Drama for the Meerkat Mommas

was I think it was a little pitchy. Joining me today is host of the podcast Hood Politics, co host of the Red Couch podcast, Poet Rapper, political activist, and author Propaganda. Welcome, What out? What Out? What out? Team mer Cats? Did you like? Did you like my singing? I did? It was the singing was incredible? That what

is good for for mating? And it's like there are such facts in that, like just you set a mouthful, like yeah, one might even say, I myself am a poet, right, One could say that you've you've you've turned a phrase here there Anyone could say that, Yes, doesn't make it true, but you could say it the words I am a poet. You have photo freedom to allow to come out of your mouth exactly exactly. It is technically a sentence in the English will language that I can't say the free

country well properly. I heard through the grape vine that you are a fan of mere cats. This is not a rumor, this is true. I just I think they're funny, um, just out of you know, the cursory knowledge I have of them. Just like they just stand as tall as a regular school ruler and just sunbathe and they just like just post it up. They travel in packs. It just looks like they just they chilling. I'm like, hey, you're like it's great, y'all just stand up in sunbathe

and just kicking it. You know. They're just so funny to me because I'm like, why why are you shaped like that? Like why are y'all still? Like what is this? It's just they're just funny to me. Now I get it because they kind of they look a little bit too big for their boots, you know, like they're they're just like they're like standing up on their hind legs, Like what are you doing? Who do you think you are? Yeah?

Why are you doing this? Are you? And are you intimidating somebody because I'm like, you don't look scary, you know, but I know not to cuddle you, Like I could tell, like I probably shouldn't cuddle this thing. But I'm like, that's like, you look funny. Man. Yeah, they're standing there and giving you a look, and it's like, well, who are you trying to fool? Man? I know you're an animal. I know you're not a person. Yea, look, you're not

fooling anyone. But then they don't they don't stop doing it. I mean, you are not the only one who loves mere cats because it is there, I guess the soap opera slash reality TV show Stars of the Animal Kingdom. There was that show mere Cat Manner, which I get. Do you remember that I never actually watched it. First time I ever heard those two words together. Well, so I never watched it. It was basically, I believe a show was it on Animal Planet, might have been on

Animal Planet. They followed some mere cats and presented it sort of like the Real Housewives but mere cats. And yeah, yeah, I mean I think they tried to make it. I think they did try to give it the the veneer of like a serious kind of documentary thing, but it really was just Real Housewives but with mere Cat. Okay, yes, yes, I love it. When the first time I took my child to the zoo, don't judge me, but the first time I took her to the zoo, I was just

excited about her seeing the mirror Cats. She introduced herself to the Flamingos, though, which was, so my name is so that's so cute. But do you like the mirror Cats? Sure, daddy, Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. It's sort of like when you're trying to get someone to like music that you like and you're having them listen to it, and it's like when you take someone to see your favorite animal at the zoo and you're like looking at them and you're like, you like this, right, yeah, like like

it's a cool little dude, right, that's right looking at it? Yeah? And no, I mean yeah, it's cool. I guess. Yeah. They're talking through the song. You're just like, man, no, listen to the side, talking through the whole thing. Hey, what do you guys trying to eat? Bro? And I'm like, but do you hear that? Okay? Uh, I don't know. Tacos it's always the right answer. Yeah, you gotta focus on the mirror cat. It will hurt my Like I love the I love the otters at the zoo, like

the river otters who goof around. They're always like jumping in and out and I'm showing people like look at them though, and if they're just like yeah, okay, all right, it's like that. I take that personally and it's disappointing because I'm like, no, but you get it. It's an otter and they're just like running around, you get it, Like this is like jumping in and out of the water,

like right, yeah, exactly. There's also another show coming out called Meet the Mere Cats, which so mere cat manner. I guess the reboot is going to be uh narrated by Bill Nigh so the British guy, fancy British guy. But then the Meat the Mere Cats is going to be narrated by Rob Delaney. I think it's a better fit. Yeah. I don't know. If you've seen Snoop Snoop Dogg narrate the Lizard Hunt, Oh my god, it was one of

the greatest things I've ever seen in my life. Snoop is hilarious, but yeah, no, man, I feel like I should have been first to market with this mere cat thing. I didn't know it was like full show. See. Sometimes, man, when you get an idea, you gotta like, you gotta, you gotta put it out there, because I could have. I could have been on this mere cat wave. It's not too late, though. There's a new wave because like the reboots coming out and the Meat the mere Cats

is coming out. So, uh, mere cats are having another moment in popular culture. Yeah, it's happening. Okay, I gotta get something in there. I can be third in line. Yeah, yeah, still makes money on third. Let's see like mere cat. I mean, we've got mere cat manner. They like the alliteration in the time, so there's like mere cat manner, Meet the mere Cats, mere cat mama's uh you know yeah. It was just yeah, it's like moms. Yeah. No, that's perfect because that is actually an integral part of the

mere Cats society. The most drama is the mama's Let's go, So I did a good transition, Yes you did, you did. So let's first quickly say, like, what is a mere cat? Right? I mean, you know everyone's seen Lion King. It's basically timone. It's not a cat. It's only about as related to a house cat as a hyena is. So housecats hyena, they're both both in like this larger group of animals

that are all somewhat related but not closely related. But mere cats are mongooses, so they are a Mongoose's I think that when people think of a mongoose, they don't think mere cat. It just like doesn't. But that's they are. They're a mongoose. They're a mongoose. Sorry to be the one to break it to everyone, but you know, yeah, I knew they weren't cats, but I also knew they weren't a mere because I don't know what the hell of mere is. Yeah, I don't know, like what, I

don't know. It's a it feels like it feels slightly like a negative connotation to like a mere cat, like, oh, you're hat that's crazy. I never thought of it like that. That's yeah, you know, And I think that's part of the funny of mere cats, because it's like, well, what are you right, Like, y'all look like nothing else. Yeah, it's really a it's really a mere mongoose, mongoose, a

mere goose. So Most mongoose species are found on the African continent, but they're also found in southern Asia and some coastal regions in the Mediterranean, So they like sort of like dry savannah scrub areas. But they can be invasive species. So the small Indian mongoose is considered one

of the world's most terrible invasive species. So it was introduced to the Caribbean and Pacific islands including Hawaii, often buy sugarcane plantation owners trying to use them to kill snakes and rats, and they have since wreaked havoc on the indigenous species and have caused a number of extinctions. See, just like they're colonial overlords. They just did the same things to the animal kingdom as the human counterparts did.

See yeah, yeah, I mean it is uh, it is unfortunate, but yeah, they really kind of are a smaller version of the colonizers. Look at that little face. That's the space of a murderous colonizer. That's what it is, a little colonizer. They are quite cute, but yeah, it is an international criminal who has, you know, driven many species to extinctions and then smiles the whole time. Look at them. But luckily mere cats are not environmental troublemakers like some

of their fellow mongooses. Mere Cats live in Southern Africa and arid savannah regions in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. So it is not the only mongoose specie that lives in Southern Africa. There's also the banded mongoose, who actually leads a somewhat similar life to the mere cat. And we're going to talk about the banded mongoose later because I think they're really cool. But you know, I know, mere cats are sort of constantly on everyone's mind. They're

they're the ones that the paparazzi are really harassing. So we we do have to we do have to talk about the elephant in the room, or I guess the mere cat in the room, the mongoose in the room, the mere cat. Many mongoose species are solitary. They just eat snakes and insects, you know, go around like Ricky Ticky tavvy, remember that, like saving boys, saving little boys, saving little boys with their little animal brains. Yeah, but mere cats are highly social and living colonies. They're also

called packs or mobs. I know, just like thinking of like like a little little mafia, Like, what are you looking at? Yeah, that's what they So they really just gang banging when they standing up like that pretty much. Yeah, these packs are called you social. They are similar to the colonies of bees, ants, termites, and naked mole rats.

So you social just means that there are dominant breeding females and subordinate colony members who do not generally breed, and they work together to help raise the brood of the dominant females. Yeah, so that's that's why. You know, with bees, you got your queen bee. It's the same thing with ants and termites. You have a queen aunt or queen termite that is the one procreating. The rest of them don't really procreate. In insects, they accomplish this

through weird genetic shenanigans and pheromones. But in mammals, the way that you social behaviors come up is much more dramatic because they don't have pheromones. They don't have genetic shenanigans to help enforce a you social hierarchy. Wait, wait, way back up. They don't have pheromones period. Well they may they may have some, they may have some mating pheromones, but they don't can bees. The queen has queen pheromones

that she used to suppress the reproductive system of subordinate females. Yeah, she turned on a birth control by her yep, yep. But before we get too much into their social structure, because it's very complicated and dramatic. So here's just some basic facts about mere cat daily life and what they look like, and you know what what their general deal is. So they're about like you mentioned earlier, they're just like about a foot tall. They're not big. They're under two

pounds um. So for the Europeans out there there, or Canadians actually everyone I think right other than the US thirty centimeters tall and uh, just under two pounds it is nine. They're very fluffy. They have a pointy little tail a bit shorter than cat's tail. They got a pointy snout, little digging claws. Their claws are actually quite long, but they are mostly used for digging. And they've got

that beautiful dark eyeshadow um and tan fur. And they love to stand up and just hold their little paws on their bellies. Uh it's adorable, and like to moan from lion king. Meercats love to eat insects. That's their favorite food. Uh. They will eat on occasion scorpions, amphibians, reptiles, even small birds. So nothing's off the menu for them. The menu. Yeah, no, they're not. They are not on any kind of special diet. They will eat what they

can eat. The fact that they can kill scorpions and they can kill snakes, and they have some resistance to scorpion venom and snake venom. People have this concept that meercats are just always out there ripping snake heads off and eating them like spaghetti and killing a bunch of scorpions. Generally, the they really do just eat regular old bugs like beetles and grubs, and if they encounter a scorpion, they'll eat it. Uh. And they do a really good job

of ripping off the stinger. They like, really impressive. Yeah, they it's kind of if you have any sympathy for scorpions, it's kind of sadistic because they rip off its stinger. They'll like rip off its claws, uh, and just sort of viciously pull off all its limbs before eating it, probably still alive. I would love to meet a person that has sympathy for a scorpion, which is some sympathy. Yeah, my wife has a scorpion tattoo because she's a scorpion too.

There it is, Yeah, and it's definitely the most I mean, it's the most badass looking in sect. Like they look hard like yeah, there's I mean full respect. So the idea of you looking at a scorpion and not being like, yeah, that's scary. You like, well, there's nothing else to eat, so I mean, what part of it hurts us? All right? So take that part right. It's got a harpoon for a butt. Yeahs off its butt off? Hey man, watch out for the butt though, Like that's brilliant, you know. Yeah, okay, okay,

mere cats, you're bored and fuffy dangerous. I like that. Yeah, no they are. Oh it gets it gets much much better. Yeah, they can kill cobras. It doesn't happen very often, but they will sometimes send out an alarm call that's basically like a recruitment call. And so so everybody comes together and we'll chase off a cobra, sometimes even kill the cobra. A cobra bite could kill them, but they are very fast,

very careful to try to avoid getting bitten. But according to Marta Manser, a twenty year mere cat research veteran. She says that cobra encounters are very rare, and seeing it so often on documentaries may actually mean that someone like someone making the film is actually introducing Yeah, yeah, manufacturing an incident, faking it. Look at instigators, Yeah they are. I really don't like that, you know what, because like cheating, man,

it is cheating. It's like, look, I think that it seems that cobras and mercats generally don't like to mess with each other. And if you're just like, you know, going to the cobra and said did you hear what they said about you? And then going to the mirrorcats, did you hear what that cobra said about you? And then making them fight, it's like, mean, girls, Yeah, it's not reality TV anymore. It's it's contrived, you know. Yeah, that's I'm not feeling that. And especially it's like, yeah,

you're pushing these fools to the extreme. Now. Obviously I've never been on any sort of like animal shoot, but I imagine that, Uh yeah, it's six months of nothing, yeah, and then and then you then you go get a cup of coffee and then all the action happens. And I mean like Planet Earth, which is an amazing, you know, just amazing footage. It took them years of literally just like sitting in the worst possible places for human body to sit in with their video cameras for hours and

hours and hours of absolutely nothing happening. I don't know how. I don't know how you do that. I can't imagine, you know, it's just I can't imagine, you know, I could understand being someone getting to the breaking point of just throwing a snake. Yeah, you know what, just somebody go get a cobra. Man like I need to go home. But it doesn't it doesn't make it right. But I do understand that human being has certain limits. But again, like mere cats, I think they're super interesting all on

their own. You don't need to throw a cobra into the mix. And we're actually, when we get back, we're going to talk about mere cats society and how it is way more brutal than you would expect from the cute little buddies who just they look so cute, but they are devious, cold blooded murderers like five year olds. And we're back, and when you look into the face of a mere cat. What do you see? Do you see something cute or cold? Little eyes full of betrayal,

murder and southern fuge. Man, now that you say that, Like I thought they little eyeshadow was cute, but now I'm like, oh, they're goth. Yeah, I didn't even think of him as God dang extremely goth. All right, they're they're not They're beyond hot topic goth too. Yeah. Yeah, come on, man, they're not hot topic goth. They are They're beyond mall goth even even I don't even know the level like this. These are levels of goth that I think have been not recorded in human history. Yeah,

I oh no, none about this. They fly in the translate golf so, like I mentioned earlier, they are you social, so they form packs of up to fifty individuals typically, though there are fewer there. I think the average is about twenty. But yeah, they can be form huge, huge societies, and the packs are run by dominant females. So hey, look I love it for feminism. Girl Boss, girl Boss boss Bay. Yeah, um, she she's she's a she's a yes,

slay queen quite literally. As we soon discussed, the larger, more aggressive females tend to become the dominant matriarchs of the pack also called the mob, and only the dominant female and dominant male is allowed to breed, so they're the only ones having offspring. And it's like, you know, might mix, right If you're the biggest, baddest female of the group, you bully all the other females into letting you be the only one breeding, and you bully everyone

else into taking care of your kids. God, dog man, don't yeah, don't be the second place. That's gotta be miserable, No wonder it's so violent because I'm like, can't nobody get note Yep, only y'all, and I gotta take care of your children. Yep. This is for the birds. Brutal. I mean mongooses they are monkeys, um, and mongooses are are what mirror cats are. I'm just oh, is mongy the plural of mongoose, mongese or mongoose is? I think? Yeah?

I love it. Okay, that's good. Yeah, it's a monkey's On the surface, it may seem like they have a really nice, functioning society of cooperative little mirrorcats. Um. They take turns babysitting, digging burrows, hunting, and keeping watch for predators and threats and taking care of the pups, the little babies. They're classic standing post that they do is their lookout stance, so that's when they are on the

lookout for danger. Bang yeah. And they have different alarm calls depending on the type of predators, so terrestrial versus aerial, so that their fellow merecats note where to look and to run from. So if like they see a hawk, they have a call thing like the dangers coming from

the sky. And if they see, you know, some kind of terrestrial predator, they go, hey, somebody's coming on the ground, and the mere cats will either duck from from the aerial threat or they will gather together and like sort of keep a lookout for whatever is coming from them on the ground. And they'll also have different levels of urgency, so like if it's a really big threat, they'll sound much more urgent, and if it's just like maybe not that big of a threat, they just like, hey, check

that out. Just make sure you see that. They also like to get to the highest ground possible when they're looking out for threats, which me if you are a researcher or a park ranger or a photographer or anyone just hanging around where mere cats are, they will stand on you. That's hilarious. That's the picture I've been looking at this whole time. I'm like, this is hilarious. This

is my dream. If you're still, if you're quiet and still enough and they trust you, because like if you if you are like around their place enough and they're like, okay, this this whatever, this human is, there of no threat to me. They will use you as a perch to get a better view of stuff. Yeah, dude, like you demied, you made it into the squad. That's dope. They just I don't know if you furniture or if it's like at some point you're gonna have to like do your

your your rotation with babysitting. They just hand you the baby and all ways of instructions. Yeah, just mere cat talk. And they're yelling at you like I don't understand why you don't get this. They're like, look, the scorpions are in the fridge. You reheat them at three degrees for fifteen minutes. It's so easy. Listen, listen, take the butt off. I don't understand why y'all can't figure this out. How

you'll collapse in over just take the butt off. Unlike ants and bees, who have very rigid youth social structures, so the queen is very They've evolved to be very efficient at cracking down on dissidents. Mere Cats have more there's more opportunities for rebellions, so the pack structure is more fluid than the colony structure of bees. Uh. So, lower level females will often try to break the rules, which can lead to a lot of drama. And when I say drama, I mean literally murders in fantaside. It

gets chez. So scientists, yeah, scientists are very judgmental. Like there's this Nature article titled quote cute mere cats actually vicious baby killers, which I just coming down hard on the mere cats. Uh you know, judge little Yeah. A little context is King Fan like, hey do you I mean, come on, now you are now I would like you yoh no, you know we live in Okay. Like sounds like a case of libel or slanderers slander, but I

mean it is true. They do. They do kill babies sometimes, So the subordinate females reproductive systems are not suppressed with pheromones like in bees. Instead, it's the matriarchs willingness to bully kill their offspring or exile subordinates. That keeps them in line. My lord. Yeah, the bullying can be so intense and the stress and stress them out so much

that like they can actually buy. Just through the sheer force of bullying cause their fertility to suffer to like they become less fertile because the dominant female is bullying them so hard. You who Brooklyn, Straight, New York. Listen, if you touch any of these men, not even the ones I won't. If you touch any of them, I will murder your children and turn off your fallopian twos. Dang, say something, try it again, you know what I'm saying.

Like I just pitched you a little mirrecat going to pick up an insect, and then the girl just knocking it out of her hand, like you ain't ready yet, that's mine insect? Like why are you just randomly bullying me? Put that in set down, go give me that scorpion, take off its but do it now, now bow and say, queen, here is your score. Thank you. You know what I'm saying. I don't like it. It's cold. Heat it up. Yeah, these are mere cats are getting shoved into the lockers

so hard they lose their ability to reproduce. It's good, it's yeah, dang turned off your ovaries. If a mere cat subordinate tries to mate and is caught, she will be ruthlessly attacked by the matriarch and must literally grovel at her feet to regain the matriarch's favor. They will, they'll grovel. They'll like roll over and grovel to try to get back into the pack. Makes me so sad.

I'm like, listen, girl, you don't need her approval. Well, they kind of do because if they get if they get kicked out of the pack, because life in these areas, like in the Savan, where there's so many predators, it can be really tough, and so they can die without the safety of the pack. So getting exiled from the pack is often deadly. But once in a while it will work out in the rebellious subordinates favor because she

might go on and start her own colony. If she happens to find an eligible bachelor and has some babies, starts her own college, she might become the matriarch of a new colony, and she's going to be just as ruthless and brutal as the old matriarchs oppressed using the tool of the oppressor. It's so sad. Yep, it's the story as old as time or as old as meercats.

So let me ask you this. Who eats meercats? See, there are a lot of birds of prey, I would imagine because I'm like, if I'm a just mid level predator, I would be like, yeah, this, I could do this. You know, if I'm a young cheetah, which isn't a mid level, but if I'm a young cheetah and I'm like, when you got run too hard, I'll get this one cat, yeah, I think. Okay, So the main I'm looking it up because like, while there are a lot, there are so

many predators. Sometimes their territories don't exactly overlap with mere cats, but snakes are one of them. So like, even though mere cats can kill snakes, sometimes snakes can kill meercats, especially younger meercats, um jackals, and birds of prey such as eagles. Okay, yeah, there's a danger from there's danger from the sky, there's dane, you're from the ground. There's danger from under the ground because of the snakes. That's

why they had at perch. Okay, it makes sense. You know, you gotta have a whole team of people on the lookout while the one person is getting busy. That's cold, it is. It sucks. Hey what you're doing in there? Hold on, watch the door. It's like a high school party. Yeah, you're just like, watch the door. I want everybody to watch the door. Yeah yeah. Man, Well if we're all watching the door, clearly nobody's going in because you're making

us all watch the door. Hey man. Anyway, yeah, and if if one of those subordinates actually does manage to have offspring, say they mate, they don't get caught mating, um, and then they actually have their offspring, the matriarch, more often than not, we'll try to kill that subordinate's offspring so they with often with a witness too, like like yeah, yeah, because it's like it's about the message. Yeah, it's about sending a message. In a message. This is awful, mirror cats.

I'm disappointed, guys. I'm impressed, but I'm also disappointed. It does explain the like, you know how like timone is like he's got issues in the Lion King. We don't talk about it much, but he's got deep insecurities. Yeah, he's like he kind of gaslights pumba. He's like, oh, you know, no, that was my cool idea. He's deeply insecure, very jittery, very afraid of like you know, of his friends betraying him. I think, like, you know, he's this is his background. His life was like he was like

Brand from Game of Thrones essentially. Yes, his family trauma is just kind of playing out as a backstory for this lovable cartoon of another family trauma where your uncle tried to kill you, right exactly. Yeah, this movie is about this movie about family trauma. I think so we just I mean, the kid's dad, the Lion kids dad dies and he like tries to cuddle. Is dead dad. It's dark. It's dark man. And he was killed by his uncle. Yeah yeah, Like, hey, hey uncle Scar, it's

a weird name you got there? Oops killed my dad? Hey man, I don't know, man, I kind of think you killed my dad. I think, look, you know, I want to play we with you, but I think he killed that. Hey Champ, Hey little bud, listen, come on, how you doing. I don't really care. Listen, your dad's dead. I don't know what happened well, yeah I do, but I'm the king now, Okay, the beasts kicked him real hard. Now he is dead. Don't question. And also get out

of here, kid. Yeah, I'll call you up on your birthday. Call you on your birthday. That's not to say, though, that the matriarch is the only one ruthlessly committing in fantaside. Sometimes subordinates will try to rise up against the matriarch by killing her offsprings. So subordinate might be pregnant and be thinking, oh, like if I have these pups, you

know they're probably gonna get killed by the matriarchs. So you know, she strikes first by trying to kill the matriarch's offspring and maybe even tries to take the matriarch's place by by fighting with her like literally, you know, like taking over the throne. Yeah, shooting her shot, Yeah, taking the throne. Yeah, good luck. There is no try only do with these mere cats, because yeah, if you try and you don't do, you're dead or yeah, and then you're eaten by a bird of prey. And it's

like this is really worth it, right, what a hard life? Yeah? And I mean, like like I said earlier, you know, this question of like, well, why do mere cats subject themselves to this horrible tyranny? You know, life alone as a little mere cat. You know, they're there, are five dollar foot long, they're tasty treat for so many things in the savannah. It's it's dangerous out here. Yeah, best try your luck. Yeah, yeah, you don't want to be a little five dollar foot long and like around jackals

and hawks, you don't have no chances. Yeah, you best run along home home, you sit right on the couch while a queen, king and king, queen and king go get it home. Sit here, watch my babies. Yeah, no, exactly, because like this is the gamble, right, which is you can't you can't have offspring if you're dead, if a

jackal eats you, you can't have offspring. But maybe you could sneakily have offspring if you are able to do it with enough like kind of discretion in your in your mating autocracy, or if some day you managed to either start your own mob or take over the place of the rulers, so you at least have a chance because you're alive. So yeah, I mean, you know it is it is a real a real gamble. It's a real tortal existence, vicious mongoose man? Have you read? Uh,

white fish don't exist? So it's Lulu Miller. She's from Radio Lab the Pot So she wrote this book. She was like, it's basically about her like categories in life, what a success? How did you picture your future? Right?

And how we put these categories around things that really don't have to be there, right, So as a as a jump off, she was like, well, if you compare a salmon and a toothfish to a cow, and you were to ask which one of these animals are more related to each other, and she's like, well, from a taxonomy perspective, the toothfish is more related to the cow

than it is the salmon. Right, So then she goes through all these fish in the ocean and she's like, you know, actually every fish in the ocean is something else, Like they're all none of them are fish, like as we know it, they're all something else. So then she's like, it's the same way as like you go to a mountain and say every animal on that mountain is all one species, it's all the thing. And she's like, that's just all they have in in you know, in common

is location. So so she was like, so ultimately again as a springboard for her own life, like maybe maybe success isn't what I think it is, Like maybe it's something else. Whatever. It's this great book, but that like blew my mind. You know what I'm saying when you're just and she was saying that there's like pushing the industry to be like we need to do away with the term fish, and then I switched me as like a non expert. I was like, so, then what's on

my plate? Then? You know what I'm saying, Like she was like, well, what it is is on your plate? A salmon? Salmon's on your plate? And I'm like, was that fish? Like no, it's actually something else. Like anyway I thought about that when you was like, what's a humanless mermaid? Yes, you know, no human parts added mermaid. It's a humanless mermaid. That's brilliant. Yeah, so I just thought that. He was like, they're actually a mongoose. It's like I would have never of all the animals I was,

I would have never. I wouldn't like have a little moving arrow to point at which one do you think this animal is? Like? What? Yeah? I mean, it's it is incredible because it's like just a few adaptations, like probably their society and being able to stand up a little straighter that they can view a little farther in the structure of their they're like mere cat culture probably shaped their bodies such that they do look different from

most other mongis. Also, it's interesting, so a hyena and a mongoose or a hyena and a mere cat are more closely related than like a hyena and a dog. Is like, yeah, yeah, they should have been they should have been friends, and you know what mean I mean. Also, they're they're also somewhat related to because they are technically in the philoforma I think um clade. I don't remember

what it is, but it's like they are. There's this suit, this big group of animals that includes like all all feelines, so like lions, cats, everything, also hyenas, also mongooses, and then some other ones weird weird animals like Fausa's and the bent wrongs, and they're they're just like it's they're not that closely related to like weasels, for example. It's crazy. Yeah see I but yeah, I could picture a weasel like I feel like, okay, that's your cousin. I see that,

but like heang yeah ya, all right, well there it is. Yeah, And speaking of one of their relatives, We're actually gonna talk when we get back from the break about one of their close relatives, the banded mongoose. And I'm gonna say it's unfair that mere cats get all this attention in the banded mongooses do not, because they are way nicer than Okay, way more chill, and we are back, and I want to talk about the banded mongoose. They are the mere cats, lesser known cousin who I think there.

They don't win the popularity contest. They don't get the good publicity, they don't get all the attention, they don't get all the book deals. But they are way nicer than the way cuter in terms of their behavior or guys I know right underappreciate. It's like the nice nice monkeys finished last, you know. Yeah. I was like we're in an eighties movie right now, Like the sweet one just finishes last, the shy the shy one, and then they like take down their their ponytail and glasses and

suddenly they're very hot and attractive mongoose. Yeah, and you know, and and the bully in the bully loses the basketball game. Right, Unfortunately, sure is not not a teen movie. Or maybe fortunately, I'm gonna go with fortunately. I'm gonna go with fortunately. So the banded mongoose, Uh, they do not have that that cute eyeshadow. I think that's like that is what does it for the mere cats. Also the fact that

they have that really cute standing pose. I think the banded mongoose is kind of slouch a little more when they're standing, so they don't have this good posture. Yeah, it's it's the posture like that. That's a good lesson for us, right, like posture and makeup. It's like, you know, if you shoulders back, have good posture and then just like put so much eyeshadow on, that's the cheek codes but a little rouge you'd be all right. Right. They have some cute little stripes on their backs. They have

little pink noses. I think they're quite cute. They're a little bigger than mere cats. They stand a little taller. They're a little over foot long, a little little chunkier. Um. But just like the mere cat, they live in large groups in Den's but don't really have the brutal tyrannical society that mere cats have. So they are found in savannah areas of Central and Eastern Africa just kind of they I think they start to go into South Africa,

but not as far as the mere cats do. So their dens are much more transient than merecats, So they will change den's every few days, or maybe they'll take advantage of abandoned termite mounds there. You know, they're just like they're kind of they're kind of hippies. It's like a placelets groovy, right, Yeah, they couch surf, except the couches like a termite mound. It's gross, man, couch and dirty. Got it's got termites. I don't know if you know. Yeah, yeah,

I don't know. Man. I think you're gonna get bed bugs yeah, or butt bugs, but bugs, that's gross. If they can't find a din, they will all sleep together in a big mongoose pile with their butts together in their heads facing outwards to detect threats. Like just a big bouquet of mongoose is it's adorable? Is adorable? Yeah? Just what to but but but to but just and and and and even and with like much better like this like community protection, but not from a bully perspective.

It's like, no, I'm not being bullied into this because if I don't protect you, you're going to kill my children. It's no, like this is the best thing for all of us, exactly, handed mongoose, don't listen. Don't be changing my mind. Man, it's starting to change my mind. Yeah. And unlike the mercats, there is no single dominant breeding pair. Uh so, there is not a tyrannical female in charge.

Multiple females can have their offspring in the group. The only option is if the group gets too large to maintain, then the older females will force the younger females out. But then those younger females will tend to go off and start their own their own group. So it's really only once there is their resources are running so thin they really need to That's functional, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's a functional, loving answer. It's not that like you

can't have kids because we're all going to die. It's look, there's really not enough food around. So hey, man, you set up, set out, you are free to go start your own plan. I am proud of you. Just remember all the things we taught you having many kids as you want, get out of the termite hill basement, stop playing call of duty and get out there. Just get out there. There's a cutie out there for you. Yeah,

you can procreate. The key to their success in terms of being a lot more peaceful than the mere cats is the fact that the females tend to all give birth at the same time, even on the same day, so they are synchronized with their birthing schedules. And by synchronizing their births, it not only makes community child care more easy because it's like, all right, you know, all the pups are here now they're all the same age. Um, it's also a way to prevent tyrannical mongoose from taking over.

So do you want to hear the research study where researchers gave mongoose is a birth control? Yes, yes I do. But when they started giving the older, stronger females birth control, the bigger, stronger females started killing the litters of the

other females. So the reasoning is this, So if a more dominant female, an older, bigger female, doesn't give birth at the same time as other females, she knows she can get away with killing the litters without killing any of her own young on accident, and so by killing in this case, it's like, well, you know, she doesn't have her own young, they're everyone else has their young,

So she's making this this decision. I don't know how much of it is a decision or just instinct, but it's she she has the instinct of like, well, you know, I uh, I need resources, and I'm I didn't give I don't have any offspring in the game, and it it's probably some some thing goes with like goes off with their hormones, and then they start to become as

mean as the mere cats. But when the mongoes is all give birth at the same time, there is no conflict either if it's through like some kind of hormonal um just like signaling or something um. They they don't it would be a disadvantage to them evolutionarily if they started killing offspring because they might accidentally kill their own, so they don't do it. So because they have synchronized their birthing. Uh, it's makes a they're the banded manga

society much more child friendly. It's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant because and the calculation of like, well it ain't my baby in there is like cole hearted because like yeah, like goes back today like shared ancestor instinct. But that but the idea of like, you know, how do you know how we advanced past the barbarism of our ancestors is we just all give birth at the same time. Look, I'm tired of these arguments. Just do it all at the same time. Gas you know, yeah, one party, you know,

big old one, big old, gooey birth party. Gooey the worst word for this. Yes, So the caring for the young is a lot cuter and less coercive in the banded Monga society. So giving birth is very it takes a lot of the parents resources. So usually there is is a younger, non parental babysitter who probably will later on have offspring of their own, but for now they're they're kind of younger, they're less experienced, so they will babysit uh the young of the mothers who just gave birth.

And so there's usually one babysitter who takes care of one pups. So each pup will typically get their very own babysitter. And you know seven attention the parents the mothers are usually so tired and wiped out from having these litters that they don't do that much in terms of parental care, whereas the babysitters really take care of the pups, so they will. The babysitters will escort the pups out on foraging trips to keep them safe for around three months until the pups are old enough to

be out on their own. I'm really starting to feel a little envy about this mongoose society. This like y'all gotta figured out, Man, I do, got kids, I do. How amazing would it be if it was like because when you have kids, it's like always I call it tour body because my only comparison was as a professional musician, like you touring all the time. So when you tour in ontour, you're you're pretty much at forty to six energy all day for the whole month. You never really

get past that. It's just it's for you, just constantly tired. And so that's like, I mean, that's parenting. Like you're like, I'm I'm never not exhausted or like feeling like and I'm a girl dad, so I'm I mean, it is is only women in my house, two daughters, you know, our actual house cat, and then the I'm solely I remember.

So I'm constantly like my head's on a swivel or I'm constantly have a furled eyebrow because I'm I'm learning to become um more of a feminist than to understand, and so I'm seeking and trying to grow in empathy all day so something, and sometimes I'm just like, yeah, I'm tired. I don't I don't understand. I feel like you all speak Swahili and y'all all understand each other and I just don't know what you're saying, but I'm translating.

So if you tell me which we kind of have the house behind us, a couple of neighbors down the street, like we kind of share the wealth with our kids too, but like because they got kids, we get anyway. But the idea of saying this was built into the fabric of our I'm like, this would be you wouldn't even need we wouldn't need parental like paternity leave. Maternity wouldn't leave it because it's like kids are fine. Yeah, babysitters

your own personal babysitters. There are theories that like early on in human society's we had more of a like cooperative childcare in our in our you know, in our group, and are like very yeah exactly that that was like you know, the whole the whole group would take care of the children and that would help. But yeah, it's it's too bad we kind of don't do that anymore.

You know, you kind of pining a memory about about you know, my anthropology lessons and and it was, I want to say it was for like the same reasons of like, well we kind of don't know who's the dad or the mom, but we know the mom is, but we kind of don't know who the dad is,

So like how about just everybody take care of everybody? Yeah, and that's there's a theory that that helped reduce our like aggression towards each other because it's like, well, if we're all just like we're not worrying about like whose kids who, and like we're not we're not sort of just trying to have a competition between you know, well, well is this my kid? Is that my kid? Then it's just like everyone kind of chills out, and you know,

we we become more peaceful, we work together better. Yeah, So yeah, humans are kind of like the bit of the banded mongoose of primate. Yeah well wow, um, yeah, man, I hate that my mind's being changed about your cats

are so cute, though they are very cute. I do actually, and I do enjoy the drama of them cats because they're just so messy, right like, yeah, you know, it's like could be Honestly, I guess like a mere banded bongoose reality show wouldn't be that interesting because they all kind of you know, they do have They do have wars though sometimes so that's the most vicious they get is in wars with other groups, like rival groups over territories.

So occasionally they do kill each other in these wars, or depending on their mood, they meet with each other. So so they could just be like having a big war and then a male and a female in opposite sides like make bedroom minds at each other, making like all of this bloodshed is making me horny. They was out there to fight and it turns out no kind of look good over there, like you are good covered in blood. Anyways, let's take it behind this pile of

dead bodies. Yeah, hey, so what you're doing after this? What you're doing after the Big war? What you're doing after this big war? Tell no body Montague, you know, I'm saying. In fact, there's some observations where they think that females will instigate wars just so that they can go off and try to mate with with dudes from the other side of the war, proving that across all species, the girls are smarter. Just like this, This is brilliant. Just get a bunch of dudes fighting exactly, you just

snag one of them, like, and of course he's gonna stop. Ye, I'm saying if you're like, what me me? Yeah, just like and I love I love the drama of them, like instigating a fight just so they can sneak off, Like like, hey, did you hear do you hear what Timone said about you? Yeah? No, the really handsome the really handsome mongoose from the other group, Yeah yeah, did you hear what he said? Yeah, the really hot ones that yeah yeah, yeah, he said you're weak, he said

you're the beta. What I mean, I know, like they're all mere cats. He's like, yeah, I know, yeah, I'm not what are you talking about? I know it's not a diss we all know that. Yeah. Yeah, but no, but banded mongooses they all they all get. They tend to have more chances, so they're much more equitable society.

They're also they're also um. I think if you could recast the lion king, timone should really be a banded mongoose and not a meercat because banded mongeese have a really special relationship with wart hogs, and this is where they show a bit of their sweet side. They will make friends with wart hogs and remove ticks and other parasites from so they can eat the ticks and parasites while the wart hog enjoys a spa day with a bunch of little mongoose massus is so at Disney literally

deceived us, Yes, because that role. They just said, this is what mongeese do, but mere cats are cuter. Yeah, typical Hollywood. Disappointed, typical Hollywood. You know, casting the cutest, you know, most socially acceptable person and not not you know, the mongoose who would probably reflect that character the best. Oh my god, can you imagine like mongeese sitting in there termite cave like, are you are you serious? At a serious? That crazy crazy uncle they got your crazy

uncle playing this okay, yeah, wid yep, yep. It's not fair. It's it's not popularity contest. It reminds me, you know, in elementary school, you're like running for class president. You try to get together, big, big speech, but too bad, the most popular kid's gonna get it, even though you're picking ticks off of ward hogs. Allay, you know what I'm saying, literally picking animals off your body. Yeah, but I'm not cute. Okay, cool, but these pictures of the

mongoose is cleaning off the ward hawks are adorable. It's you know, it's just there and the ward hog knows knows what's happening because he just lies down. Let some go for it, you know. Oh now, like somebody start like nibbling on your ear and massage and you use his eyes roll back like oh hey don't hey, stop it some more, you know, stop it, stop it some more. Man. Yeah yeah, yeah, literally going like getting in the ear, getting the parasites in the ear. It's luxury, it really is.

And the mongooses get a free disgusting meal. That is another well, that's another downside. They are ticks. Well, but you know, a bug a bug, So if you eat bugs, you know, who are you to turn your nose up at a parisite, you know, I mean, like, to be honest, I feel like the only problem that banded mongooses have is a branding problem. You know. You gotta you gotta get a brand expert. Uh, maybe get some eyeshadow, hold

your hold your paws up, you know, act a little cuter. Yeah, work on your posture, right right, get one of those posture corrective harnesses, right uh yeah, and just like and then pose, you know, like, look, I'm massaging this, this word hog see this just yeah, just a whole bunch of photos with them standing next to Ward Hobbs and just like, judge for yourself, guys, yeah yeah, see see how it really look? Just for yourself. See any mere cats?

I'll see no mere cats? Yeah yeah, mirrorcats. So next time you look at a little cute, little mer cat face, know that you're possibly staring into the eyes of an unrepentant killer, stone cold killer. Ye ye, little criminal. Yeah, you tricked us with that. Actually, you know, it's kind of crazy because it's like they little eyeshadow was like, oh, we weren't hiding it. Yeah, I don't know why, y'all thought this about us. Yeah, we dark that's why we

did this. This metal were death metal? Bro, like, it's metal, that's this death metal makeup? What did you think? What did you think? I don't know why y'all kept calling it qute. We couldn't figure it out. I was asking, why do I keep thinking this is death metal? Yeah? Imagine you imagine mirrorcats are just confused as to why everybody thinks they cuddly like what they think? Yeah? No, yeah, no, we're we're literally Satanists. What are you talking about? Yeah?

They're like what how I mean, how much worse do we need to be? Like? Hail Satan? Dude, Satan? We killed children. I don't understand. You should have had a clue when we literally ripped a butt off a scorpion. Did you see me not flinched after ripping the butt off a scorpion's scorpion fangs coming out my mouth? I don't understand what you don't understand. I love it. I'm sorry to uh to you know, uh kind of unveil the truth behind your But I hope you still love

them because I do. You know, they remind me of like like Orca whales, to where You're like, these fools hunt for fun, like these are these are Earth's apex predators? Like you can't have somebody as hungry and vicious as a lion that's the size of a bus. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And I'm like, but I look at him, and I'm like, you guys are beautiful and majestic. Yeah, this is a majestic animal that murders. Yeah, they're they're huge, they have a huge brain, they have big teeth. Did

we not think they would murder? I mean, like what else? You know? Yeah, I mean look at what humans have done. We're like, oh, no, dolphins, but they're so smart, why would they like torture seals? It's like, uh, I mean, have you just looked around, gestures wildly, Yeah, yeah, shines a mirror in front of your camera and go, yeah, yeah,

what do you think? Yeah, I mean it's I guess it's true that we don't eat our own offspring or other people's offspring, generally speaking, but look cast the stone from our eyes before you judge a mer cat. You know, you go, because we we we we eat our share of babies. Yeah, but thank you that note. Yeah, species babies inter species babies. Clarification, we eat we feel not human. Yes, we eat other people's babies and yeah yeah other people's

rewinded back we eat other species babies. I'm saving. I'm isolating that clip and putting it online. There it is, we eat babies. Yeah, yeah, where can Where can people find you so they can write angry letters to you about how you are advocating for eat. You can find me at Katie Golden No prop hip Hop is my

website and all my and all my social handles. There's a bunch of homes and coffee photos and and I got a book coming out, and the Hood Politics Pod is on Network with this fine pod called Hood Politics Pod for the socials and yeah, you just starch up politics and and yeah, I'll have an episode about the Armenian genocide on this week. Yeah, and kind of like just getting your head in your head around it. You

know what I'm saying. It's very important, very very important. Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's a I try to just take these like super serious, very complicated things that are happening in geopolitics and just kind of going, well, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, No, I mean I think people are intimidated sometimes by by politics, especially global politics, and thinking, well, I'm I'm just not I'm not an expert, so how could I know? But that's not true. Yeah, you actually

you're more of an expert than you think. Hey, did you survive eighth grade? Did you figure out which lunch table to sit at when you on the first day of school and you had to make the calculations as to which Yeah, you understand you. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, no, definitely check that out. I think that's super important. And you can find the podcast on the internet at Creature Feature Pod on Instagram, at your feet pot on Twitter. That's Effie Hot Efie Eating had something very different um,

and you can find uh. If you want to email me your questions, your concerns about mer cats, your petitions to get banded mongoose is the attention they deserve, you can email me at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. And thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying the show and you leave our rating and review, I read all of them and they make me so happy. Thank you so much. And thank you to the Space Classics for their super awesome song ex Alumina creature features

the production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or Hey guess what? Why do you listen to your favorite shows? I don't judge you. See you next Wednesday.