Strange by Nature Podcast

This week Victoria starts us off with one of the weirdest looking birds in the world. She presents...the Potoo. This strange muppet-looking bird can see with closed eyes and looks like a tree stump. Kirk then brings us the Longest Animal in the World, siphonophores, specifically, the string jelly. This bizarre super-organism is even longer than a blue whale! Rachel wraps up the show with a discuss...

Rachel starts us off with a surprising tubenose bat that hibernates where you'd least expect it...in the snow. Victoria tells us about the strange locomotion and other adaptations of the Sidewinder rattlesnake. Kirk takes us to Movile Cave, a world hidden from the rest of Earth for 5.5 million years and where life survives completely without the sun. Be sure to send us an audio clip with your name...

There is still a tiny bit of time to get your submission in to be a part of the 300th episode. Use your phone to create a short voice memo and email it to contact@strangebynaturepodcast.com . Include your name, where you listen from and a topic from the show that has been memorable for you. Kirk kicks things off this week with the strange story of scientists who had people bury 2000 pairs of mens...

What a fun episode this week. We didn't intend to but all of our topics nicely tie together. Victoria starts us off with a creature feature on Bee Eaters. These fascinating birds eat stinging insects as a regular part of their diet and are unharmed by the process.  You know who else loves bees? The Brown Animal. Kirk talks about how the name for the large wild animal that eats honey was once taboo...

Rachel starts off with a nearly unbelievable story about frogs that raise their young inside their stomachs for six weeks. Victoria brings us...the Tuna! What's strange about tuna? You'll have to listen to find out. Kirk wraps things up by revisiting the topic of the oldest animals on Earth by looking this time at the oldest living things (other than animals) and the numbers get ridiculous. Be sur...

Kirk kicks off the show talking about the Rock Hyrax. These little furry critters have a wide array of strange things about them including being closely related to two very surprising and different relatives. Rachel stays in Africa with a deep dive on the White Rhino and surprising research that won the ignobel prize by figuring out if it is better to carry a rhino right side up or upside down. Vi...

Victoria is back and she bring us the story of a new spider species with a bizarre web that flings ants into the air at incredible speed to trap them. It's a wild example of a novel solution to catching prey. Kirk then talks about how the Amazon Rainforest is made possible by dust blown from Africa. Strange but true, dust storms from a dried lake in Africa are a major supply of phosphorus for the...

Rachel starts us off this week with an absolutely wild story about a woman who heard voices in her head that somehow knew she had a brain tumor. Kirk then goes down a mind-bending rabbit hole exploring the question of just how long can an animal live? Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free!  Support us:  patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:  co...

This week on the show Rachel and Kirk had a great time sharing their topics. Kirk starts off the show with a bizarre listener submitted tale of the Coudersport Ice Mine. In this bizarre mine, ice grows thicker in the heat of the summer and them, equally strangely, it melts in the cold of winter. Kirk looks at the history and geology of what's really going on. Rachel looks into the close connection...

Victoria brings us the intriguing tale of Lusitanian flora. These are plants only found in Iberia AND southern Ireland. The reason they are in Ireland at all is a tale that goes back thousands of years and involves copper, trees, and booze. Kirk brings back a topic from last December because it turns out a dutch painter beat scientists to a discovery about bats by over 400 years. No one had looked...

Rachel kicks things off this week with a fascinating look at the ancient relationship between moss and fungus. Victoria brings us a story about a bizarre form of locomotion. She brings us... Jumping snails (and slugs). Kirk's story this week is about the Japanese Tree Frog and how new research shows us that this small creature just might hold an amazing bacterial cure for cancers. Join us weekly f...

We had a ton of fun with this week's show. Kirk starts us off with a story about the bizarre evidence for Heat Bursts. This strange weather phenomenon can create oven-like blasts of air seemingly out of nowhere. Rachel comes back to the ocean and tells us about Basking Sharks just in time for Shark Week. Victoria takes us on a trip with new research on a psychoactive mushroom species that seems to...

Victoria brings us into the strange medical world of autosomal dominant diseases. Kirk brings us the strange sad tale of nutmeg. Sometimes a great plant turns into a curse. Rachel tells us about strange Fish Eating Bats. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free!  Support us:  patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:  contact@strangebynaturepodcast.co...

This week, Rachel continues her series on bears, this time with the utterly strange Panda Bear. Victoria tells us about the mysterious and recently discovered whale graveyard that has been around for millions of years. Kirk tells us about the Coldest Trees in the World. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free!  Support us:  patreon.com/strangebyn...

Kirk starts us off with a strange nematode parasite that causes spiders to drown themselves. Rachel also takes us to the water but we don't want to get in. She tells us about Lake Natron, a lake that will calcify anything that dies it in it and turn you to stone. Victoria tells us about cordyceps fungus and how it zombifies the insects it infects and causes them to engage in strange behaviors. Joi...

Victoria takes a page from Kirk and brings us to space with some weird facts about Mars and how it got where it is. Kirk breaks our brains with a genealogy puzzle. When was the most recent common ancestor to all humans alive? The answer is bizarre. Rachel doesn't want to break our brains so she brings us a beautiful rainbow sea jelly. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patre...

Rachel tells us this week about spiny rats. These strange little mammals can actually drop their tails when in danger. Victoria brings us the fascinating topic of fasciation, when plant flowers go a bit wrong. These blooms get really weird. Kirk rounds out the show by talking about how plants are master manipulators and this time we discover that they can mimic the smell of ants attacked by spider...

Rachel shocks no one when she goes back to the ocean this week and comes up with the rather strange looking Goosefish. Not to be outdone, Victoria takes us to Brazil to see glowing termite mounds. It turns out, the glowing is actually click beetles. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free!  Support us:  patreon.com/strangebynature Email us:  cont...

This week Victoria tells us all about the bizarre process of Anting. What's that? That's when birds cover themselves with ants. Yeah, it's strange. Rachel follows that up with a story about the Hero Shrew, this cunning little guy is incredible and tough. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad-free!  Support us:  patreon.com/strangebynature Email us: ...

This week, Victoria brought us the Sand Bubbler Crab. These guys are wild. Native to the Indo-pacific, they breathe though their legs and they hide out underground in a bubble of air during high tide. That's just one of the reasons this strange little animals is called the Sand Bubbler Crab. Kirk brings us some research trying to solve the mystery of why Damselfish dads eat some of the eggs they a...

Once again we're back with weird tales from thsi amazing planet we live on. This week, Rachel tells us about Ichneumon wasps. They may look like they are out of a horror movie but these giant insects don't harm humans. Victoria delves into the history books to tell us about a famous celebrity, Mike the Headless Chicken. Spring is a time of migration so naturally Kirk is talking about birds and how...

Kirk is up first this week and he brings us the wild truth behind Toad Licking. Rachel brings us a weird story of two unlikely buddies. Frogs and Tarantulas. Their relationship turns out to be beneficial to both. Victoria rounds out the show with a story of caterpillars that mimic snakes! The illusion is pretty amazing and even fools Rachel. Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters o...

Welcome to another week of strange nature! Victoria goes first and brings us a story of an absolutely bizarre insect that seems to defy our rules of what an insect is. It has no common name so we give it one. We call this alien-like chest burster the Peek-a-boo Twisted-wing. Kirk takes the middle spot this week and he tells us about the only nocturnal monkeys in the world. Night Monkeys are specia...

Rachel starts us off this week with the totally awesome Honey Badger. They have abig reputation and they completely live up to it. From fighting lions to killing some of the most venomous snakes in the world, Honey Badgers are simply amazing. Victoria wasn't thinking this episode would come out Mother's Day week. However, coincidentally, she brings us a story about baby spiders that liquify the in...

Kirk revisits the Loneliest Tree in the World to tell us all about the (former) Loneliest Tree in the World. This week he tells us about the Tree of Ténéré. Rachel then brings us a completely nonsense endoparasitic crustacean that lives INSIDE of sea stars. Turns out Dendrogasters are truly bizarre. Victoria wraps things up with weird lizards that live above the arctic circle and some of the adapt...