I'm Sakoya Hart, a field ecologist and storyteller raised in a small, working-class town in the California Sierra Nevada foothills. My path has always followed a deep curiosity about wild animals and the ways people live alongside them. Over time, I’ve built an interdisciplinary practice that weaves together ecological fieldwork, documentary photography, and environmental storytelling to examine the social and ecological dynamics of human–carnivore coexistence.

My work spans large carnivore and mesocarnivore research projects across California and South America. I’ve tracked pumas through remote parts of Patagonia, assisted in collaring skunks and foxes in the grasslands of Santa Cruz Province, monitored endangered fishers in the Southern Sierra Nevada, and studied wildlife movement across the wildland–urban interface along the California coast. These experiences have shaped my belief that science becomes more impactful when it is accessible, collaborative, and creatively told.

I'm particularly interested in how storytelling and place-based inquiry can help us engage more meaningfully with shared landscapes—places where human and non-human lives intersect. Through both research and narrative, I aim to invite others into these spaces with more understanding, more questions, and deeper care.