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GORDON BUCHANAN HAS a job that most of us would dream about. He’s a wildlife cameraman, so he gets to travel the world, see amazing animals, and make great TV shows about the process.
Hang out with polar bears all day and get paid? Colour us jealous (but a little scared, admittedly).
Buchanan is getting ready to head around Ireland for a few weeks of talks this month, when he will give Irish audiences a glimpse into his experiences working with some incredible animals.
Over a career already spanning 20 years, he has travelled to parts of the world we can only dream of. And it all started off by accident.
“I was working in a restaurant at the weekend on the summer holidays,” recalls Buchanan. It just so happened that the owner was a wildlife cameraman. “I’d never considered it as a job and I got to know him and I was absolutely fascinated by what he does.”
They got on well, and the cameraman offered Buchanan an opportunity to join him – so the young lad couldn’t say no.
Having “arsed around in school”, becoming a cameraman was a way of seeing the world.
Buchanan grew up on the Isle of Mull, which is a fairly remote part of Scotland. “There wasn’t much to do and I absolutely loved exploring the world about me and seeing the animals that lived alongside us,” he remembers.
Meeting the animals
This sense of curiosity is what must drive him to keep exploring the planet. What’s it like filming animals around the world? “A lot of the time you’re trying to hide,” he says.
“There are occasions when there’s animals that can completely ignore you and you are able to ignore the environment and watch them do what they do naturally,
and then occasionally animals cross the line and they want to engage with you some way… it’s a great privilege to get to spend time with animals.”
The one thing he had always wanted to do was film polar bears in the Arctic – but he didn’t get to achieve this lifetime’s aim until 2012. When he did get there, he met them at a critical time, after sea ice melted early, due to climate change. “When we got there we thought, ‘this isn’t a good time to film polar bears’, but really it was because it showed them what they faced.”
“I don’t even have to remind myself how lucky I am to be doing the job that I’m doing,” acknowledges Buchanan. “I think if you go complacent or tired of doing it, it would be time to give up. There are so many fascinating places and fascinating people that every time I go away I do feel completely blessed.”
Even when things like this happen…
Changing attitudes
In recent years, Buchanan has become hugely interested in the environment, and the human race’s impact on the world around it.
“In the beginning, the early days, when I was just starting to get my career going it was almost a selfish thing because it was a job I desperately wanted to do,” he says. It has made him realise that as individuals, we can all impact on the world, and he wants to make sure he treads lightly on it.
“What I care deeply about is raising the awareness of places or species that are in danger and I would love to get to the end of my career and end of my life and feel I’ve done everything to possible to help the natural world.”
He says you don’t have to go to the Arctic to see the effects of climate change. Earlier this year, thousands of seabirds washed up dead along the west coast of Scotland.
“That was caused by climate change, winter warming,” explains Buchanan. “There was a freak weather event where we had these storms that lasted much longer than the amount of days they normally do.”
Buchanan knows that a lot of the “big” decisions to help the environment are going to be made at big levels. But he also believes that we can all help save the world by making small changes.
“I think all of this attitude should start at a very basic level – if you walk out of a room, switch off the lights, don’t leave the taps running.”
He drills these tips into his own kids, to make sure they’re aware. “I just look at everything I do,” he says, adding that he’s not telling people to “knit their own onesies and live in a cabin”.
“If we can all make these small differences we can put pressure on government and politicians,” he said.
The past years have seen him sort out his life-work balance, which has given him more time for causes and conservation. So far, he’s teamed up with the likes of Greenpeace, Trees for life and Scottish Wildlife to help boost their work.
Life with the snow wolves
Buchanan’s next television show is The Snow Wolf Family and Me, where he spent time with Arctic wolves.
He found them fascinating – but realised that he shouldn’t lose sight of their natural instincts. “They are an animal that have killed people in the past. But that adds to the excitement of being with the animal. You can’t switch off.”
“We do have these preconceived ideas of what bears and wolves are like,” he says. “The programme really shows them as they really are.”
Gordon will give talks around the country from 11 November: 11 November: Lyric Theatre Belfast; 12 November: An Grianan Letterkenny; 13 November: Royal Theatre Castlebar; 14 November: Station House Clifden; 15 November: Town Hall Theatre Galway; 17 November: St Michael’s Theatre New Ross; 18 November: Theatre Royal Waterford; 19 November: Glór Ennis; 20 November: Triskel Christchurch Cork; 21 November: George Bernard Shaw Theatre Carlow; 22 November: Axis, Ballymun Dublin.
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They didn’t “make it their home”. They didn’t wake up one morning and think “Strewth lads, let move to Ireland!” They were moved there. Captured, transported and placed there. It’s akin to slavery. And not just them, their descendants too.
Shameful. Truly shameful.
I may have been drinking.
@Damocles: lolwut
@Damocles: Woah! Lig do scíth a chara. Tá siad sásta agus ina gcónaí i nádúr!
@Damocles: jesus lad have a water.
@Damocles: No you’re an idiot – who has to comment on everything. Every day…
@Paul Foot: I’ve barely touched this site in a couple of weeks and I’ve commented on maybe 3 stories today.
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: I’ll bung that through Google translate in the morning if I remember.
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: In English please – if you want most to undetstand you.
@Paul Foot: then I’ll block you and never have to suffer your moaning again. Goodbye.
@Damocles: Block me for the truth? Great – bye, clown.
@Damocles: don’t waste you time it’s just more shite talk but he gets a grant every time he spouts….,,
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: they are happy and that’s the main thing !
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: They are our friends & happy in their home or something like that, My irish is crap
@Paul Foot: I thought it was quite amusing. Lighthearted, funny, entertaining, sure we can’t be serious all the time now can we?
@Pat Lonergan: there’s a lot of shite talk here. I think people get involved too much when there’s a story to be told especially when animals are introduced here like who cares
@Damocles: you can’t spell spanner without spa.
@Pat Lonergan: it’s just 2 taps on the screen. Try it.
@Paul Foot: the truth according to Paul Foot …
@Damocles: A bit like Irish and British convicts in Australia so…
@Richard Wright: You get awfully upset when people speak As Gaeilge Richard. Show some composure chap, what would the Queen think if one of her subjects were acting in such an unmannerly fashion.
@Richard Wright: Can you provide some proof about that. Especially the part about the big breasts.
What’s that Skippy? The kids are trapped down the old mineshaft on Lambay….
There are concerns that a wigwam (the collective term) of wallabies could use a raft to reach the mainland and found a political party with a genuine spring in its step. Remember Dick Spring – well even springier than that. The authorities are keeping a close eye on developments.
Wasn’t aware that Lambay Island was owned by the Baring family of Barings Bank. I read recently that during the Irish famine that Trevelyan’s corn was purchased by the British government through Baring Brothers Bank and the cost of which was subsequently recouped from Irish taxpayers.
@Diaspora’d: link?
@Fank Pulman: goodness sake! Google “Irish famine Baring Brothers Bank”, lots of links, the first one is from Wikipedia. You also listen to Finn Dwyer’s great Irish History Podcast his series on the Irish Famine is exceptional and harrowing.
@Diaspora’d: Thank you – helpful.
@Diaspora’d: technically the article should say “the former…” as Barings rather famously disappeared in 1995 following the actions of “Rouge Trader” Nick Leeson. Barings therefore wasn’t around to cause any further damage to Irish taxpayers in 2007/8.
@Terry McClatchey: if he spent less time swapping lipstick it would have been grand
@Zx5vZulB: good spot Gar. You leave me red faced.
@Terry McClatchey: interesting how both the family of Barings and Nick Lesson both reside in Ireland.
This is dangerous. Has nobody seen Jurassic Park? Life will find a way.
God made mammals, not marsupials. I heard that they can open doors, spread gossip and they collude with squirrels. Not the nice squirrels. The other ones. You know what I’m implying. Securities fraud. We need to be smart.
@Mike Igoe: God made woman and they can open doors, spread gossip and collude with squirrels, why did nobody warn us about them?
We need to take back Lambay Island .Let’s get the boats out.
@Vincent Sharpe: we can’t even run our own island
Experimenting and meddling with nature led to the grey squirrel’s and mink killing off some of our native wildlife. Other exotic plant species such as Japanese Knotweed were introduced into Ireland by wealthy estate owners during earlier centuries are now considered invasive and are proving difficult to get rid of having spread in an uncontrolled fashion.
Cattle are wildlife? Did I miss something?
Baring. As in Baring’s Bank?
@Sheila Larkin: Barings Bank*…yes that’s what the article says.
Its a wonderful location for a walk https://vimeo.com/224459441
It’s a wonderful location for a walk https://vimeo.com/224459441
Have they got passports
Bankers island eh.
Why are they such a problem if they reached the mainland? Other than the fact they bread a lot? Genuine question.
They’ll take all our women and jobs
@Niall Farrell: they are considered no better than rats down under.
There has always been a food few living wild in the south of England. I had them around my house there but most people thought it was a myth until one went through the windscreen of a police car. There was an Australian guy down the road who apparently shot and ate one and made a hat from the fur. I had one who got caught in a wire fence and it brutally kicked the carp out of us three guys who tried to get it free. Nice critters though. I’ve always wondered how they would fare in Leitrim.
Only in ireland.
And Tasmania. Seems like a tail with a happy ending.
THE WOBBLIES ARE COMING
Wombling free?
Could be a comment about gentrification if you make some slight changes to the text: “How a colony of wannabies made an island of Dublin their home.”
I like how its called “Red Necked” Wallaby
Its just wrong, they’re basically another squirrel. Send them back to oz and see if we can send they’re crooked owners with them.
Worth noting that if they really get out of control numbers wise they’re very very tasty (I lived in Tasmania for several years) possible new industry here :)
Get worried when they start building rafts
Wonderful. A colony of wannabe wallabies inhabiting Lambay, perceived as slaves (“They didn’t wake up one morning and say ‘Lads, lets go to Ireland’”) and liable to escape from the island any day to form a new political party. Glorious prospect: we are blessed.
Squirrels have a habit of always chewing on trees. Constant chewing is not good for trees. Though big ones might be able to handle it but small ones will eventually die. Chewed barks and branches also aren’t very good to look at either. They are also responsible for complete destruction of plants. As the squirrels have a bit of constantly chewing and digging searching for food, they can rip the plant from roots. There goes your dream of seeing a plant grow in front of your eyes in your yard. We know how to get rid of squirrels in the trees!http://starpestcontrol.ca/pest_control_service/squirrel/
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