Steve Winter

The tiger is one of the most elusive animals on the planet, but National Geographic photographer Steve Winter has captured these remarkable animals with his camera many times, in addition to taking award-winning photographs of cougars, jaguars and snow leopards. Those images were exhibited at Mountainfilm 2010, but Winter was not able to attend.

This year, Winter finally comes to Telluride to talk about tigers, a species under great stress. These massive animals need large areas to roam, yet they are being forced into smaller ranges. Their prey is similarly limited, so tigers (un)naturally head closer to civilization and kill livestock or humans. It’s then their turn to be hunted. A century ago, there were 100,000 tigers; today, fewer than 3,200 remain in the wild.

Winter is determined to tell the tiger's story to the world through his photographs, hoping that his work will give people a reason to care. His optimism may stem from growing up in rural Indiana and dreaming of becoming a photographer for National Geographic. Not many people realize their dreams, but Winter did and is now trying achieve another: ending the dismal trajectory of the tiger and many other big cats.