WILDLIFE COUNSELING STUDENT USES ARMY RANGER TACTICS TO TRACK CHEETAH POACHERS BY KAREN AUGÉ ILLUSTRATION BY DAN ALARCON
From his basement in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood — in between being dad to two little boys and working on a master’s in counseling at Regis — Tim Spalla saves cheetahs. He does this — does all three, really — with the passion and intensity he once brought to untangling terror networks. In fact, rescuing infant cheetahs from international wildlife smugglers requires many of the same skills he honed as an Army Ranger and counter-terrorism intelligence specialist. So deep is his commitment to saving wildlife that it took the birth of his second child to convince him to spend more time at home than hunting bad guys thousands of miles away.
