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.

The Off Track adventure has come to an end.

The song calls of Antarctic blue whales are so deep that they're almost infrasonic - you feel them as much as you hear them.

After 35 years, some of the same sleepy lizards are still alive, still with the same lizard partner.

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.

While all ten crew members of the Blythe Star got out alive after she capsized, not all would survive the ordeal that followed.

This is Australia and the world, as heard by you, the listeners of Off Track.

Nature can be sanctuary, as well as family and guide.

Just under the surface of the ocean, a cacophony of sound awaits.

It's all very well recording frog sounds, but what are they trying to say?

Murray Littlejohn first recorded the moaning frogs of WA on a device made from a gramophone mechanism in the early 1950s.

How can you appreciate the ecological importance of fire, but also fight fires with all your might? 

Just when you thought it might be safe to get back out into nature, you get zapped back to reality.

Can you defend yourself against a predator more than 200 times your size with a costume change?

What's been dumped on our beaches and what's been taken away?

Why are the birds in our neighbourhoods changing?

In a tiny town called Windy, a woman seeks a life of isolation.

This site of huge ecological significance has a violent history.

Melbourne's Yarra river has an unexpected inhabitant, and its bringing joy to people in the locked-down city and beyond.

In the groundwater beneath the Nullabor, there are billions of tiny crustaceans crawling between the grains of sand.

Meet the tiny creatures who live in the earth beneath your feet

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?  

Northern Sydneysiders might not like the sound of the latest research into tick hosts in their backyards.

When a final visit to the family farm is rudely interrupted by rodents

If you listen closely you might just hear something you've never heard before.

Lurking in the tall trees of our busy cities and suburbs is a powerful hunter.

The underwater sounds in this creek near Brisbane are like an eclectic jam session.

The survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on an ant.

Let's study moths so we can celebrate them properly

If invertebrates make up over 90% of animals on earth, why do they receive so little conservation funding?

During summer on top of Australia's highest mountain, fields of brilliant turquoise skyhoppers bloom.

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.

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.

Magpies might be boosting their bird brains with friends.

When our favourite black and white birds bring the drama!

Just under the surface of the ocean, a cacophony of sound awaits.

At the Bronx zoo in New York, Lynne Malcolm explores its potential as an agent for conservation and public education about the natural world.

With often complex and cruel histories, can we trust zoos to have animals' best interests at heart?

You might have heard an elephant trumpet but have you heard one fart?

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.

There is something about the Wedge-tailed Eagle which grips this man in the guts.

The Albert's lyrebird has a tiny range, but an epic song repertoire.

Female lyrebirds should be rock stars in their own right.

Triple Blue is a superb lyrebird stud muffin.

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again.

Lyrebird deception just got deeper.

Endangered animal sounds and scientists imitating them. 

Venomous trees and angry snakes - just what we need.

Urban greening takes a tiny turn

In South West WA, there are concerns that prescribed burning is negatively impacting an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot.

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. 

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.

A simple flowerpot making a difference to biodiversity in Sydney's harbour.

If you get bitten by a snake in the middle of the bush don't do what this bloke did

Is it ok to squabble over watermelon?

Banteng are an introduced species in Arnhem Land, but in their home range, they are in danger of complete extinction. So, what to do?

The underwater sounds in this creek near Brisbane are like an eclectic jam session.

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.

Are you about to get murdered, or is it just a gang gang saying hello?

What sounds like a hiccup, but is actually a lusty mating call for a lothario without a lover?

Ancient creatures hide on Tasmania's secret reefs.

On a coral reef, everyone works to keep the city from crumbling.

To accompany ABC TV's Wild Australia: After the Fires, here is a minute of nature sound.

But do they really say 'bonk' or is it 'tonk',’ and does a foreign accent make a frog sexy?

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.

Lynne Malcolm lost half a lung, and it was *probably* as a result of a radio story about birds.

Unwittingly shipped almost 3000km across the continent in a hand of bananas, this small frog is going to need help getting home.

Ever heard a sound echoing through the forest and thought, "well crikey, that's gotta be a dinosaur"?

Dragon by name, seaweed by nature

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?

More quollity drama for your ears.

His name is George and he's a bit of a legend.

A pioneering experiment to rid New Zealand of its pest problem.

The Philippines is a reef fish biodiversity hotspot, but it's a delicate balance between livelihoods and sustainability in some fishing communities.

How do you protect Vietnam's pristine forests from the fast-expanding road and dam projects?

Take a look back at some Australian conservation efforts, from tiny reserves to landscape-scale restoration.

Ever wondered how they get those gorgeous shots of nocturnal animals on the TV?

When the icebreaker runs aground and leaves you stranded in Antarctica, what's a scientist to do?

After years of discussions with scientists, a composer writes a symphony for the sea. He calls it ex Oceano.

Where endangered wildlife watches you showering with a bucket in the Antarctic wind.

Where elephant seals smell like feathers and petrels sound like dragons.

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.

Just when you thought it might be safe to get back out into nature, it gets you where you least expect it: your nipples.  

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

If you get bitten by a snake in the middle of the bush don't do what this bloke did

No music, no voices, just the sound of a stream and frogs calling on a still, cool night in regional Victoria.

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.

No music, no voices, just the sing of the forest coming to life early one morning near Canberra.

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.  

Right now, more than ever, it’s important to stay in touch with nature.

Is it ok to squabble over watermelon?

Right now, finding joy in nature is just the ticket.

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.

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.  

Banteng are an introduced species in Arnhem Land, but in their home range, they are in danger of complete extinction. So, what to do?

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.'

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.

It’s a bat eat mouse, lizard eat possum, wallaby eat bird world out there. Animals are always eating weird stuff.

These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm.

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.

Robert Adlard says that parasites are intimate aliens, and that our dislike for them stems from their ability to surprise us with their closeness.

Despite all the noise of planes coming and going, the echidnas at Hobart airport are digging in to hibernate.

Understanding the power of seagrass in a research laboratory 18m under the sea.

With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.

Sea urchins are making a meal of south-eastern Australia’s rocky reefs and kelp forests. Can they be stopped?

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.

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.  

Vanessa thought 'it's ok, the people are safe... It's ok, the house is safe...' But nothing prepared her for returning home.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are opening wheelie bins and turning trash into treasure. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.

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.

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.

This is Mark: a life-size, custom-made inflatable whale. And he needs to be saved. 

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?

What happens to the animals of the Kimberley when the big wet just doesn't arrive?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Off Track family is growing and we want you to know about it. Meet our little sister podcast - Noisy by Nature.

The masked lapwing terrifies humans with daring aerial attacks, which are actually displays of its pure parental love.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Albatross expert Dr Jaimie Cleeland listens to the gurgles and bellows of albatross as they nest on a tiny Atlantic island called Gough.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are opening wheelie bins and turning trash into treasure.

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.

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.

No one ever forgets the time that they first heard a tiger.

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]

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.

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. 

Want to live another five minutes in the Off Track lyrebird world? Well, listen to this.

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. Female lyrebirds could be rock stars in their own right.

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.'

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.'

An earworm extra for the series 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.' Listen to the sound of dawn in peak mating season for superb lyrebirds

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.

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.'

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

Are these the happiest hounds in Australia? We think so, and that's why we're playing this one from the Off Track archive.

Do you need a brain to be able to sense the world around you, or to remember or learn?

It's a very noisy world out in Australian nature, and sometimes all you need to do is stop and listen (to this).

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.

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.

All around us and within, water is an intimate, essential part of our lives. What would we do if water lost her way?

Listen to the audio book version of the Australian Children's book 'When Water Lost Her Way' by Meg Humphrys.

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.

A powerful avian predator is making do in Melbourne's suburbs. For now.

Professor Peter Waterhouse and the wonder plant Nicotiana benthamiana.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’s a momentous night for this teenage eastern quoll – she’s leaving home.

A crowd sourced audio zine that celebrates the world outside walls from the perspective of LGBQTIA+ people from all over the world.

Not quite tame, not quite wild.

It turns out, some forests love fire.

A team races against time and the elements to save 95-million-year-old dinosaur footprints in the Aussie outback.

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.

Obsessives, dumpy birds and disapproving academics: the saga of the night parrot.

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.

Spiders can be beautiful, timid, fluffy and even give up their lives for the sake of their children. [repeat]

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]

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]

With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.[Repeat]

These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm. [Repeat]

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.

With a taste for the nectar of Australian flowers, the Western Pygmy Possum is the sweetest little thing you'll hear about today.

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]

Sounds from around Australia featuring the Peron’s Tree Frog, Cat Birds, Mystery birds and boobooks. 

Off Track explores the Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) colony on Bowen Island in NSW. [Repeat]

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]

His business card says 'desert walker' and he's not afraid of death.

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.

The survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on a ant.

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.

After growing up in captivity, three young birds take their first free flight.

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.

It’s a bat eat mouse, lizard eat possum, wallaby eat bird world out there. Animals are always eating weird stuff.

The sounds of wild Australia recorded by the audience and identified by a panel of experts.

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.

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

Glenda Elliott has spent her life caring for injured, sick and orphaned Australian wildlife and then once rehabilitated, releasing them back into the wild.

Award winning radio Producer Mike Ladd takes a drive into the Mallee to discover its magic.

These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm.

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.

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!

Next to nothing was known about sperm whales in the Southern Ocean. That is, until the Australian Antarctic Division started listening to their clicks.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

PODCAST BONUS. Two women, armed with a pencil and a violin, take on the history 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.

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]

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

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.

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.

For International Dawn Chorus Day, here's the sounds of an Australian autumn morning, crisp and bright.

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.

Despite all the noise of planes coming and going, the echidnas at Hobart airport are digging in to hibernate.

If a koala bellows in a forest and a scientist isn’t there to record it, does the koala exist at all?

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.

The tiniest of Australia's penguins were once victorious over development at Phillip Island in Victoria.

With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.

The worlds biggest freshwater cray click clacks across rocks, a devil spends a night in the clink and scientists scramble to save the Tarkine.

What does your world sound like? We asked, and you sent us earworms from planet earth. Close your eyes and take a trip.

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.

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.

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.

Spiders can be beautiful, timid, fluffy and even give up their lives for the sake of their children.

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.

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.

The greater glider is listed as vulnerable in Australia and it moves through the tree tops eating eucalyptus leaves without a sound.

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.

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.

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}

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}

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}

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}

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}

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.

Plucked direct from the Off Track archives so that you can better understand 2017's bird of the year: the magpie.

The sweet singing butcherbird has inspired symphonies, such is the clarity of its tone.

What does your world sound like? We asked, and you sent us earworms from planet earth. Close your eyes and take a trip.

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.

It was thought that cane toads couldn't survive, and certainly couldn't breed as far south as Sydney. That thought was spectacularly wrong.

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.

Preserving species that are both rare and elusive has led an Australian whale specialist to the Himalayas to search for big cat poo.