Charles and Jon are joined by Season 1 podcast veterans Mac Hunter and Cheryl Antonucci who starred in the first two podcast episodes, along with professional birding - and now mammalwatching - guide Carlos Bocos who dialed in from his home in Spain.  We talk about guides: the benefits they bring to conservation, trips and to mammalwatching more generally, as well as the skills every good guide needs. Carlos also offers his thoughts on what makes for a good client and reveals that some...

Jon finally gets the chance to interview his co-host Charles Foley. Charles shares adventures from a life spent working with African Elephants in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park with his wife Lara. His thirty years of research has generated many advances in our understanding of Elephants, including the long-term impact that poaching can have when it kills all of the older animals in a family. Elephants do indeed have long memories, and so remembering where water can be found might be...

Charles and Jon talk to Russian biologists and mammalwatchers Karina Karenina  and Andrey Giljov (aka The Travelling Zoologists) from their new home in Paraguay.  In a journey that runs from the Russian steppes to the Paraguayan chaco, they talk about their work to save Russia's Saiga Antelopes and the role mammalwatching has played. They discuss how their experience as biologists has helped them to develop new techniques to watch mammals around the world. And we learn that Long-beaked...

Charles and Jon talk to Christopher Scharf about his 30 year quest to photograph the planet's most iconic wildlife - a project that is destined to be a time capsule of 21st century wildlife observation. Chris talks about some of the near mythical mammals he has seen and the near mythical adventures along the way. We hear how a quest to photograph a Markhor required an undercover journey into Afghanistan disguised as a local. He explains why finally seeing a wild Sumatran Rhino this year -...

Charles and Jon report back from the inaugural mammalwatching meeting in Asturias, Spain. Join us as we watch Brown Bears, Common Genets and Broom Hares and chat with the participants. In a podcast first you can share the ecstasy of people seeing lifer mammals, followed by the agony when one - a water vole - is devoured by a bear before being fully identified. Notes: The meeting was organized by a Felis, an NGO supporting conservation of the world's wild cats. A report - of both the meeting...

We interview Dr Robert Shumaker, the President and CEO of the Indianapolis Zoo. Rob is a renowned expert on primate cognition (i.e. primate behaviour and intelligence), a widely published scientist, and a leader in the zoo world. He talks to us about his fascinating research on Great Ape cognition and the very fine line between the abilities of humans and other apes. Rob discusses the future of zoos in the US and the rapidly expanding conservation efforts of the Indianapolis Zoo, and tells...

December 25 1914: as World War I is raging, British and German troops along the frontline lay down their rifles, and cross the trenches to play a friendly football match.  September 2022: the mammalwatching podcast brings a second, arguably greater, testament to the human ability to heal wounds, cross divides and search for peace despite many years of conflict. Yes, Charles and Jon lay down their binoculars to reach out across the barbed wire and welcome a birder onto this podcast.  And not...

Charles and Jon interview the original Batman,  Dr Merlin Tuttle, from his home in Austin, Texas. Merlin has spent 60 years studying - and working to help - bats around the world and his photos and research have been featured in multiple National Geographic articles, the journal Science, and many other places. He founded and led Bat Conservation International for nearly 30 years, left BCI, then founded Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation in 2014 where he remains active. He is a true legend. In...

From binoculars to bat detectors, and from thermal scopes to thermarest pillows, we all have our own preferences for mammalwatching gear. We are joined by Charles Hood and Fiona Reid to discuss our kit and share some packing hacks that can make life a little more comfortable on a trip ..... because any fool can be uncomfortable in the bush! We had so much to talk about we decided to split this episode into 2 parts, though we didn't make a video. Notes: Here is a list of some of the gear we...

From binoculars to bat detectors, and from thermal scopes to thermarest pillows, we all have our own preferences for mammalwatching gear. We are joined by Charles Hood and Fiona Reid to discuss our kit and share some packing hacks that can make life a little more comfortable on a trip ..... because any fool can be uncomfortable in the bush! We had so much to talk about we decided to split this episode into 2 parts, though we didn't make a video. Notes: Here is a list of some of the gear we...

We interview Tony Friend, legendary West Australian mammalogist, from his home in Albany, Australia. Tony talks about almost 40 years of work to save some of West Australia's iconic and wonderfully-named mammals including species like the Chudditch, Woylie and Dibbler. (And if you want to know what they look like you'll need to listen!) Tony talks about the rediscovery in the mid-1990s of Gilbert's Potoroo, a rabbit-sized kangaroo that was thought extinct for 100 years, that was hiding in...

We interview Rob Foster from his home in Ontario, Canada about his work in the Canadian boreal forests and his frequent run-ins with Black and Grizzly bears. He describes an astonishing encounter with a predatory Black bear that he fought off for over 45 minutes in the back-woods with only a single can of bear spray and a pocket knife. He also dispenses good advice on how to protect yourself from bears if you are alone in the woods.  Notes: Rob has a huge number of entries from his survey...

We interview British economist turned conservationist Terry Townshend from his home in Beijing. about the work he has done over the past 12 years in China and some of the mammals he has encountered along the way. Terry describes stumbling on the Valley of the Cats, and its Snow Leopards, thanks to two students who overslept their alarm. He explains why he thinks Tibetan people are some of the happiest and wealthiest on earth. And he recalls a mesmerizing encounter with a family of Pallas’s...

We interview world famous Danish mammalogist turned wildlife photographer Mogens Trolle from his home in Copenhagen. Mogens talks about the philosophy that underpins his photography and choice of subjects,  as  well as his earlier work as a wildlife guide then researcher in Brazil. He describes greeting a herd of 3000 migrating Saiga on the Russian steppes and coming face to face with a Jaguar in the Brazilian Pantanal. And he explains why the most sociable primates have the most interesting...

Charles and Jon interview Chris & Mathilde Stuart - renowned wildlife researchers and authors - from their farm in South Africa. The Stuarts have had the sort of life many mammalwatchers can only dream of, searching and surveying for wildlife in much of Africa and beyond, including areas which had barely been studied before they arrived. They have written about 30 books and several apps over their long career. During this episode they explain how much work is involved in writing their...

Charles and Jon interview Regina Ribeiro, arguably Brazil's top mammalwatching guide. Regina talks about her journey to become one of Brazil's first female wildlife guides, and runs through her own list of the Brazilian Big 5. She also talks about what can go wrong when you have to take a minibus along the Transpantaneira. Here is the YouTube trailer. For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast Notes: Many trip reports featuring Regina are on mammalwatching's Brazil page,...

Charles and Jon talk with Vladimir Dinets, naturalist extraordinaire, about his adventures travelling the world searching for wildlife. We hear about a quest to Pakistan to be the first biologist to see a Woolly Flying Squirrel in the wild; and how 48 hours inside a Mexican hollow tree is the perfect place to recover from the flu and look for black Jaguars. And he remembers his first near death encounter,  when a 14 year old Vladimir had to battle a monster bear in Siberia. Plus we hear from...

On New Year's Eve 2021, Ellesmere and Sierra Foley sat down with Patrick and Katy Hall to reflect on the highs and lows of growing up in a mammalwatching world. Ellesmere reveals the real reason to visit the Louvre, and Patrick gives tips on how to stare down a Tassie Devil. Sierra has an overly-close encounter with leeches. And Katy makes a shocking confession about feeling "lucky" to have had a mammalwatching childhood! Plus try to identify a mysterious mammal call that Charles plays at...

Charles and Jon interview Bob Pitman, a marine ecologist from Oregon who has recently retired after spending more than 40 years working with the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Bob has seen more cetacean species than anyone else on the planet - over 80 species of whales and dolphins in the wild - and has only a handful left to find. During a fascinating interview Bob discusses some of his work researching Killer Whales including the day he had a snowball fight with a...

Charles and Jon interview Vivek Menon founder and Executive Director of the Wildlife Trust of India. Vivek is a distinguished conservationist, scientist and author of the Field Guide to Indian Mammals (required reading for any mammalwatcher heading to the sub-continent). During more than 30 years of conservation work Vivek has had many adventures around the world. He talks about getting drenched while kayaking alongside breaching Humpback Whales, being pounced on by Clouded Leopards and...

Charles and Jon interview Nils Bouillard, a young Belgian biologist who specializes in bat acoustics. In 2019 Nils set out to spend a year traveling the world to try to record as many bat species as possible. His Big Bat Year, the first of its kind, took him across 6 continents and 400 bat species. Nils talks about what drew him to bats and a Big Bat Year, and the many adventures he has had along the way including that time he caught bats with a Sinaloan drug cartel looking on. Here is the...

Charles and Jon interview Wendy Panaino from the field in South Africa, about her research on one of Africa's rarest, most endangered and most endearing mammals: the Ground (Cape) Pangolin. Wendy's ground breaking research means she probably knows more about this species than anyone in the world and she shares some of her findings with us, including an explanation of how one even starts to study an animal this hard to find. Wendy also describes some of the other fascinating mammal species...

Charles and Jon interview Tomer Ben-Yehuda and Alex Meyer, two 30-something mammalwatching friends about their adventures and misadventures around the world. We cover the full spectrum of mammalwatching emotions: the thrill of seeing a White-bellied Pangolin in the Central African Republic; the blissful relief of a last minute Maned Wolf sighting in Brazil, and the agony of standing on top of a nest of biting ants while waiting for a porcupine to reveal itself. Plus Tomer finally reveals the...

We interview Russ Mittermeier, world famous author, mammalogist, conservationist and primate watcher. Russ takes us on a trip from a Tarzan-loving kid watching monkeys at the Bronx Zoo to a Tarzan-loving scientist discovering new species of primates in the jungles of the Amazon and Madagascar, and becoming the first person to see all 80 genera of primate in the wild. We hear about why mammalwatching is a force for conservation good, the thrill of coming face to face with a Tiger on his first...

We talk to Lisa Dabek, senior Conservation Scientist at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, and Founder and Director of the globally renowned Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Lisa has received numerous awards and accolades for her work. The most recent include two from the IUCN. In 2019 she won their prestigious George Rabb award for conservation which she received in 2019 'In recognition of her outstanding leadership and innovation in the conservation of one of the most...