My name is Steve Eshbaugh, and I am a lifelong naturalist and the owner of Roaming Naturalists. My first summer job was as a naturalist for a private reserve outside of Cincinnati. My other jobs as a naturalist included working as an education coordinator for a preserve in Indiana, serving as a ranger naturalist in Yellowstone National Park, and guiding for a nature touring business in Yellowstone. I have a bachelor's degree in botany from the University of Montana and a master's degree in environmental education from Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio.
Roaming Naturalists, LLC began as an answer to a lifelong puzzle. When I travel, I don’t merely want you to see an African lion or Resplendent Quetzal and check it off a list. I want you to wonder why a quetzal is hovering near the branch of an avocado tree. If you’re inquisitive as to why a small antelope is rubbing its snout against a
Steve Eshbaugh
shrub, then you’re my kind of traveler.
I have led over a dozen trips to Costa Rica, and many trips to South Africa and The Maritimes. I won't take you somewhere so that I can visit there too. I have always toured where I'm taking you. I'm not concerned with what I see, but with what you get to see. I rarely bring a camera to my eye on a trip, as I'm worried about setting you up for the best photo, not trying to win an award for my photos .
It may take me a little longer when I’m on a walk because hustling down a trail causes me to miss the small stuff. Some of the “little stuff” is fascinating in the story it tells. I never cease to marvel at the life of a lichen, where two symbiotic organisms ( an alga and fungus) depend on each other for life. It is fascinating to learn that ants are proven to identify themselves in a mirror or the intricate dance a honey bee does to alert other bees to the direction and distance to a nectar source and whether the bee should pursue that nectar. For those reasons and more, I only hire naturalists who share the same desire to learn and discover. When you go on one of my trips, you can expect to have your mind opened to the story behind the story of what we are seeing.