In Borneo, Proboscis monkeys are still referred to as ‘Orang Belanda’ which translates as “Dutch man” in Bahasa Indonesian – presumably the early Dutch settlers had large noses, pot bellies and thin red penises. Plenty of people seem to regard these primates as being ugly, but having spent far more time than is healthy with […]

Orangutan smile Exchanging eye contact with any great ape imbues a deep sense of connection … so when this mother and baby orangutan gazed into my eyes it was already a special moment. But then something else happened … they both started displaying emotions which looked like laughter. So here’s the question … are they […]

Borneo insects Orangutans are a keystone species and a symbol for the threatened forests of Borneo and Sumatra. But by default, if we can ensure there is a future for these great apes we also protect a mind boggling array of biodiversity along with preventing hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2 being released into […]

I’ve just finished work on a magazine article about dolphins … here’s a random selection of some of the images. (Scroll down to see more)Dolphins are just one of numerous animals featured in my new book ‘Swimming with dolphins, Tracking gorillas’ which is a coffee table paperback showing where and how to see the world’s […]

One of the aims of this years International primate day is to highlight the suffering of primates in laboratories around the world. The first image below is a long tailed macaque – tens of thousands of these primates are still exported for use in experiments.  Scroll down further for a random selection of my images […]

Orangutan eyes They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. Compare the two photos below. The first is a wild orangutan in Borneo and the second is a young orangutan that was found in a palm oil plantation. She’s now in a care centre in southern Borneo and the eyes say it […]

Cheetah cubs have extremely high rates of mortality with only about 1 in 20 making it to adulthood. Most casualties fall victims to predators such as lions and hyenas with the mother’s main defence strategy being to hide her cubs away and move them to a new den every five days or so. When prey […]

I’ve been going through some of my manta ray photos and there appears to be an image of Jesus on one ? … always thought they were other worldly creatures.

Lessons of life from my dogs … some random thoughts. 1) Appreciate every encounter as if it’s the very first or last time that you’ll have it. 2) Live in the present, sod the past and don’t worry about the future. 3) No matter what happens in life, just kick some grass over your shit […]

Animal group names The collective nouns for groups of some animals are well known – a pride of lions or a herd of buffalo for example. Here I’ve started with my personal favourite top 5 and then below that I’ve listed in alphabetical order the definitive list of animal group names. A shrewdness of apes […]

Orangutan photography Last week a magazine asked me to pick 10 of my orangutan photos for a feature. Hard really, but these are the ones I chose in the end. Lots of these photos were taken on my Borneo orangutan holidays that I run each year in partnership with the Orangutan Foundation UK.

Wildlife photographer of the year finals One of my photos has been selected for the finals of the wildlife photographer of the year 2010 competition in the One Earth award category. The image is of a Sumatran orangutan in the quarantine centre near Medan, N Sumatra. I was trying to capture the difference in the […]

For information on my orangutan tours to Borneo please click here. There are two different species of orangutans : The Borneo orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) and the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii). According to a report published by Oryx, the International Journal of Conservation the current remaining populations are estimated at 6500 in Sumatra and 50,000 in […]

Orangutan twins It’s extremely rare that orangutans give birth to twins but in October 2009 an orangutan at Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting national park did give birth to twins and as far I know this is the first time that this has been documented. One baby did die but below is a photo I […]