ZSL Wild Science Podcast

What do car tyres, yoga mats and trainers have in common? They all contain natural rubber, tapped from trees by millions of small farmers, mostly in Asia. While natural rubber production is renewable…

The coastal waters of Wales are home to a whopping 27 species of sharks, skates and rays, known collectively as elasmobranchs, and they are a fundamental part of Wales’ natural heritage. But even so,…

Making sure that the animals held in ZSL’s two conservation zoos, London and Whipsnade, are fed a diet that can help them thrive is crucial, both for keeping them healthy under managed care, and ens…

After our Nature’s Negotiators miniseries, where we learned all about the complexities, challenges and importance of United Nations climate and biodiversity meetings, we wanted to give the gift of a …

2024 has been a big year for international climate policy, with two UN Conference of Parties, or COPs, taking place in quick succession; COP16 in Colombia followed just a few weeks later by COP29 in …

What does it take to reintroduce an animal to the wild safely? How do we make sure that disease risk to existing populations, and to the animals being reintroduced, is mitigated?

Hear from the Diseas…

You may have heard of a COP, and you’ve almost definitely heard of the United Nations (UN), but how much do you know about the negotiations that go into getting nature, climate and biodiversity embed…

Out of sight…but not out of mind? Coral reefs exist largely out of sight for the majority of the world’s population, so the vast array of ecosystem services they provide for local communities are of…

Co-existence between communities living on the Korean Peninsula and carnivores such as leopards, tigers and black bears, has historically presented many challenges leading to population declines in t…

The ZSL Wild Science podcast is back! After a break, we have returned to explore even more topical issues in zoology, conservation and the environment. New host, Harriet McAra, Science Communications…

It’s no secret that cities are generally perceived as spaces of little conservation relevance, yet local urban wildlife underpins a range of ecosystem services. In a time where rapid changes in the c…

Pathology is the science of diagnosing diseases by observing physical changes in animal cells and tissues, either in living, or more commonly dead animals. In this episode, our host Ellie Darbey will…

The anthropogenically driven climate crisis and unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss are both threatening the foundations of economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worl…

Coastal marine habitats are essential to the health of our marine ecosystem, and hold both environmental and social importance. They provide valuable ecosystem services, but for decades they have bee…

Reptiles - lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodilians – make up almost one third of all land vertebrate species on Earth, and also occur in many marine and freshwater systems. Yet despite their amazin…

Coral reefs are the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the world, and more than 500 million people worldwide rely on coral reefs for their livelihoods, food security, and coastal protection. Howeve…

After more than a year of Covid-19 impacting global populations, health systems and economies, one of the major questions being asked was how did this start, and how can we prevent it from happening …

Law breaking, such as poaching or fishing inside marine reserves, is a great challenge to conservationists because research is often complicated by ethics and data privacy. However, important technol…

Conservationists are working hard to stem global biodiversity loss. Yet, just like biodiversity itself, the conservation movement is very diverse, with a variety of ideas shaping its framing, purpose…