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Photo:
David Johnson / Courtesy of Animal Planet
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DAVE
... the FACTS
Born:
Sarnia, Ontario
Resides: Toronto, Ontario
Birth date: 9-4-75
Sign: Virgo
Height: 6'3'
Weight: 210 lbs.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Status: Never married, no children
Want children: Undecided
Nonsmoker
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in zoology
Occupation: Zoologist / Animal Planet's Predator Expert /
Star of Walk The Lion - coming April '09
...
on HIMSELF
Strengths: "Modesty is definitely not one of my best
qualities. It's tough to say, I don't know if I have too
many. I'm generally fairly reliable. I'm pretty honest. Most
qualities that you find in animals is some thing I would say
I have a lot of the same traits. It's probably why I get
along with them so well. So honesty, I'm not a real big fan
of deceit. I like to be around people who keep pretty
honest. I'm pretty trustworthy, honest, big into family, big
into friends. Usually if I'm your friend, I'm your friend
forever. I'm pretty loyal."
What does it take to do what you do, obviously you're not
going to be around friends or family for at least 6
mo, that's a different kind of quality that maybe most of us
don't have, what is it about you that can do something like
that? "I think you have to be wired a certain way. I
don't think I'm wired very normally. I would never ever
describe my mental makeup very normal. I think there's parts
of me that has to go away and be by myself and be with
animals. I'd go crazy if I lived in a city too long, in fact
I'm going crazy at the moment,. I've been in a city longer
than I have in about 10 yrs. There's just part of me that
just needs to be away, needs to have time alone, needs to
have interaction with wild animals. Be not the top of the
food chain, to understand my place in the world, there's
just that, and there's a thirst for knowledge. I always am
trying to learn something new about animals in some
way. With that comes a natural progression to go spending
long times in the bush. There's no question, if you're the
type of person who can't handle loneliness, you wouldn't
want to do my job. Loneliness is something that you learn to
deal with it, and you're either capable of dealing with it
or you can't do what I do."
Where did the passion for wild animals come from? "You
know how young kids have certain interests. For some reason,
as long as I can ever remember, when you take your first
trip to the library, I always looked for books with big cats
and wild animals. When some people were doing school
projects on cars, I was always choosing wild animals. So I
always remember having this interest in them. I think the
only thing that would ever hold my attention for very long
as a young randy little kid was always if I got face to face
with something wild, something in the bush, and I could sit
there for hours and hours and just hang out with it. Not
that I ever expected it to be a career for me, but it's
definitely became one."
Weaknesses: "My patience is always a big problem. I'd
love to be more patient than I am. But that's only in my
life in the city. I was extremely patient in the bush. My
attention span for certain things is pretty low. Once again,
my attention span is fantastic and in the city, probably not
as good. It all gets very overwhelming. There's things you
just don't realize as someone who lives in the city, all of
the different stimuli around you and on you when you're in
the city and I think when you come from the bush and you're
used to a different lifestyle and a different way, it
becomes a little bit much."
I'm known for ... "my ability and knowledge of
animals and my love of animals."
Interests: "I've been renovating my house by myself for
quite awhile lately. So my biggest hobby at the moment is
probably construction and demolition. I just bought a house
in Toronto last year. Luckily for me, now that I'm leaving
for the bush, I can actually let the professionals take over
and fix all the problems that I've made for them. Yeah, I've
been working on my house for a little while which has been
nice. And I play guitar which is something that no one will
probably ever hear me do. I don't play for many people and
it's probably because I'm not that good. I'll have a guitar
with me in the bush when I go. I've never taken any lessons,
I was taught by a friend. I don't really play other people's
songs, it's more for me than for anyone else. I like it. I
spend most of my day in the gym. If I'm in the city, like I
just left the gym 2 hrs ago and I'm going to go back
probably in 2 hrs from now. So I spend a lot of time in the
gym. But I only do two workouts a day when I'm getting ready
for a project. So like this project is a fairly dangerous
project in its essence so I got to make sure I'm physically
fit for it, so I'll spend about 4 hours a day at the gym. If
I'm not training for something, I picked up basketball a
little while back. My older brother played a lot of
basketball so I find it's a nice thing for he and I to do
when I'm craving some family time and I've been away for a
long time. Rather than actually than enjoying basketball, I
just enjoy the family time it creates. I'm not a real small
talk kind of guy, I think it's a skill that I've never
learned. My family and I we don't just go sit on a couch and
catch up. We'll probably go and do something and in the
process of doing things catch up that way."
You mentioned that this is a fairly dangerous project, is
that a concern: "You always are concerned about it. By
no means do I consider myself a thrill seeker, I've been
doing this a long long time. I don't do it because I want
anything that comes from television. I don't do it for
any other reason but I sort of feel compelled and interested
in doing it. This is sort of my dream project. But in that
comes the inherent risk and I think because I've been doing
it for so long, I actually been through the dark side a few
times and gotten out of it, I don't want to end my life
early or even do something so risky as to be thoughtless in
doing dangerous things. The risk is something I'm concerned
with all the time. It's in fact the biggest part of my job.
As I was saying 4 hours in the gym, I don't do that because
I really want to make sure that my six pack's hard. I do it
because if something was to happen, I know that I'm
physically fit enough to handle it, I'm mentally fit to
handle it and I've got everybody prepared in a way that
we're going to get out of this alright. There's no question
with these type of risks that is my job is to make sure
everybody goes out and comes back."
Turn-ons: "I enjoy thoughtful people. I find it
interesting when someone doesn't always think down the
normal pattern that everybody else thinks. I really think
that's really cool. Something that's refreshing, something
that's new, I feel is pretty exciting to me. Any time I can
learn something is pretty exciting. That's usually subject
specific. I'm not a big art guy, I'm not a real architecture
guy. You sit and walk me thru some beautifully decorated
home, and I'll get pretty bored pretty quickly. I guess
you'd say I'm fairly one dimensional in the things I like. I
like sports, I like being athletic and I like the bush.
Anything wild, anything natural, under any subject, I'm
usually pretty into."
Turn-offs: "All the general stuff that turns off most
people, all the war, the death, the destruction. Anytime
someone's trying to push their will onto somebody else, I
find pretty disgusting. Deceitful or horrible manipulative
people, I'm not a big fan of. So anything that involves any
of that is a problem for me."
Special Talents: "I've lived in so many countries I
couldn't help but pick up a lot of little bits of languages,
but no I don't speak any funny languages. I can understand a
bit of any one that I've lived in."
Titles: "Little things here and there, but nothing too
dynamic. No emmys and all of those fantastic things. I
graduated top of my class. They named an anniversary after
me at my university so there's a Dave Salmoni anniversary
there. Named
a bursary after me - Laurentian University."
Charities: "I get involved in a lot of research based
charities, animal behavior related. Unfortunately with my
traveling I don't get to do very much. Every now and again,
I get asked to do something. For example, I was in NY the
other day, and helped out at a kidney foundation event. My
younger sister works for breast cancer, so I try to help out
a little bit with her. But really unfortunately with the
traveling, I'm not reliable, I can be sent off in the bush
in no time so getting involved in projects becomes pretty
difficult. I take wherever I get asked."
Travels: Throughout
Africa, Australia, Europe (Germany, France, England, Spain).
Spirituality: "In an odd way. I don't think I'm
spiritual in a way that most spiritual people would want me
to be. I don't go to church every day. I don't know all my
favorite hymns. But I think I definitely feel like some of
the gifts that I've been given are god given. And I have my
own little relationship with God that I take him into the
bush with me all the time and make sure he sort of watches
out for me all the time. I think you can't go through so
many life threatening events as I do and not think oh, maybe
someone is watching over me. There's been a million times
I've gone out and faced down that elephant or that lion or
whatever it happens to be and knowing that you're at the
very verge right now in thinking ok, if I guess wrong here,
I'm dead, I have to be exactly 100% perfect and my timing
has to be right. And obviously touch wood, I'm still here.
You can't do that enough times and not think that maybe
there's something there watching out for ya."
I can't imagine what you experience and see but it just
seems like you're kind of in God's country in a way:
"You can't help but be overwhelmed by it. I think the
more you learn about the natural world, the more you learn
that the way that we explain it is far too simple. There has
to be something bigger, better and stronger. But I'm also,
like I said, I'm not real big fan of pushing my thoughts and
feelings onto people. You're probably never going to hear me
preach on any of my shows or do all the things that maybe
more spiritual people would do or likely to do. Just because
from my personality, just because this is how I feel doesn't
mean you have to. You walk your path, I'm walking my path.
And in my path, this is what I choose to believe."
Were you raised more religious: "Yeah, for sure, my
mother's fairly religious. She was a Sunday school teacher
while we were young, and trying to keep her heathen children
on the straight and narrow. So that probably gave me the
background and introduced it to me. But I don't think it was
something that was forced on us once we were making our own
decisions."
Fashion sense: "I would love to say that I am. My
fashion is T-shirt and jeans. Actually it's not even usually
that. When I go to the gym everyday, what I pick is an old
beat up pair of bush pants and a T-shirt. I like to look
nice. That's the one misconception a lot of animal people
have is like just because what you wear in the bush doesn't
mean you can't dress up and wear a suit when you're invited
to a black tie event. A lot of time we're used to seeing all
these people go out in the media in their short khaki shorts
because they're playing some role of some animal guy. I
don't feel like I'm ever playing some role. I'm the bush guy
when I'm in the bush but I also grew up in the city and you
know, I like to date. And no date's going to let me have a
knife and some pepper spray in my waist and short khaki
shorts and a hat. You learn to dress nice and try to fit in
with whatever's fashionable at the time. I would like to be
more fashionable than I am but in my daily life it doesn't
concern me. But when I do want to look nice and be
appreciated, then yeah sure I'll try and make sure I'm
wearing something nice."
What touches my soul: "For me, it's people that put
themselves out to help other people. Or people that put
themselves out to help animals. Or fighting for something
that they believe in. I really feel like during the best
times of my life when I was really doing something that was
worthwhile was probably sacrificing a lot of myself for
something I believe in. I would say that's probably the core
that touches me most in people or in life."
... on WOMEN
I first notice ... "self confidence. I'm a real
behavior guy. I probably don't listen as well as I should. I
always watch what women are doing and I think you can always
see confidence right away."
That's interesting that you say that especially in your job
how you observe animal behavior, I wonder if you take it in
to the real world a little bit.: "Absolutely I can't
even turn it off. Unfortunately sometimes I think girls that
I'm dating especially if I'm straight out of the bush,
they'll pick up that I'm doing that and it makes them
uncomfortable, right? It's almost like dating somebody who's
watching everything that you're doing and almost analyzing
everything you're doing. I don't mean to, it's not like
actually am consciously saying, `oh I'm going to analyze
this person. But you do, you notice every twitch, every
twinge, you notice every movement. So what happens is,
communication is 80% body posture, and it's only 10% what
you say and it's 10% tone. So no matter what you're saying
to me, generally for the first little while, I'm
picking more up from what your body's telling me than what
you're verbally telling me."
Wow, that's really fascinating, do we have a lot of
mannerisms do or vice versa: "I think there's a lot of
things that are automated in human beings that you just
aren't conscious of and if you can tune into those things
you can learn a lot."
Wow, you have to teach something for us women on how to pick
up some stuff on men: "LOL. Men are easier because
they're a lot more simplistic in their thinking. It's far
easier to figure out where their motives lie."
Attention-getters: "I'm not great with subtlety.
There's many times I've been in groups where people have
identified, `hey I think that person's interested' and I've
had no idea. So subtlety is something I'm horrible with. But
as I said one of the most attractive qualities for me is
self confidence so someone who can without being rude, but
being up front, walk right up to you and say hello. I think
that goes a long way for 1) getting noticed but 2) being
identified as someone who's pretty attractive."
Ideal woman: "Self confidence is something that I look
for. Someone who's pretty ambitious. Because I have so many
goals in my life, I'd like to be supported on my goals but
I'd also like to support somebody else in their goals.
Obviously physical attraction. I like pretty girls. Aside
from that it's just about being honest and being
communicative, I think is something that for me is important
bc trust is so important in 1) bc that's what I do for a
living. I have to build trust with animals, but 2) I'm away
a lot. So it's tough to have any kind of attraction to
somebody if you don't think you can trust them."
I can't resist a woman who ... "is forward."
Most important quality in a woman: "Self
confidence."
Ideal date: "A perfect date for me, I would have to
say, I like to do stuff, I'd say for me, the `hey let's go
hook up for drinks and sit around and talk or go have
dinner,' that's normal and that's probably more common date
that anybody has but one that would stand out would be hey
let's go and do something. And it doesn't really matter what
it is. You can go to the park or go to the zoo. Go do
whatever happens to be happening in that city or that place,
I think is a lot of fun. So you get active with somebody,
and you're interacting with them but your focus isn't based
on what did I wear, what did I eat, what image am I
portraying, all those little things. I feel like when you're
doing something, you forget about all those stupid things
you have to worry about when you're on a date."
Do you take women to the zoo: "For sure, I love going
to the zoo. And I think a lot of times some of the interest
in me comes in some of the animal stuff that I do. There's
been times I've gone to the zoo and whoever I'm dating at
the time asked to come along. I can't imagine myself on a
first date saying hey do you want to come to the zoo with
me. I enjoy it."
I'd call a woman back after a first date ... "if she
told me to. I think there has to be a bit of mystery. If I
have my way the whole time, I can't imagine I'd call her
back really soon. I'll call her back, no question I mean
basically if you have all the other traits that I'm
interested in, of course, I'm going to call back. I like
being the guy, I like being the one who has to call back bc
the girl's too shy, or whatever. Plus it makes me feel like
I'm in somewhat control of what's happening in my life. But
that just comes from my animal training background. If there
was something that was sort of left mysterious or left me
guessing a little bit, I think it'd be more exciting to call
back. What's going to happen next?"
I'd never date a woman who ... "makes me eat her food
off her plate. I hate it more than anything. If you go on a
date with me, first date or last date and you order
your meal, I order your meal, you cut a chunk off, oh you
have to try this and you force me, c'mon eat it, it's always
for some reason and people laugh at me. All my friends know
it of me now. It's been a pet peeve of mine my entire dating
career."
Do you let them know what the deal breaker was or do you
just never call again: "I'm always scared of seeming
weird. Like I know that's weird. All my friends tell me how
weird that is. There's no way I would offer that up saying
hey guess what that's a deal breaker. But it would eat at my
soul if I had to call that person back after they ate off my
plate of forced me to eat theirs. You know that whole cut a
piece off, oh you got to try this. I'm like ohh, if I wanted
to try it I would have ordered it, leave me alone. That's
definitely my weirdest deal breaker that I have."
Even if you really liked her, you wouldn't give her a second
chance or at least explain: "It's funny you say that.
And once again I go back to my ex. On our first date, she
made me eat off of her plate. I guess somehow she figured it
out, how to work around it. But I remember at that time,
thinking, `oh my god I never want to see this chick
again.'"
Are you romantic: "I'm like a dullard. I'm romantic
when I think about being romantic but
I
don't live my life romantic and sensitive. Sensitivity is
something I lack quite a bit of. So, if I make an effort to
be, I like to, I like to surprise my girl, I like to do
things that make them happy. But I can't say in my daily
normal life, I'd be considered romantic."
How I show I care: "I think it's just being thoughtful.
I think sometimes the dozen red roses is a little bit too
cliche, I think any time you can show that you thought this
out and you planned ahead and you were thinking about them
in your planning would probably the nicest way I would try
and show someone that I cared about them. And also I'm a
blunt guy, I'll tell them usually. I'm pretty open and
pretty blunt."
What makes a woman unforgettable: "I think that it has
to some unforgettable moment. There's those times when you
have to see real unforgettable moments when you're out with
somebody or when you're interacting with somebody, so I
think it would take all personality wrapped into some
unforgettable moment."
I wish women understood ... "that men are very, very
simple in their needs and they'll tell you what their needs
are. Don't try and read into it, don't guess. Guys are
simple. If they want something they'll tell you and if they
have needs, they'll tell you pretty bluntly. I guess that's
tough to say, that's how I am, that's how the people I hang
out with are. But yeah, guys are very simple, you don't have
to read into what they're or what they do, they're pretty
straightforward. The whole after your date and he said this
what do you think he means - he probably means what he said.
99% of the time it will exactly what he meant to say is what
he said."
... on RELATIONSHIPS
Is a relationship important to you? "If I met the right
person, for sure. I've been in relationships that I've
really enjoyed. It's something that definitely as an adult
I've looked for. Unfortunately my life gets separated into
halves. I have my professional career and I have my personal
career and there's times my personal career has to take a
back seat to my professional life. But when you find the
right person, you prioritize your life a little differently
and put the personal life in front of the professional life.
I can't say that right now I'm sitting here and saying I
wish I would get married but if I met the perfect girl for
me, I would marry her tomorrow. And then when you marry the
perfect girl, I think that's when you start asking yourself
if you want to have kids. Do I want to have kids just for
the sake of having kids, no. Would I like to have the same
family structure that I grew up in, sure. I grew up in a
great family with a mother and father who still are together
and I have an older brother and younger sister. Yeah, that
would be something that I would gravitate towards but it
would have to be with the right people."
What I love most about being in a relationship: "It's
tough to say. If you're in a relationship, it's the
companionship side of things. It's the fact that you have
somebody on your team, somebody you can share deeper, more
intimate things with. I think it's always easy to find some
person to date or some person to share dinner with, but I
think if you're in a relationship, you can be a little more
intimate in your thoughts, a little more intimate in what's
going on in your life."
Top relationship keys: "For me, it's definitely trust
and honesty but that's just because of the lifestyle that I
lead. I think you have to have passion in there as well but
trust and honesty have to come first and then a bit of
passion, I think, will get you a long way."
A woman in a relationship with me can expect ... " my
best in all my efforts. I'm definitely someone that doesn't
do anything half way. If I'm in, I'm totally in. But with
that said, dating me is very, very difficult. I have a
career that I love and my career is actually my passion. And
there's times when I think you would feel that you're taking
a back seat with me going out with the animals in the bush
and it might feel like it's my job but it's sort of who I am
and it's something that swells up from inside me. So they'd
have to not compete with that, they'd just have to accept
that that's part of me. And when I go, kiss me on the cheek,
send me off and just be happy when I get back. But expect
the same from me. If they had some passion or some dream
that they were chasing, I would be the most supportive
boyfriend in the world behind it, bc I understand it."
What
I expect: "A lot of understanding and the fact, like I
say, I'm not a normal person. There won't be a lot of things
you can draw on that would help you understand my
personality quirks. So understanding's pretty important,
trust is pretty important. But I think it goes both
ways."
What makes me feel close to a woman: "Sharing the same
values and outlook on life."
Greatest relationship lesson: "That's tough to say. I
would say the best thing that I learned. I think the longer
you're in a relationship the better it can be but also none
of them are easy. The thing I learned most is that the
hardships are something you have to work through if you're
interested in staying in it."
... on SEX
I feel my sexiest when ... "someone's told me I
am."
Sexiest thing a woman can wear in private:
"Nothing."
Surefire way to seduce me: "If I tame it down as best I
can, a surefire way, I would say just ... blunt
honesty."
... on LIFE
Making my mark: "I've got a lot more to do, I guess. I
would really like to get to a point where maybe when my
whole body gives away at me and I have to slow down at some
of the work that I'm doing, I'd like to get even more
serious into the conservation work. My company is owned by
two other people so it's a partnership pf three and the only
thing that draws the 3 of us together is the fact that we're
all really big into animals and animal conservation so
definitely over time, it's ruff we are a part of and we'd
like to continue to be and I think the more freedom we have
to do conservations, that's definitely where all of our
interests are."
Responsibility to society: "For sure, absolutely. I
think I have responsibility to explain to everybody 1) how
dangerous my job is. The don't do this at home thing is
pretty important bc I think a lot of people see me on
television hugging and kissing big dangerous animals and
they think oh I can do that and they get themselves killed.
So it is my responsibility to make sure people understand
that. I think that animals offer so much and fulfill my life
to such a degree that it's my duty to fight as hard as I can
for them. Especially the cats and the animals that I
actually spend the majority of my time with so I have a
responsibility there. But I think as a human being,
everybody has a responsibility. I'm pretty fortunate. I
don't ask for much, I have a great job, I have a great
lifestyle. And if I can give somebody else a hand up, I
think it's just an ethical moral thing that you can do,
should do."
Valuable life lesson: "Definitely I would say, more
than anything else, I think life is short. I have to face my
own death quite a lot. I understand that I have to be
prepared that every day could be my last and I think if you
live your life that way where you know that every day could
be your last, I think you'll have a pretty decent life and
you'll be a decent human being."
I must ... "I'd really like to go swim with killer
whales, I think, that's sort of put on my list, I'll
probably try and do next year, fortunately I have a job that
asks me that every year, what's your life goal and I go out
and do it. Right now my goal is if I was asked what the best
thing I could do with my time it would be to go live with
some lions. Luckily that's what my job is to figure out what
I'm most passionate about and go and do it. So every year is
something different."
Best advice received: "Maybe pretty cliche but I would
say go hard or go home type of advice. Where it's do
everything as hard as you can, as best as you can. That's
something that I sort of always lived
like and I think it's really kind of helped my life and me
sort of achieve a lot of the things that I wanted to
achieve."
Best advice I've given a woman: "Leave your food on
your plate. I would say me giving women advice is probably
pretty stupid. I can give advice probably fairly well on how
to manipulate men only bc I am one but that's probably the
best I could do."
... on HIS FAVORITE THINGS
Book: "Extended Phenotype by Richard
Dawkins."
Music: "Rock."
Food: "Prime Rib."
... final THOUGHTS
Always in my refrigerator: "Chicken. I always
have 5-6 breasts of chicken in my fridge and rice, I always
have rice. Apples."
Hottest possession: "My bush knife. It was given to me
as a graduation present from my mom in university and I've
taken it with me everywhere I go and I've used it probably
every day that I'm in the bush. For some reason, I'm not a
superstitious but I do believe in the odd good luck bad luck
thing and for some reason that things a fairly good luck
charm for me."
I'd change places for 24 hours with ... "Brad Pitt,
maybe. No, just kidding. It depends on the day. I bet you if
you put me in the bush for a long long time you'd want to
change places with somebody who seems to have a real opulent
lifestyle and when you've been in the city for a long time,
you just want to change places with somebody who has a lot
of quiet time to themselves."
I'd most like to hang out with ... "LIONS of course.
But if I'm going to name women, I'd say Angelina Jolie and
Sarah Michelle Gellar."
Why I'm a great catch: "I don't know if there's
anything. I think they'd have a lot of free time to
themselves, might be a positive thing."
Me in a word: "Different."
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