I don't think laypeople like @HortaRob understand quite how insulting and demoralising these kinds of Tweets are. Let me use a thread to give some perspective on how this appears from the field conservation perspective (1/n) https://twitter.com/HortaRob/status/1314032957137383424

We field conservationists commit everything we have to our work. We often spend weeks or months away from our families, living in small tents in the remote bush with no running water, mains electricity or any of the comforts of the West (2/n)

We face genuine danger every day, whether from angry local people, venomous snakes & spiders, other wildlife, malaria, or ancient field vehicles that we cannot afford to adequately maintain (3/n)

We are the ones who have to regularly face the anger of local people, who may be rightfully furious at decades of disempowerment & poverty due to wildlife, devastated from losing their livelihoods to elephants, or most appallingly, have had their child eaten by carnivores (4/n)

We work extremely long hours, day and night, often on low (or no) salaries & spend immense amounts of time trying to raise the money needed to maintain our field budgets & continue supporting our teams & the local communities (5/n)

We do all we can, every day, to improve the local situation for people & wildlife, all the while knowing that any tiny improvements we make are up against colossal and unwinnable forces of global economics, consumption & environmental degradation (6/n)

So against all that, it is vital that we celebrate the small wins, support one another, & make each other feel less alone & hopeless. We take immense pride & pleasure when we see that conservation really can empower communities & turn the tide for wildlife populations (7/n)

For all this, we regularly face abuse, hatred & dismissal, esp on social media. So to @HortaRob & anyone else with similar views, either come out & commit your life to really making things better, against all these challenges, or at least try to respect those of us who do. Thanks