Tag archives for Big Cats Initiative
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Erin Henderson, a linebacker on the Minnesota Vikings football team, has always loved big cats. While watching shows on the Nat Geo WILD channel during Big Cat Week, he was inspired to become what we like to call a “LIONbacker,” and help raise awareness of these endangered animals. He wants to make sure they will still be around when his two-year-old son grows up. He contacted National Geographic and offered to raise both awareness and money through his “Sacks for Cats” campaign–he pledged to make a donation for every sack he made during the 2012-2013 NFL season.
Henderson recently visited National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. with his family to present a $5,000 check to the Big Cats Initiative.
National Geographic Society kicked off the American version of the Big Cats Initiative (BCI) “Sister School Program” at Steuart Weller Elementary School in Ashburn, Virginia, during a school-wide assembly with BCI’s Luke Dollar. The Sister School Program connects American students with students in Tanzania to encourage protection of big cats, specifically lions.
The Big Cats Initiative, made up of conservationists led by National
Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert, hope to
stop this decline and to restore the population.
Get more information on the Big Cats Initiative.
Let African leaders know how important lions are to you by writing a letter.
Read a Q&A with Luke Dollar.
