Off Track
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
The sperm whale's clicking tale
28 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Next to nothing was known about sperm whales in the Southern Ocean. That is, until the Australian Antarctic Division started listening to their click...
Ghost claws on a unicorn
21 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 select...
Edible ocean conservation with a side of chips
14 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Two PhD-qualified fisheries scientists have jumped ship to open a eco-friendly fish and chip shop, aiming to put their philosophy of sustainable ocea...
Earworms from planet earth IV
07 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Huge personality in a tiny package
30 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Do individual birds have consistent, unique personalities? Zoologist Dr Michelle Hall is trying to find out.This program has been selected from the O...
When Jamie fell in love with the mountains
23 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Farming, dancing and stories of this land
16 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can thousands of years of Australian agricultural practices be translated into dance? This week, Bangarra Dance Theatre takes on Bruce Pascoe's revis...
Earworms from planet earth III
09 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Taste test the new ABC Kids nature and music podcast
05 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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.
Mother and Daughter take flight
03 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
PODCAST BONUS. Two women, armed with a pencil and a violin, take on the history of birdsong.
Two musicians and 30 million years of birdsong
02 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Song began in Australia when the first songbird sang its opening note. 30 million years later two classically trained musicians use their instruments...
A heart full of wing beats
26 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Three geckos and three thousand cows
19 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Earworms from a cockatoo tree
17 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From a tiny sound recorder in a Victorian sheep paddock comes a startling array of sounds - some identifiable and some complete mysteries. Relax and ...
Cockatoo wail, fledge or fail
12 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 spec...
A morning with the birds
05 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For International Dawn Chorus Day, here's the sounds of an Australian autumn morning, crisp and bright.
Night shift in a darkened forest
05 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to birds and possums communicating about land grabs, politics and sex. To celebrate International Dawn Chorus Day, this program about a forest...
Hobart Airport lets sleeping echidnas lie
28 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Despite all the noise of planes coming and going, the echidnas at Hobart airport are digging in to hibernate.
Things that go grunt in the night
21 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If a koala bellows in a forest and a scientist isn’t there to record it, does the koala exist at all?
Intimate aliens
14 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Adlard says that parasites are intimate aliens, and that our dislike for them stems from their ability to surprise us with their closeness. Th...
Penguins impossible to hate
07 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The tiniest of Australia's penguins were once victorious over development at Phillip Island in Victoria.
Flora fatale, the plants with a thirst for blood
31 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With an aggressive mass-murder-then-compost strategy, these tiny plants are the most heinous of herbs.
The devil and the monster cray
24 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The worlds biggest freshwater cray click clacks across rocks, a devil spends a night in the clink and scientists scramble to save the Tarkine.
Earworms from planet earth II
17 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What does your world sound like? We asked, and you sent us earworms from planet earth. Close your eyes and take a trip.
Jack Absalom: a renaissance bush-man
10 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
Go outside and play
03 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Australia's extraordinary rainforest woods
24 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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.
Eight legged wonder of the world
17 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Spiders can be beautiful, timid, fluffy and even give up their lives for the sake of their children.
The life below the Brisbane River
13 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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.
How to evolve your dragon
10 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 drago...
Flying teddy bear found in Brisbane forest
06 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The greater glider is listed as vulnerable in Australia and it moves through the tree tops eating eucalyptus leaves without a sound.
To feed or not to feed
03 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Seeking nature on the Gold Coast: paradise lost or gained?
27 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With more canals than Venice, Queensland’s Gold Coast is a highly altered environment, where remnants of untouched vegetation are few and far betwe...
The strange case of the peppered tree frog
19 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Looking forward, looking back
12 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 rodent and the walking stick
05 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
Live long, little lizard
29 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 Sum...
The improbable tale of the outback fish
22 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 Austra...
Australian Magpie wins and sings
11 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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.
The colourful life of the Australian Magpie [Repeat]
10 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Plucked direct from the Off Track archives so that you can better understand 2017's bird of the year: the magpie.
Nature Snack - a pied butcherbird practices its song.
09 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The sweet singing butcherbird has inspired symphonies, such is the clarity of its tone.
Earworms from planet earth
10 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What does your world sound like? We asked, and you sent us earworms from planet earth. Close your eyes and take a trip.
Tasmania is the roadkill capital of the world
04 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Possum, tawny frogmouth, platypus, turtle, quoll, endangered devil and raven. No animal is immune to death on Tasmanian roads where 32 animals die ev...
Hit the frog and toad
27 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It was thought that cane toads couldn't survive, and certainly couldn't breed as far south as Sydney. That thought was spectacularly wrong.
Gardening for the Dead
20 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The princely snow leopard and its poo
13 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Preserving species that are both rare and elusive has led an Australian whale specialist to the Himalayas to search for big cat poo.