Nature Guys

Gia and Bob are in Bob’s backyard on a cold winter afternoon talking all about alligators. Alligators are a great American success story. Thanks to Christina Zorn for the great research! This episode is part of our Keystone Species series.

Keystone Species series episodes: Firefighting Beavers

Our sources for this episode include:

• Definition of Alligator
• Alligator Biology and Behavior
• JW Lang and HV Andrews, J Exp Zoology (1994) Temperature-dependent sex determination in crocodilians.
• Cramp Meyer Sparks and Franklin. (2008) Functional and morphological plasticity of crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) salt glands. Journal of Experimental Biology 2008 211: 1482-1489; doi: 10.1242/jeb.015636. https://jeb.biologists.org/content/ 211/9/1482
• American Alligator from National Geographic
• Crocodilian Biology Database

Recently I ran across a title of a new book that peaked my interest. Curious to know more I did an Internet search and found out that this book is written by someone I think you may recognize. Erin Brockovich has become a household word thanks to a movie by the same name released in the year 2000. I got a hold of a copy of the book and after reading it realized it would be the perfect end to the water series. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the first two parts I encourage you to do so. Charles does a great job giving us a deeper understanding of why water is so important to all life on earth. I hope Erin will inspire you to pick up a copy of her book, Superman’s not Coming: Our National Water Crisis What We The People Can Do About It. As Erin so passionately says no one is going to solve our water problems for us. It is up to we the people and Erin’s book shows you how.

Related Episodes: What the Heck is Water, Freshwater Life

Our sources for this episode include:
Superman’s not Coming: Our National Water Crisis What We The People Can Do About It by Erin Brockovich

Charles Van Rees joins Bob to discuss the importance of freshwater and its relationship to biodiversity. This is part two of a three part series.

Related episodes:

• What the Heck is Water
• Firefighting Beavers
• Salmon are a Gift
• Sit Spot

Our sources for this episode include:

• WWF Living Planet Report 2018
• Van Rees et al., 2020 – Safeguarding freshwater life beyond 2020
• United Nations Water Development Report 2020
• Global Water Partnership: Water and Ecosystems

Charles Van Rees joins Bob to discuss something we can take for granted. Water is an amazing substance and Charles has some insights as to why it is essential to all life on earth. This is part one of a three part series on water and its importance to all living things on earth.

Related episodes: So You Want to Be a Naturalist, Sycamores Can Be Huge Trees, Freshwater Life

Our sources for this episode include:

• Water: The Science of Nature’s Most Important Nutrient by Len Kravitz
• Vandas et al., 2002: Water and the Environment
  

It has been a challenging year for everyone including Nature Guys. Losing Bill Creasey in August was a loss for everyone who values connecting to the natural world. It would take a village of naturalists to replace him. Well we don’t quite have a village but we have been able to assemble an amazing team to carry on the work of Nature Guys. Tune in to find out what Bob discovers at his sit spot. This episode also serves as a preview of the first five episodes in 2021.

Visit our About Us page to learn more about the Nature Guys team.

Related episodes:

• Sit Spot
• Our Friend Bill
• Watch for the Cooper’s Hawk at Your Bird Feeder
• So You Want to Be a Naturalist with Charles Van Rees
• Firefighting Beavers with Gia Giammarinaro
• Witch Hazel Magic with Greg Torres

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A while back my sister Suzanne called me. She was excited because a pair of mourning doves had nested on an upstairs window ledge of her house. As it happens I was reading David Sibley’s book What It’s Like to be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating, to Singing What Birds are Doing and Why.

My sister is a great lover of books so I made her an offer I knew she could not refuse. I suggested that I would send her a copy of the book if she would put together some questions that I might use in this interview. Suzanne has never to my knowledge passed up the opportunity to read a book she is interested in so she quickly agreed.

A few weeks later she sent me this email: “I really enjoyed reading What It’s Like to be a Bird. As you know, I am not someone who spends much time thinking about birds and my knowledge of them is very limited, but I like them and found this book to be a great source of information for someone like me. I am very impressed that Sibley did both the text and the illustrations, which are great. So here are some general questions and questions about mourning doves, which may or may not be of use to you.”

Hope you enjoy the interview!

Related episode: Mourning Doves

Our sources for this episode include:

• Sibley Guides
• What It’s Like to Be a Bird by David Sibley

Today’s episode is sponsored by Cinfed Credit Union. You have questions, Cinfed has answers! Providing financial services for more than 85 years to a wide area around Cincinnati. Become a member at cinfed.com!

Listeners often ask me what can you do to help out Nature Guys? This is our annual Giving Tuesday podcast and I have a very specific call to action for this episode. Donate what you can to a great organization that means a lot to Bob. Tune in to find out how you can donate.

Welcome to Chris Clements as a Nature Guys Cohost!

Our sources for this episode include:

• Imago
• Giving Tuesday

Today’s episode is sponsored by Cinfed Credit Union. You have questions, Cinfed has answers! Providing financial services for more than 85 years to a wide area around Cincinnati. Become a member at cinfed.com!

Witch Hazel is an amazing and strange plant. It took naturalists a long time to figure out what might pollinate it. Greg Torres, a very talented horticulturist, joins Bob to discuss a plant that you can find blooming in December.

Our sources for this episode include:

• The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden by Rick Darke and Douglas Tallamy
• Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy
• Evolution and biogeographic diversification of the witch-hazel genus (Hamamelis L., Hamamelidaceae) in the Northern Hemisphere by Xei, Lei; Yi, Ting-Shuang; Li, Rong; Li, De-Zhu; Wen. Jun (2010) Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
• History of Hamamelis (Witch Hazel), Extract and Distillate by Lloyd, J. U. and J. T. Lloyd. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. 24(1935) (3):220–24.
• FDA Skin Protectant Drugs

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union for sponsoring this episode.

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Introducing Gia Giammarinaro as my cohost for todays episode. Gia is the lead Naturalist at Cincinnati Parks California Woods Nature Preserve. Her favorite rodent is the beaver. How many people do you know who lunch with beavers? Gia was actually on the Parachuting Beaver episode and returns with an amazing story she found in National Geographic. This episode is part of our Keystone Species series.

Related episode: Parachuting Beavers

Keystone Species series: All About Alligators

Our sources for this episode include:

• How beavers became North America’s best firefighter
• Controversy builds around beaver dams
• The Benefits of Beavers
  

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union for sponsoring this episode.

Nature Guys got a wonderful email from Kim who homeschools her children and wanted some advice. Her oldest son is hoping to do something in the field of nature. I also received this email from Charles Van Rees a Conservation Biologist and Naturalist offering to be a guest on the show.

“I want first and foremost to thank you for bringing your expertise, humor, warmth, and energy to a great podcast on natural history. I recently moved from a crowded city in Europe to rural Montana, and have been looking for good podcasts on natural history to keep my mind occupied during frequent, long drives. Your podcast has brought me a lot of joy, laughs, and learning during a tough transition and helped me get back in touch with North American nature. Thank you so much! On my way into work this morning I heard your ‘Welcome 2020’ podcast and your mention of wanting to feature more ‘humans’ on the show. In case you were looking for additional humans, I wanted to offer myself as a potential guest, since I absolutely adore the show and would love to give something in return. I’m a wetland ecologist and conservation biologist with expertise in freshwater biodiversity and ornithology, and currently work as a postdoctoral research scientist at Flathead Lake Biological Station in Polson, Montana. My past work has been on endangered water birds in Hawaii and migratory gulls in Seville, Spain. Aside from that, I’m a passionate student of natural history and have been trying to spend more time integrating nature study into my work as my career advances. I’ve been featured on a couple podcasts before and think it’s tremendous fun. If you’d like to learn more about me I’d be happy to chat anytime, or you can have a look at my website.”

I decided it would be a good idea to have Charles answer Kim’s email. What started as an email exchange evolved into doing a complete episode. If you know people who are interested in the natural world as a career please share this episode with them.

You can contact Charles and learn more about his activities via Charles Van Rees website or Twitter @Gulothoughts.

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union for sponsoring this episode.