Strange Animals Podcast

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...

This week let’s learn about a mystery panda and a few small panda mysteries! Join our mailing list! Further Reading: Mystery of the brown giant panda deepens The Qinling panda is not like other pandas: The giant panda is subtly different from the Qinling panda. Can you spot the difference? Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. I usually like to shake...

Thanks to Phoebe for suggesting the tarsier, this week’s strange and interesting primate! Further Reading: Decoding of tarsier genome reveals ties to humans Long-lost ‘Furby-like’ Primate Discovered in Indonesia Tarsiers look like weird alien babies: A tarsier nomming on a lizard: A tarsier nomming on an insect: The pygmy tarsier and someone’s thumb: There’s probably...

So many interesting hoofed animals in this episode, so many awesome suggestions! Thanks to Page, Elaine, Pranav, Richard E., Richard from NC, and Llewelly! Further Reading: Meet the Takin: The Largest Mammal You’ve Never Heard Of New hope for the elusive okapi, the Congo’s mini giraffe The Resurrection of the Arabian Oryx Eucladoceros was not messing around with those antlers: Megaloce...

This week we’re going to look at three small mystery animals! Well, the mysteries are small. The animals are not particularly small. Further Reading: Long-Extinct Gibbon Found Inside Tomb of Chinese Emperor’s Grandmother Ancient Egypt’s Mona Lisa? An elaborately drawn extinct goose, of course A case of mistaken identity for Australia’s extinct big bird Bones of a mystery gi...

Let’s learn about some of the biggest sharks in the sea–but not sharks that want to eat you! Further reading: ‘Winged’ eagle shark soared through oceans 93 million years ago Manta-like planktivorous sharks in Late Cretaceous oceans Before giant plankton-eating sharks, there were giant plankton-eating sharks An artist’s impression of the eagle shark ( Aquilolamna milar...

Thanks to Lorenzo and Page for suggestions used in this week’s episode, and a belated thanks to Ethan for last week’s episode! Let’s learn about some of the cutest invertebrates out there! Further reading: Photosynthesis-like process found in insects Mystery of the Venezuelan Poodle Moth Further viewing: Dr. Arthur Anker’s photos from his Venezuela trip, including the poodl...

It’s the next in our short series of episodes about mass extinctions! Don’t worry, it won’t be boring, because we’re going to learn about a lot of weird ancient fish too. Further reading: Titanichthys: Devonian-Period Armored Fish was Suspension Feeder Behind the Scenes: How Fungi Make Nutrients Available to the World Dunkleosteus was a beeg feesh with sharp jaw plates that...

Thanks to Nicholas for this week’s suggestion! Let’s learn about the Australian stingless bee and its relatives! Listen to BewilderBeasts if you want more fun, family-friendly animal facts! Further reading/watching: Australian Stingless Bees Women Work to Save Native Bees of Mexico (I  really recommend the short video embedded on this page! It’s utterly charming!) House of the Ro...

Thanks to Pranav for his suggestion! Let’s find out what the river of giants was and what lived there! Further reading: King of the River of Giants Spinosaurus was a swimming dinosaur and it swam in the River of Giants: A modern bichir, distant relation to the extinct giants that lived in the River of Giants: Not actually a pancake crocodile: A model of Aegisuchus and some modern humans: Sho...

This week let’s venture into the ocean and learn about the fin whale! Further reading: The songs of fin whales offer new avenue for seismic studies of the oceanic crust Fin whales’ big gulp The fin whale can hold a whole lot of water in its mouth (illustration from the second article linked above): A fin whale underwater. Look at that massive tail. That’s pure muscle: A fin whale...