If you have a fear of getting swooped by magpies, mobbed by seagulls or blinded by crows, perhaps Alfred Hitchcock is to blame.

His 1963 horror classic The Birds created a generation of ornithophobes, and played on our fears of death by feathered fiend. 

But how accurate are his creepy corvids? Do birds of a feather flock together exclusively? Can a bird go all 'Here's Johnny' on a locked door? Do birds hold grudges?

Dr Ann Jones gets a bird's eye view of Hollywood's avian lies.

Featuring:

• David Stratton, Australian film critic
• Associate Professor Lucy Aplin, Research School of Biology at the Australian National University
• Dr Corrie Ackland, clinical psychologist, Sydney Phobia Clinic 

Further reading:

• Nearly 3 Billion Birds Gone, Cornell University

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Nat Tencic, Producer
• Isabella Tropiano, additional mastering

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Taungurung, and Kaurna people.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

Remember that 1998 film Antz? The one about an ant named Z?

The one where the ants had nightmare-inducing human teeth? The one we probably have to blame for the existence of Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie?

Considering the movie is all about ants, you'd think it'd get SOMETHING right about ants. But Hollywood has once again LIED TO US.

Do male ants have any jobs outside the boudoir? Can ants breathe? Do ants have creepy little human teeth?

Ann Jones sets out to be pedANTic and find the facts in the fiction.

Featuring:

• Dr Kirsti Abbott, ant lover and head of science at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Further reading:

• Social isolation causes mortality by disrupting energy homeostasis in ants

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Nat Tencic, Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Isabella Tropiano, additional mastering

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Taungurung, and Kaurna people.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

In 1985, a real American black bear consumed a bunch of cocaine that'd been dropped from a plane into the forest, and died.

Nearly 40 years later Hollywood stepped in the rewrite the story. What would happen if the bear survived? Maybe it'd go on a coke-fueled rampage. That's how it works, right?

Cocaine Bear (2023) launched a lot of memes, but does it get anything right about bears, or how they'd act under the influence of blow...or did Hollywood lie to us?

Would a black bear really eat a drug dealer alive?

Do bears do 'snow' *wink* angels?

Dr Ann Jones cuts through it all to get some serious answers. 

Guests:

• Nate Bowersock, Black Bear and Furbearer Biologist, Missouri Department of Conservation, Chair, The BearWise Program
• Dr Ben Kilham, founder Kilham Bear Centre
• Nat Tencic, What the Duck?! producer 

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Nat Tencic, Producer
• Isabella Tropiano, additional mastering

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Kaurna people.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

Quick! Think of a ‘dinosaur movie’. Chances are Jurassic Park (1993) was first to mind.   

Steven Spielberg’s genetic nightmare/theme park gone wrong classic is so iconic that it inspired a generation of kids to study palaeontology, and reinvented our modern popular idea of dinosaurs. But does that idea still stack up?   

Could you really clone a triceratops from DNA found in an ancient mozzie?  

Did dilophosaurus really look like a frill-necked lizard?  

And aren’t dinosaurs supposed to be feathery?   

Ann Jones cracks into how Jurassic Park did (and didn’t) lie to us. 

Featuring: 

• Dr Travis Holland, Senior Lecturer in Communication at Charles Sturt University, host Fossils and Fiction Podcast 
• Tim Richards, Lecturer at the University of Queensland
• Associate Professor Cameron Webb, Mosquito Expert, NSW Health Pathology & University of Sydney 

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Kaurna people.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

When you really think about it, sex to make babies is WEIRD! You take an outie that has to get stuck inside an innie that links into a production line of eggs to assemble a perfect tiny being. It’s so damn complicated!

So why does it work like that?

Join us at What the Duck for the first episode of a series where we figure out how living things went from splitting ourselves in half to double the population, to periodically feeling compelled to copulate in such a vigorous, sometimes highly embarrassing, manner.

Earth - this is your sexual history!

Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended. 

This is a summer repeat of Episode One -  please find the rest of the "Sex is Weird" series here.

Featuring:

• Emeritus Professor David Siveter, University of Leicester, UK.
• Assistant Professor Emily Mitchell, University of Cambridge, UK and curator of non-insect invertebrates, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, UK.
• Dr Marissa Betts, geologist and palaeontologist at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. 
• Dr Emily Willingham, biologist, journalist and author.
• Associate Professor Patty Brennan, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, US. 

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.

Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano and Russell Stapleton.

Thanks also to Will Ockenden, Belinda Smith, Corey Hague and Joel Werner. 

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in September 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Could a legless lizard be 'minimalist of the year' for famous podcaster T. K. Coleman?

Ann Jones leads an unlikely gang of animal experts on a tidy dance through the philosophy of minimalism. There are moths without mouths, flies without wings, and a worm-lizard that will even declutter its own tail. 

Move over Marie Kondo, Minimalist Mother Nature is in town. 

Featuring:

• T. K. Coleman, Co-host of the Minimalists Podcast.
• Dr. Bryan Lessard, aka Bry the Fly Guy, entomologist and author of 'Eyes on Flies'.
• Dr. George Binns,  Entomologist, Macquarie University.
• Dr. David Wong, Ecologist.

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Russell Stapleton.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in March 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a tingly sensation that can bring relaxation, and it's spawned a growing industry of videos online of whispering, tapping, mouth noises and soft speaking. 

But, if you wanted quiet, intimate sounds, well, Nature does it so. much. better. 

Ann Jones goes on an ASMR journey with vibrating caterpillars, whispering monkeys and birds who want to keep secrets. 

Featuring:

• Dr Giulia Poerio, University of Sussex.
• Thanh Sagris, ASMR artist, Melbourne.
• Associate Professor Rachel Morrison, University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
• Associate Professor Rindy Anderson, Florida Atlantic University.
• Associate Professor Mandy Ridley, University of Western Australia.
• Professor Jayne Yack, Carleton University.

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Russell Stapleton.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Imagine you've just been cancelled for a controversial opinion about Taylor Swift's musical output, and you have to go to ground.

You can act like the Olsen twins, and hide behind big glasses and a big coat.

Or you could take a lesson from nature and blend in, like a proverbial spotty quoll into the bush.

The animal kingdom has a lot to teach us about camouflage and animal markings.

Featuring:

• Dr Belinda Wilson, The Australian National University.
• Associate Professor Tanya Latty, University of Sydney.
• Dr Quentin Fogg, University of Melbourne.
• Dr Kaia Tombak, Purdue University. 
• Professor Marc Holderied, Bristol University.

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Right now, you’re probably sitting on one of the most unique things about humans. One thing that separates us from the apes, from the birds, from EVERYTHING on earth. The thing that allows us to walk upright, on two legs.We have big butts and I cannot lie,This sort of exceptionalism doesn’t deny,That when a bird walks in with a little bit of hasteAnd drumsticks in your face, you have to admit that bipedalism ISN’T what’s interesting.It's actually our peachy butts.

Featuring:

Professor Daniel Lieberman, Harvard University, US.

Professor Jo Setchell, Durham University, UK. 

Dr Peter Bishop, Harvard University, US.

Lauren Thornton, University of Sunshine Coast.

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Russell Stapleton.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

How many species live around your house?

In the COVID lockdown of 2020, three housemates decided to count.

They thought there’d only be a handful, but the number kept rising and rising.

Could their simple suburban Queenslander house be the next candidate for a new national park?

Featuring:

Dr Matt Holden, Mathematician, University of Queensland.

Dr Andrew Rogers, Ecologist, University of Melbourne.

Dr Russell Yong, Taxonomist. 

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Nathan Turnbull.

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.