Santa Cruz Naturalist

About Santa Cruz Naturalist

Central Coast Naturalist invites listeners to join UCSC Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate students as they explore nature in and around Santa Cruz County. Each episode will enrich your next experience with nature as you learn fascinating insights (from local experts) about the creatures that inhabit your favorite hiking trails, beaches and even your own backyard.

Publisher

Central Coast Naturalist

Category

science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Feb 2019

Latest episode

17 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

120 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Mar 2026

   Bird Flu Strikes Marine Mammals on the California Coast

   This week, host Frankie Gerraty reports on the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (a severe form of "bird flu") affecting marine mammals on the central California coast.

2. 

   10 Mar 2026

   Death Valley in Full Bloom

   On this episode, host Niki Sridhar discusses the current superbloom in Death Valley, exploring the conditions that lead to these events and their ecological impacts on surrounding ecosystems.

3. 

   24 Feb 2026

   Small Antelope, Big Impact: Duikers and the Future of Tropical Forests- part.2

   In this two-part conversation, ecologist Bastien Dehaudt shares his PhD research in Cameroon, where he studied duikers, small forest antelopes that play a large role as seed dispersers. He explains that duikers disperse seeds through two primary internal pathways: regurgitation and defecation. Together, these pathways influence how far seeds travel, where they establish, and which tree species successfully regenerate. Bastien's work expands our understanding of how different dispersal pathways function, how mammals shape forest composition, and why protecting wildlife is essential for sustaining the ecological processes that maintain tropical forest diversity.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

37

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

77