hey hey! most of you probably know animal trainer and expert dave salmoni (@DaveSalmoni) from his shows on the animal planet and discovery channels – but here’s a totally different side of the canadian hottie (age 34) in the latest issue of flaunt magazine! i always thought he was a cutie but these pictures are making me drool – damn – he looks good! popbytes over & out for tonight … xoxo
PHOTOS | FLAUNT MAGAZINE
Dave Salmoni knows a thing or two about finding comfort in one’s environment, no matter where in the world or how lethal the animal he’s cuddling up alongside happens to be. Today, he’s probably in his least accustomed environment–getting fitted in high fashion in Los Angeles. For a man whose comfort zone generally includes predators such as grizzlies, 14-foot crocodiles, great white sharks, and tigers, it might seem a challenge to make him nervous. “I’m comfortable breaking barriers in my world,” Salmoni laughs. “But I’m not comfortable breaking barriers in the fashion world.”
Though Salmoni’s celebrity as a “lion tamer” and presenter for both Discovery Channel’s Rogue Nature and Animal Planet’s Predator vs. Prey-alongside contributions to a wealth of other programs, documentaries, and television appearances-might overshadow his global conservation actions, he’s not muddled by those who don’t understand the big picture. “I think the sexiest thing you can do is get into conservationism,” he explains. “I believe that most conservation problems have become a financial discussion. Most of the these problems are in poor countries where the population needs the same resources that the animals need. That conflict always results in the animals coming off second best.”
Salmoni wants people to see how imperative and interconnected our relationship to our ecosystem is. “When people start to realize that fresh water is going to be our most important asset over the next fifty years,” he says, “you’re really going to see people say, ‘Why don’t we have any clean, fresh water? Oh, we didn’t conserve.’ Generally speaking, people would like to have animals around. But when push comes to shove, they would also like to have that really nice car.”
While in college, Salmoni worked on elk relocation as well as research on the hibernation of Canadian black bears. For his first documentary, he rehabilitated tigers back into the wild to start a breeding population. Salmoni’s screen presence is one of courage and confidence-walking around with a pride of wild lions in Into the Lion’s Den, for example.
For Salmoni, this courageous ability to “come at it” is all about instinct. “I think some people might say it’s exceptionally stupid,” he says. “I, above anybody else, know that I’m doing life-threatening work. So when I come out of it safely, everyone’s going, ‘Wow, that’s exceptional; you’re amazing.’ But that one day when someone gets a phone call, and I didn’t make it out, I did get eaten, that’s when I’ll be exceptionally stupid.”
While Salmoni’s feelings about the danger he’s inviting may be a bit dark, he doesn’t let that cloud his optimism. “I can really find a lot of room for hope, for education, for conservation,” he expresses. “Most of coming into a situation is going after your passion and really being confident in that.” Whether that situation is the African bush or a stylized fashion shoot, Salmoni’s confidence comes with a charmingly adaptive courageousness.
