WEBVTT - Big Baby Mayhem 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.520 Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:15.560 of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.120 and today on the show, it's Baby Mayhem. We're talking 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.480 about giant babies from a variety of big megafauna and 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.040 all of the shenanigans these little babies get up to, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.720 from elk to elephants to the biggest animal in the 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.879 world that has ever existed. We are talking about fairly 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.680 large babies and how they live their lives, how they 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.160 baby round, and how essentially every animal baby is pretty 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.960 much the same. Joining me today is proprietress of the 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.440 website how to Eat La and host of the smart 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:58.120 Mouth podcast, Catherine Spires. Welcome. Thank you so much for 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.280 having me back on. I love being here. I am 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.080 so excited to have you on. You told me about 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.520 a elk story that you have involving baby Elk, which 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.280 is the whole reason I'm doing this. So can you 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:14.240 share your baby elk observations? Yeah, yeah, okay. So my 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.640 parents live in Utah, in like semi rural Utah, and 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.080 there's a herd of elk that lives in their neighborhood. 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.920 And so in the fall, there's just like I don't know, 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.000 about two hundred elk just wandering about and you might 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:28.800 wake up one morning and they're all in your yard 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.319 or something like that. I was there in November and 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.680 December and their backyard. Imagine like the house with a 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.800 hill immediately behind it in the backyard, a hill that 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.959 goes down and then there's a flat land and then 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.640 it goes up again. So if you can imagine like 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.840 a natural coliseum, yeah type thing, I'm imagining the stands 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.440 of like elk sitting. That's pretty much it's blogs. Yeah, 0:01:55.480 --> 0:02:01.840 like one elk going around with big pretzels hanging from antlers, Yeah, 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:08.000 selling them. Yeah, that's you're totally on points. Okay. So 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.160 we were looking out in the backyard one day and 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.760 the whole herd of elk was there, which isn't like 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.840 crazy but obviously like very cool every time that you 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.799 see it. I mean, not crazy in the sense of 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.120 not being unexpected. And we've realized that they're sort of 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.440 like circled up and two of the dudes are like 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.040 in the middle of the arena. They've got like they're 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:32.880 the biggest dudes, and they've got the biggest horns, and 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.000 they're sort of circling each other, and we realized that 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:40.920 there's two more dudes like on either side of the arena, 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.400 and I was like, are these they're like rather seconds 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:48.480 for the duel? Yeah? Yeah, And then like all the 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.639 ladies and all the babies are just like hanging about, 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.120 and then the two big dudes started getting closer and 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.160 closer to each other, and we were like, oh my god, 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:58.760 this is going to be some sort of epic battles. 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:00.720 They're going to be bloodshed I nervous. I was like, 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.320 I don't really want to see this. And then they 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.800 locked horns and just stood there with their horns locked, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.920 going see ee at each other for like forty five minutes. 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.040 And that was the fight, and we couldn't tell who 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.279 won except for that one of them. When he separated, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.280 he went to his second and headbutted him a bunch 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.200 of times, like he must have lost because he's like 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.320 embarrassed in taking it out on his homie right now. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.120 So that was great. But my favorite part was what 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.440 happened next. Is like as the dudes had their horns 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:37.280 locked or their antlers locked, the baby started getting like 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.040 more hyper. Yeah, like there was like more bouncing, yeah, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.040 and then when the fight was over, they were so 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.440 hyped up. All the baby elks were just like running 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.600 in circles and then they would do this thing where 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:54.520 they would sort of like practice punch trees. That's like 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.600 they were just kind of like and then they'd sort 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.320 of like stand up on their hind legs like sort 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:01.640 of near each other and sort of make the headbutting 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.320 motion like they were practicing. And then a couple and 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:11.760 they were probably boys, kind of like ran towards dudes 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.160 who had been fighting and sort of made like a 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.200 vague headbutting emotion and then would run away. Really that's 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.240 so cute. Oh my god, it was amazing and I 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.719 can't stop thinking about it because I do think that 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.320 animals have more of like I don't know, awareness and 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.599 maybe emotional intelligence that we give them credit for. But 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.680 I was like, this is exactly how little kids human 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.320 kids behave when something exciting goes on with adults. Yeah, no, absolutely, 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.960 I mean they're playing, they're like what it's like watching 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.080 sports and then acting out they see having fun and 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.360 playing so everything, Like, I really don't think you're projecting 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.839 in terms of emotions there I think that you really 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.520 were seeing like what you think you were seeing that 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.520 they're playing. Yeah, they're copying what they're seeing. They're very 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:01.159 excited and they're you know, they're trying to get involved, 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.880 like doing the little the playful headbuts and yeah, we're 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.400 gonna we're gonna talk about the importance of play with 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:14.559 baby elk and also other animals. But they let's first 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.960 talk about what are elk. Elk are large ungulates. They're 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:25.360 the largest deer or they're they they're the second largest 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.600 member of the deer family, the first largest being moose. 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:33.000 Elk live in North America as well as in Central 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:37.680 and East Asia. They have very large antlers, and like 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.800 all antlers, they're actually made out of living bone. So 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.839 when antlers grow, they like when they're growing in and 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.800 the spring, are covered in this like soft, slightly furry 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.520 skin called velvet, which actually they will shed that off 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.520 and it comes off in strips and sometimes they eat 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.560 like the strips as they're shedding off, so it's kind 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.479 of like a me jerky, like a self jerkey that 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:07.360 they're eating. Gross. Yeah, it's kind of like it's kind 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.480 of like when you eat, like when you chew up 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:12.960 a little piece of your cuticle and you're just like, well, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.560 I don't know where else to put it. But yeah, 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.640 they are there nutrients in it. Yeah, it's meat essentially, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.640 they get some nutrients from it. And deer and are 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.960 not above just slurping up random little bits of meat 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.599 sometimes like in fact, sometimes like elk and deer, Like 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:35.880 if there's a carcass, they might be like, oh what's 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.560 this and nibble a little bit off of it. Obviously 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.840 they are herbivores, but once in a while they might 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.800 eat a little bit of meat just you know, if 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.599 they find it. That makes sense to me. I feel 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:51.279 that moose have bloodlust. This is my firmly held belief 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.760 they do, you know. I mean if you see, like, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.000 I've never seen a moose in person, but I've definitely 0:06:58.040 --> 0:06:59.960 seen the scale of a moose, and I have seen 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.760 like a taxi dermied moose like from a natural history 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:09.520 museum in purpose in person, and they are really frightening. Yeah, 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.680 they're scary. I I think I would not be able 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.760 to handle seeing a moose in real life. Yeah. Yeah, 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.800 people think that they can don't know what they're talking about. 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.320 It's a very bad ideas. Yeah, we're gonna yeah, we're 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:30.960 gonna be talking about bad ideas. So as you observed exactly, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.280 males will compete for mating opportunities by bellowing at each 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.320 other or showing off their antlers. Uh. They'll try to 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.280 avoid a confrontation at first by assessing who would be 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.679 the likely winner, but if neither backs down, they'll they'll 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.960 engage in a fight by ramming their antlers together, which 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.320 is a very risky activity. They could be seriously injured. 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.640 They could even die. Both of them could get could 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.080 die if they get too entangled. It's it's kind of 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.320 like medieval jousting, right like it's a it's a it's 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.560 a serious activity that they're isking. So that's why they 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.040 try at first to sort of see who they think 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.360 is gonna win. So, but then if they can't make 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.000 a determination, if neither backs down, then they engage in 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.760 the fight because they don't really want to be killed 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.120 or hurt, but they do have to compete in order 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.960 to have access to females. Is the antler locking Is 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.280 that the fight itself or is that like the pre fight? 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.600 That is that is the fight itself? Like locking the antlers, 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.880 Usually they they'll like shake it around. Sometimes they'll kick 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.280 with their front legs, so it's that is a that 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.560 is a fight. Sometimes they'll spar which is usually it's 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:45.560 just a little less dramatic, so they'll they will sort 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.920 of like butt heads or sort of kind of lock 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.440 their antlers together, but in a way that's a little 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.000 more testing. So like when they're sparring, it's you know, 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.400 usually younger males who aren't quite at the level of 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.200 like the big dominant ball. Uh, they'll they'll kind of 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.360 like do these like sparring where it kind of looks 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.240 like they're fighting, but there it's just a little bit 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.240 more brief and it's a little it's less serious. They're 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.160 not actually like what you saw with the loser, like 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.880 butting heads with the other male that may have been 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.960 sort of like a a sparring thing of like why 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:23.960 what did I get wrong? Why am I? Why do 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:28.280 I suck at this? And then for sure yeah and uh, 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.400 and also what the babies were doing, which is like 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.720 sort of mimicking the motion sparring with each other, kicking 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.480 at trees, like that's all a form of play that 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:42.440 helps them learn how to fight with rival mails without 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.760 actually risking their lives right, like because because the idea 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.439 is like you want to become you want to get 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:54.320 good at it, and you want to avoid being seriously injured. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.720 And but but yeah, it's still the competition is so 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.400 fierce that they have to get good at it and 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.400 so like that that's that's where that playfulness comes from. 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.959 Mm hmm. Yeah, you could tell that, like even though 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.360 they were playing and not really making contact, there'd always 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.520 be one that would back down first. I also wondered, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:18.840 so after the excitement, all the women, the women, this 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.040 is I feel like a lot of my friends will 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.880 just call female animals women and it's very funny to me, 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.640 and I don't I don't feel like correcting it, just 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.800 because it's very funny to me a lot of women. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.280 And by women, I mean I mean I mean female elk. Yes, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.360 they they all just sort of sat down. It was. 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.000 It was just so interesting. I felt like, yeah, okay, 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:44.480 the dudes are going at it. And then once they 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.880 knew no one was seriously injured, they were like, enough 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.720 with you. I'm like going back to my knitting type thing. 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.520 But I want when they're little. Was was I only 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.840 seeing the boy babies playfight or were the girl babies 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.360 that it's probably mostly males, but I wouldn't be surprised 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:09.480 if female young also engage in some of the play fighting. 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.120 Like I think that it definitely once they get a 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.920 little older, like when their adolescent. So I don't think 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.200 the females do it, but like the real real young 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.880 babies are probably just gonna play around, jump around, so 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.600 they may also get pretty excited. But the you know, 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.800 probably the ones that were more aggressively sparring were most 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.120 likely the males, right like okay, kind of like like 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.760 when my dog was a puppy, she observed a dog 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.040 humping another dog and she's like, well, that looks like fun. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.079 So then she tried it out, but she got it wrong. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:44.839 So and so like going from the back, she did 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:49.280 it like perpendicular to the dogs, so like kind of sideways, uh. 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.040 And it was just sort of like resting her paws 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.960 sideways on the dog's back and sort of like doing 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.520 at like hit movement sort of like she was toerking, 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:03.760 and it was very funny. Oh my god, that's amazing. Yeah. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.560 Oh you mentioned bellowing. The male's bellowing when they're fighting, 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.960 but the noise I heard, like we all felt so 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.920 embarrassed for the boy elks. It was just such. It's 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.679 a little it's a very funny noise. It's called bugling. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.839 Let me play it. Let me play the American elk 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.200 bugling sound for you, because you'll see what Catherine is saying. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:34.800 It's not it's not quite the manly roar that one 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.680 might think would be a dominant cry. But yeah, it's 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.640 more high pitched. It's kind of like it's it's called bugling. 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.480 I guess because it sounds like a bugle, I mean, 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.640 a really terrible bugle. But but yeah, that's a call 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:52.439 to tract, attract the females to stick out their territory, 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:58.120 sometimes as like a warning to another male. And yes, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:03.920 it's it's considered peak maskalinity in the elk elk world, 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.160 sort of a a little bit of a Byork thing. 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.599 I don't want to be mean to Byork. She's she 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.079 does good songs, but there's a little bit of what 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.320 she's doing. She does know what she's doing. Yeah, when 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.000 it's no coincidence that when Byork sings they have to 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.320 watch out for female elk, just going like, huh, what 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:32.080 was that all? Across Iceland. York's great. Actually, yeah, in Iceland, 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.760 they probably wouldn't. They wouldn't have elk, they would have reindeer. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.920 And those are indeed a kind of deer. Yes, yes, reindeer. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.520 They're real. They're not full of Christmas magic, but they are. 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:56.000 They're real deer. So yeah, and elk are actually kind 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:00.880 of freaks. They love urine, So males have urethra is 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.160 specifically designed to direct p at a ninety degree angle 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.160 up at their own fur so that they it's kind 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:11.760 of like a cologne that females will smell and be 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:17.240 attracted to. Males also create pea baths called wallows, where 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.280 they pee in shallow ditches that they kind of dig 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.080 out and then they roll around in the urine, so 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:31.000 you know, whoa, that's nasty they look. It's uh, it's 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.680 all done for the ladies because lady elk really do 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:42.560 love the fresh smell of uh ppe ppe colonna ota toilette, 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.840 but very literal, it's really the lady elk that are 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.280 the freaks. Yeah, although the males also like to smell 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.160 the ladies while they're peeing, so you know it's they're 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.560 all free. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah, they're Also they're 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:02.400 also extremely dangerous, particularly during calving season and when they 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:07.040 have calves around, so they do not passively accept intruders 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.000 and they will stomp you to smithereens if they think 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.600 you're a threat. Again, these are the second largest ungulates, 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:19.000 only dwarfed by moose, so they're quite large, quite dangerous. 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.120 According to the Yellowstone National Park Service, during the calving 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:29.280 season in the spring, elk are super dangerous. They will 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.200 stomp you, they will attack you if you get too 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.640 close to them and their babies. They have a warning 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.480 on their website called warning Elk Calving has Begun. Cow 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.680 Elk are much more aggressive towards people during the calving 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.640 season and may charge or kick. Stay alert, look around 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:51.480 corners before exiting buildings or walking around blind spots. Cow 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.560 Elk may bed their calves near buildings and cars. Keep 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.240 at least twenty five yards from elk at all times. 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.760 If an elk charge does, you find shelter in your 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.960 v or behind a tall, s dirty barrier as quickly 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:08.320 as possible. You are responsible for your own safety. So elk's. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.160 Elk are serious business. They really are, and I have 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:17.760 some I have some concerns overall, I think it's been 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.240 really interesting with the rise of social media. I think 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.520 a big part of why I think animals have more 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.720 intelligence than we think has been from social media and 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.280 seeing like chickens with feelings and stuff like that. And 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:34.000 it's also been interesting. Remember Teddy the Porcupine, Yes, it 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.600 was a big hit a couple of years ago. And noises, Yeah, 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.160 we're like, oh my god, this is actual Disney animal 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:45.240 noise happy noises. Yeah. Yeah, it was incredible. But then 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.360 but then I'm like, but they're not Disney animals. In 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.720 a couple summers ago, when I was in Olympic National 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:55.160 Park in Washington State, the deer were so aggressive, yeah, 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:56.840 at the picnic area, and I didn't want to touch 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:58.480 them because I was like, I don't know what bugs 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:00.400 y'all are carrying. But I had to get it's so 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:03.400 aggressive back to get them to not eat our food. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.360 And I don't know what to say. I think everybody 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.600 should be allowed to be in nature, but at the 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.200 same time, why can't people respect animals? It really freaks 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:17.040 me out. Yeah, it's it's really about respecting the both 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.520 the animals safety and your own safety, and respecting the 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.560 fact that yeah, it's not. It's not like it's gonna 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.520 be like the scene in Snow White where if you 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.800 crouch in a forest, a deer will gently put its 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.200 head under your elbow, Like if if you like try to, 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.760 you know, steal a baby elk, its mom is probably 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.120 gonna find you, and she has a very particular set 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.280 of skills, which is stomping you to smithereens. I have 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:50.800 seen a video of an elk stomping. It's and I 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.359 think it was like directed in a cougar. It's wild, 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.480 it's very powerful. It messed this cougar up. So yeah, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.840 so yeah, be careful around elk I did earlier. I 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:06.800 just want to correct a slip of the time I 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.200 said I said elk are the second biggest ungulate. I 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.480 meant the second biggest deer. Obviously there are bigger ungulates 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:20.800 like Jiroffes. Anyway, Oh okay, yeah, but anyways, back to 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.760 bad decisions. For some reason, people keep putting baby elk 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:29.240 in their cars in national parks, thinking that if they 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.879 find them alone, that they've been abandoned by their mothers. 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.760 Don't do it. Don't do this with elk. Don't do 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:41.040 this with other deer, like elk will leave their calves alone, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.760 but this is a actually a survival strategies. So the 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.320 females will hide their newborn calves when they go out 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.000 to forage, and then they will return repeatedly to the 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.240 calve to like nurse them, because this is actually the 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.240 safest way to take care of the babies because that 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.480 first week, the newborn calf does not have a strong smell, 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.400 so predators are unlikely to find it when it's nestled 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.200 in the bushes. It'd be much more likely for this 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.880 calf to get caught, like if it's following its mother 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.639 and predators can see it out in the open, So 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.240 the mother leaves it, you know, usually in a bushy 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.920 or grassy area or behind some kind of structure so 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.440 that the calf is hidden. And so essentially you're just 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.000 kidnapping the baby if you try to, like, you know, 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.960 quote unquote rescue it. So don't touch it, don't rescue it, 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.800 you're really not. This goes for fawns as well, Like 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.040 just like deer, you might be more used to, like 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:42.960 if you see a fawn just kind of like curled 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.040 up in the bushes in the grass, don't touch it, 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.200 don't carry it away somewhere. It was probably left thereby 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.639 its mother, and the mother's going to return, and this 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:56.080 is a normal behavior. Yeah. I mean, podcast audiences are 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.960 self selecting, so your audience probably knows this already. Yeah, 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.560 but I just feel like want to say, in case 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.800 someone who doesn't normally listen randomly listen to this second, like, 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.760 don't touch the baby animals in wild areas, especially if 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.720 it's government owned land, because if you, for instance, see 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:15.159 a bear cub and think it's really cute and you 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.440 interact with it, the government will kill that bear cub 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.679 and its siblings and it's mom. So please leave them alone. 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.560 And they're not killing the bear family for fun, They're 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.439 doing it for everybody's future safety that you personally just ruined. 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.360 So now you're a bear murderer. Yeah, I think, Yeah, 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.320 I mean I do agree. I don't think my audience 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.360 is probably gonna be going out trying to kidnap baby animals, 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:39.760 I know, but this is this is good advice because 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.480 like I do feel like we're it's more that we're 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:47.560 deputizing you to go and stop animal kidnappers with knowledge, 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:53.520 with knowledge, and you know, it's I think that oftentimes 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.640 these things. These things can come from a good place 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:58.479 where it's like, oh, I have to help this animal. 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.400 So I get that, and I don't think I think 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:05.320 oftentimes it is done in good faith. Obviously there's the 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:09.359 rfks of the world warts that's not done in good faith. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.639 But yeah, so yeah, don't kidnap a baby elk. You 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:19.320 will get hunted down by a bunch of liam Neeson's 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:26.159 that have hooves and anger. So that's not a great idea. 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.240 I know you're not gonna do it, But tell your friends. 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.560 Tell fine, you know, everyone has a friend where you're 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.720 like that would be the friend that would think that 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.200 maybe they should kidnap a baby elk. Talk to that 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.800 friend and tell them not to because like in the case, 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:46.280 like you know, I read a news story about like 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:48.719 someone had put an elk, baby elk in their car 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.959 and then like essentially they the park rangers forced them 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.320 to release the elk. But the elk, you know, ran 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:58.960 off into w's somewhere. Who knows if it ever found 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.680 its mom again, right, like hopefully yes, But it's just like, 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.320 what are you doing. It's like if you found you 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:05.960 found like a kid at the mall and you're like 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.680 all right, I'm gonna like take you to Canada or something, 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:12.440 or if you're already in Canada, I'm gonna take you 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:16.280 to uh, you know, America. Like it's just like, why 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:18.359 would you do that? Just leave it, leave them alone, 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:25.640 and you know probably their their moms nearby. So yeah, 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:31.000 don't kidnap baby Elk. No, no kidnapping whatsoever. Blanket rule, 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:37.520 blanket rule, it's bad, don't do it. Really, we're really 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:42.320 sticking it to my audience of educated animal lovers. You 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:48.080 already know all of this, but you know, well, you know, 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:50.920 it never hurts to remind people. Right, Sometimes you just 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.040 forget and you're like, oh damn, and there's a baby 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:59.199 Elk in your car and you're like, oh man, forgot, Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:01.919 It happens to the it really does. All right, Well, 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.480 we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:09.600 we're gonna talk about another big baby, all right, Catherine. 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:14.840 So now we're gonna talk about baby Elephants. Cute, very cute, 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:22.080 super goofy. Everybody loves them, their little little scamps. Man, 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:26.560 I feel so much for mom Elephants. Though it takes 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.520 twenty two months, which is you know, nearly two years 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:34.760 for baby elephants to gest date and then they give 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:39.119 birth to like it's like a mini coop sized baby. 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:44.399 Oh my god, yeah, it's it's wild. How long do 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:50.240 elephants live? Big live quite a long time. I believe 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.640 it's around forty to sixty years old. Let me double 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:58.159 check that. Well, two years gestation seems too long for 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:02.000 that lifespan. I don't like that. Yeah, so like African 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:06.200 elephants live sixty to seventy years, Asian elephants live around 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:09.680 forty eight years. That's that's a long time though for 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.080 a wild animal. To be fair, that's a very long time. 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:15.440 They could probably live even longer if there was some 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:19.840 I mean, elephants don't really do well in captivity, but 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:25.359 if like there was elephant healthcare, which there kind of 0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:28.960 is in certain natural reserves. Anyways, the point I'm making 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:32.480 is that's a long lifespan for an animal that lives 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:36.480 in such a sort of a tough and unforgiving environment. 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:41.160 Uh huh uh huh. Do they have to eat more 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:44.720 the entire time they're pregnant, yeah or anything like that? Okay, yeah, yeah, 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:46.840 they have to eat more while they're pregnant. They also 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:51.120 eat more while they're lactating to be able to Yeah, 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:53.200