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Call of the Wild Speaker Series

Houston Zoo Call of the Wild Speaker Series resumes again in October 2010 with an exciting lineup of guest speakers.

The Houston Zoo’s 2010 Call of the Wild Speaker Series will begin again on October 13th, 2010 with an exciting lineup of guest speakers. Enjoy an evening of scrumptious hors d'oeuvres, breathtaking photographs and first-hand stories from conservationists on the frontlines in the battle to help save the world’s wildlife. Proceeds of the Call of the Speaker Series benefit our local and global conservation initiatives at the Zoo.

With conservation and environmental issues becoming hot-button topics for debate across the world, the Houston Zoo’s Call of the Wild Speaker Series offers a forum for global conservation leaders to share their knowledge, concerns and plans for the future. Starting October 13, 2010, four unique lectures will be held at the Brown Education Center over the span of six months.

The Call of the Wild Speaker Series is generously sponsored by the Charles T. Bauer Foundation, the Tapeats Fund, and Continental Airlines, the official airline of the Houston Zoo and KUHF-FM Houston Public Radio.

Seating is limited. Gates open at 6:30pm. Speaker event runs from 7:00pm-8:00pm

October 13th, 2010

The Houston Zoo welcomes internationally acclaimed photographer Frans Lanting and videographer and author Christine Eckstrom

FRANS LANTING has been hailed as one of the great nature photographers of our time. His influential work appears in books, magazines, and exhibitions around the world. For more than two decades he has documented wildlife and our relationship with nature in environments from the Amazon to Antarctica. He portrays wild creatures as ambassadors for the preservation of complete ecosystems, and his many publications have increased worldwide awareness of endangered ecological treasures in far corners of the earth.

Lanting's work has been commissioned frequently by National Geographic, where he served as a Photographer-in-Residence. His assignments have ranged from a first look at the fabled bonobos of the Congo Basin to a circumnavigation by sailboat of South Georgia Island in the subantarctic. Images from his year-long odyssey to assess global biodiversity at the turn of the millennium filled the February 1999 issue of National Geographic. Lanting's work also includes profiles of ecological hot spots, stories on Hawaii's volcanoes, Zambia's Luangwa Valley, and a series of photo essays on American landscapes. His global survey of albatrosses was published in the December 2007 National Geographic. A feature on groundbreaking research with chimpanzees in Senegal appears in the April 2008 issue of the Magazine.

CHRISTINE ECKSTROM is a writer, editor, and videographer. She is the author of Forgotten Edens, and is a contributing author of numerous books published by National Geographic, where she worked as a staff writer for 15 years. Assignments have taken her to wild places on all seven continents, and for the past two decades she has worked with her husband and partner, Frans Lanting, on fieldwork from the Amazon to Mongolia. She collaborated with Lanting to write and edit Life: A Journey through Time), and to realize The LIFE Project as a traveling exhibition, an interactive website, and a multimedia orchestral performance with music by Philip Glass. She has teamed up with Lanting to produce natural history and photography books, including Jungles, Penguin, Eye to Eye and Okavango: Africa's Last Eden.

November 17th, 2010

The Houston Zoo welcomes Carter Smith, Executive Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

A native of Austin, Smith developed his passion for wildlife and the out of doors at a young age while roaming his family’s farm and ranch land interests in Gonzales, Williamson, and Edwards Counties. He has a wildlife management degree from Texas Tech and a master’s degree in conservation biology from Yale University. He began his professional career in 1992 as a management intern at TPWD, assisting in the Private Lands and Public Hunting programs. As a biologist, he has worked on a variety of research projects ranging from studying moose in the boreal forests of Saskatchewan to pronghorn antelope in far west Texas.

He serves on a number of conservation-related boards of directors and advisory councils and was recently named an outstanding alumnus by Texas Tech and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Prior to his selection as TPWD Executive Director, Carter Smith was with The Nature Conservancy of Texas, serving as state director, where he led a team that protected nearly 250,000 acres.

February 2011

The Houston Zoo welcomes Dr. Jill Pruetz, Co-Founder Neighbor Apes, Associate Professor of Anthropology Iowa State University and National Geopraphic Emerging Explorer.

The Fongoli Chimpanzees of Senegal: Dr. Jill Pruetz began research on the Fongoli chimpanzees in 2000 and continues to expand her work to conserve the habitat of wild chimpanzees in southeastern Senegal, to protect the chimpanzees themselves, and to provide for the wellbeing of the Senegalese people who have traditionally lived in the area alongside these chimpanzees. The goal of Neighbor Apes is to promote sustainable conservation practices that take into account the needs of local humans, in part by providing assistance to the people of the various local villages.

The Fongoli Chimpanzees where a focus of the National Geographic documentary Chimps: Next of Kin. They were also featured in the National Geographic Magazine feature Almost Human in April 2008 with photographer Frans Lanting.

March 23rd 2011

The Houston Zoo welcomes Dr. Gregory Rasmussen, Director, Painted Dog Conservation, Zimbabwe

African wild dogs (aka; painted dogs) are one of the rarest carnivores in Africa. They face intense persecution by humans, often shot, snared, poisoned, or hit by cars. Wildlife conservation biologist, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, is a world authority on predator conflict issues and has studied the African painted dogs for more than twenty years. He has spent much of that time living among the communities in Zimbabwe endeavoring to understand their needs as well as the conflicts with the dogs.

In 1992, he founded and became Director of African Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) in Hwange National Park. His research has lead him to base PDC on the following five components: Research; Direct conservation of the dogs; Conservation education; Capacity building for the future; Community development. PDC employs over 60 local people and its ecology-based education program sees over 1000 rual village childern go through each year. As a result of the awareness PDC has generated, the population of Africa painted dogs in Zimbabwe has doubled since the project began. Your participation in this event will make a lasting contribution to the future of African painted dogs and the lives of the local people.