MOVE OVER ‘SPIDER PAWS’! THE GOOTY SAPPHIRE TARANTULA’S GALACTIC COLORS ARE STUNNING.

This unexpected beauty from Gooty, a town in Central Southern India, certainly doesn’t have a shortage of names. It’s most commonly referred to as the Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tree Spider.

Check out pictures and a transcript of the episode here

Support The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month

Welcome to part 1 of Us, an ongoing series examining our connections and impact on the environment, sustainability, and our changing climate.

Part 1 through roughly 9 will focus on laying the groundwork for understanding these complicated issues from a variety of perspectives, while parts 10 through 20 or so will place the first half into real-world context, examining issues and controversies surrounding Deforestation, Overfishing, Recycling, and E-Waste.

For a transcript of the episode, check out our post on thewildlife.blog

Support us at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

This is one of my favorite shots I’ve ever managed to capture. I snapped this in 2015 at one of my all-time favorite parks, @brazosbendstatepark near Houston, TX. It sorta looks like she’s lunging forward, but in reality, she was sitting in a quickly flowing stream with her mouth open against the flow, presumably to catch fish or other critters that flowed by.

It’s estimated about 250 alligators over 6 feet long live within the over 1000 acres of water at Brazos Bend, and have been for the last 65 million years. They have practically continuously been there since the days of the dinosaurs. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

Want a bunch of random alligator factoids? Give this short a listen!

or read them here: https://thewildlife.blog/2021/08/07/dispatches-from-somewhere-5-american-alligator/

Support us at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Happy Halloween! In this super special, unexpected, and therefore super last minute holiday treat (and trick), Devon reads a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story, A Tell Tale Heart, that you undoubtedly were coerced into reading in high school. In our somewhat modernized version, we get a different, more wildlife oriented ending that turns out to be the most opposite from horror as you can get.

Become a patron (and our best friend), and get tons of cool perks at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife and help us to keep doing what we are doing and getting better!

Follow Devon on Instagram @devonthenatureguy or on Twitter @devthenatureguy

Follow the official blog and podcast pages on Instagram @thewildlife.blog and on FB.

Join our official FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheWildLife.Blog/

NOT A LEMUR, NOR A CAT. THIS RACCOON-LIKE CRITTER IS A “CLEVER FOX”.

A lot of people want to be an “inbox zero” kind of person, but what about “mailbox zero”? Ask yourself, how often do you check the mail and how much of it ends up in the bin? Ask my wife, I am obsessive about checking the mail because I never want to miss anything important, but the reality is that 9 times out of 10 the mailbox is packed to the gills with coupons, credit card offers, and a subscription to Seventeen magazine that I NEVER SIGNED UP FOR. Well, today is your lucky day because I’m here to tell you three ways that you can get to mailbox zero.

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

https://www.dmachoice.org/

https://www.catalogchoice.org/

Episode Transcript

Support The Wild Life at www.patreon.com/devonbowker

This season on Class, a deep dive into the amazing life history of sponges. starting with getting to the bottom of what exactly a sponge is!

Transcript

Support

Ahead of next weeks #CitizenScienceFriday where we talk to Katie-Lyn Bunney of the Monarch Joint Venture, we wanted to revisit an old favorite as a context filler for some of what you will hear...and because we love the topic!

Starting at a young age, we are all introduced to this idea, an idea that we carry with us and adapt, and reapply as a metaphor for our own lives---this idea of becoming something new, beginning again as something better. But behind this idea is a process, and despite our lifelong exposure, most don’t really know what exactly is going on In the Season 1 Finale of The Wild Life, Devon and Richard expose the mystery of metamorphosis, what happens inside the chrysalis, whether or not a butterfly remembers or a caterpillar knows, destroy the metamorphosis metaphor, and build it anew, all with the help of Dr. Martha Weiss of Georgetown University.

Read the write-up on this episode and view some of the videos and research mentioned here: https://thewildlife.blog/2018/07/27/the-wild-life-season-1-finale-the-metamorphosis-metaphor/

While you are listening, don't forget to rate and review the show! We will literally die from undernourishment if we don't have more ratings and reviews. That's messed up, yo.

Become a patron (and our best friend), and get tons of cool perks at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife and help us to keep doing what we are doing and getting better! Also, check out our latest merch at www.thewildlife.blog/shop

If you are interested in learning more about our upcoming hikes, visit

https://thewildlife.blog/hike/

Follow Devon on Instagram @devonthenatureguy or on Twitter @devthenatureguy

Follow the official blog and podcast pages on Instagram @thewildlife.blog and on FB.

Join our official FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheWildLife.Blog/

Join our new Book Club here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2678194339079182

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If you've ever seen a documentary series narrated by David Attenborough, you've almost surely seen the Birds of Paradise. They are a favorite of his, and many others around the world for their otherworldly, almost ethereal appearance, sounds, and behaviors. In this episode, we explore their fascinating world and biology with Dr Bruce Beehler, ornithologist and research associate of the Bird Division of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and expert on the Birds of Paradise. Follow him on Twitter @BruceMBeehler

Episode Outline/Questions Answered:

• How many species are there of Birds of Paradise and where do they live?
• What exactly is a Bird of Paradise?
• Where did they come from? (evolutionarily speaking)
• Why here? And how?
• Variations between species in nesting, diet, and courtship behavior
• Sexual Dimorphism
• How do they make such vivid colorations?
• How has natural selection led to the males engaging in such intricate courtship displays and having such bizarre colorations?
• Role of beauty
• Great unknowns
• Notes on Conservation

In 1917, the American poet Wallace Stevens published a poem called 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. In truth, 13 is a major understatement, with just as much variation in “why” as their is in “how”. Whether you’re a life “lister”, a casual admirer, or anywhere in between, at some point each and every one of has had a moment where we saw a bird and thought to ourselves, “what is that?”

In the past, this has been the moment that separates the bird watchers from the bird seers. It takes a certain kind of intrigue and drive to tear into a field guide, piecing together evidence to find the right ID, the kind that the casual observer might have balked at. Now, with increasing developments in technology, answering that question has never been easier and more accessible. All you need is a smartphone!

Transcript

Support at Patreon.com/devonbowker

When we started The Wild Life, the original idea was to answer listener submitted questions and have every day people on the show to interview guests with us or talk about their interests and passion. Well, when you first start a podcast, you have no listeners, so we had to re-evaluate. In the last year, we've grown quite a bit and now have that listener base which enables us to do that which we originally set out to do, so today, we're bringing you the first of many to come: a conversation with artist and outdoors/nature enthusiast, Maria Hancox.

She has amazing artwork, and an amazing eye for the little things in nature, and you should absolutely be following her on any of her 3 instagram accounts, @muhreeugh, @mhancoxart, and @mariaoutside

In this episode, we talk about butterflies, ant symbiosis, Ologies, chasing curiosity, iNaturalist, and following your passion. We also have a lot of callbacks to past episode topics like The Metamorphosis Metaphor, #CitSciFri with Carrie Seltzer of iNaturalist, Ant Farm, and The Dirty Truth About Butterflies

If you would like to RSVP for the 50th Episode Celebration Trivia Night on May 1st at 7 pm CT, please use this link. Spots are limited! https://forms.gle/um37DZxe9QxuMtpy6

The Wild Life has a new series, and it's unlike anything you've heard from us before. 8D, immersive, soundscapes of nature and wildlife, coming to your ears DAILY. The best way is to listen with headphones, but as far as however else you listen...it's up to you! Meditation, relaxation, sleeping, studying, curing the winter-time blues, working out for some strange reason, whatever!

Check it out!

https://the-wild-life-8d-sound.captivate.fm/listen

Support the Show at www.patreon.com/devonbowker

Now DR Kassandra Ford, aka @kassthefish on social media, is front and center on this weeks Behind the SCiENcES! Kassandra did her undergraduate research focused on neurobiology and development in zebrafishes under Dr. Mary Halloran. She then worked for a year at TAMU-Corpus Christi under Dr. Frank Pezold. He showed her lab management skills, curatorial skills, and the nuts and bolts of taxonomy and systematics. 

Kassandra's path towards a doctorate in Biology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology took her to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She completed her PhD work under Dr. James Albert, studying the evolution of electric fishes from South America and Africa, and successfully defended her dissertation in summer 2021: Mosaic evolution of craniofacial morphologies in apteronotid and mormyrid electric fishes.

Now Kassandra will be completing a short-term postdoctoral position with Dr. Ole Seehausen at the University of Bern from 2021-2022, prior to starting an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology at George Washington University with Dr. L. Patricia Hernandez!

Learn more about Kassandra at https://www.kassandraford.com/

Support our Show at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Unfortunately, we can’t ask the worms directly, but it turns out that plenty of scientists have been asking this very question for, well, a very long time. Today, we explore the leading hypotheses for what drives worms to the surface for these rainy-day adventures.

Have a question you want answered on the show? Send them over to hello@thewildlife.blog!

Have your voice featured on the show when you send a voice memo recorded directly on your phone!

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Transcript

How fast can fish really be? Faster than you’d probably expect.

Transcript

Before you read what this episode is about, we have an ask. Whoever you are, wherever you are, whichever platform you are using to listen, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Aside from the feedback being helpful to shape our work, it also increases our visibility and helps to grow our community and organization. Plus you'll forever be our favorite listener!

Professor Marcus Byrne teaches us about the fantastical and unexpected world of dung beetles, their ecological importance, their connections to human culture and history, and how this lowly creature finds its way home by looking to the stars.

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Marcus Byrne's Book Picks:

Dance of the Dung Beetle: Their Role in Our Changing World

Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History

Enlightenment Now

The Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish is found in the coastal river drainages of the Sunshine State, Florida, over to southern Georgia. They can be found in areas of dense vegetation in the drainage portions of rivers along the coasts of where they live off of a diet of small invertebrates such as worms, insects, and tiny crustaceans.

Transcript

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Behind the SCiENcES with Dr Diva Amon

Let's get to know deep sea biologist, Dr Diva Amon

How long has she been interested in science?

What was her first real connection with nature?

Why the deep sea?

What advice would she give a younger version of herself?

No intros, outros, ads, or credits. Just 100% science!

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A fascinating journey that sounds the stuff of an animated movie or a children’s book is about to come to a rather different sort of end.

On December 26th, a man by the name of Kevin Celli-Bird discovered an understandably exhausted pigeon resting in the backyard of his home in Melbourne, Australia.

The bird was from America.

Read the Story Here

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It's Sea-ptember, and it's about time we revisit this old favorite of ours in which we explore the true source of the Air We Breathe.

In this episode that originally aired May 30th, 2018, Devon and Richard talk to Dr Julie Koester of UNC-Wilmington and Dr Orly Levithan of Rutgers about the truth behind where our oxygen comes from, and the tiny organisms we have to thank for our very existence.

Support The Wild Life at patreon.com/thewildlife

This episode was originally written in October 2015 as a reflection essay

I acknowledge there is nuance to these issues which are not fully expressed in this essay

In The New York Times article “Shooting a Lion”, University of Cambridge professor and acclaimed writer, Helen Macdonald, details her recent safari at Kruger National Park in South Africa. Her visit was just a few short months after the Minnesota dentist, Walter Palmer, killed Cecil the lion just outside the very same park. Cecil’s killing was met with international uproar and “a white-hot debate over the morality of big game hunting”.

But there’s another kind of exploitative shooting of lions happening, only this kind isn’t with a gun, but a camera. 

Transcript

Follow all of the podcasts featured in this episode!

The Root of the Science

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RootofSciPod

Website/Podcast: https://rootofthesciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Earth Ideas

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideas_earth

Website/Podcast: https://lnk.bio/SnYr

Curiosity Cake

Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiosity_cake

Website/Podcast: https://curiositycake.co.uk/

Papa PhD

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PapaPhDPodcast

Website/Podcast: https://papaphd.com/

Mad Scientist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadScientistPod

Website/Podcast: https://www.themadscientistpodcast.com/

Breaking Math

Twitter: https://twitter.com/breakingmathpod

Website/Podcast: https://breakingmathpodcast.app/

The Nagging Naturalist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nag_naturalist

Website/Podcast: http://www.thenaggingnaturalist.com/

That's What I Call Science

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatsScienceTAS

Website/Podcast: https://thatsscience.org/

mAcademia

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mAcademiaP

Website/Podcast: https://anchor.fm/mAcademia

The Wild Life

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheWildLifepod

Website/Podcast: https://thewildlife.blog/

What Are YOU Going to Do with THAT?

Twitter: https://twitter.com/What2doWithTHAT

Website/Podcast: https://linktr.ee/what2dowiththat

Shrew are many things. Sometimes venomous, sometimes able to walk on water, sometimes snake-killers, but always adoreable.

https://thewildlife.blog/2019/02/26/twl-hiking-clubthe-always-adorable-sometimes-vicious-shrew/

In our first episode back in over a month, we are revamping our Phylum series by focusing in on another tier of classification: Class.

Welcome to our new miniseries.

Chitons belong to the Phylum Mollusca, along with bivalves, gastropods, and cephalopods.

They may seem simple, but there is a beautiful complexity in their story and existence if you know where to look.

Welcome to Class.

Another stroll down memory lane as I revisit the second-ever guest episode of The Wild Life, Myth-Understood: Busting Bat Myths and Mistruths with Liz Dengate from March 6th of 2018.

If you'd like to support the creation of this show, the blog, and my science communication efforts on social media, you can do so for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

This week we focus on an animal that has been the victim of superstition and fear for thousands of years. Despite what many believe, these creatures are extremely important to our everyday lives.

In this episode, we finally learn the answer to why wombats have cubed poop, learn how all of us mammals are bonded by our bowels, find out about something called the Law of Urination, and learn that we are in deep doo-doo as we discover the Global Feces Problem.

Patricia Yang is a postdoc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, where she is studying the collective behavior of birds. Before coming to Stanford, she completed doctoral and postdoctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology on the fluid mechanics of body fluids, in particular, blood, feces, and urine. She received bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering (ESOE) and Physics from National Taiwan University.

Yang was the recipient of the Sigma Xi Best Thesis award and the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. Her work has been featured on CNN, the BBC, National Public Radio, National Geographic, and The Times. In addition to conducting research, she teaches fluid mechanics at all levels, from elementary school to college.

https://www.patriciayang.net/

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Support The Wild Life at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Patricia's book recommendation: How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls

Where there's smoke, there's fire. But when that fire tears through a landscape, what happens next? Today, we dive into the world of pyrophytic ecosystems—those that not only survive but thrive on fire. Our guide on today's journey is Ross Barreto, a master's student studying native plant population dynamics and spatial ecology. He's also an Urban Forester and likes to experiment with native plant propagation, seed production, and outplanting for restoration and horticulture purposes. We explore the role of fire in Florida's ecosystems, native plants, and the resilience of nature.

Follow Ross on Instagram @barross0505

Have questions, topic suggestions, or want to be on the show? Email me at devonlbowker@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram or TikTok @devonthenatureguy

Support The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

What if the key to understanding our future was hidden in the teeth of creatures that lived millions of years ago? In this episode, we dive into the world of dental microwear with paleontologist Andrew Schwartz (@eyesonthedirt), who takes us from the fossil beds of ancient Wyoming to the jungles of Costa Rica and the highlands of the Wari Empire. Along the way, we uncover how past climate shifts reshaped life on Earth—and what that means for us today.

We explore:

• How capuchin monkeys and ancient Andean civilizations left clues in their teeth
• What the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) can teach us about modern climate change
• Why some mammals shrank while others thrived
• What a warming world could mean for our ecosystems, agriculture, and future survival

Links & Resources:

• Learn more about Andrew Schwartz’s research
• Deep dive into the PETM and its modern implications

Support The Wild Life on Patreon!

If you love deep dives into science and nature, consider supporting The Wild Life on Patreon. Your support helps me continue making episodes like this, bringing expert voices and fascinating stories. Plus, Patrons get bonus content, early access, and more! Join us at Patreon.com/TheWildLife.

Let me know what you think! Leave a review, share the episode, and keep exploring the wild world around you.

Color changing, mini lassos, islands, superpowers, vivid blues, falling of limbs, and so much more!

This first half is largely focused on the anoles, but part 2, see, Chelsea is one of the cofounders of #BlackBirdersWeek and @BlackAFinSTEM, and so our conversation in the second half largely revolves around that, SciComm, art, and at the time, the news that the nearly 1 million international students in the US would have to return home if they did not have in person classes due to COVID...a decision that might be being walked back in but things are still unclear and the conversation is important important and needed nevertheless. You’ll hear part two next week, but for now, drop and give us 50 to assert your dominance while you listen to our conversation with the wonderful...Chelsea Connor, anole expert, genius behind #DidYouAnole, contributor on anoleannals.com, and artist behind the adorable and creative anole/popsicle stickers that need to be smacked on the back of your laptop immediately!

Get her stickers here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/chelseaherps/shop?asc=u

Support Chelsea on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ChelseaArts/posts

Support The Wild Life at patreon.com/thewildlife and paypal.me/thewildlife

Further Reading:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carib_Territory

http://kalinagoterritory.com/

17 years ago, I was a 14 year old attending Connor Middle School in Hebron, Kentucky. Small little town, just across the Ohio River. In 2018, I moved away, back down to Houston, TX. But in the few years I was there, I met and became friends with some of the most amazing people, most of which I lost contact with over the years

Then one day, sometime last year or so, a familiar name popped up on my feed—an old friend, and today’s guest.

On today's episode, Dr Tiffany Slater tells us all about her amazing discoveries and career as a taphonomist! Searching for molecular ghosts in the fossil record, ginger frogs, ancient proteins, learning there’s a difference between aging fossils and dating fossils, feathered connections, archaeopteryx, perspectives, particle accelerators, and of course, catching up…

Dinosaur feathers reveal traces of ancient proteins

Dr Tiffany Slater's University of College Cork Profile

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Contact | hello@thewildlife.blog

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A year or so ago, we did an episode with Dr Diva Amon about the deep sea. One of the topics we covered were Whale Falls--what happens when a whale dies and the ecosystem that follows.

A recent listen back on this episode got us thinking. Whales are the largest animals in the ocean, does anything comparable happen when the largest animals on land die?

Today on The Wild Life, we ask the question, "what happens when an elephant dies?"

In this episode, we also reference a recent article by the Guardian which can be read here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/14/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-roadkill-placed-on-sky-tables-to-lure-rare-birds-of-prey

Support our show at patreon.com/thewildlife

It's summer and a storm has just passed through. You step outside and are instantly greeted with that good ole' familiar smell---the smell of rain. But what is that smell? After all, water itself isn't particularly smelly, right? In this episode, Richard's first solo mission, we explore the surprising secrets behind the smell of rain.

It is also our first ever member drive. If you become a member during the November Membership Drive, we’ll double your first two months' conscious conservation contribution through the Wildlife Ambassadors programs to 20%! Learn more at https://thewildlife.blog/2019/11/05/november-membership-drive/ and become a member at https://www.patreon.com/TheWildLife

Meet this week's guest before the episode airs, Dr Jessica L Ware, assistant curator in invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Ware’s research focuses on the evolution of behavioral and physiological adaptations in insects, with an emphasis on how these occur in Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Dictyoptera (termites, cockroaches and mantises). Her research group focuses on phylogenetics/phylogenomics and uses these tools to inform their work on reproductive, social and flight behaviors in insects. Jessica holds a BSc from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and a PhD from Rutgers, New Brunswick. She was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the AMNH 2008-2010, before being hired at Rutgers Newark where she was an associate professor of evolutionary biology. She is the current president of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association, and serves as an elected board member on the executive committee of the Entomological Society of America Governing Board. She was recently awarded a PECASE medal from the US government for her work on insect evolution.

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Dr Ware's Must-Read Book Picks:

Chasing Dragonflies

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East

Utterly Bugged

Welcome to The Wild Life, the podcast where we explore the wonders of the natural world and the science that helps us understand it. In this episode, we have an extraordinary guest: Aidan Branney. When we first recorded this interview nearly a year ago, Aidan was working as the large carnivore scientific aid for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Today, he’s a Presidential Research Fellow at the University of Georgia, where he studies large carnivores including lions, leopards, cheetahs, and spotted hyenas in Etosha National Park in Namibia.

In this episode, we delve into Aidan's fascinating educational and professional journey, his work on ocelots in Texas, and his research on coyotes, black bears, and bobcats. We'll explore what defines carnivores and the complex challenge of balancing ecological needs with stakeholder interests. Aidan shares insights into estimating populations and monitoring changes in these majestic animals, and we'll discuss how to maintain hope and persevere in a world where conservation efforts often feel like trying to slow a leaking dam with duct tape.

Join us as we venture into the wild world of carnivore ecology with Aidan Branney, uncovering the science, the struggles, and the triumphs of studying and protecting some of the planet's most charismatic creatures.

Aidan on Instagram

Aidan on X

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Joining The Wild Life today is Dylan Beckham! She spent two years as a zookeeper caring for all sorts of exotics, including reptiles, invertebrates, fish, emus, wallabies, genets and Eurasian harvest mice. As a herpetology enthusiast, she was surprised to find it was the mice that stole her heart. This led to the development of her independent research project investigating their nesting behaviors in captivity, before ultimately leaving the zoo to pursue her passion for wildlife research. She managed to fit in an adventure to Canada, where she interned at a wildlife rehab facility, wrestled raccoons, and fell madly in love with a three-legged beaver! Now she's wading through nearly a hundred hours of harvest mouse data, while preparing to return to university for a top-up Bachelor's degree in September, where she'll be doing a research project on human-elephant conflict in Equatorial Guinea.

Whether you're fascinated by the world of zookeeping, curious about the nuances of data collection, or passionate about conservation, this episode is for you.

Follow Dylan on Instagram

Have questions, topic suggestions, or want to be on the show? Email me at devonlbowker@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram or TikTok @devonthenatureguy

Support The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Get to know Lynn before our full episode on elephants later this week

She is a Conservation Biologist and Presidential Research Fellow at Auburn University conducting collaborative research in the Tsavo Ecosystem of Kenya. She studies African elephant behavior, movement, and the development of community-based coexistence strategies reducing elephant and human conflicts among MANY other varied research interests. 

Back when I spoke to her, she was stateside on account of COVID at her home in Nashville Tennesee where she lives with her husband and two cats but is now back in Kenya doing fieldwork. 

Lynn is a proud advocate for women and diversity in STEM and non-traditional students.

And is expecting to complete her dissertation in 2022!

Follow her on Twitter @lynnvonhagen1

And check out her website lynnvonhagen.com

Deer. They’re everywhere. And our relationship with them is, well, complicated.

Some of us love to look at them, take pictures of them, have them around.

Some people hunt them for sport or for food.

Some only see them as Bambi

Some hit them with their cars…accidentally of course.

Some want them as far away from their yards, crops, or gardens as possible.

Love them or hate them, they’re here to stay. But how much do we actually know about them?

That’s what today’s show is about. Deer. Everything from antler to tail. Starting with, what makes a deer a deer.

Today's guest is Rhiannon Kirton (@Rhiannon_Kirton). She’s a Master's student studying deer, soon to be done and undoubtedly moving on to bigger and better things, and she’s worked in the US, Canada, and Australia. She’s also the co-founder of Black Mammologists Week!

Support The Wild Life at www.patreon.com/DevonBowker

In the skies across Minnesota (and much of the eastern US and southeastern Canada, for that matter), roams a fierce and agile predator, capable of taking down prey you would never imagine—and some many wouldn’t dare to try at themselves.

Support us at patreon.com/thewildlife

Read the transcript of this episode, see some art, and awesome videos at https://thewildlife.blog/2019/07/11/the-dragonhunter/

In this episode, we sit down to talk with Dr Gilad Bino all about platypuses!

We talk about their name (and some alternates), conservation efforts, absurd adaptations, forgeries and fakeries, what it's like to be stung by one, and so much more.

Support our show at patreon.com/TheWildLife

Butterflyfish are a group of around 120 species in the Family Chaetodontidae. They can be found in reefs around the world in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Butterflyfish are probably most recognizable for their disk-like body shape, pointed snout, and striking patterns and coloration seen across most species in stark contrast with the blue ocean background. 

Transcript

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In this episode, Devon (@devonthenatureguy) sits down with Lauren Jackson (@lauren.queenofthewild on Instagram and HERp_trap_queen on TikTok) to chat about becoming a wildlife tech, woodpeckers, federal jobs, the friction of private land, scicomm and education, battles big and small, and above all else, love for the world around us.

Support the show at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month

In this episode, we sit down with the one and only Dr Kassandra Ford, aka @kassthefish, to dive into the shocking world of electric fishes. We cover the origins of electric fish, how a living creature generates electricity, the shocking (or not so shocking) truth about touching electric fish, the legendary electric eels, communication and interference, and stunning secrets!

The first episode is coming this week!

In this episode from 2018, Devon and Richard look into the void to unveil the cause of the once mysterious Deep Scattering Layer, taking you on a journey involving covert military research in World War 2, the largest migration on earth, shimmering creatures of the deep (and their food), and an organic machine responsible for capturing carbon and sinking it into the depths of the ocean.

Read the post and see the picture here: https://thewildlife.blog/2021/08/04/dispatches-from-somewhere-4-antheraea-polyphemus/

Support The Wild Life at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

The basic idea behind the theory of evolution behind natural selection is this: if you get eaten or otherwise die before you’ve had the chance to reproduce then your genes, or traits, don’t get passed on. It’s a dead end. But if you survive… some of your traits get passed down to a new generation. Maybe you were just a bit faster than the other wildebeest. Maybe your coloration gave you better camouflage than some of the rest. Who knows? It could be a ton of things. The point is, over time, these little changes in the proportion of traits will add up to big changes, maybe even entirely new species!

There’s a misconception out there though related to this idea called Survival of the Fittest. That evolution works through the survival of the strongest, fastest, toughest, meanest of the bunch and that things get stronger, faster, tougher, and meaner over time. Thing is, that’s just not true. Problematic associations aside, that idea doesn’t explain the persistence of seemingly useless traits, or the loss of seemingly useful traits, or traits that simply don’t change for millions of years at a time. Sometimes, things persist simply because there’s no pressure for them not to. Sometimes, things just work.

In the case of sponges, there’s the Demo Model

Support the Show at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

On July 18th, Just the Zoo of Us posted a harmless tweet asking "what is the most overhyped animal?"

It started an all out war: #WormGate2020

This is our attempt, along with Ellen Weatherford's, at a tracing explanation of what exactly went down.

To see the original tweet and follow the breadcrumbs yourself, go here: https://twitter.com/JusttheZooofUs/status/1284598945377812481?s=20

Support The Wild Life at patreon.com/thewildlife and paypal.me/thewildlife

Have you ever been outside during the spring and you see what looks like spit clinging to the sides of plant stems? Well, it's not spit, but it is a body fluid, and it hides a fascinating little creature that grows up to be something even more fantastical. Learn all about these snorkeling, high jumping, super-powered true-bugs with Dr Jason Cryan as your guide.

Watch a Froghopper's incredible jump in slow-motion!

Support The Wild Life, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, at patreon.com/thewildlife or paypal.me/thewildlife

Follow these wonderful Podcasts too!

Planthropology

Twitter: @Planthropology_

Varmints

Twitter: @varmintspodcast

The Root of the Science

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RootofSciPod

Website/Podcast: https://rootofthesciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Earth Ideas

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideas_earth

Website/Podcast: https://lnk.bio/SnYr

Curiosity Cake

Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiosity_cake

Website/Podcast: https://curiositycake.co.uk/

Papa PhD

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PapaPhDPodcast

Website/Podcast: https://papaphd.com/

Mad Scientist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadScientistPod

Website/Podcast: https://www.themadscientistpodcast.com/

Breaking Math

Twitter: https://twitter.com/breakingmathpod

Website/Podcast: https://breakingmathpodcast.app/

The Nagging Naturalist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nag_naturalist

Website/Podcast: http://www.thenaggingnaturalist.com/

That's What I Call Science

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatsScienceTAS

Website/Podcast: https://thatsscience.org/

mAcademia

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mAcademiaP

Website/Podcast: https://anchor.fm/mAcademia

What Are YOU Going to Do with THAT?

Twitter:

It's been awhile. I think it's time for some reintroductions.

I've spent a lot of time over the past year, 6 years really, reflecting on the journey so far, the ups and downs, the struggles, the wins, the change (oh, so much change), and I think I've finally landed comfortably with where I am and what I want this to be. I look forward to sharing my work and the perspectives of scientists from around the world with you every Wednesday as we explore the natural world, the dizzying amount of connections we share to it and each other, and find the courage to protect this planet we call home.

If you managed to get through all 25-ish minutes, thank you so much for your time.

The release schedule for the remainder of the year is as follows:

1. REVISITED: The Mystery of Zebra Stripes
2. Shark Conservation with Alexandra McInturf
3. REVISITED: Bat Myths and Mistruths
4. Wasps with Eric Eaton
5. REVISITED: Nature's Vampires
6. Cephalopodcast with Meg Mindlin
7. REVISITED: Canary in the Coal Mine
8. Conversation with Lauren Queen of the Wild
9. REVISITED: The Air We Breathe
10. Carnivores with Aiden Branney
11. REVISITED: Metamorphosis Metaphor
12. Conversation with Dr Carly Anne York
13. REVISITED: Is Anybody Out There?
14. Animal Ethics with Mad About Animals Mags
15. REVISITED: Ant Farm

If you are able and would like to help sustain and support The Wild Life, you can do so at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month

Follow me on social media @devonthenatureguy

Life is a lot of things, but one thing it can be is unexpectedly big. Like, really, really big. What started as a random question from a high schooler ("what's the biggest living thing?") with a seemingly straight forward answer, evolved into a search that lead to some very unexpected places. Such a big journey called for the crossover of the century! We joined forces with Ellen Weatherford of Just the Zoo of Us (an animal review podcast) to explore the world's oceans, the African Savanna, a plateau in Utah, and the forest of eastern Oregon in our search for the Biggest of the BIG.

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Twitter @justthezooofus or on Instagram @thezooofus and www.justthezooofus.com/

Be sure to leave us both a rating wherever you are listening or on Podchaser, the IMDB of podcasts!

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-wild-life-1023165

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/just-the-zoo-of-us-855900

Become a Member Supporter for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife

Learn more about our showcased organisms at the links below

https://www.opb.org/television/programs/ofg/segment/oregon-humongous-fungus/

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/blue-whale/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_elephant

Welcome to The Wild Life! On today's episode, we have a fascinating guest: wildlife cinematographer Jake Davis.

Jake’s career began by focusing on the wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Growing up, he spent his summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the Teton Range's jagged peaks and abundant wildlife fostered a deep love for nature and a desire to share and preserve it. Today, while Jake travels the globe to film the stories of vulnerable wildlife, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem remains his home.

As a cinematographer, Jake works on natural history productions for renowned platforms like BBC, National Geographic, Disney, Netflix, and Apple. Most recently, he spent five months filming snow leopards in Mongolia for the third installment of BBC's famous series "Planet Earth.” His recent work has been part of a series nominated for a 2023 Emmy and for Best Cinematography at the prestigious Jackson Wild Film Festival.

Jake’s work incorporates diverse filming techniques, including long lens, drone, and gimbals, but he is best known for his novel approach to filming wildlife with high-tech camera traps. He also created the world’s first collection of wildlife Ambrotypes, featuring images on glass plates. Among his accolades, Jake was a 2019 finalist in the renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition held by the London Natural History Museum, and his work has been displayed at the Smithsonian in the Exhibition of Nature's Best Photography. His nature greeting card line is sold in stores across the western United States, including REIs and the Yellowstone stores.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of understanding animal behavior and ecology to capture the perfect shot and effectively tell their stories. We explore the future and potential of artificial intelligence in wildlife filmmaking, the "chicken or the egg" question of wildlife cinematography, and the challenges of working off-grid. Jake shares his experiences with camera traps, the heart-wrenching decisions of the footage chopping block, and how to craft compelling narratives without words.

Join us for an in-depth conversation that highlights the blend of artistry and science required to bring the wild to our screens.

Check out his website and order some prints

Check out his gallery

Follow Jake on Instagram

Have questions, topic suggestions, or want to be on the show? Email me at devonlbowker@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram or TikTok @devonthenatureguy

Support The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Eaton, author of Insectpedia: a Brief Compendium of Insect Lore, Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect, and more!

Wasps are far more diverse than the familiar yellowjackets and hornets that harass picnickers and build nests under the eaves of our homes. These amazing, mostly solitary creatures thrive in nearly every habitat on Earth, and their influence on our lives is overwhelmingly beneficial. Wasps are agents of pest control in agriculture and gardens. They are subjects of study in medicine, engineering, and other important fields. Wasps pollinate flowers, engage in symbiotic relationships with other organisms, and create architectural masterpieces in the form of their nests. From minute fairyflies to gargantuan tarantula hawks, wasps exploit almost every niche on the planet. So successful are they at survival that other organisms emulate their appearance and behavior. The sting is the least reason to respect wasps and, as you will see, no reason to loathe them, either.  

Find Eric on Twitter/X

Check out Eric's Blog

Support the Show

Find me on Instagram and TikTok @devonthenatureguy

Contact: hello@thewildlife.blog

An effort to end protections for gray wolves that began with the Florida Man administration has come to fruition under the Biden administration. The species, native to much of the US and Canada, was only recently dropped from the endangered species list. In response, a team of scientists is calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to instead continue safeguarding the species. The primary signatory of this letter is John Vucetich.

For the past 25 years, John Vucetich has been the lead researcher of the Wolves & Moose of Isle Royale project. He is newly the author of Restoring the Balance: What Wolves Tell Us about Our Relationship with Nature, a book which meaningfully recounts all that John has learned from these incredible creatures. “A wolf,” John says, “is a living creature, with a perspective, memories of yesterday, an interest in how tomorrow turns out, joys and fears of its own, and a story to be told.”

Today on The Wild Life, why protections were ended, what’s happened since, why hunting wolves is viewed by many as unjustifiable, their social nature and disruptions, the why behind anti-wolf rhetoric, and how protections can be put in place once again.

Support the show at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife

In honor of Spooktober, we are doing the time warp to revisit two fan-favorites on one of nature's most needlessly feared and misunderstood critters: bats.

Part 1

Belief…belief is an interesting thing. Some of our beliefs are very close to our hearts, untouchable, unchangeable. Some of our beliefs are more flexible, changing if you have some kind of evidence or experience that can convince you otherwise. Belief can be harmless and belief can be harmful. Belief can be truth and it can be myth. This week, we are going off format in the first of an intermittent series we are calling Myth-Understood in which we explore commonly believed myths about different misunderstood animals and examine the truth behind the legends. This week we focus on an animal that has been the victim of superstition and fear for thousands of years. Despite what many believe, these creatures are extremely important to our everyday lives. Dollar for dollar, they are worth more than Elon Musk, they hold secrets of aging, rejuvenate the rainforest, and they’re the most essential ingredient... of a Margarita.

Part 2

This episode, we have a story that takes us all the way from Copenhagen, to the rain forest of South America--- from the belly of the beast, to it’s excrement---as we explore nature’s Vampires

Our guest is Dr Marie Lisandra Zepeda Mendoza, who recently finished her post doc in Copenhagen, Denmark and whose recently published research on vampire bats and how they survive on such a peculiar diet is at the center of this story.

Here is a link to Bat Conservation International: http://www.batcon.org/

We're flipping the script this Valentine's Day with a three part series where we show some love to nature's unloved: spiders and snakes!

In part 2, we talk to Shakira Quiñones about Nephilid Spiders (like North America's Golden Silk), weird spider sex, and have her and Sebastian Echeverri answer your listener submitted questions! We talk spider oral sex, copulatory plugs, Spider-Frog Buddy Comedies, flying spiders, superheroes, and more!

Special thanks to Sebastian Echeverri (Twitter: @spiderdaynight, Instagram: @spiderdaynightlive) and Shakira Quiñones (Twitter and Instagram: @shakiguani)

While you are listening, don't forget to rate and review the show! We will literally die from undernourishment if we don't have more ratings and reviews. That's messed up, yo.

Become a patron (and our best friend), and get tons of cool perks at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife and help us to keep doing what we are doing and getting better! Also, check out our latest merch at www.thewildlife.blog/shop

If you are interested in learning more about our upcoming hikes, visit

https://thewildlife.blog/hike/

Follow Devon on Instagram @devonthenatureguy or on Twitter @devthenatureguy

Follow the official blog and podcast pages on Instagram @thewildlife.blog and on FB.

Join our official FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheWildLife.Blog/

Check out Sebastian's website here: https://www.spiderdaynight.com/

Join our new Book Club here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2678194339079182

Outro Theme by Ella VanLoon

The Wild Life presents, Stardust---a show that explores all of the other science-y things that don’t quite fit under the umbrella of The Wild Life.

Things like why is the ocean salty, where did all the of earths water come from, how is gold made, what happens when two black holes collide, time travel, lithium, and basically everything else.

This is our test pilot, of sorts!

In this episode, we explore the Earth's moon, it's phases, it's origin, and it's impact on tides, teens, and time itself!

Become a patron (and our best friend), and get tons of cool perks at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife and help us to keep doing what we are doing and getting better!

If you are interested in learning more about our upcoming hikes, visit

https://thewildlife.blog/hike/

Follow Devon on Instagram @devonthenatureguy or on Twitter @devthenatureguy

Follow the official blog and podcast pages on Instagram @thewildlife.blog and on FB.

Join our official FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheWildLife.Blog/

This was the first ever episode of The Wild Life back in 2017, and it was never supposed to happen. That's right, The Wild Life, as a podcast, was an accident. The result of a series of unfortunate events. But that's life, isn't it? It happens in the most unexpected of ways. I never imagined that this is where I would be today, and I'm so incredibly grateful for the experience and all those who have been a part of it, as guests, as listeners, and as people who believed in the work I was doing and helped me to succeed.

The mystery of zebra stripes has long been a subject of debate, at least since the days of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. Now, thanks to Dr. Tim Caro, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of California-Davis, we finally have our answer.

Next week, we're exploring Shark Conservation with Alexandra McInturf!

If you'd like to support the creation of this show, the blog, and my science communication efforts on social media, you can do so for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Peace out, rainbow trouts!

It's #SharkWeek2020...and it is easily one of the best examples of a massive divide in how the general public sees an animal compared to how experts see and talk about them. Science Twitter is a buzz with fact checking, jokes, and outright facepalming while Mike Tyson rumbles on the reef with Jaws and entertainment programs portray sharks as serial killers of the deep. That isn't the only dark side of all of this either. We talk about some of those things throughout this episode, but mostly we dispell some myths and mistruths while learning about what makes sharks so amazing!

We talk shark diversity, finning, bad movies, mermaid purses, why not to chase sharks, and so much more!

Learn more about today's guest at https://www.drcatherinemacdonald.com/

Follow her on Twitter @dr_catmac

Read her Op-Ed in Scientific American at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-dark-side-of-being-a-female-shark-researcher/

Read the mentioned Forbes article by Melissa Cristina Marquez, based on research by herself, Dr David Shiffman, and Dr Catherine MacDonald at https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissacristinamarquez/2020/08/12/inaccurate-and-biased-global-media-coverage-is-a-threat-to-sustainable-shark-conservation/#7c4a19193fc1

Follow us on Twitter @thewildlifepod and Instagram @thewildlife.blog and @devonthenatureguy

Support us at paypal.me/thewildlife or become a member at patreon.com/thewildlife

Check out our merch at thewildlife.blog/shop

Before you sit down with us to learn all about platypuses, join us for a glimpse Behind the SCiENcES with Dr Gilad Bino.

Dr Bino is passionate about conservation and science. He seeks to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis by understanding the underlying processes that shape biodiversity at multiple spatial and temporal scales to inform and prioritize conservation management.

Research Activities

• Platypus Conservation Initiative
• Global Standard for Wetland Conservation

Support as at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

A rare blue bee has been spotted in Florida for the first time in 4 years according to a news release from the Florida Museum of Natural History!

This isn't the only winged critter there has been a lot of buzz about. By now, you've all hear of the 'Murder' Hornet. We'll tell you why you need to chill out.

We have one more bonus episode coming this week to celebrate the birthday of fossil hunter Mary Anning, and then a new full-length episode on Friday! It's a busy week.

Support The Wild Life by becoming a member at patreon.com/TheWildLife or by purchasing official merch at thewildlife.blog/shop

Follow us on instagram @devonthenatureguy and @thewildlife.blog

or on Twitter @thewildlifepod or @devthenatureguy

Wherever you are listening, be sure to leave us a rating and review. It's not just a review, it's a very real source of serotonin! Also, leave us a review on Podchaser, the IMDB of podcasts, at https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-wild-life-1023165

There really is no shortage of ways to build an animal, but there are rules to be followed. To truly understand, we have to go to the very beginning. Check out Part 3 of my pre-kick-off series to my new zoology series, Class, and get oriented with the development of animal life.

Link to the amazingly spectacular video I mentioned

Transcript

Support at www.patreon.com/devonbowker

The Muskellunge, or Muskie, is the largest member of the pike family, and just a large fish all around. Their common name comes from the Ojibwa word maashkinoozhe, which translates to “ugly pike”. But there's a lot more to the muskie.

Transcript

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When you get hot, you sweat.

When Elephants get hot, well, they don’t sweat. So what’s a 13 foot tall and 13,000-pound animal to do? I mean, not only do they produce tons of body heat for their literal tons, but Elephants in general—African and Asian—tend to live in some pretty warm places.

That’s where their big ole ears come in.

Episode Transcript

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Meet this week’s guest before the episode airs! Dr Bruce M. Beehler (born October 11, 1951 in Baltimore) is an ornithologist and research associate of the Bird Division of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Prior to this appointment, Beehler worked for Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Counterpart International, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Bruce Beehler graduated from Williams College and received his Masters and PhD studying the behavioral ecology of the birds-of-paradise at Princeton University.[1]

He has been an authority on New Guinea birds for several decades, having authored or co-authored several major works on the biodiversity this, the largest tropical island, including The Birds of Paradise (1998), The Birds of New Guinea (1986, 2015) and the two-volume Ecology of Papua (2007).

To the general public, Beehler is best known for having co-led a widely published rapid assessment survey on biological diversity in 2005 to the Foja Mountains, Papua, where he, together with an international team of 11 scientists, the majority from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), made a number of scientific discoveries.

The findings on this survey expanded on previous research conducted in the region by Dr. Jared Diamond in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beehler and colleagues, however, returned with the first ever photographs of two species of birds, the bronze parotia (Parotia berlepschi) and the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons), that previously were known only from a few specimens. Additionally, a previously unknown species of honeyeater was discovered, it being scientifically described in 2007 as the wattled smoky honeyeater (Melipotes carolae). The specific epithet, carolae, commemorates Carol Beehler, the wife of Bruce Beehler. Together with a team from 60 Minutes, Beehler returned to the Foja Mountains in 2007, resulting in the first ever filming of several of the species discovered in 2005, as well as encounters with an undescribed giant rat (Mallomys sp.) and a tiny pygmy possum (Cercartetus sp.)

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In this episode, Devon and Richard sit down with Brogan Holcombe to talk all about bears!

Outline:

• Bear encounter stories
• Are all black bears black?
• Black bear range in North America
• How many species of bear
• How large black bears get
• Diet (through life and year)
• Behavior
• Hibernation 
• Cubs (how many? How long do they stay with mom? Etc)
• Interactions with people (becoming comfortable around people)
• Mitigating issues and fostering coexistence 
• Growler Bears
• Brogans research

Brogan is a Master’s Student working in the Wildlife Habitat & Population Analysis Lab at Virginia Tech

She’s also the one behind #SundayScientistShoutout on Twitter which she does every week for scientists or STEM activists from underrepresented groups.

Follow Brogan @Brogan_Holcombe or look up her #bearseyeview for awesome bear videos!

Make a donation to our 501(c)3 organization

Become a Member-Supporter

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https://broganholcombe.wixsite.com/home

It's #CitizenScienceFriday! This week, we sit down to chat with Katie-Lyn Bunney, Education Coordinator at the Monarch Joint Venture, a partnership of federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs that are working together to support and coordinate efforts to protect the monarch butterfly migration across the lower 48 United States.

YOU can be involved in Monarch conservation at every single stage of their lives. YOU can play a role in saving this species!

The Wild Life is listener supported. Visit patreon.com/thewildlife to become a member for as little as $1 per month! Questions, concerns, or corrections?

Contact us at hey.thewildlife@gmail.com

Craving more content? Check out the complimentary blog post to this episode including a complete list of sources and a whole lot more at thewildlife.blog, or check us out on instagram @thewildlife.blog or @devonthenatureguy

Learn more about the Venture at www.monarchjointventure.org!

Most would agree that Polar Bears are white, but there's more to the story than things may appear.

Transcript

Support The Wild Life at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month

and check out Avast!, a pirate pod from my friend Paul Csomo

Whale Sharks. Are they whale, or are they shark? What do they eat? Where do they live? Just how big are they. All of that and more in today’s short!

Transcript

Swishy dainty areas, droppable penises (well, just the tip), butt-breathing, smelling things with horns, the tenacity of nudi niche filling, over-generalizations, taxonomy, blind dates, and how nudies came to kick butt and chew bubblegum, and they’re all out of bubblegum!

We sit down this week with the Nagging Naturalist herself, Kristen Mankowski to talk nudibranchs in all their glory.

So, hold onto your butts, wherever they may be, as we dive deep into the world of nudies!

Follow her on Twitter at @nag_naturalist and @junglegymqueen

Support our show and nonprofit at patreon.com/thewildlife

This episode starts with a major announcement, but then...

Tattoos, superheroes, opportunities, regeneration, Men in Black, phallic fencing, 1st brains, discoveries, cocaine, addiction, belly button mouths, and so much more. So, wherever you are, maybe a floaty in a pool gliding around like a flatworm in a petri dish, get ready for our conversation with Dr. Oné R. Pagán ! His enthusiasm will have you hooked. By the end, you'll never want to stop talking about flatworms in any and all social settings, no matter how appropriate or inappropriate.

Follow Dr. Oné R. Pagán on Twitter @BaldScientist

Read his blog at baldscientist.wordpress.com

Purchase his books at https://www.amazon.com/One-R.-Pagan/e/B00J6J1FCI%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Follow us on Twitter @TheWildLifepod and @Devthenatureguy

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Check out our website at thewildlife.blog and purchase merch at thewildlife.blog/merch

Join Our Book Club at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2678194339079182

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Acoustic Meditation 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Interview with Dr. Tim Caro, professor of Wildife Biology at UC Davis, on his research which may have revealed the truth behind the mystery of zebra stripes.

Today, May 21, is the 221st anniversary of Mary Anning’s birth. She is not a household name, by any means—though she is believed to be the inspiration behind the well-known tongue-twister “she sells sea shells by the sea shore”.

However, it wasn’t shells she was selling, but fossils of long extinct creatures of a bygone era. She was ‘the greatest fossilist the world ever knew’. Though, the sad truth is much of the world never knew, and still does not.

221 years after Mary Anning's birth, a young girl from the very town where Mary lived her entire life is fighting to rectify a historical injustice in recognizing Anning in bronze—a fitting honor for a woman who spent her life uncovering creatures lost to time.

Towards the end, I butcher the pronunciation of Saiorse Ronan. We’re all human, right? Don’t make my mistake and learn how to say her name the right way in this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbv6_rpC7jw

If you would like to support Mary Anning Rocks, you can do so by visiting http://www.maryanningrocks.co.uk. I strongly encourage you to pledge your support and purchase one of their stellar t-shirts. Friends, family, and strangers alike will want to know just who this Mary Anning is, and now you can tell them.

Become a Patron of The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at patreon.com/TheWildLife

Read this at https://thewildlife.blog/2019/05/22/women-in-science-meet-mary-anning-fossil-hunter-and-the-11-year-old-fighting-for-her-recognition/

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Elaphrosaur paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1342937X20301234

Everyone loves penguins, but how much do we really know about them as living beings?

This week, The Wild Life is taking a waddle on the wild side, and our guide on our clumsy, yet hopefully charming journey is the one, the only, the...penguin lady, Dyan deNapoli. Dyan deNapoli is a penguin expert, TED speaker, and author of the award-winning book, The Great Penguin Rescue, which chronicles her experiences helping to manage the rescue of 40,000 penguins from the Treasure oil spill in South Africa---also April’s book club pick (check the episode notes for a link to join!). Dyan is frequent guest on radio, podcasts, and TV in the US and abroad, Dyan has spoken at four TEDx conferences, has created a TED-Ed video for the classroom, and has lectured worldwide about penguins, including as a guest speaker for Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic on their ships traveling to Antarctica. Today, we explore the penguins popularity, their little known plite, and well, their poop as we travel from Antarctica to the equator.

This episode is also dedicated entirely to our dear friend, and long-time supporter, Chris Trankel!

Bonus Fact: Adelie penguins fire their poop away from their nest like a mortar shell, and scientist are using satellites IN SPACE to monitor penguin populations by scanning for, you guessed it, their POOP!

Purchase Dyan's book, The Great Penguin Rescue, here: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Penguin-Rescue-Devastating-Inspiring/dp/143914818X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid&sr&fbclid=IwAR1OMj_UGW8SqfZmWYewLnj47_A9qNyJrwocZBfLhXOG_hgp2jPeDq351v0

Then, join the Book Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2678194339079182/

And then, read a bit more on the not-so-nice private lives of penguins: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/penguin-prostitutes/559133/

If you want to learn more about, or sign up for, the Skype a Science Teacher program, check it out here https://thewildlife.blog/skype-a-science-teacher/

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Everybody knows their sound. It's haunting, but it also holds fascinating secrets.

Hyena’s have been painted as villains, demons ridden by witches, grave robbing ghouls, and the embodiment of all things vile by people for thousands of years. Nature documentaries and Disney films alike play no small role.

That’s what we’re exploring today. Much like in our episode on sharks, what is at the root of such a divide in how culture and science view these animals?

Our guide today is none other than the Jane Goodall of Hyena’s, Michigan State University’s Dr. Kay Holekamp!

We talk Lion King, arch nemesis, puzzle boxes, intelligence, teamwork, why it sucks to be a male hyena, how females have overthrown the patriarchy, aggression, laughs, and oddly a lot about something called a pseudopenis.

So, grab a cup of coffee and join your family in violently tearing a part a gazelle carcass as we explore the truth about hyena’s.

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This past August as I sat below an old oak tree while drinking my morning cup of coffee and looking out on a glassy Lake Darling in Alexandria, Minnesota, something fell from the sky and landed at my feet. Small and curled up like a slightly puff green and yellow sour gummy worm. It’s face made it look like a Pokémon, or like one of those smiley face antenna toppers. Two hours later, another fell in the same exact spot. If I didn’t already know what it was, I would think it was a caterpillar of some sort.

Read more and see bonus visuals here: https://thewildlife.blog/2019/08/14/is-it-a-worm-is-it-a-wasp-no-its-the-elm-sawfly/

Meet this week’s guest before the episode airs!

She is an ecologist at the intersection of theoretical and applied ecology, currently working on landscape and quantitative ecology in relation to the conservation and management of terrestrial wildlife. A lot of her current research involves working to understand wildlife use of natural and developed landscapes, range expansion of recolonizing species, how sex-specific differences can influence conservation and management, and the interactions between humans and wildlife. Specifically, she often works on species distributions, landscape connectivity, population, and metapopulation dynamics,  carnivore ecology and behavior, applied conservation science, community ecology, and citizen/community science.

Dr Gantchoff is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Global Wildlife Conservation Center (formerly Camp Fire Program in Wildlife Conservation), at the State University of New York where she investigates aspects of population and the spatial ecology of  recolonizing black bears in human-modified landscapes, in collaboration with the Missouri Black Bear Project and Missouri Department of Conservation. In addition, she also researches cougar range expansion in the eastern USA, and supports researchers investigating wolf potential distribution and mortality sources in North America, among other topics. Dr Gantchoff is also a part of the Jaguar Network, an NGO focused on the conservation and restoration of the jaguar, as well as its habitats, in northern Argentina.

Her past research and projects involve a variety of topics such as land use impact on mammal communities, invasive herbivores' effect on native carnivores occurrence and activity, quantifying exotic species richness (plants, birds, and mammals) in protected areas,  small carnivore introductions around the world, and avian reproductive ecology and behavior. 

https://sites.google.com/site/mgantchoff/

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Dragonflies and Damselflies have been on our planet for millions of years. They're embedded in our art, culture, stories, and even our skin as a popular tattoo subject.

They also live amazing lives.

Join us for a deep dive on dragonfly lives with Dr Jessica L Ware

Blog Post on Dragonhunters

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Dr Ware's Must-Read Book Picks:

Chasing Dragonflies

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East

Utterly Bugged

Jeff Corwin, American biologist and wildlife conservationist, joins Devon on The Wild Life today to talk about his new show on ABC, Wildlife Nation with Jeff Corwin, in partnership with Defenders of Wildlife, his career's core-wins, lessons learned, finding the right tone, focusing on what matters, finding hope, and confronting climate change.

Jeff is known for hosting Disney Channel's Going Wild with Jeff Corwin, The Jeff Corwin Experience on Animal Planet, ABC's Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin/Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin and Wildlife Nation with Jeff Corwin.

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The Deep-Sea Dragonfish, a scaleless eel-like fish about 6 inches in length that lives (you guessed it) in the deep sea, specifically the bathyal zone of the Atlantic Ocean beyond where any light can reach.

Transcript

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The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, just transferred and transformed.

This means many things, not the least of which is that energy itself, across the entirety of the universe, is finite. There’s only so much that can exist. There’s only so much capacity.

Energy comes in many forms in this universe, just as it does in the universe of your mind and body. We live lives in denial of this inconvenient truth on virtually every scale of human existence. We burn through resources in all their iterations with little thought for what is lost.

But the truth is, it wasn’t lost at all.

It was given away.

Transcript

The world is full of science and, in turn, scientists, and not enough people who truly have that spark for communicating all of that discovery and wonder to the rest of the world. People like today's guest—Dr Carly Anne York (@BiologyCarly). She's an Associate Professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University, an Animal Physiologist, a Science Communicator, and an Author.

Today, science communication, children’s books, squid physiology, mindblowing animal facts, things that are true that are hard to believe, academic and environmental activism, holding onto hope in a world that seems insistent that we shouldn’t, and advice for future scientists

Check out her website

Carly on X

Carly on Instagram

Carly on TikTok

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Have questions, guest recommendations, or want to join the email list? Contact me here OR at hello@thewildlife.blog

We're flipping the script this Valentine's Day with a three part series where we show some love to nature's unloved: spiders and snakes! In part 1, we talk to Sebastian Echeverri about everything from fear of spiders, spider VR, spider dancing, spider sex, tiny spiders on tiny treadmills, and everything in-between! Part 2 will air on February 18th!

Special thanks to Sebastian Echeverri (Twitter: @spiderdaynight, Instagram: @spiderdaynightlive) and Shakira Quiñones (Twitter: @shakiguani)

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Outro Theme by Ella VanLoon

There really is no shortage of ways to build an animal, but there are rules to be followed—rules with deep roots. Check out Part 2 of my pre-kick-off series to my new zoology series, Class, and get oriented with the basic body patterns of animal life.

Transcript

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Don’t let their cute little face fool you. The carnivorous Least Weasel is fierce, eating up to 60% of its body weight in food per day.

Weasel vs Seagull

Weasel War Dance

Check out this and other shorts over on our other listing, too| The Wild Life: SHORTS!

Support the show on patreon.com/thewildlife

https://thewildlife.blog/2018/02/24/the-least-weasel-is-the-most-extra/

In this episode, we talk about everything elephants with expert, Lynn Von Hagen! Intelligence, communication, trophy hunting, general biology, staggering stats, sonic superpowers, and so much more!

Lynn is a Conservation Biologist and Presidential Research Fellow at Auburn University conducting collaborative research in the Tsavo Ecosystem of Kenya. She studies African elephant behavior, movement, and the development of community-based coexistence strategies reducing elephant and human conflicts among MANY other varied research interests. 

Back when I spoke to her, she was stateside on account of COVID at her home in Nashville Tennesee where she lives with her husband and two cats but is now back in Kenya doing fieldwork. 

Lynn is a proud advocate for women and diversity in STEM and non-traditional students.

And is expecting to complete her dissertation in 2022!

Follow her on Twitter @lynnvonhagen1

And check out her website lynnvonhagen.com

Support our show at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Tomorrow, we have an episode coming out in which The Nagging Naturalist herself, Kristen Mankowski, drops some major Nudibranch Knowledge on us.

BUT as two naturalist, we had a very hard time staying on topic. This...this is our ramblings. Think of it as an opportunity to get acquainted with Kristen before tomorrows episode! We talk the horribleness of naturalist uniforms at Target, Noodle Knockers, True Facts videos, Biomechanics, what makes good SciComm, and a bunch of other random stuff!

Check out her website and show! http://www.thenaggingnaturalist.com/about.html

Follow her on Twitter at both @nag_naturalist and @junglegymqueen

and tune in tomorrow to learn all about Nudibranchs!!!!

This episode, which originally aired on March 24 2018, takes us all the way from Copenhagen to the rainforest of South America, from the belly of the beast to its excrement, as we explore nature’s Vampires.

Our guest is Dr Marie Lisandra Zepeda Mendoza, who had recently finished her postdoc in Copenhagen, Denmark and whose recently published research on vampire bats and how they survive on such a peculiar diet is at the center of this story.

If you'd like to support the creation of this show, the blog, and my science communication efforts on social media, you can do so for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Our guest for the day has one of the coolest jobs on earth, studying in what is perhaps the coolest place on earth. He is full of stories, and knowledge, and passion for little creatures that so many would overlook. He will have you wood by the end of the episode as a lifelong ardent snail enthusiast, nay, lover.

Richard and I spoke to him back in late May, and it was so much more than we bargained for. Now, you might be wondering, what are we talking about today? Well, mostly islands!

Today’s guest is an adjunct assistant professor at Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska, received his B.A. at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN and his PhD at Iowa State University.

We talk islands, upside down tortoises, rafting, Judas goats, a morphological menagerie of snails, cities, clever birds, the Galapagos, and so much more. So, grab some dessert and get isolated for our interview with Dr Andrew Kraemer!

Follow him on Twitter @andykraemer

Check out his website: https://andrewckraemer.wordpress.com/

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Dark Walk by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100468

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

They look like some sort of illustration in a mid-90’s kids book about prehistoric animals, which, if you’re familiar, is a really specific aesthetic that deserves some sort of a revival.

Maybe you’re familiar with the Pokemon called Kabuto. I have to admit, my wife got me a classic Gameboy Color for Christmas, exactly like the one I had when I was a kid, and I’ve put close to 20 hours into Pokemon Gold over the past 4 weeks.

Anyway, the point is that they look like, like many things from the sea, otherworldly, ancient, relics of a bygone era, even straight made up for an animated children’s television and game series that somehow manages to rely on its characters training animals to fight each other as a universe building plot point which is, I mean, problematic, right? I don’t know.

They somehow manage to simultaneously embody the moniker of horseshoe while also looking nothing alike other than a U-ish similarity, just as much as their sight immediately calls to mind a crab while not being one in the slightest. I’m talking about, of course, the horseshoe crab. That’s today’s topic. Horseshoe crabs. Their history, their very nature, and their relationships…to each other, other species, us, and even our health.

Today’s special guest, Dr Daniel Sasson (@Daniel_A_Sasson)

He’s a behavioral ecologist primarily interested in studying the evolution of reproductive behaviors. He did his PhD at Florida working with Horseshoe crabs and now conducts research on them at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and as you’d expect, he’s pretty mch always loved science

Learn More about The Horseshoe Crab

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Hey everyone, a bit of a different approach with this episode. Last week, we left off talking SciComm and just about to talk about @BlackAFinStem and #BlackBirdersWeek. That's where we pick up this time in a conversation that spans immigration, COVID 19, the problem with SciComm, being a person of color in a scientific field, learning, antiracism, and so much more.

A sizeable portion of what we discuss revolves around the earlier Florida Man administration announcement that international students on M-1 and F-1 Visas wouldn't be allowed to stay in the country if their fall course load was all online, despite there being a global pandemic. Since the, some of that has changed, but nothing is for certain.

The only edits are the intro and outro. Everything else is the original raw conversation. Why? We didn't want to diminish the meaning. We didn't want to chime in and speak for Chelsea's truth. This is her story to tell, and our story to hear.

Chelsea is not a spokesperson for people of color or international students, but her story and the uncertain reality that she finds herself in are ones shared by so many. We hope you listen, take note to heart, and take the words you hear as a call to action.

"In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be antiracist." - Angela Davis

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If you’ve ever been down to Cozumel, Mexico, you’ve been to one of two places (the other being Glover’s Reef in Belize) on earth where this species of fish can be found. I was there in 2011—on land, granted—but had I gone out snorkeling near any coral outcrops I may have had the opportunity to see the spectacular Splendid Toadfish.

Transcript

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The truth is, the concept of a plant or animals purpose isn’t as cut and dry as many would like. This makes sense. People are always trying to determine their purpose, their deeper meaning, and trying to answer age old questions like “What’s the meaning of life?”. When we start looking outward, we start trying to apply that same thought logic, but that’s just not how life really works. This is a topic I will be sure to explore more in-depth in a future podcast episode devoted to this idea of purpose.

That being said, everything plays a role in its ecosystem. Yes, even ticks. So what are those roles? I’ll explain!

Read the transcript of the episode here

Sharks are in the water. But is the ocean shark-infested, or shark-depleted? I sat down to talk with Dr Alexandra McInturf to find out.

Learn more about Alexandra and her work

Papers Referenced:

Half a Century of Global Decline in Sharks and Rays

Half a century of rising extinction risk of coral reef sharks and rays

Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks

Bycatch Solutions

NOAA Link

Everybody loves Orangutans, but how much do we really know about them? We are currently living in a world where we may lose all wild orangutans within the next decade as a result of human activity, but many of us are live our day to day lives unaware of that tragic fact. In this episode, we sit down with Leif Cocks, World-Renowned Orangutan Expert, whose worked in the field for nearly 30 years.

He's the author of “Orangutans and their Battle for Survival”, “Orangutans: My Cousins, My Friends” and “Finding our Humanity: An Inner Journey Towards Understanding Ourselves and Our Way Forward”. Leif has leadership roles in 10 organizations, including The Orangutan Project which he founded in 1998, and was responsible for the first ever reintroduction of a zoo born orangutan!

Find out more about the Orangutan Project at www.theorangutanproject.org

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We're back with another carefully, specially curated segment from our last full episode with Dr Diva Amon. In this SHORT, you'll get to here about underwater lakes (like the Goo Lagoon), hydrothermal vents, and life in the dark.

No intros, outros, ads, or credits. Just 100% science!

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The Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish may not look like much, but their impact is inarguable. They feed heavily on corals essential for building reefs, the marine equivalent of a metropolis. When these starfish have a boom in their population, the result is a significant loss of live coral. The damage has a higher impact on the reef’s health and resilience than bleaching and disease combined. The incredible diversity of other species dependent on that coral face sharp declines in turn. And it’s not just wild lives that are affected. These reefs act as natural barriers or shields protecting coastal cities. Without those barriers, coastal plants and beaches are at risk. Plus, reef-dependent industries face significant losses. Now, scientists think they may have found a solution---a Trojan Horse.

Transcript

In part 3, we talk to Dr Robert T Mason about the absolute chaos that is the sex life of a garter snake. We talk snake pits, mating balls, cloacal fluids, copulatory plugs, cryptic female choice, Snakes on a Plane, pheremones, and so much more!

Special thanks to Dr Robert T Mason (https://masonlab.science.oregonstate.edu/), Sebastian Echeverri (Twitter: @spiderdaynight, Instagram: @spiderdaynightlive) and Shakira Quiñones (Twitter and Instagram: @shakiguani)

While you are listening, don't forget to rate and review the show! We will literally die from undernourishment if we don't have more ratings and reviews. That's messed up, yo.

Become a patron (and our best friend), and get tons of cool perks at www.patreon.com/TheWildLife and help us to keep doing what we are doing and getting better! Also, check out our latest merch at www.thewildlife.blog/shop

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Outro Theme by Ella VanLoon

Star Wars is as much a product of human ingenuity as it is a space odyssey. Just look at how they solved the Puffin Problem.

Have a question you'd like answered on The Wild Life? Email me at hello@thewildlife.blog.

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Transcript

THIS TOXIC, NECTARLESS FLOWER IS SPREAD BY ANTS

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Stay tuned for her full episode, Poo Cubed, out this Friday!

Patricia Yang is a postdoc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, where she is studying the collective behavior of birds. Before coming to Stanford, she completed doctoral and postdoctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology on the fluid mechanics of body fluids, in particular, blood, feces, and urine. She received bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering (ESOE) and Physics from National Taiwan University.

Yang was the recipient of the Sigma Xi Best Thesis award and the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. Her work has been featured on CNN, the BBC, National Public Radio, National Geographic, and The Times. In addition to conducting research, she teaches fluid mechanics at all levels, from elementary school to college.

https://www.patriciayang.net/

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