Duong Khac Tuan Anh, a young Youtuber from Viet Nam’s Dak Lak Province, has been awarded with a Youtube Silver Play Button for his channel ‘Hunting and Gathering’, in which he studies nature, wild animals and plants.

Duong Khac Tuan Anh (2nd right) receives the Youtube Silver Play Button for his channel ‘Hunting and Gathering’ at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City in December 2016 (Photo: techz.vn)

Born in 1990, into a simple farming family, Tuan Anh soon developed his interest in studying animals and plants. Tuan Anh has a special interest in scorpions, centipedes and reptiles, such as crocodiles, snakes, and Tokay geckos. He found out that these animals are friendly and not at all frightening as he had thought. He started making clips of them with the aim of providing people with a source of reference on biological diversity. He would also like his clips to be entertaining for children and inspire their love for nature and animals.

His first clip on Youtube was about the chameleon and it then attracted so many views that it motivated him to produce more clips on the animals and plants around him. Tuan Anh’s ‘Hunting and Gathering’ channel is divided into various topics, such as reptiles, insects, rodents, birds and poultry, and plants and trees. There are also funny how-to clips giving instructions on feeding a crocodile, cleaning a chameleon cage, making a tank for turtles, catching crabs, and even how to brush a crocodile’s teeth.

His clips are set under a typical rural landscape background around his house, where a coffee farm and fruit trees, such as avocado and durian, are surrounded by pigs, chickens, ducks, birds, geese, dogs and a 20-year-old crocodile all living together.

At the beginning, his clips were of average quality with cursory images, but viewers’ appreciation has encouraged Tuan Anh to learn filmmaking techniques from the internet, therefore improving his productions. As a timid person who doesn’t talk much, Tuan Anh also learnt how to build up his confidence and fluency in speaking in front of the camera. He tried to become more active and talkative in group discussions and presentations at his classes in order to improve his skill of expression.

“I know that we need to smile and find joy in life, thus I try to bring laughter to people through my clips. My clips are presented in a simple and humorous way because I found that it was easier to keep things simple, not too complicated, to give people a cheer,” he said.

According to him, a good Youtuber should focus on triggering his creativity and trying to improve both the form and content of his or her videos, which should also be helpful for the community. He shared that he only makes his clips when he is in a good mood and he feels that they will be helpful for the community in a certain way. Always respecting the arts and the reliance of his production, Tuan Anh has committed to producing his clips for his passion only, without thinking about profit or view counts.

By featuring diverse topics, using interesting approaches, and providing enjoyable experiences for viewers, his channel has attracted more and more Youtube viewers. His most-viewed clip is ‘How to feed a crocodile’, which has attracted 9.1 million views so far.

Why is ‘Hunting and Gathering’ able to attract so many viewers? One of the major reasons is that children in big cities have less access to nature and wild animals. Through Tuan Anh’s videos, they can not only discover wild animals and plants but also learn facts about them.

The channel was awarded the Silver Play Button at the Youtube Year End Party held in Ho Chi Minh City on December 12, 2016. The Silver Play Button, which honours Youtubers with at least 100,000 subcribers, provided a huge source of encouragement for Tuan Anh. It also brings with it a source of financial support from advertisement, helping him improve his income and continue nurturing his passion.

Tuan Anh is looking for collaborators in order to enrich the content and further improve the quality of his channel. At the same time, he has managed to continue uploading videos regularly and has also been searching for more ideas as he attempts to provide a more entertaining experience for viewers.

(Source: NDO)