Ann Jones CALL OF THE WILD

BY LISTENING TO NATURE, THE ABC PRESENTER HAS BECOME ITS MOST VOCAL ADVOCATE

- Cynthia Wang

Dr Ann Jones has a good idea what you're thinking when you hear the phrase 'natural history', and it most likely involves some combination of exotic animals, fossils, David Attenborough, extreme climates, vast oceans and remote lands. That's why Jones - the excitable host of ABC Kids Listen show Noisy By Nature, thriving ABC Radio National podcasts Nature Track and What the Duck?!, and the ABC iview documentary Meet The Penguins - suggests taking a moment to look out the window, pause on the footpath or stroll through a nearby park.

There, in the middle of your rural, urban or suburban patch of Australia, the best discoveries await and Jones is as eager to hear about what you find as you are to tell her. "Often you see natural history and it's like the plains of the Serengeti or the Amazonian rainforest," she says. "Or even in Australia, it's central Australian animals that seem a long way from everyday life for the majority of the audience. But nature, especially in Australia, is really close."