WEBVTT - You Don't Know Yak 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.520 Hell no, And welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.040 I'm any rec and I'm Lauren Voblbaum and today we 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.280 have an episode for you about YAX. 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:24.720 Yes, yas. Yeah, I've heard that correctly. Wow, Lauren, was 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.639 there any reason this was on your mind? You know? 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:29.960 Yaks are cool? I did. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.880 This is one of those where I did an episode 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.000 about them over on one of my other shows, brain Stuff, 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.040 and I was like, you know, I want to read 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:38.720 more about. 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:48.040 YAX and more was rich. A lot was read about YAX. Yeah. 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:50.479 So sometimes with these, sometimes with. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.520 Like agricultural related episodes, like I feel like like we 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.680 are almost ready to go open a ranch. 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:04.000 Yeah, from how having done this episode reading, Oh, savor 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:10.480 ranch retirement idea, We'll put that in the backpacket. Oh man, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:12.399 oh no, that would be great. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.160 Okay, all right, all right, I'm not made for ranching, 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.080 that's I'm I'm a city girl. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.320 But but we'll put it in the back pocket. That's 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:27.760 a nice place to visit anyway. Yes, yes, I do 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:35.400 not have any stories to share about YACK. I feel 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.600 like I've seen them, but I have not tasted any 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:41.800 of the products me neither. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.720 Yeah, Yes, I'm pretty sure that I have not. Now 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:47.480 I'm really curious though, so. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:50.760 I have as well. And I have to say this 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.760 was this was a tricky one in terms of there 0:01:54.840 --> 0:02:00.640 are a lot of yack products to go down rabbit 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:08.720 holes about. One of my very favorite things I found 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.400 about this when doing the research is this quote from 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:22.360 a research paper following this review of Yack dung energetics. Yeah, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.640 and we will talk about that a little bit more. 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.799 But I was like, Okay, wow, not where I thought 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:33.520 this was going. But I'm really having to expand my 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.480 brain and take some things in that I wasn't expected. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.399 And you're reading for a food show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:49.839 which is nice. Yeah, it's nice and sometimes a little complicated, 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:57.600 but nice. Well, we have done similar episodes to Yack, 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:04.440 but YAK it's pretty specific, it is in some ways. 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:10.799 Yeah, and we haven't gone too deep into cattle the animals, So. 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:17.040 No, we have not. That's futures. Oh yeah, we'll deal 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:21.320 with that. But in the meantime, I guess this brings 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:28.560 us to our question yas what are they? 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:34.640 Well, yax are large, long haired bovines in the same 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.520 genus as cattle that are also raised for their milk, meat, 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:43.200 and lots of non food products. Their milk is creamy 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.600 yellow in color, high in fats and protein, and used 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.000 fresh or to make butter and cheeses. Their meat is 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.040 lean and nutritious, and every part of the animal can 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.880 be used in crafting things like textiles, tools, and art. 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.480 They're like big and sturdy and useful as work animals, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.720 and they're also essentially amenable to being herded and doing work, 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.800 which helps one of the reasons why like zebras are 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:09.640 not a hurt animal because they're not nice. 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:10.440 They're impolite. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.680 Yeah, Yaks are like big, shaggy cattle that kind of 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:23.000 look like the Henson company designed them. Yeah, like a 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.040 broad face, like a very broad cattlely face. 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.440 Snuffle uf. I guess I can feel yeah, something like that. 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:42.040 Yeah, but okay, so there are wild yaks, but domesticated 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.760 yacts is what we're mostly talking about today. A tax 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:50.320 nomical name boss Grunnians. Sure it means grunting ox because 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.520 they do not move. They start a grunt and squeak. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.960 They can grow up to two meters or about six 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.839 and a half feet tall at the shoulder, which is 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.000 their the highest point on their body. They've got like 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.200 a hump on their upper back near the neck. They 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.480 can weigh easily over one thousand pounds, with male bowls 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.479 about twice as heavy as the female cows. And this 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:09.440 is all a little bit bigger than like the biggest 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.200 cattle can get. They grow long horns. The bulls horns 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.960 curve back and under, whereas the cows horns curve upward 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:20.839 and are smaller. Their fur can come in shades from 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.239 black to brown to gray to white, and in different 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.560 patterns in bowls. That fur can get so long that 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.160 it sort of swings around their legs like fringe on 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.080 a shawl. They reproduce in the boring old mammal way, 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.599 typically with only one calf per pregnancy and a gestation 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.280 period a tiny bit shorter than humans. But calves are 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.640 capable of walking within like ten minutes instead of two years, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:50.400 so that must be convenient. Yeah, And yaks are just 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:55.760 really well adapted to their cold, high altitude native environment, 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.800 which is around the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain regions. 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.920 They can live in altitudes of up to twenty thousand 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:07.159 feet above sea level. That's six thousand meters. That's higher 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.000 than any point in North America aside from the Summit 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:17.200 of Dnale in Alaska. So yeah, to cope with that, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.960 they evolved to produce more red blood cells than other bovines. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.320 And also these extra large lungs that are so big 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.200 that they also evolved an extra pair of ribs to 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:35.000 support them. Like cattle have thirteen pair, yaks have fourteen pair. 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:41.920 That's metal so cool, and that long, multi layered fur 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.320 keeps them warm, and temperatures that can get down to 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.520 negative forty degrees, which is so dang cold that it's 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:49.080 the same in celsius and fahrenheit. 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:55.880 Both. Yeah, yaks are YACs are cool. They are. 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.240 Uh it's kind of a pun because we just talked 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.600 about how they live in chili environments and then note 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.560 that those environments are extremes like most domesticated yaks will 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.320 hang out and like slightly more forgiving climates because most 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.320 humans want to hang out and slightly more forgiving climates. 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.840 So yeah, yaks. 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.920 Grays on fresh grass and other forage in the summers, 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.880 and in the winter they'll use their horns to like 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.960 dig into the snow and find shrubs and a withered 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:28.560 forage stuff like that. We are ostensibly a food show 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.160 a note here at the top like, while yaks are 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.720 not very widely raised around the world, the cultures that 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.920 do have like ranching and or herding traditions around yaks 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.880 are super varied, like over forty different ethnic communities in 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.560 ten countries around Central Asia, and these cultures are not 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:54.160 a monolith culinarily or otherwise. That being said, yeah, so, 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:57.840 yak milk can be consumed fresh by itself or more 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.840 often in a hot milk tea, or fermented into alcoholic 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.840 drinks or further distilled into neutral spirits. It's also used 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.000 in cooking and made into butter and many, many, many 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:14.360 varieties of cheese after summer grazing. Yac milk can reach 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.600 up to twelve percent fat content. Under more like constrained 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:23.480 dietary circumstances, it's like merely around six percent, and also 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.800 it's got like five percent each protein and sugar, and 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.200 all of that is nearly twice as much fat and 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.000 protein as cow milk contains on the low end. So 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.520 this gives yac milk a rich yellow color and slightly 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:42.160 sweet flavor. However, one like up the cattle have is 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.440 that they can produce larger quantities of milk Yac dairy 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.920 is basically never going to be like an industrial level 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.880 production the way that cattle dairy is. Where yak products 0:08:54.920 --> 0:09:01.319 are commercially available, It's a specialty product. The butter nice 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.480 and thick and yellow used. However you like to use 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.880 butter mixed with black tea and salt, it creates pocha, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.760 sometimes known as Tibetan butter tea, which is a big 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.080 part of the culture in some areas. It can also 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.400 be mixed in small amounts with a flour like maybe 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.760 barley or oat flour to form a staple grain product, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.800 and is also used to fuel lamps, sometimes ceremonially, to 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.000 bring like a buffed shine to fur coats, and to 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:33.880 create a base for traditional butter sculptures yep sculpting. Butter 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.439 is probably more widespread than you think, and I love. 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:39.600 That me too. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.200 The cheeses, you know, you get everything from like fresh 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.160 cottage style cheeses to hard like Swiss type cheeses, to 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.680 smoked and or dried cheeses, which can be stored for 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.920 much longer. YACs can also be slaughtered for their meat. 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.040 Yak meat is leaner than beef, with a similar but 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.840 perhaps more mild flavor from what I understand, And it's 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.760 more efficient to rear YACs for meat than cattle because 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.520 yacks only consume like a third to half of the 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.360 food that cattle do, and they produce less methane. The 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.560 meat can be used anyway that you like, preparing meat, 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.280 from fresh steaks to sausages to jerky yack bone marrow 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:27.480 is also a thing, and now I need that. Hope 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.040 that's not too creepy. I'm like, look at this majestic animal. 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:31.880 I definitely want to crack open its bones. 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.360 Yeah. Yeah. 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:43.120 Yacks are also used for transportation and for moving supplies around, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:44.800 plowing of the other work. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:45.599 Yeah. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.720 The hide and hair are used to make all kinds 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.560 of things. They've got this coarse outer fur that's good 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.760 for making like tents and ropes, mid coat that might 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:55.800 go to things like coats or rugs, and then this 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.040 soft undercoat that's like cashmere that they shed every spring. 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.160 Well, what about the nutrition. 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.760 Right back to the food, Yeah, uh. Compared with other 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.160 dairy and meat, yak products generally carry heavier punches of 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.400 both macro and micronutrients. So it's pretty cool. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.839 Yes, yes, indeed, and we do have some numbers for you, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:22.040 we do, okay. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:26.880 So there are an estimated sixteen million ish yaks in 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.079 the world, about ninety percent in China, but a solid 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.920 million or so in Mongolia, the rest mostly scattered around 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.480 nearby highland areas. There are small numbers in North America, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.600 maybe like five hundred animals. Total production of yak meat 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.800 per year is a bit less than four hundred thousand tons, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.600 around sixty percent of which is consumed locally. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:50.959 Okay. 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:54.400 There is a Guinness record for the longest horns on 0:11:54.440 --> 0:12:01.240 a yak, don't. I don't know how far they looked 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.400 to find competitors, but this record was awarded in twenty 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.960 twenty one to this beautiful brown colored buddy named Jericho 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.440 that lives on a farm in Minnesota. His horns are 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.240 curved in the spiral and if you could stretch them 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.959 out and lay them end to end, they would measure 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.040 a little over eleven feet that's like three and a 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:29.440 half meters. He is so handsome. 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.200 Look up pictures. 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.120 And there are a number of yak festivals around the 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:46.280 regions that heard or ranch yaks. The ones around Mongolia, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.320 for example, tend to occur in July or August and 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:55.920 have events like agricultural demonstrations, yak parades, yak polo, yak lassoing, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:58.880 music and dance that, as far as I'm aware, the 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:04.040 YACs don't particularly participate in yack milking competitions, yak dairy 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.920 product competitions, fashion shows with yak fiber garments on humans, 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.400 and I specify on humans because there's also a competition 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:19.600 for the most beautiful and or best bedecked yak. Sometimes 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:25.199 this is referred to as the nice yak competition. Oh, 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:29.840 I love this so much. And then there's yak racing, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.079 which is the slowest event of any given festival because 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:39.400 most of the yaks kind of saunter casually across the 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.480 finish line, assuming that they have not gotten distracted and 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:43.360 wandered off. 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:51.240 Oh that's the best. That makes it so much more fun, right, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:56.959 fun for us and fun for the X. Yeah, the 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:01.360 yaks are having a nice time. I don't want a 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:07.200 fast yak race. No, The fun is what are they 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.920 gonna wander off? Will they ever get back on track? 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:17.959 That's the best, that's the best part. Okay, Well, we 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.680 do have quite a history for you, we do, and 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:22.240 we are going to get into that as soon as 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:23.760 we get back from a quick break for a word 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:35.920 from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:43.640 thank you. So all right. The yaks ancient ancestors, are 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.520 believed to go back to at least two million years 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:51.920 ago or ish. The estimated range is very very wide, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:58.680 but you know, probably long time ago. However, researchers have 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.920 uncovered fossils what we would more modernly recognize as yaks 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.920 in Mongolia, estimated to be at least ten thousand years old. 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.840 They are indigenous to that area. The current theory is 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.480 that the yak was domesticated in Tibet by the Chiang 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:20.480 people around two thousand, five hundred years ago, though the 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.920 process has been in motion for much longer, like seven 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:29.400 five hundred years. Based on currently available evidence, yak products 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.520 were fairly important in Mongolia beginning sometime around two hundred 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:38.320 BCE to two hundred CE art and the appearance of 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.200 yas on belt buckles recovered in this area suggests that 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.160 the yak was really respected. So there's a lot of 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.040 that stuff if you want to look it up, which 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:51.680 we always recommend. Oh yeah, And yaks were useful in 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.360 this area in a whole lot of ways. For their meat, 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.880 their milk, their leather, their fiber, their dung. As few 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.840 as a beast of burden. Their meat was preserved, perhaps 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:09.240 dried for later or turned into sausage, sometimes in combination 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:14.080 with yac blood. Some parts were incorporated into animal feed. 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.800 They were really beneficial too in terms of their ability 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:24.359 to survive in the Himalayas in this area, and researchers 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.120 often discuss how they were one piece of how people 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.760 in this region adapted to these high altitudes where it 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.960 was cold with a lot of snow. We've got this creature, 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:42.760 this animal that can really handle that. It is hard 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:47.360 to overstate how important yaks were for the people in 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:53.760 this environment. They provided sustenance, labor and fiber for warmer clothing, 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.120 heating elements, and fertilizer when it came to butter, fat 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.760 or dung. The horns were useful, as were the bones. 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.080 Just all around. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.680 Yeah, and that fuel thing is serious. Like the Tibetan 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.840 plateaus tend to not have trees, so you know, no firewood. 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.800 And furthermore, luckily, yak dung has little to no smell. 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.840 As long as the animal has enough water and forage, 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.480 it can be used as a construction material as well. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:28.680 Yes, and so here's the thing what I was talking 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:33.840 about with the multiple paths here or here some of 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:38.280 those paths. So yack milk was probably being consumed by 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.960 around twelve seventy CE, and likely before that. That's when 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.480 the written record indicates it. However, the scientific and historical 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.719 record is lacking when it comes to the evidence around this. 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:55.000 Researchers suspect the later date might be because the milk 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.800 of other animals was the preference, or just wasn't recorded yep. 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.120 Or I read in some sources that in most places 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.000 with ready access to it, yack milk went to butter. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.120 At some point, yak butter ended up in tea. As mentioned, 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:18.920 it was generally viewed as somewhat medicinal, especially at high 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:26.520 altitude and as special occasion tea, and probably early on, 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.400 yak milk was used to make cheese. It was and 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:35.200 remains a fairly intensive process. It involves hours of churning 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.200 or at least in some traditional cases. On the plus side, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.439 though a lot of this cheese lasts for months or longer. 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.680 So it was another excellent option for those who were 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:53.080 working in these harsh climates. Taking all of that into consideration. 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.720 Yak products were fairly popular in pockets of Asia during 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.840 the twelve hundreds, and. 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.920 Butter sculpture aside. All right, So Tibetan practices around butter 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.960 sculpture might have developed in like the fourteen hundreds or 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:14.320 thereabouts during the Ming dynasty. So the tradition today is 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:18.159 that for Tibetan Buddhist New Year celebrations, which happen in 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.560 late winter like February March, some people sculpt and pigment 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:28.000 butter into these elaborate, elaborate pieces depicting the Buddha and 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:33.320 you know, religious scenes and symbols, architecture, animals, mythical creatures, 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:38.160 a lot of flowers. It's an offering slash decoration at 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:42.000 temples and monasteries, and they are very bright and intricate 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.439 and can range in size from something handheld to like 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.399 a few meters tall, like maybe like twenty feet, like 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.479 a couple of stories high. And it's thought to have 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:56.280 developed due to not having fresh flowers to use its 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:57.760 offerings in the dead of winter. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.960 Butter sculpture always recommend look it up, look it up. 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.600 Oh yeah no, And these truly they are gorgeous and 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.560 I don't understand physically how they work. 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:17.960 They're super cool, Yes, yes, indeed, okay. The written record 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.639 indicates that a handful of yak were sent to Europe 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.720 in the early eighteen hundreds. In the early nineteen hundred, 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.520 some yaks were sent to North American Zoos. People also 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.199 did a couple of tests around hybridization that was centered 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.680 around meat production and the cold climates of Canada and 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:37.480 the northern United States. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.960 Nepal established a yac cheese industry in the nineteen fifties, 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.359 and they were apparently the only country in the world 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.520 with one until around about the nineteen eighties. 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:51.919 Wild yak were believed to be on the verge of 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.760 extinction in the nineteen seventies. Yeah, they're still. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.640 They're currently listed as vulnerable, with a fewer than ten 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:04.320 thousand left in the world wild and these days climate 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:10.320 change is impacting some of the traditional herding and ranching regions. However, 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.439 in expanded regions, yaks are being looked at as a 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.400 way to offset some of the harms of the global 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.919 cattle industry. You know, they produce that high quality dairy 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:25.600 and meat on less feed and with less greenhouse gas emissions. 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.360 There's there's research into like how to keep the genetic 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.320 stock good, how to keep the animals healthier during long 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.880 lean winters, and how to encourage people to adopt yack 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:41.520 agriculture and yak products on a larger scale. This might 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.440 be the first time that we have a future date 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.600 in our timeline, but twenty twenty six is going to 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:52.920 be the United Nations International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.880 So A, that's brad B. Hopefully that that will help, 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.480 you know, like prod along further research in po to 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:02.840 help out yaks and their humans. 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:12.080 Yeah, hopefully. I mean they seem very well loved. Obviously 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:17.919 we're fans, but of course they're facing these issues, but 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:22.399 you know they're kind of limited and where people can 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:24.560 get them access them. 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:27.800 Yeah, yeah, because they do not tolerate warm weather. They're like, nope, 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:33.159 I don't like that. Unhappy So no, So we're going 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:34.280 to have to travel somewhere. 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:37.480 I'm what I'm hearing. 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:40.720 Yes, if I if I achieve what I really want 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:44.600 to do now, which is hug a yack, we're gonna 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:48.240 have to take a field trip. It's not gonna happen around. 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:50.440 All right, Okay, if. 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:54.080 Anyone knows how if anyone can facilitate me hugging a yack. 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.960 Yes, and if any of you listen do have experience 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.960 with yak products, please let me. 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.879 Oh yes, yes, I'm so curious. I'm so curious about it. 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:13.120 But yeah, that that is what we have to say about. 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:13.879 Yaks for now. 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:16.600 And we do already have some listener mail for you, 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:18.320 and we are going to get into that as soon 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:20.359 as we get back from another quick break for a 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:21.399 word from our sponsors. 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:34.760 We're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:46.199 back with Snooth. Yeah was that snuffle off? I guess like, 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:51.640 was that? You know? Maybe I kept thinking of Kung 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:55.720 Fu Banda, But okay, in Kung Fu Panda it's master Ox. 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:58.600 It is not a yak. Oh all right, Yeah I 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:02.000 double checked because I'm may that mistake in the show before. 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:09.200 Actually not Kung Fu Panda mistakes. I've made a Kung 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:12.760 Fu pan A mistake before, so I was like, not again, 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:18.760 good looking out, good looking out? Yeah yeah, yeah, just 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:23.679 a fun creature until it's storming at you. 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:26.520 Oh, especially is what I was going for. Yeah, there 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:27.560 you go, there you go share. 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:34.119 Yeah, okay, Sheldon wrote, listening to the Chilula episode, and 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:37.000 I couldn't help thinking about my granddaughter, Florence, or as 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:41.160 I call her Flow Flow Annie. She's someone you'd love 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:44.399 to meet, a girl after your own heart, and maybe 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.119 you will when you are up this way for the 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:52.960 Cheese Curd Festival. Flow is only seven, almost eight years old, 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:57.040 and she loves hot sauce. I find that age kind 0:24:57.040 --> 0:25:00.639 of young for liking hot sauces. I was in my 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:04.240 late teens before I developed a taste for them. Flow 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.240 likes Chilula bottle but says that it's not hot enough. 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:11.800 That's her biggest complaint about most things I make for her. 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:17.520 They're not hot enough. She started liking hot sauces at 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:21.200 the age of six and has wanted them hotter and hotter. 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:23.960 She likes a sauce that is too hot for her 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:27.320 sister and mother, and she's always trying to trick my 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:34.399 wife into using some on whatever. My wife has a 0:25:34.440 --> 0:25:38.399 hard time with pepper, but Flow always seems to be 0:25:38.440 --> 0:25:42.280 able to trick her. She also likes impressing her friends 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:45.880 by eating something that they can't handle at all. Take 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:50.199 a tiny taste, they say it's too hot, then she 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:55.480 takes a big taste and they are amazed. She doesn't 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:59.040 speak much English, speaks French, but one of the few 0:25:59.119 --> 0:26:03.560 English words she can say is hot sauce. For Christmas, 0:26:03.680 --> 0:26:06.760 she gave me a T shirt that says, I put 0:26:06.840 --> 0:26:14.280 hot sauce on my hot sauce. Wow. Oh that's wonderful. 0:26:17.359 --> 0:26:19.880 I feel connected here. 0:26:20.040 --> 0:26:23.639 Yeah, and it's seven years old. That's that's precocious, that's terrific. 0:26:24.920 --> 0:26:30.280 That is that is that reminds me of my niece 0:26:30.359 --> 0:26:34.080 who did something similar to that but really sour thing. 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:37.240 Oh sure, yeah, she just would like eat a whole 0:26:37.320 --> 0:26:44.160 lemon and I was taken aback by it. But hey, 0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:51.080 good for you. Oh yeah, right, I do. 0:26:51.280 --> 0:26:52.800 I do feel like that is a good age for 0:26:52.880 --> 0:26:55.520 like that kind of stunt, eating that kind of Yeah. 0:26:55.720 --> 0:27:00.000 I want to be impressive by how like mildly abusive 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:01.600 if I can beat to my own taste buds. 0:27:03.000 --> 0:27:08.720 Yes, yes, uh, because I don't know. I don't know 0:27:08.760 --> 0:27:12.600 at that age. I think I liked very mildly spicy things. 0:27:12.640 --> 0:27:16.919 I don't think I had branched out to even chilula 0:27:17.200 --> 0:27:21.320 at that point. Yeah. Hey, yeah, I don't. 0:27:21.320 --> 0:27:24.119 I don't think so, I can't even remember. So the 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:27.000 answer is probably no. The answer is I probably did 0:27:27.040 --> 0:27:29.600 not branch into that kind of stuff. I don't think 0:27:29.640 --> 0:27:33.040 I really encountered that much very spicy food until I 0:27:33.080 --> 0:27:36.159 was a little bit older. But yeah, mine was supposed 0:27:36.160 --> 0:27:39.680 to be at Mexican restaurants in my small town, where 0:27:39.720 --> 0:27:44.119 you put like maybe mildly spicy hot sauce on your 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:45.160 on your dish. 0:27:46.080 --> 0:27:49.680 But I love this. I think this is amazing, and 0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:55.480