WEBVTT - Selects: Elephants: The Best Animals? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.159 M Hey everybody, it's me Josh Um. For this week's 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.880 select I've chosen our February two thousand, nineteen episode Elephants 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:12.840 Colon the Best Animals. Could this be the most enjoyable 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.880 episode we've ever made? It could be, It could be. 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:18.239 I can't really think of any better one right now, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.560 so we'll say it is for the time beating. I 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.200 hope you enjoyed listening to this classic episode as much 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:31.000 as Chuck and I enjoyed making it. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:40.000 You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.720 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.800 w Chuck, Bryan Jerry. We're just feeling wacky or here. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.760 You want to know why? Why? Because this is the 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.680 stuff you should know about. Maybe the greatest animal walking 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.800 the planet. And I'm including human beings elephants. I'm big 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:04.319 on elephants. Love elephants. Might be Emily spirit animal. She 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:09.839 hasn't decided yet. Yeah I can say you really, Oh yeah, wow, 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:11.920 they have the same spirit animal that's gonna eat. Yeah, 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.680 I know I like that. I didn't know that. I 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.080 didn't know you MEI was an elephant or she is 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:22.240 big time into elephant elephantist m hm um, all right, Charles, 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:27.360 are you ready for this? Yes, and really quickly. Because 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.680 we love elephants. We want to go on a safari 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.120 one day. You know I've mentioned before, but now I 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.440 know and we'll get to this later. I was like, man, 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.040 I want to I want to swim with those things. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.240 Don't do it. No, I shouldn't do it. Don't write them, Nope, 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.320 don't do any of those things where you see people 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.600 on Facebook bragging about writing and getting made by elephants. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.240 Don't do it. Yeah, it's true, Like that's not ethical 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.200 or humane because we'll just say it now. The reason 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.360 why is because too elephants are wild animals. They're not domesticated. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.800 Although they display some really bizarre affectionate behavior towards humans 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.960 there that can make you think they are domesticated, they're 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:13.799 still wild animals. So to train them to basically ensure 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.600 that they're not ever going to, you know, stomp a 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.000 person or something like that, you have to take them 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.960 as as babies and what's called crushing their spirit and 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:28.519 just basically scare them so bad or beat them physically. Right, 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:33.360 that's part of the process of crushing their spirit. Like, yeah, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.680 beat them, be rate them, starve them, tie their legs together, 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.040 keep them in a pen. All to basically teach them 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.080 that humans are in charge and that they should be 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.960 scared to death of of doing anything untoward toward a human. 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.200 That's how you can write an elephant, or how you 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.680 can bathe with an elephant, or um, you me wanted 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.960 a painting by an elephant, Like, there's elephants that make paintings. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.240 There's one here in Atlanta, Okay that makes paintings. So 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.280 we researched it right before we were about to order, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:03.919 and she's like, wait a minute, let me just see 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.560 if this is okay. And it turns out that they 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.680 basically used the same techniques to to make an elephant 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.120 do what human wants it to, you have to be 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:19.840 very cruel to them usually, so there you go. People 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.320 don't do it. Yeah, it was a weird intro. Well 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.679 it was in my crawl. Uh, obviously it was in 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.040 yours a little bit. But let's talk about elephants, the 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.880 good stuff. There are three species. You probably grew up 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.080 thinking like I did that there's the African elephant and 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.280 the Asian elephant. Sure that everybody knows that. But now 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.800 they have broken down the African element element the elephant 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.760 into two camps, the bush elephant and the forest elephant, 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.240 both African and like I said, for many many years, 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.840 and you will still see in a lot of places, um, 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.560 just two species. But that is that is not true anymore. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.760 No one to three um so, and the bush elephant 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.640 and the forest elephant are so closely related that if 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.440 they if they run up against one another, because some 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:14.040 of their their habitats kind of overlap, they could reproduce 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.839 and have babies, which no problem whatsoever. But the Asian 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.520 elephant is so distantly related to them, even though they 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.920 seem you know, it's just another kind of elephant that 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:31.160 they probably they could conceivably have a kid. And actually 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.680 one was born in a zoo in the seventies, but 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.960 he died after like I think, twelve days of an infection. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:42.080 Um that they probably aren't really supposed to aren't supposed 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:47.320 to breed, I guess is how you'd put it, right, 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.640 have offspring. Yeah, so uh, we're gonna be talking about 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.320 all three, um not interchangeably. We'll we'll point out when 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.800 we're talking about what but the African bush elephant, those 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.839 are the biggest ones. They have the biggest ears um 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.559 or at least larger than the Asian elephants, and both 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.760 sexes for the African bush elephants are more likely to 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:16.320 have tusks. Um. Some male Asian elephants have tusks, but 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.920 they're not as prominent. That's where you see the smaller tusks. 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.800 And then all three species have five toes on the 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.000 front feet, but the African bush elephant has three toes 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.400 on the rear. Asian elephants have four toes on the 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.200 rear on each foot. Yeah, there's a lot of different 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.000 toes going on, a lot of different toes. Uh. And 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.320 the African forest elephant is generally about the same shape 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:46.400 as his bush bush friend, but they have straighter tusks 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.360 because they're going It makes sense they're going through the forest, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.960 so their tusks don't stick way out and get caught 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.800 on every other tree that they're walking by. Yes, and 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:59.520 I thought this was really interesting. Um, the the African 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:06.239 um forest elephants are so elusive that like, they don't 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:08.839 they have no idea how many there are, all of 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.200 the all the ideas about their behavior and the stuff 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.479 that they do is just assumptions made based on the 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.760 bush elephant that they're related to. They're that good at 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.839 like keeping away from humans. I just think that's amazing. Yeah, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.080 and they have they're a little bit smaller um than 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.800 the uh than their their friends on the savannah, but 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.120 they have the same toe arrangement as the Asian elephant, right, 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.559 which is interesting. So the I I never really thought 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.040 about it, but like, um, a lot of the elephants. 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.120 When I think of elephants, I never realized I was 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.960 thinking of two different species, but they really do. Like 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.240 the Asian elephant and the African bush elephant, they have 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.000 a lot of differences that you can just very quickly 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.120 see which is which kind like the Asian elephant has 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.599 kind of like the rounded dome head and they have 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.440 kind of a hump back and they are a little smaller. 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.560 And then the African bush elephants they're very, very big 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.560 with the big old ears, and they have basically what's 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.000 called like a saddleback. It's kind of flatish, right, or 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.360 maybe even concave a little bit too. Yeah, and here's 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.320 Here's one of the facts of the show for me 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.680 is there's like fifty and here and there's so many, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:24.200 but elephants have They have tusk nous like we have handedness. 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.720 They use their right or their left tusk more often 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.240 than the other. And if you ever wonder which tusk 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.760 is the more dominant one, look and see which one shorter, 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.960 because that's the one that gets worn down quicker. I 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.640 thought that was amazing, pretty neat. I just figured they 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:47.000 were interchangeable. Yep, nope, yep nope. So like it's really 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.080 kind of I had to stop and put myself into this, 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.840 like standing like imagine myself standing next to these elephants 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.080 for like measurements for the average Yeah, you're like, what 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.640 six ft? Yeah, it's just about I'm pretty good. I'm 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.920 like a human dollar bill. You know, a dollar bill 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.760 is like a little about six inches. Same thing here, 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.520 I'm six ft okay, so just stand me next to 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.360 something you'd be like, it's about six ft okay. Don't 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.000 you know about the dollar bill? Well? No, is that 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.200 used as a measuring device when you're short of ruler? Yeah, 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.840 it's about six inches. What if you have no cash 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.160 but you do have a ruler, then you're can you 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.960 spend the ruler and a and a hat shop? You 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.640 could consuerably trade it. Remember that guy who traded, he moved. 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.520 He went from a paper clip to like a house 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.280 trading up. Oh yeah, that guy. That guy could turn 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:36.960 a ruler into cash. He and soy Bombs share an 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:43.199 apartment now and uh an upstate New York. Soy Bomb. Alright, 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.600 so let's talk about the size of these ladies and men, 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.160 because okay, so everybody, imagine me standing next to an elephant, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.640 and you'll really drive all this home. Yes, right, So 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.760 an African forest elephant is Josh's height up to about 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:02.120 eight feet at the shoulder. Yeah, okay, yeah, you don't 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.440 measure from the top of the dome. Um. I wonder 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.920 why they do that with animals. That's always kind of 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.120 the case, right, because I think if the animals, like, well, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.040 I want to seem taller, they could just lift their 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.040 head up very high, you know, or if they're trying 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.080 to keep a low profile, they keep their head down 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.240 so the shoulder it's tough to you know, like when 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:24.080 they're having their kindergarten class picture taken. Uh, the African 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.840 bush elephant is taller. It's about eight to ten feet 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.800 at the shoulder. That's the biggest one. Yeah, four to 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.360 six tons, two to five tons on the forest. African 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.520 and then Asian is seven to nine ft about three 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.440 to five short tons. And we should say there's a 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.959 lot of variation in size here because I think one 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.760 of these experts said that the outliers can be as 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:53.320 big as taller or larger overall than the average, which 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.960 is cute variation. Yeah, there's I think the record for 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.040 an Asian elephant. And remember there, you know, at a 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.880 shoulders seven and nine feet that's still pretty pretty good size, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.560 but the record was eleven and a quarter feet tan. 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.360 That's a big elephant. Like can you imagine that's almost 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.119 two of me? Yeah, like me standing on my own shoulders, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.400 maybe squatted you own just a little bit at the shoulder. 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.600 That's how big that elephant was. And when you're when 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.040 you're talking short tons, that's two thousand pounds. So like 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.000 an African bush elephant can get on average up to 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:33.120 twelve thousand pounds. That's a big boy or a girl. Yeah, 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.880 the boys are a little bit bigger. Um, and they 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:41.239 live a long long time. Here's sort of some inspiring 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:46.280 and sad facts. They can live fifty to seventy years. Uh, 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.600 they've found and recorded at least one elephant that lived 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.240 to be eighty six. That has set the record, which 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.480 is just amazing. But here's the saddest thing. Um, if 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:01.800 you are a zoo elephant, you live maybe less than 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.160 half as long. So I have to say this. The 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:10.439 RSPCA in West sus six England. UM has been there. 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.680 Their numbers have been controversial before. But in this two 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:20.040 thousand and eight study, they they took hundred African and 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.839 Asian elephants that lived in European zoos over the course 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.319 of forty five years. And this is what they came 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.559 up with. So, I mean even in the article that 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.920 people weren't necessarily contesting this data. But I think the 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.520 way that they explained it was that this was old 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.120 data and so it gave you a good idea of 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:44.040 how long elephants lived in captivity, you know, a few 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.200 decades ago, back before they knew more about keeping them 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.520 in zoos. Yeah, and here's what it says. It said 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:55.160 UM thirty six years and a national park in Kenya, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.440 UM seventeen years in a zoo. But it looks to 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.480 me like, unless I'm reading this wrong, at UM elephants 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.120 that work in timber camps. You know, they're very strong, 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.640 so they are still using in timber camps to paul 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.319 wood uh and trees and things. They actually live longer 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:16.520 than zoo elephants. Yeah, So the timber elephants of Burma, 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.560 of me and mar are very well taken care of 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.480 from what I understand, like they're they're considered semi captive 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.040 and for like the last hundred years or so, UM 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.319 the people of Burma have used them to basically move 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.439 huge trees right to pull them out of the forest 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.520 for like logging and stuff. But they're really well cared for. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.520 There's like government veterinarians that do health checks and each 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.439 elephant has their own log and from what I saw, 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.640 which seems mind blowing to me because there they're you know, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.840 um being held captive in a way to work for humans. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.959 And so just based on you know, our our track 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.760 record of using animals like that, I it's just weird 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:01.480 to be that they would be very well taken care of. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.600 But supposedly they are um and they're considered semi captive 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.120 because at night they're allowed to just kind of wander 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.840 around and go free in the forest and they interact 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.600 with wild Asian elephants, and that's how they actually reproduce. Um, 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.880 they're they're not like, there's no kind of reproductive oversight. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.439 It's just go wild, you know. And Um, they apparently 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.160 live very long because they're very well taken care of. Yeah, 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.040 and here's a little factoid for you. When they get 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.720 pregnant in those working camps, they get maternity leave for 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.960 about a year. Yes, So a couple of more quick 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.720 facts and then we'll take a break. Um, little BB 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:46.480 elephants are cared for by their mothers until they are 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:52.280 anywhere between thirteen and twenty years old. So it's almost like, well, 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.640 not quite, but it's almost like the human experience a 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.600 little bit. Yeah, you know somewhere in there. I doubt 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.640 if you're sitting your thirteen year old off, but if 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.400 you're a terrible parent, maybe let's say it's you know, 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.560 thirteen to twenty. Let's say that's eighteen years. It's about 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.679 like a high school age. Uh. And that's also when 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.760 they reach sexual maturity. It takes about twenty two months 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.040 of gestation, which is the longest longest gestational period of 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.280 any animal, I'm sorry, any mammal, and a little BB 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.760 elephant ways between a hundred and fifty and two fifty pounds. 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.120 It's pretty cute. We take a break, Yes, all right, 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:50.480 more pounded facts right after this, Chuck. I just think 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.320 it's adorable that both of our wives got us into elephants. 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.160 We're gonna have to take us safari together. We should 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.360 do that, although that's very dangerous, Like we don't even 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:03.000 fly to you know, Tennessee together. We feared that the 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:04.800 plane will go down and the podcast will be over. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.280 I guess we could trade off then it would be 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.200 pretty amazing story though, Like the podcast would go down 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:13.760 in history. If you and I were eaten by tigers 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:16.160 would be kind of it'd be a heck of a 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.720 way to go. Well, Emily, and you make it just 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.680 take it over, there you go, and it would just 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.080 all be about animals. They should do something together sometime, 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.920 you know, you like, like they should read listener mail 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.800 or something like that, or or or they should just 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:32.560 start their own show called stuff you should Know about 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.600 our husbands. There you go. People that good idea. I 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.200 don't know if we would know, we would not they'd 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.760 be like, you think they're so great. Let's tell you 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.920 about these schlubs. No, no, no, no, no, these puts 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:50.200 is so there should be a ding sound because these 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.920 puts on every show from now on. All right, Elephants 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.360 eat a hundred to six hundred pounds of food in 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.640 a day and drink between sixteen and forty gallons of water. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.800 Say that again, brother, hundreds of six hundred pounds of 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:07.480 food in a day. Um, and they are eating And 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.800 I love this. They basically spend their day when they're awake, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.880 fourteen to sixteen hours a day just sort of looking 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.280 to eat and drink. Yeah, which is it stinks? Like 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.720 if you think about it, the reason why they have 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.320 to eat that much is not because they're so big, 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.720 but because, well it is in part but mostly because 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:32.040 they're herbivores and their digestive system is ridiculously inefficient. Like 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.840 if if elephants are as intelligent as they appear to be, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.480 and probably even more than they appear to be, once 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.360 we start to like learn more about them, I think 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:43.160 all it's gonna do is just provide a cascading series 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.560 of woes. Um. They Like, if they didn't have to 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.320 spend so much of their time looking for food, what 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.480 would they be doing? Maybe they would learn to paint 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.840 on their own maybe. So the reason why they're they're um. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.440 They eat so much again, is because they don't digest 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:05.440 a lot of that food, and so undigested stuff comes 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:10.240 out as poop in such frequency that you can actually 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.040 make paper out of it. There's elephant poop paper. People 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:14.960 use it and they get the fiber out of the 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.800 elephant poop to make paper with. That's how how undigested 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.639 so much of their food is. Yeah, they eat, like 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.560 you said, they are herbivore, so they all kinds of plants. Um. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.720 They love fruit. Imagine that's like the sweet sweet nectar 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.159 when compared to you know, like dry bamboo. Um. And 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.840 they can study their poop and learn a lot from 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.160 their poop, just like most animals. Well, elephants don't study 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.439 their own poop. How do you know they might? Now, 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.160 of course, scientists study it, and they can. They can 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:49.880 learn a lot by you know, because like you said, 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.440 those African forest elephants, they're very elusive in the forest 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.000 and you can't find them, but you can't find their 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.920 poop everywhere. Yeah, you can tell their anus size from 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.000 their poop size, which sounds hilarious and it is. But 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.880 you also can tell like the age and the general 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.360 size of the elephant based on their anus size, which 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.320 you find based on their poop size. That's right. Plus 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.359 you can make a banging paper out of it too. Sure. 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.080 The range. The African bush elephants have a very wide 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.080 range across Africa. UM. South of the Sahara Desert and 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.280 the forest elephant are in rainforest that's the name. Uh. 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.640 Near the equator, sort of around Cameroon is where they're 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:36.760 largely centered. As far as Asian, they're all over Southeast Asia. UM, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.160 they have some in China even, but India is really 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.919 where you're going to find the most Asian elephants. UM 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.800 see Thailand and Anesia, Sumatra, Sri Lanka. They each have 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.520 more than a thousand, and we already talked about Burma 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.240 a little bit. They have the second largest total population worldwide, 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.880 I guess, except for India. They have the the largest 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:00.240 captive population though of at least five thousand, all working 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.360 in those government timber camps, which again I'm just I'm 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:05.960 sure somebody's gonna write and be like, H don't believe 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.680 they're not taking very well care. But I didn't see 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.880 anything like that, which I'm just astounded by. I don't 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:16.080 know if that's coming across or not, but I'm really astounded. Yeah, 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.199 and if you listen to our episode, um, well, I 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.440 guess it's either from last week or it'll be next week. 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.560 And then I'm predicting the future about elephants swimming and 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.960 the which one was at Locknest lock Ness. They do 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.400 love to swim, and they are very floaty. They're very buoyant. Um, 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.919 they won't. You're not gonna find an elephant drowned in 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.960 the water. They can not only swim, but if they 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.239 get tired, they can just float bob. Yeah, they can 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.360 bob in the water. And they apparently an elephant has 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:53.560 been recorded as swimming forty eight kilometers thirty miles. Pretty 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:58.520 amazing and six hours at a stretch. Yeah, that's pretty nuts. 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:01.560 And Babe, the elephants. One of the one of the 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.359 greatest things you can do is sit around and watch 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:09.679 baby elephants splashing in kittie pools on YouTube. They love it. 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.600 They love to swim. Yeah, let's talk about the trunk. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:15.879 Because when you see an elephant and you watch this, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.200 if you'd like, really study an elephant for a while, 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.960 you look at that trunk. It's it's it's amazing. It 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:29.320 looks like a completely separate living thing. Almost sometimes it was. Yeah, 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.359 but it's a nose. It's basically their upper lip and 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.679 their nose combined together in this elongated form. Yeah. But 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:36.399 when they you know, you watch an elephant, a lot 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.119 of times they're just standing still. But this trunk is 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.760 doing so many crazy looking things. I see what you mean. Yeah, 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.560 it just looks like its own, like its own animal, 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:50.320 almost like um, the thing from the Adams Family, the 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:54.159 disembodied hand. That's exactly what I was thinking, or the 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.520 alien hands syndrome guy from our short lived TV show, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:02.040 right right, basically the same thing, right exactly. Uh. And 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.240 one of the big theories is is that trunk, and 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.320 this makes a lot of sense to me evolutionarily speaking, 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:13.720 is that trunk developed um as compensation. Basically, I can 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.960 reach things higher without having to grow, or I can 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:19.400 get things on the ground without having to crouch down 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.760 and put my head on the ground, which makes me 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.040 very very vulnerable to attack. So I have this big, long, 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.240 extended nose that can go get stuff on the ground 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:29.840 or up above me, and I can still sort of 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.560 be safe. Yes, Okay, so it's a nose that you 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.080 can use to get things with, including water. Apparently it 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.560 holds up to two gallons of water in the trunk, 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:45.920 just in the trunk um. But it's also really um dextrous. 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.600 I guess it has a hundred thousand muscles in it, 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:53.240 both fast twitch and slow twitch. So I've read that 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.040 an elephant can pull a limb off of a tree 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.120 with its trunk or pluck a blade of grass out 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.040 of the ground like it's it can it can do 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.119 it all. Basically, it can deal cards whatever. But you 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.680 shouldn't train an elephant to deal cards. No, just put 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:12.919 the cards down and walk away. And if it happens, 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.480 it happens. That is that is the motto of dealing 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:21.959 with elephants. Um And initially, you know, evolution might have said, hey, 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.800 use these great things to drink water out of. But 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.000 like we said, and we'll continue to hammer this home. 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.640 Elephants are super smart. So they said, hey, I've got 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:36.480 this really long fifth arm that has two hundred thousand 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.119 muscles in it, so I can get food, and I 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.159 can bathe myself, and I can pick up dust and 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.159 mud and put it all over my body. If I 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:45.800 don't want to get sunburned, or if I want to 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:48.639 have a sort of low fi insect repellent, or I 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.520 can communicate with my buddy over there with my trunk. Yeah, 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:53.280 there's a lot of stuff they do with their trunk 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:55.760 that we're starting to figure out. There's a group called 0:22:55.800 --> 0:23:00.280 Elephant Voices UM, and they have an elephant just there's 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:05.200 database based on decades of studying elephants up close, UM, 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:09.560 and they have a really complex and intricate UM basically 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:11.960 a sign language that includes more than just their trunk, 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:14.440 but their trunk plays a big role in it too. Yeah. 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:19.359 There's one example on this article flop trunk on head UM, 0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:23.120 and that is an elephant basically raising the head vertically 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.720 and then flipping their trunk really high up in the 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:28.960 air and letting it PLoP down on their head. That 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:33.320 is a very specific play based gesture, kind of a 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.360 joyful play. Yeah, Like if you see an elephant doing that, 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.240 they're having a good time. Yeah. The the Elephant Gestures database, 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:43.480 the names of the different things the gestures sound like 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.600 they were all written by Nell. Flop trunk on head 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.679 at least that you can make. So I've got another factor. 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:55.639