WEBVTT - The Nutcracker 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:07.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.239 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:15.880 is Robert. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.760 Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And ooh, I can 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.160 almost smell hot cocoa and peppermint. Because the Christmas spirit 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.720 is alive today where we're doing our holiday episode and 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.880 we're going to be talking about the Nutcracker as promised 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:30.880 in the last episode. 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.720 That's right on Tuesday, we discussed the rat King and 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.400 of course how that relates to the Mouse King, the 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.280 enemy of the Nutcracker from the original source material for 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:45.000 Chaikowsky's eighteen ninety two ballet. We talked about this. It's 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.760 the work of German dark romantic author E. Ta Hoffman 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.120 and eighteen sixteen short story titled The Nutcracker in the 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.000 Mouse King. So we talked a good bit about monstrous, 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.480 multi headed rats, and the original short story does feature 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.160 some just horrific visions of this dreaded entity. But today 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.479 it's time to talk about the protagonist of this story. Yes, 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:07.160 it's the Nutcracker. Rob. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:08.880 When you were a kid, did your family have like 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.800 a classic style Christmas decoration nutcracker with the lever and 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:13.280 the jaw. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.440 I think we always had one around, or there was 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.360 at least a Christmas ornament that had a nutcracker on it, 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.240 but I don't remember. We certainly did not have a 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.240 functional nutcracker, at least as far as I can recall. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:31.920 I remember enjoying the creepy inhuman mechanics of how far 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.040 the jaw would open, and the very the squareness of it. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.000 You know. I like the fact that it had corners 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.160 and it was almost like the pharyngeal jaw of like 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:42.720 the xenomor for something. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.560 Yeah, yeah, you know. And it's something that you can 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.080 toy around with. Yeah, And even if it's decorative and 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:50.800 you're a kid, if you're left alone with it, you're 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.320 gonna end up trying to crack some nuts in that 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.960 weird jaw of the nutcracker. Now, I feel like most 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.120 of you know exactly what sort of nutcrackers I'm talking 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.240 about here. You know, he's an old timey soldier or 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.559 king standing up made out of woods, a tall hat, 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.560 big teeth, and a movable jaw that works via a lever. 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.960 So the lever is positioned on the nutcracker's back. You 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.720 pull up on the lever and this opens the jaw. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.200 Insert a nut, push down on the lever, or pull 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.639 down on the lever, squeeze down on the lever, however 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.959 you apply it, and the forest is going to cause 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.480 the jaws and a nutcracker to close, cracking the nut. 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.160 That is, of course, if you're using a functional wooden nutcracker. 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.239 Many of the ones you encounter today are purely decorative. 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.000 They were never meant to actually crack a nut. Some 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.840 of them even have like little capes on, clearly making 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.040 the lever inaccessible if there even is a lever back there. 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.200 Yeah. I recall thinking this about the nutcrackers of my youth. 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.679 It was like, this does feel flimsy. I don't know 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:54.160 if it would stand up to a nut. 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.280 Yeah. Many times we don't even need to crack the nuts, right, 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.880 we're getting we're receiving our nuts already in some sort 0:02:59.919 --> 0:03:03.520 of a snack mix. They've already been cracked. Uh. Sometimes 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.200 cracking is not entirely necessary. You get a nice bag 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.720 of pistachios, they are only gonna be those problem pistachios 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:12.880 that you're gonna have to crack later. The rest you 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.960 can open by getting your your you know your salty 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.600 fingers in there and then eventually like having to to 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.440 slip your fingernail into the into the crevice and pry 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:23.359 them open that way. 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.240 Oh but if you apply force in just the wrong way, 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.200 it'll kind of like nick your nail and pull it 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:29.960 back for creepy feeling. I don't like. 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:32.320 Yeah, but it's satisfying, you know. It's one of those 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.000 things that is it's like deeply embedded in our genes, 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.040 you know, the idea that oh, here's a nut, I've 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:38.600 got to crack it, and then I've got this sweet 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.040 reward and now I'm going to keep doing it again 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:41.560 and again. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.680 It does feel so biologically deep that it's like one 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.120 of our primary metaphors for just solving a problem, cracking 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:49.560 a nut. 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.160 That's right, got to crack that nut. It is a 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.360 problem to be solved, but there is a reward, and 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.280 there's there's got to be a way into it. You know, 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:00.880 at least this is often like a you can't just 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.280 give up on that pistachio that can't be opened or 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.760 that nut that seemingly can't be cracked, because you know 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.520 there's something good in there now. Quick anthropology note, there 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:15.720 is a primate species. This is Parenthepus boise Eye, which 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.240 upon discovery in nineteen fifty nine was dubbed nutcracker Man 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.760 due to the skulls, large back teeth and jaws. I 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.520 included an image of a reconstruction of this particular skull 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:27.279 for you here, Joe. 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.839 Oh yeah, this looks like the opposite of my childhood nutcracker. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.479 I think that the owner of the skull could have 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:34.920 dominated some nuts. 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.080 This would make for an interesting monstrous adaptation of the 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.960 nutcracker and the mouse king. Have your multi headed mouse 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.479 king and all fierce and disturbing, but then also have 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:51.440 your nutcracker b Nutcracker Man. Now we'll dive into deeper 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.520 history concerning just nutcracking here in a minute. You know, 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.680 we'll get into other traditional ways of cracking nut, some 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.279 anthropomorphic in name nature as well, like our nutcracker soldier. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.120 But first let's get to know the wooden German nutcracker 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.479 a little bit better. So, in looking around for various sources, 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.800 there does seem to be one individual in particular who 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:17.720 stands out, and it's the nutcracker Lady, and that's Arlene Wagner, who, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.279 as an author has written books about nutcrackers and is 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.760 also the co founder of the Really Fun Looking Nutcracker 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.760 Museum in Levenworth, Washington. And she points out that standing 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.640 wooden nutcrackers like these, like the traditional holiday nutcracker as 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.880 we know them, These were known in nineteenth century German 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.919 as nousnachers, listed as such in the Dictionary of the 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:43.440 Brothers Grim. Many of these were made in the Erzgeberge 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.520 region and would have been the ones to inspire Hoffmann 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.560 in his writing of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.680 And they were not all powered by lever. As it 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.200 turns out, some of these were powered by screw. I 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:00.440 included an image of a screw based nutcracking nut for 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:01.440 you here, Joe m. 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.760 But they've all got that, whether it's screw or lever, 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:06.120 they've all got the mustache. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.480 Now, the mustache is essential, as is the tall hat. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.599 But the screw guy he has just kind of like 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.680 a wide circular mouth sort of a mouth, and in 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.240 there you see the screw. Like basically you would just 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.360 you know, drive the screw home into the top of 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.800 the nut and the gradual force would bust it. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.360 With the screw guy. I kind of missed the mouth 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:30.680 of sare on style teeth that we have in the 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:32.160 ones with the levers. 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.320 It does seem like a design misstep because part of 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.440 the whole fun that, like, the whole reason you would 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.279 imagine that someone created a humanoid nutcracker is because it 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:43.520 moves like a jaw and you're putting something into this 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.440 little guy's mouth and making him smash it. This guy 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.719 with a screw that comes down from the roof of 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.880 his mouth like down through his pallet to to break 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.679 open the nut like this just it doesn't it doesn't 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.080 feel as natural. It feels like someone improved upon the 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.320 design and destroy the spirit and the pros. But again, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.960 these are also classic nutcrackers, fair enough now, Apparently there 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.480 was a bit more variety in the design until around 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.600 eighteen seventy two when one Wilhelm of Fuckner produced the 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:18.680 first commercial nutcrackers based on like one singular design and 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:20.840 this was not like a factory situation, It was just 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:25.000 using a lathe. But this apparently kickstarted sort of the 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.160 canonization of what a nutcracker is and what it should 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.360 look like, and his family still produces these. According to 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:38.360 Carol Rosenblatt, who wrote an article on Atlas Obscura just 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.920 earlier this month about the history of the nutcracker. Now, 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.840 Wagner writes, the decorative wooden European nutcrackers in general, like 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.400 not necessarily soldiers, date back to the fifteenth and sixteenth 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:54.400 centuries in England and France, and these traditions continued on 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.040 during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. So you saw a 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:02.440 great deal of ornate wooden nutcracker or craftsmanship eventually in 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:06.320 the alpine regions of Germany and Italy. Because again, there's 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.720 nothing about a nutcracker that demands that it be shaped 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.920 like a soldier. We're talking about a tool that is 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.080 a simple lever, and then at various points people have 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.400 decided to fancy it up a bit because you can 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.280 just have something that is, you know, crabcloth crunchers are 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:25.520 basically the same thing crackers, just a simple lever to 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:27.920 allow you to apply the necessary force to break a 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.000 shell open, be it the cell of a crustacean or 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.520 the shell of a nut. But people just end up 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.960 having fun with it, creating luxury items even that are 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.040 still to some degree functional, and then in doing it, 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.560 you know, you can't help but let your imagination run wild. 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.480 Is it the mouth of a man, Is it the 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.199 mouth of a beast, the legs of a beast? Perhaps, 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.199 you know, perhaps it has nothing to do with actual 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.040 anatomical movements. You just want to add some beautiful motifs 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:58.280 to the overall nutcracker. Now, according to Noreen Malone, writing 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.959 for Slate and twenty ten, the German nutcracker dolls the 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.560 standard ones that we're talking about here that look like 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.560 soldiers were at least considered good luck in German traditions, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.680 and I've seen other sources at least loosely allude to 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.440 some sort of apotropaic properties as well. You know, the 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.280 idea that it's this soldier is going to frighten a 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.559 way evil spirits or bad luck or something to that effect. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.559 So you know, the idea that something not only as 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.280 could be lucky, but it could also keep ill luck, 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.640 keep bad spirits away. This, of course, is not uncommon 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.800 with artifacts of this basic nature, you know, because look 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.240 at the standard nutcracker. It has a fierce face. Oftentimes 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.480 it has kind of big and alarming eyes, and certainly 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.280 it's not blinking. So you can imagine easily leaning into 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.000 the idea of putting this character on guard against your enemies. 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.280 This seems to connect with traditions as old as the 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.640 ones we talked about in our series on necromancy the 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.959 suck in ancient Mesopotamia, where you would have these little 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.440 figurines that might look like a warrior or king or 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.280 something that would be there to ward off ghosts and 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.520 demons that might want to attack you in your sleeve. 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.640 Yeah, and so perhaps Hoffman was playing with this concept 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.960 a little bit in his writing of the original Nutcracker story. 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.040 You know, the Nutcracker is a protector in this, but 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.320 also he turns things on its head. He is also 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.160 something that needs protecting. He needs to be protected by Marie. 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.880 I should point out that, yes, the little girl's name 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.360 is Marie in the original story, even though I believe 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:41.640 she becomes Clara in the Nutcracker ballet. So we'll get 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.880 back to traditions of nutcracking technology here in a bit. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.720 But to give this the proper sort of invention treatment, 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.160 we really need to go back before that. We need 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.320 to get back to the basic idea of cracking nuts. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.959 And indeed, why crack a nut anyway? And why does 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.120 the nut need to be cracked? Great question? So what 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.560 are nuts? We know them when we see them, and 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.800 we can list a bunch of examples, but botanically what 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.240 are they? And I've actually found some rather different definitions 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.440 offered in seemingly authoritative sources. But to synthesize as best 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.440 I can, here are the main points. 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:22.320 First of all, nuts are fruits. Huh, Yes, they are fruits. 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:25.400 We don't usually think of them this way, so this 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:28.600 raises the question, going one step back further, what is 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.920 a fruit? In a botanical sense, a fruit is usually 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:36.400 defined as the mature, ripened ovary of a flowering plant, 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:40.559 which contains the plants seed or seeds. So, according to 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:45.360 scientific classification, fruits include lots of foods we do normally 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.720 think of as fruits, like apples, peaches, and oranges, but 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.319 lots of other fleshy things that grow off of plants 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.760 that we don't usually think of as fruits, even foods 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:59.240 like cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, and chili peppers, and in fact, 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.160 technically even grains like wheat and oats are a type 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.240 of fruit. So a fruit is a mass that grows 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.360 from the reproductive structure of a flour and ends up 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:15.520 containing or bearing the fertilized seed of that plant. The 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.400 form of the fruit is designed by evolution to help 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.720 the seeds disperse, which could mean taking the form of 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.560 a delicious snack that animals will want to eat and 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.000 then swallow and then deposit elsewhere in a nice, healthy 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.280 pile of dung. But there are other animal dispersal strategies 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.679 we'll get to in a minute. So, according to the 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.319 Encyclopedia of Fruit and Nuts edited by Yonick and Paul, 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:43.959 nuts are a specialized subcategory of fruit quote, characterized by 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.280 a hard shell that is separable from a firmer inner kernel. 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:50.880 So it's a fruit that's got an inside kernel and 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.600 a hard shell on the outside. Now, to offer some 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.600 of these contrasting definitions, I found a different source by 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.480 the USDA Forest Service that claimed that quote, nuts are 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.120 strictly a particular kind of dry fruit that has a 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:10.240 single seed, a hard shell, and a protective husk. Also 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.520 adding to the confusion is the fact that there are 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.120 some things that are generally classified as nuts by people, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.880 but are not nuts in the botanical sense. Classic example 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.480 is a peanut. These are technically legumes, And in this episode, 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.280 I am sure we will casually refer to some of 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.360 these false nuts as nuts. It's just going to happen. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:34.120 Just be aware that some quote nuts are not technically nuts. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.840 But to come back to the synthesis definition here, among 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.280 other possible criteria like bearing a single seed, or having 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.880 a husk, or maybe having high oil content or something 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.560 like that, the common thread seems to be that nuts 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.960 are fruits that evolved a hard shell. But why how 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.480 does the plant benefit from having a hard shell around 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:59.440 its fruit and seed as opposed to a nice soft 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.640 fleshy seed capsule like a tomato or like any of 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:07.520 these other soft fleshy fruits where the plant, in an 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.080 evolutionary sense, wants the animal to gobble them up and 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.120 carry them away and poove them out Somewhere. Well, I 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.520 found a paper that explains one important evolutionary strategy of 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.600 nut bearing plants, and I think this is really interesting. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.440 So the paper was by Stephen B. Vanderwal called How 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:30.440 Plants Manipulate the scatter hoarding behavior of seed dispersing Animals, 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.600 published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society b Biological 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:40.479 Sciences in twenty ten. So this paper is about interactions 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:45.800 between plants and animals, particularly plants and an animal behavior 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.720 called scatter hoarding, in which the animal and you can 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.080 picture a squirrel, but there are a bunch of different 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.000 kinds of animals that do this as well, primarily birds 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.760 and rodents, in which the animal or the squirrel will 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.040 collect a bunch of food items in hidden caches to 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.200 be stored for later. So, our squirrel runs around gathering 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.840 up a bunch of nuts fallen from under a tree, 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.040 and instead of eating them right away, the squirrel will 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.360 carry them off to bury or hide somewhere for later, 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:20.280 maybe in lots of locations all around the squirrel's territory. Now, 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.480 why does this benefit the plant for the squirrel or 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.320 other animal to do this or run off with a 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.120 bunch of nuts, take them somewhere else and bury them. Well, 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.600 in some cases, the storage caches of plant seeds will 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:36.720 benefit from reproductive fitness enhancements via animal dispersal. And we've 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.680 talked on the show before about the reasons that it 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.080 is good for a plant to have its seeds dispersed 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.160 geographically away, taken away from the parent plant. There are 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.840 multiple reasons for this, but just one example is now, 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.840 if they're dispersed far away, the offspring plant will not 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.320 have to compete with the parent plant for access to sunlight. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.160 Parent and child will not be fighting against one another 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.800 to get the sun. But in many cases, these scatter 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:11.400 hoarded caches will be forgotten or otherwise abandoned by the 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.120 animal that made them, allowing the seeds to germinate and 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.960 grow in the places they were hidden. So squirrel takes 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.240 a bunch of nuts, stashes them all over the place, 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.400 buries them, hides them. The squirrel will go back and 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.800 get some of them later and eat them, but some 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:28.920 of them the squirrels never going to get again, and 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.360 they'll just be wherever they are and they might have 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:32.880 a chance to sprout and grow. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.400 Plus, the world can be pretty rough on a squirrel, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.240 so even if the squirrel remembers where those nuts are, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.320 it doesn't mean that squirrel is going to be around 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:43.560 to come back and claim them later on. 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:50.080 Right, So, Vanderwald explains how plants have evolved to encourage 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.000 scatter hoarding behavior in animals and why it helps them. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:55.920 So that you know it is good for the plant 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.560 to get animals to practice scatter hoarding with its seeds, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.360 how does it get the animals to do that? First 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.600 of all, by producing seeds that are delicious and nutritious, 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.679 so they are highly attractive to animals as a food. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.919 But second, here's the important one for our question about 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.840 why why nuts have hard shells, by imposing what Vanderwald 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:22.399 calls handling costs that mean the animal cannot feasibly eat 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.439 all of the seeds immediately upon discovery. And there are 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:31.000 two main strategies mentioned for increasing these handling costs. One 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.800 is by lacing the nutritious seed or fruit with chemicals 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.119 that make it hard to digest, such as tannins, which 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.840 kind of slows down the buffet. But then the second 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.720 thing is by putting in place physical barriers that take 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.080 time and energy to break through. So here's our hard 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.639 outer nutshell. The hard shell of a nut makes it 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.760 impossible for the squirrel to just gobble up all of 0:17:55.800 --> 0:18:00.280 the fruits immediately. They want that good stuff inside. Each 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.040 one is going to take time and energy to open 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.280 an access, so the animal is encouraged to take the 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.399 nuts away and hide them for later. Now, there are 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.600 a couple more strategies Vanderwall mentions as well. One is masting. 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:18.679 This is quote where a population of plants synchronizes reproductive effort, 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:23.080 producing large nut crops at intervals of several years. Massed 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.879 crops not only satiate seed predators but also increase the 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.480 amount of seed dispersal because scatter hoarding animals are not 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.040 easily satiated during cashing, causing animals to store more food 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.200 than they can consume, but are satiated during cash recovery. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:41.720 So does that makes sense. There's a lot of nuts, 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.160 and because they take time to get into, the scatter 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.360 hoarding animal is going to be hungry while they're gathering 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.280 all these nuts, so it just encourages them to keep 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.120 gathering more and more nuts and storing them and planting 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.280 them for the plant. But then they will get full 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.680 on these nuts when it's finally time to recover the 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.200 cash and crack them open and eat them, so they're 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.119 probably not going to get to all of the stuff 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:05.119 they stored. 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.320 Basically exploiting a real eyes bigger than one's stomach sort 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.639 of situation with the squirrels exactly. 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.720 And then the last strategy mentioned here is by having 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.800 seeds that don't put off strong smells, making them harder 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.760 for the animal to find later after they are hidden. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.840 So really just sort of helping the squirrel or bird 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.879 or whatever animal forget where it put some of its nuts. So, 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.600 according to this theory, hard nutshells are part of a 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.920 suite of strategies used by plants to aid in seed 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.480 dispersal by animals like birds and rodents, which makes it 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.920 more difficult for the animal to eat the nut, making 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.560 it more likely that the animal will carry the nut 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.639 off and hide it or bury it somewhere later and 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.520 then possibly forget about it or for whatever reason, never 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.280 come back to it, allowing the plant to germinate in 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.760 its hiding place. Hard nutshells you could think of sort 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.760 of like a speed bump in the eating process. They 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.919 make it hard for the bird or the rodent or 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.560 whatever to just like blaze through whatever it finds that 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:23.520 it can't just eat it all at once, but to 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.200 come back at this. From the animal's perspective, nuts are great. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.280 Animals want to eat them, so how to get the 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.000 good part out? Animals do have strategies for getting at 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.240 those good parts, Even if while benefiting from the nuts 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.960 they do crack open and eat, they're sort of inadvertently 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:42.439 helping the plant by not getting to a lot of 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.320 the nuts they store. Let's look at a few strategies here. 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:49.920 One is brute force, you know, teeth, jaws, beaks, or bills, 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.280 and other intrinsic mechanisms that allow an animal to crack 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:59.000 or punch through hard nutshells. We've already mentioned that rodents 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.879 are a major consumer of nuts in the wild, but 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:06.760 also other hard substances, and rodents, like rats, squirrels, and beavers, 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.520 have an adaptation that helps them in this regard, which 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.720 is there incisors, pairs of front teeth at the top 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:17.720 and bottom that, unlike our teeth, continuously grow throughout the 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:22.160 rodent's life. So this means rodents must gnaw on things 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.400 and also must grind their front teeth to maintain good 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:30.560 dental health. Rat incisors not worn down by continuous gnawing 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:36.920 can grow into a bizarre, unsettling spiral shapes they go off, 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.760 and this is obviously really bad for the rat. And 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.600 while having teeth like this imposes a burden to constantly 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.320 be gnawing and grinding the teeth together, it also helps 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.640 equip rodents to put their front teeth through some serious 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.239 abuse because the teeth will just continue growing in and 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.679 the grinding will continue to sharpen them, so you know, 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.480 if an adult human cracks a tooth, that's that's sort 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.040 of a permanent problem. Rodents like rats can just let 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.439 their teeth keep growing in so they can put them 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.399 through a lot. Rodents like rats also have very strong 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.040 and specially adapted jaw muscles for their size, specifically the 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.960 massive muscles, and they're special teeth and chewing muscles help 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:23.040 them cut through tough barriers like nutshells. Of course, on 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.560 the larger end of the animal spectrum, you've got bigger 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.040 animals that just have big teeth, big jaws that can 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.200 pretty easily crush through nutshells, for example elephants and some 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.919 wild pigs. You know, if you've got big enough jaws 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:39.359 and teeth and stuff, crushing a nutshell isn't that hard. 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.080 I even found one report of gorillas allegedly cracking nuts 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:45.679 with their teeth, so there's some question about to what 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.000 extent this comes with significant risk of tooth damage to 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.520