Mammalwatching

• Episode 16: Nigel Marven

  Charles and Jon talk with wildlife filmmaker and presenter Nigel Marven from his home in the UK.Nigel describes how a childhood fascination with wildlife led to his first job in TV, 'wrangling worms', and from there to working with Sir David Attenborough and ultimately presenting and making his own shows and films.He explains why his films have often put the spotlight onto smaller, less well-known but fascinating mammals including Russian Desmans, Chinese Mole-shrews and Star-nosed Moles. And he describes some of his most memorable mammal encounters from Bactrian Camels in China to swimming with Belugas in the Canadian Arctic.For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcastNotes: Details of Nigel's forthcoming wildlife tours are on his website. You can read more about his trip to Madagascar here.This is the article about the discovery of Leadbeater's Possum in New South Wales that Charles talked about.Jon encouraged listeners to visit mammalwatching.com's Join a Trip page. More details on the two trips he is helping to convene are here:Primates and Porcupines in Northeast Brazil, May 2026Mammalwatching Cruise to Antarctica, January 2027Cover art: Nigel Marven Dr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in over 110 countries.

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• Episode 15: Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, Nigeria

  Charles and Jon talk with Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder of the SW/Niger Delta Conservation Project. Rachel, a Nigerian conservationist and visionary, has built a team of almost 100 people working at the grassroots community level to save the wildlife of the Niger Delta. The delta, densely populated and home to oil and gas reserves, is one of the most degraded environments on the planet. It contains over half of the swamp forest in West and Central Africa and is the world's largest mangrove forest. But 95% of that forest has been lost in the past 15 years.Rachel describes her career and how she stumbled into conservation work despite the many obstacles she faced from a society where young women are expected to get married and have children and definitely not become biologists!She talks about some of the delta's many special mammals including critically endangered primates like the the Niger Delta Red Colobus that Rachel's team is bringing back from the brink of extinction with the help of local communities.And Rachel talks about some of the very many dangers she has faced working in this difficult area. She has run the gauntlet of everything from death threats to drowning and also had a very close encounter with an angry Elephant.For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcastNotes: You can follow Rachel's team on Instagram here. And here is a short video, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, celebrating Rachel as a winner of the 2020 Whitley Awards for her work with Chimpanzees. This is the opinion piece Rachel wrote on the Western media's role in the decline of West Africa's Wildlife.Jon's Texas report is here.Cover art: Rachel at work. Dr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in over 110 countries.

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• Episode 14: Shavez Cheema, Borneo

  Charles and Jon talk to Shavez Cheema, founder of Borneo1Stop Wildlife, from his home in Sabah.Shavez talks about a childhood in Brunei surrounded by wildlife and how, at the age of nine, he was inspired to work in conservation after seeing a neighbour's senseless killing of a monitor lizard. We discuss the massive potential for growth in conservation tourism across Borneo, and both the benefits and problems it might create. And Shavez explains why Borneo1Stop Wildlife is committed to opening up new mammalwatching areas and what visitors can expect from them. Any conversation about Borneo will feature some premier league mammals. Shavez's favorite moments include an unexpected encounter with a Tufted Ground Squirrel and walk away views of a Clouded Leopard.For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcastNotes: More details of Borneo1Stop Wildlife's destinations in Tawau Hills, Beluran and INIKEA are here. And this is a report of a 2024 bat photography workshop. There are many many Borneo trip reports on mammalwatching.The jaw-dropping photographs from the migration in South Sudan that Charles mentioned were part of the media pack accompanying this African Parks press release. Check out this extraordinary image!Jon's Romania mole-rat safari report is here.Cover art: Walk away views of a Clouded Leopard, Shavez Cheema.Dr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in over 110 countries.

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• Episode 13: Venkat Sankar & Nicole Haseley's Big California Year

  Charles and Jon talk with mammalwatching power couple Venkat Sankar & Nicole Haseley from their base at Stanford University in California. Nicole and Venkat 'accidentally' turned 2024 into a Big California (Mammal) Year and ended up seeing a record breaking 150 species in the state by December 31.They talk about some of their big year's highs and lows as well as their favourite places in California to mammalwatch, and offer advice on how to identify small mammals in the field. Plus Nicole explains why browsing iNaturalist pictures in public can be a fast track to romance.For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcastNotes: a Big Year - a concept well known among birders - sees participants look for as many different species as possible within a geographic boundary (in this case California). Venkat and Nicole's Big Year report is here (there are many more California reports here). Meanwhile Charles's epic 2019 Big Mammal Day report from Tanzania is well worth a read!A report from Charles's Royle Safaris' trip to Ghana will eventually arrive here. The ethical mammalwatching cartoons Jon mentioned are here.Cover art: Venkat & NicoleDr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in over 110 countries.

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• Episode 12: Sid Francis, China

  Charles and Jon talk to legendary mammal guide Sid Francis from his home in Sichuan.Sid runs through a career as geographically diverse as it is professionally. After studying agriculture in the UK he worked as - among other things - a shepherd in the Falkland Islands shepherd and a school teacher in Denmark before moving to China and becoming a wildlife guide. We talk about how much China - and the public's interest in wildlife there - has changed over the past few years. Sid describes the current mammalwatching scene in Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces, both packed with a set of mouthwatering mammals. And in a world exclusive we learn that mammalwatchers are almost 'normal' ... at least compared to some birders!For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcastNotes: You can contact Sid at [email protected] or through his website https://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/. There are dozens or reports from Sichuan and Qinghai on mammalwatching's China page https://www.mammalwatching.com/gd_place/china/Charles and Jon spoke about their trip to Sax-Zim Bog: a report is here.There are several reviews of thermal scopes at the bottom of the mammalwatching gear page.Cover art: Sid Francis.Dr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in over 110 countries.

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