James Cook may be more familiar under the moniker of ‘Wildlife with Cookie’.
This is the name of his popular Youtube channel that garners thousands of views from around the world. His fun and emotive videos are packed with intrigue, often addressing topics like the truth surrounding ‘The Beast of Bodmin moor’ and extinct species like the Thalycine.
Perhaps the most endearing part about the ‘Wildlife with Cookie’ channel, is that James is not pompous or authoritative about the Natural World, instead he makes wildlife photography seem doable and accessible to any viewer who might fancy themselves as the next David Attenborough or Gordon Buchanan. His videos encourage viewers to get up and get out exploring; an ethos that is particularly important when educating and influencing the next generations of naturalists, explorers and animal lovers!
James gives us his tips on getting started in creating wildlife content and explains how it is important to follow topics that excite you.
“What Inspired you to start the ‘Wildlife with Cookie’ channel?”
I’ve had an interest in wildlife for as long as I remember but have never really acted on it until my mid 20s and now I’m obsessed with trying to find and film rare animals. Animals where they shouldn’t be, always gets me interested, like Wallabies in the UK.
“You’ve really found a niche within the wildlife filmmaking genre, why do you think that this appeals to the audience?
I think there are quite a lot of people that are interested in wildlife but most of the wildlife content that’s available, I find to be personally quite dull and boring to consume. I try to have the approach
of excitement and honesty to draw people in and come on the journey to see how exciting it is to find animals. I also believe I’ve developed a trust with my audience by having a blunt response to things and saying honestly what I think about certain things.
“What has been your favourite piece of content that you’ve worked on so far and why?”
My Animal Anomalies series! I love it. Trying to find the weird and wonderful of the UK and beyond is a real passion for me. I aim those videos to the average member of the public that doesn’t know snakes, scorpions and wallabies are in the UK. I think to me it almost creates that fantasy element. Telling people that you’ve seen Wild Wallabies in the UK gets some odd looks and usually don’t believe it until I show them photos/videos of me finding them. It’s great.
“If you could bring back one animal from Extinct what would it be and why?”
Let’s say the Thylacine is actually extinct (which I do believe it is) then I’d say that for me, I’d love to see it in the wild. There’s just something so enigmatic about it, it’s captured me ever since I was a
little kid and the mystery as to whether it could potentially still be alive. Failing that, get the Spinosaurus back, let’s have some more chaos.
“What areas of conservation, particularly in the UK, do you feel is currently overlooked and needs more attention?”
Re-wilding and re-introducing animals. For some reason it’s taking forever to get some of these much needed animals back, like Beavers for example, stop faffing around and just get it done! I also believe the UK could benefit massively from some Apex Predators like the Lynx and Wolves. It would obviously be a massive eco-tourism boost to any locality that had these but also they do a fantastic job to their ecosystem. We need them back.
“How do you feel that humans can better protect and rebalance the natural world?”
Make more areas wild, the UK for example is terrible for this, we’ve just completely eliminated spaces for wildlife to live and thrive and some species are barely hanging on. Humans are too selfish and can be better described as a parasite really, we’re just sucking the life out of the biggest organism available to us, the Earth.
“What advice would you give to anyone who is interested in starting to document the natural world?”
Just get out there, it’s literally as easy as that. If you want to document it, use whatever recording device you can, newer phones are great for this as the quality is exceptional. If you’d like to be more
serious then you can invest in a DSLR camera to take photos and record video. For a while, I used the Canon 90D with a Sigma 150-600mm lens and I would recommend that to absolutely everyone. It’s hands down the best lens for the price you will find anywhere, you can get it second hand for about £500-£700 and can zoom in to a woodpeckers nose hairs from kilometers away. Ok that’s a slight exaggeration but still, it’s amazing.
