Wildlife Conservation Blog
South Africa’s plan to ban farmed lions for hunting should be hailed
“Lions were recognized as powerful creatures but unlike hyenas and leopards in the region, they were not killers of humans. Lions were seen as social superiors, and addressed with ...
Wayne LaPierre’s elephant hunt is the animal’s Cecil moment — the slaying of the innocent must cease
“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.” —Arthur ...
We urgently need to save what is left of the animal and plant world
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.” --Anatole France The push to protect 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030 ...
Indigenous shaman has a warning about the Amazon and all life on Earth
“The forest is alive. It can only die if the whites continue destroying it. If they do, rivers will disappear under the earth, the soil will crumble, the trees ...
Never decry wolf: they deserve our protection, not ‘management’
The predators are under assault around the U.S. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor | Originally published on March 8, 2021 “We have doomed the ...
Let’s stop slaughtering innocent wildlife, in Montana and beyond
From trophy hunting to trapping and wolf hunts, wildlife is under siege. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor | Originally published on March 8, 2021 ...
Kat Kramer’s ‘Films That Change the World’
What film can do in a fragile world. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor | Originally published on March 4, 2021 It is an enormous ...
We’re stealing the future of children
We need a Marshall Plan for the Earth. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor | Originally published on October 4, 2020 “It's not our job ...
Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant Limited Offer
Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant Limited Offer! PUBLISHED: BORN FREE USA Filmmakers and Born Free friends, Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson, generously offer Born Free USA donors ...
Insects face a perilous decline. Here’s why that’s dangerous for us.
Honoring the insects — they who uphold the world. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor February 4, 2021 “If we go on the way we ...
Trophy hunters, you’re wrong. Dead wrong.
Trophy hunting hurts, not helps, conservation. PUBLISHED: THE HILL by Opinion Contributor, Cyril Christo, January 25, 2021 “I do not want to live on a planet where there are ...
An Inuit youth voices his concerns for Society
Reflections from Baffin Island PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor January 18, 2021 Many European explorers have passed through these waters, explorers of old looking ...
From Montana to beyond, the Republican war on wildlife must end!
From expanding hunting and trapping to reducing protections for wildlife, Republicans are putting animals at risk. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Steve Capra and Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor ...
The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn – The Dawn of a New Era?
This rare celestial occurrence is a time to reflect on humankind’s place in the cosmos. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor December 11, 2020 “We ...
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — the American Serengeti — Shall not Die!
The Trump administration is pursuing a controversial plan to open up ANWR to oil drilling. Here’s what’s at stake. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor ...
We almost lost the world: rolling back the environmental rollbacks
A new administration has its environmental work cut out for it. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor November 11, 2020 “It is horrifying that we ...
Reversing the Sixth Extinction
Some of the biggest financial groups have helped dismantle the world. But now they are coming to the rescue. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor ...
We Should Listen to the Scientists Who Were also Wisdom Keepers
Jonas Salk, Albert Szent Gyorgi and Erwin Chargaff were prominent scientists and humanists who warned us about the direction we’re heading in. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril ...
Towards a Life Affirming BLUE
Blue is the color of Peace and Transcendence. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor November 1, 2020 “Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only ...
The Trump administration has proposed overturning the Roadless Rule that prohibits logging in Tongass.
The Largest Temperate Rainforest on Earth, Alaska's Tongass, Cannot be Sacrificed PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor October 27, 2020 “Nothing dollarable is safe.” —John Muir ...
The Future of Chile Hangs in the Balance
The Country Wrestles with Questions over Mining and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor Sept 14, 2020 “I awoke when the ground of ...
WHY WE ARE KILLING OUR PLANET
We are reaching a point of no return. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor Sept 2, 2020 It’s great to know that some arch conservatives don’t ...
To Botswana: You are the last great Hope for the Elephant on Earth
A letter to the Southern Africa country after hundreds of elephants were found dead. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor July 30, 2020 I write because ...
SAVING THE ARCTIC: the wisdom of the Inuit and the future of the North Pole
“My friends see forces in and behind things which they personify as Spirits. They believe God or Supreme Beings dwell in the tangible world rather than the cathedrals of ...
LESSONS FROM THE BUSHMEN | Why We Need the Oldest Consciousness on Earth More than Ever
“Now up there in the sky, the people up there, the spirits, the dead people up there, they sang for me so I can dance.”--Bushman Elder Lessons from the ...
A Major Dam Project Threatens a Way of Life
“There, out there, the aliens were building a dam across the holiest spot on Earth. They were going to flood the sacred gorge of Kariba and drown the ancient graves ...
The pandemic is a time of purification, says a Native elder
...it seems like people want to grab everything for themselves, they don't care, they just destroy. There will be terrible things that are going to happen. We need to clean ...
Saving the Ghosts of Madagascar, the Lemurs
“The natural world is precious, more precious than Rembrandt or the Hope Diamond, but is being destroyed every day. We can band together to value nature with all its treasures. …
Saving the Great Apes, Our Closest Living Relatives
“Gorillas are almost altruistic in nature. There’s very little of any ‘me-itis.’ When I get back to civilization I’m always appalled by ‘me, me, me.’ ” —Dian Fossey PUBLISHED: THE …
Can the Last Wild Rhinos be Saved from Extinction?
“…once you break through into the rhinoceros’s idiom, discover what a rhinoceros mother would find beautiful in a rhinoceros son, the impression animal beauty makes on you is blinding.” …
Grizzly bears need better protection now
“Are people more important than the grizzly bear? Only from the point of view of some people.” –Edward Abbey PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor …
After Devastating Fires, Australia needs a New Environmental Agenda
“With your vision you see me sitting on a rock, but I am sitting on the body of my ancestor. The earth, his body, and my body are identical.” …
The Photographic Seer, Peter Beard, showed us a world on the edge
Editor’s note: Wildlife photographer Peter Beard has died at 82. Image is of Peter Beard and Lou Reed. PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor April …
Why we must save the Amazon
PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor April 15, 2020 ““The world needs to listen to the cry of the Earth, which is asking for help. If …
In Saving the Elephants and other Species, We Preserve Freedom
PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor April 7, 2020 “Today you say that elephants are archaic and cumbersome, that they interfere with roads and telegraph poles, …
Trophy hunting of lions is unscientific as well as immoral.
PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor February 12, 2020 “What if a greater race of beings were to make flutes and buttons out of our bones?” …
Coronavirus should be a warning for a changing climate
PUBLISHED: THE HILL: Changing America by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor March 30, 2020 “We’re under some gross misconception that we’re a good species, going somewhere important, and that at the …
Coronavirus should make us rethink our role in the world.
PUBLISHED: THE HILL by Cyril Christo, Opinion Contributor March 23, 2020 “Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate …
We Need an International Environmental Criminal Court Now!
PUBLISHED: CHANGING AMERICA by Cyril Christo, 2020 “Confraternity of the living sun, make the embers of financial and industrial internationalism pale upon the hearth of the earth.” -DH Lawrence “The …
Jane Goodall: Why the battle to save Africa’s wildlife must be won
“A new book (Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity) shines a light on what’s at stake, as well as the intimate relationship between local people …
Our Last Chance to turn Earth Around
“We’re not even native to this earth, the way we’re behaving.” — Lysander Christo PUBLISHED: THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN By Cyril Christo Dec 21, 2019 Lord Rees years ago …
Why we need to save elephants to save ourselves.
An important new movie and book project make a new and urgent case to defend Africa’s wildlife because our own fate depends on it. This article was published on the …
Looking for Collectors
We are looking for collectors of our 20 x 24 inch black and white photographs for research in the field on a film about the meaning and importance of the …
Earth’s Greatest Predator No Match for Man
Earth’s Greatest Predator No Match for Man This article was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican on September 21, 2019. LINK “The melting ice is the hourglass that marks …
Planned Parenthood “Artists for Choice” Benefit at Guild Hall East Hampton – June 15, 2019
Saturday, June 15, 2019 @ 5:30 PM Guild Hall, 158 Main St, East Hampton, NY 11937 One of our photographs, “Zambezi Elephants I,” is up for auction. Join us for …
PASATIEMPO: Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson’s Ode to the African Elephant
The Plight of the Pachyderms: Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson’s ode to the African Elephant Article printed in the Pasatiempo on April 19, 2019 Walking Thunder: Ode to the African …
TAOS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL AND SATELLITE EXHIBITION AT THE PHILIP BAREISS GALLERY
Reception Saturday, April 13 from 4 to 6pm. Closing Reception, April 21 from noon to 3pm THIS EXHIBITION WILL BE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE FILMMAKER’S BEAUTIFUL FILM, WALKING THUNDER, WHICH …
FILM REVIEW: A World without Elephants
IS AN OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR SCREENING AT THE 10TH ANNUAL SANTA FE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL, OCTOBER 17-21. COME TO THE SCREEN ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19th at 6PM!!!! Santa Fe University of …
Are These the Last Days of Leviathan?
Article printed in the Santa Fe New Mexican on August 11, 2018 I saw the sea spilling its tumultuous brain this summer on Amagansett Beach, a dead humpback lying like …
WALKING THUNDER FILM: Q & A with filmmakers Cyril Christo & Marie Wilkinson
Documenting the African elephant’s ‘last stand’ by John C. Cannon on 21 May 2018 COMPLETE ARTICLE ON MONGABAY: CLICK “Walking Thunder” can feel like a family trip around the continent of Africa — …
Saved by the Great Being — the elephant
SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN – Commentary by Cyril Christo Published Feb 10, 2018 We’re stuck in deep sand, with a lion kill nearby. No technology, no radio can save us. …
Ghosts in the Grass: The Last Lions of Africa
PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 15, 2017 AT: http://voicesforbiodiversity.org “In another generation, perhaps, the animals of Africa, the little, beautiful animals of the plains and the strange, gigantic animals, the last survivors …
The Earth this time…wake up!
We came face to face with a bull elephant at 10 feet, on foot. Our guide, unique in Africa, trusted us. We trusted the elephant. And, more importantly, the elephant …
Meeting with an Elephant
PRINTED IN VOICES FOR BIO DIVERSITY: August 27, 2017 At the age of 11, Lysander Christo traveled to the Okavango Delta with his father Cyril Christo. They visited this important location …
The Living Boulders of a Faraway Time
PRINTED IN VOICES FOR BIO DIVERSITY: August 14, 2017 We walked among the armored behemoths in total awe, mesmerized by the sands and giant green Euphorbia bushes that seemed to be …
Elephantine Moment
The East Hampton Star: July 12, 2017 To the Editor, Not long ago our son, Lysander, 11, and I got stuck in more than six inches of sand in the …
Sublime Silence: In Praise of a Necessary Predator – the Leopard
The leopard haunts the forests and lurks in the shadows of the savannahs of Asia and Africa, like a stealthy ghost born in equal measure of the golden sun and …
Prayer for the Great Sentinel of the Plains – the Giraffe
Prayer for the Great Sentinel of the Plains – the Giraffe They are the great sentinels of the plains, towering ambassadors who root the earth to the sky like no …
An Encounter with the Great Sirens of the Sea
Excerpt from EPOCH TIMES, February 22, 2017 by Cyril Christo Like a cetacean torch lunging out of water, a humpback greeted the setting sun in ecstatic breach. So started our …
A Letter to the African Elephant
In 1967, Romain Gary, that remarkable poet of the spirit, penned an address to you, the elephants of earth, of such stunning clarity and beauty; it is a prayer for …
NATIVE PLUNDER: in Memory of North Dakota
PHOTO ABOVE: A Native American protestor pauses on land being prepared for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) near Cannon Ball, North Dakota on Sept. 3. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) If you think …
Seeing the Elephant in the Room
AUTHOR: Cyril Christo. Published EPOCH TIMES, October 5, 2016 As a concerned parent and Academy Award nominee who helped alert the world to the elephant crisis in the landmark “Agony …
Conservationists Say Now is the Time to Stop Elephant Slaughter
RECENT ARTICLE USING CHRISTO & WILKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY By Sarah Le, Epoch Times September 27, 2016 CITES is considering a proposal to reclassify all African elephants to the category Appendix I, …
Killing the International Trade on Endangered Species
Saving the Great Being of the Elephant By Cyril Christo | September 13, 2016 One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals …
OUR BEES ARE DYING SIGN THE PETITION
SIGN THE PETITION Pesticides are killing bees and the U.S. government knows it 82% We’ve reached 164,993 of our goal of 200,000. Sign the petition The petition to the Environmental …
America is Struggling to Hold onto a Vestige of its Conservation Ethos
I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. —Abraham Lincoln …. We have doomed the wolf not …
A Salute to the Angels of the Sea, the Whale Sharks
Published on Mongabay on Nov 6, 2015 in Commentary By Cyril Christo “I salute you ancient ocean. Answer me, ocean do you want to be my brother?” wrote Lautreamont, …
Silent Pride, Saving the Last Lions of Africa
PUBLISHED: EPOCH TIMES October 22, 2015 The so-called civilized people? They had no excuse. They hunted for what they called ‘trophies,’ for the excitement of it, for pleasure, in fact. …
The Elephants from the Land that Time Forgot
One overwhelming afternoon, four remarkable, four legged planets of perfection moved over the poem of the African wilderness and stepped into our hearts forever. They roam the hinterlands of …
SILENT PRIDE: Saving the Last Lions of Africa
The so-called civilized people? They had no excuse. They hunted for what they called ‘trophies’, for the excitement of it, for pleasure, in fact. —Romain Gary, “The Roots of Heaven” …
THE RHINOS OF THE NAMIB
It lies on the far south western coast of Africa, a basaltic theatre of red rock carved from the skin of Gondwaland when Africa and south America were joined at …
TUNE INTO WILD WORLD EPISODE July 13 at 8 AM (Pacific)
Our Wild World Monday at 8 AM (Pacific) CLICK TO GO TO SITE July 13, 2015: “Twisted Balance Sheet,” with Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson In the brief time scale …
THE LAST POLAR BEARS
PUBLISHED: Epoch Times Online DATE: April 22, 2015 AUTHOR: Cyril Christo We first went to Churchill in Manitoba, Canada, to see its famous polar bears, whose lives were being threatened by …
The Colossus of Existence: Why the Elephant Is Invaluable
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us, universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated …
A World Without Gorillas
PUBLISHED IN THE EAST HAMPTON STAR, AMAGANSETT DATE: February 9, 2015 AUTHOR: Cyril Christo To the Editor: A few years before our son, Lysander, was born, we walked across the …
THE TIPPING POINT
Published in The East Hampton Star The Tipping Point Amagansett October 6, 2014 To the Editor: What have we learned after the climate march? Half of all nonhuman life, its …
The Bones of Extinction at the Ivory Crush
Published on Izilwane, Author: Lysander Christo Today, the problem is poaching. It is estimated that one elephant dies every 15 minutes. We lose thousands of elephants to poaching every year, …
AN EMPATHY REVOLUTION
East Hampton Star Amagansett August 23, 2014 TO THE EDITOR: For a transitory enchanted moment, man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an …
SONG OF THE EARTH
East Hampton Star Amagansett August 15, 2014 TO THE EDITOR: An alarm call needs to be sounded, but not one that blasts the ears of whales to the point of …
ON BORROWED TIME
East Hampton Star Amagansett August 6, 2014 TO THE EDITOR: This summer, after witnessing transcendent incantations at Lalibela’s churches in Ethiopia, we went to witness the great tuskers in Kenya. …
ONE TUSK
Our breakfast in Tsavo (Tsavo is where the world’s largest elephant Satao was from and where he was killed by poachers only a short while ago) along the Galdessa River …
TRAVELING WITH LYSANDER – SUMMER 2014
One of the blessings that Cyril and I give thanks for is our ability to travel and do our shoots accompanied by Lysander, our son. He’s been with us in …
BABY ELIE BLISS!
As many of you know, we three are in Africa. This is Lysander in Tsavo where Lysander (above photo) found rock amusements in the deep sienna earth. Barely managed to …
THE DEATH OF SATAO
For Immediate Release June 16, 2014 AMERICAN CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHERS CHRISTO & WILKINSON MOURN DEATH OF SATAO, CALL FOR INCREASED PROTECTION FOR ENDANGERED ELEPHANTS Cyril Christo: Blatant Killing of One of …
GIANTS ON MY MIND | The global march to save the African Elephant
PUBLISHED IN OPINIONS/MY VIEW, SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN - 9/8/2013 Several years ago, my wife, Marie, and I began to mourn the tragic dismembering of elephant society across Africa. We ...
AMONG NECESSARY GIANTS: Why we can’t afford to lose the elephant
ARTICLE IN THE ECOLOGIST – July 27, 2011 Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson, authors of Walking Thunder, explain why the survival of the elephant is critical for our own future. …
