Aussie Wildlife Show (Aussie Wildlife Show)

Emma McKenzie has worked with many species of threatened marsupials such as Tiger Quolls, Eastern Quolls, Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies and Squirrel Gliders and has also been involved in ecotourism, education and habitat restoration. Emma is the wildlife manager at Wildlife Wonders in the beautiful Otway Ranges, just 5 minutes out of Apollo Bay.

Wildlife Wonders offer guided walks through lush tree fern gullies, Eucalypt woodlands and spectacular ocean vistas.

All the profits from Wildlife Wonders go directly to the Conservation Ecology Centre, working to conserve the unique Australian plants and animals across the Otways.

After 54 years of dedicated service to the veterinary care, wellbeing, conservation and research of wildlife, Dr David Schultz, former Zoos SA veterinarian, has been awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to veterinary medicine, to zoological societies, and to philanthropy.

We chat about rock-wallaby cross-fostering, wildlife reintroduction projects and we get David's advice on how to get involved in the conservation industry. 

Peter Mirtschin has published over 70 scientific papers on venom research, snake ecology, conservation and snake behaviour, as well as several books on Australian dangerous snakes. He is also the founder of Venom Supplies, which supplies both Australian and exotic snake venoms for research, antivenom and therapeutic applications.

John has a PhD in Ecosystem Management and has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles in the fields of arid zone ecology, reptile and avian ecology, mining and grazing impact assessment, vertebrate pest management and threatened species recovery.

Click here to find our more about John's most recent book 'Among The Pigeons'.

In this episode we chat with conservationist Ross Oke about ways we can encourage native wildlife to live sustainably within the urban environment.

Ross Oke is the General Manager at the Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association.

Kristen Messenger, owner of Bugs n Slugs, tells us why mangroves matter and gives a passionate plea for mangrove conservation.

Click here to sign the petition to save the St Kilda mangroves :)

 Image by Bishnu Sarangi from Pixabay 

This is our first episode for 2020 and was recorded as fires ravished the country. Over 18 million acres have been burnt including thousands of homes and buildings and we saw the loss of over one billion animals. We talk about a range of subjects with Wayne ranging from climate science to wildlife conservation during this confronting and emotional time. 

She has a background in conservation ecology, having completed a PhD on Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in NSW, and spent six years working on declining mammals in northern Australia.

Jeremy Austin is an evolutionary biologist working in the fields of ancient DNA, molecular ecology, conservation genetics and forensic biology. 

Jeremy’s research uses ancient and modern DNA techniques to “travel through time” to understand the evolutionary history of living and extinct vertebrates; assess the impacts of past environmental change on animal populations; and provide valuable genetic data for conservation and management of threatened species.

Jeremy is the deputy director for the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. 

In this episode Kristen Messenger from Bugs n Slugs reveals some of the bizarre ways that invertebrates reproduce, from beetles with chastity belts to snail love darts. This episode is recommended for mature audiences :) 

Photo by Egor Kamelev from Pexels

Joan Gibbs is a Grasslands and Fire Ecologist teaching out of the University of South Australia. 

Photo by Trevar Skillicorn-Chilver on Unsplash

We caught up with Professor Chris Daniels the CEO of Koala Life to chat about Koala conservation. Chris has been a prolific scientist and author, having written or edited 9 books and 1 DVD and contributed to more than 170 scientific publications. 

We were joined again by Dr John Read the Pragmatic Ecologist who tells us about one of the biggest threats to Australian biodiversity. Is it cats, rabbits, cane toads or something else? Have a listen to find out. We also asked john about the pushback ecologists receive regarding the culling of native animals.

Make sure you also check out our previous interview with John when he launched his book 'Among the Pigeons: Why Cats Belong Indoors'.

Photo Cathy Zwick

Michael Mills is the creative director at Heaps Good Productions. He connects all ages to the natural world through song, theatre and storytelling with characters such as Professor Flint and with his Facebook page Dinosaur University.  

ANiMOZ Creator, Joel Howland, is a student studying Animal Science at Flinders University in Adelaide.

He designed ANiMOZ - a trading card game - as a way to engage kids and people of all ages in Australia’s incredibly unique, but endangered native fauna.

Every card features a different native Australian animal, from the powerful Wedge-tailed Eagle to the critically endangered Mountain Pygmy Possum.

Click here to buy the ANiMOZ starter pack.

John Gitsham is the Senior Park Ranger in charge of the Coorong National Park, the former president of Birds SA, and is a skilled and passionate wildlife photographer. We chat with John about one of his favourite groups of birds, the ducks.

The below image is of Australian Shovellers. Photo credit: John Gitsham.

David Mclelland is a wildlife veterinarian at the Adelaide Zoo. We chat about some of David's experiences working with wildlife, from devils to dragons and everything in between.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Carl Charter is the co-founder of Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries, under water photographer and scuba diving instructor.

Check out some of Carl's footage of the giant cuttlefish here

Click here to ask about private tours with Carl for very small groups to see leafy-sea dragons and other unique sea creatures.

Dr Natalie Warburton is Associate Professor of Anatomy at Murdoch University and Dr Aaron Camens Lectures in Palaeontology at Flinders University. We discuss marsupial evolution from marsupial moles to extinct tree dwelling kangaroos from the Nullarbor Plains. 

Marsupial Mole. Image credit: Auscape International Pty Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

Researchers Dr Mike Swinbourne and Dr Alyce Swinbourne chat with us about wombat ecology, natural history and conservation. You can check out Mike's Facebook page, 'Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats - the Science', for more awesome wombat information, pics and videos.  

Helen and Ali work as wildlife ecologists for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. AWC is the largest private owner and manager of land for conservation in Australia, protecting endangered wildlife across more than 12.5 million hectares in iconic regions such as the Kimberley, Cape York, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre and the Top End. 

Matt Summerville and Kristy Jensen are the creators of the YouTube channel, The Natural Herp Keeper.

They created the Natural Herp Keeper to share their passion for reptile keeping, herping, DIY naturalistic enclosures and to  inspire others to change the way they keep reptiles by increasing the standard of husbandry and striving to create the best possible life for captive animals. 

Both Matt and Kristy are experienced zoo keepers with a passion for the natural world. 

Collett's snake (Pseudechis colletti). Matt Summerville.

Terry Reardon is a bat expert and researcher and works as a technical officer at the South Australian Museum. Terry has worked tirelessly with SA communities to raise awareness about bat ecology and conservation.​

Andrew Daly is a zookeeper with Taronga Zoo and Caroline Monro is a zookeeper at Wildlife Sydney Zoo. Together they form a conservation power-couple, bringing awareness to the plights of Australian wildlife and their habitats.

They are also passionate about reducing their environmental footprint on the planet and have started a blog to share their journey. Click here to check out their blog, 'Greening Pains'.

In this episode we visit Anthony Johnson from SA Quality Reptiles to check out his amazing reptile keeping facility where he shares with us some of the experiences he has gained over many years of working with reptiles.

Anthony frequently heads out into the field to observe and learn more about the species that he keeps, this helps him to better understand their husbandry requirements.  

Thank you to all the listeners and to all the guests that support the Aussie Wildlife Show. In this episode we chat about why we do the show and why we love Australian wildlife and nature. 

For those that may wish to donate to the show click here to access our Patreon account.

Conservation through domestication. Is keeping native animals as pets a bad idea, is it unethical, or can it actually be beneficial in helping to preserve endangered species?

In this episode we try to answer some of these questions.

Clive and Claire are field ecologists that have have been focusing on plant diversity as a guide to overall ecosystem health. 

Flying Duck Orchid (Caleana major). Photo by Clive Chesson. 

Mark Smith holds a senior position at Adelaide Zoo and is a world-renowned shark and ray expert and the co-author of Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual: Captive Care of Sharks, Rays, and their Relatives.

We catch up with conservation geneticist Dr Tahlia Perry to learn about all things echidnas. You can be involved in echidna conservation by downloading Tahlia's app 'Echidna CSI' to add echidna sightings, photos and observed behaviours. 

Image by PCTRS by Pixabay

Ben Britton is the Director of the Wild Cat Conservation Centre in Hawkesbury, one hour north west of Sydney, Australia. The Conservation Centre focuses on the preservation and conservation of wild cats of the world, including African Serval, Caracal and the endangered Cheetah. 

Ben has more than 20 years of professional experience in animal husbandry and wildlife conservation which has taken him across the world, from reserves in Africa to sanctuaries in Asia.

Ben currently features on National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild, appearing in numerous documentaries highlighting his wildlife conservation efforts.

What do you do if you find injured wildlife? We caught up with wildlife carer Bev Langley to find out.

Bev is the owner of 'Minton Farm', a property located in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia.  The sanctuary is a native fauna rescue and rehabilitation centre which houses a wide variety of wildlife including koalas, kangaroos, possums, bettongs, wombats, emus, raptures and many more.  

Approximately 600 native animals a year are rescued and rehabilitated on the sanctuary before being released. Over 11,000 injured and orphaned native animals and birds have been received over 26 years of service. Another approximately 11,000 creatures have been assisted offsite via phone, email, website and Facebook advice and assistance.

Bruce Jackson has over 30 years experience working with, and protecting Australian endangered animals such as numbats, bilbies, bettongs, pygmy possums, quolls, malleefowl and much more. Bruce worked alongside Dr John Walmsley to create 'Earth Sanctuaries', feral free havens for endangered species to thrive. Bruce currently consults privately on various conservation projects, works with Faunature and sits on the board for FAME, the Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species.   

Byron manning has dedicated his life to working within the zoo industry and is currently the Curator of Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills. He has an extensive private collection of reptiles, specialising in the keeping and breeding of many of the smaller Australian monitor species.  

Samantha Bywaters a lecturer in Conservation and Land Management, is an advocate for volunteering and is doing a PhD on conserving orchids in a changing climate. 

We recently had the opportunity to visit Chad Staples (Zookeeper Chad) at Featherdale Wildlife Park. Chad has worked at Featherdale for over 20 years and chats with us about why he loves his job and shares his passion for conservation and education.

Located in the Greater Western Sydney Region, Featherdale Wildlife Park have a wonderfully diverse collection of Australian animals and are involved in many conservation programs to preserve vulnerable and endangered Australian wildlife. 

You can follow Chad's journey at:

https://www.facebook.com/zookeeperchad/

https://www.instagram.com/zookeeper_chad/?hl=en

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth and droughts are guaranteed. Are there ways we can manage the land to better protect the environment and our biodiversity?

We discuss some pros and cons of various farming techniques with permaculture expert and sustainability consultant Chris Day.

Click here to conact Chris about his permaculture seminars, desinging and building sustainabe landscapes or to order his home-grown organic olive oil.

Dreamtime entities, mysterious creatures and spooky tales are just some of the things we talk about in this episode.

Chris Koolmatrie grew up in the Coorong, learning the traditional ways of life including bush foods, hunting, bush medicines as well as the fascinating stories passed down through time from his Ngarrindjeri ancestors.

Chris works for the Natural Resources SA Murray Darling Basin where he helps to protect and conserve the natural and cultural assets of the region as well as sharing his cultural knowledge to future generations.

We recently had a ribbetting conversation, warts and all, with frog researcher Steven Walker :)

Spotted Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis). Photo by Steven J Walker.

Dan Mangano is a zoologist and environmental educator, when he's not playing drums and singing with the Aussie rock band Ablaze.

We chat with Dan about some of the wild and captive animals he has worked with, his love for the natural environment, and the educational work he does with Victorian wildlife demonstration company Reptile Encounters.

Click here to check out Ablaze and support an awesome original band.

Click here to check out Victorian wildlife demonstration company Reptile Encounters.

This week we catch up with Daniel Saliba to learn about the secret lives of the threatened Murray-Darling Carpet Python. Daniel has spent many years out in the field researching, surveying and studying these cryptic snakes.

Daniel's work aims to bring an awareness of these beautiful pythons, which are disappearing from the eastern Australian woodland ecosystems of the Murray-Darling Basin.

We're back from a big Christmas break and 2019 is off to a flying start with our good friend Dave Irwin, raptor trainer, educator and founder of Kangaroo Island's Raptor Domain. 

Dave Irwin is a qualified Zoo Keeper and has been involved with raptors from a very young age. He has years of experience in training and hand-raising and rehabilitating sick, orphaned and injured animals and birds of prey.

Visit Raptor Domain on Kangaroo Island and witness one of the best free-flight bird shows on Earth. It's truly a rare and unique opportunity to view and experience wildlife up close and personal, while creating an understanding and appreciation of them and their role in the environment. 

This week we caught up with David Evans from Clear Mountain Reptiles who came down from Queensland to chat with us about some of the awesome reptiles he works with, including the stunning Emerald tree Monitor.  

We caught up with good friend Michael Smith to chat about some of the awesome Western Australian wildlife he has worked with during his career in conservation and education. 

Dianne Pearson is a zookeeper and animal rescuer specialising in native mammals. We caught up with Dianne after she returned from working with Tree Kangaroos at the Tree Roo Rescue and Conservation Centre in Far North Queensland. 

With the climate warming will the Earth again be inundated with giant reptiles or are we about to be thrust into another ice age? 

On this episode we talk to Dr. Aaron Camens about how the Earth's ever changing climate can affect the world's fauna, as well as discusing some of the amazing mega fauna that once roamed across Australia.

Thylacoleo carnifex , the marsupial lion, was Australia's top order mammalian carnivore and a real life 'drop bear'. This week we chat with Dr. Aaron Camens, paleontologist at Flinders University and co-author of a recently published paper which analyses the first compete skeleton reconstruction of this highly adapted predator.

Spare a thought for the early Australians who had to contend with this 100kg semi-arboreal hunter they may have dropped onto its prey with its sharp hooked-claws, razor-sharp teeth and possibly, pound for pound, the most powerful bite of mammal species!

Photo Credit: Beclectic, Wikimedia Commons

We recently caught up with Dr Catherine Kemper at the South Australian Museum to learn more about her role as the Senior Researcher of Mammals. We also discuss whales, taxonomy, wildlife conservation and even the Thylacine gets a mention.

We catch up with Dr Charlie Manolis, Chief Scientist at Crocodylus Park and Wildlife Management International to find about some of the latest research in the conservation of these iconic and ancient reptiles. 

This week's episode is a little bit different. We chat with our good friend Dr. Chris Hunt about the potential health benefits of nature and how it might help in calming the mind.  

Chris is a general practitioner specialising in mental health and Indigenous health.

This week we had a visit from conservation biologist Dr David Peacock to talk about how his idea to return Western Quolls to the Flinders Ranges came into fruition. We also talk about his latest idea to return Tiger Quolls (pictured) onto Kangaroo Island.

In this episode we learn about some threatened Aussies such as Western Pygmy Possums (see image) and Southern Brown Bandicoots, as well as wombats, Antechinus and other native mammals.  

We chat about some of the research Dr. Sparrow conducts to help protect these animals and their environment as part of her role as a wildlife ecologist with the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board. 

Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries is a researcher studying parasitoid wasps with a passion for communicating about biodiversity, insects and species discovery.

On our resent trip to Darwin we were lucky enough to catch up with renowned Herpetologist Dr Gavin Bedford. We chat with him about his life in the reptile hobby, some of the businesses and projects he has been involved in, and of course his work with the amazing Oenpelli Python. We also get his thoughts on some ecological and environmental issues and, as usual, we fix all the world's problems.

Human overpopulation underpins most of our environmental issues and yet we rarely hear it mentioned in the mainstream media. Dr James Ward is not afraid to come out and address this important yet often controversial issue.

Dr. Ward, former president of Sustainable Population Australia, lectures in and researches technology for sustainable living, with an emphasis on urban and peri-urban food production through innovative water recycling and aquaculture at the University of South Australia.

We sat down for a chat with our good friend Dr John Walmsley at his bush block in the Adelaide Hills. He is known colloquially as the 'cat hat man' because he wore a hat made from the pelt of feral cat to a tourism awards ceremony, the ensuing controversy led to the laws changing to allow feral cats to be legally killed is Australia.

He set up wildlife sanctuaries across Australia to exclude feral animals and to reintroduce locally extinct and threatened species. We talk to John about the early days of his conservation endeavours as well as his firsthand experience working with such animals as platypus, bilbies and numbats.

John turned 80 in 2018 and is still active in the realm of conservation and habitat restoration.  

He was the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year in 2000.

Katie Irvine is a Science Communicator with the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Adelaide.

Katie has an interest in citizen science, community ecology, habitat fragmentation, revegetation, and conserving the natural environment for the benefit of people and wildlife. In this episode we chat about Katie's work in the rain forests of Far North Queensland, Tree Kangaroos and conserving threatened orchids. 

We chat with Dr Mark Hutchinson, Senior Research Scientist of Herpetology from the South Australian Museum about the recently discovered Western Desert Taipan, the endangered Pygmy Blue-tongue and all sort other sciencey goodness. 

Counting koalas, tracking pet cats, community wildlife surveys and goanna watch. Learn how YOU can make valuable contributions to scientific research, possibly discovering a new species or even a new astronomical object . We discuss some of the citizen science projects recently undertaken by the University of South Australia.

Check out the Discovery Circle Website or the Australian Citizen Science Project Finder to get involved! 

Dr Tim Jessop is an ecologist with Deakin University and is a scientific adviser for the Komodo Survival Program.

Click here to check out and to support the awesome work the Komodo Survival Program do :)

Come on an adventure with us as Dr. Wayne Boardman shares some of his tales of working with wild gorillas in Uganda, endangered birds in New Zealand and helping to save threatened species here in Australia. 

Wayne is presently working as a senior lecturer at the School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide. 

We recently had a visit from Dr Cheryl Wilson to learn about the science behind the benefits of connecting with the natural world. Cheryl specialises in Lifestyle Medicine and has a life-long passion for wildlife and nature.

Follow Dr Wilson's Facebook page, Living Well with Dr. Wilson for more heath tips.

The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife are a non-government organisation on a mission to safeguard wilderness & wildlife for future generations.

We chat with Emily Rose Brown from FNPW about some of the awesome projects they are involved in.

We catch up with Emma Malik and chat about training native animals such as crocodiles and quolls, and we find out how a professional animal trainer becomes a professional comedian. 

We saw Emma's show 'If you can't train it, eat it' and it was hilarious. Emma's other shows include 'Sticking with it' and even a children's show entitled 'Fee-Fi-Fo-Fun'. Click here for show dates 

We had a visit from Estuarine Ecologist 'Faith Coleman' to talk about the heath of the Murray River, carp herpes, restoring natural flows and bioluminescent dinoflagellates. Faith really only came over to cuddle Snuffles the wombat.   

What is a subfossil?

We ask Graham Medlin, Honorary Research Associate with the South Australian Museum who has studied subfossils for over 40 years. Graham's detective work out on the field and in the lab have led to the discovery of at least one new species of Australian mammal and to a greater understanding of the pre-European distribution of small mammals in the Australian outback.

Graham sits on the council of the Fields Naturalists of South Australia and is an active member of the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia Mammal Club.

In this episode we talk to the knowledgeable and inspirational biologist James Smith about ways to attract wildlife to your property. James owns a business called fauNature where he and his team make nesting boxes for a wide range of Australian fauna. James is also the author of the book, Wildlife of Greater Adelaide, the most comprehensive wildlife guide to the Greater Adelaide region. 

We delve deep into the world of aquatic serpents as we learn about sea snakes and sea kraits with evolutionary biologist Jenna Crowe-Riddell. 

This episode was uploaded on the same day as the release of Jenna's paper on sea snakes, titled 'Phototactic tail: Evolution and molecular basis of a novel sensory trait in sea snakes'.

Olive sea snake (Aipysurus laevis). Photo credit: Chris Malam.

In this episode we chat with natural historian John Barrie about some of the prehistoric megafauna that once roamed Australia. In particular we discuss Wonambi, a giant Australian python-like snake.  

John's hard work and contributions to the field of palaeontology have been acknowledged by having a species of Wonambi named after him, Wonambi barriei.

John Fowler shares with us some of his tales about travelling around Australia, and the world, following his passion for reptiles and the environment. Once a computer technician, he got onto the internet early and started the Australian Herpetology page. 

Click here to check out John's current page, The Reptiles of Australia.

Bullies, house wreckers, lazy parents, murderers and cheats, but not all birds are jerks. On this episode we sit in a bushland setting with passionate naturalist, birdwatcher and conservationist John Gitsham to discuss all things birds.

To learn more about John's Birdwatching and photography courses visit his website, Nature Connections. 

Steve and Adrian headed off to Borneo earlier this year to get some wildlife-spotting tips from the tour guide that David Attenborough calls on when he goes to Borneo. John Nair Rajan is an officer in the Wildlife Rescue Unit of the Sabah Wildlife Department and a multiple recipient of the 'Best Tour Guide' from the Sabah Tourism Awards.

This is the first of the interviews we did while we were exploring the forests of Borneo during April 2018.

You can contact John on his Facebook page to organise your Borneo adventure.

Grow a backbone!? So is it true that behind every good vertebrate is a greater invertebrate?

What does a snail racing, spider cuddling, mantid mating environmental educator have to say about the importance of these little spineless critters to our complex biodiversity?

We unfold some of the magic and often hidden world of invertebrates with Kristen Messenger owner/operator of Bugs n Slugs. Kristen travels around Australia as an environmental educator accompanied by a host of spiders, insects, snails, slugs and other critters.

When he's not swimming for Australia, Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers loves hanging out with his private collection of reptiles.

We had a great discussion about his growing reptile collection and the unique forms of blue-tongue skinks that he works with. Kyle shares with us his passion, or obsession, for the captive husbandry of his scaly companions and reveals his future plans within the hobby.  

You can check out Kyle's page and see his awesome animals at kc_critters

Marie Munkara was born on the banks of the Mainoru River in Arnhemland. Author of several books including Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea and her first book Every Secret Thing, which won the 2008 David Unaipon Award and the 2010 NT Book of the Year. 

Marie chats with us about her current doctoral thesis covering topics around her Arnhemland family, her peoples ancient history, myths, legends, tales of floods, sea level changes and much more.

Earlier this year the Aussie Wildlife Show travelled to Borneo with a group of friends including Mark Hura, insect expert specialising in Australian ground beetles.

From giant scorpions and centipedes to beetles that glow in the dark, we discuss some of the awesome critters we discovered in the forests and caves of Borneo.

Michael Bayliss is the Communications Manager for Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

SPA are an independent not-for-profit organisation seeking to protect the environment and our quality of life by ending population growth in Australia and globally.

Click here to check the SPA Facebook page.

Click here to check out the SPA website.

What are boodies, chuditch and bilbies?

We recently caught up with Nathan from Arid Recovery to chat about the work he does saving some of Australia's most threatened species.

ARE THEY OUT THERE??? Officially recognised as extinct we talk to Neil Waters about the consistent sighting of Thylacines (AKA marsupial tigers) still occurring to this day all over mainland Australia and Tasmania.

Visit the Thylacine Awareness Group's Facebook page and checkout Tassie Tiger Lodge. 

Click here to purchase Neil's DVD, Living the Thylacine Dream. 

This week we chat with Nick Petropoulos, owner-operator of Victorian wildlife education company, Wicked Wildlife. Nick also runs an awesome YouTube channel, Wicked Wildlife- YouTube, where he introduces a range of Australian fauna and discusses issues surrounding their conservation. 

We caught up with biologist Professor Chris Daniels from the University of South Australia to talk about his natural history book 'Adelaide, Nature of a City', and we discuss his new role as director of Cleland Wildlife Park.

Click here to purchase Professor Daniels Book.

We caught with Professor Rob Morrison at Science Alive, 2018. 

Profession Morrison has worked as a scientist, writer, and media personality and has added profoundly to the promotion and understanding of science in Australia. For 25 years he has been a familiar face of science on television, as presenter of The Curiosity Show for eighteen years and appearances on The New Inventors, Nexus, Science Magazine, and Radio National’s Ockham’s Razor. He has written thirty books on science and natural history and under his stewardship the SA Royal Zoological Society has trebled its membership in six years. Rob recently helped establish SciWorld, a new science centre in Adelaide that runs exciting education programs, and developed six regional science fairs and shows, including Adelaide’s National Science Week. He is recognised nationally and internationally as an outstanding science communicator and in the citation for his2007 Australian Museum Eureka Prize Rob is described as a national treasure and a well-loved ambassador for science.

We caught up with the always inspirational Ranger Stacey backstage at the 2018 World Environment Fair.

Stacey is a host on the long-running nature and science themed series Totally Wild, and has been with the show since its premiere in 1992.

Formerly a ranger and spokeswoman for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, she has also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, Wombat, Agro's Cartoon Connection and Rove Live.

For more than 25 years Rangers Stacey has inspired the next generation to care for wildlife and the environment.

Rex Neindorf is the owner/director of the Alice Springs Reptile Centre which he opened in 2000. Rex chats with us about some of the awesome reptiles he gets to work with as well as sharing much of what he has learnt in growing his facility to become the successful business it is today.  

Richard Gibson is the Head of Life Sciences at Auckland Zoo and has managed zoo reptile departments all over the world. We caught up with Richard at the Large Varanid Workshop (October 2019) in Alice Springs where he gave two presentations, one on Komodo Dragon husbandry and the other on parthenogenesis, which he co-discovered in Komodo Dragons. 

This week's episode is a collection of short interviews we did at last year's Riverland Field Days where we were set up in the Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin tent. We chat with some of the awesome people working to protect the fragile river ecosystems, the owner of wildlife demonstration business Black Snake Productions and the owner of Southern Emu Farm. 

Sarah and Alex are an ecological power-couple who are passionate about protecting biodiversity and also, through their business EnviroEdu, they raise awareness and educate future generations. We chat with them about some of the projects they've worked on in Australia and around the world including gorillas in Africa and also meeting Lonesome George in the Galápagos Islands.  

Scott Pullyblank is a knowledgeable and passionate science communicator, specialising in conservation and biology and is currently the Curator of Life Sciences at the Alice Springs Desert Park. 

Thorny Devil, photo courtesy of C.Margetts Photography

We visited the Territory Wildlife Park and caught up with the Manager of Visitor Experiences, Simon Ferguson for a chat. 

The Territory Wildlife Park is situated on 400 ha of natural bushland, it contains native animals and plants representative of Northern Territory. It contributes to their conservation through research programs as well as through public education. The three main habitats represented are woodland, wetland and monsoon vine forest.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit!  

In this episode the always inspiring Sophie Thomson gives us advice about creating habitat friendly gardens for any situation. Sophie is a gardening consultant, writer as well as a presenter for ABC TV's Gardening Australia. Sophie lives at Sophie’s Patch, a three acre garden that produces organically grown food as well as locally indigenous plant species for wildlife habitat. 

What does Steve Backshall have to say about Aussie Wildlife and why it keeps drawing him back? We caught up with him backstage during his 2018 Deadly 60 Downunder Tour.

Frog expert Steve Walker recently paid us a visit at AAHQ where we had a bushwalk, found some rare frogs, and recorded this episode.

Steve is the coordinator of Frog Watch South Australia and an Education Officer with the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Environment Board education programme. He is also the co-author of the book Frogs of South Australia, frog photographer and illustrator, and most impressively, as you will hear on this episode, can mimic many Aussie frog calls!

Tim Faulkner is the co-director at the Australian Reptile Park, a conservation-based zoo located in a natural bush setting on the Central Coast of NSW which specialises in education, conservation and lifesaving snake and spider venom collection work.

Tim is also the president of Aussie Ark, established in 2011 as ‘Devil Ark’, with a focus on saving the iconic Tasmanian devil from extinction. Since then and due to overwhelming success, the role of the organisation has expanded, and now has vision of creating a long-term future for our threatened Australian species.

Tim was the Australian Geographic Australian Conservationist of the Year 2015.

This week we had a visit from Toby Esplin who owns and operates African-based wildlife tour company About Nature Tours. Toby and his team specialise in nature-based safaris around southern Africa and Madagascar. 

This episode, with Tracy McNamara the CEO of FAME, has been released on the 7th of September which is National Threatened Species Day in Australia. The date commemorates the death of the last known thylacine (or Tasmanian tiger, Thylacinus cynocephalus) in 1936.

FAME are the Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species and have been funding conservation projects in Australia for the past 25 years. In this episode we discuss how business plays a role in wildlife conservation. Click here to check out some of the awesome projects FAME are currently involved with. 

Trevor Evans has dedicated his life to protecting and saving endangered Australian species and their habitats. He is the founder of Secret Creek Sanctuary which was set up to provide a feral-proof enclosure where endangered native species are protected from predation. The sanctuary aims to show visitors what Australia once looked like prior to European settlement and houses species such as Eastern Quoll, Dingo, Tasmanian Devil, Long-nosed Potoroo, Rufous Bettong, Spotted-tailed Quoll and Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby. It is also the home of the Secret Creek Cafe, a unique, rustic home-style cabin serving delicious refined plant-based food. Pictured below is an abandoned Spotted-tailed Quoll joey that Trevor was hand-raising when we visited.

Come for a tour of some of the wildlife of Borneo with Steve and Adrian. We see wild orangutans, crocodiles and birds along the Kinabatangan River, take a wonder through Gomantong Caves, spot-light for nocturnal animals and visit some wildlife rehabilitation centres in Sepilok.

Zac Bower works with some of the most dangerous snakes on the planet with the venom extraction program at the Australian Reptile Park. 

The Australian Reptile Park is the sole-provider of terrestrial snake venoms to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. Their work contributes to the production of life-saving medicines that are relied upon by hundreds of patients in Australia and New Guinea every year.