WEBVTT - Amazing Animal Stories! 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.560 Welcome to Stuff You should know, a production of five 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:12.480 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.720 I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w. Chub Bryan over there, 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:24.880 there's Jerry and uh. The stuff's right. Amazing animal that's right. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:30.200 That well partially delight you, and if you're an animal 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:35.040 over should partially horrify you at times. If you don't 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:40.320 like animals, and you're probably gonna listen, I don't know, 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:44.320 you could be like, yeah, you probably wouldn't listen Amazing 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:52.080 Animal stories skip, but who would do that? One star? Yeah, 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.280 So we're talking animals today, and like we said, not 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.920 just animals, amazing animals because animals are great to talk about. 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:05.399 We've talked about um octopie and duck billed platypie and elephant. 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.360 I that we did the platypus I believe we have okay, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.080 almost positive, If not, it's do this is so the 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.240 animals are funny to talk about. It's even more fun 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:21.480 to talk about animals that are accomplished. That's right. Okay. 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:23.800 You know I was at the playground the other day 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.399 and my daughter was playing with another little girl, which 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:28.720 is kind of one of the fun things about kids. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.399 They just immediately bond with another kid and the girl 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:35.600 turned out to be a bar cup. I wish no. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.920 This girl smashed a ladybug and said yeah, and the 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.240 parents went around. I was there and I was horrified, 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:48.000 and my daughter said, that wasn't nice. You shouldn't kill animals. 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.840 Good for you. And then this girl stomped an anthill 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.160 girl's kind of issues. Yeah, and I and you know what, 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.840 she found another ladybug and I said, don't touch that ladybug. 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.280 She said why not? I said, because you the last one? Yeah, 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.800 And I like felt fine, like admonishing this child that 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.080 was not mine. Did you wait until she turned around 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.320 and clapped by her ear to really startled her or 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.800 drive it home? No, but she did trip later on, 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.280 and under my breath I went, Karma, really, Yeah, she 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.079 was fine, And then above your breath you went, that's 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.239 right above my breath. Yeah. By the way, With Mike 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.040 the headless Chicken, which we're gonna start out with, I 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.760 couldn't remember how this existed in the annals of stuff. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.760 You should know, because I knew it did, and I 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:31.639 thought it might have been one of our dumb videos. 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.480 But it turns out it was one of our great videos. 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:36.880 Which one it was? You did it? Dumb? Don't be 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.680 dumb on this. But surely we've talked about Mike before. 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:42.560 I thought we might have, but don't be dumb. Was 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.600 only it came up and it was great, weird. Oh, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.720 thank you very much. We've done some cool videos together. Though. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.639 Remember this day in history where like we yeered off 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.440 into like conjuring Satan for a little while, and like 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.440 we ended up in a different dimension. And I thought 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:02.000 those were great. So silly anyway, Um, okay, So, like 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.440 you said, we're talking about Mike the Headless Chicken. First, 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:10.000 that's right, which September n If you were in Colorado 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:14.680 and you happen to live near the Olsens, Lloyd and 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:19.320 Clara and Freud to Colorado, Yeah, Fruda, do you know 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.959 where that is? It's by Grand Junction, which I think 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.200 is you know where that is? I feel like I've 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.040 been West Colorado, like on the way to like all 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:33.560 those amazing national parks. Colorado is very varied. You think 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.440 of Colorado is just being this amazing mountain estate, which 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.240 it is in parts, but they're also like planes and 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.160 all sorts of stuff. That's where there's an ocean right 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.960 in the middle of it. Right, that's where Canyon National 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.760 Park or Canyon Land and Candy Land. That's where the 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:52.800 guy cut off his own arm in a d twenty 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:57.040 seven hours. James Franco. Sure. Yeah, So the Olsens were 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.240 farmers and they were killing birds. Lloyd would cut the 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.160 heads off of these chickens and his wife would clean 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:07.520 them up, because, after all, it was that's kind of 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.760 how the division of labor went back then. And he 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.880 would go in and sell these chickens at the market, 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.960 and they he went to gather up all the chickens, 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.440 and he got to one with no head that was 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.920 still alive, and he went, what into our nation. That's right, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.880 that's a direct you should be dead. I saw that 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:31.200 for this one in particular, he he aimed to preserve 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.880 the neck as much as possible, so he just took 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.880 off the head. Right. He did a good job, I guess, 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.120 because I think his mother in law was coming over 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.960 for dinner and she liked fried chicken necks, so he 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.600 was trying to give her a fried chicken neck, just 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.120 taking the head off. The thing is this one was 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.680 still alive, and that's still live in the way that 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.120 a chicken will run around with its head cut off, 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.080 like everybody knows. Yeah, he was just being a chicken. Yeah, 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.400 so he did that. He ran around like a chicken 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.720 with his head cut off. But then he's stopped and 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.919 he started like pecking at the ground with his stump. 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:08.680 He started preening himself, basically acting like he still had 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.360 a head and like he wasn't planning on dying anytime soon. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.800 That's right. So Lloyd said, let me put you in 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:20.039 this about this apple box overnight and just I assume 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.440 we'll get up in the morning and you'll be dead. 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:26.279 Then God will take his vengeance over the night I 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.240 want any more like you consider it a coffin, basically, right, 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.080 And he woke up in the morning and this chicken 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:38.360 was still alive, a rooster technically, So he said, what's 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.800 for breakfast? So he took this thing to that meat 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.360 market just to show everyone, like, you gotta see, this 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.719 is what anyone would have done, I think. And then 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.120 the word starts to spread. Everyone was amazed at this 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.479 headless chicken. Word starts to spread around fruit to Why 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.560 do I have a bad feeling we're pronouncing that wrong? 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:01.120 Is there any other way. You could pronounce that fru wide. Yeah, 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.839 that could be. I mean in Georgia they called Cairo 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:08.880 ki row, that's true, and Voyanna for Vienna. That's right. So, uh, 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.960 did you just wolf? So he takes this rooster. Everyone 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.279 is quite impressed, of course, uh, this headless chicken, and 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.400 words spread around about what was going on there, and 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.920 that eventually attracts the attention, of course to a side 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.760 show promoter who said, this chicken is dynamite. I don't 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.360 think you know what you have on your hands here. 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.200 Yeah you you rube, you hay seed. Yeah, I mean, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.960 let's go into business together, is what he said. Totally 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.880 So um. This guy, his name was Hope Wade. I 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.680 kept waiting for him to turn into like a an underhanded, 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.760 devious kind of guy because he was the nineteen forties 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.080 side show promoter. He seemed to have been fine past 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.040 all the great tests, exploiting all the right to humans 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.240 and animals. He he was just in it for the 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.599 love of the game from what I could talk. So 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.839 he gets together, Hope Wade, the circus uh sideshow promoter 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.440 gets together with Lloyd and Clara and they start touring 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.320 the country with Mike the chicken. But first, I don't 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.120 understand why they did this, Maybe just to make the 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.840 whole thing even more bona fide. I'm not sure. They 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.560 went to Salt Lake City, and we should note that 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:22.600 Hope Wade traveled from Salt Salt Lake City to through Wada. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.640 I think that's where we're gonna go with okay Um, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.640 which was like three miles in the forties, the nine 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.520 that's not an easy distance to travel back then. And 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.440 because he heard about a headless chicken. But think about 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.320 like what he was putting on the line with that. 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.280 Let's say it took him four days to get there. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.320 He could have been doing any number of things those 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.600 four days. The chicken could have died while he was 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.640 on the way there, and it didn't. And he made 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.560 it there, and he became a business partner with the Olsen's. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:55.840 He had a hunch and he went with his gut 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.520 and it paid off. So the first thing he did, sorry, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.120 was to take them back to sol City and introduced 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.280 him to some scientists there. That's right. So the scientists 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.680 did a lot of tests. Um they apparently we don't 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.600 know this for sure. I tried to do this surgically 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.480 to some other chickens just to see if it worked, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.720 I guess, and Mike was like, stop, stop, what are 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:20.000 you doing. Life Magazine showed up and ran a story 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:25.800 in nine called Beheaded Chicken Lives normally after freak decapitation 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.840 by acts. That wasn't freak decapitation. It was very purposeful. Yeah, 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.040 but I think they were saying, like it was freaking 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.000 that he survived having his head chopped off. Maybe it's 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:40.600 just said freaky decapitation. But that's when Mike got he huge, 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.400 that's right, of course, Life Magazine is huge. Yeah, it 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.760 was huge. I think Time eventually did one on him, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.440 and like it's really hard to overstate how big of 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.440 a deal. Mike the Headless Wonder Chicken, I think is 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.360 what they ultimately finally dubbed him. Became in the United 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.160 States like he was. People would come from far and 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.240 wide you go see him whenever he came to own. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.800 I mean, once it hit the internet, it was like wildfire. 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.719 Well that's what Life Magazine was basically back then. Yeah, 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.400 that's true. So they all went to California in Arizona 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.480 then Hope, you know, they had to go back to 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.480 the farm at some point. Lloyd and Clara did so 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.520 hope towards the Southeast, which I bet it was just 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.840 like Gangbusters in the Southeast. You know, I looked up 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.559 Um when he came to Atlantic because surely he came 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.600 to Atlanta, and I couldn't find anything about it. Oh 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:34.640 that's because he went to Terminus, right, it was pre Atlanta. Uh. 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.319 They started getting letters, they started getting fan mail and 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.600 hate mail. Yeah that some people compared them to Nazis, 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:46.480 which I don't get that at all. I think experimentation maybe, okay, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:52.960 kind of mangola esque, Mangela esque, I can bind ish 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.560 and asked together. That's a nice trend. Completely messed it up. 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.319 There's another way to put it. I think we should 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.240 start using that from now on. Yeah, why not? Okay, 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.080 I like it alright. Uh. They got a letter from 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:11.640 Alaska saying, um, can you swap out Mike's drumstick and 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:13.720 put in a wooden leg and just keep this party 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.920 going only in Alaska. Very funny people there, Um, and 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.520 they were so they became so well known, especially around Fruita. 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.280 I hope that's it, um, because if so were the 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:30.800 only outsiders that ever pronouncing correct, You're welcome, UM, thank 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:37.439 you no, not um so fruita. They became so well 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.199 known there that people would write letters to the owners 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.679 of the headless Chicken, and that was it on the 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.960 outside of the envelope and it would show up at 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.800 the Olsen's door in their mailbox. Yeah, the good old days. 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.319 So everything's going quite swimmingly for him. They made a 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.679 lot of money off of Mike. He actually lived for 0:10:55.920 --> 0:11:01.040 eighteen months without a head. Yeah, and like there's pictures 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.240 of him standing there, standing up without a head and 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.560 his little heads down by his feet. Yeah, you can 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.520 see the stuff. Yeah, it's on the internet. Go check 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.600 it out. It's on the Current Life magazine, the internet, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.599 the Worldwide Life. Yeah. I did some uh you know, 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.920 of course, the calculation, the inflation calculation. They were pulling 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:22.360 in in modern day money about sixty four thousand dollars 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.319 a month back then it was. And they said you 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.240 that Mike was valued and modern money at a hundred 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.520 and forty two dollars or tin tin grand back then. 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.959 So they upgraded their farm equipment. Yeah, they bought a 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.719 new pickup truck. That thing is sweet. Did you look 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.559 up forty six Chevy pick up? No, I'm pretty sure 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.400 I know what it looks like, man, they're nice. Um, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.120 And yeah, they made a lot. They went from like 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:54.240 being poor Colorado farmers too, pretty well off Colorado farmers. 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.560 They've been using like a mule in a wagon before 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.320 to go to town. Now they were driving in their 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.880 brand new Chevy pickup truck. So that like it was 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.480 really good for them that Mike managed to live after 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:11.480 they cut his head off. Um, but while he was alive, 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.920 they managed to study him and figure out exactly what happened. Yeah, 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.800 so it's to be fair, it's a little more accurate 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.319 to say Mike the faceless chicken, although when you look 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.600 at a picture, it looks like the head is completely gone. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:31.400 But what happened was he cut off the he he accident. 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.120 You know this is all by accident. Of course. Remember 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.640 he's trying to preserve as much of the neck as possible. Yeah, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:37.559 which he did because he left the back of the 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:42.000 head on there. And apparently these chickens, most of the 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.360 brain function in the brain itself is a little further back, 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.560 tucked back into the neck. Yeah, so he the brain lived. 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.640 That's why this chicken was able to walk around and 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.240 be a chicken. And he definitely took a slice off 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.800 of the brain. But I think this one guy in 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.640 this one BBC article by Crystal old Walker, um the 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.680 chicken that lived for eighteen months without a head, there's 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.680 really no wrong headline you can have when you're writing 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.080 about Mike the headless chicken. Um, he's he's. He basically says, 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.120 probably about eight of the brain was left over. You know, 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:19.839 everything they controlled, breathing, heartbeat, um, digestion, all that stuff. Um, 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.480 and so all they were left with was figuring out 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.760 how to keep Mike alive. He still needed food, even 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.840 though he didn't have a head or a face or anymore. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.040 He still needed food. So the Olstan's would actually feed 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.800 him with an eye dropper of milk and water combination. 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.760 They would give him little grounds of corn right into 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.280 the esophagus, right yep, right into the esophagus um. When 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.280 he got flammy, or if a little bit of corn 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.000 got backed up or stuck in there, they would use 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.880 a syringe to pull it out. And Mike lived this 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:49.920 way for eight teen months. He actually went from two 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.320 and a half pounds to eight pounds without a head. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.679 Mike thrived. The big question was, like, which I had 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.720 the whole time was why didn't this thing just bleed out, 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.160 because you know, it had his head cut off, and 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.839 the science thinks, you know, it just a quick blood 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.400 clot just kind of took care of it. Yeah, science 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:16.160 went God, Yeah, sure, So there's a kind of a 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.920 sad ending. Of course, Mike is eventually gonna die. You 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.560 would hope that Mike just died of old age. But 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.760 when they were in Arizona, they woke up to the 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:32.720 sound of chicken choking and Clara said, even Jerry is 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.400 that you and her husband was like, it's not me 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:43.280 this time, it's it's Mike. And sadly Mike was had 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:48.520 expired because they left the syringe behind that would clear 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:53.800 that esophagus. Yeah, the last side fatal, fatal mistake it was, 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.080 which is really sad for Mike. He choked to death 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:00.640 on a piece of corn. God, but they also watched 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:07.400 the their main source of incredible income, just choked to 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.400 death on a piece of corn because they left the 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.760 syringe back at the fairground. A crazy story. So so 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.240 in this BBC article, Troy Waters, who was the great 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:21.080 grandson of Lloyd and Clara Olsen Uh he said that 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.440 his great grandfather told him this whole story, and for years, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.480 basically for decades, would never fess up to Mike dying 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.480 on him. He said, he sold him off to a 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.760 sideshow promoter, and he finally fessed up before his death 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.120 that Mike had choked on a piece of corn and 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.359 that that was that. What an amazing story, an amazing 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.280 animal story. All right, Well, we're gonna take a break 0:15:42.360 --> 0:16:14.480 and come back with another right after this. Okay, we're back, everybody, 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.920 Amazing Animal Story number two. And this, uh, this one 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.440 is the one that is pretty horrifying in some ways 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.960 but also cute but also horrifying. I honestly don't know. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.160 It's horrifying. All right, well, i'll point it out when 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.360 we get to it. Oh, I know it's This is 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:35.560 the story of Voytech the Bear. And I believe you've 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.080 got a lot of this stuff from Time magazine and 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:44.160 Atlas Obscura and what else another Atlas Obscura. Okay, Wow, 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.600 they doubled up on this one. They did for good reason, 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.960 because it's a pretty amazing story. And there's two different 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.280 memorials you can visit. That's true. So Voytech the Bear. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.320 Voytech is a Polish name which is odd for a 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:05.880 serial brown bear found motherlessen Iran, Persia at the time, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.920 I don't think it was Iran then, yeah yeah, um yeah, 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.320 World Wars you changed a lot of geography and boundaries 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.440 and country names while you're telling me. So, um a 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.920 Polish name for Syrian brown bear is a little odd 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.560 until you know the background. But behind this whole thing. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:27.720 So before we get to the bear, we have to 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.879 talk a little bit about why there were Polish soldiers 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:36.879 in Persia in the nineteen forties. Well, because of the war, Okay, 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.920 So now we talk about the brown Bear. Yes, specifically 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.480 the twenty second Transport Company Artillery Division in the Polish 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:51.520 Second Core. UH. They were fighting UH in World War 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.879 two and an a on April eighth, they find this 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.240 little cub in the mountains of Iran. Well, there's a 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.760 boy who had found it, and they traded him for it. 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.240 What they trade They traded some coins, some chocolate, a 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.960 Swiss army knife, and a can of beef. They not bad, yeah, 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.120 you know, I mean it depends on how the beef 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.000 is prepared. You know. I bet it was some kind 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:16.960 of a jerky Okay, you know that travels well. So, 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:19.320 by the way, I finally gotten over my beef jerky 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:24.600 uh reticence, because I don't know. Years ago, when I 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.399 lived in Los Angeles, I ate moldy beef jerky one 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.680 night when I was up late. Well I didn't mean to, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:32.520 it was I came home from the bar afterwards and 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.240 I was just eating in the dark in front of 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.080 the TV, and I was like, this tastes funny. And 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:38.840 I turned on the light and it was just covered 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:42.639 in blue mold and I vomited. And I literally hadn't 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.560 haven't had beef jerky in like fifteen years. But I'm 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.800 back on it. Okay. It's good stuff and a good snack. 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.280 As it turns out, it is. I have some right 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:53.080 here if you want it. No, I'm good. I know 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.600 you're a jerky enthusiast. So April eight, they find this 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.200 bear traded with the boy and they were Polish prisoners 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.879 of war who were being moved from Siberia from a 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:08.200 prison there or a gulag to Egypt, and they got 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.640 this bear and basically we're like, this is our little 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.760 baby now. Yeah, And just one more thing. So this um, 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:18.040 this army, this Polish division of soldiers had been captured 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.920 by the Soviets and held as prisoners of war. But 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.800 after Germany turned on the Soviet Union the Um the 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.959 Soviets sided with the Allies, and part of that siding 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.640 was to release these Polish soldiers to form a military 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.199 unit known as Andrew's Army. Look at you, okay, all right? 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.600 And then now they have a brown bear in their position, 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.159 a little bear cub, that's right. And as you could imagine, 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.480 these soldiers, who had been away from their families and 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:48.120 their own children, adopted this little baby bear as their own. 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:52.080 And here's the part that's terrible. As he did certain 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.920 tricks like, uh, if they offered him a cigarette, he 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.880 would take a puff on it and then eat it. Right, 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.720 that's awful, Yeah, eat a lit cigarette. You should not 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.680 do that to an animal. Or let it drink beer 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.639 from a bottle. Well, that's pretty hilarious actually, so a 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:10.600 bear drinking a beer from a bottle. And this is 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:12.719 what one of the people who were there said, Um 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.520 that votech would drink the beer from the bottle and 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.080 it was empty. He would hold the bottle up and 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.640 look into the opening to see where the beer went. 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:26.080 Because he wanted more hysterical. I think it's hilarious. Other 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.200 things that would happen there is votech would drink a 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.960 lot of water because you were in in Egypt, of 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.480 course it was very hot. Um. He would chase after 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.760 these oranges that they used for grenade practice. He would 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.680 break into the shower so he could drink that water, 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.240 which was a problem because they were rationing water. Yeah, 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.000 because they were in Egypt. It's a little scarce outside 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:53.520 of the Nile, that's right. So um, he just basically became, uh, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.640 the mascot for this artillery unit, like just through and through. 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.199 They love this bear so much, and he loved them 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.400 right back. There was a uh, well just a real 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.520 mascot thing going on. Yeah. And even when it came 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.080 to battle there there are rules, um that say you 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:16.320 can't have a bear in war. It's pretty much you 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.440 can't have any pets unstated. And so they said, oh, yeah, 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.960 well we're gonna enlist this bear and give him an 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.800 official number and rank private voytech. I guess and voytech, 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:29.600 by the way, means joyful warrior. I don't think we 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.800 said that. And so this was now an official uh 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.240 soldier of sorts that allowed them to skirt the rules 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:39.920 of war. Yeah, he was a private in the Second Core. 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.720 I mean like that's and then okay, well then you 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:45.840 can come along. Yes see, I thought this was pretty 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.119 terrible too, bringing a bear along to the front lines. 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.600 Well so, most of the time when he was in 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.800 the front lines, um or anywhere with them, he his 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.480 main role, aside from mascotting, was they trained him just 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.119 kind of it in the cab of a truck, um 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.040 so to guard it, to protect it, keep anyone from stealing. 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:09.240 Works pretty well, I would get um. Well. During this 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:15.119 Battle of Monte Casino um in Italy, uh, he was 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:20.000 there on the front lines guarding trucks and supposedly started 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:24.679 carrying crates in artillery during this battle. There's no photo documentation, 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.199 if there's plenty of pictures of Voytech and the Polish 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:32.240 Second Core hanging out doing their thing, wrestling, having fun. 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:36.560 Um there's no pictures from this battle, but there are 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.920 witnesses who say, yeah, this this six hundred pound six 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:45.280 ft tall brown bear was walking around carrying a creative 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.320 artillery shells. Where they spent, where they knew, where they 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.920 unused who knows, but he was definitely doing that. That's 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:55.680 the story about Voytech. Yeah, I say, get that bear 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.840 away from the field of battle. Sure, that's just my opinion, 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:04.439 but I'm sure everyone loved it. Yeah. Eventually, though, sadly, 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.840 the war would end and everyone was like, well, what 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:09.239 are we gonna do with this bear. It's like when 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.480 you get a bear with a significant other and you 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:14.639 break up, or you know, like who's going to take 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.320 the bear? You fight over the bear. Everyone wanted the bear. 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.840 Of course, Voytech was beloved, and they said, well, here's 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:24.199 what we don't want to do is send him back 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.600 to Poland because you know, the Soviets love their bear 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:31.679 Insignia's and they'll just scoop him up as a symbol 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:34.880 for communism. Yeah, and after the Alta Conference, Poland went 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.120 behind the Iron Curtain. That was that. And so these 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:43.040 Polish fighters who have been fighting for Polish freedom got 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:44.920 the exact opposite at the end of World War Two 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.240