Let’s Hope The Weather Holds

45 Tahr Pink eye project with Francesco Formisano

Veterinarian Francesco Formisano tells me about the Pink eye project where, with the help of New Zealand hunters acting as citizen scientists, the prevalence and spread of Infectious Keratoconjunctivitis in New Zealand Tahr herds were studied.
Franco also tells me about hunting roe deer in France, his vet practice and the possibility of more research projects in New Zealand.
Download the 14 page report on pink eye here:
https://nztahrfoundation.org.nz/project-pinkeye
Franco's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/altitudeandtrails/
Thar are artiodactyl ungulates related to goats and sheep.
The New Zealand Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) are an introduced species but have now become part of the landscape.

44 Better grazing means better meat, milk, soil and animal health

In this episode Pablo Gregorini, Leader of the Lincoln University Pastoral Livestock Production Lab, tells me about a trial where animals were given a choice of what to eat and how it improved animal health, soil health, the quality of meat and milk, and was also better for consumers.
 

43 Tracking a whale carcass

Research Fellow in Marine Science, at Griffith University in Australia Olaf Meynecke talks to me about tracking a whale carcass around the ocean to map how wind and tides affect its movement.
 
This research will hopefully be used so that beached whales are not taken to landfill but that they can be towed to out to sea and their nutrients returned to the ocean without colliding with ships.
He talks about his latest paper 'Dead on the Beach? Predicting the Drift of Whale Remains Improves Management for Offshore Disposal', the role the nutrients of a dead whale plays in the ecosystem, the challenges they faced, why this cheaper option is not the current way of doing, he tells me about sitting in whale carcasses for arthritis treatment, the software they used to map the whale's 150km drift path, the sharks that fed on the carcass and more.
His paper https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/12/7/1156
 
All music by Jacques van Wyk

We desire GMO food, said no consumer ever!

In this interview Hans Eisenbeis, Director of Mission & Messaging at the Non-GMO Project talks about farms and farmers in the US, how the Non-GMO Project operates, disagreements in science about the health of GMO's, how systems transitions look, he talks about the unique position New Zealand is in as a Non-GMO nation, soil health, externalising costs from GMO's, he asks if we are short-cutting our way out of existential crisis, the innovation fallacy and more.
Have a look at their work on https://www.nongmoproject.org/

Takahe, merganser, dodgy museum practices and evolution of birds

Associate Professor Nic Rawlence, director of the Otago Palaeogenetics Laboratory, talks to me about the extinct fish eating merganser duck and Takahe research, dodgy museum collecting practices of the 1800’s, how New Zealand has a much more cosmopolitan makeup of biodiversity than previously thought, how the data we have make us form weird relationships that seem implausible, population bottlenecks and more.

Slaughtering a bison with stone tools

In this episode Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Kent State University in Ohio, USA, Metin Eren tells me about how he, his department and the Meateater crew slaughtered a bison with clovis tools.
The trial was followed by a paper that describes their techniques, questions and results in depth.
Metin tells me about flint knapping, new ideas in archeology, clovis people, life 13,000 years ago, what we know, what we thought we knew, what we don't know...you'll get it once you listen to the podcast.
We agree that the clovis story is the story of all of us.
For images go to my Instagram account.

#39 The biggest fight for NZ hunting in 60 years - The Forest & Bird lawsuit

I speak to Roy Sloan, General Manager of the Fiorldand Wapiti Foundation about the lawsuit Forest & Bird has brought against the foundation and against the Department of Conservation, and about the consequences it might have for all hunters in New Zealand.
All deer species are introduced into New Zealand.
Hunters say they have to be sustainably managed, with lobby groups saying they have to be removed as much as possible, often via poison bait or by helicopters operators who shoot them, as they destroy native flaura.
FYI folks, we had connectivity issues and the sound is quite poor at times.

#38 Book on Chamois to reveal new DNA and historic evidence - Gwyn Thurlow

I speak to Gwyn Thurlow, Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel at the New Zealand Deer Stalkers, about new DNA evidence on the origin of New Zealand chamois, and new historic finds on the history and practicalities of their translocation after local and Austrian newspapers were digitized.
Gwyn is working on a book he hopes to publish in a year with the evidence and his years of Chamois hunting as topics.
We speak abou local herds, how they were caught in Austria, how they were shipped and almost perished on their trip, what they were fed and loads more. He gives me Chamois hunting tips.