Ronan Donovan had a tough time sitting still and being indoors as a kid, and by age 13, he’d acquired two felonies and four misdemeanors for theft.
For his 14th birthday, his parents sent him to wilderness therapy, which he credits with setting him on his path to become a wildlife researcher and award winning National Geographic photographer.
Since 2011, he’s focused on studying and living among social mammals like gorillas, chimpanzees and wolves.
The wildlife biologist and conservation photographer now advocates for restoring our relationship with nature to live healthier lives.
Donovan argues that “if we’re in conflict with the natural world, we’re actually in conflict with ourselves.” He argues we should rewild not only landscapes but ourselves, leaning into the innately human satisfactions of song, dance, storytelling, spending time outdoors and generally being in community with others.
Over the past two decades, he has conducted intensive research on wildlife across the world, in some cases living alongside animals for months at a time.
During a presentation at the Wheeler Opera House on Tuesday, Donovan shared examples of three species that have become comfortable enough with his presence — inviting him to interact as one of their own.
Chimps in Uganda have allowed him to hide with them in the brush from unknown humans passing by; juvenile mountain gorillas in Rwanda invited him to roughhouse and play (which he declined due to his size disadvantage); wolves in the Canadian arctic have played keep away with his cameras and allowed him to follow them in a hunt.
“I was continually surprised at how quickly and instinctually wild social mammals allow human presence into their lives,” Donovan said in an interview after the show.
“There's an interesting acceptance that happens, and it's through repeat positive exposure and not having conflict with these animals.”
Donovan recognized that in the modern world, there is conflict with wolves, especially in Colorado.
Voters approved gray wolf reintroduction in 2020, and Colorado Parks & Wildlife began translocating the species from Canada and other western states a few years later.
That process has been highly contentious, drawing heated criticism from livestock producers who have lost cattle to wolves and dealt with the pressure of protecting their herds.
For Donovan, the answer lies in maintaining a human presence around those cattle.
“Livestock-growing cultures around the world — whether it be Europe or Asia or central, sub-Saharan Africa — there's just people with the animals all the time,” Donovan said. “And that used to be the way that in the West, cows and sheep were kept, and it is still the way that sheep are kept in the West.”
Extending that practice to cattle ranchers seems like the next logical step, Donovan said.
He took part in a workshop for livestock producers on living with wolves hosted by the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies this fall, and he recalled the story of Idaho rancher Glenn Elzinga.
Elzinga rotationally grazes his cattle and assigns someone to constantly ride and sleep with the herd. He hasn’t lost an animal in the last ten years, simultaneously increasing his yield and income.
Spending more time with the animals could also benefit the ranchers, Donovan said.
“The feeling of being outside all the time, the feeling of walking around, the feeling of being in relationship, those are all things that make us as humans healthier,” he said.
But there’s also a mindset shift that needs to happen, he added.
"This idea that wolves are these vicious killers and that they cause a lot of suffering and wounding of these animals — it's a reflection of our own story, our own narrative that we project onto the natural world,” he said.
He acknowledged that restoring balance with these apex predators in a modern world won’t happen overnight.
“The main recipe is just time,” Donovan said. “It's going to take time for the messiness to settle.”
