The Wild Episode

Latest Episodes:

Tri-Spine Horseshoe Crab : Survivors Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

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 ...

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Modum by Kai Engel, CC BY 3.0, Another Version of You and An Extraordinary Camera Was Custom Built and Used Only Once by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 3.0

Colugo : Glide Path Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

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 ...

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Another Brilliant Age and The Last Whale by Jelsonic. CC BY 4.0.

Wasp Mantidfly : Spider's Bane Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

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.

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Great Slaty Woodpecker : The Haunted Bird Mar 02, 2022

Show notes

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 ...

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

What Have You Done and Small Steps by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 3.0

Greater Argonaut : The Aquarium of Jeanne Villepreux-Power Feb 11, 2022

Show notes

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.

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

Hey Ruth Instrumental Version, Pompeii No Vocals, The Pawnbroker's Stepdaughter Instrumental Version and Bloom Instrumental Version by Josh Woodward, CC BY 4.0

Stoplight Loosejaw : Jaws Sees Red Dec 29, 2021

Show notes

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.

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

Oxygen Garden, Perhaps It Was Not Properly Manufactured, CGI Snake and Divider by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0

Giant Hummingbird : Life At The Limit Dec 13, 2021

Show notes

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 ...

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

It's a Jazz Thing by Smiling Cynic, CC BY 3.0

Dead From The Beginning, Alive Till The End by Doctor Turtle, CC BY 3.0

Death's-Head Hawkmoth : The Mad King's Moth Nov 29, 2021

Show notes

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 help make those future episodes better!

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Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

Slide Rule by Gurdonark, CC BY 3.0

Recording of Acherontia styx, Natural History Museum Sound Archive via wikimedia/bio.acousti.ca, CC BY 3.0

Armadillo Lizard : The Armoured Ouroboros Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

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 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.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

Wants To Know by Bodysurfer, CC BY 4.0

Crab Nemertean : The Egg Thief Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

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 your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better!

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Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

plus modified versions of:

The Meadow, The Jewel and Me, I Dare You and Procreation by Little Glass Men, CC BY 4.0