Corrin LaCombe

Passionate about primates as a girl growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Corrin first proclaimed to the world at age 8 that she was going to be a “monkey doctor” and travel to Africa to save gorillas. Her inspiration was the movie “Gorillas in the Mist,” based on the life of the late primatologist Dian Fossey. And while many told her it couldn’t be done, she actually managed to structure her life around monkeys! The first step was earning a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder, followed by a master’s in Primate Conservation Biology from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England where her research focused on environmental education and alternative livelihood development in Bangladesh.

After a stint as lead primate keeper at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita, California, Corrin spent 5-1/2 years as Senior Conservation Education Research Coordinator for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, leading field conservation projects in Vietnam, Malaysian Borneo, and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. In 2009, she founded a non-profit organization called Primate Connections, which has financially empowered more than 70 primate conservation organizations around the world including hundreds of students and researchers. Corrin has also served as a consultant on conservation projects with local community members in Costa Rica, Panama, Kenya and Madagascar.

A life goal of Corrin’s is to be personally involved with the protection of wildlife—finding ways to make wild animals more valuable alive than poached or destroyed—and her journey to Nat Hab was a logical step in fulfilling that mission. She was thrilled to discover the company’s conservation travel focus and is proud to represent an enterprise whose ethos and dedication to preserving wildlife mirrors her own. When Corrin traveled to Alaska observe grizzly bears in Katmai National Park, she was impressed to discover a sense of peace between humans and the bears, an experience she attributes not only to the bears' willingness to share their world with humans, but to Nat Hab's exceptional guides. In Churchill to see polar bears, she fell in love with the tundra and was so intrigued by native wildlife like Arctic foxes and snowy owls that she almost considered the bears a bonus! Corrin's visit to the Galapagos with Nat Hab taught her much about the islands' at-risk endemic species and reinvigorated her pro-conservation commitments to reducing plastic and cleaning up our oceans and beaches. In May of 2023, Corrin slept among the grizzlies at Alaska Bear Camp, and in September, she embarked on Nat Hab's Great Kenya Migration Safari!

Currently, Corrin is in training to become a naturalist guide for Nat Hab, expanding her work into the field as well as the office. During the summer of 2018, she trained on the company's Safari America: Under the Desert Sky adventure in the canyon country of Utah and Arizona.

Corrin enjoying combing the beach at Land’s End Resort in Homer, Alaska at the start of her Alaska Bear Camp Adventure.

Corrin with friends on her Great Kenya Migration Adventure.

Celebrating a wonderful day of wildlife viewing in the Mara.

Corrin and her Dad enjoying the views in Kenya.

One of Corrin’s favorite bear photos taken while at our Alaska Bear Camp in Lake Clark National Park.

Corrin and friends on her Alaska Bear Camp Adventure in June 2023.

Getting up close and personal with the grizzlies of the Katmai Coast remains one of Corrin’s favorite wildlife experiences! There’s nothing like it!

Corrin loved frolicking with sea lions in the Galapagos.

Corrin enjoyed Churchill even more than expected. There’s just something about the North!

Corrin as a guide in training on my first trip on our Canyons of the American Southwest. – At north Rim of the Grand Canyon.

More guiding on our Canyons of the Southwest trip.

Corrin and Dr. Jane Goodall pose with one of Corrin's conservation products—The Primate Connections calendar—endorsed by Dr Goodall herself.

Corrin completing whale shark population density research in the Sea of Cortez.

Corrin trekking gorillas with local community members in Rwanda.

Corrin attaching a GPS transmitter to a Critically Endangered California Condor in Baja.

Corrin working with a Northern white rhino at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Corrin conducting field work in Northern Vietnam.

Corrin faciliating a participatory mapping project in northern Vietnam.

Corrin administering an environmental education program in Bangladesh.

Corrin in remote Madagascar with the rare radiated tortoise, in front of a newly erected school in a village where no school had ever previously existed.

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