The Wild with Chris Morgan - KUOW News and Information

A river runs through it ... once again (reprise) Nov 19, 2024

It started as a glacier. Then, about 13,000 years ago, it was a trickle, then a stream, and eventually a rushing river meandering through the Olympic Peninsula. For thousands of years, life thrived off the ecosystem served by the Elwha River that fed into to the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Then it stopped. A century ago, a dam was built to harness the power of the water and convert it into electricity. The salmon that the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe relied on were cut off from their spawning grounds.

Ten years ago, that dam was taken down. In this special reprise episode, we look at the impact of the dam removal and how life in and around the Elwha is fighting its way back.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leigh Ann Henion: Darkness, and the creatures of the night Nov 12, 2024

Nature writer Leigh Ann Henion has spent countless hours uncovering mysteries of the darkness that unfold while we’re asleep. She’s explored bats, moths, glow worms, spotted salamanders, and she’s written a new book about it called Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark.

Today, Chris talks with Leigh Ann Henion about what we can find in the darkness and how we can preserve it, even from our own back porch.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Fireflies in synchrony Nov 05, 2024

Once a year they come out, by the thousands. Fireflies. But these aren’t just any fireflies. These are Photinus Carolinas, also known as synchronous fireflies They blink on and off together. It’s an amazing site. On this episode, I head to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to experience the synchronous fireflies and learn how light from human development is threatening the future of these delicate, glowing insects and what the park is doing to try to protect them.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caroline Tracey: How this tiny bird could save salt lakes Oct 29, 2024

Four times in the past decade Lake Abert has completely dried up, a barren lakebed encrusted with salt. Salt lakes are among the world's most threatened ecosystems. Lack of water could lead to many of these lakes permanently drying up in the American West.

But there is one tiny bird that could change all that. The Wilson’s Phalarope depends on salt lakes on their 6500-mile migration between North and South America. There is a movement to get the phalarope listed as a threatened species by the federal government as a way to protect the habitat they need to survive.

Caroline Tracey is an environment reporter who grew up in the American West - a place that flows through so much of her work. She recently signed a book deal for a memoir about her love of salt lakes - these often-ignored ecosystems that are crucial to the world’s water cycle, migratory bird populations, and human health.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris remembers Bear 399 Oct 23, 2024

Chris remembers Bear 399, "The Queen" of Grand Teton National Park that was struck and killed by a vehicle near Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Tuesday, October 22.

You can see the trailer of the PBS Nature documentary on Bear 399 here.

Team 399 Facebook page

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everglades National Park: Invasion of the Burmese pythons (reprise) Oct 22, 2024

In the Florida Everglades, the Burmese python is an invasive species that's close to triggering an ecological collapse. We'll head out with python hunters who track down these massive snakes for a bounty. Then we wade through the waste deep murky waters of the Everglades to see what researchers are learning about Burmese pythons in their waning hopes to remove them from this fragile tropical wilderness.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: Toxic wasteland to ecological champion Oct 15, 2024

Cuyahoga Valley National Park is nestled between Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. It once was an industrial wasteland, filled with debris from the nearby auto factories. The Cuyahoga river was so polluted that it literally caught fire. That fire was a moment that sparked an environmental movement. But I'm headed upstream. I'm going to follow the river and its story from its grim past to becoming a national park.

We’ll look at how a toxic dump was transformed into a national park and a thriving ecosystem, teaming with life.

THE WILD would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewildnotes. Thank you!

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wild presents The Wide Open: Balancing the needs of endangered species and humans Oct 01, 2024

We’re on a short break as we finish working on our stories for our series about America’s National Parks. I can’t wait to share with you what we’ve learned. Amazing stuff. We’ll be back with new episodes on October 15.

But today, I’d like to play an episode of a podcast from our friends at Montana Public Radio and the Montana Media Lab. It’s called The Wide Open and tells stories about the places where people come together and fall apart. It’s a new podcast and this is their first episode. It’s about the Endangered Species Act, and what that 50-year-old legislation says about living with wildlife and living with each other.

You can learn more about The Wild Open and listen to more episodes here.

THE WILD would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewildnotes. Thank you!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wild presents Outside/In: Not everyone is wild about wild horses Sep 17, 2024

We’re taking a short break from releasing episodes so we can work on more new stories for our series on our National Parks. I hope you’re enjoying it!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a special episode of a show I think you’ll really enjoy: Outside/In from our friends at New Hampshire Public Radio. Each week, the show explores topics around science, wildlife, environmentalism, and more. It takes listeners on journeys across the natural world from wherever they are – and includes a healthy dose of goofing off.

In this episode, the host and award-winning reporter Nate Hegyi explores wild horses. For many, these creatures are a symbol of freedom and the American West but for others, they’re an ecological nuisance. Nate visits a rancher on the Blackfeet Reservation where free-ranging horses have become more plentiful than deer. They’re outcompeting cattle for forage and putting livelihoods at risk. Wild horses are a lot more controversial in the American West than most people realize.

You can learn more about Outside/In and listen to more episodes here.

THE WILD would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Goodbye chemical weapons, hello burrowing owls (reprise) Aug 27, 2024

A decommissioned military base in northeast Oregon provides sanctuary for a recovering burrowing owl population.

David Johnson is founder of the Global Owl Project to protect endangered owl species all over the world. And one lucky owl species that’s been David’s main focus for these past 12 years is the little burrowing owl. His rescue mission involves some chemical weapons, an old military base, and a very large plunger.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

These Italian bears survived gladiators and Mussolini (reprise) Aug 20, 2024

Just two hours from Rome is one of the richest ecosystems in Europe, a little island of mountains that to this day is home to wolves, wild boar and bears.

It's not just wild animals that call this place home: Farms are scattered across the area as part of this ancient mosaic of life here among the wild animals.

It's a place where the excesses of Italian culture mingle with the wonders of nature.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

True grit: the wild wolverine (reprise) Aug 13, 2024

For the first time in 100 years, wolverines are back in Mount Rainier National Park. How did they get there?

In the summer of 2020, there was some big news for wildlife in the pacific northwest. In the wild spaces of Mount Rainier National Park, a female wolverine was discovered along with two babies known as kits. It is believed that these tenacious predators haven't been in the park for over a century. The wolverines were back. This is the story of the return of the wolverines and the woman who searched for 15 years to find them.

Dr Jocelyn Atkins is a wolverine biologist and founder of the Cascade Carnivore Project.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eily Andruszkiewicz Allan: The magic of eDNA Aug 06, 2024

Top secret military dolphins, exploding whales, and invasive green crabs. These are all things Dr. Eily Andruszkiewicz Allan is interested in learning more about. And she is doing it all with the help of a simple cup of water. It's a revolutionary bit of technology called eDNA and it is changing the way biologists are doing field work. eDNA could hold the mysteries of a new frontier in our understanding of the natural world.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Death Valley National Park: Diving for fish in the hottest place on Earth Jul 30, 2024

Chris joins a team of scuba divers...in the desert!

Death Valley National Park is the hottest place on Earth and the driest place in North America. The heat that builds beneath Death Valley’s cloudless skies radiates off barren rocks and sinks into the valley bottoms, where it warms, baking everything it touches and evaporates any water foolish enough to linger at the surface.

But beneath miles of dry desert land - in the largest national park in the lower 48 - is something you can't see from the crusty surface. A secret watery world, hidden underground. And a cave system that is home to the world’s rarest fish. The Devil’s Hole pupfish is less than an inch long, but has caused quite a stir.

In this episode of THE WILD, Chris travels to Death Valley National Park to learn about how this tiny fish has made history and has changed our understanding of desert water in some remarkable ways.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek, written by Christopher Preston and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital Dr. Dolittle: decoding animal conversations with artificial intelligence (reprise) Jul 23, 2024

Artificial Intelligence is making the stuff of science fiction a science reality, changing how humans interact with the world. It could also change the way we interact with wildlife, giving us the ability to talk to animals...but are we ready? On this episode Chris talks to Aza Raskin, co-founder of Earth Species Project and Karen Bakker, a professor at the University of British Columbia, about animal communication and the pros and cons of the latest AI technology.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. It is produced by Lucy Soucek and Matt Martin, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan Blumstein: Fear and listening to your inner marmot Jul 16, 2024

Here’s an episode for movie buffs, music nuts, animal lovers, and anyone dealing with anxiety. Yes, that's quite the range in a 40-minute chat, but Dr Dan Blumstein delivers them all in a fascinating conversation with Chris about FEAR. Dan is a professor of conservation biology at UCLA and author of the book The Nature of Fear: Survival Lessons from the Wild. He spent his career trying to better understand the emotion by looking at marmots. He says that animals can help us better understand ourselves. And we will explore what makes a scream a scream, and how to embrace our fears.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

North Cascades National Park: The wolf comes home Jul 09, 2024

One day, Chris was on the search for a very rare animal: a single wolf that had made it to the western side of the North Cascade mountains. That day, to his amazement, he found a set of fresh tracks on a sandy riverbed. Wolves had been extinct here in Washington state for nearly a hundred years, so the find was incredible.

These mythical creatures are very slowly returning to the North Cascades. It’s a sign of hope for both Jason Ransom, a biologist at the National Park, and Scott Schuyler from the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. But it’s taken a lot to get to this point, and there’s still a long way to go before this place is truly healed.

On his journey searching for this lone wolf, Chris asks the question: will the wildlife and human ecosystem make space for them as they trickle back?

The image pictured is the first wolf track Chris found on the west side of the North Cascades that triggered the story told in this episode.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The wildlife super dog (reprise) Jul 02, 2024

Karelian Bear Dogs were bred in Finland hundreds of years ago for hunting. From bears to moose, these fearless dogs were on the frontline. Now, ironically, they are being used to save bears and other species. In some remote parts of the country grizzly bears have been known to wander into town, presenting a danger of encounters with humans. Now these Karelian Bear Dogs are being used to scare bears away and prevent future returns. We'll head to Montana to talk to the woman whose brainchild it was to bring this breed to North America to help with wildlife research, search and rescue, reducing conflict between humans and big wild animals, and ultimately becoming a furry ambassador for bears, cougars, wolves, and more. Fun fact: she is also the person who invented bear spray.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stories from THE WILD Jun 25, 2024

On this episode we team up with Story Collider to hear real life tales of adventure and exhilarating encounters with wildlife. From a temporary life-ending jolt from the sky to a 2,650-mile hike in search of healing and solace after a personal tragedy. We'll also hear about a very close encounter with a grizzly from our WILD story telling event at McCaw Hall in Seattle.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Jason Burrows and Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Biscayne National Park: Raising baby corals in America's barrier reef Jun 18, 2024

How scientists are training corals to be ready for a warmer future.

Biscayne National Park is unlike any other national park…it’s 95% underwater. It’s home to part of the third largest coral reef in the world and the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States.

But this past summer, the corals in and around this park on Florida’s coral reef experienced the worst coral bleaching event ever recorded. Water temperatures broke records, rising to over 100 degrees for two days in a row. Hot tub water.

So what can be done? In this episode, Chris takes a boat out to Biscayne National Park to find out. Here, just a few miles offshore from the metropolis of Miami, researchers are on a mission to save these corals for a warmer future - by growing the hardiest of them in captivity, and planting them back in the sea.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a cougar in my backyard (reprise) Jun 11, 2024

A cougar biologist with Washington state once received a complaint. An old lady called him up and said, “There’s a cougar in my backyard.” And the biologist responded, “Well, that’s funny because I got a call this morning from a cougar. He told me there’s an old lady in his front yard!”

Our backyards are getting bigger. And the cougar’s front yard is getting smaller. This episode, we search out some of these big cats to understand the impact cougars and humans have on each other.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

As always, there are some great photographs and clips from our journey on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben Goldfarb: How America’s roads alter our ecology Jun 04, 2024

It is safe to say that Americans love their cars. The mythology of the open road speaks to us all, calling us for adventure. But American wildlife might have something else to say about that. One million animals are killed on roads every day but the problem with our transportation system goes beyond roadkill.

Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb says practically everything in the natural world is influenced by all these miles of gravel and tarmac. His latest book is “Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet.”

Enjoy this fascinating conversation with an author who traveled the world for answers about roads. Those roads take us to stories about cougars, butterflies, deer, and of course bears.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Redwood National Park: Saving the tallest trees on Earth May 28, 2024

Discover why scientists are chopping down redwood trees… to save them.

Redwood National and State Parks are home to some of the tallest trees on Earth, coast redwoods. These ancient California forests support hundreds of different species, and store more carbon than any other forest on the planet. But in the last century, 95% of them were cut down by loggers.

Now, scientists are trying to find ways to bring old growth redwoods back and they've discovered a surprising strategy... cutting them down actually helps them grow.

Chris heads to Redwood National and State Parks to learn about this new restoration effort and why saving the coast redwood trees will help countless other species in and around this national park. Plus Chris gets to climb a redwood, and learns about the relationship the Yurok have with this towering species.

This season of THE WILD is about the incredible biodiversity in our national parks: from the tallest trees on the planet to the driest deserts and everything in between. And it’s about the people working in and around our national parks to protect the natural world, while we still can.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

As always, there are some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to THE WILD for Season 6 May 14, 2024

This season's going to be a little different...we're headed to our national parks.

We've got eight special episodes recorded on location in America’s national parks: stories about their biodiversity, their complex histories, and how they are protecting nature. We'll explore all sorts of different ecosystems, from the tallest trees on the planet to the hottest place on earth.

Plus we've got more surprises for you including fun conversations where I try to keep up with the sharpest minds in wildlife conservation, and fresh releases of some of your favorite WILD episodes from our archives.

New episodes of THE WILD come out starting on May 28th.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram (@thewildpod) and (@chrismorganwildlife) for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grizzlies coming back to the North Cascades Apr 26, 2024

If you’ve been a longtime listener of THE WILD then you know that I’ve been a champion of bringing back grizzly bears to the North Cascades of Washington here in the mountains near where I live. On April 25, 2024 that dream has taken a massive step towards becoming reality. The National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have announced that they will be restoring the grizzly population that called this place home for thousands of years. They were a key part of this ecosystem before they were basically eliminated by humans, so this is their chance to roam these mountains again. The plan is to bring 3-7 grizzly bears in per year for a few years to reach an initial population of twenty-five bears. It’s a big milestone.

How we got here is a long and fascinating story. Which is why I wanted to share an episode that we did for THE WILD back in 2019. The 'Ghost Bears' of Washington. I hope it’ll give you a little more understanding about grizzlies, the rollercoaster ride it’s been here in the North Cascades, and what it will mean to have them back. Hope you enjoy!

And if you want to learn more about grizzlies here are links to two short films on the topic that we made a few years ago that have been really popular. Including one about an incredible translocated grizzly bear named Irene!

WANTED: Grizzly Bears?

TIME FOR THE GRIZZLY?

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram (@thewildpod) for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broadcast: In search of silence Nov 07, 2023

On this special one hour of THE WILD with Chris Morgan, I'll explore natural silence, and how being quiet out in the natural world and having places to do that can be pretty transformative. I'll also spend time in the trees with a forest therapist and talk to author Florence Williams about the healing powers of nature and I’ll go searching for the one of the quietest places in the world in Olympic National Park.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Lucy Soucek and Matt Martin, and edited by Jim Gates. This special episode was produced by Brandi Fullwood. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram (@thewildpod) for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broadcast: Leave it to beavers Oct 31, 2023

On this one-hour special of THE WILD with Chris Morgan, Chris explores the mighty beaver and its role in reshaping our landscapes and entire ecosystems. Then we plunge into the waters along the pacific coast to follow a sea lion’s journey from California all the way up the Columbia River in search of salmon, in what has become a controversial story of survival between two protected species.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Lucy Soucek and Matt Martin, and edited by Jim Gates. This special episode was produced by Brandi Fullwood. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram (@thewildpod) for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broadcast: How to stay safe in the wild Oct 24, 2023

On this one-hour special of THE WILD with Chris Morgan, Chris shares tips on how to stay safe in the wild and explores the psychology of animals with author Richard Louv.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Lucy Soucek and Matt Martin, and edited by Jim Gates. This special episode was produced by Brandi Fullwood. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram (@thewildpod) for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broadcast: How to catch a grizzly Oct 17, 2023

This is a special one-hour special of THE WILD with Chris Morgan featuring favorite episodes like the first time Chris caught a grizzly bear.

In Part One of this episode Chris recounts catching a grizzly bear while conducting research in the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. In the second part of the show, Chris shares the history of grizzlies in the North Cascades and how they became known as ghost bears.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Lucy Soucek and Matt Martin, and edited by Jim Gates. This special episode was produced by Brandi Fullwood. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram (@thewildpod) for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The polar bears of Hudson Bay: cubs, climate, and calories, part 2 Jun 20, 2023

We learn about calorie counting for polar bears and what the future could look like for the Hudson Bay polar bear population.

We’re back in the helicopter with polar bear researchers Dr. Nick Lunn and Dave McGeachy, searching for mother bears with cubs.

This is springtime over the huge, frigid landscape. Mother bears are waking up after eight months of fasting and heading out to the sea ice of Hudson Bay.

Looking across this hostile environment - nothing but ice and biting cold wind - really makes you think about what it takes for these bears to survive. And how they’ve evolved for these conditions.

And now, during the springtime, the name of the game is seals. Eat as much as you can before the ice goes away. Especially if you’re a mother with new cubs. They each dug a maternal den in the fall, gave birth in December, nursed their cubs, and are now coming out very hungry.

In this last episode of Season 5, we’ll look at the challenges that polar bears mothers and cubs face in the spring. There is a whole list of dangers before we even get to climate change and loss of sea ice. And we’ll explore how the ever growing season of summer is a threat to the survival of this population around western Hudson Bay in the Canadian north.

Check out part 2 of the behind the scenes footage of our Churchill journey.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The polar bears of Hudson Bay: cubs, climate, and calories, part 1 Jun 06, 2023

How the changing seasons of our planet are shifting the traditions of the place, the polar bears, and the people of the north.

This sea ice of Hudson Bay is what makes life possible for polar bears. It’s as important to them as the air they breathe.

Every year, hundreds of bears move through this area and they’re forced to come ashore in the summer when the ice melts — a grueling annual migration that pushes the bears from ice to land and back to ice again.

But there’s one group of bears that’s not out on the ice: mother polar bears. Right now, they are still on the land, cozy in their dens, nursing their new tiny cubs. Those families are about to start an epic springtime journey from the land to the sea ice, emerging from their snow-covered birth dens into a bewildering new world to join the other bears out on the frozen bay.

The life of any polar bear is astonishingly brutal, but the life of a new mother is an extraordinary tale of determination and grit against the forces of weather and time.

Here, it’s possible to watch how the changing seasons of our planet are shifting the traditions of the place, the polar bears, and the people of the north. These bears are the litmus test for all of it.

Check out the behind the scenes footage of our Churchill journey.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Urban Coyote May 23, 2023

How these canids survive among city skyscrapers and sidewalks. And what that can teach us about saving the planet.

In April of 2007, a coyote walked into a Quiznos in downtown Chicago. It walked inside the front door, right into a fast food restaurant full of people. And then, it sat in a soda cooler for an hour. It was an event so rare, it made the evening news.

Why did the coyote walk into the Quiznos? How was it so tolerant of people? It's not normal for a wild animal to be less than six feet away from a human without a care.

Sometimes you start to think about a story that you want to tell, but the story itself takes you to unexpected places … in this case to some of the biggest questions of our time about urban ecology, race, and our future relationship with nature. This is one of those stories.

Today, we’ll look at how a coyote in a refrigerator can teach us to rethink our entire relationship with nature: from deep in the wilderness, to deep downtown in our cities.

Clarification, 2:30 p.m., 6/6/2023: Sam Kreling is a PhD student working with Laura Prugh, Associate Professor of Quantitative Wildlife Sciences at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. Professor Prugh is the principal investigator of the Seattle Coyote Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Invasion of the Burmese pythons, part 2 May 09, 2023

Who let the 200-pound python out?

Today, the origin of the Burmese python problem in the Everglades. And how science is being used to try to solve what seems like a losing battle.

I'm back in South Florida, in the Everglades, on the side of a dirt road next to a canal. It looks pretty similar to where I met Anthony Flanagan and Kevin Pavlidis - the two python bounty hunters from the last episode.

Out in front of me are miles and miles of marshland. Today, we're diving back into the Burmese python problem. But this time...we're doing something a little different. We're letting the pythons go.

With the focus being the urgent removal of Burmese pythons from the Everglades, it might seem counterintuitive that we are now releasing one back into the ecosystem that it's destroying. But there's a good reason why.

This snake will lead researchers towards all sorts of important information that might just save this ecosystem from an impending ecological collapse.

Behind the scenes footage of releasing the 16-foot python and our run-in with the alligator.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Invasion of the Burmese pythons, part 1 Apr 25, 2023

In the Florida Everglades, the Burmese python is an invasive species that's close to triggering an ecological collapse. But not if these python hunters have anything to do with it.

Burmese pythons are huge compared to the native snakes in Florida. They can measure up to 20 feet and weigh 200 pounds. The females lay up to 100 eggs. And they eat just about everything, from animals as small as a mouse to as big as a bobcat or an alligator.

And they’re causing immense destruction throughout the Everglades ecosystem. So much so, that there is a team of bounty hunters out to catch and kill as many as they can. So I’ve traveled to South Florida to meet two of the best.

Check out at my YouTube channel @ChrisMorganWildlife the behind the scenes footage of the 10-foot Burmese python capture.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The worst wedding gift in history: an Irish tale of predator helps prey Apr 11, 2023

On this episode, join me in Ireland for a very Irish tale!

If you’re from where I live in the Pacific Northwest, squirrels might not seem very special. It seems like all I have to do is look out my window and I’ll see one, bounding across the grass. But in the British Isles, the red squirrel is a bit of a “British darling.” They’re a species on the brink of extinction. It seems like everyone wants to see this fluffy-eared, threatened species bounce back. (including me … I did my master's degree on them after all in the 90s).

And the tale of this creature has become very curious here in Ireland.

The red squirrel population is mysteriously recovering, thanks to another furry creature … who happens to be their own predator.

The pine marten. Even though this player is a predator that eats squirrels, it’s turning things around for the resident reds. I’ve traveled to Ireland to unravel this riddle, and to tell a tale of one squirrel against another. How a wily carnivore called the pine marten is coming back, restoring balance and actually helping its prey return to the Emerald Isle.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital Dr. Dolittle: decoding animal conversations with artificial intelligence Mar 28, 2023

Whenever I'm out doing field work or on a hike, I’ve not only got my eyes wide open, but my ears too. There’s a lot going on in a forest or under the sea - the sounds of nature. So many of those sounds in nature are about communication.

Personally, I love to chat with ravens. I like to think that we have lovely conversations. I know I’m fooling myself... but there’s something happening that might change that.

There’s a tech company out of Silicon Valley that is hoping to make that dream of communicating with animals a reality. Earth Species Project is a non-profit working to develop machine learning that can decode animal language. Basically, artificial intelligence that can speak whale or monkey...or perhaps even raven?

So we are doing something a bit different on The Wild today - fun to mix things up now and then. For this episode I’m not outdoors among the wild creatures, but in my home studio, talking with two fascinating people about the latest developments in technology that are being created to talk to wild animals. We’ll also explore the ethics of this technology. What are the downsides to playing the role of Digital Dr. Dolittle?

Guests:

Aza Raskin, co-founder of Earth Species Project and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology.

Karen Bakker, professor at the University of British Columbia where she researches digital innovation and environmental governance. She also leads the Smart Earth Project.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eavesdropping on orcas: love, grief, and family Mar 14, 2023

This past summer, I was in Alaska in a little coastal town called Seward - a gorgeous spot on the Kenai Peninsula tucked between the ocean and some giant glacier-covered mountains. I met a guy named Dan Olsen, who records killer whale calls using an underwater hydrophone.

Olsen gets all kinds of information from his recordings. The calls bring the underwater world of orcas alive. But there's a lot more going on in these clicks and whistles than you might think. Like, how their dialects, their languages, evolve, and even become part of orca family "culture.”

Jay Julius, a member of the Lummi Nation, says there's something deeper going on in the conversations among orca pods in the Pacific Northwest.

The orca story is one of human misunderstanding and generational trauma. But it's also a story of celebration, family, and a sense of place. Exploring their chatty underwater world might just help us understand how they are communicating… and what they are trying to say.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 5 Trailer Feb 24, 2023

Welcome (back) to The Wild. New episodes start on March 14!

Host Chris Morgan is back with another season of The Wild. Join him on new adventures from around the Pacific Northwest and the world. He’ll take you through the Irish countryside to learn how one endangered species is helping another endangered species to thrive.

We will follow the journey of two young bear cubs as they gain strength at a wildlife rehabilitation center after the tragic death of their mother. And we will learn about the healing powers of nature as we talk to one man who is using bees to recover from the loss of his brother.

Season 5 of The Wild will be full of the great storytelling you’ve come to love, from the songs of Orcas, snake hunting in Florida, and how the coyote conquered North America.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A short check-in from Chris Dec 07, 2022

Hi all - Chris here - I’ve missed you! I hope you’re doing well and finding a way to get out and enjoy a bit of nature….maybe a hike in the mountains, or a walk around your city park? There really is wildlife all around us, no matter where you are. We're busy working on Season 5 (! wow can’t believe that!)....and we’ve got some enticing episodes shaping up from the PNW, Ireland, England, the Arctic, and the Everglades! All places we're traveling to to uncover some really fascinating people and species. Season 5 will launch in March, so hang tight.

And it’s a really important time right now for the species we share this planet with. Because this week, world leaders are gathering at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal. You can learn more about the conference by following this link. Also, a great video link just out from the Guardian that is about everything I talk about and COP!

Nature sounds in this episode provided by Gordon Hempton, the Sound Tracker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fiery spell of Desolation Jul 01, 2022

One recent September I stopped at the side of highway 20 that crosses Washington state’s North Cascade Mountains. At the side of the road was a sign that grabbed my attention. About a storied fire lookout cabin on top of Desolation Peak in the distance, where author Jack Kerouac spent some time in the 50s. The irony was that I couldn’t see the peak because of the forest fire smoke in the air that day. But it fired my imagination….the mountain was calling me. This episode of THE WILD is the result.

The American west is a fire landscape. Since 1983, there’s been an average of 70,000 wildfires every year in the United States. And the wildfire season is getting longer. Warmer springs and long dry summers are the cause.

Things are changing fast in this ancient landscape…So how have wildfires and our philosophy of fighting them changed over the decades?

To answer that, I’ve climbed to the top of this mountain, to the famed fire lookout at Desolation Peak, to speak to Jim Henterly. He is the fire watchman who’s stationed at the lookout. Desolation Peak has long been a place to look for answers. I’m hoping to find a new perspective through him.

The job of a fire lookout is to be a step ahead, ever watchful - observe all around you - and warn of danger. But maybe also to remind us of our role in the ever evolving ecology of fire.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Make it like it was: Clean, cold and flowing Gold Creek of Snoqualmie Pass Jun 21, 2022

Join me as I squeeze on a dry suit, don a snorkel, and jump into an icy mountain river.

“That's what I'm amazed by, that a little tiny stream, not even knee deep, is a whole world if you get under there with it.,” that’s what CWU professor Paul James told me as we snorkeled our way through the fast moving current.

Dr. James is surveying the number of fish in the river after a recent restoration project. Gold Creek is an important tributary to the Yakima River and serves as a breeding ground for many fish that are important to the Yakama Nation.

Joe Blodgett learned how to fish from his father. He mastered the technique of dipnetting a fish out of the Yakima River, the traditional kind of fishing for the Yakama Nation.

“We were directed by our leadership to make it like it was before we started destroying their habitat and before we started destroying the flows,” Joe told me. “Make it like it was as a directive from our tribal council years ago.”

Easier said than done when you are facing a generation of infrastructure changes to the landscape and waterways. But this story is about just that, the mission to restore a watershed - starting with a single river - to truly ‘make it like it was.’

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Etuaptmumk: Two Eyed Seeing Jun 07, 2022

I was trained as a traditional scientist, to look at the world through that perspective. Analytical, and clinical. In this “western science” you have to toe the line and keep personal experience and emotions out of it. Science is run as a pretty tight ship. There's a good reason for that, of course.

But for indigenous people, there’s something that comes with spending time in nature that helps to understand it in a different way. Often it’s knowledge from generation after generation of experience. Knowledge of creatures and habitats.

There’s a way to understand nature through both these perspectives alongside each other….indigenous knowledge, and western science. It’s a concept known as two eyed seeing.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coral reefs: a biological symphony being silenced May 23, 2022

To most of us, coral reefs conjure up magical places full of colorful species and life. They are unknown and otherworldly. Their beauty is perhaps a reason why coral reefs have become one of the more famous victims of climate change, warming oceans. Most people have heard that the future for coral reefs is in total jeopardy.

And this is a problem, because about 25% of the ocean’s fish depend on healthy coral reefs. Scientists are now warning that the Great Barrier Reef could be gone by the year 2050 if nothing is done to help it.

And it turns out….. Reefs are noisy places. Fish, shrimp, all the little creatures that call a reef home add to the sonic palette of the place.

But as reefs become more unhealthy…life on them is becoming harder for Tim to hear.

The sounds of these watery ecosystems are becoming a very important tool for researchers like Tim. And he has an idea that might be key to helping these struggling coral reef ecosystems rebound. Armed with a microphone and an underwater speaker….can the power of audio help save coral reefs?

Hiro’a is part of a multimedia art project called Small Island Big Song. It is a grassroots musical movement from 16 island nations across the Pacific and Indian Oceans focusing on environmental and climate awareness and cultural preservation.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hard Knocks: Lessons from the woodpecker May 10, 2022

I’ve thought about this stuff a lot as I listen to the northern flicker woodpecker tapping noisily away on the rain gutter outside my bedroom window. And not just rain gutters of course.

Woodpeckers will peck at a tree up to 12,000 times a day and just one woodpecker peck produces about 15 times the force needed to give a human a concussion. So, how do woodpeckers bang their heads so much, and so hard and not come away with brain damage?

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nuclear sea otters: A wildlife refugee story Apr 26, 2022

Join me among the crashing waves of the Pacific Northwest coast in Washington State.

This unique wildlife story starts, not there, but with a nuclear explosion, literally. During the late 60s and early 70s, three atomic weapons were tested on Amchitka Island in a remote part of Alaska. The blast registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. over 10,000 fish were killed in the island’s lakes, streams and ponds.

But thanks to a little imagination, right before the nuclear test, a last minute program was deployed to capture and save some of the sea otters.Several hundred of the sea otters were quickly relocated out of harm’s way to the north pacific coast of Washington State and Oregon.

Now, over 50 years later, biologists are trying to figure out what is the fallout from this storied otter translocation . Has the nuclear otter evacuation from 50 years ago been a success? And what are the ecological ripple effects?

This is a story of second chances for an impossibly adorable sea creature, and how their mere presence can support countless other species, and even help save us from climate change.

Links to films I’ve hosted if you’d like to learn more:

The Kelp Highway

The Blue Forest

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy 46th Birthday! An Earth Day message from Chris Apr 22, 2022

Happy Earth Day to you all. For a while now I've wanted to share a short piece like this, and Earth Day seems like the right time! I hope you can kick back and listen to a relaxing 10 minute journey all about our precious home. If you enjoy it, please share it with others. After all, we're all in this together.

Thank you for the inspiration to:

Conservationists everywhere.

Everyone working on ‘30x30’ - protecting 30% of the planet by the year 2030.

The team at ‘Earth Emergency’ - check out their fascinating documentary.

Greenpeace, for the poster I saw all those years ago.

Thanks to the wild team Tatiana Latreille, Matt Martin, Jim gates, and Brendan Sweeney. And thank you Gordon Hempton and Quiet Parks International for the beautiful audio

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Cougar Conundrum Apr 12, 2022

One thing that I love about my work is that I get the opportunity to talk to so many interesting people working with wildlife around the world. For today’s episode I wanted to share with you one of those conversations.

Some of you might remember our episodes on “how to catch a cougar” back in season 2. If you do, the name Dr. Mark Elbroch will probably sound familiar.

Mark is a good friend of mine and a cougar biologist with Panthera - he took us out into the forests of WA State to radio collar and track a cougar for those episodes. It was an incredible experience.

Well, I also had the honor of interviewing him on stage at Town Hall in Seattle recently - about the fascinating lives of cougars - mountain lions - he’s on the cutting edge of some leading research about their behavior, their ecology, and how we can protect and appreciate these beautiful big cats. Mark’s just written a book called The Cougar Conundrum: Sharing the World with a Successful Predator and we’ll talk about that too.

I hope you enjoy our conversation

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

True grit: the wild wolverine Mar 29, 2022

In this episode you may notice a lot of heavy breathing - because I’m on the trail of a wolverine high up in the mountains. Here’s the story….

In the summer of 2020, there was some big news for wildlife in the pacific northwest. In the wild spaces of Mount Rainier National Park, a female wolverine was discovered along with two babies. The wolverines were back. It is believed that these tenacious predators haven't been in the park for over a century.

Dr. Jocelyn Akins is a wolverine biologist and founder of the Cascade Carnivore Project. She has slogged and toiled through some of the most rugged terrain on earth, setting up wildlife cameras all over the high country in the hopes of proving that wolverines had returned. Eventually, after years of searching, Jocelyn was rewarded with the first images of a mother and her young inside the park.

For 15 years now, Jocelyn has been on a quest to witness and document the return of wolverines to the mountains of the south cascades after a long absence. But the fact a female with youngsters is expanding into new territory could be a sign that the population is making a comeback. And it seems like there’s no creature more determined.

This is a story about toughness, tenacity, and resilience, not just of the wolverines, but of the woman determined to study them.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

Correction, 9:36 a.m., 3/31/2022: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of Dr. Jocelyn Akins.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Comeback Cat: Spain’s Iberian lynx Mar 15, 2022

Like so many carnivores around the world, through history the Iberian lynx was persecuted as a menace or a threat to livestock and lifestyle: they were shot, poisoned, trapped, hunted. And misunderstood.

The cats have those really characteristic long tufted ears, black spots dappled across their tawny coat and an old fashioned beard that can stretch down in two long triangles each side of their chin.

But despite it’s regal flare, it’s still endangered, and a real focus of attention. But things are turning around, there used to be only around 100 lynx in Spain but now there are nearly 1000.

That’s why I’ve come to Spain - to figure out what is behind that success story - just how did what used to be the rarest cat on earth leap a staggering 1000% in number in just 20 years?

Learn more about efforts to save the Iberian Lynx with CBD Habitat.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How to love a shark Mar 01, 2022

Shark reputations have never quite been the same since the movie Jaws came out nearly 50 years ago.

Sharks face some very direct threats. They are killed for their prized fins and caught in fishing nets all over the world. 99% of some populations have already been wiped out.

So how do you change hearts and minds about these feared but endangered creatures nearly half a century after the movie Jaws that got us all riled up? The answer seems to be one shark, and one person at a time.

Rachel Graham, Founder and Executive Director of MarAlliance, works to help others understand sharks, engage local fishing communities in central America, and even instill empathy for them. She hopes this will have us all think about sharks in a whole new way.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The secret lives of giraffes and the woman who studied them Feb 15, 2022

Anne Innis Dagg is a tough, straight-talking, trailblazing woman, dedicated to science and social justice. In 1956, she went to South Africa to study giraffes. She wrote a book after her time in Africa that is still considered to be the giraffe bible by many in the field.

But there’s a good chance you don’t know her. She was actually in Africa observing wildlife before Jane Goodall. So why has she been forgotten? What is the story of Anne Innis Dagg?

She is the revolutionary biologist and women's rights advocate you’ve most likely never heard of.

You can learn even more about her story by watching this documentary film.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Goodbye chemical weapons, hello burrowing owls Feb 01, 2022

“So there are two important days in your life, the day that you're born, and the day you find out why. I know why I was born, for the owls. So I'm going to work with owls until my very last breath.” - David Johnson

David is founder of the Global Owl Project to protect endangered owl species all over the world. And one lucky owl species that’s been David’s main focus for these past 12 years is the little burrowing owl.

A burrowing owl reaches only six inches in height and weighs less than half a pound. And as you might guess, these tiny owls live underground. But a curious domino effect has caused a worrying and widespread loss of their subterranean homes. So David is on a rescue mission to save the burrowing owl.

This rescue mission involves some chemical weapons, an old military base, and a very large plunger.

It’s a story about one man’s love affair with a mysterious little creature, and the things they’ve taught him about what they need to survive.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Portugal’s ecological utopia Jan 18, 2022

I do love a good border crossing, so join me as I travel to Northeast Portugal, into the Coa River Valley, to witness a really interesting story that is unfolding there.

The dense old forests that were there are now mostly gone. Cut down and replaced with pastures for sheep and olive groves generations ago. And now the shepherds and other farmers are abandoning this region in droves. This checkered history has led to a poor economy, brush instead of trees and an explosion of wildfires.

Join me as I meet passionate, young biologists who are bringing back the forest, ecosystems and wild animals, and creating a new, healthy space for all. To create an ecological utopia in the Coa Valley of Portugal.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon . Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE WILD: Season 4 Trailer Jan 04, 2022

We’re back! I am so excited to share our new season with all of you.

New episodes of THE WILD begin on Tuesday, January 18th.

My team and I have been hard at work finding stories and interviewing passionate people who are making a difference for nature….and our planet.

We’ve traveled the world this season to bring you stories about lynx in Spain, Caribbean sharks, owls that live underground and even how a nuclear explosion in Alaska led to sea otters returning to the west coast of America.

Get your headphones ready and come along on an adventure with me into the wild spaces that inspire us all.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Living Planet (special episode) Aug 17, 2021

I hope you are having a lovely summer so far. Or winter if you’re south of the equator. THE WILD team is busy working on episodes for the next season. But I wanted to share something special with you that I think you’ll like. This is an episode from the podcast Living Planet from Deutsche Welle. They tell environment stories from around the world. In this episode they explore efforts to bring life back to seabeds off the coast of Scotland. They also look at an app that can tell what species a frog is by its song. A sort of Shazam for amphibians.

You can learn more about the Living Planet podcast here.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow THE WILD with Chris Morgan on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Message from Chris: Season 4 Jul 20, 2021

Hey everybody….. I just wanted to say thanks for tuning into our third season of THE WILD. It’s been such a pleasure to share these stories and hear your reactions.

We’ve already started working on season 4. I am really excited to bring you even more wonder from the natural world. It’s very rewarding tracking down interesting species, human characters and amazing places and turning them into stories for you. This planet we live on seems to have a limitless pool of them.

But now is your chance to let us know what you want to hear. We are doing a season 3 survey. Let us know what you liked, didn’t like, and help shape season 4.

You can take our survey here. If you take the survey, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a prize from the show. We can't wait to hear from you.

We’ll be back with new episodes in the fall. Until then, I really hope you are able to get out and enjoy the rest of the summer if you’re here in the pacific NW, or whichever season you might be in wherever you are in the world.

Take care.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sitting on a den of rattlesnakes Jul 13, 2021

Rattlesnakes have long been persecuted, even killed for sport or having their entire dens burned. I head out with two wildlife biologists to look for rattlesnakes as they emerge from hibernation and learn about the important role these snakes play in our ecosystem.

Take our listener survey by clicking the link here. You could be selected to get a WILD sticker.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The rise and fall…and rise...of the island fox Jul 06, 2021

For an ecologist like me, Santa Cruz island is a bit of a dream. It is home to a quite famous fox. It is like no “apex predator” I’ve ever seen before. These aren’t the type of foxes you might see on the mainland. These island foxes are small, very small.

These foxes are endemic to the Channel Islands, meaning they are found here and nowhere else in the world. But about 20 years ago, people on these islands started noticing fewer and fewer foxes on the landscape. Their numbers were crashing dramatically….on Santa Cruz island they dropped to around one hundred animals. But nobody was sure why.

It was an ecological whodunnit that needed to be solved before the foxes disappeared forever. The clock was ticking. What scientists discovered was a cascade of curiously connected events involving toxic waste, feral pigs, and a couple of New Zealanders jumping out of a helicopter.

Take our listener survey by clicking the link here. You could be selected to get a WILD sticker.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California’s condor: the dinosaur bird Jun 29, 2021

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people have been involved in saving the California condor. We meet some of them in this episode, including a former gang member who has made it his life’s mission to help the birds he loves.

California condors are so iconic that when I finally saw one in person, it felt a bit like meeting a movie star. Condors were one of 78 species listed on the original endangered species list in 1967. And they are still on it. That's 54 years of living on the edge.

Condors are huge. They have a 9 foot wingspan and a bald, orange pumpkin like head. They are North America's biggest bird.

But today, they face a hidden threat….lead. And it is poisoning them. But these birds have brought together a curious team of people who love them, and are doing everything they can to make sure they are around for not just another 54 years, but well beyond all of us.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bears and diversity: a conversation with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant Jun 22, 2021

Today, I’m talking with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. Rae is a large carnivore ecologist and a fellow with the National Geographic Society. She is also a Research Faculty member at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the blend of her work is really fascinating. For 15 years she’s studied the behavior and ecology of black bears and african lions and she does it on a backdrop of social justice as an advocate for women and people of color in the sciences. She’s one of the most effective science communicators I’ve seen. And Dr Wynn-Grant has degrees from Columbia, Yale, and Emory! That’s all!

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Orangutans: people of the forest Jun 15, 2021

Northern Sumatra is a magical tropical home to the endangered orangutan. But their rainforest home is being cut down, and many are orphaned as their habitat is lost. Researchers are working hard to understand how orangutans process and learn, while others rehabilitate young individuals for a life back in the wild.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Billions of bugs: life of a cicada underground Jun 01, 2021

The shrill calls of billions of Brood X cicadas emerging from the earth have captured the nation’s ears and attention this spring. But what do these noisy insects DO for the 17 years they live underground? In this episode we dig deep into that question.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A message from Chris May 18, 2021

I hope you're enjoying spring wherever you are. I just wanted to let you know that we're taking a short break to work on some new episodes. We just got back from an incredible trip in California for two stories. One is about California condors, North America's biggest bird that almost became extinct and island foxes on the Channel Islands. We'll be back in June, which means that now is the perfect time to listen to past episodes if you missed them. Keep well everybody and stay in touch.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Salmon and the city May 11, 2021

Something a little different this week everyone - WILD producer Matt Martin found a surprising story about an opportunity to do something good for one of the pacific northwest’s most important creatures....the salmon.

In this episode, Matt uncovers what one city has done to help salmon. How they redesigned their built environment to benefit not just humans but wildlife too. And how it was all made possible by something quite unexpected…..the rumbling force of a destructive earthquake.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The brain of the raven May 04, 2021

Being a “bird brain” is a complement if you’re talking about ravens. They are smart. Their intelligence allows them to empathize and read emotions, which helps them survive. But it’s their ability to manipulate others, and even plan for the future that allows them to really thrive in the wild.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why it’s so hard to swat a fly Apr 27, 2021

It’s springtime which means sunshine, picnics and flies. But you might think twice about reaching for that fly swatter. Flies are amazing creatures that possess the fastest visual systems in the world, use gyroscopes for precision flying, and can see almost 360 degrees.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Saving the mountain caribou Apr 20, 2021

This is a tough story to tell. In 2019 the last of the mountain caribou in the lower 48 states disappeared. Extinct. Deforestation threatens those that are left. Professional Wildlife tracker and photographer David Moskowitz takes us to the frigid mountains of British Columbia to learn about the ancient but fragile ecosystem these majestic reindeer call home.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Path of the Jaguar Apr 13, 2021

Over 60% of Belize is in a natural, wild state, but development is threatening the movements of the jaguars. In this episode, I'll meet the people who are trying to help protect these jungle cats.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Flight of the Scarlet Macaw Apr 06, 2021

There are only 350 scarlet macaws left in the wild in Belize. They face the threats of poaching and habitat lose. But let us introduce you to the passionate people determined to save these colorful birds.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wild Season 3: Welcome back to the adventure Mar 23, 2021

New episodes start on April 6th.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leave it to beavers, seriously Mar 09, 2021

Hi everyone. We’ve missed bringing you new episodes of The Wild, but that’s about to change. We’re kicking off our third season on April 6th. We’ve got lots of exciting wildlife adventures to share including a trip to Central America and the country of Belize. The jungles are teaming with wildlife there. It’s one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. I don’t want to give too much away about the trip just yet, but I’ll give you a hint....Jaguars

Thanks to all of our listeners who have written to us asking to hear more episodes. We thought this would be a good time to replay one of our favorite most loved shows. It’s about the mighty beaver. Spring is only a few weeks away (March 20) and it’s the time that beavers become more active, after laying low during the long winter. Spring is only a few weeks away and the beavers are getting busy with it for a summer ahead. I hope you're starting to feel it too.

So sit back and escape into nature with me as we step into the world of the beaver.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sounds from the wild: frogs, elk and snowmelt Nov 17, 2020

A few moments of reflection during these stressful times with the help of meditative sounds from nature.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Escape to the sounds of nature Nov 03, 2020

We are all going through some challenging times, a pandemic, for Americans, an election whirlwind...or maybe other things in life. So, we wanted to give you a break, a chance to step away from the stress and into the wild. On this special episode of THE WILD we listen to a dawn chorus in Eastern Washington and ravens off the fog drenched shores of the Oregon coast.

These sounds were recorded by Gordon Hempton the Sound Tracker and co-founder of Quiet Parks International.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bats: Busting the myths Oct 27, 2020

Join me as I meet bats up close and in person and try to figure out the mystery behind these winged mammals.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Great British Birding Show Oct 06, 2020

Kick back for a spot of British birdwatching as I head into the English countryside with twitcher Lee Evans. Lee is an extreme birder and he’s become notorious in a nation of bird-lovers, as the man who’ll go to any lengths to fulfill his bird obsession.

Lee has driven 2.2 million miles around the UK and Ireland looking for birds. So far he’s seen 594 different species, but not without some mishaps. I join him for a day in the field to hear more, and to tap into the mind of a really fascinating and knowledgeable man. Enjoy!

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Wild with Chris Morgan – KUOW News and Information

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected