FACTORALY - E69 GUINEA PIGS

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

They're cute, fluffy, fun, and, in some parts of the world, delicious, too. This time, we're investigating Guinea Pigs. As always, click on the pictures to go down a Guinea Pig Warren. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi Simon. Hi Bruce. How are you today? I'm Jim Dandy, thank you very much. How are you? I want to say I'm Jim Dandyandy but it's the first time i've ever heard that expression so i'll just say i'm okay thanks very good jim dandy i think is american as well like like okay oh okay okay i seem to remember hearing that um okay actually comes from a native american word nobody knows oh one of those is it it's one of those where there's like seven different versions of why it's why it's there nobody really knows oh one of those is it it's one of those where there's like seven different versions of why it's why it's there and nobody really knows which one's real what a shame but then we are starting with facts because that's what we do straight in straight off the bat yes

because here at fact orally that's what we do we um come up with uh facts for people because we're nerds because there are so many people sitting at home thinking to themselves, I wish I knew more about X. Yeah. So we come along and we give you all the facts that you need to know. Actually, they don't normally. They go, why are these guys talking about this? Yes, that's true. That's probably more like it.

Because we do. I mean, there are things that we've talked about that people are interested in, like Vikings. And there are things we talk about that people aren't interested in. Like today. Yes. Sorry about this, guys. It'll be fine. Don't worry.

We have a random subject picker. And I'm not sure how this subject got into the random subject picker, but it's definitely random. It is random, yeah. Yeah. Let's put them out of their misery. We're talking about guinea pigs today. Yes. How exciting. I know. their misery. We're talking about guinea pigs today. Yes. How exciting.

I know. I mean... Well, it depends. If you like guinea pigs, there's lots of variety of types. If you're a guinea pig fancier, then this is the episode for you. A fancier. You'll be chuffed with this one. Yes. If you're not, then buckle up so guinea pigs yes they're not from guinea and they're not related to pigs

no i've been simon wells thank you good night well however um guinea used to be a word that meant like from somewhere else yes that's right yes which is which is one version of it the other the other version of it is that that's what they used to cost yes i've heard this well the guineas around when you were sort of young no well they were with me i i remember sending invoices out um in guineas in guineas because it's cool i mean a guinea is basically one pound and five p or a pound and a shilling although it used to be because it was made of gold, its value would fluctuate. But then the Bank of England said, no, it's worth a pound and five p. Right.

Okay, fine. One pound and a shilling. And they were a reasonable size coin. Not as massive as like a crown or something like that. But they were a reasonable size. And some people say it was because um guinea pigs cost a guinea yes a pound and a shilling yes and some people say it's because they're about the size which i don't believe because i've i've got a five pound coin and that

is not as big as a guinea pig no absolutely absolutely there is there is one teeny tiny flaw with this hypothesis, which I found, which is to say that the guinea, the coin, was first minted in England in the year 1663. Yep. The term guinea pig was first written down in 1653. So guinea pigs were being mentioned 10 years before the first guinea came out ah okay so there's an issue with that so it could just be that first um thing that i mentioned which is guinea being from somewhere foreign there are so many different suggestions there's one that uh when guinea pigs first came to europe they're originally from south america peru and the andes specifically yes there's one suggestion that says when they were first brought back to Europe,

they went via Guinea in Africa and they stopped there for a while. So when they arrived from Europe, they were coming from Guinea. That makes sense. Another suggestion is that it's a mispronunciation of a place in South America called Guyana. Okay. called guiana okay so on the topic of their name breeders guinea pig breeders call them kv kvs spelt c-a-v-y okay that used to be an expression when you went to like for watch out at school i did it kv chaps oh interesting yeah i didn't know that. I wonder if it's related. Guinea pig, chaps. Scientifically, their Latin name is cavia porcellus.

That's got pig in it then. Which has got pig in it. Right. So a lot of languages actually have the word pig in the name. In Portuguese, they're called pochitas da India, meaning little pigs from India. Okay. In German, they're called meerschweinchen, which means little sea pig. So a lot of countries have pig in their name, but still no real reason.

I suppose they're small and stocky. They eat a lot. They squeal. They squeal. You can eat them. So maybe it's all related. I don't know. But yes, Latin cavia, which in itself probably comes from a south american word cabiai meaning rat so it may be potentially

that their name kind of means rat pig okay which i'd actually be happier with than guinea pig rat pig yeah yeah but i mean you do I mean, guinea pigs and lab rats. Yes, of course. Yes. All connected, isn't it? Yeah. Shall we talk about guinea pigs? Go on then. Guinea pigs have been used in laboratory experiments. Yes, they have. But human guinea pigs, much more interesting. Okay. So a lot of scientists seem to think it's a good idea to test things on themselves and on other people. Yes.

There was a guy in 1923, a guy called Fred Banting, gave himself mustard gas, like a mustard gas burn, to test a treatment for mustard gas burns. The guy who invented blood types, Karl Landsteiner, he used his own blood to test blood types. There's a chap, he decided to test himself with sterilized human cancers, Gerhard Dommags. Some very odd people. And obviously, famously, Marie and Pierre Curie routinely expose themselves to radiation. Yeah, yeah. If you're eating, listening to this podcast, stop it now. Stop the eating or stop the podcast?

Stop eating. There was a chap called Barry Marshall who drank a broth of bacteria from a sick patient to prove that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori was the cause of stomach ulcers. This is an audio podcast, so no one can see the face that I'm currently pulling. No, exactly. Margaret Widdleston, she put herself on a starvation diet to determine that a healthy diet could be had from the foods that were available during the Second World War. So she's proving that that ration diet could be had from the foods that were available during the Second World War. Right, okay.

So she's proving that that ration diet was actually quite healthy for you. So there have been quite a few scientists who have subjected themselves to experiments as human guinea pigs. Yes. You can actually volunteer yourself as a guinea pig if you want. There are websites where you can find out what experimentation is taking place. You can earn quite a bit of money at it. I've seen this. Yeah, my social media feeds regularly pop up with,

would you like to come and be a test subject for this, that, and the other? Yeah, I mean, you can earn like $6,000 a month. Crikey. Just for testing stuff. Huh. I mean, classically in this country, we have like cold research centers. Yes, we do. To test the common cold and things.

And you can earn a bit of money doing that or just testing drugs. Right. Is this one of those moments where we have to say we're not recommending this? We're just saying that it's a thing that exists? Yeah, go on then. Okay, fine. Yeah, so human guinea pigs are so called because guinea pigs without the human bit were the original lab rats and mice and and so on okay what's special about a guinea pig so guinea pigs

seem to have a very similar immune system to humans they're susceptible to a lot of the same diseases that humans are. They can catch viruses, they can catch colds, and their immune systems fight them in a similar way. Guinea pigs have the same relationship to vitamin C that humans do, in as much that we can't synthesize it. We have to have it from our diet, whereas a lot of other animals don't need that. But guinea pigs were used in medical testing ever since the 17th century. So sort of fairly soon after they came to Europe in the first place. They didn't rub them over people.

Not that I know of, no. But yeah, so they've been used in testing ever since, rightly or wrongly, depending on your point of view. But in 1882, guinea pigs were used to discover what causes tuberculosis. In 1907, guinea pigs were used in research that led to the discovery of vitamin C in the first place. And they've been used in research for diphtheria, TB, heart replacements, heart valve replacements, blood transfusions, kidney dialysis, antibiotics, and even asthma medicines. Crikey. So they can get a lot of the same things that humans get, and they process them in the same way. They have very similar responses to drugs and medicines that we as humans use.

So they're quite good test subjects. I can see why they would be popular as guinea pigs. As guinea pigs. Exactly. So synonymous were guinea pigs with medical testing, that's why we have the term being a guinea pigs. As guinea pigs, exactly. So synonymous were guinea pigs with medical testing that that's why we have the term being a guinea pig. That's fabulous. Talking of humans and guinea pigs, did you know there are more bones in a guinea pig than there are in a human? No, I didn't. Yeah, so adult humans have 206 bones in their bodies adult guinea pigs have 258 that's 50 more crikey to be fair most of that's in their legs how is it their front legs have 43 bones each oh and their back legs have 36 bones each. They're quite clumsy.

And now you know why. Yeah, sure. They have a lot of bones in their legs. Wow. Yes, they're natural scurriers, aren't they? I've never had a pet guinea pig. I don't really have much experience of them, except for sort of seeing them in petting zoos and children's farms and things like that.

But they do tend to scurry around quite a lot and um they do this little jumping thing when they're excited or enthusiastic it's similar to um see our previous episode on ferrets similar to the weasel war dance yes or um or on rabbits they they do this thing called binkying when they just sort of bounce around that's right and zoomies and things yeah exactlyies and things, yes, exactly. In guinea pig terms, this is called popcorning. Like the song? Yes, just like the song. I'm now going to forever think of that song with a guinea pig bouncing around.

But yes, it's just an expression of their joy and their happiness and their enthusiasm. In the wild, again, much like ferrets do, they use it as a distraction to sort of evade predators. So in the wild, they roam around in herds. When I first heard the term herd of guinea pigs, I thought that just sounds ridiculous, but not massive herds.

They sort of have seven or eight females, one male and all of their kids, and they sort of graze around in herds they they sort of have seven or eight females one male and all of their kids and they they sort of graze around in herds just eating eating grass as they go um so when they are attacked they sort of dart this way and that way and scatter themselves and confuse the predators so to uh to avoid them. To continue the porcine similarity, male guinea pigs are called boars and female guinea pigs are called sows. Gosh. Guess what their baby guinea pigs are called? Piglets. Pups. Ah, okay. I don't know why. I don't know why they decided to end the connection there. They didn't always used to be small, though, did they?

Did they not? No. Did they shrunk? Well, no, they used to be huge. Right. So early guinea pigs, the ancestors of guinea pigs, like sort of 8 million years ago. Okay. You know, the proto-guinea pig, if you like. There were some scientists and archaeologists in Venezuela who discovered what was nicknamed Guinezilla.

Oh, my goodness. So Guinezilla was an 8 million year old creature that had 20 centimeter long teeth and was thought to be semi-aquatic. Oh. And that roamed in packs, not herdsds and dined on seagrasses how interesting sounds just think they think it died out because it was so big it couldn't escape danger but yeah a of guinea pig? Only 13? Only 13. There are several unofficial ones.

Ah, okay. Because I read 25. Oh, did you? But no, you're right, because it says that most countries accept that there are sort of 13. Exactly that. So there are 13 official ones. I read this in particular on the American KV Breeders Association. So again, the word KV popping in instead of guinea pig. ones this i read this in particular on the american kv breeders association so again the word kv popping instead of guinea pig they recognize 13 official breeds including the coronet the abyssinian silky peruvian satin teddy etc etc and then there are sub breeds and there

are interbreeds and there are specifically designed breeds that breeders have put together in order to make particularly good pets. There are also a couple of breeds of hairless guinea pigs, which are some of the ugliest creatures I've ever seen in my life. They've been nicknamed, I like this, the skinny pig. Skinny pig. Because they're just skin. Yeah, I mean, because the hair on a guinea pig is the pretty bit. You can get very long-haired guinea pigs. You can, can't you? Which look like

tribbles. They sort of remind me of Dougal the dog from Magic Roundabout. Yes. No legs or body, just a pile of hair. Yes. Going back to their origins in South America, they were sort of worshipped at one point. The Moshi people of Peru used to worship them. Yes. And they existed from about sort of like 100 AD to around 800 AD. And they're believed to have actually worshipped guinea pigs. They've got images and depictions of guinea pigs in their artworks and statues.

Yes. in their artworks and statues. And in fact, talking of art featuring a guinea pig, there's a painting by a local artist in Peru in Cusco that was done in 1755, which is of the Last Supper at Cusco Cathedral in Peru. It shows Jesus and the disciples eating roasted guinea pigs. The disciples also seem to be drinking some sort of fermented maize beer okay but you know they're sort of taking the gospel and making it their own aren't they absolutely absolutely you know i think jesus sitting down for a for a guinea pig supper i mean you you would have i mean we're not going to go into this in major detail although i do have some recipes which I can put on the blog.

Ah, where would people find that then? If you go to factorily.com. Factorily.com. That's the one. You'll find a show notes page about each of the episodes we've done. Dozens and dozens of them. Yeah. And they're all terrible because they all take you down.

No, they're all terribly good. Yeah, well. They all drag you down. I was going to say rabbit holes, but we're talking about guinea pigs. Guinea pig holes, yeah. Absolutely. So you mentioned guinea pigs being eaten by the disciples in that painting.

They were and still are eaten in particular in South America. Yes were and still are eaten, particularly in South America. Yes. Special occasions, though. Special occasions for the wealthy and so on. I think they were first, it's suggested, they were first domesticated in South America

around 5000 BC. Wow. Primarily for their meat. It was only the Europeans who really took them on as pets because they're all cute and fluffy and that's the way we work. But up until then, they were primarily used for food, except in this civilization that you mentioned that worshipped them. There was another civilization, the Incas sacrificed guinea pigs to their gods and then ate the leftovers. So yeah, they have been eaten for a long time.

They have. And also mentioning that painting as well, I found another painting in 1580, which is the first known painting of a guinea pig from England. This painting now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and it shows three Elizabethan children dressed in their finery, one of them holding a pet guinea pig. And that's kind of how they were seen.

They were exotic creatures. They were only bought and sold as pets by the wealthy. They were owned by some quite well-known people. I mean, Theodore Roosevelt owned some guinea pigs. Wasn't he the one who had animals on his front lawn and stuff? Oh, he had all sorts of things. He had a bear. He had several dogs and chickens and all sorts.

But he did have five pet guinea pigs. Right. Okay. Here we go. Go on. Admiral Dewey, Dr. Johnson, Bishop Duane, Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O'Grady. Oh, just wow. Can you imagine Theodore Roosevelt standing out on the lawn of the White House shouting, Dr. Johnson, Father O'Grady, dinner time.

Wow. And another famous owner of guinea pigs was uh elizabeth the first of course she was she was quite a fan along with her ferret or was it a mink we're not entirely sure she was also rather a fan of of guinea pigs thus reiterating that they were the preserve of the wealthy. Back in the Andes, they were also used by doctors. I mean, doctors are always weird if you go back. I mean, it's like Pliny the Elder. Good old Pliny.

But folk doctors in the Andes are still using them. Oh, are they still? Still, to detect illness okay so what they do is that they believe that animals these animals are a supernatural medium so what they do is they rub the guinea pigs against the patient and believe that the guinea pig will squeak when it nears the source of the disease oh so you kind of you kind of it's like you know like those things in star trek oh tricorder a guinea pig tricorder? Yeah, like a medical tricorder.

Wow. So you rub a guinea pig over something. When it squeaks, that's where they're ill. That's where the ailment is. And then what happens is the doctor then cuts open the guinea pig and examines the end. Oh, hang on. They're one use, I'm afraid. Poor little thing.

Well, you examine the entrails. Right. But yeah, so doctors are still using them to detect illness. Oh, poor little thing. It goes to all that effort of being rubbed all over a sick person. It squeaks when it finds the ailment and then it gets garroted. That's not on, is it? Yeah, I mean, these are obviously not sort of medically trained doctors.

So, you know, in American laws, there's all these weird American laws about how you can, like, you can't wear a hat on a Saturday after 2 o'clock. Oh, sure. Those sorts of things. There is a rule, there's a law, which is not American. Right. It's Swiss. Oh, that's different.

Yeah. And you would think being a Swiss law, it's about sort of like not flushing your toilet after 11 o'clock at night. But no, it's illegal to own only one guinea pig in Switzerland. Right. This is because guinea pigs are social animals. And so they get lonely without companionship. So there's actually a guinea pig matchmaking service in Switzerland. Oh, stop it, Bruce.

No. And that allows owners to rent another guinea pig if they only have one and stop them from breaking the law. That's fantastic. Well done, the Swiss, being so careful and considerate about the gu law that's fantastic oh well done the swiss being so careful and considerate about the guinea pigs welfare yes lovely good old swiss so you know guinea pigs can also be um film stars okay talk about that okay so there was there was a film back in sort of like Second World War called The Guinea Pig. Was there?

Which starred Richard Attenborough. Okay. The guy who invents Jurassic Park. Who created Jurassic Park, yeah. Yeah. And this was based on some laws that came out in 1944, which gave government grants to posh grammar schools and public schools if they took on people who weren't coming from prep schools. So, you know, if you took on ordinary pupils into a private school, you got money from the government.

And one of these kids is the guinea pig played by Richard Attenborough. And so he's like a lad from the streets who goes to a posh school. Oh, right. Which is quite fun. But The Guinea Pig is also the name of a Japanese horror series. And they're quite graphic. I mean, properly graphic. It was originally envisioned by a manga artist called Hideshi Hino,

who he wrote and directed two of the films in the series. They're basically graphic violence, gore, mutilation, torture and murder. Are these acts meted out upon the guinea pigs or by the guinea pigs? I think guinea pig is just the name of, as opposed to, you know, Jerry Bruckheimer, the guy who does like sort of Top Gun and things like that. Yeah. He had a film called G-Force. Okay. Which is about a team of trained special secret agents. Right.

There's Fly, Mole, and a guinea pig, or several guinea pigs. And this specially trained squad is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire who plans taking over the world with household appliances and it's a disney film it's it's it's 3d okay it's a jerry brookheimer film featuring guinea pigs wow so there are a few other anatomical features of a guinea pig, which I found quite interesting. They have particularly large front teeth. Yeah. Their forefront teeth, which are the sort of the particularly nibbly ones.

Yeah. They continue to grow through the life of a guinea pig. Like rabbits, yeah. So guinea pigs will sort of chew on wood and other hard surfaces to sort of grind them down and keep them in check. Guinea pigs, when they groom themselves, they don't groom themselves very much, it seems. But when they do, they don't lick their paws like a rabbit would and then groom themselves. They rub their eyes.

And their eyes produce... I was always told not to do that. What, to rub your eyes? When I was a child, yes. You're not a guinea pig. Rules don't apply. I could have been a guinea pig i could have been a contender um but guinea pigs they they rub their eyes their eyes produce this sort of milky white substance which they then uh comb over the rest of their fur to keep it clean um sounds a bit odd but there you go yeah guinea pig squeaks you know the the cute little

yep squeaky noises they make apparently there are seven distinct sounds that guinea pigs make and these are used to communicate the fact that they're happy excited scared you know they use them as a warning they use them as a i'm hungry kind of sound um so they have seven distinctive noises that range from squeals to something that's a little bit like a purr okay if they're if they're really really content and calm apparently they can do something like a purr a little bit they're very popular as pets according to a website called vet times yeah the uk has somewhere between 700000 and 1 million pet guinea pigs. What? Yes.

As of a particular census in 2023. That's about 750,000 too many. It sums up to roughly 1.2% of homes in the UK. Have a guinea pig? Have a pet guinea pig. No, I'm sure it's like each each one that has one has at least four yes well exactly yes yes has at least one guinea pig yes especially in Switzerland yes

so records do guinea pigs hold very many records? They hold a few. Not terribly exciting ones. But, you know, they're cool in their own little guinea pig-ish way. Bearing in mind the fact that guinea pigs are small and they don't do an awful lot, some of these records sound a little bit lame. But because they're guinea pigs, that's quite impressive. So there's a world record for the the longest jump ever by any guinea pig ever 23 meters no we're aided by a tennis racket no uh this one particular guinea pig from fife uh the guinea pig was called truffles

it jumped a whopping 30 centimeters a foot yep so you know apparently it's 10 centimeters more than the previous record holding guinea pig hat that's impressive then it's you know it's it's quite good for a little guinea pig i guess you know they're not really known for for jumping very far so that's quite good um in 2022 there was a guinea pig called coco from north carolina who holds the record for the highest number of tricks performed by a guinea pig called Coco from North Carolina who holds the record for the highest number of tricks performed by a guinea pig in one minute. 16. Tricks? 16 tricks. Like begging,

going fetching? Exactly, when you teach children. No, really? Yeah. So there's a girl from North Carolina who has a pet guinea pig. I'll put it up on the show notes on factorally.com. There's a little YouTube video of her asking her guinea pig to sit up, walk in circles, beg, high-five, etc., etc.

Sorry, a guinea pig high-five? That I've got to see. And yes, Coco performs 16 of these tricks in one minute. Fabulous. The last record I found was the oldest guinea pig. Normally, guinea pigs live for an average of four to five years yeah unless they're in peru in which case it's probably significantly shorter yes probably so um the oldest guinea pig uh in in captivity came from nottinghamshire and uh it lived to a ripe old age of 14 gosh so three times the regular age It lived from 1965 to 1979

So the world's oldest guinea pig died the year I was born Wow What a legacy Have you ever thought you might be a reincarnated guinea pig? I've occasionally had moments where I've wondered Do you feel like popcorning occasionally? Now and then then well thank you for listening to this episode of factorally all about the guinea pig indeed and we'd like you to do some things before yes please wouldn't mind please so first of all you know that

place where you can click that says would you like to leave a review yes just click on that five stars and just say something even if it's just guinea pigs then the second thing you should do which you probably already have is to subscribe to the channel one would hope you've already been there yeah we drop these every thursday morning you can sort of either walk the dog to it or you can drive to work listening to a new one every week and then you can go to your fancy soirees in the evening and tell your dinner companions all about guinea pigs. Yes, exactly. Whilst eating a roast something, you can say, actually, another thing you can roast. The third thing is that those people may also be nerds like you.

And if they are and they don't know about Factorily, then maybe they should. Yes. So please tell them. Let them join in the fun. Absolutely. Thank you. And that's it for another week. It is indeed. Thank you very much for coming along. We hope you'll join us again next time for another fun-filled episode of Factorily.

Bye-bye. Au revoir.