WEBVTT - Fine Young Cannibals 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.200 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.800 This is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Robert, I've 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.960 got a burning question for you. All right, I would 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.240 like to know if you have ever tasted huge food. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.280 Huge Food. I'm not sure I know what that is. Well, 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.600 I hope that you're going to say now, because because well, 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.000 it's non existent. Actually that's the first thing. Otherwise I 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.720 would worry a little bit if you said, yes, it's uh, 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.760 it's actually a spoof product. And it was supposedly supposed 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.040 to be a soy based food product designed to resemble 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:51.000 human flesh and taste and texture. And so the website 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.480 was up for about a year, made two thousand and six, 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.680 and it had all these great products that you just 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:00.560 never could buy. So if you want to, you know, 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.360 if you were really wanting a finger or an arm 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.240 or something but didn't necessarily want to campbalize someone, you 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.720 could in theory. So did they replicate and they replicated 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:17.160 the taste or the form, the taste and the texture. Yeah, well, 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.959 you know, if you really get logical about it, I'm 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.520 not sure there's anything that weird about it, not compared 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.319 to say, well, okay, you're vegetarian, right, yes, okay, do 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:31.440 you ever have like soysage or like a soy dog, 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.080 or you know, any kind of or whatever. Yeah, I 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.160 have like meat simulated products. We'll see like that seems like, 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.520 I mean, it's not unlike that you you don't want 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:46.120 to actually eat meat, but you're okay with something that. Yeah, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.760 And yet there's a disconnect because sometimes when I pull 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:52.480 out a piece of what's supposed to be bacon and 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.080 I look at it and it's a little disconcerting. So 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.600 I'm frying up the bacon, and yet I don't eat bacon, 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.400 and I don't or they want bacon. But I do 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.440 have to say, there is that that bacon taste that 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:07.240 you can never really replicate. Yeah, well even if you're 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.840 but I guess even if you're frying up some soy bacon, 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.360 it is going to look like bacon and not say, 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.400 like a pig's face. Like you can't get a soy 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.920 pig face, right, Maybe you can. Maybe it's a it's 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.800 going to be a small market market that may actually 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.560 carry that. They do some pretty funky stuff with it. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.280 So this you know, and in discussing like why is 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.359 this creepy and this not you know, uh with the 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.200 with the HOOFU. I mean that really comes down to 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.760 the basic question about cannibalism in in nature as a whole, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.040 because it's it's one of those things when you really 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.519 look at it, there's kind of like the animal version 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.919 and then well there's really only the animal version. But yes, 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.399 well but but on top of the animal version. Um, 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:52.600 And this is like, you know, as Kennels relates to 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.160 just any kind of creature you might find might find 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.000 that practices it, and a lot of animals practice it. Um. 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.720 If you layer human culture and human society and our 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.360 complex web of emotions and values on top of that, 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.519 it just really complicates the matter and you get into 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.280 this this area where cannibalism is really this I mean, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.160 it's just you know, it's it's an outrageous thing. It's 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.959 like it it raises outrage from people for us who 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.919 would like to think that we have morals and uh, 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.239 social values and we all cooperate with each other, we 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.919 we try not to eat each other humans. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.359 I found this great. To quote from Tom Sorel from 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.000 the University of Birmingham and uh, he said. Quote in 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.840 intellectual history, cannibals stand for alien and exotic human being, 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:43.400 specimens of our species who realize its darkest possibilities, usually 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:48.520 in places far removed from civilization. Cannibalism. Cannibalism both expresses 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:54.240 natural law and and contravenes it. So right, so there 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.360 that there's the rub, right, yeah, and it happens in 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:01.400 nature and it's perfectly nut roll there, right, And yet 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.720 we can't help but WinCE a little bit. Yeah, you 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.040 hear that. You know, if you start hearing that, somebody's 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.280 like certain, you know, grinding up corpses, you know, to 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.880 serving the restaurant, people just get outraged. There's a great 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.400 money python skit where it involves like grinding up corpses 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.120 and and and feeding it to people, and it's like 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.560 the they break the fourth wall and like the the 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.760 audience just starts throwing things. You know. It's it's it's 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.280 that outrageous a concept. You want to know where your 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.520 meat pie came from. But it's very like I say, 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.479 it's very widespread in the animal kingdom, and it is 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:37.000 a major mortality factor in the biology of numerous species. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.520 So we're gonna sort of walk through the We're not 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.080 really gonna go with pros and cons, but first of those, 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.440 we're gonna look at the case for cannibalism in nature 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.200 and some of the ways that it's practiced, and there 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.479 then we're gonna look at the case against and for 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.919 the most part we're gonna avoid the whole question of 0:04:55.000 --> 0:05:00.120 cannibalism um within the larger human institution. But we do 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.600 have an excellent article on the website by Josh Clark 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.440 about that, so I highly recommend checking that out if 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.479 you want to get more into the you know, the 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:12.520 serial killer cannibal topics, right or endo cannibalism, all the 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.240 different types of cannibalism that exists. All right, So, um, 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.120 the big thing for me when I when I was 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.240 researching this is it a lot of it really comes 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:26.640 down to energy, right, because if you're an organism on 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.160 this planet, unless you're a plant that's generating a lot 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.880 of its energy from photo through photosynthus um, and even that, 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.279 you're not not all the energies necessarily coming from the sun. 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.680 But for the rest of us, we're having to consume 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.680 other little bundles of energy to to keep our energy going. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.200 So we're having to eat other organisms. Now we might 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.920 we might not eat um, you know, we might only 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.360 eat plants, or we might only eat animals, but we're 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.080 having to eat something. So it's this constant. This is 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:01.599 huge pyramid you know of of predators preying on other 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.640 forms of energy, and even bugs. Let's not discount bugs. 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.120 Some bugs and they like them quite a bit. Well, 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:09.919 they're supposedly quite good. I've never had one. Have you 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:11.440 had a bug? No? No, but it isn't I think 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.680 it's a street food Vietnam. Yeah, suppose there was supposedly 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:17.200 some in Thailand. I didn't get to try it when 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.200 I was there. Yeah, it's supposed to be incredibly nutritious. Yeah, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.200 I tried if I if I had the chance, But 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.719 it's never offered on you know, the local menus. No, 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.320 it's not your in Atlanta where the palmeta bug salads. 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.000 I don't know. You'll have to start a food truck 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:33.800 based on that. So, like we said, the it all 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:35.920 comes down to energy, it comes down to predation, and 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:41.080 cannibalism is basically a pet predator prey interaction within a species. 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.520 So it's well a member of this species preying on 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.400 a member of another of the same species. So like, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.599 you know, when you get into discussions of odd, uh, 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.599 did you know humans eat neder nehnderthals and did neahnderthals 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.080 eat humans? That's not really cannibalism. It's kind of creepy, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.560 but it's still it's it would be two different species 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.560 eating each other or one. You know, that's that's a 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:07.880 whole separate podcast there, but like me eating you same species. Right, yeah, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.240 don't worry, but let's hope it doesn't come to that. Right, 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.239 So there are different types of cannibalism, right, So there's 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.040 um something called sybil side. Yes, this is the most 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:23.120 commonly seen in the sand tiger shark um. And this 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.720 is a situation where the animal has to uteri and 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.040 each one produces a number of eggs, and but each 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.440 each litter yields just two pups, one for each uterus. Okay, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.760 so there's some competitiveness there. Yeah. These uh, the little 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.160 embryos have embryonic teeth, So you have all these little 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.800 you know, unborn brothers and sisters in there, and it's, uh, 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.080 it's kind of like a it's like each one is 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.560 like a battle royale of you know, who's going to 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:51.560 be the toughest. So it's slay just kind of you know, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:53.160 chopped down on each other. And in the end of it, 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.080 you have one shark pup left standing huh okay, and 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:01.320 so they're hungry, they've got teeth. Um. It actually reminds 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.480 me of Dwight Shrewt from the Office. Um. I don't 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.920 know if you ever watch I do watch it, I 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.600 don't remember the quote. Yeah, he said that he actually 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.520 absorbed his own twin brother, so he therefore had the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.880 strength of a man and a baby. Yeah, so I 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:17.480 guess it would be like the Dwight Shrewts of the 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.320 animal world. Yeah, yeah, you can. You can think of 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.120 this as the Shrewt factor. So so the so these 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.920 two uh santiger sharks end up emerging with the strength 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.120 with it with a very shrewd like veracity to help them, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.320 you know, ensure their survival. Yeah. Approximately fourteen species of 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.679 sharker thought to practice some form of this cannibalism, but 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:40.920 the santiger shark is the It's the one that we've 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.960 studied the most and we have the most down on 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:49.040 m Now, you know, one of the things to keep 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.600 in mind about procreation in the animal kingdom. Is that 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:57.760 especially sexual reproduction. It's like a huge energy um waste, 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.680 not necessarily waste, but let's say incident investment, huge investment 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.120 because just look at humans for instance, think of all 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.760 the energy that goes into sexual selection, you know, whole products, 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.920 you know, people especially you know, how much time do 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.599 teenagers waste on sexual selection? Enormous amount of time And 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.600 I don't know how they get anything done, and how 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:22.120 do they study? I know, apparently they don't, but I 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.880 don't know. I guess they do. But anyway, energy UH 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.920 for the sex act itself. Then there's then on the 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.319 mother's part, there's the energy to bring the offspring to term, 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.960 the energy to give birth, and then the energy to 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.640 raise the child till I can find for itself. Because 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.880 the genetic mission is basically create another UM, you know, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.600 another creature, replicate your DNA, replicate the DNA, keep that 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.400 strain of DNA going, and then you know, put this 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.840 new UH product on the market and let it, you know, 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.160 carry on on its own, right, Right, It's all these 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.920 niceties like playing it um you know, mose art in 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.960 the uterus aren't necessarily their focus, right, Just get it 0:09:58.000 --> 0:09:59.800 out there get it going, but in a in a 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:01.920 way it's like make sure it's like the best, you know, 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.520 the best possible. Um and instead of eating of the 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.480 sharks in the womb, is you know, potentially listening to Mozar, right, 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.680 so um, I also like to think of think of 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:16.720 this in terms of of like a business, like if 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.480 if how stuff works for to launch like a like 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:24.360 some sort of separate entity like I don't know, um 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.280 how crabs work, or something like we're gonna do a 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.120 site is just about crabs, and we're like, this is 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:30.760 gonna be It's gonna be like how stuff works, except 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:32.920 it's only gonna focus on crabs. It's wood would be 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.640 kind of like the company's offspring, right, so be like 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:40.120 all crabs all the time, crab fashions, crab recipes, crab science. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.400 But the but the but the existing business has a 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.160 certain amount of energy already tied out of it. Doo, 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.640 a certain number of employees. Right, So let's say, well, okay, 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:49.640 we're gonna have one one employee go out to be 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.079 the editor of this new side, and another to be 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.400 the writer, another to be the marketing guide, another to 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.040 be the you know, the programmer, et cetera. All the 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.040 things that that can make it what it is, and 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.520 it has to in in where it's like forming this 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.480 new entity of itself. Right, So it's this this huge 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.560 energy in h this huge energy investment, and if that 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.120 doesn't work, then one of two things are gonna happen. 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.720 Either all those people are gonna lose their jobs or 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.079 they're going to be absorbed back into the parent company, 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.199 or at least that's my my understands, they're gonna be Yeah, 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.960 they're gonna be shrewded. So that leads us to another 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.880 type of cannibalism that's pretty calm, really very common, and 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.600 that's the eating of one's own young, which again is 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.840 one of these kind of like terrifying type of things. 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.880 There's the classic image, is it Chronus the god, Yeah, 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.480 eating his own son? I think so yeah, And then 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.920 like then I'm I'm a little shaky in this particular 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.800 story from mythology, but there's a famous painting of it, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.559 and there's I think Zeus like I was able to 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:54.800 like somebody snug SEUs away by putting a rock in 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.240 there so that so that he would eat the rock 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.640 instead of baby Zeus. Of course, Yeah, Zeus was all 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:06.800 about killing the young, his young. Yeah, so um so anyway, 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.120 it's it's another sort of terrifying idea. You know that 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.199 the oh my goodness, the mother is the lifebringer and 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.800 then you know, and if you've ever had hamsters or 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.800 or any other you know, kind of animal like that 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.120 that ends up killing it's young and or eating them, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.240 it can be kind of a terrifying moment. But it 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.000 makes a lot of sense from an energy standpoint, right, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.800 from a survival basic Yeah. There, you know, there's energy 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.240 has been expended to create these uh these new creatures 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:36.720 and their calories wrapped up in them, so you bring 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.080 them back into the fold, right right, Okay, well I'm 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.439 actually thinking too. Um sort of related to that, there's 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:47.240 the masked booby, which is a bur Yes, I knew it. 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.160 I knew that. I couldn't just say masked booby. Yeah 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.400 you've got you can run these by me and uh yeah, 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.600 I know, I've got to give you a hint therapy. 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.600 But um, okay, So getting that aside, the masked booby 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.520 is actual way a bird and it's indigenous to the 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:06.640 Galopico silence and uh that's a case where the parents 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.640 it's a case of stib eating. Right there, there are 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.920 two siblings. Um, but that's a case where the parents 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.760 actually step in and they encourage them to kill one 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:21.040 of the other off. Yeah, and they actually that the 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.079 odds are stacked, um in favor of their eldest, so 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.319 they it's sort of like a kid to getting them 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.800 into a match and seeing like a chicken fight and 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.520 seeing who's going to come out best. And the reason 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.960 for that is the very same, which is, you know, 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.920 you want to put all your effort into the sibling 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.120 that's going to survive and has the best chance of 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.000 carrying on. It's I mean, it sounds harsh, but it 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.520 comes back to that. So anybody out there that is 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.440 in kind of a blue family type situation where they 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:55.480 feel like their mom and or dad are stirring competition, uh, 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:57.920 just be glad that they're not encouraging you to kill 0:13:57.920 --> 0:13:59.960 and eat each other. Be glad that you're not. I'm 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.920 masked Bob, Yes, um. But just to give you an 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.840 idea of how many different animals engage in this, and 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.920 it's also uh you also see uh. For instance, sharks 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.160 will practice um uh eating. They'll end up eating eggs 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.280 that haven't been fertilized um, and sometimes the eggs will 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.760 be eating that have been fertilized. But you'll see you'll 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:27.440 see this form of catabalism in protozoa, slime, molds, sea slugs, insects, spiders, fish, reptiles. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.880 They they've observed it in dinosaur fossils, um, bats, seals, 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:37.160 sea lions, otters, polar bears, even otters. Yes, they're cute. 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.400 Imagine one, you know, cannibalizing another. It's we're eating it's young. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.160 It happens. It never shows up in the cute pictures. 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.280 But tigers, chimpanzees, uh, you know, amphibians, at least a 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.120 hundred species of mammals and all, and of course hamsters, 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:53.760 well yeah, they're most known for it. Don't tap on 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:58.080 the glass, which leads us to the some of the reasons. Um, 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.120 you know, why would a mother hamster suddenly decide that 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.560 she needs to slay all her offspring and eat some 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:06.440 of them. I don't know. Maybe she had way too 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:10.640 many and that's too much energy to expend on abroad. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.800 That big Yeah, it's kind of like if you you know, 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.080 to use the sort of clunky business analogy from earlier, 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.480 it's like if you suddenly created this enormous side project 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.080 with way too many employees. You're like, WHOA, this is 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:24.960 going to fail. This doesn't make it makes sense. It's 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:26.720 not gonna bring in enough money on its own to 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.640 support that. So we gotta we gotta bring some, if 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.440 not all, of these employees back into the fold. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.200 and some of them too if they're if they're born 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.440 with um A disease or they're not quite up to 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.000 par Isn't that another reason to sort of call down 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.960 the broad is to take out the ones that are 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.520 the weakest and and use them for energy for everybody 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:49.960 else you have. Like a female rattlesnakes, for instance, will 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:56.680 consume on average about of their postpartum mass um. Mostly 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.040 these are going to be still born or just non 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.840 viable offspring. So again it's like they have all these offspring. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.520 It's all about like, let's keep the species going, let's 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.120 keep the DNA going. You're gonna want to invest in 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.240 the ones that are the best candidates. I mean, you know, 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.480 it's disgusting to us, but it really is practical if 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.720 you think about it. Yeah, if you take the anthropomorphic 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.240 ness out of it. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.920 the basic it's the basic mission, the genetic mission, and 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.480 the the the energy logic tied to it, and you 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.640 have you strip away all the layers that human cultures 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.760 put on top of it. Then yeah, it's it makes 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.000 perfect sense, you know, just as a as a side 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.800 observation or question. I was thinking about this, and I 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.720 was thinking about mammals who eat their placentas after birth, 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:45.320 and I'm wondering if they ever cannibalize they're young, if 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.000 maybe carry away well no, I'm wondering if maybe the 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.560 eating the placenta actually um serves the need of eating 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.440 some sort of protein and getting some energy source back, 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.840 and and instead of eating their young they eat their 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.360 pa I think would would make perfect sense. I don't know, 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.320 I have that's a question. If anybody knows the answer 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.840 to that that I would love to know. Um. Another 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.600 great example of this comes in invasive cane toads in Australia, 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.560 and uh, these are just some These are some some 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.879 crazy animals because you'll have a small and medium size 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.439 but not large cane toes and they'll wave a long 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.280 middle toe off their hind butt up and down in 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.320 the water and they're doing this uh to to to 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.000 catch other toads, and then the cane toe larva will 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.080 actively seek out toad eggs of the same species to eat. 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:39.560 So there's just like a lot of cannibals and going 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.760 on in cane toes in fact um. And again they're 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:47.199 invasive and they're a huge problem in Australia, and they 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.080 they found a two thousand tents study found that this 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:55.000 was actually uh encouraging them to spread, because a mother 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.359 toad would end up um and wanting to lay her 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.800 eggs in a virgin um pond or or a little 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.879 stream or whatever just to encourage just just to protect 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.000 it from other cane toes. Yeah, so it's like, you know, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.120 you're it just ends up, you know, oh, we've got 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.919 to find new water, new water to uh for these 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:15.960 eggs to developments so they're not eaten by all the 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.320 other cane toes. But they think that that they might 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:25.080 be able to to draw the chemical that the eggs shed, 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.479 that that that attracts the other cane todes and use 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.240 that as some sort of a bait, like a pheromone 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:34.960 or something, yeah, similar to that. I just can't get 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.760 over the image of like all these toes pointing out 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:47.400 in the water like synchronized swimmers. Sure that's happening. This 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:55.320 presentation is brought to you by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. See, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.760 we could keep going and just listing all sorts of 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.120 weird and growth tesque examples of mothers eating their own young, 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:04.880 but we should probably move on it and into another 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.760 fascinating area of cannibalism. Uh, and definitely a sexier area 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.120 of cannibalism. Sexual cannibalism. Oh yeah, which sounds like a great, 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.480 great name for a band if it is not used already. 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.240 To drawback to a to an example that we brought 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.719 up in a previous podcast or one about Ladies Night 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.240 on Planet Earth about the role that the male has 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:30.600 in any given species. We mentioned the the brown and tecanus, 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:36.040 which is also known as mclahy's marsupial mouse. And this 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:37.760 is the male that mates for twelve hours at a 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:40.679 time and eventually he humps himself to death. Uh, and 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.320 then he's you know, his mouth, he's not another mouth 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.880 to feed through the winter like. The species can then 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.240 just focus on the mother raising the young. All the 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.000 men are dead, uh, you know until next season. Yeah. 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:53.840 I think maybe I said that he was that sort 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.800 of relegated to like being the pool boy for the female. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.840 So that being the case, sexual cannibalism occurs when the 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.840 female eats her mate dearing or immediately after the sex act, 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:08.879 which happens a lot. Yeah, apparently. And again it's like, 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.760 if you look at the mail as merely a mutation 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.800 necessary for a sexual reproduction, he doesn't necessarily have a 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.920 lot of use after that that sexual encounter. So again 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.520 that's that's energy that's just wasted. So it reminds me 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.199 of like when a company brings on contract workers for 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.760 a project that has a like a short term goal. 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.120 They're like, we need to get this project done, but 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.400 we don't want to like hire six guys and then 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:36.840 have to pay them or and gals and have to 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.960 pay them benefits, etcetera. So let's just bring them on 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.119 his contract workers and then in six months we're done. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:44.320 So it's kind of like the mail. In these cases, 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.119 it's a contract worker, and at the when they're not 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.080 needed anymore, they're like go, and they're they're submitting themselves 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.920 to this process willingly because they want to make sure 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.000 that their offspring survive. Is that the idea behind this 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.640 with the mating. Yeah, that they would say, okay, yeah, 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.120 I will meet with you, knowing that you're going to say, 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.080 you're praying mantis. You're going to rip my head off 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.240 and then consume me as I'm meeting you. Well, it's interesting. 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.280 I was reading some stuff about this, and uh, most 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.080 in most cases, the male, I mean, the male is 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.840 gonna mate. That's uh, I'm all right, ladies, that the 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.520 male is that I mean, that's the male's mission. So 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.320 he's he's going to engage in that. But you'll also see, 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:30.320 like with praying manaces, the males will try and survive, uh, 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.560 within you know, their limited ability to do so. Uh. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.080 And it's also there's kind of it's kind of exaggerated 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:38.960 in most praying manasis. I understand because a lot of 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.040 the the early studies into this you had females in 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.280 captivity who had not eaten as much as they want to. 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.920 They were voracious, yeah they were. Yeah, And so here's 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.359 this um, this mantis, and you know, there he's done 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:56.119 his part or is doing his part, and he can 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.159 continue doing his part generally pretty well even with his 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.959 head heat no off. So they just go for it. 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.000