National Animals - Animal Kingdom Month

Happy New Year! To celebrate a new year and a new month, we're exploring the animal kingdom with episodes dedicated to our furry, feathery, scaly friends! Quizmaster Sups is starting off with a safari of four national animals from around the world, but one of them is a bald eagle-faced lie! Do you think you can "spot" the wrong combination of country and animal? Join hosts Andi and Tanner and find out! 

Transcript

Andi 0:01

think it's Bia. Come on man, no, can you imagine making like, the white tailed deer your national animal and everyone's just like, putting them up on their walls? this is a national animal that you pick. Come on, like a bear? That's a good national

Tanner 0:16

It's This one totally makes sense. yeah. them. They're not king of all

Andi 0:21

king of all deer. What is wrong with you? Hello and welcome to this episode of I Should Have Known, the trivia game show that can't be trusted. Each week, one of our quiz masters will present you with four facts about a topic, but one of those facts is a lie. And for this month, we are diving into the animal kingdom and exploring the wonderful creatures within. And today our first quiz master is Supes.

Sups 0:47

Hello.

Andi 0:48

And Supes is going to be presenting you with four national animals. So the national animals of four different countries, except one of the animals he presents is not the national animal of the country. So join me, Andy, and our other host, Tanner, in figuring out which one it is.

Sups 1:07

Well, let's start with the pub quiz question of the week. What is the national animal of? Canada.

Andi 1:14

I kind of thought it would be a moose.

Tanner 1:17

a

Sups 1:19

It's actually the other one.

Andi 1:21

It's a beaver.

Sups 1:23

beaver was given the official status as an emblem of Canada only in like 1975, but historically because of the fur trade, beaver it's very popular in Canada. Yeah.

Andi 1:34

okay, Canada, sure.

Tanner 1:37

the beaver. Interesting. Not as majestic as other animals may be, but yeah. Very distinctly Canadian.

Sups 1:43

Correct. please! Alright, so country number one, Mongolia.

Tanner 1:47

Can

Sups 1:49

The national animal of Mongolia is Szywalski's horse,

Andi 1:53

a

Tanner 1:55

Okay. Okay.

Sups 1:56

also known as Tach Szywalski's horse is the only surviving wild horse species on the planet. Unlike domesticated horses, they have never been truly domesticated and their sort of lineage goes back Thousands of years, and of course, lots of legends, one of them being Genghis Khan. Rude. Atag Azi. Conquered

Andi 2:20

Oh, yeah. I imagine, like, this big man on, like, a

Tanner 2:23

a tiny horse.

Andi 2:25

of entertaining.

Tanner 2:26

that's very fitting as it's in Mongolia.

Sups 2:28

Yeah. This horse, is typically smaller It's about like four feet tall.

Tanner 2:34

I have heard this before. Yeah. I think I saw it in a zoo.

Andi 2:38

Maybe.

Tanner 2:39

a smaller horse.

Sups 2:40

Yeah. this horse is a symbol for strength and endurance they can survive really harsh conditions. Yes, in Mongolia, especially in the semi arid regions, the desert, The horse is actually related to the zebra and has a black stripe on its back. They usually live in a small, cohesive family groups

Tanner 3:03

and

Sups 3:07

correct.

Tanner 3:09

offspring. Native there, right? They were brought there and you're saying that like, they're not wild, they must be feral then, so they were domesticated and then they like, Got out,

Sups 3:21

out. Yeah, correct. And at one point, this Szybalski's horse was declared extinct. in the wild during the 1960s, but then the Chinese and the Mongolian government, they had conservation efforts. Right. And they were reintroduced in their natural habitats and now they're not endangered anymore.

Tanner 3:40

Nice.

Andi 3:40

yeah.

Tanner 3:42

yeah. you really force them to make more, more foals.

Andi 3:46

Okay, well, to start, a horse makes sense.

Tanner 3:50

For Mongolia? Yes, for

Andi 3:52

the region in general, right? Many, many cultures from, this region have centered around Horses. Right? like, okay, sure. the domesticated horse is native to this region. Right? That's where they were first domesticated was in central Asia. So it makes sense, like it's a very important animal. This other kind of horse, I think the horse exists. That's not the question. Is it the national animal though?

Tanner 4:16

That's what the question is. Why wouldn't it be like something that we would think of first? You know, I wouldn't guess that it was the horse. So.

Andi 4:23

just says so much about you, that you're like, I obviously would be able to guess it the first try, and the fact that I didn't means that like, they're trying to,

Sups 4:31

faking it.

Andi 4:32

or yeah, it's a fake, or they're trying to surprise

Tanner 4:34

surprise me. Yeah, the Mongolian government thought of me, and they're like, what is Tanner gonna guess?

Sups 4:39

Wow. Wow.

Andi 4:41

So, I mean, like, it might not be

Tanner 4:43

right,

Andi 4:43

but I don't really have enough information and I also feel like I don't currently have any reason to doubt

Tanner 4:50

Right. Is it the only country with this horse? Like you mentioned, China as well has helped reintroduce it. So like maybe Mongolia would have something that's more quintessentially Mongolian but I don't really know that much about Mongolia. So.

Andi 5:08

an animal is only in one country like not every animal is a

Tanner 5:11

border, it's like, oh no, I can't go in

Andi 5:12

Yeah, right like oh, I don't have my passport. I'm left in her home, you know, so like that's silly to me But like I kind of get what you're saying that We expect the National to be something emblematic. I don't know if, like, is it on their money? Is it on their seal? Like, I don't know. It could be. But for now, I'm, like, okay with it. I'm going to need to hear the other ones before I can really decide.

Sups 5:37

From Mongolia, let's go all the way to Greece. The national animal of Greece is dolphin.

Tanner 5:45

Dolphin.

Sups 5:46

So greece is home to two species of dolphin, the common dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin.

Tanner 5:53

dolphin.

Sups 5:54

If you look at Greek mythology dolphins have been featured as far back as the Minoan times. There are a lot of legends associated with it.

Andi 6:02

Yeah.

Sups 6:03

Dolphin represents themes of protection, guidance, and of course the sea. The Greek sailors and fishermen they view dolphins as like a symbol of good luck and protection.

Tanner 6:15

like smart,

Andi 6:17

and they're playful and like, smart, like they like to swim with boats, so if you're seafaring people, then, you would have quite a relationship with dolphins. Right,

Tanner 6:25

dolphins.

Sups 6:26

Mm hmm.

Tanner 6:26

You're definitely a, a cetacean nerd. I would expect you to know this. ANd they live in the Mediterranean.

Sups 6:33

right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tanner 6:35

Never really think of them there.

Andi 6:36

yeah, I mean that to me is like the surprise is like, okay, well it makes sense that a very island nation seafaring people would have a dolphin as their symbol. why have I never heard of that before, I guess? It's kind of like a little weird, or

Tanner 6:50

little weird, or like,

Andi 6:51

Yeah I definitely believe, like, there are plenty of myths about dolphins. Dolphins are an important cultural animal. It's their national symbol. I don't know. I'm kind of skeptical of that. I feel like modern governments are, like, unlikely to pick an animal like a

Tanner 7:07

the

Andi 7:08

I think they would see it as feminine.

Tanner 7:09

Maybe we should see as feminine. I would definitely agree that

Sups 7:16

I Have to make a clarification though, which might add to your confusion or clarity.

Andi 7:22

Great.

Sups 7:22

Unlike a lot of countries where you talk about national animals, dolphin is not officially designated as the national animal of Greece. Like there are no, at least I couldn't find any government documents or government listing. but in Greece, they say that this is the national animal. And in general, Greek people. agree that this is the national

Tanner 7:45

animal. Oh, what?

Sups 7:47

So a lot of countries, that's something that I also discovered while doing research for this is that in internet, there are countries listed with, okay, they have a national bird, national insect, national animal, national trees, but not all countries have, but then there is like a general. Acceptance of certain animals that while it's not maybe written in the constitution or written in some official document, it's sort of accepted that this is our national animal.

Tanner 8:16

Oh, okay.

Andi 8:17

I, think

Tanner 8:18

not

Andi 8:19

Yeah, I Because then you could say anything, You could, you could make, culturally, anything could be your

Tanner 8:24

could make an argument for a lot of animals, yeah.

Andi 8:27

I don't like that. Maybe he can find a government document that said dolphin because it's not the

Sups 8:31

dolphin because it's

Tanner 8:33

that's the lie. Hmm. It's so hard to believe that people even think of the dolphin as the national animal of Greece though. You know? Cause it's like, I don't know, I'm so much more likely to think of the national animal as a mammal, or a bird, or I guess a land mammal, or a bird, before something that lives in the sea, but then you get back to the idea of like, it's seafaring and they have lots of islands, so then that's where this comes in. Hmm. seems pretty sketchy.

Andi 8:57

Yeah.

Tanner 8:58

I guess we're halfway through. Got to hear two

Sups 9:00

more. Okay. So let's go to Zimbabwe. The national animal of Zimbabwe is the zebra.

Tanner 9:08

Okay.

Andi 9:08

Okay, So,

Sups 9:09

one Africa's most recognizable animals. The zebra was adopted as the national animal of Zimbabwe in 1981. Zimbabwe has only one species of zebra, a type of plains zebra known as the Chapman's zebra. In Zimbabwe, zebras can be hunted and zebra skins may be exported from Zimbabwe without any restrictions because no special hunting permits are required this is Commonly available and zebra is often one of the trophies people consider for their first African hunt.

Tanner 9:42

African hunt. And you

Andi 9:44

Okay.

Tanner 9:45

That's really interesting to make such a common animal your national animal because it sounds very surprising to me that you can hunt a national animal.

Andi 9:54

exactly. Like they're just shooting their nationally.

Tanner 9:56

Yeah, like imagine if it was America. Like, can I get an eagle license? I'm gonna go shoot some eagles on my land.?

Sups 10:02

Apparently it's important for the, it because there are so many of them. I

Andi 10:06

can imagine that's part of

Tanner 10:08

if you think of them as, like deer, you know, if the national animal was a super common animal like deer, you have to hunt them because like we don't have enough wolves to keep control of their population. So it makes sense.

Andi 10:20

It's just very funny to me that you're like, Yeah, come hunt our national

Tanner 10:24

know. Australians

Sups 10:26

mean, the Australians eat kangaroo meat, right? And it's their national animal. They

Andi 10:30

animal,

Tanner 10:31

Okay. Yeah. Lots that's what I mean, like, the American concept of a national animal is kind of like the really emblematic one, and Zimbabwe with zebras, it makes sense that like, they're everywhere. So you think of Zimbabwe, you think of zebra.

Andi 10:43

think it's Bia. Come on man, no, can you imagine making like, the white tailed deer your national animal and everyone's just like, putting them up on their walls? I don't know, this is just silly to me. I think something else as their national

Tanner 10:56

Yeah.

Andi 10:56

YEah, like, it's not impossible, but like, also, there are zebras everywhere.

Tanner 11:00

everywhere. There's

Andi 11:01

Like, there are a lot of countries that have

Tanner 11:03

Right.

Andi 11:03

So, to be like, sorry, zebras are, is a little bit like, I don't know, why don't you pick a cooler

Tanner 11:08

a cooler animal. I really want,

Andi 11:11

really want, in the bonus cut, you to tell the story of how a zebra rescued you.

Tanner 11:17

how a zebra rescued

Andi 11:19

Tanner was rescued by a zebra once. It was very funny.

Sups 11:23

Kenya?

Andi 11:23

It's in

Tanner 11:24

Tanzania.

Andi 11:26

I don't know. Yeah, I just find that kind of suspicious.

Tanner 11:30

Yeah, yeah.

Andi 11:31

Yeah. Yeah. Like, really? That's your animal? Right. Come Like a chicken. So, I don't know. That's sketchy. I don't know.

Tanner 11:39

I'm suspicious of that. one more,

Sups 11:41

One more. Let's go to Finland. national animal It's a brown bear. It's a scientific name, Ursus arctos.,

Andi 11:52

yeah. yeah. The

Sups 11:56

Bear, the brown bear is so important for Finland that they have over 200 different names to call a bear. Yes. In their language,

Tanner 12:06

times?

Sups 12:07

The brown bears of Finland are very unique, and they're only found in the northern parts of the country.

Tanner 12:13

country.

Sups 12:14

So there are some legends. There was like a terrible drought in the Sámi community and they were deprived of food and meat, the brown bears, they were watching this event. And one of the brown bear showed up and he said, Listen, you don't have any food to eat. Why don't you kill me? And eat my meat

Tanner 12:31

you

Andi 12:32

eat. my flesh so that you may survive. You know,

Sups 12:34

and the Sami people, they were so overwhelmed with such a generous offer. So, of course, they killed the bear. They fed all the children. Everybody survived. And as a way of showing respect to the deceased bear, they arranged its bones in the same order. As they existed in the body, except the skull they hung the skull on trees, believing that the soul of the bear would reside there and bless them with peace and harmony.

Andi 13:01

Okay. Yeah. So

Tanner 13:02

So convenient that the bear came up and said, eat me. Yeah, I

Andi 13:05

yeah. I give you a free pass to eat me.

Tanner 13:08

Nice story.

Andi 13:10

So yeah, this one is like, this is a national animal that you pick. Come on, like a bear? That's a good national

Tanner 13:15

It's formidable, it's very Very majestic, right?

Andi 13:20

Sure.

Tanner 13:20

This one totally makes sense. yeah.

Andi 13:22

Feels kind of familiar. It's like, yeah. Bear.

Tanner 13:25

European brown

Andi 13:26

I mean, but that at the same time, it's not Russia's animal.

Tanner 13:29

Mm.

Andi 13:30

you know how Finns feel about Russia.

Tanner 13:33

Yeah. you don't want Neighboring countries to have the same national animal.

Andi 13:37

But I mean, I guess it also makes sense because that's where they

Tanner 13:39

Yeah, right.

Andi 13:40

the only other animal that I could think of as being emblematic of Finland would be like a reindeer.

Tanner 13:45

That's exactly what I would

Andi 13:46

But I don't think that. is one.

Tanner 13:48

That's really hard because I think It would be more likely to have reindeer as the national

Andi 13:54

No way. You want to put a deer on

Tanner 13:56

here? Yeah, because they're so unique, like there's, brown bears are like very widespread, Reindeer are not. So I think that that's where they would go. They would go with a more unique one.

Andi 14:05

Nah, a bear's better than a reindeer. Come

Tanner 14:08

mean it's not like you're picking animals for a battle or something.

Andi 14:11

are so twerpy. Like, You did an entire episode on reindeer one year. So you know how,

Tanner 14:18

like I would make it my national animal.

Andi 14:20

Wow. Okay, so we heard the four animals, but one of them is not the national animal of the country that you mentioned. Before we take our guests, can you repeat the country and the animals for us?

Sups 14:31

Yes. Number one, Mongolia, Szywalski's horse. Number two, Greece, dolphin. Number three, Zimbabwe, zebra. Number four, Finland, brown bear. One of these combinations is not correct.

Tanner 14:59

Alright. They're all kind of hard to believe. I actually think the Mongolian one's the easiest to

Andi 15:04

the horse, yeah, right?

Tanner 15:06

I could think of some other animals it could be, but compared to the other three, that sounds the most believable.

Andi 15:10

Mhmm. I'm

Tanner 15:11

But I'm really stuck on this reindeer thing. For Finland.

Andi 15:13

Nah, you shouldn't be.

Tanner 15:15

Uh huh.

Andi 15:16

I feel like the horse and the bear are the most like okay with. I don't like this dolphin thing

Tanner 15:22

Mm

Andi 15:23

I feel like if it's not official, it's not a national animal. So then maybe that's the lie.

Tanner 15:29

that's

Andi 15:29

But why would he say that.

Tanner 15:30

consider that.

Andi 15:31

think it's probably the zebra. He's just being like, you guys don't know about African countries. So I'm just going to say a random animal and yeah, you're not going to know.

Tanner 15:43

and then Zimbabwe, you know it's an African country, but you don't actually know any facts about

Andi 15:47

it. Yeah.

Tanner 15:48

Hmm.

Andi 15:49

And then just being like, we shoot our national animal. Like, I don't know, man,

Tanner 15:52

be a red flag.

Andi 15:53

Yeah. I think it's that one.

Tanner 15:55

Okay, I think it's the

Andi 15:58

You are really stuck on the

Tanner 15:59

Yep, I'm definitely going with Finland. I think, it's not the bear. It's some other animal, and I'm willing to bet it's the reindeer.

Andi 16:05

All right.

Sups 16:06

Okay, So let's start with Mongolia. The Swarovski's horse. It is indeed the national animal

Tanner 16:13

All right.

Sups 16:14

Mongolia. For Greece, dolphin is indeed the national animal.

Tanner 16:19

Or as close as they can get to a national anthem.

Sups 16:21

the closest that you can get I didn't find any other source that contested this idea that this isn't the national animal. You picked Zimbabwe? Zebra. and you picked the bear. And he tried to convince you,

Tanner 16:35

Tim

Sups 16:36

yet you didn't want to be

Tanner 16:38

convinced. I

Andi 16:40

gave you

Sups 16:44

I gave you such a nice story for the brown

Tanner 16:47

brown bear,

Sups 16:52

It isn't. It is the brown

Tanner 16:53

Yeah, no one,

Andi 16:54

Yeah. We've been to Finland, and you've seen the reindeer running on the side of the road. Yes. We literally talked about They're like little twerp deer and you want that. They get hit by cars. Like, you know, that's like, we were making jokes about how, like why would you have like. White tailed deer as your animal

Tanner 17:10

understand them. They're not king of all

Andi 17:13

king of all deer. What is wrong with you? so tiny and

Tanner 17:19

what that means. Oh, that's the

Andi 17:22

that means. Oh, that's the wrong rain.

Sups 17:26

Okay. All right. So the combination of Zimbabwean zebra, of course, is the incorrect one. Zimbabwe's national animal is the sable antelope.

Andi 17:38

Oh! Not

Sups 17:40

everything I said about the zebra true. That you hunt.

Andi 17:45

Oh, they do hunt the zebra

Sups 17:47

in Zimbabwe. They hunt. They hunt. wherever zebras are available in Africa, in all the countries, you can hunt.

Andi 17:53

So sable antelope. Tell us about this. It's black, I'm assuming?

Sups 17:58

it's black. they usually in herds, And they like to be by themselves, but if you trouble them, then they will come attack you.

Tanner 18:06

Oh!

Sups 18:07

yes.

Tanner 18:07

They're like, territorial,

Sups 18:09

very territorial. Yes. and their horn like very specific horn

Andi 18:14

Oh, whoa. It is a very majestic beast. it's horns go

Tanner 18:19

Back.

Andi 18:19

they're big and long and they go back.

Sups 18:21

Yeah,

Tanner 18:22

Oh, that's cool.

Sups 18:23

like

Tanner 18:25

oh, yeah. yeah.

Andi 18:26

That's a good national animal. That's like majestic Not torpy like a green deer.

Tanner 18:31

I don't know Wow. I should have known.

Andi 18:34

Yeah, I should have known. Thanks for listening to this episode of I Should Have Known. We're continuing our exploration of the animal kingdom next week. Tanner is going to be presenting you with for more endangered animals, so it's a part two kind of sequel, if you will. And as always,