Spent a very enjoyable day at Chester Zoo for their Ape Conservation Symposium. The speaker line-up was amazing with some really top drawer presentations. It is amazing to hear about all the hard work being done to preserve these iconic animals and their habitat.
One of the most harrowing topics of the day was the bush meat trade. This is such a huge problem with a global reach.

Chester Zoo has to be applauded for all the support it gives to multiple centres around the globe working at the coal face of conservation.

I had my eyes opened to just how important zoos are in this field 14 years ago when I first started working with Blackpool Zoo. Since moving back to Cheshire my local Zoo has been Chester and have been asked along to a few publicity days over the years. I have strengthened my association with them recently by agreeing to be a patron of a new conservation initiative that will be launched soon.

Well, another few months have passed with little updating of the website but hey ho I’m a very busy boy. Gardening, Vetting and Filming. Nice to take a few days out though and get away from it all.
I love Wales, me. It’s a gorgeous part of the world. From the rugged beauty of Snowdonia to the rolling wilderness of mid-Wales and stunning coastline. I only needed an overnight in the van and a four hour walk on the Sunday to remind me how I love to just get an OS map and wander into the middle of nowhere. Weekends away like these totally recharge the battery.

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Me and facial hair don’t really get on. Above is a picture of the largest facial fungus i’ve ever managed to culture. After a couple of weeks it starts to itch. Properly itch. Like an allergic dog, with fleas, mites and blocked anal glands. Ok, maybe not that bad, but bad enough for me to cut it off my face as soon as possible. So it is with some trepidation that I, along with Tom & Andy at work, have signed up for ‘Movember’. This entails growing a moustache for the entire month of November to raise awareness of Prostatic Cancer and funds for research into this killer disease.
Why a moustache? Well it is kind of embarrassing to have a rubbish moustache and embarrassment is one of the reasons men don’t get their prostate checked. Trouble is I have an entire month of work, including production meetings and talks to do with this ectopic eyebrow on my upper lip. So I need help. Help from you good people. If I can say to people “I know it looks ridiculous but this mousy nonsense has raised a great deal of cash for charity” I will be able to hold my head up high. So please donate a little cash to this very worthwhile cause and I’ll record a thank you video naming you individually for the help you gave (pseudonyms accepted).
To see the progress and possible bung a little cash into the pot please click on the wax seal below to be taken to the Movember Website.

All the best places are hard to get to. This is because all the best places are a little bit wild. The Arctic, the heart of Borneo and deepest darkest Pembrokeshire. I was invited down to Haverford West earlier this year to join in a great project set up by the Darwin Centre. This is a fantastic organisation that enables virtually all of the school children in Pembrokeshire to get out and about exploring the world around them and learning about science. Photos of the event I was involved with below show some of the range of activities they were all involved with.



The title of my talk may seem a little extreme for primary school children but really they love it. If it can mash you, bite you, sting you or crush you - they want to hear about it!
Science is a real passion of mine and I love reading about it, watching documentaries about it and talking to people about it. Life on this planet is simply astounding from the world of bacteria to creatures like the blue whale.
I was given another opportunity to wax lyrical about my adventures at ‘Nature Exchange Day’ in another part of the county just last week. The group organising this day was ‘Planed’ (pronounced “Plan Ed”) which assists lots of volunteer groups around the county with an emphasis on the environment and biodiversity. It was a great event highlighting just what an amazing amount is being done by volunteer groups all over this area.
As it takes 4 hours to get to Pembrokeshire I decided to stay down a little longer this time and explore a bit more of this amazing county. We were blessed with fantastic weather for October and manage to launch the canoe on the Estuary and Coastline. It was only a taster of what’s on offer and I’m definitely going to be back soon.

Those of you who have never had a run-in with the Women’s Institute may have the wrong idea about the organisation. The picture above may help you rethink the image of ‘Jam and Jerusalem’. Don’t get me wrong you will find exceedingly good cake to rival the well known poet (actually far surpassing the mass produced cardboardy confectionary) but it’s not what the WI is all about. At it’s heart it’s a well organised body of intelligent outgoing women. They like a laugh and make you feel very welcome.
I am currently ‘on the circuit’. I started a couple of years back speaking at the Shropshire WI annual council’s meeting and that started the ball rolling. Since then I have attended similar events for Staffordshire, Cheshire, Warwickshire, Suffolk West and Derbyshire with Worcestershire and East Sussex booked for next year.
For a speaker the WI are the perfect audience. They are an engaged, interested bunch with a wicked sense of humour. The only downside is that they have many fine speakers amongst their own numbers who can turn the annual budget into a paragraph packed with gags.
The other side of WI that has appeared to me is the muscle. This is a huge organisation (I nearly wrote ‘manned’ for a second)... womanned by well motivated efficient volunteers so when they think that something needs doing they get the bit between their teeth and start making a difference. Raising money, awareness and campaigning is second nature and they get the job done.
The WI is still growing and changing and new groups are starting up all the time. Anyone out there who has been approached to speak or join a meeting should certainly give it a whirl. And if you’ve got knees like mine - wear shorts!

The time has come to say goodbye and thank you to the tash. It’s been great fun and a very clever way of raising awareness for Men’s Health issues such as Prostate Cancer. I may have to take part again next year.

To view the video in YouTube CLICK HERE

Sorry for the huge delay in updating the website. Normal excuses, work, travel, blah, blah.
I am back at home now for a good long while so will be trying to keep the site updated a little better (yeah, yeah, heard it before..)

Anyway, today’s rant. I have over the years been extremely fortunate to travel around the world visiting some amazing conservation projects around the world. Television audiences have a healthy appetite for a certain type of subject - elephants, polar bears, primates, big cats and marine mammals. Other incredibly endangered species don’t get much of a look in. Rodents, invertebrates, fungi and plants are much harder to sell. There are always rafts of bearded men (& women) deeply ingrained in the mossy world of conservation jumping up and down with frustration when another ‘cute’, ‘emotional’ or ‘fluffy’ animal series makes it onto our screens. Take ‘Orangutan Diaries’ for example. Huge amounts of time, money and exposure spent on one species instead of the ‘big picture’, that is, habitat loss. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly.
However, what is so often misunderstood by the impassioned, dedicated campaigner is that their passion and dedication stems from the fact they care. It’s an emotional response. We humans are no different from the rest of the natural world (and zoologists & biologists should realise this more than most). Behaviour is based on motivation. Want to change an animal’s behaviour (or even a plants!) - motivate it.
The sensational species, such as sharks and apes grab the attention of the largest proportion of the public and we need to speak to as many people as possible to turn the back the tide of environmental disaster.
Orangutan diary sucked in millions of people worldwide. Humans are story tellers, have been for thousands of years. By telling the story of individuals we get our audience to become emotionally involved in their plight, circumstance and future. These animals are ambassadors for their species and the thousands of species that share their world. The global awareness and sympathy for these individuals motivates people to do something. To get involved, to think about their impact (even halfway around the world) or simply to find out more.
Now to the real reason I started this whole spiel. One of the natural responses to seeing me getting close to these amazingly charismatic creatures is that people want a similar experience and so I receive a lot of requests about going out to these projects to help.
Remember that tens of millions of people have seen the same programs and feel the same way. Successful, sustainable projects utilise local people to boost the local economy and increase local education of the issues impacting on local habitats. Massive influxes of foreign volunteers is not necessarily a good thing. If you want to make a difference to the lives of the subjects of these films it should start locally. Raise awareness, raise funds and think about your own impact on their lives, through the products you buy and the resources you consume. Next if you are truly fired up to get involved in conservation, look around your immediate environment. The sad fact is that there are very few places people live on this planet that haven’t suffered severe biodiversity impact. Get involved with your local wildlife trust (for UK residents) or equivalent. Litter picks, tree planting, putting up nest boxes, removing non-indigenous plant species are all good starts. If your heart is firmly set on the exotic and you want to combine a foreign holiday with voluntary work, there are plenty of opportunities out there but make sure they are genuine projects that require your skills and not just your cash. Beware of glossy adverts with pictures of volunteers cuddling cute orphans. Do your research and speak to previous participants. Expect hard work, harsh conditions and sparse accommodation. If you just want a guilt-free, life-altering experience then remember responsible, sustainable eco-tourism pumps cash into local economies and promotes investment in habitat protection. Take lots of photos and present your trip to everyone who will listen when you get home (a more personal version of making TV programs).
TV is a great medium to spread the word. I am very proud of my small involvement in series such as Orangutan Diary. I’d love to make more conservation programmes with more obscure species but you guys have to promise to watch them.
Till next time, many thanks, Steve.

A difficult decision to do this podcast but as Useless had a ‘public profile’ it only seemed appropriate to note her passing publicly.
As I have to tell my clients “It comes to them all, and this was just her time”.
Still, its weird not having her in the house.

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Just a quick update on Useless and I.

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Here’s a little clip from my snowboarding trip to Austria a few weeks ago. I’ve been going snowboarding one week a year for the last 14 years or so. I love it. I used to ski but boarding is so much more fun. I started attempting to learn how to jump in the last 2-3 years and it can be a little painful. I encase myself in body armour which cushions the blows and increases the confidence. I remember a time when I was made of rubber. From my teens to my mid-twenties I would throw myself into just about everything. Now I have to be more cautious. Dodgy ankles, shoulders and back waiting to give out on me.
Its been proven that attitudes to risk change with age and this makes perfect evolutionary sense. This is why I have to keep challenging myself to do those things that I know I can if I can just get up the guts to try. Roll on Winter 2011, I going for the front somersault (I don’t think so).

To watch this video on YouTube CLICK HERE.