HERE’S MY BEST SHOT – NOW GIVE US YOURS!

Countrywise host Liz Bonnin, one of our wildlife photo contest judges, on the shot that won her a prize – and why you’ve got nothing to lose by entering

Liz Bonnin, co-presenter of ITV’s Countrywise with Ben Fogle, has the perfect credentials to be a judge for our Great British Wildlife Photography Challenge. Back in 2005 she won a wildlife photography competition run by Irish television with a shot of a conger eel, and her prize was a trip to India to take pictures of tigers.

‘There really is nothing like setting eyes on your first wild tiger,’ she says. ‘The experience will stay with me forever. We were in Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh, and on the second day the guide spotted a tiger on the hillside. My heart was beating through my chest but, as hard as I looked, I couldn’t see it. Then suddenly there was this flash of orange, as close to magic as I’ve ever experienced.’

The guides knew the tiger as Kunkutte, ‘ cut ear’ in Hindi, because she had a little snag in her ear. ‘ We followed her for three or four hours. It was a defining moment and the reason I started to focus on wildlife programmes.’

Now Liz takes her Canon PowerShot camera with her everywhere. ‘It’s compact and has all the manual settings so it’s ideal for when I’m travelling,’ she says. ‘I’m nowhere near the standard of the Weekend readers who’ve entered the Wildlife Photography Challenge for the past two years, but I love taking pictures of wild animals.

‘I’ve criss-crossed the globe with my job and seen many exotic animals, but Britain’s wildlife is incredible too. Lately I’ve been filming in the UK for Countrywise and I get the same feeling in the Lake District or Scotland as I do in Africa. There’s so much wildlife magic in our own backyard. No matter where you live, nature isn’t far away.’

Born in France to a Trinidadian mother of Indian/Chinese/ Portu- guese descent and a French father, Liz has brown eyes and a dazzling smile. Then she starts to speak and her soft Irish brogue couldn’t be more unexpected. It’s a beguiling mix.

Raised in the hills above Nice, she moved with her parents and elder sister Benni to Dublin when she was nine. ‘My mother had two siblings who’d been educated by Catholic nuns in Ireland and she wanted the same for her daughters,’ she explains. ‘I’d been used to an outdoor life with hedgehogs, snakes and two dogs, and French was my first language. Then suddenly there I was in rainy Ireland. It took me a year to adjust.’ Her parents parted soon afterwards.

She flirted with a pop career in her 20s, but after her band Chill was dropped by its record label she started presenting on Irish TV. She moved to London in 2002 to present Channel 4’s breakfast show, RI:SE.

But her first love was always science. She has a degree in biochemistry from Trinity College, Dublin, and a masters in wild animal biol- ogy from the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Veterinary College. After presenting Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets on satellite channel Player, and BBC1 science series Bang Goes The Theory, Liz was increasingly drawn to wildlife, popping up on Autumnwatch and Springwatch and hosting a threepart Horizon special on the life of cats. Last year she was part of the team that won a BAFTA for Big Blue Live, a three-part series celebrating the wildlife of Monterey

Bay, California. The bay, once ravaged by humans, has been reclaimed by its magnificent marine life and as well as sardines, sharks and sea otters. Liz and the team encountered the largest creature on earth, the blue whale.

But it’s British wildlife she concentrates on through her role on Countrywise, which might see her covering stories about releasing voles back into the wild or rescuing injured hedgehogs. The next series of 15 episodes will begin in the autumn.

Liz, 43, lives in London and guards her private life fiercely. Yet she found a recent invitation to be the subject of Who Do You Think You Are?, which is set to air on BBC1 later this summer, too tempting to turn down. ‘I couldn’t resist tracing my roots. It was an emotional journey but I’m glad I did it.’

Given the rich choice, it’s perhaps unfair to ask her to name her favourite wildlife species. ‘My favourite bird in the world is the hummingbird,’ she says. ‘I used to sit on the stoop of my grandmother’s house in Martinique and watch them for hours.’ And in the UK? ‘The capercaillie, the largest of the grouse family, which I first saw while reporting for Autumnwatch a couple of years ago. They’re plentiful in Europe and Asia, but here they can only be found in the pine forests of Scotland. The male has a mating display that has to be seen to be believed. He fans out his tail feathers and shows off the tufts on his throat.

‘Their guttural mating cry is known as a “lekking call”. One male wasn’t put off by our presence so I was able to observe him for an entire afternoon. Unforgettable.’

While in the Cairngorms for Autumnwatch Liz also filmed a story about Scottish wildcats. ‘It’s debatable whether there are any pure wildcats left because they interbreed with domestic cats. But they’re larger than the average moggie with black rings on their bushy tails.

‘We went lamping one evening to look for them. You hold a lamp at night and hope you’ll see its reflection in the eyes of a wildcat – they have a reflective layer on their retinas. We were about to give up when we found two kittens on the mountainside, one black, the other a classic striped specimen.’

Each new Countrywise assignment gives her another unique wildlife experience, such as swimming with grey seals off Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. ‘They’re such gentle, playful, friendly creatures. They seem cumbersome basking on shore, but in the water they’re swift and streamlined. You couldn’t beat that wildlife adventure anywhere in the world.’

She’s very fond of ospreys, too. ‘They became extinct in the UK in the early 20th century as a result of humans hunting them and collecting their eggs. Then, having recolonised from mainland Europe, their survival was threatened yet again in the 50s and 60s by the harmful effects of pesticides like DDT. But, with the banning of those substances and a greater awareness of responsible egg collection, the osprey population began to increase.

‘I helped scientists in Scotland to tag osprey chicks and was struck by the fact that during the process the chicks played dead – a protection mechanism so predators don’t spot them in the nest. It was so precious to be up close to a bird that was once extinct in the UK. Some people still target them for their eggs though, which makes you wonder, “Have we learned nothing?” And not long ago, I held a four-weekold pine marten – a bit like a mink and the size of a domestic cat – in my hands in Galloway. I was helping conservationists put up boxes for them because there weren’t enough trees for them to build their nests.’

All this experience makes her an ideal member of the Weekend judging panel. ‘And I couldn’t be more delighted to be asked. I was already aware of the competition so it’s a great honour to be involved this time round. To say that it’s open only to amateurs is pretty mind-blowing when you look at the standard of the entries. I’m used to capturing the magic of animals on moving film. But I’m lost in admiration for the achievements of these enthusiasts who capture such powerful images with static shots. And look at the category for juniors! Clearly, the future of wildlife photography in this country is positively flourishing.’

Countrywise will return to ITV in the autumn.

‘There’s so much wildlife magic in our backyard’