Show Notes
Ecotourism can bring great benefits to a struggling economy and conservation attention and investment to fragile biomes and struggling species. But is everything that glitters made of gold? This week, TWS’ associate editor Joshua Rapp Learn joins host Katie Perkins as they travel through South Texas to learn more about the positive and negative impacts of ecotourism on an otherwise struggling economy. In this episode—the companion piece to the cover feature in the latest issue of ...
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Ocelots can be feisty, and researchers Lindsay Martinez, Meghan Murphy and Haylee Pearce are well aware that they can scratch worse than the Tamaulipan thornscrub they live in. In this episode of “Our Wild Lives,” East Foundation researchers and field technicians take host Katie Rohrbach and associate editor Joshua Rapp Learn to El Sauz Ranch—one of the only footholds ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) have north of the Mexican border—to check trap lines. Murphy, Pearce and Martinez discuss t...
As a kid, Rae Wynn-Grant dreamed of traveling the world to tell stories about wildlife science. But the path to realizing this dream wasn’t always clear. In this episode of “Our Wild Lives,” Rae Wynn-Grant, large carnivore ecologist, author, podcast host and co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild recounts the long days in the field, advanced college degrees and harsh rejections that led to her dream career as a nature show host. This episode spans tales from...
Since the first mass wildlife casualty events at commercial windfarms in the early 2000s, conservationists have raised concerns about the impacts of wind energy development. In this episode of “Our Wild Lives,” Misti Sporer, senior director of Environment and Permitting at Deriva Energy and Greg Forcey, senior principal scientist at Normandeau Associates, Inc. talk about their experiences working as wildlife biologists in wind energy projects. Together they share the advancement...
Plastic waste travels from your doorstep to the most remote places. In the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, currents concentrate vast amounts of marine debris along the shores of what should be a wildlife paradise. Within the protected waters of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, plastic debris and derelict fishing nets threaten endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals (Neomonachus schauinslandi), seabirds, sea turtles and fragile coral reef systems. These islands have become the frontline...
Somewhere deep in British Columbia’s boreal forest lives a small population of unique and secretive carnivores most humans never see. The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is a critter exceptionally good at eluding even the most talented wildlife trackers. But for today’s guests, who have spent many cold mornings out in the field to learn more about these mustelids, even the stealthiest of fishers couldn’t keep all of their secrets. In this episode of “Our Wild Lives,” Katie Perkins-Rohrbach,...