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So I want to you take into a place
where humans really aren't supposed to be:

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00:00:28,854 --> 00:00:30,740
the inside of an occupied bear den.

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(Laughter)

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Now, bears elicit a certain
fear response in most people,

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and that's something
that we're supposed to have.

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Hundreds of thousands of years
of concurrent evolution with bears

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have taught us that they
and other predators

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are animals to be avoided.

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So, my friend Corey Arnold
took this photo with National Geographic,

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and you can't see my face,

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but I promise you
there's a look of terror on it.

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I wasn't happy to be
in there with this bear,

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and he wasn't happy
to have me in there with him there.

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00:00:59,741 --> 00:01:03,304
This particular bear needed
a new battery in his GPS collar.

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So, for me to do that,

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(Laughter)

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I had to get within a couple
of meters of the bear,

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where I have a pole
that has a syringe on it,

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and inject him with that.

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So in the US we have a saying:
"Don't poke a sleeping bear,"

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and that's literally
what I was in there to do.

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(Laughter)

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Luckily for me, everything
went fairly smoothly.

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I was able to change out the battery,

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and more fortunately,
I was able to leave the den in one piece.

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So, a lot of wildlife biologists
do have stories like these,

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whether they're working
with dangerous animals

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or they're working in conditions
that can be really hazardous -

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bone-breaking arctic cold
or searing desert heat.

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It can be a really challenging profession.

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And on top of those challenges,

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you also have to deal
with this kind of tedious stuff

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of writing papers and reports
and research, and crunching data.

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To get through those kind of things,

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there's something critical
that wildlife biologists need,

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and that's passion.

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Passion is what helps us
through those experiences,

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and it's also what helps us fight a battle

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00:02:04,772 --> 00:02:07,416
that's really becoming
incredibly lopsided.

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00:02:08,046 --> 00:02:10,316
So, I grew up in Montana,

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which was a wonderful place
for an animal lover to grow up,

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00:02:14,130 --> 00:02:15,963
surrounded by different wildlife.

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And in particular, there is
a pond system near my home,

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where my brothers and I would go,

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00:02:20,712 --> 00:02:22,895
and we'd catch frogs
and turtles and snakes,

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00:02:22,895 --> 00:02:25,478
and look for all sorts
of different animals.

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In particular,

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00:02:26,741 --> 00:02:29,509
there's one species of frog,
the northern leopard frog,

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00:02:29,509 --> 00:02:31,451
that was really plentiful,

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00:02:31,751 --> 00:02:34,752
and in a given summer,
we'd see thousands of these frogs.

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And then over a matter
of just a few years,

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I went from seeing thousands
of leopard frogs to absolutely none.

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And as a little boy,

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that kind of being witness
to a local extinction like that

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was really hard for me.

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This was an animal
that had brought me a lot of joy

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and taught me a lot
about the natural world,

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and suddenly it was gone.

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And I think in my mind,

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extinction was something
that was really relegated to dinosaurs,

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and seeing it happen
to an animal that I loved

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really created a paradigm shift for me.

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And I realized that nature isn't infinite

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and it's something
that we do need to protect.

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So, fast-forward.

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00:03:10,648 --> 00:03:12,254
I'm in my 30s.

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That's that same bear,

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00:03:13,393 --> 00:03:16,095
after we managed to get him out
and change his collar.

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I've worked with bears
for about eight years,

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and then I've also been able
to host a little show with Great Big Story

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called "Mission Wild."

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And during that time,

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I've been able to see
a lot of different wildlife biologists

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00:03:28,437 --> 00:03:29,910
and the species they work with,

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00:03:29,910 --> 00:03:32,786
and really see the ins and outs
of wildlife conservation.

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And I want to take you guys

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through a few of the things
that I've learned.

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00:03:36,211 --> 00:03:38,983
So, we're going to start
with the pangolin,

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so not penguin - "pan-go-lin."

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It looks like a Pokemon,
but it's an animal,

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00:03:44,754 --> 00:03:45,903
I promise you.

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00:03:45,909 --> 00:03:46,909
(Laughter)

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00:03:46,909 --> 00:03:48,520
They're really cute.

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00:03:49,506 --> 00:03:53,073
They live throughout
Southeast Asia and in Africa,

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00:03:53,073 --> 00:03:55,157
and their main distinguishing feature

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00:03:55,157 --> 00:03:59,339
is this armor of scales
that are made of keratin,

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00:03:59,339 --> 00:04:02,258
and when the pangolin feels threatened,
it rolls into a ball,

88
00:04:02,258 --> 00:04:06,315
and even the largest predators
aren't able to break that defense,

89
00:04:06,315 --> 00:04:07,831
so it's really effective,

90
00:04:07,831 --> 00:04:10,311
and it's made them
so they have no natural predators.

91
00:04:10,311 --> 00:04:12,221
But unfortunately,
those very same scales

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00:04:12,221 --> 00:04:16,254
are worth more than the price of gold
on the black market

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00:04:16,254 --> 00:04:20,105
for their use in traditional medicines
in both China and Southeast Asia.

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00:04:20,105 --> 00:04:23,914
And you know, setting aside
the importance of culture and tradition,

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00:04:23,914 --> 00:04:28,035
there simply aren't enough pangolins
to fulfill that demand,

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00:04:28,035 --> 00:04:30,950
and they're being killed
by the hundreds of thousands.

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00:04:30,950 --> 00:04:35,433
Hundreds of tons of pangolins
are killed every year to fill this need.

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00:04:35,433 --> 00:04:38,009
And there's a really
haunting image by Paul Hilton,

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00:04:38,009 --> 00:04:41,009
who is a wildlife conservationist
and photographer,

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00:04:41,009 --> 00:04:43,231
and it shows thousands of dead pangolins

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00:04:43,231 --> 00:04:46,892
that have been discarded
after having their scales removed.

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So, this is a huge problem.

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They joined tigers
and elephants and rhinos

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00:04:52,595 --> 00:04:55,352
as species that are being pushed
to the brink of extinction

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00:04:55,352 --> 00:04:57,284
through the illegal wildlife trade.

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And we don't know
how many pangolins are out there,

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so we could see the loss of this species
in the next 10 years even.

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So there's a lot of things
that are being done for pangolins.

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One of the groups that I was able
to work with a little bit

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is the African Pangolin Working Group,

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and they have a really unique way
of assessing the supply of pangolins

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while we're kind of waiting for hopefully
a cultural shift in the demand.

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So what they do is they set up stings,

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where they pose as buyers
for pangolin scales -

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00:05:29,566 --> 00:05:31,831
well actually, for live pangolins -

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00:05:31,831 --> 00:05:34,748
and they arrange a meet with poachers.

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When those poachers show up,
they're promptly arrested,

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and they face some
pretty serious jail sentences,

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sometimes over 10 years.

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The pangolin is then confiscated,
and it's taken to a hospital.

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Now, often these pangolins
go through some pretty intense torture

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while they're in the care
of those poachers,

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and so they have to recover from both
physical and psychological trauma,

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and that can take some time.

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They also have to learn
how to be a wild pangolin again.

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00:06:01,213 --> 00:06:04,024
And so I was able to go
on a little walk with this pangolin,

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who was in that process,

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00:06:05,838 --> 00:06:08,472
and he was learning
how to find termites and ants again.

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00:06:08,472 --> 00:06:10,898
And once he completes that process -

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I believe he's still going through it -

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he'll be released back in the wild,

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and the biologist with the African
Pangolin Working Group

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will continue to monitor his situation.

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They're actually learning a lot
about pangolin natural behavior

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through this process.

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And most importantly, they're setting
a precedent for the poachers

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and for the criminal
organizations behind them:

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that people really do care

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and that pangolins aren't something
that they can continue to take

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without consequence.

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They're also educating a lot of people

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about an animal that not
too many people know about.

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Okay, moving on to an animal
that I've been able to work with a lot -

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polar bears.

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Polar bears are an incredibly
charismatic animal.

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We've all heard about them.

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But they unfortunately find themselves

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in the crosshairs
of the global climate crisis.

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Polar bears are sea ice obligates.

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This means that they rely
on the sea ice for everything;

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00:07:02,783 --> 00:07:06,195
most importantly, they use it
as a platform for hunting seals.

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Without the sea ice,
they simply can't catch seals,

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00:07:09,333 --> 00:07:11,868
and they're forced
to wait on land and fast

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00:07:11,868 --> 00:07:14,433
and wait for the sea ice to refreeze.

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So those fasting periods
are getting longer and longer,

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and with it, the polar bears
are getting more malnourished,

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and malnourished bears

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means that they're having
reduced cub litter sizes, fewer cubs,

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and we're even starting to see
die-offs in adults.

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Some of the world's leading
polar bear biologists

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00:07:31,332 --> 00:07:32,948
think that there's the possibility

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00:07:32,948 --> 00:07:35,042
we lose the species
in the next hundred years

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if things don't change.

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So that's saying, like, my grandkids

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might grow up in a world
without polar bears,

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which is really devastating.

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Luckily, there are some things
that are being done for polar bears.

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While we're kind of tackling
this huge climate crisis,

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there are certain problems

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that are affecting
populations of polar bears

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that we can work on.

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And I was able to work
on one of those projects

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both with Brigham Young University
and Polar Bears International,

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00:08:01,669 --> 00:08:04,943
where we were looking at ways
that we could protect polar bears

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00:08:04,943 --> 00:08:07,019
that decide to den and raise their cubs

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near oil industry.

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So, that project took place
in northern Alaska,

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which if you've never
been to northern Alaska,

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00:08:14,746 --> 00:08:17,295
it's a really hard place to work.

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I've seen temperatures
of -55 degrees Celsius.

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With the windchill,
it gets a lot colder than that.

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I've gotten frostbite
on most of my fingers,

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and once I even froze my eyeball
completely solid.

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Lost my eyesight.

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Had to, like, frantically
put my palm on my eye

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00:08:34,622 --> 00:08:36,243
and wait for it to thaw out,

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and luckily it did, and twitch
for like two months after that,

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which was super annoying,

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but I got my eyesight back.

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Thankfully, you know,
I was able to work, though,

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in a really incredible environment:

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I got to see the northern
lights multiple times,

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I got to see incredible wildlife
like these musk oxen or this arctic fox,

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and of course, I got
to work with polar bears.

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00:09:00,283 --> 00:09:02,399
Our project specifically
was looking at ways

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00:09:02,399 --> 00:09:05,682
that we could both create
and enforce rules

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00:09:05,682 --> 00:09:08,772
for polar bears that decide
to den near oil industry.

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00:09:09,422 --> 00:09:11,131
And those rules were put in place

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00:09:11,131 --> 00:09:14,524
to help the oil industry give these bears
the space that they needed

200
00:09:14,524 --> 00:09:18,815
so that they had the best possible chance
of raising their cubs to adulthood.

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00:09:18,815 --> 00:09:22,862
So this is a bear that decided to den
right next to some industry stuff;

202
00:09:22,862 --> 00:09:26,486
and we shut everything down,
gave her the space she needed,

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00:09:26,486 --> 00:09:29,769
and she raised this cub and was able
to take it out on the sea ice.

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00:09:30,279 --> 00:09:33,272
So now we're going to talk a little bit
about African Wild Dogs,

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00:09:33,272 --> 00:09:35,318
another animal
that I was able to work with.

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00:09:35,318 --> 00:09:36,866
They're a wild species of dog,

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00:09:36,866 --> 00:09:39,027
they live throughout Sub-Saharan Africa,

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00:09:39,027 --> 00:09:40,914
and they're pack hunters.

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00:09:40,914 --> 00:09:42,377
They're incredibly good at it.

210
00:09:42,377 --> 00:09:43,804
They're not just pack hunters,

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00:09:43,804 --> 00:09:45,189
but every animal in that pack

212
00:09:45,189 --> 00:09:48,921
has a dynamic role
and they all fill it super well.

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00:09:49,902 --> 00:09:51,020
These wild dogs -

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00:09:51,020 --> 00:09:52,810
they're also called "painted dogs" -

215
00:09:52,810 --> 00:09:55,943
they have success
in about 80% of their hunts.

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00:09:55,943 --> 00:09:57,235
So, for comparison,

217
00:09:57,235 --> 00:10:00,436
lion prides will have success
in about 30% of their hunts.

218
00:10:00,436 --> 00:10:03,101
So they're incredibly
successful predators,

219
00:10:03,101 --> 00:10:05,148
which unfortunately puts them

220
00:10:05,148 --> 00:10:07,389
at direct odds with another
successful predator,

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00:10:07,389 --> 00:10:08,852
which is us.

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00:10:09,292 --> 00:10:14,147
Competition for game,
livestock depredations, habitat loss

223
00:10:14,147 --> 00:10:17,922
and disease transference
from domestic dogs

224
00:10:17,922 --> 00:10:21,255
has led to huge declines
in wild dog populations.

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00:10:21,255 --> 00:10:23,807
The range used to extend
throughout Africa,

226
00:10:23,807 --> 00:10:25,984
and now they're confined
to a few strongholds,

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00:10:25,984 --> 00:10:28,869
and we have less than
6,000 wild dogs left in the world.

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00:10:28,869 --> 00:10:30,714
They're critically endangered.

229
00:10:31,114 --> 00:10:33,410
Now, again, I was able
to work with a group

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00:10:33,410 --> 00:10:37,576
that's doing some really interesting
and fascinating wild dog research.

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00:10:37,576 --> 00:10:38,631
And what they're doing

232
00:10:38,631 --> 00:10:40,926
is they're taking dogs
from these strongholds,

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00:10:40,926 --> 00:10:42,449
where they're doing really well.

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00:10:42,449 --> 00:10:45,389
They'll take females from one
and males from another,

235
00:10:45,389 --> 00:10:46,631
and then they combine them

236
00:10:46,631 --> 00:10:49,201
and put them in a place
where they historically existed

237
00:10:49,201 --> 00:10:50,229
to form a new pack.

238
00:10:50,229 --> 00:10:53,301
And it's a wild dog
range-expansion project.

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00:10:53,301 --> 00:10:55,011
Now, it's not as simple

240
00:10:55,011 --> 00:10:58,012
as simply taking them
from one place and another place

241
00:10:58,012 --> 00:11:00,868
and putting them together
and hoping that they're friends.

242
00:11:00,868 --> 00:11:03,443
If you did that, they literally
would kill each other

243
00:11:03,443 --> 00:11:05,477
as soon as they came out of the sedation.

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So, they have a really fascinating method

245
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for making sure
that pack gets established.

246
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And what they do -

247
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you'll have to watch that Mission Wild
show I told you guys about

248
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to see the whole process -

249
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but what they do

250
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is they take each female
and they take each male

251
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and they physically rub them together,

252
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and I've got to do this.

253
00:11:24,187 --> 00:11:25,286
When they're sedated,

254
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you're rubbing them together,

255
00:11:26,665 --> 00:11:28,715
and you're putting
their spit on each other,

256
00:11:28,715 --> 00:11:30,004
and you're just making sure

257
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they smell as much as they possibly can
like the other dogs.

258
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That way, when they wake up,

259
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they recognize, or they see these dogs
that they don't necessarily recognize,

260
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but they can smell them on themselves

261
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and they think, "Okay,
maybe this is a friend.

262
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I guess I won't kill it."

263
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(Laughter) (Applause)

264
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You laugh, but it really does work,

265
00:11:55,962 --> 00:11:58,529
and this Endangered Wildlife Trust group

266
00:11:58,529 --> 00:11:59,591
and my friend Cole,

267
00:11:59,591 --> 00:12:01,164
who's working on this project,

268
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have seen some great success
with their range expansion project.

269
00:12:06,042 --> 00:12:08,544
So, this begs the question why.

270
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You know, why should we
care about wildlife?

271
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It's 2019.

272
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We're all emotionally exhausted.

273
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We all only have
so much emotional bandwidth.

274
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So why wildlife, you know?

275
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Why support biologists
that are crawling into bear dens

276
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and freezing body parts
they didn't know they could freeze?

277
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Why care about an animal

278
00:12:26,638 --> 00:12:29,435
you just learned existed
five minutes ago?

279
00:12:29,435 --> 00:12:32,486
So I think there's
multiple answers to that.

280
00:12:32,486 --> 00:12:35,070
But I think, you know,
you have the ecology

281
00:12:35,070 --> 00:12:39,169
where each and every animal
occupies a role in its ecosystem,

282
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and when you take that animal
out of that role,

283
00:12:42,152 --> 00:12:45,438
it can really create huge effects
that we don't necessarily understand

284
00:12:45,438 --> 00:12:47,285
until that animal's gone.

285
00:12:47,735 --> 00:12:51,205
But I think even more importantly
is how animals affect us as people

286
00:12:51,205 --> 00:12:53,639
and how they're important
to the human condition.

287
00:12:55,672 --> 00:13:00,344
You know, there's wild spaces
that are endlessly important to us

288
00:13:00,581 --> 00:13:04,023
because they teach us a lot
about the complexities of life and joy,

289
00:13:04,023 --> 00:13:06,522
and those wild spaces
just aren't wild anymore

290
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when you remove their inhabitants.

291
00:13:09,704 --> 00:13:12,485
I was lucky enough
to grow up in bear country,

292
00:13:12,485 --> 00:13:14,797
and some of the wildest places I've been

293
00:13:14,797 --> 00:13:17,824
were homes to really
big populations of bears.

294
00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:19,936
When you're hiking around bear country,

295
00:13:19,936 --> 00:13:22,755
you have to really pay attention
to your surroundings;

296
00:13:22,755 --> 00:13:26,328
and because of that,
all your senses are heightened

297
00:13:26,328 --> 00:13:28,943
and, you know, your smell's heightened,

298
00:13:28,943 --> 00:13:31,860
the colors are brighter,
the air is crisper,

299
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and it really puts you
in touch with nature

300
00:13:34,205 --> 00:13:36,395
in a way that you can't normally get.

301
00:13:36,395 --> 00:13:38,111
I really can only get those feelings

302
00:13:38,111 --> 00:13:40,978
in places that are home
to these wild populations of animals.

303
00:13:40,978 --> 00:13:43,837
It's something that really
connects you to the natural world,

304
00:13:43,837 --> 00:13:45,344
and it's endlessly important.

305
00:13:45,344 --> 00:13:48,608
And I think we've failed
as the most intelligent beings on Earth

306
00:13:48,608 --> 00:13:51,862
if we let these species disappear,

307
00:13:52,122 --> 00:13:56,387
and I think, you know,
we're forfeiting up something

308
00:13:56,387 --> 00:13:59,253
that evolution has taken
millions of years to create,

309
00:13:59,253 --> 00:14:03,142
and to me that's like losing
the most precious works of our literature.

310
00:14:03,492 --> 00:14:07,475
But luckily, there really is still
so much more to preserve and protect,

311
00:14:07,475 --> 00:14:10,044
and you don't have to be
a wildlife biologist to do it.

312
00:14:10,044 --> 00:14:11,817
So I have a few tips for people

313
00:14:11,817 --> 00:14:15,236
that can help you
in this fight to save wildlife.

314
00:14:15,236 --> 00:14:18,622
So one of them is just to think
about the way that you spend your money.

315
00:14:19,115 --> 00:14:20,649
Try to do your research,

316
00:14:20,649 --> 00:14:22,684
and don't contribute to these companies

317
00:14:22,684 --> 00:14:25,022
that are contributing
to these kind of problems:

318
00:14:25,022 --> 00:14:28,085
wildlife trafficking,
habitat loss, climate change.

319
00:14:28,085 --> 00:14:31,478
Do your best to avoid
giving those companies your money,

320
00:14:31,478 --> 00:14:33,761
and then they'll see
where your priorities lie,

321
00:14:33,761 --> 00:14:36,477
and they'll try and meet those desires.

322
00:14:36,477 --> 00:14:39,076
Next, and I think
probably most importantly,

323
00:14:39,076 --> 00:14:43,309
is we need to elect politicians
that care about the health of our planet.

324
00:14:44,019 --> 00:14:46,578
And, you know, we have
politicians in place

325
00:14:46,578 --> 00:14:49,284
that might not understand
the crisis that we've created

326
00:14:49,284 --> 00:14:50,961
or care to understand it,

327
00:14:50,961 --> 00:14:52,253
and we need to replace them

328
00:14:52,253 --> 00:14:55,163
with politicians that know
and understand the science.

329
00:14:55,163 --> 00:14:56,380
(Applause)

330
00:14:56,380 --> 00:14:57,545
Thank you.

331
00:14:57,545 --> 00:15:00,667
(Applause continues)

332
00:15:06,877 --> 00:15:11,989
Finally, I think getting out into nature
and kind of reforging those contacts,

333
00:15:11,989 --> 00:15:14,235
reforging that emotional
connection to nature,

334
00:15:14,235 --> 00:15:16,030
is really important.

335
00:15:16,030 --> 00:15:17,844
If you live in the city, go to a park.

336
00:15:17,844 --> 00:15:19,671
If you can get to a national park, go.

337
00:15:19,701 --> 00:15:21,654
If you can get to the wilderness, go.

338
00:15:21,654 --> 00:15:23,618
And when you reforge that connection,

339
00:15:23,618 --> 00:15:25,632
you'll start to care about it naturally,

340
00:15:25,632 --> 00:15:28,483
and you'll naturally
make the decisions to protect it.

341
00:15:28,483 --> 00:15:31,062
And my job would be
impossibly depressing without hope,

342
00:15:31,062 --> 00:15:33,062
but by seeing people like yourselves here,

343
00:15:33,062 --> 00:15:34,162
educating yourselves,

344
00:15:34,162 --> 00:15:36,163
it gives me hope
for the future of wildlife

345
00:15:36,163 --> 00:15:37,728
and for the future of humanity.

346
00:15:37,728 --> 00:15:38,984
Thank you.

347
00:15:38,984 --> 00:15:42,376
(Applause)