Kilimanjaro trek and two marathons for charity

An award-winning wildlife photographer will find himself on the other side of the lens this week as he runs two marathons and climbs Africa’s highest peak – all with a 9ft-long stuffed tiger on his back.

Paul Goldstein, 49, is scaling 5,895 metres of Kilimanjaro, plus taking part in the London and Brighton marathons over the space of just eight days.

In doing so he aims to raise £25,000 for Friends of Conservation, a charity which works with local communities around the world to protect endangered species and habitats.

The money raised by his latest challenge will fund tiger projects in Bandhavgarh National Park in central India.

While there were around 100,000 tigers in the wild a century ago, their numbers have plummeted due to poaching and loss of habitat and there are now thought to be as few as 3,500 left.

One of the most important aspects of the charity is its work to educate local people about the plight of endangered animals and stop predators such as tigers simply being seen as the enemy.

Mr Goldstein has raised £80,000 for the cause previously, and all the money raised in his latest challenge will go towards a compensation war chest for local farmers who have lost cattle to the big cats.

The value of a dead tiger is around £12,000, according to the charity, but the value of a living tigress has been calculated as £70 million in the revenue it will bring to a reserve or park such as Bandhavgarh.

Mr Goldstein said hunters poach the animals for medicine and to profit from sales of their fur, teeth and claws, while they are also losing their natural habitat due to the plantation and timber industries destroying the forests where the species live.

He said: “Using tigers in traditional medicine is sheer lunacy. It has no value in any shape or form. Tigers could become extinct, but if we act now these beautiful animals are a species that can definitely be saved.”