The Fat Bird, Ugly Dog Podcast Al Franke

In this episode my guest is Tony Wasley, President of the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI). We begin the episode talking about the Institute itself, what is does and when it was established. I am interested in the way that wildlife values are characterized, how they have changed, and how those changes in wildlife values potentially affect the future of hunting and hunters. Tony discusses the dichotomy between areas of focus for wildlife management agencies; the task of tag allocation...

In this Episode I am joined by John Organ, Chief Emeritus of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Program, to discuss the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. John begins by telling us about the people that were responsible for consolidating the model, He then describes the ecological and historical context that ultimately led to modern wildlife management. We go back to the late Pleistocene to provide a sense of what the m...

In this final episode of my three-part series discussing passage merlins with Jeremy Bradshaw, author of "The Passage Merlin", Jeremy shares his views on having a merlin share the comings and goings of one’s home, his views on weight management, and how he steps through the training sequence from hopping to fist to undertaking that first free flight, and ultimately to regular gamehawking. We also talk about "carrying", and taking advantage of the natural tendency for merlins to ca...

In this episode Jeremy Bradshaw author of the "The Passage Merlin" returns to me to talk about his love affair with the passage merlin. We begin this episode with Jeremy recollecting the events surrounding the first Merlin he trapped with, and for, fellow falconer and friend, Jeremy Roselle . He then tells us about trapping merlins in urban versus agricultural settings, including the various trap types, and his go-to favorite. He tells us about some hard-earned tips that have improved his tra...

In this episode Jeremy Bradshaw author of the "The Passage Merlin" joins me to talk about his love affair with small raptors, in particular, the passage merlin. Jeremy begins the episode giving us some insight into the three sub-species of merlins in North America, and tells us how Jack merlins differ from female merlins. I then ask Jeremy about his views on weight management, and how it can make one a better falconer. We then talk about the benefits of keeping a merlin in the hou...

Vickie and I begin our conversation discussing her "Wellness Program" in recently-trapped birds, which for obvious reasons, the falconer has no medical history and there is the potential that a recently captured raptor is carrying a sub-clinical parasite load, or has a bacterial or viral infection. Vickie starts by classifying types of pathogens that a falconer should be aware of, and describes typical symptoms that may be present and which organ systems are most commonly implicated. We...