Mark O'Shea

Mark O'Shea (born May 1956) is a herpetologist, photographer, author, lecturer, and television personality.

Originally from Wolverhampton, Mark O'Shea moved to Shropshire in 2001. Mark O'Shea is known internationally as the presenter of the Animal Planet/Discovery Channel series O'Shea's Big Adventure (OBA, known as O'Shea's Dangerous Reptiles on Channel 4 in the UK), which chronicles his many field excursions to find reptiles around the world. The films were divided into four series, The Americas, Australasia & Pacific, South & Southeast Asia and Africa & South America. The first two series each contained 13 half-hour films, the latter two each comprised four one-hour films. They were filmed between 1999 and 2003 and have been aired worldwide.

O'Shea made two films prior to OBA: Giant Snake in Venezuela in 1997 and Black Mamba in South Africa in 1998. Since OBA, he has filmed two episodes of the series Safari Park, charting the day to day activities of West Midland Safari Park and the Ongava Game Reserve, filming in the UK and Namibia, and has presented or appeared on other programs, most recently reporting on the Dangerous Wild Animals Act for the BBC strand Inside Out, filming in the UK and Holland.

In 1993, O'Shea was bitten by a canebrake rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus atricaudatus) and almost died. He has been on the receiving end of several other snakebites, spider bites and scorpion stings.

He held the position of Curator of Reptiles at the West Midland Safari Park from 1987 until 2002 when he became Consultant Curator of Reptiles.

He was Chairman of the International Herpetological Society (IHS) from 1983–86 and its President from 2003-06. In July 2010 the IHS awarded O'Shea with a life membership and fellowship for his "contributions to the Society and herpetology in general".

Since 1980, O’Shea has conducted herpetological fieldwork in over 30 countries on six continents but he has special interest in the Australo-Papuan region. He has worked in Papua New Guinea since 1986 when he first visited the country as a member of the scientific directing staff of Operation Raleigh. He continued fieldwork in the country as a member of the Oxford University Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine snakebite research team throughout the 1990s, and now researches there under the auspices of a fellowship from the Australian Venom Research Unit (AVRU), based in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne.

O’Shea is also involved in the Victor Valley College Tropical Research Initiative, initiated and led by Hinrich Kaiser. A primary aim of the project is to conduct the first herpetological survey of Timor-Leste and to provide education and research opportunities for local researchers in their native environment. An additional goal of this work is to educate the citizens of this country, Asia's newest, in issues related to conservation and sustainability.

O'Shea has written several books, including A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea (1996), Dorling Kindersley's Handbook to Reptiles and Amphibians (2001, with Tim Halliday of The Open University), Venomous Snakes of the World (2005), and Boas and Pythons of the World (2007). He has also contributed chapters to books on subjects ranging from rainforest ecology to snakebite, and written numerous popular and scientific articles.

In 2006 O'Shea designed a set of six postage stamps featuring The Dangerous Snakes of Papua New Guinea, for Post PNG. The launch of these stamps coincided with the snakebite workshops and fieldwork O’Shea and his colleagues from AVRU were conducting in that country.

O’Shea is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club of New York. In November 2000 he received the Millennium Award for Services to Exploration (Zoology) from the British Chapter of The Explorers Club. The other recipients were Brian Jones (Aerospace), F. Story Musgrave (Artists), Michael Wood (History), Sylvia Earle (Marine Sciences), Sir Chris Bonnington (Mountaineering), Buzz Aldrin (Outer Space), and Sir Ranulph Fiennes (Navigation).

In September 2002 O’Shea received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Wolverhampton, for “services to herpetology”.

O'Shea is a patron of the National Association for Bikers with a Disability. and the Small Woods Association.

O'Shea is represented by David Foster Management.