Tag: Podcast
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178: Why Biodiversity Matters with Nigel Dudley
“Why Biodiversity Matters” is fundamentally a philosophy book. However, the author and our guest, Nigel Dudley, is not a philosopher but an accomplished conservation biologist who has accumulated an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience working on conservation projects across the world. He has worked as a consultant ecologist with international organisations like WWF International, IUCN and UNESCO. He is a co-founder of Equilibrium Research and Industry Fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of…
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177: Nature, Farming and Politics with Saoirse McHugh
Politics is a topic that is often avoided by many nature and science communicators. They don’t want emotions, controversy and often abuse related to expressing their political views or even commenting on such. I was one of them, but I’m gradually coming to the conclusion that it is the wrong tactic. As one of the former guests on my podcast stated: “If you are interested in conservation, hunting and the future of rural communities, politics are about the most important…
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176: Invasive Ants Impact Lion Predation on Zebras, with Adam T. Ford
If you are a regular listener to the podcast or you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I read a fair number of scientific papers on subjects of conservation and ecology. Some of them are related to topics I’m investigating for the podcast and some others are just interesting for me. However, every once in a while I come across a research paper that is so cool, that I just can’t not bring it to your attention.…
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175: SOTKA Wetlands with Veli-Matti Pekkarinen and Heikki Helle
Finnish SOTKA is a large-scale habitat restoration project and a part of a larger Helmi Habitats Programme aimed at restoring Finland’s biodiversity. It is run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of the Environment. SOTKA’s objective is large-scale habitat restoration through wetlands rehabilitation, restoration of mires and catchments, non-native (i.e. invasive) predator control and building a network of resting areas for waterfowl. It is also a great example of cooperation between hunting and non-hunting organisations for…
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174: Not A Conservationist
Many people claim they are conservationists. But are they really? Inspired by your comments and some discussions that I had in the past, I decided to talk about this subject. This episode was recorded outdoors, on the beautiful Irish coast of county Kerry. So, don’t be surprised to hear chough calling in the background or some occasional gusts of wind. If you’re interested in hearing more from me, have a suggestion for future episodes or want to leave feedback, please…
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173: The Last Keeper with Tom Opre
I have been waiting for Tom Opre’s new film “The Last Keeper” since I learned in July 2022 that he and his team are working on it. Well, the wait was over for me at the beginning of February 2023, as I was the only person in Ireland to screen the film. The wait will soon be over for you as well since the film premieres in mid-April in Edinburgh. While you are still waiting, you can listen to my…
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The EU Review of Wolf Protection Status – A Five-Episode Exclusive
An exclusive series of podcast episodes dedicated to the European Commission’s proposal to reduce the conservation status of wolves is here. Late in 2023, I published an episode titled The EU Review of Wolf Protection Status where I discussed this proposal with five guests from different backgrounds. While making it, I recorded far more material than I could possibly fit into one episode. So, I decided to release the full interviews with all the guests in the form of five…
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172: Antidote to Screen Addiction with Emanuel Rose
This episode is slightly different than usual when it comes to its subject. However, working with technology by day and creating digital content by night, I spend substantial time thinking about and grappling with this subject. So when I learned that a long-term supporter and a friend of the podcast, Emanuel Rose, wrote a book about it, I decided to have him on for a chat. The subject in question is our unhealthy addiction to our phones (mostly) and other…
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Deer Hunting Season 2024 Extended
As expected (albeit not as soon) the Minister of State Malcolm Noonan extended, with immediate effect, the deer hunting season to the end of March for female deer and to the end of April for male deer. Here are my thoughts on this.
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171: Rewilding with Steve Carver
It has been a considerable time since the last time we spoke about rewilding on the podcast. I feel that the discussion around the practice as well as understanding of the term has moved on in the last three to four years. So, I decided to get an update on the state of rewilding. To do so, I invited the Director of the Wildland Research Institute at the School of Geography, University of Leeds, Dr Steve Carver who is also…