Urban Wildlife Podcast

So you find a snake in your backyard, or your kitchen, or your toilet. Who do you call? And what do THEY do with the snake? In this episode we talk with Yatin Kalki, snake rescuer interested in harnessing snake … Continue reading →

Entomologist and urban bee specialist Doug Sponsler joins Billy and Tony early in the morning in a community garden spot in West Philadelphia to observe squash bees and talk about what counts as native. Squash are not strictly native to … Continue reading →

Tony and Billy take to the field… the Philadelphia neighborhood of Manayunk to observe the peregrine falcons of St. John the Baptist’s steeple. We talk urban raptors and perform incidental urban wildlife outreach with the neighbors. If you like this … Continue reading →

It doesn’t matter where you live. If there’s water, you can go fishing. Learn about urban fishing, multi-species fishing, even micro-fishing as Tony and Billy join Leo Sheng of Extreme Philly Fishing for an outing in Philadelphia’s Cobbs Creek. And … Continue reading →

It’s not just about honey. Cities are full of bees, and in this double episode we hear about Brisbane bees and the Australian native alternative to European honey bees from Tim Heard of Sugarbag Bees, we talk with urban bee … Continue reading →

It’s not just about honey. Cities are full of bees, and in this double episode we hear about Brisbane bees and the Australian native alternative to European honey bees from Tim Heard of Sugarbag Bees, we talk with urban bee … Continue reading →

Tiffany Kersten joins Tony to talk about the proposed border wall and how it will impact wildlife and wildlife viewing in the lower Rio Grande Valley. The border wall plans do seem to be on hold for the moment, but … Continue reading →

Special (very long, thorough – don’t make this your first Urban Wildlife Podcast episode) Episode: Billy, Tony, and biologist Clint Springer dive into the outdoor cat literature. This is a companion to our Cat Wars episode. Finally we sat down and went through the … Continue reading →

Special (very long, thorough – don’t make this your first Urban Wildlife Podcast episode) Episode: Billy, Tony, and biologist Clint Springer dive into the outdoor cat literature. This is a companion to our Cat Wars episode. Finally we sat down … Continue reading →

City lights attract birds to cities where they are vulnerable to windows, cats, and other dangers of city living… or, depending on what we do, they can have a meal and be on their way. Spring migration is a great … Continue reading →

City lights attract birds to cities where they are vulnerable to windows, cats, and other dangers of city living… or, depending on what we do, they can have a meal and be on their way. Spring migration is a great … Continue reading →

Evolution by natural selection is happening all around us, all the time, even in our cities. Biologist Menno Schilthuizen, author of Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution, talked with Billy about how species adapt to urban … Continue reading →

This year we honor World Sparrow Day with a look at how they got to North America and the Sparrow War of the 1870s that followed. Matt Halley joins us to talk about the weird but true history of exotic … Continue reading →

What can cities do to connect kids with nature? Billy and frequent guest host Robin Irizarry of the Tookany/Tacony/Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF) interview Richard Louv to find out. Richard will be speaking on February 28th, 6pm at the Friends Center … Continue reading →

Pete Marra joins us for a special episode to talk about his (and Chris Santella’s) book Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer. We originally posted this for his talk last year at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. … Continue reading →

When is a raccoon not just a raccoon? What can a dandelion teach us about changing the world? We talk with Evan Lovett of V.U.R.T. about their Philly Local Critter series of murals, including a pretzel-eating raccoon. We also hear … Continue reading →

Dr. Christian Hunold, a political scientist at Drexel University, is a dedicated wildlife photographer and wrote a paper, Why not the City?, about the hawks of Center City Philadelphia, the humans who watch and love them, and what all that … Continue reading →

It’s the worst thing humans do, but nature fills in the scars on city landscapes. We discuss how naturalists from London to Berlin studied the ruins, and we hear from the Urban Birder, David Lindo, about the black redstart, a … Continue reading →

This summer our frequent guest host Robin Irizarry (Philadelphia Watershed Coordinator for the Tookany/Tacony Frankford Watershed Partnership) took a trip to Rome. Lots of people see the history, enjoy the culture and food of the eternal city. Robin brought his binoculars … Continue reading →

It’s easy to be a birder in Philadelphia, but what about Bethlehem (not the one near Allentown) or the Gaza Strip? Learn about nature and nature loving under occupation, and hear about two organizations training citizen scientists, educating children about nature, … Continue reading →

Nighthawks and bats come out at dusk to fatten up on cemetery bugs before migration and hibernation. In this special mini episode, we take a page from the Field Guides and record a full episode outside at one of our … Continue reading →

Tony and Billy join Robin Irizarry (Philadelphia Watershed Coordinator for the Tookany/Tacony Frankford Watershed Partnership) at his Irizarry Hillstead and hear Bryan Windmiller talk about Grassroots Wildlife Conservation‘s work with marbled salamanders and bridle shiners in the Boston area and … Continue reading →

What’s it like to be a rattlesnake in an urbanizing landscape, keeping to your patch, dodging car tires if you leave? In this special episode we air an interview that listener and wildlife biologist Pete Havlik did with Ecologist/Conservation Biologist … Continue reading →

Zya Levy and Kaitlin Pomerantz of the We the Weeds project join us for a weed walk in the neighborhood. Then we retire back at the Urban Wildlife Podcast studio with invasive species beverages, including a cocktail featuring utopic/dystopic bitters. … Continue reading →

On this impromptu, patched-together, mini episode, we present recordings in the moment: Mike McGraw, Billy, and Magnolia check out a Philadelphia black rat snake; Billy nerds out over urban short-headed garter snakes in Pittsburgh; and a red-tailed hawk picks up some squirrel … Continue reading →