12 nature facts that will blow your mind

The best facts and stories from guests on the DOC Sounds of Science podcast.

By Jayne Ramage for the Department of Conservation.

The DOC Sounds of Science podcast recently hit the 100,000 downloads milestone. To celebrate, we’re recapping the facts we’ve learned on this show that made us go, ooh, ahh, or sometimes holy crap.

These are edited selections, but you can listen to every episode in full wherever you get your podcasts. Just search DOC Sounds of Science.

Epaulette sharks can walk on land

Marine expert Clinton Duffy shares:

“There’s several species of sharks that live in northern Australia and Indonesia that walk. They’re capable of climbing out of a rock pool and walking on all- using their fins as legs, so their pectoral fins and their pelvic fins are modified so they can move them backwards and forwards like legs. 

“They can climb up out of a rock pool and crawl across the reef to the next rock pool. They’re called epaulet sharks, beautiful little things. It’s really crazy seeing them walk around. They’re quite a cryptic animals, they live in narrow cracks between coral, and you know they’ve got long, slender bodies and these fins adapted for walking and crawling through these narrow spaces where they wouldn’t necessarily be able to swim.

“At low tide, they can get trapped in pools so that’s, so it makes sense for them to be able to get out of water. They essentially get out of the pool, hold their breath, hold a mouthful of water and then crawl across to the next pool.”

Listen to the full episode to hear Clinton’s story about a stingray trying to have a jacuzzi on top of his head while he was scuba diving at the Poor Knights.

Pekapeka time their pregnancies so they can all give birth together

Ecologist Jess Scrimgeour shares:

“Pekapeka are incredibly promiscuous. But the female after she’s mated, if she decides that actually now is not the time that I would like to be pregnant, she just kind of … stores it all in there. They mate usually, you know, late summer, early autumn, and then nothing happens. Just, you know, all of them hang out, wait until it’s springtime.

“And then collectively they decide, all right, let’s get pregnant. And then they go for it. And so what that means is that a lot of the bats in the population will all have their pups within a week of each other. And they have these maternity roosts that you could have like thousands of pups sitting in this tree with the mums that kick the males out.

“They say raising a child takes a village. Well, in this case, it takes a roost.”

Click here to listen to Jess talk about hunting for rare worms that squirt smelly liquid at you when you startle them.

Aotearoa New Zealand has the largest stinging nettle in the world

Die-hard conservationist Jack Mace shares:

“The Ongaonga. And when I say largest, this is the size of a tree, like the size of an apple tree. Probably every hunter in New Zealand will know the species from traveling around in the river valleys. They’re massive.

“They have these big jagged needles–you think about a nettle, and you know they’re covered in these little bristly hairs–but these ones you can see very clearly. They stab you just like a hypodermic needle. You know you’ve found this plant because you feel a sudden jabbing pain in your arm. Like someone stabbed you.”

“And for two or three days you’ll be numb and itchy. They have killed people in the past. People have had allergic reactions and heart attacks from being really severely stung.

But then what’s cool about them is these are also where our native admiral butterflies live and where they breed and lay their eggs and what they feed on. So it’s this fierce species, urtica ferox, the ferocious nettle.

“But then inside it, some of their most fragile and beautiful species.”

Listen to the full episode to hear Jack share the hilarious and hair-raising tale of how he survived being stung by one.

We have carnivorous snails

This is Jess again, hers is an unskippable episode.

“Powelliphanta are amazing. They’re carnivorous, giant land snails with the ability to suck up worms like spaghetti. And you think they’re slow? There’s this clip of a powelliphanta sitting there really quietly, and then suddenly it lashes out and grabs this worm and it just catches you completely by surprise.”

This is the video Jess mentioned. We haven’t embedded it because it’s kind of gross. Enter at your own risk.

Scree skinks hide in puddles when they’re scared

Treaty ranger Aroha Gilling shares:

“I always thought scree skinks looked like little dragons, but I became even more attached to them when I learnt that sometimes when they’re threatened, they dive into a puddle. There’s something so transporting and entertaining about these little brown dragons plunging into a puddle.”

Listen to Aroha talk about her mahi educating DOC staffers through a programme called Pukenga Atāwhai, which is around upskilling cultural competency and understanding.

Fur seals’ and sea lions’ eggs stay in stasis

Marine biologist Laura Boren shares:

“With fur seals and sea lions as well, they’ve got a really interesting lactation and gestation period. When a female comes ashore and gives birth, she has her pup, and about a week later she actually re-mates with the male holding the territory. Then she’ll start to alternate between going to sea to feed and coming back onshore to nurse her pup.

“The interesting thing is that the egg doesn’t implant straight away. It stays in stasis and then about three months later it will actually implant and her new fetus will start developing. So their gestation period is similar to humans at nine months, even though she’s re-mated a week after, or a week to ten days after giving birth to the last pup.

“What makes it really amazing is the fact that as she’s going through this and because the lactation length is approximately ten months that means that for most of that year she’s eating for three. She’s having to eat to keep herself fit enough. And also to feed her pup on shore and her growing fetus. They’re pretty impressive females.”

Listen to Laura share the heartbreaking story of saving seabirds after the Rena oil spill.

Kiwi have bone marrow

Kiwi ranger Chris (Doddy) Dodd shares:

“Kiwi have bone marrow like you and me, but unlike any other bird, which] is a pretty good fact. They’ve been wandering around the ground for so long, they’ve now got bone marrow.

Listen to Chris talk about finding kiwi in unexpected places.

Hihi mate in the missionary position

They’re the only bird known to do this. Thanks Doddy for the bonus fact.

Sponges are animals

Kiwi ranger and planner extraordinaire Tim Raemaekers says:

“My favourite nature fact–which has nothing to do with anything I’ve worked on–is if you take a sponge, an underwater sponge, which many people will know, but not everyone realizes are actually animals, not plants or anything. And you force it through a sieve that separates it into all its little individual cells. Those cells will survive and they will kind of aggregate back together and make a new sponge, a new functioning sponge, which I thought was just absolutely nuts.

Listen to Tim talk about saving tokoeka kiwi in remote Fiordland.

Conclusion

The DOC Sounds of Science podcast is a show where you can learn all the things you never knew you never knew about nature and conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand. Every episode is a one-on-one interview with a frontline conservation expert. Topics include climate change, ecosystem health, predator control and more.

It’s real science, real stories and real talk.

The show is hosted by Erica Wilkinson, edited and operated by Lucy Holyoake, and I produce and direct.

If you’re one of the100,000 downloads, thanks very much.

We hope we made you say holy crap.