The Wild Life

The Earth has ended before.Five times in the last half-billion years, life on this planet has been nearly wiped clean—reset by asteroid impacts, volcanic winters, and cataclysms we can barely imagine. And now? We’re living through number six. The difference? This one’s caused by us.But buried in those ancient endings are stories—lessons about resilience, adaptation, and the strange, beautiful creatures that made it through.In this episode, I’m joined by JP, better known online as @paleoauthor, the mind behind the upcoming book Primordial: A Biology of Ancient Triumphs and Tragedies. Together, we explore:Previous mass extinction events and what they can teach us about the one we’re in nowWhy dinosaurs still capture our collective imaginationThe weirdest prehistoric animals you’ve never heard ofThe influence of media and film on our understanding of deep timeHow telling the stories of the past might help us change the futureIt’s part science, part storytelling, and part love letter to life itself.Links & Resources:Follow JP on Instagram: @paleoauthorSupport The Wild Life on Patreon

Meet the world’s largest rodent—the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), a creature so wonderfully chill it makes a golden retriever look high-strung. In this episode, we dive beyond the memesto explore what makes capybaras such an evolutionary success story.We’ll talk:Why “semi-aquatic social loaf of bread” might be the perfect lifestyleTheir remarkable teeth, digestive superpowers… and yes, why they eat their own poopThe wild variety of vocalizations they use to chat with each otherHow babysitting is a survival strategyThe surprising ways their biology connects to the ecosystems they live inFrom their South American wetlands to their unlikely friendships with everything from birds to caimans, capybaras prove that being laid-back is a legitimate survival tactic.Listen, wonder, and maybe… book a ticket to the Pantanal.Support The Wild Life's Field Guide of Wonder at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month

Hey everyone!I’m really excited to share with you all my conversation with the thoughtful and inspiring Alexa Pavan, aka @GoGreenWithAlexa.We dive into everything from accessible sustainability and composting, to coral bleaching, water bottles, and beach cleanups. It’s a chat about progress over perfection, the importance of small, everyday actions, and finding hope in the face of big, global challenges.We talk:🪸 Coral reefs and climate change♻️ Reducing waste without shame🌱 What it actually means to live sustainably💚 How individual choices can ripple outward🌍 Interconnectedness, agency, and actionable hopeIt’s full of insight, encouragement, and gentle reminders that we don’t have to do everything—but we can all do something.As always, thank you for listening to The Wild Life. If you’d like to help continue making episodes like this possible, you can join for as little as $1 per month (a penny per piece of content) at www.patreon.com/thewildlife. Your support means the world—and makes this work sustainable (see what I did there?).-Devon

What do a gaur, an aardvark, a flattened musk turtle, and a Matschie’s tree kangaroo have in common?They’ve all been photographed beautifully, reverently, and intentionally by my next guest—wildlife and zoo photographer Jay Meredith.In this episode, Jay shares the story behind his incredible project, The Animal Archives, documenting over 1,000 animal species across accredited zoos, aquariums, and conservation centers. But this is more than a numbers game. It’s a mission to help people fall in love with the overlooked, the endangered, and the often-forgotten.We talk about how Jay transitioned from zookeeper to photographer, the difference between photographing wild vs. captive animals, what it means to truly see an animal, why education and storytelling are just as important as the image itself, and the little-known species Jay wants everyone to know about!This episode is about photography, yes—but really, it’s about wonder. It’s about noticing. And it’s about how we grow empathy for the world when we take time to look closely.📸 Follow Jay on Instagram: @photos_with_jay_108 🦥 Support The Wild Life and Get Early Access at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

What if the key to understanding our future was hidden in the teeth of creatures that lived millions of years ago? In this episode, we dive into the world of dental microwear with paleontologist Andrew Schwartz (@eyesonthedirt), who takes us from the fossil beds of ancient Wyoming to the jungles of Costa Rica and the highlands of the Wari Empire. Along the way, we uncover how past climate shifts reshaped life on Earth—and what that means for us today.We explore:How capuchin monkeys and ancient Andean civilizations left clues in their teethWhat the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) can teach us about modern climate changeWhy some mammals shrank while others thrivedWhat a warming world could mean for our ecosystems, agriculture, and future survivalLinks & Resources:Learn more about Andrew Schwartz’s researchDeep dive into the PETM and its modern implicationsSupport The Wild Life on Patreon!If you love deep dives into science and nature, consider supporting The Wild Life on Patreon. Your support helps me continue making episodes like this, bringing expert voices and fascinating stories. Plus, Patrons get bonus content, early access, and more! Join us at Patreon.com/TheWildLife.Let me know what you think! Leave a review, share the episode, and keep exploring the wild world around you.

Joining The Wild Life today is Dylan Beckham! She spent two years as a zookeeper caring for all sorts of exotics, including reptiles, invertebrates, fish, emus, wallabies, genets and Eurasian harvest mice. As a herpetology enthusiast, she was surprised to find it was the mice that stole her heart. This led to the development of her independent research project investigating their nesting behaviors in captivity, before ultimately leaving the zoo to pursue her passion for wildlife research. She managed to fit in an adventure to Canada, where she interned at a wildlife rehab facility, wrestled raccoons, and fell madly in love with a three-legged beaver! Now she's wading through nearly a hundred hours of harvest mouse data, while preparing to return to university for a top-up Bachelor's degree in September, where she'll be doing a research project on human-elephant conflict in Equatorial Guinea. Whether you're fascinated by the world of zookeeping, curious about the nuances of data collection, or passionate about conservation, this episode is for you. Follow Dylan on InstagramHave questions, topic suggestions, or want to be on the show? Email me at devonlbowker@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram or TikTok @devonthenatureguySupport The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Welcome to The Wild Life! On today's episode, we have a fascinating guest: wildlife cinematographer Jake Davis.Jake’s career began by focusing on the wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Growing up, he spent his summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the Teton Range's jagged peaks and abundant wildlife fostered a deep love for nature and a desire to share and preserve it. Today, while Jake travels the globe to film the stories of vulnerable wildlife, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem remains his home.As a cinematographer, Jake works on natural history productions for renowned platforms like BBC, National Geographic, Disney, Netflix, and Apple. Most recently, he spent five months filming snow leopards in Mongolia for the third installment of BBC's famous series "Planet Earth.” His recent work has been part of a series nominated for a 2023 Emmy and for Best Cinematography at the prestigious Jackson Wild Film Festival.Jake’s work incorporates diverse filming techniques, including long lens, drone, and gimbals, but he is best known for his novel approach to filming wildlife with high-tech camera traps. He also created the world’s first collection of wildlife Ambrotypes, featuring images on glass plates. Among his accolades, Jake was a 2019 finalist in the renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition held by the London Natural History Museum, and his work has been displayed at the Smithsonian in the Exhibition of Nature's Best Photography. His nature greeting card line is sold in stores across the western United States, including REIs and the Yellowstone stores.In this episode, we discuss the importance of understanding animal behavior and ecology to capture the perfect shot and effectively tell their stories. We explore the future and potential of artificial intelligence in wildlife filmmaking, the "chicken or the egg" question of wildlife cinematography, and the challenges of working off-grid. Jake shares his experiences with camera traps, the heart-wrenching decisions of the footage chopping block, and how to craft compelling narratives without words.Join us for an in-depth conversation that highlights the blend of artistry and science required to bring the wild to our screens. Check out his website and order some printsCheck out his galleryFollow Jake on InstagramHave questions, topic suggestions, or want to be on the show? Email me at devonlbowker@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram or TikTok @devonthenatureguySupport The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

The world is full of science and, in turn, scientists, and not enough people who truly have that spark for communicating all of that discovery and wonder to the rest of the world. People like today's guest—Dr Carly Anne York (@BiologyCarly). She's an Associate Professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University, an Animal Physiologist, a Science Communicator, and an Author.Today, science communication, children’s books, squid physiology, mindblowing animal facts, things that are true that are hard to believe, academic and environmental activism, holding onto hope in a world that seems insistent that we shouldn’t, and advice for future scientistsCheck out her websiteCarly on XCarly on InstagramCarly on TikTokYou can support The Wild Life by becoming a member on Patreon for as little as $1 per month Have questions, guest recommendations, or want to join the email list? Contact me here OR at hello@thewildlife.blog

17 years ago, I was a 14 year old attending Connor Middle School in Hebron, Kentucky. Small little town, just across the Ohio River. In 2018, I moved away, back down to Houston, TX. But in the few years I was there, I met and became friends with some of the most amazing people, most of which I lost contact with over the yearsThen one day, sometime last year or so, a familiar name popped up on my feed—an old friend, and today’s guest.On today's episode, Dr Tiffany Slater tells us all about her amazing discoveries and career as a taphonomist! Searching for molecular ghosts in the fossil record, ginger frogs, ancient proteins, learning there’s a difference between aging fossils and dating fossils, feathered connections, archaeopteryx, perspectives, particle accelerators, and of course, catching up…Dinosaur feathers reveal traces of ancient proteinsDr Tiffany Slater's University of College Cork ProfileSupport the ShowContact | hello@thewildlife.blogFollow Devon on TikTok and InstagramFollow Tiffany on Twitter

In this episode, Devon (@devonthenatureguy) sits down with Lauren Jackson (@lauren.queenofthewild on Instagram and HERp_trap_queen on TikTok) to chat about becoming a wildlife tech, woodpeckers, federal jobs, the friction of private land, scicomm and education, battles big and small, and above all else, love for the world around us.Support the show at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Eaton, author of Insectpedia: a Brief Compendium of Insect Lore, Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect, and more!Wasps are far more diverse than the familiar yellowjackets and hornets that harass picnickers and build nests under the eaves of our homes. These amazing, mostly solitary creatures thrive in nearly every habitat on Earth, and their influence on our lives is overwhelmingly beneficial. Wasps are agents of pest control in agriculture and gardens. They are subjects of study in medicine, engineering, and other important fields. Wasps pollinate flowers, engage in symbiotic relationships with other organisms, and create architectural masterpieces in the form of their nests. From minute fairyflies to gargantuan tarantula hawks, wasps exploit almost every niche on the planet. So successful are they at survival that other organisms emulate their appearance and behavior. The sting is the least reason to respect wasps and, as you will see, no reason to loathe them, either.  Find Eric on Twitter/XCheck out Eric's BlogSupport the ShowFind me on Instagram and TikTok @devonthenatureguyContact: hello@thewildlife.blog

Sharks are in the water. But is the ocean shark-infested, or shark-depleted? I sat down to talk with Dr Alexandra McInturf to find out.Learn more about Alexandra and her workPapers Referenced:Half a Century of Global Decline in Sharks and RaysHalf a century of rising extinction risk of coral reef sharks and raysGlobal catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharksBycatch SolutionsNOAA Link

This was the first ever episode of The Wild Life back in 2017, and it was never supposed to happen. That's right, The Wild Life, as a podcast, was an accident. The result of a series of unfortunate events. But that's life, isn't it? It happens in the most unexpected of ways. I never imagined that this is where I would be today, and I'm so incredibly grateful for the experience and all those who have been a part of it, as guests, as listeners, and as people who believed in the work I was doing and helped me to succeed.The mystery of zebra stripes has long been a subject of debate, at least since the days of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. Now, thanks to Dr. Tim Caro, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of California-Davis, we finally have our answer.Next week, we're exploring Shark Conservation with Alexandra McInturf!If you'd like to support the creation of this show, the blog, and my science communication efforts on social media, you can do so for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlifePeace out, rainbow trouts!