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Selects: Beavers: Tail Slapping Fun · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Everyone. It's Josh, and for this week's Select, I've chosen
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: our October twenty twenty episode on beavers because it's one
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of our best animal episodes, which is really saying something
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: because our animal episodes are pretty great. And it turns
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: out that beavers aren't just cute and diligent at work.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: They have a huge cascading effect, a positive one too,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: on the ecosystems that they move into. So behold and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: enjoy the Beaver.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: there's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there, and there's Jerry somewhere.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: And it says, Steve, you should know the Orange Insizer's edition.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: No, I thought you're gonna make a bad naked gun joke.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: No, No, it's We've run through my head over and
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: over and over and over and over and over and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: over again.
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  Speaker 2: Though it's hard though when you're at our age. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and you saw those movies, yeah for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Dumb joke though, Yeah, Well, I mean it's a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: naked gun joke for Pete's saying, come.
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  Speaker 2: On, So this kind of ties in I think a
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  Speaker 2: little bit with our porcupine episode and that beavers are
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: you know, they're porcupine esque in some ways.
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  Speaker 1: I think it ties in even more to our Wetlands episode,
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  Speaker 1: which gave birth to the idea for this episode. You know, yeah, absolutely,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I mean I'm pretty excited about this one. I think
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: beavers are about as great as it gets because they're
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  Speaker 1: so studious and they also bend the world to their will.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: They shape things the way that they want them and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I like that about them.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I also love their familial aspects. Yeah, which
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: we'll get to all this stuff. But what we're talking
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: about is the largest rodent in North America.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Which really demeans them, I guess.
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  Speaker 2: But yes, rodent's such a it's not a bad word.
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  Speaker 2: There's so many great rodents. Oh, beavers, porcupines, what else. Squirrels.
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  Speaker 2: I know you have a thing with squirrels.
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  Speaker 1: But well, I know I like squirrels now. Momo and
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  Speaker 1: I and you me sometimes comes with us to chase
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: squirrels across the street in the park and feed them peanuts.
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  Speaker 1: We give them peanuts is like to kind of buy
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: them off after mo chases them up a tree. But
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the squirrels across the way will actually come to you
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and eat peanuts out of your hand. So I'm kind
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of on squirrels now. Momo loves squirrels, chipmunks, mice, chipmunks too. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Rodents are okay, Chuck.
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  Speaker 2: I think there are fewer terrible rodents, and the only
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: ones I can think of that are terrible are those
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: scary New York City sewer rats.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, so rodents are all right up with rodents,
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  Speaker 1: I guess rabbits and I don't think they're rodents.
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  Speaker 2: They are you like a hamster?
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  Speaker 1: Sure, hamsters. I don't know if rabbits are rodents. Are
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: they It makes sense that they would be.
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  Speaker 2: But it's what rodent dot com says.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well, who am I to disagree with that? But
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  Speaker 1: we're not talking about rabbits. We're not talking about sewer rats.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: We're talking about beavers. And again, beavers are amazing, amazing animals,
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  Speaker 1: and like you said, you know, it's kind of related
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  Speaker 1: to porcupines, and that there's what you could call Old
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: World and New World beavers. But there's really just two species,
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  Speaker 1: and one is found in North America and one is
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: found in Eurasia. And it's easy, pasy, no fuss, no must.
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  Speaker 1: These are the beavers that are alive on the planet.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've got the American beaver. They weigh between
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: fifteen and sixty five pounds, which is very large. If
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  Speaker 2: you've ever seen a large beaver in the wild, it's
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  Speaker 2: not scary because you know, and we'll get to whether
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  Speaker 2: or not they they're dangerous. They're really not. But it's
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  Speaker 2: such a large thing that you're like, wow, they're bigger
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  Speaker 2: than I thought. Usually has run through my head when
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I see a beaver.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean sixty or thirty No, yeah, sixty five
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  Speaker 1: pounds is about thirty kilograms.
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  Speaker 2: It's a big beaver.
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  Speaker 1: It is a big beaver. And I had to converty
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  Speaker 1: to kilograms for at least our friends in Canada because
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  Speaker 1: beaver's their national emblem. They have beaver on their nickel,
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  Speaker 1: which is amazing. Like, this just makes me love Canada
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  Speaker 1: all the much more, you know.
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  Speaker 2: So for that sixty pounds, you're going to be a
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  Speaker 2: couple of feet long twenty three to forty inches long. Hm,
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  Speaker 2: that's without the tail. You don't count the tail when
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  Speaker 2: you're measuring a beaver. The tail will talk a little
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  Speaker 2: bit more about it, But they're anywhere from seven to
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  Speaker 2: twelve inches. If you're Eurasian, you're about the same size. Mate.
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  Speaker 2: You can be a little bit smaller, Oh I thought bigger,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Well you can be a little smaller on the I
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: think the range is bigger. Okay, so you can be
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  Speaker 2: down in the twenties poundage wise, but up to the
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  Speaker 2: seventies poundage wise, and you're probably a little bit longer,
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  Speaker 2: and your skull and your tail are going to be narrower,
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  Speaker 2: or your tail's narrower and your skull is smaller.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, but that tail is what everybody understands when
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  Speaker 1: they see a beaver. Just like with a porcupine and
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  Speaker 1: its quills, a beaver in its tail is they're just synonymous.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody recognizes a beaver because of its tail, and also
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  Speaker 1: the tails help make it cute. Even though if you
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  Speaker 1: zoomed in and took a really close look at the tail,
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  Speaker 1: you'd be like gross. You think, yeah, it's scaly, it's
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  Speaker 1: got sparse, coarse hair associated with it. It looks like
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  Speaker 1: a black jack that some old timy like ruffs would
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  Speaker 1: beat you up with. And yet it's one of the
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  Speaker 1: most amazing appendages any animal has as far as it's
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  Speaker 1: like a Swiss Army knife foot for tails.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're very useful in a lot of ways. They
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  Speaker 2: obviously if they're swimming, and beavers, by the way, can
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  Speaker 2: swim five to seven miles an hour. They have little
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: web feet they have, they can close their ear holes
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  Speaker 2: in their nose holes, and they can roll their film
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  Speaker 2: over their eyeballs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, nictitating membrane.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing. So if they're gonna be swimming, then
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  Speaker 2: that tail is gonna be acting as a rudder and
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: as a propeller. It's also if they're on land, it's
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  Speaker 2: gonna act as a little kickstand at times.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, when they stand up on their back legs, they
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  Speaker 1: use their tail to kind of lean against the balance.
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  Speaker 1: It's a big one for sure. They also, and this
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  Speaker 1: is a sure sign that you have frightened slash upset
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  Speaker 1: a beaver. They will slap the water with their tail
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  Speaker 1: in part to frighten you away, to say like, don't
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  Speaker 1: mess with me, but also to warn other beavers because,
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  Speaker 1: like you were saying, they're familial, they are actually fairly
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  Speaker 1: social animals and they live in family units, so they
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  Speaker 1: would want to warn like you know the wife and
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  Speaker 1: the kids back at the lodge.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And here's the thing. I spent a lot of
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: time at a lake here in Georgia, and I have
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  Speaker 2: heard something which I thought was a beaver tail smash,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm not sure because I didn't see it. I
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  Speaker 2: have seen evidence of beaver eating tree stuff, oh yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and which we'll get to. And one day when I
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  Speaker 2: was in the lake, I saw a mammal's head coming
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  Speaker 2: toward me and I don't know if it was. We
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  Speaker 2: also have river otter, so I don't know if it
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  Speaker 2: was an otter or a beaver, but either way it
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  Speaker 2: was it was a large head. And even though I
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  Speaker 2: know that they weren't going to like come after me,
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  Speaker 2: when that thing pops under the water, You're just like,
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  Speaker 2: where's he going, what's he doing? Where is he? Is
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  Speaker 2: he coming at me or not?
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  Speaker 1: Were you swimming in the lake at the time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was swimming in the lake and I saw
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  Speaker 2: this large mammal head, you know, dumped under I could
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  Speaker 2: feel you. And if it was I'm not sure how
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  Speaker 2: long beavers can hold their or Otters can hold their breasts,
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  Speaker 2: but beavers can hold their breath for about fifteen minutes,
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  Speaker 2: which is pretty remarkable.
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  Speaker 1: I thought. I think remarkable too. I mean, it really
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  Speaker 1: just goes to show just how adapted they are for
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  Speaker 1: life in the water. And they are mammals, so they
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  Speaker 1: have lung so they need to breathe air outside of
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  Speaker 1: the water. But yeah, the fact that they can hold
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  Speaker 1: their breaths for fifteen minutes, that they have nictitating membranes
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  Speaker 1: that cover their eyes like little goggles so they can
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  Speaker 1: see and work underwater. They spend a significant amount of
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  Speaker 1: their time underwater. In fact, they're most protected in water.
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  Speaker 1: That's where they can move the fastest. They can swim
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  Speaker 1: pretty fast, way faster than they can waddle on land. Sure,
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of their predators won't necessarily come into,
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  Speaker 1: especially deep water after them. So when they're in the water,
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  Speaker 1: they're at their they're in their happy place most.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and imagine when they dive for fifteen minutes and
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  Speaker 2: are swimming around. What do you think those.
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  Speaker 1: Fish think, Oh, here comes a beaver.
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  Speaker 2: They do they know or are they just like, what
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  Speaker 2: in the world is that big hairy thing?
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  Speaker 1: I would guess that I would like to think they know.
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  Speaker 1: I like to think of communities of animals or ecosystems.
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  Speaker 2: Just they know each other.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they know each other. They know each other's foibles.
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  Speaker 1: They've come to accept one another. You know, they have
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  Speaker 1: their other things, but beaver foibles they always kind of
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you know, they in the end that when somebody, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like a human comes in and tries to screw things up,
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  Speaker 1: they'll all band together and you know, raise money for
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the community center so that the developer can't buy it.
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  Speaker 2: So if you are North American beaver, you can live
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  Speaker 2: pretty much anywhere in North America except for the desert.
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  Speaker 2: Because you want water around, you're probably going to be
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  Speaker 2: near pond or a lake, or a marsh or a
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  Speaker 2: swamp or a river. Eurasian beavers used to live all
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  Speaker 2: over Europe and Asia, but they were hunted over hunted
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  Speaker 2: because at one point in time, wearing beaver pelts and
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: beaver hats was like a really high fashion. So now
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  Speaker 2: they're only found in Germany, France, Poland, Scandinavia, Southern Scandinavia,
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  Speaker 2: and Central Russia.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of those are because they were
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  Speaker 1: reintroduced to the areas, Like I believe Germany had to
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  Speaker 1: have their population reintroduced because they were hunted to extinction
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  Speaker 1: and how many.
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  Speaker 2: Beavers used to be here, like four hundred million.
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  Speaker 1: That's the estimate is that in North America prior to
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  Speaker 1: Colombian contact, that there were about four hundred million beavers
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  Speaker 1: and they were hunted down to near extinction within the
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  Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands from what I saw, and were luckily
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  Speaker 1: held back from the brink. And when I say luckily,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I don't just mean for the beavers, but I mean
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  Speaker 1: for the planet as far as North America is concerned.
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  Speaker 1: Because one of the things that we are still learning
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  Speaker 1: but have come to realize, is that the beavers are
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  Speaker 1: probably the most useful species on the planet because they're
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  Speaker 1: one of the few species that alters their environment as
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  Speaker 1: radically as they do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, what are they called.
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  Speaker 1: They're a keystone species species because when they are present,
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  Speaker 1: biodiversity thrives, and when beavers are removed from an area,
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  Speaker 1: biodiversity suffers. The presence of beavers makes life better and
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  Speaker 1: richer for entirely other animals and species, just because of
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  Speaker 1: what they do and how they do it.
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  Speaker 2: All Right, that's a great place to take a break.
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  Speaker 2: And I say, when we come back, we talk about
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  Speaker 2: the two fundamental fulcrumbs on which beaver life is based.
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  Speaker 2: The dam and the lodge.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, stop, stop, all right, we're back.
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  Speaker 2: And there are a couple of things. You know, you've
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: heard busy as a beaver. Uh, it's it's I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if that's proven, but I think it is almost
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: universally agreed that that phrase came about because beavers are,
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  Speaker 2: in fact very busy, and they work, work, work all
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  Speaker 2: day long, building their homes and building dams. Their homes
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  Speaker 2: are called lodges. And you've probably seen, if you've ever
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: been hiking and stuff in America, you've probably seen a
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: beaver lodge by a river, ear lake. It's a little
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: little dome, a little hot out of sticks and grasses
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: and moss and mud.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe you thought a local witch had built it.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it does look like a little Uh what
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: do you call witch's houses?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Witch's house? I think there's a cottage.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Oh sure, I think there's a different name. But I
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: thought so. Now I don't, I don't know.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I think so witch house.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'm thinking of Coven's.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: House a day witch.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: No, there's a word. We just I just watched The
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Witch the movie again. I think there's a word for it.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Man, I love that. That might be my favorite movie.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: We did a movie Crush Roundtable on that. By the way,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: it was really good.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: It is a good And that's the guy who did
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the Lighthouse, isn't it.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Rob Potters, God bless that.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Man. I can't wait to see his biking movie too.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I can't imagine. Okay, So the beaver lodge is,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: you know, about eight feet wide a few feet high.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: They're on the banks of these ponds or on lake shores.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: They have this is one of my favorite parts. Many
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: of them have a little underwater back door.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: It's like sort of a ski in chalet if you're
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: snow skiing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, which makes sense because again, they spend so much
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: time in the water, but also it protects them from
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: terrestrial predators because they can get into the water and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: escape when a predators like at their door.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know this is they're nocturnal, they don't hibernate,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: but most of this action's going on at night, and
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: everyone pitches in the whole family. I don't think we
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: said yet. They live with their children till they're about two.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: And a beaver lodge you might find a mom and
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: a dad who are monogamous mates for life, and they
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: might have their three two year old almost two year
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: old children, and then they might have their little grand babies.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because when they have their their babies, which are
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: called kits, which admittedly is not as cute a word
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: as porcupets.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: No, but they're cute.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: But dude, just baby for press pause right now, everybody,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and go look up some baby beaver pictures, little tails.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: They're cute. So they have baby beavers. And one of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the reasons why they're so cute is because they stick
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: around for so long, or they stick around so long
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: because they're so cute. That's what I mean to say. Yes,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: but they do. They stay as part of the family
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: unit and help work on the family lodge and damn
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: until about two when they wander off, and then at
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: three they start to mate. But they build their own
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: lodge at age two, and from what I've read, it's
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: usually very clumsy. It's not in the best place necessarily,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and so they kind of learn as they go. But
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: they also learn from their family unit first, which I
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: think is super cute.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: It is I think we should talk about dams though.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, the lodges are are cool and it's a
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: great place to live if you're a beaver. But the
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: dams is where they really that's where they get their
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: shining moment as a species. That really helps out the
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: environment because they help create these wetlands, don't they.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So a beaver will move into an area that's
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: dry as a bone, that's maybe crop land, that's maybe timberland,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: that is not at all flooded. There's no pond or
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: wetland or anything like that, and they say, this can
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: be better. And so they find like a source of
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: moving water like a stream or a brook, maybe a creek,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: maybe a creek something like that, and they stop it up.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: They build a dam, and they build this damp so
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: that the water backs up behind it and floods this
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: area and turns it into a wetland. And they do
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: this not to irk humans or just for fun. They
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: do it because they're altering the ecosystem to better suit themselves.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Like I said, they survive much better when they're in
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the water. They move faster, they can work faster. So
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: they actually make this ecosystem into an aquatic ecosystem where
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: before there wasn't an aquatic ecosystem. And they do it
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: all by building this dam, and the way that they
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: build dams is magnificent in and of itself.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, you got your dam base, the
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: foundation basically where you're going to use mud and gravel
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: that you get from the stream, and you kind of
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: work together as a family and with your tail and
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: they're pushing I say, we're beaver's all of a sudden,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: and you're pushing this mud and gravel up from the
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: bottom of the stream.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: And if let's say it's a place where the creek
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: is running a little bit too fast and there's too
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: much flow, they're going to say, you know what, We're
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: going to take these sticks. We're gonna pile these things
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: up all along the bottom until basically it's like building
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: from the ground up until they're strong enough to stay
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: in place.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Right. But they're so good at using their hands, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: they're so strong. You said, you know, sixty sixty five
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: pounds or about thirty kilograms. They're mostly muscle too. They're
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: really strong little little rodents, especially for being like herbivores.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: You know, they're like those vegan body builders. But they
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: can take they'll take sticks and like plant them in
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the bottom of this stream or whatever and start forming
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a lattice work that they weave in between and fill
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: up with mud to really stop up some you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: fast moving current. That Like, that's the level of manipulation
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: that they're they're doing. They're they're building a dam that
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: they they eventually successfully back up the flow of water from.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is I've tried to do that before, and
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: it's hard to do. Yeah. My buddy Scotty and I,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: you know, we went camping once in California, and it
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: was when I was young in the film industry, so
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: there was a lot of time between jobs, and we
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: just decided to stay and keep staying, and I think
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: we ended up staying for like eleven or twelve days wow.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: And we wanted to build a waterfall next to our campsite,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: so it sounded better. So we spent days and days
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: with sticks and big rocks and trying to reroute and
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: change the river. And it was some of the hardest
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: work I've ever done.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Imagine doing that at like forty eight inches long and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: only sixty five pounds.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So they're not only building this thing up, they
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: got their little kits and their children helping, like bringing
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: up sticks and mud saying paw mas is okay, and
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: they say, yeah, add it to the pile. And then
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: once they're done, they like, there's a periodic like inspections
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that go on, Yeah, because they got to make sure
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: that it stays strong, because that current just keeps going
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: and it's very easy to wiggle the right stick loose
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden it starts crumbling down. So
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: they basically inspect these things every so often and check
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: it for leaks and bring in mud and patch it up,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: just like it's like a human might do.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, I saw that they do daily maintenance on it.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: That one way to tell whether beavers are in the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: area is to find their dam, make it like a
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: little miner hole in it, and then go back and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: look the next day, and if it's patched up, the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: beavers are around there and giving you the middle finger
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: right exactly like okay, yeah we're here, you've figured it out,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Please leave our dam alone. But yeah, these things are
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: like water tight for the most part, or they allow
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: very little water through, or I guess from what I
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: can tell, as much water as the beaver wants through.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Like they're very willfully deliberately constructed structures. That will turn
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: a dry area into a wetland. And when that happens,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: one of the things that they used to build the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: stuff with their trees around the area, they can they
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: use their teeth, those really really sharp, strong teeth that
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I said are like kind of orangish at the very
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: beginning of the episode, and they're very they're orange because
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: they have so much iron in them, which actually gives
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: them that much more strength.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're up to an inch long. They're super strong.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: They they actually sharpen as they gnaw on trees, so
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: it's not like it'll dull their teeth out. It actually
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: sharpens them. And the other thing they're doing is they're
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: eating that tree. They're one of the few mammals that
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: are maybe the only mammal that can actually digest cellulose.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Well, porcupines can too, remember, Oh that's right, Yeah, they can.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: They can digest cellulos because they probably have a very
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: similar kind of bacteria that helps them helps digest it
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: for them. But they digest a lot of the cellulos
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that they eat, and it's really hard to break down
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: normally for mammals though.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but like you know, you said, they're essentially creating
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: these wetlands. They're preventing erosion, they are helping to pure
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the water.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, let's talk about what the dams can do. Okay, Chuck.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: I mean it's amazing there. It's like a little environmental
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: coalition that goes into the woods to make things better.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think in the Wetlands episode, I said
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: something like a beaver creates the equivalent of some like
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: a five million dollar wastewater treatment plan or something like that.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I could not find that again to save my life,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: but I think that was roughly Yet, they create this
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: this structure that creates the artificial wetland, and in doing so,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: it filters the water because it slows the water down
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: so much that the stuff can trickle down to the bottom.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: It turns a normal terrestrial piece of land into a wetland.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So aquatic plants come. And they've also found out that
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: not only does it filter water of like sediment and particles,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: it also is capable of handling farm runoff fertilizer, which
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: is really pernicious because you know, when all that fertilizer
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: makes its way into watersheds and wetlands, it creates algae blooms,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: which suck up all the oxygen and kill off a
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: bunch of fish, right, which is a big problem. They
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: figured out that beaver dams actually work against that by
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: fixing nitrogen excess nitrogen from fertilizer. It prevents it from flowing.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Bacteria chomps down on it and releases it as nitrogen
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: gas into the atmosphere, and the stuff the bacteria doesn't
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: eat floats down to the bottom gets eaten up by
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: aquatic plants, which when they die, lock it into the sediment.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: So this farm runoff that's a huge problem as it stands,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: is actually mitigated by beaver dams. They've recently found out.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and talk about just what kind of impact it
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: has on who lives there. I mean, it's basically like
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: an invitation to nature that says, hey, we got a
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: good scene going over here. If you're an invertebrate that
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: doesn't feel like they have a home, you're welcome here.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: If you're a new speci he's a bird that didn't
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: think that you would flourish here, time to change that attitude.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: If you're a duck or a goose, you can nest
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: on top of our lodge because our lodge is super
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: warm because it's full of beavers and you can nest
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: on top of there and stay warm, and especially if
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: it's out in the middle of a pond or something,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: you're gonna be safer.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: What else, if you are a woodpecker and you're like,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: all these trees are too healthy, there's no insects in them,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: well just wait because flooded timberland doesn't stand up very
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: well to standing water, and so some of those trees
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: die off and they get they provide housing for insects,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: which in turn provides food for the woodpeckers.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: What if you're a moose, let's say, probably no good
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: for you, right.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: No, you're gonna love this if you're a moose, so
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: buckle up, because the beaver has turned it into a wetland.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: It's now an aquatic environment, and moose like aquatic plants
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that grow on the edge of like marshy areas. So
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: these plants that weren't there before are suddenly there for
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the moves. And it gets even better because when the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: beaver family finally like is you know, moves away or
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: they die off and the whole thing gets abandoned. The
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: eventually the dam's going to break without regular maintenance, and
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: when it does, the place is going to go back
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: to how it was before, but it's going to go
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: back to better than it was before because think about
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: all that nitrogen that was fixed in the sediment, all
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the erosion that was prevented, and all of a sudden,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: you have a lush, beautiful meadow that deer can come
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: eat on.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Like they they help out all
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: these animals and introduce all these new animals that can
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: live together, and then once it's done, it becomes a
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: flowery meadow for deer.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: They leave it better than it was when they first
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: got there.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: It is amazing. The problem is is that humans frequently
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: have much different plans for those same areas, and beaver
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: want to foul them. I say, we take a break
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and we come back and talk about that after a break.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Like I just said, what do you think? Answer now? Yes? Okay?
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Stop stop stop.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Shut all right? So we love beaver. You love beaver.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Everyone out there listening, there's a lot of people who
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: don't love beaver.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Is it beaver?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: It is now okay? And the reason why is because
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: if you own like a stand of timber, your plan
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: is to eventually cut that timber down and sell it
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: for wood planks or books, you know, like stuff you
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: should know. Calling an incomplete compendium of mostly interesting things
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: available everywhere you get books to pre order. Now, there's
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: things you can do with trees that you grow. And
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: if beavers move into your area and they build the dam,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: those dams are effective. This isn't like a little puddle
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: we're talking about. They can create basic basically like lakes, ponds,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: like enormous wetlands. And when you have standing water over timberland,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: those trees are not They're not aquatic trees that you're
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: growing there, so they actually die again, remember they die
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: off and bugs move in and woodpeckers eat the bugs. Well,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: if you're trying to make money off of those trees,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: you don't really want the beavers to do that to
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: your timberland.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: No, And I think how many tens of millions of dollars.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I think it was like twenty million dollars a year
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: or something.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I think more than that because I think I saw
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Alabama alone suffered like fourteen million dollars in law really
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: from timberland, just Alabama.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: From beaver damage. And not only that it'll it'll flooding
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: for crop. It can make what was ordinarily a very
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: stable bridge or road now unstable and cause damage to
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: roads and stuff like that.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: From like saturating the soil that was holding it up
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: just fine before.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the good news is back in the old days,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: there would just you know, they would just cull as
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: many beavers as they could to get rid of them.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: These days, and this is kind of a weird stat
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: but it says seventy five percent of beaver human conflict
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: can be resolved without trapping or killing the beavers. So yeah,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I take that as in they will somehow move them
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: along in a way that's humane.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if that's even the case. I
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: think that more often than not, the first question is
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: is the beaver really causing a problem or is it
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: that there's beavers and they've created this wetland and that
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: wasn't there before, and you're taking it as a problem.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing that I'm seeing that it seems
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to be like the new paradigm for viewing beavers as
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: far as their relationship to humans. It's like, really, what's
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: what's the problem. If it's yes, they're damaging crop land. Okay,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that's a problem. If they're killing timberland, that's a problem.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: If they've if they're washing out a road, that's a problem.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: But if they just created a wetland that wasn't there
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: before on your property where you bought the property and
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: it was dry and now there's a wetland there that
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you didn't plan for, is it really a problem? And
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I think that's what they're saying, is that seventy five
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: percent of the people who are asked that question will say, actually,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I guess it's not. I'm going to learn to love
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the beaver. I love beaver.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know, it really gets my dander up
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: when I this lake that I go to the Facebook page,
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: there are people, you know, people post like, hey, it
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: looks like I have a beaver eating on my trees,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: and you know these some of these people literally are like, yep,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: I'll take care of that with my twelve gageah. And
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: it's just like, you don't. I've never understood the people
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: who want to move to nature to kill the Yeah.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I know, it's just it's.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Unnerving and I have seen some beaver damage and I
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: love it. I welcome it, So yeah, you eat all
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: you want.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: You would be one of the seventy five percent who
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: would say, like, no, it's no problem whatever. You probably
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: wouldn't even say it was an issue. You wouldn't even
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: be asked that question. You would just know from the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: outset that it's not a problem.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I call that a beaver beavering.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Beaver's going to beaver.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And so we know now that, like they are a
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: keystone species. They're so important that it's great. The impression
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I'm getting is it's kind of like, no, it's not
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: really a problem. So you can't touch that beaver, don't
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: shoot that beaver. You're going to get in big trouble
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: depending on where you are for shooting a beaver when
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: it wasn't creating a problem, which I love because they
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: should be protected because again not just the fact that
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: they were almost hunted to extinction. They provide so many
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: really important services. I don't even know if we talked
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: about it. There are two others, Chuck, They prevent flooding.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Three others. They prevent flooding by slowing the flow of
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: water so things downstream from the dam don't get overwhelmed
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: as much. Right, the stuff in the dam helps recharge
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: aquifers below. Whereas before there's just a little stream trickling
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: over it was doing jack for the aquifer. Now the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: aquifer is getting recharged on the daily. And then the
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: third one is they provide natural fire breaks, which helps
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: cane forest fires. Yeah.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling when we're done, we're gonna be
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: mad because there were like three more things we didn't
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: think about.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: That happens to me a lot and drives me nuts.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Here's some of the things that people do try and
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: do though to mitigate their what they perceive as their
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: beaver problems.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Yet Yeah, no, because they do create some problems as
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: far as human settlement is concerned.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: They will use beaver pipes, and this is basically plastic
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: pipes that you put in a beaver dam to route
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: that water to where you want. It helps control the
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: flooding that beavers can cause.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like so long that the beaver's like it
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: doesn't think to go to the end of the pipes.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: It just sees that there's something around its dam, and
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it probably dams up around the pipe, but that still
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: lets the flow of water go through.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is kind of cool. They will build a
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: pre dam If they want beavers away from a certain
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: place and in a different place, they'll basically say, hey,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: look over here, we got this fence. It's like a
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: foundation for your new home. Right, It's kind of you
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: got ten percent of your work is already done. Why
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: don't you to start here. So they'll do that, Yeah,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: the beaver says, hot dog. And then another thing is
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: to design that. Well, there's two times of fences. There's
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: the pre damn fence that encourages them to come, and
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: then there is another kind of fence to keep them
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: from building there in the first place.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those are called beaver deceivers, and they are. It's
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: just basically so like a culvert is a frequent place
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: that a beaver likes to dam up, and that's where
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: it causes a lot of damage because culverts are helped
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: are to help drain water, to keep roadways stable and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Right, So you would just basically
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: put a fence radiating out from either side of the
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: culvert outward and an angle kind of like in a
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: V shape, and then those two fences are connected by
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: another fence between the two. So it's just basically like
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: a triangle that ends in the culvert. The key is
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: if you make those fences long enough, I think twelve
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: feet minimum or something like that, the beaver is going
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: to be like nuts to this. This just isn't even
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: worth it. I'm not going to try to build a
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: dam here, or if it does start to build a dam,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: it's going to give up eventually, and your culvert is
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: saved without the beaver being hurt or harm. The beaver
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: just moves on to a different spot that it likes.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Right, And if you have a tree that you really
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: love that you see has some beaver activity, you can
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: wrap like chicken wire around the base of it if
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: you want. There's also some special paint that you can
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: paint on the trunk that apparently beavers don't like. If
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: you want to protect a certain tree.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: It's like the nail biting stuff whole bit.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, somebody wrote in about that.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: What did they say? I didn't see, though.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: I think they were just asking, like what it was.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they still have it, but I don't remember
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: what it was.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I believe remember lee press on nails. I think they
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: had a sideline in that stuff.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: I'm sure it was. It's probably just like clear nail polish. Yeah,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: but it tastes like garbage. Yeah, that tasted really bad.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Tasted like what what I thought, it was like hot? No,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: it was bitter.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, I wouldn't like that at all.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: That was very bitter. I don't think we mentioned the
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I mean we should talk a little bit. We talked
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: about the kits. But they do live in large groups.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: They're very social. They're called colonies, and they mate in
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: the winter during the first few months of the year.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: The Eurasian beaver gestates for sixty to one hundred and
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: twenty eight days and have one to six little babies,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: and the American beaver's gestate from one hundred to about
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: one hundred and five to one hundred and seven days,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: again one to four little kits, and they are weaned
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: around two weeks of age, whereas the Eurasian beaver is
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: weaned it about six weeks of age.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Right, And so, Chuck, I saw that beavers tend to live,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: like you said, they were monogamous typically. I said that
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: they live about ten to fifteen years in the wild,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: which is so cute. But you can also build a
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: pretty respectable dam in that time too. And I think
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: actually the largest dam that they've ever seen. Is they
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: think it is from many, many, many generations of beavers
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: staying and working on it in Alberta.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it's huge, and I guess everyone just got
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: in on the party.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. They think since the seventies that some beavers have
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: been keeping it very appropriate. Yeah, pretty much.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: And those little kids, by the way, can swim about
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: just one day after they're born, they're already swimming around.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Right, So, like we said, I think that they are.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I think that they become sexually mature at age three.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: On that time they're going to start producing something called
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: castorum or castorium, right, yeah. And castorium is like a
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: lot of people think that it's like the origin of
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: castor oil. It's not correct. From the castor bean. I
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: believe this stuff is like the opposite of castor oil.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: It actually like tastes and smells like really good.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it's it's used. It's the FDA says
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: you can eat it. It's one of those grass remember,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: generally recognized as safe ingredients. And the thing is that
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: there's just not a lot of it. It's very tough
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: to and it's a lot of work to go out
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: there and try and extract this flavor ingredient from the
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: beaver tail. I think it says two hundred about two
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: hundred and ninety two pounds annually total, so imagine it's expensive.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: It is very expensive, and you can still find in
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: some places. I think I saw a whiskey that uses
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: it Chanelle's perfume. What is it called kar de RUSSI.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I believe it still uses it, really, And it's a
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: flavor ingredient too, because it's like you're saying, it's generally
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: recognized as safe, but it also adds like a vanilla
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: raspberry flavor. That's what it tastes like to humans. And
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: they think that there are some ice creams out there
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: that still may use that, like old timey ice creams
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: that use beaver castorium, like beaver scent. It's what it is.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: It's beaver musk. Yeah, it just so happens that beaver
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: musk tastes like raspberry vanilla to humans. Yeah, but they
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: were hunted for a really long time, which kind of
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: led to this one myth, didn't it.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: The testicle myth?
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Up until about the eleven hundred's, people thought beavers
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: eight or bit off their own testicles, and apparently this
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: has its origins in ancient Egypt. In medieval Europe it
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: continued where I think the what they said was that
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: beavers knew that hunters were coming after them because of
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: that castorium which originated in their testicles. And none of
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: this is true. I think their testicles they don't even
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: have hangers, right, No.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: They don't, They're located inside them, which automatically disqualifies it.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: But also so the beavers were basically saying like, no,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: you can't have my tastorium. I can't have it anymore either.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I would rather bite off my own testicles than let
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: you have them. I guess maybe as a survival mechanism,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: like they thought that the body would leave them alone
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: if they didn't have testicles. But maybe no, that's not
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: true at all. And then there's one other great fact, Chuck,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: that I think you got to take to take us
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: out with.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: The Yeah, the pope in the sixteenth century said, you
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: know what, that tale is pretty scaly, and they sure
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: are in the water a lot. So during the fasting days,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: go ahead and eat that beaver.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: It's close enough to yep, exactly. It qualifies as a fish.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: So you could eat beaver back in the sixteenth century
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: thanks to the pope.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: That's right, as far as I know, it teased early
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: if they were dangerous, they're not. Beavers are very nice
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: little fellas and ladies. And if there is a beaver
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: that attacks somebody, it will make the news because it's
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: so rare, and it probably means they're really sick.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they, like all mammals, can get rabies, but like porcupines.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I get the impression that that's one of the few
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: diseases you can get from a beaver. The thing is
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: is if they are rabid and they do charge at you,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: they can do some serious damage with those teeth, Like
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: they can chew through three foot diameter trees, they can
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: bite through your skin, and so if you get too
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: close to a beaver, it can have bad effects. It's
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: just like you said, it's extremely rare. But I saw
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: at least one guy's died from them in the last
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: decade or so, right.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: That was just bad luck.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: So a guy, Tila Russ was trying to get a
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: picture of a beaver and got too close and the
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: thing bit him in his thigh and bit through his
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: femoral artery and the guy bled to death from a
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: beaver attack. He died from a beaver attack. His family
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: has to live like that for the rest of their lives.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Beaver attack, I don't know, and there's been some other
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: attacks too, But yeah, I think they just kind of
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: give beaver's bad name unwarrantedly. Don't you shot through the
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: flag and you're too blame you give beaver's a bad name.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Oh goodness, Todd, Well, I guess that's it for beaver's Huh,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: that's it. I'm glad we finally got to do this one.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: Leave them alone.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let them do their beaver thing. Beaver in, like
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Chuck says, be's going to beaver if you want to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: know more about beavers, So then by God, you go
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: find some beavers and study them from afar because they
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: are nature's miracles. And since I said that, it's time
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: for listener male.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna call this Brave Angels. Hey, guys,
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: listen to your episode on Swing States. You mentioned the
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: dangerous level of polarization going on between reds and blues
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: in America.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, thanks for reading this one.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: You're welcome. And I wanted to let you know that
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: there's something we can do about it. There's a great
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: grassroots organization with a specific goal of depolarizing America called
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: braver Angels, which organizes events to bring reds and blues
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: together to have real, nuanced discussions about things they disagree
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: about and help us understand and respect each other.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: That's great, It is great.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: That's quite yeah. I would love to peek in on
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: one of these meetings and maybe go to one. They're
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: doing a lot of online events now due to COVID
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: and among other things, just launched a campaign called Hold
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: America Together to prepare a response to potential election related
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: conflict in November. Could you please tell your listeners about
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Braver Angels. Yes, and help keep our country together because
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: America needs this. Love to all the reds and blues
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: out there, and you guys are great at what you do.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Join the braver Angels. That is from Christa, and just
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: go to braver Angels dot org. B A R A
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: v E r A n g e l s dot org.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: B R A v r A n g e l
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: s dot org.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: That is correct.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, that's fantastic. Thank you, Christa, and thanks to
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: all the braver angels out there who are trying to
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: keep the country together because, like Christa said, we kind
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: of need it right now.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: And it is brave, it's it's uh, it's daunting to
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: step outside your echo chamber.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Oh man, it is. And it's just harder and harder
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: because you know, the echoes have gotten stronger and stronger,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: so to hear something other than that, it's like just
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: almost like makes your brain melt, you know.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Pretty neat all.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Right, Uh, Well, if you want to get in touch
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: with us to let us know about some group or
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: service the country or the world is in dire need of,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: we want to hear about it, you can send us
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: an email to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.