A passion for wildlife developed on his doorstep has taken one North East man around the world. Graeme Patterson talks to Poppy Kennedy about his African adventures, living it up in New York and his next big move to Colorado

FROM kicking about in Hamsterley Forest as a child and studying a remote North stream to death defying encounters with African lions and snakes, Graeme Patterson has experienced nature at its most extreme.

As a boy Graeme, who grew up on Woodhouse Close Estate, in Bishop Auckland, spent hours with friend John Pedersen at Hamsterley Forest where both caught the 'adventure bug'- John now sails yachts around the world.

Throughout school he developed an interest in science and nature that would endure for decades.

“It is what I liked most at school, I remember a very influential set of teachers particularly Mr Kyte at Woodhouse Close Junior School and Mr Arthur, a chemistry teacher at King James 1 school in Bishop Auckland,” says the 57-year-old.

He gained a PhD from Durham University, by studying the impact of lead mining on algae in the North Pennines, and at 25 moved over 3,000 miles to Nigeria and took to his new life 'like a duck to water'.

During his time in Africa, Graeme battled disease and faced the dangers of African wildlife.

He recalls: "I was once isolated from my car for a few hours after taking a short walk up a hill to get my bearings I noted a lioness sniffing the tyres.

"I had to sit tight until she moved off.

"Thankfully I was upwind and she didn’t smell me or see me.”

That was not Graeme’s only potentially deadly encounter, he added: “I also had what I think was a very venomous snake, a black mamba we thought, bite my boot so hard that it punctured the leather and left one broken fang.

"The venom wet my sock but didn’t penetrate the skin.”

Three years later, Graeme moved to Kenya, taking a lectureship at Kenyatta University.

He says: “Kenya had ever more wildlife to draw me in to its beauty and hone my fascination but fear for the future as they faced greater threats.”

He then took a role as a freshwater biologist on Lake Malawi studying fisheries to improve the sustainability of fishing for a food source, before moving to a conservation project on sister lake Tanganyika.

In 2001 Graeme crossed the pond to New York where he successfully applied for a top job at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

"I knew about WCS having bumped in to their projects and staff.

"They had a great reputation and I was delighted to get an interview and then a job,” he says.

The father of one took a role as assistant director of Africa at the Bronx Zoo, which is where he met wife, Joanna Cagan, a conservation educator. Married in a meadow at the zoo in 2006, their courtship and wedding featured in the New York Times.

He says: “It strikes me that life can turn out pretty interesting if you simply follow the path that seems the most interesting and exciting without worrying too much about your choices, then it can lead you anywhere.”

From Bishop Auckland to the USA via Africa, Graeme has become accustomed to various walks of life but hasn’t forgotten his roots and was delighted when work led to a connection back in the North-East.

The WCS teamed up with Sunderland AFC and Nigerian charity The Nuru Fund.

A lifelong Sunderland supporter, Graeme says: “It is not a big project but represents something for me.

"It is linking back to my home and I will always remain something of a teenage fan having so many happy memories.”

The partnership benefits Yankari park guards by replacing kerosene lamps with solar panels to provide clean and free lighting.

Graeme is about to embark on his next big adventure and up sticks again to move his family to Louisville, Colorado.

He has just landed a job in Boulder, Colorado, at the National Ecological Observatory Network helping to run 20 observatories across America.

He says: “It should be able to ultimately say something about how our environments are changing due to climate change and other long term pressures on the environment."

The boy from Bishop wasn’t afraid to aim high and his parents, Stan and Nora Patterson, have always supported him.

“They were just delighted that I was the first in the family to go to University and they never questioned my choices but were just supportive,” he says.

Graeme advises anyone, including his eight-year-old son Finlay, to follow the path they find most interesting.

He says: “I think the simple thing is that you are going to likely do a whole lot better in life and career doing something you love.

"It’s nice to want to go in to work every day, well not quite every day.”