Mark Carwardine | about mark

mark carwardine

Mark Carwardine is a zoologist, an outspoken conservationist, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter, a widely published wildlife photographer, a best-selling author, a wildlife tour leader, and a magazine columnist.

TV and radio

TV: Mark co-presented the popular six-part BBC2 television series Last Chance to See, with Stephen Fry, in which the unlikely duo travelled the world in search of endangered species (following in the footsteps of a similar journey Mark made with Douglas Adams 20 years before). He also co-presented the six-part series Museum of Life (BBC2, spring 2010), Last Chance to See: Return of the Rhino (BBC2, October 2010) and The Great American Oil Spill (BBC2, November 2010). He has narrated a variety of films, including When Britain Went Wild (BBC4, October 2010), which was a documentary about the growth of environmental awareness in the 60s.

RADIO: For many years, Mark presented the weekly half-hour radio programme Nature, on BBC Radio 4, and he has presented dozens of other Radio 4 two-, three- and four-part series on a wide variety of subjects. He also provided the daily Environment News bulletin for Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 1.

Mark is often interviewed on TV and radio about a variety of conservation, wildlife and travel subjects. Click here to listen to an interview with John McCarthy on BBC Radio Four's Excess Baggage.

Books, articles and columns

Mark has written more than 50 books on a variety of wildlife, travel and conservation subjects. These include several bestsellers – among them, the original Last Chance to See, with Douglas Adams, and the field guide Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, which is one of the bestselling natural history books of all time. His most recent title is Mark Carwardine’s Ultimate Wildlife Experiences, published by Wanderlust.

A selection of his books can be seen here. Between them, they have been published in more than 25 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide.

He is Contributing Editor of Wanderlust magazine, for which he wrote a monthly column for years, and he has been writing a provocative monthly column in BBC Wildlife magazine since January 2004 (click here to read them).

He also writes travel features for several national newspapers and for 20 years was Advisory Editor of The Good Book Guide.

Wildlife photographer

Mark was Chairman of the Judging Panel of the prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, jointly owned by BBC Wildlife magazine and the Natural History Museum, for seven years (2005-2011).

His own extensive collection of wildlife and conservation photographs, taken in more than 100 countries, is sold through this site and picture agencies worldwide.

Mark was selected as one of the world's 40 most influential nature photographers in Outdoor Photography magazine (click here to see the feature) and was one of 58 European nature photographers chosen in 2008 to contribute to Wild Wonders of Europe. And he wrote the monthly four-page Photo Masterclass in BBC Wildlife magazine, which ran for two years.

Mark also runs hugely popular wildlife photography one-day workshops - click here if you wish to be kept informed as to when the next workshops will be.

Wildlife tour leader

Mark has co-founded several wildlife-tour companies over the years, including Wild Oceans, Discover the World and Ocean Wanderers. He now leads the occasional wildlife or wildlife-photography holidays, which are hugely popular.

He will be leading a variety of exciting trips over the next couple of years, from the Antarctic Peninsula and Baffin Island to Baja California, Mexico.

Conservationist

Mark worked for several international conservation organisations in the 1980s (in the UK, Switzerland and Kenya) and now advises many on a consultancy basis. He spends a lot of time voluntarily raising funds and awareness for conservation and holds official positions in several charities, as follows.

Vice-President of the Avon Wildlife Trust, Mark's local wildlife and conservation charity.
Vice-President and Conservation Advisor of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, a small, effective charity funding key projects in Africa and Asia working to save critically endangered mammals in the wild.
Patron of ORCA, a marine conservation charity.
Patron of Save the Rhino, a proactive charity that works to conserve viable populations of critically endangered rhinos in Africa and Asia.
Senior Consultant to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Vice-President of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, which conserves wetlands for wildlife and people.
Council Member of the World Land Trust, an international charity which protects the world's most biologically important and threatened habitats.

Mark also supports shark and marine conservation charities Bite-Back and The Shark Trust, as well as Fauna & Flora International, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation which protects the precious coastal forests of British Columbia.

For other charities that Mark supports, click here.