True Facts: The Rise of the Kitten Snake

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Watching the badger burry the cow makes me think we might have an explanation for missing hikers whose bodies were never found

So back in the 1970s, my dad told my mom that Fermi Labs used ferrets to clean the particle accelerator. She did not believe this. Being in an era before the internet was available to civilians, took it upon herself to call the laboratory directly to confirm this. Apparently this fact was correct. A ferret was fitted with a harness and attached to a rope, and then ran through the apparatus. In turn the rope would be used to maneuver the cleaning equipment. Some twenty years later my parents are taking the family to a science museum in Aurora Illinois. (SciTech, brand now at the time, but which unfortunately closed in 2022.) In the rush to get five kids in the car for a long road trip they misjudged the opening time, and arrived too early for admittance. Staff are present, however, and let us in - allowing us a private museum for a few hours. As we're getting ready to leave, we share the above story about ferrets with the people working there. As it turns out, many of the staff are form Fermi Labs employees, and the manager in fact volunteered his pet for the job. It was named Felecia.

I love how Frank kept rambling about bee farts but the "shoot acid from their nipples" flew right past him. Good job Jerry

“Kitten snake” is far superior to my college ferret’s nickname, “stretch rat”

Years ago, I was hiking in Waterton Lakes (Canadian side of Glacier Nat'l Park) when a chipmunk dropped right in front of me – blood coming from its neck. I stopped cold and waited, and in about 2 minutes, I heard a rustling in the brush to my left, then I saw a little weasel about the width of my thumb and about 10" long peering out at the dead rodent. He looked right in my eyes as I just stood there as still as possible. After another couple minutes, he worked up the courage to come out and grab his prize, and then dragged it (easily 2-3 times his mass) up the entire trunk of a tree by its neck. I was absolutely floored. I asked a ranger about it when I got back to the trailhead and he said that it was definitely a Least Weasel and I was very lucky to have seen it, since they are almost exclusively nocturnal hunters. Such a badass little critter.

That python wrapped around the honey badger is now examining its life choices. Many can learn from it.

Fun fact: a certain character WAS going to named "The Badger" by co-creator Roy Thomas, but since "badger" meant "to annoy" he went with "The Wolverine" because he wanted a tough Canadian animal.

4:29 "You have to admit: It's pretty metal using a corpse as neck support" Well, that's T-shirt material.

Nice to see that Ze has kept Jerry around. Not the most reliable assistant, but he do has enthusiasm for what he do.

You are 100% correct about Honey Badgers not farting bees. They fart Murder Hornets and laugh maniacally the whole time they do it.

Best line : "You wanna sell your car to a weasel...? ...Do it in January!"

Playing tug of war with a snake is the most metal thing I've seen all day.

I remember winning a tree from a squirrel in a territory dispute. True story. My family loves telling it to folks. I was outside my grandparents house and noticed a gray squirrel was thumping its front paws on a tree trunk and making a pretty loud "virrup" sound. I stood at the base of the tree and tapped my nails on the trunk in the same pattern and did my best to mimic the squirrel's call. It would do its display, I would then do mine. It went on for probably half an hour or so. Eventually, the squirrel looked really ticked off, chittered at me, jumped to another tree and took off. I was there for a week and it didn't come back. No squirrels were around any of those trees for several days. So, yeah, I got in a turf war with a squirrel and won. 😅

"He's even got a little pill- Oh god, that's a dead mouse." That and the honey badger and the jackel playing tug of war with that python while he regrets his life choices are definitely the highlights and some of my new favorite True Facts moments. I love these snake kittens. Not only are mustelids some of the most successful and widespread animals on the planet, but they make for both some of the cutest or most shocking nature videos ever. Now if only they really did fart bees.

"All badgers have the ability to fart." It seems toilet humour plus the rule of threes still works on my grown adult self. Well played, Jerry. Well played.

I watched a friend’s ferret once when she was on vacation, and I’ve never seen an animal sleep so soundly. Every other pet I’ve had wakes up and looks around at loud noises, but ferrets seem to be so fearless that they sleep like the dead no matter what’s going on around them!

Something else about otters - they’re extremely intelligent. A veterinarian involved in a breeding program for Eurasian otters said that their team noticed that the family group would leave their shellfish sitting in the sunlight for a few minutes every time they were fed things like mussels. The otters had figured out that leaving the bivalves out in the heat for just a couple minutes would make the shells open up and did that every time to avoid having to crack the shells open.

Was born and raised on a ranch in Wyoming next to the ranch where the Black-Footed Ferret was re-discovered after it was thought to be extinct. It's diet is exclusively Prairie Dogs and helps to keep them in check. Almost exclusively nocturnal. The same week the ferret was discovered 70 game biologists showed up in town... The population was finally captured entirely and selectively bred in the Sybille Canyon wildlife facility here in Wyoming, and finally built up enough numbers to reintroduce int he wild. They've been a one of the few success stories for the Endangered Species Act.

Thanks for the shout to Robert!!! His owl, kestrel, stoat and kingfisher habitats are amazing!!!! He’s the only wildlife videographer to film the nesting behavior of Kingfishers. He films gorgeous footage and crafts stories about the animals and their families that are really entertaining. He’s an incredibly talented painter and wildlife rehabilitation specialist too! I just love when he ankle tags the owlets after each mating season. He also has footage of a male kestrel Mr Kes learning to feed and care for his nestlings after the mother disappeared. They mate for long periods and the males only hunt while the females tend to the nestlings and defends them. Mrs Kes likely died so he saved his babies by learning to care for them with a bit of secret help from Robert. He has a lovely accent and the videos are very relaxing at bedtime!