Lol, Once in our society the Population of dogs had increased alot And they often gathered up against our front gate One day at like 6am my grandfather took out a military grade shotgun.......and well....lets just say the dogs never came back😅😭
16:52-16:57, Connor's absolutely right. I took an ecology course in college and in one of the lectures, the professor propped up a slide featuring a variety of endangered animals. The animals ranged from the panda, a slug, an ugly fish, a dull looking bird, a stick bug, a weird lizard, an ugly toad, etc. The professor asked the class that if you have to save or prioritize saving one which one would it be. The class overwhelming said the panda and the professor asked why and a lot of the students said cause it's cute. The professor replied back: "That's the problem. All these animals are endangered, most of them more so than the panda, yet you all choose the panda simply because it's cute."
I'm fully convinced that if humanity ever meets intelligent extraterrestrial life, we will ask three questions: Could we fuck it? Could we eat it? Could we beat it in a fight? Most likely in that order too
He forgot that they were also super low maintenance, and could survive for up to a year on the ship. You could literally stack them like crates and feed them vegetable scraps, and they would keep on trucking. And since they were big and basically 100% edible you could make a delicious stew and feed an entire crew without much waste.
@CosmicRevoltVtuber Turtles lay dozens up to hundreds of eggs, most of which do hatch. It's just a very small percentage of the offspring survive long enough to lay their own eggs.
@@Yousifzzz I'll grant you that not all giant tortoise species are extinct. But most are. That's 15,000 total tortoises of all the Galapagos tortoise species. That's also after over a hundred years of conservation when they started the total population was in the hundreds not even thousands
Fun fact: Dodo was extremely unappetizing for sailors, who would only eat them in emergency. Unless they where cooked in Giant Turtle Fat, in which case they where Delicious as well, so the only reason the Dodo went extinct is because it goes well with turtle.
Rabbits are mostly ridiculous in Australia because they don't have native predators. A few Aus predators will eat it, but they aren't necessarily good at hunting it. Becuase they don't have predators, they just breed exponentially, and eat everything around them. This is EXTRA bad for Australia, because not only do they eat the roots and disturb the top soil (which is particularly small in Australia), but because it takes a very long time for a lot of vegetation to regenerate because of the low water and nutrient content of the soil. Eventually the rabbits would either eat themselves (and everything else) to extinction, or predators would adapt to eat them more often as they become more and more common (though this would take a long time). Connor is also completely correct RE cute animals. I work on invertebrates, insects and shit, and despite being some of the most incredibly important species to ecosystem function, most people don't give two shits.
and i have to say that the giant tortoise was also the reason the dodo went extinct dodos were super easy to transport, even more so than giant tortoises, but they weren't considered tasty, but when sailors discovered that giant tortoise broth mixed with dodo meat tasted good, it was a revolution, as dodos occupied less space and less care than the giant tortoise
dodos and galapagos giant totoises are hemispeheres apart, one from the pacific side of south america and the other is from the indian ocean of the coast of africa. how the fuck would sailors from back then manage to have them both on the same ship?
Another reason for why rabbits are a problem in Australia is because it's warm throughout the year. Meaning all year-round of plentiful food and breeding.
Now I want a show where people recreate the tastes of food that we no longer can eat. And try to recreate the tastes based on how they've been described by people who got to eat the real thing.
@@LuringSuting Okay, I feel I should clarify that he isn't making stuff that's impossible to eat in modern times, he's just cooking very old recipes we don't use any more. Still very interesting though!
@@joshuahogberg1212 YESSSS! Mah man!!! 😤Tho he kinda chickened out of those old recipes that requires a whole lotta near extinct species . The pie one with a bird wrapped into another bird and then another bird, ad nauseum, was legendary af! 🤣
Also keep in mind, this was back in the day when voyages could take months, if not years. There were probably plenty of instances where the sailors had to choose between eating the tortoise or starving.
The 17th-century English pirate, explorer, and naturalist William Dampier wrote, "They are so extraordinarily large and fat, and so sweet, that no pullet eats more pleasantly,"[133] while Captain James Colnett of the Royal Navy wrote of "the land tortoise which in whatever way it was dressed, was considered by all of us as the most delicious food we had ever tasted."[134] US Navy captain David Porter declared, "after once tasting the Galapagos tortoises, every other animal food fell off greatly in our estimation ... The meat of this animal is the easiest of digestion, and a quantity of it, exceeding that of any other food, can be eaten without experiencing the slightest of inconvenience."[104] Darwin was less enthusiastic about the meat, writing "the breast-plate roasted (as the Gauchos do "carne con cuero"), with the flesh on it, is very good; and the young tortoises make excellent soup; but otherwise the meat to my taste is indifferent."[135] In the 17th century, pirates started to use the Galápagos Islands as a base for resupply, restocking on food and water, and repairing vessels before attacking Spanish colonies on the South American mainland. However, the Galápagos tortoises did not struggle for survival at this point because the islands were distant from busy shipping routes and harboured few valuable natural resources. As such, they remained unclaimed by any nation, uninhabited and uncharted. In comparison, the tortoises of the islands in the Indian Ocean were already facing extinction by the late 17th century.[136] Between the 1790s and the 1860s, whaling ships and fur sealers systematically collected tortoises in far greater numbers than the buccaneers preceding them.[137] Some were used for food and many more were killed for high-grade "turtle oil" from the late 19th century onward for lucrative sale to continental Ecuador.[138] A total of over 13,000 tortoises is recorded in the logs of whaling ships between 1831 and 1868, and an estimated 100,000 were taken before 1830.[132] Since it was easiest to collect tortoises around coastal zones, females were most vulnerable to depletion during the nesting season. The collection by whalers came to a halt eventually through a combination of the scarcity of tortoises that they had created and the competition from crude oil as a cheaper energy source.[139] Galápagos tortoise exploitation dramatically increased with the onset of the California Gold Rush in 1849.[140] Tortoises and sea turtles were imported into San Francisco, Sacramento and various other Gold Rush towns throughout Alta California to feed the gold mining population. Galápagos tortoise and sea turtle bones were also recovered from the Gold Rush-era archaeological site, Thompson's Cove (CA-SFR-186H), in San Francisco, California.[141] Population decline accelerated with the early settlement of the islands in the early 19th century, leading to unregulated hunting for meat, habitat clearance for agriculture, and the introduction of alien mammal subspecies.[42] Feral pigs, dogs, cats, and black rats have become predators of eggs and young tortoises, whilst goats, donkeys, and cattle compete for grazing and trample nest sites. The extinction of the Floreana subspecies in the mid-19th century has been attributed to the combined pressures of hunting for the penal colony on the relatively small island, the conversion of the grazing highlands into land for farming and fruit plantations, and the introduction of feral mammals.[142] Scientific collection expeditions took 661 tortoises between 1888 and 1930, and more than 120 tortoises have been taken by poachers since 1990. Threats continue today with the rapid expansion of the tourist industry and increasing size of human settlements on the islands.[143] The tortoises are down from 15 different types of subspecies when Darwin first arrived to the current 11 subspecies.[144]
I remember watching a documentary called Meerkat Manor and not only are those little things tough as hell, but insanely savage. The Dominant Female (the alpha) of their family can literally eat the litter of any female that isn’t her own. And then she’ll beat the hell out of subordinate females and chase them off. Nature is crazy. And as a 9 year old I never looked at Timon the same again
I'm studying to be a restoration ecologist and, for the most part, everything Conner said was pretty accurate. They also talked about species going extinct naturally (which is true its call the background extinction rate). Unfortunately our current extinction rate (according to my professors and the scientific papers they've read) is close to 1000x higher then that natural rate. Meaning that for every natural extinction that would happen naturally, 1000 species are instead going extinct. The cause of these extinctions have also been studied and have been directly correlated to humans either through overharvesting, overhunting, habitat loss, introduction of invasive species, etc.
But I always have the question of, aren't we looking at from an outsider look? Like we are also a part of the world and we are also a species. So isn't what we are doing also part of natural selection and extinction? Think about an Alien looking at earth. For them, it is also a natural phenomenon... A species improves and becomes soo good at milking the planet.
@@newbie4789 Thats a good and commendable question. (Personal thoughts) We label it as “natural extinction” and “artificial extinction” because the greater humanity likes to think of ourselves as somehow not connected to the rest of the world and ecosystem. I don’t agree, we’re all animals at the end of the day even though we are far removed from the conventional “wild animal.” If aliens looked down on us, we’d be just another animal but a bit more “special.” So why differentiate it? Throughout all of the Earth’s existence and as long as life has existed, life and death occur and it leads to evolution through survival of the fittest. This never happens immediately and often requires adaptable aspects of species to slowly evolve over 10,000-100,000 yrs minimum for a species to fully adapt to its ecosystem. Extinction occurs when that species can’t adapt and dies out. Humans as a species looks like a massive hurdle for nearly every species on Earth due to our rapidly changing of species’ habitat, size, location, obstacles, hunting, new species they weren’t evolved to guard against, etc and when looking at it from an objective point of view. Humans are creating the worlds 6th mass extinction due to all of these species being unable to adapt to “our ecosystem.” Some don’t care and think its natural only because were humans and we deserve to pillage this earth only for ourselves and ruin it for for everything else because we’re *special*. I don’t want to think of myself as letting this mass extinction happen without at least trying to help prevent it. I don’t think one person deserves to decide the fate of whether a species, human, another animal, or other gets to survive or perish because they weren’t “good enough.” Though again this is just my own justification for my beliefs and my personal opinion to your question. Every human deserves to have their own opinion but i believe every animal in existence today deserves the right to at least exist. This doesn’t cover my full thoughts and if you have any more questions feel free to ask, I’ll try to respond!
@@SoullarSkye oh wow. You are actually interested in meaningful conversation.... Rare to find in RUclips comments. I actually agree with the idea that it is a positive thing for humans to actually take actions to protect other species. But I still consider it as a natural phenomenon rather than something us humans are doing to "animals". No species on earth is selfless enough to serve another species. Everyone is there to survive and exist. Humans just happened to have the perfect skills to exploit many more energy sources and resources for the benefit of their species. And it's the very same Humans who developed themselves to a point where they can identify their own impact on nature (self awareness) and think about doing something to protect other species. And it IS a selfish act too... Humans improved their moral values and they're now trying to protect other species for moral satisfaction. my point is that nothing Humans ever did us outside of what was natural. Humans themselves are natural creations and whatever is the future of this mass extinction or global warming is, it is also a natural phenomenon. That's Why I consider the protection of nature and other species as a part of human evolution and their own drive for Survival and improvement in the long term. It's still us competing in the natural progression. Ik it sounds super philosophical and meta , but it's fun to think this way and I just wanted to share it to someone who might be interested in it
the worst thing about the giant tortoise was they stack perfectly on each other, they werent roaming around on the ship, they were on stacks of 5 on top of each other to save space as well
Just to clear something up: Giant tortoises as a whole aren't extinct. Only 3 out of 15 subspecies. The ones on the Galapagos Isles are a protected species, which Connor would’ve known if he watched the QI clip. Stephen did say “They are now protected!”.
@@inatus_s Exactly. Though it would be hard to get a restaurant chain going, since the Galapagos isles would probably hog all the tasty tortoises for themselves. The greedy hoarders…
Bro do you know th3 giant tortoise was gonna be extinct but to male and 50 female single handedly brought their status back to endangered by breeding and producing 1200 offspring
That explains much of that viral boxing 'match' between a man vs a kangaroo, when right before that the 'roo was putting the man' s dog in a choke hold.
As someone who's majored in biology and especially knowledgeable in evolutionary biology, it was really interesting trying to see Connor explain these concepts
So the thing with Panda’s is they don’t breed in captivity. They do fine breeding in the wild where they have space, they just don’t do it in enclosures.
It might be a different genus (?), because you might be thinking of the Galapagos Tortoise. I saw a video of them being taken care of last year, so they're still around.
@@eveakane6563 I tried googling it and that's what it told me so either I'm stupid and misread it or the google results are wrong. Could be either one honestly because they've both happened to me lol
I've never heard of the giant tortoise becoming extinct before either, only that they were at one point very nearly extinct. Like the other guy said, the one Connor is talking might be a different species/specific version of the Galapagos tortoise or he's just misremembering.
So as far as my brief research went, (solely a quick Wikipedia read) there are 15 different species regarding the Giant tortoise and of those 2 are already extinct. The first is Floreana Island giant tortoise, with this tortoise Darwin had to go out of his way to see 1 in person, in 1835, since it was consumed for food by sailors and the natives(?) Of the area. After a while he then stated that there were no more to be found. The second was the Abingdon Island tortoise, and the last member of this sub-species dies in 2012. And while this tortoise was also heavily consumed by whalers and fishermen it was not thought to be extinct until recently with the last known member.
Feral cats are also INCREDIBLY invasive nearly everywhere. So many people just think "aww, but it's a cat!" meanwhile all the native birds, rodents and reptiles are dying out because of them :")
Australia responding to an invasive species: "We should import another species to combat them" The new and old invasive species rising at the same rate and fucking Australia further: "We are brothers, bound eternally"
People in Australia feeling bad for killing rabbits... meanwhile in my country we eat rabbit as a very tasty meat xDD It's delicious and actually a very nutritious kind of meat!
5:14 Did Garnt not learn about invasive species? Usually, when a new species is introduced to an ecosystem, the usual thing goes (if they don't die), is that they eat what they want to eat, which causes a problem for the native species who also want to eat the samething and theres a limited number of food. They also don't have predators in the new place. So they thrive way better in the new land than the old.
The giant tortoise story reminded me of how Coelacanth survives in Indonesian sea... Because they're tasted bad so fishermen will just throw them back.
In the Elden Ring alpha test, the “Turtle Neck Meat” used to have a description (that was removed in the official game) that said, “this meat used to be a delicacy as it can boosts one’s virility”. I mean… Add that to the billion reasons why these giant tortoises were eaten so much
Connor: People don't want to get rid of cats. Well despite our sentimental value to t hem, we also tried that during the middle ages, and then the black plague broke out because there were no cats to eat the rats...
Connor: "pretty strong for a herbivore" Elephants, Rhinos and Buffalo: "Are we a joke to you?" Not including Hippos because -I think- they're omnivores
I love that QI is getting a shout-out, and even when it doesn't, I can recognize some of the facts as having come from it. In fact, after watching this clip, the QI segment about the Giant Tortoise has been recommended to me, that's progress.
I've got a theory that I made up at 2 am. What if the giant tortoise went exctinct because time travelers went back and just started stealing tortoises for how delicious it was? And technically helped with the reappereance of the species in the future but for still the same reason, for basically its incredibile taste
a person with 10 rabbits at home are probably educated about animals and understand why the ecosystem needs to be protected. While the people protesting are the Karen’s home this is wrong they’re cute
@@defalttheloner “I found glowcap mushrooms, Doc. How do they taste?” “Well, Snake, my field guide says they’re _pretty good_ , and that they might even help you with your energy need-“ “So they’ll charge my batteries?” “What?”
@@tlshortyshorty5810 " Para-Medic! " " What's up? " " You were right ! " " About what? " "I ate a Russian Glowcap and it charged up my batteries." " Huh!?" " What's wrong? " " I, uh... that's... that's great! Um, Snake, could you excuse me for a second? " " Sure. " * Distant voices * " Did you just hear that? " " Yeah. There's no way eating a bioluminescent mushroom would cause your batteries to recharge " " What do you think it means? " " Beats me... maybe it's all in his mind. "
What a funny coincidence that after binge watching dungeon meshi this pops out in my recommendations it feels like the internet is telling me something
Back in 2010 rabbits in the UK was a problem. And back in 2021 the rabbit population was decimated and needed "rabbit hotels". They were introduced by Romans.
So, when RUclips eventually crashes and burns I guess Connor will be going on to a successful career as David Attenborough’s replacement. I’m enjoying all his animal facts!
I felt really bad for the giant tortoises coz nature makes them evolve in the most unfortunate ways possible (in a good way) tho i do wonder how delicious the tortoises are
them talking about the tortoise evolving into a perfect food reminds me to a short horror comic that was about aliens accelerating humans evolution to become thier food
Was it that comic where humans become evolved that when you press a button on it we become food or something? It starts with the aliens starting a lecture on human evolution or something
As someone who raised rabbits for food rabbits can eat their young but also are really funny cause the guy when done just kinda…falls over for a second
The issues with introduced species like Rabbits, Goats, Boar, and (in the Northern Territory) Wild Water Buffalo, is that when they are introduced to countries like Australia, there is not a native predator to keep them in check. The British also introduced Foxes to Australia, they had hoped that bringing Foxes to Australia would keep the Rabbit problem in check, however, Rabbits are difficult to for Foxes to catch, so why would the Fox spend a lot of time and energy trying to catch a Rabbit, when it could catch native wildlife (rodents, birds, insects, frogs, snakes) instead? The Fox isn't going to hunt prey that is harder to catch. Just to clarify, Rabbits only eat their children when they are highly stressed and have come to the conclusion that the warren is in critical danger.
Little did they know, that a year or so later scientist would be able to clone old mammoth cells. And the very first thing they did with it, was turn it into a meatball.
Rabbits are a menace. I live in a place where rabbits are native and rabbits in the wild are just pure menace. You have to go out of way to get specific fences for a garden that are rabbit proof. Burying the fence in the ground a bit too.
As an ecologist, Connor actually does a pretty good job at explaining the rabbit thing.
Same job and thought exact same, was on the edge of my seat hoping he'd explain it well 😅
Oh man, you're almost a zesty zoologist
Lol,
Once in our society the Population of dogs had increased alot
And they often gathered up against our front gate
One day at like 6am my grandfather took out a military grade shotgun.......and well....lets just say the dogs never came back😅😭
@@Captain-Blunt. WTF?
Now I'm traumatized.
Surprised Joey didn’t mention myxomatosis. Weird how they named a disease after a Radiohead song. 🤔
16:52-16:57, Connor's absolutely right. I took an ecology course in college and in one of the lectures, the professor propped up a slide featuring a variety of endangered animals. The animals ranged from the panda, a slug, an ugly fish, a dull looking bird, a stick bug, a weird lizard, an ugly toad, etc. The professor asked the class that if you have to save or prioritize saving one which one would it be. The class overwhelming said the panda and the professor asked why and a lot of the students said cause it's cute. The professor replied back: "That's the problem. All these animals are endangered, most of them more so than the panda, yet you all choose the panda simply because it's cute."
That's why I wanted to just get the pandas killed. They're useless.
I'd choose to save the bird. I like birds. But it'd depend on how weird the lizard looks.
Damn that's so sad.
Lizards are fuking cool tho
this says a lot about society
I'm fully convinced that if humanity ever meets intelligent extraterrestrial life, we will ask three questions:
Could we fuck it?
Could we eat it?
Could we beat it in a fight?
Most likely in that order too
YEZ
Horny, hungry, and angry. The three emotions.
That's just how life works I guess
I'm already planning how I'm gonna do number 1
This says a lot about society...
He forgot that they were also super low maintenance, and could survive for up to a year on the ship. You could literally stack them like crates and feed them vegetable scraps, and they would keep on trucking. And since they were big and basically 100% edible you could make a delicious stew and feed an entire crew without much waste.
"Stack like crates" That's so sad but funny sounding.
There was also a problem with rodents and or cats that near enough wiped out a native population of animals in New Zealand.
@CosmicRevoltVtuber very... slowly... apparently they start breeding at 20 years of age
@CosmicRevoltVtuber Turtles lay dozens up to hundreds of eggs, most of which do hatch. It's just a very small percentage of the offspring survive long enough to lay their own eggs.
@CosmicRevoltVtuber to put that into perspective
Elephants take between 10 to 15 years before they can start breeding
I'm always furious when I learn an extinct animal is in fact delicious
How dare those sailors not save any for me
Those selfish MFs
They aren’t extinct, there’s only 235,000 less there was before.
@@Yousifzzz Which just so happened to be all of them
@@johnwhite1534 there’s still 15,00 left
@@Yousifzzz I'll grant you that not all giant tortoise species are extinct. But most are. That's 15,000 total tortoises of all the Galapagos tortoise species. That's also after over a hundred years of conservation when they started the total population was in the hundreds not even thousands
Fun fact: Dodo was extremely unappetizing for sailors, who would only eat them in emergency. Unless they where cooked in Giant Turtle Fat, in which case they where Delicious as well, so the only reason the Dodo went extinct is because it goes well with turtle.
Partially. Most of them actually got hunted by dogs and pigs introduced to Madagascar
@@starman6468 the rats mostly killed their eggs and the dodo wasn’t from Madagascar, it was from Mauritius
@@Entety303 that.I often get them confused
these turtles man...
WTF 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Turtles not only ended up killing themselves, the killed others too
Rabbits are mostly ridiculous in Australia because they don't have native predators. A few Aus predators will eat it, but they aren't necessarily good at hunting it. Becuase they don't have predators, they just breed exponentially, and eat everything around them. This is EXTRA bad for Australia, because not only do they eat the roots and disturb the top soil (which is particularly small in Australia), but because it takes a very long time for a lot of vegetation to regenerate because of the low water and nutrient content of the soil. Eventually the rabbits would either eat themselves (and everything else) to extinction, or predators would adapt to eat them more often as they become more and more common (though this would take a long time).
Connor is also completely correct RE cute animals. I work on invertebrates, insects and shit, and despite being some of the most incredibly important species to ecosystem function, most people don't give two shits.
Damn, Re: Zero doeant seems that out of reach
@@Travelling_Heart15 Cute rabbits to eat, but someday will try to eat you back as self-defense. Gluttony is sure scary.
Can you explain what kind of work you do? I am curious.
and i have to say that the giant tortoise was also the reason the dodo went extinct
dodos were super easy to transport, even more so than giant tortoises, but they weren't considered tasty, but when sailors discovered that giant tortoise broth mixed with dodo meat tasted good, it was a revolution, as dodos occupied less space and less care than the giant tortoise
Dodos we're killed off by rats and pigs brought to the island.
So they were like tofu.
i was thinking this as well while watching. kinda makes me wonder how it tasted.
dodos and galapagos giant totoises are hemispeheres apart, one from the pacific side of south america and the other is from the indian ocean of the coast of africa. how the fuck would sailors from back then manage to have them both on the same ship?
@@fikrihaikal837tortoise were capable of living up to a year so they had more than enough time
As if it wasn’t already a complete meal, it also comes with it’s own bowl
😂😂
Another reason for why rabbits are a problem in Australia is because it's warm throughout the year. Meaning all year-round of plentiful food and breeding.
Pretty much. Australia is easy mode for animals that evolved with a winter
Cats aswell
We also have a lot more space for farms
Why don’t they hunt them for food?
@@phantompop3192 They do. They just breed faster than they can be wiped out.
Now I want a show where people recreate the tastes of food that we no longer can eat. And try to recreate the tastes based on how they've been described by people who got to eat the real thing.
Oh, you mean like "Tasting History with Max Miller"?
@@joshuahogberg1212 Well I know what I'm gonna binge watch now. Thank you!
@@LuringSuting Okay, I feel I should clarify that he isn't making stuff that's impossible to eat in modern times, he's just cooking very old recipes we don't use any more. Still very interesting though!
@@joshuahogberg1212 YESSSS! Mah man!!! 😤Tho he kinda chickened out of those old recipes that requires a whole lotta near extinct species . The pie one with a bird wrapped into another bird and then another bird, ad nauseum, was legendary af! 🤣
Also keep in mind, this was back in the day when voyages could take months, if not years. There were probably plenty of instances where the sailors had to choose between eating the tortoise or starving.
Damn... The Monke knowing SO MUCH about wildlife is F'ing hilarious to me
The 17th-century English pirate, explorer, and naturalist William Dampier wrote, "They are so extraordinarily large and fat, and so sweet, that no pullet eats more pleasantly,"[133] while Captain James Colnett of the Royal Navy wrote of "the land tortoise which in whatever way it was dressed, was considered by all of us as the most delicious food we had ever tasted."[134] US Navy captain David Porter declared, "after once tasting the Galapagos tortoises, every other animal food fell off greatly in our estimation ... The meat of this animal is the easiest of digestion, and a quantity of it, exceeding that of any other food, can be eaten without experiencing the slightest of inconvenience."[104] Darwin was less enthusiastic about the meat, writing "the breast-plate roasted (as the Gauchos do "carne con cuero"), with the flesh on it, is very good; and the young tortoises make excellent soup; but otherwise the meat to my taste is indifferent."[135]
In the 17th century, pirates started to use the Galápagos Islands as a base for resupply, restocking on food and water, and repairing vessels before attacking Spanish colonies on the South American mainland. However, the Galápagos tortoises did not struggle for survival at this point because the islands were distant from busy shipping routes and harboured few valuable natural resources. As such, they remained unclaimed by any nation, uninhabited and uncharted. In comparison, the tortoises of the islands in the Indian Ocean were already facing extinction by the late 17th century.[136] Between the 1790s and the 1860s, whaling ships and fur sealers systematically collected tortoises in far greater numbers than the buccaneers preceding them.[137] Some were used for food and many more were killed for high-grade "turtle oil" from the late 19th century onward for lucrative sale to continental Ecuador.[138] A total of over 13,000 tortoises is recorded in the logs of whaling ships between 1831 and 1868, and an estimated 100,000 were taken before 1830.[132] Since it was easiest to collect tortoises around coastal zones, females were most vulnerable to depletion during the nesting season. The collection by whalers came to a halt eventually through a combination of the scarcity of tortoises that they had created and the competition from crude oil as a cheaper energy source.[139]
Galápagos tortoise exploitation dramatically increased with the onset of the California Gold Rush in 1849.[140] Tortoises and sea turtles were imported into San Francisco, Sacramento and various other Gold Rush towns throughout Alta California to feed the gold mining population. Galápagos tortoise and sea turtle bones were also recovered from the Gold Rush-era archaeological site, Thompson's Cove (CA-SFR-186H), in San Francisco, California.[141]
Population decline accelerated with the early settlement of the islands in the early 19th century, leading to unregulated hunting for meat, habitat clearance for agriculture, and the introduction of alien mammal subspecies.[42] Feral pigs, dogs, cats, and black rats have become predators of eggs and young tortoises, whilst goats, donkeys, and cattle compete for grazing and trample nest sites. The extinction of the Floreana subspecies in the mid-19th century has been attributed to the combined pressures of hunting for the penal colony on the relatively small island, the conversion of the grazing highlands into land for farming and fruit plantations, and the introduction of feral mammals.[142]
Scientific collection expeditions took 661 tortoises between 1888 and 1930, and more than 120 tortoises have been taken by poachers since 1990. Threats continue today with the rapid expansion of the tourist industry and increasing size of human settlements on the islands.[143] The tortoises are down from 15 different types of subspecies when Darwin first arrived to the current 11 subspecies.[144]
Bro came in with citation😮
I remember watching a documentary called Meerkat Manor and not only are those little things tough as hell, but insanely savage.
The Dominant Female (the alpha) of their family can literally eat the litter of any female that isn’t her own. And then she’ll beat the hell out of subordinate females and chase them off. Nature is crazy.
And as a 9 year old I never looked at Timon the same again
Zebras will do the same to other children that's not theirs.
@@benjaminramsey498 same question
But timon a dude
I'm studying to be a restoration ecologist and, for the most part, everything Conner said was pretty accurate. They also talked about species going extinct naturally (which is true its call the background extinction rate). Unfortunately our current extinction rate (according to my professors and the scientific papers they've read) is close to 1000x higher then that natural rate. Meaning that for every natural extinction that would happen naturally, 1000 species are instead going extinct. The cause of these extinctions have also been studied and have been directly correlated to humans either through overharvesting, overhunting, habitat loss, introduction of invasive species, etc.
But I always have the question of, aren't we looking at from an outsider look? Like we are also a part of the world and we are also a species. So isn't what we are doing also part of natural selection and extinction?
Think about an Alien looking at earth. For them, it is also a natural phenomenon... A species improves and becomes soo good at milking the planet.
@@newbie4789 Thats a good and commendable question.
(Personal thoughts) We label it as “natural extinction” and “artificial extinction” because the greater humanity likes to think of ourselves as somehow not connected to the rest of the world and ecosystem. I don’t agree, we’re all animals at the end of the day even though we are far removed from the conventional “wild animal.” If aliens looked down on us, we’d be just another animal but a bit more “special.”
So why differentiate it? Throughout all of the Earth’s existence and as long as life has existed, life and death occur and it leads to evolution through survival of the fittest. This never happens immediately and often requires adaptable aspects of species to slowly evolve over 10,000-100,000 yrs minimum for a species to fully adapt to its ecosystem. Extinction occurs when that species can’t adapt and dies out. Humans as a species looks like a massive hurdle for nearly every species on Earth due to our rapidly changing of species’ habitat, size, location, obstacles, hunting, new species they weren’t evolved to guard against, etc and when looking at it from an objective point of view. Humans are creating the worlds 6th mass extinction due to all of these species being unable to adapt to “our ecosystem.” Some don’t care and think its natural only because were humans and we deserve to pillage this earth only for ourselves and ruin it for for everything else because we’re *special*. I don’t want to think of myself as letting this mass extinction happen without at least trying to help prevent it. I don’t think one person deserves to decide the fate of whether a species, human, another animal, or other gets to survive or perish because they weren’t “good enough.” Though again this is just my own justification for my beliefs and my personal opinion to your question. Every human deserves to have their own opinion but i believe every animal in existence today deserves the right to at least exist.
This doesn’t cover my full thoughts and if you have any more questions feel free to ask, I’ll try to respond!
@@SoullarSkye oh wow. You are actually interested in meaningful conversation.... Rare to find in RUclips comments.
I actually agree with the idea that it is a positive thing for humans to actually take actions to protect other species. But I still consider it as a natural phenomenon rather than something us humans are doing to "animals". No species on earth is selfless enough to serve another species. Everyone is there to survive and exist. Humans just happened to have the perfect skills to exploit many more energy sources and resources for the benefit of their species. And it's the very same Humans who developed themselves to a point where they can identify their own impact on nature (self awareness) and think about doing something to protect other species. And it IS a selfish act too... Humans improved their moral values and they're now trying to protect other species for moral satisfaction.
my point is that nothing Humans ever did us outside of what was natural. Humans themselves are natural creations and whatever is the future of this mass extinction or global warming is, it is also a natural phenomenon.
That's Why I consider the protection of nature and other species as a part of human evolution and their own drive for Survival and improvement in the long term. It's still us competing in the natural progression.
Ik it sounds super philosophical and meta , but it's fun to think this way and I just wanted to share it to someone who might be interested in it
the worst thing about the giant tortoise was they stack perfectly on each other, they werent roaming around on the ship, they were on stacks of 5 on top of each other to save space as well
Just to clear something up: Giant tortoises as a whole aren't extinct. Only 3 out of 15 subspecies. The ones on the Galapagos Isles are a protected species, which Connor would’ve known if he watched the QI clip. Stephen did say “They are now protected!”.
The one Forrest Galante discovered?
If i cant eat them, they are extinct for me.
...so you are telling me, if we as a collective breed the tortoise until they are abundant enough, we might be able to eat it?
@@inatus_s Exactly. Though it would be hard to get a restaurant chain going, since the Galapagos isles would probably hog all the tasty tortoises for themselves. The greedy hoarders…
Bro do you know th3 giant tortoise was gonna be extinct but to male and 50 female single handedly brought their status back to endangered by breeding and producing 1200 offspring
Because of dingoes kangaroos hate and try to kill anything that is similar to canines. The same applies to donkeys.
That explains much of that viral boxing 'match' between a man vs a kangaroo, when right before that the 'roo was putting the man' s dog in a choke hold.
It's the pringles of animals.
"I'll just have ONE more.."
1:19 Joey reenact the kangaroo reaction after a punch "wtf" is the hilarious part.
*hits blunt*
"What Did The Extinct Giant Tortoise REALLY Taste Like??"
Finally, a food segment where all the boys agree
As someone who's majored in biology and especially knowledgeable in evolutionary biology, it was really interesting trying to see Connor explain these concepts
And how did he do it?
So the thing with Panda’s is they don’t breed in captivity. They do fine breeding in the wild where they have space, they just don’t do it in enclosures.
apparently the giant tortoise is almost nearly extinct, but they're extremely slowly increasing the population
It might be a different genus (?), because you might be thinking of the Galapagos Tortoise.
I saw a video of them being taken care of last year, so they're still around.
@@eveakane6563 I tried googling it and that's what it told me so either I'm stupid and misread it or the google results are wrong. Could be either one honestly because they've both happened to me lol
There's a lot of mix up given that popular searches affect the result.
I've never heard of the giant tortoise becoming extinct before either, only that they were at one point very nearly extinct. Like the other guy said, the one Connor is talking might be a different species/specific version of the Galapagos tortoise or he's just misremembering.
So as far as my brief research went, (solely a quick Wikipedia read) there are 15 different species regarding the Giant tortoise and of those 2 are already extinct.
The first is Floreana Island giant tortoise, with this tortoise Darwin had to go out of his way to see 1 in person, in 1835, since it was consumed for food by sailors and the natives(?) Of the area. After a while he then stated that there were no more to be found.
The second was the Abingdon Island tortoise, and the last member of this sub-species dies in 2012. And while this tortoise was also heavily consumed by whalers and fishermen it was not thought to be extinct until recently with the last known member.
This shit is one the best segments from entire podcast as a series
15:05
That is actually kind of what happened. They recently tried recreating a mammoth meatball.
So impressed with how well Connor explained rabbits and ecology here...
There's a LOT of predators that eat rabbits in the UK.
The tortoise part is one funniest tangents they've ever recorded
Feral cats are also INCREDIBLY invasive nearly everywhere. So many people just think "aww, but it's a cat!" meanwhile all the native birds, rodents and reptiles are dying out because of them :")
oh wait connor mentions that oops
Australia responding to an invasive species:
"We should import another species to combat them"
The new and old invasive species rising at the same rate and fucking Australia further:
"We are brothers, bound eternally"
Toads fucking suck.
People in Australia feeling bad for killing rabbits... meanwhile in my country we eat rabbit as a very tasty meat xDD It's delicious and actually a very nutritious kind of meat!
5:14 Did Garnt not learn about invasive species?
Usually, when a new species is introduced to an ecosystem, the usual thing goes (if they don't die), is that they eat what they want to eat, which causes a problem for the native species who also want to eat the samething and theres a limited number of food. They also don't have predators in the new place. So they thrive way better in the new land than the old.
The more I learn about pandas the more I just go "fuck em, just let em die"
The giant tortoise story reminded me of how Coelacanth survives in Indonesian sea... Because they're tasted bad so fishermen will just throw them back.
Adaptive radiaton is the phenomenon. This allows the members of one species to exploit numerous different lifestyles, or 'niches
In the Elden Ring alpha test, the “Turtle Neck Meat” used to have a description (that was removed in the official game) that said, “this meat used to be a delicacy as it can boosts one’s virility”. I mean… Add that to the billion reasons why these giant tortoises were eaten so much
The clip is finally here I've been rewartching this for a while now in the main channel it's so funny xD
I'm waiting for Connor to start saying "Jamie could you pull that up"
Connor feels soo smart in this segment like goddamn
🤣
All this rabbit talk was giving me nightmare flashbacks about Re:Zero and Subaru's introduction to The Great Rabbit.
Connor: People don't want to get rid of cats.
Well despite our sentimental value to t hem, we also tried that during the middle ages, and then the black plague broke out because there were no cats to eat the rats...
The sailors on those boats were staring at those tortoises like Squidward and SpongeBob stared at the Krusty Krab Pizza
Connor: "pretty strong for a herbivore"
Elephants, Rhinos and Buffalo: "Are we a joke to you?"
Not including Hippos because -I think- they're omnivores
Yeah iirc hippos are more of a "if it's on my mouth I'm going to eat it animal
not only are hippos omnivores they are also cannibals. There is actual video evidence of this. Wild stuff
I love that QI is getting a shout-out, and even when it doesn't, I can recognize some of the facts as having come from it. In fact, after watching this clip, the QI segment about the Giant Tortoise has been recommended to me, that's progress.
The way Connor pronounces “Tortoise” 😂💀
I've got a theory that I made up at 2 am. What if the giant tortoise went exctinct because time travelers went back and just started stealing tortoises for how delicious it was? And technically helped with the reappereance of the species in the future but for still the same reason, for basically its incredibile taste
The thought of time travelers travelling back in time to try the tortoises crossed my mind too 😂
@@Ash_Wen-li this can be incorporated into the dark timeline
You could say that about Dodo or whatever too
a person with 10 rabbits at home are probably educated about animals and understand why the ecosystem needs to be protected. While the people protesting are the Karen’s home this is wrong they’re cute
As you were talking about cats my cat stated making suspicious noises, I don’t know what she’s up to but she’s definitely currently being a nuisance😂
👀
I'm sad nobody said "Let's crack open a cold tortoise with the boys"
Connor is just like Snake in Metal Gear 3.
" But doc...how does it taste? "
" ....The book says that the crocodile is fine "
“How does the horse t-“
“Snake wtf is wrong with you you’re not eating a horse”
@@tlshortyshorty5810 " I know...but how does it taste? "
@@defalttheloner “I found glowcap mushrooms, Doc. How do they taste?”
“Well, Snake, my field guide says they’re _pretty good_ , and that they might even help you with your energy need-“
“So they’ll charge my batteries?”
“What?”
@@tlshortyshorty5810
" Para-Medic! "
" What's up? "
" You were right ! "
" About what? "
"I ate a Russian Glowcap and it charged up my batteries."
" Huh!?"
" What's wrong? "
" I, uh... that's... that's great! Um, Snake, could you excuse me for a second? "
" Sure. "
* Distant voices *
" Did you just hear that? "
" Yeah. There's no way eating a bioluminescent mushroom would cause your batteries to recharge "
" What do you think it means? "
" Beats me... maybe it's all in his mind. "
@@defalttheloner ayyye there’s the actual script
If you serch up "what does giant tortoise taste like" this clip comes up lmao
What a funny coincidence that after binge watching dungeon meshi this pops out in my recommendations it feels like the internet is telling me something
Never looked at a tortoise and thought "Damn wonder what this tortoise taste like"
17:00 only one occasion where this happened to me, funnily enough it was a youtube advert and it was a charity towards donkeys
Taking "looking like a snack" to the next level
Apparently they found the tortoise in Galapagos, it wasn't extinct.
Suddently the addition to turtles in Elden Ring makes more sense!
Dude in the video: around 1,80 to 1,85
Kangaroo: Shorter than the man
Joey: "This 2 m tall kangaroo"
Pandas are trying to do what Zeke couldn't, somewhere out there is the Panda beast titan
I like the idea that if we ever revived the giant tortoise and cloned it, the scientists would just eat it.
Back in 2010 rabbits in the UK was a problem. And back in 2021 the rabbit population was decimated and needed "rabbit hotels". They were introduced by Romans.
So, when RUclips eventually crashes and burns I guess Connor will be going on to a successful career as David Attenborough’s replacement. I’m enjoying all his animal facts!
I felt really bad for the giant tortoises coz nature makes them evolve in the most unfortunate ways possible (in a good way) tho i do wonder how delicious the tortoises are
Giant tortoise are still around
A rabbits body is a machine that turns vegetation into more rabbits and thats literally all they do
Extinct banana, check. Extinct tortoise, check.
them talking about the tortoise evolving into a perfect food reminds me to a short horror comic that was about aliens accelerating humans evolution to become thier food
Was it that comic where humans become evolved that when you press a button on it we become food or something? It starts with the aliens starting a lecture on human evolution or something
@@acturusgarcia6027 do you know the name of it?
@@crash-ew6hw nah, I forgot. It was ages ago
As someone who raised rabbits for food rabbits can eat their young but also are really funny cause the guy when done just kinda…falls over for a second
not only did it have meat and water for food, but it also came with its own pot to be cooked in
That QI clip is my favorite QI clip of all time
Not only do they come with a drink they come with a bowl to eat it out of
Connors grasp of geological time is very funny to me.
Welcome... to Jurassic Fork
And now the Movie Soundtrack is an Advertisement Jingle
The issues with introduced species like Rabbits, Goats, Boar, and (in the Northern Territory) Wild Water Buffalo, is that when they are introduced to countries like Australia, there is not a native predator to keep them in check. The British also introduced Foxes to Australia, they had hoped that bringing Foxes to Australia would keep the Rabbit problem in check, however, Rabbits are difficult to for Foxes to catch, so why would the Fox spend a lot of time and energy trying to catch a Rabbit, when it could catch native wildlife (rodents, birds, insects, frogs, snakes) instead? The Fox isn't going to hunt prey that is harder to catch. Just to clarify, Rabbits only eat their children when they are highly stressed and have come to the conclusion that the warren is in critical danger.
Rabbits in Australia is like the same issue with the hippos Columbia.
It souns like some Lovecraft horror just no being able to stop eating it
But are wildlife is dying
Random citizen: rabbits aren't wildlife to you.
"Pretty big for a herbivore" dear Connor ever heard about an Elephant
rabbits were brought over as food foxes were for hunting
I think certain species have adapted to eating rabbits but the rabbits cause more problems than it's worth
They found one of them on a volcano
I already listened to the episode, I already listened to this part. I am here explicitly to find any interesting comments about the matter.
which episode is this?
DOG AHEAD!
THEREFORE TRY FRIEND
Dog
But hole
Instead of trying to transport the tortoise to the capable of identifying scientists, why didn't the scientists just go the the Galapagos islands?
Let them watch ReZero to see how cute rabbits are.
Good form on that jab joey
Little did they know, that a year or so later scientist would be able to clone old mammoth cells. And the very first thing they did with it, was turn it into a meatball.
So giant tortoise are alive however, I never knew they were that delicious. Ya boy gonna steal a turtle, anyone up for a heist.
Can see that last bit from Connor being memed
I found that kangaroo clip. Yup pretty damn Australian.
I lost count how many time i rewatching this video 🤣 idk why . its just fun
Rabbits are a menace. I live in a place where rabbits are native and rabbits in the wild are just pure menace. You have to go out of way to get specific fences for a garden that are rabbit proof. Burying the fence in the ground a bit too.
God damn man’s a meal on legs
This was the plot of happy feet lol.
I read New Zealand has a similar problem with cats, the strays are pests but you know CATS.
Breaking news, Giant tortoise is back on the meno boyos!
For some reason Connor sounds really smart.
Tbf all three of them are very intelligent, they just mask it through poop jokes
I mean he does have a degree in engineering
Low bar.
elden ring tortoise
dog
Apparently Charles Darwin was one of the people who ate this tortoise?