Peter Hudson is a scientist, photographer, and conservationist. He undertook his first scientific expedition to Africa at the age of 21 and has been a regular visitor ever since. Passionate about nature, he manages his own 36-hectare nature reserve in Pennsylvania, which is home to bears, bobcats, and other animals. In his professional career, Peter is the Willaman Professor of Biology at Penn State University, where he is an ecologist who studies a wide number of wildlife issues, mostly associated with infectious diseases. For more than a decade, he has been studying how bat biology has changed and why viruses are now being passed from bats to humans and causing problems such as the COVID pandemic. He has been studying a wide array of natural systems, including the wolves and ecology of Yellowstone, tortoises in the Mojave Desert, and bighorn sheep in Idaho.
Peter is the Conservation Director at Paws Trails and uses his skills as a scientist and educator to increase awareness about conservation issues. He is also heavily involved with the Random Good Foundation that undertakes storytelling for social change.
Kaitlyn Baker was a student at Penn State and is now moving towards her PhD while learning new technical skills in the lab. She has a passion for nature and loves writing, and since visiting the Mara Trails camp has been developing her photographic skills. While she was at Penn State, she took classes with Peter Hudson, and they have started to collaborate on some studies while sharing a love for the outdoors.