Save the Beetles and Salamanders!

Barton Springs Salamander

Barton Springs Salamander (Nathan Bendik)

Cities can rally ’round all sorts of mascots, even unconventionally charismatic micro fauna like beetles and salamanders.

We talk with Nathan Bendik, who works to protect Austin, TX’s spring and cave salamanders, and we hear about York’s (UK) tansy beetles and the community effort to save the endangered cuties.

Our guest host this week is Philadelphia’s hardest working entomologist/ecologist, Daniel Duran of Drexel University and MANTIZ, the Mid Atlantic Native and Threatened Insect Zoo.

And we wind up with a word from the foxes of Silicon Valley (and Greg Kerekez of the Urban Wildlife Research Project)