Joy Wang is a certified wildlife tracker, photographer and educator based in Chicago and Shanghai. In both megacities, she tunes into urban wildlife and their subtle signs of existence.
In China, she works to systematically compile the country’s tracks and sign knowledge, and to promote the artful and attentive skill of tracking.
She appreciates both the abundant natural stories revealed through tracking, and the poetic quality of tracks and signs as animals’ form of language and land art
EDUCATION
2023 BFA, Fine Arts, “Art and Environment”. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US.
CERTIFICATION
2024 “Track and Sign” Level 3 (98%), North America Tracker Certification; Olympic Peninsula, WA, US.
2023 “Track and Sign” Level 3 (99%), North America Tracker Certification; Minneapolis, MN, US.
2023 “Track and Sign” Level 3 (92%), North America Tracker Certification; Condon, MT, US.
TALK
2025 Track animal signs, decode the land’s stories. Shanshui Conservation Center, China.
2025 Life in the City: Tracking Chicago’s Urban Foxes. North American Wildlife Trackers Conference.
2024 Life in the City: Tracking Chicago’s Urban Foxes. Northeast Wildlife Trackers Conference. Charlton, MA, US.
2024 Reading Animal’s Stories through Tracks and Signs. Aurora Museum, and Shanghai Wild Bird Society, Shanghai, China.
2023 Track Identification of Common Mammal Families. The Paradise International Foundation, Giant Panda National Park, Sichuan, China.
ARTICLE
2025 Cool Career —Trackers. Magazine “100000 Whys”.
2024 Tracking the Millennium Park Red Fox. Northeast Wildlife Trackers.
2024 去海岛，寻找神奇动物. Zhoushan Higher Club.
EDUCATION
2023 BFA, Fine Arts, “Art and Environment”. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US.
CERTIFICATION
2024 “Track and Sign” Level 3 (98%), North America Tracker Certification; Olympic Peninsula, WA, US.
2023 “Track and Sign” Level 3 (99%), North America Tracker Certification; Minneapolis, MN, US.
2023 “Track and Sign” Level 3 (92%), North America Tracker Certification; Condon, MT, US.
TALK
2025 Track animal signs, decode the land’s stories. Shanshui Conservation Center, China.
2025 Life in the City: Tracking Chicago’s Urban Foxes. North American Wildlife Trackers Conference.
2024 Life in the City: Tracking Chicago’s Urban Foxes. Northeast Wildlife Trackers Conference. Charlton, MA, US.
2024 Reading Animal’s Stories through Tracks and Signs. Aurora Museum, and Shanghai Wild Bird Society, Shanghai, China.
2023 Track Identification of Common Mammal Families. The Paradise International Foundation, Giant Panda National Park, Sichuan, China.
ARTICLE
2025 Cool Career —Trackers. Magazine “100000 Whys”.
2024 Tracking the Millennium Park Red Fox. Northeast Wildlife Trackers.
2024 去海岛，寻找神奇动物. Zhoushan Higher Club.