GROSKIN: So it turns out that this fur isn't to protect them from cold weather. Before we run out of time, these woolly bears, they have all this fur on them. But that doesn't mean that there's not really fascinating things about this species.ĭANKOSKY: Well, and that's what's really cool. Nobody was willing to say it wasn't true. But, you know, the researchers that I spoke to, none of them were willing to go on the record as saying that it wasn't true. And even today, there are places in the country that celebrate the woolly bears prognostication and have festivals.ĭANKOSKY: Now, I got to say, Luke, I am no scientist, but 15 woolly bears, that doesn't sound like a real great study. And so it kind of spread around the country. He had a reporter come with him, and it became a very popular myth. And it got picked up by the national press. And he counted about 15 different specimens, and he made a prediction. He went out to Bear Mountain, New York, and he counted the woolly bears, the bands - the brown bands of the woolly bear there. But in 1948, this curator of entomology from the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Anyway, so the woolly bear is - this myth has been around since, you know, the colonial times. Exactly like the groundhog, except kind of forecasting into the winter instead of looking out back at it and forward. If it's smaller, it's going to be a more severe winter.ĭANKOSKY: Sort of like an insect Punxsutawney Phil. So if it's wider, it will be a bad - it will be a good winter. So the myth is that the rust-colored bands that's on the back of the woolly bear, that that - that the width of that can actually help you determine how severe the weather will be.
Have you heard this myth?ĭANKOSKY: Well, having something to do with the weather. So why are you so interested in the woolly bear? can see crossing roads and trails, you know, in the fall.ĭANKOSKY: OK. GROSKIN: Yeah, the ones that people in the U.S. We're talking about the caterpillars.ĭANKOSKY: The little fuzzy guy, he's sort of rust-colored, kind of black?
And we're not talking about the ursine type of bear, like a grizzly o black bear.
GROSKIN: Well, the video pick this week is the myth of the woolly bear. Hello there, Luke.ĭANKOSKY: So what do you got for us this week? And joining me now is video producer Luke Groskin. And it's time for the Video Pick of the Week.
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