Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature future production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and today on the show mirror Cats.
Speaker 1: What are they? Why do we love them? What are
Speaker 1: the horrifying, salacious details of mere cat murders? And where's
Speaker 1: the love for their kinder cousins? The banded mongoose? Discover
Speaker 1: this more as we answer to the angel question or Hua,
Speaker 1: what is it good for absolutely mating? Yeah? No, that
Speaker 1: was I think it was a little pitchy. Joining me
Speaker 1: today is host of the podcast Hood Politics, co host
Speaker 1: of the Red Couch podcast, Poet Rapper, political activist, and
Speaker 1: author Propaganda. Welcome, What out? What Out? What out? Team
Speaker 1: mer Cats? Did you like? Did you like my singing?
Speaker 1: I did? It was the singing was incredible? That what
Speaker 1: is good for for mating? And it's like there are
Speaker 1: such facts in that, like just you set a mouthful,
Speaker 1: like yeah, one might even say, I myself am a poet, right,
Speaker 1: One could say that you've you've you've turned a phrase
Speaker 1: here there Anyone could say that, Yes, doesn't make it true,
Speaker 1: but you could say it the words I am a poet.
Speaker 1: You have photo freedom to allow to come out of
Speaker 1: your mouth exactly exactly. It is technically a sentence in
Speaker 1: the English will language that I can't say the free
Speaker 1: country well properly. I heard through the grape vine that
Speaker 1: you are a fan of mere cats. This is not
Speaker 1: a rumor, this is true. I just I think they're funny, um,
Speaker 1: just out of you know, the cursory knowledge I have
Speaker 1: of them. Just like they just stand as tall as
Speaker 1: a regular school ruler and just sunbathe and they just
Speaker 1: like just post it up. They travel in packs. It
Speaker 1: just looks like they just they chilling. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're like it's great, y'all just stand up in sunbathe
Speaker 1: and just kicking it. You know. They're just so funny
Speaker 1: to me because I'm like, why why are you shaped
Speaker 1: like that? Like why are y'all still? Like what is this?
Speaker 1: It's just they're just funny to me. Now I get
Speaker 1: it because they kind of they look a little bit
Speaker 1: too big for their boots, you know, like they're they're
Speaker 1: just like they're like standing up on their hind legs,
Speaker 1: Like what are you doing? Who do you think you are? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Why are you doing this? Are you? And are you
Speaker 1: intimidating somebody because I'm like, you don't look scary, you know,
Speaker 1: but I know not to cuddle you, Like I could tell,
Speaker 1: like I probably shouldn't cuddle this thing. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's like, you look funny. Man. Yeah, they're standing there
Speaker 1: and giving you a look, and it's like, well, who
Speaker 1: are you trying to fool? Man? I know you're an animal.
Speaker 1: I know you're not a person. Yea, look, you're not
Speaker 1: fooling anyone. But then they don't they don't stop doing it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you are not the only one who loves
Speaker 1: mere cats because it is there, I guess the soap
Speaker 1: opera slash reality TV show Stars of the Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 1: There was that show mere Cat Manner, which I get.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that I never actually watched it. First
Speaker 1: time I ever heard those two words together. Well, so
Speaker 1: I never watched it. It was basically, I believe a
Speaker 1: show was it on Animal Planet, might have been on
Speaker 1: Animal Planet. They followed some mere cats and presented it
Speaker 1: sort of like the Real Housewives but mere cats. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think they tried to make it. I
Speaker 1: think they did try to give it the the veneer
Speaker 1: of like a serious kind of documentary thing, but it
Speaker 1: really was just Real Housewives but with mere Cat. Okay, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I love it. When the first time I took my
Speaker 1: child to the zoo, don't judge me, but the first
Speaker 1: time I took her to the zoo, I was just
Speaker 1: excited about her seeing the mirror Cats. She introduced herself
Speaker 1: to the Flamingos, though, which was, so my name is
Speaker 1: so that's so cute. But do you like the mirror Cats? Sure, daddy, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. It's sort of like
Speaker 1: when you're trying to get someone to like music that
Speaker 1: you like and you're having them listen to it, and
Speaker 1: it's like when you take someone to see your favorite
Speaker 1: animal at the zoo and you're like looking at them
Speaker 1: and you're like, you like this, right, yeah, like like
Speaker 1: it's a cool little dude, right, that's right looking at it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And no, I mean yeah, it's cool. I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They're talking through the song. You're just like, man, no,
Speaker 1: listen to the side, talking through the whole thing. Hey,
Speaker 1: what do you guys trying to eat? Bro? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: but do you hear that? Okay? Uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Tacos it's always the right answer. Yeah, you gotta focus
Speaker 1: on the mirror cat. It will hurt my Like I
Speaker 1: love the I love the otters at the zoo, like
Speaker 1: the river otters who goof around. They're always like jumping
Speaker 1: in and out and I'm showing people like look at
Speaker 1: them though, and if they're just like yeah, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: it's like that. I take that personally and it's disappointing
Speaker 1: because I'm like, no, but you get it. It's an
Speaker 1: otter and they're just like running around, you get it,
Speaker 1: Like this is like jumping in and out of the water,
Speaker 1: like right, yeah, exactly. There's also another show coming out
Speaker 1: called Meet the Mere Cats, which so mere cat manner.
Speaker 1: I guess the reboot is going to be uh narrated
Speaker 1: by Bill Nigh so the British guy, fancy British guy.
Speaker 1: But then the Meat the Mere Cats is going to
Speaker 1: be narrated by Rob Delaney. I think it's a better fit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know. If you've seen Snoop Snoop Dogg narrate
Speaker 1: the Lizard Hunt, Oh my god, it was one of
Speaker 1: the greatest things I've ever seen in my life. Snoop
Speaker 1: is hilarious, but yeah, no, man, I feel like I
Speaker 1: should have been first to market with this mere cat thing.
Speaker 1: I didn't know it was like full show. See. Sometimes, man,
Speaker 1: when you get an idea, you gotta like, you gotta,
Speaker 1: you gotta put it out there, because I could have.
Speaker 1: I could have been on this mere cat wave. It's
Speaker 1: not too late, though. There's a new wave because like
Speaker 1: the reboots coming out and the Meat the mere Cats
Speaker 1: is coming out. So, uh, mere cats are having another
Speaker 1: moment in popular culture. Yeah, it's happening. Okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: get something in there. I can be third in line. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: still makes money on third. Let's see like mere cat.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've got mere cat manner. They like the
Speaker 1: alliteration in the time, so there's like mere cat manner,
Speaker 1: Meet the mere Cats, mere cat mama's uh you know yeah.
Speaker 1: It was just yeah, it's like moms. Yeah. No, that's
Speaker 1: perfect because that is actually an integral part of the
Speaker 1: mere Cats society. The most drama is the mama's Let's go,
Speaker 1: So I did a good transition, Yes you did, you did.
Speaker 1: So let's first quickly say, like, what is a mere cat? Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know everyone's seen Lion King. It's basically timone.
Speaker 1: It's not a cat. It's only about as related to
Speaker 1: a house cat as a hyena is. So housecats hyena,
Speaker 1: they're both both in like this larger group of animals
Speaker 1: that are all somewhat related but not closely related. But
Speaker 1: mere cats are mongooses, so they are a Mongoose's I
Speaker 1: think that when people think of a mongoose, they don't
Speaker 1: think mere cat. It just like doesn't. But that's they are.
Speaker 1: They're a mongoose. They're a mongoose. Sorry to be the
Speaker 1: one to break it to everyone, but you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew they weren't cats, but I also knew they
Speaker 1: weren't a mere because I don't know what the hell
Speaker 1: of mere is. Yeah, I don't know, like what, I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's a it feels like it feels slightly
Speaker 1: like a negative connotation to like a mere cat, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're hat that's crazy. I never thought of it like that.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, you know, And I think that's part of
Speaker 1: the funny of mere cats, because it's like, well, what
Speaker 1: are you right, Like, y'all look like nothing else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really a it's really a mere mongoose, mongoose, a
Speaker 1: mere goose. So Most mongoose species are found on the
Speaker 1: African continent, but they're also found in southern Asia and
Speaker 1: some coastal regions in the Mediterranean, So they like sort
Speaker 1: of like dry savannah scrub areas. But they can be
Speaker 1: invasive species. So the small Indian mongoose is considered one
Speaker 1: of the world's most terrible invasive species. So it was
Speaker 1: introduced to the Caribbean and Pacific islands including Hawaii, often
Speaker 1: buy sugarcane plantation owners trying to use them to kill
Speaker 1: snakes and rats, and they have since wreaked havoc on
Speaker 1: the indigenous species and have caused a number of extinctions. See,
Speaker 1: just like they're colonial overlords. They just did the same
Speaker 1: things to the animal kingdom as the human counterparts did.
Speaker 1: See yeah, yeah, I mean it is uh, it is unfortunate,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they really kind of are a smaller version
Speaker 1: of the colonizers. Look at that little face. That's the
Speaker 1: space of a murderous colonizer. That's what it is, a
Speaker 1: little colonizer. They are quite cute, but yeah, it is
Speaker 1: an international criminal who has, you know, driven many species
Speaker 1: to extinctions and then smiles the whole time. Look at them.
Speaker 1: But luckily mere cats are not environmental troublemakers like some
Speaker 1: of their fellow mongooses. Mere Cats live in Southern Africa
Speaker 1: and arid savannah regions in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.
Speaker 1: So it is not the only mongoose specie that lives
Speaker 1: in Southern Africa. There's also the banded mongoose, who actually
Speaker 1: leads a somewhat similar life to the mere cat. And
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the banded mongoose later because
Speaker 1: I think they're really cool. But you know, I know,
Speaker 1: mere cats are sort of constantly on everyone's mind. They're
Speaker 1: they're the ones that the paparazzi are really harassing. So
Speaker 1: we we do have to we do have to talk
Speaker 1: about the elephant in the room, or I guess the
Speaker 1: mere cat in the room, the mongoose in the room,
Speaker 1: the mere cat. Many mongoose species are solitary. They just
Speaker 1: eat snakes and insects, you know, go around like Ricky
Speaker 1: Ticky tavvy, remember that, like saving boys, saving little boys,
Speaker 1: saving little boys with their little animal brains. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: mere cats are highly social and living colonies. They're also
Speaker 1: called packs or mobs. I know, just like thinking of
Speaker 1: like like a little little mafia, Like, what are you
Speaker 1: looking at? Yeah, that's what they So they really just
Speaker 1: gang banging when they standing up like that pretty much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these packs are called you social. They are similar to
Speaker 1: the colonies of bees, ants, termites, and naked mole rats.
Speaker 1: So you social just means that there are dominant breeding
Speaker 1: females and subordinate colony members who do not generally breed,
Speaker 1: and they work together to help raise the brood of
Speaker 1: the dominant females. Yeah, so that's that's why. You know,
Speaker 1: with bees, you got your queen bee. It's the same
Speaker 1: thing with ants and termites. You have a queen aunt
Speaker 1: or queen termite that is the one procreating. The rest
Speaker 1: of them don't really procreate. In insects, they accomplish this
Speaker 1: through weird genetic shenanigans and pheromones. But in mammals, the
Speaker 1: way that you social behaviors come up is much more
Speaker 1: dramatic because they don't have pheromones. They don't have genetic
Speaker 1: shenanigans to help enforce a you social hierarchy. Wait, wait,
Speaker 1: way back up. They don't have pheromones period. Well they
Speaker 1: may they may have some, they may have some mating pheromones,
Speaker 1: but they don't can bees. The queen has queen pheromones
Speaker 1: that she used to suppress the reproductive system of subordinate females. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she turned on a birth control by her yep, yep.
Speaker 1: But before we get too much into their social structure,
Speaker 1: because it's very complicated and dramatic. So here's just some
Speaker 1: basic facts about mere cat daily life and what they
Speaker 1: look like, and you know what what their general deal is.
Speaker 1: So they're about like you mentioned earlier, they're just like
Speaker 1: about a foot tall. They're not big. They're under two
Speaker 1: pounds um. So for the Europeans out there there, or
Speaker 1: Canadians actually everyone I think right other than the US
Speaker 1: thirty centimeters tall and uh, just under two pounds it
Speaker 1: is nine. They're very fluffy. They have a pointy little
Speaker 1: tail a bit shorter than cat's tail. They got a
Speaker 1: pointy snout, little digging claws. Their claws are actually quite long,
Speaker 1: but they are mostly used for digging. And they've got
Speaker 1: that beautiful dark eyeshadow um and tan fur. And they
Speaker 1: love to stand up and just hold their little paws
Speaker 1: on their bellies. Uh it's adorable, and like to moan
Speaker 1: from lion king. Meercats love to eat insects. That's their
Speaker 1: favorite food. Uh. They will eat on occasion scorpions, amphibians, reptiles,
Speaker 1: even small birds. So nothing's off the menu for them.
Speaker 1: The menu. Yeah, no, they're not. They are not on
Speaker 1: any kind of special diet. They will eat what they
Speaker 1: can eat. The fact that they can kill scorpions and
Speaker 1: they can kill snakes, and they have some resistance to
Speaker 1: scorpion venom and snake venom. People have this concept that
Speaker 1: meercats are just always out there ripping snake heads off
Speaker 1: and eating them like spaghetti and killing a bunch of scorpions. Generally,
Speaker 1: the they really do just eat regular old bugs like
Speaker 1: beetles and grubs, and if they encounter a scorpion, they'll
Speaker 1: eat it. Uh. And they do a really good job
Speaker 1: of ripping off the stinger. They like, really impressive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they it's kind of if you have any sympathy for scorpions,
Speaker 1: it's kind of sadistic because they rip off its stinger.
Speaker 1: They'll like rip off its claws, uh, and just sort
Speaker 1: of viciously pull off all its limbs before eating it,
Speaker 1: probably still alive. I would love to meet a person
Speaker 1: that has sympathy for a scorpion, which is some sympathy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my wife has a scorpion tattoo because she's a scorpion too.
Speaker 1: There it is, Yeah, and it's definitely the most I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the most badass looking in sect. Like they look
Speaker 1: hard like yeah, there's I mean full respect. So the
Speaker 1: idea of you looking at a scorpion and not being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's scary. You like, well, there's nothing else to eat,
Speaker 1: so I mean, what part of it hurts us? All right?
Speaker 1: So take that part right. It's got a harpoon for
Speaker 1: a butt. Yeahs off its butt off? Hey man, watch
Speaker 1: out for the butt though, Like that's brilliant, you know. Yeah, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: mere cats, you're bored and fuffy dangerous. I like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no they are. Oh it gets it gets much much better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they can kill cobras. It doesn't happen very often, but
Speaker 1: they will sometimes send out an alarm call that's basically
Speaker 1: like a recruitment call. And so so everybody comes together
Speaker 1: and we'll chase off a cobra, sometimes even kill the cobra.
Speaker 1: A cobra bite could kill them, but they are very fast,
Speaker 1: very careful to try to avoid getting bitten. But according
Speaker 1: to Marta Manser, a twenty year mere cat research veteran.
Speaker 1: She says that cobra encounters are very rare, and seeing
Speaker 1: it so often on documentaries may actually mean that someone
Speaker 1: like someone making the film is actually introducing Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: manufacturing an incident, faking it. Look at instigators, Yeah they are.
Speaker 1: I really don't like that, you know what, because like cheating, man,
Speaker 1: it is cheating. It's like, look, I think that it
Speaker 1: seems that cobras and mercats generally don't like to mess
Speaker 1: with each other. And if you're just like, you know,
Speaker 1: going to the cobra and said did you hear what
Speaker 1: they said about you? And then going to the mirrorcats,
Speaker 1: did you hear what that cobra said about you? And
Speaker 1: then making them fight, it's like, mean, girls, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not reality TV anymore. It's it's contrived, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I'm not feeling that. And especially it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're pushing these fools to the extreme. Now. Obviously I've
Speaker 1: never been on any sort of like animal shoot, but
Speaker 1: I imagine that, Uh yeah, it's six months of nothing, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then and then you then you go get a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee and then all the action happens. And
Speaker 1: I mean like Planet Earth, which is an amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: just amazing footage. It took them years of literally just
Speaker 1: like sitting in the worst possible places for human body
Speaker 1: to sit in with their video cameras for hours and
Speaker 1: hours and hours of absolutely nothing happening. I don't know how.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you do that. I can't imagine,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just I can't imagine, you know, I
Speaker 1: could understand being someone getting to the breaking point of
Speaker 1: just throwing a snake. Yeah, you know what, just somebody
Speaker 1: go get a cobra. Man like I need to go home.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't it doesn't make it right. But I
Speaker 1: do understand that human being has certain limits. But again,
Speaker 1: like mere cats, I think they're super interesting all on
Speaker 1: their own. You don't need to throw a cobra into
Speaker 1: the mix. And we're actually, when we get back, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about mere cats society and how it
Speaker 1: is way more brutal than you would expect from the
Speaker 1: cute little buddies who just they look so cute, but
Speaker 1: they are devious, cold blooded murderers like five year olds.
Speaker 1: And we're back, and when you look into the face
Speaker 1: of a mere cat. What do you see? Do you
Speaker 1: see something cute or cold? Little eyes full of betrayal,
Speaker 1: murder and southern fuge. Man, now that you say that,
Speaker 1: Like I thought they little eyeshadow was cute, but now
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, they're goth. Yeah, I didn't even think
Speaker 1: of him as God dang extremely goth. All right, they're
Speaker 1: they're not They're beyond hot topic goth too. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: come on, man, they're not hot topic goth. They are
Speaker 1: They're beyond mall goth even even I don't even know
Speaker 1: the level like this. These are levels of goth that
Speaker 1: I think have been not recorded in human history. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I oh no, none about this. They fly in the
Speaker 1: translate golf so, like I mentioned earlier, they are you social,
Speaker 1: so they form packs of up to fifty individuals typically,
Speaker 1: though there are fewer there. I think the average is
Speaker 1: about twenty. But yeah, they can be form huge, huge societies,
Speaker 1: and the packs are run by dominant females. So hey,
Speaker 1: look I love it for feminism. Girl Boss, girl Boss
Speaker 1: boss Bay. Yeah, um, she she's she's a she's a yes,
Speaker 1: slay queen quite literally. As we soon discussed, the larger,
Speaker 1: more aggressive females tend to become the dominant matriarchs of
Speaker 1: the pack also called the mob, and only the dominant
Speaker 1: female and dominant male is allowed to breed, so they're
Speaker 1: the only ones having offspring. And it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: might mix, right If you're the biggest, baddest female of
Speaker 1: the group, you bully all the other females into letting
Speaker 1: you be the only one breeding, and you bully everyone
Speaker 1: else into taking care of your kids. God, dog man,
Speaker 1: don't yeah, don't be the second place. That's gotta be miserable,
Speaker 1: No wonder it's so violent because I'm like, can't nobody
Speaker 1: get note Yep, only y'all, and I gotta take care
Speaker 1: of your children. Yep. This is for the birds. Brutal.
Speaker 1: I mean mongooses they are monkeys, um, and mongooses are
Speaker 1: are what mirror cats are. I'm just oh, is mongy
Speaker 1: the plural of mongoose, mongese or mongoose is? I think? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, that's good. Yeah, it's a monkey's
Speaker 1: On the surface, it may seem like they have a
Speaker 1: really nice, functioning society of cooperative little mirrorcats. Um. They
Speaker 1: take turns babysitting, digging burrows, hunting, and keeping watch for
Speaker 1: predators and threats and taking care of the pups, the
Speaker 1: little babies. They're classic standing post that they do is
Speaker 1: their lookout stance, so that's when they are on the
Speaker 1: lookout for danger. Bang yeah. And they have different alarm
Speaker 1: calls depending on the type of predators, so terrestrial versus aerial,
Speaker 1: so that their fellow merecats note where to look and
Speaker 1: to run from. So if like they see a hawk,
Speaker 1: they have a call thing like the dangers coming from
Speaker 1: the sky. And if they see, you know, some kind
Speaker 1: of terrestrial predator, they go, hey, somebody's coming on the ground,
Speaker 1: and the mere cats will either duck from from the
Speaker 1: aerial threat or they will gather together and like sort
Speaker 1: of keep a lookout for whatever is coming from them
Speaker 1: on the ground. And they'll also have different levels of urgency,
Speaker 1: so like if it's a really big threat, they'll sound
Speaker 1: much more urgent, and if it's just like maybe not
Speaker 1: that big of a threat, they just like, hey, check
Speaker 1: that out. Just make sure you see that. They also
Speaker 1: like to get to the highest ground possible when they're
Speaker 1: looking out for threats, which me if you are a
Speaker 1: researcher or a park ranger or a photographer or anyone
Speaker 1: just hanging around where mere cats are, they will stand
Speaker 1: on you. That's hilarious. That's the picture I've been looking
Speaker 1: at this whole time. I'm like, this is hilarious. This
Speaker 1: is my dream. If you're still, if you're quiet and
Speaker 1: still enough and they trust you, because like if you
Speaker 1: if you are like around their place enough and they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: this this whatever, this human is, there of no threat
Speaker 1: to me. They will use you as a perch to
Speaker 1: get a better view of stuff. Yeah, dude, like you demied,
Speaker 1: you made it into the squad. That's dope. They just
Speaker 1: I don't know if you furniture or if it's like
Speaker 1: at some point you're gonna have to like do your
Speaker 1: your your rotation with babysitting. They just hand you the
Speaker 1: baby and all ways of instructions. Yeah, just mere cat talk.
Speaker 1: And they're yelling at you like I don't understand why
Speaker 1: you don't get this. They're like, look, the scorpions are
Speaker 1: in the fridge. You reheat them at three degrees for
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. It's so easy. Listen, listen, take the butt off.
Speaker 1: I don't understand why y'all can't figure this out. How
Speaker 1: you'll collapse in over just take the butt off. Unlike
Speaker 1: ants and bees, who have very rigid youth social structures,
Speaker 1: so the queen is very They've evolved to be very
Speaker 1: efficient at cracking down on dissidents. Mere Cats have more
Speaker 1: there's more opportunities for rebellions, so the pack structure is
Speaker 1: more fluid than the colony structure of bees. Uh. So,
Speaker 1: lower level females will often try to break the rules,
Speaker 1: which can lead to a lot of drama. And when
Speaker 1: I say drama, I mean literally murders in fantaside. It
Speaker 1: gets chez. So scientists, yeah, scientists are very judgmental. Like
Speaker 1: there's this Nature article titled quote cute mere cats actually
Speaker 1: vicious baby killers, which I just coming down hard on
Speaker 1: the mere cats. Uh you know, judge little Yeah. A
Speaker 1: little context is King Fan like, hey do you I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, now you are now I would like you
Speaker 1: yoh no, you know we live in Okay. Like sounds
Speaker 1: like a case of libel or slanderers slander, but I
Speaker 1: mean it is true. They do. They do kill babies sometimes,
Speaker 1: So the subordinate females reproductive systems are not suppressed with
Speaker 1: pheromones like in bees. Instead, it's the matriarchs willingness to
Speaker 1: bully kill their offspring or exile subordinates. That keeps them
Speaker 1: in line. My lord. Yeah, the bullying can be so
Speaker 1: intense and the stress and stress them out so much
Speaker 1: that like they can actually buy. Just through the sheer
Speaker 1: force of bullying cause their fertility to suffer to like
Speaker 1: they become less fertile because the dominant female is bullying
Speaker 1: them so hard. You who Brooklyn, Straight, New York. Listen,
Speaker 1: if you touch any of these men, not even the
Speaker 1: ones I won't. If you touch any of them, I
Speaker 1: will murder your children and turn off your fallopian twos. Dang,
Speaker 1: say something, try it again, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Like I just pitched you a little mirrecat going to
Speaker 1: pick up an insect, and then the girl just knocking
Speaker 1: it out of her hand, like you ain't ready yet,
Speaker 1: that's mine insect? Like why are you just randomly bullying me?
Speaker 1: Put that in set down, go give me that scorpion,
Speaker 1: take off its but do it now, now bow and say, queen,
Speaker 1: here is your score. Thank you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I don't like it. It's cold. Heat it up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these are mere cats are getting shoved into the lockers
Speaker 1: so hard they lose their ability to reproduce. It's good,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, dang turned off your ovaries. If a mere
Speaker 1: cat subordinate tries to mate and is caught, she will
Speaker 1: be ruthlessly attacked by the matriarch and must literally grovel
Speaker 1: at her feet to regain the matriarch's favor. They will,
Speaker 1: they'll grovel. They'll like roll over and grovel to try
Speaker 1: to get back into the pack. Makes me so sad.
Speaker 1: I'm like, listen, girl, you don't need her approval. Well,
Speaker 1: they kind of do because if they get if they
Speaker 1: get kicked out of the pack, because life in these areas,
Speaker 1: like in the Savan, where there's so many predators, it
Speaker 1: can be really tough, and so they can die without
Speaker 1: the safety of the pack. So getting exiled from the
Speaker 1: pack is often deadly. But once in a while it
Speaker 1: will work out in the rebellious subordinates favor because she
Speaker 1: might go on and start her own colony. If she
Speaker 1: happens to find an eligible bachelor and has some babies,
Speaker 1: starts her own college, she might become the matriarch of
Speaker 1: a new colony, and she's going to be just as
Speaker 1: ruthless and brutal as the old matriarchs oppressed using the
Speaker 1: tool of the oppressor. It's so sad. Yep, it's the
Speaker 1: story as old as time or as old as meercats.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this. Who eats meercats? See,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of birds of prey, I would
Speaker 1: imagine because I'm like, if I'm a just mid level predator,
Speaker 1: I would be like, yeah, this, I could do this.
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm a young cheetah, which isn't a
Speaker 1: mid level, but if I'm a young cheetah and I'm like,
Speaker 1: when you got run too hard, I'll get this one cat, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think. Okay, So the main I'm looking it up
Speaker 1: because like, while there are a lot, there are so
Speaker 1: many predators. Sometimes their territories don't exactly overlap with mere cats,
Speaker 1: but snakes are one of them. So like, even though
Speaker 1: mere cats can kill snakes, sometimes snakes can kill meercats,
Speaker 1: especially younger meercats, um jackals, and birds of prey such
Speaker 1: as eagles. Okay, yeah, there's a danger from there's danger
Speaker 1: from the sky, there's dane, you're from the ground. There's
Speaker 1: danger from under the ground because of the snakes. That's
Speaker 1: why they had at perch. Okay, it makes sense. You know,
Speaker 1: you gotta have a whole team of people on the
Speaker 1: lookout while the one person is getting busy. That's cold,
Speaker 1: it is. It sucks. Hey what you're doing in there?
Speaker 1: Hold on, watch the door. It's like a high school party. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're just like, watch the door. I want everybody to
Speaker 1: watch the door. Yeah yeah. Man, Well if we're all
Speaker 1: watching the door, clearly nobody's going in because you're making
Speaker 1: us all watch the door. Hey man. Anyway, yeah, and
Speaker 1: if if one of those subordinates actually does manage to
Speaker 1: have offspring, say they mate, they don't get caught mating, um,
Speaker 1: and then they actually have their offspring, the matriarch, more
Speaker 1: often than not, we'll try to kill that subordinate's offspring
Speaker 1: so they with often with a witness too, like like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's like it's about the message. Yeah, it's about
Speaker 1: sending a message. In a message. This is awful, mirror cats.
Speaker 1: I'm disappointed, guys. I'm impressed, but I'm also disappointed. It
Speaker 1: does explain the like, you know how like timone is
Speaker 1: like he's got issues in the Lion King. We don't
Speaker 1: talk about it much, but he's got deep insecurities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like he kind of gaslights pumba. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, no, that was my cool idea. He's deeply insecure,
Speaker 1: very jittery, very afraid of like you know, of his
Speaker 1: friends betraying him. I think, like, you know, he's this
Speaker 1: is his background. His life was like he was like
Speaker 1: Brand from Game of Thrones essentially. Yes, his family trauma
Speaker 1: is just kind of playing out as a backstory for
Speaker 1: this lovable cartoon of another family trauma where your uncle
Speaker 1: tried to kill you, right exactly. Yeah, this movie is
Speaker 1: about this movie about family trauma. I think so we
Speaker 1: just I mean, the kid's dad, the Lion kids dad
Speaker 1: dies and he like tries to cuddle. Is dead dad.
Speaker 1: It's dark. It's dark man. And he was killed by
Speaker 1: his uncle. Yeah yeah, Like, hey, hey uncle Scar, it's
Speaker 1: a weird name you got there? Oops killed my dad?
Speaker 1: Hey man, I don't know, man, I kind of think
Speaker 1: you killed my dad. I think, look, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to play we with you, but I think he
Speaker 1: killed that. Hey Champ, Hey little bud, listen, come on,
Speaker 1: how you doing. I don't really care. Listen, your dad's dead.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened well, yeah I do, but
Speaker 1: I'm the king now, Okay, the beasts kicked him real hard.
Speaker 1: Now he is dead. Don't question. And also get out
Speaker 1: of here, kid. Yeah, I'll call you up on your birthday.
Speaker 1: Call you on your birthday. That's not to say, though,
Speaker 1: that the matriarch is the only one ruthlessly committing in fantaside.
Speaker 1: Sometimes subordinates will try to rise up against the matriarch
Speaker 1: by killing her offsprings. So subordinate might be pregnant and
Speaker 1: be thinking, oh, like if I have these pups, you
Speaker 1: know they're probably gonna get killed by the matriarchs. So
Speaker 1: you know, she strikes first by trying to kill the
Speaker 1: matriarch's offspring and maybe even tries to take the matriarch's
Speaker 1: place by by fighting with her like literally, you know,
Speaker 1: like taking over the throne. Yeah, shooting her shot, Yeah,
Speaker 1: taking the throne. Yeah, good luck. There is no try
Speaker 1: only do with these mere cats, because yeah, if you
Speaker 1: try and you don't do, you're dead or yeah, and
Speaker 1: then you're eaten by a bird of prey. And it's
Speaker 1: like this is really worth it, right, what a hard life? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I mean, like like I said earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: this question of like, well, why do mere cats subject
Speaker 1: themselves to this horrible tyranny? You know, life alone as
Speaker 1: a little mere cat. You know, they're there, are five
Speaker 1: dollar foot long, they're tasty treat for so many things
Speaker 1: in the savannah. It's it's dangerous out here. Yeah, best
Speaker 1: try your luck. Yeah, yeah, you don't want to be
Speaker 1: a little five dollar foot long and like around jackals
Speaker 1: and hawks, you don't have no chances. Yeah, you best
Speaker 1: run along home home, you sit right on the couch
Speaker 1: while a queen, king and king, queen and king go
Speaker 1: get it home. Sit here, watch my babies. Yeah, no, exactly,
Speaker 1: because like this is the gamble, right, which is you
Speaker 1: can't you can't have offspring if you're dead, if a
Speaker 1: jackal eats you, you can't have offspring. But maybe you
Speaker 1: could sneakily have offspring if you are able to do
Speaker 1: it with enough like kind of discretion in your in
Speaker 1: your mating autocracy, or if some day you managed to
Speaker 1: either start your own mob or take over the place
Speaker 1: of the rulers, so you at least have a chance
Speaker 1: because you're alive. So yeah, I mean, you know it
Speaker 1: is it is a real a real gamble. It's a
Speaker 1: real tortal existence, vicious mongoose man? Have you read? Uh,
Speaker 1: white fish don't exist? So it's Lulu Miller. She's from
Speaker 1: Radio Lab the Pot So she wrote this book. She
Speaker 1: was like, it's basically about her like categories in life,
Speaker 1: what a success? How did you picture your future? Right?
Speaker 1: And how we put these categories around things that really
Speaker 1: don't have to be there, right, So as a as
Speaker 1: a jump off, she was like, well, if you compare
Speaker 1: a salmon and a toothfish to a cow, and you
Speaker 1: were to ask which one of these animals are more
Speaker 1: related to each other, and she's like, well, from a
Speaker 1: taxonomy perspective, the toothfish is more related to the cow
Speaker 1: than it is the salmon. Right, So then she goes
Speaker 1: through all these fish in the ocean and she's like,
Speaker 1: you know, actually every fish in the ocean is something else,
Speaker 1: Like they're all none of them are fish, like as
Speaker 1: we know it, they're all something else. So then she's like,
Speaker 1: it's the same way as like you go to a
Speaker 1: mountain and say every animal on that mountain is all
Speaker 1: one species, it's all the thing. And she's like, that's
Speaker 1: just all they have in in you know, in common
Speaker 1: is location. So so she was like, so ultimately again
Speaker 1: as a springboard for her own life, like maybe maybe
Speaker 1: success isn't what I think it is, Like maybe it's
Speaker 1: something else. Whatever. It's this great book, but that like
Speaker 1: blew my mind. You know what I'm saying when you're
Speaker 1: just and she was saying that there's like pushing the
Speaker 1: industry to be like we need to do away with
Speaker 1: the term fish, and then I switched me as like
Speaker 1: a non expert. I was like, so, then what's on
Speaker 1: my plate? Then? You know what I'm saying, Like she
Speaker 1: was like, well, what it is is on your plate?
Speaker 1: A salmon? Salmon's on your plate? And I'm like, was
Speaker 1: that fish? Like no, it's actually something else. Like anyway
Speaker 1: I thought about that when you was like, what's a
Speaker 1: humanless mermaid? Yes, you know, no human parts added mermaid.
Speaker 1: It's a humanless mermaid. That's brilliant. Yeah, so I just
Speaker 1: thought that. He was like, they're actually a mongoose. It's
Speaker 1: like I would have never of all the animals I was,
Speaker 1: I would have never. I wouldn't like have a little
Speaker 1: moving arrow to point at which one do you think
Speaker 1: this animal is? Like? What? Yeah? I mean, it's it
Speaker 1: is incredible because it's like just a few adaptations, like
Speaker 1: probably their society and being able to stand up a
Speaker 1: little straighter that they can view a little farther in
Speaker 1: the structure of their they're like mere cat culture probably
Speaker 1: shaped their bodies such that they do look different from
Speaker 1: most other mongis. Also, it's interesting, so a hyena and
Speaker 1: a mongoose or a hyena and a mere cat are
Speaker 1: more closely related than like a hyena and a dog.
Speaker 1: Is like, yeah, yeah, they should have been they should
Speaker 1: have been friends, and you know what mean I mean. Also,
Speaker 1: they're they're also somewhat related to because they are technically
Speaker 1: in the philoforma I think um clade. I don't remember
Speaker 1: what it is, but it's like they are. There's this suit,
Speaker 1: this big group of animals that includes like all all feelines,
Speaker 1: so like lions, cats, everything, also hyenas, also mongooses, and
Speaker 1: then some other ones weird weird animals like Fausa's and
Speaker 1: the bent wrongs, and they're they're just like it's they're
Speaker 1: not that closely related to like weasels, for example. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah see I but yeah, I could picture a weasel
Speaker 1: like I feel like, okay, that's your cousin. I see that,
Speaker 1: but like heang yeah ya, all right, well there it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And speaking of one of their relatives, We're actually gonna
Speaker 1: talk when we get back from the break about one
Speaker 1: of their close relatives, the banded mongoose. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say it's unfair that mere cats get all this attention
Speaker 1: in the banded mongooses do not, because they are way
Speaker 1: nicer than Okay, way more chill, and we are back,
Speaker 1: and I want to talk about the banded mongoose. They
Speaker 1: are the mere cats, lesser known cousin who I think there.
Speaker 1: They don't win the popularity contest. They don't get the
Speaker 1: good publicity, they don't get all the attention, they don't
Speaker 1: get all the book deals. But they are way nicer
Speaker 1: than the way cuter in terms of their behavior or
Speaker 1: guys I know right underappreciate. It's like the nice nice
Speaker 1: monkeys finished last, you know. Yeah. I was like we're
Speaker 1: in an eighties movie right now, Like the sweet one
Speaker 1: just finishes last, the shy the shy one, and then
Speaker 1: they like take down their their ponytail and glasses and
Speaker 1: suddenly they're very hot and attractive mongoose. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: and and the bully in the bully loses the basketball game. Right, Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: sure is not not a teen movie. Or maybe fortunately,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with fortunately. I'm gonna go with fortunately.
Speaker 1: So the banded mongoose, Uh, they do not have that
Speaker 1: that cute eyeshadow. I think that's like that is what
Speaker 1: does it for the mere cats. Also the fact that
Speaker 1: they have that really cute standing pose. I think the
Speaker 1: banded mongoose is kind of slouch a little more when
Speaker 1: they're standing, so they don't have this good posture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's the posture like that. That's a good lesson
Speaker 1: for us, right, like posture and makeup. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you shoulders back, have good posture and then just
Speaker 1: like put so much eyeshadow on, that's the cheek codes
Speaker 1: but a little rouge you'd be all right. Right. They
Speaker 1: have some cute little stripes on their backs. They have
Speaker 1: little pink noses. I think they're quite cute. They're a
Speaker 1: little bigger than mere cats. They stand a little taller.
Speaker 1: They're a little over foot long, a little little chunkier. Um.
Speaker 1: But just like the mere cat, they live in large
Speaker 1: groups in Den's but don't really have the brutal tyrannical
Speaker 1: society that mere cats have. So they are found in
Speaker 1: savannah areas of Central and Eastern Africa just kind of
Speaker 1: they I think they start to go into South Africa,
Speaker 1: but not as far as the mere cats do. So
Speaker 1: their dens are much more transient than merecats, So they
Speaker 1: will change den's every few days, or maybe they'll take
Speaker 1: advantage of abandoned termite mounds there. You know, they're just
Speaker 1: like they're kind of they're kind of hippies. It's like
Speaker 1: a placelets groovy, right, Yeah, they couch surf, except the
Speaker 1: couches like a termite mound. It's gross, man, couch and dirty.
Speaker 1: Got it's got termites. I don't know if you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Man. I think you're gonna get bed
Speaker 1: bugs yeah, or butt bugs, but bugs, that's gross. If
Speaker 1: they can't find a din, they will all sleep together
Speaker 1: in a big mongoose pile with their butts together in
Speaker 1: their heads facing outwards to detect threats. Like just a
Speaker 1: big bouquet of mongoose is it's adorable? Is adorable? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Just what to but but but to but just and
Speaker 1: and and and even and with like much better like
Speaker 1: this like community protection, but not from a bully perspective.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, I'm not being bullied into this because
Speaker 1: if I don't protect you, you're going to kill my children.
Speaker 1: It's no, like this is the best thing for all
Speaker 1: of us, exactly, handed mongoose, don't listen. Don't be changing
Speaker 1: my mind. Man, it's starting to change my mind. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And unlike the mercats, there is no single dominant breeding pair.
Speaker 1: Uh so, there is not a tyrannical female in charge.
Speaker 1: Multiple females can have their offspring in the group. The
Speaker 1: only option is if the group gets too large to maintain,
Speaker 1: then the older females will force the younger females out.
Speaker 1: But then those younger females will tend to go off
Speaker 1: and start their own their own group. So it's really
Speaker 1: only once there is their resources are running so thin
Speaker 1: they really need to That's functional, you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a functional, loving answer. It's not that like you
Speaker 1: can't have kids because we're all going to die. It's look,
Speaker 1: there's really not enough food around. So hey, man, you
Speaker 1: set up, set out, you are free to go start
Speaker 1: your own plan. I am proud of you. Just remember
Speaker 1: all the things we taught you having many kids as
Speaker 1: you want, get out of the termite hill basement, stop
Speaker 1: playing call of duty and get out there. Just get
Speaker 1: out there. There's a cutie out there for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can procreate. The key to their success in terms
Speaker 1: of being a lot more peaceful than the mere cats
Speaker 1: is the fact that the females tend to all give
Speaker 1: birth at the same time, even on the same day,
Speaker 1: so they are synchronized with their birthing schedules. And by
Speaker 1: synchronizing their births, it not only makes community child care
Speaker 1: more easy because it's like, all right, you know, all
Speaker 1: the pups are here now they're all the same age. Um,
Speaker 1: it's also a way to prevent tyrannical mongoose from taking over.
Speaker 1: So do you want to hear the research study where
Speaker 1: researchers gave mongoose is a birth control? Yes, yes I do.
Speaker 1: But when they started giving the older, stronger females birth control,
Speaker 1: the bigger, stronger females started killing the litters of the
Speaker 1: other females. So the reasoning is this, So if a
Speaker 1: more dominant female, an older, bigger female, doesn't give birth
Speaker 1: at the same time as other females, she knows she
Speaker 1: can get away with killing the litters without killing any
Speaker 1: of her own young on accident, and so by killing
Speaker 1: in this case, it's like, well, you know, she doesn't
Speaker 1: have her own young, they're everyone else has their young,
Speaker 1: So she's making this this decision. I don't know how
Speaker 1: much of it is a decision or just instinct, but
Speaker 1: it's she she has the instinct of like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I uh, I need resources, and I'm I didn't give
Speaker 1: I don't have any offspring in the game, and it
Speaker 1: it's probably some some thing goes with like goes off
Speaker 1: with their hormones, and then they start to become as
Speaker 1: mean as the mere cats. But when the mongoes is
Speaker 1: all give birth at the same time, there is no
Speaker 1: conflict either if it's through like some kind of hormonal
Speaker 1: um just like signaling or something um. They they don't
Speaker 1: it would be a disadvantage to them evolutionarily if they
Speaker 1: started killing offspring because they might accidentally kill their own,
Speaker 1: so they don't do it. So because they have synchronized
Speaker 1: their birthing. Uh, it's makes a they're the banded manga
Speaker 1: society much more child friendly. It's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant
Speaker 1: because and the calculation of like, well it ain't my
Speaker 1: baby in there is like cole hearted because like yeah,
Speaker 1: like goes back today like shared ancestor instinct. But that
Speaker 1: but the idea of like, you know, how do you
Speaker 1: know how we advanced past the barbarism of our ancestors
Speaker 1: is we just all give birth at the same time. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of these arguments. Just do it all at
Speaker 1: the same time. Gas you know, yeah, one party, you know,
Speaker 1: big old one, big old, gooey birth party. Gooey the
Speaker 1: worst word for this. Yes, So the caring for the
Speaker 1: young is a lot cuter and less coercive in the
Speaker 1: banded Monga society. So giving birth is very it takes
Speaker 1: a lot of the parents resources. So usually there is
Speaker 1: is a younger, non parental babysitter who probably will later
Speaker 1: on have offspring of their own, but for now they're
Speaker 1: they're kind of younger, they're less experienced, so they will
Speaker 1: babysit uh the young of the mothers who just gave birth.
Speaker 1: And so there's usually one babysitter who takes care of
Speaker 1: one pups. So each pup will typically get their very
Speaker 1: own babysitter. And you know seven attention the parents the
Speaker 1: mothers are usually so tired and wiped out from having
Speaker 1: these litters that they don't do that much in terms
Speaker 1: of parental care, whereas the babysitters really take care of
Speaker 1: the pups, so they will. The babysitters will escort the
Speaker 1: pups out on foraging trips to keep them safe for
Speaker 1: around three months until the pups are old enough to
Speaker 1: be out on their own. I'm really starting to feel
Speaker 1: a little envy about this mongoose society. This like y'all
Speaker 1: gotta figured out, Man, I do, got kids, I do.
Speaker 1: How amazing would it be if it was like because
Speaker 1: when you have kids, it's like always I call it
Speaker 1: tour body because my only comparison was as a professional musician,
Speaker 1: like you touring all the time. So when you tour
Speaker 1: in ontour, you're you're pretty much at forty to six
Speaker 1: energy all day for the whole month. You never really
Speaker 1: get past that. It's just it's for you, just constantly tired.
Speaker 1: And so that's like, I mean, that's parenting. Like you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm never not exhausted or like feeling like and
Speaker 1: I'm a girl dad, so I'm I mean, it is
Speaker 1: is only women in my house, two daughters, you know,
Speaker 1: our actual house cat, and then the I'm solely I remember.
Speaker 1: So I'm constantly like my head's on a swivel or
Speaker 1: I'm constantly have a furled eyebrow because I'm I'm learning
Speaker 1: to become um more of a feminist than to understand,
Speaker 1: and so I'm seeking and trying to grow in empathy
Speaker 1: all day so something, and sometimes I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm tired. I don't I don't understand. I feel like
Speaker 1: you all speak Swahili and y'all all understand each other
Speaker 1: and I just don't know what you're saying, but I'm translating.
Speaker 1: So if you tell me which we kind of have
Speaker 1: the house behind us, a couple of neighbors down the street,
Speaker 1: like we kind of share the wealth with our kids too,
Speaker 1: but like because they got kids, we get anyway. But
Speaker 1: the idea of saying this was built into the fabric
Speaker 1: of our I'm like, this would be you wouldn't even
Speaker 1: need we wouldn't need parental like paternity leave. Maternity wouldn't
Speaker 1: leave it because it's like kids are fine. Yeah, babysitters
Speaker 1: your own personal babysitters. There are theories that like early
Speaker 1: on in human society's we had more of a like
Speaker 1: cooperative childcare in our in our you know, in our group,
Speaker 1: and are like very yeah exactly that that was like
Speaker 1: you know, the whole the whole group would take care
Speaker 1: of the children and that would help. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's too bad we kind of don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: You know, you kind of pining a memory about about
Speaker 1: you know, my anthropology lessons and and it was, I
Speaker 1: want to say it was for like the same reasons
Speaker 1: of like, well we kind of don't know who's the
Speaker 1: dad or the mom, but we know the mom is,
Speaker 1: but we kind of don't know who the dad is,
Speaker 1: So like how about just everybody take care of everybody? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's there's a theory that that helped reduce our
Speaker 1: like aggression towards each other because it's like, well, if
Speaker 1: we're all just like we're not worrying about like whose
Speaker 1: kids who, and like we're not we're not sort of
Speaker 1: just trying to have a competition between you know, well,
Speaker 1: well is this my kid? Is that my kid? Then
Speaker 1: it's just like everyone kind of chills out, and you know,
Speaker 1: we we become more peaceful, we work together better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So yeah, humans are kind of like the bit of
Speaker 1: the banded mongoose of primate. Yeah well wow, um, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I hate that my mind's being changed about your cats
Speaker 1: are so cute, though they are very cute. I do actually,
Speaker 1: and I do enjoy the drama of them cats because
Speaker 1: they're just so messy, right like, yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like could be Honestly, I guess like a mere banded
Speaker 1: bongoose reality show wouldn't be that interesting because they all
Speaker 1: kind of you know, they do have They do have
Speaker 1: wars though sometimes so that's the most vicious they get
Speaker 1: is in wars with other groups, like rival groups over territories.
Speaker 1: So occasionally they do kill each other in these wars,
Speaker 1: or depending on their mood, they meet with each other.
Speaker 1: So so they could just be like having a big
Speaker 1: war and then a male and a female in opposite
Speaker 1: sides like make bedroom minds at each other, making like
Speaker 1: all of this bloodshed is making me horny. They was
Speaker 1: out there to fight and it turns out no kind
Speaker 1: of look good over there, like you are good covered
Speaker 1: in blood. Anyways, let's take it behind this pile of
Speaker 1: dead bodies. Yeah, hey, so what you're doing after this?
Speaker 1: What you're doing after the Big war? What you're doing
Speaker 1: after this big war? Tell no body Montague, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying. In fact, there's some observations where they think
Speaker 1: that females will instigate wars just so that they can
Speaker 1: go off and try to mate with with dudes from
Speaker 1: the other side of the war, proving that across all species,
Speaker 1: the girls are smarter. Just like this, This is brilliant.
Speaker 1: Just get a bunch of dudes fighting exactly, you just
Speaker 1: snag one of them, like, and of course he's gonna stop. Ye,
Speaker 1: I'm saying if you're like, what me me? Yeah, just
Speaker 1: like and I love I love the drama of them,
Speaker 1: like instigating a fight just so they can sneak off,
Speaker 1: Like like, hey, did you hear do you hear what
Speaker 1: Timone said about you? Yeah? No, the really handsome the
Speaker 1: really handsome mongoose from the other group, Yeah yeah, did
Speaker 1: you hear what he said? Yeah, the really hot ones
Speaker 1: that yeah yeah, yeah, he said you're weak, he said
Speaker 1: you're the beta. What I mean, I know, like they're
Speaker 1: all mere cats. He's like, yeah, I know, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not what are you talking about? I know it's not
Speaker 1: a diss we all know that. Yeah. Yeah, but no,
Speaker 1: but banded mongooses they all they all get. They tend
Speaker 1: to have more chances, so they're much more equitable society.
Speaker 1: They're also they're also um. I think if you could
Speaker 1: recast the lion king, timone should really be a banded
Speaker 1: mongoose and not a meercat because banded mongeese have a
Speaker 1: really special relationship with wart hogs, and this is where
Speaker 1: they show a bit of their sweet side. They will
Speaker 1: make friends with wart hogs and remove ticks and other
Speaker 1: parasites from so they can eat the ticks and parasites
Speaker 1: while the wart hog enjoys a spa day with a
Speaker 1: bunch of little mongoose massus is so at Disney literally
Speaker 1: deceived us, Yes, because that role. They just said, this
Speaker 1: is what mongeese do, but mere cats are cuter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: typical Hollywood. Disappointed, typical Hollywood. You know, casting the cutest,
Speaker 1: you know, most socially acceptable person and not not you know,
Speaker 1: the mongoose who would probably reflect that character the best.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, can you imagine like mongeese sitting in
Speaker 1: there termite cave like, are you are you serious? At
Speaker 1: a serious? That crazy crazy uncle they got your crazy
Speaker 1: uncle playing this okay, yeah, wid yep, yep. It's not fair.
Speaker 1: It's it's not popularity contest. It reminds me, you know,
Speaker 1: in elementary school, you're like running for class president. You
Speaker 1: try to get together, big, big speech, but too bad,
Speaker 1: the most popular kid's gonna get it, even though you're
Speaker 1: picking ticks off of ward hogs. Allay, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, literally picking animals off your body. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I'm not cute. Okay, cool, but these pictures of the
Speaker 1: mongoose is cleaning off the ward hawks are adorable. It's
Speaker 1: you know, it's just there and the ward hog knows
Speaker 1: knows what's happening because he just lies down. Let some
Speaker 1: go for it, you know. Oh now, like somebody start
Speaker 1: like nibbling on your ear and massage and you use
Speaker 1: his eyes roll back like oh hey don't hey, stop
Speaker 1: it some more, you know, stop it, stop it some more. Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, literally going like getting in the ear,
Speaker 1: getting the parasites in the ear. It's luxury, it really is.
Speaker 1: And the mongooses get a free disgusting meal. That is
Speaker 1: another well, that's another downside. They are ticks. Well, but
Speaker 1: you know, a bug a bug, So if you eat bugs,
Speaker 1: you know, who are you to turn your nose up
Speaker 1: at a parisite, you know, I mean, like, to be honest,
Speaker 1: I feel like the only problem that banded mongooses have
Speaker 1: is a branding problem. You know. You gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: get a brand expert. Uh, maybe get some eyeshadow, hold
Speaker 1: your hold your paws up, you know, act a little cuter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: work on your posture, right right, get one of those
Speaker 1: posture corrective harnesses, right uh yeah, and just like and
Speaker 1: then pose, you know, like, look, I'm massaging this, this
Speaker 1: word hog see this just yeah, just a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of photos with them standing next to Ward Hobbs and
Speaker 1: just like, judge for yourself, guys, yeah yeah, see see
Speaker 1: how it really look? Just for yourself. See any mere cats?
Speaker 1: I'll see no mere cats? Yeah yeah, mirrorcats. So next
Speaker 1: time you look at a little cute, little mer cat face,
Speaker 1: know that you're possibly staring into the eyes of an
Speaker 1: unrepentant killer, stone cold killer. Ye ye, little criminal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you tricked us with that. Actually, you know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy because it's like they little eyeshadow was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we weren't hiding it. Yeah, I don't know why, y'all
Speaker 1: thought this about us. Yeah, we dark that's why we
Speaker 1: did this. This metal were death metal? Bro, like, it's metal,
Speaker 1: that's this death metal makeup? What did you think? What
Speaker 1: did you think? I don't know why y'all kept calling
Speaker 1: it qute. We couldn't figure it out. I was asking,
Speaker 1: why do I keep thinking this is death metal? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Imagine you imagine mirrorcats are just confused as to why
Speaker 1: everybody thinks they cuddly like what they think? Yeah? No, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we're we're literally Satanists. What are you talking about? Yeah?
Speaker 1: They're like what how I mean, how much worse do
Speaker 1: we need to be? Like? Hail Satan? Dude, Satan? We
Speaker 1: killed children. I don't understand. You should have had a
Speaker 1: clue when we literally ripped a butt off a scorpion.
Speaker 1: Did you see me not flinched after ripping the butt
Speaker 1: off a scorpion's scorpion fangs coming out my mouth? I
Speaker 1: don't understand what you don't understand. I love it. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry to uh to you know, uh kind of unveil
Speaker 1: the truth behind your But I hope you still love
Speaker 1: them because I do. You know, they remind me of
Speaker 1: like like Orca whales, to where You're like, these fools
Speaker 1: hunt for fun, like these are these are Earth's apex predators?
Speaker 1: Like you can't have somebody as hungry and vicious as
Speaker 1: a lion that's the size of a bus. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And I'm like, but I look
Speaker 1: at him, and I'm like, you guys are beautiful and majestic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a majestic animal that murders. Yeah, they're they're huge,
Speaker 1: they have a huge brain, they have big teeth. Did
Speaker 1: we not think they would murder? I mean, like what else?
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah, I mean look at what humans have done.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, no, dolphins, but they're so smart, why
Speaker 1: would they like torture seals? It's like, uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: have you just looked around, gestures wildly, Yeah, yeah, shines
Speaker 1: a mirror in front of your camera and go, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you think? Yeah, I mean it's I guess
Speaker 1: it's true that we don't eat our own offspring or
Speaker 1: other people's offspring, generally speaking, but look cast the stone
Speaker 1: from our eyes before you judge a mer cat. You know,
Speaker 1: you go, because we we we we eat our share
Speaker 1: of babies. Yeah, but thank you that note. Yeah, species
Speaker 1: babies inter species babies. Clarification, we eat we feel not human. Yes,
Speaker 1: we eat other people's babies and yeah yeah other people's
Speaker 1: rewinded back we eat other species babies. I'm saving. I'm
Speaker 1: isolating that clip and putting it online. There it is,
Speaker 1: we eat babies. Yeah, yeah, where can Where can people
Speaker 1: find you so they can write angry letters to you
Speaker 1: about how you are advocating for eat. You can find
Speaker 1: me at Katie Golden No prop hip Hop is my
Speaker 1: website and all my and all my social handles. There's
Speaker 1: a bunch of homes and coffee photos and and I
Speaker 1: got a book coming out, and the Hood Politics Pod
Speaker 1: is on Network with this fine pod called Hood Politics
Speaker 1: Pod for the socials and yeah, you just starch up
Speaker 1: politics and and yeah, I'll have an episode about the
Speaker 1: Armenian genocide on this week. Yeah, and kind of like
Speaker 1: just getting your head in your head around it. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's very important, very very important. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a I try to just take these
Speaker 1: like super serious, very complicated things that are happening in
Speaker 1: geopolitics and just kind of going, well, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Yeah, No, I mean I think people are
Speaker 1: intimidated sometimes by by politics, especially global politics, and thinking, well,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just not I'm not an expert, so how
Speaker 1: could I know? But that's not true. Yeah, you actually
Speaker 1: you're more of an expert than you think. Hey, did
Speaker 1: you survive eighth grade? Did you figure out which lunch
Speaker 1: table to sit at when you on the first day
Speaker 1: of school and you had to make the calculations as
Speaker 1: to which Yeah, you understand you. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: definitely check that out. I think that's super important. And
Speaker 1: you can find the podcast on the internet at Creature
Speaker 1: Feature Pod on Instagram, at your feet pot on Twitter.
Speaker 1: That's Effie Hot Efie Eating had something very different um,
Speaker 1: and you can find uh. If you want to email
Speaker 1: me your questions, your concerns about mer cats, your petitions
Speaker 1: to get banded mongoose is the attention they deserve, you
Speaker 1: can email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: And thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the show and you leave our rating and review, I
Speaker 1: read all of them and they make me so happy.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. And thank you to the Space
Speaker 1: Classics for their super awesome song ex Alumina creature features
Speaker 1: the production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts like
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows? I don't judge you. See you
Speaker 1: next Wednesday.