Mammalwatching Jon Hall & Charles Foley

Charles and Jon open Season 3 of the podcast from the jungles of the Ivory Coast, before talking to Peter Kaestner, the world's most accomplished birder.

In February 2024 Peter became the first person ever to see 10,000 bird species, though, as we hear at the very end of the episode, the climax of his record came with more plot twists than a Hitchcock movie.

Peter talks about his fiercely competitive family, and his older brother Hank's pivotal role in starting a lifelong love of birding. He explains how he chose a career that would best support his birding. And that luck - and lucky stones - have played a role in getting him to his 10,000th bird.

NB. We recorded the interview in late January before Peter had broken the record. He joined us again in late March to provide the update at the very end of this episode.

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes: There has been a great deal of coverage of Peter's record and the intrigue around it.

On the record itself: The New York Times: With an Orange-Tufted Spiderhunter, Birder Breaks Record for Sightings, while the American Birding Association published a piece by Peter in January on his plans to reach 10,000 birds.

And on the the intrigue: The Guardian How birdwatching's biggest record threw its online community into chaos, and this is the lively thread on Birdforum that Peter referred to. Plus an entertaining Tiktok video from Aerithgirl outlining the story of Peter Kaestner's 10,000th bird and Jason Mann's claim. 3 million views and counting!

Jon and Charles have already both written reports on their Ivory Coast trip.

Cover Art: Peter (left) and Hank Kaestner with a 'lucky stone'.

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.

In the season finale to Season 2 of the podcast, Charles and Jon talk to the founder of Cat Expeditions - camera trap virtuoso and feline aficionado - Sebastian Kennerknecht from his home in California. 

Sebastian explains how his passions for wildlife and photography were formed and talks about the powerful role photography can play in conservation. He shares fascinating stories that demonstrate both his dedication to - and the skills behind - camera trapping. And we hear about some of his many adventures while photographing 31 of the world's cat species: from almost treading on a Snow Leopard in Kyrgyzstan to almost being trodden on by an elephant in Gabon!

The mammalwatching podcast will return in the spring of 2024. The first episode features Peter Kaestner, who just saw his record breaking 10,000th bird species.

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes: Sebastian's tour company Cat Expeditions, has produced several reports featuring his superb photos (a selection of reports are here). Meanwhile here is Jon's report on looking for - but not finding - Snow Leopards in Kyrgyzstan.

The answer to the mystery mammal call from Episode 22 is revealed at the start of the episode. Many thanks to Chris Scharf for sending in the recording. His podcast episode is well worth a listen! And thank you to everyone who took the time to guess. Some of the entries arrived after we had recorded the episode so sorry if we didn't mention you.

Cover Art: Sebastian in the field.

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 100 countries.

Charles and Jon meet conservation legend and primatologist Patricia Wright.

Dr Wright is most famous for her work in Madagascar, including her discovery of the Golden Bamboo Lemur. She is Founder and Executive Director of Stony Brook University Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, and Founder and Executive Director of the Centre ValBio, a research and training center in Ranomafana, Madagascar. Some of her many achievements during a very distinguished career include being the first woman to win the Indianapolis Prize (the 'Nobel Prize for Conservation'), won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (Genius Award) and had three medals of honor from the Malagasy government. 

During a fascinating chat we learn how a chance encounter with a night (owl) monkey in a Brooklyn pet store changed the course of Patricia's life from New York social worker to primatologist. She describes the thrill of discovering a new species - the Golden Bamboo Lemur - in 1986, and the daunting challenge of trying to establish its habitat as a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Ranomafana National Park.

Patricia explains why she feels it is so important to get local people involved in conservation: the 'jigsaw puzzle' of an integrated approach. And how the community in Ranomafana were ready to support its protection in exchange for better access to health care, education and ... soccer balls!

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes:  Patricia Wright has published over 200 scientific papers, authored four books and has given hundreds of lectures around the world. Her work has been featured by the media many times, including in the award winning documentary "Island of Lemurs: Madagascar" narrated by Morgan Freeman; David Attenborough's Life of Mammals; and Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown.

There are some great trip reports from Madagascar up on mammalwatching.com. The island is, in our opinion, one of the world's great mammalwatching destinations.

Cover Art: Patricia Wright and Coquerel's Sifakas. Photo by Noel Rowe.

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 100 countries.

Charles and Jon talk to conservationist and tapir champion Dr Patricia Medici from her home in Brazil's Pantanal.

Patricia is a founding member of the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research), a Brazilian non-governmental organization which she helped set up in 1992. She also chairs the IUCN's Special Survival Commission Tapir Specialist Group, a network of over 130 tapir conservationists from 27 different countries.

We talk with Patricia about her work and the threats the different tapir species face. She explains how her professional career took a sharp turn towards conservation after meeting Brazil's most boring architect, and she describes the difficulties in working with a 300kg animal, particularly if you find yourself in a pitfall trap with a Lowland Tapir that is regaining consciousness.

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes: If you are inspired to donate to Patricia's NGO - the I.P.E. - then click here.
Jon's latest trip report will soon be available on the Chile and Argentina pages.

Cover Art: Patricia Medici 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 100 countries.

Charles and Jon meet Connor Burgin a PhD student working on mammalian systematics at the University of New Mexico. As a young boy Connor was fascinated by Wikipedia's list of dinosaurs. His fascination shifted to lists of present day fauna and at the age of twelve he began to create and update his own list of the world's mammals which quickly became the state of art. His childhood project turned into the American Society of Mammalogists' Mammal Diversity Database, which is now widely regarded as the most uptodate and authoratative list of the world's 6500 living mammal species. Connor's taxonomy was also used by Lynx Nature Book in their seminal Illustrated Checklist of the World's Mammals (2020) and All the Mammals of the World (2023).

Taxonomy is as much art as science: if you laid all the world's taxonomists end to end you still wouldn't reach a conclusion. So Connor explains the challenges of decision-making when it comes to some of the most controversial issues to hit the mammalwatching world: when to split and lump a species and how to treat domestic animals? Plus Jon is seriously impressed with Connor's choice of the mammal species he mosts wants to see!

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes: If you have suggestions on where mammalwatchers can submit interesting records that can benefit science please write to jon@mammalwatching.com and we will include them in the notes. INaturalist is the most obvious places to start as well as IGoTerra and your local museum or university biology department. Here is a video from Valentin Moser with more information.

Jon's reports should appear soon from his 2023 trips to Chile and Argentina.

Cover art: All the Mammals of the World, Lynx Publishing.

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 100 countries.

Charles and Jon talk to the legendary John Newby about his 50 years in Chad and Niger working to save some of the rarest antelopes in the world. This is a fascinating story, which begins in the 1970s when John recalls seeing vast herds of Oryx, Addax and Dama Gazelle in the Sahara. Yet 15 years later these species had reached the edge of extinction. A warning on how quickly things can change. But this is also a story of hope and of nature's resilience when it is is given a chance: thanks to the work of John and his colleagues at Sahara Conservation these iconic antelope - the "children of Chad" - are living wild there once again.

Here is the YouTube trailer.

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes: Read more here about the work of Sahara Conservation. Jon's trip report to Chad in 2023 is here.

Cover art: John Newby 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 100 countries.