Christian Ziegler

Christian Ziegler was born in Germany in 1972. He studied tropical biology at the University of Würzburg (Germany). Several research projects and his fascination for nature photography brought him to the tropical forests of Asia, Africa, and Central America during his studies.

He has lived and worked in Thailand, where he was a freelance photographer for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), and the Ivory Coast. Since 1998 he has been working primarily in Panama, on Barro Colorado Island, a field station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).

After finishing his graduate work in 2000, Ziegler's focus changed solely to the field of nature photography and journalism. He spent 15 months working on A Magic Web, a photo book about the ecology of the tropical rain forest that was published in 2002. That same year, Ziegler was appointed STRI's associate for communication.

Ziegler's work appears internationally in magazines such as GEO, Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife Magazine, and Natural History. He has covered many subjects for National Geographic, including ocelots, red-eyed tree frogs, and Panamanian bats. Ziegler has also won several international awards, such as the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year (Category: Behavior of All Other Animals) in 2005.

Ziegler is a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.