Wildlife Wire

What happens when powerful photography and investigative journalism inspire real conservation action?

In this episode of Wildlife Wire, Mark Surls and Samantha Miller sit down with award-winning National Geographic photographer Steve Winter and environmental journalist and National Geographic Explorer Sharon Guynup to discuss their new book, Big Cats. Featuring 170 photographs and stories spanning decades of work across four continents, the book explores the lives of the world's great cats, the threats they face, and the people working to protect them.

Steve and Sharon share how their work has helped change public attitudes, expose wildlife trafficking, and influence conservation policy. From the jaguars of Brazil's Pantanal to the mountain lions of Los Angeles, they demonstrate how compelling storytelling can lead to meaningful change.

The conversation explores the remarkable story behind Steve's iconic photograph of P-22 beneath the Hollywood sign and how one mountain lion helped inspire a major wildlife crossing over California's 101 Freeway. Sharon also takes us behind the scenes of her investigations into Thailand's notorious Tiger Temple and the captive tiger industry in the United States, including the reporting that helped build momentum for the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

They also discuss practical approaches to coexistence, including predator-proof livestock enclosures, ecotourism, and efforts to help communities benefit from protecting large carnivores rather than killing them.

Throughout the conversation, Steve and Sharon offer a hopeful message: conservation challenges are complex, but solutions exist, and everyone has a role to play.

In this episode:

How photography and journalism can drive conservation policy

The story behind P-22's famous Hollywood sign photograph

How jaguar ecotourism transformed attitudes toward predators in Brazil

Investigating tiger trafficking and the exploitation of captive big cats

The Big Cat Public Safety Act and the connection between animal welfare and public safety

Practical coexistence strategies for ranchers and communities

How cultural attitudes influence our willingness to live alongside predators

Why wildlife connectivity and habitat protection are critical to the future of big cats

Finding hope and taking meaningful action for wildlife

About our guests

Steve Winter is an award-winning National Geographic wildlife photographer whose work has taken him around the world documenting big cats, their habitats, and the challenges they face. His photographs have helped raise awareness of wildlife conservation issues and inspired action to protect threatened species.

Sharon Guynup is an environmental journalist and National Geographic Explorer whose investigative reporting focuses on wildlife trafficking, conservation, and the relationship between people and wildlife. Her work has exposed illegal wildlife trade networks and helped bring international attention to the exploitation of captive big cats.

Together, they are the authors of Big Cats, a National Geographic book that combines extraordinary wildlife photography with stories of conservation challenges, solutions, and hope.

Explore Big Cats and learn more:

Big Cats — Penguin Random House (book information and purchase options)

Sharon Guynup — Official Website

Sharon Guynup — Instagram

Sharon Guynup — Mongabay Profile

Steve Winter — Instagram

Big Cat Voices — Conservation Storytelling

Photo credit: Steve Winter

What happens when we stop treating wildlife, environmental sustainability, human well-being, and animal protection as separate issues?

In this episode of Wildlife Wire, Mark Surls talks with educator, author, and Institute for Humane Education co-founder and president Zoe Weil about the interconnected systems that shape our lives—and how learning to see those connections can help us become better problem-solvers.

Zoe shares the story of how a class she taught in 1987 launched her career in humane education and explains what it means to be a solutionary: someone who identifies unjust, unsustainable, and inhumane systems and works to transform them in ways that do the most good and least harm for people, animals, and ecosystems.

The conversation explores systems thinking, religion and our relationship with the natural world, the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence, polarization and binary thinking, and why lasting solutions require understanding the perspectives and needs of everyone affected by a problem.

Mark and Zoe also discuss how the Solutionary Framework is being used in education, where students move beyond simply learning about problems to investigating their root causes, developing solutions, putting those solutions into practice, and learning from the results.

Ultimately, the conversation asks a larger question: How can we train ourselves to look beyond the immediate consequences of our choices and better understand the ripple effects they create throughout interconnected human and natural systems?

Zoe Weil

Institute for Humane Education

The Solutionary Way: Transform Your Life, Your Community, and the World for the Better

What Is a Solutionary?

Solutionary Framework and Humane Education Resources

Solutionary Micro-credential Course

Humane Education Graduate Programs

Solutionary Voices with Zoe Weil

What happens when wildlife policy is written into a state constitution—and key terms are left undefined?

In this episode of Wildlife Wire, Mark Surls and Samantha Miller are joined by attorney and educator Jess Beaulieu for a legal deep dive into Colorado’s Amendment 83, the proposed constitutional amendment addressing hunting, fishing, and wildlife management.

Jess is the manager of the University of Denver’s Animal Law Program and faculty co-director of its Animals Forward program. With a background spanning wildlife ecology, conservation, law, and public policy, she helps unpack what constitutionalizing wildlife policy could mean in practice.

The conversation begins with a Civics 101 look at the difference between statutes and constitutional amendments before examining some of the specific language contained in Amendment 83. What does it mean to call hunting and fishing the “preferred means” of managing wildlife? What qualifies as a “traditional method”? How would courts interpret requirements involving what is “necessary” or based on “sound scientific wildlife conservation and management”?

Jess explains why undefined constitutional language can shift important questions from wildlife professionals, agencies, and legislators into the courts, where litigation and judicial interpretation may ultimately determine what those words mean.

The conversation also explores the potential financial consequences for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, including how increased litigation could redirect money that might otherwise support wildlife management, conservation, agency operations, and recreation.

Mark and Jess also examine how Amendment 83 could interact with Colorado’s existing constitutional prohibition on certain body-gripping traps, poisons, and snares, and discuss the broader question of what types of principles belong in a constitution versus statutes or administrative regulations.

The difference between a statute and a constitutional amendment

Why constitutional language carries greater legal weight

How courts interpret ambiguous or undefined constitutional terms

What “traditional methods” could mean—and why the phrase matters

The legal significance of words such as “necessary” and “preferred”

Whether Amendment 83 could affect the use of nonlethal wildlife-management tools

What “sound scientific wildlife conservation and management” might require

The role of biological science, social science, and public values in wildlife policy

How litigation could shape the practical meaning of Amendment 83

Who pays CPW’s legal expenses when the agency is sued

Potential impacts of litigation on wildlife-management funding

How Amendment 83 might interact with Colorado’s existing constitutional trapping restrictions

The difference between constitutional principles and day-to-day wildlife policy

Why precise language matters when voters are asked to amend a constitution

Jess Beaulieu is an attorney, manager of the University of Denver’s Animal Law Program, and faculty co-director of its Animals Forward program.

Her background spans wildlife ecology, conservation, law, public policy, and animal law. She studied wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida and later earned her law degree from Stetson University College of Law. Her experience has also included an unpaid legal fellowship with the Center for Biological Diversity and public-interest legal practice.

Gary Skiba is a lifelong hunter and angler, retired Colorado wildlife biologist, former Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioner, and former staff lead on Colorado’s early wolf-management planning. In this episode, he joins Mark to discuss why he opposes Amendment 83, the 2026 proposal to establish a constitutional right to hunt and fish in Colorado.

The conversation examines language in the amendment including “traditional methods,” “preferred means,” and requirements tied to “sound scientific wildlife conservation and management.” Skiba discusses his concerns about how those provisions could be interpreted, potential litigation and local-control questions, and how a constitutional right could affect future decisions by CPW staff and commissioners.

Mark and Gary also discuss the respective roles of biological science, social science, and public values in wildlife policy; Colorado's citizen-initiative process; wolf restoration under Proposition 114; Proposition 127; Colorado's previous voter-approved restrictions on bear hunting and trapping; and the broader relationship between hunters, nonhunters, wildlife agencies, and the voting public.

What happens when a mountain lion advocate, a sheep producer, and a houndsman sit down to talk about the future of mountain lions in Utah?

In this episode of The Wildlife Wire, Samantha Miller is joined by three people whose relationships with mountain lions could hardly look more different: Denise of Utah Mountain Lion Conservation, southern Utah sheep producer and houndsman Andy Rice, and lifelong hunter and houndsman Aaron Johnson.

Despite coming from different backgrounds, they have found substantial common ground: Utah needs to return to sustainable, science-based mountain lion management.

The conversation explores how Utah’s approach to mountain lions has changed in recent years, including the removal of harvest limits, year-round hunting and concerns about a state effort to lethally remove lions in an attempt to increase deer numbers.

Andy offers a particularly compelling perspective from the livestock community. After years of raising sheep in lion country, he says his experience has shown that a stable population of mature, territorial mountain lions can actually reduce livestock losses. Removing established cats can create instability as younger, transient lions move into newly vacant territories.

Aaron discusses what houndsmen are seeing on the ground, including concerns about declining age classes, fewer mature lions and the long-term consequences of treating predator removal as a primary strategy for increasing deer populations.

The group also tackles a question that often gets lost in polarized wildlife debates: What if people who value mountain lions for very different reasons worked together on the things they agree on?

They discuss targeted responses to livestock depredation, sustainable harvest limits, the role of hunters and houndsmen in conservation, and why maintaining stable mountain lion populations can benefit livestock producers, hunters, wildlife watchers—and the lions themselves.

It is a conversation about predators, hunting, agriculture and conservation, but also about something increasingly rare in wildlife politics: finding common ground.

In this episode:

Mark and Sam are joined by John Calfa III, co-host of The Wolf Connection Podcast, for a conversation about wolves, storytelling, conservation, and the connections between humans and the natural world.

John shares how The Wolf Connection Podcast began during the COVID shutdown and has grown into hundreds of conversations with scientists, authors, conservationists, artists, ranchers, hunters, photographers, and naturalists. He also takes us inside the work of Wolf Connection, a sanctuary in Southern California that provides a permanent home for rescued wolves and wolfdogs while using their stories to create transformative experiences for youth, veterans, and other participants.

The conversation explores lessons John has learned from guests including Dan Flores, Kira Cassidy, Julie Argyle, and Marc Bekoff; the intersection of science, art, culture, and conservation; the challenges facing wolves today; and the importance of creating space for different perspectives in often-polarized wildlife debates.

John also reflects on what a decade at Wolf Connection has taught him personally—from finding authenticity and emotional balance to simply learning how to be present with another species. At the center of it all is a simple idea: wolves can serve as powerful teachers, reminding us that humans are not separate from nature, but part of it.

Find out more about the Wolf Connection:

Wolf Connection

Wolf Connection Podcast

Project Coyote and ColoradoWild present Dan Flores in Denver on September 22:

The American Serengeti with Dan Flores

Project Coyote

Center for Biological Diversity’s campaign to protect Mollie’s Pack

Saving Wolves

Joel Sartore — the Photo Ark in your backyard 

Mark and Sam sit down with National Geographic photographer, explorer, author, and conservationist Joel Sartore, founder of the National Geographic Photo Ark.

For more than two decades, Joel has traveled the world photographing more than 17,000 species as part of an ambitious effort to document biodiversity and inspire people to protect wildlife and the habitats they depend on. We talk with Joel about the stories behind some of the Photo Ark’s most unforgettable animals, how the project grew from a Nebraska zoo into a global conservation movement, the role photography can play in changing how people see wildlife, and why protecting biodiversity ultimately means protecting ourselves.

Joel also discusses the newly released 20th Anniversary Edition of The Photo Ark: Animals of Earth and the new Photo Ark: Animals of Earth exhibit at the National Geographic Museum of Exploration in Washington, D.C.

Learn more about Joel, explore the Photo Ark, and see his books and photography at www.joelsartore.com. 

This episode looks at common misinformation campaigns used to oppose pro-wildlife efforts, including messaging that discourages public involvement and leans heavily on “trust the experts.” Sam and Mark break down how these narratives are constructed and why they are effective. They also examine the role of science versus values in wildlife decisions and what that means for public participation.

Dr. Becky Niemiec's analysis of Prop 127

“Ballot Box Biology:” The Myth That Stopped Proposition 127—and Could Shape the Future of Wildlife Protection

This episode breaks down how wildlife legislation actually moves through the political process. Bills begin with a core concept, but are quickly reshaped by stakeholder input, requiring tradeoffs between policy goals and what is operationally and politically feasible.

Mark and Sam get real on how wildlife "management" decisions are made, discuss science-based management and what it means for Colorado residents and wildlife.