The Twilight of the Wild

Rusty Johnson writes about his life long experiences raising wild and endangered species, as well as his travels studying animals and unusual societies throughout the world. Whether about him hand-raising a condor, monitoring an actively volcanic island, or documenting the dwindling elephant herds in southern Africa, he subtly develops an education of our natural world and its unfamiliar civilizations.

Rusty Johnson has spent the last 12 years speaking to over 250 educational institutions annually, teaching and entertaining people about the wonders of the natural world. He bridges the gap between humans and the earth's wild creatures by including live animals within his programs which act as ambassadors to their wild cousins.

Rusty has pursued this approach at many diverse venues ranging from Princeton University, The American Museum of Natural History, and The New York Botanical Gardens, to The Explorers Club, The Long Island Museum of Science, and the National Audubon Society. He has assisted Jim Fowler of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and his television credits include Late Night with David Letterman, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, and the Today Show.

Besides Mr. Johnson's extensive knowledge of the natural world, he has many years of first-hand expertise. He is state and federally licensed for falconry, and raising of protected and endangered species, including eagles, falcons & condors. He has also assisted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in capturing Bald Eagles for vital research. Johnson's busy lecture schedule overlaps an itinerary of field excursions that have taken him to divergent destinations ranging from monitoring environmental decimation on an actively volcanic island, to documenting the dwindling elephant herds in the course of a 3,000 mile trek through southern Africa. In 1996, at the age of twenty-five he was inducted into the Explorers Club.