An extra special, podcast only, five-minute story for you!

A bird that stands over a metre tall hardly seems like it'd bow down to a rock star, but Johnny Cash played a burning role in the near-extinction of Californian Condors.

Featuring:

Dr. Maggie Watson, Zoologist at Charles Sturt University 

Production:
Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

POD EXTRA: Johnny Cash and the Condor fire

The show with a mission to explore the mysteries of nature - especially the ones that make you go What the Duck?!

Natural Sciences

Science & Medicine

Science

Birds can fly while half their brain is sleeping and some spiders sleep dangling on a silk thread, but what about worms.

Do worms sleep?

Featuring:
Associate Professor John Lesku, La Trobe University. 
Dr Shauni Omond, @shauniomond.sleepsci on Instagram, La Trobe University.  
Professor Niels Rattenborg, Research leader on Avian Sleep, Max Planck Institute. 
Dr Daniela Roessler, University of Konstanz. 

Production:
Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
Additional mastering:  Roi Huberman.

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people and was originally broadcast in July 2023.

Do worms sleep?

Female sage-grouse birds have decided that they want to see a weird sexy dance when deciding on a mate.

Ann Jones explores the creativity of female choice in the animal world in this episode of What the Duck?!




Featuring:

Lucy Cooke, Zoologist and author of Bitch A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal.
Professor Gail L Patricelli,  University of California, Davis. 


Production:

Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
Petria Ladgrove, Producer.


Additional mastering:  John Jacobs.


This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people andwas originally broadcast in July 2023.

The Sage-grouse dance

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:
Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
Additional mastering: Carey Dell

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people. It was originally broadcast in July 2023.

Hyenas and lab mice - does sex matter?

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:
Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
Additional mastering: Carey Dell

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Shells with stories to tell

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:
Associate Professor Kevin Langergraber, Primatologist, Arizona State University.
Charli Grimes, PhD student, University of Exeter.

Production:
Belinda Smith, Reporter/Producer. 
Ann Jones, Presenter/Producer.
Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
Additional mastering: Hamish Camilleri.

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri and Kaurna people.

POD EXTRA: Johnny Cash and the Condor fire

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