Ronald Norman Magill (born February 28, 1960) is an American wildlife photographer and the communications director of

Zoo Miami The Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, also known as Zoo Miami, is a zoological park and garden in Miami and is the largest zoo in Florida. Originally established in 1948 at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Zoo Miami relocated in 1980 as Mia ...

(aka Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens). Magill makes regular television appearances across local

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

networks and has won five

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for his work on nature documentary programs. With a Cuban father, he speaks both Spanish and English.

Early life

Ron Magill's father Guillermo Magill spoke no English when he moved from

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Cuba to New York and met his wife Lorraine. His mother grew up in New York and is of Colombian and German heritage. Born in 1960 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, the Magills were living in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. In 1972, the family moved to

Perrine, Florida Perrine, Florida was an unincorporated community in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, about midway between Miami and Homestead. It is at The community was named after Henry Perrine, who in 1839 had been granted a survey township of ...

, and he often cared for injured or sick animals he would find there, as well as helping to raise two horses. His parents had purchased a five-acre parcel of land to grow mangoes and avocados. Even though Magill's first language was Spanish, he would forget it in school because he was bullied by students about his Hispanic background. His unwanted attention pushed him into books, and he skipped fourth grade at Miami Palmetto Senior High School Magill obtained an

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

Career

Magill's first job was working at the Miami Serpentarium, which no longer exists. In 1980, he became a

zookeeper A zookeeper, sometimes referred as animal keeper, is a person who manages zoo animals that are kept in captivity for conservation or to be displayed to the public.Hurwitz, Jane. Choosing a Career in Animal Care (World of Work). New York: Rosen Gr ...

at Crandon Park Zoo just before the facility moved across to the new Miami MetroZoo. He gradually became lead zookeeper, senior zookeeper and then assistant

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

. Today, Magill remains at the renamed Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, as its communications director and makes appearances on television shows such as ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'', and ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

''. He appeared for over 25 years on the Spanish variety program ''

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'' until the show ended its over 50-year run in 2015. He has a regular segment on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, where listeners can call in and ask him questions, often humorous or irreverent. He has also appeared on several documentaries for the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

and the

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, and, during the 1980s, handled many of the animals used on the ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

'' television series.

Awards and recognition

In 2006, Magill received the Wildlife Ambassador Award in recognition of his efforts on wildlife preservation. Magill was the founder of the Cheetah Ambassador Program at Zoo Miami. Magill is also a

Nikon (, ; ) is a Japanese optics and photographic equipment manufacturer. Nikon's products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and equipment related to S ...

Ambassador. He has won five

for his work on the following nature documentary programs: ''Dreams of Alaska'', ''The Amazon & Beyond'', ''Alligator Love'', and ''Dreams of the Rain Forest''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Magill, Ron 1960 births Living people American naturalists American nature photographers Zoo directors Zoo curators University of Florida alumni People from Queens, New York American people of Cuban descent Emmy Award winners Scientists from New York (state)