EPISODE 04: Becoming the Big Cat People – 'Wild Kingdom'

Welcome to The Big Cat People podcast! We're Jonathan and Angela Scott, award-winning wildlife photographers, authors and conservationists. We've have made our name documenting the lives of lions, leopards and cheetahs in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

Today's episode will be the third in a ten part series named 'Our Story: Becoming the Big Cat People'.

This episode is named 'Wild Kingdom'. I reflect on two pivotal events that occurred in early 1977 just after I had come to live at Mara River Camp - Kenya banned trophy hunting and the sale of all wildlife products, and the President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, closed the border with Kenya that did not reopen until 1983. This would see the Maasai Mara become the jewel in Kenya's tourism industry, leading to the proliferation of camps and lodges that today has reached crisis point. There are now 200 tourism facilities in and around the Reserve.

People often ask how I came to be a television presenter. It wasn't to become famous. It was because I was doing something that people found interesting; I was passionate about wildlife and spent every minute I could in the company of the lions, leopards and cheetahs that I came to know as individuals, each with their own character. I read everything I could about animal behaviour, followed the work of the scientists and contributed my own findings to their work wherever possible. Television sought me out because - in the simplest terms - I knew what I was talking about and could communicate easily with the general public. There is nothing like passion and enthusiasm allied to knowledge. I was soon to learn that filming wildlife had its dark side. My experiences working with the long running American TV show Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom opened my eyes to the tendency of some publishers and film makers to portray a false impression of untamed wilderness, and how the use of captive animals and set-up scenes were once the industry standard.

This podcast series is a continuing effort to educate and inspire our audience. If you'd like to learn more about us, or to check out our latest collection of educational ebooks, please visit our website: www.bigcatpeople.com