Zoology Ramblings

Welcome to the 21st episode of the Zoology Ramblings Podcast, where Robi and I are actually together in the same place after over a year!

We share some exciting updates about our recently released Rewilding A Nation documentary, Robi's leopard research for his masters thesis and what 2024 of the Wildlife Champions Programme has in store. We talk about some new species discovered in 2023, and I get very excited about seeing the wonderful Cape Pengiuns! As ever, I go on a tangent about some exciting new beaver releases in the UK, and Robi gets festive talking about Swedish Lapland and the rewilding projects happening there.

A very happy new year from Robi and I, thank you so much for being on this Zoology Ramblings journey with us and we can't wait to continue that throughout 2024.

Feel free to reach out to us on social media- we're always happy to chat!

@robi_watkinson_wildlife

@emma_hodson_wildlife

Welcome back to another very belated episode of Zoology Ramblings! Thanks for putting up with our sporadic podcast recording. In this episode Robi and I give life updates, Robi of his masters project on monitoring leopard density in Namibia and me from Bristol of my job supporting local communities to take action for nature. We take a moment to reflect on key moments in nature and encourage you all to notice nature in your day to day lives. We then go on a big rant about the State of Nature report and the backwards decision of the UK government to approve the largest undeveloped oil field in the UK. We end on some positive beaver and elephant updates.

In episode 19 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I reconnect as he embarks on an exciting new journey in Cape Town and I get my first paid job in conservation! I talk about the awesome project that's helping howler monkeys in Costa Rica by putting up rope bridges and Robi enlightens us about the significance of a beetle ejaculating on a rare orchid. We then take a short break to go eat cheese and crackers and come back to talk about canine distemper virus affecting leopards in Nepal, which is escalating human-wildlife conflict. Robi ends this podcast with a fascinating thought experiment about elephants and their natural predators. 

We hope you enjoy our latest ramble, thank you as ever for listening and engaging with our endless chats about wildlife and conservation. Thanks for the piano tune Allie, you are awesome. 

Emma & Robi 

In episode 18, Robi and I record our latest episode from the middle of nowhere in New Quay, Wales. We talk about how the UK government is taking steps backwards when it comes to key environmental laws and tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. We chat about the reintroduction of cheetahs to Kuno National Park in India, and why this has proved to be a controversial and divisive topic. For our animals of the week, I go down a marine tangent and talk about Bottlenose dolphins and touch on the research I am conducting at the moment on marine mammals. Robi talks about the black stork, which he saw recently on a trip to northern Greece. We end our podcast with our conservation stories, where I delve deeper into the work of the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, where I am currently volunteering. Robi talks about the Lions of the Gir Forest, which may be suffering at the hands of pride and stubbornness of the state of Gujarat, who want to keep sole monopoly over these Asiatic lions. 

We hope you enjoy out latest ramble! 

In Episode 17 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I talk about the very exciting imminent return of European bison to the UK, some uplifting new nature legislation in the EU, the weird and wonderful springhare whose fur is biofluorescent, the obscure and illusive African finfoot with bright orange feet, an exciting new project to map bee genomes and we break down the different types of Rewilding. We also share some exciting news about a new Rewilding documentary that we are working on at the moment. 

We hope you enjoy our latest ramble. Thanks as always to the lovely Allie for the piano tune and if you want to follow more of what we are up to you can follow us on instagram where we are @emma_hodson_wildlife and @robi_watkinson_wildlife 

Happy listening, 

Robi & Emma 

Apologies for the complete radio silence for the past 7 months... we have been caught up in our final year at university. We have now finished out last exam at the University of Leeds so we are officially done with our Zoology degrees! In episode 16, we explain where we've been for the past 7 months and talk you through our final year dissertation projects and tell you about our incredible field course in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We then end this episode by touching briefly on wildlife management and conservation in South Africa. We have been M.I.A for 7 months but we are now back and promise to have more exciting wildlife content soon. To stay up to date with what we've been up to, you can follow us on instagram - @emma_hodson_wildlife and @robi_watkinson_wildlife. 

In episode 14 of Zoology Ramblings Robi and I record the first ever episode in person rather than over Zoom! We stick to the new format of: News, Animals of the week and end with current wider conservation stories. In this episode I talk about the recent decision by the British Government to possibly give beavers native species status and legal protection, Robi talks about some hope for tuna species despite dwindling populations of other marine species. For our animals of the week, I talk about nile crocodiles and Robi about the little-known, bizarre reticulated siren. In the final wider conservation section, I talk about research to make seeds more drought resistant by using organic materials and Robi explores the possibility of recovering jaguar populations in the USA. 

Resources:

Beavers: https://beavertrust.org  

Tunas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58441142?fbclid=IwAR20gAxJD8pv0526uM47kyI7km9Orhy9xQBjuMpHOLDo3kocPWAwfhmuJ5U 

Nile crocodiles: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/facts/nile-crocodile

https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10413/10742/Champion_Garreth_2010.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

https://www.speciesconservation.org/case-studies-projects/nile-crocodile/574

https://www.nature.com/articles/news.2011.535

Reticulated siren: http://www.sci-news.com/biology/reticulated-siren-06694.html?fbclid=IwAR1NeRVqO80h2aSiWZbKdCXqs33O8N-4A0zub9ZE5ak3PK3_iPq_h36rVZ0 

Jaguars: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/huge-wildlife-corridor-in-belize-sees-progress-boosting-hope-for-jaguars-and-more-commentary/?fbclid=IwAR14aHvYvgczlwojpw_Zjzuox1UXne-LrALNs5IAFcXN9aVKWo1RBW0DKy0

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/is-it-time-to-rethink-jaguar-recovery-in-the-u-s-commentary/?fbclid=IwAR0mDPYUkpTnyU-XE1KDRGnv19KSXSNCAVEg9cZfvJuSB9DWbLXU1a2hyDY 

And thank you Allie for the piano tune! 

We hope you enjoy our latest ramble :)

Emma & Robi 

In episode 12 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I reveal some very exciting news about our podcast and its selection as one of the 8 winners of the Spotify Next Wave Initiative! We are so thrilled to have been selected alongside 7 other amazing podcasts which cover some very important and pressing topics in our society today. 

We also talk about our recent beaver adventure down in Devon, where we had the amazing opportunity to film wild beavers in the UK! We were amazed how close we were able to see them during the day: they are chonky, stealthy and all round incredible animals. We are looking forward to releasing our 'Beavers part 2' documentary in the coming months. Robi and I are off to Mull to make a series of wildlife documentaries, so you might not hear from us for a while as we will be off grid looking for eagles and pine martens! But we will tell you guys all about it when we get back!

We also talk about our animals of the week: Robi covers the elusive, possibly extinct White-Eyed River Martin, last seen in Thailand in the 1980s! I talk about cicadas (thanks Haley for the suggestion!) and their weird and wonderful lifecycle underground for 17 years!! 

We hope you enjoy our latest ramble :) 

Thanks to the lovely Allie for the piano tune and to the amazing Madeleine who designed our new cover art! 

This week in episode 10 of Zoology Ramblings we talk about an animal of the week each: Robi talks about the Sunda Island Tigers and throws in a bit of epic tiger taxonomy and palaeontology! I talk about the Laysan Albatross following an article about the world's oldest wild bird 'Wisdom' who has just had her 37th chick! For our UK conservation stories, Robi talks about the majestic Eagle Owl in Britain and how a mysterious group of them has 're-appeared' in the UK. I talk about the controversial Coal mine proposal in Cumbria and whether this is a good idea in the face of a climate emergency where we should be moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels. For our global conservation story, we discuss coral aquaculture/ coral gardening which is offering hope for re-building and recovering coral reefs threatened by global warming and bleaching events. 

Here is the link to the petition to campaign against the Cumbria Coal Mine: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-cumbria-coal-mine 

Thanks Allie for the lovely piano tune :) 

Welcome to episode 9, part 2 of Zoology Ramblings with Emma and Robi. This is a continuation from part 1 of episode 9. In this episode we talk about the Ebo Forest in Cameroon and the incredible biodiversity of animal life which is supported there. We also talk about threats to this forest and how public pressure can be important in lobbying governments to change. We also talk about the invasive American Mink which has exploded in numbers here in the UK and across Europe. This mink is threatening native species like the water vole and is partly responsible for driving the European mink to the brink of extinction across its range. 

https://whitleyaward.org/winners/community-protection-of-the-great-apes-of-ebo-forest/ 

We hope you enjoy this latest ramble! 

Thank you Allie for the wonderful piano tune :) 

In episode 8 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I talk about the illegal pangolin trade and the threats which both the Asian and African pangolins are facing. We highlight some amazing people and organisations which are doing fantastic work to try and conserve these incredible animals. We also briefly touch on the links between the pangolin and the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is currently causing the covid 19 pandemic. We hope you enjoy our latest ramble and learn lots about the amazing pangolin! 

In episode 7 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I talk about the remarkable creatures that are Orcas. We talk about their distribution around the world, their complex social structures, the global threats they are facing and we explore the dynamics and the plight of our Orca pod here in the UK. We hope you enjoy our latest ramble! 

In episode 6 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi talks about the enormous cave bear which used to inhabit the UK, which weighed up to 1000kgs and was entirely vegetarian! I talk about the Gelada monkeys of the Ethiopian highlands and how they have been driven to the roof of the world by humans and aggressive ancestors of baboons. 

Sorry we haven't released an episode for a while, we have been busy with the launch of our new project "Biome". We are collaborating with a production called Grizzly, making exciting video podcasts about wildlife re-introductions to the UK as well as global and local conservation topics. To check out our video podcast, search for "The Biome Podcast" on YouTube. For more wildlife content you can also check Robi and I out on Instragram under emma_hodson_wildlife and robi_watkinson_wildlife

We hope you enjoy our latest ramble with a slightly different structure but hopefully equally engaging animal content! 

In episode 5 of Zoology Ramblings we split our podcast into 3 parts with breaks in between each section to make it easier for you guys, our listeners, in case you don't want to listen to the full hour all at once. Part one ends at 00:15:28, part 2 starts at 00:15:41 and ends at 00:42:18, part 3 starts at 00:42:31 and ends at 00:54:52:10. In part 1 (animals of the week) we talk about the hairy mexican dwarf porcupine (I know right, epic name!), a new species of beaked whale in Japan. In part 2 (global conservation topics) we talk about the wildlifes in the Ambue, Ari, Bolivia and the efforts on the ground to try and tackle the inferno and the plight of the critically endangered Sumatran rhino. In part 3 (our local UK conservation topic) we talk about beavers and their reintroduction to the UK, both legally and illegally (yes, there is such a thing as illegal beavers). Hope you enjoy our latest ramble!  

Welcome to episode 4 of Zoology Ramblings, where we talk about the ancestor of domesticated cattle (the Aurochs), the virtually indestructible Tardigrade which could survive a nuclear holocaust, the very recent reintroduction of the Tasmanian Devil to Australian mainland for the first time in 3,000 years and the conservation efforts needed to save the critically endangered Vaquita. Hope you enjoy our latest ramble!! 

This week we talk about pine martens and their love of peanut butter, an eagle which may or many not have ever existed, the reintroduction of the white tailed sea eagle to the UK and the recent shark fin trade ban which has been put into place in Florida. The unifying theme of this mish mash of topics is that humans are involved in every aspect of the natural world. If our behaviours become unsustainable and exploitative, this can have catastrophic consequences for species and ecosystems. However, nature has shown time and time again that if given the chance, it can bounce back and recover. We need to give nature that chance before we get to tipping points past which we can no longer reverse the damage we have caused.