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Speaker 1: Well, we are celebrating women all day and all month,

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Speaker 1: and now I get to do something I have selfishly

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Speaker 1: been plotting on for a long time. You know, I

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Speaker 1: love animals, and you guys are convinced that that's how

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna die one day. Yeah, because you're going to

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Speaker 1: approach an animals is going to eat you. Maybe I will,

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Speaker 1: maybe I won't. But because of that, I have been

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Speaker 1: following a woman on Instagram. Her name is doctor ray

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Speaker 1: Win Grant. She is an ecologist. And when I tell

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Speaker 1: you what she does, or better yeah, when she tells

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Speaker 1: you what she does, I think your minds are going

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Speaker 1: to be blown. Hello, doctor ray Win Grant, how are you? Hey?

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Speaker 1: I'm extra good. I'm so happy to be with y'all today.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. You have no

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Speaker 1: idea how excited I am. She has been so excited

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Speaker 1: about this. I'm really hoping you're going to tell her

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Speaker 1: not to hug a bear though before the end of

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Speaker 1: this interview. Yep, thank you. Please listen. That is my

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Speaker 1: PSA to everyone listening. Leave them alone. But how how

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Speaker 1: do you know that? Let's talk about which you do? Okay,

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Speaker 1: So I am a wildlife ecologist and my goals are

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Speaker 1: to prevent endangered species from going extinct. But in particular,

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Speaker 1: if you follow me on social media, I am best

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Speaker 1: known for stealing little baby black bears like little wild

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Speaker 1: bear cubs and stuffing them in my jacket and taking

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Speaker 1: selfies with them. Yes and so yeah, so this is

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Speaker 1: where the problem lies, because this is what this one

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Speaker 1: wants to do. Yes, I do. You are living my

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Speaker 1: dream life. It is a dream. It is a dream. Literally.

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Speaker 1: One of my biggest things is that, like most people think, oh,

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Speaker 1: to be a scientist, that means you have like a

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Speaker 1: lab code on and you're like pipetting chemicals right like

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Speaker 1: at a bench. Like. No, you can be out there

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Speaker 1: in the wilderness like me. And the reason that I

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Speaker 1: have all these adorable pictures of me snuggling baby bears

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Speaker 1: in the wild is because I study mama bears and

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Speaker 1: they give birth during hibernation. It's very very convenient because

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Speaker 1: every winter if they have a GPS coloropst part. Little

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Speaker 1: baby bears that are just born, they're so little they

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Speaker 1: can't create their own body heat. So during the like

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Speaker 1: five minutes that we're giving them a checkup and listening

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Speaker 1: to their heart and they're breathing and all that. We

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Speaker 1: have to actually snuggle them in our jackets and give

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Speaker 1: them our body heat so they stay warm, and it

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Speaker 1: just so happens. That's also the perfect time to take

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Speaker 1: photos of the signs that you're doing. The bear is

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Speaker 1: asleep before she snuggles the baby cub, and she's doing

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Speaker 1: so that she can do like a little physical you know,

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Speaker 1: to make sure the baby. Yeah, yeah, that's insane to me,

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Speaker 1: Like that is the coolest, absolute best job in the world.

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Speaker 1: And I know you haven't just worked with bears. You've

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Speaker 1: worked with lions, You work with sharks. Can you name

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Speaker 1: some of the animals that you deal with. I have

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Speaker 1: worked with African lions for years, Like there was a

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Speaker 1: point I was living in Tanzania studying lions doing the

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Speaker 1: same thing with these lion mamas and cubs. I studied

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Speaker 1: grizzly bears and black bears and lemurs in Madagascar, ringtailed lemurs.

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Speaker 1: I've studied lowland gorillas in the Coco Basin, almost everything,

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Speaker 1: almost everything. I still have like a bucket list of

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Speaker 1: animals I haven't studied. Is there something that you've taken

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Speaker 1: away from this that like surprised you about a certain

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Speaker 1: animal like you would like blew your mind where you're like,

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Speaker 1: I didn't know that about that animal. I think coyotes

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Speaker 1: are the ones that have blown my mind to the most.

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Speaker 1: They're extremely tolerant of humans. The humans are intolerant of

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Speaker 1: coyotes because a lot of the animals I study are

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Speaker 1: like so sensitive near humans. If they hear human noises,

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Speaker 1: then they like can't sleep and their whole biology is

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Speaker 1: thrown off. Coyotes can like thrive in some of these cities,

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Speaker 1: and it's just people who freak out about them. And

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Speaker 1: I thought, that's been like such a surprise to me.

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Speaker 1: So for you with all these different animals that you've encountered,

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Speaker 1: and yes they are endangered species, but they're also kind

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Speaker 1: of terrifying species. The ones that you have listed, have

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Speaker 1: you ever had any crazy encounters with them? Close calls

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Speaker 1: Win Grant And the most popular episode of my podcast

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Speaker 1: is called Near Death Experiences, where I talk about all

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Speaker 1: the times I almost died at the hands of wild animals.

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Speaker 1: There's like twenty examples, but I will give one here

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Speaker 1: where I was studying bears in this year and Avada

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Speaker 1: Mountains right this was like summer of one of my

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Speaker 1: PhD years. So I was younger, I was in grad school.

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Speaker 1: I was an idiot, and I was spending the full

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Speaker 1: summer in like over one hundred degree temperatures, like in

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Speaker 1: the desert, and I was setting traps for bears because

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Speaker 1: we have to put a GPS collar on them, and

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Speaker 1: my job as the like intern grad student was to

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Speaker 1: check the traps every day. We don't want to have

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Speaker 1: a bear in a trap for more than like twelve

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Speaker 1: hours or something, right, especially in that heat. And so

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Speaker 1: every day I was checking these traps in the middle

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Speaker 1: of nowhere, is camping by myself for weeks on end,

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Speaker 1: and there were no bears, not a single bear ever.

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Speaker 1: So I started getting lazy. I stopped carrying my bear spray,

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Speaker 1: I stopped carrying my like whistles, I stopped carrying my water.

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Speaker 1: One day I checked a trap, no bear, and I

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Speaker 1: start putting the bait back in the trap, some new bait,

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Speaker 1: and as soon as I turn around to go back,

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Speaker 1: there is a huge male black bear three feet from me,

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Speaker 1: Like I could smell his breath, and he was pawing

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Speaker 1: the ground and he was like they do this like

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Speaker 1: shaking their head thing, and he started charging me and

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Speaker 1: I did the thing you're not supposed to do. Like

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Speaker 1: after all of my training, I knew, I knew exactly

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Speaker 1: the protocol. I panicked. I totally panicked, and I ran.

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Speaker 1: And that is the one thing that you do not

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Speaker 1: do with a bear is you do not run. You're

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Speaker 1: supposed to back away slowly and make yourself look big

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Speaker 1: and kind of yell at the bear. Honey. I dropped everything.

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Speaker 1: I ran. The bear chased me. I could feel it

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Speaker 1: like nipping at my butt the whole time. Literally, I

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Speaker 1: was crying. I was like running, crying, praying, falling down

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Speaker 1: this mountain, like getting like dirt and stuff like up

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Speaker 1: my nose. Like it was a disaster. And really, the

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Speaker 1: reason I'm around today is because the bear just decided

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Speaker 1: not to eat me. Any bear can outrun a person easily.

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Speaker 1: They run thirty five miles an hour. I can run,

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Speaker 1: you know, two miles an hour, right, So like it

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Speaker 1: just decided she's weak, let me not even try it.

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Speaker 1: That was like my life flashed before my eyes. I

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Speaker 1: was just like, oh my god, here I am thinking

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Speaker 1: I'm protecting these bears. I just pissed one off, and

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Speaker 1: now it's chasing me away. Oh my god, that's terribly nip.

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Speaker 1: It was horrible, horrible, horrible. So is the addage true brown,

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Speaker 1: lay down, black, fight back, and white good night. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: You know, I feel bad about the white good night

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Speaker 1: because polar bears, they are the world's largest carnivore. They're

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Speaker 1: over a thousand pounds, So there's just like a low

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Speaker 1: chance of survival if you're having an actual attack from

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Speaker 1: a polar bear. But I think it's important to note that,

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Speaker 1: like most people don't get attacked by a polar bear.

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Speaker 1: Just because you see a polar bear, or just because

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Speaker 1: you're surprised by polar bear, or just because you upset

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Speaker 1: a polar bear doesn't mean it's going to attack you.

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Speaker 1: But if we're talking about an attack, then yeah, it's over.

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Speaker 1: It's like les, if that black bear had been a

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Speaker 1: polar bear, do you think it would have chased you

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Speaker 1: and you would that have been it? Yeah? Yep, I

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Speaker 1: would not be here. Yeah, rip me good night. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Can we go back to extinct animals, like if is

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Speaker 1: there one animal in particular that is basically almost gone

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Speaker 1: and almost done? So there's a couple species of rhinos

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Speaker 1: in East Africa and Southern Africa that are almost done.

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Speaker 1: I believe it's like the northern white rhino. There's a

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Speaker 1: couple of them left, like four left, And that's really hard,

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Speaker 1: right because rhinos are like, they're big and they look ferocious, right,

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Speaker 1: but they're like very gentle. They just eat grass all day.

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Speaker 1: You know. They're these amazing creatures. And due to a

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Speaker 1: mix of land transformation and the legacy of colonialism in

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Speaker 1: Africa is what started driving them to extinction. And now

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Speaker 1: poaching is a huge threat. There's not very many of

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Speaker 1: them and that makes me really sad. Rhinos when you

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Speaker 1: see them on the African landscape, it just looks right like,

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Speaker 1: you know that the ecosystem is functioning, but we're not

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Speaker 1: going to have them. It's pretty much over for them.

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Speaker 1: And there's a couple of other species like that too.

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Speaker 1: But it doesn't have to be that way moving forward.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot that can be Then there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of reasons for hope. So quickly before you go, I

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Speaker 1: want to highlight a couple of things about you, because

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Speaker 1: I think that within your field, you're probably a unicorn

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Speaker 1: yourself or a white rhino yourself myself included, are not

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Speaker 1: necessarily in leadership, right, So that's kind of like what

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Speaker 1: we see in a lot of these fields. It's like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: women are getting there, women are passionate, like they're opening

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Speaker 1: some doors for us, but in terms of leadership, in

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Speaker 1: terms of like being at the top, you're not seeing

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Speaker 1: very many women. And so I'm a woman, I'm a

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Speaker 1: black woman. I am a black woman from the inner city.

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Speaker 1: Like I grew up in San Francisco, back when San

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Speaker 1: Francisco had an inner city. It has changed, but like

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Speaker 1: that's where I'm from. And so I didn't go outside

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Speaker 1: with my family, right, Like we didn't go like cam

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Speaker 1: bang and hiking and stuff. So I didn't see my

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Speaker 1: first wild animal until I was in my twenties. So

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Speaker 1: that's something that's also really important for people to know,

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Speaker 1: is that you don't have to be some person who

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Speaker 1: goes to Yosemite, you know, every weekend to be made

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Speaker 1: for this field. I've made a lot of change. I

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Speaker 1: have gone all over the world. I've had adventures of

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Speaker 1: a lifetime, and I feel like I'm just getting started. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think you're fascinating and I appreciate you joining us

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Speaker 1: so much. Thank you for that. GODDI would like to

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Speaker 1: live in your back pocket. Thank you come on ran

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Speaker 1: please if you could give us some advice for just

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Speaker 1: the everyday person. We're talking about conservation and how we're

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Speaker 1: going to save the planet and save these animals. What

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Speaker 1: advice can you give the everyday person to make that move?

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's so easy. Vote. Every single election

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Speaker 1: has environmental issues on the ballot. There are politicians who

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Speaker 1: support the environment and some that don't. But also there's

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Speaker 1: like literal legislation, like I'm talking about the coyotes, I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about the bears, I'm talking about the eagles flying around.

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Speaker 1: That kind of stuff is on the bat and you

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Speaker 1: don't have to be a scientist to make an impact there.

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Speaker 1: So go to the polls and vote in favor of

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Speaker 1: the environment. I love that. Thank you. Drop your podcast

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Speaker 1: one more time. It is Going Wild with doctor ray

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Speaker 1: Win Grant from PBS Nature. You can find it wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts and on Instagram. You can find

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Speaker 1: me across social but I like Instagram the most. At

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Speaker 1: ray Win Grant r A W y n N g

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Speaker 1: r A n T. Come visit. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for joining us. You are wonderful and you're inspirational and

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Speaker 1: I will stock you even more than I already have,

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Speaker 1: so I appreciate you spending some time with us. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: This has been the best having me back. I'll be

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Speaker 1: back absolutely, don't you worry. Thank you. Thank you. Byell,

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Speaker 1: my aunt's boyfriend got a whole pizza thrown at him.

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Speaker 1: I turned on and shocked it at his head. Why

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Speaker 1: the celebrating boss women everywhere? Happy International Women's Day, El

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Speaker 1: mister Rand in the Morning show, Wendy's homestyle French toast

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Speaker 1: sticks are so good. Some are saying they're better than

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Speaker 1: your own mom's French toast. Perfectly crispy on the outside,

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Speaker 1: perfectly fluffy on the inside, perfectly perfect in every way.

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Speaker 1: Try Wendy's homestyle French toast sticks today and see if

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Speaker 1: they're better than your mom's