Bullied and silenced by a language barrier, an elementary-aged Ron Magill found a friend in a schoolyard squirrel that ate peanuts right out of his hand. That lunchtime bond sparked a lifelong obsession with animals, transforming a lonely child into one of the world’s most recognizable faces in wildlife conservation. “He wasn’t judging me, he wasn’t calling me names, he wasn’t making fun of me,” remembers Magill, now 66, of the creature.