Ronan Donovan

Ronan Donovan is a conservation photographer, filmmaker, wildlife biologist, and National Geographic Explorer and Storytelling Fellow .

Early life Ronan Donovan was born in rural Vermont in a cabin built by his parents. He attended Gould Academy, a boarding school in Bethel, Maine for grades 10–12, and went on to earn a Bachelor's of Science in International Business and Economics with a minor in Environmental Conservation from the University of New Hampshire at Durham.

After graduating college, Ronan interviewed with a Boston finance firm. The firm offered him a job but Ronan turned the position down opting instead to accept a wildlife biology position in Yosemite National Park. a senior natural history editor for National Geographic Magazine. In 2014, Moran met with Ronan in Washington D.C. and asked him to assist career photojournalist Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols on a major National Geographic project commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in the United States that focused on the first US National Park - Yellowstone National Park.

Ronan would spend the next year-and-a-half working inside of Yellowstone National Park, collaborating with Michael Nichols and the Yellowstone Wolf Project, documenting the lives of Yellowstone gray wolves. Several of Ronan’s images, taken during the course of this project, were selected for publishing in the May 2016 issue of National Geographic—a special issue dedicated to the park, titled “Yellowstone: America’s Wild Idea.” His image, depicting three gray wolves feeding on a bison carcass in a snowstorm, went on to be selected for National Geographic's 52 Best Images of 2016—a contest, “curated from 91 photographers, 107 stories, and 2,290,225 photographs.” Another of Ronan's wolf images, a photo of a lone wolf standing in the Yellowstone River over a bison carcass, was selected as part of a photo exhibit by National Geographic titled Greatest Wildlife Photographs.

After documenting the wolves of Yellowstone National Park, Ronan went on to study the arctic wolves on Ellesmere Island in north-eastern Canada. His work there earned him another National Geographic feature titled “Alone With Wolves” that was published in the magazine's September 2019 issue.

Donovan's work in the arctic expanded his medium to include filmmaking. In August 2019, his first documentary series, Kingdom Of The White Wolf, documenting his time living amongst wolves on Ellesmere Island released. His film work has since gone on to be published by National Geographic, PBS's Nature and BBC.

Awards 2020 - POYi Science & Natural History - Picture Story | Award of Excellence 2017 - Accepted into The Photo Society of National Geographic 2017 - PDN's 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch 2016 - National Geographic's 52 best images of the year 2014 - Became a full-time professional photographer Alone With Wolves. National Geographic. September, 2019. The Gorillas Dian Fossey Saved. National Geographic. September, 2017. Yellowstone Wolves. National Geographic. May, 2016. Volume 229, No. 5.

Documentary

Kingdom Of The White Wolf. National Geographic. Market Road Films. August 25, 2019.

Speaking Documenting and Living with Arctic Wolves. Story Tellers Summit. National Geographic Society. 2020. Communicating Empathy Through Visual Storytelling. WWF Fuller Symposium. 2017.