The Giant Barrel Sponge: one of the simpler animals on Earth yet grows to enormous size over a crazily long life, exerts a big influence on reef ecosystems and, unlike a great many animals in our oceans, seems to be thriving ...

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

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Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Equatorial Complex by Kevin Macleod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0; Short Song 011123, Short Song 011023 and Short Song 011323 by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0.

The Aldabra Giant Tortoise is an amazing survivor of a lost time - very recently lost - when giant tortoises dominated many of the islands in the Indian Ocean. Aldabra Atoll is the only place in the world you can still see great herds of tens of thousands of these huge reptiles. 

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

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Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Lost Frontier and Lost Time by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY 3.0 and Quiet Endings by Mark Wilson X, CC BY 4.0.

The Whip Spider Phrynus longipes is not a spider but one of the craziest-looking arachnids on Earth. They're also territorial and cannibalistic, so how do they manage to survive at super high densities in Caribbean caves without eating each other?

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Solitude and Morpheus Cave by Mark Wilson X, CC BY 4.0, God, Why Do You Do What You Do to Me and They Call It Nature by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 3.0, and Horror 13 from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

The Glacier Lanternfish is one of the most important fish in the world - part of arguably the greatest, and most under-appreciated, concentration of animal life on the planet. Which we can only really 'see', and understand, using sound.

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Acoustic Ambient Improv #1, Acoustic Ambient Improv #2, Acoustic Ambient Improv #3 and Acoustic Ambient Improv #8 by Ryan Lutton, CC BY 3.0 

The Matabele Ant conducts large-scale raids against its only prey: termites. And the way it does it is amazing, with elements that might remind us of reconnaissance, generals, signalling, tactics, even battlefield medical services.

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: The Companionship of Isolation, Everything Tastes Different and A Gentle Fog Descends by Brylie Christopher Oxley, CC BY 4.0.

medic medic voice by cosmicembers, CC BY 3.0.

The Yellow-footed Antechinus is a tiny marsupial predator in Australia that has a life history, and in particular a breeding system, that makes it one of the most unusual mammals in the entire world ...

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Aggressive Phenomenon by Mystery Mammal, CC BY 4.0

The Japanese Train Millipede has a surprising history of interactions with the country's railway system, and the pattern of those interactions reveals it to be almost unique in the way its life is governed by a ticking clock ...

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: (Ambient)Breath, Melancholy Fear, Discovery, A Fleeting Thought and Dream State by Kirk Osamayo, CC BY 4.0

The leopard is the most flexible, adaptable big cat in the world, with a surprisingly long history of visiting urban areas. Today, as in the past, sharing your city with a large predator brings problems, but maybe there's an upside, because of how, and what, urban leopards are hunting ...

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: $50 to Breathe, I Refuse to Accept That There's Nothing I Can Do About It and Thanks for Trying to Rescue Me But You've Made Things Worse by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 3.0  

What connects feasting Japanese fish, a swimming pool in southern France and Alexander the Great's encounter with the Gordian Knot? The extraordinary horsehair worm Paragordius tricuspidatus, a simple animal capable of astonishing things ...

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Cave and Wild bird by Gurdonark, CC BY 4.0; Blooming Flower by Lee Rosevere, CC BY 4.0

Northern Gannets are famous for one thing above all else: plunge diving after fish. So, an episode that's a bit of a deep dive into ... diving! How high, how deep, how dangerous, and how individually distinctive is a gannet's dive?

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To support the show, please share on social media, rate and review in your podcast app! Thank you.

Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com

Music

Opening & Closing Themes: Running Waters and Acoustic Meditation by Audionautix (Jason Shaw), from audionautix.com. CC BY 3.0.

Modified versions of: Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy, Path to the Hidden Gate, Midnight in the Monastery and Elegy for a Family by Justin Allan Arnold. CC BY 4.0. 

Gannet colony recording by dobroide , CC BY 4.0.