If we want to help wildlife, we need to know when and where they’re moving on the landscape. Dr. Scott LaPoint has spent his career researching just that. When our recent episode on fisher cats left us with a lot of questions, we figured who better to help us out than Dr. LaPoint. He was kind enough to join Daniel and Bill for a hike, sharing his expertise and his amazing ability to communicate science with enthusiasm, humor, and clarity. Join the guys for a wide-ranging discussion on fishers, connectivity, and wildlife-human interaction.
Episode Notes and Links
Check out all of Dr. LaPoint’s fascinating work via his website. and we encourage everyone to find out more about and support Black Rock Forest.
Listen to more interviews with Dr. LaPoint:
The Wild Animals Podcast: Look for Season 2, Episode 10: Leroy, the Fisher Who Learned “No Means
No” the Hard Way
The Rewilding Earth Podcast focuses on connectivity of wild lands across North America.
The Wildlands Network is a clearing house for information on connecting wild lands across the continent, empowering local organizations to prevent biodiversity loss and promote climate change resilience.
Dr. LaPoint mentioned how he’s heard a fisher make what he called a “chuffing” sound when agitated. We found a video on YouTube that demonstrates this - listen in at the 1:10 mark.
Sponsors and Ways to Support Us
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Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes!
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Works Cited
Dechmann, D.K., LaPoint, S., Dullin, C., Hertel, M., Taylor, J.R., Zub, K. and Wikelski, M., 2017. Profound seasonal shrinking and regrowth of the ossified braincase in phylogenetically distant mammals with similar life histories. Scientific Reports, 7(1), p.42443.
LaPoint, S., Keicher, L., Wikelski, M., Zub, K. and Dechmann, D.K., 2017. Growth overshoot and seasonal size changes in the skulls of two weasel species. Royal Society Open Science, 4(1), p.160947.
Lázaro, J., Hertel, M., LaPoint, S., Wikelski, M., Stiehler, M. and Dechmann, D.K., 2018. Cognitive skills of common shrews (Sorex araneus) vary with seasonal changes in skull size and brain mass. Journal of Experimental Biology, 221(2), p.jeb166595.
Lázaro, J., Dechmann, D.K., LaPoint, S., Wikelski, M. and Hertel, M., 2017. Profound reversible seasonal changes of individual skull size in a mammal. Current Biology, 27(20), pp.R1106-R1107.
Photo Credit
Dr. Roland Kays - https://naturalsciences.org/research-collections/wild-animals-podcast