The Wild Life

It's been awhile. I think it's time for some reintroductions. I've spent a lot of time over the past year, 6 years really, reflecting on the journey so far, the ups and downs, the struggles, the wins, the change (oh, so much change), and I think I've finally landed comfortably with where I am and what I want this to be. I look forward to sharing my work and the perspectives of scientists from arou...

Ticks, for as small as they are, strike a disproportionate amount of fear and disgust into our hearts and minds ( no matter what good they might do! ). Perhaps it’s their arachnid nature. Maybe it’s the fact that they burrow their creepy mouthparts into your body and feast off of your blood. Oh yeah, and there’s Lyme Disease and the ever-increasing red meat allergies. Whatever the reason, one thin...

While it's true you should keep your distance, is there any truth to the tale of a tenacious porcupine shooting their quills? Have a question you want answered on the show? Send them over to hello@thewildlife.blog! Have your voice featured on the show when you send a voice memo recorded directly on your phone! Support the creation of The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/t...

Unfortunately, we can’t ask the worms directly, but it turns out that plenty of scientists have been asking this very question for, well, a very long time. Today, we explore the leading hypotheses for what drives worms to the surface for these rainy-day adventures. Have a question you want answered on the show? Send them over to hello@thewildlife.blog! Have your voice featured on the show when you...

Star Wars is as much a product of human ingenuity as it is a space odyssey. Just look at how they solved the Puffin Problem. Have a question you'd like answered on The Wild Life? Email me at hello@thewildlife.blog. You can even have your voice featured by sending a voice memo recorded directly on your phone! You can support the creation of The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon...

Who doesn’t love goats? Especially baby ones. Their gait, their bleat, their tiny horns. But there comes a time in any goat interaction I’ve had where we lock eyes and I’m struck with a mixture of curiosity and unease.  On today's episode, why goats have rectangular pupils, their auto-leveling eyes, and a surprising connection to cuttlefish! Transcript Support The Wild Life Check out Avast! a...

Most would agree that Polar Bears are white, but there's more to the story than things may appear. Transcript Support The Wild Life at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month and check out Avast!, a pirate pod from my friend Paul Csomo

According to a paper published on August 24th, 2022 in the journal  Royal Society Open Science , the Dugong is now “functionally extinct” in China. These gentle marine mammals, sometimes referred to as sea cows, are one of four species of the order Sirenia. They are the cousins of the Amazonian manatee, West Indian manatee, West African manatee, and the now extinct Steller’s sea cow. These pe...

Ask yourself, when was the last time you saw a roseate rhinoceros, a bronzed bunting, or a peeling porcupine? Can other animals get sunburns? Transcript Support The Wild Life

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 s...

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 cam...

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...

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 si...

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 e...

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 b...

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...

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 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