1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,200 Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, 3 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: and if history is an open book, all of these 4 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for 5 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:36,559 Speaker 1: us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: human body is amazing. Our bodies contain over two hundred 7 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: bones and six hundred and fifty muscles that allow us 8 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,919 Speaker 1: to stand upright, dance, and compete in various sports. Our 9 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: brains have sixteen billion neurons that enable us to perform 10 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: quick calculations, invent new ideas, create tools, relate to others, 11 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: and create strategies among so much else. Our brains also 12 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: regulate our bodies, controlling our muscles, regulating our temperatures and emotions, 13 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,039 Speaker 1: and processing the information we take in. Our brains, and 14 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,559 Speaker 1: some argue are opposable thumbs, have allowed us to create 15 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: inventions that extend or significantly augment what our bodies and 16 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: brains were designed to do. Cars, bicycles, and other modes 17 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:22,400 Speaker 1: of transportation allow us to travel greater distances and faster 18 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: than we can on foot. Computers, often solve problems more 19 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: quickly than our brains. We're pretty impressive as a species, 20 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:32,120 Speaker 1: or at least we'd like to think so. Yet other 21 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,800 Speaker 1: species have inspired us to achieve even more. Since humankind's 22 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,199 Speaker 1: earliest years, we've longed to fly like birds. Early versions 23 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,200 Speaker 1: of aircraft tried to mimic the way birds flew. In 24 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,319 Speaker 1: the end, we settled for airplanes, and of course inventions 25 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:49,559 Speaker 1: like hang gliders. We've invented away to see at nights 26 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,200 Speaker 1: like owls and other nocturnal predators like cats. Whales have 27 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: inspired submarines. Bats and dolphins became the inspiration for sonar. 28 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: A duck's webbed feet where the model for flippers. Drones fly, dive, 29 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,919 Speaker 1: and hover like hummingbirds or peregrine falcons. Companies have created 30 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: dog like robots that can carry objects, trek over outdoor terrain, 31 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: and detect various information from locations that are unsafe for 32 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,119 Speaker 1: us humans. But of course robots can be a bit 33 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 1: creepy for sure. Science fiction buffs do wonder how far 34 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: we are from the humanoid robots in the Terminator movies, 35 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: and while we're still working on creating upright robots capable 36 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: of moving around like US, it's another animal that has 37 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: the US Army's attention. Researchers have set a lofty goal 38 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: create a four legged robots capable of maneuvering over the 39 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: most challenging terrain. The robot should be able to make 40 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: near instantaneous decisions with an array of adjustments, and it 41 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,080 Speaker 1: should be able to right itself just as it's about 42 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: to roll over. Now in nature, the animal that's inspired 43 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:53,080 Speaker 1: this is practically unrivaled in its ability to jump and 44 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: assess obstacles practically on the fly. The animals have a 45 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:00,519 Speaker 1: keen ability to make bold leaps, often of death, defy nature. 46 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 1: In their natural habitat, the animals learn at an early 47 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: age how to judge distances and make appropriate calculations when 48 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,120 Speaker 1: jumping from object to object. They can flip and twist 49 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:15,359 Speaker 1: seemingly in mid air thanks to their mastery of spatial orientation. 50 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: They're also keen observers and can spot threats easily. Although 51 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: we don't give these animals much thought, they're almost as 52 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: intelligent as they are agile. They can find items that 53 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,359 Speaker 1: they haven't seen for months and assess their food quality 54 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: by weight. Psychologists who study the mammal created a wall 55 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: equipped with a springboard and flexible landing platform. After coaxing 56 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: the wild animals that willingly worked for their favorite food, 57 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: researchers learned essential facts. For example, the animal values sturdier 58 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 1: takeoff platforms more than flexible ones. The takeoff and landing 59 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: objects were more important to the animal than the gap 60 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: in between them. Of course, the biologists and biomechanics team 61 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: at the University of California's Berkeley campus know that such 62 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: a robot isn't like anything we have today. Though we've 63 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: seen some impressive moves, today's robots simply aren't built to 64 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: be as flexible as our furry friend here. But what 65 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: makes this animal's movements so important? The Army believes such 66 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,200 Speaker 1: a robot would go anywhere a soldier could. The robots 67 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,559 Speaker 1: would be able to weigh their agility against the terrain. 68 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,479 Speaker 1: Search and rescue missions would also benefit. The robots could 69 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: enter buildings in danger of collapse to search for survivors. 70 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: So while we envisioned huge, scary looking robots like those 71 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: we see in the movies, researchers and the US Army 72 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,160 Speaker 1: are looking at designing furturistic robots that may not work 73 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: for peanuts, but are modeled after those that do our 74 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:57,039 Speaker 1: friendly neighborhood squirrel. Everybody has that favorite book they loved 75 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: as a child. It might have been about a dragon, 76 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:02,599 Speaker 1: or a fairy princess, or a misunderstood ogre living in 77 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: a swamp. Whatever it was, we read it until the 78 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: spine wore away and the pages fell out. We can 79 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: probably still remember the mom or dad or grandparents who 80 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: tucked us in and sat with us as they read 81 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: it aloud to us, until we were carried off to 82 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:20,039 Speaker 1: that dreamland on their whispered words. As we got older, though, 83 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: we lose touch with that part of our childhood. But 84 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: even though we may not read those books anymore, they 85 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 1: stay with us, and if we're lucky, we might get 86 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: to share them with our own children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, 87 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: one children's book in particular did not leave a love 88 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: of reading in one nation's children. Instead, it led to 89 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,479 Speaker 1: the takeover of an invasive species, and the country is 90 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: still dealing with it. It started in nineteen sixty three 91 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,960 Speaker 1: with the publication of the book Rascal, A Memoir of 92 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,720 Speaker 1: a Better Era, by Sterling North. North hailed from Wisconsin 93 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 1: and had turned a pivotal year of his life into 94 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: a best selling children's book You See When he was younger, 95 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:00,080 Speaker 1: He'd taken care of a baby raccoon, which led to 96 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,359 Speaker 1: some hilarious hijinks within the family. In the book, the 97 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: animal rode in a basket on North's bicycle and even 98 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,560 Speaker 1: helped him win a pie eating contest. The book ends 99 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:13,680 Speaker 1: with young Sterling releasing the raccoon named Rascal back out 100 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: into the wild to live where it belonged. It was 101 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: a cute story, one that Disney eventually took notice of 102 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 1: and turned into a live action film in nineteen sixty nine, 103 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: but it wasn't until a Japanese animation studio got a 104 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: hold of it that things took a strange and ecologically 105 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:34,320 Speaker 1: damaging turn. In nineteen seventy seven, Nipon Animation Company adapted 106 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:37,760 Speaker 1: North's book into a fifty two episode anime series called 107 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: a Reguma Rasukaru, which in English means raccoon Rascal. Like 108 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,240 Speaker 1: its source material, the anime told the story about a 109 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,600 Speaker 1: little boy who took care of a small raccoon. He 110 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: tried to make it a pet, but the wild animal 111 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: refused to be domesticated that had to eventually be returned 112 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:56,360 Speaker 1: to the wild. The show aired from January second of 113 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,440 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven until December twenty fifth of the same year. However, 114 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: despite the anime's serious lessons about caring for and releasing 115 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,640 Speaker 1: wild animals, they seem to have no impact on the 116 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: people who watched it, or maybe they just never finished 117 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: the series because the message of the show was clear 118 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: raccoons make terrible pets. Still, that didn't stop Japanese families 119 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: from importing them into the country in the years following 120 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:24,320 Speaker 1: its release and eventual conclusion, and usually one of two 121 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,120 Speaker 1: things would happen after a family brought in a raccoon. 122 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,680 Speaker 1: Either the animal escaped, as wild animals are known to do, 123 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: or it was released by well meaning owners who wanted 124 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,560 Speaker 1: to emulate what they had learned from the show, although 125 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: truth be told, the animals themselves were only too happy 126 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: to remind their human helpers that they were not meant 127 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: to be kept indoors. Many raccoons got belligerent as they 128 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: got older, biting and snapping at the boys and girls 129 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: who had tried to care for them. But raccoons are 130 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: not native to Japan and they have few predators. As 131 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,880 Speaker 1: a result, they proliferated in their new country by two 132 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: thousand and eight, descendants of the original animals had moved 133 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: into all forty seven Japanese prefectures where they had wreaked havoc. 134 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: Ever since, it's believed that eighty percent of Japanese temples, 135 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 1: as well as acres of crops, have been damaged or 136 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 1: destroyed by invasive raccoons, costing the country thirty million yen 137 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: or almost two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars every year. 138 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: To combat the scourge of these ringtailed rascals, Japan actually 139 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: banned the import of pet raccoons, but still contends with 140 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: their progeny to this day. When art inspires us, it 141 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 1: can lead to wonderful things. We may go on to 142 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,200 Speaker 1: create our own art or take up a meaningful cause, 143 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: But in Rascal's case, the only thing it led to 144 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: was finding new and unique ways to secure your garbage 145 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: canlids every single night. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 146 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 147 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 148 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:03,960 Speaker 1: curiositiescast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron 149 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: Manke in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another 150 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 1: award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, 151 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,360 Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it 152 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:18,000 Speaker 1: over at the world of Lore dot com. And until 153 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:19,960 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.