Welcome to episode 27 of Zoology Ramblings! We start the episode by sharing some quick conservation good news, including incentivising environmentally friendly behaviours in Copenhagen and the discovery of the world's largest land mammal migration in South Sudan. We then both talk about Aotearoan species, including the weird and wonderful kakapo and tuatara. We then delve into pine marten reintroduction to the UK, sharing positive news of how pine martens are spreading across Britain,...

Welcome to episode 26 of Zoology Ramblings! This week, we are back to our regular podcast structure and begin by sharing some quick nature news followed by our animals of the week. Robi talks about brown hyena phylogeny, and how new research may see it re-classified into an extinct genus. Taxonomy nerds, this one's for you! I talk about the invasive American signal crayfish and how it's come to spread an dominate across UK waterways. We then share our local news, which mean both of us...

Welcome to episode 25 of Zoology Ramblings, where Robi and I do a deep dive into European bison. Before we do, we talk about very bizarre animals of the week, featuring the slimy, jawless hagfish and an expedition that led to the discovery of tree-dwelling shrimps the size of a grain of sand! For our deep dive, we delve into how bison were almost completely eradicated from Europe, and how restoration efforts and careful breeding have allowed bison numbers to recover across the...

Welcome to episode 24 of Zoology Ramblings! This week, Robi and I share exciting news of having met up recently in the UK, with Robi speaking at a Pride Community Campfire that I hosted with my colleagues. This leads onto a wonderful conservation about the innate queerness of nature featuring lesbian bonobos and elephant orgies. For our animals of the week, Robi talks about good news for the Iberian lynx and I talk about the unusual whistling dogs: Dholes. Robi then delves into...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In episode 11, Robi and I ramble about our animals of the week- I talk about the tayra and Robi talks about the tiny Monito del Monte. We each tackle large global conservation topics including zoonotic diseases and the lessons we can learn from the Covid 19 pandemic. Robi discusses why the taxonomic classification of African elephant species is important! For our UK conservation topics I talk about the very exciting reintroduction of beavers to Wales for the first time in 400 years. Robi...

This week in episode 10 of Zoology Ramblings we talk about an animal of the week each: Robi talks about the Sunda Island Tigers and throws in a bit of epic tiger taxonomy and palaeontology! I talk about the Laysan Albatross following an article about the world's oldest wild bird 'Wisdom' who has just had her 37th chick! For our UK conservation stories, Robi talks about the majestic Eagle Owl in Britain and how a mysterious group of them has 're-appeared' in the UK. I talk about the...

Welcome to episode 9, part 2 of Zoology Ramblings with Emma and Robi. This is a continuation from part 1 of episode 9. In this episode we talk about the Ebo Forest in Cameroon and the incredible biodiversity of animal life which is supported there. We also talk about threats to this forest and how public pressure can be important in lobbying governments to change. We also talk about the invasive American Mink which has exploded in numbers here in the UK and across Europe. This mink is...

Welcome to episode 9, part 1 of Zoology Ramblings with Emma and Robi! Apologies we haven't released one of these in a while- we have been busy with our other podcast 'The Biome Podcast'. Please feel free to check that one out if you wanted more regular content.  This week we talk about neon-pink slugs which live on one mountain-top in Australia and nowhere else in the world. They really are hot pink and awesome but are also threatened by climate change. Robi talks about the Hirola, which is...

In episode 8 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I talk about the illegal pangolin trade and the threats which both the Asian and African pangolins are facing. We highlight some amazing people and organisations which are doing fantastic work to try and conserve these incredible animals. We also briefly touch on the links between the pangolin and the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is currently causing the covid 19 pandemic. We hope you enjoy our latest ramble and learn lots about the amazing pangolin! 

In episode 7 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi and I talk about the remarkable creatures that are Orcas. We talk about their distribution around the world, their complex social structures, the global threats they are facing and we explore the dynamics and the plight of our Orca pod here in the UK. We hope you enjoy our latest ramble! 

In episode 6 of Zoology Ramblings, Robi talks about the enormous cave bear which used to inhabit the UK, which weighed up to 1000kgs and was entirely vegetarian! I talk about the Gelada monkeys of the Ethiopian highlands and how they have been driven to the roof of the world by humans and aggressive ancestors of baboons.  Sorry we haven't released an episode for a while, we have been busy with the launch of our new project "Biome". We are collaborating with a production called Grizzly,...

In episode 5 of Zoology Ramblings we split our podcast into 3 parts with breaks in between each section to make it easier for you guys, our listeners, in case you don't want to listen to the full hour all at once. Part one ends at 00:15:28, part 2 starts at 00:15:41 and ends at 00:42:18, part 3 starts at 00:42:31 and ends at 00:54:52:10. In part 1 (animals of the week) we talk about the hairy mexican dwarf porcupine (I know right, epic name!), a new species of beaked whale in Japan. In part 2...

Welcome to episode 4 of Zoology Ramblings, where we talk about the ancestor of domesticated cattle (the Aurochs), the virtually indestructible Tardigrade which could survive a nuclear holocaust, the very recent reintroduction of the Tasmanian Devil to...