Saving Nature’s Biggest Fish: Whale Sharks

By the 1970s, only seven Mexican gray wolves remained in the wild — and the species had vanished from the United States entirely. On this episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom The Podcast, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant sits down with Bailey Cadena, AZA's co-vice program lead for the SAFE Mexican Wolf Program at the @cincinnatizoo . Together they trace the wolf's recovery from a single enclosure founded by Wild Kingdom's original host, Marlin Perkins, to a population now standing at 319 in the U.S. and 25+ in Mexico. Bailey explains the science of cross-fostering: placing zoo-born pups into wild dens before their eyes even open. She also covers the wolf's role as a keystone species reshaping entire ecosystems. And she shares why recovery depends just as much on ranchers and communities living alongside wolves as it does on the animals themselves. Subscribe for more wildlife stories. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild airs weekends on NBC's "The More You Know" programming block. Co-Hosts Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant share conservation success stories happening all around us. They take us to wild places as we meet incredible species and the amazing people working to save them. Check your local listings for the airtime in your area. For more information on Protecting the Wild including how to stream full episodes for free, check here: https://wildkingdom.co/4zsGfoN Check us out on our other platforms for more animal facts, wildlife conservation success stories, original series nostalgia and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildkingdomtv Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildkingdomtv/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wildkingdomtv #Podcast #BackFromTheBrink #WildKingdom

The endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle lives in just one place on Earth: the saline wetlands north of Lincoln, Nebraska. By the early 2000s, only 150 known adults remained. On this episode, Dr. Rae sits down with Jeff Ewelt, chief zoological officer at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. @JefftheNatureGuy explains the beetle's bizarre two-year life cycle spent almost entirely underground, the coalition of zoos, universities and government agencies now working to bring it back, and why saving even the smallest, strangest species matters just as much as saving the charismatic ones. Listen in to discover how Nebraska's one-of-a-kind beetle is getting a second chance. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild airs weekends on NBC's "The More You Know" programming block. Co-Hosts Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant share conservation success stories happening all around us. They take us to wild places as we meet incredible species and the amazing people working to save them. Check your local listings for the airtime in your area. For more information on Protecting the Wild including how to stream full episodes for free, check here: https://wildkingdom.co/4hwBfsc Check us out on our other platforms for more animal facts, wildlife conservation success stories, original series nostalgia and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildkingdomtv Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildkingdomtv/ #Podcast #BackFromTheBrink #WildKingdom

Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor but support 25% of all marine life, and since the 1950s, we've lost half of them. In this episode, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant sits down with Philippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau and founder of EarthEcho International, to unpack why reef collapse has stayed the "most underreported environmental crisis on the planet." Philippe explains the science of coral bleaching, the technology that can grow coral 20 times faster than nature. That's why he now treats reefs not as ecosystems to protect but as infrastructure to rebuild, at a scale philanthropy alone can never fund. It's a hard look at how close we are to losing reefs entirely, and a genuinely hopeful blueprint for turning that around. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild airs weekends on NBC's "The More You Know" programming block. Co-hosts Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant share conservation success stories happening all around us. They take us to wild places as we meet incredible species and the amazing people working to save them. Check your local listings for the airtime in your area. For more information on Protecting the Wild including how to stream full episodes for free, check here: https://wildkingdom.co/4cPq9wS Check us out on our other platforms for more animal facts, wildlife conservation success stories, original series nostalgia and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildkingdomtv Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildkingdomtv/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wildkingdomtv #podcast #BackFromTheBrink #WildKingdom

By 1967, the American alligator — a reptile whose lineage predates the dinosaurs — had been hunted, skinned and pushed to the edge of extinction. Twenty years later it was thriving again, making a full recovery under the Endangered Species Act. In this episode, Dr. Rae sits down with Coyote Peterson, wildlife educator and creator of Brave Wilderness, whose alligator content alone has racked up over 100 million views. Together they explain why these "ecosystem engineers" are critical to the health of southeastern wetlands. And they dig into the modern threats that still put the species at risk, from invasive Burmese pythons to human habituation. It's a story about how fast a species can come back, and how easily that progress can be undone. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild airs weekends on NBC's "The More You Know" programming block. Co-Hosts Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant share conservation success stories happening all around us and take us to wild places as we meet incredible species and the amazing people working to save them. Check your local listings for the airtime in your area. For more information on Protecting the Wild including how to stream full episodes for free, check here: https://wildkingdom.co/4i7hxoQ Check us out on our other platforms for more animal facts, wildlife conservation success stories, original series nostalgia and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildkingdomtv Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildkingdomtv/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wildkingdomtv

At their lowest point, fewer than 1,000 grizzly bears remained in the lower 48 states — pushed out of 98% of their historic range by bounties, poison, and fear. In this episode of Back From The Brink from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant sits down with wildlife biologist and Tooth and Claw podcast co-host Wes Larson to tell the full story of how grizzlies came back — from the garbage dump bears of Yellowstone to the ranchers opening their land, to the corridors slowly reconnecting a species to its home. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom is back with the series, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild! Airing weekends on NBC's "The More You Know" programming block, Co-Hosts Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant share conservation success stories happening all around us. They take us to wild places as we meet incredible species and the amazing people working to save them. Check your local listings for the airtime in your area. For more information on Protecting the Wild including how to stream full episodes for free, check here: https://wildkingdom.co/4bZjQ9t Credits: Sponsor: Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Host: Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant Narrator: Peter Gros Executive Producers: Jen Wulf, Jenny VanSoelen Production: Lower Street Media Check us out on our other platforms for more animal facts, wildlife conservation success stories, original series nostalgia and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildkingdomtv Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildkingdomtv/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wildkingdomtv #Podcast #BackFromTheBrink #WildKingdom #grizzlybears