How to Train a Margay: Samantha Zwicker - Hoja Nueva

Recently a friend sent me a photo on the Nat Geo Instagram account and said, “Hey, this could be a great story for your podcast”. It was a photo taken by Trevor Frost of Samantha Zwicker, a PhD student from the University of Washington with an ocelot deep in the Peruvian Amazon. I don't know if this was intended, but this photo really reminded me of that famous photo of Jane Goodall, touching the hands of an infant chimpanzee in Gombe, Tanzania.

But just like that photo, there's a fascinating story behind this photo too. In August, 2018, Sam received an emergency message from the local community, that there was a small wild cat wandering the floor of a community store. It was that ocelot in the photo - Keanu. His mother had been killed due to logging and as a small kitten he was destined for the illegal wildlife trade.

Sam, however, had a bright future planned for Keanu. One without cruelty, one without fences - a future at home, free and wild in the Amazon. This is the story of Sam and her not-for-profit Hoja Nueva - a beacon of hope deep in the jungle of the Peruvian Amazon, where every day they rehabilitate and rewild threatened wildlife, just like Keanu, the ocelot.

Links

• Hoja Nueva - Home - Conservation Center Peruvian Amazon Rainforest
• Research Paper - Characterising trade at the largest wildlife market of Amazonian Peru