This episode was made possible by our Patrons. Thank you!

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.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

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.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

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.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

Kirk kicks things off this week with a wild story about how the magnetic field of the Earth has completely flipped in the past. The European Space Agency recently used data sonification to help people better understand this bizarre event. 

Rachel heads to South America to let us know about a new species of scorpion recently discovered that can actually shoot their venom at foes. This is the first time this behavior has been seen in scorpions. 

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

Rachel starts us off this week with the strange Box Jellyfish. This is an animal you don't want to get mixed up with. Kirk never wants to go in the ocean again.

Speaking of Kirk, and speaking of strange, this week he's talking about Yams. Not any old yam, this one particular species does something never before seen in a plant anywhere else on Earth. It tricks birds into helping it reproduce asexually.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

Hello Everyone and thanks for listening this week.

Kirk kicks things off with a story about Vampire bats that just won't learn their lesson. In fact, they aren't able to. New research shows vampire bats may be the only mammal that doesn't develop food aversions after eating bad food.

Rachel is up next and she tells us about the tricky Harlequin bug. It comes in so many colors and varieties, scientists keep falling for the trap of calling it a new species over and over and over again.

Victoria tells us about the Common side-blotched lizard and how their mating strategies are a bit like Rock, Paper, Scissors. Let's play some Blue Lizard, Orange Lizard, Yellow Lizard!

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

Victoria starts us off this week with barnacles! I know, they may not sound that interesting but it turns out they are being used by researchers to help narrow the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370.

Kirk bring us the unbelievable tale of a wasp that uses pheromones to purposefully start massive ant brawls just so it can locate a butterfly. Yes, it is very weird.

Rachel rounds out this week with a look at the amazing creature, the Polar Bear. It has a few tricks up it's sleeve for surviving in the cold of the arctic.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

Welcome to 2026! Rachel starts off the year with horrifying wasps that sting cockroaches, turn them into zombies and then lay their eggs in them so their young can devour them from the inside. You're welcome.

Victoria takes on the fascinating topic of all the animals that beat us to the idea of farming by millions of years. They even do weeding and apply fungicides. It gets wild.

Kirk heads to the ocean and discovers that some brittle stars are actually covered in millions of eyes. These eyes are unlike any other and absolutely wild.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.

The final episode of 2025. Here's what we have for you:

Kirk kicks off the show by looking into the very strange world of insect hearing. Turns out some flies use a rotating nose to hear.

Rachel is then up and she talks about the arms race between Bats and Moths. This conflict has lead to some amazing defenses on the part of the moths.

Victoria is up third and she brings us the smallest animals on earth, Myxozoans. These little creatures are technically an animal (related to jellyfish) but they are missing most of the genes for the things we usually associate with animals.

A HUGE thank-you to our Patrons that made this show possible in 2025!

Look, we get it. This is a busy week with family for a lot of people. If you are one of those people, we sincerely hope this episode helps you hide from family and obligations and take a moment for your weird selves. We're all in this together.

On this week's show, Victoria kicks things off with a deep dive on Bats. We often think of them as predators but they are prey animals as well. She talks about some of the animals that hunt bats and then stare some bizarre new research showing that even rats have started to hunt bats and unbelievably are catching them while they are flying.

Kirk then brings us the Top 7 birds that actively work to keep predators away from their nests. He covers amazing talents that range from distraction displays to essentially group mass defication on predators until they die. It gets wild.

Rachel rounds out this week by loading fish into a cannon and blasting them off. It sounds cruel but the fish cannon is actually a bizarre device to help migrating fish safely fly over tall dams on rivers.

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free! 

Support us: patreon.com/strangebynature

Email us: [email protected]

Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com  where you can sign up for our episode emails.