The Wild Episode

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Gelada : The Monkey on the Mountain Apr 02, 2019

Show notes

The gelada (Theropithecus gelada) is the only living member of the Theropithecus genus. It's the only grass-eating monkey on Earth. It's probably the most terrestrial primate on Earth. It's an amazing species. But it's also an excuse to ask interesting questions (though not necessarily answer them!). Questions like: what is a species, anyway?

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Spider-tailed Horned Viper : Possibly the Coolest Snake in the World Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

The spider-tailed horned viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) is in many ways an unremarkable snake. But in one very particular way - its tail, and what it does with it - it is utterly extraordinary. Welcome to the weird and whacky world of caudal luring, and the snake that has taken that behaviour to an amazing extreme ...

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Mariana Snailfish : As Deep As A Fish Can Go Dec 13, 2018

Show notes

The Mariana snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei) was only discovered and described a couple of years ago: and it was a big deal, because no fish has ever been brought up from greater depth. How do fish survive, kilometres down in the ocean? Why is this one named after someone called Swire? And what does it all have to do with The Lost World, a space shuttle and a famous film director?

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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Crowned Eagle : The Predator Next Door Dec 04, 2018

Show notes

The Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus) is one of the largest birds of prey in Africa. It's probably the most powerful and almost certainly the one that regularly goes after the biggest prey. But is the crowned eagle, as is sometimes suggested, the only living bird to qualify for the description 'man-eater'?

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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Violet Oil Beetle : The Hitchhiker From Hell Nov 20, 2018

Show notes

The violet oil beetle (Meloe violaceus) is our way into a discussion of leaky leg joints, toxic oil, aphrodisiacs, the cantharidin world, hitch-hiking, egg-laying on an industrial scale and hypermetamorphosism. There are not many animals that better illustrate just how weird and wonderful Nature can get ...

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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Australian Trumpet : Maximum Snail Nov 06, 2018

Show notes

The biggest snail in the world, Syrinx aruanus, turns out to be a highly specialized and effective predator. And we'll get to it via dolphins, mistaken identity, a unique human culture and the sound of trumpets.

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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Epomis, Cymothoa, Hymenoepimecis : Halloween Horrors Oct 23, 2018

Show notes

In recognition that Halloween is almost upon us, we pay a visit to Nature's dark side. A beetle, a crustacean and a wasp that do really pretty extraordinary things. But not, let's be honest, things that you could really call 'nice'. Predators and parasites that demonstrate just how surprising. and kind of merciless, the natural world can sometimes be ...

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Baikal Seal : The Seal That's Never Seen The Sea Sep 25, 2018

Show notes

The Baikal seal is the only purely freshwater seal species in the world, and it lives in precisely one place: Lake Baikal in Siberia. A lake which is itself extraordinary - the deepest in the world - and which is home not only to that unique seal, but to a host of crustaceans, fish and other animals that occur nowhere else on Earth.

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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Spectral Bat : Maximum Bat Aug 28, 2018

Show notes

The Spectral Bat (Vampyrum spectrum - which is pretty cool as scientific names go) is the biggest bat in the Americas, and the biggest carnivorous bat in the world. A properly high-ranking predator in its environment, out there in the darkness enjoying a diet that makes its insectivorous, piscivorous and frugivorous relatives look like they're hardly even trying ...

It deserves, I think, to be better known, so here's my tiny contribution to putting that right ...

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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Shark, Stick, Crake : Updates and Supplementals Jul 25, 2018

Show notes

Revisiting the subjects of the first three Wild Episodes! Just how common is the huge, ridiculously long-lived Greenland Shark? New research has the beginnings of an answer. The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect can't go home until someone gets rid of the rats that invaded it. Those rats are still there, but elsewhere there's big, big news in the world of rat eradication from islands ... And finally, just how badly did I mislead you in the corn crake episode? Not too badly, but it turns out the truth about Scotland's corn crakes is not as cheerful as I suggested.

Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com.

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