Talking Apes

Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a vet, conservationist, and founder of Conservation through Public Health. Join  us this week on Talking Apes where she tells us about her new book Walking with Gorillas, which chronicles her journey towards becoming Uganda's first-ever wildlife veterinarian, and details her innovative approach to gorilla conservation. 

Gladys's work has been revolutionary in the field of gorilla protection. She recognized early on that the health of the local human populations was closely intertwined with the health of the gorillas living in the nearby forests when she ascertained that zoonotic and anthroponotic infections were jumping between the animals and people surrounding Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

In 2023 she co-founded award-winning NGO, Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), with her husband. The organization deploys a novel approach known as ONE HEALTH which  focuses on the interconnectivity of human, animal, and environmental health. CTPH's numerous programs work with local communities to improve access to basic healthcare services while promoting conservation awareness and sustainable livelihoods; in turn protecting the health of nearby gorillas.

"You need to address human and wildlife health together in order to have holistic outcomes."

"One Health is being recognized in the conservation community as a viable way to achieve sustainable development."

Gladys detailed some of the difficulties she initially faced as, not just the first woman, but first ever individual tackling the role of wildlife veterinarian in Uganda. Her determination to succeed broke barriers and has paved the way for future generations of female conservationists in Uganda and across the African continent.

"Conservation is about understanding that people are part of the equation."

Gladys and CTPH's approach to gorilla conservation is recognized as an effective model for other programs around the world. Her focus on the links between human and animal health and wellbeing has been instrumental in promoting sustainable conservation practices that benefit both people and wildlife.

Our episode with Gladys is the closing chapter of our special March 2023 zoonosis and disease ecology month. You can find all of the other episodes in this series exploring scary viruses, animal infections, and pandemics here.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT is a quarterly feature where we revisit past Talking Apes episodes that focus on highly critical issues. For our March 2023 instalment we're featuring our Season 1 episode with disease detective Dr Tony Goldberg, accompanied by three brand new podcasts exploring disease ecology and the links between animal health, human health, and the environment. 

Zoonotic diseases occur when viruses, bacteria, or parasites jump between humans and animals. Dr Goldberg explores how these diseases take a toll on us and apes like us.  In this episode he tells us about his quest to understand them, how we live with them, and his adventures in Africa trying to track down and eradicate a scary infection that almost wiped out an entire population of rescued chimpanzees.

Tony's episode was originally aired in March 2021 at the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic which threw the world into turmoil, not only within our personal lives, but economically, culturally, and politically.  The pandemic brought to light zoonosis as a critical, prevalent issue and a constant existential threat to us all.

Also in this special ZOONOSIS IN THE SPOTLIGHT season throughout March, don't miss our incredible new two-part conversation with award-winning science writer David Quammen, and finally a look at life on the frontlines of zoonotic and anthroponotic disease with mountain gorilla veterinarian Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka; from heart of Uganda’s gorilla country, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Visit our website to find out more.

Click here to visit Tony's website. 

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"Twelve years ago I heard a phrase that changed my life. I was sitting at a campfire in central Africa and heard, 'thirteen dead gorillas'.  I didn't know it at the time, but that phrase was launching me on a long quest to understand the ecology and evolutionary biology of scary viruses."

Join us this week on Talking Apes when we talk to science author David Quammen about his years long mission to understand zoonoses - diseases that pass between humans and animals.

David's books, SPILLOVER and The Chimp and the River, investigate the origins of human pandemics like AIDS, Ebola, Marburg, Bird Flu, and Covid 19; how and why they emerge, and where they hide between outbreaks. 

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This week we're going HOST TO HOST as Gerry is  joined by fellow wildlife podcaster Jack Baker.

Jack is creator and host of Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast  which features over 100 episodes highlighting pioneering conservationists at the forefront of wildlife protection. Pangolins are Jack's starting point for celebrating under-appreciated species and conservation stories – no matter how small, strange, or unexpected!
 
Tune in to hear Jack tell us about his undying passion for the natural world and why he thinks zoos are a positive tool in conservation. Learn how he went about creating a podcast with a positive outlook in the middle of a pandemic, and find out why he hugged a cactus in Arizona. 

Check out Jack's wonderful podcast via the links below: 

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/pangolinpodcast 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pangolinpodcast 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pangolinpodcast/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PangolinPodcast/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pangolinpodcast/ 

Opening Music: Savannah (Sketch) by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4323-savannah-sketch- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

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Carl Safina is an American ecologist and author. He writes about our relationship with the natural world and the other beings that share it.

‘In my writing I explore our relationship with the living world—and how it could be better. My more recent work also probes how free-living animals experience life. What drives my work is a devotion to free-living things and wild places. And what drives that devotion is my deep love and wonder for the living world. ’  (from Carlsafina.org).

During our conversation, Carl expressed his deep concerns with overpopulation, pollution, climate change, habitat destruction,  and the cruelty we inflict on other species. He attributes these issues to a fundamental failure of the education system:

“What do we learn by the time we’re out of high school? We learn to buy things. We’re equipped to just be consumers, not human beings. We don’t really learn ethics, we don’t learn how to take care of each other, how to take care of the world. We don’t learn any kind of perspective that would give us wisdom, let alone some of the humility that you would see in indigenous cultures who revere the world. 

And what do we all do in the way that we live? We use stuff up. We use things that we don’t understand the consequences of. We don’t understand their origins. We don’t really know anything.”

Carl's books include Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace; Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel; The View From Lazy Point, and others.

He is the founding president of the Safina Center which explores how humans are changing the living world and its ecosystems.

Click here to visit Carl's Website

Click here to visit The Safina Center Website

Click here to read Carl's article on protecting half of Earth 

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Jo-Anne McArthur is a multiple award winning photojournalist who has spent over two decades travelling the world to document and bring to light the disturbing truth about our relationship with the other sentient beings that share our planet. Her unflinching photography has been acknowledged with multiple awards including Wildlife Photographer of the Year and The Global Peace Award.

She is the author of  three books: We Animals (2014), Captive (2017), and HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene (2020), and is the subject of Canadian filmmaker Liz Marshall's acclaimed Canadian documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machine.

Jo-Anne is founder of  We Animals Media, an organisation dedicated to bringing visibility to 'hidden' animals through compelling photo and videojournalism.  The comprehensive archive of work depicting the animals we trap, wear, eat, and experiment on is freely available  to anyone wishing to change the status-quo and work towards a more compassionate world where we co-exist peacefully alongside animals.

Jo-Anne and WAM's dedicated team of journalists regularly put themselves in compromising and dangerous situations in the hopes of inspiring others to share their want of a better world for animals. They often have to break the law to obtain the stories they believe will shift our attitudes towards the 80 billion land animals we use and kill every year. 

In this episode of Talking Apes, Jo-Anne opens up about suffering PTSD as a result of the cruelty and bloodshed she has witnessed throughout her career. She tells us about the time her entire team ended up in hospital, and explains how she maintains her incredibly positive and warm demeaner despite the dark worlds she documents. 


READ OUR BLOG HERE to learn more and see some of Jo-Anne's work, including the photos discussed in the podcast. 





Visit Jo-Anne McArthur's Website

Warning: discusses animal cruelty, animal suffering, animal abuse.

Themes: animal rights, animal liberation, animal welfare, vegetarianism, veganism, animal law, animal protection, cruelty free living,  journalism, photography.

GLOBIO is a global awareness nonprofit that creates environmental films and provides visual support to wildlife conservation organizations around the world, and tells their stories globally while educating the public about our shared environmental challenges. GLOBIO’s mission is to inspire a positive relationship with our environment by connecting species, people and planet.

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Great apes — gorillas, chimps, orangutans and bonobos — have been Talking Apes host Gerry Ellis's life long passion. Discover where it started and how it's evolved as guest host Eric Cain explores the world of Talking Apes with photographer, film-maker and podcast host, Gerry Ellis.

Long before creating the Talking Apes podcast, Gerry had built an award-winning career as an international wildlife film-maker, photographer, and writer spans three-decades and features work appearing in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, the New York Times, Ranger Rick, and more. He is the author and/or photographer of more than a dozen books, including two in the highly acclaimed National Geographic Kids Book series.

Gerry’s filming project in 2001, Wild Orphans, inspired the founding of GLOBIO.

GLOBIO is a global awareness nonprofit that creates environmental films and provides visual support to wildlife conservation organizations around the world, and tells their stories globally while educating the public about our shared environmental challenges. GLOBIO’s mission is to inspire a positive relationship with our environment by connecting species, people and planet.

Support our work by becoming a Patreon subscriber: Click here

Make a one off donation to GLOBIO: Click here 

Talking Apes is a GLOBIO initiative. Learn more:

Official website: talkingapes.org

Instagram: @talkingapes_podcast

Support our work by making a small donation here, or for access to exclusive content and rewards, click here to become a Patreon member.

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Talking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOBIO.

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At 22 years old, Rachel Hogan never dreamed that a three month volunteering trip to Africa would result in her becoming the director of one of the world's largest and most well known primate sanctuaries.

Over two decades later, Rachel remains on the edge of Cameroon's rainforests overseeing fifty human residents and 300 non-human residents - a growing hoard of gorillas, chimps, and monkeys now living in Ape Action Africa's 17 ginormous forest enclosures.

The sanctuary is a lifeline for endangered baby chimpanzees and gorillas that have been illegally stolen from the wild, victims of the bushmeat trade - their parents killed and the babies sold on as pets.

Ape Action Africa supports the government by making confiscations of these animals possible, and providing lifelong care to the orphaned apes and monkeys that show up at their gates.

Listen to Rachel tell us about the unpredictable and sometimes chaotic day to day life at the sanctuary, the tiny baby gorilla that persuaded her to stay forever, and the recent events that have given her a greater hope for the future of great apes in Africa.

To learn more about Ape Action Africa visit: apeactionafrica.org

Support their work: here

Support our work by becoming a Patreon subscriber: Click here

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Talking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOBIO.

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Primate portraits from some of the most unlikely habitats — tiny, century-old, forgotten places. BEHIND GLASS by Anne Berry is an intimate very personal look at the lives of primates nearly forgotten.

Visit our BLOG to see the photos from our conversation on Talking Apes.

Visit anneberrystudio.com to learn more. 

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Talking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOBIO.

Help Borneo Nature Foundation Save Indonesia's Forests

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Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Talking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOBIO.

Help Borneo Nature Foundation Save Indonesia's Forests

Support the show
BUY OUR MERCH