0:04

Welcome to future future production of iHeartRadio.

0:07

I'm your host of Many Parasites, Katie

0:09

Golden. I studied psychology

0:11

and evolutionary biology, and today on the

0:13

show, we are talking about animals

0:16

who explode. That's right, our very

0:18

own Creatureheimer, in honor

0:20

of the Oppenheimer movie. Of course, last

0:23

week we did a Barbie episode

0:25

about pink animals. This week we're

0:27

doing an episode about animals who explode,

0:30

from tiny explosions to an

0:33

actual World War two story.

0:35

All these animals are blowing up literally

0:38

in credible discover

0:42

this and more as we discover

0:44

the age old question what's

0:47

the pond of death? Joining

0:49

me today is my friend friend

0:51

of the show, writer, director

0:54

and podcaster Adam

0:56

Ganzer.

0:56

Welcome, Welcome.

0:59

I love the even nature bows to the zeitgeist.

1:02

Yeah, animals

1:04

must be trend.

1:05

Animals gotta be on trend. They

1:07

gotta know they do what's trending

1:10

on the socials, on threads,

1:13

Blue Sky, whatever that other website

1:15

is. You know what

1:18

we're calling whatever we're calling the

1:20

Internet these days, But yes we

1:23

are. We're we're doing a We're doing a Barbenheimer

1:27

of course. This week is the Heimer

1:30

part of the Barbenheimer, because we're talking

1:32

about exploding

1:34

animals, Adam, how do you feel about

1:37

explosions?

1:39

About explosions? I was raised in America,

1:42

and therefore I instinctively pump my

1:44

fists anytime I see it, right, even

1:46

when it's a truly tragic situation,

1:48

and I.

1:50

Still Adam Ganzer actually

1:53

kind of likes war crimes. He's into it.

1:58

Listen, I've been socialized this way.

2:00

Nothing as much, right, Nothing you can't there's

2:02

nothing you can do about it. We

2:04

have fireworks, we have fireworks.

2:07

We cheer for fireworks. How are we not supposed

2:09

to cheer for war crimes?

2:11

Right? Right? Our song,

2:13

our national anthem, is literally about.

2:15

Exploding bombs bursting

2:17

in. Yeah, we're

2:20

helpless, and we're helpless in

2:22

the face of jingoism, truly.

2:27

So some animals do

2:29

indeed explode, and we're going to talk

2:31

about some many explosions

2:34

that are very

2:36

interesting, very weird, little gross,

2:38

uh, somewhat tragic, maybe

2:40

so.

2:43

Great, maybe I don't know.

2:47

So some ants

2:49

like to pull a bit of an Oppenheimer,

2:51

which is a new sentence in the English

2:54

language. So ants

2:57

like to use themselves as

2:59

tiny chemical warfare bombs.

3:02

So there are a couple of species

3:04

of ants that do this are C. Sounder

3:06

sea and see explodins,

3:08

which you know, good job of

3:11

the scientific name for that one.

3:13

Sure, yeah, right to the point direct.

3:15

These are two related species of

3:18

exploding ants. They are found in

3:20

Southeast Asia and they quite literally

3:23

have an explosive temper. They

3:25

will rupture their own abdomen,

3:27

releasing a small explosion of sticky,

3:30

yellow toxic fluid when

3:33

they are disturbed. So

3:38

yes, they do not the explosion

3:40

this kills the ant. The

3:42

ants does not survive rupturing its

3:44

own abdomen. It's

3:47

much like a bee where it stings

3:49

and its butt kind of falls off. It

3:52

is the ultimate defensive technique.

3:55

So they have glands that

3:57

run through their entire body that is stilled

4:00

with this horrible yellow

4:02

goo. When they

4:04

encounter an invader ant

4:07

or a predator, they will suddenly

4:09

and sharply contract their abdomen,

4:11

which ruptures the gland, which

4:14

basically causes them to burst

4:16

like a little gusher and

4:18

all of this sticky toxic

4:20

goop comes out and sprays

4:24

all over the their.

4:26

Target like

4:28

a like a delicious dangerous tree.

4:30

Yes, next time

4:32

you, yeah, next time you pop a gusher in your

4:34

mouth. Just imagine it's an ant doing

4:36

the ultimate sacrifice.

4:39

That it's dying to defend its colony

4:41

whilst you enjoy its screamy go.

4:43

Yeah, except don't eat these. I

4:46

advise against it, right because

4:48

yeah, it's not it's not delicious, uh

4:51

gushery goodness. It is toxic

4:54

and corrosive.

4:56

I I'm well, I mean, can

4:59

I ask a couple? I have Yeah, questions

5:01

the way what what?

5:03

What? What predator

5:06

needs these gusher ants to

5:08

to be deterred? Like

5:11

what are they deterring?

5:11

So they're mostly deterring other ants.

5:14

So if ants are attacking

5:17

their colony, they can very easily

5:19

attack these ants. Uh,

5:21

and basically deterring most other

5:24

like small it would be other insects

5:26

essentially, like once you get to bird size,

5:28

this technique doesn't work very well because the bird's

5:30

just it's too big.

5:32

Right, they like and they'll they'll develop a taste.

5:35

Yeah, you just watch it's gushers to

5:37

birds.

5:37

They exactly

5:40

have you have they tried diplomacy in

5:42

their evolved state? Have they tried evolving diplomacy

5:45

instead of this? They

5:47

tried?

5:48

Yeah, just like they've evolved tiny hands

5:50

to shake with the other ants.

5:54

It's amazing that it's two other ants. Yeah,

5:56

that's my favorite part of this.

5:57

It's other. It can be other species

5:59

of ants, other colonies of

6:02

you know, like well, actually, I

6:04

guess I've never seen anything about if the same

6:06

species gets into fights,

6:08

because then you just have a big goopy mess

6:11

of these exploding all over each

6:13

other.

6:14

And is it corrosive to them?

6:17

Like if they touch the goo, are they corroded?

6:20

You know what I mean? Like is it toxic? Yeah?

6:21

Yeah, so they avoid it, okay, And

6:25

like the one that explodes is already gonna

6:27

die. So it's no skin off, right, broken

6:30

back, Yeah,

6:32

it's exoskeleton. Yeah. So

6:34

this goo is very sticky. It slows

6:37

their movements, and it's corrosive, so

6:39

it kind of dissolves them

6:41

as well. So it's not great to get

6:43

on you.

6:44

Is it bright yellow?

6:45

It is yellow?

6:45

Is it yellow the way I'm imagining it?

6:47

It is?

6:48

Wow?

6:48

Yeah. Yeah, it's like these colors

6:51

sometimes, you know, like the toxic colors.

6:53

It's like, yes, that is indeed toxic.

6:55

It's kind of like I mean, I guess this is a little bit

6:58

less like an Oppenheimer and more like that

7:00

guy in the end of Doctor Strangelove. Who

7:02

rides the nuke, because you know.

7:05

That's exactly it, wohooing

7:07

his way into disaster exactly. Uh,

7:10

it's funny to me that it's in Nickelodeon colors.

7:12

Yeah, I mean I shouldn't say funny, more

7:15

like, uh, twisted,

7:17

Like there's a twisted aspect that it

7:20

looks cool.

7:20

Yeah. It's kind of yellow, little

7:23

yellow goop, right, Yeah, you

7:25

kind of like so when you see it happening, it's not like

7:27

a little like mushroom cloud

7:29

explosion type thing. You

7:31

just kind of see an ant wrestling with

7:33

another ant and then suddenly the

7:36

one of the ants is like covered in yellow goo

7:39

and the other ant looks kind of like wrong,

7:41

kind of broken, like a

7:44

like a like

7:46

a glow stick that's

7:48

sick, like a

7:50

glowstick that's been snapped in half.

7:52

Yeah.

7:55

So this act of explosive self

7:57

destruction is called

8:00

autothysis. It is a

8:02

type of altruism that,

8:05

you know, the very

8:07

extreme type of altruism.

8:11

Yeah. I'd say it's as altruistic

8:13

as it gets really yeah.

8:15

Yeah.

8:16

Yeah.

8:16

So it's not just ants

8:19

that do this. There are actually some species

8:22

of termites who also do

8:24

this behavior. So, yeah,

8:27

soldier termites in the species glossothermes

8:30

Oculatis will within

8:32

the confines of their termite colony,

8:35

grab onto an attacker and explode

8:38

the glands near their head by

8:40

nearly beheading themselves and

8:43

forming a rupture between the head and thorax.

8:46

Then they excrete a yellow goo onto

8:48

their attacker, which researchers

8:50

believe is meant to block the tunnels to the

8:53

colony and sort of fix the attacker.

8:56

Just glue the attacker into the

8:58

tunnel.

9:00

Yeah, and their kids.

9:02

I mean, like it's just like

9:05

what a prank to pull on your kids.

9:06

I mean, it's off

9:09

your head just pops off. I mean, this does

9:11

kill the termite's

9:14

it's hard to survive,

9:16

sort of like rupturing your own essentially,

9:19

what's a neck. Uh it's not

9:21

really a neck, but you know, yeah,

9:26

so.

9:26

That we accept it as a substitute. It's

9:28

a next substitute.

9:29

Yeah, Yeah, it's the it's the termine equivalent

9:32

to an ex So the goo acts

9:34

as a glue and also as an

9:36

alarm pheromone, alerting the other

9:38

termites in the colony that there is

9:41

an intruder. Uh.

9:43

So, you know, basically like you've

9:45

popped your own head off like a pez dispenser.

9:48

You've gooped on this guy and

9:50

now everyone can smell your goo, and

9:52

it's like, oh, it looks like

9:54

like Helen uh found

9:56

a trespasser.

9:59

The sweet smell of terror. Yeah, we better

10:01

go the other way, so

10:03

do I. So I got to assume this happens

10:05

because creatures are biting their heads

10:08

off. I got it right.

10:10

That that makes sense, doesn't it? Why? Why?

10:13

No? Not necessarily the

10:15

the uh they are just kind of

10:18

the way that they're beheading themselves is by

10:20

contracting their muscles.

10:23

So it's sort of a like

10:25

it's a reflexive thing.

10:26

Yeah, exactly. So it's like like literally

10:29

kind of like a pez dispenser

10:31

flipping its own head back.

10:35

I mean, it is the most funny image I can imagine.

10:37

Uh, I think, like I I've been thinking

10:40

about it the whole time I'm talking. And the head

10:42

squeezing off for goo, pretty

10:44

funny way.

10:45

Yeah, the go I mean, the head I don't think comes completely

10:47

off. That would be really funny, like a champagne

10:49

bottle with the head just like but

10:52

I think it's more just like it's like

10:54

near the head, like near where the head and the thorax

10:57

meet. There's like this rupture, and

10:59

it just kind of like like I don't

11:01

know, like a little confetti cannon like.

11:04

A movie slit throat like where

11:06

it just like its sprays everything.

11:08

Right exactly exactly, except

11:10

this goo is also yellow apparently, which is

11:12

interesting. I guess yellow is just universal

11:16

goo color.

11:18

Yeah, the color of poison.

11:20

Insects, color of bad

11:23

goo.

11:24

Yeah. Can

11:29

I So termites are basically already

11:31

corrosive beings, like if I like,

11:33

just that's how I feel about scientifically,

11:37

they will destroy everything, Like if they

11:39

get in your house, they're already basically a

11:41

tub of yellow goo in your walls, you

11:44

know what I mean, like just slowly corroding it. So

11:46

it's wild to me that some species like, no, we

11:48

can do better. We could, We could, We could

11:50

go for a y.

11:51

We could be even more irritating by

11:54

us squeezing goo out of our necks

11:56

like a tube of tooth exactly

11:59

exactly.

12:00

It's toothpaste, tube of doom.

12:02

We can be there.

12:03

Yeah, And if

12:05

you are worried about termites, uh, if

12:07

you ever find like a pile of like

12:09

weird little brown like tiny

12:11

brown pellets that you sweep

12:14

up and it keeps like reforming you

12:16

got you got termites. It's

12:19

called it's called frasts, which

12:21

is a cute name for an incredibly destructive

12:24

and horrible problem.

12:27

I mean, it's also a cute way for them

12:30

to murder themselves with toxic

12:32

good. They're sort of cute with their

12:35

benevolent or malicious activities.

12:38

With their self annihilation. It's it is,

12:40

yeah, the PEZ technique. It's

12:43

you know, good job, termites.

12:44

I guess can

12:46

you imagine what if the guy who invented

12:49

PEZ saw this and was like, I know

12:51

what I could do right? Candy?

12:55

What if it was shaped like Donald Duck

12:58

and did candy right?

13:00

What if it had Goofy's head on it and it's still

13:02

the head still popped off, but out of its

13:04

neck came pellets of candy.

13:07

Kids would love that.

13:09

He's just he's taking just let me let me taste

13:11

mone of these. Let me taste that. He tastes a term He's like,

13:13

no, this one's no good. I gotta I gotta do

13:15

something different.

13:17

I think it's not candy enough. We

13:19

make it look slightly morey.

13:20

It should be made out of sugar instead of toxic

13:23

goo.

13:25

Very smart, right, yeah, brilliant

13:28

man.

13:28

We assume well, we are

13:30

going to take a quick break, and when we get

13:33

back, we're going to talk about a mystery,

13:36

a very mysterious

13:38

mystery, an explosive mystery.

13:42

Wow, yeah, that doesn't

13:44

sound like how that sounds like a terrible way for

13:46

a weekend to go, but I'm excited.

13:47

Seems like a terrible way for it

13:50

to go after you've had some like really

13:52

spicy food.

13:54

Thank you, You went right where I'm going, same

13:56

brain over.

13:57

Here, are

14:00

right? We are back, and we are going

14:02

to talk about a mystery, the

14:05

mystery of the thousand exploding

14:07

toads.

14:10

That one thousand exploding actually

14:12

over a thousand. That's

14:15

so that's the low balls, right, that

14:17

are oh good?

14:18

He was more around one thousand, three hundred. But

14:20

a thousand exploding toads rolls off

14:22

the tongue better than a thousand, three hundred exploding

14:25

toads.

14:27

Okay, and this is a this is a noir

14:29

caper. I assume, right, we're gonna we're gonna find

14:31

some darkness in the toad hard or whatever.

14:33

Yeah, so this actually happened in Hamburg,

14:35

Germany, in two thousand and five.

14:39

Okay, Uh, Public

14:41

officials and scientists

14:43

were confused because

14:45

toads just kept on exploding

14:48

like little toad balloons with

14:50

a splatter of on trails up to three

14:52

feet are about a meter away.

14:55

Yeah, I'd be confused by that. Yeah,

14:57

why are animals becoming balloons

14:59

of goo? Why is that happening?

15:00

I'd like to Yeah, No, I I feel

15:02

like that's a real head scratcher. When you

15:05

got a bunch of toads that are exploding, real

15:08

real.

15:09

You can't just walk past it. That's

15:12

the kind of case you get.

15:13

You get drawn in, right right, you

15:15

make you're making little chalk outlines of just

15:17

a toad sort of splayed out.

15:19

It's just a big splatter.

15:21

Yeah, every line of it sort

15:24

of.

15:25

You know, the goop shape, the wiggly goop

15:27

shape.

15:30

The splatter happened in here

15:32

as you so,

15:34

yeah, and a splatter pattern.

15:36

Yeah, toad splatter experts are

15:38

actually in high demand. Uh,

15:40

there's the very highly specialized.

15:43

So.

15:43

Yeah, over one thousand toads died

15:46

this way, so much

15:48

so that there was a bit of a panic. Uh.

15:51

Tabloids started calling this area

15:53

the pond of Death. Uh.

15:57

People were warned to stay away, into

16:00

keep their children in pets away in case

16:02

the pond was full of some kind of mysterious

16:05

chemical that was causing these toads

16:07

to explodes. Theories

16:11

went around that it could be some kind of toad

16:13

exploding pathogen, it could

16:15

be a pesticide, maybe

16:18

even a fungus or

16:20

pollution. They didn't know. It

16:22

was scary. Even

16:25

more puzzling is that there were no

16:27

eyewitness accounts of the toads

16:29

exploding. So like you'd think,

16:32

you know, someone would at least see

16:34

one of these toads like just randomly

16:36

popping off, but nobody had seen

16:38

it.

16:39

This is like seven

16:41

for the toad culture, right. It's just like,

16:43

what's at the bottom of this.

16:44

There's a methodology, there

16:47

is definite m

16:49

oh adam, Do you have any guesses

16:51

what could be causing the toad explosions.

16:55

I'm gonna guess the real thing in a second. It

16:58

thrills me to think of scientists getting together they're

17:00

impositing what this could be. I

17:02

just imagine one guy walking into the bicycle

17:05

pump and just dropping it. I've

17:07

got it, guys.

17:10

These toads have an inflation fetish

17:12

and it's not going well.

17:16

A helium tank he just puts it in there. These

17:19

are kids that went too far.

17:20

It's that scene from Shrek

17:23

that kids are re enacting, like where

17:25

you know they like blow up the snake

17:27

and the toad. I think can make a snake and toad

17:30

balloon. Remember that that makes sense,

17:32

it's frem shrack. I always felt really

17:34

bad for the snake and the toad that got

17:36

like blown up into a balloon balloons.

17:39

It seems like that would hurt them and be sad

17:41

for them.

17:43

It would hurt of it. Also, you get

17:45

immediately immobilized as a balloon, right

17:47

you'd think like, oh, balloon sounds fun. Now man,

17:49

it's basically like body jail. Yeah, you can't

17:52

go anywhere. You're stuck.

17:53

Yeah, you know, No, I don't like

17:55

that. That's a panic attack.

17:58

That's one of my nightmare. Yeah, added

18:00

to the pile. Uh. I'm going to guess that

18:02

it's a digestive related issue.

18:05

But they're eating something that's that's uh

18:08

like something that is the equivalent of baking

18:10

soda to the vinegar in their stomach or something.

18:14

A Minto's truck and a Coke

18:16

truck both crashed near the

18:18

pond.

18:23

There was a surplus of high school

18:25

volcano prize yes that year that we're all

18:27

being dumped in the lakes.

18:28

Yes, I don't know, so uh,

18:31

you know, or could it have been some

18:34

kind of secret government toad exploding

18:36

experiment, like.

18:38

I mean, the only other conclusion, right, exactly,

18:40

the only other option.

18:41

Well, apparently the leading theory

18:44

as to what happened is murderous

18:46

crows. So toad

18:49

expert doctor Frank Muschmann

18:53

believed that crows were carefully

18:55

cutting open the toad's toxic skin

18:58

and selectively plucking out

19:00

the toads livers based

19:03

on these small incision marks that

19:05

doctor Mutschmann found on

19:07

the toads.

19:09

His name is Mushmann Musmann,

19:12

so not not mush not mush

19:15

Man.

19:15

Not mush Man.

19:18

Okay, I'm not making fun of his name, just say it would

19:20

have been amazing if his name.

19:20

Is Mushman, and it would be I

19:23

would I would definitely love

19:25

there to be a doctor Mushman who studies

19:28

toads,

19:30

you know, just.

19:31

A suggest destiny.

19:32

Yeah, so uh.

19:36

The reason it would then explode, right,

19:38

is that toads have this behavior when

19:40

they are attacked, they will puff

19:43

up, so they like inflate themselves

19:45

with air to appear bigger, to

19:48

look you know, not very snackable

19:50

something that could not easily be swallowed, something

19:52

that couldn't be easily attacked. Uh.

19:54

But these toads. Uh,

19:57

it was theorized that they had an incision

19:59

in the from the crows basically doing

20:02

a liver ectomy and eating the liver.

20:05

And because they had a hole in it,

20:07

it's like they would fill themselves with air.

20:09

But then that would just force all

20:11

their organs out of the hole. Oh

20:14

no, like again, like

20:16

a tube of toothpaste. Uh,

20:19

you know, like a balloon full

20:21

of organs. I don't know,

20:24

I just imagine you're squeezing

20:26

a bunch of organs out of a hole by

20:28

pushing air into the

20:31

toad.

20:32

I mean it's yeah, that's amazing. And

20:35

also like that's actually somehow the saddest thing I've

20:37

heard so.

20:38

Far, I know, just

20:40

like you trying to defend

20:42

itself but then it accidentally

20:45

uh you know.

20:46

It's it just shoots, it just squeezes

20:48

out. Its organs are popping out there like they're popcornans.

20:51

Yeah. It's yeah, it's

20:53

like silly string but out of a toad. Just

20:55

terrible.

20:57

Yeah, and the string is like vital organs.

20:59

Yes, exactly. Well,

21:01

some scientists weren't satisfied

21:03

with this theory. Crow behavioral

21:06

researcher, who I believe

21:08

is just a crow apologist, doctor

21:10

Miriam Sima, believed that

21:13

crows were not behind the attacks and

21:15

that crows would not be so picky

21:17

as to only eat the livers that

21:20

like the crow, would eat the rest of the organs as

21:22

well. But my counterpoint,

21:25

as a non expert to this expert's

21:28

opinion is that crows are

21:30

smart, and smart animals can be jerks

21:33

sometimes, right, Like

21:36

I think because it like it happened

21:38

in like two thousand and five, and it would

21:40

happened in this localized area, I feel like

21:42

it was just a few crows who

21:44

were doing this. Yeah,

21:48

yeah, who learned that livers taste

21:51

good and that they can selectively grab

21:53

the liver and just chow that down.

21:55

Because there is this more

21:57

recent case of orcas,

21:59

the two orcas who went on a

22:02

killing spree eating just

22:04

the livers of sharks. So

22:07

oh again, like Orca's very smart,

22:09

crows very smart. What happens

22:12

when someone gets too smart they start eating

22:14

livers. It's the hannibal lecter phenomenon.

22:17

Yep, they find out about key ant, they

22:20

got a whole thing.

22:20

Yeah, exactly. I mean, Einstein

22:23

probably ates some livers. I'm

22:25

you know, like, uh, Elon

22:29

Musk not eating livers because I don't think

22:31

he's very smart.

22:32

He's rejecting liver every time somebody offers it to

22:35

him, which is all the time. He's just never, never

22:37

even eating pete.

22:38

He's just burning himself trying to make pop tarts.

22:40

I read. I read that excerpt from there

22:42

was a book about I guess SpaceX

22:45

in the early years, and apparently Elon

22:47

Musk kept burning himself because he was trying

22:49

to take pop tarts out of the toaster. Anyways,

22:53

what are the chances that crow

22:55

Doctor is just a.

22:56

Bunch of crows and a lab coat? Hmm I

23:00

greater than zero?

23:00

Right, It's yeah, plausible,

23:03

plausible, Yeah, plausible, passible, plausible,

23:06

scientifically plab not proven, but plausible.

23:08

It can't be libel because

23:10

I'm saying it hasn't been proven. I'm just

23:12

saying it's plausible, correct.

23:15

So yeah, I I I think

23:17

that there was like a few

23:19

crows that were doing this, uh,

23:22

two thousands of toads just like

23:24

and I'll take this liver and that'll

23:26

be mine, and yeah,

23:31

just like they each

23:33

time yin yeah,

23:35

and crows can talk, so they can

23:37

probably say yoink right,

23:40

so uh yeah, liver is

23:42

also very nutritious. So I feel like these were

23:45

just like gormond crows that uh

23:48

learned to appreciate the taste of

23:51

toad liver and did not

23:53

really care that the toads exploded

23:55

or thought it was funny.

23:59

I could see them it was funny, yeah, because honestly,

24:02

it does seem like a funny image.

24:04

It is kind of actually funny. I mean,

24:06

I feel really bad for the toads.

24:09

Obviously, I'm a toad fan. I think they're

24:11

cute. It's still

24:13

a little bit funny for

24:15

that to happen. Like you pluck out the liver

24:18

and then this toad just inflates until it

24:20

explodes. It's you gotta admit, there's a

24:22

certain grim humor in that.

24:24

You pluck a liver out, it puffs up,

24:27

and then you just start seeing kidneys spitting out of

24:29

it like there like somebody threw a

24:31

stone from their stomach.

24:32

It's like the crow equivalent of getting

24:34

one thing out of a vending machine. But then it

24:36

knocks down a whole bunch of other things, right,

24:39

and.

24:39

All shoots out and the crows like, man, we

24:41

figured everything out. We figured everything

24:43

out. This is

24:45

our xanadu, the

24:48

pond of death or whatever, that's

24:50

that's our Zena.

24:52

Yeah, it's just like if crows figure out

24:54

the secret way to make like pluck something

24:57

out of humans that make us explode, like

24:59

we're in for it.

25:00

Lord, yeah, good lord. They won't stop

25:02

doing it either. Yeah, Like those crows didn't learn

25:04

anything.

25:05

No, they didn't learn a lesson.

25:07

They didn't learn anything.

25:08

They learn well, they did learn something

25:10

that it's really funny and good total

25:14

livers.

25:14

From toads, liver good,

25:17

explosion better.

25:17

Yeah, that they learned exactly. Yeah,

25:20

Well, we are going to take a

25:23

quick break, but when we

25:25

return, we are going to talk

25:27

about a real World War

25:30

two story involving

25:32

exploding animals. So

25:37

we're going to talk about a World War two

25:40

story involving exploding animals. And

25:42

I promise this is

25:44

not as horrifying

25:47

as it sounds. I mean it is a little horrifying.

25:49

It's a little bit so it's kind

25:51

of funny. It's a

25:54

little bit.

25:55

I promise tragic, it's kind of funny.

25:57

It's you know, it's one

26:00

of I would say. I mean, World War two

26:02

is generally not a funny topic

26:05

hot take. Generally, generally it's not

26:07

funny. Generally it's horrifying.

26:10

This is one of the funnier

26:13

World War two stories. So unless

26:17

unless you're a big fan of Rats, which

26:19

personally I actually am. So

26:21

I feel conflicted about this

26:24

story because it's funny, but I feel

26:26

really bad for the Rats.

26:28

But it's not like Hogan's hero is funny.

26:30

No, it's it's

26:33

more of a grounded humor.

26:34

It's it's more of a gallows humor.

26:36

Yeah, kind of yeah, I'm

26:38

excited, not a.

26:39

Haha funny, it's a oh

26:41

all right, all

26:44

right.

26:45

Laughter, laughter, heels, I'll wove.

26:47

Yeah, take a take

26:49

a stiff sip of brandy and

26:51

sort of exhale sharply out

26:53

of your nose funny. So yeah,

26:58

to cap off our Creature Heimer episode,

27:00

let's talk about World War Two. So arguably,

27:04

just as consequential as Oppenheimer's

27:06

work on the nuclear bomb

27:09

was the effort to create another type

27:11

of super weapon, the explosive

27:13

rat. Of

27:16

course, I'm joking, it was not nearly

27:18

as consequential as the nuclear bomb,

27:20

because we aren't, you know, currently

27:23

sort of in a world dominated

27:25

by mutually assured rat destruction.

27:28

That we know of, that we know of that, we know that.

27:30

But maybe it's the rats pulling all the strings.

27:34

Dude, honestly knowing what

27:36

I know about crows. Now, No, rats are just

27:38

as smart as crows. Yeah, they're just they're

27:40

just flightless crows.

27:41

Really pretty much there. Yeah, rats

27:43

are quite smart, which makes this a

27:45

little sadder. Uh So, during

27:49

World War Two, British

27:51

special operations got their

27:53

hands on a bunch of rats. Okay,

27:57

okay, it's

27:59

so far. Good job, guys.

28:02

I enjoyed the idea of the transaction to

28:04

get that, right, but fair enough.

28:06

Yeah, yeah, just like Jerio,

28:09

I will need five

28:11

hundred rats if you please, right,

28:14

for a country.

28:15

Some government officials

28:17

like you know, sequestering it or whatever, for some

28:19

guy in a back alley. Yeah, I'll need all your

28:21

rats.

28:22

Yeah, keep calm and give me five

28:24

hundred.

28:25

Routs and give me rats, and give.

28:27

Me rats all of your ruts. So

28:30

sadly they killed the rats. Rest

28:33

in peace, uh, little dudes,

28:36

gone before your time. An

28:39

unjust and unjust and to these

28:41

poor little rats. Then they taxi

28:43

dermied them and they sewed

28:46

a small amount of explosives

28:48

inside of them

28:51

okay because they were Look,

28:55

you know, while Oppenheimer was working

28:57

on his little nuclear bomb, the

28:59

British were really getting

29:02

down to the

29:04

the hot the higher sciences, the

29:06

more esoteric sciences

29:09

of what if we sowed some

29:11

explosives inside of dead rats?

29:14

Yeah? What if we jokered some rats? Yeah?

29:17

What if we joker bombed a couple of rats?

29:19

Right?

29:19

Sure?

29:20

Okay, right right? Yeah?

29:22

What if it's like that scene and breaking

29:24

bad with that guy's head

29:26

on a tortoise, except its rats

29:29

and there accept

29:30

it and there's no message,

29:33

it's just rats.

29:35

Yeah.

29:35

So you might be wondering why

29:38

you would put explosives inside a rat,

29:41

how you would use a rat bomb. Well,

29:43

the idea was this, Uh,

29:45

if these rats were planted in factories,

29:48

trains, or power stations, they

29:51

would presumably be

29:53

disposed of by the German

29:56

by being shoveled into the boiler

29:58

or furnace. Because it's like you find a dead

30:00

rat, You're not gonna give it a little rat burial,

30:03

You're just gonna throw it in the furnace, burn

30:05

it, and that would cause an explosion

30:08

and sabotage the boiler. And if

30:10

the boiler fails, that might cause a

30:12

larger explosion. So it's

30:15

like, maybe it's real.

30:18

This, this is a this is a this

30:20

is kind of a Rube Goldberg device of

30:22

a plan. Here.

30:23

It's it's a little bit like that game

30:25

mouse Trap, except it's it's

30:28

a German trap, but the bait

30:30

is dead rats.

30:32

And all of them are mice. Everything they

30:34

have to do is mice similar to get the

30:36

trap to go off. I don't know, man, Yeah,

30:39

not sure about this plan.

30:40

Yeah, it's a it's a bit of a stretch,

30:42

right, Like it's it's a bit of a weird plan,

30:45

Like, how do you know they're gonna throw it in

30:47

the furnace? How do you know? Like it's

30:49

the explosion is going to be big enough to actually

30:52

sabotage the whole factory or train.

30:56

Well, we'll never know how successful

30:58

they might have been because the Germans

31:00

intercepted the shipment of exploding

31:03

rats right away.

31:05

Ah,

31:08

so that is another

31:10

amazing twist in the story. And they're

31:12

like, we could use these rats.

31:14

Well, it's interesting because the rats

31:16

sacrifice was not completely in vain.

31:19

Apparently the threat

31:22

of exploding rats was

31:24

potentially more effective at

31:27

inconveniencing the Germans

31:30

than if the rats had actually

31:32

been successfully deployed, because

31:36

German military command became

31:38

kind of paranoid that there were

31:41

more exploding rats out there

31:43

and had to use their resources

31:46

to try to find the other exploding

31:48

rats and get to the bottom of

31:50

these exploding rats.

31:52

Oh my god.

31:53

Unbeknownst to them, as soon as this

31:55

first shipment of rats was intercepted,

31:58

British Special Operations just gave They

32:00

just dropped it.

32:01

They're like, fuck, maybe the rat. Maybe

32:03

this whole thing's been bad.

32:05

Maybe, now that I reflect upon

32:08

things, maybe explosive rats was not the

32:10

genius idea that'll win this war. They

32:12

just dropped.

32:13

Perhaps perhaps trip wires

32:15

would be more effective, or just putting

32:18

bombs there already.

32:19

Perhaps pigeons with

32:21

spikes.

32:24

Yeah, I know, let's get a really

32:27

big bomb and drop that on them instead.

32:32

What about a really really large rat

32:34

with a bomb inside of it.

32:36

Now you're talking Humphrey

32:39

exploding. They

32:42

started sewing rats together to

32:44

make a super rat.

32:45

Rat parachute, parachute made out of

32:47

rats rat aeroplane.

32:51

So, yeah, they gave up. But

32:55

so there were no more exploding rats. But the

32:57

Germans wasted a bunch of resources

32:59

trying to find more exploding

33:01

rats, trying to figure out what the whole plan

33:04

is with the exploding rats. Certainly

33:06

it couldn't be as simple as them just sending

33:08

the shipment of exploding rats. So

33:11

they wasted a bunch of time trying

33:13

to like basically go on this red this,

33:16

this red herring, this like trying to figure

33:18

out what was going on with the exploding rats when

33:20

really it was as stupid as it seemed

33:23

and unsuccessful as it seemed.

33:25

But the Germans were like, they must be up to something really

33:28

insidious with these exploding rats, and we've got

33:30

to figure that out. They waste all the time.

33:32

Is this is extraordinarily

33:36

funny. I know, if you understood how funny

33:38

this is. Like I'm like, in my brain, I'm

33:40

like, this is such a great comedy movie. Like

33:42

just one guy's obsessed with I can make bombs

33:44

and rats, and everyone's like a bad idea, dude,

33:47

super bad idea. He's like, just

33:49

give me a battalion of guys a couple million

33:51

pounds, you'll see, right. Fails

33:54

immediately. But then of course the Germans get

33:56

very worried and they start to you know, mutually assured rat

33:58

destruction. As you said, he writes

34:00

itself. It's a perfect movie.

34:01

This is I don't understand why very funny,

34:03

why Quentin Tarantino didn't

34:05

make this movie.

34:09

Right after his final film, this tenth film

34:11

about a movie critic. How about rat bombs?

34:14

Right, you know, rat bomber. Let's make

34:16

that.

34:17

I know that basically all of Hollywood

34:19

is on strike, so I'm not gonna

34:21

be I'm not going to be a scab. But

34:24

what like, Look, you

34:26

need to cave to the requests

34:29

of the writers because we need

34:32

this rat movie. We need it.

34:33

We have rat bombers, we need it. We need

34:35

it. It would heal the world, it

34:38

would.

34:40

So please give the writers and the

34:42

actors fair living wages

34:44

because I need the exploding

34:47

rat movie.

34:48

That's right, And play this on

34:51

a loop during the Academy Awards conversation

34:53

right where we talked about it.

34:55

Yeah, you know, yeah, do that. Maybe,

34:57

oh, exploding rats in

34:59

the Awards but they're not real.

35:02

But okay, okay, okay, back up,

35:04

they're not really exploding rats

35:07

because of course we don't want to hurt anyone,

35:09

but just the idea that there could

35:12

be exploding rats might make it

35:15

might make it less likely for someone to cross

35:17

the picket line. I'm just saying, you never

35:20

know when a rat might explode.

35:22

That's right, that's the that's the feeling

35:24

we want movie audiences to have. Yeah,

35:27

every rat as your enemy.

35:28

Now, yeah, you know that was in that movie

35:30

like with Matt Damon and uh

35:33

Leonardo DiCaprio Departed.

35:37

Yeah, I just remember as the rat movie.

35:39

But yes, the Departed.

35:40

Yeah, yeah, that's did you

35:42

know, by the way, that they didn't

35:45

have the final shot with the rat when they first

35:47

shot that movie. The editor told

35:49

Scorsese, you need you need

35:51

this last thing, you need the rat at the end, and

35:53

they shot it in pickups.

35:55

Huh.

35:56

That's what I've heard. I've heard that they.

35:58

Just call up this rat actor at three and

36:00

it's like, yeah, what do you need a Yeah,

36:02

you got a movie? You want me to all

36:05

time? I all right,

36:08

serving coffee, okay, I'll come.

36:11

Finally it's rats time to shine.

36:14

Yeah, that's what I heard. I don't you know, I can't. I wasn't

36:16

there, so I don't don't.

36:17

I did. I did laugh, uh

36:19

involuntarily when that popped up,

36:22

because like I was enthralled by the movie

36:24

and really into it. And then as soon as they zoomed

36:26

out and showed us a rat. I just like it

36:29

was.

36:29

Come on,

36:31

I get it, I get it, bro, I

36:34

get the idea.

36:35

But if the rat had exploded.

36:37

Then whole other idea greatest

36:41

movie all time maybe.

36:43

And then then they could end with like the end

36:45

dot dot dot question mark.

36:47

Exactly right, the only, the only appropriate

36:50

ending.

36:51

Yeah, yeah, we don't know that rats

36:53

were exactly Well.

36:56

I think we've covered as many

36:58

exploding animals I can take

37:02

without starting to spiral

37:04

into an existential crisis about

37:07

you know, rat

37:09

assured destruction.

37:11

I'm going to cry for two hours after this podcast,

37:15

just.

37:15

For every single toad that

37:17

exploded. Those poor toads.

37:19

Don't care as much about the termites.

37:23

No, I think of them as evil

37:25

and their death as a victory

37:28

for me.

37:28

I mean, if you think about it, though, they

37:30

used to just eat trees, but

37:33

then we turn the trees into houses, So what

37:35

are they going to do?

37:37

That's true. I'm going to refuse to think about that.

37:41

No introspection, think you Well,

37:44

before we go, we've got to play a little game,

37:47

Adam, do you like games?

37:49

Sure? And then a rat opens like.

37:53

Would you like to play a little game?

37:56

Yeah, I'd love to.

37:56

You just open a present. There's a rat inside,

37:59

and inside the rat there's a smaller

38:01

present, and inside that present there's a bomb.

38:05

Yep, So we are going to play a game

38:07

called Guess Who's squawking? The

38:09

Mystery Animal Sound game?

38:11

Oh yeah, yeah.

38:12

Every week I play Mystery Animal sound

38:14

and you the listener, and you the guests, try

38:17

to guess who was making

38:19

that sound? Can he any animal in the world.

38:23

Last week's mystery animal sound hint

38:26

was this don't get too cocky.

38:28

You may have to think further back to get

38:30

this one right.

38:40

So adam any guesses.

38:43

So, just to be clear, the hint was

38:46

for this animal.

38:47

Yes, don't get too cocky. You may

38:49

have to think further back to get this one right.

38:52

Because I mean, it sounds like a rooster. But it's

38:54

not that. It's some you say, further

38:56

bat to get this one right.

38:58

Further back.

38:59

Okay, so it's not.

39:01

The common phrase further bat.

39:04

That's what I was. What is this

39:06

a Batman riddle?

39:07

Like?

39:07

What exactly?

39:12

And tower me this what became

39:14

before the chicken and the egg?

39:17

Ah, that would have been a better hint. What

39:19

became before the chicken and the egg?

39:22

That Batman Mmm,

39:26

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that

39:31

that you mean further back, like on the evolutionary

39:33

scale, and say this is this

39:36

is some kind of lizard,

39:39

kind of That's what I'm gonna guess. Everything

39:41

else in me is saying, no, Adam, no chance it's a

39:44

lizard. But I'm gonna go ahead and I'm trusting

39:46

your hint on this one.

39:47

Some kind of lizard.

39:49

No, you're wrong, No,

39:51

it's so wrong.

39:53

Congratulations to Jack M,

39:56

Joey P. And Grant W for all

39:58

guessing correctly. There red

40:00

jungle fowl. So, the

40:03

red jungle fowl is a

40:06

tropical species of bird that

40:08

lives in Southeast Asia. When

40:10

you look at one, it might seem kind of familiar.

40:13

It looks very similar to a rooster.

40:16

It is smaller and more brightly colored

40:18

than a rooster or a chicken. But

40:21

around eight thousand years

40:23

ago the jungle fowl was

40:26

domesticated and it's spread across

40:28

the world, and it's speciated

40:31

into chickens and roosters,

40:34

the ones that we know as are lovely farm

40:36

animals.

40:38

So I was right about it being an

40:41

ancestor, yes, but wrong

40:43

about how far back to Yeah.

40:46

Unfortunately, if you had guessed dinosaur

40:48

instead of lizard, you'd technically be

40:51

correct because birds are still birds

40:53

are still technically dinosaurs. So

40:55

if you're like, maybe it's a dinosaur, I

40:58

would have had to give it to you.

41:00

Which is which would have been even

41:02

sillier for me to say, because how would you have

41:04

a recording of a dinosaur? But

41:07

okay, sure sure.

41:10

Uh sadly, Adam, you were wrong, So this pile

41:12

of dead rats shall not be going home

41:14

with you.

41:14

You must now pick which

41:17

rat is the one you must open.

41:23

Yeah, we have lots of rat jokes

41:25

today.

41:25

Well we're really we're really leaning into

41:27

the rat jokes. Well, onto

41:30

this week's mystery animal. Sound the hint.

41:32

She may seem to have a tough exterior,

41:35

but Betsy here doesn't like to be

41:37

bothered.

41:39

Sh sh

41:45

hear that. Yeah, yeah,

41:48

any guesses should have a

41:50

tough exterior, but Betsy here doesn't like See

41:52

father, and

41:55

I thought I was gonna get a cow.

41:57

Quol or something.

41:58

Uh, pounce

42:00

up the bird. Uh,

42:09

I'm gonna guess it's uh some kind

42:11

of like it's it's related to an ostrich.

42:14

Interesting related to an

42:17

ostrich some kind of rath

42:19

type bird. Well

42:21

maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. I can't say,

42:23

because we will reveal the answer on

42:26

next week's episode of Creature

42:28

Feature. If you think you know the

42:30

answer to this week's mystery animial sound,

42:32

you can write to me at Creature Future product gmail

42:34

dot com. And

42:37

hey, if you have any other questions

42:39

or comments or whatever, you can also email me.

42:42

I won't be mad. Uh and

42:46

Adam, Where can people find

42:48

you?

42:49

Uh? Well, I'm definitely gonna stay on X

42:53

Where do you find Uh? You

42:55

can find me on X X way

42:58

yeah, uh at the real game. I'm

43:00

also on every other social media site,

43:02

including Hive still somehow at

43:05

the real gans and you

43:08

know, you can find my Twitch

43:10

channel saying. And my podcasts

43:12

are mostly on a Patreon called

43:15

small Beams, where I do talks

43:17

about directing and about lots

43:20

of other movie related stuff, video games, all kinds

43:23

of stuff. Come check me out.

43:24

Yeah, check it out small

43:26

beans and every

43:28

single like, I don't know, there's twenty social

43:31

media's now that we've all got to

43:33

be on simultaneously. And somehow

43:35

I.

43:35

Do check I check Blue Sky. I'm

43:38

still checking threads. I don't know. I don't

43:40

know. We'll see about threads I'm just and hive

43:43

is just funny.

43:43

To me at this one. I'm so tired.

43:46

Yeah it's not good, None of it's good. It's

43:50

good.

43:50

Yeah. I need I need

43:52

like an army of exploding toads

43:54

to manage all these social media accounts.

43:57

I don't know how they'll do it.

43:59

But I need a crow to

44:02

selectively rip out X's

44:04

liver. Yeah, final explodes,

44:06

and we can just.

44:07

Tell the crows they're delicious

44:09

livers inside of our keyboards, and then

44:12

they can post on all these websites

44:14

exactly. Well, thank you guys so much

44:16

for listening. If you're enjoying the show and you leave

44:19

a rating and review, I greatly

44:21

greatly appreciate that. I literally

44:23

read every single review, and

44:26

all the ratings really do matter a

44:28

lot to me because they

44:31

help the podcast appear

44:34

decent to other people. And

44:38

thanks to the Space Cossics

44:40

for their super awesome song XO.

44:43

Lumina Creature features a production

44:45

of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts like the one you

44:47

just heard, Visita I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or Kisabeth

44:50

forbby you listen to your favorite shows the

44:54

next Wednesday