Ecology Podcast

In this episode, Associate Blog Editor Laura Hemmingham spoke with Dr Kathleen Petersen about her paper, "Understanding natal emigration in group-living carnivores", recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Dispersal is a critical ecological and evolutionary process, yet the drivers of individual variation in natal emigration, particularly under human-modified conditions, remain relatively understudied.

The podcast deep dives into the paper and how it investigated the determinants and patterns of emigration in a managed population of cooperative breeders using genetic samples from harvested individuals

From wildfires to flash floods and deadly earthquakes, the slow collapse of our ecological and social system is affecting millions of lives across the world. One reason is the demands of our capitalist society. Against this backdrop, what roles can ecologists play to advocate for nature?

In this episode of the Ecology Podcast, we’re joined by Dr Lydia Cole from the University of St Andrews to discuss what practice and pragmatism could look like among scientist activists.

This episode is a teaser for an upcoming talk Lydia is co-organizing at the BES Annual Meeting. Find out more at https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/bes-annual-meeting-2026

As part of our 'Community' series, we’re launching the Emerging Leadership Management (ELM) Network, hosted by Rob Brooker, Thorunn Helgason, and Pen Holland. This is the podcast for people who love to lead or one day might emerge as a leader.

In this episode, Professor Sue Hartley OBE talks about the necessity of being challenged, listening to others in leadership, and leading with noble intent.

We talk about everything from Sue’s leadership journey to early lessons in letting go of control and the need for delegation, to the importance of recognising your own limitations and making space for rest.

In the latest Ecology Podcast, alumni committee member of the EDGE network Dr Trisha Gopalakrishna chats with Dr Robyn James about the challenges and strategies to tackle gender (in)equity in environmental conservation at the project or program level across multiple sectors.

We thank Robyn for taking the time out to discuss these issues and direct everyone to her rich research that spans gender and environmental conservation: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HL-gu8MAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao. Robyn is open to being contacted about new research, opportunities, advice and guidance on all things gender and environmental conservation!

Have further thoughts? Like the episode? Engage with the EDGE network by:
following their LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bes-edge-network/posts/?feedView=all
signing up to their newsletter: https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/join-the-edge-network/
emailing them at: edge@britishecologicalsociety.org

For today's episode, Ivy is joined by Shahar Chaikin, author of "Native habitat affinities predict fish invasions with post-invasion habitat shifts". We discussed the story behind the paper and his experience as an ecologist.

Read the full paper here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.70293
Read Shahar's blog post here: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2026/07/06/who-is-next-in-line-predicting-which-red-sea-fish-will-invade-the-mediterranean-sea/
Watch the video teaser here: https://youtu.be/_OI8w4ZsDDs