Thomas D Mangelsen

Thomas D. Mangelsen (born January 6, 1946) is an American nature and wildlife photographer and conservationist. He is most famous for his photography of wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, as he has lived inside the zone in Jackson, Wyoming, for over 40 years. In 2015, he and nature author Todd Wilkinson created a book, The Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek, featuring a grizzly bear known as Grizzly 399, named so due to her research number. He has been active in the movement to keep the Yellowstone area grizzly bears on the Endangered Species List. Mangelsen is also known for trekking to all seven continents to photograph a diverse assortment of nature and wildlife. A photograph he took in 1988, Catch of the Day, has been labeled "the most famous wildlife photograph in the world". In May 2018, he was profiled on CBS's 60 Minutes. He has received dozens of accolades throughout the decades.

Background Thomas D. Mangelsen was born on January 6, 1946, in Grand Island, Nebraska. His sportsman father took him on trips on the nearby Platte River. Mangelsen and his brothers went hunting, fishing, and trapping with their father for ducks and geese. Their father also took them to observe the sandhill crane migration, and other waterfowl through his blinds. It was when Mangelsen was 21 that he became involved in photography.

Education 1965–1967 University of Nebraska, Business In 1990, PBS Nature and BBC Natural World hired Mangelsen to work on their documentary, Cranes of the Grey Wind. Mangelsen photographed and produced the film, which documents the lifecycle of the sandhill crane. Not long after, the International Institute of Photographic Arts retained a permanent collection of 21 prints of his work. An exhibition of his work was on display in September 2018 in the Durham Museum "Thomas D. Mangelsen: A Life in the Wild", and it premiered in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a traveling exhibition that highlighted 40 "Legacy Reserve" photographs taken from the approximately four million shots of his career.

Mangelsen has worked with several authors over the years to illustrate their books with his photographs. He has also produced his own books of his photography. One example is his book The Natural World: Portraits of Earth's Great Ecosystems, featuring a foreword by primatologist Jane Goodall. The book was awarded the Benjamin Franklin top honor in the Coffee Table/Large Format category by the Independent Publishers Association in 2007. He also co-founded a non-profit organization for cougars, The Cougar Fund. He is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He sits on the International Advisory Council for the Jane Goodall Institute. He also acts as a Board Ambassador for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. In 2018, she was 22 years old. Mangelsen has made it one of his priorities for over ten years to record her life. This includes her hibernation schedule, feeding, and mothering – of her over a dozen cubs, he recorded the birth of three sets of triplets and a set of twins. His photographs, especially the one he dubbed "An Icon of Motherhood", made her the most famous mother grizzly, maybe the most famous grizzly, in the world. On May 23, 2018, a Wyoming wildlife commission voted unanimously on an approval for a grizzly bear hunt. The hunt would have been the first in the state in over forty years and sanctioned the killing of up to 22 bears. This would have occurred just one year after bears were removed from the endangered species list. For the 2018 hunting season, Montana had decided against a hunt. Idaho, with the fewest grizzlies, decided to allow hunting of only one bear. Wyoming planned for the hunting of up to 22 bears. No hunting was to be allowed inside the national parks or the connecting road between them.

In July 2018, Mangelsen helped fuel a movement that five women quickly organized called "Shoot'em With A Camera—Not A Gun." The object was to enlist people against trophy hunting to join the lottery for Wyoming's bear hunting licenses. The plan was to win a tag and keep it, so it would not be used to kill a bear. In Wyoming, approximately 7,000 people applied for bear tags. This list included Mangelsen and Jane Goodall, as well as many other well known conservationists. In May 2018, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department let a vote decide the number of grizzlies to be killed. The tally came to 22 grizzlies. Mangelsen has lived in Wyoming for over 40 years and has been actively involved in bear conservation in the state during that time. Additionally, both national parks generate more than $1 billion annually through tourism. The two highest animal generators are grizzlies and wolves. The amount generated by just those two apex predators eclipses what Wyoming spends on bear management by a vast amount.

Recognition

Photography awards In 1994 and 2000 Mangelsen won the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.

Mangelsen was chosen as a Loweprofessional. In 2012, his work was displayed on the walls of the Smithsonian.

In 2012, at the Windland Smith Rice International Awards Ceremony, Mangelsen won the Conservation Photographer of the Year Award at the Windland Smith Rice International Awards Exhibition. In 2012, he was awarded the Conservation Photographer of the Year.

In 2018, the Sierra Club honored him with the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography. The award honors superb photography which is used to benefit conservation.

In 2019, the National Parks Conservation Association honored him with the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks. The award recognizes an individual or organization that has effectively communicated the values of the National Park System to the American public.

Book awards In 2014, he was awarded the Design and Production Award for Trade Books Illustrated for Yellowstone Wildlife: Ecology and Natural History of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by Paul A. Johnsgard and illustrated by Thomas D. Mangelsen. In 2015, Mangelsen was awarded the National Outdoor Book Award: Design & Artistic Merit for The Last Great Wild Places.

His book Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek, An Intimate Portrait of 399, The Most Famous Bear of Greater Yellowstone won several awards. In 2015, the Los Angeles Times recognized it as a "Mesmerizing Coffee Table Title"; in 2016 it received the Foreword Indies Book Award, a High Plains Book Award, and the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Excellence in Craft Contest.

Honors Awarded one of Dr. Jane Goodall's Heroes of the Animal Planet, he was profiled in the corresponding television series. San Diego Natural History Museum King Sportsman Edge Gallery in New York City

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