Tag: wildlife

Behind the SCiENcES with Dr Gilad Bino

Before you sit down with us to learn all about platypuses, join us for a glimpse Behind the SCiENcES with Dr Gilad Bino. Dr Bino is passionate about conservation and science. He seeks to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis by understanding the underlying processes that shape biodiversity at multiple spatial and temporal scales to inform…… Continue reading Behind the SCiENcES with Dr Gilad Bino

To Keep Things Going

Hey readers, If you’re a regular follower you may know that I have just been admitted into a biology graduate program beginning this August. I am incredibly excited about this opportunity, admittedly nervous at how my work-life balance will look as I continue to teach full-time, but excited. Here’s the honest truth, though. It’s going…… Continue reading To Keep Things Going

Dispatches from Somewhere #5| American Alligator

This is one of my favorite shots I’ve ever managed to capture. I snapped this in 2015 at one of my all-time favorite parks, @brazosbendstatepark near Houston, TX. It sorta looks like she’s lunging forward, but in reality, she was sitting in a quickly flowing stream with her mouth open against the flow, presumably to catch fish…… Continue reading Dispatches from Somewhere #5| American Alligator

Dispatches from Somewhere #4| Antheraea polyphemus

Admittedly, this photo isn’t from any time recently. I took this during the summer of 2014 at Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley, MN. It was while I was working for a nonprofit organization called Tree Trust building a 180-foot swamp foot boardwalk with local high school students. It was also my first time seeing one…… Continue reading Dispatches from Somewhere #4| Antheraea polyphemus

TWL NEWS| Wildlife Weekend Update: August 3, 2021

Vermont’s 25th annual rabies bait drop to begin Thursday On a similar note, Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Pro Am Race for the Cure will be taking place this Friday Beginning on Thursday, technicians will begin distributing 450,000 quarter-sized blister packs containing a rabies vaccine that will…… Continue reading TWL NEWS| Wildlife Weekend Update: August 3, 2021

Bears! with Brogan Holcombe

Get to know Brogan Brogan is a Master’s Student working in the Wildlife Habitat & Population Analysis Lab at Virginia Tech She’s also the one behind #SundayScientistShoutout on Twitter which she does every week for scientists or STEM activists from underrepresented groups. Follow Brogan @Brogan_Holcombe or look up her #bearseyeview for awesome bear videos! GET…… Continue reading Bears! with Brogan Holcombe

Behind the 𝗦𝗖i𝗘𝗡c𝗘𝗦 with Dr Mariela Gantchoff

Meet this week’s guest before the episode airs! She is an ecologist at the intersection of theoretical and applied ecology, currently working on landscape and quantitative ecology in relation to the conservation and management of terrestrial wildlife. A lot of her current research involves working to understand wildlife use of natural and developed landscapes, range…… Continue reading Behind the 𝗦𝗖i𝗘𝗡c𝗘𝗦 with Dr Mariela Gantchoff

Dispatches from Somewhere #1: What a Wasp

I’ve had this picture on my camera roll for almost a year now and I figured I should finally get to posting it. If you’re wondering what this scorpion looking flying insect is, it’s the Pelecinus polyturator, a type of wasp. The adults drink nectar and are pretty harmless, unless you’re a June Bug. That’s…… Continue reading Dispatches from Somewhere #1: What a Wasp

Joe the Pigeon on Death Row

A fascinating journey that sounds the stuff of an animated movie or a children’s book is about to come to a rather different sort of end. On December 26th, a man by the name of Kevin Celli-Bird discovered an understandably exhausted pigeon resting in the backyard of his home in Melbourne, Australia. The bird was…… Continue reading Joe the Pigeon on Death Row

The Wild Life of the Black-and-Yellow Lichen Moth

Order| Lepidoptera Species| Lycomorpha pholus Uh-ah, you know what it is—the Black-and-Yellow Lichen Moth! “Wait, black and yellow? They’re clearly orange-er, right?” Who knows what they were thinking. One thing’s for sure though, mimicry is their flex. As caterpillars, when they spend most of their time munching on a symbiotic snack of lichen, they texturally…… Continue reading The Wild Life of the Black-and-Yellow Lichen Moth

The Wild Life of the Nicobar Pigeon

Order| Columbiformes While it may come as a shock, the Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) is indeed a Pigeon. It’s also the closest living relative of the now extinct Dodo bird! These birds are named for an island chain of the coast of India where many of them live, though they can be found all the…… Continue reading The Wild Life of the Nicobar Pigeon

The Journey So Far

The other day, I was going through a pile of junk (which I have a lot of) and came across this. This intentionally blurred piece of paper was the very beginning of #TheWildLife. It’s just a bunch of notes and ideas that I was jotting down while I tried to decide what I wanted to…… Continue reading The Journey So Far

The Wild Life of Red Pandas

Red Panda Order| Carnivora Family| Ailuridae Red Panda’s, like the Giant Panda, eat mostly bamboo (and are impossibly adoreable). But here’s the thing, they aren’t pandas. They’re actually more closely related to skunks and raccoons, and make up their own subfamily alongside skunks, raccoons, and weasels. Much like the Eau de Popcorn smelling Binturong, the…… Continue reading The Wild Life of Red Pandas

88.1 KVSC Interview: The Untold Story of Distance Learning During COVID-19 with ISD 742’s Devon Bowker, Science Teacher, Naturalist, and Blogger

KVSC, the radio station of my Alma Mater, St Cloud State University, recently interviewed new for there segment ‘Untold Stories of Central MN’. It aired on Earth Day 2020 and was an incredible honor and opportunity to speak about my passions. For those of you more familiar with The Wild Life side of my life,…… Continue reading 88.1 KVSC Interview: The Untold Story of Distance Learning During COVID-19 with ISD 742’s Devon Bowker, Science Teacher, Naturalist, and Blogger

The Wild Life’s 50th Episode Celebration: Live Trivia Show!

Well, we’ve come a long way. We’re at our 50th episode! We will be hosting a live show on Zoom!and YOU are invited. On May 1st at 7pm CT, we’ll be playing trivia (of course, based on topics from our first 49 episodes [and no, you don’t have to have listened to all of them…… Continue reading The Wild Life’s 50th Episode Celebration: Live Trivia Show!

Become a Wildlife Ambassador

So, here’s the thing: we, at this moment, are rolling out a new newy thing. It’s super cool—the Wildlife Ambassador program! Basically, when you become a member at Patreon.com/TheWildLife, you can pick a species of some kind of personal importance to you and we will donate 10% of your contributions each month to either a…… Continue reading Become a Wildlife Ambassador

Home Is Where The Log Is: A Velvet Worm Short Story

When most people think of Australia, their mind conjures up images of a Mad Maxian landscape—brick red sand blemished with gray-green freckles of saltbrush. Standing tall in a rigid defiance, the occasional gum or eucalyptus serves as safe haven for koalas and kookaburras under a big hard sun. Maybe they think of the Great Barrier…… Continue reading Home Is Where The Log Is: A Velvet Worm Short Story

Is it a Worm? Is it a Wasp? No! It’s the Elm Sawfly!

This past weekend as I sat below an old oak tree while drinking my morning cup of coffee and looking out on a glassy Lake Darling in Alexandria, Minnesota, something fell from the sky and landed at my feet. Small and curled up like a slightly puff green and yellow sour gummy worm. It’s face…… Continue reading Is it a Worm? Is it a Wasp? No! It’s the Elm Sawfly!

Sunday Fish Sketch| Freshwater Elephantfish

This #SundayFishSketch comes from Ichthyologist, Rene Martin. Visit her shop on InPrint to see more of her artwork or to order prints! Meet the Freshwater Elephantfish Mormyridae Mormyridae is an African family of 200 or so species in the biological order Osteoglossiformes. Oddly enough, but fitting in line with the peculiar and weirdly specific nature of systematics,…… Continue reading Sunday Fish Sketch| Freshwater Elephantfish

The Dragonhunter

In the skies across Minnesota (and much of the eastern US and southeastern Canada, for that matter), roams a fierce and agile predator, capable of taking down prey you would never imagine—and some many wouldn’t dare to try at themselves. Hagenius brevistylus, is a clubtail dragonfly known as the Dragonhunter, and is one of nearly…… Continue reading The Dragonhunter

When a Spider isn’t a Spider

If you’re reading this right now, you might be realizing that we’re about to be playing a game of semantics (systematics, rather). For many, if it looks like a Spider, that’s all they need to know to shiver in disgust and engage in fight, freeze, or flight. It may be pretentious to dwell on the…… Continue reading When a Spider isn’t a Spider

Get your head out of the sand! Ostriches are actually pretty amazing.

It’s #ThursdayBirdsday! This week, it’s time to bust some myths, bow down in awe, and learn something new about the big birds that look like emus. (Rhyming was the only reason for that last bit and I don’t regret it.) You’re probably wondering why the ostrich in the main image seems so shocked. Well, then…… Continue reading Get your head out of the sand! Ostriches are actually pretty amazing.

The Trouble with Trilobites

It’s #FossilFriday, and you know what that means—fossils. Big surprise, right? This week, with an unoriginal but begging to be used titular parody on the classic Star Trek episode ‘The Trouble with Tribbles”—we’re talking trilobites. Here is my trilobite.  It was a gift from my brother (podcast co-host) he picked up at a rock convention.…… Continue reading The Trouble with Trilobites