The Wild with Chris Morgan

I do love a good border crossing, so join me as I travel to Northeast Portugal, into the Coa River Valley, to witness a really interesting story that is unfolding there.

The dense old forests that were there are now mostly gone. Cut down and replaced with pastures for sheep and olive groves generations ago. And now the shepherds and other farmers are abandoning this region in droves. This checkered history has led to a poor economy, brush instead of trees and an explosion of wildfires.

Join me as I meet passionate, young biologists who are bringing back the forest, ecosystems and wild animals, and creating a new, healthy space for all. To create an ecological utopia in the Coa Valley of Portugal.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon. Thank you!

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

We’re back! I am so excited to share our new season with all of you.

New episodes of THE WILD begin on Tuesday, January 18th.

My team and I have been hard at work finding stories and interviewing passionate people who are making a difference for nature….and our planet.

We’ve traveled the world this season to bring you stories about lynx in Spain, Caribbean sharks, owls that live underground and even how a nuclear explosion in Alaska led to sea otters returning to the west coast of America.

Get your headphones ready and come along on an adventure with me into the wild spaces that inspire us all.

The WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through small monthly contributions to my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

I hope you are having a lovely summer so far. Or winter if you’re south of the equator. THE WILD team is busy working on episodes for the next season. But I wanted to share something special with you that I think you’ll like. This is an episode from the podcast Living Planet from Deutsche Welle. They tell environment stories from around the world. In this episode they explore efforts to bring life back to seabeds off the coast of Scotland. They also look at an app that can tell what species a frog is by its song. A sort of Shazam for amphibians.

You can learn more about the Living Planet podcast here.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow THE WILD with Chris Morgan on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

Hey everybody….. I just wanted to say thanks for tuning into our third season of THE WILD. It’s been such a pleasure to share these stories and hear your reactions. 

We’ve already started working on season 4. I am really  excited to bring you even more wonder from the natural world. It’s very rewarding tracking down interesting species, human characters and amazing places and turning them into stories for you. This planet we live on seems to have a limitless pool of them. 

But now is your chance to let us know what you want to hear. We are doing a season 3 survey. Let us know what you liked, didn’t like, and help shape season 4. 

You can take our survey here. If you take the survey, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a prize from the show. We can't wait to hear from you. 

We’ll be back with new episodes in the fall. Until then, I really hope you are able to get out and enjoy the rest of the summer if you’re here in the pacific NW, or whichever season you might be in wherever you are in the world. 

Take care. 

Rattlesnakes have long been persecuted, even killed for sport or having their entire dens burned. I head out with two wildlife biologists to look for rattlesnakes as they emerge from hibernation and learn about the important role these snakes play in our ecosystem.

Take our listener survey by clicking the link here. You could be selected to get a WILD sticker.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

For an ecologist like me, Santa Cruz island is a bit of a dream. It is home to a quite famous fox. It is like no “apex predator” I’ve ever seen before. These aren’t the type of foxes you might see on the mainland. These island foxes are small, very small. 

These foxes are endemic to the Channel Islands, meaning they are found here and nowhere else in the world. But about 20 years ago, people on these islands started noticing fewer and fewer foxes on the landscape. Their numbers were crashing dramatically….on Santa Cruz island they dropped to around one hundred animals. But nobody was sure why.

It was an ecological whodunnit that needed to be solved before the foxes disappeared forever. The clock was ticking. What scientists discovered was a cascade of curiously connected events involving toxic waste, feral pigs, and a couple of New Zealanders jumping out of a helicopter.

Take our listener survey by clicking the link here. You could be selected to get a WILD sticker.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people have been involved in saving the California condor. We meet some of them in this episode, including a former gang member who has made it his life’s mission to help the birds he loves.

California condors are so iconic that when I finally saw one in person, it felt a bit like meeting a movie star. Condors were one of 78 species listed on the original endangered species list in 1967. And they are still on it. That's 54 years of living on the edge.

Condors are huge. They have a 9 foot wingspan and a bald, orange pumpkin like head. They are North America's biggest bird.

But today, they face a hidden threat….lead. And it is poisoning them. But these birds have brought together a curious team of people who love them, and are doing everything they can to make sure they are around for not just another 54 years, but well beyond all of us.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

Today, I’m talking with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. Rae is a large carnivore ecologist and a fellow with the National Geographic Society. She is also a Research Faculty member at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the blend of her work is really fascinating. For 15 years she’s studied the behavior and ecology of black bears and african lions and she does it on a backdrop of social justice as an advocate for women and people of color in the sciences. She’s one of the most effective science communicators I’ve seen. And Dr Wynn-Grant has degrees from Columbia, Yale, and Emory! That’s all! 

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

Northern Sumatra is a magical tropical home to the endangered orangutan. But their rainforest home is being cut down, and many are orphaned as their habitat is lost. Researchers are working hard to understand how orangutans process and learn, while others rehabilitate young individuals for a life back in the wild.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work and become part of THE WILD community is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife

The shrill calls of billions of Brood X cicadas emerging from the earth have captured the nation’s ears and attention this spring. But what do these noisy insects DO for the 17 years they live underground? In this episode we dig deep into that question.

THE WILD is a joint production of myself and KUOW Public Radio. One way to support this vital work is through my wildlife organization, Chris Morgan Wildlife. You can find more information at Patreon

Follow us on Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife