Exploring the Rainforest Realm

Based on my time as a naturalist & guide in the Tambopata region of Peru, an experience that really enhanced my skills as a naturalist in observing and detecting wildlife including mammals, birds, frogs, snakes and insects of the rainforest.

I will be taking you to one of the most diverse places on Earth, the Tambopata region in SE Peru, a remote area and fascinating area surveyed by the explorer Colonel ’Percy’ Fawcett in the 1910’s and little changed since then. Also find out what it is like to stay in a remote jungle lodge that was first set up in the 1970’s - Explorer’s Inn.

With stunning slides and atmospheric sound effects learn about the staggering array of life in the hidden realm of the Amazon rainforest, from the huge variety of birds to the array of frogs. I will dispel the myths (you can swim with piranha!) and highlight some of the fascinating facts with giant toads, 7m Anacondas, close encounters with Giant River Otters, the bizarre life history of the strangular fig tree, and the incredible adaptations of insects, from perfect leaf mimics to the life cyle of the botfly (check out the story  of my encounter with a botlfy in the reports section!).

I am also founder member of the Tambopata Reserve Society (TReeS), editor of the TReeS Manual for Guides and Naturalists, and give advice to guides.

I can also focus a rainforest talk to your interests and talk about rainforests in other parts of the world, the threats they face, and the future prospects. With my experience of rainforests in South America and other parts of the world (Africa, the Caribbean , Madagascar, Thailand) I can talk about the subject on expedition cruises to the tropics and point out the wildife and adapatations in this ’hidden realm’.