Talking Feral

Eric R. Eaton is a writer and is author of Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect (Princeton University Press, 2021), and the forthcoming Insectpedia (Princeton University Press, 2022). He is also lead author of the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007), and co-author of Insects Did It First (Xlibris, 2018) with Gregory S. Paulson.  He has contributed to several other b...

Dr. Bram Büscher is Professor and Chair of the Sociology of Development and Change group at Wageningen University and holds visiting positions at the University of Johannesburg and Stellenbosch University. His research looks at the political economy of environment and development, including in the politics of conservation, energy and extraction, ecotourism, new media, violence and social theory. He is the author of ‘The Truth About...

Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan and a researcher with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit. She is currently the chair of the Saskatoon Food Council, has a doctorate in nutrition and her research interests include community food security, food environments and food acces...

Chris Todd is a Professor and Head of the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan.  He is a plant molecular biologist with a research program focusing on molecular mechanisms driving plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.  Chris has been with the University of Saskatchewan since 2005 and is a winner of the College of Arts and Science Distinguished Teacher Award and the Pro...

Clara Superbie is a PhD student in the McLoughlin lab in Population Ecology (University of Saskatchewan) where she works on understanding how caribou respond to predation pressure and resource availability in an environment largely dominated by wildfires. Clara grew up in France where she completed an undergrad in Biology at the University Paris-Saclay, and a master's degree in behavioural ecology at the University of Burgundy...

Jessica Hogan is a PhD student at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Her research focuses primarily on energy justice and what is called distributional justice. She researches how costs and benefits are shared in new energy developments, and specifically aims to investigate how different community benefits may change the experience of the communities living with onshore wind energy. We chat about her PhD experience in the UK...

Michael Paul Nelson is an environmental scholar and professor of environmental ethics and philosophy at Oregon State University. His research and teaching focus is environmental ethics and philosophy including concepts of wilderness, the philosophy of ecology, hunting ethics and theories of environmental education. His work also spans topics in wildlife ecology and conservation biology addressing questions about science and advocac...

Dave Hansford is a freelance writer, blogger, editor and photographer from New Zealand. He appears regularly in New Zealand Geographic magazine, where he also pens a science column, Life, and blogs regularly at www.nzgeo.com and www.radionz.co.nz/news. We spoke about his 2016 book Protecting Paradise, which investigated the debate, science, and political controversy around the use of the mammalian poison 1080 in New Zealand. We als...

Dr. Charlotte Regan is an evolutionary ecologist currently researching great tits at the University of Oxford and recently studied life history and movement characteristics of the Sable Island feral horses. We spoke about the challenges of pursuing research positions around the planet and diversifying your training, about establishing research labs and trying to find fundable research niches, and about being productive and thoughtf...

Dr. Kerstin Johannesson is a Professor of Marine Ecology and the Director of the Tjärnö Marine Laboratory at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. We spoke about her work studying speciation and evolution in marine ecosystems, and how our view and understanding of these processes influences conservation, for better and for worse. We also spoke about her role as a scientific advisor for policy makers, and what it takes to be a be ...

Branden Neufeld is masters student studying woodland caribou and their interaction with predators and productivity in Saskatchewan. Branden originally trained in the arts with a BA in English, teaching for several years before deciding to head back to school to train as a biologist. We also talked about the challenges of raising two young daughters while in grad school, about hunting to feed your family and to try and eat more sust...

Dr. Julie Robillard is Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of British Columbia and Scientist in Patient Experience at BC Children's & Women's Hospitals. She leads the Neuroscience, Engagement and Smart Tech (NEST) lab and her research focuses on the development and evaluation of technologies to support brain health across the lifespan. We spoke about social media and its effects on our brain, how indust...

Jake Hennig is a PhD candidate at the University of Wyoming where he studies feral horse movements, habitat selection, and their interactions with co-occuring flora and fauna. We spoke about the history and complicated politics of feral horse management in the US, how the population continues to grow through a lack of legal management options, and the ethics of managing animals in this way. We also spoke about the internal conserva...

Dr. Ryan Brook is an associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the man on point for feral pig research in Canada, though studies a number of different species including elk, polar bears, caribou and wolves. We spoke about management and research of feral pigs in Canada, parallels and differences we see with feral horses, caribou and native species, and our role as sc...