The Monstrefact Redux: Donkeys of Dune

In this classic episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the oft-forgotten Kulons of the planet Arrakis…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,
ideas and monsters in time. When it comes to the

(00:24):
fauna of the planet Aracus, your mind probably turns to
the famous sandworm. Alternatively, you might think of muad Dib,
the desert mouse, descended from terrestrial kangaroo mice that were
introduced to the planet by human colonists. But another introduced
species concerns me today, the Coulon. Yes, the donkeys of

(00:47):
Frank Herbert's Doone. The coulon are only mentioned twice in
the original novel, both times in the appendix, were told
that they were once wild donkeys of Earth's asiatic step
and were introduced and adapted for work on the planet Aracus.
We also learn that some smugglers made use of coulon

(01:08):
as pack animals, but quote the water price was high
even when the beasts were fitted with modified still suits.
This is the tidbit that enthralls me every time I
reread it. Perhaps it's just the mental image of a
donkey clad in a futuristic water reclamation suit, then used
by smugglers to traffic psychedelic space drugs. While the Dune

(01:29):
Encyclopedia is usually quick to expand on concepts from the novels,
they offer very little on the donkeys of Done except
to claim that the Fremen inhabitants of Aracus employed them
as well and use the animal's milk in their cuisine.
By the way, this book features a few recipes you
can prepare yourself. I often wondered why Frank Herbert would

(01:50):
choose to have introduced donkeys on Aracus and not camels. Camels,
after all, are the ships of the desert highly suited
for dry air environments, but the donkey, too, is a
highly evolved desert ungulate. Both species offer energy and water savings,
but is one truly a better choice than the other?
Was I wrong to question Herbert's wisdom in giving oracous

(02:14):
the donkey as usuff at all? Explore In energy costs
of walking in camels from nine, the camel benefits from
low energy cost of walking, which results in an economy
of heat production and food water requirements. Plus, the authors
argue that the camel is unequaled by other mammals in

(02:37):
its ability to carry heavy loads for long distances. The
domestication and popularity of the camel is a topic of
great interest and was the subject of historian Richard Bullets
book The Camel and the Wheel. In his two thousand
five book Hunters, Herders and Hamburgers, he mentions that he
nearly wrote a book on the donkey as well. Both

(02:58):
animals would have entered the world of human domestication, he
writes between four thousand and three thousand b c. As
Roger S. Bagnal discusses in the paper The Camel, the
Wagon and the Donkey in later Roman Egypt, both creatures
had their advantages depending on the job and the environment.
The camel was superior in its greater range, endurance, and

(03:21):
ability to go long distances without water, but it was
also more expensive than the donkey, and its advantages would
be less impressive if it was required for short and
or infrequent trips. And so what of the world of Iracus.
We might well assume that the mighty camel's long distance,
high volume skills were less necessary within a civilization full

(03:44):
of high tech ornithopters, and on a world where travel
across the open desert is so terribly risky due to
the sandworms attraction to the rhythm afoot and hoofsteps. Perhaps
then the donkey was is the best fit and the
domesticated species most likely to survive on aracous long term,

(04:06):
as it was perhaps cheaper to keep and better used
for short travel in protected areas and also as a
dairy animal. Tune into additional episodes of The Monster Fact
or The Artifact each week. As always, you can email
us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

(04:35):
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