Knowing Nature & Wildlife Ecology | Tim Low (2020)

Tim Low joins us for Season 1 (2020) of Birdsong.

Tim is an Australian biologist, and an author of several books and numerous articles on nature and conservation. His seventh book, Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World, became the first nature book ever to win the Australian Book Industry Awards prize for best General Non Fiction in 2015.

An earlier book, Feral Future, inspired the formation of an NGO, the Invasive Species Council. His earlier books helped popularize Australian bush tucker.

Four of his books have won national prizes, and alongside these books, his reports, articles and talks have contributed to ecological thought and environmental policy in Australia and beyond.

Written for a general audience, his books have attracted broad academic interest and serve as recommended reading in many university courses.

http://www.timlow.com

 

TIMESTAMPS:

[3:55] Why Tim doesn’t typically use the word sacred

[7:35] We use singular words to define pluralities, such as wilderness and nature

[8:00] Nature beings adapt to the suburbs and cities

[9:30] Human progression being bad for nature is too simplistic a perspective

[10:40] Satin Bowerbirds are technological innovators with their love for blue plastic

[12:55] Is nature something that we as humans can enhance?

[14:50] Is humanity and our bioevolutionary role to be the great diversifiers of nature?

[17:03] Where Song Began: the origin of songbirds from Australia

[19:30] Australia gave birth to the most intelligent birds

[23:44] The universal language of birdsong

[24:24] The noisy miners, lorikeets and goshawk

[26:25] Bird calls and snakes

[29:23] The differing dialects of bird species

[32:00] Awareness, associations, and vegetation relationships out in the field

[34:30] The supercontinent Gondwana and the emergence of songbirds from Australia

[36:15] Childhood dreams of becoming a paleontologist and my dinosaurian revelation of the lyrebird

[37:56] The cassowary

[38:56] Bird teeth, the goose, and its serrated tongue

[41:06] The ancient Gondwanan connection between gum trees and other species

[43:00] The importance of understanding deep time to be decent environmental managers

[47:20] Songbirds and parrots have co-evolved with eucalypt trees for many millions of years

[50:50] We can learn more about Australia from our birds moreso than our mammals

[53:11] Feral Future and how we can move forward with practical solutions to invasive species

[54:39] The conservation issue of fire-ants

[57:16] Every species has its own agenda

[1:00:00] Current problematic invasive species here in Australia

[1:02:26] Human transport systems perpetuating invasive species

[1:04:04] Think global, act local?

[1:08:00] People’s relationships to nature can be very shallow

[1:08:49] Connecting with nature can be like jogging???

[1:10:11] Finding your nature niche to take interest in

[1:11:16] Aldo Leopold - Nature writer and father of wildlife ecology

[1:14:34] Observing the similarities between animal species to learn more about the classification tree

[1:16:34] Tim’s next book further exploring invasive species

[1:17:05] The super-colony of Argentine ants causing global destruction

[1:21:30] Nature vs computers, bandicoots and platypus