May's $290 in FUZZ Funds are ready to donate

Which worthy conservation cause gets chosen this month?

By Dan Fletcher

Here is today’s audio edition!

As May draws to a close, it’s time for our paying FUZZ subscribers to direct this month’s conservation donation.

As a reminder, 100% of your paid subscriptions go directly to conservation causes around the world each month. If you’re an annual subscriber, I just divvy up your support by 12 and add it to each month’s pot. To date, between merch and subscription support, FUZZ has donated more than $10,000 to worthy conservation causes around the world. Last month’s winner was the Wild Camel Protection Fund, with funds being used to expand a new breeding center in Mongolia.

This month’s supporter pot stands at $290. Want to add to the donation and up our collective impact? Join before Monday and you’ll get a chance to vote on this month’s winner, as well.

And now onto the nominees….

The Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative

The Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative embodies the power of scientific persistence. When Dr. Patrícia Medici and her colleagues declared lowland tapirs extinct in Brazil's Caatinga scrubland back in 2012, the decision haunted her for over a decade. Armed with little more than crowdfunding and determination, she embarked on three grueling expeditions across Brazil's thorniest landscapes, interviewing elderly residents and chasing down century-old stories about these ancient mammals.

Her persistence paid off spectacularly. Not only did Medici's team discover that tapirs had never actually vanished from the Caatinga, they've now documented multiple breeding populations across the region. These "ecosystem engineers" — 50-million-year-old survivors that use their trunks like hands and disperse forest seeds across vast distances — represent both conservation hope and urgent need. With all four tapir species worldwide now threatened, Medici's work to study and protect these newly rediscovered populations could prove critical to the species' long-term survival.

Nature Guides Academy

Nature Guides Academy tackles a deceptively simple problem: connecting people who know their local ecosystems intimately with the skills to share that knowledge professionally. Co-founded by Payal Mehta, a Mumbai city dweller turned expert naturalist, the academy bridges gaps between textbook knowledge and field experience, between deep local wisdom and effective communication. Their intensive 35-day residential program transforms participants into professional wildlife guides, but the real innovation lies in their scholarship model — travel companies fund training for promising candidates from rural and tribal communities who possess invaluable forest knowledge but lack financial resources.

The academy's approach recognizes that skilled guides serve as frontline conservation educators, creating emotional connections between visitors and wild places that often prove more powerful than any policy or protection measure. With 14 of their first 18 participants receiving scholarships, and plans to expand access for women facing cultural barriers to outdoor careers, the academy is building a network of conservation ambassadors across India's diverse ecosystems. Your support would help purchase essential field equipment like binoculars and identification guides, ensuring these future guardians of India's wild places have the tools they need to succeed.

Save Pangolins

Save Pangolins confronts one of conservation's most daunting challenges: protecting the world's most trafficked wild animal from a crisis driven by both international demand and local consumption. All eight pangolin species are now threatened with extinction, victims of a devastating trade that has claimed over one million individuals in just two decades. These ancient, armor-plated mammals face a perfect storm of threats — their scales are coveted for traditional medicine despite having no proven benefits, while new research reveals their meat scores exceptionally high in palatability studies, making them nearly impossible to replace with alternatives.

The organization works across multiple fronts to address this complex crisis: training rangers and wildlife authorities to crack down on poaching networks, supporting rescue centers that rehabilitate pangolins seized from traffickers, and conducting critical research to fill knowledge gaps about these secretive, nocturnal creatures. With three species already critically endangered and populations declining by more than 80% in some regions, Save Pangolins represents urgent, comprehensive action for animals whose survival depends on stopping both international trafficking and local consumption patterns that have proven remarkably resistant to change.

It’s time to vote. Pick your winner before Monday!

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back to announce the winner on Monday.