Dissertations, South Africa Field Course and South African Wildlife Conservation

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 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 

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 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:) 

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!