Liz Bonnin’s wild moments

BBC science and wildlife TV presenter Liz Bonnin recalls some of her best animal encounters

1 Hammerhead shark, Galápagos Islands

“If I had to chose one moment from my time in the Galápagos, it would be diving at Darwin’s Arch to watch hammerheads congregate. The sharks come from all directions and gather, swimming around each other in big balletic circles. At the very centre of this mass of hammerheads are the oldest, most mature females. The younger sharks swim around them. When the males eventually come in to mate, they’ve got to weave and wind their way through this mass of bodies, so only the strongest, fittest males will get to mate with the females in the centre.”

2 Chimpanzee, Tanzania

“Gombe National Park, where Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees for many years, is a special place. You first realise it as you arrive by boat on Lake Tanganyika, thinking how extraordinary it is that chimpanzees are still living wild here. You have to work hard at finding them; it is not easy terrain, and in the rainy season it is very slippery. But we were treated to the most wondrous spectacle. A troupe of ten chimpanzees, including a tiny baby, were playing and vocalising in the thick bush. The baby was jumping from one branch to another with a joyful abandon that was just infectious.”

3 Meerkat, Kalahari Desert

“I spent some time with these animals in Africa’s Kalahari region (Botswana, Namibia and South Africa). We went out under the cover of darkness and, when the sun rose, watched their little heads pop up as they emerged to face the sun and warm up their bellies. Once warm, they started foraging frantically for every grub and scorpion they could find. I loved the way that the whole group takes care of all the little ones. It’s very close knit, and it was a treat to walk with them as they foraged.”

Liz’s new three-part series wildlife series,

Animals Behaving Badly, is available to watch on the BBC iplayer now. See wanderlust.co.uk for the full interview.