Aussie Wildlife Show

John Nair Rajan | Bornean Wildlife Expert

Steve and Adrian headed off to Borneo earlier this year to get some wildlife-spotting tips from the tour guide that David Attenborough calls on when he goes to Borneo. John Nair Rajan is an officer in the Wildlife Rescue Unit of the Sabah Wildlife Department and a multiple recipient of the 'Best Tour Guide' from the Sabah Tourism Awards.

This is the first of the interviews we did while we were exploring the forests of Borneo during April 2018.

You can contact John on his Facebook page to organise your Borneo adventure.

Kyle Chalmers | Olympic Gold Medallist and Reptile Enthusiast

When he's not swimming for Australia, Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers loves hanging out with his private collection of reptiles.

We had a great discussion about his growing reptile collection and the unique forms of blue-tongue skinks that he works with. Kyle shares with us his passion, or obsession, for the captive husbandry of his scaly companions and reveals his future plans within the hobby.  

You can check out Kyle's page and see his awesome animals at kc_critters

 

 

Kristen Messenger | Bugs n Slugs Australia

Grow a backbone!? So is it true that behind every good vertebrate is a greater invertebrate?

What does a snail racing, spider cuddling, mantid mating environmental educator have to say about the importance of these little spineless critters to our complex biodiversity?

We unfold some of the magic and often hidden world of invertebrates with Kristen Messenger owner/operator of Bugs n Slugs. Kristen travels around Australia as an environmental educator accompanied by a host of spiders, insects, snails, slugs and other critters.

Dr. John Walmsley | Australian Environmentalist of the Year 2000

We sat down for a chat with our good friend Dr John Walmsley at his bush block in the Adelaide Hills. He is known colloquially as the 'cat hat man' because he wore a hat made from the pelt of feral cat to a tourism awards ceremony, the ensuing controversy led to the laws changing to allow feral cats to be legally killed is Australia.

He set up wildlife sanctuaries across Australia to exclude feral animals and to reintroduce locally extinct and threatened species. We talk to John about the early days of his conservation endeavours as well as his firsthand experience working with such animals as platypus, bilbies and numbats.

John turned 80 in 2018 and is still active in the realm of conservation and habitat restoration.  

He was the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year in 2000.

Dr. Aaron Camens | Palaeontologist, Flinders University

With the climate warming will the Earth again be inundated with giant reptiles or are we about to be thrust into another ice age? 

On this episode we talk to Dr. Aaron Camens about how the Earth's ever changing climate can affect the world's fauna, as well as discusing some of the amazing mega fauna that once roamed across Australia.

 

Neil Waters | Thylacine Awareness Group

ARE THEY OUT THERE??? Officially recognised as extinct we talk to Neil Waters about the consistent sighting of Thylacines (AKA marsupial tigers) still occurring to this day all over mainland Australia and Tasmania.

Visit the Thylacine Awareness Group's Facebook page and checkout Tassie Tiger Lodge. 

Click here to purchase Neil's DVD, Living the Thylacine Dream. 

 

Dr. Philip Roetman | Citizen Science

Counting koalas, tracking pet cats, community wildlife surveys and goanna watch. Learn how YOU can make valuable contributions to scientific research, possibly discovering a new species or even a new astronomical object . We discuss some of the citizen science projects recently undertaken by the University of South Australia.

Check out the Discovery Circle Website or the Australian Citizen Science Project Finder to get involved! 

 

John Gitsham | President of Birds SA

Bullies, house wreckers, lazy parents, murderers and cheats, but not all birds are jerks. On this episode we sit in a bushland setting with passionate naturalist, birdwatcher and conservationist John Gitsham to discuss all things birds.

To learn more about John's Birdwatching and photography courses visit his website, Nature Connections. 

Steve Backshall | Deadly 60

What does Steve Backshall have to say about Aussie Wildlife and why it keeps drawing him back? We caught up with him backstage during his 2018 Deadly 60 Downunder Tour.