Episodes
Monday Feb 07, 2011
The WildLife: Field Vet in Patagonia, Marcela Uhart
Monday Feb 07, 2011
Monday Feb 07, 2011
Marcela Uhart shares her adventures as a wildlife field veterinarian in Patagonia, Argentina. She reveals to “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme the difficulties of handling and monitoring the health of diverse wildlife populations, from elephant seals and southern right whales to penguins and other seabirds. For instance, how do you immobilize a 1-2 ton animal? If you haven’t been to Patagonia, you’ll want to visit this rugged wilderness that stretches from the granite peaks of the Andes mountains to the desolate Atlantic coast. There, southern right whales gather to breed, a sizable southern elephant seal colony makes its home, and the world's largest Magellanic penguin colony lives.
Born and raised on a ranch in the Argentine pampas, Marcela Uhart has been a veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Field Veterinary Program since 1996. She spends much of her time in the field and often collaborates with numerous non-governmental organizations and researchers in Argentina while providing veterinary expertise in wildlife handling and immobilizations, translocations and health monitoring of wildlife populations. She has worked on a variety of species, including sea lions, elephant seals, penguins, small carnivores, caiman and raptors, as well as "agricultural-conflictive" species such as rheas, large rodents and large ungulates, including guanaco and pampas deer. Marcela has helped to introduce new policy measures to benefit wildlife, such as the establishment of a program to control agricultural pesticide use, implemented with the support and endorsement of an Argentine government research agency known as INTA. Marcela also acts as a consultant to field researchers and local conservation groups and has traveled to Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and other Latin American countries to provide her services. In November 1998, she became one of the founding members of the first Association of Latin American Wildlife Veterinarians. She is also the IUCN’s Wildlife Health Specialist Group (WHSG) coordinator for South America. In this role she hopes to reinforce and revitalize the relationship between wildlife specialists from the developed and developing nations. In fact, since she started at WCS, Marcela has worked tirelessly to address the critical shortage of training opportunities for young veterinarians in Latin America. Professional outreach remains a major focus of her work, as does collaborating with local universities and leading workshops in several Latin American countries. This episode of “The WildLife” aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont on February 7, 2010.
Monday Aug 16, 2010
The WildLife: Elephant Seals, Christine Heinrichs
Monday Aug 16, 2010
Monday Aug 16, 2010
Christine Heinrichs exposes elephant seals’ captivating habits and bizarre lifestyle as she takes us to Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery on California’s central coast. She tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme how elephant seals spend 8 to 10 months a year in the open ocean and that, to find food, they dive incredibly deep, up to a mile underwater. Twice a year they migrate thousands of miles to their land-based rookeries to give birth, breed, molt and rest. Listen as we meet some of these fascinating creatures — such as bull elephant seals who battle rivals for months only to lose out when the females finally come ashore and a courtly male who escorts his lady friend through hoards of suitors so that she can safely reach the ocean — and find out just how much we still have yet to learn. Christine Heinrichs is a docent with Friends of the Elephant Seal (www.elephantseal.org) who works at Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery where she helps protect these large marine mammals and educate visitors about their unique characteristics. She enjoys animals of all kinds, wild and domestic, and has written two books on domestic poultry, How to Raise Chickens and How to Raise Poultry, which focus on raising traditional breeds in small flocks. This episode of THE WILDLIFE aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont originally aired on December 7, 2009 and was rebroadcast on August 16, 2010.
Monday Jan 18, 2010
The Wildlife: Creature Call Contest & Elephant Seal Update
Monday Jan 18, 2010
Monday Jan 18, 2010
The WildLife’s first Creature Call Contest lets listeners identify animals based on their sounds. The episode includes a series of 10 creature calls. “The WildLife’s” host, Laurel Neme, plays each sound, provides hints and facts on each animal, and plays the call again. At the end of the show, she replays the calls a final time. Listeners of the radio show and podcast are invited to enter their guesses of the 10 different animals to win a free copy of ANIMAL INVESTIGATORS: HOW THE WORLD’S FIRST WILDLIFE FORENSIC LAB IS SOLVING CRIMES AND SAVING ENDANGERED SPECIES (Scribner, 2009). To enter, send an email to: laurel@laurelneme.com. Entries close Monday, February 15, 2010 at 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Please put the words “Creature Call Contest” in the subject line. The text of the email should list your guesses in numerical order. The person who guesses the most creature calls correctly will win a copy of ANIMAL INVESTIGATORS. If several people have the same number of correct answers, the person who emailed their responses first will be the winner. If two or more emailed at the same time, the winner will be drawn randomly. Winner will be notified via email and announced on the February 22, 2010 episode of “The WildLife.” This episode also includes an update on the elephant seals at the Piedras Blancas rookery in California from Christine Heinrichs, a docent there. Ms. Heinrichs tells about the latest antics of newborn pups and also the elephant seal census that was recently released. This episode of “The WildLife” aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont on January 18, 2010.
Wednesday Dec 09, 2009
The WildLife: Elephant Seals, Christine Heinrichs
Wednesday Dec 09, 2009
Wednesday Dec 09, 2009
Christine Heinrichs exposes elephant seals’ captivating habits and bizarre lifestyle as she takes us to Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery on California’s central coast. She tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme how elephant seals spend 8 to 10 months a year in the open ocean and that, to find food, they dive incredibly deep, up to a mile underwater. Twice a year they migrate thousands of miles to their land-based rookeries to give birth, breed, molt and rest. Listen as we meet some of these fascinating creatures — such as bull elephant seals who battle rivals for months only to lose out when the females finally come ashore and a courtly male who escorts his lady friend through hoards of suitors so that she can safely reach the ocean — and find out just how much we still have yet to learn. Christine Heinrichs is a docent with Friends of the Elephant Seal (www.elephantseal.org) who works at Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery where she helps protect these large marine mammals and educate visitors about their unique characteristics. She enjoys animals of all kinds, wild and domestic, and has written two books on domestic poultry, How to Raise Chickens and How to Raise Poultry, which focus on raising traditional breeds in small flocks. This episode of THE WILDLIFE aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont on December 7, 2009.