Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And This is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on non mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. The Star Wars universe is home to many
Speaker 2: monstrous creatures, but few are as iconic as the mighty Wampa.
Speaker 2: This horned, yetty like bipedal brute makes its home on
Speaker 2: Frigid Hoth, where it preys on abundant ton Tons as
Speaker 2: well as the occasional extraplanetary visitor. One even managed to
Speaker 2: get its pause on Jedi in training Luke Skywalker and
Speaker 2: very nearly succeeded in killing the legendary warrior. The Star
Speaker 2: Wars Alien Archive, one of my favorite books, is light
Speaker 2: on Wampa details, but an earlier book, The Wildlife of
Speaker 2: Star Wars, A Field Guide by Terrell Whitlatch and Bob
Speaker 2: caraw provides a great deal more information. Both of these authors,
Speaker 2: by the way, are interesting figures in the history of
Speaker 2: Star Wars. Carau Co wrote nineteen eighty four's The Ewok Adventure,
Speaker 2: and Whitlatch, an illustrator with a background in zoology, served
Speaker 2: as principal creature designer for Star Wars episode one, The
Speaker 2: Phantom Menace, a film that is just absolutely overflowing with
Speaker 2: amazing creatures. The book in question, however, is from two
Speaker 2: thousand and one. It's still available from used booksellers and
Speaker 2: well worth picking up if you're into Star Wars and
Speaker 2: or bestiaries, and in addition to providing robust details on
Speaker 2: the creatures of Naboo, it also covers the likes of
Speaker 2: the rain Corps and the Wampa. The authors describe the
Speaker 2: wampa as an apex ambush predator, as its body is
Speaker 2: not ideal for prolonged chases against speedy ton tons. No,
Speaker 2: its locomotion seems similar to that of a mountain gorilla,
Speaker 2: capable of bipedal and quadrupedal movement, but it's going to
Speaker 2: need to wait and ambush its prey to leap out
Speaker 2: and overpower it in the Empire strikes back. Luke, of course,
Speaker 2: his frozen feet first in the ceiling of a wampa's
Speaker 2: ice cave, seemingly via the creature's saliva, so we imagine
Speaker 2: it must have taken a comatose Luke, licked his boots
Speaker 2: up real good and then stuck him up there and
Speaker 2: allowed the saliva to set and turn to ice, though
Speaker 2: we don't get to witness this process in the film,
Speaker 2: of course. Now, while this method seems to work for
Speaker 2: small prey like humans, whitlatch and caraal present a far
Speaker 2: more grizzly storage method. For the wampa's primary prey, the
Speaker 2: ton ton quote prey is impaled on large icicles or
Speaker 2: stuck to cavern ceilings with saliva to keep the meat fresh.
Speaker 2: Saliva acts as an anesthetic in victims. Indeed, one of
Speaker 2: the book's three wampa illustrations depicts a mother wampa tending
Speaker 2: to her younglings in a cave where no fewer than
Speaker 2: four ton tons hang, pierced through the lower legs by
Speaker 2: meat hook like upward thrusting ice spikes. This behavior, of course,
Speaker 2: brings to mind terrestrial butcher birds, which use plant thorns
Speaker 2: to tear and store the impaled bodies of insects and
Speaker 2: small rodents, as well as to detoxify certain insects by
Speaker 2: letting them cure on the spike, if you will. The
Speaker 2: authors don't explore this, but I can't help but wonder
Speaker 2: if tontons, given their famous odor, are not to some
Speaker 2: degree toxic, and their bodies must cure a while on
Speaker 2: the ice spikes before they can be consumed. Or perhaps
Speaker 2: wampas simply have to make the best out of surplus
Speaker 2: kills and store up the meat, especially for the growing
Speaker 2: little ones. As for the ice spikes, well, various terrestrial mammals, birds,
Speaker 2: and fish do manipulate ice or snow in their environments,
Speaker 2: and is pointed out by Gloria Dickey in a twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one Science News article, polar bears have been observed
Speaker 2: to throw blocks of ice at seals, and indigenous accounts
Speaker 2: report that polar bears sometimes use blocks of stone or
Speaker 2: ice to bash in the heads of walruses. As the
Speaker 2: article explains, scientists take this possibility very seriously, especially given
Speaker 2: similar behavior concerning ice observed in wild and captive polar bears.
Speaker 2: So if shaggy apex predators in our own frozen environments
Speaker 2: are using ice as a tool, then perhaps it's not
Speaker 2: too much of a fantasy to imagine wampas using ice
Speaker 2: spikes as meat hooks in a galaxy far far away.
Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week,
Speaker 2: and as always, you can email us at time. Contact
Speaker 2: at stuffd Blow Your Mind dot com.
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