Charles and Jon compare notes from their recent trips to China, and talk the joys of travel there, especially the country's superb mammalwatching opportunities. Charles and his family spent 10 days in China's Qinghai Province in May, while Jon was in China for a month from mid-April, including almost two weeks in Yunnan Province and a few days in Qinghai. We discuss the Gouli Valley, and the extraordinary carnivore watching there, due in large part to a guide with superhuman vision. Cha...
Jul 1
52 min
Charles and Jon talk to conservationists and primatologists Tom Butynski and Yvonne de Jong from their base in Kenya. Tom and Yvonne run the East African Primate Diversity and Conservation Program and research primates and other mammals in East Africa. After explaining how their rural childhoods fostered a love for nature, Tom and Yvonne outline very varied career paths that took them around the world and eventually to Kenya - and each other - 25 years ago. They talk about the importance of c...
Jun 1
59 min
Charles and Jon talk to Joel Sartore, founder of NatGeo's Photo Ark project and one of the world's most preeminent wildlife photographers. Joel describes his passion for conservation, a passion inspired by parents who cared and a childhood spent in nature. He outlines his career, which took him from a cub photographer with the Wichita Eagle, to National Geographic where he now runs the Photo Ark and has photographed more than 18,000 species in human care. Joel explains his photogr...
May 1
57 min
Charles and Jon chat with Nick Mcphee, founder of Nick's Adventures Bolivia, from his home in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Nick explains how a childhood love of wildlife - inspired by growing up near Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - led him to Bolivia after five years in the Australian army and another three working in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. He talks about the many - and exceptionally diverse - mammalwatching opportunities in Bolivia that range from what is arguably Latin Ame...
Apr 1
1 hr 2 min
Charles and Jon turn the podcast over to three of the youngest mammalwatchers we know: Ellen Linton (20), Bruno Kovacs Gomez (16) and Moses Swanson-Mwamasika (15). In a lively chat the three share stories about their passion, why they love it and what their friends and family think. We hear stories about pizza with a Caracal in South Africa; close encounters with pouched rats in Zimbabwe; and a quest for a Golden Jackal in Hungary. The next generation also offer advice on how to encourage fri...
Mar 1
1 hr 6 min
Charles and Jon don't have a guest this month. Instead we talk to each about our recent trips to southern Tanzania (Charles) and Tierra del Fuego (Jon). Charles's adventure coincided with the Tanzanian elections and an outbreak of protests. These may have shut down the country but did not deter its mammalwatchers! In between negotiating their way through road blocks and buying diesel from trucks stuck on the road, they managed to see a ridiculous number of mammal species (almost 80) including...
Feb 1
45 min
In the first podcast of 2026 we talk with professional bird and mammal guide János Oláh from his home in Hungary. János set up Sakertours in 1994. Initially focussing on birding tours in Eastern Europe they expanded to run hide-based photography tours and now mammal tours. János explains how he was drawn to birding as a child, and the formative role an aversion to summer camp chores played in the process. He describes how and why he set up his Romania Mammal Tour, on which participants can ex...
Jan 1
56 min
The Season 4 opener to the mammalwatching podcast has Charles and Jon talking about their September 2025 expedition to Sulawesi. This is a blow by blow - and mammal by mammal - account of a remarkable two week trip that recorded over 80 mammal species. Our story is interspersed with interviews from the field with Carlos Bocos, the trip leader; bat guru Prof Juliana Senawi; and the other participants (Stuart Chapman, Nick Cox, János Oláh, Martin Royle and Ian Thompson). We also include ...
Dec 1, 2025
1 hr 13 min
Charles and Jon speak to conservation power couple Nachiket Kelkar and Kadambari Deshpande from their home in Bangalore. for the finale to Season 3 of the podcast. Kadambari and Nachiket both work to better understand how wildlife and people can co-exist in India, with Kadambari focussing on bats and Nachiket looking at riverine ecosystems and wildlife including the Ganges River Dolphin. In a fascinating interview they discuss some of the threats facing the species they are working to protect...
Sep 2, 2025
1 hr 10 min
Charles and Jon talk with carnivore conservation expert Laila Bahaa-el-din. Laila studied the near mythical African Golden Cat for her PhD in Gabon from 2010 - 2015 and was the first to study the species for a PhD. She explains how her grandfather inspired her to follow a career in conservation and how a chance encounter with a mislabeled photo of an African Golden Cat saved her from studying raptors and took her to Gabon. Laila describes how she studied the cats using camera traps and how a ...
Jul 31, 2025
43 min
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