ASTEROID GODDESSES

Hi All,

Here is the story of Samantha Zwicker. This is a noon chart.

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Samantha Zwicker is a Ph.D. student researching ecology and conservation at the University of Washington in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences while pursuing separate Nonprofit Management and International Development certificates from the UW Evans School. She received her bachelor’s with honors from the UW in 2012 and her master's in June of 2015 after being awarded the College's Graduate Student of the Year.

In addition to teaching environmental studies and environmental science courses at the UW, she is President of Xi Sigma Pi Forestry Honors Society, a term member of the renowned Explorers Club, producer of Seattle's Inspiración del Perú, and co-founder and President of nonprofit Hoja Nueva. Samantha’s fieldwork is based primarily in the Amazon rainforest along the Piedras River in Peru, where she is working with remote communities to establish more sustainable farming methods while concurrently assessing the effects of land use change on cats and their prey using in-situ observation and camera trapping.

Hoja Nueva is led by novel, practical research in conservation and agroforestry. Their mission is to work with local communities to make sustainable agriculture a success in the Piedras and all remote rainforest environments like it- firstly by creating a sustainable cacao marketplace with direct, just trade values.

The urgency of conserving the earth's rainforests now goes beyond cultural and wildlife preservation. As a component of the recent Paris accord on climate change, protecting the Amazon rainforest is vital and of high potential, but more in-situ research is necessary in coupled human-environment systems in the Amazon's most biodiverse and healthy forests. Hoja Nueva consults and cooperates with local agricultural associations and other nonprofit organizations to ensure reliable food production while maintaining healthy forests, creating a future where both humans and nature can thrive.

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‘Wildcat’: A vet with PTSD finds healing with help from a baby ocelot

Nature documentary follows the stories of three trauma survivors in the Amazon jungle: An ex-soldier, a wildlife rehabilitator and an adorable wildcat

Review by Kristen Page-Kirby

Healing is a tricky business, for people and animals alike. What that looks like is the subject of “Wildcat,” a documentary about a young military veteran with PTSD, an orphaned baby ocelot that needs to learn to survive on its own, and a woman, also a trauma survivor, who wants to help them both.

The first is Harry Turner, who joined the British Army at age 18, served in combat in Afghanistan, and was given a medical discharge due to depression and PTSD. (As far as the movie shows, he wasn’t given much else in terms of support.) Harry left England and traveled to the Amazon, intending to end his life — which he didn’t want to do where his 13-year-old brother would find him. Instead, he stumbled onto a wildlife rescue-and-rehabilitation center run by American Samantha Zwicker. Harry begins working with the animals and is eventually entrusted with the care of Keanu the ocelot, a spotted wildcat about the size your house cat thinks it is. Keanu, we learn, was probably orphaned by mining or logging operations.

“I’m going to teach him how to become a killer,” Harry says.

It’s one of the clear lines that connect him to his four-footed charge: For Harry, learning to kill was the key to his survival, but it has left him damaged. Keanu also must learn to kill for food, but if he learns to do that, he’ll have to leave Harry behind. It’s a lot like parenting: The measure of Harry’s success will be how easily Keanu can live without him.

If you’re looking for lots of footage of Keanu growing and pouncing and being otherwise adorable, there’s plenty of that. And while Keanu is not a pet — which is the fate of some orphaned ocelots, popular among a certain set of rich people — any pet owner can relate to Harry’s affectionate exasperation with Keanu’s antics, especially since Let’s Bite Dad seems to be one of his favorite games. More compelling, though, are the moments when Harry steps back and lets Keanu make his own mistakes. A run-in with a spider and a later one with a caiman are nerve-racking, since “helping” Keanu now means hurting him down the road.

While Harry and Keanu’s connection is the film’s central dynamic, Harry’s relationship with Samantha is also prominent. The daughter of an alcoholic father, she admits that she’s not one to give up on people, possibly to her detriment. Harry’s mental state is not always a good one, and Samantha is sometimes at a loss to know how — or whether — to help. Any viewers who have found themselves in the role of caretaker for someone with mental health or substance abuse issues may find some of the scenes featuring Harry and Samantha scarier than those featuring large arachnids or toothy reptiles.

First-time feature directors Trevor Beck Frost and Melissa Lesh use a variety of footage to tell the story: home movies, their own camerawork, and some scenes shot by Harry and Samantha. It mostly works, with one catch. “Wildcat” doesn’t quite hang together, both visually, which is forgivable, and narratively. The film’s human subjects are a bit too removed from the camera, resulting in a loss of intimacy that makes the best documentaries so compelling.

Maybe Turner and Zwicker didn’t want to let the filmmakers in. Maybe Frost and Lesh should have pushed harder. Either way, it’s a missed opportunity, especially considering that the four pretty much lived together for months in the jungle. The film’s under-two-hour run time leaves just enough minutes to tell the stories of two subjects well — with the kind of depth and care they deserve — or the stories of three subjects at a surface level. Clearly, the filmmakers went for the latter option, which simultaneously gives the audience too much and not enough.

Still, for fans of wildlife documentaries, “Wildcat” is at least as good as, say, a rerun of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” (Google it). That is to say: It’s enjoyable while it lasts but fades from the mind soon after, all except for that little piece of a viewer’s heart that holds out hope that little Keanu — and the people who raised him — will one day find the lives they deserve.

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Samantha Zwicker: Where is Head of Hoja Nueva Now?

Kumari Shreya Kumari Shreya

December 30, 2022

In Amazon Prime’s ‘Wildcat,’ viewers are taken on an eye-opening journey in the Amazon rainforest. The amount of effort put in by the featured conservationists to save wildlife and biodiversity is commendable and motivates the public to focus on crucial issues surrounding us. In the documentary, we are introduced to Samantha Zwicker, who leads Hoja Nueva and plays a massive role in saving rescue animals in Peru. Her journey with wildcat conservation depicted in the film is fascinating and has made many people curious about her current whereabouts. Luckily, we are to explore the same!

Who is Samantha Zwicker?

Hailing from Washington, US, Samantha Zwicker is a well-known ecologist who graduated from Bainbridge High School in 2009. From a young age, she had been interested in working towards wildlife conservation, though it had been wolves who were her primary concern in her initial years. Samantha has gained multiple degrees from the University of Wahington to further her expertise, including a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Conservation Ecology. Additionally, she has a diploma in Nonprofit management.

In the past, Samantha has had the honor of being a Panthera Small Cat Action Fund Grantee. In addition, she has earned the titles of a Wild Felid Legacy Scholar and an NIH Global Health Fellow. Rather than conventionally going through her doctorate, Samantha decided to work with animals in their natural habitat and provide a unique perspective in her dissertation. Soon, she was deep in the Amazon rainforest and was trying to safeguard as many animals as possible.

For Samantha, rescuing and rewilding Khan, her first rescue ocelot, was a monumental task. The success of this mission would have helped her organization, Hoja Nueva, to gain much respect locally. Interestingly, she and her team members could not find any protocols surrounding how ocelots should be educated about surviving in the wild. Hence, Khan’s presence was an uncharted territory that she was eager but cautious to explore. Khan’s passing greatly impacted her and her colleague Harry Turner, yet the duo soon had a new ray of hope after Keanu’s arrival.

Where is Samantha Zwicker Now?

As of writing, Samantha Zwicker serves as the Founder, Co-Director, and Ecologist for Hoja Nueva. Since Keanu’s rescue, the organization has kept up its good work and has saved 13 wildcats, including Kleo, their first-ever female ocelot. Interestingly, Hoja Nueva is the first-ever team to reintroduce a margay to the wild. To date, they have saved 119 animals, out of which 101 were apparently rescued in 2022. In the same year, they also reintroduced 65 animals to the wild.

The ‘Wildcat’ star is quite excited about the release of the documentary featuring herself and Harry Turner. Initially, the two had decided to make a self-filmed movie documenting Khan’s reintroduction. This was mainly not to expose him to unnecessary human contact. However, during Keanu’s rewilding, the number of cameras increased, though Harry remained the primary person to have any interaction with Keanu.

Trailer for Wildcat:

https://www.youtube.comresults?search_query=trailer+for+wildcat

According to Samantha, she knows that the movie leaves a person in emotional turmoil, which she considers to be a good thing. “I just hope that people harness that emotion and put it toward a cause, maybe improving relationships in their lives,” the ecologist shared with The Seattle Times. “And, hopefully, people want to reach out and support what our cause is now and what we’ve been able to create at Hoja.”

Currently, Samantha is pursuing her doctorate in Quantitative Ecology from the University of Washington. Apart from the Amazon rainforest, she is working with the communities of Madre de Dios, Peru. Furthermore, the skilled ecologist investigates neotropical felid population dynamics and the human impact on threatened mammals; she uses camera trapping to get data. As for Samantha’s romantic life, she seems to be in a happy relationship with Dylan Joseph Singer, co-director of Hoja Nueva. The two have been together for about three years and share a love of wildlife preservation.

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Her natal Lilith is 9 Taurus, N.Node 26 Sagittarius, S.Node 17 Gemini. Her natal Amazon is 12 Taurus, N.Node 28 Taurus, and the S.Node is 27 Scorpio.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions.

Goddess Bless, Rad