Co-Founder and Chief Scientist
Dr. Alan Rabinowitz was one of the world’s leading big cat experts and has been called “the Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation’ by TIME Magazine. Dr. Rabinowitz graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1981 with an M.S. in zoology and a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology, and was the Chief Scientist of Panthera. Prior to co-founding Panthera with the organization’s Chairman, Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, Dr. Rabinowitz served as the Executive Director of the Science and Exploration Division for the Wildlife Conservation Society for almost 30 years.
Dr. Rabinowitz traveled the world on behalf of wildlife conservation, and over the years, studied jaguars, clouded leopards, Asiatic leopards, tigers, Sumatran rhinos, bears, leopard cats, raccoons, and civets. His work in Belize resulted in the world’s first jaguar sanctuary; his work in Taiwan resulted in the establishment of that country’s largest protected area and last piece of intact lowland forest; his work in Thailand generated the first field research on Indochinese tigers, Asiatic leopards, and leopard cats, in what was to become the region’s first World Heritage Site; and his work in Myanmar has led to the creation of five new protected areas, including the country’s first marine national park, first and largest Himalayan national park, and the world’s largest tiger reserve in the Hukaung Valley. In northern Myanmar, Dr. Rabinowitz also discovered a new large mammal species and the world’s most primitive deer, the leaf deer.
Dr. Rabinowitz authored over 100 scientific and popular articles and eight books, including Jaguar: One Man’s Struggle to Establish the First Jaguar Preserve (1986/ 2000), Chasing the Dragon’s Tail: The Struggle to Save Thailand’s Wild Cats(1991/ 2002), Beyond the Last Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia’s Forbidden Wilderness (2001), Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed (2008), An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar (2014), and a children’s book entitled A Boy and a Jaguar (2014).
Dr. Rabinowitz dedicated his life to surveying the world’s last wild places, with the goal of preserving wild habitats and securing homes, on a large scale, for some of the world’s most endangered mammals. His focus on cats was based on conserving top predators, which affect entire ecosystems. By saving cats, the impacts are far-reaching and conserve vast landscapes upon which many species depend, including humans. One of Dr. Rabinowitz’s greatest achievements was the conceptualization and implementation of the Jaguar Corridor — a series of biological and genetic corridors for jaguars across their entire range from Mexico to Argentina.
Read our Press Release“The big cats are some of the most spectacular, iconic, apex predators in the world. On the one hand, they inspire fear, wonder, and awe in the human psyche, while on the other, they stabilize and help balance the ecological food webs to which they belong.”
Dr. Alan Rabinowitz,
Chief Scientist, Panthera
See some of our favorite (and unpublished) moments from the life and pioneering conservation career of Dr. Alan Rabinowitz – ‘The Indiana Jones of Wildlife Protection’ – in this tribute video. Whether he was discovering new species, negotiating with governments to earn protections for big cats, collaring jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal, or finding fulfillment in the friendships he cultivated the world over, Dr. Rabinowitz lived a life of excitement and inspiration at every turn. He will be forever missed.
Click the image to view the PDF.
The work of Dr. Rabinowitz to save the jaguar and other big cats was featured in the short film A Boy’s Promise by The Weather Channel.
Audiences around the world were introduced to Alan via his public appearances, perhaps none so influential as his interview with 60 Minutes, in which the late Bob Simon joined him on an unforgettable trip to track and collar jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal.
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© Sebastian Kennerknecht
