#71 Alex and the Bandicoots: Redefining the Wildlife Veterinarian (Australia)
By day, Dr. Alexandria Bullen treats cattle and cats at a veterinary clinic on Tasmania's rugged northwest coast. By night, she's out tracking platypuses and bandicoots in the wilderness. In this episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl meets Alex at the Australasian WDA conference to explore how she bridges clinical practice with wildlife research.Discover why golf courses and urban dog parks are unexpected bandicoot hotspots, what a decade of platypus health monitoring reveals, and how Alex's research uncovered these marsupials' surprising cold tolerance. From her transformative Antarctic journey with Homeward Bound – where migrating seabirds reminded her how interconnected our world truly is – to volunteering with Vets Beyond Borders in Indonesia, Alex shares how stepping outside traditional veterinary roles opened doors she never imagined.With a PhD on quoll health ahead, Alex delivers an empowering message: you don't need fancy resources or prestigious positions to contribute to wildlife health. Life is a choose-your-own-adventure, and the key is refusing to let imposter syndrome hold you back.LinksLearn about Conservation Medicine in Regional Tasmania hereInterested to learn more about the homeward bound journey? Check it out here.We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
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#70 Leanne and the Swift Parrot's Future: Reimagining Wildlife Health Before Crisis (Australia & Vietnam)
What if we could prevent wildlife health crises instead of always racing to respond to them? Dr. Leanne Wicker has spent decades asking this question – from anesthetizing seals in Tasmanian car parks during lunch breaks to tracking ocean temperatures through Antarctic seal movements, from nearly a decade managing confiscated wildlife during Vietnam's bird flu outbreaks to pioneering the field of veterinary ecology back home in Australia.Through her work with critically endangered swift parrots, Leanne reveals how a single photo of a lonely nest tree standing in a logged forest transformed her approach to conservation. She's championing a radical shift: understanding that nest failure isn't just about numbers – it's about healthy parents, viable eggs, and well-fed chicks thriving in intact ecosystems. After experiencing the wildlife health frontlines across three continents, Leanne shares her vision for proactive conservation where veterinary expertise helps create conditions for wildlife to flourish, rather than waiting for disaster to strike.LinksCheck out Leanne's current employer and their work: Enviro-DynamicsLearn more about the swift parrot project here. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
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#69 Mya and the penguins (USA & Peru)
From Peru's copper mines to penguin colonies, PhD candidate Mya Daniels-Abdulahad tracks a toxic trail that threatens an entire species. Winner of the 2025 BioOne Ambassador Award, Mya reveals how mining waste travels through ocean food chains – with iron accumulating at four times normal levels in Humboldt penguin eggs and cadmium weakening their shells.Working between Peruvian field sites and Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, Mya uncovers how penguin embryos become trapped in "toxic time capsules" while these vulnerable birds serve as sentinels for contamination affecting entire coastal ecosystems. Discover how populations crashed from hundreds of thousands to just 16,000 birds, and why zoo surplus eggs became crucial for understanding wild population risks in this compelling One Health story.LinksCheck out Mya's winning video hereMya's paper on the topicCheck out the lab's website Mya works with hereWe'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
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#68 Ralph and HPAI in the Southern hemisphere (Argentina)
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she follows Dr. Ralph Vanstreels tracking high pathogenicity avian influenza from South America to Antarctica. Ralph shares insights from surveying remote coastlines and documenting the virus's impact – over 600,000 wild birds and 55,000 marine mammals affected, with elephant seal populations experiencing 95% pup mortality in some colonies. Learn how viral mutations enabled the jump to marine mammals, the ecological importance of Antarctica's scavenging skuas, and the challenges of conducting disease surveillance in one of Earth's most remote regions while monitoring the virus's continued eastward spread toward Australia and New Zealand. LinksRalph's academic profile: https://whc.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/people/ralph-vanstreelsWe'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
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# 67 Pat and the parrots (USA)
Nearly one-third of all parrot species are threatened with extinction, yet most people picture these charismatic birds as noisy pets in cages rather than the complex, emotionally intelligent wild creatures they truly are. In this captivating episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl speaks with Dr. Pat Latas, a founding member of the newly founded IUCN Wild Parrot Specialist Group, whose four-decade journey spans from rescuing a tiny house sparrow as a child to working with critically endangered kakapo on remote New Zealand islands.Pat reveals how the illegal wildlife trade has exploded into a $40-60 billion global business fueled by social media. Discover why there's a "parrot people stigma" in conservation science, how 14 naturalized parrot species are thriving in Los Angeles (with some endangered Mexican species now more abundant in California than their native range), and why Pat combines her scientific illustration skills with conservation work to protect these beloved yet threatened birds.LinksNewly founded IUCN Wild Parrot Specialist GroupParrot Crisis SummitPat’s art workWanna get in touch with Pat Latas? Email her here: Patricia.Latas[at]ssc.iucn.orgWe'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
This is the podcast of the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA, https://www.wildlifedisease.org). Our host Dr Catharina Vendl chats with wildlife health professionals including researchers, vets, pathologists and more, about the joys and challenges of their job and the emerging issues of wildlife health locally and worldwide. All of our guests have a longstanding affinity with the WDA and a true passion for wildlife in common. So brush up your knowledge of current wildlife issues and One Health with Wildlife Health Talks.
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