The Wildlife Confessional is a window into the wildlife profession, a career peopled by state and federal biologists, game wardens, land managers, consultants, students, professors, interns, researchers, students, and the community of peers who have built their careers (and sometimes, their lives) around working with wildlife. The authors whose stories have been collected here represent men and women from all walks of wildlife biology and take place across North and Central America, from the Gulf of Alaska to San Ignacio, Belize; from the tropics of the Hawaiian Islands to the deserts of Arizona; and in the desert springs, coastal bluffs, national parks, stock ponds, pickup trucks, traplines, doctors’ offices, rooftops, outhouses, and bombing ranges scattered everywhere in between.

While working as a lobbyist for environmental conservation on Capitol Hill, Chris Palmer quickly discovered that Congressional hearings were bland events, poorly attended by the majority of Representatives and Senators and with far less impact than one would expect. So he turned, instead, to wildlife filmmaking, for the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation, with the hope of transforming mindsets and encouraging protection of wildlife. In the process, Palmer discovered both the magic--and the misgivings--of the industry. While Shamu looked beautiful captured on film breaching, was it right to keep killer whales captive? Was it okay to have sound engineers recording the sound of their hands splashing in water and pawning it off as the sound of bears splashing through a stream? And should reputable TV networks be accepted or called out for airing sensational shows that put wildlife in harm's way and present animal fiction like mermaids and monster sharks as fact? In this tell-all expose of the wildlife filmmaking industry, film producer and American University professor Chris Palmer shares his own journey as a filmmaker--with its highs and lows and challenging ethical dilemmas--in order to provide filmmakers, networks, and the public with an invitation to evolve the industry to the next level. Palmer uses his life story as a conservationist and filmmaker to convey his points, with an ultimate call to stop deceiving audiences, avoid harassing animals, and promote conservation. Read this book to find a path forward. "Chris Palmer's new book is a must read for all who care about the natural world and the future of our planet." -Ted Danson, Actor and Environmentalist "Chris Palmer has written a very important book." -Jane Goodal, PhD, DBE, Founder, The Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace "In a world where media holds enormous influence, Chris Palmer's book makes fascinating reading." -Jean-Michel Cousteau, President, Ocean Futures Society

A “compelling” up-close memoir of a career spent among marine mammals and a portrait of the daily lives of dolphins (Publishers Weekly). Working among charismatic and clever dolphins in the wild is a unique thrill—and this book invites us shore-bound dreamers to join Maddalena Bearzi as she travels alongside them. In a fascinating account, she takes us inside the world of a marine scientist and offers a firsthand understanding of marine mammal behavior, as well as the frustrations and delights that make up dolphin research. Bearzi recounts her experiences at sea, tracing her own evolution as a woman and a scientist from her earliest travails to her transformation into an advocate for conservation and dolphin protection. These compelling, in-depth descriptions of her fieldwork also present a captivating look into dolphin social behavior and intelligence. Drawing on her extensive experience with the metropolitan bottlenose dolphins of California in particular, she offers insights into the daily lives of these creatures—as well as the difficulties involved in collecting the data that transforms hunches into hypotheses and eventually scientific facts. The book closes by addressing the critical environmental and conservation problems facing these magnificent, socially complex, highly intelligent, and emotional beings. “Pairing vivid images of bottlenose dolphins swimming together and caring for one another with descriptions of the meticulous scientific work required to record their behavior, Maddalena Bearzi sheds light on the life of a field biologist…A beautifully written account.”—Library Journal

Autobiography

"The Art of Confession tells the history of this cultural shift and of the movement it created in American art: confessionalism. Like realism or romanticism, confessionalism began in one art form, but soon pervaded them all: poetry and comedy in the 1950s and '60s, performance art in the '70s, theater in the '80s, television in the '90s, and online video and social media in the 2000s. Everywhere confessionalism went, it stood against autobiography, the art of the closed book. Instead of just publishing, these artists performed--with, around, and against the text of their lives." --

Longtime producer Palmer provides an in-depth look at wild animals on film, covering the history of wildlife documentaries, safety issues, and the never-ending pressure to obtain the money shot. Marlin Perkins, Jacques Cousteau, Steve Irwin, Timothy Treadwell, and many other familiar names are discussed along with their work, accidents, and in some cases, untimely deaths. Palmer is highly critical of Irwin, and offers fascinating revelations about game farms used by exploitative filmmakers and photographers looking for easy shots and willing to use caged animals to obtain them. He also considers the subliminal messages of many wildlife films, considering everything from Shark Week to Happy Feet and how they manipulate audiences toward preset conclusions about animal behavior. In all this is an engaging and exceedingly timely look at a form of entertainment the public has long taken for granted and which, as Palmer points out, really needs a fresh and careful reconsideration.

A provocative and urgent essay collection that asks how we can live with hope in “an age of ecocide” Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist—an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on “sustainability” rather than the defense of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change. Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth’s thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls “dark ecology,” which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. This iconoclastic, fearless, and ultimately hopeful book, which includes the much-discussed “Uncivilization” manifesto, asks hard questions about how we’ve lived and how we should live.

A searing memoir of an animal rights campaigner’s effort to stop Canada’s seal hunt, while handling domestic abuse and her partner’s long-term illness. When two government agents asked Karen Levenson whether she knew any terrorists or was one herself, she couldn’t have been more astonished. Passionately and professionally engaged in the struggle to end Canada’s seal hunt, she considered her efforts to persuade chefs to boycott Canadian seafood, her deep-dive investigation of hunt economics, and her campaign to end animal suffering not only as far from terrorism as possible, but the mission she’d been called upon to do since she was a child. But, as she relates in her vividly told and revelatory memoir, Levenson’s life has been marked by waves of unwarranted accusations and implicit or explicit violence: whether from government agencies, sealers, or even family members. Confessions of an Animal Rights Terrorist is at once an insider’s account of the decades-long attempt to end the seal hunt; an absorbing exploration of one woman’s growing awareness of animal cruelty and her emerging confidence, commitment, and knowledge; and a searingly honest memoir of domestic violence, caregiving, and the possibility of redemption. By turns infuriating, funny, and deeply moving, Confessions of an Animal Rights Terrorist reveals the extraordinary journey of an ordinary woman who comes face to face with breathtaking cruelty and does what she can to stop it.

Mirta DeSalvo and her husband, Alberto, refugees of the Dirty War of Argentina, owe their lives to wealthy American, Julia Parks, who rescued them from the horrors of the junta and offered a new life in Two Rock, California. Julia, confronted with a late-in-life pregnancy, asks the DeSalvos to adopt the baby with the added condition that they not return to Argentina until baby Francesca is grown. Though aware of the extraordinary sacrifice the promise will require, the DeSalvos have no honorable choice but to accept. The search for their own granddaughter will have to wait, as will Mirta's burning desire to bring to justice the military officer who destroyed her family. A generational story that skillfully illuminates the resilient lives of characters touched by loss and betrayal, loved ones stolen in the night, and the search for a birth mother hiding in plain sight, The Confessional is a compelling rendering of how war and love thousand of miles apart create trauma that ripples through two generations and emerges as love, understanding and forgiveness.

During the author's thirty-nine years with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, he was involved in more wildlife violation contacts than any active officer. He never promoted, not because of a lack of talent, but because becoming a sergeant would have taken him away from his beloved home in Olympia Washington.As a field trainer to many new officers he provided his perspective and wisdom. He humbly shared all of his many mistakes and lessons learned and continues to do so.He is now retired and enjoying life with his wife Crissy, on their forty acre swamp. A true urban paradise...with deer, bear, waterfowl and a wonderful lake filled with non-native fish....And that will have to do.