Strange Animals Podcast

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! It’s the beginning of MONSTER MONTH! This episode’s not very spooky unless you’re outside at night and hear a terrifying scream! To be fair, that would be spooky even if you don’t know anything about the wampus cat. THE KICKSTARTER GOES LIVE IN JUST TWO DAYS!! Further watching: The Growling, Feroc...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Don’t forget the Kickstarter , as if I’d let you forget it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kateshaw/beyond-bigfoot-and-nessie Let’s pre-game Halloween and monster month with an episode about some Halloween-y bats and rats! Thanks to Connor for the suggestion! Further reading: Meet Myotis nimaensis...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Check out our Kickstarter pre-launch page !! Thanks to Max for suggesting the rhinoceros viper! We’ll learn about that one and several other snakes with nose horns this week. The rhino viper, AKA the butterfly viper because of its beautiful colors and pattern: The rhino viper has nose horns (photo by Balázs Buzás )...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Our pre-launch Kickstarter page ! You can see what the book cover will look like! Thanks to Liesbet and Enzo for their suggestions this week! Let’s learn about squirrels! Further reading: Project Squirrel Interspecies Breeding Is Responsible for Some Squirrels’ Black Coloring The Indian giant squirrel, withou...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Here we go. It’s the big one, the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event! Further reading: How Birds Survived the Asteroid Impact That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs How an asteroid ended the age of dinosaurs Extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs cleared way for frogs How life blossomed after the dinosaurs died 66-mill...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Thanks to Pranav and Max for their suggestions. Let’s learn about some mystery crocodiles (and crocodile mysteries) this week! Further reading: Huge prehistoric croc ‘river boss’ prowled waterways Extinct “horned” crocodile’s ancestry revealed New species of crocodile discovered in mus...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! This week we’ve got three adorable little animals to learn about! Thanks to Simon and Thia, Elaine, and Henry for their suggestions! Further reading: Turning the spotlight on the rusty-spotted cat (Wildlife SOS) The cute and fuzzy pink fairy armadillo: The cute and fuzzy rusty spotted cat: The cute and fuzzy baby A...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Thanks to Riley, Richard, and Aiden and Aiden’s unnamed friend for suggestions this week! We’re going to learn about some geckos and other reptiles that live in trees. Thanks also to Llewelly for a small correction about lions. Also, I mispronounced Strophurus–it should be more like Stroff-YOUR-us but I...

It’s our bonus question and answer episode, which turned out to be ridiculously long but hopefully interesting! Further listening/watching: The Axolotl Song ~~~ Buy my books! ~~~ Whiskers used to have two eyes and a nose. In the background, Dracula (left) and Poe (right): Black squirrel! King cobra! Pufferfish, puffed: Dog nose: Show transcript: Welcome to the bonus Q&A episode of Strang...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! It’s our fourth annual updates and corrections episode! I’ve already had to make a correction to this episode! Further reading: Cassowary, a rare emu-like bird, attacks and kills Florida man, officials say The dog Bunny’s Facebook page 3D printed replicas reveal swimming capabilities of ancient cephalop...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! This week we visit the weirdest squid in the deep sea! I was a guest on Tim Mendees’s After Hours that’s now up on YouTube ! It’s mostly about my writing but we talk about all kinds of stuff, including cephalopods! There is some bad language but it’s not all that bad and it’s mostly toward t...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have t-shirts and mugs with our logo ! Thanks to Enzo and Lux for their suggestions! Let’s learn about the sun bear and the water bear this week! Sun bear just chillin: Sun bears got long tongues: The water bear, AKA tardigrade, is not actually a bear. For one thing, it has twice the number of legs as bears have: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Anim...

Sign up for our mailing list ! We also have merchandise ! Thanks to Elaine, Molly, and Oliver for suggesting the aye-aye! I guess it’s an idea whose time has finally come. Further reading: Gimme six! Researchers discover aye-aye’s extra finger Ah yes, I have many many many fingers: S p i d e r h a n d s: A baby aye-aye (blep): Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m yo...

Sign up for our mailing list ! Buy our merch ! Thanks to “dog freak Ruby,” we’re going to learn about some animals that aren’t exactly domesticated but aren’t really wild either. Further reading: Memories of Ángela Loij Mongolian horse and its person: Mongolian horses: OH MY GOSH HEART HEART HEART (photo from this website ): Dingos! An artist’s rendition of the...

Sign up for our mailing list!  We also have merch ! Let’s learn about some strange fish of the mesopelagic, or the twilight zone deep in the ocean! Thanks to Page, Joel, Anonymous Animal Lover, Brigham, and Fireburster for suggestions this week! Further reading: In Defense of the Blobfish Further viewing: Pacific viperfish (video embedded) The Pacific viperfish, head-on (or rather teeth-on),...

Sign up for our mailing list ! Let’s learn about some strange dog breeds (including a mystery dog!) and what may be the cutest frog  ever . Thanks to Brad and Dan for their suggestions this week, and a special thanks to Richard from NC for suggesting the Carolina dog at just the right time. Check out Dan’s podcast, “ Sure, Jan! ” Further viewing: World’s Cutest Frog &...

Sign up for our mailing list ! I got to meet some listeners this week to see the synchronous fireflies, so thanks to Shannon, Diana, Derek, and Autumn for hanging out with me! This week we’ll learn about a different kind of lightning bug as well as a shark mystery! Derek’s photography, Enchanting Ectotherms Further reading: A shark mystery millions of years in the making I suspect this...

Sign up for our mailing list! We have a merch store now too ! Thanks to Ethan for this week’s topic, two weird animals that developed after the Great Dying we talked about last week! Further reading: Monkey Lizards of the Triassic Placodonts: The Bizarre ‘Walrus-Turtles’ of the Triassic Drepanosaurus (without a head since we haven’t found a skull yet, but with that massive...

Sign up for our mailing list ! It’s another extinction event episode! This one’s about the end-Permian AKA the Permian-Triassic AKA the GREAT DYING. Further Reading: Ancient mini-sharks lived longer than thought Lystrosaurus’s fossilized skeleton: Lystrosaurus may have looked something like this but I hope not: This artist’s rendition of lystrosaurus looks a little less hor...

Sign up for our mailing list! It’s the 2021 brood of 17-year cicadas! Thanks to Enzo (and several others) who suggested it! Further listening: Varmints! Podcast – “Cicadas” Our local Brood X cicada (photo by me!): The holes that cicadas emerged from (photo also by me): Discarded cicada shells. My work keys and Homestar Runner keychain for scale: Show transcript: Welcome to...

Talking animals! It’s not what you’re thinking about. No parrots here, just mammals. Our new logo is by Susanna King of Flourish Media ! If you’d like to JOIN OUR MAILING LIST !, I’ll be sending out a discount code soon for merch with our logo on it–but only for people on the mailing list (and patrons). Further listening: The MonsterTalk episode about Gef the Talking...

Thanks to Ruby and Tex for their suggestions this week! Diprotodon was big and had a big nose: Koala! The bush thick-knee looks like it has regular knees, actually: Show Transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week let’s head to Australia for a short episode about three interesting animals. Thanks to Ruby and Tex for their suggestions! Recently, we had an epi...

Sign up for our mailing list! This week let’s learn about an amazing little fish and an awesome tortoise! All the pictures here were taken by ME at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga! Further Reading: Star tortoise makes meteoric comeback The astonishing elephantnose fish: Burmese star tortoises: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. I’m fully vacc...

This week let’s learn about a couple of dangerous birds of New Guinea! They’re not what you might think. Join our mailing list ! Further Reading/Watching: How Dangerous Are Cassowaries, Really? Inside the Cassowary’s Casque Breakfast Club Ep. 34: Jack Dumbacher on Poisonous Birds (a long video but a really great deep dive into the pitohui) The mighty cassowary with a mighty casqu...

Thanks to Ella for this week’s suggestion. There may not  technically be spiders in the Antarctic, but there are mites. A nunatak (note the size of the research vehicles at the bottom left): I don’t have any pictures of the Antarctic mites, so here are some red velvet mites, although they’re giants compared to their Antarctic cousins: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals P...