The fear of being eaten by an animal is so visceral that a mass psychosis, featuring a monkey man, once swept across Delhi.

But in the event of an actual attack, investigators look for specific forensic clues to identify which predator was responsible.

Was the perpetrator human or animal? Or in one infamous case in the US, was it human … or owl?

Featuring:

• Phoebe Judge, host of the podcast Criminal
• Euan Ritchie, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Deakin University
• Mary Roach, author of Animal Vegetable Criminal
• Professor Sindhu Radhakrishna, National Institute of Advanced studies in Bengaluru, India
• Professor Satish Kr. Verma, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Amrita University in Faridabad, India

With extra sounds from bird enthusiasts:

• Barry Edmonston, XC1001471. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/1001471 (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0)

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Hamish Camilleri, Sound Engineer

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

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.