WEBVTT - Creature Classic: Remember To Breathe Through Your Butt! 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:10.400 Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:15.160 of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.680 and I really love birds. I just can't get enough 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.160 of them, dang birds. Today on the show Winter is Coming, 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.880 Remember that from the Dragons Show. Well, we won't be 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.160 talking about the Dragon show, but we will be talking 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.720 about how animals prepare for the winter, from hibernation to 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.720 magical wardrobe changes, to cryogenic freezing. To discover this and 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.440 more as we answer the angel question, when, if ever, 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:45.199 is the right time to breathe through your butt? What 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.720 is hibernation? How do you distinguish hibernation from a really, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.559 really long nap. While there are definitely some distinctive features 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.200 of hibernation, like many behaviors and evolutionary biology, it's hard 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.160 to get away with one easy definition. But one thing's 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:03.040 for sure. Hibernation isn't just an extreme nap. It's more 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.840 akin to stasis, like something you'd come up with in 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.920 a science fiction setting. There are many ways that animals 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.160 cope with the winter, and we'll discuss some of the 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.760 wildest winter adaptations. So let's start with this most famous method, 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.800 and reveal the weird and sci fi details beyond our 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.679 childhood image of a really sleepy bear in a nightcap. 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.920 Joining me today to prepare for Winter's Comedian writer and 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.679 co host of The Bechdel Cast, Caitlin Dorante. 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.280 Hello, I'm also a sleepy bear. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:34.480 Oh we're here in our picamas. I'll talk in you know, 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.600 old timey bed, very cozy, very cozy. Yes, yeah, So 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.000 listen to this when you're driving and just let yourself 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:41.640 drift off. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.400 Yes, very safe. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.480 How much do you know about hibernation? You know what? 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:54.840 Not a ton? My personal favorite bear is, of course, Paddington. 0:01:55.040 --> 0:02:00.200 And Addington do not believe that Paddington hibernates in any 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:01.800 of the movies, right. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.400 I don't remember him ever doing that or in the books, 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.000 in the novels the series. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.560 Perhaps Peruvian bears do not hibernate. Well, they wouldn't need 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.800 to for the winter because a tropical issue environment. 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:17.000 Yeah, exactly. So. 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:22.560 Yeah, there hasn't been a lot of hibernation visibility on screen, 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:24.000 at least that I've seen. 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:24.359 That's right. 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.560 And I only ever learned things if I see them 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:28.560 in movies. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.640 Right, And that's that's with the Bechdel cast you guys 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.360 talk about movies and sort of from a from the 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.519 perspective of like, hey, are there women in movies? Yeah, 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.120 we should, we should find that out. Usually not, Yeah, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.480 sometimes you know, it's just like webs, we forgot to 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.680 put women in here. Oh, and then you put them 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.400 in and then they just spend the whole time talking 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.840 about boys. Yes, yeah, I think that hibernation is one 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.880 of those things that we learn about briefly in school 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.520 and it's just like, oh, Bear's school to sleep for 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.120 the winter, and then there's not much else learned about it. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.639 Although maybe the education system is better now. I think 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.000 that maybe children are smarter than we ever used to be. 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.840 But yeah, let's get into some of the details about 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.240 it that I think are really bizarre. And it's one 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.440 of these things that everybody kind of knows about hibernation, 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.840 but when you actually look at the scientific facts behind it, 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.040 it gets a lot weirder than you expect. Can't wait, So, 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:28.120 hibernation occurs during the winter. In summer, there are there 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.079 is like a summer form of hibernation called estivation. It 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.920 occurs in mammals, for reptiles and amphibians, it's called brumation, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.560 so it's a similar thing, but it's not called hibernation. 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.080 The only exception is the common poor will, which is 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.280 a nocturnal bird species in the family of night jars, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.440 and it goes into a state of torpor for weeks 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.800 or months at a time, and this is I think 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.680 the only bird species that's known to do this. Of 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:02.400 the mammals that do hibernation, bears, squirrel, chipmunks, bats, skunks, hedgehogs, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.080 and dwarf and fat tailed lemurs are among them. And 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:08.600 dwarf and fat tailed lumur is actually some of the 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.880 only primates known to hibernate, and they can go up 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.920 to ten minutes without breathing when they're hibernating. What yeah, yeah, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.680 So this is where we get into some of the 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.240 things about hibernation that makes it really clear it's not 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.960 just sleeping, it's not just a nap. So to prepare 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:30.440 for hibernation, the body temperature drastically drops and brain activity 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.839 greatly decreases to a coma like state, and the metabolism 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.560 slows so that you can basically be in this coma 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:43.360 state without dying of starvation, and the heart rate can 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.680 drop drastically so a grizzly bear's heart goes from about 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.800 eighty four beats per minent to nineteen beats permanent, which 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.640 is pretty crazy. And there's the mechanism of how this 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.440 works is really interesting for a bear. So the heart 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.719 isn't damn imaged, which you would think it would. So 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.680 like if a heart beat slows too much in like 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.520 a human, you're going to really damage the heart, and 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:11.080 which could be fatal because the blood builds up in 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.360 the left ventricle and then that can cause the ventricle 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.200 to expand and become damaged. And yeah, that's no good. 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.520 You know, you don't want your heart to be like 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:25.440 an overly full water balloon. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.520 Essential I mean when we learn about I mean, speaking 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.480 of wintertime, the grinch, when his heart grows three sizes, 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.760 he would die. He would die, He would die. 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.000 That would be very bad. 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.120 For well, unless I don't know what species the grinch is, 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.040 but maybe there's something about his heart that. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.000 I don't I don't know. I think he would most 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.880 certainly suffer an errortic dissection from that, Like there's no green, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:54.479 you know, Let's let's fix grench to be accurate, so 0:05:54.560 --> 0:06:00.479 that the Grinch dies and everyone is sad. So in 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.479 the bear, well maybe the grinch has some special heart 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.120 physiology like a bear. Right. Yeah, So the bear's left 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.760 ventricle stiffens, so as the blood pools in it from 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.880 not beating as much, it doesn't damage the muscle and 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:19.200 the heartbeat is significantly weakened so that the stiffer heart 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:25.520 muscle won't be damaged by the left h or so. Okay, 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:29.360 the left atrium pumps blood into the left ventricle, and 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.640 so if the left atrium is like really pumping hard 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.800 blood into a stiff surface of the left atrium, it's 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.960 like taking a water balloon full of blood and like 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:40.719 smashing it against a brick wall. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.719 It's kind of like something I do every Thursday. 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:49.520 Well it is cathartic, but instead of smashing, if you 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:51.920 kind of just like gently press it against the wall 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:53.800 and there's like a little opening where the blood can 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.000 squoosh out, like, then you know you got a functioning heart. Yeah, 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.440 that is what I'm saying. So that's impressive. But a 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.000 chipmunk's heart rate slows from two hundred beats per minute 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.599 to only about five, which is. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.680 It that decreases wild. 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.960 Yeah, and it really it's almost like they're in the 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.400 state of almost death. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:21.360 Like almost staceis that's like one beat for every ten seconds. 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.280 Yeah, roughly. Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, if we if 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.360 we got anywhere near that, you'd be dead. That it's 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.480 just you can't survive that kind of slow heartbeat. But 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:37.560 it is incredible that they're basic. And like one thing is, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.640 if you wake up a hibernating animal like a squirrel, 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.280 the effort, it takes them a long time to wake up. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.679 They can't just like instantly awake, right because their body 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.240 has to essentially come. 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:50.840 Back to life online. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.520 Yeah, from this state of stace is kind of like 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.040 that scene in Austin Powers, like he gets frozen and 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.280 they unfreeze them and then he goes through all of 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:03.000 this like you know, hilarious unfreezing process. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.600 In feminist text Austin Power. 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.960 Yes, yes, yes, you know, and it's really funny because 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:08.920 we get to see as butt. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.160 That's I mean, that's comedy at its highest form. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.160 It's it's you have to go to years of comedy 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:21.120 school to reach that level. So the breathing rate also 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.800 drops dramatically as there's less of a demand for oxygen 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.040 because your heart rate is so slow, Like I said, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.679 it takes a while to wake up from. And in fact, 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.360 if they're waking prematurely for some reason, that can be 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.400 really disastrous because that takes so much energy to wake 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.720 up from the whole point of hibernation or partially the 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.480 point is to preserve your your energy stores throughout the 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.160 winter because the food supply drops, so you're inducing the 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.040 state of near death where you're not consuming energy so 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.160 you can survive. And so if you wake up use 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.040 all this energy to wake up, you're kind of screwed. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.400 So it's really important to set your alarm clock like 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.719 your little time any chipmunk alarm clock right. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.520 Otherwise it's like when your your battery on your phone, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.440 is it like two percent, but you still need to 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.480 call your lift home, right, And it's like, what if 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.040 I call this lift, it's gonna make my phone die 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.640 and then I won't actually be able to take the run. 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.880 It's just like that, you know what I'm saying. Chipmunks 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.280 are exactly like that. Yeah, yeah, that's I mean, I 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.080 couldn't put it more precisely myself. 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:23.720 You're welcome. 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:26.760 Chimps are lifts that would be cool though, just like 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:27.520 you call. 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.280 A giant lift like a giant chipmunk. Yeah, it's like 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.160 the cat bus thing. 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:35.360 Yeah, and then you can just like put all your 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.080 belongings in his little cheeks. Cute. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:39.200 Why isn't that a thing? 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.600 Well, because it would probably. 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.959 Kill us, I guess. 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:51.880 So some scientists are hibernation purists and don't really think 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.880 bears qualify as true hibernators because their body temperature doesn't 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.680 drop that much and it's not too hard for the 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.199 bears to wake up. But you know, it's it's kind 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.200 of whatever your opinion is if you're in science, different science, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.480 Like some people are like, well, you know, it's close 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:09.439 enough to hibernation. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.400 Hibernation is a spectrum, and we need to respect that. 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.120 It is actually literally described as a spectrum. So yeah, 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:22.040 you're exactly right. So animals who are hibernating don't typically eat, 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.240 although some do require little food stores, so they'll wake 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.880 up briefly from hibernation, nibble on their little snack, and 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.880 then go back into hibernation. They also don't poop or pee, 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.280 and they don't produce They don't produce fecal matter because 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.360 their whole digestive system is slowed to a crawl if 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.480 not like shut down entirely. Yea. And they do produce urea, 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.520 which is like the main ingredient in urine, but the 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.320 body is able to break break it down and recycle it, 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:54.080 like bears break down urate into amino acids and recycle it. Okay, Yeah, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.560 so they're not just like full of pea, although. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:01.080 I'm sure pleasing themselves bed right exactly. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.640 Uh you put up bears like paw and hot Yeah yeah, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:14.600 timmy petem cells worm showering. So how do animals know 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.880 when to go into hibernation? Is it based on like 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.400 the like they know it's Academy Awards season coming up, 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.320 or like you know what, what's sort of the thing 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:24.839 like the. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.240 Well, I mean when Paddington I didn't get nominated or 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.800 did get nominated but didn't win, Right, He's like, well, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.080 I got to go into hibernation now just to cope 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:36.960 with this crub, is my guest. 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.800 I mean, yeah, you know that if you don't. If 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.280 weather's not a reason to go in a hibernation, trying 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.960 to cope with an oscar snub surely is. Yeah. So 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:51.880 in twenty fifteen, researchers discovered calendar cells inside animals who 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.600 undergo physiological changes during winter, such as hibernation, and these 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.960 cells are located inside a structure within the piture two 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.520 Glenn called the pars to barylous. The cells change what 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.560 proteins they produce during the year in response to the 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:12.520 amount of daylight. Actually, humans have a similar structure as 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.400 the pars to to barrel it to the pars to barylus. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:19.679 Yeah, that's exactly right to me. 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.200 Pars to barylous, which indicates that we may also have 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.160 some sort of internal calendar and research even though we 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:33.280 don't hibernate. Obviously, speak for yourself. Yes, so your your 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.360 your heart essentially stops and you stop pooping and peeing 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:41.360 and yeah every winter. Wow, that's that's pretty marlow. Or 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:42.960 you're not getting enough fiber. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.720 Right, I'm just constantly constipated. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.800 That's as you know. Just call it hibernation then it 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.520 doesn't seem so bad. So there is a potential area 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.360 of research suggesting that our immunity may change depending on 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.320 the season, which means like maybe our immune system is 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.960 giving us more protection based on like when we will 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.160 most need it, and then that could potentially be regulated 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:07.840 by this pars to beryl Us. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.800 Okay, got nailed it. 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.080 So many animals who hibernate will prepare a den and 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:20.160 insulate it with fur, dirt, vegetation, other cozy things. Some 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:25.720 animals will bulk up before hibernation, eating massive amounts of food. 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.440 This is often like large omnivores or carnivores like bears, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.679 while others will store food in their dens, meaning they'll 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.720 wake up occasionally to eat. This is often the tiniest hibernators, 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.040 like mice and chipmunks, because they're little, tiny bodies can't 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.720 store enough fat and their metabolism can't slow down enough 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.839 to keep them alive throughout the entire winter. They need 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.960 their snacks, and in fact, chipmunks will really they'll like 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.720 steal from each other. They'll fight over food stores. It 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:57.360 gets quite quite nasty. There should be a movie about this, yeah, like, oh, 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.520 like a gritty reboot of Alvin and the Chipmunks, like 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:02.560 the squeak will where. 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.760 It's just like it's like the Irishman. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.040 Yeah, like like I hear you know where my nuts are? 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.760 You do know exactly? You do know you will have 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:16.679 to die? But saw those squeaky chipmunk voices of like 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:22.360 I'm gonna kill you. It's like, oh my god, it's 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:27.920 Alvin's head in her bid. Oh I know. But actually, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:32.440 some of the best hibernators are guess what, I bet 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:33.840 you won't guess this is where I'm. 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:40.480 Which which species? Yeah, oh my goodness, some of the best, oh, raccoons. 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.120 That's a good guess. But it's wrong because obviously I 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.560 love to do this, just spring a question on my 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.560 guests because it makes me feel so smugly superior because 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.920 I have all the answers written down. So some of 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:58.640 the best hibernators are bats, which is surprising, right, So 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.960 big brown bats in the wild can hibernate for around 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.600 sixty days, but in captivity, one of these guys broke 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.040 the record at three hundred and forty four days. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:09.480 That's almost an entire year. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.240 That's almost an entire year. It was. This is actually 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.160 a little sad. It was kept in a refrigerator in 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.240 a lab environment to see how long it would hibernate, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.800 and it eventually died of starvation. Like cool scientists like 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.320 once he like got to three hundred forty four days, 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.160 you couldn't just be like, all right, buddy, that's long enough, like, 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:29.840 wake up, let's get you some nachas. 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:38.880 Right. That's horrible, I know, but sciences people dding sometimes. 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.760 It's sometimes a little gruesome. Yeah. So the for a 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.000 lot of bout species, the heart rate can go from 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.080 a thousand beats per minute when they're actively flying to 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.160 only about twenty five. And some species of bats only 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.600 need to take a breath every forty five minutes or 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.640 even up to two hours during hibernation. Wild that's it's 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.440 they're like almost you wouldn't be able. You would think 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:05.480 here's a dead bat, but it's not. The North American 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.160 red bat can lower its body temperature to freezing point 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.560 and can even survive its body tissues freezing, do in 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.560 part to its thick fur, extremely a low heart rate, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.640 and its high red blood cell count, which is really crazy. 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.440 It's I think one of the only mammals I know 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.640 of that can really just kind of shake off having 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.000 tissue frozen like that without getting frostbite. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:33.720 Right, Yeah, I certainly can't. If I go outside and 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.720 it's lower than fifty degrees, forget about it. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:38.840 The first thing that happens to me when it gets 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.680 cold is my nose just starts running like a faucet 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.160 just streams and streams of like fluid and snot. I 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.240 used to live on the East Coast and then it'd 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:48.840 be great. You know, you go out and it's snowing, 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.280 it's beautiful, and it's like, oh, I got to take 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:52.800 a photo of me in the snow, and I turn 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.760 the camera around. I'm just just streaming every hole in 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.920 my face, streaming with fluid. Yeah, yeah, like you like 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.760 your because like the wind, it's like your eyeballs freeze over. 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.320 Does that happen to anyone else because it did to me? 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.520 But yeah, I mean, yeah, I cannot withstand any amount 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:14.199 of cold. 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.600 Yeah, they're so good for those bats. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.840 Yeah, that they've really I'm just so it's kind of 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.280 shocking to me that bats. I don't even really you 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.840 don't think of bats as the traditional winter animal. But 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:30.200 they're really good, really good hibernators. So proud, so proud. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.040 So why don't humans hibernate? The most obvious reason is 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.320 that our ancestors didn't originally evolve in the frigid tundra, 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.040 so primates don't generally need to hibernate. But it's not 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.439 unheard of for primate to hibernate. Like I mentioned before, 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.359 one of the only types of primates who truly hibernates 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.320 are dwarf lemur species in Madagascar. The only other primate 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.600 known to hibernate is the pygmy slow loris, a tiny 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.919 primate from Southeast Asia who can inter states of tour 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.320 for up to sixty three hours at a time. But 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.760 these regions in Madagascar and Southeast Asia only drop to 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.920 about forty degrees in the winter, certainly not as cold 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.640 as the frigid areas where animals generally hibernate. So why 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.520 do these small primitive primates do it. It's speculated that 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.240 hibernation for small animals not only protects them from the colder, 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.399 harsher climate during the winter, but to stay hidden away 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.760 from predators who may be seeking to pack on extra calories. 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.160 This may be another reason why humans don't need to hibernate. 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.080 While we certainly have needed to fear some predators in 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.639 our evolutionary history, our line of primates are larger, with 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.000 more ways to defend ourselves than to bundle up and 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.680 hide away, and when we started to migrate into colder regions, 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.520 we already had our big, nerdy human brains to figure 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.399 out other ways to adapt to the cold. But maybe 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.520 in the future humans will need to hibernate, like when 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.760 we start to become space explorers. NASA is teaming up 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:01.159 with Professor of Pharmacology and anesthesiologist doctor Rob Hitting to 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.880 explore ways to induce hibernation in humans. After all, animals 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.879 can hibernate without losing too much muscle tone due to 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.879 how they slow their metabolism down. This would be of 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.240 great use to space station dwellers who often must compensate 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:18.800 for their weightlessness with exercises, which still doesn't make up 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.679 for their loss in muscle tone and bone mass. So 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.200 figuring out how to copy the animals technique for hibernating 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.240 would be great for astronauts. Or hear me out alternative idea, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:34.480 Bears in Space. Bears in Space. When we return, we'll 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.840 check out some Arctic adapters who go through a spectacular 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.879 wardrobe change that's even more dazzling than those ugly holiday sweaters. 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.440 Imagine it's the dead of winter and you're snugly tucked 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.000 in a remote cottage that your pee Paul left you. 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.160 It's a quaint old home, all snowed in, but You've 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.120 got hot cocoa and cans of your favorite type of beans, 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.000 so you're all set for winter. You're in your life, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.480 little fur lined bed, all cozy and comfortable. You think 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.520 back to your time with the local villagers who warned 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.520 you to be quiet when you go home to your 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.520 pea pause old cottage for a terrifying invisible beast roams 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.880 these snow covered hills and kills anything that dares breathe 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:21.320 too loudly. You chuckle to yourself. These villagers are probably 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.879 bored and have a bit of cabin fever to invent 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:27.800 such a ridiculous monster. But as you're drifting off to sleep, 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.919 you hear a weird sound, a soft crunching, like the 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.960 snow over your roof is being gently pressed upon Santa's reindeer. Perhaps. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.240 Then you hear a muffled sound, as if someone's making 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.240 snow angels on the roof. You start to get a 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.000 little nervous and think back to what the villagers said. 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.400 You hold your breath, trying not to make a sound. 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.280 You hear a scraping and what sounds like a huge 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:57.760 vacuum sucking up snow. Then silence, just the soft pattering 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.960 of snowfall. It's been several minutes, so finally you exhale. 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.640 That's when suddenly boom, the whole house shakes, and then 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:10.560 again boom boom, until finally crash, a huge face instead 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.359 of jaws crashes through the ceiling. You've just been the 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:18.159 victim of one of the cutest Arctic adapters, the Arctic fox. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:24.040 Awh terrifying, so for humans, of course, there are no threat. 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.800 They're about eighteen to twenty five inches long, not including 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.800 the tail, and about seven to seventeen pounds, so like 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.359 a little doggie, and like you probably guessed it, it 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.160 lives in the Arctic. They live in burrows and snow tunnels, 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.000 and they can survive temperatures as low as negative fifty 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:46.000 eight degrees fahrenheit. That's pretty chilly, pretty cold, yep. Their 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.040 coats change from being tan and brown in the summer 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:53.200 to fluffy white in the winter, and the coats help 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.920 them keep warm and camouflaged, both in terms of hunting 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.000 and from being hunted because they too have predators, so 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.359 their huge fluffy tail is used to wrap themselves up 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:09.200 like a blanket. It's very cute. They're omnivores and will 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.600 eat berries and scraps that they find. They're very opportunistic 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:14.840 because they have to be. They live in such a 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:18.560 hostile environment. They'll even store bird eggs in their dens 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:22.919 as snacks for later. So food can be very scarce 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.840 in the tundra, and they will sometimes tail after polar 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.080 bears and eat their leftovers. And they can travel up 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.760 to sixty miles a day and search for food, which 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.480 I don't think I've ever walked even like more than 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:36.919 two miles for food. 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:42.919 I mean that, Yeah, that is quite a distance. Are 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:47.040 polar bears one of their predators or yeah? No, okay, yeah, 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:48.679 they have to worry about polar bears. 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:51.880 They basically have to worry about anything, even like red 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:55.399 foxes will hunt them sometimes. Okay, yeah, they they're you know, 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:57.879 not the They're not the big big kid on the block, 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.439