Maya Higa is the founder and executive director of the Alveus Sanctuary in Texas, a 15-acre wildlife sanctuary and education center that houses animals that are unable to return to the wild.
The 28-year-old former zookeeper first captured our attention in 2019 when her video with a red-tailed hawk went viral. Since then, Higa has continued to harness the power of social media as a tool for wildlife education, with some 35 million daily viewers tuning in to the sanctuary’s Twitch stream. Beyond Twitch, audiences can follow Higa and Alveus across YouTube (1.1 million), Instagram (489,000), and TikTok (308,600).
“Our goal is to inspire online audiences across the world to get involved with conservation efforts,” reads a passage on the Alveus website.
Earlier this year, National Geographic announced that Higa will be a part of its very first Creator Cohort, a group of digital creators in the world of science, nature, travel, and more, who are working to foster a digital presence within these content areas. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “inaugural program will run for six months, after which the participating creators will be considered for ongoing opportunities with Nat Geo, including marketing and programming activations.”
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In 2025 Higa was awarded the League of Their Own award at the Streamer Awards. According to the awards show, “this award goes to a streamer who creates truly one-of-a-kind content, pioneering a niche or category that no one else does, a creator who is simply in a league of their own.”
In her acceptance speech, Higa shared the story of how, before she was a Twitch streamer, she was a zookeeper who visited schools, birthday parties, and other events, educating people about animals. It was a job that provided her with a lot of fulfillment.
“But now, because of all of you watching, and all of you in this room, and all the creators who have uplifted me throughout my career, I’m doing that same job, just at an unfathomable scale,” Higa said.
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