Josh Phangurha - Website and Media Assistant

Josh started leading tours for Naturetrek in April 2021, before joining the office team full-time in November 2022 as a Website and Media Assistant. His busy office role involves overseeing our social media and assisting in the daily management of our website and production of our email marketing. As a general naturalist, Josh has led our butterfly, mammal, birdwatching and general wildlife tours in the UK, Poland and La Palma. As a passionate herpetologist, he’s also looking forward to leading some of our reptile and amphibian tours, having already led 'The Reptiles & Amphibians of Morocco'! Outside of work Josh enjoys wildlife photography/filming, rock climbing, trekking and playing football. Furthermore, he is on the committee of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Amphibian and Reptile Group (HIWARG). 

Prior to joining Naturetrek, Josh studied Zoology at Bangor University and then went on to study spider web-building ecology at the University of Bristol for his master's project. While in education, Josh assisted in the conservation research of the critically endangered Utila Spiny-Tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura bakeri) off the northern coast of Honduras and he also volunteered as a research assistant in Guyana with the NGO Operation Wallacea.

As part of his undergraduate degree, he travelled to Arizona to complete a field course based on the ecology of herpetofauna in the Southwestern United States, where he would return the following year to guide new students through the course. Since graduating from both of these universities, he has been an expedition herpetologist for Operation Wallacea, surveying reptiles & amphibians in Sulawesi (Indonesia), Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (Mexico) and Krka National Park (Croatia). Prior to joining Naturetrek, Josh worked as an Ecological Consultant for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Hampshire County Council, delivering projects featuring an array of British wildlife including White-clawed Crayfish, wading birds, bats, reptiles and more.