Tommy's Outdoors

Is it a wild boar or a feral pig in the Scottish Highlands? Does the name really matter? And how can a once-native animal become an invasive non-native species? Wild boar have come up often in ten years of this podcast, but never had a dedicated episode. Today we'll fix that. 🌍🦤 🧪🦊 🎧 pod.fo/e/69900b

The news from Brazil will not be good for 'all life on Earth' unless Lula spends the next four years working on a succession plan or it's Bolsonaro next. 🌍 🦤

This week's episode has been cancelled due to travel commitments. Sorry about that.

Unsurprisingly the OpenAI's GPTBot crawler is sweeping my podcast. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Morning, all. Today, before you post a link to an article about something sad, worrying and anxiety-inducing, think for a minute. Do you think you're doing anyone a service? Do you think you're sharing something unique and unheard of? Or are you just parroting the media's negativity?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It would be easier to restore wolves to Ireland than wild boar. 🦊

Creative farming. That's a new term I'm going to use from now on.

Hey folks, here's an interesting survey inviting you to share your experiences with foxes and pine martens across the island of Ireland. 🦊🧪🌍🦤 uupredatorsurvey.com

My feed here is dedicated to nature, science and conservation, and I swear, sometimes I'm tempted to start posting about AI to call out the grift Dario and Clammy spouted, which the dumb media and journos swallowed hook, line and sinker. And now you good people are repeating it as if it were facts.

Why does Ireland have so many deer, and would bringing back the wolf fix it? How did rat poison end up in 80% of our barn owls? And are farmers really the villains? I asked biologist and broadcaster Éanna Ní Lamhna. Her answer to the deer problem: eat venison. 🌍🦤 🎧 pod.fo/e/64d361

After returning from my podcasting holidays, I made some changes to how I do things and how I promote the show. Some of them are more visible than others. As things stand now, Bluesky is the only social media platform I'm on. I focus on long and thoughtful, not short and punchy.

I'm not sure whether, with my 'Conservation and Science' podcast, I'm part of the problem or part of the solution. 🧪

What does the label 'protected area' actually tell you about what is being protected? How did the wolf lose its strict protection status in the EU? And what about a legal system that looks strong on paper but leaves animals exposed on the ground? I asked two wildlife lawyers. 🌍 🧪🦤 🎧 pod.fo/e/6179bf

Interesting question and one I've been wondering about myself. I'm afraid the answer is still 'no' and IMO it has nothing to do with women vs men and more to do with the traits of the people who end up 'running the world' under the current system. The system itself would need to be different. 🌍

By popular demand, my book recommendations page is back. Now with links to podcast episodes (or blog posts, or both) where I talked to the authors about their books. 📚🌍

I'm quite chuffed about the refresh I gave my website over the weekend, so I thought I'd drop a feed here from the 'science' category, where you can find podcast episodes with scientists talking about their projects, papers or books. 🧪 📚 tommysoutdoors.com/category/sci...

Well, it was long overdue. My website got a new coat of paint. tommysoutdoors.com

I see that we have smoothly moved from 'AI will take our jobs' to 'AI will kill us all'. And all that to divert our attention from the fact that frontier labs are money-burning machines with no business model and no plausible path to profitability.

I can picture Eoghan cycling on a vintage fixie, wearing his signature cap instead of a helmet!

Great to see this paper out. The link for complimentary access (viewing only, no downloads) is further down in the thread. Just a reminder that Joachim was a guest on the podcast in episode 225: How Many Wolves Is Enough (🎧 pod.fo/e/3fe9b4), so you might want to listen to it (or watch it) too. 🧪🦤🌍🦊

And we are back! In this episode, I'm talking with Professor Amy McEuen about what science is, misinformation and disinformation, planetary boundaries, the sixth mass extinction and her book 'How to Think Like an Ecologist: A Non-Scientist's Guide to Saving Our Planet'. 🌍🦤🧪 🎧 pod.fo/e/5a8fcb

Well, some good news from Ireland, at least for me. Podcast advertising spend 33% up, year on year. Btw, if anyone is interested in exploring advertising opportunities with my show, my DMs are open.

This is an interesting comparison given both countries similar size and population. However ~40% of Slovakia is covered by continuous forest, particularly across the Carpathian Mountain range. So, only ~40% of Slovakian's land use is agriculture while in Ireland ~65% - and that's the hard part. 🌍🦤

Sometimes I want to go back to my previous levels of activity on social media. And then I scroll through it for a while and realise how much it has deteriorated since what I would call its 'golden era'. It's also sad to see what it continues to do to people and their minds.

Convince me that John is wrong here. Any arguments about food security coming from the agri sector, as it stands at the moment, are 🤯. Also, the selection and quality of food available to people in Ireland are exceptionally poor.

This is an interesting one. I'd be okay with the introduction of beavers to Ireland (not that it matters). And yes, I know of the issues with that, and I've raised a few of them more than once on my podcast. It's probably a matter of consistency and of making exceptions to the rules one adheres to.

As I'm currently planning a new schedule for the podcast and newsletter, I'm wondering whether I should comment on pieces like this one - especially on social media - or just let it slide. I'm sure the folks at @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social are well meaning. 🦈🌍🦤🦑

The podcast is coming back on the 1st of September.

Always mind a shark's sharp end, folks! 🦈

For me this once again raises two points: that academic writing and academic writing culture are broken and that academia copes with (and perhaps is even equipped to cope with) AI worse than other... erm... industries(?)

Today I learned that "wymoczki" as a taxonomic grouping (Infusoria) has been abandoned in modern classification and the modern Polish term for ciliates is "orzęski". 🧪 Please pour one for poor wymoczek! 🥃

@wsocial.eu Thanks for invitation. Alas! ID verification is required even to just upload my logo and banner. And you require some odd app installed on my mobile? No thank you.

The car at the beginning of this video is a GAZ-24 Volga. A curious choice, also, I'm exposing my age. PS I guess the 'fear of the black Volga' was not a thing when you were growing up, kids.

Holiday Break. I will see you in a few weeks time!

Why do we feel so hopeless about nature's future? Is it really collapsing everywhere, or have we been told a one-sided story? In this episode I welcome back ecologist and author Simon Mustoe to discuss his new book, 'How to Survive the Next 100 Years: Lessons from Nature'. 🌍🦤 🎧 pod.fo/e/4355ea

You can't shout at people and tell them that your view is better than theirs. 🌍🦤

Long eared owl hunting rabbit, Wicklow

What if the environmental movement has badly underestimated our ability to solve the climate crisis? Could renewable energy grow so fast that we are out of fossil fuels within a decade? And once emissions fall away, how do we deal with the carbon already in the atmosphere? 🎧 pod.fo/e/428ae4

Even though this isn't the main topic of this episode, I just had to make a clip out of that bit. This is a proper, true hunter talking. The conversation with Frank made my day. 🌍🦤🦊🐺

It's not often that you talk to a hunter and start with red deer and habitat connectivity only for the discussion to quickly shift to planetary boundaries and the 6th mass extinction. In this episode I talk with wildlife biologist, hunter and fellow podcaster Frank Zabel. 🎧 pod.fo/e/4193d0 🌍🦤🧪🦊🦌

It reminds me of the red wolf situation. Canids do what canids do and it is beautiful to me. 🌍🦤🧪🦊

The conservation sector and community haven't been very good at understanding the foundations of people's concerns, recognising them and listening to them. 🌍🦤

What has shifted in rewilding over the past five years? Why do recovery of species like lynx, beavers and wolves trigger reactions that go far beyond the animals themselves? Join me for the conversation with the one and only @petecairns.bsky.social 🌍🦤 ➡️ pod.fo/e/40debc

Today I was talking with a German hunter. A true hunter, not a pretender. We spoke about habitat connectivity, effective population sizes, politicians and policies, and educating and inspiring the younger generation. Such discussions are very uplifting to me. The episode is dropping late May/June.

A good thread on fox hunting in Ireland. Also, a quote from the linked article: 'is so archaic that even the Brits have banned it' LOLZ

I pay attention to not overuse the word 'excited'. I am excited for this book. @calflyn.bsky.social's previous book was nothing short of eye-opening and so I have high expectations for this one. #wilderness 🌍🦤

Question for you, folks❓ How likely are you to listen to conversations with guests from the USA? Are conservation and nature topics from across the pond of any interest to you, or should I keep the focus on European and global matters? 🌍🦤🧪 Please reply below. ⬇️

Why talking to farmers about climate change is a touchy subject, and why we should view everything through the prism of quality of life to attain a positive future for all. 🌍