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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
48 minutes ago
48 minutes ago
Kirk tells us about how scientists finally discovered the identity of a frog that had puzzled the scientific community for 80 years.
Rachel tells us all about the Binturong, the bizarre bearcat that smells like buttered popcorn.
In a salute to Mother's Day, Victoria tells us about the truly strange Sea Hares and her mom's research connection to them.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday May 07, 2025
Wednesday May 07, 2025
Anyone fancy a yawn? Victoria did some investigation into the strange phenomenon of social yawning. Are yawns really contagious?
Kirk then brings us the story of the Bone Collector Moth. When it is a caterpillar, it creates a disguise by gluing dead bodies to itself. Yikes.
Rachel rounds out the show with brand new research showing that sharks can make sounds!
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Apr 30, 2025
Wednesday Apr 30, 2025
Victoria talks about the amazing tropical super-canopy tree the Almendro that actually seem to attract lightening in order to kill off the trees around them. Talk about a bad neighbor!
Kirk then brings us the strange story of the Ruff, a shorebird with three distinct versions of males. They each have their own distinct plumage and role in the mating dance. One of them even disguises itself as a female!
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Apr 23, 2025
Wednesday Apr 23, 2025
Kirk blows our minds with the age of Bristlecone Pines. Did you know there are living trees that predate the invention of written language?
Victoria then has a doozy of a story about White-throated sparrows developing a new secondary sex chromosome. This bizarre occurrence means there are technically four different sexes of this bird instead of the regular two.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Apr 16, 2025
Wednesday Apr 16, 2025
Victoria starts us off this week with the surprising reason that blue-eyed white cats are often deaf. The reason is truly bizarre.
Kirk brings us the story of an amazing adaption recently discovered in Hummingbirds. Researchers just discovered that the White-necked Jacobin have babies who's feathers perfectly mimic dangerous caterpillars in order to scare away predators.
Rachel rounds out this week with a discussion of the tallest trees in the world, the coastal redwoods.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Apr 09, 2025
Wednesday Apr 09, 2025
Rachel is up first this week with a lighthearted study that investigated why banana peels are so slippery when stepped on.
Victoria then swerves into Rachel's lane and takes us to Australia to investigate the origin of the Dingo.
Kirk is up last and brings us the story of a newly discovered wasp from millions of years ago that had an amazing adaptation for trapping insects like a venus flytrap.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Apr 02, 2025
Wednesday Apr 02, 2025
Are you ready for another wild episode? This week we have three wonderful stories for you.
Kirk goes first with the astounding story of archerfish that not only have an amazing hunting adaptation but researchers just showed they can remember and pick out a human face when presented with over 40 options. Simply stunning. Who said fish have a bad memory?
Rachel is up new with an update on one of the most dangerous spiders in the world, the Sydney Funnel Web Spider. The venom can kill a human in as little as 15 minutes. No thanks.
Victoria wraps up the show this week with an amazing story of inter-species hunting cooperation all orchestrated by the Big Blue Octopus.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Thursday Mar 27, 2025
Thursday Mar 27, 2025
Here's your weekly dose of weird.
Up first, Victoria revisits slime molds so she can tell us about a truly massive single cell organism.
Kirk is up next answers the question, snakes can be venomous but can they be poisonous? We get to the bottom of this sneaky snake question.
Rachel rounds out this week's show with a truly strange bird, the horned screamer. Find out all about it and hear the funky sounds it can make.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Mar 19, 2025
Wednesday Mar 19, 2025
Welcome to the beginning of year 5 of the podcast. We're happy to have all of our amazing listeners along for the ride.
Rachel kicks things off this year with the bizarre story of a fish that spends more time on land than in water. Welcome to the world of mud skippers.
Victoria probes the depths of the ocean to unravel the mystery of Dark Oxygen. This finding has big implications for rare earth mining.
Kirk wraps things up this week by asking the question, can frogs see rainbows? The answer may explain why Kermit the Frog wants to know why people sing some many songs about them.
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.com
Visit us at: strangebynaturepodcast.com
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
It's the end of our 4th year doing the show so that means it is time for our annual quiz show! Our Special guest Brett Sieberer is here once again to ask us strange questions that all relate to the past year of the show. Don't worry, your favorite game, "Eat, Ride or Jacket" is back for another round!
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!