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.
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:
Lucy Cooke, Zoologist and author of Bitch A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal.Professor Arthur Georges, University of Canberra.Professor Catherine Dulac, Harvard University.
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people. It was originally broadcast in July 2023.
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.
This episode was originally broadcast in March 2023.
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
There's only a handful of animals on earth that go through menopause, where females get to hang up the ovaries and enjoy a change of life.
So, why have we (humans, chimps and some toothed whales) established a sexual retirement of sorts? What is everyone else missing out on?
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri and Kaurna people.
We will all go to trouble to get a good meal, but some animals take it to the extreme.
Some build architectural masterpieces to entrap their prey, or use body parts as lures.
But what is your cat doing when it makes the 'ek ek ek ek?' Is it trying to bewitch the birds?
Featuring:
Extra audio: Cat Ek ek ek by @thiscatisdumpling.
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Despite spending years and millions of dollars, the Tasmanian Fox Eradication team never, not once, not ever, spotted a live fox on the Apple Isle.
While their efforts yielded zero foxes, it spawned a tale of lies, alleged corruption, and more scats than you could poke a stick at.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
You have a lot to thank sheep for. Yes, sheep.
More than just wool and meat — sheep have played a part in the development of contraception and reproduction in humans.
It's not as dodgy as it sounds, but it is absolutely surprising. Listening to this show will have you thanking every sheep you see from here on out.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
For years we've barely even talked about the human clitoris let alone the fact that snakes have TWO.
This program has adult themes.
Featuring:
Belinda Smith, ABC Science Online Reporter.
Lucy Cooke, Author and Film maker.
Megan Folwell, University of Adelaide.
Dr Jenna Crowe-Riddell, La Trobe University.
Production:
This program was first broadcast in 2023.
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Would you meet a stranger in a park with a pile of snakes?
Comedian Craig Quartermaine took the risk in an attempt to overcome his fears.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode was originally broadcast in 2023.
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung, Yuggera, Turrbal and Kaurna people.
Could a legless lizard be 'minimalist of the year' for famous podcaster T. K. Coleman?
Ann Jones leads an unlikely gang of animal experts on a tidy dance through the philosophy of minimalism. There are moths without mouths, flies without wings, and a worm-lizard that will even declutter its own tail.
Move over Marie Kondo, Minimalist Mother Nature is in town.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a tingly sensation that can bring relaxation, and it's spawned a growing industry of videos online of whispering, tapping, mouth noises and soft speaking.
But, if you wanted quiet, intimate sounds, well, Nature does it so. much. better.
Ann Jones goes on an ASMR journey with vibrating caterpillars, whispering monkeys and birds who want to keep secrets.
Featuring:
Production:
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
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