Can you outrun an alligator in a zig-zag?

me really laugh. Yeah, and that's ultimately what you want. Josh, And we're shooting TV promos and he handed up a little at one time, but they never do sometimes do Um. So I have a I have a question for you. Yes, do you know the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? Chuck? Um? Yeah, sure, all right, let's hear it's smart guy. Well, no, go ahead, I mean I don't want to steal your thunder. Okay, Well, I mean they don't live in the same places. No,

that's a big one. And a crocodile has a gland and its tongue that helps get rid of excess salt, which allows it to live in brackish water. Salt water. Alligators don't have that, right, and that's why they are freshwater. Right. If you see an alligator in the ocean, you're on acid. Um, it's probably not crocodiles in the ocean now there. They could be in the ocean if they wanted to. Is the point. I just don't want to. But you still have a high likelihood of being on acid. If you

see a crocodile ocean. Yeah, I would say you may want to rethink what you're seeing. That's one thing. Another one is, um, the crocodile has a V shaped snout, whereas the alligator has more of a rounded you. Um, and uh. Lastly, you can always tell a crocodile because it's fourth front tooth on the bottom sticks up over its top lips, so when it's mouth clothes, there's always one tooth sticking out. Snaggle tooth. Yeah, it's a snaggle tooth.

The crocodile is interesting. I remember learning most of this and uh back in the school in days, but I never heard about the tooth. What is this podcast if not a revisit to school and then something back to school without Rodney Dangerfield. Well, you know so, Um, crocodiles and alligators diverged. Um uh sixty five million years ago. Yeah, they had a big falling out and Carnes or cairns. Are you familiar with these things? I've heard of that. What is that? C A I R N S. For

all intents of purposes, it's another either alligator crocodile. But all three of them they went their own ways. They broke up like the eagles, uh sixty five million years ago. Yeah, they all went on to do their own thing. The eagles go back, got back together. Though. Oh yeah, you said you've never seen the h is. Oh now I have to show that to you. I'll send you that link. Okay. Anyway, Um, and I forgot what the point was there any years ago? Oh yeah, they broke up the band, I got you.

The point of all this is you've heard that you can outrun an alligator in a zigzag. I have heard both alligator and crocodile. Okay, so it's maybe a shared commonality, probably depending on where you live. The only shared commonality is that it's not really true with either one. Yeah, I guess it is true, but it's just completely superfluous information, that's right, the MythBusters busted this one wide open with

crocodiles and alligators. Um, with live crocodiles and alligators. Yeah, they had their live alligator, uh with cork corks on its teeth. Like. They stuffed pantyhose with quail like dead quail and attached it to the uh their little dummy guy they always use, and had a zigzag course and then I think they used I think cary like really got in there. But they basically they busted it because they couldn't even tempt them to come after them, which is sort of the point. It is the point the

out running an alley gator and his zigzag. Um. Yes, you could outrun an alligator in his zigzag. You could also outrun an alligator in a straight line. Um. And probably, like you say, the point is that an alligator is not really interested, inn't you? Like almost all animals were way more afraid of them. I'm sorry, they're way more afraid of us than we're afraid of them. Yeah, I mean, I guess we're afraid of them, but you know, you

know what I'm saying. Sure they don't want human interaction. No, we smelled of them. Yeah, a bear didn't want to kill you. A shark doesn't want to kill you. An alligator doesn't want to kill you. No, No, I think a bear wants to kill you if you're wherever it doesn't think you should be. Now, a bear wants to get into your state cooler in the campground. You've seen, grizzly man. You should destroy this tape alright, so you

can out run an alligator. Josh, you were right, because they top out at about eleven miles per hour, which is nothing. It's actually be fast, dude. Eleven miles an hour. That's tough to keep up for a little while. Luckily, humans can sprint it's called foot speed, from between twelve and fifteen miles an hour, and not only can we run faster, but we have more endurance. And alligator is not going to chase you down the street in your neighborhood in Pensacola. It will come up and growl at

you on the porch, which apparently is defensive posturing, not aggression. Yeah, that's true. I actually, uh did a canoeing trip down the Okefinoke many years ago, not that many years ago, like two years ago. It's been the last like twelve or fourteen years. I wasn't like a little kid. I think it was booze involved. Uh, And there were alligators

there and you know, near our canoe. And then when you do a trip through the Okayfinoki, one of the coolest things is is you don't, uh, there are no campgrounds. It is just swampland, and you have to reserve these camping decks and you're the only person that can stay on the deck because it's like whatever, fifteen by fifteen feet, and so you reserve these things ahead of time into your trip, and so you were the you see no other human being once you set off in that canoe.

It's neat and kind of creepy. But um, did you have a gun with you? Sharp Rock? I don't own a gun. Um did you borrow a gun? No. We had a lot of boxed wine though, and food and it was me and my buddy Claying Big John, and we all went and um, we got on our camping deck and by this place right by this sort of open lakey area, just gorgeous. Man, one of the great trips of my life. And in the morning we woke up surrounded by alligators like we saw eyes everywhere and

we heard them growling. It woke us up, and they were just hanging out, letting us know they were there, and it was it was a little unsettling, but I wasn't I wasn't like scared the whole time, but I was definitely aware. Like when you look in this water, it looks like iced tea. It's you know, they call it black water, but it's really brown. But you can't see like three inches down underneath the water. You can't

see anything. So that's what's terrifying is if I fell out of the canoe, I'd probably just get back in and be no big deal. But you think if I fall out the canoe, I'm going to get eaten alive. So it's a little intimidating, yeah, Because I mean you say that, you know, alligators don't want to kill you or anything like that. They will eat you though, if

given the chance, if that's just how things end end up. Um, the problem is is that you or me aren't going to run into too many alligators that could eat us, which means that they would have to tear us into pieces, which an alligator tends not to like to do. Because, as I understand from reading this article, alligators are a little lazy. Yeah, they like to eat their meals in

one big, gulpy manner. So like a normal size alligator, which would be about five ft or so, UM is gonna eat crayfish and turtles and snakes and things like that, and even a small dogs not really at a threat by an alligator. I don't know if I throw my Chihuahua in the Okefinoki and say go for a swim. But you're right, at the very least, it's just dirty. It's not dirty. It's just different water. Uh, it's nice if you chuck all water is beautiful. It was. I mean,

it's not like it looks gross. It's just brown. So you talk about small alligators five feet in under, um, that's a vast majority, as I understand. Um, apparently humans like ones that are even smaller. You've heard of having an alligator as a pet. Yeah, Bannon specifically advises against this. I think it's Rex Bannon from the beer bearing episode of The Simpsons Moses a pet store all of a sudden, Yeah,

Um and that. But that's how most um alligator attacks happen is when you try to basically adopt an alligator as a pet, right, Because these things, even if they're small, like a three foot alligator, it's tiny, and they make cute noises and they're weird looking, they will still take a bite out of you if they feel threatened. And even if you're not going to die, you're still have to you the hospital. Yeah, and and and a mother alligator will certainly attack if you're trying to take one

of her little babies as a pet um. Not a good idea. And these things we we mentioned they're not super fast on land, but they can swim like twenty Yeah that's the big deal. Like, yeah, you can outrun an alligator, and you probably can't out swim an allegy. Definitely, you definitely can't. So the ones that you and I would need to be afraid of would be one of a full grown one, maybe up to like eleven feet. Yeah,

that's large. These are the ones that could look at us and be like, I might be able to get that down my gullet in one bite, so let me try, or at least a small kid, you know. Um. The thing is that even these big ones, like you say, they're more scared of us than we are of them. Yeah, maybe at the very least, they don't want to be anywhere around us typically. Yeah, and they don't want to be in a fight either, like any kind of prey that's going to fight back. There's not interesting though you

said they're lazy. They want something easy that they can just Hey, look at that turtle. Okay, I got one for you, smart guy. How about whenever you're like paddling down the okay finocchi, and there's an alligator on land and all of a sudden it comes into the water towards you. Is that not aggressive? That is not aggressive? You know what that is? What? It's the alligator feeling threatened and feeling way more at home in the water where they can hide except their little eyeballs that are

on top of their head. Right. So they're not coming after you. You've just startled the alligator and it just so happens to be to seem like it's coming towards you. It's just going back to its home. I get what you are. If you're in a canoe and you see fifteen alligators on land all of a sudden jump in the water towards you, you think they're coming to attack me and kill me and overturn a bote. I've seen Temple of Doom. Yeah, and that's gonna happen. Did that

happen to Temple of Doom? There was a guy who got rolled? Oh yes, and like, you know, are you thinking of romancing the stone? I maybe? Okay, you have a good memory. But tell them about rolling, the most terrifying thing that can no doubt happen to a human. Okay, So we said that, you know, alligators don't want to attack you, they don't want to eat you. They still will attack and they still will eat you under certain circumstances,

especially if you happen to be in pieces at the time. Um. But the way that an alligator will attack you or it's food or whatever prey it's going after, it clamps down with its jaws, which are substantial, and it does what's called the death roll, where it rolls over and over and over again, taking its prey with it on this little ride from hell um. And typically the alligators

prey dies from drowning from being rolled. Because an alligator can hold its breath for up to an hour, it has no problem with death rolling for as long as it likes um. It also has nostrils on its snout so it can keep his jaws clamped and still breathe while it's death rolling as well. You can't do any of this thing. So if you an alligator get you

in a death roll, you're in big trouble. Yes, agreed, But again we should point out the numbers bear out the idea that alligators don't really want to have anything to do with us, right, but they still call it a death roll and not a severe injury roll. You know, once you're in the death roll, it's your toast right. So um again though, if you if you look at the numbers, there's like four alligator attacks in the United

States a year since nineteen forty eight. The Fish and Wildlife Service reports three hundred and fifty six alligator attacks on humans since twenty five or fatal. Yeah, and they think nine of those the victim was already dead. So I guess it has happened upon a dude that had a heart attack. Insta. This guy's in four pieces too. It's my lucky day, good eating. So the numbers are on your side, and that this is not because they

are not around. Because they also point out that in Florida alone, um, they average about twelve thousand complaints a year, and I mentioned Pensacola. My family cousins grew up there in Gulf Freeze, and they had you know, they would go out for school one day and there's an alligator in the front yard. Let's go out the side door.

And they would call and that's one of the complaints, Like, hey, I got an alligator in the front yard and they I guess someone come by and take care of it by shooting it, probably back into the woods or replacing it. I don't think they would just like shoot to kill or anything like that. Uh, you know, they usually take its head off with a shovel. They don't shoot it. That's not the or a shoe, the heel of the shoe. What does an alligator complaints sound like? This alligator is

looking at me? Is an alligator looking at me? Can come do something about it? Yeah? That's an alligator can plant pretty much is they're they're not where they are where they should not be, which is in my on my property. Or again though we're maybe where we should not be, which is in an alligator's house. It's to heck up a point. They lived right on the bay um, all right, So if an alligator get to you in the mouth or gets the prey in the mouth, they are going to let go at a certain point to

get ready to swallow you. Well, it's in its death roll. Yeah, so they don't like, No, it's like after the death roll, they juggle you around to get you in a good position to eat. They don't like just start chomping down right, because they can't move those huge jaws very easily. No, but they're very strong, So you're not gonna get out

of an alligator's jaw. But they do recommend if you are attacked, Um, this could be a very risky way to get away is to wait for like play dead and wait for them to release you to try and swallow you. Yeah, that's and it's specifically that's your last ditch effort, and it's an extremely risky one. Becau is once you're in the death roll. Again, they don't call

it a severe injury role. Um, once you feel an alligator clamped down on you, you want to act immediately, and you by acting, you want to scream, you want to yell. You're gonna make as much noise is entirely possible. Because again, alligators are lazy. They go for low hanging fruit or low hanging crawfish meat. Yeah. Um, and if you put up any resistance, they're gonna be like, attack with this, I'm gonna go after something that doesn't yell. Don't like my diving things to yell at. I mean,

it's just depressing, you know. Yeah, and it's probably going to be your instinct unless you go into like shock or something. So do what comes naturally, which is flail and scream and hit them. And then if you can, just like the old shark snout, if you can actually get your wits about you, try and jam a finger in their eyeball, which is a good method for stopping

any kind of attack. I think it's like the eject button. Yeah, during an attack humans, any kind of animal, the gugs their eye, they're gonna be like, dude, I only got two of those and al yeah and al all right. So that's how to get out. That's how to prevent the death roll. Um. If you again, though, if you are in a death roll, pretty much, try playing dead nice knowing you yeah, because either you're gonna play dead or you're gonna be dead one or the other. Uh So.

Crocodiles are a little more aggressive, and that's probably why alligators get a little more of a bad rap um. Crocodiles have been known to come after folks here and there if you're if you're hanging out fishing on the shore line, especially if you're cleaning your fish on the shore line. That's a bad move. It's a very bad move. And um, they are especially aggressive where and uh Africa and um, South America or Australia. Australia. Of course they're

aggressive in Australia. Oh that's where crocodile dundee phone. That's right. So um, we've coached people on how to fight back. Yeah, and Chuck, let's take a step back. We're giving detailed instructions on what to do if you're attacked by an alligator crocodile. Does it ever occur to you that we do stuff like this sometimes? Sure, it's crazy, it is crazy. Ahead,

it's crazy, as my wife says. Um. All right, So the two reasons you might get attacked by an alligator or crocodile is, like we said earlier, if you're messing around with their family. Um, or you're just in their territory and it's feeding time and you're caught unaware mating season, which is early to midsummer. Yeah, that's when the adult males will come after you. Careful, Hey, I don't want

you trying to hunt my lady. It's my lady. And that brings us Josh to the to me one of the best sentences on our website, which is, many attacks occur, I'm sorry to sentences. Many attacks occur as a result of people teasing or trying to capture alligators. Throwing sticks and rocks at alligators may seem harmless, but doing so creates a dangerous situation. Wow. Yeah, it may seem harmless. I read that was like, who thinks throwing rocks and

an alligators are harmless? Act? What's this gonna harm? Unless you're like Damien from the Omen. You know what kind of sick twisted kid does this? Sick twisted kid future serial killers? All right, so it's not harmless at all. It's very harmful. Yeah, don't throw rocks at any living thing, jerk um. And you said when you were on your okay Finocchi canoe trip that you know you couldn't see very far down into the water. Typically you want to

avoid swimming in just that kind of water. If you want to avoid being, you know, an alligator encounter, let's call it that. That's super PC. If you want to avoid an alligator encounter, um, you want to swim in areas where the water is pretty clear and you can see pretty deep into it, and areas that are well groomed, not a lot of shrubbery and grasses and muckiness for an alligator to hide him. Yeah, and don't send little Timmy down there with his uh beach ball to play

along the shoreline of the grassy shoreline. If your dad, like we said, don't clean your fish out right there by the shore line. Moms can clean fish too. Uh, that's a that's a good point. Thanks. In fact, in some families, dad catches the fish, mom cleans the fish. In some families, mom catches the fish and dad cleans the fish. And in some families nobody fishes. Just buy a fish at the store, you just go to you know, Arthur Treachers. Emily would never clean fish. Are you kidding me? Oh? Yeah,

good lord? You mean said she loves cleaning fish? Really she where she grew up. Yeah, I could see that because you got spunk, Emily. If you'd handed a knife and to cut this fish's head off. She would she'd be like, are you kidding me? What kind of a joke is this. Let's just go to Arthur Treachers. Yeah, exactly. You got anything else? Um? Yeah, I do have something else? Um you said if you're uh, your cousins would call the Fish and Wildlife Service when they saw an alligator.

If you see an alligator, no matter how small, you want to alert everybody else too that there's alligators because if you see a baby one, there might be a mom um. And also, don't feed alligators. That's a good point. The reason why is you are basically writing their death sense, right, which is a weird thing to write, but that's what you're doing. Um, because alligators who are fed sometimes lose their fear of humans and making may come close enough

for a terrible alligator encounter. And any any alligator that's seen, you know, approaching a human not out of fear, is going to um, it's going to be put down. You shouldn't feed any wildlife like that, really because there especially once I can kill you though. Yeah, they're pretty good at finding their own food, right until you start feeding them. Then they become less good at that and it just hurts everybody. Basically, you upset the circle of life to

turn it into an a rhombus. Yep. Uh. If you want to know more about alligators and zigzags and you want to see a photo of a person holding a detect human arm from an alligator attack and it's crazy, you can type in alligator zigzag in the search part how stufforks dot com. It will bring up this article. And I said, search bars means it's time for a listener mail. But first, chuck, it's getting to be about

that time. We're like a week or so out from the premiere of our television show Stuff you Should Know on Science Channel. That's right. So it's quick plug time, yes, as we like to call it, Saturday, January Science Channel ten pm Eastern and ten thirty because we're showing two episodes on premiere night, back to back after season three premiere of Idiot Abroad, which is great, so, uh watch it and hey, you can get on an itune the day following the show. Yeah, Sunday mornings, wake up, have

some brunch, a little bloody Mary, download the show. That's right, and you know what Science Channel is offering the premier show for free. That's very nice of them. It is very nice. They taken care of us like the cor Leone. But I hope not. You didn't do dead. Not if we stand there good I think? Okay, okay, so listener me. All right, guys, I'm gonna call this meth another one about math meth mania. How about that? Uh just finished listening to the podcast, and I thought I would share

my experience. I've never used meth um, but I do have bipolar disorder, and the manias I experience have some remarkable core llaries with being high on met. I know about these similarities from reading about people's experiences tweaking shows like yours, and friends who have actually used meth and some who still do. During manias, I will stay up for long periods of time. I think sixty hours straight was the longest I've ever been without sleep. I cannot eat.

I cannot even think about eating. UH talk a mile a minute, talk so fast in my head that I don't even realize I am skipping sentences so people can't follow what I'm saying. I can focus on a little weird task like you mentioned. I want to UH decided to transcribe r M s it's the end of the world as we know it of a CD player stopping it and starting it. Mania. This is the only time I drink, which is a bad thing because of my medications. I will walk for hours listening to my iPod because

music is so amazingly rich and meaningful. Um. During about the mania once I was pacing the halls of the hospital, and I could feel every nerve firing, every muscle cell tightening and releasing to make me walk. Yeah. Because of these feelings that happened during mania, there are many people with bipolar who will use meth to recapture that feeling, especially in the throws uh in the opposite pole of soul sucking depression. Once my psychiatrist and I decided to

take a very brief course of methyl finidate riddling. I think it's it's a certain type of riddle. UM. I had a paradoxical reaction by that time. By the time I had taken two doses, I slept for twenty hours. When I was awake, I was acutely intensely suicidal. So no Infanta means for me, that's probably a good idea. I wanted to emphasize that meth does play on the brain's existing systems, that the brain itself can even use itself under unusual circumstances. I'm sure what that means. I

think you just explained. Okay, manias can be very destructive though guys, it doesn't. Uh, but it does not affect your dentist bills excusing math. And that is from Serena Bodine Clark, and she said, go ahead and read my name. I think this is cool. That's awesome a lot. Serena appreciate that, agreed. Um, let's see alligat your story crackadox. Yeah, I why not? Have you got one a good one? Not like you came up on my yard and yelled at me right now, I complained bloodshed only please um uh.

You can tweet to us as always at s y ESK podcast. You can send us a nice little note or missive on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know, and you can send us a good old fashion email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com m brought to you by the two thousand twelve Toyota Camera. It's ready. Are you