The Wild Life

In this episode, we sit down with the one and only Dr Kassandra Ford, aka @kassthefish, to dive into the shocking world of electric fishes. We cover the origins of electric fish, how a living creature generates electricity, the shocking (or not so shocking) truth about touching electric fish, the legendary electric eels, communication and interference, and stunning secrets!

Now DR Kassandra Ford, aka @kassthefish on social media, is front and center on this weeks Behind the SCiENcES! Kassandra did her undergraduate research focused on neurobiology and development in zebrafishes under Dr. Mary Halloran. She then worked for a year at TAMU-Corpus Christi under Dr. Frank Pezold. He showed her lab management skills, curatorial skills, and the nuts and bolts of taxonomy and systematics. 

Kassandra's path towards a doctorate in Biology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology took her to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She completed her PhD work under Dr. James Albert, studying the evolution of electric fishes from South America and Africa, and successfully defended her dissertation in summer 2021: Mosaic evolution of craniofacial morphologies in apteronotid and mormyrid electric fishes.

Now Kassandra will be completing a short-term postdoctoral position with Dr. Ole Seehausen at the University of Bern from 2021-2022, prior to starting an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology at George Washington University with Dr. L. Patricia Hernandez!

Learn more about Kassandra at https://www.kassandraford.com/

Support our Show at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Memory, complex social lives, communication, expression, grief, and revenge.

In this episode, we pull from our interview with Lynn Von Hagen to explore the inner machinations of the elephant mind in all of its brilliance.

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In this episode, we talk about everything elephants with expert, Lynn Von Hagen! Intelligence, communication, trophy hunting, general biology, staggering stats, sonic superpowers, and so much more!

Lynn is a Conservation Biologist and Presidential Research Fellow at Auburn University conducting collaborative research in the Tsavo Ecosystem of Kenya. She studies African elephant behavior, movement, and the development of community-based coexistence strategies reducing elephant and human conflicts among MANY other varied research interests. 

Back when I spoke to her, she was stateside on account of COVID at her home in Nashville Tennesee where she lives with her husband and two cats but is now back in Kenya doing fieldwork. 

Lynn is a proud advocate for women and diversity in STEM and non-traditional students.

And is expecting to complete her dissertation in 2022!

Follow her on Twitter @lynnvonhagen1

And check out her website lynnvonhagen.com

Support our show at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Get to know Lynn before our full episode on elephants later this week

She is a Conservation Biologist and Presidential Research Fellow at Auburn University conducting collaborative research in the Tsavo Ecosystem of Kenya. She studies African elephant behavior, movement, and the development of community-based coexistence strategies reducing elephant and human conflicts among MANY other varied research interests. 

Back when I spoke to her, she was stateside on account of COVID at her home in Nashville Tennesee where she lives with her husband and two cats but is now back in Kenya doing fieldwork. 

Lynn is a proud advocate for women and diversity in STEM and non-traditional students.

And is expecting to complete her dissertation in 2022!

Follow her on Twitter @lynnvonhagen1

And check out her website lynnvonhagen.com

A year or so ago, we did an episode with Dr Diva Amon about the deep sea. One of the topics we covered were Whale Falls--what happens when a whale dies and the ecosystem that follows.

A recent listen back on this episode got us thinking. Whales are the largest animals in the ocean, does anything comparable happen when the largest animals on land die?

Today on The Wild Life, we ask the question, "what happens when an elephant dies?"

In this episode, we also reference a recent article by the Guardian which can be read here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/14/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-roadkill-placed-on-sky-tables-to-lure-rare-birds-of-prey

Support our show at patreon.com/thewildlife

In this episode, we sit down to talk with Dr Gilad Bino all about platypuses!

We talk about their name (and some alternates), conservation efforts, absurd adaptations, forgeries and fakeries, what it's like to be stung by one, and so much more.

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Before you sit down with us to learn all about platypuses, join us for a glimpse Behind the SCiENcES with Dr Gilad Bino.

Dr Bino is passionate about conservation and science. He seeks to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis by understanding the underlying processes that shape biodiversity at multiple spatial and temporal scales to inform and prioritize conservation management.

Research Activities

• Platypus Conservation Initiative
• Global Standard for Wetland Conservation

Support as at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

This is one of my favorite shots I’ve ever managed to capture. I snapped this in 2015 at one of my all-time favorite parks, @brazosbendstatepark near Houston, TX. It sorta looks like she’s lunging forward, but in reality, she was sitting in a quickly flowing stream with her mouth open against the flow, presumably to catch fish or other critters that flowed by.

It’s estimated about 250 alligators over 6 feet long live within the over 1000 acres of water at Brazos Bend, and have been for the last 65 million years. They have practically continuously been there since the days of the dinosaurs. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

Want a bunch of random alligator factoids? Give this short a listen!

or read them here: https://thewildlife.blog/2021/08/07/dispatches-from-somewhere-5-american-alligator/

Support us at www.patreon.com/thewildlife