Join Billy, Tony, and guest host Ken Frank as we explore history through our many-legged neighbors and hitchhikers.
Environmental Archeologist Allison Bain of Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada tells us how insects can teach us about the European colonization of North America.
Not old enough for you? Billy talks about the river crabs of Rome’s Cloaca Maxima (HT to Tristan Donovan‘s Feral Cities via Robb Dunn), shaped by 2,500 years or so of urban isolation.
Ken talks about his new book The Ecology of Center City Philadelphia and tells a West Philly tale of the decline and fall of urban feral honey bees.
Is there a corner of the globe untouched by our neighbor critters? Now that we have research stations on Antarctica, no, no there isn’t. We speak with Dr. Kevin Hughes of the British Antarctic Survey about the critters that ride down to the wildest continent with us and all the effort it takes to keep them from sticking around.
We close the episode with an extended #Urbanwildlifebling, a spider hunt in the apartment of naturalist Andrew Hoffman – best enjoyed on your belly, flashlight in hand, examining spider webs behind the furniture.
Triangulate Cobweb Spider, by Andrew Hoffman
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