The Wild Episode
The Wild Episode is a podcast dedicated to the wonders and curiosities of the animal kingdom, covering topics in zoology, natural history, and sometimes human history. Each episode brings amazing stories about incredible wildlife, from extraordinary behaviors to surprising connections with our own past. Host Brian Ruckley presents these tales with a sense of fascination and appreciation for the natural world. The show is perfect for anyone who loves learning about animals and the strange, wonderful ways they live.
Episodes
Marine Iguana : Darwin's Menagerie III
Charles Darwin reaches the Galapagos Islands, and there he encounters the very, very unusual Marine Iguana ... an animal caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to evolution ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a f
Darwin's Frog : Darwin's Menagerie II
Following Charles Darwin on his voyage around South America, we arrive in Chile - where he discovers a remarkable little frog that has one of the strangest approaches to fatherhood in the whole Animal Kingdom ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bo
Steamer Duck : Darwin's Menagerie I
Steamer ducks are big, mostly flightless, famously aggressive ducks in South America. An amazing example of evolution in action, because some supposedly flying steamer ducks can't fly, and some flightless ones apparently can. Charles Darwin would be fascinated. You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Becom
Reticulated Python : The Killing Mechanism
The Reticulated Python: not only the longest snake in the world, but also the only one you could reasonably call a man-eater. A snake that kills by constriction - but how does constriction actually work? You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episo
Barrel Amphipod : The Hollow Kindergarten
The Barrel Amphipod is a tiny terror for certain animals that share its open ocean habitat ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a free sign-up there will get you regular content celebrating the wonders and curiosities of the An
Salp : The Great Chain of Being
Salps are the strangest, most extraordinary of your reasonably close relatives in the Animal Kingdom ... some of the most extraordinary animals on Earth, in fact ... fellow chordates, yet so very, very different ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional
Grey Seal : The Corkscrew Killer Mystery
The Grey Seal is a very big predator - but also the victim of a strange killer that was, for a long time, a bit of a mystery ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a free sign-up there will get you regular content celebrating th
Moniliformis : Attack of the Necklace Worm
Moniliformis moniliformis is an example of one of the strangest groups of animals in the world: the parasitic Acanthocephalans, or the Thorny-Headed Worms ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a free sign-up there will get you r
Kākāpō : Population Boom
The Kākāpō is the world's most extraordinary parrot - remarkable in even more ways than most people realise ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a free sign-up there will get you regular content celebrating the wonders and curi
Paradise Flying Snake : Swimming in the Air
The Paradise Flying Snake is one of the most surprising 'fliers' in the Animal Kingdom. How does it do it? And why is the answer to that question different than for all other gliding animals? You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a
Glanville Fritillary : A Madness of Butterflies
The Glanville Fritillary is an elegant European butterfly, the stufy of which reveals some of the hidden forces shaping animal populations. And it was discovered by a woman - Eleanor Glanville - whose own life is strange story all of its own ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscri
Tree Hyrax : Shouting in the Trees
The four species of Tree Hyrax are the survivors of an ancient and diverse group of animals that once dominated Africa. They now live secretive - but very noisy - lives high in the trees. You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a free
Longnose Lancetfish : Ferocious
The Longnose Lancetfish is a big, strange, predatory fish of the open ocean, whose unusual feeding habits and physiology make it of particular interest to scientists ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Even a free sign-up there wil
Bigfin Squid : Unknown Knowns and Known Unknowns
The Bigfin Squid (species of the genus Magnapinna) is one of the most iconic deep sea animals these days. But we know precious little about it - we can't even be 100% sure exactly what we're looking at when we capture footage of one of these amazing animals ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become
Adélie Penguin : The Ice Riders
The Adélie penguin is the ultimate Antarctic penguin, partly because there's so many of them, partly because of its special and profound connection to Antarctic sea ice ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You don't have to pay anyt
Shovel-headed Worm : The Worm in the Hothouse
The Shovel-Headed Garden Worm, also known as the Hammerhead Worm, is a voracious, terrestrial predatory flatworm. A world-traveller with amazing anatomy, predatory abilities and - especially - reproductive capacity. But why is it named after Kew Gardens in London? You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Bec
Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo : Change is the Only Constant
Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo is one of only two species of tree kangaroo in Australia. Animals change, the world changes, the natural world is - almost - never standing still. You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You don't have to pay anyth
Bogong Moth : The Moth and the Stars
Every year, the Bogong Moth undertakes one of the most extraordinary insect migrations on Earth in south-eastern Australia. The question for this episode is: how? You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You don't have to pay anything, thou
Supergiant Isopod : Big is Beautiful III
There are several types of Supergiant Isopod in the deep sea - some of the most successful and effective scavengers on the planet. But why are they so very big? You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You don't have to pay anything, though
Giant Clam : Big is Beautiful II
The Giant Clam has a secret trick that enables it to grow faster and bigger than any other bivalve mollusc in the world ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You don't have to pay anything, though - a free sign-up there will still g
Giant Armadillo : Big is Beautiful I
The Giant Armadillo is easily the biggest living armadillo, equipped with the biggest claw on Earth. And the fact of its size means it is significant - valuable - to a surprisingly wide variety of other animals ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional
Harlequin Beetle Pseudoscorpion : Along For The Ride
The Harlequin Beetle-Riding Pseudoscorpion: a tiny predator with an extraordinary way of moving from one hunting ground to the next ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You don't have to pay anything, though - a free sign-up there w
Golden Rocket Frog : The Bromeliad, the Waterfall and the Frog
The Golden Rocket Frog - an amazing little frog that lives only in one small corner of South America and whose life revolves around the very specific architecture of one - also amazing - plant. You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. You d
Ochre Sea Star : The Keystone Experiment
The Ochre Sea Star. A remarkable predator that can turn its stomach inside out through its mouth. And is also central to the story of a highly influential concept in ecology: it is the original Keystone Species ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional
Pygmy Hippo : The Hippo in the Zoo
The Pygmy Hippo. An animal - one of them in particular - that's been all over social media recently. But what do we actually know about this species, how do we know it and why is there something unusual about the baby pygmy hippos born in zoos around the world? You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become
Texas Horned Lizard : The Pain Index III
The Texas Horned Lizard has solved a tricky problem: how to eat insects that not only have a powerful bite but also some of the most painful and lethal stings in the world ... You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Show notes, with photos
Tarantula Hawk : The Pain Index II
You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comm
Bullet Ant : The Pain Index I
The infamous and fearsome (or not?) Bullet Ant. The first of three loosely connected episodes about ... pain. You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to (if there's enough interest/support!) get access to occasional bonus episodes. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are availab
Remipede : How to be Perplexing
Remipedes! Upside-down-swimming, venom-injecting, cave-dwelling amazingness. Some of the strangest crustaceans ever discovered, living in some of the strangest places the world has to offer. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corr
Myrmeconema : Gliding Ants and Red Berries
Ants that can glide and Myrmeconema, a parasitic nematode that can change the appearance and behaviour of its host. What happens when the two of them meet? Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to
Sumatran Rhino : Sunset Song
The Sumatran Rhino, the closest living relative of the extinct Woolly Rhinoceros, is the most vocal of all rhinos. This is the story of its extraordinary voice, and its journey through the twilight of the natural world ... Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episode
Cookiecutter Shark : A Bright Shark in a Dark Ocean
The Cookiecutter Shark is famous for its gruesomely efficient parasitic attacks on whales, seals and big fish. But that is only a part of the story when it comes to this extraordinary, and extraordinarily bright, shark ... Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episode
Giant Barrel Sponge : Methuselah on the Reef
The Giant Barrel Sponge: one of the simpler animals on Earth yet grows to enormous size over a crazily long life, exerts a big influence on reef ecosystems and, unlike a great many animals in our oceans, seems to be thriving ... Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Ep
Aldabra Giant Tortoise : The One and Only
The Aldabra Giant Tortoise is an amazing survivor of a lost time - very recently lost - when giant tortoises dominated many of the islands in the Indian Ocean. Aldabra Atoll is the only place in the world you can still see great herds of tens of thousands of these huge reptiles. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the
Phrynus longipes : The Whip Spider in the Cave
The Whip Spider Phrynus longipes is not a spider but one of the craziest-looking arachnids on Earth. They're also territorial and cannibalistic, so how do they manage to survive at super high densities in Caribbean caves without eating each other? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make
Glacier Lanternfish : The Scatterers
The Glacier Lanternfish is one of the most important fish in the world - part of arguably the greatest, and most under-appreciated, concentration of animal life on the planet. Which we can only really 'see', and understand, using sound. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those futur
Matabele Ant : The Raid
The Matabele Ant conducts large-scale raids against its only prey: termites. And the way it does it is amazing, with elements that might remind us of reconnaissance, generals, signalling, tactics, even battlefield medical services. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future epi
Yellow-Footed Antechinus : Paying the Hormonal Price
The Yellow-footed Antechinus is a tiny marsupial predator in Australia that has a life history, and in particular a breeding system, that makes it one of the most unusual mammals in the entire world ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also fo
Train Millipede : The Eight Year Itch
The Japanese Train Millipede has a surprising history of interactions with the country's railway system, and the pattern of those interactions reveals it to be almost unique in the way its life is governed by a ticking clock ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episod
Leopard : The Cat in the City
The leopard is the most flexible, adaptable big cat in the world, with a surprisingly long history of visiting urban areas. Today, as in the past, sharing your city with a large predator brings problems, but maybe there's an upside, because of how, and what, urban leopards are hunting ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, correcti
Paragordius tricuspidatus : The Phantom Thread
What connects feasting Japanese fish, a swimming pool in southern France and Alexander the Great's encounter with the Gordian Knot? The extraordinary horsehair worm Paragordius tricuspidatus, a simple animal capable of astonishing things ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those
Northern Gannet : Deep Impact
Northern Gannets are famous for one thing above all else: plunge diving after fish. So, an episode that's a bit of a deep dive into ... diving! How high, how deep, how dangerous, and how individually distinctive is a gannet's dive? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future epi
Antarctic Krill : Maximum Swarm
The Antarctic Krill is one of the most numerous animals on Earth, probably responsible for the biggest single species aggregations you can find nowadays. So numerous, in fact, that its surprising connection to Antarctic sea ice is just one of the ways it's bound into global climatic systems, carbon cycling and flows of energy and matter ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any f
Tentacled Snake : J Stands For Death
The tentacled snake is one of the most unmistakable snakes in the world. And the story of how its tentacles connect to its extraordinary hunting strategy involves two letters: 'J' and 'C'. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show
Mediterranean Monk Seal : The Seal in Hiding
The Mediterranean Monk Seal is probably the rarest pinniped in the world. It's had almost everything thrown at it - by us and by Nature - and survived, just, in part by changing its own behaviour. At some point, left with no alternative, it went into hiding. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to
São Tomé Caecilian : Double Yellow
The São Tomé Caecilian is a fantastic creature: an extremely yellow legless amphibian living in the soil on a single volcanic island. An extraordinary example of an already extraordinary group of animals. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also
White-Barred Acraea : Where Did All The Males Go?
Something very weird goes on in mating assemblies of the White-barred Acraea butterfly - males and females swap roles. Why? And what can it tell us about a secret natural force shaping whole populations of insects? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You
Whirling Disease Myxozoan : Minimum Animal
Whirling Disease in fish is caused by a tiny parasite. But what is that parasite and just how tiny is tiny? The answers will astound you! Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please
Megamouth Shark : The Third Biggest Shark in the World
The Megamouth Shark is one of the biggest, yet least known, least understood, sharks in the world. Not entirely surprising, since we've only known it exists for about fifty years ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Fa
Update and 2023 Preview
Just a quick update on the podcast, and a quick look forward to 2023! Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank
Vampire Jumping Spider : Vampire or Van Helsing?
The Vampire Jumping Spider feeds - in part - on blood. Often, human blood. But how it does it makes it one of the most extraordinary spiders in the world ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To supp
Vampire Squid : Neither Vampire Nor Squid
The Vampire Squid is not really a vampire, nor is it really a squid. It's the last survivor of an ancient lineage that has arrived in the present with an astonishing array of adaptations that equip it to live in a place most other animals can only visit ... the oxygen minimum zone. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, su
Corsac Fox : Two Foxes, an Eagle and a Marmot
The Corsac Fox is a small, elegant fox of Central Asia, Mongolia and China - a huge range, most of which it shares with four other animals that loom large in its life: red fox, golden eagle, marmots and, inevitably ... humans. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episode
Neon Flying Squid : You'll Believe a Squid Can Fly
The Neon Flying Squid is one of those animals that lives up to its cool name: a squid that can actually fly. And we're not talking just gliding - time to talk jets and rockets ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebo
Scottnema : Maximum South
The most numerous purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica is almost certainly the nematode worm Scottnema lindsayae. An astonishingly resilient little creature that goes places almost no other animal can, and probably rides the wind to get there ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help mak
Red-Crowned Crane : DMZ
The Red-Crowned Crane is a hugely charismatic, properly iconic bird, with symbolic importance in much Asian art, culture and myth. So here's me trying, in a way, to use it as a symbol of something else ... the state of the natural world, for want of a better description ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestion
Emperor Scorpion : Very Good With Children
The Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator) is one of the biggest, most impressive and fearsome-looking scorpions in the world. So why is it described online as '... very good with children ...'? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the
(REBROADCAST) Northern Fulmar : The Foul Gull of St Kilda
To fill an unanticipated, COVID-related gap in the schedule, this is a rebroadcast of an episode from the first year of the podcast - one that mysteriously became unavailable in the podcast feed a while back. Hopefully it sticks around this time, though no promises since I don't know what went wrong with it the first time round. The northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is one of the commonest seab
Pig-Nosed Turtle : One of a Kind
The Pig-Nosed Turtle of New Guinea and northern Australia really does have a pig-like nose. But this is one of the most unusual, distinctive turtles in the world, so there's a whole lot more going on than just that ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better
Fenyes's Strepsipteran : You Have Got To Be Kidding
Fenyes's strepsipteran (Caenocholax fenyesi) is one of the most extraordinary insects in the world. A parasitoid living a deeply strange life - twice over, in fact, since males and females both get up to some remarkable stuff but are wildly different in both form and behaviour ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, su
Tri-Spine Horseshoe Crab : Survivors
The Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) is one of four living horseshoe crab species (probably, marginally, the biggest). Animals that have survived, superficially very little changed, for hundreds of millions of years. They've come through multiple mass extinctions, but are still facing new and unexpected challenges today ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any fut
Colugo : Glide Path
Colugos (often called, entirely inaccurately, flying lemurs) - there are two officially recognised species at the moment - are more dramatically and completely adapted to gliding than any other mammal. They've essentially turned their entire bodies into one big gliding surface. Extraordinary animals which also, as it happens, have extraordinary teeth ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don'
Wasp Mantidfly : Spider's Bane
First in a series of listener-suggested shows! The Wasp Mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea) is a stunning little insect with some amazing stuff going on. Mimicry, convergent evolution, phoresy, egg predation, hypermetamorphosis and much, much more. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make th
Great Slaty Woodpecker : The Haunted Bird
The Great Slaty Woodpecker (Mulleripicus pulverulentus) is probably the biggest woodpecker in the world. A spectacular inhabitant of Asian forests that's haunted, perhaps, by the ghosts of two even bigger woodpeckers ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes bette
Greater Argonaut : The Aquarium of Jeanne Villepreux-Power
The Greater Argonaut (Argonauta argo) is a very unusual octopus, that travels the oceans in an exquisite papery case. And many of its secrets were uncovered by a very unusual (for her time) woman - the remarkable Jeanne Villepreux-Power - one of the 19th century's leading scientifically-minded naturalists. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your
Stoplight Loosejaw : Jaws Sees Red
The Stoplight Loosejaw (Malacosteus niger) is a pretty extraordinary fish: a jet-black denizen of the twilight zone, armed with some of the strangest and most spectacular jaws in the animal kingdom and a surprising superpower: it's one of the very, very few creatures down there that can both generate and see red light. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and
Giant Hummingbird : Life At The Limit
The Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas) is, by a long way, the biggest hummingbird in the world. It's about twice the size of the next biggest hummingbird - the most extreme version of a kind of animal that's already pretty extreme ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future
Death's-Head Hawkmoth : The Mad King's Moth
The African Death's-Head Hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos) is a big, striking moth loaded with grim symbolism and superstition. But we're mostly interested in its very unusual vocal abilities, its very unusual diet, and its surprising connection to ... potatoes. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to
Armadillo Lizard : The Armoured Ouroboros
The Armadillo Lizard has a fantastic scientific name - Ouroborus cataphractus - which connects it to ancient mystical symbolism and ancient heavy cavalry. In fact, it shows that in Nature, everything's connected. Everything in this case being armour, speed, sociability, predators, prey, climate, geology. And a high speed police pursuit. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future
Crab Nemertean : The Egg Thief
The Nemertean egg predator Carcinonemertes errans may be the most patient, persistent and committed predator ever covered on the podcast. A tiny marine worm that lives, in huge numbers, only on the exoskeleton of the Dungeness crab, and feeds on only one thing: crab eggs. Millions upon millions of crab eggs. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail you
Black-Headed Duck : The Cuckoo Duck
The Black-Headed Duck is the only duck that's a brood parasite: it lays its eggs in the nests of other species. But unlike every other bird in the world that does this, it causes its host species negligible harm - because of what its ducklings do as soon as they hatch ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions
Orca : The Ultimate Predator
The Orca (Orcinus orca) is one of the most famous animals on the planet - but there is some very unusual and kind of mysterious stuff going on with orcas, and a lot of it may be connected to their astonishing predatory abilities ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future ep
Rakali : Carnivorous Rodent Eats Poison Toad
The Rakali, aka the Australian Water-Rat, (Hydromys chrysogaster) is a pretty remarkable rodent. A carnivorous, semi-aquatic rodent that's native to Australia: a bit like the Australian version of an otter, it seems to be better than many Australian predators at dealing with the invasion of the poisonous cane toads ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and
Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake : All At Sea
The Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus) is probably the most widespread snake in the world and, arguably, the most marine of all living marine reptiles. It has cut all ties with the land, and mastered an environment no other sea snake quite has: the open ocean. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions o
Electric Eel : Maximum Shock
Electric eels (three species, in the genus Electrophorus) are famous animals, and have been for centuries. That doesn't mean they've given up all their secrets to science, though: recent research has revealed they're even more extraordinary than we knew. Plus: how to use horses as bait when fishing. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comment
European Beewolf : The War on Fungus
The European Beewolf (Philanthus triangulum) is a big, striking wasp. A specialist predator of honeybees, with many tricks up its sleeve: chemical and biological warfare tricks, including symbiotic bacteria, embalming and poison gas. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future e
Colossal Squid : When Giant Isn't Big Enough
The Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is the biggest invertebrate on Earth - a truly enormous mollusc that weighs as much as a bull moose. Yet much about it remains deeply mysterious. It is a hidden wonder of Nature, hidden away deep in the Antarctic Ocean ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or
Olm : Larval Dragons in Black and White
The olm (Proteus anguinus) is a very unusual animal: a large cave salamander, with an extraordinary life and an interesting history of research, that comes in (at least) two very different forms: the white olm and the black. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes b
Madison Cave Isopod : Standing in the Shallows of the Aquifer
The Madison Cave Isopod is a small aquatic crustacean living an extraordinary subterranean life: not in underground rivers, but in the groundwater. In the aquifer. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter.
Oilbird : Humboldt's Chupacabra
The Oilbird is a bird not quite like any other: first described by one of history's greatest naturalist-explorers, it is a cave-nesting nocturnal fruit-eater, whose nestlings had the misfortune to become a valuable fuel source for humans ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those
