Joe Wasilewski

Joe Wasilewski grew up in the city of Chicago, very active in several fields of sports, but his heart wished to reach out and work with various forms of wildlife.  Upon landing in the US Army in 1973, he trained as a Military Policeman working with sentry dogs at a NIKE Hercules missile base in south Florida.  While in the Army he was employed at the Miami Serpentarium and thus began a long career of hands-on work with reptiles. He worked under the tutelage of Mr. William Haast.

Joe graduated from Florida International University (1981) with a BS Degree in Biology.  

He has been appointed to the IUCN, as a member of both the Crocodile Specialist Group and Iguana Specialist Group. He is a member of the IUCN CSG Tomistoma Task Force, former president of the International Iguana Society, Director for the Bahamas National Trust as well as member of the Explorer’s Club located in New York City. 

Joe is president of Natural Selections of South Florida, an environmental consulting firm.

He has made appearances on NBC’s Today Show, the Tonight Show (with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno), ABC Evening News and CBS Nightly News. He also regularly consults with natural history productions and national/international news outlets such as National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, BBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, HGTV, History Channel and Al Jazeera News. 

Joe has worked for Jadora International LLC as Vice-President of biodiversity. Jadora is involved in a REDD+ project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Joe has been retained as an expert witness for several court cases featuring venomous snakebite as well as Administrative Judicial Hearings, testifying for Florida Power & Light.

Joe is dedicated to conserving endangered wildlife worldwide. In order to do so, it is necessary to understand the complicated cohesion between flora and fauna along with the needs for local sustainability. Any proposed conservation project can only proceed with support from the local people.