Salmoni\'s 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 pigdeer count station for the Ministry of Natural Resources.\n', '

Salmoni is very private about his personal life, but has stated that he got engaged and started expecting his first child with his fiancée in 2015. His son Thomas was born in August 2015[citation needed].\n', '

In 1998, Salmoni began his apprenticeship as an animal trainer at Bowmanville Zoological Park. Salmoni left Canada for South Africa in 2000 as part of the controversial Tiger "rewilding" project. Salmoni was attacked by one of his trained big cats named Bongo, a five hundred pound male African lion in August 1999 in Ontario, which inspired his making of After the Attack.\n', '

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