Website last updated January 2022

If you would like to get in touch to arrange a booking please contact me.

LATEST NEWS

Adults, you can keep in touch with JJR news either by ‘liking’ my Facebook page or following me on Instagram or Twitter (or both!) via the links below:

Recent Social Media Posts

Evening all! I hope you've had a good weekend. Here are some new pictures of one of my adult female budwing stick insects, aka Phaenopharos khaoyaiensis (a bit of a mouthful!), from Thailand. The second picture shows her beautiful 'bud' wings, hence the common name, and the final picture shows a newly-hatched nymph hanging onto her big sister's front leg. The tiny nymph will be the size of her big sister in just a few months as this species, like many other insect species, has an incredibly rapid growth rate! 👍

Morning all and a Merry Boxing Day to you all! A few days ago the gorgeous Naomi, my adult female Martinique pink toed tarantula, moulted for the first time in quite a while. Here she is this morning looking fabulous!She is named in honour of TV presenter Naomi Wilkinson, with whom I had the pleasure of working several times many years ago! The final picture here is of her empty moulted exoskeleton - still amazing all these years after I started keeping spiders. 👍🕷️

Hi all and a very Merry Christmas period to you all - I hope everyone is happy and healthy. My gorgeous little Palmetto corn snake has shed her skin again this week and is looking stunning. It is hard to believe that she has changed SO much in the ten weeks since I collected her and the spread of the red spotting has been so much more impressive than I could ever have expected! She had absolutely no evidence of any red markings on her head when I bought her, for example, and now there are loads! You can see from the final picture here just how much she has changed in the five months since she hatched - thanks again to Ian Bettis at @wyre_forest_reptiles for permission to use his image. 👍 I am very much looking forward to tracking her changes in the new year too!

Evening all. The first of my juvenile Tropidacris collaris (aka violet-winged grasshoppers) has moulted to maturity! I've mentioned a couple of times recently how very different the adults look compared to the juveniles and you can clearly see that in this picture of the newly-matured male next to its sibling, who is remarkably only a couple of months younger! An amazing species.

Here's an absolutely adorable baby super dalmatian crested gecko that I acquired a couple of weeks ago. He/she weighed just 1.7g on collection - so tiny! As this baby grows the dalmatian spotting is likely to become more widespread which, bearing in mind how spotty it already is at just a few weeks old, could mean that this will be my spottiest ever crested gecko in the years to come!

Here is one of my fabulous Tropidacris collaris (aka violet-winged grasshopper) VERY close to moulting for the final time to maturity! They start out in life just a mixture of black and orange, then later develop some yellow markings before taking on this greenish hue. When they moult to maturity they are almost entirely bright green and have the most enormous wings, which are currently growing inside the small wing cases visible in these pictures. Watch this space for pictures of the newly-emerged adult in the coming days!

Welcome to Jonathan’s Jungle Roadshow!

I specialise in providing professional animal encounter sessions which are designed to be educational, interactive and fun for all involved.

I am a former Primary school teacher based in Swindon, Wiltshire but now travel across central & southern England and south Wales to provide as many people as possible with the service I am able to offer! I maintain a large and varied private collection of truly amazing invertebrates and reptiles, all of which can be viewed by clicking here.

I am able to provide presentations, workshops and hands-on sessions to suit any situation and age group (children or adults) and these are just a few examples of the visits I commonly undertake:

Schools / Pre-schools /Colleges (Foundation Stage through to Key Stage 4 and beyond
Private birthday parties / Media and Special events
Public events (large and small) / Fetes and Fayres
Corporate Events (for both larger & smaller organisations)

Whatever your needs I can provide groups of children or adults the opportunity to gain first hand experience of some absolutely amazing animals up close and personally, and an experience definitely not to be forgotten!

In December 2013 I was very fortunate to experience the trip of a lifetime to Costa Rica with TV presenter Nick Baker.

If you would like to see lots more pictures of amazing rainforest animals please click HERE!

I have been fortunate to work with the BBC on many occasions in recent years! Most recently two of my lovely crested geckos & I appeared on live TV on Saturday 27th July 2013 when we joined Naomi Wilkinson, Tim Warwood and Radzi Chinyanganya for the final live show of CBBC’s fantastic series WILD in Leeds! It was a fantastic experience and here is the video sequence as it appeared on the TV as well as some photographs taken during the live filming!

As well as appearing on the CBBC show I also had the opportunity to present live on stage with the WILD presenting team, to talk to the crowds about some of my animals as part of the wider CBBC Live in Leeds event. Here are some photos of the two live stage shows, great fun!

It was an absolute privilege to be involved in the CBBC Live in Leeds event and of course to appear on the final television show WILD series 1.

I have enjoyed many other experiences working with the BBC in recent years and the first time was during Autumn 2011 when I was invited to join the BBC Live ‘n’ Deadly team, when I entertained thousands of members of the public (young & old) with some of my animals at their ‘Deadly Days Out‘. These were a series of public events featuring Steve Backshall from CBBC’s ‘Deadly 60‘ and ‘Live ‘n’ Deadly‘ as well as his lovely Live ‘n’ Deadly co-host (and now presenter of Naomi’s Nightmares of Nature and WILD) Naomi Wilkinson, both pictured with myself below:

It was an absolute privilege to be asked to be involved in these superb events and to meet and work alongside so many great people, from Steve & Naomi to the fantastic BBC senior production team to the stewards & the rest of the roaming animal team, an amazing experience!

In the spring of 2012 I was invited back to work with the BBC when I attended the CBBC & CBeebies 10th birthday celebrations at the BBC’s new headquarters – MediaCityUK in Salford. I had the privilege of presenting some of my animals alongside the lovely and very talented Michelle Ackerley (below left) from CBBC’s brilliant Deadly Art – a fantastic day!

Photos above courtesy of Nicola Stead Photography

In the summer of 2012 myself and some of my animals appeared live on BBC Radio 1 with Scott Mills (and in-vision via the Radio 1 website) in a ‘show & tell’-style feature! It was great fun and was heard by millions of people! Below is a picture of myself with Scott Mills & Chris Stark from Scott’s show (and the gorgeous Goldie) as well as a picture of King Julien & I with the lovely Rhianna Dhillon, who at the time of my visit was Radio 1’s resident film critic. Another truly fabulous BBC experience!!

Please navigate the website using the menu buttons at the top of the screen. Thanks for visiting, please don’t hesitate to call or email if you have any questions and I will look forward to hearing from you! I have full Public Liability Insurance and CRB clearance for your peace of mind.

For just a few examples of feedback comments that people have made following their experience of Jonathan’s Jungle Roadshow please click here!