Off Track - Abc Rn

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.'