WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Nutcracker 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.080 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:09.160 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.080 And I am Joe McCormick. And hey, it's Saturday, so 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.200 we're heading into the vault for an older episode of 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.320 the show. This one originally published on December fourteenth, twenty 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.160 twenty three, and it's about the Nutcracker. Yes, the object, 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.720 the tool, the invention, the Nutcracker. 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.000 Yes, that's right. And this, of course is the precursor 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.120 to an episode that will be rerunning later this month 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.800 on the Rat King. The pair of holiday episodes they 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.320 came out last year. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:43.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.440 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:52.040 is Robert. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.920 Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And ooh, I can 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.320 almost smell hot cocoa and peppermint because the Christmas spirit 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.920 is a live. Today we're doing our holiday episode and 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.040 we're going to be talking about the Nutcracker, as promised 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:07.160 in the last episode. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.880 That's right. On Tuesday, we discussed the rat King and 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.600 of course how that relates to the Mouse King, the 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.440 enemy of the Nutcracker, from the original source material for 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:21.200 Tchaikowsky's eighteen ninety two ballet, we talked about this it's 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.240 the work of German dark romantic author Eta Hoffman and 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.959 eighteen sixteen short story titled The Nutcracker in the Mouse King. 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.280 So we talked a good bit about monstrous, multi headed rats, 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.640 and the original short story does feature some just horrific 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.160 visions of this dreaded entity. But today it's time to 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.319 talk about the protagonist of this story. Yes, it's the Nutcracker. Rob. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:45.080 When you were a kid, did your family have like 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.000 a classic style Christmas decoration nutcracker with the lever and 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:49.440 the jaw. 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.600 I think we always had one around, or there was 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.560 at least a Christmas ornament that had a nutcracker on it, 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.400 but I don't remember. We certainly did not have a 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.400 function nutcracker, at least as far as I can recall. 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:07.800 I remember enjoying the creepy inhuman mechanics of like how 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.960 far the jaw would open, and the very the squareness 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:13.360 of it, you know. I like the fact that it 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.720 had corners and it was almost like the pharyngeal jaw 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:18.920 of like the xenomor for something. 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.760 Yeah, yeah, you know, And it's something that you can 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.200 toy around with and yeah, and even if it's decorative 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:26.799 and you're a kid, if you're left alone with it, 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.360 you're gonna end up trying to crack some nuts in 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.920 that weird jaw of the nutcracker. Now, I feel like 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.079 most of you know exactly what sort of nutcrackers I'm 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.280 talking about here. You know, he's an old timey soldier 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.720 or king standing up, made out of woods, a tall hat, 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.760 big teeth, and a movable jaw that works via a lever. 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.160 So the lever is positioned on the nutcracker's back. You 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.919 pull up on the lever and this opens the jaw. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.359 Insert a nut, push down on the lever, or pull 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.760 down on the lever, Squeeze down on the lever, however 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.160 you apply it, and the force is going to cause 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.680 the jaws and a nutcracker to close, cracking the nut. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.359 That is, of course, if you're using a functional wooden nutcracker. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.440 Many of the ones you encountered today are purely decorative. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.200 They were never meant to actually crack a nut. Some 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.040 of them even have like little capes on, clearly making 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.240 the lever inaccessible if there even is a lever back there. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.400 Yeah, I recall thinking this about the nutcrackers of my youth. 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.760 It was like this. It does feel flimsy. I don't 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:30.359 know if it would stand up to a nut. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.280 Yeah. Many times we don't even need to crack the nuts, 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.960 right we're getting we're receiving our nuts already in some 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.280 sort of a snack mix. They've already been cracked. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:38.880 Uh. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.160 Sometimes cracking is not entirely necessary. You get a nice 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.760 bag of pistachios, they are only going to be those 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.360 problem pistachios that you're gonna have to crack later. The 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.560 rest you can open by getting your your you know, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.800 your salty fingers in there and then eventually like having 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.240 to to slip your fingernail into the into the crevice 0:03:58.280 --> 0:03:59.440 and pry them open that way. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.400 But if you apply force in just the wrong way, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.839 it'll kind of like nick your nail and pull it back. Yeah, 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:06.120 for creepy feeling, I don't like. 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:08.520 Yeah, but it's satisfying. You know. It's one of those 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.160 things that is it's like deeply embedded in our genes, 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.200 you know, the idea that oh, here's a nut, I've 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.280 got to crack it, and then I've got this sweet reward, 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:17.760 and now I'm going to keep doing it again and again. 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.840 It does feel so biologically deep that it's like one 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.280 of our primary metaphors for just solving a problem, cracking 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:25.719 a nut. 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.320 That's right, got to crack that nut. It is a 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.960 problem to be solved, but there is a reward and 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.480 there's got to be a way into it, you know, 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.240 at least. This is often like you can't just give 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.800 up on that pistatio that can't be opened, or that 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:41.960 that nut that seemingly can't be cracked, because you know 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.680 there's something good in there now. Quick anthropology note, there 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.880 is a primate species this is Parenthepus boise eye, which 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.120 upon discovery in nineteen fifty nine was dubbed nut cracker 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.600 Man due to the skulls, large back teeth, and jaws. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.719 I included an image of reconstruction of this particular skull 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:03.479 for you here, Joe. 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.040 Oh yeah, this looks like the opposite of my childhood nutcracker. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.680 I think that the owner of the skull could have 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:11.080 dominated some nuts. 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.240 This would make for an interesting monstrous adaptation of the 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.159 nutcracker and the mouse King. Have your multi headed mouse 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.680 king and all fierce and disturbing, but then also have 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.600 your nutcracker be nutcracker man. Now we'll dive into deeper 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.640 history concerning just nutcracking here in a minute, you know, 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.240 and we'll get into other traditional ways of cracking nut, 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.479 some anthropomorphic in nature as well, like our nutcracker soldier. 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.320 But first let's get to know the wooden German nutcracker 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.640 a little bit better. So in looking around for various sources, 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.000 there does seem to be one individual in particular who 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.680 stands out, and it's the nutcracker Lady, and that's Arlene Wagner, 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.240 who is an author, has written books about nutcrackers, and 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.320 is also the co founder of the really fun Looking 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:03.479 Nutcracker Museum in Levenworth, Washington. And she points out that 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.680 standing wooden nutcrackers like these, like the traditional holiday nutcracker 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.719 as we know them, these were known in nineteenth century 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:15.000 German as nousnachers, listed as such in the Dictionary of 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.719 the Brothers Grim. Many of these were made in the 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.839 Erzgebirge region and would have been the ones to inspire 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.719 Hoffman in his writing of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:29.840 And they were not all powered by lever, as it 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.400 turns out, some of these were powered by screw I 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.599 included an image of a screw based nutcracking nutcracker for 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:37.280 you here, Joe. 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.240 But they've all got whether it's screw or lever, they've 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.640 all got the mustache. Now, the mustache is essential, as 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.839 is the tall hat. But the screw guy, he has 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.919 just kind of like a wide circular mouth sort of 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.719 a mouth, and in there you see the screw. Like 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:58.240 basically you would just drive the screw home into the 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.919 top of the nut and the gradual wars would bust it. 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.520 With the screw guy, I kind of missed the mouth 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.880 of saur On style teeth that we have in the 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:08.120 ones with the levers. 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.520 It does seem like a design misstep because part of 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.600 the whole fun that, like the whole reason you would 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.480 imagine that someone created a humanoid nutcracker is because it 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.680 moves like a jaw and you're putting something into this 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.600 little guy's mouth and making him smash it. This guy 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.880 with a screw that comes down from the roof of 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:29.360 his mouth like down through his pallet to break open 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.120 the nut like this just it doesn't it doesn't feel 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.640 as natural. It feels like someone improved upon the design 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.720 and destroyed the spirit in the process, but again these 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:42.280 are also classic nutcrackers fair enough. Now, apparently there was 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.000 a bit more variety in the design until around eighteen 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.160 seventy two, when one Wilhelm of Fuckner produced the first 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:55.360 commercial nutcrackers based on like one singular design. And this 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.840 was not like a factory situation, it's just using a lathe. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:03.680 But this, like apparent kickstarted sort of the canonization of 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:05.760 what a nutcracker is and what it should look like. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:11.160 And his family still produces these. According to Carol Rosenblatt, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.120 who wrote an article on Atlas Obscura just earlier this 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.800 month about the history of the nutcracker. Now, Wagner writes 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:24.440 the decorative wooden European nutcrackers in general, like not necessarily soldiers, 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.720 date back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in England 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.040 and France, and these traditions continued on during the eighteenth 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.920 and nineteenth centuries. So you saw a great deal of 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:39.760 ornate wooden nutcracker craftsmanship eventually in the alpine regions of 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.800 Germany and Italy. Because again, there's nothing about a nutcracker 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.719 that demands that it be shaped like a soldier. We're 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.679 talking about a tool that is a simple lever, and 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.280 then at various points people have decided to fancy it 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.480 up a bit because you can just have something that, 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.960 you know, crabcloth crunchers are basically the same thing. Crabcriot 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.520 crackers just a simple lever to allow you to apply 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.400 the necessary force to break a shell open, be it 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.160 the cell of a crustacean or the shell of a nut. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.679 But people just end up having fun with it, creating 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.839 luxury items even that are still to some degree functional, 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.080 And then in doing it, you know, you can't help 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.480 but let your imagination run wild. Is it the mouth 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.480 of a man? Is it the mouth of a beast? 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.120 The legs of a beast? Perhaps, you know, perhaps it 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.319 has nothing to do with actual anatomical movements. You just 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.520 want to add some beautiful motifs to the overall nutcracker. Now, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.760 according to Noreen Malone, writing for Slate and twenty ten, 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.000 the German nutcracker dolls the standard ones that we're talking 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.760 about here that look like soldiers were at least considered 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.960 good luck in German traditions. And I've seen other sources 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:53.679 at least loosely allude to some sort of apotropaic properties 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.360 as well. You know, the idea that it's this soldier 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.640 is going to frighten away evil spirits or bad luck 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.920 or something to that effect. So you know, the idea 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.800 that something not only as could be lucky, but it 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:11.440 could also keep ill luck, keep bad spirits away. This, 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.760 of course, is not uncommon with artifacts of this basic nature, 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.360 you know, because look at the standard Nutcracker. It has 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.240 a fierce face. Oftentimes it has kind of big and 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:24.040 alarming eyes, and certainly it's not blinking. So you could 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.160 imagine easily leaning into the idea of putting this character 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.160 on guard against your enemies. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.440 This seems to connect with traditions as old as the 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.920 ones we talked about in our series on necromancy, this 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.160 October in ancient Mesopotamia, where you would have these little 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.599 figurines that might look like a warrior or king or 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.480 something that would be there to ward off ghosts and 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.679 demons that might want to attack you in your sleep. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.840 Yeah, and so perhaps Hoffman was playing with this concept 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.120 a little bit in his writing of the original Nutcracker story. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.200 You know, the Nutcracker is a protector in this but 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.480 also he turns things on its head. He is also 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.320 something that needs protecting. He need to be protected by Marie. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.040 I should point out that, yes, the little girl's name 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.560 is Marie in the original story, even though I believe 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.800 she becomes Clara in the Nutcracker Ballet. So we'll get 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:22.040 back to traditions of nut cracking technology here in a bit. 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.920 But to give this the proper sort of invention treatment, 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.360 we really need to go back before that. We need 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.520 to get back to the basic idea of cracking nuts. 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.120 And indeed, why crack a nut anyway? And why does 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:36.280 the nut need to be cracked? 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:40.079 Great question? So what are nuts? We know them when 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.400 we see them, and we can list a bunch of examples, 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.800 but botanically what are they? And I've actually found some 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.280 rather different definitions offered in seemingly authoritative sources. But to 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.640 synthesize as best I can, here are the main points. 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.480 First of all, nuts are fruits. Huh. Yes, they are fruits. 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.520 We don't usually think of them. So this raises the question, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.400 going one step back further, what is a fruit? In 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.520 a botanical sense, a fruit is usually defined as the mature, 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.040 ripened ovary of a flowering plant which contains the plant's 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:19.080 seed or seeds. So, according to scientific classification. Fruits include 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.480 lots of foods we do normally think of as fruits, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.160 like apples, peaches, and oranges, but lots of other fleshy 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.520 things that grow off of plants that we don't usually 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:33.240 think of as fruits, even foods like cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:38.400 and chili peppers, and in fact, technically even grains like 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.599 wheat and oats are a type of fruit. So a 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.920 fruit is a mass that grows from the reproductive structure 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.520 of a flour and ends up containing or bearing the 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.520 fertilized seed of that plant. The form of the fruit 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.640 is designed by evolution to help the seeds disperse, which 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.120 could mean taking the form of a delicious snack that 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.079 animals will want to eat and then swallow and then 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.120 deposit elsewhere in a nice, healthy pile of dung. But 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.600 there are other animal dispersal strategies we'll get to in 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.400 a minute. So, according to the Encyclopedia of Fruit and 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.920 Nuts edited by Yannick and Paul, nuts are a specialized 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:21.640 subcategory of fruit quote characterized by a hard shell that 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.200 is separable from a firmer inner kernel. So it's a 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.680 fruit that's got an inside kernel and a hard shell 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.360 on the outside. Now, to offer some of these contrasting definitions, 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.320 I found a different source by the USDA Forest Service 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.560 that claimed that quote nuts are strictly a particular kind 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:43.480 of dry fruit that has a single seed, a hard shell, 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.920 and a protective husk. Also adding to the confusion is 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.160 the fact that there are some things that are generally 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.720 classified as nuts by people, but are not nuts in 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.319 the botanical sense. Classic example is a peanut. These are 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.400 technically legumes. And in this episode, I am sure we 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.400 will casually refer to some of these false nuts as nuts. 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:07.719 It's just going to happen. Just be aware that some 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.760 quote nuts are not technically nuts. But to come back 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:16.040 to the synthesis definition here, among other possible criteria like 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.400 bearing a single seed, or having a husk, or maybe 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.280 having high oil content or something like that, the common 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.200 thread seems to be that nuts are fruits that evolved 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.680 a hard shell. But why how does the plant benefit 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.840 from having a hard shell around its fruit and seed 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.480 as opposed to a nice, soft, fleshy seed capsule like 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.000 a tomato or like any of these other soft fleshy 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:45.360 fruits where the plant in an evolutionary sense wants the 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.160 animal to gobble them up and carry them away and 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.600 poot them out somewhere. Well, I found a paper that 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.920 explains one important evolutionary strategy of nut bearing plants, and 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.920 I think this is really interesting. So the paper was 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.000 by Stephen B. Van Wall called How Plants Manipulate the 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:08.280 scatter Hoarding behavior of seed dispersing Animals, published in Philosophical 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.640 Transactions of the Royal Society b Biological Sciences in twenty ten. 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:18.440 So this paper is about interactions between plants and animals, 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:24.400 particularly plants and an animal behavior called scatter hoarding, in 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.000 which the animal and you can picture a squirrel, but 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.240 there are a bunch of different kinds of animals that 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.880 do this as well, primarily birds and rodents, in which 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.920 the animal or the squirrel will collect a bunch of 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.600 food items in hidden caches to be stored for later. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.960 So our squirrel runs around gathering up a bunch of 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.520 nuts fallen from under a tree, and instead of eating 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.160 them right away, the squirrel will carry them off to 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.800 bury or hide somewhere for later, maybe in lots of 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:57.040 locations all around the squirrel's territory. Now, why does this 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.400 benefit the plant? For the squirrel or other animal to 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:02.120 do this or run off with a bunch of nuts, 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.160 take them somewhere else and bury them well. In some cases, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.760 these storage caches of plant seeds will benefit from reproductive 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.360 fitness enhancements via animal dispersal. And we've talked on the 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.680 show before about the reasons that it is good for 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.960 a plant to have its seeds dispersed geographically away, taken 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.520 away from the parent plant. There are multiple reasons for this, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.760 but just one example is now. If they're dispersed far away, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.280 the offspring plant will not have to compete with the 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.880 parent plant for access to sunlight. Parent and child will 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.920 not be fighting against one another to get the sun. 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:44.120 But in many cases, these scatter hoarded caches will be 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:48.920 forgotten or otherwise abandoned by the animal that made them, 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.760 allowing the seeds to germinate and grow in the places 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.920 they were hidden. So squirrel takes a bunch of nuts, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.680 stashes them all over the place, buries them, hides them. 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.440 The squirrel will go back and get some of them 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.040 later and eat them. But some of them the squirrels 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.280 never going to get again, and they'll just be wherever 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.560 they are, and they might have a chance to sprout 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:09.040 and grow. 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.560 Plus, the world can be pretty rough on a squirrel, 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.400 so even if the squirrel remembers where those nuts are, 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.440 it doesn't mean that squirrel is going to be around 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:19.760 to come back and claim them later on. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:26.280 Right, So, Vanderwald explains how plants have evolved to encourage 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.200 scatter hoarding behavior in animals and why it helps them 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.119 so that you know, it is good for the plant 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.760 to get animals to practice scatter hoarding with its seeds. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.480 How does it get the animals to do that? First 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.800 of all, by producing seeds that are delicious and nutritious, 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.879 so they are highly attractive to animals as a food. 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.040 But second, here's the important one for our question about 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:53.120 why why nuts have hard shells, by imposing what Vanderwald 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:58.560 calls handling costs that mean the animal cannot feasibly eat 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.679 all of the seeds immediately upon discovery. And there are 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:07.160 two main strategies mentioned for increasing these handling costs. One 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.960 is by lacing the nutritious seed or fruit with chemicals 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:14.280 that make it hard to digest, such as tannins, which 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.480 kind of slows down the buffet, you know. But then 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.000 the second thing is by putting in place, physical barriers 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.720 that take time and energy to break through. So here's 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.160 our hard outer nutshell. The hard shell of a nut 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.520 makes it impossible for the squirrel to just gobble up 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.560 all of the fruits immediately. They want that good stuff inside, 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.760 but each one is going to take time and energy 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.000 to open an access, So the animal is encouraged to 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.359 take the nuts away and hide them for later. Now, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.240 there are a couple more strategies Vanderwall mentions as well. 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.359 One is masting. This is quote where a population of 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:57.600 plants synchronizes reproductive effort, producing large nut crops at intervals 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:01.800 of several years. Massed crops not only satiate seed predators, 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.479 but also increase the amount of seed dispersal because scatter 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:10.000 hoarding animals are not easily satiated during cashing, causing animals 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.200 to store more food than they can consume, but are 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.840 satiated during cash recovery. So does that make sense. There's 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.440 a lot of nuts, and because they take time to 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.080 get into, the scatter hoarding animal is going to be 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.800 hungry while they're gathering all these nuts, so it just 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.040 encourages them to keep gathering more and more nuts and 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.440 storing them and planting them for the plant, but then 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:34.760 they will get full on these nuts when it's finally 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.600 time to recover the cash and crack them open and 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:39.399 eat them, so they're probably not going to get to 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.320 all of the stuff they stored. 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.520 Basically exploiting a real eyes bigger than one's stomach sort 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.800 of situation with the squirrels exactly. 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.960 And then the last strategy mentioned here is by having 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:55.000 seeds that don't put off strong smells, making them harder 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.960 for the animal to find later after they are hidden, 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.199 so really just sort of helping squirrel or bird or 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.080 whatever animal forget where it put some of its nuts. So, 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.760 according to this theory, hard nutshells are part of a 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.119 suite of strategies used by plants to aid in seed 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:16.679 dispersal by animals like birds and rodents, which makes it 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.160 more difficult for the animal to eat the nut, making 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.720 it more likely that the animal will carry the nut 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.800 off and hide it or bury it somewhere later and 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.720 then possibly forget about it or for whatever reason, never 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.439 come back to it, allowing the plant to germinate in 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.000 its hiding place. Hard nutshells you could think of sort 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.960 of like a speed bump in the eating process. They 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.080 make it hard for the bird or the rodent or 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.720 whatever to just like blaze through whatever it finds that 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:59.520 it can't just eat it all at once, but to 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.359 come back at this from the animal's perspective, nuts are great. 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:05.480 Animals want to eat them, so how to get the 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.160 good part out? Animals do have strategies for getting at 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.399 those good parts. Even if while benefiting from the nuts 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.160 they do crack open and eat, they're sort of inadvertently 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.600 helping the plant by not getting to a lot of 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.520 the nuts they store. Let's look at a few strategies here. 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:26.120 One is brute force, you know, teeth, jaws, beaks, or bills, 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.440 and other intrinsic mechanisms that allow an animal to crack 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:35.200 or punch through hard nutshells. We've already mentioned that rodents 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.040 are a major consumer of nuts in the wild, but 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:42.920 also other hard substances, and rodents like rats, squirrels, and beavers, 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.680 have an adaptation that helps them in this regard, which 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.880 is they're incisors, pairs of front teeth at the top 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.879 and bottom that, unlike our teeth, continuously grow throughout the 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:58.360 rodent's life. So this means rodents must gnaw on things 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.240 and also must grind to their front teeth to maintain 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:06.320 good dental health. Rat incisors not worn down by continuous 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:12.560 gnawing can grow into a bizarre, unsettling spiral shapes they 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.320 go off, and this is obviously really bad for the rat. 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.879 And while having teeth like this imposes a burden to 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:23.000 constantly be gnawing and grinding the teeth together, it also 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.280 helps equip rodents to put their front teeth through some 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.960 serious abuse because the teeth will just continue growing in 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.840 and the grinding will continue to sharpen them. So you know, 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.760 if an adult human cracks a tooth, that's sort of 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.359 a permanent problem. Rodents like rats can just let their 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:42.800 teeth keep growing in so they can put them through 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.720 a lot. Rodents like rats also have very strong and 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:51.560 specially adapted jaw muscles for their size, specifically the massiter muscles, 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.640 and their special teeth and chewing muscles help them cut 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.800