ZSL Wild Science Podcast

Happy World Swallowtail Day to our listeners! 🦋 To mark this special day and celebrate these incredible insects, we catch up with Sophie Ledger, Red List Research Associate and Manager at ZSL's Institute of Zoology, and Dr Mark Collins, President of the Swallowtail and Birdwing Butterfly Trust, to explore the ecology, adaptations and challenges of this remarkable family of butterflies, and hear a...

Modern zoos play a critical role in global conservation, but supporting wildlife under human care goes far beyond habitat design. Hear how ZSL's experts use science, behavioural insight and veterinary care to help animals thrive and support species on the brink of extinction. From ensuring penguins can express their natural behaviours, to delivering tailored veterinary care to supports lions' long...

How does our DNA, the tiny building blocks that make every species, and every individual, totally distinct, impact our evolution? In this episode, we learn how we can visualise our DNA, or genome, to allow us to better organise the tree of life, and how learning more about this genetic make-up can provide insights into how a species survives in the face of a changing environment. We head to Cambri...

Do you know where the wood in your floorboards comes from? Or your desk, or dining chairs? In this episode, we dig deep into the grain of a global issue that is often hidden in plain sight in our offices, our houses and our cities – tracing timber back to its source. Harriet talks to Annabelle Dodson, ZSL's Sustainable Business Project Manager, and Victor Deklerck, Director of Science at World For...

What do car tyres, yoga mats and trainers have in common? They all contain natural rubber, tapped from trees by millions of small farmers, mostly in Asia. While natural rubber production is renewable, its impact on the environment through deforestation, habitat loss and soil degradation, can be great when not managed sustainably. In this episode, we hear from a Thai rubber farmer, about the challe...

The coastal waters of Wales are home to a whopping 27 species of sharks, skates and rays, known collectively as elasmobranchs, and they are a fundamental part of Wales' natural heritage. But even so, research on their biology and conservation status is lacking. In this episode, Wild Science hits the road to join scientists from Project SIARC and the Ocean Predator Lab in North Wales as they work w...

Making sure that the animals held in ZSL's two conservation zoos, London and Whipsnade, are fed a diet that can help them thrive is crucial, both for keeping them healthy under managed care, and ensuring they are in the best possible shape for a return to the wild. Amanda Ferguson is ZSL's Diet Management Officer and is responsible for creating tailored diets for all the animals across both ZSL Zo...

After our Nature's Negotiators miniseries, where we learned all about the complexities, challenges and importance of United Nations climate and biodiversity meetings, we wanted to give the gift of a bonus episode to round things off! We catch up with Bethan to hear how things went after she attended COP29, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Azerbaijan. Overview 00:11       Harriet McAra...

2024 has been a big year for international climate policy, with two UN Conference of Parties, or COPs, taking place in quick succession; COP16 in Colombia followed just a few weeks later by COP29 in Azerbaijan. In this episode of Wild Science, we follow on from part one of our Nature's Negotiators miniseries, and are once again joined by Bethan Laughlin, ZSL Senior Policy Specialist. We discuss th...

What does it take to reintroduce an animal to the wild safely? How do we make sure that disease risk to existing populations, and to the animals being reintroduced, is mitigated? Hear from the Disease Risk Analysis and Health Surveillance Team (DRAHS) at ZSL who are working to give animals the best start possible as they return to the wild, and whose work has contributed to the recovery of over 30...

You may have heard of a COP, and you've almost definitely heard of the United Nations (UN), but how much do you know about the negotiations that go into getting nature, climate and biodiversity embedded into international policy? Ahead of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP16) in Colombia this autumn, we're hearing from policy experts in this two-part miniseries on how we can save...

Out of sight…but not out of mind? Coral reefs exist largely out of sight for the majority of the world's population, so the vast array of ecosystem services they provide for local communities are often forgotten, leading conservation efforts to feel like an uphill battle. In this episode, we talk to the people trying to tackle this problem; from using the sounds that healthy and degraded coral ree...

Co-existence between communities living on the Korean Peninsula and carnivores such as leopards, tigers and black bears, has historically presented many challenges leading to population declines in these species. However, thanks to international treaties such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, as well as economic growth and conservation translocations, the tide is now...

The ZSL Wild Science podcast is back! After a break, we have returned to explore even more topical issues in zoology, conservation and the environment. New host, Harriet McAra, Science Communications and Events Manager at ZSL's Institute of Zoology, will take listeners on a journey to learn more about the incredible science behind ZSL's cutting-edge conservation work. Resources If there's a topic...

The world is facing a crisis of species extinction, however targeted efforts in conservation biology can provide a glimmer of hope. A new study led by ZSL, published recently in Science, is the first to assess animals and plants categorised as 'Extinct in the Wild' by the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species – until now, a surprisingly overlooked group. In this episode, our host Ellie Darbey, wit...

It's no secret that cities are generally perceived as spaces of little conservation relevance, yet local urban wildlife underpins a range of ecosystem services. In a time where rapid changes in the climate are causing more extreme natural events, wildlife is disappearing and we are becoming more and more disconnected from nature through urbanisation, could the recovery of urban ecosystems be a pot...

Pathology is the science of diagnosing diseases by observing physical changes in animal cells and tissues, either in living, or more commonly dead animals. In this episode, our host Ellie Darbey will explore the unseen…or rather, unheard world of wildlife pathology with the help of ZSL's experienced pathologists, veterinarians, and scientists. Through post mortems on black widow spiders, to giant...

The anthropogenically driven climate crisis and unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss are both threatening the foundations of economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide. Treating these two crises separately can be ineffectual or even deepen the problem. A recent landmark study calls for a more integrated approach to tackling the climate and biodiversity crises....

Coastal marine habitats are essential to the health of our marine ecosystem, and hold both environmental and social importance. They provide valuable ecosystem services, but for decades they have been impacted by harmful human activities. In her final episode as host, Monni Böhm will be joined by co-host Celine Gamble and an expert panel to explore the need for active restoration to conserve four...

Reptiles - lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodilians – make up almost one third of all land vertebrate species on Earth, and also occur in many marine and freshwater systems. Yet despite their amazing diversity, reptiles remain hugely underrepresented in conservation research and action, when compared to mammals, birds, and even amphibians. In this episode, our host Ellie Darbey finds out from fou...

Coral reefs are the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the world, and more than 500 million people worldwide rely on coral reefs for their livelihoods, food security, and coastal protection. However, coral reefs are impacted by several threats, including rises in sea-surface temperature due to climate change. Join Monni as she navigates these unique underwater ecosystems with the help of five fa...

After more than a year of Covid-19 impacting global populations, health systems and economies, one of the major questions being asked was how did this start, and how can we prevent it from happening again? As we humans increasingly disturb our planet's natural habitats and convert them to agricultural and urban areas, the way we interact with wildlife around us also changes. In this episode, Monni...

Law breaking, such as poaching or fishing inside marine reserves, is a great challenge to conservationists because research is often complicated by ethics and data privacy. However, important technological progress has been made in recent years, especially in the fields of surveillance and vessel tracking. Join Monni as she finds out from a panel of experts how machine learning and technology deve...

Conservationists are working hard to stem global biodiversity loss. Yet, just like biodiversity itself, the conservation movement is very diverse, with a variety of ideas shaping its framing, purpose and application. In this episode, Monni and co-hosts Yara Shennan-Farpón, Helen Muller and Thalassa McMurdo Hamilton, speak with Dr Chris Sandbrook, co-creator of the Future of Conservation Survey, ab...

Rewilding has emerged as a captivating, but controversial, concept in conservation. Depending on how rewilding is defined, it aims to increase "wildness" of nature, regenerate ecosystem functioning, develop self-sustaining ecosystems, or a combination of these. Join Monni as she finds out from the experts how real "wildness" can be achieved, and why now is an important time for the UK to be thinki...