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Off Track

English, Animals/Wildlife, 1 season, 246 episodes, 4 days, 3 hours, 32 minutes
About
Off Track, with Ann Jones, is an Australian radio show and podcast which combines the relaxing sounds of nature with awesome stories of wildlife and environmental science, all recorded in the outdoors.
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INTRODUCING — What The Duck?!

Australia is full of weird plants and animals. And Dr Ann Jones is on speaking terms with most of them! Each week Ann explores the most unusual elements of our natural world — the ones that make you go What the Duck?! Like why do quolls have spots? Who farts (and who doesn't)? And how do snakes climb trees? Join Ann alongside experts and ordinary Aussies alike to solve mysteries, smash myths and uncover the bizarre truth about nature down under.
2/7/202225 minutes, 50 seconds
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The end of the track

The Off Track adventure has come to an end.
1/21/202225 minutes, 7 seconds
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Antarctic blue whales and their amazing hums

The song calls of Antarctic blue whales are so deep that they're almost infrasonic - you feel them as much as you hear them.
1/14/202225 minutes, 18 seconds
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Live long, little lizard [RE-ISSUE]

After 35 years, some of the same sleepy lizards are still alive, still with the same lizard partner.
1/7/202225 minutes, 18 seconds
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The bilby, the moon and the Birriliburu Rangers

A bilby dreaming story guides a mother with a sick child to an outback town. Decades later, the child returns to repay the favour and look after the bilby.
12/31/202125 minutes, 18 seconds
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The Blythe Star sinks off Tasmania [RE-ISSUE]

While all ten crew members of the Blythe Star got out alive after she capsized, not all would survive the ordeal that followed.
12/24/202125 minutes, 17 seconds
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Growls, grunts and currawong songs [Earworms from Planet earth XIX]

This is Australia and the world, as heard by you, the listeners of Off Track.
12/17/202125 minutes, 13 seconds
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Nature tells us who we are

Nature can be sanctuary, as well as family and guide.
12/10/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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Sounds fishy [RE-ISSUE]

Just under the surface of the ocean, a cacophony of sound awaits.
12/3/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Any louder and that frog will explode [Part 2 RE-ISSUE]

It's all very well recording frog sounds, but what are they trying to say?
11/26/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Any louder and that frog will explode [Part 1 RE-ISSUE]

Murray Littlejohn first recorded the moaning frogs of WA on a device made from a gramophone mechanism in the early 1950s.
11/19/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Fire, fire everywhere

How can you appreciate the ecological importance of fire, but also fight fires with all your might? 
11/12/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Circling piranhas and a kangaroo fight [Incident Report 06]

Just when you thought it might be safe to get back out into nature, you get zapped back to reality.
11/5/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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From Darth Vader to Mardi Gras

Can you defend yourself against a predator more than 200 times your size with a costume change?
10/29/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Slipping away in the South West

What's been dumped on our beaches and what's been taken away?
10/22/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Making every bird count

Why are the birds in our neighbourhoods changing?
10/15/202125 minutes, 13 seconds
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The lone fisher

In a tiny town called Windy, a woman seeks a life of isolation.
10/8/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Kukenarup: Possibilities of place

This site of huge ecological significance has a violent history.
10/1/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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The river visitor making a splash

Melbourne's Yarra river has an unexpected inhabitant, and its bringing joy to people in the locked-down city and beyond.
9/24/202125 minutes, 19 seconds
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Spineless swimmers and crawling crustaceans

In the groundwater beneath the Nullabor, there are billions of tiny crustaceans crawling between the grains of sand.
9/17/202125 minutes, 12 seconds
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Crickets and sprickets 

Meet the tiny creatures who live in the earth beneath your feet
9/10/202125 minutes, 13 seconds
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Slime in the city

Tanya Latty kept a slime mould in her desk drawer at the University. And that got her thinking – are there other slime moulds living their best urban life in Sydney?  
9/3/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Ticked-off in Sydney

Northern Sydneysiders might not like the sound of the latest research into tick hosts in their backyards.
8/27/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Going home to a mice plague

When a final visit to the family farm is rudely interrupted by rodents
8/20/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Hunting for hoots

If you listen closely you might just hear something you've never heard before.
8/13/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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Owl with attitude [UPDATE]

Lurking in the tall trees of our busy cities and suburbs is a powerful hunter.
8/6/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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And your bug can sing [RE-ISSUE]

The underwater sounds in this creek near Brisbane are like an eclectic jam session.
7/30/202125 minutes, 17 seconds
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The butterfly and its goldilocks ant [RE-ISSUE]

The survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on an ant.
7/23/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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In honour of moths

Let's study moths so we can celebrate them properly
7/16/202125 minutes, 17 seconds
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Conserving small things on a big scale 

If invertebrates make up over 90% of animals on earth, why do they receive so little conservation funding?
7/9/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Like a field of blue popcorn

During summer on top of Australia's highest mountain, fields of brilliant turquoise skyhoppers bloom.
7/2/202125 minutes, 12 seconds
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The BFG of the insect world

What’s built like an armoured vehicle, but is super-dooper maternal, has a career as an architect AND is an environmentalist? You’d never guess that Australia’s burrowing cockroaches are so incredibly cute and complex.
6/25/202125 minutes, 12 seconds
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Listening to the Natural World

It's World Listening Day so we are taking a journey through sounds recorded by the audience and one of Australia's most successful nature sound recordists, Andrew Skeoch.
6/18/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Do your friends make you smarter?

Magpies might be boosting their bird brains with friends.
6/11/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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The real magpies of Western Australia

When our favourite black and white birds bring the drama!
6/4/202125 minutes, 17 seconds
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Sounds fishy

Just under the surface of the ocean, a cacophony of sound awaits.
5/28/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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The point of zoos [RE-ISSUE]

At the Bronx zoo in New York, Lynne Malcolm explores its potential as an agent for conservation and public education about the natural world.
5/21/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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Ethics, extinction and modern day zoos

With often complex and cruel histories, can we trust zoos to have animals' best interests at heart?
5/14/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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A tiger, a tortoise and sounds of the zoo

You might have heard an elephant trumpet but have you heard one fart?
5/7/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Suction bogs and stealing eagles [Incident Report 05]

Just when you thought it was safe to get back out into nature, you get bitten on the eyeball and bog the car next to a crocodile infested river.
4/30/202125 minutes, 17 seconds
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A majesty peculiar to the species [RE-ISSUE]

There is something about the Wedge-tailed Eagle which grips this man in the guts.
4/23/202125 minutes, 17 seconds
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The other lyrebird and its anthems 

The Albert's lyrebird has a tiny range, but an epic song repertoire.
4/16/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Lyrebirds: Equality now! [RE-ISSUE]

Female lyrebirds should be rock stars in their own right.
4/9/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Lyrebirds: Lyre, lyre, dancefloor on fire [RE-ISSUE]

Triple Blue is a superb lyrebird stud muffin.
4/2/202125 minutes, 15 seconds
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Lyrebirds: Repeat after me [RE-ISSUE]

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again.
3/26/202125 minutes, 2 seconds
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Traps, lies, and covered eyes

Lyrebird deception just got deeper.
3/19/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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Woof-woof, boo-book [Earworms from Planet Earth XVIII] 

Endangered animal sounds and scientists imitating them. 
3/12/202125 minutes, 13 seconds
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Will the Aussie bush really kill you?

Venomous trees and angry snakes - just what we need.
3/5/202125 minutes, 10 seconds
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Drying without dying

Urban greening takes a tiny turn
2/26/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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Are we 'burning in ignorance'?

In South West WA, there are concerns that prescribed burning is negatively impacting an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot.
2/19/202125 minutes, 13 seconds
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It's not a koala bear, it's a koala boom

We've all heard the stories of the koala on the brink of extinction, but in parts of Victoria, is the exact opposite – the koalas are booming and it’s all our fault. 
2/12/202125 minutes, 14 seconds
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Clapping witches hiding in swamps and other weird sounds [Earworms from Planet Earth XVII]

An Italian folk tale comes to life in an Australian swamp and a meditating man fails to control his ferocious whippets. Welcome to the latest episode of audience submitted sounds.
2/5/202125 minutes, 11 seconds
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Flower pots for biodiversity [RE-ISSUE]

A simple flowerpot making a difference to biodiversity in Sydney's harbour.
1/29/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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It was a mulga snake that got him [RE-ISSUE]

If you get bitten by a snake in the middle of the bush don't do what this bloke did
1/22/202125 minutes, 16 seconds
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How to be a bat [RE-ISSUE]

Is it ok to squabble over watermelon?
1/15/202125 minutes, 1 second
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The banteng paradox [RE-ISSUE]

Banteng are an introduced species in Arnhem Land, but in their home range, they are in danger of complete extinction. So, what to do?
1/8/202125 minutes, 1 second
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And your bug can sing [RE-ISSUE]

The underwater sounds in this creek near Brisbane are like an eclectic jam session.
1/1/202125 minutes, 2 seconds
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Karajarri calling [RE-ISSUE]

Over the course of the week, three pairs of shoes bite the dust, soles detached from uppers in the 45 degree heat, one microphone's glue melts and there are about a billion bush flies drinking from sweaty backs. But despite the heat, Karajarri country has a draw towards it stronger than the pull of the sun.
12/25/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Birds that sound like a haunted house [Earworms from Planet Earth XVI]

Are you about to get murdered, or is it just a gang gang saying hello?
12/18/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Frogs with tusks, whistlers in lust [Earworms from Planet Earth XV]

What sounds like a hiccup, but is actually a lusty mating call for a lothario without a lover?
12/11/202025 minutes, 18 seconds
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Bommies and black coral

Ancient creatures hide on Tasmania's secret reefs.
12/4/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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Coral city

On a coral reef, everyone works to keep the city from crumbling.
11/27/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Requiem for Wildlife

To accompany ABC TV's Wild Australia: After the Fires, here is a minute of nature sound.
11/24/20202 minutes, 18 seconds
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We all know frogs go 'bonk'

But do they really say 'bonk' or is it 'tonk',’ and does a foreign accent make a frog sexy?
11/20/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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Off Track presents Days Like These

Imagine spending your whole life searching for the elusive, perfect fiery opal. And then, one day, you realise you're holding — literally in the palm of your sweaty hand — a glittering prize of a gem that burns with a secret that could unlock the history of the Australian continent. Welcome to the crazy world of opal mining at Lightning Ridge, NSW, where prospector Mike Poben is facing a choice that will change his life forever.
11/20/202026 minutes, 29 seconds
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Lynne's lungs and other adventures

Lynne Malcolm lost half a lung, and it was *probably* as a result of a radio story about birds.
11/13/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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Banana box frog rescue service [RE-ISSUE]

Unwittingly shipped almost 3000km across the continent in a hand of bananas, this small frog is going to need help getting home.
11/6/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Monster in the forest [Earworms from Planet Earth XIV]

Ever heard a sound echoing through the forest and thought, "well crikey, that's gotta be a dinosaur"?
10/30/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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Where dragons float

Dragon by name, seaweed by nature
10/23/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Were-willy wagtail

You find yourself awake in the middle of the night and there is a willy wagtail singing to the moon. Are you loosing your mind, or does this bird occasionally turn into a were-willy?
10/16/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Always wear the gloves and other lessons [Incident Report 04]

More quollity drama for your ears.
10/9/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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Who would ride a motorbike on Antarctic sea ice?

His name is George and he's a bit of a legend.
10/2/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Balancing Nature: New Zealand [RE-ISSUE]

A pioneering experiment to rid New Zealand of its pest problem.
9/25/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Balancing Nature: Philippines [RE-ISSUE]

The Philippines is a reef fish biodiversity hotspot, but it's a delicate balance between livelihoods and sustainability in some fishing communities.
9/18/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Balancing Nature: Vietnam [RE-ISSUE]

How do you protect Vietnam's pristine forests from the fast-expanding road and dam projects?
9/11/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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Balancing Nature: Australia [RE-ISSUE]

Take a look back at some Australian conservation efforts, from tiny reserves to landscape-scale restoration.
9/4/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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Behind the scenes of natural scenes

Ever wondered how they get those gorgeous shots of nocturnal animals on the TV?
8/28/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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An unscheduled Antarctic adventure

When the icebreaker runs aground and leaves you stranded in Antarctica, what's a scientist to do?
8/21/202025 minutes, 13 seconds
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Love song for a changing ocean [RE-ISSUE]

After years of discussions with scientists, a composer writes a symphony for the sea. He calls it ex Oceano.
8/14/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Sounds and showers of Macquarie Island [part two]

Where endangered wildlife watches you showering with a bucket in the Antarctic wind.
8/7/202025 minutes, 12 seconds
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Sounds and smells of Macquarie Island [part one]

Where elephant seals smell like feathers and petrels sound like dragons.
7/31/202025 minutes, 13 seconds
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He hitch-hiked with a snake in his hand

Kevin Budden was only a young bloke when he left Sydney for North Queensland with one goal in mind: to find a coastal taipan and bring it back alive.
7/24/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Nipple cripples and other nibbles [Incident Report 03]

Just when you thought it might be safe to get back out into nature, it gets you where you least expect it: your nipples.  
7/17/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Never smile at a crocodile and other fails [Incident Report 02]

Just when you thought it might be safe to get back out into nature, there’s a bite from a huge, unknown carnivore and a leech on your eyeball. This is the second instalment of Incident Reports with communiques back to base about the worst (ie: best) fieldwork fails.
7/10/202025 minutes, 1 second
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Fieldwork fails and flops [Incident Report 01]

Let’s not get too romantic about nature. There’s plenty of times when you end up covered in mud, at the end of your tether and on the receiving end of a love bite from a vampire bat. Hear scientists report back about their worst (ie: best) fieldwork fails.
7/3/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Live long, little lizard [UPDATE]

After 35 years, some of the same sleepy lizards are still alive, still with the same lizard partner. This episode was first broadcast in 2017, but has been updated with news of the new sleepy lizard scientists.
6/26/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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A squirrel that glides like a magic carpet in the Himalayas [UPDATE]

Gliding over a glacier in the Himalayas is a metre long squirrel with a smallish head, silky fur and a fluffy tail - but it's hardly ever been seen alive. Originally aired in 2017, we've got an update on the squirrel story!
6/19/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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All aboard Australia's super science ship [RE-ISSUE]

It's as if this ship has invisible cat's whiskers extending off her hull - pricked and at the ready, they sense the weather and temperature and map the course ahead.
6/12/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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It was a mulga snake that got him

If you get bitten by a snake in the middle of the bush don't do what this bloke did
6/5/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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[NATURE TRACK] Water Flow

No music, no voices, just the sound of a stream and frogs calling on a still, cool night in regional Victoria.
6/5/202058 minutes, 18 seconds
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[NATURE TRACK] Shore Sounds

No music, no voices, just the sound of the Roebuck Bay mudflats near Broome, WA. Hear breeze across the water, crabs and mudskippers flipping and flopping, and a tide that slowly comes in.
6/3/202030 minutes, 2 seconds
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[NATURE TRACK] Forest Songs

No music, no voices, just the sing of the forest coming to life early one morning near Canberra.
6/3/20202 seconds
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[NATURE TRACK] Mountain Music

No music, no voices, just the sound of a valley halfway up a Tasmanian Mountain. This soundscape is full of birds and breeze echoing backwards and forwards across a reservoir.  
6/2/202030 minutes, 4 seconds
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Off Track presents Nature Track

Right now, more than ever, it’s important to stay in touch with nature.
6/1/20202 minutes, 16 seconds
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How to be a bat

Is it ok to squabble over watermelon?
5/29/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Western whips and a ruff duet [Earworms from Planet Earth xiii]

Right now, finding joy in nature is just the ticket.
5/22/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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The perfect little rock

A piece of pumice floats across the ocean like a school bus picking up young organisms – tiny planktonic corals, some barnacles, maybe a crab, an oyster, perhaps a nudibranch.
5/15/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Barking gecko, boop-ing emu

Every evening at homes in Northern Australia, a tiny yip yip yip can be heard. And, on the other end of the spectrum, a boop boop boop can be heard in more arid zones. This week is a adventure into the big and small sounds of Australia.  
5/8/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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The banteng paradox

Banteng are an introduced species in Arnhem Land, but in their home range, they are in danger of complete extinction. So, what to do?
5/1/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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PREVIEW RN Presents — Hot Mess: Why haven’t we fixed climate change?

If you are here in the Off Track feed, then, we're thinking you're probably a person who is engaged with the natural world. So, it follows that you might be interested in this series from RN Presenter Richard Aedy called 'Hot Mess.'
4/30/20205 minutes, 8 seconds
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Whip it good [Earworms from Planet Earth xii]

Whipbirds are a favourite in the Aussie bush – secretive little fellows with flat top haircuts and a cutting call.  This episode is chokka-block full of whippy (and other) recordings sent in from the audience members of Off Track.
4/24/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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Echidna indigestion and other eating tails [Re-issue]

It’s a bat eat mouse, lizard eat possum, wallaby eat bird world out there. Animals are always eating weird stuff.
4/17/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Magical and misunderstood sea snakes [Re-issue]

These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm.
4/10/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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When Jamie fell in love with the mountains [Re-issue]

Distinguished Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick has been crawling across lawns for more than 70 years, it's just that this one is on the top of a mountain and is full of plants from the cretaceous.
4/3/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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Intimate aliens [Re-issue]

Robert Adlard says that parasites are intimate aliens, and that our dislike for them stems from their ability to surprise us with their closeness.
3/27/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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Hobart Airport lets sleeping echidnas lie [Re-issue]

Despite all the noise of planes coming and going, the echidnas at Hobart airport are digging in to hibernate.
3/20/202025 minutes, 14 seconds
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Seagrass [Re-issue]

Understanding the power of seagrass in a research laboratory 18m under the sea.
3/13/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Flora fatale, the plants with a thirst for blood [Re-issue]

With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.
3/6/202025 minutes, 16 seconds
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Ravenous star-shaped mouths

Sea urchins are making a meal of south-eastern Australia’s rocky reefs and kelp forests. Can they be stopped?
2/28/202025 minutes, 18 seconds
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Sea urchin solo in a coral reef choir [re-issue]

Under the sea it isn’t all relaxing whale noise. The sound of the reef creatures is actually more like a percussive static with some grinding teeth on rock thrown in.
2/21/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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And your bug can sing

The underwater sounds in this creek near Brisbane are like an eclectic jam session.  There are sweet beetles (that sing), lonely bugs (on percussion), fishy grunters (think Jay-Z) and a punk-rocking rakali that just trashes the joint. This musical soundscape is the PhD homeland of eco-acoustician Emilia Decker.  
2/14/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Grandmother tree, the fire and me

Vanessa thought 'it's ok, the people are safe... It's ok, the house is safe...' But nothing prepared her for returning home.
2/7/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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Yackandandah's angel of the bush [UPDATE]

Glenda Elliott can't say no to an animal in need - she wants to save them all. A few years back when fire ripped through Kangaloola Wildlife Shelter, she and the animals hid in a mineshaft. This show aired in 2018 and we've been back in touch with Glenda for an update following the bushfires of 2019-20.
1/31/202025 minutes, 15 seconds
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The burning bush is talking

Just before the fire hit, the trees' leaves turned red and fell to the ground, and it left Adrian wondering - did they know they were just about to burn?
1/24/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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The bilby, the moon and the Birriliburu Rangers

A bilby dreaming story guides a mother with a sick child to an outback town. Decades later, the child returns to repay the favour and look after the bilby. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.
1/17/202025 minutes, 20 seconds
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Where giants nest

Albatross expert Dr Jaimie Cleeland listens to the gurgles and bellows of albatross as they nest on a tiny Atlantic island called Gough. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.
1/10/202025 minutes, 19 seconds
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Gone fish — pygmy perch pushed too far

The tiny Yarra pygmy perch has been pushed to extinction in the Murray Darling Basin. Now, all hopes for its return are focussed on a couple of farm dams. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.
1/3/202025 minutes, 17 seconds
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Cockies wheelie love bin day

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are opening wheelie bins and turning trash into treasure. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.
12/27/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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Barbara York Main — Australia's spider woman

She studied the world's oldest spider and championed their home at a time when both the environment and women were given no fighting chance — Dr Barbara Anne York Main OAM. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.
12/20/201925 minutes, 17 seconds
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Earworms from planet earth XI

Birds sing at a mining camp, cicadas grind the gears of locals and mysterious sounds are identified. Listen to the sounds of Australia as recorded by the Off Track audience.
12/13/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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This is Mark

This is Mark: a life-size, custom-made inflatable whale. And he needs to be saved. 
12/6/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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Virtual reality, second nature

Off Track presents the new ABC podcast 'GOOD GAME: how games play us' attempting to answer a BIG question: There's nothing like taking a walk out and about in nature — or is there?
11/29/201925 minutes, 16 seconds
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Trapped in the dry

What happens to the animals of the Kimberley when the big wet just doesn't arrive?
11/22/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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Karajarri calling

Over the course of the week, three pairs of shoes bite the dust, soles detached from uppers in the 45 degree heat, one microphone's glue melts and there are about a billion bush flies drinking from sweaty backs. But despite the heat, Karajarri country has a draw towards it stronger than the pull of the sun.
11/15/201925 minutes, 19 seconds
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Amphibian hullabaloo and other frog noises

Frogs don't just croak, they moan and groan, sing, whine, whizz and sound like dripping taps and this is an episode of pure adoration for the calls of Australia's frogs.
11/8/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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Big cats in the bush [RE-ISSUE]

Rumours of pumas and leopards roaming the Australian bush have been around for more than a century. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence but to date no definitive proof. Join in the search for a mythical cat in this re-issue of a classic Off Track.
11/1/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Tiny crayfish out of water

It's only as big as a tea bag, plays dead if you pick it up, and landowners don't even know they have an endangered animal in their backyard.
10/25/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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The unlikely tale of the Murchison meteorite

It startled the cows, intrigued the locals and excited scientists around the world. Fifty years on, the Murchison meteorite still defines a town and yields new discoveries every year.
10/18/201925 minutes, 15 seconds
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Off Track family news

The Off Track family is growing and we want you to know about it. Meet our little sister podcast - Noisy by Nature.
10/14/20193 minutes, 12 seconds
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Plovers unmasked

The masked lapwing terrifies humans with daring aerial attacks, which are actually displays of its pure parental love.
10/11/201925 minutes, 19 seconds
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Magpie behaviour is not black and white

[RE-ISSUE] The phrase 'mate for life' might seem romantic, but the reality of such a relationship for the long-lived Australian Magpie involves turf wars, sex on the side and the possibility of a step-parent bringing up your kids if you get too aggro.
10/4/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Saving the Ocean, part 4 [re-issue]

What can science do to preserve marine life and help it develop in harmony with our own human development? This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.
9/27/201938 minutes, 2 seconds
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Saving the Ocean part 3 [re-issue]

Lindsay Smith has been tagging seabirds in the deep waters off Wollongong for over thirty years. Commercial fishing practice can have a devastating impact on seabird populations. But science is figuring out how to best mitigate the damage. This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.
9/20/201925 minutes, 24 seconds
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Saving the Ocean, part 2 [re-issue]

Shark fishing holds a special place in Kiribati culture. But a growth in the market for shark fins in Asia changed the traditional fishing practice. This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.
9/13/201925 minutes, 32 seconds
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Saving the Ocean, part 1 [re-issue]

Few places on earth are as exposed to the ocean as Kiribati; a chain of 32 islands spread across 3.5 million square km in the East Pacific. This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.
9/6/201925 minutes, 32 seconds
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Where giants nest - nature soundscape

Sink into the sounds of Gough Island, where the Albatross gurgle, the petrels moan and the skuas chatter. No human voices, all Off Track soundscape.
8/31/20198 minutes, 23 seconds
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Where giants nest

Albatross expert Dr Jaimie Cleeland listens to the gurgles and bellows of albatross as they nest on a tiny Atlantic island called Gough.
8/30/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Cockies wheelie love bin day

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are opening wheelie bins and turning trash into treasure.
8/23/201925 minutes, 2 seconds
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The exceptional Nuyts Archipelago

St Peter Island in South Australia's Nuyts Archipelago is home to sea eagles, short-tailed shearwaters, stick-nest rats and brush-tailed bettongs – and also some particularly venomous black tiger snakes.
8/16/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Earworms From Planet Earth X

A magpie calls to the rising sun, a fat green frog sings in a water tank and an endangered lemur moans about its family. Ann Jones takes you and a bunch of experts on an ear-tour.
8/9/201925 minutes, 7 seconds
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Listen for Tigers

No one ever forgets the time that they first heard a tiger.
8/2/201925 minutes, 16 seconds
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Golf is freedom and frustration [re-issue]

In any given day on the golf course, there are people in ecstasy, and people in agony. Sometimes it's the same person. [From the Off Track archive]
7/26/201925 minutes, 17 seconds
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Earworms from Planet Earth IX

Stressed? Got the sniffles? Need a nap? Got a fussy baby? Just. Over. It? You won’t realise how much you needed to hear nature until you’ve heard this set of wild sounds sent in by Off Track listeners from around the globe.
7/19/201925 minutes, 7 seconds
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The curse of the plastic nurdle

Fiona Pepper follows the path of a tiny grain of plastic - a nurdle - as it travels on ocean currents from South Africa to land on a 'pristine' beach in West Australia. 
7/12/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Earworm Extra - lyrebird audiotape

Want to live another five minutes in the Off Track lyrebird world? Well, listen to this.
7/8/20195 minutes, 43 seconds
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Lyrebirds - lyrebird equality now!

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. Female lyrebirds could be rock stars in their own right.
7/5/201925 minutes, 19 seconds
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Earworm Extra - Listener Lyrebirds

From the hundreds of sounds sent into Off Track, we've selected all the Lyrebird recordings. An earworm extra for the series 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.'
6/30/201923 minutes, 7 seconds
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Lyrebirds - Lyre, lyre, dancefloors on fire

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. And then listen to this ear-bending series called 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.'
6/28/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Earworm Extra - a morning in a valley

An earworm extra for the series 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.' Listen to the sound of dawn in peak mating season for superb lyrebirds
6/25/201911 minutes, 2 seconds
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Earworm Extra - lyrebird flute song

The story goes that a local lyrebird copied a young boy who played the flute, but regardless of its provenance, Carol Probets' recording of this lyrebird flute song is astounding.
6/23/20195 minutes, 15 seconds
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Lyrebirds - Repeat after me

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. And then listen to this ear-bending series called 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.'
6/21/201925 minutes, 17 seconds
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PRESENTING: How Deadly with Ann Jones

There's some new nature-nerdery going on over on the ABC Science YouTube Channel and it features Off Track's Ann Jones. http://bit.ly/howdeadly
6/17/20191 minute, 25 seconds
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Go, Dog, Go! [re-issue]

Are these the happiest hounds in Australia? We think so, and that's why we're playing this one from the Off Track archive.
6/14/201925 minutes, 2 seconds
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Off Track presents - Branch Out

Do you need a brain to be able to sense the world around you, or to remember or learn?
6/8/201922 minutes, 19 seconds
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Talking frogs, thinking plants

It's a very noisy world out in Australian nature, and sometimes all you need to do is stop and listen (to this).
6/7/201925 minutes, 18 seconds
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Moaning birds, vegetarian rodents and the moon man

Muttonbird Island in NSW is a place of majesty. It's just that the majesty crash lands in the moonlight and sounds like a squeezy toy.
5/31/201925 minutes, 6 seconds
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Barbara York Main - Australia's spider woman

The reserve at North Bungulla is quiet all day until the winds of the evening make the trees creak in the falling light. The winds bring the news that Barbara York Main has died.
5/24/201925 minutes, 17 seconds
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Water finds a way

All around us and within, water is an intimate, essential part of our lives. What would we do if water lost her way?
5/17/201925 minutes, 16 seconds
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When Water Lost Her Way

Listen to the audio book version of the Australian Children's book 'When Water Lost Her Way' by Meg Humphrys.
5/14/20198 minutes, 3 seconds
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A sense of time

Does a second feel the same for a fly, a bird, or a swordfish, as it does for me? From the BBC World Service, immerse yourself in the world of animal senses.
5/10/201925 minutes, 17 seconds
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Owl with attitude

A powerful avian predator is making do in Melbourne's suburbs. For now.
5/3/201925 minutes, 16 seconds
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Professor Waterhouse's wonderful plant [re-issue]

Professor Peter Waterhouse and the wonder plant Nicotiana benthamiana.
4/26/201925 minutes, 16 seconds
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Earworms from Planet Earth VIII

Angry sheep or randy frog? Motorbike or koala rev? Indigestion or monkey? Get the headphones out for another set of wild sounds sent in by Off Track listeners from around the globe.
4/19/201925 minutes, 2 seconds
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Gone fish - pygmy perch pushed too far

The tiny Yarra pygmy perch, with golden sheen and teardrop eye, has been pushed to extinction in the Murray Darling Basin. Now, all hopes for its return are focussed on a couple of farm dams.
4/12/201925 minutes, 16 seconds
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The bilby, the moon and the Birriliburu Rangers

A bilby dreaming story guides a mother with a sick child to an outback town. Decades later, the child returns to repay the favour and look after the bilby.
4/5/201925 minutes, 46 seconds
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Ninety one years in the desert

Jack Absalom has died at the age of 91. From parrot poacher to painter, Absalom was a renaissance bushie with a story or two to tell.
3/29/201925 minutes, 47 seconds
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Teenage quolls are V-I-SQUEE

It’s a momentous night for this teenage eastern quoll – she’s leaving home.
3/22/201925 minutes, 46 seconds
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Off Track presents Queer Out Here

A crowd sourced audio zine that celebrates the world outside walls from the perspective of LGBQTIA+ people from all over the world.
3/15/201925 minutes, 45 seconds
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Off Track presents HumaNature

Not quite tame, not quite wild.
3/8/201925 minutes, 46 seconds
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Off Track presents Outside/In

It turns out, some forests love fire.
3/1/201925 minutes, 47 seconds
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The Chase 3 — Tracks across time

A team races against time and the elements to save 95-million-year-old dinosaur footprints in the Aussie outback.
2/22/201926 minutes, 37 seconds
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The Chase 3 — Trouble in paradise

Rats and mosquitoes threaten a fragile ecosystem on an isolated Tahitian atoll — but now scientists are trialling new techniques to rid the islands of destructive pests.
2/15/201926 minutes, 28 seconds
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The Chase 2 — Back from the dead

Obsessives, dumpy birds and disapproving academics: the saga of the night parrot.
2/8/201926 minutes, 11 seconds
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The Chase — Eye in the sky

How do you catch the shadow of a moon? You need a telescope with wings. Join the flight of a lifetime on SOFIA, the airborne observatory.
2/1/201926 minutes, 31 seconds
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Eight legged wonder of the world

Spiders can be beautiful, timid, fluffy and even give up their lives for the sake of their children. [repeat]
1/25/201925 minutes, 46 seconds
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The sperm whale's clicking tale

Next to nothing was known about sperm whales in the Southern Ocean. That is, until the Australian Antarctic Division started listening to their clicks.[Repeat]
1/19/201925 minutes, 45 seconds
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Cockatoo wail, fledge or fail

The wailing calls of the red-tailed black cockatoos that live in Australia's South East are being used to help change the future for the failing species.[Repeat]
1/5/201925 minutes, 46 seconds
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Flora fatale, the plants with a thirst for blood

With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.[Repeat]
12/29/201825 minutes, 45 seconds
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Magical and misunderstood sea snakes

These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm. [Repeat]
12/22/201825 minutes, 45 seconds
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Australian Christmas a hodgepodge of traditions

In the lead up to Christmas, many Australians decorate their outdoor space AND bring a little bit of nature indoors. But many have not really considered why.
12/15/201825 minutes, 45 seconds
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Tiny floof with a sweet tooth

With a taste for the nectar of Australian flowers, the Western Pygmy Possum is the sweetest little thing you'll hear about today.
12/8/201825 minutes, 46 seconds
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Pipis and prejudice

Tensions in the small town grow, and 'piss off pipi hunters' is written across a public toilet wall. And all the while, under the sand at the beach, a small clam opens up its gills and filters its phytoplankton dinner off the incoming tide. [Repeat]
12/1/201828 minutes, 36 seconds
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Earworms from Planet Earth VII

Sounds from around Australia featuring the Peron’s Tree Frog, Cat Birds, Mystery birds and boobooks. 
11/24/201825 minutes, 47 seconds
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Penguins Little by name, but not by nature

Off Track explores the Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) colony on Bowen Island in NSW. [Repeat]
11/17/201825 minutes, 46 seconds
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Hit the frog and toad

It was thought that cane toads couldn't survive, and certainly couldn't breed as far south as Sydney. That thought was spectacularly wrong. [repeat]
11/10/201825 minutes, 46 seconds
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He's been through the desert

His business card says 'desert walker' and he's not afraid of death.
11/3/201825 minutes, 35 seconds
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The bitter taste of the monarch butterfly

Native to North America, it was an extraordinary string of luck including a gold rush, cyclones, the rise of ornamental gardening that led to the naturalisation of the monarch butterfly in Australia.
10/27/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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The butterfly and its goldilocks ant

The survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on a ant.
10/20/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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Earworms from Planet Earth VI

Can you hear the buzz of a bee? The trill of a whistler? Spring has arrived in Australia, and this is what it sounds like.
10/13/201825 minutes, 38 seconds
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Born to be wild

After growing up in captivity, three young birds take their first free flight.
10/8/201812 minutes, 28 seconds
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The northern hopping-mouse builds its own house

If Kevin McLeod did a series called Furry Mammal Grand Designs, the northern hopping mouse would have to be the star of the first episode.
10/6/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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Echidna indigestion and other eating tails

It’s a bat eat mouse, lizard eat possum, wallaby eat bird world out there. Animals are always eating weird stuff.
9/29/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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Earworms from planet earth V

The sounds of wild Australia recorded by the audience and identified by a panel of experts.
9/22/201825 minutes, 36 seconds
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Dining with Killer Whales

The water turns red and smells of fish. It's the blood of the prey of a pod of Orcas. This episode of Off Track has been selected from the archives for your listening pleasure.
9/15/201825 minutes, 37 seconds
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The women who were determined to walk

In the 1920s, wearing ankle length skirts and carrying heavy packs, the Melbourne Women's Walking Club set out to explore dense areas of Victoria's bushland
9/8/201825 minutes, 35 seconds
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Yackandandah's angel of the bush

Glenda Elliott has spent her life caring for injured, sick and orphaned Australian wildlife and then once rehabilitated, releasing them back into the wild.
9/1/201825 minutes, 36 seconds
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Into the Mallee

Award winning radio Producer Mike Ladd takes a drive into the Mallee to discover its magic.
8/25/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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Magical and misunderstood sea snakes

These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm.
8/18/201829 minutes, 17 seconds
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The spawning of reef conservation

One small public notice stating the intention to mine Ellison Reef was the seed from which the 'Save the Barrier Reef' campaign was spawned. To celebrate the Reef Diver project, we've brought this episode up form the depths of the Off Track archives.
8/11/201825 minutes, 37 seconds
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Hi-vis Nudibranch named

It is covered in flamboyantly coloured sausages, it’s a hermaphrodite, breathes through its skin, goes through metamorphoses AND this new species has just been officially named!
8/4/201825 minutes, 38 seconds
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The sperm whale's clicking tale

Next to nothing was known about sperm whales in the Southern Ocean. That is, until the Australian Antarctic Division started listening to their clicks.
7/28/201825 minutes, 37 seconds
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Ghost claws on a unicorn

From the murky waters of the Murray River emerges a rare monster with an underbelly of red berries and claws of ghostly white. This program is selected from the rich Off Track archives for your listening pleasure.
7/21/201825 minutes, 38 seconds
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Edible ocean conservation with a side of chips

Two PhD-qualified fisheries scientists have jumped ship to open a eco-friendly fish and chip shop, aiming to put their philosophy of sustainable ocean use into practise.
7/14/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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Earworms from planet earth IV

Off Track listeners from all over the globe have been recording the sounds of nature on their phones. Listen as a panel of experts takes us through the latest batch of Earworms
7/7/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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Huge personality in a tiny package

Do individual birds have consistent, unique personalities? Zoologist Dr Michelle Hall is trying to find out. This program has been selected from the Off Track archives for you listening pleasure.
6/30/201825 minutes, 39 seconds
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When Jamie fell in love with the mountains

Distinguished Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick has been crawling across lawns for more than 70 years, it's just that this one is on the top of a mountain and is full of plants from the cretaceous.
6/23/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Farming, dancing and stories of this land

Can thousands of years of Australian agricultural practices be translated into dance? This week, Bangarra Dance Theatre takes on Bruce Pascoe's revision of pre-colonial Australian resource management as it premiers Dark Emu.
6/16/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Earworms from planet earth III

What does your world sound like? Listeners have sent recordings to the Off Track inbox, and now we all get to listen. Close your eyes and take in the earworms.
6/9/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Taste test the new ABC Kids nature and music podcast

If you like nature and have some kids in your life, here is a short taste of a new ABC podcast called ABC Classic Kids.
6/5/20183 minutes, 51 seconds
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Mother and Daughter take flight

PODCAST BONUS. Two women, armed with a pencil and a violin, take on the history of birdsong.
6/3/20187 minutes
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Two musicians and 30 million years of birdsong

Song began in Australia when the first songbird sang its opening note. 30 million years later two classically trained musicians use their instruments to trace the birds' story in song.
6/2/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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A heart full of wing beats

When nature documentaries show elephants at a waterhole, Peter Langdon goes crook at the telly. He wants them to zoom in on the bird sitting in the tree in background. [This repeat program is carefully selected from the Off Track archive for your listening pleasure]
5/26/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Three geckos and three thousand cows

Scientists strap tiny bum-bags onto geckos in the middle of the night on an outback cattle station. They are tracking how cattle grazing impacts tiny lizards. PLUS BONUS #FieldWorkFail
5/19/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Earworms from a cockatoo tree

From a tiny sound recorder in a Victorian sheep paddock comes a startling array of sounds - some identifiable and some complete mysteries. Relax and let this earworm do its work.
5/17/201829 minutes, 55 seconds
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Cockatoo wail, fledge or fail

The wailing calls of the red-tailed black cockatoos that live in Australia's South East are being used to help change the future for the failing species.
5/12/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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A morning with the birds

For International Dawn Chorus Day, here's the sounds of an Australian autumn morning, crisp and bright.
5/5/201811 minutes, 45 seconds
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Night shift in a darkened forest

Listen to birds and possums communicating about land grabs, politics and sex. To celebrate International Dawn Chorus Day, this program about a forest chorus is from the Off Track archive.
5/5/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Hobart Airport lets sleeping echidnas lie

Despite all the noise of planes coming and going, the echidnas at Hobart airport are digging in to hibernate.
4/28/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Things that go grunt in the night

If a koala bellows in a forest and a scientist isn’t there to record it, does the koala exist at all?
4/21/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Intimate aliens

Robert Adlard says that parasites are intimate aliens, and that our dislike for them stems from their ability to surprise us with their closeness. They are intimate aliens.
4/14/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Penguins impossible to hate

The tiniest of Australia's penguins were once victorious over development at Phillip Island in Victoria.
4/7/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Flora fatale, the plants with a thirst for blood

With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.
3/31/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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The devil and the monster cray

The worlds biggest freshwater cray click clacks across rocks, a devil spends a night in the clink and scientists scramble to save the Tarkine.
3/24/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Earworms from planet earth II

What does your world sound like? We asked, and you sent us earworms from planet earth. Close your eyes and take a trip.
3/17/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Jack Absalom: a renaissance bush-man

From parrot poacher to bush-craft expert on the national stage, Jack Absalom was a real-life Crocodile Dundee before Crocodile Dundee was a twinkle in a film producer’s eye.
3/10/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Go outside and play

What do the first female mayor in Australia and a glamorous ballerina with a diplomat husband and a Russian pseudonym have in common? They established marvellous playgrounds.
3/3/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Australia's extraordinary rainforest woods

Morris Lake says we have a lot to thank gymnosperms for. This repeat is appearing in your feed because after ABC Wild Oz, Ann needs a little break.
2/24/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Eight legged wonder of the world

Spiders can be beautiful, timid, fluffy and even give up their lives for the sake of their children.
2/17/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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The life below the Brisbane River

You can't see through the murky water of the Brisbane River, but when you have an underwater microphone you can listen to the life below.
2/13/20186 minutes, 20 seconds
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How to evolve your dragon

A water dragon with dappled markings like shadows through leaves tilts her head and waves her arm. It’s not a friendly wave. It’s the water dragon equivalent of the middle finger.
2/10/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Flying teddy bear found in Brisbane forest

The greater glider is listed as vulnerable in Australia and it moves through the tree tops eating eucalyptus leaves without a sound.
2/6/20184 minutes, 40 seconds
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To feed or not to feed

Feeding the birds can heal a multitude of human wounds. Some people are even drawn to the practice of bird feeding to atone for the perceived sins of humanity.
2/3/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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Seeking nature on the Gold Coast: paradise lost or gained?

With more canals than Venice, Queensland’s Gold Coast is a highly altered environment, where remnants of untouched vegetation are few and far between. Yet, tourists still flock there seeking to experience nature first hand among the theme parks, high rises and nightclubs. This is a classic Off Track handpicked from the archives for your listening pleasure.
1/27/201825 minutes, 32 seconds
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The strange case of the peppered tree frog

Jodi Rowley is a frog detective from the Australian Museum and she’s sewing together a patchwork of clues to try to find the peppered tree frog in the New England Tablelands. {For RN Summer we're playing the best programs from the RN archives, and this one first aired in November, 2016}
1/19/201828 minutes, 22 seconds
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Looking forward, looking back

Fly-in to a place where the earth's ancient geological past and the most cutting-edge computing technology collide. A place where taking a picture of the dawn of time is almost a reality. {For RN Summer we're playing the best programs of the year, and this one first aired in April, 2017}
1/12/201828 minutes, 22 seconds
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The rodent and the walking stick

The fates of the black rat and the phasmid are as intertwined as the air roots of a banyan tree. The survival of one is linked to the extermination of the other, and the battle is on. {For RN Summer we're playing the best programs of the year, and this one first aired in June, 2017}
1/5/201828 minutes, 22 seconds
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Live long, little lizard

After 35 years, some of the same sleepy lizards are still alive, still with the same lizard partner. Now, they will have a new scientist. {For RN Summer we're playing the best programs of the year, and this one first aired in April, 2017}
12/29/201728 minutes, 21 seconds
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The improbable tale of the outback fish

How does a fish the size of a toothbrush head, with bright red fins and big blue eyes, end up living in a puddle of water in the middle of the Australian outback? This story is about one of the rarest fish species in the world, and it's simply epic. {For RN Summer we're playing the best programs of the year, and this one first aired in May, 2017}
12/22/201728 minutes, 21 seconds
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Australian Magpie wins and sings

The public have spoken, and the Magpie is the winner of the Bird of the Year for 2017. So let's hear from the magpies themselves.
12/11/20179 minutes, 35 seconds
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The colourful life of the Australian Magpie [Repeat]

Plucked direct from the Off Track archives so that you can better understand 2017's bird of the year: the magpie.
12/10/201728 minutes, 22 seconds
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Nature Snack - a pied butcherbird practices its song.

The sweet singing butcherbird has inspired symphonies, such is the clarity of its tone.
12/9/20177 minutes, 43 seconds
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Earworms from planet earth

What does your world sound like? We asked, and you sent us earworms from planet earth. Close your eyes and take a trip.
11/10/201728 minutes, 22 seconds
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Tasmania is the roadkill capital of the world

Possum, tawny frogmouth, platypus, turtle, quoll, endangered devil and raven. No animal is immune to death on Tasmanian roads where 32 animals die every hour. This episode of Off Track has been selected from the archives.
11/3/201728 minutes, 22 seconds
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Hit the frog and toad

It was thought that cane toads couldn't survive, and certainly couldn't breed as far south as Sydney. That thought was spectacularly wrong.
10/27/201728 minutes, 22 seconds
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Gardening for the Dead

Does the decomposition of our loved ones make the soil unsuitable for some plants? And why do grave sites sink? This program has been drawn from the Off Track archives.
10/20/201728 minutes, 22 seconds
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The princely snow leopard and its poo

Preserving species that are both rare and elusive has led an Australian whale specialist to the Himalayas to search for big cat poo.
10/13/201728 minutes, 22 seconds