This episode is a little different. We celebrate spooky season with the haunting tales of feldgeist, Sinkhole Sam, and the Ohio Grassman. These stories haunt the minds of those who visit prairies and…

Grasshopper mice are small but fierce. They howl like wolves, stalk their prey like cats, and finish up with a quick face clean. These solitary animals like to live life dangerously and enjoy even ve…

Nicole talks painted dogs: a surprisingly wholesome and fun-loving animal. They are excellent hunters, take care of not just their pups but their elderly, and rarely squabble amongst themselves.

Phot…

Enjoy this episode of very good facts and very good nonsense. We revisit a nice game of stump the podcast host, this time with more bug viscera and talking ourselves out of an obvious answer.

Our Inf…

In the Páramo grasslands of South America is a cloud covered land where a unique ecosystem thrives. Allan tells us all about a plant that drinks clouds plus the miraculous little hummingbirds that c…

Did you know meerkats are far more murderous than they seem or that their burrows can be as wide as a Purple Worm's? All this and more as we delve underground and find out why they can be so aggressi…

Conservation can be DEPRESSING, so for Mental Health Month we decided to share ONLY positive news and stories (after taking a little break for our brains). Rewire those neurons everybody, because it'…

Wherein Rachel makes a definitive list of best bird nests in North American grasslands.

Primary Sources:

• A Field Guide to Birds Nests by Hal Harrison
• The Birder's Handbook by Paul R. Ehrlich
• M…

Ostriches are one of the strangest birds we've ever talked about. They are the world's biggest bird and toughest survivor. They nest together, have radiators for necks, and can drink saltwater.

Photo…

Soils define habitats as much as the plantlife, so let's talk about that! How do you identify a soil species, and should grassland ecosystem restorations include soil microbe transplants?

Photos and …

Basic midwest feeder bird or mysterious exotic tundra sparrow? Actually, both! Harris's Sparrows, one of the most enigmatic North American sparrows, are about to travel well out of reach into the rem…

If you haven't started thinking about your gardens yet, now is the perfect time to get started planning. Nicole walks us through gardening for native habitats, wildlife, and how to get your neighbors…

A wholesome episode about secure love, forming bonds under stress, and human connection through the lens of a grasslands specialist: the prairie vole.

Photos and more are at our site.

Primary Sources…

So many monkeys that are forest dwellers, but baboons as a group are ground-dwelling grasslanders whose habitat use and social structure might help us learn about our own hominid ancestors. In this e…

The chamois is a goat-antelope from the rolling alpine meadow scenery of European mountains, and today's episode is a straightforward peek into the idyllic life of this animal that's (for once) doing…

Yank your concept of crayfish out of the water. In this episode, Nicole walks us through one of her favorite arthropod groups and makes a pretty good case for why prairie lovers should love these lit…

In this episode, Rachel goes down the opposite of a rabbit hole as we discuss a single widely-cited paper from 2018. Take a look at Africa's savanna plants and what their adaptations mean for conserv…

Have an existential crisis about the inner lives of bees with us! In this episode, Nicole attempts to teach us a few things about bumblebees while under constant antagonization to slander honeybees. …

What does the American South and the Tallgrass Prairie have in common? Their grasslands support an elusive little grassland specialist that the old timey ornithologists roast way too hard: the Henslo…

This rabbity rodent of South America's grasslands is a common sight in zoos, but has one of the strangest social structures we've talked about in mammals. What makes this strictly monogamous-til-deat…