Off Track
254 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 41 ratingsOff 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
Lyrebirds - Lyre, lyre, dancefloors on fire
June 28, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBYou might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. And then listen to this ear-bending series called 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.'
Earworm Extra - a morning in a valley
June 25, 2019 17:30 - 11 minutes - 15.2 MBAn earworm extra for the series 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.' Listen to the sound of dawn in peak mating season for superb lyrebirds
Earworm Extra - lyrebird flute song
June 23, 2019 17:30 - 5 minutes - 7.22 MBThe story goes that a local lyrebird copied a young boy who played the flute, but regardless of its provenance, Carol Probets' recording of this lyrebird flute song is astounding.
Lyrebirds - Repeat after me
June 21, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBYou might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. And then listen to this ear-bending series called 'Sex, lyres and audiotape.'
PRESENTING: How Deadly with Ann Jones
June 17, 2019 16:30 - 1 minute - 1.3 MBThere's some new nature-nerdery going on over on the ABC Science YouTube Channel and it features Off Track's Ann Jones. http://bit.ly/howdeadly
Go, Dog, Go! [re-issue]
June 14, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MBAre these the happiest hounds in Australia? We think so, and that's why we're playing this one from the Off Track archive.
Off Track presents - Branch Out
June 08, 2019 17:30 - 22 minutes - 30.7 MBDo you need a brain to be able to sense the world around you, or to remember or learn?
Talking frogs, thinking plants
June 07, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.8 MBIt's a very noisy world out in Australian nature, and sometimes all you need to do is stop and listen (to this).
Moaning birds, vegetarian rodents and the moon man
May 31, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.5 MBMuttonbird Island in NSW is a place of majesty. It's just that the majesty crash lands in the moonlight and sounds like a squeezy toy.
Barbara York Main - Australia's spider woman
May 24, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBThe reserve at North Bungulla is quiet all day until the winds of the evening make the trees creak in the falling light. The winds bring the news that Barbara York Main has died.
Water finds a way
May 17, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBAll around us and within, water is an intimate, essential part of our lives. What would we do if water lost her way?
When Water Lost Her Way
May 14, 2019 16:05 - 8 minutes - 11.1 MBListen to the audio book version of the Australian Children's book 'When Water Lost Her Way' by Meg Humphrys.
A sense of time
May 10, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBDoes a second feel the same for a fly, a bird, or a swordfish, as it does for me? From the BBC World Service, immerse yourself in the world of animal senses.
Owl with attitude
May 03, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBA powerful avian predator is making do in Melbourne's suburbs. For now.
Professor Waterhouse's wonderful plant [re-issue]
April 26, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBProfessor Peter Waterhouse and the wonder plant Nicotiana benthamiana.
Earworms from Planet Earth VIII
April 19, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.4 MBAngry sheep or randy frog? Motorbike or koala rev? Indigestion or monkey? Get the headphones out for another set of wild sounds sent in by Off Track listeners from around the globe.
Gone fish - pygmy perch pushed too far
April 12, 2019 19:30 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBThe tiny Yarra pygmy perch, with golden sheen and teardrop eye, has been pushed to extinction in the Murray Darling Basin. Now, all hopes for its return are focussed on a couple of farm dams.
Ninety one years in the desert
March 29, 2019 18:30 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBJack Absalom has died at the age of 91. From parrot poacher to painter, Absalom was a renaissance bushie with a story or two to tell.
Teenage quolls are V-I-SQUEE
March 22, 2019 18:30 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBIt’s a momentous night for this teenage eastern quoll – she’s leaving home.
Off Track presents Queer Out Here
March 15, 2019 18:30 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBA crowd sourced audio zine that celebrates the world outside walls from the perspective of LGBQTIA+ people from all over the world.
Off Track presents HumaNature
March 08, 2019 18:30 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBNot quite tame, not quite wild.
Off Track presents Outside/In
March 01, 2019 18:30 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBIt turns out, some forests love fire.
The Chase 3 — Tracks across time
February 22, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36.6 MBA team races against time and the elements to save 95-million-year-old dinosaur footprints in the Aussie outback.
The Chase — Tracks across time
February 22, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36.6 MBA team races against time and the elements to save 95-million-year-old dinosaur footprints in the Aussie outback.
The Chase 3 — Trouble in paradise
February 15, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36.3 MBRats and mosquitoes threaten a fragile ecosystem on an isolated Tahitian atoll — but now scientists are trialling new techniques to rid the islands of destructive pests.
The Chase — Trouble in paradise
February 15, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36.3 MBRats and mosquitoes threaten a fragile ecosystem on an isolated Tahitian atoll — but now scientists are trialling new techniques to rid the islands of destructive pests.
The Chase — Back from the dead
February 08, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36 MBObsessives, dumpy birds and disapproving academics: the saga of the night parrot.
The Chase 2 — Back from the dead
February 08, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36 MBObsessives, dumpy birds and disapproving academics: the saga of the night parrot.
The Chase — Eye in the sky
February 01, 2019 18:30 - 26 minutes - 36.4 MBHow do you catch the shadow of a moon? You need a telescope with wings. Join the flight of a lifetime on SOFIA, the airborne observatory.
Australian Christmas a hodgepodge of traditions
December 15, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBIn the lead up to Christmas, many Australians decorate their outdoor space AND bring a little bit of nature indoors. But many have not really considered why.
Tiny floof with a sweet tooth
December 08, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBWith a taste for the nectar of Australian flowers, the Western Pygmy Possum is the sweetest little thing you'll hear about today.
Pipis and prejudice
December 01, 2018 02:05 - 28 minutes - 39.3 MBTensions in the small town grow, and 'piss off pipi hunters' is written across a public toilet wall. And all the while, under the sand at the beach, a small clam opens up its gills and filters its phytoplankton dinner off the incoming tide. [Repeat]
Earworms from Planet Earth VII
November 24, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBSounds from around Australia featuring the Peron’s Tree Frog, Cat Birds, Mystery birds and boobooks.
Penguins Little by name, but not by nature
November 17, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBOff Track explores the Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) colony on Bowen Island in NSW. [Repeat]
He's been through the desert
November 03, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.1 MBHis business card says 'desert walker' and he's not afraid of death.
The bitter taste of the monarch butterfly
October 27, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBNative to North America, it was an extraordinary string of luck including a gold rush, cyclones, the rise of ornamental gardening that led to the naturalisation of the monarch butterfly in Australia.
The butterfly and its goldilocks ant
October 20, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBThe survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on a ant.
Earworms from Planet Earth VI
October 13, 2018 02:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBCan you hear the buzz of a bee? The trill of a whistler? Spring has arrived in Australia, and this is what it sounds like.
Born to be wild
October 08, 2018 15:00 - 12 minutes - 17.1 MBAfter growing up in captivity, three young birds take their first free flight.
The northern hopping-mouse builds its own house
October 06, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBIf Kevin McLeod did a series called Furry Mammal Grand Designs, the northern hopping mouse would have to be the star of the first episode.
Echidna indigestion and other eating tails
September 29, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBIt’s a bat eat mouse, lizard eat possum, wallaby eat bird world out there. Animals are always eating weird stuff.
Earworms from planet earth V
September 22, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBThe sounds of wild Australia recorded by the audience and identified by a panel of experts.
Dining with Killer Whales
September 15, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBThe water turns red and smells of fish. It's the blood of the prey of a pod of Orcas. This episode of Off Track has been selected from the archives for your listening pleasure.
The women who were determined to walk
September 08, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBIn the 1920s, wearing ankle length skirts and carrying heavy packs, the Melbourne Women's Walking Club set out to explore dense areas of Victoria's bushland
Yackandandah's angel of the bush
September 01, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBGlenda Elliott has spent her life caring for injured, sick and orphaned Australian wildlife and then once rehabilitated, releasing them back into the wild.
Into the Mallee
August 25, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBAward winning radio Producer Mike Ladd takes a drive into the Mallee to discover its magic.
Magical and misunderstood sea snakes
August 18, 2018 03:05 - 29 minutes - 40.2 MBThese curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm.
Magical and misunderstood sea snakes
August 18, 2018 03:05 - 29 minutes - 40.2 MBThese curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm.
The spawning of reef conservation
August 11, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBOne small public notice stating the intention to mine Ellison Reef was the seed from which the 'Save the Barrier Reef' campaign was spawned. To celebrate the Reef Diver project, we've brought this episode up form the depths of the Off Track archives.
Hi-vis Nudibranch named
August 04, 2018 03:05 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBIt is covered in flamboyantly coloured sausages, it’s a hermaphrodite, breathes through its skin, goes through metamorphoses AND this new species has just been officially named!