In this session, the speaker Tammie Matson let us ask questions, and then she will answer.

The first question we asked is “What drives your passion?” She answered that when she was 15 years old, she went on a trip to Africa when she saw those beautiful creatures, she decided to protect the animals there. And that trip is the reason why she decided to become a zoologist, she had a Ph.D. in zoology.

She had done both global and local endangered species protections (she used to work in the WWF). Currently, she is working on protecting elephants in Africa. She believes that if elephants are saved, the ecosystem will become better as well. It is like a “chain reaction”.

They also need to spread awareness of these endangered species in order to protect them, they usually do this by using one species to tell other people the habitats they are living in. She said that we have to have a global perspective on this issue.

However, in her job live, she faced some obstacles as well, for example, there are many cases where the government didn’t allow them to use the country’s land for conservation, however, Matson believes that building national parks can help the economy.

Their mission is to let the population of endangered species grow, and also improving their natural habitat is also one of their missions. They believe that trying not to intervene the wildlife animals unless it is very necessary.

She thinks that zoos aren’t a great place for putting large intelligent mammals, however, zoos usually give some money back to wildlife conservations.

The last questions we asked is “what is your biggest obstacle?” And she answered that the biggest obstacle right now is the climate change, which leads to the habitat loss of these endangered species.

I think this talk allows me to realize that the endangered wildlife animals are actually far more “endangered” than I thought, but hopefully, these conservation workers can give them a better living habitat, and I will do my part of spreading awareness.

#Writer’sFortnight