Off Track artwork

Off Track

254 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 41 ratings

Off Track, with Ann Jones, is an Australian radio show and podcast which combines the relaxing sounds of nature with awesome stories of wildlife and environmental science, all recorded in the outdoors.

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Episodes

INTRODUCING — What The Duck?!

February 07, 2022 01:00 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MB

Australia is full of weird plants and animals. And Dr Ann Jones is on speaking terms with most of them! Each week Ann explores the most unusual elements of our natural world — the ones that make you go What the Duck?! Like why do quolls have spots? Who farts (and who doesn't)? And how do snakes climb trees? Join Ann alongside experts and ordinary Aussies alike to solve mysteries, smash myths and uncover the bizarre truth about nature down under. ...

The end of the track

January 21, 2022 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.5 MB

The Off Track adventure has come to an end.

Antarctic blue whales and their amazing hums

January 14, 2022 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

The song calls of Antarctic blue whales are so deep that they're almost infrasonic - you feel them as much as you hear them.

Live long, little lizard [RE-ISSUE]

January 07, 2022 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

After 35 years, some of the same sleepy lizards are still alive, still with the same lizard partner.

The bilby, the moon and the Birriliburu Rangers

December 31, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

A bilby dreaming story guides a mother with a sick child to an outback town. Decades later, the child returns to repay the favour and look after the bilby.

The Blythe Star sinks off Tasmania [RE-ISSUE]

December 24, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

While all ten crew members of the Blythe Star got out alive after she capsized, not all would survive the ordeal that followed.

Growls, grunts and currawong songs [Earworms from Planet earth XIX]

December 17, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

This is Australia and the world, as heard by you, the listeners of Off Track.

Nature tells us who we are

December 10, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Nature can be sanctuary, as well as family and guide.

Sounds fishy [RE-ISSUE]

December 03, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Just under the surface of the ocean, a cacophony of sound awaits.

Any louder and that frog will explode [Part 2 RE-ISSUE]

November 26, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

It's all very well recording frog sounds, but what are they trying to say?

Any louder and that frog will explode [Part 1 RE-ISSUE]

November 19, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Murray Littlejohn first recorded the moaning frogs of WA on a device made from a gramophone mechanism in the early 1950s.

Fire, fire everywhere

November 12, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

How can you appreciate the ecological importance of fire, but also fight fires with all your might? 

Circling piranhas and a kangaroo fight [Incident Report 06]

November 05, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Just when you thought it might be safe to get back out into nature, you get zapped back to reality.

From Darth Vader to Mardi Gras

October 29, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Can you defend yourself against a predator more than 200 times your size with a costume change?

Slipping away in the South West

October 22, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

What's been dumped on our beaches and what's been taken away?

Making every bird count

October 15, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

Why are the birds in our neighbourhoods changing?

The lone fisher

October 08, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

In a tiny town called Windy, a woman seeks a life of isolation.

Kukenarup: Possibilities of place

October 01, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

This site of huge ecological significance has a violent history.

The river visitor making a splash

September 24, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MB

Melbourne's Yarra river has an unexpected inhabitant, and its bringing joy to people in the locked-down city and beyond.

Spineless swimmers and crawling crustaceans

September 17, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

In the groundwater beneath the Nullabor, there are billions of tiny crustaceans crawling between the grains of sand.

Crickets and sprickets 

September 10, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

Meet the tiny creatures who live in the earth beneath your feet

Slime in the city

September 03, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Tanya Latty kept a slime mould in her desk drawer at the University. And that got her thinking – are there other slime moulds living their best urban life in Sydney?  

Ticked-off in Sydney

August 27, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Northern Sydneysiders might not like the sound of the latest research into tick hosts in their backyards.

Going home to a mice plague

August 20, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

When a final visit to the family farm is rudely interrupted by rodents

Hunting for hoots

August 13, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

If you listen closely you might just hear something you've never heard before.

Owl with attitude [UPDATE]

August 06, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Lurking in the tall trees of our busy cities and suburbs is a powerful hunter.

And your bug can sing [RE-ISSUE]

July 30, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

The underwater sounds in this creek near Brisbane are like an eclectic jam session.

The butterfly and its goldilocks ant [RE-ISSUE]

July 23, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

The survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on an ant.

In honour of moths

July 16, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Let's study moths so we can celebrate them properly

Conserving small things on a big scale 

July 09, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

If invertebrates make up over 90% of animals on earth, why do they receive so little conservation funding?

Like a field of blue popcorn

July 02, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

During summer on top of Australia's highest mountain, fields of brilliant turquoise skyhoppers bloom.

The BFG of the insect world

June 25, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

What’s built like an armoured vehicle, but is super-dooper maternal, has a career as an architect AND is an environmentalist? You’d never guess that Australia’s burrowing cockroaches are so incredibly cute and complex.

Listening to the Natural World

June 18, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

It's World Listening Day so we are taking a journey through sounds recorded by the audience and one of Australia's most successful nature sound recordists, Andrew Skeoch.

Do your friends make you smarter?

June 11, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Magpies might be boosting their bird brains with friends.

The real magpies of Western Australia

June 04, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

When our favourite black and white birds bring the drama!

Sounds fishy

May 28, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Just under the surface of the ocean, a cacophony of sound awaits.

The point of zoos [RE-ISSUE]

May 21, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

At the Bronx zoo in New York, Lynne Malcolm explores its potential as an agent for conservation and public education about the natural world.

Ethics, extinction and modern day zoos

May 14, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

With often complex and cruel histories, can we trust zoos to have animals' best interests at heart?

A tiger, a tortoise and sounds of the zoo

May 07, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

You might have heard an elephant trumpet but have you heard one fart?

Suction bogs and stealing eagles [Incident Report 05]

April 30, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Just when you thought it was safe to get back out into nature, you get bitten on the eyeball and bog the car next to a crocodile infested river.

A majesty peculiar to the species [RE-ISSUE]

April 23, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

There is something about the Wedge-tailed Eagle which grips this man in the guts.

The other lyrebird and its anthems 

April 16, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

The Albert's lyrebird has a tiny range, but an epic song repertoire.

Lyrebirds: Equality now! [RE-ISSUE]

April 09, 2021 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Female lyrebirds should be rock stars in their own right.

Lyrebirds: Lyre, lyre, dancefloor on fire [RE-ISSUE]

April 02, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Triple Blue is a superb lyrebird stud muffin.

Lyrebirds - Repeat after me [Off Track Classic]

March 26, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.4 MB

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. And then listen to this classic Off Track ear-bending series called 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.'

Lyrebirds: Repeat after me [RE-ISSUE]

March 26, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.4 MB

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again.

Traps, lies, and covered eyes

March 19, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Lyrebird deception just got deeper.

Woof-woof, boo-book [Earworms from Planet Earth XVIII] 

March 12, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MB

Endangered animal sounds and scientists imitating them. 

Will the Aussie bush really kill you?

March 05, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 23 MB

Venomous trees and angry snakes - just what we need.

Drying without dying

February 26, 2021 18:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MB

Urban greening takes a tiny turn

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