WILD LIVES

Dwarf minke whales were only discovered in August 1981, so there’s still stacks to learn about them. We do know that each year they mysteriously appear on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, stay about a month, and then totally disappear again. We also know that they are incredibly curious, playful and actively seek out human contact.

As a marine biologist studying the dwarf minke, Suzanne Hillcoat’s spent hundreds of hours in the water with these little giants to research their behaviour, and she’s had countless super-close encounters with them. In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, Suzanne reflects on some of her most memorable interactions with these sweet cetaceans.

(Spoiler alert: If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have a whale flirt with you, you won’t want to miss this!)

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Ever heard of a Spirit Bear? It’s also known as a Kermode bear – and as there’s only a couple of hundred of them in the wild, they’re one of the rarest creatures on earth. The only place you’ll find them is in the Great Bear Rainforest, in British Columbia, Canada. And what makes them so unique is that while they’re technically black bears, they’re actually white in colour, due to a recessive gene.

During his time tracking these incredible creatures through the epic wilderness of Canada’s Pacific North-West, naturalist and guide Jack Plant has had some unforgettable moments with them. In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, Jack shares some of his favourite encounters.

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What it’s like to see the famous white whale, Migaloo, not once but twice? Or to be out kayaking in Sydney Harbour when a southern right whale brings her calf over to say hi? In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, naturalist guide Annie Skarratt joins acclaimed photographer Jonas Liebschner to take you into thick of the whaley action right in the heart of Australia’s biggest city.

Our humpback story is a happy one. When the culling of humpbacks stopped in the 1960s there were just a couple of hundred of these gentle giants left in our East Coast population. Today, the numbers have bounced back to over 30,000 – it’s a rare, feel-good conservation success story that we’re rightfully proud of. Both Annie and Jonas have years of experience with these giants of the deep – and they have the extraordinary stories of close encounters to prove it! And if you’ve ever wondered where to go in Sydney to see them, this episode has plenty of suggestions.

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In this inspiring episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, the legendary Dr Laurie Marker shares the fascinating tales of her life with cheetahs in both Namibia and her early days in the Unites States.

From her close bonds with cheetahs called Chewbacca and Khayyam, to the incredible work she’s done to boost the wild population in Namibia, Dr Laurie has a stack of intriguing insights about these vulnerable but mesmerising big cats.

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Naturalist guide Paulo O’Connor has had some pretty amazing orca encounters in the Salish Sea, on Canada’s west coast.

Throughout his career, Paulo’s worked as a ranger and naturalist all over the world, from American Samoa to Churchill in the Sub-arctic, and countless wildlife hotspots in between.

His many years working as a zodiac pilot and naturalist with the killer whales of British Columbia have given him a unique perspective not only of the area’s individual orca pods and their behaviours, but also of what makes them the most intriguing predator in the ocean.

And if you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to see transient orcas hunt right off the bow of your boat, Paulo has the adrenaline-charged story for you!

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Award-winning photographer, cinematographer and explorer Shannon Wild is known for her close encounters with some of the world’s most endangered animals, and man does she have some stories!

Shannon grew up in Queensland, where she discovered her passion for wildlife and photography at a young age. In the years since then, she’s travelled all over the globe to film and photograph everything from wild komodo dragons to big cats for National Geographic, and, as part of her work, she regularly ventures to Svalbard for close encounters with arctic wildlife.

In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, Shannon shares her most memorable encounters with polar bears, walruses and arctic foxes, and explains how she’s able to keep her cool in dicey situations – even when she’s being mauled by a cheetah!

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In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic we chat to the legendary whale naturalist Vicki Neville. Her expertise has seen her become widely renowned as The Whale Whisperer, and in fact a documentary of the same name was recently made about her adventures with the humpbacks of Hervey Bay, on Australia’s Fraser Coast.

For the past 21 years, Vicki has spent a squillion hours both in and out of the water  with these giants of the deep – and her stories of her close encounters will leave you breathlessly inspired.

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Happy World Lion Day! No one knows lions like Dereck and Beverly Joubert. After all, they’ve spent three decades filming them in the wild, and they founded the Big Cats Initiative to help protect these incredible predators in 27 countries.

Dereck and Beverly’s credentials are mega impressive: they’re National Geographic Explorers, multi-award-winning film-makers, TED talkers and conservation game-changers. But above all, they’re humble, bloody good people whose love for each other and what they do is irrepressible (for reals: Dereck has survived brutal attacks by elephants, buffaloes and deadly snakes, along with three plane crashes and at least four bouts of malaria).

As you’ll hear in this inspiring episode of the Wild Lives by Faunographic podcast, Dereck’s commitment to wildlife has never waivered and he’s had some very entertaining encounters during his career. He also takes us behind the scenes of their most recent film, called Tribe Versus Pride, which reveals the complex relationship between lions and the Maasai people who live alongside them.

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Ever wondered what it’d be like to leave your diving cage and swim among hundreds of sharks in a feeding frenzy? Or wondered how you’d survive if your dive boat left you behind, with nothing but some hair ribbons and your smarts to keep you alive? In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, Valerie Taylor’s real-life adventure tales will blow your mind. 

Still diving at 83, Valerie has spent a lifetime in the ocean. Her decades-spanning career as a film-maker and photographer alongside her partner Ron kicked off in the 1960s and, with her fearlessness around sharks and an incomparable understanding of their behaviour, Val quickly became known as the world’s most glamorous shark expert.

As the years passed, the pioneering couple continued to up the ante and soon enough Steven Spielberg asked them to film the real-life shark footage for Jaws. In the following decades, the Taylors produced countless documentaries and filmed ocean sequences for a stack of Hollywood blockbusters, while also shooting photos for the likes of National Geographic and Time Life.

Few people in the world have had the opportunity to see the world like Valerie. After all, she’s spent more than 60 years in the ocean with its incredible wildlife – and she’s got the amazing stories to prove it. In this episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, she shares a few of her favourites.

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Today, Yellowstone National Park in the United States is one of the very best places on earth to see wolves in the wild – and we can thank Douglas Smith for that.

Twenty-three years ago, Doug and his team at the Yellowstone Wolf Restoration Project reintroduced 41 wild wolves back into the park, at a time when they’d been virtually wiped out across North America.

Doug’s been with Yellowstone’s wolves ever since then and he’s seen the wild packs bounce back every step of the way – and the park’s flora and fauna are thriving as a result.

In this intriguing episode of Wild Lives by Faunographic, Doug reveals exactly how the wolves evolved to become the icons of Yellowstone that they are today, and shares what these fascinating predators have taught him about life.

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