Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The show where we get a big bowl of animal brains,
Speaker 1: that cup of human brains, blend them together, bick him
Speaker 1: at four D twenty five degrees for half an hour
Speaker 1: in Voila. I'm your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden.
Speaker 1: I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, and I ate rath
Speaker 1: snails when I was a toddler. This is true today
Speaker 1: on the show, we're talking weird diets, animals eating other
Speaker 1: animals eating other animals, humans eating well, some pretty freaky things.
Speaker 1: Discover this and more as we answer the angel question.
Speaker 1: Is cannibalism good for you? Diets across the animal kingdom
Speaker 1: can be fascinating, and who better to speak to this
Speaker 1: than Charles Darwin, father of evolutionary theory, who decided during
Speaker 1: the long arduous trip aboard the Beagle that multi bread
Speaker 1: just wouldn't cut it, so he sampled some of his
Speaker 1: animal specimens. Darwin had actually been a member of the
Speaker 1: Glutton Club at Cambridge University before making his famous discoveries,
Speaker 1: so perhaps it's less surprising that he used his adventures
Speaker 1: as an excuse to eat giant tortoises, iguana's armadillo's puma,
Speaker 1: and a goody, which is a giant squirrel like Roden.
Speaker 1: And he even accidentally ate part of a less area,
Speaker 1: a bird he'd been trying to collect a scientific specimen
Speaker 1: of for several months. So what better way to celebrate
Speaker 1: evolutionary biology than to take a gustatory trip through the
Speaker 1: animal and human world. Joining me today is Katherine Spires,
Speaker 1: food writer and host of the podcast smart Mouth. Welcome Catherine,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm excited to talk about this stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so your podcast explores culinary things. We do a lot
Speaker 1: of food history. I have a guest on and I
Speaker 1: asked him ahead of time, what's your favorite food or whatever?
Speaker 1: Research the heck out of it. And I'm like, did
Speaker 1: you know? Um, well, I'm glad that you are into
Speaker 1: food because this is going to be a pretty uh
Speaker 1: it'll it'll be a wild ride. Yeah, it sounds like
Speaker 1: I wanted to start out. I got a listener question,
Speaker 1: um that I think really is very suitable for this topic. Um,
Speaker 1: Amy b asks a creature I like a lottle? Is
Speaker 1: the axelttle? Nice? Nice one? Amy? And I was wondering
Speaker 1: what strange incidents and or weird and wacky facts are
Speaker 1: associated with these little cuties. Um so, uh yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a wacky fact that I know about axlttels, which is
Speaker 1: that they will only grow up into adults when they
Speaker 1: eat each other. Oh so not a lot of them
Speaker 1: grow up into a doll. No, they don't, actually, so
Speaker 1: axceltteles little background there, critically endangered species of salamander. They're
Speaker 1: related to tiger salamanders. They live in Mexico. They're also
Speaker 1: known as the Mexican walking fish. They're not a fish
Speaker 1: there in amphibian um. They have four underdeveloped limbs and
Speaker 1: lidless eyes. Already painting a nice picture. Um. They also
Speaker 1: have these is like fluffy feathery sideburns. Those are actually
Speaker 1: external gill stocks and that's how they breathe under waters,
Speaker 1: so they can even regenerate their body parts, even parts
Speaker 1: of their brains. Yeah, so they're pretty cool already. And
Speaker 1: their method of eating is like Kirby style vacuuming in food.
Speaker 1: The reason only some of them grow to adulthood is
Speaker 1: that they're neotinic, meaning that they reach sexual maturity in
Speaker 1: their juvenile aquatic form, so they never actually undergo metamorphosis
Speaker 1: to their adult terrestrial form in most cases. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: So is this a rare occasion where the fact that
Speaker 1: they're almost extinct is their fault? No, no, they it's
Speaker 1: actually because of the urban sprawl of Mexico City, that's
Speaker 1: the environment. Do they eat other things besides yes, yes,
Speaker 1: so they eat like insects, worm, small fish. There their carnivores.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, they don't actually become cannibals, but
Speaker 1: if they do, they will actually that will trigger their
Speaker 1: metamorphosis into adulthood. UM. So, the biological reason x ldels
Speaker 1: don't go through metamorphosis is that they lack thyroid stimulating hormone.
Speaker 1: Remaining in that juvenile form is actually a survival mechanism
Speaker 1: in environments that lack adequate nutrition for their larger adult
Speaker 1: form um and especially things like iodine, which they need
Speaker 1: in their diet, and they can't necessarily get enough of um.
Speaker 1: But if they start to get enough nutrition, like enough iodine,
Speaker 1: which they get by eating other x ltdeles, this will
Speaker 1: actually trigger their body to start metamorphosis. So if they
Speaker 1: cannibalize enough other acts ltels, they will turn into larger
Speaker 1: terrestrial adults. You can even artificially induce this by giving
Speaker 1: them iodine or thyroid stimulating hormone injections, and it makes
Speaker 1: them crazy for more. No, no, they'll just like that'll
Speaker 1: turn out and make them u that will give them
Speaker 1: a thirst for blood, right, um, No, they'll they'll transform
Speaker 1: into a terrestrial one. And actually a lot of people
Speaker 1: keep x ltdeles as pets, and I saw these x
Speaker 1: Laudela owner forums where they're like, oh, what to do
Speaker 1: if your ax lottle like metamorphosizes into an adult um
Speaker 1: because they can't you can't keep it in a in
Speaker 1: a fish tank anymore because they will need to breathe
Speaker 1: air like that, they'll grow lungs and they like a frog,
Speaker 1: you know, that goes from tadpole which is fully aquatic
Speaker 1: to being um terrestrial and then it can't breathe underwater anymore.
Speaker 1: Is it an okay idea to keep one of them
Speaker 1: as a pet? Yeah, I mean it's okay. I think
Speaker 1: that if they're bread, you know, I don't know too
Speaker 1: much about like the um ecological impacts of owning them
Speaker 1: as pets. Um, if they're bread and captivity, I think
Speaker 1: that's probably okay. But like, obviously the pet trade could
Speaker 1: present a problem. I think the bigger problem for them
Speaker 1: is just the the urban sprawl um and the the
Speaker 1: sort of human impact on their environment. But I don't
Speaker 1: think as far as like exotic pets go, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's too much of a problem as long as
Speaker 1: you don't you know, there are a lot of rules
Speaker 1: for having exotic pets. You don't want to like introduce
Speaker 1: them to wherever you live. You know, you don't want
Speaker 1: to like dump them off in a lake or anything
Speaker 1: like that, or flush them down the toilet, because you
Speaker 1: can really screw up with the ecosystems in your your
Speaker 1: own area when you introduce species that are not from there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think it's
Speaker 1: mostly okay um, as long as they're not being gotten
Speaker 1: from the illegal pet trade, right as long as so
Speaker 1: Speaking of aquatic creepy aquatic animals, greenland sharks will eat
Speaker 1: entire polar bears. Wow, I didn't really think there was
Speaker 1: anything that would eat polar bear. But greenland sharks are huge,
Speaker 1: so they live near well Greenland, Um. They grow up
Speaker 1: to twenty five ft long and they can weigh over
Speaker 1: two thousand pounds. That's too many pounds. That's a few
Speaker 1: too many. And it's a species of sleeper shark. These
Speaker 1: are sharks that live at great depths and they move
Speaker 1: really slowly and sluggishly. They're they're just kind of they're
Speaker 1: freaky in that they just seem ancient, like these ancient
Speaker 1: callbacks to dinosaur times. Can I tell you the animal
Speaker 1: I'm most afraid of, Sure, go for it. Whales. Really,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't like this. It's kind of like it looks
Speaker 1: it looks like a whale mixed with a shark. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's terrifying to me. And it's deep deep underwater. Why
Speaker 1: are you afraid of whales just because of how big
Speaker 1: they are? Yeah, they're too big. Yeah. I think that's
Speaker 1: like part of the like the philosophobia thing, where it's
Speaker 1: like you're afraid of like big things in the depths
Speaker 1: of the ocean. That's interesting. I mean I definitely curl
Speaker 1: my toes a lot when I was swimming so that
Speaker 1: the monsters won't get Greenland sharks actually literally are ancient
Speaker 1: because they have a lifespan of up to five hundred
Speaker 1: years and specimens that are sometimes and it's hard to
Speaker 1: actually encounter like specimens, especially like live specimens because of
Speaker 1: the depths at which they live. When they actually date
Speaker 1: the the bodies of these greenland sharks like they live
Speaker 1: hundreds of years old. That's crazy. I've never even heard
Speaker 1: of these. It's I mean, it is interesting, like some
Speaker 1: of the most incredible animals that seem it's just like
Speaker 1: they seem like fantasy creatures and they just aren't, I
Speaker 1: guess because they're not cute and cuddly, like we don't
Speaker 1: hear about them. And they're also not they don't kill
Speaker 1: people generally, so they also don't have the poll of
Speaker 1: the like you know, tabloid headlines. Um. They're probably ambush predators.
Speaker 1: So they just move so slowly and quietly, they like
Speaker 1: look like part of the environment until they're right behind
Speaker 1: you and it's too late. Because they're not very fast.
Speaker 1: They don't just like cruise around like you know you
Speaker 1: see great whites and other sharks, and they're not like
Speaker 1: zooming around like a cheetah. But they're fairly fast and
Speaker 1: active and and vicious. Um. So that's how they get
Speaker 1: the polar bears is just sneaking up on them. Well,
Speaker 1: it's I'm not sure exactly. I don't think they've ever
Speaker 1: been observed hunting polar bears. Most likely they just suck
Speaker 1: up these rotting carcasses of polar bears. So a polar
Speaker 1: bear dies, falls into the water, and these greenland sharks
Speaker 1: just like vacuum this entire dead polar bear. How they've
Speaker 1: also been found in there. And the only reason we
Speaker 1: know this is like when we catch uh them and
Speaker 1: they're dead and researchers look inside their stomachs and they
Speaker 1: found rotting horses, moose, seals. They even found an entire
Speaker 1: reindeer carcass. Um, how do they get a horse? I see.
Speaker 1: That's what makes me think that these must have fallen
Speaker 1: into the ocean somehow. I don't clear on how a
Speaker 1: horse full in the ocean, but things happen was it's
Speaker 1: not a cruise on a Disney cre because they do
Speaker 1: they do scavenge for food as well, so they're they're
Speaker 1: predators and scavengers. Um. You kind of remind me of coyotes.
Speaker 1: Everything you're describing around. Yeah, charote once almost got my
Speaker 1: dog by sneaking up. Yeah. Yeah, she was on a leash.
Speaker 1: I was walking her almost sneak Yeah. Yeah. They're kind
Speaker 1: of like that, but huge and ancient even more terrifying
Speaker 1: and undying. They they're an apex predator, meaning like they
Speaker 1: don't have any natural predators except you know, humans. There
Speaker 1: is a bit of a cosmic irony here because like
Speaker 1: the greenland sharks like to eat these like dead, rotting animals,
Speaker 1: and we return the favor. At least in Iceland. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's an Icelandic dish. And my apologies for this whole episode.
Speaker 1: Just accept my apology for the pronunciation things with these
Speaker 1: food items um so called I think ha carl, which
Speaker 1: is made of rotting greenland shark meat. Um, this is
Speaker 1: a pretty incredible dish. Uh. The raw greenland shark is
Speaker 1: actually poisonous due to the large amounts of urrea and
Speaker 1: trimethylene in oxide, trimethylamine, trimethyl amine, trimethyl amine and oxide
Speaker 1: in their flesh. Um. By fermenting the shark meat, it's
Speaker 1: rendered edible. I guess it's not edible in the strictest
Speaker 1: sense that it won't kill you anymore. Right So. Traditionally,
Speaker 1: hakarl is made by placing the shark body in a
Speaker 1: shallow sandy grave, then burying it in sand and gravel.
Speaker 1: Then heavy stones are placed on top to put pressure
Speaker 1: on the shark, and also I guess to keep the
Speaker 1: zombie shark from rising. I would assume that's not actually
Speaker 1: like part of the makes sense to me. If I
Speaker 1: was like bearing this like giant ancient shark that eats
Speaker 1: polar bears, I be definitely sure to put some heavy
Speaker 1: rocks on its um. And then it's left to ferment
Speaker 1: for oh, you know, twelve weeks in the ground. Um.
Speaker 1: Then it's cut into strips and hung to dry in
Speaker 1: a meat drying house. Um. It's no longer really made
Speaker 1: this way for mass consumption in Iceland. It's instead made
Speaker 1: by putting like squeezing it in a plastic container. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, for sort of more like cultural reasons.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's still made traditionally, especially like as a thing
Speaker 1: to show people who are visiting. It apparently has an
Speaker 1: extremely strong ammonia flavor. Um, because you know, like it's
Speaker 1: even though the fermentation process does uh make those toxic
Speaker 1: uh uria like not as harmful, it's still like pretty yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I've never had it, so I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say, oh, this is not a good dish. I
Speaker 1: would say, because I've not been acclimated you eating any
Speaker 1: kind of meat like this, I would probably struggle yeah
Speaker 1: with it. Um something's really truly are acquired taste. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do have the opinions of Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey.
Speaker 1: Um So, Anthony Bourdain said it was the quote single worst,
Speaker 1: most disgusting and terrible tasting thing, which I think is
Speaker 1: a pretty harsh thing. I don't. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: ever eaten. Like when I was in college, I used
Speaker 1: to make myself macaroni and cheese and then from the
Speaker 1: box like the crab, and I'd put it in the
Speaker 1: fridge like the little mini fridge, and I just sit
Speaker 1: there and dry out. And then like a day later,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, huh, I still have some macaroni and
Speaker 1: cheese left, and it would be this like mummified mac
Speaker 1: and cheese, you know, just congealed that milky or bright
Speaker 1: orange toxic. So so I feel like that would be
Speaker 1: the worst thing I can see that. No, No, I
Speaker 1: would still think that Gordon Ramsey couldn't even like eat it.
Speaker 1: He tried to eat it and he couldn't. Ye wording
Speaker 1: was much braver. I mean, fancy to be such a
Speaker 1: weenie calling you out, Ramsey. So another weird So this
Speaker 1: is something that the Vikings were thought to have eaten
Speaker 1: as well, another weird thing that the Vikings ate. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to pronounce this good. Uh, Syria hoots
Speaker 1: rude gar. Yeah, sure, let's pretend it is. It's soured
Speaker 1: pickled rams testicles. Okay, you know, it actually sounds a
Speaker 1: little despite the fact that it's rams testicles. It sounds
Speaker 1: a little better to me than the shark. Right when
Speaker 1: you get some pickling Brian in there and work right,
Speaker 1: because you pickle it um and you know, sour. You know,
Speaker 1: that's like I've I've had like sour meat, sweet and
Speaker 1: sour meat, like that's good. Um, So you know, but
Speaker 1: of course I don't want to I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: want to drag Iceland too much because they're not. This
Speaker 1: is not like, oh, man Iceland so weird. They make
Speaker 1: weird dishes. Well, they don't have a lot of produce,
Speaker 1: right exactly. So. And also, throughout human history, we've all,
Speaker 1: like everyone in every culture, nobody is immune. We all
Speaker 1: have made some freaky stuff. So, um, here's uh, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure this this may be some stuff you're familiar with.
Speaker 1: Here's some of the weirdest stuff that we've eaten throughout
Speaker 1: human history, at least in uh Europe. I got some
Speaker 1: of this research from the Fine Dining Lover's website. Uh,
Speaker 1: the author Peter Basildon, So thank you. This is a
Speaker 1: truly disturbing thing that I read this article that made
Speaker 1: me not want to eat ever again. So thank you, Peter. So.
Speaker 1: In medieval Europe, um, the helmeted cock is a cooked
Speaker 1: chicken and pig where the chicken is made to ride
Speaker 1: the pig while wearing military regalia. Here's a picture of it.
Speaker 1: I'll probably post that or post the link to that
Speaker 1: in the show notes. But it's that that looks like
Speaker 1: sort of the late Renaissance period when people got really
Speaker 1: weird about food. Yeah, they were doing stuff like that
Speaker 1: to show off constantly. Yeah, it's uh, well, like what
Speaker 1: else do you know? Um? The idea of the tred
Speaker 1: ducan is supposed to have come from there. Just putting
Speaker 1: things inside things inside things. I've got. I've got a
Speaker 1: good one, okay. Um. Another medieval europe one is the
Speaker 1: live frog pie. It was a fad to surprise guest
Speaker 1: by sticking live animals in a pie empty pie crest
Speaker 1: and have them pop out when they cut into it.
Speaker 1: Is that a fun surprise? No, I wouldn't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think it is. I mean this is you know,
Speaker 1: when is this medieval Europe? Is this like around the
Speaker 1: Black Death? Maybe right after right before? A really dark
Speaker 1: sense of humor exactly? Um So, Now moving on to
Speaker 1: the tutors, which came a little later. I'm not a
Speaker 1: I'm not a historian, but um so, roasted swan a
Speaker 1: dish where and we don't really eat swan that much,
Speaker 1: no more, don't necessarily the best tasting burden. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's Also, it's probably not, and we raised so
Speaker 1: many chickens. The swan was redressed in its skin and feathers,
Speaker 1: so it looked like it did when it was alive.
Speaker 1: It's like this dead swan feel a full of roasted meat,
Speaker 1: just like with the swan skin. God, that's so horrible.
Speaker 1: It's dark. And when they could get their hands on
Speaker 1: a peacock they would do that too. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: so much show. Literally they didn't care what it tasted like.
Speaker 1: There was something there's something so disturbing about that, like like,
Speaker 1: you know, so if you murder someone, that's pretty bad, right,
Speaker 1: that's that's upsetting. If you murder someone, skin them and
Speaker 1: like jumble around their insides and then sew them back up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll go to jail for longer if you do that. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: like the sentencing mandatory sentencing on jumbling people up and
Speaker 1: sewing them back out. That's there's something disturbing about like
Speaker 1: because then it's like it's not just about the necessity
Speaker 1: of eating, it's about mutilating the corpse of the heating um.
Speaker 1: Speaking of which the cock and trees, which is a
Speaker 1: suckling pig. In a suckling pig, it's like a baby
Speaker 1: pig that's upper body was sewn onto the lower half
Speaker 1: of a capone castrated rooster um, which you know, I
Speaker 1: mean like sure like turn your food into a Boschian nightmare.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what they were doing, right right, Like like, hey,
Speaker 1: what wouldn't it be funny if a pig was sewn
Speaker 1: to a rooster and we ate it? Is this British too? Yes,
Speaker 1: this is the tutor so that too. Yeah, well, the
Speaker 1: tutors were super into showing off, so I guess this
Speaker 1: is how they did it. Yes, it's weird if they
Speaker 1: thought it was funny British people became funny, but clearly
Speaker 1: where at that time humor is a I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's not good then. Yeah, this researching this episode has
Speaker 1: made me want to swear off meat entirely forever. Like
Speaker 1: I'm already like trying to cut back on it for
Speaker 1: health and environmental reasons, but like I like see this
Speaker 1: and like maybe I'll just eat carrots for the rest
Speaker 1: of my life. Yeah, people aren't really carts, groats or whatever.
Speaker 1: So the elizabethans um would do bone marrow on toast,
Speaker 1: And I've actually had this and it's really good. It
Speaker 1: is um. That's and honestly, like if you know, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna have bones anyway and you don't use them,
Speaker 1: that's a waste of animals. So like you use if
Speaker 1: you use their everything, every part of the animal, which
Speaker 1: I think is probably good practice, you're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: have meat. Putting bone my own toast is pretty pretty tasty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it does taste good. People describe it in a way
Speaker 1: that either sounds really appetizing or off putting ring on
Speaker 1: your head. It's just meat butter. It is meat butter.
Speaker 1: It's um. It's kind of gelant, which it sounds gross,
Speaker 1: but it's it's like and I'm very sensitive to texture
Speaker 1: and stuff, and I can actually down this pretty pretty well.
Speaker 1: I have to spread it thin though I don't like
Speaker 1: it too chunky's but then when it's thin, it melts
Speaker 1: just a teeny man into the bread and it does
Speaker 1: taste really good. Yeah yeah, um, So the Georgians did, uh,
Speaker 1: and this is kind of what you're talking about, Like
Speaker 1: the tur ducan it was the rotie sounds peril um again,
Speaker 1: apologies for the French there. It's a French dish of
Speaker 1: seventeen birds stuffed inside each other. So, according to an
Speaker 1: article and vice, the recipe calls for busted stuffed with
Speaker 1: a turkey, stuffed with a goose, stuffed with a pheasant,
Speaker 1: stuffed with a chicken, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with
Speaker 1: a guinea foul, stuffed with a teal, stuffed with a woodcock,
Speaker 1: stuffed with a partridge, stuffed with a plover, stuffed with
Speaker 1: a lap wing, stuffed with a quail, stuffed with a thrush,
Speaker 1: some of the lark, stuffed with an order land bunting,
Speaker 1: stuffed with a garden warble, or stuffed with an olive.
Speaker 1: Stuffed with the n anchovie stuffed with a single caper. Guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: stop it that. First of all, that would be so
Speaker 1: frustrating to cook because would take days and then it's
Speaker 1: dawn in a minute. Yeah, I mean, and it's also
Speaker 1: they cook at different rates. It's nightmare. Yeah, that's so wasteful.
Speaker 1: I mean, like what like seventeen different more than seventeen
Speaker 1: animals had to die to make that because they also
Speaker 1: like used like pig fat and all these other things,
Speaker 1: and on a bed of child bones. I don't know.
Speaker 1: And there's no possible way I'm gonna say this without
Speaker 1: ever having it that it tasted very good. No, I
Speaker 1: imagine it wouldn't because you can't. There's no way. It's
Speaker 1: just too much together, like there's too much happening. No, no,
Speaker 1: it's just complete insanity. Um it's it's I feel like
Speaker 1: we have this concept that serial killers only happen within
Speaker 1: modern society. I think they've always been around. It's just
Speaker 1: back back in these times they were endorsed. Their behavior
Speaker 1: was considered good and normal, and they got to be chefs,
Speaker 1: and they got to be kings and queen means, and
Speaker 1: they just got away or like I'm gonna sew a
Speaker 1: pig to a duck and then stuff it inside an
Speaker 1: ostrich and everyone's like how dro yes, please, wow, I
Speaker 1: like that theory. That's cool. Yeah yeah yeah monsters while
Speaker 1: they were monsters. Yeah. So now we know humans are
Speaker 1: clearly ridiculous omnivores. But in modern times our diets can
Speaker 1: range from omnivorous, vegetarian, and vegan. But what about carnivorous?
Speaker 1: Well maybe, but you'd have to eat your meat completely raw.
Speaker 1: Around the turn of the century, Icelandic explorer Bill Hammer
Speaker 1: Stephenson traveled to Alaska, where the Inuit of the Mackenzie
Speaker 1: Delta allowed him to live with them and they taught
Speaker 1: him about their lifestyle. Stephenson became an advocate of their diet,
Speaker 1: which was meat and fish for six to nine months
Speaker 1: of the year, an extreme ketogenic diet. But before you
Speaker 1: try it yourself, you should know that it be difficult
Speaker 1: to replicate. They eat freshly hunted, sometimes raw meat and
Speaker 1: caught fresh fish, which they also on occasion ate raw.
Speaker 1: And only by eating raw liver, fish, row, and eggs
Speaker 1: can you get the vitamin CEA you need to avoid scurvy.
Speaker 1: And if you try to eat only meat, and do
Speaker 1: it incorrectly, you can die of malnutrition. Rabbit starvation is
Speaker 1: a form of starvation caused by eating primarily rabbit meat,
Speaker 1: which in more scientific terms is called protein poisoning. It's
Speaker 1: when there's not enough fat in the diet, so you
Speaker 1: will starve even if you continue eating. As Stephenson explained,
Speaker 1: quote rabbit eaters, if they have no fat from another
Speaker 1: source beaver, moose fish will develop diarrhea in about a week,
Speaker 1: with headache, lassitude, and vague discomfort. If there are enough rabbits,
Speaker 1: the people eat till their stomachs are distinted, but no
Speaker 1: matter how much they eat, they feel unsatisfied. So don't
Speaker 1: go trying and meat only diet at home, especially if
Speaker 1: all you've got to eat or some lastly rabbits, Hey
Speaker 1: drop that fork will be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 1: What's food without a little seasoning? And the best seasoning
Speaker 1: in the world is salt. It's the magical mineral that
Speaker 1: makes food taste good. So why do we like salt? Well,
Speaker 1: we do need it to live. You can actually have
Speaker 1: too little salt in your system, which is a condition
Speaker 1: known as hypernatremia, which can cause brain swelling and even death. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: you don't really need to worry about this. Typically we
Speaker 1: have too much salt in the diet, but for many
Speaker 1: animals salt is so vital they'll go to some interesting
Speaker 1: lengths to get it. What I want to talk about is, uh,
Speaker 1: butterflies and bees who love salt, and they will drink
Speaker 1: tears to get it. Oh how do they get the tears? Well? Uh,
Speaker 1: it depends so uh. They will sometimes drink turtle tears
Speaker 1: in the proving Amazon, So I just got so sad um.
Speaker 1: So in the Peruvian Amazon, butterflies drink turtle tears to
Speaker 1: supple their diet with sodium. Butterflies need sodium like most
Speaker 1: living animals, but they can't get it from flowers, so
Speaker 1: they'll get it typically from dirt or poop um where
Speaker 1: you normally get told. Of course, they can also get
Speaker 1: it from tears. Uh. And what better than a turtle
Speaker 1: that can't retract its head like the yellow spotted sideeck
Speaker 1: turtles who their heads are just stuck out there. They
Speaker 1: can't hide in their little shell home, so the butterflies
Speaker 1: are free to sip at their tears. Here's a picture.
Speaker 1: And I didn't want to be clear that the turtle
Speaker 1: is not sad. Can you tell me what would cause
Speaker 1: a turtle to cry? I mean probably it's just the normal,
Speaker 1: normal amount of tears and it's not it's not crying
Speaker 1: because it's sad. Same thing with crocodiles. So butterflies are
Speaker 1: sometimes seen drinking the tears of crocodiles, like the cayman
Speaker 1: in Costa Rica. Here's uh, here's a bee and a butterfly, uh,
Speaker 1: drinking out of the crocodiles tears at the same Time's amazing.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen pictures of this before and
Speaker 1: I didn't even think that it might be a thing. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: So they're also tear drinking molls in the Amazon jungle
Speaker 1: that drink bird tears, uh and sometimes not. It's not
Speaker 1: even clear why they do this because there's like salt
Speaker 1: in their environment already, so they just like to poke
Speaker 1: birds in the eyes and make them cry and drink
Speaker 1: their tears. So they're just like little stinkers. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: little stinkers. And here's a picture of one just like
Speaker 1: sitting on top of a terrified looking birds. Yeah. That
Speaker 1: seems so rude. It's very rude. Humans are ruder, were
Speaker 1: worse for those birds out there listening. Uh viewers, sensitive listeners,
Speaker 1: sensitive to matters of birds. I'm gonna warn you about this.
Speaker 1: Next one gets very sad. The ordle in bunting. Have
Speaker 1: you heard of this. It's an upsetting It's an upsetting
Speaker 1: restaurant or recipe. Um. So, ordoland bunting is a small,
Speaker 1: peaceful songbird that is apparently good tasting to some people
Speaker 1: after being brutally tortured. So in classic Middle French cuisine,
Speaker 1: the orderland is placed in a darkened cage, which causes
Speaker 1: it to become psychologically disturbed, where it feeds compulsively. So
Speaker 1: in the wild, ordlands will gorge themselves at night. So
Speaker 1: if you make it eternal night, they will just keep
Speaker 1: eating and eating, which is really disturbing. In Roman times,
Speaker 1: emperors would stab out the eyes of the lands so
Speaker 1: they would compulsively eat anymore, even more because like no
Speaker 1: light can enter their eyes. Yeah, it's pretty I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true. That could be apocryphal,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't put it past Romans Caligula. He was
Speaker 1: a stinker. Um. So the bird is then drowned in
Speaker 1: brandy um so that it is marinated murdered at the
Speaker 1: same time. Um, and then it is roasted and eaten whole. Traditionally,
Speaker 1: people would wear a large handkerchief over their heads to
Speaker 1: quote like hide from God. It could also have been
Speaker 1: that's sort of like the superstition around, but it's also
Speaker 1: could be to trap the odors from the dish or too.
Speaker 1: If it's like because these would be very wealthy people.
Speaker 1: It could also be to hide the fact that they're
Speaker 1: spitting out bird bones as they can. So that's a
Speaker 1: I think it's illegal now. Um, it is illegal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's TV shows that will depict it as depictions
Speaker 1: of how wealthy people are. Right, they've done it both
Speaker 1: on Billions and Succession. Yeah, I wonder if that's there's
Speaker 1: any truth to that, Like if wealthy people like have
Speaker 1: a black market order land under the table, rich people
Speaker 1: love having everything. There is a vegan version of order Lands.
Speaker 1: So these vegan chefs have created a m Ortolan bunting
Speaker 1: that's supposed to mimic the taste and texture of a
Speaker 1: of a bird with bones in it. Um made out
Speaker 1: of entirely vegan ingredients. It doesn't necessarily look exactly like
Speaker 1: a bird. It looks like one vaguely birds shaped lump
Speaker 1: of weird ingredients, but they've put like other things to
Speaker 1: make it like they wanted to mimic the texture of
Speaker 1: like skin, guts and bones, and it's the thing. Is
Speaker 1: one of the benefits. And I'm not vegan, but one
Speaker 1: of the benefits I perceive of being vegan is you
Speaker 1: don't have the gross out factor of eating another living creature.
Speaker 1: So why would you want of this is replicated? I
Speaker 1: don't understand fake meat replicating. Obviously it's better, Obviously it's
Speaker 1: better than torturing real bird, but right, yeah, why would
Speaker 1: you even want to have the pretend version? Right? Exactly? Yeah? Um,
Speaker 1: A little bit of a less maccab weird preparation of
Speaker 1: meat is Uh, there's a farmer in Seattle that feeds
Speaker 1: his pigs marijuana. Um, and so it's actually not as
Speaker 1: crazy and weird as it sounds. It's marijuana that is
Speaker 1: not used in medical marijuana manufacturing. So instead of throwing
Speaker 1: out like the stocks and stuff, he takes it in
Speaker 1: like incorporates it into the pig slop. Apparently that helps
Speaker 1: introduce fiber. It actually increases their appetite a little more
Speaker 1: like naturally without using like hormones and such and um,
Speaker 1: it apparently affects the taste of the meat. Um makes
Speaker 1: the meat tastes like more savory or something. I don't
Speaker 1: I kind of I'm not really, I'm not into it
Speaker 1: that much in terms of, like, you know, I feel
Speaker 1: bad about eating pigs because they look like a little
Speaker 1: doggies too. But I feel like the least we can
Speaker 1: do is give them marijuana. That's such a good point.
Speaker 1: At least we could do is to get get them
Speaker 1: baked before they get baked, free baking, pre baking, um.
Speaker 1: I mean, And it is interesting. He claims that the
Speaker 1: pigs don't necessarily get high, but he does say that
Speaker 1: they seem to enjoy it a good amount, So I wonder, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's how do you know? We would never know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's gotta be like just trace amounts of probably DHC
Speaker 1: and CBD. Yeah. He says that that you can't get
Speaker 1: high from the meat. Um, But but they're consuming tracing right,
Speaker 1: so they've got to be. There's got to be some
Speaker 1: high pigs there. You cannot tell me that they're not
Speaker 1: going to get or at least super chill, right, right exactly? Man,
Speaker 1: I kind of it's like it's it's such a cute
Speaker 1: story and tell you're like, oh, and then they're slaughtered
Speaker 1: another here's a less dark story about seasoning food. Japanese macaques,
Speaker 1: which are also known as snow monkeys, will wash their
Speaker 1: yams and potatoes and saltwater. This is exclusive to the
Speaker 1: Japanese island of Koshima. There's a colony of macaques who
Speaker 1: have learned how to salt their potatoes. Oh my gosh uh.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty three, a field macaque named emo which
Speaker 1: is potato and Japanese, was observed by researchers washing sand
Speaker 1: off of the sweet potato in the river. Her family
Speaker 1: watched this and they copied her, and they learned from her.
Speaker 1: And then because normally, like if you got a sandy potato,
Speaker 1: they would just brush it off with their little their
Speaker 1: little hands, um. But washing in the river was much
Speaker 1: more effective. And then emo Uh put a new spin
Speaker 1: on it where she took it to the ocean, not
Speaker 1: the freshwater river, but the ocean started washing it there,
Speaker 1: and she found that she preferred that to the river
Speaker 1: because of the saltiness. She would even like dip it,
Speaker 1: take a bite, dip it again. She was double dipping.
Speaker 1: I love it, Um and her her cohorts her family
Speaker 1: also copied that and started doing the same behavior. Now,
Speaker 1: even though I mean sadly, Emo and all the other
Speaker 1: original potato dippers have passed away, but this was in
Speaker 1: so they lived nice, long lives of potato dipping. Um.
Speaker 1: But the macaques living on Koshima Island still practice potato
Speaker 1: dipping and washing. Oh my gosh, she changed the game
Speaker 1: from that. Yeah, And I think it's one of the
Speaker 1: examples that points to like, hey, you know, animals actually
Speaker 1: can have culture, like they can learn, especially the more
Speaker 1: intelligent animals like primates can learn certain elements of culture
Speaker 1: and pass things on and pass traditions on, which is
Speaker 1: really incredible. Yeah, I'm getting more and more freaked out
Speaker 1: by the idea of keeping primates and zoos. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like they're real similar, tough. I mean, some zoos,
Speaker 1: you know, like there's a lot of conservation going on. Um.
Speaker 1: So I feel like, especially like the San Diego Zoo,
Speaker 1: I know, they go to great length to try to
Speaker 1: create these enclosures that are humane, and they go towards
Speaker 1: a lot of conservation efforts. Um. But yeah, I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not comfortable with captive primates kept in suboptimal connections.
Speaker 1: It's uh, they're yeah, they're very intelligent. And speaking of which,
Speaker 1: red colobus monkeys who live in human forests of western,
Speaker 1: Central and Eastern Africa use charcoal to neutralize toxins in
Speaker 1: their diet. Oh my gosh, these are these are boss bays,
Speaker 1: but they're living there like instead of doing like you know,
Speaker 1: haven't you seen those like like eat more charcoal to
Speaker 1: detoxify your system, which I don't know about that, but
Speaker 1: it works for these red colobus monkeys. So they love
Speaker 1: eating mango and Indian almond tree leaves because they're high
Speaker 1: in protein. Unfortunately, these leaves are also high in phenols,
Speaker 1: which upset there. Don't tell me. They've learned to eat
Speaker 1: charcoal to detoxify the leaves, and it's highly sought after,
Speaker 1: Like they'll fight over the charcoal they'll have, Like they'll
Speaker 1: gather huge amounts of it and carry it and like
Speaker 1: hoard it so they can eat their favorite leaves. Um
Speaker 1: they'll even so they gather it mostly from burnt trees,
Speaker 1: but they'll even steal charcoal briquettes from humans when they
Speaker 1: have the chance take that. Um, so it's yeah, they
Speaker 1: and they'll like they'll eat the leaves and then eat
Speaker 1: the charcoal, and they've just discovered that that helps, uh
Speaker 1: settle their stomachs. Do we know if the leaves taste
Speaker 1: like the fruit the you mean, like mango. I have
Speaker 1: no idea. I don't know. I know that almonds have
Speaker 1: cyanide in them, so it's possible the leaves also have
Speaker 1: some syanaide, which is also um a way that the
Speaker 1: charcoal could help help their tummies, because you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you consume small amounts of cyanide, you won't die,
Speaker 1: but will definitely make you sick. But don't do it, like,
Speaker 1: don't I'm not gonna you know, don't be like, oh well,
Speaker 1: if I have a little bit, it's okay, Like any
Speaker 1: amount not bad news. Um. And speaking of neutralizing toxins, um,
Speaker 1: birds will eat dirt to do this, Okay, does I
Speaker 1: have to be any kind of dirt. It's a specific
Speaker 1: kind of dirt. So eating dirt is called geophagia. Lots
Speaker 1: of animals eat dirt, birds, bats, and primates. This is
Speaker 1: often done to introduce minerals into their diets, such as calcium, sodium, iron,
Speaker 1: zinc and so on. Sometimes pregnant women will crave dirt,
Speaker 1: which could be out of a desire to make up
Speaker 1: for mineral deficiency like anemia um or potentially because certain
Speaker 1: types of clear dirt could help destroy pathogens in the gut. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't recommend eating dirt because you could just as
Speaker 1: easily introduce harmful pathogens and toxins, like they're Helmett parasitic
Speaker 1: worms whose eggs can survive in dirt for years. Um.
Speaker 1: And you can also get lead from from eating just
Speaker 1: random dirt. But when you're pregnant, things go crazy, right.
Speaker 1: I've heard red case studies of pregnant women actually buying salt.
Speaker 1: Looks if you would keep in a barn to consume
Speaker 1: on their own. Yeah, And like pika is the term
Speaker 1: for eating things that are typically inedible, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: pregnant women will often have that because it's like it's
Speaker 1: their their body is craving something, and so they will
Speaker 1: eat things that aren't necessarily have any like eating ices
Speaker 1: another one. Oh I do that, and I'm not pregnant.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's up with that, huh. But for
Speaker 1: the Peruvian Animazon rainforest parrots, dirt is a way to
Speaker 1: filter toxic that their diet. And they're super super picky
Speaker 1: about what dirt specifically they so they will flock to
Speaker 1: this one specific place near the Manu River, and only
Speaker 1: one layer of soil along the bend. So you know
Speaker 1: how soil is in these sediments layers, they pick this
Speaker 1: one band of soil. And the reason the reason they
Speaker 1: do this is this soil air has the highest cat
Speaker 1: ion exchange capacity. So this is some chemistry stuff. It's
Speaker 1: a little unfamiliar with for me, so bear with me.
Speaker 1: So cat ions are positively charged ions um. Most soil
Speaker 1: is negatively charged UM. So they will stick together negative
Speaker 1: positive um. If soil has high cat ion exchange capacity,
Speaker 1: it can attract to and bind two more cat ions UM.
Speaker 1: So the parents eat seeds and unripe fruit that has
Speaker 1: alkaloids and toxins that are harmful uh, and these these
Speaker 1: toxins will become positively charged inside the parent's acidic stomach
Speaker 1: some kind of chemical reaction there. And so if the
Speaker 1: clay that they eat has a high cat ion exchange capacity,
Speaker 1: it will bind to these now positively charged toxins to
Speaker 1: so clay is negatively charged. The toxins are positively charged
Speaker 1: in their stomachs. They'll bind together and that neutralizes the toxins. Uh,
Speaker 1: and then it allows the parrots to eat these foods
Speaker 1: that they love without getting sick. Those are some fancy
Speaker 1: parrot they really are. And it's funny to see them
Speaker 1: because they're they're all just kind of lined along this
Speaker 1: one band of this like dirt, this face of dirt
Speaker 1: along the river, just all all like diners. They know
Speaker 1: exactly what they want. So because we are talking about
Speaker 1: eating dirt, I got a little surprised for you. Um,
Speaker 1: it is dirt soda. Uh. It says it's shoveled and
Speaker 1: bottled in the USA. I don't know. Now, the ingredients
Speaker 1: don't mention dirt. So the ingredients is carbonated artesian spring water, cane, sugar,
Speaker 1: citric acid, artificial flavor, caramel, color, esther gum um, flash patch,
Speaker 1: pasteurized as a natural preservative. So nowhere do they say
Speaker 1: it contains dirt. I'm sure that's the natural flavors. Whatever
Speaker 1: essence they right, like, is it dirt essence? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't like. I don't know if it's supposed to
Speaker 1: taste like dirt. If it's just like that they didn't
Speaker 1: clean the factories, so he would mind going to do
Speaker 1: a little taste test here. Um, I'm down for it.
Speaker 1: Hang on, wait, I hope this is a twist off.
Speaker 1: It might not be. Actually, okay, I'm gonna go get
Speaker 1: a bottle. I'll probably cut out some of that of
Speaker 1: us struggling to open this bottle of dirt soda, much
Speaker 1: anticipated dirt, saying, you know, I hope it was worth
Speaker 1: the struggle. I mean, it's got to be such a
Speaker 1: big build up, so it's kind of red. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: got a nice amber color. Um, that's for you, thank you. Um,
Speaker 1: this is for me a toast to dirt soda. Cheers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I only felt the dirt at the very beginning. You
Speaker 1: know what it reminds me of. It's got a dirt bouquet,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of cream soda eat a little bit. Yeah, Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't care for the aftertaste. No, no, So it's
Speaker 1: like the taste on the tongue is actually no, no dirt,
Speaker 1: but it's very dirt forward. Um, and it's like a
Speaker 1: dirt after taste. It's yeah, I wouldn't say that it
Speaker 1: really approximates dirt. It's just a little gross yeah, it's
Speaker 1: kind of just nasty. Um. I used to eat some
Speaker 1: dirt when I was a kid, like especially love. You know,
Speaker 1: there's like little furtless white fertilizer pellets to crunch on. Good. No, well,
Speaker 1: not healthy for you. They're bad to eat, but they were.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. Were you not allowed to eat junk food?
Speaker 1: Was it like, yeah, cheetoh substitute? Yeah? I I My
Speaker 1: my parents were very good at having us eat healthy.
Speaker 1: I could eat like goldfish crackers and stuff, but that
Speaker 1: was a treat for you. But you know, I would
Speaker 1: eat rass nails when I was a baby. I would
Speaker 1: eat dirt. Did you so you were a baby, you
Speaker 1: didn't have a sense that you were eating a live animal? No,
Speaker 1: I had no. I have no memory of it. My
Speaker 1: mom just tells me that it got it. I do
Speaker 1: remember eating ants, and those were actually pretty good. They're
Speaker 1: kind of pepperine tasting, not bad. This kind of almost
Speaker 1: smells like crayons. I can see that, like dirty crams,
Speaker 1: dirty crams that like a smoker. You're It's like it
Speaker 1: smells like you're in a smoker's car that's full of dirt,
Speaker 1: crayons and sugar. So there's this um set up that
Speaker 1: people who are training to learn about wine can use,
Speaker 1: where it's a set of like eighty different sences, and
Speaker 1: so you learn how to identify the essences so you
Speaker 1: can describe the wine. And seventy two of those essences
Speaker 1: are delicious things, and then there's the eight that are
Speaker 1: gross that can help you describe like a corked bottle
Speaker 1: of wine. And this dirt soda is actually kind of
Speaker 1: reminding me of the band aid essence. Oh my god, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a band aid essence with like, well, so are
Speaker 1: these essences that help you identify bad wine or good
Speaker 1: and bad? So most of them are for identifying good wine,
Speaker 1: and then there's a couple that you're like, oh no,
Speaker 1: something hasn't gone wrong. Somebody dropped a band aid and
Speaker 1: the wine it's something like if it's oxidized or something
Speaker 1: like that. But that's what this. I feel like they
Speaker 1: dropped essence of band aid into God, it's not good.
Speaker 1: It's not even good to drink. Ironically, the smell alone
Speaker 1: is very bad because like, honestly, dirt, like the smell
Speaker 1: of wet dirt like petrocre is actually really nice. It
Speaker 1: doesn't the smells like duty. Yeah, I feel like dirt
Speaker 1: is maybe something that you can't synthesize or make synthetic. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: this is just gross. This is just gross in a
Speaker 1: way that, like you said, I don't think dirt is
Speaker 1: actually gross. So right, if you're going to give the
Speaker 1: dirt soda rating, can we get a rating there out
Speaker 1: of like, let's do five stars, half a star, half
Speaker 1: a star, um, just out of give it to stars
Speaker 1: just because of how difficult the bottle was to open,
Speaker 1: which I felt like was kind of a nice It's
Speaker 1: almost apo semanticism, like where it's like warning sign that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't drink it. So for that design of it
Speaker 1: to be hard to open, I think two stars. I
Speaker 1: like that. Why do humans use spices just because it
Speaker 1: tastes good? Well, researchers tried to answer this question. A
Speaker 1: scientific paper called Darwinian Gastronomy Why We Use Spices by
Speaker 1: Sherman at All found that spice use may be used
Speaker 1: potentially to protect us from micro organisms and food poisoning
Speaker 1: by borrowing the defensive weapons of plants from which spices
Speaker 1: are derived. But when we return, we'll find that there
Speaker 1: may be no spice antidote to certain dangerous diets. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we go to great lengths for our meals, even putting
Speaker 1: ourselves in danger. The heart Attack grill in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: which offers the octopol bypass Hamburger, should give you an
Speaker 1: idea of how much we're willing to risk for our food.
Speaker 1: We're also willing to eat fugu fish, a type of
Speaker 1: pufferfish which if prepared improperly, can be deadly as it
Speaker 1: contains lethal amounts of tetratotoxin in its inner organs. Both
Speaker 1: humans and dolphins risk death by eating wriggling octopus. Sanac g,
Speaker 1: a Korean dish, is made of freshly killed octopus. Some
Speaker 1: people think that they're still alive, as nerve activity continues
Speaker 1: to function within the tentacles, causing them to wriggle around.
Speaker 1: This presents a choking hazard. If not chewed properly, the
Speaker 1: suction cups can stick to your throat and actually kill you.
Speaker 1: Dolphins also risk being choked to death when eating octopus,
Speaker 1: and sometimes smashed the octopus by tossing it around, tearing
Speaker 1: it to shreads to make it less dangerous. But sometimes
Speaker 1: you're not even out of the woods if you swallow
Speaker 1: your dinner. Cassu marzoo is a classic Sardinian dish made
Speaker 1: of sheep, milk, cheese, and live larva of the cheese fly.
Speaker 1: This is meant to give the cheese is nice soft texture,
Speaker 1: but if the larva survived the trip down your gollet,
Speaker 1: the worms can try to burrow through and eat your stomach, lining,
Speaker 1: resulting in a condition called pseudomy assis a k A
Speaker 1: accidental parasitization. The common Asian toad has also suffered from indigestion.
Speaker 1: The blind snake, a small worm like snake, can survive
Speaker 1: being ingested and has been seen escape being alive out
Speaker 1: of the butt of a common Asian toad. Well, you
Speaker 1: just described all my worst nightmares. That's all horrifying. That's
Speaker 1: what the podcasts about. It's bringing nightmares to the surface
Speaker 1: so you can you know, not have them when you're sleeping,
Speaker 1: but when you're awake. Yeah, thank you so much. You're welcome.
Speaker 1: I remember learning about Cassu marzoo and like an anthropology
Speaker 1: class when we were talking about like, I don't I
Speaker 1: think it's good to eat insects generally as part of
Speaker 1: our cuisine, and I I haven't been socialized myself to
Speaker 1: eat insects but I think it's a great protein source
Speaker 1: in this case. This is different. This is different. I
Speaker 1: don't know for people who haven't eaten insects, it's not
Speaker 1: that weird. It's mostly crunchy, right, It's like it's like
Speaker 1: eating popcorn but legs. Yeah, but this cheese maggoting. You
Speaker 1: can see them. There's still a lie. You can they
Speaker 1: like jump out of the cheese. Sometimes I don't understand
Speaker 1: how this dish came about accident, I would assume, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but why keep doing it? Like why is it consisted
Speaker 1: like that? Because it probably tastes good really if you
Speaker 1: can get over it. Yeah, all right, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'll never know. I'm not going to try it. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I mean I will. I will try most insects, except
Speaker 1: for live insects. I think. I think that's really fair.
Speaker 1: With cheese. It's that almost makes it worse. It totally does.
Speaker 1: Humans will sometimes well, as we already discussed, will imperil
Speaker 1: themselves for food. Um and one really amazing example of
Speaker 1: this is honey hunters of Nepal. Uh So, there is
Speaker 1: a man named mally Don who is one of the
Speaker 1: last mad honey hunters of Nepal and now it's not.
Speaker 1: He's not mad, but the honey is called mad hunter.
Speaker 1: He's part of the Kolong indigenous people. Uh, and they
Speaker 1: have been using this this mad honey for centuries as
Speaker 1: um because it has been to snell properties and an antiseptic.
Speaker 1: It can be like a cough syrup. And honey has
Speaker 1: like this antibiotic property and uh can actually help heal
Speaker 1: your throat. But to get this, he will climb a
Speaker 1: three hundred foot bamboo rope ladder up a sheer cliff
Speaker 1: face of granite above the Hungu River. Um. So he's
Speaker 1: after the red honey produced by Himalayan bees, which is
Speaker 1: called mad honey because it has psychotropic properties. Um. It
Speaker 1: becomes psychotropic because bees feet on the flowers of Rhodan
Speaker 1: drune trees, which contains toxins. It can also be sold
Speaker 1: on the black market for like eighty dollars a pound
Speaker 1: because it's like you get high off the honey. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds fun. It does sound fun. It doesn't sound
Speaker 1: fun to collect though, So he has to hold onto
Speaker 1: the cliff face by hand with tiny footholds while carrying
Speaker 1: a huge bamboo pole that he uses to saw off
Speaker 1: sections of the honey. Comb while he carries some burning
Speaker 1: grass to kind of try to soothe the bees which
Speaker 1: are not happy, and they still sting them. But if
Speaker 1: he flinches, like he could fall to his death. Is
Speaker 1: he doing this for the potential money? Uh, it's partially that,
Speaker 1: um So, it's it's partially just for a survival, you know,
Speaker 1: to to get the money. It's also um sort of
Speaker 1: part of this this tradition and there's a deep spiritual
Speaker 1: nous to it. Um. So it's it's very it's a
Speaker 1: very meaningful things. So it makes sense that it's not
Speaker 1: he's not just doing it to try to get high.
Speaker 1: It's is of great cultural significance and it's very helpful
Speaker 1: for him and his family because of the money, um,
Speaker 1: especially when it's harder to get other sources of income.
Speaker 1: It's just incredible. And I mean he does have a helper,
Speaker 1: like on the other side of the cliff, but from
Speaker 1: that side of the cliff, you can't reach the honeycomb,
Speaker 1: or if you try to get it, like you could
Speaker 1: make the whole honeycomb fall down. And they don't want that, like,
Speaker 1: they really don't, and it's they do it in a
Speaker 1: way where they don't want to harm the bees. They
Speaker 1: don't want to, like, you know, destroy the colonies. It's
Speaker 1: very conscientious. They sing this song like as they're doing
Speaker 1: it about like you know, I'm not here to hurt you.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, Uh, it's the honey kind of
Speaker 1: looks it looks a little bit like this. The color
Speaker 1: of this dirt soda, although not not the viscosity. Well,
Speaker 1: this dirt sod is actually really pretty. The color of
Speaker 1: it is garnet. Yeah, that's right, that's right. It's very
Speaker 1: pretty to look at. Not good to eat. The honey
Speaker 1: is probably really nice to eat and then very fun right.
Speaker 1: Psychotropic properties um So, bees themselves can also be daredevils
Speaker 1: when it comes to getting a meal. They will get
Speaker 1: punched in the flight face by flowers, punched in the
Speaker 1: flace by flowers. Uh. So. Alfalfa leaf cutting bees are
Speaker 1: found all over the world, but they were introduced to
Speaker 1: the US, so they're not indigenous. Um and they were
Speaker 1: introduced to help with crops. Uh. They're solitary bees, meaning
Speaker 1: they don't form colonies or store honey and honeycombs. Uh.
Speaker 1: They'll build their own individual nests and line them with
Speaker 1: the leaves that they've cut. So even though they're not
Speaker 1: social bees, uh, they kind of they're fine with each other.
Speaker 1: They're not like aggressive, So they just live in studio
Speaker 1: apartment exactly. In fact, farmers will sometimes make high rise
Speaker 1: apartments for them out of styrofun They'll cut out little
Speaker 1: holes in syrofoam to house like like hundreds of these bees. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they're just each in their little apartment and they
Speaker 1: go where to go, where their babies are, uh, they
Speaker 1: need them for alfalfa, and alfalfa is a major component
Speaker 1: in feeding cows and other livestock. Alfalfa flowers are really
Speaker 1: hard to pollinate. Their pollen is deep inside the flower
Speaker 1: and it's only released when the be steps on what's
Speaker 1: called a keel pedal, which is a spring loaded pedal
Speaker 1: that actually ejects pollen for the flower. So they step
Speaker 1: on the petal and then this like this, uh, this
Speaker 1: pollen column like shoots out of the flower and shoots
Speaker 1: out pollen um. And this is a normally a good
Speaker 1: strategy for the alfalfa because it launches the pollen onto
Speaker 1: the the pollinator and gets it all over and it's
Speaker 1: a very effective way of distributing pollen and also avoiding
Speaker 1: like self pollination, but alfalfa is also introduced to the US,
Speaker 1: so the be the western bees, the honey bees found
Speaker 1: here are really ginger and they're kind of weeny, you know.
Speaker 1: They don't really want to be punched by a flower,
Speaker 1: so they've figured out how to like very carefully step
Speaker 1: around the the keel petal so they don't get punched,
Speaker 1: and then they sit honey from or the they sip
Speaker 1: the nectar like from the side of the flower. Um.
Speaker 1: But leafcutter bees are some bad bitches. They are really
Speaker 1: tough enough to take a flower punch to the face.
Speaker 1: Um and uh so uh and they they're just like
Speaker 1: like you can see videos of it all postal link
Speaker 1: where the bees just like get in and they like
Speaker 1: it punched in the face with pollen. They're just continue on.
Speaker 1: So there's no indication that it like startles them. They
Speaker 1: don't kind of go a fly about the s They
Speaker 1: seem totally cool with it. They're they're really and they
Speaker 1: they they kind of look a little more tankish. They're
Speaker 1: like sort of gray and black, and they're just they
Speaker 1: look a little more bulky, little a little more sort
Speaker 1: of like these uh, these pro wrestler bees like glow
Speaker 1: be yes because these are going to be females from
Speaker 1: the last part. Um, I just love that if these
Speaker 1: bees didn't weren't able to take a punch to the
Speaker 1: face from a flower like, we probably wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to have as much crop pollination about health in the US.
Speaker 1: So it really does transform our our whole farming industry.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing that people need to know
Speaker 1: about so that they can be actually concerned about bees.
Speaker 1: That right, exactly, like if you if these bees aren't
Speaker 1: willing to get punched in the face, we will not
Speaker 1: have milk, yeah and ice cream. Yeah. Bees getting punched
Speaker 1: in the face equals having yeah and ice cream. And
Speaker 1: you have to say ice cream because it has to
Speaker 1: be the thing people most want, right exactly. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: So I want to end the show with a listener question.
Speaker 1: So Brittany asks, uh, tapers are my favorite animals, specifically
Speaker 1: Malayan tapers. When I was not tapers tapers. When I
Speaker 1: was at the zoo recently, there was a tape eer talk.
Speaker 1: The keeper told us that tapiers are known to climb trees,
Speaker 1: but I can't find any information on this at all. Also,
Speaker 1: tapers could be on an episode for keutas babies. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: we're not um. So I actually didn't know whether this
Speaker 1: is true or not, although it seems improbable because tapers
Speaker 1: they basically they're large pig shaped animals. Um. They have
Speaker 1: these long snoots which are actually a tiny pre hint
Speaker 1: style trunk. They're found in the jungles and forests of
Speaker 1: South and Central America and Southeast Asia. Uh. They're actually
Speaker 1: not related to pegs as much as they are odd
Speaker 1: toed ungulates, so they're related to zebras, rhinos, horses, and donkeys.
Speaker 1: They're about six ft long, three hundreds to seven hundred pounds.
Speaker 1: They live up to thirty years. They're herbivores um and
Speaker 1: as far being able to climb trees, I don't think
Speaker 1: they can climb trees like you would imagine like a
Speaker 1: monkey or a little bear or jaguar climbing up a tree,
Speaker 1: like clambering up and like sitting on top of the
Speaker 1: tree and being like what now, um, But they can't.
Speaker 1: They are surprisingly athletic and agile, so they can kind
Speaker 1: of march their legs up the tree and then stand
Speaker 1: on their hind legs to reach the tallest leaves. So
Speaker 1: here's a picture of that. Uh So, and then they
Speaker 1: can get those really high up leaves. They can also
Speaker 1: swim really well, so they'll climb and they can climb
Speaker 1: steep mountains. So so they're just athletes. They are athletes, yeah,
Speaker 1: uh so they are surprisingly agile on like these really
Speaker 1: steep mountains, like like goats basically, so their diet is
Speaker 1: fruit berries and seeds. Uh and they're dongue actually is
Speaker 1: really good for saving the rainforest, so it contains a
Speaker 1: lot of undamaged seeds that can help replant the Amazon rainforest,
Speaker 1: especially because they like to go into parts of the
Speaker 1: rainforest that have been recently disturbed or deforested or burned
Speaker 1: where new growth is starting to come back, because they
Speaker 1: like those like new tender leaves and they poop there
Speaker 1: and they distribute a lot of the seeds and then
Speaker 1: that that can help the biodiversity of the rainforest. And
Speaker 1: they're adorable. They're adorable, especially the babies. As as the
Speaker 1: listener suggested, so they will also sometimes push less sturdy
Speaker 1: trees over, like as they're sort of like rising up
Speaker 1: on their hind legs and putting their little fore legs
Speaker 1: on the tree, they will push it over and that's
Speaker 1: actually even though it sounds destructive, it's actually very important
Speaker 1: for other species because by lowering the leaves it allows
Speaker 1: other species of animals to access them. So this helps
Speaker 1: the sandbar deer, the barking deer, and chevrotaines, which I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to talk about these because so on the
Speaker 1: show we've talked about dick dicks, which are adorable little
Speaker 1: tiny antelopes. Watch out dick dicks. These chevrotaines are even tinier.
Speaker 1: These are the smallest hooved animals in the world. They're
Speaker 1: also known as the mouse deer. Look at this little guy.
Speaker 1: They're any time to freak out. They're like just they're
Speaker 1: like a little bigger than a jewel. They're so tiny.
Speaker 1: I know everyone's been giving me dick dick pick picks,
Speaker 1: which has been great, But can we start the chevrotaine
Speaker 1: train now because I want now, I want pictures of
Speaker 1: chevrotaine because they are so cute. I'll quit a link
Speaker 1: to some photos of these guys. They're adorable, um, and
Speaker 1: so that makes it. It's just so cute that like
Speaker 1: these big tapers, it's like they lower because otherwise it's
Speaker 1: little guys couldn't reach these trees tape yours sound amazing
Speaker 1: the fit. Yeah they I want there to be a
Speaker 1: Disney movie about a tape here and a chevtaine that
Speaker 1: team up and like like a little guy, maybe he
Speaker 1: has some special skills we can help, like the tape
Speaker 1: here and the tape here like lowers trees for him,
Speaker 1: like sort of a milo and notist situation. This is good.
Speaker 1: Get on that, Disney. Well you need to get credit
Speaker 1: for it, right, Yeah, pay me the big books for
Speaker 1: my chev taine tape here story called like chev chevertine
Speaker 1: train tapeier capiers. We'll still works up that well. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me, um, and thank you
Speaker 1: for trying the dirt soda my pleasure. Do you've got
Speaker 1: anything to plug? Um, just my podcast. I even know
Speaker 1: how to pronounce it. My podcast, which is smart mouth,
Speaker 1: which is two words, which apparently some people, Yeah, smart
Speaker 1: mouth two words. Um. I'm starting a newsletter at smart
Speaker 1: mouth dot substack dot com and uh it has an
Speaker 1: Instagram at Smartmouth podcast awesome. Um. You can find us
Speaker 1: on the internet Creature feature pod dot com, Creature feature
Speaker 1: Pod on Instagram, Creature feet Pod on Twitter, e t
Speaker 1: that is ah. You can find me at Katie Golden
Speaker 1: and of course, as always at Pro Bird Rights, where
Speaker 1: I really fight for the important things in life, like
Speaker 1: bread access for birds. Don't actually feed birds bread, It's dangerous.
Speaker 1: It is the best Twitter account. Thank you. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for listening. If you're liking the podcast,
Speaker 1: please mash that subscribe I don't what is it on podcast?
Speaker 1: Rate it? Subscribe it like it. We'll do all these
Speaker 1: press the stars. Yeah yeah, please do that, um and
Speaker 1: you can catch us next Wednesday. Thank you. Creature feature
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works.
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