April 30, 2022 • 19 mins
This episode we’re all about Gators as Will and Mango chat about the best way to get an alligator to duet with you, why gators are surprisingly good mothers, and how a California theme park taught Americans to share their water slides with these toothy beasts.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio, Guess
What Will?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So I was thinking about how sometimes we forget that
all these simple things around us.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Are really music, and what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Like I was in traffic coming from the airport this
weekend and everyone was honking, and I remembered how most
cars actually honk in the key of F or. This
is another thing. When I was in high school, this
kid Sean, and my jazz band realized that our high
school's bell rang at I think a G. So when
the class was over and the first bell rang, everyone
would harmonize and play a G seven chord on their instruments.
(00:42):
It's so nerdy, so stupid, but of course I loved it.
But this week I learned that if you want to
get an alligator's attention, all you have to do is
grab your tuba and play a B flat.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Okay, I like that for this experiment, all you have
to have You got to have an alligator and a
tube nearby. But so what exactly happens when you play
a B flat?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It is magical because for some reason, that note arouses
male gators, and when an alligator hears it, it'll bellow
or call back to you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Is this a real thing?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, it's actually got this great origin story. So apparently
in the nineteen forties, the New York Philharmonic took a
field trip to the Natural History Museum and while they
were warming up there, this alligator named Oscar, who I
guess was a part of the natural history exhibit at
the time, he just started moaning.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And you know, they're all.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
These scientists there and they were watching, and you know,
he'd start moaning, and then the instruments would play, and
then he'd moan, and then he'd stop and it would
start again. And so you know, the scientists stopped the
musicians and got them to start playing different notes to
see what was specifically causing it. And for whatever reason,
it turns out B flat was the key to the
(01:54):
alligator call. Thanks to this great science done by Oscar
and the New York Philharmonic, plenty of folks have actually
repeated experiment and gotten alligators to duet with them. But
you actually have to remember, not any B flat works.
You actually have to play the B flat that's one
octave below middle sea to really get them going. Okay,
that's just the first of nine wonderful facts we've got
(02:15):
about alligators today.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend mangesh Hot Ticketter. And on the other side of
that soundproof glass are good Buddy Ramsey.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He's giving us his best toothy grin. All right, mego.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So it's been a while since we've done one of
these shows. I know I've actually missed it so much.
And two things before we can this off.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
One, I promised that if and when we finally started
doing the show again, we'd give a shout out to
our listener's son, Apollo, who is a fan of the
show or was a fan of the show. But Apollo,
if you're listening, tag us on Instagram. We want to
see what you're up to.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What's up, Apollo, This weird show.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
About alligators is for you. And two, Will, I know
you've gone to Saint Pete's in Florida so many times,
but I don't know why you didn't tell me that
they keep baby alligators in their mini golf places there.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The only downside to doing this episode is that I
was hoping to save this for when we both I know,
both of us really want to retire to Florida, and
since we're really bad at most sports instead of golf,
we were going to retire there to play mini golf.
And that's when I was going to tell you, Yeah,
the big reveal.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So my in laws rented a place there for winter
break and we took my kids mini golfing. And the
fact that there were tiny gators that you could feed.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
These pellets so crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
You put alligator food on the little fishing and send
it down. Honestly, it was the greatest thing. And the
mini golf was so unremarkable, but the fact that my
tiny monsters were feeding these tiny monsters was just great.
So I thought, you know, I wanted to learn more
about gators.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
That's awesome. And actually you have one more reason, right.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, And this one's a little more personal. My dad
has been pretty ill recently. I know I told you this,
but he can't really watch things. But he loves you,
and he has stacks of mental floss in his garage
and he's a huge, huge, part time genius fan. So
he and Apollo might be the only ones left off there.
But I thought hearing us laugh and be goofy and
(04:40):
sharing facts who would make him smile. So thank you
for making the time to do some more episodes with me.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh, I love your dad.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
This was a no brainer to do this, And it
makes sense for this topic because when I think of
your dad, I always think of his love for these big,
aggressive reptiles. It's kind of like his thing. So it
makes sense you pick this theme especially for him. But
we've actually got eight facts to go. So what do
you say I do the next one?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, go for it, all right.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So I actually wanted to build on your b flat
fact because bellowing is one of those things crocodiles do
as a mating ritual. And so the bellow does this
amazing thing to the water. It's where the alligator just
raises his head and tail out of the water, so
his back and belly are still submerged. You know, it's
almost like if you imagine like a banana curved up
(05:26):
and so you lower it into the water so both
ends are sticking out and you know you can picture this, right,
except instead of a banana, it's a gate. Just go
with me, just just think about it. And so when
the gator bellows or does its deep grow. These vibrations
make the water around its body kind of kind of
like ripple out.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It's actually pretty spectacular if.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
You look at this in slow motion, and it's very
very appealing to female alligators of course.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And is that the main way that male alligators like
court females like They don't dim lights and play smooth.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Jazz, neither of those things. But this is one part
of it. So sometimes you'll hear one gator bellow and
then another male gator, well, we'll try to out bellow
it by making its own giant ripples. But gators have
some of the most amazing and really romantic courting rituals too.
There was this piece in Wired I was looking at
and they like quote head slapping on the water's surface,
(06:20):
snout and back rubbing, and blowing bubbles, you know, the usual.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
That's pretty romantic. So here's one I hadn't realized. I know,
Cape Canaverl is in Florida, and it's where NASA launches
and land shuttles, but I didn't realize the land around
it is actually a wildlife sanctuary. And this is all
stuff I learned in modern farmer. But in the nineteen sixties,
NASA bought about one hundred and forty five thousand acres
(06:45):
of coastal property there, but since they only needed about
six thousand acres, they turned the rest into this Merritt
Island National Wildlife Refuge. But according to modern farmer, that
proximity to wildlife has definitely caused some issues. And I'm
reading here quote morning commuters have to wait as bobcats
cross the roadway. Shuttle launches are stalled by armadillos, woodpeckers
(07:07):
poke holes in fuel tanks. But according to the guy
who manages the island call center, the biggest issue at
NASA is with of course, gators. And here's how we
put it. Quote we've got gators blocking doorways, climbing fences.
We've got little bitty ones to shore big enough the gators.
NASA employees are encouraged to keep alert indoors and out.
You're never supposed to feed the gators, and always check
(07:29):
on your cars before hopping in. And since I can't
get off this b flat thing, sometimes when the shuttles land,
the gators start bellowing because they're trying to outdo the shuttles.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Mating call. Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Actually, I think this episode could have just been about
B flat. We should do a separate one just on
B flat. But I need you to back up for
a second. So what are you supposed to do if
you see a gator?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I mean, go back inside. I guess that's good advice.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
There's really only one account I read about an employee
trying to deal with a gator on his own. He
apparently made karate chopping motions and kept yelling hi yah,
and the gator hissed and spit, but apparently eventually went away.
So I guess if you know you have to deal
with a gator, learn karate.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Okay, all right, I'll think about that. And I actually
I realized this is off topic. But did you read
about the guy with the alligator at the drive through
while you were researching for this episode?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
No? What was this recently? All right?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So this was again talking about Florida kind of reminded
me about this. This is back from I think it
was twenty sixteen. So there was this kid that apparently
drove up to a Windy's. He made an order, he
got his drink, and then of course he tossed the
three foot gator through the window of the drive through. Yeah,
thankfully nobody was heard, and he didn't really have a motive.
(08:46):
Apparently his mom's defense to the local news was that,
you know, he's just a big prankster and can't help himself.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, franksters, what happened to him?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So he got charged with quote assault with a deadly weapon,
which I guess is, you know, not far off. And
the judge had some pretty strict terms for him. So
one of the punishments he's banned from Wendy's for life. So,
I mean, you gotta really think twice before you throw
a game through a drive through because you cannot go
back for that spicy chicken sandwich. And he was told
that he couldn't frattenize with any animals except his mother's dog,
(09:17):
which of course makes sense.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So my son Henry does the worst pranks like he
is under the mistaken impression that just saying April Fools
absolves you of anything you do. And two years ago
he decided to pour some water in our bed as
a prank, and right before bed he took three giant
pine glasses.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Of water and poured them on our mattress. Gotcha, I got.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So mad we had to sleep on the guest bed
in the living room for two days before the thing
cried out.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Wow. Yeah, that's quite the frank.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But I'm really hoping that he never gets access to alligators.
So your fact kind of sounds like the most Florida
man headline I've heard in a while. But but do
you want to do another fact to make off for it?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, let me see which one I want to want
to do next. All right, Well, this is something I
think is super cool. So alligators obviously seem tough because
they've got that bony armor on their skin, and they
can climb fences like you mentioned and do these death
rolls and things like that. But even their blood is
actually tougher than ours. So part of the reason you
never see an alligator with colds and flus, Like, have
(10:26):
you ever seen an.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Alligator with a cold ango?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, I haven't. It's weird you haven't, And that's
because it does not sell to them. No, it really
doesn't doesn't work at all, because they have this incredible
immune system. These scientists in Louisiana have actually discovered that
the serum and alligator blood can fight off viruses and
bacteria can actually destroy most of the microbes in HIV.
It's actually part of the reason that when an alligator
(10:49):
tail is severed in a swamp, even if the water
is muddy and dirty, the animals rarely get infections. So
this discovery is incredible because it has all sorts of
potential applications for humans. I was looking at this article
in National Geographic talking about this, and it was showing
that the resulting medicines could help everyone from like diabetes
patients with foot ulcers, to burn victims to people suffering
(11:12):
from various autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It's kind of funny that something like a bat could
give as COVID, but an alligator might be the one.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
To cure it. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Your here's a ridiculous one I like just because I
like picturing it. Apparently alligators have two types of walks,
a high walk and a low walk or a sprawl.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
As does that mean, well, the low walk.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Is cooler, Like they kind of drag their belly on
the ground and they kind of lazily pull themselves along.
But you know, whether on the move or late for
a meeting, they high tail it. Literally they raise their
bellies and half their tail up off the ground and
they kind of stand upright on all fours and.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Then they really move.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And I didn't realize this, but according to our Palasa
how stuff works, alligators aren't really hunters or gathers. They're
more what they call lurkers. They kind of just lunge
at food, so they're opportunistic and they can actually go
a few years without eating if they need to. But
when they decide they're really hungry, they can really high
walk to a meal. They can apparently reach peak speeds
(12:11):
of thirty five miles.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Per hour on Wow, that's fast.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, but they also tire very very quickly, so they're
never going to be an antelope in a marathon or
a half marathon.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
All right, that's another good fact to write down.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So but speaking of facts, we've got three more facts
to go. But let's take a quick break and we'll
be right back. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where
(12:45):
we're talking all about gators today.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
All right, what did you want to talk about next? Mego?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So, something I think is super cool about alligators is
that their sex isn't predetermined by genetics. It actually has
all to do with the temperature you store an alligator
egg at. Actually, just just to take a step back,
One thing that's fascinating is that in the nineteen fifties
and sixties, alligators were nearly hunted to extinction in America.
But part of the reason they managed to recover is
(13:10):
that the gators lay a lot of eggs, like thirty
to fifty of them at one time, so once there
were more restrictions on hunting, they made a quick comeback.
But gators make a giant nest like three feet high
and six feet wide, and then they bury their eggs
inside it, and the eggs that incubate at around eighty
degrees will turn out female, but the ones that incubate
(13:31):
it closer to ninety degrees will be male, and in
between is just a mix of males and females, which
I think is kind of remarkable. But the other thing
that's interesting about alligators is that the moms also stick
around to protect their hatchlings, which is super rare in
modern reptiles and more common frankly to birds and some
dinosaur species.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
That is really interesting. So we're down to.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Two last facts, and I'm curious, what do you have
as your final last fact.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
For my final fact, I think the most insane thing
I found this week is from this article on Smithsonian
and it's called When Kids Played with Alligators in Los Angeles,
and the piece is all about a theme park. As
soon as I saw this headline, I was like, this
is gonna be good. And it's all about this theme park.
I'd never heard of it before. It was called the
California Alligator Farm, which I guess operated from nineteen oh
(14:20):
seven to nineteen fifty three, so almost half a century.
And for only one quarter you could see over a
thousand alligators of all sizes. And while the gators were
exercised and you could you could watch them eat live chickens.
There were twenty ponds with supposedly trained alligators that you
could interact with. But the photos are insane, Like there's
(14:42):
this picture of a baby and a pin with thirty
hatchlings and no parents anywhere to be found there. Yeah,
if you really need to look this up. There are
photos of people riding on the alligator backs. There are
pictures of picnics in the water with people in bathing
suits eating meals right next to these gators.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
The gators are actually approaching the table.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
No one seems to be scared by this, and I
think my favorite fact is that there are photos of
people watching as adult alligators all climb up a ladder
and then take a water slide down into the pond
for fun. Like it is the weirdest thing. It's like
a giant petting zoo for gators. It makes no sense
at all.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
But it sounds fun for the gators too.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yes, that maybe they were having fun so they had
decided not to attack.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So I'm definitely gonna look this up. But did anyone
die there? Like that all sounds so incredibly dangerous.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I mean, in that article on how stuff works, the
editor's right, how alligators are really instinctual animals because you know,
their brains are only nine grams and they take about
half a tablespoon of space, which means there's no such
thing as a nice gator. I mean, these things are
programmed to behave a certain way. But for whatever reason,
there really aren't reports of injuries there, so I'm certain
(15:56):
there were some that happened. And one thing I do
know is there were a lot of sign posted to
remind visitors, you know, not to punch the gators. Or
throw rocks at them, so don't don't try that. And
apparently college pranksters used to occasionally sneak in and steal
a gator. But other than that, there really isn't a
whole lot of reporting on, you know, the darker side
of an alligator farm.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Well, my last fact is kind of fitting. I decided
to look up the origins of see you later, alligator.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Okay, all right, what did you find out? Not much? Good, good,
Well that does it for today.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So, as you might imagine, there's no clear origin story,
like there isn't for a lot of these things. But
it's really funny. There's a site called word Histories and
they looked up early newspaper accounts that reference the phrase,
and there are all these explainer columns for adults trying
to understand their kids and why they're talking this way.
So in nineteen fifty two there was a column in
the Honolulu Star Bulletin that explained teenage slang in Hawaii
(16:53):
and it reads, quote, many high school students use expressions
such as tutlu tofu or see you alligator, which I
might responses like see you soon, goon and hit the toad. Road,
which I guess means that in a while crocodile wasn't
immediately like the default response Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, like I never heard that before.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, But it gets better. There's also an explanation from
this guy, Lester Rand in the Baltimore Sun, and this
is for nineteen fifty four, and he clarifies the alligator
and see you alligator is an all encompassing term and
relieves the leaving party of having to recite several names.
That's great, and in case the Olds needed more explanation,
(17:36):
it continues. The popular teenage rhyming expressions rarely convey any
actual meaning and are somewhat confusing, like do you know
what I mean, jelly bean? Let me have steak jake
and have a piece of salami tommy.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Right, it feels like a phrase we should bring brack right,
Like yeah, for sure, whatever we.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Say goodbye to someone, and I kind of want to say, like,
have a piece of lobby tommy.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah, that's a weird one. And I think if I
was a parent my kid kept saying this as he
walked out of the door, I'd probably be confused enough
to want to read an article about what was wrong
with him. But Anyway, who do you think deserves the
crown for today's fact off?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Well, I did like the fact that we talked about
B flat so much. There was a lot of B flat.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Those photos of alligators on water slides, I think have
to be my new wallpaper. I'm gonna say, you win.
This crazy alligator farm theme park thing is too good.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
It's so good looking at those photos, so I will
take it. Thank you very much, I'm honored. That is
it for today's Part Time Genius. If you like hearing
the show, hit us up on Twitter or Instagram, drop
us a line in Apple Reviews, And if you have
any great gator facts we missed or have a topic
you want us to cover, be sure to write to
us about those.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Two and thank you, thank you, thank you so much
for listening, especially you Dad.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Part Time Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio, Guess
What Will?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So I was thinking about how sometimes we forget that
all these simple things around us.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Are really music, and what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Like I was in traffic coming from the airport this
weekend and everyone was honking, and I remembered how most
cars actually honk in the key of F or. This
is another thing. When I was in high school, this
kid Sean, and my jazz band realized that our high
school's bell rang at I think a G. So when
the class was over and the first bell rang, everyone
would harmonize and play a G seven chord on their instruments.
(00:42):
It's so nerdy, so stupid, but of course I loved it.
But this week I learned that if you want to
get an alligator's attention, all you have to do is
grab your tuba and play a B flat.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Okay, I like that for this experiment, all you have
to have You got to have an alligator and a
tube nearby. But so what exactly happens when you play
a B flat?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It is magical because for some reason, that note arouses
male gators, and when an alligator hears it, it'll bellow
or call back to you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Is this a real thing?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, it's actually got this great origin story. So apparently
in the nineteen forties, the New York Philharmonic took a
field trip to the Natural History Museum and while they
were warming up there, this alligator named Oscar, who I
guess was a part of the natural history exhibit at
the time, he just started moaning.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And you know, they're all.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
These scientists there and they were watching, and you know,
he'd start moaning, and then the instruments would play, and
then he'd moan, and then he'd stop and it would
start again. And so you know, the scientists stopped the
musicians and got them to start playing different notes to
see what was specifically causing it. And for whatever reason,
it turns out B flat was the key to the
(01:54):
alligator call. Thanks to this great science done by Oscar
and the New York Philharmonic, plenty of folks have actually
repeated experiment and gotten alligators to duet with them. But
you actually have to remember, not any B flat works.
You actually have to play the B flat that's one
octave below middle sea to really get them going. Okay,
that's just the first of nine wonderful facts we've got
(02:15):
about alligators today.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend mangesh Hot Ticketter. And on the other side of
that soundproof glass are good Buddy Ramsey.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He's giving us his best toothy grin. All right, mego.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So it's been a while since we've done one of
these shows. I know I've actually missed it so much.
And two things before we can this off.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
One, I promised that if and when we finally started
doing the show again, we'd give a shout out to
our listener's son, Apollo, who is a fan of the
show or was a fan of the show. But Apollo,
if you're listening, tag us on Instagram. We want to
see what you're up to.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What's up, Apollo, This weird show.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
About alligators is for you. And two, Will, I know
you've gone to Saint Pete's in Florida so many times,
but I don't know why you didn't tell me that
they keep baby alligators in their mini golf places there.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The only downside to doing this episode is that I
was hoping to save this for when we both I know,
both of us really want to retire to Florida, and
since we're really bad at most sports instead of golf,
we were going to retire there to play mini golf.
And that's when I was going to tell you, Yeah,
the big reveal.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So my in laws rented a place there for winter
break and we took my kids mini golfing. And the
fact that there were tiny gators that you could feed.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
These pellets so crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
You put alligator food on the little fishing and send
it down. Honestly, it was the greatest thing. And the
mini golf was so unremarkable, but the fact that my
tiny monsters were feeding these tiny monsters was just great.
So I thought, you know, I wanted to learn more
about gators.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
That's awesome. And actually you have one more reason, right.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, And this one's a little more personal. My dad
has been pretty ill recently. I know I told you this,
but he can't really watch things. But he loves you,
and he has stacks of mental floss in his garage
and he's a huge, huge, part time genius fan. So
he and Apollo might be the only ones left off there.
But I thought hearing us laugh and be goofy and
(04:40):
sharing facts who would make him smile. So thank you
for making the time to do some more episodes with me.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh, I love your dad.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
This was a no brainer to do this, And it
makes sense for this topic because when I think of
your dad, I always think of his love for these big,
aggressive reptiles. It's kind of like his thing. So it
makes sense you pick this theme especially for him. But
we've actually got eight facts to go. So what do
you say I do the next one?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, go for it, all right.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So I actually wanted to build on your b flat
fact because bellowing is one of those things crocodiles do
as a mating ritual. And so the bellow does this
amazing thing to the water. It's where the alligator just
raises his head and tail out of the water, so
his back and belly are still submerged. You know, it's
almost like if you imagine like a banana curved up
(05:26):
and so you lower it into the water so both
ends are sticking out and you know you can picture this, right,
except instead of a banana, it's a gate. Just go
with me, just just think about it. And so when
the gator bellows or does its deep grow. These vibrations
make the water around its body kind of kind of
like ripple out.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It's actually pretty spectacular if.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
You look at this in slow motion, and it's very
very appealing to female alligators of course.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And is that the main way that male alligators like
court females like They don't dim lights and play smooth.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Jazz, neither of those things. But this is one part
of it. So sometimes you'll hear one gator bellow and
then another male gator, well, we'll try to out bellow
it by making its own giant ripples. But gators have
some of the most amazing and really romantic courting rituals too.
There was this piece in Wired I was looking at
and they like quote head slapping on the water's surface,
(06:20):
snout and back rubbing, and blowing bubbles, you know, the usual.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
That's pretty romantic. So here's one I hadn't realized. I know,
Cape Canaverl is in Florida, and it's where NASA launches
and land shuttles, but I didn't realize the land around
it is actually a wildlife sanctuary. And this is all
stuff I learned in modern farmer. But in the nineteen sixties,
NASA bought about one hundred and forty five thousand acres
(06:45):
of coastal property there, but since they only needed about
six thousand acres, they turned the rest into this Merritt
Island National Wildlife Refuge. But according to modern farmer, that
proximity to wildlife has definitely caused some issues. And I'm
reading here quote morning commuters have to wait as bobcats
cross the roadway. Shuttle launches are stalled by armadillos, woodpeckers
(07:07):
poke holes in fuel tanks. But according to the guy
who manages the island call center, the biggest issue at
NASA is with of course, gators. And here's how we
put it. Quote we've got gators blocking doorways, climbing fences.
We've got little bitty ones to shore big enough the gators.
NASA employees are encouraged to keep alert indoors and out.
You're never supposed to feed the gators, and always check
(07:29):
on your cars before hopping in. And since I can't
get off this b flat thing, sometimes when the shuttles land,
the gators start bellowing because they're trying to outdo the shuttles.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Mating call. Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Actually, I think this episode could have just been about
B flat. We should do a separate one just on
B flat. But I need you to back up for
a second. So what are you supposed to do if
you see a gator?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I mean, go back inside. I guess that's good advice.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
There's really only one account I read about an employee
trying to deal with a gator on his own. He
apparently made karate chopping motions and kept yelling hi yah,
and the gator hissed and spit, but apparently eventually went away.
So I guess if you know you have to deal
with a gator, learn karate.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Okay, all right, I'll think about that. And I actually
I realized this is off topic. But did you read
about the guy with the alligator at the drive through
while you were researching for this episode?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
No? What was this recently? All right?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So this was again talking about Florida kind of reminded
me about this. This is back from I think it
was twenty sixteen. So there was this kid that apparently
drove up to a Windy's. He made an order, he
got his drink, and then of course he tossed the
three foot gator through the window of the drive through. Yeah,
thankfully nobody was heard, and he didn't really have a motive.
(08:46):
Apparently his mom's defense to the local news was that,
you know, he's just a big prankster and can't help himself.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, franksters, what happened to him?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So he got charged with quote assault with a deadly weapon,
which I guess is, you know, not far off. And
the judge had some pretty strict terms for him. So
one of the punishments he's banned from Wendy's for life. So,
I mean, you gotta really think twice before you throw
a game through a drive through because you cannot go
back for that spicy chicken sandwich. And he was told
that he couldn't frattenize with any animals except his mother's dog,
(09:17):
which of course makes sense.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So my son Henry does the worst pranks like he
is under the mistaken impression that just saying April Fools
absolves you of anything you do. And two years ago
he decided to pour some water in our bed as
a prank, and right before bed he took three giant
pine glasses.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Of water and poured them on our mattress. Gotcha, I got.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So mad we had to sleep on the guest bed
in the living room for two days before the thing
cried out.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Wow. Yeah, that's quite the frank.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But I'm really hoping that he never gets access to alligators.
So your fact kind of sounds like the most Florida
man headline I've heard in a while. But but do
you want to do another fact to make off for it?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, let me see which one I want to want
to do next. All right, Well, this is something I
think is super cool. So alligators obviously seem tough because
they've got that bony armor on their skin, and they
can climb fences like you mentioned and do these death
rolls and things like that. But even their blood is
actually tougher than ours. So part of the reason you
never see an alligator with colds and flus, Like, have
(10:26):
you ever seen an.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Alligator with a cold ango?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, I haven't. It's weird you haven't, And that's
because it does not sell to them. No, it really
doesn't doesn't work at all, because they have this incredible
immune system. These scientists in Louisiana have actually discovered that
the serum and alligator blood can fight off viruses and
bacteria can actually destroy most of the microbes in HIV.
It's actually part of the reason that when an alligator
(10:49):
tail is severed in a swamp, even if the water
is muddy and dirty, the animals rarely get infections. So
this discovery is incredible because it has all sorts of
potential applications for humans. I was looking at this article
in National Geographic talking about this, and it was showing
that the resulting medicines could help everyone from like diabetes
patients with foot ulcers, to burn victims to people suffering
(11:12):
from various autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It's kind of funny that something like a bat could
give as COVID, but an alligator might be the one.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
To cure it. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Your here's a ridiculous one I like just because I
like picturing it. Apparently alligators have two types of walks,
a high walk and a low walk or a sprawl.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
As does that mean, well, the low walk.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Is cooler, Like they kind of drag their belly on
the ground and they kind of lazily pull themselves along.
But you know, whether on the move or late for
a meeting, they high tail it. Literally they raise their
bellies and half their tail up off the ground and
they kind of stand upright on all fours and.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Then they really move.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And I didn't realize this, but according to our Palasa
how stuff works, alligators aren't really hunters or gathers. They're
more what they call lurkers. They kind of just lunge
at food, so they're opportunistic and they can actually go
a few years without eating if they need to. But
when they decide they're really hungry, they can really high
walk to a meal. They can apparently reach peak speeds
(12:11):
of thirty five miles.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Per hour on Wow, that's fast.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, but they also tire very very quickly, so they're
never going to be an antelope in a marathon or
a half marathon.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
All right, that's another good fact to write down.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So but speaking of facts, we've got three more facts
to go. But let's take a quick break and we'll
be right back. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where
(12:45):
we're talking all about gators today.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
All right, what did you want to talk about next? Mego?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So, something I think is super cool about alligators is
that their sex isn't predetermined by genetics. It actually has
all to do with the temperature you store an alligator
egg at. Actually, just just to take a step back,
One thing that's fascinating is that in the nineteen fifties
and sixties, alligators were nearly hunted to extinction in America.
But part of the reason they managed to recover is
(13:10):
that the gators lay a lot of eggs, like thirty
to fifty of them at one time, so once there
were more restrictions on hunting, they made a quick comeback.
But gators make a giant nest like three feet high
and six feet wide, and then they bury their eggs
inside it, and the eggs that incubate at around eighty
degrees will turn out female, but the ones that incubate
(13:31):
it closer to ninety degrees will be male, and in
between is just a mix of males and females, which
I think is kind of remarkable. But the other thing
that's interesting about alligators is that the moms also stick
around to protect their hatchlings, which is super rare in
modern reptiles and more common frankly to birds and some
dinosaur species.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
That is really interesting. So we're down to.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Two last facts, and I'm curious, what do you have
as your final last fact.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
For my final fact, I think the most insane thing
I found this week is from this article on Smithsonian
and it's called When Kids Played with Alligators in Los Angeles,
and the piece is all about a theme park. As
soon as I saw this headline, I was like, this
is gonna be good. And it's all about this theme park.
I'd never heard of it before. It was called the
California Alligator Farm, which I guess operated from nineteen oh
(14:20):
seven to nineteen fifty three, so almost half a century.
And for only one quarter you could see over a
thousand alligators of all sizes. And while the gators were
exercised and you could you could watch them eat live chickens.
There were twenty ponds with supposedly trained alligators that you
could interact with. But the photos are insane, Like there's
(14:42):
this picture of a baby and a pin with thirty
hatchlings and no parents anywhere to be found there. Yeah,
if you really need to look this up. There are
photos of people riding on the alligator backs. There are
pictures of picnics in the water with people in bathing
suits eating meals right next to these gators.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
The gators are actually approaching the table.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
No one seems to be scared by this, and I
think my favorite fact is that there are photos of
people watching as adult alligators all climb up a ladder
and then take a water slide down into the pond
for fun. Like it is the weirdest thing. It's like
a giant petting zoo for gators. It makes no sense
at all.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
But it sounds fun for the gators too.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yes, that maybe they were having fun so they had
decided not to attack.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So I'm definitely gonna look this up. But did anyone
die there? Like that all sounds so incredibly dangerous.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I mean, in that article on how stuff works, the
editor's right, how alligators are really instinctual animals because you know,
their brains are only nine grams and they take about
half a tablespoon of space, which means there's no such
thing as a nice gator. I mean, these things are
programmed to behave a certain way. But for whatever reason,
there really aren't reports of injuries there, so I'm certain
(15:56):
there were some that happened. And one thing I do
know is there were a lot of sign posted to
remind visitors, you know, not to punch the gators. Or
throw rocks at them, so don't don't try that. And
apparently college pranksters used to occasionally sneak in and steal
a gator. But other than that, there really isn't a
whole lot of reporting on, you know, the darker side
of an alligator farm.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Well, my last fact is kind of fitting. I decided
to look up the origins of see you later, alligator.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Okay, all right, what did you find out? Not much? Good, good,
Well that does it for today.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So, as you might imagine, there's no clear origin story,
like there isn't for a lot of these things. But
it's really funny. There's a site called word Histories and
they looked up early newspaper accounts that reference the phrase,
and there are all these explainer columns for adults trying
to understand their kids and why they're talking this way.
So in nineteen fifty two there was a column in
the Honolulu Star Bulletin that explained teenage slang in Hawaii
(16:53):
and it reads, quote, many high school students use expressions
such as tutlu tofu or see you alligator, which I
might responses like see you soon, goon and hit the toad. Road,
which I guess means that in a while crocodile wasn't
immediately like the default response Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, like I never heard that before.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, But it gets better. There's also an explanation from
this guy, Lester Rand in the Baltimore Sun, and this
is for nineteen fifty four, and he clarifies the alligator
and see you alligator is an all encompassing term and
relieves the leaving party of having to recite several names.
That's great, and in case the Olds needed more explanation,
(17:36):
it continues. The popular teenage rhyming expressions rarely convey any
actual meaning and are somewhat confusing, like do you know
what I mean, jelly bean? Let me have steak jake
and have a piece of salami tommy.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Right, it feels like a phrase we should bring brack right,
Like yeah, for sure, whatever we.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Say goodbye to someone, and I kind of want to say, like,
have a piece of lobby tommy.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah, that's a weird one. And I think if I
was a parent my kid kept saying this as he
walked out of the door, I'd probably be confused enough
to want to read an article about what was wrong
with him. But Anyway, who do you think deserves the
crown for today's fact off?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Well, I did like the fact that we talked about
B flat so much. There was a lot of B flat.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Those photos of alligators on water slides, I think have
to be my new wallpaper. I'm gonna say, you win.
This crazy alligator farm theme park thing is too good.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
It's so good looking at those photos, so I will
take it. Thank you very much, I'm honored. That is
it for today's Part Time Genius. If you like hearing
the show, hit us up on Twitter or Instagram, drop
us a line in Apple Reviews, And if you have
any great gator facts we missed or have a topic
you want us to cover, be sure to write to
us about those.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Two and thank you, thank you, thank you so much
for listening, especially you Dad.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Part Time Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
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