Off Track - Abc Rn

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.