Royal Marine cried when he saw what trap had done to Malayan tiger

In making his new series The Wild Ones over the past three years, the adventurer, wildlife expert and former Royal Marines sniper and elite special ops commando Aldo Kane has been globetrotting like it’s going out of fashion. He’s been like a cross between a commercial airline pilot and Forrest Gump.

Aldo, who is married to natural history TV producer Anna Williamson and has two young sons, four-year-old Atlas and Auri, one, has visited no fewer than four continents in that period. Along the way, he has taken in such far-flung places as Malaysia, Mongolia, Indonesia, Gabon, Armenia and Canada’s remotest north Atlantic waters. The hyperactive explorer has gone from crocodile-infested rivers in Java to subzero nights in the Gobi Desert.

Now, in his quest to identify and protect elusive, endangered species, Aldo has been searching for the Malayan tiger, the Gobi bear, the Javan rhino, the Western Lowland gorilla, the Caucasian leopard and the North Atlantic right whale. That dizzying, jet-lag-inducing amount of travel should earn the presenter a serious number of free flights when he next cashes in his air miles.

But what does Anna think of her husband’s non-stop jet-setting? Speaking exclusively to the Express from his home in Bristol, Aldo admits he is lucky to have such an understanding wife. “She’s a producer, and this is exactly the type of film that she’d be working on, so she gets it,” he says.

Four years ago, Aldo witnessed the birth of Atlas via a video call while he was free-diving with humpback whales off the coast of the Dominican Republic for the series OceanXplorers.

“My wife said, ‘As long as you get back for the next birth, it’s fine.’ She was just happy that I made it back for the birth of our second son,” he chuckles. “I got back from filming the leopard episode in Armenia, and she gave birth the next day. So I made it this time!”

That’s not the end of the story, however. Ten days after Auri was born, Aldo went to Mongolia for six weeks. “I’m not sure how happy she was about that,” he smiles.

Aldo, who met Anna while they were filming in a fully active volcano in Ecuador 10 years ago, has a good reason for being away, though. The 47-year-old, who is accompanied on this project by camera specialists Declan Burley and Vianet Djenguet, outlines the goal of his latest expedition, shown in new series The Wild Ones on Apple TV+.

“Our planet is under threat like never before,” he says. “We lose up to 150 different species every single day, and one million more are threatened with extinction. But we are on a mission to try and change that.

“Our job is to find and film some of the rarest animals on the planet and help scientists to save them before it’s too late. This isn’t a show about animals – it’s a mission to protect what’s left of them.”

Which includes the critically endangered Malayan tiger, the world’s rarest tiger. Their numbers have plummeted by 90% over the last century leaving just 150 on the entire planet. Of the nine different breeds of tiger worldwide, three are extinct. Now, the Malayan tiger could be next.

n the Taman Negara rainforest of Malaysia, Aldo details the importance of conserving these mighty predators. “Without tigers at the top of the food chain, this entire ecosystem is under threat. But protecting them also preserves the jungle itself and the thousands of species that live here,” he says.

“There are more tigers in captivity than there are in the wild. I want my sons at some point to be able to go on a jungle trip and know that they are sharing a wild, unfenced forest with tigers.”

Of course, as Aldo acknowledges, thousands of species go extinct worldwide every year.

“But it’s very difficult to get someone to care about a dung beetle that lives by eating poo,” he says. “You have to choose a species which is critically endangered and charismatic enough to get people to care. It’s a gateway into more conservation.”

That is why he’s focused on the Malayan tiger – “the apex predator in that jungle. Ultimately, if we cannot protect the biggest, most charismatic animal in that forest, then what chance do we have of protecting everything else?” he says.

Sadly, the picture looks bleak. In Malaysia, the big cats are severely threatened by gangs of ruthless poachers who can make tens of thousands of dollars from a single animal whose body parts are used in “status symbol” products such as Malayan tiger wine.

Drawing on a network of 4,000 camera traps, Aldo’s team aims to capture these rare beasts on film and convince the authorities to guard them by increasing the number of anti-poaching rangers. His crew stumbles across an abandoned poachers’ camp full of perilous snares.

But that does not prepare them for the shock of the sight of a big cat missing a paw after viewing the first footage of a tiger taken by a camera trap in the deepest rainforest. It had been sawn off by a poacher’s vicious, industrial-gauge, steel-cable snare, causing tears to start running down Declan’s face.

Aldo recalls the emotional force of watching the image of the wounded tiger for the first time.

“It made me angry and incredibly sad,” he says. But I would also say this is much more powerful than showing just another pretty image of a tiger.

“These are much more potent images which will evoke emotion in people. Even the toughest of people out there don’t want to see animals injured that way. As hard as it is to see, this is the real story. We have to protect those animals before there are none left.”

As shown in the series, Aldo secures a meeting with the Crown Prince of Pahang, who has set up a new Royal Tiger Reserve in the rainforest. He is horrified by the footage he sees, consequently recruiting 60 new rangers to protect the “king of the jungle”.

Despite this success, Aldo’s trip to the Malaysian jungle was fraught with hazards. For instance, he was laid low by one of the smallest animals in the rainforest – the mosquito – after contracting malaria for the first time in his 30 years of working in the jungle.

Initially he thought he was hungover after attending the wedding of his friend Jason Fox from the Channel 4 reality show SAS: Who Dares Wins. But he soon realised it was something much more serious and wound up spending a week in hospital.

Aldo, who is from Ayrshire, has thrived on adrenaline since he signed up for the Royal Marines at the age of just 16.

In an astonishing career, he has broken the world record for rowing across the Atlantic, taken on narco hitmen in South America, been held at gunpoint, been charged by black rhino, and – in possibly his most perilous challenge yet – had to shepherd Richard Hammond into an erupting volcano.

He thinks that his military training has stood him in good stead in his new role as a wildlife presenter.

“When I was a sniper, the hairiest moment was probably just being out on the battlefield,” he says.

“There are only two of you, so you’re cutting about with not very much backup at all. You’re on your own, living on your own wits.”

But that’s exactly what he loves. “My training as a sniper taught me how to move around and track,” he adds. “I’m still in the jungle tracking. I’m just tracking animals now. I’m transferring those skills to help animals that don’t have a voice.”

Aldo is eager to accentuate the positives that viewers can find in The Wild Ones. “I don’t like to see animals being injured. But the thing that gets me through it is that we’re making a difference. We’re telling their story, and that’s the thing that gives us hope.”

Back home, his family are now seeing the upside of his relentless travelling. “I watched the tiger episode with Atlas two nights ago, it was an amazing experience,” Aldo explains.

“Some of it was probably a little bit above him – he’s only four. But the point was to say, "This is why daddy is away so much. We’re making things like this that make a difference".”

He would be the first to acknowledge that becoming a father four years ago has really changed him.

“Now that I’ve got two boys, I’ve become more aware about the world that they’re growing up in. So I’m a bit more selective about the type of work I’m doing,” he says.

“Yes, I love the adventure, and I love everything about the trips. But I also feel that if we’re going to these places, we should be doing some good as well. That’s the vibe now.”

And that’s not the only way that fatherhood has changed him. “Since I’ve had my two boys, I’m definitely more aware of how I’m feeling,” he says. But for all that, he adds with a knowing laugh: “I was in the Royal Marines for 10 years, so I’ve been brought up to have a stiff upper lip! Declan and Vianet are very, very emotional. They’ll start crying at the slightest hint of something. But I’ll usually wait till I get back to my hammock!”

● The Wild Ones is available on Apple TV+ now