Green Man Festival: Why are some animals so ugly?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 985 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why are some animals cute, cuddly, adorable – and some are slimy, creepy and downright weird? This edition of Crowdscience, recorded in front of a live audience, comes to you directly from the world-famous Green Man Festival in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Cymru (Wales). The programme recording was powered entirely by hydrogen.
Our inbox has been bursting at the seams with questions about creepy crawlies, deep sea beasties, cheeky monkeys, endangered species and animals of all shapes and sizes. So, we rounded up a panel of experts to get some answers!
Surrounded by 25,000 people trudging merrily through the mud, pelted with torrential rain, underscored by the warm hum of revelry, the BBC’s Marnie Chesterton speaks with Dr David Jones from the Natural History Museum, an expert on creepy crawlies and someone who spends a considerable amount of time thinking about earthworms, ants, and termites. Also joining us is Jess Savage, a researcher from the Institute of Zoology in London who’s an expert on ocean-dwelling animals and the impact of plastic pollution. Finally, we have Simon Watt, a biologist, comedian and founder of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.
Join us for this very special edition of Crowdscience, in partnership with Green Man Festival, where we bring the experts closer to you than ever before.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Emily Bird Editor: Richard Collings Technical producer: Mike Cox Studio manager: Jackie Margerum Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
(Photo: Marnie and guests. Credit: Jonathan Harris)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service. If you're listening to us at home this week, |
| 0:43.8 | we may sound a little different, |
| 0:45.6 | and that's because we're in a tent, in a field, in Wales. |
| 0:48.8 | We're at the Green Man Festival |
| 0:50.2 | and the lovely people that you're about to hear are our live audience. |
| 0:54.0 | Whoop please audience. |
| 0:56.0 | In this episode we want to do something a bit different. |
| 1:01.0 | Normally we take one question when we spend half an hour, but we've had |
| 1:04.4 | so many questions about creepy cruellys and insects and animals of all kinds. So we thought |
| 1:10.8 | we'd nab some experts here at Green Man and then we'd fire as many questions and we want |
| 1:16.0 | your questions too. |
| 1:17.6 | Let's get started. |
| 1:18.7 | I should probably introduce our panel because they are the people with the answers. |
| 1:23.0 | Professor David Jones from the Natural History Museum, |
| 1:25.5 | creepy-crawly expert. |
| 1:27.0 | We also have Jess Savage, a researcher from the Institute of Zoology in London |
... |
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