Jessica Hadley

Jessica Hadley

Jessica Hadley is a wildlife photojournalist and bear specialist working in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Her work is largely focused on human wildlife interactions, mainly in National Parks. Her goal is to document how our actions, while visiting wild places, affect the lives of the animals we encounter. Jessica is originally from Northern California. She grew up visiting National Parks with her family and quickly fell in love with both wildlife and photography. At age 19 Jessica was hired as a volunteer for the Yosemite Bear Management program, the same National Park where her parents first met. Since then she has spent the last nine years working with, and photographing wildlife in California and across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. A majority of her work as a wildlife professional for the federal government has been focused on bears.

All images on this page are of wild animals unless stated otherwise. No animals have been baited in the making of these photographs. I work hard to protect myself and the wildlife while practicing photography which means keeping a safe distance to keep it wild.

Awards & Publications

In early 2017 Jessica was one of 12 students to receive the North American Nature Photography Association College Scholarship. From this she received a NANPA membership and was given the opportunity to work on a multimedia project with fellow scholarship winners under the guidance of talented mentors. They presented the work at the NANPA Summit in Jacksonville Florida on March 4, 2017.

In 2023 Jessica was one of 50 photographers to receive a mentorship through Vital Impacts. 

Jessica has published images in the Yellowstone Bear Project Annual Report 2019, Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Investigations 2020 Annual Report of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (Page 40), the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team Research and Monitoring Summary 2022, and the International Bear News Summer 2023 Vol. 32 no. 2.