Talking Apes

This week we're going HOST TO HOST as Gerry is  joined by fellow wildlife podcaster Jack Baker. Jack is creator and host of Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast   which features over 100 episodes highlighting pioneering conservationists at the forefront of wildlife protection. Pangolins are Jack's starting point for celebrating under-appreciated species and conservation stories – no matter...

Carl Safina is an American ecologist and author. He writes about our relationship with the natural world and the other beings that share it. ‘In my writing I explore our relationship with the living world—and how it could be better. My more recent work also probes how free-living animals experience life. What drives my work is a devotion to free-living things and wild places. And what drives that...

Jo-Anne McArthur is a multiple award winning photojournalist who has spent over two decades travelling the world to document and bring to light the disturbing truth about our relationship with the other sentient beings that share our planet. Her unflinching photography has been acknowledged with multiple awards including Wildlife Photographer of the Year and The Global Peace Award . She is the aut...

Great apes — gorillas, chimps, orangutans and bonobos — have been Talking Apes host Gerry Ellis's life long passion. Discover where it started and how it's evolved as guest host Eric Cain explores the world of Talking Apes with photographer, film-maker and podcast host, Gerry Ellis. Long before creating the Talking Apes podcast, Gerry had built an award-winning career as an international...

At 22 years old, Rachel Hogan never dreamed that a three month volunteering trip to Africa would result in her becoming the director of one of the world's largest and most well known primate sanctuaries. Over two decades later, Rachel remains on the edge of Cameroon's rainforests overseeing fifty human residents and 300 non-human residents - a growing hoard of gorillas, chimps, and monke...

Primate portraits from some of the most unlikely habitats — tiny, century-old, forgotten places. BEHIND GLASS by Anne Berry is an intimate very personal look at the lives of primates nearly forgotten. Visit our BLOG to see the photos from our conversation on Talking Apes. Visit anneberrystudio.com to learn more.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show Talking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOB...

Send us Fan Mail Support the show Talking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOBIO . Support the show BUY OUR MERCH

On the western edge of the vast Congo basin lies one of the world's most remote rainforests - the Dja. It is one of the last strongholds of a rich biodiversity that includes gorillas, chimps, forest elephants, and a breath-taking range of flora and fauna.  Dr Nikki Tagg - conservation scientist and Head of Conservation for the Born Free Foundation is one of those rare researchers who has vent...

We often hear about how we humans are 98% chimpanzee. In fact, biologically, humans are more closely related to chimpanzees than chimps are to gorillas!  But when we look past the biological similarities, do we still see ourselves in our closest living relatives, the chimps and bonobos?  Dr Catherine Hobaiter and her team have spent almost two decades deep in the rainforests of Africa, studying wi...

Decades of losing. Losing forest habitat, losing primate populations, and losing in our efforts to educate politicians, the public, and policy-makers.  Most critically, we are losing great apes by the thousands each year. On Giving Day for Apes we talk with PASA's new director, Kelly O'Meara, about how PASA's 23 member primate sanctuaries across Africa are much more than caring arms...

When an entire family of chimpanzees is slaughtered for bushmeat, the baby chimps are captured live and sold into the multi-billion dollar global wildlife trade. Often sold on as pets, they suffer in confinement and misery, deprived of companionship and a natural life in their wild rainforest homes.  Iris Ho is Head of Campaigns and Policy at PASA (Pan African Sanctuary Alliance) - Africa’s larges...

Mountain Gorillas and forest elephants highlight our launch of Talking Apes Season 2 with conservationist and naturalist Ian Redmond. Over his three-decades of life in the wilds, Ian has seen the most beautiful reflections of nature and the most horrific of impacts we humans have dish out. Through it all Ian has remained positive and confident in the resiliency of nature and the strength of our re...

Mountain Gorillas and forest elephants highlight our launch of Talking Apes Season 2 with conservationist and naturalist Ian Redmond. Over his three-decades of life in the wilds, Ian has seen the most beautiful reflections of nature and the most horrific of impacts we humans have dish out. Through it all Ian has remained positive and confident in the resiliency of nature and the strength of our re...

The touching and beautiful photography of Suzi Eszterhas is a reminder that every photograph has the potential to say something powerful, poignant and meaningful. Much of her work used imagery of baby animals to spur big impact for conservation. On this episode of Talking Apes we’re going to be exploring the way we think, interpret and talk about conservation and wildlife through the camera lens. ...

Join us for another live Talking Apes with Dr. Karina Flores to dive into her experience as a wildlife veterinarian. With wild patients as varied as African wild dogs, Fishers, Cheetahs, and now rescued chimpanzees here in Sierra Leone at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Dr. Karina has no shortage of experience rolling with the punches and working through the unexpected! Today, she oversees care...

"I wasn't thinking about saving chimps, we were just trying to help this little guy" Over 100 rescued chimpanzees and 27 years later Bala Amarasekaran - the founder and director of Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary - is the driving force behind Sierra Leone's national animal movement and the effort to create a conservation movement unlike any in West Africa. For an extra special 20...

Drones employed in conservation, wildlife, ecology science have gained marked popularity in recent years as they become more accessible to the masses. But more than just toys, drones, a.k.a. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are also becoming increasingly critical in conservation. Researchers and conservationists alike are employing these new aerial technologies to gain new perspectives, gather diff...

Can saving one species once on the brink of vanishing in the mist show us the way out of the extinction darkness? Joining us to celebrate World Gorilla Day is Dr. Tara Stoinski, President & CEO, and Chief Science Officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, and discover how saving one species can help tip the scale in favor of others too.  More about Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Internat...

Every now and then, headlines pop up about a monkey on the loose, tiktok videos of pet monkeys go viral, occasionally even celebrities will get their faces in the paper for their pet monkeys (looking at you Beiber!) But these blips of fame and notoriety of pet primates barely scratches the surface of just how many monkeys, apes, and other primates are being kept in people's basements, backyar...

Life as a wildlife veterinarian is a tough and demanding job. For Wild Orangutan veterinarians, that task is often made trickier through the lack of basic tools, skills, and government support! On this episode of Talking Apes , we meet with Orangutan Veterinary Aid's (OVAID) founder, veterinarian Dr. Nigel Hicks to talk about the art of Wild Orangutan Vet Care. Since its conception, OVAID has...

We all know that chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos are our closest genetic cousins, but what does that mean from a physiological standpoint?  How can a chimp's heart unlock the mysteries of elite endurance athletes? Join us for this episode of Talking Apes as we explore the hearts of our chimp and gorilla cousins with Dr. Rob Shave , Cardiac Physiologist, Professor at the School of He...

Love, empathy, privilege — those aren’t words you generally hear floating up out of the trenches of conservation battles. Leif Cocks believes — we have to see beyond the mere mechanics of conservation. For over thirty years Leif has shared an intimate connection with what some primatologists call the “second most intelligent” animal on Earth — the orangutan. Leif Cocks is the founder and president...

Were we formed by fire? Celebrating World Chimpanzee Day, July 14th, we gather around the evolutionary fireplace with Dr. Richard Wrangham , professor of anthropology and primatology at Harvard University for a conversation about the rise of cooking and our closest cousins - chimpanzees . Take a listen to this fascinating conversation about how the food that went into cooking pots of old made some...

Few people can claim to have seen the four non-human great apes in their wild habitat, but for Dr. Rick Quinn , not only has he ventured far and wide to catch a glimpse of our primate cousins, he's gone on to share them with the world, with his recent photobook Just Like Us .  Dr. Quinn was working as a veterinary ophthalmologist at the time of his first wild ape sighting. Wanting to do more...

What's a baby chimp worth? A sack of pangolin scales, kilos upon kilos of elephant and rhino ivory, an orphaned baby chimp, for Ofir Drori and his team, these horrors are witnessed daily as they arrest wildlife traffickers throughout Equatorial Africa. In this episode of Talking Apes , we welcome wildlife activist and eco-journalist Ofir to discuss the EAGLE Network's fight to end illega...