Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. Let's say something has gone horribly
Speaker 1: wrong and you're in a physical fight with another human person.
Speaker 1: If that person punched you in the face, would it
Speaker 1: make you back off? Some might say that getting punched
Speaker 1: in the nose hurts like unreasonably so, and that they
Speaker 1: would disengage. Others might argue that it would merely incite
Speaker 1: their ire. After the initial shock, adrenaline would kick in
Speaker 1: and then make even quicker work of their opponent. When
Speaker 1: it comes to animal attacks, the answer to whether a
Speaker 1: punch to the nose would stop an attack pretty much
Speaker 1: lies with what kind of animal you're considering punching. And
Speaker 1: let's just make it clear right now that you should
Speaker 1: do all you can to avoid provoking an animal attack,
Speaker 1: and that if you're not being attacked, punching any kind
Speaker 1: of animals means for admittance into the special hell. But
Speaker 1: that aside, let's talk about a few different animals that
Speaker 1: have a reputation for needing a good stick in the
Speaker 1: nose and whether that would actually help save your skin.
Speaker 1: The shark is the animal perhaps most commonly singled out
Speaker 1: for a defensive sucker punch. The rumor is that a good,
Speaker 1: hard punch to the snout is going to send a
Speaker 1: shark reeling. There are a couple of problems with this, though.
Speaker 1: One is that it's super hard to punch anything underwater,
Speaker 1: making a good dump on the nose pretty unrealistic. Another issue,
Speaker 1: while shark noses are sensitive, their gills and eyes are
Speaker 1: much more vulnerable. Punching one in the nose probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: do enough damage to stun it, and you've got the
Speaker 1: added problem of needing to get a little too close
Speaker 1: for comfort to its enormous gaping jaws. So perhaps a
Speaker 1: no on punching sharks. Unless it's actively and aggressively up
Speaker 1: in your face. Your best bet would generally be to
Speaker 1: swim away as quickly and quietly as possible, and keep
Speaker 1: in mind that we're not sharks preferred snacks. They usually
Speaker 1: approach humans out of curiosity rather than predation. Another suggested
Speaker 1: attacker for which a punch in the nose might work bears.
Speaker 1: In many cases, it's best to play dead around a bear.
Speaker 1: If they're just curious, or if a mother is defending
Speaker 1: her cubs. Playing dead means they'll likely lose interest in
Speaker 1: you and amble on. But it's also certainly appropriate to
Speaker 1: try to fight off an aggressive bear. And while it's
Speaker 1: not a sure thing, punching or hitting a bear is
Speaker 1: certainly going to help you fight it off, So go
Speaker 1: ahead and clock it in the nose if it's absolutely necessary.
Speaker 1: Of course, the animal that's really going to be useful
Speaker 1: to punch is one that has a wildly sensitive snout.
Speaker 1: So we present to you the animal that it would
Speaker 1: be most useful to wallop in the nose if it
Speaker 1: were attacking you, the star nosed mole. With one thousand
Speaker 1: sensory neurons and its snout it's extremely sensitive to touch. However,
Speaker 1: you'll almost certainly never need to defend yourself from one.
Speaker 1: Although they look like creatures out of a Giermuo del
Speaker 1: Toro film, the star nosed mole is the size of
Speaker 1: a mouse and way more interested in eating worms than
Speaker 1: in bothering you. Today's episode written by Kate Kirshner and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler. Playing brain Stuff is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this
Speaker 1: and lots of other sensitive topics, visit our home planet
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