For years, Sylvia Borgonovo was a fixture in Yellowstone National Park. She and husband David cruised about looking for animals to watch and photograph.
She was also a stalwart advocate for wolves, grizzlies, and other wildlife. David told Cowboy State Daily that her hope was for her photographs to speak for wild animals that cannot speak for themselves.
“I think it was important to her that people understand that everything has a purpose, and there’s a reason why that animal is there,” he said. “Or that tree or that insect.”
Sylvia Borgonovo died Sept. 15 after a brief battle with small-cell lung cancer in a nonsmoker that had metastasized into her spine. She was 65 and would have turned 66 on Oct. 7.
“I’m crushed and in disbelief,” David said, a sentiment shared by others in wildlife circles.
Self-Taught
Some of Sylvia’s best-known images were of Yellowstone’s oldest known living wolf, 1090F, age 12. Those included photographs of the famous wolf that she shared with Cowboy State Daily.
“That was one of her favorite photos,” David said of spotting the elusive matriarch of the legendary Mollie’s Pack. “That was a great day."
Sylvia wasn’t a professional photographer and never received any formal training in the craft.
“She was completely self-taught,” David said.
Sylvia’s passion for wildlife photography began during a family trip to Alaska in 1997, when the couple’s two now-grown daughters were young children.
Using just a basic camera, Sylvia got some photos of bears in Alaska — and was thrilled about it, David said.
“We had those photos blown up to 8.5-by-11, and we had them framed. We were so excited about it,” he said.
While the Borgonovos were working and raising their daughters, time was scarce for Sylvia to pursue her passion for wildlife photography.
After their daughters were raised and they retired, that changed.
“I reached a level of financial comfort where I was able to help expand her arsenal of lenses and camera bodies,” David said.
Sylvia was never one to just dabble in things, and wildlife photography was no exception, he said.
“She would spend hours and hours reading and watching tutorials on YouTube,” he said. “For anything that she did, she always put in more than 100% into it.
"So, I admire her for her tenacity to really learn."
The couple met, married, and pursued their careers in California, and their passion for wildlife began with whales.
They later moved to Missoula, Montana. After falling in love with Yellowstone, they rented an apartment in West Yellowstone, staying there every year from May 1 to Oct. 31.
The park’s grizzlies immediately captured their attention, but wolves became Sylvia’s favorite.
“I was more of a bear person; Sylvia was the wolf person,” David said.
Some of wildlife photographer Sylvia Borgonovo’s most iconic images were of Yellowstone’s famous Wolf 1090F. (Sylvia Borgonovo Photography) 
Some of wildlife photographer Sylvia Borgonovo’s most iconic images were of Yellowstone’s famous Wolf 1090F. (Sylvia Borgonovo Photography) Some of wildlife photographer Sylvia Borgonovo’s most iconic images were of Yellowstone’s famous Wolf 1090F. (Sylvia Borgonovo Photography)
Fortunate Meeting
Sylvia was born in Frankfurt, Germany — her father was from Germany — and moved to the United States as a teen.
Her father joined the military and was stationed back in Germany, where he met Sylvia’s mother, David said.
The family moved back to the U.S. when Sylvia was 5, and she spent her formative years in New Jersey, where she attended nursing school.
Nursing was the perfect career for Sylvia because of her genuine love and kindness for people, David said.
Sylvia’s family moved to the West Coast when her father was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco.
She soon landed a nursing position at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center.
“She was out celebrating that job with her mother when I met her,” David said.
They married in 1989.
‘Just Visualize It’
During their time in Yellowstone, the Borgonovos made many friends in the wildlife advocacy and photography community.
Among them was Krisztina Gayler, who has a background in ranching in Eastern Europe and the U.S. and has become an outspoken wolf advocate.
Gayler told Cowboy State Daily that over the past several years, she and Sylvia became close friends.
“We talked just about every day,” she said.
If not in person, then by phone or through text messages, she said, even after Gayler moved to Alaska, where she is now.
Gayler is originally from Hungary and said that Sylvia helped her with learning English as a second language and was never anything but patient and kind.
“She was an absolute deep-hearted person for her friends and for wildlife,” Gayler said.
Sylvia noticed things she didn’t like about policy toward wildlife, particularly wolves and grizzlies.
“She started to become a voice for wildlife,” she said. "Then she became a stronger voice for wildlife."
But Sylvia never lost her love and respect for other humans, even the ones she disagreed with when it came to wildlife policy, Gayler noted.
“She was not judgmental about people having different views. She was open, not only in her heart, but also in her mindset,” she said.
Sylvia loved encouraging others and had a saying that Gayler will never forget.
Whenever she had doubts about something, Sylvia would tell her, “Just visualize it, girl. It’s going to happen. It will happen, I promise,” Gayler said.
Sudden Illness
Sylvia always had trouble with back pain, and so when her back started bothering her in June, she and David didn’t think much of it at first.
After trips to the chiropractor and other usual treatments didn’t work, she decided to get an MRI on July 1.
On July 3, the results came back.
"They found something on her lower back,” David said.
Doctors soon determined that her condition was incurable. But with intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments, they hoped to get at least another year.
Sylvia was planning on renewing her nursing license in December because “even though she was retired," that was still important to her, David said.
When her condition worsened, she was checked into the hospital in Missoula.
On the morning of Sept. 15, she recorded an upbeat message for her friends and seemed to have turned the corner for the better.
She died that evening, David said.
‘Sylvia Sent Me That Bear’
Gayler said that when she moved to Alaska, she was determined to see some of the blonde grizzly bears that the area is famous for.
Over the summer, she took numerous trips into the tundra but just couldn’t find the bears.
She just kept bearing in mind what Sylvia always told her: "Just visualize it, and it will happen.”
On Sept. 15, she headed out one last time as a major snowstorm was expected to bury the tundra the next day.
Knowing the seriousness of Sylvia’s condition, she didn’t like getting out of cellphone service range. But she’d gotten her friend’s optimistic video message that morning and thought, “Sylvia is out of the woods.”
During that trip, her party finally spotted a “mama blonde grizzly with cubs” and watched the bear in awe for about half an hour.
As they headed back, Gayler was eager to tell Sylvia what she’d seen.
“As soon as I walked back into the cell range, my phone started blowing up,” she said.
A quick call to a mutual friend confirmed her worst fear.
Looking back on that day, she notes that the time of Sylvia’s passing might correspond with when the blonde grizzly first came into her view with her cubs.
“I think Sylvia sent me that bear,” she said.
Photos Made A Difference
Debates over wolf management in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho can get fiery.
Wolves of the Rockies spokesman Marc Cooke told Cowboy State Daily that the Borgonovos were unwavering wolf advocates but also avoided the negative clashes.
“They quietly promoted proper wolf management and restored some of (the) faith in the goodness of humanity," he said.
Sylvia avoided cantankerous or negative debates and let her photographs speak for wolves, Cooke said.
“People would look at her photos and think, ‘Oh my gosh, that wolf is beautiful,’” he said.
“Her photos would be ‘boom,' in your face. and you would get what she was saying: 'These animals need to be protected,'" Cooke said.
There’s no filling the hole that Sylvia left in the wildlife advocacy world, he said.
“I’m still kind of rattled and numb,” Cooke said. "Gosh, it (her passing) happened so quickly."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
