Yesterday was a great loss for the big cats of the world - with the passing of Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, they lost their greatest advocate. Dr. Rabinowitz had been battling a particularly form of cancer for several years. His doctors had advised him that if he wanted to extend his lifespan, he would be best served by retiring from the field and leaving the adventuring - he was often referred to as the Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation - to the next generation. After all, as the founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization Panthera, there was tons of paperwork and other safe, boring responsibilities to tend to.
If there was one thing Alan Rabinowitz was incapable of doing, it was taking the safe, boring route. I mean, this is a man who shrugged off plane crashes, venomous snakes, and deadly poacher traps like you or I would shake off a bad headache.
Dr. Rabinowitz has always been a legend and an inspiration to me, and I count myself very lucky that I was given the chance to meet him once. He was giving a lecture on tiger conservation at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC. Afterwards, I was able to sneak close enough to get him to sign a copy of his first book, Jaguar, detailing his first major triumph, the establishment of the world's first jaguar reserve in Belize. I was serving as a jaguar keeper at the time, and when I told him this, he got excited. We chatted about jaguars for a while, and he described the latest book he was working on, detailing man's relationship with the jaguar. It would, he promised, contain a chapter on zookeepers who worked with jaguars and their impressions of the cats.
The next time I crossed paths with Dr. Rabinowitz was online - we were both commenting on an article posted by a former college professor of mine on the conservation role of zoos and aquariums. Despite the fact that he got his career started off under the aegis of the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Society, and that Panthera received much financial support from zoos, Dr. Rabinowitz remained skeptical - not directly opposed, but still skeptical - about how well suited some of the large mammals that he studied - jaguars, especially - were to life under human care.
Dr. Rabinowitz is survived by his wife, Salisa, whom he met in Thailand, as well as their two children, Alexander and Alana. He is also survived by the countless animals across the globe that owe their survival to his tireless efforts. Dr. Rabinowitz was taken from his family far too soon. Still, I hope that he was able to draw some peace from the satisfaction of all of the good he had achieved for wildlife over his too-brief career.
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