

Having grown up on a small hobby farm in Langley, B.C. and beginning with a small flock of Muscovy ducks at the age of 5, my interests and passion for animals and wildlife have only continued to grow over the years. Although born and raised in the city for the first few years of my early childhood, my parents made the fortuitous decision to leave the city life and venture out into farming community. As any young boy growing up should do, I spent much time trespassing on neighbors property, exploring various wood plots, forest groves, marshes, ponds and wetlands looking for nothing in particular, but taking in and appreciating all of the intricacies of the natural world. This time spent outdoors peaked my curiosity about the flora and fauna and general ecology of the region I was growing up in.
My animal interests were also fostered by time spent on the farm and my first avicultural mistake was made when I was 6 years old by trying to help a young duckling hatch out of its egg. I have been making various other avicultural mistakes since this time, each one reinforcing the fact that Mother Nature typically knows best. By the time I was in my mid teens I had amassed a fair size collection of exotic pheasants and waterfowl including some threatened species such as Nene, Emperor Geese, Mikado and Reeves Pheasants. This interest in the rare and exotic lead me to pursue internships at various locations, both locally and abroad to increase my hands on experience with various wildlife. I began a summer internship at Hancock Wildlife Research Center when I was 20 which then lead me to taking on a zoologist position at Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Center when I was 22. When I was 23, I took over the collection management at Hancock Wildlife due to my former mentor having to leave Canada because of an expiring work permit, a position I maintained for another five years. During my university years at the University of the Fraser Valley, I took off a few semesters to travel and participate in various conferences overseas and this eventually led me to co-coordinate the fourth in a series of symposia on avicultural conservation entitled The International Symposium on Breeding Birds in Captivity in 2007. Once my university career came to an end, I decided to go out on my own, starting a consulting company specializing in conservation breeding, environmental and wildlife management.
I am very honoured to have been chosen to represent Wildlife Preservation Canada’s New Noah for 2013, and very much look forward to learning about many of the threatened endemics found there. I hope to be able to help contribute to the conservation and preservation of this unique ecosystem and look forward to developing many professional relationships with other conservationists and being able to share with them my love for both maple syrup and hockey.
About New Noah
About the Canada’s New Noah Scholarship
Canada’s New Noah is a prestigious scholarship that been bestowed annually to one promising young Canadian wildlife biologist every year since 1990. New Noah’s spend six months on the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, home of the fabled but ill-fated dodo, where they are embedded within a work internship program with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, a world-renowned conservation organization carrying out hands-on recovery programs for some of the world’s rarest species.
During the six-month internship, New Noahs learn the practical aspects of being part of an integrated conservation program focused on invasive species, small population management, and endangered species reintroductions. This is followed by a three-month course at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in the U.K. where the Noah is enrolled in a course in Endangered Species Management run by the Durrell Conservation Academy in partnership with The University of Kent.