Dave Salmoni (born September 4, 1975) is a Canadian (Canada) animal trainer, zoologist, a television presenter, and television producer. He has his own production company, Triosphere, which is based in South Africa and specializes in natural history filmmaking.

Salmoni embraced this passion, and his mother, a competitive figure skating coach, and father, a chemical engineer, fostered his love for the wild. Salmoni studied zoology at the Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, and wrote his undergraduate thesis on tracking the hibernation of Canadian black bears. Also while in university, Salmoni was certified in Chemical Immobilization of Wildlife and worked on an elk relocation project and at a deer count station for the Ministry of Natural Resources. In 1998 Salmoni began his apprenticeship as an animal trainer at Bowmanville Zoological Park (Bowmanville Zoo). Salmoni left Canada for South Africa in 2000 to help captive animals learn the skills they needed to be released into the wild. In his spare time, Salmoni likes to spend his time at his familys cottage in Ontario, which is surrounded by an abundance of wildlife. Hes an avid outdoorsman, enjoys sports and loves to build things. Outside of his native Canada, Salmoni enjoys Yellowstone National Park and South Africa, where he has lived for five consecutive years and since then, he continues to visit three months out of the year.

He has hosted and/or produced several TV documentaries, including Living with Tigers (2003), which describes the progress he and John Varty made as part of the Bengal Tiger rewilding Project (Bengal_tiger#Re-wilding_Project_in_South_Africa), and Into The Lions Den (2005) and Sharks: Are They Hunting Us?, both for Discovery Channel. He starred in the show Animal Face-Off as a host and expert. Salmoni is a host of several Animal Planet and Discovery Channel programs such as Rogue Nature, Predator vs. Prey, Into the Lions Den, and After the Attack, which are series he not only hosts but also produces. He currently hosts and produces the Discovery Channel show Rogue Nature , as well as After the Attack and Into the Pride (2009) on Animal Planet. Dave Salmoni was attacked by one of his trained big cats named Bongo, a 500+ pound male African Lion in August, 1999 in Ontario, Canada , which inspired his making of After the Attack . Dave Salmoni frequently mentions his own attack story during his shows.

However there are many controversies regarding the first official documentary Living with Tigers (Bengal_tiger#Re-wilding_Project_in_South_Africa) in which he starred. This is the same documentary which made him famous. A strong criticism about this documentary/project is with the chosen cubs. Experts state that the four tigers (Ron, Julie, Seatao and Shadow) involved in the re-wilding project are not purebred Bengal tigers and should not be used for breeding. The four tigers are not recorded in the Bengal tiger Studbook and should not be deemed as purebred Bengal tigers. Many tigers in the worlds zoos are genetically impure, and there is no reason to suppose these four are not among them. The 1997 International Tiger Studbook lists the current global captive (Captivity (animal)) population of Bengal tigers at 210 tigers. All of the studbook-registered captive (Captivity (animal)) population is maintained in Indian zoos, except for one female Bengal tiger in North America. It is important to note that Ron and Julie (two of the tigers) were bred in the USA and hand-raised at Bowmanville Zoo in Canada, while Seatow and Shadow are two tigers bred in South Africa.

The tigers in the Tiger Canyons Project have recently been confirmed to be crossbred Siberian/Bengal tigers. Tigers that are not genetically pure are not allowed to be released into the wild and will not be able to participate in the tiger Species Survival Plan, which aims to breed genetically pure tiger specimens and individuals. In short, these tigers do not have any genetic value. The release of these Tigers into the wild might result in genetic pollution, and therefore the extinction of purebred Tigers.

The documentary (Documentary film) has been proven to be a fraud. The tigers are unable to hunt, and the film crew chased the prey up against the fence and into the path of the tigers just for the sake of dramatic footage. Cory Meacham, a US-based environmental journalist mentioned that "the film has about as much to do with tiger conservation as a Disney cartoon." In addition, the tigers have not been released?and indeed still reside in a small enclosure under constant watch and with frequent human contact. The Discovery documentary contains footage that its maker, John Varty, has admitted on affidavit to be false.

There are claims that Tiger Canyons Tigers have no conservation value, and experts question Dave Salmonis intention of being part of the documentary and rewilding these genetically unpure tigers. Dave Salmoni, who is considered an experience big cat trainer at Bowmanville Zoo in Canada should have the knowledge of distinguishing tiger subspecies based on their appearance, but the fact that he repeatedly mentioned in the documentary and in other media appearances that those tigers are bengal tigers seem to question his integrity. Most experts concluded that it is just money-minded venture in creating this documentary which has allowed money to be earned through the deception that the tigers there are purebred, but in fact they have no conservation value as they are of mixed ancestry. Conservationists fear that the public will be misled in this cynical fashion.

Salmoni appeared as a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman on September 2, 2003, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992 TV series)) on November 1, 2007, and on March 9, 2010, and is regularly featured on Chelsea Lately (most recently on April 14, 2010). He also appeared for the annual Halloween special on the Tyra Banks Show. He was on The Hour (The Hour (Canadian TV series)), on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) on November 8, 2007 and January 14, March 25 in 2009. Salmoni appeared on Anderson Cooper 360� on February 18, 2009 to talk about Travis (chimpanzee), who was killed by police for attacking his owner. One of Salmonis points was that chimpanzees should not be kept as pets.