During the summer of 2018, I was fortunate enough to travel alone to Costa Rica to participate in a two-week wildlife and marine conservation under 18’s volunteering program with Global Vision International (GVI). Alongside ten other people from different parts of the globe, we came together to form a team to fight against the heat,…
Birds in the tropics are known to be both diverse and colourful and despite being in a very remote, cold and rainy part of Peru, I was not disappointed. My research trip to Peru was in early 2017 and was to last for two months. As a passionate wildlife conservationist, seeing a huge diversity of…
Our university trip to the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland was looking like it would be a day of unforgettable wildlife encounters. We boarded the boat kitted out in wetsuits, boots, hoods and clutching snorkels in gloved hands. There was a buzz of excited conversation as we moved out into open water, scanning…
“And finally, this is your room…” I remember leaning forward against the rickety wooden door which screamed as it swung open to reveal a bare room with two beds and a naked shelf. There was a strong musty smell which lightly tingled my nostrils. Jill, my intern, stared apprehensively with a look of ‘what have…
“Would you like to visit the lion cubs?” Linda asked. “Of course!” Was my immediate response. I had no inkling of the unfolding enigma. Several months early I’d seen the Facebook post. Four tanned, smiling vacationers in Spain posing with an adorable young lion cub in their arms. Who wouldn’t love to cuddle one of…
Standing high on a mountain fell with the harsh emptiness of the Lake District stretching away into low cloud, I can see the supposed wilderness around me. I can hear the birds singing, and their alarm calls cutting through the gusts of wind buffeting my body. I can even smell the deep earthiness of the…
It is 4.30 in the morning, and we are trekking bleary-eyed through the dark Costa Rican jungle, heading towards Sirena river in hopes of spotting the endangered Baird’s tapirs. Here, in Corcovado National Park, tapirs like to take a morning dip in the river before retiring to their secluded muddy patches for the day. We…
Several years ago, we accidentally started a tradition. Since 2012, we’d been gradually working our way around the country spotting all the British species of butterfly. This is by no means something new; there’s even a book written which chronicles one person’s quest across Britain to see each one. In our case however, it sparked…
The Elephant was on the brink of extinction when in 1991 only 10 individuals remained on the island of Mauritius. Thankfully its number increased due to the conservation efforts of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and to the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. Today there are an estimated 240-255 mature individual elephants left in Mauritius. There are,…
It started with an old box of books. My parents dropped it off to me during one of their visits; a relic from the idyllic youth I had spent under their roof. As I opened it, the smell of aged-paper hit my nostrils as it curled up from the battered spines, memories flooding back as…