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PODCAST

The Wild Episode

A Collection of Wonders and Curiosities from the Animal Kingdom. Zoology, natural history and sometimes human history too. Amazing stories about amazing wildlife.

science nature

All Episodes

23:45

Spider-tailed Horned Viper : Possibly the Coolest...

The Wild Episode ·

2019/02/19

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 ... 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

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30:30

Mariana Snailfish : As Deep As A Fish Can Go

The Wild Episode ·

2018/12/13

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. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and

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28:37

Crowned Eagle : The Predator Next Door

The Wild Episode ·

2018/12/04

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. 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

en

26:26

Violet Oil Beetle : The Hitchhiker From Hell

The Wild Episode ·

2018/11/20

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. 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

en

27:16

Australian Trumpet : Maximum Snail

The Wild Episode ·

2018/11/06

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. 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!

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26:33

Epomis, Cymothoa, Hymenoepimecis : Halloween Horrors

The Wild Episode ·

2018/10/23

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 ... 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,

en

30:34

Baikal Seal : The Seal That's Never Seen The Sea

The Wild Episode ·

2018/09/25

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. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or

en

24:27

Spectral Bat : Maximum Bat

The Wild Episode ·

2018/08/28

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

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21:53

Shark, Stick, Crake : Updates and Supplementals

The Wild Episode ·

2018/07/25

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

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20:45

Archerfish : Bullseye

The Wild Episode ·

2018/06/26

You'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.

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30:01

Coelacanth : The King of the Sea

The Wild Episode ·

2018/06/05

The 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

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27:14

Large Blue Butterfly : The Wolf In Ant's Clothing

The Wild Episode ·

2018/05/22

The 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

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27:10

Banteng : The Horns of a Dilemma

The Wild Episode ·

2018/05/08

Wild 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

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35:53

Steller's Sea Cow : Steller's Menagerie Part Two

The Wild Episode ·

2018/04/24

Part 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

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32:31

Steller's Sea Cow : Steller's Menagerie Part One

The Wild Episode ·

2018/04/10

Steller'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

en

27:27

Corn Crake : The Undiscovered Song

The Wild Episode ·

2018/03/27

Vikings! 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!

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25:40

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect : The Lazarus Stick

The Wild Episode ·

2018/03/13

This 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!

en

24:03

Greenland Shark : The Shark in Darkness

The Wild Episode ·

2018/02/27

Where 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!

en

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