A zoologist has experienced the trip of a lifetime after travelling to Burma to film a BBC documentary.

Ross Piper, 37, of Aston, first became aware of the idea for Wild Burma: Nature’s Lost Kingdom last year, hoping to film areas of the country’s largely unexplored wildlife habitats.

Mr Piper, who has a PHD in insectology, said: “Getting to some of the places we visited was a mammoth operation, involving huge numbers of porters, bamboo rafts and all other conventional forms of transport. Burma is a big country, so we only really got a snapshot of its wildlife, suffice to say that we saw some incredible beasts, especially on the camera traps.”

The programme, Mr Piper’s first presenting role, was filmed in February and March of this year.

He said: “I was really just happy to have the opportunity to document some of the wildlife of this country that has been more-or-less closed off to outsiders for the best part of six decades. It’s a really fascinating part of the world so hopefully it will give viewers some real insight into this part of the world.”

Mr Piper has authored nine books on the subject of wildlife as well as a number of academic papers. Wild Burma: Nature’s Lost Kingdom begins on Friday November 29 at 9pm on BBC Two. Visit www.rosspiper.net for more information.