Gordon Buchanan MBE
Award-winning wildlife cameraman, presenter and public speaker
For 30 years, Gordon Buchanan has taken part in challenging expeditions and adventures, often to raise awareness of the world’s endangered species and habitats.
Film work
Gordon has contributed to numerous award-winning wildlife programmes and documentaries. He co-presents the first series of Big Cat 24/7 alongside Anna Dimitriadis and Vianet Djenguet. It launched on the BBC and BBC iPlayer in August 2024. Series two, which is currently in production, will be broadcast in August 2025.
In 2023, he filmed filming Our Changing Planet - a ground-breaking seven-year diary, documenting the fight to save our planet’s most threatened ecosystems (BBC One).
Gordon won two Royal Television Society (RTS) Scotland awards for Snow Dogs into the Wild: On Screen Personality and Camera (craft) which aired in 2022 (BBC Two)
Gordon has presented the Family & Me series since it began in 2016 with Elephant Family & Me. He has since presented Cheetah Family & Me; Snow Cats & Me; Gorilla Family & Me; Snow Wolf Family & Me and Reindeer Family & Me. He received a Royal Television Society award for his presenting work on The Polar Bear Family & Me and The Bear Family & Me.
Previous productions for the BBC include Animals with Cameras; Equator from the Air; Life in Polar Bear Town; the highly acclaimed Tribes; Predators and Me series; Life in the Snow and Super Cute Animals.
Additional TV credits include Wild Burma; The Dark: Nature’s Nighttime World; Land of the Lost Wolves; Lost Land of the Tiger; Lost Land of the Volcano and Lost Land of the Jaguar. Into the Wild was another popular series which saw Gordon connect celebrities (including Alastair Campbell, Dermot O’Leary and Sara Cox) with Britain’s beautiful wildlife.
Tour
In 2025, Gordon is going on his biggest tour ever, with Lions and Tigers and Bears with Gordon Buchanan. Join Gordon as he recounts thrilling encounters with pandas, grizzlies, tigers, jaguars and more. Learn about the heart-stopping moments, the mud, sweat, and tears, and the tender interactions that have shaped his extraordinary career.
2025 tour information and booking
In 2022 and 2023, Gordon toured with 30 Years in the Wild, and performed to packed venues across the UK.
Podcast
In 2024, Beneath the Baobab, returned for a second season. In this podcast series Gordon explores conservation work being led by communities around the world.
Accolades
Gordon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to conservation and wildlife filmmaking. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stirling, and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in recognition of services to the Society and to the wider discipline of geography. He is a Patron for the Environmental Justice Foundation.
Speaker
Gordon Buchanan is a spellbinding storyteller who can captivate audiences of all ages with his wild and wonderful tales about the natural world, at the same time as educating and informing on topical issues.
Speaker testimonial
“Gordon’s talk was absolutely brilliant. Affable, knowledgeable, and funny, I can’t recommend him highly enough.” Dr Edward Tripp: Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Trading Ltd
