![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6332169.jpg\" "\\"The")
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The critically endangered Malayan tiger, the world\u2019s rarest tiger, their numbers have plummeted by 90% over the last century leaving just 150 on the entire planet (Image: Courtesy of Apple)<\/p>\n
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\u2019s going out of fashion. He\u2019s been like a cross between a commercial airline pilot and Forrest Gump.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s remotest north Atlantic waters. The hyperactive explorer has gone from crocodile-infested rivers in Java to subzero nights in the Gobi Desert.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But what does Anna think of her husband\u2019s 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. \u201cShe\u2019s a producer, and this is exactly the type of film that she\u2019d be working on, so she gets it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife said, \u2018As long as you get back for the next birth, it\u2019s fine.\u2019 She was just happy that I made it back for the birth of our second son,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cI got back from filming the leopard episode in Armenia, and she gave birth the next day. So I made it this time!\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the end of the story, however. Ten days after Auri was born, Aldo went to Mongolia for six weeks. \u201cI\u2019m not sure how happy she was about that,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n
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+.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur planet is under threat like never before,\u201d he says. \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is to find and film some of the rarest animals on the planet and help scientists to save them before it\u2019s too late. This isn\u2019t a show about animals \u2013 it\u2019s a mission to protect what\u2019s left of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which includes the critically endangered Malayan tiger, the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
![\"malayan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6332215.jpg\" "\\"malayan")
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Drawing on a network of 4,000 camera traps, Aldo\u2019s team aims to capture these rare beasts on film and convince the authorities to guard them by increasing the number of anti-poaching rangers (Image: -)<\/p>\n
n the Taman Negara rainforest of Malaysia, Aldo details the importance of conserving these mighty predators. \u201cWithout 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,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, as Aldo acknowledges, thousands of species go extinct worldwide every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s very difficult to get someone to care about a dung beetle that lives by eating poo,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to choose a species which is critically endangered and charismatic enough to get people to care. It\u2019s a gateway into more conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is why he\u2019s focused on the Malayan tiger \u2013 \u201cthe 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?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cstatus symbol\u201d products such as Malayan tiger wine.<\/p>\n
Drawing on a network of 4,000 camera traps, Aldo\u2019s 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\u2019 camp full of perilous snares.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s vicious, industrial-gauge, steel-cable snare, causing tears to start running down Declan\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
Aldo recalls the emotional force of watching the image of the wounded tiger for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me angry and incredibly sad,\u201d he says. But I would also say this is much more powerful than showing just another pretty image of a tiger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are much more potent images which will evoke emotion in people. Even the toughest of people out there don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cking of the jungle\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"aldo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6332225.jpg\" "\\"aldo")
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Aldo Kane, who is from Ayrshire, has thrived on adrenaline since he signed up for the Royal Marines at the age of just 16 (Image: -)<\/p>\n
Despite this success, Aldo\u2019s trip to the Malaysian jungle was fraught with hazards. For instance, he was laid low by one of the smallest animals in the rainforest \u2013 the mosquito \u2013 after contracting malaria for the first time in his 30 years of working in the jungle.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Aldo, who is from Ayrshire, has thrived on adrenaline since he signed up for the Royal Marines at the age of just 16.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 in possibly his most perilous challenge yet \u2013 had to shepherd Richard Hammond into an erupting volcano.<\/p>\n
He thinks that his military training has stood him in good stead in his new role as a wildlife presenter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a sniper, the hairiest moment was probably just being out on the battlefield,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are only two of you, so you\u2019re cutting about with not very much backup at all. You\u2019re on your own, living on your own wits.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s exactly what he loves. \u201cMy training as a sniper taught me how to move around and track,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m still in the jungle tracking. I\u2019m just tracking animals now. I\u2019m transferring those skills to help animals that don\u2019t have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aldo is eager to accentuate the positives that viewers can find in The Wild Ones. \u201cI don\u2019t like to see animals being injured. But the thing that gets me through it is that we\u2019re making a difference. We\u2019re telling their story, and that\u2019s the thing that gives us hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back home, his family are now seeing the upside of his relentless travelling. \u201cI watched the tiger episode with Atlas two nights ago, it was an amazing experience,\u201d Aldo explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it was probably a little bit above him \u2013 he\u2019s only four. But the point was to say, “This is why daddy is away so much. We\u2019re making things like this that make a difference”.\u201d<\/p>\n
He would be the first to acknowledge that becoming a father four years ago has really changed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I\u2019ve got two boys, I\u2019ve become more aware about the world that they\u2019re growing up in. So I\u2019m a bit more selective about the type of work I\u2019m doing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I love the adventure, and I love everything about the trips. But I also feel that if we\u2019re going to these places, we should be doing some good as well. That\u2019s the vibe now.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not the only way that fatherhood has changed him. \u201cSince I\u2019ve had my two boys, I\u2019m definitely more aware of how I\u2019m feeling,\u201d he says. But for all that, he adds with a knowing laugh: \u201cI was in the Royal Marines for 10 years, so I\u2019ve been brought up to have a stiff upper lip! Declan and Vianet are very, very emotional. They\u2019ll start crying at the slightest hint of something. But I\u2019ll usually wait till I get back to my hammock!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25cf The Wild Ones is available on Apple TV+ now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The critically endangered Malayan tiger, the world\u2019s rarest tiger, their numbers have plummeted by 90% over the last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[22123,22121,18522,1397,347,22122,22124,90,56,54,55,4416],"class_list":{"0":"post-37936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-aldo-kane","9":"tag-british-army","10":"tag-david-attenborough","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-itv","13":"tag-malayan-tiger","14":"tag-poaching","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom","19":"tag-wildlife-conservation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}