Life List
I’ve been doing this a long time…!
Me and my cameras
Every now and again, I see an animal or bird for the very first time. They’re nice moments, I suppose, but I’ve never worked out how often it happens or tried to write down a ‘life list’ of species—until now!
I always write a blog post after my wildlife photography trips, and they always contain separate lists of all the animals and birds I’ve seen. Well, I finally got round to putting that data into an Excel spreadsheet and coming up with a few numbers. I hope you find them interesting…!
World
Bear Gills
My very first wildlife photography trip was to Kenya in 2013. It was the first time I’d ever been to Africa, but I didn’t even have a camera, so I had to go out and buy one! Since then, I’ve been on a total of 35 trips abroad. This is how they break down by continent:
Africa: 21
Antarctica: 2
Asia: 3
Europe: 3
North America: 3
South America: 3
You’ll notice two things from this. The first is that I like going to Africa (!), and the second is that I haven’t been to Oceania. In fact, I have spent a lot of time in Australia, but never on a wildlife photography trip.
I should also explain that the definition of a ‘trip’ is fairly arbitrary, but here are the guidelines I used:
It has to be abroad—so Richmond Park and London Zoo don’t count!
It may contain visits to several countries—so my ‘Gorillas and Masai Mara’ expedition with Exodus counts as one trip even though it took me to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
It doesn’t always have to the whole period between international flights—so my visit to South Africa in 2024 counts as a separate trip even though I drove to Kruger National Park and back!
During all my trips, I’ve been to 19 different countries (if you count Antarctica), and I’ve seen 230 different species of animals and 756 birds.
Again, what counts as a ‘species’ is a little ropey! Sometimes, my safari guides tell me the common name, such as ‘flamingo’, rather than the specific name of the species, such as ‘Chilean flamingo’. I’ve done my best to record the latter in my blog, but I’m not perfect—and it would’ve taken a long time to fix all the inconsistencies!
Africa
Panning for Gold
I’ve visited nine countries in Africa for wildlife photography:
Botswana (Okavango Delta, Moremi and Chobe)
Kenya (Laikipia, Masai Mara, Ol Jogi, Olare Motorogi and Naboisho Conservancies)
Namibia (Gabus Game Ranch and Etosha)
Rwanda (Volcanoes National Park)
South Africa (Kruger and Greater Kruger)
Tanzania (Grumeti, Klein’s Camp, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Tarangire)
Uganda (passing through…)
Zambia (South Luangwa)
Zimbabwe (Hwange, Mana Pools)
Why do I keep going back? Well, it’s funny because I prefer to go to the places I’ve always wanted to visit rather than my favourite places—and that counts for wildlife photography as well as restaurants! However, once I pretty much exhausted the best locations, I had to choose where to return to.
There’s obviously a problem of diminishing returns in wildlife photography and travel in general, but it was clear to me that most of my best sightings had been in Africa, so that’s where I decided to spend most of my time.
Overall, I’ve seen 148 animal species and 464 birds in Africa. Here are the top 10 animals and the number of times I’ve seen them while at a particular lodge or camp:
Plains zebra 29
African bush elephant 28
Common warthog 26
Hippopotamus 26
Cape buffalo 25
Lion 25
Spotted hyena 24
Black-backed jackal 22
Common waterbuck 21
Leopard 21
And here are the top 10 birds:
Ring-necked dove 27
Lilac-breasted roller 27
African fish eagle 26
Helmeted guineafowl 26
Egyptian goose 25
Little bee-eater 24
Fork-tailed drongo 21
Grey heron 20
Bateleur 20
Martial eagle 19
Antarctica
Eddie the Penguin
When I first became a wildlife photographer, I thought going to Antarctica was just a dream. It was too far away and far too expensive. However, I did manage to save up to go on a three-week cruise to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula in 2016, and then my friend Jodie managed to wangle me a ‘residential photographer’ gig on a voyage to the Peninsula in 2021.
Overall, I’ve only seen 21 animal species and 67 birds in Antarctica. This is obviously far fewer than in Africa, but I’ve only been there twice, and you need to understand that you really only see birds, seals and whales in Antarctica—and there are plenty of ‘days at sea’ when you don’t see much at all!
Here are the top 10 animals:
Crabeater seal
Fin whale
Humpback whale
Peale's dolphin
Weddell seal
Antarctic fur seal
Antarctic minke whale
Blue whale
Commerson's dolphin
Common minke whale
And here are the top 10 birds:
Southern giant petrel
Sooty shearwater
Snowy sheathbill
Wandering albatross
Chinstrap penguin
Kelp gull
Grey-headed albatross
Adélie penguin
Brown skua
Antarctic petrel
Asia
"Tiger, tiger, burning bright…"
‘Asia’ sounds like a big place (and it is!), but I’ve only been on wildlife photography trips to one Asian country, and that’s India. The big attraction is obviously the Bengal tiger, and I’ve been to see it three times in Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh and Tadoba.
The obsession with tigers makes Indian safaris very different from African ones. In Africa, there are so many extraordinary species that if you don’t find a lion, say, you can always look for leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, elephants, zebras, giraffes—the list is endless!
In India, on the other hand, it’s all about the tigers. You spend every game drive looking for them, and if you don’t find them, you just keep looking. And if you stop for something else, like an Indian roller, everyone else will leave you behind—and probably shout at you for wasting time!
Anyway, I’ve been quite lucky seeing my share of tigers (except on my first trip), and India is considerably less expensive than Africa, so that’s a bonus!
Overall, I’ve only seen 21 animal species and 67 birds in Antarctica. This is obviously far fewer than in Africa, but I’ve only been there twice, and you need to understand that you really only see birds, seals and whales in Antarctica—and there are plenty of ‘days at sea’ when you don’t see much at all!
Here are the top 10 animals:
Bengal tiger
Sambar deer
Chital
Indian gaur
Northern plains gray langur
Rhesus macaque
Nile crocodile
Nile monitor
Golden jackal
Frog
And here are the top 10 birds:
Indian roller
Crested serpent eagle
Red-wattled lapwing
Spotted owlet
Spotted dove
Lesser whistling duck
Little cormorant
Rufous treepie
Lesser adjutant stork
Junglefowl
Europe
Golden Pelican
I very rarely go to European countries to photograph wildlife, but I did enjoy going to Svalbard for my first sight of polar bears—even though none of my pictures was sharp enough! I also spent a couple of long weekends at a safari park in Cabárceno, Spain, and Lake Kerkini, Greece, to see the Dalmatian pelicans (see above).
Overall, I’ve seen 30 animal species and 29 birds in Europe (excluding the United Kingdom). Here are the top 10 animals (although I’ve only had one sighting of each):
Bengal tiger
Rhesus macaque
Fin whale
Humpback whale
Blue whale
Common minke whale
African bush elephant
Hippopotamus
Cape buffalo
Lion
And here are the top 10 birds (again, with only one sighting of each):
Red kite
Pink-footed goose
Rock ptarmigan
Little auk
Purple sandpiper
Long-tailed duck
Red-throated diver
Northern fulmar
Snow bunting
North America
The Pointer
I used to be very jealous of wildlife photographers who lived in the States because they had the luxury of being able to wake up and drive almost anywhere to photograph animals and birds! However, prefer predators to all other species, and America doesn’t really have great access to many of those.
The major exception is the grizzly or brown bear, which I saw at Brooks Falls in Alaska. It was one of the highlights of my entire career, but it’s such a popular venue now that it’s almost impossible to book accommodation for more than a few days. Shame…
Overall, I’ve only seen eight animals in North America:
American bison
Arctic fox
Brown bear
Polar bear
Ringed seal
Arctic hare
Red-tailed chipmunk
Sockeye salmon
And I’ve only seen seven birds:
Snowy owl
Snow bunting
Osprey
Red-throated merganser
Bald eagle
Crow
King eider
Quality did make up for quantity, though, so I should at least be grateful for that…!
South America
Tortoise Crossing
In 2016, I ticked off the last two continents—South America and Antarctica. On the South American leg of my journey, I spent a week in the Galápagos Islands, and I subsequently returned to see the jaguar in the Brazilian Pantanal.
Overall, I’ve seen 30 animals in South America and 142 birds. Here are the top 10 animals (although, again, I’ve only had one sighting of each):
Guanaco
Jaguar
Land iguana
Lesser anteater
Capybara
Marine iguana
Marsh deer
Ocelot
Puma
Sally Lightfoot crab
And here are the top 10 birds:
Southern crested caracara
Striated heron
Neotropic cormorant
Southern lapwing
Yellow-billed tern
Toco toucan
Snowy sheathbill
Little blue heron
White woodpecker
Little cuckoo
Verdict
"Ah, grasshopper..."
Numbers are often (or always!) boring, but I just wanted to show you what I’ve been up to since 2013. These statistics paint one part of the picture, but, of course, the most important part is always my photographs.
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
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