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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
4 days ago
4 days ago
This week Rachel brings us the Bumblebee Bat which by some measures is the smallest mammal in the world. It weighs the same as two skittles candies.
Kirk then describes some fascinating research that the authors claim shows plants can actually hear running water and send their roots toward it.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Welcome to Episode 200. Thanks for being along on the ride.
Victoria brings us the mysterious tale of Red Sprites. They sound like mythical creates but they are really a bizarre and beautiful atmospheric phenomenon related to powerful thunderstorms.
Kirk is up next to tell us about the Mexican Mole Lizard. This strange creature scares locals so badly they have colorful tales about it attacking you while you go to the bathroom and devouring you from the inside. Rest assured, they are actually harmless but fascinating none the less.
Rachel rounds out this week's show with a truly shocking topic, electric eels. How did we not get to electric eels before episode 200?
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Dec 04, 2024
Wednesday Dec 04, 2024
We're almost to 200 episodes! Hold your horses though, we have one more episode here in ONEderland.
This week, Kirk brings us a completely bizarre story about a possible solar powered hornet. Is the Oriental Hornet really solar powered? Kirk dives into the details.
Rachel then introduces us to the largest whale in the world, the Blue Whale. The animal is so hard to understand size-wise that she has to resort to some absolutely strange comparisons. Which body part weighs as much as a bumper car? You'll have to listen to find out.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Nov 27, 2024
Wednesday Nov 27, 2024
We've got a full episode this week to get some of you though family time on Thanksgiving. Put in the ear buds and enjoy some anti-social you time.
Rachel kicks us off with the fascinating story of a long-long extinct plant brought back to live with an ancient seed found on an archeological dig. Only problem is, we aren't 100% sure what it is.
Victoria then untangles the issue of intersex. Sure, there are people with XX or XY chromosomes, but what happens when you get different combinations than what we learned about in high school biology?
Kirk rounds out this week with the unbelievably strange Undertaker Bird aka the Maribou Stork; a bizarre carrion-eating five foot tall stork that's seems like something out of a Dr Seuss book.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Nov 20, 2024
Wednesday Nov 20, 2024
This week, Kirk takes us back to the end of the dinosaur age and how the asteroid impact may have set up just the right conditions to create the world's first farmers. Ants, it turns out, beat humans to the idea of agriculture by about 65 million years.
Rachel then takes us to one of the most remote islands in the world, Nightingale Island, to hear about the amazing effort going to to save the endemic Wilkins's Bunting. It is a monumental task that included saving forests by raising and introducing killer wasps.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Fresh off Halloween and still on a sugar high, Rachel and Kirk dive into the mysteries of the planet.
Rachel heads back to the ocean to visit the Twilight Zone and talk about the bizarre Barrel-eyed fish. This fish has a see-through head and looks like something out of Avatar or some other sci-fi alien movie. Truly bizarre.
Kirk also delves into the waters of the ocean to bring us some fresh research on comb sea jellies and their incredible regenerative properties. Scientists cut them in half and discovered they merged bodies with their neighbors to survive. It is an incredible story that makes us think about what it means to be able to tell when your body ends and your neighbor's begins.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
Kirk kicks things off this week with a mysterious sound being heard in Tampa, Florida. What is it? Likely the sound of hundreds of mating black drum fish. Keep it weird Florida.
Rachel then presents us with a pretty little Puss Caterpillar. It looks harmless enough but just touching it can make you feel like your bones are breaking. Do not touch.
Victoria surprises us this week with a miracle healing substance we've know about for over a century but don't currently use very often. The Human Placenta!
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Oct 30, 2024
Wednesday Oct 30, 2024
It's finally here, the Halloween Episode for 2024.
Victoria starts things of with, brace yourself, flying leeches. That's right, we finally have confirmation of a story that goes back almost 700 years. There really are flying leeches.
Keeping with the unintentional blood-sucking flying creature theme, Kirk brings us the Vampire Finch, a bird that drinks blood to survive on dry desert islands.
Rachel rounds out this week's show by making us afraid of ever going near water again. Sure, we need it to survive, but water can harbor a whole host of nasty parasites and diseases to ruin your day.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Wednesday Oct 23, 2024
Wednesday Oct 23, 2024
What an appropriate subject for the week before Halloween! Rachel brings us the very creepy Crypt-keeper Wasp. This parasitic wasp eats you alive inside your home and then forces you to dig a tunnel so it can escape by bursting through your forehead. All completely normal yes?
Kirk takes a turn to the humorous side by putting biologist's sense of humor on display when it comes to silly scientific names for plants and animals. From a fungus named after Spongebob to a Trilobite named after Han Solo, scientists sometimes like to wave their freak flag.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!
Monday Oct 14, 2024
Monday Oct 14, 2024
This week, Kirk brings us a mystery. Last September, the Earth rang like a bell for nine days and a team of 56 scientists from around the world spent a year investigating why. The story the uncovered involves the collapse of a mountain and a mind-boggling large tsunami. Our world is bizarre.
Rachel was up next with a story of giant 440 lb jellyfish that have been overwhelming fishermen when up to 1,500 of them at a time are showing up in fishing nets. Yes, they sting. They are absolutely astounding and more may be on the way.
Join us weekly for more strange nature. Our supporters on Patreon get every episode ad free!