December 15, 2023 • 31 mins
In the season finale, Rick and Marco take a trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park Biodiversity Reserve to speak with Charlie de la Rosa, Ph.D., natural lands manager for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. This 900-acre preserve in San Diego's North County supports large expanses of coastal sage scrub vegetation along two regionally important wildlife corridors. Here, in the most biodiverse county in the continental United States, we take a look at the importance of native plants including the prickly pear cactus, and Charlie gives us insight on technology used to study the movement of mountain lions and other wildlife. We also discuss how conservation is all about people, our connections to one another, and to the delicately balanced ecosystems that we all share.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz. When is the s world?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Marco went Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique
stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating
animal facts. This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby
Studios and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, an international nonprofit
conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. Well, Marco,
(00:27):
can you believe it? We are at the end of
season two of Amazing Wildlife.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Oh man, that's right. This is episode twenty. And although
I'm pretty bumped to close out season two, rumor has
it we'll be working on season three soon enough.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's true. That's true.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And although this episode will wrap up season two, it's
gonna be a really cool episode for us.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh, I know, I'm so stoked. I can't wait to
go out to the Biodiversity reserve that's part of the
Safari Park.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh, it's gonna be great to record in the wide
open space too. But honestly, before we had out there
into the wilds of southern California coastal Sage scrub, I
do want to make sure our audience knows that the
biodiversity reserve at the Safari Park is not something that
a guest can go tour or go into. However, they
can see it all around. All the undeveloped land in
(01:16):
the area of the Safari Park is technically coastal sage scrub,
and part of the actual biodiversity reserve can be seen
from the guest areas. While you are visiting the Safari Park.
All you need to do is look at the hills
surrounding the park. Of course, there's more to it than
what you can see, but it's all there. Yeah, that's
a really good point, Rick, I mean, I'm glad you
(01:36):
helped clear that up. I know for some people, they're
so excited to be at the Safari Park to see
the wildlife that we have there, they might even forget
that there's also a huge amount of local wildlife living
all around.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh that's true. That's true.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, and you know, to take it beyond our own
coastal sage scrub ecosystem. I hope this episode also reminds
people to take the time to get out soide and
enjoy their own local wildlife in natural spaces.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, agreed, Marco, I completely agree. And the Biodiversity Reserve
is a great place for our teams of researchers and
scientists to better understand the local environment. And they do
this by going out there and doing the work, not
just sitting in a lab or looking over paperwork. It's
a great example of how anyone can learn more about
their local wildlife just get outside and do some observations.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Oh hey, Rick, speaking of getting outside, is it time ago?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Can we go now? Yeah? You know what, Marco is
time to go?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yess I am Charlie de la Rosa. I am the
Natural Lands program manager for the San Diego Zi Wildlife Alliance.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Charlie, can you tell us and obviously our listeners to
where are we right now?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Where are we standing right now?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
We are deep in the heart of the Safari Park
Biodiversity Reserve. And the Safari Park Biodiversity Reserve is a
nine hundred acre coastal stage preserve that's part of the
Safari Park footprint in the Sampascull Valley in San Diego's
North County.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
In this space, though, is not something our public would
normally see when they come to visit Safari.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Park, right, not normally something they would see. I guess
if they look up into the hills in the surrounding area.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Though, yes, exactly.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
So if you're driving down on Highway seventy eight, you're
going to look to your left, look to your right,
and you're seeing elements the vegetation type that we're conserving
here on the biodiversity reserve.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, and it's a beautiful area you guys. We're on
top of a hill right now. I can see the
Safari balloon off in the distance. And also I think
it's worth acknowledging that we're on the traditional land of
the sample it's called abandoned mission Indians and the Kumii people.
So there's a long standing history with the people, the
native indigenous people and this land, and also now with
useeing the Safari Park here. So it's really great, thanks
Charlie for taking the time my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I think it's also gone further with what Marco said
is not only is there a deep cultural history here
in the land that we are on, and there are
people who were a part of this land long before
we ever showed up and now part of your work, Charlie,
I guess we'll start with why is it important that
this land has been set aside.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
There's a couple of ways that I could answer that question.
One is that this is an incredibly imperiled habitat type.
If you think about it, Southern California is really densely
populated and people want to live here. People are continuing
to move here, and a lot of the habitat that
covered our coastal areas in southern California now has towns
(04:29):
and houses and farms and other types of development. So
it's really important for us to conserve elements of that
type of habitat that are still remaining. And the other
thing to keep in mind is we're in a biodiversity
hotspot in San Diego County and southern California. That means
that we have a really high number of species for
(04:51):
the area, but it also means that we have significant
threats to a lot of species. There's a lot of
rare species or endangered species.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And I want to add to when you're searing species,
it's not just animals.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Not just animals, what else, Plants, fungi. Yeah, there's a
lot of different things out there, stuff that.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
People don't know what to think of. But when you
speak of biodiversity and the value of that.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And when I say value, I don't mean monetary, the
value of keeping ecosystem balanced and being a biodiversity hot
spot and having this land set aside now for you
and others to come out here and observe and study
and understand a what the land needs and what it's
going through. And therefore then the fungi, the plants, the animals, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
All sorts of stuff, insects exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I love the connectivity of it as well, you know,
even for native sant nigans. As the year goes on,
the landscape transforms asn't it. And you and I have
been in little nature walks in here before and from
spring to what we see now, there's still activity of life.
There's still connections. And when Rick, you know, you were
talking about animals and plant life, I always go back to,
like that prickly pair adventure that you and I had.
Can you talk about that particular plant species and why
(05:57):
it's so unique here here in this area.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, before you go and we're out here, is there
anywhere we could walk to go? Look?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Let's go fine, Let's well, if you look down the
hill here, you can see yeah, you see light green
patches just covered with prickly pear. Prickly pear is kind
of a blanket term for a number of different species
of cactus that are in the Puntia genus. And if
(06:24):
you've ever seen cactuses that look like they have mickey
mouse ears, you know, or donkey ears, those are generally going.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
To be a Puntia cactuses.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
And now what we're looking at, we're looking down a
hill and we're looking at slopes that are gently kind
of sloping down into the San Pasqua Valley and they're
sloping in a southern direction. And if you could see
what we're seeing, we're looking at a dotted hillscate with
tons of these little green patches of cactus. We have
over two hundred acres of cactus dominated coastal stage scrub
(06:57):
in the biodiversity reserve, and that's why I think this
is a very very endangered subtype of that habitat. And
there's a lot of species that rely on the cactus.
So it's this whole little ecosystem within an ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Everyone's being a kid around here eating in Spanish at
don nes no like the little cactus fruit, you know,
and I never really thought about the connectivity with the
local wildlife. Do they need that for nerrous man for
some for moisture, right, because we're in a dryer area here.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
There's very few plants out here that produce a fruit
that's so full of sugars, full of nutrients. And when
if you can imagine two hundred acres of prickly pears
starts fruiting, it's insane.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It looks like Christmas.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
There's red fruits all over the place, and all different
animals will take advantage of that resource. So I've seen ravens.
Ravens will like to peck the fruits and they'll eat
the fruit from the inside out.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
They leave just a little shell.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Smart.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
So you walk around and you can see evidence of
different animals that are taking advantage of this delicious smorgas
board of food, bees, foxes, coyotes, and people. And the
prickly pair was an incredibly important food resource, seasonal food
resource for the Kumii, the Payam, kowechum and other people
that live in southern California.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You mentioned some of the wildlife that enjoy the prickly pair.
You're out here quite a bit, doing quite a bit
of work, and also you have eyes when you're not here,
you've got camera traps set up and everywhere else. What
some of the wildlife you know lives out here on
this land we're currently on.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
You would be shocked because there's so much cool stuff.
And I think there's a lot of people in southern
California that are used to going out and recreating and
then you might see some signs, and the signs say
that there's cougars and that there's foxes and coyotes, but
you don't necessarily run into them every day, but on
the cameras we see them.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
They are here.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
So we have seen pumas in the Biodiversity Reserve, really
exciting to see them. The fact that there's an apex
predator that's been able to persist in these fairly small
patches of habitat that are left is just it's miraculous.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It's kind of one of the beauties of the Safari Parker.
I think where guests come in and you know they're
expecting sea wildlife from Africa, Australia, all over the globe,
but especially those who work here, we get excited over
the local wildlife. Yeah, right, were were just talking about
the zone tail hawk we just saw recently, and that's
one of the things about this reserve that I just
we're talking and seeing birds flying around that hill. I
just love it so much, as so much local wildlife
and benefit from this area, this reserve that we have
(09:21):
with the Safari Park.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, I'll just throw some quick numbers. Two species of skunk.
A lot of people don't know that. Oh yeah, there's
a stripe skunk that we all know and love, and
then there's a spotted skunk. Could look that one up
because they're super great.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
They're very cute, and I agree, they're like one of
my face right.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Headstand kids, look them up.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Sixteen species of snakes that we've documented here on the
biodiversity reserve where you have an amazing herpetologist who's been
doing twenty plus years of field work here, and that's
a very high diversity of snakes. Three species of rattle snakes.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Wow yez.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Yeah, maybe scary, but they're also just incredibly important elements
to this ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah, rosy boat king's sake. I mean, there's so so
many and we were talking earlier, you know, the benefits
for local wildlife, for us, for indigenous people. But also
side note it sounds att odd, but we're utilizing this
area too for projects, right, conservation projects.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, right, earlier had the earlier episode with our conservation
tech team. Yeah, Charlie, they were telling us that they
will use this space in conjunction with you to test
out different equipment. Do you know, off top of your
head where some of the things that have been tested
here and the proving grounds if you will, Because we
do have some element of being able to get here,
but yet it's also away from things that now has
been maybe deployed or used elsewhere in the world.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yeah, that's a really unique feature of the biodiversity reserve.
We're so close to our conservation science team. One of
the core purposes of this land is to use it
as a living laboratory to be able to test out
technologies that our teams are developing, first off to monitor
biodiversity to conserve species here, but also in other places
(10:57):
where they're working around the world. So some great examples.
Our conservation Technology lab is developing a lot of really
interesting tools that use artificial intelligence, that use machine learning
to help basically to sort images and to send alerts.
So we're working on a system, for example that if
(11:18):
you've ever seen a security camera, you know how they
can pan and usually there's a guy at a desk
and he's moving it around. Well, imagine a security camera
that's constantly watching a landscape and it's taking pictures and
it's pushing them through algorithms that help to identify what
those pictures are and when it sees something that it
wants to see. So they're doing this for polar bears.
When it sees a polar bear on a white landscape,
(11:40):
it'll zoom in and it'll.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Follow it automatically. YEA, very very cool.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
So they're working on that at the Conservation Technology Lab
and this is a place where they can deploy it
where we don't. They don't have to fly to s
Fallbarn to do that, you know, they just have to
drive ten minutes. So it's a nice resource. They're working
on some other vision related systems. We have a system
that they call Cougar Vision and it uses a network
(12:04):
of traditional cellular trail cameras which any of the listeners
of this program can go and buy them. You can
find them on Amazon, and they're essentially motion triggered cameras
that have a simplan and then you can check the
camera on an app. So that's fun, but you have
to manually check it. So what our team has done
is they've developed some artificial intelligence tools to go through
(12:25):
those images and to sort them into piles, into different species,
and when it sees something that you want to see,
then it can send out alerts, to can send text
alerts and things like that. So it's very cool stuff
and they're testing that out here.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
That's so cool just standing here looking across Aproscope Valley
Safari Parks down the hill and off in the distance,
and hearing you talk about all the things that have
happened and are happening out here, and knowing that this
space has been set aside.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And we mentioned at the beginning of the episode that while.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
You're driving Surfari Park, look you're left and right here
in those amazing biodiverse ecosystem. But it's just a reminder,
I think, or it should be a reminder for everyone,
and that sometimes just the wildlife in your own backyard
is so cool if you take the time to set
aside watching and observing and being a part of what
your local and native species and what are they going
(13:13):
through and what can you do to help them? And
I really appreciate that. And then that leads me into Charlie,
is there any particular for you personally a good story
from you as far as either a moment you've had
out here or experience you've had out here that has
been meaningful for you.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
I mean, I think what you touched on is one
hundred percent truth. There's meaning, and there's incredibly interesting stories
hidden in everything here. So I've had experiences where I've
come across more tarots, you know, rock slicks and grinding
spots from the Kumiai people who lived here for thousands
(13:49):
of years. That's incredibly meaningful, not not only because it's
a representation of the people that who were here, but
also because it tells you something about the ecosystem that
was around them. There's so many things here that are
the same. We're looking at these hills, the rock piles,
they've been here for thousands of years, the plants, even
some of these big Laurel sumacs, these big shrubs that
(14:11):
we can see. I have aerial images that are almost
one hundred years old, and you can see the exact
same plants in the exact same spots. They're very persistent
and very very resilient. But then there's a lot of
things that have changed as well.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, it runs with like connectivity again growing up in
this area, specifically going hike cycle like Hodges and when
you just said that man gave me goosey, just thinking
like like I interacted with with a sumac here that
has been here for years and years and years throughout.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
History of that generation.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah. Right, We're all connected in that way. And I'm
gonna say it again, you guys, like when you come
to the park, it's not just seeing the wildlife that
we're offering, but the senses of the area too, Charlie. Right,
Like we talk about the smell in particular. Like I've
said this before, like when we travel around the world,
we come back and for me, like when I smell
sage or chapara, like to me, that's home, that's San Diego.
And you had a cool story yourself for better right,
(15:00):
can you share that story?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Well, I moved to southern California in two thousand and seven,
so years and years ago, and I moved from North
Florida and I came out to the start my first
field biology job working on Catalina Island, and I remember
that it was so dry. It was July, and everything
was dusty. I was coming from the pine flatwoods and
(15:23):
the cypress hammocks and these incredibly tall, big trees, Spanish
moss dripping down, you know, crystal clear springs, and I
came out to this landscape and there was nothing that
was higher than my chest, you know, no trees, and
everything was brown, brown, brown. Everything was dusty and brown,
and I thought, what have I done? And you know,
(15:47):
I like to tell the story because I liked it.
There's so many people who are new to southern California,
so many visitors, and so many people moving here, and
maybe they're thinking the same thing, and I want to
tell them how I connected with this ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Please.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
It came down to for me, it was the smells.
There's so many different species in the coastal sage and
chaparral that have developed. They're you know, essentially chemicals, but
they produce these incredible aromas. So think of a sage.
I mean, it's so strong, so musky, the California sagebrush.
It's actually not a sage. It's in the sunflower family,
(16:21):
very similar types of smells. All these different plants have
their own smells. And think about smelling something from your
childhood and the memories that that gives you. In just
a few short years, you will, you know, go out
and touch a plant and well, make sure it's not poison.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
But that's a good point. Yeah, as your parents first, get.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
A book, but make that connection because it'll go into
your heart. Yeah, and then you you'll never be able
to get it out again.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah. My parents talk like you rub the leaf again,
identifying their proper plant, and they make me smell it,
like me will smell this, and it just reminds me.
Those are the best memories I think of San Diego.
For me, it's the smell of that ecosystem.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
There's kind of a big picture conservation story here. Conservation
is all about people, and it's about people's connection to
the land. Yeah, it's about diversity, it's about the plants
and animals, but really it's about people being invested and caring.
And I think that's really the philosophy that we're bringing
to the San Diego Zoo and to the Biodiversity Reserve.
(17:21):
We have programs working with the SAMPA squad band of
Mission Indians working with other tribal partners to provide access
to harvest cactus fruit to help us with our restoration work.
We want scientists to come here, we bring out educational groups,
and we want guests to see it too, and we're
working with our Safari Experiences team to put together guest
(17:42):
experiences that can help to tell these stories too. Getting
people invested. You know, there's a trade off. There's a
whole story about loving something to death, and I'm sure
you've heard that about national parks and everything. I think
it's more dangerous for people to not care. And there's
so much any other things that we can distract ourselves
with now, So you know, come out and get invested.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
That's the bottom line.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, yeah, I want to go back to what you said,
or you know, you first came out here and it
was brown and dusty and dry, like, oh my gosh,
what have I done?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
We are right at the just the edge of the
rainy season possibly starting for us. They've called for a
wet winter here in the San Diego area, and looking
around there's a lot of dry looking colors, browns and barely.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Any greens, and some tans. But then occasionally you see
these sticks with these white flowers.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
On them, and I point that out because for me,
it's always been one of those things where it's like,
if you slow down and sure we're driving by on
the road, looks at these a bunch of dry, dead plants,
But these there's so much life and vitality as soon
as those rains hit, where you can see everything green
up and everything changes. But even in the dry and
almost right at the end of the dry season, there's
still some plants out there with little flowers on them,
just being a part of this ecosystem, and it's so cool.
(18:54):
And I want to go back to something else you
mentioned too, Charlie, the idea that it's about the people's
that mark. When I've talked a lot about this season,
talk with the conservation groups, whether it's our you know,
in house folks, or whether it's our partners, what would
you say is probably one of the most important things
the average person could do in their.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Day to day routines to assist with conservation.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I think we need to start small. It's hard to
get back and connect with nature. It takes time. Some
people might not have the privilege to take off after
work and go for a hype, right, whatever you can
do to just take interest in your local ecosystem. Learn
a little bit. There's a lot of really great online resources.
There's a Naturalists and amazing tool that can help you
(19:37):
to identify plants and animals that are in your backyard.
You start small and teach your kids. Bring your kids
to the zoo and talk to the interpreters there. Inspire
a passion for nature. I think that real change it
has to start with the young. So I guess just
get interested. Yeah, you know, start that passion.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
It's simple. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
So one other story that is fresh to this area
that is, you know, borderline breaking news. Yes, you had
mentioned when we're talking about the different species that live
out here that you've seen and you were super excited
about an apex predator. And recently there's been a development
with the puma or mountain lion or cougar, whatever you
want to call it here on this open space.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Can you share with our listeners what has developed?
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yeah, so I'll try to keep a long story short.
I appreciate we have a mountain lion research program that's
a collaboration with our partners at UC Davis at the
Wildlife Health Center, and essentially that project has to do
with monitoring, you know, using GPS callers and trail cameras
to get an idea about population dynamics in southern California
(20:47):
mountain lions, and then also deterrent research. And the idea
with deterrence is that we're trying to basically provide non
lethal alternatives for people who having human wildlife conflict with
mountain lions, for livestock owners and things like that. The
development was that we've been watching a mountain lion who
(21:09):
was collared here in the biodiversity reserve, So she was
carrying a GPS collar for about two years and we
were keeping tabs on her and you know, using her
data for research, and she recently was killed. She was
killed by somebody who she was attacking their livestock. And
this is just a tragic reality. If you took out
(21:29):
the species and took out the location, you would think
that this is a thing that was happening in Africa
or in South America, but.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It's a human conflict is an ongoing issue everywhere.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah, in San Diego County right here. So that was
really tragic. We knew from her GPS data that she
was probably Denning with kittens. And we knew this because
if you look at the data, the data are just
points points in space and time, and there was a
cluster of points in a particular area, and there's really
(22:02):
only a couple of reasons that a mountain lion would
be going back and forth coming back to that specific area,
and based on the timing and the time of year,
we figured she probably had kittens. So we found out
from our Department of Fish and Wildlife partners that she
had been killed, and that very same night, the UC
Davis team and our team got together and we talked
about a plan because we figured we were going to
(22:23):
try and go in and see if we could find
these kittens. We didn't know how old they would be,
we didn't know how many there would be, and they
were in a very remote area, so we had to
get access from the landowner, and they were really great
working with them, and they were able to give us
permission to access the property. Really quickly. We put together
a team and over the course of about a week,
(22:43):
every day some of our team members would be up
there looking for these kittens, and it was like a
needle in a haystack. We ended up finding three kittens,
and the average litter size is three to four, so
we figured that we probably got all of them. Put
out trail cameras all over the area. We had trapped,
(23:04):
you know, just like live traps, baited with all kinds
of good ease to try and bait these kittens in.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And just for the kids that are listening, these traps
are the type that just restrain and keep them in
a It's like I have a heart carrier or something
that closes in on them once they go in.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It's not something that's going to hurt them exactly. Actually
we're have a heart oh.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
No, advertisement, but yeah, that's exactly right. I had kind
of expected that they would be in a den, you know,
I've seen videos of this and stuff, that they would
be back in a rocky crack and we'd find them
and we'd pull them out and yay, they'd all be together.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
That these kittens were mobile.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Oh and we found the first one on Saturday at
about eleven o'clock, the first day that we were out
in the field, and one of the amazing field biologists
with the Moundline Project was able to locate it. It
was about one hundred yards away from the last GPS
point cluster of the female, so it was a needle
(24:01):
in a haystack. We put cameras on that den site
we didn't get anything. Later in the afternoon when we
were setting up cameras, myself and another biologist from the
Mountain Lion Project found the second kitten. So we had
two males that we had found it within the first
day in two completely different locations, and then we spent
several days out there looking. We got an image of
(24:23):
another kitten on one of the cameras overnight and we
went back looked, we couldn't find it, and then the
next day we were able to find it. So it
was a pretty intense adventure for an entire week, but
we were able to locate those three.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Where have the kittens ended up, Well, they're right here
at the Safari Park.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
They're in the Harder hospital right now, and maybe we'll
go and have a look after we're doing here and
see if we can take a peep at them.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
It's great, really. It speaks to the collaborative work too,
you know, all of us being able to work together
to help out these three little cubs.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Absolutely, yeah, the California Department of Fishing Wildlife, the UC
Davis Mountainin Project, and our project all came together and
everybody put in a ton of work and we were
really lucky. But we also had a crack team.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
Working on it. It was really cool.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, it's one of those things where it's definitely a
sad occurrence of what happened to the mother, and obviously
we would rather that she'd been able to raise her
young and they could continue on about their business. But also,
I mean, how fortunate that it was in a space
that she was being monitored and the team can go
out and rescue those kittens. So for forgiven the situation,
what a wonderful outcome for the kids at least.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, the retaliatory killings happen more frequently than we'd like,
and you can imagine if she didn't have a GPS
caller on, we never would have been able to find
those kids. We wouldn't have even known they existed.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Another great example why this space is so.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Important here, right, Thanks Charlie.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, Charlie, I want to I want to thank you,
and I know Marco really appreciates you, and Marko's been
out here with you a couple of times. This space
I've been out in a few times. It's so beautiful.
I mean, I don't park, what do you think. We
talked to a lot of people who are like, I'm
the luckiest person with this job, but I'm like, well
this is this is Charlie.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And you know what I notice, you guys, we've been
sort of like whispering this whole time that it's almost
like this area demands our respect, absolutely, you know what
I mean. So out in wild space, we're all connected
to it. And you kids out there listening right now,
you guys are connected to it too, right, Charlie. I
mean this is for them also. So it was just
an incredible day. It's always a beautiful day hit this
at Faleri Park, but especially Charlie. Kudos, give me some knuckles.
This is so wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yes, thank you Charlie.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Going out in the field with you guys.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, man, it's great.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Thank you so much, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Wow, what a day out of the biodiversity Reserve with
Charlie Marco. As we wrap this up, I want to
let our audience know that we are back in the
studio and even though we are. I can't help but
feel the wonder of our time out there with Charlie.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Oh, I know, Rick, I completely agree. You know. My
only regret as we didn't have more time to hear
more of his amazing stories. I mean, there's just there's
so many different things we could talk about when it
comes to habitat like that.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Oh exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I know exactly how you feel, and I mean I
am glad that we're able to touch the surface of
so many different things going on out there, which is
one way to share with our audience all that is
happening out in nature. But you're right, I would love
to go out there again and do more in depth
stories on the diversity of well just even all the
reptiles he mentioned, or yes, Marco, even the birds.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yes, definitely the birds. And honestly, it sounds to me
like we just start scheduling things for season three of
Amazing My Life so we can include more details of
some of these awesome stories.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, I completely agree, my friend, and I hope we
can do a follow up story about those cougar cubs
or puma cubs as Charlie called them.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Well, you know, it's been about a week since we're
out there with Charlie, So I do have a little
update about them, if you think our audience would like
to know.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Uh yeah, I mean, if nothing else, I want to.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Know right well, the last time I was able to
check in in all three of them, they are doing
very well, growing at an appropriate and healthy rate. In fact,
the wildlife care specialist told me they become very comfortable
and quite adventurous.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Oh man, it's so good to hear that they're doing
well and have settled into being under our care after.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Losing their mother.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
It's kind of sad, but it's also nice to know
her legacy will live on through her offspring, but even
better to hear that they are thriving and doing so well.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Totally, I mean, it really really is. And what a
great way to wrap up season two. I mean we've
talked about all the San Diego Zoo, wild left allions,
conservation hubs all over the world, and interviewed conservationists, wildlife
care specialists, technology experts that work for wildlife, and so
much more.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And then here we are, right here, we are, right
in our own backyard, wrapping things up with a story that,
like Charlie said, could easily be compared to a leopard
in India, or a lion in Africa, or a jaguar
in South America. These cubs are a great reminder for
all of us that we share this world with all
wild life and we must keep doing what we can
(29:02):
to find a balance for all of us.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, absolutely right, well said im Eagle.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Well said no, thank you, sir, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And you know, we're starting to wrap this up, of course,
going to close out this episode, but before we do,
I just kind of I'm feeling a little nostalgic.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know, we are at the last episode of season two.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
We've had a great time this year, but I want
to ask you, Marco, do you have a particular or
favorite episode that sticks out from this season in your mind?
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Man, it's really hard to pick just one. And I
know everyone is going to think I'm going to pick
a bird episode of the Vulture Bultzer episode, That's what
I was going to say. I was. I totally get it,
and it's honestly not that one. Sorry, Johina, you did
an amazing job. I love the Vultures episode, but you know,
I think it's because I was so excited to start
season two with you, Rick, and I had such an
amazing time. It's all about episode one for me for
(29:48):
season two, the Butterflies. All right, Yeah, I learned so much,
And you know, it's a really cool representation of our
collaboration within the teams of the Bird Department, hor or Culture,
everyone getting together to put on something just mag magnificent
for our guests. But what about you, man, what's your favorite?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I know I've been thinking about this because I know
I was going to ask you, and ye several come
to mind. I really enjoyed the Koala one with Gentoby
and learning about how all the work she's done at
the zoo has really helped a lot with the Koalas
and the wild. But then I jump over to the
Little Mouse That Matters and the Pocket Mouse.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Because you had set that up so well with all
these little teasers and is along the way.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But then, honestly, I have to say I landed on
our Lion episode. I think it was like probably two
or three somewhere in the beginning. Also because technology allowed
us to talk to and interview somebody who was all
the way over in Kenya. You could hear the wind
blowing through her tent because she's there doing the conservation work,
and I just thought, you know, when I was growing up,
the idea of being able to converse with somebody on
(30:45):
the other side of a planet like that real time.
It's just it was a great, great experience. But yeah,
I loved it, man, absolutely loved it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Oh totally. Man, it's been such a great Adventurerook. I'm
just super stoked for season three too. I just can't wait.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, me too, Me too. And as we again, we're
wrap this up.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
So we usually wrap up an episode with a little
tease about the next episode, but since this is the
last episode of season two, we'll just say be sure
to subscribe so you'll get notified when the new season starts.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Marko Lent and I'm Rich Schwartz. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing
Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studios. Our supervising
producer is Nikiah Swinton and our sound designer and editor
is Sierra Spreen. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
(31:42):
your favorite shows,
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz. When is the s world?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Marco went Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique
stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating
animal facts. This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby
Studios and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, an international nonprofit
conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. Well, Marco,
(00:27):
can you believe it? We are at the end of
season two of Amazing Wildlife.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Oh man, that's right. This is episode twenty. And although
I'm pretty bumped to close out season two, rumor has
it we'll be working on season three soon enough.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's true. That's true.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And although this episode will wrap up season two, it's
gonna be a really cool episode for us.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh, I know, I'm so stoked. I can't wait to
go out to the Biodiversity reserve that's part of the
Safari Park.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh, it's gonna be great to record in the wide
open space too. But honestly, before we had out there
into the wilds of southern California coastal Sage scrub, I
do want to make sure our audience knows that the
biodiversity reserve at the Safari Park is not something that
a guest can go tour or go into. However, they
can see it all around. All the undeveloped land in
(01:16):
the area of the Safari Park is technically coastal sage scrub,
and part of the actual biodiversity reserve can be seen
from the guest areas. While you are visiting the Safari Park.
All you need to do is look at the hills
surrounding the park. Of course, there's more to it than
what you can see, but it's all there. Yeah, that's
a really good point, Rick, I mean, I'm glad you
(01:36):
helped clear that up. I know for some people, they're
so excited to be at the Safari Park to see
the wildlife that we have there, they might even forget
that there's also a huge amount of local wildlife living
all around.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh that's true. That's true.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, and you know, to take it beyond our own
coastal sage scrub ecosystem. I hope this episode also reminds
people to take the time to get out soide and
enjoy their own local wildlife in natural spaces.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, agreed, Marco, I completely agree. And the Biodiversity Reserve
is a great place for our teams of researchers and
scientists to better understand the local environment. And they do
this by going out there and doing the work, not
just sitting in a lab or looking over paperwork. It's
a great example of how anyone can learn more about
their local wildlife just get outside and do some observations.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Oh hey, Rick, speaking of getting outside, is it time ago?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Can we go now? Yeah? You know what, Marco is
time to go?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yess I am Charlie de la Rosa. I am the
Natural Lands program manager for the San Diego Zi Wildlife Alliance.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Charlie, can you tell us and obviously our listeners to
where are we right now?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Where are we standing right now?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
We are deep in the heart of the Safari Park
Biodiversity Reserve. And the Safari Park Biodiversity Reserve is a
nine hundred acre coastal stage preserve that's part of the
Safari Park footprint in the Sampascull Valley in San Diego's
North County.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
In this space, though, is not something our public would
normally see when they come to visit Safari.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Park, right, not normally something they would see. I guess
if they look up into the hills in the surrounding area.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Though, yes, exactly.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
So if you're driving down on Highway seventy eight, you're
going to look to your left, look to your right,
and you're seeing elements the vegetation type that we're conserving
here on the biodiversity reserve.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, and it's a beautiful area you guys. We're on
top of a hill right now. I can see the
Safari balloon off in the distance. And also I think
it's worth acknowledging that we're on the traditional land of
the sample it's called abandoned mission Indians and the Kumii people.
So there's a long standing history with the people, the
native indigenous people and this land, and also now with
useeing the Safari Park here. So it's really great, thanks
Charlie for taking the time my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I think it's also gone further with what Marco said
is not only is there a deep cultural history here
in the land that we are on, and there are
people who were a part of this land long before
we ever showed up and now part of your work, Charlie,
I guess we'll start with why is it important that
this land has been set aside.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
There's a couple of ways that I could answer that question.
One is that this is an incredibly imperiled habitat type.
If you think about it, Southern California is really densely
populated and people want to live here. People are continuing
to move here, and a lot of the habitat that
covered our coastal areas in southern California now has towns
(04:29):
and houses and farms and other types of development. So
it's really important for us to conserve elements of that
type of habitat that are still remaining. And the other
thing to keep in mind is we're in a biodiversity
hotspot in San Diego County and southern California. That means
that we have a really high number of species for
(04:51):
the area, but it also means that we have significant
threats to a lot of species. There's a lot of
rare species or endangered species.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And I want to add to when you're searing species,
it's not just animals.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Not just animals, what else, Plants, fungi. Yeah, there's a
lot of different things out there, stuff that.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
People don't know what to think of. But when you
speak of biodiversity and the value of that.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And when I say value, I don't mean monetary, the
value of keeping ecosystem balanced and being a biodiversity hot
spot and having this land set aside now for you
and others to come out here and observe and study
and understand a what the land needs and what it's
going through. And therefore then the fungi, the plants, the animals, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
All sorts of stuff, insects exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I love the connectivity of it as well, you know,
even for native sant nigans. As the year goes on,
the landscape transforms asn't it. And you and I have
been in little nature walks in here before and from
spring to what we see now, there's still activity of life.
There's still connections. And when Rick, you know, you were
talking about animals and plant life, I always go back to,
like that prickly pair adventure that you and I had.
Can you talk about that particular plant species and why
(05:57):
it's so unique here here in this area.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, before you go and we're out here, is there
anywhere we could walk to go? Look?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Let's go fine, Let's well, if you look down the
hill here, you can see yeah, you see light green
patches just covered with prickly pear. Prickly pear is kind
of a blanket term for a number of different species
of cactus that are in the Puntia genus. And if
(06:24):
you've ever seen cactuses that look like they have mickey
mouse ears, you know, or donkey ears, those are generally going.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
To be a Puntia cactuses.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
And now what we're looking at, we're looking down a
hill and we're looking at slopes that are gently kind
of sloping down into the San Pasqua Valley and they're
sloping in a southern direction. And if you could see
what we're seeing, we're looking at a dotted hillscate with
tons of these little green patches of cactus. We have
over two hundred acres of cactus dominated coastal stage scrub
(06:57):
in the biodiversity reserve, and that's why I think this
is a very very endangered subtype of that habitat. And
there's a lot of species that rely on the cactus.
So it's this whole little ecosystem within an ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Everyone's being a kid around here eating in Spanish at
don nes no like the little cactus fruit, you know,
and I never really thought about the connectivity with the
local wildlife. Do they need that for nerrous man for
some for moisture, right, because we're in a dryer area here.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
There's very few plants out here that produce a fruit
that's so full of sugars, full of nutrients. And when
if you can imagine two hundred acres of prickly pears
starts fruiting, it's insane.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It looks like Christmas.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
There's red fruits all over the place, and all different
animals will take advantage of that resource. So I've seen ravens.
Ravens will like to peck the fruits and they'll eat
the fruit from the inside out.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
They leave just a little shell.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Smart.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
So you walk around and you can see evidence of
different animals that are taking advantage of this delicious smorgas
board of food, bees, foxes, coyotes, and people. And the
prickly pair was an incredibly important food resource, seasonal food
resource for the Kumii, the Payam, kowechum and other people
that live in southern California.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You mentioned some of the wildlife that enjoy the prickly pair.
You're out here quite a bit, doing quite a bit
of work, and also you have eyes when you're not here,
you've got camera traps set up and everywhere else. What
some of the wildlife you know lives out here on
this land we're currently on.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
You would be shocked because there's so much cool stuff.
And I think there's a lot of people in southern
California that are used to going out and recreating and
then you might see some signs, and the signs say
that there's cougars and that there's foxes and coyotes, but
you don't necessarily run into them every day, but on
the cameras we see them.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
They are here.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
So we have seen pumas in the Biodiversity Reserve, really
exciting to see them. The fact that there's an apex
predator that's been able to persist in these fairly small
patches of habitat that are left is just it's miraculous.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It's kind of one of the beauties of the Safari Parker.
I think where guests come in and you know they're
expecting sea wildlife from Africa, Australia, all over the globe,
but especially those who work here, we get excited over
the local wildlife. Yeah, right, were were just talking about
the zone tail hawk we just saw recently, and that's
one of the things about this reserve that I just
we're talking and seeing birds flying around that hill. I
just love it so much, as so much local wildlife
and benefit from this area, this reserve that we have
(09:21):
with the Safari Park.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, I'll just throw some quick numbers. Two species of skunk.
A lot of people don't know that. Oh yeah, there's
a stripe skunk that we all know and love, and
then there's a spotted skunk. Could look that one up
because they're super great.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
They're very cute, and I agree, they're like one of
my face right.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Headstand kids, look them up.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Sixteen species of snakes that we've documented here on the
biodiversity reserve where you have an amazing herpetologist who's been
doing twenty plus years of field work here, and that's
a very high diversity of snakes. Three species of rattle snakes.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Wow yez.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Yeah, maybe scary, but they're also just incredibly important elements
to this ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah, rosy boat king's sake. I mean, there's so so
many and we were talking earlier, you know, the benefits
for local wildlife, for us, for indigenous people. But also
side note it sounds att odd, but we're utilizing this
area too for projects, right, conservation projects.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, right, earlier had the earlier episode with our conservation
tech team. Yeah, Charlie, they were telling us that they
will use this space in conjunction with you to test
out different equipment. Do you know, off top of your
head where some of the things that have been tested
here and the proving grounds if you will, Because we
do have some element of being able to get here,
but yet it's also away from things that now has
been maybe deployed or used elsewhere in the world.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yeah, that's a really unique feature of the biodiversity reserve.
We're so close to our conservation science team. One of
the core purposes of this land is to use it
as a living laboratory to be able to test out
technologies that our teams are developing, first off to monitor
biodiversity to conserve species here, but also in other places
(10:57):
where they're working around the world. So some great examples.
Our conservation Technology lab is developing a lot of really
interesting tools that use artificial intelligence, that use machine learning
to help basically to sort images and to send alerts.
So we're working on a system, for example that if
(11:18):
you've ever seen a security camera, you know how they
can pan and usually there's a guy at a desk
and he's moving it around. Well, imagine a security camera
that's constantly watching a landscape and it's taking pictures and
it's pushing them through algorithms that help to identify what
those pictures are and when it sees something that it
wants to see. So they're doing this for polar bears.
When it sees a polar bear on a white landscape,
(11:40):
it'll zoom in and it'll.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Follow it automatically. YEA, very very cool.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
So they're working on that at the Conservation Technology Lab
and this is a place where they can deploy it
where we don't. They don't have to fly to s
Fallbarn to do that, you know, they just have to
drive ten minutes. So it's a nice resource. They're working
on some other vision related systems. We have a system
that they call Cougar Vision and it uses a network
(12:04):
of traditional cellular trail cameras which any of the listeners
of this program can go and buy them. You can
find them on Amazon, and they're essentially motion triggered cameras
that have a simplan and then you can check the
camera on an app. So that's fun, but you have
to manually check it. So what our team has done
is they've developed some artificial intelligence tools to go through
(12:25):
those images and to sort them into piles, into different species,
and when it sees something that you want to see,
then it can send out alerts, to can send text
alerts and things like that. So it's very cool stuff
and they're testing that out here.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
That's so cool just standing here looking across Aproscope Valley
Safari Parks down the hill and off in the distance,
and hearing you talk about all the things that have
happened and are happening out here, and knowing that this
space has been set aside.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And we mentioned at the beginning of the episode that while.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
You're driving Surfari Park, look you're left and right here
in those amazing biodiverse ecosystem. But it's just a reminder,
I think, or it should be a reminder for everyone,
and that sometimes just the wildlife in your own backyard
is so cool if you take the time to set
aside watching and observing and being a part of what
your local and native species and what are they going
(13:13):
through and what can you do to help them? And
I really appreciate that. And then that leads me into Charlie,
is there any particular for you personally a good story
from you as far as either a moment you've had
out here or experience you've had out here that has
been meaningful for you.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
I mean, I think what you touched on is one
hundred percent truth. There's meaning, and there's incredibly interesting stories
hidden in everything here. So I've had experiences where I've
come across more tarots, you know, rock slicks and grinding
spots from the Kumiai people who lived here for thousands
(13:49):
of years. That's incredibly meaningful, not not only because it's
a representation of the people that who were here, but
also because it tells you something about the ecosystem that
was around them. There's so many things here that are
the same. We're looking at these hills, the rock piles,
they've been here for thousands of years, the plants, even
some of these big Laurel sumacs, these big shrubs that
(14:11):
we can see. I have aerial images that are almost
one hundred years old, and you can see the exact
same plants in the exact same spots. They're very persistent
and very very resilient. But then there's a lot of
things that have changed as well.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, it runs with like connectivity again growing up in
this area, specifically going hike cycle like Hodges and when
you just said that man gave me goosey, just thinking
like like I interacted with with a sumac here that
has been here for years and years and years throughout.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
History of that generation.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah. Right, We're all connected in that way. And I'm
gonna say it again, you guys, like when you come
to the park, it's not just seeing the wildlife that
we're offering, but the senses of the area too, Charlie. Right,
Like we talk about the smell in particular. Like I've
said this before, like when we travel around the world,
we come back and for me, like when I smell
sage or chapara, like to me, that's home, that's San Diego.
And you had a cool story yourself for better right,
(15:00):
can you share that story?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Well, I moved to southern California in two thousand and seven,
so years and years ago, and I moved from North
Florida and I came out to the start my first
field biology job working on Catalina Island, and I remember
that it was so dry. It was July, and everything
was dusty. I was coming from the pine flatwoods and
(15:23):
the cypress hammocks and these incredibly tall, big trees, Spanish
moss dripping down, you know, crystal clear springs, and I
came out to this landscape and there was nothing that
was higher than my chest, you know, no trees, and
everything was brown, brown, brown. Everything was dusty and brown,
and I thought, what have I done? And you know,
(15:47):
I like to tell the story because I liked it.
There's so many people who are new to southern California,
so many visitors, and so many people moving here, and
maybe they're thinking the same thing, and I want to
tell them how I connected with this ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Please.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
It came down to for me, it was the smells.
There's so many different species in the coastal sage and
chaparral that have developed. They're you know, essentially chemicals, but
they produce these incredible aromas. So think of a sage.
I mean, it's so strong, so musky, the California sagebrush.
It's actually not a sage. It's in the sunflower family,
(16:21):
very similar types of smells. All these different plants have
their own smells. And think about smelling something from your
childhood and the memories that that gives you. In just
a few short years, you will, you know, go out
and touch a plant and well, make sure it's not poison.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
But that's a good point. Yeah, as your parents first, get.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
A book, but make that connection because it'll go into
your heart. Yeah, and then you you'll never be able
to get it out again.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah. My parents talk like you rub the leaf again,
identifying their proper plant, and they make me smell it,
like me will smell this, and it just reminds me.
Those are the best memories I think of San Diego.
For me, it's the smell of that ecosystem.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
There's kind of a big picture conservation story here. Conservation
is all about people, and it's about people's connection to
the land. Yeah, it's about diversity, it's about the plants
and animals, but really it's about people being invested and caring.
And I think that's really the philosophy that we're bringing
to the San Diego Zoo and to the Biodiversity Reserve.
(17:21):
We have programs working with the SAMPA squad band of
Mission Indians working with other tribal partners to provide access
to harvest cactus fruit to help us with our restoration work.
We want scientists to come here, we bring out educational groups,
and we want guests to see it too, and we're
working with our Safari Experiences team to put together guest
(17:42):
experiences that can help to tell these stories too. Getting
people invested. You know, there's a trade off. There's a
whole story about loving something to death, and I'm sure
you've heard that about national parks and everything. I think
it's more dangerous for people to not care. And there's
so much any other things that we can distract ourselves
with now, So you know, come out and get invested.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
That's the bottom line.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, yeah, I want to go back to what you said,
or you know, you first came out here and it
was brown and dusty and dry, like, oh my gosh,
what have I done?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
We are right at the just the edge of the
rainy season possibly starting for us. They've called for a
wet winter here in the San Diego area, and looking
around there's a lot of dry looking colors, browns and barely.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Any greens, and some tans. But then occasionally you see
these sticks with these white flowers.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
On them, and I point that out because for me,
it's always been one of those things where it's like,
if you slow down and sure we're driving by on
the road, looks at these a bunch of dry, dead plants,
But these there's so much life and vitality as soon
as those rains hit, where you can see everything green
up and everything changes. But even in the dry and
almost right at the end of the dry season, there's
still some plants out there with little flowers on them,
just being a part of this ecosystem, and it's so cool.
(18:54):
And I want to go back to something else you
mentioned too, Charlie, the idea that it's about the people's
that mark. When I've talked a lot about this season,
talk with the conservation groups, whether it's our you know,
in house folks, or whether it's our partners, what would
you say is probably one of the most important things
the average person could do in their.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Day to day routines to assist with conservation.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I think we need to start small. It's hard to
get back and connect with nature. It takes time. Some
people might not have the privilege to take off after
work and go for a hype, right, whatever you can
do to just take interest in your local ecosystem. Learn
a little bit. There's a lot of really great online resources.
There's a Naturalists and amazing tool that can help you
(19:37):
to identify plants and animals that are in your backyard.
You start small and teach your kids. Bring your kids
to the zoo and talk to the interpreters there. Inspire
a passion for nature. I think that real change it
has to start with the young. So I guess just
get interested. Yeah, you know, start that passion.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
It's simple. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
So one other story that is fresh to this area
that is, you know, borderline breaking news. Yes, you had
mentioned when we're talking about the different species that live
out here that you've seen and you were super excited
about an apex predator. And recently there's been a development
with the puma or mountain lion or cougar, whatever you
want to call it here on this open space.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Can you share with our listeners what has developed?
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yeah, so I'll try to keep a long story short.
I appreciate we have a mountain lion research program that's
a collaboration with our partners at UC Davis at the
Wildlife Health Center, and essentially that project has to do
with monitoring, you know, using GPS callers and trail cameras
to get an idea about population dynamics in southern California
(20:47):
mountain lions, and then also deterrent research. And the idea
with deterrence is that we're trying to basically provide non
lethal alternatives for people who having human wildlife conflict with
mountain lions, for livestock owners and things like that. The
development was that we've been watching a mountain lion who
(21:09):
was collared here in the biodiversity reserve, So she was
carrying a GPS collar for about two years and we
were keeping tabs on her and you know, using her
data for research, and she recently was killed. She was
killed by somebody who she was attacking their livestock. And
this is just a tragic reality. If you took out
(21:29):
the species and took out the location, you would think
that this is a thing that was happening in Africa
or in South America, but.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It's a human conflict is an ongoing issue everywhere.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah, in San Diego County right here. So that was
really tragic. We knew from her GPS data that she
was probably Denning with kittens. And we knew this because
if you look at the data, the data are just
points points in space and time, and there was a
cluster of points in a particular area, and there's really
(22:02):
only a couple of reasons that a mountain lion would
be going back and forth coming back to that specific area,
and based on the timing and the time of year,
we figured she probably had kittens. So we found out
from our Department of Fish and Wildlife partners that she
had been killed, and that very same night, the UC
Davis team and our team got together and we talked
about a plan because we figured we were going to
(22:23):
try and go in and see if we could find
these kittens. We didn't know how old they would be,
we didn't know how many there would be, and they
were in a very remote area, so we had to
get access from the landowner, and they were really great
working with them, and they were able to give us
permission to access the property. Really quickly. We put together
a team and over the course of about a week,
(22:43):
every day some of our team members would be up
there looking for these kittens, and it was like a
needle in a haystack. We ended up finding three kittens,
and the average litter size is three to four, so
we figured that we probably got all of them. Put
out trail cameras all over the area. We had trapped,
(23:04):
you know, just like live traps, baited with all kinds
of good ease to try and bait these kittens in.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And just for the kids that are listening, these traps
are the type that just restrain and keep them in
a It's like I have a heart carrier or something
that closes in on them once they go in.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It's not something that's going to hurt them exactly. Actually
we're have a heart oh.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
No, advertisement, but yeah, that's exactly right. I had kind
of expected that they would be in a den, you know,
I've seen videos of this and stuff, that they would
be back in a rocky crack and we'd find them
and we'd pull them out and yay, they'd all be together.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
That these kittens were mobile.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Oh and we found the first one on Saturday at
about eleven o'clock, the first day that we were out
in the field, and one of the amazing field biologists
with the Moundline Project was able to locate it. It
was about one hundred yards away from the last GPS
point cluster of the female, so it was a needle
(24:01):
in a haystack. We put cameras on that den site
we didn't get anything. Later in the afternoon when we
were setting up cameras, myself and another biologist from the
Mountain Lion Project found the second kitten. So we had
two males that we had found it within the first
day in two completely different locations, and then we spent
several days out there looking. We got an image of
(24:23):
another kitten on one of the cameras overnight and we
went back looked, we couldn't find it, and then the
next day we were able to find it. So it
was a pretty intense adventure for an entire week, but
we were able to locate those three.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Where have the kittens ended up, Well, they're right here
at the Safari Park.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
They're in the Harder hospital right now, and maybe we'll
go and have a look after we're doing here and
see if we can take a peep at them.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
It's great, really. It speaks to the collaborative work too,
you know, all of us being able to work together
to help out these three little cubs.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Absolutely, yeah, the California Department of Fishing Wildlife, the UC
Davis Mountainin Project, and our project all came together and
everybody put in a ton of work and we were
really lucky. But we also had a crack team.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
Working on it. It was really cool.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, it's one of those things where it's definitely a
sad occurrence of what happened to the mother, and obviously
we would rather that she'd been able to raise her
young and they could continue on about their business. But also,
I mean, how fortunate that it was in a space
that she was being monitored and the team can go
out and rescue those kittens. So for forgiven the situation,
what a wonderful outcome for the kids at least.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, the retaliatory killings happen more frequently than we'd like,
and you can imagine if she didn't have a GPS
caller on, we never would have been able to find
those kids. We wouldn't have even known they existed.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Another great example why this space is so.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Important here, right, Thanks Charlie.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, Charlie, I want to I want to thank you,
and I know Marco really appreciates you, and Marko's been
out here with you a couple of times. This space
I've been out in a few times. It's so beautiful.
I mean, I don't park, what do you think. We
talked to a lot of people who are like, I'm
the luckiest person with this job, but I'm like, well
this is this is Charlie.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And you know what I notice, you guys, we've been
sort of like whispering this whole time that it's almost
like this area demands our respect, absolutely, you know what
I mean. So out in wild space, we're all connected
to it. And you kids out there listening right now,
you guys are connected to it too, right, Charlie. I
mean this is for them also. So it was just
an incredible day. It's always a beautiful day hit this
at Faleri Park, but especially Charlie. Kudos, give me some knuckles.
This is so wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yes, thank you Charlie.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Going out in the field with you guys.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, man, it's great.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Thank you so much, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Wow, what a day out of the biodiversity Reserve with
Charlie Marco. As we wrap this up, I want to
let our audience know that we are back in the
studio and even though we are. I can't help but
feel the wonder of our time out there with Charlie.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Oh, I know, Rick, I completely agree. You know. My
only regret as we didn't have more time to hear
more of his amazing stories. I mean, there's just there's
so many different things we could talk about when it
comes to habitat like that.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Oh exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I know exactly how you feel, and I mean I
am glad that we're able to touch the surface of
so many different things going on out there, which is
one way to share with our audience all that is
happening out in nature. But you're right, I would love
to go out there again and do more in depth
stories on the diversity of well just even all the
reptiles he mentioned, or yes, Marco, even the birds.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yes, definitely the birds. And honestly, it sounds to me
like we just start scheduling things for season three of
Amazing My Life so we can include more details of
some of these awesome stories.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, I completely agree, my friend, and I hope we
can do a follow up story about those cougar cubs
or puma cubs as Charlie called them.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Well, you know, it's been about a week since we're
out there with Charlie, So I do have a little
update about them, if you think our audience would like
to know.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Uh yeah, I mean, if nothing else, I want to.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Know right well, the last time I was able to
check in in all three of them, they are doing
very well, growing at an appropriate and healthy rate. In fact,
the wildlife care specialist told me they become very comfortable
and quite adventurous.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Oh man, it's so good to hear that they're doing
well and have settled into being under our care after.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Losing their mother.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
It's kind of sad, but it's also nice to know
her legacy will live on through her offspring, but even
better to hear that they are thriving and doing so well.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Totally, I mean, it really really is. And what a
great way to wrap up season two. I mean we've
talked about all the San Diego Zoo, wild left allions,
conservation hubs all over the world, and interviewed conservationists, wildlife
care specialists, technology experts that work for wildlife, and so
much more.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And then here we are, right here, we are, right
in our own backyard, wrapping things up with a story that,
like Charlie said, could easily be compared to a leopard
in India, or a lion in Africa, or a jaguar
in South America. These cubs are a great reminder for
all of us that we share this world with all
wild life and we must keep doing what we can
(29:02):
to find a balance for all of us.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, absolutely right, well said im Eagle.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Well said no, thank you, sir, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And you know, we're starting to wrap this up, of course,
going to close out this episode, but before we do,
I just kind of I'm feeling a little nostalgic.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know, we are at the last episode of season two.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
We've had a great time this year, but I want
to ask you, Marco, do you have a particular or
favorite episode that sticks out from this season in your mind?
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Man, it's really hard to pick just one. And I
know everyone is going to think I'm going to pick
a bird episode of the Vulture Bultzer episode, That's what
I was going to say. I was. I totally get it,
and it's honestly not that one. Sorry, Johina, you did
an amazing job. I love the Vultures episode, but you know,
I think it's because I was so excited to start
season two with you, Rick, and I had such an
amazing time. It's all about episode one for me for
(29:48):
season two, the Butterflies. All right, Yeah, I learned so much,
And you know, it's a really cool representation of our
collaboration within the teams of the Bird Department, hor or Culture,
everyone getting together to put on something just mag magnificent
for our guests. But what about you, man, what's your favorite?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I know I've been thinking about this because I know
I was going to ask you, and ye several come
to mind. I really enjoyed the Koala one with Gentoby
and learning about how all the work she's done at
the zoo has really helped a lot with the Koalas
and the wild. But then I jump over to the
Little Mouse That Matters and the Pocket Mouse.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Because you had set that up so well with all
these little teasers and is along the way.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
But then, honestly, I have to say I landed on
our Lion episode. I think it was like probably two
or three somewhere in the beginning. Also because technology allowed
us to talk to and interview somebody who was all
the way over in Kenya. You could hear the wind
blowing through her tent because she's there doing the conservation work,
and I just thought, you know, when I was growing up,
the idea of being able to converse with somebody on
(30:45):
the other side of a planet like that real time.
It's just it was a great, great experience. But yeah,
I loved it, man, absolutely loved it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Oh totally. Man, it's been such a great Adventurerook. I'm
just super stoked for season three too. I just can't wait.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, me too, Me too. And as we again, we're
wrap this up.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
So we usually wrap up an episode with a little
tease about the next episode, but since this is the
last episode of season two, we'll just say be sure
to subscribe so you'll get notified when the new season starts.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Marko Lent and I'm Rich Schwartz. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing
Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studios. Our supervising
producer is Nikiah Swinton and our sound designer and editor
is Sierra Spreen. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
(31:42):
your favorite shows,
Hosts And Creators
Rick Schwartz
Marco Wendt
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