WEBVTT - How (O)possums Work 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.760 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.880 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.759 a episode of Stuff you should Know. I thought you 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.720 can say, welcome to the Bossom Cast. I thought about it, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.000 and my brain wouldn't wouldn't form that together. I was like, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.040 there's a there's a pun in here, and I can't 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.519 quite grasp it. So that's good. Your your pungen is 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:37.600 being dulled. Yeah, it's funny those pungens. They're bald and 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:44.639 they have like sheet white skin. I'm not even sure 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:46.760 what that means. It means that they look a lot 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.840 like Jonathan Strickland. I wondered if that's what you meant. Yeah, 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.760 goodness me, man, I haven't heard from him in a 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.440 long time. You don't think Strickland tan's up? No, No, 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:02.400 I think Strickland up pours the sun. Okay, just a little, 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.640 just a little note between you and me. I got 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.280 a question for you. Okay, does this episode on possums 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:16.280 or opossums? They're both correct, It's fine either way, right. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.640 Does this have anything to do with a certain Instagram follower? 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.959 It does as a matter of fact, Oh good, we 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:29.000 have an Instagram follower and there they Their handle is 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:35.000 underscore G. I O I underscore G and I clicked 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.360 in on it and they have a pronunciation, so I 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.680 guess it's d oh yeah, okay. And they have been 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.200 posting since April um. They said they I think I 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.040 found their first posters on April four and they said, um, 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.360 I'm going to post every time you post asking for 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.120 a Possum episode until you finally do. And they have 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.559 been doing that ever since. I don't think they've missed 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.960 a single one. Uh yeah, I mean she's persistent. I'll 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.400 say that, yeah for sure. And maybe you get what 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.760 you want when you're persistent because we're doing the episode. 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.880 I'm just curious what she's gonna be up to after this. Nothing. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.680 They always goes to us after that, they're like, thanks, chumps. 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.639 Well here's what I have to say to you, stranger 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:25.200 but friend on Instagram. Uh, don't just come at us 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.519 with some new topic and badgers about that one, especially 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:34.120 not badgers, especially not badgers. You're getting your possums to 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.640 just settle down and enjoy it. You got what you wanted. Yeah, 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.880 I have to say not just persistent too, but um 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.639 they were. Also they got kind of funny because after 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.720 a while he just got sick of saying, like, possum 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:51.840 episode please. So for the Nintendo episode, they said that 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.600 any yes, is the only system we had as kids. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.720 Otherwise we played outside with possums. No. No No, she's gotten 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.919 very creative with how she were in the possum thing, 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:03.600 and I think that's that was part of the charm 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:05.480 of it. Otherwise it would have just ignored it out 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.400 of some weird game. Yeah for sure, Yeah, absolutely for sure. 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.160 So yes, that is that is the impetus for this 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.480 possum episode. But I'm glad that they they suggested it 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.840 because I was fine with possums before. But I learned 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:25.240 a lot about possums oral possums researching this episode. And 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.120 I gotta tell you, I'm I'm a friend of the possum. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.720 Now I am too. At some point you'll hear a 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.360 first person possum story from me. I just don't know 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.880 when I'm gonna work it in. That's what in the 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.440 BIS they call it a teaser. Uh. And if you 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.600 want to just stop before you even listen any further, 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.840 if you're near somewhere where you can watch a YouTube video. 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.640 Just look up Butter bu t t e r at 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:57.160 the Possum pet on YouTube and just go ahead and 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.160 tell me after that that you think possums are like us, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:06.560 are scarier, weird FTC Butter uh work Butter's charms. Okay, 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.200 I'll go look. I'll go look up Butter later on. 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.640 But you can imagine is a pet possum who was rescued, rehabbed, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:16.839 I think, with the idea of going back into the wild. 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.560 But as we'll see, that doesn't always take because sometimes 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.599 that possum just wants to go back inside and snuggle. Yeah, 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.800 it sounds like Butter's rehab or checked all the right boxes. Yeah, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.720 it's a very cute video. So one of the things 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.599 that I learned about possums is that I've got um, 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.839 not only my friend of the possum, I've got possum pride. Now, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.400 possom fever that a little bit of that too, but 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.080 more more pride than anything, because Chuck there there's a 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:47.960 there's one specific possum, the Virginia possum, that is native 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:54.279 to the United States, traditionally the southern southeastern United States um, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.599 and that Virginia possum is the only marsupial native to 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.760 the United States, and our friends listen in Australia are like, crikey, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.880 We've got a million of those here. We'll get this Australia, 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.880 your marsupials seem to have come according to the fossil 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:14.040 record from the America's which means that our possum friends 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:20.239 are actually the predecessors of your marsupials, which means chuck. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:26.039 That means that the wombats, the dumbats, the dun Arts, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.040 the kangaroos, kalas, and the qualls, the bilbies in the bandicoots, 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:35.560 Tasmanian devil, Pasmanian tiger, not to mention the wallabies, they 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.880 all descend from a North American or South American possum, 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.240 because that's where all marsupials came from. You forgot about 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:51.160 fairy toasts, yeah, which apparently you don't toast. Yeah, big correction, Sorry, Australia, 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.279 you don't toast very bread. I registered an angry email 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:57.800 to the editor of the blog that I got that 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:59.839 idea from. By the way, Oh that was from you. 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.120 What the fairy fairy toast? Yeah? Yeah, you didn't mention it. 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.120 Did you know I thought that I thought that was 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:13.480 submitted by Libya. Okay, I know I found that one. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.960 I'm throwing myself under the bus. All right, well I'm 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.000 driving that bus, buddy, so I'm gonna hit the brakes 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.919 and I'm not gonna I'm gonna back up so you 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:31.360 don't get hit. Oh I got that's an inside. Uh So, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.599 your little spiel on possums pointed out a couple of 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.680 things that I want to point out. One is that 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.880 possums are not rodents. Yeah. I think a lot of 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.080 Americans probably think they're kind of in the rat family 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.680 or something because they look sort of rat like, But 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.560 they're not. Like you said, they're more soupials. And the 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.839 other thing is, well, that's it, they're more soup heals. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.159 So they have little pouches just like a kangaroo friends, 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.000 and they keep a little there called Joey's to their 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.080 little babies or Joey's. Yeah, a baby apossum is called 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.599 a Joey and cute. Like. I knew what marsupials were, 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.560 but what I didn't realize is that it was, as 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.040 far as I can tell, one of two categories that 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.480 mammals can land in depending on how they they're young, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.160 justest date and a marsupial is just a type of 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:23.440 animal that, evolutionarily speaking, really emphasizes the lactation phase of 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:28.320 development of young, whereas us and just about every other 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.680 mammal um we're called placentals. We just date our young 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.280 in the womb for much longer. Um possums, it's a 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.720 very short time, and then they're in the pouch lactating 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.520 for a really long time. Yeah. I was surprised to 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.320 see that when they were born there very very tiny, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.360 like on the order of just an inch or so. Yeah, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:52.239 I saw a honey bee size in one place. That's 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.320 a little possible. And then they're in that pouch like 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:59.640 sometimes up to like seventy days. Yeah, getting mother's milk 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.760 from mom the possum. Yeah. So we'll get to that. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:04.840 We'll get to that, don't don't. Let's not get ahead 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.640 of ourselves. I know, I'm excited to chuck. But um, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.560 back to the fossil record. So uh, it turns out 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.560 that the the ancestor of all marsupials seems to have 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.840 emerged in North America, maybe South America at the very least, 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.400 if they emerged in North America. They traveled down to 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.720 South America and then Antarctica and then Australia back when 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.000 all that stuff was connected. And I mean they're really 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.679 really old. Um. I saw a hundred and forty million 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:35.280 years old um. And then the immediate ancestors of possums, 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.560 which look very similar to today's possums. They have not 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.400 changed very much, um since about the time the dinosaurs 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.160 went away sixty five million years ago, right, and since 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.439 then we've had possums of various types running around Earth. 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.199 But at one point they died off in North America. 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.280 Luckily they were a bunch left in South America. And 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.840 when the Sthmuths of Panama rose again from the sea 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:06.960 like poseidon um, like the October. Yeah, just as good, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.160 maybe even better chuck uh, they were able to travel 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.520 back up to North America. And about a million years ago, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.440 our friend the Virginia possum evolved and basically said, I 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.920 really like the Southeast and I'm gonna stay here for 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.360 the next million years. That's right, And you know what 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.840 I've forgot. The other thing I was gonna say after 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.040 your spiel was that you Aussie's out there, you do 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.280 have something called a possum. Oh yeah, it's not what 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.839 we have as a possum. It's a it's a different 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.199 animal altogether. So there is a little bit of confusion there. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:40.920 So if you're if you're buttering up your fairy toast 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.880 right now and you're really upset, you're like, I've got 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.960 possums on a lot of these trees. You probably do, 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:48.640 but they're not. They're not, and I looked them up. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.760 They're very cute too, but they're not like our possums. 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:52.839 They are the ones that I saw are called bush 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.120 tail possums, and they are super cute. But that's a 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.640 big difference are possums. The Virginia possum spends most of 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.440 its time on the ground, climbs trees, maybe to find food, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.560 maybe to escape a predator. The bush tail possums basically 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.640 live in trees. They live high up. But they're both marsupials. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.040 But there's actually we can pinpoint the jackass that actually 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.960 created this confusion back in the seventeen fifties. His name 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.000 was Joseph Banks, right, that's right, um, sorry, the seventeen seventies. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.840 Seventeen seventies, what did you say in seventeen fifties. I 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.040 think I should have said the seventeen fifties, give or 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.080 take a couple of decades. Banks was a brit He 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.079 was a naturalist, and he went to Australia with James 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:40.160 Cook and in seventeen seventy founder Marsupial and basically said 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.120 it was the same thing that we had in North 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:47.080 America and it really wasn't at all. And uh, you 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.959 know that that's where that all came from. Yeah, so 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.480 there's there's your confusion. I guess technically Australia that means 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.199 that our possums are the real possums. I'm not trying 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.520 to start a flame war here, I'm just saying that 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.760 seems to be the case. Yeah, And and since we're there, 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.120 we might as well cover the opossum thing out of 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.480 the gate and then we can really get down to business, 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:13.480 because they're all correct. Opossum is just fine. Uh. In fact, 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.119 that that's the original wording that came from an Algonquin 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.959 word um A p o s o u m a 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.199 palsum I guess, which means white beast or white dog. 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.360 And you know you can use either one. You can 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.040 say o possum you can say possum. You can spell 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:33.239 it opossum, you can spell it possom. Yeah. And apparently 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:38.800 in Europe, uh, in the Enlightenment period, the eighteenth century, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.360 they were nuts for these things. Uh, and they they 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.960 I guess somebody gave them one to the Royal Society 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.040 in London. Sorry, this is back in the mid seventeenth century, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.199 so the sixteen hundreds. And they looked at it and 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.840 they're like, this thing is a pouch. It's weird looking. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.520 I declare that it's probably a cross between a fox 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.520 and an ape, some sort of hybrid. That turned out 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.280 not to be the cases. We'll see. Like you said, 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.960 possums are their own thing. So let's talk about where 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:07.760 you find them here in the United States, because we 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:09.640 should say from this basically, from this point on, we're 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.680 gonna we're gonna be talking about the Virginia possum, the 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:20.319 American United States possums, right, that's right. Uh. You can 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.440 tell by their little flashy red, white and blue jumpsuit 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.600 that they wear. It's very cute. So you mentioned the southeast, 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.440 and that is very much true. Uh, that is where 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.800 they were really hanging out for a long time. But 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.000 starting in about I guess, let should say at least 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.520 the nineteenth century, they started moving on along elsewhere in 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.440 the country, and they kind of spread around. They were 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:44.400 I think they saw him in the mid eighteen hundreds 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.040 in New York and then other parts of New England 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.680 and then the Midwest, and basically, as like farms and 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.560 cities and urban population started springing up, possums kind of 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.760 followed suit. Because possums, as we'll find out, and you know, 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.040 every animals really food motivated, but it seems that possums 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.200 are really really food motivated. So then there were things, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:06.480 you know, a lot more things to eat in a 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.480 lot more places. So possums started traveling around naturally, and 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.760 apparently people even took them and dropped them off in 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:18.800 other parts of the country, including Washington State. So I'm 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:23.000 not really positive, but it seems like you might find 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.920 a possum almost anywhere in the United States. Now. It's weird. 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.480 I saw a map of their distribution and if you 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:35.240 go up from North Texas and then spread out toward 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:40.440 Idaho to the left, and then up towards like maybe Ohio, 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.880 Illinois to the right, it almost make like a cartoon 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.000 tornado shape coming out of Texas. They're not there. You're 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.040 not going to find them there, really weird, but you 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.360 will find them surrounding the northwest California, Texas, Mexico, and 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.320 then all down the southeastern United States and now up 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.640 the eastern side of the Midwest and all along the 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:06.880 Eastern seaboard up to Ontario, the lower Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.439 Talk about a mind blower, that is. Yeah, I think 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:15.200 they they got their passports in order and wandered into Canada. Yeah. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.920 So these people are so friendly, Yeah, and they talk 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.720 kind of funny and they're very charming. Yeah, that's what 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.280 you just nailed, Canada and leftover poutine in the back alley. 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.760 There's nothing to turn your little pink nose up at. No, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.720 and food definitely did help them. They're they're like, I 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.760 like these humans. They're pretty great, and I'm glad they 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:37.800 came along because, yes, they're a huge constant food source um, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.840 but we're also a source of shelter too, because um 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.840 possums have a very bare, naked tail that is really 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.560 off putting to a lot of people, and understandably so, 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.880 their ears are also naked, and when you put those together, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.800 they can get things like frost bite. Um, they can 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.760 not survive the cold all that well. They do develop 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.640 a winter coat, but they're just they like it warm 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.800 for the most part. But as humans have moved further 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.080 and further north and um, the possums have followed us 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:12.200 because we have barnes addicts call spaces uh wall voids 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.360 like just places for possums to to live in the 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.480 colder months. So that's another reason why they their range 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.880 has expanded to Yeah, and the old Virginia possum. Uh, 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.600 you've seen them around there, about the size of a cat, 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:30.120 like a house cat, way anywhere from four to eleven pounds, uh, 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.360 eleven pound possum. That's that's pretty decent sized possum. I 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.920 thought up to fourteen my friend. Oh, I'm sure that. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.440 I'm sure the tubbier varieties can can pack it in 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.080 for sure. That will make your forearms burned carrying that 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.440 around uh two to three ft long, and that's with 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.640 the tail. And generally the Virginia possum you would describe 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.640 as sort of whitish gray. Their faces are a little 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.160 more white, their bodies are kind of gray. But sometimes 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.760 they'll have little spooches and splotches and bands and things 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.800 like that. Um, all right, so I think that's a 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:06.200 good teaser. And then atomically speaking, and Adam, what's the word? 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.240 I think you had it? And anatomically is that right? Yeah? 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.960 It doesn't sound right though, does it? No? It sounded weird. Um. 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:14.680 But let's take a break and we'll sort that out 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.800 and then we'll come back and talk about possum penis 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:51.480 right after this. All right, you just bring it on out, please, Well, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.480 a possum has a forked penis. And if you can 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:59.040 look up a picture and it, um, well, I guess 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.720 it looks like what do you think it looks like? 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:04.640 I am not a sick Oh? So I didn't look 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.840 it up. Oh you didn't mean you're sick. Oh, I know, 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.120 I'm teasing. I didn't look it up. I I know 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.000 kind of what it must look like because from the 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.399 description Livia put of both the forked penis and the 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.240 multiple vagina, is that female possums have. I got the 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.760 gist of it. Yeah, well you just there there it 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.440 is right there. I buried the lead. Um. Although we 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.800 should say that colonial Americans once again proved, uh, they 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.320 had some ingenuity going. But sometimes it could be quite 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:37.080 dumb because they saw this forked penis and they said, oh, 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.760 well that is because they impregnate the female through their nostrils. 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.320 What else could it be. We know this because we 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.920 saw the female possums sticking their nose into their pouches 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.840 and they're giving birth and sneezing out their little Joey's 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:58.000 that way right. No, no, I'm saying you got that right, 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:00.960 You got it super super wrong out. Sure, but no, 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.560 it's because they so yeah, if you look up there, 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.320 it looks a lot like a nematode, a worm of 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.680 some sort with a club a club foot basically, yeah, 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.280 so um, but yes, the reason it's forked is because 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.359 the females have two vaginas that can um, that can 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.040 be fertilized by sperm, or that can move sperm to 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.439 their ova. Yeah I think I got it right. Um, 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.120 and they have a third one for actually giving birth. 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.359 So that's why the penis is forked. Because they're just like, 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.760 you know, double your pleasure, doubles, you're fun. They look 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.400 like little pincers actually, like I guess I'm not seeing 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.119 a close up. All the ones I'm seeing are like 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.440 they're like, get a load of this. It's really long. 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.560 Oh really okay, let me just type in possum penis 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.520 close up. I'm just gonna go for it. Where are 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:58.680 you typing in? Beforeis right? Oh? I had the Google 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.720 filter on. I see. Yeah, there's one very clear picture. 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.040 It looks like a little look like little pincers from 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.440 an insect or something safe searches on. Look at you. 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:13.080 I'm just kidding, what the heck was That's not at 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.960 all what I just saw. Well, all right, oh no, 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:22.840 that's a baby possum being born. It's like, what is that? 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.680 Regardless as a penis? Okay, it's got a forked penis. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.000 Let's talk about their teeny tiny brains, because they do. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.760 And Livia even put that the wording teeny tiny brains 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.360 one of the smallest brain to body ratios and mammaled them. 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.680 Uh and it's kind of cute. Olivia also included a 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.280 little brief thing of like, how do you find out 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.200 how big a brain is in little mammals? Well, you 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.720 take their skulls. If you're scientists, and you put dried 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.119 beans in there, and then you I would say, you 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:56.199 would probably guess the beans is an office, like you know, uh, 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.800 white elephant gift kind of thing. But then they obviously 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:01.359 can out the beans and that's how they tell It 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.800 makes very good sense, but it seems kind of cute 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.960 and rudimentary. It does, but I mean it does reveal 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.080 something really um surprising about the possums. They have a 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.120 really small brain to body ratio compared to other animals 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.240 their size. Like the possums brain case held beans, just 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.560 little beans, not that many. What kind of bean ownder 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:27.000 I'm gonna say lentils now, now that's really small. Would 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.800 like the usually the fun version is jelly beans. Sure, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.280 that's kind of big, though, maybe a black eyed pea 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.880 or something. Okay, we'll go with black eyed piece, dried 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.160 black eyed piece. They hold twenty five of those. Cats 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.359 held a hundred and twenty five, Raccoons held a hundred 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.360 and fifty. And that actually seems to support this longstanding 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.680 notion that possums are actually kind of dumb. Not true. 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.080 They're not really dumb at all, and in fact, there's 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:56.240 plenty of tests that they've shown their actually surprisingly intelligent. 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.240 They beat out rats, rabbits, dogs, cats on um remembering 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.760 where to find food, and then the maze the old 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.199 standby for proving intelligence in an animal. They actually can 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.760 beat rats and cats in learning mazes, that's right. And 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:16.080 UH also can remember if they've had something that made 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.840 them sick to eat that they even just tasted like 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.679 a year later. So again, I think this food thing 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.080 is really important because it seems like they score really 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:29.640 well when there's food involved. Uh. Like you mentioned, they're 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.000 found in a lot of places in the United States. 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:36.879 They really love a dense forest, but you'll see them 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.879 in cities all over the place. They eat everything basically. Um, 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:45.199 they eat little mammals, eat worms, eat insects, eat birds 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:49.800 and reptiles, eat seeds and fruits, and obviously garbage there 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:52.920 you know, like the raccoon. They will you will find 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:55.080 them in a garbage can, just go into town on 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.240 like a pizza box or something. Yeah, but I saw 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.800 Chuck that they're often unfair really blamed for knocking over 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.880 garbage cans because they're the ones who come along after 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.920 the thing that knocked it over, a raccoon or a 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.880 dog or something, and they're just scavenging. But they get 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:13.320 to blame because they're the one that gets caught. Not fair, 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:19.359 just another miscarriage of justice exactly. What about when you 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:23.359 see one walk around the day, that means they're rabbit? Right, No, again, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:28.040 another misconceptions there. If if they're walking around the day, 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:30.840 it means that they eating is so good that they've 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:35.639 abandoned their nocturnal ways and are just doing the human 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:37.960 thing and eating whenever they want. They don't have to 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.720 wait until nighttime to look for food. They can find 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.480 at anytime. So no, if you see a possum, it 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.359 does not mean it's rabbit. And as a matter of fact, 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:50.800 possums tend to actually be um cleaner than other animals, 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:55.200 both disease wise and with fastidiousness. There there as fastidious 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:57.919 as cats and cleaning themselves, and they actually clean themselves 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.320 in similar ways, licking their paw and we're up in 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:03.040 their face with the back of their paw. It is 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.240 super cute. And while they do that chuck, they stand 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.200 up on their hind quarters and balance themselves with their 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:11.959 cute little weird tail. They also have mouths that are 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:16.040 cleaner than other animals like cats, and because they have 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:19.960 a really low body temperature, they're very unlikely to catch rabies, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.280 which means they're also very unlikely to transfer rabies to you. 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:25.639 So if you're ever bitten by a possum, which is 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.959 a very unusual thing. Indeed, as we'll see you are, 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:32.000 probably you can just go start reading the newspaper. We 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:33.800 don't even have to go to the hospital or anything. 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:36.480 Just sit down and get back to your coffee, right, 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:42.440 Like it's what drinking coffee reading a newspaper. Don't you 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.719 know that gen Z is really into throwback stuff, are they? 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.639 Are they reading newspapers now? If they're not now, I 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:50.879 predict they will be in six months and then in 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:56.080 seventeen months they'll be done with newspapers. Uh. Possums are 0:23:56.320 --> 0:24:00.760 also great to have around, um, your neighborhood or your farm. Uh. 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:04.600 They will eat and this is astounding. Uh, they love 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.800 ticks and they will eat five thousand ticks in a 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:10.960 single like three or four month period over a season. Man, 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:14.320 talk about possum pride chuck. Oh huge, And you know 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:16.840