Does Australia have a BEST wildflower? Hang on... what even is a flower? Dr Ann Jones and Belinda Smith count down the top 10 best wildflowers as voted by YOU in a special live show, The Hour of Flower.  

FEATURING: 

• Tim Entwisle – Author, The Sceptical Botanist. Former CEO of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne
• Chantelle Doyle - Research Associate, Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences UNSW
• Kingsley Dixon - Professor, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia
• Mira Jordan - PhD candidate, Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Centre for Ecosystem Science and Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, UNSW
• Costa Georgiadis - Presenter, Gardening Australia

PRODUCTION: 

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Belinda Smith, Presenter / Producer
• Petria Ladgrove, Executive Producer
• Sarah Prosser, Producer
• Studio Engineer, Carey Dell 

This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung people. 

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

Quackery and Catfishing. Fake news doesn’t only happen on the human internet. Welcome to nature’s dark web.

We didn’t TRY to make a spooky and disturbing episode... we just wanted to talk about plants with DUCK in the title. But oh boy, these flowers are savage!  One of them has become internet famous for a detox that could literally kill you. Another catfishes its pollinators by pretending to be (and even feeling like) the ‘private’ parts of a female fly!  Nature isn’t safe from this algorithm.

Featuring:

• Tim Entwisle – Author, The Sceptical Botanist. Former CEO of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne
• Katherine Isoardi - Associate Professor, University of Queensland. Senior Staff Specialist Emergency Physician and Clinical Toxicologist
• Julie Radford - Threatened Species expert
• Gareth Prosser – Professional Voice Over Artist whose wife roped him in 

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Sarah Prosser, Producer
• Mastering Engineer, Harvey O’Sullivan 

This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung people. 

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

WTF NATURE. I give up.

||A Message from Dr Ann - the What the Duck?! host and general dork.||

I don't really give up. The recording I took for the latest season of Nature Sounds by Ann Jones was a ripper (in terms of wombat farts).

This bit  got edited out of the longer soundscape over there, because, it was determined, that a wombat walking in and scratching its butt ON THE MICROPHONES in the middle of a meditation soundscape would harsh the high of the listener.

So. What the Duck?! subscribers.

Enjoy. A wombat scratching its butt on my very VERY expensive recorder.

RECORDING: Ann Jones

MASTERING ENGINEER: Isabella Tropiano

In fact, most dinosaurs never got the chance to stop and smell a flower... and it was all because of bad timing. Sad face.

The meteor that killed all the dinosaurs (rude) actually kicked off flower supremacy on planet earth. 

Flowering plants are only about 135 million years old, yet they’re the most bio-diverse plants on the planet. Without them, no birds, no bees. Again, sad face. 

So where did flowers come from? And how did they end up being top bud? 

 FEATURING:

•  Mario Vallejo-Marin - Professor in Evolutionary Ecology, Uppsala University, Sweden.
• Professor Michelle Waycott - Chief Botanist at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens State Herbarium / Professor in Systematic Biology, Adelaide University.
• Morris Lake - Author, Australian Rainforest Woods.
• Gareth Prosser - Professional Voice Over Artist whose wife roped him in. 

PRODUCTION:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Sarah Prosser, Producer
• Mastering Engineer: Tegan Nicholls

This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawurrung people. 

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

It was a perfect night. But this duck had other ideas.

The scene: A perfect, wonderful, windless night at a wetland.

You couldn't ask for better conditions. The sun sets and the insects hum and eventually you hear a boobook and it's lovely… except one very loud duck keeps on yelling periodically the whole way through.

It's like the thing KNEW I was recording. It goes on for hours.

Anyway, I've got a passion project at the ABC.

A podcast called Nature Sounds by Ann Jones.

It's all these looooong form sounds scapes. The idea is that you can use them to relax, or go to sleep, or drown out your colleagues or whatever.

You can find it on the ABC listen app or any other podcast app. I promise this screaming duck didn't make the cut. 

RECORDING: Ann Jones

MASTERING ENGINEER: Isabella Tropiano

This flower takes needy to a whole new level! 

It was almost extinct. That was, until 2015, when a woman called Julie took it upon herself to make sure we didn’t lose the species altogether, and as it happened (baby) Ann Jones went along with a microphone. 

Now, it’s 10 years on, and Ann is older, greyer and more closely resembles a bearded orchid. But, given she hasn’t been made redundant yet, we can revisit the forest to ask – was all that effort worth it? Did the orchids survive? 

Featuring:

• Julie Radford, Threatened species ecologist in Central Victoria

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Sarah Prosser, Producer
• Mastering Engineer: Tegan Nicholls

This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung people. 

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

You probably have a daddy-long-legs in your house right now.

But when is having a weird housemate in the corner ACTUALLY a good thing? Dr Ann Jones investigates.

Featuring:

• Dr Samantha Nixon, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
• Dr Lizzy Lowe, Invertebrates Australia.
• Thanks also to Dr Bernhard Huber, Arachnid Curator at Museum Koenig for helping us get the facts right.

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Hamish Camilleri.

This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in 2023 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

Flies have rhythm and choreography, could their moves make the next TikTok dance fad?

Dune flies groove to their own beat in dance-circles and hoverflies use rhythmic movements in mating.

Researchers found the dancing dune fly’s repertoire has specific moves for impressing a female and others for rival dance battles.  Pretty fly for a dune fly.

In Costa Rica the male red hoverfly rhythmically squeezes and strokes his mate during copulation.

They also have a pattern of coupling and uncoupling as many as 17 times during the act!

Featuring:

• Dr Keith Bayless, research scientist, National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO
• Professor William Eberhard, emeritus scientist, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; emeritus professor, Universidad de Costa Rica

Further reading:

• Genital behaviour in Menidon falcatus (Diptera, Syrphidae) and the possible significance of repeated, rhythmic movements
• Courtship choreography is stabilized among genetically isolated populations

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Tegan Nicholls, Sound Engineer

This episode of What the Duck?!  was recorded on Ngunnawal Country and produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung and Taungurung people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

Live from the World Science Festival Brisbane What the Duck?! is playing a game and you get to decide: duck, marry, avoid, or friendzone.

You'll hear about the natural world's romance, reproduction, and relationships

Once you've listened you can email [email protected] to vote for how you would categorise snakes, birds, insects and mammals.

Featuring:

• Dr Chstina Zdanek, Australian Reptile Academy
• Dr Cesar Puechmarin, wildlife veterinarian and podcaster
• Dr Bryan Lessard, entomologist
• Jacinta Bowler, ABC Science journalist

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Hamish Camilleri, Sound Engineer
• Recorded by Steve Fieldhouse and Daniel Shapland
• With thanks to the World Science Festival Brisbane 

This episode of What the Duck?! was recorded on the land of the Turrbal and Jagera people and produced on the lands of the Kulin Nation.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

It seems absolutely bonkers that an animal can muster ELECTRICITY, especially enough to send out a zap like a taser.

But that's exactly what electric eels can do, and the world record holder more than doubles the voltage of the Australian electricity supply.

More than that, electric eels inspired the design of Volta's first batteries, but (hold onto your socks so they don't get blown off) they're not the only ones who've got electricity pumping through their bodies.

Featuring:

• Professor Will Crampton, University of Central Florida.
• Professor Ken Catania, Vanderbilt University.
• Professor Kate Trinajstic, Curtin University.

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.
• Additional mastering: Emrys Cronin

This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in 2024 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

For around 700 years scientists observed same-sex pairings in as many as 1500 different species, but didn't record or publish their findings due to public perceptions.

Now research is catching up and many papers on queer behaviour in nature have been published in the past two decades.

This discussion was recorded live at Mardi Gras 2026 and presented by the Royal Zoological Society of NSW for Wildlife at the Watering Hole.

Featuring :

• Daphne Willemsen, behavioural ecologist, PhD candidate at the University of NSW
• Lucien Alperstein, microbial ecologist, PhD candidate at the University of NSW
• Dr Caitlin Creak, behavioural ecologist and arachnologist, University of NSW
• Cody Williams, marine biologist, PhD candidate at the University of NSW
• With research by Neve Kelly, geneticist, PhD candidate at the University of NSW

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Hamish Camilleri, Sound Engineer
• Recording by Harvey O'Sullivan

This episode of What the Duck?! was recorded and produced on the lands of the Eora and Kulin Nations.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.