He spent seven years on the trail of the jaguar. And he still believes that the mosquito is the “most dangerous animal alive”.

Wildlife filmmaker and writer Nick Gordon has stared death in the face many a time during his 15-year-stay in the Amazon. But what finally pushed him to spend more time at home — Manchester — in the past couple of years was a ninth bout of malaria.

Gordon shared some of his experiences on Saturday with wildlife enthusiasts at the Calcutta Book Fair. The author, who hopes to release another book on the Amazon next year, wants to further the India connection. On this, the first “proper trip” to India for the man who has travelled across the globe, organised by British Council, he interacted with 12 aspiring wildlife filmmakers, with whom he went to Corbett National Park. The initiative, hopes Gordon, will keep going, and next year, he plans another trip to the reserve, possibly with friend and “iconic Indian wildlife filmmaker” Mike Pandey, will help the kids put together a film of their own.

Gordon, who camps in a remote part of Amazonia two hours away from human habitation, the rainforest bug (“apart from the mosquitoes”) was quick to bite. “So little had been seen of the Amazon,” says the Briton. The first time he stepped into the vast forest, he saw little himself. “Around 80 per cent of the wildlife lives on tops of trees,” he explains.

His award-winning film on jaguars — a “secretive, potentially dangerous” animal which most thought could not really be filmed — caught everyone’s attention. But it was just one, and, he admits, the most challenging, of his numerous projects delving into the heart of the Amazon. His first foray was underground to meet the giant tarantula — “the largest spider in the world”. The spider monkeys were difficult to pin down on film as well, because they live high up in the trees. Fifteen tonnes of scaffolding allows the team — comprising Gordon, an assistant and usually a couple of locals — to reach them.

Apart from the animals, the twin forces of humidity, which is “almost always 100 per cent” and heat, often make living in the Amazon difficult. He has limited technology on hand. “I have thrown out half-a-dozen laptops over the years, ruined by humidity,” he explains. Satellite phones have, in the past two years, made communication smoother. “But a phone would be of little help if any of us was to be bitten by a poisonous snake, or fall from a tree,” he shrugs.

Before, Gordon would spend just six weeks out of the year back in England, “for a good scrub up and a pizza”, and to visit family. But he can only be on anti-malaria pills for three months at a stretch. That, and book commitments have kept him in England far more these past two years.

But the Amazon will keep pulling Gordon back into its cradle. “You can see not a person around, but I have seen things most people will never see.”