Francisco Javier Cuesta Ramos- better known as Frank Cuesta is a Spanish adventurer, television presenter and tennis coach, currently living in Bangkok, Thailand.

Former professional tennis player, Cuesta had to leave the world of tennis after suffering a car accident that ended his fledgeling career. This led him to travel to Thailand and open his own tennis school — the Frank Cuesta Tennis Academy.

Having studied veterinary science in university and his interest in herpetology led him to establish an association to help reptiles in Thailand. There he started a family and had the opportunity to live in direct contact with wild nature — his other great passion.

He has been working for Discovery to provide content for the most extreme nature shows and is an advisor and storehouse of information to everyone, thanks to his deep knowledge of the animal kingdom and how they communicate.

For the past 15 years he has been fighting illegal animal trafficking and animal abuse in south-east Asia. He presented his first TV Show Frank de la jungla, which was broadcast on Cuatro from 2010 to 2013. The show brought him international fame along with the spin-off shows called La Selva en Casa and Natural Frank.

In March 2013, he signed a contract with Discovery International to make the TV show Wild Frank which has been broadcast in more than 100 countries.

Cuesta returns to the African continent this season on the channel to face one of the biggest challenges he has faced in the history of Wild Frank: face to face the black mamba, the most lethal snake on the planet, whose bite has earned the nickname “kiss of death”. Wild Frank Mamba is showcased every Wednesday at 9 pm on the Discovery channel. Excerpts:

Q. Why did you choose herpetology as a subject of interest?

I have been really in love with reptiles- especially snakes ever since I was young and so this seemed like a good chance to turn a hobby into a career.

Q. What can viewers expect from Wild Frank-Black Mamba?

Viewers should expect a good and interesting show that nobody should repeat.

Q. Do you have a particular method to your work ethic when filming the show?

The show is structured to focus on the animals within given time periods —such as, 10 minutes on mammals, 20 minutes on reptiles, and three minutes on birds. That is the longest time they can be manipulated when filming them under stressful conditions.

Q. Why did you choose Thailand to live in?

I went as a result of tennis, as I opened a tennis academy there which functioned really well for 14 years. I found it very difficult to leave after that because I fell in love with the country.

Q. What are your views on the current state of the environment?

Overpopulation is resulting in a loss of space that rightly belongs to nature.

The activities of men affect the world terribly and we need to change our habits or soon this world will be like hell.

Q. What are your plans for the future?

Stay alive and happy — the rest depends on that.