WCS Wild Audio

Governments from around the world are meeting in Yerevan, Armenia this month to confront a difficult question. They’ve made major promises to protect nature. Are they delivering? Wild Audio speaks with WCS Vice President for International Policy Dr. Susan Lieberman about the biodiversity summit, what WCS hopes to achieve, and why international meetings this year on grasslands, biodiversity, and climate are so closely connected.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guest: Dr. Susan Lieberman

The Arctic Ocean is getting noisier. As warming temperatures reduce summer sea ice, ship traffic is increasing—and with it, underwater noise that can affect whales, seals, and other marine life.

WCS Canada has been listening to those changes for years. Now, the team is turning to AI to help make sense of their massive, growing archive of Arctic sound.

Reporting: Dan Rosen

Guest: William Halliday

This month, governments from around the world are gathering in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD CoP17).

While the meeting focuses on the growing threats of drought and land degradation, it's also an opportunity to draw attention to one of the planet's most important—and often overlooked—ecosystems.

Reporting; Nat Moss

Guests: Susan Lieberman, Justine Shanti Alexander

The Tropical Andes represents one of the world's most important ecosystems, spanning seven South American countries over 4,500 kilometers. They shelter extraordinary wildlife, provide water for millions, and help regulate the global climate. But they're under increasing threat. Wild Audio's Hannah Kaplan speaks to WCS Colombia's Science and Conservation Director Dr. Germán Forero-Medina and Dr. Mariana Montoya, Country Director for WCS Peru, about why protecting this remarkable region matters for us all.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan

Guests: Dr Mariana Montoya, Dr. Germán Forero-Medina

For World Oceans Month, we turn to coastal Patagonia on the Southern Cone of South America. This biodiverse seascape is home to some of the continent's most productive marine ecosystems.

But climate change is beginning to reshape this remarkable region in ways scientists are only starting to understand. In this week’s episode, we look at an ambitious effort to help Patagonia adapt to an uncertain future.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guests: Valeria Falabella, Montserrat Rodriguez

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms media, journalists and conservationists are confronting a new and unsettling reality: What happens when we can no longer trust what we see in nature documentaries and wildlife photography?

This week WCS speaks with Rhett Butler, Founder and CEO of Mongabay, about how AI-generated wildlife imagery is beginning to reshape conservation journalism, and why the stakes may be much higher than they first appear.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan

Guest: Rhett Butler

This week on WCS Wild Audio, we’re taking a short break from our usual programming to share an episode from another show we absolutely love. It comes to us from our friends at Terrestrials — the wildly inventive family science podcast from Radiolab and WNYC.

Terrestrials explores some of the strangest and most fascinating creatures on Earth. And in today’s episode, host Lulu Miller and producers Ana Gonzalez and SongBud Alan Goffinski set out on a mission to discover everything about big cats.

Along the way, they visit the Bronx Zoo with WCS’s own Luke Hunter to meet endangered tigers and lions, compare the roars of the world’s most iconic felines, and discover that even the fiercest predators on Earth can cough up furballs, play with their siblings, and care deeply for their families.

It’s funny, smart, weird, and full of wonder—and if you enjoy what you hear, be sure to check out more episodes of Terrestrials wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back next week with a new episode of WCS Wild Audio.

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Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Alan Goffinski and Ana González, with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is the Executive Producer. The team also includes Tanya Chawla, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Diane Kelly.

https://link.podtrac.com/TerrFeed

This week, as we mark the 10th anniversary of the National Bison Legacy Act, WCS Wild Audio revisits its report on how extraordinary partnerships across geography, culture, and politics helped make the American bison our national mammal. Looking ahead to the 250th anniversary of American independence this July, there can be no better time to reflect on the bison as both a symbol of our shared past and a reminder of our responsibility to protect the wildlife, landscapes, and cultural legacies that define us.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guests: John Calvelli, Keith Aune, Dave Carter, Jim Stone

Each year, the WCS Career Lattice supports over 1,900 youth ages 14 to 24 in volunteer, internship, and employment opportunities across its five parks in New York City. It’s helping young people turn early opportunities into meaningful careers, as they develop skills, find mentorship opportunities, and gain valuable experience.

Reporting: Dan Rosen
Guests: Reiariel Garcia, Yvonne Bennett, John Calvelli

George Schaller is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern field biology — a scientist whose work helped transform how we study animals in the wild. From gorillas in the Congo to snow leopards in the Himalayas, his research has shaped conservation for decades. This week, WCS Wild Audio caught up with author Miriam Horn to discuss her new biography of Schaller, Homesick for a World Unknown, and the legacy of a life spent observing wildlife.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guest: Miriam Horn

WCS’s REEL WILD™️ New York Film Festival returns to showcase fresh, powerful stories about people and nature from around the world. One of this year’s featured films is "Keeper"—a documentary short that follows a Bronx beekeeper and his daughter. The film was shortlisted for an Oscar Award. You can see it on Friday, April 24. Get tickets at https://www.reelwild.org/.

Reporting: Dan Rosen

Guests: Sean Flynn, Hannah Rafkin

The REEL WILD™ New York Film Festival returns April 23–26, 2026, celebrating filmmakers and wildlife stories that inspire action and conservation impact.

WCS’s Hannah Kaplan sat down with Dr. Edith Widder, star of A Life Illuminated, winner of Best Exploration Film and Best in Fest. The documentary follows Dr. Widder - one of the first women in her field and first people to explore the ocean’s twilight zone - as she descends 3,300 feet into the deep, capturing the first-ever footage of the elusive giant squid and uncovering bioluminescent phenomena that could transform our understanding of life on Earth.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan
Guest: Dr. Edith Widder

This month between March 23-29, governments from around the world will gather in Campo Grande, Brazil, for the triennial conference of parties to the Convention on Migratory Species, or CMS.

It’s a treaty focused on animals that cross borders—birds, whales and sharks, big cats, freshwater fish—that no one country can conserve alone.

As the meeting approaches, WCS Wild Audio spoke to CMS Executive Secretary Amy Fraenkel about the state of the world’s migratory species — and what’s at stake at this year’s conference.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guest: Amy Fraenkel

Across the Amazon Basin, the search for gold has unleashed a crisis both environmental and human. Illegal and small-scale gold mining depends on mercury to separate gold from stone. That mercury seeps into rivers, the air, and the food people eat, poisoning ecosystems and communities alike. This week, WCS Wild Audio has the story of how—from Ecuador to Bolivia —conservationists and Indigenous leaders are fighting back.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guests: Sebastian Valdivieso, Óscar Loayza

Peatlands don’t get the attention they deserve. Worldwide, these wetlands provide crucial ecosystem services. They are vital for Indigenous livelihoods and as carbon storage powerhouses. Canada has some of the world's largest remaining intact peatlands. Now, WCS Canada has a new national strategy to safeguard them before it’s too late.

Reporting: Dan Rosen

Guest: Victoria Goodday

Coral reefs are facing unprecedented pressure from overfishing, pollution, and climate change. But scientists are finding that some reefs are more resilient than others — and that protecting those reefs could shape the future of coral conservation worldwide. The Wildlife Conservation Society has developed a new strategy focused on identifying and safeguarding those places of resilience.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guest: Emily Darling

As we launch this new coral reef conservation strategy, WCS would like to thank Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, and The Tiffany & Co. Foundation for their longtime partnership with the WCS Coral Reef Program. Their support, in addition to several other dedicated donors and multilateral partners, has helped us to propel this work.

Sharks and rays are some of the ocean’s most iconic species, but they are in crisis. At the upcoming CITES COP20 meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, governments will decide on dozens of proposals to regulate global trade in wildlife and wildlife products. That includes whether or not to give certain shark and ray species the highest level of international trade protections—a full ban.

Reporting: Dan Rosen

Guests: Luke Warwick, Dana Tricarico

This summer, the Wildlife Conservation Society welcomed Adam Falk as its new president and CEO. Previously the president of Williams College and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Adam brings to his new role a deep commitment to science, a passion for education, and a belief in the power of collaboration. As WCS begins a new chapter, Adam sat down with Wild Audio to share his excitement for his new position and the opportunity to lead the Wildlife Conservation Society as it confronts the urgent conservation challenges of the moment.

Reporting: Nat Moss

Guest: Adam Falk

In Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands, five clans have come together to formally protect 2,000 hectares of ancestral forest through the Yasina Conservation Deed. This landmark agreement shows how Indigenous communities can lead conservation, safeguarding biodiversity while preserving their cultural traditions.

Reporting: Hannah Kaplan

Guests: Harshad Hemant Karandikar, Bennie W Atigini

Every four years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, brings together governments, NGOs, scientists, and Indigenous leaders at the World Conservation Congress. Soon, it will be convened in Abu Dhabi. The growing threat of the pet trade in terrestrial wildlife is one of the important issues that will be addressed.

Reporting: Dan Rosen

Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Bennett