Hey, I'm welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. We're just a couple of Foxes, Silver Foxes with our pal Jerry silver is fox of all. My hair's got a little great to it now. Yeah, your beard super gray. Now it's been gray for a while, but now I'm now that the gray is creeping into the old upstairs. I've been plucking mine, no, sure what, you don't care, do you? Mine sometimes comes in a little wiry, and I'm like, I don't really like that look on my super straight hair, so I do pull them out when they come in like that. Sure Head Pubes kind of a little bit more looked like a roadie for Tesla. Oh you mean Jimmy Head Pube Barrington, Yeah, the guitar tech. That's right. He was a great one, but his hair was messed up. I'll hit him with some smoke. That's right, man, That guy old inside joke from our Detroit show. Some of you know what, some of you don't. But we're here to talk about the Arctic fox, one of the cuter little critters on planet Earth. Right, So the Arctic fox is adorable, um, and it's uh of of in the same families dogs, which makes it automatically lovable. But the fact that they can survive in some of the most inhospitable environments on the planet, it makes them admirable. So there a adorable bowl. Okay, yeah, I got it. Nice Portmanteau, thank you. Yeah. So the Arctic fox Just go ahead, if you're in a place where you're not driving and look up a little picture of these little fellas or you're not crossing the street right now. That's right. But they are I keep saying little because they are small. Uh like foxes are small. The Arctic foxes even smaller. They can be as small as a little chihuahua and by the way, big thanks to our old pals. At how stuff works with this one. Or they can get huge, like the size of a jack russell right there. They can get up to eight pounds. That's right. So um when I said though, that they can survive in some really inhospitable environments like the areas where they live, the circumpolar areas Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Northern Europe, Russia. UM, basically in the in the Arctic, um they like they have to put up with temperatures that drop into like negative fifty degrees celsius, which is negative fifty eight degrees fahrenheit, which reminded me chuck of I can't remember what episode it was, but remember Seemo Hia the White Death. Yeah, And we talked about how he he was, um he was, you know, basically sniping Russian soldiers when it was like negative forty degrees fair fahrenheight and fifty people rode in and said, negative forty is the same in fahrenheight and celsius. I will never forget that, And I just wanted to say it again that I still remember after all these years. So remember that. Uh So, what's astounding about the Arctic fox is that it can survive in those kind of temperatures, and they can do so for a lot of reasons. There are a lot of really pretty spectacular evolutionary adaptations that allow this to happen, and one of those is just that little size. The fact that they're small, they're compact. They have little legs, a little short muzzles, and they have little small ears, so they don't have a lot of surface area to begin with exposed exposed to that cold, right, right. So that's that's one big thing. They also have the warmest coat of any Arctic animal. It has multiple layers and probably any animal wouldn't you think I would guess? So, yeah, I now that you mention it. Um, they like they can trap a layer of air which is heated by their body heat, which in turn keeps them warm. So it like protects them from the outside cold or air. It's pretty amazing. And then um, the couded gras, the death blow about their pelt is the fluffy tail on the and that they actually used to cover their head and face with when they curl up to sleep. Adorable. That is awfully adorable. It's true. They also have hair. They're the only canad that has hair over their footpads. So not only does that just add even more insulation, but it helds some walk on the snow. And then they have countercurrent blood circulation. Uh, And this is what's gonna happen. They're gonna reduce the blood flow to their feet to make sure those little paws don't get frost bitten. And then when it gets really really cold, their actual metabolism um shifts by about slower than it is during the summer to you know, to basically warm them up to keep them from having to eat as much when there's not as much food, So their body undergoes a metabolic change to survive those winters. Yeah, kind of like a walking quasi hibernation, and so that they use up less fat stores that they build up in the fall. Totally pretty cool. And one thing I didn't realize about the Arctic fox, in addition to just about everything we've just said, um that they come in two colors. There's a blue variety of an Arctic fox, which is awesome. Did you see those? I think it's like that white that's so white it looks blue. Well, it's sort of a gray to um. It certainly doesn't look blue blue. So if you get excited to go see a blue animal or a blue mammal, don't get your hopes up too much. But it's you know, I have a problem. I'm not color blind or anything. But Emily always sees colors more uh and more deeply, I guess than I do. So she might see one and call it blue, but I didn't think. I mean, I see one in the Google image results, and it's pretty blue. I see the gray you're talking about as well, but it's you know, people do all sorts of cookie things with uh, you know, post production with photographs now, so who knows what they did with that? See me that blue fox? Will you sure? In a box? Sure, I'm gonna go get them, And you could go get them. Some people do keep them as pets from time to time, but those are people who live up in Arctic areas. You wouldn't want to get one and bring them down to Georgia because they would be extremely uncomfortable and that would be cruel. But also, chuck, they apparently make really terrible pets as well, right, Yeah. I think they're known as super super stinky. I think they have a urine that's it's sort of like skunk like, so they're smelly. They're very very hard to train, although they say you can train them, but they it's just it's probably not a great idea if you're for a pet. I mean, if you're living up in the Arctic, you don't have a lot of choices, Go ahead and get an Arctic fox and see what you can do. But don't don't live in Miami Beach and think you're gonna be cool and have some exotic pet, because it's illegal. A and just unethical. B Right, there you go. It covers both boxes. Should we take a break, I think we should. We'll come back with more about the Arctic fox. So what do these little boogers eat? Um? So apparently so since they're canaids, they should be carnivores um, even hyper carnivores I've seen, but they're they're technically omnivores because food supplies can get so scarce that Arctic foxes have been known to eat basically whatever will sustain them, including seaweed and berries, but typically they prefer meat. Sure, they will load up, increasing their weight by up to as that hard, hard winter sets in store up that body fat. And if you see a polar bear in the Arctic hunting, you will probably find at least one or more Arctic foxes trailing u not too far behind, because they will follow those polar bears around and get whatever little scraps that polar bear can't get to. That's right. One of the great things about Arctic foxes is they can hunt year round because of their little ears. Their ears are super wide. They're short, but they're wide, and they can actually hear stuff like some of their prey moving under the snow and so uh if you've ever seen a video of an Arctic fox pounce, it's adorable. But they will go, it's so great, and then straight down to like kind of break through the snow and land on top of their prey and catch their prey. And um, I will one up you. The Arctic fox pouncing is adorable. Momo does that to lizards, and really it makes an Arctic fox look like garbage. It's so cute, man, you see the videos. In the snow, this Arctic fox will literally leap up in the air and then half of it will disappear beneath the snow, and all you will see sticking up is a butt and rear legs and that big old fluffy tail and then they'll you know, there might be a mouse, you know, two feet down into that snow that they smelled from many many feet away. Uh. So I highly recommend. I doubt if Josh is going to post pictures or videos of Momo of doing this on YouTube, but you can find plenty of Arctic foxes doing it. I'll try to find I'll try to get a video of it actually if you can. Yeah, it's not adorable for the mice, but it is to everybody else. Yeah, but you know it's part of the food chain. It is true. So um, if you are a male Arctic fox, they call you a dog, sure, sometimes with the a W instead of an ode, depending on how good a friends you are with the person calling you that. If you're a female, what do you call chuck? Your vixen? That's awesome, which I love. And just like other foxes, I think other foxes are kits little babies if I'm not mistaken, and you know, they've made about once a year, they have about twenty they're born dark usually at first about twenty little dark kits, and they are adorable. They give birth in the blazing summer months of like a sort of spring to summer April through June, and usually wean about forty five days and sometimes their siblings will help raise them, which is also pretty cute. Yeah. And then by the time they hit nine to ten months of age, actually within six months, they're off on their own. And then in nine to ten months they're sexually mature, um, and they have a really compressed initial you know, adolescents and um initial maturation period because they don't live that long. Actually, I think in like, if you have an Arctic fox as a pet, they've been known to live ten to twelve years, kind of similar to a dog, although small dogs often live longer than that by several years. But I guess the longest anyone's ever documented an Arctic fox living is sixteen years. Yeah, and in the grand scheme of thing, I think in the wild, you're probably looking at more like eight years. Yeah. I mean it's a lot harder life in the wild, I would guess than hanging out in some some dudes leaned to in northern Canada. You know, every since we're talking about the Arctic, every time I think about the Arctic, now I think about the show of The Terror. Have you seen that show The Terror? Don't think it was an AMC show. It's available on Hulu. There were two seasons. It's an anthology series, so each season is its own, entirely different story. The second season I recommend like the first half of the first season, from start to finish, the first second to the last second. It is worth every bit of your your U interest. Oh wait a minute, this is the one you recommended to the grabster on email, right, Yes, it's so good Man just check it out. It's such It's one of the best made television shows I've ever seen. I can't imagine how much it costs to make. And you can tell. And all of the actors are like just the like every one of them is like the best actor working today. Um. But you know, and you've seen them, you recognize them here there, but you don't really know their names like that kind of stuff. It's just a really great, great show. Uh. Well, The Atlantic says The Terror is more than a chilling monster show. Yeah. Well, the reason they call it the Terror is one of the one of the ships, the Terror of the Faded Lost polar Um Expedition. That's that's what it's about, is that. And it just kind of it's all um, speculative fiction basically. Uh. And since we're on TV corner here for the last minute, Uh, we just finished the first season of Leftovers last night. Season one wrapped up, and so we're speeding right into season two. Loving the show. It started to drag a little bit, but then the last two episodes of season one got really interesting. Uh. And I wanted to also further explain I think I might have turned some people off with Station A Levin saying, it is a post pandemic flu pandemic world. Uh, it is. It is one of the best shows I've ever seen. And it's not it's not terrifying. It's like there are no infected or no zombies or anything out there waiting to kill you. Like all the infected died, So it's it's really just about repopulating and the story of these people who survived. And it's very uplifting, good good stuff I see. So it's soft core. Yeah, it's soft core. It's a Cinemax show. That's the boy. How did we get here? God bless the Arctic fox is what we're saying, Thanks Arctic Foxes. We love you guys. Uh. And of course everybody that means that short stuff is apt. Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Hey, I'm welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. We're just a couple of Foxes, Silver Foxes with our pal Jerry silver is fox of all. My hair's got a little great to it now. Yeah, your beard super gray. Now it's been gray for a while, but now I'm now that the gray is creeping into the old upstairs. I've been plucking mine, no, sure what, you don't care, do you? Mine sometimes comes in a little wiry, and I'm like, I don't really like that look on my super straight hair, so I do pull them out when they come in like that. Sure Head Pubes kind of a little bit more looked like a roadie for Tesla. Oh you mean Jimmy Head Pube Barrington, Yeah, the guitar tech. That's right. He was a great one, but his hair was messed up. I'll hit him with some smoke. That's right, man, That guy old inside joke from our Detroit show. Some of you know what, some of you don't. But we're here to talk about the Arctic fox, one of the cuter little critters on planet Earth. Right, So the Arctic fox is adorable, um, and it's uh of of in the same families dogs, which makes it automatically lovable. But the fact that they can survive in some of the most inhospitable environments on the planet, it makes them admirable. So there a adorable bowl. Okay, yeah, I got it. Nice Portmanteau, thank you. Yeah. So the Arctic fox Just go ahead, if you're in a place where you're not driving and look up a little picture of these little fellas or you're not crossing the street right now. That's right. But they are I keep saying little because they are small. Uh like foxes are small. The Arctic foxes even smaller. They can be as small as a little chihuahua and by the way, big thanks to our old pals. At how stuff works with this one. Or they can get huge, like the size of a jack russell right there. They can get up to eight pounds. That's right. So um when I said though, that they can survive in some really inhospitable environments like the areas where they live, the circumpolar areas Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Northern Europe, Russia. UM, basically in the in the Arctic, um they like they have to put up with temperatures that drop into like negative fifty degrees celsius, which is negative fifty eight degrees fahrenheit, which reminded me chuck of I can't remember what episode it was, but remember Seemo Hia the White Death. Yeah, And we talked about how he he was, um he was, you know, basically sniping Russian soldiers when it was like negative forty degrees fair fahrenheight and fifty people rode in and said, negative forty is the same in fahrenheight and celsius. I will never forget that, And I just wanted to say it again that I still remember after all these years. So remember that. Uh So, what's astounding about the Arctic fox is that it can survive in those kind of temperatures, and they can do so for a lot of reasons. There are a lot of really pretty spectacular evolutionary adaptations that allow this to happen, and one of those is just that little size. The fact that they're small, they're compact. They have little legs, a little short muzzles, and they have little small ears, so they don't have a lot of surface area to begin with exposed exposed to that cold, right, right. So that's that's one big thing. They also have the warmest coat of any Arctic animal. It has multiple layers and probably any animal wouldn't you think I would guess? So, yeah, I now that you mention it. Um, they like they can trap a layer of air which is heated by their body heat, which in turn keeps them warm. So it like protects them from the outside cold or air. It's pretty amazing. And then um, the couded gras, the death blow about their pelt is the fluffy tail on the and that they actually used to cover their head and face with when they curl up to sleep. Adorable. That is awfully adorable. It's true. They also have hair. They're the only canad that has hair over their footpads. So not only does that just add even more insulation, but it helds some walk on the snow. And then they have countercurrent blood circulation. Uh, And this is what's gonna happen. They're gonna reduce the blood flow to their feet to make sure those little paws don't get frost bitten. And then when it gets really really cold, their actual metabolism um shifts by about slower than it is during the summer to you know, to basically warm them up to keep them from having to eat as much when there's not as much food, So their body undergoes a metabolic change to survive those winters. Yeah, kind of like a walking quasi hibernation, and so that they use up less fat stores that they build up in the fall. Totally pretty cool. And one thing I didn't realize about the Arctic fox, in addition to just about everything we've just said, um that they come in two colors. There's a blue variety of an Arctic fox, which is awesome. Did you see those? I think it's like that white that's so white it looks blue. Well, it's sort of a gray to um. It certainly doesn't look blue blue. So if you get excited to go see a blue animal or a blue mammal, don't get your hopes up too much. But it's you know, I have a problem. I'm not color blind or anything. But Emily always sees colors more uh and more deeply, I guess than I do. So she might see one and call it blue, but I didn't think. I mean, I see one in the Google image results, and it's pretty blue. I see the gray you're talking about as well, but it's you know, people do all sorts of cookie things with uh, you know, post production with photographs now, so who knows what they did with that? See me that blue fox? Will you sure? In a box? Sure, I'm gonna go get them, And you could go get them. Some people do keep them as pets from time to time, but those are people who live up in Arctic areas. You wouldn't want to get one and bring them down to Georgia because they would be extremely uncomfortable and that would be cruel. But also, chuck, they apparently make really terrible pets as well, right, Yeah. I think they're known as super super stinky. I think they have a urine that's it's sort of like skunk like, so they're smelly. They're very very hard to train, although they say you can train them, but they it's just it's probably not a great idea if you're for a pet. I mean, if you're living up in the Arctic, you don't have a lot of choices, Go ahead and get an Arctic fox and see what you can do. But don't don't live in Miami Beach and think you're gonna be cool and have some exotic pet, because it's illegal. A and just unethical. B Right, there you go. It covers both boxes. Should we take a break, I think we should. We'll come back with more about the Arctic fox. So what do these little boogers eat? Um? So apparently so since they're canaids, they should be carnivores um, even hyper carnivores I've seen, but they're they're technically omnivores because food supplies can get so scarce that Arctic foxes have been known to eat basically whatever will sustain them, including seaweed and berries, but typically they prefer meat. Sure, they will load up, increasing their weight by up to as that hard, hard winter sets in store up that body fat. And if you see a polar bear in the Arctic hunting, you will probably find at least one or more Arctic foxes trailing u not too far behind, because they will follow those polar bears around and get whatever little scraps that polar bear can't get to. That's right. One of the great things about Arctic foxes is they can hunt year round because of their little ears. Their ears are super wide. They're short, but they're wide, and they can actually hear stuff like some of their prey moving under the snow and so uh if you've ever seen a video of an Arctic fox pounce, it's adorable. But they will go, it's so great, and then straight down to like kind of break through the snow and land on top of their prey and catch their prey. And um, I will one up you. The Arctic fox pouncing is adorable. Momo does that to lizards, and really it makes an Arctic fox look like garbage. It's so cute, man, you see the videos. In the snow, this Arctic fox will literally leap up in the air and then half of it will disappear beneath the snow, and all you will see sticking up is a butt and rear legs and that big old fluffy tail and then they'll you know, there might be a mouse, you know, two feet down into that snow that they smelled from many many feet away. Uh. So I highly recommend. I doubt if Josh is going to post pictures or videos of Momo of doing this on YouTube, but you can find plenty of Arctic foxes doing it. I'll try to find I'll try to get a video of it actually if you can. Yeah, it's not adorable for the mice, but it is to everybody else. Yeah, but you know it's part of the food chain. It is true. So um, if you are a male Arctic fox, they call you a dog, sure, sometimes with the a W instead of an ode, depending on how good a friends you are with the person calling you that. If you're a female, what do you call chuck? Your vixen? That's awesome, which I love. And just like other foxes, I think other foxes are kits little babies if I'm not mistaken, and you know, they've made about once a year, they have about twenty they're born dark usually at first about twenty little dark kits, and they are adorable. They give birth in the blazing summer months of like a sort of spring to summer April through June, and usually wean about forty five days and sometimes their siblings will help raise them, which is also pretty cute. Yeah. And then by the time they hit nine to ten months of age, actually within six months, they're off on their own. And then in nine to ten months they're sexually mature, um, and they have a really compressed initial you know, adolescents and um initial maturation period because they don't live that long. Actually, I think in like, if you have an Arctic fox as a pet, they've been known to live ten to twelve years, kind of similar to a dog, although small dogs often live longer than that by several years. But I guess the longest anyone's ever documented an Arctic fox living is sixteen years. Yeah, and in the grand scheme of thing, I think in the wild, you're probably looking at more like eight years. Yeah. I mean it's a lot harder life in the wild, I would guess than hanging out in some some dudes leaned to in northern Canada. You know, every since we're talking about the Arctic, every time I think about the Arctic, now I think about the show of The Terror. Have you seen that show The Terror? Don't think it was an AMC show. It's available on Hulu. There were two seasons. It's an anthology series, so each season is its own, entirely different story. The second season I recommend like the first half of the first season, from start to finish, the first second to the last second. It is worth every bit of your your U interest. Oh wait a minute, this is the one you recommended to the grabster on email, right, Yes, it's so good Man just check it out. It's such It's one of the best made television shows I've ever seen. I can't imagine how much it costs to make. And you can tell. And all of the actors are like just the like every one of them is like the best actor working today. Um. But you know, and you've seen them, you recognize them here there, but you don't really know their names like that kind of stuff. It's just a really great, great show. Uh. Well, The Atlantic says The Terror is more than a chilling monster show. Yeah. Well, the reason they call it the Terror is one of the one of the ships, the Terror of the Faded Lost polar Um Expedition. That's that's what it's about, is that. And it just kind of it's all um, speculative fiction basically. Uh. And since we're on TV corner here for the last minute, Uh, we just finished the first season of Leftovers last night. Season one wrapped up, and so we're speeding right into season two. Loving the show. It started to drag a little bit, but then the last two episodes of season one got really interesting. Uh. And I wanted to also further explain I think I might have turned some people off with Station A Levin saying, it is a post pandemic flu pandemic world. Uh, it is. It is one of the best shows I've ever seen. And it's not it's not terrifying. It's like there are no infected or no zombies or anything out there waiting to kill you. Like all the infected died, So it's it's really just about repopulating and the story of these people who survived. And it's very uplifting, good good stuff I see. So it's soft core. Yeah, it's soft core. It's a Cinemax show. That's the boy. How did we get here? God bless the Arctic fox is what we're saying, Thanks Arctic Foxes. We love you guys. Uh. And of course everybody that means that short stuff is apt. Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.