The Interview with Leslie Heaney

Episode: From Africa to Yellowstone: Tom Opre on Conservation Stories That Matter (Part 1)
Guest: Tom Opre (Documentary Filmmaker, Founder of Shepherds of Wildlife Society)
Release Date: September 3, 2025

Episode Overview

Host Leslie Heaney sits down with Tom Opre to discuss his acclaimed conservation documentaries Killing the Shepherd and The Last Keeper. The conversation dives deep into the realities of conservation in Africa and Scotland, focusing on how local communities, policy, and long-standing biases shape the management of wildlife and land. Opre highlights the complex and often misunderstood relationship between humans and nature, and why proactive stewardship is essential for future generations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Tom Opre’s Background and Mission

• Tom has been a filmmaker since age 19, influenced by his father's outdoor journalism career.
• After years in commercial film, Tom identified a critical disconnect: urban populations are often isolated from, and unaware of, genuine conservation needs and methods.
• He founded the Shepherds of Wildlife Society to use film for public education, focusing on “real stewardship”—not just protecting land and species, but managing them for sustainability.
  • “There’s this huge disconnect in our society when it comes to nature. I said, well, why don’t we... educate this urban population about what real conservation is, what real good land stewardship is, and also bring this all back into... a different spotlight.” (04:20)

The Story Behind Killing the Shepherd (Africa)

Origins

• Tom’s journey began after a conversation with Roland Norton, an import-export businessman and safari operator in Zambia.
• Norton shared a powerful story of Chief Shikabetta, a village leader struggling to provide for her community amidst failed crops, famine, and the disappearance of wildlife due to poaching.
  • “This chief, she says, ‘I need you to come and help me. My people aren’t doing well. We’re starving. And we understand that you are someone who can be trusted.’” (06:08)

Conservation Crisis

• The village faced “game depletion” – local extinction of elephants, rhinos, and many antelope species due to bushmeat and commercial poaching.
• Extreme poverty led families to resort to practices like selling daughters as brides in exchange for food.
  • “It’s quite okay to sell that daughter to, as a second or third wife for 30 bags of corn.” (13:28)
• Chief Shikabetta’s priority was education for girls, which had been disrupted by poverty and food insecurity.

Multi-Faceted Community Response

• Norton invested personal funds to:
  • Start fish farms for alternative protein.
  • Drill boreholes for clean water.
  • Support and equip game scouts to combat poaching.
  • Invest in anti-poaching and incentivize the surrender of illegal firearms.
• Bushmeat poaching was particularly devastating due to the use of wire snares, which indiscriminately kill, especially targeting females and young animals and potentially wiping out entire generations.
  • “One poacher can put a hundred snares out in a week... most of your antelope species... the snares have the ability... to kill entire generations, all the females and all the young.” (20:17)
• Anti-poaching efforts were dangerous: Opre describes being embedded with scouts while bounties were placed on Norton and his son.

Progress & Outcomes

• After several years, poaching reduced by 80%.
• The community regained hope and started seeing wildlife return.
• Legacy and succession: transition from female to male leadership, meaning shifts in community priorities.
• The village is now working to reintroduce extinct species by transporting wildlife from other parks.
  • “The goal there is to bring back the wildlife that’s gone locally extinct, tell some of those stories...” (30:17)

Memorable Moment

• On meeting the chief:
  • “You have to understand these chiefs are gods to their people... I was instructed how to address her, how to get on one knee and hold one hand out...” (10:52)

The Last Keeper (Scotland): Conservation and Conflict

Historical Context

• Inspired partly by hate and threats experienced by Opre and his wife for being hunters in the U.S., Tom sought to investigate divisive conservation issues in the UK.
• Scotland’s rural areas (“the Highlands”) are managed by gamekeepers employed by a tiny number of large landowners, a legacy of feudalism and later, the Victorian sporting estate tradition.
• Significant animosity exists between urban populations (centered around Glasgow and Edinburgh) and rural landowners/gamekeepers, rooted in events like the Highland Clearances and deep class divides.
  • “If you go far enough in any Scots history... you will find the oppressed or the oppressor.” (38:08)

Land Management Practices

• Scotland’s landscapes were shaped by centuries of human intervention, with keepers conducting controlled burns and predator management to maintain biodiversity for species like the native red grouse and red deer.
  • “They become experts in control burning... doing low intensity burning... and what they’re doing is taking out what they call rank, the rank growth.” (55:43)
• Modern tensions: Urban-based ecological groups and politicians (appealing to city voters) push for “rewilding”—often advocating the replanting of the ancient “Caledonian Forest” and halting all management in favor of letting nature “take over.”
  • “Now you get this group of city people who say... we think there should be trees on the ground there.” (56:31)

Crisis for Gamekeepers

• Keepers and their families now face ostracization, social media attacks, and threats.
  • “Gamekeepers’ children [are] being threatened with having acid thrown in their face because they were the children of gamekeepers.” (33:51)
• There’s little recognition of the environmental cost of rewilding methods, such as disturbing peat ecosystems for foreign tree plantations, or loss of biodiversity due to cessation of management.
  • “Within 10 years, you lose 50% of the biodiversity.” (71:03)
• The concept: the “last keeper” may be a literal, impending extinction of a traditional role and conservation ethic.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the unique access laws:
  • “We have the right to roam?” — “You can walk anywhere.” (37:38)
• On anti-landowner sentiment:
  • “You and I could put our dimes together and go buy a piece of land...and the next day you and I would be evil.” (69:19)
• On the crisis of rewilding:
  • “If we had an ecosystem of concern here in the United States... every environmental organization would sue them... But over there...” (65:20)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:40 – Tom’s inspiration and decision to found Shepherds of Wildlife Society
• 06:08 – The meeting with Roland Norton and the origins of Killing the Shepherd
• 13:28 – The desperation leading to child marriage in the Zambian community
• 20:17 – Explaining the devastation of commercial bushmeat poaching
• 29:28 – Transition in local leadership and community progress in Zambia
• 33:51 – The “hate and vitriol” toward gamekeepers and hunters
• 37:38 – The right to roam in Scotland and cultural differences
• 38:08 – Deep-seated historical animosity fueling current policy
• 55:43 – Gamekeeper land management techniques (burning, population control)
• 65:20 – Critique of rewilding and policy blind-spots
• 69:19 – Social dynamics and the demonization of landowners

Final Insights

• Both documentaries illustrate how conservation is inseparable from local human communities, economics, and history. Removing traditional management without understanding ecological and social balance often leads to unintended negative consequences—on both people and wildlife.
• Tom Opre’s work challenges listeners to think critically about simplistic conservation narratives and recognize the complexity—and necessity—of human stewardship.

How to Watch

• Killing the Shepherd: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Tubi, and shepherdsofwildlife.org
• The Last Keeper: Amazon and shepherdsofwildlife.org
• Panel discussions and more: shepherdsofwildlife.org

Stay tuned for Part Two, featuring Tom Opre’s new project on Montana and the “real Yellowstone.”