely true that 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.599 Franklin didn't have much respect for the bald eagle. And 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.240 I've read a few different accounts of this, but this 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.479 is from Ken Zersky's unremembered blog, and in it he 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.919 talks about how back in seventeen seventy five, as the 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.680 founding fathers were trying to figure out what symbol had 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.599 the quote temper and Conduct of America, which is a 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.200 big task to try to figure this out, Ben Franklin 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.880 was dismissive of the eagle. In this letter he wrote 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.600 to his daughter, he says the bald eagle is a 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.400 bird of bad moral character. He does not get his 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.279 living honestly, referring to how the bird is a scavenger 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.480 and also how it sometimes steals food from other birds midair. 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:00.760 So I guess I kind of see the first. Yeah, 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.680 but that takes a lot of skill. He's like a 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.440 you know, a skilled thief. Yeah, I guess that's true. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.039 But I don't know if we wanted a skilled thief, 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.679 as you know, as our national symbol. And Franklin considered 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.800 the eagle and his words quote a rank coward like, 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:17.599 I don't know if you noticed by these words he 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.240 is not a fan of the eagle. So instead he 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.680 suggested an animal that quote never begins an attack, nor 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.520 once engaged ever surrenders. She is therefore an emblem of 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.560 magnanimity and true courage. So that's what we're looking for. 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.120 It's a lot of pressure. And I'm certain you won't 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.080 guess what animal he wanted to be America's national symbol. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.400 It's actually the rattlesnake. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.840 That is so crazy. He thought the bald eagle had 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.159 no character, but he wanted a snake to represent the US. 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:50.680 Isn't that weird? And it kind of makes me think 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.880 of the whole like, don't treat on me flag, I guess. 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.600 Yeah. So, so where'd the whole Turkey thing come from? 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:57.559 Well, this is from a mix of the Wall Street 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.360 Journal and the Unremembered site that I mentioned before. But 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.400 the Turkey story comes from Ben Franklin being irritated by 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.080 this Society of the Cincinnati which this was the organization 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:12.680 or fraternity that honored revolutionary War heroes and officers, and 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.359 so the club seal had an eagle on it, and 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.600 Franklin was apparently annoyed that he hadn't been offered membership, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.360 so he wrote a little diatribe about the bald eagle, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.800 which he thought looked like a Turkey and the seal's drawing, 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.279 and then he joked that even though the turkey is 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.320 quote vain and silly, it will be a better and 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.480 more respectable mascot for America. But the most interesting part 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.440 is that this is from a letter to his daughter 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.800 that he never actually sent but kept for his archives. 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.560 So likely he thought the lines were funny enough to 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.239 be preserved, and I guess they have been over the years. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.960 Well, speaking of historic figures, we should definitely talk about 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:54.560 America's best known bird watcher, John J. Audubon, who, like Franklin, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:56.960 had total contempt for the bald eagle. 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.560 Really I knew so I'd known this about Franklin, but 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.599 but did not know this about Ottoman. Why did he 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:03.440 not like eagles? 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.799 So it's kind of for the same reason Franklin didn't. 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.560 This comes from the historian Jack Davis's book The Bald 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.280 Eagle Improbable Journey of America's Bird, which is terrific, But 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.600 apparently Audubon once wrote, suffered me kind reader to say 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.840 how much I grieved that the bald eagles should have 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.520 been selected as the emblem of my country. Audubon saw 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:26.520 the creatures as cowards and tyrants. And he actually enjoyed 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.640 shooting and killing the birds with his fowling gun. 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.080 Wow, so he actually did enjoy killing them. 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:32.480 Yeah. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.160 In fact, the Atlantic is even blunter about it. They 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.680 wrote Audubon wrote loathingly of eagles and did not miss 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:42.640 an opportunity to murder them. But also Audubon didn't actually 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.640 stop there. After shooting the eagles, often around their nests, 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.120 he would then take the baby eaglitz and eat them. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.640 He called baby bald eagles good eating and wrote the 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:57.000 flesh resembles veal in taste and tenderness veal. I mean, 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:02.119 that's from America's most famous birdwatcher and bird taster, John 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:02.920 Jay Ottobon. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.400 I mean, it's not entirely surprising that Ottobon shot the birds. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.760 I do remember, for mental flaws that he shot most 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.120 of the birds that he drew because he had them 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.000 tax at ermie and mounted on branches before he would 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.320 illustrate them. That would allow him to draw them more accurately. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.480 I guess, yeah. I mean, I don't know that he 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.240 ate all those other birds that he shot. But what's interesting, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.760 and this is another fact I didn't know. But in 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.920 his book, Davis points out that while Americans worshiped the 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.280 bald eagle as this national icon, they didn't really respect 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.600 the creature in the real world. So early settlers killed 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.720 the birds to feed their hogs. Also, eagles competed with 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.760 hunters for small game. They were a nuisance to livestock, 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.920 so until the middle of the twentieth century when they 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.040 started going extinct, they were really treated like pests, not 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.640 unlike rats, foxes, or wolves, and Americans used to kill 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.080 them as such. In fact, Davis found that there used 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.240 to be cash bounties for eagle talons. I guess people 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:59.880 thought the claws were valuable. But when he looked at 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.000 newspaper databases for bald eagle shootings between eighteen fifty and 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.600 nineteen twenty, he got over one hundred and eighty thousand 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.160 instances of killed birds. Oh wow, Actually this makes me 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.680 rethink Dylan's two pay thing, Like, maybe they're not so 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.000 much about making these bald eagles more confident, but maybe 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:18.640 about disguising them as. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.199 Other birds protection. 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.679 Yeah, we should look into this a little bit more. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.640 There may be more to it, but I do want 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.559 to talk about the conservation efforts and how bald eagles 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.600 got to be protected. But before that, let's hit just 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.240 one more point about how the bald eagle became our 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.000 national mascot. So eagles, as Davis pointed out in his book, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.200 have this rich history of being seen as majestic birds. 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.360 You think way back to mythology. Zeus had one as 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.840 a companion. Eagles served as a messenger to Jupiter, and 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.800 were used as an emblem of the Roman legion. You've 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:56.079 got Charlemagne, Napoleon, Saladin all used eagles and coats of arms, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:58.920 and as Davis points out, the Founding Fathers were no 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.440 strangers to lift ideas from the Greeks and Romans and 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.679 other civilizations. But the question is why did they go 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.160 with the bald eagle, Because the Founding Fathers could have 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.920 gone with the golden eagle. Unlike the bald eagle, the 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.760 golden eagle isn't a thief. It catches its own prey. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:19.240 It's super strong, it's powerful enough to attack larger animals 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:24.160 like deer or antelope on rare occasions. But it's precisely 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.520 because the golden eagle exists in other countries and continents 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.080 and had already been used as a symbol of so 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.400 many other armies. And emperors. They decided they wanted a 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.679 variation that was truly American, and that's where we came 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:37.640 up with the bald eagle. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:39.920 Oh, I guess I hadn't thought of that. The bald 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.440 eagle does feel uniquely American, even if it's a bit 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:44.480 of a scoundrel. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:45.360 But right. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.360 One thing I found interesting is that there's at least 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.600 one real live bald eagle who got some respect before 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.199 they became a protected species, and that's a bird named 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:59.760 old Abe so Abe, I guess was adopted by Ajibwa 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.880 Indian chief in the eighteen hundreds. This is after the 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.120 tribe had cut down a tree and the eagle had 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.560 been roosting in it, so the chief took it in 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.680 and then traded the bird to a Wisconsin tavern owner. 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.319 And when the Civil War started, a company of Union 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.040 soldiers adopted him as their mascot and they trained him, 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.000 which I didn't actually realize you could do. But among 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.480 Abe's tricks, he could sign autographs, he could dance to 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:25.720 a fiddle, he could shake hands with the talon, and 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.200 also kill a chicken on command. So very useful. 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:31.760 God, as you wonder how many times they put him 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:32.760 up to that trick. 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.120 They're shaking hands. I'm sure he did all the time, right. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.760 He also went into battle with the company, and apparently 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.319 the Confederate soldiers saw Abe as a prize, so according 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.560 to the Atlantic, they vowed to take the eagle dead 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.960 or alive. He was even shot twice in battle but survived, 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.080 and even General Grant and General Sherman respected Abe so 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.720 much that they would tip their hats to him when 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:54.839 they saw him. 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.760 Wow, I like that. Finally a bald eagle getting some 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.400 real respect. Here. Here's a myth I think we need 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.600 to dispel. It's that bald eagles are baby snatchers, because 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.280 this could not be further from the truth. So people 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.360 think bald eagles go after babies. Yeah, Actually the baby 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.439 snatching thing is part of why people shot bald eagles. 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:19.080 Apparently this is from the Wall Street Journal. Americans believed 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:23.760 birds would regularly steal lambs, pigs, and calves, and there 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.960 were stories about them swooping down to steal babies for snacks, 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:28.960 which is a little bit bit weird, you know, snack 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.760 on a baby, And it was already something that people 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.280 gossiped about, but the myth got further perpetuated by this 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.760 early silent movie from nineteen oh eight called Rescued from 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.160 an Eagle's Nest. I had never heard of this before, 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:44.400 and it has this incredible image of an eagle taking 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.200 off with a baby twice its size, and then the 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.880 parents basically hunting the bird and getting their baby back. Actually, 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.320 here I'll show you this still from the movie. Isn't 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:56.360 this crazy? This is not It's amazing. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.720 It's so funny how fake it looks now, But like 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.880 obviously it com people at the time. That baby is huge. 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.640 It's a gigantic baby. It steals giant babies, not just babies. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.120 But it was look I guess good eating here. But 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.680 here's the thing is Davis points out in his book 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.719 bald eagles max out at about fourteen pounds and they 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.640 can't really lift more than five pound weights, which is interesting. 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:20.480 I would have thought they could have lifted much more. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.560 I get them in the gym, yes, exactly, so maybe 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.200 they can take off with like a tiny cat or 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.959 something like that. But they are not stealing babies or 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.040 lambs or calves. Their diet is fish and for good reason, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.000 and that's part of the reason they scavenge. They're these 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.000 big beautiful creatures, but they aren't going to fly off 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.079 with your toddler, So you can check that concern off 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:41.439 the list. 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.679 Well, I know we've got plenty more facts, but before 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.800 we get to that, let's take a quick break. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.000 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're discussing all 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.959 things bald eagle. So, Mango, where do you want to 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:07.400 go next? 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.520 Well, before we get into more real facts about bald eagles, 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.000 one thing I was thinking about was you know that 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.320 character Sam the Eagle from the Muppets. Of course, yeah, 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.760 so this is a total aside, but when we introduced 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:20.840 Henry to the Muppets when he was a kid, he 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.720 was completely obsessed, like totally obsessed with Sam the Eagle 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.440 of all the characters. And then he'd be like, that 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:28.480 guy is the best. 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.880 He's so funny, and we were like that, are you 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.320 sure that's the one you're choosing, And obviously, like kids 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.400 love like Chaos Muppets, right, like Gonzo Deeker and Swedish Chef. 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.720 But like you'd be like, Nope, that's the funny one. 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.160 I like that one. 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.280 And of course, you know, when you grew up, Henry 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.840 thinks all rules are ridiculous and laughable, So I guess 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.880 it kind of makes sense. But I was looking up 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.760 Sam the Eagle just because I loved be fun and 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.680 he's a character that Frank Oz played, But I found 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:00.760 some funny bits about his lord or when is that? 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.720 In a serious XM interview he did. Sam admitted that 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.040 he has two kids in college, but to his disgust, 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.200 both have been total disappointments. His son measured in taxidermy 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:15.240 and his daughter is dating an owl, so I thought 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:16.040 that was silly. 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:17.200 But that's pretty great. 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.200 But I also hadn't picked up on this, like he's 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.160 so serious and official that I didn't realize they'd written 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.840 the character as kind of a buffoon. And I read 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.160 that in an early episode of The Muppet Show that 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.720 great ballet dancer Nuria Rudolph Nuriev was on and Sam 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.920 praises him as his favorite opera singer, and when Doria 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:37.680 corrects him and tells him he's a dancer of Sam 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:43.240 kind of shrugs and says, culture is culture. I love that. 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.400 I feel like I feel like every time I say 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.520 something stupid about art, now I'm just gonna be like, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.080 culture is culture, man. 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.560 Culture's culture. Yeah, that's that's the way it is, all right? 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.360 So what fact are you going to end on here, Mango? 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.200 Well, I kind of want to give bald eagles a 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.200 bit of their due, you know, And there are so 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:03.200 many wonderful facts about bald eagles. They build giant nests. 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.320 According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, they can build nests 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.600 that are eight feet wide, twelve feet high and weigh 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.240 more than two tons, which is massive. Bald eagles can 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.800 fly up to ninety nine miles per hour, and their 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.720 eyesight is obviously remarkable. They can spot a rabbit from 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.880 about three miles away. But the thing I like most 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.200 about bald eagles is that they are total love birds. 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.680 They are monogamous and mate for life, and according to 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.880 the Ottoman Society quote, their spectacular courtship rituals are a 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.480 site to see, with the birds locking talons, then flipping, 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.200 spinning and twirling through the air in a maneuver called 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.600 the cartwheel display. They break apart seemingly at the last 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.360 moment just before hitting the ground, which you know, somehow 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.880 makes it seem like they're truly madly in love. 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.600 Oh wow, I guess that's one thing Ben Franklin cannot 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:53.240 fault them. 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.760 For being in love. So what's your last fact. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.560 Well, I mentioned I wanted to talk a little bit 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.440 about how we brought the bald eagle population from the 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.080 brink of extinction. So this is actually straight from a 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.960 house stuff Works article. But back in seventeen eighty two, 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.560 when the bald eagle was put on the National Seal, 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.320 there were about one hundred thousand nesting pairs living in 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.920 the United States and northern Mexico. But by nineteen sixty 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.600 three there were only about four hundred and seventeen nesting pairs. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.160 Wow or forty eight states. Yeah, so huge decline there. 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.760 And the truth is that this is after some of 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.960 the conservation efforts had already begun, so they were definitely 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.000 very much at risk. And the Bald Eagle Protection Act 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.800 was passed in nineteen forty. It really played into people's patriotism, 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.480 making it a crime to kill or sell eagles. Then, 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.760 when the pesticide DDT was used in the nineteen forties 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.080 to the sixties, that also affected the eagles because it 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.120 seeped into the water, it affected the fish, and when 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.200 the eagles ate the fish, it created these thinner eggshells. 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.359 So basically the one to three eaglets that a couple 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.800 hatches every year. They were no longer getting born because 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.919 the eggs would crack, and DDT gets banned, and the 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:05.520 government both protected more of the eagle habitats and started 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.520 breeding the birds in captivity. Then they would release them 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.760 into the wild, and this really changed things for eagles, 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:14.359 and it's it's actually pretty amazing the recovery there. Today 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.560 there are about three hundred thousand bald eagles in the 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.520 US and about seventy thousand nesting pairs, so well on 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:22.119 their way to a great return. 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.280 That's pretty remarkable, both like the what they were at 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.919 to dip to like what like four hundred and fifteen 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.639 or something you said, and then like coming all the 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.240 way back up to three hundred thousand. 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.120 That's nuts. Yeah, it's definitely impressive. And in fact, even 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.080 though there hadn't been bald eagles in New York City 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.280 for almost a century, there are actually four bald eagles 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.680 now in the city and they've hatched nearly a dozen eaglets. 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.000 Oh, that's incredible. I hadn't even heard about that. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.480 Yeah. Apparently the first pair, who were named Veto and Linda, 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.920 built a nest in Staten Island in twenty fifteen. Veto 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.840 and Linda love the names, and since then they have 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:57.160 grown their family. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.159 That is so fun, but you know, it just causes 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.920 one problem. What do you want to do about today's trophy? 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.680 Because I had some great facts, you had some great facts. 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:10.200 Veto and Linda were in the mix. What do you think? 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:12.760 You know? I kind of want to throw a curveball here. 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.359 It's our July fourth episode, and I feel like we 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.240 should award the trophy to a true American, you know, 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.040 an entrepreneur who single handedly is trying to make bald 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.600 eagles feel better by putting them in two pays. So 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.760 I'm going to vote to give this week's award to Dylan. 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:28.280 What do you think? 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.600 I am for it, but only this once. 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.199 That's right, That's right. Well, congratulations Dylan. That's it for 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.199 this week's episode. Thanks so much for listening. If you 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.440 like Part Time Genius, don't forget to rate the show, 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.800 write his review, tell a friend, or if you really 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.479 want to get to us, write our mom's a note 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.720 at Ptgenius Moms at gmail dot com. 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.240 Oh, and we actually have a giveaway. We're gonna pick 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.920 ten random fans from everyone who writes in this week 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.680 and next, and I'm gonna send you a special gift 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.359 to show our appreciation. So let us know what you 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.720 think about the show, what topics want us to cover, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.600