Wildlife filmmaker and cameraman Gordon Buchanan comes out of the hide and hits the road

Wildlife filmmaker and camera man Gordon Buchanan | Contributed

Gordon Buchanan's Lions and Tigers and Bears show is on tour around the UK. | Contributed

Award-winning wildlife photographer and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan is customarily to be seen crossing the Gobi desert on camel, rattling along behind a pack of huskies in the Yukon or crouching in a clear perspex box as an eight-foot polar bear attempts to turn him into dinner, all the while filming and delivering remarkably calm observations about the animals in his sights.

This spring, however, he’ll be in a whole different environment as he goes on his biggest ever live tour, Lions and Tigers and Bears, which coincides with the release of his memoir, In the Hide - How the Natural World Saved My Life, by Gordon Buchanan with Will Millard.

Right now, he’s at home in Glasgow with his own pack, wife Wendy and grown up children, as he gets ready to go on the road for the 35-venue UK tour, armed with tales and footage of his up close and personal experiences with wild animals in their own habitats. It’s been a hard job condensing his years of experience since he left his home in Mull at 17 to join an expedition to Sierra Leone to film chimpanzees with a film-maker - who by coincidence had settled on the island, opened a restaurant with his wife and employed Buchanan as a dishwasher then assistant - but he’s not one to refuse a challenge.

“Lions and Tigers and Bears is images, stories, anecdotes, the highs and lows of following these animals over the years,” he says. “I don’t often look over my shoulder. I always look to the next thing, so I thought ‘oh I don’t have any stories about lions and tigers and bears’, and of course, over the last 30-odd years there are more than enough. So there will be amazing pictures, clips, videos of encounters that I’ve had, some that people may have seen before, but I’ll be digging into experiences that I’ve had with groups of animals.

“The audience might see an amazing photograph, sequence or shot, but there’s a lot of stuff that surrounds that. People often describe me as a big cat expert, or a bear expert, and I’ve never described myself in that way because there’s still so much to know about these animals, but I suppose I know more than your average bear about bears.”

Quietly spoken and modest, it’s this calm in a crisis demeanour that he displays in his series and clips that have found their way onto the internet, among the most viewed being the ice box polar bear experience.

Scottish filmmaker and cameraman Gordon Buchanan up close with pandas. | Contributed

“It comes up time and again,” he says, “and it’s often taken out of context too because I think Joe Rogan used it and it pops up here, there and everywhere, so I’ll be putting that story to bed in a way, because if it comes down to it that was probably one of the dodgiest situations I’ve ever been in. If that was now, I would have put an end to that… not that I wouldn’t have gone in, the idea was solid, it was just that the view of it at the time was it was very unsound and I’m kind of best known for one of the most stupid things I’ve done.”

He smiles ruefully, glad of the chance to put the record straight in his live tour and book.

Along with the polar bear story are numerous encounters with elephants, lions, big cats, wolves, camels and apes, and closer to home hair-raising episodes that go right back to his childhood in Mull where he and his pals thought it would be cool to ‘borrow’ a boat and head out into the Sound of Mull in a hurricane or climb down giant seacliffs on an old rope.

The adventurous spirit is there in the young Buchanan whose desire to escape the attentions of a dangerous presence in the heart of his home, in the form of his physically abusive stepfather, saw him choose to be out in the wild at every opportunity. There’s a fledgling wren he rescues that rides on the handlebars of his bike until it grows strong enough to fly off, a seal cub that lets his gang know it really doesn’t need to be rescued, or the horses ​at a local farm that he learns to ride, all illustrating Buchanan’s passion for wildlife wherever he encounters it, not least in his native Scotland.

In the Hide - How the Natural World Saved My Life, by Gordon Buchanan with Will Millard, is published by Witness books, £22 hardback | Contributed

So what made the 52-year-old sit down and write a book?

“Time has passed and I’ve got this very quick narrative that I give to myself and others of I did this and then I did this and I realised with my own kids, even with Wendy my wife, and with my mum, my brothers and sisters, I’ve never kind of really explained myself fully. We obviously didn’t talk about the domestic abuse side of things back then, that was kind of a taboo, but we’ve never really kind of said, OK, how do you really feel about this?

“So the book was my way of telling people how I think and how I feel. Even with Wendy - when she read the book she said ‘is that really how you felt about me when we met?’ And I was like ‘yeah, of course, but I’ve never told you in that way’. It took however many years we’ve been together…

“So it was an opportunity to say stuff that often is left unsaid and maybe it’s being in my fifties now, that I thought actually I should write this stuff down - before I start forgetting it all.”

It’s one thing writing about work experiences in the wild, but writing about your own life and domestic abuse in childhood, ​as well as his struggles with depression - that must have been hard? Buchanan’s response is two-fold.

“I think it wasn’t hard to talk about these things; I think it’s positive to talk about things that are upsetting and disturbing and uncover the true emotions behind them because we never get an opportunity to open ourselves up in that way and I suppose a book is an opportunity to tell that story from start to finish as best as I can.”

“But I didn’t enjoy the experience of looking back on that side of things, and even the Sierra Leone years - I’ve got a kind of sadness and regrets about that.”

Regrets because Buchanan and his film-maker friend and boss Nick Gordon had to leave ​their camp and local colleagues at zero​ notice when the country descended into civil war, which is also recounted in the book.

​"By the end of the book I was like ‘oh god, this has been quite an emotional journey’, and there was a lot to unpack. Because you​ have control if you’re in a conversation and can always steer it whereas a book, you’ve got to see it through to the end​. I did find it hard going​. You look at your whole life and try to make sense of it and I enjoyed it, but at the time ​thought, ​'god this is tough, much, much tougher than I ever imagined.”

​For readers it's positive to hear a man, especially one whom many of us would regard as an alpha male living his best life, open up and be honest about his mental health, the ups and downs.

​"I hate using the word platform,” he says, “but I’ve wanted to find a space to talk about that ​and with TV I​'ve wonder​ed if there’s a chance to address these things, but I suppose the book was the best place to do it.​"

​"​Opening up to the people that you know, friends and family, that’s one thing - I didn’t find that hard - but ​for anyone, opening yourself up to employers or people who your livelihood depends on, ​you think ‘god, I don’t want them to think I’m a complete flake’ or weakened in some way. But the reality is so many people are dealing with those issues and problems that any employer is going to ​either having experienced that themselves or with other people. It’s such a normal, normal thing​. That is the crazy thing about mental health, and we’ve come a long way. So I’m maybe late to the party talking about it as an issue, but it’s my experience of it, and I think it’s a good thing to talk about, ​to try and help people understand.”

​Getting back to the animals, what is there that Buchanan hasn't filmed or really wants to film again?

Gordon Buchanan was raised in Dumbarton and on Mull in Scotland where he discoverd his passion for wildlife. | Contributed

​"Most of the things I want to do more than anything tend to be revisiting​. With the Big Cat 24/7 series I was out there ​in 2023​, went back ​last year and they’ve just recommissioned a third series so I’m really excited to go back to the exact same place, the exact same lions and carry that story on​. Because it’s not always about going somewhere new and seeing somewhere or something different​. I’ve spent months over the last couple of years in this particular place ​and when you get to know individual animals you’ve got limited time​. Lions, as successful as they may be, ​don’t live for ever in the wild. ​To see a lion cub mature and grow up and possibly be pride male is a unique opportunity, so there’s always something else to learn about a place or species you’ve worked with​ before."

​In the book Buchanan says writing In The Hide is an attempt to make sense of how he got to where he is now. Does he think he succeeded?

​"Yeah, definitely. ​It’s a fortunate position to be in, to​ sit down and think back to where you started and where you are now​. All these things are linked, so that’s the fascinating thing​ - things you've never thought about. Like why did ​I gravitate towards​ my friend Norrie​ at school. What was it about him because there was a class full of really lovely kids, and I realised that​ we were similar enough to know that we’d get on​ but he was kind of my alter ego​. He was the person I thought ​'god I’d like to be more like that​' and he was filling in the gaps that I lacked​. Then with the horses​, I’d never have got to the horses had it not been for Norrie, because ​he had a confidence of ‘yeah we can do that’ and I didn’t realise that was for people like us. ​Then the horses gave me confidence and a sort of power I didn’t have​. For a kid that lacked confidence, that probably felt powerless with everything that was happening at home, to have some kind of control and control of something bigger than me, that gave me confidence.​"

So it’s a really interesting process, working with Will Millard who kept me on track and pulled it all together. Before now I never saw what was staring me in the face, because we​ bounce from one thing to the next without analysing what’s​ happening to us.​"

Before Sierra Leone sparked a career in filming wildlife all over the globe, ​Buchanan's first love was Scotland and his own back yard, first near his housing scheme in Dumbarton, then Mull where he moved with his mum and siblings when he was seven. It’s the setting for some of his most extraordinary wildlife experiences such as witnessing a herd of red deer at full pelt leaping over the juniper bushes in which he crouched in the Cairngorms, or being attacked by the same rogue male capercaillie that similarly disrespected David Attenborough.

Gordon Buchanan filming bears in the wild. | Contributed

So how does he feel about the release of the lynx in the Highlands last month, especially since one of his films follows the re-release of wild lynx that had been held in captivity in Russia?

​"Absolutely lynx do belong in the Scottish countryside, at some point,” he says, “but it’s got to be done in the right way​. Conservation is about communities, animal communities and human communities, and you cannot put the needs of animals ahead of the needs of people, particularly in Scotland​. You’ve got to view those things as what’s good for people, what’s good for animals and that’s the only way conservation can work​.

“If eventually lynx are back in the Scottish countryside no-one will ever see them, so the fact that these lynx were visible it was clear they weren’t able to survive in the wild​. Just doing a guerrilla release, especially with animals that didn’t seem prepared​, hungry- looking and slightly bewildered looking​, as an animal welfare thing but also ​for getting people on board and trying to understand the benefits of having these animals​, it wasn’t the best.​"

W​hat about wolves, can he see a time when wolves will be back roaming Scotland again?

Gordon Buchanan's memoir, In the Hide is out now, published by Witness books, £22 hardback | Contributed

​"There are wolves returning to every other country in Europe​ so it’s only the Channel that’s stopping us and the will to have them back. Wolves have come back of their own accord and ​been offered better protection in some places​, so ​it’s not an impossibility. I think attitudes can change quite quickly and ​the priorities of the next generation will be different​ from now. So yeah, from a habitat or ​ecosystem point of view, beavers, wolves, lynx, deer, all of the animals that are meant to be here have a role to play within that eco system​.

“But the idea of rewilding, it’s actually ​not ​about putting things back to how they were, it’s about making the land work for wildlife and people. So plants, animals, insects, lynx, wolves, it has to work in a new way. It’s not returning the countryside to 12,000 years ago, it’s making landscapes work for the human communities and animal communities that share that land.​"

It’s been a fascinating encounter but times up, and Buchanan is ready for the next, as he readies to hit the road - so do yourself a favour, check him out on the screen and don’t miss him, in person or print.

Gordon Buchanan UK Tour Lions and Tigers and Bears, for dates and tickets see gordon-buchanan.co.uk

In the Hide - How the Natural World Saved My Life, by Gordon Buchanan with Will Millard, Witness books, £22 hb