TRIBUTES have been paid to renowned wildlife painter, Keith Shackleton MBE, who has died at the age of 92.

Mr Shackleton was a highly regarded naturalist, conservationist, author and television presenter.

In 2013 he received an MBE for his services to the conservation of wildlife at a special ceremony at Dorset County Hall.

The co-founder of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust lived in Poundbury, Dorchester.

His son, Jasper Shackleton, paid tribute to his father's life and work.

He said: “His paintings were amazing and they were probably some of the finest works of art in that field that have ever been produced.

“He was great at everything. He was absolutely amazing at everything he did.”

His wildlife and marine paintings often depicted dramatic scenes in the ice of the Antarctic and high Arctic.

Mr Shackleton was also a war artist during WW2 operating in the English Channel.

A passionate conservationist, he worked on increasing the public awareness of endangered species and also worked on the RSPB’s Save the Albatross campaign centred in the Southern Ocean.

He was also a past president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, a founding member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and a past chairman of the Artist's League of Great Britain.

Alongside his fellow campaigners he energised early conservation work.

Jasper said: “It was a very different world. They stood up for it and they made a difference.

"People are much more aware of endangered species and saving the environment now. It’s much better than it was.”

From 1969 he joined the MS Lindblad Explorer, the first ice working exploration passenger vessel as a naturalist, spending the southern summers in the Antarctic and islands of the Southern Ocean and then re-positioned through the tropics to places such as the Amazon Delta and Baja California before spending the northern summer in the Arctic, Greenland and Alaska.

Mr Shackleton co-presented the BBC’s Animal Magic with Johnny Morris in the 1960s and later presented his own TV programme Animals in Action for Anglia TV.

A widely published author, Mr Shackleton wrote about dinghy sailing and small boats as well as birds of the Atlantic Ocean amongst other subjects.

He leaves behind his wife, two grown-up sons, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.