Crocodiles are known to be notoriously cantankerous creatures, but what’s less known is this crazy fact about Crocodile teeth–they can go through up to 4,000 teeth in their lifetime! Transcript Support The Wild Life

Hedgehogs are easily one of the most unmistakable little critters out there, but how much do you know about them? Sonic is (somehow) a hedgehog, but they’re not really known for being quick on their feet. They’re irrefutably adorable, sometimes pets, and prickly little fellas that roll themselves up like a pill bug, but what else? Where are they native to? What do they eat? Why do hedgehogs have spikes? Transcript Support The Wild Life

Yes, you read that right. Move over marsupials, you’re not the only mammals with skin pockets.​ Transcript and memes Support

The basic idea behind the theory of evolution behind natural selection is this: if you get eaten or otherwise die before you’ve had the chance to reproduce then your genes, or traits, don’t get passed on. It’s a dead end. But if you survive… some of your traits get passed down to a new generation. Maybe you were just a bit faster than the other wildebeest. Maybe your coloration gave you better camouflage than some of the rest. Who knows? It could be a ton of things. The point is, over time,...

In October 2020, Ocean Exploration Trust’s E/V Nautilus crew discovered something extraordinary—vast clusters of glass sponges Glass sponges in general are a rare sight, but what made this discovery even more surprising is where they were found. Beginning just 25 miles off the coast of California, The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is a 1,470 square mile refuge for wildlife as well as a human heritage site.  Regions where the ocean floor can be found just 1,000 feet or so below,...

This season on Class, a deep dive into the amazing life history of sponges. starting with getting to the bottom of what exactly a sponge is! Transcript Support

The first episode is coming this week!

This, like many things lately, is a different type of content from The Wild Life. Who knew you could learn so much about authentic expression and finding yourself from producing a podcast? In this episode, I go out for a birding excursion with a major time constraint and ponder on my relationship with time itself. If you're listening or reading this, I would really appreciate some feedback or a simple "hello" so that I can get an idea of, well, if anyone is really out there, and if anyone has...

So far in the How to Build an Animal series, we’ve been taking a look at the very things that make an animal, well, an animal. In Part One we explored types of symmetry and got oriented with the directions of cephalization. In Part Two we dove into the early development of animals, from fertilization to the gastrula. We also defined the early layers called the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm and hinted at their future by revealing what tissues they are responsible for developing into. Each...

Time marches on, change is never ceasing, and yet in spite of it all, there are lessons to be learned from even the smallest of creatures, like the caterpillar. Transcript

The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, just transferred and transformed. This means many things, not the least of which is that energy itself, across the entirety of the universe, is finite. There’s only so much that can exist. There’s only so much capacity. Energy comes in many forms in this universe, just as it does in the universe of your mind and body. We live lives in denial of this inconvenient truth on virtually every scale of human...

There really is no shortage of ways to build an animal, but there are rules to be followed. To truly understand, we have to go to the very beginning. Check out Part 3 of my pre-kick-off series to my new zoology series, Class, and get oriented with the development of animal life. Link to the amazingly spectacular video I mentioned Transcript Support at www.patreon.com/devonbowker

There really is no shortage of ways to build an animal, but there are rules to be followed—rules with deep roots. Check out Part 2 of my pre-kick-off series to my new zoology series, Class, and get oriented with the basic body patterns of animal life. Transcript Support at www.patreon.com/devonbowker

From the biggest elephant to the littlest fly. From every fish in the sea, to all the birds in the sky.  Animals are all around us. Dolphins are animals. Just like owls, salamanders, and the anoles in the tree.  A salamander may not look like an owl, and an owl definitely doesn’t look like an elephant. Yet, even still, you can tell they are animals just by looking at them. But why? What could all of these things possibly have in common? What makes an animal an animal? What is an...

The Largemouth Bass is a freshwater fish of the Black Bass genus named for—you guessed it—its large mouth. The Largemouth Bass is different than the equally common Smallmouth Bass in that it does in fact have a larger mouth. Who knew? Depending on your location, this fish is known by a variety of other names such as green bass, black bass, bucketmouth bass, big mouth bass, largies, or Steven Tyler—the last of which I just made up. Transcript

The Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish is found in the coastal river drainages of the Sunshine State, Florida, over to southern Georgia. They can be found in areas of dense vegetation in the drainage portions of rivers along the coasts of where they live off of a diet of small invertebrates such as worms, insects, and tiny crustaceans. Transcript Support the Show

How fast can fish really be? Faster than you’d probably expect. https://thewildlife.blog/2021/12/26/fastest-fish/ (Transcript)

The Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish may not look like much, but their impact is inarguable. They feed heavily on corals essential for building reefs, the marine equivalent of a metropolis. When these starfish have a boom in their population, the result is a significant loss of live coral. The damage has a higher impact on the reef’s health and resilience than bleaching and disease combined. The incredible diversity of other species dependent on that coral face sharp declines in turn. And it’s not...

If you’ve ever been down to Cozumel, Mexico, you’ve been to one of two places (the other being Glover’s Reef in Belize) on earth where this species of fish can be found. I was there in 2011—on land, granted—but had I gone out snorkeling near any coral outcrops I may have had the opportunity to see the spectacular Splendid Toadfish. https://thewildlife.blog/2018/06/04/sundayfishsketch-splendid-toadfish/ (Transcript) Support the Show

This episode was originally written in October 2015 as a reflection essay I acknowledge there is nuance to these issues which are not fully expressed in this essay In The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/magazine/shooting-a-lion.html (article “Shooting a Lion”), University of Cambridge professor and acclaimed writer, Helen Macdonald, details her recent safari at Kruger National Park in South Africa. Her visit was just a few short months after the Minnesota dentist, Walter...

In 1917, the American poet Wallace Stevens published a poem called https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/thirteen-ways-looking-blackbird (13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.) In truth, 13 is a major understatement, with just as much variation in “why” as their is in “how”. Whether you’re a life “lister”, a casual admirer, or anywhere in between, at some point each and every one of has had a moment where we saw a bird and thought to ourselves, “what is that?” In the past, this has been the moment...

Who doesn’t love Giraffes? Yet, despite their international love and viral webcam footage with thousands tuning in to watch their birth, there is much about them that is unknown by the masses, which is a shame because they are truly fascinating animals with a multitude of fun facts about them. Here are 16 things you probably didn’t know about Giraffes. https://thewildlife.blog/2018/08/01/more-than-a-long-neck-16-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-giraffes/ (Episode Transcript) Support

Jeff Corwin, American biologist and wildlife conservationist, joins Devon on The Wild Life today to talk about his new show on ABC, https://www.facebook.com/wildlifenationtv/ (Wildlife Nation with Jeff Corwin), in partnership with https://defenders.org/ (Defenders of Wildlife), his career's core-wins, lessons learned, finding the right tone, focusing on what matters, finding hope, and confronting climate change. Jeff is known for hosting Disney Channel's Going Wild with Jeff Corwin, The Jeff...

The Deep-Sea Dragonfish, a scaleless eel-like fish about 6 inches in length that lives (you guessed it) in the deep sea, specifically the bathyal zone of the Atlantic Ocean beyond where any light can reach. https://thewildlife.blog/2018/05/06/sundayfishsketch-deep-sea-dragonfish/ (Transcript) Support the Show

As one of America’s most influential environmentalists, Barry Commoner devoted his life and career to ecology, awareness, education, and enacting positive change. Support the Show https://thewildlife.blog/2021/12/11/barry-commoner/ (Transcript) Jumpin Boogie Woogie by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/