Tag: Podcast
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Support the Podcast and Buy Me a Coffee
For the past four years, I’ve been providing you with recorded conversations about wildlife and the natural environment. My guests range from the world’s top scientists, members of environmental organizations and award-winning authors, to hunters and anglers with a lifetime of experience. We often discuss difficult and unpopular topics. This is all in the name of sharing ideas and understanding different points of view on critical environmental issues. For all of you who want to support Tommy’s Outdoors podcast and…
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Episode 103: Hunter-Gatherers with Graeme Warren
The term hunter-gatherers is often understood as a description of primitive people who live in an idyllic state of harmony with nature. In reality however, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers is way more complex than most of us think. To shed some light on this fascinating subject and to clarify some misconceptions I bring you my conversation with prof. Graeme Warren of the University College Dublin, School of Archaeology. Graeme is a specialist in the Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherers, the leader of…
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Episode 98: Wildlife Special Ops with Nathan Edmondson
Wildlife trafficking and poaching are huge problems for the conservation of the world’s most endangered species. They also present significant social and economic challenges. On one hand, big green organizations like WWF are criticised for “militarization of conservation” in their attempt to counteract the increasingly sophisticated and militarized wildlife trafficking cartels. On the other hand, members of local communities often find themselves caught in a conflict between those groups. That in turn leads to injustice and human rights abuse. In…
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Episode 94: African Big Game with Steve Scott
Hunting in Africa is on the bucket list of many hunters. But for many, that dream might seem very distant. Almost impossible. But as you will see in this conversation with Steve Scott, a veteran hunter, TV host, and producer of television hunting shows, this doesn’t have to be the case. Problems caused by the pandemic and related travel restrictions made the prices of hunts in Africa hit rock bottom. This combined with the progressive rollout of vaccines means that…
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Episode 92: Upland Ecology with Cathy Mayne
In recent episodes, I have presented a whole host of views and opinions regarding rewilding, land management, and the need to change the way we coexist with nature. In this episode, we continue on that path, but with a guest, Dr Cathy Mayne, who has a particularly interesting perspective. That perspective might not be entirely aligned with the usual rewilding approach, but it is very well thought out, balanced and realistic. Cathy is an ecologist with vast experience in environmental…
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Episode 91: Beaver Trust with Chris Jones
In this episode, once again, we are going to talk about ecological restoration and bringing back species that were extirpated from their native range. Our guest is Chris Jones who is the Restoration Director at Beaver Trust. During our conversation, we discuss the history of Beaver Trust, how it was found and why. Then we discuss beaver ecology and the role of beavers in the ecosystem. Chris gives us some real-life examples of benefits that beavers bring, not only to…
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Episode 89: Camera Trapping and Large Mammal Monitoring with Adam Francis Smith
In this instalment of the podcast, our guest is a young scientist, Adam Francis Smith, who lives in the Bavarian Forest National Park. Adam specializes in large terrestrial mammal monitoring and predator-prey interactions. He also works for the Frankfurt Zoological Society where he focuses on specific project areas in Ukraine and Belarus and where, with a team of ecologists, he tries to protect large wilderness areas. During our conversation, Adam took us on a fascinating journey to, among other places,…
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Episode 88: Rewilding Scotland with Peter Cairns
Peter Cairns is the executive director of the environmental charity Scotland: The Big Picture, the first organisation in Scotland wholly dedicated to championing rewilding. We started our conversation by discussing the controversy surrounding the term rewilding. Since rewilding (for want of a better, less controversial, term) is of great interest to me, the discussion started to flow from there. After that, we discussed a wide range of related socio-economic and environmental issues. Finally, we ended up examining individual species that…
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Episode 87: Irish Whale and Dolphin Group with Pádraig Whooley
I have wanted to record an episode about the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and their work for quite a while now. Their excellent website, with a database where you can report sightings and strandings, was even mentioned in one of my vlogs. So today, it is my pleasure to bring you my conversation with IWDG’s Sightings Officer Pádraig Whooley. We started with discussing at length IWDG origins and their current work. After that, we dug deep into a…
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Episode 84: Basking Sharks with Natasha Phillips and Amy Garbett
In this episode, I had the pleasure to talk once again with scientists from SeaMonitor project. This time our guests were Dr Natasha Phillips and Dr Amy Garbett. Our conversation was focused on Basking Sharks but while at it we discussed a whole range of other subjects as well, like genetic connectivity, biotelemetry and bioinformatics. There is nothing like a conversation with scientists who are genuinely passionate about their work. If you are interested in marine biology, sharks and science…