Wildlife Episodes

Chris Clarke talks with Greta Anderson about Hope, a Mexican wolf whose journey into northern Arizona exposed policy barriers to natural dispersal and the larger challenges facing wolf recovery.

Mexican wolves once ranged into Texas before persecution and conflicts with livestock helped eliminate them from the state. Chris Clarke talks with Rick LoBello, Erin Hunt, and Philip Sozanski about efforts to restore the lobo to suitable West Texas habitat. They explore the wolf's ecological and historical importance, persistent cultural fears surrounding predators, and efforts to build support among ranchers, landowners, and other residents. Their case for restoration rests not just on saving wolves, but on returning an important missing species to the Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem.

Chris Clarke talks with Ben Goldfarb about road ecology: roadkill, habitat fragmentation, altered hydrology, wildlife crossings, tortoises, pronghorn, and the far-reaching ecological effects of transportation infrastructure.

In a departure from the show's usual reporting, Chris Clarke reads from Walking with Zeke, recalling a moonlit camping trip with his dog in Red Rock Canyon. The essay explores the physical and emotional bond between dogs and humans, the persistence of memory, and the ways particular desert landscapes become inseparable from those we have loved within them. It's a quiet meditation on companionship, place, loss, and the connections between caring for the natural world and caring for those we consider family.

Desert snakes inspire fascination, fear, and a remarkable amount of misinformation. Chris Clarke and Lucas Basulto trade snake stories while examining some of the misconceptions surrounding these important reptiles. They discuss snake behavior, bites and appropriate responses, road mortality, habitat protection, and how to coexist safely with snakes rather than treating every encounter as a threat. Along the way, they offer resources for identifying snakes throughout the desert Southwest and explain why these often-maligned animals matter to desert ecosystems.

For decades, the Chevron doctrine gave federal agencies substantial latitude to interpret ambiguous laws passed by Congress. The Supreme Court's decision to overturn that doctrine shifts more authority over those interpretations to federal judges. Chris Clarke explains what Chevron deference was, why its demise matters, and how the change could affect environmental regulation and the federal agencies responsible for protecting wildlife, clean water, public lands, and other natural resources.

Desert plants often look timeless, and some nearly are. Chris Clarke explores the astonishing longevity of desert vegetation, from the roughly 11,700-year-old King Clone creosote ring to chollas and Mojave yuccas that can survive far longer than their appearance suggests. He also explains how researchers estimate plant ages when tree rings aren't available, using historical photographs, repeated observations, and long-term ecological studies. The result changes the way we see seemingly ordinary plants: some desert landscapes contain living organisms whose histories stretch back centuries or millennia.

Along the Rio Grande in El Paso, Rio Bosque Wetlands Park provides a rare riparian refuge within the Chihuahuan Desert—and a vision of what ecological restoration can accomplish. Chris Clarke talks with conservationist Jon Rezendes about threats from proposed highway development, community efforts to protect the wetlands, and the extraordinary diversity of birds and other wildlife that depend on them. Their conversation expands into a larger vision of rewilding the Rio Grande Valley, restoring ecological connections, and perhaps someday welcoming Mexican wolves back to the region.

Sometimes the desert is best understood through stories. Chris Clarke visits the Amargosa Basin during a spectacular wildflower bloom before sharing three tales about the strange relationships that shape desert life. He considers evidence of surprisingly sophisticated behavior in bursage plants, the long and complicated relationship between humans and coyotes, and the seductive power of what we sometimes call desert magic. Together, the stories offer a playful but thoughtful exploration of how humans perceive—and sometimes misunderstand—the living desert.

Great Salt Lake is shrinking, threatening an ecosystem of hemispheric importance to migratory birds. Chris Clarke travels to Utah to examine efforts to protect the lake and the Wilson's phalarope, a remarkable shorebird that depends on saline wetlands during its enormous migrations. Scientists and advocates consider whether the Endangered Species Act could provide another tool for protecting both the bird and its habitat, while Utah residents gather at the State Capitol to demand action for the lake.

The U.S.–Mexico border wall doesn't divide only people. It cuts across wildlife habitat, migration routes, watersheds, and some of North America's most biologically diverse desert landscapes. Chris Clarke talks with conservation scientist Myles Traphagen of Wildlands Network about the ecological consequences of border barriers and the humanitarian crisis unfolding alongside them. They discuss wildlife movement, habitat fragmentation, border policy, and what a more humane and ecologically informed approach to the border might look like.

The Chihuahuan Desert stretches across northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, encompassing extraordinary biological and cultural diversity. Chris Clarke talks with Janae Reneaud Field, Kathia Gonzalez, and Rocio Ronquillo of El Paso's Frontera Land Alliance about protecting this often-overlooked desert. They discuss community conservation, environmental education, and the campaign to protect Castner Range, while exploring what it means to build a conservation movement rooted in the communities that call the Chihuahuan Desert home.