Since graduation from The Victoria University of Manchester with a degree in Zoology Martin has been fortunate enough to spend most of his adult life travelling the world and working in a plethora of wildlife projects. With a life long passion for the natural world and thirst to learn and experience as much as possible he has set this company up with the overall aim of highlighting some of the most endangered animals and ecosystems in the world with a view to helping raise awareness of these animals and ecosystems; not just to the people who enjoy our tours but the local people we help by employing and educating as a long term commitment to help the sustainable development of eco-tourism around the world.

Although Martin would admit that elasmobranchs (Sharks and Rays) are his overall passion, he has worked on a great range of projects all over the world with many different kinds of animals including:

During this time he was involved in the conservation of various endangered reptiles and amphibians which has lead him to want to track down and find some of the overlooked of all animals; namely the reptiles and amphibians of the world. Our tours to Australia and specifically the Wild Western Coast and Extreme Territory are excellent places to find some of the cutest and charismatic of all reptiles and amphibians. Such as this bobtail skink which was picked up and removed from a busy highway in Western Australia. This reptiles are known to mate for life and show immense devotion to their partners including waiting by the body of their dead partner until they starve themselves; showing what some scientist believe is as close to grief as any reptile has every shown.

FAGASA Eco-Training near Kruger National Park

During this time Martin was trained comprehensively in field guiding techniques used in Southern Africa; including animal tracking, 4×4 driving, weapons handling, approaching dangerous game, identification of plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. This is among the most important training and experience Martin has received and is evident in the way he conducts each and every safari.

The Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit with Bottlenose dolphins, Minke whales and Harbour porpoises: http://www.crru.org.uk/

During this time Martin gained his first experience working on the sea, this gave him the thirst for marine life and he has vast knowledge of cetaceans (whales, porpoises and dolphins) and elasmobranches (sharks and rays) which feature heavily in many tours we offer. Including watching minke whales and basking sharks off east and west Scotland.

The Andean Bear Project with Spectacled bears: http://www.andeanbear.org/ During this period Martin learned valuable skills in long distance tracking and identifying wildlife. Working high the Andean Mountains he has visited some of the most remote and beautiful areas of South America which he now wants to showcase to people in the search for the elusive and highly endangered Spectacled bear.

The University of Cape Town on a pHD project regarding the predator evasion behaviours shown by Cape fur seals when being predated by Great White sharks.

During this time Martin fulfilled a life long ambition and got up close and personal with Great White Sharks as well as other species including the pictured Bronze Whaler which was caught in a net and released by Martin after being tagged and measured with the data being sent to the Oceanic Research Institute.

Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project with Tiger sharks, sea turtles, sea snakes, stingrays and more marine life: http://www2.fiu.edu/~heithaus/SBERP/

This time was incredibly insightful to Martin as he gained first hand experience working with a vast range of animals and plants from sea grass, benthic invertebrates, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals such as sea snakes, sharks, rays, dolphins and sea turtles. This also showed Martin a huge area of Western Australia which is rarely on itineraries of other British Wildlife holiday companies.

SeaWatch South West on a pHD project regarding the presence of Basking sharks and plankton concentrations during the British summer/autumn: http://www.seawatch-sw.org/

During this, the most recent time spent on a research project, Martin has learned more about birding and the means of identifying birds at distance than on any other project. This is a valuable skill for the birding holidays we offer.

During all these projects and years spent travelling the world and going into many national parks he has developed a real sense of what is required to find, observe and understand wildlife in the field. Never being able to stop he is currently working on a number of private projects including writing A Field Guide to Batoids of the World (Skates and Rays) and an ambitious plan to have an international database for fellow wildlife enthusiast which will hopefully make finding animals in the field easier.

Most of our tours are conducted in the presence of Martin which ensures a number of things, firstly that the director of the company has a direct influence on the quality of the holiday and you gain is wealth of experience and knowledge to accompany you on the tour.

If you are yourself conducting field research and feel like Martin would be a help to your project in terms of data collection please get in contact and we will see if we can come to some arrangement.

Since establishing Royle Safaris Martin Royle has also been involved in various conservation initiatives and ecotourism principles such as helping to establish Sri Lanka’s responsible whale and dolphin watching protocols, establishing ecotourism in locations such as the Russian Far East, Ujung Kulon and far eastern Nepal as well as contributing to research of Siberian Tigers, Tapirs and Mandrills around the world.

Martin is also the vice-president of a non-profit organisation Trees for Tigers which is helping to reforest large areas of the Russian Far East tiger habitat as well as funding their ongoing research and educational programs in the regions north of Khabarovsk.