Hangout to Cause an UpROAR for Big Cats

Posted by Lauren Ward of NG Staff in Explorers Journal on November 8, 2013

Photo by Beverly Joubert.

Big Cat Week is right around the corner. A week dedicated to nature’s fiercest felines, we’re celebrating these magnificent creatures by rounding up a team of big cat experts, photographers, and even an NFL football player for our next Google+ Hangout on Tuesday, December 3rd at 12:30 p.m. EST (5:30 p.m. UTC). And don’t forgot to tune into Nat Geo WILD for a week of non-stop big cat programming beginning November 29th.

Meet Our Cat Crusaders 

Boone Smith comes from a family of multi-generational big cat trackers. After decades of experience working as a biologist and capture specialist, he has helped develop some of the best and safest capture techniques for big cats used today. Boone has been highlighted in several National Geographic films and is the host of the new natural history series, Secret Life of Predators.

Minnesota Vikings linebacker Erin Henderson combined his talent on the football field with his personal passion for big cats in a unique way. With every sack, (a play in which the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage), he donates $1,000 to Cause and Uproar making him National Geographic’s very own “LION-backer.”

Big Cat Grantee Amy Dickman has had her fair share of big cat close encounters, including one in which a lion feel asleep on her tent…with Amy still inside! Even after her petrifying experience, Amy is a champion for big cats all over the globe and heads up the Rhaha Carnivore Project in Tanzania.

Laly Lichenfield, also a Big Cat Grantee, is working to grow “living walls” in areas where livestock, big cats, and people often violently collide. These environmentally sustainable lion-resistant enclosures use a unique combination of chain link fencing and fast growing trees as fence posts to keep cattle out of a hungry lion’s grasp.

National Geographic photographer Steve Winter has spent his career photographing big cats- everything from the elusive snow leopard to mountain lions in the Hollywood hills. Steve’s new book, Tigers Forever, captures the beauty and fragility of tigers in Sumatra and Myanmar. Check out the book here.

A tiger peers at a camera trap it triggered while night hunting in the forests of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Steve Winter/National Geographic

Hosting this month’s Hangout, Luke Dollar is National Geographic Emerging Explorer and Big Cats Initiative Program Manager. He has spearheaded several big cat conservation stories on News Watch and actively engages with classrooms all over the nation through Google+ Hangouts.

How to Participate in the Hangout

You can be a part of the Cause an Uproar and our Google+ Hangout. Send in your questions for these National Geographic Explorers and they may be asked on air. Submit your questions by…

• Uploading a video question to YouTube with hashtag #bigcats
• Posting a question on Google+ or Twitter with hashtag #bigcats

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