Strange Animals Podcast

This week we’re going to learn about animals that can regenerate parts of their body. What animals can do it, how does it work, and can humans figure out how to make it work for us too? Thanks to Maxwell of the awesome Relic: The Lost Treasure podcast for suggesting this week’s topic! The planarian, ... [Read more...]

It’s our one-year anniversary! To celebrate, I’ve opened up a Patreon bonus episode for anyone to listen to. Just click the link below and you can listen in your browser: bonus episode – Salty Animals This week’s episode is about dragons, specifically dragons of western/English-speaking tradition. Even narrowing it down like that leaves us with ... [Read more...]

Here’s another in the 2018 series of out-of-place animals, this time ABCs–alien big cats: big cats where there shouldn’t be any big cats. Like the British Isles, where no one should find a lynx or puma wandering around these days. But not only do people see big cats in Britain, they sometimes catch or kill ... [Read more...]

This week’s episode is about the Carolina parakeet, a cheerful, pretty bird that was once common in the central and eastern United States but which has been extinct for a century. Thanks to Maureen for the suggestion! I’ve paired it with the elephant bird, a gigantic extinct bird that we don’t know much about except ... [Read more...]

We’re discovering which animals are the tallest this week! This episode includes our first dinosaur! Sauroposeidon proteles: Giraffes: Bop bop bop have at thee! Paraceratherium (I couldn’t find one that I liked so I drew one, along with a giraffe and ostrich to scale): Ostrich running: I SAID DON’T @ ME A fine day at the ... [Read more...]

This week’s episode is about some interesting eels, including the Brantevik eel. A European eel: A leptocephalus, aka an eel larva: A moray eel. It has those jaws you can see and another set of jaws in its throat: Episode transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week, we’re going ... [Read more...]

Happy New Year! Let’s learn about a few animals that have shown up in places where they just shouldn’t be. How did they get there, and why? Sometimes we know, sometimes it remains a mystery. Some of Pablo Escobar’s hippos: King Julien, the ring-tailed lemur who was discovered almost frozen to death in London: A ... [Read more...]

It’s the last episode of 2017 and we’re going out in style, learning about some unusual horses! A Przewalski’s horse PHOTO TAKEN BY ME AT HELSINKI ZOO I cropped out as many poops as I could: A Heck horse, also sometimes called a tarpan. Photo taken by *squints* Klaus Rudloff in Berlin: A Moyle breed horse ... [Read more...]

There’s more in Loch Ness than one big mystery animal. This week we look at a few smaller mystery animals lurking in the cold depths of the lake. Further reading: Here’s Nessie: A Monstrous Compendium from Loch Ness by Karl P.N. Shuker The goliath frog: The Wels catfish (also, River Monsters is the best): An ... [Read more...]

At last, it’s the episode about the platypus, a monotreme! Only two kinds of monotremes remain: the platypus and the echidna. Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs! Not even making that up. The echidna: Do not eat: A platypus and another platypus: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This ... [Read more...]