Wild Talk

TalkingScience enjoyed a big night out: we went to the Discovery Channel’s New York premiere of the astonishing new series, Life. Everyone at TalkingScience loves nature, especially animals, and we want you to know: you can’t miss Life — all nine parts, starting Sunday night, March 21!

Life is the result of Discovery’s collaboration with the BBC, known for Sir Richard Attenborough’s adventures with nature. Life’s patient cameramen spent months waiting for perhaps two hours of animal, insect, or plant …

Hello and welcome to my first post as a Talking Science contributor! I’m excited to join this roster of fine bloggers. To help introduce myself, I would like to share my experience as a volunteer scientist on a research cruise with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is to be the first of a multiple-post series about NOAA’s survey cruises, and the research that these surveys support. I’ve also included a few photos from the trip to help tell my story – enjoy!
Until April 2009, most of my …

It was during the summer of 2008 that Dr. Marina Cords, while researching the social behavior of primates in western Kenya, came across an adult, male Blue Monkey with something red in his hand. He held it like a “macabre cup,” Dr. Cords remembered, chewing on it as other monkeys watched. That “something,” Dr. Cords soon realized, (“Oh my God!” was her initial reaction) was the bottom half of an infant Blue Monkey. In a talk entitled “From Antisocial to Social: Infanticide through a Darwinian Lens,” Dr. Cords, who …

If you live in New York City, then you can visit California Sea Lions at the Bronx Zoo, the Central Park Zoo, or the New York Aquarium at Coney Island. At the Central Park Zoo you can observe sea lions’ feeding, and zookeepers demonstrate how they check the sea lions’ bodies, teeth, and vision. It’s a great opportunity to watch these beautiful animals in action.
California Sea Lions are perhaps the most social marine animals in the sea. These creatures live in groups called harems, which consist of the dominant …

The continent of Africa is known for its diversity of animal species, many of which are only found in Africa. These are the photos taken by one of our staff members who has traveled to Africa. Many of the animals pictured here are endangered, such as the lion, the elephant, the mountain gorilla, the cheetah, and the rhinoceros. We think that learning more about these amazing animals will help everyone to appreciate their conservation.

White Tailed Deer
White Tailed Deer are herbivores. Their stomachs only allow them to …

By IUCN
Does buying endless products that you don’t really need actually make you happy? Do we only crave objects because of clever marketing? Wild Talk speaks to writer Alistair McIntosh about what it will take to make the world’s economy truly green and how ordinary people will have to change their values to make the dream come true. To listen, click here.

Wild Talk – Alistair McIntosh5.30MB

Greening the economy
Photo: IUCN

By IUCN
This month more than 25,000 people will converge on Istanbul in Turkey to discuss the world’s water issues. Big business, developers, conservationists and governments will gather in an attempt to place water high on the international agenda. Mark Smith, Head of IUCN’s Water Programme, talks to Wild Talk about whether this will happen and explains the importance of water in the climate change debate. To listen, click here.
Related Downloads

Wild Talk – Water, Water, Everywhere3.60MB

Related Link

IUCN Water Programme
World Water Forum

By IUCN
Wild Talk paid a visit to the Geneva Motor Show this month to see just how committed car companies are to the green movement. With more and more electric cars on display, it’s clear that every brand wants to get in on the act. Wild Talk speaks to technical experts who talk us through some of the cars on offer, customers who are keen to buy them, and a new company which is planning to set up a grid for charging electric cars using only renewable energy sources.

Wild Talk …

By IUCN
Clive Tesar, Head of Communications at WWF’s Arctic Network initiative, talks to Wild Talk about the upcoming Catlin Arctic Survey, an expedition from Northern Canada to the Arctic that will measure the thickness of the sea ice. He explains how this will help scientists make models of the rate at which the sea ice is melting and explains the implications for all creatures, both great and small, that live in the Arctic. To listen, click here.

Related Downloads

Wild Talk – Arctic 4.53MB

Arctic
Photo: WWF-CANON / Peter Prokosch

By IUCN
The oceans are home to some of our most fascinating creatures, as well as those most at risk of extinction. Photographer Juergen Freund has spent the last 14 years taking underwater images of many threatened marine species, particularly in waters off the Philippines and Australia where he lives. Through his award-winning photography he hopes to shed some light on the majesty and the plight of ocean dwelling organisms. He speaks to Wild Talk about three of his pictures. To listen and see the pictures, click here

Portrait of a Minke …