Why do animals swallow rocks?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What would you discover inside the stomach of a sea lion? CrowdScience listener Robyn found out first-hand when she volunteered at her local museum in Adelaide, Australia. The team dissecting the specimen removed around 30 rocks from the animal’s stomach, and Robyn wants the Crowdscience team to find out how and why they got there.

Presenter Anand Jagatia uncovers a whole world of rock-munching creatures, from ostriches to ichthyosaurs. In search of answers we investigate Canadian sea lion research, and rummage through the vaults at the Natural History Museum in Bamberg, Germany.

Presented by Anand Jagatia Produced by Emily Bird

Image: Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea), Hopkins Island, South Australia Credit: Stephen Frink via Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi Curios, I'm Dara Brien.
0:03.0	And I'm Hannah Frye.
0:04.0	And we are back for another series of curious cases.
0:07.0	Where we investigate the scientific mysteries sent in by you.
0:11.0	I would like to know if anything in the universe is truly invisible.
0:14.0	Why do we lie?
0:16.0	What happens to our brains when we fall in love?
0:19.0	We tackle the mysteries of the universe through audacious experiments and expert insight.
0:23.9	Curious cases.
0:24.9	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:30.1	This box here has...
0:33.6	It might be close to 50 little stones.
0:35.8	They're tiny, they're like marble size and there's a lot of them.
0:39.4	And then this box has two very big stones.
0:42.4	They're bigger than golf balls.
0:44.8	Hello and welcome to CrowdScience from the BBC World Service.
0:48.4	I'm Anna and Jagatia.
0:49.7	And this week our story begins with a really unusual rock collection.
0:54.6	These ones are colour coordinated. That was very organised.
0:57.4	I know what you're thinking.
0:58.5	Normally, when someone offers to show you their rock collection, you pretend you have other
1:02.7	plans.
	...

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