Too Cute To Kill

[00:00] Uh, last segment we got here is, uh, our world famous Undegoogle-able segment.
[00:06] Oh, we doing Undegoogle-ables?
[00:14] That was the play of it.
[00:15] I'm super excited.
[00:16] I told us we had to.
[00:18] So we signed up for it.
[00:21] In the end, it's going to be better and more true than Google can give you.
[00:27] Uh, Coalson, this is your baby.
[00:30] Uh, what do you got for us this week?
[00:33] I mean, it's funny, uh, Col and I were sitting around, hanging out with the rabbit.
[00:38] And, uh, she's like, what's the purpose of this, uh, bunny tail?
[00:45] Like, why, why do rabbits have little bunny tails?
[00:48] They're really cute.
[00:49] And she, you know, our rabbit Delta's got a, is all gray.
[00:53] And then underneath her tail is white.
[00:56] And, uh, you know, it's just adorable.
[00:58] And I said, you know what?
[01:00] I could Google that or I could wait until, uh, me and my friends answer it, uh,
[01:05] completely incorrectly.
[01:07] So, um, she's been forced to wait to find out the answer of what the point of a
[01:12] rabbit bunny tail is.
[01:14] I speculated at the time that, uh, cats and squirrels and chipmunks use their
[01:21] tails for balance.
[01:23] Um, but a much smaller tail doesn't seem to be as useful in balance.
[01:30] True. That would absolutely be true.
[01:32] You can't really counterweight, uh, you know, your center of mass.
[01:37] If you can't extend weight further out from your body, right?
[01:41] I mean, it may play a small role, I guess, but, uh, in balance.
[01:46] My guess is that it's a, it's a either a mating thing or a, uh, self-defense
[01:53] thing.
[01:56] How would you be self, self-defense with a little cute cotton bunny tail?
[02:01] Too cute to kill.
[02:05] Does it, does it shoot lasers?
[02:10] Uh, maybe I self, self-defense isn't a camouflage thing.
[02:14] So if you're being chased by, uh, a fox on a snowy field and your, your butt
[02:19] is white, maybe you blend into the background better or something, or you
[02:24] had some sort of optical illusion, where like if you're changing directions,
[02:28] maybe it makes it look like you're going to the left when you're actually going
[02:32] to the right, maybe? I don't know.
[02:34] That actually would be pretty effective if your body was gray, but your butt
[02:38] was white and you're chasing the white thing.
[02:43] You're being chased.
[02:44] Well, no, but if, uh, as a predator, I'm chasing the white thing, I'm,
[02:48] I'm actually kind of behind the curve, right? That makes sense, right?
[02:52] I'm chasing the white thing, but really the body is moving the other direction.
[02:55] That's pretty smart. Yeah.
[02:58] Like he's, I'm with you though, evolutionarily tails tend to be mating
[03:02] things, right? So if you're a peacock or a skunk.
[03:07] Sure.
[03:10] That's, that's mating stuff, right?
[03:12] I know some of the, uh, some of the lizards have like, you know,
[03:16] you grab their tail, it just pops off. Uh, does that happen with the rabbit?
[03:19] I haven't tried.
[03:22] This is science. Have you tested this?
[03:25] I will check it out directly.
[03:28] Okay. Just hold here while I go pull my reference.
[03:33] So I'm going to go with mostly vestigial.
[03:37] I mean, humans have tails in the womb as well, right?
[03:40] I mean, it's just, uh, I think it's largely vestigial.
[03:43] Although I do wonder the, the self defense slash camouflage thing is
[03:48] interesting to me. I wonder if they don't have glands.
[03:50] Like dogs have like anal glands.
[03:53] Um, and, and it may be that even the,
[03:56] the small tail can mask scent, which is a big thing for rabbits, right?
[04:00] Like they'll run around a tree five times and then take off someplace else.
[04:03] Like they, they definitely use scent in, in their evasive tactics.
[04:08] So there may be some utility there.
[04:10] We call it the bunny 500 around here.
[04:13] She takes tons of laps around the coffee table. She just loves it.
[04:19] Can you find her afterwards?
[04:23] We've lost her scent after that, for sure.
[04:26] I don't know. Besides that, uh, it's tiny.
[04:32] Like, yeah, exactly. It's not, uh, it's not going to throw anybody off.
[04:37] We're not going to help them with their jumping or anything like that.
[04:40] I wouldn't think.
[04:42] Oh, nailed it. According to evolutionary biologist,
[04:47] Dirk Simen of the University of Gottingen in Germany,
[04:53] the tail is not a component of sexual selection, nor is,
[04:57] is it assigned to a predator that it has been spotted.
[05:01] Rather it's a way to confuse predators during the chase.
[05:04] Interesting. Okay. To test this theory,
[05:08] Simen used a video game on a group of people which involved either a flashing,
[05:13] bright circle, the white tail,
[05:15] or a non flashing circle that blended into the background.
[05:18] The presence of the flashing circle reduced the participants,
[05:21] the participants' ability to catch it.
[05:26] So it's a, it's a defense mechanism.
[05:29] I have the distinct impression that this has not been well researched.
[05:36] He just had a, he had a couple of people in a room playing a video game,
[05:39] and that's his theory. Come on.
[05:41] It's been published yet. It was presented at a Behavior 2013 conference.
[05:47] Well, it's, he's clearly popular.
[05:49] It's not peer reviewed. It's not getting on our show, man.
[05:52] They were the rules.
[05:53] The source is nature news blogs.
[05:55] Okay. Okay.
[05:56] They're quasi legit. Yeah.
[05:58] The other thing is that they say when a rabbit or a deer,
[06:00] so deers also have white tails.
[06:02] Oh, good call.
[06:03] Executes an evasive maneuver like a sharp turn.
[06:06] The spot will suddenly disappear,
[06:08] which forces the predator to readjust its focus.
[06:11] Sure.
[06:12] For a second.
[06:13] Which would slow you down. Sure. Yeah.
[06:15] And all you need is a second if you're a, you know, prey.
[06:19] In my defense, what kind of quadrupeds don't have tails?
[06:23] Yeah. No, you make an excellent point.
[06:25] No, you're absolutely right. Humans. Okay.
[06:27] Oh no, but we're bipeds, I guess.
[06:29] Well, it depends on how many drinks I've had, but yeah.
[06:32] Sure.
[06:33] Do you count a gorilla as a, a biped or a quadruped?
[06:38] I count them as a center.
[06:44] No, we're not talking about Joel Priscilla over the nail of a gorilla.
[06:48] We're talking about the mountain gorillas.
[06:50] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. They got tail bones though, right?
[06:53] Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
[06:56] In your defense, Harper, all vertebrates, I think, have tails.
[06:59] Right.
[07:00] Or at least some sort of vestigial thing.
[07:03] Like even weeds still have a tail bone, right?
[07:07] Mm-hmm.
[07:08] Hoxics.
[07:09] The stub of a tail.
[07:11] Just wanted to know why it was cute and fluffy.
[07:14] Yeah.
[07:15] White.
[07:16] I mean, Jason, you know, there's got to be a market for this.
[07:21] So this can be your next study since...
[07:23] Yeah, exactly.
[07:24] It doesn't seem like there's anything peer reviewed on this.
[07:27] You just go ahead and change the focus of your lab like tomorrow, I've said.
[07:31] Yeah.
[07:32] And I mean, the reality is since the NIH no longer exists, you know,
[07:35] you're going to have to study something.
[07:37] Since you can't save lives anymore, let's figure out what bodies are cute.
[07:40] Sure.
[07:43] Why are buddy rabbit bodies cute?
[07:47] That's going to be your thesis.
[07:49] Just something you can publish on BuzzFeed is all we need.
[07:52] Yes, exactly.
[07:53] And I need a clickbait.
[07:54] All that matters anymore.
[07:55] It's got to go through like 20 like next buttons.
[07:58] Oh, yeah.
[07:59] Figure out why.
[08:00] I'm going to get one picture per page.
[08:02] I hate that stuff.
[08:03] Other theories floating around on message boards are that...
[08:08] Oh, message boards.
[08:09] That's where the truth is.
[08:11] Is that it's used for communication between...
[08:14] Like deers, there's a theory that deers will flick their tails up to
[08:19] communicate to other people that there is danger around.
[08:22] Or other people, other deer.
[08:27] Coalson, are you a bunny truther?
[08:31] Are you on those message boards?
[08:34] And I do not recommend asking what urban dictionary defines a bunny tail.
[08:42] I will not do that.
[08:44] I'm going to do that right now.
[08:50] Joey, what do you call a blind deer?
[08:54] Oh, I know this one.
[08:56] This is not going to a good place, Joey.
[08:58] Cut it off in the past.
[09:00] I know your first thought was this Coalson joke is going to be completely clean.
[09:06] Joey, the answer is no idea.
[09:08] Oh, okay.
[09:09] Oh, it's not that bad.
[09:10] Yeah, what is a deer with no eyes and no legs?
[09:17] No, this is going somewhere bad.
[09:21] Still no idea.
[09:24] No, I just saw a deer flick up his tail.
[09:27] That means there's danger.
[09:31] We'll end it there.
[09:33] Thank you.
[09:34] You're welcome.