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.

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.

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.​

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

Photo by Trevar Skillicorn-Chilver on Unsplash

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.

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

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. 

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 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.