Shadowing Practice: The Wildlife Sanctuary You Can Visit from Anywhere | Maya Higa | TED - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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So my mission is to use the internet to build our next generation of conservationists.
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And I have not been doing this for all that long.
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OK, I was born in 1998, so I will get that out of the way right off the bat.
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But I'll tell you guys how I got started.
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So I grew up on a farm, and I always loved animals.
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So we had rabbits and horses and chickens, and you name it, we had it, and I loved it.
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So then, when I was 18 and in college, naturally, I got a job as a zookeeper.
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So I put on this safari outfit, and I would bring animals like kangaroos and lemurs to schools and birthday parties to teach kids about wildlife.
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So you have a pretty cool job.
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It was really awesome.
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So then one night after work, I met some friends online who were live-streaming themselves playing video games on Twitch, and I had no idea what that meant.
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But I learned that I could broadcast myself live on this website doing whatever I wanted, so I could cook or I could sing or I could play video games.
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And if people enjoyed watching it, they would send me tips, so cash, like actual real money.
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And as a college student, that's pretty frickin' sweet.
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So I started streaming to about 10 viewers at a time almost every day.
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Then one night after one of these livestreams, I got a call from a zookeeper friend about this red-tailed hawk who had been hit by a car and he needed help.
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So we brought Bean, that's what we called him, home to my college house, and I started to rehabilitate him in my backyard.
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So then one night, I'm live streaming, I'm cooking, I'm talking about this new hawk in my backyard, and one of my viewers didn't believe me.
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They didn't believe that I had a bird in my backyard.
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And I could not have that, so I put my falconry glove on, and I brought the bird inside to show them.
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Of course, because I have a problem.
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And one of the people watching this stream made a short video of this moment, and they shared it on Reddit.
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And it went viral.
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So my viewership shot up overnight, and I started live streaming Bean's rehabilitation process.
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So I'd call him from his perch to my glove, and the people watching my stream started becoming as invested as I was in his recovery.
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It was like they were doing it with me, sort of, which was the coolest thing that I've ever done.
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And then eventually, because I was reaching so many people with Bean's story, the zoo that I worked at started allowing me to bring animals like cockatoos and reptiles home to present on my livestream.
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So suddenly, somehow, I had turned this zoo outreach job that I had into a work-from-home situation, right?
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Which is awesome.
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But instead of reaching 20 kids at a time in a classroom, I was reaching thousands of people at a time all over the world.
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So this was when it really clicked for me, right?
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I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, but I wanted to do it at a much, much larger scale.
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So then two years later, at 22 years old, I came up with a plan, and the vision was to build an animal sanctuary that nobody visits, or at least not in person.
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So we would rescue animals and build huge animal enclosures, and we would livestream conservation education programs online so people could fall in love with our animals the way that they fell in love with Bean, that bird.
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Our animals would be able to reach millions and millions of people without having to meet a single one of them in person.
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And then, of course, I would fundraise all of the capital to do all of these things and build this entire facility in one single livestream, which is the craziest idea that I've ever had.
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But this is crazier, it worked somehow.
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So I'm livestreaming one day, and there's some ...
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Oh, thank you!
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Whoa.
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Oh, thank you, fellas.
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Thank you so much.
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So I'm live streaming one day, and someone in my live chat said, Maya, if we raise $500,000, would you shave your head on stream?
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And I said, yeah, duh.
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Because who wouldn't do that?
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Who in the right mind wouldn't do that?
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Apparently, that was pretty motivating, though, because over the course of a 21-hour-long live stream, we fundraised $573,000.
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to build this sanctuary.
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So I bought some land in Austin, Texas, started building animal enclosures, and I started growing my hair back.
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That takes about two years, in case anyone was curious.
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And these screens are huge.
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That is a huge picture of me bald in front of a lot of people.
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Okay, so next up was rescuing animals.
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Okay, so Appa and Momo are marmosets.
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They're these very tiny, very, very charming New World monkeys.
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Someone originally bought them as pets online, but then after years of inadequate care, they were brought to us for rehabilitation.
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So they now live at Alveas to help teach people about the exploitation of primates in the pet trade and about the importance of conserving their rainforest habitats, too.
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They also have a little iPad to play games on now.
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It's very, very cute.
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Finn is an American red fox who was confiscated from the illegal pet trade in California.
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So he and his best friend Reed now live at Alveas to help teach people about the nightmare that is the fur trade, helping to build a new generation of fur-free consumers.
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Then there's Winnie the Moo.
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She's a cow.
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She was rescued from a beef operation in Oklahoma.
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She lives at Alveas to help teach people about commercial agriculture and how it impacts animal welfare and our planet.
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One way that viewers can support the sanctuary is by feeding Winnie treats.
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So a $5 donation made online results in treats being dispensed via this automated feeder.
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To date, that treat feeder has generated over $38,000 in funding for the sanctuary.
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Isn't that crazy?
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That's a lot of treats.
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She's a very happy cow.
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Since 2019, through live streaming, I have raised over $7.5 million for conservation causes across the globe.
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Thank you.
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In 2025 alone, we reached over 250 million people with conservation education online.
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It's over 10 million classrooms, just like the ones that I was bringing zoo animals to in college, just in the last year.
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Alvaes is now home to rescued parrots and emus and monkeys and wolf dogs and more, and we have those 36 cameras that are live streaming them 24 hours a day.
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But the beautiful thing about these live cameras is our animals are all blissfully unaware of the thousands of eyes on them at any given time.
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Not being open to the public means that our animals are less stressed by the unpredictable factors that come with people visiting.
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It also means that we've never had to divert any of our funding to guest experiences, like gift shops and concession stands and parking lots.
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But one of the most positive benefits is we've developed one of the most accessible Zoom models in the world.
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Anyone with an internet connection can visit our animals for free from their device from anywhere on the planet.
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And they do.
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Our online demographic, our online community, they range from about 17 to 28 years old.
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We are our nation's new voters, new consumers and up-and-coming decision makers.
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We hold the future of this planet in our hands.
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But most of our online community didn't even join with an interest in environmentalism at all.
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They are just normal people, internet users who stumbled across our content in one of their many, many feeds.
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Alvea Sanctuary brings conservation to young people, largely by meeting them where they already are, which is on social media.
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But before social media, TV programming was establishing the best examples of conservationists, right?
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Heroes like Steve Irwin and David Hattonborough and Jane Goodall.
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These are obviously some of my personal heroes, probably some of yours as well as they should be.
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These guys rock, right?
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But for most of us, it can be really hard to see ourselves in such legends.
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It leaves us feeling like that work is just a far-off dream that only other people achieve.
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But at Alves, that dream doesn't feel so far off.
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For our viewers, Alves is a dream that one of them achieved from within a space that they're already a part of.
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and they get to be a part of it all live.
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So we're just getting started.
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Our next step is taking this Alvaeus approach to the wild.
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We're building a new facility where we're going to breed endangered species at Alvaeus for reintroduction and release into the wild.
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We're starting with the recovery of critically endangered wolves.
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Our sincere hope is that people will fall in love with these wolves the way that they fell in love with Bean, that bird from college.
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We hope that they'll care really deeply about these individuals and then, in turn, about the wild places that we return them to.
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Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of brand-new conservationists fighting for wildlife and wild places, all doing it from their homes.
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So my mission is to use the internet to build our next generation of conservationists.
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And I think it's working.
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Thank you.
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Aw, thank you.
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Thank you.
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Context & Background
Maya Higa, a passionate wildlife advocate and content creator, utilizes the internet to inspire a new generation of conservationists. Born in 1998, she grew up surrounded by animals on a farm, which fostered her love for wildlife from an early age. As a college student, Maya combined her interests by working as a zookeeper, bringing animals to schools and birthday parties to educate children about wildlife. Unexpectedly, her journey took a turn when she discovered live-streaming, allowing her to reach a global audience and educate them about animal conservation efforts, particularly through her notable experience with a red-tailed hawk named Bean.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “I grew up on a farm.” – A simple way to share your background and interests.
- “I started live streaming.” – Use this to indicate your engagement with technology and social media.
- “I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.” – A great expression to convey passion and commitment to an idea or career.
- “It was like they were doing it with me.” – A phrase that illustrates collaboration and shared experiences.
- “I started building animal enclosures.” – This can reference any project or endeavor you’re undertaking.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
Improving your spoken English through shadowing can be both effective and enjoyable. Here’s a detailed guide to help you practice with Maya's inspiring story:
- Choose the Right Material: Start by selecting a segment of the transcript that resonates with you. Maya’s narrative about transforming her passion into a career is ideal for this.
- Listen Carefully: Play the video or audio multiple times. Focus on intonation, emotion, and pronunciation. Note how Maya conveys her passion through her tone.
- Repeat and Mimic: Use a shadowing app for this step. As you listen, repeat what Maya says in real time, mimicking her phrasing and speed. This practice can enhance your fluency and comfort with the English language.
- Engage in English Speaking Practice: After some repetitions, try to summarize what you’ve learned. This can be beneficial for IELTS speaking practice as well, where coherence and clarity are essential.
- Reflect and Adapt: Finally, take a moment to reflect on your performance. Pay attention to areas of difficulty, and consider practicing those specific phrases or sounds until you feel more confident.
Using this approach, you can effectively boost your speaking abilities and deepen your understanding of not only English itself, but also the importance of wildlife conservation, just as Maya Higa has done.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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