What's a human? We are, at our core, social mammals. We build relationships, communicate, reproduce, establish territories, and adapt to shrinking resources. In these ways, we're no different than other social mammals. Chimpanzees, wolves and gorillas are among the most charismatic of the mammals we know. We identify with them as species, groups and even as named individuals. They're also under threat. Join biologist-turned-photographer Ronan Donovan as he talks about his work in documenting these animals and what we, as fellow social mammals, can learn from them.

A field biologist turned photographer, Ronan Donovan has traveled to all seven continents in search of elusive wildlife. Ronan's first trip to East Africa was in 2008, and he has spent time there nearly every year since. In 2011, he studied wild chimpanzees for a year in Uganda for Harvard University. Ronan's passion for conserving wild animals and wild places was ignited during his years as a field biologist, inspiring him to use visual storytelling as a way to reach a greater audience. His photographic journeys for National Geographic magazine include an entire year living inside Yellowstone National Park documenting the life of wild wolves, covering the human-wildlife conflict between wild chimpanzees and humans in Africa, the legacy of the mountain gorillas Dian Fossey gave her life to save, and more recently, a story about a family of arctic wolves in the high Arctic on Ellesmere Island, Canada. Ronan’s photographs have hung on the walls of the Natural History Museum in London and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. He has lived in Montana for the past 10 years where he loves to explore the Rocky Mountains around his home in Bozeman.