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 photographic techniques and the influence of the artist John James Audubon.

And he offers hope for the future, despite the extinction crisis we are facing, talking about how zoos and ecotourism are helping to save nature. Meanwhile Joel frightens Jon at the prospects of life “in the chocolate factory”.

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 America’s best Jaguar watching through to mega-mammals like Chaco Peccaries, Giant Armadillos and Goeldi’s Monkey. Plus Nick describes the many and diverse threats these animals are facing: threats that he is passionate about tackling through the ecotourism he is pioneering.

Nick has more than his fair share of funny stories from running tours. We hear about the time that someone mistook a cup of vinegar for water. And we learn what can happen when a married couple turn up on a jungle trip with wildly differing expectations!

The podcast opens with notes from the field from Jon’s February trip to Guatemala and we chat about our 2023 visit to Klalik Village in West Papua when we discovered an ‘extinct’ possum that is now in the news.

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 friends to join a trip. So press play if you want to learn how to sneakily turn a road trip with your bestie into a pocket gopher safari or are contemplating more extreme measures …

The podcast starts with ‘notes from the field’ from Jannico Kelk and Nicolas Rakotopare, recorded live in Darjeeling moments after a spectacular Red Panda encounter.

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 the Kipunji, a primate only discovered by scientists a few years ago.

Jon’s trip through Patagonia went more smoothly. The highlight was a day looking for Leopard Seals in a remote area of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. He had crippling views of the seal amongst jaw dropping scenery. One of his best days ever.

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 expect to see over 50 mammal species in 9 days! And he shares a very important life lesson he learned as a boy while looking for a ‘Dawn Bird’: preferred habitat is far more useful to a successful search than a species’ common name!

The podcast begins with a ‘live from the field’ account of our heroically unsuccessful search for a Sumatran Striped Rabbit, which János was lucky enough to be a part of.

In the Season 4 opener to the mammalwatching podcast, Charles and Jon talk about their September 2025 expedition to Sulawesi.

We give 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 a conversation witth Ating Solihin from Sulawesi’s Malenge Island about his role in bringing back the Togean Babirusa from the brink of extinction.

Highlights include:

• Explaining why the initial excitement of seeing species that were likely new to science quickly turned to frustration.
• Hearing why giving a seven year old a mammal book might just dictate the rest of their life.
• Advice for others planning to visit Sulawesi, including the importance of bringing your own sleeping mats and never wearing flip flops into a bat cave!

Season 3 finale.

Charles and Jon speak to conservation power couple Nachiket Kelkar and Kadambari Deshpande from their home in Bangalore.

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 as well as some of the facets of Indian society – and its sometimes striking tolerance for living alongside wildlife – that help to allow  wildlife and people to co-exist.

They describe a recent trip in search with Bob Pitman (a 2022 podcast guest) in search of India’s remaining two Indus River Dolphins and also explain how Indian Flying Foxes are a cashew-farmer’s best friend!

https://www.mammalwatching.com/podcast/s3-e18-nachiket-kelkar-kadambari-deshpande-india/

We 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 bird flying into a tent led to her one and only sighting during four years in the field.

She also recounts some of her very many adventures in Gabon that range from pleading with a female gorilla to keep quiet so as not to alert the silverback, to fleeing from an elephant while trying to get out of a poncho.  No wonder she turned to poetry for solace!

We talk with wildlife filmmaker and presenter Nigel Marven from his home in the UK.

Nigel describes how a childhood fascination with wildlife led to his first job in TV, ‘wrangling worms’, and from there to working with Sir David Attenborough and ultimately presenting and making his own shows and films.

He explains why his films have often put the spotlight onto smaller, less well-known but fascinating mammals including Russian Desmans, Chinese Mole-shrews and Star-nosed Moles.

And he describes some of his most memorable mammal encounters from Bactrian Camels in China to swimming with Belugas in the Canadian Arctic.

We talk with Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder of the SW/Niger Delta Conservation Project. Rachel, a Nigerian conservationist and visionary, has built a team of almost 100 people working at the grassroots community level to save the wildlife of the Niger Delta. The delta, densely populated and home to oil and gas reserves, is one of the most degraded environments on the planet. It contains over half of the swamp forest in West and Central Africa and the world’s largest mangrove forest. Yet 95% of the forest has been lost in the past 15 years.

Rachel describes her career and how she stumbled into conservation work despite the many obstacles she faced from a society where young women are expected to get married and have children and definitely not become biologists!

She talks about some of the delta’s many special mammals including critically endangered primates like the the Niger Delta Red Colobus that Rachel’s team is bringing back from the brink of extinction with the help of local communities.

And Rachel talks about some of the very many dangers she has faced working in this difficult area. She has run the gauntlet of everything from death threats to drowning and also had a very close encounter with an angry Elephant.