Wildlife Health Talks

About Wildlife Health Talks

This is the podcast of the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA, https://www.wildlifedisease.org). Our host Dr Catharina Vendl chats with wildlife health professionals including researchers, vets, pathologists and more, about the joys and challenges of their job and the emerging issues of wildlife health locally and worldwide. All of our guests have a longstanding affinity with the WDA and a true passion for wildlife in common. So brush up your knowledge of current wildlife issues and One Health with Wildlife Health Talks.

Publisher

WDA Communications Committee

Category

science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jan 2023

Latest episode

1 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

113 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   1 Nov 2026

   #95 Maureen and the Rethinking of the City Rat (USA)

   What if the most hated animal in your city is really just a very small coyote? Dr. Maureen Murray runs the Chicago Rat Project at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute, and she makes the case that you cannot understand a city’s rats without understanding its people. Her team found leptospirosis concentrated in rats in Chicago’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, overturning the assumption that rats are a problem of poverty, while the people most exposed to rat urine at home were lower income re...

2. 

   18 Oct 2026

   #94 Dave, Duct Tape, Helicopters and Elk: Wildlife Medicine in the 1970s (USA)

   When Dr. Dave Jessup finished vet school in 1976, there was no such thing as a wildlife vet job. Within a year he became the first wildlife veterinarian ever hired by the California Department of Fish and Game, and stayed 33 years. In this WDA history episode, Dave recalls darting elk from helicopters with the seatbelt duct-taped shut, tracing land parasites to dying sea otters, and testifying before Congress without telling his bosses. He also looks back on a decade as WDA executive manager,...

3. 

   4 Oct 2026

   #93 Amelie and the Taming of a Lyssavirus Panic (Germany)

   When a Daubenton's bat tested positive for a rabies-related virus at a kindergarten in central Germany, the story moved faster than the facts. Headlines screamed "rabies panic," and Dr. Amelie Lisa Arnecke stepped in to stop good science from being drowned out by panic. In this episode, the veterinary pathologist and Leipzig University postdoc walks us through how one grounded bat triggered a vaccination campaign, a media storm, and a 500-person public event, and what she's learned about gett...

Who has been a guest on Wildlife Health Talks

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dr Samantha Allen
• Dr Damien Joly
• Alexandra Youssef
• Dianna Bissett

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 35 / 100

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

Quality

38

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

82

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