The Animal Guide for Curious Humans  By  cover art

The Animal Guide for Curious Humans

By: Maureen Armstrong
  • Summary

  • Concerned about the impact we humans are having on them? Then charge up those AirPods - or Bluetooth headset - and get ready for The Animal Guide for Curious Humans. Creator and host Maureen Armstrong brings animal lovers, wildlife experts and decision makers together to discuss the habits and behaviours of animals—including us—and ways we can live together harmoniously in light of ever-increasing population, resource and climate pressures. The Animal Guide for Curious Humans will educate you, entertain you, and get you thinking globally so you can act locally. Discover more about Maureen and the show on the The Animal Guide’s About page. Discover more at TheAnimalGuide.com. And be sure to tune in, like, subscribe and share; our animal friends are counting on us!
    © 2024 The Animal Guide for Curious Humans
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Episodes
  • Elephants - Our Majestic Friends
    Dec 8 2023

    Today we are focussing on one of most intelligent, socially complex, and inspiring animals on the planet; elephants.  While being indigenous to just two continents Africa and Asia, elephants are easily one of the most recognizable mammals on earth.  While mainly living in the wild, for millennia humans have captured elephants for use as labor, for war and most significantly in recent centuries, for entertainment –circuses, zoos or in television and movies.  Thankfully, we are developing a better understanding of and appreciation for these smart, thoughtful creatures, the need to protect them in the wild and to properly care for them when in captivity.  Our guest today is Margaret Whittaker, Executive Director of Wild Welfare U.S., a new American branch of the international organization Wild Welfare based on the United Kingdom.  Margaret has spent many years working with elephants and understanding their habits and behaviour and she shares her knowledge with us today.

    Links:

    Contact Info: margaret@wildwelfare.org

    Website: https://wildwelfare.org

    North Carolina Zoo: https://www.nczoo.org

    The Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee: https://www.elephants.com

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    47 mins
  • Music to Our Ears - A Look at Some Farm Animal Welfare Studies
    Oct 5 2023

    Today we will be exploring some interesting studies relating to the welfare of farmed animals.  As we have discussed before, billions of farmed animals around the world endure significant suffering and inhumane treatment to feed humans, largely in industrial farming. And yet, like other animals, cows, pigs and chickens, are sentient with clearly documented evidence of emotions, personality differences, kinship with others, etc.  For those of us who consume animal products, we can make a real difference in the lives of animals by insisting upon better animal welfare in the human food system.  There are many factors that need to be addressed (nutrition, health, environment, behaviour, and mental state) and much work needs to be done.  And our guest today is one of the people involved.

     Dr. Maria Camila Ceballos Bettancourt, is an assistant professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada.  She has a specialization in beef cattle welfare but, as you will hear, she has been involved in a number of really interesting studies involving pigs and chickens also.  She will talk about music and its impact on pigs, the positive benefits of silvopasturing on cattle and how different practices of handling chickens can have a big impact on their welfare.

    Links:

     Contact Info: mariacamila.ceballos@ucalgary.ca

    U of C: https://vet.ucalgary.ca/contact-us/maria 

    Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z85KvpwAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

     

    Social Media links: 

    X: @mariaceballosb    
    Mastodon: @mariacceballos
    Instagram: @animalwelbe 

     

    Academic Collaborators Mentioned:

    Dr. Berardo Rodriguez, Ph.D.  Professor, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia 

    Dr. Juliana Zapata, Ph.D. Professor, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia

    The late Dr. Ariel Tarazona, Professor of animal welfare and behaviour, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

    MSc Victor Lima, Animal Welfare Consultant

     

    Additional Resources:

    Ceballos MC, Sant’Anna AC, Boivin X, Costa FO, Carvalhal MVL, Paranhos da Costa MJR (2018) Impact of good practices of handling training on beef cattle welfare and stockpeople attitudes and behaviors. Livestock Science. (216): 24-31. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2018.06.019 

    Ceballos MC, Sant’Anna AC, Gois KCR, Ferraudo AS, Negrao JA, Paranhos da Costa MJR (2018) Investigating the relationship between human-animal interactions, reactivity, stress response and reproductive performance in Nellore heifers. Livestock Science. (216): 65-75. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2018.08.001 

    Tarazona AM, Ceballos MC, Broom DM. Human Relationships with Domestic and Other Animals: One Health, One Welfare, One Biology. Animals. 2020; 10(1):43. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10010043

    Zapata-Cardona J, Ceballos MC, Tarazona Morales AM, Jaramillo ED, Rodríguez BJ (2023). Spectro-temporal acoustic elements of music interact in an integrated way to modulate emotional responses in pigs. Scientific Reports: 13, 2994. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30057-5 

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    35 mins
  • Ending Bear Bile Farming
    Aug 28 2023

    When you think about medicine and animals, what comes to mind?  For a lot of us, we first think of animal testing; clinical trials, lab mice, etc.  But we don’t tend to think so much about the ingredients in our medicines and what animals they come from.  Many common drugs and medicines like blood thinners, treatments for menopause and even vaccines contain pig, horse or chicken byproducts.  In some countries such as several in Asia, some medicines contain products from animals that are endangered such as tigers and rhinos.  Others involve extractions from live animals that can involve considerable pain to animal, damage to its health, and quite horrendous living conditions.  Use of bear bile is one example of this latter category.

     Today, we are going to devote a lot of time to the subject thanks to our guest Dr. Mandala Hunter-Ishikawa.  Mandala is a veterinarian with Animals Asia which is a charity headquartered in Hong Kong that has been working for decades to rescue and rehabilitate bears from the bear bile trade in China and Vietnam.  It aims to end the bear bile trade through awareness, education and rescue efforts.  

     

    Links:

    https://www.animalsasia.org

    Video of Tuffy, a rescued Moon bear jumping for joy in water for the first time:  https://youtu.be/GN4svy6iGT4

     Fear Free Pets:  https://fearfreepets.com

     

    Social Media links: 

    https://www.instagram.com/animalsasia

    https://www.facebook.com/AnimalsAsia

    https://www.youtube.com/user/HKAAF?feature=watch

    https://twitter.com/AnimalsAsia

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    43 mins

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