Gordon Buchanan to receive MBE from Queen

Gordon Buchanan was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to conservation and wildlife film-making.

Born in Alexandria, his his family owned and ran Dalreoch Garage in Cardross Road.

His mum, Margaret, came from a family who had a farm between Balloch and Drymen.

Gordon, 47, has become famous for portraying the family lives of some of the planet's most iconic species, such as wolves, bears and elephants.

His most recent documentary, which received peak-time viewing on BBC over the festive season, showed him him in Russia helping to free lynx that were kept as pets.

Gordon worked with big cat expert Dr Victor Lukarevsky to rescue Koshka and Miass from a life in captivity and prepared them to return to the wild.

He said: “They were in such appalling conditions.

"They hadn’t seen sunlight in four years and had no space to move around. It was pretty cruel.

“I envisaged this hunter’s cabin with some cages outside but I wasn’t prepared.

“You wouldn’t keep a rabbit in something the size of that. I couldn’t believe they’d been in there for that length of time.”

Gordon's career began when Survival cameraman Nick Gordon, whose wife owned the restaurant Buchanan was working in, invited him to become his camera assistant for a project in Sierra Leone.

He was there for almost a year before the project had to be abandoned due to the danger presented by the civil unrest in the country.

Gordon continued to work with Nick, accompanying him on his next projects in Venezuela and Brazil.

He began to work independently in 1995 and has since travelled the world to film wildlife in the remotest corners of the globe.

Back home, Gordon has filmed foxes in Glasgow for Springwatch and Autumnwatch and otters and sea eagles on Mull.

He frequently mentions missing his family at various points within his shows.

"The Bear Family and Me" includes a segment in which he is visited by wife, Wendy, and their two children, Lola and Harris.