BiodiverCity

In this week’s bonus episode, Jake talks with JaV’on Latimore, entomologist and entotarian, about insects on the menu and not yuck-ing anyone else’s yum.

Follow JaV’on on TikTok at @vonnroach, on Instagram at @en.tune, and on Twitter at @ent_tune.

To learn more about the BiodiverCity podcast, visit www.thegottliebnativegarden.com/podcast

In the heart of Los Angeles, there is a garden filled with more hummingbirds than anywhere this side of the Mississippi. We talk with the garden’s naturalist, Scott Logan, and UC Davis hummingbird expert and veterinarian Lisa Tell to discover how and why one person’s backyard became a haven for thousands of hummingbirds. We’re also joined by Dr. Eric Strauss, Executive Director of the Loyola Marymount University Center for Urban Resilience, who tells us how wildlife conservation in our urban setting is changing. Less than 10 miles away at the L.A. Zoo, we meet Star, a bird so rare that she was smuggled into the United States in someone’s socks, and it’s up to Mike Maxcy, Lori Rogalski and the team at the Zoo to save her – and maybe her species.

Want a peek into what hummingbird tagging looks like? See Lisa Tell collect a hummingbird for tagging here. See the chip reader that the hummingbirds fly through here.
For more information about programs at the L.A. Zoo visit lazoo.org
BiodiverCity is made possible with support from The Gottlieb Native Garden.

Host:
Dr Jake Owens, Director of Conservation, Los Angeles Zoo

Executive Producers:
Susan Gottlieb
Tom Jacobson
Diane Shader Smith
Denise Verret

Producers:
April Merl
Jake Owens

Associate Producer:
Brenda Scott Royce
Original Music:
Micah Smith

Additional contributions from:
Hannah Beal
Bennett Rea

If you counted all the migratory monarch butterflies in California in 1992, you might total five million. But today, that number is less than 2,000. How did one of the most popular butterflies in the world begin to disappear? Xerces Society’s Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist Emma Pelton unravels the mystery of why the western monarch is vanishing, and she and horticulturist and native plant specialist Carol Bornstein explore ways that everyone can help. Meanwhile at the zoo, Curator of Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish Ian Recchio tells us how his team is working to save a largely unknown, nondescript amphibian called the southern mountain yellow-legged frog from extinction.

To find out more about what the Xerces Society is doing for the Western Monarch and how you can help: https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action

For more information about programs at the L.A. Zoo visit lazoo.org

BiodiverCity is made possible with support from The Gottlieb Native Garden.
Host:
Dr Jake Owens, Director of Conservation, Los Angeles Zoo
Executive Producers:
Susan Gottlieb
Tom Jacobson
Diane Shader Smith
Denise Verret
Producers:
April Merl
Jake Owens
Associate Producer:
Brenda Scott Royce
Original Music:
Micah Smith
Additional contributions from:
Hannah Beal
Bennett Rea

It’s all about food as we get behind the scenes at the zoo and discuss one of L.A.’s most complicated diets with Zoo Nutritionist Emily Schwartz and Curator of Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, Ian Recchio: the diet of the Butaan, one of the world’s largest lizards. After that, we talk about southern Californian indigenous food traditions and how to strike the balance between passing down traditions and depleting the land with Sherman High School Indian Museum curator and co-author of Cooking the Native Way Lorene Sisquoc.

For more information about programs at the L.A. Zoo, visit lazoo.org

To learn more about the Malki Museum: http://malkimuseum.org/

Buy the Chia Café Collective cookbook, Cooking the Native Way here and at many book sellers.

BiodiverCity is made possible with support from The Gottlieb Native Garden.
Host:
Dr Jake Owens, Director of Conservation, Los Angeles Zoo
Executive Producers:
Susan Gottlieb
Tom Jacobson
Diane Shader Smith
Denise Verret
Producers:
April Merl
Jake Owens
Associate Producer:
Brenda Scott Royce
Original Music:
Micah Smith
Additional contributions from:
Hannah Beal
Bennett Rea

Have you ever heard a bat? You probably haven’t. While bats are all around us, their presence goes practically undetected because of their nocturnal habits and silent (to us, at least) echolocation. We talk with Natural History Museum (NHM) Wildlife Biologist and Community Science Manager Miguel Ordeñana about how bats help start conversations about conservation in neighborhoods all across L.A., and the Gottlieb Native Garden’s naturalist Scott Logan shares his recordings allowing us to go beyond the limits of human hearing to get a sense of what bat calls really sound like.

More about NHM’s Be a Bat Detector Program: https://nhm.org/stories/be-bat-detector

More about how to attract bats to your backyard (including DIY plans for bat houses): https://www.batcon.org/about-bats/bat-houses/

For more information about programs at the L.A. Zoo, visit lazoo.org

BiodiverCity is made possible with support from The Gottlieb Native Garden.

Host:
Dr Jake Owens, Director of Conservation, Los Angeles Zoo
Executive Producers:
Susan Gottlieb
Tom Jacobson
Diane Shader Smith
Denise Verret
Producers:
April Merl
Jake Owens
Associate Producer:
Brenda Scott Royce
Original Music:
Micah Smith
Additional contributions from:
Hannah Beal
Bennett Rea