Close ups..& close shaves

Filmmaker's tour will share career's hairiest moments

- SUE CRAWFORD

WILDLIFE filmmaker Gordon Buchanan could not believe his luck when a leopard approached his hide in the dead of night.

But the Scot's excitement at the prospect of shooting incredible footage of the elusive big cat padding towards him in the Indian wilderness quickly turned to abject fear.

Each year leopards kill 55 people in the area and Gordon, in his flimsy make-shift shelter, did not fancy being number 56. He said: "While leopards are incredibly beautiful, they have killed and eaten people and I was on my own in the middle of the the night.

"I was really excited when it showed up, but it got closer and closer. It couldn't see me, but it knew there was something that wasn't quite right and it walked right up to my canvas hide, which was flimsy and falling apart.