1
00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:04,240
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I

2
00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,760
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,

3
00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:16,880
Speaker 1: and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is

4
00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,759
Speaker 1: a episode of Stuff you should Know. I thought you

5
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,720
Speaker 1: can say, welcome to the Bossom Cast. I thought about it,

6
00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,000
Speaker 1: and my brain wouldn't wouldn't form that together. I was like,

7
00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:29,040
Speaker 1: there's a there's a pun in here, and I can't

8
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,519
Speaker 1: quite grasp it. So that's good. Your your pungen is

9
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:37,600
Speaker 1: being dulled. Yeah, it's funny those pungens. They're bald and

10
00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:44,639
Speaker 1: they have like sheet white skin. I'm not even sure

11
00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:46,760
Speaker 1: what that means. It means that they look a lot

12
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,840
Speaker 1: like Jonathan Strickland. I wondered if that's what you meant. Yeah,

13
00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,760
Speaker 1: goodness me, man, I haven't heard from him in a

14
00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,440
Speaker 1: long time. You don't think Strickland tan's up? No, No,

15
00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,400
Speaker 1: I think Strickland up pours the sun. Okay, just a little,

16
00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,640
Speaker 1: just a little note between you and me. I got

17
00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,280
Speaker 1: a question for you. Okay, does this episode on possums

18
00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:16,280
Speaker 1: or opossums? They're both correct, It's fine either way, right.

19
00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 1: Does this have anything to do with a certain Instagram follower?

20
00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:24,959
Speaker 1: It does as a matter of fact, Oh good, we

21
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,000
Speaker 1: have an Instagram follower and there they Their handle is

22
00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:35,000
Speaker 1: underscore G. I O I underscore G and I clicked

23
00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,360
Speaker 1: in on it and they have a pronunciation, so I

24
00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:41,680
Speaker 1: guess it's d oh yeah, okay. And they have been

25
00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:45,200
Speaker 1: posting since April um. They said they I think I

26
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:49,040
Speaker 1: found their first posters on April four and they said, um,

27
00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,360
Speaker 1: I'm going to post every time you post asking for

28
00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: a Possum episode until you finally do. And they have

29
00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:58,559
Speaker 1: been doing that ever since. I don't think they've missed

30
00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,960
Speaker 1: a single one. Uh yeah, I mean she's persistent. I'll

31
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,400
Speaker 1: say that, yeah for sure. And maybe you get what

32
00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,760
Speaker 1: you want when you're persistent because we're doing the episode.

33
00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,880
Speaker 1: I'm just curious what she's gonna be up to after this. Nothing.

34
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,680
Speaker 1: They always goes to us after that, they're like, thanks, chumps.

35
00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:20,639
Speaker 1: Well here's what I have to say to you, stranger

36
00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:25,200
Speaker 1: but friend on Instagram. Uh, don't just come at us

37
00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,519
Speaker 1: with some new topic and badgers about that one, especially

38
00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:34,120
Speaker 1: not badgers, especially not badgers. You're getting your possums to

39
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,640
Speaker 1: just settle down and enjoy it. You got what you wanted. Yeah,

40
00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:41,880
Speaker 1: I have to say not just persistent too, but um

41
00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,639
Speaker 1: they were. Also they got kind of funny because after

42
00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:46,720
Speaker 1: a while he just got sick of saying, like, possum

43
00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:51,840
Speaker 1: episode please. So for the Nintendo episode, they said that

44
00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:54,600
Speaker 1: any yes, is the only system we had as kids.

45
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,720
Speaker 1: Otherwise we played outside with possums. No. No No, she's gotten

46
00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,919
Speaker 1: very creative with how she were in the possum thing,

47
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:03,600
Speaker 1: and I think that's that was part of the charm

48
00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:05,480
Speaker 1: of it. Otherwise it would have just ignored it out

49
00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:09,400
Speaker 1: of some weird game. Yeah for sure, Yeah, absolutely for sure.

50
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,160
Speaker 1: So yes, that is that is the impetus for this

51
00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,480
Speaker 1: possum episode. But I'm glad that they they suggested it

52
00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,840
Speaker 1: because I was fine with possums before. But I learned

53
00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:25,240
Speaker 1: a lot about possums oral possums researching this episode. And

54
00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,120
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, I'm I'm a friend of the possum.

55
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,720
Speaker 1: Now I am too. At some point you'll hear a

56
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,360
Speaker 1: first person possum story from me. I just don't know

57
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:37,880
Speaker 1: when I'm gonna work it in. That's what in the

58
00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,440
Speaker 1: BIS they call it a teaser. Uh. And if you

59
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,600
Speaker 1: want to just stop before you even listen any further,

60
00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,840
Speaker 1: if you're near somewhere where you can watch a YouTube video.

61
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,640
Speaker 1: Just look up Butter bu t t e r at

62
00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:57,160
Speaker 1: the Possum pet on YouTube and just go ahead and

63
00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,160
Speaker 1: tell me after that that you think possums are like us,

64
00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:06,560
Speaker 1: are scarier, weird FTC Butter uh work Butter's charms. Okay,

65
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,200
Speaker 1: I'll go look. I'll go look up Butter later on.

66
00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:14,640
Speaker 1: But you can imagine is a pet possum who was rescued, rehabbed,

67
00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:16,839
Speaker 1: I think, with the idea of going back into the wild.

68
00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,560
Speaker 1: But as we'll see, that doesn't always take because sometimes

69
00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,599
Speaker 1: that possum just wants to go back inside and snuggle. Yeah,

70
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,800
Speaker 1: it sounds like Butter's rehab or checked all the right boxes. Yeah,

71
00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:29,720
Speaker 1: it's a very cute video. So one of the things

72
00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,599
Speaker 1: that I learned about possums is that I've got um,

73
00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,839
Speaker 1: not only my friend of the possum, I've got possum pride. Now,

74
00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 1: possom fever that a little bit of that too, but

75
00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,080
Speaker 1: more more pride than anything, because Chuck there there's a

76
00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,960
Speaker 1: there's one specific possum, the Virginia possum, that is native

77
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:54,279
Speaker 1: to the United States, traditionally the southern southeastern United States um,

78
00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,599
Speaker 1: and that Virginia possum is the only marsupial native to

79
00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:01,760
Speaker 1: the United States, and our friends listen in Australia are like, crikey,

80
00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:04,880
Speaker 1: We've got a million of those here. We'll get this Australia,

81
00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:08,880
Speaker 1: your marsupials seem to have come according to the fossil

82
00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:14,040
Speaker 1: record from the America's which means that our possum friends

83
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:20,239
Speaker 1: are actually the predecessors of your marsupials, which means chuck.

84
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:26,039
Speaker 1: That means that the wombats, the dumbats, the dun Arts,

85
00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:30,040
Speaker 1: the kangaroos, kalas, and the qualls, the bilbies in the bandicoots,

86
00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:35,560
Speaker 1: Tasmanian devil, Pasmanian tiger, not to mention the wallabies, they

87
00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:39,880
Speaker 1: all descend from a North American or South American possum,

88
00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,240
Speaker 1: because that's where all marsupials came from. You forgot about

89
00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:51,160
Speaker 1: fairy toasts, yeah, which apparently you don't toast. Yeah, big correction, Sorry, Australia,

90
00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:55,279
Speaker 1: you don't toast very bread. I registered an angry email

91
00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 1: to the editor of the blog that I got that

92
00:05:57,880 --> 00:05:59,839
Speaker 1: idea from. By the way, Oh that was from you.

93
00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,120
Speaker 1: What the fairy fairy toast? Yeah? Yeah, you didn't mention it.

94
00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,120
Speaker 1: Did you know I thought that I thought that was

95
00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:13,480
Speaker 1: submitted by Libya. Okay, I know I found that one.

96
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,960
Speaker 1: I'm throwing myself under the bus. All right, well I'm

97
00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,000
Speaker 1: driving that bus, buddy, so I'm gonna hit the brakes

98
00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:20,919
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna I'm gonna back up so you

99
00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:31,360
Speaker 1: don't get hit. Oh I got that's an inside. Uh So,

100
00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:33,599
Speaker 1: your little spiel on possums pointed out a couple of

101
00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:35,680
Speaker 1: things that I want to point out. One is that

102
00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:38,880
Speaker 1: possums are not rodents. Yeah. I think a lot of

103
00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,080
Speaker 1: Americans probably think they're kind of in the rat family

104
00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,680
Speaker 1: or something because they look sort of rat like, But

105
00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,560
Speaker 1: they're not. Like you said, they're more soupials. And the

106
00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:51,839
Speaker 1: other thing is, well, that's it, they're more soup heals.

107
00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:55,159
Speaker 1: So they have little pouches just like a kangaroo friends,

108
00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:58,000
Speaker 1: and they keep a little there called Joey's to their

109
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,080
Speaker 1: little babies or Joey's. Yeah, a baby apossum is called

110
00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:04,599
Speaker 1: a Joey and cute. Like. I knew what marsupials were,

111
00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:06,560
Speaker 1: but what I didn't realize is that it was, as

112
00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:10,040
Speaker 1: far as I can tell, one of two categories that

113
00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,480
Speaker 1: mammals can land in depending on how they they're young,

114
00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:17,160
Speaker 1: justest date and a marsupial is just a type of

115
00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:23,440
Speaker 1: animal that, evolutionarily speaking, really emphasizes the lactation phase of

116
00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:28,320
Speaker 1: development of young, whereas us and just about every other

117
00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,680
Speaker 1: mammal um we're called placentals. We just date our young

118
00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,280
Speaker 1: in the womb for much longer. Um possums, it's a

119
00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:38,720
Speaker 1: very short time, and then they're in the pouch lactating

120
00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,520
Speaker 1: for a really long time. Yeah. I was surprised to

121
00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,320
Speaker 1: see that when they were born there very very tiny,

122
00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,360
Speaker 1: like on the order of just an inch or so. Yeah,

123
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:52,239
Speaker 1: I saw a honey bee size in one place. That's

124
00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:54,320
Speaker 1: a little possible. And then they're in that pouch like

125
00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:59,640
Speaker 1: sometimes up to like seventy days. Yeah, getting mother's milk

126
00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,760
Speaker 1: from mom the possum. Yeah. So we'll get to that.

127
00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:04,840
Speaker 1: We'll get to that, don't don't. Let's not get ahead

128
00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,640
Speaker 1: of ourselves. I know, I'm excited to chuck. But um,

129
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,560
Speaker 1: back to the fossil record. So uh, it turns out

130
00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,560
Speaker 1: that the the ancestor of all marsupials seems to have

131
00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:17,840
Speaker 1: emerged in North America, maybe South America at the very least,

132
00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:21,400
Speaker 1: if they emerged in North America. They traveled down to

133
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,720
Speaker 1: South America and then Antarctica and then Australia back when

134
00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:27,000
Speaker 1: all that stuff was connected. And I mean they're really

135
00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,679
Speaker 1: really old. Um. I saw a hundred and forty million

136
00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:35,280
Speaker 1: years old um. And then the immediate ancestors of possums,

137
00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:38,560
Speaker 1: which look very similar to today's possums. They have not

138
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,400
Speaker 1: changed very much, um since about the time the dinosaurs

139
00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:46,160
Speaker 1: went away sixty five million years ago, right, and since

140
00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:49,439
Speaker 1: then we've had possums of various types running around Earth.

141
00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,199
Speaker 1: But at one point they died off in North America.

142
00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,280
Speaker 1: Luckily they were a bunch left in South America. And

143
00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:00,840
Speaker 1: when the Sthmuths of Panama rose again from the sea

144
00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:06,960
Speaker 1: like poseidon um, like the October. Yeah, just as good,

145
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:10,160
Speaker 1: maybe even better chuck uh, they were able to travel

146
00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:13,520
Speaker 1: back up to North America. And about a million years ago,

147
00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,440
Speaker 1: our friend the Virginia possum evolved and basically said, I

148
00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:19,920
Speaker 1: really like the Southeast and I'm gonna stay here for

149
00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:22,360
Speaker 1: the next million years. That's right, And you know what

150
00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:24,840
Speaker 1: I've forgot. The other thing I was gonna say after

151
00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:29,040
Speaker 1: your spiel was that you Aussie's out there, you do

152
00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:32,280
Speaker 1: have something called a possum. Oh yeah, it's not what

153
00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:34,839
Speaker 1: we have as a possum. It's a it's a different

154
00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,199
Speaker 1: animal altogether. So there is a little bit of confusion there.

155
00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:40,920
Speaker 1: So if you're if you're buttering up your fairy toast

156
00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,880
Speaker 1: right now and you're really upset, you're like, I've got

157
00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:46,960
Speaker 1: possums on a lot of these trees. You probably do,

158
00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,640
Speaker 1: but they're not. They're not, and I looked them up.

159
00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:50,760
Speaker 1: They're very cute too, but they're not like our possums.

160
00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:52,839
Speaker 1: They are the ones that I saw are called bush

161
00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:55,120
Speaker 1: tail possums, and they are super cute. But that's a

162
00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:58,640
Speaker 1: big difference are possums. The Virginia possum spends most of

163
00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:02,440
Speaker 1: its time on the ground, climbs trees, maybe to find food,

164
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,560
Speaker 1: maybe to escape a predator. The bush tail possums basically

165
00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:09,640
Speaker 1: live in trees. They live high up. But they're both marsupials.

166
00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:13,040
Speaker 1: But there's actually we can pinpoint the jackass that actually

167
00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,960
Speaker 1: created this confusion back in the seventeen fifties. His name

168
00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 1: was Joseph Banks, right, that's right, um, sorry, the seventeen seventies.

169
00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:25,840
Speaker 1: Seventeen seventies, what did you say in seventeen fifties. I

170
00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:29,040
Speaker 1: think I should have said the seventeen fifties, give or

171
00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,080
Speaker 1: take a couple of decades. Banks was a brit He

172
00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,079
Speaker 1: was a naturalist, and he went to Australia with James

173
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:40,160
Speaker 1: Cook and in seventeen seventy founder Marsupial and basically said

174
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,120
Speaker 1: it was the same thing that we had in North

175
00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:47,080
Speaker 1: America and it really wasn't at all. And uh, you

176
00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:49,959
Speaker 1: know that that's where that all came from. Yeah, so

177
00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:54,480
Speaker 1: there's there's your confusion. I guess technically Australia that means

178
00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:57,199
Speaker 1: that our possums are the real possums. I'm not trying

179
00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:00,520
Speaker 1: to start a flame war here, I'm just saying that

180
00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,760
Speaker 1: seems to be the case. Yeah, And and since we're there,

181
00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,120
Speaker 1: we might as well cover the opossum thing out of

182
00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,480
Speaker 1: the gate and then we can really get down to business,

183
00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:13,480
Speaker 1: because they're all correct. Opossum is just fine. Uh. In fact,

184
00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:16,119
Speaker 1: that that's the original wording that came from an Algonquin

185
00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,959
Speaker 1: word um A p o s o u m a

186
00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:23,199
Speaker 1: palsum I guess, which means white beast or white dog.

187
00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:26,360
Speaker 1: And you know you can use either one. You can

188
00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:29,040
Speaker 1: say o possum you can say possum. You can spell

189
00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:33,239
Speaker 1: it opossum, you can spell it possom. Yeah. And apparently

190
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:38,800
Speaker 1: in Europe, uh, in the Enlightenment period, the eighteenth century,

191
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,360
Speaker 1: they were nuts for these things. Uh, and they they

192
00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:45,960
Speaker 1: I guess somebody gave them one to the Royal Society

193
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 1: in London. Sorry, this is back in the mid seventeenth century,

194
00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:51,199
Speaker 1: so the sixteen hundreds. And they looked at it and

195
00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,840
Speaker 1: they're like, this thing is a pouch. It's weird looking.

196
00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:57,520
Speaker 1: I declare that it's probably a cross between a fox

197
00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:00,520
Speaker 1: and an ape, some sort of hybrid. That turned out

198
00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:02,280
Speaker 1: not to be the cases. We'll see. Like you said,

199
00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:05,960
Speaker 1: possums are their own thing. So let's talk about where

200
00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:07,760
Speaker 1: you find them here in the United States, because we

201
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:09,640
Speaker 1: should say from this basically, from this point on, we're

202
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,680
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna be talking about the Virginia possum, the

203
00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:20,319
Speaker 1: American United States possums, right, that's right. Uh. You can

204
00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,440
Speaker 1: tell by their little flashy red, white and blue jumpsuit

205
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:27,600
Speaker 1: that they wear. It's very cute. So you mentioned the southeast,

206
00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:30,440
Speaker 1: and that is very much true. Uh, that is where

207
00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:32,800
Speaker 1: they were really hanging out for a long time. But

208
00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:36,000
Speaker 1: starting in about I guess, let should say at least

209
00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:40,520
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, they started moving on along elsewhere in

210
00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:42,440
Speaker 1: the country, and they kind of spread around. They were

211
00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:44,400
Speaker 1: I think they saw him in the mid eighteen hundreds

212
00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:47,040
Speaker 1: in New York and then other parts of New England

213
00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:50,680
Speaker 1: and then the Midwest, and basically, as like farms and

214
00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:54,560
Speaker 1: cities and urban population started springing up, possums kind of

215
00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:57,760
Speaker 1: followed suit. Because possums, as we'll find out, and you know,

216
00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,040
Speaker 1: every animals really food motivated, but it seems that possums

217
00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:05,200
Speaker 1: are really really food motivated. So then there were things,

218
00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:06,480
Speaker 1: you know, a lot more things to eat in a

219
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:10,480
Speaker 1: lot more places. So possums started traveling around naturally, and

220
00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,760
Speaker 1: apparently people even took them and dropped them off in

221
00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:18,800
Speaker 1: other parts of the country, including Washington State. So I'm

222
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:23,000
Speaker 1: not really positive, but it seems like you might find

223
00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:26,920
Speaker 1: a possum almost anywhere in the United States. Now. It's weird.

224
00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:29,480
Speaker 1: I saw a map of their distribution and if you

225
00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:35,240
Speaker 1: go up from North Texas and then spread out toward

226
00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:40,440
Speaker 1: Idaho to the left, and then up towards like maybe Ohio,

227
00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,880
Speaker 1: Illinois to the right, it almost make like a cartoon

228
00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:49,000
Speaker 1: tornado shape coming out of Texas. They're not there. You're

229
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,040
Speaker 1: not going to find them there, really weird, but you

230
00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:55,360
Speaker 1: will find them surrounding the northwest California, Texas, Mexico, and

231
00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,320
Speaker 1: then all down the southeastern United States and now up

232
00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:01,640
Speaker 1: the eastern side of the Midwest and all along the

233
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:06,880
Speaker 1: Eastern seaboard up to Ontario, the lower Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

234
00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:10,439
Speaker 1: Talk about a mind blower, that is. Yeah, I think

235
00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:15,200
Speaker 1: they they got their passports in order and wandered into Canada. Yeah.

236
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:17,920
Speaker 1: So these people are so friendly, Yeah, and they talk

237
00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,720
Speaker 1: kind of funny and they're very charming. Yeah, that's what

238
00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,280
Speaker 1: you just nailed, Canada and leftover poutine in the back alley.

239
00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,760
Speaker 1: There's nothing to turn your little pink nose up at. No,

240
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:30,720
Speaker 1: and food definitely did help them. They're they're like, I

241
00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:32,760
Speaker 1: like these humans. They're pretty great, and I'm glad they

242
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:37,800
Speaker 1: came along because, yes, they're a huge constant food source um,

243
00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,840
Speaker 1: but we're also a source of shelter too, because um

244
00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:44,840
Speaker 1: possums have a very bare, naked tail that is really

245
00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,560
Speaker 1: off putting to a lot of people, and understandably so,

246
00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:50,880
Speaker 1: their ears are also naked, and when you put those together,

247
00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,800
Speaker 1: they can get things like frost bite. Um, they can

248
00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,760
Speaker 1: not survive the cold all that well. They do develop

249
00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:00,640
Speaker 1: a winter coat, but they're just they like it warm

250
00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:03,800
Speaker 1: for the most part. But as humans have moved further

251
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,080
Speaker 1: and further north and um, the possums have followed us

252
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:12,200
Speaker 1: because we have barnes addicts call spaces uh wall voids

253
00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:15,360
Speaker 1: like just places for possums to to live in the

254
00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,480
Speaker 1: colder months. So that's another reason why they their range

255
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,880
Speaker 1: has expanded to Yeah, and the old Virginia possum. Uh,

256
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:25,600
Speaker 1: you've seen them around there, about the size of a cat,

257
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:30,120
Speaker 1: like a house cat, way anywhere from four to eleven pounds, uh,

258
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,360
Speaker 1: eleven pound possum. That's that's pretty decent sized possum. I

259
00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:35,920
Speaker 1: thought up to fourteen my friend. Oh, I'm sure that.

260
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,440
Speaker 1: I'm sure the tubbier varieties can can pack it in

261
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,080
Speaker 1: for sure. That will make your forearms burned carrying that

262
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,440
Speaker 1: around uh two to three ft long, and that's with

263
00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:48,640
Speaker 1: the tail. And generally the Virginia possum you would describe

264
00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:51,640
Speaker 1: as sort of whitish gray. Their faces are a little

265
00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,160
Speaker 1: more white, their bodies are kind of gray. But sometimes

266
00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,760
Speaker 1: they'll have little spooches and splotches and bands and things

267
00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,800
Speaker 1: like that. Um, all right, so I think that's a

268
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:06,200
Speaker 1: good teaser. And then atomically speaking, and Adam, what's the word?

269
00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,240
Speaker 1: I think you had it? And anatomically is that right? Yeah?

270
00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:12,960
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound right though, does it? No? It sounded weird. Um.

271
00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:14,680
Speaker 1: But let's take a break and we'll sort that out

272
00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:17,800
Speaker 1: and then we'll come back and talk about possum penis

273
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:51,480
Speaker 1: right after this. All right, you just bring it on out, please, Well,

274
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:55,480
Speaker 1: a possum has a forked penis. And if you can

275
00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:59,040
Speaker 1: look up a picture and it, um, well, I guess

276
00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 1: it looks like what do you think it looks like?

277
00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:04,640
Speaker 1: I am not a sick Oh? So I didn't look

278
00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,840
Speaker 1: it up. Oh you didn't mean you're sick. Oh, I know,

279
00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:10,120
Speaker 1: I'm teasing. I didn't look it up. I I know

280
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,000
Speaker 1: kind of what it must look like because from the

281
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,399
Speaker 1: description Livia put of both the forked penis and the

282
00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,240
Speaker 1: multiple vagina, is that female possums have. I got the

283
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:22,760
Speaker 1: gist of it. Yeah, well you just there there it

284
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:25,440
Speaker 1: is right there. I buried the lead. Um. Although we

285
00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:29,800
Speaker 1: should say that colonial Americans once again proved, uh, they

286
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,320
Speaker 1: had some ingenuity going. But sometimes it could be quite

287
00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:37,080
Speaker 1: dumb because they saw this forked penis and they said, oh,

288
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:41,760
Speaker 1: well that is because they impregnate the female through their nostrils.

289
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,320
Speaker 1: What else could it be. We know this because we

290
00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,920
Speaker 1: saw the female possums sticking their nose into their pouches

291
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:52,840
Speaker 1: and they're giving birth and sneezing out their little Joey's

292
00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:58,000
Speaker 1: that way right. No, no, I'm saying you got that right,

293
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:00,960
Speaker 1: You got it super super wrong out. Sure, but no,

294
00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:03,560
Speaker 1: it's because they so yeah, if you look up there,

295
00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,320
Speaker 1: it looks a lot like a nematode, a worm of

296
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:11,680
Speaker 1: some sort with a club a club foot basically, yeah,

297
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,280
Speaker 1: so um, but yes, the reason it's forked is because

298
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:19,359
Speaker 1: the females have two vaginas that can um, that can

299
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:23,040
Speaker 1: be fertilized by sperm, or that can move sperm to

300
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:27,439
Speaker 1: their ova. Yeah I think I got it right. Um,

301
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:30,120
Speaker 1: and they have a third one for actually giving birth.

302
00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:32,359
Speaker 1: So that's why the penis is forked. Because they're just like,

303
00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:36,760
Speaker 1: you know, double your pleasure, doubles, you're fun. They look

304
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:40,400
Speaker 1: like little pincers actually, like I guess I'm not seeing

305
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:42,119
Speaker 1: a close up. All the ones I'm seeing are like

306
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:44,440
Speaker 1: they're like, get a load of this. It's really long.

307
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,560
Speaker 1: Oh really okay, let me just type in possum penis

308
00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:52,520
Speaker 1: close up. I'm just gonna go for it. Where are

309
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:58,680
Speaker 1: you typing in? Beforeis right? Oh? I had the Google

310
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,720
Speaker 1: filter on. I see. Yeah, there's one very clear picture.

311
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 1: It looks like a little look like little pincers from

312
00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:08,440
Speaker 1: an insect or something safe searches on. Look at you.

313
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:13,080
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding, what the heck was That's not at

314
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,960
Speaker 1: all what I just saw. Well, all right, oh no,

315
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 1: that's a baby possum being born. It's like, what is that?

316
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:27,680
Speaker 1: Regardless as a penis? Okay, it's got a forked penis.

317
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,000
Speaker 1: Let's talk about their teeny tiny brains, because they do.

318
00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:33,760
Speaker 1: And Livia even put that the wording teeny tiny brains

319
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:37,360
Speaker 1: one of the smallest brain to body ratios and mammaled them.

320
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:40,680
Speaker 1: Uh and it's kind of cute. Olivia also included a

321
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 1: little brief thing of like, how do you find out

322
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,200
Speaker 1: how big a brain is in little mammals? Well, you

323
00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:49,720
Speaker 1: take their skulls. If you're scientists, and you put dried

324
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,119
Speaker 1: beans in there, and then you I would say, you

325
00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:56,199
Speaker 1: would probably guess the beans is an office, like you know, uh,

326
00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,800
Speaker 1: white elephant gift kind of thing. But then they obviously

327
00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:01,359
Speaker 1: can out the beans and that's how they tell It

328
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 1: makes very good sense, but it seems kind of cute

329
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,960
Speaker 1: and rudimentary. It does, but I mean it does reveal

330
00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:11,080
Speaker 1: something really um surprising about the possums. They have a

331
00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:14,120
Speaker 1: really small brain to body ratio compared to other animals

332
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:18,240
Speaker 1: their size. Like the possums brain case held beans, just

333
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:21,560
Speaker 1: little beans, not that many. What kind of bean ownder

334
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:27,000
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say lentils now, now that's really small. Would

335
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:30,800
Speaker 1: like the usually the fun version is jelly beans. Sure,

336
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,280
Speaker 1: that's kind of big, though, maybe a black eyed pea

337
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:35,880
Speaker 1: or something. Okay, we'll go with black eyed piece, dried

338
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:39,160
Speaker 1: black eyed piece. They hold twenty five of those. Cats

339
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,359
Speaker 1: held a hundred and twenty five, Raccoons held a hundred

340
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,360
Speaker 1: and fifty. And that actually seems to support this longstanding

341
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,680
Speaker 1: notion that possums are actually kind of dumb. Not true.

342
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,080
Speaker 1: They're not really dumb at all, and in fact, there's

343
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:56,240
Speaker 1: plenty of tests that they've shown their actually surprisingly intelligent.

344
00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:01,240
Speaker 1: They beat out rats, rabbits, dogs, cats on um remembering

345
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:04,760
Speaker 1: where to find food, and then the maze the old

346
00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,199
Speaker 1: standby for proving intelligence in an animal. They actually can

347
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:11,760
Speaker 1: beat rats and cats in learning mazes, that's right. And

348
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:16,080
Speaker 1: UH also can remember if they've had something that made

349
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 1: them sick to eat that they even just tasted like

350
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,679
Speaker 1: a year later. So again, I think this food thing

351
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,080
Speaker 1: is really important because it seems like they score really

352
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:29,640
Speaker 1: well when there's food involved. Uh. Like you mentioned, they're

353
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 1: found in a lot of places in the United States.

354
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,879
Speaker 1: They really love a dense forest, but you'll see them

355
00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,879
Speaker 1: in cities all over the place. They eat everything basically. Um,

356
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:45,199
Speaker 1: they eat little mammals, eat worms, eat insects, eat birds

357
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 1: and reptiles, eat seeds and fruits, and obviously garbage there

358
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:52,920
Speaker 1: you know, like the raccoon. They will you will find

359
00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,080
Speaker 1: them in a garbage can, just go into town on

360
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:58,240
Speaker 1: like a pizza box or something. Yeah, but I saw

361
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,800
Speaker 1: Chuck that they're often unfair really blamed for knocking over

362
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,880
Speaker 1: garbage cans because they're the ones who come along after

363
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:07,920
Speaker 1: the thing that knocked it over, a raccoon or a

364
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:10,880
Speaker 1: dog or something, and they're just scavenging. But they get

365
00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:13,320
Speaker 1: to blame because they're the one that gets caught. Not fair,

366
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 1: just another miscarriage of justice exactly. What about when you

367
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:23,359
Speaker 1: see one walk around the day, that means they're rabbit? Right, No, again,

368
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 1: another misconceptions there. If if they're walking around the day,

369
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,840
Speaker 1: it means that they eating is so good that they've

370
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:35,639
Speaker 1: abandoned their nocturnal ways and are just doing the human

371
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 1: thing and eating whenever they want. They don't have to

372
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,720
Speaker 1: wait until nighttime to look for food. They can find

373
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,480
Speaker 1: at anytime. So no, if you see a possum, it

374
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: does not mean it's rabbit. And as a matter of fact,

375
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: possums tend to actually be um cleaner than other animals,

376
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:55,200
Speaker 1: both disease wise and with fastidiousness. There there as fastidious

377
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,919
Speaker 1: as cats and cleaning themselves, and they actually clean themselves

378
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: in similar ways, licking their paw and we're up in

379
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 1: their face with the back of their paw. It is

380
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 1: super cute. And while they do that chuck, they stand

381
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 1: up on their hind quarters and balance themselves with their

382
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:11,959
Speaker 1: cute little weird tail. They also have mouths that are

383
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: cleaner than other animals like cats, and because they have

384
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:19,960
Speaker 1: a really low body temperature, they're very unlikely to catch rabies,

385
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: which means they're also very unlikely to transfer rabies to you.

386
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 1: So if you're ever bitten by a possum, which is

387
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,959
Speaker 1: a very unusual thing. Indeed, as we'll see you are,

388
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,000
Speaker 1: probably you can just go start reading the newspaper. We

389
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 1: don't even have to go to the hospital or anything.

390
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: Just sit down and get back to your coffee, right,

391
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 1: Like it's what drinking coffee reading a newspaper. Don't you

392
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,719
Speaker 1: know that gen Z is really into throwback stuff, are they?

393
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,639
Speaker 1: Are they reading newspapers now? If they're not now, I

394
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 1: predict they will be in six months and then in

395
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: seventeen months they'll be done with newspapers. Uh. Possums are

396
00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: also great to have around, um, your neighborhood or your farm. Uh.

397
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 1: They will eat and this is astounding. Uh, they love

398
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: ticks and they will eat five thousand ticks in a

399
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: single like three or four month period over a season. Man,

400
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: talk about possum pride chuck. Oh huge, And you know

401
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: that's a very big deal for people like me that's

402
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: been a lot of time in the woods and tickboard

403
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,359
Speaker 1: and disease is such a big thing, you know in

404
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 1: the South. Uh, Like I said, if you had a farm,

405
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,120
Speaker 1: they're gonna eat um critters and vermin that are gonna

406
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 1: be making your crops not so great. And the eating slugs,

407
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: they're gonna be eating beetles. Uh, they're gonna you know,

408
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,360
Speaker 1: that rotten fruit in that apple tree that you don't

409
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,120
Speaker 1: care for, They're gonna love that tree because they're gonna

410
00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: eat everything that's drop on on the ground. And if

411
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:42,920
Speaker 1: they're mice and rats around, they'll probably chase them off

412
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 1: or eat them and or eat them. Yeah, because they

413
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:51,239
Speaker 1: will eat basically anything like even actual garbage. Like you said, um,

414
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: they'll also eat carrion, which makes them a really unusual

415
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,560
Speaker 1: animal because there's not many animals out there that actually

416
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 1: are carrion eaters. But if they come along road kill,

417
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,199
Speaker 1: they'll eat the road kill. And in fact, they've been

418
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 1: known to eat entire rabbits uh that they find as

419
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:10,879
Speaker 1: road killed. Because they have such a need for calcium,

420
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 1: they will, um, they will eat the entire skeleton because

421
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,720
Speaker 1: they have to. They got to get that calcium big time.

422
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,679
Speaker 1: But because of this, because they're so good at cleaning

423
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:23,440
Speaker 1: up an environment, an ecosystem that they come along to,

424
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: their um sometimes called nature sanitary engineer. See no one,

425
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:30,879
Speaker 1: no one ever says that. No, well, we're saying that

426
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,399
Speaker 1: now I love it. Possum pride. We should get we

427
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 1: should get shirts. I think we should too. Uh. As

428
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 1: far as they're bedding down and stuff like that, they

429
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:45,959
Speaker 1: are not ones that are typically gonna build their own den. Uh.

430
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 1: They're more like um rehabbers. They will go into someone

431
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 1: else's abandoned in and they'll fix it up a little bit.

432
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,359
Speaker 1: They'll bring their own grass and twigs and leaves and

433
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: kind of line it and uh and cover up any

434
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: drafty areas if they want to stay warmer. But they're

435
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:05,120
Speaker 1: not gonna stick around for too long. They just hold

436
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: up on these dens for a few days. They're probably

437
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,640
Speaker 1: resting there during the day. They have found that, um

438
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 1: a little mamas. Maybe there for a few weeks at

439
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,120
Speaker 1: a time, if they found a really good hidy hole

440
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 1: because they've got a lot going on with their little

441
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,119
Speaker 1: Joey's in there, or if it's in the wintertime or something.

442
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: But they do they do travel. They will get around

443
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 1: in a surprising fashion, right. Yeah. They Some guy tagged

444
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: them with alright guess r f I D trackers and

445
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: found that, um, some of them will move up to

446
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 1: fifteen miles in a few weeks. Maybe that's that's a

447
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 1: long way with those little legs. Yeah. Um. And that's

448
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,159
Speaker 1: actually an argument against keeping possums as pets is that

449
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: you're probably not going to be able to get them

450
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,919
Speaker 1: the exercise that they would get in the wild. They

451
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:02,879
Speaker 1: move around a lot. Yeah, just stffif. Or another way

452
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: to put it is, if you have a postum pet,

453
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: you need to take them out for a walk quite frequently.

454
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'd love to see that. Um. You mentioned

455
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 1: how they'll like line the dens or burrows that they

456
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 1: borrow from other animals with like twigs and leaves and

457
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: stuff like that. The way that they collect that stuff

458
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 1: is they have um opposable like thumbs basically on their

459
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,119
Speaker 1: front and back feet, and so they'll gather like leaves

460
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,640
Speaker 1: with their front their front hands basically is what they're called.

461
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 1: They'll push them under themselves to their back feet there

462
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 1: with their feet, they'll kind of bunch them up, and

463
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: then they pick it up with their tail and they'll

464
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 1: carry it off to the den in their tail, like

465
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,119
Speaker 1: the old person with the bundle of sticks on the

466
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: cover of led Zeppelin front, but with the tail instead. Yeah,

467
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,880
Speaker 1: the old guy with the tinder bunch on his back. Yeah, Uh.

468
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 1: They and you know, speaking of tails, you've kind of

469
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,479
Speaker 1: dropped a little tail tidbits here and there. Uh, they

470
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: can hang from those tails. It's not something you're gonna

471
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: see a lot. And I get the impression just from

472
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: looking at pictures that younger possums hang from their tail

473
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:12,480
Speaker 1: a little bit more than full grown ones. It's probably

474
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 1: because it's it's taxing once you're like a you know,

475
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: eleven pound possum to hang from your tail. But they

476
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: will do it every now and then. If you look

477
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 1: up pictures of hanging possums, they'll they'll use that tail

478
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 1: to wrap around a branch every now and then. Yeah,

479
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,400
Speaker 1: they're they're they're I think the only animal in North

480
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: America with the prehensible tails, right, which means they can

481
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 1: use the tail as an like a fifth hand. Yeah. Um.

482
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: The other thing about that, though, is the idea that

483
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: they sleep upside down hanging from their tails. That seems

484
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 1: to be cartoon myth. Essentially, they don't do that. They

485
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: sleep in their burrows. Yeah, they're not, like, they're not bats. No,

486
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about um little baby possums now? Yeah,

487
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 1: they're super cute. Um. I guess the sad part that

488
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: we should go ahead and say is that apossums life

489
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: is pretty short. It's about two years in the wild, um,

490
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: maybe three or four if they're living in someone's house. Yeah.

491
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 1: You hear two years and you're like, well, yeah, all

492
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 1: those cars are skewing it downward for sure. But no,

493
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: if they're in captivity and it's just another year or

494
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,720
Speaker 1: two more, they they're just not destined to live very long. Yeah,

495
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 1: I'm sure the cars don't help, though, No, for sure.

496
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 1: I've never ran over a possum. Thankfully. That's great. I

497
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 1: think you should have a key chain that says that.

498
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 1: But you know what I did do one time. I

499
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: think it's a good time for my story. Okay, you

500
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 1: know what, let's save the story for the next break.

501
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Uh. As far as their litters, this

502
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 1: is another thing that's a little you know. I guess

503
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: it's sort of why they've been around for you know, however,

504
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 1: many tens of millions of years. But it is a

505
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:55,720
Speaker 1: little sad. They will have um way more babies, generally

506
00:29:56,200 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: than they have ability to feed them. The mom has

507
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 1: a maximum of thirteen nipples, sometimes not even that any,

508
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,800
Speaker 1: and sometimes they will have up to five little half

509
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,000
Speaker 1: inch babies, uh, anywhere from four to twenty five. But

510
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: you know that means in some of these litters, half

511
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: of them literally just won't have literally won't have food

512
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: for mama, and they're just you know, they're basically abandoned. Yeah,

513
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: the mom's like natural selection sucks. Kids are no but

514
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:33,239
Speaker 1: we but we survive over the long term. So um,

515
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: the like we said, the little baby possums are about

516
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 1: the size of a honeybee. When they're born, they just

517
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: state in the womb. For Olivia says twelve the thirteen

518
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: days I saw twenty eight days, um, and then after

519
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: that they're born, but they're kind of just partially born.

520
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: They emerged from the womb wearing something called the paraderm,

521
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: which is essentially like a um a placenta that they

522
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: can that's wrapped around them. It's like as snuggy, but

523
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,480
Speaker 1: a placenta version of it. And the only openings they

524
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: have to them in the world are holes for their nostrils,

525
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: because they use their sense of smell throughout their lives.

526
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: But even like the first thing they do is use

527
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 1: their sense of smell and then their mouth, which they

528
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: used to latch onto the nipple, and when they come

529
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 1: out of the birth canal, they climb up to that pouch,

530
00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: climb in and latch onto a nipple. And the reason

531
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: that they know to climb upward is because they have

532
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 1: a sense of smell, so they know where to go

533
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 1: based on the sense of smell. They also know to

534
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: climb upward because the other sense that they're born with

535
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 1: is a sense of gravity, so they know what's down

536
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 1: and what's up. And with those two things, they can

537
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: emerge blind and deaf with only a sense of smell

538
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: in a mouth um to to climb up and basically

539
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 1: survive if they can find a nipple latch onto man.

540
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 1: Birth order really matters in a situation like this. Really

541
00:31:53,040 --> 00:32:00,760
Speaker 1: you here, I am, Let's party. Uh. As far as

542
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:04,479
Speaker 1: the kind of sounds they make, they um are are

543
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 1: pretty quiet generally, like, it's not like they walk around

544
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: howling or making weird noises. Uh. The mom will use

545
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 1: sort of a clicky sound um either during mating season

546
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: or to call their little babies back to the pouch

547
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:23,480
Speaker 1: um and they can make a sort of hissing uh.

548
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 1: Livy describes as a growl too, But in my experience,

549
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 1: tease again, it's more of a hiss when a possum

550
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,240
Speaker 1: feels cornered. Okay, yeah, that's all I've ever seen is

551
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:39,160
Speaker 1: a like when a possum is angry, it's hissing. That's it, right,

552
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: or potentially playing possum. And that is a thing. It's

553
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 1: not a choice that they make. It's almost like a

554
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: fainting goat kind of situation. It is an involuntary response

555
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: if they have an extreme fear situation, and this is

556
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 1: after they've tried everything else. Uh, they will they will

557
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: go limp like a little fainting goat. They will fall down,

558
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,479
Speaker 1: They poop themselves or pee themselves. They may stick their

559
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: tongue out and drool. Uh. And it all sounds kind

560
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 1: of funny, but it's kind of sad because they can't

561
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 1: do anything about it. And when they're like this, another

562
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 1: animal could just be ravaging them and they will still

563
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: be in that state. The thing is is that the

564
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:20,720
Speaker 1: animals probably not doing that because when they just fall

565
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: over and seem dead, all of the triggers that that

566
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 1: create predation behavior in um, that animal that had them

567
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: cornered just suddenly turn off. And the animals like, what

568
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 1: was I doing? Oh yeah, I was chasing this ball

569
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: and that's it. You know. The possums left alone typically,

570
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 1: so it actually works really well, but that's like the

571
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 1: last last resort. The possums also really good at bluffing,

572
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: showing its teeth. They have fifty teeth and can bear

573
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: their teeth hiss like you said, um, they can growl um.

574
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 1: They can seem kind of intimidating, but the thing is

575
00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 1: it's it's all bluffing, like they do not want to

576
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 1: fight your cat or your dog or you. And if

577
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,239
Speaker 1: you have a possum that is sitting there hissing at

578
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: you or your dog or your cat, you're actually being

579
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 1: really cruel to it. They just want to be left alone,

580
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: and they're in an extremely stressful situation that they know

581
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: they can't really win. They're not good at fighting, um,

582
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 1: so they basically do what they can to appear sick,

583
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 1: like they'll drool, they'll release it really nasty fluid, and

584
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 1: then hope that you'll just leave them alone. And you

585
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,240
Speaker 1: should leave them alone. But also when you're leaving alone,

586
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,280
Speaker 1: realize like that that possum wasn't going to do anything.

587
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: It's it's just all talk basically, and that makes it

588
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:37,319
Speaker 1: even cuter in my mind. I agree. I think it's

589
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: a great time for a second break in a perfect

590
00:34:39,680 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 1: setup for my story. Okay, we're back, and here is

591
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: my story. Uh, senior year in high school, going back

592
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:20,800
Speaker 1: to my very first girlfriend's house. Mallory. Hi, Mallory, she

593
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 1: just ran for congress in Georgia. That sounds so made up, chuck, No,

594
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 1: she did. She lost. I had a girlfriend, you and nurse.

595
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: She's from Canada and she ran for congress. Uh. But

596
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,160
Speaker 1: she was my very first girlfriend. We were going back

597
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,759
Speaker 1: to her house after a date, walked her up onto

598
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 1: the front porch, uh, like I traditionally would do for

599
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 1: a little good lip smack and probably and we kind

600
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 1: of were laughing like we were always doing, and ran

601
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 1: up on the front, very small front porch, probably one

602
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 1: of those like a little, you know, five by five

603
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: front porches. And there was a possum on this porch

604
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:00,160
Speaker 1: trapped and immediately turned around and started it was like

605
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 1: something out of a movie. Immediately turned around and started

606
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,439
Speaker 1: hissing at us. Mallory starts screaming, I I'm not sure

607
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: what I did. I kind of froze. I think, like,

608
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,320
Speaker 1: what am I supposed to do here? And Uh. This

609
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: possum immediately then tried to squeeze under the um the

610
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: railing to you know, get off the porch, and was

611
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:23,840
Speaker 1: so tubby he got his little body stuck. And this

612
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 1: little possum was kind of stuck in hissing and wriggling,

613
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,440
Speaker 1: Mallory screaming. I'm I was probably thinking, well, I'm definitely

614
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 1: not getting any lips smacking, thank you, bosom, and that

615
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: this problem that was my bossom story. Eventually wriggled his

616
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 1: way free and ran off. Okay, I had a good

617
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 1: laugh about it, but and no one was hurt. But

618
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 1: I had a very very very close encounter. We're talking,

619
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:50,320
Speaker 1: you know, inches defeat. Uh, And it was funny. It's

620
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 1: a very fun memory for me. I wonder if that

621
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,280
Speaker 1: possum remembered it later on too. I was just laughing

622
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 1: and shaking his head like I gotta lose some weight.

623
00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 1: I wonder if that possum tells that story on it's podcast.

624
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:04,359
Speaker 1: Does uh does Mallory remember that story? Oh, I'm sure

625
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 1: she does. I didn't. Uh, we're not very much in touch,

626
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,040
Speaker 1: but I did see her a couple of years ago

627
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: at my nephew's wedding and We had a great time

628
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 1: catching up and and her meeting Emily and me meeting

629
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: her family. But we did not talk about the possum. Okay,

630
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 1: I bet you anything, she would remember. I think that

631
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: was a missed opportunity, Chuck, to talk about the possum. Yeah,

632
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 1: I probably should have mentioned it. So that's a great

633
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 1: possum story. The only possum story I have um is

634
00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 1: I remember finding one in the wood pile outside of

635
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 1: our house in Ohio and my dad grabbing it by

636
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 1: its tail and carrying it over like to the woods

637
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: to release it. And that thing was trying to curl

638
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 1: up like toward my dad's arm. And at the time,

639
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: I was like, God, that possum would kill my dad

640
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 1: if I had the chance. And now I realized that

641
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 1: possum wasn't wasn't doing anything. He was just really mad

642
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,280
Speaker 1: and really scared. Yeah, and they had those big fangs

643
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 1: we should mention. So it's it's a little intimidating when

644
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 1: one is when you're seventeen and one is hissing at

645
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,879
Speaker 1: you on the front porch. But you know, your dad

646
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 1: was country strong. I guess he would I never thought

647
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: about that, but yeah, he is kind of country strong. Uh,

648
00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 1: we mentioned having them as pets. Um, it's not a

649
00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:21,200
Speaker 1: great idea. They're not great pets because they don't let

650
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: you know when they're sick. You're probably not gonna have

651
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: a diet that's quite right for him. They're probably gonna

652
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:29,759
Speaker 1: be undernourished under exercise. They're just not an animal that

653
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: you should keep in the house. Um. Some states say

654
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:35,400
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to, others say you can if you

655
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: have a permit. But like you mentioned earlier, there are

656
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: rescue people who rehab them because you know, if mommy

657
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 1: gets hit by car or dies by any other way,

658
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: the babies are out there a lot of times and

659
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:49,920
Speaker 1: their aim is to rehab them and send them back

660
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 1: into the wild. But sometimes it doesn't take and they

661
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 1: end up cute pets on YouTube. Man, that was a mouthful,

662
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 1: but you got it right though. Yeah. So, Um, there's

663
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,800
Speaker 1: another way that people can interact with possums, and that

664
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,920
Speaker 1: is by eating them. Apparently the indigenous tribes of North America,

665
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing South America too, because there's plenty of

666
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 1: possum down there as well, but different species. Um, they

667
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 1: ate them. And this got passed along very quickly to

668
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: the earliest colonists to the America's who said it tastes

669
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:26,120
Speaker 1: like pig. Basically, yeah, that seems to be like there

670
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 1: are several quotes here from Libya that where everyone roundly

671
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,480
Speaker 1: agrees that they taste like pig. So I'll take their

672
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: word for it. I will too, But I'm like, okay,

673
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:38,560
Speaker 1: I can totally understand why you would eat a postum.

674
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 1: Then all you have to do is here one time,

675
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: that thing over there tastes like pig, and people are

676
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: gonna eat it because you know, everybody likes the taste

677
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:49,879
Speaker 1: of pig. But if you feel guilty about eating pig,

678
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,320
Speaker 1: you've got the possum alternative out there for you. I

679
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:55,839
Speaker 1: guess so. Uh. And the way it worked a lot

680
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,400
Speaker 1: of times is they would want to catch the possum

681
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 1: alive rather than kill it, so they could bring the

682
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 1: possum home, and for a couple of reasons, they could

683
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 1: either save it for Sunday dinner because it's a little

684
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:09,840
Speaker 1: more special of a meal maybe, And the other important

685
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: reason is, you know, you want to make sure that

686
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 1: possums not carrying again, they're not big disease carriers. But

687
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,920
Speaker 1: they may not have known this back then. So this

688
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,920
Speaker 1: sort of wisdom at the time was to uh, wait

689
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: a few days, feed it something good, maybe fatten it

690
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:26,279
Speaker 1: up a little bit, huh, and make sure it's not sick,

691
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,920
Speaker 1: and then kill it and need it. Yeah. And I

692
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: think in addition to making sure it was not sick,

693
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: just not knowing what eight but knowing that a possibly anything.

694
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 1: And if it hasn't passed that stuff yet, then you're

695
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 1: kind of eating it and you might be like, guh,

696
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 1: dead vulture. What it's a dead vulture? A possum does.

697
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 1: So the other thing that you could do, too, is

698
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:50,879
Speaker 1: if you have it alive, you can wait until Sunday dinner,

699
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 1: which was a big thing and the joy of cooking.

700
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,880
Speaker 1: Chuck had a recommendation um that if you feed a

701
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 1: trap possum, or if you trap a possum alive, feed

702
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:05,400
Speaker 1: it milk and cereals for ten days. I guess, I

703
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 1: guess like maybe cookie crunch or something. Yeah, no, cookie crisp,

704
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:11,880
Speaker 1: That's what it was. Honey nut cheerios, you name it.

705
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 1: M hm. Um, have you had the multi grain cheerios?

706
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 1: They're really good? Yeah, Rubyat says they're good. They're good. Um,

707
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,919
Speaker 1: And then uh, for ten days you feed them milk

708
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,720
Speaker 1: and cereal and then you can have them for dinner.

709
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 1: And then there's one other thing about it too. It

710
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,320
Speaker 1: was apparently a traditional Thanksgiving food in a lot of

711
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:35,439
Speaker 1: Southern places, right yeah, and Thanksgiving you they're gonna beating

712
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 1: all kinds of acorns and chestnuts and things like that

713
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:42,360
Speaker 1: back when mast we had the American chestnut. Here's that

714
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: word again, mast uh. And I think that would fatten

715
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 1: them up and improve their flavor as well. So then

716
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:54,120
Speaker 1: you got this naturally fatten possum for Thanksgiving, uh, where

717
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,680
Speaker 1: you might make something called possuminator, which is a very

718
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:01,720
Speaker 1: very popular dish, would was like red pepper or possum

719
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,759
Speaker 1: baked with some sweet taters. Yeah. And the other thing

720
00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:08,840
Speaker 1: is you didn't need a gun. You wouldn't typically go

721
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,759
Speaker 1: out and shoot a possum, which made it a very

722
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 1: like low barrier to entry for hunting mammals. You would

723
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: just like tree the possum and then basically shake the

724
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: tree and get that possum to fall out. And at

725
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 1: that point, the possum may even be playing dead, so

726
00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 1: it's pretty easy taking I think exactly um, which is

727
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:32,560
Speaker 1: so sad. I mean, that's they're easy to hunt because

728
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:37,600
Speaker 1: they're kind of docile. You know. Tell that to Jimmy Carter. Yeah,

729
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter had a lot of them. Apparently said that

730
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,760
Speaker 1: his family got through the depression by eating lots of possum.

731
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:47,440
Speaker 1: And he's far from the only president that's possum adjacent um.

732
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:52,880
Speaker 1: Apparently Washington sent some to an Irish member of Parliament,

733
00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 1: Sir Edward Newen new In him in Jefferson like to

734
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,400
Speaker 1: give them out to the French when he was the

735
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:05,280
Speaker 1: Minister to France. And then uh Taft, William Howard Taft

736
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 1: was famously served one by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

737
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:13,320
Speaker 1: in nine Yeah, and this one led to a you know,

738
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 1: because of uh, we should do it either a long

739
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: one on Theodore Roosevelt or a short one on the

740
00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:21,319
Speaker 1: Teddy Bear, or maybe a long one on the Teddy Bear.

741
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 1: But you know, the Teddy Bear came along thanks to

742
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:27,359
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt. And there was a cartoonist, Louis c. Greg

743
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,040
Speaker 1: who had this idea, Well, now we have William Taft,

744
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 1: so what about Billy possum instead of Teddy Bear? And

745
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:40,080
Speaker 1: even gave this Billy possum stuffed toy tow Uh Taft,

746
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 1: and I think Taft said, oh, this is great, but

747
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 1: it seemed like, you know, it just didn't fly. They

748
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 1: tried to get it to take off, and it just

749
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 1: didn't take off. Billy possum never took off. But we

750
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:54,160
Speaker 1: have a great tidbit to end on that. I think

751
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 1: maybe the fact of the show what which is that

752
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:03,480
Speaker 1: possums are highly highly resistant to not only just snake

753
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: bite but venom period. Right, that's absolutely true, man, And

754
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,280
Speaker 1: apparently they found this out by accident. They were observing

755
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,920
Speaker 1: possums in the wild and someone get bit by like

756
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:17,719
Speaker 1: a rattlesnake, maybe in the Everglades, and they're like, man,

757
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,960
Speaker 1: this possums toast and just looked, yeah, it's kind of

758
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: brushed his shoulders off and shrugged and walked away. And

759
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,840
Speaker 1: the researchers were like, what is that. So they captured

760
00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 1: possums and started exposing them to snake bites, which is

761
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:36,759
Speaker 1: really mean. Those possums were like, what are you guys doing?

762
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 1: This is nothing. So they're like, okay, fine, possum, we're

763
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:44,320
Speaker 1: gonna start injecting you intravenously with massive amounts of snake

764
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,319
Speaker 1: venom and nothing like the most they could get out

765
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 1: of the possums was something that would look like a

766
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:52,319
Speaker 1: like a human that wasn't allergic to a bee got

767
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:55,840
Speaker 1: a beasting. Yeah, and and we're talking like cobras and

768
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:59,280
Speaker 1: asps or an ugnc s. But vipers, yeah, pit vipers,

769
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: pit vipe or as rattlesnakes. Like it wasn't like, uh,

770
00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: you know, the more severe venom had a worse effect.

771
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:09,799
Speaker 1: The possum was still just like, have you not got

772
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 1: it by now? The venom doesn't bother us, exactly, stop

773
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: biting me and giving me shots. So they started looking

774
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:22,239
Speaker 1: into the possums um mechanism for not getting sick or

775
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:26,040
Speaker 1: dying from venom. And they have a special protein they

776
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: may be the only animal that has it that encapsulates

777
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,520
Speaker 1: and deactivates the venom when it enters their bloodstream crazy

778
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:36,360
Speaker 1: and just does nothing. And they're actually like this possum

779
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: protein might actually save lives and then weirdly, in a

780
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:43,200
Speaker 1: weird twist, it also protects them against botuli is um too.

781
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:46,800
Speaker 1: And to put a cherry on top of all of this,

782
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 1: they have synthesized what's called as lt n F lethal

783
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:56,600
Speaker 1: toxin neutralizing factor. It's protein they've been able to synthesize

784
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:59,920
Speaker 1: it now and they don't even need any more possum.

785
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 1: They can just keep resynthesizing it. And they're thinking like, hey,

786
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: this may be a literal like cure for snake bite, right, yeah,

787
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,840
Speaker 1: Like how far away are they from just calling it

788
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 1: and saying, all right, guys, we got it days day

789
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 1: really okay, days at the very least pit vipers and

790
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:22,080
Speaker 1: those are the ones you gotta worry about, you know.

791
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:25,880
Speaker 1: So yeah, way to go, possums, possum pride? Am I right,

792
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:30,319
Speaker 1: possum pride? You got anything else? I got nothing else? Well?

793
00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:33,720
Speaker 1: Big shout out as an f y I to Jerry's

794
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: daughter and Nez, who Jerry tells us loves possums, which

795
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:40,160
Speaker 1: means that and as is ahead of the curve because

796
00:46:40,239 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 1: she loves possums before we did, So big ups in

797
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:46,800
Speaker 1: s I love it, Yeah for sure. And since I

798
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:49,680
Speaker 1: said big ups, and as it's time for a listener mail,

799
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:55,840
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this more defense of me and Gordon Lightfoot.

800
00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 1: You just can't let this go, can you? Hey? I

801
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,640
Speaker 1: keep getting emails. I've let it go. I think I

802
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:04,880
Speaker 1: know the one you're talking about, and I agree with this.

803
00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:07,799
Speaker 1: This person if they're if it's the one I'm thinking of, Yeah,

804
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: it's for Mimi, And Mimi says this, Hey, guys, just

805
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 1: listen to the listener mail on toast and I feel

806
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 1: like I should apologize as a Canadian for the Canadians accusing,

807
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 1: accusing Chuck of young yuncking for not liking Gordon Lightfoot.

808
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,440
Speaker 1: This is the one it, Mimi says. By the way,

809
00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:25,720
Speaker 1: I don't even know Gordon Lightfoot. Because I'm a millennial.

810
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:28,879
Speaker 1: People are allowed to have opinions and not like things,

811
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: especially when the thing is so subjective, like different taste

812
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 1: in music and movies. I thought yum yucking was criticizing

813
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 1: or judging people negatively because of what they like. Yes,

814
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,000
Speaker 1: I think in this way, Chuck is actually being yum

815
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: yucked by other people for the music he doesn't like.

816
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 1: It's all very meta. Uh And, on a personal note,

817
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,440
Speaker 1: please come back to Vancouver. I've seen you when he

818
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 1: came in twenty seventeen. Uh Ford pinto no idea what

819
00:47:55,320 --> 00:48:00,759
Speaker 1: that was before your show? Even, Mimi, where do you live? Well,

820
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:05,800
Speaker 1: apparently near Vancouver. Uh And is younger, so you know

821
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: that explains a lot. Anyway, I had tickets to your

822
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:12,320
Speaker 1: March show before it was canceled. Oh, we had to

823
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: cancel Vancouver. Yeah, we just did San Francisco maybe or

824
00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:20,440
Speaker 1: we did one before. I can't remember. I think we

825
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:23,600
Speaker 1: only did two shows and and yeah, Vancouver got canceled.

826
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:25,719
Speaker 1: Well we out with the Vancouver to come back then.

827
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 1: I didn't remember that that was on the canceled list.

828
00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:30,960
Speaker 1: So uh, sorry about that, Mimi, But thank you for

829
00:48:31,040 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: getting my back. And here's a deal. If when we

830
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,919
Speaker 1: come back to Vancouver, just reply to that email thread

831
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:42,279
Speaker 1: that we had going and say guest list and you're

832
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:48,040
Speaker 1: on it, and say it's me Mimi. That's right, Thank you, Mimi.

833
00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:51,040
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I think Fuck was being yum yucked.

834
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:54,640
Speaker 1: I also kind of see why some people were upset

835
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:58,400
Speaker 1: with him. So I'm just since I'm Switzerland over here, okay,

836
00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: but wash h. If you want to be like Mimi

837
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,239
Speaker 1: and get in touch with us to defend shock or

838
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:07,880
Speaker 1: you know, take them down to peg whatever, as long

839
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:09,839
Speaker 1: as it has nothing to do with me, you can

840
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,239
Speaker 1: send us an email to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio

841
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of

842
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,919
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

843
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:25,080
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen

844
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.