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The Wild Enrichment Podcast is a show about animal welfare, training, enrichment and everything in between. Each episode will be exploring concepts surrounding behavioural husbandry and the ever-advancing field of animal welfare. From interviews with real animal care professionals to educational episodes about new concepts in animal care, The Wild enrichment Podcast has it all.
Episodes
Nov 7, 2023
Nov 7, 2023
1 hr 2 min
In this episode, I am joined by Christine Dorchak and Carey Theil, co-authors of Brooklyn Goes Home: The Rise and Fall of American Greyhound Racing and the Dog that Inspired a Movement, are the founders of the small non-profit organization GREY2K USA, where they led a coalition of ordinary dog lovers in fighting a multi-billion dollar gambling industry — and won. We talk about their new book, The Greyhound Racing Industry and how their formula for success can be used to create legislation to improve animal welfare across the globe.
Resources:
Oct 24, 2023
Oct 24, 2023
45 min
In this episode, I sit down with Sarah Van Herpt, Senior Bear Team Manager at Animals Asia. Animals Asia is a company dedicated to ending bear bile farming and improving the welfare of animals across Asia. To accomplish this goal, Animals Asia has several bear sanctuaries for moon bears and sun bears they rehabilitate them from the horrors of the bear bile industry. In this conversation, Sarah and I talk about how they go about rehabilitating these bears, the unique challenges they face as well as how you can contribute to Animals Asia and their fight against this industry.
Resources:
Oct 10, 2023
Oct 10, 2023
56 min
In this episode, I am joined by Nicky Plaskitt, an expert animal trainer and owner of Shaping Behaviour training consultancy. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about how Nicky started in the industry, using positive reinforcement to train raptors and what makes a training program successful.
Resources:
Sep 19, 2023
Sep 19, 2023
59 min
In this episode, I am joined by Gerry Creighton. Gerry is a second-generation zookeeper and former operations manager of the Dublin Zoo. Gerry now runs his own consultancy, Global Elephant Care Inc. and just released his new book "Raised by the Zoo: My Life with Elephants and Other Animals", a memoir of his experiences in over 30 years of working in zoos.
Check out his book here:
- Raised by the Zoo: My Life with Elephants and Other AnimalsAmazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Raised-Zoo-Elephants-Oth...
- https://www.easons.com/raised-by-the-zoo-hb-gerry-creighton-9780717197514
Follow Gerry on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerry-creighton-b84a9745/?originalSubdomain=ie
Aug 15, 2023
Aug 15, 2023
58 min
In this episode, I sit down with Matthew Shackleton, a veterinary physiotherapist and former zookeeper. Matthew works with a wide variety of animals, exotic and domestic. In this conversation, we talk about Matthews's approach to physiotherapy in zoos, training and enrichment as therapy tools and how to support geriatric animals as they age.
Resources:
Jul 4, 2023
Jul 4, 2023
34 min
"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it." Robert Heinlein.
Zookeepers are faced with many challenges these days, being short-staffed, underpaid, and burnt out, and on top of all that, they have to stay on top of an extremely rapidly advancing industry. Being "Product Oriented" is aimed at helping with this by giving animal care teams clear priorities and ensuring the daily tasks of managing an animal care section do not stop you from creating and accomplishing goals.
Jun 20, 2023
Jun 20, 2023
56 min
In this episode, I am joined by Dr. Jenna Congdon. Dr. Congdon is a Psychologist, specializing in comparative cognition and behaviour in animals. Her research spans many topics, from, songbird communication to training artificial intelligence to analyze Orangutan behaviour. During this conversation, we explore the exciting ways animals perceive the world, the power of artificial intelligence, how we can better understand animal behaviour and much more.
Resources:
Jun 6, 2023
Jun 6, 2023
1 hr 19 min
In this episode, I am joined by Peter Giljam, founder and head trainer at Zoospensfull. Peter has spent many years as an animal trainer, influencer, educator and consultant and brings his expertise to this wide-ranging conversation. We talk about the most important things to consider in a training program, cooperative care and the future of positive reinforcement training. We also discuss dealing with burnout and compassion fatigue in the industry.
May 23, 2023
May 23, 2023
57 min
In this episode, we sit down with Ezekiel Gading, a master's student and animal welfare researcher. We talk about Ezekiel's fascinating research on Orangutans, building resilience in the animals you work with and how animals are perceiving their environment.
Resources we covered:
Apr 25, 2023
Apr 25, 2023
52 min
In this episode, I am joined by Tim Husband, a former zoo director with over 40 years in the animal care industry. Tim brings the perspective of having worked at all levels of animal care facilities to this wide-ranging conversation.
Tim currently owns a consulting company ZooWorks, where he and his team perform audits of animal care facilities to determine strategic goals for the facility as it relates to leadership and operations.
You can find Tim on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-husband-26413b22/