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Ever wonder how birds, eels, whales, or even bugs find their way without a GPS? In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole uncover the jaw-dropping science behind animal navigation.

From locusts using sky maps and magnetic fields, to eels migrating thousands of miles to a secret oceanic birthplace no one’s ever seen (seriously), and birds that may be using quantum mechanics to see the Earth’s magnetic field—it’s a global tour of natural way-finding.

🌎 How do animals "see" magnetic fields?
🧭 What is magnetoreception and how does it work?
🌌 Can birds actually use quantum mechanics to navigate?
🐟 Why do we still not know how eels reproduce?

This episode explores what researchers are learning—and why the military, ocean shippers, and conservationists are all paying attention.

🎧 Perfect for curious minds, nature nerds, and anyone who's ever questioned how animals seem to have better internal GPS than humans with smartphones.

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Subscribe if you love science, chaos, and bugs that are way too confident.

In this Swarms Minisode, Katy dives into the desert locust, a grasshopper that transforms—literally—into one of the most devastating swarm creatures on Earth.

🦗 What causes a peaceful insect to go full apocalypse mode?
🌾 How do they morph from shy loners to yellow, muscle-bound sky-hulks?
🌪 What triggers a swarm so massive it consumes everything in its path—eating its body weight daily?
📈 And why can’t we stop them, even with modern tech?

From serotonin surges to plague-level salad destruction, this episode unpacks the shocking science behind locust swarms, how they form, what fuels them, and why the only thing that can stop them is literally nature itself.

🎧 This is episode 3 of our 6-part Swarms series—bite-sized, bizarre, and biologically unhinged. We know we had two mini episodes in a row, that was not intended, but sometimes life just gets in the way of our fun!

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Subscribe and brace yourself—because this week, the swarm has teeth. 🦈

In this second episode of our Swarms Minisode Series, Laura and Katy dive into a lesser-known swarm behavior: shark aggregations. From 1,400 basking sharks off New England to over 15,000 spinning sharks off the Florida coast, this episode explores the science (and chaos) behind why some of the ocean’s most feared predators travel in giant, synchronized groups.

🦈 Why do basking sharks—normally loners—form feeding spirals?
🌊 What caused 15,000 blacktip and spinner sharks to swarm near Florida in 2013?
🧲 Could Earth’s magnetic fields (or sonar) influence shark migration patterns?
🎯 And do predators swarm for the same reasons as prey?

This minisode is a fast, fascinating look at how even apex predators can get caught up in the group dynamic—and what it means for scientists, beachgoers, and Shark Week fans alike.

👉 This is episode 2 of 6 in our Swarms series—short, science-packed episodes exploring how and why animals move as one.

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🎉 Support us on Patreon to keep the episodes coming! 🪼🦤🧠 For more laughs, catch us on YouTube!