Hidden in the depths of junior Anneke Anglin’s neighbor’s yard, lay a cluster of babies.
Although the babies laying in the nest were simply bunnies, the sight of Anneke with some sort of animal in her hands has become a more than common occurrence. She is constantly surrounded by the thing she loves most: nature.
“We found this nest of baby rabbits in our neighbor’s yard,” Anneke said. “Every few days, I would go over there to lift them up and say, ‘Hello.’ You’re not supposed to do that too extensively, but the mom won’t kick them out—people will tell you that, but it’s not true. But I was feeling sad one night, so I just went over [to my neighbor’s yard] and hung out with the bunnies.”
Nature has always played a prominent role in Anneke’s life. For as far back as she can remember, animals have always been there.
While everyone she knew had been playing with toys, what stuck out the most to her was something that many had turned away from in fear: bugs.
“As a kid, I had this big bug phase,” Anneke said. “That was what my hobby was. My friends would play with dolls and stuff, [but] I never got into that. I would go outside, and I’d look under rocks and logs. I picked up little bugs and put them in little bug houses, and I’d watch them. It was just what I liked to do.”
Although Anneke’s fascination with nature may have initially started small with insects, it was merely a catalyst for what it has transformed into today.
Now, it has blossomed into a deep-rooted love and appreciation for all living animals. From the scariest spiders to the daintiest bunnies, she cares for each and every one of them wholeheartedly.
“There’s no animal or bug or anything that I’m not capable of finding beauty in,” Anneke said. “Things like spiders where people are like, ‘yuck,’ I’d see and think, ‘that’s cute.’ I could not kill a bug, even if it was annoying. So I’m always the person who comes in and takes the bug. I pick it up and bring it outside—I can’t kill things.”
While Anneke may always find satisfaction in helping the misguided and wandering creatures find their way home, there is no moment quite like that of when she gets to volunteer at the zoo.
Through it, she is able to interact with other people just as impassioned about animals as she is, in a way she wouldn’t typically be able to—to her, these are valuable interactions.
“So with volunteering [at the zoo], what we get to do is the animal handling programs,” Anneke said. “[In it,] you show people animals and stand there with a turtle, and then little kids get to come and touch it and I tell everyone facts about the turtle. There are so many behind-the-scenes experiences, and I get to talk to a lot of really cool people; I might shadow the zoo vet next year. It’s been a really cool experience to figure out how that kind of stuff works because a zoo might be a place that I end up working in my career.”
Over time, her passion for nature has bled over from being something stand-alone to something she enjoys alongside her other hobbies—most notably her love for photography.
Whether it was a creature she happened to stumble upon or one that she actively sought out, nature has come to characterize all of the photos on her phone.
“I’m into wildlife photography,” Anneke said. “Sometimes, I’ll just encounter [the animals], but sometimes I go into the woods thinking, ‘I’m going to take some pictures of animals.’ I’ve always really liked taking pictures of lots of things. So then when there’s an animal there, I’ll take a picture of it, and then, I just got better at doing that and made it more of my thing rather than just [something I did occasionally].”
To say that Anneke feels passionately about nature would be an understatement; it is essentially second nature to her to care for all things pertaining to it.
It is a love that she hopes—through her actions—can inspire others to see the same value she has always known was there.
“I have always considered myself kind of a kindred spirit with animals,” Anneke said. “I feel like there’s a connection that’s always been there. I’m always going to prioritize the animals’ lives and do everything I can [to help them]. I hope that through just being how I am, other people can start to recognize the kind of value I see in all of the little creatures that most people don’t pay much attention to.”
