ANNOUNCER: Here's Anthony and Mike with an AMI This Week 

short cut. 

[music playing] 

Anthony, are you a bug guy? 

ANTHONY MCLACHLAN: Sure. 

Why do you ask? 

MIKE ROSS: So you'd be OK to hold on to something 

with, like, 100 legs? 

ANTHONY MCLACHLAN: You asked if I was a bug guy. 

And that means that you're probably 

talking about a millipede. 

But that doesn't mean I want something 

crawling up and down my arm that has hundreds of legs. 

MIKE ROSS: Well then you're lucky that Edmonton reporter 

Alex Smyth is the one who had the millipede crawling on him. 

Let's see how he held up in his first bug class. 

[music playing] 

NARRATOR: Welcome to Bug Class. 

[bees buzzing] 

ALEX SMYTH: I'm at the Royal Alberta Museum, 

in the bug gallery. 

And I'm joined by Pete Heule. 

The live animal supervisor. 

Pete, we have a millipede in front of us. 

How many legs does this thing have? 

PETER HEULE: That's a good question. 

So they keep adding more legs the older they get. 

The joke is, by the time you get them counted, 

they've added four more. 

At this size, I would guess she's probably 

getting close to 100 legs. 

By the time they're full-grown, they get up to 256. 

ALEX SMYTH: Wow. 

PETER HEULE: So at any given point, 

too many to count, certainly while they're walking around. 

ALEX SMYTH: For sure. 

PETER HEULE: You would find these guys 

in the wild in Central Africa, places 

like the Congo and Tanzania. 

We've got seven different species of millipedes native 

to Alberta, but they're only about two or centimetres long. 

So they're a lot bigger in the Congo than they are here. 

So these guys are found on the forest floor. 

They tend to roam around looking for vegetable matter, any kind 

of dead plants, rotten fruit, and small dead animals as well. 

So they're a very important recycler in the habitats 

that you find them. 

So for us here, we feed them a wide variety 

of fruits and vegetables. 

And in order to provide that protein in the animal 

requirement, we give them dog food. 

ALEX SMYTH: Really? 

PETER HEULE: They're so well-built to eat 

rotten, sort of squishy stuff that they can't bite very hard. 

So even trying to bite your finger-for the most part, 

her trying to bite my pinky finger 

would be like you trying to bite a basketball. 

It's just too big. 

It's not going to fit in your mouth. 

But also the jaw strength is rather weak by comparison. 

ALEX SMYTH: Can I pet? 

PETER HEULE: Absolutely. 

Yeah, if you want to just pet her right down the back, 

you can go ahead. 

People tend to expect them to be kind of slimy or kind 

of squishy. 

I find it's almost like petting your fingernail. 

It's a very smooth, waxy kind of a surface, but it's very hard. 

If you were an animal that wanted to eat a millipede-

something like a lizard or a bird-

you'd have to be ready to do some serious crunching. 

They have a very strong exoskeleton. 

And curling up in a ball is the first line of defence for these 

guys. 

Secondarily, they can produce different types of chemicals 

that make them taste bad. 

These guys give off iodine. 

Other types of millipedes can be very brightly coloured. 

These ones are a dark brown. 

They blend in very well with the ground. 

But there are ones that are bright red, 

ones that are striped rainbow colours. 

There's even a hot pink dragon millipede 

from Cambodia and Laos. 

And they are warning people that they've 

got much harsher chemicals. 

ALEX SMYTH: But this one's OK. 

PETER HEULE: This one's OK. 

I don't think we're going to try to eat it today, 

and I didn't bring enough to share with everyone. 

ALEX SMYTH: Do you mind if I hold it? 

PETER HEULE: Yes, absolutely. 

So hold out your hand, just palm up. 

Yeah. 

And it is very ticklish. 

All those little legs are a little bit 

on the ticklish side. 

And so every little one of those has 

a little bit of a claw on the end to help them grip. 

And it is almost like petting a hairbrush. 

It's a very bristly kind of experience on the underside, 

whereas the top is very, very smooth, almost like plastic. 

ALEX SMYTH: Well, and the thing I really find interesting 

is, when they are walking, all the legs, the way they move, 

it's almost like it's a wave-

MARCO PASQUA: Yes. 

ALEX SMYTH: --that they create. 

MARCO PASQUA: Yeah, if you have that-many-hundred legs, 

you need to be very well-coordinated not 

to trip over your own feet. 

So when one leg picks up and sets down, 

the one in front of it's already picked up and gotten out 

of the way. 

And it gives very much a stadium wave, or a ripple, 

or ribbon-like look. 

ALEX SMYTH: So cool. 

MARCO PASQUA: And the best part is, 

when I take her off, every one of those little legs gripping 

your hand, it's kind of like unzipping 

the Velcro off your hands. 

ALEX SMYTH: Pete, thank you so much for taking the time, 

teaching me a bit about millipedes. 

I made a new friend. 

I can't wait to come back. 

MARCO PASQUA: I'm glad to hear. 

My pleasure. 

You're very welcome.