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Thoughts from Dead Animals

2012-12-07 · Hank, Emily Graslie · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · documentary visit

Hank argues that weird places can be found where you live and, with guide Emily, tours Missoula's Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum; he reflects that such places exist to satisfy human curiosity, are under-supported and little known, and that he is glad it exists.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hank's premise: Thoughts from Places can come from weird places close to home; driving with Michael to a Missoula campus

  • ★★ Hank's description says Ze Frank asked them to talk about what makes their places special, and he could not think of a better way than this museum visit. — 00:00:00 · Ze Frank
  • ★★ Hank suggests that instead of doing Thoughts from Places from really weird places, they could find really weird places where they live. (hedged) — 00:00:07 · Thoughts from Places

00:00:37 — Tour of the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum with Emily: bird specimens and arsenic, horns, hyena skulls, stinky cabinets, primate skulls, possums, a four-legged duck, a drum fish palate, a three-legged beaver

  • ★★ Emily says the museum has about 21,000 specimens in one tiny room alone. — 00:00:42
  • ★ Emily says the museum has 7,000 bird specimens, mounted on sticks so they can be picked up. — 00:00:47
  • ★★ Emily says the bird specimens dating from before the 1960s were preserved with arsenic. — 00:00:55
  • ★ Emily says the hyena skull shows a scavenger that ate bones: worn-down teeth, bone loss and dental abscesses that hyenas often get. — 00:01:29
  • ★ Emily says possums have more teeth than any other mammal. — 00:02:18

00:03:01 — Hank's thoughts: the museum feeds curiosity, is under-supported and volunteer-run, little known, and he is glad it exists

  • ★★★ Hank says the museum largely exists to satisfy the wonderful, insatiable human curiosity. — 00:03:02
  • ★★★ Hank says this and similar places are tremendously under-supported and could not exist without full-time volunteers like Emily. — 00:03:08
  • ★★ Hank says the density of interesting things there rivals anywhere he has been, yet it is unknown to most people though open to the public by appointment. — 00:03:16
  • ★★★ Hank says his main thought is that he is glad the museum exists; he thanks Emily and everyone who supports places like it. — 00:03:29

00:03:40 — Hank congratulates John on the best-book-of-the-year lists; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank congratulates John on being on best-book-of-the-year lists, saying he knew it was one as soon as he read it. — 00:03:40 · The Fault in Our Stars

Humor (significant)

  • Emily explains that old bird specimens were preserved with arsenic. — 00:00:59 > «Highly effective for preserving the birds, not highly effective for preserving the curators.»
  • Emily describes what people with a loose grasp of skulls guess the hyena skull is. — 00:01:24 > «No, it's a bear-dog-cat»
  • Emily lists the dental problems of bone-eating hyenas that cannot go to the dentist. — 00:01:45 > «It makes them angry. And dead.»
  • Holding a huge three-legged beaver in the cold room, the visitors suggest what to tell people afterwards. — 00:02:56 > «Go home today and say, "hey, I touched a beaver."»

Threads in this video

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