How do you do an urban international bioblitz during a pandemic? Navin Sasikumar, Robin Irizarry, and Billy talk about the City Nature Challenge 2020 and how we can all take part on our own, together. (here’s that dead porcupine video) This is a cross-post with Nature’s Hypeman, one of our sister podcasts in the Wildlife Observer Network.
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Smash invasive spotted lantern flies with Billy and Michelle Niedermeier of Penn State’s Community Integrated Pest Management program. Billy talks about the Japanese beetle invasion a century ago (working off Ken Frank’s paper about the topic), and we (joined by Margaret Rohde and Tykee James) talk about the launch of our multi-media empire, the Wildlife Observer Network!
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Our domestic pig’s wild Eurasian cousins enjoy urban living all the way from Spain to Japan. Billy and Tony talk about urban boar and the increasingly urban feral hogs on their own continent. They also discuss the research of Barcelona’s Sean Cahill, who appeared in a 2016 podcast episode, and recent research about the diet of Berlin’s famous boar population.
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Is science a match for the pathological passions of the bighearted but monomaniacal people who maintain outdoor cats? We talk with the Urban Wildlands Group‘s Dr. Travis Longcore, whose critique of “trap-neuter-release” (TNR) is still one of the best out there, about the threats cats pose to wildlife, what works and doesn’t work to control outdoor cats, and the Urban Wildlands Group’s fight to use science to guide Los Angeles’ cat control plans.
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Urban night life isn’t just about bars, clubs, and theater. When night falls, the bugs fly. Tag along with Billy and Ken Frank (author of the Ecology of Center City Philadelphia) as they have a moth night in Billy’s community garden. Billy also talks with ecologist and insect researcher Stephen C. Mason Jr. about how the pros do it and why bugs fly to lights in the first place.
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Do you like pumpkin pie? Thank the pollinators who make squash (fruit of members of the genus Cucurbita) possible. But don’t thank a honeybee, look to the squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, a solitary bee that, centuries ago, followed the original spread of squash cultivation by Indigenous farmers. Billy talks with Penn State evolutionary ecologist and bee expert Margarita Lopez-Uribe, whose research has tracked the squash bee’s spread by studying their genes.
Centre Co., PA squash bee from USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab’s photo stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/33927073641
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White whales don’t have to be white. Billy and Tony talk with Brad Gates (hunter and bear wrangler extraordinaire) about the culmination of years-long personal urban wildlife quests: a black rat snake for Billy and a black bear for Tony. What are you still searching for?
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Research Ecologist Lara Roman and Arborist Jason Lubar try to convince Billy that London Plane Trees aren’t just taking up space better used for more interesting trees in the urban canopy. Recording outside on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, they are joined by Billy’s baby daughter Gilda, a bunch of house finches, and some of Philadelphia’s most diligent landscapers.
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Tony and Billy talk about the City Nature Challenge 2019 and hear from four other participating cities: Kelly O’Donnell from NYC, Peter Kleinhenz (remember him from Right Under Our Noses?) from Tallahassee, and John Starmer from Maui, AND we hear from Tony Rebelo from Cape Town, South Africa to hear exactly how they kicked everyone’s butts in observations and species #s.
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Tony and Angie covered a lot of topics with their guide Dominic, and we’ve split off some of the non-urban-wildlife topics in this Part 2, namely Dominic’s fascinating life growing up Samburu Maasai plus more about the Maasai’s place in modern Kenya.
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Tony (and of course Angie) went on safari for their honeymoon. They spent most of their time out in the bush, but that didn’t stop them from observing urban wildlife when they were in cities and talking about marabou storks, leopards, and more with their guide Dominic.
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What does the non-human community of a city look like? Is it the same species everywhere (pigeons, dandelions, bridge spiders, yawn) or does the wildlife from the surrounding area show up? We hear from Dr. Misha Leong of the California Academy of Sciences to hear about biotic homogenization in cities AND how she used data from the City Nature Challenge for the study she co-authored along with Michelle Trautwein (note that this is a pre-print and has not yet gone through peer review). Also LJ Brubaker of Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia joins us to argue the case for native hymenoptera and talk about their park’s plans for the 2019 City Nature Challenge.
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Billy joins entomologist and bug ambassador Isa Betancourt on her BugScope Periscope cast to talk about urban snakes. We focus on urban garter snakes from Philadelphia to Mexico City, but Billy fits in a few Philly milk snakes too. Be sure to check out the actual Periscope episode for the full effect.
Here are the specimens we discussed, all from the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (see the links for what they look like in life):
Mexican garter snakes (Thamnophis eques) from Mexico City:
Mexican garter snakes (Thamnophis eques) from Mexico City
Eastern garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) from Philadelphia:
Eastern garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) from Philadelphia
Milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) from Philadelphia.
Milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) from Philadelphia
Black-bellied garter snakes (Thamnophis melanogaster) from Mexico City:
Black-bellied garter snakes (Thamnophis melanogaster) from Mexico City
Short-headed garter snakes (Thamnophis brachystoma) from NW Pennsylvania:
Short-headed garter snake (Thamnophis brachystoma)
I forgot to take a picture of the two-striped garter snake (Thamnophis hammondi), but follow the link to see some pictures of what they look like.
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Tony and Billy are back after a hiatus, talking about Tony’s new house next to a trail head and the urban raptors you happen to see while counter-protesting fascists. Then (at around 27 min) we hear from Dr. Cynthia Skema the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Digitization Project (best-named citizen science project ever). MAM Digitization is taking herbarium records from New York to DC, scanning them, and making them more accessible to researchers. You can pitch in by reading and typing up the tags – a great way to help science along while connecting with past naturalists.
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The 2019 City Nature Challenge is a competitive urban bioblitz. Tony and Billy talk about the CNC and Philadelphia’s plans after talking about Tony’s new rescued cat (about 15 min). We also go through a grab bag of fun urban nature topics:
The fire salamanders of Oviedo: Check out this video and read up on their population genetics.
Black-bellied hamsters of Vienna: “…if you get too close, they fight you like a bear.”
Wild boar: goring a commuter in Japan and getting slaughtered in a Berlin parking lot
Otters in Singapore: photobombing a marriage proposal.
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What do we owe the animals that live around us? Do we spend money on animals when there are humans in need? Do we feed animals to animals to save animals? We tackle the tough questions as we wrap up our series on wildlife rescue and relocation with a two-part episode talking to the pros. In part one we visit the Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center and talk with executive director Rick Schubert and assistant director Michelle Wellard. We see the ugly (a wounded heron) and the beautiful (so many baby possums and birds destined for release). In part two we talk with Subrahmanian Santakumar about wildlife rescue in Bangalore, India and the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre.
Subrahmanian Santakumar with rescue elephant
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What do we owe the animals that live around us? Do we spend money on animals when there are humans in need? Do we feed animals to animals to save animals? We tackle the tough questions as we wrap up our series on wildlife rescue and relocation with a two-part episode talking to the pros. In part one we visit the Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center and talk with executive director Rick Schubert and assistant director Michelle Wellard. We see the ugly (a wounded heron) and the beautiful (so many baby possums and birds destined for release). In part two we talk with Subrahmanian Santakumar about wildlife rescue in Bangalore, India and the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre.
Baby possums, to be released when a little bit older
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How can you use up 50,000 meal worms per week? Try rescuing injured and sick bats. In this latest post on our series on wildlife rescue and rehab, Tony talks to Stephanie Stronsick of PA Bat Rescue (along with podcast friend Evan Lovett of V.U.R.T. Creative – check out his January interview) about bats and bat rescue in Pennsylvania.
Bat being fed and discussed on the episode.
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So you find a snake in your backyard, or your kitchen, or your toilet. Who do you call? And what do THEY do with the snake? In this episode we talk with Yatin Kalki, snake rescuer interested in harnessing snake rescue data to learn more about Bangalore’s fauna, and Jasmine Zeleny, Australian snake rescuer.
Yatin Kalki’s grandmother holding Indian rat snake (harmless)
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So you find a snake in your backyard, or your kitchen, or your toilet. Who do you call? And what do THEY do with the snake? In this episode we talk with Yatin Kalki, snake rescuer interested in harnessing snake rescue data to learn more about Bangalore’s fauna, and Jasmine Zeleny, Australian snake rescuer.
Yatin Kalki’s grandmother holding Indian rat snake (harmless)
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Entomologist and urban bee specialist Doug Sponsler joins Billy and Tony early in the morning in a community garden spot in West Philadelphia to observe squash bees and talk about what counts as native. Squash are not strictly native to Philadelphia. They were introduced by Indians before European colonization. The bees followed the squash cultivation from its original distribution. Are they native? How much does it matter?
Squash bees in a squash flower.
We discuss research about squash bee pollination efficiency:
We also discuss research about squash bee range expansion as they followed expansion of squash cultivation:
And the guy stung by the yellow jackets on the lip.
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Tony and Billy take to the field… the Philadelphia neighborhood of Manayunk to observe the peregrine falcons of St. John the Baptist’s steeple. We talk urban raptors and perform incidental urban wildlife outreach with the neighbors. If you like this urban raptor conversation, check out some of our earlier episodes: All the Urban Raptors We Could Fit into One Episode, Why Not the City?, and Hawks vs. Squirrels.
PA Game Commission Officer blocking parent falcon as nestlings are banded.
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It doesn’t matter where you live. If there’s water, you can go fishing. Learn about urban fishing, multi-species fishing, even micro-fishing as Tony and Billy join Leo Sheng of Extreme Philly Fishing for an outing in Philadelphia’s Cobbs Creek. And don’t forget to dip back into the Urban Wildlife archives with one of our first episodes about Urban Fishing.
Red Breasted Sunfish caught by Leo Sheng
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It’s not just about honey. Cities are full of bees, and in this double episode we hear about Brisbane bees and the Australian native alternative to European honey bees from Tim Heard of Sugarbag Bees, we talk with urban bee researcher Scott MacIvor from Toronto, and we go on an urban bee field trip on top of a chocolate factory with researcher Doug Sponsler and bee keeper Don Shump of the Philadelphia Bee Company.
Check out the Grid Magazine article Billy wrote about Doug Sponsler’s research.
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It’s not just about honey. Cities are full of bees, and in this double episode we hear about Brisbane bees and the Australian native alternative to European honey bees from Tim Heard of Sugarbag Bees, we talk with urban bee researcher Scott MacIvor from Toronto, and we go on an urban bee field trip on top of a chocolate factory with researcher Doug Sponsler and bee keeper Don Shump of the Philadelphia Bee Company.
Check out the Grid Magazine article Billy wrote about Doug Sponsler’s research.
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Tiffany Kersten joins Tony to talk about the proposed border wall and how it will impact wildlife and wildlife viewing in the lower Rio Grande Valley. The border wall plans do seem to be on hold for the moment, but they remain Trump administration policy, so stay involved.
Tiffany Kersten
Heads up, we close with a song with explicit lyrics: F**k the Border by Propagandhi, used with permission.
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Special (very long, thorough – don’t make this your first Urban Wildlife Podcast episode) Episode: Billy, Tony, and biologist Clint Springer dive into the outdoor cat literature. This is a companion to our Cat Wars episode. Finally we sat down and went through the literature cited by Alley Cat Allies as well as the literature Alley Cat Allies doesn’t tell you about: what is the impact of outdoor cats on wildlife, and what have scientists learned about how to control un-owned cats? We actually changed our perspectives a little bit: TNR is ineffective, but without controlling cat dumping and cat feeding, it is really hard to control stray and feral cats.
Here are the sources we discussed in the order we discussed them.
Alley Cat Allies’ Vacuum Effect website.
Alley Cat Allies’ Why TNR Works.
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Special (very long, thorough – don’t make this your first Urban Wildlife Podcast episode) Episode: Billy, Tony, and biologist Clint Springer dive into the outdoor cat literature. This is a companion to our Cat Wars episode. Finally we sat down and went through the literature cited by Alley Cat Allies as well as the literature Alley Cat Allies doesn’t tell you about: what is the impact of outdoor cats on wildlife, and what have scientists learned about how to control un-owned cats? We actually changed our perspectives a little bit: TNR is ineffective, but without controlling cat dumping and cat feeding, it is really hard to control stray and feral cats.
Here are the sources we discussed in the order we discussed them.
Alley Cat Allies’ Vacuum Effect website.
Alley Cat Allies’ Why TNR Works.
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City lights attract birds to cities where they are vulnerable to windows, cats, and other dangers of city living… or, depending on what we do, they can have a meal and be on their way. Spring migration is a great time to talk with Audubon PA’s Keith Russell about the wonders and challenges of bird migration. We talk with James McLaren and Jeffrey Buler about how artificial light at night (ALAN) can draw birds into urban green spaces. We also hear from Nicolette Cagle of Duke University about their bird-window collision research and the iNaturalist group that lets you contribute (and read more here).
We split the episode into two parts. This is part two.
Ovenbird killed by a window collision.
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City lights attract birds to cities where they are vulnerable to windows, cats, and other dangers of city living… or, depending on what we do, they can have a meal and be on their way. Spring migration is a great time to talk with Audubon PA‘s Keith Russell about the wonders and challenges of bird migration. We talk with James McLaren and Jeffrey Buler about how artificial light at night (ALAN) can draw birds into urban green spaces. We also hear from Nicolette Cagle of Duke University about their bird-window collision research and the iNaturalist group that lets you contribute (and read more here).
We split the episode into two parts. This is part one.
Ovenbird killed by a window collision.
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