Dawn in the jungle, the SOUND is incredible! I’m going to be making some special content for the people who want to support my work and see some behind the scenes here on Instagram. A lot of this is going to be little check-in, as I go through my day, and do my work exploring and protecting the jungle. You can become a subscriber ☝️and see the new post is up now as we watch the light turn on in the world ✨ Lots more coming 🦋

“Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sandbanks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off forever from everything you had known once -somewhere- far away in another existence perhaps. There were moments when one’s past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence. And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.” —Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Getting a morning with the best birding guide in Peru is a masterclass. Normal species count for a riverine transect is around 45 for me. It’s 65 with JJ. It was well into the 80’s this day because there’s SO MANY birds I usually miss (there’s 10% of them worlds bird species here, over 500 different species!)

One of the first big anacondas we ever caught. I think I’m 20 in this pic. JJ was holding the clunky old video camera. That’s Pico‘s toe and his cane in the top right of the photo. We were five days deep in the jungle, and some of the greatest wilderness on earth, and we had found a dragon. That excitement has stayed with us over the years and we are still studying and marveling at these tremendoussnakes. At the time of this photo, we thought this one was huge. Later on we would learn, that this girl, was less than a third of the size of some of the biggest females. For those who will ask, the snake is very much alive - population data for green anacondas in this region was virtually nonexistent to decades ago. We have been working to change that. Local hunters and miners have been killing anacondas and decimating their populations. We are working to save them! To date, we have published scientific articles on the species, and work to protect their habitat. * I always laugh when that one newcomer in the comments think that I’m actually killing anacondas lol, don’t know yet IM A JUNGLEKEEPER!!! 🤣

From my episode with @tracyharmoush ! I’ve been getting a lot of DM’s asking for new podcast content, and we got into some pretty interesting stories and behind-the-scenes information about what it takes to protect the worlds, largest rainforest and live with wildlife. — From @tracyharmoush OUT NOW! New episode on the What They Don’t Tell Us podcast with @paulrosolie on my YouTube channel (link in bio). This conversation blew my mind. Anyone who knows me well knows my infatuation with wildlife and adventure, and Paul shares every little detail about his experiences living in the wild. Paul is a conservationist, author, Filmaker, an amazing storyteller, who dedicated his life to protecting the Amazon rainforest, and its indigenous communities and its uncountable number of living species. His organisation @junglekeepers now protects over 97,000 acres of threatened habitat and western Amazonia. You don’t wanna miss this episode.

Some rare good news for an endangered species!! Populations of Indian Rhinos are on the rebound due to conservation efforts. Since 2016, incidents of poaching of one-horned rhinoceroses in India’s Assam state hafallen 86%. By expanding protected areas and bolstering ranger patrols, the steady growth in the number of rhinos, seen since the late 60s, has now accelerated to the point where 3,000 one-horns live in the Assam savannah. A local official said: “Rhinos are synonymous with the identity of Assam. They are our pride and the crown jewel of our biodiversity.” —— #Repost @aparupa.dey ・・・ Let’s enjoy some moment in the world of unicorns from the Jungle!

The size of these TREES!!! These are the sequoias and they are one of my favorite things about our world 🌎 Photos by @thomasstephane #sequoia #nationalpark #naturephotography

FINALLY! Thank you @reuters ! “The rainforest is usually impervious to fire,” said Paul Rosolie, a conservationist and founder of JungleKeepers, an NGO that patrols and preserves the Amazon in Peru, adding that they’ve seen burned turtles, snakes, birds, and jaguars after recent patrols. “The forest is their world, so when you burn it, they die.” The Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which tracks wildfires by satellite, shows around 10,400 fires in Peru in 2024, more than double the previous record in 2020 and nearly 2.5 times the total area burned. Aside from less rainfall and higher temperatures after the end of the El Nino weather phenomenon, Zari says a failed government response and human-started fires led to widespread destruction. Peru’s President Dina Boluarte acknowledged the country lacked logistics to fight the fires when she declared a state of emergency in September. “There’s nothing in Peru, that’s the problem, there’s no help,” said Robyn Appleton, founder of the Spectacled Bear Conservation (SBC), an NGO that protects spectacled bears in Peru’s northern dry forests. Alexander Moore, executive director of the SBC, says the bears have adapted to the drier climate and are able to go months without water, unlike other spectacled bears across the Andes. With only a few hundred bears in the population, Moore says conserving every one is essential to the ecosystem. “Fragmentation and loss of habitat is the biggest threat to these bears,” Moore said, adding that the SBC works with local communities to educate, incentivize conservation, and help fight fires. He says modifications to a forestry law in January make it easier to use forested land for agriculture by removing some environmental requirements and emboldened local farmers to burn more land, a sentiment echoed by Rosolie and Zari. “We’re really afraid and that’s why we’re trying to do everything we can to work with the community to deal with this because it isn’t going to stop,” Moore said, adding that if governments promote land use and business over environmental regulations that fight climate change, extreme weather will continue to devastate.

BIG THANK YOU to @vivobarefoot for supporting my work 🏴‍☠️🦋🦋🦋🏴‍☠️ #repost @vivobarefoot Thank you @paulrosolie and @joerogan - two great humans committed to their craft acknowledging our commitment to ours. 🙏 When we asked @paulrosolie to test our Jungle ESC boot, it wasn’t just because he was the most qualified to feedback on the technical features required for jungle exploration; it was because he also has a genuine alignment with one of our core beliefs—that the closer people are to nature, the more they will protect it. Special thanks to @joerogan for the support. Your dedication to empowering human connection and natural health has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to team Vivo. #Vivobarefoot #paulrosalie #JRE #joeroganexperience

Today I’m sharing the Living Planet Report from @world_wildlife . This report found that global populations of wildlife species have declined by 73% since 1970. The situation is even worse in Latin America and the Caribbean, where wildlife populations have decreased by 95% within just fifty years. These numbers broke my heart. Just look at what ONE ROAD can do to the Amazon Rainforest. Ive seen so much of this kind of destruction first hand. All of my work is based on supporting indigenous leaders and scientists in protecting our vital ecosystems. We’re looking forward to collaborate with @world_wildlife to reverse this trend, and save our beautiful world. It’s not too late! You can read the report at the Living Planet Report landing page at ww.earth/LPR2024 #livingplanetreport #wwf #wildlife #conservation #amazonia #amazonrainforest

SEQUOIAS! It’s actually STILL hard to see even though I’m in the yellow jacket. These are the largest trees on earth reaching heights of over 300 feet and weighing as much as ten blue whales. These are GIANTS.

🔊 THE LARGEST TREES IN THE WORLD 🌎 THE SEQUOIAS!!! 24 hours of pure wonder — growing to over 300 feet tall and heavier than 10 adult blue whales these are the largest organisms on our planet. These trees are magic. Ya can’t help but frolic a bit 🤣 NEW PODCAST EPISODE from the sequoias is out now! Footage by @thomasstephane