Dr. Dhritiman Das is a scientisit at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust studying the world's smallest pig - the Pygmy Hog. This highly endangered species is found in the grasslands of Assam, with Manas and Kaziranga National Parks being strongholds. Durrell is working extensive loss of the their grassland habitat, alongside the reintroduction of captive bred populations into the wild.

On Episode 15, I interview Vance Martin, looking back on his 40 years as president of The Wild Foundation. We cover a wide breadth of conservation topics, including rewilding,  Nature Needs Half, COP15 and  the roles of indeginious communities in conservation.  Tune in to also learn about various of The Wild Foundation's intiatives, including the Rewilding Alliance, the Wolrd Wilderness Campagin and Coalition Wild.

The Think Wildlife Podcast is an intiaitve under Think Wildlife Foundation, a student led organization aiming to understand the illegal wildlife trade while also incentivising conservation through alternative livelihood projects.

India has more than doubled her tiger population since 2010. While this is certainly great news, it is still too early to celebrate. Unfortunately, a population recovery has been met with significant habitat destruction and forest fragmentation. Other than preventing consistent, long term gene flow, this encourages human tiger conflict. A lack of natural habitat and prey, results in tigers predating on livestock and sometimes, even humans. Retaliation is inevitable, and famous, apparent man eating tigers, such as Avni, have been put down for this. Currently, efforts are being made around India to mitigate human tiger conflict.

One of the most prominent solutions is by improving the lives of indeginious communities, to minimise the long term financial costs of the conflict, while also allowing communities to voluntaringly resettle away from reserves.  The Last Wildnerness Foundation is one such organization which is working at the grassroot level, directly with indeginious communities to prevent conflict.

In Episode 14, Vidya Venkatesh, the director of LWF talks about the intricasies of human tiger conflict, the potential of alternative livliehoods for conservation and their amazing work in uplifting the Baiga people, a community ostracized for formerly being poachers. In fact, we at Think Wildlife Foundation are supporting this project by providing them with a platform to go online!