Written by Rhian Ebrey My mental health has defined my life.  It lost me the conservation career I worked so hard for, and yet it’s helped me to grow as a person too.  I only ever tell people parts of my story when I feel overwhelmed, but never the whole thing. So, here goes. As […]

Written by Hannah Carle This year has been incredibly challenging. The nexus of two impossible things – a PhD and a global pandemic. To start with a caveat – yes, I am fortunate to be living in Australia, where our daily lives have largely returned to ‘normal’ and we have not been marred by widespread […]

Written by Stephanie Rowe Conservation to me, has always meant something deeper than what it represents for the environment as such. I truly believe we are connected to nature, in such a way, that it is only a holistic approach that can be used to move forward with it. I want to take this space […]

Written by Stella Diamant I guess the intent behind this (first) blog is to guide fellow conservationists about getting your mission out there in a balanced way.  I was lucky to seize a unique opportunity, to build a project from scratch on an emblematic species, the whale shark, without any experience in either project management […]

Written by Roxanne In my previous blog, Born This Way, I gave a summary on my path in the conservation sector with the rare neurological condition, Chiari Malformation.  I wrote about the difficult aspects of managing a disability in a physically demanding profession, as well as actions to progress in a field I love. What […]

Written by Madhushri Mudke Ten years ago, the dilemma of finding an appropriate career in wildlife that allowed me to ‘work with wildlife’ was a daunting path to take. One begins to ruminate – ‘I love animals’, ‘I love being in the wild’ or ‘We must save wildlife and forests to combat climate change’. Back […]

January  I started off this year with a new zest for what was possible as I headed out to the smoke covered field with a fellow LC (and entomologist) where we worked day and night to study the birds and insects on an agricultural property for a….wait for it…paying client! Feeling valued for our work, […]

Written by Roxanne The Early Years My passion for conservation, like many, has its roots in early childhood.  It was watching the well-known presenters like Steve Irwin and David Attenborough, but before Animal Planet was reality show-centric, there were others I enjoyed and learned from.  They were reptile enthusiast and photographer, Austin Stevens; biologist, Jeff […]

Written by Manon de Visser Young and maybe a little naïve: that is what makes us great conservationists!   Once, I was at a job interview. I was nicely dressed and felt pretty confident. I had gotten through two rounds and was in the third (and final) round of the application process. The first two times […]

Written by Michela Fieni There is no worse feeling than seeing all the environmental destruction in the world and wanting to make a positive contribution, but barely having the means to do so. I’m lucky enough to live in Australia, where bush regeneration was basically born. Back in 2015 when the ‘Green Army’ program was […]

Written by Chagi Weerasena Hello! My name is Chagi and I’m an ecologist in Brisbane, Australia. My path to becoming an ecologist was not a straight one, it was very much a zig-zig, or a squiggle. I am a first-generation immigrant of Sri Lankan parents. From a young age I was given medical kits to […]

Written by Taylor Tvede I’ve wanted to work with animals since I was a kid, but in my mind that always meant something like dolphin trainer or the person at the zoo who did the bird shows and got to teach everyone neat things about cool animals. Being a vet was an option I had […]

Written by Nicholas Horne I started this blog nearly 6 months ago, I really wanted to contribute to the Lonely Conservationists as I feel it’s an exceptional idea that can promote so much positivity. However, it has been extremely difficult to write about my past experiences. So why did am I back writing this blog? […]

Written by Adam Cook My parents first knew my love for wildlife when I was three years old. Mum would always tell the story of when I went to Marwell Zoological Park and I went around correcting people when they miss identified animals. One example was when a lady said to her children “look at […]

The thing about being a Lonely Conservationist is that sometimes we forget that we aren’t that lonely anymore. A LC reached out to me asking if I could ask the group advice for approaching a supervisor with the potential to do a PhD. It was her goal, but she was nervous as she knew the […]

Written by Jessica Leck My name is Jessica Leck, and as I write this, my hometown is on fire. I live on the mid north coast of Australia, and this week has seen an area roughly seven times greater than the Amazon fires burn across my home state. Friends have lost homes and others have […]

Written by Freya Santana Cubas My name is Freya, and if you come from Europe you have probably seen my home island advertised a thousand times as a holiday destination. Gran Canaria, west to the Moroccan coast, belongs to the Canary Islands. Seven islands, very close to each other, yet so different; ‘the fortunate islands’, […]