The Wild Life

By The Wild LifeScience Nature

The Wild Life episodes

August 04, 2021 TWL News: Wildlife Weekend Update
Your #1 source for wildlife related news from the past week.
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4 min
August 04, 2021 Dispatch from Somewhere #4| Antheraea polyphemus
Read the post and see the picture here: https://thewildlife.blog/2021/08/04/dispatches-from-somewhere-4-antheraea-polyphemus/
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2 min
July 28, 2021 Corndog McGraw
It's time to meet our new cohost, Courtney Downing! This has been one we've wanted to share for quite some time, so it feels great to finally share it with you all.
Next week? Platypuses with Dr Gilad Bino!
32 min
July 23, 2021Bears with Brogan Holcombe
In this episode, Devon and Richard sit down with Brogan Holcombe to talk all about bears!
Outline:
Bear encounter stories
Are all black bears black?
Black bear range in North America
How many species of bear
How large black bears get
Diet (through life and year)
Behavior
Hibernation
Cubs (how many? How long do they stay with mom? Etc)
Interactions with people (becoming comfortable around people)
Mitigating issues and fostering coexistence
Growler Bears
Brogans research

Brogan is a Master’s Student working in the Wildlife Habitat & Population Analysis Lab at Virginia Tech
She’s also the one behind #SundayScientistShoutout on Twitter which she does every week for scientists or STEM activists from underrepresented groups.
Follow Brogan @Brogan_Holcombe or look up her #bearseyeview for awesome bear videos!
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https://broganholcombe.wixsite.com/home
46 min
July 21, 2021 Behind the SCiENcES with Brogan Holcombe
Brogan is a Master’s Student working in the Wildlife Habitat & Population Analysis Lab at Virginia Tech
She’s also the one behind #SundayScientistShoutout on Twitter which she does every week for scientists or STEM activists from underrepresented groups.
Follow Brogan @Brogan_Holcombe or look up her #bearseyeview for awesome bear videos!
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Become a Member-Supporter
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Follow us on all of our platforms
https://broganholcombe.wixsite.com/home
13 min
July 16, 2021Carnivore Ecology with Dr Mariela Gantchoff
In this episode, Devon sits down with Carnivore Ecologist Dr Mariela Gantchoff to talk about
What defines carnivores
How their population sizes compare with those of their prey
How carnivores impact their ecosystem and what would their ecosystems look like without their presence, specifically bears and cougars
Basic biology, diet, and behavior
Impacts on populations
How there behavior in biology influence by humans
Sources of conflict
How people can be more tolerant so that the species can persist
How we need to change our behavior
How to recolonize do you species with human wildlife conflicts in mind
43 min
July 14, 2021 Behind the 𝗦𝗖i𝗘𝗡c𝗘𝗦 with Dr Mariela Gantchoff
Meet this week’s guest before the episode airs!
She is an ecologist at the intersection of theoretical and applied ecology, currently working on landscape and quantitative ecology in relation to the conservation and management of terrestrial wildlife. A lot of her current research involves working to understand wildlife use of natural and developed landscapes, range expansion of recolonizing species, how sex-specific differences can influence conservation and management, and the interactions between humans and wildlife. Specifically, she often works on species distributions, landscape connectivity, population, and metapopulation dynamics, carnivore ecology and behavior, applied conservation science, community ecology, and citizen/community science.
Dr Gantchoff is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Global Wildlife Conservation Center (formerly Camp Fire Program in Wildlife Conservation), at the State University of New York where she investigates aspects of population and the spatial ecology of recolonizing black bears in human-modified landscapes, in collaboration with the Missouri Black Bear Project and Missouri Department of Conservation. In addition, she also researches cougar range expansion in the eastern USA, and supports researchers investigating wolf potential distribution and mortality sources in North America, among other topics. Dr Gantchoff is also a part of the Jaguar Network, an NGO focused on the conservation and restoration of the jaguar, as well as its habitats, in northern Argentina.
Her past research and projects involve a variety of topics such as land use impact on mammal communities, invasive herbivores' effect on native carnivores occurrence and activity, quantifying exotic species richness (plants, birds, and mammals) in protected areas, small carnivore introductions around the world, and avian reproductive ecology and behavior.
https://sites.google.com/site/mgantchoff/
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15 min
June 25, 2021Birds of Paradise with Dr Bruce Beehler
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If you've ever seen a documentary series narrated by David Attenborough, you've almost surely seen the Birds of Paradise. They are a favorite of his, and many others around the world for their otherworldly, almost ethereal appearance, sounds, and behaviors. In this episode, we explore their fascinating world and biology with Dr Bruce Beehler, ornithologist and research associate of the Bird Division of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and expert on the Birds of Paradise. Follow him on Twitter @BruceMBeehler
Episode Outline/Questions Answered:
How many species are there of Birds of Paradise and where do they live?
What exactly is a Bird of Paradise?
Where did they come from? (evolutionarily speaking)
Why here? And how?
Variations between species in nesting, diet, and courtship behavior
Sexual Dimorphism
How do they make such vivid colorations?
How has natural selection led to the males engaging in such intricate courtship displays and having such bizarre colorations?
Role of beauty
Great unknowns
Notes on Conservation
50 min
June 23, 2021 Behind the 𝗦𝗖i𝗘𝗡c𝗘𝗦 with Dr Bruce Beehler
Meet this week’s guest before the episode airs! Dr Bruce M. Beehler (born October 11, 1951 in Baltimore) is an ornithologist and research associate of the Bird Division of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Prior to this appointment, Beehler worked for Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Counterpart International, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Bruce Beehler graduated from Williams College and received his Masters and PhD studying the behavioral ecology of the birds-of-paradise at Princeton University.[1]
He has been an authority on New Guinea birds for several decades, having authored or co-authored several major works on the biodiversity this, the largest tropical island, including The Birds of Paradise (1998), The Birds of New Guinea (1986, 2015) and the two-volume Ecology of Papua (2007).
To the general public, Beehler is best known for having co-led a widely published rapid assessment survey on biological diversity in 2005 to the Foja Mountains, Papua, where he, together with an international team of 11 scientists, the majority from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), made a number of scientific discoveries.
The findings on this survey expanded on previous research conducted in the region by Dr. Jared Diamond in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beehler and colleagues, however, returned with the first ever photographs of two species of birds, the bronze parotia (Parotia berlepschi) and the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons), that previously were known only from a few specimens. Additionally, a previously unknown species of honeyeater was discovered, it being scientifically described in 2007 as the wattled smoky honeyeater (Melipotes carolae). The specific epithet, carolae, commemorates Carol Beehler, the wife of Bruce Beehler. Together with a team from 60 Minutes, Beehler returned to the Foja Mountains in 2007, resulting in the first ever filming of several of the species discovered in 2005, as well as encounters with an undescribed giant rat (Mallomys sp.) and a tiny pygmy possum (Cercartetus sp.)
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17 min
May 14, 2021 Dragonflies and Damselflies with Dr Jessica L Ware
Dragonflies and Damselflies have been on our planet for millions of years. They're embedded in our art, culture, stories, and even our skin as a popular tattoo subject.
They also live amazing lives.
Join us for a deep dive on dragonfly lives with Dr Jessica L Ware
Blog Post on Dragonhunters
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Dr Ware's Must-Read Book Picks:
Chasing Dragonflies
Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East
Utterly Bugged
51 min

About The Wild Life

From the publisher's feed

An optimistic, curiosity-chasing show about the wonder and wildness of life, following the threads that connect us to the natural world. The Wild Life is, always has been, and always will be a show about the diversity of life within the animal kingdom, but it's about more than that. It's about connections. It's about how the natural world inspires our culture, movies, and technologies. It's about the patterns that persist throughout not just life, but the universe itself. It's about us.