The Wild Episode

The 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, ev…

The 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 …

The 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 go…

The 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 probl…

What 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 simpl…

Northern 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…

The 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 con…

The 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'.

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The 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…

The 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 ani…

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 populati…

Whirling 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!

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The 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 ... 

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Just a quick update on the podcast, and a quick look forward to 2023! 

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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 ...

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The 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 i…

The 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 …

The 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 ...

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The 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…

The 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 el…