How Oak Trees Manipulate Squirrels To Abandon Their Acorns

[@SteveMould]

A Podcast Of Unnecessary Detail can be found here: festivalofthespokennerd.com/podcast/ or just search for it in your podcast app. Here it is as a KZbin channel: kzbin.info/door/yh0rBcUGZ9T4IUt6VCA5Cw

[@jamminhunter]

Typo in the title: Thier should be their

[@lucasfc4587]

Wow, Greta vídeo again!

[@AlucardNoir]

Poor James, he never gets invited to do podcasts. He just stick to serenading to banana trees.

[@ИванСнежков-з9й]

Just one tiny nitpick. You are referencing squirrels are predators. I find it quite unusual as I associate the word predators with animals that hunt other animals, not with collecting seeds. Maybe that is because the word in my native language applies only to animals. Still, M-W defines "predator" as "organism that primarily obtains food by the killing and consuming of other organisms ". If we consider eating seeds as "killing" then predator becomes synonymous to animal. Only plants can produce their own food.

[@AlucardNoir]

@@ИванСнежков-з9й #plantlivesmatter

[@jincyquones]

I live in an area with TONS of old oak trees. There's one hanging over my backyard, and there are lots of grey squirrels that live in and around it. This past spring, there were so many acorns in the grass, I couldn't walk out barefoot like I usually do or run with my dog cause it hurt so much stepping on all of them. I wondered why I couldn't recall that ever being a problem before. Now I know.

[@thesewalkamongstus8367]

Yup, buy some Trainers with air cushion. simples!!

[@icebluscorpion]

then why do you step on all of them in the first place? why don't you just step on one of them and avoid the others... it will hurt only once ;)

[@jincyquones]

@@icebluscorpion To spite the tree and all of its offspring, of course.

[@thesewalkamongstus8367]

@@icebluscorpion Oh we really are a lot of humans with differing ideas about animals plants etc! I thought this would be controversial.

[@icebluscorpion]

@@jincyquones best answer ever yet XD. i actually nearly fell of my chair by laughing XD XD. nice to meet someone like you with humor :)

[@PietroSperonidiFenizio]

feeding, fighting and falling in love.

[@ccdogpark]

Phuking or fornicating would be better. I doubt grey squirrels know anything about love. They are about as loyal to their mates as President Blowhard is.

[@twentyfifthjt7888]

@@ccdogpark Strange.. its been a day & noone has come to defend his honor(?). This must be an actual science channel.

[@111jkjk]

🤣🤣🤣

[@potatoeyboi]

F mating ucking

[@baruchben-david4196]

Fleeing and freezing.

[@AbbyRemix]

Consumerism in squirrels exploited by corporate bigwigs.

[@carlsaganlives6086]

Yes, they know their target demographic quite well..

[@Depl0rable10]

*BigTwigs

[@dyland7350]

@@Depl0rable10 Well done, good laugh, Thank you!

[@asabovesobelow1362]

Oak trees should allow squirrels to eat as much as they want every year!

[@christianlotter6402]

🤣🤣

[@nicklachen5060]

That's why my oak tree did that! I moved in to a new house and the 2nd year was SO MANY ACORNS. The sidewalk was literally covered with acorns. It was crazy-and I saw a lot of fat squirrels that year. Hasn't happened since and that was in 2017.

[@LadyhawksLairDotCom]

It happened this year with the live oaks in California, but for some reason, a squirrel I know at the beginning of a trail goes nuts for pine cones. He's completely demolished dozens of them and left them by the side of the trail. Maybe he's sick of acorns.

[@nicklachen5060]

@@LadyhawksLairDotCom I wonder when my tree will have a mast year next...Makes me think it is some climate indicator so huge zones of oak trees all trigger at the same time. (i'm in IA btw). The world is nuts.

[@Rotem_S]

@@nicklachen5060 *The world is acorns ..Sorry

[@GroovingPict]

@@LadyhawksLairDotCom invasive European squirrel perhaps?

[@LadyhawksLairDotCom]

@@GroovingPict No, it's a Western gray squirrel. A couple of weeks ago, he was eating a pine cone (from a California gray pine) on the side of the trail and was super irritated I made him climb a tree. All he could do was take a chunk of the pine cone with him and run. He stopped about twenty-five feet up, barked at me and tapped his front paw on the tree. That's gray squirrel for "screw you!" XD

[@RobDucharme]

I've heard of the 3 F's before. I love how casually Steve mentioned it though.

[@catthegipsy25]

Was new to me however. Probably because I don't usually give even a single.

[@petervilla5221]

Ah yes, mating, my favorite F word.

[@jan-seli]

Feeding fighting and fucundity

[@bdf2718]

@@jan-seli Are you sure? Down at my local pub it's feeding, fighting and farting.

[@jonathanorlando1294]

Feeding, Fighting, and F-mating...

[@billybegood466]

A squirrel is like a real life RPG character. Always stashing those precious resources and then never using them.

[@thetessellater9163]

RPG ? Rocket Propelled Grenade ?

[@sunitas260665]

nice

[@yeahnahmate1560]

@@thetessellater9163 Roll Playing Game

[@MrDasSchaaf]

@@thetessellater9163 Basically a Bolter ?

[@chrismanuel9768]

Look, there might be a third, harder phase or even a secret second boss altogether after I defeat the second form of the Time Devourer. I can't risk it. I need these All Divides and Phoenix Pinions just in case.

[@dr.texasman7483]

“The three F’s: Feeding, Fighting, and... Mating.” that one took me a second

[@aryst0krat]

It took me until he mentioned it again and I had to go back and listen again. 😅

[@IanWilkinson]

Fornicating, surely :)

[@SpydersByte]

lol just made the same comment and it also took me a couple seconds :D

[@ItalianPizza64]

...and friendship right?

[@landsgevaer]

Except there are four... en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Fs_(evolution)

[@Kerbezena]

"In general, seed dispersal is very interesting." I believe internet traffic statistics agree with this.

[@LeCharles07]

Underrated comment.

[@LuciferGloria]

Way way underrated

[@shoam2103]

Ah, the 3 F's strike again

[@ccdogpark]

Sorry, but I don't get it.

[@jivanvasant]

Bernhard Maierhofer > Fertilizing? Insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female animal or plant for the purpose of impregnating or fertilizing the female for sexual reproduction.

[@dat2ra]

There is a very large oak tree across the street from my house in California, but there are few other oaks in the neighborhood. Last fall it had a "mast" year much to the delight of the resident gray squirrels. This spring, dozens of oak seedlings popped up in my back yard. They had to have been planted by the squirrels because they are too far from the oak and are on the other side of a street. There are sprouts in my planter box, flower pots, garden, lawn. Squirrels have been very busy.

[@SteveMould]

Really interesting!

[@ashrafulalam3662]

I'm reading this in a British accent with a fed up but sarcastic tone and it's hilarious.

[@MindfulArcher]

update on the trees? This stuff is fascinating and I wonder if you kept them in your back yard

[@AtomicShrimp]

Mycorrhizal fungi grow in symbiosis with oak trees and can spread to great distances underground, interconnecting multiple trees; they exchange fluids and nutrients with trees via the trees' root systems - I know it sounds a bit Avatar, but I think it's possible that the trees are communicating with each other via this network. If you think about it, a system that has an innate tendency toward periodicity probably only needs a tiny amount of signal exchange to keep in sync.

[@curtisbaker4325]

Paul stammets has provn theory. Google him. Mushrooms are the futre

[@3bdo880]

I think it got proven already love ur vids btw

[@anthonyappleyard5688]

" I know it sounds a bit Avatar," ... or like weirwood trees in World of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones

[@SleepyMongoose]

@@curtisbaker4325, Paul Stamets is an interesting guy, but if you have seen any interviews or movies that include him, it is clear that he takes significant amounts of psilocybin mushrooms. While I don't fully discredit his research, it is quite likely that many of his theories are attached to an altered state of mind from psilocybin mushrooms. Now sharing nutrients is 100%, and similarly hormonal transfer between trees is also possible through the mycelium networks. So not really "communication" in the same sense as animals, more likely are cycles where trees produce more hormones and those are passed through the mycelium to other neighboring trees, the young trees will get huge boosts in hormones during this extreme years which will cause them to sync up with the rest of the trees. It is also that the majority of new trees will happen from those extreme years, so they will all grow around the same time helping them start off already well in sync. The real question would be, is it something like hormone transfer through the mycelium that causes these cycles to be in sync, or is it just the fast the most trees will be "planted" during these cycles so will already be in sync on these cycles, or as stated in the video it could be some environmental factor like temperatures that causes the syncing.

[@WolfgangDoW]

Plants can communicate with chemicals through the air too And saw a KZbin video on how plants can think and even count!

[@NicholasHemingwayOfficial]

The word "Podcast" actually itself sounds like a term for seed dispersal.

[@johnstanley3939]

Nice

[@Tribecasoothsayer]

Good point!

[@Thundernin]

im pretty sure the term "broadcast" originates from a method farmers would sow seeds.

[@krshna77]

podcast is a way to disperse seeds of knowledge. also pseudo knowledge.

[@jw41538]

top comment for sure

[@crysteldogg8936]

2:00 I love that you say "forgive me for anthropomorphizing squirrels". Way to many people anthropomorphize every animal this often leads to false understanding of what animals are and how they process information. Way too many people look at them through a human lense and don't take the time to learn how they truly see the world. Animals don't have to think at all like humans to be amazing.

[@Derek_Garnham]

On behalf of the anthropomorphising community - you've got to admit that they do look amazingly cute when you dress them up in little Lumberjack outfits.

[@Jman0163]

​​@@Derek_Garnham its hard to argue against that

[@JoshTheWhale]

+ ❤

[@Mikeztarp]

The third F if friendship, right? They braid little bracelets for one another. I know it.

[@band44]

Very special friendships

[@eeHMFIC]

The kind of friendship where someone puts something inside the other

[@masonhunter2748]

Hi

[@greatnortherntroll6841]

Absolutely correct! Friendship it is, though some of the squirrels are secretly heartbroken that that's as far as things are gonna go...

[@fgvcosmic6752]

@@eeHMFIC yup! They give eachother nut

[@barmanitan]

Steve Mould: "tumbleweed-" *CGP Grey has entered the chat*

[@alejotassile6441]

Thanks for making me smile :)

[@DasIllu]

I'm sure there is a U.S company by now marketing their strongest cannabis product under the name "Tumbleweed".

[@SolarWebsite]

I was relieved Steve did not mention laminar flow, or else it would have become crowded with famous KZbinrs...

[@dennis8196]

@@SolarWebsite Thats not for 3 weeks, got to take his turn

[@banjo304]

Get out of here CGP Grey, no one wants to hear your bad opinions on flag design

[@lunsj]

Whoever did the closed captions on this video deserves a medal. Every time Steve says the word "bury" the caption says "burry" matching Steve's pronunciation. Bravo :)

[@Gertyutz]

It's done by AI.

[@jacobmillen751]

I feel like that's how it should be said though, even though I don't naturally say it that way

[@Rekken200]

So what you're saying is, ents are real

[@ASSASINE0]

Yes and they are nutting a huge load every 5 years.

[@Michael_Deti]

@@ASSASINE0 NO! Don't say that xD I was enjoying the first comment but now...

[@2-dcat28]

@@ASSASINE0 that made me laugh so hard 😂

[@CarbonUnit_Tom]

@@ASSASINE0 r/cursedcomments

[@TaigiTWeseFormosanDiplomat]

What ent

[@liqwid2372]

Hypothesis: Mast year occurs. Squirrel population explodes. Squirrels starve to death the following year. Oak trees get fertilized by rotting squirrel carcasses. Eventually the oak trees can no longer taste the dead squirrels. Mast year occurs.

[@NoName-zn1sb]

Ossum!

[@x--.]

Couldn't just be the taste because there will always be some level of dead squirrel. So... obviously they can taste the intensity of dead squirrel in the ground. Print it.

[@bluesillybeard]

trees are smarter than we thought.

[@milanstevic8424]

@@bluesillybeard oh everything is smarter than we thought. except us. we're just a tiny bit less smart than we thought. it's a classic sociological paradox.

[@krap101]

The happening but for squirrels

[@TheGrinningViking]

I've heard "Feeding, Fighting, and F.... inding a mate." The fakeout really helps sell it.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Wonka also manipulated squirrels. They gladly pulled and pushed Veruca down the garbage chute

[@thesewalkamongstus8367]

...yes... have you seen your therapist recently?... #justwondering.. hahahahahaha nice little interjection there Avery!!

[@olmostgudinaf8100]

But did he? I thought they did it all on their own, because she was naughty.

[@legowagfles7287]

Olmost Gudinaf he trained them to determine which ones are bad and good so he did

[@mmay3315]

and here we meet again. stop stalking me will you?

[@thesewalkamongstus8367]

@@mmay3315 Who is stalking you? I am certainly not.- just grow a pair or leave the chanel ffs!

[@sk8rdman]

4:50 "What do you think? Is that a lot of acorns?" Yeah, man. That's nuts!

[@mbkunal]

😂😂😂😂😂😂 This joke is very under appericiated by the count of likes...

[@dickrichard626]

@@mbkunal blah

[@boiledelephant]

booooo! 😂

[@evanforst7272]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIOXmoWXrMuphKMsi=RPworXqeoJdNELqE

[@TRDiscordian]

I genuinely appreciate you putting "wants" in quotes. Not understanding when I was being given metaphor or not I feel unnecessarily slowed my understanding of things when I was younger (that and adults who never figured it out at all).

[@black_platypus]

0:51 "Squirrels are caching animals" ...Uh... No, they're caching acorns Okay, I think I misinterpreted the grammar here ^^

[@zakinnamis5577]

I can smell your brain from here bro

[@TheZapan99]

I heard it as "cashing animals" and immediately imagined a stonks squirrel meme.

[@Tribecasoothsayer]

Yeah, it’s amazing anyone is able to learn English, including native speakers

[@RobertSeviour1]

Aged grandma from old country also hard to understand.

[@CrizzyEyes]

That feel when a present-tense verb is also an adjective.

[@PyroYeet]

"Feeding, Fighting and fmating" gotta keep that yt bread goin

[@andrewadelheart875]

He could have gone for 'family making' but all good i guess

[@jivanvasant]

@@andrewadelheart875 Fornicating?

[@Nicolas0981]

@@andrewadelheart875 I think it was to put emphasis on the omission of 'fucking'

[@MilnaAlen]

I have heard that's it actually written like that in an university course book. Probably so it's more scientific, and also not all animals that mate have families like humans do.

[@TheGrinningViking]

If you're going for scientific accuracy it's a bit off anyways, given the immobile, pacifistic, or self reproducing creatures of the world. It's always been there for a bit of academic humor, and that's pretty ok.

[@paulpease8254]

We have some big oak trees, they had a mast year last year. So many squirrels, mice and turkey this year. And lots of baby oak trees sprouting up everywhere.

[@bradleyelacombe]

Seed dispersal podcast, pod (encapsulated information to grow ideas-seed), cast (to send and distribute-dispersal). Cool

[@mickey4125]

Ooohh, nice!

[@het_gele_teken]

this video really confuses me, when you say acorns I hear "eekhoorns". Eekhoorns is Dutch for squirrels... go figure.

[@fiskurtjorn]

Good to read I was not the only one.

[@bdf2718]

Your comment makes more sense when spelled phonetically in English. At least I think I remember Dutch doubled-vowels are short. So you write "eekhoorns" but if you said it I'd hear "ekhorns." Except that won't make much sense to you, because you'd read that as having long vowels. :)

[@ciarfah]

Reminds me of the german for squirrel- eichhornchen. Which is just "little squirrel" if you take the eichhorn to mean squirrel Fun

[@bjornmu]

Ekorn in Norwegian, I suspect those are related to the English acorn. The acorn in Norwegian is eikenøtt (oak nut)

[@Aengus42]

@@ciarfah I just looked up squirrel in Hindi & got Cikhura. So maybe it's a proto-indo-european word? Ekhorn & Cikhura aren't dissimilar...

[@moosecannibal8224]

"It's funny 'cuz you think I'm gonna say feeding, fighting and fu-" I chortled my guy, I done chortled a good one

[@duranmclemore8667]

ah yes, squirrels "occasionally" forget the caches about 70% of the time

[@ummerfarooq5383]

That or they farm

[@gissa2046]

@@ummerfarooq5383 🧐

[@jmad318]

60% of the time it works every time

[@novaiscool1]

@@gissa2046 he isn't wrong. They might not understand exactly how it works, but maybe they have some level of intelligence that has over many many generations realized that abandoned acorns lead to more trees that produce acorns.

[@sheppycider123]

@@novaiscool1 or the squirrels who were forgetful survived because they ended up expanding their food supply in their area

[@220Dave220]

Playing Next: *How squirrels manipulate acorns to abandon their oak trees*

[@j.hawkins8779]

LOL

[@TheGrinningViking]

"They use their little paws mostly."

[@CalCorbin888]

Lmmfao

[@wolfmangoland7972]

KZbin algorithm threw this my way, and for once, I’m not disappointed! This video is pure gold-absolutely fantastic!

[@InvadersDie]

Oak: Oh hey, If you help out some of my babies I'll let you eat the rest, sound good? Squirrel: *squeak*

[@mrcyberpunk]

"little does mister Oak Tree know my intent is to eat ALLLLL of the babies! I just have to remember where I put them... ... Oh... Damn... strange I put them in the ground where this oak tree now is. Hey! Oak Tree?! You seen my Acorns?" "No but if you help out some of my babies I'll let you eat the rest, sound good?"

[@onehairybuddha]

An heir and several thousand spares.

[@Oli_Olberius]

Maybe the squirrels know all along and they're just trying to plant some trees.

[@Redemptive]

yeah they are clever lil m8s. more trees = More food

[@roguechlnchllla6564]

They kinda do. In the same way the oak tree "wants" to spread the acorns(though not quite as directly). It's beneficial to them to plant some of the acorn.

[@MrRedberd]

Not when they're raiding your garden, furry bastards

[@josephtaylor1379]

@@roguechlnchllla6564 It would be beneficial for the population as a whole but not for the individual squirrel.

[@sweetpeabee4983]

Oh my goodness, I'm now imagining a squirrel wearing a pair of denim overalls & a straw hat as it goes gardening, maybe with a little hoe and a spade. 😱

[@paulsmyers203]

When I was in grade school we lived in a house with 13 Oak trees in the back yard. And after watching this video I realized that, yes, I was observing years where there were just an absurd amount of acorns on the ground. I thought I was crazy at the time, but apparently there's science behind it. I like that you air quoted "oak trees want to disperse their seeds". So many people deliver that kind of information in a way that implies there was logic behind a decision for plants to behave a certain way. In reality hundreds of thousands of years of minor changes have caused plants to grow a certain way because their local environment created conditions such that one random mutation was more successful at surviving than the previous example. Personification of plants, and some animals, is fun and cute but is highly inaccurate for the learning process. Your videos are great. Thank you for your contributions to world knowledge!

[@kosimochaosbold7544]

In what way is this different from you having wants and needs?

[@MrAlRats]

@@kosimochaosbold7544 The interplay between genetics and environment that is responsible for producing specific behaviours in plants is much simpler than the same kind of interplay that is responsible for producing specific behaviours in humans; which then leads to more variation in behaviour among individuals of a human population compared to any plant species.

[@kosimochaosbold7544]

​@@MrAlRats Considering the range and tempo of variation and intersubject-exchange that point does go to you; but I still doubt that it would be correct to say all plantlife has less complexity in behaviour or even consciousness than humankind - even thou it is not in a form we yet recognise, less if you don't confine it to a single species. I agree based on our human realm of expirience. But I do think that this might be in part due the hybris of the human race, to regard ourselfes as the only truely conscious beeings. Think of a whole forest, it has quite a network of communicating parts, just not the same way we humans with our braincells, gut bacteria and hormones da. Thanks for giving the explanation, I'm sorry that I try to agree and object simulaneously, but I do hope to give out seed from which brainfood might arise!

[@LieseFury]

seed dispersal is literally the only thing plants want to do. they spend all their energy doing that and growing in ways that make it easier to do. trees don't have brains and consciences as far as we can tell, but they definitely do want to spread their seeds.

[@aleksandersuur9475]

@@kosimochaosbold7544 A tree doesn't want anything because wanting is a function of a brain and a tree doesn't have one. Unfortunately, human languages lean so heavily toward expressing actions and motivations of other thinking, feeling entities that there is a lack of convenient verbs to describe how natural phenomena and inanimate objects function.

[@klaasbil8459]

Fun fact: the Dutch word for squirrel is pronounced the same as the English word acorn.

[@krissp8712]

Eichorn?

[@MarijnvdSterre]

@@krissp8712 Eekhoorn

[@lainer4303]

but does the dutch word for acorn sound like the English word squirrel?

[@klaasbil8459]

@@krissp8712 That's possibly German. Dutch is eekhoorn.

[@klaasbil8459]

@@lainer4303 Not at all :-)

[@ramontavaresdacruz2256]

I've found your channel recently and I'm amuzed, your didact is very good when approaching topics, and your jokes are fast so we don't get lost, plus you bring small little facts about other stuff (Like the Cicadas) which brings me much more joy as someone who's curious

[@kristjanveski]

"Weird seed dispersal" is how I spent my teen years

[@clray123]

It's hard to disagree that seed dispersal is interesting.

[@johndowe7003]

too bad most of yer seed ended up on a wall/sock

[@fluffigverbimmelt]

*cache

[@krisbreaker9603]

C U M I N A S O C K

[@djonesx]

​@@johndowe7003 I love that when you're a young teen you think you are the first person to discover the true purpose of socks. Then you get a bit older and realise all us primates think the same way! ;D

[@carpetclimber4027]

KZbin algoritm: "Would you like to watch how oak trees manipulate squirrels?" Me: "Yes, yes I would." My hypothesis for the simultaneous mast production is oak trees have a secret convention where they decide when to go nuts [pun intended]. And no one else is invited, hence why we don't know about it. It's not a conspiracy, since it's not a criminal act to overproduce acorns. Can't I get a degree in biology by making a thesis on this question? I mean, even if I'm wrong and the hypothesis is falisfied or unproven, I've still contributed more than alot of other researchers.

[@XeonProductions]

I think in my next job interview when they ask where I see myself in 5 years, I'm going to tell them wherever the KZbin algorithm takes me.

[@KshitijKale]

How high are you?

[@carpetclimber4027]

@@KshitijKale Not very, I'm actually rather short.

[@dedley2664]

@@carpetclimber4027 Loll

[@emsytraut]

I had a similar thought. But I also like that the KZbin algorithm has figured out I’m part of the “Weird & Nerdy/Please teach-eth me shtuff! 🤓” demographic. I had a reality tv suggestion loop for a while where I kept having to click the “not interested” option and had no idea why.

[@Astral_Drago]

“It’s funny because you think I’m gonna say feeding, fighting, and fu-“😂😂😂

[@ferrelx]

I worked on golf courses for years..the most amazing thing I ever saw was a Squirrel unweave the runners of the grass..then drop a pecan in then reweave the runners together so well I couldn't see where he did it even though I was looking at the very spot 10 feet away..it was then that I knew what a Squirrels purpose was..Mother Natures Arborist..

[@fungdark8270]

I didn’t like squirrel when I was younger, as I only knew them for their skill at destroying bird feeders or scattering the seed at best. But I’ve grown to really adore them, and I have seen countless trees sprouting that would certainly survive if not for lawn mowing

[@riuphane]

"It's funny because you think I'm going to say feeding, fighting, and f- just like cicadas..." That was even better than the actual joke! lofl

[@chuckygobyebye]

It works on me too. One day when I was in primary school the bluestone gutters of Ballarat, Australia were adrift with acorns. My friend and I devised a plan to collect as many as we could, get up on the shed roof, invite the local bully around and throw them at him. The plan didn't work as he just threw them back but the shopping bags full of acorns sprouted under the porch where I had stored them. I buried them next to the shed before my mum found out and many years later a fine oak tree was overshadowing the shed and threatening to push it over. Gone now, sadly.

[@fungdark8270]

Had to look up that city and the gutters you spoke of. Seems like a cool place to grow up

[@chuckygobyebye]

@@fungdark8270 It was, in many ways, didn't appreciate it at the time though. The gutters were big bluestone ones about the size of wheelbarrows.

[@EmbraceTheBeardLife]

KZbin recommended this and I am NOT disappointed. Fantastic video.

[@juliap.5375]

Also got random recommendation, but was disappointed because about this cycles I read in school text book :/

[@Nyan_Kitty]

My brain just went "aaaaahh, I heard of a similar thing but with cicadas" Took me a while to figure out that it actually WAS your vid over on numberphile xD

[@buddyclem7328]

It took me a while to realize that he was saying "cicadas".

[@erichollar5503]

@@buddyclem7328 The guy has no clue how to properly pronounce it.

[@buddyclem7328]

@@erichollar5503 It's probably a British thing.

[@boiledelephant]

That's just how we pronounce it in the UK, far as I know

[@hypercomms2001]

I love at 04:04 when Steve says "I it is funny because of think I am going to say 'feeding, Fighting and Fu.....'".... cut to the next scene..

[@kevnar]

I like how in dry times, soil cracks and splits apart. Then seeds fall into these cracks. When the rain comes, they're buried and watered in one move. It's almost like it was planned.

[@HandledToaster2]

Nature is fucking amazing

[@CMDRMeatBag]

the ground around oak trees doesn't "crack" open. EVER. They only exist in grassy areas with good nutrient top soil. Only Clay cracks when it dries out.

[@DanielGarcia-py1ij]

​@@CMDRMeatBag The american midwest has a ton of both super heavy clay soils and Oaks

[@kenhukushi1637]

Human: "Them squirrels are stupid. plants never trick us humans like that." Poaceae grasses: "yeah sure buddy, whatever you say."

[@zwz.zdenek]

How do grasses trick humans?

[@arsemcscratch6908]

@@zwz.zdenek We grow them for food ,ensuring their reproduction.

[@rai_l]

@@zwz.zdenek Poaceae is a family that contains wheat, rice, corn, barley, rye, sugar cane, and oats to name a few

[@Soul-OnFire]

Cool 😎

[@Pluveus]

@@arsemcscratch6908 To be fair, in the case of Corn(Maize) specifically, they're probably thinking, "Oh shit! We've gone too far!"

[@The_Hagseed]

4:15 Uhhhh...... But you do have cicadas popping up every year. There are 15 broods of periodical cicadas, all on different cycles. The only time the media makes a big deal out of them is when at least two of the biggest broods happen to coincide.

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

I had it explained to me as a kid that they are like the graduating class in a school. Another one comes along every year. It turns out my grandad wasn't just making up stories. Cheers.

[@andrewchapman2039]

"Feeding, fighting, and... mating." Absolute gold, I see you Steve. Well played.

[@JKTCGMV13]

I’ve heard the joke a few times now but it gets me every time

[@dryjoints454]

its funny because you think hes going to say fu

[@philip.stigaard]

*How acorns manipulate oak trees to abandon their squirrels*

[@goblincomic4522]

Ent from lord of the rings

[@brandigirl77]

I was scurry down a rabbit hole and discovered your rabbit hole. I love it! Just subscribed! I really enjoy science, biology in particular and I love good humor. I’m a nurse by trade so it makes great sense. I will look for the podcast. I realize that this video is 3 years old- so we’ll see where this rabbit hole leads.

[@wilsonseymour993]

Hey Steve love the videos. Just a quick critique about editing. Just try not to cut yourself off, there was a like where you said "feeding, fighting, and f-" but the last word was short and some of us didn't quite get it.... Just some constructive feedback. Thanks again Steve!

[@KorenJoy]

@@Serena-or7sl woosh

[@michaelesposito2629]

Serena Ziviani wooooooosh

[@jamescurran64]

I especially like how your comment appear on my phone (I guess it isn’t the same for everyone - depending on screen and text size): it ends “just some constructive f...”

[@RecursiveTriforce]

No need to censor farting from the 3 F's. It's PG enough for youtube.

[@adityaj348]

Third f is fucking not farting

[@carterferguson1076]

Aditya Jhankal that’s the joke, thanks for playing

[@adityaj348]

@Omer Ahmed ur religion is a joke

[@adityaj348]

@@carterferguson1076 ok boomer

[@adityaj348]

@Omer Ahmed mom

[@g3nj1]

@3:58 NICE ONE! You just won me over with that. Subbed.

[@MendTheWorld]

I only laughed at “the three “f’s”, feeding, fighting, and mating” the first time you said it. If someone doesn’t get it, then mate ‘em.

[@foxmcqwerty608]

this guy looks EXACTLY like the type of guy who would go into detail about the symbiotic relationship between a tree and god damned squirrels.

[@AFN2750]

And if you hit an oak tree, an acorn will fall, and may grow into a new tree. Except that didn’t happen, so we just get a golden acorn being worshiped a few hundred years later by a temple of light

[@stylis666]

"It might be a mast year right now. This seems like a lot of acorns, is this a lot of acorns? It seems like a lot of acorns." Hahaha! I don't know, man. I don't eat acorns. You tell me. Is that a lot of acorns?

[@shroomer3867]

Souns like what a squirrel would say...

[@Cooper1123581321]

Who else thought of Scrat from Ice Age at 2:02 ?

[@omarkhaledk11]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4C2kmOZi7WSidk

[@Cooper1123581321]

Omar Khaled lmao thank you for this contribution 😂

[@hoodedR]

Who didn't? 😂

[@Arun-yl8kc]

@@omarkhaledk11 🔥

[@louisegogel7973]

Awesome presentation and information! Thank you… I’m glad I found this!

[@ytbit]

The Dutch word for 'squirrel' is 'eekhoorn', which is pronounced 'acorn'. I'm Dutch so I find this massively confusing to listen to. ;-)

[@fortheloveofnoise]

@MOONLIGHT SHADOW That actually does happen.

[@TheLtVoss]

as a german i find dutch interresting because well our languages and english have the same origin but developed quit differently but dutch is still kinda in between german and english

[@TheLtVoss]

@MOONLIGHT SHADOW ahh sry in german the sch is spoken like the sh in english and i twrite on pc but only my mobile has english autocorrection oh and my dyslexia did its part to

[@hermannrorschachder2.]

Eichhörnchen

[@pip5461]

So is that dutch or double dutch ?

[@davidoshea381]

The three Fs are feeding, fighting and fornication... You don't need to swear to he correct :)

[@recklessroges]

True, (and I approve of not swearing) but that breaks the joke pattern of breaking expectation.

[@davidoshea381]

@@recklessroges sure, I'm a fan of the running joke too. This could be used sometime when he doesn't cut away

[@diegosanchez894]

Fuck, IIRC comes from Fornication Under the Consent of the King, from medieval times where you had to like have a license or smthn, so the actual F is the same.

[@jeffclark5268]

Oh noes cus hearing a "dirty" word will surely ruin you and make you go to hell. Fornication or f**king...it's all referring to the same thing so why does one word matter over the other...it's the same THING.

[@Catcrumbs]

If you want to be strict about it - and I do - 'fornication' implies adulterous or otherwise illicit sex, so it doesn't apply animals mating. @@diegosanchez894 That's a load of nonsense. 'Fuck' was not always spelled this way.

[@witchking64]

I followed the suggestion from your rubber band video. Love when content creators breach the "fourth wall" of algorithms directly with the audience

[@zerwas2ky]

"Squirrels are caching animals." But which animals?!

[@kip258]

ALL OF THEM! THEY'RE ENDANGERING ALL SPECIES! We must rise up against the squirrels!

[@PrototypeSpaceMonkey]

@@kip258 Oh no! It's the 1918 squirrel war all over again! They're back for revenge! assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/37305/image.jpg

[@HandledToaster2]

Cashing*

[@ninaddeshpande6362]

1:22 That much you already probably know... Greatly overestimating our knowledge of Oak trees

[@goodguykonrad3701]

5:20 Fun fact about coconuts is they actually use birds to help carry coconuts during their migration for seed dispersal

[@salvadormartinez9331]

“The 3 F’s Feeding, Fighting and Mating” Haha nice one

[@SpydersByte]

just made the same comment :D

[@MrRedberd]

When I was young I heard that squirrels find 95% of the seeds they bury, and the other 5% might turn into trees. I did not know about masting.

[@jchandler]

This is a video where Steve’s accent really gets to shine 🙌🏻

[@hoodie_cat]

That jump from 7 to 10299016745145627623848583864765044283053772454999072182325491776887871732475287174542709871683888003235965704141638377695179741979175588724736000000000000000000000000 in the thumbnail is wild

[@ADSaaron]

3:17 "The three Fs... feeding, fighting, and *Mating* " lol

[@lustfulvengance]

Feeding, fighting, and FUCKING lol

[@chrisbenn]

"...chemical signalling"?! That's sciences way of saying... The trees communicate with each other?! :-D

[@calamityjean1525]

Yep.

[@ThrottleKitty]

Yes, plants actually talk, scream, react as crowds, share, care for the injured, shun groups based on family, etc. Almost everything you attribute to animal life, plants do it to! Just in a very weird, strange, super slow motion and/or hard to notice way for something that lives like us. It's as if we move in super, super fast forward to them, and we don't understand their main source of communication naturally (chemicals / smells) so of coarse we struggle to see them as the same as animal life!

[@wolfmangoland7972]

I used to hang a couple of bird feeders under a pine tree, but the squirrels saw their chance and upgraded from their Oak tree digs to the Pine tree penthouse!

[@JordanBeagle]

3:20 3 Fs, Feeding, Fighting and... Mating

[@Gameboygenius]

I didn't expect him to explain the joke later in the video, but he did!

[@chrisg3030]

4:36 "If you go into your local woods and you see one oak tree producing an insane number of acorns then all the other oak trees will be doing it as well" . All the oak trees in that piece of woodland? In that geographic region? The world? How widespread is a masting event in a given year? Answering that might help in deciding whether they're triggered by communication between trees or by climate shifts.

[@chrisg3030]

@@supafrey Cool. There's one going on here in UK too, at least in the southern half.

[@DexTag]

Trees manipulating squirrels? That's nuts

[@bluesillybeard]

video: "feeding, fighting and fu--" *next clip* me: xD Wait, you made this ENTIRE video just to advertise your new podcast? i don't know if this is evil or genius.

[@nahometesfay1112]

I mean the video was worth making anyways. It's interesting on it's own.

[@GeorgeCorty]

I'm definitely interested in his podcast now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

"Feeding, fighting, and feng shui. The squirrels are burying the acorns to balance the feng shui. Of course.

[@r7t462]

bluesillybeard2 bczhefgthspswd Yup, we saw the video, no need to restate exactly what was said...

[@GeorgeCorty]

@@r7t462 yeah we watched the video, you dont need to repeat what they said

[@azulokishi8500]

No wonder there's a pandemic every 100 years....

[@paullessard]

huh?

[@supplespecimen725]

This completely explains this one freaky year at my cabin (with tons of oak trees in the yard) when we got so many damn acorns you couldn’t walk in the area around our deck without them cracking under your feet constantly, the ground was just covered completely. Sitting in the living room it was like a hailstorm on the roof but only one bit if hail every like 30sec-1min, I was a kid at the time and looking back it was just the one year, never got that crazy again, and i never really thought it was weird but it absolutely was. Just a ridiculous amount of acorns.

[@ahendler2326]

7, 7, 1.226*10^172. That's really a lot

[@SteveMould]

I know right!

[@Daxelinho9]

Thanks, my first thought, aswell.

[@abhijiths5237]

How did he get that number?

[@Daxelinho9]

@@abhijiths5237 107! means factorial of 107 which is 2*3*4*5*...*107

[@mikewolf78]

Daxelinho9 *factorial

[@oofshapedhuman4974]

I was so distracted with how you said cicada I completely missed the joke.

[@MalcolmParsons]

I'm distracted by how he said burying.

[@earthbind83]

The moment you mentioned Numberphile was when I understood why KZbin recommended this channel to me. Also thanks for adding the explanation about the syncing, because during the beginning of the video I've been wondering about just that.

[@ymac7245]

"They all come out in a huge swarm for the 3 F's: feeding, fighting and...mating". Lol😂😂😂

[@smokey04200420]

“The three Fs. Feeding, fighting, and mating.” 😂😂😂

[@cellokid5104]

I love how Steve actually talks about interesting stuff that you don't necessarily already know.

[@coryman125]

As soon as you made that "three F's" joke I had to think "wait, why have I heard that before?". Forgot about that Numberphile video, it's been a while!

[@CoolPsyco]

me: look at thumbnail my brain: " *POG SQUIRREL* "

[@thanhvu2377]

Same

[@MrRobotVPN]

POTG*

[@zatherz2498]

@@MrRobotVPN norman invasion WutFace

[@MrRobotVPN]

what*

[@doncolasanti9487]

Soy squirrel

[@sjswitzer1]

As a fervent opponent of teleology in science, I appreciate your air quotes around “wants.” It’s important to be clear that it’s just a metaphor for the dynamical system.

[@sjswitzer1]

Also, calling a squirrel a predator is a very peculiar choice. But look at it from the oak tree’s perspective. (Yeah, curiously I’m not very worried about anthropomorphism; pendulum swung too far on that one)

[@Stadtpark90]

3:12 The three „F“ 😂

[@veryboringname.]

6:31 Clearly the internal cable routing channels in those nice mic boom arms were an unnecessary detail by the manufacturer. :)

[@dayv808]

Well, now I can't stop noticing that for the rest of my life anytime I see one of them in use

[@veryboringname.]

well to be fair to them, if it's a temporary setup that isn't really going to be on camera, there's no point giving themselves more work since it'll be taken down shortly anyway. :)

[@Tortenkopf]

I have an oak tree in my garden. And it dropped A LOT of acorns this year. In northern Germany though. Thanks for the explanation.

[@bentbliley]

Hey Steve, just thought I’d let you know the title says “Thier” when it should say “Their”

[@SteveMould]

Thank you! That's fixed. I'm so glad you got here early!

[@luciaryan6063]

i before e except after c

[@bentbliley]

Lucia Ryan ?

[@luciaryan6063]

Bent thceir or thier

[@bentbliley]

Lucia Ryan I just moved. I have new NEIGHBOURS. I haven’t met them, but THEIR dogs are nice. The i before e rule doesn’t work for long “a” sounds. But if you BELIEVE you’re FIERCE, then you might not DIE, my FRIEND. None of those were long “a”s. In fact, half of them are long “e”s.

[@chaomatic5328]

Squirrel: Tree: *It's nutting time*

[@MrXaule]

I love KZbin precisely for this kind of content.

[@allalkasj]

I thought coconuts spread their seed by being carried by swallows

[@PeterAuto1]

An African or an European swallow?

[@UDumFck]

A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut!

[@allalkasj]

@@UDumFck what if two swallows carried it together?

[@allalkasj]

@@PeterAuto1 But African swallows are not migratory. So they couldn't bring a coconut back anyway.

[@UDumFck]

@@allalkasj No, they'd have to have it on a line.

[@micjr21]

"Feeding, fighting and fu..." 🤣

[@axelmagnussen9179]

the best feeling when watching an informative video is when you get an question pop up, then later on get the answer for it xD great video!

[@yeeterdeleeter]

"The 3 Fs Feeding Fighting and Mating" no matter how often i hear that, it will never not be funny

[@yeeterdeleeter]

ok the second time in the video was even funnier xD

[@Lumpiluk]

Is there an actual third F that I'm missing or is "3 Fs" just to make you expect a third F-word?

[@Slekejkwls-1819]

@@Lumpiluk Mating with an "f" is...

[@SpydersByte]

@@Lumpiluk the joke is the 3rd f is "fucking"... aka "mating" or others have suggested "fornicating" to be a little less crass :D

[@thenerdyouknowabout]

"For the 3 F's: Feeding, Fighting and... Mating..."

[@decam5329]

Funny language English. Silent F.

[@jakobbergen7574]

Thank you. I now underdtznd why the Garry oak trees where I live inundated the ground everywhere they grew last year. Then this year it was back to normal.