WEBVTT - How Rainforests Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to you stuff you should know from house storks 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.040 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:18.200 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, uh, and the little dinosaur 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.160 friend of yours. Yeah, he's kind of become a fixture. 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.640 Where what's this? Yeah, it looks like a she what's 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:31.960 his her name? Oh? Dinah? That was sharp, Thank you. 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:37.080 I appreciate that. Not as sharp, however, unfortunately, as the 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:43.080 blade of the cattleman's chainsaw cutting down their traffical rainforests 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:48.199 like crazy or burning it. Yeah. Crazy, Well, that's what 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.559 they used to do, supposedly. I don't know if you 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:52.279 know this or not, but I read a couple of 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:58.000 books by a guy named Charles C. Mann. One other 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:02.920 calls fourteen, the other is called four and Um. In it, 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.720 he talks about how there's a lot of evidence that 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:11.800 the Amazon Basin was a completely human managed creation, that 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.880 it's not like some virgin tropical rainforest in its natural state, 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.160 that it was like creative planted it and managed it. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.280 And um, I think he says, like, if that's the case, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.919 then it's like the largest public works project ever undertaken 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.560 in the history community. But one of the pieces of 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.959 evidence is this like slash and char agriculture, where it's 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.399 like you set the forest on fire, um, but you 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:41.240 don't let it burn all the way down in the ash. 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.160 You like, you know, put it out and it leaves 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.000 these stumps of charcoal which actually make the ground more fertile, 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.560 which it turns out. It is a surprising factor if 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.240 you ask me, a surprising fact of the podcast that 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:01.720 the ground, the soil in this incredibly lust Amazon rainforce 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:07.480 or any rainforest, tropical rainforescet is really not very fertile 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.760 at all. Yeah, at least deep down. That's a good point, 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.360 and that is in this article. And I thought that 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.280 was pretty interesting too. I thought this article was jam 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.079 packed and stuff, and then it just takes a really 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.919 depressing turn at the end. Yeah, because everyone knows what's 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.760 going on with the rainforest. And we're gonna read a 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:31.200 plug later. But our old friend Joanne Um who nominated 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.600 us for an Emmy nomination. Of course, we learned quickly 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.840 that spoken word albums you don't have a shot. Well, no, 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.080 it's kind of a rip off because all the spoken 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.359 word Emmy's, I'm sorry, Grammy's to say Emmy, all the 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:50.040 spoken word. Grammys are people reading their autobiographies who know everybody. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.240 It's just such a rip off. It really hard working 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.840 folks like you and I can't be nominated for a 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.160 Grammy because Tina fe read her book out loud inm 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.320 of a microphone and look, it's so funny, got like 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.600 a man's forearms. It's hilarious. I love Tina Fey. But anyway, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.800 Joanne uh stand aloneus and I think I'm pronouncing that 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:13.239 right works for the Amazon Institute and she's one who 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:18.120 kind of um got me thinking about this today, and 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.680 we're gonna plug her organization later. You can adopt a sloth. 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.880 Oh yeah, yeah, that's great, pretty neat. So having said that, 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.079 thank you, Joanne. You don't make a problem with those 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.480 programs is you don't actually get to take the sloth 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.360 or the kid or whoever home with its adoption. I 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:39.280 think it's just like giving money to somebody, is pretty much. 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:41.960 But yeah, I think that's a good thing to plug. Chuckers, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.680 chuck um. I want you to know something. The tropical 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:52.320 rainforests on Earth cover six to seven of the dry 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.640 land on the planet. Yeah, not counting the oceans, right, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:02.240 but they may they are home to about out of 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:07.320 the species on the whole planet. Yeah, mind boggling. I'm 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.360 just gonna go ahead and say this whole podcast, you 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.840 will be blown away by the numbers, the sheer numbers 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.840 of diversity going on and sadly six percent now it 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:23.360 used to. Yeah, it's going away at an alarming rate. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.280 There's a statistic given at the end um of this 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.640 article that I've heard many times with some of these 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:35.800 like kind of hippie um ecology statistics, you have to 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.800 kind of go back and look, you know, um a 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.080 lot of them, like they're just so staggering and it's 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.919 very important stuff that some sensational ones kind of slipped 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.240 through the cracks and like it reported over and over 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:53.000 and over again. But the forty Like, okay, so there 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.279 there's a statistic that at the current rate of deforestation, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.839 there will be no tropical rainforests left on Earth and 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.200 forty years. And I looked it up and um, apparently 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.479 that's fairly close to accurate. So at the rate that 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.000 it's being deforested today, which is about fifty thousand acres 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.919 a day's one point three acres a second or something 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.760 like that, one point five acres a second. Okay, every second. Yeah, 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.920 that is depressing. Yeah, so fifty tho acres a day. Um. So, 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.919 if you take the total acreage of rainforest left on 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.920 Earth and divide it by fifty acres lost a day, 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.080 If you do that constantly, twenty four hours a day, 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.640 every day in forty years, there's no rainforest left at 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:40.280 this right. You want to hear something else, scary, h 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.440 Five years ago there were ten million Indians living in 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:50.479 the Amazonian rainforest. Ten million today, less than two thousand. Yeah, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.080 that's that's the Amazon alone, right, Yeah, Amazonian rainforest. Well, 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:56.719 the Amazon is by far the largest rainforest. It's the 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.280 Amazon makes up of the tropic rainforest left on Earth. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.520 Of all the tropical rainforests, Yeah, but all all in, 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.880 I think there are more than eighty countries through Africa, Australia, Asia, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.760 Central and South America that um and we're talking tropical. 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.080 We're not talking about you in Seattle and you and Oregon. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.800 Those are rainforests. They're beautiful, they're not tropical rainforest. But 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.360 you try to find a sloth in there, you can't 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.640 do it. No slut, not that I know. I don't 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:32.040 think so. Uh So I guess let's talk about weather, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.000 lots of rain and rainforest. Yeah, they don't call it 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.760 that for nothing. Now, did you convert these inches defeat 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:43.440 because it's startling when you do. No. Um, I'll give 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.720 you inches first, and if you have that conversion, that's great. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.040 A hundred and sixty to four hundred inches of rain 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:52.640 per year, thirteen to thirty three ft of rain of 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.039 rain every year, and we can get rains in Georgia, right. Yeah, No, 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.480 it makes Georgia look like the Sahara Desert. Yeah, maybe 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.320 even the go Be Yeah. Uh. For those of you 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.480 living outside of the United States and what other country 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.320 was it? But he's the Imperial system Liberia. Um. That's 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.200 we're talking four d and six point four to one thousand, 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.880 sixteen centimeters centimes a lot of meters. Uh. There is 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.880 no dry season, yeah, like you have in some places, 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.520 like where you have like Monsousi monsoon season, try season. Uh. 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.680 It's wet all year round, spread out pretty evenly. Temperature 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:34.040 remains pretty constant, hot and muggy below sixty. That's because 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.240 tropical rainforests form a band around the equator between the 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.040 two Meridians the tropics. Things don't change a lot there, right, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.880 because the what is it? The procession of the earth 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.840 doesn't create seasons like it does elsewhere in the northern 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:50.960 nor southern hemisphere. Sure, we get a little further away 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.320 from the sun gets a little cooler, right, So what 0:07:53.480 --> 0:08:00.920 you have hot, wet and um green? Yes? And the 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.760 reason like monster green, monster green? Like? Uh, I guess 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.600 we should start at the top with a canopy. Um 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.440 I drew also, Chuck, if you need any help, I 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:16.360 drew a little diagram, did you it's a text to picture. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.880 You need to put a little happy face on your sunshine. 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.600 I didn't even bring a pen. We can add that later. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.840 But if you need this, this is here. Appreciate that. Uh, 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:31.520 the canopy. We're talking giant trees six fifty ft um tall, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.000 forming the thick canopy such that only like one person 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.920 of light will eventually hit the floor of the jungle, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.679 and then above that. Sometimes you're gonna have these and 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.160 I see you drew them the little what if they 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:49.880 called emergence. Emergence, These trees that are so uh stubborn 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.200 and intent on getting sunlight. They're like, you know what, 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.280 I'm gonna grow even higher than the canopy and steal 0:08:55.400 --> 0:09:00.280 all that sunlight for myself. Crooked trees. Basically, there's a 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.640 lot of cooks that we're gonna get doing this. Yeah, 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.839 it's kind of okay. So one thing that I learned 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.240 from reading this is the tropical rainforest is a real 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.040 like dog eat dog um ecosum. Maybe we should just 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.319 get rid of it all. I don't think. I mean, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:19.040 it's brutal plants like sucking the life out of other plants. 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.080 That's just how it goes. That's what it's like in 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.520 the jungle. Josh, So you've got the canopy level, got 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.760 the canopies, and you said another fact of the podcast 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.600 to me, um, only one percent the sunlight that hits 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.960 that canopy makes it down to the forest floor. Yeah. 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:36.880 And another cool thing that was pointed out a little 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.440 later is that, um if if like one of these 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.800 trees dies and there's a hole in the canopy and 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:46.239 little sunlight gets through, it's like everyone and everything goes berserker. 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.720 Plants and animals like sun. You gotta get to it. 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.959 That's our life, and they like scramble towards these little sunspots. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.960 It's like, um that rush song the trees. Yeah, that's 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:02.960 a good one. Uh, that wasn't They were like way 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.880 proggy early phase. They then I like prog rock because 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.000 I like Rush. Yeah. Well, apparently their new album is 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.800 pretty good. Everything they did was good. No, I mean 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:16.040 they had name one album of theirs that wasn't good. Well, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.760 I mean anything since the late eighties to me, no, man, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.839 I'm telling you still. Well, they're getting high marks where 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:24.800 their do. One for being like sort of a throwback 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.320 to their old sound. That's great. I actually don't like 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:32.760 their earliest stuff, like twelve, not that big one. All right, boy, 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.560 that's a dude conversation. You ever been to a Rush 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.280 show the five girls there, Yeah, it's true, and they're 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.320 looking around like, yeah, exactly, and the guys don't even 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.200 notice them because Getty leaves on stage and I'm wearing 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.240 a wizard's hat. Alright. So the forest floor, where it's 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.000 nice and dark and dank, um, you're gonna find what 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:53.960 you would probably expect, which is a lot of moss 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.679 and fungus. No grass. Now, you'd be hard pressed to 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.760 grow any grass on the forest floor of a tropical 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.240 rain because there's not much light, Like we're talking about 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:12.440 one percent of available light. Yeah, they're on the jungle floor. 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.240 Uh so, like you said, let's say a tree dies 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.200 there's an opening. It's kind of like, um, a rent 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:23.720 control apartment, right, everybody's scrambling for it. This this happens 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.640 probably more than you would think. And it's not even 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.839 necessarily a tree dying. A tree could just fall over, 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:32.319 as we'll see later. Um. But uh, when when that's 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.600 not the case? In an area where their seedlings trying 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.760 to grow, most of them die because you have to 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.960 make it sixceed to a hundred feet to the top 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:45.520 of the canopy to start growing branches, and takes a 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.720 lot of light to generate or to undertake the process 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.080 of photos instance, to get that tall to ensure your 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:57.720 survival anyway, Um, and if you are one of those 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.199 lucky one percent ceilings, oh wait, I just confuse two 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.600 different statistics. If you are one of those lucky ceilings 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.720 that happens to have an opening in the canopy and 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:08.960 makes it all the way up there and starts growing, 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.720 makes a nice life for yourself. Um, you are probably 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.680 going to be subject to basically what are parasitic plants. Yeah, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:21.720 not carnivorous plants, even parasitic plants. Yeah. The epiphytes actually 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:26.640 grow onto giant trees that use that as their ladder 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.320 to get to the top. Well, they form the understory too, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:32.679 so you have the canopy and then just under that 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.280 where there's still some light coming here but nothing like 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.280 above the canopy, you have those epiphytes, and those are 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.079 like ferns and um and orchids, which are very beautiful 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.640 air plants. Yeah, because the roots turn in the ground 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.040 there on the side of the tree. Yeah, they're like 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.920 the succubus, and they can eventually kill this tree if 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.920 they get to the top and they're doing fine up 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.520 there and then their roots spread out and choke the 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.440 tree to death. Then that tree can actually decompose, but 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.920 the lattice framework is still there. So the uh, epiphyt 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.640 is just like great, thanks for the ride. Sorry, sorry 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.679 I killed you. Thanks for the ride, lady, exactly. Uh. Yeah, 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.679 So an epiphyt can turn into a strangler. It's basically 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.400 an epiphyt that's gone bad. Well, like you said, it's 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.640 doggy dog. Everyone's trying to get up to the top. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:26.080 I know. But if you're an epiphyt oral Leanna, which 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:30.000 is a h I think that's how you pronounce it, 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:31.959 which is basically a vine that can grow all the 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:36.240 way up and then starts to spread. It's like kudzoo um. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:40.280 You're not doing anything really on your own. You're depending 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:44.199 on some other organism, whereas if you're a tree, you're 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:50.080 doing your own thing, but then you're dependent on the sun. Well, yeah, 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.920 I can hardly be faulted for that. Everyone's mooching off 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.880 of somebody, except I guess the sun, so the one 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.320 that's providing it for everybody. All right, So you were 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:05.320 talking about the infertile soil um. It rains so much 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.000 that the nutrients get washed away really easily, and they 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.800 didn't never get to like penetrate deep into the earth. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:16.040 So uh, Jerry laughed at that and it wasn't unsettling 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.520 off putting. And so what happens is you get a 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.280 very thin layer of fertile soil. So what you get 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:27.360 there is very thin um, not very deep roots, and 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.840 in the end you get trees that fall down pretty easily. 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:33.080 Like in here in Atlanta when we go through a 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.440 heavy drought, you'll also often see like trees falling down 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.240 during windstorms because their roots never like got super low. Yeah, 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.960 this is exactly the same thing, exactly. Uh. But some 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.480 trees have adapted a way around this called buttresses, which 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.320 is basically like a trunk coming off of the trunk 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.760 and just going down to stabilize it. Yeah, if you did, 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.000 you look those up. I've seen this before. It's pretty cool. 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.120 I mean it's like a stand almost surrounding in the 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.480 base of the tree. It's kind of neat. That's a buttress. Yeah. Well, 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.600 a buttress of any kind is a support system. Um, 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:12.960 you're one of my buttresses. Appreciate that. Uh So I 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.680 think that is worth saying again. Like, the reason that 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.880 the tree roots are shallow is because nutrients are scarce. Um. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.200 And one of the reasons why is because it rains 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:29.480 so much. Right. Um. But even still, like these these 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.320 plants species and animal species as we'll see are um, 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.440 they've just adapted for life, and that's really high up. 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.840 Like everything everything that sustains life is basically up there 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.600 for the most part, um, and all of these these 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.880 plants and animals have made these awesome adaptations to live 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.040 high up in the air, um, in a place where 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.480 nutrients are really hard to come by and there's a 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.080 lot of competition for everything, a lot of competition. I 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.680 think it's fast like a buttress. It's like, oh, well, 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:02.800 I'll fall over if I don't grow another trunk, so 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.520 I'll grow another trunk well or the uh. The hippophytes 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.720 can get to the top and then leap from tree 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.800 to tree and further seal in the canopy, which is 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:17.600 kind of cool. Um, So we should talk about bacteria 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:22.440 for a minute. Plays an important part in any ecosystem, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.680 but especially in the rainforest. Um. You know, trees breakdown 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:32.800 bacteria with food. Uh or I'm sorry, provide bacteria FOODA. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.920 I agree with that. Trees breakdown bacteriaus food and then 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.400 the bacteria poop that out and feed the trees, right, 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.920 and they're just like it's a great little relationship symbiotic. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.600 Everybody gets what they want. It's like those little birds 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.400 that pick bugs off of the back of what a hippo. 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.160 A hippo that does that? I don't know I've seen 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:51.960 that though, Or there's no there's one that there's a 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.280 bird that picks food out of like the mouth of 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.320 a hippo. It's really dangerous to be that bird. But 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:02.960 like the hippos are like, thank you, that's cute. Uh. 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.920 And here's another mind blowing stat If we want to 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:09.160 talk about diversity. Let's say you live in uh, northwest Oregon, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.160 and you're like, dude, we've got like a dozen tree 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:17.199 species here in this forest. It's like so diverse. Hit 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.440 the hacky sack again, let's get out of here. Three 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.520 hundred different distinct tree species in the in the in 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:29.520 the rainforest. Yeah, buts just trees. They're really really spread out. Yeah. 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:31.560 So like in an acre you might find just like 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.800 a few of that species. So there's a bunch of 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:40.000 different species packed into one acre. Yeah, I mean it's crazy. Um. 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:49.199 Ten million animal species. Unfortunately, Uh, they're being destroyed at 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.960 the rate of fifty species per year. Experts say that 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.280 we're losing a hundred and thirty seven plant, animal, and 0:17:56.320 --> 0:18:01.439 insects species every single day deforestation seven specs. Not just 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.120 like oh that bug died, it's like all of that 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.720 bug died today on Monday, and we guess what will 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.159 happen tomorrow, All of another insect will die and thirty 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.600 seven of them. It's great. It's just like it's the 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.520 saddest thing ever. Um. And it's not just said too, 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:20.600 I mean we'll see in a second. Like what the 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:25.000 problem is when that happens. You know, biodiversity is important, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.560 and if you're talking about the cradle of biodiversity, then 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:33.600 it becomes even more important because it's like the cool 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.239 part of town and then the suburbs. As far as 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.520 Planet Earth goes and the excerpts, we can't even talk 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.640 about that all right, But out of these ten million, 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:47.520 of course, insects are going to be the most abundant. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.560 And then out of all of those, ants are the 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.520 most abundant thing in the rainforest. So I found somewhere 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.720 that they make up of the biomass of the tropical 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:02.520 rainforest from what I understand, Like, that's like the entire biomass, 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:07.680 the trees and all that stuff. The ants make up that. Man, Yeah, 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.320 I bet they're not fun to deal with, yes, and 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:16.720 something like so half of that is fire ants. Wow, 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.720 can you imagine? Have you seen this incredible movie It's 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.399 called um Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's an Indiana 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.040 Jones movie. There's these fire ants and there's just crazy 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:31.080 what they can do to a man. It's such an abomination. Um, 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.399 did you see the South Park about that? It's great, 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.680 It was great. It was also probably the most disturbing 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.320 you've ever seen that what happened least to see it. 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.280 We can't say it. On the other no, I can't 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:49.640 even I shouldn't even be endorsing that episode. UM. So 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.320 these insects also have a very symbiotic relationship with the 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:58.760 forest because they, along with birds, helped spread the seeds 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.640 around because there's not a a wind going on. Yeah, 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.720 so seeds aren't gonna propagate by flowing through the air 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.520 like they do elsewhere. So you got these little insects 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.720 eating them and then carrying them off tim twenty feet away, 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.760 or birds carrying them miles and miles away, pooping them out, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.080 pooping them out, and then you're spreading seed, which is 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.320 probably another reason why each acre has like so many 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.760 different kinds of uh plant life going on, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.000 well I think that's definitely why. UM. The birds also, 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.439 especially like say hummingbirds, which there's an abundance in the 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.560 tropical rainforest. Um, they will get pollen all over themselves 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.399 as they go from like orchid to orchid, so that 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:43.880 helps propagate um orchids or epiphytes, which typically can't really 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.760 get from tree to tree, you know, so when you 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:51.919 when you have an orchid that's evolved specifically for a hummingbird, 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.719 it's going to attract those hummingbirds with your delicious nectar 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:59.959 and help generate new orchids elsewhere. I associate humming were 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.240 with the sun for some reason. Yeah, probably because where 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.520 I live. Yeah, but it's hard to imagine them in 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.639 like in the dark jungle. Well, I think in the understory, 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.359 which is where the epiphytes are. It's it's not that dark, 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:16.960 it's like where it's like you can't really see um 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.320 reptiles obviously, tons of reptiles and amphibians. If you if 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.000 you want to avoid snakes, then the Amazon rainforce is 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.320 probably not where you want to go. Um. But a 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.720 lot of these are being smuggled out. Evidently live animals 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:34.200 are the fourth largest smuggling commodity. Smuggling out these live 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.040 animals for resale. Is it for bush met just for pet? 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:40.560 No pet like black market pets. This is a documentary 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:42.479 that I haven't seen it yet. Yeah, I was kind 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.320 of surprised. Behind drugs, diamonds and weapons. See that's such 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:48.680 a b s. They always say that, like it's always 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.239 like those and then whatever you want to put behind it. 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:58.600 I've seen counterfeit materials for being smuggling for fourth year, 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.640 for like black Mark stuff. It's like whatever whatever you're 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:11.800 talking about four after those drugs, diamonds, weapons and knight. Uh. 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:14.080 You might be right, Josh, I think, but I'm going 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.240 with it. But you did talk about earlier about the 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:21.879 different types of adaptations for the animals, like um, little 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:24.760 webs of skin like on a flying squirrel and other 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.040 animals to allowut to like soar between trees. It's creepy, 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.320 pretty neat. Prehensile tails. I love a prehensible town, which 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.000 is just like an extra hand, especially for grasping hand. 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.119 Basically is what it is, Not like a card playing hand, 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.360 more like a branch grabbing hand, like I'm gonna hang 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.040 on to this with and like carrying my body weight 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.320 with my tail so I can use both hands. Watch 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.879 me show off exactly. I'm a Howler monkey. Can you 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.960 do a Howler monkey impression? Can you know? I don't 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:57.040 know anyone who I bet that guy from Police Academy 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:02.800 kuld Oh, yeah, Michael, it's Michael. Do you remember it, 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:08.760 Michael winter Bottom? No, I don't know. He was good though. 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:11.679 You know, we're gonna get some emails about it. Yeah, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.879 it was Michael so and so. Lots of bats and 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:19.119 then thus lots of bats. Cat, dude, there is a 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:28.119 there's a park in Zambia, um called Konsaka Konsenka Kassanka 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:33.560 National Reserve, and it's home to the largest bat migration 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:37.199 in the world. Every October, ten million bats come to 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:42.720 roost and eat these mangoes that are ripening nearby. And um, 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:48.120 they cover everything and apparently when they when they take 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.879 off at dusk, they blot out the sky for like 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:56.560 twenty minutes in every direction. Sy, I'm sure they just 0:23:56.600 --> 0:24:00.359 want the mangoes. Yeah, they don't care about you. But man, man, 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:04.200 I even like bats, and I'm creeped out by that. Austin, 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:07.000 Texas has nothing on those. Oh yeah they had that, 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:13.960 yeah the overpass moever. Yeah, um, guerrillas, great apes orangutangs, pigs, 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:18.320 big cats and batscat. By the way, another thing I 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:24.520 found in like that was a huge, huge industry bats. 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:27.760 But like back guano mining because they used it for 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:32.200 like fertilizer for so long that like people made like fortunes, 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:34.560 like oil fortunes off of these things, and it was 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:37.760 all like in in these tropical areas. They were like 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:42.800 quarries of that they were digging out back quano from Yeah. 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:45.680 And who were the big names there that got rich? Oh, 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:48.720 I don't remember. I would imagine they were mostly in Brazil. 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:52.840 It's not like the getties or the standards. I don't 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:58.440 think so the standard standard oil. I knew a standard 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:04.879 really sure, h Um. People like we talked about indigenous tribes, 0:25:05.720 --> 0:25:10.640