About the People and Nature Podcast
In this episode we get to know our host, Chris, and learn about the aims of the People and Nature Podcast.
The underwater punk straight out of the realm of science fiction
In this final episode of Look at Me, we dive into the ocean’s to discover a creature that is perhaps the most bizarre animal Rae has ever seen. This dazzling group of sea slugs adapts to its dynamic environment using colourful headdresses, stinging cells and lungs that can exist outside the body. Little is still […]
The scientist who dedicated her life to the mysterious springtail
In the 1950s Dr Penelope Greenslade became one of the few women to study at Cambridge University. She then travelled to Solomon Islands where her love affair with the springtail began, a tiny acrobatic animal that you’ll find almost everywhere in Australia but have probably never recognised Photograph: Andy Murray
The tenacious bird abandoning its young in a giant thermal mound
In some of the most harsh habitat in Australia, you’ll find what looks like giant piles of dirt. But dig deeper and you’ll find the eggs of the malleefowl, buried in leaf litter and sand at the exact depth needed to keep them warm until they hatch and are left to fend for themselves, newborn […]
The weird, wonderful and ultimately exhausting life of the antechinus
This marsupial mouse enters its first mating season with a thirty-fold increase in testosterone. It copulates at a frenetic rate, only to collapse afterwards, dying from its exertions. But now climate change is posing a much more serious threat to the species than sex. Photograph: Gary Cranitch/QUEENSLAND MUSEUM/AFP/Getty Images
The gym junkie of the sky
Imagine flying thousands of kilometres to avoid getting cold. Meet the bird that starts its migration journey at a Siberian bush doof and ends up on the mudflats of eastern Australia. In this episode of Look at Me, we hitch a ride with the eastern curlew and meet the zoologist who learnt to fly a […]
The ants keeping an endangered butterfly alive
Imagine outsourcing childcare to a nest of ants? This may not be the best idea for humans but a certain insect is making it work. Now the Eltham copper butterfly’s amazing use of surrogate ant parents has attracted human fans who are using a song to try to save it from extinction hotograph: Nillumbik Shire […]
Introducing Look at Me season 2
When it comes to Australian native animals, everyone thinks about koalas and kangaroos and drop bears and wombats. But what about the creepy ones? What about the niche ones? The ones that don’t make it on to coins or Bluey? Join your hosts Rae Johnston and Chris McCormack to meet the incredible animals other people […]
Our rare tiny marsupial, hanging on in the mountains
When we think of the effects of climate change it’s easy to focus on rising sea levels – but what about the changes happening much higher up? At Mount Hotham in Victoria a unique creature spends months under the snow: Australia’s only hibernating marsupial, the mountain pygmy possum. This tiny animal was once thought extinct. […]
The 3-metre worm you will never have seen
Eastern Victoria is home to a strange creature that few have seen and even fewer have researched. You may be able to hear its gurgles under the ground but the 1.5- to 3-metre-long Giant Gippsland earthworm never comes to the surface in its natural life. In this episode of Look at me, Chris McCormack finds […]
