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From eco-fashion to butterfly inspiration.
Today, the 10 News gets into nature with more from our favorite wildlife vet, Dr. Gabby Wild.
I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is the 10 News Gets Extra.
Last month we had so much fun talking to Dr Gabby Wild about her work as a wildlife veterinarian and her new book Wild Vet Adventures saving animals around the world.
But did you know that what you're wearing can impact the environment?
What?
Let's learn more from Dr. Wild.
My name is Dr. Gabby Wild. and I'm a wildlife veterinarian.
So what we're dealing with here is I have to know all of these different species because we learn them through the domesticated species.
And then we take it and we learn about these other animals that are very rare sometimes.
So, for example, we might learn about the domesticated pig when we're a veterinary student or when we're working as vets, but then you might be exposed to a unique species that's like a pig, but it's not the domesticated pigs.
So something called a peccary, which is located in Central and South America.
So that's what a wildlife vet does.
We go internationally, many of us, and we work with these unique wild animals.
It also involves us working with local people.
Whenever we work with local people, we have to understand their cultural practices and what these animals mean to them.
And you might be, you know, living with deer in your backyard and it might sometimes be very nice to see the deer, or sometimes they're eating your flowers and it seems a little bit frustrating.
So imagine living with the elephant in your backyard.
So that is sometimes what veterinarians like myself have to deal with is understanding the different types of natural wildlife that occur in different people's backyards.
So it's a human interface.
And then we also have a public interface of disease.
So I'm sure you guys are familiar with scary diseases like COVID.
You may have heard of Ebola or bird flu, Zika virus.
All of these types of viruses are transmitted from animals to people, and sometimes people to animals, but we have to be monitoring these kinds of scary diseases so that way we can protect people and animals from becoming infected.
So that's the main gist of wildlife veterinary work.
So what is your day like?
Like how often do you travel to help animals someplace in the world versus seeing an animal at your surgical center in New York?
So my days are very varied.
When I'm not in the wild, I work as a surgeon and I'm in the OR, you know, about 14, 15 hours a day.
OR meaning the operating room.
And we're doing all different types of surgeries, mostly on dogs and cats, but I also will do exotic species.
This is another, as if there could be more cool things about you, but this is a very cool thing.
You're an eco-fashionista, which is such an amazing thing.
It's just an amazing way to live and a thing to think about.
Absolutely.
So by calling myself an eco-fashionista kind of just fell in my lap.
If you're looking at me now, I have no makeup on.
My hair is all over the place because I was in the OR.
And I've had this for years.
It's like a little wool piece because I get cold easily.
I'm just out of modesty to keep my hair down.
So...
How that happened is because I think it's very important to understand that all of our decisions, that every day we make that you might say oh, doesn't matter matters.
Every decision, including the clothing you buy, the food you buy, what you're doing with your piece of paper when you're finished with it, what you're doing with everything.
And so I decided, what could we do to get people excited about sustainability?
Because people might not realize that what you're wearing affected a whole ecosystem in another country, or even your country.
And that affected the animals there.
Because if they had dyes that they just threw and polluted into the rivers, what do you think is happening to those animals?
What's happening to those trees that the animals depend on?
And all of these things relate to each other.
It's not just about shearing an animal for its fur.
It goes farther than that.
And so that's why, several years ago, I started a campaign with the designers from the TV show Project Runway to wear one outfit.
Yes, I got smelly.
One outfit for an entire month, and then one outfit for each month of 2012 to represent 12 different critically endangered species or species whose habitat was under severe threat.
For example, the blue morpho butterfly isn't per se under the endangered species list, but its environment, the Amazon, is.
So that's why it's important to understand that everything is interconnected.
And people got excited about it.
They thought more about what they're wearing.
They said to themselves, do I really need a new outfit?
Do I need to feed this rapid consumptive system or not? can I keep my clothing?
Can I maybe stitch it myself or my mother or a friend or take it to a tailor?
Do I have to just throw it away?
Well, maybe I could go and share clothing with somebody, things of that nature.
And then let's say you do want to buy something new.
We all do.
It happens.
There's a party you have to go to.
So if you need to go and do that, then go find a company who's doing it ethically, that they're not taking fabrics that are really, really polluting the planet, that the people who made those fabrics are being paid a fair wage, that they're being put into places where they feel comfortable working.
That children aren't being forced out of school to go ahead and do this.
So that's why, when you make these purchases, remember that every purchase you make, whether it's fashion or else, or if you're asking your parents to buy you something that it's not, something that is going to hurt the planet
Think about it, because your choices are going to affect our whole future.
That is one of the number one most incredibly important messages.
And what a creative and an impactful way to get the message across through fashion, how fashion affects animals and wildlife.
Absolutely brilliant.
To hear the full interview with Dr. Wilde, visit the 10 News website at www.thetennews.com.
What?
What?
What's the big idea?
Trivia on the 10.
Everyone knows we all learn so much from nature and animals.
But what have scientists and engineers learned from the blue morpho butterfly?
Was it A, different ways to flutter, B, different ways to create color, or C, a new way to stretch?
Did you guess it?
The answer is B. Here's what Dr. Wilde had to say about the bloom morpho butterfly.
We learned from butterflies different ways in which to create color, because they use the wavelengths of the sun.
They don't have pigment the same way that some flowers have pigment.
It's the way the sun hits their wings that creates that color.
We learned how to make Velcro because of the way that their wings work.
So they inspire us to make our lives better and unique inventions from them.
And that's one of the reasons why we celebrate wildlife because we share this planet with them.
It's not a me versus them.
It's an us and it's our world and it's our responsibility to share it appropriately.
And that's why World Wildlife Day is so exciting, because it's our chance to say one planet, one world, all together.
Time's up.
But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups.
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Thanks for listening to The 10 News.
Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays.
The 10 News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio.
The production and editorial team is a bunch of wild animals, including Tracy Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, Jenner Pasqua, Stephen Tompkins and Sarah Olander.
Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle.
And The 10 News is executive produced by Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.
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I'm Bethany Van Delft.
And thanks for listening to the 10 News.
Say this 10 times fast.
Butterflies flutter by.
Butterflies flutter by.
Butterflies flutter by.
Butterflies flutter by.
Butterflies flutter by.
Butterflies flutter by.
Did I make it to six?
I don't think I did.
Bye.
