Shows
The Wild EpisodeAldabra Giant Tortoise : The One and OnlyThe 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 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...
2024-05-0933 min
The Wild EpisodePhrynus longipes : The Whip Spider in the CaveThe 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 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...
2024-04-2332 min
The Wild EpisodeGlacier Lanternfish : The ScatterersThe 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 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...
2024-04-0833 min
The Wild EpisodeMatabele Ant : The RaidThe 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 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 you. ...
2024-03-0829 min
The Wild EpisodeYellow-Footed Antechinus : Paying the Hormonal PriceThe 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 follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. ...
2024-02-0131 min
The Wild EpisodeTrain Millipede : The Eight Year ItchThe 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 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...
2024-01-1131 min
The Wild EpisodeLeopard : The Cat in the CityThe 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, 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...
2023-12-1332 min
The Wild EpisodeParagordius tricuspidatus : The Phantom ThreadWhat 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 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 you. Show...
2023-11-3034 min
The Wild EpisodeNorthern Gannet : Deep ImpactNorthern 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 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...
2023-11-1631 min
The Wild EpisodeAntarctic Krill : Maximum SwarmThe 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 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....
2023-11-0132 min
The Wild EpisodeTentacled Snake : J Stands For DeathThe 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 on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes...
2023-07-0529 min
The Wild EpisodeMediterranean Monk Seal : The Seal in HidingThe 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 help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on...
2023-06-1434 min
The Wild EpisodeSão Tomé Caecilian : Double YellowThe 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 follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show no...
2023-05-2431 min
The Wild EpisodeWhite-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 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 you.
2023-05-1030 min
The Wild EpisodeWhirling Disease Myxozoan : Minimum AnimalWhirling 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 share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, video and links to...
2023-04-2632 min
The Wild EpisodeMegamouth Shark : The Third Biggest Shark in the WorldThe 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 Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos, v...
2023-04-1231 min
The Wild EpisodeUpdate and 2023 PreviewJust 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 you. Show notes are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by A...
2022-12-1604 min
The Wild EpisodeVampire 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 support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you. Show notes, with photos...
2022-11-1832 min
The Wild EpisodeVampire Squid : Neither Vampire Nor SquidThe 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, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support...
2022-10-3131 min
The Wild EpisodeCorsac Fox : Two Foxes, an Eagle and a MarmotThe 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 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 y...
2022-09-2831 min
The Wild EpisodeNeon Flying Squid : You'll Believe a Squid Can FlyThe 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 Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.
2022-09-0729 min
The Wild EpisodeScottnema : Maximum SouthThe 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 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...
2022-08-2531 min
The Wild EpisodeRed-Crowned Crane : DMZThe 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, 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...
2022-07-2836 min
The Wild EpisodeEmperor Scorpion : Very Good With ChildrenThe 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 show on Facebook or Twitter. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Music Opening & Closing...
2022-06-2830 min
The Wild Episode(REBROADCAST) Northern Fulmar : The Foul Gull of St KildaTo 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 seabirds in the North Atlantic, and a true master of the air. But most importantly for this episode, it is a central character in the story of how, for...
2022-06-1033 min
The Wild EpisodePig-Nosed Turtle : One of a KindThe 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! 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.c...
2022-05-2430 min
The Wild EpisodeFenyes's Strepsipteran : You Have Got To Be KiddingFenyes'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, 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 l...
2022-05-1231 min
The Wild EpisodeTri-Spine Horseshoe Crab : SurvivorsThe 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 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...
2022-04-2532 min
The Wild EpisodeColugo : Glide PathColugos (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'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...
2022-04-0728 min
The Wild EpisodeWasp Mantidfly : Spider's BaneFirst 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 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
2022-03-2428 min
The Wild EpisodeGreat Slaty Woodpecker : The Haunted BirdThe 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 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...
2022-03-0230 min
The Wild EpisodeGreater Argonaut : The Aquarium of Jeanne Villepreux-PowerThe 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 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...
2022-02-1130 min
The Wild EpisodeStoplight Loosejaw : Jaws Sees RedThe 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 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...
2021-12-2930 min
The Wild EpisodeGiant Hummingbird : Life At The LimitThe 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 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...
2021-12-1329 min
The Wild EpisodeDeath's-Head Hawkmoth : The Mad King's MothThe 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! 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
2021-11-2930 min
The Wild EpisodeArmadillo Lizard : The Armoured OuroborosThe 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, v...
2021-11-1030 min
The Wild EpisodeCrab Nemertean : The Egg ThiefThe 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! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music ...
2021-10-2730 min
The Wild EpisodeBlack-Headed Duck : The Cuckoo DuckThe 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 or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music ...
2021-10-1328 min
The Wild EpisodeOrca : The Ultimate PredatorThe 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 episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation...
2021-09-2238 min
The Wild EpisodeRakali : Carnivorous Rodent Eats Poison ToadThe 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 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. Music Opening & Closing...
2021-08-0330 min
The Wild EpisodeYellow-Bellied Sea Snake : All At SeaThe 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 or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters...
2021-07-2032 min
The Wild EpisodeElectric Eel : Maximum ShockElectric 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 comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes...
2021-07-0633 min
TransformerspoddenInterview with Brian RuckleyHi TF-Fans! Welcome to a new episode of Transformerspodden! The Swedish podcast on Transformers!
Todays episode will be in english because today we have a guest! We have the honour to have Brian Ruckley with us!
Brian is a Scottish fantasy novelist based in Edinburgh. The author of The Godless World novel trilogy, Ruckley started working with IDW Publishing in 2013 for a reboot of Rogue Trooper, and a couple years later he penned a Highlander comic. Ruckley joined the Transformers brand in 2019 to write the ongoing Transformers comic series a bold new era, Escape and the Annual 2021...
2021-07-031h 12
The Wild EpisodeEuropean Beewolf : The War on FungusThe 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 episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.
2021-06-1531 min
The Wild EpisodeColossal Squid : When Giant Isn't Big EnoughThe 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 feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and...
2021-05-1234 min
The Wild EpisodeOlm : Larval Dragons in Black and WhiteThe 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 better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from...
2021-04-2136 min
The Wild EpisodeMadison Cave Isopod : Standing in the Shallows of the AquiferThe 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. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0. Modified versions of: I Should Have Been M...
2021-04-0634 min
The Wild EpisodeOilbird : Humboldt's ChupacabraThe 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 future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix...
2021-03-2435 min
The Wild EpisodeEleonora's Falcon : The Lady-Judge's BirdEleonora's Falcon is a very elegant, very unusual bird of prey. It nests in big colonies on Mediterranean Islands, and on one of those islands may have been the first bird in the world to get specific legal protection. But here's the main question: why, unlike almost any other bird, does it breed not in the Spring or Summer, but in the Autumn? 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 f...
2021-03-0928 min
The Wild EpisodeGreater Noctule Bat : Bat versus BirdThe Greater Noctule bat is Europe's biggest bat, but also probably its most mysterious and least studied. In the last twenty years, though, remarkable details of its life have come to light. Such as: it's one of the very few bats in the world that is a major predator of birds ... 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. Music O...
2021-01-2632 min
The Wild EpisodePurple Frog : The Frog That Thinks It's A Fish And A MoleThe purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) was only described by scientists in 2003. Naturalists actually knew about it - knew a little about it - way back in the early 20th century, but its existence had been kind of forgotten. And even now, we don't know much more than a little about it. But what we do know is enough to make it a pretty remarkable frog ... 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...
2020-12-2326 min
The Wild EpisodeMormon Cricket : The Cannibal SwarmCannibals on the march ... The Mormon Cricket (Anabrus simplex), which is found across western North America, is prone to outbreaks: the mass movement of millions upon millions of insects. And what happens within those outbreaks, inside the vast crowd, is pretty brutal ... 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. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by...
2020-12-1128 min
The Wild EpisodeLabord's Chameleon : All Together NowLabord's Chameleon (Furcifer labordi) may look like just another chameleon, albeit a small one. But it isn't. In one crucial respect, it is one of the most unusual animals on Earth. Virtually unique among tetrapods, in fact ... 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. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix...
2020-11-2528 min
The Wild EpisodeLowland Streaked Tenrec : Of Rafts and SpinesThe Lowland Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus) is a small, worm-eating mammal from Madagascar. It has yellow stripes, a shared evolutionary history with elephants and sociable inclinations. It also has spines, and it does something with them that no other mammal can do ... 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. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by...
2020-11-1029 min
The Wild EpisodeHalloween Moths : Sweat, Tears and BloodMoths for Halloween! If you can drink nectar, or fruit juice, as many moths do, you can drink other kinds of liquids too. Such as ... the bodily fluids of other animals. Up to and including the one that earns you the name ... vampire. 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. Music Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation...
2020-10-3027 min
The Wild EpisodeLoricifera : OxygenThe loricifera are a group of microscopic animals that, despite being abundant and widespread in marine sediments, no-one knew existed until the late 20th century. Once they were discovered, it soon became clear they are very, very unusual: including in one specific way that makes them unlike any other animal on Earth ... Thanks to Jack Wilkinson for research assistance with this episode! 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...
2020-10-1530 min
The Wild EpisodeBat-Eared Fox : It's A Dog's LifeThe bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis) may not look out of the ordinary (apart from its big ears) but it is. Known as the only insectivorous dog in the world, it has the most teeth and the probably the fastest jaw of any wild dog. It also has a very unusual way of going about the business of raising the next generation ... 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...
2020-09-2931 min
The Wild EpisodeWandering Glider : A World in Perfect HarmonyThe Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens) may look like just another dragonfly, but it is in fact one of the more remarkable insects on Earth, undertaking some of the most extraordinary journeys in the entire animal kingdom ... 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. Music by Audionautix and Mystery Mammal and Siddhartha and Chris Zabriskie and Peter Rudenko. All licensed under Creative C...
2020-07-2428 min
The Wild EpisodeBearded Vulture : The Bonebreaker and the Acid TestThe Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is Nature's greatest bonebreaker and bone-eater, and it uses two very different tools to make that possible: gravity and acid. It also has a somewhat mysterious but apparently significant relationship with iron oxide ... 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. Music by Audionautix and Bert Alink and Unheard Music Concepts and Damiano Baldoni. All licensed under Cr...
2020-07-0731 min
The Wild EpisodeIce Worm : Life on IceThe glacier ice worm Mesenchytraeus solifugus might look unremarkable, but it is an extraordinary animal. Above all, it's extraordinary in where it lives: on and in glaciers. It is one of a tiny handful of non-microscopic animals that can not only tolerate but require glacial ice to survive ... 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. Music by Audionautix and Daniel Birch a...
2020-06-1630 min
The Wild EpisodeGreater Honeyguide : The Bird of Light and DarkThe Greater Honeyguide (Indicator indicator) is famous for its extraordinary co-operative relationship with humans. Less famous is its ruthlessly destructive relationship with other birds ... Research assistance for this episode by Jack Wilkinson. 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. Music by Audionautix and Damiano Baldoni. All licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com
2020-06-0228 min
The Wild EpisodeBonnethead Shark : The Shark That Eats GrassThe Bonnethead Shark (Sphyrna tiburo) is a shark that packs quite a bit of unique into its smallish size. It's a member of the hammerhead family, so you know its head is going to be unusual, but the most surprising things about it are actually its teeth and its remarkable diet ... Research assistance for this episode by Jack Wilkinson. 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! Intro and outro music by...
2020-05-1229 min
The Wild EpisodeWest Indian Fuzzy Chiton : The Argus ShellThe West Indian fuzzy chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) is a relatively unobtrusive, modest-looking marine mollusc with an extraordinary secret. Its shell is not just for protection; built into it are hundreds of tiny eyes. Eyes with lenses made of crystals. 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! Find the show on Facebook and on Twitter. Music by Audionautix and by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com
2020-04-2828 min
The Wild EpisodeBarbary Macaque : The Monkey That Killed A KingThe Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is the only macaque that lives outside Asia, hanging on in pockets of the wild Atlas Mountains in North Africa. And, famously, living a semi-wild life on the Rock of Gibraltar. It's also been responsible for at least a couple of interesting human deaths, and exploring those connections takes us all over the place, and all over time: monkeys in prehistoric Europe, the Spanish Civil War, the Carthaginian wars, Roman arenas and a whole lot more ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail...
2020-04-1430 min
The Wild EpisodeYeti Crab : The Abominable CrustaceanYeti crabs (Kiwa spp.). Hydrothermal vents. Life built not on sunlight, but on chemistry. We're going for a visit to some of the strangest places, with some of the strangest animals living the strangest lives, on the planet ... 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! Intro and outro music by Audionautix. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. www.thewildepisode.com
2020-04-0130 min
The Wild EpisodeAlpine Chough : The Black Feather of the NeanderthalsThe Alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is, as far as birds are concerned, pretty much the ultimate mountaineer. It has bred at higher altitude than any other bird, and been seen hanging out near the summit of Mount Everest. But it is also a bird with a remarkable, almost inexplicable, deep history; because the Alpine chough has a mysterious, but possibly profound, connection to the Neanderthals ... 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! Intro...
2020-03-1730 min
The Wild EpisodeSolorzano's Peripatus : The Giant Red Velvet Glue GunSolorzano's Peripatus (Peripatus solorzanoi) is the biggest velvet worm in the world. Which makes it the biggest example of a very, very unusual group of animals: cute, unique creatures that are highly secretive and mysterious. And are also dedicated hunters with an unusual secret weapon in their arsenal: glue. 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! Intro and outro music by Audionautix. Other music in this episode by Chris Zabriskie. All licensed under...
2020-02-2526 min
The Wild EpisodePortuguese Man-o-War : The Flagship of the Blue FleetThe Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis) is the most famous and spectacular member of the Blue Fleet. Questions to be asked and answered: What is the Blue Fleet? What obscure connection does it have to the Aquatic Ape theory of human evolution? Just how insanely weird is the Portuguese man o' war anyway, and what strange connection does it have to another member of the Blue Fleet – the improbably beautiful sea swallow, a ferociously predatory sea slug? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, su...
2020-01-1427 min
The Wild EpisodeAnelosimus eximius : The Social SpiderMost spiders live solitary lives, but Anelosimus eximius is an example of a different lifestyle: colonial living. A very social spider, that maintains and defends a communal web and hunts in packs. And because it hunts in packs, it can target bigger prey than your average spider. But it is itself the target for some very unwelcome attention, from thieves and killers. 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! Intro and outro music b...
2019-12-0529 min
The Wild EpisodeGreat Northern Tilefish : The Great Dying of 1882The Great Northern Tilefish (Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) is a big, beautiful fish from the western Atlantic. It's one of those rare animals that is capable of reshaping its physical environment over vast areas. But it's also interesting for a rather unique reason. It was discovered, entirely accidentally, in 1879 and within 3 years of that discovery, something entirely unexpected and dramatic happened that involved millions upon millions of dead fish. 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!
2019-11-1928 min
The Wild EpisodeBone-House Wasp : A Halloween OssuaryThe Bone-House Wasp (Deuteragenia ossarium) is recently discovered species of spider wasp that has some remarkable habits. So, three questions. What is a spider wasp? What is an ossuary? And what connects the two to make for a suitable Wild Episode subject? Oh, and can I come with a tenuous excuse to talk about Beowulf and Old English? (Spoilers: yes, I can). 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! Intro and outro music b...
2019-10-2921 min
The Wild EpisodeRuppell's Vulture : The Seven Mile High ClubRuppell's Vulture (Gyps rueppelli) is one of the biggest vultures in the world, but it's real claim to fame is more spectacular. It is the highest flying bird on Earth. Certain risks come with being a master of the air, though, which leads us into a discussion that may make this episode unsuitable for some listeners: bird strikes, and their consequences for both aircraft and birds. And merely by virtue of being a vulture, Ruppell's Vulture has one another claim to fame: it is a member of a group of birds that exemplifies more than most the catastrophic impact...
2019-10-0929 min
The Wild EpisodeBootlace Worm : Maximum WormThe world record for longest animal is held by the bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus), a Nemertean or ribbon worm from the North Sea. In fact, it's held by a Scottish bootlace worm that was washed ashore in 1864. But is that record reliable? How long do bootlace worms actually get? And what is a ribbon worm anyway? 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! Intro and outro music by Audionautix. Other music in this...
2019-09-2428 min
The Wild EpisodeExploding Ant : Pop Goes The AntColobopsis explodens is one of a group of ants known as exploding ants. Highly social insects that have developed an extraordinary approach to the defense of their colonies - a mass of workers, every one of which is prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. But how and why, you might wonder, does an ant make itself explode? 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! Intro and outro music by Audionautix. Other music in this e...
2019-09-0328 min
The Wild EpisodeCuvier's Beaked Whale : Maximum DiveCuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) is a member of a rarely seen, little known and little studied group of whales – the beaked whales – that are in fact widespread, relatively common and completely remarkable. The particular claim to fame of Cuvier's beaked whale is its astonishing diving capabilities: it holds the record for the deepest dive by an air-breathing animal (without the aid of a submarine!). So we're heading out, into the open ocean, to visit with one of the most rarely seen large animals on Earth, and to follow it away from the air and the light into the midn...
2019-07-2530 min
The Wild EpisodeBone-Eating Worm : WhalefallThe weirdest animals yet to appear on The Wild Episode: Osedax, a whole genus of bone-eating worms that for tens of millions of years have been colonising giant carcasses in the deep sea. They have no mouths, the males are miniature, they secrete acid and they grow roots like trees. Weird, like I say. But wonderful too. 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! Intro and outro music by Audionautix. www.t...
2019-06-2527 min
The Wild EpisodeRussian Tortoise : The Big SleepCome and meet the tortoise that went to the moon! The Russian Tortoise (Testudo or Agrionemys horsfieldii) was the first vertebrate animal to fly around the moon. It spends more time in hibernation/aestivation than just about any other vertebrate. And despite being probably the commonest and widespread tortoise in the world, it's vulnerable to extinction. What could humans possibly be doing to threaten such a common animal with disappearance? 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...
2019-06-0432 min
The Wild EpisodeAntarctic Midge : Antarctica's Biggest PedestrianWhat is the biggest terrestrial animal native to Antarctica? It's the Antarctic Midge (Belgica antarctica), a wingless fly that at no more than a quarter of an inch in length is by some distance Antarctica's biggest pedestrian. This is life right on the edge of possibility ... 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!
2019-05-1429 min
The Wild EpisodeGelada : The Monkey on the MountainThe 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? Shownotes at www.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 help make those future episodes better!
2019-04-0231 min
TransMissions Interviews feed - Everything (and Everyone) Transformers!Brian Ruckley InterviewOn this special episode, we sit down with Brian Ruckley, writer of the new Transformers comic series from IDW. We explore his approach to rebooting the Transformers Universe, and what he’s got in store for this reimagining of our favorite Autobots and Decepticons. So sit back and enjoy the beginning of a bold new era, on this episode of TransMissions Alt Mode!
A transcript of the interview is available here.
Order our exclusive Skybound Transformers #1 comic with cover art by E.J. Su!
Want some TransMissions swag? Check out our online shop, pow...
2019-03-131h 18
The Wild EpisodeSpider-tailed Horned Viper : Possibly the Coolest Snake in the WorldThe 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 ... Shownotes at www.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 help make those future episodes better!
2019-02-1923 min
The Wild EpisodeMariana Snailfish : As Deep As A Fish Can GoThe 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. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions o...
2018-12-1330 min
The Wild EpisodeCrowned Eagle : The Predator Next DoorThe 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. 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. And now you can find The Wild Episode o...
2018-12-0428 min
The Wild EpisodeViolet Oil Beetle : The Hitchhiker From HellThe 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. 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. And now you can find The Wild Episode on Facebook too!
2018-11-2026 min
The Wild EpisodeAustralian Trumpet : Maximum SnailThe 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. 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. And now you can find The Wild Episode on Facebook too!
2018-11-0627 min
The Wild EpisodeEpomis, Cymothoa, Hymenoepimecis : Halloween HorrorsIn 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 ... Shownotes at www.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 help make those future episodes better. A...
2018-10-2326 min
The Wild EpisodeNorthern Fulmar : The Foul Gull of St. KildaThe northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is one of the commonest seabirds in the North Atlantic, and a true master of the air. It is also, slightly less romantically, a master of vomiting noxious oil. And it is one of those rare species that appears to have benefited from humanity's industrial exploitation of the natural environment. But most importantly for this episode, it is a central character in the story of an extraordinary human community - a key part in explaining how, for centuries, a village of perhaps two hundred people survived in one of Britain's most isolated, bleak locations ...
2018-10-0932 min
The Wild EpisodeBaikal Seal : The Seal That's Never Seen The SeaThe 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. 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...
2018-09-2530 min
The Wild EpisodeSpectral Bat : Maximum BatThe 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. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild E...
2018-08-2824 min
The Wild EpisodeShark, Stick, Crake : Updates and SupplementalsRevisiting 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.
2018-07-2521 min
The Wild EpisodeArcherfish : BullseyeYou've probably heard of Archerfish (Toxotes spp.), the Robin Hoods of the natural world. I discovered them when I was a kid, burning through wildlife books from the library. What I didn't know then - because nobody did - was just how these really pretty small fish rely on physics and fluid dynamics to hunt terrestrial prey using water as a tool. You know a fish is doing something interesting when the US Navy gets into the habit of naming submarines after it ... Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com. Subscribe to the show to ma...
2018-06-2620 min
The Wild EpisodeCoelacanth : The King of the SeaThe coelacanth(s) (Latimeria chalumnae and Latimeria menadoensis) must be amongst the most famous fish in the entire world. And rightly so, since their discovery was one of the most astounding zoological moments of the 20th century. But they're not just famous. They're also a bit misunderstood, and bit mysterious. They are not really living fossils, or missing links. They are fish that give birth to live young, hunt by doing a headstand and carry in their bodies a blueprint that in some ways connects them more closely to us than to all the other fish in...
2018-06-0530 min
The Wild EpisodeLarge Blue Butterfly : The Wolf in Ant's ClothingThe large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion - or Phengaris arion, depending on who you ask) is both beauty and the beast. Beauty because ... well, it's a pretty little butterfly, so what more could ask for? The beast because it's also such a master of deception, infiltration and carnivory it could be the antagonist in a sci fi horror movie. So welcome to the world of a butterfly that is both parasite and predator, combining the tendencies of the cuckoo and the wolf. Oh, and it spends a chunk of its life pretending to be an ant.
2018-05-2227 min
The Wild EpisodeBanteng : The Horns of a DilemmaWild cattle don't come much more beautiful or impressive than the banteng (Bos javanicus), one of three (or is it two?) surviving cattle species that are as much a part of wild Asia as are the tiger or the orang-utan. Like the tiger and the orang-utan, the banteng has not done very well in the face of human pressure, but it has one thing those animals don't: a large population - its largest, in fact - living wild in a country that was never part of its natural range. So what does it mean for conservation when...
2018-05-0827 min
The Wild EpisodeSteller's Sea Cow : Steller's Menagerie Part TwoPart two of two, and the amazing Steller's sea cow (Hydromalis gigas) - a sirenian bigger than an African elephant - finally makes its appearance, as the wheels come off the Great Northern Expedition and Vitus Bering and Georg Steller discover a Lost World. Astonishing wildlife abounds, but will not abound for long, now that it must share its home with a handful of shipwrecked sailors ... Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com And remember to subscribe to the show to make you sure don't miss any wonders, curiosities or occasionally horrors from the natural world!
2018-04-2435 min
The Wild EpisodeSteller's Sea Cow : Steller's Menagerie Part OneSteller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was one of the most surprising, dramatic and generally amazing animals to have shared the world with modern humans. To tell its story is going to take two episodes - and this first of them, to be honest, doesn't even feature the sea cow itself. But it does feature Vitus Bering and Georg Steller, two men who would share with that gigantic creature an extraordinary tale of exploration, survival, death and extinction. Oh, and there's a load of other amazing wildlife involved as well ... Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com And r...
2018-04-1032 min
The Wild EpisodeCorn Crake : The Undiscovered SongVikings! Monks! Poetry! Plus, a bird that is next to impossible to see, but almost impossible not to hear. The corn crake (Crex crex) has one of the most distinctive voices in the animal world, and for centuries - even as its population in the UK has plummeted - that voice has been a symbol of the bird itself ... Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com And remember to subscribe to the show for plenty more wonders, curiosities and occasionally horrors from the natural world!
2018-03-2727 min
The Wild EpisodeLord Howe Island Stick Insect : The Lazarus StickThis Wild Episode is all about what was once the rarest insect in the world - the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect (Dryococelus australis) - and the bizarre story of how it escaped extinction, pulling off one of the most amazing tricks of species survival the world has ever seen ... Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com. Subscribe to the show for plenty more wonders, curiosities and horrors from the natural world!
2018-03-1325 min
The Wild EpisodeGreenland Shark : The Shark in DarknessWhere better to start The Wild Episode than with a shark? Specifically, the Greenland Shark. Somniosus microcephalus. One of the least well known, and most mysterious, top predators in the world. An enormous Arctic shark that lives longer than any other vertebrate, eats almost anything, and loses its sight because its eyes get eaten ... Shownotes at www.thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show for plenty more wonders, curiosities and horrors from the natural world!
2018-02-2724 min
Down And Nerdy PodcastEpisode 154 - An Interview with Brian Ruckley from Highlander The American DreamThis week the guys sit down with Brian Ruckley who is the writer of IDW Publishing's "Highlander The American Dream"! They discuss the property's 30th anniversary, the downfalls of being immortal, and more! James and Nick also give a spoiler-filled review of "Kong: Skull Island," discuss what's holding up production on "The Batman," Valiant adding more big named cinematic talent, and other nerdy topics! Issues one and two of "Highlander The American Dream" are out now. Issue three will be available on April 19th!
2017-03-171h 26