This is the first of two episodes dedicated to the Seabird Monitoring work package at the MarPAMM Interreg project. Today we talk about seabird surveys on remote Scottish locations. Our guests are Stuart Bearhop, Professor of Animal Ecology at the University of Exeter's Centre for Ecology & Conservation and Dr Kendrew Colhoun who is responsible for managing BirdWatch Ireland's work package for MarPAMM. Regular listeners know, from previous episodes, that researchers at MarPAMM often use inno...
Jun 22, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Those of you who either read the excellent book “ Cries of the Savanna ” by Sue Tidwell or listened to the podcast episode with her are familiar with Lilian Mremi, a Game Scout and Tanzanian Wildlife Ranger. Shortly after the episode was published many of you expressed great interest in hearing directly from Lilian. I thought it would be an excellent idea and so today I am pleased to publish my conversation with her. During our conversation, we touched on all the usual topics such as human-wildl...
Jun 08, 2022•59 min
A Marine Protected Area (MPA) designation is one of the most potent tools for protecting a wide range of marine habitats. A layman interested in marine conservation might think that an MPA would be completely excluded from any activities, either commercial or recreational. The reality is much more complex and, depending on what any given MPA is set to protect, a variety of activities can take place inside its boundaries. That’s why developing MPA management plans based on scientific evidence, as...
May 25, 2022•57 min
Once again I had the pleasure to talk with Nathan Edmondson, co-founder and President of Eco Defense Group, an organization that supports frontline wildlife rangers who face danger from direct conflict with poachers. In the episode, we get an update from Nathan about the latest situation in Africa and the state of affairs in wildlife conservation and poaching prevention. Eco Defense Group doesn’t engage poachers directly but rather acts as a support, training and consultancy organization for ant...
May 11, 2022•1 hr 8 min
In this episode, once again, we’re going to take on the subject of hunting in Africa. Our guest is Sue Tidwell , the author of a wonderful book titled “Cries of the Savanna” that I reviewed in last week’s blog post. And since I really liked the book I was itching for the opportunity to talk with Sue. We chat about a number of things. Why Sue decided to write and publish her first book. (Yes, as impressive as it is, it was Sue’s first publication even though she had always been, in her own words,...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Once again I have the pleasure to host scientists from the MarPAMM project. This time we discuss the Seabed Habitat Mapping and Modelling work package. Our guests are Dr Alex Callaway from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (who was our guest on episode 104), Dr Chris McGonigle from the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Professor Andy Wheeler, Chair of Geology, from the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at University College Cork and Ger Summers also fro...
Apr 13, 2022•1 hr 19 min
For many of you, Megan Rowland needs no introduction. She is a Deer Management Officer for NatureScot, Scotland’s nature agency. Before that, she worked as a surveyor for RSPB Scotland where she surveyed the entire suite of Highland bird species. She has also been a volunteer for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a local Raptor Study Group, the Scottish Mink Initiative, and the British Red Cross. Megan is a founding member of the Scottish Crofting Federations’ Young Crofters. Moreover, she’s The Yout...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 28 min
Tick bite season is about to start both in Europe and in the US. Since we haven’t spoken about this important subject for quite a while (we discussed ticks and Lyme disease back in 2019 in episode 55), I thought it was high time to talk about ticks and tick bite prevention once again. Our guest, Brian Anderson, is a Lyme disease prevention specialist, top speaker and educator who is known as "The Tick Terminator". We had a fun and educational conversation about ticks, tick bite prevention, and L...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 27 min
This week we continue with our Alaskan theme by taking a closer look at commercial fishing practices, fisheries management and the life of fishermen in Alaska. So, today I talk with Sena and Rich Wheeler, a third-generation fishing family. Sena and Rich run a family business, Sena Sea , whose goal is to consistently deliver premium quality seafood. They also operate a fisherman-owned custom processing facility to ensure that they have complete control of the entire process, from the sea to the c...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 27 min
Alaska is considered by many to be the last frontier. One of the few remaining places where true pristine wilderness still exists. Without a doubt, this largest state in the United States is a fantastic place for outdoorsmen or anyone who wants to live close to nature and away from the crowds. This is because, although Alaska is huge, it has a tiny population located in just a few urban areas. As you can imagine, hunting and fishing are in the blood of most Alaskans and ready access to the abund...
Feb 16, 2022•1 hr 40 min
Large terrestrial carnivores, like wolves, bears and lynx, are the poster children for conservation and rewilding efforts. Also, they are usually right in the epicentre of the human-wildlife conflict which always sparks emotions. That makes it easy to use them to politicize conservation. In many previous podcasts, our discussions about rewilding inevitably led us to talk about the issues surrounding large carnivores. But this episode is solely dedicated to our coexistence with these predators. A...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 15 min
It’s no exaggeration to say that this was the most anticipated book of the year for me. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since, as regular listeners know, I’m keenly interested in rewilding and the conflict surrounding it. Therefore, it was my pleasure to chat with the author, Steve Cracknell, about the book, how it came to be and some particular situations portrayed in it. In his book “The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees” Steve takes the reader into the middle of the conflict surrounding...
Jan 19, 2022•1 hr 18 min
If you are a sea angler or just like to walk your dog on the beach, you might have noticed how the coastline changes from year to year. Some of us who have frequented the same spots for years might even have noticed changes that have occurred over a greater time span. Sometimes up to decades. Whether it is a channel in the sand that deepens each year after the winter storms or a soft sandy beach that becomes increasingly stony, these changes are driven by coastal processes. Understanding these m...
Jan 05, 2022•1 hr 15 min
This episode is like a Christmas Special. Not only because of the publication date but also because we talk about a subject I have wanted to discuss for a long time. Bowhunting. And, it is always a great pleasure to talk with a fellow hunter and, in this case, also a fellow podcaster. Our guest, Paul Rhoades, is the founder of Sizzlin Arrow Outdoors , a community website that is the gateway to eating clean, organic food. Their primary focus is on helping individuals gather and prepare their own ...
Dec 22, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Recently I’ve noticed, and sometimes participated, in discussions about the fact that wildlife conservation can never be successful if the needs of local, indigenous peoples are not taken care of first. It becomes especially apparent when Western environmental NGOs move into Africa with poorly designed conservation programs. On my podcast we’ve also pointed out that hunting can provide an excellent alternative conservation approach that equally benefits both locals and wildlife. Today, I am abso...
Dec 08, 2021•1 hr 37 min
In this episode, once again, we’re going to talk about environmental education. Our guest is Mark Boyden, one of the founders of the Coomhola Salmon Trust. Mark was involved in producing native salmon stocking projects for rivers in the Irish South-West and in the efforts to reintroduce salmon to the great River Rhine. He also participated in successful captive freshwater pearl mussel breeding research. Out of these programs, a biodiversity community engagement project called StreamScapes was bo...
Nov 24, 2021•1 hr 20 min
More than three years ago, I wrote a blog about safety in the outdoors. It is a very important topic for us outdoors people and I feel like I haven’t talked about it nearly often enough. Therefore I welcomed the opportunity to talk with Moose Mutlow who is a senior trainer for Yosemite Search and Rescue. As it happens, Moose just published his new book “ When Accidents Happen: Managing Crisis Communication as a Family Liaison Officer .” Moose has an impressive resume of outdoor experiences and h...
Nov 10, 2021•1 hr 54 min
Communication is by far the most important, yet most difficult, factor in any undertaking. Whether managing a business project with many stakeholders or leading a team to accomplish a goal, excellent communication is the key to success. It is no different in the world of conservation and nature-related endeavours. Anyone who has tried to communicate the benefits of hunting for conservation to uninformed people, with a distaste for killing animals, knows what I’m talking about! The complex and hi...
Oct 27, 2021•1 hr 19 min
In many conversations on my podcast, we have observed that long-term success in nature conservation will be impossible without engaging and educating future generations. Today kids, like their parents, are more and more disconnected from the natural world. Even the children’s dictionary has replaced words about nature with newer words. And so acorn has been replaced with analogue, buttercup with broadband, clover with chatroom, and so on. That’s why, if you are a conservation-minded parent who c...
Oct 13, 2021•1 hr
Regular listeners have already heard that this episode was coming. And we’ve been planning it for a long time. Conflicting schedules, travel plans and life, in general, were always getting in the way. But boy, was it worth waiting for! And so, we sat down for a chat with Dr Ruth Carden, a zoologist, who specialises in the zooarchaeological analysis of faunal assemblages. To the casual reader, Ruth is probably best known for her groundbreaking discovery of butchering marks on a reindeer bone foun...
Sep 29, 2021•1 hr 56 min
Keeping a diary can be a useful thing. Especially if the diarist focuses on events and experiences pertaining to their area of expertise. Ian Carter, naturalist, ornithologist and author, has kept his wildlife diary for over three decades. Ian worked for Natural England, a governmental advisory body, for twenty-five years. He has written articles for respected wildlife magazines and has co-authored papers in scientific journals. Ian was also involved with the Red Kite reintroduction programme an...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Conservation of the marine environment is prominently featured in many episodes of my podcast. Regular listeners have heard on many occasions the opinion that marine protected areas, or MPAs for short, is where it’s at. But as always in these cases, if you start digging and asking questions everything is more difficult than it looks at first glance. To start the discussion about MPAs, today I bring you an introduction to an environmental project called MarPAMM. Our guests are Dr Naomi Wilson fro...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 14 min
The term hunter-gatherers is often understood as a description of primitive people who live in an idyllic state of harmony with nature. In reality however, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers is way more complex than most of us think. To shed some light on this fascinating subject and to clarify some misconceptions I bring you my conversation with prof. Graeme Warren of the University College Dublin, School of Archaeology. Graeme is a specialist in the Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherers, the leader o...
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr 16 min
You often hear hunters and anglers boasting about humane animal treatment. Whether it is a “quick humane kill” in the case of hunters or “fish welfare” in the case of anglers practising catch and release, this subject is mentioned a lot. Also, environmentalists frequently bring up humane treatment and animal welfare in their conversations. But what does it actually mean to do something in a humane way? In this episode, we try to shed some light on these issues with my guest Alick Simmons, a vete...
Aug 04, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Last month, I wrote a review of an excellent book titled “Beak, Tooth and Claw: Living with Predators in Britain” by Mary Colwell. At the end of that blog, I said that I would really love to have an opportunity to talk with Mary on my podcast. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long! After a brief exchange of messages, Mary and I agreed to get together and record an episode. Mary Colwell is an environmentalist, campaigner, freelance producer and author. She is also well known for her work protec...
Jul 21, 2021•1 hr 4 min
There are no two ways about it. It’s a milestone episode. Episode 100. To mark the occasion we get together with environmentalist, hunter and axe thrower, Ashley Glover to discuss some of the most interesting subjects from the past three years. And while the title says “Deer, Sheep and Fires,” in reality it should have said, “Deer, Sheep, Boar, Wolves, Mink, Trout, Seals, Woodland, Rhododendron and Fires.” You get the picture! In our conversation, you will be able to identify episodes from Tommy...
Jul 07, 2021•2 hr 2 min
Bertie Brosnan is known to regular listeners from episode 51. It was an immensely interesting conversation about the fight against salmon poaching in the rivers of the Irish South-West. In this episode, Bertie is back to talk about his other passions: hunting and dog training. During our conversation, Bertie gives a fascinating account of how things were in the Irish countryside many decades ago. I just love to record episodes like this because first-hand stories and experiences from bygone time...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 43 min
Wildlife trafficking and poaching are huge problems for the conservation of the world’s most endangered species. They also present significant social and economic challenges. On one hand, big green organizations like WWF are criticised for “militarization of conservation” in their attempt to counteract the increasingly sophisticated and militarized wildlife trafficking cartels. On the other hand, members of local communities often find themselves caught in a conflict between those groups. That i...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 15 min
Dr Amy Dickman needs no introduction. She is well known and hugely respected in both academic and conservation communities. She’s a conservation biologist and works on resolving human-wildlife conflict on human-dominated landscapes. Amy is a Kaplan Senior Research Fellow in Wild Cat Conservation under Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. She is also the founder of The Ruaha Carnivore Project where she works closely with local communities to mitigate the conflict. During our c...
May 26, 2021•50 min
My podcast listeners have heard, more than once, that there was a time when I was absolutely crazy about shark fishing. Among the many species of sharks present in my local waters, blue sharks (prionace glauca) have a special place in the hearts of sea anglers. These sharks are still relatively abundant and provide an opportunity to get a taste of true Big Game fishing without having to go on an expensive fishing holiday. We already touched briefly on shark fishing during podcast number 41 with ...
May 12, 2021•1 hr 49 min
