1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,439 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 4 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:20,080 Speaker 1: we're back with part two of our series on animals 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: cooking non human animals and cooking in the sense of 6 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,239 Speaker 1: doing things to food before they eat it other than 7 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: applying heat. Because in the last episode we uh, we 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: talked about how humans are the only animals that regularly 9 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: apply heat to their food on purpose to cook it, 10 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: but animals do all kinds of other interesting things to 11 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:40,480 Speaker 1: their food before eating it. For example, we talked about 12 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: birds that that sort of butcher and smash up and 13 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: and process their their their animal parts before they consume 14 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: them in various ways, like the shrike making shish kebabs 15 00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: out of crickets and other critters. And uh, was it 16 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: the lamber guyer that would would smash the bones or 17 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 1: the turtles. Yeah, And you know, I realized after a 18 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: record of that episode that there's another animal that that 19 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,399 Speaker 1: that cooks that is a part of my weekly life 20 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:12,679 Speaker 1: that I forgot to mention. It's that little puff on 21 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: Instagram account in which a cat is made to appear 22 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: to cook various items to try to replicate various sort 23 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: of like TikTok cooking trends and crafting trends. Um. Sometimes 24 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:32,200 Speaker 1: too great success. Sometimes uh it results in disappointing failure. Oh, 25 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 1: if if you're familiar with TikTok cooking trends, there's one 26 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,680 Speaker 1: that I've seen by image alone. Do you can you 27 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: explain the thing to me where somebody takes a big 28 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: old wad of hamburger meat and they wrap it around 29 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: dry pasta. What is that? Do you know what I'm 30 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: talking about? Well, I am only familiar with TikTok um 31 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,520 Speaker 1: cooking trends that have been featured on that little puff, 32 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: So I don't think I've seen the cat doing this 33 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: to hamburger made yet. Uh. I'm not the one to 34 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: answer that question. Well, I mean it sounds like a 35 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:07,480 Speaker 1: cat's idea. What to be clear, this cat is is 36 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: not actually has not been trained to do anything. Um, 37 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: it's it's just the appearance of a cat cooking that 38 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: they have created here trick photography. Yeah, cats lousy cooks. 39 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: They're not they're not interested in cooking. But to tie 40 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: it into our first segment here, you know one thing 41 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: that that is great about cats is cats are very clean. 42 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: You know, they enjoy They groom themselves, they clean themselves. 43 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,360 Speaker 1: They lick all over to get the dirt out of 44 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 1: the fur. Actually, I don't know if that's why they lick. 45 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: They lock themselves. That appears to be for some kind 46 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: of hygienic purpose. I have no idea what it's actually for, 47 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: but that mirrors U some of the behaviors were about 48 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,360 Speaker 1: to talk about in the category of animals washing their 49 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: food before they eat it, and Robert, I don't know 50 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:52,360 Speaker 1: about your house, but I tend to be pretty fastidious 51 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,080 Speaker 1: about washing fresh produce. Do you do the same. Well, 52 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: you know, I don't want any grit in whatever I'm cooking, 53 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:02,079 Speaker 1: and certainly, pending on the protosant question, you might get 54 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:04,360 Speaker 1: some grit if you don't wash it off. Well, if 55 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: I make an ants on a log, I want to 56 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: make sure that I have a scrub my celery sticks 57 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: off before and then dry them, you know, before I 58 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:16,239 Speaker 1: actually start applying the peanut butter, and said ants. Well, 59 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: it turns out this is one of the food preprocessing 60 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:23,240 Speaker 1: behaviors that is not unique to humans. All kinds of 61 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: animals exhibit various washing behaviors, and I wanna say washing 62 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:31,920 Speaker 1: with scare quotes because in some cases this may actually 63 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: be related to cleaning dirt or other materials off of 64 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:37,400 Speaker 1: the food, and in other cases it may have a 65 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: completely different purpose. But in any case, it is taking 66 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: a piece of food and washing it, or doing something 67 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: that looks like washing with the help of water. That's right. UM. 68 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: I was reading about some of this in a paper 69 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 1: titled food dunking Behavior by a Eurasian Jay by Dearborn 70 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: and Gager, published in the Ornithological Society of the Middle Least. 71 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: They point out that crows and ravens have been observed 72 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: to quote unquote wash their food and fountains before eating it. Um. 73 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:10,280 Speaker 1: And then they talk a little bit about how generally 74 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: we see examples of this washing behavior in primates and 75 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: birds um washing or dunking um. And in both birds 76 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: and primates, the two main theories seem to be that 77 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: it's about washing or removing a thin coating from the 78 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:31,120 Speaker 1: exterior the food, which generally that's what we're doing, or 79 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: it's about making the food easier to eat, which is 80 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: not something we're usually doing if we're just washing our 81 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: produce in the sink. But it is what we're doing 82 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: if we're, say, uh, dipping a particularly tough biscuit into 83 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,039 Speaker 1: a cup of tea or something. Yeah, this is the 84 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: old hard tack tradition. You know, armies of old marching 85 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: around or sailing around with hard tack biscuits. A lot 86 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,159 Speaker 1: of times. You like, you can't even eat these things straight. 87 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: You can't just bite into them. You've gotta like dip 88 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: them into your gravy or some other kind of liquid 89 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: and then soften them up before you can consume. Yeah. 90 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: So some of the examples that they mentioned in this 91 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 1: paper from from other creatures are carrion crows eating dry 92 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: bread used to be a situation where dry bread has 93 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,720 Speaker 1: been provided for them and they dip it before they 94 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: eat it. Uh. Kill deer have been observed washing muddy 95 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: frogs off before they eat them. Macaques have been observed 96 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,919 Speaker 1: doing the same thing with sandy crabs. Um captive monkeys 97 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 1: have been observed doing this with dry monkey chow. And 98 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: then the Eurasian jay example studied in the paper I cited. 99 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: It involved the bird in question dunking an egg in 100 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: water and then eating it. Though the researchers ultimately remained 101 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,479 Speaker 1: they remained unclear about what that was all about. Yeah, 102 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: and in a lot of cases, it seems like these washing, 103 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: dunking or dowsing behaviors are still uh, they're still unknown, 104 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: and we still don't know exactly what the cause is 105 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:57,480 Speaker 1: that we have better ideas in some cases than in others. Uh. 106 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 1: But one thing I was thinking about is that, um, 107 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: you know, it may depend on your anatomy how important 108 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 1: it is to douse something in external water before you 109 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: eat it, depending on how strong your salivary glands are, 110 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:10,839 Speaker 1: because we're doing the same thing, but it happens in 111 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: our mouths. I mean all the foods you eat. It 112 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,600 Speaker 1: gets kind of like coated in saliva and moistened that way, 113 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,919 Speaker 1: and it helps lubricate the swallowing process. Doesn't that sounds 114 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,840 Speaker 1: so appetizing? Yeah, well, I think we've we've touched on 115 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 1: this before, but actually quite recently, I think talking about 116 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:29,840 Speaker 1: food and digestion. But like the the digestive process begins 117 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:32,280 Speaker 1: in the mouth, Like this is where food is initially 118 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: uh masticated, broken up, broken down, um, partially liquefied, and 119 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: then formed into that bolus that will then uh have 120 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: been be swallowed and continue the journey. You don't want 121 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,559 Speaker 1: to be swallowing a dry bolus. No, no, But next, 122 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: I wanted to think about one of the most famous 123 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: examples of animals that appear at least to wash their 124 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,160 Speaker 1: food before eating it, and that is raccoons. This has 125 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:58,480 Speaker 1: got to be one of the cutest examples. I'm sure 126 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: everybody out there on the internet this point has seen 127 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,240 Speaker 1: the the the heartbreaking video of the raccoon with a 128 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 1: piece of cotton candy going to the water's edge to 129 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: wash it, and then it dissolving, and the raccoon looks 130 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,320 Speaker 1: just so sad. I don't think I've seen that one, 131 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: but I'm picturing it. I can imagine it. So I 132 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: found something out I didn't know before. You know the 133 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,120 Speaker 1: word raccoon. The English word raccoon is derived from a 134 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: word originally in the Algonquian languages. But do you know 135 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:28,560 Speaker 1: what the raccoon is called in German? No, what is 136 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: it called? It is the vah bear, the wash bear, 137 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: the bear the washes Oh nice. And the same principle 138 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:39,280 Speaker 1: shows up in its scientific name, which is procyon low tour, 139 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: which means something like pre dog washer. So a raccoon 140 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: is something that's maybe not quite a dog, not quite 141 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:50,000 Speaker 1: a dog yet, but it is associated with washing. And 142 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: this etymology carries over multiple languages where the raccoon is 143 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: known as something like the washing bear or the washing 144 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: dog or something like that. Uh, and it refle one 145 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 1: of the most notable characteristic behaviors of the raccoon, which 146 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: is the fact that when they acquire a piece of 147 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,119 Speaker 1: food and there is water nearby, they will often dunk 148 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: that piece of food in the water and then manipulated 149 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: kind of put it in the water and swish it 150 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: around a bit, maybe feel at it, paw at it, 151 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: rub on it, and then retrieve it from the water 152 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:23,080 Speaker 1: and eat it. And it gives rise to the idea 153 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:26,480 Speaker 1: that raccoons are meticulous, little neat freaks that they're I 154 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:29,920 Speaker 1: don't know, hyper hygienic or germophobes or something, washing every 155 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: bit of dirt and grime from food before consuming it, 156 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 1: which is kind of funny when you think about other 157 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,120 Speaker 1: feeding habits of raccoons you might be familiar with, such 158 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: as like getting into your garbage can and just eating 159 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:43,920 Speaker 1: the food in there, and they're not washing that food. 160 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:45,680 Speaker 1: They don't seem to be concerned about the dirt in 161 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,320 Speaker 1: that case. No, no, this is of course what it 162 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:52,800 Speaker 1: has learned them the nickname trash pandas before because they 163 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: there's straight up in the garbage can, or certainly they will. 164 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 1: They don't need to be by a stream to eat. 165 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,359 Speaker 1: You can. You can find poluting evidence of of raccoons 166 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:06,959 Speaker 1: eating without a handy washing station nearby. Right. So it's 167 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:10,200 Speaker 1: an activity that they do often enough that it's in 168 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:12,679 Speaker 1: the name, like they're clearly known for it, but they 169 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 1: don't always do it. It appears to be optional occasional, 170 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: but again common enough that it is. It has become 171 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,960 Speaker 1: a characteristic feature of the species. And so there's a 172 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:25,240 Speaker 1: big question like what are they doing. Are they actually 173 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:28,160 Speaker 1: trying to get dirt off of the food or are 174 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,080 Speaker 1: they doing something else? And there have been experiments that 175 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: looked into this. So one study I wanted to look 176 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:39,160 Speaker 1: at was by Malcolm Lyle Watson, published in Proceedings of 177 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:43,240 Speaker 1: the Zoological Society of London in nineteen sixty three, called 178 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: a Critical re Examination of food washing behavior in the 179 00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 1: raccoon or procyon low tour. Now, one thing this article 180 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:55,320 Speaker 1: says that I found alleged elsewhere on the internet is 181 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: that raccoon food dousing behavior, and it calls the behavior 182 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: dousing instead washing to avoid pre judging the issue of 183 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:06,120 Speaker 1: the purpose of the dowsing. So raccoons put their food 184 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: in water very often, but we don't know exactly why 185 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,320 Speaker 1: they're doing it yet, so so they say dowsing instead 186 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 1: of washing. So dousing behavior is something that the author 187 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:19,120 Speaker 1: here says is only seen in raccoons in captivity. But 188 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:22,600 Speaker 1: I kind of doubt that. I've just browsing around. I've 189 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:25,000 Speaker 1: read plenty of reports of people saying they observed this 190 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: behavior and raccoons in the wild. So uh so, so 191 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,960 Speaker 1: I don't know about the the only in captivity part. 192 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,839 Speaker 1: I guess the detail here would be that in captivity 193 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 1: one generally has a readily available supply of water. There's 194 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 1: like a dish of water or I did just watch 195 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: that cotton candy video in the background. You know, this 196 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:46,960 Speaker 1: is a case where it looks like it is a 197 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,959 Speaker 1: raccoon in a captive environment and there is the water 198 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: for it to drink from, so it makes use of 199 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 1: set water. Right, That's a good point. I mean, so 200 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:59,520 Speaker 1: captivity clearly provides the right setting and opportunities for this 201 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:02,679 Speaker 1: behavior to be observed. So maybe if it does occur 202 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 1: in nature or if it doesn't. Either way, we can 203 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 1: at least admit that the majority of the times humans 204 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:11,240 Speaker 1: are witnessing this behavior, it is in raccoons in captivity. 205 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:15,960 Speaker 1: But Lyle Watson says before this study, opinion was divided 206 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 1: into roughly two camps about what the purpose of raccoon 207 00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: food dousing was. He says that some researchers thought that 208 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: raccoons were actually washing their food, actively getting dirt off 209 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 1: of it, and others thought that they were moistening it 210 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:32,600 Speaker 1: to make it easier to eat, you know, to essentially 211 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: lubricated for the mouth, like we were talking about with 212 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:38,880 Speaker 1: the birds. And before we go onto the actual experiments, 213 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: I just wanted to note something from the paper that 214 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:44,120 Speaker 1: I thought was interesting. The the author actually makes a 215 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:48,520 Speaker 1: table of observations of raccoons eating different kinds of foods 216 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: and ranks them by which foods were doused the most 217 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 1: often to the least often. So so if you look 218 00:11:55,559 --> 00:11:57,839 Speaker 1: at this list, the foods that were doused the least 219 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:03,000 Speaker 1: often where things like corn oats and earthworms, and the 220 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: foods that were doused the most often were crayfish, shrimp, water, snails, 221 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: land snails, crabs, locusts, cockroaches, muscles, clams, cherries, grapes, eggs, 222 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: and I'm reading down the list now, so I'm getting 223 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,120 Speaker 1: to about the middle. But one thing I thought was 224 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:25,680 Speaker 1: interesting is that a lot of the food items that 225 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: are the most doused are animals that naturally live in 226 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:31,400 Speaker 1: the water. So I think they're being given to the raccoon, 227 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: probably already dead or or out of the water when 228 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:37,680 Speaker 1: the raccoon receives them. But the raccoon is taking them 229 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:41,560 Speaker 1: to the water and dousing them and then eating them. Yeah, yeah, 230 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,560 Speaker 1: that is notable on this this hierarchy here though of 231 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: course that you know, you look at it too, and 232 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: you're thrown for a curve on why the cherries are 233 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:55,200 Speaker 1: ranked so high, why the earthworm is ranked so low? Um. 234 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 1: Other things seem to make you know a certain amount 235 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: of sense, like okay, yeah, well corn is more us 236 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: good to go the same with a pair. But so 237 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 1: this study tried a couple of experiments to test the 238 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:10,959 Speaker 1: reigning hypotheses, the food moistening hypothesis and the active cleansing hypothesis. 239 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:14,680 Speaker 1: So as far as the cleansing hypothesis, uh, they said Okay, 240 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,120 Speaker 1: what if we try giving raccoons food that is dirty 241 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,160 Speaker 1: and then food that we've already cleaned off to see 242 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: what the raccoons do with it. Will that make a difference? 243 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,200 Speaker 1: Like will they clean? Will they douse dirty food more 244 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: than clean food? So this was tried with quote, small 245 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:32,319 Speaker 1: mud crabs, so that they might forge for these in 246 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:34,240 Speaker 1: the wild and you might expect them to have mud 247 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,080 Speaker 1: on them. And so raccoons in captivity were tested with 248 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,240 Speaker 1: clean crabs and dirty crabs, and what do you know, 249 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: it made no difference at all. In fact, this was 250 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,880 Speaker 1: not a significant difference. But they doused the clean crabs 251 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:48,559 Speaker 1: more than the muddy crabs. Yeah. Yeah, So like if 252 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:51,199 Speaker 1: you're if you're going to be desperate with findings from 253 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:55,840 Speaker 1: this study like this wouldn't even back up the idea 254 00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:59,199 Speaker 1: that they're washing anything exactly. So according to this experiment, 255 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:02,320 Speaker 1: it makes no difference at all, just sometimes they dunk 256 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:05,120 Speaker 1: and sometimes they don't, and it appears to have no 257 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: relationship whatsoever to the amount of mud. So that's taken 258 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:11,720 Speaker 1: as a hit against the active cleansing hypothesis. But what 259 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:15,400 Speaker 1: about the moistening action idea? So what if the point 260 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:18,040 Speaker 1: of dowsing is too, is that wet food is easier 261 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:21,640 Speaker 1: to eat. Well, they tested this with an experiment as well. 262 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:24,840 Speaker 1: Um So Lle Watson says there was a series of 263 00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:29,480 Speaker 1: three trials with the choices between dry dog biscuits, dried shrimps, 264 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 1: and similar objects which had been soaked in water, and 265 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:36,520 Speaker 1: the result was again the raccoons showed no significant difference 266 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:39,080 Speaker 1: at all. They were just as likely to dunk in 267 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:42,800 Speaker 1: douse wet food objects as they were to douse dry ones. 268 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: So both of the active hypotheses at at the time 269 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: of the study in nineteen sixty three were disconfirmed by 270 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: the experiments that Layle Watson did. So what does the 271 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: author here think that the that the dowsing is actually 272 00:14:57,040 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 1: for Well, he has an interesting idea. Of course the 273 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,040 Speaker 1: is not conclusive, but this is his interpretation. He says, 274 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:06,920 Speaker 1: um that the best explanation is that raccoon dousing of 275 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:11,600 Speaker 1: food is quote an artificial creation of a natural situation 276 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,280 Speaker 1: whose function is to allow the expression of a thwarted 277 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,840 Speaker 1: independent feeding mechanism. So I think what he means by 278 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:23,120 Speaker 1: this is that a raccoon, when dousing food, is going 279 00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:27,920 Speaker 1: through the motions of an instinctual water based foraging or 280 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 1: hunting strategy, that is, that is naturally rewarding, you know, 281 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 1: in the same way that the hunting or foraging behaviors 282 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,800 Speaker 1: are to all kinds of animals. You know, we're motivated 283 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 1: to do them, and it's rewarding to the raccoon's brain 284 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,680 Speaker 1: and associated with the acquisition of food, even though in 285 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: these captive scenarios it's not actually doing anything. Now that 286 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,960 Speaker 1: that's interesting. That would mean it's not adaptive. Well, it 287 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: would be. It would be adaptive that a raccoon has 288 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:59,400 Speaker 1: a natural desire to like fish around in the water 289 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: for food items. But that maybe this this urge is 290 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,200 Speaker 1: so strong it's coming through even in moments where it 291 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: doesn't actually need to forage. It's just satisfying an overwhelming desire. 292 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: And he gives a comparison. So what Watson says, his 293 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 1: quote the raccoons behavior is perhaps most closely related to 294 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:20,880 Speaker 1: what may be called the quote revitalizing behavior of certain 295 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: feel a day cats. A captive cat who's hunting patterns 296 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:27,440 Speaker 1: of behavior are starved by virtue of the fact that 297 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:31,880 Speaker 1: all food is presented dead, will artificially create the opportunity 298 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:35,640 Speaker 1: to satisfy these responses by throwing a dead bird into 299 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: the air and quote giving it life in order that 300 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:41,600 Speaker 1: it may be hunted down and caught before being eaten. 301 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 1: This has been particularly well observed in the Golden Cat 302 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:49,480 Speaker 1: or Feelish Taminki at the London Zoo and uh so 303 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: so Yeah, in the same way that you might see 304 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:55,240 Speaker 1: a cat that doesn't actually need to hunt, kind of 305 00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:58,440 Speaker 1: batting a food item or even like a dead mouse 306 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: around as if like it's still alive. And maybe the 307 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 1: cat is trying to satisfy some need for hunting behaviors 308 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:10,399 Speaker 1: just because the hunting behaviors are instinctually rewarding. Perhaps the 309 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: raccoon is doing something similar by fishing around for a 310 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: food item that it actually already has in possession in 311 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 1: the water, m okay, and so in this it would 312 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,119 Speaker 1: be comparable to like the play we observe in cats. 313 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: We think of it as play. They're playing with a toy, 314 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,840 Speaker 1: but it's of course hunting instinct that you know that 315 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:33,880 Speaker 1: they've they're highly evolved to partake in. And if it's 316 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:38,240 Speaker 1: and even though there's nothing live running around your living room, uh, 317 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,879 Speaker 1: they need to engage in that kind of activity anyway, right, 318 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:46,000 Speaker 1: they have an instinctual drive for for hunting behaviors. They 319 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 1: can't actually hunt in their environment because there's nothing to hunt, 320 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,280 Speaker 1: so they kind of hunt in superfluous ways, hunt in 321 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,479 Speaker 1: ways that are not really necessary and so uh and 322 00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,280 Speaker 1: so Lyle Watson links this to the idea that this 323 00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:02,560 Speaker 1: behavior is primarily observed or in his in his belief, 324 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 1: only observed in raccoons in captivity. You know, normally they'd 325 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:09,480 Speaker 1: be out fishing around for crayfish and crabs and stuff 326 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,160 Speaker 1: in the water. In captivity, they don't have to do that, 327 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:16,679 Speaker 1: so they satisfied this drive by swishing their food items 328 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,679 Speaker 1: around in the water. I've remember hearing before that the 329 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:24,119 Speaker 1: like the hands of the raccoon are extremely subtle, uh, 330 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: and that they're not affected by the like they can 331 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:29,680 Speaker 1: reach into cold water and feel around in cold waters 332 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:33,400 Speaker 1: with a tolerance that that humans are completely incapable of, 333 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: and that their feeling of things in the water is 334 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,160 Speaker 1: more uh in line with like human sight, Like that's 335 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: how sensitive their little hands are. Uh. So yeah, the 336 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 1: sense experience of this, um uh, it makes sense when 337 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: you think about like this uh, this sort of advanced 338 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:56,680 Speaker 1: uh grasping that's going on. This this advanced sense of touch. Well, 339 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:58,879 Speaker 1: that's actually the next thing I was gonna get to that. 340 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:02,040 Speaker 1: That is the The other or hypothesis that seems to 341 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:06,639 Speaker 1: be live about why raccoons doused their food is the 342 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 1: idea that somehow it is it hyper charges the sensory 343 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: abilities of their paws, and exactly like you're saying, raccoons 344 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,440 Speaker 1: are known in the animal world for having incredibly sensitive 345 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:21,160 Speaker 1: fore paws. Apparently they gather a large proportion of their 346 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: sensations of the world through touch, and of course this 347 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,600 Speaker 1: is very useful if you're an animal that's like rooting 348 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,399 Speaker 1: around in muddy water for for prey. You know, you 349 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: want to be able to get a lot of information 350 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,400 Speaker 1: by the pads on your fore paws, on your your 351 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 1: hands and fingers, and so it has been argued that 352 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 1: maybe the dousing behavior is related to the hyper sensitivity 353 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,520 Speaker 1: of their fore paws and the importance of the sensory 354 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 1: information they get there. So perhaps moistening of the fore 355 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:56,080 Speaker 1: paws actually makes them more sensitive to textual information about 356 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,879 Speaker 1: the food in hand. So if this hypothesis were correct, 357 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,159 Speaker 1: it would be that dousing serves the purpose of letting 358 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:06,240 Speaker 1: the raccoon get better sensory information about the food they're 359 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 1: about to eat in the type of sense uh, since 360 00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:11,920 Speaker 1: realm that is most relevant to them, which is touch. 361 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 1: So it would be sort of similar to a human 362 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:16,959 Speaker 1: looking at a morsel of food by holding it up 363 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:18,760 Speaker 1: to the light so they could get a better look 364 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,160 Speaker 1: at it. Or you know, a dog really going to 365 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,639 Speaker 1: town sniffing a piece of food before they eat it. 366 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 1: That it would be a specialized sense heightening behavior that 367 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: is particular to the sense regime of the raccoon. Ah. 368 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:33,560 Speaker 1: Now this, yeah, this makes a lot of sense, and 369 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,639 Speaker 1: at the same time, it also makes that cotton candy 370 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: video all the more heartbreaking because it really wanted to 371 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:44,359 Speaker 1: understand this. This uh, this sugary concoction. What is this thing? Well, 372 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 1: let me douse it in the water and feel it 373 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,880 Speaker 1: a little bit more. What now it is completely gone? 374 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 1: Now I have I know even less about it than 375 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 1: I did before. But anyway, I'm intrigued by both of 376 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:57,520 Speaker 1: these hypotheses. I don't know which one I would lean 377 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:01,280 Speaker 1: more towards, the sort of the hyper charging sensory data 378 00:21:01,359 --> 00:21:07,000 Speaker 1: from the from the hands or the thwarted natural foraging behavior. Uh. 379 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: Both both seem possible to me based on what I've read. 380 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,120 Speaker 1: The interesting thing about the idea of awar thwarted foraging 381 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,600 Speaker 1: behavior is that, um, it would seem to connect to 382 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,679 Speaker 1: that that list of foods that are doused most often, 383 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,359 Speaker 1: that the top of the list was all like aquatic 384 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,439 Speaker 1: animals that the raccoon would naturally forage for in the 385 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:35,640 Speaker 1: creeks and in the mud. Thank but Rob, if you're ready, 386 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:38,560 Speaker 1: I would actually like to turn to another example of 387 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:42,080 Speaker 1: animals doing something to their food that looks like washing 388 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:46,480 Speaker 1: but has been hypothesized to have a different purpose altogether. 389 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: And this is related to seasoning. So in the last episode, 390 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,399 Speaker 1: uh we spoken whispers of horror about the idea of 391 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:59,320 Speaker 1: eating an unseasoned potato. You know, potatoes are great, they 392 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,000 Speaker 1: really needs some salt and pepper, hopefully some fat of 393 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:06,199 Speaker 1: some kind, butter oil or something to take them to 394 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,720 Speaker 1: their full potential. Just just the thought of a completely 395 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:15,600 Speaker 1: unseasoned cooked potato is is is very unappetizing. Yeah, even 396 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:17,680 Speaker 1: if you have one of those those really good potatoes, 397 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,920 Speaker 1: you know, like those fingerlings and the purple potatoes and 398 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,120 Speaker 1: of course sweet potatoes, even then they need a little something. 399 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:27,000 Speaker 1: And if you get into the realm of the Russets 400 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:29,479 Speaker 1: all the more. Now as always, of course, you know, 401 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,399 Speaker 1: our food preferences could be just cultural preferences. But I 402 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,679 Speaker 1: think it's clear that a really important part of human 403 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:40,960 Speaker 1: cuisine in general is seasoning. Maybe not to the same 404 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,640 Speaker 1: extent in every single culture in the world, but broadly 405 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,639 Speaker 1: all over the planet. People like to season their food, 406 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: and seasoning amounts to augmenting the natural flavors of bulk 407 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:55,720 Speaker 1: food stuffs in our diet with with highly flavor relevant 408 00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:59,600 Speaker 1: little little bits of ingredients, usually things like herbs, spices, 409 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: and probably most importantly of all, salt. Now, there's a 410 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,840 Speaker 1: reason humans have a taste for salt. Salt is not 411 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:09,399 Speaker 1: just a nice to have. It is biologically essential, not 412 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,439 Speaker 1: in the quantities that that we Americans eat it. You 413 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,080 Speaker 1: know that that we we weigh more salt than we need, 414 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,959 Speaker 1: but you you've got to have some salt. Without any salt, 415 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:21,520 Speaker 1: you would be in a bad place. And we talked 416 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,119 Speaker 1: about this to some extent in our episodes about the 417 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,639 Speaker 1: science of thirst. Remember, you know the things about how 418 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,600 Speaker 1: you've got to have the right balance of osmolality in 419 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: your blood, Like, yeah, the the amount of substances, especially salt, 420 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,840 Speaker 1: dissolved in the blood is relevant to the functioning of cells. 421 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,840 Speaker 1: Without salt, your body just doesn't really work. You need 422 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:44,720 Speaker 1: some salt. And likewise, you're cooking a stew or a 423 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,560 Speaker 1: soup or just about anything, you often find yourself in 424 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,040 Speaker 1: the situation where you're adding salt to taste, and you 425 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:52,600 Speaker 1: know it's like, oh, it's not quite there yet a 426 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:54,800 Speaker 1: little more salt. Not quite there, a little bit more salt. 427 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,000 Speaker 1: But the closer you get, the more stressful it can become, 428 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,640 Speaker 1: because you know that if you over salt it um 429 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:02,919 Speaker 1: there's not an easy way back. There may not be 430 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,640 Speaker 1: a way back. That is a very good point. Especially, Yeah, 431 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,119 Speaker 1: if it's like one homogeneous mass of food, like a 432 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:10,159 Speaker 1: like a soup or something, it's it's really hard to 433 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,119 Speaker 1: take the take the salt out, I guess, unless you 434 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,959 Speaker 1: just diluted by adding more water or something, but then 435 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,679 Speaker 1: you screw up the other flavor ratios. Yeah, it's just 436 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:19,920 Speaker 1: you don't want to over salt that that that's that's 437 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,280 Speaker 1: hard to fix. Steps. Now, lots of foods that we 438 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:27,160 Speaker 1: would find in the natural environment already have some salt content. 439 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,400 Speaker 1: You know, vegetables already have salt in them. If you, 440 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,880 Speaker 1: you know, like a like a stalk of celery actually 441 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,120 Speaker 1: is you can almost taste that celery is naturally a 442 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,720 Speaker 1: little bit salty. You can sort of taste the sodium 443 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 1: in there. Of course, meat already has salt in it naturally, 444 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: most people would add more salt to to season and 445 00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:48,080 Speaker 1: but it has some sodium content there already. But we 446 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,760 Speaker 1: want more. And why why is it that we want more? 447 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,240 Speaker 1: As well? It's because the concentrations of salt that we 448 00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:57,160 Speaker 1: naturally find in meat and plants in the environment, it's 449 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,640 Speaker 1: fairly low, and salt is necessary for surve bible. So 450 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,399 Speaker 1: our bodies are shaped by evolution to seek out extra salt. However, 451 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,800 Speaker 1: we can get it, and lots of animals acquire salt 452 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,640 Speaker 1: not just from food, but from mineral reservoirs known as 453 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:16,480 Speaker 1: salt licks or more accurately, mineral licks. Again, because salt can, 454 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,800 Speaker 1: in the narrow sense, be taken to imply just sodium chloride, 455 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: and sodium is not the only electrolyte or mineral that 456 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,000 Speaker 1: animals need to supplement in this way. Animals are also 457 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:31,240 Speaker 1: looking for calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, and so forth. But 458 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 1: the idea of a salt lick is interesting to me 459 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,159 Speaker 1: because I was reading about them, and what I had 460 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:38,440 Speaker 1: always pictured for a salt lick when I was growing 461 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:42,280 Speaker 1: up was that there's a deer, specifically a deer, and 462 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,120 Speaker 1: it's licking a white rock that has the desired minerals 463 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:50,120 Speaker 1: on its surface. And while this scenario does happen, apparently 464 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: a lot of times, a mineral lick can also consist 465 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,679 Speaker 1: of like a place where animals come to sort of 466 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,920 Speaker 1: eat dirt or mud or clay that has the molecules 467 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,320 Speaker 1: they're looking for. But of course humans do something pretty interesting, 468 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:06,360 Speaker 1: which is that we combine the quest for supplemental salt 469 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:11,800 Speaker 1: with the broader quest for nutrition by salting food directly. 470 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,440 Speaker 1: The result is clearly more than the sum of its parts, because, 471 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,119 Speaker 1: after all, salt doesn't just make food taste saltier. I 472 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: think humans mostly know from experience that it makes food 473 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,600 Speaker 1: taste more like itself. A little bit of salt seems 474 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: to magnify the natural flavors present in whatever you're eating, 475 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:34,000 Speaker 1: So salt makes chocolate taste more like chocolate, and salt 476 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 1: makes broccoli taste more like broccoli. It's just a general 477 00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:42,240 Speaker 1: flavor intensifier. Yeah, Even things that don't need salt at all. 478 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:46,359 Speaker 1: Like a really good slice of watermelon is perfect on 479 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,880 Speaker 1: its own, and yet sprinkle a little salt on there, 480 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:52,040 Speaker 1: and you've managed to intensify even that. Yeah, it becomes 481 00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:56,360 Speaker 1: hyper watermelon. And because of these obvious you know, sensory 482 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: and pleasure benefits, the complement of supplemental salt to food. 483 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,560 Speaker 1: You might wonder, we'll do any non human animals season 484 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,320 Speaker 1: their food like we do? Do they combine the quest 485 00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 1: for food with the quest for supplemental salt into a 486 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:14,280 Speaker 1: single consumption activity. And you might assume no, But I 487 00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 1: came across a really interesting surprise here. So I want 488 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,520 Speaker 1: to turn to a actually rather famous episode in the 489 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,359 Speaker 1: history of primatology, but famous for a different reason than 490 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:26,320 Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about it, and that is 491 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:31,359 Speaker 1: the potato washing monkeys of Koshima Island in Japan. Rob, 492 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:34,119 Speaker 1: Have you ever heard about these before? I don't believe 493 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:38,640 Speaker 1: I had. Um, Yeah, some some of this came up 494 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:40,920 Speaker 1: in my research, but I knew that you you had 495 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,520 Speaker 1: the primates firmly in your side. Here. Well, I want 496 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:46,320 Speaker 1: to briefly mention side a couple of papers as sources 497 00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:47,960 Speaker 1: here for what I'm about to talk about. One is 498 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: by Massau Kauai called Newly Acquired pre Cultural Behavior in 499 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,600 Speaker 1: the Natural Troop of Japanese Monkeys of on Koshima inlet 500 00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:00,280 Speaker 1: in the journal Primates in nineteen sixty five. And then 501 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 1: the other one is a book chapter UH called um 502 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:09,239 Speaker 1: Sweet Potato Washing Revisited by Satoshi Hirada, Kunio Watanabe, and 503 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,560 Speaker 1: Kawai Masao. The last author is the same as the 504 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,320 Speaker 1: author of the paper from the sixties. Uh. This was 505 00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,919 Speaker 1: published in Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior in 506 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:22,120 Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. Uh So, first of all, one 507 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,520 Speaker 1: thing we should say is that everything we're about to 508 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:29,040 Speaker 1: describe is not a behavior observed purely spontaneously in the wild, 509 00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,639 Speaker 1: but one that is at least in part a result 510 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,919 Speaker 1: of human intervention. So the entire story here comes with 511 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: that caveat, but it's very interesting nonetheless. So on the 512 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: island of Koshima in Japan, there are native populations of 513 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:46,160 Speaker 1: a monkey called the scientific name is Macaca fuscata, also 514 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,680 Speaker 1: known as the Japanese macaque or the snow monkey. You've 515 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:51,320 Speaker 1: never seen one of these, you should look them up 516 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:53,960 Speaker 1: that I think they're very cute. They're they're quite cute. 517 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:58,400 Speaker 1: They're very soft looking. For I know one shouldn't feel 518 00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,720 Speaker 1: this way about wild animals, but I to pet them. 519 00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:05,480 Speaker 1: But anyway, Beginning with some papers published by a scientist 520 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: named Shunzo Kawamura in the nineteen fifties, researchers began to 521 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,280 Speaker 1: document an interesting behavior among a single troop of monkeys 522 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:18,160 Speaker 1: on Koshima Island, and it was washing their food. So 523 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:21,200 Speaker 1: the history went like this. In the early nineteen fifties, 524 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 1: several Japanese researchers began providing food in the form of 525 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,959 Speaker 1: sweet potato pieces to the monkeys on the island, and 526 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,280 Speaker 1: I read in a book passage elsewhere that the original 527 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:35,200 Speaker 1: purpose of giving them the food like this was to 528 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: lure the monkeys out into an open space near the 529 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,320 Speaker 1: waterfront where it would be easier for the researchers to 530 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,280 Speaker 1: watch them to observe their behavior. And I think part 531 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: of the intended significance of this of this study was 532 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,240 Speaker 1: that the scientists would end up making long, multi generational 533 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:55,000 Speaker 1: observations of the same monkey troop, with individuals in the 534 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: troop named and differentiated so that their individual behaviors could 535 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,560 Speaker 1: be documented. But of course the monkeys liked the extra food. 536 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,680 Speaker 1: They liked the sweet potato pieces. But the real twist 537 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:10,160 Speaker 1: came in September of nineteen fifty three when a young monkey, 538 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 1: a one and a half year old female named Emo, 539 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,760 Speaker 1: appeared to have invented a new behavior. She washed her potato. 540 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,960 Speaker 1: And now washing was not previously part of the behavioral 541 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: repertoire of these monkeys, but apparently Emo was reacting to 542 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,840 Speaker 1: the fact that these sweet potato pieces left out on 543 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,840 Speaker 1: the ground, they would get covered in sand and dirt, which, 544 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,400 Speaker 1: even if you're a monkey, is apparently not the best 545 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:39,560 Speaker 1: thing to eat. So in September nineteen fifty three, Emo 546 00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,960 Speaker 1: started washing the sweet potatoes. So the standard sweet potato 547 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 1: washing behavior is described as the monkey taking a sweet 548 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,160 Speaker 1: potato piece to the edge of the water um and 549 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,440 Speaker 1: then dipping the potato into the water, holding it in 550 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: one hand, and then removing the sand or grit by 551 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:00,920 Speaker 1: brushing the potato under the water with the other hand. 552 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:05,800 Speaker 1: This potato washing behavior became famous because it was taken 553 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:10,040 Speaker 1: as evidence of the existence of quote culture in non 554 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,840 Speaker 1: human animals because, again according to mess Al Kauai in 555 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:18,160 Speaker 1: the paper from sixty five, by nineteen fifty six, eleven 556 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:22,400 Speaker 1: monkeys in the troop had acquired the behavior and had 557 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: themselves become potato washers, and across subsequent research periods after that, 558 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,920 Speaker 1: the behavior continued to spread two more and more of 559 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: the troop. Now, we could probably come back and do 560 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: a whole episode on the idea of whether this should 561 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:38,240 Speaker 1: be viewed as analogous to human culture. But on its face, 562 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 1: it seems to have a lot of properties that look 563 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:44,120 Speaker 1: like culture. It's a behavior that is not instinctual to 564 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 1: the animal, but is learned and then is spread apparently 565 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: from one individual to the other in the troop through 566 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:54,200 Speaker 1: a process of copying, eventually becoming the norm for the 567 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,000 Speaker 1: entire animal troop. But then, on the other hand, they're 568 00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,080 Speaker 1: interesting questions about this and in differences from how we 569 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: normally think of culture. For one, thing I thought was 570 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,840 Speaker 1: kind of interesting in this instance, Uh, the learning process 571 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 1: seemed to work backwards from the way human culture is 572 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,240 Speaker 1: presumed to pass across generations, because it looks like sweet 573 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,040 Speaker 1: potato washing started with younger monkeys and gradually spread to 574 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 1: the older ones. Like they said that Emo's mother apparently 575 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,800 Speaker 1: learned the potato washing behavior from Emo. Oh, well, I 576 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:28,240 Speaker 1: mean we we mentioned TikTok trends earlier. Okay, and you 577 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,200 Speaker 1: know TikTok trends are often associated with with youth culture, 578 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: so that could be a case, there could be a 579 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:35,840 Speaker 1: case to be made. Well, yeah, you do have things 580 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,240 Speaker 1: that originate with the young people, with the youth, and 581 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:42,200 Speaker 1: then they are passed upward two older members of of 582 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,160 Speaker 1: of a population of a culture. I guess. So, yeah, 583 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: maybe it's the the youth innovate and then the elders educate. 584 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,760 Speaker 1: But then certainly it does it does run counter to 585 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:54,560 Speaker 1: the sort of idea of of elders in a given 586 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: group saying this is the way, this is the way 587 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,400 Speaker 1: we handle potatoes, this is the way we wash potato. 588 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,400 Speaker 1: Obey me, younglings. But but here, here's where we're about 589 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,080 Speaker 1: to get to the part that's relevant to the idea 590 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,600 Speaker 1: of animals seasoning food. So I wanted to read a 591 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:13,160 Speaker 1: passage from that paper by Kauai in nine. The background 592 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,240 Speaker 1: of this section is that the author is describing two 593 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,680 Speaker 1: distinct variants of sweet potato washing behavior, one in which 594 00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:22,960 Speaker 1: the sweet potato is like I described a minute ago, 595 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:25,960 Speaker 1: dipped into the water with one hand and then brushed 596 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: with the other hand to remove sand. The other variant 597 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,640 Speaker 1: is known as quote rolling, and it consists of letting 598 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: the sweet potato drop into the shallow part of the 599 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: water and then rolling it back and forth with one 600 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:42,280 Speaker 1: hand before retrieving and eating it. But now, to read 601 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: from Massau Kauai quote but during the second period, a 602 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:50,520 Speaker 1: third type appeared. It consisted in dipping the potato into 603 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:54,040 Speaker 1: the water every time after knowing it once or twice. 604 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 1: This behavior seems quite different from brushing the sand off 605 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,600 Speaker 1: from the potato. They collect potatoes and take them to 606 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,520 Speaker 1: the seashore. But if this is not for the purpose 607 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,880 Speaker 1: of washing, what reason is there in this behavior except 608 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:12,560 Speaker 1: for seasoning the potatoes with saltwater. Therefore, I will call 609 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 1: this behavior the seasoning behavior. Huh So, obviously the behavior 610 00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:21,919 Speaker 1: of repeatedly dipping the sweet potato into saltwater every time 611 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:26,000 Speaker 1: the monkey takes a bite. That could have other interpretations, 612 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,759 Speaker 1: but the seasoning interpretation seems to be a pretty good one. Like, 613 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:32,879 Speaker 1: why else would they be dipping it again every time 614 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,040 Speaker 1: they take a bite off of the off of the 615 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,040 Speaker 1: piece of food. Yeah, you can see this is something 616 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,080 Speaker 1: that emerges out of out of purely you know, the 617 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 1: washing behavior. But then they grow to realize, Yeah, if 618 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:48,799 Speaker 1: the potato has been dipped in saltwater, it is more satisfying. 619 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,360 Speaker 1: And it of course is not only enhancing taste it 620 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,560 Speaker 1: is uh, it is also supplying something that the monkey's 621 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: body needs exactly. So I would say that I think 622 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,200 Speaker 1: the seasoning interpretation sation of this behavior is not conclusive. 623 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,560 Speaker 1: We don't know for sure that's what they're doing, but 624 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,479 Speaker 1: it seems pretty valid, like it seems certainly on the table. Uh. 625 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,760 Speaker 1: Of course, as we talked about before, a potato tastes 626 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:12,880 Speaker 1: so much better with some seasoning. The same goes for 627 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 1: a sweet potato. So yeah, could it be that this 628 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,359 Speaker 1: is not only an example of cultural transmission in non 629 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:24,759 Speaker 1: human animals and monkeys learning a non instinctual behavior from 630 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,759 Speaker 1: one monkey to another within the troop, but also an 631 00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: example of cookery culture cuisine emerging. Yeah. Yeah, I think 632 00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:42,560 Speaker 1: that's a fascinating example. Thank thank now. In putting together 633 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:46,800 Speaker 1: these episodes, you assembled a list of different things that 634 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:52,239 Speaker 1: were part of human food culture. Uh, culinary practices uh 635 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 1: that we were using sort of a guide to try 636 00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:01,040 Speaker 1: and look for behaviors in the animal were old that yeah, 637 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,640 Speaker 1: more or less line up with them like, for instance, 638 00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,800 Speaker 1: we we talked about the processing of food, the but 639 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:10,120 Speaker 1: butchery practices of course of the butcher board, the shrike, 640 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:12,880 Speaker 1: the lamb of guy or uh you know, and to 641 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,680 Speaker 1: a certain extent, you could make an argument that any 642 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,319 Speaker 1: kind of predator that doesn't eat its prey hole is 643 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,520 Speaker 1: engaging in some sort of butchery. Right. It's if it's 644 00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:27,560 Speaker 1: selectively eating parts of the corpse of the cadaver um, 645 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:31,839 Speaker 1: then you could make at least a week case for this. Yes, though, 646 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,759 Speaker 1: when I when I start thinking about human butchery, you know, 647 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:36,840 Speaker 1: one thing my mind goes to is like the classic 648 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,919 Speaker 1: butcher's tools, the tools you see next to the big 649 00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:42,919 Speaker 1: old wooden block that the animal would be taken apart, 650 00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,120 Speaker 1: and of course you've got your knives, and that would 651 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:47,680 Speaker 1: be related to, you know, the things we've already been 652 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,080 Speaker 1: talking about. But another butcher tool you often see is 653 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:54,200 Speaker 1: that big old hammer. What's that hammer for? For tenderizing 654 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,840 Speaker 1: the meat? Uh? So, for many of our tougher foods, 655 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,600 Speaker 1: the material must be made tender prior to cooking and 656 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,520 Speaker 1: or consumption. The tenderization of meat with a hammer or 657 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: mallet or masher is a great physical example of of this. 658 00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: You know, um and uh. You know it also essentially 659 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,480 Speaker 1: busts out some extra chewing prior to cooking. You know, 660 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,759 Speaker 1: you don't want to spend x amount of extra time 661 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 1: chewing that meat or in any cases of chewing that 662 00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:24,200 Speaker 1: potato or whatever it happens to be. Let's break it 663 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,200 Speaker 1: down a bit physically before it goes into our mouth. 664 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,640 Speaker 1: But of course, we we don't just tenderize foods with 665 00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:37,120 Speaker 1: hammers and mallets. We also tenderize them chemically via special enzymes, 666 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:40,000 Speaker 1: as well as via mixtures like vinegar and broth. And 667 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,360 Speaker 1: when we apply a marinade, we're not only flavoring the 668 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,080 Speaker 1: matter we intend to cook or and or eat, but 669 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: also we're softening it up. And again, this is a 670 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,760 Speaker 1: chemical breakdown that occurs inside the body as well, beginning 671 00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,840 Speaker 1: in the mouth. Now we've discussed some methods of externalizing 672 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,799 Speaker 1: this process before, uh, and they bear at least equipment 673 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:06,000 Speaker 1: mentioned here. House Flies consume their food is a liquid diet. 674 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:10,239 Speaker 1: So first, a housefly scrubs food with the that it 675 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:14,760 Speaker 1: fines with bristles on the end of its proboscis, freeing 676 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:18,200 Speaker 1: up food particles. So think of these like dusty food 677 00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:21,759 Speaker 1: particles that the house fly has found and then it 678 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,000 Speaker 1: vomits up a slurry of saliva and digestive juices. And 679 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: in doing this, it's kind of like adding hot water 680 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:32,640 Speaker 1: to instant oatmeal mix. Um. You know. So if you're 681 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,319 Speaker 1: being very generous with the term, you can say a 682 00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:38,640 Speaker 1: house fly is cooking sort of and then of course 683 00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,000 Speaker 1: its slurps all of it up. I love that. Yeah, 684 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:45,440 Speaker 1: so it's it's cooking right from its own gut. Yeah. Uh. 685 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,800 Speaker 1: Spiders are also another great example. They'll inject digestive juices 686 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:52,120 Speaker 1: into the bodies of their prey to break down the insides, 687 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:56,400 Speaker 1: you know, particularly prey that's been paralyzed or wrapped up 688 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,640 Speaker 1: in webbing. Uh. And then after this, um, these juices 689 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:03,000 Speaker 1: have had time to work, they can simply drink the 690 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,719 Speaker 1: insides of the prey that they have captured. I believe 691 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,279 Speaker 1: we did a whole episode on what this would be like, 692 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: What would it would be like to be eaten by 693 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:12,960 Speaker 1: a spider? It was called I Was Eaten by a 694 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,920 Speaker 1: Giant spider. Um. Yeah, that was a fun one. Yeah. Yeah. 695 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 1: Now it's also worth noting that these various means of 696 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:23,160 Speaker 1: tenderizing organic material, you know, it's it's also comparable to 697 00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:27,200 Speaker 1: the process of decomposition, so we might well loop in 698 00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:31,960 Speaker 1: natural decomposition into this category, especially for scavenger creatures who 699 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:35,200 Speaker 1: take advantage of such conditions. They can take advantage of 700 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:39,000 Speaker 1: food material that has been softened by decomposition, and they 701 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:44,000 Speaker 1: have evolved to tolerate uh levels of decomposition that other 702 00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:47,000 Speaker 1: animals would not be able to handle. Now that that 703 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: brings up another question. Uh, how about fermentation? That was 704 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:52,840 Speaker 1: another one we had on the list. Are the You know, 705 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:55,880 Speaker 1: there are plenty of examples of animals that consume fermenting fruit, 706 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,759 Speaker 1: for example, but are there examples of animals that are 707 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:03,320 Speaker 1: more actively involved in fermentation process? I couldn't really find 708 00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:07,799 Speaker 1: any good examples, but again we could roughly file fermentation 709 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:11,600 Speaker 1: under the category of decomposition. So animals like elephants, birds, 710 00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:14,960 Speaker 1: and monkeys that eat fermented fruit are also taking advantage 711 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:17,600 Speaker 1: of this process. And and on that note, I'd like 712 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:20,040 Speaker 1: to touch on just a few examples of animals that 713 00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:23,360 Speaker 1: get involved with a couple of other activities that are 714 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:27,560 Speaker 1: that are highly important to human food culture, uh the 715 00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 1: storing of food, but then also of agriculture itself. So 716 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,400 Speaker 1: first on the the just on the topic of hoarding food, 717 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:40,120 Speaker 1: of of creating a cash of food that one can 718 00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:44,320 Speaker 1: can turn to, especially during the winter. There are numerous 719 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,640 Speaker 1: examples of this, and we could easily talk about chipmunks 720 00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:50,359 Speaker 1: and squirrels and whatnot, but I wanted to talk just 721 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:54,279 Speaker 1: a little bit about a super predator of note. Um, 722 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,960 Speaker 1: and that is the mole. Sup. Yeah, I mean if 723 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,160 Speaker 1: you're if you're an earth worm, the mole is the 724 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,680 Speaker 1: the ultimate destroyer. It is the super predator of the 725 00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:08,560 Speaker 1: earthworm world. Uh. It eats nearly its weight in worms 726 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:13,520 Speaker 1: and similar subterranean creatures every day. Uh and um, it's 727 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,840 Speaker 1: it's impressive. But of course this is standard hunt and 728 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,880 Speaker 1: eat behavior, right. Nobody's gonna accuse the mole of engaging 729 00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:23,280 Speaker 1: in uh, you know, culinary activities here by gobbling it's 730 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,800 Speaker 1: it's weight in earthworms every day. But where it begins 731 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,160 Speaker 1: to mirror some aspects of human food culture is that, 732 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:33,800 Speaker 1: like many other animals, moles also stockpile food for leaner times. 733 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:38,960 Speaker 1: While various rodents famously stockpile nuts and human stockpile all 734 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:43,280 Speaker 1: sorts of foods, the mole creates a horrifying subterranean dungeon 735 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:47,480 Speaker 1: of living worms, and this is an example of larger hoarding. 736 00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:53,120 Speaker 1: Whoa living worms, yeah, or in some cases you might say, um, 737 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:56,319 Speaker 1: sort of half living worms. I guess it creates a 738 00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:00,239 Speaker 1: limbo of worms, a limbo of of worms. Yeah. I 739 00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:03,319 Speaker 1: was reading about this in a Tree Hugger article by 740 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:08,160 Speaker 1: Russell McClendon, citing a Mammal Society Species Overview article, and 741 00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,560 Speaker 1: it points out that the moles have a worm paralyzing 742 00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,480 Speaker 1: toxin in their bite, but they also will just bite 743 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:18,360 Speaker 1: the heads of of an earthworm to ensure a debilitating 744 00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:22,960 Speaker 1: but non fatal injury to said worm. And then you know, 745 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:25,200 Speaker 1: they'll eat a lot of worms, obviously, but then they'll 746 00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 1: start dragging them away and they'll create these chambers full 747 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:34,479 Speaker 1: of still living worms that they can munch on through 748 00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:38,680 Speaker 1: the leaner months. Single single mole chambers have been found 749 00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:42,920 Speaker 1: to contain as many as four hundred and seventy live earthworms. 750 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,600 Speaker 1: So that's about eight hundred and twenty grams or one 751 00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:50,759 Speaker 1: eight pounds of still living, still writhing earthworms for them 752 00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,360 Speaker 1: to eat. This one, Like I said, I feel like 753 00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,839 Speaker 1: it's a more grizzly and alarming example of the sort 754 00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:58,520 Speaker 1: of thing we're used to. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, 755 00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:00,319 Speaker 1: it's the story nuts for the winter. Now, this is 756 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,560 Speaker 1: storing live earthworms and a big dungeon for the winter. Now, 757 00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:06,919 Speaker 1: we would be remiss if we didn't at least touch 758 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,399 Speaker 1: on a topic that, of course, I think we we've 759 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:12,600 Speaker 1: we've discussed in in greater length before in the past. 760 00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:17,600 Speaker 1: But uh bee honey Uh you know, Um, this is 761 00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,160 Speaker 1: the sweet food stuff produced by the honey bee as 762 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:22,920 Speaker 1: well as some other bee species, and honey is basically 763 00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:27,720 Speaker 1: yes bee vomit. Uh. We have uh enzyme activity playing 764 00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:31,080 Speaker 1: a role in this, as well as water evaporation transforming 765 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:36,120 Speaker 1: mere sugary organic secretions of usually plants into an ideal 766 00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:39,720 Speaker 1: storable food. So in this example we see both food 767 00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,960 Speaker 1: production and storage. Uh. So it's one we're all familiar with. 768 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:47,759 Speaker 1: We all know where honey comes from. We know the 769 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,799 Speaker 1: miracle of honey. It's one of the great um achievements 770 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,359 Speaker 1: of the animal world, certainly the insect world. But it's 771 00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:57,520 Speaker 1: also when we're so familiar with we kind of uh 772 00:43:57,680 --> 00:43:59,840 Speaker 1: it's easy to forget the wonder of it, to overlook 773 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:02,600 Speaker 1: the wonder of what is being achieved here. And then 774 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,640 Speaker 1: another prime example from the insect world concerns the marvel 775 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:09,080 Speaker 1: of the leaf cutter ants, of which there are around 776 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:13,120 Speaker 1: I think forty seven identified species. They cultivate their own 777 00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,080 Speaker 1: crop of fungus, growing it on harvested leaf clippings. In 778 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:20,960 Speaker 1: some cases, these fungus species are entirely dependent on their 779 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,279 Speaker 1: aunt masters. Uh. You know, we're talking like extinct in 780 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,960 Speaker 1: the wild situations, but it is uh, I mean, these 781 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:33,360 Speaker 1: are these are complex uh societies of these leaf cutter ants. 782 00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:36,400 Speaker 1: But what they are practicing here is is agriculture in 783 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,960 Speaker 1: a nutshell, and they've been practicing it for for a 784 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:43,080 Speaker 1: period of time that dwarfs human agricultural practice. They got 785 00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,480 Speaker 1: a stew going they do. Yeah, So I mean, I 786 00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:47,360 Speaker 1: think it's neat to kind of look at some of 787 00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:52,280 Speaker 1: those examples, especially because they kind of forecast what humans 788 00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,680 Speaker 1: would come to do. Like what humans are doing with 789 00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:58,759 Speaker 1: their food is certainly an advanced model, uh, compared to 790 00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:01,920 Speaker 1: anything going on in the human world. But it's not unconnected. 791 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:04,960 Speaker 1: It's not it's not an island, you know. You you 792 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:09,799 Speaker 1: see shadows of what we are doing, uh in these 793 00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:15,239 Speaker 1: other practices, in these other approaches to life, and so yeah, 794 00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:17,440 Speaker 1: what we're doing is just kind of the the human 795 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:21,440 Speaker 1: complication of that. All right, we're gonna go and close 796 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:24,719 Speaker 1: out this episode, but you know, we would love to 797 00:45:24,719 --> 00:45:27,759 Speaker 1: come back in the future and discuss the cuisine of 798 00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:31,560 Speaker 1: non animals a bit more so if you have particular 799 00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:34,600 Speaker 1: favorite examples of this, or if there's something in the 800 00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:36,560 Speaker 1: animal world that you would like to personally make a 801 00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:40,319 Speaker 1: case for um or it's just something you've observed right 802 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:42,440 Speaker 1: in and let us know, we'd love to hear from you. 803 00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:44,640 Speaker 1: And uh, you know, we were just chatting a few 804 00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:46,200 Speaker 1: minutes ago off Mike that you know, there are a 805 00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:49,200 Speaker 1: number of different leads for this episode that we didn't 806 00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:51,720 Speaker 1: have time to look into. So yeah, we could easily 807 00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:53,600 Speaker 1: come back in the future and do a third episode 808 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,920 Speaker 1: if you the listener desires it. In the meantime, if 809 00:45:57,920 --> 00:45:59,560 Speaker 1: you would like to check out other episodes of Stuff 810 00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,720 Speaker 1: to Blow Your on Core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays 811 00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:05,160 Speaker 1: and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed Listener 812 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,239 Speaker 1: Mail on Monday, Artifact or Monster Fact on Wednesday, and 813 00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:11,120 Speaker 1: on Fridays, we do Weird House Cinema. That's our time 814 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,719 Speaker 1: to set aside most serious matters and just focus in 815 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:16,640 Speaker 1: on a strange film. Huge thanks as always to our 816 00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:20,120 Speaker 1: excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like 817 00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:22,239 Speaker 1: to get in touch with us with feedback on this 818 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,720 Speaker 1: episode or any other, to suggest topic for the future, 819 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,400 Speaker 1: just to say hello, you can email us at contact 820 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:37,440 Speaker 1: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to 821 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:40,000 Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For 822 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:42,839 Speaker 1: more podcasts for my Heart Radio with the iHeart Radio app, 823 00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:58,320 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows, 824 00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,600 Speaker 1: I might just have a tabs back by a prot