About Brian

Brian Keating: Naturalist, Speaker, Author, Radio & TV host

Brian’s previous job at the Zoo was to raise money and then to spend it on environmental projects around the world. Presently, he’s the Zoo’s Honorary Conservation Advisor to their outreach efforts, a former Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the U of C, and the co-director of www.greatBIGnature.com

He’s been leading groups on nature-based travel for over three decades, exploring some of the best wildlife areas on the planet. He’s a weekly guest on Calgary’s CBC Radio, and frequently appears on other media outlets. He’s in high demand as an international speaker, presenting at some 40 events a year.

Brian is a naturalist, a mountaineer, a pilot and a scuba diver and the author of five children’s books celebrating nature. He is an honorary chief of a West African village that supports a hippo sanctuary.

Brian & Dee in the Bugaboos

Awards/Achievements:

Brian has been presented with the distinguished “Canadian Hero of the Year” award (Reader’s Digest Magazine); an Honorary Doctor of Science degree (Brandon University 2009); an Honorary Doctor of Laws (University of Calgary 2011); and the "Stan Hodgkiss Canadian Outdoors person of the Year Award" (Canadian Nature Federation 2017). All four accolades were presented in recognition of his global environmental efforts.

Brian was recently inducted as a "Fellow" into The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2016), and in 2020, received their “Louie Kamookak Medal” for making Canada better known to Canadians and the World.

Also in 2020, he also received the “Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal” for his service to the natural world.

Finally, the "Brian Keating Conservation Endowment Fund," named in his honour (2017), presently has accumulated six million dollars. The annual interest from this fund will be used to support conservation outreach efforts worldwide.

His wife, Dee, is a retired physician and keen naturalist who always joins him on his adventures.