David Shepherd became an avid conservationist after viewing a zebra herd poisoned at a waterhole in Tanzania. He did a painting entitled "Tiger Fire" which raised £127,000 in 1973.

His work has been collected by the former President of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda; HM The Queen Mother, and HE Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi. His military paintings have been commissioned from The Royal Navy, The Parachute Regiment, The Green Howards, The Army Air Corps, The Special Air Service.

His books include ‘An Artist in Africa' (1967), his autobiography ‘The Man Who Loves Giants' (1975), ‘A Brush With Steam' (1983), ‘David Shepherd, The Man and His Paintings' (1985), and ‘David Shepherd, An Artist in Conservation' (1992) which contains a stunning collection of over 90 colour plates of his original wildlife paintings. In October, 1995, his latest books ‘David Shepherd, My Painting Life' and ‘Only One World' were published.

David Shepherd was awarded an Honorary Degree of Fine Arts by the Pratt Institute in New York in 1971 and, in 1973, the Order of the Golden Ark by HRH The Prince of The Netherlands for his services to conservation. He was made a Member of Honour of the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1979 and received the Order of the British Empire for his services to wildlife conservation. In 1986 David was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 1988, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia awarded him with the Order of Distinguished Service. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1989 and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Hertfordshire in 1990. In 1996 David was honoured as an Officer (Brother) of The Order of St. John.

David is married with four daughters and lives in West Sussex, England.

Source: The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation