Hey friends, I hope you're ready for a really exciting episode of Just the Zoo of Us.

This week I've got a wonderful ecologist here to talk about puddles, ponds, and the life that thrives inside of them.

He's got some really interesting stories to share about raising dragons, a mysterious entomological cold case, and his very own super villain origin story.

Stick around afterwards for announcements,

plugs, and a sneak peek at next week's episode. Without further ado, just the Zoo of Us

presents Back Swimmers with Gavin Campbell. Hey, everybody. This is Ellen Weatherford. I'm here with Just the Zoo of Us. This is your favorite animal

review podcast. I have a new friend for y'all to meet this week. I have Gavin Campbell. Say hi, Gavin. Hey, everyone. Who are you? Well, you can't respond with it. Hi, how are you? I can respond. I'm doing great. That's awesome. I'm really excited to talk to you and talk about a very fascinating and very timely animal today.

Before we talk about our cool animal,

let's talk about a very fascinating and very timely animal today.

Before we talk about our cool animal, let's talk about our cool person.

So tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are, like studying these pond ecosystems.

Tell us a little bit about that.

So growing up, I've always been someone that's interested in bugs, insects overall.

I would collect some bees, some flies, some wasps like when I was growing up. I learned that bees

were fed royal honey to become queen bees. I saw that royal honey was made up of honey, spit,

and some other chemicals. So what I did was use honey, of sugar actually, and use my spit and fed it to some actual adult bees.

And I was surprised that they did not turn into cream bees.

So like those are some things that I had questions about.

Like I've always query things when it comes to the biology of particularly insects.

And I experiment and sometimes they would work, sometimes they

wouldn't.

Most of the times they wouldn't because I didn't have a full understanding.

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