February 8, 2018 • 15 mins
Is the Walking Sausage the most romantic insect? What happens when Wallabies get high on poppies? And why do wombats have super strong wombutts? Will, Mango and Gabe explore the wonderful world of Australian animals.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I guess, well, well, what's that man? Do you know
(00:02):
that the kangaroo and the emu are on the Australian
coat of arms. I mean it doesn't seem that surprising.
I mean both of them are native to Australia, right, Yeah,
but there are so many animals in Australia and there's
a reason they were chosen over like Tasmanian devils and platypus,
and that's because neither animal can move backwards. Wait, kangaroos
can't move backwards. No, it's like they're one design flaw,
(00:24):
like everything else about kangaroos is perfect. I mean, it's
one of those weird things like crocodiles can't chew. They
can bite and swallow big chunks, but they can't actually
chew their food. And kangaroos are kind of similar, like
their tails aid their balance and their mobility, but it
prevents them from moving backwards. But Australia has embraced it
in that like they're constantly moving forwards and this symbolizes progress.
(00:48):
It's a good way to look at it. They could
have picked the shark though, right anyway, That's just one
of nine facts we've got for you today. About Australia's animals,
So let's dig in a their podcast. Listeners, welcome to
(01:20):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
joined by my good friend Man Guesho Ticketer and sitting
behind the soundproof glass, he just taped a crocodile Dundee
poster to actually whoa crocodile Dundee two as well? Taped
to the wall. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil's
a busy guy. So you know what's funny is I
looked up crocodile dundee because I thought would be fun
to slip in as an animal fact. And uh, and
(01:43):
Roger Ebert hated those movies. I thought he didn't like
the sequels, like he called the last one less fun
to wash than attacks on it. But I actually pulled
a quote of his review for the first movie, which
he barely gave two stars. And here's how it ends.
The ending of the movie involves a love scene on
a subway platform. If these were two lovers, we really
cared about. The scene as written could have had the
(02:04):
impact of that moment in an Officer and a Gentleman
as it's acted in this movie. Last the scene is
so unconvincing that the lovers are upstaged by the other
people on the train platform. Alright, well, Mango, before we
keep going with facts, we've actually got Gabe on the line.
Hey Gabe, Hey, guys, how's it going. So I'm curious
from both you guys. Have either of you been to Australia? Mango,
(02:26):
have you been to Australia And I haven't been there? Gabe,
you no, I've never made it. Well, I'm glad that's
the three of us are are going to be talking
about animals from Australia, none of us having been there.
But but we've done our homework. So all right, well, Gay,
why don't we throw the mic to you and lets
you share your first fact? Yeah? Absolutely so, since you
started with Kangaroo's, I'm gonna go with the fact about
(02:48):
their diminutive cousins, the Wallaby. So in two thousand nine,
farmers in Tasmania started noticing these strange crop circles popping
up and they were wondering, you know what was trampling
down their crops into these really unusual patterns, And it
didn't seem to be the work of aliens. It wasn't
you know, it wasn't that precise as aliens are with
their crops circle right, But when they looked a little closer,
(03:12):
the farmers discovered it was actually the work of wallabies,
and not just any wallabies specifically. It was wallabies who
had been getting high on opie. They were eating these
wild poppies and then just going crazy, jumping in big
circles in the fields all night long. Yeah, it wasn't
just the wallabies though either. They were also local sheep
(03:33):
who were also getting high and going on these strange
walkabouts through the crops, and the wallabies were the primary offender.
That's pretty good. I've never heard about that, all right,
why don't we keep them our supial talk going. I've
actually got a kangaroo fact as well, and I've never
heard this before, but this is from our pal Eves.
She's been on the program before and she told me
that she said that during the gold Rush, people started
(03:54):
importing all sorts of animals as food, you know, partially
because there wasn't enough local food for the people hunting
for gold. So there were things like tortoises, cod turkeys,
but a few kangaroos were also imported, and the funny
thing is that people didn't want them for food though.
Instead they were imported live and kept around for entertainment.
They were kangaroo petting exhibits. They were sold for quick
(04:16):
cash as pets. I can't imagine having a kangaroo as
a pet. And there's even an ad from a saloon
at the time that offered, quote peach and honey, brandy
by day and night a genuine live kangaroo. That's pretty funny,
and I kind of love the discriminating clientele who looked
for a place and think, oh, it's got a pool
in a great view, but no kangaroo. I can't say that. No,
(04:37):
not not acceptable. All right, mango, what's your next fact? Well,
I mean, if we're talking strange Australian animals, you know,
I'm going to talk about my favorite insect of all time,
the Lord Howse stick insect. Of course, what is that?
I mean, it's a funny looking critter with the best
nicknames on Earth. It's also known as the tree lobster
and the walking sausage, which gives you a sense of
(04:58):
you know, how awkward it looks. But the story is
kind of amazing because it's also known as a Lazarus species.
So those are the ones that everyone thinks are extinct
but then then came back from the dead, right yeah,
and they're too great. Taxonomy is the Lazarus species, which
is animals that everyone thinks are dead and come back,
and the elvis taxon, which is animals that are dead.
But then you see an animal impersonator in the wild,
(05:20):
one that looks like the original. But that is not
that actually a real thing is I thought that was
a big set up to this joke. But back to
the stick insect. So it was supposedly made extinct by
an invasive rat population. But then in two thousand one,
on this pretty harsh island with really strong winds, scientists
found about twenty four of these tree lobsters in the wild.
(05:42):
They were like under a rock or something, and they've
slowly been bringing them back. But the cutest thing about
this totally disgusting species is how they sleep. The males
actually cuddle up with the females when they sleep, spooning
them with their six legs curled around them. But scientists
are quick to point out that this might be an
evolutionary measure and not the mark of of I mean,
I find that a little cinical. There's such a romantic mega. Alright, well, gab,
(06:04):
what do you got next? Alright, so you probably know
Australia has a reputation for a lot of dangerous animals.
You know, there are sharks and sidewinders and poisonous spiders
and even the cuddly little platypus is dangerous. You know,
they have these venomous spurs on the bottom webb. But
here's a super weird fact I didn't know before this.
(06:25):
More Australians have been killed by horses in recent years
than all of the country's venomous animals combine. I don't
think that I'm not buying that gay. We're gonna have
to fact check this well. According to a recent study, UH,
from the year two thousand to seventy four people were
(06:45):
killed by horse trampling or being tossed by horses, while
only twenty seven were killed by snakes, bees or spiders
you know, during that same period. And of course the
hospitalizations from animal bites was was far greater. You know,
are like thirty five thousand people hospitalized for bites and
stings in Australia. But because there's so much anti venom available,
(07:08):
and also because a lot of those were just you know,
allergic reactions. Deaths from snakes and spiders isn't that big
a thing. In fact, there was a death from a
red back spider in and it was the first spider
bite death in Australia since nineteen seventy nine. So I
was looking this up all Gabe was sharing this fact
because honestly, I just didn't believe it. You know, sometimes
(07:30):
he makes stuff up. We don't ever let that on
on the actual show, but this is I mean that
that's pretty impressive. Gave good job on that one. Alright. Well,
since Mango was talking about the Lazarus species, I've got
one from my own to discuss, and that's the Tasmanian tiger,
which also might be back from the dead now. The
Tassi tiger is the largest carnivorous marsupial and it looks
(07:51):
like a big striped dog, but it has a kangaroo's
tail and this small pouch. It also is one of
the only two marsupials were both the male and the
female members have pouches, and I didn't know this existed
among any of them, but I guess the other is
a water possum. Anyway, that the tiger has been extinct
since nineteen thirty six, but there have been some recent
sightings reported. Sometimes the creatures are confused for dingoes or
(08:14):
wild pigs, but the reports have had similar descriptions and
they've actually come from two different people in the same location. Now,
one of the key things that's convinced some skeptics that
the species might still be alive is that the Tasmanian
tiger's eyes shine differently from a wild pig or a dingo,
so they actually reflect light back in a very different way.
And it's generated enough excitement that a number of scientists
(08:37):
are now camped out in this secret part of Australia
with hundreds of cameras all trying to locate this tiger.
That's really exciting. I hope they find it. Anyway, We've
got a few more facts for you guys, so stay
tuned and we'll be right back after this break. Welcome
(09:03):
back to Part Time Genius where we're talking about Australian animals.
And then go, am I misremembering this? Was there some
story about your sister and Australian ants? Yeah, good memory,
So My sister actually studied in Queensland and college and
as a kid she was kind of squeamish about insects
and arachnet so I was talking to her about it
when she came back, and she was saying that you
(09:23):
just find these crazy bugs in your room every day
in the dorms, but you kind of got used to
taking a magazine or whatever. I'm flicking them outside. But
the weirdest thing she told me was the story about ants.
And there's a type of ant there that tastes like
lemon lime, so people actually crunch up the ants and
eat it for that flavor, or use it in lemonade,
like you can crush them and add water and get
your protein in as well. Well. I asked her, you know,
(09:46):
knowing she was vegetarian, like, did you actually tried these ants?
And she said, you know, I refused to eat them,
but I did lick their bum. This reminds me of
when you briefly went from being vegetarian and the first
thing ate was ribs in the state of Alabama pretty
much just licked at them. This must run in the family.
You don't want to eat the meat, but you just, oh, gosh,
(10:09):
let's just move on from that. But so, how did
they taste to her really like lemon lime? I'm not
sure that counts, is your fact. But but do you
want to do you want to kick us off with
one last one mango? Yeah? So I've actually been a
little obsessed with camels this year. I've been reading about
this camel scandal in this camel beauty pageant in Saudi
Arabia where a number of the camels had been given botox,
(10:32):
and how Joe Camel came from France. But well, one
of the things I only recently realized is that Australia
has the largest feral camel population in the world. And
apparently they were brought over as be suburden to help
transport things, but then once they were that useful anymore,
they were let loose into the wild and they just
went crazy. Like they're awful because they're so hardy and
(10:53):
they can walk like forty miles in a day, and
there aren't any real natural predators out in the outback.
So I'm gonna say they're like seven thousand or eight
hundred thousands of these beasts just wandering around, drinking up
all the water from wells and causing camel coos. I
have to be honest, if you had told me name
twenty animals in Australia, I wouldn't have thought tonight, camel.
(11:14):
That's not where I would have assumed they were from.
So is there anything that can be done about them? Yeah?
So like Australia is still trying to figure it out.
I read one account of a guy who's been rounding
them up for meat, which is apparently pretty good, but
also to try to sell the camels for camel races
and also beauty pageants, Like people will come to Australia
to like scout aussee camels for their thin necks. Apparently,
like I don't know what makes a pretty camel, but
(11:35):
apparently that's part of it. Wow, all right, well that
that is very interesting. Okay, Well my fact is about
the wombat, and there are lots of cool things about wombats.
You know, their pouches face the wrong way for some reason,
so you know, instead of looking forward, a baby wombat
will face out back as the mom wombat is scurry.
Also their superpower, it's their big butt. It's full of
(11:56):
cartilage and totally resistant to snake bites and dingo bites
it's kind of like a shield for them, so when
they jump into a burrow and their butt sticks out,
it's totally safe from predators. But my favorite thing about
the wombat is that you can tell if you have
a wombat infestation by looking at their scat, So their
poop comes out in perfect little cubes. So funny and
(12:18):
so nerdy and so gross. I also love the names
of wombats, like all the different species, just they're all
really cute sounding. So there's the Southern hairy nose wombat
and of course the Northern hairy nosed wombat. There's also
the common wombat. Yeah, that one kind of got screwed,
you know, get the Southern hairy nose and the northern hair.
(12:39):
I'm curious to see the difference between the northern hairy
nose and the Southern hairy nose. Alright, Gabe, so I
think it's time for you have one last fact, right, yeah, yeah,
My last fact is is about black swans. And this
is pretty great. So for centuries, Europeans for some reason,
like to ponder the existence of black swans, and some
(13:00):
by the sixteenth century, the idea of a black swan
became an idiom for an impossible thing, something that couldn't exist.
But that had all changed in the late sixteen hundreds
when Dutch explorers actually found black swans in western Australia,
which you know, just completely killed the idiom. But it
gets more interesting from there because about a century later,
(13:20):
Napoleon sent an expedition to Australia and in addition to
bringing back, you know, various animals and plant species, he
asked for a special collection of animals to be brought
back for his sweetheart Josephine. So thirty five live animals
were shipped back in all, and this was parrots, EMUs, kangaroos,
and two black swans. So sadly, the animals started, you know,
(13:42):
dying on the longboat ride at home. They got so
bad that the captain actually kicked his crew out of
their cabin so that the kangaroos could be more comfortable.
But you know, he was worried that they'd get back
and none of the animals would have survived the trip.
But really, honestly the problem was they didn't have the
right food. In desperation, they gave animals wine soaked bread, which,
(14:03):
as you might guess, not a great idea, but two
animals that definitely survived and made it back were the
black swans, and Josephine became the very first person to
breed black swans in captivity. That's another good fact. I
don't know about you, man Go, but I feel like
Gabe coming up with that whole murdering horses and us
not believing it. The names for wombats like species of
(14:27):
womb he was, he was on his game and it's
early in the morning out there in l A right now.
So Gabe, I'm impressed. So I think we're gonna give
you this week's Fact Off Trophy. I'm honored. Thank you guys. Well,
thank you guys for listening. We would love to hear
from you. We We've been hearing lots of ideas from
listeners on future nine Things episodes, so feel free to
send those two part time genius at how stuff works
(14:50):
dot com. You can also call us on our seven
fact hot line. That's one eight four four pt genius.
That is still seven fact. Okay, Yeah, we thought about
cutting call going seven, but we're going to stick with it.
So so anyway, thank you guys for listening. We'll be
back with a full length episode tomorrow.
I guess, well, well, what's that man? Do you know
(00:02):
that the kangaroo and the emu are on the Australian
coat of arms. I mean it doesn't seem that surprising.
I mean both of them are native to Australia, right, Yeah,
but there are so many animals in Australia and there's
a reason they were chosen over like Tasmanian devils and platypus,
and that's because neither animal can move backwards. Wait, kangaroos
can't move backwards. No, it's like they're one design flaw,
(00:24):
like everything else about kangaroos is perfect. I mean, it's
one of those weird things like crocodiles can't chew. They
can bite and swallow big chunks, but they can't actually
chew their food. And kangaroos are kind of similar, like
their tails aid their balance and their mobility, but it
prevents them from moving backwards. But Australia has embraced it
in that like they're constantly moving forwards and this symbolizes progress.
(00:48):
It's a good way to look at it. They could
have picked the shark though, right anyway, That's just one
of nine facts we've got for you today. About Australia's animals,
So let's dig in a their podcast. Listeners, welcome to
(01:20):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
joined by my good friend Man Guesho Ticketer and sitting
behind the soundproof glass, he just taped a crocodile Dundee
poster to actually whoa crocodile Dundee two as well? Taped
to the wall. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil's
a busy guy. So you know what's funny is I
looked up crocodile dundee because I thought would be fun
to slip in as an animal fact. And uh, and
(01:43):
Roger Ebert hated those movies. I thought he didn't like
the sequels, like he called the last one less fun
to wash than attacks on it. But I actually pulled
a quote of his review for the first movie, which
he barely gave two stars. And here's how it ends.
The ending of the movie involves a love scene on
a subway platform. If these were two lovers, we really
cared about. The scene as written could have had the
(02:04):
impact of that moment in an Officer and a Gentleman
as it's acted in this movie. Last the scene is
so unconvincing that the lovers are upstaged by the other
people on the train platform. Alright, well, Mango, before we
keep going with facts, we've actually got Gabe on the line.
Hey Gabe, Hey, guys, how's it going. So I'm curious
from both you guys. Have either of you been to Australia? Mango,
(02:26):
have you been to Australia And I haven't been there? Gabe,
you no, I've never made it. Well, I'm glad that's
the three of us are are going to be talking
about animals from Australia, none of us having been there.
But but we've done our homework. So all right, well, Gay,
why don't we throw the mic to you and lets
you share your first fact? Yeah? Absolutely so, since you
started with Kangaroo's, I'm gonna go with the fact about
(02:48):
their diminutive cousins, the Wallaby. So in two thousand nine,
farmers in Tasmania started noticing these strange crop circles popping
up and they were wondering, you know what was trampling
down their crops into these really unusual patterns, And it
didn't seem to be the work of aliens. It wasn't
you know, it wasn't that precise as aliens are with
their crops circle right, But when they looked a little closer,
(03:12):
the farmers discovered it was actually the work of wallabies,
and not just any wallabies specifically. It was wallabies who
had been getting high on opie. They were eating these
wild poppies and then just going crazy, jumping in big
circles in the fields all night long. Yeah, it wasn't
just the wallabies though either. They were also local sheep
(03:33):
who were also getting high and going on these strange
walkabouts through the crops, and the wallabies were the primary offender.
That's pretty good. I've never heard about that, all right,
why don't we keep them our supial talk going. I've
actually got a kangaroo fact as well, and I've never
heard this before, but this is from our pal Eves.
She's been on the program before and she told me
that she said that during the gold Rush, people started
(03:54):
importing all sorts of animals as food, you know, partially
because there wasn't enough local food for the people hunting
for gold. So there were things like tortoises, cod turkeys,
but a few kangaroos were also imported, and the funny
thing is that people didn't want them for food though.
Instead they were imported live and kept around for entertainment.
They were kangaroo petting exhibits. They were sold for quick
(04:16):
cash as pets. I can't imagine having a kangaroo as
a pet. And there's even an ad from a saloon
at the time that offered, quote peach and honey, brandy
by day and night a genuine live kangaroo. That's pretty funny,
and I kind of love the discriminating clientele who looked
for a place and think, oh, it's got a pool
in a great view, but no kangaroo. I can't say that. No,
(04:37):
not not acceptable. All right, mango, what's your next fact? Well,
I mean, if we're talking strange Australian animals, you know,
I'm going to talk about my favorite insect of all time,
the Lord Howse stick insect. Of course, what is that?
I mean, it's a funny looking critter with the best
nicknames on Earth. It's also known as the tree lobster
and the walking sausage, which gives you a sense of
(04:58):
you know, how awkward it looks. But the story is
kind of amazing because it's also known as a Lazarus species.
So those are the ones that everyone thinks are extinct
but then then came back from the dead, right yeah,
and they're too great. Taxonomy is the Lazarus species, which
is animals that everyone thinks are dead and come back,
and the elvis taxon, which is animals that are dead.
But then you see an animal impersonator in the wild,
(05:20):
one that looks like the original. But that is not
that actually a real thing is I thought that was
a big set up to this joke. But back to
the stick insect. So it was supposedly made extinct by
an invasive rat population. But then in two thousand one,
on this pretty harsh island with really strong winds, scientists
found about twenty four of these tree lobsters in the wild.
(05:42):
They were like under a rock or something, and they've
slowly been bringing them back. But the cutest thing about
this totally disgusting species is how they sleep. The males
actually cuddle up with the females when they sleep, spooning
them with their six legs curled around them. But scientists
are quick to point out that this might be an
evolutionary measure and not the mark of of I mean,
I find that a little cinical. There's such a romantic mega. Alright, well, gab,
(06:04):
what do you got next? Alright, so you probably know
Australia has a reputation for a lot of dangerous animals.
You know, there are sharks and sidewinders and poisonous spiders
and even the cuddly little platypus is dangerous. You know,
they have these venomous spurs on the bottom webb. But
here's a super weird fact I didn't know before this.
(06:25):
More Australians have been killed by horses in recent years
than all of the country's venomous animals combine. I don't
think that I'm not buying that gay. We're gonna have
to fact check this well. According to a recent study, UH,
from the year two thousand to seventy four people were
(06:45):
killed by horse trampling or being tossed by horses, while
only twenty seven were killed by snakes, bees or spiders
you know, during that same period. And of course the
hospitalizations from animal bites was was far greater. You know,
are like thirty five thousand people hospitalized for bites and
stings in Australia. But because there's so much anti venom available,
(07:08):
and also because a lot of those were just you know,
allergic reactions. Deaths from snakes and spiders isn't that big
a thing. In fact, there was a death from a
red back spider in and it was the first spider
bite death in Australia since nineteen seventy nine. So I
was looking this up all Gabe was sharing this fact
because honestly, I just didn't believe it. You know, sometimes
(07:30):
he makes stuff up. We don't ever let that on
on the actual show, but this is I mean that
that's pretty impressive. Gave good job on that one. Alright. Well,
since Mango was talking about the Lazarus species, I've got
one from my own to discuss, and that's the Tasmanian tiger,
which also might be back from the dead now. The
Tassi tiger is the largest carnivorous marsupial and it looks
(07:51):
like a big striped dog, but it has a kangaroo's
tail and this small pouch. It also is one of
the only two marsupials were both the male and the
female members have pouches, and I didn't know this existed
among any of them, but I guess the other is
a water possum. Anyway, that the tiger has been extinct
since nineteen thirty six, but there have been some recent
sightings reported. Sometimes the creatures are confused for dingoes or
(08:14):
wild pigs, but the reports have had similar descriptions and
they've actually come from two different people in the same location. Now,
one of the key things that's convinced some skeptics that
the species might still be alive is that the Tasmanian
tiger's eyes shine differently from a wild pig or a dingo,
so they actually reflect light back in a very different way.
And it's generated enough excitement that a number of scientists
(08:37):
are now camped out in this secret part of Australia
with hundreds of cameras all trying to locate this tiger.
That's really exciting. I hope they find it. Anyway, We've
got a few more facts for you guys, so stay
tuned and we'll be right back after this break. Welcome
(09:03):
back to Part Time Genius where we're talking about Australian animals.
And then go, am I misremembering this? Was there some
story about your sister and Australian ants? Yeah, good memory,
So My sister actually studied in Queensland and college and
as a kid she was kind of squeamish about insects
and arachnet so I was talking to her about it
when she came back, and she was saying that you
(09:23):
just find these crazy bugs in your room every day
in the dorms, but you kind of got used to
taking a magazine or whatever. I'm flicking them outside. But
the weirdest thing she told me was the story about ants.
And there's a type of ant there that tastes like
lemon lime, so people actually crunch up the ants and
eat it for that flavor, or use it in lemonade,
like you can crush them and add water and get
your protein in as well. Well. I asked her, you know,
(09:46):
knowing she was vegetarian, like, did you actually tried these ants?
And she said, you know, I refused to eat them,
but I did lick their bum. This reminds me of
when you briefly went from being vegetarian and the first
thing ate was ribs in the state of Alabama pretty
much just licked at them. This must run in the family.
You don't want to eat the meat, but you just, oh, gosh,
(10:09):
let's just move on from that. But so, how did
they taste to her really like lemon lime? I'm not
sure that counts, is your fact. But but do you
want to do you want to kick us off with
one last one mango? Yeah? So I've actually been a
little obsessed with camels this year. I've been reading about
this camel scandal in this camel beauty pageant in Saudi
Arabia where a number of the camels had been given botox,
(10:32):
and how Joe Camel came from France. But well, one
of the things I only recently realized is that Australia
has the largest feral camel population in the world. And
apparently they were brought over as be suburden to help
transport things, but then once they were that useful anymore,
they were let loose into the wild and they just
went crazy. Like they're awful because they're so hardy and
(10:53):
they can walk like forty miles in a day, and
there aren't any real natural predators out in the outback.
So I'm gonna say they're like seven thousand or eight
hundred thousands of these beasts just wandering around, drinking up
all the water from wells and causing camel coos. I
have to be honest, if you had told me name
twenty animals in Australia, I wouldn't have thought tonight, camel.
(11:14):
That's not where I would have assumed they were from.
So is there anything that can be done about them? Yeah?
So like Australia is still trying to figure it out.
I read one account of a guy who's been rounding
them up for meat, which is apparently pretty good, but
also to try to sell the camels for camel races
and also beauty pageants, Like people will come to Australia
to like scout aussee camels for their thin necks. Apparently,
like I don't know what makes a pretty camel, but
(11:35):
apparently that's part of it. Wow, all right, well that
that is very interesting. Okay, Well my fact is about
the wombat, and there are lots of cool things about wombats.
You know, their pouches face the wrong way for some reason,
so you know, instead of looking forward, a baby wombat
will face out back as the mom wombat is scurry.
Also their superpower, it's their big butt. It's full of
(11:56):
cartilage and totally resistant to snake bites and dingo bites
it's kind of like a shield for them, so when
they jump into a burrow and their butt sticks out,
it's totally safe from predators. But my favorite thing about
the wombat is that you can tell if you have
a wombat infestation by looking at their scat, So their
poop comes out in perfect little cubes. So funny and
(12:18):
so nerdy and so gross. I also love the names
of wombats, like all the different species, just they're all
really cute sounding. So there's the Southern hairy nose wombat
and of course the Northern hairy nosed wombat. There's also
the common wombat. Yeah, that one kind of got screwed,
you know, get the Southern hairy nose and the northern hair.
(12:39):
I'm curious to see the difference between the northern hairy
nose and the Southern hairy nose. Alright, Gabe, so I
think it's time for you have one last fact, right, yeah, yeah,
My last fact is is about black swans. And this
is pretty great. So for centuries, Europeans for some reason,
like to ponder the existence of black swans, and some
(13:00):
by the sixteenth century, the idea of a black swan
became an idiom for an impossible thing, something that couldn't exist.
But that had all changed in the late sixteen hundreds
when Dutch explorers actually found black swans in western Australia,
which you know, just completely killed the idiom. But it
gets more interesting from there because about a century later,
(13:20):
Napoleon sent an expedition to Australia and in addition to
bringing back, you know, various animals and plant species, he
asked for a special collection of animals to be brought
back for his sweetheart Josephine. So thirty five live animals
were shipped back in all, and this was parrots, EMUs, kangaroos,
and two black swans. So sadly, the animals started, you know,
(13:42):
dying on the longboat ride at home. They got so
bad that the captain actually kicked his crew out of
their cabin so that the kangaroos could be more comfortable.
But you know, he was worried that they'd get back
and none of the animals would have survived the trip.
But really, honestly the problem was they didn't have the
right food. In desperation, they gave animals wine soaked bread, which,
(14:03):
as you might guess, not a great idea, but two
animals that definitely survived and made it back were the
black swans, and Josephine became the very first person to
breed black swans in captivity. That's another good fact. I
don't know about you, man Go, but I feel like
Gabe coming up with that whole murdering horses and us
not believing it. The names for wombats like species of
(14:27):
womb he was, he was on his game and it's
early in the morning out there in l A right now.
So Gabe, I'm impressed. So I think we're gonna give
you this week's Fact Off Trophy. I'm honored. Thank you guys. Well,
thank you guys for listening. We would love to hear
from you. We We've been hearing lots of ideas from
listeners on future nine Things episodes, so feel free to
send those two part time genius at how stuff works
(14:50):
dot com. You can also call us on our seven
fact hot line. That's one eight four four pt genius.
That is still seven fact. Okay, Yeah, we thought about
cutting call going seven, but we're going to stick with it.
So so anyway, thank you guys for listening. We'll be
back with a full length episode tomorrow.
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