Urban Wildlife Podcast

Urban Wildlife Podcast episodes:

• 03.10.2024

  Urban Coyotes with Stan Gehrt

  Tony and Billy talk with one of their urban wildlife heroes, Stan Gehrt, who has been studying Chicago’s coyotes for more than 20 years. Dr. Gehrt has just authored a new book Coyotes Among Us: Secrets of the City’s top...

  
• 02.11.2024

  It’s Always Groundhog Day

  Tony and Billy talk about one of their favorite critters, the (urban) woodchuck (a.k.a. groundhog, monax, whistle pig, etc.) and its marmot relatives around the globe. Other topics include yellow-bellied and hoary marmots; when iNaturalist makes it look like a...

  
• 08.15.2023

  Tony and Billy Catch up and Opine on Beavers, Hunting & Conservation, and Land.

  Tony and Billy got together ostensibly to talk about urban beavers (Castor canadensis), but the conversation wandered far and wide, touching on such subjects as hunting and conservation, rowhouse rednecks, groom cakes, Coleman coolers, the absurdity of private land ownership,...

  
• 05.28.2023

  Charismatic Mega Fish Fauna

  The biggest animal in Philadelphia (and other port cities) isn’t a deer or a coyote, it’s a fish. We talk with biologist Shannon White about Atlantic sturgeon and her research into their depressingly reduced populations. We talk about how the...

  
• 05.28.2023

  Chasing the Urban Exotic Episode Repost (In Memory of Scott McWilliams)

  In memory of Scott McWilliams, who passed away from brain cancer recently, we are reposting this episode from 2015. Scott was a great Philadelphian, physician, Billy’s herping buddy and close friend, and an endlessly inquisitive naturalist.

  
• 04.08.2023

  Harbor Seals to Whales, Everything in Between

  Andrew Budziak traveled from Vancouver to St. John’s and four cities in between to photograph Canadian urban wildlife for his video series Edge of Frame. Billy and Andrew talk about the wildlife he saw and the humans too. You can...

  
• 03.15.2023

  The Most Beautiful Snake in the Country

  The San Francisco garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) is shockingly beautiful and sadly endangered. It’s small range lies within the San Francisco Bay Area (no surprise there), one of the most densely populated regions of the United States. Billy is...

  
• 01.29.2023

  The Tyranny of Roads (and what to do about it)

  You might only think of them as paths from here to there, but roads are vast structures whose density largely defines urban areas and determine what can survive in them. Darryl Jones, author of A Clouded Leopard in the Middle...

  
• 12.19.2022

  Post Office Fossils and Mountain Beavers

  Seattle naturalist and author David B. Williams talks with Billy about the urban nature world of Seattle, including the geology of building stone, backyard eagles, and mountain beavers. (and if anyone out there wants to do a full episode about...

  
• 09.29.2022

  What do to about deer?

  There are too many white-tailed deer for forests in much of eastern North America to regenerate. Should we put them on birth control? Should we let hunters take care of the problem? Is more-intensive culling the solution? Can wolves and...

  
• 08.03.2022

  Book Talk: Exploring Philly Nature and BEYOND!

  Billy’s book, Exploring Philly Nature: A Guide for All Four Seasons is out! Buy your copy ASAP! (go ahead, this podcast episode will still be here when you’re done). Tony’s got some book ideas too (and a R.A.M.B.O. album due...

  
• 04.28.2022

  City Nature Challenge and Urban Biodiversity in Southern Ecuador

  (English/Español) The City Nature Challenge starts on Friday, April 29, and in this episode Billy talks with Angel Mario Hualpa Erazo of Ecuador’s Green Jewel, based in Loja in southern Ecuador. We get to know Loja, hear about Green Jewel’s...

  
• 03.15.2022

  Save the Rats

  Urbanites are starting to learn to live with predators like coyotes, bobcats, and hawks, but what about their rodent prey, like rats? We talk with political scientist and human/wildlife researcher Christian Hunold about his paper looking at rodenticide bans and...

  
• 01.24.2022

  A New Urban Hunter

  Troy Bynum (@tb_wildlife_photography on Instagram) is Philly naturalist, wildlife photographer, and a new urban hunter. Troy talks with Billy about the experience of hunting for the first time, and they discuss issues of race and hunting.

  
• 12.23.2021

  A New Hope: Advocating for Wildlife, Cats, and People in Tulsa

  Local wildlife lovers and cat lovers can all feel outgunned and overwhelmed when the national, multi-million-dollar organizations that push TNR come to town. Tulsans for Public Safety shows how one community has organized on a grassroots level to promote sound...

  
• 12.11.2021

  Best Summer Ever

  Billy and Tony chat about a summer spent doing urban environmental education together.

  
• 07.12.2021

  Wildlife of Urban Zanzibar

  Learn about the neighborhood galagos and the red-banded rubber frogs of urban Zanzibar with Jonathan Richard Walz. Billy and Tony talk with Richard about the urban wildlife of this corner of East Africa as well as the impact of the...

  
• 05.26.2021

  Should Billy Take Up Hunting?

  Inspired by a conversation with past podcast guest Brad Gates, Billy, who has been vegetarian for over 25 years, is thinking about taking up urban hunting. Tony and Billy talk about the implications, ethical and ecological.

  
• 05.08.2021

  Juncos Take Los Angeles

  The city can be a tough place for a little bird, unless that city has lots of pine trees and cozy places to build nests. Dark eyed juncos have adapted to Los Angeles, and we’ll hear about it from ornithologist...

  
• 04.11.2021

  The Cat that Changed America

  Tony and Billy talk with Tony Lee, film producer and author of The Cat that Changed America, the story of Los Angeles’ P22 mountain lion.

  
• 03.04.2021

  Singapore Wildlife

  Tony and Billy talk with Singapore nature guide Ivan Kwan about wild boar, huge water monitor lizards, introduced myna birds, and what it’s like to explore nature in one of the world’s greenest cities, Singapore.

  
• 02.17.2021

  Great Southern Bioblitz!

  Philly naturalist Robin Irizarry and Billy talk with their antipodean urban bioblitz colleague Stephan Fricker about the Great Southern Bioblitz, the fall (or spring if you’re down under) counterpart to the City Nature Challenge.

  
• 01.25.2021

  Urban Falcons

  Wherever you live, it’s time to start looking up! Billy brings his lawn chair and watches some West Philly peregrine falcons with local birder Schubert Sweat. He then talks with Peter Green about his Providence Raptors blog and book.

  
• 12.16.2020

  Mammals of Bogota and Where to Find Them

  Billy talks with Colombian biologists Sara Acosta and Rodrigo Mutis about their urban mammal coloring book, Mamíferos de Bogotá y Donde Encontrarlos (Mammals of Bogota and Where to Find Them). The episode kicks off with a summary of the conversation...

  
• 08.13.2020

  The Red Fox

  The trash panda of Europe is also an urban critter in North America. Billy talks about fox range expansion in in North America and urban fox evolution in England with Kate Garchinsky, illustrator of the Secret Life of the Red...

  
• 06.14.2020

  Mouse History is Human History

  We take a look at one of our most humble companions in civilization, the house mouse. Michelle Niedermeier of the Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Integrated Pest Management program joins Billy as we talk about research into how mouse genetics can help us...

  
• 06.02.2020

  Bringing Shorelines back to Life

  Tony talks with Dr. Joshua Moody of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary about living shorelines, which work for us (fighting erosion, helping us cope with the effects of Global Warming) while working for nature.

  
• 05.13.2020

  Triangulum Translocation: Lucille’s Story (UWP + Herpin’ Ain’t Easy)

  What happens when a snake isn’t welcome in a back yard? Billy talks with Mike McGraw about a milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) named Lucille and how she ended up in a tank on his desk. This is a co-post...

  
• 04.21.2020

  Dead Porcupines Count! City Nature Challenge 2020

  How do you do an urban international bioblitz during a pandemic? Navin Sasikumar, Robin Irizarry, and Billy talk about the City Nature Challenge 2020 and how we can all take part on our own, together. (here’s that dead porcupine video)...

  
• 02.27.2020

  Spotted Lantern Flies & Japanese Beetles: Invaders FTW!, (For The W.O.N.)

  Smash invasive spotted lantern flies with Billy and Michelle Niedermeier of Penn State’s Community Integrated Pest Management program. Billy talks about the Japanese beetle invasion a century ago (working off Ken Frank’s paper about the topic), and we (joined by...

  
• 10.19.2019

  Urban Boars (and Hogs Go Wild)

  Our domestic pig’s wild Eurasian cousins enjoy urban living all the way from Spain to Japan. Billy and Tony talk about urban boar and the increasingly urban feral hogs on their own continent. They also discuss the research of Barcelona’s...

  
• 10.04.2019

  Science vs. the Cat Hoarders

  Is science a match for the pathological passions of the bighearted but monomaniacal people who maintain outdoor cats? We talk with the Urban Wildlands Group‘s Dr. Travis Longcore, whose critique of “trap-neuter-release” (TNR) is still one of the best out...

  
• 09.05.2019

  Moth Night Every Night!

  Urban night life isn’t just about bars, clubs, and theater. When night falls, the bugs fly. Tag along with Billy and Ken Frank (author of the Ecology of Center City Philadelphia) as they have a moth night in Billy’s community...

  
• 07.26.2019

  More Squash Bees!

  Do you like pumpkin pie? Thank the pollinators who make squash (fruit of members of the genus Cucurbita) possible. But don’t thank a honeybee, look to the squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, a solitary bee that, centuries ago, followed the original...

  
• 07.12.2019

  Black Beasts of the Urban Wild

  White whales don’t have to be white. Billy and Tony talk with Brad Gates (hunter and bear wrangler extraordinaire) about the culmination of years-long personal urban wildlife quests: a black rat snake for Billy and a black bear for Tony....

  
• 06.25.2019

  London Plane Trees: More than Just the Hostas of Street Trees?

  Research Ecologist Lara Roman and Arborist Jason Lubar try to convince Billy that London Plane Trees aren’t just taking up space better used for more interesting trees in the urban canopy.  Recording outside on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, they are...

  
• 06.07.2019

  Cape Town Kicked Our Butts

  Tony and Billy talk about the City Nature Challenge 2019 and hear from four other participating cities: Kelly O’Donnell from NYC, Peter Kleinhenz (remember him from Right Under Our Noses?) from Tallahassee, and John Starmer from Maui, AND we hear...

  
• 04.15.2019

  Kenya Honeymoon Part 2

  Tony and Angie covered a lot of topics with their guide Dominic, and we’ve split off some of the non-urban-wildlife topics in this Part 2, namely Dominic’s fascinating life growing up Samburu Maasai plus more about the Maasai’s place in...

  
• 04.15.2019

  Kenya Honeymoon Part 1

  Tony (and of course Angie) went on safari for their honeymoon. They spent most of their time out in the bush, but that didn’t stop them from observing urban wildlife when they were in cities and talking about marabou storks,...

  
• 03.13.2019

  Is It More Than Just Pigeons?

  What does the non-human community of a city look like? Is it the same species everywhere (pigeons, dandelions, bridge spiders, yawn) or does the wildlife from the surrounding area show up? We hear from Dr. Misha Leong of the California...

  
• 02.11.2019

  Urban Creeps: BugScope Crossover!

  Billy joins entomologist and bug ambassador Isa Betancourt on her BugScope Periscope cast to talk about urban snakes. We focus on urban garter snakes from Philadelphia to Mexico City, but Billy fits in a few Philly milk snakes too. Be sure...

  
• 01.25.2019

  Botanical Time Machine: Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Digitization Project

  Tony and Billy are back after a hiatus, talking about Tony’s new house next to a trail head and the urban raptors you happen to see while counter-protesting fascists. Then (at around 27 min) we hear from Dr. Cynthia Skema the...

  
• 11.22.2018

  We’re Gonna Kick Tokyo’s Ass

  The 2019 City Nature Challenge is a competitive urban bioblitz. Tony and Billy talk about the CNC and Philadelphia’s plans after talking about Tony’s new rescued cat (about 15 min). We also go through a grab bag of fun urban...

  
• 10.09.2018

  Wildlife Rescue in the City, Part 2

  What do we owe the animals that live around us? Do we spend money on animals when there are humans in need? Do we feed animals to animals to save animals? We tackle the tough questions as we wrap up...

  
• 10.09.2018

  Wildlife Rescue in the City, Part 1

  What do we owe the animals that live around us? Do we spend money on animals when there are humans in need? Do we feed animals to animals to save animals? We tackle the tough questions as we wrap up...

  
• 09.27.2018

  Bat Rescue

  How can you use up 50,000 meal worms per week? Try rescuing injured and sick bats. In this latest post on our series on wildlife rescue and rehab, Tony talks to Stephanie Stronsick of PA Bat Rescue (along with podcast...

  
• 09.06.2018

  Where to Put Toilet- and Backyard-Snakes (Part 2)

  So you find a snake in your backyard, or your kitchen, or your toilet. Who do you call? And what do THEY do with the snake? In this episode we talk with Yatin Kalki, snake rescuer interested in harnessing snake...

  
• 09.06.2018

  Where to put Toilet- and Backyard-Snakes (Part 1)

  So you find a snake in your backyard, or your kitchen, or your toilet. Who do you call? And what do THEY do with the snake? In this episode we talk with Yatin Kalki, snake rescuer interested in harnessing snake...

  
• 08.06.2018

  Native? Exotic? Do We Care? Squash Bees

  Entomologist and urban bee specialist Doug Sponsler joins Billy and Tony early in the morning in a community garden spot in West Philadelphia to observe squash bees and talk about what counts as native. Squash are not strictly native to...

  
• 07.27.2018

  Taking Peregrines to the People

  Tony and Billy take to the field… the Philadelphia neighborhood of Manayunk to observe the peregrine falcons of St. John the Baptist’s steeple. We talk urban raptors and perform incidental urban wildlife outreach with the neighbors. If you like this...