Perhaps driven by his extreme passion for the wild, Dave Salmoni studied zoology in college and also made a fascinating career out of it, starting a production company called Triosphere. Based in South Africa, Triosphere focuses on wildlife films and documentaries.
His journey has seen the Canadian animal trainer travel to dangerous islands where the most dangerous predators on the planet live. Bear Island, Shark Island and Devil’s Island are just a few of the places that gave him nerves. In case it crossed your mind, yes, Dave Salmoni was attacked by one of the wild animals he loves so much. Bongo, a big cat trained by an animal lover, turned against him in August 1999, in Ontario. He described the attack as unprovoked and unexpected.
Luckily, Dave’s animal attack wasn’t fatal, and instead of discouraging his interest in nature, it helped raise the bar even higher. The attack on the five hundred pound African lion led Dave to do After the Attack, a reality series about victims of animal attacks. Apparently Dave Salmoni’s life looks like fun, but there’s a lot to learn about the animal trainer.
Who is Dave Salmoni?
He is a renowned animal trainer and television personality born on September 4, 1975 in Ontario, Canada. The names of her parents are not available, but her mother is a competitive figure skating coach while her father is a chemical engineer. Both parents supported their son’s interest in taming wild animals and educated him at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, where he majored in zoology. His undergraduate thesis focused on monitoring black bear hibernation in Canada. His days at Laurentian weren’t all about books, he was involved in the chemical immobilization of wildlife, working on an elk relocation project, and working on a hog count station for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
His apprenticeship as an animal trainer began at Bowmanville Zoological Park in 1998, in 2000 Salmoni moved to South Africa as part of the tiger rewilding project. Soon, his passion for animals turned into stardom as he started hosting Living with Tigers, Rogue Nature, In the Lion’s Den, Face to Face with Animals and more. He is the current host and producer of After the Attack and In the Pride, which airs on Animal Planet.
In 2014, Dave Salmoni’s jaw-dropping short series- Creation of Deadly Islands. The series brought a lot of excitement, adventure and of course danger. As his name suggests, Dave has submitted to life on some of the most isolated and dangerous islands in the world. He cohabited with deadly predators in order to understand how they survived the harsh climate and other conditions on the island.
Some of the places he went to include Bear Island, Shark Island and Devil’s Island, all of which posed a major risk to his life. In this kind of adventure, two things are largely involved: it’s either the body that succumbs to bad weather in some of these rare places, or the wild tears that tear you apart. Nevertheless, against all odds, Dave Salmoni survived and continues to make us green with envy for his cordial relationship with lions, tigers and other animals we can only dream of petting.
The animal trainer has been featured on top TV shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live! from 2015 to 2018 and the Wendy Williams Show in 2018.
Is he married, who is his wife?
Dave Salmoni is very handsome and is expected to have had a very busy relationship, but it turns out he’s not interested in sharing his personal life like he shares his exploits in the wild. Bonnie Somerville and comedian Chelsea Handler are the only women who have been linked to him publicly. However, in 2015, Dave revealed that he was engaged and expecting his first child with a lucky lady at the same time, but we never heard those wedding bells. The breeder welcomed their first child later in August 2015.