Michelle Gadd—who heads global conservation for Walters Conservation, created and funded by philanthropists Mark and Kimbra Walter, and owner of White Oak Conservation, a 17,000-acre spread in northeastern Florida, which houses and cares for endangered and...
Heidi Jo Markel—longtime film producer and founder of Stop Poaching Now! (SPN), an organization dedicated to combating poaching through conservation strategies and educational efforts—recounts her foray into producing movies, starting by trying her hand at acting...
Scott Blais—co-founder of the Global Sanctuary for Elephants, whose initial facility is the Elephant Sanctuary Brazil—begins the conversation aiming to answer my question about what makes elephants magical, what provokes such passionate response to them in so many...
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers--New York Times bestselling authors of “Zoobiquity,” whose new book is “Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals”—in recalling that they both were raising adolescents while...
Natasha Daly—a staff writer for the National Geographic, where she wrote the June cover story, “The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism”—addresses her role as the magazine’s “wildlife crime reporter,” how she landed on that beat, and what sort of stories she’s written...
Dr. Toni Frohoff—a wildlife behavioral biologist who has researched the lives and behaviors of elephants and cetaceans for more than 30 years—recalls how, as an aspiring surfer growing up in Southern California, encountering dolphins in the ocean there, spurred her...
Jim. Oesterle—an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington, who, earlier this summer, served as a faculty member for a two-week course on Combating Illegal Wildlife Trafficking at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Gaborone,...
Barbara Trask Lovett—the president of Save Nosey Now! (SNN), an organization that helped a high-profile, long-suffering circus elephant (Nosey) win freedom from the neglectful, exploitative treatment of her owner…and seeks to educate the public about the plight of...
Ashley Bell—the actress perhaps best known for her acclaimed work in such top horror films as “The Last Exorcism” and “Psychopath”—discusses the elements and interests that led her to directing “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story,” a documentary chronicling the...
Ronnie Graves—owner of Veterinary Inclusive Prosthetics And Orthotics, in Bushnell, Florida, which, for more than 20 years, has created custom prosthetic limbs for animals suffering from injuries, illnesses, or birth defects—recounts how he got started in the...
