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Australia鈥檚 Scary Spiders

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Claire Hooper to discuss Australia鈥檚 scariest creatures: spiders.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince end their Australian science adventure with an episode all about spiders. They are joined by ecologists Dieter Hochuli and Mariella Herberstein and comedian Claire Hooper. They learn about the strange physiology of spiders, including skin shedding, weaving sperm webs and having hundreds of babies at once. They find out exactly how spiders copulate - a process full of surprises - from males having two penises to females cannibalizing the males once the deed is done. Dieter comes to the defence of spiders: despite their deadly venom, they haven鈥檛 killed anyone in Australia in over fifty years. Perhaps they aren鈥檛 deserving of their fierce reputation after all.

Producer: Caroline Steel
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

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42 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sat 25 Feb 2023 19:15
  • Thu 2 Mar 2023 16:00

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