Dasypus novemcinctus
Balaenoptera physalus
Steatornis caripenses
Ophiothrix fragilis
Peripatopsis capensis

Impossible to pronounce and impossible to spell, these words held encrypted magic for me as a child. They lay beneath beautiful black and white illustrations of the nine-banded armadillo, the fin whale, the oilbird, the brittle star and the velvet worm.

My deep fascination with animals and wildlife has been with me throughout my childhood, my later life as a vet and now, to the stories I write inspired by the people and animals I have met during my work and travels. I love writing about nature and wild places, but I also love looking for the human story behind these settings too.

I have complied a list of five top tips, things I try to do when writing about wildlife and wild places. I do take a camera with me when I'm out and about and take lots of photos. I print the ones I like and stick them on my walls, surrounding myself with images. I have great intentions of taking a notebook and sketchbook with me too, but somehow I never manage it. Instead, I try to absorb wild places into my memory, by a sort of sensory osmosis and hope that when I write about them, I can put the same images and feelings back into a story.

So my five top tips would be:

Tip 1: Get out there

It might seem obvious, but it's just not the same watching wildlife shows on TV as it is watching the drama unfold in front of you in real life. Nothing can replicate the moment of anticipation, wonder or adrenaline rush of a dolphin bow-riding in the waves alongside you, or a sparrow hawk diving through a flock of feeding birds. But you don't have to go to the countryside or wild exotic locations to look for wildlife. You can attract wild animals to urban gardens; provide nest boxes for birds, build a small pond, leave wild patches in the garden for native insects to thrive. Our cities host a variety of wildlife too. In London I've watched cormorants lined up on the mud banks of the Thames drying their wings in the sun. I've watched the twist and turn of pigeons chased by the ultimate sky predator, the peregrine falcon. From tigers in India to herring gulls in Lyme Regis, the important thing is being able to watch animals in their own environment, which brings me to my next top tip.

Tip 2: Learn to see

By this, I mean learn to take a step back and open your eyes to what is happening around you. Learn to observe. We spend so much time during everyday life hurrying from one place to another, from one activity to another that we miss whole lives happening around us. To write about wildlife or even human lives, we must slow down and learn to see the detail. Whether we are watching a lion stalking a wildebeest or a kitten stalking a dry leaf, we will only be able to write a true account if we have taken time to observe, to have watched the tension in the muscles, the twitch of the tail tip, the dilating pupils and the stealth of the ambush.

Tip 3: Use all the senses

As a species, we humans rely heavily on our vision to understand the world around us, and we tend to underuse our other senses. Try to hone your other senses, of hearing and smell and touch and taste. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. Try to concentrate on those sounds near you and then further away. Try to build up a picture of the world in sound, like a bat might through echolocation. Try to do this with smell too. Scents evoke powerful memories and emotions. Dogs have an incredible sense of smell. They have a huge lobe in their brain dedicated to it. They can build an image of the world around them through direction of smell, strength of scent and even how long ago it was left there. We'll never be that good, but adding smells (good or bad or just plain disgusting) to your writing gives it an extra dimension.

Try to develop a sixth sense too. Have you ever noticed how animals seem to predict the weather or advancing predators? Try to anticipate these things too by recognising the gust of wind before the rain, the heavy pressing feeling before a thunderstorm, the changing patterns of flocks of birds when a hawk flies into view.

Tip 4: Write haiku poems to capture small moments of observation

Long-winded descriptions of place can sometimes get a little dull, however beautifully crafted. Writing haikus are great way of forming a short, powerful description of a place or moment in time. I don't keep strictly to the syllable and line number, but use it as a writing exercise to concentrate the image in my mind.

Tip 5: Character development

As with writing in any genre, you have to imagine yourself as someone or something else. You have to be able to view the world though another's eyes. Try to imagine yourself as an animal and use your observations of animal behavior and heightened animal senses. Try to see the world from the animal's perspective. What may sound like beautiful joyful woodland birdsong to us may sound to the birds an aggressive riot of individuals claiming territory and calling for a mate.

Above all…have fun, get out there, and enjoy it.