Wildlife, Cake & Cocktails

Like us on Facebook for pictures and updates: www.facebook.com/WildlifeCakeCocktails/ For our first botanical episode, we cross over to Dr Noushka Reiter in Melbourne, research scientist with the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and part of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub. We discuss orchid conservation, highly-threatened Mellblom's Spider Orchids, their pollination by tiny Thynnid wasps, and much more. We enjoy some delicious white-orchid cocktails and while chocolate cake. You can check out the amazing Botanic Gardens on Facebook @BotanicGardensVictoria and Twitter @RBG_Victoria. You can also follow the awesome work from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub on Facebook @nespthreatenedspecies and Twitter @TSR_hub

Like us on Facebook for pictures and updates: https://www.facebook.com/WildlifeCakeCocktails/ We cross over to Christmas Island to speak with Hamish Noller, reptile enthusiast and recent UQ Wildlife Science graduate. We're also joined bv Jason Turl, ranger at Parks Australia, to chat about the Christmas Island Blue-Tailed skink, now extinct in the wild but maintained in two captive breeding colonies, one where Hamish is volunteering. We also discuss Christmas Island's other reptiles, many other threatened species, general ecology, and throw back some blue-island ice tea with caramel-chocolate slice :) You can check out Hamish's adventures at Instagram.com/hamwildo/ The Swell Lodge at Instagram.com/swelllodge/ And Jason's photos at Instagram.com/wildsideaustralia/

We had an awesome time with Dr Rowley talking frog conservation, the new FrogID citizen-science project, and much more, over some coffee and cupcakes. After checking out Jodi's talk at the Caboolture Region Environmental Education Centre, we head out to have a play around with the #FrogID app around the CREEC reserve and creek system. We're also joined by Scott Eipper from Nature4You and some keen local froggers. What an amazing night with some interesting people! Thanks again to CREEC and FrogID for letting us tag along! Cheers :)

This time we're talking Blue-Tongue Lizard morphs, RepX Brisbane Reptile Expo, and much more with our special guests Joe Ball and Scott Owen. Joe is an incredibly knowledgeable and innovative blue-tongue lizard breeder here in Brisbane, a world leader in producing phenomenal coloured morphs of blue-tongue, and a RepX Ambassador. Scott is one of the organizers of the upcoming RepX Brisbane Reptile Expo and is joining us on the couch to talk about the spectacular event coming this March. We had a fantastic afternoon chat, escaping the heat with Lounge Lizard cocktails and Blue-Velvet Cake. Cheers folks, and see you at RepX 2018 Brisbane Reptile Expo! This March 25th, all the details at RepX.com.au

We're herping Mt Glorious, this time with UQ Herpetological Society! WCC is back in the field, looking for nocturnal reptiles with Cameron Baker and other keen herpers. Cameron is a PhD student studying the movement ecology of Australia's apex-predator, the estuarine crocodile. He also leads the occasional herping trip as senior member of the UQ Herp Society board. We had a great time chatting with this awesome crew of reptile-fans, and found some fantastic creatures along the way too!

We speak with Kerry Waldman in San Diego, USA, discussing wildlife and fire, particularly the massive fires in southern California and their implications for ecosystems. Kerry is a former navy engineer turned environmental management student, a biking enthusiast working towards a career with US National Parks, and generally passionate about his local parks and wildlife. We had an awesome chat about fire ecology in Australia and USA and much more while enjoying chocolate cake, an India Pale Ale (the beer of San Diego, I'm told), and a San Diego Mule cocktail. Episode 15 - Wildlife & USA Forest Fires, now up! Cheers, plenty more WCC on the way 🙂

Here we go!! Kicking off the summer holidays here in Queensland, we're searching for Leaf-Tailed Geckos with wildlife education consultant Scott Eipper from Nature4You. We're joined by Lisa Owen from UQ, as well as some lovely, festive, homemade rumballs :) This episode, we head down for a night walk through the rain forests of Mount Tambourine, located in the picturesque Scenic Rim region of south-east Queensland. While spot-lighting for the incredibly camouflaged Southern Leaf-Tailed Gecko (Saltuarius swaini), we discus the various recently discovered species of leaf-tails, their fascinating evolution and adaptations, and more. We also find some very cool species of frogs, snakes, spiders, and glow worms. What an amazing night!! You can check out Scott and his wife Tie's awesome menagerie at facebook.com/wildlifedemonstrations or wildlifedemonstartions.com.au Happy Holiday Herping!

We're back in Karawatha Forest! After some wet and wild weather, we headed out to Karawatha again, hoping the local frogs would be out and about. I'm joined by Callum McKercher, UQ frog biology student and Lisa Owen from Scales Wildlife Services for a nighttime wander and chat. We discuss frog behaviour, conservation, some new great ape discoveries, and much more. Our froggy walk also gave us a chance to try out FrogID, the fantastic new citizen-science app from the Australian Museum! This free smartphone app lets you identify your local area's frog calls by simply recording their froggy songs. Furthermore you can submit frog calls to the FrogID database, adding to the first nation wide frog count to help understand the state of our native frogs. We had an awesome time using this tool to ID some cool native species, even if we couldn't see them all To get involved in this fun, free, ground-breaking citizen science project, check out FrogID at the links below. Cheers, hope you enjoy! https://www.frogid.net.au/ https://australianmuseum.net.au/frogid-project/

WCC Episode 12 is here for your Friday wildlife science fix! We're very lucky to be joined by Nick Leseberg, Uni of Qld PhD candidate and Night Parrot researcher for Bush Heritage Australia. Nick has worked as a field ecologist on a variety of projects throughout Australia/PNG and is currently studying conservation biology of Night Parrots (Pezoporus occidentalis), the worlds most elusive bird! We discuss the fascinating life of the Night Parrot (as far as we currently know!), working with cryptic species, bioacoustics, and much more. We also sip a few Desert Bird cocktails and peck at some poppy seed cake :)What a pleasure to sit and chat with one of the few people alive who've seen, let alone heard the calls of this rare species. Cheers, and enjoy!

Another WCC Audio Podcast coming at you! We discuss Feral Cats and Native Bird Conservation with Professor John Woinarski from Charles Darwin University. Prof. Woinarski has spent over 40 years in research and management of native Australian wildlife. He's worked with birds, mammals, reptiles, and more, with much of his work centring on conservation ecology in northern Austrlia. Calling us from Melbourne, we discuss some of John's recent research on the impacts of feral cats on native birds, as well as his recent field work, while sipping on Jungle Birds and eating Finnish Tiger Cake :) More WCC on the way soon! Cheers, Janne Torkkola, Host/Co-Producer