Rebecca Jackrel

Rebecca Robin Jackrel

43, passed away on Sunday, May 3rd two years after being diagnosed with incurable cancer.
After a long winding path - starting with a Masters in music education in New York, to working at a solder manufacturing company in Texas, to providing Quality Assurance at a software company in Silicon Valley, to practicing as a Veterinary Technician at pet hospitals in San Francisco - Rebecca finally found her passion as a wildlife photographer.
In the short time she had to practice her art, Rebecca journeyed to all seven continents. With her focus on conservation, she highlighted the dangers of the Pacific Garbage Patch to her beloved albatross, the great toll climate change has inflicted on polar bears, the horrible boat wounds suffered by manatees and more. She also captured the beauty of the natural world, from penguins warming their eggs in Antarctica, to a humpback whale relaxing with her calf in the Dominican Republic, to a polar bear swimming through a glowing twilight near the North Pole.
Her crowning achievement was the Ethiopian Wolf Project, a program she created to raise awareness for the critically endangered Ethiopian Wolf. In 2011, after spending five weeks in the highlands of Ethiopia accompanied by fellow wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, Rebecca produced "The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at the Edge of Extinction", the definitive book on this unique creature and its struggle for survival.
Rebecca's work can be seen at her website: http://www.rebeccajackrel.com/, or through her stock agencies: Alamy, Getty, AGE Fotostock, Danita Delimont and PhotoShelter.
More of her work, insights into her process and her chronicle of living with cancer can be found at her blog: http://rebeccajackrel.blogspot.com/.
Rebecca's photographs will be featured in the upcoming book "When Mountain Lions are Neighbors: Wildlife in Today's California", by Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, to be published in early 2016 by Heyday Books.
Rebecca's art, her dedication to conservation, and the grace and strength with which she faced her final years are an inspiration to us all.
Please make any contributions in Rebecca's name to: The Wildlife Conservation Network, Defenders of Wildlife, Forests Forever.