Born Free Podcast: Recent Episodes
Born Free
Born Free is an international wildlife charity that works to ensure the survival of threatened species in the wild and protect natural habitats. Join us as we talk to inspiring wildlife conservationists, welfare activists, campaigners and biologists, to cover all things from the controversial nature of trophy hunting, to uncovering the personal stories that inspire a lifelong commitment to wildlife and habitat protection. Follow us on Twitter @BornFreeFDN and Instagram @BornFreeFoundation
Wildlife rangers in developing nations have one of the most notoriously dangerous and unpredictable jobs around. While they might have the latest technologies and ammunition to defend wildlife, often their own basic welfare requirements are severely lacking.
In this episode, we bring you the story of The Sockstar Project, a charity that strives for change by providing rangers in Africa with products like bars of soaps, toothpaste, women’s sanitation products and socks. Its two main areas of support are for wildlife conservation NGOs Game Rangers International, in Zambia, and National Park Rescue, in Zimbabwe.
They are both key players in the fight for African elephant conservation, and operate where poaching is a very real danger for elephants and the people protecting them. The project is making a difference, quite literally, one boot at a time.
Virginia McKenna OBE tells us about the brave decision she and her husband took back in 1964 to travel to Kenya, with three children in tow, to film Born Free. It became a family classic that followed true story of the rescued lioness, Elsa, who was released into the wild. Little did they know that wildlife would become their inspiration and true calling. Bearing witness to the animals they worked with being shipped to various captive establishments, they established Zoo Check, a body to prevent captive exploitation. Since then, the charity has developed into the international wildlife conservation and animal welfare charity, the Born Free Foundation. Virginia continues as Born Free’s matriarch today, responsible for encouraging generations into wildlife protection and lending her voice to campaigns against animal cruelty.
In this episode she gives a personal account of how our attitudes to animals have changed since she began campaigning, how she finds nature in every day modern life and what she hopes for the future of wildlife.
In this episode, we speak to Dr Matt McLennan, Director and Co-Founder of the Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project, Uganda. Here, chimpanzees live alongside farmers in rural areas of the country and often come into conflict with one another.
Matt tells us what it’s really like living alongside our closest relatives, how they are able to cross roads, and how they share similar behaviours and emotions as us! Alongside chimpanzee research, the project identifies ways for sustainable human-chimpanzee co-existence, including creating alternative livelihoods to those that contribute to deforestation, providing energy-efficient stoves and water boreholes to increase living standards, and an extensive tree planting programme.
To find out more about the project visit: https://bulindichimpanzees.weebly.com/
Can humans and tigers live alongside each other peacefully in one of the most populated countries of the world? That’s the daily challenge for rural communities in India, which is home to about 3,000 – or 70% – of all wild tigers left worldwide.
We find out from Dr Nikki Tagg, Born Free’s Conservation Project Manager how Born Free’s Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership is working across central India to support Indian NGOs in their own work, within their own communities, to show that co-existence with tigers is possible.
Did you know there are more than 3,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity worldwide today? Even though places like SeaWorld have committed to a breeding ban of their captive orcas the same has not extended to other whale and dolphin species.
We talk to Sam Goddard, Born Free’s Campaigns Officer, about why bottlenose dolphins, beluga whales and sea lions are treated so differently from their relatives.
Fighting wildlife crime
Wildlife crime consultant Greta Iori is fighting to protect Ethiopia’s wildlife, one elephant at a time. Specialising in ivory-related crime and the protection of elephants, she is responsible for championing an alliance protecting the most northerly population of elephants in the horn of Africa.
With a deep love for wildlife and for her home country of Ethiopia, Greta’s role has given her a unique perspective on the world. We met up with Greta to find out more about her work, country, affinity for elephants, and how she stays motivated in a world where wildlife is under ever-increasing threat.
For more info about Greta's work, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theitaliopian/
In the early 1980s, Ian Redmond had the opportunity to venture to Rwanda as a research assistant with Dr Dian Fossey. Then, he was a graduate fresh out of Keele University studying mountain gorilla populations at Dr Fossey’s research station. During his time there, Ian was instrumental in the creation of the famous encounter between Sir David Attenborough and the mountain gorillas during Sir David’s series, Life of Earth: a Natural History by David Attenborough.
Now a highly regarded tropical biologist and wildlife conservationist in his own right, he has amassed a wealth of knowledge regarding the conservation of great apes and elephants in particular, and his passion for wildlife protection has grown into an unwavering dedication.
In the late 1970s, the African elephant population was estimated at 1.3 million. Today, their population has plummeted to around 400,000 and continue to decline. The need for their protection has never been more urgent. In this episode, we discuss the status of the African elephant and the differing conservation strategies in place across Africa for their protection.
We hear from Penny Banham, Born Free’s Conservation Officer, about her year spent in Tanzania studying elephant movement and her own experiences with these giants in the field. We also discuss the growing need for protection and conservation strategies dedicated to the lesser-known and separate species, the forest elephant, which Born Free works to support in Ghana and Liberia.
This year, Born Free has rescued 11 lions from captive exploitation across Europe. This includes four cubs who were all being kept illegally as pets in France. Born Free, and other partners successfully relocated the lions to our big cat sanctuary in Shamwari Private Game Reserve, South Africa.
We speak to Maggie Balaskas, Born Free’s Animal Rescue and Care Manager, about exactly what it takes to fly four lion cubs half way across the world. From ensuring vaccination from numerous exotic diseases to avoiding passport problems, the journey was never going to be simple for the young animals who’s lives depend on a successful mission.
Dr Liz Greengrass, Born Free’s Head of Conservation, has long been drawn to field research in remote, rural and sometimes dangerous landscapes.
After graduating in zoology, she was asked by Dr Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in Tanzania, where she remained for a number of years. Though she’s now based in the UK, she has amassed a wealth of expertise in the field, and this episode gives an insight into the reality of fieldwork and how we can transform research into real, tangible benefits for wildlife.
Will Travers OBE is Born Free’s President and Co-Founder. In this episode we chat about his unusual upbringing while his parents, Virginia McKenna OBE and Bill Travers MBE filmed Born Free in Kenya. We also talk about the challenges and frustrations he faces as a wildlife conservationist in 2019, the achievements of the charity that have meant the most to him and, perhaps most importantly, what he hopes the future of conservation looks like.
In 2015, Beth Jennings travelled to South Africa to volunteer at what she thought was a rescue centre for lion cubs. Almost immediately, she realised the lions she was helping to hand-rear were being bred for a much sinister purpose.
When the lions reach a certain age, they are often hunted in captive environments by trophy hunters, or fall victim to the lion bone trade. We talk to Beth about Claws Out, the campaign she created on the back of her experience, to raise awareness of the horrific realities of lion cub farms.
Find out more, and watch the Claws Out film here: https://www.claws-out.com/
She’s just 16 years old, but Bella is one of the UK’s most celebrated young conservationists – and rightly so – speaking to governments, being involved in Parliamentary debates and in her role as Born Free’s youngest Youth Ambassador, she already has an astounding CV.
In this episode, Bella shares her insights into the world of wildlife protection, talks about where she draws her inspiration from and tells us what she hopes the future of wildlife conservation will bring.
You can read her blog, Call From the Wild, here: www.callfromthewild.com/
Dr Mark Jones, Born Free’s Head of Policy, exposes the hard truths of trophy hunting and explains the individual suffering it causes, the disruption to an animal’s familial herds or prides and the implications it can have on the wider ecosystem. We also explore the claims that income from hunting is invested into conservation or returned to the surrounding local communities – is this ever the case?
This episode will discuss the increasing trend of keeping wild animals as pets across the world, with Dr Chris Draper, Born Free’s Head of Captivity and Animal Welfare. From the keeping of cheetahs in the UAE, to tigers in the US, even bears in the South of England, we ask whether keeping wild animals as pets can ever be justified and what the implications are for the people and animals involved. We also follow the journey of the Lions of Lyon – the four cubs who were all rescued from different captive situations in France, including one in a Lamborghini in Paris, as they make their way back to their ancestral homeland.