What The Duck?!

Can animals create, or even enjoy music?

Ann rips through the animal kingdom to check out the musical talent of some likely and unlikely performers.

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Featured sounds:

Musical Stimuli for Parrots by Adena Schachner, Fostog's Touch by David Teie (music for cats) and Marlene McCohen (YouTube) and her Amazon parrot Lucy.

Ann heads to a hunting shop (stay with us) to pick up a UV torch. 

What she discovers? 

Ewe won’t believe it.

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This is the final episode of Season 4 for What the Duck?! Season 5 will begin in November.

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lan...

Martin was sailing from the UK to Greece when a pod of orcas tried to sink his boat. Sounds like a one-off? Think again. Reports of killer whales attacking ships date back to the 6th century. So, after all these centuries, have we finally figured out why?

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This episode o...

Can plants get cancer? Do they get tumours? WAIT.. is that what those big knobbly bits are on trees? Dr Ann Jones pulls on her experience as a broadcaster with a brain, to find out what's going on with plants and cancer. 

Won't someone think of the eucalypt!

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This episode of What the Duck?! was...

Two million years ago, our ancestors had tiny ape-like butts. Then something strange happened.. our butts grew bigger. Butt, why?

It turns out humans aren’t the only primates whose butt took a bizarre evolutionary turn.

These peaches have a lot to answer for.

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Professor Daniel Lieberman, Harvard University, US.

Professor Jo Setchell, Durham University, UK. 

Dr Peter Bishop, Harvard University, US.

Lauren Thornton, University of Sunshine Coast.

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Thi...

A superhero origin story would absolutely be 12 years in a cage and then set free by secretive criminals.

That’s the story of Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, released from his vandalised cage in Central Park Zoo, New York City. 

But how long could Flaco possibly last in the graveyard of bird diversity that is the city? How long could he fly without confusing a window for the sky?

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Mum says it’s ok to be angry. But it’s not ok to take over a whole island state.

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This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung people. 

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Austra...

How will we survive the cosmic void? Scientists have a superfood diet in mind, but will the smallest flowering plant on Earth REALLY save humanity? 

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This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung peopl...

Why is it that bird names seem so… childishly misogynistic? 

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Professor Andrew Cockburn, bird watcher and word batcher, ANU

Jeannie Gray, Author, Australian Bird Names: Origins and Meanings.

Ian Fraser, Author, Australia Bird Names:  Origins and Meanings.

Stephen Downes, the brains behind @Parrotoftheday social media accounts

Stephen Moss, Author, Mrs Moreau's Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names.

Nola Turner-Jensen, Culture Inclusion Specialist and Wiradjuri Historian

Dr Ayesha Tulloch, Research Fellow, QUT.

This episode was first broadcast in 2022.

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Someone get a translator app because the fish are ready to speak. 

FEATURING: 

FEATURED SOUNDS :

Thanks to Aaron and Lauren for providing sounds as well as Professor Robert McCauley and the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University. 

PRODUCTION:

This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung people. 

Find more e...

Grabbing a lift can go from bad to worse when your uber drops you outside your evolutionary niche. 

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This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung peop...

Does Australia have a BEST wildflower? Hang on... what even is a flower? Dr Ann Jones and Belinda Smith count down the top 10 best wildflowers as voted by YOU in a special live show, The Hour of Flower.  

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Quackery and Catfishing. Fake news doesn’t only happen on the human internet. Welcome to nature’s dark web.

We didn’t TRY to make a spooky and disturbing episode... we just wanted to talk about plants with DUCK in the title. But oh boy, these flowers are savage!  One of them has become internet famous for a detox that could literally kill you. Another catfishes its pollinators by pretending to be (and even feeling like) the ‘private’ parts of a female fly!  Nature isn’t safe from this algorithm.

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WTF NATURE. I give up.

||A Message from Dr Ann - the What the Duck?! host and general dork.||

I don't really give up. The recording I took for the latest season of Nature Sounds by Ann Jones was a ripper (in terms of wombat farts).

This bit  got edited out of the longer soundscape over there, because, it was determined, that a wombat walking in and scratching its butt ON THE MICROPHONES in the middle of a meditation soundscape would harsh the high of the listener.

So. What the Duck?! s...

In fact, most dinosaurs never got the chance to stop and smell a flower... and it was all because of bad timing. Sad face.

The meteor that killed all the dinosaurs (rude) actually kicked off flower supremacy on planet earth. 

Flowering plants are only about 135 million years old, yet they’re the most bio-diverse plants on the planet. Without them, no birds, no bees. Again, sad face. 

So where did flowers come from? And how did they end up being top bud? 

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It was a perfect night. But this duck had other ideas.

The scene: A perfect, wonderful, windless night at a wetland.

You couldn't ask for better conditions. The sun sets and the insects hum and eventually you hear a boobook and it's lovely… except one very loud duck keeps on yelling periodically the whole way through.

It's like the thing KNEW I was recording. It goes on for hours.

Anyway, I've got a passion project at the ABC.

A podcast called Nature Sounds by Ann Jones.

It's al...

This flower takes needy to a whole new level! 

It was almost extinct. That was, until 2015, when a woman called Julie took it upon herself to make sure we didn’t lose the species altogether, and as it happened (baby) Ann Jones went along with a microphone. 

Now, it’s 10 years on, and Ann is older, greyer and more closely resembles a bearded orchid. But, given she hasn’t been made redundant yet, we can revisit the forest to ask – was all that effort worth it? Did the orchids survive? 

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You probably have a daddy-long-legs in your house right now.

But when is having a weird housemate in the corner ACTUALLY a good thing? Dr Ann Jones investigates.

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This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in 2023 and was produced on the land of the...

Flies have rhythm and choreography, could their moves make the next TikTok dance fad?

Dune flies groove to their own beat in dance-circles and hoverflies use rhythmic movements in mating.

Researchers found the dancing dune fly’s repertoire has specific moves for impressing a female and others for rival dance battles.  Pretty fly for a dune fly.

In Costa Rica the male red hoverfly rhythmically squeezes and strokes his mate during copulation.

They also have a pattern of coupling and uncoupling as many as 17 times during the act!

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Live from the World Science Festival Brisbane What the Duck?! is playing a game and you get to decide: duck, marry, avoid, or friendzone.

You'll hear about the natural world's romance, reproduction, and relationships

Once you've listened you can email [email protected] to vote for how you would categorise snakes, birds, insects and mammals.

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It seems absolutely bonkers that an animal can muster ELECTRICITY, especially enough to send out a zap like a taser.

But that's exactly what electric eels can do, and the world record holder more than doubles the voltage of the Australian electricity supply.

More than that, electric eels inspired the design of Volta's first batteries, but (hold onto your socks so they don't get blown off) they're not the only ones who've got electricity pumping through their bodies.

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For around 700 years scientists observed same-sex pairings in as many as 1500 different species, but didn't record or publish their findings due to public perceptions.

Now research is catching up and many papers on queer behaviour in nature have been published in the past two decades.

This discussion was recorded live at Mardi Gras 2026 and presented by the Royal Zoological Society of NSW for Wildlife at the Watering Hole.

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Sex comes at a cost, there's energy, time, risks of predators, and diseases… so do we even need it?

Asexual organisms don't seem to miss the dating scene, and yet here we are putting a whole lot of energy into sex, even when it doesn't lead to babies when same sexes attract.

Of course, sex is a chance to genetically repair faults and outrun threats, but is the pay-off really enough?

Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the animal kingdom.

It turns out not everyone was listening when it was written 'it takes two to tango' and some species can go it alone in their quest to reproduce. And then there's the plants that decided THREE or ONE was for them, never an even number.

Why is sex so… suspiciously complicated?

Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the natural world.

Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended.

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What is the role of pleasure in successful reproduction?

Evolution says it's mightily important: every female vertebrate has a clitoris.

Snakes have two!

Female pleasure has been selected for.

Making sex fun and pleasurable is a biologically sensible thing to do, more sex means more potential babies.

Some studies of pigs and dairy cows have found an increase of up to 6% in successful conception when the females are stimulated during artificial insemination.

Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following...

Do animals fall in love at first sight?

Every species has different traits that are 'attractive' — they're showing off their DIY skills making a bower, vibrating sexy fruit fly songs, puffing up a wattle, or just having really massive moose… antlers.

Is this innate attraction like falling in love or is it more like meeting a (really hot) investment advisor?

Because these attractive traits are also messages about genes — who will make a good investment to partner with for the next generation.

Of course, one species beauty is another's turn off, and so...

The energy required to grow, birth and raise young is intense, so it's only fair that the female body has some tricks to make sure reproducing is worth it.

From cryptic choice to immune system sperm blockers, the female reproductive system can be a literal maze for those seeking to gain access to her eggs.

In the battle of the sexes, this is females fight back.

Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the animal kingdom.

Please note that...

When it comes to sexual organs, the penis is really 'out there.' Name another organ that can change its form AND function in a matter of seconds!

There's a lot of variety in the animal kingdom; from spikes and nails to coils and collagen — so, this appendage is worth investigating… close up.

Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! With Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the animal kingdom.

Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended.

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When you really think about it, sex to make babies is WEIRD! You take an outie that has to get stuck inside an innie that links into a production line of eggs to assemble a perfect tiny being. It's so damn complicated!

So why does it work like that?

Join us at What the Duck for the first episode of a series where we figure out how living things went from splitting ourselves in half to double the population, to periodically feeling compelled to copulate in such a vigorous, sometimes highly embarrassing, manner.

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In 2002 Gigoo became the world's wealthiest chicken when her owner left her £10 million in his will.

How does a chook even open a bank account?

Within legal limitations there are ways to provide your pets the lifestyle they're used to after you die.

But what about divorce?

Can you have visitation rights to see your goldfish?

And when a dog's day in court climbs though the tiers of the Australian legal system, it might surprise you how little the pet is mentioned.

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A lost monkey in an Ikea carpark is an illegally traded pet, so does he have a legal owner?

When it comes to animal ownership, courts turn to Roman-era laws to try and figure out if an animal is tame or wild.

It may work sometimes, but leaves out the modern idea of the animal's best interests.

And it doesn't explain how an elephant can have a criminal rap sheet.

Content warning: This program contains stories where animals are punished as if they are criminals. Some listeners may find this confronting.<...

How much booze does it take to intoxicate an elephant?

The answer isn't as much as you might expect, because not all guts are created equal when it comes to metabolising alcohol.

This explains why an elephant might be considered a lightweight and your donkey got into a fight last weekend.

But alcohol isn't the only cause of misbehaviour — so what motivated the legless serial doorbell pranksters?

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Forget feathered friends — these are our feathered foes.

They can wield knives, get involved in the world of organised crime and drug dealing, and even shut down the Large Hadron Collider.

But the most pressing question is, why did the duck cross the road at speeds so high local law enforcement was on the case?

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The fear of being eaten by an animal is so visceral that a mass psychosis, featuring a monkey man, once swept across Delhi.

But in the event of an actual attack, investigators look for specific forensic clues to identify which predator was responsible.

Was the perpetrator human or animal? Or in one infamous case in the US, was it human … or owl?

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Leonardo da Pinchy is a literal cat burglar with more than 350 pieces of evidence against him — evidence that's easy to confirm because when he steals his neighbour's underwear, he brings it home with a satisfied look of great pride.

Steven Seagull is banned from the local corner store after a six-year beef-flavoured-chip-thieving spree.

Then there are the monkeys holding phones hostage for fruit juice.

These aren't the only creatures with a criminal record — far from it

So when animals steal, what is driving their behaviour?

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Pigs tried for murder, weevils expelled from heaven and how a bloke dressed as an executed French monkey became mayor of an English town.

Topsy the elephant travelled the US performing for cheering circus-goers, but when her drunken trainer rode her into town wreaking havoc, was that her poor decision-making … or his?

Content warning: This program contains stories where animals are punished as if they are criminals. Some listeners may find this confronting.

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Dr Ann Jones is bringing true crime and natural history together with Nature's Most Wanted, a new series from What the Duck!? investigating when animals get on the wrong side of the law.

From cats stealing underwear to roosters accused of witchcraft; human-eaters to parrots with opioid addiction; this series promises to get to the bottom of why animals turn to crime.

Dr Ann Jones examines the history of animals on trial in human courts, the responsibilities humans take when an animal goes rogue, and ultimately how we think of animals and ourselves.

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Join What the Duck?! at a science comedy debate called Sci Fight.

Sci Fight brings scientists and comedians together to examine serious topics in a silly way.

The topic up for debate is that nature doesn't care where an animal is from.

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Affirmative:

Negative:

At first, you might think it is a plot from a zombie movie: that undead animals are coming for you.

But it turns out that Australia's animals aren't just dangerous when they're alive — they can be deadly even when they're dead.

Ann Jones is joined by science reporter Belinda Smith to examine why snakes can still bite up to 45 minutes after death and are potentially dangerous for years.

Think we're lying? Belinda found a guy whose great aunt (and her dog) were killed by a decapitated snake!

So if a snake co...

Bush rats are not black rats — that's the first thing you need to know.

Ann Jones is joined by ABC Top 5 scientist Dr Patrick Finnerty to understand why researchers are going around sniffing bush rats — and how it might help reintroduce them to Sydney's nature reserves.

Find out more about the Top 5 science media residency here.

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