Gordon Buchanan | |
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 Buchanan in March 2023. | |
| Born | 10 April 1972 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1989–present |
| Spouse | Wendy Buchanan |
| Children | 2 |
Gordon John Buchanan MBE (born 10 April 1972) is a Scottish wildlife cameraman, filmmaker and presenter. His work includes the nature documentaries Tribes, Predators & Me , The Polar Bear Family & Me and Life in the Snow .
Buchanan was born in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on 10 April 1972 and brought up on the Isle of Mull. [1] As a child, Buchanan was a fan of David Attenborough's television programmes and Survival , a nature programme. [2]
Buchanan's career in wildlife photography has yielded a number of documentaries, shot variously in Asia (especially the Indian Subcontinent), Latin America, Europe, and Africa. His career began when survival cameraman Nick Gordon, whose wife owned the restaurant Buchanan was working in, [3] invited Buchanan to become his camera assistant for a project he was completing in Sierra Leone. [4] Buchanan was there for almost a year before the project had to be abandoned due to the danger presented by the civil unrest in the country. [3] He left school to join Nick Gordon on this trip and continued to work with him on his next projects in Venezuela and Brazil. [1]
Buchanan began to work independently in 1995, and in time became known for his films of big cats and worked on Big Cat Diary . [1] [5] He also returned to his home on the Isle of Mull to film white tailed eagles. [4] The resulting 2005 Natural World episode, "Eagle Island", received good reviews. [6] (It was broadcast on 3 May 2009 as "Eagles of Mull" on Nature .) He also filmed the Natural World episode "Leopards of Yala". [3]
Buchanan has filmed foxes for Springwatch and Autumnwatch in Glasgow, where he currently lives. [7] [8] His coverage of grey seal pups was identified as one of the highlights of the programme. He then returned for Springwatch 2008 completing a series on people with amazing wildlife stories including a one-off Springwatch special. [9] [10] In Autumnwatch 2008 he travelled to the Farne Islands to film grey seal pups again. In early 2009 Buchanan worked with the BBC, filming the Lost Land of the Volcano . Filming took place during the month of February 2009, around Papua New Guinea, and its islands. He also filmed the Lost Land of the Tiger and Lost Land of the Jaguar, which followed a similar format.
In December 2010, a documentary called The Bear Family and Me aired on the BBC. It showed the year which Buchanan spent with black bears in the U.S. state of Minnesota. In January 2013, Buchanan presented and partially filmed The Polar Bear Family & Me for the BBC, covering the life of a polar bear and her cubs in the spring, summer, and autumn. [11]
In 2013 Buchanan became a patron of Trees for Life, a conservation charity working to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland. [12] He became an ambassador for the Scottish Wildlife Trust the following year. [13]
In December 2014, another '...& Me' 2-part series was broadcast on BBC Two. For this series, The Snow Wolf Family & Me, Buchanan visited Ellesmere Island in Canada in both summer and autumn. Here he followed a wolf pack as they raised their cubs over the course of a year. This was shortly followed, in February 2015, by Super Cute Animals, a 60-minute documentary.
In 2015, he presented the documentary Leopard in the City at Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the Borivli section of northern Mumbai in India, on the "urban leopards" of the area, which prey almost entirely on stray dogs. [14] He also continued to film his ‘…And Me’ series, this time focusing on Gorillas, which was again broadcast on the BBC.
2016 saw him appear in ‘Elephant Family and Me’ where he visited Africa to get a better understanding of how a family of elephants live and communicate with each other. He also narrated a one-off programme called Life in the Snow, [15] before again working with Polar Bears, this time looking at how they interact with the local human population in ‘Life in Polar Bear Town’. [16]
From 2016 to 2017 he filmed two series of Tribes, Predators and Me. During these six episodes he spent time with several groups of people who lived alongside dangerous animals, such as hyenas and crocodiles. He continued the series with ‘The Reindeer Family and Me’ which saw him follow a herd of Reindeer as they journeyed on their migration. He also filmed a six part series titled '‘Into the Wild’', in which he took six famous people to nature hotspots around the UK to get a glimpse of the local wildlife. [17] 2018 saw Buchanan present ‘Animals with Cameras’ in which he used new camera techniques to get a better insight into their lives. [18] Following this, he filmed ‘Grizzly Bear Cubs and Me’, where he helps to rehabilitate young bears in order to help them return to the wild. [19]
2019 saw Buchanan continuing to present nature programmes on the BBC. He travelled around the equator to present the series ‘Equator from the Air. He also filmed and presented ‘Snow Cats and Me’ in which he helped rehabilitate Lynx so that they could return to the wild. 2020 saw him return to Springwatch once again as a guest presenter, [20] filming live from his native Scotland. He ended the with yet another ‘…And Me’ series, this time following Cheetahs in the wild in Africa. [21]
In 2021, it was announced that he would front a second series of Animals with Cameras.
In November 2021, it was confirmed that Buchanan would tour the UK (30 Years in the Wild) in February 2022. [22]
In April 2022, the first two episodes of a long-running program Our Changing Planet premiered on the BBC, presented by Buchanan along with Liz Bonnin, Ella Al-Shamahi, Chris Packham, Ade Adepitan and Steve Backshall.
In June 2013 Buchanan was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of Stirling. [23] He also won the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland award in the environment category in the same year, cementing his position as one of Scotland's finest cameramen and reputation as a renowned film maker.
Buchanan was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to conservation and wildlife film-making. [24]
Buchanan frequently mentions missing his family at various points within his shows. The Bear Family & Me includes a segment in which his wife (Wendy) and their two children (Lola and Harris) visit him. [25] He also has an interest in whisky.
The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, and has a long association with David Attenborough's authored documentaries, starting with 1979's Life on Earth.
Springwatch, Autumnwatch until 2022 and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches, are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC's largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.
Simon Henry King OBE HonFRPS is a British naturalist, author, conservationist, television presenter and cameraman, specialising in nature documentaries. King received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2011.
Christopher Gary Packham CBE is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series The Really Wild Show from 1986 to 1995. He has also presented the BBC nature series Springwatch, including Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2009.
The Highland Wildlife Park is a 105-hectare (260-acre) safari park and zoo near Kingussie, Highland, Scotland. The park is located within the Cairngorms National Park. The park is run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Jonathan Scott is an English zoologist, wildlife photographer and television presenter specializing in African wildlife.
Stephen James Backshall is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's Deadly 60.
Arctic Tale is a 2007 American documentary film from the National Geographic Society about the life cycle of a walrus and her calf, and a polar bear and her cubs, in a similar vein to the 2005 hit production March of the Penguins, which was adapted for an English-language release by National Geographic. It was directed by Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson and is narrated by Queen Latifah. The animal characters named in the movie, "Nanu" the female polar bear and "Seela" the female walrus, are based on composites of animals in their species, as noted at the end of the film.
The BBC Wildlife Specials are a series of nature documentary programmes commissioned by BBC Television. The series premiered in 1995, and 22 specials have been produced to date, with most of the more recent ones consisting of multiple episodes. The earlier programmes were produced in-house by the BBC's Natural History Unit, but the more recent Spy in the ... titles were made by the independent John Downer Productions. The first 18 specials, through 2008, were narrated by David Attenborough. Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice (2010), Penguins: Spy in the Huddle (2013) and Dolphins: Spy in the Pod (2014) were narrated by David Tennant.
Survival is one of television's longest-running and most successful nature documentary series. Originally produced by Anglia Television for ITV in the United Kingdom, it was created by Aubrey Buxton, a founder director of Anglia TV, and first broadcast in 1961. Survival films and film-makers won more than 250 awards worldwide, including four Emmy Awards and a BAFTA.
The Bear Family & Me is a three-part nature documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. It follows wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan as he spends a year with a family of wild black bears, under the guidance of biologists Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield of the North American Bear Centre.
Charlie Hamilton James is an English photographer, television cameraman and presenter, specialising in wildlife subjects. He started his career at 16, working on David Attenborough's The Trials of Life. His work has since been commissioned by National Geographic Magazine, the BBC's Springwatch/Autumnwatch shows and The Natural World.
Keith Scholey is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema, and a former television executive. He is currently a joint Director of Silverback Films Ltd and Studio Silverback Ltd.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Park is a zoo, wildlife conservation and rehabilition centre and tourist attraction located in Branton, south-east of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It opened in 2009 on the site of Brockholes Farm, a former riding school and petting zoo, and features 500 animals of 100 species. Yorkshire Wildlife Park is an official member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Lost Land of the Tiger is a three-part nature documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit which follows a scientific expedition to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The expedition team is made up of specialist zoologists, explorers and the BBC crew. Together, they explore wilderness areas from the lowland jungles to high-elevation slopes, in search of rare animals and plants. The focus of the expedition is to investigate the status of the tiger in Bhutan, where little is known of the cat's distribution or population density. Evidence of a healthy population of tigers would elevate Bhutan's importance as a sanctuary for this endangered species. It would also support tiger conservationist Dr. Alan Rabinowitz's proposal for a vast protected corridor linking the fragmented pockets of tiger habitat which lie to the south of the Himalayas.
Naresh Bedi is an Indian filmmaker, the eldest of the Bedi Brothers and a member of the second generation of three generations of Wildlife photographers and filmmakers. He is the first Asian to receive a Wildscreen Panda Award and the first Indian to receive a wildlife film nomination for the British Academy Film Awards. He was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
The Polar Bear Family & Me is a three-part nature documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. It follows wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan as he spends a year with a family of wild polar bears, under the guidance of his biologist Jason Roberts, the polar expertise of the Antarctic region and Svalbard near Norwegian archipelago of the Arctic Ocean.
Hamza Ahmed Yassin is a British wildlife cameraman and presenter, known for his role as Ranger Hamza on the children's television channel CBeebies and his work on shows such as Countryfile and Animal Park, as well as presenting programmes about Scottish wildlife. In 2022, he won the twentieth series of the BBC contest Strictly Come Dancing.
Ted Oakes is a Canadian-born filmmaker and biologist who worked at the BBC Natural History Unit for 20 years. He founded Oak Island Films in 2017 and has been managing director since. He has collaborated with BBC, TVO, Smithsonian Channel, Discovery Channel and Merit Motion Pictures.
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