“I love all big cats. One of my pet peeves is the whole bit about scientists saying “Don’t anthropomorphize animals”, and I say, “Do”. The closer we are to them, the more we understand that they have personalities, feelings… The more empathy that we can have for animals, maybe we’ll have more empathy for ourselves and our fellow human beings, because we’re doing a lousy job of it. We need to strengthen our connection with animals. That will help.

Of all the big cats, it’s really hard getting good tiger pictures. I’d much rather be in Africa and just roam around and see animals easily, but it’s kind of been our mission to help save tigers because they are the world’s most endangered cat. I’ve spent the most time with them.

Spending so many years working with them, tigers have become my favourite. They do look beautiful but now that I do a couple of workshops a year, I really appreciate and understand the importance of the time that we’re given at Nat Geo and the serendipity that may happen that you’ll never ever see again. A moment happens, boom.

You’re always looking for that one moment, and a great moment is mom and cubs because it brings through the emotion between the cub and the mother, or vice versa, that we could transfer into humans. Once that emotion comes to us from an animal of any kind, that gives us a connection and empathy, which is vitally important for us to really care about these animals in a way that may bring about concrete change.”

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My Big 5

Tiger
Lion
Cheetah
Leopard
Elephant