Saving Wildlife with Sam

Dr. Iroro Tanshi found a bat species unseen in Nigeria for 45 years. Eight days later, she watched the forest it lived in catch fire.

That collision, a rediscovery and a disaster eight days apart, is what launched one of the most innovative community-led wildfire prevention programs in West Africa, and it's a big part of why Iroro just won the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize, conservation's "Green Nobel." In this conversation, we talk about the short-tailed roundleaf bat she rediscovered on a mountain on the Nigeria-Cameroon border, the 2016 wildfire that nearly trapped her field team, and how a local farmer's simple question, "could you just tell us when to burn?", became the seed of a science-based fire prediction system that now uses town criers and "Forest Guardians" to keep entire communities safe. Her program has hit zero forest fires in Afi for five consecutive years and is now scaling to the DRC, Madagascar, and Indonesia through the Tropical Fire Alliance.

In this conversation:
00:00:18 – Introduction
00:00:31 – Rediscovering the short-tailed roundleaf bat after 45 years
00:05:06 – Ten new bat species records for Nigeria
00:13:36 – The hammer-headed fruit bat's booming mating call
00:25:47 – Growing up in Warri, an oil town, and her father's nature-documentary rule
00:32:05 – Founding SMACON and winning the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize
00:41:00 – The 2016 wildfire that nearly trapped her field team
01:01:19 – Building a fire prediction model with town criers and Forest Guardians
01:02:25 – Zero wildfires for five years, and scaling globally with the Tropical Fire Alliance
01:25:15 Her advice for young African women in conservation

About Dr. Iroro Tanshi:

Dr. Iroro Tanshi is a Nigerian bat biologist and conservationist who co-founded SMACON, where she serves as Director of Research. She holds a BSc in Environmental Science and a Master's in Environmental Quality Management from the University of Benin, an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from the University of Leeds, and a PhD from Texas Tech University. In 2016, she rediscovered the short-tailed roundleaf bat in Nigeria for the first time in 45 years. She has since won the Future for Nature Award (2020), the Whitley Award (2021), and the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize.

About SMACON:

SMACON (Small Mammal Conservation Organization) protects at-risk small mammals in West Africa through evidence-based conservation and community partnership. Its flagship wildfire prevention program combines weather-based fire risk prediction with traditional town crier networks and community "Forest Guardian" response teams, achieving zero forest fires in Afi for five consecutive years while protecting roughly 27,000 people across 16 communities. SMACON is now scaling that model globally through the Tropical Fire Alliance.

Learn more:

• SMACON Website: https://www.smacon-africa.org
• Donate: http://wildnet.org/smacon
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smaconafrica/

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@savingwildlifewithsam
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savingwildlife
• Join the newsletter: https://forms.gle/3v5UCmN6CgLGGM3s5
• Follow Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-williams-0989483/

Please like, comment, and share to help more people discover these conservation stories. 🌍

George Shillinger has spent 40 years protecting sea turtles. His path started a pet box turtle that had literally been to space!

I sat down with the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Upwell to talk about what it takes to protect an animal that crosses entire ocean basins, dives over a kilometre deep, and falls under the jurisdiction of dozens of governments.

Here's what struck me most: we've been pouring resources into protecting nesting beaches for decades. But sea turtles spend 99% of their lives at sea. That's where they're dying, from bycatch, ship strikes, pollution, and climate change. George built Upwell to address exactly that gap, using satellite tracking, species distribution models, and partnerships with fishers to protect turtles where it actually matters.

He also makes a compelling case for head-starting and rewilding, two of the most controversial ideas in sea turtle conservation. With Eastern Pacific leatherback populations down as much as 99%, his argument is hard to ignore.
In this conversation we cover:
Capturing and tagging Bumpy, a 1,500-pound leatherback
How spotter planes, acoustic telemetry, and satellite tags track turtles across the Pacific
The Eastern Pacific leatherback collapse: from 185 nesting females to 2 or 3
The Great Turtle Race
The Lost Years: tracking baby turtles with 2-gram satellite tags
Why the old conservation playbook isn't going to cut it

Link in comments. 🐢
#SavingWildlife #Conservation #SeaTurtles #Leatherback #MarineConservation

A conversation about my favourite parrot! I had the pleasure of chatting with the Co-founder and Chair of the Kea Conservation Trust Tamsin Orr-Walker has spent 20 years protecting Kea, the world’s most curious parrot.

Kea slide down rooftops for fun, dismantle cars out of curiosity, and once caused $30,000 in damage to forestry equipment in a single night. They’re also  endangered, with fewer than 7,000 left in the wild. The very traits that make them so captivating are the same ones that keep getting them into trouble.

This was a fun conversation about one of the most intelligent, curious, and mischievous birds on the planet. In this conversation we cover:
How 150,000 kea were killed under a government bounty, and the shift that followed
The lead poisoning crisis hiding in plain sight on South Island rooftops
How a conflict with forestry crews turned into one of their biggest conservation wins
Why New Zealand leads the world on public support for conservation
What 20 years of building a conservation trust from scratch actually looks like
Link in comments. 🦜
#SavingWildlife #conservation #kea #podcast #wildlife #NewZealand

Bill Sutherland is Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology, and founder of Conservation Evidence. For over 20 years he’s been asking a deceptively simple question: if a doctor can look up the evidence for any treatment before prescribing, why can't a conservationist do the same?

Conservation has long relied on tradition, intuition, and accumulated experience. But the tools being used today are often the same ones used 50 years ago, while every other field has been transformed by innovation. Bill's work is changing that. In this conversation:
0:00 - Introduction
9:50 - Conservation Evidence: the database changing how we save wildlife
27:03 - Indigenous and traditional knowledge: opportunities and challenges
46:18 - Horizon scanning: predicting the next big threats to biodiversity
49:50 - AI in conservation: promise and risk
53:10 - Where conservation is headed in the next 5 to 10 years


About Bill Sutherland:
Bill Sutherland is the Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge and founder of Conservation Evidence. He coined the term "evidence-based conservation" and has spent over two decades building the tools and frameworks to make it a global standard. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021 for services to evidence-based conservation. He also runs Conservation Concepts, a YouTube channel making ecology accessible to anyone curious about the natural world.

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM:
Subscribe:    / @savingwildlifewithsam 
Facebook:   / savingwildlife 
Instagram:   / savingwildlifewithsam 
Join the newsletter: https://forms.gle/3v5UCmN6CgLGGM3s5
Follow Sam on LinkedIn:   / sam-williams-0989483 


Please like, comment, and share to help more people discover these conservation stories. 🌍

Jen Miller is Senior Manager of the Sea Otter Fund at the Wildlife Conservation Network, and her path has been anything but linear. A PhD from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies studying tigers and livestock depredation in India. Wolves and jaguar reintroduction policy at Defenders of Wildlife. International wildlife trafficking grants at the US Fish and Wildlife Service. And now, one of conservation's most genuinely hopeful comeback stories: bringing sea otters back to 800 miles of coastline where they've been absent for over a century.

Sea otters were once called "soft gold," hunted so relentlessly in the 18th and 19th century maritime fur trade that 99% of their population was wiped out. Today, with 3,000 in central California and real momentum building around reintroduction, they're at the center of one of the ocean's most important ecological recovery stories. As a keystone species, when sea otters return, kelp forests follow, and when kelp forests return, everything else follows too.

But the biology might be the easy part. Getting to yes with fishermen, tribes, state and federal agencies, and coastal communities is where the real work happens.

Jen also speaks honestly about the emotional interior of conservation: eco-grief, climate anxiety, burnout, and the working group she co-founded called Revive, a global community of practice helping conservationists build the resilience to keep going for the long haul.

Bonus 5-Minute Guided Resilience Practice with Jen

Feeling eco-grief, climate anxiety, or the everyday weight of change? Jen leads a short guided body sensing practice you can use anywhere, anytime.

About the Sea Otter Fund

The Sea Otter Fund at the Wildlife Conservation Network supports research, community engagement, and the logistical groundwork needed to reintroduce sea otters across their historic range. With 3,000 southern sea otters in central California and an 800-mile gap to close, the fund is focused on the science, the stakeholder relationships, and the socioeconomic research needed to get to yes, with tribes, fishermen, and coastal communities leading the way.

In this conversation:

• 0:00 - Introduction
• 16:10 - Sea otters: from 300,000 to near-extinction and back
• 24:10 - Why great white sharks are accidentally blocking sea otter recovery
• 37:00 - The Sea Otter Fund: closing the 800-mile gap
• 43:20 - Revive: building emotional resilience in conservation
• 58:50 - Guided 5-minute emotional resilience practice with Jen

Learn more:

• Sea Otter Fund: https://wildnet.org/wildlife-fund/sea-otter-fund/
• Revive: https://www.reviveconservation.org/

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM:

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@savingwildlifewithsam
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savingwildlife
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savingwildlifewithsam/
• Join the newsletter: https://forms.gle/3v5UCmN6CgLGGM3s5
• Follow Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-williams-0989483/

Please like, comment, and share to help more people discover these conservation stories. 🌊 🦦

Snow leopards live in some of Earth's harshest environments, hunting on vertical cliffs at elevations where oxygen is half that of sea level. They're sacred to the indigenous communities who share their landscape and they're threatened by human-wildlife conflict, climate change, and the challenges of survival in an increasingly unstable mountain ecosystem. 

Ashleigh Lutz-Nelson, Executive Director of Snow Leopard Conservancy, works to lift up local conservationists protecting one of the world's most elusive cats across six countries in Central Asia.

Track a snow leopard: Support conservation and follow a real snow leopard's journey with Fahlo's GPS tracking bracelets: https://myfahlo.com/products/snow-leo...

Learn more about Snow Leopard Conservancy:
Website: https://snowleopardconservancy.org/
Donate: https://wildnet.org/wildlife-programs...
Facebook:   / snowleopardconservancy 
Instagram: @snowleopardconservancy
LinkedIn:   / snow-leopard-conservancy 

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM:
Subscribe:    / @savingwildlifewithsam 
Facebook:   / savingwildlife 

Please like, comment, and share to help more people discover these conservation

Frank Pope, CEO of Save the Elephants, shares his unconventional journey into conservation

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton (1942-2025), founder of Save the Elephants and pioneer of elephant research. His groundbreaking work transformed our understanding of African elephants and shaped modern conservation practices.

Learn more about Save the Elephants:
Website: https://savetheelephants.org/
Donate:https://wildnet.org/wildlife-programs...
LinkedIn:   / save-the-elephants 
Facebook:   / savetheelephants.kenya 
Instagram: @savetheelephants

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM:
Subscribe:    / @savingwildlifewithsam 
Facebook:   / savingwildlife 
Join the newsletter: https://forms.gle/3v5UCmN6CgLGGM3s5
Follow Sam on LinkedIn:   / sam-williams-0989483  

Peter Damerell, Interim Director of the Saiga Conservation Alliance, shares his journey from aspiring wildlife filmmaker to leading conservation efforts across Central Asia for one of the world's most unusual antelopes. From the vast steppes of Kazakhstan to working with traditional medicine markets in Asia, Peter coordinates an alliance of organizations protecting a species that has crashed twice and recovered dramatically—and could crash again at any moment.

In this conversation:
19:03 - What is a saiga? The biology of an Ice Age relic
32:12 - How the Saiga Conservation Alliance works
40:28 - When conservation succeeds: new challenges emerge
1:00:06 - Vision: Ecosystems where saiga and people flourish together

Learn more about Saiga Conservation Alliance:
Website: https://saiga-conservation.org/
Donate: https://wildnet.org/wildlife-programs...
Facebook:   / savesaigas 
Instagram: saiga_conservation

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM:
Subscribe:    / @savingwildlifewithsam 
Facebook:   / savingwildlife 
Instagram:   / savingwildlifewithsam 

Please like, comment, and share to help more people discover these conservation stories!

Most marine biologists dream of studying dolphins. Dr. Louisa Ponnampalam actually did it - and discovered that saving wildlife requires far more than science.

Louisa shares her journey from teenage "dolphin obsession" to founding and running Marecet, Malaysia's leading marine mammal conservation organization. She opens up about the steep learning curve from field researcher to organizational leader, the surprising skills conservation work demands, and why protecting animals means understanding the humans around them.

In this conversation: 

→ The baby dugong encounter that took 11 years to happen 

→ Why marine mammals are legally protected but their habitats aren't 

→ Building trust with fishermen to reduce dolphin bycatch 

→ The reality of conservation funding and facing "get a real job" criticism 

→ Making marine conservation accessible to marginalized communities

Key timestamps: [UPDATE WITH FINAL TIMES] 

0:00 - The baby dugong encounter 

8:00 - Why Louisa founded Marecet and filling knowledge gaps 

10:30 - The turning point: Conservation is more than science 

25:00 - Working with fishermen on bycatch solutions 

32:00 - Marine debris and habitat threats 

40:00 - Getting research into policy and protected areas 

44:00 - Learning to lead and communicate 

53:00 - "Just because it's never been done doesn't mean it can't be done"

About Louisa: Dr. Louisa Ponnampalam is a Pew Fellow and co-founder of Marecet, living the childhood dream she never gave up on. She's spent nearly two decades researching dolphins, dugongs, and whales, and has helped establish multiple internationally recognized marine protected areas in Malaysia while training the next generation of homegrown marine conservationists.

Learn more about Marecet: 

• Website: https://www.marecet.org/ 
• Donate: https://wildnet.org/wildlife-programs/dolphins-and-dugongs/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marecet-research-organization/ 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marecetresearchorganization 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marecet/

CONNECT WITH SAVING WILDLIFE WITH SAM: 

• Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@savingwildlifewithsam
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savingwildlife
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savingwildlifewithsam/
• Join the newsletter: https://forms.gle/3v5UCmN6CgLGGM3s5
• Follow Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-williams-0989483/

Please like, comment, and share to help more people discover these conservation stories!

Weddell Seal audio from NOAA

Rosamira Guillen shares her inspiring journey to becoming Executive Director of Proyecto Tití and shows us that conservation is more than just biology. We range from fun stories of the Cotton-tops, protecting their dry-forest and working finding ways to benefit local Colombian communities to values, culture and leadership!  

Follow Rosamira and her team’s work

https://www.facebook.com/proyectotiti

Instagram: Proyecto Tití (@proyectotiti) · Barranquilla

Support the protection of the world’s cutest little monkey: https://wildnet.org/wildlife-programs/cotton-top-tamarin/

Signup for the Saving Wildlife With Sam email https://forms.gle/3v5UCmN6CgLGGM3s5

More about Saving Wildlife with Sam https://www.facebook.com/savingwildlife 

Please support the channel and subscribe to help more conservationists tell their story!