Welcome to the Vet podcast
by the Vet guru Brandon and Mark.
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Now, sit back.
Relax. It's over to the Vector guru,
Brendan and Mark.
Welcome back to the Va Brendan here with
Mark, episode 3573
hundred and 57, Thursday, July the 20 fifth
2024.
Are you there, Brendan. I am here.
It is
excellent to hear you and have a bit
of a chat to here before our recording
hem Mark, the last couple of weeks we'll
actually a little bit longer from the last
than in the long last couple of weeks
you've been
away on an absolutely epic
trip, so we put in a couple of
keeper episodes, but we're back
semi sort of flow. No. Really live.
Really live, but recording a monthly entails say
before this episode goes out and just a
quick shout out. Bit of housekeeping mark, edgar
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And get back to us, tell us what
you think of it. And with that Mark,
I think we should dump pent news before
we talk about your
amazing
trip that I'm very jealous smooth.
And
we have 2 great news stories at quite
fun little ones these. Man, I don't know
where you've had a chance to have a
bit of a flick through the... I'll take
the first 1 now so you can have
a chance to read them if you haven't
already. And it's about womb that burrows Marker,
a researcher,
and I like this 1 because you'd you've
set up a few of the
these camera retract. This little trial cameras. Traps
out in the bush, and this was after
the fires in new saw South wales, near
W,
I think it was.
Where a research scientist Grant Lend lee.
He looked at
through 746000
odd images
of womb bats burrows after fire had been
through the bush there mark, and he was
amazed that he'd seen
48
different species visiting the womb that burrows.
They did had the
camera traps set up there and there's some...
Were linked to the article as usual, at
mac dot com, and
Yeah. Pretty amazing. And that they make a
comment that it's like a 07:11. They're open
all year round. I'm not just from 7
to 11. These 1 map burrows.
And
it's
good.
There 1 thought that...
And, I think it discounted at Mark that
that the womb that's actually let
some of these other animals
into their burrows.
And the rumors that they were purposely helping
other species.
But I think his comment that was they're
more like accent or heroes
after the fire that
fires that devastated that area out that a
lot of
animals needed some sort shelter and protection from
predators, so they use the womb that burrows
as a resident And it's sort of no
big surprise is it
by our literally
all doses of animals rearranging large amounts of
earth.
They're bloody holes suddenly.
On the
when you see the entrance to them, you're
saying, What the hell did that? Remember once
you've seen 1 he realized that? That their
openings. They're not shut
the openings of
they
increase like the service area a number of
hides and
and somebody is no surprise that
that they create places for
for,
particularly for a refuge, but also because the
entrances is
develop little puddle and so birds you didn't
need to grab a drink and
and eat the soil,
they that was 1 of the interesting the
things I thought about this article that many
animals were munch on the soil, a bit
of geo.
And
and
access to that soil
was 1 of the benefits of having the
womb s the burrows.
Yes.
I laughed out loud when the the researcher
was talking about looking at the images when
he pulled out the first memory card for
the cameras, and he suddenly realized that. I
me tallied then up, and he thought, oh,
I've got over 700000
images and I have to
sort my way through. It's a bit like
you with your photography mark. When you put
your put your camera on high,
High,
rate and you get in, you know, 20
or 50 frames a second.
It's nice to have that on your camera,
but
for me, it's too tempting to put my
my a little olympus on a really high
frame rate mark because I know it just
means it's a hell of a lot more
images I have to go through. So I
try and save it for special occasions when
we really fast moving. And.
But done that. So... But this is 1
of the things about a lot of wildlife
research these days between
the very very good
trail camera so you can take vast numbers
of
images.
And sound recordings
that that the big job tends to be
sitting down and going through them
to find things out. So I I'm
Pat Grant Nun leaves,
pat him on the back because any research
that goes through quarter of a million photographs.
I suspect what they have shown is a
bit of an Ai,
bot that can run through the images mark
and
farm them off to per suspect spec particular
space. Right. Like they do with some of
the you know, that the fecal,
you know. So we just have that little
fecal Ai system that can
differentiate
dog and cat fecal parasites, and it's pretty
damn accurate.
So so there we go, Mark, and that
there's a little addendum to it at which
chats about the
the fact that womb bats even though they're,
that the common womb bat is not considered
threatened. It's range is certainly being reduced in
Mark.
And
yeah.
You also have piping for the all that,
700000
He images just the last paragraph there. I
think that you've just seen it too. He
was he was hoping that he'd see a
spotted q,
And he didn't find 1 in this
700000
here. It is. So... Oh, well, next time.
It's nice.
The way that article
finishes were, you know, he'd love to see
a a spotted quo, but he didn't. And
that's the end.
Yes. Now, what have you got that? Minds
a very interesting 1 about.
Well, I suppose it's about,
some
unknown factors
about sol. So su are
are arrays
that have a
signature long
tooth lined
sn.
And
Cheese, it's only just been recently that scientists
have sort of gotten a much greater handle
on the specialized sheath
that prevents,
you know, the... Because these are live born.
And so there's... It's always been a bit
of a, like, how do these
rays not slice up the units of their
mother and stimulants come out like adrian put
through the tooth. Yes. But scientists have gotten
a fair bit of just
close up
detail of the the sheath that lays over
the the the
the nose, the the the tooth like projection
that sits out the front.
And, u, initially, they thought, it was gonna
be something like, you know a bit of
a mucus,
maybe mem,
gelatin
covering,
but the sheath actually has been revealed. There's
a tough multi layered skin like structure.
Eventually shared about 4 days after birth,
button, but it is a much stout
and
significant structure
that then research and this researchers initially thought
it might be.
They took them a long time, 18 years,
of
of monthly research trips just to collect a
handful of sheath tissue samples, which were
examined his,
and additionally with, scanning electron microscopes
and even micro Ct,
and they sort of decided that the sheath
had 2 tissue layers that
resembled
an epidermis and dermis
and contain proteins that on
an initial examination was suggestive of things like
ke re reticulum and collagen.
Which I don't think is being surprised if
you're going to create such a structure,
repeating the sort of protective
layer that skin is,
and temporarily
might not be such a bad thing.
They are critically endangered all the 7 species
of saw fish around the world. There's 4.
I'm in Australia, Brendan.
But
but all of them are
really struggling and so anything that we can
learn about them,
certainly puts us in a better position to
consider
putting things in place to to,
bring them back from the brink. They have
been making a little bit of recovery over
the last years, but they have been,
particularly of this small tooth saw fish,
recent diets in the Florida lower keys.
And, yeah,
trying to figure out why at the moment.
There's not a lot of information about this
mortality event.
They're amazing looking barrels out here. There
for the
they are a little bit when you flip
look look from the underside and that sort
of face.
It is a must way just sort of
describe it with
freaky. Yeah. Very freaky.
Excellent. And we're... As I mentioned at the
start of the episode. We'll link to that
at our latest
a latest episode at vet guru dot com.
Now let's jump into our main topic this
week weeks is
of a bit of wander down around the
world mark and your search.
On your holiday for Santa. But you've been...
You've been up way north. How you. Way
away away as far north as you can
go.
Yeah. We got up above
80 degrees north,
the last
bit of
land,
north of
the the northern part of Sv.
Sv being a Arc archipelago.
I think it's about 500
kilometers north of
of this of Scandinavia.
It's
it's actually not
a particular territory of anyone
country Norway
has,
sort of
overarching
administration, but they're Russian
settlements in Sv and the northern most islands
in the Archipelago and the 7 aisle just
tip over into about 80 or 81 degrees
north,
which takes you less than a thousand kilometers
from the north pole So yeah, we've been
up there, Brendan.
He would close. So you're close, and
you're just starting to release some of your
amazing pictures mark of the wildlife, and
Be that was a a big part of
the reason why you headed up there to
do a bit of
almost like a safari or wildlife safari or
or bit of burden up there and then
looking at some amount is in arctic species
they're mark. But this backdrop
track a little bit
too
after You went on a cruise. Didn't you
it was part of this? It was a
and was was it a set cruise
run by a photography sort of company or
was it a wildlife
company that brand cruise. That we went on
2 cruises brendan, and we went on 1
with a company
who both of them do
sort of like, they call them
expedition cruises.
So they're relatively small boats compared to many
ocean cruises
they only had about a hundred guests
on the boat. They have about, the same
number of crew.
And and, yeah, they,
relatively small, maneuver
ships,
and and they can go to quite a
lot of places that maybe some of the
biggest ships can't. They definitely a focus on
Wildlife. They they look for
wildlife events. And I've got an interesting thing
to talk about with respect to the polar
of bears.
Button, but certainly, they they took us to,
some very, very remote places on the planet.
We got to see some
some really special species
and got to see them pretty,
pretty up close. But I think those things
are gonna be those experiences are gonna be
harder and harder to have in the future
for multiple reasons,
not least.
Jeez. It was
the the... I know on this podcast,
which is focused on veterinary matters. We regularly
talk about environment. Matters, and we do talk
about climate change.
And
and there was no doubt that,
the effect sort of climate change
already manifesting
themselves in in the locations we were in.
So at the very northern part, of
sv bard,
the northern part of the main Island,
Spits.
The pac ice from the north pole would
normally extend down to that point. And so
the polar bears that live on the pac
ice would reach down to the, 12 up
peninsula.
And that's where they would...
They probably would spend the winter and then
hop back on the
receding pack ice and head up north as
the seals were reading in the summer.
But that pack ice is she's just not
not making it. It's not getting down as
far
and
a whole bunch of,
changes occur as a consequence. The
polar get stranded
on sv but, they can't get off the
island and onto the pac.
And they can't... Their main priorities items are
sales
and and they can't get to them.
So
So what did they look like? Did this
already? 8 Polar bears.
There we saw 2 polar bears, 2 females
who had cubs
and it's pretty well accepted that if they
end up being left behind with the cubs,
those cubs are really gonna struggle to make
it.
They didn't look good. Interestingly enough,
we could... We spent a habit bit of
time
tracking 1 polar bear.
And you could see it coughing, Brendan. You
could get the get it in the camera
and
and see it doing those little puffs of
coughs
that made me worry
well, a little bit about whether influenza,
Avian flu was spreading up
in the part of the world, but
they were thin and underweight, and and they
did good. And I don't know whether that
sort of
to, that sort of expedition style to.
I don't know how much
longer they'll be able to do that stuff
because
you know, costco got a lot to do.
And if they can't
get you to see the the
what people want us
if they're for if the basil look ill
and
struggling to make it. Yeah. I don't know.
I don't know what the long the long
term future is for that sort of business.
So what's their...
Do they have any plan
if we stick to the polar for that
space? There, Mark? What are the locals do
they
is it... No. We just leave them alone
and we don't interfere at all. Or do
we try and
somehow help with their cheese
their situation fascinating then because
1 you know from your travels that
the the 1 of the amazing thing about
travel is the way that it exposes you
to
the way that different people around the world
think
and
that whole
area up towards the arctic in the Sv
Archipelago,
it's long been...
What's the best way to describe it? A
hunters paradise. There's w
stations. There's
a long history of of, hunting a whole
range of species
and
and everyone carries a gun,
it filled a little little bit like
other parts of the world.
And there were So the main town
on Spits
is a place called Long,
and that's
that town, 3 and half thousand people.
It has a border,
beyond which you're not allowed to,
go without a gun or some form of,
you know, flare gun or something like that
because of the the polar of bears and
about once every 8 years, someone gets killed
by polar bear and about once every 3
years,
Paul Bear wander into the wrong place and
ends up,
ends up being killed itself. And I think
as
these bears get stranded and and don't head
up on the pack ice where the the
seals are.
They will. They will be an increasing number
of,
human
interaction and as is the case with many
wildlife
interactions in those sort of circumstances. I don't
think it'll be good for the beds.
Yeah. So the short answer to your question
is there's not they they pretty much do
just
leave them alone and leave them to their
own,
devices. And it's interesting that some of the
bay beers have learnt to hunt where they
they would normally be
specialist
sale hunters.
They have started to
Randy.
The the,
sal reindeer is
has become a new food item.
So they are adapting whether they can adapt
quickly enough
I I I'll I'll
don't know that I know enough to to
predict they're gonna thrive,
but it is interesting to see them start
talk for pray.
Yes.
Now I'm gonna jump over to. I'm just
flicking through some of the photos you sent
me and also you've posted
to 1 of
1 of everybody's
favorite birds a par. Brandon the we sweet
how could you might know this front. We
we saw puff in sv,
but they don't breed in large numbers there.
Now but when we got down to iceland,
Crack is on the the in the Western
fields and across the north.
There,
there's some... There's some rook with a million
birds in them.
And so
they are difficult
to
access. A lot of the tourism in
in iceland is sort of focus around the
coast. There is a ci navigating road
and so many tourists will drive around
the thousand odd kilometers around the outside device.
But being on a boat, we could get
to a couple of them more,
difficult to access
locations,
and and, yeah, got to some islands and
got to see
some bloody amazing, amazing
puff rook.
And how are they doing? They're doing pretty
well.
They certainly
which so another really interesting thing. And 1
of the things about photography that I found
fascinating was that
that the, you know, when you've got numbers
of birds like,
Rook with a million birds in at door.
1 of the ones we went to, there
was 20000 birds there and and I suppose,
that number drops to,
you know, 15000. It still looks like an
awful lot of bit herd.
But the interesting thing was that some of
the photographs
I took.
If you were taken photographs of the birds
say 10 years ago. They all almost exclusively
fed on sand. So there's a lot of
famous puff photographs with Eels just drape over
there, Beacon,
they're really cool in that
amongst that family birds, the orcs,
They
they are
unusual in that they can collect fish, so
they'll dive, catch a fish.
Keep it in there, be, catch another 1.
And so they fly back to the Nearest
burrow
with maybe 15 or 20
sand eels in their beak.
But there's an increasing number of they're having
to get other species. The sand eels are
obviously not in the same
numbers. And so, a lot of the photos
that I got, had the birds with some
shrimp or
some of the other,
small fish,
that
are less favored by the Puff and routine
button, But I think that's an indication that
even though they're
they're still not
critically endangered.
I don't think they're doing
I wouldn't say they're thriving either,
but C was pretty special to see them
brendan.
Yes. Well,
the photos are quite special too that's
very jealous. Now
jumping around again. Did you see or visit
any
veterinary clinics we thought? That... So.
There is 1 veterinary clinic in long urban,
and and it wasn't open while we were
it, but it was really
interesting
that
there are no cats on sv, Only dogs.
And the dogs are all working dogs generally,
arctic grade dogs who sled
who work the sled
during... Particularly during the the winter.
They do also work the sled in the
summer for tourists. They have
wheeled
sled, so the doors can still work.
But that's the main
work, I think that the veterinary practice does
in sv.
Similarly, when we got 2 iceland,
we we sought out as you do, I
don't know. Well, I don't know whether the
else does Maybe I'm the weird 1 who
just goes looking for veterinary practices
everywhere I go.
But I tends to be a little bit
the inverse that that
they...
I'd say they're predominantly a a cat focused
society. We actually went into 1 of the
the cafes right near our
accommodation was,
yep a a cat.
Well,
had 4 or our cats.
All facilities for the cats. And was
bloody well attended as a consequence the cats
were a real attraction.
So so, yeah, it was interesting that the
species of pet
was different in each 1.
But, yes, with same deal when we got
to the the,
the veterinary practice in Rey ic.
They were closed when we got there, so
we didn't get to go in and make
friends.
We did.
They probably heard you on the way, Mark,
and they quickly shut up the shutters. Yeah.
That's quite possibly the case. And the other
exciting place that we drove past was
was
Oops sal University,
in Sweden. We did a quick side to
it at Sweden and and went and had
a look for for,
some brown beers.
But as we're driving to the location where
the beers, we didn't see them. But when
we're driving to that location, we went right
past the gates of,
Sal University, which richard which has an excellent
veterinary school.
Yes.
Reindeer.
The young the the interesting thing about the
Reindeer as sv, So my understanding is that
there's,
you know, Reindeer
Caribou.
There's about 7
subs species,
populations of
of, different
types of brandy
throughout those
arctic
regions in, Northern Russia and
Alaska in Canada and and the smile Reindeer
is the smallest.
Only weighing in and about,
large male, like, the 85 of 90 kilos.
They they... And they've got really short legs.
So they ended up. They sort of were
roughly the same dimensions as a large goat
I'd that I suppose.
But they had the time where were over
there. They had... Their ant was were all
nicely
inferred up. And growing,
and and they did look pretty spectacular even
if somewhat smaller than than their may main
cousins.
Yeah.
I'm
still very jealous mark of this truth. Now
any any
Anything a that didn't go quite to play.
You wanna check. You know that there's always
something that doesn't go quite plan.
I thought I have gotta say,
by large,
everything
did go fairly
fairly well.
But they were a couple of times that,
probably the worst 1, the worst and and
The days that we had quite a few
flights on this trip, And the days that
you're going to airports.
I know there's just an added level of
anxiety in my mind.
Well, as well, the trip to come home,
we're leaving Rey ic.
We have a 7AM
flight out of
of
Ke
airport
near Rey.
And
and we were supposed to catch a bus.
That would take us
to
the airport from our accommodation.
Well, I don't know whether I'm misread the
the tick but the bus never showed up.
And so we ended up having to
get a little bit of a rush taxi
and, you know, maybe always worry about those
international flights that, I've gotta have, you know,
so many hours beforehand,
make sure... Got every train. Yeah. Yeah.
So yes. We did have a little bit
of a... And, you know, our taxi driver
was so good,
you always dreamed like, you're gonna get into
a taxi 1 day and go buy that
car, and
really felt like that. Was like, we're late
for our flight. Can you get a sec
quick and eat
took the
the took the risk with the the the
icelandic cons stab and and got us there
that surprisingly
quickly.
And you had...
You're in a little bit of a log,
at 1 stage you didn't she.
Enough... It's been a
Oh was it Kate? Was it you? A
a little bit of 1 episode but now,
I think it's 1 of the things about
being
on those
small
you know,
expedition style cruises
that you are in relatively close proximity to
a lot of people
and
and, yeah, at the the end of the
first trick k got a little bit of
a,
head cold that
that made it uncomfortable for a while, made
made they... Both these ships had a ship
doctor,
and we did have a number of Covid
and influenza a test all come back negative.
So
had some poor rhino coronavirus that that made
us bit
a bit
well, like you said, made us feel a
bit run down, but
this is what happens when your travel isn't
it Brendan
Yes. It's a price you pay for visiting
these amazing places and seen these incredible
and I've also send some fantastic humans as
well. I've gotta tell you... Yes. It's 3
other quick things.
The first 1 is, and you hinted into
that there that the icing on the cake
for me with each of these trips
because we do sort of plan them to
go and see while like that sort of
like,
objective. But it is always a
bit of a pleasant surprise
that we need a few more people of
a
tribe as it were
And yet, it's always pretty cool to meet
up with some
peep... Other people from around the world who
who are interested in Wildlife and conservation and
and seeing that these animals in the wild.
The first trip we're on. They were basically
all
Europeans,
Dutch
and German people.
And I'm always in awe of people who...
I feel guilty that I don't speak more
languages.
It's just wonderful but that these people take
the time to learn English as well as
their native language. And,
yeah, It's always good to
to talk to them in iceland.
The,
it's a little bit of a iceland
tourism board has done this trick where they
have set up a stop over for Americans
flying to Europe.
And so almost all the people on our
second voyage were
where American is. But but, yeah.
Same sort of thing,
people who think the same way we do
and and view the world and
the problems that faces and with a bit
of urgency. So it was nice to be
involved with those people.
And the other
highlight
for me, Brendan
was
the arctic foxes.
So we went to a number of
I mentioned the puff and Rook and we
went to a number of gil number of
gill,
Rook and at the bottom of these cliffs,
that's a place that the arctic Fox tends
to hang out catching, you know, chicks at
fall and eggs that roll down.
And Marquis is their beautiful animals too. So
it was pretty cool to get to to
get to see pretty up close
And at the top, like we went in
the northern
summer,
and the
arctic foxes
white in the winter and then they shed
their white coat
to be sort of like a a bit
of a, brown shorter coat
for the the, summer, button we got to
see 1 or 2 of the foxes who
would in completely shared and so you've got
a bit of a hint of
what they might look like in the in
the snow and winter. So...
Yeah. All all things that I wish I
can share with you Brendan. I wish they
would be.
Well, I wasn't Mark. I'll slave in away
and in cold.
Winter at Melbourne. We've had a
very cold winter here, Mark,
where you've been
up north although it was a tad chilly
where you were that was some.
Up near the arctic there. But, yes,
great to hear you at a fantastic time
and that you made it both of you
made it back safely.
I'm looking forward to catching up with you
when we head over to
to the nation's capital in November here for
our initial pet avon veterinarian conference,
so we've fun catching up there, and I
think we've got a couple of
surprise,
special guests to record their mark, which we
won't talk about
at the moment.
And I'm really looking forward to
1 person in particular that we're going to,
hopefully
snap for a podcast mark
as no doubt you are, so that will
be great. And
Yes. We'd love to hear from our listeners,
Mark, where have you been recently? Have you
any areas that you'd recommend Mark visits on
his worldwide travels.
Or Brendan on his badger.
Vet guru at gmail dot com,
send us an email, and
Thanks for listening And we'll talk to you
on next week.
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