Stay ConnectedAustralia is full of weird plants and animals. And Dr Ann Jones is on speaking terms with most of them!
Each week Ann explores the most unusual elements of our natural world — the ones that make you go What the Duck?! Like why do quolls have spots? Who farts (and who doesn’t)? And how do snakes climb trees?
Join Ann alongside experts and ordinary Aussies alike to solve mysteries, smash myths and uncover the bizarre truth about nature down under.
Copyright: © Copyright 2024, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
A tiny penis, a 12-hour annual fertilisation window, picky females and strawberry bubble bath – these are just a few of the issues that pop up when making a panda cub.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast on April the 1st 2023 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people. The pandas, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, are no longer at the Adelaide Zoo. They've been replaced with new pandas, Xing Qiu and Yi Lan.
There's a whole world of mystery, and quite a bit of maths, inside the humble sea shell.
Forget ancestry searches online, shells can tell you the history of the world!
Featuring:
Amy Prendergast, University of Melbourne.
Jann Vendetti, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Dr Paul Butler, Researcher at the University of Exeter.
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in March 2023 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Jaws (1975) was a massive hit that also created a whole lot of fear, but does anything in the film really stand up to shark science?
Do sharks stalk humans? Do they roar? What can they sense?
There are so many misconceptions when it comes to sharks that even now, 50 years later, these are impacting shark policies in Australia, and have come to be known as 'the jaws effect.'
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in Nov 2024 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Female lab mice have been bred to be passive and breed with ease.
But, in the wild they're feisty and even pugnacious.
How much of our biological understanding of the world is based on misogyny?
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in July 2023 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Eels are mysterious and have a fascinating history.
People in pre-medieval England used them to pay rent. Early 17th-century maps featured 'eel ships,' and even Sigmund Freud studied their breeding and reproduction habits for a whole summer.
Dr Ann Jones gets 'eely' curious about eels in today's What the Duck?!
Featuring:
Dr. John Wyatt Greenlee, Historian Cornell University.
Erin Rose, Budj Bim World Heritage Executive Officer at Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation.
Braydon Saunders, Tour Guide Coordinator at Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Tourism.
Tyson Lovett-Murray, Budj Bim World Heritage Ranger at Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation.
Wayne Koster, Research Scientist at the Arthur Rylah Institute, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Victorian Government.
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in March 2023 and was produced on the land of the Gunditjmara, Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
When it comes to sexual organs, the penis is really ‘out there.’ Name another organ that can change its form AND function in a matter of seconds!
There’s a lot of variety in the animal kingdom; from spikes and nails to coils and collagen – so, this appendage is worth investigating... close up.
Sex is Weird is a new series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the animal kingdom.
Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended. It was first broadcast in August 2024.
Featuring:
Dr Emily Willingham, biologist, journalist and author.
Dr Diane Kelly, Senior Research Fellow, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Associate Professor Andrew Durso, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida.
Associate Professor Patty Brennan, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, US.
Dr Bruno Buzatto, Flinders University, South Australia.
Philippa Holm, HFR Performance Horses, Victoria.
Production:
Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano.
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and the Kaurna people.
Aussie classic Babe turns 30 this year, and its story of the little pig that achieves his dream of being a sheep dog is still as uplifting as the day it premiered. But we can't say "that'll do, pig" when it comes to the science....
By now, we know pigs aren't "definitely stupid", but how smart are they? Would an orphaned pig be taken in by a family of dogs? Could a pig really learn to herd sheep? And would Babe really stay so small for so long?
Dr Ann Jones sniffs out the porkies Hollywood told us in this poignant pig picture.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Taungurung, and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
If you have a fear of getting swooped by magpies, mobbed by seagulls or blinded by crows, perhaps Alfred Hitchcock is to blame.
His 1963 horror classic The Birds created a generation of ornithophobes, and played on our fears of death by feathered fiend.
But how accurate are his creepy corvids? Do birds of a feather flock together exclusively? Can a bird go all 'Here's Johnny' on a locked door? Do birds hold grudges?
Dr Ann Jones gets a bird's eye view of Hollywood's avian lies.
Featuring:
Further reading:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Taungurung, and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
Remember that 1998 film Antz? The one about an ant named Z?
The one where the ants had nightmare-inducing human teeth? The one we probably have to blame for the existence of Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie?
Considering the movie is all about ants, you'd think it'd get SOMETHING right about ants. But Hollywood has once again LIED TO US.
Do male ants have any jobs outside the boudoir? Can ants breathe? Do ants have creepy little human teeth?
Ann Jones sets out to be pedANTic and find the facts in the fiction.
Featuring:
Further reading:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Taungurung, and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
In 1985, a real American black bear consumed a bunch of cocaine that'd been dropped from a plane into the forest, and died.
Nearly 40 years later Hollywood stepped in the rewrite the story. What would happen if the bear survived? Maybe it'd go on a coke-fueled rampage. That's how it works, right?
Cocaine Bear (2023) launched a lot of memes, but does it get anything right about bears, or how they'd act under the influence of blow...or did Hollywood lie to us?
Would a black bear really eat a drug dealer alive?
Do bears do 'snow' *wink* angels?
Dr Ann Jones cuts through it all to get some serious answers.
Guests:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
