Maya Santoro is a Brazilian biologist, wildlife photographer and environmental educator. She began her career as a neuroscience researcher, then left the lab to rescue wildlife, working with big cats in South Africa and endangered primates in Brazil. She has dedicated her career to conservation for more than 12 years and has served as an ambassador for organisations including WWF, Only One and Sea Shepherd Brazil.
For nearly a decade she has specialised in wildlife expeditions, guiding travellers in places such as Antarctica, South Georgia, Svalbard, Greenland, the Galápagos Islands, Madagascar, Patagonia and the Amazon. She has worked with expedition companies including National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, Swan Hellenic and Quark Expeditions, and she writes about her encounters on Substack.
In our 2026 interview she spoke about how a biologist reads animal behaviour to anticipate a photograph. “Animals are never unpredictable. They always tell you how they are feeling,” she said.
