Strange Animals Podcast

Thanks to Emily, Jo, and Alexandra for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Highland Cattle Society

Mongolian Sheep

The Donkey Sanctuary

The Highland cow is so cute (picture taken from the first site linked above):

Some fat-tailed sheep (picture taken from the sheep article linked above):

Donkeys:

A happy donkey and a happy person (photo taken from the Donkey Sanctuary’s site, linked above):

It’s an episode just absolutely full of fish! Thanks to Arthur, Yuzu, Jayson, Kabir, Nora, Siya, Joel, Elizabeth, Mac, Ryder, Alyx, Dean, and Riley for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Study uncovers mechanics of machete-like ‘tail-whipping’ in thresher sharks

Business end of a sawfish:

Giant freshwater stingray!

The frilled shark looks like an eel:

The frilled shark’s teeth:

The thresher shark and its whip-like tail [photo by Thomas Alexander – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wiki...

Thanks to Måns, Sam, Owen and Askel for this week’s suggestions!

Further reading:

Shingleback Lizard

What controls the colour of the common mānuka stick insect?

The mossy leaf-tailed gecko has skin flaps that hide its shadow. There’s a lizard in this photo, I swear! [photo by Charles J. Sharp – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92125100]:

A shingleback lizard, pretending it has two heads:

The beautiful wood nymph is a beautiful moth but also it looks...

Further reading:

Study: Giant Therizinosaurs Used Their Meter-Long, Sickle-Like Claws for Display

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

I am delighted to report that Therizinosaurus lived in what is now Mongolia in Central Asia, in the Gobi Desert. 70 million years ago, the land wasn’t a desert at all but a forest with multiple rivers and streams flowing through it. Lots of other dinosaurs and birds lived in the area, including a tyrannosaurid called Tarbosaurus that was probably the only predator big enough to kill...

Further reading:

Mysterious ‘blue goo’ at the bottom of the sea stumps scientists

Three new species of ground snakes discovered under graveyards and churches in Ecuador

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

I’ve come down a cold this week, and while I’m feeling better, it is settling into my chest as usual and I’m starting to cough. Since I’m still recovering and need to be in bed instead of sitting up researching animals, and since my voice is alrea...

Thanks to Alexandra, Jayson, and Eilee for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Scientists have discovered an ancient whale species. It may have looked like a mash-up of ‘a seal and a Pokémon’

The nomenclatural status of the Alula whale

Field Guide of Whales and Dolphins [1971]

The little Benguela dolphin [photo taken from this site]:

The spinner dolphin almost looks like it has racing stripes [photo by Alexander Vasenin – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25108509]:

The Alu...

Thanks to Viki, Erin, Weller, and Stella for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Tasmanian tiger pups found to be extraordinary similar to wolf pups

The thylacine could open its jaws really wide:

A sugar glider, gliding [photo from this page]:

A happy quokka and a happy person:

A swimming platypus:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to learn about some mars...

Thanks to Fleur, Yuzu, and Richard from NC for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

World’s rarest parrot, extinct in wild, hatches at zoo

Kakapo recovery

This Parrot Stood 3 Feet Tall and Ruled the Roost in New Zealand Forests 19 Million Years Ago

The magnificent palm cockatoo:

The gigantic kakapo:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we have a bird episode, specifically some interesting parrots. Thanks to Fleur, Yuzu...

Thanks to William who suggested we talk about the Loch Ness Monster for our big Halloween episode!

Further reading:

1888 (ca.): Alexander Macdonald’s Sightings

1933, July 22: Mr. and Mrs. George Spicer’s Loch Ness Encounter

The 1972 Loch Ness Monster Flipper Photos

White Mice, Bumblebees, and Alien Worms? Unexpected Mini-Monsterlings in Loch Ness

Further watching:

1933 King Kong clip: Brontosaurus attack!

The following stills are from the above King Kong clip:

The drawing by Rupert T. Gould for his 1934 book abou...

Thanks to Richard of NC, Richard my brother, Siya, Ezra, and Owen and Aksel for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Creature Feature: Googly-Eyed Stubby Squid

Nocturnal Spiders Use Trapped Fireflies as Glowing Bait to Attract Additional Prey

A male vampire deer:

The adorable googly eyed squid [still taken from video linked above]:

The snowy owl [photo by Bill Bouton from San Luis Obispo, CA, USA – Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus, male, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19899431]:

This week we’re going to learn about a bunch of bats! Thanks to John, Murilo, and Alexandra for their suggestions!

Further reading:

Why Bats Can’t Walk: The Evolutionary Lock That Keeps Them Flying

On a Wing and a Song—Bats Belt out High-Pitched Tunes to Woo Mates

Why some bats hunt during the day

Puzzling Proto-Bats

A pekapeka just walking around catching bugs on the ground [photo by Rod Morris, from link above]:

BLOOOOOOD! but a really cute smile too:

It’s October, AKA Monster Month! Let’s learn about some animals of the Skeleton Coast–which sounds spooky, but actually isn’t.

Lots of brown fur seals [photo by Robur.q – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0]:

The desert plated lizard [photo by redrovertracy, some rights reserved (CC BY) – https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/45483586, CC BY 4.0]:

Rüppell’s korhaan [photo by By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0]:

Thanks to Brody, Oz, and Sam for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Chasing gold

Two spectacled hare-wallabies hanging out under a spinifex bush [picture from this site]:

A regular swamp wallaby [photo by jjron – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4022233]:

The glorious golden swamp wallaby [photo by Jack Evershed, taken from the first article linked above]:

Thanks to Joelle, Jacob, and Anna for their suggestions this week!

Further reading/watching:

Gulper Eel Balloons Its Massive Jaws

Watch rare footage of a shapeshifting eel with ‘remarkably full tummy’ swimming in the deep sea

The beautiful stellar jay:

The maybe not quite as beautiful but really awesome gulper eel (with its mouth full of water, image taken from first video linked above):

The same eel as above but with its mouth open so you can see just how big it is!

Thanks for Preston and Pranav for suggesting this week’s topics!

Further reading:

DNA has revealed the origin of this giant ‘mystery’ gecko

Snow Leopards Dispersed Out of Tibetan Plateau Multiple Times, Researchers Say

Conquest of Asia and Europe by snow leopards during the last Ice Ages uncovered

The crested gecko AKA the eyelash gecko:

The fluffy snow leopard:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we have a couple o...

This is a chapter of the Beyond Bigfoot and Nessie book, which you can buy or request at the library!

Further reading:

Debunking a Great New England Sea Serpent

A narwhal. I use this picture all the time:

The diseased black snake that was taken for a baby sea serpent:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to have a sea monster episode! This is actually a chapter of the book...

While I’m at Dragon Con, here’s an old Patreon episode about Tennessee water mysteries, including some spooky sightings of what were probably bears, and some mystery fish!

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

As this episode goes live, I should be at Dragon Con, so I decided to go ahead and schedule an old Patreon episode to run instead of trying to get a new episode ready in time. It’s about some water mysteries in my home state of Tennessee, although I actually just mov...

Thanks to Mila for suggesting one of our topics today!

Further reading:

The mystery of the ‘missing’ giant millipede

Never-before-seen head of prehistoric, car-size ‘millipede’ solves evolutionary mystery

A centipede compared to a millipede:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

Let’s finish invertebrate August this year with two arthropods. One is a suggestion from Mila and the other is a scientific mystery that was solved by a recent discovery, at least partially.

Mila suggested we...

Thanks to Yonatan and Eilee for this week’s suggestion!

Further reading:

Replanted rainforests may benefit from termite transplants

A vast 4,000-year-old spatial pattern of termite mounds

A family of termites has been traversing the world’s oceans for millions of years

Worker termites [photo from this site]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we have a topic I’ve been wanting to cover for a while, suggested by both Yonatan and Eilee. It...

It’s a tiny mystery animal!

Further reading:

Salinella – what the crap was it?

Some of Frenzel’s drawings of Salinella:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

Johannes Frenzel was a German zoologist in the 19th century. He worked in Argentina for several years, studying microscopic and near-microscopic animals, and seemed to be a perfectly good scientist who did good work but didn’t make a real splash. But these days he’s remembered for a mystery animal that is stil...

It’s Invertebrate August! These creatures are the most invertebrate-y of all!

Further reading:

Dubious Diskagma

Horodyskia is among the oldest multicellular macroorganisms, finds study

A painting of diskagma, taken from the top link above:

Little brown jug flowers (not related to diskagma in any way!):

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This episode started out as the March 2025 Patreon episode, but there was more I wanted to add to it that I di...

I just wanted everyone to know that a listener has claimed the books and magazines I offered for giveaway in episode 443. You can also learn about 60 seconds’ worth of information about the African pygmy mouse.

The tiniest mouse [photo by Alouise Lynch – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59068329]:

Thanks to Jayson and warblrwatchr for suggesting this week’s invertebrates!

Further reading:

Parasite of the Day: Orthohalarachne attenuata

Trap-jaw ants jump with their jaws to escape the antlion’s den

Get out of my noooooose:

An ant lion pit:

An ant lion larva:

A lovely adult antlion, Nannoleon, which lives in parts of Africa [photo by Alandmanson – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58068259]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Stran...

Further reading:

The Trees That Miss the Mammoths

The disappearance of mastodons still threatens the native forests of South America

Study reveals ancient link between mammoth dung and pumpkin pie

A mammoth, probably about to eat something:

The Osage orange fruit looks like a little green brain:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

Way back at the end of 2017, I found an article called “The Trees That Miss the Mammoths,” and made a Patr...

Thanks to Maryjane and Siya for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Look, don’t touch: birds with dart frog poison in their feathers found in New Guinea

The hooded pitohui:

The rufous-naped bellbird:

The regent whistler:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to learn about some birds that by human standards seem pretty mean, although of course the birds are just being birds.

Thanks to Micah for suggesting this week’s topic, the trilobite!

Further reading:

The Largest Trilobites

Stunning 3D images show anatomy of 500 million-year-old Cambrian trilobites entombed in volcanic ash

Strange Symmetries #06: Trilobite Tridents

Trilobite Ventral Structures

A typical trilobite:

Isotelus rex, the largest trilobite ever found [photo from the first link above]:

Walliserops showing off its trident [picture by TheFossilTrade – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133758014]:

Another Walliserops individual with...

Thanks to Cara for suggesting we talk about the long-beaked echidna this week!

Further reading:

Found at last: bizarre, egg-laying mammal finally rediscovered after 60 years

A short-beaked echidna:

The rediscovered Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to learn about an animal suggested by Cara, the echidna, also called the spiny anteater. It’s a type of mammal, but it’s very different from almost all the mammals...

This week we’re going to learn about a new finding about the skull referred to as the Dragon Man!

Further reading:

We’ve had a Denisovan skull since the 1930s—only nobody knew

The proteome of the late Middle Pleistocene Harbin individual

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

It never fails that only a few days after our annual updates episode, a study is published that’s an important update to an older episode. This time it’s an update so im...

Thanks to Nicholas, Måns, Warblrwatchr, Llewelly, and Emerson this week, in our yearly updates episode!

Further reading:

An Early Cretaceous Tribosphenic Mammal and Metatherian Evolution

Guam’s invasive tree snakes loop themselves into lassos to reach their feathered prey

Rhythmically trained sea lion returns for an encore — and performs as well as humans

Scientists Solve Mystery of Brown Giant Pandas

Elephant turns a hose into a sophisticated showering tool

New name for one of the world’s rarest rhinoceroses

Antarctica’s only native ins...

Thanks to Trech for suggesting this week’s topic, the red-eyed tree frog!

Further reading:

Tadpoles hatch in seconds to escape predator

The colorful red-eyed tree frog [photo by Geoff Gallice]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to have a short little episode about a little frog, suggested by Trech.

The frog in question is the red-eyed tree frog, which is native to Central America, including parts of Mexico, and northwestern South...

Thanks to Owen and Aksel, and Dylan and Emily for their suggestions this week!

Further reading:

Where did the unicorn myth come from?

The narwhal is my favorite whale:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to look at an animal suggested by Owen and Aksel, and a related suggestion by Dylan and Emily.

Owen and Aksel suggested we talk about the narwhal, which we haven’t really discussed since episode 5 even though...

Thanks to Jaxon for suggesting this week’s topic, Coelurosauravus!

Further reading:

Coelurosauravus

New Research Reveals Secrets of First-Ever Gliding Reptile

The modern Draco lizard glides on “wings” made from extended rib bones:

Coelurosauravus glided on wings that were completely different from any other wings known [art from the first link above]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we’re going to learn about an extinct animal suggested by Jaxon. It’s calle...

Thanks to Ryder, Alexandria, and Simon for their suggestions this week! Let’s learn about three remarkable wading birds. Two of them are pink!

Bird sounds taken from the excellent website xeno-canto.

The goliath heron is as tall as people [picture by Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland – Goliath Heron (Ardea goliath), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12223810]:

The roseate spoonbill has a bill shaped like a spoon, you may notice [picture by Photo Dante – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42301356]:

...

This week we learn about the fossa and a few other animals of Madagascar, a suggestion by Pranav!

Further reading:

The stories people tell, and how they can contribute to our understanding of megafaunal decline and extinction in Madagascar

The fossa!

The votsotsa is a rodent, not a rabbit! [photo by Andrey Giljov – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113271739]:

The golden mantella frog is sometimes golden, but sometimes red:

The nano-chameleon may be the smallest re...

Thanks to Jayson for suggesting this week’s topic, the new “dire wolf”! Also, possibly the same but maybe a different Jayson is the youngest member of the Cedar Springs Homeschool Science Olympiad Team, who are on their way to the Science Olympiad Nationals! They’re almost to their funding goal if you can help out.

Further reading:

Dire wolves and woolly mammoths: Why scientists are worried about de-extinction

The story of dire wolves goes beyond de-extinction

These fluffy white wolves explain everything wrong with bringing back extinct animals

Dire Wol...

This week we examine two recent articles about coelacanth discoveries. Which one is real and which one is fake?!

Further reading:

Fake California Coelacanth

First record of a living coelacanth from North Maluku, Indonesia

A real coelacanth photo:

A fake coelacanth photo (or at least the article is a fake) [photo taken from the first article linked above]:

A real coelacanth photo [photo from the second article linked above]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m...

Thanks to Katie, Torin, and Eilee for suggesting this week’s topic, foxes!

Further reading:

Meet the Endangered Sierra Nevada Red Fox

Long snouts protect foxes when diving headfirst in snow

Black bears may play important role in protecting gray fox

The red fox:

A black and gold Sierra Nevada red fox [photo taken from the first link above]:

The extremely fluffy Arctic fox:

The gray fox [photo by VJAnderson – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w...

Thanks to Nora and BlueTheChicken for suggesting the inland taipan this week!

The inland taipan in its summer colors [picture by AllenMcC. – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4442037]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

This week we have a suggestion by Nora and BluetheChicken, who both wanted to learn about the inland taipan. Is it really the most venomous snake in the world? Let’s find out, from a safe distance.

The inland taipan is nat...

Further reading:

Reconstructing fossil cephalopods: Endoceras

Retro vs Modern #17: Ammonites

Hammering Away at Hamites

An endocerid [picture by Entelognathus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111981757]:

An ammonite fossil:

A hamite ammonoid that looks a lot like a paperclip [picture by Hectonichus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34882102]:

Show transcript:

Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.

When you think about...

Thanks to Murilo, Alexandra, and Joel for their suggestions this week!

The bird sounds in this episode come from xeno-canto, a great resource for lots of animal sounds!

A cactus wren [picture by Mike & Chris – Cactus WrenUploaded by snowmanradio, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15876953]:

The sultan tit [photo by By Dibyendu Ash – CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72070998]:

A female scarlet tanager [photo by Félix Uribe, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81340425]. The male i...