Get Out Alive

Goodbye 2021 and hello 2022! We're starting this year off with a wrap-up of the podcast and of wildlife stories in 2021.

If you'd like to contribute to the fund for Eko (the Malayan Tiger who was shot and killed at the Naples Zoo in late December 2021 after a man put his arm in the enclosure), you can do so at the Naples Zoo website.

To read more interesting wildlife discoveries from 2021, check out the Nat Geo article here.

F...

In this episode, Ashley and Nick discuss four different kangaroo attacks in Australia, all with different causes of attack. There are also many questions about kangaroos answered: How high can they jump? How many species are there? How much damage can they really do? How can you protect yourself? And what is a kangaroo cull anyways?

The Conservation is a great website with resources on how you can avoid collisions with wildlife in A...

In the late 1890s, an area of Kenya called Tsavo was terrorized by two mane-less male lions. Depending on who you ask, they killed between 35-300 people. Join Nick and Ashley for this long tale of two cats, and how for many months they evaded over 8,000 men, one of which was John Henry Patterson (who wrote a book about his journey in The Man Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures), despite him staying up every night to t...

On February 16th, 2009, an entirely avoidable event occurred: Charla Nash had her face ripped off by her friend Sandra Herold's pet chimp, Travis.

Travis was a 200 pound, 14 year-old Chimpanzee. His owners "adopted" him for $50,000 from a place called the Missouri Chimpanzee Sanctuary, and raised him as a mix between a pet and a child. He ate at the dinner table with them, drank wine, slept in their beds, and DROVE. CARS...

How common are polar bear attacks? How do people who live with polar bears feel about them? How do mother bears poison their cubs? How can you take part in polar bear research from your own couch? Learn the answers to all those questions and more with polar bear researcher Danielle Rivet!

You can identify camera trap photos on Zooniverse with the Arctic Bears Project
You can track polar bears with Polar Bears International
And you can...

In August of 2011 in Svalbard, Norway, 17 year-old Horatio Chapple was fatally mauled by a polar bear while on an expedition with the British Schools Exploring Society, and many of his companions were also brutally attacked.

We then travel over to northern Canada and hear of two attacks in 2018, one of which killed Aaron Gibbons who was defending his children, and the other attack killed Darryl Kaunak and left his two friends to pro...

In November of 2019, Christine Rollins was on her way to her job at an elderly couple's house when she was mauled to death by feral swine.

Although this attack was short, we take a deep dive into the issue of feral swine in North America. You can get more information about feral swine on the USDA APHIS website. If you'd like to check out regulations for hunting them in your state, you can check out HogMan Outdoors.

At the en...

You asked and we listened: Pythons. 

In Episode 11, Nick and Ashley discuss the deaths of Wa Tiba and Akbar in Indonesia, both of whom were swallowed whole by reticulated pythons that were over 20 feet long.

Hiral Naik from Save the Snakes comes on to tell us how she fell in love with snakes, how rare attacks are from pythons, and how she discusses snakes with people who have an aversion to them.

You can find Hiral on Twitter @Hir...

In August of 2005, Johan and Jenna Otter went to Glacier National Park to celebrate Jenna’s graduating highschool. Their first hike at Glacier on the Grinnell trail would change their lives forever when Jenna bumped into a mother grizzly. Hear the story of how these two survived, and how you can avoid grizzly attacks yourself.

You can read Johan’s book “A grizzly tale: a father and daughter survival story” for more information.

Foll...

No, we never thought we’d do an episode on beavers either. Join us this week as we discuss four beaver attack stories across the U.S. and in Belarus (a country that Ashley has never had to say out loud before, clearly). Did you know how important beavers were to the early European settlers? Or that we eat their butt goo? Really, you won’t wanna miss this week’s episode.

And as a reminder, we are doing bi-weekly episodes now so we ca...

Paul Templer was leading a kayak tour down the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, Africa, as he had done many times before. However, this day in 1996 was different; a large male hippo attacked their group, and dragged him to the bottom of the river in it's mouth. Tune in to find out how Paul survived, and listen in on our interview with Hippo Biologist, Camille Fritch, to hear how you can safely recreate in spaces where hippos are.

You ...

As a continuation (kind of) to last week's episode, this week Ashley and Nick tell the story of Ian O'Reilly, who spent 10 minutes strangling a coyote to death after it tried to attack his son. This launches us into a long conversation about rabies - how is rabies spread? What animals get rabies? How can we protect ourselves against it? We also give a tad more history on coyotes, including how mange was purposefully spread ...

Probably our most feisty episode yet - join us this week to hear about how Andrew Dickehage survived a gruesome attack from a pack of coyotes as he was walking to work at 2am.

In this episode we also discuss a lot of America's history with coyotes, which is not always a pleasant one - like we say in the episode, if you'd like to discuss coyotes with us further, contact us on our socials.  A majority of our source material f...

On October 1st, 2016, Montana native Todd Orr went out scouting for elk before hunting season. He was an avid outdoorsman and had lived in Montana his whole life and knew how to stay safe in the wilderness. What he never could have anticipated that day was to be mauled by a mother grizzly...twice. Tune in as Ashley and Nick talk about this crazy story, and how to avoid such encounters.

You can follow Todd on Instagram @todd_orr...

This week, Ashley and Nick are joined by their pal Nick to hear the heroic and tragic story of Cynthia (Cindy) Parolin.  We also chat with carnivore biologist, Petros Chrysafis, to hear how people can avoid negative encounters with mountain lions. Or cougars. Or pumas. Whatever you'd like to call them. This episode is not sponsored by Red Dead Redemption II.

The Cindy Parolin Safe Homes program was created to assist women and c...

Oliver Starr is on this week to tell us how he survived an attack from his captive wolf, Jake. He's a biologist, a strong advocate for wolves, and lives with his two wolves Aqutaq and Iqniq (and his Malamute, Bixby).  We also talk about misconceptions about wolves, including debunking the alpha theory.

You can follow Oliver's blog at: https://lifewithwolves.quora.com/?ch=99&share=396067ef&srid=hda

You ca...

Bears. Beets. ...Black bears sometimes eat people. Tune in this week to hear the stories of Carol Anne Pomranky and Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, both attacked by predatory black bears, but had very different outcomes.

Is a lot of this episode Ashley being angry about poor behavior around black bears? Yes. Will it happen in other episodes? Also yes.

The source material for these stories can be found in Bear Attacks: Their Causes And Avoidance...

In the early 1900s, the town of Champawat was terrorized by a tigress who specialized in killing and consuming humans. We recount her last kill, and her ultimate demise.

​We also talk to tiger biologist Sam Helle and get insight on how to avoid tiger conflicts in Nepal, and she gives an update on tiger conservation there.

The National Trust for Nature Conservation Nepal: Facebook, Twitter

Dr. Babu Ram Lamichhane Twitter: @1baburam

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