Written by Sophia Neiblum To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I should write a blog post. I’m in high school and haven’t had nearly as much experience in conservation as many others. But I ultimately decided that my experience, although limited, is unique in some way. My name is Sophia Neiblum, and I’m a 16-year-old living in Pennsylvania, USA.…

Written by Juan Cruz Mena Translated by Maria Dabrowski  Personally, my official career hasn’t even begun. I have been lucky since I was a child to involve myself in conservation organizations, where I could become a partner and volunteer in other Argentinian provinces. But the downsides of leaving to work for an conservation organization or institution is that for the…

Written by Abigail Smyth The idea of home has always been really tough for me. Growing up in South Sudan, where my parents worked rehabilitating refugees, I was very much a ‘free range kid’. Running barefoot across murram roads, splashing in monsoon puddles and sculpting creatures out of clay dug from the earth, I enjoyed the world around me. So…

Written by Emmi Losasso Firstly, I should say that I can’t ever manage to put things into short words so this will be a long introduction to me and how I got to where I am now. Settle in with a cup of tea on a comfy couch and turn on some songs by Lord Huron and I’ll let you…

Written by Laura Marsh First of all, I’m so glad this community exists. I love that there is a platform where we can post our thoughts and feelings about environmental concerns in a vulnerable, honestly raw way. My story comes from a place of desperation. Desperate for a career I felt passionate about, but also could serve a greater cause.…

By Annabel The Beginning My childhood was fairly typical of a privileged conservationist; I grew up surrounded by nature and had the opportunity to pursue my passion with a supportive family and access to a good education. But at seventeen my life changed. I developed chronic pain. My pain started, for some unknown reason, just before my final year of…

Written by Phil McNamara It’s interesting to me that, as a child, I came to love spending time in nature as a way to avoid conflict at home and that the same love I have for nature is now forcing me to face my fear of conflict because conflict is everywhere in our efforts as lonely conservationists. When I was…

Written by Matthew Lefoe I wanted to submit a blog to see if it would have some sort of cathartic effect on me as I’ve been feeling quite disheartened about my career progression amidst the craziness of COVID-19. In this industry we are conditioned to be constantly networking/up-skilling/career building in order to be competitive for jobs. Our job pool has…

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 play with, instructed to attend…

Written by Amber Wyard “What made you switch from maths to biology? That’s such a big change!” This is something that has been said to me hundreds of times. I never seem to know how to answer this as wildlife conservation has always been my passion and so for me there’s no surprise that this is where I’ve ended up.…

Written by Steph Robertson Hello fellow Lonely Conservationists! My name is Steph, I’m a 25-year old zoology graduate who has just finished up having the literal year-of-my-life! My road to where I am has been a rocky one and as it turns out, it still is! But I have hope, and as my mum always says: ‘there’s many ways to…

Written by Emilie Priou My name is Emilie Priou and at 21 I just completed my Wildlife Conservation Bachelor. I lived until I was 18 in the suburbs of Paris, and with my parents and sister I had the chance to travel every year abroad to discover nature worldwide. In high school, like many others, I was extremely stressed out…

Written by Jon Kahler I can’t say that I had a very unique upbringing. Raised in suburban Brisbane in an upper middle-class family, there was nothing exceptional about my childhood. My family was never very environmental, and between my ten fingers not one of them were green. However, my parents always placed a strong emphasise on right and wrong, good…

Written by Jessica Pinder Growing up Green It could be easily said that I became a conservationist because so much of my childhood was spent outdoors. Quite literally. Almost all our family holidays usually involved swimming in crystal clear rivers, hiking through bushland heavy with the sounds of cicadas or cross-country skiing across Victoria’s snowy mountains. My parents even renamed…

Written by Elena Chaboteaux  Hi, my name is Elena Chaboteaux and I’m a 24 years old conservationist from Italy. As far as I remember I’ve always been obsessed with plants and wildlife. I grew up camping with my mum looking for “treasures” in the forest and I’m so grateful my passion has now developed into my dream job. My current…

Written by James Lee It is obviously a time of unease in America with regards to treatment of racial minorities. Whether it be a young jogger shot like a dog in the street in Georgia, or a man having his neck crushed by a police officer in Minneapolis, or a birder having the cops called on him after simply politely…

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 thought about. Hell I took…

Written by Ana Willett I think out of anyone, I understand impostor syndrome on such a deeply profound level it’s disturbing. My name is Ana Willett, and I am a marine conservation policy contractor. There…for lack of better phrasing, is not a lot of work in this field in the D.C. area. You either have to have a PhD (I…

Written by Rhys Abbott As many of you know too well, conservation can feel like an uphill battle; often lonely, and without community support, it can be overwhelmingly deflating. But would you ever give up? Heck no. It is without a doubt a massive challenge to overcome the environmental pressures that humanity places on nature every day, but it is…

Written by Macie Edwards A friend recently sent me an article about an online community called Lonely Conservationists, a group that I was surprised to have never heard of before, as the name itself was immediately relatable. I read this article with a tight throat, choking back tears. It is so reflective of what I have been dealing with in…

Written by Gabrielle DiVello My name is Gabrielle DiVello. I am 23 years old and I was born and raised in Southern New Jersey surrounded by the beaches, mountains, and the city -which is why New Jersey is called the “Armpit State.” My family has owned a vacation house in Maine, outside of Bar Harbour on a beautiful lake for…

Written by Drew Seiler There it was, Phidippus audax, the Bold Jumper, zig-zagging its way across the handrail of our backyard deck. Its movements were jittery, mesmerising, and any movement on my own behalf caused the little male to spin and look up at me with his two large eyes beset three other pairs. His aqua-green chelicerae tapped in curiosity…

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? Because I am struggling. I…

Written by Katy Keighley I wasn’t initially going to submit a blog as my story is only just beginning. However, I thought that there’s no harm in sharing the first drafts of life. My name is Katy and I’m a 20 year old BSci Animal Biology and Conservation undergrad, graduating in June this year!! I grew up in very quiet…

Written by Lucy Hodson Who am I? My name’s Lucy, I’m 28 and a self-confessed hardcore nature nerd. I work full-time in communications for a large wildlife and conservation charity in the UK, and run a wildlife & nature insta-blog on the side. The nature thing… I’m sure many of you’ll agree that when you work with wildlife, you’re often…

Written by Jillian Drury My story may be a little different than many of the other stories I have read on this blog simply because for a while, I gave up my dream of being a conservationist. My childhood was very similar to a lot of my fellow Lonely Conservationists, it was full of love and curiosity for animals and…

Written by David De Angelis The word ‘obsession’ gets thrown around a bit, but maybe understandably, true obsession seems to frighten most people. Conscious of the other (impostor) syndrome that many lonely conservationists have talked about, I still feel the need to point out the difference between having an obsession with natural history, and necessarily having expertise in ecology or…

Written by Jake Lammi As I lay on a large expanse of granite trying to warm up after an exceptionally cold swim in a glacier-fed alpine lake, I look over at my coworker, Ranger, savouring the life-giving sunshine and cool mountain breeze. I can’t help but reminisce on just how far the two of us have come together over the…

Written by Laura Perry Conservation can be a dream career. Certainly, the stories from my day-to-day life sound good at dinner parties. But is it as good as it is cracked up to be? Objectively, I’m a fairly successful conservation biologist. I have relationships with National Geographic, the WWF, and the Explorer’s Club, to name a few. I am attached…

Written by Ella Thomas Hi everyone, my name is Ella and I’m a 22 year old Education Officer at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS). Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is located on the Gold Coast, which is on the east coast of Queensland, Australia. Ever since anyone in my family can remember (including me) I’ve been absolutely obsessed with wildlife. I hogged the…

Written by Pamela Greet A kerosene tin of cane-toads was one of the things my grandfather carried with him from Babinda in Queensland when he moved his young family to the Burdekin to start his own farm in 1920-something. They had to clear flood plains to plant their first crops and for maybe ten years, there were koalas living in…

Written by Kristina Middleton Who Am I? In brief, I would call myself a conservationist, activist, and nature addict (Potterhead would have to figure in there too!), with a love for exploring; be it my local nature reserve or a mountain range in some far flung country. I grew up on a small island and, despite being young and clueless…

Written by Priscilla Miard Hi everyone, my name is Priscillia and I guess like many of you I have multiple unpaid jobs if I can call it like that. I am a researcher, a primatologist, a project manager, a photographer and many more ….. I grew up not really knowing what I wanted to do really and made it into…

Written by Melissa Huntsman There are no profanities strong enough to express the devastation of this bushfire season. No words strong enough to explain the frustration of climate models becoming reality when social media opinions are being touted as facts. No news or opinion article articulate enough to express disappointment that the science, settled decades ago, is still being questioned…

Written by Mike Talladen Long ago, tales of a place called El Dorado lured so many into the jungles of South America in search of a city of gold and its king. Some of these explorers paid the toll of that pilgrimage with their lives and as terrible as that may be, I’ve always thought of this as a beautiful…

Written by Angus Hamilton My conservation journey is really a tale of two parts. It starts when I was very young, as most of us have done, watching The Crocodile Hunter and wanting to be everything that Steve Irwin was, and taking in everything that he stood for. I spent hours and hours playing in the back garden pretending to…

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 those kangaroos” and being the…

Written by Katie Davis I’ve been debating whether or not I should submit a story to LC for several months and today things finally fell into place that I felt like I could do it. Someone in the LC USA chat asked for advice on how to answer the greatest strengths/weaknesses questions in interviews, and Jessie, the founder of Lonely…

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 lost loved ones, and yet…

Written by Sofiya Shukhova I am a Caucasian married woman working in conservation. The first image I give to strangers is of a white wealthy privileged person who can work in conservation because she does not have to worry about making a living. Well, indeed I happened to be born white-skinned, not much of the rest. So, let me tell…

Written by Lorenzo Seneci Since I found out about the Lonely Conservationists community on Instagram this year, I’ve been pondering about how I could use my personal experience to contribute. It took me a long time – and I’m about to explain why – but finally, I think I have something truly meaningful to share. This is my story, and…

Written by Stephanie Fuchs Hi, my name is Stephanie and I am thrilled to be able to share my story with you. I live with the Maasai tribe in the Maasai Steppe of Tanzania. My husband is a Maasai warrior and it was out of love for him that I decided to follow him to his traditional family home in…

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’, blessed with pleasant weather all…

Written by María Dabrowski Let’s make the environmental movement focused on science and preservation instead of the perfect Instagram photo, and let’s welcome everyone to make a real, true change. At a dinner party the other day I was asked, in front of a group, what I was good at. After a while, I said, “well, I’m good at knowing…

Written by Cameron Foster Hello all, my name is Cameron Foster, I’m 28, I am a nature photographer, a birder and currently pursuing my undergrad in Environmental Studies, I have been meaning to write one of these for a while so here we go. I grew up in the greater Columbia/ Lexington area, in my early childhood my mother raised…

Written by Sean Washington I can’t name a specific pillar moment that my life began to shift toward natural resources and conservation studies. Mostly because it was gradual but so solid it seemed destined. Like looking for the stars. You merely have to wait and explore the eternal sky for new questions, topics, and possibilities to pass your scope. Before…

Written by Connie Baker-Arney ‘You are not clever enough to be a vet…’ ‘You need to work harder.’ ‘Are you sure you do not have un-diagnosed dyscalculia?’ ‘I do not understand how you plan to achieve all of these dreams and plans’ ‘You need to get your head out of the clouds.’ These are some of the words I grew…

Written by Angela Simms So this is a blog about my experience with anxiety with my project/fieldwork in Indonesia. For those who have done work in Indonesia, conservation is hard. When it comes to the environment, basic conservation concepts are lagging or lacking from the education system (even at tertiary level), which is quite evident within the community. I have…

Written by Nishand Venugopal It all started with my interest in photography. I love taking photographs of wildlife and nature. But I didn’t want this passion to be restricted to just being a hobby. I felt I can do much more. I was born in an era that saw the explosion of technology. The pace at which technology has developed…

Written By Spencer McIntyre My lab was meeting for our bi-weekly journal club recently, wrapping up a discussion about cognition in birds. One of the lab-mates selects a journal article of interest, we all read it, then we meet up and the selector presents the article and why they chose it. We then discuss the points in it, where we…

Written by Louise Munro I recently discovered Lonely Conservationists after a friend shared a blog on Facebook. An Instagram chat with Jessie had her suggesting I write a blog. At first I was floored. What could I offer? What would I say? Those horrible feelings of self-doubt, questioning and comparison kicked in. There are countless conservationists in this community doing…

Written by Caitlin Brant I’ve met so many biologists and other young people passionate about the environment who absolutely love to travel. Don’t we need to get to remote places to find animals? Or to get to a big conference? The effect of these activities is contributing heavily to climate change, something that is so intertwined with the survival of…

Written by Steven Payne Ok, so here we go…. I was born in the country, now I live near the ocean. I love animals. And nature. The End. Elaborate? Ok fine. For those of you in the US, or are familiar with our geography, I was born and raised in Kentucky. Small town with mainly farm land. The Appalachian Mountains…

Written by Freija Mendrik I’ve never really had a plan, I just made sure I followed what I was passionate about. I grew up spending as much time in the water as possible; I always wanted to be at the beach, in a rock pool or building sand creations. We lived right by the Jurassic coast of Devon, UK and…

Written by Sebastian Moreno You would think having a gun flashed at you while doing field work would get you to pack it up, go home, lock yourself in your room, and reconsider your career choices. I won’t pretend to be brave and I will 100% admit, I did finish field work that day, go home, and have a good…

Written by Ian Hawkins When I visit my home town of Anglesea, I see green thread everywhere. There’s some wrapped around the bridge, there is some wrapped along the side of a path, at a reveg project we did in primary school, and even up the branches of Angahook – the red Ironbark. I was 20, living in the concrete…

Written by Elliot Connor “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” -Robert Frost Rejections are hard to stomach. I got two just trying to write this article. Because when you’re 16 years old, it’s tough trying to break into the field of conservation – and…

Written by Em Hull Before I begin my story, I want to lay out a scenario for you. There’s a little girl, maybe four or five years old. Her parents are alcoholics and her mum is bipolar. She never knows what she’s coming home to, but she always knows her dog will be there. Fast forward a few years, and…

Written by Sarah Bell When I was a child and first learned the word “zoologist,” I clung to that word, that title, that dream, like the burrs that now cling to my hiking boots. Animals, any animals, all the animals. It was all my little mind could think about. From a young age, I was very fascinated by tigers and…

Written by Rachael Gross Content/ trigger warning: suicide, rape, self-harm, depression, anxiety  You know when you’re a kid and you get asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The answer is usually something you’ve seen in books or on TV – a doctor, an astronaut, a lawyer. When you “grow up,” all that changes. Life happens,…

Written by Oliver Leach My story starts off very slow, but I wouldn’t change a thing because it made me into the person I am today. “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Dumbledore I’m one of three boys on my father’s side and my mother’s only child.…

Written by Lynette Plenderleith I have heard that if you have a Plan B, you are not fully committed to Plan A and you might as well wave it goodbye. Maybe that’s right. I had both a Plan A and Plan B and I worked exclusively through Plan B for well over ten years. Maybe I’ve sidestepped the inevitable only…

Written by Katherine González My story is not an epic story; on the contrary, I am just another girl who grew up in one of the most biodiverse countries in the world – Costa Rica. You can imagine how much wildlife and nature surrounds you when you grow up here; you hear about Costa Rican biodiversity and its natural wonders…

Story written by Jarred Donkersley I grew up in Arizona in the 90s as a skateboarder and punk rocker, marking me somewhat of a political radical. I studied the colonial history of America, critical theory, and post-modernism in college, while the events of 9/11/2001 had me spinning deep into conspiracy theories and cynicism. From 2010-2013, I started to pay more…

Written by Krista  It’s mid-January in 2018. Snow blankets every surface and the Rideau Canal has opened for its 119th season. Wind howls as it rushes around the building, rattling the windows. I’m sitting at my desk nursing an umpteenth cup of tea while preparing a monthly report summarising recent progress of my experiment. At the time, I was working…

Story written by Nene Haggar Indonesia isn’t all beauty. It isn’t the poetry of wildlife you hear echo throughout the forests; but rather the sound of chainsaws annihilating them. It isn’t the smell of fresh air in the morning that surrounds your existence; it’s a smoky cloud hovering above you as flames dance landscapes to the ground. These cleared landscapes…

Story written by Natasha Bartolotta With my shirt sticking to my back and muddy water spilling into my boots, I trudged through the swamp forest of Sumatra deciding, once again, to extend my time at an orangutan research field station. I had been there for 15 hot, humid months and had already extended my stay twice. First, I didn’t want…

Story written by Patrick Tomkins This isn’t a conservation success story. It might be one day, but it definitely isn’t yet. Like most people here, I’ve always wanted to work in conservation. I’ve never once considered doing anything else. When I finished school, I followed a fairly predictable pathway – BA, BSc (hons), then a PhD in ecology. 11 years…

Story Written by Ren Weinstock When I think about where I am right now, in this moment, sitting in a cafe (the only working cafe within half an hour of my new temporary home), writing this blog that’s supposed to summarise who I am and how I got here and where I’m going – all in a way that’s hopefully…

Story written by Sarah Munro-Kennedy I remember the day that I realised my purpose in life was to protect sea life. It was a few days after an event that occurred on December 26, 2004. I was 16 and on my first international scuba diving trip with my parents in Thailand. We had just gotten certified that summer and instantly…

Story Written by Nathan Leanne  Pinpointing an exact time or reason I’m drawn to conservation is quite impossible; I honestly believe that it really is just an extension of who I am. I was born and raised in rural northern Victoria, the youngest of three boys. from a low-income family living in public housing that was located in a not…

Story written by Fen Calidris I lost it all two years ago. I was pursuing my degree in environmental biology at my local university. I was about ¾ of the way through and the end was in sight. I squelched through wetlands and muddy wet pine savannas to discover plants and animals I had never seen before. I basked in…

Story written by Carolina Gamez Brunswick My history in biology began when I was little. I think all biologists have that curiosity from childhood and that great love of nature. The moment I realised that I had to study to become a biologist was when I saw a Discovery Channel moment, in which they did a short film about the…

Story by Morgane Ristic Here is a brief story showing how much getting out of your comfort zone can change your life for the best.  “Take the risk or lose the chance.” My name is Morgane, I am 21 and I started what would be a career of conservation without truly being aware of it. I had always been very…

Story written by Gina Zanarini I was seven years old. It was career day at school. I walked into class clad head to toe in explorer-like khaki, with a rubber snake draped around my neck and toy lizards glued to the rest of me. I had to explain to my small town teacher not only that I was a herpetologist,…

Story written by Amanda Gabryszak Early Adventures Sometimes it’s hard for me to identify just where my journey started. Was it when I was a Lion King obsessed toddler? Or the strange wolf dreams I had as a teenager? Did it start with my going vegetarian, or adopting dogs? My best answer is that my journey has always been part…

Story written by Louise Cordery I left university having completed a zoology degree, full of hopes and dreams of becoming a successful force in the world of conservation. Primates were (are) my great love, lemurs in particular having studied their behaviour for my undergrad thesis. So imagine my absolute elation at being offered a Research Officer position on a conservation…

Story written by Gabrielle Bradley  My story is one of the joys, and regrets, of coming to Conservation and Land Management at an (cough…) older age. As a child living in suburban Melbourne, my family would often head out into the bush because my Dad loved getting out there, and I still remember him packing the car up with all…

 Story by Moira  Wilputte For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about animals and the environment. I grew up in a city but had the chance to have grandparents who taught me to love and respect nature. As a teenager, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but it was always related to animals…

Story by Nayla Azmi How my story began… Am I a conservationist? I don’t think I am. What I consider about myself is that I love my forest to pieces and want to contribute to it. The first time I bumped into conservation was when I studied English Literature as a student at the Univeristy of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The…

Story By Jade Arneson I grew up fortunate enough to have woods, a creek, and 40 acres of farm land as my back yard. I spent considerable time outside as a kid. I clearly remember walking through the field and standing atop the hay bales, wandering down to the creek to have a picnic lunch, and staring up at that…

Story by Racheal Bennett In my imaginary world, I’d write some detailed story behind it all, but realistically I’ll only have 5 minutes to jot something down before having to entertain a 4 year old, get back to work, school or my main focus in Abronia conservation. Since before I could remember, it was all about animals or family. That’s…

Story by Jessie Panazzolo It’s a Saturday night and I am sitting around a dinner table having beers and laughing with friends, when all of a sudden I am the victim of an intense interrogation scene. I hear my partner share his frustrations about the way I had been volunteering for an organisation for six months writing comprehensive ecological reports…