Strange by Nature Podcast

Strange by Nature Podcast

Life is strange, naturally you want to hear about it. Strange by Nature is your guide to the strange, weird and unbelievable side of nature. Professional naturalists present weekly curated stories about just how strange nature can get.

Episodes

March 27, 2024 37 mins

Rachel's up first this week with a deep dive on the largest toothed whale in the world, the Sperm whale. How did they get that weird name? You'll have to listen to find out.

Kirk shares the bizarre story of the time Idaho parachuted 76 beavers into a remote wilderness as part of operation Beaver Drop. It's an amazing story with some long-term benefits you can even see from space!

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This week, Kirk starts us off with an unbelievable story about a recent science expedition to one of the most remote jungles in the world where scientists bizarrely discovered a terrestrial shrimp. That's right a shrimp that lives on land. 

Rachel is up next and tells us about a beautiful and rare phenomenon, hair snow. This strange creation requires a fungus and exactly the right weather. When they come together, something magic...

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March 13, 2024 42 mins
This week, Victoria spins a tale of a mystery creature inflicting terrible pain swimmers and the strange unorthodox researcher who solved the mystery. Kirk then tells us about strange obelisks living in our mouths. Rachel rounds out the week by diving down 16,000 feet under the ocean to track down a bizarre eel with a giant mouth.   Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!   ...
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It's that time again, the end of another year of Strange by Nature. So, as usual, we're joined by professional naturalist Brett Sieberer and he takes over the show to quiz us about the past year of shows and other bizarre nature knowledge. Yes, we play the ever popular game, Eat, Ride, Jacket.

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February 28, 2024 43 mins
This week Rachel kicks of the show talking about the bizarre theoretical phenomenon of Spaghettification, the process of your body being stretched out into a line of sub-atomic particles inside a black hole. Victoria then takes us to the ocean where we learn about how the ear-wax plugs of whales can teach us about their life-histories. Kirk then wraps it all up by telling us about the horrific experience of bing stung by the m...

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February 21, 2024 38 mins

This week Kirk kicks us off with a discussion of Samurai Crabs and realizes they sound familiar because of a strange childhood connection involving a cartoon rabbit. 

Rachel then dives into prions and Chronic Wasting Disease. Fear not, she has good news. 

Victoria rounds out this week by telling us about the missing continent of Zealandia. 

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February 14, 2024 33 mins
Victoria kicks off this week with a charged up salute to caffeine. Sure, you can find it in Coffee and Tea but there are other plants from around the world with caffeine including a Holly from North America.   Kirk is up next and he shares multiple examples of times humans have unintentionally caused the evolution of species.   Rachel rounds out this week's episode with a Valentine's treat of pearls. Where do they come from? W...
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February 7, 2024 32 mins
This week we Rachel and Kirk both head to the ocean but or very different reasons.   Rachel tells us all about the Portuguese Man-O-War, one of the strangest creatures in the sea. Upon hearing the story, Kirk decides he may never swim in the ocean again.   Kirk brings us back to the sea again with a story about the time his ship almost fell victim to the North Sea and then fills us in on the phenomenon of Rogue Waves that can ...
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January 31, 2024 35 mins
This week Kirk kicks things off with details of a fascinating study that determined which perfume tigers find most alluring. The implications for research are surprisingly useful.   Rachel takes on a listener suggestion and covers new research into the bizarre ability of Reindeer to eat while they sleep!   Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!   Support us: patreon.com/...
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January 24, 2024 44 mins
This week Victoria starts us off by having us think about dinosaurs and why we haven't updated our portrayals of them based on new science. It turns out, T-Rex probably had lips.   Kirk then tells the tale of a time in the far distant past when birds ate our ancestors.   Rachel wraps things up this week with the bizarre tale of a moth with a surprising diet.   Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon...
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Rachel kicks off this week with a bizarre tale of a parasite that invades the nests of red ants, pretends to be their queen, works the ants to death, and eats their young all in a quest to become a beautiful butterfly. 

Victoria takes us to Australia and asks the question, why are there so many poisonous animals there?

Kirk rounds out the episode with the strange story of how volcanoes may be changing the color of owls. 

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January 10, 2024 32 mins

This week on the show, Kirk talks about how Beer saved his life (and yours.) Rachel then has a mystery animal that isn't anything like you would suspect from the name. The Mountain Chicken doesn't live in mountains, and isn't a chicken. It isn't even a bird. It is the biggest frog in the world. Weird. 

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free! 

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January 3, 2024 38 mins

Two great topics this week. Rachel tells us about mysterious rivers that flow under the ocean and Kirk tracks the history and evolution of the tongue!

Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free! 

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Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com

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December 27, 2023 33 mins

This week, Kirk kicks things off by sharing some incredible research that shows it may be possible to induce a torpor/hibernation state in mammals with ultrasound. Rachel lets us know all about the Gopher Tortoise, and Victoria tell us all about the strange world of Mussel reproduction. 

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December 20, 2023 46 mins

Hello Dear Listeners. Here's what we have for you this week. Victoria kicks things off by telling the tale of her recent encounter with one of the world's few venomous mammals and you'll never guess where she found it...her basement!

Kirk invents a weird quiz about strange ways nature might try to kill you. Which is more likely, getting hit in the face by a duck while jet skiing or being gored by a bison?

Rachel shares about a rela...

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December 13, 2023 42 mins

We had an absolute blast this week with the full crew. Rachel kicks us off by telling us exactly how strange Scallops really are. Are those eyes? Yup. Next up, Victoria tells us the story of the golf course with bull sharks in the water traps. Kirk then wraps things up by testing out how well the other hosts can spot a hidden snake in digitally altered images all to test out something called the Snake Detection Theory. 

 

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Kirk takes us on a journey to learn about where the smell of Musk comes from and along the way we find out about a problem with the synthetic versions that took our nostrils by storm starting in the 1990s. Rachel then tells the amazing story about how the physical structure of dragonfly wings can destroy bacteria just by coming into contact with it. 

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Rachel kicks things off this week with the most ridiculous looking spider ever. Seriously. This thing is bizarre and cool and completely stupid looking. Listen as we learn about the Pelican Spider.

Kirk takes us on a real-life Hero's Journey to the briny depths of the Galapagos Spreading Zone where biologists got a little help finding a rich biological treasure below the waves. 

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November 22, 2023 58 mins

This week Kirk kirk kicks things off by talking about a fungus showing up somewhere unexpected. 

Speaking of unexpected, Rachel shares a story about two species that were accidentally cross-bred in a lab when it shouldn't have been possible. 

Victoria rounds out the show this week by talking about how weirdly we're all getting cooler over time. 

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November 15, 2023 38 mins

Victoria brings us the amazing story of the world's first ever known fruit eating frog. Yeah, it pollinates flowers too. 

Kirk delves into the Salt Cedar and tries to puzzle out whether or not invasive species really are to blame for being the way they are. 

Rachel blows our minds by telling us about pollinators and flowering plants in the ocean. She presents new research on crustaceans as pollinators. 

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