SNAKES, DRUGS AND ROCK ’N’ ROLL: MIAMI’S SERPENTARIUM & ITS WORLDWIDE IMPACT ON CONSERVATION

JANAKI LENIN, newspaper columnist, filmmaker, and author, chronicled with her husband Romulus Whitaker the story of his insanely entertaining and adventurous early life in Snakes, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: My Early Years (HarperCollins India). Her other work includes two collections of essays, including My Husband and Other Animals – based on her popular column in The Hindu, one of India's largest English newspapers – and Every Creature Has a Story, which uncovers the surprising, sometimes bizarre but always amazing, ways creatures breed and survive. Lenin and her husband have also produced wildlife documentaries for National Geographic Television, BBC Natural World, and Animal Planet. They live in South India.

JOE WASILEWSKI grew up in Chicago and was very active in several sports fields, but his heart wished to work with various forms of wildlife. Upon joining the U.S. Army in 1973, he trained as a military policeman working with sentry dogs at a NIKE Hercules missile base in South Florida. While serving, he was employed at the Miami Serpentarium, which kicked off a long career of hands-on work with reptiles. A biologist by training, he has been called “the snake man of the Everglades" and is now president of Natural Selections of South Florida, an environmental consulting firm.

NAIA HANNAH HAAST (Naia Hannah meaning “blooming flower” and which, in the 1950s, was also the scientific name for the king cobra) grew up in Miami in wonderfully unique surroundings: the Miami Serpentarium. After being involved with theater and film productions in California for many years, she moved with her husband to Connecticut, and several years ago started designing one-of-a-kind, completely handmade, tooled leather products, capturing the beauty and expression of exotic and endangered animals. Inspired by her mother and in loving memory of her father, Haast founded the King Cobra Conservancy in 2016. KCC has rapidly grown and is now supporting king cobra research projects around the world.

ROMULUS EARL WHITAKER III is unquestionably one of the best-known figures on the wildlife conservation scene in India. He is famous for establishing Madras Snake Park, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, and the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team, as well as for his work conserving India's rainforests – the habitat of so many endangered species. Internationally, he has received the Rolex Award for Enterprise, the Whitley Award for his contribution to nature conservation, and the Padma Shri in 2018. Whitaker is a co-author of Snakes of India: The Field Guide with Ashok Captain, which is considered the definitive work on the subject.

RON MAGILL has worked with wildlife for more than 40 years. Formerly the host of HITN’s national wildlife documentary program Mundo Salvaje con Ron Magill, as Zoo Miami’s goodwill ambassador he's made frequent television appearances including on National Geographic Explorer, the Discovery Networks, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Dateline, and CNN. In addition, he is a Nikon USA ambassador and has written and produced many wildlife articles and award-winning photographs that have appeared in publications and galleries around the world. Magill has traveled extensively throughout Africa, Asia, and tropical America while developing and directing conservation projects and Emmy Award-winning documentaries focusing on the wildlife of those regions.