Hello Everyone and a big THANK YOU to our patrons for making this episode possible.

Rachel starts off the show this week with another installment on her series about bears. This week, the Sun Bear. They are cool and all but they have a secret that is...just...it's so much.

Victoria gets us into a sticky situation with chameleons. We know birds build nests to keep their eggs from falling to the ground but what about chameleons? The have come up with a completely different solution to a common arboreal problem.

Sure, Sun Bears and Chameleons live in trees but surely Kirk can't have brought a tree-related topic can he? He can! This week Kirk wraps up the show by telling us about the loneliest tree in the world. This Sitka Spruce lives over 200km from any other tree on Earth.

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This one is wild. Kirk brings us the disturbing tale of a woman in Greece who ended up with botfly maggots living up her nose. Rachel has a hard time making it though this story but we believe in you dear listeners.

Rachel predictably goes back to the ocean and brings us a creature feature on the Blanket Octopus. These creatures have incredible differences in size between males and females.

Victoria rounds out this week's show with incredible bird nests. She talks about weaver birds but also Tailor Birds that actually sew leaves together to shelter their nests. It is unbelievable and you need to subscribe to our free newsletter to see the photos!

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This week Victoria takes us to the depths of the Mariana Trench. After taking us to the deepest cave in the world she felt it was only fair to visit the deepest spot on Earth!

Kirk then brings us new research about how bumblebees survive having their homes flooded by spring snow melt. It turns out, they can survive for 8 days underwater!

Rachel rounds out this week's show with the mystery of The Appendix. It totally isn't because she went to the doctor with abdominal pain this week.

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What a wild ride this week. We've all heard stories of someone needing their appendix removed but what if the only surgeon available is you? Rachel brings us a horrifying tale of a doctor in Antarctica who had to remove their own appendix.

Victoria tells us the tale of African sleeping sickness. This nasty disease is spread by the tse-tse fly and humans are making strides in fighting both the disease and the flies.

Finally, Kirk brings us a lighter story this week. Mysterious crop circles in Tasmania ended up being from Bennet's wallabies chowing down on opium poppies and jumping in drug-induced circles.

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Kirk starts the show this week with an odd story about Perceptual Narrowing. The long and short of it is that babies are better at remembering monkeys than you are.

Rachel takes the second slot this week and bring us a story of one of the cutest little bats in the world. These odd creatures are one of the only mammals to get colors from the plants they eat. Let us introduce you to the Honduran White Bat.

Victoria gets deep at the end of the show by taking us to the bottom of the deepest cave in the world. Is it really the bottom though? It turns out the deepest depths of the world's deepest cave is yet to be fully explored.

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It's that time again, our annual anniversary show. Guest naturalist and friend of the show Brett Sieberer takes control of the snow and quizzes us about our past year of shows. He challenges us to pronounce nearly unpronouncable latin names, makes us make tough choices about the animals we talked about on the show and of course we play a rousing round of Eat, Ride, Jacket. Let us know which you would choose!

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Victoria starts off today's show with a completely bizarre parasite. Usually parasites are secretive and don't want to be seen but the amazing Green Banded Broodsac absolutely loves attention and goes great lengths to be seen.

Kirk is up next and, big surprise here, he has a bird story for us. It turns out that not only are New Caledonian Crows super intelligent but research shows they also have handedness. That makes them only the second species on Earth other than humans to display this quality.

Rachel rounds out the last episode of the year with a thought to be extinct mole that lives in the desert? The research methods of finding not only evidence of, but living De Winton's Golden Mole is wild.

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Rachel kicks off the show this week by talking about the strange pollinators of the beautiful Red Hot Poker flowers. Turns out it is the Ethiopian wolf! This is an incredible and rare example of pollination by large mammals.

Victoria is up next and she brings us the mysterious case of the all-female population of whiptail lizards. This population survives without men and reproduces through parthenogenesis.

Kirk finishes up the show with a short story about why sometimes it pays to be the loser. Research on Japanese Quail show that females often pick the loser of fights but they do it for a very good reason.

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Kirk starts us off this week with the bizarre story of a form of life that literally feeds on radiation. Found growing in Chernobyl, radiotrophic fungi are strange and amazing.

Rachel tells us about a medieval potion from Bald's Leechbook containing garlic, onion, wine, and ox bile that scientists have discovered kills up to 90 percent of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Victoria lets us know about Pavement Mushrooms. These edible urban mushrooms can grow right through sidewalks and asphalt. These incredible mushrooms are a fascinating example of urban survivors. Species that are able to thrive in the harsh human environments we have created.

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Victoria is back with us this week and she kicks things off with a doozy of a story about a species of bark lice that has undergone a complete swapping of genitals between males and females. It's a very cool story but has frank discussions of reproductive parts so parents feel free to decide if you're ready for those discussions with your young ones.

Kirk is up next with a story about Redheads! Sure, we all know some strange redheads but did you know they may have super powers? New studies show that being a redhead may protect you in an unusual way.

Rachel rounds out this week's show with JuMBOs, Jupiter Mass Binary Objects. This mysterious new class of objects in space have researchers further refining what we thought was possible.

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