The Wild Episode

The 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…

The 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…

The Madison Cave Isopod is a small aquatic crustacean living an extraordinary subterranean life: not in underground rivers, but in the groundwater. In the aquifer. 

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The 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 be…

Eleonora'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 specifi…

The 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:…

The 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 exis…

Cannibals 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 h…

Labord'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 …

The 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. …

Moths 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 t…

The 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 …

The 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 th…

The 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 t…

The 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 mysteriou…

The 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 hand…

The Greater Honeyguide (Indicator indicator) is famous for its extraordinary co-operative relationship with humans. Less famous is its ruthlessly destructive relationship with other birds ...

Researc…

The 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 …

The 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…

The 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 Roc…