Wildlife filmmaker to share stories in Kent

KentOnline / KMTV

From capturing elusive tigers on film to close shaves with polar bears—nature presenter and cameraman Gordon Buchanan has seen it all and will soon be sharing his stories in Folkestone and Tunbridge Wells as he embarks on a national tour.

Transcript

00:00You know, they are majestic, they're iconic, they're kind of recognisable, and I've been

00:06lucky enough to spend a huge amount of time over the years, so it was a bit of a no-brainer.

00:12I thought I could talk about bears, or I could just talk about big cats, but I thought, obviously,

00:17the ring of lions and tigers and bears, it just was too good to dismiss that.

00:22Why do you think us Brits have such a fascination with these animals?

00:26It's a good question. I think, you know, there will be few houses, homes around the country

00:31that do not have one bear living in them. So bears particularly have kind of worked

00:37their way into our lives like no other. Paddington bear, Winnie the Pooh, Yogi bear, there's

00:45just sort of, bears are everywhere, and probably as a wild animal, bears are probably the best

00:52represented species on the planet. And I think that's because we've always had this fascination

00:58with those animals, going way back, you know, in time when we first sort of, you know, we're

01:03living a hunter-gatherer existence and living alongside bears in, you know, even in the

01:10United Kingdom when we had bears. You know, human beings are very kind of quite a self-centred

01:14species. We kind of like to see animals sort of reflecting back at us, and I think the

01:20simple fact that bears can stand on two legs is a big kind of appeal for us, and probably

01:27always has been, because we see them like us in some way.

01:30And we've got all of those animals here in Kent at various sanctuaries. Is the wildlife

01:36of this area something you're familiar with, something that you've had the pleasure to witness and observe?

01:42No, I haven't. I mean, I sort of, I've travelled extensively around the UK, but it's always kind of

01:49been towns, cities, road systems. I seldom get the opportunity to go off-piste, and hopefully

01:58on the tour, if I can kind of get my schedule right, I'll be able to actually, because I

02:03really want to explore the different, the countryside and sort of, you know, some of the wildlife.

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