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Families come in all shapes and sizes.

Sometimes Mum and Dad look after the children.

Sometimes it’s only Mum or only Dad.

Sometimes it’s a grandparent or aunt or uncle.

But, usually, they are all the same SPECIES!

We got a fascinating e-mail into Mooney, telling us of a most peculiar story: baby ducks who have been adopted by their arch-enemy... the cat!

Yes, you heard right! Mooney reporter Katriona McFadden has been finding out more…

Ronan and Emma Lally live on a small farm in Clara, Co. Offaly, and they e-mailed us to tell us that they "keep some hens. We got some duck eggs from a local lady and put them under a broody hen. Three of the ducklings survived. But then they disappeared and Ronan blamed the cat".

True enough 'The White Cat', as they call her, was spotted a while later with a duckling in her mouth. But she wasn’t eating it - she was bringing the ducklings in to cuddle up with her newly-born kittens!

Now, if that wasn’t mad enough, Ronan and Emma spotted the ducklings breastfeeding from the cat – so they told their family who said "you have to contact Mooney!"

The White Cat with her kittens and adopted ducklings!

The White Cat with her kittens and adopted ducklings!

The White Cat with her kittens and adopted ducklings!

The White Cat with her kittens and adopted ducklings!

The White Cat with her kittens and adopted ducklings!

In our Blue Tits nest in Derek's back garden, our female is still sitting on seven eggs, whilst across town, in Áras an Uachtaráin, there are two eggs in our Swallow nest there.  Eric Dempsey, from the Birds of Ireland New Service, is one of Ireland's foremost authorities on swallows, and a few years ago, he made a documentary with Derek, called From Egg To Africa.  You can listen back to it by clicking here.

Click here to watch the Blue Tit NestWatch

Click here to watch the Swallow NestWatch

Last week on Mooney Goes Wild, we did a little preview of National Biodiversity Week, flagging many of the events that were happening this week to celebrate Ireland's unique flora and fauna.

And one of the events we flagged was a 24-hour, multi-location spectacular entitled "BioBlitz".

Kicking off at 5pm today, and finishing up at 5pm tomorrow, the BioBlitz will feature an extensive programme of public events, supported by up to 170 scientists all around the country.

Anchoring the television part of the event is our very own Derek Mooney, who explains to Olan what it's all about!

For more information, visit http://bioblitz.biodiversityireland.ie/, and to follow the records as they come in, visit http://records.biodiversityireland.ie/bioblitz_2013.php.  And the BioBlitz will be broadcast on RTÉ One from 7pm to 8pm this evening!

You might remember last week we spoke to Mr Luke McNally, formerly of Trinity College, now at the University of Edinburgh. Luke did some extensive studies into the origin of lying and deception in human beings, focusing his research on the phenomenon of deception in primates.

Well, it seems this phenomenon is a little more widespread in the animal kingdom then you might think. It's even prevalent in the bird world! Shock, horror!

We speak a lot about how many bird species can be monogamous, and we can to see this as a thing of beauty. But infidelity, I'm sorry to say, is rampant!

Nina Wedell is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the
College of Life & Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter, and she joins Olan on the line today to tell us more...

The Young Environmentalist Awards is now in its 14th year. During that time, tens of thousands of young people have taken part, by developing local environmental action projects. This year there were over 300 entries from over 4,500 passionate and talented young people from every county on the island of Ireland. We sent our reporter, Terry Flanagan along to the Awards Ceremony this week, to get a flavour of what these projects were all about...

The students Terry spoke to were:

Cliona Leane, Louise McGowan and Lucy Kelly from Mercy Secondary School, Mounthawk, Tralee, Co. Kerry with their project; "Flutterby Butterfly", a project promoting, protecting and preserving endangered butterflies in Ireland. Initially, they raised money to raise awareness within their school. To date, they have raised over €400 in aid of butterfly charities and they have also raised awareness of biodiversity and the role of butterflies within their environment.

Alicia Premkumar, Meadhbh Broderick, Daniela Besleaga and Caragh O'Toole from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál, Co. Carlow have created Planet Pals. This is an environmental group set up in the school to address the hopes of the children and teachers in the school. They have their own logo, pamphlets, posters and are in the process of setting up their own web page. Not bad going for a group of 10 year olds!

Jing Li, Alia Luddy, Eoin Byrne, Alacque White and Robert Cosgrave from the ECO-UNESCO peer Education Youth Group created Tenacious Trees, a short animation to raise awareness of the importance of trees worldwide, the impact of deforestation and how this impacts of global warming. They blended photographs with their own voices and sound effects to create the final product.

For more information, visit http://www.ecounesco.ie/component/content/article/77-latest-news/284-latest-news-tenacious-trees.html.

Earlier this week, our reporter Katriona McFadden visited a small farm in Co. Offally to witness an unusual friendship: a cat on the farm had adopted some ducklings and was breast feeding them. In the report, you might have heard Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland saying that if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it!

And incredible though it is, it's not uncommon in the animal kingdom. Our next guest has explored this phenomenon in great detail.

Jennifer Holland is the author of a book called Unlikely Friendships. And in the book, she documents some heartwarming tales of animals who, with nothing else in common, bond in the most unexpected ways.  Jennifer joins us on the phone today from Virginia in the USA, to tell us more about this...

The Bishops Palace and Gardens in Wells, Somerset, are famous all over the world for the swans who ring a bell alongside the gatehouse when they want food. Palace Caretakers Paul Arblastar is on the line to explain more...

Terry Flanagan is the author of this week's app article, in which he tells us all about dandelions!