1
00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,399
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:12,200
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And This is the

3
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,239
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

4
00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,320
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on non mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters

5
00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:25,639
Speaker 2: in time. The Star Wars universe is home to many

6
00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:29,800
Speaker 2: monstrous creatures, but few are as iconic as the mighty Wampa.

7
00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,640
Speaker 2: This horned, yetty like bipedal brute makes its home on

8
00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,760
Speaker 2: Frigid Hoth, where it preys on abundant ton Tons as

9
00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:43,560
Speaker 2: well as the occasional extraplanetary visitor. One even managed to

10
00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,199
Speaker 2: get its pause on Jedi in training Luke Skywalker and

11
00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:52,560
Speaker 2: very nearly succeeded in killing the legendary warrior. The Star

12
00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,959
Speaker 2: Wars Alien Archive, one of my favorite books, is light

13
00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,080
Speaker 2: on Wampa details, but an earlier book, The Wildlife of

14
00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:02,040
Speaker 2: Star Wars, A Field Guide by Terrell Whitlatch and Bob

15
00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,520
Speaker 2: caraw provides a great deal more information. Both of these authors,

16
00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:09,080
Speaker 2: by the way, are interesting figures in the history of

17
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:13,800
Speaker 2: Star Wars. Carau Co wrote nineteen eighty four's The Ewok Adventure,

18
00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,880
Speaker 2: and Whitlatch, an illustrator with a background in zoology, served

19
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:21,280
Speaker 2: as principal creature designer for Star Wars episode one, The

20
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 2: Phantom Menace, a film that is just absolutely overflowing with

21
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:29,840
Speaker 2: amazing creatures. The book in question, however, is from two

22
00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 2: thousand and one. It's still available from used booksellers and

23
00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:35,440
Speaker 2: well worth picking up if you're into Star Wars and

24
00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:40,039
Speaker 2: or bestiaries, and in addition to providing robust details on

25
00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,760
Speaker 2: the creatures of Naboo, it also covers the likes of

26
00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:47,080
Speaker 2: the rain Corps and the Wampa. The authors describe the

27
00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:51,000
Speaker 2: wampa as an apex ambush predator, as its body is

28
00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:55,600
Speaker 2: not ideal for prolonged chases against speedy ton tons. No,

29
00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,800
Speaker 2: its locomotion seems similar to that of a mountain gorilla,

30
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:04,080
Speaker 2: capable of bipedal and quadrupedal movement, but it's going to

31
00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:07,480
Speaker 2: need to wait and ambush its prey to leap out

32
00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:11,760
Speaker 2: and overpower it in the Empire strikes back. Luke, of course,

33
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,679
Speaker 2: his frozen feet first in the ceiling of a wampa's

34
00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:19,120
Speaker 2: ice cave, seemingly via the creature's saliva, so we imagine

35
00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:23,040
Speaker 2: it must have taken a comatose Luke, licked his boots

36
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,280
Speaker 2: up real good and then stuck him up there and

37
00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,079
Speaker 2: allowed the saliva to set and turn to ice, though

38
00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,200
Speaker 2: we don't get to witness this process in the film,

39
00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:35,680
Speaker 2: of course. Now, while this method seems to work for

40
00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 2: small prey like humans, whitlatch and caraal present a far

41
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:45,639
Speaker 2: more grizzly storage method. For the wampa's primary prey, the

42
00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:51,240
Speaker 2: ton ton quote prey is impaled on large icicles or

43
00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,320
Speaker 2: stuck to cavern ceilings with saliva to keep the meat fresh.

44
00:02:55,600 --> 00:03:01,239
Speaker 2: Saliva acts as an anesthetic in victims. Indeed, one of

45
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,840
Speaker 2: the book's three wampa illustrations depicts a mother wampa tending

46
00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,480
Speaker 2: to her younglings in a cave where no fewer than

47
00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,160
Speaker 2: four ton tons hang, pierced through the lower legs by

48
00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 2: meat hook like upward thrusting ice spikes. This behavior, of course,

49
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,560
Speaker 2: brings to mind terrestrial butcher birds, which use plant thorns

50
00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,240
Speaker 2: to tear and store the impaled bodies of insects and

51
00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 2: small rodents, as well as to detoxify certain insects by

52
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,480
Speaker 2: letting them cure on the spike, if you will. The

53
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,000
Speaker 2: authors don't explore this, but I can't help but wonder

54
00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,320
Speaker 2: if tontons, given their famous odor, are not to some

55
00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,760
Speaker 2: degree toxic, and their bodies must cure a while on

56
00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:49,640
Speaker 2: the ice spikes before they can be consumed. Or perhaps

57
00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,720
Speaker 2: wampas simply have to make the best out of surplus

58
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,760
Speaker 2: kills and store up the meat, especially for the growing

59
00:03:55,800 --> 00:04:02,160
Speaker 2: little ones. As for the ice spikes, well, various terrestrial mammals, birds,

60
00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,119
Speaker 2: and fish do manipulate ice or snow in their environments,

61
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:08,520
Speaker 2: and is pointed out by Gloria Dickey in a twenty

62
00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:12,360
Speaker 2: twenty one Science News article, polar bears have been observed

63
00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:17,280
Speaker 2: to throw blocks of ice at seals, and indigenous accounts

64
00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,480
Speaker 2: report that polar bears sometimes use blocks of stone or

65
00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:25,719
Speaker 2: ice to bash in the heads of walruses. As the

66
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:31,080
Speaker 2: article explains, scientists take this possibility very seriously, especially given

67
00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:37,960
Speaker 2: similar behavior concerning ice observed in wild and captive polar bears.

68
00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:43,000
Speaker 2: So if shaggy apex predators in our own frozen environments

69
00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:46,359
Speaker 2: are using ice as a tool, then perhaps it's not

70
00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 2: too much of a fantasy to imagine wampas using ice

71
00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:54,000
Speaker 2: spikes as meat hooks in a galaxy far far away.

72
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,880
Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week,

73
00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:00,680
Speaker 2: and as always, you can email us at time. Contact

74
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:10,440
Speaker 2: at stuffd Blow Your Mind dot com.

75
00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,479
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

76
00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:16,360
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

77
00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,280
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.