Off Track - podcast cover

Off Track

ABC listen•www.abc.net.au
Science
Natural Sciences
Society & Culture
Places & Travel
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

Cockies wheelie love bin day

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are opening wheelie bins and turning trash into treasure. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.

Dec 27, 2019•25 min

Barbara York Main — Australia's spider woman

She studied the world's oldest spider and championed their home at a time when both the environment and women were given no fighting chance — Dr Barbara Anne York Main OAM. For RN Summer we're bringing you Off Track highlights from 2019.

Dec 20, 2019•25 min

Earworms from planet earth XI

Birds sing at a mining camp, cicadas grind the gears of locals and mysterious sounds are identified. Listen to the sounds of Australia as recorded by the Off Track audience.

Dec 13, 2019•25 min

This is Mark

This is Mark: a life-size, custom-made inflatable whale. And he needs to be saved.

Dec 06, 2019•25 min

Virtual reality, second nature

Off Track presents the new ABC podcast 'GOOD GAME: how games play us' attempting to answer a BIG question: There's nothing like taking a walk out and about in nature — or is there?

Nov 29, 2019•25 min

Trapped in the dry

What happens to the animals of the Kimberley when the big wet just doesn't arrive?

Nov 22, 2019•25 min

Karajarri calling

Over the course of the week, three pairs of shoes bite the dust, soles detached from uppers in the 45 degree heat, one microphone's glue melts and there are about a billion bush flies drinking from sweaty backs. But despite the heat, Karajarri country has a draw towards it stronger than the pull of the sun.

Nov 15, 2019•25 min

Amphibian hullabaloo and other frog noises

Frogs don't just croak, they moan and groan, sing, whine, whizz and sound like dripping taps and this is an episode of pure adoration for the calls of Australia's frogs.

Nov 08, 2019•25 min

Big cats in the bush [RE-ISSUE]

Rumours of pumas and leopards roaming the Australian bush have been around for more than a century. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence but to date no definitive proof. Join in the search for a mythical cat in this re-issue of a classic Off Track.

Nov 01, 2019•25 min

Tiny crayfish out of water

It's only as big as a tea bag, plays dead if you pick it up, and landowners don't even know they have an endangered animal in their backyard.

Oct 25, 2019•25 min

The unlikely tale of the Murchison meteorite

It startled the cows, intrigued the locals and excited scientists around the world. Fifty years on, the Murchison meteorite still defines a town and yields new discoveries every year.

Oct 18, 2019•25 min

Off Track family news

The Off Track family is growing and we want you to know about it. Meet our little sister podcast - Noisy by Nature .

Oct 14, 2019•3 min

Plovers unmasked

The masked lapwing terrifies humans with daring aerial attacks, which are actually displays of its pure parental love.

Oct 11, 2019•25 min

Magpie behaviour is not black and white

[RE-ISSUE] The phrase 'mate for life' might seem romantic, but the reality of such a relationship for the long-lived Australian Magpie involves turf wars, sex on the side and the possibility of a step-parent bringing up your kids if you get too aggro.

Oct 04, 2019•25 min

Saving the Ocean, part 4 [re-issue]

What can science do to preserve marine life and help it develop in harmony with our own human development? This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.

Sep 27, 2019•38 min

Saving the Ocean part 3 [re-issue]

Lindsay Smith has been tagging seabirds in the deep waters off Wollongong for over thirty years. Commercial fishing practice can have a devastating impact on seabird populations. But science is figuring out how to best mitigate the damage. This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.

Sep 20, 2019•25 min

Saving the Ocean, part 2 [re-issue]

Shark fishing holds a special place in Kiribati culture. But a growth in the market for shark fins in Asia changed the traditional fishing practice. This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.

Sep 13, 2019•26 min

Saving the Ocean, part 1 [re-issue]

Few places on earth are as exposed to the ocean as Kiribati; a chain of 32 islands spread across 3.5 million square km in the East Pacific. This program is a re-issue from the Off Track archives while Ann takes a short break.

Sep 06, 2019•26 min

Where giants nest - nature soundscape

Sink into the sounds of Gough Island, where the Albatross gurgle, the petrels moan and the skuas chatter. No human voices, all Off Track soundscape.

Aug 31, 2019•8 min

Where giants nest

Albatross expert Dr Jaimie Cleeland listens to the gurgles and bellows of albatross as they nest on a tiny Atlantic island called Gough.

Aug 30, 2019•25 min

The exceptional Nuyts Archipelago

St Peter Island in South Australia's Nuyts Archipelago is home to sea eagles, short-tailed shearwaters, stick-nest rats and brush-tailed bettongs – and also some particularly venomous black tiger snakes.

Aug 16, 2019•25 min

Earworms From Planet Earth X

A magpie calls to the rising sun, a fat green frog sings in a water tank and an endangered lemur moans about its family. Ann Jones takes you and a bunch of experts on an ear-tour.

Aug 09, 2019•25 min

Listen for Tigers

No one ever forgets the time that they first heard a tiger.

Aug 02, 2019•25 min

Golf is freedom and frustration [re-issue]

In any given day on the golf course, there are people in ecstasy, and people in agony. Sometimes it's the same person. [From the Off Track archive]

Jul 26, 2019•25 min

Earworms from Planet Earth IX

Stressed? Got the sniffles? Need a nap? Got a fussy baby? Just. Over. It? You won’t realise how much you needed to hear nature until you’ve heard this set of wild sounds sent in by Off Track listeners from around the globe.

Jul 19, 2019•25 min

The curse of the plastic nurdle

Fiona Pepper follows the path of a tiny grain of plastic - a nurdle - as it travels on ocean currents from South Africa to land on a 'pristine' beach in West Australia.

Jul 12, 2019•25 min

Lyrebirds - lyrebird equality now!

You might think you know the story of the lyrebird. Think again. Female lyrebirds could be rock stars in their own right.

Jul 05, 2019•25 min