He tells the story often. The one where he was looking at a bird through binoculars when he felt something around his ankle. He looked down to find an Adder wrapped and writhing around his heavy leather boot. Dad had inadvertently stepped on the snake, but by good fortune, he had trapped the head so it couldn’t bite him. He describes a smooth sweeping Ronaldo-esque move, to flick the squirming serpent off his boot and into the long grass, where it slithered away. A heart-racing moment that would not easily be forgotten by snake or man, and a story that stuck in the mind of a young boy. The Add ..read more

It was the boy’s tenth birthday. He tore the wrapping paper from the heavy, flat gift. From the glossy cover two compound eyes stared back at him. The boy had little interest in books, but his love of wildlife was such that the presence of words could be tolerated in exchange for the possession of such extraordinary photographs. Printer’s ink and solvent drenched his nostrils as he turned the stiff, crackling pages. His eyes widened. Each page bloomed with the weird and the wonderful. A photographic chronicle of the entire natural history of planet Earth. First, he thumbed to the amphibians an ..read more

It was over a decade ago that I first heard rumours about wild crocodiles living in Singapore. There had been reports of occasional sightings in the remaining patches of mangrove that clung to the island’s coast. It seemed implausible that such a mighty predator could survive on the edge of one the planet’s busiest shipping lanes. Determined to test these claims, I made regular pilgrimages to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve at the north west of the island. Finally, after many weeks of searching, I spotted two glowing eyes of a Saltwater Crocodile.  Singapore Saltwater crocodile in 2010 Back ..read more

The conference in San Diego was at an end and I woke up with a morning to kill ahead of an impossibly long flight back to Singapore. If I was going to spend 19 hours sat on an airplane then I would need a long morning walk to stretch the legs. I grabbed my camera and set off for La Jolla Cove. I had seen Brown pelicans flying over my San Diego dock hotel. I love to photograph these odd looking birds so I asked Google for pelicans and was pointed to La Jolla (pronounced Lah HOY-ah) Cove. An Uber whisked me to my destination where I climbed out of the car and took a deep breath. My lungs filled ..read more

Another day, another Zoom call. As I listened to the presenter speaking, I watched tiny rivers snaking down the windowpane. Lightning crackled through the pewter clouds as thunder pounded the roof. These apocalyptic afternoon storms had been the norm in Singapore over recent weeks. The torrential rain slowed to a drizzling stop, as did my conference call. I had an hour before my next call, so I grabbed my wallet intending to run the 200 meters to the local mini-store to pick up some food. I stepped out of my door and into the clinging post-storm humidity. Everything was wet and small puddles w ..read more

The twin Yamaha 150 horsepower engines gurgled and spluttered to life, as the boat chugged away from the Sandakan dock on the emerald island of Borneo. The Captain leant on the throttle, sending us roaring across Sandakan bay. The nose of the boat was pointed towards one of the richest ecosystems on the planet – the Kinabatangan River. Excitement was rising as we entered the estuary and snaked our way through the valley. I was already alert to every movement as my eyes scanned for critters in the air, the trees, and on the river bank. Two and a half hours had passed when the boat glided to a h ..read more

The waters of Monterey Bay are a veritable stew of wildlife. The great and the good of marine biodiversity swim these waters and crawl the shores. For wildlife lovers it is one of the most joyous places on Earth. In the company of leviathan whales and frolicking Sea Otters, rambunctious California Sea-lions and peculiar pelicans, it is easy to look past the common old Harbour Seals. Harbour Seal basking on a bed of seaweed When walking down to Monterey Harbor the first sound that can be heard is the braying of the California Sea-lions, but often the first creatures that you meet are quiet sunb ..read more

The little island of Singapore has an abundance of wildlife. The government strategy is to evolve from a Garden City to become a City in Nature. Singapore already boasts an impressive list of iconic wildlife such as huge Saltwater crocodiles, otters that roam the city, wild boars in suburbia and hornbills in the sky above. Icons of wild Singapore at Sungei Buloh Wetlands The green spaces are wriggling with a jewel box of snakes. Always nearby but hardly ever seen, there seems to be a snake for every occasion in Singapore. They range from the huge Reticulated python to the deadly Blue Coral sna ..read more

It was a scorcher of a day in Munich. I had arrived in the great Bavarian city after a long flight from Singapore. Espresso and sunshine would be the just the tonic for jet lag, and with temperatures at a steamy 34 degrees Celsius sunshine was aplenty. I decided to walk the flight out of my legs and, of course, my camera traveled with me. I took a short and picturesque cut through the historic Alter Südfriedhof cemetery. The last resting place of some of history’s most notable Bavarians, as well as victims of great plague, laid to rest in 1563. The late afternoon sun sent wind blown shadows d ..read more

In the steamy jungles of South East Asia lives a peculiar creature. A small cat-sized tree dweller that appears to be part squirrel, part lemur and part fruit bat, but is unrelated to any of these animals. Why part fruit bat? The Sunda Colugo has a surprise – it can fly! A few days after arriving in Singapore I made my way to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for an evening walk. I had not acclimatized to the unforgiving heat and choking humidity, so an evening stroll in the green of the forest brought a small but welcome drop in temperature. It was my first time in Bukit Timah in a decade. The fores ..read more