Episode Six - Steve Winter & Sharon Guynup

In this Podcast, we talk to Steve Winter and Sharon Guynup. Steve is an award-winning National Geographic wildlife photojournalist best known for his photography of big cats such as snow leopards, cougars and jaguars. For the past two decades but his main focus has been tigers. Sharon is an award-winning journalist and editor covering wildlife, climate change, conservation and more, writing for titles such as National Geographic, The New York Times and The Washington Post.   Together they have done in-depth investigations into wildlife crime, including an exposé on tiger trafficking and how captive tigers in the U.S. outnumber those in the wild and the issues surrounding this. They spent time with individuals covered by the Netflix series Tiger King, detailing in-depth the issues surrounding the tiger entertainment industry.In our hour-long chat, we talk about how they started their careers, and how they create opportunities where they can work together but also that have an impact and cause change. They share details on how Steve got his now-iconic image of a cougar under the Hollywood Sign which was instrumental in creating a $88 million dollar USD privately funded wildlife corridor. They discuss the value of a single jaguar through ecotourism in The Pantanal as a result of Steve's early images taken in the region and the importance of giving back. They also talk about all things tigers, a species on which their combined efforts have been focused for a number of years, including their in-depth investigation into the tiger industry in the United States.