1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,480
Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast am on

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,400
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and welcome back to Coast to Coast George Norway

3
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:12,639
Speaker 1: with you. Pat Spain, wildlife biologist, cryptozoologists, biotech expert, presenter

4
00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,119
Speaker 1: on television, keynote speaker, author, of course, several of his

5
00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:19,479
Speaker 1: books included the ones I just mentioned. With a passion

6
00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,320
Speaker 1: for adventure, Pat is always seeking his next greatest escapade

7
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,360
Speaker 1: and the opportunity to add to this ever growing list

8
00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,240
Speaker 1: of things that have bitten or stung him. As the

9
00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,520
Speaker 1: great nephew of the Prophet of the Unexplained, Charles Fort.

10
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,080
Speaker 1: You've heard of forty in Times and Everything Charles Fort.

11
00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,120
Speaker 1: Pat thinks of himself as carrying on a family tradition

12
00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:45,160
Speaker 1: by questioning mainstream science, considering unusual explanations for the bizarre phenomena,

13
00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,000
Speaker 1: and generally investigating those things that most people write off

14
00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:53,479
Speaker 1: as nearly impossible. Pat, Welcome to the program. Thanks so

15
00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:55,400
Speaker 1: much for having me tell me a little bit more

16
00:00:55,440 --> 00:01:00,160
Speaker 1: about what I read, which was pretty comprehensive. Anyway, I've

17
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:03,600
Speaker 1: had a pretty strange life, and I guess a lot

18
00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,039
Speaker 1: of it is summarized by just looking for looking for

19
00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,120
Speaker 1: answers just trying to find out the things that you know,

20
00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,039
Speaker 1: I can't read about myself. I'd like to get out

21
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:13,360
Speaker 1: there and try to figure them out. Did you know

22
00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,000
Speaker 1: what Charles Fort did when he did it in those days?

23
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,000
Speaker 1: So the really interesting thing about my connection with Fort

24
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:22,959
Speaker 1: is that I was reading his books before realizing that

25
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,000
Speaker 1: I was related to him. My grandmother on my father's side,

26
00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,520
Speaker 1: I was always a kind of strange kid, and I

27
00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:32,399
Speaker 1: was always obsessed with animals. I was out there finding

28
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,000
Speaker 1: every type of animal you can imagine and raising them

29
00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,280
Speaker 1: in the house. And my grandmother used to say, you're

30
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,119
Speaker 1: just like your uncle Charlie. And I had no idea

31
00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,840
Speaker 1: who she was talking about until many years later when

32
00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:45,080
Speaker 1: I was in high school and she saw me reading

33
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:48,320
Speaker 1: a Charles Fort book and she said, that's your uncle Charlie.

34
00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:50,160
Speaker 1: I said, what do you mean? And then she kind

35
00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,240
Speaker 1: of brought out a whole bunch of his first editions

36
00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,240
Speaker 1: that were signed and showed me all of this that

37
00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,160
Speaker 1: you know, had been given to her by her parents,

38
00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,920
Speaker 1: and I just all started clicking into place. What got

39
00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,840
Speaker 1: you interested in the crypto world? So I've always been

40
00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:12,160
Speaker 1: fascinated by the natural world and cryptozoology really is an

41
00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,520
Speaker 1: extension of biology, and kind of the stranger animals were

42
00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,560
Speaker 1: the ones that intrigued me the most. So when I

43
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,440
Speaker 1: was out there, you know, I studied marine biology in

44
00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: school and I always wanted to go to the deep

45
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,280
Speaker 1: oceans to study what could possibly be in there. And

46
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,880
Speaker 1: you know, whenever when a little kid sees the first

47
00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:34,520
Speaker 1: story about you know, the giant squid or some other

48
00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:37,400
Speaker 1: mysterious creature from the depths, you can kind of start

49
00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:41,320
Speaker 1: to foster that interest in that imagination in thinking that

50
00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:43,360
Speaker 1: there's a lot more out there that we don't know about,

51
00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:46,120
Speaker 1: and the deep ocean represents that to me. So that

52
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,240
Speaker 1: that was my original introduction to cryptozoology, was the deep

53
00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:55,520
Speaker 1: sea squid and just the general ocean mysteries, and that

54
00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,440
Speaker 1: kind of sparked me looking into well, what other animals,

55
00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,720
Speaker 1: you know, what other mysterious creatures might be out there?

56
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,079
Speaker 1: And that is the definition of cryptozoology. Have you really

57
00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,560
Speaker 1: been bitten or stung by creatures? Oh? Just about everything

58
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:09,680
Speaker 1: you can think of. Yeah, I've written by you know,

59
00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: a small black bear, by a rattle, a neotropical rattlesnake

60
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: which was really really nasty, a rabbit, raccoon, bullet ants,

61
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:21,160
Speaker 1: a whole bunch, just about everything, just about everything out there.

62
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,080
Speaker 1: What was the worst bite pat the rattlesnake. So a

63
00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:27,000
Speaker 1: lot of people think the rattlesnake would be and that

64
00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,519
Speaker 1: was not fun for sure. But luckily that was a

65
00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:31,799
Speaker 1: dry bite, so about twenty five percent of the time

66
00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 1: that rattlesnakes bite, they don't inject any venom, so I

67
00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,480
Speaker 1: got very, very lucky on that one. The worst bite

68
00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:41,360
Speaker 1: for me was a rabbit raccoon, and that I was

69
00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,080
Speaker 1: studying oysters down in Maryland and on my lunch break,

70
00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:47,600
Speaker 1: I was kind of just hanging out reading a book

71
00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:50,840
Speaker 1: and heard a noise and my friends and I had

72
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,320
Speaker 1: been having a water balloon fight all day, so I

73
00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:55,200
Speaker 1: thought it was one of my friends sneaking up on me,

74
00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,560
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be this raccoon. So I

75
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:03,000
Speaker 1: saw it jumping at me, and that's really unusual. Raccoons

76
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,480
Speaker 1: are usually you know, they'll keep their distance. So I

77
00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:07,920
Speaker 1: put my arm up to block, and the raccoon lashed

78
00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,720
Speaker 1: onto my arm and started just shaking its head and

79
00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:15,200
Speaker 1: spraying you know, saliva and foam and blood everywhere, and

80
00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:17,919
Speaker 1: we tussled for a little while before I finally, you know,

81
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,200
Speaker 1: kind of kicked it and got it to run away

82
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:23,320
Speaker 1: and was rushed to the hospital and had to get

83
00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:25,360
Speaker 1: you know, a whole bunch of shots that day. Had

84
00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:27,839
Speaker 1: to get shots in my arm and my thighs, in

85
00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:32,440
Speaker 1: my butt in each one of the bites. It was.

86
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,159
Speaker 1: It was wild and the Yeah, so that was definitely

87
00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:38,480
Speaker 1: the worst bite. I ended up with some pretty good

88
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,760
Speaker 1: scars from that. Oh, that's fantastic. You know, we talk

89
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:46,599
Speaker 1: about cryptids, what creatures come to mind, So most people

90
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,080
Speaker 1: think of kind of the big you know, like the

91
00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:51,839
Speaker 1: Big two, our Lochness Monster and Bigfoot. Those are the

92
00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,640
Speaker 1: ones that you know, everyone has heard of, everyone has

93
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:58,200
Speaker 1: heard something about. But really cryptozoology goes a lot deeper

94
00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:02,240
Speaker 1: than that, and they're these strange, you know, little creatures

95
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:05,080
Speaker 1: from all over the world better that have become kind

96
00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,120
Speaker 1: of persistent myths and legends, and there's also just stories

97
00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:13,200
Speaker 1: of creatures that sound more commonplace, and you know, it's

98
00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,000
Speaker 1: it's eventually a lot of them are discovered to be

99
00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,040
Speaker 1: these real flesh and blood creatures. You know. The skull

100
00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:22,120
Speaker 1: faced macaque is one that comes to mind pretty recently,

101
00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:26,280
Speaker 1: so a primate species that was very recently named in

102
00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia. So when I was looking for cryptids

103
00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,159
Speaker 1: on this show, Beast Hunter M we took kind of

104
00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,520
Speaker 1: a blend of some of the more outlandish sounding ones

105
00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:42,720
Speaker 1: like the Mongolian deathworm and something more like Caddy, so

106
00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,200
Speaker 1: a Canadian sea serpent. Which there's a lot of different,

107
00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:49,159
Speaker 1: you know, flesh and blood creatures that can be used

108
00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:52,080
Speaker 1: to explain this. I've picked up in your books to

109
00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:57,080
Speaker 1: the three that I have some very strange, embarrassing situations

110
00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:05,040
Speaker 1: for you. What are some of the stories. So throughout

111
00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,920
Speaker 1: throughout my adventures, I'm kind of the ultimate fish out

112
00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:10,479
Speaker 1: of water. So I was thrown into these, you know,

113
00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,680
Speaker 1: various situations in different cultures that I really didn't know

114
00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:16,919
Speaker 1: too much about and that can lend to some pretty

115
00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:21,480
Speaker 1: interesting situations. So one of my favorites was in Mongolia. Um,

116
00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,800
Speaker 1: the plan was for me to do this traditional Mongolian wrestling,

117
00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:28,240
Speaker 1: which folks have seen footage of this. You've seen, you know,

118
00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,320
Speaker 1: some photos and things. You wear these tiny little bikini

119
00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:35,080
Speaker 1: briefs and this little shirt that just covers your arms

120
00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:39,000
Speaker 1: and back actually, and um, then you you do this

121
00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:41,919
Speaker 1: wrestling and I'm not a big guy. People here, Beast

122
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,360
Speaker 1: Hunter legend hunter. They think of, you know, some big

123
00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:48,000
Speaker 1: professional wrestler. I'm a science nerd. This this is not

124
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,479
Speaker 1: you know, my my forte. But um, this was a

125
00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:55,120
Speaker 1: way to show respect to the culture and a way

126
00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,360
Speaker 1: to kind of integrate myself with um, with a group

127
00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:00,320
Speaker 1: of people who I was going to be asked them

128
00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:04,320
Speaker 1: from really detailed explanations about their history and their culture,

129
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:07,200
Speaker 1: and I wanted them to trust me, So I thought, well,

130
00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:09,680
Speaker 1: this would be a good way to do this. So

131
00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:13,680
Speaker 1: the whole plan was for me to learn how to wrestle,

132
00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:17,080
Speaker 1: so to get some some tips and tricks from one

133
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,520
Speaker 1: of the you know, one of the nation's top wrestlers,

134
00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,360
Speaker 1: and then to put it into use in the ring.

135
00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:27,040
Speaker 1: So it comes time, It's about an hour before I'm

136
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,520
Speaker 1: supposed to wrestle, and all of a sudden, this enormous

137
00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,560
Speaker 1: man just comes over and picks me up as if

138
00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,160
Speaker 1: I was a child, just lifts me up under his arm.

139
00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,880
Speaker 1: He carries me into a tent and starts stripping off

140
00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 1: all of my clothes, and I'm standing there, going what's

141
00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:44,360
Speaker 1: going on? Is this supposed to be happening? And there's

142
00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:46,240
Speaker 1: a whole crowd that kind of gathers around and they're

143
00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:49,440
Speaker 1: all laughing, and this guy's just literally ripping off my shirt,

144
00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:51,400
Speaker 1: pulling down my pants. He's lifting me up in the

145
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,080
Speaker 1: air and people are taking my shoes off. They put

146
00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:56,960
Speaker 1: me in this traditional wrestling outfit that you know, fits

147
00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:00,880
Speaker 1: very very snugly, and starts, you know, they this guy

148
00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,400
Speaker 1: just slaps my butt and pushes me into this ring,

149
00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,760
Speaker 1: and there's no prep, there's no explanation of what's going on.

150
00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,600
Speaker 1: People are screaming in another language, and you don't know

151
00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:12,440
Speaker 1: who you're going to wrestle right at what's going on,

152
00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:14,480
Speaker 1: no idea what's happening. And all of a sudden, I'm

153
00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:18,040
Speaker 1: standing there with this giant of a man, just in

154
00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:22,080
Speaker 1: this wrestling ring, with a couple thousand nomadic herders all

155
00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:25,800
Speaker 1: forming a circle around us, watching, and this person who

156
00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:28,080
Speaker 1: was supposed to have been my coach just yells in

157
00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:32,800
Speaker 1: English dance like an eagle, and I don't know what's happening,

158
00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:35,520
Speaker 1: so I start kind of roaming around the ring and

159
00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 1: everyone starts laughing, and then the wrestling begins, and it

160
00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:41,160
Speaker 1: ends about two seconds later with the guy just sweeping

161
00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:44,160
Speaker 1: my leg and throwing me to the ground, and the

162
00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,200
Speaker 1: next thing I know. The announcer says something else in

163
00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,480
Speaker 1: a different language that I don't know, and everyone starts

164
00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:52,080
Speaker 1: laughing again. And it turns out what he said is

165
00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:55,240
Speaker 1: the American doesn't think he's done his best, so we're

166
00:08:55,280 --> 00:09:00,120
Speaker 1: going to have him wrestle a child. What happened? And

167
00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,120
Speaker 1: then I wrestled a child who also beat me really

168
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:08,240
Speaker 1: really bad. Have you ever been afraid? Yeah? Absolutely so.

169
00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:11,000
Speaker 1: I think that the toughest thing about these shoots are

170
00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:14,040
Speaker 1: or about, you know, just traveling in general, is the

171
00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:18,240
Speaker 1: actual traveling part of it. So the animals I can

172
00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:21,480
Speaker 1: deal with. I've been working with dangerous animals my entire life,

173
00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:24,000
Speaker 1: But on some of these shoots, the least control that

174
00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,040
Speaker 1: you have is in the travel aspect of it. So

175
00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:31,280
Speaker 1: at one point, we were barreling down these dirt roads

176
00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,960
Speaker 1: with you know, human sized potholes on red clay in

177
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,360
Speaker 1: West Africa, going between the Congo and Cameroon and the

178
00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:42,160
Speaker 1: Central African Republic, and we're barreling down these roads at

179
00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:44,960
Speaker 1: you know, eighty miles an hour in a truck that

180
00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:49,439
Speaker 1: has the odometer stopped reading at four hundred thousand miles,

181
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 1: so no idea what's going on. It had broken down

182
00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,160
Speaker 1: multiple times, and all of a sudden, flames start shooting

183
00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:57,800
Speaker 1: out of the dashboard while we're going, and the driver

184
00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,480
Speaker 1: just reaches over and starts hitting the flames with his

185
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,680
Speaker 1: hand while he's driving, while he's flying down these roads

186
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,440
Speaker 1: as we're begging him to stop and pull over. And

187
00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:12,920
Speaker 1: this is just normal commonplace. So yeah, the travel aspect

188
00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:16,720
Speaker 1: of it can definitely be the most kind of nerve racking. Pat.

189
00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:18,760
Speaker 1: I'm going to throw out some cryptids, and I want

190
00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:23,439
Speaker 1: your explanation, yes or no, that they exist, and what

191
00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 1: they may be if they don't exist the way people think.

192
00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,600
Speaker 1: Are you ready? Sure, Let's start with the chupacabra. People

193
00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:34,719
Speaker 1: are seeing the strange little creature. Yeah, so chupacabra. I

194
00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:38,480
Speaker 1: think the best explanation for chupacabra are different species with

195
00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,079
Speaker 1: mange or with other diseases. I think that they live

196
00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,440
Speaker 1: in pretty harsh environments, so they're often seen in desert environments,

197
00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:49,120
Speaker 1: and mange is not uncommon in the areas where it's seen,

198
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,200
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of different animals. Animals look so

199
00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,840
Speaker 1: weird when they have mange. I mean, even someone who

200
00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:57,559
Speaker 1: sees these animals all the time and knows them pretty well,

201
00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:01,920
Speaker 1: it's very easy for them to be mistaken identity, So

202
00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:05,400
Speaker 1: it could be anything from um, yeah, I mean just

203
00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,240
Speaker 1: about any species that any mammal species that lives in

204
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:12,000
Speaker 1: those areas with Maine would look really really unusual. Sasquatch?

205
00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:15,959
Speaker 1: What are people looking at? What are they seen? So sasquatch,

206
00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,120
Speaker 1: I think is a fascinating one. In the Pacific Northwest. UM,

207
00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,360
Speaker 1: I wouldn't one hundred percent rule out the possibility that

208
00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:26,920
Speaker 1: there that there is a large, unknown mammal that that

209
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,520
Speaker 1: folks are seeing, but I think the majority of sightings

210
00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:35,520
Speaker 1: are probably mistaken identity for a bear, the majority. That's interesting.

211
00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:40,480
Speaker 1: Interesting indeed where wolves? So where wolves? Um? I think

212
00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:44,640
Speaker 1: also mistaken identity probably for for bears, for wolves, for

213
00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,480
Speaker 1: other large mammals. All right, that's interesting too. What else

214
00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:53,960
Speaker 1: is out there? So the mappinguari in Brazil I think

215
00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:55,839
Speaker 1: is one of the one of the great ones that

216
00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:00,000
Speaker 1: I had. I really thought was most likely mistaken identity

217
00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,360
Speaker 1: until I actually got down there and started doing the

218
00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:06,880
Speaker 1: investigation myself. And with that one, I think that what

219
00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:10,640
Speaker 1: people are seeing are a giant ground sloth. And most

220
00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:13,600
Speaker 1: people would say that this one extinct about ten thousand

221
00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,160
Speaker 1: years ago, but we do know that remnant populations of

222
00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:19,040
Speaker 1: ground slots survived in different spots in the world, and

223
00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:22,880
Speaker 1: the Aisle of Hispaniola, for example, they survived until much

224
00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:26,280
Speaker 1: more recently. They were smaller than what we classically think

225
00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:30,680
Speaker 1: of with the megatherium, the really big ground slots. But

226
00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,920
Speaker 1: I think in Brazil, just based on the location where

227
00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:37,400
Speaker 1: they're sited and the people who live there, their history,

228
00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:41,000
Speaker 1: their stories, the way that they would deal with a

229
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:43,719
Speaker 1: creature like a giant ground slot, I think that there

230
00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:48,320
Speaker 1: is still a remnant population down there. Fascinating, it really is,

231
00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:53,079
Speaker 1: and why can't we find one of these or catch

232
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:57,560
Speaker 1: one of these? So in that one in particular, so

233
00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,360
Speaker 1: the giant ground sloth, it really comes back to the

234
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:03,880
Speaker 1: culture of the people who live there. And this was

235
00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:06,840
Speaker 1: why I really love doing the investigation through a cultural

236
00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,960
Speaker 1: anthropology kind of focus, because when you say giant ground

237
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,920
Speaker 1: slots surviving in an area, people say, that's impossible. There's

238
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:15,520
Speaker 1: no way we would we would have seen one, we

239
00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:17,600
Speaker 1: would have gotten a photo of one, but it's it's

240
00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,160
Speaker 1: a really harsh environment. It's very difficult to get to

241
00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:24,959
Speaker 1: and it's protected by the government, so you can't go

242
00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:29,160
Speaker 1: to this area because there are uncontacted tribes. So I

243
00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,880
Speaker 1: was not in the uncontacted tribes, but I was able

244
00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:34,920
Speaker 1: to meet with some of the tribes that are still

245
00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:39,400
Speaker 1: protected by this government organization in Brazil, where in order

246
00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,000
Speaker 1: to even go into the area, you have to have

247
00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:44,160
Speaker 1: a health exam, you have to get special permission, you

248
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,480
Speaker 1: have to get a license, you know, in order to

249
00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,439
Speaker 1: enter into this region. And then you go even further

250
00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,360
Speaker 1: and as I said, there's uncontacted tribes, so that takes

251
00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,480
Speaker 1: a lot of it's very very difficult to get in there,

252
00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:59,280
Speaker 1: as it should be, because we could potentially introduce disease

253
00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:05,320
Speaker 1: or you know, other issues with the tribes. So their

254
00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:09,080
Speaker 1: stories and their legends are such that this Mappinguari that

255
00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:12,000
Speaker 1: they call it is so other, it's so different from

256
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:16,720
Speaker 1: humans that if they ever hear the call of a Mappinguari,

257
00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:19,800
Speaker 1: they have to leave the area and never go back.

258
00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:25,520
Speaker 1: So my theory is that throughout you know, history, because

259
00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,560
Speaker 1: of this legend, because of this story, and because of

260
00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:33,040
Speaker 1: the protections afforded to them, the indigenous peoples in the area,

261
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:35,720
Speaker 1: when they would be leaving an area, so they hear

262
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,520
Speaker 1: the call of the mapping Gwari, they have to leave

263
00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:43,000
Speaker 1: the area. They're actually creating wildlife refuges. They're creating an

264
00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:46,280
Speaker 1: area where animals, you know, can thrive without any type

265
00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:49,840
Speaker 1: of human interactions. So if the Western world can't go

266
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,840
Speaker 1: there because of this, because of the protections, and the

267
00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:55,800
Speaker 1: indigenous people don't go there because of their culture and

268
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:59,240
Speaker 1: their history and these stories and legends about the mapping Guari,

269
00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,680
Speaker 1: then they're they're creating nature preserves. Have you ever hit

270
00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,640
Speaker 1: roadkill and dragged it into your car and ate it?

271
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,440
Speaker 1: I have not, But you've had some strange stuff. I

272
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:15,720
Speaker 1: have eaten some pretty weird things, that is true. Yes,

273
00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:18,760
Speaker 1: so um it's throughout the travels a lot of times

274
00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:21,480
Speaker 1: I don't really know what I'm eating, and I'm okay

275
00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:24,920
Speaker 1: with that. I'm a very adventurous eater. I like to

276
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,160
Speaker 1: try new things. That's actually what I asked for every

277
00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,600
Speaker 1: year for Christmas. They're just some some weird foods. I

278
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,880
Speaker 1: have a list of things that my wife has been

279
00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:36,760
Speaker 1: looking for me for years. But on these shoots, I

280
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:38,840
Speaker 1: rarely know what it is that someone is put in

281
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:42,920
Speaker 1: front of me. And you know, the strangest are usually

282
00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:46,600
Speaker 1: the fruits and vegetables that it's just impossible to even

283
00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,040
Speaker 1: compare them to anything else. There's this delicious fruit that

284
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:54,640
Speaker 1: grew on a tiny little mountain in Sumatra, really really

285
00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:57,720
Speaker 1: isolated way out there, that looked like a bowl of

286
00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:00,080
Speaker 1: frogs eggs, and you kind of slurp it down on

287
00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,840
Speaker 1: it and it has this delicious citrusy texture just or

288
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,960
Speaker 1: citrusy flavor rather um. And then there's the stuff that's

289
00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:10,040
Speaker 1: not so great. So in Sumatra, we were served this,

290
00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:14,880
Speaker 1: you know, huge bowl of rice and other grains and things,

291
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:16,640
Speaker 1: but then there was this meat on top of it.

292
00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:18,920
Speaker 1: And we couldn't figure out exactly what the meat was

293
00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,120
Speaker 1: until we saw some cats kind of run by outside,

294
00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:25,320
Speaker 1: and the chef pointed out there and said, yes, there

295
00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:28,040
Speaker 1: it is. That's the chicken. They're like, oh, that's that's

296
00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:31,880
Speaker 1: not chicken. Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every

297
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,120
Speaker 1: weeknight at one am Eastern, and go to Coast to

298
00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:36,880
Speaker 1: Coast am dot com for more