Let’s Hope The Weather Holds

I speak to optometrist Ryan O'Connor from the Stag Roar podcast about podcasting, optometry, what tech will change the way we see, starting hunting later in life, the western diet and its influences on different cultures, I admit to being a chocoholic, we talk Seventh Day Adventists influence on the modern diet (I kid ya not!), me freaking out in the bush, my English also dries up so I blabber a lot, Ryan tells me about his interest in herd history in New Zealand and more.

The Gary Fetke interview with Ryan on the modern diet, carbs and more is worth a listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-stag-roar-life-less-ordinary/id1257836237?i=1000429186527

The Stag Roar: Life Less Ordinary https://www.stagroar.co.nz/

Kiwi Tom Hudson speaks to  me from Winnipeg where he is taking a few days break from a 5000km canoe and land trip across Canada. We talk about how he became a traveler, being stalked by wolves, being in bear country, the time he saved a dog from sure death and ended up on Canadian news, and more.

His YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@WhatInTheWorld_Tom

CBC Manitoba report on Tom rescuing the dog form sure death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSlSn2LpHE

Tom's Instagram profile https://www.instagram.com/whatintheworld_tom?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

What does regenerative farming and adventure film making have in common? It has Deane Parker in common! Deane talks about bikerafting, the film festival scene, regenerative dairy farming and healthy soils.

Check out his Instagram

Jurgen Schwaneke talks to me about hunting in New Zealand, back country poetry, guiding hunts in the USA, his work as pest controller and the challenges the industry faces and outdoor film making.

His YouTube channel Strider Media has some cool philosophical ramblings on hunting and good outdoor adventure videos of a man with his dog.

https://www.youtube.com/@strider_media

His Instagram account

instagram.com/strider_adventures

In this episode botanical and wildlife illustrator Erin Forsyth talks about how artists can be facilitators for better understanding of nature, we talk about indigenous, christian and science perspective of nature, she walks me through her process, she tells me how she thinks of her work as part of a greater tradition and talks about art seen in perpetuity, documenting biodiversity from a science perspective and ties to colonialism, the shift in cultural understanding away from particular interests married only to western science, citizen science, how to include te reo Māori, respecting indigenous people in your work and the influence of her own cultural history.

Her website: http://www.erinforsyth.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erin_forsyth/?hl=en

Veterinarian Francesco Formisano tells me about the Pink eye project where, with the help of New Zealand hunters acting as citizen scientists, the prevalence and spread of Infectious Keratoconjunctivitis in New Zealand Tahr herds were studied.

Franco also tells me about hunting roe deer in France, his vet practice and the possibility of more research projects in New Zealand.

Download the 14 page report on pink eye here:

https://nztahrfoundation.org.nz/project-pinkeye

Franco's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/altitudeandtrails/

Thar are artiodactyl ungulates related to goats and sheep.

The New Zealand Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) are an introduced species but have now become part of the landscape.

In this episode Pablo Gregorini, Leader of the Lincoln University Pastoral Livestock Production Lab, tells me about a trial where animals were given a choice of what to eat and how it improved animal health, soil health, the quality of meat and milk, and was also better for consumers.

This research will hopefully be used so that beached whales are not taken to landfill but that they can be towed to out to sea and their nutrients returned to the ocean without colliding with ships.

He talks about his latest paper 'Dead on the Beach? Predicting the Drift of Whale Remains Improves Management for Offshore Disposal', the role the nutrients of a dead whale plays in the ecosystem, the challenges they faced, why this cheaper option is not the current way of doing, he tells me about sitting in whale carcasses for arthritis treatment, the software they used to map the whale's 150km drift path, the sharks that fed on the carcass and more.

His paper https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/12/7/1156

All music by Jacques van Wyk