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Welcome to episode 27 of Zoology Ramblings!
We start the episode by sharing some quick conservation good news, including incentivising environmentally friendly behaviours in Copenhagen and the discovery of the world's largest land mammal migration in South Sudan.
We then both talk about Aotearoan species, including the weird and wonderful kakapo and tuatara.
We then delve into pine marten reintroduction to the UK, sharing positive news of how pine martens are spreading across Britain, the importance of wildlife corridors and how pine martens could help native red squirrels.
To stay up to date with what we are doing and/or to get in touch, you can find us on instagram:
emma_hodson_wildlife robi_watkinson_wildlifeWe hope you enjoy our latest ramble!
Emma & Robi
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Welcome to episode 26 of Zoology Ramblings!
This week, we are back to our regular podcast structure and begin by sharing some quick nature news followed by our animals of the week.
Robi talks about brown hyena phylogeny, and how new research may see it re-classified into an extinct genus. Taxonomy nerds, this one's for you! I talk about the invasive American signal crayfish and how it's come to spread an dominate across UK waterways.
We then share our local news, which mean both of us sharing UK-based stories while Robi and I are in the same country. I talk about the hopeful community-based stories of people drawing inspiration from taking action for nature locally. Robi un-packs a fear-mongering article about great white sharks spotted in Ireland, and how this continues to give these amazing predators a bad reputation.
We then move onto our global conservation stories, where Robi talks about the proposal to kill 1.5 million barred owls in the USA, and I celebrate the amazing female rangers of North Luangwa.
Please let us know which species you'd like us to talk about in our upcoming Rewilding deep dive.
As ever, thanks to Allie for the lovely piano interlude and thanks to you amazing listeners for sticking with us on our long rambles.
We hope you enjoy our latest ramble,
Emma and Robi
To see what we're up to elsewhere check us out on:
@emma_hodson_wildlife
@robi_watkinson_wildlife
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Welcome to episode 25 of Zoology Ramblings, where Robi and I do a deep dive into European bison.
Before we do, we talk about very bizarre animals of the week, featuring the slimy, jawless hagfish and an expedition that led to the discovery of tree-dwelling shrimps the size of a grain of sand!
For our deep dive, we delve into how bison were almost completely eradicated from Europe, and how restoration efforts and careful breeding have allowed bison numbers to recover across the continent.
We talk about how bison have been reintroduced (technically) to the UK at the Wilder Blean Project in Kent, and what their plans are for continuing to monitor the impacts of bison as the herd grows.
We talk about the numerous ecological benefits that bison can offer, and look at how using management strategies for African wildlife could be applied to bison in the UK.
We end by ranking the bison out of 10 in terms of its suitability for widespread reintroduction across the UK, and ask you, our lovely listeners, to tell us which species you'd like to hear more about in these deep dives.
Next week, we'll be back to our normal podcast structure. See you in the next episode!
As ever, thanks to Allie for the lovely piano interlude and thanks to you amazing listeners for sticking with us on our long rambles.
We hope you enjoyed our bison deep dive!
Emma and Robi
To see what we're up to elsewhere check us out on:
@emma_hodson_wildlife
@robi_watkinson_wildlife
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Welcome to episode 24 of Zoology Ramblings!
This week, Robi and I share exciting news of having met up recently in the UK, with Robi speaking at a Pride Community Campfire that I hosted with my colleagues. This leads onto a wonderful conservation about the innate queerness of nature featuring lesbian bonobos and elephant orgies.
For our animals of the week, Robi talks about good news for the Iberian lynx and I talk about the unusual whistling dogs: Dholes.
Robi then delves into the recent news story of big cat DNA found in the UK, and we discuss whether this evidence is enough to prove that big cats are living here. I then end the podcast by talking about the UK's festival of nature, which is a yearly festival in Bristol and Bath that celebrates local actions being taken for nature.
We look forward to bringing you more regular content as we set up a more regular podcast recording schedule!
As ever, thanks to Allie for the lovely piano interlude and thanks to you amazing listeners for sticking with us on our long rambles.
We hope you enjoy our latest ramble,
Emma and Robi
To see what we're up to elsewhere check us out on:
@emma_hodson_wildlife
@robi_watkinson_wildlife
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Welcome to episode 23 of Zoology Ramblings! Sporadic and rambling as ever, Robi and I finally get round to recording another Zoology Ramblings episode.
We fill you in on some life updates, including a very moving experience I had attending the Funeral for Nature in Bath. Robi shares some of his highlights from his recent trip to the Okavango Delta, including the legendary bat hawks!!
We then delve into our species of the week, where I talk about the weird cow-stomached Hoatzin birds (thanks to Solomon for the suggestion) and Robi welcomes two newly described species (Pudu and an anaconda).
We then get a tad political as we share our frustrations about the latest bovine tuberculosis consultation, which ignores science, puts badgers in the firing line and fails to put farmers and cattle first. Robi lightens the mood with an exciting update of a recent WildTrack workshop he attended, looking at how AI and footprint tracking are being used in conservation.
To end this very long podcast, we bond over satellite tagging crocodiles (a niche moment that brought Robi and I together). Robi then gets to nerd out on Skywalker gibbons.
As ever, thanks to Allie for the lovely piano interlude and thanks to you lovely listeners for sticking with us on our long rambles.
We hope you enjoy our latest ramble,
Emma and Robi
To see what we're up to elsewhere check us out on:
@emma_hodson_wildlife
@robi_watkinson_wildlife
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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
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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.
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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
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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!
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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
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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.
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In episode 15 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I record our first episode from Leeds, where we are living together for our final year of university. For our news section we talk about COP26 and whether it is going far enough to tackle the climate crisis and Robi talks about a new species of shark. For our animals of the week, I talk about the bizarre and wonderful hog badger and Robi talks about the slightly terrifying Potoo bird. For our conservation section, I talk about the decision to withdraw one of the last two northern white rhinos from the breeding program and Robi talks about tuskless elephants in response to ivory poaching.
Resources:
COP26 and climate change:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-59116611
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56901261
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f8iF-Ktf-c&t=116s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b10P0ya828&t=3s
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate/cop/science-pavilion#Sat06
Sharks:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353128440_Apristurus_manocheriani_Carcharhiniformes_Pentanchidae_a_new_species_of_catshark_from_the_Southwest_Indian_Ocean
Hog badgers:
https://animalia.bio/hog-badger
Potoos:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-molecular-phylogenetic-survey-of-the-nightjars-on-Mariaux-Braun/4b1ddad44525faa9f15a9049ed8538aafe97d1ff
Rhinos:
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/one-of-worlds-last-two-northern-white-rhinos-withdrawn-from-breeding-program/
Tuskless elephants:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59008037
Thanks as always to the wonderful Allie for the piano tune.
We hope you enjoy our latest ramble!
Emma & Robi
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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
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In Episode 13 of Zoology Ramblings, we introduce a new section called "conservation news" where Robi and I each talk about a recent positive conservation news story. We discuss our animals of the week: I decided to talk about the illusive, weird short-eared dog (thanks @wayne_wildlife for the suggestion) and Robi talks about the Little Black Tapir and whether this is in fact a new species or not. We then delve deeper into some wider conservation stories where I give a sad update about the status of Vaquitas and Robi talks about the newly discovered, yet already critically endangered Rice's Whale.
Vaquita resources:
Episode 4 of Zoology Ramblings: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6QtXRBbQ8d26LFFr5r3Z70?si=01ddd5e1d8474f5c
Episode 19 of the Biome Podcast: The Vaquita Crisis https://open.spotify.com/episode/6lUf2Ax7DMqbEWBZJIUBk4?si=xFsf1PgFSe6qtLHsSXapfQ&dl_branch=1
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/mismanaged-to-death-mexico-opens-up-sole-vaquita-habitat-to-fishing/
Ivory Identification Guide:
https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/resources/pub/E-Ivory-guide.pdf
Thank you to the lovely Allie for the piano tune at the beginning and start of this podcast:)
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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!
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In episode 11, Robi and I ramble about our animals of the week- I talk about the tayra and Robi talks about the tiny Monito del Monte. We each tackle large global conservation topics including zoonotic diseases and the lessons we can learn from the Covid 19 pandemic. Robi discusses why the taxonomic classification of African elephant species is important! For our UK conservation topics I talk about the very exciting reintroduction of beavers to Wales for the first time in 400 years. Robi talks about the fantastic white stork project and our recent interview with the wonderful conservationist and project manager of the white stork project Lucy Groves.
We hope you enjoy our latest ramble- here are the links to some of the resources used in the Zoonotic diseases section if you wanted to read more about the Manhattan and Berlin principles.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720364494
https://oneworldonehealth.wcs.org/About-Us/Mission/The-Manhattan-Principles.aspx
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933240-800-how-our-abuse-of-nature-makes-pandemics-like-covid-19-more-likely/
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/zoonoses
Thanks as always to the lovely Allie for the piano tune!
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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 :)
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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 :)
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Welcome to episode 9, part 1 of Zoology Ramblings with Emma and Robi! Apologies we haven't released one of these in a while- we have been busy with our other podcast 'The Biome Podcast'. Please feel free to check that one out if you wanted more regular content.
This week we talk about neon-pink slugs which live on one mountain-top in Australia and nowhere else in the world. They really are hot pink and awesome but are also threatened by climate change. Robi talks about the Hirola, which is an alien-looking antelope with very large scent glands below its eyes, which is threatened by political turbulence and harsh environmental conditions.
We also talk about elephants and the ivory trade which has been catastrophic to African elephant populations. We discuss an amazing conservation project called elephants and bees which is helping reduce human-elephant conflict as well as empowering farmers.
https://elephantsandbees.com
Thank you Allie for the wonderful little piano tune :)
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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!
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