The Wild with Chris Morgan

This season's going to be a little different...we're headed to our national parks. We've got eight special episodes recorded on location in America’s national parks: stories about their biodiversity, their complex histories, and how they are protecting nature. We'll explore all sorts of different ecosystems, from the tallest trees on the planet to the hottest place on earth. Plus we've got m...

If you’ve been a longtime listener of THE WILD then you know that I’ve been a champion of bringing back grizzly bears to the North Cascades of Washington here in the mountains near where I live. On April 25, 2024 that dream has taken a massive step towards becoming reality. The National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have announced that they will be restoring the grizzly populat...

On this special one hour of THE WILD with Chris Morgan, I'll explore natural silence, and how being quiet out in the natural world and having places to do that can be pretty transformative. I'll also spend time in the trees with a forest therapist and talk to author Florence Williams about the healing powers of nature and I’ll go searching for the one of the quietest places in the world in Olympic...

On this one-hour special of THE WILD with Chris Morgan, Chris explores the mighty beaver and its role in reshaping our landscapes and entire ecosystems. Then we plunge into the waters along the pacific coast to follow a sea lion’s journey from California all the way up the Columbia River in search of salmon, in what has become a controversial story of survival between two protected species. THE WI...

On this one-hour special of THE WILD with Chris Morgan, Chris shares tips on how to stay safe in the wild and explores the psychology of animals with author Richard Louv. THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Lucy Soucek and Matt Martin, and edited by Jim Gates. This special episode was produced by Brandi Fullwoo...

This is a special one-hour special of THE WILD with Chris Morgan featuring favorite episodes like the first time Chris caught a grizzly bear. In Part One of this episode Chris recounts catching a grizzly bear while conducting research in the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. In the second part of the show, Chris shares the history of grizzlies in the North Cascades and how they became known...

We learn about calorie counting for polar bears and what the future could look like for the Hudson Bay polar bear population. We’re back in the helicopter with polar bear researchers Dr. Nick Lunn and Dave McGeachy, searching for mother bears with cubs.  This is springtime over the huge, frigid landscape. Mother bears are waking up after eight months of fasting and heading out to the sea ice...

How the changing seasons of our planet are shifting the traditions of the place, the polar bears, and the people of the north. This sea ice of Hudson Bay is what makes life possible for polar bears. It’s as important to them as the air they breathe. Every year, hundreds of bears move through this area and they’re forced to come ashore in the summer when the ice melts — a grueling annual migration...

How these canids survive among city skyscrapers and sidewalks. And what that can teach us about saving the planet. In April of 2007, a coyote walked into a Quiznos in downtown Chicago . It walked inside the front door, right into a fast food restaurant full of people. And then, it sat in a soda cooler for an hour. It was an event so rare, it made the evening news.  Why did the coyote walk int...

Who let the 200-pound python out?  Today, the origin of the Burmese python problem in the Everglades. And how science is being used to try to solve what seems like a losing battle.  I'm back in South Florida, in the Everglades, on the side of a dirt road next to a canal. It looks pretty similar to where I met Anthony Flanagan and Kevin Pavlidis - the two python bounty hunters from the la...

In the Florida Everglades, the Burmese python is an invasive species that's close to triggering an ecological collapse. But not if these python hunters have anything to do with it. Burmese pythons are huge compared to the native snakes in Florida. They can measure up to 20 feet and weigh 200 pounds. The females lay up to 100 eggs. And they eat just about everything, from animals as small as a mous...

On this episode, join me in Ireland for a very Irish tale!  If you’re from where I live in the Pacific Northwest, squirrels might not seem very special. It seems like all I have to do is look out my window and I’ll see one, bounding across the grass. But in the British Isles, the red squirrel is a bit of a “British darling.” They’re a species on the brink of extinction. It seems like everyone...

Whenever I'm out doing field work or on a hike, I’ve not only got my eyes wide open, but my ears too. There’s a lot going on in a forest or under the sea - the sounds of nature. So many of those sounds in nature are about communication. Personally, I love to chat with ravens. I like to think that we have lovely conversations. I know I’m fooling myself... but there’s something happening that might...

This past summer, I was in Alaska in a little coastal town called Seward - a gorgeous spot on the Kenai Peninsula tucked between the ocean and some giant glacier-covered mountains. I met a guy named Dan Olsen, who records killer whale calls using an underwater hydrophone.  Olsen gets all kinds of information from his recordings. The calls bring the underwater world of orcas alive. But there's...

Welcome (back) to The Wild. New episodes start on March 14! Host Chris Morgan is back with another season of The Wild. Join him on new adventures from around the Pacific Northwest and the world. He’ll take you through the Irish countryside to learn how one endangered species is helping another endangered species to thrive. We will follow the journey of two young bear cubs as they gain strength at...

Hi all - Chris here - I’ve missed you! I hope you’re doing well and finding a way to get out and enjoy a bit of nature….maybe a hike in the mountains, or a walk around your city park? There really is wildlife all around us, no matter where you are. We're busy working on Season 5 (! wow can’t believe that!)....and we’ve got some enticing episodes shaping up from the PNW, Ireland, England,...

One recent September I stopped at the side of highway 20 that crosses Washington state’s North Cascade Mountains. At the side of the road was a sign that grabbed my attention. About a storied fire lookout cabin on top of Desolation Peak in the distance, where author Jack Kerouac spent some time in the 50s. The irony was that I couldn’t see the peak because of the forest fire smoke in the air that...

Join me as I squeeze on a dry suit, don a snorkel, and jump into an icy mountain river. “That's what I'm amazed by, that a little tiny stream, not even knee deep, is a whole world if you get under there with it.,” that’s what CWU professor Paul James told me as we snorkeled our way through the fast moving current. Dr. James is surveying the number of fish in the river after a recent restoration pr...

I was trained as a traditional scientist, to look at the world through that perspective. Analytical, and clinical. In this “western science” you have to toe the line and keep personal experience and emotions out of it. Science is run as a pretty tight ship. There's a good reason for that, of course. But for indigenous people, there’s something that comes with spending time in nature that helps to...

To most of us, coral reefs conjure up magical places full of colorful species and life. They are unknown and otherworldly. Their beauty is perhaps a reason why coral reefs have become one of the more famous victims of climate change, warming oceans. Most people have heard that the future for coral reefs is in total jeopardy.  And this is a problem, because about 25% of the ocean’s fish d...

I’ve thought about this stuff a lot as I listen to the northern flicker woodpecker tapping noisily away on the rain gutter outside my bedroom window. And not just rain gutters of course.  Woodpeckers will peck at a tree up to 12,000 times a day and just one woodpecker peck produces about 15 times the force needed to give a human a concussion. So, how do woodpeckers bang their heads so much, a...

Join me among the crashing waves of the Pacific Northwest coast in Washington State. This unique wildlife story starts, not there, but with a nuclear explosion, literally. During the late 60s and early 70s, three atomic weapons were tested on Amchitka Island in a remote part of Alaska. The blast registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. over 10,000 fish were killed in the island’s lakes, streams and...

Happy Earth Day to you all. For a while now I've wanted to share a short piece like this, and Earth Day seems like the right time! I hope you can kick back and listen to a relaxing 10 minute journey all about our precious home. If you enjoy it, please share it with others. After all, we're all in this together. Thank you for the inspiration to: Conservationists everywhere. Everyone working on ‘30x...

One thing that I love about my work is that I get the opportunity to talk to so many interesting people working with wildlife around the world. For today’s episode I wanted to share with you one of those conversations. Some of you might remember our episodes on “how to catch a cougar” back in season 2. If you do, the name Dr. Mark Elbroch will probably sound familiar. Mark is a good friend of mine...

In this episode you may notice a lot of heavy breathing - because I’m on the trail of a wolverine high up in the mountains. Here’s the story…. In the summer of 2020, there was some big news for wildlife in the pacific northwest. In the wild spaces of Mount Rainier National Park, a female wolverine was discovered along with two babies. The wolverines were back. It is believed that these tenaci...