AFTER spending more than a decade making regular trips to Nepal, a Warminster man has achieved a long-standing ambition by finding the elusive Bengal tiger in the wild.

Iain Perkins, 42, who works at the Warminster Garrison, went to Nepal in December and on Christmas Day was given the present he has longed for.

He said: "I walked into the jungle for four days with the help of two local guides and stayed at the Temple Tiger Jungle Lodge, where for the next ten days I went out daily on elephant back.

"On Christmas Day I saw four Bengal tigers, one adult female with three fully grown cubs, and during the rest of the stay I had four further tiger sightings, it was just excellent."

Mr Perkins first went to Nepal because of an interest in trekking in exotic places, and continued to go back after making connections with Gurkha soldiers while they were based in Warminster.

After falling in love with the country he is determined to help the Nepali people as well as the wildlife, which includes a number of endangered species such as tigers and rhinos.

He has already raised money for the World Wildlife Fund's Save the Tiger project, but wants to do more.

He said: "I hope to start a project to build a school, and perhaps later an orphanage, which would be able to sustain itself and the children could also learn about helping the environment.

"I don't have any firm ideas or plans in place at the moment, but I'd like to develop links with schools, businesses and other organisations in Warminster to help out."