Maya Higa is an American conservationist, falconer, wildlife observer, Twitch streamer, and YouTuber; she was born on May 24, 1998 (age 24). She is the founder of Alveus Sanctuary in Austin, Texas, a non-profit exotic animal sanctuary and virtual education center. She previously had a relationship with the anchor Mizkif.
Maya and her siblings grew up on a farm in Northern California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education and communications from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo.
Higa decided to continue the chat one day in February 2019, where she met two men. They suggested that Higa begin streaming on Twitch, which she did after some discussion. Her early streams consisted primarily of singing and chatting with viewers, until one day when she introduced her juvenile red-tailed hawk. The clip was later uploaded to the subreddit r/LiveStreamFails and went viral. Due to the previous absence of falconry and wildlife rehabilitators on the site, her content was significantly different from that of other streamers, garnering her more attention.
Realizing she could educate Twitch viewers about wildlife, she decided to focus more of her content on her passion. She gained media attention after her 21st birthday by hosting a charity event for the local homeless coalition, where she had previously volunteered. The stream’s revenue was $32,000.
Maya later met another streamer, Mizkif, with whom she first communicated via Discord. Mizkif invites Maya to fly away and meet in person after a few online dates and streaming attempts to assemble her computer, because a fan donated a large sum of money to make it possible.
Despite having no intention of dating, they ended up in a relationship. In July of 2019, Higa launched Conservation Cast, a podcast where listeners can learn about animals and gather information from conservationists, nature enthusiasts, and science communicators.
