Wildlife Health Talks
This is the podcast of the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA, https://www.wildlifedisease.org). Our host Dr Catharina Vendl chats with wildlife health professionals including researchers, vets, pathologists and more, about the joys and challenges of their job and the emerging issues of wildlife health locally and worldwide. All of our guests have a longstanding affinity with the WDA and a true passion for wildlife in common. So brush up your knowledge of current wildlife issues and One Health with Wildlife Health Talks.
Episodes
73 episodes
#73 Niraj and The Carcass Café: How Carrion Shapes Wildlife Disease Risk (Australia)
What if the biggest threat to Australia's wildlife during a disease outbreak might be lying dead in the bush? Join host Dr. Cat Vendl with Niraj Meisuria, a PhD student investigating one of disease ecology's most overlooked frontiers: scavengin...
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Season 3
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Episode 73
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26:38
#72 Ana Maria and the sloths (Costa Rica)
Dr Ana Maria Villada has spent years unraveling the mysteries of sloths—creatures so physiologically unique that they're closer to chimpanzees than they are to each other. But her work treating electrocution injuries, creating rope highways thr...
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Season 3
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Episode 72
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22:52
#71 Alex and the Bandicoots: Redefining the Wildlife Veterinarian (Australia)
By day, Dr. Alexandria Bullen treats cattle and cats at a veterinary clinic on Tasmania's rugged northwest coast. By night, she's out tracking platypuses and bandicoots in the wilderness. In this episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl meets Alex at the Au...
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Season 3
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Episode 71
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24:38
#70 Leanne and the Swift Parrot's Future: Reimagining Wildlife Health Before Crisis (Australia & Vietnam)
What if we could prevent wildlife health crises instead of always racing to respond to them? Dr. Leanne Wicker has spent decades asking this question – from anesthetizing seals in Tasmanian car parks during lunch breaks to tracking ocean temper...
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Season 3
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Episode 70
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27:51
#69 Mya and the penguins (USA & Peru)
From Peru's copper mines to penguin colonies, PhD candidate Mya Daniels-Abdulahad tracks a toxic trail that threatens an entire species. Winner of the 2025 BioOne Ambassador Award, Mya reveals how mining waste travels through ocean food chains ...
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Season 3
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Episode 69
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23:40
#68 Ralph and HPAI in the Southern hemisphere (Argentina)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she follows Dr. Ralph Vanstreels tracking high pathogenicity avian influenza from South America to Antarctica. Ralph shares insights from surveying remote coastlines and documenting the virus's impact – over 600,000 w...
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Season 3
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Episode 68
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26:49
# 67 Pat and the parrots (USA)
Nearly one-third of all parrot species are threatened with extinction, yet most people picture these charismatic birds as noisy pets in cages rather than the complex, emotionally intelligent wild creatures they truly are. In this captiva...
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Season 3
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Episode 67
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29:03
#66 Kate and the albatrosses (USA)
A snowstorm that closed highways led English literature student Kate Huyvaert to an unexpected path—becoming one of North America's leading experts on wild sheep disease. From discovering that 25% of albatross chicks aren't raised by their biol...
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Season 3
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Episode 66
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31:14
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#65 Nick and the Lord Howe Island stick insects (Australia)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she meets Dr. Nick Doidge, zoo veterinarian and researcher, working to save the world's rarest insect – the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, nicknamed the "tree lobster."Thought extinct for 80 years, these living...
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Season 3
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Episode 65
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28:16
#64 Melting the Ice in People's Hearts: Indigenous Voices on Planetary Health (Canada)
In honor of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on Aug 9, join host Dr. Cat Vendl for a special episode featuring two powerful Indigenous voices in health and healing. Meet Dr. Nicole Redvers, a member of the Deninu K'ue First N...
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Season 3
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Episode 64
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22:44
#63 Nelson and the gorillas (Uganda)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she ventures into Uganda's misty mountains to meet Dr. Nelson Bukamba, one of the world's few gorilla doctors providing life-saving veterinary care to our planet's most endangered relatives. Nelson's journey from a he...
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Season 3
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Episode 63
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26:34
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#62 Sam and the swift fox (USA)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she ventures into Wyoming's vast wilderness to meet Dr. Samantha Allen, the state's wildlife veterinarian who juggles budget spreadsheets and helicopter captures of bighorn sheep. From her unforgettable first WDA conf...
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Season 3
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Episode 62
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26:24
#61 Damien and Canadian wildlife diseases
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she heads to Vancouver Island to meet Dr. Damien Joly, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative – though he insists he's just a "boring old disease ecologist!" But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Disco...
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Season 3
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Episode 61
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27:07
#60 Alexandra and wildlife conservation in times of war (Lebanon)
Meet Alexandra Youssef, Lebanon's first and only certified wildlife rehabilitator and co-founder and vice-president of the NGO Lebanese Wildlife, based in Beirut. Alexandra fights to save wildlife amid economic collapse, war, and ancient cultur...
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Season 60
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Episode 3
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25:51
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#59 Steve and the tale of the Storytelling Ape (Australia)
Self-described "systems thinker" Dr. Steve Unwin has spent decades working at the human-wildlife interface across four continents and believes we've got our scientific name all wrong. According to Steve, we're not Homo sapiens but Pan narrans: ...
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Season 3
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Episode 59
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32:34
#58 Brett and rabies in Cape fur seals (South Africa & Australia)
In this captivating episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl speaks with zoo veterinarian and researcher Dr. Brett Gardner about the unprecedented rabies outbreak in Cape fur seals along South Africa's coast. Brett reveals how this once-impossible disease j...
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Season 3
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Episode 58
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27:37
#57 Helen, bighorn sheep, mountain caribou and WDA2025 (Canada)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl with Dr. Helen Schwantje, British Columbia's pioneering wildlife veterinarian of nearly three decades. Journey from her unexpected career beginnings to her groundbreaking work with bighorn sheep and the complex fight to ...
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Season 3
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Episode 57
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29:16
#56 Janelle and the kiwi (NZ)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she travels to New Zealand's Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, where Dr. Janelle Ward leads native species restoration behind the country's largest predator-proof fence. Discover how four kiwis introduced in 2005 grew...
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Season 3
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Episode 56
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27:04
#55 Sonia and the science of pushing boundaries (USA)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she speaks with Dr. Sonia Hernandez, Wildlife Disease Association president and professor whose research spans continents and species. From studying prehistoric-looking tapirs adapting to human landscapes in Costa Ric...
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Season 3
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Episode 56
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29:12
#54 Will and the raccoons (USA)
Join our host Dr. Cat Vendl as she takes you to Oklahoma, where Will Funk directs wildlife rehabilitation at WildCare Oklahoma, caring for over 8,000 native patients annually – from hummingbirds to bald eagles, and even tarantulas! Will shares ...
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Season 3
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Episode 54
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17:44
#53 Tim and conservation chemistry (USA)
In this episode, our host Cat Vendl sits down with Dr. Tim Cernak, who is revolutionizing wildlife conservation through an unexpected lens: Conservation chemistry. From developing human medicines at Merck to fighting wildlife extinction with ar...
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Season 3
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Episode 53
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32:05
#52 K9 and queer ecology (Australia)
Join us for an eye-opening conversation with K9 Jenns, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney's Bat One Health Research Team, who brings a transformative perspective to the study of flying foxes and their viruses. Through the lens of queer...
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Season 3
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Episode 52
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28:19
#51 Anna and the microbats (Australia)
In this episode, our host Cat Vendl takes you to Berlin to meet Anna Langguth, a PhD candidate studying one of the most devastating wildlife diseases recorded in mammals: white nose syndrome. From childhood bat enthusiast to innovative research...
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Season 3
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Episode 51
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25:32
#50 Dianna and the wombats (Australia)
Join us for an extraordinary conversation with Dianna Bisset, an Australian wildlife carer whose journey spans from creating equipment for James Cameron's deep-sea expeditions to rehabilitating wombats and kangaroos at Rocklily wildlife ref...
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Season 3
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Episode 50
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34:23
#49 Michele and wildlife tuberculosis (South Africa)
In this episode, we are taking you on a dive into the world of wildlife tuberculosis with Professor Michele Miller. Michele is the NRF South African Research Chair in Animal TB at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her career has spanned ...
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Season 2
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Episode 49
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22:48
