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Maria Hashmi | Wildlife & Conservation Educator

@rebelzoologist

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#NatGeoExplorer redefining what it means to be a zoologist in 🇵🇰 | @littlerebelsnaturecamp @littlerebelsremote

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At first glance, the oak leaf butterfly barely even looks real!🦋✨️
Closed wings and it disappears into the forest floor, looking exactly like a dry dead leaf, right down to the veins and uneven edges! Nature is ridiculous sometimes lol

Butterflies are diurnal, which means they’re active during the day and usually should be released in the morning when conditions are safer for them. This guy kept flying around erratically and crashing into things, so instead of keeping it till the morning, we released it in an area with lots of tree cover where it could stay protected from predators till daylight
A quick reminder though: please never touch a butterfly’s wings. They’re incredibly delicate, and handling them can damage the tiny scales covering the wings. The best way to handle is using a butterfly net or a small aquarium net as seen in the video.
Such a cool animal, they are pretty common in Islamabad but just super hard to spot. Have you ever seen one?🦋✨️ by @rebelzoologist

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5 months ago

I wish I could tell 10 year old Maria that TEN THOUSAND people care what she has to say ❤️‍🩹

She was the weird kid who couldn't stop talking about animals. The one who always had a random wildlife fact to share, even when no one wanted to hear it. I heard "you talk too much" & "nobody wants to hear about the disgusting lizard" a lot growing up 😂 I always felt like the things I loved were too weird, too strange, too much

Today, 10,000 people chose to be here.
And that's why 10k isn't just a number to me
It's 10,000 people who decided that the weird animal girl IS interesting, that wildlife stories matter, that conservation is worth talking about.
I still remember celebrating my first 100 followers. It felt huge. And now, somehow, six years after starting this page in 2020, there are ten thousand of you.
What's even crazier is how many of you have been here since the beginning.
You've watched me build a career everyone said was impossible. You've watched me work my ass off, celebrate the biggest milestones of my life, get married, travel the world, disappear for a year, and somehow always come back. You've watched so many of the dreams I talked about become my reality.

This community became my chosen family.
When people in my real life told me to be realistic, you told me to keep going. When I doubted myself, you reminded me why I started. Some of the friendships I've made through this page have genuinely changed my life.
This account has carried me through some of the hardest years of my life. It gave me purpose when I needed it most. It gave me hope. It gave me people who understood me.

So no, this isn't just a follower count
It's proof that a little girl who was told she talked too much about animals eventually found 10,000 people who wanted to listen.

Thank you for growing up with me. I hope you stay till the end of the line 🫶🏽✨️ by @rebelzoologist

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3 months ago

I took this picture sitting on a bench by the lake in Kandy, on the last day of the World Congress on Snakes, an event that literally altered my brain chemistry. Here's what was happening in my head behind the camera:

I have always been someone who feels very deeply.

From time to time, I get this overwhelmingly wonderful feeling of fulfillment like my heart is so full and I can't possibly have more love in my life, how could possibly get any better when I already have the best?

But then I travel, see new places, meet new people, experience new cultures, it almost feels like my heart expands to fit them all in it. I fall in love over and over again with all the places I go to, all the people in them, and the way they make me feel. Sometimes I feel so full of love that I think I might explode, but my capacity for love just keeps growing and growing, it surprises me every time
It's such a wonderful feeling to have so much to give, to be homesick for places i only spent a few days in, to become the best of friends with people I met only 72 hours ago. It always hurts so bad to leave, but I now realise that heartache is just growing pains.

I always hated the part of me that wore her heart on her sleeve, but my God is it a blessing to FEEL

Left my heart on a bench somewhere by the lake in Kandy, where a part of it will always remain.

I keep leaving pieces of my heart everywhere and still never run out. I have so much love, my heart is full and just keeps growing bigger 🫶🏽✨️🐍 taken in Kandy, Sri Lanka by @rebelzoologist

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13 days ago

Rare moth + quick nighttime hike? Count me in 😂🦋

Indian Luna Moths are not something you come across very often in Islamabad, so when @aliwazzaaa told me he had spotted one, I immediately decided I had to see it for myself. Cue me hiking through the dark in completely inappropriate shoes and clothes because apparently common sense disappears when there’s a cool insect involved 😬

These guys are even cooler than they look. The twisted, curling ends of their hindwings help confuse bats, which hunt moths using echolocation (basically biological sonar). The tails throw off the bat’s signal and make it harder to figure out exactly where the moth is.

Such an insane find, I was shaking recording this video 😂 by @rebelzoologist

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a month ago

"An ant crosses your carpet. A spider weaves a pattern older than mammals beneath vour stairs. Just nod breathe, and think, 'Good. It's all still here. The forest the mountains, the desert. At home in my home.' The sterile white box is the stranger. Not the ant. Not the spider." - @cryptonaturalist

We belong to Mother Earth, yet we find ourselves disconnected from those who share our home. There is a magic in that kinship. it is an ancient one, but if we would onlv listen, perhaps our little friends can teach it to us again 🌿🔮✨️ by @rebelzoologist

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2 months ago

Found this checkered keelback taking a dip in my parents' swimming pool.... 😬🐍
While these snakes are excellent swimmers and are often found around ponds, streams, and other water bodies, swimming pools can become a trap. The steep, smooth sides make it difficult for wildlife to climb back out, leaving them exhausted. They usually enter water in pursuit of prey, this one had happily eaten a frog we spotted in the pool earlier.
Checkered keelbacks are completely non-venomous and play a super important role in local ecosystems, feeding on fish, frogs, and other small aquatic animals!
It was safely removed and released in a pond, although judging by it's attitude, you'd think I was the one causing the inconvenience 😂

Special thanks to @vigilante_wyld for helping me not die haha by @rebelzoologist

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4 months ago

Introducing the real life angry bird?😂
This is a blue-throated barbet. Bright green, ridiculously pretty, and usually heard before you ever spot it! They are common residents in forested areas around Islamabad. They mostly feed on fruits and hang out in trees, nesting in little cavities they make in trunks. Unfortunately he flew straight into a large window and was knocked out for a bit
Window collisions are a huge, very overlooked issue for birds. Reflections make them think they’re flying into open sky or trees, and they don’t realize it’s glass until it’s too late. Its always a good idea to add some stickers to your windows!
He needed a quick check after the impact, and yes, handled with certification and training before anyone comes for me in the comments lol
He was a bit stunned, but after a short recovery, flew off just fine. Angry till the very end 😂🤘🏼 by @rebelzoologist

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6 months ago

I CANNOT believe i got to interact with this incredible Central African rock python at @nairobisnakeparknaquarium 🐍✨️🫶🏽

There’s a very specific kind of respect i have developed around animals that could hurt me, but choose not to. And I think that’s something a lot of people misunderstand about wildlife interactions. It’s never really about control. You don’t “master” the animal or make it do what you want. If anything, the animal decides how much trust it’s willing to give you in that moment. And when you feel that, especially with an animal people are taught to fear, it changes something in you a little ✨️

Central African rock pythons are one of Africa’s largest snake species and incredibly powerful constrictors but like most wildlife, they would much rather avoid humans than chase them.

Moments like this also demonstrate why ambassador animals are so important in conservation education. Seeing an animal up close, safely and calmly, can completely shift fear into curiosity. There were about 40-50 school boys watching me interact with this animal, and I hope it changed something in them too.

Such a special experience, forever grateful to this little one and his handler 🫶🏽✨️🐍 by @rebelzoologist

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5 months ago

Looked exactly the way it did inside my head when I dreamed about it 🌍✨️🇰🇪 taken in Kenya, Africa by @rebelzoologist

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4 months ago

I think I accidentally painted my own sign...

At the end of my last safari in Tsavo, I was sobbing and asking the universe for something, anything, that would tell me I’d be back, and that everything would work out the way it was meant to. I didn’t ask for an obvious sign. I just asked that I’d recognise it when it came.

A few weeks ago, I was wondering what to do with the bright red dirt I brought home from Tsavo (left). I suddenly had the idea of painting a phoenix, using the dirt for its wings. It felt perfect. Tsavo had felt like a full-circle moment for me: renewal, rebirth, starting again. So I started painting with the Tsavo dirt mixed into my paints.

A few days later, while reading a book about myths and legends associated with birds, a book I bought months before my trip, I came across a section about herons.

It described the heron hieroglyph, referred to as Bennu, from ancient Egypt, associated with Atum, the primal creator, and Ra, the sun god. The bird depicted was most likely a Goliath heron.

A Goliath heron, a bird I had seen in Tsavo.
It was massive, almost as tall as me. Ominous, strong, solitary. I remember being completely drawn to it's mystery, even before I knew what species it was.

And then I read the next part:
The Goliath heron is believed to have inspired the Greek myth of the phoenix.

I just stared at the page.
I searched for images of the phoenix inspired by the Goliath heron and saw birds that looked almost exactly like the painting I had been making. Rising sun and all.

I hadn’t known any of this when I started painting.
I just followed a feeling. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s just my brain finding meaning in a series of unrelated things lol but I know what it felt like in that moment.

This is it. This is the sign!!!
Tsavo is telling me we've got unfinished business.

Or maybe I'm just delusional lmaoooooo by @rebelzoologist

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2 months ago

I've been walking all over the house barefoot... safe to say I won't be doing that anymore 😬🦂

I walked though this door so many times before seeing it, I'm genuinely surprised I didn't see it sooner, especially considering it's ALIVE!

It's stinger and top part of the tail had been smashed in the door by someone at some point, which is why it was stuck there, poor thing was in bad shape. I released it outside but not sure it's going to make it unfortunately.

The other one was already dead, although it seemed pretty fresh so I'm wondering how it died. I kept it for my collection!

Asian forest scorpions are a midly venomous species. Being stung is similar to a bee or wasp sting. For a healthy adult human, it is not a medical emergency that requires treatment. That being said, the sting is still EXCRUCIATINGLY painful, so I was pretty freaked out that I was 2 inches from stepping on it, multiple times.

During the monsoon season, it's quite common to start seeing tons of critters. So remember to clean up clutter regularly, shake out shoes/jackets before wearing them, and most importantly, WEAR SHOES AROUND THE HOUSE!

I certainly never get bored living outside the city, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea 😉🦂 by @rebelzoologist

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2 months ago

I’m about half the shoulder height of this elephant, and somehow the elephant looks TINY next to this tree 😂

I love moments like this that remind me just how small I am in the grand scheme of things. A massive elephant, an enormous ancient baobab, and me, somewhere in between, just very happy to be here.

There’s something so strangely comforting about feeling small in a world this big 🌍🐘🌳 taken in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya by @rebelzoologist

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2 months ago