Frozen squirrels and the human brain

BBC Earth Podcast

Jenkins Laura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel, Tv & Film

4.6 • 611 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For the seventh episode of the BBC Earth Podcast, we’re bringing your stories about adaptation. Did you know, during its 8 month hibernation, the Arctic ground squirrel can survive with a core temperature of 3 degrees below freezing? Scientists have been studying this astounding little rodent’s long, cold sleep to understand whether its hibernation can help revolutionise understanding of our own brains. We also meet the ‘Lightning Bug Lady’ Lynn Faust who has studied fireflies her entire life and tells us about the beautiful display these creatures put on, when trying to attract a mate. We speak to a man who describes nature’s resurgence following the catastrophic nuclear disaster in Chernobyl and get to grips with some surprising silver linings to a human catastrophe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a podcast from BBC Studios.
0:03.9	BBC Studios. A commercial subsidiary of the BBC.
0:13.9	We wanted to film the start of spring in Alaska.
0:20.7	And Alaska is this incredible place.
0:22.4	Like, it's so extreme.
0:23.8	It's in the Arctic, a huge chunk of it.
0:26.1	Hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of nothing.
0:29.4	Satina hide, hours on end, you know, the wind's blowing underneath the tent,
0:33.9	you're freezing, you don't move, you're staring at one point.
0:37.8	It's quite a meditative process.
0:40.4	It's got to be pretty zen for however long it's going to be.
0:44.2	Welcome to the BBC Earth podcast, the podcast that's learning how to adapt to extreme conditions.
0:50.9	I'm Emily Knight.
0:52.4	We actually got a hot bath before we went out to the hides because we were heating our bones up and the whole body just so we had an extra hour where you could feel your feet because you just go completely numb. I mean, it was minus 33 at one point. I had four or five layers on legs and arms, but after a few hours it just goes. You just accept it. You're not going to feel your hands.
1:11.9	You just wave goodbye to them.
1:13.0	And then you dread the moment at which the feeling comes back
1:16.2	because it's pretty painful.
1:19.3	In this episode, we're looking at adaptation in the natural world.
1:23.5	The way animals adapt to the extraordinary environments they live in.
1:28.8	How they adapt to us,
1:33.1	and how life finds a way in the most unlikely of places.
1:36.5	You look out over this permafrost tundra,
	...

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