Episode 81: Lesley McNutt - Co-founder of Wild Entrust

Anthropologist and conservationist Lesley McNutt spent a decade trying to encourage adults to connect with the nature world in order to save wildlife populations in Botswana. She tried tactic after tactic, but people were more concerned about the HIV/AIDS crisis. That’s when she realized she was educating the wrong people. On episode 81, Lesley shares her story of making a home in Africa, close encounters with apex predators, and finally making inroads with locals through Wild Entrust’s Coaching Conservation program. In 2015, her hard work was validated when the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals aligned the Coaching Conservation model. Lesley founded Wild Entrust with her husband, Tico, and the non-profit is supported in part by the Cincinnati Zoo. As a bonus, she tells us about the connection between African Wild Dogs and the wolves of Yellowstone National Park.