We Toured Maya Higa's Animal Sanctuary 🐦

Emus, marmosets, and wolf dogs, oh my!

YouTube

Neighbors,

Last week, we introduced our Issue Seven cover star: Twitch streamer, conservationist, and animal educator Maya Higa.

Not long afterwards, Maya took the stage at TwitchCon—and announced the next chapter of her Austin-based animal sanctuary. The Alveus Research & Recovery Institute will conserve, breed, and rewild a pair of critically endangered species: Red wolves and Mexican Grey Wolves.

While remote education is Alveus’ “bread and butter,” the team “also want[s] to do things that are really tangible and quantifiable...contributing to wild populations and being able to release some endangered animals, then track them,” Maya told me.

Alveus Sanctuary

To build the center, Alveus is doubling in size, purchasing fifteen more acres of land—and raising one million dollars to do so.

That last sentence is actually no longer entirely accurate. Because Maya already raised the million dollars…just three days after TwitchCon wrapped, she shared Wednesday.

It’s a remarkable feat. But upon viewing it through the lens of Maya’s journey, the moment is simultaneously unsurprising. She attributes the continuous growth of Alveus to what she calls “radical transparency.”

“We’re on these livecams, and so people watch us take care of our animals every day,” she told me. “I think people like being philanthropic...with Alveus, they literally see where their money is going.”

In September, we had the opportunity to visit Alveus, meeting its forty-plus animal ambassadors and learning more about the sanctuary’s exciting next chapter. You can watch the tour on our YouTube channel—shout-out to Shua for filming and editing, as well as videographer Joseph Vanoye for joining us for the shoot.

And, of course, thanks to Maya, Connor, Kayla, and the rest of the Alveus crew for showing us around.

We’ve been hard at work on this video these last several weeks, so I hope you enjoy it. Past that, I’ll be back on Sunday with a new column—and look out for another round of Neighborhood Watch reviews next Thursday.

In the meantime, have a good weekend, y’all!

— NGL

P.S. Last blog, we shared the Issue Seven Editor’s Letter. You can read it here.

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