Wild For Change

Today we will be speaking with Catherine Doyle, Director of Science, Research, and Advocacy for the Performing Animal Welfare Society also known as PAWS.

PAWS was co-founded by the late Pat Derby and Ed Stewart, 37 years ago as a sanctuary for abused, captive, and retired performing animals. Such animals included elephants, lions, tigers, and bears.

PAWS operates three sanctuaries in California including the ARK 2000 that covers 2300 acres.  

Not only have the late Pat Derby and Ed Stewart become pioneers for saving captive and exploited wildlife, they have championed the more humane management of elephants, without the use of bull hooks, weapons, or aggressive training techniques!  Since 1985, PAWS has been known to use this non-dominance approach and have become a model to elephant handlers around the world. 

I had the good fortune of visiting PAWS in 2011.  I was able to have lunch with Ed Stewart and meet the residents of PAWS.  Nicholas, a bull elephant and Gypsy, his surrogate mother, stole my heart.  It was a lunch date made in heaven for me and it inspired my journey of becoming a voice for elephants and all animals.  

In this podcast, we will learn what types of situations the rescued wildlife at PAWS have come from, what it means to be a true wildlife sanctuary versus a pseudo wildlife sanctuary, how to help captive big cats, and how the humane non-dominance approach to handling and caring for elephants should be the gold standard as opposed to using bull hooks!

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Today we will be speaking with Katherina Audley, project founder and director of Whales of Guerrero.  

Whales of Guerrero began in 2013 to generate needed research of humpback whales in the state of Guerrero, Mexico as well as to partner with the local community to find ways to restore the declining marine ecosystem.   

Overall, Mexico ranks second in the world in mammal biodiversity with 438 species.  Guerrero itself is the fourth most biodiverse state in Mexico.  It hosts two different sub-populations of humpback whales who mate and calf in this region, one of which is only about 400 individuals in all. 

The village of Barra de Potosi located in Guerrero, and the areas surrounding it, including Zihuatanejo, Ixtapa, Troncones, and Petatlan, are threatened by environmental degradation due to pollution, quick and unmonitored mega-tourism development, overfishing, and climate change. 

Before the Whales of Guerrero began, there had never been any scientific information collected about whales and many other marine species in this region.  Therefore, Whales of Guerrero aims to increase awareness about the whales and other marine life in the region such as manta rays, dolphins, and sea turtles as well as creating responsible whale and other marine life tourism programs.  

As this is first and foremost originally a fishing region, fishermen have been encountering a decline in the local fish populations over the past 15 years, threatening their livelihood.  Whales of Guerrero has been working with the local fishermen to develop responsible marine ecotourism tours as a means of an alternative income.  

Katherina will share her top ten tips for successful integrated conservation projects within other cultures, why interconnection with others and nature is so important, and how co-creating a vision with local communities could serve as a flagship for other conservation projects to flourish.  

Whales of Guerrero expeditions up and running! 

https://www.whalesinmexico.com/get-involved/volunteer-vacations/

Here is a link to support the work of Whales of Guerrero: 

https://www.whalesinmexico.com/donate-now/

And here’s where to sign up to receive updates:

https://www.whalesinmexico.com/about/news/

Website: http://www.wildforchange.com

Twitter: @WildForChange

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Today we will be speaking with Nikki Sharp, Executive Director of Wildlife SOS.  Founded in 1995, Wildlife SOS is a non-profit conservation based in India to help rescue and rehabilitate wildlife that has been exploited, mistreated, or in distress, as well as protecting India’s habitats, forests, and biodiversity.  

Wildlife SOS’s broad efforts of saving and protecting wildlife includes conservation of animals and their habitat, welfare that involves medical care for injured and abused animals, research of animals in their natural habitat as well as outreach to communities to reduce or resolve human-wildlife conflict.  

I first learned of Wildlife SOS when I read of their rescue of an elephant named Raju in 2014.  Raju lived through 50 years of abuse by his owner who kept him in spiked shackles.  I remember reading Raju actually cried when he was rescued and I cried as well knowing Wildlife SOS was able to save him and give him the life he so deserves.  

In this episode, we will learn how Wildlife SOS got its start by eradicating the “Dancing Bear” practice, its recent rescue of Emma the Elephant, its new project of tracking elephant herds to help reduce human-elephant conflict, and so much more!

To learn more of Wildlife SOS, please click on the links below:

Website: Wildlife SOS

Twitter: @WildlifeSOS

Facebook: /wildlifesosindia

Instagram: /wildlifesos

Youtube: Wildlife SOS Channel

Website: http://www.wildforchange.com

Twitter: @WildForChange

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Today on the Wild For Change podcast, we will be speaking with Adams Cassinga, founder of Conserv Congo.  

Founded in 2013, Conserv Congo is a non-profit conservation whose mission is to maintain the biodiversity of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

The Congo Basin is a vast tropical rainforest and a biodiversity hot spot that is home to 100’s of mammal species.  

Before creating Conserv Congo, Adams was an investigative journalist turned wildlife crimes investigator.  

 In 2020, Adams was awarded the National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award. This award goes to trailblazers making extraordinary contributions in the world and in Adams’ case to conservation.  

Part of Conserv Congo’s work includes;

• Investigating wildlife trafficking networks
• Collaborating with authorities on arresting wildlife traffickers
• Rescuing wildlife such as apes in the region and finding sanctuary placement for the wildlife
• Rehabilitating injured wildlife in their natural habitat
• Supporting subsistence farming to ensure food security in regions where poaching of wildlife occurs due to hunger

I met Adams in 2019 at a rally in Washington D.C. to help stop baby elephants being taken from their herd in Zimbabwe to live in a zoo in China.  Adams gave an inspirational speech about elephants in the wild and how their presence is so important for the ecosystem and the whole world.  

We will be discussing topics such as why poaching is occurring in the Congo Basin, why subsistence farming can be a key factor in curbing poaching, Conserv Congo’s rescue missions of apes, and why interdependence between humans and other species are important.  

You can learn more about Conserv Congo’s work below:

http://www.conservcongo.org

https://twitter.com/amini16

https://www.facebook.com/conservcongo

[email protected]

Website: http://www.wildforchange.com

Twitter: @WildForChange

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In today’s Wild For Change podcast, we are speaking with Mike Veale, the president of Global Conservation Force.  Asia is currently home to three species 

Mike Veale founded Global Conservation Force in 2014.  His mission is to save endangered species and protect their habitats in countries like Africa and Asia.  

His unique zoo keeping background combined with an active, combat-sport-heavy lifestyle gave Mike the unique experience needed to fight on the front line of conservation. Mike traveled to South Africa and survived the intensive boot camp training required before finally becoming an anti-poaching ranger in Kruger National Park.

Global Conservation Force is made up of a team of passionate people working hard to fight against the poaching of endangered and threatened wildlife.  

Global Conservation Force focuses on:

• Training rangers to protect wildlife
• Raising awareness and providing education of the importance of wildlife
• On the ground action where Mike and his staff work in regions such as Africa and Asia to gain insight to the problems that the wildlife are facing.   
• Collaborating and forming partnerships with other organizations in Africa and Asia to help protect critical wildlife.

We will be discussing Global Conservation Force’s projects created to help protect the wildlife such as its Mounted Anti-Poaching Unit, giraffe and their silent extinction process, rangers risking their lives to protect the wildlife, the wildlife trade and its link to COVID and so much more!

You can also learn more about Global Conservation Force on the links below;

https://globalconservationforce.org

https://www.facebook.com/RhinosGCF

https://www.instagram.com/globalconservationforce/

Website: http://www.wildforchange.com

Twitter: @WildForChange

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Today on the Wild For Change Podcast, we will be speaking with Ted Cheeseman, co-founder of Happywhale.

Happywhale was created in 2015, when Ted Cheeseman’s decades long expeditions to the Antarctic and the island of South Georgia demonstrated where whales were once prevalent, sightings of whales were rare.  This was due to hundreds of years of this area being the center of the whaling industry.   

A global whaling moratorium was established in 1982 to preserve what was left of the global whale population. But the recovery of whale populations took many years and it wasn’t until 2011, that whale populations began to recover.  

Happywhale created a web enabled technology that would help to track whales globally.  Its mission is to improve global understanding and awareness of marine life by inviting people to become engaged in marine mammal research and conservation using collaborative scientific tools.  

The first I learned of Happywhale was when I was vacationing in Cabo San Lucas and signed up for an eco-whale watching tour.  The tour guide spoke about submitting photos of whales that I saw while on the tour to Happwhale in order to track the whales during their migration to support Happywhale’s mission of marine mammal conservation.  

I was so impressed to learn that people can actually help and support the scientific community in whale conservation just by submitting a photo!

This podcast will bring awareness of whale population decline and certain whale population recovery, effects of climate change and human encroachment in whale territories, what to look for when going on a whale watching tour, and how citizens can help support whale conservation.

To learn more about Happywhale, click on the link below:

https://happywhale.com/home

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