Urban Wildlife Podcast

We had so much fun with cemeteries that we made two episodes! We record as guests of guest host Jessica Baumert, director of the the historic Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. There we learned about their grave-digging ground hogs, shagging stags, and … Continue reading →

We’re not just urban wildlife podcasters, Tony and Billy are urban bikesplorers! Spoke Magazine and Hidden City set it up, and on Sunday June 19th we linked up with our podcast’s BFF Robin Irizarry of the Tookany/Tacony/Frankford Partnership to explore … Continue reading →

Barred owls? Yep. Peregrine falcons? Got them too. Black sparrowhawks? You betcha! Osprey, tawny owls, and great horned owls also come up in the conversation with Rob Bierregaard as we stake out his backyard screech owls and talk about urban birds … Continue reading →

How do you connect urban kids with the nature next door? We talk to Justin Twist from Environmental Learning for Kids at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver, Hendra Aquan of Transformasi Hijau (Green Transformation) in Jakarta, and … Continue reading →

Cities can rally ’round all sorts of mascots, even unconventionally charismatic micro fauna like beetles and salamanders. We talk with Nathan Bendik, who works to protect Austin, TX’s spring and cave salamanders, and we hear about York’s (UK) tansy beetles … Continue reading →

This week we explore the Urban Caracal Project with Dr. Laurel Serieys and fawn over the most charismatic urban mesofauna we’ve seen to date (get a load of those ear tufts!). Caracals might have been enough to discuss on a … Continue reading →

Join Billy, Tony, and guest host Ken Frank as we explore history through our many-legged neighbors and hitchhikers. Environmental Archeologist Allison Bain of Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada tells us how insects can teach us about the European colonization of North … Continue reading →

Get inspired with urban corals and urban shaliks. Hannah Waters joins us as we hear from Coral Morphologic‘s Colin Foord to talk about the corals of Miami’s gritty waterways and art installations based on Miami’s marine life. Our synanthropic organism … Continue reading →

We celebrate World Sparrow Day (March 20th) with a look at Passer domesticus, a bird North American birders love to hate, but that is in a mysterious decline in its native Eurasian range. We hear from Mohammed Dilawar, founder of … Continue reading →

Pigeons might join us in cities to take advantage of resources like nesting spots and tasty crumbs. Leopards and hyenas might join us in cities to take advantage of resources such as tasty dogs… not hot dogs; we’re talking about Canis … Continue reading →

We want to hear from YOU. We’re working hard on Season Two – researching urban wildlife topics and recording interviews and expeditions, but we also want to involve you in our upcoming episodes. We know that our listeners are nature … Continue reading →

(FT Hannah Waters) Nature writer Hannah Waters joins us as we talk about Benjamin Rush’s sugar maples with David Hewitt and then, in a rambling, kind of boozy interview, we discuss the five-lined skinks of Pier 53 with biologist and … Continue reading →

(FT Robin Irazarry) What’s the biggest wild animal in your city? Is it a fish the size of a car? Guest host Robin Irazarry, Philadelphia Watershed Coordinator for the Tookany/Tacony Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF) and the brains behind #HerpingTheHood, joins us as we listen to … Continue reading →

(FT Julie Ulrich of The Nature Conservancy) Fishing isn’t just a way to connect with aquatic wildlife. Avid fisher and sociologist Len Albright of Northeastern University talks about urban fishing and how one striper can help an urbanite engage with … Continue reading →

(FT Scott McWilliams and Ali Hurwitz) Tony flies to Miami to add some urban exotic birds to his ABA list, but pre-games with the American Birding Association‘s Jeff Gordon and George Armistead. Billy embarks on a sidewalk flora expedition with the Chrysler … Continue reading →

(FT Lori Hayes) Philadelphia Parks and Recreation‘s Lori Hayes, general naturalist about town, joins us to talk about what hooks kids into nature and how cities might have more to offer them than you might think, all while we listen … Continue reading →

(FT Christian Hunold) Which is the better gateway drug to nature, squirrels or hawks? Christian Hunold, wildlife photographer and Associate Professor of Political Science at Drexel University joins us to talk about red tailed hawks and ecological citizenship as we … Continue reading →

(FT Nelson Melendez) Who is tiptoeing past your door tonight? Is it a cat? Is it a coyote? Is it a coyote with a dead cat in its mouth? Troi and Riana of Your Wild Life‘s Cat Trackers bring da Rouckus and … Continue reading →

(FT “President” Tykee James) Wildlife can be big, and wildlife can be small. In either case it can be right under our noses without our knowing it. In Episode 2, we turn to some of the smaller critters we don’t … Continue reading →

(FT Michael McGraw and Matthew Halley) In this episode Billy talks to one of his literary idols, Thomas Palmer, about Palmer’s classic Landscape with Reptile: Rattlesnakes in an Urban World, and to rattler researcher Anne Stengle about the current state of … Continue reading →

Q: How do huge animals get right up close to millions of people who don’t even know they’re there? A: Water. Whales are actually in it while reticulated pythons use the canals and ditches that drain Southeast Asian cities to … Continue reading →