Eli J. Knapp

I have had a fascination with wildlife ever since obsessively counting deer on my bus rides to school each morning. Since those impressionable days, my wildlife interests have put me in kayaks, hot air balloons, subpar Land Rovers, and dozens of hiking boots in search of new species and familiar favorites.

When not chasing birds or photographing fungi, I now teach courses in conservation biology, human ecology, and ornithology, at Houghton College, in western New York. Each spring I take a quorum of students to East Africa where we study wildlife, culture, and development along the Rift Valley. My research interests spawn out of a three-year stint when I lived amidst the great herds in Serengeti National Park, where I studied how people and wildlife coexist around protected areas.

I'm happiest well off a leash and wander afield whenever opportunity arises. Nature is my therapy and I happily share my love of wild creatures with my wife and our three children. So now I even get to live with three wild creatures. And my wife lives with four.