Off Track

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.