Aussie Wildlife Show

In this episode we chat with natural historian John Barrie about some of the prehistoric megafauna that once roamed Australia. In particular we discuss Wonambi, a giant Australian python-like snake.   John's hard work and contributions to the field of palaeontology have been acknowledged by having a species of Wonambi named after him, Wonambi barriei.  

Byron manning has dedicated his life to working within the zoo industry and is currently the Curator of Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills. He has an extensive private collection of reptiles, specialising in the keeping and breeding of many of the smaller Australian monitor species.    

This week we chat with Nick Petropoulos, owner-operator of Victorian wildlife education company, Wicked Wildlife. Nick also runs an awesome YouTube channel, Wicked Wildlife- YouTube, where he introduces a range of Australian fauna and discusses issues surrounding their conservation.   

Bruce Jackson has over 30 years experience working with, and protecting Australian endangered animals such as numbats, bilbies, bettongs, pygmy possums, quolls, malleefowl and much more. Bruce worked alongside Dr John Walmsley to create 'Earth Sanctuaries', feral free havens for endangered species to thrive. Bruce currently consults privately on various conservation projects, works with Faunature and sits on the board for FAME, the Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species.   

On our resent trip to Darwin we were lucky enough to catch up with renowned Herpetologist Dr Gavin Bedford. We chat with him about his life in the reptile hobby, some of the businesses and projects he has been involved in, and of course his work with the amazing Oenpelli Python. We also get his thoughts on some ecological and environmental issues and, as usual, we fix all the world's problems.  

Marie Munkara was born on the banks of the Mainoru River in Arnhemland. Author of several books including Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea and her first book Every Secret Thing, which won the 2008 David Unaipon Award and the 2010 NT Book of the Year.  Marie chats with us about her current doctoral thesis covering topics around her Arnhemland family, her peoples ancient history, myths, legends, tales of floods, sea level changes and much more.  

We catch up with Dr Charlie Manolis, Chief Scientist at Crocodylus Park and Wildlife Management International to find about some of the latest research in the conservation of these iconic and ancient reptiles. 

We visited the Territory Wildlife Park and caught up with the Manager of Visitor Experiences, Simon Ferguson for a chat.  The Territory Wildlife Park is situated on 400 ha of natural bushland, it contains native animals and plants representative of Northern Territory. It contributes to their conservation through research programs as well as through public education. The three main habitats represented are woodland, wetland and monsoon vine forest. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit!    

We chat with Dr Mark Hutchinson, Senior Research Scientist of Herpetology from the South Australian Museum about the recently discovered Western Desert Taipan, the endangered Pygmy Blue-tongue and all sort other sciencey goodness. 

Andrew Daly is a zookeeper with Taronga Zoo and Caroline Monro is a zookeeper at Wildlife Sydney Zoo. Together they form a conservation power-couple, bringing awareness to the plights of Australian wildlife and their habitats. They are also passionate about reducing their environmental footprint on the planet and have started a blog to share their journey. Click here to check out their blog, 'Greening Pains'.