WEBVTT - Consider the Packrat 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.880 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.200 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.000 I just recently returned from a trip out west, out 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.960 into the deserts of Arizona. And while I was there, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.840 my wife and I visited the Desert Museum, which I 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.240 highly recommend anyone visiting Arizona there they go check that 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:32.720 out because it's it's not really a museum, it's more 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:34.920 of a botanical garden with some animals living in it, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.760 and uh, it really opens your eyes to how diverse 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:43.320 a desert ecosystem actually is, how much life is there, 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:45.480 even if it is life that is thriving on a 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.159 on a smaller level. You know, so many amazing varieties 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.400 of CACTI got to see alive have Alina for the 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:54.400 first time, which was which was on my list of 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.840 things to do. But then I also learned for the 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.240 first time that a pack rat is an act will 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.240 than well. I I just kind of assume prior to 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.240 this that when people said, oh, he's a pack right, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.399 he's a pack rat, that maybe we were referring to 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.720 some vague, um myth or legend that rats like to 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.360 collect items and store them somewhere. I had no idea. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.880 I have to admit that it was an actual creature. Yeah, yeah, actually, um, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:20.679 I'm sure that a lot of our listeners know this. 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:25.880 Listeners in the Southwest, right, because apparently pack rats um 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.760 are a bit of a pestilence, a bit of a 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:34.400 problem and um or something that people try to get 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.240 rid of because they like to take up residents in 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:41.120 cars sometimes and and choot through the wiring or just 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.840 get into the house. Yeah, they like to set up 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.240 camp and as well discussing this this episode, they do 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.760 collect objects. They like to use them to decorate their 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.120 little homes and sometimes the often the objects they collect 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.840 in an urban environment are not things you want them 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.360 running off with, like parts to your vehicle, important parts 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.440 or car keys or teeth. These kind of things can 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.800 convantage We have pack rats in the area. They can 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.320 be very destructive, but they are a very fascinating species, 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.919 like deceptively fascinating and deceptively useful. So we decided we 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.639 would we take the time to to consider the pack 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.160 rat and to examine some of the things that make 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.919 this an interesting species, which you know, the next time 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.320 you look out at a desert vista, you should consider 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.480 these guys and how elaborate they make their homes. But 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.560 before we talk about this, let's talk about where they 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:36.440 actually roam in a bit about what they look like. Yeah, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.320 there are presently twenty one living species of pack rat 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:46.079 um or neatoma, occurring a wide rangement of habitats. You'll 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.360 find them around the edge of the Arctic Circle, all 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.800 the way the tropics of Nicaragua, throughout western Canada, most 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.880 of the US Mexico, Central America, also known as trade 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.440 rats or wood rats. Wherever they roam, though, they have 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.440 two key requirements, right they need succulent plants for food 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.239 and adequate shelter. And when I mean succulents, that of 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.480 course mean cacti and tiny cacti and desert not delicious 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:14.120 succulent not not just delicious foods. That they are cactus laughters. 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.240 They depend on the cactus. That's where they get most, 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.600 if not all, of their water. Like these guys are 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.400 in their natural environment, They're not going to go search 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.280 for a stream to lap up water. They're getting it 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.960 exclusively from the cacti that they're chewing on. And I 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.440 dare say that these guys are actually pretty cute and 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.200 cuddly looking. Yeah, they look like little mice, like they're not. 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:36.720 I mean, I don't know what one expect they. I 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.760 guess you'd expected to have little pockets and and like 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:41.800 chains and jewelry and kind of look like Hoggle and 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.000 Labyrinth or something. But I have like a little grocery cart. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.400 a little grocery cart full of junk pushing along. But no, 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.240 they kind of to the untrained eye, they look just 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.600 like a mouse of some sort. Yeah. They have grayish 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.760 brown fur with tawny undertones, white feet and undersides. They 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.200 can be distinguished from their distant relative in no way 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.320 rat by their blunt noses and long whiskers, and they 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.480 usually measure anywhere from about eight inches long to fifteen 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.760 inches long, depending on the species or the subspecies. Um. 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.040 The tail is another five to seven inches, and wood 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.280 rats tails are more furred than scaly, and they have 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.679 so they don't have that that that possum rat tail 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.840 where it's just like a naked, squirmy worm type thing. 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:25.279 The most of the time you see that and you 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.039 kind of recoil from it, but this is more of 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:32.080 a furry tail and they have extraordinary large round ears. Again, 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.600 this is what makes them, I guess, uh, we can 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.960 put them in the cute category because of this. The 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.640 tail is covered by loose skin which can be shed 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.920 to escape or predator. That's that was really fascinating because 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.200 it's it's kind of like a lizard, right, except it's 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.080 not shedding the entire tail. It's just shedding the skin 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.200 off of it, which sounds horrifying as well, but certainly 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.200 of an owl is coming after you better that he 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.720 takes the skin off your tail than all of you. Yeah, 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:00.640 it's a nat trick, right, and the and the owl 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.400 get something out of it as well, right, Thanks for 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.320 the memories. Um so. Yeah. And they are usually solitary, 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.880 although a bit we'll talk a little bit about more 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.480 how they deviate from solitary confinement of their of themselves. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.600 What is interesting to the solitary because the idea of 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:18.880 a pack rat is is we throw the term around 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.559 in human environments is you often think of a person 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.520 who lives alone and collects lots and lots of things. 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.400 You're thinking hoarding territory, hoarding territory, which is a whole 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.800 another podcast which we'll get to, but but much darker 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.000 podcast than than what we're talking about here. Yeah, because 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.479 these pack rats, um, they're not just trying to accumulate 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.000 for accumulation's sake. There seems to be a couple of 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.360 different things going on for the for the reasons why 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.960 they are accumulating debris. But let's first talk about these 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.880 guys as architects. So the big thing about the pack 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.919 rat and the thing that fascinates us and and and 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.560 ultimately the reason we're talking about them now is that 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.160 they build little dens, little homes, And if you look 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.320 at one of these houses, it kind of looks like 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.200 a little dollhouse made out of sticks and garbage and 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.920 just desert materials just cobbled together into this little home. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.760 It's it's it's really fascinating. And it's not just one 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.400 of these things where we look at it and we're like, oh, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.200 it looks like a little home with little rooms for 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.480 different uses. They actually use the different rooms for different things. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.680 It's very intentional. Beginning with what you could call the 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.680 front door. Uh, usually they will use stands of troll 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.719 or prickly pear cacti Yeah, the whole thing is is 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:38.360 surrounded with prickly cactus bits that serve as a barrier. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.640 And this is really interesting because, um, you have Native 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.200 American tribes in the area that would depend on these 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.000 living fences where they would take bits of cactus and 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.320 sort of strap them together and make little fences out 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.719 of the cacti. And the pack rat does the same 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.599 thing and was doing the same thing long before humans 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:58.760 occupied the area, right, So if a predator were to 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.120 come to their nest, then it would be met by this, 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.240 you know, cacti, which would not feel so great. And 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.480 the pack rats actually cut them into three to four 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.000 inch long pieces and carry them to their nest sites 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.600 in their mouth. So if you see a stand of 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.960 saprickly pair and you see little score marks on it, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.760 you can tell that a pack rat has been there. Um. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.560 So the cacti does serve both as a nest protector 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.520 and as food and also provides some really good installation. 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.760 The temperature inside of that that pack rat den is 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:32.160 really stable and and it all comes from the installation. Okay, 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.680 So the nest actually consists of two parts. There's the house, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.400 which is the collective material, which is mostly above ground, 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.720 and then the nest itself, which is usually dug part 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.040 way below grounds. So that's where we start to see 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.000 these different chambers and these specialized areas for the pack 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.400 rat to live in. Right, they'll have several rooms that 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.880 are devoted to food storing food because ultimately, if you're 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.640 a rodent and you're living it rough out there in 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:58.559 the world, you're gonna want to store away some food, 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.200 right to survive the lean tie. And they'll have as 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.720 much as three bushels of plant material stored away in there. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:10.080 And then they have another area that is actually thought 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.360 of as um We call it sometimes a daytime retreat, 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.400 like a day room, which is very helpful during the 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.840 more intensely heated summer months, right, But it's also used 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.080 as a nursery sometimes, so it's like a bedroom slash 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:30.120 nursery slash rump. This room, I guess, yeah, sort of 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.240 like your guest room in your house perhaps is a 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.840 multipurpose room. And then this is really interesting too. They 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:42.480 have a latrine. And and now that sounds kind of 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.319 like if you're like, oh man, why would you have 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.360 you know, the latrine as part of your nest. But 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.720 well that humans have a ladder into talk. Since we 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.760 started doing indoor plumbing and moved our bathrooms inside, everyone 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.360 has a room that is devoted almost entirely to pooping. 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.080 So you may you may not think of it that way, 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:03.640 but that's what you have. What do you think it 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.720 would do to us psychologically if we just renamed restroom 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.800 poop room everywhere wholesale? Yeah, like no matter where you went, 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.520 and you just say I've got good of the pooper room, Yeah, 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:15.160 it would. I mean the thing that gets me, it's 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.200 one thing to call the bathroom. Okay, so bathroom all right, 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.440 called a bathroom because it has a bathroom there. All right, 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.280 fair enough, You're gonna put the spotlight on the thing 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.160 that's most relaxing and has less to do with our 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.040 bodily functions, the restroom. Okay, Well you're going in there, 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.800 you're well, you may be doing something RESTful, but it 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.840 also there also might be a very stressful incidents going 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.360 on inside that room. But what gets me is the 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.040 water closet where it's where this is when you have 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:43.920 have a room that only has a toilet in it, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:46.800 Like if anything is a pooper room, that's a pooper room. 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.360 But we call it the water close. It's it's a 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.119 magical little room that has a fountain and a waterfall 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:53.640 in it. It does some kind of love the I'm 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.360 going to the multa closet, you see, but that is 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.240 essentially what the pack rad has, a water closet because 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.400 again the pack rick doesn't want to go outside during 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.560 this horrible heat and uh and use the restroom elsewhere. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.480 She needs an indoor potty and that's what this room is. Well, 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.400 if she went outside too, she would be subject to 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.119 the predation from like we said, owls, snakes, and coyotes. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.760 So this is another reason to have an indoor latrine um. 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.640 And actually too, when they bring in some of their collectibles, 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.160 they do bring it into the lutrine and the urinate 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.840 on that, which creates a bit of a specimen that 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.600 we'll talk about later on. That's very helpful to our 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.160 understanding of the environment. I've I've heard it put that 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:38.480 they'll bring in things to quote unquote decorate their house, 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.920 and then as they tire of these decorations as they 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.440 become old, or as we'll discuss a minute, when some 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:45.160 of the elements that they used to decorate when they 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.360 lose their functionality. They dumped them into the latrine room, 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:51.920 so not everything goes directly to the traine room. Sometimes 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.360 it's like I'm kind of sick of that painting. I'm 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.400 gonna put it in the poop chamber. Well, and see again, 0:10:57.440 --> 0:10:59.880 this is very intentional, right, It's interesting that they would 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.560 be decorating in quotes right their dens and having a 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.720 sort of revolving artwork or installation that eventually gets put 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.040 into what we call the midden. This is the area 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.000 that they urinate on. And we'll talk more about the 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.560 midden in a moment, but they also have been known 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:21.800 to line their homes with leaves, yes, particularly bay leaves, 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:23.960 you know, the type of leaf that you put in 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.760 your spaghetti. Very aromatic, and you would think of this 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:31.120 as a kind of wood rat potpourri or pack rat potpourri. 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.920 You might think that at first, but it actually serves 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.720 a far more important purpose, and that is to keep 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.160 the pest down. It's basically they're fumigating the den, right, 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.720 so they don't want ectoparasites hanging around, particularly where they sleep, 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.560 so they line this area with those bay leaves, and 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.320 that really acts as a repellent, which I thought was 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.280 completely fascinating. So not only do you have artwork that 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:57.000 is revolving, artwork that you know, disappears and goes into 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:58.760 littering when they get tired of it, but you've got 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:03.240 these nice fragrant bay leaves scenting the den. Yeah. I 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.600 also found it interesting that sometimes they have roommates, like 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:12.400 non rodent roommates such as box turtles, skinks, lizards, well know, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.000 sometimes other rodents, but which you also see with the 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.800 with beavers as that recall, um, the other animal that 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.439 is generally the beloved animal that that builds houses out 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.400 of craft that it finds. Yeah, well, because the beaver 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.160 is like, oh, then the beaver is we look at 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.200 the beaver, is this uh, this industrious creature that's doing 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.200 good in the world. But the pack rat is a 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.400 past The pack rat is a destroyer, right, but they're 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.240 basically doing their own thing that it's just to what 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.520 extent they interfere with human plans. Well that's because beavers 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.440 don't try to how wire your car. Yeah well yeah 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.400 yet yet. Um so I found it interesting that the 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.480 pack rats may have some other creatures living around, Like 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.160 I mean, a pack rat that lives with the box turtle. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.120 That that's the reality show right there. That are a 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.400 sitcom set up that I would watch. Yeah, um, and 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.480 we have you know, said that they're primarily solitary, but 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:05.600 the fact of the matter is is that they are 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.760 largely natural inning all these societies, and they live in 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.240 a pretty loosely cooperative society. So when the pups are weaned, 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.480 this is really interesting. Males babies, by the way, one 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.280 to four babies, the males will actually leave the den 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.480 and they will go off into the hinter lands, but 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.839 the females will move to adjacent stick houses, remaining close 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.920 to their mother. And then when the matriarch dies, one 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:34.920 of her daughters actually will inherit the stick home and 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.320 a single wood rat can um maintain this home for 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:43.160 several generations, for the same family for decades and decades. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.720 Oh wow, Now this this leads to an idea in 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.640 my mind, what if you had Downton Abbey all pack 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.240 rats already would be great? Like's Maggie h Maggie Smith? 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.319 Is that her name? The dowurs on there right right? Yeah? 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.760 As a pack rat, I think that would be great. Well, 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.079 they would have an awesome art collection already, you know, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.280 that um again, another great idea for a show there. 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:11.800 But you know what, this is all sort of pointing 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.720 to this idea that pack rats aren't just collecting things. 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:20.040 They are actually giving us a clue of how um, 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.680 how the earth once was. And we can look at 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.840 them not just as architects, but as archaeologists. And we're 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:28.520 gonna take a quick break, but when we get back, 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:34.240 we're going to discuss this idea a bit more. All Right, 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:39.320 we're back, and we are already inside the pack rats again. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.600 We've talked about their latrine room, the midden, where they 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:49.920 urinate coviously on old bits of art and uh and 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.720 uh and by which I mean bits of plant pollen, 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.400 animal bones in more recent years, lots of human artifacts, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.960 pieces of cars. There's one story about the man's false 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.560 teeth going missing, and they showed up in one of 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.200 these dens, anything that catches their fancy, and they were 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.640 gathering the stuff from a wide territory. Yeah, but a 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.520 hundred mile radius is where they gather all of these 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.320 different materials. And so when a pack rat urinates on 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.600 its collections, the high calcium oxalate content of the urine 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.120 helps to solidify and preserve the items in a hard, 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.680 resinous or vitreous looking like material called midden. Yeah, their 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.240 urine is very viscous too, just to throw that im 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.560 engine in your mind. Yeah, and the midden kind of 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:33.800 looks like peanut brittle. It's been described as at or 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.560 chocolate bar filled with nuts. And there's even one account 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.480 of um people who were seeking out the gold rush 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.080 back in the eighteen hundreds, UM getting to a part 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.400 of the landscape that they were traveling through UM and 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.440 not having enough to eat and actually finding the midden 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.440 and using nuts as a Yeah, they said it looked like, well, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.680 kind of like twistlers. I guess which I'm eating today 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.760 because it's Halloweens were recording it. Yes, I guess you 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.480 could say like a honey. Yeah, looking if I look 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.880 on the package, Um, well no, I guess there're no 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.040 ingredients on this. This is a fun size. But um, yeah, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.720 it wouldn't be surprised if the midden midden materials like 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:19.920 ten percent. But but yeah, you've given a long enough 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.560 time though, this stuff will actually will crystallize into something. 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.200 It's almost like amber. And consider too that pack rats 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.880 have been doing this for at least forty tho years 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.800 we found midden material that's forty thou years old, So 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.680 inadvertently in their garbage, they have preserved some fascinating pidbits 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.120 about the history of the planet. Much like with archaeologist 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.480 when you look at human settlements, if you can find 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.480 where they're throwing away their garbage, gold mine, because that 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.240 gives you this insight into their daily life. What were 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.320 they eating, what were they using, what was their life 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.520 consisting of outside of uh, you know, religious iconography and 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.760 what have you. What was the what was their daily 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:02.520 life consisting of? With the with the pack rat, although 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.080 it's more of a more of an insight into past climates, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.520 especially in dry western North America. Yeah, and actually, previous 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.040 to the nineteen sixties, when midden was discovered and it 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.720 was discovered that you could actually strike archaeological gold here 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.520 and use this to to look into the past, they 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.320 weren't quite sure what some of the atmospheres or environments 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:27.040 were during different eras. So in the nineteen sixties it 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.240 was discovered that these deposits left in caves and crevices 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.680 by pack rats contained these assemblages of fossil plants, and 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.600 that's when they began to say, okay, um, we can 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.240 look at this and we can figure out what's happening 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.520 during these tens and tens of thousands of years UM. So, 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.840 for instance, since numerous vegetation zones occur over relatively short 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.880 distances in places like the Grand Canyon, the newly discovered 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.840 pac rat middens became a really good tool for comparing 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.760 the Pleistocene vegetation zones with modern ones. And they did 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.560 this by using radiocarbon dating. Yeah, so they could look 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.880 through all those layers and try to figure out what 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.320 was going on when. And then in addition to that, 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.480 the urine actually acted as a bactor aside, so the 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:16.480 organic material was preserved really well. Now, when future generations 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:17.919 look back, I can't help but think they'll be a 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.600 gap though, the period during which cowboys ate all of 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.120 the candied urine cakes that the that the pack rats 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.119 left for them in their in their debts, a gap 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:33.000 in the midden fossil record. Yeah. All you have to 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.879 do is look through there, I'm sure evidence in the 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.760 caves and their droppings to try to find out what 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.440 was going on. Now, one a little bit about the 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.680 pack rat that we neglected to mention earlier is that, Okay, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.840 you have an animal here that lives almost exclusively on cacti. 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.919 It's just eating loads and loads of cactus and its 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.080 skintting most of its water from the cactus. But there's 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.879 several different toxic plants thrown in here as well. I 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.159 mean you have the juniper, the stage brush, the UK. 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:03.159 There's a lot of toxin in there, so that the 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:05.600 animal has to be able to withstand a certain amount 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.480 of toxin, but also interestingly enough sort of manage its 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.720 diet depending on what the toxin levels are. Yeah, and 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.800 this is interesting. Some species or subspecies have actually evolved 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.040 their their kidneys to be able to excrete some of 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.359 the toxins out really well. But what we're talking about 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.119 specifically here are food rats in the deserts of the 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:31.000 US and the Southwest, where again there's very few food 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.800 resources and you can't really be picky about what's available. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.200 So they have found, they were found, but they have developed, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.840 i should say, methods of dealing with this rather toxic appetite. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.960 They'll sample a number of different toxic items so they're 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.320 not just chowneling down on one thing and potentially getting 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.760 an overload of one particular toxin. They're eating smaller meals, 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.479 which is kind of you know, as humans, we can 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.000 understand that if the food is horrible, you eat less 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.840 of it. They'll increase the time between meals, which makes 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.040 sense too, because there's something toxic in there, you want 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.520 to let your body work through it a little bit 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.280 before you hit it again. And then if water is 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.280 available again they get most of their water through cacti, 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.199 but if there is a water source available, then they 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:18.639 will drink more water to help compensate for the toxins, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.479 to try to flush it out. Yeah, it's kind of 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.200 like some like college kids, I guess on a on 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.359 a weekend, you know, drink more water, watch what you eat, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.720 and and make sure you recharge between toxic excess. Now, 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.520 biology Professor Denise Deering actually compared wood rats or pack 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.879 rats that eat only a single plant, and these are 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.680 called specialists, these these wood rats, and so they would 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.360 eat something like juniper and that wasn't a big deal 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:46.920 for them because again that their kidneys in their livers 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.000 had evolved enzymes that could break this down. But what 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.199 you're talking about are those generalists, those wood rats. And 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.679 that's where she discovered that they had these different behavioral 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.199 responses in place to try to manage the amount of 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.960 toxins in their bloodstream, which so it's actually pretty clever 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.359 because you think about it, they get the sustenance, but 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.880 they don't keel over with a belly full of poison. Um. 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.679 They get to manage that process. And so she said 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.480 that there's a possibility that they have a sort of 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.160 poison detection system in place. So the generalists are they're 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:25.920 they're more smart in their management of toxic diet, whereas 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.280 the the specialists are just hardy. They're kind of like 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.480 the Shane mcgallan's of the rodent world, where they could 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.080 they just have a higher tolerance. Well, they just keep 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:38.439 hitting that one plan over and over again. So it 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:40.240 makes sense that they would evolve to be able to 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.560 deal with it. Um. But Deering actually says that other 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.280 researchers have found receptors in the guts of other rodents, 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:51.399 and she thinks that rodents um, particularly the wood rats, 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:57.560