Big cat conservation is the thing that keeps yanking me awake at 3 a.m. even though I know I can’t fix it alone.
Right now I’m hunched over my laptop in the spare bedroom that pretends to be an office, baseboard heater clicking every few minutes like it’s judging me, outside the kind of dry February cold that hurts your teeth. Every article about another collared lion shot for bushmeat or a tiger habitat shrinking because of yet another palm plantation makes my stomach do this slow unhappy roll. I’ve tried to do something about it. Most of the time it feels like screaming into really expensive wind.
Why Protecting Big Cats Keeps Me Up (Even Though I’m Nobody Special)
I’m not a biologist. Never tagged a single ear or set a camera trap. Grew up in suburban Denver metro, first “safari” was the big-cat house at the zoo when I was small enough to stick my whole arm through the safety gap before my mom yanked me back. These days I’m just a thirty-something with a 401(k) that’s mostly index funds and a habit of doom-scrolling big cat protection news while the neighbor’s sprinkler timer goes off at midnight even in winter.
Protecting big cats is not sexy work. It’s:
- Auto-donating $35 to Panthera every month even when car insurance jumps again
- Refreshing petition pages until my thumb cramps
- Getting quietly furious at city council meetings when someone wants to loosen mining regs near critical corridors
- Lying awake wondering if the Amur leopard cubs born last month will make it to breeding age
Last fall I actually drove down to this tiny rescue facility near Colorado Springs—four hours each way in a car that smelled like old fast food—spent the day hauling frozen meat carcasses and listening to a keeper explain exactly how many calories a captive jaguar needs versus what they get in shrinking wild ranges. Left with sore shoulders, a $15 “I ❤️ Jaguars” sticker on my water bottle, and this nagging feeling I’m still mostly cosplaying concern.
The Dumb Shit I’ve Done While Trying to Help Big Cat Conservation
Full transparency, I’ve fucked up plenty:
- Sponsored a snow leopard through one of those adoption programs—got the same generic photo everyone else gets. Still pay. Still call him “my” leopard in my head.
- Shared an Instagram reel about “save the tigers” that turned out to be a front for a merch company. Felt like an idiot for a week.
- Tried going cold-turkey on products with palm oil for like ten days. Caved at a gas station on a road trip because I was starving and the only snack was a Snickers.
- Once argued with a coworker who said “lions aren’t even endangered anymore” while we were waiting for the office microwave. I was loud. He was wrong. I still cringe thinking about it.
Big cat conservation means eating crow regularly and showing up anyway.
Stuff That Actually Seems to Help (Learned the Hard Way)
From bugging researchers at one conference I crashed, reading way too many annual reports, and just paying attention:
- Connected habitat corridors matter more than most people realize—fragmentation kills populations faster than poaching sometimes
- Rangers on the ground with decent pay and gear save way more cats than any viral campaign
- Chipping away at demand for bones / skins / trophies actually moves the needle when it’s consistent
- Small recurring donations from a lot of regular people outlast flashy one-time celebrity fundraisers
Living in the US, the things I can realistically do without quitting my job are:
- Throw money at orgs like Big Cat Rescue, Panthera, WildCats Conservation Alliance
- Bug my reps every time endangered species protections are on the chopping block
- Skip the ultra-cheap grocery stuff when I can afford better (palm oil is everywhere, it’s exhausting)
- Talk about it without turning into that guy at the barbecue nobody wants to sit next to
Final Ramble Before I Close This Tab
Most nights big cat conservation feels like bailing out the ocean with a solo cup. Then I see one photo of a wild tiger crossing a new underpass in India or a puma kitten surviving its first Colorado winter and something dumb and hopeful in my chest refuses to quit.
If any of this landed—even 10%—maybe send $10 somewhere legit this week, or just read one real report instead of doom-scrolling headlines. Or hell, just admit it sucks and hurts and keep caring anyway. That’s where I’m at tonight, heater still clicking, inbox full of newsletters I pretend I’ll read.
Outbound Links
- https://panthera.org/
- https://www.worldwildlife.org/ (WWF)
- https://bigcatrescue.org/
- https://www.wcs.org/ (Wildlife Conservation Society)
- https://www.wildcatsconservationalliance.org/
