From space pioneers to wartime heroes, these remarkable animals left an indelible mark on human civilization. Join us as we explore the incredible stories of creatures that shaped scientific breakthroughs, influenced medical advances, and even altered the course of wars and politics. Which animal's tale will surprise you the most?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The headline on the other major news story today to which we intend to devote some time is very simple.
00:05Hello Dolly.
00:06Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the animals that have played a significant role in shaping history as we know it.
00:13To work really hard, to suffer, to push through it, and to succeed.
00:19Number 10. The Macaque That Killed a King
00:22There are some instances that seem insignificant at the moment, only to lead to huge consequences later on.
00:29Two species of primates, macaques and humans, are spending a lot of time together.
00:35And like any close relationship, miscommunication can lead to conflict.
00:40When King Alexander of Greece attempted to stop a fight between his dog and a Barbary macaque in 1920, he had no idea what was to come.
00:49During the fray, he had been bitten by another monkey twice, earning him two deep wounds in his leg and midsection.
00:56Is a monkey bite always fatal, Doctor?
00:58No.
00:59What made it fatal this time?
01:01Though the injuries were cleaned, they weren't sterilized.
01:05That night, an infection quickly spread through his body, and a failure to amputate the affected limb only made things worse.
01:12Within weeks, he passed away, bringing up questions about the monarchy and destabilizing the country's current political regime,
01:20ultimately leading to Greece losing the Greco-Turkish War and the deaths of hundreds of thousands.
01:26Twenty miles of carts drawn by cows, bullocks, and muddy-flanked water buffalo,
01:32with exhausted, staggering men, women, and children, blankets over their heads,
01:37walking blindingly along in the rain beside their worldly goods.
01:41They are the last of the glory that was Greece.
01:45Number nine, Tesla's Pigeon.
01:47Love truly comes in all forms.
01:50Though he was a famous inventor of his time, Nikola Tesla had another passion as well, caring for pigeons.
01:56He was just so super-duper off-the-chart smart that I think he had a tremendous difficulty in interacting with regular people.
02:07He fed and cared for countless birds, both at his place of residence and the local parks.
02:12But there was one that connected with him in particular.
02:15It was a white pigeon with multiple injuries, prompting him to spend thousands of dollars to help her heal.
02:21A man who says he doesn't care about money can find himself tormented by the lack of it.
02:27He grew an attachment to her, even remarking that she added meaning to his life and that he loved her the way a man loved a woman.
02:35When she inevitably passed away, he was deeply affected by the loss,
02:39even telling his biographer that his work had ended with her.
02:43Do you remember my face when I realized it was hopeless between us?
02:48Or does everything get jumbled in your head?
02:50Number 8.
02:52Cairo
02:52We were fortunate enough to participate in one of the biggest missions in history.
02:58But it was just like any other mission.
03:00It was just like any other night.
03:03Just who we were going after was different.
03:05The tracking and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden is one of the most significant events of the 21st century.
03:12And it couldn't have been done without one furry friend in particular.
03:16During the raid, Cairo, a Belgian Malinois, was in charge of keeping an eye for anyone coming in or out of the building,
03:23along with looking for any hidden rooms that might have been inside.
03:27We did sweeps at the perimeter.
03:29Once we felt the perimeter was secure, we moved our way to the inside, and we started with the first floor, second floor.
03:34With the help of Cairo and his handler, Will Chesney, ensuring the perimeter was clear from bombs,
03:40the human members of SEAL Team 6 were able to eventually find bin Laden in the compound safely.
03:45And the rest is history.
03:47Though it wasn't Cairo's only mission, it was by far his most publicized,
03:51and cemented him as one of the most important pooches of the 21st century.
03:56A lot of people would never have guessed that a dog can save your life.
04:00They can.
04:02He was a great dog.
04:03He deserves his story told.
04:05Number 7.
04:06Smokey
04:07What if Smokey had fallen into somebody else's hands?
04:11She probably would just have been an ordinary dog,
04:14although we didn't start out to do anything spectacular at all.
04:17Though it may seem that a breed as small as a Yorkie wouldn't be able to handle the horrors of battle,
04:23one in particular proved that size didn't have to be a limitation.
04:27After being found in New Guinea in 1944,
04:30Smokey was adopted by Corporal Bill Wynn,
04:32who kept her by his side for the remainder of World War II.
04:36She participated in a dozen missions and earned several awards and honors,
04:40and even aided in the building of a new airbase.
04:43However, her biggest contribution by far was providing emotional support for soldiers that had just been injured.
04:50It really had a whole different effect than your average therapy dog would,
04:56because you're dealing directly with the realities of life as it is going to be,
05:05and that's a very steep change for people.
05:08This coined her as the first known therapy dog,
05:11a position that's now held by countless others around the world today.
05:15The story is so unusual, this little tiny creature doing so much.
05:23However, the size didn't mean anything,
05:25because the ability of the dog to withstand all the rigors of it was amazing.
05:32Number 6, David Graybeard.
05:34Up until relatively recently, the idea of creatures using and crafting their own tools
05:39was essentially unheard of, and rarely observed.
05:42In 1960, that all changed.
05:45Louis Leakey sent me to Gombe,
05:48because he believed that an understanding of chimpanzees in the wild
05:52would help him to better guess how our Stone Age ancestors may have behaved.
05:59During a study in Tanzania,
06:00iconic primatologist Jane Goodall successfully earned the trust of one of the chimpanzees in the community,
06:07whom she dubbed David Graybeard.
06:09With his trust, she was able to observe him using various tools to hunt termites,
06:14even crafting his own from twigs.
06:16A few days later, I watched, spellbound,
06:20the chimps set off to a termite mound,
06:23picked a small leafy twig,
06:26then stripped it of its leaves.
06:28That was object modification,
06:31the crude beginning of tool making.
06:33Though it wasn't complex,
06:35it still proved they were more than capable of it.
06:37It completely changed the way humans viewed not only apes,
06:41but also our own differences from the animal kingdom,
06:43which were now confirmed to have been fewer than what we'd once thought.
06:47I think that was the moment that I honestly knew that I would have to give my life
06:52to learning about these amazing relatives of ours.
06:57Number 5.
06:58Jim.
06:59While many animal contributions to history have been positive,
07:03others led to disastrous consequences.
07:05I come from poison.
07:06I have poison inside me,
07:08and I destroy everything I touch.
07:10That's my legacy.
07:10Shortly after contracting tetanus in 1901,
07:14a horse named Jim was put to sleep.
07:16Following his death,
07:18his remains were used to create an antitoxin for diphtheria,
07:21a bacterial infection.
07:23Fast forward to October 18th of 1901.
07:27That's when Mrs. Mary Keenan took all four of her children
07:29to the St. Louis City Hospital
07:31because two of them were incredibly sick.
07:35The two children were diagnosed with diphtheria,
07:37and they were given the antitoxin.
07:39And, as was customary at the time,
07:42her other two children were given it as a preventative.
07:45Unfortunately, the very disease that led to his euthanization
07:49was still present within the antibodies.
07:51The contamination, combined with a failure to test the product
07:55and the mislabeling of it,
07:56led to the passing of over a dozen minors.
07:59The incident was so severe
08:01that it led to the formation of the Food and Drug Administration in 1906,
08:05leading to medical regulations that are still in place today.
08:08Theodore Roosevelt signed the Biologics Control Act,
08:12which required the licensure of biological products
08:14and manufacturing establishments.
08:17Then, four years later,
08:19Congress passed the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.
08:23The law banned the adulteration and misbranding of food and drugs
08:26and established the Consumer Protection Agency we know today as the FDA.
08:30Number four, Cher Ami.
08:32Throughout ancient times,
08:34carrier birds delivered messages during times of war,
08:37a practice that was still prominent during World War I.
08:40The United States even created a pigeon service,
08:43where Cher Ami rose to prominence.
08:46I'm just what they're looking for,
08:47a pigeon with that, with that something extra.
08:49You know, it's not a bloke's wingspan that counts,
08:53it's the size of a spirit.
08:54In 1918, over 500 United States soldiers were trapped
08:59and on the receiving end of unending friendly fire.
09:02They sent out multiple pigeons to deliver a plea for help,
09:06but opposing forces shot them down.
09:09Soon, it was Cher Ami's turn to take flight.
09:11And the message?
09:13Oh, yes, sir.
09:14Safe and sound.
09:15Good man.
09:17Thank you, sir.
09:18Right, lads.
09:19We have a message to deliver.
09:22Let's make wind.
09:24Though he'd been hit,
09:26he completed his mission and saved the lives of nearly 200 men.
09:30He was hailed as a hero,
09:31which continued even after his passing in 1919.
09:35He's still honored today as a display in the Smithsonian Institution,
09:39where he's resided since 1921.
09:42Number three, Balto.
09:43Sometimes the most underestimated creatures can still be the most impactful.
09:49Let the half-dog run.
09:50It will be fun making him eat our snow.
09:53Though Balto's assignment as co-leader during an important medicine run was criticized,
09:58he ended up being one of the most vital members of the team.
10:01He, alongside a whole host of sled dogs,
10:04were tasked with delivering an anti-diptheria serum
10:07to a quarantined town in Alaska in the throes of winter.
10:10Every hour, every minute counted.
10:13Serum had been fractured from Anchorage,
10:19but the path of the path went to the end.
10:22It was 1,000 kilometers from Nome
10:25through one of the most unbegadable miles of the world.
10:29Despite the extremely harsh weather and unsafe terrain,
10:32Balto led them through the final leg of the run with ease,
10:35even saving the team's life on one occasion.
10:38His efforts led to 300,000 units of the medicine to be delivered,
10:42saving countless lives.
10:44For the rest of his life, Balto was revered,
10:47even earning himself an honorary statue in Central Park.
10:51What does it say?
10:54Dedicated to the indomitable...
10:57Indomitable?
10:59Indomitable.
11:00The spirit of the sled dogs.
11:04Number two, Laika.
11:07Unfortunately, not every historically significant animal
11:10has been lucky enough to have a happy ending.
11:13Please forgive us, said Russian biologist Adelia Kotovskaya,
11:17as she wept and stroked Laika the dog before sending her off into space.
11:21During the Cold War, a space race broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union.
11:27Following the success of their initial satellite Sputnik 1,
11:30the USSR decided to up the ante by proving that a living being could be sent to the stars and survive.
11:37They conducted this test with Laika,
11:39a stray dog that vigorously trained to handle the extreme conditions.
11:43What happened to Laika?
11:45I expect they gave her a bone and a rub on the tummy when she got back.
11:48Well, Laika unfortunately never made it back to Earth.
11:52She was launched in 1957,
11:54where she survived for just a few hours before perishing.
11:57Though she didn't survive,
11:58her service helped bring about more successful tests
12:01that expanded the boundaries of space travel.
12:04To this day, her legacy lives on globally.
12:07I hope that she is dancing every night among the stars.
12:10I hope Laika is alive.
12:13Before we continue,
12:14be sure to subscribe to our channel
12:16and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
12:19You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
12:23If you're on your phone,
12:24make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
12:29Number 1.
12:30Dolly
12:31She may not be the monster imagined in a science fiction fantasy,
12:35yet the cuddly Finn Dorset lamb
12:37may represent a major landmark in the history of genetic engineering.
12:41As the first mammal to ever be cloned from an adult cell,
12:45she's also one of the most important scientific advancements in modern history.
12:50Dolly was created from a mammary gland,
12:52leading to a discovery that a whole organism could be formed from a single part of the donor's body.
12:58The actual nuts and bolts of doing it is a little bit more complicated than that.
13:05In fact,
13:06Ritchie had repeated the same delicate procedure over 400 times,
13:11and only one surviving embryo,
13:13number 6LL3,
13:14was carried to term by a surrogate mother.
13:16After being born in 1996,
13:19she went on to have a successful life,
13:21birthing six lambs of her own
13:23and being used as a cell line for other replicated sheep.
13:26Her mere existence led to the continued cloning of other mammals,
13:30including those that had been considered extinct.
13:33Beyond that,
13:34she also inspired further stem cell research,
13:36which is now being investigated as treatments for certain diseases and conditions.
13:41The ultimate, but still elusive, goal
13:44is to use cloning technology to create healthy tissues
13:47which can be transplanted to heal damaged cells and organs.
13:52Which animal do you think has had the largest historical impact?
13:55Let us know in the comments below.
13:58Man the toolmaker
13:59is how we were defined.
14:05And here was David Greybeard
14:07using a tool.
14:11Do you agree with our picks?
14:12Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
14:14And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell
14:16to be notified about our latest videos.
14:18We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:18We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:18We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:18We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:18We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:19We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:19We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:19We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:19We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:19We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:20We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:21We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:22We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:23We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:24We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:25We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:26We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:27We'll see you in the next few videos.
14:28You