WEBVTT - Squirrels, Part 1: The Bloody Beast 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:14.200 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.040 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:18.680 And Robert I got a question for you. Give me 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.880 with it. What wild animal do you most associate with 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.920 American founding icon Benjamin Franklin's Gonna Be the Turkey had 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:29.720 that whole song about it right in seventy six? Oh yeah, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.479 were you in seventeen seventy six? Did you play Ben Franklin? 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:37.800 I played Thomas Jefferson. Okay, community theater performance of it. Yes, 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.159 that's that's who I was. But you got to be 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.440 the boring guy without a sense of humor, Yes, but 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.920 with with bright red hair. That was the main appeal 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.440 and U. Ben Franklin was played by a local attorney 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:54.760 named Ray Freely. Ray Freely y f He did wonderful job. 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:56.560 So I'm glad I had the part I had. I 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.800 was more suited for just red haired and kind of boring. Uh, 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:06.720 you know Timmy Jefferson, Timmy Timmy. Yeah, he is kind 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.720 of a Timmy and that isn't he? He like he 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:10.840 There are scenes where he plays the violin, right did 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.320 you play the violin? Oh gosh, I don't remember. I 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.120 remember scenes where I was had pretending to write in 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.840 Wada paper. Okay, oh, sorry, we got sidetracked here, but 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.960 there is a song in there where Benjamin Franklin he 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:24.319 suggests that the U. S National bird should not be 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.440 the should not be the eagle, and should not be 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:28.679 the dove, but should be the turkey because it is 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.840 a most majestic bird. And I found no evidence that 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.559 Franklin actually suggested that the national birds should be the turkey. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.840 But Franklin was all about some turkeys, especially was all 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.319 about killing turkeys, and especially it was all about killing 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.720 turkeys with his favorite technological toys, the ladon jar. Uh. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:47.920 We we've talked before in our episodes about the early 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.480 days of electricity about that that barbecue Franklin hosted where 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.360 he wanted to kill turkeys with with electrical shocks and 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.360 then roast them with an electrical jack and then uh 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.600 and and I guess, I don't know, char their skin 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.919 with electrical fire from a bottle. It was a rousing affair, 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:09.080 I'm sure, because Franklin actually ended up electrocuting or not electrocuting, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.000 but he shocked himself very badly. See why isn't this 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:17.000 our Thanksgiving tradition? Should a big, big turkey electrocution every year? Wait, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.080 a lot of people use electric stoves. I guess that's 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:21.880 kind of closed, but it's not quite as a shocking, right, 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.640 you should be getting the jumper cables and going out 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.960 to the yard with a gobbler. No pardon for you, 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:30.960 all right? So if the if the turkey wasn't his 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.880 favorite animal, uh what pray tell? Was it? Well? Who 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:35.720 knows if it was actually his favorite animal. But the 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.840 animal I now most associate with Ben Franklin is the squirrel, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.960 because Robert, did you know that Benjamin Franklin carried a 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.680 squirrel across the ocean to Europe? No? I did not 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.840 know about this. He had a pet squirrel named Mungo. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.840 And yes, this is all true. Benjamin Franklin had a 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.080 pet squirrel named Mungo that he kept in a cage. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.680 They got killed by a dog named Ranger. And he 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.760 wrote a letter to Georgiana Shipley in seventeen seventy two 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.880 where where he said, I lament with you most sincerely 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:12.639 the unfortunate end of poor Mungo. Few squirrels were better accomplished, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.560 for he had had a good education, had traveled far 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.280 and seen much of the world. In other words, I 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.360 I put it, put him in a cage, and carried 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:24.600 him on a I don't know, an oceanic journey. There's 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.000 some ironies in this story that we can tease out 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.680 in the second. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote a poem 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.600 of lament. It is like an elegy for poor Mungo. 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:34.400 I wonder if we should do a reading of this 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:36.480 poem for Mango. What do you think, Well, I don't 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.560 really have a good Benjamin Franklin voice. Neither do I, 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.360 but I can give it a shot. Alas poor Mungo, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:47.280 happy wort, thou hatst thou known thy own felicity, remote 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.760 from the fierce, bald eagle tyrant of thy native woods, 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.960 thou hatst not to fear from his piercing talents, nor 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.400 from the murdering gun of the thoughtless sportsman, Safe in 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:04.360 his why aired castle, Grimalkin never could annoy thee Grimalkin, 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.480 of course, is the which is familiar the cat from Macbeth. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.280 I think is also just a word for a cat. 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.600 But yeah, so continues daily Worth thou fed with choicest 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.120 viands by the fair hand of an indulgent mistress, but 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.000 discontented thou wouldst have more freedom too soon, alas didst 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.160 thou obtain it, and wandering fell by the merciless fangs 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:32.040 of wanton cruel ranger learned hints ye who blindly wish 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:37.039 for more liberty, whether subjects, sons, squirrels, or daughters, That 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:42.520 apparent restraint maybe real protection, yielding peace plenty and security. 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.720 You see how much more decent and proper this broken style, 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.520 interrupted as it were, with size, is for the occasion 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.680 than if one were to say, by way of epitaph, 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.600 here scug lie snug as a bug in a rug. 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.760 Scug is an antiquated word for squirrel. But you didn't 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:04.760 know that one either. I didn't, But you know, I 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:06.720 feel like a lot of people by by the time 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.680 we're done with the special two part exploration of the squirrel, 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.480 I think some people are going to adopt skug as 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:19.320 an appropriate a bit of terminology for these strange furry 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.760 creatures that, for many obvious fill our backyards in our lives. Robert, 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.560 I am so excited to talk about squirrels for two 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.960 whole episodes because I would never have imagined there were 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:34.200 two episodes worth of startling squirrel knowledge and oh boy 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.120 is there Yeah, there is. But before anybody and it 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.560 thinks I'll skip the squirrels, No no no, no, no, stick 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.480 with the squirrels because some of this information is shocking. 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.000 It will change the way you see the squirrel. The 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:51.120 squirrels are not what they seem. You're right about that, 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.120 they are not. Yeah, this is not just gonna be 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:57.160 like two episodes of squirrel minutia. This is gonna be 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.520 episodes that redefine what these animals are and what they 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.440 are up to in your immediate environment. They may shake 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.440 your faith in the goodness of the world around you, right, 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.640 you know. Well, one thing that that I've I've noticed 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:13.720 about the squirrel is it, of course, for many of us, 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.440 the squirrels everywhere, like like, how often do you see squirrels, Joe? Yeah, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.960 you see them more than any non human animal who 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.240 is not your pet, probably, I mean, depending on where 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.720 you live. But at least we we do. Yeah, Like 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.520 with us, they're constantly scaring around our yard and on 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.120 our fence. We have a number of bird feeders that 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.480 we that my family. We like to when we're having 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.200 breakfast or dinner together, we like to watch the birds 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.599 out there, and of course the squirrels come. You can't 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.280 keep squirrels away from a bird feeder in the same 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.400 way you can't keep squirrels out of out of a garden. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.039 You can try, but they are tenacious. They have an 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:51.159 insatiable mammalian quality, a mammalian vitality that the birds just 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.359 do not have. Even though we we love birds and 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:55.640 we've explored you know, when when you put a bird 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.280 feeder out, you wonder why the squirrels always seem to 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.520 take it over, And it does seem to have something 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.320 to do with their mammalian craftiness. And that's despite the 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.719 fact that birds are often craftier than we expect. Yeah, 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:10.520 I mean I it is I I root for the 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.120 birds though when the birds drive the squirrels away, But 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:14.880 then the squirrels are just going to get in there 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.240 and also have their their meal as well. Um. Another 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.880 thing that I always noticed about the squirrels is that, yeah, 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.200 for for many of us, we we barely notice them, 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.160 notice them anymore, and we're certainly not really we don't 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.040 get hung up over their cuteness though they do have 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.440 like large kind of cute eyes, yes, and they have 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.400 big fluffy tails, they're not a chipmunk. Chipmunk is I think, 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.560 objectively cute, whereas the squirrel is a little larger and 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:42.800 a little more grotesque and a little more like a 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.600 tree rat. There's a reason the rescue rangers are not squirrels, 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.880 and they just be less cute that way. But but 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:51.720 one thing I noticed is that when you have people 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.760 who are not accustomed to squirrel suddenly encountering them, tourists 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.080 from Afar, they'll they're just totally one over body scurring 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.559 creatures and their pointing at them, and then of course 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.680 they they may give in to the temptation to feed them. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:06.960 Which means if you go to a place like the 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.800 Grand Canyon, where you know you have you have tours 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.440 from around the world coming to to see this natural 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:18.280 um landscape that's just truly inspiring, uh scene to behold, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.280 people are also gonna encounter the squirrels. They're gonna end 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.840 up beating the squirrels, even though everyone tells them not to. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.600 And then you have situations like the one my wife 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.280 and I encountered on a hike into the Grand canyon 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.480 where we set down for a second, we're gonna share 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.480 some some snack mix, and then the squirrel comes and 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.720 the squirrel starts climbing on us on our bodies to 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.920 get to the snack mix because it's become so accustomed 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.360 to eating food given to it by humans. Uh. It 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.480 was just absolutely terrifying, especially when you watch like the 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.320 fleet jump off of its nose. It's only a matter 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.880 of time until they can pull a switchblade on you. Exactly. 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.959 They're like they are. They are tenacious, and you should 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.959 and you feed them at your peril, especially if they're there. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.720 There are lots of drop offs that you could plummet from. 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.720 And that's not even getting into disease issues. I apologize 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.880 it was ranting a little bit. I no, no, no, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.240 please rant on. I've been ranting about them a bit 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.760 as my family watches the bird feeder as well, to 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.559 the point that my my son told me recently. He's 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.079 he's six years old, and he he said, actually, Dad, uh, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.679 the squirrel is the king of the rats, which um, well, 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.400 I disagree with. I think the rats are truly the 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.000 king of the rats. They've earned that that reputation, and 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.200 they've earned that crown. Yet at the same time, yes, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.160 squirrels are incredibly good rats in many respects. Well, there 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:41.040 are many respects throughout, especially mythology, but in human history, 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.200 where there is some correlation between level of authority and 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.880 physical altitude. And so if the squirrels are in the 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.720 trees above the rats, that would seem to signal that 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.640 they are the lords of the rat world, and the 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.080 rats on the ground below must do their bidding. That's right, 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.720 they have the height advantage. The squirrels are the wizards 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.559 up in their ivory towers, and the rats are the peasants, 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:02.880 the you know, thank you lord kind of guys who 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.440 go out and do what they're told. But yet there 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.400 is an honesty in the rat. We look at the rat, 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.079 and sometimes we judge the rat too harshly, it's true, 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:12.839 but when you look at a rat and you know 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.040 what the rat does. The squirrel, however, as we will 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.560 explore in these episodes, the squirrel is not what it seems. 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.320 The squirrel has managed to to pull one over on us. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.240 So by now you may be going, Okay, what is 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.520 the secret squirrel knowledge? I've been I want the squirrel nosis. 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.000 Let me into this religion. So I guess we should 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.959 pave the way to divulge that knowledge. So let's enter 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.520 the kingdom of the skugs. So what are what is 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:39.720 a good skug? What? What is a skug? At its 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.439 most basic nature? Squirrels are a family of rodents. Specifically, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:48.079 they comprise the taxonomic family Scura day and that includes 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:52.520 ground squirrels, tree squirrels, marmots, chipmunks, flying squirrels, and a 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.280 few other varieties. This also includes the so called oriental 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.439 giant squirrels, the black giant squirrel, the Indian giant squirrel, 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:05.080 the grizzled giant squirrel that's real grizzled, and the likely 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.520 extinct cream colored giant squirrel. Many additional varieties roamed in 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.319 prehistoric times. Uh and plus this family also includes groundhogs 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.120 and prairie dogs. But when most people refer to squirrels, 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.520 they're probably gonna be talking about common varieties, most often 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.280 of the tree squirrel and the ground squirrel. And so 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.559 these are the varieties we're gonna be talking about most 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.000 in this episode. And so squirrels are found all over 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.559 the world. Their native to every continent except Antarctica in Australia, 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.520 but of course, humans tend to take their rodents with 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.720 them where they go. So humans introduced squirrels to Australia, 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:41.520 and now they're everywhere on Earth except Antarctica. So I 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.800 think maybe we've been burying the lead. We should not 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.319 bury the lead. Part one of this two part exploration. 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:49.880 One of the main things you're gonna learn is that 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.040 you have probably been too trusting of squirrels if you 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.320 were like I was. I used to look out at 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.400 the squirrels of my yard and think about them like 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.800 Benjamin Franklin's Poor Mungo. This this victim, this poor little 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.800 victim creature that could be eaten by a dog, and 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.960 was a harmless, sweet little herbivore gathering nuts and hiding 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.080 them and just going about a peaceful life without ever 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.440 bothering anybody else. But the fact that blew my mind 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:21.600 is that squirrels are not, in fact strictly herbivores. Some 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.840 not very strictly at all. That's right, and uh and 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.560 I and I have to say, right before we we 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.600 actually researched this episode, I had this revelate revelation as 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.240 well through the bird feeders that we put out, because 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:36.800 one of the things we put out in addition to 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:38.880 you know, a few different types of bird seed aimed 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.920 as particular birds, we also put out meal worms, and 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.359 these dried, dried out worms like you would feed chickens, 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.280 and birds generally love them as well. But then we 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.480 started noticing that the squirrels would just eat the ever 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.840 loving hell out of those meal worms. We feel up 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.360 this little cup, and you know, squirrel would come and 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.840 you know, surreptitiously eat one and you know, grab one, 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:03.440 get to a place where it could be on the 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.920 lookout for hawks or whatnot, and then go down and 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.160 get another one, and then eventually give up on any 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.760 pretense of looking out for hawks and just just go 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.440 face down into a this cup of meal worms and 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.480 just eat absolutely all of them. And we were a 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.240 little stounded because we were, like, I had we had 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.840 no idea that that that squirrels eat me, but clearly 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.520 these squirrels really love meal worms. Well, you know, I 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.360 might not have predicted that, but at least meal worms. 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.840 I look at that, Okay, I'm like, it's a worm. 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.520 I guess maybe a lot of things might eat a worm, 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.320 right right, I I don't know, it's it's like that's 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.320 like the cracked corn of the animal kingdom. Right, Yeah, 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.440 it's there, you eat it. It makes sense, all right. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.800 So maybe they're not strictly herbivores, you know, they're they're 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.280 they're omnivores that will that will eat a worm here 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.720 and there. But subsequent reading has has revealed that that 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:59.840 it goes far beyond meal worms. Uh, they'll eat insects, reptiles, birds, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.880 and mammalian flesh if they get a chance. Gray squirrels 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.240 and eastern chipmunks are noted nest raiders. Gray squirrels will 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.400 even eat each other. It seems. Squirrels are also capable 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.640 of killing adult birds. Uh, even the cute chipmunk. Again, 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.880 the objectively cute chipmunk is a natural born killer, as 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.720 studies have found meat and upwards of chipmunk survey meat 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.240 in them, not just in their bodies like they are. 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.600 Now that sounds so crazy. That makes me think, wait 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.680 a minute, are we just dealing with like, uh like 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.960 urban legend kind of observations here, Like I've read stories 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.360 that I don't believe about squirrel attacks, like the idea 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.800 that squirrels will will take down deer and kill them. 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.400 That's right, according to a two thousand fourteen Popular Science article, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.800 the tufted ground squirrel of Borneo is said to wait 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.320 on a low branch for passing deer and then jump 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.160 out onto them and bite the jugular vein. And once 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.720 the deer is bled to death from this bite, the 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.040 s world disembowels the deer and eats the contents of 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.600 the stomach as well as the heart and the liver. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.200 And I do want to just drive home. This is 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.160 not This is far from any kind of a verified observation. 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.440 This is very much seems to be in the realm 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.520 of love of urban legends. This account was told by 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.280 local hunters who find the remains of the squirrel slaughtered 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.960 deer and then supposed squirrels supposed alleged squirrel slaughtered deer. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.760 And then they also attest to the hearts and livers 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.640 having been eaten from domestic chickens. Again, uh, fingers pointed 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.080 at the squirrels. This almost reminds me of like the 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.920 Coppa legend, right reaching up through your anus to pull 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.320 your liver out. Yeah, there there seems to be a 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.480 lot of making sense. Are trying to make sense of 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:51.480 stranger remains, but by making several leaps uh in uh 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.120 in your logic here, as opposed to saying, well, it 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.840 was probably some sort of scavenger that came and did that. No, 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:01.120 it was probably a ferocious and strategically ishous squirrel. Now, 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.040 on the other hand, supposedly these squirrels could I mean, 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.840 if you happen to put your finger in their mouths, say, 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.080 they could do some damage. Yeah. In fact, the author 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.680 of that article, Douglas Main, points out that those those 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.600 squirrels do pack quite a fierce bite, and that the 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.960 giant squirrel ratufa a finnis is known to stalk and 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.920 prey on birds. Okay, but the idea of a squirrel 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:28.240 attacking and taking down an adult dear, I don't know. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.760 I highly skeptical. I don't buy it. It sounds like 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.600 one of those kind of hunter legends. Yeah, it reminds 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.440 me a lot of of cattle mutilation stories. You know, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.040 someone finds again, someone looks at the remains of an animal. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.600 There's something kind of weird look going on, and so 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.600 you jump to uh, totally implausible explanations, such as an 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.720 alien being performed an autopsy in the middle of a 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.480 cow field, or squirrels or hunting impacts. But how much 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.760 could you really learn in the middle of a cow field. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.480 I don't know. It's it's like guided research. I would 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.520 think they would want to remove to some kind of 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.720 sterile environment where they could control all of the autopsy element. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.000 I don't know. But but but I don't want to 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.760 lose the track of the The important revelation here, Uh, 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.159 that will get back to, and that is that squirrels 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.639 do seem to hunt some of the time. Well, we 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.160 will definitely look at more evidence of that in a minute, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.280 but before we do that, we should look at one 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.880 other apparent I don't know, rumor legend, the kind of thing. Uh, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:33.440 this idea that sometimes squirrels will attack and take down dogs. Yes, 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.280 I was reading a two thousand five BBC article that 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:42.359 reported that that a local Russian media report had indicated 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.359 that a pack of squirrels bit a stray dog to 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:50.320 death in the city of Lazo. So again, local Russian media. 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.600 But here's here's a gym from the story quote. A 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.720 pine code shortage may have led the squirrels to seek 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:01.600 other food sources, although scientists are skeptical. So in in fact, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:06.640 a scientist in the region one Michael to Yanov said 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:11.040 that while attacking a bird's nest for protein was reasonable behavior, 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.520 for to expect of a squirrel chewing a dog to 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.879 death was quote absurd. Uh. In a quote that reads 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.160 like something from a horror movie poster, he said, quote, 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.679 if it really happened, things must be pretty bad in 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.240 our forest. I can hear that in the Don la 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:30.640 Fontaine voice. Yes, things must be pretty bad in our forest. Wait, 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.159 that's not Don la Fontaine. Who's that one? I don't know. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.520 I don't really know them by name. I'm sorry, I'm 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.240 sorry to say. In a world where squirrels chew dogs 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.880 to death, Russian media is the only one brave enough 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.640 to report. But the thing about these stories is is that, yes, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.560 I'm I'm not convinced that squirrels are killing dear. I'm 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.520 not convinced that they are taking down stray dogs. I 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.240 I also am skeptical of that. I'd wonder though, I mean, 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.520 maybe if the dog is, like, I don't know, sick 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.119 and all ready almost dead, that might be a different 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:03.959 kind of thing. I find it hard to believe that 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.280 like a pack of squirrels would actually attack a dog 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.399 that could move exactly. Yeah, but if you but the 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.520 thing is you start looking around at different papers, particularly 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.440 Journal of Mammalogy papers, mostly from the twentieth century, you'll 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:22.120 find a number of different papers that look at carnivorous 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:27.119 ground squirrels and carnivorous activity among squirrels uh with titles 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.359 such as Carnivorous behavior in the Mexican ground squirrel or 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.439 Carnivorous ground squirrels on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, or food 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.119 habits of the Antelope ground squirrel in Southern Nevada. Also 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.959 the Franklin ground squirrel and its relationship to nesting ducks. 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:48.760 The relationship is not a friendly one. It's complicated. That 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.840 paper Carnivorous ground Squirrels on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska has 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.720 some choice descriptions, and it here commentating on some some 0:19:56.080 --> 0:20:01.760 previous research by other investigators. During his excavations at the 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.040 old village site of Kakuliak, located a few miles at 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.439 east to the present village of Savunga, he observed some 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.720 adult ground squirrels eating the old, partially dried and partially 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.800 frozen lumps of whale and walrus meat, which we excavated 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.400 at an approximate depth of eight feet under the surface. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:25.640 What eating whale and walrus meat. So they didn't bring 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.240 down these whales, they didn't bring down these walruses, but 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.040 they were more than happy to feast on their like 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.200 rubbery dried flesh. Also from that paper, there was a 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:37.080 part where they were mentioning the work of this previous 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:41.000 researcher who reported having seen a ground squirrel quote eat 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.520 a freshly killed mouse which had been shot by the 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.760 teacher's son from Savunga. So you go shooting mice in Alaska. 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:49.680 Who knows what's going to happen. All right, let's go 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.000 ahead and take a break here, and when we come back, 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.480 we're going to get into my favorite carnivorous squirrel paper 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.639 that I ran across in our research. Thank thank you, 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:04.080 thank we're back. So before we get into squirrels as predators, 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.280 I just wanted to mention another paper I looked at 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.679 about squirrels eating meat, and this was from the Journal 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.359 of Parasitology from nineteen fifty six by Raws and other 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.600 authors called the occurrence of larvae of trick and Ella 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.160 spiralis in Alaska mammals. So this is a paper looking 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.360 at the prevalence of this parasite of trick and Ella 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.240 spiralis in the mammals of Alaska, and trick and Ella 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.480 spiralis is the nematode worm responsible for trickin nosis, which 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.920 you may have heard is the you know, the reason 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.879 that you should not eat pork. Tartar, though not to 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.680 demonize a lot of pork is much safer these days 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.040 than it used to be. So some of those fears 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:44.600 are based on older, older ways of doing things. But 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.920 you're not getting trickin noses eating peanuts. That's true even 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.200 if you're a squirrel. In fact, so when the researchers 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.000 found one ground squirrel and four red squirrels infected with 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.480 trick and Ella, which you can only get from eating 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:02.160 infected meat, m what's going on here? It's clear what's 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.720 going on. So the ground squirrel, that with the ground squirrel, 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.480 they say, although primarily herbivorous S tell Us undulatus, and 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.320